Mark and Colleen Hayward/Getty ImagesA self-portrait of John Lennon as Adolf Hitler has sold for $54,000. This according to Page Six, which reports that the "crude sketch" was done by the future Beatle while he attended the Liverpool College of Art in the late 1950s.

The doodle features Lennon at a podium with his hand raised in a Nazi salute with the words "Heil John" repeated several times, as if it were coming from the crowd below.

"The fact that he even thought of depicting himself as Hitler is weird," said Gary Zimet, who arranged the sale for the memorabilia company Moments In Time.

Also weird is another item on Moments In Time's website: the John Lennon/Yoko Ono Double Fantasy album that Lennon signed for Mark David Chapman, just five hours before Chapman shot and killed the former Beatle.

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Former federal minister, the Hon. Dr. Gary Goodyear, named President, Clinic Operations

Current Director, Dr. Michael Verbora, named Chief Medical Officer

Mark J. Sandler, Senior Criminal and Regulatory Lawyer appointed Director

Don Hunter named Vice-President, Business Development

TORONTO, April 24, 2018 /CNW/ - Aleafia Health Inc. (TSXV: ALEF; OTC: CAMDF) ("Aleafia Health") today announced changes to its executive team that will better position the vertically integrated medical cannabis company to meet its ambitious growth goals.

Changes to the leadership include:

The appointment of The Honourable Dr. Gary Goodyear as President, Clinic Operations, in lieu of his serving on the board.

as President, Clinic Operations, in lieu of his serving on the board. The appointment of Dr. Michael Verbora as Chief Medical Officer in addition to his serving on the board and audit committee.

as Chief Medical Officer in addition to his serving on the board and audit committee. The appointment of Mr. Mark J. Sandler , Senior criminal and regulatory lawyer as Aleafia Director, filling the vacancy on the Board of Directors left by Dr. Goodyear.

, Senior criminal and regulatory lawyer as Aleafia Director, filling the vacancy on the Board of Directors left by Dr. Goodyear. The appointment of Don Hunter as Vice-President, Business Development.

"In addition to being one of Canada's few vertically integrated medical cannabis companies, we believe that the experienced and ethical leadership team is one of our organization's defining strengths," said Aleafia Executive Chairman Julian Fantino. "We're confident that appointing Dr. Goodyear to lead our clinic operational side, and Mr. Sandler to our Board of Directors, will further enhance our competitive advantage in the medical cannabis space."

The company leadership welcomes the fact that the Honourable Dr. Gary Goodyear, who served in two federal cabinet-level portfolios, also boasts experience developing his own successful franchised model for healthcare treatment. The company leadership is also confident in the expertise and leadership of Dr. Verbora to oversee all matters pertaining to cannabinoid medicine within the organization. Additionally, the Aleafia leadership is extremely pleased to add a legal expert of Mr. Sandler's calibre to the Aleafia Board as an independent director.

Aleafia believes that coming on the heels of its recent appointment of a new Head Horticulturalist today's announcement further demonstrates the remarkable bench strength of the Aleafia executive team. This company further believes that this changecombined with the expanding network of clinics and research opportunities, and the expanding Health Canada LP facility that is expected to yield its first harvest in the next five weeksputs the company in a strong position to meet its ambitious expansion goals in the coming months and years.

Furthermore, the Company announces that Mr. John Philpott will no longer be serving as Executive Vice President or in an operational capacity with the Company, but he will remain as a director. Raf Souccar will continue to serve as Chief Executive Officer but not as President.

The company granted an aggregate of 2,350,000 stock options pursuant to its stock option plan as follows: 1,000,000 to Mr. Hunter at a price of $0.63, 850,000 to Dr. Verbora and 500,000 to Mr. Sandler at a price of $0.60. Options granted to Mr. Hunter vest over a two year period every 6 months while options granted to Dr. Verbora and Mr. Sandler vest quarterly over a one year period. All options have a five year term.

QUOTES

The Honourable Dr. Gary Goodyear

"Our twenty-two clinics, and the dedicated physicians and support staff who operate them, are critical to the success of Aleafia Health," said Dr. Goodyear. "I look forward to working with my new team and taking the patient-focused, physician-led, research-driven model of operations through the next phase of expansion in the coming months and years."

Mr. Mark J. Sandler

"Even since my consultancy with Health Canada's Drug Strategy and Controlled Substances Programme, I have understood that cannabinoid medicinewhen managed correctly can bring profound improvements to the quality of life for those in need," said Mr. Sandler. "I'm delighted to join the Board of Directors of Aleafia Health because this organization is both ethically sound and competitively positioned for success."

Dr. Michael Verbora

"I'm very excited to continue advancing the patient care and the science of cannabinoid medicine in this new role as Chief Medical Officer," said Dr. Michael Verbora. "I am humbled by the Board's confidence in my leadership, and grateful to our outstanding team of dedicated medical practitioners across our clinic network and the exceptional work they do every day in support of our many patients."

Mr. Don Hunter

"It's a pleasure to be part of this strong, professional, ethical team," said Mr. Hunter. "It's an exciting time to be in business development within the medical cannabis industry, and I'm thrilled be able to work on increasing opportunities for the company in a way that can take it to a whole new level."

BIOGRAPHIES

The Honourable Dr. Gary Goodyear

The Honourable Dr. Gary Goodyear is a Doctor of Chiropractic, has been at the forefront of health care, business and government. After graduating from the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, he developed a successful franchised model for the treatment and management of non-head injuries from motor vehicle accidents, and practiced for 20 years until his election to Parliament in 2004. He served as Canada's Minister of State, Science and Technology as well as Minister of State for the Federal Economic Development Agency, Southern Ontario, with a dual focus on enriching Canada's innovation and research agenda. Dr. Goodyear served as a Director for Aleafia before taking on the role of President, Clinic Operations in 2018.

Mr. Mark J. Sandler

Mr. Sandler has been a member of the Ontario bar for over 38 years. He is the senior partner of Cooper, Sandler, Shime & Bergman LLP, and practices as an appellate and trial lawyer in criminal and regulatory matters. He served as an elected Bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada, the legal profession's governing body, for three terms (just under 12 years), and chaired its Appeal Panel and Tribunal Committee. He is an elected Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and is listed as one of Canada's best lawyers in a number of publications. From 2006 to 2014, he was a member of the Board (a "trustee") of the Law Foundation of Ontario and then its Chair from 2009 to 2014. He was an Adjunct Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School for 14 years, and lectures extensively to prosecutors, defence counsel, judges, Boards and agencies on a variety of topics, including, professional ethics and responsibilities, criminal and regulatory law. He has been consulted internationally (including by two governments) on law reform and has served as counsel or consultant to 12 public inquiries or systemic reviews, including a 2003-2004 review for the Minister of Health and Health Canada, Drug Strategy and Controlled Substances Programme of existing medical marihuana regulations and policies, and a review for Health Canada of the accuracy of certificates of drug analysis. He is the recipient of the G. Arthur Martin Medal for his outstanding contributions to criminal justice in Canada.

A full biography is available on the Cooper, Sandler, Shime and Bergman LLP website.

Dr. Michael Verbora

Dr. Michael Verbora earned an MBA from the University of Windsor's Odette School of Business in 2009 and an M.D. from Schulich School of Medicine at Western University in 2013, before entering a Family Practice residency at the University of Toronto. A member of the Canadian Consortium for the Investigation of Cannabinoids, Doctors for Responsible Access and the Canadian Pain Society, he has completed over 2,000 cannabinoid therapy consultations, and has presented many talks in community and hospital settings while serving as student health physician at Seneca College and Medical Director, Canabo Medical Clinic. Dr. Verbora was recently named an Assistant Professor at McMaster Medical School.

Mr. Don Hunter

Don obtained one of the first Health Canada licenses to grow and sell commercial hemp, medical cannabis' sister plant (without THC). An industry pioneer, he worked with the National Research Council to create applications for hemp fiber as well as turning the seed oil into food products. He later created his own multidisciplinary healthcare model that has operated for the last decade. In 2016, Don joined Canabo Medical Corp. as its National Manager of Educators and Licensed Producer Relations, after which he significantly increased Canabo's revenue stream. He launched key research partnerships dealing with medical cannabis as an alternative treatment for numerous chronic illnesses as well as its quality of life improvement, socio-economic impact, pharmaceutical reduction and patient relief for specific chronic issues such as sleep, PTSD, cancer, arthritis, multiple sclerosis and epilepsy. He joined the Aleafia team as part its vertical integration with Canabo, and will continue to put his skills, knowledge and experience to excellent use as Vice President, Business Development.

About Aleafia Health Inc.:

Aleafia Health Inc. is one of Canada's leading, vertically integrated medical cannabis companies with a unique patient-focused, medical cannabis healthcare solution. Led by a distinguished and experienced corporate leadership team, Aleafia Health Inc. is pioneering a patient-centric experience that includes personalized services before, during and after treatment. Aleafia's 22 cannabis clinics are staffed by licensed, practicing physicians. Aleafia Health Inc. has realized sustained patient acquisition growth and retention, underscoring the success of Canada's first "patient-centric" cannabis-based health network. For more information, please visit www.aleafiainc.com.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This press release contains forward-looking statements and information that are based on the beliefs of management and reflect the Aleafia's current expectations. When used in this press release, the words "estimate", "project", "belief", "anticipate", "intend", "expect", "plan", "predict", "may" or "should" and the negative of these words or such variations thereon or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements and information. The forward-looking statements and information in this press release includes information relating to the implementation of Aleafia Health's business plan. Such statements and information reflect the current view of Aleafia with respect to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in those forward-looking statements and information.

Although Aleafia believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing, and the expectations contained in, the forward-looking information and statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information and statements, and no assurance or guarantee can be given that such forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information and statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking information or statements contained in this press release. The forward-looking information contained in this press release is made as of the date hereof, and Aleafia does not undertake to update any forward-looking information that is contained or referenced herein, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking information and statements attributable to Aleafia or persons acting on its behalf is expressly qualified in its entirety by this notice.

SOURCE Aleafia Inc.

For further information: ABOUT ALEAFIA HEALTH INC., PLEASE CONTACT: Media Relations: Chantel Elloway, Email: [email protected], Website: www.aleafiainc.com, Tel: +1 (778) 898-5564; Corporate Affairs, Bob Santos, Aleafia Health Inc., Email: [email protected], Telephone: +1 (416) 860-5665; Investor Relations, Tyler M. Troup Circadian Group (Investor Relations), Tel:1-866-950-8300, Email: [email protected]
Australia has an A$50 billion (USD 38 billion) contract to build 12 submarines with a French company.

Australias biggest-ever capital project will siphon billions in taxpayer dollars to a foreign entity (DCNS, now the Naval Group) which is embroiled in bribery allegations, construction could stretch to 2050, and no single agency exists to conduct a close inspection to unearth any possible corruption.

Six Australian judges are preparing to meet with Australian Attorney-General Christian Porter to discuss the detail behind their blueprint for a federal anti-corruption commission.

US Navy working to build more submarines at a faster pace

The U.S. Navy is working to build three attack submarines in some years as opposed to two, and wants to keep five of its attack submarines in service longer than expected to address a dip in the number of nuclear-powered attack submarines in coming years.

The U.S. attack submarine fleet is expected to shrink by 20 percent over the next decade. There are 52 attack submarines today; by 2028, that number is expected to dip to 42. The Navy has said it needs a fleet of 66 attack submarines, but that isnt expected to happen until 2048 under current plans.

The Navy started with construction times of 84 months for Virginia class attack subs but now they are built in 74 months, and the new goal is to build them in 66 months. The submarines cost about $2.7 billion each to build. The US Navy plans to build 12 from 2019 to 2023 for about $33 billion.

The Navy also is proposing to extend for up to 10 years the service life of five Los Angeles-class attack submarines, which the Virginia submarines are replacing.
The Xiongan Global Blockchain Innovation Fund was jointly funded (raised) by the Yuhang District Government, the Future Science and Technology City Administrative Committee, and Hangzhou Haoyu Investment Management Co., Ltd. The scale of the fund is up to 10 billion yuan (USD1.6 billion), of which the government-guided funds contribute up to 30% for investment and the introduction of high-quality blockchain projects.

Hangzhou Xiongan Investment Management Co., Ltd. will be responsible for the management of the fund. It will be jointly established by Youyi Investment and INBlockchain. Participants include blockchain celebrities such as Li Xiaolai and Lao Mao.

Ten blockchain technology projects from the world were successfully contracted and settled in the Hangzhou Blockchain Industrial Park

Hangzhou Investment Management is a rapidly emerging equity investment institution with a management fund size of over 30 billion. Since 2014, it has been focusing on blockchain-related investments and has invested in a number of international leading blockchain companies, such as Kenan Minzhi. Kennan Minzhi is the worlds second-largest Bitcoin mining machine chip manufacturer.

Beijing-Hangzhou blockchain, Sky blockchain, Leyi chain, etc., have received high investment income.

INBlockchain is an investment company focused on promoting the development of global blockchains. Star projects such as EOS, Qtum, Zcash, and SIA have been included in the team history project and have become one of the benchmark companies in the global blockchain investment institutions.

Shenzhen government guidance fund has set up angel investment fund with a first phase of 5 billion yuan (US$792 million). The fund will be jointly managed by two municipal State-owned enterprises, Shenzhen Investment Holdings Co. Ltd. and Shenzhen Capital Group.
MILFORD  The hit television show American Pickers is coming to Connecticut in June to film  and its generating excitement, Chamber of Commerce official Nell Moll said, noting there is hope among residents theyll film in the Milford/Orange area.

Im sure there are a lots of barns out there, tractor, old cars, bikes, Moll said. They (the pickers) love being on fields, farms, old buildings.

Moll said that as word spreads, including on the chambers Facebook page, a lot of interest is being shown.

Program officials say they dont know where theyll end up  that all depends on who can attract the attention of hosts Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz by contacting the show ahead of time about what collections they have for review.

The documentary series is focused on the pair as they hunt for Americas most valuable antiques, a press release from the show states.

They are always excited to find sizeable, unique collections and learn the interesting stories behind them, a press release about the show states. As they hit the back roads from coast to coast, Mike and Frank are on a mission to recycle and rescue forgotten relics.

If anyone out there in any part of Connecticut has a large, private collection or accumulation of antiques that the Pickers can spend the better part of the day looking through, they should send their name, phone number, location and description of the collection with photos to: americanpickers@cineflix.com or call 855-OLD-RUST.

The press release states they are excited to return to Connecticut in June to film episodes of the series. They do not yet have dates set.

In they travels on back roads, the Pickers want to meet characters with remarkable and exceptional items, the press release states.

The pair aims to give historically significant objects a new lease on life, while learning about Americas past.

Mike and Frank have seen a lot of rusty gold over the years and are always looking to discover something theyve never seen before, the press release states.
NEW HAVEN  Advocates will submit a petition Tuesday with more than 2,000 signatures to the legislative leadership in Hartford urging Connecticut to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.

A House bill on the issue, co-sponsored by 78 lawmakers, was voted out of the Government Administration and Elections Committee in a 9 to 8 vote in late March.

Under the bill, Connecticut would agree to give all its electoral college votes to the presidential candidate who wins the national popular vote.

If adopted, it would join 10 other states and Washington, D.C. that have already agreed to give their electoral votes to the popular winner as the most accurate representation of the publics will.

The pact would become effective once enough states join with more than 270 electoral votes, which would be a majority of the ballots.

Alder Steve Winters, D-21, in New Haven, has been one of the leaders of the movement in Connecticut and will deliver the petition to state Senate Pro Tempore Martin Looney, D-New Haven, and House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz, D-Berlin.

Winters testified in Hartford that the Connecticut Constitution gives the legislature alone power over the appointment of electors.

He said other states have used this power in a variety of ways, including Massachusetts, which adopted 11 different methods of choosing electors since 1789.

He said there is precedent in other states where electors have cast a vote for the candidate who did not get a plurality or majority of votes in their state.

James Glassman, a Republican and former Connecticut resident who served as a State Department official in the administration of George W. Bush, has been campaigning around the country in favor of the National Popular Vote as a board member of Making Every Vote Count.

The interest in recognizing the popular vote comes from having two recent elections where the presidential winners came up short in the national popular vote.

They were George W. Bush in 2000 and Donald Trump in 2016.

Glassman, in an interview with the New Haven Register Editorial Board, said he personally became concerned about three years ago that more and more Americans were alienated from the political system and I think from the electoral system. Thats not good for democracy.

He said he feels the idea of throwing every states electoral votes to the popular winner is something that can be accomplished.

Glassman said he believes a change in the system will lead to more civic engagement, better policy and better political decisions.

He said under the current system, three-quarters of the states, including Connecticut, are essentially spectator states because they are ignored by the candidates.

In 2016, of the 399 events at which a presidential candidate appeared before the public, Connecticut had one visit. He said that is more than it normally has or that the majority of the states have.

Presidential elections are decided in 12 states and they are known by the candidates a year in advance, he said. We determine our president by the vote in those states.

Only one of them is small  New Hampshire  which belies the notion that the current system is helpful to small states, Glassman said. Its a myth.

He said based on numerous surveys, the majority of Americans feel the popular vote is a better way to elect a president.

A poll was conducted by Claster Consulting in January of 1,202 Connecticut voters aged 18 and over who voted in November 2016 and are likely to vote this November.

A total of 78 percent of Connecticut voters agreed that the candidate with the most votes nationwide votes should be the president.

This included 92 percent of Democrats; 62 percent of Republicans and 76 percent of independents, according to the poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.

Glassman was asked whether residents would balk at having their electoral votes given to a candidate not supported by Connecticut voters.

He said for every state going forward, if all of them can contribute to the total, it will behoove candidates to campaign everywhere, while there is no incentive now.

Glassman said it is the kind of issue that in your gut you understand a legitimate president is somebody who gets elected by most people. That is how we elect everybody.

He said we have had five elections out of 45 in the U.S. where the winner did not receive the plurality of the popular vote. The fact that two of the most recent fall into that category he felt was a dangerous thing for democracy.

Glassman said it is even more dangerous now where there was some meddling in the last election by a foreign power. It is a lot easier to meddle in an election that is determined by 12 states, he said, rather than by 130 million people.

State Rep. Matthew Lesser, D-Middletown, a major supporter of the movement, said there is more interest in the electoral change this year than ever before.

To me this isnt about re-litigating Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. This is just common sense, Lesser said. I think it undercuts the legitimacy of a presidency that doesnt have a democratic mandate.

In addition to the 78 sitting lawmakers, a number of the gubernatorial and constitutional office candidates have come out in support of the popular vote movement.

For governor they include: Democrats Ned Lamont, Lee Whitnum, Jonathan Harris and Susan Bysiewicz; for treasurer, Dita Bhargava, Arunan Arulampalam and Shawn Wooden; for attorney general, state Rep. William Tong, Chris Mattei, Clare Kindall and John Blankley and Denise Merrill for secretary of the state.

mary.oleary@hearstmediact.com; 203-641-2577
NEW HAVEN  Connecticut has come further than it ever has in legalizing recreational marijuana, and many want to see that momentum realized.

Marijuana is called many things  weed, ganja, green, cannabis. Its also called a gateway drug and criminal, but others say it is one of the safest drugs to use and has profound medical benfits, and that the prohibition of marijuana needs to end.

Connecticut has unfortunately stalled in these efforts, said Alder Hacibey Catalbasoglu, D-1, who has submitted a resolution to the Board of Alders that urges the state to take steps toward regulating recreational marijuana. He held a conversation with the community Monday about the outcomes of legalizing or not legalizing the plant.

Cody Roberts started researching cannabis after taking pharmaceutical drugs for his mood and anxiety his whole life, and finding he received better relief by smoking marijuana, he said. Roberts went to jail, suffered from substance abuse, addiction and attempted suicide, but said using cannabis saved his life.

Its not a gateway drug at all, Roberts said. If anything its a gateway to a better life. And I believe everyone should be able to grow their own medicine. To tell me I cant grow a plant to heal myself is pretty ridiculous to me.

Roberts works with US HempCare, which grows organic hemp in Connecticut and New England providing a legal, non-addictive, non-psychoactive alternative to opioids and other prescription drugs. Roberts said cannabis can help with a number of ailments that people get prescriptions for and replace the need for pharmaceuticals.

Theres a lot of education that needs to be done, he said. If we do legalize it opens the door for education and removing stigma.

Kebra Smith Bolden is a cannabis nurse educator and CEO of CannaHealth CT, which provides medical marijuana evaluations.

The reason marijuana could be used as gateway drug is you have to go behind a gate in an ally to get it and when youre there they offer you everything else, Smith-Bolden said. Thats the only way its a gateway drug. She said if Connecticut has a regulated market where people can safely go and buy identifiable cannabis then legalizing isnt risky. Because its done under cover, done in private, its done illegally it opens you up to other illegal options, but if we had regulated market it would not be in the same regard. ... It is not a gateway drug. That is not true. She added that its only because marijuana is being forced into the black market and people never know what they are getting that buying and using the drug is dangerous.

Joe LeChance said the only way legalization of marijuana is bad is if regulation is done the wrong way, which means only allowing corporations or large pharmaceutical companies to dispense it.

The only thing wrong is that the made it illegal in the first place and the reasons they made it illegal, LeChance said. It was very racially motivated.

Every year progressively the opponents arguments are slowly but surely being debunked, he said. One good thing about cannabis becoming legal in many states is more research has been able to be done. Real studies have been done in real time in states that have legalized it. Studies have found that cannabis it is not a gateway drug and alcohol is more of a gateway drug than cannabis, he said, and that its not possible to overdose when taking it.

This is a medicine that works with your body, he said. We have receptors in our body and the plant itself is meant to work in conjunction with your body. He said there are hundreds of strains that work in different ways to heal a persons body.

De-schedule it and allow the research to be done so we can find out really what the potential of this plant is, he said.

This month, the Appropriations Committee of the Connecticut Legislature passed a bill that would legalize recreational marijuana. The bill is heading to the House of Representatives for the first time.

mdignan@hearstmediact.com
Roseburg, OR (97470)

Today

A few showers early, then clouds lingering for the afternoon. High 73F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low around 50F. Winds light and variable.


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[For more coverage of women and gender issues, subscribe to Gender Letter, a new newsletter.]

The new study, however, appears to be exhaustive.

We controlled for several possible confounding factors, the authors wrote in a post on the website of Harvard Law Schools Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation. Those factors included the chief executives tenure, characteristics of the firms (size, performance and risk), and the size and independence of the boards.

The authors added that their model accounted for the fact that compensation for chief executives and the number of women in the role had increased over time. Our results reveal that there is no significant difference between male and female C.E.O. compensation, they said.

The study also casts doubt on the veracity of the previous studies showing that female chief executives were paid more. The truth seems to be that, once relevant confounding factors are accounted for, male and female C.E.O.s earn similar compensation, which is what standard economic theory would suggest and most people would like to see happen in society, they said.

One of the most interesting theories about why women may have bridged the pay divide at the highest levels has been offered by previous studies and experts: that a premium has been applied because there is such a limited supply of women in the chief executive role. Some readers may find that an offensive idea on its face  that women in effect are being overpaid because of their scarcity  but its one that has gained currency among some academics.

In an interview, Professor Mortal said she was surprised by the results of her own study. I would have expected that women were paid less, she said.

There is still is discrimination against women in getting to the top, she added, but said she welcomed the news that women were well paid once they actually are there.
Its a recording of an actual BBC broadcast, said Dave Ornsby, the centers operations officer. Thirty-two ships from Grimsby sank in the 50s.

Apparently, none of this work or lifestyle appeals to British youths.

You cant get young people to fish these days, said Danny Normandale, a skipper with three decades of experience. If you say to them, Ill take you if youre willing to learn, their next question is, Do you have Wi-Fi on the boat? Do you have the internet?

Were the manpower problem solved, others would persist. The species in Britains waters are scallops, crab, lobsters and other delicacies that have never been popular in this country. The fish of choice here are cod and haddock, staples of fish-and-chip shops. Those species are found closer to Norway and Iceland.

[Read why some U.K. Lawmakers Believe Britain Should Consider Delaying Brexit]

In other words, Britain exports most of what it catches and imports most of what it eats. Either the country will need to change its appetite or it will need to trade.

Mr. Hancock, the former skipper, is undaunted. In the hallway of his office hangs a poster of a cod, clad in armor and clutching a Union Jack. Above it are the words Fishing for Leave, and below it Save Britains Fish, rallying cries during the Brexit campaign.
TUESDAY PUZZLE  Lets try something different today. Solvers have told us that they dont want the entire puzzle spoiled right away when they come to Wordplay because they are still working on it and only want a bit of help, so were going to flip the order in which we discuss it.

Starting today, well be talking about the theme  quite a fun one by Peter Gordon  after the selection of Tricky Clues. This way, solvers who are stuck can pick out a tricky clue or two for help and keep trying. If you find you need more help, come back and read through the theme discussion to fully enjoy the puzzle.

If this works better for you in the sense that the entire puzzle isnt spoiled from the beginning, please let me know in the comments.

Tricky Clues

59A and 60A: These are partner clues, which means that solvers have to think of another word that could be partnered with the word in the clue, separated by the word and. For example, at 59A, the clue is Evers partner. The answer to this one is ANON, as in the poetic phrase ever and anon. Similarly, at 60A, the clue is Mortise partner, and the answer is TENON, as in mortise and tenon. Still not sure you get the whole partner clue thing? Try working through the partner clues section of our How to Solve guide.
These two events  an unexpectedly competitive Eighth District election and a rare labor action by teachers  are connected. Partly this is because Lesko is a villain to many local champions of public education. I met Ratti as she prepared to go canvassing for Tipirneni; she told me, Lesko has been an advocate of vouchers and privatization and pretty much anything she can do to destroy the public school system.

But theres a deeper link. Both the walkout and the surprising viability of Tipirnenis campaign are manifestations of the explosive activist energy, particularly among women, set off by the catastrophe of Trumps election. Since Hillary Clintons defeat, college-educated women have ramped up their political participation en masse, the historian Lara Putnam and the political scientist Theda Skocpol wrote in a recent article, Middle America Reboots Democracy. Its this civic renewal that is transforming politics in Arizona.

Speaking to activists here, I was struck by how similar their stories were to those Id heard last year while reporting on a special congressional election in Georgias Sixth District. In both places, women who were once politically disengaged felt demeaned by Trumps victory. Overcome by a need to do something in response, theyd turned to local politics, which had gradually come to consume their lives.

Save Our Schools, a prominent grass-roots organization supporting the walkout, is an outgrowth of an Arizona group called Stronger Together, which itself is a spinoff of the pro-Hillary Clinton Facebook group Pantsuit Nation. Dawn Penich-Thacker, one of the founders of Save Our Schools, once served as a public affairs officer for the Army, and compared the relationships among the states newly minted activists to the bonding she experienced in the military. Its the deepest friendship, she said.

She introduced me to Jaclyn Boyes, whom she met when Boyes started a petition demanding that Arizonas Republican senator Jeff Flake hold a town hall. After Trumps election, Boyes told me, she had the desolate sense that half of my country doesnt like me because Im black.
In the 1990s, after the Cold War ended, both human rights and pro-market policies reached the apogee of their prestige. In Eastern Europe, human rights activists concentrated on ousting old elites and supporting basic liberal principles even as state assets were sold off to oligarchs and inequality exploded. In Latin America, the movement focused on putting former despots behind bars. But a neoliberal program that had arisen under the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet swept the continent along with democracy, while the human rights movement did not learn enough of a new interest in distributional fairness to keep inequality from spiking.

Now the world is reaping what the period of swelling inequality that began in the 1970s through the 1990s sowed.

There have been recent signs of reorientation. The Ford Foundation, which in the 1970s provided much of the funding that made global human rights activism possible, announced in 2015 that it would start focusing on economic fairness. George Soros, a generous funder of human rights causes, has recently observed that inequality matters, too.

Some have insisted that the movement can simply take on, without much alteration of its traditional idealism and tactics, the challenge of inequality that it ignored for so long. This is doubtful.

At the most, activists distance themselves from free-market fundamentalism only by making clear how much inequality undermines human rights themselves. Minimum entitlements, like decent housing and health care, require someone to pay. Without insisting on more than donations from the rich, the traditional companionship of human rights movements with neoliberal policies will give rise to the allegation that the two are in cahoots. No one wants the human rights movement to be remembered as a casualty of a justifiable revolt against the rich.

If the movement itself should not squander the chance to reconsider how it is going to survive, the same is even truer of its audience  policymakers, politicians and the rest of the elite. They must keep human rights in perspective: Human rights depend on majority support if they are to be taken seriously. A failure to back a broader politics of fairness is doubly risky. It leaves rights groups standing for principles they cannot see through. And it leaves majorities open to persuasion by troubling forces.

It has been tempting for four decades to believe that human rights are the primary bulwark against barbarism. But an even more ambitious agenda is to provide the necessary alternative to the rising evils of our time.
The governments response to the courts is, in short, butt out. Mr. Trump can exclude whomever he wants in order to protect the country from attack, and no judge may second-guess him. Thats an astonishing claim of unchecked executive authority. It also contradicts the structure of federal immigration law, which is the province of Congress. No one is saying that the president is powerless to protect the nation from attack. What they are saying is that he must do so without violating the law or the Constitution.

Speaking of the Constitution, and especially of the First Amendments establishment clause, anyone with a passing awareness of American politics knows whats at the root of the travel ban: Mr. Trumps special animus against Muslims, which hes been nursing at least since December 2015. Thats when he called for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the country until we can figure out what is going on. Since then he has given his lawyers a constant headache by tweeting regularly about the ban, saying just days before the latest version that it should be far larger, tougher and more specific, but that this would be politically incorrect. In case anyone was still unclear about where he stands, last November the president retweeted inflammatory videos from a fringe ultranationalist group in Britain showing Muslims purportedly engaged in violence. (The videos were, as Mr. Trump likes to say, fake news.)

From this angle, the travel ban looks a lot like Mr. Trumps other attempts to weaponize the federal government in the service of his own personal vendettas. Remember the election integrity commission? An entire operation created solely to justify the presidents false claims that millions of people voted illegally in 2016. The commission folded in January without making any findings of fraud. In the case of the travel ban, Mr. Trump is surrounded by anti-immigrant hard-liners, including his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who donated one of his favorite staffers, a zealot named Stephen Miller, to help draft the ban.

In truth, the latest proclamation functions as little more than legal backfill to legitimize a presidential command that was born of animus, persists in animus, and seeks to make animus the law of the land, as a supporting brief says.

That brief is one of many the court has received arguing against the ban; more than four times as many briefs oppose the ban as support it. They come from immigrants-rights groups and anti-discrimination advocates, naturally, but also from business and legal leaders, scholars of constitutional and international law, conservatives and liberals and libertarians, cities and states  and, notably, former national security and military officials, who warn that by encouraging the perception that the United States is anti-Muslim, it jeopardizes the stability of the support that the United States receives from its allies, erodes essential good will, makes it more difficult for the United States to win hearts and minds abroad.

This leads the justices to a thornier question: What to do with a president like Mr. Trump? Should they simply ignore everything hes said? Are they holding him to a different standard than previous presidents? Thats hard to answer, because no past president behaved like Mr. Trump. In its brief to the justices, the administration argues that the court must not engage in judicial psychoanalysis of a drafters heart of hearts. But theres no need to get Mr. Trump on a couch. Hes said over and over exactly what he thinks.

The Supreme Court has been faced with situations like this before. In World War II, it bowed to claims of unfettered executive authority and allowed American citizens to be locked up for years simply because of their Japanese heritage. It was a shameful moment for the court and for the United States. Today, in the face of an executive order again based on racial animus and unfounded fears, the justices have the chance to deliver a very different message about executive power, and the meaning of America.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether President Trumps nationality-based travel ban may continue. The case is important to every American and, indeed, the integrity of the republic, because the ban threatens a cornerstone of our system of government: the constitutionally mandated separation of powers.

All presidents push the limits of the separation of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial branches. President Trumps travel ban tears the fabric.

The legal question before the court is this: Does a president have the authority to ban immigration and travel, based on nationality, in ways that contradict limits set by Congress?

The framers and ratifiers of the Constitution have answered that question. They revolted against the autocracy of a king whose offenses, as cataloged in the Declaration of Independence, included restricting migrations and obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners. This mattered because, as James Madison told the Constitutional Convention, America was indebted to emigration for her settlement and prosperity. Accordingly, Article I of the Constitution gives the power over immigration and travel to America by foreigners to Congress, not to the president.
NASHVILLE  There is something fundamentally democratic about a Waffle House restaurant in the wee hours of the morning. Its a place where people working the late shift can stop for a hot meal on the way home, where high school kids can extend prom night just an hour longer, where 20-somethings jazzed on live music can wind down after a night on the town. The coffee is always fresh, and the counter staff has heard it all before but will usually listen again if you need an ear. Its a uniquely American place.

Theres something tragically, fundamentally American, too, about an angry young white man with a firearm killing a bunch of strangers who have done him no harm. Thats what happened early Sunday morning, when a man who was naked except for a green jacket loaded with ammunition opened fire with an AR-15 rifle at a Waffle House in the Antioch section of Nashville. Four people were fatally shot and four others were wounded before James Shaw Jr., an unarmed customer, wrestled the gun from him, saving untold lives.

The attacker ran away, shedding the jacket as he fled. Also left in his wake: Akilah Dasilva, DeEbony Groves, Joe Perez, and Taurean C. Sanderlin, all dead. All were in their 20s. All were people of color.

A search of the truck the gunman left behind led investigators to Travis Reinking, an Illinois man who had moved to Nashville only last fall. Considered armed and dangerous, Mr. Reinking immediately went to the top of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations most-wanted list. After some 34 hours at large in a cold rain, he was apprehended Monday afternoon clothed and wearing a backpack containing a loaded semiautomatic handgun.
SAN FRANCISCO  Alphabet, Googles parent company, is spending like it is beginning to prepare for life after advertising.

Currently, Alphabet makes nearly 90 percent of its money from selling advertising on the internet, and gobbles up heaps of data about its users to help marketers target those ads more effectively.

But a close reading of Alphabets financial results for the first quarter of 2018, which were announced on Monday, showed that the Silicon Valley giant is accelerating its efforts to diversify into other businesses.

Alphabet has made investments in areas like self-driving cars and online computer services for businesses for years, but spending in those areas was up dramatically in the first quarter. The companys capital expenditures, which included installing undersea cables and the construction of new data centers, were $7.7 billion  more than triple the same period last year.
The biographical jukebox musical  of which Jersey Boys provides a shining example, thanks to all the Brylcreem  is the cockroach of Broadway. It has a small head, a primitive nervous system and will probably outlast the apocalypse.

Even by that standard, Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, which opened on Monday at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater, is a blight. Despite the exciting vocalism of a cast led by the formidable LaChanze, it reduces the late Queen of Disco and pioneer of electronica to a few factoids and song samples that make her seem profoundly inconsequential. You could learn more (and more authentically) by reading a thoughtful obituary while listening to her hits  Hot Stuff, Last Dance, She Works Hard for the Money, among many others  online.

But then you would not be contributing to the music publishing enterprise that keeps jukebox musicals coming no matter how hard they get stomped on by critics.

Among the producers of Summer are Tommy Mottola, who helped reboot a version of the label that released Ms. Summers early hits, and Universal Music Group, which oversees her catalog. (Universal also has a hand in Mamma Mia! and Escape to Margaritaville.) I dont doubt the sincerity of their interest in brands that can still make them millions. Its the sincerity of their interest in musical theater I question.
The van massacre that traumatized Toronto on Monday was amplified by the spread of smartphone videos that showed the police arresting the driver, repeatedly screaming at him to lie on the ground as he dares them to shoot him in the head.

The videos quickly trended on Twitter and other social media.

Cmon, get down! an officer pointing a weapon yells at the driver, standing outside the damaged white van in the middle of the afternoon. Get down or youll be shot!

The driver responds: I have a gun in my pocket! and Shoot me in the head!

The Toronto Star created a montage of videos that showed the confrontation from different vantage points on the street and from a high-rise window, ending with the driver being subdued and arrested.
BEIJING  A fire that tore through a karaoke bar in southern China in the early hours of Tuesday killed 18 people, the police said, and a man was arrested on suspicion of arson hours later.

A brief initial police account of the blaze in Qingyuan, a city in Guangdong Province, said firefighters received an emergency call about 30 minutes past midnight.

By the time they extinguished the fire about 25 minutes later, the karaoke bar was gutted. In addition to the 18 dead, the police said, five people rescued from the fire were hospitalized.

According to a preliminary investigation, the blaze was arson, the online statement from the Qingyuan police said. Currently, the public security authorities are stepping up their investigation.
LONDON  When the Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei moved from Beijing to Berlin in 2015, he vowed to steer away from what had been the primary focus of his creative practice until then: China.

I want to forget about China and do something which surprises me, he said in a September 2015 interview. Why do I have to be labeled? Im not a car seller. Nothing can replace freedom, and thats a challenge, and Im ready for that.

In the two and a half years since, Mr. Ai has found an acutely challenging topic to take on: the global refugee crisis  sparked by the civil war in Syria and the migration of more than 5.4 million of its people. Recently, he has installed 17 fences and bus shelters around New York, Good Fences Make Good Neighbors, and released a documentary, Human Flow.
In 2005, a group of Berlin galleries began a profile-raising weekend event aimed at luring international collectors, curators and museum professionals to their spaces.

Berlin was not so much on the travel circuit, because we didnt have a major art fair like New York or London, said Maike Cruse, the director of Berlin Gallery Weekend, who joined the organization five years ago from Art Basel.

Dealers realized that they were meeting the collectors and curators from all over the world in their fair booths, but not so much in their galleries, she said, even though artists from all over the world were producing and showing work in Berlin.
BERLIN  The contemporary art museum Hamburger Bahnhof here covers a broad aesthetic spectrum, with works ranging from Marxist installations by the German artist Joseph Beuys to classics of Abstract Expressionism by Barnett Newman. But at a time when museums face the challenge of reassessing their collections for the global age, the center of gravity still lies in Western Europe and North America.

Enter the show Hello World. Revising a Collection. With the exhibit, which will cover all 108,000 square feet of the converted train station from Saturday to Aug. 26, the Hamburger Bahnhof sets out to reframe not only objects from its own permanent collection but also those of the Alte Nationalgalerie and Neue Nationalgalerie  the citys temples of 19th- and 20th-century art  from a more international perspective.

The retrospective is divided into 13 chapters that explore little-known networks between different parts of the world, whether the exchange between Beuys and the Argentine land artist Nicolas Garcia Uriburu or the lasting impact of the German painter Walter Spies on contemporary Balinese art. The exhibit arrives as the Neue Nationalgalerie is closed for renovation until 2020 and preparing to expand into a new building, designed by the architects Herzog & de Meuron.
New York is the art worlds undeniable hub and certainly its commercial heart. London and Hong Kong rate partly because of strong auction scenes. For museums, well always have Paris, and Italy has jaw-dropping art tucked away in seemingly every church.

But Berlin has artists.

No matter where they are from originally, they like to live and work in the German capital, producing art even if they dont show it there. Having solid galleries and museums certainly helps, but it may be more a function of cheap space, the citys embrace of offbeat behavior and a hard-to-quantify ability to channel the creative spirit.

Klaus Biesenbach, the director of MoMA PS1 and the chief curator at large for the Museum of Modern Art, lived there for some 15 years.
There are duets, trios, quartets, he said. Im going to complete it  itll just take a few days to really pinch it off  and then we put it away. Its quite complicated and quite beautiful.

The way to document the finished works hasnt been completed yet, but each will be accompanied by extensive musical notes, Labanotation  a method for recording dances  interviews with dancers and video from multiple angles. Designs for each dance will be created, though not built. And five to seven years after a work is first choreographed it will be restaged in the studio and additional notes added.

There are other components to the legacy plan aside from posthumous dances. Along with the Mark Morris Archive, which will painstakingly preserve dances for future stagings, there is the expansion of the center itself, including the addition of three studios to the existing seven. So far, the organization has raised $16.6 million toward a $25 million goal with a deadline of 2020, which coincides with its 40th anniversary.

The plan is a proactive response to a major issue in the dance world. While Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has thrived since the death of its founder, many companies have faced traumatic challenges, like the Martha Graham organization, which fought legal battles with Grahams heir, Ronald Protas. (The organization won.)

After the deaths of Pina Bausch and Merce Cunningham  her company is still active, but his was disbanded after his death  Ms. Umanoff started to seriously consider the future of the Mark Morris organization. For her, its sustainability comes down to Mr. Morriss dances, which keep the whole operation running.
ROTTERDAM, the Netherlands  They came from Russia, Poland, Germany and Ukraine, bearing tickets bought in the field offices of the Holland America Line passenger ships. They were fleeing the pogroms, escaping tyrants, running from war or just seeking a better life. About two million people made their way to Rotterdam harbor during the peak years from 1880 to 1920 to begin a trans-Atlantic journey that would often end at Ellis Island.

The stories of these migrants inspired the former Rijksmuseum director, Wim Pijbes, and the group he leads, Stichting Droom en Daad (Foundation Dream and Do), to transform a crumbling warehouse on the Rotterdam piers into a kind of Dutch sister-site to Ellis Island. The nonprofit organization he directs, founded in 2016 to support arts in Rotterdam, acquired a city permit in March to turn the old Holland America Line warehouse into an institution that will commemorate those journeys.

I wont call it a museum, Mr. Pijbes said recently as he showed a reporter around the 108,000-square-foot concrete and steel building on a windswept pier, which is home to a number of ragtag hipster start-ups, including an organic food court, galleries and arts groups. A museum is a phenomenon that has a very strict idea and image in most peoples minds. I want to find a word that has a kind of hybrid function, a place, a platform, an agora.
When Scott Rothkopf, chief curator of the Whitney Museum of American Art, attended the U.S. Latinx Arts Futures Symposium at the Ford Foundation two years ago, the experience had a profound impact.

The organizers wanted to draw peoples attention to the fact that Latinx artists were falling into neither category  they were not part of the growing interest in Latin American artists but also not seen as American artists, Mr. Rothkopf said. I left thinking that it was extremely important that the Whitney expand its thinking in this area and, by virtue of being a museum of the U.S., could do something unique by drawing attention to these artists as U.S. Americans  they could be part of the story.

Mr. Rothkopf then proceeded to hire Marcela Guerrero to be the Whitneys first curator specializing in Latinx, the gender-neutral word for art produced by artists of Latin descent who were born in the United States, or work produced by artists of Latin descent in the United States.
Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous nights highlights that lets you sleep  and lets us get paid to watch comedy. If youre interested in hearing from The Times regularly about great TV, sign up for our Watching newsletter and get recommendations straight to your inbox.

Fifth in Line

James Corden welcomed Britains new prince with a few good-natured jokes on Mondays Late Late Show. Then he expressed hope that Prince William and Catherine, the duchess of Cambridge  who havent announced the babys name yet  might go with one particularly familiar British name: James.
If this sounds like a hard sell to a proud service, Terminal Lance fans have rewarded Mr. Uriartes unflinching take and reportage with a full embrace. The nearly 691,000 followers of the Terminal Lance Facebook page are almost four times the number of active-duty Marines. In just three years, its newer Instagram account has swelled to 287,000 fans, the largest proportion of whom are 18- to-24-year-olds. The strips own website averages about one million unique visitors a month, and its reach is further boosted by the publication of a less offensive version in the Marine Corps Times, an independent biweekly newspaper.

Mr. Uriarte, formerly a terminal lance himself, attributes the success to an unusual trait for a comic strip: accuracy. I think Terminal Lance has done very well because while it has been critical, its been honest, he said.

Thats not to say the strip has not generated complaints. Senior Marines often contact Mr. Uriarte to grouse about unflattering portrayals, including his characters excessive drinking. Some try to root out his sources. But the corps and its illustrator have found a measure of peace.

If you are a grunt and cant laugh at this stuff, youd go crazy, Gen. Robert Neller, the Marine commandant, said in a telephone interview last week. Every time I see his comic I read it. If nothing else it makes you ponder his point, or just laugh out loud.

In hindsight Mr. Uriartes success looks like a plan. He enlisted in the Marines in 2006, when he was 19, hoping to become a professional artist with time. He had been drawing and sketching since he was kid and was seeking a challenge and the rich story lines he expected to find in grunt life.

I consider myself an artist before anything else, he said. This whole thing was really to inform my artwork, from a weird 19-year-old perspective.

He spent his first combat tour, in 2007, as a machine-gunner in the turret of an armored truck, escorting his company commander around. By his second tour, in 2009, he had talked himself into a job as an official photographer.
People who know Clinton often complain that the press, and therefore the public, never gets to see how warm and funny she is in person. Chasing Hillary is the best explanation so far of why that is. Chozick describes Clintons press shop (which she calls The Guys) as an anonymous gang of manipulative, unresponsive and vaguely menacing apparatchiks who alternate between denying her interview requests (47 in total, by her count), bullying her in retaliation for perceived negative coverage (Youve got a target on your back, one of them tells her) and exploiting her insecurities about keeping up with her (often male) colleagues. The campaign quarantined the press on a separate bus and, later, a separate plane, often without even an accompanying flack to answer basic questions. It denied Chozicks interview requests even for positive stories, like a piece about Clintons experience in the early 1970s going undercover to expose school segregation in the South, and refused to confirm the most minor details, like whether Clinton ate a chicken wing or not.

It seems clear from Chozicks account that Clinton thought of her traveling press corps as more buzzard than human (although she did write Chozick a note when her grandmother died). Bill Clinton also had troubles with the press, but at least he would say hello at events or tell a long-winded story. Even Trump, who spent the campaign railing against the fake news media, seemed to intuit that a cordial relationship with reporters was essential to managing his public image. Trump once called Chozick out of the blue to provide a comment for an article, and they ended up chatting about The Apprentice. So grateful to be actually speaking to a candidate (in nearly 10 years, Clinton had never called her), Chozick made the mistake of telling him that Clinton hadnt had a news conference in months. Shortly afterward, the Trump campaign began blasting that Clinton was hiding from the press.

Image

In fact, Chozick spoke with Clinton so infrequently that their entire personal relationship can be summed up in a half-dozen interactions that are shockingly banal: the time Clinton said hi to her in Iowa, one 14-minute phone interview, the time Clinton accidentally walked in on her in the bathroom. The fact that Chozick interacted so rarely with Clinton over nearly 10 years of covering her for The Wall Street Journal and then The New York Times is perhaps the most damning evidence of Clintons self-destructive relationship with the press. How could we communicate Hillarys funny, wicked and wacky side to voters, she asks, if we never saw it for ourselves?

Chozicks own funny, wicked and wacky side is on full display, with well-drawn sketches of everyone from fresh-faced campaign interns to the candidates themselves. With her lively voice and eye for detail, Chasing Hillary is an enjoyable read, like The Devil Wears Prada meets The Boys on the Bus. Watching Clinton during a town hall gathering was like catching up with an old girlfriend who cites G.D.P. statistics over brunch; going to meet Bernie Sanders felt like when my mom made me visit her emphysemic Aunt Shirley. Her recollections of her adolescence in Texas and early jobs in journalism are just as spirited: After she told her fourth-grade class that she supported a Democratic candidate, I might as well have pulled on a skullcap and recited my haftorah.
1. The Trumps hosted Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron, the president and first lady of France, at the White House.

At the top of the agenda: discussion of the Iran nuclear deal, which Mr. Macron vigorously supports. During a joint news conference, President Trump said he still thought the agreement was terrible. But he also said he could agree to a new deal negotiated by American and European officials if it was strong enough.

Our fashion critic weighed in on the wide-brimmed white hat Melania Trump donned for the arrival ceremony. (It drew immediate comparisons to Beyonce, Jude Law and Olivia Pope.)
The Fed, in explaining the impact of the changes, said capital held by the banks would not fall by much. Thats because a second set of capital requirements, based on assets riskiness, would be set higher than the leverage ratio after the changes. The Fed estimated a theoretical reduction of $9 billion across the eight banks. That amount would be even smaller once the Feds annual tests of banks strength are taken into account.

But as regulators adjust capital rules in the coming months, the big banks are expected to enjoy significant relief. Several proposed changes could free up more than $50 billion of capital at large banks, according to recent research by Goldman Sachs, money that could in theory be distributed to shareholders.

The changes are part of a push, spearheaded by Randal K. Quarles, who oversees bank supervision at the Fed, to ease some of the regulations that came into effect after the financial crisis of 2008. The leverage ratio proposal builds on ideas that were under discussion at the Fed before Mr. Quarless confirmation as a Fed governor last year but go beyond that approach. It is prompting concern from those who view the leverage ratio as an important tool to help protect the financial system by preventing banks from becoming overextended.

The leverage ratio was a much better predictor of financial health of banks going into the crisis, said Sheila C. Bair, who was head of the F.D.I.C. during the tumult of 2008, and who does not support the proposed changes.

The change most likely wont lead to an immediate weakening of the financial system. But, over time, if the financial industry keeps pressing for looser regulations, and Washington obliges, there is concern that the absence of a strong leverage ratio could reduce confidence in the financial system, particularly in periods of stress.

The leverage ratios importance is revealed in how large banks finance themselves. They get most of the money they need for lending and trading from two main sources  they borrow it in markets or they raise it from depositors. But an overreliance on those two sources can leave a bank vulnerable to runs, because many of the creditors and depositors can demand the bank return their money at short notice. That is why banks must get some of their funding from equity capital, which consists of retained profits and funds from shareholders, who cannot demand immediate repayment of their money.
There is a great deal of talk about how Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, may be trying to build a case of obstruction of justice as part of his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Whether enough evidence exists is an open question, although there are bits that could be the building blocks of an obstruction case. The New York Times reported a few weeks ago that John Dowd, who was President Trumps lawyer, had discussed possible pardons for Paul Manafort and Michael T. Flynn with their lawyers. Then there was the presidents decision to fire James B. Comey as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Mr. Comeys memos show Mr. Trumps near obsession with being cleared of the tawdry allegations in a dossier compiled during the presidential campaign.

But did those efforts constitute obstruction of justice? Before one jumps to any conclusions, its worth examining the Supreme Courts decision in a tax case last month. The ruling continues a trend of narrowing the laws used to prosecute an obstruction case. The courts message has been that more is needed to prove obstruction than just conduct that might have some tangential impact on how prosecutors put together a case.

In Marinello v. United States, the justices reviewed the conviction of a defendant for violating a provision called the omnibus clause, which makes it a crime for anyone who obstructs or impedes, or endeavors to obstruct or impede, the due administration of the tax laws. The jury convicted Mr. Marinello of failing to file tax returns for his business after he used funds for personal expenses and paid employees in cash without any tax withholding while discarding business records.
LONDON  For more than a year, Finland has been testing the proposition that the best way to lift economic fortunes may be the simplest: Hand out money without rules or restrictions on how people use it.

The experiment with so-called universal basic income has captured global attention as a potentially promising way to restore economic security at a time of worry about inequality and automation.

Now, the experiment is ending. The Finnish government has opted not to continue financing it past this year, a reflection of public discomfort with the idea of dispensing government largess free of requirements that its recipients seek work.

Finland has actually reversed course on that front this year, adopting rules that threaten to cut benefits for jobless people unless they actively look for work or engage in job training.

Its a pity that it will end like this, said Olli Kangas, who oversees research at Kela, a Finnish government agency that administers many social welfare programs and has played a leading role in the basic-income experiment. The government has chosen to try a totally different path. Basic income is unconditional. Now, they are pursuing conditionality.
Justice Kennedy wrote that the evidence about whether suits against foreign corporations were among those norms was mixed. That meant, he wrote, that a clear answer from Congress was required before the suits could be allowed in light of the diplomatic friction they can create.

Courts are not well suited to make the required policy judgments that are implicated by corporate liability in cases like this one, he wrote.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Clarence Thomas joined all of Justice Kennedys opinion, and Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch much of it.

In concurring opinions, Justices Alito and Gorsuch wrote that they would have gone further, expressing doubts about whether the court has interpreted the 1789 law correctly.

In dissent, Justice Sotomayor said Justice Kennedys analysis was flawed.

Nothing about the corporate form in itself justifies categorically foreclosing corporate liability, she wrote. Each source of diplomatic friction that respondent Arab Bank and the plurality identify can be addressed with a tool more tailored to the source of the problem than a blanket ban on corporate liability.

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer and Elena Kagan joined Justice Sotomayors dissent.

The Supreme Court had agreed to decide the question of corporate liability for human rights violations once before, in 2011, in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum. After hearing arguments on the question in 2012, though, the court asked the parties to brief and argue a broader issue: whether American courts may ever hear disputes under the law for human rights abuses abroad, whether the defendant was a corporation or not.

In 2013, the court said that there was a general presumption against the extraterritorial application of American law, ruling against Nigerian plaintiffs who said foreign oil companies had aided in atrocities by Nigerian military and police forces against Ogoni villagers.
WASHINGTON  The Environmental Protection Agency announced a new regulation Tuesday that would restrict the kinds of scientific studies the agency can use when it develops policies, a move critics say will permanently weaken the agencys ability to protect public health.

Under the measure, the E.P.A. will require that the underlying data for all scientific studies used by the agency to formulate air and water regulations be publicly available. That would sharply limit the number of studies available for consideration because much research relies on confidential health data from study subjects.

Scott Pruitt, the E.P.A. administrator, announced the proposed regulation this afternoon at agency headquarters, flanked by Republican lawmakers who sponsored legislation designed to achieve the same ends as the new regulation.

The science that we use is going to be transparent, its going to be reproducible, Mr. Pruitt said.
The possible loss of Mr. Inhofes support means that Pruitt is in big trouble, John Feehery, a Republican strategist who worked for former House Speaker Dennis Hastert and the former House majority leader Tom DeLay, wrote in an email.

Ultimately, of course, Mr. Pruitts fate depends on President Trump, who until now has continued to back his E.P.A. chief, cheering his aggressive efforts to roll back Obama-era environmental regulations.

Asked about Mr. Pruitt on Monday, the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said: Administrator Pruitt has done a good job of implementing the presidents policies, particularly on deregulation; making the United States less energy-dependent and becoming more energy independent. Those are good things. However, the other things certainly are something that were monitoring and looking at and Ill keep you posted.

Mr. Inhofe said he had not spoken with Mr. Trump or Mr. Pruitt in recent days, but the president and the Oklahoma senator have a good relationship. They spoke several times by phone during Mr. Trumps presidential campaign, and Mr. Inhofes influence on environmental policy is evident throughout the Trump administration: many of his former staff members now work at the White House and the E.P.A.

Indeed, much of Mr. Trumps environmental agenda, like undoing E.P.A. climate change rules and pulling the United States out of the Paris climate change accord, is taken straight from the playbook Mr. Inhofe has pushed for years on Capitol Hill.

Privately, many of the former Inhofe staff members now in the Trump administration say they are fed up with the chaos surrounding Mr. Pruitt and are more than ready to see him go. They noted that another former member of Inhofes staff, Andrew Wheeler, had recently been confirmed as Mr. Pruitts deputy, and that Mr. Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist, was well positioned to continue the agenda of rolling back environmental rules should Mr. Pruitt step down.
If you know Texans, you know that our pride might be a bit bigger, like everything from the Lone Star State. (Supposedly, anyway. Im only 5 feet 3 inches tall, and thats when Im wearing my boots.)

When my wife, Jeanne, was pregnant with our first child, in 1987, we couldnt fly to Texas for the delivery, but I did come up with a plan: Get some dirt to put under the delivery table. It might sound like a nutty idea, but it wasnt a new one. I first heard of it during a study abroad program in Siena, Italy, in the 1970s.

The Sienese have fierce loyalty to their neighborhoods, or contrade. Since there was, historically, only one hospital, in one contrada, people from the others would bring some dirt from their own neighborhood into the delivery room for births.

Thats what led me to think about having the baby born on Texas soil, contrada style. I got dirt from various parts of the state, including my hometown, Galveston. A friend also sent some  he said he chipped a piece off the Alamo, too, but I dont believe him. The resulting mixture fit into a baggie.

When I asked the doctor about bringing it into the hospital, she was, luckily enough, charmed. Shes Italian. She said it would be fine so long as it was in a sterile container and under the delivery table.
Before reading the article:



Every year people come to the United States seeking protection because they have suffered  or because they fear they will suffer  persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.

According the Homeland Security Departments United States Citizenship and Immigration Services website, if a person is eligible for asylum, he or she may be permitted to remain in the country. Families who arrive together seeking asylum have typically been kept together while a decision is made on their case.

Now, watch this short video from March 2017 of John F. Kelly, then the homeland security secretary and now President Trumps chief of staff, interviewed by CNNs Wolf Blitzer on The Situation Room. The two discuss the idea of separating adults and children who illegally cross United States borders.

What have you heard on the news or elsewhere about adults and children being separated when they cross over into the United States illegally?
Roger Ballen grew up immersed in the photography world. His mother, Adrienne, was an editor at Magnum, and the walls of his childhood home in Rye, N.Y., were filled with her colleagues images.

By the time I went out to photograph seriously, which was around the age of eighteen, I had a clear idea of the level I was aiming at, Mr. Ballen, 68, writes in Ballenesque, Roger Ballen: A Retrospective, the first retrospective book of his career, which Thames & Hudson published in October.

While Mr. Ballen, an internationally renowned artist with nearly a dozen books to his name, has photographed virtually his entire life, he didnt start thinking of himself as an artist until his late 40s. He stopped working as a geologist only in his 50s. He directed his first viral music video in his 60s.
Solove proposed we relinquish our 1984 fixation and find metaphorical support in Franz Kafkas The Trial: a more thoughtless process of bureaucratic indifference, arbitrary errors and dehumanization, a world where people feel powerless and vulnerable, without any meaningful form of participation in the collection and use of their information. In part this is about the difference between state and corporate power, but its also about effects subtler and further-reaching than the simple surveillance of what we mutter in bed.

We ought to worry, on his view, much less about the Thought Police and much more about how our informational profiles harden into the invisible architecture of our everyday lives. Its not that we might be observed or killed in our sleep, but rather that the availability of loans or jobs or romantic partners or upscale hotel rooms are already being silently and automatically withdrawn from people like us  people with our politics, people of our skin color, people with certain friends or predispositions, people without the wealth and power of Mark Zuckerberg. Or, in the case of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, its that our political affiliations are being arranged on the basis of our greatest vulnerabilities. Zuckerberg is more than happy to grant Durbin a victory that leaves all of this potential intact.

The best recent definition of privacy doesnt require hotel-room carnage to make a case for why we should still pay attention to our persistent feelings of unease. The philosopher Helen Nissenbaum defines privacy not as one right to be balanced with others but as the condition of what she calls contextual integrity. When we talk about privacy, she says, were not talking about the difference between the intimacy of the bedroom and the scrutiny of the park, but rather the specific norms and expectations that govern communication among various parties at different times and places. The old public-private distinction, she writes, postulates only two contexts with distinct sets of informational norms for each  privacy constraints in the private, anything goes in the public. The framework of contextual integrity, by contrast, postulates a multiplicity of social contexts, each with a distinctive set of rules governing information flows. There are things we discuss with lovers that we dont discuss with bosses, and things we discuss with doctors that we might not discuss with lawyers, and so on.

There are a variety of possible policy implications  beginning with the idea that a one-size-fits-all legal-consent model, where clicking I agree signs all your data away, should be regarded as nonsense. But the idea of contextual integrity is most immediately useful as a diagnostic aid in the absence of dead bodies, a way to render precise our otherwise vague sense of agitation. It does a lot, for example, to explain exactly whats so unsettling about the Cambridge Analytica issue, and why the congressional hearings were so unsatisfying. Many of the questions from our elected officials seemed to turn on the epiphany that what seemed like a service to connect friends was actually a service to sell ads, but most Facebook users are neither that stupid nor that naive; everybody knows at this point that if youre not paying for something, youre the product being sold. Yes, that omnipresent shoe ad might be creepy, but as autonomous subjects we feel more than capable of simply not buying the shoes. Our decision to purchase one shoe over another doesnt seem to have broad social consequences.

Until all of a sudden we werent talking about shoe ads anymore, and we werent talking about minor personal decisions that could easily be reversed. It turned out we had been prepared to accept some intermingling of the norms of personal communication with the norms of the commercial marketplace, but even the most cynical among us didnt quite realize the implications of letting all that bleed into the political. There was at last clear evidence to support a notion of privacy as a social good rather than an individual right  and, finally, a way to talk about why privacy matters without recourse to sensationalism. The dead bodies of the privacy debate might finally be laid to rest.
The next afternoon, Nunes called a news conference in the Capitol, where he announced that sources had provided him with evidence that, during the transition, the president or his associates had been swept up in foreign surveillance by American spy agencies. When a reporter asked him if he thought that the American intelligence community was spying on Trump during the transition, Nunes replied, I guess it all depends on ones definition of spying. He added: Clearly it bothers me enough. Im not comfortable with it. Nunes seemed to be lending credence to Trumps preposterous accusation on Twitter from earlier that month that Obama had his  wires tapped in Trump Tower.

Nunes then headed back to the White House to brief Trump on his findings  a seemingly unnecessary move considering that the information had been given to him by Trumps own aides. A few days later, after reporters exposed the ruse (including the fact that the Obama-era eavesdropping had been legal, incidental and inconsequential), Nunes recused himself from the committees Russia investigation, although he still refused to cede subpoena power to his replacement, Mike Conaway. In December, after the House Ethics Committee concluded that Nunes hadnt illegally revealed classified information, he more firmly took the reins of the Russia investigation.

For House Democrats, Nuness midnight run, as they now call it, represented a fundamental break. Devin and I had a very good relationship until March 21, Schiff told me. From that point on, I think that he considered it his primary mission to protect the White House no matter the cost. In the process, Nunes has all but destroyed what was once the House Intelligence Committees greatest asset. When the committee was being created in 1977, to exercise legislative oversight of American intelligence agencies, Speaker Tip ONeill pledged, This is a nonpartisan committee; there will be nothing partisan about its deliberations. Although that goal was occasionally tested, the spirit of nonpartisanship generally prevailed and at times even flourished, as it had under Nuness predecessor, Mike Rogers, and his Democratic counterpart, Representative Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland. Its not like Dutch and Mike werent stalwarts of their own parties, but they knew they had a national security mission, says Jamil Jaffer, a Republican lawyer who was a senior counsel on the committee. They got together and said, Look, this stuff is too important to screw up. 

But since Nuness midnight run, the committee has been crippled by partisan fighting. When the committee met in late March to discuss releasing the Republicans incomplete report on Russia, not one Democrat on the committee voted to do so. Representative Mike Quigley, an Illinois Democrat, openly mocked his Republican colleagues, clucking at them like a chicken. Now that the committees Russia investigation is essentially over  Schiff and his fellow Democrats have pledged to keep investigating on their own, but they wont get far without subpoena power  the ill will isnt likely to dissipate. I dont know that it can recover, given the degree of bad blood thats developed between the members, Representative Tom Cole says. Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat and member of the committee, told me: It is irreparable as long as Devin Nunes is the chairman. He is Trumps Michael Cohen in Congress. He is Trumps fixer. Beyond that, Nunes has damaged the relationship between the committee and the intelligence agencies themselves. A lot of your effectiveness in overseeing the intelligence community is based on them wanting to have a good relationship with the overseers, says a former Intelligence Committee staff member. Thats all blown up. Theyre not going to do anything they dont absolutely have to do. Theyre going to marginalize the community. The former staff member adds: Its totally toxic. Its irreversible. I think the committee has been essentially rendered useless.

From the ashes of his own committee, though, Nunes has emerged in a far more powerful position. His congressional district is so sufficiently red that despite his Democratic challengers multiple appearances on MSNBC, his seat should be safe this November, even in whats shaping up to be a strong Democratic year. In fact, his stature in the area has been enhanced by the Russia controversy. Jim Brulte, the chairman of the California G.O.P., told me: If youre a Republican officeholder in California, and Nancy Pelosi attacks you, I think most Republican voters turn around and go, Wow, Ive never heard of this guy, but if Pelosi is against him, Im for him. 

More important, the Russia brouhaha has elevated Nunes far beyond the Central Valley. Once considered the scourge of the Tea Party, he is now viewed as a rock star by the activist Republican base across the country. The National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign arm of the House G.O.P., uses him in its fund-raising emails. And among his Republican colleagues on Capitol Hill, he has never been more popular  so much so that more than one prominent Republican with whom I spoke predicted that Nunes is on track to one day become the top Republican on the all-powerful Ways and Means Committee.

In February, at its annual Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington, the American Conservative Union presented Nunes with its Defender of Freedom Award for concerted courage, standing up for truth and freedom under intense duress. When Nunes accepted the award, he was greeted with cries of We love you, Devin! His familiar grimace gave way to a broad smile.
No matter how familiar the internet becomes with how all this works, even seemingly manageable events will send the usual cycles repeating, each more exaggerated than the last. Its predictable that, after the death of a political figure, solemn eulogies will give way to vigorous criticism, which will in turn occasion righteous defenses. But you still might not have guessed that, within 36 hours after the death of Barbara Bush, the Womens March would be facing backlash for having tweeted Rest in peace and power, and a college professor would be facing nationwide calls for her firing over tweets that called Bush racist and expressed pleasure in her death  each impulse, it seems, working hard to counter the prevalence of the other.

Backlash entered the political lexicon around the mid-1950s, as a name for the powerful hostility with which many voters reacted to the nascent civil rights movement. By the 1964 presidential race, the British journalist Godfrey Hodgson was writing of a white backlash driving the campaign of the segregationist Democrat George Wallace. That same year, the sociologist Seymour Martin Lipset published an article titled Beyond the Backlash, arguing that extremist conservative revolts, including the K.K.K. and McCarthyism, were a recurring feature in American politics, arising whenever powerful groups viewed themselves as in decline. And in the decades since, the entire concept of political backlash has been deeply connected with reactionary uprisings among certain white conservatives  a streak of resentment the Republican Party has quite often turned to its electoral advantage. From George Wallace to George W. Bush, the writer Thomas Frank observed in 2005, a class-based backlash against the perceived arrogance of liberalism has been one of the most powerful weapons in politics.

At the root of this analysis, of course, is the assumption that liberalism has been on a steady, triumphant march  that a progressive ascendance sparks a conservative reaction. (It cannot be stressed too strongly, Lipset wrote, that backlash politics were a consequence of the fact that the United States is becoming more liberal.) But in 2016, it was the avatar of white conservative resentment who was elected president  a result the CNN commentator Van Jones described, on election night, as a whitelash. And in the aftermath of this stark shift in government, its clearly difficult for Americans to reach even a vague consensus on which ideological impulses are dominant and which are lashing out in response. Many conservatives appear to have scarcely registered their political victories, preferring instead to complain of a sinister deep state beyond executive control and resume their retaliatory campaigns against Hillary Clinton. At the same time, the backlash strategy has been handed off like a baton, cropping up with greater frequency in descriptions of liberals energized by their opposition to Trump.

This is the landscape of our broader political wars. Whats fascinating is that its also the landscape of our innocuous pop-culture battles, over which films are underrated and which celebrities overappreciated. Social media, in particular, is almost perfectly designed to turn mundane exchanges into ferocious moral dust-ups. Questions of taste and aesthetics have always been intimately bound up with questions of status and character and overarching cultural values. Even the most humdrum disagreement resolves itself, through one wave of backlash after another, into the same central question: Why does everyone believe the wrong thing?
This case involves express discrimination based on religious identity with respect to playground resurfacing, Chief Justice Roberts wrote. We do not address religious uses of funding or other forms of discrimination.

The Trinity Lutheran decision, however, noted that a church could not be barred from participating in a grant program simply because of what it is  a church. In New Jersey, the historic preservation program involves grants, leading some legal experts to say that could provide the basis of a challenge to the Supreme Court.

The historic preservation value is sometimes understood like what the church looks like when you walk by, versus what it looks like or operates inside, said Ira C. Lupu, a law professor at George Washington University who closely followed the Trinity Lutheran case. Essentially, repairing a facade or a roof does not directly affect how a congregation worships or practices. But he also noted that some of the grant money in the New Jersey case was used for stained glass windows, and that those amenities could be interpreted as directly affecting a religious service or practice.

The county has a secular purpose in the historically accurate appearance of the roof and facade, but the countys purposes seem far more religious if it is renovating stained glass windows, which affect the experience of the service, Mr. Lupu said.

The case in New Jersey dates to 2012, when David Steketee, a resident of Madison, was walking in nearby Morristown and noticed a sign outside the Church of the Redeemer near the towns historic green.

They had a large placard out front thanking whatever historic preservation trust fund for money that was donated to it, said Mr. Steketee, 41, who works in information technology but has an armchair scholar interest in the Constitution. I thought it was interesting that the tax dollars would go toward preservation and restoration of a church.

After communicating with national groups to amplify his complaint, Mr. Steketee found an ally in the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a group, based in Madison, Wis., that regularly fights for the separation of church and state. (The music the group plays for callers put on hold is a homespun jingle: Ive heard about your hero Joshua, but his accomplishments are not so great. Because theres none like Thomas Jefferson, and the wall between church and state.)
One after another, the cars with out-of-state license plates roll off the George Washington Bridge into Pedro Richiezs neighborhood in northern Manhattan. They circle the blocks. They nab parking spots as soon as they open up.

Its been getting worse over the years, said Mr. Richiez, 50, a building superintendent, as he sat in his blue minivan on West 176th Street for two hours on Tuesday waiting for a parking spot. All these outsiders driving in and parking in our neighborhood and then hopping on the subway downtown, instead of paying for a parking garage in Midtown.

Now, some New Yorkers want to take back parking spots for neighborhood drivers  again. If there are some ideas that never seem to go away  congestion pricing anyone?  residents parking is surely one of them.

The idea is to relieve some of the parking pressure on city residents by reserving up to 80 percent of the coveted curbside spots in some neighborhoods for those with permits  and essentially declaring those parking places off limits to suburban commuters and tourists. While such residential parking permits are a mainstay around the country, including in Boston, Washington and Chicago, the system has never advanced in New York City despite repeated attempts over the years  in part because it would require state approval.
An investigation into the workplace culture of New York Public Radio and its flagship station WNYC found that incidents of bullying and harassment were not reported to senior managers, in part because of fear of reprisals, a lack of confidence in how reports would be handled, and the perception that the stations stars were untouchable.

But the investigation did not find systemic discrimination that was known to, and tolerated by, senior management. The investigation also largely absolved Laura R. Walker, the president and chief executive of New York Public Radio, who acknowledged last year that she had prioritized growth, and content and programming, over investment in some of the processes and people.

Instead, the investigation focuses on the stations understaffed human resources department and recommends steps familiar to many workplaces grappling with the #MeToo movement, such as adding training for managers, creating an anti-bullying policy and clearly explaining its anti-harassment and discrimination policies to employees.

N.Y.P.R. needs to build a level of confidence that it is intent on fostering and preserving a respectful work environment and that all employees  even stars  are held to that standard, and that no one will suffer adverse consequences for alerting N.Y.P.R. to inappropriate conduct, the report says.
Charles J. Zwick, who as President Lyndon B. Johnsons last budget director helped engineer the only federal surplus posted within a span of nearly four decades, died on Friday at his home in Coral Gables, Fla. He was 91.

The cause was cancer, his wife, Barbara, said.

In 1968, Mr. Zwick faced a clamor among congressional conservatives for cutbacks in Great Society social-welfare programs. But he also had to contend with Johnsons demands to safeguard that agenda and relieve the continuing budgetary pressures imposed by the Vietnam War.

Mr. Zwick managed to reconcile these competing forces with an income tax surcharge.

When you couldnt support both guns and butter without an increase in taxes, then you were in trouble, Mr. Zwick said in 1968 in an interview for the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library.

The president had originally asked for a 6 percent tax surcharge. Congress wanted a $6 billion spending cut. When Johnsons final budget was passed, he got a 10 percent surcharge, while Congress managed to pare domestic programs by only $4 billion.
Many of these companies want to hide their proposed jobs and wages on the initial application  its an extremely effective way of making it impossible to evaluate if these companies kept their promises to create high-paying jobs in exchange for taxpayer dollars.

Other states are also secretive about economic development. Amazons brazen public call for proposals for its second headquarters reveals how far governments will go to keep these secrets. Some cities and states revealed their bids, including New Jerseys $7 billion taxpayer-funded incentive. But the majority didnt. In January, when Amazon cut down this list down to 20 locations, the finalists signed nondisclosure agreements to keep the rest of the process secret.

Even the cities that were eliminated by Amazon have refused to make their bids public. Minnesota and Washington both have reputations for transparency and received leading rankings from the Pew Charitable Trusts in their evaluation of economic incentives. But Minneapolis and Tacoma, Wash., submitted their bids through nongovernment entities and claim they dont even have access to the cities pitches to Amazon.

Another strategy to avoid transparency in a competition like this is through complexity. The idea is to make economic development so twisted that its nearly impossible to figure out who is responsible for it. If governments arent submitting these bids, with taxpayers money, who is responsible for economic development?

In many states, companies are wooed by getting a break on paying local taxes. In some of these cases, local interests get overlooked  in particular, schools. There are school districts where economic developers were empowered to give away the tax revenues without the input of educators. The California Teachers Association supported a law to help stop giving away their tax dollars. Louisiana just allowed school districts to modify or decline these incentives.

In Texas, rather than cutting school districts out of the process, the rules were written to make sure districts always say yes to company incentive requests. Our program, called Chapter 313, allows a school district to forgive a companys taxes, but the state pays the taxes to the school district. Even better, schools can request supplemental payments from companies, which in some cases exceed 40 percent of the companys incentive benefits. Ironically, school districts make more money from companies that accept a tax incentive than a company that comes with no government support. As you can guess, in these cases, school districts say yes to every request, companies receive tax incentives, and Texas taxpayers are on the hook for billions of dollars.
To the Editor:

Re Years of Bizarre Behavior, but He Got Guns Back (front page, April 24), about the Nashville shooter: Im sure Im not the only person wondering how a mentally disturbed persons firearms are given to one of his family members. Shouldnt the state confiscate those weapons? Am I missing something here?

PETER MCCABE

EAST BRUNSWICK, N.J.

To the Editor:

Once more we woke up to an article about a mass killing in the United States, and once more we hear that the gunman was mentally deranged. While mental health issues may no doubt play a role, it is important for the public to know that rates of mental illness are essentially similar in countries throughout the globe. However, only in America are weapons of mass destruction readily available in stores, online and in gun shows.

Moreover, even if the United States were an outlier for mental illness, the public should keep in mind that our president last year supported the repeal of an Obama-era rule that would have made it more difficult for mentally ill persons who are not capable of managing their own Social Security benefits to purchase weapons.

Clearly, what distinguishes us from every other country is not mental illness, but the ability of our people, regardless of their mental or emotional state, to purchase and, in some cases, to openly carry pistols, rifles and semiautomatic rifles. Until the leadership of our country gains the courage to oppose the wishes of the National Rifle Association and its supporters, newspaper headlines about mass murder of children, teenagers and adults will continue to greet us in the morning.
For those alarmed by President Trumps assaults on the rule of law, there have been two versions of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. The good one appointed the special counsel, Robert Mueller; defended him; and has allowed the investigation to take its course. The bad one gave Mr. Trump cover to fire the F.B.I. director, James Comey; released private text messages of F.B.I. employees; and complimented the president in public.

But Mr. Rosenstein deserves praise because of  not despite  his occasional willingness to appease Mr. Trump. Without making compromises, he would have been long gone. Many people fear that if Mr. Trump were to fire Mr. Rosenstein, it would imperil the Mueller investigation. The same has been true for almost a year; the earlier Mr. Rosenstein had been forced out of office, the worse the possible damage. A successor to Mr. Rosenstein could fire Mr. Mueller, limit the scope of his investigation, decline to approve investigative steps or eliminate public reporting requirements  not to mention interfere with the separate investigation into Mr. Trumps longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen.

Last May, Mr. Rosenstein wrote a memo to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Restoring Public Confidence in the F.B.I., that excoriated Mr. Comey for his handling of the investigation into Hillary Clintons emails: in particular, his July 5, 2016, news conference, in which he criticized Mrs. Clinton harshly while announcing she would not be charged, and his Oct. 28, 2016, letter in which he said the investigation would be reopened because of newly discovered emails. Mr. Sessions forwarded that memo to the president with a recommendation that Mr. Trump fire Mr. Comey, which the president did the same day.

Mr. Rosenstein immediately came under attack for writing a memo that he knew would be used to disguise Mr. Trumps true motivation for removing Mr. Comey.
I grew up in the small businesses my parents owned and operated. My mom worked her final shift in the restaurant they managed together two days before I was due. After surviving a grueling, anesthesia-free 42 hours of labor (a number I am not allowed to forget), my mother returned home and within a month was back to work. Since she and my father worked at the restaurant that they owned together, they were able to trade off to keep both the business and their new baby thriving, swapping day shifts and nights with each other, one of them always tending to me while the other managed the restaurant. Paid leave was not really considered: In my moms case, the ability to continue to work, often with her newborn swaddled against her chest, was both a luxury and a necessity for keeping her family afloat.

When she was pregnant again, seven years later with my sister Zoe, my parents had sold the restaurant and were building a small housecleaning business. I spent every day after school in their company headquarters, after the business finally outgrew the home office that also doubled as my childhood bedroom. I would study for spelling tests as their all-female staff bustled around me, returning for the day with totes full of cleaning supplies and dirtied rags, rolling industrial-strength vacuum cleaners past my makeshift desk.

On my sisters due date, I returned to the company office after school, disappointed my mother hadnt had the new baby, thus ruining my chance to be dramatically pulled from my second-grade classroom. That afternoon I watched as my mother stood with her swollen stomach hanging over her desk, issuing instructions to the employees surrounding her. Every 15 minutes or so she would pause, clench her fists and Lamaze-breathe through contractions.

I was thrilled, terrified and in awe, watching this league of women  most of them working mothers themselves. They stood around my mother, nodding and taking notes, waiting patiently for her instructions, knowing their boss would be out of commission for, well, the rest of the week at least. She eventually made it to the hospital, and after an easy, anesthesia-aided two-hour labor (there is a clear favorite in our sibling rivalry), my sister was born, and within two weeks she was nursing above that same desk. My mothers workplace was newborn-friendly because she made it that way, for herself and her employees.

Now senators, too, can enjoy a workplace that accommodates working mothers, and with an unprecedented number of women running for Congress (as of earlier this month, according to The Associated Press, 309 from the two major parties have filed papers to run for the House, and 29 will be on ballots in Senate races), the House of Representatives ought to follow their example.
Its hard to argue that any one cabinet member or nominee tells the Donald Trump story better than another, but Im tempted to say exactly that about Ronny Jackson, the presidents hasty, irresponsible and scuttled choice to lead the Veterans Affairs Department.

Granted, Jackson doesnt embody the administrations venality. The crown for that goes to Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and it glitters with discounted jewels from lobbyists and businesspeople with no agenda  none!  beyond tribute to such a distinguished public servant.

Nor does Jackson, who has been serving as the White House physician, spout the most fantastical gibberish. His onetime claim that Trumps constitution is that of a superman who might live to 200 doesnt rise to the level of Education Secretary Betsy DeVoss visions of schoolyard grizzlies, because Jackson did concede that Trump had probably squandered such longevity with too many fries and too little fiber.

But Jacksons doomed selection tidily reflects many of Trumps most distinctive traits and disturbing tropisms: his indulgence of decisions that make him feel good in the instant, consequences be damned; his contempt for convention; his disregard for relevant experience; and above all, his itch to marinate in as much flattery as possible.
Is the Commonwealth more than that? As Britain prepares to leave the European Union, some Brexiteers have called for the old links of kith and kin to replace the European Union as a support for Britains international status. That is unlikely. Philip Murphy, the director of the Institute for Commonwealth Studies, recently described the Commonwealth as a great, soothing comfort blanket for post-second world war imperial enthusiasts. It is not a free trade area; converting it into one would be a gargantuan task. Many of its current trade agreements with Britain go through the European Union and cannot be renegotiated until after Brexit takes place.

If Britain wants something out of the Commonwealth, it cannot offer nothing in return. Many Commonwealth nations, notably India, would like more freedom of movement. In 1948, when British nationality was first formalized in law, British citizenship extended to more than 850 million people, either in the category Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies or Commonwealth citizen. The latter designation included the people of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India and Pakistan, among others. As Professor Gurminder K. Bhambra of the University of Sussex, has pointed out, the very imperial form was itself multicultural. So too was British citizenship.

For all politicians talk about a family of nations, though, the archives of the Commonwealth Relations Office have decades worth of papers revealing Britains attempts to deter people of its former colonies from coming anywhere near the white cliffs of Dover. In the 1950s, the C.R.O. sent propaganda to the South Asian press claiming, Too many Indians and Pakistanis are coming to Britain. This was accompanied by warnings that jobs were scarce, rice was expensive and subcontinental clothing was inadequate for the climate of Yorkshire.

The earliest members of the Commonwealth were once called the White Dominions: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Irish Free State, South Africa and Newfoundland. Minus Ireland (firmly embedded in the European Union) and South Africa (no longer so white), these nations still form the basis of some Brexiteers fantasies of creating a union around an Anglosphere or Canzuk. No doubt, the advocates of reviving Britains links with Canada, Australia and New Zealand can cite myriad reasons that have nothing to do with racism to explain why South Africa, India, Pakistan or the Caribbean nations are just different. Still, majority-nonwhite nations will notice if they are treated as them rather than us, because this will not be the first time that has happened.

The Home Office is certainly capable of being hostile to migrants regardless of their skin color. Last year, around 100 European Union nationals, many of whom were white, received letters telling them to leave Britain or face deportation; the Home Office later said this had been a mistake. Even so, the Windrush scandal raises the question of whether Britain is still in denial about its own multicultural past.

In a radio interview this month, Shashi Tharoor, a member of Indias Parliament, was blunt about the Commonwealths prospects: You really have only two choices now. One is reinvention and the other is burial. Reinvention in any more effective form would be a huge undertaking, requiring a great feat of imagination and diplomacy as well as cultural and political change  this at a time when British institutions will already be struggling to cope with Brexit. The Commonwealth does not seem minded to reinvent itself, either: Last week it acquiesced to the queens sincere wish that Prince Charles will one day inherit the nonhereditary position as its head.

The Windrush scandal reveals the complex reality of Britains relationships with its former colonies. Those who champion the Commonwealth now might need to reckon with its past before investing too much hope in its future.
 The Chinese authorities routinely coerce detainees into making videotaped confessions that serve as propaganda tools for the government and as warnings to others who would challenge the state.

 Lam Wing-kee, the bookseller profiled in this episode, plans to reopen his bookstore in Taiwan, a self-governing island that is supplanting Hong Kong as Asias bastion of free speech.

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Kanye West has talked a big game about running for president, but it's his sister-in-law Kourtney Kardashian who is participating in the American legislative process.

On Tuesday, she will participate in a briefing on regulatory reform of the cosmetics industry, along with Representative Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and members of the nonprofit Environmental Working Group. After the briefing, they will take questions from congressional staff members.

For too long, cosmetics companies have not had any requirement to verify the safety of their cosmetic and personal care products, Representative Pallone said. This simply cannot continue and Im pleased that Kourtney is here today to lend her voice to those supporting cosmetics reform.

A significant portion of the Kardashian empire rests on the cosmetics industry. Kim Kardashian West and her sister Kylie Jenner helm namesake beauty lines, KKW Beauty and Kylie Cosmetics. Kourtney Kardashians appearance on Capitol Hill coincides with the release Tuesday of a collaboration between her and Ms. Jenner, to be released through Kylie Cosmetics. In 2017, Womens Wear Daily reported that the company had sold $420 million worth of cosmetics within its first 18 months.
Management turned the generators on. As they began to rumble, so did the building.

It felt like the floor under my feet was moving, Mr. Hridoy said. Then it was disappearing.

Ms. Begum, two floors below Mr. Hridoy, was sewing jeans for a French brand  she doesnt remember which one  when the concrete ceiling fell on her, landing on her torso and her right hand. Her long hair became entangled in the sewing machine, she said, and I couldnt free myself because my hand was stuck. Sixteen hours later, neighbors who joined the hundreds of emergency responders at the site rescued her. They showed up with iron rods and pipes, and pried me out, she said. They said my guts were all over the place.

She began to weep as she retold the story. I passed out and came to my senses 27 days later, she said. She received no government compensation but did get a bit of financial assistance from nonprofits. Nothing from the brands, she said. When I come here, she said, looking at the void that was Rana Plaza, I feel like I dont want to live anymore.

Housebound Shiuli Begum was a sewing jeans for Joe Fresh and Primark, when, she recalled, Everything went dark and I felt things falling all over me. She lost consciousness, and 36 hours later woke up in a hospital. She also received no compensation, not even the 45,000 taka (roughly $530) pledged by brands. You had to lobby for the money, she said. And I was too infirm. Her husband is a day laborer and her caregiver.

Mr. Hridoy was the only one of the three who was compensated by the Rana Plaza Donors Trust Fund, a $30 million endowment underwritten by brands. He used the $600 he got to open his drugstore, and he also founded the Savar Rana Plaza Survivors Association. It currently has 300 members. He does not, however, hold out hope that anything has really changed. The labor law in this country is pro-owner, not pro-worker, he said.

When oversight reverts to local governance, he said, all will return to how it was when Rana Plaza happened.
While there was no shortage of memorable projects on view during last weeks Salone Internazionale del Mobile fair in Milan, possibly the biggest thing that stood out this year was the turnout. A crush of visitors and locals alike descended to experience exhibitions and product launches occupying storefronts and palazzos throughout the city, creating lines that stretched along hallways, into courtyards and, in one case, all the way down three very long flights of stairs. Perhaps it was the picture-perfect spring weather that drove the crowd  but more likely its the current popularity of contemporary design. And, judging by these highlights from the fair, is it any wonder?
In Chekhovs The Seagull, a budding writer named Konstantin wants to create a new kind of theater. This may have a little something to do with his tumultuous relationship with his famous actress of a mother, Arkadina. So Konstantin comes up with a rather pompous play that prompts Mom to say, What experimental mess is this?

When this line comes up in Seagullmachine, you may find yourself thinking, Arkadina, you read my mind. And there is a lot more experimental and a lot more mess to come in this nearly three-hour-long mash-up of The Seagull and Heiner Mullers Hamletmachine.

The idea by the Assembly company (I Will Look Forward to This Later, That Poor Dream) to combine these two texts is not as far-fetched as it looks because both share a concern with Hamlet and theater itself. Hamletmachine, in particular, is a godsend to the avant-garde-minded, a postmodern cri de rage from 1977 that is so abstractly flexible, performances of its nine-page script have ranged from one to eight hours.
Come to Paris and experience it like a Parisian, not like a tourist: Thats exactly what Paris residents and close friends, Jessie Kanelos Weiner and Sarah Moroz, both 33, hope that all visitors to the city can do. Their new book Paris in Stride aims to help tourists get this insiders perspective  its divided into seven walking tours that include popular attractions but focus on lesser-known neighborhoods, along with under-the-radar tourist sites, restaurants and shops; Ms. Moroz did the writing while Ms. Kanelos Weiner did the illustrations.

Both moved to Paris soon after graduating from college: Ms. Kanelos Weiner worked as an au pair in the city and was drawn to the rich culture, history and fashion scene. I decided to make it home, she said. Ms. Moroz, who is half French, came to Paris with the intention of spending a year exploring the city before returning to New York, but she, too, chose to settle there.

The duo met at a magazine launch party in Paris two years ago and became fast friends.

Below are excerpts from a recent conversation with them.

How did you conceive the idea for the book?

Ms. Kanelos Weiner: I had already published a book with Rizzoli called Edible Paradise, and my publisher there was interested in a book on Paris so I asked Sarah if she would be interested in collaborating with me.
An Alabama police department said Monday that three white police officers who threw a black woman onto the floor of a Waffle House during an arrest on Sunday, threatened to break her arm, placed a hand on her throat and exposed her breasts, had acted appropriately.

The officers, from the Saraland Police Department, were sharply criticized after a cellphone video of the confrontation was posted on Facebook, with some calling them racist and overly aggressive. The footage starts with one of the officers standing over the woman, Chikesia Clemons, and trying to place her right arm behind her back as she sits in a chair.

The video then skips ahead, picking up as two officers grab Ms. Clemonss arms and shoulders and toss her onto the restaurant floor. What are you doing, Ms. Clemons yells at the officers, as they try to bend her arms behind her back.
Q: Does the Republican Party need to expand its appeal to become more competitive here?

A: Im a Jack Kemp Republican. I think thats the kind of Republican we all have to be. Jack would always speak positively about things. I want people to get away from harsh language.

Having said that, it is absolutely objectionable for people like Gavin Newsom and Jerry Brown to say they are not going to adhere to the federal law on immigration. Jerry Brown should not be acting like George Wallace in front of the schoolhouse in Alabama.

Q: How much of an obstacle is Mr. Trump for you as you run for governor?

A: Im at a forum a few weeks ago and Im listening to these Democrats ripping him up. I said: Donald Trump didnt create the housing crisis. Donald Trump didnt create a drought. Donald Trump didnt raise your taxes to ridiculous heights. You are sitting here making Donald Trump the issue. The issue on the ballot in 2018 is not going to be Donald Trump.

Q: How do you think he is doing for president?

A: I didnt vote for him. But I take great pains to say I like the tax cut. I like the regulations that he is streamlining. I like the judges hes appointing. I like moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. So hes done some great things. Im not a huge fan of his Twittering.
As young survivors of the Parkland shooting lead efforts to tighten limits on firearms, they have met deep resistance from strong supporters of gun rights, and both sides have dug in. But the renewed national gun debate  reignited again after the shooting in the Nashville Waffle House  has gotten the attention of a subset of people who are often overlooked: gun control supporters who own guns.

Many of these gun owners will never take part in marches or make public speeches. But interviews with two dozen gun owners around the country found what polls have shown  that many of them are firm supporters of some gun control measures. In recent weeks, some have grown more vocal, holding signs at demonstrations, lobbying lawmakers or writing letters to the editor, adding their voices to those of the protesting students.

Of the 60 million to 70 million Americans who own guns, measuring how many are likely to take part in activism in favor of gun control or to change their political choices over the issue is difficult. One rough proxy for those who do not want tougher gun laws could be the five million gun owners the National Rifle Association claims as members, said Robert Spitzer, the chairman of the political science department at the State University of New York at Cortland, who has written extensively about gun policy and politics.

The N.R.A. is staunchly opposed to new gun control measures, and events following the Parkland shooting may have deepened the resolve of its supporters. In March, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission, the N.R.A. Political Victory Fund raised $2.35 million  the highest monthly amount raised for the fund in records dating back to 2003, according to an analysis by the news outlet McClatchy and verified by The New York Times. The N.R.A. did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

Only a small number of gun owners seem to be stepping forward in activism in favor of stricter gun laws, and not all agree about which laws should be toughened. But advocacy groups that support increased gun control say they sense a new kind of participation in more subtle ways, such as calls from gun owners wanting to know what the groups do, and a greater willingness to listen. The shift could also have political implications: Some gun owners said they are now paying closer attention to which political candidates receive money from the N.R.A., which takes a hard line against firearm limits.


LEHI, Utah  Mitt Romney wound his way through this citys tulip festival on Monday, shaking hands, hugging toddlers and shrugging off his failure to sew up the nomination for an open Senate seat at this states Republican Party convention last weekend.

I dont think it was any particular surprise for us, he said. Were going to have a primary, and were ready for it.

On Saturday, after a raucous day of voting at the Utah Republican convention, delegates delivered 49 percent of their votes to Mr. Romney, and 51 percent to a little-known state legislator named Mike Kennedy, who likened himself to the stone of the shepherd boy David, ready to be flung at the foes of liberty.

The vote pushed the two into a June 26 primary. And it led to speculation that Mr. Romneys bid for the seat of Orrin G. Hatch, who is retiring, would not be as easy as expected  and that perhaps his once biting criticism of Donald J. Trump had become a political liability.
The stakes of the trip are high after months of increasing strain between China and the United States. Fears about a trade war between the worlds two biggest economic powers emerged in March after Mr. Trump unveiled tariffs on global imports of aluminum and steel. The threat of tariffs on up to $150 billion of Chinese imports followed.

Next month, the Treasury Department is expected to release a plan to further restrict Chinese investment in American companies, including industries such as semiconductors and artificial intelligence that are sensitive for national security reasons. The rules could also restrict American partnerships with Chinese companies abroad.

China has not taken such threats lightly. In recent weeks it has hit back with its own threats, raising concerns among farmers and businesses in the United States that the escalating dispute could be a drag on the economy and blunt the effect of the tax cuts Mr. Trump signed into law in December.

But Mr. Xi has also signaled that he is open to negotiating with Mr. Trump. He said this month that China would reduce its tariffs on autos, which Mr. Mnuchin called a big step in the right direction.

While some trade experts warned that China has failed to deliver on such promises before, Mr. Trump insisted on Tuesday that he was encouraged about the possibility of a deal.

President Xi made a speech four days ago where he said that China is going to be opened up, Mr. Trump said. Because its not opened up right now. They trade with us. We cant trade with them.

Some China analysts were not so impressed by Mr. Xis speech. I thought it was a bunch of warmed-over repetition of things we had heard before, said Scott Kennedy, a China analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. For me, the concern is that the level of mixed messaging that were sending the Chinese makes them expect that they can get through this with a very limited offer.
Mr. Sessions has lost no time. As the opioid crisis continues to spread, he has reversed the Obama Justice Departments smart on crime initiative that encouraged prosecutors to seek lighter penalties for nonviolent drug offenders. Instead, Mr. Sessions has instructed prosecutors to seek the harshest possible sentences. He opposes criminal justice overhaul efforts championed by Jared Kushner, the Koch brothers and Republican former colleagues, including Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, who has defended Mr. Sessions against Mr. Trumps attacks. Like Mr. Trump, Mr. Sessions favors the death penalty for certain drug kingpins.

Mr. Sessions has withdrawn Obama administration guidance, known as the Cole memo, discouraging prosecutors from enforcing federal marijuana laws in states that have legalized it. That drew him into conflict with Senator Cory Gardner, Republican of Colorado, which legalized recreational marijuana in 2014. Mr. Gardner blocked confirmation votes for some 20 Justice Department appointees for months, backing down only after a phone call from Mr. Trump this month, assuring him that Colorados marijuana industry would not be targeted.

It was Mr. Sessions who announced Mr. Trumps decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, an Obama executive order shielding from deportation immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children. He is suing the state of California over its sanctuary laws: It cannot be, as it seems to be today, that someone who illegally crosses the border here on a Monday and ends up in San Francisco on Wednesday can never be deported, Mr. Sessions said in Las Cruces. Even if they were hauling dope to San Francisco and they got arrested, they cant be deported. Now, how illogical and insane, really, is that?

Unaccompanied children from Central America are flooding across the border, he warned, exploiting loopholes in the law so that they are not able to be returned quickly, Mr. Sessions said, citing arrests of juveniles accused of smuggling drugs. I have ordered each United States attorneys office along the southwest border to have a zero-tolerance policy toward illegal entry. Our goal is to prosecute every case that is brought to us. There must be consequences for illegal actions.

Todd A. Cox, director of policy at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc., said Mr. Sessions was ably carrying out Mr. Trumps plans. Hes put in place policies that will return us to the discredited war on drugs, which had catastrophic impacts on communities of color, Mr. Cox said in an interview. He is doing precisely what this administration has pledged to do.

Some Justice employees, however, see Mr. Sessionss stoicism as capitulation. In a survey last year of employee morale conducted by the United States Office of Personnel Management and compiled by the Partnership for Public Service, the Justice Department was ranked 11th among 18 large agencies, down from sixth in 2016. Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, who supervises Mr. Mueller, is also fighting for his job, pressed by Mr. Trumps congressional allies to produce hundreds of thousands of documents related to politically delicate F.B.I. investigations.

In Las Cruces, Mr. Sessions ended his speech to the sheriffs with a favored line: We have your back. You have our thanks.
On Tuesday, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. at one point seemed to agree. It was preliminary, as opposed to permanent, he said of the court-drawn maps.

In 2013, the Texas Legislature decided not to draw new maps and instead mostly adopted the one drawn by the court in San Antonio. Scott A. Keller, Texas solicitor general, said state lawmakers had adopted the maps after substantial debate and deliberation.

There is absolutely no evidence in plaintiffs briefs that somehow the Legislature was trying to lock in discriminatory districts, he said.

Allison J. Riggs, a lawyer for the challengers, disagreed. The question for the justices, she said, was, Did the Legislature adopt the interim plan for race-neutral reasons, or did it use the adoption of that interim plan as a mask for the discriminatory intent that had manifested itself just two years ago?

Later in the argument, she answered her own question. They wanted to end the litigation, she said, by maintaining the discrimination against black and Latino voters, muffling their growing political voice in a state where black and Latino voters population is exploding.

After three election cycles that used the interim maps it had drawn, the district court ruled that they were flawed. Although this court had approved the maps for use as interim maps, given the severe time constraints it was operating under at the time of their adoption, the court said that approval was not based on a full examination of the record or the governing law and was subject to revision.
Ever since Donald J. Trump began his improbable political rise, many pundits have credited his appeal among white, Christian and male voters to economic anxiety. Hobbled by unemployment and locked out of the recovery, those voters turned out in force to send Mr. Trump, and a message, to Washington.

Or so that narrative goes.

A study published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences questions that explanation, the latest to suggest that Trump voters werent driven by anger over the past, but rather fear of what may come. White, Christian and male voters, the study suggests, turned to Mr. Trump because they felt their status was at risk.

Its much more of a symbolic threat that people feel, said Diana C. Mutz, the author of the study and a political science and communications professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where she directs the Institute for the Study of Citizens and Politics. Its not a threat to their own economic well-being; its a threat to their groups dominance in our country over all.

The study is not the first to cast doubt on the prevailing economic anxiety theory. Last year, a Public Religion Research Institute survey of more than 3,000 people also found that Mr. Trumps appeal could better be explained by a fear of cultural displacement.
WASHINGTON  The conservative Christian coalition that helped usher President Trump into power in 2016 is planning its largest midterm election mobilization ever, with volunteers fanning out from the church pews to the streets to register voters, raise money and persuade conservatives that they cannot afford to be complacent this year.

But the cumulative weight of scandals in Mr. Trumps private and public life is threatening to overshadow what the religious right sees as its most successful string of policy victories in a generation. And Republicans will be up against not only a resurgent liberal opposition to Mr. Trump but also the historical disadvantages that burden any party in full control of Washington, especially in the first off-year congressional elections of a presidents term.

The midterms are going to be very, very tough for the Republicans, said Robert Jeffress, who leads the First Baptist Dallas megachurch and is one of Mr. Trumps most loyal evangelical supporters.

The vast majority of evangelical Christians are digging in for Mr. Trump, despite accusations by a pornographic film star and a Playboy playmate that he had separate affairs with them shortly after his wife, Melania Trump, gave birth to their son. Those controversies, paired with the multiple women who accused him of groping them before the election and his own boasts of sexual aggressions, have highlighted the unyielding support of a political bloc that once put moral behavior at the center of its political judgment.
WASHINGTON  The couple seemed happy to be together again.

When President Trump welcomed President Emmanuel Macron of France to the White House on Tuesday for the first official state visit of the Trump administration, their body language went beyond the usual respectful handshakes of two world leaders meeting for high-level talks and bordered on the intimate.

There was a mutual kiss on the cheek in the East Room, where Mr. Macron clasped hands with Mr. Trump, pulling him in for an embrace and a brief peck as Mr. Trump puckered his lips slightly to reciprocate.

I like him a lot, Mr. Trump explained to reporters and officials looking on.

Earlier in the Oval Office, the president had gently brushed what he said was dandruff off Mr. Macrons shoulder.

We have to make him perfect, Mr. Trump, 71, said of the trimmer Mr. Macron, 40. He is perfect.

Moments later, as they sat side by side, Mr. Macron placed his hand on Mr. Trumps knee.
The Trumps joined the Macrons on a helicopter tour of the capital and for dinner at Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington, who hosted the Marquis de Lafayette there years after the two fought as allies in the Revolutionary War.

Not to Be Confused With the Arrival Ceremony

About 500 members of the military will be on the South Lawn on Tuesday as the Macrons arrive for the dinner, White House officials said. Much of the ceremony on the lawn will be handled by the White House Visitors Office, which manages outdoor events like the Easter egg roll. Cabinet secretaries and lawmakers will attend.

We know that we had a vision for a good, quality event, Daniel Fisher, the director of the office, said in an interview. And well do our best to execute it.
They called him Santito, the saint. Probably he would have been made a saint if people didnt speak up about the abuse. People saved things that he would give them, because we all expected he was going to be made a saint. If he gave you a book and he signed it, you kept it as a relic.

You have insisted that Bishop Juan Barros Madrid and other bishops in Chile who were mentored by Father Karadima were aware of the sexual abuse. But how do you know that they knew?

They would witness when Karadima was kissing someone on the lips, or sticking his tongue in someones mouth. Or when we were in Karadimas room, and he would say, now everybody out. Everybody knew what happened after that. But nobody ever spoke about it.

How hard was it for you and Jimmy and Jose Andres to decide to sue and take the case public?

I remember the first time we met the lawyer, Juan Pablo Hermosilla  I only knew he was a famous attorney who had fought Pinochet, the dictator. He said to me, I want you to be very sure of what youre doing, because youre gay and theyre going to descend on you like you cannot imagine. And thats exactly what happened. It got to the point where [Chilean Cardinal] Errazuriz once said I might have liked being molested, so he wasnt sure I was a victim. It turned out that being gay was the least of my sufferings, because the way they treated all of us was just horrific.

And Cardinal Errazuriz  hes one of the nine cardinals that Pope Francis chose to be on his council of nine advisers?

Right. Thats what I want to ask the pope: How could you have George Pell [the Australian cardinal charged with sexual assault] and Francisco Errazuriz on your council? Im sure there are other cardinals out there who are good people. You have 120 or something to choose from.

It sounds like youre angry at the pope. Are you?

Theres been moments that I was. I dont want to be angry at him and I understand that people make mistakes. But this is the most informed man in the world. That is a question mark for me. Why he didnt act on it faster or understand the situation faster, and had to put everybody through such pain?
The group of migrants set off from Tapachula, Mexico, on March 25, and moved north, more or less en masse, by foot, hitchhiking, on buses and by stowing away on trains.

Such mass migrations have become an annual rite, usually around Easter week, with the size of the group providing protection against the criminals who lurk along the path and helping to draw public attention to their plight.

This years group, which numbered upward of 1,200 in the journeys early stages, was perhaps the largest on record. Still, like all the caravans that have come before, this one might easily have gone unnoticed had it not ended up on Fox & Friends, a favorite television show of President Trump.

The president posted a series of messages on Twitter that warned of dangers from the group. Mr. Trump used the caravan as a cudgel against the Mexican government, accusing it of doing little to curb illegal northward migration, and as grounds to deploy the National Guard to the southwest border of the United States.

With the caravan nearing the Mexico-United States border this week, Mr. Trump returned to the subject, saying on Twitter on Monday that he had instructed the Department of Homeland Security not to let these large Caravans of people into our Country.
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BEIJING  Students and professors in China denounced a leading university on Tuesday for trying to silence activism about sexual harassment, a rare act of defiance that is testing the limits of the countrys fledgling #MeToo movement.

The institution, Peking University in Beijing, remains in an uproar after a student activist said that an instructor accompanied by the students mother had visited her dormitory at 1 a.m. Monday to warn her against continuing to speak out about a 20-year-old rape case that had embarrassed the university.

In a letter that was widely shared online, the activist, Yue Xin, said that the university had frightened her mother so much that she had threatened to kill herself.

The backlash against the university was swift and fierce. In an unusually bold move, a group of students posted banners accusing the institution of betraying its values, saying that Ms. Yue was upholding the spirit of the May 4 movement of 1919, a patriotic uprising led by students.
BANGKOK   Anywhere they play in Bangkok, Ill be there, said Warin Nithihiranyakul , 73 , a dedicated fan of the Sai Yong Hong Chinese Opera troupe for more than 10 years. While waiting for his friends to arrive, he helps out by starting to set up plastic red chairs for the audience to watch the evenings performance in an area just south of Bangkoks Chinatown .

A devotee of 11 years, Wandee Tengyodwanich, 62, unwraps several small plates of Chinese dough sticks and cake , passing them around to her friends in front of the stage before the show. She sa ys that Sai Yong Hong is the best Chinese opera in Thailand because it invests in very elaborate costumes. She and her friends go to see the group a couple of times a year. They eat and catch up as they reminisce about the first time they saw Chinese opera as children.
(Her name is being withheld because an Indian court has threatened to jail journalists for revealing any information about her or her family. The court says this is necessary to protect the familys dignity, though the girls name was already given out by police officers and is all over social media.)

After she was killed and her body dumped in a ditch, investigators say two other police officers, both Hindu, destroyed evidence. Before the girls dress was turned over to a crime lab, the officers tried to scrub it clean.

But it didnt work, and investigators said they had clinching DNA evidence. They also said that all eight suspects confessed.

Few, if any, Hindus in Rasana accept this. On a recent day, several Hindu elders took me to the temple, a little pink building at the edge of the woods. The floor was cleanly swept concrete, the walls decorated with wrinkled, brightly colored posters of Hindu gods.

Look, said Suresh Sharma, a villager who helped Mr. Ram at the temple. Theres no way the girl could have been locked in here, people coming and going all the time.

But that in itself seemed hard to believe. Only a few houses use the temple, and many were deserted.
SEOUL, South Korea  As South Koreans prepare for their president to meet Kim Jong-un on Friday, many are left scratching their heads about the motives of a North Korean leader who has abruptly pivoted from threats of nuclear annihilation to offering warm peace overtures.

Many older South Koreans feel they have seen this before: a member of the Kim dynasty gets rewarded for coming to the bargaining table, the talks sputter, and the North goes back to its old ways. But this time, the Norths 34-year-old leader comes equipped with a fearsome nuclear stockpile as he walks into the summit meeting with the Souths president, Moon Jae-in.

The North Koreans are cheating again, putting up this show so they can buy time and ease sanctions, never intending to abandon their nuclear weapons, said Kim Chang-guk, 73, who joined other older citizens in downtown Seoul on a recent weekend to protest the inter-Korean summit meeting. I would rather believe a woman who has given birth to a baby and still insists that she is a virgin than Kim Jong-un.

The peace overtures come after Mr. Kim kept the Korean Peninsula on the edge last year, testing missiles and what he said was a hydrogen bomb. He claimed to have a nuclear button on his desk that could launch missiles that could hit anywhere in the mainland United States.
1950: The Korean War begins. Its technically never ended. Heres why. First off, the war itself. It killed about 4 million people. On one side, there was South Korea, allied with U.N. forces led by the Americans. On the other side, there was North Korea, backed by the Soviet Union and China. They fought for three years, until  A special building had been erected for the signing of the Korean armistice. This was the signing of a cease-fire, and it did seem to offer some hope. We have stopped the shooting. That means much to the fighting men and their families. And it will allow some of the grievous wounds of Korea to heal. But a cease-fire is not a binding peace treaty. It was all quiet on the Korean front the day after the signing of the armistice. It only ended the fighting. It also set guidelines, like for the exchange of prisoners and where the army should withdraw to. The open ground left between must become the demilitarized zone  or DMZ. It also laid the groundwork for a permanent peace treaty. But heres the catch. South Koreas president was against the troops  President Syngman Rhee is the man who threw a spanner into the works just as the armistice talks at Panmunjom seemed to have reached finality.  and never let his country sign it. He wanted to keep fighting to unify the whole peninsula and punish the North. None of this boded well for the peace conference, which kicked off a year later. Seeking solutions for Far Eastern problems. The free world and Communism are again locked in bitter argument. One of those arguments was over whether foreign allies, like the U.S. and China, could keep troops on the peninsula. And another was how to unify the two countries through elections. Even allies couldnt agree amongst themselves. So the talks went nowhere. Sixty-five years later, theres now talk of hashing out a formal ending to the Korean War. And that could set the stage for a broader peace on the Korean peninsula.
LONDON  After 11 male statues  mostly of white, middle-aged men of aristocratic pedigree  and nearly 200 years, the first female figure was unveiled on Tuesday in Londons historic Parliament Square, the locus of the British establishment.

Hundreds of people, including Prime Minister Theresa May, attended the unveiling of the statue, which depicts Millicent Fawcett, a now relatively unsung hero of the feminist movement who led campaigning for womens right to vote. The bronze statue, which shows a middle-aged Ms. Fawcett holding a banner reading Courage Calls to Courage Everywhere, was installed in part to celebrate the centenary of womens suffrage in Britain this year.

When you think of the great people in Parliament Square, and when you realize that not one of them is a woman, it sort of begs the question, said the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, whose office agreed to the installation last year after an online petition for such a statue received tens of thousands of signatures. Are we saying there havent been incredible women in the past? That our country hasnt been built on the back of great women?

The petition was started by Caroline Criado-Perez, a freelance writer who previously successfully campaigned for an image of Jane Austen to appear on the British 10-pound note, an endeavor that quickly made her a target of online abuse. Gillian Wearing, a Turner Prize-winning artist, created the Fawcett statue, becoming the first woman responsible for a statue in Parliament Square.
ATHENS  After a violent clash between Greeks and migrants seeking asylum in Europe, the Greek authorities and human rights groups say they fear rising tensions and more conflicts on the eastern Aegean Islands that house tens of thousands of refugees who have arrived via Turkey.

The confrontation, which lasted for hours on Sunday and Monday, took place on the island of Lesbos, where tolerance of the growing refugee population has worn thin, and where members of far-right, anti-immigrant groups have been exploiting the frustration. Tensions in the overcrowded migrant camps often erupt into brawls and riots, but major clashes with Greeks have been rare since the flood of refugees from Asia and Africa began three years ago.

About 200 Afghans had been camped for several days in a central square of Mytilene, the main port city of Lesbos, to protest living conditions in the government-run camps and delays in processing their asylum applications. Lesbos is one of the areas most burdened by the refugee crisis; about 8,700 of the 60,000 migrants living in Greek camps are housed there.

On Sunday, local residents gathered in Mytilene to object to the presence of the Afghans, a demonstration that escalated into violence. Some of the protesters pelted the migrants in the square with flares, firecrackers and stones broken off sidewalks, and some chanted burn them alive, according to local news media.
WASHINGTON  President Trump signaled on Tuesday that he was open to a new arrangement with European allies that would preserve the Iran nuclear agreement by expanding and extending its terms to constrain Tehrans development of missiles and other destabilizing activities in the Middle East.

Hosting President Emmanuel Macron of France at the White House, Mr. Trump again assailed the agreement made by the Obama administration as insane and ridiculous, but said he could agree to a new deal negotiated by American and European officials if it was strong enough. He made no commitment, however, leaving it unclear whether he will pull out of the agreement by a May 12 deadline he has set to either fix the Iran agreement or walk away from it.

At the same time, Mr. Trump signaled more optimism about brokering a nuclear accord with North Korea as he prepares for a summit meeting with its leader, Kim Jong-un, in May or early June. Dispensing with harsh criticism of the past, Mr. Trump even praised Mr. Kim in strikingly positive terms, calling the head of one of the worlds most authoritarian governments very open and very honorable.

The discussion with Mr. Macron illustrated how the separate nuclear standoffs with Iran and North Korea have increasingly intersected, with far-reaching consequences for American foreign policy in the Middle East, Asia and Europe. Mr. Trumps decision next month to keep or dump the Iran nuclear agreement will inevitably influence the anticipated talks with North Korea just days or weeks later as Mr. Kim weighs whether he can reach a deal with the American president.
WASHINGTON  The United States-led air campaign to hunt down the last pockets of Islamic State militants in eastern Syria effectively ground to a halt in the past two months after the allies lost their most effective battleground partner, stalling a critical phase of the offensive.

With Islamic State fighters now starting to claw back some of their lost territory in Syria, and with President Trump previously threatening to withdraw American troops there before finishing off the last militants holding ground, commanders have rushed to adopt new tactics to regain some momentum. (The president subsequently dropped his demand for an immediate withdrawal when commanders told him they needed time to successfully finish the mission.)

The new approach includes stacking several surveillance planes over two big remaining pockets of fighters, patiently watching the suspected enemys every move for days  and then striking only when sure the foes are really foes, and the risk to civilians is low. The new tactics have helped increase strikes in eastern Syria to 23 last week compared with only three in the week ending April 5, military officials said.
CAIRO  A military court on Tuesday sentenced a former government anticorruption czar to five years in prison over incendiary claims about documents said to incriminate Egypts leaders, his lawyers and state news media said.

The sentence levied against the official, Hisham Geneina, who had served under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi until 2016 when he became one of the presidents sharpest critics, signaled that the harsh crackdown on the opposition that preceded last months election was set to continue.

Mr. Geneina was one of several opposition figures detained before the vote, effectively clearing the field for Mr. Sisi, who ultimately faced a single token candidate and won with 97 percent of valid votes. All of the opposition figures remain in jail, including Sami Anan, a former army chief whose campaign lasted four days before he was arrested.

Mr. Geneina, a senior figure in Mr. Anans campaign, was arrested in March after he said in an interview with HuffPost Arabi that Mr. Anan possessed documents that could incriminate Egypts leadership. Mr. Geneina said the papers were in safekeeping outside Egypt, but he did not specify what they were.
Were watching Tuesdays special election in Arizona closely, not because we expect the Democrats to stage an upset (the congressional district is solidly Republican), but because Republicans are showing concern over the outcome. Heres what makes this House race interesting.

Results of the special election for Arizonas Eighth Congressional District will be posted live starting around 11 p.m. Tuesday, Eastern. See results  Eighth Congressional District Phoenix Tucson

The district is deeply red.

Debbie Lesko, a former Republican state senator, is facing the Democrat Hiral Tipirneni, a doctor, in the race for the Phoenix-area seat that is reliably Republican.

After the district lines were redrawn in 2012, the district has voted Republican in the past three elections. In fact, Democrats did not even field a candidate in the last two elections. The district has also supported Republican presidential nominees by large margins.

Margin of victory in presidential elections +25 pct. pts. +20 Arizonas Eighth District +15 +10 +5 2008 2012 2016 REPUBLICAN DEMOCRATIC U.S. +5 +10 +25 pct. pts. +20 Arizonas Eighth District +15 +10 REP. 2008 2012 2016 DEM. U.S. +10 Sources: Federal Election Commission and DailyKos | Note: The margins for Arizonas Eighth District for 2008 were calculated based on its current boundaries. In 2016, Hillary Clinton, a Democrat, won the popular vote, but Donald J. Trump, a Republican, won the electoral vote.

Donald J. Trump won the district by more than 20 percentage points in 2016. Four years earlier, Mitt Romney had won it by almost 25 points.

The Eighth District seat was vacated by Representative Trent Franks, a Republican who resigned after he was revealed to have offered $5 million to an aide in exchange for carrying his child.

But Republicans are worried enough that they spent a lot of money here.

To assure success, Republican leaders and groups have poured money into Ms. Leskos race, taking a variety of precautionary measures, like spending on ads and deploying robo-calls from Mr. Trump.

The Republican National Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee have together spent more than $900,000 to boost Ms. Lesko.

Money spent to boost each candidate National Republican Congressional Committee Republican National Committee Other $527,211 $383,193 Lesko $249,295 Tipirneni RNC NRCC Other Lesko $527,211 $383,193 Tipirneni $249,295 Source: Federal Election Commission | Note: Numbers are as of April 23.

The House Democratic campaign arm and House Majority PAC  the best-funded House Democratic super PAC  have not supported Ms. Tipirneni to the same extent. That the national Democrats have not intervened indicates that they believe the predominantly white Eighth District, an area in and around Sun City and home to a sizable senior population, is out of reach.

Its unlikely that the seat will flip Democratic, but a close margin is possible.

Two metrics offer otherwise-nervous Republican officials the most reassurance in a district where many of the ballots are cast early: Most people who have already voted are Republicans, and the median age of voters is 67.

Since early voting began on April 2, nearly half of the 150,000 Arizonans who have sent ballots are Republican, a sign that Ms. Lesko is most likely leading by a substantial margin.

Party affiliation of early ballots cast, as of April 20 Republican 48.6% Democratic 27.7 Independent 23.3 Republican 48.6% Democratic 27.7 Independent 23.3 Source: Arizona Secretary of State | Note: Numbers are cumulative from April 2 to 20.

Nearly a quarter of voters are independents, meaning Ms. Tipirneni would have to capture some Republican voters and win overwhelmingly among independents to claim victory.

Unlike with the House seat that Democrats won in Pennsylvania last month, where a Libertarian won 1,379 crucial votes, there is no third-party candidate on the ballot to make it easier for Ms. Tipirneni to prevail without a majority.

Most voters sending in ballots are nearing or enjoying retirement. Seniors are both the most conscientious voters and, in this district, largely conservative-leaning.

Median age of early voters 80 years 72 70 60 58 50 April 2 April 19 80 years 72 70 60 58 50 April 2 April 19 Source: Arizona Secretary of State. | Note: Dates reflect dates of tabulation and may not be when votes were cast. Data not available for some dates.

But in the final days of the race, the median age of voters has grown slightly younger  an indication that the contest has closed some and that less reliable Republicans are participating. The uptick in younger voters suggests the race has won attention in the broader, more politically mixed electorate.
The aftermath of the attack on Monday. Photo: Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images

A van struck several pedestrians in two locations in Toronto on Monday, leaving ten people dead and at least 15 injured.

Authorities arrested Alek Minassian, a 25-year-old Toronto resident. The suspects motive is unclear, but Canadas public safety minister Ralph Goodale said that it did not appear to be related to political terrorism.

The events that happened on the street behind us are horrendous, he said, but they do not appear to be connected in any way to national security based on the information at this time.

Alek Minassian. Photo: LinkedIn

An alleged Facebook post by Minassian indicated that he was part of the incel, or involuntary celibate online community, and admired Elliot Rodger, who killed six people in California in 2014. Rodger posted a video manifesto in which he detailed his rejection by women, and vowed to take revenge on society.

A Facebook employee confirmed to me on background that the Alek Minassian Facebook post referencing 4chan and "The Incel Rebellion" is real: pic.twitter.com/gdydMBOE0l  Jane Lytvynenko  (@JaneLytv) April 24, 2018

Chads and Stacys refer to presumably average, sexually active people.

Minassian was charged with ten counts of first-degree murder and 13 counts of attempted murder, appearing briefly in court Tuesday morning.

After hitting one person on a busy street, the driver jumped the curb at Mel Lastman Square, north of downtown, and plowed through a crowd of people around 1:30 p.m., leaving a trail of destruction almost a mile long. He then fled the scene and was later arrested after a confrontation with police.

In a video of his arrest, Minassian points what looks like a gun at police and pleads with them to Kill me and Shoot me in the head.

After multiple pedestrians plowed down on Toronto sidewalk, driver gets out holding what appears to be a gun. Police arrest him. No shots fired. pic.twitter.com/xWHeylS1d8  Michel Boyer (@BoyerMichel) April 23, 2018

Witnesses described a scene of carnage and devastation.

One by one, one by one, one witness told the New York Times. Holy God, Ive never seen such a sight before. I feel sick.

Bodies are now being covered (in orange) pic.twitter.com/EZRIqunKak  Noah Suh (@Noahsnotebook) April 23, 2018

I saw one old man go flying in the air, another witness told the Toronto Star. People were screaming, Oh my god. 

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau expressed his condolences on Twitter.

Our thoughts are with all those affected by the terrible incident at Yonge and Finch in Toronto. Thank you to the first responders working at the scene  we're monitoring the situation closely.  Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) April 23, 2018

On Tuesday morning, President Trump said, I also want to express our deepest sympathies to the Canadian people following the horrendous tragedy in Toronto that claimed so many innocent lives.
Is the blue wave coming to the New York State Capitol? Photo: Ron Antonelli/Bloomberg via Getty Images

For nearly eight years, a stretch spanning Andrew Cuomos entire tenure as governor, New York Democrats have found themselves in a uniquely bizarre and frustrating position: Theyve controlled the state Senate numerically but not practically, because of breakaway members who caucus with the Republicans. Now most of the defectors are coming home, and two special elections on Tuesday could put the Dems a whisker away from unified control of Albany. But oh, what a whisker!

Last years local races left the Senate pretty much as its been for most of the previous decade, with 31 Republicans, 21 regular Democrats, nine Democrats working with the GOP, and two vacancies. But on April 3, over coffee and cookies at the Capital Grille on 42nd Street, Cuomo brokered an end to the long civil war among Dems. Broadly, the eight members of the Independent Democratic Conference will reunite with the mainstream caucus. Jeff Klein, the leader of the IDC, will become deputy to Senate Minority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins. And the state party wont back primary challenges to the IDC senators.

The governor announced the unity pact in stark moral terms, as forged to dispel the dark shadows cast by Donald Trump. They are repugnant to all the values that we represent and we hold dear, Cuomo said of Republicans in Washington. The truth in Albany has always been more complicated. Cuomo was pretty happy to have a GOP-controlled state Senate; depending on which way he wanted to tack at a given moment, he could claim credit for negotiating with Republicans in bipartisan fashion or blame them for killing liberal legislation he might not have loved anyway. But this spring, he needed to show more control over his own party, because hes feeling a new kind of heat. Veteran consultant Hank Sheinkopf put it bluntly: This takes an issue away from Cynthia Nixon.

So adjust the tote board: If the steakhouse summit holds, that bumps the Democrats up to 29 seats, to the Republicans 31 seats.

Tuesdays special elections could change the count again. In Senate District 32 in the Bronx, Democrats outnumber Republicans by a margin of more than 20 to 1. So the only real question is whether Democratic Assemblyman Luis Sepulveda will break 90 percent in the race to replace Ruben Diaz Sr., who is returning to the New York City Council after 15 years in Albany.

Senate District 37, which runs north from Yonkers along both sides of Route 684, through Port Chester and Armonk to Bedford Hills, will be more competitive. It still might not be close. A GOP led by Jeb Bush or Mitt Romney might find it easy to harvest votes as well as cash from Westchester. But last years county executive contest put Trumpism on trial in the northern burbs, with disastrous results for Republicans. Incumbent Rob Astorino, a friend of Trump supported by more Mercer PAC money than any candidate in the state, got wiped out by Democratic challenger George Latimer, who had represented District 37.

The race to fill the seat Latimer vacated pits Democratic Assemblywoman Shelley Mayer of Yonkers against Republican Julie Killian, a former member of the Rye City Council. Total spending on the special election, in which 60,000 people will vote if turnout is exceptional, is zooming past $4 million, with about 60 percent coming from the GOP and its supporters. One group called New Yorkers for a Balanced Albany, which supports charter schools and is funded by Walmart heirs, has spent $800,000 bombarding the Lower Hudson Valley with ads attacking Mayer for working with various disgraced Democratic pols. But its Killian who has taken the worst hit. After Denise Ward, who calls herself a harsh negative activist, hosted a fundraiser for the Republican candidate, it emerged that Ward had tweeted attacks on Parkland survivors David Hogg and Emma Gonzalez. Killian disowned the comments and returned the cash. But now she faces just the kind of how-Fox-News-is-she questions her moderate campaign had been trying to avoid. Gotta watch the friendly fire.

If Democrats hold both open Senate seats on Tuesday, that edges them up to 31 seats  in a 63-seat chamber, with the Republicans also holding 31. And the senator at the fulcrum would be Simcha Felder, who represents heavily Orthodox precincts in Brooklyn.

Felder seriously marches to his own tune. He is a Democrat who backed Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton in 2008, but chose to caucus with Republicans after winning election to the state Senate in 2012. When he was a member of the New York City Council, he preferred Christine Quinn for speaker, but went to the bathroom during balloting so he wouldnt actually have to vote for a gay candidate. He also launched a campaign against pigeons that was positively Tom Lehreresque, and called a flagpole on Foster Avenue one of his proudest accomplishments. As a state senator, Felder has blocked multiple liberal initiatives, but told the members of the IDC to rejoin the regular Democrats. Recently, he has called for armed guards in city schools and held up the state budget while pushing to end state oversight of teaching materials at Orthodox schools.

Whatever his eccentricities, Felder is thoroughly purposeful. In fact, transactional is the word that insiders of all stripes use to describe him. I would say I love slush, every flavor, the senator himself told the Jewish Star in 2010. What people criticize as slush is the engine that allows government to help in areas which would never ever get the help. After the Democratic unity deal, he issued a statement to the Albany Times-Union: Im only loyal to G-d, my wife, my constituents, and New Yorkers. I dont care about political parties. Felder is well aware of his potential role as kingmaker. And control of the Senate could come down to which side cuts him the best deal after Tuesday.

Its hard to overstate how much that control means to a certain brand of diehard liberals, who long to see unified state government finally crank its policy machinery at full activist throttle (and whose exasperation with Cuomo forms the core of opposition to the governor within his own party). The Senate stayed Republican for all but one of the 70 years from 1939 to 2008, giving rise to the three men in a room form of governance that dominated New York even as the state turned bluer and bluer. And every time the Senate tipping point has seemed within reach since, bizarre events  narrow electoral losses here, defections to the IDC there  have kept control a seat or two away. Now its close enough for Democrats to taste, but its cost and meaning still arent quite clear. What might Felder demand: guns in schools, tuition tax credits for yeshivas, maybe a bridge to nowhere in Borough Park? And will Cuomo still support single-payer health care if he actually has to sign it into law?

It does look like theres a blue wave coming. But in Albany, that carries no guarantees.
'Always stood for secularism,' says Deve Gowda

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Former prime minister HD Deve Gowda said he invariably stood for secularism in his political life and not for emotional politics. In an exclusive interview to ANI, Deve Gowda spoke about his support to the Congress in Bengaluru Corporation, his commitment to secularism and his take on previous governments.

HD Deve Gowda said, "From day 1 I have stood for secularism, not for emotional politics. When I became CM I asked DG Ramalingam how many Muslim constables are there in Police Dept? He said 0.01%. So it was humanity which made me give reservations."

"Karnataka suffered badly under BJP rule, they had 3 CMs in 5 years. This is BJP's contribution. In 5 years of Congress rule though there was only one CM look what has happened to Lokayukta. Or the Public Service Commission or even the Corporation," he said.

However, as far as his party's support to Congress in city corporation is concerned, Deve Gowda said the support was to protect secular his credentials.

"I have also to take the blame as I supported Congress (in the Corporation). Just only to protect my secular credentials, I agreed to support them. The BJP was at my doors but I said no to it," Deve Gowda said.

On the allegation that JDS is called as a father-son party, Deve Gowda said he could only laugh about it.

"There are 4 former ministers who belong to a backward class, and five-time ministers are all in the field.If media doesn't want to take this into consideration but only harp about father and son then I can only laugh at it," he 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
Asaram Bapu appeals followers to maintain peace ahead of tomorrow's verdict

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Self-styled godman Asaram Bapu, who has been accused of raping a 16-year-old girl five years ago, on Tuesday appealed to his followers to maintain 'peace and harmony', a day before the verdict in Jodhpur. A statement issued by Sant Sri Asaramji Ashram Trust in Delhi urged his followers to exercise restraint and do nothing that creates an obstacle in the process of justice. It further said that any person who indulges in anarchy cannot be a devotee of Asaram.

Meanwhile, security has been stepped up and prohibitory orders issued in the city ahead of the trial court verdict in the rape case tomorrow (April 25). As per the directions of the Rajasthan High Court, the trial court will deliver its verdict in the case in Jodhpur Central Jail premises. Apprehending a threat to law and order from followers of Asaram, the police have imposed prohibitory orders.

"We have made all arrangements for the judgement day. Magistrate along with court staff, Asaram and co-accused along with the defence and prosecution counsels will remain present in the courtroom in jail premises", DIG, Jail, Vikram Singh said.

The final arguments in the case had been completed by the special court for SC/ST cases on April 7 and the court had kept the order reserved to be pronounced on April 25. Asaram was arrested on the complaint filed by a teenage girl from Shahajahanpur of Uttar Pradesh, who was studying at the godman's ashram at Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh. The victim had alleged that Asaram had called her to his ashram in Manai area near Jodhpur and raped her on the night of August 15, 2013.

Asaram was arrested from Indore and brought to Jodhpur on 1 September 2013. He is in judicial custody since September 2, 2013. A charge sheet against Asaram and 4 other co-accused namely Shiva, Shilpi, Sharad and Prakash had been filed by the police on November 6, 2013, under various sections of the POSCO Act, Juvenile Justice Act and IPC.

The trial of the case had begun in the district and session court on March 19, 2017, which had been shifted to the special court for SC/ST Cases on December 16, 2016.

"We have imposed section 144 of CrPC in the city from April 21 and would remain effective till April 30. Besides this, we have been keeping a sharp eye on ashrams of Asaram in the city and checking all hotels and guest houses as well as the bus and railway station," DCP (East) Aman Deep Singh said.

"We will also seal the jail on the day of judgment and would not allow anyone to get close to jail premises", Singh said.

Asaram has unsuccessfully moved 12 bail applications, of which 6 were rejected by the trial court, 3 by the Rajasthan high court and 3 by the Supreme Court.

OneIndia News with PTI inputs
Asaram awarded life imprisonment, to file bail plea tomorrow

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas Sv

Self styled godman Asaram Bapu and two of his aides, who were accused in a rape case involving a minor, were on Wednesday convicted by the special court for SC/ST Cases in Jodhpur. Two others were acquitted by the court. Security was stepped up in Jodhpur. The verdict was announced from inside the jail premises as was mandated by the Rajasthan High Court. Asaram the self-styled godman accused of raping a 16 year girl could face up to 10 years in jail if convicted. He is in judicial custody since September 2, 2013.

Stay tuned to all the updates:

Newest First Oldest First Along with life imprisonment, the court has also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on Asaram. Asaram's lawyers are likely to file bail plea in the High Court tomorrow. Asaram's lawyer has said that they would approach the High Court for bail. WHat needs to be considered here is that Asaram has unsuccessfully moved 12 bail applications in the past, of which 6 were rejected by the trial court, 3 by the Rajasthan high court and 3 by the Supreme Court. 376 D section was invoked to award maximum possible punishment under POCSO act to Asaram. Asaram to remain imprisoned till the time of natural death. Asaram reportedly broke down when the quantum of sentence was pronounced. Asaram's lawyer has reportedly said that they would appeal against the judgement in a higher court. The defence had earlier argued that the court should take notice of Asaram's age and health condition while pronouncing the quantum of punishment. But the court decided to award maximum punishment to the self styled godman. Asaram sentenced to life imprisonment by Jodhpur Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Court in a rape case. Co-accused Shilpi and Sharad have been sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. ABP news has reported that Asaram fell ill after the the verdict was pronounced. An ambulance is in Jodhpur Central jail now for Asaram. Update: Asaram Bapu, Shilpi and Sharad found guilty in rape case. Prakash and Shiva acquitted. The arguments for quantum of sentence is currently underway in the courtroom at Jodhpur Central Jail. While the prosecution is pressing for maximum punishment, the defence is saying that Asaram has done a lot for the society. Defence is also arguing on the lines that Asaram is not a repeat offender. "The time has come when people should be able to differentiate between the actual saints and the frauds, as this creates a bad image of the country in the international arena," senior Congress leader and former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot told the media. Asaram found guilty under section 376 and POCSO. News 18 reported that quantum of sentence would be announced today. Asaram is convicted, we have got justice. I want to thank everyone who supported us in this fight. Now I hope he will get strict punishment. I also hope the witnesses who were murdered or kidnapped get justice: Father of Shahjahanpur victim #AsaramCaseVerdict pic.twitter.com/sUJ3atJJJY  ANI (@ANI) April 25, 2018 Reaction of victim's family Asaram, Shiva and Shilpi convicted; Sharad and Prakash acquitted. The trial of the case had begun in the district and session court on March 19, 2017, which had been shifted to the special court for SC/ST Cases on December 16, 2016. "We will discuss with our legal team and then decide our future course of action. We have confidence in our judiciary," Asaram's spokesperson Neelam Dubey told the media. There are 4 other co-accused namely Shiva, Shilpi, Sharad and Prakash. All were charged under various sections of the POSCO Act, Juvenile Justice Act and IPC. Asaram and all other accused have been convicted by Jodhpur Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Court in a 2013 rape case. Asaram reportedly reached the courtroom in jail 15 mins late. He made judge and lawyers wait for 15 minutes. There are 30 persons inside the jail courtroom. The judge, public prosecutor, five accused, 17 advocates and six court staff. Main charges against Asaram are illegal confinement, criminal conspiracy and sexual assault. The prosecution would push for maximum punishment. The hearing is underway and the verdict can be out any moment now. Security is tight around the court premises and other parts of the city. Drones have been deployed to monitor the situation. Anticipating trouble by Asaram's followers in case the verdict is against the godman, watertight security has been put in place. Three states are on alert and prohibitory orders have been imposed in sensitive areas. Asaram runs around 400 ashrams across the country. Reports say that security has been provided to the family of Akhil Gupta, a witness in the rape case against Asaram Bapu in Surat, who was shot dead in January 2015. The hearing begins. Judge is set to pronounce verdict inside Jodhpur Central Jail. Security apparatus on high alert. Judge Madhusudan Sharma arrives at Jodhpur Central Jail and hearing will begin shortly. Reports say that the hearing will begin at 10 am. Prayers are being held in several parts of northern India by Asaram's followers. The Defence Lawyer has exuded confidence that Asaram would be acquitted. The final arguments in the case had been completed by the special court for SC/ST cases on April 7 and the court had kept the order reserved to be pronounced today. The Centre has reportedly told Gujarat and Haryana to be on alert to prevent a repeat of the large-scale violence that took place in Haryana and Punjab after the conviction of another self-styled godman, Gurmeet Ram Rahim, in a rape case last August. Prosecution will press for maximum possible punishment. Prosecution is said to have examined 44 witnesses in the case. The defence is said to have examined 33 witnesses. Five followers of Asaram Bapu have detained today from Jodhpur. The trust run by Asaram Bapu has appealed to followers to maintain peace. Reports say that around 20,000 supporters of Asaram have reached. The message being spread in the Whatsapp groups is that Asaram would be coming out of jail. Section 144 in Jodhpur till April 30. Close vigil on bus and railway stations and hotels in the city. Assembly of four or more persons banned. Security for the complainant has been stepped up too. Three witnesses in the case have died so far. The judgment will be pronounced inside the Jodhpur central jail to prevent a breach of law and order in the city. Jodhpur Court dismissed the petition seeking entry of media persons in Central Jail of Jodhpur for the coverage of Asaram Bapu rape case judgment. The Home Ministry told three states to beef up security and ensure that no violence takes place after the judgment. Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana have a large number of followers of Asaram. All arrangements have been made to ensure maximum security says DIG Jail Vikram Singh. Six companies of the armed battalions of Rajasthan Police have been deployed around the Jodhpur Central Jail. Police are also converting two stadiums in Jodhpur city into makeshift jails in case there is a need of making mass arrests after the verdict. 378 persons have been taken into preventive custody and they will kept in custody till April 28. The judge has reached the Central Jail premises. Verdict to be out shortly. A follower of Asaram Bapu, who had reached Jodhpur Central Jail with a garland, has been detained by Police. The verdict will be pronounced in the jail. Reports say that around 20,000 supporters of Asaram have reached. The message being spread in the Whatsapp groups is that Asaram would be coming out of jail. Five followers of Asaram Bapu have detained today from Jodhpur. The trust run by Asaram Bapu has appealed to followers to maintain peace. Prosecution will press for maximum possible punishment. Prosecution is said to have examined 44 witnesses in the case. The defence is said to have examined 33 witnesses. The Centre has reportedly told Gujarat and Haryana to be on alert to prevent a repeat of the large-scale violence that took place in Haryana and Punjab after the conviction of another self-styled godman, Gurmeet Ram Rahim, in a rape case last August. The final arguments in the case had been completed by the special court for SC/ST cases on April 7 and the court had kept the order reserved to be pronounced today. Prayers are being held in several parts of northern India by Asaram's followers. The Defence Lawyer has exuded confidence that Asaram would be acquitted. Judge Madhusudan Sharma arrives at Jodhpur Central Jail and hearing will begin shortly. Reports say that the hearing will begin at 10 am. The hearing begins. Judge is set to pronounce verdict inside Jodhpur Central Jail. Security apparatus on high alert. Reports say that security has been provided to the family of Akhil Gupta, a witness in the rape case against Asaram Bapu in Surat, who was shot dead in January 2015. Anticipating trouble by Asaram's followers in case the verdict is against the godman, watertight security has been put in place. Three states are on alert and prohibitory orders have been imposed in sensitive areas. Asaram runs around 400 ashrams across the country. The hearing is underway and the verdict can be out any moment now. Security is tight around the court premises and other parts of the city. Drones have been deployed to monitor the situation. Main charges against Asaram are illegal confinement, criminal conspiracy and sexual assault. The prosecution would push for maximum punishment. There are 30 persons inside the jail courtroom. The judge, public prosecutor, five accused, 17 advocates and six court staff. Asaram reportedly reached the courtroom in jail 15 mins late. He made judge and lawyers wait for 15 minutes. Asaram and all other accused have been convicted by Jodhpur Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Court in a 2013 rape case. There are 4 other co-accused namely Shiva, Shilpi, Sharad and Prakash. All were charged under various sections of the POSCO Act, Juvenile Justice Act and IPC. "We will discuss with our legal team and then decide our future course of action. We have confidence in our judiciary," Asaram's spokesperson Neelam Dubey told the media. The trial of the case had begun in the district and session court on March 19, 2017, which had been shifted to the special court for SC/ST Cases on December 16, 2016. Asaram, Shiva and Shilpi convicted; Sharad and Prakash acquitted. Asaram is convicted, we have got justice. I want to thank everyone who supported us in this fight. Now I hope he will get strict punishment. I also hope the witnesses who were murdered or kidnapped get justice: Father of Shahjahanpur victim #AsaramCaseVerdict pic.twitter.com/sUJ3atJJJY  ANI (@ANI) April 25, 2018 Reaction of victim's family

The final arguments in the case had been completed by the special court for SC/ST cases on April 7 and the court had kept the order reserved to be pronounced on April 25. Asaram was arrested on the complaint filed by a teenage girl from Shahajahanpur of Uttar Pradesh, who was studying at the godman's ashram at Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh. The victim had alleged that Asaram had called her to his ashram in Manai area near Jodhpur and raped her on the night of August 15, 2013. Asaram was arrested from Indore and brought to Jodhpur on 1 September 2013. He is in judicial custody since September 2, 2013. A charge sheet against Asaram and 4 other co-accused namely Shiva, Shilpi, Sharad and Prakash had been filed by the police on November 6, 2013, under various sections of the POSCO Act, Juvenile Justice Act and IPC. The trial of the case had begun in the district and session court on March 19, 2017, which had been shifted to the special court for SC/ST Cases on December 16, 2016.

Asaram has unsuccessfully moved 12 bail applications, of which 6 were rejected by the trial court, 3 by the Rajasthan high court and 3 by the Supreme Court.
Aseemanand's confession to police not voluntary: NIA court

India

pti-PTI

Hyderabad, April 24: The special anti-terror court held that the confessional statement of Hindu preacher Swami Aseemanand to the police, which he retracted later, was not voluntary. The NIA court had acquitted five accused in the Mecca Masjid blast case.

The NIA court also maintained that a person cannot be considered "communal or anti-social" only because of links to the RSS, which is not a banned organisation.

The court also dismissed the prosecution's claim that Aseemanand had confessed to his guilt to two inmates of a prison here, saying the CBI, which initially probed the case had not provided any documentary evidence to back its charge.

A powerful blast, triggered by remote control, had ripped through the over four centuries-old mosque here during an assembly of devotees on May 18, 2007 when they had gathered for Friday prayers, killing nine people and wounding 58.

Special Judge K Ravinder Reddy in his April 16 order said the confessional statement of Aseemanand was "hit by section 26 of the Indian Evidence Act and the same is not a voluntary one which was recorded during the course of police custody".

The Special Public Prosecutor for NIA, the country's premier agency that probes terror cases, had submitted that Aseemanand gave the confessional statement in December, 2010, and retracted it four months later.

Rejecting the prosecution charge that Aseemanand had confessed his guilt to two inmates - Maqbool Bin Ali alias Chawaish and Shaik Abdul Khaleem in the Chanchalguda prison, the court said there was no record to show that the duo was in the prison at the time when Aseemanand was lodged there.

"Except the oral testimony of PW (prosecution witness) 104 and PW 105, there is no other record to show that they haven been in Chanchalguda jail when Aseemanand was lodged there," the court said.

The order said Additional SP of CBI Raja Balaji, one of the investigating officers, "has not collected any documentary evidence and produced before this court" showing that the two wintesses had been in Chanchalguda jail along with Aseemanand.

The CBI official did not examine the jail superintendent and record his statement that Khaleem and Chawaish were in the prison when Aseemanad was there, it said.

In the order, the judge also observed that working for Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) does not make a person communal and anti-social. He made the observation while referring to Devender Gupta, one of the accused, who was an RSS pracharak from Bihar.

The court said the evidence produced by the prosecution did not prove beyond reasonable doubt that Gupta, being an RSS volunteer, nurtured communal hatred.

"There were no records to show what were the communal hatred speeches of Devender Gupta being delivered at Jamtara (Jharkhand). The oral evidence given by a prosecution witness does not support the charge," he added.

"The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is not a proscribed organisation. If any person works in it, it does not give any scope that he is a communal and anti-social," the judge observed.

The court had acquitted all the five accused, who faced trial, holding that the prosecution failed to prove "even a single" allegation against them. Besides Aseemanand and Gupta, other acquited are Lokesh Sharma, Bharat Rateshwar and Rajender Chowdary.

There were 10 accused in the case. Two accused -- Sandeep V Dange and Ramchandra Kalsangra -- are absconding, while Sunil Joshi was murdered. Investigation is continuing against two others.

PTI
'Ban porn to stop child rape', says MP home minister

India

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

Madhya Pradesh home minister Bhupendra Singh has said pornography is the "main cause" for rapes in the state and has written to the Centre on Monday to ban access to all porn sites.

"We think the reason for rising number of child rape and molestation cases is porn. We are contemplating banning porn in Madhya Pradesh, will approach Centre in the matter," Singh said as quoted by ANI.

He also said that his ministry has identified 25 such websites and has written to the Union Home Ministry, seeking a ban on these sites. Singh's comments came amidst massive protests across the country over a spate of rape cases, many of them against children as young as a few months.

"The Indore incident has left me distressed. How can someone do something so terrible to a little girl? The society needs to peep within themselves. The administration has taken quick action and arrested the accused. We will ensure that he gets severe punishment without delay," he tweeted.

Earlier last week, Union Minister Santosh Gangwar stoked up a controversy as he said that people should not make a fuss over one or two rape incidents. Calling rape incidents as unfortunate, he asserted that such cases cannot be prevented sometimes.

These remarks come at the backdrop of concern over the horrific rape and murder of a 4-month-old baby girl in Indore. Also, on Monday, a model took to Twitter to share her ordeal as she was molested on the streets of Indore, when two boys pulled her skirt, while she was riding her scooter.
Delhi: 12-year-old girl raped by a minor in Ghazipur

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

A 12-year-old girl has allegedly been raped by a minor in Delhi's Ghazipur area. The accused minor has reportedly been sent to a juvenile justice home, said reports.

Ever since Kathua gang rape and murder case made headlines, there seems to be a sudden surge in reporting of minors being raped. Either such incidents have gone up suddenly or the media has become more proactive to report such cases, the latter, however, seems more likely.

Yesterday (April 23), a shocking case came to light in which a 14-year-old boy allegedly raped an eight-year-old girl in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly. The shameful incident took place in Sarania village of the state.

On Monday, a case was reported from Odisha in which a six-year-old girl was raped, strangulated and left on a school campus at Jagannathpur village in Cuttack district. The girl had gone to purchase biscuits in her village but when she did not return after some time her family members set out to look for her along with villagers, a PTI report said.

"After a frantic search for over an hour the girl was traced lying unconscious and without clothes in the school campus with blood oozing from her head and mouth," the police said.

She was immediately rushed to a nearby private nursing home from where she was shifted to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, Salepur sub-divisional police officer P K Jena said. The condition of the minor girl was said to be "very critical" as she suffered deep injuries in her head, face, neck and chest, doctors attending to her at the hospital said, adding there are injuries in her private parts.

[Shocking! 14-year-old boy rapes an 8-year-old girl in UP]

In another case, a minor boy was taken into custody on Monday on the charge of raping a four-year-old at Tikhiri village in Kendrapara district, police said. The girl had been raped near the Paika riverbed on April 20 allegedly by the boy, who is a student of a local school. The matter came to light following a complaint lodged by the girl's parents on Sunday.
'Don't imagine that Parliament is immune to casting couch', says Renuka Chowdhary

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Amid a massive uproar over choreographer Saroj Khan's remark on casting couch in the film industry, Congress MP Renuka Chowdhary has said that even Parliament is not immune to it. Chowdhary, known for making quirky remarks, said that casting couch is a 'bitter truth' which happens 'everywhere.

Saroj Khan had stirred a hornet's nest by defending the 'casting couch' in the film industry and gave a bizarre logic to justify it. She said that it was done with the consent of a girl. Khan, however, apologised for the remark later.

"It is not just in the film industry. It happens everywhere and it is the bitter truth. Don't imagine that Parliament is immune or other workplaces are immune to it. It is time that India stood up and said 'Me Too'," Chowdhary told news agency ANI when asked to react on Khan's remark.

Khan said there was nothing new in casting couch. The bizarre logic she gave to sort of justify it was that "at least it gives livelihood". She had also reportedly said that women are ultimately responsible for casting couch as it is done with their consent.

"Casting couch provides a livelihood. Taking advantage of a girl is done with her consent. Women are not sexually abused and dumped. They are given livelihood," reports quoted her as saying.

The term casting couch has brought a lot of ill fame to the film industry. The term is used to describe sexual favours demanded by the casting directors or film producers from aspiring actors for a role in a film or for another career advancement. Several reports have surfaced in the past in which the filmmakers are said to have demanded sexual favours in exchange for a role in films.

[Saroj Khan apologises for her remark justifying casting couch]

Chowdhary had made headlines couple of months back when she laughed out during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech in Parliament. When Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu asked her to stop chuckling, PM Modi said, "Please do not stop Renuka ji, after TV serial Ramayana we are getting to hear such a laughter now."

This left Chowdhary fuming and she said that the PM had insulted women. She even demanded an apology from the BJP after MoS Home Kiren Rijiju posted a video clip from the serial Ramayana in which demoness Shurpanaka could be seen laughing out loud.
What are the farmers protesting about? We have stayed the farm laws says SC

'Even dead have dignity': Supreme Court on disclosure of rape victims' identity

India

pti-PTI

Even the dead have dignity. They cannot be "named or shamed." This was the observation of the Supreme Court today as it dealt with the issue of disclosure of identity of rape victims, including the eight-year-old girl who was raped and brutally murdered recently in Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir.

It said that even in cases where the rape victims were alive and were either minors or of unsound mind, their identities should not be revealed as they have the right to privacy and they cannot live under such a "stigma" throughout their life.

"Think of the dignity of dead also. It (media reporting) can be done without naming or shaming them. The dead also have dignity," a bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said while hearing the matter in which senior lawyer Indira Jaising raked up the issue of section 228-A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which deals with disclosure of identity of victims of sexual offences.

The bench, which agreed to examine the aspect related to section 228-A of the IPC, also questioned as to how the identity of a minor rape victim could be disclosed even after getting consent from her parents.

"Why should this happen, that the identity of a minor victim be disclosed just because her parents have given consent," the bench asked, adding, "Even if a person is of unsound mind, she has a right to privacy. A minor will become major. Why should this stigma be there for life".

Jaising, who is assisting the court as an amicus curiae, said it was necessary for the apex court to clarify section 228-A of the IPC.

She said there cannot be a "blanket ban" on the media from reporting such incidents and the apex court would have to balance freedom of press and the rights of the victim.

During the hearing, the bench observed that the issue required clarification. It asked that even in cases where the victim had died, "why should there be disclosure of name".

Jaising, without directly referring to the Kathua incident, said in a recent case, the victim had died which had led to demand for justice not only in India but also globally.

The bench said it would examine the issue related to section 228-A of the IPC, after which the Centre's counsel sought time to seek instructions. The court then listed the matter for hearing on May 8.

The top court was hearing the petitions filed after the brutal gangrape-and-murder case in Delhi on December 16, 2012 raising concerns over safety and security of women.

Last week, the Delhi High Court had directed 12 media houses to pay a compensation of Rs 10 lakh each for revealing the identity of the Kathua rape victim. These media houses had apologised in the high court for revealing the details of the victim.

While Section 23 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act lays down the procedure for media to report cases of sexual offences against child victims, section 228-A of the IPC deals with disclosure of identity of victims of such offences. The penal law provides for jail term of up to two years along with a fine.

The eight-year-old girl from a minority nomadic community had disappeared from near her home in a village near Kathua in Jammu region on January 10. Her body was found in the same area a week later.

The state police's Crime Branch, which probed the case, has filed the main charge sheet against seven persons and a separate charge sheet against a juvenile in a court in Kathua district. The charge sheet revealed chilling details about how the girl was allegedly kidnapped, drugged and raped inside a place of worship before being killed.

PTI
Gorakhpur, Phulpur aside, why Yogi Adityanath matters in Karnataka

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Yogi Adityanath will address 35 rallies in Karnataka from May 3 onwards. This would mean that the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister would address at least 4 to 5 rallies a day as part of his hectic schedule.

Yogi who was seen a lot during the opening of the campaign would return to Karnataka towards the fag end and in him, the BJP would hope to attain the religious connect across the state.

Yogi would take part in rallies and road shows and the BJP is currently in the process of working out the locations. While exit polls have shown that the BJP would bag a majority of the Lingayat votes, in Yogi the party expects to go that extra mile.

Yogi is expected to reach out to a large number of Lingayats and this would help the BJP raise its tally. During the first phase of the campaign, Yogi had drawn impressive crowds. Looking at the kind of traction he drew, the BJP had decided to include him in its list of star campaigners.

However, after the Gorakhpur and Phulpur results, there was a shadow cast over Yogi. Many had said that the BJP is likely to use less of him in the elections. These losses, however, did not deter the Karnataka which had in early April itself sought for nine days of Yogi. Senior BJP leaders tell OneIndia that he is next to only Narendra Modi in terms of appeal. He has a complete sway over the crowd. Yogi on the other has a direct connection with the crowd and in one of the rallies the people erupted in euphoria when he said, " those who want a Ram Temple must vote for the BJP."

The connect with the youth is also another factor that the BJP has taken into consideration. In the coastal areas, the Youth are big fans of his and some of his rallies before the date of the elections were announced are proof of this. Moreover Yogi will be campaigning in the state at the same time Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be addressing rallies. The BJP feels that it would work as a double edge sword for the party with two of its best campaigners in the state.

The BJP is however confident of Yogi's appeal and being a religious leader himself, he could add the additional Hindutva dosage to the campaign.

On the other hand, the BJP would also bank very heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The PM would be addressing 16 rallies in 8 days starting April 29 onwards.

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
The sapling in question. Photo: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Europe, were always told, is the champion of diplomacy  the reigning wizards of deploying words and guile to get their way, while we unsophisticated Yanks run around firing missiles and threatening trade wars.

This week, the leaders of Europe are lined up to work their wicked wiles on Donald Trump, at a time when there are major disagreements on climate policy, trade, and  above all, at the moment  how to handle the Iran nuclear deal. We get to watch and observe the latest strategy from the Continent  a product of French and German coordination  for influencing and containing Donald Trump, all while keeping things at least superficially friendly.

Emmanuel Macron, now Europes good cop in all matters Trump, arrived over the weekend after previewing his trip with an appearance on Fox News  not a normal haunt of French leaders. He informed viewers at the conservative cable network that he is a maverick who, like Americas president, is not part of the classical political system.

Macron also arrived in Washington with a gift  a sapling from Belleau Wood, the World War I site 60 miles outside Paris that saw was the bloodiest battle for U.S. Marines in the history of the service. It is the source of a famous Marine retort: Retreat? Hell, we just got here. Perhaps Macron sees the gesture as a way to soften Trump up by playing to his love of military symbology. Or perhaps he just sees himself as starting a new chapter in U.S.-French relations, young and budding. (If youre wondering what Trump is giving Macron in return, its a framed bit of upholstery from an antique chair cushion  make of that what you will.)

Trump, who generally holds court either at his eponymous D.C. hotel or over small White House gatherings, seems to be basking in all of Macrons charm: He is dining not once, but twice, with the French president  Monday night down the river at Mount Vernon and Tuesday in the first state dinner of the Trump administration. Of course, Establishment Washington is sputtering with shock that not a single Democrat was invited, a dramatic break with 200 years of protocol, but this doesnt matter to Macron. The Democrats are not his audience until Wednesday, when he speaks to a joint meeting of Congress, something no French leader has done since 1996.

So this is a remarkable moment of French-American rapprochement. Rather than political agreement, it is driven, like so much else with Trump, by the force of personality  Macrons, in this case  and the European assessment that pomp and circumstance are key to wooing our president. Which is not to say that the two nations havent been involved in lots of substantive dealings lately: The French cooperated to launch strikes on Syria in retaliation for its use of chemical weapons; they also disagreed within days of the attack on what their follow-up should be. Macron strongly opposes Trumps desire to bring all U.S. troops home from Syria, and told the press he had succeeded in convincing Trump to change his mind. The White House begged to differ.

The second prong of Europes Trump-management strategy will be on display at the end of the week when German chancellor Angela Merkel arrives in Washington. She wont have the trappings of a state visit, and the burning media question will be whether she receives the public handshake that Trump famously denied her during her 2017 visit. Not that things have been gotten much better: At a later meeting, Trump repeatedly insisted that the two negotiate a bilateral trade deal  authority Germany ceded to the EU long ago. The two leaders did not speak for five months, which makes this return visit all the more remarkable.

If Macron hopes to win over Trump by force of personal argument  as reports out of todays meetings seemed to suggest, with the two saying they were close to a common understanding  Merkels job is to close with the larger economic and security context. She is, at least in theory, Trumps fellow conservative; Germanys public opinion is considerably more negative toward Trump than is Frances, so Merkel has nothing to lose and perhaps something to gain at home by talking tough. Europeans are looking to her to tell Trump what the costs of a dissolved Iran deal, and an escalating trade war, would be. German diplomats were heard saying before the trip that Macron is the show horse, while Merkel is the work horse. But that strategy depends, as Europe-watcher Julianne Smith put it, on Trump actually wanting to do some work.

The Europeans have been uncharacteristically public and blunt that the overriding goal in this unusual one-two punch is to convince Trump to stay in the six-party deal negotiated in 2015 to freeze and roll back Irans nuclear program. If he is determined to make a show of abrogating it, they still hope to convince the U.S. to abide by its core provisions, leaving in place the incentives for Iran to do likewise.

The president created a May 12 deadline to tell Congress whether or not he will recertify Irans compliance with the deal (a political matter separate from the report issued by the State Department this week, confirming Irans continuing compliance with the negotiated terms)  something he will do if he is satisfied with proposed side agreements. U.S. negotiators have worked with European colleagues to put together new terms that would extend some of the deals provisions and add restrictions on the ballistic missiles that Iran can use to threaten Israel, regional U.S. military installations, and Europe.

Macron and his colleagues seem to hope that agreement with Europe will be enough to keep Trump in, but it may not be that simple. Russia and China, which are also signers of the 2015 deal, used a meeting between their foreign ministers this week to oppose any changes. Iranians themselves have found the deals outcomes disappointing  Western companies have been slower than expected to invest, living standards have not improved, and Iranian emigres returning home have been caught up by repressive state security forces, dampening hopes for a cultural opening.

Macron and Merkel are hoping that acquiescence on side deals, plus the in-person touch, will yield the outcome they want. But in Donald Trumps Washington, the two weeks between their visits and the May 12 certification date is a lifetime. In those intervening days, tensions with Europe could flare anew as its exemption from Americas new steel-and-aluminum tariffs expires on May 1. U.S. negotiations with North Korea, which benefit from the continued existence of the Iran deal, could also falter. Trumps new coterie of hawkish advisers will likely be bending the presidents ear after Macron and Merkel have left.

But Merkel, who is in her 18th year as Germanys center-right standard-bearer, knows as well as anyone on the global political scene the lesson of Macrons tree from Belleau Wood. Whatever the folly, whatever the cost, there is no retreat. There is only forward.
Masarat Alam will remain a non-starter in J&K thanks to Centres zero tolerance towards separatism

J&K: Gunbattle ends in Pulwama; three terrorists gunned down

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Two jawan was martyred and all three terrorists were gunned down in a gunbattle which broke out between the security forces and the terrorists in South Kashmir's Pulwama district on Tuesday morning.

On April 12, terrorists had lobbed a grenade at a police station in Pulwama in which two policemen were left injured. Following the incident, the security forces cordoned off the area and launched a hunt to nab the attackers.

On April 11, at least five people, including an Army jawan and two teenagers, were killed and more than 100 others were injured during an anti-terror operation at Khudwani village in South Kashmir's Kulgam district and subsequent civilian protests across the valley.

Jammu and Kashmir witnessed 166 per cent more civilian fatalities due to militancy while there was a 42 per cent rise in the number of terrorists neutralised in 2017 compared to the previous year, the Home Ministry said last week.

The annual report of the Ministry of Home Affairs for 2017-18, released on Wednesday, said that since the advent of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir in 1990, a total of 13,976 civilians and 5,123 security personnel have lost their lives till December 31, 2017.

In 2017, there were 342 violent incidents in Jammu and Kashmir in which 80 security personnel, 40 civilians and 213 terrorists were killed.
Ready to quit cinema if it becomes hurdle to political career: Kamal Haasan

Kamal Haasan's party to contest in local body elections

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Superstar Kamal Haasan on Tuesday announced that his newly launched political party, Makkal Needhi Maiam, will contest in the upcoming local body election in Tamil Nadu.

Kamal Haasan was speaking at Maiam Gram Panchayat Meet in Chennai said, " We are going to contest in the upcoming local body elections."

Makkal Needhi Maiam hosted a mock Gram Panchayat on the 25th year anniversary of 73rd and 74th Amendment of Indian Constitution ( Panchayati Raj Act and The Nagarpalika Act)

Haasan, who has already said his party would contest the next assembly elections due in 2021, once again reiterated his village-centric approach.

By invoking Article 243 (of the Constitution that lists the powers of gram sabha), we can secure 234 (the number of assembly seats in Tamil Nadu), he said.

Asked about casting couch in film industry, Kamal Haasan this isn't place to discuss casting couch. He said, " We're forming a new Tamil Nadu here. It's irrelevant. But considering I'm from fthe ilm industry, every woman has right to kick away that couch. No woman should speak in its favor."

Kamal Haasan has launched - Makkal Needhi Miam - at a public meeting in Madurai in February.
Karnataka elections: Will Congress form post-poll alliance with JD(S)?

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Oneindia Staff

Bengaluru, April 24: As they say in politics there is no permanent friends or enemies. It is all about convenience. In poll-bound Karnataka, experts indicate that after the election results will be out, the current equation shared between the three major political parties are likely to change for sure.

On Monday, a couple of opinion poll results on the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections 2018 were announced. None gave a majority to either the incumbent Congress or the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Every opinion poll restricted the number of seats to be won by both the Congress and the BJP to less than 95.

In that scenario, both the Congress and the BJP are not in a position to form the government. In the 224-member Karnataka Assembly, a party or a coalition needs at least 112 seats to form the government. All opinion polls stated that the Janata Dal (Secular) (JD(S)) is likely to play the role of a "kingmaker" post elections, further strengthening the speculations about the role the party headed by former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda will play in the elections. The Assembly elections in Karnataka are scheduled on May 12. The results will be out on May 15.

While the Congress openly accused the JD(S) as the B-team of the BJP, the BJP too has not subtly stopped from alleging that the Congress and the JD(S) are together. However, the JD(S), in its make or break election this time, has been maintaining that it will be the "kingmaker", clearly indicating that both the BJP and the Congress need its help to form the next government in the southern state.

When incumbent chief minister Siddaramaiah was asked by senior journalist Barkha Dutt if the Congress will join hands with the JD(S) to form the next government if the need arises after elections, he dismissed the entire idea. "This situation does not arise at all. I am very confident that we will form the government on our own with a clear majority." However, opinion polls and ground reality beg to defer to Siddaramaiah's "tall claims".

In an interview with news agency ANI, JD(S) patriarch HD Deve Gowda again rejected the idea of joining hands with either the Congress or the BJP after elections.

"It is interesting to see how political parties try to behave holier than thou before the elections. After elections, things change so fast that it is generally difficult to comprehend. As we have witnessed in the Indian politics, political parties never shy away from changing their position after elections. Same is likely to happen in Karnataka," said a Kannada writer, who loves to follow politics diligently.
What is AFSPA and why this act became necessary

Repeal of AFSPA from Meghalaya, Arunachal (partly): Is it time to free entire NE from army act?

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Oneindia Staff

Guwahati, April 24: On Monday, the Northeast region, mostly under the shadow of militancy in the last few decades, welcomed the Centre's decision to repeal the draconian Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) completely from Meghalaya and in parts from Arunachal Pradesh.

According to officials, the AFSPA has been removed completely from Meghalaya and its area of operation in Arunachal Pradesh has been restricted to eight police stations bordering Assam and three districts neighbouring Myanmar.

The news brought hope for three other states in the region--Assam, Manipur and Nagaland--where the AFSPA has been in force. The AFSPA or the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act empowers security forces to conduct operations and arrest anyone anywhere without prior notice.

There have been demands from various organisations in the Northeast as well as in Jammu and Kashmir for repealing the act, which, they say, gives "sweeping powers" to the security forces to act against "civilians".

The AFSPA has been in force in Nagaland for several decades and in Assam from the early 1990s. It was not withdrawn in Nagaland even after a framework agreement was signed on August 3, 2015, by Naga insurgent group NSCN-IM general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah and government interlocutor RN Ravi in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Those who support the repeal of AFSPA say that since security situation in the region has improved manifold, it is time to remove the army act from the entire region. An official said there has been a substantial improvement in security situation in the Northeastern states over the last four years. 2017 recorded the lowest insurgency incidents and casualties among civilians and security forces during the last two decades since 1997.

While insurgency has been wiped out from Tripura and Mizoram, there has been a marked improvement in security situation in Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Manipur, the official said.

In Assam, sustained counter-insurgency operations against NDFB(S) have resulted in the killing of 63 cadres and the arrest of 1,052 cadres/linkmen besides recovery of huge arms and ammunition between December 2014 and March this year.

Across the Northeast, there has been a huge reduction of 96 per cent in casualties among the security forces from 289 in 1997 to 12 in 2017. Civilian casualties also dropped by 96 per cent from 907 in the year 2000 to 37 last year, the official added. Insurgency incidents during the same period reduced by 85 per cent from 1963 to 308, he stated. So far as kidnapping and abductions are concerned, there has been a 40 per cent drop from 168 incidents in 2016 to 102 last year.

The AFSPA has been removed from all areas of Meghalaya from March 31.The decision has been taken due to a significant improvement of security situation in the state, a Home Ministry official said.

In Arunachal Pradesh, areas under the controversial act have been reduced from 16 police stations areas bordering Assam to eight police stations besides Tirap, Changlang and Longding districts, the official added.

A Manipur-based activist says that the Centre needs to take a holistic view and repeal the AFSPA from across the region. "A draconian law like the AFSPA which has resulted in the deaths of so many innocent people has no place in a democracy," he added.
Saroj Khan apologises for her remark justifying casting couch

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Noted choreographer Saroj Khan has reportedly apologised for her remark on the casting couch. Khan had earlier defended the 'casting couch' in the film industry and gave a bizarre logic to justify it. She said that it is done with the consent of a girl.

The term casting couch has brought a lot of bad name to the film industry. The term is used to describe sexual favours demanded by the casting directors or film producers from aspiring actors for a role in a film or for other career advancements. Several reports have surfaced in the past in which the filmmakers are said to have demanded sexual favours in exchange for a role in films.

Times Now reported Khan as saying there was nothing new in casting couch. The bizarre logic she gave was that "at least it gives livelihood".

"Casting couch provides a livelihood. Taking advantage of a girl is done with her consent. Women are not sexually abused and dumped. They are given livelihood," reports quoted her as saying.

As per reports, Khan also said that women are ultimately responsible for casting couch as it is done with their consent.

"Yeh chala aa raha hai Baba azam ke zamaane se. Har ladki ke upar koi na koi haath saaf karne ki koshish karta hai. Govt ke log bhi karte hain. Tum film industry ke peeche kyun pade ho? Woh kam se kam roti toh deti hai. Rape karke chhod toh nahi deti (This has been going on for ages. People want to take advantage of girls. Even people in the government do it. Why are you after the film industry? It at least provides livelihood. Doesnt leave after raping?)," ANI quoted her as saying.

Yeh ladki ke upar hai ki tum kya karna chahti ho. Tum uske haath mein nahi aana chahti ho toh nahi aaogi. Tumhare paas art hai toh tum kyun bechoge apne aap ko? Film industry ko kuch mat kehna, woh humaara mai-baap hai: Saroj Khan on Casting Couch. pic.twitter.com/kYpPAPWMtB  ANI (@ANI) April 24, 2018

A few weeks back, aspiring Telugu actress Sri Reddy staged a protest against casting couch in Hyderabad. Sri Reddy kicked up a hornet's nest after she decided to go topless, to protest against the existence of the casting couch in the Telugu film industry. She also accused several prominent filmmakers and producers, of trying the same with her. The Telangana government then came forward to take measures to stop the exploitation of women in the film industry.

According to reports, the government has ordered the Film Development Corporation to form a special body to monitor the issues of the casting couch.
'This is a Hindu house, Congressmen stay away', reads poster in poll bound Karnataka

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Amidst the election heat, posters banning Congressmen have come up outside houses in Bantwal, coastal Karnataka. The posters were found outside several houses in Kanyana village asking Congress leaders to stay away.

"This is a Hindu house. Congress leaders who supported the conversion of Ganyashri through lies are not allowed here," the posters in Kannada read. The poster also said," even our house has a girl child."

The issue relating to a girl called Ganyashri had created a row in this village. She is alleged to have eloped as a result of which the family faced embarrassment as her engagement was fixed. The residents of this village suspect the role of some Congress leaders. They say that the girl was converted by deceit.

Congress can't ignore 'anti-incumbency', 51% want change in govt, according to ABP opinion poll

The villagers had waited for the elections and decided to teach the Congress leaders a lesson. They say that the Congress needs to be taught a lesson for its excessive minority appeasement being carried out at the expense of Hindus.

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
Why US engaging with Pakistan on Afghanistan is a cause of worry for India

Afghan terror: Civilian deaths at near-record level in 2018, says UN report

International

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

The series of terror attacks in Kabul has seen a near-record number of civilians died during the first quarter of 2018, the United Nations reported in April, according to a report in Pakistan-based Rawa News that deals with events in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

According to the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, the country saw 763 conflict-related civilian deaths and 1,495 injuries between January and March this year, the report added. Those figures were comparable with the number of deaths reported in the corresponding period in the past two years as attacks by both Taliban and Islamic State surged, the report said.

The Rawa report also said that the number of deaths caused by suicide bombings and guns was twice the number recorded in the first quarter of 2017 even as more American troops reached Afghanistan and aided the local security forces. US President Donald Trump announced last year to increase his country's troops in Afghanistan by a few thousands more. So far, the strategy has seemed to succeed little.

The Rawa report said the West's efforts to better the conditions in Afghanistan have been plagued by factors like corruption in the military ranks and low morale among the local troops. Two top officials of the Afghan military also resigned last year, hitting its morale even more.

The Taliban haven't gained control of any city in Afghanistan but they control more territory in the country than they did in 2002 when the war was in its initial period. Moreover, the IS too has increased its foothold in Afghanistan as they faced pressure from Iraq and Syria and they have targeted the urban Shiite communities mainly.

On Sunday, the IS claimed responsibility after a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a voter registration centre in Kabul, killing over 60 and injuring over 100 to disrupt the country's election procedure scheduled in October.

The Rawa News said the largest number of civilian deaths in Afghanistan happened in January when both the Taliban and IS carried out a number of attacks through various ways. More than 150 people were killed while several hundreds were injured.
April 27 a big day for Asian diplomacy: Modi to meet Xi; Kim to sit with Moon

International

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

The coming Friday, April 27, will be a big day in the history of Asian diplomacy. On this day, the heads of government of four states of the continent will meet over two separate meetings to flag off a new era in their respective bilateral relations.

In one event, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in an "informal summit" at Wuhan city in Hubei province in central-eastern China over a day-day affair on April 27 & 28. The two sides' agreement over the meeting was made public following a meeting between the foreign ministers of India and China - Sushma Swaraj and Wang Yi, respectively. Wang even called the upcoming event a "new starting point" in the relationship.

In the other event, North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un will meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in in a widely awaited summit on the South Korean territory at the truce town of Panmunjeom.

The meeting will be the culmination of the reconciliation which started at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea in February this year and a series of parleys between the officials on both sides.

Both the meetings between the top leadership of India and China and North and South Korea would be aimed at peace at bilateral and regional levels. However, there are certain differences between the two top-level meetings as well.

US has different positions in these two meetings

The India-China meeting, which is taking place in the wake of the Doklam standoff in 2017, has an element of shared concern and that concern is the United States.

Although India has gone closer to the US in the recent decade or so owing to strategic, political and economic reasons, the situation has not been as easy and smooth under President Donald Trump who has not hesitated to target anybody who he perceives to be a threat to the interests of the US.

From visa to visit the US to opposing the climate pact to declare a trade war - Trump hasn't stopped short of any extreme measures and this has created a common concern for fast developing economies like India and China to mend things between them.

India and China are also members of the BRICS community which looks to lead a new international order and the economic stakes are quite high for both nations to get stuck in disruptive issues like border skirmishes or terror or the growing Chinese influence in India's neighbourhood through Belt & Road Initiative and other bilateral measures between China and the smaller countries of South Asia.

A good thing about the India-China relation is that Modi and Xi haven't stopped seeing each other even when chips are down in their countries' bilateral relations.

They have met regularly in India, China or neutral venues over the last four years and it is a crucial factor which can propel the relationship forward even when odds are high.

The Korean Summit

The Korean summit's story is not the same. The leaders of the two Koreas are meeting after over a decade through the upcoming meeting, only the third in history is a much more transparent event compared to the previous two occasions that were held secretly in Pyongyang.

This meeting has also generated a lot of hope as both sides have exhibited an intent to genuinely give peace a chance with Kim Jong-un, even declaring before the summit his unconditional plan for stopping nuclear experiments and shutting the site.

Another difference that the Korean summit has with the India-China talks is that the US is not a common concern here. Rather, Trump has been an integral part of the entire network of diplomacy which is being formed for achieving peace in the volatile Korean Peninsula.

North Korea proposed talks with Trump through South Korea which the latter accepted at once and then blessed the two Koreas leaderships' meeting each other.

Trump also sent his NIA chief Mike Pompeo to North Korea secretly to prepare the grounds for the rapprochement and all these efforts gradually paid off towards sanctions-crippled North Korea softening its stand and agreeing to unconditional peace-making.

Trump's own upcoming meeting with Kim in May end or early June has given more weight to the April 27 summit between the two Koreas as well.
Canada: 10 dead by Van plowing at Toronto sidewalk

International

oi-Staff

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Ten persons have died while 16 were injured after a driver ploughed his van into a crowd in Toronto. The driver has been taken into custody. The incident occurred on Monday afternoon as large crowds of office workers were on lunch breaks. The driver has been identified as one Alek Minassian, 25, a resident of the Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill.

One witness described the driver as appearing to deliberately target the victims on his one-mile long rampage. It is however not clear whether the act was a deliberate one or a traffic mishap.

Police said the actions "definitely looked deliberate" but they don't know what motivation was behind it

The investigation is at a stage where no further information can be confirmed at this point," the police said. The police are conducting obviously their thorough investigation to determine what happened and why it happened, the motivations involved."

The incident brings back memories of a string of deadly vehicle attacks in the United States and Europe including one that killed 8 people in New York on October 31. The Islamic State had claimed responsibility for those attacks.
Collapse of Kabul will go down as one of the greatest defeats in American history: Donald Trump

Thousands of terrorists might have been airlifted out of Kabul: Trump slams Biden

Never in history has withdrawal from war been handled so badly: Trump

Trumps to host Macrons over first state dinner today

International

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

US President and First Lady Melania Trump were set to host French President Emmanuel Macron and his spouse Brigitte Macron over their first state dinner at the White House on Tuesday, April 24.

Melania Trump and her staff members have worked on preparation for the glittering event for many months and the White House released pictures along with a 38-second video of the First Lady overseeing the work.

Trump did not host any state dinner during his first year in office and became the first incumbent to do so in more than a century. More than a hundred guests were expected to grace the event.

Sources in the White House said the colour scheme for the dinner is gold and cream and food will be served on china from the previous presidencies of Bill Clinton and George W Bush, AFP reported.

The report also said that the Cross Hall of the White House will be decorated with over 1,200 cherry blossom branches while the dining room will feature white sweet peas and white lilacs. The food will be "the best of America's cuisines and traditions, with nuances of French influences", AFP cited the White House as saying.

On Monday, April 23, the Trumps hosted the Macrons over dinner at the historic Mount Vernon on the banks of the Potomac River in Virginia which is the estate of George Washington, the USA's first president.

The media was not allowed at the dinner although the two leaders and their wives posed for the shutterbugs.

Macron is on a three-day visit to the US during which he is expected to raise crucial issues like climate change and Iran nuclear deal with the US president.

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Story first published: Tuesday, April 24, 2018, 17:22 [IST]
Trump in Moscow in 2013 Photo: Sergei Ilnitsky/Epa/REX/Shutterstock

According to James Comey, when he met with Donald Trump in 2017, the incoming president denied allegations that he had hired prostitutes to urinate on a bed once used by President Obama. Trumps denial, according to Comey, leaned heavily on his claim that he never even spent the night in Moscow. Instead, claimed Trump, he departed for New York by plane that same night.

Reporting, combined with and social-media posts by Trump and his entourage during the trip, has cast a lot of doubt on Trumps version of this story. Bloomberg News has obtained an additional piece of information disproving Trumps alibi. Flight records show that Trump arrived in Moscow on early Friday morning, November 8, 2013. He departed early Sunday morning, November 10. Trump absolutely had enough time for a golden showers performance if he had wanted to have one.

Its possible Trump misremembered the trip, or concocted a false alibi despite being innocent of the accusation. A more plausible account of his motives is that he lied because he was covering up his behavior. It is another piece of evidence for the Peelievers.
Collapse of Kabul will go down as one of the greatest defeats in American history: Donald Trump

Thousands of terrorists might have been airlifted out of Kabul: Trump slams Biden

Never in history has withdrawal from war been handled so badly: Trump

Ex-CIA boss feels Kim Jong-un has fooled Donald Trump

International

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

While the supporters of US President Donald Trump were ecstatic over his 'success' in taming North Korea from giving up its nuclear ambitions, former acting director of the Central Intelligence Agency John McLaughlin suspected that the Kim Jong-un regime succeeded in fooling the American president with its pro-peace gestures.

According to the 75-year-old former CIA man who had a career spanning over 30 years in the premier agency, the president's ego and gullibility made things worrisome when it comes to dealing with North Korea.

McLaughlin said while Trump tweeted about the "big progress" being made in the North Korea crisis and welcomed "good news" from the Korean Peninsula after the Kim regime announced its decision to suspend nuclear testing and shutting down the nuclear site, the fact is that Pyongyang had already stopped the nuclear tests and that's perhaps it didn't need it anymore.

Laughlin felt that North Korea was studying Trump carefully and they have already understood that the man loves to claim credit for "success".

"And they've already given him one thing that is potentially positive," Shareblue Media quoted him as saying. He also said that Kim has given Trump something he can "crow about" and called it a "successful manipulation of the president".

Trump himself also tweeted recently that the task on North Korea was far from over even as Kim announced his plan to give up nuclear ambitions.

McLaughlin has criticised Trump in the past as well. In November 2017, he said Russian President Vladimir Putin was "outsmarting" Trump while expressing his opinion on Trump's handling of Russia in an editorial in Politico.
Former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan to be the next chief of Bank of England?

International

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Oneindia Staff

London, April 24: Well, it's a clear case of India's loss, the United Kingdom's or UK's gain. Even more than a year after former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan retired from his coveted post and went back to the United States of American (USA) to teach in 2016; every now and then India misses his apt handling of the country's economy in the face of all adversity.

Now, reports stated that Rajan may be among some of the world's leading economists in the running for the post of Bank of England (BoE) governor as the UK government hunts for a candidate to take charge from next year.

Canada-born Mark Carney, the current governor of England's central bank, is set to step down at the end of his term in June 2019. He had become the first foreigner in the post in three centuries when he took up the role in 2013. UK Chancellor Philip Hammond has now indicated that his global hunt for Carney's successor is ongoing, indicating the next governor could well be a foreigner too.

Attracting Rajan, the highly-respected Chicago-based economist and former RBI governor, would be a coup," writes The Financial Times. In its own analysis of the pros and cons of 55-year-old Rajan's candidacy for the post, the newspaper notes that the Katherine Dusak Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business would bring with him "impeccable international economics and central banking experience" as well as "significant achievements at the RBI".

The con, in its view, would be that he has thus far shown "no indication that he would want the job at the BoE". On the list of the newspapers of prospective candidates is another Indian-origin contender in Shriti Vadera, the chair of Santander UK and a former UK government business minister.

"Having been a key government figure in the financial crisis, Baroness Vadera is also credited with doing a good job in chairing a committee of City [of London] grandees, and later in helping to frame the UK's position on Brexit and financial services," the newspaper notes.

The UK's Treasury department wants an open competition for the post and is seeking applications from well-qualified candidates from around the world.

"The formal process has not yet started but I, and many other people I am sure, may have cast their eye around various rooms to see if any likely looking candidates hove into view," Hammond told reporters on the sidelines of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) meeting in Washington recently.

The Treasury is expected to advertise the post by July this year, a year before a new incumbent as the BoE chief is due to take charge.

After the Narendra Modi government came to power in 2014, the relationship between the former RBI governor and the Centre was always a matter of discussion. While Rajan never openly accused the Centre of interfering with his work or curtailing his power, on many occasions he spoke against the political climate of the country after the Modi government took charge.

It is also widely believed that Rajan, who was likely to have a second term as the RBI governor, did not stay back after the end of his first term, because the government wanted to introduce demonetisation of high-value currency notes in November 2016. Insiders say Rajan was opposed to demonetisation.

Recently, Rajan said that demonetisation was not a well-planned or well-thought-out useful exercise.

"Demonetisation I think was not a well-planned, well thought-out useful exercise. And I told the government that when the idea was first mooted. It seemed to me that people would find their way around," Rajan said at the Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge recently.
Iran warns of quitting NPT if US scrapped nuclear deal

International

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

As US President Donald Trump was preparing to host his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron over the first state dinner in his presidency on Tuesday, April 24, a senior official in Iran said Tehran might quit the crucial Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) if Trump scuttled the nuclear accord that Iran signed with a number of world powers in 2015, Reuters reported.

Trump has expressed his deep reservations over the Iranian deal which was reached during the days of Barack Obama, saying it had "terrible flaws" and warned that if the European allies did not fix it by May 12, he would restore American sanctions on Iran, delivering a blow to the deal.

The other powers that are party to the deal, like France, Great Britain, Germany and Russia along with China were in favour of the deal that curbed Iran's nuclear programme in lieu of lifting most international sanctions that were imposed over it.

In a news conference shown on the state television, Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said the country's Atomic Energy Organisation was ready to take "surprising actions" if the nuclear deal was cancelled, Reuters added.

He also said withdrawing from the NPT was among the options that Iran was considering.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, who recently warned that Iran would come up with expected and also unexpected reactions if the US quit the deal, also aired a warning on Tuesday saying the US would face "severe consequences" if it left the nuclear deal.

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Story first published: Tuesday, April 24, 2018, 17:30 [IST]
Nashville shooting suspect held; he once tried to meet President Trump

International

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

The Nashville police authorities succeeded in arresting a man accused of killing four persons at the Waffle House restaurant this weekend after a 34-hour manhunt. The incident at the capital of Tennessee sent ripples across the local people as the assassin managed to bluff the lawkeepers for hours after the crime.

Reports said the police found Travis Reinking, 29, hiding at the back of a construction site located about a kilometre and half from the restaurant in Antioch in downtown Nashville where the shooting happened. The police said Reinking, who had fled the crime scene after a customer at the eatery snatched his weapon, surrendered without any resistance.

He was then taken to a hospital and later booked at the Hill Detention Center in Nashville on charges of criminal homicide.

The accused sought a lawyer and refused to speak, said Don Aaron, the spokesperson for the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, according to a report in Chicago Tribune. However, the authorities remained tight-lipped on what made the suspect go for the carnage in the restaurant in the wee hours of Sunday or how he could fool the authorities during their massive manhunt.

Reinking was set to appear in the court on Wednesday, April 25.

The police said Reinking displayed signs of mental instability in the recent years and also had his firearms licence cancelled and his guns impounded by the authorities last year. He allegedly shot the people with one of the guns that the police had removed, reports in US media said.

Last year, Reinking was even arrested outside the White House after he tried to overcome a security barrier to meet US President Donald Trump calling himself a "sovereign citizen". He was under the scanner of the Secret Service and Federal Bureau of Investigation and local authorities in Illinois where he lived then, since that incident.
India, China to hold 12th round of military talks tomorrow at Moldo; Focus on disengagement at Gogra

No joint statement after Modi-Jinping talks in China: Reports

International

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping will not issue any joint statement after summit talks slated to be held between April 27 and 28.

The two leaders will not sign any agreements or issue a joint statement at the Wuhan summit this week but they will try to build mutual trust and reach important consensus to resolve the outstanding issues, a top Chinese official said today.

Prime Minister Modi will travel to China on April 27 for an informal summit with President Xi in the central Chinas Wuhan city.

"Both sides have agreed not to sign an agreement or release any joint document but reach important consensus to resolve outstanding issues," Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou told the media here on the two-day summit.

This informal summit is the first of its kind and there is no precedent in each others country, he said, explaining why both the leaders opted to hold the summit.

"At the informal summit, the two leaders will have heart-to-heart discussions on overarching issues and try to build mutual trust and consensus to resolve outstanding differences," Kong said.

Asked whether the Dokalam issue and the boundary dispute will figure in the talks, Kong said Dokalam happened because of lack of trust.

"The two countries need to create conditions and trust between them to resolve the boundary issue," he added.

Kong said both President Xi and Prime Minister Modi have strategic vision and historical responsibility.

At the informal summit, they will have strategic communication on the major changes in the international landscape unseen in more than 100 years. They will have in-depth exchange of views on the issues of overarching long-term and strategic importance in the bilateral relations, he said.

Such exchange of views will deepen the mutual trust between the two countries, set the direction and set objectives for the further growth of bilateral ties. It will also open up new prospects in China-India.

OneIndia News (with PTI inputs)
Swaraj calls SCO a 'major platform' to voice views on issues of common interest

International

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who is in Beijing, on Tuesday described the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) as a major platform for convergence in worldviews on sustainable development, clean and healthy living, multilateral trading system, Doha Development Agenda, disarmament and non-proliferation.

The meetings of the defence and foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), being attended by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Sushma Swaraj, began in Beijing today (April 24). The two meetings are being held at the same time.

Sitharaman who arrived here last night attended the defence ministers' meeting and Swaraj took part in the foreign ministers' meeting. The two meetings were being held as part of the preparations for the SCO summit to be held in the Chinese city of Qingdao in June. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to attend it.

These are the first top ministerial-level meetings of the SCO after the admission of India and Pakistan as members last year. A host of issues including the regional security and terrorism were expected to be discussed at the meetings and prepare agenda for the SCO summit.

The SCO, headquartered in Beijing, was founded in 2001. Comprising China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, India and Pakistan, the SCO aims at military cooperation between the member states and involves intelligence sharing, counter-terrorism operations in Central Asia and joint work against cyber terrorism.

OneIndia News with PTI inputs
Toronto: Suspect in court today; not issue of national security, says minister

International

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

Alek Minassian, the 25-year-old suspect in the van attack on pedestrians in North York in Toronto, China, will appear before the court on Tuesday, April 24, to face charges.

The Toronto Police informed about this in a Twitter post early on Tuesday, April 24. Though the post did not charges against Minassian precisely, it said the details would be provided once Minassian was in the court.

Ten people were killed while 15 were injured after the suspect ran his rented van into the pedestrians over a two kilometre stretch of Yonge Street, between Sheppard Avenue and Finch Avenue on Monday afternoon. Minassian is a man from Richmond Hill, Ontario, and was identified as a student of the local Seneca College from his LinkedIn profile.

The suspect later got off the vehicle and confronted a police officer, asking him to shoot him in the head, The Star reported. He also claimed to have a gun in his pocket. The policeman did not shoot at the suspect, however, and arrested the suspect.

Authorities later said Minnassin's name was not involved in any act of terrorism, making the motive behind Tuesday's attack unclear.

Canada's Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale called the incident "horrendous" but said it did not appear to be connected to national security in any way.

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Story first published: Tuesday, April 24, 2018, 17:04 [IST]
Collapse of Kabul will go down as one of the greatest defeats in American history: Donald Trump

Thousands of terrorists might have been airlifted out of Kabul: Trump slams Biden

Never in history has withdrawal from war been handled so badly: Trump

Trump-Kim meeting: Thailand volunteers to host summit

International

pti-PTI

Bangkok, Apr 24: Thailand on Tuesday (April 24) volunteered to host the much-anticipated summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as speculation swirls about the venue.

"Thailand is ready to facilitate and host the talks," Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai told reporters, though he stressed that the kingdom has not been contacted about the possibility.

The US embassy declined to comment. Kim is set to meet South Korea's president Moon Jae-in on Friday, an event seen as a major stepping stone towards the summit with Trump. Earlier this month Trump said five locations were under consideration for a summit "probably in early June", which he hopes will result in a denuclearisation deal with North Korea.

But he did not specify where, leaving observers to speculate on anywhere from Mongolia to Scandinavia and Singapore. Thailand is a historic US ally which also has diplomatic relations with North Korea. The Thai junta number two Prawit Wongsuwon is currently in the US where he has met Defense Secretary James Mattis and senior Homeland Security officials, according to the Thai defence ministry.

Over the weekend Pyongyang announced a moratorium on nuclear tests and intercontinental ballistic missile launches. Analysts are divided over the headline-grabbing offer, with many noting it is reversible and did not signal any intention of actual nuclear disarmament.

PTI
Bush in mourning. Photo: Bob Levey/Getty Images

Over the weekend, George H.W. Bush buried his wife of 73 years, and then suffered a debilitating blood infection that sent him to a Houston hospital Sunday night. The former president appears to be recovering, according to his spokesman.

President Bush was admitted to the Houston Methodist Hospital yesterday morning after contracting an infection that spread to his blood, Jim McGrath said in a statement Monday evening. He is responding to treatments and appears to be recovering. We will issue additional updates as events warrant.

Bush is 92 years old and has weathered a series of health problems in recent years, including a bout of pneumonia that put him in the hospital multiple times in 2017. Last Tuesday, his wife Barbara Bush passed away, leaving him bereft of her partnership for the first time in the postWorld War Two era.

1 of 2: Final photos from the funeral of former First Lady Barbara P. Bush. (Credit: @PaulMorsePhoto - Office of George H. W. Bush) pic.twitter.com/r9ElE3Av56  Jim McGrath (@jgm41) April 22, 2018

On Saturday, Bush greeted fellow mourners of the former First Lady at St. Martins Episcopal Church.
As he winds up his stormy two-term tenure, Governor Paul LePage is refusing to implement a Medicaid expansion approved by Maine voters. Photo: Gregory Rec/Press Herald via Getty Images

Nobody ever accused Maine governor Paul LePage of being a politician who seeks consensus. The fiery conservative was first elected in 2010 by winning a booming 37 percent of the vote in both the primary and the general election (an independent candidate won 36 percent). He did much better in 2014, aided by a pro-Republican midterm climate, an anti-bear-hunting initiative that goosed rural turnout, and yet another independent candidacy, but still fell short of a majority.

But LePage doesnt seem to mind contravening the will of the people. As he navigates his last year in office (hes term-limited in 2018), hes refusing to implement a ballot initiative approved by 59 percent of Maine voters last November aimed at forcing a Medicaid expansion that LePage has blocked throughout his tenure (hes vetoed legislative measures to take advantage of the expanded coverage and federal super-match funding on five separate occasions).

Not too long after the ballot initiative passed, LePage started claiming some sort of executive right to ignore it unless his terms were accepted, as the Bangor Daily News reported:

In a Dec. 11 letter to legislative leaders, LePage laid out a number of conditions, including that there be no tax increases, that money from the budget stabilization fund is not tapped, that the funding mechanism be ongoing, and that waitlists for services for elderly and disabled people be eliminated before state government pays to expand Medicaid eligibility.

He also insisted that the cost of the expansion was roughly double the estimates officially made by the legislature. This is in line with his argument all along that the federal government would welch on its funding commitments (a more credible threat now that his Republican Party controls Washington, but not a present reality). The very day after the ballot initiative passed, LePage said: This fiscally irresponsible Medicaid expansion will be ruinous to Maines budget.

LePage has continued to do his part to obstruct implementation of the ballot initiative, as Politico notes:

Obamacare supporters in Maine say the LePage administration has already ignored timelines mandated by the ballot initiative. Maine earlier this month skipped a deadline to file routine paperwork notifying the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services it would join the Obamacare expansion.

The governor has also helped produce a legislative deadlock over the appropriation of funds to begin the expansion, which was supposed to begin on July 2, with 80,000 l0w-income Maine residents becoming eligible for Medicaid.

Its looking now like litigation is the only avenue for implementing the initiative  though its mandate will remain in effect into 2019, when LePage will be off somewhere ranting and snarling as a private citizen (unless hes offered a gig in the Trump administration).

LePages singularity is such that no one is really worried that other conservative governors in other states considering Medicaid-expansion ballot initiatives will emulate him:

Advocates pushing for ballot measures say theyre not discouraged by the Maine dispute because they expect other states would defer to their voters if they approved the program.

Utah will probably have a similar ballot initiative this fall.
Corporate employees lock the door after an estimated 50 people wrapped up a three-hour-long protest at the Starbucks location in Center City Philadelphia on April 16, 2018. Photo: Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto

There is a well-known stereotype of a particular kind of coffee-shop patron  an aspiring screenwriter or freelancer, scrupulously cobbling together their pitches or book proposals, courtesy of their favorite local haunts free Wi-Fi, electrical outlets, and comfortable furniture, paying for their mobile home office with just a $2 cup of bottomless coffee. This patron, of course, is usually white. The trope has been both parodied and celebrated, and its easy to find lists ranking coffee places by how easily they can be transformed into work spaces. Since this lifehack only works by shifting costs from the patron to the coffee-shop owner, some coffee shops have responded by either eliminating Wi-Fi services or furniture  but Ive never heard of an earnest novelist being carted away in handcuffs for spending several hours after their last order writing character sketches.

Last Thursday, however, two young black men named Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson were arrested and forcibly removed by police from a Starbucks cafe in the Rittenhouse Square neighborhood of Philadelphia while waiting to meet a (white) colleague for coffee.

According to reports, the police were summoned by the on-site manager, who denied either one or both men entry to the bathroom. There are a few conflicting details; whether or not the manager informed them that they had to leave before calling the police has been disputed by witnesses. During a live interview for Good Morning America, Nelson and Robinson said that they arrived at 4:35 p.m. for a 4:45 p.m. meeting and informed the staff. The police were called at 4:37, just two minutes later. Regardless, the core facts remain the same: two young black men were following the common practice of waiting for the rest of the party to arrive before ordering, were deemed unwelcome by the on-site staff, and law enforcement was dispatched to dispose of these intruders to the sacrosanct environs of an international cafe chain.

In response to the national outrage spawned by a video documenting the interaction, Starbucks executives put out a series of statements expressing their dismay at the incident and vowing to work to prevent a recurrence of these events, explaining that their store manager never intended for these men to be arrested and this should never have escalated as it did. While that may certainly be true, calling the police  especially calling them to deal with black people  is inherently an escalation, and one that sharply increases the possibility of violence. In this case, a 911 call implying that the two men had refused to leave prompted seven officers to arrest them, remove them from the shop, and detain them for eight hours without charging them with anything. The crux of the pushback has been around the racial dynamics of the encounter: Several of the nonblack patrons at the Starbucks location in question reported that they had been there for a long time, without purchasing anything and without recrimination.

There is an unspoken code of behavior in coffee shops  a certain level of perceived gentility expected for the privilege of loitering indefinitely. This is an impossible aura for black people to project  their mere presence is perceived as a threat. In a 2017 report conducted by the ACLU on stop and frisk in Philadelphia, statistics in the Rittenhouse Square neighborhood where this Starbucks is located showed that 68 percent of stops by the PPD were conducted on black residents, despite having a neighborhood black population of merely 3 percent. This is a phenomenon referred to as out-of-place policing, which not only ties blackness to criminality, but views the presence of black people in white neighborhoods as suspicious

This is the problem Starbucks executives have publicly committed to addressing with a franchise-wide day of training on unconscious biason May 29, with guidance from partners such as former Attorney General Eric Holder, Sherrilyn Ifill of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, and Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League. The swift decision is commendable, but the circumstances around the incident point to a weightier problem than mere bias.

There is a certain toothlessness in the phrase unconscious bias, however well-intentioned, as a description for racism. It minimizes it by transforming the systems and social conditions that oppress the marginalized into a mere accident of psychology. To allow a white patron to idle indefinitely while simultaneously calling the police to remove black patrons by force in two minutes is more than mere unwitting partiality. It is an active decision to view a black presence in white spaces as something that needs to be explained, validated, and adjudicated  which is to say that it is just good ol fashioned racism. Marking it as unconscious is a way of releasing the person from responsibility for their own actions. A training predicated upon this false premise is not likely to be effective.

It remains to be seen whether the measures undertaken by Starbucks executives are meant to address the actual treatment of black customers, or whether they are simply meant to mollify the backlash. And even if executed rigorously, not only is it an open question whether unconscious-bias training actually works, its unclear how we should even measure its impact. Nevertheless, its important for us to look at the broader context: We treat the presence of black people, especially in places in which there arent many of them, as inherently suspicious, and truly coming to terms with the society-wide implications of this behavior will take more than a one-day corporate workshop.
Neoconned. Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Last month, Rand Paul promised to do whatever it takes to stop Mike Pompeo from becoming secretary of State. The Kentucky senator argued that Trumps pick for top diplomat loved the Iraq War so much, he was ready for a war with Iran next.

I dont think you really want people who are eager for war to be running the State Department, Paul reasoned. You want a diplomat.

Earlier this month, Paul had the opportunity to personally interrogate Pompeo at a Senate hearing. After that back-and-forth, the senator informed the CIA director that his pro-interventionist views on Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Afghanistan did not reflect those of the millions of people who voted for President Trump. Paul then reiterated his intention to oppose Pompeos promotion.

This led political observers to assume that Paul would join the ten Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Monday in voting down Pompeos nomination  delivering a rare rebuke to the neoconservative foreign-policy Establishment he opposes so courageously.

But just before that vote was held, a miracle happened: Donald Trump informed Paul that Pompeo had finally realized the error of his ways, and adopted Pauls anti-interventionist views on U.S. policy in the Middle East, thereby allowing Paul to do the GOP Establishments bidding with total integrity.

After calling continuously for weeks for Director Pompeo to support President Trumps belief that the Iraq war was a mistake, and that it is time to leave Afghanistan, today I received confirmation the Director Pompeo agrees with @realDonaldTrump  Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) April 23, 2018

President Trump believes that Iraq was a mistake, that regime change has destabilized the region, and that we must end our involvement with Afghanistan.  Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) April 23, 2018

Having received assurances from President Trump and Director Pompeo that he agrees with the President on these important issues, I have decided to support his nomination to be our next Secretary of State.  Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) April 23, 2018

Granted, its a little curious that Paul would trust the presidents word on these matters, given that the senator said in 2016, Donald Trump is a delusional narcissist and an orange-faced windbag, and that a speck of dirt is way more qualified to be president.

But Pauls estimation of Trump must have changed radically since then, just as his sense of Pompeo changed radically since this morning. The only alternative explanation for Pauls actions would be that he is a total fraud, and thats a bit hard to believe.
Its a dual in the sun in a special congressional election in the Phoenix suburbs. Photo: Anita Snow/AP/REX/Shutterstock

Tomorrow, the votes will be counted in a special congressional election in the Eighth Congressional District of Arizona (in the suburbs to the north and west of Phoenix). But a large majority of the votes have probably already been cast thanks to liberal early-voting rules (including permanent early-voting registration that dispatches mail ballots automatically).

Arizonas Eighth District is not fertile ground for Democrats. Like Pennsylvanias 18th, where Democrat Conor Lamb pulled off a big upset in a special election in March, Arizonas Eighth has been heavily Republican in recent years. Its Cook Political Report partisan voting index is R+13, 13 points more Republican than the country as a whole. That would normally mean a GOP advantage of well over 20 points in a normal congressional election. Trump carried the district by 21 points in 2016; Romney carried it by 25 points in 2012. Republicans also have a 17 percent advantage in party registration in the Eighth District (in Pennsylvanias 18th, Democrats actually had a slight registration advantage). The last incumbent, Republican Representative Trent Franks (who resigned in December after a scandal involving solicitations to his staff to serve as a surrogate mother for the congressman and his wife), faced only minor-party opposition in 2016 and 2014.

This is also, famously, retirement country. The electorate skews old and white, which is typically good news for Republicans in low-turnout non-presidential contests.

Given the districts political landscape, the fact that at least two polls (one candidate-sponsored, one independent) show this to be a competitive race between Democratic physician Hiral Tipirneni and Republican state legislator Debbie Lesko seems to confirm that the strongly pro-Democratic breeze in 2017 and 2018 special elections is still blowing briskly. Spending between the candidates (and their backers) is relatively even, and a lot more modest than the massive amount of money that poured into Pennsylvanias 18th.

Tipirneni is running a relatively centrist campaign, supporting common-sense gun reforms while also defending Second Amendment rights; backing a Medicare buy-in proposal rather than single-payer; and favoring a balance between border enforcement and a path to citizenship for the undocumented. Lesko has identified strongly with Donald Trump, particularly on immigration (this district has been a hotbed of support for Sheriff Joe Arpaio), and is probably best known for sponsoring a radical school-voucher proposal that will be on the statewide ballot in November. Both candidates had to overcome significant primary opposition, with Lesko being significantly helped by a rivals sexting scandal, and Tipirneni defeating an activist who drew attention for being a transgender woman.

Despite her strong showing in some polls, odds of a Tipirneni upset have dropped as the profile of early voters became clear. As of Monday, 151,000 early votes had been cast, 49 percent from registered Republicans as compared to 28 percent for registered Democrats. The median age of early voters so far is 67, another good sign for Republicans.

But a GOP win in this district would not be a whole lot to brag about. Heres how FiveThirtyEights Nathaniel Rakich puts it:

Even if Lesko ends up winning Arizonas 8th District comfortably, beware of a media narrative that portrays it as good news for Republicans, or at least a reprieve from the recent run of close elections.

Based on FiveThirtyEights partisan lean, an 8-point Lesko win would be exactly in line with past special-election results that have pointed to a Democratic wave.

They say close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. It can also count in special elections as harbingers of regular election trends. Arizona will be important in November in no small part because it has a highly competitive Senate election (and could have two if John McCains poor health forces him to resign this year). A new poll this week from OH Predictive Insights/ABC15 showed Democratic Representative Kyrsten Sinema handily leading all three GOP candidates in the race to succeed retiring Republican Senator Jeff Flake. It also showed hard-core conservative Kelli Ward  who trails Sinema by ten points in a general-election trial heat  leading Martha McSally and Joe Arpaio for the GOP nomination.

If Debbie Lesko wins by double digits in Arizonas Eighth, Republicans will have reason to feel pretty good about it. Anything less than that could be another bad sign for the midterms.
Remember when no one knew my name? Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call,Inc.

Its looking less and less likely that Ronny Jackson will be the next secretary of Veterans Affairs.

Reports that Jackson had been accused of misconduct had already thrown his nomination into doubt, with the Senate postponing his confirmation hearings. But President Trump made comments on Tuesday that indicated hed like Jackson to pull out of the process altogether.

During a news conference with French president Emmanuel Macron, Trump tried to position his lack of enthusiasm as a testament to the injustices facing Jackson.

I dont want to put a man through a process like this. The fact is, I wouldnt do it. What does he need it for? To be abused by a number of politicians? Trump said.

The president theorized that Democrats unable to halt Mike Pompeos nomination to be secretary of State were now moving on to Jackson.

They failed to stop him, so now they say Whos next? he said.

Later, Trump met with Jackson in the Oval Office, and didnt appear to pressure him to step aside.

Ronny Jackson had a "good meeting" with Trump a few minutes ago, per an admin official. Trump is sticking with the embattled secretary, official says, and wants him to fight.  Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) April 24, 2018

A White House official then said that Jackson would not withdraw his nomination.

But the doctor received a further dose of bad news on Tuesday afternoon. The Associated Press reported that in 2012, a watchdog report ordered by Jackson himself had found that he and Dr. Jeffrey Kuhlman, a rival in the White House Medical Unit at the time, had both behaved unprofessionally. The report found that the conflict between them had become so rancorous that workers described the dynamic as being caught between parents going through a bitter divorce. It suggested that the White House replace Kuhlman, or Jackson, or both. Kuhlman left in 2013.

Jackson had denied the existence of any such report just hours earlier.

As AP breaks news about 2012 IG report on Ronny Jackson, here's Jackson on Capitol Hill earlier today saying there was no IG report on the allegations against him pic.twitter.com/Wiiw460q8i  Josh Billinson (@jbillinson) April 24, 2018

Jackson, a rear admiral in the Navy, was nominated to replace the recently dismissed David Shulkin at Veterans Affairs, which employs 370,000 people  the second-largest number of people of any Cabinet department. Jackson has been a White House physician during the last three administrations, and served as an emergency trauma doctor in Iraq.

But, in keeping with the Trump administrations usual slapdash approach to personnel matters, Jackson wasnt vetted in any traditional way. His central qualification: He impressed the president by trumpeting the presidents supposedly superhuman health at a news conference in January.

On Monday, CBS News reported that in the run-up to Jacksons nomination hearing, which was supposed to take place on Wednesday, current and former White House staff members approached Senator Jon Tester, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, with stories of Jacksons misbehavior.

Sources familiar with the tales say Sen. Jon Testers committee staff is reviewing multiple allegations of a hostile work environment. The accusations include excessive drinking on the job, improperly dispensing meds, said one of the people familiar, who was granted anonymity to speak frankly about the situation. The other people familiar with the stories also confirmed those details.

We take very seriously our constitutional duty to thoroughly and carefully vet each nominee sent to the Senate for confirmation, Tester and Senator Johnny Isakson, the committee chairman said in a statement on Monday, announcing the postponement of Jacksons hearing. We will continue looking into these serious allegations and have requested additional information from the White House to enable the committee to conduct a full review.
Illustration: Natrot/Getty Images

Editors Note: In Make Me Smarter, a writer looks at a piece of smarthome technology they dont understand, and talks to experts about how it actually works.

For more than half a decade, Ive used Siri to set my alarms.

Every night, before going to bed, I hold down the button and tell my phone to wake me at a given time, with very little understanding of how that actually happens. If anybody asked me, I would stumble through a vague answer along the lines of something something waveform analysis, something something machine learning.

Now, several years and dozens of preset alarms later, Ive set out to get a better sense of a tool Ive come to rely on, and of the type that has generated some popular concern.

In my quest for knowledge, I learned quite a few cool things.

Alexander Rudnicky, a research professor with the Carnegie Mellon Speech Group explained to me how programs like Alexa or Siri translate the words I say into text, how a program analyzes that text to understand what I want it to do (in this case, wake me at 8:00) and to let me know that its done the job (the depressingly familiar announcement Your 8:00 a.m. alarm is on.) And Meredith Broussard, a data journalist and professor at NYU, brought up the unreasonable effectiveness of data: These programs become so good at what they do  improving their knowledge of the way people speak  by gathering and analyzing as many examples as possible.

To get a better handle on how these programs work, I spoke individually with Broussard and Rudnicky. A transcript of our conversations  edited for clarity and length  appears below.

How does Siri, or any other voice assistant, translate the words Im saying into something it can understand?

Meredith Broussard: The computer takes in the waveform of your speech. Then it breaks that up into words, which it does by looking at the micro pauses you take in between words as you talk.

Alexander Rudnicky: Lets say we have a particular speech sound, like the word one. If I have a couple thousand examples of a one I can compute the statistics of its acoustic properties, and the more data  the more samples of one  I have the more precise the description become. And once I have that I can build fairly powerful recognition systems.

Once its heard me, how does a voice assistant act on what Im saying?

Broussard: It has to use a kind of grammar to put those words into what the computer understands as concepts, in order to be able to decide what to do in response as a command. And that used to be very, very difficult to do because we only had rules for voice commands. So If I said Siri, send an email, maybe it could recognize that. But if I said Hey Siri, I want to send an email to Joseph, it couldnt recognize that. Now what we have are advances in artificial intelligence to allow the computer to guess Siri, send an email and hey, I want to send an email to Joseph! are probably the same thing.

Weve made really great mathematical advances to allow AI to seem like its smarter; one of the important things to remember is that AI is actually just math. Its easy to get confused between what is real in AI and our Hollywood images of AI. Just because the computer can take sound and turn sound waves into representations, into words, doesnt actually mean theres a brain inside the computer.

We know that Alexas always listening, even if its not always recording what you say. How does it know when to actively listen?

Broussard: Theres always a pattern. Theres an invocation word that basically turns on the program. With Alexa, you say Alexa, play California Girls and its listening and recognizing the waveform of Alexa. It knows when it sees that waveform to start the program that takes in several seconds of recording and turns it into a command given to the computer, which executes that command.

Why does Siri sometimes have trouble understanding me (or, apparently, most of Scotland)?

Broussard: Voice recognition and responding to voice commands are really hard problems computationally. And weve made amazing strides forward but theres still a fair way to go. Accents, for example, are still really hard for these kinds of systems, and complex commands are really hard for these systems.

There are fundamental limits to what you can do with math, and there are really infinite variations out there in the world when it comes to peoples voices and peoples accents. Even if you managed to record every single person in the entire world saying every single word that exists right now  which, by the way, you couldnt  then you would still have the problem of new words. And then there are things that happen with speech. I might learn Korean next year and then Id start speaking in Korean, but Id have a terrible accent. Or what if I had some sort of accident that affected my voice, like a stroke. It would change the ground truth. And computers are not great at catching up. The world changes really fast.
Photo: Konstantin Sergeyev

Alexa, stop is the first thing I say most mornings. Actually, thats a lie. Usually, its more like Alexa, snooze. Next, I drag myself into my kitchen and put on a kettle. Alexa, set a timer for four minutes, I say while pouring boiling water into my French press. Alexa, whats the weather, Ill ask later while staring at my closet trying to figure out which one of my coats  answer: none of them  is appropriate for the 30-degree temperature spread Alexa will inevitably tell me to expect that day in New York.

I love my little DJ/alarm clock/kitchen timer/meteorologist. Its convenient. It was cheap. It can play the original Broadway cast recording of Parade on command. And the security risks dont stress me out any more or less than those of any other internet-enabled device I use in my day-to-day life. It has also, historically, driven the people closest to me absolutely nuts. So I asked two ex-girlfriends  who were kind enough to respond to my slightly deranged texts and Gchats  to tell me just what was so terrible about dating, as one put it, an Echo-head. I also asked a roommate from a few years ago if she had any memories of living with me and my Echo Dot. Mostly, she said she remembered me asking Alexa to play Ed Sheerans Shape of You approximately 2 trillion times. (An incredible own on her part, really.)

Why did you hate my Echo Dot so much?

Tess (ex-girlfriend): I think why Im so anti-Alexa is because its suddenly like someone else is in the room whom you didnt realize or expect to be there, and theyre listening and are intelligent. Its like Alexa is a creepy spy in the corner waiting to be summoned.

Sam (ex-girlfriend): I just dont love the idea of talking to a device! Its kind of creepy to me. You can just take out your phone and check the weather app or look out your window to see if its raining.

Tess: Also, it felt like you knew she was there, but I didnt always remember, so it would take me by surprise when you called her.

Sam: You dont have a roommate, so maybe its also nice, or at a minimum, not weird to talk to it. If I talked to mine, my roommates would think I was crazy and talking to myself. We are not, generally speaking, a digital-voice-assistant household.

Tess: Ill also say that the more time I spent with you, the less weird it got, and after a while I didnt mind or notice as much.

Did you have security concerns?

Tess: I totally recognize and am willing to admit its irrational [that I distrust Alexa but still use other internet-enabled devices]. Everything is monitoring my life! But it feels so much more tangible when youre like, Hey, Alexa, and then shes THERE. It feels a little Big Brothery. I dont trust Amazon not to be listening in on my/your life, and I didnt like the idea of our convos being passively monitored.

Sam: For me, at least, theres just a mental barrier with voice assistants. For some reason, Im fine with Facebook and all related third parties mining my data, but as soon as I have to talk to a robot, Im out. Obviously, its not rational.

Do you feel I talked differently when I would ask Alexa things?

Sam: Not to tone police, but you had a very specific uptalk when you talked to Alexa. I can hear it in my head now. Also, you talked at it loudly. VERY loudly.

Tess: You for sure have an Alexa voice. Its like Madison voice, but crisper, slower, and more rhythmic.

Did it seem like Alexa had learned my voice but not yours?

Sam: I think my main annoyance was the fact that it didnt listen to me when I tried to talk to it. Like, you would ask it about the weather or ask it to play a song or whatever else it does, and it would just do whatever you asked it to. Then one day, when you were on a run, I asked it to play a Rilo Kiley song, and it didnt listen to me, so I asked it again, and it didnt listen to me, so I just gave up on it.

Tess: Remember how it wouldnt take my voice? But when I imitated your Alexa voice then it listened!

Would you ever consider getting your own Echo?

Sam: I do feel like I should add that after we broke up, I got an Echo, which I have only used to connect to my Spotify account to play music. I do not speak to it.

Tess: My boss gave me one as a gift. Safe to assume, its in the bottom-most drawer of my desk, never to be touched.

All names have been changed to protect the Alexa-hating innocent. Interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity.
Ntare Schools Amos Mumbere is the overall winner of the seventh edition of the DStv Eutelsat Star awards in the essay category.

He received his award at a gala organized by MultiChoice Africa and Eutelsat in Kampala last Thursday. Mumbere wins a trip for two to Paris and onwards to a launch site in Kourou, in the French Guyana to witness a rocket blast into space.

Continental essay winner Amos Mumbere (4th R) with officials and organisers of the award. L-R: Paolo Nespoli, the jury chairman; Michael Niyitegeka, ICDL Africa country manager; Prof Funso Falade from University of Lagos; and Steven Musoke, MultiChoice Uganda chairperson. Others are John Muyingo, the state minister for Higher Education; Patricia Kiconco, head of operations, MultiChoice Uganda; Astrid Bonte, Eutelsats director of international affairs; and Charles Hamya, MultiChoice Uganda general manager

The rocket, due to take off later this year, will be heading into space to place a satellite into orbit. This is the third win in the essay category for Uganda after victories in 2011 and 2012.

Mumberes essay, on how the 1957 launch of the first satellite, Sputnik, had impacted on humankind, was also the best in Uganda in the essay category, ahead of Gabine Ngabonzizas of Kibuli SS.

In the essay category, Henry Kirungi of St Marys College Kisubi came out second to Mumbere, whereas Elsa Mirembe of Gayaza High School won the poster category. But the two lost to Tanzanias Rasheed Taher of Al-Madrasa-tus-Saifya-tul-Burhaniya school in the continental category.

The overall winner in the poster category wins a trip for two to visit the South African National Space Agency and MultiChoice facilities. St Marys College Kisubi and Gayaza High School will be rewarded with a DStv installation, including dish, TV set, PVR decoder and free access to the DStv education package.

For this years edition, students were asked to write a creative essay or design a poster based on the impact of Sputnik in launching humankind into the 21st century and as a unifier.

Paolo Nespoli, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut, was on hand as chairman of the jury for fourth time.

The rest of the jury included Prof Funsho Falade, dean of the faculty of Engineering at the University of Lagos; Michael Niyitegeka, country manager of ICDL Africa; Patrice Paquot, Eutelsat deputy regional vice-president for sub-Saharan Africa, as well as the head of operations at MultiChoice Uganda Patricia Kiconco.

Nespoli said he was impressed with the caliber of entries.

The finalists showed an exceptional grasp of the subject matter along with a distinct use of creativity and ingenuity. We all were extremely impressed by the calibre of the work we had to judge. As a jury, we were challenged when we had to pick the winners.

Handing over the prize, the state minister for higher education, Dr John C Muyingo hoped that Nespolis presence in the country would inspire students to do better next year.

I would also like to recognise that he is the first astronaut to visit Uganda ... I believe your presence will inspire the students especially those interested in the space industry. Your presence will create hope and belief among students that anything is possible in this world, he said.

mtalemwa@observer.ug
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From Craig Murray Website

This transcript of an Israeli General on an Israeli radio station (begins 6.52 in) defending the latest killing by Israeli army snipers of a 14-year-old boy who posed no threat of any kind, is much more powerful if you just read it than any analysis I can give.

Brigadier-General (Res.) Zvika Fogel interviewed on the Yoman Hashevua program of Israel's Kan radio, 21 April 2018.

Ron Nesiel: Greetings Brigadier General (Res.) Zvika Fogel. Should the IDF [Israeli army] rethink its use of snipers? There's the impression that maybe someone lowered the bar for using live fire, and this may be the result?

Zvika Fogel: Ron, let's maybe look at this matter on three levels. At the tactical level that we all love dealing with, the local one, also at the level of values, and with your permission, we will also rise up to the strategic level. At the tactical level, any person who gets close to the fence, anyone who could be a future threat to the border of the State of Israel and its residents, should bear a price for that violation. If this child or anyone else gets close to the fence in order to hide an explosive device or check if there are any dead zones there or to cut the fence so someone could infiltrate the territory of the State of Israel to kill us "

Nesiel: Then, then his punishment is death?

Fogel: His punishment is death. As far as I'm concerned then yes, if you can only shoot him to stop him, in the leg or arm -- great. But if it's more than that then, yes, you want to check with me whose blood is thicker, ours or theirs. It is clear to you that if one such person will manage to cross the fence or hide an explosive device there ...

Nesiel: But we were taught that live fire is only used when the soldiers face immediate danger.

Fogel: Come, let's move over to the level of values. Assuming that we understood the tactical level, as we cannot tolerate a crossing of our border or a violation of our border, let's proceed to the level of values. I am not Ahmad Tibi, I am Zvika Fogel. I know how these orders are given. I know how a sniper does the shooting. I know how many authorizations he needs before he receives an authorization to open fire. It is not the whim of one or the other sniper who identifies the small body of a child now and decides he'll shoot. Someone marks the target for him very well and tells him exactly why one has to shoot and what the threat is from that individual. And to my great sorrow, sometimes when you shoot at a small body and you intended to hit his arm or shoulder it goes even higher. The picture is not a pretty picture. But if that's the price that we have to pay to preserve the safety and quality of life of the residents of the State of Israel, then that's the price. But now, with your permission, let us go up one level and look at the overview. It is clear to you that Hamas is fighting for consciousness at the moment. It is clear to you and to me ...

Nesiel: Is it hard for them to do? Aren't we providing them with sufficient ammunition in this battle?

Fogel: We're providing them but ...

Nesiel: Because it does not do all that well for us, those pictures that are distributed around the world.

Fogel: Look, Ron, we're even terrible at it. There's nothing to be done, David always looks better against Goliath. And in this case, we are the Goliath. Not the David. That is entirely clear to me. But let's look at it at the strategic level: you and I and a large part of the listeners are clear that this will not end up in demonstrations. It is clear to us that Hamas can't continue to tolerate the fact that its rockets are not managing to hurt us, its tunnels are eroding ...

Nesiel: Yes.

Fogel: And it doesn't have too many suicide bombers who continue to believe the fairytale about the virgins waiting up there. It will drag us into a war. I do not want to be on the side that gets dragged. I want to be on the side that initiates things. I do not want to wait for the moment where it finds a weak spot and attacks me there. If tomorrow morning it gets into a military base or a kibbutz and kills people there and takes prisoners of war or hostages, call it as you like, we're in a whole new script. I want the leaders of Hamas to wake up tomorrow morning and for the last time in their life see the smiling faces of the IDF. That's what I want to have happen. But we are dragged along. So we're putting snipers up because we want to preserve the values we were educated by. We can't always take a single picture and put it before the whole world. We have soldiers there, our children, who were sent out and receive very accurate instructions about whom to shoot to protect us. Let's back them up.

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Introduction : This is the second in an occasional series that I will be running of past columns that I published both on OpEdNews and other sites, that bear relevance to current events. There will be very slight, if any, editing, and contemporaneous notes in [ ]. The "current event" to which this column realities is, of course, Jim Comey's book A Higher Loyalty and his subsequent far-ranging book tour interviews. Regardless of Comey's intervention against the 2016 Clinton Campaign, the subject of this column, with his broad-ranging analysis/critique of Trump, his campaign, his government, and himself, he has made no friends in the Trump Camp. As for the Democrats, reaction has gone both ways. But this column, written between the time that Comey announced the "Anthony Wiener computer second Clinton emails investigation" on October 28, 2016, and its withdrawal, four days before the election held on November 8, 2016, I ventured some guesses as to how his intervention(s) might impact the then-upcoming the election.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On July 5, 2016, The Director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, James Comey, shooting like a comet over Washington, D.C., announced that after an extensive investigation, no criminal charges relating to the improper use/protection/transmission of classified documents would be brought against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.At the same time, in a speech he launched into an extensive negative analysis of what had been done with emails, sensitive or not, on State Department or private servers, by Mrs. Clinton and members of her staff. That statement, very unusual for an FBI Director to make, had a transitory effect on Clinton's poll numbers. But at the same time, the Director, in a highly unusual action, little noticed at the time, told leading Republican on the House Intelligence Committee that it would keep them informed of any further developments.



FBI Director James Comey Seeks New Opportunities (although what is happening with his book assures him that he won't have to get a new job right away).

(Image by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com) Details DMCA



As is well-known, just now there have been further developments. On October 28, 2016, Mr. Comey announced publicly that there would be a further investigation of (possible) Clinton emails. He made this announcement before any investigation had begun, much less concluded, and before his agents had obtained even so much as a [search] warrant for seizing a lap-top that happened not to belong to Mrs. Clinton. Rather it belonged to the estranged husband, Anthony Weiner, of one of Mrs. Clinton's closest aides, Huma Abedin. This action by Comey was considered to be highly unusual, to say the least, by a variety of sources/authorities, including, for example, The New York Times editorial page. It was even unclear as to whether, after some kind of preliminary evaluation, the previous formal inquiry would be reopened.

The U.S. Justice Department strongly discouraged Comey from making such an speculative announcement (as in "there might be a further investigation after we've had a look at Mr. Weiner server which -- who knows -- might simply be filled with photos of Mr. Weiner's private parts taken from a wide variety of angles"). It appeared as if Mr. Comey himself might be violating the law, that is the 1939 Hatch Act, which prohibits government employees from taking actions close to elections which might influence their outcomes. A Republican, Richard Painter, who worked as the Chief Ethics Officer in the Bush White House (and a Clinton supporter this time around [--- now a frequent Trump critic]), went so far as to file a formal ethics complaint against Comey, for apparent violation of the Hatch Act (which would be a criminal offense). [To my knowledge, nothing ever came of that filing.]

There have been a variety of political outcomes from the Comey action, ranging from no change in the Clinton/Trump poll numbers to significant changes in them, from no change in the generally predicted Clinton lock on the Electoral College vote to possibly enough of a Trump swing in the swing states to give the election to him. Most observers are not attributing ulterior motives to Mr. Comey. "He made a simple mistake." "He was trying to be open about what is going on, but he was premature in making such an announcement -- poor judgement." "He was under pressure from Congressional Republicans. Suppose that he had not announced the further investigation [of a bunch of emails that might not even be Clinton's] in advance of its being undertaken, and then something had come of it after the election? Boy, would they be mad [or worse]."

Well, folks, I don't buy any of it. I think that what Comey did, from the July "even though we have nothing criminal on you you're a bad girl" speech to the present "we are announcing that an investigation will be starting [once we get a warrant], without any idea that anything further that might be incriminating might be found" is all part of a plan. (And yes, this is a conspiracy hypothesis, but not quite the kind that Alex Jones would come up with.) In 2013 Mr. Comey was given the customary ten-year term appointment as FBI Director by President Barack Obama. (Wonder why in all of this bruhaha from the Democrats Obama gave him a vote of confidence?) A career Federal prosecutor and occasional corporate lawyer who eventually became Deputy Attorney General under Bush, he is a Republican. He has had a reputation for highly ethical behavior.

But, and it's a big but, first of all as a prosecutor Comey has been on the Clintons' case for years. According to Evan Stark, a Professor Emeritus of Public Affairs at Rutgers, Comey was the prosecutor on the famous "Whitewater" case--- that led to nothing. He was also the prosecutor of the "Marc Rich pardon" case, which, however distasteful the pardon was, and it was, led to nothing. But more importantly now, it is important to note that Mr. Comey does not live in a bubble.



Hillary's first biggest liability, her totally undependable husband, and her second: her totally vacuous slogan.

(Image by thekrisharris) Details DMCA



He had to have known that what he was doing when he gave his totally unnecessary speech at the time he announced "no criminal findings" in the original Clinton emails/server case. He could simply have made the announcement, or have had his public affairs officer make it, and left it at that. But he did make his speech, and while it did not seem to have any long-term political effects, it did stir the political pot at the time. This [current] announcement has the pot boiling. It could swing the election to Trump. Although the conventional wisdom as of Nov. 1, when this column is being written, is that it won't, because of Clinton's heavy advantage in the Electoral College, Glenn Beck, an arch-reactionary who happens to be anti-Trump, thinks that Comey's announcement is "one of the most irresponsible things to ever happen" and could swing the election to Trump. And although unlikely, it could.

So how did this happen? Well, Comet Comey has a phone (you can be sure that he doesn't do political stuff by email), and it is as secure a one as can be found. As I have pointed out previously, there is an increasingly large sector of the ruling class, led by some very wealthy hedge fund managers like the one who came to the Trump campaign along with Steve Bannon(from the Cruz campaign) that REALLY wants Trump to win. The two biggies for them: further huge tax cuts for the wealthy and the end of economic/environmental regulation as we know it. My guess is that they got to Comey. What they offered or promised him, if anything at all, is impossible to know. But I do believe that that is what happened.

Comey is a long-time Federal lawyer. He is now the Director of the FBI. He had to know about the Hatch Act, and that he would be violating it. He also knows that regardless of the outcome of the election he would never be prosecuted for doing so. Until last Friday, Trump was sinking and a number of down-ticket Republicans were going with him. Now, as the result of the "announcement" of something that might or might not happen, Trump is making huge hay of it and could win, and even more importantly the Republicans have a much better chance of holding on to the Senate.

This did not happen by accident. An unprecedented announcement in October goes back to an unprecedented speech in July. Unprecedented once? Well, maybe by happenstance. Unprecedented twice? Well, not so much.

Postscript [to the Nov. 1, 2016 column]: According to the FBI, there is no direct connection between Donald Trump and the Russian Government/business sector. According to a long-time counter-intelligence operative of another country, there are numerous documents showing just such relationships and he gave them to the FBI. Here's one excerpt:

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"Assad apologists" are those who have refused to face up to Assad's outrageous record of atrocities, even in the face of all the solid evidence that the US and its allies, and the entire Western press, have not presented.

That's right. If you examine that outrageous record of atrocities, looking into each and every one, you'll see the West's whole nasty case against him waft away like so much smoke, that being exactly what it is.

This--let me be clear--is not to say that Assad's government is as benign as Costa Rica's, or Vermont's: Bush/Cheney sent several captives in its "war on terror" off to Syria (along with over 50 other countries) for torture; and Assad's rule may otherwise be comparable to the draconian regime in (say) Egypt, or Morocco, or Iraq. It's hard to say, since so much of the Western literature on "human rights" throughout the Middle East is heavily infused with propaganda. (On the other hand, Assad is, demonstrably, a far less brutal ruler than the House of Saud--or the Likud overlords of Gaza.)

An accurate survey of human rights in Syria may have to wait until the war there ends, and the brain-deadening fog of Western propaganda finally lifts.

Meanwhile, it's safe to say that "Syria" today--i.e., the nation as depicted for us--is much like "Germany" in 1917. Thundering through Belgium way back then, the German army surely was a ruthless force; and yet it surely was not guilty of a single one of the specific horrors cried up all throughout the Allied press. It took some ten years for all those catastrophic fabrications

to be properly debunked (in Arthur Ponsonby's eticulous Falsehood in Wartime, published in 1928).

Today we have a lot less time to do that sort of necessary work. But we have to start somewhere--so let's start here and now, with this quick catalogue of the correctives that too few of us have ever even heard of, our masters having had "our free press" black them out, or laugh them off.

As I'll be sending something on the latest "gas attack" (in Douma), it's not included in this catalogue, which deals with the Big Lies on both the "gas attacks" in 2013 and 2017; Assad's "barrel bombs"; the "crematorium" at Saydnaya military prison; the heart-breaking storyof little Omran Daqneesh; Bana al-Abed, the seven-year-old "girl whose tweets told of Aleppo's horrors"; and--last but not least--the White Helmets.

(This catalogue is necessarily a work in progress; so if you know of other pieces that the rest of us should know, please send them to me.)

MCM





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From Telesur

Netanyahu's coalition is rife with such morally-objectionable characters.

Albert Einstein, along with other Jewish luminaries, including Hannah Arendt, published a letter in the New York Times on December 4, 1948. That was only a few months after Israel had declared its independence and as hundreds of Palestinian villages were being actively demolished after their inhabitants were expelled.

The letter denounced Israel's newly-founded Herut party and its young leader, Menachem Begin.

Herut was carved out of the Irgun terrorist gang, famous for its many massacres against Palestinian Arab communities leading up to the Nakba, the catastrophic ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people from their historic homeland in 1947-48.

In the letter, Einstein, and others described Herut (Freedom) party as a "political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to Nazi and Fascist parties."

For a letter of this nature to appear a mere few years after the end of World War II and the devastation of the Holocaust is a profound indication of the clear chasm that existed among Jewish intellectuals at the time: the Zionists who supported Israel and its violent birth, and those who took the high moral ground and objected to it.

Sadly, the latter group -- although still in existence -- had lost the battle.

Herut later merged with other groups to form the Likud Party. Begin received the Nobel Peace Prize and the Likud is now the leading party in Israel's most right-wing government coalition. The "Nazi and Fascist"-like philosophy of Herut has prevailed, and it now engulfs and defines mainstream society in Israel.

This right-wing tendency is even more pronounced among young Israelis than previous generations.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the leader of Begin's party, the Likud. His current coalition includes Russian-born Defense Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, founder of the ultra-nationalist party, Yisrael Beiteinu.

In response to ongoing popular protests by besieged Palestinians in Gaza, and in justification of the high number of deaths and injuries inflicted on the unarmed protesters by the Israeli army, Lieberman argued that "there are no innocent people in Gaza."

When the Defense Minister of a country espouses this kind of belief, one can hardly be shocked that Israeli snipers are shooting Palestinian youngsters, while cheering on camera as they hit their target.

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US sanctions on Russian military exports have put the brakes on a $6 billion deal with India and may derail the arms purchases of other US allies around Asia, experts say.

Under a law that US President Donald Trump signed in August, any country trading with Russia's defence and intelligence sectors will face sanctions.

The law is designed to punish Russian President Vladimir Putin for the 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, involvement in the Syrian civil war and meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.

But American allies who buy weapons and equipment from Russia, the world's second-largest arms exporter, could suffer as well.

The highest-profile example is India, which wants to buy five S-400 long-range surface-to-air missile systems that the country's military sees as a game changer.

The systems are touted as being able to counter the ballistic missiles and stealth aircraft that China is developing, while overwhelming the capabilities of Pakistan, India's other main adversary.

The deal, which Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi struck as part of an inter-government agreement in 2016, has run headlong into the US sanctions law, two officials in Delhi said.

Indonesia and Vietnam also buy weapons from Russia while being regional partners of the United States. Jakarta closed a $1.14 billion pact for Sukhoi fighters recently, while Vietnam is seeking more jet fighter-bombers from Russia.

And with both Almaz-Antey Air and Space Defense Corporation, which makes the S-400, and Rosoboronexport, which negotiates Russian export deals, listed as under sanction, those deals have become trickier.

"The optics of a major arms purchase from Russia looks quite 'iffy' from the point of view of Western capitals, especially at a time when Russia-West relations are at an all-time low and India seeks strategic convergence with the West, including with the U.S." said Abhijnan Rej, a defence strategy expert at Observer Research Foundation, a New Delhi think tank.

The US-led airstrikes this month against facilities of the Syrian government, an ally of Russia, has further aggravated tensions between the superpowers.

A Russian source close to the Indian S-400 deal said "a lot will depend on the confidence and sanity of our Indian partners."

WIDER IMPACT



The effects of the US sanctions law could be more sweeping than intended, said Cara Abercrombie, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Vietnam, whose air force flies Russian-made Su-30 fighters and uses the S-300 air defence system, wants to continue modernising its inventory.

Vietnamese military scholar Carl Thayer said he believed Moscow was still pushing Hanoi to invest in state-of-the-art S-400 missile defences as part of its long-term military plans.

"I think it is clear that Russia is still pressing Vietnam for big deals," Thayer said, noting that the two countries already have had reciprocal visits by defence ministers this year.

But with the United States working hard to promote sales of American military hardware, and sanctions against Russia's exporting agencies, Vietnam's plans could prove overly costly.

Indonesia, meanwhile, said the delivery of the first couple of Sukhoi Su-35 jets out of a total of 11 is on track for this year. Officials said that so far they did not anticipate any changes to the deal with the Russians.

Indonesian defence officials declined to describe what, if anything, they might do to tackle the fallout of the sanctions imposed on Russian arms sales.

A THORNY PROBLEM



Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale and Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra held discussions with US officials in Washington last month to try to find a solution, a second Indian official said.

The issue is crucial to the Indian military, because without Russian parts, supplies and maintenance help, "our ships won't sail, our planes won't fly," the official said. "We can hardly be the regional security provider that America wants us to be at this rate."

One way to avoid secondary sanctions would be if the US determines that India is reducing its dependence on Russian arms, said Atman Trivedi, managing director of Hills & Company, a Washington-based firm that advises on international trade and investment.

Russian hardware represented 62 per cent of the country's total weapons imports during the past five years, compared with 79 per cent in 2008-2012, the Stockholm Peace Research Institute said in a report last month.

The US administration could also declare that imposing sanctions on India, a major defence partner, would hurt US national security interests. That would allow a waiver permitting India to do business with Russia.

The United States has emerged as India's No. 2 weapons supplier, closing $15 billion worth of deals over the last decade. Now Lockheed Martin and Boeing are leading the race to provide India with a fleet of new fighter-bombers, one of the world's largest open tenders.

"The intent of the legislation was never to disrupt U.S.-India defence relations, which Congress has repeatedly recognised in law as a strategic priority to the U.S.," said Benjamin Schwartz, aerospace and defence head at United States India Business Council.

Abercrombie of Carnegie added that if Congress grants waivers to India, it may also need to do so for other countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia.

"The bottom line: India warrants an exemption from these secondary sanctions, as does any country with which the U.S. is forging new and strategically important defence relations," she said.
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This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.

Recently, President Trump declared war on undocumented immigrants heading for the southern border -- you know, all those marauding "rapists" and their pals -- and, as seems appropriate in any "war," he promptly ordered the mobilization of the National Guard. Troops from its ranks were to be dispatched border-wards permanently, or at least until his Great Wall could be funded and built by someone or other. ("We are going to be guarding our border with our military. That's a big step," he said proudly, in announcing the move.) Up to 4,000 National Guard troops are officially to take on the task, except that so far only a scattered 900 or so from the states of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona have actually made it to the border -- with another 400 promised by California Governor Jerry Brown, as long as they fulfill none of the anti-immigrant duties that Trump has in mind for them. Are you with me so far? Add to this the fact that the troops going into battle will be doing so unarmed and with no authority to act directly in any way in relation to immigrants of any sort. (As the memo that Secretary of Defense James Mattis signed put it, the National Guard troops will not "perform law enforcement duties or interact with migrants or other persons detained by U.S. personnel.")

Think of this as Syria in the Southwest. In response to presidential tweets and boasts, the U.S. military is searching for a way to visually fulfill his promises -- oh, those missiles sent into Syria, more than twice as many as the last time! -- while actually doing as little as humanly possible to achieve his goals. Mission accomplished! In fact, those National Guard troops could essentially hit the border and twiddle their thumbs, while the endless advanced systems of high-tech surveillance implanted in our ever more fortified and militarized borderlands do most of the work for them. TomDispatchregular Todd Miller, author most recently of Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration, and Homeland Security, has been following all of this for years now and today offers a sense of how ordinary -- despite all the hype -- Trump's military moves have actually been in the context of recent American border politics. It's a grim tale without an end in sight. Fortunately, Miller is on the job. Tom

The Border Fetish

The U.S. Frontier as a Zone of Profit and Sacrifice

By Todd Miller At first, I thought I had inadvertently entered an active war zone. I was on a lonely two-lane road in southern New Mexico heading for El Paso, Texas. Off to the side of the road, hardly concealed behind some desert shrubs, I suddenly noticed what seemed to be a tank. For a second, I thought I might be seeing an apparition. When I stopped to take a picture, a soldier wearing a camouflage helmet emerged from the top of the Stryker, a 19-ton, eight-wheeled combat vehicle that was regularly used in military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. He looked my way and I offered a pathetic wave. To my relief, he waved back, then settled behind what seemed to be a large surveillance display mounted atop the vehicle. With high-tech binoculars, he began to monitor the mountainous desert that stretched toward Mexico, 20 miles away, as if the enemy might appear at any moment. That was in 2012 and, though I had already been reporting on the militarization of the U.S.-Mexican border for years, I had never seen anything like it. Barack Obama was still president and it would be another six years before Donald Trump announced with much fanfare that he was essentially going to declare war at the border and send in the National Guard. ("We really haven't done that before," Trump told the media on April 3rd, "or certainly not very much before.") Operation Nimbus II, as the 2012 mission was called, involved 500 soldiers from Fort Bliss and Fort Hood and was a typical Joint Task Force North (JTF-N) operation. Those troops were officially there to provide the U.S. Border Patrol with "intelligence and surveillance." Since JTF-N was tasked with supporting the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on the border, its motto was "protecting the Homeland." However, it was also deeply involved in training soldiers for overseas military operations in ongoing American wars in the Greater Middle East. Only weeks before, 40 Alaskan-based Army airborne engineers had parachuted into nearby Fort Huachuca as if they were part of an invasion force landing in Southern Arizona. That border operation (despite the dramatic arrival, all they did was begin constructing a road) "mirrors the type of mission the 40 soldiers might conduct if they were deployed to Afghanistan," JTF-N "project organizers" told the Nogales International. As JTF-N spokesman Armando Carrasco put it, "This will prepare them for future deployments, especially in the areas of current contingency operations." So seeing combat vehicles on the border shouldn't have surprised me, even then. A "war" against immigrants had been declared long before Trump signed the memo to deploy 2,000-4,000 National Guard troops to the border. Indeed, there has been a continuous military presence there since 1989 and the Pentagon has played a crucial role in the historic expansion of the U.S. border security apparatus ever since. When, however, Trump began to pound out tweets on Easter Sunday on his way to church, Americans did get a vivid glimpse of a border "battlefield" more than 30 years in the making, whose intensity could be ramped up on the merest whim. The president described the border as "getting more dangerous" because 1,000 Central Americans, including significant numbers of children, in flight from violence in their home countries were in a "caravan" in Mexico slowly heading north on a Holy Week pilgrimage. Many of them were intending to ask for asylum at the border, as they feared for their lives back home. Fox & Friends labeled that caravan a "small migrant army" and so set the battlefield scenario perfectly for the show's number one fan. The end result -- those state National Guards caravaning south -- might have been as ludicrous a response to the situation as a tank in an empty desert pointed at Mexico, but it did catch a certain reality. The border has indeed become a place where the world's most powerful military faces off against people who represent blowback from various Washington policies and are in flight from persecution, political violence, economic hardship, and increasing ecological distress. (Central America is becoming a climate-change hot spot.) Yet these twenty-first century border "battlefields" remain hidden from the public and largely beyond discussion. The Fetish of the Border As I moved away from the Stryker that day, I wondered what that soldier was seeing through his high-tech binoculars. It's a question that remains no less pertinent six years later as yet more National Guard troops head for the border. Even today, such forces aren't likely to ever see a caravan of 1,000 refugees, only -- possibly -- tiny groups of crossers moving through the U.S. borderlands to look for work, reunite with family, or escape potentially grave harm. Such people, however, usually travel under the cover of night. Even less likely: anyone carrying drugs into the United States. According to the Drug Enforcement Agency, the majority of illicit narcotics that cross the border into the world's largest market (valued at approximately $100 billion per year) arrive through legal ports of entry. Least likely of all: a person designated as a "terrorist" by the U.S. government, even though that's became the priority mission of Joint Task Force North and Customs and Border Protection. A flood of money has, in these years, poured into border budgets for just such a counterterrorism mission, yet no such person, not a single one, has been reported crossing the southern border since 1984. (And even that incident seems dubious.) Indeed, the most likely thing to glimpse along that divide is evidence of the countless billions of dollars that have been spent there over the last 30 years to build the most gigantic border enforcement apparatus in U.S. history. You would be quite likely, for instance, to see armed U.S. Border Patrol agents in their green-striped vehicles. (After all Customs and Border Protection, or CBP, the Border Patrol's parent outfit, is now the largest federal law enforcement agency.) You might also catch glimpses of high-tech surveillance apparatuses like aerostats, the tethered surveillance balloons brought back from American battle zones in Afghanistan that now hover over and monitor the borderlands with long-range cameras and radar. Those binoculars wouldn't be able to see as far as the small town of Columbus, New Mexico -- the very town that Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa so famously raided in 1916 -- but if they could, you might also see portions of an actual border wall, built with bipartisan support after the Secure Fence Act of 2006 passed, with votes from Democrats like Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Chuck Schumer. Those 650 miles of walls and barriers cost an average of $3.9 million per mile to build and additional millions to maintain, money that went into the coffers of the military-industrial complex.

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BY T. D. DUFF TONKA BAY, MINNESOTA

Albert Einstein once asked Sigmund Freud, "is it possible to control man's mental evolution, so as to make him forever resistant against the psychosis of hate and destructiveness?" Freud responded, "You surmise that man has in him an active instinct for hatred and destruction amenable to such stimulations. I entirely agree with you... The most casual glance at world history will show you an unending series of conflicts between one community and another." Freud referred to two fundamental instincts in human beings: the erotic, or love instinct, and its opposite, the destructive instinct. The only hope he could hold for the erotic triumphing over the destructive, was in the cultural development of the human race, including "a strengthening of the intellect which tends to master our instinctive life."

Einstein had another view of the value of intelligence in the mastering of instincts. He referred to "the psychosis of hate and destructiveness." Einstein concluded, "Experience proves that it is rather the so-called 'Intelligentsia' that is most apt to yield to these disastrous collective suggestions."

Modern war involves the institutional use and manipulation of personal characteristics such as obedience, suggestibility and idealism. Our culture has created "pseudospecies," that is, false categories of race and nation that obliterate the sense of ourselves as one species and thus encourage the hostility that turns violent. Animals other than man don't make war. They do not engage in organized violence on behalf of some abstraction. This is only the tragic trait of creatures with advanced brains and cultures. The animal commits violence for a specific, viable reason--the need for food and self- defense.

In the sciences of genetics, psychology, anthropology and zoology, there is no evidence of a human instinct for the kind of aggressive violence that characterizes war. The persistence of war does not prove that its origin is in human nature. But, there are some persistent facts that do explain the constant break-out of war that has nothing to do with the instincts that science, no matter how hard it tries, can find in our genes. The facts are the existence of ruling elites in every culture who become enamored with their own power and seek to expand it. It is the fact of the greed of culture and the powerful minorities in society who seek more raw materials, or more markets, or more land, or more favorable places for investment. It is the fact of the persistent ideology of nationalism, in the modern world, a set of beliefs taught to each generation in which the their country becomes an object of veneration and becomes a burning cause for which one becomes willing to kill the children of other lands.

The conservative argument as stated by Thomas Hobbes in 1651 in his book Leviathan, was that people can't govern themselves because they are essentially evil and dysfunctional, and thus need strong leaders. Hobbes was employed by and supported the absolute monarchy of Charles Stuart, against the revolutionary Parliamentary forces. Hobbes believed the 'iron fist' of church and state should govern the people.

Then John Locke came along in 1689 and posited that man was good by nature because he could reason. That idea by Locke was taken by Rousseau and Voltaire and turned into the Enlightenment, a truly revolutionary period of time. This was when we first saw the clear definition of conservative and liberal. The British were the conservatives and the liberals were the revolutionaries in the United States. In America, Alexander Hamilton and John Adams and others were conservative, and James Madison and Thomas Jefferson and many others were liberal. They believed that people could be governed by themselves. The compromise between the conservatives who thought people were basically evil and the liberals, was to give people democracy, but not too much. That's why they wrote into the constitution that the Senate would not be directly elected. They did not trust "we the people."

We do not need human nature to explain war. But, human nature is simple and easy and requires little thought. It is hard work to analyze the social, economic, and cultural factors that have led to so many wars. One can hardly blame people for avoiding it.

It is true that there is an infinite capacity for violence, but there is also an infinite capacity for good and kindness as Locke and the Enlightenment taught us. The unique ability of humans to imagine gives enormous power to idealism, an imagining of a better state of things not yet in existence. That power has been misused to send young men to war. But the power of idealism must be used to attain justice and to end the massive violence of war.

John Locke wrote is his book the State of Nature that, "men living according to reason without a common superior on earth to judge between them, is properly the state of nature."
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From No More Fake News



Pig--with a brain?

(Image by flickr.com) Details DMCA



Stat news: "...Stanford University's Dr. Hiromitsu Nakauchi... broke open the chimera field with a 2010 experiment showing he could grow a rat pancreas in a mouse...Nakauchi is now working...on human-sheep chimeras, hoping that sheep, which have proven more receptive than pigs for growing human blood cells, might be a better template for growing human organs."

I've long thought that certain humans already have pig brains, so transplantations between pigs and humans ought to be easy --

We're entering the world of growing human organs in animals, for the purpose of taking those organs and putting them into human bodies. Someday, if all goes well (don't hold your breath), no more long waiting lines for a new kidney or a liver. Voila. They'll just grow one in a pig or a sheep or a monkey.

Now do you know why Hollywood has been churning out so many movies with mutants and hybrids and mix and match monsters? Chimeras are in. It's the coming fashion statement.

"Yes, Sid was dying until they made a heart in a gorilla and stuck it in his chest. He's so proud to show people the scar from the surgery."

"Who, the gorilla?"

"No, Sid!"

"That's nothing. My wife's new brain was grown in a mountain lion. At night, out on the lawn, she crouches and growls. I admit I find it rather thrilling."

"My cousin Sally, God bless her, just volunteered to have the lower part of her body removed, so could become half horse."

Yes, but will they allow Sally to run in the Kentucky Derby?

The medical world is agog with the possibilities of human-animal interchanges. Behind that, however, is a lurking trans-human proposition: "Nothing about a human is settled. We can make humans into anything we want to. Let's create a new world..."

And if THAT comes to pass, it'll be far easier to convince people to enlist for re-programming at fundamental levels. "Thank you for signing up. We want to build people who are ONLY interested in others, not themselves. We want abject altruists who'll give everything away for an abstract ideal of 'justice.' We can condition that impulse into the New Human."

Science on the march:

Keep breaking down and assaulting the idea that the human being is inviolate, until the masses are ready to accept any and all alterations.

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Congress Switchboard: 202-224-3121

"Rob Kall has been the center of a vast, decentralized conversation for years, letting us hear in interviewees' own words the power of connection in every realm. His new book brings it all together, showing us that the old order is broken and fast being replaced from the bottom up. The old power elite may not know it yet, but millions of us -- organizers, artists, thinkers and doers -- have gotten the message. So should you, by reading Bottom-Up."



Arlene Goldbard, author of The Culture of Possibility: Art, Artists & The Future
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Imagine going to an ATM to withdraw cash and getting notes from 'Children Bank of India' and 'Churan Lable' instead. And that's what happened in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly district. According to a complaint lodged with the UBI branch manager at Bareilly on Monday, three customers had received fake currency notes of Rs 500 denomination from the ATM on Sunday evening.

One of the complainants, Ashok Pathak, a retired health employee, said he had withdrawn Rs 4,500. "One currency note of Rs 500 turned out to be fake. It had 'Children Bank of India' and 'Churan Lable' written on it."

The other complainant, Indra Kumar Shukla, an employee with the Financial Inclusion Department of a company, said: "Of the Rs 1,000 I withdrew from the ATM at Subhash Nagar, one Rs 500 note was fake. I asked the bank to replace the fake note."

The complainants have also submitted photocopies of the fake notes as proof.

Bareilly: A United Bank of India ATM in Subhash Nagar had dispensed fake notes. I had withdrawn money from their. One of the 500 rupees note turned out to be fake: Ashok Pathak, complainant pic.twitter.com/7A74EtnILl - ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 23, 2018

#WATCH - ATM machine of United Bank of India installed at Subhashnagar, Bareilly started dispensing fake 500 rupees notes, with 'Children Banks of India', 'Bhartiya Manoranjan Bank' and 'Churan Lable' written over it. pic.twitter.com/oET3KB05tJ - News18 (@CNNnews18) April 23, 2018

Shukla told The Times of India: "When I reached the UBI ATM, a few customers asked me to record a video of the transaction. After I received a fake note, I realised why they had given me the suggestion. Two more had received fake notes before me." A video of Shukla withdrawing money and receiving a fake note is being widely shared on social media.Branch Manager Bacchan Shah said: "After thoroughly checking the machine on Monday, we did not find a single fake note. A report has been sent to our head office in Calcutta to blacklist or take action against the agency, which had fed the cash in the ATM. It seems the officials must have replaced some of the currency notes and it was an embarrassment for the bank."

"I have assured the customers that if they receive fake notes, we will reimburse them. We have given sorted notes from a machine to an agency to refill them in ATMs, so there was no lapse from our side,'' he added.

Looks like from cash crunch to fake notes, ATM woes are here to stay for a while.
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From Smirking Chimp

Ban drones.

Why not?

We have succumbed, in recent years, to technological passivity, the assumption that there's nothing we can (or should) do about what an older generation used to call "progress." But that's not true.

War goes on, yet most of the world's nations came together to ban land mines. Mines, humanity decided, were a horror we could no longer live with because their murderous potential remained long after the frontlines moved elsewhere, even after hostilities ceased, and mostly hurt civilians. Similarly, chemical weapons were banned after mustard gas scarred the World War I generation.

Here in the United States, societal consensus supports bans of hollow-point bullets that explode inside the body (they're currently banned by the military), high-capacity magazines for guns, the bump stocks that came to our attention after the mass shooting at a country music festival in Las Vegas, and semi-automatic assault rifles.

Weapons aren't the only tech to which society simply responds: "Hell no. Just. No." Human cloning has prompted calls for bans by those who believe we shouldn't plow ahead without better understanding the potential downsides. Alcohol and cigarettes are banned for children. Lots of drugs are banned. Banning products is a well-established societal and political prerogative.

Drones should be banned too: military drones as well as recreational ones. We already have a substantial body of evidence that they are dangerous. Potential advantages, on the other side, seem relatively modest. They're cool. I've played with them.

No one has sat down to consider, in a careful measured way, the pros and cons of unmanned aerial vehicles. Where, as our skies are about to turn into the Wild West, are the Congressional hearings and expert opinions?

If you stop to think about it, selling drones to any yahoo with $400 is a recipe for chaos. Launched from the roof of a Manhattan apartment building, a pervert's drone can peep through windows. A terrorist, or merely a doofus, can fly one into the blades of a low-flying helicopter or into the engine or windshield of a plane approaching the airport. And they will. It's only a matter of time.

The terrorism potential became evident in 2015 when a guy accidentally flew his Phantom drone onto the White House lawn. Loading one with explosives is easy. Or a gun -- a father and son affixed a pistol to a drone and fired it remotely in the woods of Connecticut.

I'm even less sanguine about corporate and institutional applications. Whether it's Uber and NASA's announcement that they plan to launch flying taxis in Los Angeles or Amazon's imminent fleet of delivery drones, I'm not sure I want to live long enough to hear buzzing drones where birds are supposed to sing, or see some dude's dinner pass overhead. Maybe a sane compromise is possible, like limiting the gadgets to flight paths above major roadways. Why can't we figure that out now, before the inevitable technological growing pains (aka deaths and injuries and overall crapitude)?

While it's easy to imagine how drones can improve our lives -- they have already found missing hikers in the wilderness, for example -- it is impossible to overstate how creepy it would be to put them into the hands of law enforcement. Obama attorney general Eric Holder said in 2013, and no legal expert challenged him, that the feds have the right to launch military drone strikes against American citizens on U.S. soil.

California cops used one to track a rogue LAPD officer a few years ago. Local law enforcement drones could catch speeders, scan for expired vehicle registration and inspection stickers (stationary devices already do) and use thermal imaging devices to conduct warrantless searches. And there will come a day, not in the distant future, when the same Cleveland police department that shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice to death for the crime of playing while black will type commands into an iPad that controls an armed drone that blows up more innocent civilians.

This is serious, major dystopian horror-show crap. Can't we stop it before it starts?

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span.Apple-tab-span {white-space:pre}

A beautiful statue of Liberty lights

New York harbor to signal protection of rights

the Creator bestowed upon all humankind

at the dawn of the universe, time out of mind.

Since rights are not granted by princes or czars,

presidents, popes, judges, bishops or shahs,

not made up by activists on the left wing,

nor granted by parliament, congress or king,

not meant for one group as opposed to another,

all men are born equal: each man is a brother.

So try as they might, and try as they may,

what God has given, men can't take away.

America's Founders did well comprehend

both the nature of power and the nature of men.

They fashioned a government meant to insure

that freedom and rights would be always secure.

While progress was slow, the direction was clear.

Injustice was rooted out year after year.

Women and Blacks took their seats at the table,

and new laws were passed for the old and disabled.

It seemed as though freedom would always prevail,

but slowly and surely democracy failed.

Few saw the end coming; few knew when it came.

Nothing seemed different; it all looked the same.

TV still reported in timely detail

on the latest celebrities going to jail.

Talk radio featured right wing diatribes;

the press meekly parroted government lies.

Voters were never quite fully informed,

the truth being either withheld or suborned.

Democracy means that the citizens choose

who governs them, based upon well-informed views.

When wool can be pulled over citizens' eyes,

freedom is lost, and democracy dies.

Now hear what occurred in 2000 AD:

George Bush came to power by judicial decree.

Elections were held but the votes didn't count.

Irregularities weren't sorted out.

Al Gore won the popular vote nationwide,

but only the Florida vote would decide

who captured the White House, it didn't seem fair.

George W. Bush was ahead by a hair.

Bush was ahead by so small an amount

that Florida law would require a recount.

If counting continued, his lead wouldn't last.

Republicans figured they'd better act fast.

So Katherine Harris, a trusted Bush friend,

ruled that the incomplete tally must end

As Florida's proud secretary of state,

she saved Bush's hide before it was too late.

Albert Gore chose, as a final resort,

to press his claims forward from court to High Court.

Conservative justices ruled against Gore,

finding for Bush by one vote, five to four.

A raw usurpation of power had occurred.

The voice of the people was not being heard.

Bush kept the White House in two thousand four.

By then the U.S. was already at war.

The whole Middle East was a festering boil,

with strife over land and religion and oil.

A radical Islamist group, Taliban,

had captured the country of Afghanistan.

Draconian laws were enacted with zeal.

They forced all the ladies and girls to conceal

their faces, their arms, and their ankles as well.

In truth, they reduced women's lives to pure hell.

They harbored Osama Bin Laden, the fighter,

as well as his terrorist cell called Al Qaeda.

He told young recruits they'd have virgins in Heaven,

for dying while carrying out "Nine-Eleven."

Men entered the States and they learned how to fly.

They were not Iraqis, as some would imply.

Their ties to Al Qaeda were deftly concealed.

Their sinister secrets could not be revealed.

Osama bin Laden had called for Jihad.

His minions would kill in the name of their god.

They highjacked four planes to accomplish their goals;

murdered the pilots and seized the controls.

Passengers prayed as they sped through the skies.

Some used their cell phones to say their good byes.

It's called Nine-Eleven, for that was the day

three-thousand folks died, some as heroes, they say.

The world stood aghast as the horror unfolded.

World Trade Center towers first burned, then imploded.

The Pentagon site was a fiery mound.

The fourth plane's passengers brought it to ground.

From Singapore, Florence, Victoria Falls,

came letters and flowers, and telephone calls

so caring that grieving Americans knew

that the world stood beside them in brotherhood true.

The President, after he finished his book,

went up to New York for a personal look.

He spoke some kind words for the cameras nearby,

with pain in his heart and a tear in his eye.

Once back in Washington, Bush called for war.

He'd capture bin Laden and settle the score,

affect a regime change in Afghanistan,

and move on from there to Iraq and Iran.

He warned other states against aiding the foe,

"Cuz you're either for us or 'gainst us, you know."

Americans strongly approved of the war.

Support for George Bush from that moment would soar.

He toppled the Taliban, easy as pie.

Bin Laden, however, was cunning and sly.

Troops couldn't find him or locate his den.

So what was the army supposed to do then?

Dick Cheney developed some plans of his own.

He badgered George Bush 'til he picked up the phone:

"Searching for 'Sama now seems to be vain.

We're shifting our focus to Saddam Hussein.

We've finished our foray in Afghanistan.

It's off to Iraq 'cuz Saddam, a bad man,

has nuclear weapons there, make no mistake.

He sent folks to Niger to buy yellowcake."

It almost caused Cheney's best plans to abort.

when U.N. inspectors turned in this report:

"We've searched high and low for the WMD

We've searched as far as the eye can see."

"So far," they told Bush, "we have not found a one.

If you know something, tell us, so we can be done."

When Cheney demanded, "Find reasons for war!"

the CIA rummaged through cabinet and drawer.

At last they found something they thought they could use:

reports of a load of aluminum tubes.

While energy scientists laughed to derision

the notion the tubes were for nuclear fission,

Ms Rice said with characteristic sang froid,

"The tubes are for nuclear je ne sais quoi."

The argument left all the allies unmoved.

So Bush, once again, said intelligence proved,

(with documents that were transparently fake),

that someone attempted to buy yellowcake.

Colin Powell was dispatched to the United Nations

to pass along dubious interpretations

of documents forged or else misrepresented,

and evidence people had simply invented.

But delegates snorted at Powell's presentation

and sniffed at the United States delegation.

Friends and antagonists voiced opposition,

but Congressmen cowered in craven submission.

When people are driven by hatred and fright

it robs them of freedom like thieves in the night.

When fear was pervasive the president went

Before Congress to ask them for written consent

to wage a preventative war on Iraq,

because Saddam posed a real threat of attack.

Congress submitted with little ado.

Since "nay" votes took courage, there were precious few.

The bombing began, Saddam's statue came down.

Hussein fled the palace and went underground.

But nothing was quite as George Bush had portrayed:

no flowers, no kisses, no welcome parade.

No longer afraid of Saddam Hussein's cops,

the people were looting museums and shops.

Car bombs exploded and violence was rife.

No person was safe: they all feared for their life.

Sunnis and Shiites are Islamic groups

that turned on each other as well as the troops.

The war went on year after torturous year,

with Bush always claiming that victory was near.

Then straight off the pages of Marquis de Sade,

came photos of prisoners, unclothed and unshod,

who were forced into postures and acts so obscene

that they served to humiliate, frighten, demean.

The pictures, soon posted all over the web,

were shot in a prison that's called Abu Ghraib.

Some nights, by the entrance, a sign would appear:

"Abandon all Hope if You're Entering Here"

That's nonsense!" Rush Limbaugh announced on

fraternity boys do the same things and worse."

It came to light later, in 2010,

that American frat boys were at it again

in a secret compound at Guantanamo Bay

that was run by the army and Bush C.I.A..

In the"strawberry fields," as they called it perversely,

they savaged their prisoners for years without mercy.

Masters Rumsfeld and Bush sent a written decree

that their victims should neither be tried nor set free.

But "we don't do torture," the President said,

"in spite of whatever you've seen or you've read.

Those very few cases of prisoner abuse

were done by some sociopaths on the loose."

"We're told by the White House," said one news report,

"that whitewater boarding's a fine summer sport."

American people, though, never got wise,

'til another catastrophe opened their eyes.

The warnings went out three full days in advance.

Most whites fled the city, not taking a chance.

Zoo animals living in Audubon Park

were saved from the flood like the ones in the Ark.

Poor blacks, however, had nowhere to go,

no money for plane fare, no boats for to row,

no money to pay for hotels out of town,

no choice but to stay there and hope not to drown.

The waters rolled in with the wind and the rain.

The levees gave way around Lake Pontchartrain,

The world watched the grim, unforgettable scenes

of Hell being visited on New Orleans.

The President could have sent federal aid,

rescue boats, telephones, cold lemonade,

medicine, diapers, perhaps baby food.

But Bush was apparently not in the mood.

He had other plans more important by far.

He wanted to try out his brand new guitar.

He'd gone on vacation: this time would be his.

"Besides, they exaggerate how bad it is."

With water too high to let folks out or in,

survivors were desperate to find missing kin.

The old and the sick were the first ones to die.

Some people said they saw bodies float by.

Days later, George W., arriving by air,

made many a promise in old Jackson Square.

The few that he kept were too little too late--

a point that elicited little debate.

Support for the President dropped like a stone.

But Bush never altered his course or his tone.

He never admitted a single mistake.

However, he had an announcement to make:

"Security mandates broad changes. Let's list 'em:

Create a Republican one party system.

Of rights there are many, but one of the best,

if denied, will effectively cancel the rest.

With habeas corpus a court is compelled

to learn if a prisoner's legally held,

and if it turns out that the answer is 'no,'

the government must let the prisoner go.

This flies in the face of executive power,

so Congress suspended it this very hour.

They'll cancel the Bill of Rights too, bye and bye,

because the Decider has said so, that's why."

But Americans strongly hold onto the myth

that a country that's founded by God will not drift

very far from its pre-ordained holy direction

without a decisive and timely correction,

(perhaps in the next presidential election).

When a liberal, black, Constitutional scholar,

bearing the name Barack Hussein Obama,

became the next president, some would contend

that abuses of government power would end.

But Bush era crimes would escape prosecution.

Obama had granted them full absolution.

"Regime Change" continued, to Hillary's glee.

And torture accomplices still go scot-free.

Banking-fraud moguls continue apace

reaping fabulous bonuses in their disgrace

for their role in provoking a world-wide recession,

with millions left homeless through bank repossession.

So why, one must ask, is it such a surprise

to find ourselves ruled by a fascist who lies,

a tyrant so vicious that if he is crossed,

might bring on a nuclear holocaust?

Copyright - 2018 by Meredith Ramsay
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I was standing in line at Chipotle when the guy in front of me asked the staff, "I've got seven bucks. What can I get?" I knew that $7 was just below the threshold for getting anything at Chipotle, so I slipped him a few bills. Then as I stood there looking at the back of his head, I wondered if this fellow was just budgeting carefully, or whether he did not know at that point where his evening meal would come from, or if there was even going to be an evening meal. Here I was confronting true range anxiety! This in the middle of Woodland Hills, a prosperous region of Los Angeles. His is obviously not an isolated case. Two thoughts arose: How did we come to this, in our opulent society? And: There must be a better way.

First, there came globalization. Paul Krugman at one point early on looked for evidence that globalization was affecting American wages, and at the time he had difficulty coming up with data in support. Perhaps it would have helped if he had thought about the problem like a physicist instead of like an economist. Imagine a balloon billowing up and filling out under internal pressure. That pressure symbolizes the higher wages inside versus outside. Now puncture the balloon with a few tiny holes. What happens? The result is inevitable. The balloon deflates--slowly but relentlessly.

Here's the magic part: Everywhere you test inside the balloon, you find it to be in an equilibrium state. The only point at which you can tell a deviation from equilibrium is right at the leak itself. The state of equilibrium is maintained all the way down. No wonder Paul Krugman did not find what he was looking for. But the end result is apparent to all. American wages in the manufacturing sector were squeezed. The smaller towns and cities where one manufacturer was dominant were particularly hit hard. Even a virtual hole in the balloon was sufficient, as a factory owner could simply hold the threat of abandonment over his workers to gain compliance. This leaves little macro-economic evidence for the economist to find.

At that point, the American labor market was split in two. One part was directly affected by world labor prices and the other was not. This was the state of affairs in manufacturing, but that was not to last. Capital had gotten a taste of bending labor to its will. A permanent power shift had taken place. Labor had been strongest in manufacturing, and it was crushed.

Immigration did the rest. Here the balloon was punctured with respect to labor itself, not just goods. Immigration placed all other labor categories into the status of surplus--service and construction--with the exception of those that were protected by licensure or the requirement of American citizenship (i.e., for classified government work). Immigration was yet another potentially bottomless resource of cheap labor, available as needed. The balloon deflated by way of many small punctures, each individually negligible. American labor of all stripes lost market power.

Here we had American employers brazenly asking their American employees to train the very immigrants who would be taking their jobs, while Wall Street was gathering the fruits. Meanwhile, our government was a by-stander, a silent co-conspirator, marginalized as a mere instrumentality of the financial powers.

Then there is the impact of technology. Diffusing widely throughout the economy, technology disrupted existing product categories and placed much labor into surplus. This is the new normal. Technology will increasingly become the driver of labor surplus, displacing trade and immigration. The sorting that occurs in consequence will become ever more virulent, and the category of those who cannot rise to the demands of the new economy will swell.

What has been the consequence? Wages are so low at Walmart, McDonald's, Disneyland, and Amazon, that substantial fractions of their workforces are supported by the State through food stamps and other income support programs. We are well into what one might call the Walmart/Amazon economy. The titans of capital are obviously ok with this, so let's not hear any more complaints about people on the dole from these same folks.

With a large fraction of our citizens dependent on government aid of one kind or another, perhaps it is time to confront this creeping reality and make something of it. May we see this as an opportunity rather than as an affliction? Could this be an opportunity for the convergence of right and left? A sober, rational, and humane voice on the right, in the person of Charles Murray, has come out in favor of a minimum personal income. His desire, as a conservative, is to get the government out of the business of micromanaging people's lives. Hurray for that, says this inveterate liberal.

Here we have the great equalizer. After all, the man or woman on the assembly line who is competing with workers in Bangladesh still has to pay American housing prices. The college graduate with huge debts to pay is not in a good position to compete against the immigrant from India whose education was paid for. A stipend for the American worker re-levels the playing field. It restores some negotiating power to the employee--the option to say no. But there is more.

The many artists whose work by its very nature does not yield a paycheck every week would have a base of support on which to sustain themselves. Young people can be more fluid in their career choices and won't be so tethered to their parent's homes. Folks can commit to volunteer work while their own basic biological needs are covered. They can take time out from the working world to take care of ill or aging family members. Forward-looking people can act on the recognition that what our society needs is not congruent with what it is willing to pay for. There would be a great flourishing of creativity, and of a redirection of our personal energies to meet societal needs rather than wants.

A minimum personal income can serve to revitalize rural America, allowing people to build a life independent of the cash nexus that is the city. It can help to equalize the competitive prowess between the small family farmer and the industrial farming enterprise. On the other side, if there were to be an economic collapse, we would have a buffer that was not available in the crash of 2008, giving people who are thrown off the bus a soft landing.

One thing that could precipitate such a collapse is a trade war. With the above equalizer, there is no need for tariff wars such as we are engaging in now. American labor costs, complemented by a universal income, will not be an undue burden to American manufacturers facing International competition.

Above all of these material considerations, which are plentiful, there are additional major benefits: First of all, we'll see the restoration of dignity to the person--the recognition that each of us is of intrinsic value. There is a floor below which we will not allow citizens to sink while we are witness to their distress. Secondly, we'll see the moderation of our insane degree of income inequality, presently a key factor distorting both our economy and our politics. This is also a pre-condition for the third major impact: the revival of faith in our democratic governance through the common bond of mutual support.

Surely there will be folks who will rely on their meager stipend to stick their toes in the warm sand on the beach and smoke pot. So be it. Many more will be empowered to initiate a new venture, to take a chance on something, to abandon tyrannical bosses and switch jobs. Those who will be empowered will more than compensate for any 'slackers.' I have seen this at work in my own life. As an entrepreneur for over thirty years, I was nevertheless glad to be getting my Social Security check and Medicare. It made me more venturesome, not less, because now certain risks were being managed. I had a firm cushion to rely on, if worse were to come to worst.

My own Social Security cushion also sharpened the contrast between me and the fellow at Chipotle. Age qualified me for assistance, independently of need. Perhaps it is time to generalize that principle: Citizenship qualifies you for a floor on income. We have a shared interest in everyone's wellbeing. The impact, of course, would be most salutary for those in need. How may we judge the state of desperation that exists in our society presently? One marker is the flourishing of the payday lending business. No one in his bloody right mind would ever resort to a payday lender unless they were absolutely at the end of their resources and in a state of great need. A second marker is the prevalence of the homeless. About one percent of Los Angeles residents are presently homeless. At least that many are at the margin of homelessness, darkly confronting that prospect. The need is manifest. We have no other remedy on offer for those who have been marginalized. The ratio of perceived social value to actual cost is likely substantial.
Daily News Podcast: Infosys to renew focus on digital services

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Infosys to renew focus on digital services

Infosys Ltd, India's second-biggest IT firm, plans to renew its focus on digital services as it looks to boost growth amid shrinking profit margins in its legacy business and rising competition from local and international rivals. Digital services - such as cloud, big data and analytics which accounted for more than a quarter of Infosys' revenue in year to March 2018 - are a massive opportunity, Chief Executive Salil Parekh said on Monday at the company's first analyst meeting in nearly two years.Infosys, earlier this month, reported a rise in profit and forecast healthy revenue growth for the year, but its outlook on profit margins failed to cheer investors, as reported by Reuters.



Google parent Alphabet records surge in profit, but costs also go up

Strong growth in ad sales on Google search and YouTube were not enough to offset a surge in costs at parent Alphabet Inc that shrank the first-quarter operating margin, leaving shares flat after hours on Monday. Alphabet got a boost from how it values investments in Uber Technologies Inc and other startups. That accounting change and a one-time benefit cut its effective tax rate nearly in half. Investors are uncertain about future profit at Alphabet as the company navigates the move to a phone-based computing world.



Raghuram Rajan candidate for Bank of England governor role: report

Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan is one of the contenders for the next chief of the Bank of England as the term of its current governor Mark Carney nears its end. UK Chancellor and Exchequer Philip Hammond has indicated that he would be willing to look abroad for Carney's successor. Mark Carney whose term ends in June 2019 was the first foreigner in three centuries to run the UK central banks.



Ford ends Hyundai's reign as India's top car exporter

US car major Ford has ended Korean carmaker Hyundai Motor's more than a decade-long dominance as the largest exporter of cars in India. In 2017-18, a year when overall passenger vehicle exports from the country have declined for the first time in a decade, Ford managed to ship 14.31 per cent more cars at 181,148 units surpassing Hyundai's tally of 153,942 units, a drop of nearly 8 per cent over 2016-17. Hyundai had been the largest exporter of cars since 2004-05.



Suitors refrain from making higher bids for hospital chain Fortis

Fortis Healthcare Ltd has received as many as five offers for control of its private hospital business, but suitors have so far held back from making bold bids for the group as it faces rising debt and a regulatory probe. Fortis, one of the country's largest hospital chain operators, is evaluating offers from domestic and international firms as reported by Reuters. Analysts, bankers and consultancy firms say Fortis, with around 30 hospitals, mostly in large cities in a country that lacks good public healthcare facilities, an established brand and good roster of doctors, is a rare and attractive asset in a market that is growing strongly.
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By Dave Lindorff



Tomahawk missile being launched towards Syria on 4/13

(Image by navylive.dodlive.mil) Details DMCA



Investigators from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) have only recently reached Douma, scene of an alleged chemical bombing attack on April 7, and have not yet had time to test samples they collected to see if banned poison chemicals were actually used, but already US mainstream media reporting on the situation in the Damascus suburb where the alleged chemical attack is said to have occurred is starting to shift. That shift tends to make the story to fall more comfortably in line with the US government position that the attack, if it happened, was the work of the Syrian military, and that Assad's "attack" caused rebels to surrender and agree to leave the embattled city.

The problem is, though, that back on April 1, a week before the alleged attack, the Associated Press was reporting something quite different : namely that rebels in Douma were beginning to evacuate the area they had held for years, under a safe passage agreement negotiated with the Syrian government, according to which buses would be able to remove them to safety in the north of the country. That report made clear that the rebel resistance had already collapsed g and that the rebel fighters were going to be evacuated in following days by chartered buses, which had already begun moving them out of the city well before April 7.

A French state television report on April 1 also reported that on that date:



Negotiators in the last rebel-held bastion in Syria's eastern Ghouta reached a deal on Saturday with the Russian side to evacuate the wounded from Douma to rebel-held northern Syria, local sources familiar with the deal said.

The agreement was reached by the negotiating committee that comprises both civic leaders and representatives of Jaish al-Islam, the rebel faction in control of Douma, the sources said.

The committee has been negotiating a deal to spare the city a military assault by the Syrian army and its allies who encircle it. They have threatened to storm the city if rebels do not agree to surrender the last patch in the enclave in return for safe passage to insurgent-held territory in northwestern Syria.



These accounts of course raise serious questions as to why Assad would opt to drop a few chemical bombs as he's accused by the US of doing, killing a few dozen local residents while predictably angering the world community and giving the US an opening to bomb his forces. Why do that if Assad's military forces had already won full control of the last rebel stronghold in Syria's capital city region, with an agreement, already being implemented, to ship the rebels out of the city?

But three weeks later, AP was reporting that the same rebel militants "gave up the town days after the alleged attack." As the article by AP reporter Philip Issa states, "Thousands of people -- rebels and civilians -- left Douma on buses to north Syria in the days after the suspected attack, believing they could not live under government authority after it retook the town."

So what's the story, AP? "

For the rest of this article by DAVE LINDORFF in ThisCantBeHappening!, the uncompromised, collectively run, six-time Project Censored Award-winning online alternative news site, please go to: www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/3874

(Article changed on April 24, 2018 at 21:21)
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From Paul Craig Roberts Website

Now that the Trump, May, and Macron regimes have proven beyond all doubt that they are lawless war criminal regimes, what is next?

Will the Russian president and foreign minister continue to speak of "our Western partners" and seek common ground with proven lawless war criminals? What would that common ground be?

How can other governments accept the US, UK, and French governments that intentionally lied about a Russian chemical attack on the Skripals and about a Syrian chemical attack on Douma, risking a third world war, and then themselves attacking Syria on the basis of a transparent lie unsupported by any evidence? How exactly do you conduct diplomatic relations with war criminals?

You don't. You put them on trial. Why aren't Trump, May, and Macron on trial?

The reason is that the world has been conditioned, like Pavlov's dogs, to expect and accept the West's war crimes as ordinary common features of life. The West's crimes are protected by precedents established by decades of failing to hold the West accountable. The West has squatters rights in committing unaccountable war crimes.

Stymied in the effort to overthrow Syria, Netanyahu is now focusing the Trump regime on renewing Washington's conflict with Iran. Will Washington's vassals continue to provide cover for Washington's crimes, or are some of the Europeans beginning to understand that the risks they assume for Washington exceed the money that Washington pays them?

Where will Russia stand if Washington renews its assault on Iran?

Despite the air attacks carried out on its Syrian ally by the US, NATO, and Israel, the Russian government still has not found the decisiveness to sell Syria its S-300 air defense system. Syria intercepted 70% of the US missiles in the last attack using obsolete Soviet-era air defense systems. The S-300 would allow Syria to protect itself from air attack and thus reduce the chance of war resulting from Israeli and US attacks on Syria.

Russian indecisiveness combined with the rest of the world's toleration of ongoing US war crimes suggests that more provocations will be orchestrated, that more lawless attacks will take place, and that eventually a fatal conflict will be brewed.

Think about it. The British are caught in the Skripal lie. Washington, the British, and the French are caught in the Douma chemical attack lie, and there are no consequences for those governments who orchestrated hoaxes and then used the hoaxes to justify their war crime.

How can it be that the American people are undisturbed by their government's 17 years of wars based entirely on blatant lies? How can it be that the American people and the Evangelical churches are unmoved by the millions of innocent peoples in seven countries who have been murdered, maimed, orphaned, and displaced by the profit-driven US military/security complex and by the neoconservative ideology in service to Israel?

How can it be that the US media is as effective a propaganda ministry for Washington as the German press was for the Nazis?

How can it be that the European, Canadian, and Australian governments and the citizens of these countries are not ashamed of their participation in these never-ending crimes?

Where is India's voice? China's? South America's?

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I believe that the US should immediately end its bombing of Syria and withdraw all of its 2000+ troops. I also believe that Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is a dictator and torturer responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Syrians. There is no contradiction between these two beliefs.

Not everyone would agree. The Workers World Party, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, International ANSWER, and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization are just a few of the groups on the left that contend that it is impossible to be antiwar and anti-Assad. Assad is good because he is opposed by the capitalist, racist, imperialist US. Oppose Assad and you support the US, no matter how loudly you declare that you oppose both Assad and the US.

The Douma gas attack on April 7 followed a week later by air strikes by the US, France, and Great Britain on supposed chemical-weapons installations of the Syrian government have posed a challenge for Bashar al-Assad apologists. Assad's cheering section in the West has been exercising all its ingenuity trying to convince us that Douma was a "false-flag" operation staged by militants. War correspondent Robert Fisk, who is embedded with Syrian government forces, reported from Douma that there was no gas attack; the 74 or more victims died from dust inhalation.

Assad's defenders were equally convinced of Assad's innocence for the 2017 gas attack on the town of Khan Shaykhun (100 killed) and the still more horrific 2013 sarin gas attack in Ghouta (1,429 killed).

On Friday, The Intercept ran "Dear Bashar al-Assad Apologists: Your Hero Is a War Criminal Even If He Didn't Gas Syrians," an article by broadcaster and journalist Mehdi Hasan. Hasan points out that even apart from using chemical weapons, Assad is responsible for "a vast array of blatant human rights abuses, crimes against humanity, and war crimes." Hasan is exactly right.

Hasan's article drew the ire of Australian independent journalist Caitlin Johnstone. What's Johnstone's beef with Hasan? Hasan is against military intervention in Syria and so is Johnstone, so that's not it.

Hasan accuses Assad of torture, indiscriminate bombing of civilians, and many other war crimes. Does Johnstone call these allegations untrue? Nooo, Johnstone doesn't say Hasan's allegations are untrue (although she does not concede their truth either).

No, Johnstone is upset by Hasan's "tone policing."

Johnstone slams Hasan for "condemning unnamed opponents of western interventionism in Syria for not being sufficiently condemnatory of Bashar al-Assad in their antiwar discourse."

The truth is that Assad's Western admirers do not condemn Assad at all. Mention Assad's crimes and they will change the subject to the crimes of the US or Israel or the Islamic State. Or simply lie. Vanessa Beeley, an unpaid propagandist for the Assad regime, has tweeted that Syria is "not a police state." The prisoners in Assad's torture cells will be glad to know that.

Not everything Assad's defenders say is wrong. They are right when they decry US imperialism. Depending on how you count, the US is currently involved in at least six wars. That number may climb if President Donald Trump carries out his threats against North Korea. And Johnstone is correct when she says that the US has schemed for years to topple Assad.

Assad's defenders are wrong, however, when they gloss over the crimes of countries other than the US, Israel, and other US allies. All Assad's defenders have done is invert Reaganism. President Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union "the focus of evil in the modern world." The Assadists simply switch the focus of evil to the US.

It follows that anything that goes wrong anywhere in the world is the work of the US. When the Syrian Revolution broke out in 2011 it wasn't because ordinary Syrians had had enough of Assad's arrests, torture, and repression; it was the work of the CIA.

A parodist of Sren Kierkegaard wrote that "Purity of mind is to think a single thought." That describes Assad's apologists perfectly. There seems to be no room in their tiny minds for any thought other than "US bad." They certainly have not managed to squeeze in the thought that Assad, Russia, and Iran may be bad too.

Assad's defenders tell us that criticism of Assad must be avoided because it gives aid and comfort to Western warmongers. What's more, criticism of the Syrian regime is racist. Slandering the Arabs and Muslims being killed by Assad, however, is not racist. (Curse that Mehdi Hasan's Islamophobic attacks on Assad!!)

I will give the last word to Mehdi Hasan:

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Global Vacuum Coated Products Market Forecast 2018-2025 Buhler Alzenau Gmbh, Satisloh Italy Srl, Emo Trans Gmbh

Vacuum Coated Products Market

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https://www.globeinforesearch.com/report/global-vacuum-coated-products-market-4679

A market study "Global Vacuum Coated Products Market" examines the performance of the Vacuum Coated Products market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Vacuum Coated Products market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Vacuum Coated Products market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Vacuum Coated Products Market 2018 report includes Vacuum Coated Products market Revenue, market Share, Vacuum Coated Products industry volume, market Trends, Vacuum Coated Products Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Vacuum Coated Products Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Vacuum Coated Products Market 2018 :Leybold Optics (Beijing) Co., Ltd.Buhler Alzenau GmbhSatisloh Italy SrlEmo Trans GmbhApplied Materials Web Coating GmbhVacuum Coated Products Market : By TypeVacuum Evaporation CoatingVacuum Sputtering CoatingVacuum Ion PlatingVacuum Coated Products Market : By ApplicationEquipmentsMedical InstrumentsOtherFirstly, the report covers the top Vacuum Coated Products manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Vacuum Coated Products report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Vacuum Coated Products industry, Vacuum Coated Products industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Vacuum Coated Products Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Vacuum Coated Products 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 Vacuum Coated Products market revenue worldwide.Finally, Vacuum Coated Products 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
Self-checkout Systems Market driving Growth over 2025

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Global Self-checkout Systems Market: OverviewContinuing to extend its popularity in global retail and shopping stores, self-checkout systems cancel the need for human assistance or a retail agent by automating the checkout process, which includes making payments and scanning and bagging purchased items. These systems are a massive investment for retailers and thus, they need to be user-friendly and intuitive. While the systems are still far from being perfect, it opens an opportunity for vendors to showcase their innovation and make a competitive progress in the self-checkout systems market.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Self-checkout Systems Market: Key TrendsWith a probable double-digit CAGR, the international self-checkout systems market is projected to aggravate its growth as it witnesses an expanding deployment of the systems in different retail arrangements such as convenience and department stores, hypermarkets, and supermarkets. Retailers are expected to adopt these systems at a telling rate because of their business-profiting benefits such as reduction in the operational cost of stores, more personalized services in store offerings, and decrease in checkout time. Hardware offerings such as weighing scale, payment related hardware, price reader, and display device are prognosticated to gain impetus in the coming years.The inflated risk of inventory loss on the part of retailers and unwillingness of customers to use the product could affect the growth of the global self-checkout systems market. However, lesser complexity, lower price, and other key advantages facilitated by the cashless model are anticipated to augment the adoption rate of self-checkout systems. Market players can look to penetrate large as well as small retail formats by allowing retailers to offer greater control, privacy, and convenience to their customers with self-checkout systems.Request TOC of the Report @Global Self-checkout Systems Market: Market PotentialThe Las Vegas ecommerce and retail event Shoptalk unveiled the reimagined future design of Targets Houston store as the chairman and CEO said the company is set to spend billions of dollars to give a new experience to its customers. Installed only a few steps away from each other, the reimagined store will feature an order pickup counter and self-checkout lanes for the time-starved customers. By the latest in October 2017, 40 additional Target stores will receive the new design along with the store in Houston. This reimagine design is part of the companys aim to meet its customers shopping needs by creating a smart network to work alongside supply chain and digital channels.Long Island Expressway (LIE) Welcome Center, a rest stop in New York, has also publicized its intentions to replace cashiers with self-checkout kiosks.Global Self-checkout Systems Market: Regional OutlookDue to the sweeping presence of various retail formats in the region, North America is forecasted to lead the global self-checkout systems market, putting behind other significant geographies of the industry. Followed by Mexico and Canada, the U.S. could be attributed for North Americas larger share in the market. Next to be lined under the list of top regional markets for self-checkout systems are Europe and Asia Pacific with decent growth opportunities for manufacturers.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @The growing retail industry in India coupled with a rising count of modern retail stores installed, Asia Pacific is predicted to emerge as a promising ground for market players. Europe, too, is envisaged to exhibit a continuous and steady growth in demand as an elevating number of convenience stores adopt self-checkout systems. Other regions could show some progress in the world self-checkout systems market as they feel the need to cater to the dynamic demands of customers and the urge to operate in line with todays technological advancements.Global Self-checkout Systems Market: Competitive LandscapeSome of the crucial players functioning in the worldwide self-checkout systems market are ITAB Scanflow, Diebold Nixdorf, Inc., Fujitsu Limited, Toshiba TEC Corporation, and NCR Corporation. Industry players could be focusing on supermarkets, hypermarkets, and other large retail formats to increase their presence as these stores accommodate a high flow of customers and more number of checkout counters. Likewise, they are prophesied to find opportunities in other leading segments of the 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
Global Electric Shovel Market Forecast 2018-2025 Caterpillar, Liehberr, Hitachi, Joy Global

Electric Shovel Market

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A market study "Global Electric Shovel Market" examines the performance of the Electric Shovel market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Electric Shovel market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Electric Shovel market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Electric Shovel Market 2018 report includes Electric Shovel market Revenue, market Share, Electric Shovel industry volume, market Trends, Electric Shovel Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Electric Shovel Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Electric Shovel Market 2018 :CaterpillarOMZTaiyuan Heavy IndustryHitachi Construction MachineryKomatsu and P&H Mining EquipmentJoy GlobalLiehberrElectric Shovel Market : By Type30 Cubic MetersElectric Shovel Market : By ApplicationBuildingMiningOtherFirstly, the report covers the top Electric Shovel manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Electric Shovel report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Electric Shovel industry, Electric Shovel industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Electric Shovel Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Electric Shovel 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 Electric Shovel market revenue worldwide.Finally, Electric Shovel 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
Review Management Software 2018 Global Industry Key Players - Grade Us , LocalClarity , BirdEye , Trustpilot , ReviewInc Market Analysis And Forecast To 2025

Global Review Management Software Market

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Global Review Management Software MarketThis report studies the global Review Management Software market, analyzes and researches the Review Management Software development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeGrade UsLocalClarityBirdEyeTrustpilotReviewIncWebPunchHoshinplan StrategyPowerReviewsChatmeterGet More ReviewsThe HOTHRevLeapTestimonial TreeVendasta TechnologiesYouReviewRequest a Sample Report @Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEUJapanChinaIndiaSoutheast AsiaMarket segment by Type, the product can be split intoCloud basedOn premiseMarket segment by Application, Review Management Software can be split intoLarge EnterpriseSMBTable of Contents-Key Points CoveredGlobal Review Management Software Market Size, Status and Forecast 20251 Industry Overview of Review Management Software1.1 Review Management Software Market Overview1.1.1 Review Management Software Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Review Management Software Market Size and Analysis by Regions (2013-2018)1.2.1 United States1.2.2 EU1.2.3 Japan1.2.4 China1.2.5 India1.2.6 Southeast Asia1.3 Review Management Software Market by Type1.3.1 Cloud based1.3.2 On premise1.4 Review Management Software Market by End Users/Application1.4.1 Large Enterprise1.4.2 SMB2 Global Review Management Software Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Review Management Software Market Size (Value) by Players (2013-2018)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend2.2.1 Market Concentration Rate2.2.2 Product/Service Differences2.2.3 New Entrants2.2.4 The Technology Trends in Future3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 Grade Us3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Review Management Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 LocalClarity3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.2.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.2.4 Review Management Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.2.5 Recent Developments3.3 BirdEye3.3.1 Company Profile3.3.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.3.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.3.4 Review Management Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.3.5 Recent Developments3.4 Trustpilot3.4.1 Company Profile3.4.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.4.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.4.4 Review Management Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.4.5 Recent Developments3.5 ReviewInc3.5.1 Company Profile3.5.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.5.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.5.4 Review Management Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.5.5 Recent Developments3.6 WebPunch3.6.1 Company Profile3.6.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.6.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.6.4 Review Management Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.6.5 Recent Developments3.7 Hoshinplan Strategy3.7.1 Company Profile3.7.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.7.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.7.4 Review Management Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.7.5 Recent Developments3.8 PowerReviews3.8.1 Company Profile3.8.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.8.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.8.4 Review Management Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.8.5 Recent Developments3.9 Chatmeter3.9.1 Company Profile3.9.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.9.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.9.4 Review Management Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.9.5 Recent Developments3.10 Get More Reviews3.10.1 Company Profile3.10.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.10.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.10.4 Review Management Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.10.5 Recent Developments3.11 The HOTH3.12 RevLeap3.13 Testimonial Tree3.14 Vendasta Technologies3.15 YouReviewContinued..Complete Report Details @Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt LtdOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
Global Water Mist Sprinkler Market Forecast 2018-2025 Viking Group Inc., FOGTEC, Rapidrop, Ikeuchi Taiwan

Water Mist Sprinkler Market

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A market study "Global Water Mist Sprinkler Market" examines the performance of the Water Mist Sprinkler market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Water Mist Sprinkler market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Water Mist Sprinkler market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Water Mist Sprinkler Market 2018 report includes Water Mist Sprinkler market Revenue, market Share, Water Mist Sprinkler industry volume, market Trends, Water Mist Sprinkler Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Water Mist Sprinkler Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Water Mist Sprinkler Market 2018 :United Technologies CorporationWatermist LimitedKoolfogBETEMee IndustriesWDT Werner DosiertechnikUltrafogSHIELD Fire, Safety & SecurityViking Group Inc.FOGTECRapidropIkeuchi TaiwanCY spraying & purification tech.Water Mist Sprinkler Market : By ApplicationResidential and domesticCommercialIndustrialFirstly, the report covers the top Water Mist Sprinkler manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Water Mist Sprinkler report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Water Mist Sprinkler industry, Water Mist Sprinkler industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Water Mist Sprinkler Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Water Mist Sprinkler 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 Water Mist Sprinkler market revenue worldwide.Finally, Water Mist Sprinkler 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
Global Electronic Heating Cables Market Forecast 2018-2025 Briskheat, Wanlan Group, SunTouch, Aoqi Electric

Electronic Heating Cables Market

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A market study "Global Electronic Heating Cables Market" examines the performance of the Electronic Heating Cables market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Electronic Heating Cables market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Electronic Heating Cables market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Electronic Heating Cables Market 2018 report includes Electronic Heating Cables market Revenue, market Share, Electronic Heating Cables industry volume, market Trends, Electronic Heating Cables Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Electronic Heating Cables Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Electronic Heating Cables Market 2018 :NexansWatts Water TechnologiesEmerson ElectricPentair CorporateFlexelecRaychemSSTCarrier CorporationThermonBartecBriskheatWanlan GroupSunTouchAoqi ElectricDrexan Energy SystemsAnhui HuanruiWuhu JiahongAnbangAnhui HuayangElectronic Heating Cables Market : By TypeSelf-regulating Heating CableConstant Wattage Heating CableMineral Insulated Heating CableSkin-Effect Heat-Tracing CableElectronic Heating Cables Market : By ApplicationIndustrial SectorResidential SectorCommercial SectorFirstly, the report covers the top Electronic Heating Cables manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Electronic Heating Cables report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Electronic Heating Cables industry, Electronic Heating Cables industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Electronic Heating Cables Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Electronic Heating Cables 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 Electronic Heating Cables market revenue worldwide.Finally, Electronic Heating Cables 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
Test Automation Market Fast-growing during a Period of 2025

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Global Test Automation Market: SnapshotThe test automation process is considered as a blessing for the IT industry. The rising demand for test automation across diverse industry verticals is one of the key factors estimated to encourage the growth of the overall market in the next few years. The tool is being used in the IT industry to reduce time, optimize test process, and develop efficiency. Innovations and technological advancements are further predicted to accelerate the growth of the global test automation market in the next few years.Among the key applications of test automation, mobile testing and development of mobile applications are considered to gain traction in the next few years. In addition, the rising awareness among consumers regarding the deploying test automation in the IT sector is likely to drive the global market. Thus, test automation is considered as an effective and cost efficient option to detect defects in the system.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Among the key regional segments, the North America market for test automation is anticipated to lead in the next few years. The high growth of this region can be credited to the rising base of QA units in several industrial sectors. In addition, the increasing investments in this region for development of improved test automation tools is predicted to propel the growth of the test automation market in North America. Thus, the leading players in the market are focusing on research development activities in order to cater to the growing needs of test automation across several industries worldwide.Global Test Automation Market: OverviewThe emergence of test automation has been the biggest boon to the IT sector. This software development tool has thoroughly helped the sector in optimizing test processes, reducing time, and bringing in efficiency. Functional testing, web services testing, compatibility testing, load testing, security testing, mobile testing, and QA process design among others. The growing expenditure on development of the IT sector for improving their software services, QA, and other applications are expected to nurture the growth of the global test automation market.Request TOC of the Report @Global Test Automation Market: Drivers and TrendsThe research report states that the rapid development of mobile applications is expected propel the growth of the global market in the recent years. Uptake of mobile applications in communications, multimedia travel, and utilities is expected to fuel the rise of this market in the near future. Analysts expect that the usage of cloud applications is also expected to improve the revenue earnings for the global test automation market. The growing awareness about deploying test automation amongst the IT sector has been a definite positive influence on the overall market.Despite the steady market drivers, the global test automation market is likely to face a few challenges such as high operating costs and high initial investments. However, emergence of newer and better technologies such as cloud computing services, big data analytics, and data virtualizations are expected to offer several lucrative opportunities to the global market.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Test Automation Market: Market PotentialMobile Labs Introduced its deviceConnect Hosted Cloud, a solution for QA professionals and developers to efficiently manage their mobile testing lab. This will allow organizations to pick a well-suited mobile device cloud that caters to their need. The deviceConnect Hosted Cloud and deviceConnect On-premises Cloud and are private cloud-based mobile application testing platforms. The primary aim of these products is to ensure simple management of multiple devices for the purpose of enterprise application testing. The only difference between the two is who is managing these devices and where are they being hosted.Global Test Automation Market: Regional OutlookIn terms of geography, the global test automation market is fragmented into Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. Of these, North America is projected to lead the global market in the coming years due to a growing base of QA units in various organizations in a wide range of industrial verticals. Analysts expect that functional testing segment will dominate the region in the near future. Additionally, the rising investments in upgrading the current automation testing tools is also projected to drive the regional markets growth.North America will also aid the progress of security testing segment during the forecast period. The high adoption of mobile applications and Software as a Service (SaaS) on cloud will be the primary growth drivers for test automation in North America. Analysts expect that Asia Pacific will also offer lucrative growth opportunities to the global test automation market in the near future as the IT sector witness tremendous growth. The growing investments of foreign firms in the IT sector of various developing countries of Asia Pacific are expected to propel the regional markets growth.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
Strong growth in ad sales on Google search and YouTube were not enough to offset a surge in costs at parent Alphabet Inc that shrank the first-quarter operating margin, leaving shares flat after hours on Monday.

Alphabet got a boost from how it values investments in Uber Technologies Inc and other startups. That accounting change and a one-time benefit cut its effective tax rate nearly in half.

Investors are uncertain about future profit at Alphabet as the company navigates the move to a phone-based computing world and invests in small, fast-growing initiatives from self-driving cars to selling hardware and cloud computing services. The quarterly results did not clarify the outlook.

Alphabet's operating margin of 22 per cent, down from 27 per cent a year ago, missed expectations because of the growth in expenses.

Alphabet is investing to keep pace with Amazon.com Inc and having to share more of its revenue with phone and browser makers, said James Cordwell, analyst at Atlantic Equities. "The jump in profits is purely due to one-time items," he said.

Longer-term capital expenditures nearly tripled to $7.3 billion in the first quarter from $2.5 billion a year ago.

Still, worldwide sales increased to $31.1 billion, above the average analysts' estimate of $30.3 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

Those ad sales showed investors that there were no immediate signs that rising global privacy concerns had affected profits, even as concerns over Facebook Inc's use of privacy cast some suspicion on Google.

Officials across the world seek to force changes in Google's business practices, such as giving customers more control over their data.

"The strong economy has companies spending more on advertising," said analyst Ivan Feinseth from Tigress Financial Partners. "Google continues to dominate both mobile and desktop search" and there will be "very little effect" from Facebook privacy data fallout, he said.

Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai told analysts Monday that, "It's important to understand that most of our ad business is search, where we rely on very limited information, essentially what is in the keywords to show a relevant ad."

STARTUP INVESTMENTS BOOST PROFITS



Alphabet's quarterly profit of $9.4 billion, or $13.33 per share, exceeded estimates of $6.56 billion, or $9.28 per share, according to Thomson Reuters.

About $2.4 billion in earnings were attributable to a new accounting method for unrealized gains in Alphabet's investments in startups such as Uber and Airbnb Inc.

Alphabet now records estimates of the current value of its startup investments rather than waiting to report income once it has opportunity to sell those shares. That change and a one-time benefit drove the effective tax rate in the quarter to 11 per cent from 20 percent a year earlier.

Excluding the investment-related gains and other items, adjusted earnings were $9.93 per share.

Google had several one-time costs including acquiring 2,000 employees in Taiwan for $1.1 billion from HTC Corp and moving up when it awards equity to employees.

Continuing cost increases came from acquiring streaming rights for YouTube's new TV service and marketing new products.

Google executives say the spending to install powerful computers and internet cables is necessary to keep up with demand for YouTube, its Google Assistant virtual helper service and data analytics tools within its Google Cloud services.

Revenue from Google's non-advertising units was $4.4 billion in the first quarter.

Alphabet is paring back on "other bets," a set of ancillary projects in areas such as medical technology and drones. Operating loss from "other bets" fell to $571 million, from $703 million a year ago.

Investors are counting on one other bet, the Waymo self-driving vehicles effort, to generate noteworthy revenue this year as it begins offering ride-hailing services.

Google revealed smart thermostat maker Nest generated about $726 million in revenue in 2017, above some analysts' estimates. Financial results for Nest had not been released since its acquisition in 2014.
Top Robotics Market Prosper over 2025

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Global Top Robotics Market: OverviewThe surging demand for industrial robots with Internet of Things capabilities is transforming production lines, especially in the automotive and electronic industry. Next generation robots possess human-like attributes such as intelligence, recognition of objects, flexibility, memory, and ability to learn.Industries implementing robotic technologies receive huge financial benefits due to reduced overheads, flexibility, increased productivity, and waste reduction.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Top Robotics Market: Key TrendsThe top factor driving the top robotics market for industrial robots is the increasing adoption of automated systems and the rising demand for industrial robots from medium and small-sized enterprises in developing countries. This is because deployment of robotic solutions ensures quality production and caters to meeting market demand in a timely manner. However, factors such as high upfront costs and high R&D expenses and unreliable performance in untested environment and absence of a high level of interface are restraining the markets growth.Amongst industrial robots, articulated robots is expected to be leading product segment owing to their structural and operational capabilities. Articulated robots are extensively used in electrical and electronics, and automotive industries.On the other hand, the service robotics segment of this market is driven by the increasing demand for mobile robotic solution for warehouse automation and logistics, increasing demand from healthcare industry, and the increasing deployment of service robots for educational pursuits.Request TOC of the Report @Logistics currently holds the dominant position among the application segments of service robotics and is expected to retain its position in the near future. This is mainly due to the deployment of automated guided vehicles in production units and warehousing facilities for inventory management and freight handling.Global Top Robotics Market: Market PotentialFrom a leap from robotic vacuum cleaners, butlers, or medical assistants, industrial robots account for the greatest slice of the global robotics market, as per a recent industry news. Unlike the classical industrial robot that were used to carry out repetitive tasks, the next-generation robots are supported by software and peripheral vision systems and can perform varying tasks reliably that matches human capabilities.Global Top Robotics Market: Regional OutlookAsia Pacific is the leading regional market for industrial robotics market is led significant revenue contributions from China, Japan, and South Korea. The high concentration of robotic machines in South Korea and Japan to support the expanding electronics industry in these countries is benefitting the industrial robotics market in Asia Pacific. As per statistics of the International Federation of Robotics, Japan is the leading market for industrial robotics trailed by China.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Moreover, the increasing deployment of automated systems in the automotive industry in Australia is anticipated to positively influence the regional markets growth. Strong focus on improving production techniques combined with efforts for the modernization of factories for improved productivity is one of the major factors driving robotic installations in the U.S. and Brazil.Global Top Robotics Market: Competitive LandscapeThe key players in the global top robotics market for both industrial and service robots are ABB Ltd., Mitsubishi Electric Corp. FANUC Corp., Yaskawa Electric Corp., iRobot Corporation, Intuitive Surgical Inc., Honda Motor Co. Ltd., Aethon Inc., Lely Holding S.a.r.l., KUKA AG, Nachi-Fujikoshi Corp., Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd., Northrop Grumman Corporation, DJI, Parrot SA, Adept Technology Inc., DeLaval International AB, and The LEGO Group.Due to being capital-intensive, the industry restricts the entry of new market players in the market. New players are anticipated to face challenges pertaining to insufficient venture capital for innovation and product differentiation, thus limiting their presence in the robotics industry.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 Photoresist Spinner Market Forecast 2018-2025 Headway Research, MIDAS, SIYOUYEN, Kingsemi

Photoresist Spinner Market

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A market study "Global Photoresist Spinner Market" examines the performance of the Photoresist Spinner market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Photoresist Spinner market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Photoresist Spinner market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Photoresist Spinner Market 2018 report includes Photoresist Spinner market Revenue, market Share, Photoresist Spinner industry volume, market Trends, Photoresist Spinner Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Photoresist Spinner Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Photoresist Spinner Market 2018 :ChematLaurell TechnologiesBrewer ScienceApexHeadway ResearchMIDASSIYOUYENKingsemiPhotoresist Spinner Market : By TypeLargeSmallPhotoresist Spinner Market : By ApplicationBio-pharmaceuticalsChemistrialOtherFirstly, the report covers the top Photoresist Spinner manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Photoresist Spinner report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Photoresist Spinner industry, Photoresist Spinner industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Photoresist Spinner Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Photoresist Spinner 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 Photoresist Spinner market revenue worldwide.Finally, Photoresist Spinner 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
Global High Voltage Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors Market Forecast 2018-2025 Taiyo Yuden, Yageo, Walsin, Kemet

High Voltage Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors Market

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A market study "Global High Voltage Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors Market" examines the performance of the High Voltage Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the High Voltage Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of High Voltage Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global High Voltage Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors Market 2018 report includes High Voltage Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors market Revenue, market Share, High Voltage Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors industry volume, market Trends, High Voltage Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, High Voltage Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global High Voltage Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors Market 2018 :MurataSamsung ElectroTDK CorpKyocera(AVX)Taiyo YudenYageoWalsinKemetHigh Voltage Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors Market : By TypeChip TypeLead TypeHigh Voltage Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors Market : By ApplicationConsumer ElectronicsAutomotiveIndustrial MachineryDefenceOthersFirstly, the report covers the top High Voltage Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the High Voltage Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of High Voltage Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors industry, High Voltage Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. High Voltage Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The High Voltage Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors 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 High Voltage Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors market revenue worldwide.Finally, High Voltage Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors 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
Wafer Cleaning Equipment Market Effervescent Scenario of 2025

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Global Wafer Cleaning Equipment Market: OverviewUbiquity of smartphones, laptops, tablets, and other portable electronic devices in the past decade has had a pied piper effect on the electronic industry. Innovation is in full swing too, consistently introducing new products that offer improved performance, are durable, and cost efficient. In this scenario, the demand for semiconductor wafers, which are among the basic building blocks of any electronic device along with PCBs, ICs, MEMS, and memory devices, has escalated exponentially in the recent past. Wafer cleaning an essential operation in the fabrication of semiconductor devices, particularly for the advanced ULSI silicon circuits in next generation electronic devices. Consequently, the global wafer cleaning equipment market is projected for a robust growth rate during the forecast period of 2017 to 2025.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Wafer Cleaning Equipment Market: Key TrendsDiversifying conventional application of MEMS and increase in the number of cleaning steps required by the wafer manufacturing sector are two of the key factors that are expected to fuel the demand in the global water cleaning equipment market. In addition to that, the shift to single wafer processing from conventional processes and increasing demand for smart gadgets and printed electronics are other two favorable factors that may positively influence the global wafer cleaning equipment market.The growing popularity of light emitting diode (LED) is a trend that may prove to be a boon for the global wafer cleaning equipment market in the near future. Involvement of smaller players in the recent past has substantially reduced the prices of LEDs and demand has surged, owing to their strikingly better lighting and longevity. Conversely, high capital required to establish in this market is restricting the emergence of new players with novel concepts, and thereby challenging the prosperity of the market.Request TOC of the Report @Global Wafer Cleaning Equipment Market: Market PotentialWith constant research in the field in the past few years, the understanding of defects and surface contamination in the semiconductor industry has evolved multi-fold. Moreover, researchers are now more aware of factors such as particle adhesion, measurement, and deposition, which has enabled them to device better removal strategies. This advancement in the technology pertaining to semiconductors is expected to boost the global market for wafer cleaning equipment during the forecast period.Global Wafer Cleaning Equipment Market: Regional OutlookChina is the most prominent country-wise market for wafer cleaning equipment, but with growing demand from the countries such as Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea, Asia Pacific overall has quickly turned into the most lucrative region for the players in this market. Constantly evolving production quality standards and rapidly increasing demand for portable consumer electronics is expected to maintain an escalating demand from this region. North America is showing steady progress in the market for wafer cleaning equipment for the lack of manufacturing industries in the region.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Wafer Cleaning Equipment Market: Competitive AnalysisSCREEN Holdings Co., Ltd., Shibaura Mechatronics Corporation, and Tokyo Electron Limited are three of the leading players dominating the Chinese demand in the global wafer cleaning equipment market, while Applied Materials, Inc., Lam Research Corporation, Modutek Corporation, Entegris, Inc., and PVA TePla AG dominate in other parts of the world. Research and development of new products with enhanced attributes and partnerships with regional players are the common strategies adopted by these players to maintain their stronghold over the market.Quantumclean, SEMES Co. Ltd, Onboard Solutions Pvt Ltd., Tokyo Electron, Ultron Systems, Inc., Strabausch, Speedline Tech, and Stoelting Llc are some of the other notable players in this 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
Wind Turbine Rotor Blade Market Sanguine Period of 2025

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Global Wind Turbine Rotor Blade Market: OverviewRotor blades are attached to the rotor and thus, form an important part of a wind turbine. The material of turbine rotor blades holds high significance as it provides the preferred density, stiffness, and fatigue life features to wind turbines. Material cost, reliability, and light weight are some of the factors imperative in material selection. Blades are usually made up of glass-reinforced plastic (GRP). The adoption of carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) and composites is estimated to gain traction in the forthcoming years as these are useful in reducing weight and cost up to a certain extent.Global Wind Turbine Rotor Blade Market: Key TrendsThe increasing global population and improving economic conditions in several parts of the world are among the key stimulants of the global market for wind turbine rotor blade. The growing concerns regarding environmental stability coupled with the rising awareness about the environmental and economic advantages offered by wind power are prompting governments worldwide to pour funds into the development of wind turbines and their paraphernalia.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Moreover, the falling cost of per kWh of wind energy is working in favor of the market. Growing emphasis on repowering and rapid technological advancements are also providing a fillip to the market. However, manufacturers need to focus towards addressing critical challenges such as difficulties in transportation and high development cost to capitalize on potential opportunities.Global Wind Turbine Rotor Blade Market: Market PotentialAs companies operating in the global wind turbine rotor blade market strive for enhancement in manufacturing capacities, mergers and acquisitions and geographical expansion are expected to be common trends in the market over forthcoming years. This, in turn, is likely to provide significant momentum to the global market. For instance, General Electric (GE) acquired Denmark-based LM Wind Power in October 2016 for US$1.65 bn and got it approved from the European Commission in March 2017. By acquiring its largest supplier of rotor blades, the deal is anticipated to help GE in in-source turbine blade design and manufacturing. Another case in point is Siemens, which in December 2016, inaugurated its new plant for in Hull, U.K. for offshore wind turbines, assembly, and logistics.Request TOC of the Report @Global Wind Turbine Rotor Blade Market: Region-wise OutlookThe key segments studied in the report on the basis of geography are Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. Asia Pacific will account for a substantial share in the revenue pie throughout the review period, owing to the burgeoning demand for electricity in emerging nations such as India and China along with the increasing government initiatives promoting the production of wind energy.Europe is anticipated to rise at a healthy pace during the same period. The demand for wind turbine rotor blades is expected to post a sharp rise, especially in Western Europe, due to the strong demand for technologically advanced turbines and the presence of favorable environmental conditions.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Wind Turbine Rotor Blade Market: Competitive LandscapeThe abundance of wind power is rendering the global market for wind turbine rotor blade a high potential arena, which is attracting new players to venture into the market. This, in turn, is likely to trigger the competition in the market in the near future. In order to ensure minimum transportation costs and regulation compliance, prominent participants are trying to install their set-ups in proximity to their target markets. Some of the key companies operating in the global market for wind turbine rotor blade are LM Wind Power Group, Moog Inc., Blade Dynamics, Kemrock Industries And Exports Limited, Siemens AG, SGS SA, and TANG Energy.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 Aerospace Fiber Optic Sensor Market Forecast 2018-2025 Micron, Opsens Industrial, Honeywell, Omron

Aerospace Fiber Optic Sensor Market

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A market study "Global Aerospace Fiber Optic Sensor Market" examines the performance of the Aerospace Fiber Optic Sensor market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Aerospace Fiber Optic Sensor market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Aerospace Fiber Optic Sensor market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Aerospace Fiber Optic Sensor Market 2018 report includes Aerospace Fiber Optic Sensor market Revenue, market Share, Aerospace Fiber Optic Sensor industry volume, market Trends, Aerospace Fiber Optic Sensor Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Aerospace Fiber Optic Sensor Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Aerospace Fiber Optic Sensor Market 2018 :MicronOpsens IndustrialHoneywellOmronFISO Technologies Inc.Proximion ABTechnica Optical ComponentsTechnobisSmart FibresIFOSAerospace Fiber Optic Sensor Market : By TypeTemperature SensorPressure sensorsStrain SensorAerospace Fiber Optic Sensor Market : By ApplicationHealth Monitoring for AirframesHealth Monitoring EnginesHealth Monitoring External EnvironmentOthersFirstly, the report covers the top Aerospace Fiber Optic Sensor manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Aerospace Fiber Optic Sensor report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Aerospace Fiber Optic Sensor industry, Aerospace Fiber Optic Sensor industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Aerospace Fiber Optic Sensor Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Aerospace Fiber Optic Sensor 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 Aerospace Fiber Optic Sensor market revenue worldwide.Finally, Aerospace Fiber Optic Sensor 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
Usage-Based Insurance Market Garner $123 Billion By 2022

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Usage-Based Insurance Market is expected to garner $123 billion by 2022, registering a CAGR of 36.4% during the forecast period 2016-2022. Factors driving the usage-based insurance market include flexible insurance premium, lower accident & vehicle theft possibilities, accurate & timely data collection, and lower fuel consumption.Usage-based insurance (UBI) is a telematics-based insurance service in which premiums are based on driving behavior of consumers. Type of road used, braking, and cornering pattern are amongst the factors according to which the premiums are charged. Usage-based insurance includes different services such as pay-as-you-drive (PAYD), pay-how-you-drive (PHYD), and manage-how-you-drive (MHYD).For More Info, Get Sample :Players have adopted partnership and expansion as their key strategies to increase their market share. For instance, Progressive Corporation, entered into a partnership with Zubie, a U.S. based telematics solution provider. Local companies, such as Admiral Group plc, Allstate Corporation and others primarily in developed markets, offer tough competition to the established players. Privacy concerns and increase in telematics installation cost have posed major challenges for manufacturers. The key developmental strategies adopted by the companies are discussed in the report.Segment Review: The global usage-based insurance market is segmented based on type, technology, and geography. The segmentation by type includes pay-as-you-drive (PAYD), pay-how-you-drive (PHYD), and manage-how-you-drive (MHYD). On the basis of technology, the market is divided into OBD-II, smartphone, hybrid, and black-box. Manage-how-you-drive (MHYD) segment is anticipated to grow at the fastest rate during the forecast period, as it provides higher level of flexibility and freedom to the customers. In terms of technology, Black Box dominates the market, accounting for over 60% of the total market revenue. From a growth perspective, smartphone technology is projected to exhibit the highest CAGR over the forecast period. Geographically, the market is classified into North America (U.S. and Rest of North America), Europe (Italy, UK, Germany, France and Rest of Europe) Asia-Pacific (Japan, Australia and Rest of Asia-Pacific), and LAMEA (Africa and Rest of LAMEA). Presently, Europe is the highest Usage-based insurance market, compared to other geographies. European countries such as Italy, have high adoption of Usage-based insurance trend. In 2015, Italy usage-based insurance market accounted for one-third of the global usage-based insurance market revenue. The industry in the country is expected to grow at a CAGR of 33.6% during 2016-2022.GLOBAL USAGE-BASED INSURANCE MARKET: TOP IMPACTING FACTORSLower accident and vehicle theft possibilities Telematics-based insurance lowers the chances of accident and vehicle theft as it monitors the driving behavior, supplementing the growth of the market. It is capable of detecting the lost or stolen vehicles through GPS in the telematics device connected to the vehicle. These factors are anticipated to increase the demand for telematics-based insurance in the near future.Enquire About Report :High telematics installation cost Usage-based insurance service is completely dependent on telematics device. Telematics installation is a high-technology process and its cost is projected to increase in the coming years. This is anticipated to increase the operating expense of UBI service providers, restraining the market growth. However, smartphone based telematics services are anticipated to gain popularity due to their relatively lower cost.Technological advancement Technological advancement is projected to fuel the growth of usage-based insurance industry during the forecast period, making the process easier with reduced service rate. Smartphone and hybrid technology based solutions play an important role in driving the market growth. According to the market study, the U.S. household participation in UBI policies increased from 13% in 2013 to 20% in 2015.USAGE-BASED INSURANCE MARKET: TOP WINNING STRATEGIES Key market players have implemented various strategies such as partnership, acquisition, and expansion to gain competitive advantage and a stronger base in the market. For instance, prominent players such as Progressive Corporation, Desjardins Group, and Allianz SE have made multiple partnerships and acquisitions to increase their market presence. Other strategies include product differentiation to attract new customers. The companies profiled in the report are Allianz SE, AXA S.A., Insure The Box Ltd., Progressive Corporation, Allstate Corporation, Desjardins Insurance, Generali group, Mapfre S.A., Metromile, and Aviva plc. Other players in the value chain include Admiral Group Plc., Ageas S.A. /NV, AI Insurance Holdings Pty Ltd., Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance (ADI), Allstate Corporation, and Box Innovation Group Ltd. (Not profiled in the report).KEY BENEFITS This report provides insights on current and future usage-based insurance industry trends and revenue forecast for 20162022. Market intelligence for key developmental strategies adopted by established brands are explained with impact analysis. This report provides a practical evaluation of key market drivers and restraints for global usage-based insurance market by type and technology. This report emphasizes on key factors that affect the growth of the market and reveals the influencing factors to capitalize on.KEY SEGMENTS OF USAGE BASED INSURANCE MARKETAlso Request For Discount :BY TYPE Pay-As-You-Drive (PAYD) Pay-How-You-Drive (PHYD) Manage-How-You-Drive (MHYD)BY TECHNOLOGY OBD-II Smartphone Hybrid Black-BoxBY GEOGRAPHY North America U.S. Rest of North America Europe Italy UK Germany France Rest of Europe Asia-Pacific Japan Australia Rest of Asia-Pacific LAMEA Africa Rest of LAMEAUSAGE BASED INSURANCE MARKET PLAYERS IN VALUE CHAIN Allianz SE AXA S.A. Insure The Box Ltd Progressive Corporation Allstate Corporation Desjardins Insurance Generali Group Mapfre S.A. Metromile Aviva plc.*Other players in the value chain include (profiles not included in the report): Admiral Group Plc. Ageas S.A./NV AI Insurance Holdings Pty Ltd. Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance (ADI) Allstate Corporation Box Innovation Group Ltd.Table Of Content CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CHAPTER 3 MARKET OVERVIEW CHAPTER 4 GLOBAL USAGE BASED INSURANCE MARKET BY TYPE CHAPTER 5 GLOBAL USAGE BASED INSURANCE MARKET BY TECHNOLOGY CHAPTER 6 GLOBAL USAGE BASED INSURANCE MARKET BY GEOGRAPHY CHAPTER 7 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
Deception Technology Market Vital Pace of 2025

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Global Deception Technology Market : SnapshotComputing systems and servers are largely affected by numerous security issues such as viruses, malware, cyber-attacks, worm infections, trojan attacks, and others. To tackle these issues, there are several technological shields available that can not only stop such activities, but also protect the systems from any future attacks. One such method is called deception technology, which mainly deals with malware infections. The name derived for this technology comes from its ability to deceive malware programs against their own operation, thereby foiling their actions.The deception network mainly works in the form of a decoy agent, which is installed in the form of a safety-net inside a network, in anticipation of a cyber-attack. Activities of intruders and potential hackers are clearly recorded, if such individuals manage to leap into the system network. In this way, system managers and administrators can be alerted in an instant about a possible security breach, owing to the entry of malware programs. This warning is sent through the same network pathway being attacked, thus being able to properly reach the recipients.Request Sample Copy of the Report @A substantial utilization of deception technologies has given rise to the deception technology market from a global perspective. Owing to rising concerns about network security breaches, the deception technology market is substantially growing, and is expected to gain a lot of revenue in next few years. Deception technology can help save mammoth sums of money from banks, financial institutions, and other companies, as well as classified and sensitive information, thereby being highly beneficial to various organizations.Global Deception Technology Market: OverviewIn the past couple of years, the market has seen the emergence of many new technologies to tackle security issues more effectively. One such technology rapidly gaining prominence is called deception technology. It defeats malware by deceiving them in their own operation and thereby safeguards an organization against malware.To elaborate a bit further, a deception network is one that acts as decoy that is installed to be compromised in the event of a cyber-attack. It helps track the activities of the intruder inside a network and hence enables network administrators and analysts bring about incident response analysis. It sends a warning to the original network and hence prevents it from being manipulated.Request TOC of the Report @Global Deception Technology Market: Key TrendsThe main trigger for growth in the global market for deception technology is the alarming rise in instances of cyber-attacks such as malwares, zero day attacks, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), and Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs), among others. In response, organizations and governments across the world have substantially upped their expenditure on security measures such as deceptive technology to protect their networks and data centers against cyber-attacks.Other factors driving the global deception technology market are stringent government regulations, swift uptake of cloud-based technologies, and presence of digital and online data. On the contrary, issues hobbling the markets growth are improper knowledge of security measures, rise of pirated network security tools, and lack of cyber expertise to deal with the complex software.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Deception Technology Market: Market PotentialDeception technology, still in its nascent stages, holds out a lot of potential for growth in the upcoming years. As a defense technology against hackers, it holds merit and larger organizations are already considering leveraging them to uncover threat in advance. Advanced deceptive technology solutions can save entities across the world almost trillions of dollars lost in cyber-attacks.Sensing an opportunity in the market, cyber deception technology pioneer Illusive Networks mopped up funding from Microsoft Ventures recently for swift global expansion, investment in sales and marketing, and bolstering of engineering and support teams.Going forward, the end use segments that are expected to generate significant demand for deception technology are the government, banking, financial services and insurance, and aerospace and defense.Global Deception Technology Market: Regional OutlookFrom a geographical standpoint, North America is a key region in the global market for deception technology. The region will likely advance at a good clip in the years to come powered primarily by the developed nations of the U.S. and Canada that are home to numerous well-entrenched and new vendors catering to both domestic as well as international clients. North America is followed by Europe in terms of market share.Asia Pacific is another crucial market. The rising investments in network security by a large number of IT, telecom, and banking companies based particularly in the countries of China, India, and Japan are predicted boost the market in the region. Another factor slated to push the demand for deception technology in the region is the increasing investments in smart cities which leverage Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud technologies, among others.Global Deception Technology Market: Competitive AnalysisIn order to gauge the competition in the global deception technology market, the report profiles companies such as Rapid7, Inc., LogRhythm, Inc., Attivo Networks, Illusive Networks, GuardiCore, Allure Security Technology, TopSpin Security, and Smokescreen Technologies. Other stakeholders in the market are solutions providers, IT service providers, value-added resellers, enterprise users, consulting firms, and security and access management technology providers.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
Pond Liner Market 2018 Analysis and Global Forecast to 2023

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The report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Pond Liner industry market by types, applications, players and regions. This report also displays the 2013-2023 production, Consumption, revenue, Gross margin, Cost, Gross, market share, CAGR, and Market influencing factors of the Pond Liner industry in USA, EU, China, India, Japan and other regionsMarket Analysis by Players: This report includes following top vendors in terms of company basic information, product category, sales (volume), revenue (Million USD), price and gross margin (%).Emmbi Industries LimitedReef IndustriesStephans Industries LimitedBTL LinersWestern Environmental Liner...Market Analysis by Regions: Each geographical region is analyzed as Sales, Market Share (%) by Types & Applications, Production, Consumption, Imports & Exports Analysis, and Consumption Forecast.USAEuropeJapanChinaIndiaSoutheast AsiaSouth AmericaSouth AfricaOthersRequest a Sample Report @Market Analysis by Types: Each type is studied as Sales, Market Share (%), Revenue (Million USD), Price, Gross Margin and more similar information.Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer (EPDM)Butyl RubberPolyureaMarket Analysis by Applications: Each application is studied as Sales and Market Share (%), Revenue (Million USD), Price, Gross Margin and more similar information.Drinking WaterChemicalOtherTable of Content1 Pond Liner Market Overview1.1 Product Overview of Pond Liner1.2 Classification of Pond Liner1.2.1 Type 11.2.2 Type 21.2.3 Type 31.2.4 Type 41.3 Applications of Pond Liner1.3.1 Application 11.3.2 Application 21.3.3 Application 31.3.4 Application 41.4 Global Pond Liner Market Regional Analysis1.4.1 USA Market Present Situation Analysis1.4.2 Europe Market Present Situation Analysis1.4.3 Japan Market Present Situation Analysis1.4.4 China Market Present Situation Analysis1.4.5 India Market Present Situation Analysis1.4.6 Southeast Asia Market Present Situation Analysis1.4.7 South America Market Present Situation Analysis1.4.8 South Africa Market Present Situation Analysis1.5 Pond Liner Industry Development Factors Analysis1.5.1 Pond Liner Industry Development Opportunities Analysis1.5.2 Pond Liner Industry Development Challenges Analysis1.6 Pond Liner Consumer Behavior Analysis2 Global Pond Liner Competitions by Players2.1 Global Pond Liner Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Players2.2 Global Pond Liner Revenue (Million USD) and Share by Players (2017-2018)2.3 Global Pond Liner Price (USD/Unit) by Players (2017-2018)2.4 Global Pond Liner Gross Margin by Players (2017-2018)Global Pond Liner Competitions by Types3.1 Global Pond Liner Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Types3.2 Global Pond Liner Revenue (Million USD) and Share by Type (2013-2018)3.3 Global Pond Liner Price (USD/Unit) by Type (2013-2018)3.4 Global Pond Liner Gross Margin by Type (2013-2018)3.5 USA Pond Liner Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Type3.6 China Pond Liner Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Type3.7 Europe Pond Liner Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Type3.8 Japan Pond Liner Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Type3.9 India Pond Liner Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Type3.10 Southeast Asia Pond Liner Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Type3.11 South America Pond Liner Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Type3.12 South Africa Pond Liner Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Type4 Global Pond Liner Competitions by Applications4.1 Global Pond Liner Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Applications4.2 Global Pond Liner Revenue (Million USD) and Share by Applications (2013-2018)4.3 Global Pond Liner Price (USD/Unit) by Applications (2013-2018)4.4 Global Pond Liner Gross Margin by Applications (2013-2018)4.5 USA Pond Liner Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Applications4.6 China Pond Liner Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Applications4.7 Europe Pond Liner Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Applications4.8 Japan Pond Liner Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Applications4.9 India Pond Liner Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Applications4.10 Southeast Asia Pond Liner Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Applications4.11 South America Pond Liner Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Applications4.12 South Africa Pond Liner Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Applications5 Global Pond Liner Production Market Analysis by Regions5.1 Global Pond Liner Production (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Regions5.1.1 USA Pond Liner Market Production Present Situation Analysis5.1.2 Europe Pond Liner Market Production Present Situation Analysis5.1.3 China Pond Liner Market Production Present Situation Analysis5.1.4 Japan Pond Liner Market Production Present Situation Analysis5.1.5 India Pond Liner Market Production Present Situation Analysis5.1.6 Southeast Asia Pond Liner Market Production Present Situation Analysis5.1.7 South America Pond Liner Market Production Present Situation Analysis5.1.8 South Africa Pond Liner Market Production Present Situation Analysis5.2 Global Pond Liner Production Value (Million USD) and Share by Region (2013-2018)5.3 Global Pond Liner Price (USD/Unit) by Region (2013-2018)5.4 Global Pond Liner Gross Margin by Region (2013-2018)6 Global Pond Liner Sales Market Analysis by Region6.1 USA Pond Liner Market Consumption Present Situation Analysis6.2 Europe Pond Liner Market Consumption Present Situation Analysis6.3 China Pond Liner Market Consumption Present Situation Analysis6.4 Japan Pond Liner Market Consumption Present Situation Analysis6.5 India Pond Liner Market Consumption Present Situation Analysis6.6 Southeast Asia Pond Liner Market Consumption Present Situation Analysis6.7 South America Pond Liner Market Consumption Present Situation Analysis6.8 South Africa Pond Liner Market Consumption Present Situation AnalysisContinuedAccess 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
Global Dental Diagnostic & Surgical Equipment Market Study, Scope, Application & Forecast to 2025

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An up-to-date research report 2018 has been disclosed by Market Research Hub highlighting the title Global Dental Diagnostic & Surgical Equipment Market Report 2018 which provides an outlook for current market value as well as the expected forecast including Rate on Investment (ROI) together with the growing CAGR near XX% during 2018-2025. The report studies the Dental Diagnostic & Surgical Equipment market worldwide, especially in North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan and India, with production, size, growth, revenue, consumption, import and export in these regions.Request Free Sample Report:This report studies the global Dental Diagnostic & Surgical Equipment market status and forecast, categorizes the global Dental Diagnostic & Surgical Equipment market size (value & volume) by key players, type, application, and region. This report focuses on the top players in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, and Middle East & Africa.In 2017, the global Dental Diagnostic & Surgical Equipment market size was xx million US$ and it is expected to reach xx million US$ by the end of 2025, with a CAGR of xx.x % between 2018 and 2025.The major manufacturers covered in this report3MA-DECBiolase TechnologyCarestream DentalDanaher CorporationDCI InternationalDentsply SironaGC CorporationHENRY SCHEINHu-FriedyGeographically, this report studies the key regions, focuses on product sales, value, market share and growth opportunity in these regions, coveringNorth AmericaEuropeAsia-PacificSouth AmericaMiddle East & AfricaThe regional scope of the study is as follows:North AmericaUnited StatesCanadaMexicoAsia-PacificChinaIndiaJapanSouth KoreaAustraliaIndonesiaSingaporeRest of Asia-PacificEuropeGermanyFranceUKItalySpainRussiaRest of EuropeCentral & South AmericaBrazilArgentinaRest of South AmericaMiddle East & AfricaSaudi ArabiaTurkeyRest of Middle East & AfricaOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoRadiologyLaserCAD/CAM DevicesOn 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, includingDental ClinicHospitalBrowse Full Report with TOC:Table of Content:Global Dental Diagnostic & Surgical Equipment Market Research Report 20181 Dental Diagnostic & Surgical Equipment Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Dental Diagnostic & Surgical Equipment1.2 Dental Diagnostic & Surgical Equipment Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Dental Diagnostic & Surgical Equipment Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Dental Diagnostic & Surgical Equipment Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Radiology1.2.4 Laser1.2.5 CAD/CAM Devices1.3 Global Dental Diagnostic & Surgical Equipment Segment by Application1.3.1 Dental Diagnostic & Surgical Equipment Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Dental Clinic1.3.3 Hospital1.4 Global Dental Diagnostic & Surgical Equipment Market by Region (2013-2025)1.4.1 Global Dental Diagnostic & Surgical Equipment Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2013-2025)1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.4 Asia-Pacific Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.5 South America Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.6 Middle East & Africa Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Dental Diagnostic & Surgical Equipment (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global Dental Diagnostic & Surgical Equipment Revenue Status and Outlook (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global Dental Diagnostic & Surgical Equipment Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2013-2025)2 Global Dental Diagnostic & Surgical Equipment Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Dental Diagnostic & Surgical Equipment Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.1 Global Dental Diagnostic & Surgical Equipment Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Dental Diagnostic & Surgical Equipment Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Dental Diagnostic & Surgical Equipment Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 Global Dental Diagnostic & Surgical Equipment Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.4 Manufacturers Dental Diagnostic & Surgical Equipment Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Dental Diagnostic & Surgical Equipment Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Dental Diagnostic & Surgical Equipment Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Dental Diagnostic & Surgical Equipment Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion.. @@ ContinuedAbout Market Research HubMarket Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of Medical Equipments market research reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.Contact Us90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free: - 800-998-4852 (US-Canada)Email:- press@marketresearchhub.com
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Luxury Products for Kids Market Will Generate New Growth Opportunities by 2020

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Luxury goods comprises of products such as accessories, footwear, apparel, watches and others which are quite expensive and target those consumers who belongs to premium class. The market for luxury goods consist of three types of end consumers, which includes kids lying between the age of 0-12 years, teenagers belonging to the age group of 13 to 19 years and the rest lies in adult group.Whereaskidsare concerned they are the smallest consumer group. Although being a smaller consumer group, the luxury products market for kids is experiencing tremendous growth in recent years due to changing consumer lifestyle and availability of the product. It is expected that spend on luxury shopping by consumers will grow by 25% in 2015. Luxury products for kids market is associated with higher margin as compared to adults luxury products segment. It has been found that babysluxury product accounted for more than 7.2% market share of luxury market in 2014. Luxury product market highly depends upon thefactors such as attractivemarketing, promotion techniques and proper distribution channel.A sample of this report is available upon request @Luxury products market for kids can be broadly segmented on the basis of product type, distribution channel and geographies. On the basis of product types it can be subsegmented into accessories, apparels and footwear. Among all these sub segments apparel market is expected to account for highest market share followed by footwear sub segment. The growth of apparel segment is fuelled by the frequently changing fashion and continuous need for new clothing for growing children. In 2014, U.S. and European market account for the most dominating market for apparel.The market for luxury baby product also depends upon the mode of distribution channel used for offering products to the consumers. The mode of Distribution channel is segmented into retail outlets, sell out through internet, companys brand outlet and others. Among all these distribution channel online retailing is expected to be most preferred mode for distribution in the forecasted period. This ishis is due to consumer convenience preferences and availability of the products at lower price. Furthermore, the second most preferred mode is expected to be the companys brand retail outlets as they provide better offerings at less price.Furthermore, the luxury products market for kids inAsia pacific is expected to account for fastest CAGR in the forecasted period as compared to other regions. This is because the growth in luxury expenditure is expected to increase by 40% by 2020.In addition, countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore and are expected to contribute a significant share to overall Asia Pacific luxury products market for kids. Whereas, spending from China is expected to witness a fastest growth in Asia Pacific.It is predicted to boost the customer base and prominent contributor in the revenue of global luxury products market for kids.Moreover, presently North America and Western Europe dominate the total luxury products market for kids due to high purchasing power of consumers. These regions are expected to witness a slow growth as compared to the growth exhibited by countries in Asia Pacific.The key factors driving the growth of luxury products market for kids includes continuous innovation in products sub segments, rising disposable income, changing consumer lifestyle, awareness of products through internet and social media, improving countries economy, influence of the consumers through their peers, friends or neighbours, and others .However, there are some restraining factors which are affecting the growth for luxury products market for kids which include the expensive price range for consumers in emerging markets and less product variants availability across the distribution channel. Moreover, internet being a prominent medium for distribution of the luxury goods is expected to witness low adoption among the consumers in emerging markets. Thisis due to less internet penetration in these markets.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Initially the market for luxury baby products was dominated by specialty retailers such as Childrens Place The Walt Disney Company, Mothercare plc, The Gymboree Corporation and others. However, with the increase in premium consumers leading to a shift in consumer buying behavior, due to this various companies have entered the market which includes GAPInc, J Crew Group, Inc, DKNY, Gucci Group, Diesel,Dolce &Gabbana, United Colors of Benetton, Jack & Jill clothing Inc,Giorgio Armani S.p.A, BLOCH, Burberry Group plc, Converse, Christian Dior S.A, FENDI and others.About UsFuture Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centres in the U.S. and India.FMIs research and consulting services help businesses around the globe navigate the challenges in a rapidly evolving marketplace with confidence and clarity. Our customised and syndicated market research reports deliver actionable insights that drive sustainable growth. We continuously track emerging trends and events in a broad range of end industries to ensure our clients prepare for the evolving needs of their consumers.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Application Development and Deployment Software Market Offered in New Research Forecasted through 2022

MRRSE

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https://www.mrrse.com/application-development-deployment-software-market

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https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/

Market Research Report Search Engine (MRRSE) recently announced the addition of a new research study to its comprehensive collection of research reports. The research report, titled " Application Development and Deployment Software Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2022" The market for application development and deployment software is expanding rapidly and this this report recognizes its changing dynamics. Developed by a group of professional market research analysts, this report has been prepared to serve as a credible business document for targeted audiences such as telecom service providers, government agencies, and cloud service providers. The report includes dedicated chapters on global application development and deployment software market dynamics, supply chain, cost structure, key participants by market presence, regional assessments, and competitive landscape.Ask for detailed Sample of the Research Report @Transparency Market Research examines the global application development and deployment software market for the forecast period 2017-2022. The primary objective of the report is to identify opportunities in the market and present updates as well as insights pertaining to various segments of the global development and deployment software market. The report begins with an overview of the current scenario of the market for application development and deployment software across the globe, evaluating market performance in terms of revenue, followed by TMRs analysis of key trends, drivers and restraints witnessed in the market. To compute the market size, in-depth secondary research is done.Global Application Development and Deployment Software Market: Key Research AspectsData points such as regional splits and market split by software type, application verticals, and deployment have been assimilated to arrive at the market estimates. The report comprises the forecast of the global revenue generated by sales of application development and deployment software. TMR triangulates the data via different analysis based on supply side, demand side, as well as dynamics of application development and deployment software market. TMR not only conducts forecasts in terms of value, but also evaluates the market on the basis of essential parameters, such as Year-on-Year (Y-o-Y) growth. This helps providers to recognize the future opportunities as well predictability of the market.Global Application Development and Deployment Software Market: SegmentationsOn the basis of software type, the global application development and deployment software market has been segmented into application development software, structured data management software, application server middleware, integration and process automation middleware, data access, analysis, and delivery, and quality and life cycle tools. On the basis of vertical, the global application development and deployment software market has been bifurcated into IT and telecommunications, banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI), transportation and logistics, energy and utilities, retail and consumer goods, manufacturing, and others. Based on deployment, the market has been categorized into cloud-based and on-premise. For each of these segments, the TMR report provides revenue in terms of US Mn comparison by region, market share, and year-to-year comparison.To know more Insight on Application Development and Deployment Software Market, visit @Geographically, the report takes stock of the potential of application development and deployment software market in the regions of North America (The U.S. and Canada), Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina), Europe (Germany, France, Spain, The U.K., Italy, and Nordic), Asia Pacific except Japan (China, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, and Singapore), The Middle East and Africa (GCC countries, Nigeria, South Africa, and Israel), and in the country of Japan. For each of these countries, the report provides revenue comparison on the basis of type, vertical, and deployment.Global Application Development and Deployment Software Market: Competitive LandscapeHewlett Packard Enterprise Company, Microsoft Corp., IBM, Oracle Corp., Salesforce.com, Inc., SAP SE, Alphabet Inc., Compuware Corp., ServiceNow, Inc., and CA Technology Inc. are some of the key companies currently operating in the global application development and deployment software market.Enquire about this Report @About (MRRSE)Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients and customers 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  12207 (United States)Telephone: +1-518-730-0559 (US- Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:
Professional Hair Care Products Market to Surge at a Robust Pace in Terms of Revenue Over 2020

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Beauty and personal care industry includes skin care, hair care, oral care, cosmetics, toiletries, and others. Of all the aforementioned segments, demand for hair care products has restored from 2013. Consumers are becoming sophisticated in nature which has led to change in buying patterns for personal care products. Thishas led to introduction of customized products sustaining the assorted need of the consumers based on different cultures, hair types, and regions. Also, rising concerns for hair protection, demand for professional hair care products is expected to increase in the next five to six years. Professional hair care products are predicted to record a growth of around 5% to 6% annually in the near future. Factors such ashair stylist recommendations, efficacy of the products, and increasing penetration of hair care services are expected to bolster the professional hair care products market growth in near future.A sample of this report is available upon request @The professional hair care market is expected to witness growth due to factors such as increased consumer spending on personal care products, growing disposable income of consumers in emerging nations, and increasing penetration of hair salon services across the globe. In addition, changing hair grooming pattern especially among the male consumers is expected to fuel the market growth. However, high pricing coupled with less availability of professional hair care products across the designed distribution channels are restricting the market growth. Although, the professional hair care products market has attained a maturity level in developed countries, introduction of highly specialized products in shampoo and hair colorant category is anticipated to enhance the market growth. Also, in developing countries introduction of products addressing issues of consumers related to grey hair, dandruff and hair loss are expected to fuel the market growth. For instance, in India inclination of consumers towards enhanced hair appearance is a key trend leading to a shift in consumers from conventional products to professional hair care products. Furthermore, increasing product visibility across multi retail outlets aids the market growth during 2015-2020.The professional hair care products market is segmented on the basis of product type, and distribution channels. The various professional hair care products are broadly classified as conditioners, shampoos, hair colorants, hair serums, hair masks, hair sprays, and others. Among abovementioned products, the hair colorants category is expected to witness a growth of around 8% to 9% as compared to the other products. The various distribution channels through which the professional hair care products are marketed include spa and salons, web or online shopping stores, supermarkets and hypermarkets, speciality stores, and others.North America is expected to dominate the market during the forecast period, accounting for more than 30% of the market share by 2020. However, Asia pacific is expected to record highest CAGR as compared to other regions. Changing consumer buying patterns supported by increasing disposable income and spending on personal care products in countries such as India and China is driving the growth of professional hair care products in this region. Furthermore, growth of organizedretail industry is expected to enhance the demand for professional hair care products in MEA.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Some of the major international players in this market include Loreal Group, Kao Group, Henkel AG & Co., Aveda Corporation, Procter & Gamble Co., Unilever Group, and PBI Group Inc., among the others. As a strategic move to enhance the product visibility, these companies are focused on increasing product penetration through online retailing, and creating awareness for hair care products through advertisements. In addition, high promotional activities such as increasing television commercials, value added packages in the hair care products range, and other offers has led to increased purchase of hair care products across the globe.About UsFuture Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centres in the U.S. and India.FMIs research and consulting services help businesses around the globe navigate the challenges in a rapidly evolving marketplace with confidence and clarity. Our customised and syndicated market research reports deliver actionable insights that drive sustainable growth. We continuously track emerging trends and events in a broad range of end industries to ensure our clients prepare for the evolving needs of their consumers.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
GiftaLove.com is Announcing This as The Best Time to Buy Flowers and Gifts for Mothers Day!

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http://www.giftalove.com/flowers/mothers-day

https://www.giftalove.com/

GiftaLove.com is announcing this as the best time to buy Mothers Day gift at the portal and assure timely gift delivery in India and worldwide. The popular online store is also making gift shopping easy for every time by offering unique gift in a matter of few clicks.New Delhi, India: This is the time of the year when the entire world is getting prepared for the upcoming celebration of Mothers Day. On this peak time of the year for Mothers Day gift shopping, GiftaLove.com is announcing it as one of the best time of the year for the people of India to buy gifts online for and avail timely nationwide and worldwide delivery. Exclusively for the festival of Mothers Day, the portal created an exclusive line of Mothers Day Gifts () with myriads of attractive and thoughtful gifting options.With years of expertise in catering people with extensive line of gifting solutions for every celebratory occasion of the year, GiftaLove.com has become a preferred and acclaimed online gift store for the people of India. This time, the offered range for Mothers Day Gifts by portal is generating great revenue as people are stunned with the availability of such impressive and unique gifts at amazing price point.Considering the major preferences of people of floral gifts to mom on Mothers Day, we have created an exclusive line of Flowers for Mothers day. This range is fully inclusive of designer, unique and very gorgeous floral arrangements that are designed by the team of expert florists. People can find awesome selections for the Mothers day Flower bouquets, glass vase arrangements, basket flower arrangements and flower bunches too, said the official spokesperson of the gift portal on a conversation regarding range of Mothers day flowers online.In the exclusive line of Mothers Day flowers, there are myriad selections to make. This range has been designed with numerous selections of Mothers Day Flowers () that are designed using beautiful blooms like carnations, tulips, lilies, roses, orchids, anthurium and other beautiful flowers online. People can also buy Mothers Day flower combos like Flowers with cake, flowers with sweets, flowers with chocolates as well as many delightful Mothers Day flower gift hampers too.For Mothers Day, we have created an exclusive gift line that is been designed considering about the latest gifting trends and the emotions behind its celebration. Thus, we have been able to create a gift range that offers some very spectacular gifting solutions to win heart of mother and express hearty wishes and love to her on the special day. And now when just few days are left for the celebration of Mothers Day celebration 2018, we are announcing this as the best time to order for gift online. This way, we are making people aware about the best way of avoiding the last minute rush and avail on-time Mothers day Gifts delivery in India and worldwide, added the official spokesperson of the portal regarding the exclusive line of Mothers Day Gifts.GiftaLove.com is the name for Indias highly acclaimed and competitive online gift stores. For the upcoming occasion of Mothers Day, the portal has introduced a vast array of online Mothers Day Gifts. This range is inclusive of most thoughtful and unique gifts for mother at attractive prices and free shipping services across India. The portal is announcing this as the best time to buy and order for Mothers day Gifts delivery worldwide or across India. The portal also offers an extensive line of gifts, cakes and flowers for occasion of celebrations falling across the year.Company Name: GiftaLoveContact Person: SoniyaEmail:- support@giftalove.comPhone:- 8882001155Address:- Mayur Vihar Phase -1City: New DelhiCountry: IndiaWebsite:
Channel-In-A-Box (CiaB) Market Expected to Witness a Sustainable Growth over 2020

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Channel-in-a-box (CiaB) is defined as collapsing the pieces of traditional master control and playout chain such as switchers, graphics, servers, audio, routing and channel branding into a single integrated software application that runs on generic IT-based hardware. Channel-in-a-box technology is the new big thing in master control automation this year but most of the major hardware merchants even those selling it warn that (CiaB) not yet for every buyer. This is mainly due to TV channels differ in sophistication, and complex installations may work best with traditional control room automation.A sample of this report is available upon request @The global market for Channel-In-A-Box is estimated to grow at CAGR of 28% from 2014 to 2020.North America continues to be the largest market for (CiaB).However, growth is expected to robust in the markets of Asia-Pacific (APAC) and Middle East and Africa (MEA) out spacing the growth in North America and becoming the new market leader for (CiaB) globally in the next five years. In terms of revenue the market is expected to generate USD 170 million by 2020.The market is driven by its latest technology advancement providing benefits to the producers and engineers who need a powerful yet compact outboard unit combining the sonic quality and features. As this technology is new most of the people are not aware about it and moreover the companies are selling (Ciab) with a very high price the market is becoming more competitive which are the major barriers in the growth of the market. But integration is in trend and its early to decide the future of (Ciab).To view TOC of this report is available upon request @After being inactive for a long period of time for more than a decade, CiaB is finally creating buzz among presenters. With companies such as Grass Valley, Playbox, Snell, Harmonicjumping into venture, this market is expected to grow with high revenues.About UsFuture Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centres in the U.S. and India.FMIs research and consulting services help businesses around the globe navigate the challenges in a rapidly evolving marketplace with confidence and clarity. Our customised and syndicated market research reports deliver actionable insights that drive sustainable growth. We continuously track emerging trends and events in a broad range of end industries to ensure our clients prepare for the evolving needs of their consumers.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
CCTV Camera Market Outlook and Growth Forecast for the Period 2017 - 2025

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https://www.mrrse.com/cctv-camera-market

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Market Research Report Search Engine (MRRSE) recently announced the addition of a new research study to its comprehensive collection of research reports. The research report, titled CCTV Camera Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025" CCTV cameras offer a secure medium to monitor and record images and video. The demand for CCTV cameras for the purpose of surveillance has soared globally. This demand is attributed to the rising threat to public security due to criminal and terrorist attacks. Apart from public security surveillance CCTV cameras are used to monitor areas such as shopping malls, hotels, streets, banks, and government buildings.Ask for detailed Sample of the Research Report @CCTV cameras vary on the basis of technology and model type. The CCTV camera market consists of a large number of software and hardware providers. The CCTV camera market value chain is characterized by system integrators and service providers. The CCTV camera market is highly competitive since it has a large number of hardware, software, and technology providers. Intense competition in the market affects the pricing strategy adopted by the players in the CCTV market. Investments in research and development initiatives is largely prevalent in the CCTV camera market.Global CCTV Camera Market: Regional SegmentationBased on geographical regions, the report segments the global CCTV camera market into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa (MEA), and South America, which are analyzed in terms of revenue generation. The report provides country level revenue for CCTV camera market. The U.S., Canada, the U.K., Germany, France, India, China, Japan, GCC, South Africa, Brazil, and Argentina are the countries covered in the report. The report also provides the country level data of each of the market segments for all the countries mentioned above.North America is expected to lead the CCTV camera market during the forecast period. The region houses a large number of CCTV camera system and solution providers. The Asia Pacific region is expected to witness the highest growth rate of 14.6 percent during the forecast period.The Middle East and Africa and South America are in the early phases of large scale installation of CCTV cameras. The anticipated growth of tourism sector of the Middle East and Brazil is expected to support the market growth of the CCTV camera market of these regions during the forecast period. The CCTV camera market comprises large number of medium and large players. Product innovation, mergers and acquisition, and research & development investments are the key growth strategies adopted by the players in the CCTV camera market. The market is expected to be hit by a huge wave of mergers and acquisitions in the coming years.To know more Insight on CCTV Camera Market, visit @Global CCTV Camera Market: SegmentationThis research report provides an in-depth analysis of the global CCTV camera market based on model type, technology, end-use application, and geography. The global CCTV camera market is categorized based on model type into PTZ camera, box camera, dome camera, bullet camera, and others (hybrid, etc.). The technology segment for the global CCTV camera market consists of analog CCTV systems, wireless CCTV systems, IP-based CCTV systems, and hybrid CCTV systems. The end-use segment is classified into retail, hospitality, BFSI, home security, government, and others (transportation, healthcare, etc.). The report analyzes each of these segments for the various geographies considered under the scope of the study.Global CCTV Camera Market: Competitive LandscapeThe report includes analysis of the factors that drive and restrain the growth of the CCTV camera market. It discusses the prevailing market trends and prospective growth opportunities in the global CCTV camera market. It provides market estimates and forecasts for all the segments in terms of revenue. Also provided in the report is the market positioning of the companies in the CCTV camera market.Major business strategies adopted by key players, their SWOT analysis, and competition matrix has also been identified in the research report. Axis Communications AB, Bosch Security Systems, Inc., Geovision Inc, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co Ltd, Hanwha Techwin Co. Ltd, Honeywell International Inc., Panosonic System Network Co. Limited, Pelco Inc, Toshiba Corporation, and Zhejiang Dahau Technology Co. Ltd. are major players profiled in the global CCTV camera market report.Enquire about this Report @About (MRRSE)Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients and customers 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  12207 (United States)Telephone: +1-518-730-0559 (US- Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:
Memory Integrated Circuits (IC) Market is Set to Garner Staggering Revenues by 2020

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An integrated circuit (IC), also known as chip or a microchip is a layout of electronic circuits built over a small plate made of semiconductor material. ICs are very compact and can have up to several hundreds of transistors and other components embedded on a semiconductor plate of very small size. ICs were made possible by various experiments showing that semiconductor devices can perform the functions of vacuum tubes. The mass production and reliability of ICs ensured the rapid adoption of standard integrated circuits in place of circuits using discrete transistors. ICs can store data of over 64 GB on a single chip of size comparable to a fingernail. There are primarily two types of ICs for memory storage viz. volatile and non-volatile memory. Volatile memories are memories such as random access memories (RAM) which can retain data stored on them as long as power supply is provided. Non-volatile memories are read-only memories (ROM) which have data stored on them irrespective of power supply.A sample of this report is available upon request @The memory ICs find applications in memory based electronic devices such as mobile phones, computers, tablets, medical devices, smart cards, digital cameras, communication equipments and other digital electronic devices. Memory ICs are predominantly used in smart-phones, media players, and USB drives. With growing adoption and enhancements in smart-phones, there is a rising demand for sophisticated memory ICs in recent years. This demand is expected to grow at a high rate owing to the ongoing development in the smartphone devices. Another application contributing to the demand of memory ICs is tablet computers. The demand for memory ICs is expected to rise with growing adoption of tablet PCs. In addition, increasing use of digital cameras and camcorders worldwide too contributes to the demand for memory ICs. Memory ICs are also used in smart cards such as driving license, e-passport and other identification cards. Installation of memory ICs makes it convenient to maintain records of the card holder leading to growing adoption of these cards. Automotive and medical sectors are the emerging application areas of the memory ICs. Memory ICs are used to maintain the records of patients in medical equipment such as electrocardiographs, diagnostic imaging apparatus, medical PCs, blood analysis devices and other electronic medical recording systems.Geographically, Asia-Pacific has shown the fastest growth in memory ICs market due to the growing population and consumption of consumer electronics in this region. Asia-Pacific accounts for over a quarter of the global memory ICs market. In addition, rising number of suppliers of semiconductor material required for manufacturing of ICs is boosting the production of memory ICs. North America follows Asia-Pacific with growing development in medical and automobile sector along with the consumer electronics.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @In North America, Agilent Technologies, CyOptics, Enablence Technologies, Ciena, Emcore Corporation, Hewlett Packard, Finisar Corporation, Infinera Corporation, JDS Uniphase, Kaiam Corporation, Intel Corporation, Kotura Inc, Luxtera, Oclaro Inc., Neophotonics Corporation, Onechip Photonics among others are the providers of memory ICs. In Europe, Aifotec AG and Alcatel Lucent are leading manufacturers of memory chip ICs. In Asia-Pacific, Avago Technologies is among the leading manufacturers of memory ICs.About UsFuture Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centres in the U.S. and India.FMIs research and consulting services help businesses around the globe navigate the challenges in a rapidly evolving marketplace with confidence and clarity. Our customised and syndicated market research reports deliver actionable insights that drive sustainable growth. We continuously track emerging trends and events in a broad range of end industries to ensure our clients prepare for the evolving needs of their consumers.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Global Oilfield Services Market Forecast 2018-2025 Schlumberger, Baker Hughes, Weatherford, Halliburton Company

Oilfield Services Market

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A market study "Global Oilfield Services Market" examines the performance of the Oilfield Services market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Oilfield Services market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Oilfield Services market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Oilfield Services Market 2018 report includes Oilfield Services market Revenue, market Share, Oilfield Services industry volume, market Trends, Oilfield Services Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Oilfield Services Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Oilfield Services Market 2018 :1. Baker Hughes Incorporated (U.S.)2. Halliburton Company (U.S.)3. Schlumberger Limited (U.S.)4. Weatherford International5. PLC (Switzerland)6. Superior Energy Services (U.S.)7. National OilWell Varco, Inc. (U.S.)...Oilfield Services Market : By ApplicationOnshoreOffshoreOilfield Services Market : By TypeCoiled Tubing ServicesWell Completion Equipment & ServicesDrilling & Completion Fluids ServicesDrilling Waste Management ServicesOil Country Tubular GoodsPressure Pumping ServicesWell InterventionWireline ServicesFirstly, the report covers the top Oilfield Services manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Oilfield Services report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Oilfield Services industry, Oilfield Services industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Oilfield Services Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Oilfield Services 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 Oilfield Services market revenue worldwide.Finally, Oilfield Services 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:QYMarketStudy.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@qymarketstudy.com
Graphene Market Status and Forecast 2017-2022, by Players, Types and Application

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2017-2022 Graphene Report on Global and United States Market, Status and Forecast, by Players, Types and Application is a brand new market intelligence report that has been added by the MarketResearchReports.biz to its repository of extensive and wide variety of reports.This report studies the Graphene market status and outlook of global and United States, from angles of players, regions, product types and end industries; this report analyzes the top players in global and United States market, and splits the Graphene market by product type and applications/end industries.The global Graphene market is valued at XX million USD in 2016 and is expected to reach XX million USD by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.The Asia-Pacific will occupy for more market share in following years, especially in China, also fast growing India and Southeast Asia regions.North America, especially The United States, will still play an important role which cannot be ignored. Any changes from United States might affect the development trend of Graphene. United States plays an important role in global market, with market size of xx million USD in 2016 and will be xx million USD in 2022, with a CAGR of XX.Get the sample copy of this report @Geographically, this report is segmented into several key regions, with sales, revenue, market share (%) and growth Rate (%) of Graphene in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringUnited StatesNorth AmericaEuropeAsia-PacificSouth AmericaMiddle East and AfricaThe major players in global and United States Graphene market, including XG Science, Nano X plore, Thomas Swan & Co., Ltd., Angstron Materials INC., United Nano-Technologies, Cambridge Nanosystems, Abalonyx AS, Perpetuus Advanced Materials, Granphenea, Ning Bo Mo Xi Technology, The New Hong Mstar, Sixth Element Technology, Group Tangshan Jianhua Inc., Deyang Carbon Technology, Jining Leader Nano Technology, Beijing Carbon Century Technology, Shanxi institute of coal chemistry, 2D Carbon Materials.The On the basis of product, the Graphene market is primarily split intoGraphene powderGraphene oxideGraphene filmOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report coversPhotovoltaic CellsComposite MaterialsEnergy StorageUltrafiltrationBiological EngineeringConductive inksOtherWhat our report offers:- Market share assessments for the regional and country level segments- Market share analysis of the top industry players- Strategic recommendations for the new entrants- Market forecasts for a minimum of 9 years of all the mentioned segments, sub segments and the regional markets- Market Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations)- Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimations- Competitive landscaping mapping the key common trends- Company profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developments- Supply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancementsRequest for complete report TOC @Table of Contents2017-2022 Graphene Report on Global and United States Market, Status and Forecast, by Players, Types and Applications1 Methodology and Data Source1.1 Methodology/Research Approach1.1.1 Research Programs/Design1.1.2 Market Size Estimation1.1.3 Market Breakdown and Data Triangulation1.2 Data Source2.1.1 Secondary Sources2.1.2 Primary Sources1.3 Disclaimer2 Graphene Market Overview2.1 Graphene Product Overview2.2 Graphene Market Segment by Type2.2.1 Graphene powder2.2.2 Graphene oxide2.2.3 Graphene film2.3 Global Graphene Product Segment by Type2.3.1 Global Graphene Sales (K Metric Tons) and Growth (%) by Types (2012, 2016 and 2022)2.3.2 Global Graphene Sales (K Metric Tons) and Market Share (%) by Types (2012-2017)2.3.3 Global Graphene Revenue (Million USD) and Market Share (%) by Types (2012-2017)2.3.4 Global Graphene Price (USD/Kg) by Type (2012-2017)2.4 United States Graphene Product Segment by Type2.4.1 United States Graphene Sales (K Metric Tons) and Growth by Types (2012, 2016 and 2022)2.4.2 United States Graphene Sales (K Metric Tons) and Market Share by Types (2012-2017)2.4.3 United States Graphene Revenue (Million USD) and Market Share by Types (2012-2017)2.4.4 United States Graphene Price (USD/Kg) by Type (2012-2017)3 Graphene Application/End Users3.1 Graphene Segment by Application/End Users3.1.1 Photovoltaic Cells3.1.2 Composite Materials3.1.3 Energy Storage3.1.4 Ultrafiltration3.1.5 Biological Engineering3.2 Global Graphene Product Segment by Application3.2.1 Global Graphene Sales (K Metric Tons) and CGAR (%) by Applications (2012, 2016 and 2022)3.2.2 Global Graphene Sales (K Metric Tons) and Market Share (%) by Applications (2012-2017)3.3 United States Graphene Product Segment by Application3.3.1 United States Graphene Sales (K Metric Tons) and CGAR (%) by Applications (2012, 2016 and 2022)3.3.2 United States Graphene Sales (K Metric Tons) and Market Share (%) by Applications (2012-2017)4 Graphene Market Status and Outlook by Regions4.1 Global Market Status and Outlook by Regions4.1.1 Global Graphene Market Size and CAGR by Regions (2012, 2016 and 2022)4.1.2 North America4.1.3 Asia-Pacific4.1.4 Europe4.1.5 South America4.1.6 Middle East and Africa4.1.7 United States4.2 Global Graphene Sales and Revenue by Regions4.2.1 Global Graphene Sales (K Metric Tons) and Market Share (%) by Regions (2012-2017)4.2.2 Global Graphene Revenue (Million USD) and Market Share (%) by Regions (2012-2017)4.2.3 Global Graphene Sales (K Metric Tons), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Kg) and Gross Margin (%) (2012-2017)4.2.4 North America Graphene Sales (K Metric Tons), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Kg) and Gross Margin (%) (2012-2017)4.2.5 Europe Graphene Sales (K Metric Tons), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Kg) and Gross Margin (%) (2012-2017)4.2.6 Asia-Pacific Graphene Sales (K Metric Tons), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Kg) and Gross Margin (%) (2012-2017)4.2.7 South America Graphene Sales (K Metric Tons), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Kg) and Gross Margin (2012-2017)4.2.8 Middle East and Africa Graphene Sales (K Metric Tons), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Kg) and Gross Margin (%) (2012-2017)4.2.9 United States Graphene Sales (K Metric Tons), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Kg) and Gross Margin (2012-2017)5 Global Graphene Market Competition by Players/Manufacturers5.1 Global Graphene Sales (K Metric Tons) and Market Share by Players (2012-2017)5.2 Global Graphene Revenue (Million USD) and Share by Players (2012-2017)5.3 Global Graphene Average Price (USD/Kg) by Players (2012-2017)5.4 Players Graphene Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area, Product Types5.5 Graphene Market Competitive Situation and Trends5.5.1 Graphene Market Concentration Rate5.5.2 Global Graphene Market Share (%) of Top 3 and Top 5 Players5.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion6 United States Graphene Market Competition by Players/Manufacturers6.1 United States Graphene Sales (K Metric Tons) and Market Share by Players (2012-2017)6.2 United States Graphene Revenue (Million USD) and Share by Players (2012-2017)6.3 United States Graphene Average Price (USD/Kg) by Players (2012-2017)6.4 United States Graphene Market Share (%) of Top 3 and Top 5 PlayersMRRbiz 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 Smart City ICT Infrastructure Industry 2016 Deep Market Research Report

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With rapid urbanization and need for efficient & organized cities, governments across the Asia-Pacific sector are investing significantly in ICT infrastructure. Public sector offices in the major cities of the continent believe that utilization of ICT is necessary to meet their objectives and ensure efficient operations. In some parts of the continent, growing population is posing a major challenge in development. Implementation of ICT infrastructure in efficient way helps in tackling this issue and providing better services for welfare of population.Eying the opportunities presented by ICT infrastructure in smart cities, Indian government planned to build 100 smart cities across the nation by utilization of geo-spatial technology (GST). Satellite navigation systems and computer databases known as Geographical Information System (GIS) are used in GST to capture, create, store, and revive spatial and geographic information of any location. A real time data and data analytics are used for efficient, effective, and integrated planning of the city.Get Sample@Global Smart City ICT Infrastructure Industry is provided in the report based on product scope and market status & outlook. The market is segmented on the basis of type, end-users/application, and geography. The report provides information about the production, price, revenue, market share, and growth rate of each type. Geographically, the market has been analyzed across North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, and India. The status and prospect through 2012-2022 for each of these regions are listed in the report.Get 15% Discount on this Report@Security of population is a significant aspect of implementation of ICT infrastructure in smart city. Physical security, in which protection of lives of people is a necessity, is achieved by installation of CCTV camera and command & control center. In addition, digital security, in which securing identities, personal, and financial details is a necessity, is achieved by implementation of data analytics, fraud detection, and cyber security protection measures. Smart cities are data driven and big data technology is leveraged to extract reliable & predictable insights and assist in strategic decision making. Data consolidation and protection are essential to ensure safety and improve efficiency. In addition to safety and security, there are various aspects of the smart city that need to be taken into consideration, such as medical & health, building automation, education, and others.In its recent report on the smart city ICT Infrastructure presented by Research Beam, an extensive analysis on sales and revenue are offered for the period, 2011-2021 to help manufacturers and new entrants to gain insights on current market scenario and growth opportunities of the future.Check Full Report With TOC@About Us:Research Beams uniqueness lies in its highly ethical reports at economical rates because we value your relationship and growth more than money. Your growth is our aim. With the arsenal of different search reports, we help you here to look and buy research reports that will be helpful to you and your organization. Our research reports have the capability and authenticity to support your organization for growth and consistency.Contact Us:Global Head Quarters5933 NE Win Sivers Drive,#205, Portland, OR 97220United Statesphone+1 (800) 910-6452help@researchbeam.com
Actions by top judiciary is worse than a martial law: Nawaz Sharif

ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif on Monday vented out his anguish at the superior judiciary, saying the recent actions by the top judiciary indicate that a regime worse than a martial law has been imposed across Pakistan.



What is prevalent in the country is not democracy but the worst kind of dictatorship under [Chief Justice Mian] Saqib Nisar, Nawaz told reporters inside the accountability court in Islamabad. What is happening in the country is not less than a judicial martial law, he said.



Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam arrived from London earlier on Monday to attend the accountability proceedings. The two had requested an exemption from appearance citing Kulsoom Nawazs deteriorating heath, however their plea was not entertained by the court.



Criticising recent judgements by the courts as illogical, Sharif said the silencing of 220 million people of Pakistan would not be acceptable to him. These many restrictions were not even imposed during the martial laws that we are seeing today, he remarked.



Directing his criticism at the chief justice, Nawaz said Justice Nisar visits hospitals regularly and talks about vegetable prices, but he should also visit the home of an oppressed person whose case hasnt been decided for 20 years. He [CJP] should know the rates of potatoes and tomatoes, how much the public buses cost, the state of hospitals and the price of medications, but he should turn his attention to the scores of pending cases, he said. It is not your job to summon the chief minister and make the government stand in the line, he added, addressing the CJP.



The former prime minister claimed that efforts were being made to convict him in the corruption references being heard by the accountability court, which he said were an attempt to validate the five judges, a reference to the five-member SC bench which had disqualified him last year in the Panama Papers case. The reason for this is plain and simple  so that the five judges of the apex court can save face, and save themselves from embarrassment, Nawaz alleged.



The deposed PM said that nobody has accepted judgements against him, even the petitioners, including Imran Khan, adding that prominent lawyers have termed the decision as weak. Referring to his disqualifications, the three-time prime minister asked, How they will answer to history? Current judgments are weaker than even those of Justice Munir.



In my political life, I have never seen such restrictions on media and freedom of speech, he added. Nawaz then quoted former president Idi Amin of Uganda and said, I can guarantee freedom of speech but I cannot guarantee freedom after speech.



There should be no hurdles in the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movements (PTM) rally, its wrong to stop them from rallying, its their right, he said referring to the protest movement. Elaborating further, the ousted prime minister said there should be accountability for such actions as the country does not belong to any single person, but belongs to 220 million people.



Referring to the remarks by Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Senator Sirjaul Haq about the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) voting for Sadiq Sanjrani during the Senate elections following an order from the top, Nawaz Sharif said the revelation was meaningful. He asked PTI chief Imran Khan to tell the nation about his vote for arrow in the Senate elections. He said those who were indulging in unprincipled politics could not bring about change, adding change comes by following principles. Only PML-N and its allies transparently voted in the Senate elections, he added.



Nawaz said Imran Khan had reprimanded his members of provincial assembly for selling their votes. Imran Khan should reprimand himself as on whose orders he voted in the Senate elections. Will Imran Khan also answer the nation about how Chaudhry Sarwar managed to get votes [in Punjab]? he questioned.
Global Commercial Payment Cards Market Forecast 2018-2025 Banco Itau, SimplyCash, American Express, Visa, MasterCard

Commercial Payment Cards Market

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A market study "Global Commercial Payment Cards Market" examines the performance of the Commercial Payment Cards market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Commercial Payment Cards market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Commercial Payment Cards market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Commercial Payment Cards Market 2018 report includes Commercial Payment Cards market Revenue, market Share, Commercial Payment Cards industry volume, market Trends, Commercial Payment Cards Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Commercial Payment Cards Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Commercial Payment Cards Market 2018 :1. American Express2. Banco Itau3. Bank of America Merrill Lynch4. Bank of Brazil5. Bank of East Asia6. Chase Commercial Banking7. Diner's Club8. Hang Seng Bank9. Hyundai10. JP Morgan11. MasterCard12. SimplyCash13. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation14. Visa15. WEX Inc.16. Woori BankCommercial Payment Cards Market : By ApplicationSmall Business Credit CardsCorporate Credit CardsCommercial Payment Cards Market : By TypeOpen-Loop Versus Closed Loop CardsCommercial Electronic PaymentsFirstly, the report covers the top Commercial Payment Cards manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Commercial Payment Cards report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Commercial Payment Cards industry, Commercial Payment Cards industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Commercial Payment Cards Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Commercial Payment Cards 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 Commercial Payment Cards market revenue worldwide.Finally, Commercial Payment Cards 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:QYMarketStudy.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@qymarketstudy.com
Aroma Ingredients Market to Register Substantial Expansion by 2026

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Aroma chemical is a complex fusion of natural and/or synthetic ingredients that are added to various products in order to incorporate desired odor. These ingredients are widely used in consumer care and personal care products. Personal care industry is one of the major application industry for aroma ingredients market. The global aroma ingredients market has witnessed steady growth over the recent past owing to increasing demand for natural aroma ingredients. Soaps and detergent is estimated to account for a significant share in the global aroma ingredients market followed by cosmetics and toiletries applications. The global aroma ingredients market is expected to register a steady growth during forecast period.A sample of this report is available upon request @Global Aroma Ingredients Market: DriversIntroduction of innovative and novel products especially in cosmetics, toiletries, and skin care and hair care products has driven the overall growth of the global aroma ingredients market. The increasing demand for natural ingredients coupled with change in consumer preferences are considered to be the important driver for global aroma ingredients market. Furthermore, significant technological advancements have also fuelled the growth of the market. Moreover, the increase in demand from the emerging and developing nations for natural fragrance due to health concerns related to synthetic chemicals is likely to act as an opportunity for the growth of the global aroma ingredients market. These factors are likely to drive the global aroma ingredients market during the forecast period. A key trend witnessed in global aroma chemicals market is that the key aroma chemical producers are responding to growing opportunities by expanding their global presence. One of the major factor that is likely to restrict growth in demand for natural aroma ingredients is high costs associated with switching from synthetic chemical to natural ingredients.Global Aroma Ingredients Market: SegmentationThe global aroma ingredients market can be segmented on the basis of type, application and region. On the basis of type, the global aroma ingredients market can be segmented intoessential oilsaroma chemicalsEssential oils segment can further be sub-segmented into menthe arvensis, cedar wood, orange, eucalyptus, citronella and others (basil, clove, jamrosa, litsea cubica, sassafras, coriander, patchouli, camphor and lemon grass) Whereas, aroma chemicals segment can further be sub-segmented into turpenes, musk chemical, benzenoids and others (alicyclic, heterocyclic and aliphatic compounds).On the basis of application, the global aroma ingredients markets can be segmented intocosmetic and toiletriessoap and detergentsfine fragranceOthers (household products, aroma therapy and pesticides).Global Aroma Ingredients Market: Region Wise OutlookOn the basis of regions, Europe is expected to be a promising revenue generating region for the global aroma ingredients market and is expected to grow at steady growth rate during forecast period. Latin America and Asia Pacific are anticipated to witness relatively faster growth both in terms of value and in terms of volume. Potential opportunities in Asia Pacific and Latin America due to availability of labor and low cost of raw materials are expected to drive growth in these regions over the forecast period. North America and Middle East & Africa are also expected to show positive growth in the near future.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Global Aroma Ingredients Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players identified in the global aroma ingredients market are as follows:BASF SEMane SAInternational Flavors and Fragrances Inc.Givaudan SAFermenich International SAFrutarom Industries Ltd.Symrise AGAgilex Flavors and Fragrances, Inc.Hindustan Mint & Agro Products Pvt. Ltd.About UsFuture Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centres in the U.S. and India.FMIs research and consulting services help businesses around the globe navigate the challenges in a rapidly evolving marketplace with confidence and clarity. Our customised and syndicated market research reports deliver actionable insights that drive sustainable growth. We continuously track emerging trends and events in a broad range of end industries to ensure our clients prepare for the evolving needs of their consumers.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Global Coiled Tubing Market Forecast 2018-2025 Halliburton, Archer, Schlumberger, Baker Hughes

Coiled Tubing Market

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A market study "Global Coiled Tubing Market" examines the performance of the Coiled Tubing market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Coiled Tubing market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Coiled Tubing market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Coiled Tubing Market 2018 report includes Coiled Tubing market Revenue, market Share, Coiled Tubing industry volume, market Trends, Coiled Tubing Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Coiled Tubing Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Coiled Tubing Market 2018 :1. Schlumberger Limited2. Halliburton Co3. Baker Hughes Inc.4. Superior Energy Services Inc5. Weatherford International Ltd.6. Calfrac Well Services Ltd.7. Trican Well Service Ltd.8. Nabors Industries Ltd.9. Key Energy Services Inc.10. Archer LimitedCoiled Tubing Market : By ApplicationDrillingWell CompletionWell CleaningOthersCoiled Tubing Market : By TypeLow Carbon Alloy Steel TubeNon-alloy Steel Composite TubeFirstly, the report covers the top Coiled Tubing manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Coiled Tubing report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Coiled Tubing industry, Coiled Tubing industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Coiled Tubing Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Coiled Tubing 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 Coiled Tubing market revenue worldwide.Finally, Coiled Tubing 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:QYMarketStudy.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@qymarketstudy.com
Corporate Wellness Market - Asia Pacific Industry Analysis, Trends, and Forecast 2016 - 2024

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"Corporate Wellness Market: (Service Type - Health Risk Assessment, Fitness, Smoking Cessation, Health Screening, Weight Management, Nutrition) - Asia Pacific Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2016 - 2024 is a brand new market intelligence report that has been added by the MarketResearchReports.biz to its repository of extensive and wide variety of reports.Corporate wellness services such as fitness, health risk assessment, weight management, and health screening have witnessed significant growth in revenue in the past few years. Corporate wellness programs are designed to support employees in understanding their health risk and accepting healthy behavior at workplace and to reduce their health care expenditure. These programs reduce the cost of hospitalization, emergency room visits, specialist visits, and surgeries. Moreover, corporate wellness programs result in decrease in absenteeism, increase in productivity, and improvement in quality of life of employees. Increase in non-communicable diseases, government support and initiatives, growingnumber of white collar employees, rising health consciousness among the population, willingness of employers to incorporate wellness programs, and mandatory laws to implement wellness programs in organizations are the factors likely to drive the corporate wellness market in Asia Pacific. However, high cost of services andinefficient execution of corporate wellness services are anticipated to hamper the growth of the corporate wellness market in Asia Pacific.Request for sample copy of this report @The executive summary of the report comprises a market snapshot of the corporate wellness market in Asia Pacific and comparative analysis by geography in terms of value % for 2015 and 2024. Based on service type, the corporate wellness market in the region has been segmented intohealth risk assessment, fitness, smoking cessation, health screening, weight management, nutrition, and others.Market revenue analysis of all the segments mentioned abovehas been provided for the forecast period from 2016 to 2024, considering 2015 as the base year and 2014 as historical year. The executive summary also comprises majordrivers and restraints along with key trends likely to drive the growth of the corporate wellness market in Asia Pacific.The market overview section of the corporate wellness market report analyzes the market dynamics and trends such as drivers, restraints, and opportunities that influence the current and future status of the corporate wellness market in Asia Pacific. Impact factors such as market attractiveness analysis by geography of the corporate wellness market in Asia Pacific have been provided in this section of the report. Furthermore, the report includes market opportunity map, industry developments and opportunity analysisfor the market.Geographically, the corporate wellness market in Asia Pacific has been segmented into ninecountries: China, Japan, India, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, and Rest of Asia Pacific. The study further offers recommendations and key trends for the corporate wellness market in the region, which would be useful for existing and new players to sustain and grow in the market.Request for complete report TOC @The report on the corporate wellness market in Asia Pacific concludes with the company profiles section that includes key information in terms of company overview, financial information, product portfolio, business strategies, and recent development about the major players operating in the corporate wellness market in the region. Key players operating in the corporate wellness market in Asia Pacificinclude Central Corporate Wellness, ComPsych Corporation, Optum, Inc., JLT Australia (Recovre Group), Truworth Wellness, SOL Wellness, Sodexo, ConneXions Asia, and Bupa Wellness Pty Ltd.The corporate wellnessmarket in Asia Pacifichas been segmented as follows:Asia Pacific Corporate Wellness Market, by ServiceHealth Risk AssessmentFitnessSmoking CessationHealth ScreeningWeight ManagementNutritionOthers (stress management, diabetes management, and vaccinations)Asia Pacific Corporate Wellness Market, by CountryChinaJapanIndiaAustraliaSingaporeHong KongMalaysiaThailandRest of Asia PacificMRRbiz 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
Smart Dynamic Routing with Automated Payment Processing

SMART DYNAMIC ROUTING

SMART DYNAMIC ROUTING is a web application which built to identify the best possible payment gateway based on incoming transaction details, merchant preferences and past performance of payment gateways. This is built on rule based engine which allows to automate the gateway selection process as per various rules and their precedence.One of the biggest factors that can influence Fintech Industry (Inc.shopping cart / E-commerces / etc...) is the failure of transactions. It is commonly experienced that when we are making an online transaction, suddenly something goes wrong and the transaction fails due to unknown reasons. What are those reasons and what is the best way to control them? Smart Dynamic Routing is one of the most innovative and smart payment gateway solutions that positively impacts the transaction success rates of an online business and helps the online customer breeze through the entire process of buying.Techforce Infotech having a technical experts which provides innovative solutions to existing and new customers to create and adjust smart routing rules, ensuring fast and reliable implementation.Objectives:1. Find the best approach for single integration with all multiple gateways.2. Work on a strategy which helps saving processing fee.3. Use of AI for payment gateway integration selection.Key Features:1. Manage Merchant Information.2. Manage Rules for Payment Gateway Selection.3. Identify the best possible Gateway for the incoming transaction using historic data and configurations.4. Integration with the external system for Payment Gateway History.5. Role-specific features.Key benefits:1. Implemented the SMART DYNAMIC ROUTING SYSTEM to achieve one stop for all payment.2. No need to integrate with multiple Payment Gateway.3. Automatically routes of payment gateway base on Transaction.4. Clients do not need to change the system while Payment Gateways upgrade or the API.5. Multiple Currency Processing.Top Benefits Achieved1. 75% Improvement in transactions success rate.2. 45% less processing fee while configuring another payment gateway.Techforce Infotech is an India based open source consulting company providing easy payment gateway integration, solutions and services. We are offering best Fintech services in USA, UK, and India. We have experienced development team that produces custom web applications of any complexity for small & large businesses."403, Venus Benecia, Bodakdev,Ahmedabad - 380053+91 (79) 48904529reach@techforceinfotech.com
Global Yogurt Makers Market Top Key Players: Cuisinart, Euro Cuisine, Salton, Whynter, Oster

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report Yogurt Makers to its huge collection of research reports.The global Yogurt Makers market has been detailed in an elaborative manner in this report so that readers could gain complete knowledge of some of the important aspects vital for growth. The analysts who have prepared the report have implemented latest research methodologies to leave no stone unturned when studying the market. They have made an attempt to cover most of the significant growth factors that could help players to ensure a strong rise in the market. With that being said, it is also critical to gain an understanding about factors that could hamper the demand for Yogurt Makers in the coming years. In this regard, the report has done a great job of studying growth restraints and how players could effectively face the challenges when functioning in the market.Get Free Sample Report of the Research Study at:This report studies the global Yogurt Makers market status and forecast, categorizes the global Yogurt Makers market size (value & volume) by key players, type, application, and region. This report focuses on the top players in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia India and Other regions (Middle East & Africa, Central & South America).The major players covered in this reportCuisinartEuro CuisineSaltonWhynterOsterAroma Rice CookerDashWilliams-SonomaBearRoyalstarThe study objectives of this report are:To analyze and study the global Yogurt Makers sales, value, status (2013-2017) and forecast (2018-2025);To analyze the top players in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India, to study the sales, value and market share of top players in these regions.Focuses on the key Yogurt Makers players, to study the sales, value, market share and development plans in future.Focuses on the global key manufacturers, to define, describe and analyze the market competition landscape, SWOT analysis.To define, describe and forecast the market by type, application and region.To analyze the global and key regions market potential and advantage, opportunity and challenge, restraints and risks.To identify significant trends and factors driving or inhibiting the market growth.To analyze the opportunities in the market for stakeholders by identifying the high growth segments.To strategically analyze each submarket with respect to individual growth trend and their contribution to the marketTo analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the marketTo strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.Read Complete Table of Content of the Report at:Key StakeholdersYogurt Makers ManufacturersYogurt Makers Distributors/Traders/WholesalersYogurt Makers Subcomponent ManufacturersIndustry AssociationDownstream VendorsTable of ContentsGlobal Yogurt Makers Sales Market Report 20181 Yogurt Makers Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Yogurt Makers1.2 Classification of Yogurt Makers by Product Category1.2.1 Global Yogurt Makers Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Yogurt Makers Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20172 Global Yogurt Makers Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application2.1 Global Yogurt Makers Market Competition by Players/Suppliers2.1.1 Global Yogurt Makers Sales and Market Share of Key Players/Suppliers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Yogurt Makers Revenue and Share by Players/Suppliers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Yogurt Makers (Volume and Value) by Type...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
Commercial Pharmaceutical 2018 Global Key Players - TCS, ORACLE, Cerner Corporation, Wipro Market Analysis and Forecast to 2027

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IntroductionPharmaceuticals analytics refers to the use of analytical software to analyze and manage biomedical and biological data from life science industries like hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and laboratories.The global commercial pharmaceutical analytics market was valued at USD 1.0 billion in 2015, and is expected grow at a CAGR of around 20% during the forecast period. This rapid growth is majorly attributed to growing adoption of new technologies & analytical tools in process streamlining, as well as the growing pharmaceutical industry, especially in developing nations. On the other hand, lack of skilled professionals and high software cost are major obstacles restraining the market growth.GET SAMPLE REPORT @The market is mainly segmented on the basis of type, deployment method, applications, and regions. Market segmentation by types include sub-segments namely, descriptive analytics, predictive analytics and prescriptive analytics. The descriptive analytics sub-segment, valued at USD 817.9 million, held more than 75% market share in 2015.Market categorization based on deployment methods includes on-premise deployment, and web-based/cloud based deployment. The market has also been segmented based on applications into research & development, marketing & sales, supply chain optimization, internal reporting, and other applications.North America held the largest market share of around 49% within the global commercial pharmaceutical analytics market, in 2015. Europe market, valued at USD 282.7 million, held the second largest market share in 2015.Key PlayersThe leading players of the global commercial pharmaceutical analytics market are Tata Consultancy Services Limited (India), ORACLE (U.S.), Northwest Analytics, Inc. (U.S.), Wipro Limited (India), Microsoft (U.S.), Allscripts (U.S.), Cerner Corporation (U.S.), and Fuzzy Logix, Inc. (U.S.).Study Objectives To provide insights about factors influencing and affecting the market growth To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to regional markets and their key countries To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments based on types, applications, and method of deployment To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their market share, core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the marketTarget Audience Medical Devices & Pharmaceutical companies Software development & IT firms Hospitals & Clinics Potential Investors Raw Material Suppliers Key executive (CEO and COO) and strategy growth managerKey Findings On the basis of type, predictive analytics is the fastest growing segment and is expected grow at 20.4% CAGR during the forecast period to reach USD 1.5 billion by 2027 With revenue of USD 630.0 million, the on premise deployment has held the largest market share of around 60% within the commercial pharmaceutical analytics market, in 2015 Marketing & sales is the fastest growing application segment, and is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 20.5% between 2016 and 2027 Asia-Pacific region is estimated to achieve the fastest growth of 20.8% CAGR during the forecast period on account of high adoption rate in the following decadeTable of Content: Key Points1 Introduction 91.1 Definition 91.2 Scope of Study 91.3 Research Objective 101.4 Assumptions & Limitations 101.5 Market Structure: 112 Research Methodology 122.1 Research Process: 122.2 Primary Research 122.3 Secondary Research: 133 Market Dynamics 143.1 Drivers 143.1.1 Growing Adoption of New Technologies and Analytical Tools 143.1.2 Increasing Usage of Analytical Tools in Streamlining Business Process 153.1.3 Growing Pharmaceutical Industry 153.2 Restraints 153.2.1 Lack of Skilled Professionals 153.3 Opportunities 153.4 Challenges 163.4.1 Enhancement in Clinical Trials & Drug Inventions 163.4.2 Monitoring and Improving Patient Adherence 163.4.3 Enhancing Operational Efficiency 163.5 Macroeconomic Indicators 164 Market Factor Analysis 17ContinuedACCESS 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
Beverage Refrigeration Equipment Market is Anticipated to Expand at a Healthy CAGR of 3.9% by 2025

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Beverage refrigeration equipment are commercial refrigeration equipment used at food & beverage retail outlets, such as dairy stores, wine shops, convenience stores, supermarkets and food service providers, such as hotels, restaurants and cafes. A new research report by Persistence Market Research highlights the scenario of global beverage refrigeration equipment market during the forecast period, 2017-2025.Request for Table of Contents @This comprehensive research report is titled Beverage Refrigeration Equipment Market: Global Industry Analysis (2012-2016) and Forecast (2017-2025) and covers key insights on the market drivers, restraints, opportunities prevailing in the industry.According to this market analysis and forecasts, global demand for beverage refrigeration equipment is expected to grow with increase in the number of retail stores and also growing preference of people towards quick service restaurants.Request to View Sample of Research Report @The global beverage refrigeration equipment market is expected to reach a market value of over US$ 5,500 Mn by the end of 2025, growing at a value CAGR of 3.9% during the forecast period. The growth of the market is largely fuelled by the increase in demand, especially from emerging countries in Asia Pacific region.With growing advancements in beverage refrigeration equipment, the preferences of consumers are changing. Moreover, along with rising environmental awareness across the globe, people are also looking for eco-friendly refrigerants. In addition, targeting developing countries with high per-capita consumption of pre packed beverages will continue to be the core focus for providers. Other than that, the companies are also going to focus on product innovations to compete with other players in the market efficiently and increase their market reach and strengthen their hold.Request Report Multiple Chapter @Based on product type, soda fountain segment holds the maximum market share as compared to other product type segments. However, beer dispensing equipment is expected to grow at a relatively high value CAGR of 4.7% during the forecast period.Based on end-use, food service is expected to lead with a market value of over US$ 3,300 Mn by the end of 2025. However, food and beverage retail segment is expected to register a higher CAGR throughout the period of forecast.Get full report now @With respect to region, North America has the highest market share of over US$ 1,800 Mn by the end of 2025. Moreover, the beverage refrigeration equipment is expected to witness high demand from Asia Pacific. The beverage refrigeration equipment market in Asia Pacific region is projected to grow at a higher pace throughout the forecast period.This comprehensive research report includes a brief profile of all the key players in the industry. Some of these key players, mentioned in the report are Wolseley Plc, Qingdao Haier Co., Ltd., Gree Electric Appliances, Inc. of Zhuhai, Daikin Industries, Ltd, Watsco, Inc., Hisense Kelon Electrical Holdings Co., Ltd., Lennox International, Inc., Rinnai Corp., Takasago Thermal Engineering Co., Ltd., NIBE Industrier AB 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.com
Global Patchouli Oil Market Analysis 2018 Forecasts To 2023: Takasago, INDESSO, BotanAgra

Global Patchouli Oil Market , Global Patchouli Oil Market Trends, Global Patchouli Oil Market Share

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Global Patchouli Oil MarketDescription:-Wiseguyreports.Com Adds Global Patchouli Oil Market 2018: Global Analysis, Industry Size, Share, Trends, Application Analysis and Growth Opportunities Forecast to 2023 To Its Research DatabaseThe global Patchouli Oil market will reach xxx Million USD in 2017 and CAGR xx% 2011-2017. The report begins from overview of Industry Chain structure, and describes industry environment, then analyses market size and forecast of Patchouli Oil by product, region and application, in addition, this report introduces market competition situation among the vendors and company profile, besides, market price analysis and value chain features are covered in this report.Product Type Coverage (Market Size & Forecast, Major Company of Product Type etc.):Dark Patchouli OilLight Patchouli OilOthersCompany Coverage (Sales Revenue, Price, Gross Margin, Main Products etc.):TakasagoGivaudanINDESSOFirmenichPT Karimun Kencana AromaticsVan aromaPT. Djasula WangiNusaroma Essential OilBotanAgraBrowse sample report @Application Coverage (Market Size & Forecast, Different Demand Market by Region, Main Consumer Profile etc.):Fragrance IndustryInsect RepellentToysOthersRegion Coverage (Regional Output, Demand & Forecast by Countries etc.):North AmericaEuropeAsia-PacificSouth AmericaMiddle East & AfricaTable of Content1 Industry Overview1.1 Patchouli Oil Industry1.1.1 Overview1.1.2 Development of Patchouli Oil1.2 Market Segment1.2.1 Upstream1.2.2 Downstream1.3 Cost Analysis2 Industry Environment2.1 Policy2.2 Economics2.3 Sociology2.4 Technology3 Patchouli Oil Market by Type3.1 Segment Overview3.1.1 Dark Patchouli Oil3.1.2 Light Patchouli Oil3.1.3 Others3.2 Market Size3.3 Market Forecast4 Major Companies List4.1 Takasago (Company Profile, Sales Data etc.)4.2 Givaudan (Company Profile, Sales Data etc.)4.3 INDESSO (Company Profile, Sales Data etc.)4.4 Firmenich (Company Profile, Sales Data etc.)4.5 PT Karimun Kencana Aromatics (Company Profile, Sales Data etc.)4.6 Van aroma (Company Profile, Sales Data etc.)4.7 PT. Djasula Wangi (Company Profile, Sales Data etc.)4.8 Nusaroma Essential Oil (Company Profile, Sales Data etc.)4.9 BotanAgra (Company Profile, Sales Data etc.)5 Market Competition5.1 Company Competition5.2 Regional Market by Company6 Market Demand6.1 Demand Situation6.1.1 Demand in Fragrance Industry6.1.2 Demand in Insect Repellent6.1.3 Demand in Toys6.1.4 Demand in Others6.2 Regional Demand Comparison6.3 Demand Forecast7 Region Operation7.1 Regional Output7.2 Regional Market7.3 by Region7.3.1 North America7.3.1.1 Overview7.3.1.2 by Country (U.S., Canada, Mexico)7.3.2 Europe7.3.2.1 Overview7.3.2.2 by Country (Germany, U.K., France, Italy, Russia, Spain etc.)7.3.3 Asia-Pacific7.3.3.1 Overview7.3.3.2 by Country (China, India, Japan, Southeast Asia etc.)7.3.4 South America7.3.4.1 Overview7.3.4.2 by Country (Brazil, Argentina etc.)7.3.5 Middle East & Africa7.3.5.1 Overview7.3.5.2 by Country (Saudi Arabia, South Africa etc.)7.4 Regional Forecast8 Marketing & Price8.1 Price and Margin8.1.1 Price Trends8.1.2 Factors of Price Change8.1.3 Manufacturers Gross Margin Analysis8.2 Value Chain8.3 Marketing Channel9 Research Conclusion Table Upstream Segment of Patchouli OilBrowse full 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.Contact Us:Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt Ltdsales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (Us)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (Uk)Maharashtra, Pune  411028
Facial Recognition Market growth prospects and Key Players | Aware, NEC, Ayonix, Nviso

Facial Recognition Market

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HTF MI recently broadcasted a new study in its database that highlights the in-depth market analysis with future prospects of Facial Recognition market. The study covers significant data which makes the research document a handy resource for managers, industry executives 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. Some of the key players mentioned in this research are Aware, NEC, Ayonix, Cognitec Systems, Keylemon, Nviso, Herta Security, Neurotechnology, Daon, Animetrics & Gemalto.Get Access to sample pages @The research covers the current market size of the Global Facial Recognition market and its growth rates based on 5 year history data. It also covers various types of segmentation such as by geography [United States, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia & India], by product /end user type [2D Facial Recognition, 3D Facial Recognition & Thermal Face Recognition], by applications [Emotion Recognition, Attendance Tracking And Monitoring, Access Control, Law Enforcement & Others] in overall market. The in-depth information by segments of Facial Recognition market helps monitor performance & make critical decisions for growth and profitability. It provides information on trends and developments, focuses on markets and materials, capacities, technologies, CAPEX cycle and the changing structure of the Global Facial Recognition Market.This study also contains company profiling, product picture and specifications, sales, market share and contact information of various international, regional, and local vendors of Global Facial Recognition Market, some of them are Aware, NEC, Ayonix, Cognitec Systems, Keylemon, Nviso, Herta Security, Neurotechnology, Daon, Animetrics & Gemalto. The market competition is constantly growing higher with the rise in technological innovation and M&A activities in the industry. Moreover, many local and regional vendors are offering specific application products for varied end-users. The new vendor entrants in the market are finding it hard to compete with the international vendors based on quality, reliability, and innovations in technology.Enquire for customization in Report @Global Facial Recognition (Thousands Units) and Revenue (Million USD) Market Split by Product Type such as 2D Facial Recognition, 3D Facial Recognition & Thermal Face RecognitionMarket Segment by Type 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 20222D Facial Recognition xx xx xx xx xx Xx xx-Change (%) xx% xx% xx% xx% xx% xx% xx%3D Facial Recognition xx xx xx xx xx Xx xx-Change (%) xx% xx% xx% xx% xx% xx% xx%Thermal Face Recognition xx xx xx xx xx Xx xx-Change (%) xx% xx% xx% xx% xx% xx% xx%The research study is segmented by Application such as Emotion Recognition, Attendance Tracking And Monitoring, Access Control, Law Enforcement & Others with historical and projected market share and compounded annual growth rate.Global Facial Recognition (Thousands Units) by Application (2017-2022)Market Segment by Application 2012 2017 2022 Market Share (%)2022 CAGR (%)(2017-2022)Emotion Recognition xx xx xx xx% xx%Attendance Tracking And Monitoring xx xx xx xx% xx%Access Control xx xx xx xx% xx%Law Enforcement xx xx xx xx% xx%Others xx xx xx xx% xx%Total xx xx xx 100% xx%Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), and market share and growth rate of Facial Recognition in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringMarket Segment by Regions 2012 2017 2022 Share (%) CAGR (2017-2022)United States xx xx xx xx% xx%Europe xx xx xx xx% xx%China xx xx xx xx% xx%Japan xx xx xx xx% xx%Southeast Asia xx xx xx xx% xx%India xx xx xx xx% xx%Total xx xx xx xx% xx%Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @Additionally the export and import policies that can make an immediate impact on the Global Facial Recognition market. This study contains a EXIM* related chapter on the Facial Recognition market and all its associated companies with their profiles, which gives valuable data pertaining to their outlook in terms of finances, product portfolios, investment plans, and marketing and business strategies. The report on the Global Facial Recognition market is an important document for every market enthusiast, policymaker, investor, and player.Key questions answered in this report - Global Facial Recognition Market Size, Status and Forecast 2025What will the market size be in 2022 and what will the growth rate beWhat are the key market trendsWhat is driving Global Facial Recognition marketWhat are the challenges to market growthWho are the key vendors in Global Facial Recognition market space?What are the key market trends impacting the growth of the Global Facial Recognition market?What are the key outcomes of the five forces analysis of the Global Facial Recognition market?Buy PDF version of this research report @There are 15 Chapters to display the Global Facial Recognition market.Chapter 1, to describe Definition, Specifications and Classification of Facial Recognition, Applications of Facial Recognition, 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 Facial Recognition, Capacity and Commercial Production Date, Manufacturing Plants Distribution, R&D Status and Technology Source, Raw Materials Sources Analysis;Chapter 4, to show the Overall Market Analysis, Capacity Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment);Chapter 5 and 6, to show the Regional Market Analysis that includes United States, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia & India, Facial Recognition Segment Market Analysis (by Type);Chapter 7 and 8, to analyze the Facial Recognition Segment Market Analysis (by Application) Major Manufacturers Analysis of Facial Recognition;Chapter 9, Market Trend Analysis, Regional Market Trend, Market Trend by Product Type [2D Facial Recognition, 3D Facial Recognition & Thermal Face Recognition], Market Trend by Application [Emotion Recognition, Attendance Tracking And Monitoring, Access Control, Law Enforcement & Others];Chapter 10, Regional Marketing Type Analysis, International Trade Type Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis;Chapter 11, to analyze the Consumers Analysis of Facial Recognition;Chapter 12, to describe Facial Recognition Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data source;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Facial Recognition sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.Check for discount @Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.About Author: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.comConnect with us at
French President in USA

WASHINGTON: French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday kicked off a three-day state visit to the US at the White Housea test of whether his studied bonhomie with President Donald Trump can save the Iran nuclear deal and avoid a trans-Atlantic trade war.



Before getting the full red carpet treatment at the White Housepayback for wooing Trump with military parades and a dazzling Eiffel Tower dinner in Paris last JulyMacron took an impromptu stroll to the Lincoln Memorial with his wife Brigitte.



Hailing the very important visit, Macron then rolled into the West Wing from Lafayette Squarenamed after the storied French general who fought in Americas war for independence, beneath dozens of fluttering tricolor French flags and before a full US military color guard.



Waiting at the door, the US president smiled and held out his hand for Macron to shake, and the French leader kissed him on both cheeks.



The pageantrydesigned to underscore Trump and Macron s friendshipcomes in stark contrast to the bare-bones one-day working visit of German Chancellor Angela Merkel later in the week.



But beyond the 21-gun salutes and dinners of lamb and Burnt Cipollini Soubise lurks high political danger for the 40-year-old French leader.



Trump is deeply unpopular in France and Macron, like other world leadersfrom Japans Shinzo Abe to Britains Theresa Mayis under growing pressure to show voters the benefits of his courtship with the 71-year-old Republican.



Looming over a joint outing to George Washingtons Mount Vernon estate on Monday evening, and working meetings and a state dinner on Tuesday, are two May deadlines that have the potential to wreck already fragile trans-Atlantic relations.



Biting trade sanctions on European steel and aluminum will enter into force on May 1 unless Trump agrees to sign a waiver. If he refuses, there are fears of a full-fledged trade war.



Meanwhile, France and other European nations are battling to save a complex nuclear deal with Iran, which Trump will scuttle if he refuses to waive sanctions against Tehran by a May 12 deadline.



Iran says it is ready to relaunch its nuclear programwhich the West suspects is designed to produce a bombif Trump kills the deal.



European officials say Trumps demand to reopen the deal are impossible, and are scrambling to address his concerns on Tehrans missile testing, inspections and the regimes behavior in the region.



There is growing frustration in European capitals that Trumps stubbornness over the Obama-era agreement is diverting attention away from other pressing issues.



In an interview broadcast on the eve of his arrival, Macron went on Trumps favorite television channel, Fox News, to make his pitch.



If you make war against everybody, Macron said, trade war against Europe, war in Syria, war against Iran, it doesnt work. You need allies. We are the allies.



Macron will also be keen to temper Trumps instinct to precipitously pull the US military out of Syria, amid cooperation in fighting the Islamic State group and coordinated strikes on chemical weapons installations operated by Damascus.



I think the US role is very important to play, he said.Why? I will be very blunt. The day we will have finished this war against ISIS, if we leave, definitely and totally, even from a political point of view, we will leave the floor to the Iranian regime, Bashar al-Assad and these guys.



In public, both countries are keen to emphasize their historic relationship, recalling that France was the first ally of American revolutionaries fighting for independence.



Macron brought with him an oak sapling that he and Trump planted at the White House on Monday as a symbol of friendship.



It comes from near the site of the Battle of Belleau Woods in northern France, where 2,000 US Marines perished at the end of World War I.



The pair, clearly relaxed, also briefly visited the Oval Office before heading to Mount Vernon.



On a personal level, despite sharp differences in political background, age and lifestyle, the presidents seem to have struck up a bond as fellow outsiders who outwitted the establishment to gain power.



We have a very special relationship because both of us are probably the mavericks of the systems on both sides, Macron told Fox News.



Trump himself told Macron their friendship was unbreakable during his trip to Paris last year.



When asked about their first encounter a much-scrutinized six-second handshake during a NATO summit in MayMacron acknowledged it had was a very direct, lucid moment that had set the tone between them.



And a very friendly moment, he added. It was to say now, we will work together.
Oxipit's Chest X-ray Search Solution Selected as One of Top Innovations by SIIM

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Oxipits ChestGlass has been selected as one of the top projects for the 2018 Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM) Innovation Challenge. ChestGlass is the first-to-market chest X-ray search solution that allows to find radiologically similar images in a given database.Vilnius, Lithuania  April 24, 2018  Oxipit, a provider of medical image analysis software, today announced that their chest X-ray radiograph search solution ChestGlass has entered the 2018 Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM) Innovation Challenge semi-finals.ChestGlass is a Deep Learning based image search solution which takes an unannotated image straight from the X-ray machine and uses the database of the hospital to find the most radiologically similar cases along with their reports. The ability to find similar cases within large databases assists the radiologist by making it easier to investigate radiographs with rare or difficult findings, as well as to carry out research. It will be especially useful for radiology residents and radiology professionals making a shift to another modality.Several decades ago chest X-ray technology has moved from photographic film to digital. By now, healthcare institutions have archived millions of images in databases which are virtually unused. Today, with excellent tools long available for general information search, radiology is ready for another step forward, says Gediminas Peksys, CEO of Oxipit. The novel possibility to query radiology databases not only by keywords or study IDs but also by full images will permanently alter the radiological workstation functionality expectations.While superficially similar to image search products in other industries, ChestGlass is custom tailored for radiological image search. It takes into account radiological findings and their localizations present in the image (pixel data only). In this way, ChestGlass seamlessly overcomes barriers of language and report structure diversity."This innovative solution has been made possible by cooperation between our clinical partners and the team of excellent data scientists at Oxipit. It is a pleasure to see their work widely appreciated," adds Mr. Peksys.In addition to the chest X-ray radiograph search, Oxipit offers a spectrum of fully automatic solutions based on Deep Learning: chest X-ray computer-aided diagnosis (CAD); MRI brain anatomic segmentation, ischemic area and lesion detection/quantification; spine X-ray vertebrae segmentation and osteochondrosis/listhesis CAD.Oxipit is currently looking for individual as well as institutional partners for pilot deployment and investigational use in the clinical environment. For more information, go toMEDIA CONTACTABOUT OXIPIT (Oxipit is a computer vision software startup specialized in medical imaging. With a team of award-winning data scientists and medical doctors, the company aims to introduce recent Artificial Intelligence/Deep Learning breakthroughs to everyday clinical practice. Oxipits solutions bring value to radiologists (less routine tasks), healthcare institutions (more productive radiologists), and patients (more accurate diagnosis).ABOUT SIIM (The Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM) represents more than 2000 healthcare professionals with interest in enterprise information and image management. SIIM is a not-for-profit organization focused on education, clinical practices, research, and innovation in the field of imaging informatics. The society is committed to actively contributing to the development and advancement of imaging informatics professionals and scientists worldwide and to improving the quality, safety, and efficiency of healthcare.Oxipit, UABSauletekio al. 15, 10224 Vilnius, LithuaniaGediminas Peksys, CEOinfo [at] oxipit.ai+370 625 99148
5G Infrastructure Market by Top Manufacturers with Production-Cisco, NEC, Qualcomm, Intel, Ericsson, Samsung, Mediatek, Cavium, Qorvo and Others

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5G Infrastructure Market Analysis to 2025 is a specialized and in-depth study of the 5G Infrastructure industry with a focus on the global market trend. The report aims to provide an overview of global 5G Infrastructure market with detailed market segmentation by product/application and geography. The global 5G Infrastructure market is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the 5G Infrastructure players and offers key trends and opportunities in the market.5G Infrastructure Market Players: Cisco NEC Qualcomm Intel Ericsson Samsung Mediatek Cavium Qorvo Huawei LG Electronics Macom Technology Solutions Analog Devices Vmware Fujitsu Juniper Networks Verizon Communications AT&T SK Telecom T-Mobile Nokia ZTE Corporation Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co Korea Telecom China MobileRequest a Sample Report atOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, and market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into By Core Network Technology Software-Defined Networking (SDN) Network Function Virtualization (NFV) Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) Fog Computing (FC) By Chipset Type Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC) Millimeter Wave Technology Chips Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)On 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 Automotive Energy and Utilities Healthcare Retail Intelligent Buildings and Infrastructures Industrial Automation Consumer Electronics OtherMajor regions are as follows: United States Europe China Japan Southeast Asia IndiaThe report provides a detailed overview of the industry including both qualitative and quantitative information. It provides overview and forecast of the global 5G Infrastructure market based on product and application. It also provides market size and forecast till 2025 for overall 5G Infrastructure market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South America (SAM), which is later sub-segmented by respective countries and segments. The report evaluates market dynamics effecting the market during the forecast period i.e., drivers, restraints, opportunities, and future trend and provides exhaustive PEST analysis for all five regions.Inquire before Buying atAlso, key 5G Infrastructure market players influencing the market are profiled in the study along with their SWOT analysis and market strategies. The report also focuses on leading industry players with information such as company profiles, products and services offered, financial information of last 3 years, key development in past five years.Reason to Buy- Highlights key business priorities in order to assist companies to realign their business strategies.- The key findings and recommendations highlight crucial progressive industry trends in the 5G Infrastructure market, thereby allowing players to develop effective long term strategies.- Develop/modify business expansion plans by using substantial growth offering developed and emerging markets.- Scrutinize in-depth global market trends and outlook coupled with the factors driving the market, as well as those hindering it.- Enhance the decision-making process by understanding the strategies that underpin commercial interest with respect to products, segmentation and industry verticals.Inquire for Discount atContact Us:Call: +1-888-236-2744Email: sales@qyresearchgroups.comQY Research Groups is a company that simplifies how analysts and decision makers get industry data for their business. Our unique colossal technology has been developed to offer refined search capabilities designed to exploit the long tail of free market research whilst eliminating irrelevant results. QY Research Groups is the collection of market intelligence products and services on the Web. We offer reports and update our collection daily to provide you with instant online access to the world's most complete and current database of expert insights on global industries, companies, products, and trends.Room B1510, Shiji Kemao Building,No.66 Zhongguancun East Road,Haidian District, Beijing,100190, China.
Picture Archiving And Communication System Market Expand at the Fastest CAGR of 6.2%by 2026

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Persistence Market Research delivers in-depth research on the global PACS market in its latest report titled Global Market Study on Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS): North America Likely to Remain Dominant Regional Market?. According to the report, the global PACS market is projected to expand at a healthy CAGR of 6.2% during the forecast period in terms of revenue.A PACS is a fully integrated system which is used for the data storage, distribution and analysis of medical images by doctors or by any other medical officials. PACS is termed as a picture archiving and communication system which is a combination of hardware, software, image modalities, and archiving that is used for data or image capturing, storing, distributing and then presenting these medical images. A picture archiving and communication system comprises of four key components including the imaging modalities such as MRI and CT, a secure network to transfer patient data, PACSs for interpreting and reviewing images, and long term and short term archives to retrieve and store reports and images.Request Report Multiple Chapter @Demand for cloud-based PACS which are increasingly used in wide range of healthcare end-users such as hospitals, diagnostic centers, imaging centers, clinics, and many others is increasing significantly. PACS solutions are gaining traction due to an immediate reduction in the cost of archiving and storage for the clinics, hospitals, or imaging centers. This is expected to bolster the global PACS market. Recently, healthcare and hospitals providers are moving towards an e cloud-based system due to low cost and flexibility in technology adoption as compared to traditional PACS. Thus, increasing uses and applications of PACS are anticipated to increase the revenue growth of the global PACS market during the forecast period.However, declining penetration rate of PACS, its high installation and operating cost, complexity of PACS technology and a lack of harmonization are the restraints hampering the growth of the global PACS market.Request Sample Report@The global PACS market is segmented on the basis of deployment, components, business mode, end-use, and region. By deployment, PACS market is segmented into web-based PACS, cloud-based PACS and on-premise. Moreover, by components market is categorized into imaging modalities, secured network, and workstation and archives. On the basis of business mode, PACS market is fragmented into enterprise and departmental. Further PACS market end-users are hospitals, clinic imaging, dental practices, imaging centers, diagnostic centers, research & academic institutes, ambulatory surgical centers, and others. Key regions covered in the report are North America, Western Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa, Latin America and Japan.Download and View Report TOC, Figures and Tables @The report analyzes the global PACS market in terms of value (US$ Mn) by deployment, components, business mode, end-use, and region; and provides insightful information regarding the value chain, market trends, competitive landscape, market dynamics and market estimations and forecast.On the basis of regions, North America is estimated to be the largest market for PACS, accounting for 31.1% value share of the global PACS market in 2016. The region continues to dominate the market presently and is expected to continue to do so throughout the forecast period. On the basis of deployment, cloud-based PACS segments are projected to exhibit CAGR of 7.1%, respectively, in terms of market value during the forecast period. This is attributed to increasing usage of PACS in wide range of end-user application.The markets in APEJ, Western Europe, MEA and Latin America are anticipated to contribute majorly to the global PACS market. The market in APEJ is expected to account for 18.4% share in terms of value in the global PACS market and be valued at US$ 674.9 Mn by 2026 end. The increasing demand for PACS from the hospitals, diagnostic centers, and Imaging centers in Western Europe, especially in EU5 is expected to fuel revenue growth of the market in the region. The market in Western Europe is estimated to be valued at US$ 790.7 Mn by 2026 end and projected to register a CAGR of 6.0% during the forecast period.Get full Report Now @Factors such as increasing demand for increasing use of diagnostic imaging, growing healthcare IT adoption, and increasing adoption of cloud-based PACS is set to drive revenue growth of the global PACS market.Key market participants covered in this report include GE Healthcare, Koninklijke Philips N.V.-(Philips Healthcare), Carestream Health, Agfa-Gevaert Group, FUJIFILM Medical Systems, INFINITT Healthcare Co. Ltd., Siemens Healthineers, Merge Healthcare Solutions Inc. (an IBM company), Sectra AB, and Mckesson Corp.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:
Cameroon Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband Market - Country overview, Key Statistics and Analyses

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"The Latest Research Report Cameroon - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"The ICT sector in Cameroon contributes only about 3.5% of GDP, which is low for the region. The sector requires considerable development for the country to make better use of the digital economy. The Commonwealth has been active in supporting e-commerce, and about 95% of all electronic transactions are carried through the m-money services operated by MTN Cameroon and Orange Cameroon. The government has also been supportive, having launched its Cameroon Digital 2020 program, aimed at improving connectivity nationally. A large number of small ICT projects form part of the overall program. By September 2018 the country is expected to be connected to the SAIL submarine cable, providing a direct link to Brazil and with onward connectivity to other countries in the Americas. The cable will substantially improve international bandwidth and lead to further reductions in access prices for consumers.Get Sample Copy of this report @Cameroon was for many years one of the few countries in Africa with only two competing mobile operators. After some delays, Nextell Cameroon (majority-owned by Viettel) launched a third network in late 2014, including the countrys first 3G mobile service. The operator has grown rapidly, signing up more than 4.2 million subscribers by the end of 2017. LTE services have also developed strongly, with Orange Cameroon securing revised concessions to its existing 3G licence to enable it to launch LTE services and so compete more effectively with MTN. These developments were the catalyst for a fast-developing mobile broadband sector. The investment programs among operators over the next few years will considerably boost mobile broadband services in rural areas of the country, many of which are underserved by fixed-line infrastructure.Further development is quickening in mobile banking and commerce, with Nextell expected to launch its own m-money service by late 2018.Key developments:Cable laying for the SAIL cable system to Brazil gets underway; telecom revenue falls 0.5% in 2016, year-on-year; Orange Cameroon launches LTE services using revised licence concession; Nextell Cameroon to launch m-money service by late 2018; Vodafone Cameroon closes operations after losing licence; MNOs fined for SIM card registration failures; YooMe Mobile launches LTE offers as an MVNO; Camtel handed newly built fibre loops in Douala and Yaounde; MTN launches mobile health platform; further delays in MNP launch; national fibre rollout continues with new funding; report update includes regulators market report for 2016, telcos operating data to Q4 2017, Telecom Maturity Index tables, charts and analyses, recent market developments.Browse Complete Report with TOC @Companies mentioned in this report:MTN Cameroon, Orange Cameroon, Camtel, Cameroon Mobile Telecommunications (CMT), Pastel, CamNet, MTN Network Solutions, Matrix Telecoms, Ringo, Nextell Cameroon (Viettel), YooMee.Table of Contents1. Executive summary2. Key statistics3. Country overview4. Telecommunications market4.1 Market analysis5. Regional African Market Comparison5.1 Mobile and mobile broadband5.2 Fixed and mobile broadband5.3 TMI vs GDP6. Regulatory environment6.1 Regulatory authority6.2 Licensing6.3 Market liberalisation6.4 Interconnection6.5 International gateways6.6 Universal Access Fund (UAF)6.7 Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)7. Fixed network operators7.1 Cameroon Telecommunication (Camtel)7.1.1 Privatisation7.2 Pastel8. Telecommunications infrastructure8.1 Overview of the national telecom network8.1.1 National fibre backbone8.1.2 Central African Backbone (CAB)8.1.3 Internet Exchange Points (IXPs)8.1.4 Cloud services8.2 International infrastructure8.2.1 Submarine cables8.2.2 VSATView Sample PDF @9. Fixed-line broadband market9.1 Introduction and statistical overview9.2 Market analysis9.2.1 Public access locations9.3 Broadband statistics9.3.1 ISP market9.4 Fixed-line broadband technologies9.4.1 Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) networks9.4.2 Other fixed broadband services10. Mobile market10.1 Market analysis10.2 Mobile statistics10.3 Mobile data10.4 Mobile broadband10.4.1 Forecasts  mobile subscribers  2019; 2021; 202310.5 Regulatory issues10.5.1 Mobile Number Portability (MNP)10.5.2 SIM card registration10.6 Mobile infrastructure10.6.1 Digital networks10.6.2 Other infrastructure developments10.7 Major mobile operators10.7.1 MTN Cameroon10.7.2 Orange Cameroon10.7.3 Nextell Cameroon (Viettel)10.7.4 Camtel Mobile10.7.5 Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO)10.8 Mobile content and applications10.8.1 M-payment and m-banking10.8.2 M-healthAbout usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
ESD Totes Market Segments and Key Trends 2017-2027

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ESD Totes Market: IntroductionElectrostatic discharge protection plays a vital role in electrical & electronics manufacturing, fibre optics, telecommunication and other industrial applications. The demand for ESD protective packaging has grown rapidly in the last decade. Digital revolution caused the electronic & electric manufacturing market to grow rapidly to meet the exponentially rising demand for smartphones, smart TVs and the Internet of Things (IoT) technology. ESD totes are box like containers which come with stackable and lidding options. These are basically manufactured on two basic principles: conductive or dissipative. ESD totes can come with dividers. Growing regulatory environment related to imports and exports of electronics & electrical components and devices is influencing the demand growth for ESD totes. Integrated circuits, printed electronic boards (PCBs), Capacitors, Resistors and other electronic parts and devices are shipped using ESD totes. Growing penetration of tablets and smartphones market in developing countries is expected to drive the worldwide demand for ESD totes. Majorly ESD totes are used in in-house material handling, in electronics & electric manufacturing, automotive, aerospace, defence and other manufacturing industries, where ESD protection is necessary.ESD Totes: Market DynamicsThe demand for ESD totes is largely contributed from electronics & electrical manufacturing service providers. In last few years outsourcing of product design & manufacturing by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) has grown considerably. Major electronics & electrical manufacturing service providers are located in Asia Pacific region, where China and Japan stands at the top. By country, India is expected to growing at a highest CAGR in electronics & electrical and aerospace manufacturing service market. This is due to government initiatives like Make in India and other initiatives. Growing massive infrastructure development projects in Asia Pacific region e.g. One Belt One Road (OBOR), China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), and Sagarmala Project (India) etc. are expected to boost the demand for electronic & electrical and fibre optic devices, which in turn is expected to drive the ESD totes market. ESD totes are used to store & transport Integrated circuits (ICs), microprocessors, PCBs, Capacitors, CDs, Cell phones, batteries, reels & tapes, TVs, and other automotive electronic and electrical parts. Growing middle class population and changing lifestyle in emerging markets such as China, India, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, South Africa and Nigeria is influencing the demand for electronic goods, which in turn is driving the demand for ESD totes. Overall the global ESD totes market is expected to grow at a healthy CAGR during the forecast period.Request to Sample Report -ESD Totes: Market SegmentationThe global ESD totes market is segmented on the basis of material type, product type and application. On the basis of material type, the global ESD totes market is segmented into injection molded conductive plastic, Corstat conductive corrugated (cardboard), Fibrestat, Conductive fluted plastic, Fiberglass and others. On the basis of application, the global ESD totes market is segmented into Electronics & Semiconductors, Medical Devices, Automotive & Mechanical Parts, Building & Construction, Chemicals & Fertilizers and Others. On the basis of product type, the global ESD totes market is segmented into stackable and non-stackable ESD totes. By end-use, Electronics & Semiconductors segment dominates the overall ESD totes market.ESD Totes Market: Regional outlookESD totes market has been segmented on the basis of region into North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), Middle East & Africa (MEA), and Japan. ESD totes market in APEJ is expected to dominate the overall global ESD Totes market. APEJ contributes approx. 40% in overall global electrical & electronics manufacturing market.Request Report TOC @ESD Totes Market: Key playersSome of the players in the global ESD Totes market are Flexcon Container, Inc., Molded Fiber Glass Tray Company, Lewisbins +, GWP Group (GWP Conductive), Schaefer Systems International Pvt Ltd, Conductive Containers, Inc, FAMI S.r.l. Alkon Plastics Pvt. Ltd. and others.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite :
Hong Kong Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband Market - Statistics and Analyses

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"The Latest Research Report Hong Kong - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"Hong Kongs small size and high population density has enabled the country to extensively rollout fixed broadband infrastructure and provide almost all households with access to high-speed broadband connectivity. This has propelled Hong Kong to boast the highest peak average broadband speeds in the world.Hong Kong is ranked 2nd out of 34 with an Asian Telecoms Maturity Index score of 90. This places Hong Kong 2nd in the Market Leaders category. (BuddeComms Asian Telecoms Maturity Index, is an index (on a scale between 0 and 100) that measures and ranks the relative maturity of the telecoms industry in all of the 34 countries in Asia.) Compared to other Asian nations, Hong Kong has very high mobile, mobile broadband and fixed broadband penetration.Get Sample Copy of this report @International internet connectivity continues to grow, driven by Hong Kongs status as an international financial hub and its location next to China.Fixed line growth in Hong Kong has declined over the past five years as consumers migrate to wireless voice and data services. This trend is predicted to continue over the next five years to 2022.The government has taken steps towards coordinated development of a smart city. The Hong Kong government announced a range of measures in six areas, including Smart Mobility, Smart Living, and Smart Environment, which will be introduced over the next five years to 2022.Broadband investment initially focused on DSL and HFC technology platforms although operators have switched focus to higher bandwidth fibre access platforms, due to inherent advantage of fibre access networks over competing platforms, especially in the geographically compact territory of Hong Kong.Fixed-line broadband market penetration has grown slowly over the past five years in a highly mature market. Over the next five years to 2022 growth is expected to continue to increase slowly.Demand for broadband is driven by consumption of bandwidth-intensive online services such as OTT video, music and games; the proliferation of Internet connected devices including TVs, smartphones, tablets and PCs; and increasing usage of corporate broadband services that include cloud services and software.Hong Kong possesses a small but well developed mobile market and a number of Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs). Intense competition within a small market has led to consolidation, with the number of mobile network operators reduced to four.Browse Complete Report with TOC @Mobile subscriber penetration is now well over 200% due to the high number of tourists visiting Hong Kong and high number of local residents with more than one mobile device. Mobile subscriber growth is expected to be relatively low over the next five years to 2022 due to a highly mature and highly competitive market.Strong infrastructure-based competition has forced operators to continually upgrade network capacity and speed, deploying mobile broadband technologies such as HSPA and LTE combined with wireless broadband technologies such as WiFi.Mobile broadband subscriber growth is expected to be relatively low over the next five years to 2022 due to a highly mature mobile subscriber market, with a significant proportion of subscribers already having mobile broadband access.The government of Hong Kong expects the territory to be among the worlds earliest adopters of 5G mobile technology in 2020. During 2017 /2018 a number of Hong Kong Mobile Operators are paving the way for the introduction of 5G services.Key developments:HGC Global Communications is looking to 5G as a key opportunity for its fibre business.HKT has set up a one-stop Internet of Things ecosystem with multiple connectivity technologies in Hong Kong.Fixed line growth in Hong Kong has declined over the past five years. This trend will continue over the next five years to 2022.Hong Kong expects the territory to be among the worlds earliest adopters of 5G mobile technology in 2020.SmarTone trialled FDD Massive MIMO technology with Ericsson as part of its development plans towards 5G services.Mobile broadband subscriber growth is expected to be relatively low over the next five years to 2022Companies mentioned in this report:PCCW; HKT; CSL; Hong Kong Broadband Network (HKBN); Hutchison Telecom Hong Kong, i-Cable, HGC Global Communications.Table of Contents1. Key statistics2. Telecommunications market2.1 Market Overview and Analysis2.2 Regional Asian Market Comparison3. Regulatory environment3.1 Historical overview3.2 Regulatory authority3.3 OFCA (Office of the Communications Authority)3.4 Government policies3.4.1 Telecom Sector Liberalisation3.4.2 Universal Service Obligation (USO)3.4.3 Digital 21 IT Strategy3.4.4 FttB/FttH building registration scheme3.4.5 Number Portability (NP)View Sample PDF @4. Fixed network operators4.1 Introduction4.2 Hong Kong Telecom (HKT)4.2.1 Company overview4.2.2 Company background4.3 Hong Kong Broadband Network (HKBN)4.4 Hutchison Telecom Hong Kong Holdings (HTHKH)4.4.1 Company overview4.4.2 Company background4.5 HGC Global Communications4.6 i-Cable5. Telecommunications infrastructure5.1 Overview of the national telecom network5.1.1 Fixed-line statistics5.2 International infrastructure5.2.1 Submarine cable networks5.3 Specific IT developments5.3.1 Data Centres5.4 Smart infrastructure5.4.1 Introduction5.4.2 IoT5.4.3 Smart Grids5.4.4 Smart Cities6. Broadband market6.1 Market Overview and Analysis6.2 Fixed Broadband Statistics and Forecasts6.3 Fixed Broadband Service Providers6.4 Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) networks6.5 Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) Networks6.6 Fibre-to-the-Premises (FttP)6.6.1 Overview6.6.2 Hong Kong Broadband Network (HKBN)6.6.3 HKT6.6.4 i-Cable6.7 Other fixed broadband services6.7.1 WiFi7. Digital economy7.1 Introduction7.2 E-Commerce7.3 E-Payments7.4 E-Government7.4.1 E-government statistics7.4.2 E-Government Infrastructure Services (EGIS)7.4.3 E-government network7.4.4 Smart Card7.5 E-Health7.5.1 Overview of Hong Kongs healthcare system7.5.2 ICT usage in Hong Kongs healthcare system7.5.3 Electronic Health Record7.5.4 Improving the accuracy of drug dispensing7.6 E-EducationAbout usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Japan Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband Market Overview, Analysis - Key Statistics

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"The Latest Research Report Japan - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"Japans market is served by three multi-service operators offering fixed-line telephony, fixed broadband access, mobile voice telephony, mobile broadband access and pay TV services. Japans fixed line market is dominated by incumbent operator NTT.Japan is ranked 4th out of 34 with regards to its Asian Telecoms Maturity Index with a score of 85. This places Japan 4th in the Market Leaders category. (BuddeComms Asian Telecoms Maturity Index, is an index (on a scale between 0 and 100) that measures and ranks the relative maturity of the telecoms industry in all of the 34 countries in Asia.) Compared to other Asian nations, Japan has very high mobile, mobile broadband and fixed broadband penetration.Fixed line growth in Japan have been stagnant over the past five years. This trend is predicted to continue over the next five years to 2022.Get Sample Copy of this report @Japan possesses a large and vibrant television industry due to its unique culture and market size. Legislation enacted to restrict ownership has led to a plethora of broadcasters. Japans vertically integrated broadcasting industry means broadcasters create as well as distribute content.Japans first Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) trials are commencing during 2018.Japan possesses one of the most advanced and largest broadband markets in the world. Fixed-line broadband market penetration has grown slowly over the past five years in a highly mature market.Moving towards 2019, FttH will continue to increase its share of total fixed broadband subscriptions at the expense of DSL. Over the next five years to 2022 fixed broadband growth is expected to continue to increase slowly.Mobile subscriber growth is expected to be relatively low over the next five years to 2022 due to a highly mature and highly competitive market. The market will be driven by the uptake of both 4G LTE and 5G services.Japans mobile market is dominated by three major operators  NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and Softbank Mobile. However the Japanese government was looking to open its mobile market up to new players for 5G services. This could result in the entry of new players, even those from outside the traditional telecoms space, and potential foreign players, including those looking to target the Internet of Things, virtual reality and automotive applications. Japans largest e-commerce company is working on plans to build its own nationwide 4G mobile network, throwing down a challenge to the long-established dominance of the three incumbents with an aim to launch commercially in 2019.Mobile broadband subscriber growth is expected to be relatively low over the next five years to 2022 due to a highly mature mobile subscriber market, with the vast majority of subscribers already having wireless broadband access.Browse Complete Report with TOC @The three carriers plan on launching 5G services commercially in 2020, with DOCOMO targeting nationwide coverage by 2023. The anticipated surge in interest for IoT and related technologies such as driverless cars is expected to help fuel a boom in spending.Key developments:Stagnant growth in the fixed line market is predicted to continue over the next five years to 2022.The Japanese government is looking to open its mobile market up to new players for 5G services.Japans first Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) trials are commencing during 2018.Implementation of strong government policies over a decade see over 90% of households with access to FttX.FttH will continue to increase its share of total fixed broadband subscriptions at the expense of DSL.Over the next five years to 2022 fixed broadband growth is expected to continue to increase slowly.The three carriers plan on launching 5G services commercially in 2020.DOCOMO is targeting nationwide 5G coverage by 2023.The anticipated surge in interest for IoT and related technologies will fuel a boom in spending.Companies mentioned in this report:NTT; KDDI; Softbank Mobile, Internet Initiative Japan, eAccess, eMobile; Willcom; J:COM; USEN; UQ Communications; Hulu; K-Opticom; Tepco, SKY PerfecTV!, HuluTable of Contents1. Key statistics2. Telecommunications market2.1 Market Overview and Analysis2.2 Regional Asian Market ComparisonView Sample PDF @3. Regulatory environment3.1 Historic overview3.2 Regulatory authority3.2.1 The MPHPT/MIC3.2.2 Radio Regulatory Council3.2.3 Telecommunications Council3.2.4 Telecommunications Carriers Association3.2.5 Japan Internet Providers Association (JAIPA)3.3 Government policies3.3.1 Government investment in infrastructure3.3.2 Skill building, education and demand programs3.3.3 Competition policy3.3.4 Network non-discrimination3.3.5 Spectrum policy3.3.6 Broadband Policy3.3.7 Wholesale / Pricing3.4 Access3.5 Carrier PreSelection (CPS)3.5.1 MYLINE calling categories4. Fixed network operators4.1 NTT Corporation4.1.1 Company Overview4.1.2 Financial statistics4.1.3 Operational statistics4.1.4 International expansion4.2 KDDI Corporation4.2.1 Company Overview4.2.2 Business strategy4.2.3 Financial statistics4.3 Softbank Corporation4.3.1 Company background4.4 Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ)4.4.1 Company overview and background4.4.2 Financial statistics5. Telecommunications infrastructure5.1 Overview of the national telecom network5.2 NTT NGN5.3 Submarine cables5.3.1 Overview5.3.2 NTT and TransTelecom of Russia (HSCS)5.3.3 Russia-Japan Cable Network (RJCN)5.3.4 Trans-Pacific Express Cable Network (TPE)5.3.5 Pacific Crossing (PC-1)5.3.6 Google investments5.3.7 Asia Submarine Express (ASE)5.3.8 Asia Pacific Gateway (APG)5.3.9 South-East Asia Japan Cable (SJC)5.3.10 KDDI landing station5.3.11 Japan-US Cable5.4 Satellite5.5 Specific IT developments5.5.1 Cloud Computing5.6 Smart infrastructure5.6.1 Internet of Things (IoT)5.6.2 Driverless Cars5.6.3 Smart grids5.6.4 Smart cities6. Broadband market6.1 Market Overview and analysis6.2 Fixed Broadband statistics and Forecasts6.3 Fixed Broadband Technologies6.3.1 Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) networks6.3.2 Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) networks6.3.3 Fibre-to-the-Premises (FttP) and Fibre-To-The-Home (FttH)6.3.4 Fixed wireless6.3.5 Other fixed broadband services6.4 Fixed Broadband Providers6.4.1 Market Developments7. Digital economy7.1 Introduction7.2 E-Government7.2.1 Overview7.3 E-HealthAbout usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Mil-Spec Packaging Market Value Chain and Forecast 2017-2027

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Global mil-spec packaging market: IntroductionIn modern times, it has become necessary for countries to be able to have combat readiness and deploy quickly. To achieve the same, proper maintenance of defence equipment is of paramount importance, which in turn, creates more demand for mil-spec packaging in the defence sector. Mil-spec packaging has witnessed high preference in the defence industry, since its inception after the world wars. Mil-spec packaging is a special division of many United States-based packaging manufactures. Mil-spec packaging comprises various product types such as heat sealable bags, wood crates, antistatic bags, moisture barrier bags, desiccant packs, and humidity indicator cards among others. Manufacturers of mil-spec packaging emphasize on production of packaging solutions, which can protect products from operational, and transportation environments, climatic conditions, and terrain. The rise of power in the east, especially in countries such as China, is expected to be one of the key factors, which is expected to increase demand, and ultimately, fuel growth of the mil-spec packaging market. Mil-spec packaging is also widely used for shipping of military hardware. Thus, the global mil-spec packaging market is expected to have a largely positive outlook, over the forecast period.Global mil-spec packaging market: DynamicsThe mil-spec packaging is quite different from commercial packaging in some ways, although there is a penetration of commercial packaging in mil-spec packaging. The global mil-spec packaging market growth is derived from the products characteristics and the soldiers need in a military distribution environment. One of the sources which might boost the global mil-spec packaging market is - operational commanders which have responsibility for generating these requirements in terms of war fighters need. Governments in various countries are concerned about military specified packaging due to sensitive militant products, it might lead to growth in the global mil-spec packaging market. The U.S. Department of Defense is using standardized alphanumeric code and describes the packaging materials and products necessary to protect military items from physical and climatic conditions. It is expected to drive the global mil-spec packaging market growth over the forecast period. Penetration of commercial packaging in military specification packaging is expected to hamper the global mil-spec packaging growth.Request to Sample Report -Global mil-spec packaging market: SegmentationThe global mil-spec packaging market can be segmented as follows:On the basis of product types, the global mil-spec packaging market has been segmented as:Wood cratesAntistatic bagsMoisture barrier bagsShielding bagsOthersOn the basis of material used, the global mil-spec packaging market has been segmented as:Film foilPoly KraftESDPoly MylarOthersOn the basis of application, the global mil-spec packaging market has been segmented as:ShippingStorageTransportationGlobal mil-spec packaging market: Regional OutlookBased on regions, the global mil-spec packaging market is divided into seven regions namely:North AmericaWestern EuropeAsia-pacific except JapanEastern EuropeLatin AmericaMiddle-east and AfricaJapanThe North American region dominates the global mil-spec packaging market, and is expected to maintain its leading position well during the forecast period. This is attributed to the excessively high defence budget of the United Sates armed forces, which creates immense demand for mil-spec packaging. The importance of mil-spec packaging is expected to lead many countries to adopt these packaging solutions for their military, especially the emerging world powers such as China and India. Therefore, the APEJ region is expected to witness significant growth in the regional mil-spec packaging market, over the forecast period, thereby, creating lucrative opportunities for manufacturers of the same. Countries in the Latin American region, such as Brazil and Mexico, are expected to witness increase in applications for mil-spec packaging.Request Report TOC @Global mil-spec packaging market: Key PlayersFew of the key players operating in the global mil-spec packaging market are - Edco Supply Corporation, Royco Packaging, Inc., Mil-Spec Packaging of Georgia, Adsorbents & Desiccants Corporation of America, Cadillac Products, Protective Packaging Corporation, Accuspec Packaging Corporation, Reid Packaging among others.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite :
Turkey Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband Market - Operators Look Firmly Towards Developing 5G

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"The Latest Research Report Turkey - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"Turkey is proving to be one of the more progressive mobile markets in the Middle East with revenue from mobile data services growing quickly. This has not gone unnoticed by the operators, with Turk Telekom, Turkcell and Vodafone Turkey all looking towards a future where 5G will become increasingly important. In preparation, the operators have formed various partnerships with solution providers and in 2017 Turk Telekom established a 5G Centre of Excellence which will focus on the research and development of 5G in Turkey.Interestingly, because of the three major mobile operators all launching 4G LTE services in April 2016; Turkey has witnessed a dramatic decline in 3G mobile subscriptions. In contrast, subscriptions to 4G services have risen quickly. The operators are forging ahead and developing additional solutions for the LTE network, with for example, Vodafone Turkey creating a Licensed-Assisted Access (LAA) network in early 2017, in conjunction with Huawei and Qualcomm.Get Sample Copy of this report @While mobile broadband becomes increasingly popular in Turkey  the fixed broadband network is also progressing sharply with a clear direction now towards fibre broadband. While Turk Telekom continues to dominate this sector, Turkcells Superonline is also growing its fibre broadband customer base. By Q1 2017 it had increased its fibre broadband customers by 16%, year-on-year. In total there are now around 300 kilometres of fibre length deployed throughout Turkey, covering more than 80 cities.Turkey also has excellent international infrastructure with links to many of international cable networks due to its geographic location between Europe and Asia. While the civil upheaval in the region has impacted upon Turkeys economy and stability; in 2017 the telecoms sector is still showing promising signs of progress.Key developments:Turkey is producing its own domestic communication satellite with qualification testing expected to begin in 2018.Pre-paid mobile subscriptions are in decline while post-paid are growing.Millions of homes have now been passed by the fibre broadband network in Turkey.Mobile penetration in Turkey was close to reaching 100% in 2017.Turkey is positioning itself as an important node for data traffic on a global scale.Turkey is very proactive in the development e-government services and solutions.Companies mentioned in this report include:Turk Telekom (formerly Avea), Turkcell, Vodafone Turkey, Turksat, Superonline.Table of Contents1. Executive summary2. Key statistics3. Country overviewBrowse Complete Report with TOC @4. Telecommunications market4.1 Market overview4.2 Market analysis4.3 Recent developments5. Regulatory environment5.1 Historic overview5.1.1 Electronic Communications Law 20085.2 Regulatory authority5.2.1 Information and Communications Technologies Authority (ICTA)5.3 Telecom sector liberalisation in Turkey5.4 Privatisation5.4.1 The 2005 privatisation5.4.2 Privatisation background5.5 Interconnect5.6 Access5.7 Number Portability (NP)5.8 Universal services6. Fixed network operators6.1 Introduction6.2 Turk Telekom6.3 Turksat6.4 Superonline7. Telecommunications infrastructure7.1 Overview of the national telecom network7.2 Fibre networks7.3 International infrastructure (satellite, submarine)7.3.1 Terrestrial cable networks7.3.2 Communication Satellites7.4 Smart infrastructure7.4.1 M2MView Sample PDF @8. Fixed broadband Market8.1 Market analysis8.2 Broadband statistics8.3 Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) networks8.4 Cable internet8.5 Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FttC) and Fibre-To-The-Home (FttH)8.5.1 Turk Telekom9. Digital Economy9.1 e-Banking9.2 e-Government9.3 e-Health9.4 e-Education10. Digital media10.1 Introduction10.2 Video streaming and Broadband TV (IPTV)10.3 Social media10.4 VoIP10.5 Music10.6 On line gambling10.7 Newspaper and book publishers11. Mobile Market11.1 Market analysis11.2 Mobile statistics11.2.1 General statistics11.2.2 Mobile voice11.2.3 SMS and MMS11.2.4 Mobile broadband statistics11.3 Regulatory issues11.3.1 Overview (recent general laws and regulations)11.3.2 Third Generation (3G) licences11.3.3 Third and fourth GSM licences11.3.4 Significant market power (SMP)11.3.5 MTRs11.3.6 Mobile Number Portability (MNP)11.3.7 Telsim privatisation11.4 Mobile infrastructure11.4.1 4G, LTE11.4.2 5G11.5 Major mobile operators11.5.1 Turkcell11.5.2 Vodafone Turkey11.5.3 Turk Telekom (Avea)About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Ukraine Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband Market - Statistics and Analyses

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"The Latest Research Report Ukraine - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"Ukraines telecom infrastructure is being modernised through considerable investment in both the mobile and fixed-broadband sectors. Competition is provided from a number of alternative operators, and although the incumbent Ukrtelecom remains the dominant player in the fixed-line market the regulatory environment has improved following the sale of the company to the local conglomerate SCM Group, though the legality of this sale has been disputed and legal action is ongoing. The telecom sector has attracted investors from Turkey and Russia, while Vodafone Group has partnered with MTS Ukraine to help develop mobile services under the Vodafone brand.The political tension which erupted in late 2013, and which escalated in a more violent form in eastern areas of the country, has brought focus to the vulnerability of the telecom network. A number of telcos operating in Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, left the peninsular after their licences were made over to Russian firms. More recently, telcos have retreated from the Donetsk region after it was impossible for them to continue services. The telecom regulator now assesses market statistics, including revenue, excluding data from Crimea and the separately administered city of Sevastopol, as well as from a number of contested regions in the east.Get Sample Copy of this report @The competitive mobile market is dominated by the three network operators Vodafone Ukraine, Kyivstar and Lifecell. Together, these players have held back the development of the MVNO sector by promoting their own low-cost subsidiaries. Nevertheless, a gap in the low-cost sector may provide the opportunity for MVNOs to thrive in coming years. Competition resulting from mobile number portability has also been stymied, either by the regulator having delayed its introduction or by an insufficient number of companies bidding for the tender.Mobile broadband services present a significant growth opportunity. Significant investment has been made in extending 3G infrastructure, while operators have more recently concentrated on LTE. Additional spectrum in the 2600MHz band was auctioned in January 2018, issued under 15-year licenses, and all three MNOs are expected to launch LTE services promptly.The sizeable broadband market enjoys effective cross-platform competition. DSL remains an important platform though it has been eclipsed by fibre following efforts by operators to build out networks. While LAN and wireless platforms such as Wi-Fi and WiMAX exist on a smaller scale there is ongoing investment aimed at delivering a national wireless network by the end of 2018.This report provides an overview of Ukraines telecom market, including profiles of the major operators and a review of telecom network infrastructure, regulatory measures, and emerging network developments. The report also analyses the mobile market, offering a range of statistics as well as profiles of the key players and an assessment of mobile technology deployments. In addition, the report covers the fixed-line and fixed-wireless broadband sectors.Browse Complete Report with TOC @Key developments:ESU fails in petition against Court ruling invalidating the acquisition of a 92.79% stake in Ukrtelecom;Ukrtelecom makes progress with network upgrade project with Huawei;DREAM cable linking Ukraine to Germany and China opens for traffic;Fixed lines in service dip to 7.1 million;Regulator raises UAH2.288 billion in 2600MHz auction;Kyivstar gains approval for its StarMoney m-payment service;Fresh MNP tender declared invalid;Regulator sets minimum price for 1800MHz spectrum licences expected to be auctioned in March 2018;Vodafone Ukraine preps for commercial LTE launch;Report update includes the regulator market data, State Statistics data to December 2017, telcos operating and financial data to Q4 2017, recent market developments.Companies mentioned in this report:Ukrtelecom, Kyivstar, Datagroup, Eurotranstelecom, Vega, Velton Telecom, Intertelecom, ITC, Telesystems, Ukrainian Radio Systems, Lifecell, Vodafone Ukraine (MTS), Golden Telecom, PAN Wireless, Volia Cable.Table of Contents1. Key statistics1.1 Country overview2. Telecommunications market3. Regulatory environment3.1 Law of Ukraine on Telecommunications3.2 Regulatory authority3.3 Government policies3.3.1 Privatisation3.3.2 Interconnection3.3.3 Carrier selection and carrier preselection3.3.4 Number Portability (NP)3.3.5 Licensing3.3.6 Network accessView Sample PDF @4. Fixed network operators4.1 Introduction4.2 Ukrtelecom4.3 Datagroup4.4 Eurotranstelecom4.5 Kyivstar4.6 Vega4.7 Wireless Local Loop (WLL) operators4.7.1 Velton Telecom4.7.2 Intertelecom4.7.3 International Telecommunication Company (ITC)/CDMA Ukraine4.7.4 Telesystems of Ukraine/PEOPLEnet5. Telecommunications infrastructure5.1 Overview of the national telecom network5.1.1 Ukrtelecom5.1.2 Datagroup5.1.3 Eurotranstelecom5.1.4 Kyivstar5.1.5 Vega5.2 International infrastructure5.3 Data centres6. Broadband market6.1 Fixed broadband market6.1.1 Introduction and statistical overview6.1.2 Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) networks6.1.3 Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) networks6.1.4 Fibre-to-the-Premises (FttP) networks6.2 Other fixed broadband services6.2.1 Fixed wireless (Wi-Fi and WiMAX)About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
UN official alarm over use of nuclear weapons

GENEVA: A top UN official sounded the alarm Monday over a new, looming arms race and warned that the risk that devastating nuclear weapons could be used was on the rise.



The threat of the use, intentional or otherwise, of nuclear weapons is growing, the UNs representative for disarmament affairs, Izumi Nakamitsu, told a preliminary review meeting of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).



The United States, which holds one of the worlds largest nuclear arsenals, also warned the conference that the prospects for progress on disarmament was currently bleak.



The NPT, negotiated at the height of the Cold War nearly a half century ago, seeks to prevent the spread of atomic weapons while putting the onus on nuclear states to reduce their stockpiles.



Speaking at the opening of the Geneva meeting, Nakamitsu warned that the world today faces similar challenges to the context that gave birth to the NPT.



Rhetoric about the necessity and utility of nuclear weapons is on the rise, she said, stressing that modernisation programmes by nuclear-weapons states are leading to what many see as a new, qualitative arms race.



The NPT treaty, which counts 191 member states, faces a comprehensive review every five years, with preparatory committees each year in between.



The next full review of the treaty is scheduled for 2020, 50 years after the NPT first took effect.



This years meeting comes after North Korea, which pulled out of the treaty in 2003, declared a moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests and said it would dismantle its nuclear test site.



Many speakers at the Geneva meeting welcomed the announcement, but they also voiced caution.



European Union representative Jacek Bylica stressed for instance the need to keep up maximum pressure (on North Korea) until it embarks on a credible path towards complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation.



Christopher Ford, US Assistant Secretary for International Security and Nonproliferation, insisted that Pyongyang had yet to return to compliance with the NPT.



North Koreas nuclear program was one reason why the nonproliferation regime today faces great threats, Ford said.



He also pointed to Irans nuclear program, which he said remained dangerously close to rapid weaponisation.



US President Donald Trump has threatened to tear up the 2015 nuclear deal that lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbs to its atomic program unless new restrictions are imposed on its missile program and other areas by May 12.



A number of speakers Monday meanwhile voiced their support for the Iran deal.



Nakamitsu stressed the UNs backing of the agreement as the best way to ensure the exclusively peaceful nature of Irans nuclear program.



In his speech, Ford also took aim at Moscow, accusing it of violating its arms control obligations and decried the deleterious impact on our collective security of the use of chemical weapons in Syria.



His comments sparked an angry back-and-forth on the floor with Syria s main backer, with Russian representative Vladimir Yermakov slamming the US for trying to divert attention from nuclear non-proliferation.



Five of the worlds nuclear-armed statesBritain, China, France, Russia, and the United Statesare parties to the NPT.



But India and Pakistan, as well as Israel, which has never acknowledged it has nuclear weapons, have never signed the treaty.



Despite their treaty obligations, observers say that all nuclear-armed NPT members are engaged in modernising their arsenals and making nuclear weapons a more central part of their defence strategies.



President Donald Trumps administration has for instance recently decided to upgrade the US nuclear weapons arsenal and to complement massive strategic bombs with smaller tactical weapons, in a move critics say would make them easier to use.
Global Continuous Glucose Monitoring Systems Market to reach USD 12766.2 million by 2025 | CAGR: 40.20% (2017-2025)

New York 24 April 2018, As per a new research study conducted by Bizwit Research & Consulting, Global Continuous Glucose Monitoring Systems industry is poised to raise USD 12766.2 million by 2025. Continuous Glucose Monitoring System enables effective managing of blood glucose levels by providing trend data as well as alarms for the fluctuation in glucose level. Measuring/monitoring and managing glucose levels are primary tasks in diabetes management, which can be conducted using glucose monitoring devices. CGMS market is mainly driven by enhanced technological innovations, such as higher convenience offered by CGMS over self-monitoring blood glucose (SMBG) devices, and the detection of hypoglycemic and hyperglycemic events by CGMS. Increase in Health awareness and affordability of devices in the developed and developing economies have contributed towards the market growth.To view the summary or to request a sample copy of this report, please click the link mentioned below:Global Continuous Glucose Monitoring Systems Market Size Study, by Components (Transmitters & Receivers, Integrated Insulin Pumps, and Sensors), by Demographic (Child Population, Adult Population), by End-Use (Home Healthcare, Diagnostic Centers/Clinics, ICUs), and Regional Forecasts, 2017-2025The global Continuous Glucose Monitoring System industry is highly competitive owing to the presence of several key manufacturers such as Abbott Laboratories, Dexcom, Inc., Echo Therapeutics, Inc., GlySens Incorporated, Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic plc, Senseonics Holdings, Inc., and F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. these key players are aggressively involved in acquisitions and effective mergers in order to generate more revenues. They are also indulged in product launches, continuous technological innovations and manufacture wide range of medical devices, therapies and services as to attract new customers in the market.Key findings of the study suggest: The Asia Pacific region accounted for the largest market share, more than 27% of the total market in 2016. Sensors and Transmitters contribute almost 90% of the total CGMS market by product. The Asia Pacific region will be the highest growing region with respect to geographical segmentation having CAGR more than 51.2% over the forecast period. Testing strips and glucose meter contribute to nearly 95% of the Self-monitoring of Blood glucose. Key players are heavily investing in product enhancements in order to attract new customers in the market.Bizwit Research & Consulting LLP has considered following segments for the study:Components: Sensors Transmitters & Receivers Integrated Insulin PumpsDemographic: Child Population (Less than 14 years) Adult Population (More than 14 years)End-Users: Diagnostics Centers/Clinics Home Healthcare ICUsRegional Outlook North America Europe Asia Pacific Latin America Rest of the WorldTo get a sample of this report or to purchase a copy of the study, you can directly mail to us at: sales@bizwitresearch.comBizwit Research & Consulting LLP is a global provider of business intelligence & consulting services. We have a strong primary base of key industry leaders along with the chain of industry analysts to analyze the market trends and its future impact in order to estimates and forecast different business segments and markets. We incorporate big data, expert analysis, and huge industry database to deliver client focused business consulting reports. Our analysts perform unbiased measurement and assessment of market opportunities to comprehend detailed market forecast. Our team of key opinion leaders evaluates the market size, growth prospects, end-use, applications, value & supply chain and top vendors in the industry to help the clients to take conversant business decisions without any vague assumptions.Best Regards,Animesh Paliwal (International Business Consultant)Office Landline: +1 646 4536805, +91 999 3115879Bizwit Research & Consulting LLPAddress: Madison Avenue, Manhattan, NY (USA)Facebook | LinkedIn | Twitter | Skype
Zambia Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband Market - Key Statistics, Country Overview And Infrastructure

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"The Latest Research Report Zambia - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"Zambia is a landlocked country with a focus on developing ICTs to spur growth in the digital economy. Consumers have benefited from access to international submarine fibre optic cables, which has seen a considerably reduction in fixed-line and mobile access pricing. The governments Universal Access Fund has made considerable progress, particularly in paying for more than 1,000 base stations to be built. As a result, by the end of 2017 mobile coverage should be available to 92% of the population. Separately, mobile network operators continue to invest in 3G and LTE-based services, while several ISPs have also rolled out WiMAX wireless broadband networks. MTN Zambia in addition has initiated an FttP program, initially in Lusaka. These developments are set to increase overall broadband penetration significantly in coming years.Get Sample Copy of this report @Key developments:Zamtel commissions additional towers as part of a government-funded rural infrastructure project;MTN Zambia announces FttP rollout plans via its Connected Home initiative, launches micro lending service Kongola;Chinese government lends $273 million to complete digital broadcast process by end-2017;New licence framework could pave the way for a fourth mobile network operator;Zamtel launches LTE service in the Copperbelt Province as part of the Universal Access Service;Government adopts new converged licensing regime;National Data Center opens as part of the governments Smart Zambia project;Vodafone Zambia completes LTE-A rollout program;iWayAfrica Zambia adds FttP services to its VSAT offerings;Liquid Telecom extends FttP services;IMF no longer sets government sale of its stake in Zamtel as a condition for $1.3 billion loan;Western Fibre Route cable connecting Malawi to Zambia;Airtel commits an additional $142 million for network expansion and upgrades;Mobile subscriber base falls as unregistered SIM cards are removed from operators services;Report update includes the regulators market updates to September 2017, operator data to Q4 2017, recent market developments.Browse Complete Report with TOC @Companies mentioned in this report:Zambia Telecommunications (Zamtel, LapGreen); MTN Zambia; Bharti Airtel; Cell Z (Zamtel); ZamNet; Coppernet Solutions; UUNet Zambia; Microlink Technologies; AfriConnect; Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation (ZESCO); Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC); Comium.Table of Contents1. Executive summary2. Key statistics3. Country overview4. Telecommunications market4.1 Market analysis5. Regulatory environment5.1 Telecommunications Act 19945.2 ICT Policy 20075.3 ICT Act 20095.4 Regulatory Framework 20175.5 Regulatory authority5.6 Telecom sector liberalisation5.6.1 International gateways5.7 Licensing5.7.1 New unified licensing regime 20095.8 Universal Access Fund5.9 Infrastructure sharing5.10 Privatisation5.11 Quality of Service (QoS)5.12 Converged licensing6. Fixed network operators6.1 Zamtel6.1.1 CDMA2000 wireless local loop (WLL)6.1.2 Domestic satellite network6.2 ZESCO6.3 CEC Liquid Telecom7. Telecommunications infrastructure7.1.1 National backbone networks7.1.2 Data centres7.1.3 International infrastructureView Sample PDF @8. Fixed-line broadband market8.2 Introduction and statistical overview8.2.1 Market analysis8.2.2 Broadband statistics8.2.3 Public internet access locations8.2.4 Community telecentres8.3 Fixed-line broadband technologies8.3.1 Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) networks8.3.2 Fibre-to-the-Premises (FttP) networks8.3.3 Leased lines8.3.4 Other fixed broadband services9. Digital economy9.1 E-health9.2 E-learning9.3 E-government9.4 E-banking10. Mobile market10.1 Market analysis10.2 Mobile statistics10.3 Mobile data10.3.1 SMS10.4 Mobile broadband10.5 Forecasts  mobile subscribers  2018; 2020; 202210.6 Regulatory issues10.6.1 SIM card registration10.6.2 Spectrum auction10.6.3 Mobile Termination Rates (MTRs)10.7 Mobile infrastructure10.7.1 Digital networks10.7.2 Other infrastructure developments10.8 Major mobile operators10.8.1 Airtel Zambia (formerly Zain/Celtel, Zamcell)10.8.2 MTN Zambia (formerly Telecel)10.8.3 Zamtel Mobile (formerly Cell Z)10.8.4 Vodafone Zambia10.8.5 UZI Zambia10.9 Mobile content and applications10.9.1 M-commerce10.9.2 M-payment and m-banking10.10 Mobile handsetsAbout usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Shop For A Variety Of Home Accessories Online At Wafiapps.com

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The online shopping site in Bahrain is one of the fastest growing websites in the Gulf regionHamad Town, Kingdom of Bahrain  4/24/2018: WAFI apps is an online store based in Bahrain, and it offers a complete range of home accessories to their customers in the Gulf region. Their catalogue includes home decor, cookware, kitchen appliances, lighting, small appliances, large appliances, steamers and cookers.E-commerce is quickly replacing bricks and mortar retail. Around 1.66 billion worldwide did online shopping in 2017, which accounted for $2.3 trillion. By 2021, e-commerce is expected to stand at $4.88 trillion, which is more than double the increase. Customers can now virtually buy anything from the comfort of their homes, without needing to head out for each and everything they need. This is why shopping for home accessories have become more popular than other types of things.A spokesperson from WAFI apps recently stated: Our aim is to provide maximum comfort to our customers, which is why we offer a whole range of home accessories. We want our customers to find everything they are looking for their homes, including decor and appliances. We also provide multiple payment methods, so that they do not find any difficult in making payments. Our delivery is fast and secure, and customers can get everything they are looking for from the comfort of their homes.WAFI apps have several categories in their home appliances section. Their home decor section contains photo frames and wall decorations. Their cookware category has bakeware, hotpots, tea pots and kettles. In kitchen appliances WAFI apps have coffer makers, juicers, toasters, coffee grinders along with several other items. They even have a large and small appliances category which includes everything from vacuum cleaners to dish waters and air conditioners. In addition this, their website has a lighting and steamer category.Other than a website, WAFI apps also have a mobile app for Android phones. They provide complete security for customers who are making a payment through the website or their phones.WAFI Apps.com has an ever-growing collection of electronics, DIY tools, perfumes, cosmetics, and other products. The company has become renowned for its incredible customer care services and its library of authentic products, and uses high grade encryption to guarantee the safety of the people on its platform.Contact Information:Address: No.33, Building No. 872, Road 3618, Block 436, Seef,Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain.Email: info@wafiapps.comWebsite:Phone: 00973 - 17 678 001
Future Trend of Global Artificial Intelligence Market In all Sectors

Artificial Intelligence Market

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According to a latest report published by Progressive Markets, titled, Global Artificial Intelligence Market- Size, Trend, Share, Opportunity Analysis & Forecast, 2014-2025,Artificial Intelligence Market Report Globally, Based On Technology (Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Image Processing, Speech Recognition) Industry Vertical and Geography. it is expected that the industry would register a CAGR of 46.5% for the period, 2017-2025. The study is significant for new entrants as it would enable them to get acquainted with the market trends and dynamics.The study offers executive summary of the global artificial intelligence market, which includes industry attractiveness, trend analysis, competitive scenario, and recent developments in the market. It introduces the industry with a detailed description of report, scope, definition, and research methodology. The study offers an in-depth analysis of the market landscape, such as drivers, restraints, and their impact on the market. Porters Five Force Analysis (PFFA) is provided to highlight the bargaining power of suppliers & buyers, rivalry among industrialists, and threat of substitution.Artificial intelligence report assesses the market share based on industry verticals, technologies, and regions for the period, 2014-2025. Based on technology, it categorizes the industry into machine learning, speech recognition, image processing, and natural language processing.Research Factor Included in Artificial Intelligence IndustryThe regional distribution of the global artificial intelligence market is done across Europe, North America, Asia-Pacific, and LAMEA. These regions are further categorized into their respective countries. North American countries analyzed by the experts are Canada, U.S., and Mexico. The nations of the Europe evaluated are Germany, U.K., and France. The countries assessed in the region of Asia-Pacific are Japan, China, India, and Australia. The nations covered in the LAMEA region for examination are Saudi Arabia, Brazil, and South Africa. Based on industry verticals, the research divides the industry into Media & Advertising, IT & Telecom, BFSI, Retail, Automotive & Transportation, and Healthcare.The research analyzes the industry by each region, technology, industry type for the historic and forecast period, 2014-2016 and 2017-2025 respectively.Key Manufacturers Analysis of Global Artificial Intelligence MarketThe report discusses big market players of the global artificial intelligence market, such as Google Inc., Microsoft Corporation, IBM Corp., IPsoft, Qlik Technologies Inc., Rocket Fuel Inc., MicroStrategy, Inc., 24/7 Customer, Inc., Brighterion, Inc., and Next IT Corp.Profile of each company is analyzed based on standards set by our analysts which includes a brief introduction of the company, recent developments, and business & financial segments. Knowledge of competition helps key investors and market players to understand the competitive landscape that propels in the industry. An extensive evaluation of the geographical regions provides help to determine opportunities that are present within those regions.Segmentation of Artificial Intelligence Market by Component and Industry VerticalThe research evaluates the factors that drive the growth of global artificial intelligence market, such as improvement in productivity, diversification of areas for application, and integration drive for big data. It also assesses the aspects that delays progress of the industry which include less skilled workforce and its adverse impact on human existence. The abovementioned parameters of the industry are depicted through tabular format. For instance, some tables give brief description of vendors under the title of company snapshot. The market share of industry verticals, technologies, and regions are shown through tables. The market value for each region, technology, and industry vertical is explained with the help of tables during the period, 2014-2025. The same parameters are represented through pictures. For instance, the revenue generated by every country, technology, and industry vertical is illustrated through figures for the historic as well as forecast period.The artificial intelligence market study is a rich source of market insights, potential investment technologies and regions. It also provides a clear picture of competitive scenario prevailing in the industry to enable the new entrants as well as the existing players to formulate growth strategy.The company makes use of primary corporate research and secondary inputs from trusted sources to build its own reference base. It maintains consistency in quality as it keeps itself updated with changes in market dynamics and gauging its net effect on global business trends.UsMr. Shriram Dighe4th Floor, Unit 12, Marisoft III,West Wing, Marigold IT Park,Kalyani Nagar, Pune, Maharashtra 411014,India: +91 20 66346040Toll Free: + 1-888-906-9222help@progressivemarkets.com
Coal Tar Pitch Market Trend to 2023 Profiling Koppers Industries, Coopers Creek, Tangent Rail, Shanghai Baosteel, Shanxi Coking, Wugang Coking

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Coal Tar Pitch Market report 2023 focuses on the major Types and Applications for the key players. Coal Tar Pitch market research report also provides analysis of the market share, segmentation, revenue forecasts and geographic regions of the market. The Coal Tar Pitch market research report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of Coal Tar Pitch Industry.Coal tar pitch is a complex chemical with 22 chemical and physical properties obtained through coal tar distillation, which involves the conversion of coal tar into a variety of intermediate chemical products. Coal-tar pitch is a thick black liquid that remains after the distillation of coal tar. It is used as a base for coatings and paint, in roofing and paving, and as a binder in asphalt products. Both coal tar and coal-tar pitch contain many chemical compounds, including carcinogens such as benzene.Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Coal Tar Pitch 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 Coal Tar Pitch Market Report @Coal Tar Pitch Market Segment by Top Manufacturers Including:RuTGERS, JFE, Koppers Industries, Coopers Creek, Tangent Rail, Shanghai Baosteel, Shanxi Coking, Wugang Coking, Jining Carbon, Shandong Gude Chemical, Yenakiieve Coke and Chemicals, Baoshun, Shandong Weijiao, Xinnuolixing, Risun, Jinneng and Zhongyi.An inherent sub-vertical of the Chemicals and Advanced Materials Industry space, Coal Tar Pitch 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 Coal Tar Pitch Market OverviewGlobal Coal Tar Pitch Market Manufacturers ProfilesGlobal Coal Tar Pitch Market Competition, by ManufacturerGlobal Coal Tar Pitch Market Analysis by RegionsGlobal Coal Tar Pitch by CountriesGlobal Coal Tar Pitch Market Segment by TypeGlobal Coal Tar Pitch Market Segment by ApplicationCoal Tar Pitch Market Forecast (2018-2023)Sales Channel, Distributors, Traders and DealersResearch Findings and ConclusionMarket Segment by Type, coversMedium Temperature Coal Tar Pitch, Modified Coal Tar Pitch and OtherMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided into:Aluminum Industry, Graphite Electrodes, Roofing and OtherThere are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Coal Tar Pitch market.Chapter 1, to describe Coal Tar Pitch Market Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Coal Tar Pitch, with sales, revenue, and price of Coal Tar Pitch, 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 Coal Tar Pitch, 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, Coal Tar Pitch market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2018 to 2023;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Coal Tar Pitch sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceFor more information on this report, Please visit at:Related Reports: -Global Coal Tar Pitch Market Research Report 2018The global coal tar pitch market is valued at USD 3589.3 million in 2017 and is expected to reach USD 4682.29 million by the end of 2024, growing at a growth rate of 3.87% between 2017 and 2024.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 Report4 North Main Street,Selbyville, Delaware 19975USAPhone: 1-302-273-0910US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email:sales@marketstudyreport.comWebsite:News:More Report at:
Smart Speaker Market Research and Forecast 2018-2023

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Smart Speaker Market, Size, Share, Market Intelligence, Company Profiles, Market Trends, Strategy, Analysis, Forecast 2018-2023SMART SPEAKER MARKET INSIGHTS:Smart Speaker Market is a wireless audio playback device. It uses different types of connectivity for additional functions. It has special features to improve ease of use, and connect to multiple types of audio sources and provide additional functionality. The main aim of smart speakers is to deliver wireless audio content from a users media library. The media library may be on different platforms, or online music services. The global smart speaker market is expected to grow at a significant growth rate of 19% during 2018-2023. The major factors that are augmenting the market are increasing trend of wireless connectivity and devices, and rising IoT demand. Companies such as Google, Amazon, Apple, and Baidu have introduced wide range of products, providing different choices to the end user. The companies are investing huge amount and launching numerous products to become leader in smart speaker market. Besides big players, the start-ups are also generating funding from various sources in smart speaker market. For instance, in Dec, 2017, Mobvoi Inc. has launched TicHome Mini. It is a voice-activated digital assistant, which can respond to voice commands, such as streaming music and newscasts. The company is backed by Google Inc.For Smart Speaker Market Report and Sample:Other factors that are augmenting the market are rising adoption of smart homes and increasing disposable income of people all across the globe. In addition, technological advancement and new product development by major players and emerging economies are further expected to drive the growth of the market. The major factors that can hinder the growth of market is the security risk and risk of data theft. In the world of internet, privacy is always a major threat to the customers. The global smart speaker market is segmented on the basis of product, technology and application. By product, the market is segmented into single room speaker and multi room speaker. The multi room speaker is expected to show significant growth rate due to increasing commercial use of smart speakers. By technology, the market is segmented into Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and other segment. Wi-Fi is expected to show highest growth rate due to increasing use of internet, introduction of 4G & LTE technology in the various region, and increasing internet based music application. By application, the market is segmented into commercial and domestic. During the forecast period, it is expected that the domestic segment will show considerable growth rate due to high acceptance of wireless speakers and increasing disposable income among the people.Geographically, the market is divided into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of the World. North America region is growing significantly and is estimated to dominate the overall global smart speaker market. The major contributors for the growth of North America include huge investment by private companies, presence of major market players such as Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and high adoption of the smart speaker in the region. Europe is also expected to show a significant growth rate. Most of the major market players are active in the region. High disposable income, high adoption rate are the major factors that are fueling the growth of the market. APAC is estimated to be the fastest growing regional market for the smart speakers. The promising economic growth, large customer base, increasing disposable income are responsible for increased demand of smart speaker in the region.The key players in the smart speaker market include Google Inc, LG Corporation, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., Sony Corporation, Baidu, Inc., Amazon.com, Inc. The companies are adopting partnership, R&Ds, M&As, and product launches as their key strategies to sustain in the market. Amazon and Google are the major market players in the US market. For instance, in Nov, 2017 Roku Inc., acquires Multi-Room Audio Startup for $3.5 Million.Market Segmentation:Global Smart Speaker Market is segmented on the basis of technology, application, component and regional outlook.Global Smart Speaker Market Research and Analysis, By TechnologyGlobal Smart Speaker Market Research and Analysis, By ApplicationGlobal Smart Speaker Market Research and Analysis, By ComponentGlobal Smart Speaker Market Research and Analysis, By RegionTHE REPORT COVERS:Comprehensive research methodology of Global Smart Speaker 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 Smart Speaker Market.Insights about market determinants which are stimulating the Smart Speaker Market.Detailed and extensive market segments with regional distribution of forecasted revenues.Extensive profiles and recent developments of market players.Related Reports:Follow LinkedIn:Advent of wireless technology in early 20th century led to a mass revolution in information technology. Today information technology has surpassed human imagination and has created a multi trillion dollar market. Information and communications technologies is a broad term covering a spectrum of interrelated markets. Some of the worlds biggest and most influential companies belong to the ICT domain. These companies and various innovators are changing the shape of modern world. At OMR, our endeavour is to capture the growth of ICT industry through our detailed reports and analysis. We provide detailed analysis of each segment along with market determents such as driver, restraints and opportunities. Our numbers are confirmed through extensive primary research. OMRs ICT market reports will provide you a great decision making tool.CORPORATE OFFICE:Orion Market Research Pvt Ltd116, Shagun ArcadeVijay Nagar SquareIndore, Madhya Pradesh  India- 452010Email: info@omrglobal.com, support@omrglobal.comIndia: +91-780-304-0404, +91-917-982-8694
Global Wrist Sphygmomanometer Market Research Report by Manufacturers, Trend, Industry Growth 2018 to 2022

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Global Wrist Sphygmomanometer Market report is a study of the market status on the basis of drivers, opportunities and constraints, market segmentation and competitive landscape. The study examines the key contenders in global and major regions that the market is likely to experience.A sphygmomanometer, also known as a blood pressure meter, blood pressure monitor, or blood pressure gauge, is a device used to measure blood pressure, composed of an inflatable cuff to collapse and then release the artery under the cuff in a controlled manner, and a mercury or mechanical manometer to measure the pressure.Get Sample Copy@Openings for the future market advancement were uncovered and preoccupied concentrated threats in like manner textured. The drifts and slants of this market were considered and it unveils that there was an illustrious strategic direction observed. By the getting a grasp on the market establishment and using the determined guidelines, techniques, and inclinations of other driving markets for references, market information was understood.Geographically, this report split global into several key Regions, with sales (K Units), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of Wrist Sphygmomanometer for these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringUnited StatesChinaEuropeJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaGlobal Wrist Sphygmomanometer Market competition by top manufacturers/players,Bioland, Pangao, Omron, Panasonic, Veridian Healthcare, Ozeri, Wristech, MHCmed, Microlife, Yuwell,Avail 20% Discount and Customization On This Premium Report@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 intoSmartNon-smartOn the basis on the end users/applications,HouseholdMedicalOthersThe vendor landscape covered in this research study offers a comprehensive overview of the latest developments and investment pattern in the Global Wrist Sphygmomanometer Market. Under investments, the report provides a brief overview of the major mergers and acquisitions in the big data security market. This market research report identifies key players in the market and provides a comprehensive analysis of their key company facts, business overview, segmentation, SWOT analysis, business strategies, and key information.In the last sections of the report, the companies responsible for increasing the sales in the market has been presented. These companies have been analyzed in terms of their manufacturing base, basic information, and competitors. In addition, the application and product type introduced by each of these companies also form a key part of this section of the report. The recent enhancements that took place in the global market and their influence on the future growth of the market have also been presented through this studyFor more enquiry @Table of Contents:Global Wrist Sphygmomanometer Market Research Report 2018-2022Chapter 1: Global Wrist Sphygmomanometer Market OverviewChapter 2: Global Economic Impact on IndustryChapter 3: Global Market Competition by ManufacturersChapter 4: Global Production, Revenue (Value) by RegionChapter 5: Global Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by RegionsChapter 6: Global Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7: Global Market Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8: Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 9: Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 10: Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 11: Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 12: Global Wrist Sphygmomanometer Market ForecastAbout HIM,HealthCare Intelligence Markets supply market intelligence reports in the domain of personalized drugs & diagnostics after going through a rigorous research process. The healthcare and pharma industry is constantly evolving as trends are getting replaced at a rapid pace.Contact Us:Name: Shreyas TannaCompany: Healthcare Intelligence MarketsAddress: 601, Winterberry Purple, Koregaon Park, Pune, 411001Mail Id: sales@healthcareintelligencemarkets.comContact No: +91 7400242424
Global Skin Graft Blades Market Share, Industry Size, Growth, Opportunities, and Market Forecast to 2018-2022

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Global Skin Graft Blades Market report shows a comprehensive outline of the technological advancements prevailing in the market over the forecast period. Distinctive areas have been considered to provide the readers a comprehensive perspective of the entire market scenario. The leading prospect reflected with the fundamental organizations and the associations functioning in the market has been included and analyzed thoroughly.Distinguishing regions have been examined where the market is functioning viably. The regions where the performers may find lucrative opportunities in the near future have likewise been stated in the report.Get Sample Copy@skin graft is a surgical operation in which a piece of healthy skin is relocated to a new site on a patient's body or to a different individual.Global Skin Graft Blades Market study offers an analysis of the current performance of the key regional markets, namely North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa, on the basis of a number of imperative market parameters, such as, the manufacturing volume, production capacity, pricing strategy, the dynamics of demand, supply, and sales, return on investments (RoI), and the growth rate of this market in each of the regions.This report studies the global Skin Graft Blades market, analyzes and researches the Skin Graft Blades development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeNouvagZimmerHumecaSwann-Morton LimitedSurgeon Blades & Medical Devices PvtDe Soutter Medical LimitedAygun Surgical Instrument CoIntegra LifeSciences CorporationSteadMed MedicalPhoenix Surgical PtyAvail 20% Discount and Customization On This Premium Report@Market segment by Type, Skin Graft Blades can be split intoSplit-Thickness Skin GraftsFull-Thickness Skin GraftsMarket segment by Application, Skin Graft Blades can be split intoHospitalsAmbulatory Surgical CentersClinicsBased on current market developments, the readers are further offered an assessment of how the activities, such as strategic alliances, mergers, and acquisitions, will share the future of this market. The report further studies the impact of porters five forces on the progress of this market. Readers will be benefitted from the references and case studies given in the research study.The vendor landscape covered in this research study offers a comprehensive overview of the latest developments and investment pattern in the Global Skin Graft Blades Market. Under investments, the report provides a brief overview of the major mergers and acquisitions in the big data security market. This market research report identifies key players in the market and provides a comprehensive analysis of their key company facts, business overview, segmentation, SWOT analysis, business strategies, and key information.For More enquiry @Table of Contents:Global Skin Graft Blades Market Research Report 2018-2022Chapter 1: Global Skin Graft Blades Market OverviewChapter 2: Global Economic Impact on IndustryChapter 3: Global Market Competition by ManufacturersChapter 4: Global Production, Revenue (Value) by RegionChapter 5: Global Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by RegionsChapter 6: Global Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7: Global Market Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8: Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 9: Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 10: Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 11: Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 12: Global Skin Graft Blades Market ForecastAbout HIM,HealthCare Intelligence Markets supply market intelligence reports in the domain of personalized drugs & diagnostics after going through a rigorous research process. The healthcare and pharma industry is constantly evolving as trends are getting replaced at a rapid pace.Name: Shreyas TannaCompany: Healthcare Intelligence MarketsAddress: 601, Winterberry Purple, Koregaon Park, Pune, 411001Mail Id: sales@healthcareintelligencemarkets.comContact No: +91 7400242424
Now Available - Worldwide Fibre Film Market Report 2017-2027

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Global fibre film market: IntroductionThe flexible film for packaging market consists of a diverse range of packaging films, with a wide range of applications and purposes. Fibre film is a type of stretch wrapping film which has several advantages over conventional stretch films. Fibre film is created to overcome some disadvantages of stretch film. Fibre film is an efficient and durable stretch film having intense lines of fibres extruded out of the film. The fibres or reinforcement elements increases tear resistance. It simply means that the film is thinner as compared to stretch film and extruded fibres perform all heavy-industrial works. Fibre film not only combines exceptional puncture resistance, superior pallet stability and high elongation but it is also designed to reduce the amount of film used to wrap the pallet. Fibre films are used for pallet wrapping of various load types and is suitable for hand wrapping as well as for fully automatic wrapping machines. Fibre film prevents tearing of films while winding, and provide significant cost reduction per pallet. Fibre film finds applications in the food & beverages industry, construction industry, chemical & fertilizers industry, pharmaceuticals and others. Due to their convenience, fibre films are expected to enjoy rising preference over the forecast period.Global fibre film market: DynamicsUse of stretch films has increased in the past couple of years. With that, cost of stretch films has also increased dramatically. Hence, it gives push to the development of film which reduces cost and provides better load stability. The global fibre film market is expected to grow over the forecast period as it reduces the amount of film used to wrap pallets. A factor which might drive the global fibre film market is that it can be used manually as well as automatically. In addition, when it is used with machines, fibre film can be stretched up to 300% and provides excellent puncture resistance. Fibre film market is also growing on the backdrop of manufacturers cost saving tactics in manufacturing units. Packaging convertors use different technologies to enhance the productivity coupled with less film consumption. This property has led to growth of the global fibre film market over the forecast period. Fibre film is effectively used in food industry, drinks industry, pharmaceutical industry and many other industries where suitable pallet load stabilization is needed in less amount of film usage. One of the key drivers which might boost the global fibre film market is online retailing. Manufacturers operating in the global fibre film market are expected to rely on competitive pricing in order to gain competitive edge, which in turn is expected to increase competition among key players, and fuel growth of the global fibre film market.Request to Sample Report -Global fibre film market: SegmentationGlobal fibre films market can be segmented as follows:On the basis of wrapping technology, the global fibre film market has been segmented as:AutomaticHandheldOn the basis of thickness, the global fibre film market has been segmented as:Below 10 microns10-50 microns50 microns & aboveOn the basis of end use industry, the global fibre film market has been segmented as:Food & beveragesPharmaceuticalsChemical & fertilizersHome & personal careOthersGlobal fibre film market: Regional OutlookBased on regions, the global track and trace labels market is divided into seven regions namely:North AmericaWestern EuropeAsia-pacific except JapanEastern EuropeLatin AmericaMiddle-east and AfricaJapanAPEJ is expected to drive the global fibre film market due to healthy growth in the manufacturing and industrial sectors in emerging economies such as China and India. North America and Western Europe are expected to foresee moderate growth over the forecast period due to established market in these regions. Latin America and Eastern Europe regions are expected to witness less than average growth due to sluggish economic growth in the regions. Japan is anticipated to witness average growth over the forecast period due to a fully established market.Request Report TOC @Global fibre film market: Key PlayersFew of the market players of global fibre film market players- Packaging Innovations, Megaplast Innovative Packaging Solutions, Topa Verpakking, Reddpak, and Antalis Ltd., among others.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite :
From Greg Swank, 12-4-2 You are about to read a list of 45 goals that found their way down the halls of our great Capitol back in 1963. As...
Global Kidney Function Tests Market Size, Status and Forecast 2025 : Alere Inc., Quest Diagnostics, Merck Millipore

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Kidney Function Tests Market Size, Status and Forecast 2025" to its huge collection of research reports.The global Kidney Function Tests market, which is broadly evaluated in the report studies the top-priority growth aspects and how they could impact the market over the forecast tenure under consideration. The analysts have taken painstaking efforts to comprehensively assessing each growth factor of the market, besides showing how certain market restraints could pose a threat to players in the coming years. Moreover, the report also provides information on top trends and opportunities and how players could cash in on them to take up the challenges in the market. This could be a useful guideline for players to cement their position in the industry or make a comeback in the market.From the regional segmentation point of view, the global Kidney Function Tests market has been divided into different geographies that could significantly influence growth in the near future. The report talks about factors that help the leading region to take hold of a handsome share of the market. It also sheds light on other regions trailing the leading one and how they could contribute to the market in the foreseeable future. The authors of the report have used statistical information to present a deeper analysis of the market based on its geographical study.Fill the form for an exclusive free sample of this report @This report studies the global Kidney Function Tests market, analyzes and researches the Kidney Function Tests development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeAbbott LaboratoriesAlere Inc.Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings(LabCorp)Quest DiagnosticsSiemens HealthineersMerck MilliporeRandox Laboratories...Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEUJapanChinaIndiaSoutheast AsiaMarket segment by Type, the product can be split intoDilution & Concentration TestsClearance TestsUrine TestsImaging TestsMarket segment by Application, Kidney Function Tests can be split intoHospitalsDiagnostic LaboratoriesAcademic Research LaboratoriesOthersIn terms of market competition, readers could align their strategies to critical trends of the global Kidney Function Tests market for gaining an edge over other participants. While profiling some of the strong names of the industry, the report has made a point to allow readers to understand how these players were able to bolster their status in the market or could maintain it hereafter.If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Browse Table of Content @Table of Contents1 Industry Overview of Kidney Function Tests1.1 Kidney Function Tests Market Overview1.1.1 Kidney Function Tests Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Kidney Function Tests Market Size and Analysis by Regions (2013-2018)1.3 Kidney Function Tests Market by Type1.4 Kidney Function Tests Market by End Users/Application2 Global Kidney Function Tests Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Kidney Function Tests Market Size (Value) by Players (2013-2018)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend2.2.1 Market Concentration Rate2.2.2 Product/Service Differences2.2.3 New Entrants2.2.4 The Technology Trends in Future3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 Abbott Laboratories3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Kidney Function Tests Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 Alere Inc.3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business OverviewAvail Discount @List of Tables and FiguresFigure Global Kidney Function Tests Market Size (Million USD) Status and Outlook (2013-2018)Table Global Kidney Function Tests Revenue (Million USD) Comparison by Regions (2013-2018)Figure Global Kidney Function Tests Market Share by Regions (2013-2018)Figure United States Kidney Function Tests Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2013-2018)Figure EU Kidney Function Tests Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2013-2018)Figure Japan Kidney Function Tests Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2013-2018)Figure China Kidney Function Tests Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2013-2018)Figure India Kidney Function Tests Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2013-2018)Figure Southeast Asia Kidney Function Tests Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2013-2018)About Us:QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact Us:1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Global Load Balancer Market Analysis 2018 Forecasts To 2023: F5 Networks, Citrix, Radware, Brocade, Riverbed Technology

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Global Load Balancer MarketDescription:-Wiseguyreports.Com Adds Global Load Balancer Market 2018: Global Analysis, Industry Size, Share, Trends, Application Analysis and Growth Opportunities Forecast to 2023 To Its Research DatabaseA load balancer is a device that acts as a reverse proxy and distributes network or application traffic across a number of servers.The global Load Balancer market will reach xxx Million USD in 2017 and CAGR xx% 2011-2017. The report begins from overview of Industry Chain structure, and describes industry environment, then analyses market size and forecast of Load Balancer by product, region and application, in addition, this report introduces market competition situation among the vendors and company profile, besides, market price analysis and value chain features are covered in this report.Product Type Coverage (Market Size & Forecast, Major Company of Product Type etc.):40 Gbps TypeCompany Coverage (Sales Revenue, Price, Gross Margin, Main Products etc.):F5 NetworksCitrixA10 NetworksRadwareBrocadeKemp TechnologiesRiverbed TechnologySangforFortinetBarracudaArray NetworksHangzhou DPtech Technologies.Browse sample report @Application Coverage (Market Size & Forecast, Different Demand Market by Region, Main Consumer Profile etc.):IT & TelecomBFSIGovernmentOthersRegion Coverage (Regional Output, Demand & Forecast by Countries etc.):North AmericaEuropeAsia-PacificSouth AmericaMiddle East & AfricaTable of Content1 Industry Overview1.1 Load Balancer Industry1.1.1 Overview1.1.2 Development of Load Balancer1.2 Market Segment1.2.1 Upstream1.2.2 Downstream1.3 Cost Analysis2 Industry Environment2.1 Policy2.2 Economics2.3 Sociology2.4 Technology3 Load Balancer Market by Type3.1 Segment Overview3.1.1 40 Gbps Type3.2 Market Size3.3 Market Forecast4 Major Companies List4.1 F5 Networks (Company Profile, Sales Data etc.)4.2 Citrix (Company Profile, Sales Data etc.)4.3 A10 Networks (Company Profile, Sales Data etc.)4.4 Radware (Company Profile, Sales Data etc.)4.5 Brocade (Company Profile, Sales Data etc.)4.6 Kemp Technologies (Company Profile, Sales Data etc.)4.7 Riverbed Technology (Company Profile, Sales Data etc.)4.8 Sangfor (Company Profile, Sales Data etc.)4.9 Fortinet (Company Profile, Sales Data etc.)4.10 Barracuda (Company Profile, Sales Data etc.)4.11 Array Networks (Company Profile, Sales Data etc.)4.12 Hangzhou DPtech Technologies. (Company Profile, Sales Data etc.)5 Market Competition5.1 Company Competition5.2 Regional Market by Company6 Market Demand6.1 Demand Situation6.1.1 Demand in IT & Telecom6.1.2 Demand in BFSI6.1.3 Demand in Government6.1.4 Demand in Others6.2 Regional Demand Comparison6.3 Demand Forecast7 Region Operation7.1 Regional Output7.2 Regional Market7.3 by Region7.3.1 North America7.3.1.1 Overview7.3.1.2 by Country (U.S., Canada, Mexico)7.3.2 Europe7.3.2.1 Overview7.3.2.2 by Country (Germany, U.K., France, Italy, Russia, Spain etc.)7.3.3 Asia-Pacific7.3.3.1 Overview7.3.3.2 by Country (China, India, Japan, Southeast Asia etc.)7.3.4 South America7.3.4.1 Overview7.3.4.2 by Country (Brazil, Argentina etc.)7.3.5 Middle East & Africa7.3.5.1 Overview7.3.5.2 by Country (Saudi Arabia, South Africa etc.)7.4 Regional Forecast8 Marketing & Price8.1 Price and Margin8.1.1 Price Trends8.1.2 Factors of Price Change8.1.3 Manufacturers Gross Margin Analysis8.2 Value Chain8.3 Marketing Channel9 Research Conclusion Table Upstream Segment of Load BalancerBrowse full 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.Contact Us:Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt Ltdsales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (Us)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (Uk)Maharashtra, Pune  411028
Global Frozen Meat & Poultry Market 2018 by Key Players : Cargill Beef, JBS, BALTIC FOODS, Elfab Co, Hnyisai

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Frozen Meat & Poultry Market Research Report 2018" to its huge collection of research reports.This report studies the global Frozen Meat & Poultry market status and forecast, categorizes the global Frozen Meat & Poultry market size (value & volume) by key players, type, application, and region. This report focuses on the top players in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, and Middle East & Africa.The report on the global Frozen Meat & Poultry market is prepared with the help of several rounds of primary research and comprehensive secondary research, backed by industry-standard qualitative methods and quantitative tools. The elaborate study on the global Frozen Meat & Poultry market takes a holistic view of prominent and emerging growth dynamics, notable trends, and the competitive landscape. Policy holders in various regions can glean through the report to gain comprehensible insights on the investment profiles of various players. In addition, they are offered insights into their research and development initiatives. The evidence-backed insights on the global Frozen Meat & Poultry market help them identify promising avenues and accelerate the development for the support of the entire economy. The insights in the report takes an intelligent approach over identifying which trends will gain traction and which tends to become lackluster over the forecast period of 20182025.Get Free Report Sample and Customization:The major manufacturers covered in this reportCargill BeefJBSBALTIC FOODSAshbourne Meat ProcessorsPatterson Food ProcessorsKILCOY PASTORAL COMPANYRantoul FoodsKSPElfab CoXIEJIHnyisaiShandong Delisi FoodGeographically, this report studies the key regions, focuses on product sales, value, market share and growth opportunity in these regions, coveringNorth AmericaEuropeAsia-PacificSouth AmericaMiddle East & AfricaOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoFrozen ChickenFrozen PorkFrozen BeefFrozen LambOtherOn 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, includingFoodserviceRetail & Grocery Store ChainsRestaurantsOtherThe study sheds light on recently governmental spending in key regions and evaluates the way it will impact the value chain the global Frozen Meat & Poultry market. The strategies adopted by players to get over operational and strategic risks of business ecosystem are also given an incisive look. The analysis on the Frozen Meat & Poultry market dynamics strives to offer a dispassionate view of technology trends gathering steam in specific regions. In addition, the disruptive potential these technologies have on the overall competitive dynamics of the Frozen Meat & Poultry market is covered in the analysis. Furthermore, the study offers a glance into game-changing technologies and innovative offerings built around them.To Browse a Full Report with TOC:Table of Contents1 Frozen Meat & Poultry Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Frozen Meat & Poultry1.2 Frozen Meat & Poultry Segment by Type (Product Category)1.3 Global Frozen Meat & Poultry Segment by Application1.4 Global Frozen Meat & Poultry Market by Region (2013-2025)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Frozen Meat & Poultry (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global Frozen Meat & Poultry Revenue Status and Outlook (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global Frozen Meat & Poultry Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2013-2025)2 Global Frozen Meat & Poultry Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Frozen Meat & Poultry Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.1 Global Frozen Meat & Poultry Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Frozen Meat & Poultry Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Frozen Meat & Poultry Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 Global Frozen Meat & Poultry Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.4 Manufacturers Frozen Meat & Poultry Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Frozen Meat & Poultry Market Competitive Situation and Trends3 Global Frozen Meat & Poultry Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)3.1 Global Frozen Meat & Poultry Capacity and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.2 Global Frozen Meat & Poultry Production and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.3 Global Frozen Meat & Poultry Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.4 Global Frozen Meat & Poultry Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.5 North America Frozen Meat & Poultry Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.6 Europe Frozen Meat & Poultry Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.7 Asia-Pacific Frozen Meat & Poultry Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)Check Discount For This Report @List of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Frozen Meat & PoultryFigure Global Frozen Meat & Poultry Production (K MT) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Types (Product Category) (2013-2025)Figure Global Frozen Meat & Poultry Production Market Share by Types (Product Category) in 2017Figure Global Frozen Meat & Poultry Market Size (Million USD), Comparison (K MT) and CAGR (%) by Regions (2013-2025)Figure North America Frozen Meat & Poultry Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025)Figure Europe Frozen Meat & Poultry Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025)Figure Asia-Pacific Frozen Meat & Poultry Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025)Figure South America Frozen Meat & Poultry Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025)About Us:QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact Us:1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Global Cell Culture Supporting Equipment Market 2018 by Top Players : GE Healthcare, Irvine Scientific, InvivoGen (US)

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Cell Culture Supporting Equipment Market Research Report 2018" to its huge collection of research reports.This report studies the global Cell Culture Supporting Equipment market status and forecast, categorizes the global Cell Culture Supporting Equipment market size (value & volume) by key players, type, application, and region. This report focuses on the top players in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, and Middle East & Africa.The global Cell Culture Supporting Equipment market will be extensively covered in our latest report, which mainly outlines key occurrences in the market. Product launches, advancements in technology, and collaborations within businesses are some of these events, which are exhaustively covered in the report. The study has been carried out based on qualitative as well as quantitative information derived from primary and secondary research. This study describes market size from a global and local perspective, trends, progress, and various other parameters. A thorough representation of the competitive landscape has been given in the report.Fill the form to get free sample report on this market @The major manufacturers covered in this reportThermo Fisher Scientific (US)Merck KGaA (Germany)GE Healthcare (US)Lonza (Switzerland)Becton, Dickinson and Company (US)Corning Incorporated (US)Eppendorf (Germany)HiMedia Laboratories (India)Sartorius AG (Germany)PromoCell GmbH (Germany)Pall Corporation (acquired by Danaher (US))Geographically, this report studies the key regions, focuses on product sales, value, market share and growth opportunity in these regions, coveringNorth AmericaEuropeAsia-PacificSouth AmericaMiddle East & AfricaOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoCell CountersFiltration SystemsCentrifugesCO2 IncubatorsAutoclavesMicroscopesBiosafety CabinetsOthersOn 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, includingBiopharmaceutical/TherapeuticsStem Cell TechnologyCancer ResearchDrug Screening & DevelopmentTissue Engineering & Regenerative MedicineOtherThe global Cell Culture Supporting Equipment market is mainly divided into numerous segments based on the above mentioned criteria, and each segment has been covered in minute detail in the report. Under every criteria, a leading segment has been demarcated in terms of revenue gained and lucrativeness. These segments are described from the viewpoint to provide a valuable insight to players, in order to make them maximize their profits. This section is also followed by considerably detailed geographical outlook.To Browse a Complete Report with TOC Visit @Table of Contents1 Cell Culture Supporting Equipment Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Cell Culture Supporting Equipment1.2 Cell Culture Supporting Equipment Segment by Type (Product Category)1.3 Global Cell Culture Supporting Equipment Segment by Application1.4 Global Cell Culture Supporting Equipment Market by Region (2013-2025)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Cell Culture Supporting Equipment (2013-2025)2 Global Cell Culture Supporting Equipment Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Cell Culture Supporting Equipment Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.1 Global Cell Culture Supporting Equipment Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Cell Culture Supporting Equipment Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Cell Culture Supporting Equipment Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 Global Cell Culture Supporting Equipment Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.4 Manufacturers Cell Culture Supporting Equipment Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Cell Culture Supporting Equipment Market Competitive Situation and Trends3 Global Cell Culture Supporting Equipment Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)3.1 Global Cell Culture Supporting Equipment Capacity and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.2 Global Cell Culture Supporting Equipment Production and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.3 Global Cell Culture Supporting Equipment Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.4 Global Cell Culture Supporting Equipment Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.5 North America Cell Culture Supporting Equipment Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.6 Europe Cell Culture Supporting Equipment Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)Request A Discount on This report @List of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Cell Culture Supporting EquipmentFigure Global Cell Culture Supporting Equipment Production (K Units) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Types (Product Category) (2013-2025)Figure Global Cell Culture Supporting Equipment Production Market Share by Types (Product Category) in 2017Figure Global Cell Culture Supporting Equipment Market Size (Million USD), Comparison (K Units) and CAGR (%) by Regions (2013-2025)Figure North America Cell Culture Supporting Equipment Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025)Figure Europe Cell Culture Supporting Equipment Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025)Figure Asia-Pacific Cell Culture Supporting Equipment Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025)Figure South America Cell Culture Supporting Equipment Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025)About Us:QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact Us:1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Luxury Goods Changing lifestyle and behaviour of consumer

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Luxury goods include designer apparels, ornaments, and other expensive merchandises that are typically accessible to the wealthy and often indicate status. The global luxury goods market is expected to reach $428,509 million by 2022, registering a CAGR of 3.8% during the forecast period.View complete report:The rise in disposable income has elevated the consumer lifestyle and shifted their preference towards deluxe cosmetics products. Moreover, the escalation in demand for luxury accessories and jewelry due to unique craftsmanship, refinement, quality, and brand name, further fuel the market. In addition, upgradation in product packaging styles and attractive marketing strategies by key players drive this market. However, currency depreciation, increased prices of raw materials, and economic turbulence in some developed countries could hamper the market growth.This market is segmented on the basis of product type, mode of sale, gender, and geography. The product type segment includes designer apparels & footwear, accessories, cosmetics, jewelry, travel goods, fine wines/champagne & spirits, and others. In the year 2015, designer apparels and jewelry were the most popular segments and held a cumulative share of more than 59% in global luxury goods market.Request for sample report:The mode of sale could either be retail or online sale, wherein retail mode includes brand outlets, franchise stores, flagship stores, and retail outlets. Most customers prefer the retail mode of sale while buying luxury goods. However, online mode of sale is steadily gaining momentum and is expected to grow at the highest CAGR of 6.2% during the forecast period.Increase in the number of working women and their economic independence are the key reasons for the market growth for female consumers. In the year 2015, female consumers accounted for almost 65% of global luxury goods market. However, increase in inclination of men towards designer apparels, leather bags, and footwear could result in high demand of luxury goods from male consumers. This segment is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 4.4% during the forecast period.Do inquire about report:Luxury goods market is extremely dependent on economic stability of any particular region as these goods are mainly purchased by the upper economic classes. Furthermore, with the advancements in technology and increase in consumer demands, leading market players have developed various products in different categories of luxury goods and adopted different strategies to combat competition. Acquisition is one of the most prominent strategy in the market. For instance, in 2016, LVMH Group, a French luxury giant, purchased a minority stake in Repossi to expand its business in luxury jewelry segment. Similarly, in June 2016, LOreal International acquired Atelier Cologne, a French perfume manufacturer, to enhance its luxury perfume product portfolio.The market is analyzed across four regions-North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and LAMEA. Europe is expected to dominate the global market during the analysis period due to the presence of large number of established manufacturers of luxury goods in Italy, France, and UK. The market in Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at a significant rate due to increase in number of high net worth individuals and growing tourism industry.In the year 2013, Chinese government launched anti-extravagance campaign that resulted in a slight decrease in the sales of luxury goods. However, in 2014, the market slowly gained pace in this sector.The report includes comprehensive analysis of the key players in this market such as Estee Lauder Companies Inc., LOreal International, LVMH Group, Kering SA, The Shiseido Company, Ltd., Prada S.p.A., Ralph Lauren Corporation, Swatch Group, Luxottica Group S.p.A, and Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA.KEY BENEFITSThis report provides an in-depth analysis of the global luxury goods market to identify the potential investment pockets.It outlines the current trends and future scenarios to determine the overall market potential and gain stronger market foothold.Key drivers, restraints, and opportunities along with their detailed impact analysis have been elucidated.Quantitative analysis of the market for the period of 2014-2022 are highlighted to recognize the financial competency of the market.Porters Five Forces model illustrates the threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, strength of the buyers, and strength of suppliers.Value chain analysis provides a clear understanding on the roles of stakeholders involved.Market SegmentationLuxury Goods Market by Product TypeDesigner Apparels & FootwearJewelryAccessoriesCosmeticsFine Wines/Champagne and SpiritsTravel GoodsOthersLuxury Goods Market by GenderMaleFemaleLuxury Goods Market by Mode of SaleRetailOnlineLuxury Goods Market by RegionNorth AmericaU.S.CanadaMexicoEuropeUKItalyGermanyFranceRest of EuropeAsia-PacificChinaIndiaJapanSouth KoreaRest of Asia-PacificLAMEALatin AmericaMiddle EastAfricaKey Market PlayersThe Estee Lauder Companies Inc.LOreal InternationalLVMH GroupKering SAThe Shiseido Company, Ltd.Prada S.p.A.Ralph Lauren CorporationSwatch GroupLuxottica Group S.p.ACompagnie Financiere Richemont SAOther companies mentioned in the reportPVH Corp.Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group LimitedRoles SAHermes International SCAMichael Kors Holdings LimitedTiffany & Co.Burberry Group plcGiorgio Armani S.p.AFossil Group, Inc.L'Occitane International SAChristian Dior Couture SASwarovski Crystal BusinessPuig, S.L.With the arsenal of different search reports, we help you here to look and buy research reports that will be helpful to you and your organization. Our research reports have the capability and authenticity to support your organization for growth and consistency.With the window of opportunity getting open and shut at a speed of light, it has become very important to survive in the market and only the fittest and competent enough can do so. So, we try and provide with latest changes in the market that can suit your needs and help you take decision accordingly.Global Head Quarters5933 NE Win Sivers Drive,#205, Portland, OR 97220United States
Global Distributed Control System (DCS) Market 2018 Industry Drivers : ABB, Yokogawa, Honewell, Emerson

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Distributed Control System (DCS) Market Professional Survey Report 2018" to its huge collection of research reports.This report studies Distributed Control System (DCS) 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.The Global market for Distributed Control System (DCS) has been thoroughly studied with every available detail in the said study with increased focus on various important factors such as restraints, market opportunities, and growth drivers. Each of the elements that pertain to the shaping of the market dynamics that has been analyzed and studied in detail by the research analysts, so as to offer the best and most evaluative and exhaustive study to the buyers of the report. The overview or the executive summary that has been provided in the market intelligence study has been designed in such a way so as to give a quick overview of the market for receiving information on the go. This could assist readers with hands-on data needed to make quick decisions anytime during their journey of growth in the market.Request for the Free Report Sample:This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringABBYokogawaHonewellEmersonSIEMENSFoxboroHITACHIIHollySysSupconOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoSmall SizeMedium SizeLarge SizeBy Application, the market can be split intoPower Generation IndustryOil and Gas IndustryChemical IndustryOthersBy Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)North AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaThe study of market segmentations that has been offered with the publication that explores some of the most significant categories of the world Distributed Control System (DCS) market is deemed significant for the growth of industry participants. All of the segments that have been studied elaborately in the said publication have been deeply evaluated with assistance from best of the research techniques. The analysts have dissected each of the segments and have shed light on vital factors that influence the growth of the various segments. Using this key information, market players could rightly shape their business plans in favor of the betterment of their growth in the Global market. Segments that have been analyzed in the publication could be related to product, end use, application, and geography.If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Browse full table of contents and description of report @Table of Contents1 Industry Overview of Distributed Control System (DCS)1.1 Definition and Specifications of Distributed Control System (DCS)1.1.1 Definition of Distributed Control System (DCS)1.1.2 Specifications of Distributed Control System (DCS)1.2 Classification of Distributed Control System (DCS)1.3 Applications of Distributed Control System (DCS)1.4 Market Segment by Regions2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Distributed Control System (DCS)2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Distributed Control System (DCS)2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Distributed Control System (DCS)2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Distributed Control System (DCS)3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Distributed Control System (DCS)3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Distributed Control System (DCS) Major Manufacturers in 20173.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Distributed Control System (DCS) Major Manufacturers in 20173.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Distributed Control System (DCS) Major Manufacturers in 20173.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Distributed Control System (DCS) Major Manufacturers in 20174 Global Distributed Control System (DCS) Overall Market Overview4.1 2013-2018E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Capacity Analysis4.2.1 2013-2018E Global Distributed Control System (DCS) Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis4.2.2 2017 Distributed Control System (DCS) Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)4.3 Sales Analysis4.4 Sales Price AnalysisTo Get Discount On This Report Click here @List of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Distributed Control System (DCS)Table Product Specifications of Distributed Control System (DCS)Table Classification of Distributed Control System (DCS)Figure Global Production Market Share of Distributed Control System (DCS) by Type in 2017Figure Market Share of Distributed Control System (DCS) by RegionsFigure North America Distributed Control System (DCS) Market Size (Million USD) (2013-2025)Figure China Distributed Control System (DCS) Market Size (Million USD) (2013-2025)Figure Europe Distributed Control System (DCS) Market Size (Million USD) (2013-2025)Figure Southeast Asia Distributed Control System (DCS) Market Size (Million USD) (2013-2025)About Us:QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact Us:1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Wireless Router Industry: Share, Trend, Segmentation and Growth, Future Prospects & Competitive Analysis, Forecast to 2021

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Publisher's Wireless Router 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 Wireless Router Market: Product Segment AnalysisBroadband RoutersWireless RoutersEdge RouterSubscriber Edge RouterInter-provider Border RouterCore RouterGlobal Wireless Router Market: Regional Segment AnalysisUSAEuropeSEAChinaIndiaRequest Sample Copy is Available at:The players mentioned in our reportADTRANAlcatel-LucentAristaASUSTeKBelkinBrocadeBuffaloCienaCiscoAllied TelesisInquire before Buying @:Table of ContentChapter 1 About the Wireless Router IndustryChapter 2 World Market Competition LandscapeChapter 3 World Wireless Router 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 Wireless Router Market Forecast through 2021Chapter 10 Key success factors and Market OverviewGet Complete 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
Nutraceuticals 2019

It is a privilege to us to be the host of the 2nd International Conference on Nutraceuticals, on behalf of the Organizing Committee we are pleased to invite all you to the Nutraceuticals Conference 2019 on April 22-23 at Osaka, Japan It is a privilege to us to be the host of the 2nd International Conference on Nutraceuticals, on behalf of the Organizing Committee we are pleased to invite all you 
Global Aromatherapy Market Insights Covering Market Dynamics and Competitive Scenario through 2026

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In order to study the various trends and patterns prevailing in the overall market for Aromatherapy, Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has included a new report titled Aromatherapy 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.Click Here for Sample Report @The consumables segment is anticipated to witness significant growth in the next decade attributed to the high efficiency and therapeutic grade of essential oils when inhaled directly or applied topically. The segment dominated the global aromatherapy market in revenue terms in 2015 and the growing trend of essential oils adoption in topical applications is projected to continue throughout the forecast period. The consumables segment accounted for more than 80% value share in 2015 and is likely to continue its growth through 2026, reaching a value of over US$ 4,000 Mn by the end of 2026. Consumables is projected to remain the dominant segment with a CAGR of 7.8% during the forecast period. This segment is estimated to create absolute $ opportunity of more than US$ 250 Mn in 2017 over 2016.The popularity of essential oils is creating robust development in the consumables segment of the global aromatherapy marketThere are various factors driving the growth of the consumables segment in the global aromatherapy market. For instance, a large pool of the patient population opting for essential oils and carrier oils for aromatherapy massages is expected to boost the growth of the consumables segment during the forecast period. Increasing sales of essential oils for home usage is a major factor responsible for boosting the revenue of the consumables segment in the global aromatherapy market over the forecast period. Preference for topical application and direct inhalation of essential oils is another factor contributing to the revenue growth of the consumables segment over the forecast period. Many essential oils have their therapeutic properties of boosting the immune system, combating cold, allergies and breathing disorders, promoting sound sleep and relaxing ambience at home. These qualities of essential oils are boosting the growth of the consumables segment.Risks associated with an excessive use of essential oils is likely to impact the growth of the consumables segmentStringent approval for new essential oils is posing noteworthy difficulties to market development as manufacturers need to specify the indication for which the essential oil can been used. For instance, manufacturers have to mention whether the particular essential oil falls under therapeutic grade or cosmetic grade. Furthermore, some essential oils have restricted applications. These are limiting the development of the consumables segment of the global aromatherapy market. Lack of proper guidelines and misclassification of essential oils is likely to limit the growth of the consumables segment in developing regions. For example, Cineole essential oil can cause symptoms of poisoning if administered above the recommended dose for an extended duration. Its overdose symptoms include epigastric burning, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, muscular weakness, rapid heartbeat, and a feeling of suffocation. Such risks associated with essential oils may hamper the growth of the consumables segment.Click Here for Complete Report with TOC @The consumables segment is expected to be the most attractive segment in the North America aromatherapy market over the forecast period. U.S. is the largest market for consumables, especially essential oils. The segment is witnessing the introduction of new oils, which are imported from various countries to cater to the increasing demand for essential oils across the North America region. New products are frequently being launched by leading domestic players, which makes the consumables segment more competitive in North America. An increasing awareness of the benefits of different essential oils is driving the growth of the consumables segment in the Latin America region. There is a rise in demand for wellness products and therapies in Western Europe owing to increasing disposable income and this is driving the demand for consumables in the region. The APEJ region is likely to witness an interesting trend that is creating a positive impact on the consumables segment of the global aromatherapy market. An increasing number of women in countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia are more inclined to buy essential oils for their home usage and this factor is expected to boost the growth of the consumables segment in the APEJ aromatherapy market.About MRRSEMarket Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.com
Microgrid Market | Key Players Insights, Business Growth Statistics, Trends and Forecast Report 2018-2023

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Governments across the world are supporting the adoption of microgrids due to its strong endurance capability during natural calamities. The governments are stressing more towards green energy and renewable energy. The microgrids projects are backed by funding benefits in the form of grants from federal and state governments in the US. Publishers market research report has identified increasing government support as one of the primary factors that will fuel the growth of the microgrid market in the coming years. The New York state R&D authority awarded funds for microgrid projects to be deployed in 83 communities with the help of prize money worth USD 8 million. Moreover, Japanese government estimated a budget of USD 0.5 million per month for developing advanced microgrids to contribute to the development and implementation of microgrids. Our market research analysts estimate that this market will grow steadily at a CAGR of almost 10% by 2022.Get Sample Copy atCovered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global microgrid market for 2018-2022. To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue generated from the sales of industrial fastener seal.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:-Americas-APAC-EMEAPublisher's report, Global Microgrid Market 2018-2022, 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-ABB-Emerson Electric-General Electric-Schneider Electric-SiemensGet Discount on ReportMarket driver-Increasing government support-For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend-Technological advancements-For a full, detailed list, view our reportTable of ContentsPART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARYPART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORTPART 03: RESEARCH METHODOLOGYPART 04: MARKET LANDSCAPEPART 05: MARKET SIZINGPART 06: FIVE FORCES ANALYSISPART 07: MARKET SEGMENTATIONPART 08: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPEPART 09: REGIONAL LANDSCAPEPART 10: DECISION FRAMEWORKPART 11: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGESPART 12: MARKET TRENDSPART 13: VENDOR LANDSCAPEPART 14: VENDOR ANALYSISPART 15: APPENDIXFor More Information about This Report:Contact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.Pune, India
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Monday said Ghana fully supported the ongoing diplomatic process being employed to restore relations between the two Koreas.



He said the Republic of Korea and North Korea were at a critical turn in their respective histories, thus, Ghana endorsed every positive step taken to restore the balance in that area.



President Akufo-Addo said this when he received the credentials of the Republic of Koreas envoy to Ghana, Mr Kim Sungsoo, at the Jubilee House in Accra.



He recalled the over four decades of cordial relations between Ghana and Korea, and said his government was committed to strengthening the bonds of friendship between both nations.



The President said further that it was the resolve of his administration to create channels for economic exchanges between Ghanaian and Korean businesses.



That interface, he said, would encourage and deepen economic ties between the two countries to the benefit of their citizens.



I think that is the way forward in strengthening of our relations, and I am hoping that the years you are here, we are going to witness a significant advancement of our social, cultural; and economic relations between our two countries, he told Mr Kim.



Applauding the level of development in the Republic of Korea in the past decades, President Akufo-Addo said the Asian country had presented an ideal model for developing countries like Ghana.



He said though Ghana and Korea had similar economies when they gained their independence around the same period, Korea was much more advanced and developed than Ghana, saying that Ghana needed to emulate the path Korea had taken in their development quest.



We want to emulate what you have done, he said, adding, the path that Korea took to bring itself from underdevelopment is the path many of us in Africa must emulate



The President was thankful for the development assistance and support that Ghana had received from the Korean government and people, and urged the Korean envoy to work towards enhancing ties, and to create opportunities for further economic cooperation and high level exchanges between the two nations.



Mr Kim on his part commended the President and the people of Ghana for the vibrant and flourishing democracy that had made the country a model in Africa and beyond.



He praised President Akufo-Addos leadership abilities, which he said had received world recognition, and prayed that that ability would transform the socio-economic fortunes of Ghana.



The Envoy said though the geographical landscape of Korea and Ghana were different, the two countries had a lot of similarities with regards to their common history of economic hardship as well as their common interest in international issues.



He gave the assurance that he would, during his tenure in the country, deepen the bonds of friendship between Ghana and Korea.



I assure you that I and my staff will serve as a clear channel of communication between our countries and I am confident that I will have your Excellencys support and that of your government and the good people of Ghana, so that together, we can work to promote our relationship for the benefit of the pole of our countries, he said.

Source: GNA









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Corrosion Protection Packaging Market Size & Share - Industry Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025

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Marketresearchreports.biz has added a new research report on the "Corrosion Protection Packaging Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025" to its collection.The main objective of this report is to define, describe, and forecast the global Corrosion Protection Packaging 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 @Corrosion Protection Packaging Market OverviewVolatile corrosion inhibitor or vapour corrosion inhibitors (VCI) is a material used to protect the ferrous as well as non-ferrous components from oxidation or any type of corrosion. VCI coating is done on various packaging like pouches, bags, plastic films, papers and others. This packaging releases chemical compound in sealed space which inhibits the process of oxidation. The corrosion protection packaging is fruitful for protecting surfaces in narrow space or surfaces where it is not possible to apply corrosion resistant coating directly. For packaging of mechanical and industrial components made up of metal, which are prone to corrosion, the corrosion protection packaging can be considered as a necessity. The growing steel production throughout the world and profitability of the corrosion protection packaging indicates a good market potential for the same.Corrosion Protection Packaging Market DynamicsRust prevention is one of the major reasons of coating on the metal components. Sometimes, it is not possible to apply a coating on the surface directly. For transportation and temporary storage of metal components, VCI coated corrosion protective packaging is very useful as it does not require any direct coating over the components surface. Moreover, the coating can be done on most of the types of packaging. The vapour released by the coating is odourless and harmless to humans. These properties of the corrosion protection packaging have driven the market. This corrosion protection packaging is effective for most of the metals generally used mechanical components like brass, chrome, copper, steel, bronze, tin and others, the action of VCI vapours is completely opposite on some of the metals, that is the vapours increase the rate of oxidation of the metals such as zinc or zinc based alloys, cadmium, magnesium, lead and alloys of some other metals like brazing alloys. This makes corrosion protection packaging unsuitable for assemblies containing precision moving parts or optical systems. Moreover, direct exposure to sunlight or rise in temperature decomposes the vapour and makes the corrosion protection packaging ineffective. These factors have restricted the market for corrosion protection packaging.View Full Report @Corrosion Protection Packaging Market SegmentsCorrosion protection packaging market can be segmented on the basis of type of coated packaging asPaperHeat sealable bagsZip-lock bagsGusseted bagsPlastic film rollsOthersThe corrosion protection packaging market can be segmented on the basis of end-use industries asConstructionTransportationEquipment manufacturerAutomotiveShipbuildingOthersThe corrosion protection packaging market can be segmented by global regions asNorth AmericaLatin AmericaWestern EuropeEastern EuropeMiddle East & AfricaAsia Pacific excluding JapanJapanCorrosion Protection Packaging Market Regional OutlookAsia Pacific is the largest producer as well as consumer of steel in the world. China alone contributes with half of the worlds steel production and consumption. These factors indicate a huge potential market for corrosion protection packaging in Asia Pacific, particularly China followed by India. Japan is the second largest producer of steel after China and also a prominent machinery producer in the world. The automobile industry is growing globally, especially in Asia Pacific, Western Europe, and North America. Construction industry of China is the largest, followed by the United States and then by India. Indonesia and India are two of the fastest growing construction industries in the world. Most of the facts and figures indicate a huge driving force for corrosion protection packaging market globally, especially in Asia Pacific, along with Japan.Corrosion Protection Packaging Market Key PlayersSome of the players of corrosion protection packaging market areSmurfit Kappa GroupNefab GroupGulmohar Pack-Tech India Pvt. Ltd.EnviroTech Europe LtdElles Oberflachen Systeme GmbHASAPack A/SMetPro GroupAGM Container Controls, Inc.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 UsAbout 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
Construction in Greece 2017 Key Players - Ellaktor SA, Metka SA, J&P  Avax SA Market Analysis and Forecast to 2021

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SynopsisGreeces construction industry has undergone a dramatic decline since 2010 due to depressed economic conditions. The industry was adversely affected by various austerity measures implemented by the government in the form of public expenditure cuts amid the economic crisis; poor business confidence reduced investments in construction projects.Following five years of contraction, the Greek construction industry rebounded in 2015, and registered growth of 2.2% in real terms. This recovery continued in 2016 with a growth rate of 0.5% due to slight recovery in the economy, which provided some momentum to the construction activity.GET SAMPLE REPORT @Over the forecast period (20172021), the industry is expected to remain subdued, while experiencing a period of negative growth during 2017 and 2018, as the country is again expected to experience economic instability; further threatening investor confidence. The industry is expected to rebound from 2019, with the economy expected to show positive signs of recovery from the financial crisis. This is expected to accelerate the flow of investments in construction projects.Companies mentionedConsolidated Contractors Co.Ellaktor SAGEK TERNA Group of CompaniesMetka SAJ&P  Avax SASummaryConstruction in Greece  Key Trends and Opportunities to 2021 report provides detailed market analysis, information and insights into the Greek construction industry, including: The Greek construction industry's growth prospects by market, project type and construction activity Critical insight into the impact of industry trends and issues, and the risks and opportunities they present to participants in the Greek construction industry Profiles of the leading operators in the Greek construction industryScopeThis report provides a comprehensive analysis of the construction industry in Greece. It provides: Historical (2012-2016) and forecast (2017-2021) valuations of the construction industry in Greece using construction output and value-add methods Segmentation by sector (commercial, industrial, infrastructure, energy and utilities, institutional and residential) and by sub-sector Breakdown of values within each project type, by type of activity (new construction, repair and maintenance, refurbishment and demolition) and by type of cost (materials, equipment and services) Detailed profiles of the leading construction companies in GreeceReasons to Buy Identify and evaluate market opportunities using Timetric's standardized valuation and forecasting methodologies. Assess market growth potential at a micro-level with over 600 time-series data forecasts. Understand the latest industry and market trends. Formulate and validate strategy using Timetric's critical and actionable insight. Assess business risks, including cost, regulatory and competitive pressures. Evaluate competitive risk and success factors.Key Highlights In the wake of economic crisis, the Greek government is considering privatization as a vital means to revitalize economic growth. In April 2017, Fraport Greece, the joint venture between Greeces Copelouzos Group and Fraport AG Frankfurt Airport Services Worldwide, took over the management and development of the countrys 14 airports. Fraport Greece plans to invest over EUR400 million (US$424.6 million) until 2021 to develop infrastructure in these airports. In March 2016, the EU approved the development of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline project in Greece. The project includes the construction of an 878km-long new gas pipeline with an aim to serve the energy needs of over 7.0 million European households, while reducing dependency on Russian gas imports. The total investment of the project is estimated at EUR5.0 billion (US$5.6 billion), while investment in Greece amounts to over EUR2.3 billion (US$2.6 billion), which will be utilized for the construction of the 550.0km-long pipeline. Upon its successful completion in 2020, the pipeline in Greece will connect to Albania at Ieropigi and Turkey at Kiproi. Infrastructure development in Greece in recent years has been adversely affected by heavy public expenditure cuts imposed by the government on the back of depressed economic conditions. Over the forecast period, the market is expected to recover slightly supported by the governments effort to develop the countrys transport infrastructure on the back of increasing traffic congestion. Additionally, investments in transport infrastructure projects by international organizations such as the EU are expected to support the market growth. According to Timetric, the infrastructure construction market is expected to post a nominal forecast-period CAGR of 0.67%, compared with -2.83% registered during the review period. China has been a vital source of investment for Greece during its economic crisis. In order to further extend its support, in May 2017 the Chinese government announced plans to invest EUR3.2 billion (US$3.4 billion) to develop various energy infrastructure projects and EUR523.8 million (US$556.0 million) to develop fiber optic network infrastructure projects in Greece by 2020. The Greek National Tourism Organization aims to promote the country as a 365-day tourist destination, and is therefore focusing on attracting more private sector investments into the tourism sector. Accordingly, in January 2017, the New York-based NCH Capital announced plans to invest EUR100.0 million (US$106.1 million) to develop a modern seaside holiday resort in Kassiopi. Moreover, in September 2017, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, in collaboration with Astir Palace Vouliagmeni SA, announced plans to invest EUR100 million (US$106.1 million) to develop the first Four Seasons hotel in the country. The growing inflow of private sector investment in tourism projects is expected to offer a positive outlook for the leisure and hospitality buildings category over the forecast period.Table of Content: Key Points1 Executive Summary2 Industry Outlook2.1 Commercial Construction2.2 Industrial Construction2.3 Infrastructure Construction2.4 Energy and Utilities Construction2.5 Institutional Construction2.6 Residential Construction3 Key Issues and Developments4 Market Data Analysis4.1 Construction Output and Value AddContinuedACCESS 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
Martech Investscape Q1 2018: 100 Companies Received $3637Million ($3.6 Billion) in Total

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MarTechAdvisor have recently published new Investscape for Q1 2018, that includes break down of funding landscape in martech industry by ICO Funding, MarTech Categories and VC funding (US and ROW World)Heres the big trend from Q1 2018: The rise of ICO-fundingTheres a new type of funding rocking martech town: Initial Coin Offering. ICO, an increasingly popular fundraising option, is an unregulated means by which funds are raised in crypto currency and can be used as a source of capital for startups or for the development of new applicatons. Due to the rising value of crypto currency, it was only natural for this new type of funding to be introduced in the quarter gone by.A few martech companies who received ICO funding were: Mobius (USA), Telegram Messenger (UK), Endor (Israel), AdHive (Estonia) and Patron (Japan). That brings up the total VC funding in ICO for the quarter to $1.8BN.Telegram Messenger (investors are undisclosed) got the highest amount of funding (overall), i.e. $1.7Bn  this was in ICO funding. It is also the only company to have been funded twice in the same quarter - first with $850Mn in February and then in March for $850Mn again.Download the full PDF report with one-click hereOther unmissable highlights:2018 has been exciting so far with martech experts generously sharing predictions for the year on the rising capabilities of AI, the eventual shift to Voice Search, the continuous pull of email marketing, the rising influence of improved customer experiencesBut now, seeing that certain martech categories have attracted more funding than others, will we see some tweaks to what they predict for the rest of 2018?Top funded martech categories for Q1 2018:For the United States, Interactive Marketing ($1.99Bn, 13 companies) is the top funded category. This category comprises companies that create platforms or offer services that enable real-time and interactive exchanges between brands and their customers. Telegram Messenger is part of this subset (because bots are the core monetization strategy for them).The other 3 highly funded categories are: Content Marketing ($370Mn, 11 companies), Marketing Automation ($141Mn, 3 companies) and Marketing Analytics ($137Mn, 6 companies).In countries outside the United States: Interactive Marketing ($1.83Bn, 4 companies) is the top funded category, followed by Social Media Marketing ($101.5Mn, 2 companies)While a total of 100 martech companies got funded in Q1, 65 of these were from USA and 35 from ROW (rest of the world) countries, contributing 65% and 35% respectively, to the total funding value. But what is interesting is that the value received by ROW-based companies ($2.36Bn) was greater than the total funding received by USA-based companies ($1.27Bn).Have you wondered what some of the key considerations were for VCs when identifying potential investees? Matt Garratt, SVP, Managing Partner, Salesforce Ventures says, At Salesforce Ventures, our goal is to build the largest ecosystem of enterprise cloud companies and deliver the next generation of technology to our customers. We first consider the strategic benefits to our customers from our investments. Beyond that, we invest in companies with talented management teams, innovative products, large market opportunities and strong company visions. We also have to be able to visualize the company as part of our growing ecosystem of cloud computing technologies.YOY growth of VC funding for USA-based companies:Q1 2018 saw an elevation of 128% in overall funding of martech companies compared to Q1 2017 which was $1.59BnMajor investors calculated by the number of times they funded martech companies in Q1 2018 were Sequoia Capital, Insight Venture Partners and Lighter Capital. In addition, they are the most recurrent investors for Q1For ROW countries:Top funded countries are United Kingdom ($1.71Bn), Canada ($204.07Mn) and South Korea ($130mn)Countries which got more than $50mn funding are India($73.75Mn) and France ($55.78MnWhen it comes to forecasting growth of Martech companies outside the US, Matt sums up, We at Salesforce Ventures are committed to fueling cloud innovation and customer success outside of the U.S  we're active investors in EMEA, Japan, APAC. We are seeing tremendous growth in our own marketing technologies in these regions, and we are also seeing tremendous growth in our portfolio companies.Eager to unlock some more cool funding facts?About Us:MarTech Advisor is the world's leading source for marketing technology news, research, product comparisons & expert views.156 2nd St,San Francisco CA 94105
Laminated Paper Board Packaging Market Current Trends, Opportunities & Challenges by 2025

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Marketresearchreports.biz has added a new research report on the "Laminated Paper Board Packaging Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025" to its collection.The main objective of this report is to define, describe, and forecast the global Laminated Paper Board Packaging 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 @Global laminated paperboard packaging market: IntroductionThe laminated paperboard is a multi-layered solid board that is being used in the packaging of raw fruits and vegetables. The laminated paperboard is being finished with the kraft paper or PE coated papers. Products packed through the laminated board are being packed wet and it is being stored in the damp conditions. The laminated board is highly resistant to moisture which makes our food product fresh and free from germs. Laminated boards are being used in various industries like food and drink packaging, consumer goods packaging, industrial packaging and retail ready packaging. The laminated board is highly moisture resistant. Laminated boards are widely used in the pharmaceutical industries in the packaging of various articles which include perfumes, deodorant, soaps, cream and much more.Global laminated paperboard packaging market: DynamicsThe major factors driving the growth of laminated paperboard market is the constant relative growth of laminated paperboard boxes market in the fruits packaging, food and beverage industries, advancement in the packaging industry and increasing usage of laminated paperboard boxes in the wide range of end -user applications. With the increase in the technological advancements, the manufacturers in the laminated paperboard industries are mainly focusing on the consumer convenience and the product appeal. With the rise of online shopping and e-commerce portals, which widen the scope of transportation and in turn fuel the market of the laminated paperboard. Majorly retail stores use laminated paperboard not only for the purpose of preserving the food but also to maintain the nutritional value of the food so that the food can be kept fresh for a long time. With the increasing number of consumers purchasing grocery items, including chilled and frozen foods which are also contributing to the growth of laminated paperboard market. The laminated paperboard also has a good margin in the pharmaceutical industry in the packaging of various cosmetics material like syrup, creams, powder, perfumes, deodorant and much more. As the production cost is high many business people are not willing to invest in the laminated paperboard industry as manufacturers need to attain comparatively high production in terms of volume so that they can attain a big profit in their investment. This economic restriction could restrain the overall growth in the laminated paperboard industry over the forecast period.View Full Report @Global laminated paperboard packaging market: SegmentationThe global laminated paperboard packaging market has been segmented as follows -On the basis of end use industry, the laminated board packaging market has been segmented as:Food & Beverages IndustryPharmaceutical IndustryChemical IndustryOthersOn the basis of paperboard type, the laminated paperboard packaging market has been segmented as:Kraft BoardSolid Bleached BoardSolid Unbleached BoardOn the basis of lamination material type, the laminated paperboard packaging market has been segmented as:PEPPAluminiumOn the basis of application, the laminated paperboard packaging market has been segmented as:Paper and Publishing ProductsConsumer and Goods PackagingFood and Drinks PackagingIndustrial PackagingRetail Ready PackagingGlobal laminated paperboard packaging market: Geographical OutlookThe Laminated Board packaging market has been divided into seven regions as follows North AmericaLatin AmericaWestern EuropeEastern EuropeAsia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ)Middle East & Africa (MEA)JapanAsia Pacific represents the comparatively high market share and grows with comparatively significant CAGR during the forecast period. North American market is also growing in the laminated paperboard packaging due to the rapid increase in the production capacity of the laminated paperboard as the number of supermarkets are rising day by day. Key factors driving the growth of laminated paperboard packaging include a change in the packaging pattern and increase in demand of laminated board in food and beverage industries. The laminated paperboard packaging is projected to register healthy growth due to the rising demand of laminated paperboard packaging across the globe.Global laminated paperboard packaging market: Key PlayersSome of the players operating in the global XYZ packaging market are Orchid Laminates Private Ltd, Roxcel Group, Sierra Coating Technologies LLC, Yogeshwar Polymers, and Vacmet IndiaThe 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
Global Market Study on Dark Chocolate: Organic Variants to Witness High Adoption

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Market Research Report Search Engine (MRRSE) has added a new research report in its repository on dark chocolate. The report has been titled, Global Dark Chocolate Market - Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast. The report provides insights into the growth trajectory of the market in terms of past, present, and future scenario. The report also dwells on aspects such as drivers, trends, opportunities, and restraints.Get Exclusive Sample Copy @The pervasive health and wellness trend continues to influence dark chocolate market, with manufacturers incorporating organic ingredients and natural sweeteners. The preference for dark chocolate over milk chocolates on accounts its health benefits continues to remain intact. However, as the global chocolate industry is going through a perception crisis, with demand for healthy products witnessing an increase, it is highly likely that the dark chocolate industry may have to cop some of the downward spiral.Dark Chocolate Manufacturers Go Organic and Clean LabelThe organic and clean label trend has swept industries across the broader food and beverage landscape. The influence of the organic and clean label trend is palpable among dark chocolate manufacturers as well, with demand for premium and organic ingredients witnessing a spike. Manufacturers are also focusing on incorporating natural sweeteners, such as stevia and coconut sugar to position their products to a consumer base that is highly conscious about the food choices they make.The pronounced focus on quality has meant that manufacturers are now focusing on including unique cocoa beans from Latin American countries. Although sourcing these premium ingredients from far off places increases the price of the end-product, growing demand for gourmet chocolate among consumers is paying off the dividend.Flavors and Packaging  Two Key Focus Areas for ManufacturersAs the global demand for dark chocolate continues to evolve, manufacturers are listening to the overt and covert needs and preferences of consumers. The focus has invariably shifted to incorporation of advanced packaging that conveys the brand message. As manufacturers are focusing on inducing a sense and perception of healthy in their offerings, the packaging designs and materials have also witnessed changes.In addition to packaging, offering a range of flavored chocolates and superfoods is another key prevailing trend. In the recent past, the demand for dried fruits, as well as blueberries and cranberries has witnessed steady growth in the manufacture of dark chocolate. It is likely that adoption of spices, flower petals, and acai berry in the manufacture of dark chocolate will witness steady growth in the future.Browse Full Report with Table of Content, List of Table and Figures Popularity of Specialty Chocolate Fuelling Demand for Fine Flavor CocoaAlthough fine flavor cocoa accounts for a single-digit share of the overall cocoa production, its demand has witnessed a spike in the recent past. This is primarily on account of growing popularity of specialty or premium chocolate among end-users. Demand for premium chocolate is particularly higher in North America and Western Europe. Although high-prices of these chocolates have meant that only a small percentage of consumers currently buy these premium products, the penetration is growing at a steady pace. This has led leading chocolate companies, such as Ferrero and Mars to invest in broadening their range of offerings.West African Countries Remain Leading Suppliers of Cocoa, Exports from Latin America GrowingIvory Coast and Ghana continue to maintain their position as the leading suppliers of cocoa beans to Europe and North America. These companies usually supply the Forastero variety of beans to manufacturers. In addition to these two countries, supply is also witnessing an increase from Liberia and Guinea. In addition to West Africa, supply of cocoa beans to international manufacturers is also growing from Latin American countries. Equador and Peru are among the leading exporters of cocoa beans to Europe and North America.The outlook on the global dark chocolate market remains positive for the assessment period 2017-2026. Catering to evolving consumer trends and complying with cocoa and chocolate certification will be key to maintaining and consolidating market position during the assessment period.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.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:
Global Smart Office Access Controls Product Market 2018 - ABB, Cisco Systems, Crestron Electronics

Global Smart Office Access Controls Product Market

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Apex Market Reports, recently published a detailed market research study focused on the Smart Office Access Controls Product Market across the global, regional and country level. The report provides 360 analysis of Smart Office Access Controls Product 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 Smart Office Access Controls Product on the basis of this detailed study. The study shares Smart Office Access Controls Product performance both in terms of volume and revenue.The market research report explores the Smart Office Access Controls Product Market across the globe along with major regions and countries. The research report provides a detailed study on each and every aspect of Smart Office Access Controls Product 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 Smart Office Access Controls Product Market based on major product types, application and end users industries of Smart Office Access Controls Product. Besides, the report also covers geographical segmentation for Smart Office Access Controls Product 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 ReportABBCisco SystemsCrestron ElectronicsHoneywellJohnson ControlsPhilips LightingLutron ElectronicsSchneider ElectricSiemensUnited Technologies CorporationThe competitive landscape of the global market for Smart Office Access Controls Product is determined by assessing the major industry participants, production capacity, production capacity utilization rate, Smart Office Access Controls Product Markets production chain, pricing by each manufacturer and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Smart Office Access Controls Product Market globally.Inquire Before Buying @The Global Smart Office Access Controls Product Market 2018 is further analyzed on the basis of product pricing, Smart Office Access Controls Product production volume, data pertaining to demand and Smart Office Access Controls Product supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. The report provides upstream and downstream analysis covering major raw material used in manufacturing of Smart Office Access Controls Product 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 Smart Office Access Controls Product 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 -
Global Natural Food Colors and Flavors Market Industry Trends and Forecast with Increasing CAGR of +6.7% and Huge demand due to Growing demand for natural and clean label products

Global Natural Food Colors and Flavors Market

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The global natural food colors and flavors market is consolidated due to the presence of limited number of players concentrated in few countries. These major players have adopted various organic as well as inorganic growth strategies such as mergers & acquisitions, new product launches, expansions, agreements, joint ventures, partnerships, and others to strengthen their position in this market.Market DefinitionThis market report defines the market trends and forecast the upcoming opportunities and threats of the natural food colors and flavors market in the next 8 years. Food colors are considered to be natural only if they are derived from vegetables, fruits, animal or mineral, microbiological. Most of the people prefer to consume natural food owing to harmful effects of synthetic colors usage. These can be applied at bakery and confectionery, fruits and vegetables, beverages, dairy and frozen products and others. Natural flavor enhancer helps in both developments as well as in improving the flavors already present in foods. For flavoring, in Europe, there is a specific legal definition for what can be known or included as natural supported according to the guidelines. For this, major participants in the European natural food colors market are involving in merger and acquisition. For instance, in June, 2012, FMC Corporation acquired Phytone, Ltd., a leading U.K. based natural colors manufacturer in order to reinforce its presence in the market. This eventually affected the market demand of natural food colors and flavors market. Another factor driving the demand of this market is increasing usage of natural and clean label products.Market AnalysisThe Global Natural Food Colors and Flavors Market accounted for USD 5.6 billion in 2017 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 6.7% during the forecast period of 2018 to 2025. The upcoming market report contains data for historic years 2016, the base year of calculation is 2017 and the forecast period is 2018 to 2025.Download exclusive PDF sample report@This Report Consists of  No of pages: 350, No of Figures: 60, No of Tables: 220Global Natural Food Colors and Flavors Market, By Food Color Type (Caramel, Anthocyanins, Carotenoids), By Food Flavor Type (Natural Extracts, Essential Oils, Aroma Chemicals), Application (Bakery & Confectionery, Meat Products, Dairy & Frozen Products, Beverages, Fruits & Vegetables, Savory & Snacks), By Geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Europe, South America, Middle East & Africa) Industry Trends and Forecast to 2025Note: If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Frequently Asked Questions? What will the market size be in 2025? What are the key factors driving the global market? What are the challenges to market growth? Who are the key players in the market? What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key players? What will be the growth rate in 2025? Which strategies are used by top players in the Global Natural Food Colors and Flavors Market?To Avail 10% Discount On This Report Mail us on @ sopan.gedam@databridgemarketresearch.comMajor Market Drivers & Market Restraint Rise in the number of different color shades and multi-functional flavors Growing demand for natural and clean label products Increasing awareness concerning harmful effects of synthetic colors usage Ill consequences of artificial colors and flavors High cost as well as lesser constancyMarket SegmentationThe global natural food colors and flavors market is segmented based on type, application and geographical segments.Based on type, the global natural food colors market is segmented into caramel, anthocyanins, carotenoids and othersBased on type, the global natural food flavor market is segmented into natural extracts, essential oils, aroma chemicals and othersOn the basis of application, the global natural food colors and flavors market is segmented into bakery and confectionery, meat products, dairy and frozen products, beverages, fruits and vegetables savory and snacksBased on geography, the global natural food colors and flavors market report covers data points for 28 countries across multiple geographies such as North America, South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific Middle East & AfricaSome 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.TABLE OF CONTENTS1) Introduction2) MARKET SEGMENTATION3) Market Overview Drivers Restraints OPPORTUNITIES CHALLENGES4) EXECUTIVE SUMMARY5) premium insights6) Global natural food colors and flavors market, by Food Color Type7) Global natural food colors and flavors market, By Food Flavor Type8) Global natural food colors and flavors market, By Application9) Global natural food colors and flavors market, by geography Overview North America Europe Asia-Pacific south America Middle East and Africa10) Global natural food colors and flavors market, COMPANY landscape11) company profilesDownload Detailed TOC @Top Competitors of Market Royal DSM N.V., Symrise AG, Archer Daniels Midland Company, Givaudan SA, International Flavors & Fragrances Inc., Kerry Group PLC., Takasago International Corporation, Fmc Corporation, Sensient Technologies Corporation, Roha Dye Chem Pvt. Ltd, CHR. Hansen Holding A/S, Symrise AG, Naturex , DD WilliamsonCall Our Analyst @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
Baby Nipples Market 2018 Global Analysis & Forecast to 2022 Market Research Report

Global Baby Nipples Industry

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Global Baby Nipples IndustryLatest Report on Baby Nipples Market Global Analysis & 2022 Forecast Research StudyGlobal Baby Nipples market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingPigeonAVENTNUKNubyEvenfloChiccoPlaytexDr Browns Natural FlowLansinoh LaboratorieNIPMedelaSuavinexPhyllMAMLoviTommee TippeeUS BabyBabisilBorn FreeIVORYTry Sample Report @Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Baby Nipples in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoSolid SiliconeLiquid siliconeRubberOthersOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate of Baby Nipples for each application, including0-6 Months6-18 monthsOthersSome points from table of content:4 Global Baby Nipples Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2012-2017)4.1 Global Baby Nipples Consumption by Region (2012-2017)4.2 North America Baby Nipples Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.3 Europe Baby Nipples Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.4 China Baby Nipples Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.5 Japan Baby Nipples Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.6 Southeast Asia Baby Nipples Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.7 India Baby Nipples Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)5 Global Baby Nipples Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type5.1 Global Baby Nipples Production and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.2 Global Baby Nipples Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.3 Global Baby Nipples Price by Type (2012-2017)5.4 Global Baby Nipples Production Growth by Type (2012-2017)6 Global Baby Nipples Market Analysis by Application6.1 Global Baby Nipples Consumption and Market Share by Application (2012-2017)6.2 Global Baby Nipples Consumption Growth Rate by Application (2012-2017)6.3 Market Drivers and Opportunities6.3.1 Potential Applications6.3.2 Emerging Markets/CountriesFor Detailed Reading Please visit WiseGuy Reports @7 Global Baby Nipples Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis7.1 Pigeon7.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.1.2 Baby Nipples Product Category, Application and Specification7.1.2.1 Product A7.1.2.2 Product B7.1.3 Pigeon Baby Nipples Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.2 AVENT7.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.2.2 Baby Nipples Product Category, Application and Specification7.2.2.1 Product A7.2.2.2 Product B7.2.3 AVENT Baby Nipples Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.3 NUK7.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.3.2 Baby Nipples Product Category, Application and Specification7.3.2.1 Product A7.3.2.2 Product B7.3.3 NUK Baby Nipples Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.4 Nuby7.4.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.4.2 Baby Nipples Product Category, Application and Specification7.4.2.1 Product A7.4.2.2 Product B7.4.3 Nuby Baby Nipples Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.4.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.5 Evenflo7.5.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.5.2 Baby Nipples Product Category, Application and Specification7.5.2.1 Product A7.5.2.2 Product B7.5.3 Evenflo Baby Nipples Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.5.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.6 Chicco7.6.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.6.2 Baby Nipples Product Category, Application and Specification7.6.2.1 Product A7.6.2.2 Product B7.6.3 Chicco Baby Nipples Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.6.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.7 Playtex7.7.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.7.2 Baby Nipples Product Category, Application and Specification7.7.2.1 Product A7.7.2.2 Product B7.7.3 Playtex Baby Nipples Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.7.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.8 Dr Browns Natural Flow7.8.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.8.2 Baby Nipples Product Category, Application and Specification7.8.2.1 Product A7.8.2.2 Product B7.8.3 Dr Browns Natural Flow Baby Nipples Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.8.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.9 Lansinoh Laboratorie7.9.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.9.2 Baby Nipples Product Category, Application and Specification7.9.2.1 Product A7.9.2.2 Product B7.9.3 Lansinoh Laboratorie Baby Nipples Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.9.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.10 NIP7.10.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.10.2 Baby Nipples Product Category, Application and Specification7.10.2.1 Product A7.10.2.2 Product B7.10.3 NIP Baby Nipples Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.10.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.11 Medela7.12 Suavinex7.13 Phyll7.14 MAM7.15 Lovi7.16 Tommee Tippee7.17 US Baby7.18 Babisil7.19 Born Free7.20 IVORYContinued.For 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.Addres:Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt LtdPune  411028Maharashtra,Ph: +91 841 198 5042
Global Building Information Modeling (BIM) Market 2018 - AVEVA Group, Aconex, Beck Technology, Inovaya

Global Building Information Modeling (BIM) Market

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Apex Market Reports, recently published a detailed market research study focused on the Building Information Modeling (BIM) Market across the global, regional and country level. The report provides 360 analysis of Building Information Modeling (BIM) 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 Building Information Modeling (BIM) on the basis of this detailed study. The study shares Building Information Modeling (BIM) performance both in terms of volume and revenue.The market research report explores the Building Information Modeling (BIM) Market across the globe along with major regions and countries. The research report provides a detailed study on each and every aspect of Building Information Modeling (BIM) 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 Building Information Modeling (BIM) Market based on major product types, application and end users industries of Building Information Modeling (BIM). Besides, the report also covers geographical segmentation for Building Information Modeling (BIM) 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 ReportAutodesk, Inc (US)Nemetschek AG (Germany)Bentley Systems, Inc (US)Trimble Navigation Ltd (US)Dassault Systemes S.A. (France)RIB Software AG (Germany)Robert Mcneel & Associates (US)Cadsoft Corporation (US)Siemens (Germany)AVEVA Group (UK)Aconex (Australia)Beck Technology (US)Inovaya (US)Synchro (UK)IES (UK)Hongye Technology (China)Beijing Explorer Software (China)Lubansoft (China)Glodon(China)PKPM (China)The competitive landscape of the global market for Building Information Modeling (BIM) is determined by assessing the major industry participants, production capacity, production capacity utilization rate, Building Information Modeling (BIM) Markets production chain, pricing by each manufacturer and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Building Information Modeling (BIM) Market globally.Inquire Before Buying @The Global Building Information Modeling (BIM) Market 2018 is further analyzed on the basis of product pricing, Building Information Modeling (BIM) production volume, data pertaining to demand and Building Information Modeling (BIM) supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. The report provides upstream and downstream analysis covering major raw material used in manufacturing of Building Information Modeling (BIM) 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 Building Information Modeling (BIM) 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 -
Tin Cans Filling Lines Market  Opportunities in Key Application Sectors by 2025

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Marketresearchreports.biz has added a new research report on the "Tin Cans Filling Lines Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025" to its collection.The main objective of this report is to define, describe, and forecast the global Tin Cans Filling Lines 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 @Global tin cans filling lines market: IntroductionManufacturers of tin cans form an integral part of the global economy. Tin Cans are lightweight, and offer the desirable barrier properties, thus enhancing the shelf life of the product. Tin Cans are leakage and tamper proof, and maintain the nutritional value of the product. These properties of tin cans increase their preference among consumers as well as manufacturers. Tin cans witness high demand every year, with billions of tin-plated steel cans manufactured worldwide. Tin cans filling lines are an efficient packaging system for filling tin cans, before the top is crimped on. Since, the filling and sealing of a tin can needs to be fast and precise, tin cans filling lines are preferred owing to their efficiency and reliability. Tin cans filling machines also provide rigidity to the tin cans for easy handling, by flushing the filled cans with pressurized gas before sealing. Tin cans serve a variety of industries, and are used mainly to store food & beverage items, oil, among others. To support the high demand for tin cans, tin cans filling lines manufacturers focus on easy-to-use tin cans filling lines, which maintain accurate and constant doses, and is extremely simple and handy. It is anticipated that the global tin cans filling lines market will continue to grow on the backdrop of tin cans market growth.Global tin cans filling lines market: DynamicsThe global metal can packaging industry has witnessed significant growth over the last few decades, with production soaring to new heights each year. Tin Cans serve storage purposes for dry food products, liquid products, in addition to serving the industrial chemicals market. Preference for tin cans is expected to grow over the forecast period, owing to recyclability. Being 100% recyclable, tin cans and other metal cans are expected to be the ideal packaging choices for manufacturers in a world which emphasizes sustainable packaging solutions. Over time, the manufacturing industry is expected to witness high penetration of automation to meet the growing demand. Growth in the FMCG sector is also expected to positively impact the global tin cans filling lines market. Apart from these features, there are certain factors which might hamper growth of the global tin cans filling lines market, over the forecast period. Tin cans face stiff competition from Aluminum cans, which comprise of 75% of global yearly can production. All in all, the tin cans filling lines market is poised to witness moderate growth over the forecast period, and advancement in technology is expected to facilitate integration of production lines with modern technology and enhance production output of tin cans.View Full Report @Global tin cans filling lines market: SegmentationThe global tin cans filling lines market is segmented as follows On the basis of product type, the global tin cans filling lines market is segmented as:Semi-Automatic tin cans filling linesAutomatic tin cans filling linesOn the basis of end use industry, the global tin cans filling lines market is segmented as:Food & Beverages IndustryChemicals IndustryGlobal tin cans filling lines market: Geographical OutlookThe global tin cans filling lines market has been divided into seven major regions North AmericaLatin AmericaWestern EuropeEastern EuropeAsia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ)Middle East & Africa (MEA)JapanThe APEJ region is expected to lead the global tin cans filling lines market, over the forecast period. This is attributed to a flourishing FMCG sector in the region. The North America region is expected to closely follow the APEJ region, owing to a large and organized retail sector, fueling growth of the North America tin cans filling lines market. The Western Europe region is expected to witness growth in the tin cans filling lines market, however, the regional tin cans market might witness decline, over the forecast period, due to growing penetration of aluminum cans. The Latin America tin cans filling lines market is expected to follow a similar trend to that of the APEJ tin cans filling lines market.Global tin cans filling lines market: Key PlayersFew of the market players operating in the global tin cans filling lines market are - Tenco srl, Swiss Can Machinery AG, and Grabher Indosa Maschinenbau AG, among others.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.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
The General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress, Johnson Asiedu Nketia popularly known as General Mosquitoe has described President Akufo-Addo as a visiting president to his own country.



He says the President barely stays in the country to attend to the needs of Ghanaians who voted for him and his government.



Speaking on Okays FM's 'Ade Akye Abia' programme, he explained that the President has not spent more than a month in the country without traveling outside.



According to him the President who promised to cut profligate spending and save the public purse has been indeed saving the public purse with his travels.



"Rarely do you see or hear of him in the country, he has been traveling around to other countries as if he is a visiting President in the country.



"He gets his plane fueled and then moves around other countries.



"The President comes into the country like a visiting President", he said.



"How can you protect the public purse when you engage in so many travels", General Mosquito asked.



Asiedu Nketia further added that the NPP government promised a lean government and also promised to protect the public purse but with this style of governance, they are rather draining the public purse.



President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo left Accra last Saturday to attend the 25th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in London, United Kingdom.



The meeting took place from Monday and ended on Friday on the theme Towards a Common Future".



Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has since returned to the country.

Source: Isaac kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline.com/[email protected]









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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Infrastructure Construction in Africa Market 2017 Industry Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast To 2021

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SynopsisInfrastructure construction in Africa is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years, reaching around US$196 billion in 2021, up from US$126 billion in 2016, expanding at an annual average rate of over 9% in nominal US$ terms.Infrastructure Intelligence Center is currently tracking 1,377 large-scale infrastructure projects in Africa in both the public and private sectors. Collectively these projects are worth US$1.3 trillion, including projects at all stages of development from announcement to execution.GET SAMPLE REPORT @SummaryThe report provides an overview of the infrastructure construction sector in Africa, including key trends and factors driving infrastructure investment.The report covers analysis of the project pipelines, with details on all major projects, sectoral spread, project ownership, funding mechanisms and main contractors.ScopeA concise analysis of the economic context for infrastructure in Africa.Five-year forecasts of infrastructure construction output for each region.An analysis of the project pipelines, with details on all major projects, funding mechanisms, project ownership, and main contractors.Reasons to Buy Assess the main drivers of infrastructure investment in Africa, including the political and operating landscape and financing methods. Analyze forecasts and understand key infrastructure trends at regional and continental level. Gain insight into which construction companies are most heavily involved in the Africa infrastructure sector. Identify all major projects by value, start date, stage of development to inform your expansion strategy.Key HighlightsWith 366 projects valued at US$391.7 billion, West Africa is home to the largest infrastructure construction project pipeline in Africa.West Africa also has the highest number of projects in the continent, ahead of Southern Africa with 341. Southern Africas pipeline value stands at US$305 billion. East Africa also has a large number of projects  318 in total  but its pipeline value amounts to US$164 billion.North Africa has a total of 267 projects, and has the second-largest value of projects in the continent at US$341.4 billion. The lowest number of projects is found in Central Africa with only 85 projects, valuing US$60.6 billion.In terms of single country project pipelines, Nigeria has the largest share of projects in Africa with a combined value of US$216.6 billion. This is followed by Egypt with a pipeline value of US$155.5 billion and South Africa with a pipeline value of US$118.8 billion.The electricity and power sector has the highest concentration of infrastructure projects in the pipeline with 659 projects, followed by roads (256), airports and other infrastructure (252), railways (135), water and sewerage (65) and telecommunications (10).In terms of US dollar value, electricity and power projects also dominate valued at US$622.2 billion while railways valued at US$342.3 account for the second-largest sector.Airports and other infrastructure recorded the third-largest share with US$188.7 billion, followed by roads which make up US$125.3 billion, water and sewerage which accounts for US$15.8 billion and telecommunications with US$1.3 billion.Table of Content: Key Points1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY2. AFRICA ECONOMIC OVERVIEW3. INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT IN AFRICA3.1. Key Investment Trends3.2. Factors Driving Investment3.2.1. Demographics3.2.2. Political and Operating Landscape3.2.3. Infrastructure Financing3.2.4. Infrastructure Gaps3.3. Africa: Infrastructure Project Pipeline4. NORTH AFRICA4.1. North Africa: Overview4.2. North Africa: Infrastructure Project Pipeline4.3. Country Focus: Egypt4.3.1. Egypts infrastructure project pipeline4.4. Country Focus: Morocco4.4.1. Moroccos infrastructure project pipeline5. EAST AFRICA5.1. East Africa: OverviewContinuedACCESS REPORT @Contact Info:NORAH TRENTsales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)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
Track Geometry Measurement System Market  Growth Opportunities & Technology Developments by 2025

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Marketresearchreports.biz has added a new research report on the "Track Geometry Measurement System Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025" to its collection.The main objective of this report is to define, describe, and forecast the global Track Geometry Measurement System 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 @Track geometry measurement system is essential parameter of track condition. Track geometry measurement system is used to measure the condition of a railway track in order to avoid any detrimental effects on passengers and freight. The track geometry measurement system (TGMS) provides precise and reliable track data for short-term as well as long-term maintenance scheduling in order to avoid any harmful effects. The inertial-based track geometry measurement system is gaining popularity currently. The inertial-based track geometry measurement system is a compact and lightweight system and provides accurate evaluation of rail track geometry in various operational conditions. The rapid adoption of inertial based rail track geometry measurement systems is boosting the growth of track geometry measurement system.Increasing need for security and safety in railway transportation and the rise in railway networks and metro lines are some factors that are responsible for the significant growth of the global track geometry measurement system market. Numerous mishaps and accidents involving trains have raised concerns worldwide and are prompting governments to digitize the mode of transport in order to ensure a safer journey. Increasing demand for smart technologies in order to maintain operational efficiency of tracks is driving the global track geometry measurement system market. Rapid progress in high speed railways is expected to boost the global track geometry measurement system market. High speed railways are considered a safe mode of transportation. High speed railway projects have been progressing rapidly, thereby creating an opportunity for the track geometry measurement market, worldwide. However, slow infrastructure growth in developing regions is likely to hinder the expansion of the market.View Full Report @The global track geometry measurement system market can be categorized based on operation type, measurement type, railway type, component, and geography. Based on operation type, the track geometry measurement market can be segmented into contact-based and no contact-based system. In terms of measurement type, the track geometry measurement market can be segmented into twist, track gauge, curvature, vertical profile, dipped joints, and other. The gauge segment is expected to expand significantly during the forecast period, as it decides which rolling stock is compatible with a particular track gauge in order to avoid derailment. Based on railway type, the track geometry measurement system can be segmented into high speed railways, heavy haul railways, light railways, and mass transit railways. The high speed railways segment is anticipated to fuel the track geometry measurement systems during the forecast period due to the rapid increase in high speed railway projects. Additionally, in terms of component, the track geometry measurement system can be segmented into sensor, data storage, camera, power supply equipment, and other. Based on geography, the global track geometry measurement system can be segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and Latin America. The market in Asia Pacific is estimated to expand rapidly during the forecast period due to the various railway developments in the countries such as China, Australia and India. Rapid expansion in metro rails in various countries such as India and Australia is fueling the track geometry measurement market in the region. The North America track geometry measurement market is also anticipated to expand significantly during the forecast period due to the growing economies. Emerging regions such as Middle East & Africa and South America are also projected to expand at a significant pace during the forecast period.The global track geometry measurement system market includes various players. Some of the key players are MER MEC S.p.A., Ensco Inc., MRX Technologies, Plasser & Theurer, R. Bance & Co. Ltd., Bentley Systems Inc., Goldschmidt Thermit Group, Balfour Beatty, Fugro, and EGIS.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
Overview of Building Automation Software Market in Global and United States Market: Applications, Regional Analysis, Top Vendors and Forecast to 2025

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "2018-2025 Building Automation Software Report on Global and United States Market,Status and Forecast,by Players,Types and Applications" to its huge collection of research reports.SummaryThis report studies the global Building Automation Software market, analyzes and researches the Building Automation Software development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeAutomated LogicHoneywell InternationalJohnson ControlsSchneider ElectricSiemensAdvantechBuildingIQCiscoControl4IconicsTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Mass Electronics (Innotech)TraneREGINFibaroEuroiccMarket segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEUJapanChinaIndiaSoutheast AsiaMarket segment by Type, the product can be split intoCentral Air Conditioning SystemsPower Supply and Distribution SystemsLighting SystemsWater Supply and Drainage SystemsOtherMarket segment by Application, the market can be split intoResidential BuildingCommercial BuildingIndustrial BuildingView Complete TOC with tables & Figures @Table of Contents2018-2025 Building Automation Software Report on Global and United States Market, Status and Forecast, by Players, Types and Applications1 Industry Overview of Building Automation Software1.1 Building Automation Software Market Overview1.1.1 Building Automation Software Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Building Automation Software Market Size and Analysis by Regions1.2.1 United States1.2.2 EU1.2.3 Japan1.2.4 China1.2.5 India2 Global Building Automation Software Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Building Automation Software Market Size (Value) by Players (2017 and 2018)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend2.2.1 Market Concentration Rate2.2.2 Product/Service Differences2.2.3 New Entrants2.2.4 The Technology Trends in FutureBrowse Report @3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 Automated Logic3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Building Automation Software Revenue (Value) (2013-2018)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 Honeywell International3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.2.3 Products, Services and SolutionsAbout 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 Blogger at:
Machine Vision Systems Market Key Manufacturers, Applications, Drivers, Region, Trends, Analysis& Forecast to 2025

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Global Machine Vision Market Report 2018-2025 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.Latest market study on Machine Vision Systems to 2025 by Type (Smart Machine Vision Systems, PC-Based Machine Vision Systems and 3D Machine Vision Systems), Components (Cameras, Frame Grabbers, Processors, Illuminations & Optics, Vision Software and Others) and End-users (Automotive, Consumer Electronics, Food & Beverage, Pharmaceuticals, Logistics and Others)  Global Analysis and Forecast, the machine vision systems market is estimated to reach US$ 14.48 billion by 2025 from US$ 7.50 billion in 2015. The report include key understanding on the driving factors of this growth and also highlights the prominent players in the market and their developments.FREE | Request a Sample Report atMachine Vision Systems Market Players:- Basler AG- Cognex Corporation- Keyence Corporation- IDS Imaging development Systems- OmniVision- DataLogic- Microscan Systems- ISRA Vision AG- Teledyne DALSA Inc.- FLIR SystemsThe global machine vision systems market for the end-user industries is fragmented into Automotive, Consumer Electronics, Food & Beverage, Pharmaceuticals, Logistics and Others. The segmentation is based upon need for machine vision systems to improve mobility and security. Consumer electronics in the machine vision systems market acquires the majority share, followed by automotive and food & beverages. Short product lifecycles of the consumer electronics products, high quality standards requirements by consumers and high labor investments have resulted in the increasing adoptions of machine visions systems by consumer electronics manufacturers worldwide.Emergence of industrial Internet of things and novel technologies like CoaXPress are some of the trends contributing to the growth of machine vision systems market. Almost all the industry verticals are increasingly demanding in this market.Machine Vision Systems are the next generation intelligent systems mainly used in industrial applications for detection, identification, measurement, inspection and so on. Recently ISRA Vision AG, one of the leading competitors in the market launched a new solution that performs the optical inspection of plastic films that is used in various end-user purposes. Detecting defects, optimizing processes, increasing yield-optical inspections are some of the functions of the solution. Such developments in the market are anticipated to further fuel the growth of machine vision systems in the years to come.View Complete Report atMachine Vision Systems, Global Breakdown by Regions, 2015 (%)The report segments the global machine vision systems market as follows:Global Machine Vision Systems Market  By TypesSmart Machine Vision SystemsPC-Based Smart Machine Vision Systems3D Machine Vision SystemsGlobal Machine Vision Systems Market  By ComponentsCamerasFrame GrabbersProcessorsIlluminations & OpticsVision SoftwareOthersGlobal Machine Vision Systems Market  By End-usersAutomotiveConsumer ElectronicsFood and BeveragePharmaceuticalsLogisticsOthersGlobal Machine Vision Systems Market  By Geography Global Machine Vision Systems Market By GeographyNorth AmericaU.S.CanadaMexicoEuropeFranceGermanyItalySpainU.K.Asia Pacific (APAC)JapanChinaIndiaAustraliaMiddle East & Africa (MEA)Saudi ArabiaU.A.E.South AfricaSouth America (SA)BrazilNOTE: Early buyers will receive 10% customization on reports.Inquire before Buying atAbout 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, Media, and Telecommunication industries.Contact Us:533, 5th Floor,Amanora Chambers, East Block, Amanora Township,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
New Industry Forecast - United States Metallic Glasses Market Report 2018

New Industry Forecast - United States Metallic Glasses Market Report 2018

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The United States Metallic Glasses Market Report 2018 is in-depth study of overall Metallic Glasses market including introduction of product, definition, scope, Metallic Glasses global sale, and forecast up to 2025.The Metallic Glasses industry report clarifies the past experience and trends, on the basis of these past experiences, it offers the future prediction considering other factors influencing the growth rate. This worldwide report offers the detailed analysis of the important factors such as market dynamics (DROT), PEST, and PORTER which assists the growth of the Metallic Glasses Industry. These past experience and factors assist to build the strategy and future planning of Metallic Glasses Market and hold a place in the competitive world.This report is the extensive analysis of the Metallic Glasses industry based on the primary and secondary in-depth research. The scope of the report includes the global and regional sale, product consumption in terms of volume and value. The Metallic Glasses market report offers a forecast of revenue, CAGR, and cumulative revenue. The gathered information about Metallic Glasses global business is represented in the figures, tables, pie chart, and graphs.The United States Metallic Glasses industry Market report offers the competitive scenario in the Metallic Glasses industry based on the type of product, applications, and the companies that are present in the Metallic Glasses market, and covers the company profiles, their development policies, lined up products and recent launched along with the SWOT analysis of companies.Get a complete report sample from this link:Geographically, this report splits the United States market into seven regions:The WestSouthwestThe Middle AtlanticNew EnglandThe SouthThe Midwestwith sales (volume), revenue (value), market share and growth rate of Metallic Glasses in these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast).United States Metallic Glasses market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Metallic Glasses sales volume, price, revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingLiquidmetalBMGExmet ABMaterion CorporationChair of Metallic Materials...On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoExtremely Rapid CoolingPhysical Vapor DepositionSolid-state ReactionIon IrradiationMechanical AlloyingOn 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, includingSportsElectronic IndustryPharmaceuticaDefenseOthersThis research study focuses to product specifications, Metallic Glasses cost specifications, production capacity, distributors list, Metallic Glasses marketing channel, and detail analysis of the export/import of the product. The Metallic Glasses research document also offers raw material suppliers, cost, and downstream consumer list.All features mentioned above is included in the Metallic Glasses Market Report 2018 which can offer solution to the difficulties to the prominent members of the Metallic Glasses market.Additionally, the important terminologies, government policies, and regulations related to Metallic Glasses market product are added.Contact 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
Analysis of Bone Graft Harvesting System Market in Global Industry: Research, Growth Opportunities, Key Players, Outlook and Forecasts 2025

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Bone Graft Harvesting System Market Professional Survey Report 2018" to its huge collection of research reports.This report studies Bone Graft Harvesting System 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, coveringAcumedBiomet, Inc.Avitus Orthopaedics, Inc.A. Titan InstrumentsArthrexGlobus MedicalParadigm BioDevices IncTo 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 intoCancellous Bone HarvestingMarrow HarvestingBy Application, the market can be split intoFusionsMalunionsFractureBone RepairOtherBy Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)North AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaTable of ContentsGlobal Bone Graft Harvesting System Market Professional Survey Report 20181 Industry Overview of Bone Graft Harvesting System1.1 Definition and Specifications of Bone Graft Harvesting System1.1.1 Definition of Bone Graft Harvesting System1.1.2 Specifications of Bone Graft Harvesting System1.2 Classification of Bone Graft Harvesting System1.2.1 Cancellous Bone Harvesting1.2.2 Marrow Harvesting1.3 Applications of Bone Graft Harvesting System1.3.1 FusionsView Complete TOC with tables & Figures @2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Bone Graft Harvesting System2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Bone Graft Harvesting System2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Bone Graft Harvesting System2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Bone Graft Harvesting System3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Bone Graft Harvesting System3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Bone Graft Harvesting System Major Manufacturers in 20173.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Bone Graft Harvesting System Major Manufacturers in 20173.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Bone Graft Harvesting System Major Manufacturers in 20173.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Bone Graft Harvesting System Major Manufacturers in 20174 Global Bone Graft Harvesting System Overall Market Overview4.1 2013-2018E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Capacity Analysis4.2.1 2013-2018E Global Bone Graft Harvesting System Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis4.2.2 2017 Bone Graft Harvesting System Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)4.3 Sales Analysis4.3.1 2013-2018E Global Bone Graft Harvesting System Sales and Growth Rate Analysis4.3.2 2017 Bone Graft Harvesting System Sales Analysis (Company Segment)4.4 Sales Price Analysis4.4.1 2013-2018E Global Bone Graft Harvesting System Sales Price4.4.2 2017 Bone Graft Harvesting System Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment)Browse Report @5 Bone Graft Harvesting System Regional Market Analysis5.1 North America Bone Graft Harvesting System Market Analysis5.1.1 North America Bone Graft Harvesting System Market Overview5.1.2 North America 2013-2018E Bone Graft Harvesting System Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.1.3 North America 2013-2018E Bone Graft Harvesting System Sales Price Analysis5.1.4 North America 2017 Bone Graft Harvesting System Market Share Analysis5.2 China Bone Graft Harvesting System Market Analysis5.2.1 China Bone Graft Harvesting System Market OverviewAbout 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 Blogger at:
Quotation Management Software Solutions for Small Business

Quote Management Software

New Delhi, April 23, 2018- Quotation Management Software is software which creates maintains and send he price proposal to the set of customers. It manages all the prices proposals in organized and systematic manner, along with the maintained of records for future references.The good news is that there is some excellent invoicing software on the market right now, much of it completely free, with optional premium upgrades or small pay-as-you-go credit-card processing fees. From freelancers who send five or six invoices a month to larger businesses that need time tracking for multiple employees, there is a free solution for almost everyone.Create quotes quickly from anywhereCreate and send quotes in minutes using the contact, inventory and pricing information youve set up in Sagar Informatics. Use your Smartphone to send quotes on the the spot, from wherever you are.Customize quotes to suit your businessSend professional-looking quotes using our customizable template. Simply fill in your details, upload your logo and choose a theme to suit your business. If you prefer, you can change quotes to estimates.Check the status of quotes onlineWith Sagar Informatics, you can identify quotes that have been sent out and see if theyve been viewed. Use online quotes to see whether theyve been accepted or if you need to follow up.Prospective customers can accept, decline or comment on the quote with the click of a button. Easily edit and resend a quote if you need to.Turn quotes into invoicesSave time and avoid data entry errors by using online quotes in Sagar Informatics to create invoices. Creating an invoice pulls in all the details directly from the quote. You can edit, add and remove items as necessary.Simplify the process, reduce the amount of time you spend on admin and youre more likely to get paid on time.If you are looking for free Quote Management Software, you are in the right place. Sagar Informatics is a free CRM with unlimited quotes and invoices. Unlike other free quotation invoice solutions, Sagar Informatics quotes and invoices are fully customizable and come with powerful tools, like multiple currency support, taxes, automatic numbering, product catalog and email marketing. You can take a free demo for Quotation Software to see how they work. Full quotation/invoice manual is available as well.Sagar Informatics Private Limited (SIPL) is an ISO 9001:2008 certified Software Development Company in the National Capital Region (NCR) of India. SIPL delivers high quality, reliable and cost-effective IT services to customers globally.Sagar Informatics Pvt. Ltd.67 D/1, Second Floor,Om Shanti Building,Opposite Canara Bank,Munirka, New Delhi-110067
Satellite Transponders Leasing Market 2018 by Global Key Players: Intelsat, SES, Eutelsat, MEASAT satellite system, Asia Broadcast Satellite, Arabsat

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Global Satellite Transponders Leasing Market Report 2018-2025 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.According to a new market research study titled Satellite Transponders Leasing Market to 2025  Global Analysis and Forecast by Services (Protected, Unprotected and Preemptible), Application (Government & Military, Telecom, Commercial Communication, Navigation, Research & Development and Remote Sensing) and Bandwidth (Ku-Band, C-Band, Ka-Band and Others), the global satellite transponders leasing market was valued at US$ 12,503.8 Mn in 2015 and is estimated to reach US$ 19,225.3 Mn by 2025. The report highlights the trends prevalent in the global market and the factors driving the market along with those that act as deterrents to its growth.The market for satellite transponders is anticipated to grow in terms of coverage and capability as Ka-band and Ku-band frequencies pertain to fuel the market growth, moreover, the rising number of subscriber updates and new subscribers are also expected to drive the global satellite transponders market. Furthermore, owing to the present technological advancements in satellite communications several new applications of satellite transponders are expected to emerge. These satellites are accounted to be potent enough to compete against their rivalry; Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) broadband in terms their performance.FREE | Request a Sample Report atThe satellite transponders leasing market is categorized into services, applications, bandwidth and regions. The services segment comprises of protected, unprotected and Preemptable, where the protected transponder leasing services are predicted to capture the majority of market, however they are also expected to lose their market share to the unprotected transponder leasing services, due to rising demand for satellite based broadband connectivity in remote areas and increasing penetration of Direct-to-home (DTH) subscribers. Satellite transponders comprises of the following main applications in the industry which are; government & military, telecom, commercial, navigation, research and development and remote sensing, the commercial as well remote sensing application are more like to burgeon in coming years. Whereas the telecom sector will be having very limited application for satellite transponders, as optical cables penetrate the developed nations across the globe. The electromagnetic bandwidths segment is fragmented into Ku-Band, Ka-Band, C-Band and others (S, X, L and K band). The Ku-Band electromagnetic frequencies are projected to gain maximum attention in the market during the forecast period followed by the C-Band, which are anticipated to primarily grow in the tropical regions worldwide. On the basis of geographies the regional market is distributed into Europe, North America, South America (SAM), Middle East & Africa (MEA), and Asia Pacific (APAC).North America is presently the dominating market in satellite transponders leasing services. Due to the presence of highly reputed research firms such as NASA along presence of all major industry players that includes Intelsat, SES, Telesat and many small private firms has led the region to be the leading economy in satellite transponders market globally. Whereas, the APAC region is anticipated to take over the North American market and give a tough competition to the European market in the years to come. This dominance of APAC Satellite Transponders leasing market over the regions is due to the heavy investments made by the telecom and media industries and strong economic growth in the regions like Malaysia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, China, Japan etc. Furthermore, since APAC market is competing against other saturated regional markets, the emergence of innovative and novel transponder services has raised high. Thus, making APAC a promising market for satellite transponder leasing market.Moreover, growth in higher definition and new upcoming services are predicted to fuel the demand for digital television which in turn are expected to escalate the demand for higher efficiency satellite transponders. Because the HD video broadcasting demands for more efficient broadcast spectrum and adds the versatility to an array of applications, the satellite payloads are anticipated to increase in order to accommodate more number of transponders. Such advancements in the industry can generate further opportunity for growth of the satellite transponders market.Some of the major players in the market are Intelsat, SES, Eutelsat, Telesat, Asia Broadcast Satellite, China Satellite Communication, Arabsat, MEASAT, ISRO and SingTel Optus among others.Inquire before Buying atThe report segments the global satellite transponders leasing market as follows:Global Satellite Transponders Leasing Market  By ServicesProtectedUnprotectedPreemptableGlobal Satellite Transponders Market  By ApplicationGovernment & militaryTelecomCommercialResearch & DevelopmentNavigationRemote SensingGlobal Satellite Transponders Market  By BandwidthKu- BandKa- BandC-BandOthers (S, L, X & K)Global Satellite Transponders Market  By GeographyNorth AmericaUSCanadaMexicoEuropeFranceGermanyItalySpainUKRest of EuropeAsia Pacific (APAC)JapanChinaIndiaAustraliaRest of APACMiddle East & Africa (MEA)Saudi ArabiaSouth AfricaUAERest of MEASouth America (SAM)BrazilRest of SAMView Complete Report atAbout 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, Media, and Telecommunication industries.Contact Us:533, 5th Floor,Amanora Chambers, East Block, Amanora Township,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Research of PoE Injectors Market in Global Industry : Overview, Size, Share and Trends 2018-2026

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Albany, NY, 23th April : Recent research and the current scenario as well as future market potential of "PoE Injectors Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2018 - 2026" globally.This report on the global PoE injectors market provides analysis for the period 20162026, wherein 2017 is the base year and the period from 2018 to 2026 is the forecast period. Data for 2016 has been included as historical information.Get PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @The report covers market dynamics including drivers, restraints, opportunities, and trends expected to influence the PoE injectors market growth during the said period. The study provides a comprehensive analysis on market growth throughout the above forecast period in terms of value estimates (US$ Mn) and volume shipments (Mn units), across different geographies.Global PoE Injectors Market: Trends and OpportunitiesPoE devices are primarily used at corporate offices for flexible, easier, and faster mode of communication. There is need for less wired and easily accessible PoE switches/devices in residential areas as well. Currently, there is increasing trend of usage of PoE device in residential apartments.PoE devices are rapidly growing and are being installed in residential apartments. The advantages of PoE devices such as simple cabling, reduced installation cost, safety and convenience, and convenient maintenance makes the system reliable and trustworthy. These advantages and features make the PoE market attractive, and usage of the device is expected to grow at a good rate during the forecast period.Global PoE Injectors Market: Key SegmentsThe PoE injectors market has been segmented on the basis of type, application, installation, end-use, and geography. Based on type, the market has been segmented into single port midspan and multi-port midspan. By application, the PoE injectors industry is classified into connectivity, security & access control, lighting control, infotainment, and others. By installation, the industry is segmented into indoor and outdoor. Corporate offices, healthcare facilities, retail, communication, other industrial sectors, and residential sectors are the end-use industries.View Complete TOC with tables & Figures @Geographically, the report classifies the industry into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East & Africa (MEA), and South America; the regions are analyzed in terms of value and volume shipments in the PoE injectors industry. Furthermore, region- wise prominent countries covered in the report include the following  the U.S, Canada, Mexico, Germany, U.K., France, Italy, China, India, Japan, GCC, South Africa, and Brazil.Global PoE Injectors Market: Scope of the StudyThe report also includes key developments in the PoE injectors market. Porter Five Force analysis which identifies bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of buyers, threat from new entrants, threat from substitutes, and competition scenario in the PoE injectors industry is also included in the report. Value chain analysis which shows work flow in the PoE injectors market and identifies raw material services providers and distribution channels of this industry is also covered in the report. Segment trends and regional trends have also been included in the report. It also covers segment- wise comparison matrix, incremental opportunity analysis, and market positioning of key players for all regions covered in the scope of the study.Incremental opportunity analysis identifies and compares attractiveness of the segments based on CAGR and market share index across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and South America. The same has also been provided for each segment i.e. by type, by application, by installation, and by end-use.Global PoE Injectors Market: Competitive LandscapeThe report also includes competition landscape which includes competition matrix, market share analysis of major players in the global PoE injectors industry based on their 2017 revenues, and profiles of major players. 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 attributed to companys capabilities. Factors including top line growth, market share, segment growth, infrastructure facilities, and future outlook are attributed to the companys potential to grow. This section also identifies and includes various recent developments of the leading players of the PoE injector industry.Company profiling includes company overview, major business strategies adopted, and key developments. The companies profiled in the global PoE injector market include Advantech Co., Ltd., Phihong Technology Co., Ltd., Linear Technology Corp., American Power Conversion Corporation (A.P.C.) B.V., Cisco Systems, Inc., Microsemi Corp., L-com, Inc., Sixnet Holding LLC, ICP DAS Co, Ltd. and TP-Link Technologies Co., Ltd.The global PoE injectors market is segmented as below:Global PoE Injectors market, by TypeSingle-Port MidspanMulti-Port MidspanGlobal PoE Injectors market, by ApplicationConnectivitySecurity & Access ControlLighting ControlInfotainmentOthersGlobal PoE Injectors market, by End-UseCorporate OfficesHealthcare FacilitiesRetailCommunicationOther Industrial SectorsResidentialGlobal PoE Injectors market, by InstallationIndoorOutdoorGlobal Poe Injectors market, by GeographyNorth AmericaS.CanadaMexicoRest of North AmericaEuropeUKGermanyFranceItalyRest of EuropeAsia Pacific (APAC)ChinaIndiaJapanRest of Asia PacificMiddle East & Africa (MEA)GCCSouth AfricaRest of MEABrowse Report @South 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 :
Digital Educational Toy Industry Current Trends, Development, Key Manufacturers, In-Depth Analysis and Forecast to 2025

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World Digital Educational Toy Market Report 2018-2025 is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Digital Educational Toy Market. This report studies Digital Educational Toy in Global market, especially North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA), and South America (SAM).Increasing digitization, proliferation of smart devices, developing internet infrastructure and many other factors have been influencing the growth for smart/digital toys. There has been a dynamic change in entire educational system, the traditional classrooms are now advanced smart classrooms. Digital Educational Toys cater to different set of target segments which can categorized by age group. Manufacturers have been focusing on different type of toys which meet the needs of pre-school kids to adults.FREE | Request a Sample Report atThe report aims to provide an overview of Global Digital Educational Toys Market along with detailed segmentation of market by components, transmission, applications, and five major geographical regions. Global Digital Educational Toys market is expected to witness steady growth during the forecast period due to increasing awareness smart devices and applications.Digital Educational Toy Market Players:- Lego- Mattel- Hasbro- Bandai- GigoToys- LeapFrog- Simba and Dickie Group- VTech Electronics North America, LLC- Tomy Company Ltd.- Mindware, Inc.Reason to Buy- Highlights key business priorities in order to assist companies to realign their business strategies.- The key findings and recommendations highlight crucial progressive industry trends in the Digital Educational Toy Market, thereby allowing players to develop effective long term strategies.- Develop/modify business expansion plans by using substantial growth offering developed and emerging markets.- Scrutinize in-depth global market trends and outlook coupled with the factors driving the market, as well as those hindering it.- Enhance the decision-making process by understanding the strategies that underpin commercial interest with respect to products, segmentation and industry verticals.The objectives of this report are as follows: To provide overview of the global Digital Educational Toys market To analyze and forecast the global Digital Educational Toys market on the basis of components, category and applications To provide market size and forecast till 2025 for overall Digital Educational Toys market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA), and South America (SAM), which are later sub-segmented across respective major countries To evaluate market dynamics effecting the market during the forecast period i.e., drivers, restraints, opportunities, and future trend To provide exhaustive PEST analysis for all five regions To profiles key Digital Educational Toys players influencing the market along with their SWOT analysis and market strategiesView Complete Report atAbout 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, Media, and Telecommunication industries.Contact Us:533, 5th Floor,Amanora Chambers, East Block, Amanora Township,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
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Global Electronic Trial Master File (eTMF) Market Assessment and Key Insights Analyzed till 2027

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Market Research Report Search Engine (MRRSE) recently announced the addition of a new research study to its comprehensive collection of research reports. The research report, titled Electronic Trial Master File (eTMF) Market: Western Europe Projected to be the Second Largest Region in Terms of Market Share: Global Industry Analysis (2012-2016) and Opportunity Assessment (2017-2027) offers a detailed analysis of the market, providing insights into the market dynamics that are expected to influence the overall market positively in the next few years. Furthermore, the product segmentation, drivers, barriers, key geographical segments, and the competitive scenario of the global Electronic Trial Master File (eTMF) market have been elaborated upon in the research report.To get sample copy of Report Click Here @According to the research report on global electronic trial master file (eTMF) market, it is expected to show exponential growth during the period of forecast, 2017-2027. The global market had witnessed high growth since the period 2012-2016 and this trend is likely to enhance in the coming years, till 2027. The global electronic trial master file (eTMF) market is estimated to reach a value more than US$ 190 Mn by the end of the assessment year from an estimate of US$ 51.7 Mn in 2017. This market valuation is supported by a high CAGR of 14.0% during the period of forecast. The high growth of the global electronic trial master file (eTMF) market can be attributedto growing number of clinical trials across the globe and government regulations keeping the eTMF mandatory for clinical trials.North America to show higher lucrativeness for growth of eTMF marketThe North America region is expected to show high market attractiveness during the forecast period. Electronic trial master file (eTMF) market in North America is projected to grow at a high CAGR of 13.5% throughout the period of assessment to showcase an estimation of more than US$ 125 Mn by the end of the assessment period. The market in this region has been growing consistently showing high revenue generation since 2016. In 2017, the North America eTMF market reflected a higher revenue of about US$ 35 Mn and dominated the market in other regions that reflected a revenue not even close to US$ 15 Mn. The main aspect driving the growth of the eTMF market in North America is the business benefits associated with eTMF that are spurring its adoption. For instance, in 2016, Veeva Systems conducted a survey, in which it was said that improving inspection readiness (67%), speeding study start-up (53%), and providing remote oversight of the TMF (48%), are the most cited business benefits driving the adoption of eTMF among sponsors.Browse Complete Report details with TOC Click Here @United States sub region in North America is expected to highly contribute to the growth of the market in the region, followed by Canada. The revenue from United States is expected to reach a high valuation of more than US$ 100 Mn by the end of 2027, thus supporting the dominance of the North America region in the electronic trial master file (eTMF) market in the coming years.Asia Pacific excluding Japan to show high potential for growth in the electronic trial master file marketSeveral key players are focusing on the Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) region in order to tap the emerging economies in this region. The main advantage of this region is its high potential for growth as compared to matured economies. Several end use industries are showing interest in this region owing to which the supply side players are focusing their attention on APEJ to gain business expansion. Electronic trial master file (eTMF) market in Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) region is expected to grow at the highest pace in the coming years to register a stellar CAGR of 17.6% and is estimated to reach a valuation of about US$ 18 Mn by the end of the period of assessment, thus becoming the third largest region in the eTMF market after Western Europe.About Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE)Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:
Mobile Crane Market- Growth Analysis, Sales, Revenue, Gross Margin & Trend For Next 5 Years

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According to a new market research study titled Mobile Crane Market to 2025  Global Analysis and Forecasts by Crane Type and Application, the global mobile crane market was valued at US$ 8.32 Bn in 2016 and is estimated to reach US$ 9.82 Bn by 2025. The report highlights the trends prevalent in the global Mobile Crane market and the factors driving the market along with those that act as deterrents to its growth.Get Sample Report of Mobile Crane Market:Since the turn of century, escalation in infrastructure investment is considered to be one of the most critical sources of rising consumer demand. This rise in the investment and the desire of the potential investors to capitalize into this industry has grown stronger over the years. The specialist investors across the globe in recent years have come up with a wide array of developed as well as developing infrastructure such as the water companies of UK and airports in Australia comprising of broad range of energy, telecom and port infrastructure in between.Also, the government across the globe are taking up initiatives to boost the growth of investment in infrastructural development. Owing to several developing countries in the Asia Pacific region coupled with the rapidly increasing population and significant investments made by the governments of various economies for their infrastructure development, the demand for mobile cranes is expected to increase in the APAC region. The developing economies including China, India and Southeast Asian countries are witnessing a growth in FDIs for the development of infrastructure in the region. This is due to various governments approach to attract FDIs. This would further propel the demand for heavy construction machineries including mobile cranes. Also, owing to massive industrialization in the region, the demand for equipment with high capacity lifting is increasing in the region.The global mobile crane market has been segmented on the basis of Crane Type into crawler cranes, truck cranes, all-terrain cranes, rough terrain cranes and others. Mobile Cranes find their applications into two construction sector, oil & gas sector, energy & utilities, shipping & port building and others sector. Geographically, the global mobile crane market is segmented into Europe, Middle East & Africa (MEA), North America, Asia Pacific (APAC) and South America (SAM).Browse Complete Report details with TOC Click Here:APAC with large number of emerging countries along with high rate of industrializing and growing urbanization is leading the mobile crane market. Europe market stood at the second largest market for mobile cranes owing to increasing investments in renewable energy application. The key players profiled in the report are Tadano Ltd., The Manitowoc Company, Inc., Kobelco Construction Machinery Co., Ltd., Sany Heavy Industry Co., Ltd., Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology Co. Ltd., Liebherr-International S.A., Terex Corporation, Kato Works Co. Ltd., XCMG Construction Machinery Co., Ltd. and Hitachi Sumitomo Heavy Industries Construction Crane Co., Ltd.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.Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@theinsightpartners.com
General Surgery Devices Market Qualitative Outlook In 2025

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Global General Surgery Devices Market: SnapshotThe global market for general surgery devices is witnessing a massive surge in demand owing to the mounting global population of geriatrics and the significant rise in number of surgical procedures. While global public-health initiatives have mostly centered around disease prevention, control and surveillance of infectious diseases, and promotion of benefits associated with healthy lifestyles, rising life expectancy in the past few decades, especially in middle- and low-income countries, have changed previous trends.Industrialization and significant lifestyle changes have brought about an epidemiological transition and health conditions afflicting the global population are shifting from conditions caused due to infections and pestilence to lifestyle associated diseases. The condition has led to a substantial rise in health conditions such as cardiovascular diseases, cancers, cerebro-vascular diseases, and bone disorders, in developed, developing, and less developed economies. Numbers of injuries owing to accidents are also significantly increasing across the globe as the global traffic of vehicles and other technologically advanced devices has increased.Request Sample Copy of the Report @These trends are expected to remain strong in the near future as well, presenting a massive rise in demand for general surgeries. The scenario is also expected to lead to a substantial increase in the global demand for general surgery devices. The high growth potential of the global general surgery devices market has attracted a large number of small and large general surgery device manufacturing companies in the global marketplace and the market continues to attract a number of new players.Global General Surgery Devices Market: OverviewSurgical devices find applications in varied surgical procedures such as in closure of wounds and plastic and reconstructive surgeries, among others. They are deployed in hospitals, small clinics, and other healthcare centers and are used in different types of surgeries, namely orthopedics, obstetrics, neurology, urology, cardiovascular medicine, and gynecology. Savvy players in the global general surgery devices market are making efforts to make build inroads in the fast-expanding developing economies of Asia Pacific and Latin America, which hold out strong opportunities.Besides expanding their geographical footprints, market participants are also resorting to other initiatives such as strategic collaborations and partnerships, product development, and carefully-considered mergers and acquisitions to further bolster their positions. A report by TMR Research provides a thorough peek into the global market for general surgery devices. It studies the market after segmenting it based on different parameters and also offers a granular analysis of the factors driving or hindering it.Further, the report presents a detailed assessment of the competitive landscape in the global market for general surgery devices and identifies key players contributing towards its growth. The companies have been profiled in the report based on important parameters such as key strengths and recent developments, product portfolio, and geographical reach. Market-leading analytical tools have also been leveraged to gauge the opportunities and threats awaiting players.Request TOC of the Report @Global General Surgery Devices Market: Trends and OpportunitiesGrowth drivers significantly contributing to the global market for general surgery devices are a burgeoning geriatric population, rising awareness about different surgeries, and the means to go under the knife to better looks as in plastic and reconstructive surgeries. To elaborate a bit further, the elderly population accounted for a large number of surgeries pertaining to the bone, brain, heart, and ear disorders. Technological progress resulting in cutting-edge devices and healthcare institutes providing advanced surgeries such as minimally invasive surgeries in emerging economies is also leading to market growth.One key development to look out for in the global market for general surgery devices is the opportunities opened up by robotics and the computer-assisted sector, both of which are in a nascent stage now. The different products available in the market are open surgery instruments, minimally invasive surgery instruments, disposable surgical supplies, energy based and powered instruments, adhesion prevention products, and medical robotics and computer assisted surgery devices. Among them, the disposable surgical supplies segment leads the market with maximum revenue due to the soaring demand for disposable needles, syringes, and catheters.Global General Surgery Devices Market: Regional OutlookGeographically, the key segments of the market are North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Rest of the World. North America, of these, is a crucial market on account of the concentration of well-entrenched players in the region, strong policy support of the government, solid reimbursement policies, and spiking demand for surgeries because of lifestyle-related diseases. In the years ahead, however, Asia Pacific is slated to overtake all other regions in terms of growth due to the increasing spend on healthcare in the developing nations of the region. Some of the prominent markets within Asia Pacific are India, Japan, China, Australia, and Singapore.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Companies Mentioned in the ReportSome of the noteworthy companies competing in the global market for general surgery devices market, profiled in the report are B. Braun Melsungen AG, Smith & Nephew, Boston Scientific Corporation, Covidien Plc (Medtronic), Conmed Corporation, Integra LifeSciences, 3M Healthcare, and Care Fusion Corporation.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Trend of 3D Printing (Additive Manufacturing) Market in Global Industry : Market Share, Insight and Application 2018-2022

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Albany, NY, 24th April : Recent research and the current scenario as well as future market potential of "Global 3D Printing (Additive Manufacturing) Market: Industry Analysis & Outlook (2018-2022)" globally.3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, is a process used to build three-dimensional objects by stacking successive layers of raw materials until the object takes the desired form. The deposition of layers are governed by computer-aided software which houses a virtual 3D blueprint as well as technical specifications needed for fabrications, including measurements (length, width and height) of each layer.Get PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @As per the specifications, CAD slices the virtual model into layers and sends a string of code to the 3D printer on how to stack the layers of raw material. A layer can be as thick as one-thousandth of an inch, thus 3D printing is usually considered to be an extremely high-precision manufacturing procedure. 3D printing is predominantly used for producing functional parts and models/prototypes for various applications within industrial, healthcare, government, defense and consumer end markets.North America is a major contributor to the global 3D printing market supported by early adoption of 3D printing technologies and technical advancements. Europe also contributed a significant share to the global 3D printing market.Aerospace and Medical & Dental industries were significant in the global 3D printing market growth due to strong penetration of 3D printed products in these industries. Automotive industry has also made a push to leverage the global 3D printing market.The global 3D printing market is expected to grow in future due to rapid urbanization, increasing number of 3D printer manufacturers, growing sales of 3D inkjet printheads, increasing number of FDA approved medical products and rising disposable income. Key trends of this market include strengthening ASPs of industrial 3D printers, overcoming the challenges and demand of 3D printing in aerospace and automotive industry. However, there are some factors which can hinder the market growth including intellectual property concerns and 3D printing as a security risk.View Complete TOC with tables & Figures @The report Global 3D Printing Market: Industry Analysis & Outlook (2018-2022) by Koncept Analytics provides an extensive research and detailed analysis of the present market along with future outlook. The report discusses the major growth drivers and challenges of the market, covering the U.S., Asia-Pacific and Europe region along with the global market. The report profiles the key players of the market including HP Inc., 3D Systems, Stratasys and Materialise NV.Table of Content1. Overview1.1 3D Printing1.2 Segments of 3D Printing Market1.3 3D Printing End-Markets2. Global 3D Printing Market Analysis2.1 3D Printing Market by Value2.2 3D Printing Market Value Forecast2.3 3D Printing Market by Segment2.3.1 Global 3D Printing Products Market Value Forecast2.3.2 Global 3D Printing Materials Market Value Forecast2.3.3 Global 3D Printing Metal Powder Market Value Forecast2.3.4 Global 3D Printing Parts & Services Market Value Forecast2.4 3D Printing Market by End Users2.4.1 Global Industrial 3D Printing Market Value Forecast2.4.2 Global Aerospace 3D Printing Market Value Forecast2.4.3 Global Consumer 3D Printing Market Value Forecast2.4.4 Global Automotive 3D Printing Market Value Forecast2.4.5 Global Medical/Dental 3D Printing Market Value Forecast2.5 3D Printing Market by Application2.6 3D Printing Market by RegionBrowse Report @3. Regional Market Analysis3.1 North America3.1.1 North America 3D Printing Market Value Forecast3.2 Europe3.2.1 Europe 3D Printing Market Value Forecast3.2.2 Europe 3D Printing Market by Country3.3 Asia-Pacific3.3.1 Asia-Pacific 3D Printing Market Value Forecast3.3.2 Asia-Pacific 3D Printing Market by CountryResearchMoz 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 :
Neurovascular Guidewires Market Size, Analysis, and Forecast Report 2017-2027

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Neurovascular guidewire is a medical device used to carry stents, catheters and balloons to cure intracranial blood vessel diseases such as cerebral arteriovenous malformations and aneurysms. These guidewires are placed inside catheters for optimal visibility and navigability. The precise, safe, minimally invasive and durable nature of this neurovascular guidewire technology has made its use more promising. With the advantage of less trauma, lower costs and faster recovery time, neurovascular guidewire technology has replaced the high risk open brain surgery procedures. This technology has paved the way for new pioneering treatment possibilities. It can be used for vascular intervention or endosurgical application for reaching to the access point of surgery. Moreover, the risk of recurrent intracranial bleeding is slightly higher for a short time after the first bleed so instead of using conventional invasive treatment, neurovascular guidewires usage is soothing for the patient.Design and material are the considerations of the manufacturers for differentiation in the market. Either stainless steel or nitinol are used for the construction of neurovascular guidewires. Various range of models and configurations and models of different manufacturers are available nowadays.Neurovascular Guidewires Market: Drivers & RestraintsNeurovascular Guidewires market growth is likely to proliferate in the future with the advancement in medical field technology and demand of less invasive procedures. Moreover, there are various factors which drives its market including its high precision, quality, durability, deliverable capability, coating, tip control, push ability, high lubricous surface and various R&D activities in this area. Increase in the number of patients with hemorrhagic stroke and risk of death contribute to the market growth. Lack of reimbursement policies, poor healthcare facilities and skilled neurologists in some regions are some of the restraining factors for the market of neurovascular guidewires to grow.Request Report Sample@Point-of-Care Genetic Testing Market: SegmentationSegmentation by Overall length175 cm180 cm195 cm200 cm205 cm300 cmSegmentation by Core Wire MaterialStainless SteelNitinol (Nickel- Titanium Alloy)Segmentation by ApplicationDiagnosisTreatmentSegmentation by End UsersHospitalsEmergency Care CentersSpecialized Clinics and othersVisit For TOC@Neurovascular Guidewires Market: OverviewNeurological disorders are an important cause of mortality and constitute 12% of total death globally according to a WHO report on neurological disorder. There is increased detection of patients with neurological disorders such as cerebral arteriovenous malformations and aneurysms because of the frequent use of advanced imaging technologies. According to Brain Aneurysm Foundation there has been almost 500,000 deaths, there are almost 500,000 deaths worldwide every year caused by brain aneurysms. By being less expensive and more promising nature than open brain surgery, there has been an increase in the neurovascular guidewires market. More complex procedures are now being performed so the number of neurovascular guidewires used per procedure has increased, driving unit sales up.Neurovascular Guidewires Market: Region-wise OutlookHigh fatality rate of stroke increases the demand of new innovations in this sector like the use of neurovascular guidewires in treatment. Advance healthcare system in North America, hub of many medical devices manufacturing companies and good reimbursement scenarios make it most prominent marketplace. Japan is also expected as the rising market because of being a developed country, availability of good healthcare facilities and increasing number of geriatric population. Eastern Europe have more prevalence of Neurovascular disease than Western Europe thus can be projected as a rising marketplace for use of Neurovascular guidewires. Developing countries experience more burden of deaths due to stroke because of non-availability of resources. Thus, can be a marketplace for neurovascular guidewires in future with increasing government initiatives towards healthcare sector these days.Neurovascular Guidewires Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players for Neurovascular Guidewires Market are Boston Scientific Corporation, Terumo International Systems, Medtronic plc., Asahi Intecc Co. Ltd, Integer Holding Corporation, Creganna Medical and others.About Us Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband Market in Rwanda : Market Trends, Analysis, Growth and Status 2018

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Albany, NY, 24th April : Recent research and the current scenario as well as future market potential of "Rwanda - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses" globally.The Rwandan telecom market continues to develop strongly, buttressed by sustained GDP growth which has seen the country develop one the fastest-growing economies in the world. Supported by significant foreign aid, this growth has been helped by prudent fiscal and monetary policies which have create a business-friendly environment conducive to investment.Get PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @Nevertheless, poverty remains widespread. There is little economic diversity, with most of the population engaged in agriculture and a good proportion of the remainder involved in mineral and agro-processing sectors. The financial services sector is also underdeveloped: with banks focussed on government borrowing there is little attention paid to the support of small businesses, and most of the population has little or no access to conventional banking services. In turn, this has made Rwanda one of the more successful markets on the continent for mobile banking and payment services.The country was slow to liberalise the mobile sector, allowing MTN a monopoly until 2006 when the fixed-line incumbent, Rwandatel (since acquired by Liquid Telecom) became the second mobile operator. There has been effective competition among the three current operators, each of which provides wide geographic coverage. The launch of services from Tigo in 2009 sparked renewed subscriber growth, though competition has eroded mobile services revenue and ARPU since then. However, the acquisition of Tigo by Airtel, a deal to be closed over a two-year period, will see the Tigo brand removed and a significant consolidation in the market.Rwandas internet and broadband sector has suffered from limited fixed-line infrastructure and high prices. Nevertheless, operators are rolling out national fibre-optic backbone networks which also allow them to connect to the international submarine fibre-optic cables on the African east coast. These cables have given the entire region fibre-based international bandwidth for the first time and brought to an end its dependency on satellites. Suring 2018 Liquid Telecom has continued to expand its FttP services across Kigali and a number of other towns.View Complete TOC with tables & Figures @Interest from investors in the countrys ICT sector remains strong. A deal with Korea Telecom has developed a wholesale LTE operator, Korea Telecom Rwanda Networks, which provides retail services to a number of fixed-line operators as well as to the mobile network operators. The number of subscribers on LTE infrastructure increased 200% in 2016, year-on-year.This report contains an overview and analysis of Rwandas telecommunications market, profiles of the major players in all market sectors, relevant statistics and analysis, and mobile subscriber forecasts to 2023.Key developments:MTN to invest $20 million in network upgrades; Millicom sells its Tigo Rwanda unit to Airtel, with the Tigo brand to be phased out; government commits to investing in smart city infrastructure; MTN Rwanda fined for moving IT services abroad; Liquid Telecom expands FttP network; fleet of buses equipped with LTE routers to provide mobile broadband for passengers; regulator calls for interested parties to manage Mobile Number Portability facility; MNOs implement One Network Area scheme removing roaming charges; Smart Africa Alliance Initiative to raise $300 billion by 2020 for regional ICT infrastructure; KTRN expands wholesale LTE services; report update includes the regulators market data to February 2018, telcos operating data to Q4 2017, Telecom Maturity Index tables, charts and analyses, recent market developments.Browse Report @Companies mentioned in this report:Rwandatel (Terracom, LapGreen); MTN Rwanda; Liquid Telecom; Tigo Rwanda (Millicom); Bharti Airtel; Artel Communications; Electrogaz.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 :
Healthcare Payer Services Market Challenges And Opportunities In 2025

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Global Healthcare Payer Services Market: SnapshotOutsourcing is emerging as a cost-effective tool for healthcare payers. Therefore, the growing trend of outsourcing is working in favor of the global healthcare payer services market. The increasing dependence of technologically advanced solutions to deliver economical business process services, growing popularity of digital technology, and the enforcement of strict health care regulations in several parts of the world are among the primary factors stoking the growth of the market.The growth of the market is also supplemented by the growing investments in healthcare IT (HCIT) and increasing number of private healthcare insurance companies. Moreover, the introduction of favorable policies by governments is escalating the growth of the global healthcare payer services market. On the flip side, the mounting cases of data breaches are resulting in increased skepticism regarding the loss of confidentiality, which in turn is limiting the widespread adoption of healthcare payer services. While outsourcing makes the overall procedure of healthcare payer services easy, it also induces unforeseen costs. This is, in turn, hampering the growth of the global market.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The majority of key players in the global healthcare payer services market are focusing towards implementing mobile technology with health plans to lure in a greater number of customers. A raft of large players are also emphasizing on mergers and acquisitions in order to stay ahead in the market.Global Healthcare Payer Services Market: OverviewThe healthcare industry is at an interesting cusp at present with breakthrough technologies, practices, and services. This also translates as higher costs of treatment and consumer empowerment with digital transformation. Besides, tough regulations and better reimbursement policies are also transforming the contours of the industry. This has spawned the global healthcare payer services market which is primed for robust growth on account of the above factors. Major players operating in the market are focused on mergers and acquisitions to diversify business portfolio and improve delivery outcomes.In healthcare, payer refers to entities other than the patient that finance or reimburse the healthcare services cost. Typically, they include insurance carriers, third-party payers, or health plan sponsors such as employers or unions. Application of payer services include management services, provider management services, billing and accounts management services, integrated front office services and back office operations, member management services, analytics and fraud management services, and HR services. The types of payer services available in the market are BPO services, ITO services, and KPO services. Among them, the BPO services gross maximum revenue.A report by TMR Research offers essential information on the key trends in the global healthcare payer services market. It presents a granular analysis of the various growth drivers and restraints in the market. The report also presents a detailed assessment of the competitive landscape and identifies key players contributing towards its growth. Further, it leverages market-leading analytical tools to gauge the opportunities and threats awaiting players.Request TOC of the Report @Global Healthcare Payer Services Market: Trends and OpportunitiesSome of the factors at the forefront of driving the global healthcare payer services market are increased adoption of technologies  particularly digital technology  to bring about economical business process services, growing focus on consumerism, and a host of healthcare regulatory policies. No wonder then, tech titans are some of the main players in the market. They are increasingly integrating mobility and health plans to engage enrolled members.Other factors helping the markets growth are the increasing private healthcare insurance exchanges and IT investments. The pressing demand to bring down the overall administrative costs of member management services, rising need for cost effective solutions for the healthcare payer services, and the alarming instances of healthcare fraud cases are few things expected to shape the course of the market in the near future.At present, the private payers are ahead of the public payers in the global market for healthcare payer services. This is because of the massive investment by private players in the healthcare payer vertical and significant government efforts to induce private investment in the healthcare industry. Public payers, however, are slated to clock solid growth in the years ahead.Global Healthcare Payer Services Market: Regional OutlookGeographically, North America holds a dominant position in the global market for healthcare payer services at present, powered mainly by the U.S. This is because of the rising number of health insurance enrollment, helpful reimbursement framework, and dearth of skilled professionals. Besides North America, Asia Pacific is another emerging market that holds out a strong promise of growth. In fact, India, an emerging economy in the region, is a global market leader in the knowledge process outsourcing (KPO). China and Japan in the region are also slated to contribute substantially to the market. In the Rest of the World, Mexico and Brazil are shining stars poised to impact the global market growth.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Companies Mentioned in the ReportSome of the prominent companies competing in the global market for healthcare payer services, profiled in the report are Cognizant Technology Solutions, Accenture plc, Xerox Corporation, Genpact Limited, Hewlett-Packard, Hexaware Technologies Limited, HCL Technologies Ltd., Teleperformance Group, Hinduja Global Solutions Ltd., and Wipro Limited.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
MAAN Builds Sites which are an Amalgam of Functionality and Style

Lewes, Delaware March 23, 2018 - Even though, in the recent time's mobile phones have taken eminence, website development is still in demand. Website development is of importance these days in whatever business you are whether B2B or B2C.Having a website is not out of fashion. In fact, it is important to have an online presence in these times of cutthroat competition. We all need to establish ourselves and grow. A well-designed website is a perfect marketing tool not only for large but also for small and medium businesses.MAAN Softwares is a trusted player in the field of website development.MAAN Softwares has been around for several years now since it was established in 2013. In all these years, we have accumulated a lot of experience in the field of website development and this is clearly reflected in our work.We excel in several technologies relating to website designing ranging from frameworks, server-side scripting, CMSs, e-commerce, and MVC. We offer diverse options to our clients to choose from.PHP, e-commerce and CMS development are our forte. We have a talented pool of developers who are experts in all the leading CMSs like Drupal, Wordpress, and Joomla. Besides this, we also specialize in several e-commerce platforms like Magento, Prestashop, and Opencart. Our developers are also proficient in various frameworks like Laravel and YII.At MAAN, we believe in constantly upgrading our knowledge. We closely follow the developments taking place in the IT world with special focus on the technologies that we specialize in.We offer Laravel framework for website development which in a recent Google analysis has been designated as the best framework. YII is also very flexible and easy to install. It can be used to develop a wide range of applications. We also use the latest versions of all the development tools like the CMSs and e-commerce platforms. This makes your applications robust and secure.Our team not only builds a clients website, it spends considerable time with the clients understanding their needs. For us, our clients are our top priority and we believe in delivering the best to our clients.We also provide web designing services which give a clients website a very attractive and competitive design. Designing is as important as developing a website because a very plain looking website would not do any good. People visiting a website seek both great functionality and great looks.MAAN is committed to providing its clients with excellent solutions using the best technology.MAAN Softwares Inc. is a software development organization located in Lewes, Delaware. It was founded by Mr. Aditya Dwivedi in the year 2013. Since then, it has been constantly striving to achieve new heights in the field of Information Technology. It has also emerged as a trusted name providing excellent online solutions.16192 Coastal Highway, Lewes, Delaware 19958
Asia Pacific Automotive Parts Die-Casting Market Report 2017, Trends, Analysis, Share, Estimates and Forecasts to 2022.

http://www.strategymrc.com/report/asia-pacific-automotive-parts-die-casting-market-outlook

http://www.strategymrc.com/report/asia-pacific-automotive-parts-die-casting-market-outlook

The Asia Pacific Automotive Parts Die-Casting report provides an in-depth analysis of the various market segments and its sub-segments.Products Covered: Pressure die-casting Vacuum die-casting Squeeze die-casting Semi-solid die-castingRaw Material Types Covered: Aluminium Zinc Magnesium OthersApplication Types Covered: Body assemblies Engine Parts Transmission parts OthersThe report focuses on current and upcoming market trends such as Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, and Challenges, technological advancements, Porters Five Forces analysis to assess the intensity of competition in the market. The market values are presented in the form of tables and graphs for better interpretation.For More, Please Visit:Market Size EstimationsThe market assessment is made by the core industry experts using our 360 research approach. The data is derived from the most reliable, authenticated data sources and is validated by the industry experts (Primary Research). Both top down and bottom up analysis are implemented to enhance the accuracy of the market figures. The market projections are calculated for the next 8 years using the actual market numbers of previous year as the base value.Company ProfilingThis section provides the overview of the key players that are leading in the industry, covering their business operations, financials, list of products & services, SWOT analysis, major developments such as mergers & acquisitions, agreements, partnerships, joint ventures, new product launch, expansions etc.Report Highlights:- Market share assessments for all the mentioned market segments and sub-segments- Market share analysis of the top industry players- Strategic recommendations for the new entrants- Market forecasts for a minimum of 8 years for all the given segments- Market Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations)- Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimations- Competitive landscaping, mapping the key common trends- Company profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developments- Supply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancementsFor More, Please Visit:We offer wide spectrum of research and consulting services with in-depth knowledge of different industries. We are known for customized research services, consulting services and Full Time Equivalent (FTE) services in the research world. We explore the market trends and draw our insights with valid assessments and analytical views. We use advanced techniques and tools among the quantitative and qualitative methodologies to identify the market trends. Our research reports and publications are routed to help our clients to design their business models and enhance their business growth in the competitive market scenario. We have a strong team with hand-picked consultants including project managers, implementers, industry experts, researchers, research evaluators and analysts with years of experience in delivering the complex projects.STRATISTICS MRC17049 King James Way, Gaithersburg,MD, 20877, USA
Global Behavioral Rehabilitation Market Research Report 2018 - Acadia Healthcar, Universal Health Services, Magellan Health, Psychiatric Solutions,

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Behavioral Rehabilitation Market Research Report 2018" to its huge collection of research reports.In this report, the global Behavioral Rehabilitation 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 Behavioral Rehabilitation in these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaGlobal Behavioral Rehabilitation market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingAcadia HealthcarUniversal Health ServicesMagellan HealthPsychiatric SolutionsCRC HealthAurora Behavioral Health SystemTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Behavioral Health GroupHaven Behavioral HealthcareSpringstoneAmerican Addiction CentersOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoInpatientResidentialOutpatientOn 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, includingAnxiety DisordersMood DisordersSubstance Abuse DisordersPersonality DisordersAttention Deficit DisordersTable of ContentsGlobal Behavioral Rehabilitation Market Research Report 20181 Behavioral Rehabilitation Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Behavioral Rehabilitation1.2 Behavioral Rehabilitation Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Behavioral Rehabilitation Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Behavioral Rehabilitation Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Inpatient1.2.4 Residential1.2.5 Outpatient1.3 Global Behavioral Rehabilitation Segment by Application1.3.1 Behavioral Rehabilitation Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Anxiety Disorders1.3.3 Mood Disorders1.3.4 Substance Abuse Disorders1.3.5 Personality Disorders1.3.6 Attention Deficit Disorders1.4 Global Behavioral Rehabilitation Market by Region (2013-2025)1.4.1 Global Behavioral Rehabilitation Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2013-2025)1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.4 China Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.5 Japan Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.7 India Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Behavioral Rehabilitation (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global Behavioral Rehabilitation Revenue Status and Outlook (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global Behavioral Rehabilitation Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2013-2025)Get Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @2 Global Behavioral Rehabilitation Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Behavioral Rehabilitation Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.1 Global Behavioral Rehabilitation Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Behavioral Rehabilitation Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Behavioral Rehabilitation Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 Global Behavioral Rehabilitation Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.4 Manufacturers Behavioral Rehabilitation Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Behavioral Rehabilitation Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Behavioral Rehabilitation Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Behavioral Rehabilitation Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion3 Global Behavioral Rehabilitation Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)3.1 Global Behavioral Rehabilitation Capacity and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.2 Global Behavioral Rehabilitation Production and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.3 Global Behavioral Rehabilitation Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.4 Global Behavioral Rehabilitation Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.5 North America Behavioral Rehabilitation Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.6 Europe Behavioral Rehabilitation Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.7 China Behavioral Rehabilitation Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.8 Japan Behavioral Rehabilitation Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (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.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 @
Antarctic Odyssey of Alumnus BITS Pilani Proud to be BITSian Divya Nawale - BITSAA Makes Dreams Happen

Antarctic Odyssey of Alumnus BITS Pilani Proud to be BITSian Divya Nawale - BITSAA Makes Dreams Happen

http://www.2041.com/

http://www.atmanirbhara.org/

https://www.bitsaa.org/

https://www.bitsaa.org/

Some of the greatest stories of modern exploration are those of attempts to reach the White Continent which in summer is roughly half of the size of the United States and in winter when the useable area expands due to snow and ice, the continent can be more than double in size. It is an incredible journey that few have had the privilege to experience. To quote the Guardian The only thing more frightening than an advancing glacier may be one that is shrinking and raising sea levels round the world.For this dare devil girl Divya Nawale, every day is a new dawn, a new adventure, a new challenge and a new moment that was never before. In 2009, she became the first BITSian woman and was the youngest BITSian (until 2018) to step on the seventh continent, Antarctica. But she probably wouldnt have gone to Antarctica if she didnt go to Pilani.This story is about how BITS Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Pilani Rajasthan inspired her to go to Antarctica and helped her find her way to a life of meaning and purpose. Its been 8 years since her first time to the frozen continent; and in February 2018, she went back to serve as the Head of Special projects for 2041 Foundation, the same organization that took her there the first time.Divya Nawales story starts in the Lecture Theater Complex (LTC) that opened in Pilani in 2003. She was a part of the first ever batch to experience sitting in those large gallery classrooms! However, she was a lost soul at BITS. She didnt want to do engineering but ended up at the then top ranking institute in the country for mechanical engineering by her merit. Yet, going to Pilani has also been her lifes biggest blessing. She is indeed proud to be a BITSian and it has been her identity no matter where in the world she has been.It was at BITS Pilani that she found her greatest passion for dancing as a Dance clubber and her biggest mission in life- to help make the world a better place, while working with the construction workers and teaching the local kids through the on-campus clubs like the National Service Scheme (NSS) and My India (later re-named to Nirmaan). She learnt more about practicing resilience, building self-esteem, developing confidence, and making real friends than she ever did in her entire life.It was her third year at Pilani during 2006, when one of the alumni SJR Silver jubilee Reunions that brought back alumni from different parts of the world to their alma mater 25 years later, took place on campus. On a fine Sunday morning, she went to attend a guest lecture in the LTC of a particular alumnus who was visiting for his reunion, Mr. K.C. Ramakrishnan of the 1976 batch, who worked for BHEL and had been on a mission to Antarctica testing non-conventional energy sources (solar panels!!) at the Indian polar station Dakshin Gangotri, carrying out research there in 1988.She vividly remember till this day, looking at the big screens with the images of the icy continent calling out to her. She knew it in her gut that she was meant to go there. That presentation inspired her to write down three dreams for life: to visit Antarctica someday, to work for renewable energy / sustainability to make the world a better place, and come back to Pilani someday with an inspiring story like that during her silver jubilee reunion.She just didnt know that one of those dreams would come true only 3 years later in November of 2009. In the summer of that year, she was working on a story for publicizing the global event called Earth Hour in The Hindu new paper Young World section, as a freelance features editor. During her research, she stumbled upon the website, which looked too good to be true.This was pre-Facebook era in India, so she had no way of checking out their Facebook / Instagram page to confirm the authenticity of the program that took young leaders from across the world to Antarctica on annual expeditions to make them environmental champions. Nor could she easily reach out to other people who had already been because they didnt have facebook / or even Orkut profiles.Despite the audacity, it for her took to believe that this was a real genuine program and could be the biggest opportunity of her life, she knew somehow this is what she wanted to do and who she wanted to be. So she applied. And she got selected. Sir Robert Swan OBE, who is the first person in history to walk unassisted to both the South and North Poles and the Guinness record holder of this feat, somehow thought that a young 22-year old girl from India had the potential to change the world.While BITS made her dream this dream, it was the indomitable BITS Alumni Association BITSAA who helped her make this dream truly come true! Earlier that year, she had helped BITSAA with a bit of media and outreach for the projects they were working on (again this was for The Hindu; some of these articles are available online). When she had to raise funds for her own expedition, she wondered if BITSAA would help her as a recent graduate.Divya got in touch with Mr. Viggy Mokkarala, who was the Chapter leader for BITSAA Silicon Valley chapter back then. She had worked with closely over the summer for the outreach bit so she hoped that Viggy would see she was credible enough and that she imbibed the Never Say Die BITSian spirit. He immediately agreed to help (Thats why she absolutely loves that the most popular Facebook group for students and alumni of BITS is called BITSians for each other)! And with the coordination with Mr. Kartik Bandhuvula who was the Fundraising coordinator for BITSAA back then, she was provided funds to travel to Antarctica (covering my flights, gear and insurance). Dream no. 1 achieved.Going to Antarctica changed her life. She came back with the clear purpose and idea to work in the sustainability space and embrace eco-friendly living. While she already knew she wanted this, the expedition gave her a sense of direction and provided her with resources and a network. She was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, to engage with 2041 Foundation in 2010/11 and got the opportunity to work for them in India for multiple projects.Once again, BITSAA recognized this during 2012 in the form of a 30-Under-30 Award for Divya Nawale under the category Social Entrepreneurship and community building. This way she kept pursuing relentlessly for Dream no. 2, which she continues to do today and is her lifes mission.In 2014, a version of dream no. 3 came true when BITSAA approached her again- this time to speak and share her Antarctic story at the BGM BITSAA Global Meet taking place at the BITS Hyderabad campus. In front of many of her own personal BITSian heroes like Dilip DSouza, Dean Nattu Prof. B. R. Natarajan, and sharing stage with other inspirational seniors like Phanindra Sama, in her very own hometown of Hyderabad, She shared her story  with the very first slide, being a picture of our beloved LTC in BITS Pilani where it all began.Dream no.3 will become a true reality when she goes back to Pilani for her silver jubilee reunion, and her work may help inspire more young minds at Pilani then, to dream their dream and follow it, and know that BITS and BITSAA will always have their back. A BITSian a heart, this is Divya Nawale 2003A4PS297 story, and she owes it to her Alma mater BITS Pilani.To quote Sunil Nanda yet another Proud alumnus of BITS Pilani who spearheads the multi crore PRC Pilani Resource Centre Atma Nirbara Campaign"Divya is undoubtedly a Role Model for the GENNext BITSians."For this champion of Save Antarctica, every day is Earth Day and Divyas inspiring story deserves to be published as a book and hence it is befitting that this newswire appears on 23 Apr 2018 which coincides with World Book & Copyright DayFor more details seeAbout BITSAA: BITS Alumni Association (BITSAA) has emerged as one of the strongest alumni networks of any university. BITSAA International engages in charitable and educational activities by raising funds for setting up endowments, creating scholarships, rewarding teaching and research and generally promoting the development of resources at Birla Institute of Technology and Science at Pilani, Dubai, Goa & Hyderabad campuses. BITSAA International also aims to strengthen the ties, friendship and communication amongst former students, alumni faculty and friends of the Institute. BITSAA International provides a number of channels for people to stay connected with each other and with Birla Institute of Technology & Science. Notable other alumni initiatives for BITS Pilani include Guru Dakshina program by 70-75 batch to honour former faculty members, Prof Venkateswaran Faculty Excellence award by Karthik Krishna, Prof SSR Memorial Teaching Excellence Award, Atma Nirbara multi crore Pilani Resource Centre by 75-80 batch alumni and many more.Prof BR NatarajanBITS Pilani AlumnusPilani Rajasthan India 333031Phone: +91-9799476406Email: brnatarajan@bitsaa.orgWebsite:
Global Intra-Abdominal Pressure Measurement Devices Market to Reach US$ 173.3 Mn by 2026

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2612

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According to Future Market Insights survey on physician practice pattern concerning intra-abdominal pressure measurement devices, 33.9% physicians admitted to never measuring bladder pressure in the ICU.Rising prevalence of intra-abdominal hypertension (IAH), combined with development of DEHP-free products is fuelling demand for intra-abdominal pressure measurement devices. According to a new research by Future Market Insights, the global intra-abdominal pressure measurement devices market will grow at a CAGR of 16.5% to reach US$ 173.3 Mn by 2026.Request For Sample @The report predicts adoption of intra-abdominal hypertension (IAH) to witness steady adoption in developing countries. Currently, bulk of the demand for these devices is concentrated in America and Europe. Asia Pacific, Latin America, and GCC are among the regions where demand for intra-abdominal pressure measurement devices will grow steadily during the forecast period.According to Future Market Insights, collaboration between intra-abdominal pressure measurement device manufacturers and catheters for measuring IAP in ICUs is growing. Further, owing to better sensitivity and accuracy of these devices, many physicians are preferring clinical examination of IAH over physical detection.Use of intra-abdominal pressure measurement devices in abdominal procedures was estimated at 1,472,000 in 2016. Future Market Insights estimates it to reach 7,246,000 by 2026.North America continued to be the leader in the number of abdominal pressure measurement procedures in 2016. Of the 1,472,000 procedures carried out in 2016, North America accounted for 647,000. It is pertinent to mention that Canadas share of abdominal procedures was negligible, accounting for only 44,000 procedures in 2016. The U.S. continues to remain the country where a majority of abdominal pressure measurement procedures were conducted in 2016. Western Europe was the second highest region, with 275,000 procedures, whereas Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) was at third position.By product type, Future Market Insights offers analysis and forecast on disposables and equipment. According to the study, disposables segment accounted for higher revenue share of the overall market in 2016. Future Market Insights estimates this trend to continue during the forecast period 2016-2026.By application type, Future Market Insights has segmented the market into intra-compartment pressure and intra-abdominal hypertension. Demand for intra-abdominal pressure measurement devices was higher for intra-abdominal hypertension. This segment was valued at US$ 32.5 Mn in 2016.By end-user, hospitals accounted for the highest demand for intra-abdominal pressure measurement devices in 2016. Trauma centres, clinics, and ambulatory surgical centres were the key application segments.Request For TOC @Leading intra-abdominal pressure measurement device manufacturers include C. R. Bard, Inc., Stryker Corporation, Holtech Medical, ConvaTec Group PLC, and Biometrix Ltd. According to the report, C. R. Bard, Inc. accounted for nearly 30% revenue share of the global intra-abdominal pressure measurement devices market. Stryker Corporation and Holtech Medical were the other key players by market share.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature.FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Industrial Ladder Market Size, Analysis, and Forecast Report 2017-2027

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Industrial ladders are a unique kind of regular ladders and are used only for industrial purposes. They allow personnel to stand safely on them and effectively access various equipment, projects and materials. Industrial ladders come in a variety of designs and features and are used to perform both common as well unique tasks by an operator. Standard, folding, stock picker, cantilever and pivoting are some of the most commonly preferred designs and shapes in industrial ladders. Various British and European standards such as BS1129 class 1 and BS2037 class 1 are recommended for their design and performance. These heavy-duty ladders are preferred in areas where onerous conditions of storage, carriage & usage exist. BS EN 131 and BS EN 14975 designs, on the other hand, are recommended for ladders made from aluminum, steel or plastics as well as for loft ladders. An operator using a cantilever ladder can easily overcome any kind of obstacle, hindrance or hard surface by using the platform attached to the back of the ladder. Rooftop platform ladders are used when an operator needs to overcome rooftop obstacles like pipes, etc. These ladders evenly distribute weight and thus, prevent accidents while an operator is trying to climb.Industrial Ladder Market: DynamicsDrivers:Unlike aluminum, fiberglass provides high durability and ruggedness. It also offers low conductivity, thereby reducing the hazard of electrocution on coming in contact with high voltage power lines. The many advantages of fiberglass ladders as compared to wood or aluminum ladders is expected to drive the global industrial ladder market during the forecast period. Furthermore, the capacity and height of industrial ladders is much better than that of regular ladders used for residential purposes. Stringent government regulations such as those surrounding personnel safety and maximum height of ladders, imposed on growing and developed economies are also expected to drive the global industrial ladder market over the forecast period. Ability to move across platforms is a unique feature incorporated in industrial ladders which help them perform more efficiently work. This particular feature is likely to rein in favour of industrial ladders during the forecast period.Request Report Sample@Restraints:Limited reach of industrial ladders is a major factor hampering the growth of global industrial ladder market over the forecast period. Furthermore, limited rescue features and unavailability of heat shield protection at the tip are some other factors that might hinder the growth of the global industrial ladder market over the forecast period.Industrial Ladder Market: SegmentationGlobal industrial ladder market can be segmented on the basis of product type, material type and application. On the basis of product type, the global industrial ladder market is segmented into square tower ladders, folding platform ladders, tiltable tower ladders and square tower ladders with shorter wheels. On the basis of material type, the global industrial ladder market is segmented into aluminum, fiberglass and steel. On the basis of application, the global industrial ladder market can be segmented into construction, mining, automotive, transportation and manufacturing.Visit For TOC@Industrial Ladder Market: Market ParticipantsSome of the market participants in the global industrial ladder market are:Swastik CorporationSTRONGWELL CORPORATIONIndustrial Steps & Ladders Pty LtdJumbor Industrial Co., Ltd.Lyte LaddersLFI LaddersEuro Towers LtdStradbally LaddersFeatherliteKRAUSE-Werk GmbH & Co. KGKamsun Engineering IndustriesIndustrial Ladder Market: Region-wise OutlookOwing to the growing automotive and construction industry, the Asia Pacific industrial ladder market is expected to register high growth over the forecast period. North America and Europe industrial ladder market is estimated to account for a significant share due to the growth in the logistics & transportation industry and stringent government regulations regarding workers safety, which in turn, is expected to drive the global industrial ladder market during the forecast period. The growing mining and construction industry in Middle East & Africa region is expected to register significant CAGR over the forecast period. Western Europe and Latin America industrial ladder market is expected to show stagnant growth over the forecast period.About Us Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Electric Operated Dental Drill Market Overview Till 2026 | Industry Size, Share and Forecast

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https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/3741

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Dental drill has been a vital instrument for dental practitioners over the years. The introduction of dental drill revolutionized the world of dentistry. However, with the advent of technology, electric operated dental drill gained immense popularity and acceptance worldwide. Widely used in several dental procedures for tooth decay removal or teeth shaping, electric operated dental drill is currently witnessing decent demand in the global market.Persistence Market Research assesses the global market for electric operated dental drill and offers key insights into the critical factors associated with market growth. Dental drills, available in various sizes and designs, create a multimillion dollar market globally, and Persistence Market Research examines the growth pattern of the market over a six-year forecast period, 2016-2026.Request Report for Table of Contents @Global Electric Operated Dental Drill Market: Drivers and RestraintsRising awareness about dental disorders and increasing concern about maintaining oral health will remain the predominant factors fueling the demand for dental procedures which preferably use dental drill. Growing inclination of dentists toward using electric operated dental drill in multiple surgical, non-surgical, and related procedures is also identified to be an important driver to electric dental drill market growth on a global level.Moreover, rising prevalence of teeth sensitivity disorders, teeth erosion, teeth decay, and periodontal diseases will escalate the demand for dental instruments, such as electric operated dental drill. Growing geriatric population and burgeoning number of dental clinics will further bolster the market growth.Sustained demand for teeth cleaning will continue to push the consumption of electric operated dental drill over the next few years. Dental practitioners are increasingly using dental drill for dental abscesses and caries, and teeth restoration, which will remain a strong booster to market growth. Currently, a growing trend of using technologically advanced dental drills with lasers is compelling practitioners to prefer them over ordinary dental drills.However, cost-intensive dental instruments and availability of superior alternative procedures may create long-term challenges to growing sales of electric operate dental drill in the global market. Brand loyalty is another factor that will continue to restrain the market growth. Although developing economies are rapidly witnessing the growth of cosmetic dentistry, inadequate reimbursement for dental procedures will also detail the market in the long run.Global Electric Operated Dental Drill Market: Regional Segment AnalysisPersistence Market Research evaluates key geographies in the global market for electric operated dental drill. Among Among North America (U.S, Canada), Europe (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK), Eastern Europe, CIS, Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, Australia, Others), Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Others),North America currently dominates owing higher oral health-related awareness and a large aging population. Asian countries will however witness faster growth rates over the next few years, led by China and India. Emerging economies in the Asia Pacific region are likely to exhibit remarkable growth over the forecast period. This growth is attributed to an expanding patient pool, rising urbanization, growing awareness among population, and increasing government funds for healthcare.The report also examines the status of other key regional markets, including Europe and Latin America.Request a Sample Brochure of the Report @Global Electric Operated Dental Drill Market: Key Players AnalysisSome of the key players participating in the global electric operated dental drill market, include 3M, Biomet 3I, Inc., DENTSPLY INTERNATIONAL, Inc., Dentatus AB, and Keystone Dental, 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:
Key Research Findings on Chemical Feed Systems Market Presented for the Period 2018-2027

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https://www.factmr.com/report/624/chemical-feed-systems-market

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As per the current market trends and the promising nature of the chemical feed systems market, it can be estimated that the future holds positive outcomes. In order to provide a deep insight about the concerned market, Fact.MR would be publishing a resourceful analysis that will enclose knowledge about the regional market size, revenue and opportunity status. Readers will be offered the privilege to decode various facets of the market during the period 2018 to 2027, together with the active access to secondary and primary research methodology. Furthermore, various segments of the market associated to product, application, end-user etc., would also be present in this intelligent research report.Request TOC of this Report-Fact.MR has developed an exclusive research analysis on the global chemical feed systems market for the forecast period (2018-2027), which analyzes developments shaping demand for chemical feed systems. An all-inclusive forecast incorporated in the report provides detailed assessment on key dynamics affecting growth of the global chemical feed systems market. This report contains volumes of valuable information interpreted in the form of market size estimations, manufacturing insights, trends analysis and value chain breakdown.Global Chemical Feed Systems Market: Weight-based Systems Gaining PopularityWeighing systems have witnessed widespread acceptance as the standard for monitoring chemical feed in chlorination systems. Currently, the popularity of weight-based chemical feed systems is rising among operators as they recognize unique benefits of scale over their conventional feed measuring counterparts. As chemicals get more and more expensive, and operating budgets get smaller, imperativeness of verifying the chemical feed records a rise.With new advancements in instrumentation and continued development of strain gauge load cell, none of the level measuring devices exist that can keep pace with the weight-based chemical feed systems performance. In a bid to verify correct daily chemical dosages, majority of states currently need reports regarding the amount of chemical feed to public water supplies. Several regulations and recommendations, such as Maine DHS, Massachusetts DEP, and The 10 States Standards, have emphasized use of weight-based chemical feed systems in light of their ease of use, reliability, and accuracy.To know more @ Global Chemical Feed Systems Market, visit -Classification Requirements determine Development of Chemical Feed SystemsPipe lines and other process-associated water treatment operations are considered to be a classified area, which has made chemical feed systems to meet specifications set by various chemical industry regulatory bodies such as American Petroleum Institute (API), International Fire Code or Underwriter Laboratories (UL), and National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). Confinements associated with pipeline treatments are reflection of potential for explosion or fire. Classification requirements from regulatory bodies are key determinants for development of chemical feed systems junction box, electrical control panel, and motor.Chemical feed systems offer consistent and reliable dosing of chemicals in process applications, and with proper design these systems possess the ability to enhance the productivity by reducing chemical costs and maximizing operational performance. Several global leading companies such as U.S. Water, are offering customized chemical feed systems for catering unique applications and specifications of water treatment facilities. Provision of such customized solutions will impact growth of the global chemical feed systems market in the near future.Innovation-driven Developments to Influence Growth of Global Chemical Feed Systems MarketInnovations in technology of water treatment systems and their relevant equipment is vital for resolving current-world challenges. Experienced R&D technologists from prominent industries worldwide are working on development of innovative, game-changing solutions in water treatment equipment to purify wastewater and recover valuable resources, and chemical feed system, integral component of water treatment plants, is no exception.Chemical feed systems seek extensive adoption in flocculation-flotation systems, for effective removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and solids from wastewater. As chemical feed systems are not designed in accordance with real-time COD fluctuations in the wastewater, an increase in load in balance tank is observed during production. For resolving these challenges, Nijhuis Industries has designed an innovative chemical feed system to comply with real-time feeding process and curtail costs pertaining to wastewater chemical consumption.In 2017, Pulsafeeder, global leading provider of fluid handling technology, introduced its standard chemical feed systems. These systems are designed to suit requirements of water treatment facilities that demand engineered water solutions with convenience of standard drop-in package. Along with accessories such as suction & discharge drain valves, variable frequency drives (VFDs), system vents, calibration columns, and relief valves, Pulsafeeders standard chemical feed systems feature two pumps for standby and duty, with an auto switchover option. Such chemical feed systems are ready for immediate deployment, devoid of the requirement for field assembly.Pre-book Global Chemical Feed Systems 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:
Breeze through summers with Giovanis new SS18 collection NewsPatrolling.com: With soaring temperatures and rise in humidity, its no wonder that men are already reaching out to their shorts and tees. With an urge to undo those stylish layered ensembles, mens personal styling during summer season takes a beating. Dressing like you are off to a vacation or a beach is okay but what do you do when you have to go for an official meeting or a formal dinner? Well, the highly-skilled apparel engineers at Giovani, have you covered for every formal occasion this season.







The secret to most mens styling is in the detailing and fabrics of their clothes. During summers, the best formal look usually consists of light colored shirts, paired along with jackets that spell style and comfort together. Perfect for the sweltering season, Giovanis SS18 collection has some of the finest varieties to choose from  light-weight and breathable fabrics like cotton, linen in soothing color palette.







The notch lapel half lined knitted jacket, a linen jacket are must haves for summer. A linen jacket is the ideal fit for that perfect breathable jacket that ensures that youre not left with sweat patches! It not only absorbs moisture but also dries quickly. The neutral color range with fine detailing like cut away collar with neck band patch in shirts or the smart leisure band gala sleeveless jacket not only gives trendy summer vibes but also gives a relaxed fit to the wearer.







Notch lapel half lined knitted jacket Giovanis Spring Summer 18 collections designed to give you the most relaxed and fashionable summers that will surely add a new dimension to your personality.







About Giovani-







Launched in the year 2000, the brand was acquired by Future Lifestyle Fashions in 2014. Giovani is a quintessential suits & jackets brand that refuses to be Jacketed. Giovani eases the layer of formal  rituals around the suit and allows ones true self to manifest.



Its for the man who straddles many roles and celebrates each of them with ease. Giovani also offers a niche and unique collection for the woman with a elegant sense of style.



Present in over 100 retail touch points spread across both exclusive brand stores and shop-in-shop. Giovani offers classic and elegant clothing tailored with refined Italian cuts and outstanding workmanship at an affordable price in India with a commitment to create clothes that complement your individuality and personal taste. Enjoy the elegance and the comfort of clothes with Italian Cut from Giovani that will be an expression of your taste and style.



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Global Consumer Beverage Packaging Market Showcases Promising Growth during Forecast 2017-2025

MRRSE

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In order to study the various trends and patterns prevailing in the overall market for Consumer Beverage Packaging, Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has included a new report titled Consumer Beverage Packaging 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.Click Here for Sample Report @Leading vendors in the global consumer beverage packaging market are concentrating on enhancing their product portfolio in a bid to gain a competitive edge. Some of the leading companies in the market, as profiled by a MRRSE report, include Subaru Corporation, Ryobi Limited, Lifan Industry (Group) Co., Ltd, Briggs & Stratton Corporation, Wuxi Kipor Power Co. Ltd., Toshiba Corporation, Hyundai Motor Company, Generac Holdings Inc., Champion Power Equipment, Inc., Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd., and Honda Motor Co., Ltd.According to a MRRSE report, the global consumer beverage packaging market is expected to witness an average expansion, with sales increasing at a CAGR of 4.7%, in terms of volume, during the forecast period. The global consumer beverage packaging market is estimated to bring in more than US$ 130,000,000 Mn revenues by 2026-end.Manufacturers focusing on Acquisition of Firms Specialized in Product DesignThe consumer beverage packaging is witnessing evolving trends that are likely to impact the brand packaging design and also influence the way consumer interact with packaging for beverages. Personalization is one such trend that is growing in the beverage packaging on a faster phase. Brands are engaging with customers on a more personal level by offering personalized experience. For instance, companies introducing personalized bottle with names for some special occasions, making customer feel more connected with the brand. Meanwhile, lightweight bottles and cans are also becoming popular among various brands, thereby offering convenience to the customers and saving cost on the raw material for brands.Manufacturers in the beverage packaging market are also focusing on partnership and acquisition of firms specialized in product design specialized. This is expected to help in expansion of product portfolio with unique offering, thereby attracting customers. Advanced robotic machineries are also finding place in beverage packaging companies to reduce wastage, boost the production process and reduce errors with the help of real-time data collected on various stages in the production process. Also, the focus on packaging that can keep beverage fresh for a long time with any preservatives is also increasing. Bottles and cans in range of sizes with easy-to-open feature are also being introduced in the market. The trend of transparent packaging and clear packaging is also rising, enabling customers to actually see what product looks like.Consumer Beverage Packaging Market to Record Fastest Expansion in North AmericaThe consumer beverage packaging market is slated to record the fastest expansion in North America, in terms of value and volume, through 2026. In terms of value, the market will register similar CAGRs in Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) and North America through 2026. Revenues from consumer beverage packaging sales in North America however will account for the largest market share during the forecast period, followed by Europe and APEJ. In terms of value, the markets in Japan and Latin America are projected to rise at nearly equal CAGRs through 2026, with Latin America estimated to remain relatively more lucrative than Japan for the consumer beverage packaging markets growth.Click Here for Complete Report @Paper & paperboard will continue to be sought-after among materials for consumer beverage packaging, followed by metal. Revenues from use of paper & paperboard for consumer beverage packaging will account for more than two-fifth share of the market by during 2017 to 2026, in terms of revenues.Containers to Remain Preferred Packaging Type in the MarketContainers (plastic containers, metal cans) are anticipated to remain preferred packaging type in the market. Revenues from sales of containers (plastic containers, metal cans) are estimated to remain significantly larger than those from all the other packaging type segments combined.Although bottled water is expected to remain dominant among applications in the global consumer beverage packaging market in terms of value, revenues from carbonated soft drinks application will increase at a relatively higher CAGR through 2026.Subsequently, the report issues chapters on the global consumer beverage packaging markets segmentation analysis. Insights and forecasts with respect to the market segments namely, application, packaging type, packaging material, and region, have been comprehensively delivered in these chapters. The segmentation analysis of the global consumer beverage packaging market engulfs indispensable market numbers such as the market share comparison, Y-o-Y growth comparison and revenue comparison. Succeeding chapters in the report propound insights and analyses on the regional segments included in the report viz., North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, Latin America, Japan, and Middle East & Africa.Competition LandscapeThe report has engulfed a chapter on the global consumer beverage packaging markets competitive landscape, which provides detailed analysis and insights on companies offering consumer beverage packaging. Profiles of key companies, along with a strategic overview of their M&A and expansion plans across geographies, have been delivered in this chapter. This chapter is priceless for report readers, as its enables them in gauging their growth potential in the market and implement key strategies for extending their market reach. This chapter offers key recommendations for both new and existing market participants, enabling them to emerge sustainably and profitably. Intelligence on the market players has been delivered on the basis of their product overview, SWOT analysis, key developments, key financials and company overview. Occupancy of these market participants has been tracked by the report and portrayed via an intensity map.About MRRSEMarket Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.com
Europe Fresh Food Packaging Market Key players-DS Smith Plc, DuPont and International Paper Company Forecast 2016-2024

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Market OverviewChanging lifestyle with the growing preference for customized and diversified packaged items is transforming the packaging industry. Rising health concerns among consumers is increasing the demand for the consumption of fresh food. Efficient and innovative packaging plays an important role in preserving the freshness and nutrition of food and increases its shelf life. Increasing inclination towards diverse and exotic food over basic staple food is boosting the demand for fresh food packaging European Union. Despite of significant level of awareness, over 55% of fruits and vegetables produced in Europe are wasted every year. This is raising environmental concern and increasing the need for effective fresh food packaging in the region. Moreover, growing awareness about global warming and its ill effects on environment is shifting the inclination of people towards eco-friendly material for fresh food packaging over conventional packaging.GET SAMPLE REPORT @This is impacting the fresh food packaging market in Europe and manufacturers are shifting from conventional packaging material to innovative and environment friendly packaging. For instance, Field to Fork packaging design is growing popularity among consumers due to its smart, attractive and convenient packaging. Also, returnable plastic crates (RPCs) are gaining recognition, as it provides ease in transportation of fresh produce.Key vendors such as Amcor, DS Smith, International Paper Company and many more prefer are investing in R&D for innovative, renewable and sustainable packaging solutions for fresh food such as edible and water soluble packaging. In 2017, Mondi launched a water soluble film for smart and convenient packing which aims to reduce packaging waste.Market SegmentationEurope Fresh Food Packaging Market is categorized on the following basis Based on Packaging Typeo Flexible Packagingo Semi-Rigid Packagingo Rigid Packaging Based on Applicationo Poultry & Meat Productso Dairy Productso Produce (Vegetables and Fruits)o Sea Food Based on Countrieso The U.K {Market Size (USD Billion), Growth Analysis (%) and Adoption Rate (%)}o Germany {Market Size (USD Billion), Growth Analysis (%) and Adoption Rate (%)}o France {Market Size (USD Billion), Growth Analysis (%) and Adoption Rate (%)}o Italy {Market Size (USD Billion), Growth Analysis (%) and Adoption Rate (%)}Market Size and Forecast (2016-2024)Growing demand of flexible packaging to increase the shelf life of fresh food is driving the growth of fresh food packaging market across the globe. Europe fresh food packaging market is anticipated to garner USD 11.40 billion by the end of 2024, growing at a CAGR of 2.23% during the forecast period.The U.K. accounted for nearly 17% revenue share of Europe fresh food packaging market in 2015. High consumption of fresh food in the region is likely to maintain the dominance of the U.K. over the forecast period. Rising stability of GDP, increasing health concerns and growing preference for ready to eat meals is expected to boost the demand for fresh food packaging in countries such as Germany, Sweden, France, the Netherlands and the U.K.Market Drivers and ChallengesRising disposable income and mounting demand for convenience food among consumers are driving the growth of the European fresh food packaging market. Moreover, growing awareness among consumers regarding the fresh food packaging is likely to encourage the business expansion of fresh food packaging in Europe in the near future.However, disposal of food waste at the time of packaging is a major concern for manufacturer of fresh food packaging. Increasing number of big and small enterprises and rising consumer preference towards cost effective and local products is creating competitive environment among leading brands in the fresh food packaging market. These factors are hindering the growth of fresh food packaging market in Europe.Key Market Players Amcor Limitedo Synopsiso Business Strategyo Product Portfolioo SWOT Analysis DS Smith Plc Sonoco Products Company Graphic Packaging International, Inc Sealed Air India Pvt. Ltd.ContinuedACCESS REPORT @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
Design Agency Shortlisted at Buckinghamshire Business Awards

https://designdifference.co.uk

Design Difference has been named as finalists in two categories at the 2018 Buckinghamshire Business Awards. They have been named finalists in the categories for Small Business of the Year and Business Leader of the Year.The award for Small Business of the Year, sponsored by the University of Buckinghamshire, recognises excellence in business strategy, growth and marketing, and Business Leader of the Year Award, sponsored by Thomas International, acknowledges excellence in business leadership. The Buckinghamshire Business Awards are a great opportunity for Buckinghamshire based, dynamic businesses to show that they are leaders in their field who are exceling through hard work and entrepreneurial vision.Commenting on the announcement, Managing Director of Design Difference, Alison Deverill said This is fantastic news! We are incredibly proud and privileged to be recognised for our hard work, innovation and creativity.These are two categories that mean a lot to us as a business. To be named a finalist for the Small Business of the Year award, just goes to show the dedication, commitment and hard work of our team. This is an acknowledgement that our outstanding design and production team is being appreciated, and to be included as a finalist for Business Leader of the Year is just fabulous.2017 was an exceptional year for Design Difference and 2018 has already seen accelerated growth, both in terms of the team, clients and new projects..The Buckinghamshire Business awards represent the best of business in the Buckinghamshire region, and this year they are celebrating their tenth anniversary. The 2018 ceremony will take place May 22nd and hosted at the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre, Exchange Street, Aylesbury, HP20 1UG.Based in Princess Risborough, Design Difference has been providing design of spaces, events, and branding, as well as production services to London and the rest of the UK since 2006. Set up previously as Cooper Philps Design, Design Difference was founded upon the desire to create a company that placed customer service at the forefront of its offering, in addition innovation and creativity, respect for the environment, care for the community and staff development on an equal footing with profitability.Design Difference is a creative design agency, who are passionate about the creation of spaces, events, branding and have production expertise. With over 30 years of experience, they have built a reputation as being mindful to clients' needs and intent but having the courage to take them on new journeys. They are very conscious about clients being able to communicate their story, to compel their audience to take notice. The company prides itself on its outstanding customer service, creativity and efficient service delivery and aims to be recognised as a market leader for fresh innovation, within the design arena.For further information contact:Name: Alison DeverillTitle: Managing DirectorTel: 01844 273 215, 01844 342 865Email: info@designdifference.co.ukWebsite:Based in Princess Risborough, Design Difference has been providing design of spaces, events, and branding, as well as production services to London and the rest of the UK since 2006. Set up previously as Cooper Philps Design, Design Difference was founded upon the desire to create a company that placed customer service at the forefront of its offering, in addition innovation and creativity, respect for the environment, care for the community and staff development on an equal footing with profitability.3, Forty Green CourtyardBledlowBuckinghamshireHP27 9PN
Global Cochineal Extract Market to Witness Soaring Growth During 2016 - 2026

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2497

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-2497

www.futuremarketinsights.com

The cochineal is an insect from Dactylopius coccus family, from these insects natural food color dyecarminis derived. The female insect is dried and then dye is extracted from dried insect as well as from eggs. This extract is further mixed with calcium or aluminum salts to use as dye. Carmine is primarily used as a colorant in foodand in lipsticks. Cochineal extract is being used as colorant since centuries, it has wide applications as natural colorant into food, textile, medicine and personal care products. The cochineal insect farming is done to grow the particular insects for red color dye. The origin of cochineal insect is seen in Peru and Mexico.The insects are grown on specific type of cactus plant these insects grow on the moisture and nutrient contents of the cactus leaves. Insects are then collected and sun dried to produce extract. Dried cochineal, contains 17 % to 24% carminic acid, is carefully extracted in an acidic, aqueous, alcoholic solution to produce red, orange color dye.Request For Report Sample@Cochineal Extract Market Segmentation:Cochineal extract market is segmented on the basis of its form, application and region. On the basis of forms, cochineal extract market is segmented into powders and liquid form. The cochineal extract is available in both water soluble as well as oil soluble. Cochineal extract market is segmented on the basis of its applications as food and beverages, textile/fabric, cosmetics & personal care, pharmaceuticals and others etc.Cochineal extract market demand is considerably high in the food and beverage market segment as it is considered as natural color option where synthetic color is prohibited, and hence demanded as colorant in various food products such as bakery and confectionary, beverages, dairy products etc. Thus, food and beverages market segment is dominate market for cochineal extract. In cosmetics & personal care market segment cochineal extract is mainly used as colorant in skin care products, lipsticks, face powders, rouges, and blushes etc. Applications of cochineal extract in fabric/ textile segment is comparatively lesser as numerous new and synthetic color dye options are being invented, however in few of the markets its still popular. In pharmaceutical market segment cochineal extract is basically used for color pills and ointments, however this segment comprises very small share of total market. Others market segment includes cochineal extract uses in the manufacturing of artificial flowers, paints and crimson ink.Cochineal extract market is further segmented on the basis of regions as North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan, Japan, Europe, and Middle East and Africa. Latin America is major export market of cochineal extracts, Mexico and Peru being major regional producers. In European markets France is the major importer for cochineal extract. Due to various government bans on the uses of synthetic food colorant in Japan , Japan is also a becoming major importer for cochineal extract in coming years.CochinealExtractMarket Drivers:Cochineal extract is in high demand in several application sectors across the world. Principle factors driving market demand are continuous rising demand natural colorants. As synthetic colorant had proven allergic and hazardous for health, natural color market demand is high. Also rising market demand for natural products based cosmetics and skin care products is becoming another market driver for cochineal extract. Various government such as Japan has banned synthetic color uses in food and beverage products, this is driving natural colorant market demands such as cochineal extracts.CochinealExtractMarket Restrains:Cochineal extract has no known health risks, number of people have been found to experience occupational asthma, foodand cosmetic allergies due to use of product containing cochineal extracts. Increasing vegan food culture and adoption of 100% plant food concept, many consumers are not ready to accept animal products and not preferring product labeled with cochineal extract or carmine as an ingredients. These are the main restraints for cochineal extract market.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):CochinealExtractMarket Key Players:Maximum amount of cochineal extract is produced in Mexico and Peru and get exported into global markets. Key players operating in cochineal extract market are DDW The Color House, Gentle world, Xian LiSheng-Tech Co., Ltd, Chr. Hansen Holding A/S, Colores Naturales EIRL, Lake Foods, and many of the local Mexican and Peru market players extract the cochineal product like Earthue, Biocon del Peru.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
The Worldwide Big Data in the Automotive Market |Projected to Grow Healthy CAGR | Top Key Players - BMW , Daimler, FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles), Ford Motor, GM (General Motors Company), Groupe PSA | Forecast till 2030

Big Data in the Automotive Market

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BusinessIndustryReports.com has new research report on the global Big Data in the Automotive Market. The global Big Data in the Automotive market is growing continuously and expected to grow healthy CAGR by Forecast year 2030Big Data originally emerged as a term to describe datasets whose size is beyond the ability of traditional databases to capture, store, manage and analyze. However, the scope of the term has significantly expanded over the years. Big Data not only refers to the data itself but also a set of technologies that capture, store, manage and analyze large and variable collections of data, to solve complex problems.Amid the proliferation of real-time and historical data from sources such as connected devices, web, social media, sensors, log files and transactional applications, Big Data is rapidly gaining traction from a diverse range of vertical sectors. The automotive industry is no exception to this trend, where Big Data has found a host of applications ranging from product design and manufacturing to predictive vehicle maintenance and autonomous driving.Get a Premium Sample Report atBig Data investments in the automotive industry will account for over $2.8 Billion in 2017 alone. Led by a plethora of business opportunities for automotive OEMs, tier-1 suppliers, insurers, dealerships and other stakeholders, these investments are further expected to grow at a CAGR of approximately 12% over the next three years.The ABig Data in the Automotive Industry: 2017 A 2030 A Opportunities, Challenges, Strategies & ForecastsA report presents an in-depth assessment of Big Data in the automotive industry including key market drivers, challenges, investment potential, application areas, use cases, future roadmap, value chain, case studies, vendor profiles and strategies. The report also presents market size forecasts for Big Data hardware, software and professional services investments from 2017 through to 2030. The forecasts are segmented for 8 horizontal submarkets, 4 application areas, 18 use cases, 6 regions and 35 countries.The report comes with an associated Excel datasheet suite covering quantitative data from all numeric forecasts presented in the report.More Inquire atTable of Contents1 Chapter 1: Introduction1.1 Executive Summary1.2 Topics Covered1.3 Forecast Segmentation1.4 Key Questions Answered1.5 Key Findings1.6 Methodology1.7 Target Audience1.8 Companies & Organizations Mentioned2 Chapter 2: An Overview of Big Data2.1 What is Big Data?2.2 Key Approaches to Big Data Processing2.2.1 Hadoop2.2.2 NoSQL2.2.3 MPAD (Massively Parallel Analytic Databases)2.2.4 In-Memory Processing2.2.5 Stream Processing Technologies2.2.6 Spark2.2.7 Other Databases & Analytic Technologies2.3 Key Characteristics of Big Data2.3.1 Volume2.3.2 Velocity2.3.3 Variety2.3.4 Value2.4 Market Growth Drivers2.4.1 Awareness of Benefits2.4.2 Maturation of Big Data Platforms2.4.3 Continued Investments by Web Giants, Governments & Enterprises2.4.4 Growth of Data Volume, Velocity & Variety2.4.5 Vendor Commitments & Partnerships2.4.6 Technology Trends Lowering Entry Barriers2.5 Market Barriers2.5.1 Lack of Analytic Specialists2.5.2 Uncertain Big Data Strategies2.5.3 Organizational Resistance to Big Data Adoption2.5.4 Technical Challenges: Scalability & Maintenance2.5.5 Security & Privacy ConcernsPurchased this report online with 445 Pages and List of figures and table 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
Global Lemongrass Oil Market to Exhibit Steadfast Expansion During 2016 - 2026

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The Lemongrass oil is obtained by extraction of the stalks of the Lemongrass (Cymbopogon) herb. Lemongrass shrubs/plant mainly grows in Asia and cannot be available as fresh throughout the year, but now a days lemongrass oil and lemongrass extract or dehydrated forms are commonly used.According to the discovery health, lemongrass oil is one of the bestselling oil in the world which is used by the culinary artist because of its fresh and enjoyable scent. Traditionally, lemongrass parts as well as its oil have been used as a remedy for various health issues such as, digestive disturbances, behavioral problems, circulatory issues, etc. It is also known as fever grass due to its ability to bring down a fever. Lemongrass oil is useful in prevention of growth of some yeast and bacteria, and has antioxidant/ antibacterial properties and an important vitamins such as vitamin A, B2, B3, B6, B5, B1, folate and vitamin C and also provides essential minerals such as copper, calcium, phosphorous, zinc, manganese, iron and magnesium. Due to all these numerous benefits of lemongrass oil market is in high demand. Lemongrass thrives in tropical and subtropical regions, such as India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, China, Cambodia, and Guatemala.Request For Report Sample@Lemongrass Oil: SegmentationLemongrass oil market is segmented on the basis of the application, grade and regions. On the basis of lemongrass oil application market is segmented as pharmaceutical, cosmetics & personal care, and food and beverages. As Lemongrass oil possess high medicinal value and used in various treatments since history market demand in pharmaceutical segment is significantly high. On the basis of lemongrass oil application in cosmetic & personal care products, the product is used in soaps, deodorants, shampoos, conditioner, body lotion, air freshener and tonics. Its essential vitamin contents as well as skin healing properties are driving lemongrass oil market demand in personal care market segment. Lemongrass oil popularity as fragrance and taste, its demand in food and beverage market segment has grown over the time. It is used in various culinary delights, added to ready-made curries, paired with beef, fish, poultry and seafoods, it is also used for flavoring tea and soups.Lemongrass oil market is further segmented on the basis of grades as food grade and therapeutic grade. Food grade is basically for food and beverage purpose and therapeutic grade is for pharmaceutical as well as personal care uses. Lemongrass oil market is later segmented on the basis of regions, as North America North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, Japan, and Middle East & Africa.Lemongrass Oil: Region wise outlookLatin America and Europe are leading regional markets importing lemongrass oil. However, being origin region of lemongrass oil, Asia Pacific market leading exporter market for lemongrass oil, India and China are major producer markets. Asia pacific and Europe markets are expected to witness higher growth in forecast period. In Asian countries such as, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia, lemongrass oil is a popular ingredient in many culinary delights. The market demand of lemongrass oil is increasing its popularity in flavoring Asian cooking too. Lemongrass oil is gaining popularity from health conscious consumers from Latin America, which is driving market growth in the region.Lemongrass Oil: Trends and DriversLemongrass oil has various medicinal, skin care properties as well as health benefits, due to this lemongrass oil is gaining popularity in the worldwide markets. Increasing popularity of lemongrass oil in aromatherapy is driving global market demand. The trending natural oil based personal care product demand by consumers, is another market driver for lemongrass oil.In addition, lemongrass oil has various health benefits which are related to with essential oil are anticipated to drive the lemongrass oil demand in pharmaceutical and applications medical and the product has no harmful side effects which will help in penetrating the market in future. Also, increasing uses in food and beverage industry for culinary dishes is another major market driver.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):Lemongrass Oil: Key playersSome of the key participating players in Lemongrass oil market globally are, The Leburmuth Company, Essential Oils of New Zealand, Young Living Essential Oils, doTerra, Sydella Laboratoire, West India Spices Inc, Falcon ,Rajkeerth Aromatics, Reho natural ingredients etc. among the others.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Worldwide Trend of CDN Security Market | Worldwide Top key Vendors  Akamai Technologies, Cloudflare, Stackpath, Limelight Networks, MaxCDN, Radware, Arbor Networks, Nexusguard, Distil Networks | 2018- 2025

CDN Security Market

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BusinessIndustryReports.com has new research report on the global CDN Security Market. The global CDN Security market is growing continuously and expected to grow healthy CAGR by Forecast year 2025CDN Security market is a geographically distributed network of proxy servers and their data centers. The goal is to distribute service spatially relative to end-users to provide high availability and high performance. CDN Security market serve a large portion of the Internet content today, including web objects (text, graphics and scripts), downloadable objects (media files, software, documents), applications (e-commerce, portals), live streaming media, on-demand streaming media, and social networks.CDN Security market are a layer in the internet ecosystem. Content owners such as media companies and e-commerce vendors pay CDN Security market operators to deliver their content to their end users. In turn, a CDN Security market pays ISPs, carriers, and network operators for hosting its servers in their data centers.CDN Security market is an umbrella term spanning different types of content delivery services: video streaming, software downloads, web and mobile content acceleration, licensed/managed CDN, transparent caching, and services to measure CDN Security market performance, load balancing, multi-CDN switching and analytics and cloud intelligence. CDN Security market vendors may cross over into other industries like security and WAN optimization.Get a Premium Sample Report atThis report studies the global CDN Security market, analyzes and researches the CDN Security development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeAkamai TechnologiesCloudflareStackpathLimelight NetworksMaxCDNRadwareArbor NetworksNexusguardDistil NetworksVerizon Digital Media ServicesCDNetworksMarket segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEUJapanChinaIndiaSoutheast AsiaMarket segment by Type, the product can be split intoDDoS ProtectionWeb Application FirewallBot Mitigation & Screen Scraping ProtectionData SecurityDNS ProtectionMarket segment by Application, CDN Security can be split intoLarge EnterprisesSmall & Medium-sized EnterprisesMore Inquire atMajor Table of Content1 Global CDN Security Market Research Report 20182 Global CDN Security Market Competition by Manufacturers3 Global CDN Security Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)4 Global CDN Security Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2013-2018)5 Global CDN Security Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type6 Global CDN Security Market Analysis by Application7 Global CDN Security Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis8 CDN Security Manufacturing Cost Analysis9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders11 Market Effect Factors Analysis12 Global CDN Security Market Forecast (2018-2025 )13 Research Findings and Conclusion14 AppendixKey questions answered in the report:What will the market growth rate of CDN Security market in 2025 ?What are the key factors driving the global CDN Security market?What are sales, revenue, and price analysis of top manufacturers of CDN Security market?Who are the distributors, traders and dealers of CDN Security market?Who are the key manufacturers in CDN Security market space?What are the CDN Security market opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in the global CDN Security market?What are sales, revenue, and price analysis by types and applications of CDN Security market?What are sales, revenue, and price analysis by regions of CDN Security market?What are the market opportunities, market risk and market overview of the CDN Security market?Purchased this report online with 113 Pages and List of figures and table 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
Magnificent Future of Risk Management Market 2025: Find Out Its Benefits

Risk Management Market

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HTF MI published a new industry research that focuses on Risk Management market and delivers in-depth market analysis and future prospects of Global Risk 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 [Banking, Insurance, Oil and Gas, Utilities & Others], products type [Cloud & On-premise] and various important geographies like United States, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia & India].Get Access to sample pages @This report studies the global Risk Management market size, industry status and forecast, competition landscape and growth opportunity. This research report categorizes the global Risk Management market by companies, region, type and end-use industry.The research covers the current market size of the Global Risk 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 Risk 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 Global Risk Management Market.The study provides company profiling, product picture and specifications, sales, market share and contact information of key manufacturers of Global Risk Management Market, some of them listed here are Accenture, Allgress, G Bina, BWise, Check Point Software, ControlCase, Crisil, CURA Software Solutions, Deloitte, EMC, Enablon, FireEye, Fiserv, IBM, LockPath, MetricStream, Oracle, PwC, Protiviti & Riskonnect. The market is growing at a very rapid pace and with rise in technological innovation, competition and M&A activities in the industry many local and regional vendors are offering specific application products for varied end-users. The new manufacturer entrants in the market are finding it hard to compete with the international vendors based on quality, reliability, and innovations in technology.Global Risk Management (Thousands Units) and Revenue (Million USD) Market Split by Product Type such as Cloud & On-premise. Further the research study is segmented by Application such as Banking, Insurance, Oil and Gas, Utilities & Others with historical and projected market share and compounded annual growth rate.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), and market share and growth rate of Risk Management in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), covering United States, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia & India and its Share (%) and CAGR for the forecasted period 2017 to 2022.Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @Following would be the Chapters to display the Global Risk Management market.Chapter 1, to describe Definition, Specifications and Classification of Risk Management, Applications of Risk 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 Risk 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 United States, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia & India, Risk Management Segment Market Analysis (by Type);Chapter 7 and 8, to analyze the Risk Management Segment Market Analysis (by Application) Major Manufacturers Analysis of Risk Management;Chapter 9, Market Trend Analysis, Regional Market Trend, Market Trend by Product Type [Cloud & On-premise], Market Trend by Application [Banking, Insurance, Oil and Gas, Utilities & Others];Chapter 10, Regional Marketing Type Analysis, International Trade Type Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis;Chapter 11, to analyze the Consumers Analysis of Global Risk Management;Chapter 12,13, 14 and 15, to describe Risk Management sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.Enquire for customization in Report @What this Research Study Offers:Global Risk 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
Construction in Chile Key Players- Salfacorp SA, Besalco SA, Territoria El Bosque and TECSA Holding Market Analysis Forcast 2017-2020

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SynopsisIn real terms, the Chilean construction industry registered a growth rate of 2.8% in 2015. This was preceded by an annual growth rate of 1.6% in 2014, 3.2% in 2013, 7.0% in 2012 and 6.8% in 2011. Economic recovery, coupled with government investments in infrastructure, and residential construction, increased issuance of building permits and greater total surface area for construction contributed to growth. In addition, reconstruction projects after the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami in 2010 supported industry growth during the review period (20112015).Click here for sample report @Report HighlightsThe government is focused on the development of transport infrastructure to provide better connectivity for citizens and support overall economic development. Under the Infrastructure Master Plan 20142020, the government plans to invest CLP16 trillion (US$28 billion) to develop road, rail and airports by 2020. The governments infrastructure investment is expected to support the infrastructure construction market over the forecast period.Under the Agenda Digital Imagina Chile 20132020 (Chile Digital Agenda 20132020), the government plans to increase internet access from 40% of the total population in 2015 to 80% by 2020. Accordingly, it plans to invest CLP14.8 trillion (US$26.0 billion) to develop a fibre-based broadband network and long-term evolution (4G) network in the country by 2024. Over the forecast period, the governments plan to increase internet penetration to support economic growth and development is expected to drive growth in the energy and utilities construction market.Major Scope of the report:This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the construction industry in Chile. It provides:Historical (2011-2015) and forecast (2016-2020) valuations of the construction industry in Chile using construction output and value-add methodsSegmentation by sector (commercial, industrial, infrastructure, energy and utilities, institutional and residential) and by project typeBreakdown of values within each project type, by type of activity (new construction, repair and maintenance, refurbishment and demolition) and by type of cost (materials, equipment and services)Analysis of key construction industry issues, including regulation, cost management, funding and pricingDetailed profiles of the leading construction companies in ChileTable of Contents1 Executive Summary2 Industry Outlook2.1 Commercial Construction2.2 Industrial Construction2.3 Infrastructure Construction2.4 Energy and Utilities Construction2.5 Institutional Construction2.6 Residential Construction3 Key Issues and Developments4 Market Data Analysis4.1 Construction Output and Value Add4.1.1 Construction output by project type4.1.2 Construction output by cost type4.1.3 Construction output by activity type4.1.4 Construction value add by project type4.2 Commercial Construction4.2.1 Commercial construction output by project type4.2.2 Commercial construction output by cost type4.2.3 Commercial construction output by activity type4.2.4 Commercial construction value add by project type4.3 Industrial Construction.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
Peanut Oil Global Market Top Key Players  ADM , Bunge , Cargill , Louis Dreyfus , Wilmar International and Forecast to 2025

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Global Peanut Oil MarketWiseGuyRerports.com Presents Global Peanut Oil Market Research Report 2018 New Document to its Studies Database. The Report Contain 126 Pages With Detailed Analysis.DescriptionThis report studies the global Peanut Oil market status and forecast, categorizes the global Peanut Oil market size (value & volume) by key players, type, application, and region. This report focuses on the top players in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, and Middle East & Africa.The major manufacturers covered in this reportADMBungeCargillLouis DreyfusWilmar InternationalCorbionShandong LuhuaCofcoDonlinksYihai KerryLongdaQingdao ChangshengShangdong JinshengShandong Bohi IndustryShandong Bohi IndustryHunan JinlongSanhe hopefullDalian HuanongShandong SanweiQingdao TianxiangGuangdong YingmaiHenan Sunshine Group CorporationGet sample Report @Geographically, this report studies the key regions, focuses on product sales, value, market share and growth opportunity in these regions, coveringNorth AmericaEuropeAsia-PacificSouth AmericaMiddle East & AfricaThe regional scope of the study is as follows:North AmericaUnited StatesCanadaMexicoAsia-PacificChinaIndiaJapanSouth KoreaAustraliaIndonesiaSingaporeRest of Asia-PacificEuropeGermanyFranceUKItalySpainRussiaRest of EuropeCentral & South AmericaBrazilArgentinaRest of South AmericaMiddle East & AfricaSaudi ArabiaTurkeyRest of Middle East & AfricaOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoCold PressedHot PressedOn 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, includingHomeRestaurantFood ManufactureOtherThe study objectives of this report are:To analyze and study the global Peanut Oil sales, value, status (2013-2017) and forecast (2018-2025).Focuses on the key Peanut Oil manufacturers, to study the sales, value, market share and development plans in future.Focuses on the global key manufacturers, to define, describe and analyze the market competition landscape, SWOT analysis.To define, describe and forecast the market by type, application and region.To analyze the global and key regions market potential and advantage, opportunity and challenge, restraints and risks.To identify significant trends and factors driving or inhibiting the market growth.To analyze the opportunities in the market for stakeholders by identifying the high growth segments.To strategically analyze each submarket with respect to individual growth trend and their contribution to the marketTo analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the marketTo strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Peanut Oil are as follows:History Year: 2013-2017Base Year: 2017Estimated Year: 2018Forecast Year 2018 to 2025Key StakeholdersPeanut Oil ManufacturersPeanut Oil Distributors/Traders/WholesalersPeanut Oil Subcomponent ManufacturersIndustry AssociationDownstream VendorsAvailable CustomizationsWith the given market data, QYResearch offers customizations according to the company's specific needs. The following customization options are available for the report:Regional and country-level analysis of the Peanut Oil market, by end-use.Detailed analysis and profiles of additional market players.Complete Report Details @Table of Contents -Major Key PointsGlobal Peanut Oil Market Research Report 20181 Peanut Oil Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Peanut Oil1.2 Peanut Oil Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Peanut Oil Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Peanut Oil Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Cold Pressed1.2.4 Hot Pressed1.3 Global Peanut Oil Segment by Application1.3.1 Peanut Oil Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Home1.3.3 Restaurant1.3.4 Food Manufacture1.3.5 Other1.4 Global Peanut Oil Market by Region (2013-2025)1.4.1 Global Peanut Oil Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2013-2025)1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.4 Asia-Pacific Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.5 South America Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.6 Middle East & Africa Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Peanut Oil (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global Peanut Oil Revenue Status and Outlook (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global Peanut Oil Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2013-2025)..7 Global Peanut Oil Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis7.1 ADM7.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.1.2 Peanut Oil Product Category, Application and Specification7.1.2.1 Product A7.1.2.2 Product B7.1.3 ADM Peanut Oil Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.2 Bunge7.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.2.2 Peanut Oil Product Category, Application and Specification7.2.2.1 Product A7.2.2.2 Product B7.2.3 Bunge Peanut Oil Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.3 Cargill7.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.3.2 Peanut Oil Product Category, Application and Specification7.3.2.1 Product A7.3.2.2 Product B7.3.3 Cargill Peanut Oil Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.4 Louis Dreyfus7.4.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.4.2 Peanut Oil Product Category, Application and Specification7.4.2.1 Product A7.4.2.2 Product B7.4.3 Louis Dreyfus Peanut Oil Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.4.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.5 Wilmar International7.5.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.5.2 Peanut Oil Product Category, Application and Specification7.5.2.1 Product A7.5.2.2 Product B7.5.3 Wilmar International Peanut Oil Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.5.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.6 Corbion7.6.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.6.2 Peanut Oil Product Category, Application and Specification7.6.2.1 Product A7.6.2.2 Product B7.6.3 Corbion Peanut Oil Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.6.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.7 Shandong Luhua7.7.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.7.2 Peanut Oil Product Category, Application and Specification7.7.2.1 Product A7.7.2.2 Product B7.7.3 Shandong Luhua Peanut Oil Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.7.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.8 Cofco7.8.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.8.2 Peanut Oil Product Category, Application and Specification7.8.2.1 Product A7.8.2.2 Product B7.8.3 Cofco Peanut Oil Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.8.4 Main Business/Business Overview..CONTINUEDAbout UsWise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, Industry research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports understand how essential statistical surveying information is for your organization or association. Therefore, we have associated with the top publishers and research firms all specialized in specific domains, ensuring you will receive the most reliable and up to date research data available.NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)
Future of PFS injection devices from cross-industry expertise perspectives  discussion this June in San Diego

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With just over a month away, SMi's Pre-Filled Syringes West Coast show (June 4 - 5, San Diego, CA) is set to beat the record in attendee interest. Set to attend the event are: AbbVie, Allergan, Amgen, Antares Pharma, Aptar Pharma, Baxter Healthcare, Boehringer Ingelheim, Credence MedSystems, Ferring Pharmaceuticals, Genentech, Gilead Science, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Merck & Co., Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Regeneron, Shire, Xeris Pharmaceuticals, amongst others. Visit Pre-Filled Syringes West Coast website for detailed list.Early bird saving for this event expires after April 30th. Organisers advise to register in advance.Pre-Filled Syringes West Coast is the perfect platform to strengthen knowledge in key principles of the field, such as human factor engineering, manufacturing in the landscape of complex biologics; whilst honing-in on emerging trends for parenteral devices, in the remit of quality controls, intellectual property and advances in drug-delivery designs including auto injectors, pens, pumps and smart devices.Participants will hear from a selection of carefully handpicked keynote addresses and case studies presented by big pharma perspectives, as well as leading industry KOL's. Also, newly introduced Panel Discussion on the future of PFS injection devices from cross-industry expertise perspectives will answer burning questions: What trends do we see coming? What challenges will those trends bring? Post-approval changes for combination products Human Factor considerations Manufacturing updates Regulatory considerationA detailed event programme and the full speaker line-up are available on the Download Centre of the website.*************************************************************************[Here what attendees of the recent SMis Pre-Filled Syringes event in Boston are saying]Excellent line up of speakers & relevant topics | Excellent development overview | Thoughtful exploration of hypothesis to solution | Interesting to hear how end users perceive devices | Very practical examples | Excellent engagement | Good in-depth examination of HF data | Great value presentations, plus enjoyed the networking*************************************************************************Also, in the programme - Interactive on-site trainings on June 6- How to leverage tangibles in user testing to ensure successful commercialisation of innovation products - iO Lifesciences- Quality related aspects in creating digital connectivity for devices - AcceleratoRx, Temptime Corporation, The Plough Center, MedImmuneFollow Pre-Filled Syringes West Coast website for further detailsCONTACT:+44 (0)20 7827 6000ldurneva@smi-online.co.ukTwitter - @SMIpharm & #smipfsusaLinkedIn - SMi Pharma-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Pre-Filled Syringes West Coast | Conference: June 4 - 5th, 2018 | Interactive Workshops: June 6th, 2018-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------About SMi Group: Established since 1993, the SMi Group is a global event-production company that specializes in Business-to-Business Conferences, Workshops, Masterclasses and online Communities. We create and deliver events in the Defence, Security, Energy, Utilities, Finance and Pharmaceutical industries. We pride ourselves on having access to the worlds most forward thinking opinion leaders and visionaries, allowing us to bring our communities together to Learn, Engage, Share and Network.1 Westminster Bridge Road
New Study Forecasts High Purity Silica Market to Witness Sustained Growth in Coming Years

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As per the current market trends and the promising nature of the global high purity silica market, it can be estimated that the future holds positive outcomes. In order to provide a deep insight about the concerned market, Fact.MR would be publishing a resourceful analysis that will enclose knowledge about the regional market size, revenue and opportunity status. Readers will be offered the privilege to decode various facets of the market during the period 2018 to 2027, together with the active access to secondary and primary research methodology. Furthermore, various segments of the market associated to product, application, end-user etc., would also be present in this intelligent research report.Request TOC of this Report-A new research publication by Fact.MR presents incisive insights on the global high purity silica market. The report assesses the historical trends that have shaped this landscape until now, and offers an accurate and unbiased outlook on the likely market scenario for the period 2018-2027.The use of high purity silica in various industries has pushed its demand across regions, depending on the market position of the respective end use industry in the particular region. Moreover, various factors influencing growth of the global high purity silica market have also been covered in this research study. Analysis on key market participants such as Nyacol, Corning, Canadian Metals Inc., Heraeus, Evonik Industries AG, Huber Engineered Materials and Akzo Nobel is also included.Demand for High Purity Silica from Industrial Rubber and Tire Industry GrowingHigh purity silica is gaining rapid acceptance from the industrial rubber and tire industry. It is being largely used to manufacture green tires that differ from conventional tires in terms of higher grip and low rolling resistance. Low rolling resistance offers reduced fuel consumption thus saving money and protecting environment by lowering the CO2 emissions. This has spurred the demand for high purity silica in rubber and tire sector. This factor is also supported by the fact that governments across regions are focusing on reducing the greenhouse emissions by enhancing fuel consumption of vehicles.With the growth in the rubber industry in the United States, the region continues to remain a major consumer of tires as well as a huge producer of synthetic rubber. 2018 is expected to be an opportunistic year for the economy of United States. The demand for tires from the automotive sector in the United States is expected to fuel the use of high purity silica in this region. Albeit a maturity in the US automotive sector, this industry is expected to present potential opportunities for the high purity silica market.To know more @ Global High Purity Silica Market, visit -In emerging economies, the demand of high purity silica in the automotive sector, for production of green tires is expected to soar at high pace. In 2016, the automobile production (passenger cars) in China was around 24,420,744 units and in 2017 it reached 24,806,687. Likewise, in India, the number of passenger cars in 2017 recorded a volume production of about 3,952,550 from an initial volume of 3,677,605 in 2016. This trend shows that the production of passenger as well as commercial vehicles in these countries is increasing at a steady pace and is expected to continue with this trend in the coming years. This has presented significant opportunity for tire manufacturers to develop green tires, which in turn is expected to trigger the sale of high purity silica in these countries. Moreover, in India, the demand for tires is expected to increase by 7 to 8 percent during 2018-2019 timeline, which is expected to aid the growth of the global high purity silica market.Growth in Semiconductor Industry to Spur Sales of High Purity SilicaHigh purity silica is used in semiconductor and electronics industry for mechanical planarization or polishing. With the growing use of high purity silica in this field, its demand across regions such as United States and Europe is expected to increase. In 2017, the semiconductor industry witnessed growth owing to high adoption of graphics processing units and e-sports. According to World Semiconductor Trade Statistics, the semiconductor revenue from a global perspective is expected to rise by 7% in 2018. In 2017, the semiconductor revenue in US reflected a value higher than US$ 86 Mn, which is expected to reach US$ 95 Mn with a 10.3% growth. Likewise, in Europe, though the rate of growth remains less as compared to Unite States, the semiconductor revenue is expected to touch a value higher than US$ 39 Mn in 2018. In Asia Pacific, the semiconductor market is expected to witness high growth pace. The semiconductor revenue in this region in 2017 was US$ 247,834 Mn and is estimated to soar at a 6.6% rate to reach US$ 264,097 Mn in 2018. These statistics have shown a considerable expansion of the semiconductor market, which is expected to fuel the growth of the global high purity silica market in the coming years.This research report on global high purity silica market offers in-depth understanding regarding the global market scenario across key regions and also includes forecast analysis for a period of nine years, from 2018 till 2027. It extends support from an actionable intelligence standpoint that the reader can sue to achieve his/her research milestones.Pre-book Global High Purity Silica 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:
3D Scanners Market Outlook with Industry Review and Forecasts 2017 - 2025

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Wikipedia defines a 3D scanner as a device that analyses a real-world object to collect information on its shape and also its appearance. This data is then used to create digital three dimensional models. 3D data is useful in many applications like movie and video game production, industrial design, prosthetics, orthotics, reverse engineering, prototyping, quality control/ inspection and also documentation of cultural or historical artefacts.The main types of scanners sold in the 3D scanners market are Laser 3D scanners, portable CMM based 3D scanners, optical scanners and structured light scanners. They can also be classified as being short, medium or long range scanners. Laser 3D scanners account for the largest market share at present. However, CMM based ones are gaining popularity and growing faster due to their portability, affordability and also application in non-conventional areas to scan objects in tight spaces with a high degree of accuracy.Request Report for TOC @3D Scanners Market DriversAn increasing focus on industrialization and manufacturing is expected to be the main driver of the 3D scanner market going forward. 3D scanners have widespread adoption in the automobile, aerospace and construction industry. Automobile manufacturers have been reducing their product development cycles in recent times, enabling them to introduce new vehicles quicker. In addition, a high prevalence of reverse engineering in countries like China will also spur the demand for 3D printers.They are also used by the medical industry for surgery, various diagnoses like CT scans and also by dentists. In developed regions like North America, 3D scanners have begun to be used in crime scene investigation, providing a ready market for manufacturers. Another use case for 3D scanners is for maintaining digital records of all cultural or historical artefacts. This is mainly in countries like China, India and the Middle East which are considered the cradles of civilization and have countless historical treasures worth preserving. 3D scanners are vital in preserving records of historical data or any artefacts which may be kept in museums around the world.3D Scanners Market RestraintsAs already mentioned, the two main types of scanners sold in the 3D scanners market are Laser scanners and portable CMM based ones. Laser scanners are typically fixed, and provide a high quality scanned image. However, this also makes them prohibitively expensive, making mass adoption challenging. Fierce price competition among the established players will also make it difficult for the 3D scanner market to grow at an unencumbered rate.3D Scanners Market Key RegionsNorth America is the largest 3D scanner market, followed by the European Union. The U.S.A has always been at the forefront of adopting new technologies for various reasons. The region is known for its manufacturing prowess in the automobile, healthcare and aerospace industries. The North American 3D scanners market players have also found customers in new fields like forensics, crime scene investigation, and the fashion and jewellery market. Europe closely follows the U.S.in adoption of 3D scanners for the same reasons mentioned above. Asia Pacific countries like China and India are expected to account for the highest growth rates. This is due to rapid industrialization requiring 3D scans in the construction industry and a high prevalence of reverse engineering (particularly in China). In addition to this, there is also a strong focus on automobile manufacturing and healthcare, increasing the scope of the Asian 3D scanners market.Request to Sample of Report @3D Scanners Market Key Market PlayersSome of the companies operating in the 3D scanners market includes Hexagon AB, Faro Technologies, Creaform Inc., Nikon Metrology, Trimble Navigation Ltd., GOM GmbH, Topcon Corporation, Creaform Inc., Trimble Navigation Ltd., Maptek, Ametek , Perceptron Inc., Carl Zeiss Optotechnik GmbH, Riegl Laser Measurement Systems GmbH, and 3D Digital Corporation.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 Drone Analytics Market Demand Analysis & Opportunity Outlook 2025

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Summary:- (Drone Analytics Market)Global Drone Analytics Market valued approximately USD 1.4 billion in 2016 is anticipated to grow with a healthy growth rate of more than 30.0% over the forecast period 2017-2025. The market growth is attributed to increasing adoption of drone across various end user industries, rising demand for drone analytics from commercial applications, rising usage of drone for security and surveillance purpose and others.Effective navigation has been a major challenge before the drone technology since its inception. Thus, drone companies are rapidly focusing on merging the existing drone technologies with predictive analytics and artificial intelligence to execute precise inspections for enabling effective navigations in all areas. Effective developments are being made in the field of agriculture and forestry, mining and quarrying and others.Request a Sample Copy! Get PDF Sample Brochure@The objective of the study is to define market sizes of different segments & countries in recent years and to forecast the values to the coming eight years. The report is designed to incorporate both qualitative and quantitative aspects of the industry within each of the regions and countries involved in the study. Furthermore, the report also caters the detailed information about the crucial aspects such as driving factors & challenges which will define the future growth of the market. Additionally, the report shall also incorporate available opportunities in micro markets for stakeholders to invest along with the detailed analysis of competitive landscape and product offerings of key players.The detailed segments and sub-segment of the market are explained below:By Industry:Agriculture & ForestryConstructionInsuranceMining & QuarryingUtilityTelecommunicationOil & GasTransportationScientific ResearchOthersBy Application:Thermal DefectionMilitaryGeolocation ExplorationAerial MonitoringGround ExplorationVolumetric Calculation3D ModellingOthersBy Type:On-PremisesSoftwareServiceOn-DemandSoftware as A ServicesBy Solution:End-To-End SolutionsPoint SolutionRegions:North America, U.S., Canada, Europe, UK, Germany, Asia Pacific, China, India, Japan, Latin America, Brazil, Mexico, Rest of the WorldFurthermore, years considered for the study are as follows:Historical year  2015Base year  2016Forecast period  2017 to 2025Some of the key manufacturers involved in the market:Airware, Agribotix, Aeroevirnoment, Dronedeploy, Delta Drone, ESRI, Precisonhawk, Viatechnik, Pix4d, Kespry, Optelos, Huvrdata, Sentera Frequent cross industry partnerships are leading to market consolidation.To Make an Enquiry on Drone Analytics Market Research Report@Major Point from Table of Content:Chapter 1. Global Drone Analytics Market Definition and ScopeChapter 2. Research MethodologyChapter 3. Executive SummaryChapter 4. Global Drone Analytics Market DynamicsChapter 5. Global Drone Analytics Market, By IndustryChapter 6. Global Drone Analytics Market, By ApplicationChapter 7. Global Drone Analytics Market, By TypeChapter 8. Global Drone Analytics Market, By SolutionChapter 9. Global Drone Analytics Market, by Regional AnalysisChapter 10. Competitive Intelligence10.1. Company Market Share (Subject to Data Availability)10.2. Top Market Strategies10.3. Company Profiles10.3.1. Airware10.3.1.1. Overview10.3.1.2. Financial (Subject to Data Availability)10.3.1.3. Product Summary10.3.1.4. Recent Developments10.3.2. Aeroevirnoment10.3.3. Agribotix10.3.4. Delta Drone10.3.5. Dronedeploy10.3.6. ESRI10.3.7. Huvrdata10.3.8. Kespry10.3.9. Optelos10.3.10. Pix4d10.3.11. Precisonhawk10.3.12. Sentera10.3.13. ViatechnikRead more....Browse full report@About Us:Orbis Research (orbisresearch.com) is a single point aid for all your market research requirements. We have vast database of reports from the leading publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customized reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialization. This helps our clients to map their needs and we produce the perfect required market research study for our clients.Contact Us:Hector CostelloSenior Manager  Client Engagements4144N Central Expressway,Suite 600, Dallas,Texas - 75204, U.S.A.Phone No: +1 (214) 884-6817; +912064101019Email ID: sales@orbisresearch.com
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
Perfume & fragrances market 2017 Major Key Vendors - Elizabeth Arden, Inc. (U.S.), Loreal (France), Shiseido (Japan), IFF Forecast 2023

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Perfume & Fragrances MarketSummaryThe Global Perfume & Fragrance Market has witnessed continued demand during the last few years and is projected to reach USD 64.6 billion at a CAGR of 6.00% by 2023 in terms of value. Perfume & Fragrance market has witnessed substantial innovation in terms of new product launches along with research & development and collaboration by the industrial players. Also, the overall increasing disposable income of the consumer and their evolving buying pattern over the past few years which, in turn, has led to a surge in the sales of perfume & fragrance during the forecast period.Click here for sample report @Key Findings The Global perfume & fragrances market is projected to reach USD 64.6 billion by the end of 2023 Among the product type, Eau de Parfum segment will dominate the Perfume & Fragrance market and is projected to reach USD 33.49 billion by 2023 at a CAGR of 6.33% in terms of value. Eau de Toilette segment is projected to grow at the substantial CAGR of 6.16% to reach USD 20.02 billion by 2023. Among the consumer group, women segment will dominate the Perfume & Fragrance market and is projected to reach USD 37.24 billion by 2023 at a CAGR of 5.67% in terms of value. Men segment is projected to grow at the substantial CAGR of 6.53% to reach USD 23.85 billion by 2023.Regional and Country Analysis of perfume & fragrances market development and demand Forecast to 2022 MarketKey PlayersThe leading market players in the global Perfume & fragrances market primarily are Elizabeth Arden, Inc. (U.S.), Loreal (France), Shiseido (Japan), IFF (U.S.), Chanel (France), Estee Lauder (U.S.), Avon (U.S.), Vivenza (Kuwait), Royal Beauty Group Co.(Kuwait), AlQuraishi Fragrances (Kuwait).Table of Contents1 Report Prologue 192 Introduction 212.1 Definition 212.1.1 Perfumes & fragrances 212.1.2 History of Fragrances 212.2 Scope of the Study 222.2.1 Research Methodology 222.3 Assumptions 222.4 Limitations 222.5 Market Structure 232.5.1 Global Perfumes & Fragrances Market, By Product Type 232.5.2 Global Perfumes & Fragrances Market, By Ingredient 232.5.3 Global Perfumes & Fragrances Market, By Consumer Group 232.5.4 Global Perfumes & Fragrances Market, By Distribution Channel 232.5.5 Global Perfumes & Fragrances Market, By Region 233 Research Methodology 243.1 Research Process 243.2 Primary Research 263.3 Secondary Research 273.4 Forecast Model 28.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
Track And Trace And Serialization Market to Gain a Stronghold by 2025

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Pharmaceutical companies, like many others, face a number of challenges related to their supply chain management. Security lapses as a result of theft, product recalls or diversions can have terrible consequences for patient safety and security not only nationally but on a global level. They also affect the individual companies by directly impacting profitability, goodwill and planned research initiatives. With both the industry and governments realising the importance of adequate safeguards, the Track-and-Trace and Serialization Market came into existence. It has become mandatory for all stakeholders in the supply chain to comply with national and or/state legislation pertaining to the place in which they operate.Request Report for TOC @Rising product theft is a major issue for the pharmaceutical industry, and preventing it has become a key focus. Early approaches adopted included tamper-proof packages and 3-D holograms but even these are now considered easy to manipulate and have fallen out of favour. Current practices in the Track-and-Trace and Serialization Market include assigning a unique identification number to the smallest sale unit (like a bottle) and tracking its serial number through the entire supply chain so that it can be traced and authenticated at any moment. This practice has been in place in countries like China and Turkey for some time now, but now even countries like India and the U.S. have added similar laws. These are anticipated to be across the world over the next few years.Track-and-Trace and Serialization Market DriversMaintaining integrity of an increasingly complex supply chain is an important driver of the Track-and-Trace and Serialization Market. According to the WHO, the pharmaceutical industry loses nearly $40 billion in revenue due to counterfeiting. Billions more are stolen in annual cargo theft. This leads to not only lost sales opportunities but also increases the risk of patient safety. Negative publicity concerning counterfeits or product recalls can also damage the brand image and affect future sales revenue. With the help of the Track-and-Trace and Serialization Market, companies can identify and segregate products destined for different markets or customer segments. Authentication is a major benefit of patient-specific functionality based on serialisation.The second major driver of the Track-and-Trace and Serialization Market is ensuring regulatory compliance. Pharmaceutical companies need to plan and implement their Track-and-Trace and Serialization initiatives at the earliest. The U.S. and the EU will require mandatory serialisation from November 2017 and these two are the largest pharmaceutical markets by far. Together, they account for more than half the industry volume. Thus, companies already in, or wishing to enter these highly lucrative regions will need to comply with their serialisation requirements since their immense size makes them too important to ignore. While other countries like China and Turkey have already adopted these laws, the rest of the developing world will slowly but surely follow suit.Track-and-Trace and Serialization Market RestraintsThe biggest issue faced by the Track-and-Trace and Serialization Market is that of cost. Massive investments are required to make packaging lines capable of product serialisation. Estimates range from a conservative $250,000 all the way up to $1 million per line depending on how complex and automated it already is. These lines will experience production downtime while the changes are being made causing potential sales revenue losses. Some pharmaceutical companies hire contract manufacturers (CMOs) for inventory management. However, they might not be ready for the large investments which may require the Marketing Authorization Holder (MAH) to change CMOs to avoid revenue loss. They may even upgrade the CMOs packaging lines themselves which would be an expensive proposition.Request to Sample Report @The second critical Track-and-Trace and Serialization Market challenge is data management. Serialisation will generate massive amounts of data to be stored for many years to ensure regulatory compliance. The information will need to be readily accessible and highly responsive to business processes leading to pharmaceutical distribution and supply chain channels becoming increasingly complex. A solution must be quickly derived to handling Track-and-Trace and Serialization information with no disruption in day-to-day business functions of the organisationTrack-and-Trace and Serialization Market Key Market PlayersSome of the Track-and-Trace and Serialization Market key market players are TraceLink, Infosys, Bosch Packaging, SAP, Axway and Xyntec 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,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Vapor Recovery Services Market 2018: Top Key Players(SGS SA, Zeeco, Inc., Atlas Process Innovation, AEREON and JOHN ZINK COMPANY, LLC)

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This report studies the global Vapor Recovery Services market, analyzes and researches the Vapor Recovery Services 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 SGS SA Zeeco, Inc. Atlas Process Innovation AEREON JOHN ZINK COMPANY, LLC Petrogas Systems Global Vapor Control, Inc. (GVC) (part of Tri-Star) Vapor Point LLC. Envent Corporation Entech Hy-Bon PSG Dover PSCLooking for More Information on This Market Get Free Sample 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 By Process By OperationMarket segment by Application, Vapor Recovery Services can be split into Marine Loading Storage Tank Vents Railcar and Truck Loading OthersThe report is available on discount for a limited time only @Table of Content1 Industry Overview of Vapor Recovery Services1.1 Vapor Recovery Services Market Overview1.2 Global Vapor Recovery Services Market Size and Analysis by Regions (2013-2018)1.3 Vapor Recovery Services Market by Type2 Global Vapor Recovery Services Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Vapor Recovery Services Market Size (Value) by Players (2013-2018)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 SGS SA3.2 Zeeco, Inc.3.3 Atlas Process Innovation3.4 AEREON3.5 JOHN ZINK COMPANY, LLC3.6 Petrogas Systems3.7 Global Vapor Control, Inc. (GVC) (part of Tri-Star)3.8 Vapor Point LLC.3.9 Envent Corporation3.10 Entech4 Global Vapor Recovery Services Market Size by Type and Application (2013-2018)4.1 Global Vapor Recovery Services Market Size by Type (2013-2018)4.2 Global Vapor Recovery Services Market Size by Application (2013-2018)4.3 Potential Application of Vapor Recovery Services in Future4.4 Top Consumer/End Users of Vapor Recovery Services5 United States Vapor Recovery Services Development Status and Outlook5.1 United States Vapor Recovery Services Market Size (2013-2018)5.2 United States Vapor Recovery Services Market Size and Market Share by Players (2013-2018)5.3 United States Vapor Recovery Services Market Size by Application (2013-2018)6 EU Vapor Recovery Services Development Status and Outlook6.1 EU Vapor Recovery Services Market Size (2013-2018)6.2 EU Vapor Recovery Services Market Size and Market Share by Playe7 Japan Vapor Recovery Services Development Status and Outlook7.1 Japan Vapor Recovery Services Market Size (2013-2018)7.2 Japan Vapor Recovery Services Market Size and Market Share by Players (2013-2018)7.3 Japan Vapor Recovery Services Market Size by Application (2013-2018)8 China Vapor Recovery Services Development Status and Outlook8.1 China Vapor Recovery Services Market Size (2013-2018)8.2 China Vapor Recovery Services Market Size and Market Share by Players (2013-2018)8.3 China Vapor Recovery Services Market Size by Application (2013-2018)9 India Vapor Recovery Services Development Status and Outlook9.1 India Vapor Recovery Services Market Size (2013-2018)9.2 India Vapor Recovery Services Market Size and Market Share by Players (2013-2018)9.3 India Vapor Recovery Services Market Size by Application (2013-2018)10 Southeast Asia Vapor Recovery Services Development Status and Outlook10.1 Southeast Asia Vapor Recovery Services Market Size (2013-2018)10.2 Southeast Asia Vapor Recovery Services Market Size and Market Share by Players (2013-2018)10.3 Southeast Asia Vapor Recovery Services 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
Material Jetting Market Registering a Strong Growth by 2025

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The term 3D printing has become widely recognised in the last few years, but hardly anybody would know the term Additive Manufacturing. In reality, 3D printing is just one of several Additive Manufacturing techniques. While the media likes to use the term 3D printing to refer to all AM processes, there are actually 7 different categories. They are VAT Photopolymerisation, Binder Jetting, Material Extrusion, Powder Bed Fusion, Sheet Lamination, Directed Energy Deposition, and Material Jetting. The Material Jetting Market is responsible for creating objects in a similar manner to a 2D inkjet printer. The material is thrust onto a build platform with either a Drop on Demand (DOD) or continuous approach. Once jetted onto the platform, the material solidifies and the object is built in a layer by layer approach. The nozzle depositing the material moves in a horizontal fashion across the build platform.Request Report for TOC @Machines in the Material Jetting Market vary in size, complexity and their methods of controlling the method of depositing the material. The materials are then treated with ultraviolet light which hardens them. The number of materials available to use in this method is severely limited, as it must be deposited in drops. The most suitable and commonly used materials are polymers and waxes due to their adhesive nature and ability to form drops. Some of the polymers used include HDPE, PS, PC, HIPS, ABS, EDP and Polypropylene. Material jetting is the only form of additive manufacturing that can combine different printing materials within the same 3D model in a single print job. It is also capable of making functional assemblies, reducing the need for multiple builds.Material Jetting Market DriversThe material jetting market has major utility in the field of biomedical technology. Most healthcare infections are because of biofilms which form on the medical device surface. They develop a higher tolerance to antibiotics and the immune system compared to their planktonic counterparts. Material jetting allows a precise morphology, size and shape for printed devices. Human tissue, pressure sensitive fingers and smart limbs have all been created using this revolutionary technology.A second driver is the reduced manufacturing time and resources along with the advantage of being able to use multiple materials in one print. Products can be made and customised in specific areas where different materials are placed. This removes the need to print separate layers of various materials and combine them later. In one production run, a complete product can be created with unique materials only in the material jetting market. The printing method makes products with a layer resolution as low as 15 microns.Material Jetting Market RestraintsA major restraint in the material jetting market is the limited materials available to use. While it provides a high degree of accuracy, only some waxes and polymers like HDPE, PS, PC, HIPS, ABS, EDP and Polypropylene can be used. Material jetting is a very complex procedure, with several technical issues throughout the process. One challenge is formulating the liquid material for example. If the material is not liquid in the beginning, particles might need to be suspended in a carrier, dissolving the materials in a solvent, melting a polymer, or mixing a formula of monomer or prepolymer with an initiator. The second technical challenge is formulating and depositing the droplets. The material needs to be converted from a liquid into small discrete drops. After this, the droplet fall path, impact, and interaction or wetting must all be properly controlled. This complexity inevitably leads to a cost increase of the overall process, challenging the growth of the material jetting market.Request to Sample Report @Material Jetting Market Key RegionsNorth America is the largest material jetting market due to a large number of high-tech industries like aerospace & defence, automobile manufacture, and healthcare companies. All these sectors either already use or plan to use material jetting technology. Asia Pacific accounts for the fastest growth rate with China and Japan in particular leading the way because of government funding in R&D and an established manufacturing base.Material Jetting Market Key Market PlayersCompanies operating in the material jetting market are 3D Systems, Solidscape/ Stratasys and XJet and Vader Systems.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:
ESD Protective Signage Labels market Rugged Expansion Foreseen by 2027

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ESD Protective Signage Labels: Market IntroductionGlobal electrostatic discharge (ESD) packaging market is growing at a CAGR of over 6.5% and is expected to reach over 2 Bn by the end of forecast period. ESD protective signage labels help in protecting machines as well as people from ESD related hazards. ESD protective signage labels act as a source of communication with the consumers. ESD protective signage labels help in reducing the risk of electrostatic discharge, thus preventing the damage of static sensitive components. Some of the properties of ESD protective signage labels are heat and chemical resistant, weather resistant and can be used in harsh climatic conditions. ESD protective signage labels are used in various industries such as electrical and electronics, automotive, pharmaceuticals, aerospace industries etc. One of the properties of ESD protective signage labels is that they do not possess or hold an electrostatic charge when the label is removed from its liner, thus making it a suitable packaging solution for static sensitive components. Furthermore, ESD protective signage labels also prevent the electrostatic charge from building up on the surface level. ESD protective signage labels provide a cost-effective solution to the consumers.Request For Sample @ESD Protective Signage Labels: Market dynamicsWith the advent of digitalization, demand for ESD protective signage labels is increasing due to the growth of electrical & electronics industry. ESD protective signage labels have barrier properties such as moisture resistant, chemical resistant etc. and can also be used in adverse climatic conditions. Further, adding to the barrier properties, ESD protective signage labels provides a low-cost labelling solution for applications over a wide range of temperature. The key factor driving the ESD protective signage labels market is that the labels do not emit electrostatic charge when the label is removed from the liner. Moreover, the key property of ESD protective signage labels is that they prevent the static charge from getting accumulated on the surface of the labels, thus making ESD protective signage labels the preferred labelling solution among end users. ESD protective signage labels and liners, both, are made from recyclable materials and are bio-degradable, thus reducing the threat to the environment. Linerless ESD protective signage labels reduce the waste disposal, thus resulting in reduced carbon emission. ESD protective signage labels offer less storage space which reduces the cost reduction in transportation, thus increasing the growth of ESD protective signage labels.Despite the favorable conditions for the growth of ESD protective signage labels market, there are certain factors that hinder the growth such as relatively high cost with respect to other labelling solutions.ESD Protective Signage Labels: Market segmentationESD protective signage labels market has been segmented on the basis of material type, application, and end use.On the basis of material type ESD protective signage labels market has been segmented asPlasticPolyimidePETVinylOthersPaperGloss paperSynthetic paperOn the basis of application, ESD protective signage labels market has been segmented asPrinted circuit board (PCB)Semi-conductorsStatic sensitive devicesTransformersDiagnosis EquipmentOthersOn the basis of end use, ESD protective signage labels market has been segmented asElectrical and electronic industriesPharmaceuticalAutomobileDefence & MilitaryAerospaceOthersESD Protective Signage Labels: Regional outlookESD protective signage labels has been segmented on the basis of the region into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa (MEA), and Latin America. North America is expected to dominate the market share of ESD protective signage labels market over the forecast period due to growing electrical & electronics industry. Europe is expected to follow North America in terms of growth of ESD protective signage labels market. MEA region is expected to show average CAGR during the forecast period due to the stagnant economy.Request For TOC @ESD Protective Signage Labels: Key playersSome of the key players in the field of ESD protective signage labels market are Shenzhen HORB Tech Development Co., Ltd., Elcom (UK) Ltd, Botron Company Inc., Labels China.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature.FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Office Multifunction Devices Market Gain Impetus due to the Growing Demand over 2025

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Office Multifunction Devices play key role in managing documents in a variety of sectors, including healthcare, education, and the government. These products are also integral components of home offices and corporations, conveniently allowing users to print and photocopy documents from single device.The supply chain and production process of Office Multifunction Devices is global and rely on a combination of in-house and outsourced production to electronic manufacturing services. Generally, developed markets such as the North America, and Western Europe are engaged in high-value-added activities such as R&D and consumables production, which require a skilled labor force. Conversely, majority of MFP manufacturing a labor intensive process occurs in Asia and Latin America, due to the relatively low cost of labor in these regions.Request Report for TOC @Office Multifunction Devices Market: Drivers and ChallengesTwo of the emerging drivers for Office Multifunction Devices Market include international compliance with environmental regulations, and increasing availability of managed print services (MPS). Former development has affected parts procurement, and led OEMs to create products that consume less energy and reduce industrys carbon footprint. OEMs are also promoting the latter to increase revenues in response to business retrenchments in hardware spending.One of the restraint for Office Multifunction Devices market is that the cost of these products is more than an individual can afford, and the prices for the refills and spares also counts up to be more.Office Multifunction Devices Market: SegmentationOffice Multifunction Devices Market can be broadly categorized by type and by vertical.On the basis of type, Office Multifunction Devices Market can be segmented into following;Print-centric Office Multifunction DevicesPhotocopy machinesThe former typically have low printing speeds, offer modest copying capabilities, cater to much smaller workgroups, and are mostly low-to mid-end devices. Conversely, photocopy machines are intended for multiple users at a time, deliver high-speed printing and scanning functionality, and are most commonly middle-to high-end Office Multifunction Devices.On the basis of Vertical the Office Multifunction Devices can be segmented in following;HealthcareGovernmentFinance and EducationTelecommunicationRetail and ManufacturingOthersOffice Multifunction Devices Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players of Office Multifunction Devices Market are: HP Inc., Canon, Epson, Brother, Samsung Electronics, Ricoh, Fuji Xerox, Dell Inc., Lexmark, Oki etc.In September 2016, HP Inc. inked a deal for the acquisition of Samsung Electronics Printing business who was a premium manufacturer of multifunctional devices for offices. By focusing on multifunction printers and more deeply embedding mobile and cloud printing technologies to its product solutions HP Inc. wants to become a qualitative and quantitative leader in the industry.Request to Sample Report @Office Multifunction Devices Market: Regional OverviewOn the basis of geography, Office Multifunction Devices Market can be segmented into seven key regions namely North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, APEJ, Japan, and Middle East & Africa. Among various regions, the Office Multifunction Devices Market in North America is expected to dominate during the forecast period owing to large number of companies set up in this region which uses Office Multifunction Devices. North America region is expected to be followed by Europe and Asia Pacific, as the regions are slowly moving towards digital products for their day to day needs.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:
Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer 2018 Global Market Key Players - Tata Chemicals Limited, The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, Coromandel International Limited, National Fertilizers Limited....

Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Market 2018

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Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Market 2018Wiseguyreports.Com Adds Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer  Global Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities, Manufacturers, Analysis of Top Key Players and Forecast to 2025 To Its Research Database.Description:This report studies the global Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer market status and forecast, categorizes the global Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer market size (value & volume) by key players, type, application, and region. This report focuses on the top players in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, and Middle East & Africa.In 2017, the global Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer market size was xx million US$ and it is expected to reach xx million US$ by the end of 2025, with a CAGR of xx.x % between 2018 and 2025.The major manufacturers covered in this reportTata Chemicals LimitedThe Scotts Miracle-Gro CompanyCoromandel International LimitedNational Fertilizers LimitedKrishak Bharati Cooperative LimitedMidwestern BioagItalpollina SPAILSA S.P.APerfect Blend, LLCSustane Natural Fertilizer, Inc.Biostar Systems, LLC.Agrocare Canada, Inc.Request for Sample Report@Geographically, this report studies the key regions, focuses on product sales, value, market share and growth opportunity in these regions, coveringNorth AmericaEuropeAsia-PacificSouth AmericaMiddle East & AfricaThe regional scope of the study is as follows:North AmericaUnited StatesCanadaMexicoAsia-PacificChinaIndiaJapanSouth KoreaAustraliaIndonesiaSingaporeRest of Asia-PacificEuropeGermanyFranceUKItalySpainRussiaRest of EuropeCentral & South AmericaBrazilArgentinaRest of South AmericaMiddle East & AfricaSaudi ArabiaTurkeyRest of Middle East & AfricaOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoDryLiquidOn 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, includingCereals & grainsOilseeds & pulsesFruits & vegetablesOthersComplete report details @If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Table Of Content:Global Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Market Research Report 20181 Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer1.2 Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Dry1.2.4 Liquid1.3 Global Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Segment by Application1.3.1 Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Cereals & grains1.3.3 Oilseeds & pulses1.3.4 Fruits & vegetables1.3.5 Others1.4 Global Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Market by Region (2013-2025)1.4.1 Global Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2013-2025)1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.4 Asia-Pacific Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.5 South America Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.6 Middle East & Africa Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Revenue Status and Outlook (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2013-2025)2 Global Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.1 Global Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 Global Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.4 Manufacturers Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion.7 Global Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis7.1 Tata Chemicals Limited7.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.1.2 Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Product Category, Application and Specification7.1.2.1 Product A7.1.2.2 Product B7.1.3 Tata Chemicals Limited Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.2 The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company7.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.2.2 Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Product Category, Application and Specification7.2.2.1 Product A7.2.2.2 Product B7.2.3 The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.3 Coromandel International Limited7.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.3.2 Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Product Category, Application and Specification7.3.2.1 Product A7.3.2.2 Product B7.3.3 Coromandel International Limited Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.4 National Fertilizers Limited7.4.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.4.2 Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Product Category, Application and Specification7.4.2.1 Product A7.4.2.2 Product B7.4.3 National Fertilizers Limited Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.4.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.5 Krishak Bharati Cooperative Limited7.5.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.5.2 Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Product Category, Application and Specification7.5.2.1 Product A7.5.2.2 Product B7.5.3 Krishak Bharati Cooperative Limited Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.5.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.6 Midwestern Bioag7.6.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.6.2 Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Product Category, Application and Specification7.6.2.1 Product A7.6.2.2 Product B7.6.3 Midwestern Bioag Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.6.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.7 Italpollina SPA7.7.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.7.2 Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Product Category, Application and Specification7.7.2.1 Product A7.7.2.2 Product B7.7.3 Italpollina SPA Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.7.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.8 ILSA S.P.A7.8.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.8.2 Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Product Category, Application and Specification7.8.2.1 Product A7.8.2.2 Product B7.8.3 ILSA S.P.A Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.8.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.9 Perfect Blend, LLC7.9.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.9.2 Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Product Category, Application and Specification7.9.2.1 Product A7.9.2.2 Product B7.9.3 Perfect Blend, LLC Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.9.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.10 Sustane Natural Fertilizer, Inc.7.10.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.10.2 Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Product Category, Application and Specification7.10.2.1 Product A7.10.2.2 Product B7.10.3 Sustane Natural Fertilizer, Inc. Plant Sourced Organic Fertilizer Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.10.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.11 Biostar Systems, LLC.7.12 Agrocare Canada, Inc.Continued..Contact US:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)About Us:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:: Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt Ltd: Pune  411028: Maharashtra,: Ph: +91 841 198 5042
Heat Shrink Packaging market to Partake Significant Development During 2017  2027

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Heat Shrink Packaging: Market IntroductionHeat shrink packaging is gaining traction among packaging manufacturers for wrapping food, gift baskets, boxes etc. Shrink films possess unique properties like lightweight, easy moulding, clarity etc. making it a better choice for packaging of products. Heat shrink packaging consists of various plastic films which are shrunken after application of heat. Heat shrink packaging is used to secure and unitize loads. The most common application of heat shrink bags is to bundle multiple products together and secure the product over transportation. Heat shrink bags offer high clarity to consumers view the product inside. Heat shrink packaging is used for packaging of both edible and non-edible products. Heat shrink packaging is made of a recyclable material such as poly vinyl chloride (PVC), polyolefin, poly ethylene (PE) etc. which can be further reused. Heat shrink packaging offers flexibility in packaging as multiple products can be bundled together. Heat shrink packaging offers packaging solutions to various industries such as food and beverages, healthcare, electronics etc. Heat shrink bags are used to wrap both primary and secondary packaging.Request For Sample @Heat Shrink Packaging: Market dynamicsThe key factor driving the manufacturers of heat shrink packaging market is the consumers preferences for packaged food due to changing lifestyle, freshness, convenience and hygiene. The factors accentuating the market growth of the heat shrink packaging market are rapid industrialization, rising demand for consumer goods, increase in retail outlets etc. Increased traction of heat shrink packaging in humid regions for providing protection against rain, moisture, and other liquid contents is expected to propel the demand of heat shrink packaging market. In addition to the barrier properties, heat shrink packaging is easy to open and pack, which in turn increases the efficiency of the end-user heat shrink packaging. Heat shrink packaging offers in the reduction in overall packaging size which further helps in reduction in transportation cost. Heat shrink packaging is recyclable and reusable which helps in driving the market value of heat shrink packaging. The key factor heightening the demand of heat shrink packaging is that heat shrink packaging eliminates the need of additional fitments or loose fills such as peanut fills or paper cushioning etc. Heat shrink packaging offers flexibility over other packaging solutions as different products can be packed in the same films.Despite the favourable conditions for the growth of heat shrink packaging market, there are certain factors that hinder the growth such as government stringent policies against the use of plastic films. Heat shrink packaging material may interact with the consumable products which further can contaminate the product.Heat Shrink Packaging: Market segmentationHeat shrink packaging has been segmented on the basis of material type, applications, end-use type, and region.On the basis of material type, heat shrink packaging market can be segmented asPolyethylene (PE)PVCPolyolefinPETPolypropylene (PP)On the basis of an application. Heat shrink packaging market can be segmented asFrozen foodsGift basketsBoxesToysOthersOn the basis of end-use industry, heat shrink packaging market can be segmented asFood industryElectrical & electronicsPharmaceuticalsAutomotiveConsumer goodsOthersHeat Shrink Packaging: Regional outlookHeat shrink packaging market has been segmented on the basis of the region into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa (MEA), and Latin America. North America is expected to dominate the market share of heat shrink packaging market due to changing lifestyle towards fast food consumption. Europe is expected to follow North America in terms of CAGR. Asia pacific is expected to show growth in CAGR over the forecast period due to low-cost availability of raw materials.Request For TOC @Heat Shrink Packaging: Key playersSome of the key players in the field of heat shrink packaging market are Smurfit Kappa Group, Traco Manufacturing, Inc., Polypack, Texwrap Packaging Systems, EDL Packaging Engineers, Inc., International Plastics Inc.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature.FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
K Ultra High Definition Technologies Market to Gain a Stronghold by 2025

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Presently, there are several display screen technologies existing in the market, including liquid-crystal display (LCD), and high definition (HD). Ultra-High Definition technology is a new display technology that has emerged recently in the market. This Ultra-High Definition technologies offer better resolution quality as compared to high definition technologies, and owing to which adoption of Ultra-High Definition technologies is increasing significantly, in various consumer electronics products.4k Ultra-High Definition (UHD) Technologies Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe demand for 4k Ultra-High Definition (UHD) Technologies is mainly driven by their application in commercial sectors which includes hospitality, and retail industry. Moreover, reduction in the implementation cost will create future opportunities for the vendors to increase the adoption of 4k Ultra-High Definition (UHD) Technologies in a positive manner.Request Report for TOC @High implementation cost is the major restraint faced by most of the vendors in 4k Ultra-High Definition (UHD) Technologies market.Global 4k Ultra-High Definition (UHD) Technologies Market: Market SegmentationSegmentation OverviewGlobal 4k Ultra-High Definition (UHD) Technologies market can be divided into three segments, on the basis of type of technology, vertical, and region.Segmentation on the basis of type of technology for 4k Ultra-High Definition (UHD) Technologies Market as:-The major segments of 4k Ultra-High Definition (UHD) Technologies market on the basis of type of technology include:LCDLEDOLEDAMOLEDSegmentation on the basis of the end-use application for 4k Ultra-High Definition (UHD) Technologies Market as:-The major segments of 4k Ultra-High Definition (UHD) Technologies market on the basis of the end use application include:Personal ComputersSmart PhonesDisplay ScreensTelevisionOthersGlobal 4k Ultra-High Definition (UHD) Technologies Market: Key PlayersMajor players operating in the 4k Ultra-High Definition (UHD) Technologies market includes AU Optronics Sharp Corporation, Panasonic Corporation, BOE Technology Group Co., Ltd., Koninklijke Philips N.V., Sony Electronics, Inc., Hisense Group Co., Ltd., Toshiba Corporation, and Innolux Corporation.Request to Sample Report @Global 4k Ultra-High Definition (UHD) Technologies Market: Regional OutlookOn the basis of geography, 4k Ultra-High Definition (UHD) Technologies market can be segmented into seven key regions namely North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, APEJ, Japan and Middle East & Africa. Among various regions, the 4k Ultra-High Definition (UHD) Technologies market in North America is expected to dominate during the forecast period owing to high consumer demand and awareness regarding acceptance of new technologies.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:
Biologics Safety Testing Market to Exceed US$ 4.36 Bn in 2022

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Quality control measures for drug development are of utmost importance as inadvertent presence of unknown pharmaceutical ingredients can further complicate health conditions of the patients. Government authorities are closely watching over pharmaceutical companies and regulating their drug manufacturing processes by compelling them to undertake safety tests. Large and complex molecules such as biologics, which are produced from genes of living organisms through advanced DNA technologies, are also being tested for their safety in biopharmaceutical production.Request Report Multiple Chapter @Biotechnological companies and pharmaceutical manufacturers continue to give high regards for biologics safety testing products and services. The efficacy of biologics safety testing ensures that tested medicine and drugs are not containing any extra ingredient, thereby preventing patients from experiencing adverse reactions upon intake. A recently published report by Persistence Market Research projects that the global market for biologics safety testing will soar at a robust CAGR of 8.8% over the forecast period, 2017-2022. The report anticipates that approx. US$ 4.36 Bn worth of biologics safety testing products & services will be utilized globally by the end of 2022.Regional prospectsAccording to the report, North America will remain at the forefront of global expansion of biologics safety testing market. Throughout the forecast period, North America is anticipated to remain the largest market for biologics safety testing products & services. Key drug regulatory bodies such as the FDA are based in North America. Moreover, the overall healthcare infrastructure in the US and Canada is robust, and exhibits a high uptake for new and improved safety tests on biologics.The biologics safety testing market in Europe is also expected to witness impressive growth. Global leaders in biopharmaceutical production are expanding their presence in European countries such as Germany and the UK. Moreover, the European region continues to showcase a scientifically- and technologically-advanced healthcare marketplace for biologics safety testing.Request to Sample of Report @Likewise, Japans biologics safety testing market is also anticipated to incur rapid growth at a CAGR of 9.3%. Meanwhile the Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) region is anticipated to witness stellar growth, particularly with respect to manufacturing of biologics safety testing products. Low wages and favorable industrial regulations are expected to bolster the manufacturing of biologics safety testing products in the APEJ region. Between 2017 and 2022, the APEJ biologics safety testing market is estimated to create over US$ 270 Mn in absolute dollar opportunity.Key insights on the future of global biologics safety testing market : The report also projects that, In 2017, endotoxin tests will account for nearly one-third share on global revenues. The demand for adventitious agent detection tests will incur a relatively sluggish growth towards the latter half of the forecast periodRequest for Table of Contents @While kits and reagents will remain top-selling products, the global market for biologics safety testing will register higher traction for services, revenues from which are slated to grow at a CAGR of 9%. Vaccine and therapeutics development, the largest application for biologics safety testing, will be bringing in revenues worth over US$ 1.68 Bn by the end of 2022For more information @Key PlayersWuxi Apptec, Lonza Group Ltd., Toxikon Corporation, BioMerieux SA, Pace Analytical Services Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Genscript Biotech Corp., Eurofins Scientific Se, SGS S.A., Sigma-Aldrich Corporation (Merck KGaA), and Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. are profiled as key players in the global market for biologics safety testing. These companies are anticipated to remain active in the expansion of global biologics safety testing market through 2022.Get full report now @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:
Personal Accident Colombia - Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities and Analysis of Top Key Player Forecast To 2021

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Synopsis'Personal Accident and Health Insurance in Colombia, Key Trends and Opportunities to 2021' report provides a detailed outlook by product category for the Colombian life insurance segment, and a comparison of the Colombian insurance industry with its regional counterparts.It provides key performance indicators such as written premium, incurred loss, loss ratio, commissions and expenses, combined ratio, total assets, total investment income and retentions during the review period (20122016) and forecast period (20162021).GET SAMPLE REPORT @The report also analyzes distribution channels operating in the segment, gives a comprehensive overview of the Colombian economy and demographics, and provides detailed information on the competitive landscape in the country.The report brings together research, modeling and analysis expertise, giving insurers access to information on segment dynamics and competitive advantages, and profiles of insurers operating in the country. The report also includes details of insurance regulations, and recent changes in the regulatory structure.Summary'Personal Accident and Health Insurance in Colombia, Key Trends and Opportunities to 2021' report provides in-depth market analysis, information and insights into the Colombian personal accident and health insurance segment, including: An overview of the Colombian personal accident and health insurance segment The Colombian personal accident and health insurance segments growth prospects by category A comprehensive overview of the Colombian economy and demographics A comparison of the Colombian personal accident and health insurance segment with its regional counterparts The various distribution channels in the Colombian personal accident and health insurance segment Details of the competitive landscape in the personal accident and health insurance segment in Colombia Details of regulatory policy applicable to the Colombian insurance industryScopeThis report provides a comprehensive analysis of the personal accident and health insurance segment in Colombia: It provides historical values for the Colombian personal accident and health insurance segment for the reports 20122016 review period, and projected figures for the 20162021 forecast period. It offers a detailed analysis of the key categories in the Colombian personal accident and health insurance segment, and market forecasts to 2021. It provides a comparison of the Colombian personal accident and health insurance segment with its regional counterparts It provides an overview of the various distribution channels for personal accident and health insurance products in Colombia. It profiles the top personal accident and health insurance companies in Colombia, and outlines the key regulations affecting them.Reasons to Buy Make strategic business decisions using in-depth historic and forecast market data related to the Colombian personal accident and health insurance segment, and each category within it. Understand the demand-side dynamics, key market trends and growth opportunities in the Colombian personal accident and health insurance segment. Assess the competitive dynamics in the personal accident and health insurance segment. Identify growth opportunities and market dynamics in key product categories. Gain insights into key regulations governing the Colombian insurance industry, and their impact on companies and the industry's future.Key Highlights On December 31, 2015, the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) were fully implemented in Colombia. On February 16, 2015, the Statutory Health Law was passed, under which healthcare became a fundamental right of all Colombian citizens. In February 2015, the Colombian government approved banks and insurers to sell microinsurance policies, including personal accident through retailers, drugstores and superstores. Colombias personal accident and health segment is concentrated, with the five leading companies accounting for 78.7% of gross written premium in 2016.Table of Content: Key Points1 KEY FACTS AND HIGHLIGHTS2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY3 ECONOMY AND DEMOGRAPHY4 SEGMENT OUTLOOKContinuedACCESS 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
Internet of Things in Healthcare Market by Component (Medical Devices, System & Software, Service & Hardware), By Technology, By Application

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Internet of things is spreading their wings in every sector and healthcare is one of them. Internet of things offers various benefits in healthcare sectors such as improved medical care, reduced overall cost, better efficiency and also minimized human errors. Moreover, internet of things in healthcare is also improving relation between patient and doctor by offering better communication medium. Internet of things in healthcare sector has been helping hospitals and clinics to keep their patient safe and healthy. Further, hospitals and clinics can use internet of things to keep track of inventory. Fetal monitors, electrocardiograms, temperature monitor, blood and glucose level monitor are some of the important internet connected devices which have helped the doctors enormously to keep their patients safe and healthy.Market Size & ForecastGlobal internet of things in healthcare market is anticipated to flourish at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32.2% over the forecast period i.e. 2017-2024. The global market of internet of things in healthcare stood at revenue of around USD 42.7 Billion in 2016 and is expected to reach at a valuation of about USD 162.2 Billion by the end of 2024. Increasing expenditure in healthcare sector and technological advancement in internet of things are some major factors which are fostering the growth of global internet of things in healthcare market during the forecast period.Request Report Sample@In terms of region, global internet of things in healthcare market is segmented into five major regions including North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Middle East & Africa region. Among these regions, North America is dominating the global market of internet of things in healthcare due to the availability of advanced medical healthcare sector and higher healthcare expenditures in the region. Further, North America region is expected to retain its leading position over the forecast period.Asia Pacific region is expected to be the fastest growing market of internet of things in healthcare over the forecast period. This rapid growth of Asia Pacific region can be attributed to factors such as increasing disposable income of consumers, expanding investment in research & development of healthcare sector and emergence of new advanced IT-healthcare services in this region. India and China are expected to be major contributors to the growth of internet of things in healthcare due to increasing medical tourism and rising demand for smart wearable medical devices.Market SegmentationOur-in depth analysis of the global internet of things in healthcare market includes the following segments:By Component Medical Devices System & Software Service & Hardware Connectivity TechnologyBy Technology Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Wi-Fi Zigbee Near Field Communication CellularBy Application Clinical operations Telemedicine Inpatient Monitoring Medication Management Connected Imaging Work Flow ManagementBy RegionGlobal smart wearable device market is further classified on the basis of region as follows: North America (U.S. & Canada) Market size, Y-O-Y growth & Opportunity Analysis Latin America (Brazil, Mexico, Rest of Latin America) Market size, Y-O-Y growth & Opportunity Analysis Europe (U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Hungary, Belgium, Netherlands & Luxembourg, Rest of Europe) Market size, Y-O-Y growth & Opportunity Analysis Asia-Pacific (China, India, Japan, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Rest of Asia) Market size, Y-O-Y growth & Opportunity Analysis. Middle East and Africa (GCC, North Africa, South Africa and Rest of Middle East) Market size, Y-O-Y growth & Opportunity Analysis.Growth Drivers & ChallengesGlobal internet of things in healthcare market is primarily driven by the factors such as increasing expenditures in research and development of healthcare sector and increasing disposable income of the consumers. Further, rising demand for internet of things in health care sector due to their beneficial abilities such as batter care of patients and tracking of inventory coupled with technological advancement in internet of things are expected to foster the growth of global internet of things in healthcare market over the forecast period. Additionally, increasing penetration of critical diseases like cancer is propelling the demand for internet of things in healthcare sector in order to provide better treatment to the patients. Moreover, use of internet of things in medical processes like telemedicine and impatient monitoring are expected to propel the growth of this market in near future.Further, rising adoption of smart devices including smart wearable medical devices, health tracking devices is likely to foster the growth of internet of things in healthcare market in near future.Request Table of Contents Here:However, lack of governance standards in internet of things and skilled internet of things technicians are expected to hinder the growth of internet of things in healthcare market. In addition to this, internet of things in health care comprises of number of internet connected things which receive and transmit data in real time. Moreover, lack of data standards and data security related issues are some major factors which are hampering the growth of global internet of things in healthcare market.This report also provides the existing competitive scenario of some of the key players of the global internet of things (IOT) in healthcare market which includes company profiling of Medtronic PLC, Koninklijke Philips N.V., Cisco System Inc., IBM Corporation, GE Healthcare, Microsoft Corporation, SAP SE, Qualcomm Life Inc., Honeywell Life Care Solution, Stanley Healthcare. The profiling enfolds key information of the companies which encompasses business overview, products and services, key financials and recent news and developments. On the whole, the report depicts detailed overview of the global internet of things (IOT) in healthcare market that will help industry consultants, equipment manufacturers, existing players searching for expansion opportunities, new players searching possibilities and other stakeholders to align their market centric strategies according to the ongoing and expected trends in the future.Read More Info:About Research NesterResearch Nester is a leading service provider for strategic market research and consulting. We aim to provide unbiased, unparalleled market insights and industry analysis to help industries, conglomerates and executives to take wise decisions for their future marketing strategy, expansion and investment etc. We believe every business can expand to its new horizon, provided a right guidance at a right time is available through strategic minds. Our out of box thinking helps our clients to take wise decision so as to avoid future uncertainties.Contact for more Info:Ajay DanielEmail: ajay.daniel@researchnester.comU.S. +1 646 586 9123U.K. +44 203 608 5919
LCR Capital Partners appoints Raj Chinai as Senior Advisor  Middle East & India

New Delhi, 24th April 2018: LCR Capital Partners, a US-based private investment and advisory firm, is pleased to announce that Raj Chinai, CEO of ARC Advisory Partners, has joined the LCR team as Senior Advisor  Middle East & India. Based out of Dubai, Raj Chinai will be instrumental in facilitating LCR's growth in the region through valuable insights, growth strategies and business development activities on EB-5 program-focused business across the Middle East and India.The EB-5 Investor Visa Program provides an opportunity for qualified immigrant investors and their immediate families (children up to the age of 21) to obtain US green cards and permanent residency through a one-time investment of $500,000, typically as 5-year secured loans, into premier hospitality brands and iconic real estate projects that create 10 or more American jobs. One example is the Four Seasons Hotel & Residences in Miami, Florida, for which LCR is currently raising EB-5 capital.Over the past 20 years, Raj has had a successful track record of advising family offices and high-growth businesses on investment strategies in the technology, real estate, and education sectors. Most recently, he was the Managing Director of Sobha Group in Dubai, one of the most admired real estate development companies in the MENA region. Previously, he was a venture capitalist in India, initially as a founding team member and Principal at SVB India Capital Partners and subsequently with Kalaari Capital. As a VC, he has invested in and advised some of Indias most dynamic and successful start-ups, including Paytm, Shaadi.com, and Snapdeal. He holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, MPA from Harvard and BA from the University of Pennsylvania.Speaking on his new role with LCR, Raj Chinai said: Parents typically view their childrens education as a top priority. For many families in India and the Gulf region, the US remains a preferred destination when it comes to providing their children with unparalleled educational and career opportunities. Unfortunately, however, many foreign college applicants are rejected each year based on the color of their passport. Through the EB-5 program, LCR is addressing this pain point, which rewards children based on true merit and enhances their odds of admission to their dream college  regardless of whether its an Ivy League school, large public university or small liberal arts college. Upon graduating, this also opens the doors to employment opportunities in the US, including highly coveted spots at consulting firms, investment banks and tech companies that may otherwise be out of reach. As a first-generation immigrant, I believe in LCRs value proposition. I look forward to being a part of their journey and accelerating their expansion efforts in this part of the world.LCR Capital Partners Founder & CEO, Suresh Rajan said: Raj has the perfect background and business acumen that we seek for our globally expanding team. His strong professional experience of working with numerous path-breaking and high-growth businesses is extremely valuable for us at LCR Capital Partners. I am confident that his knowledge and expertise, coupled with his far-reaching global network, will help successfully guide and fulfill LCRs mission in the Middle East and India.About LCR Capital PartnersLCR Capital Partners is a partner owned, private investment and advisory firm. Headquartered in Westport, Connecticut in the U.S., the company also has offices in China, India, Brazil, South Africa and Dubai. LCR currently serves over 300 HNW and UHNW families from 20+ countries.LCR's EB-5 business deploys EB-5 investments as growth capital in signature real estate and hospitality projects and helps international investors and their immediate families obtain U.S. green cards and residency.LCR works with global wealth management firms to specifically identify equity and debt investment opportunities in real estate, infrastructure and logistics in India, the GCC and other regions to deploy capital for its partners and their clients.B 175 Sushant Lok Pahse 1Gurugram, Haryana122001
Global Packaging Conveyors Market: Brief Analysis of Products and Application Set to Attain Higher Position Through 2028

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As per the current market trends and the promising nature of the global packaging conveyors market, it can be estimated that the future holds positive outcomes. In order to provide a deep insight about the concerned market, Fact.MR would be publishing a resourceful analysis that will enclose knowledge about the regional market size, revenue and opportunity status. Readers will be offered the privilege to decode various facets of the market during the period 2018 to 2027, together with the active access to secondary and primary research methodology. Furthermore, various segments of the market associated to product, application, end-user etc., would also be present in this intelligent research report.Request TOC of this Report-Packaging Conveyors - Market OverviewPackaging industry has many different process requirements such as product manufacturing, product packaging including storing and sorting of products. Packaging conveyors are used in several industries including food, beverages, pharmaceuticals, automotive, electrical & electronics etc. to channelize the product manufacturing, storing, sorting, and packaging. The packaging conveyors are part of production lines and the operational efficiency offered by packaging conveyors is the primary reason for their adoption. Fresh produce products that are highly perishable, need to be packed quickly, and carefully. Packaging conveyors speed up the packaging process for faster delivery of products along with maintaining the product integrity.The market for packaging conveyors is expected to grow significantly on the backdrop of manufacturing and packaging lines. As the packaging conveyors strengthen the overall packaging process with enhancing efficiency.To know more @ Global Packaging Conveyors Market, visit -Packaging Conveyors Market DynamicsThe market for packaging conveyors is expected to flourish further in the near future owing to the rapid growth in industrialization. The demand for the packaging conveyors is anticipated to grow in order to cater to manufacturing and packaging lines. Almost every manufacturing and packaging industry requires packaging conveyors to minimize the overall packaging time and increase the efficiency. These are some factors which flourish the demand for packaging conveyors in the global packaging conveyors market.Despite the positive outlook, there are some limitations of packaging conveyors, such as, the accumulation of small sized products becomes difficult. High cost of packaging conveyors increase the overall installation cost. Furthermore, packaging conveyors require special requirements such as large space.Role of Packaging ConveyorsMost of packaging lines have three sections: the front of the line, middle of the line, and the end of the line. The front line ensures that the packaging materials as well as the product are taken to the conveyor. The middle line packages the product and the final packaged product is sent to the end of the line where the package is ready for shipping. In the overall process, conveyors play a vital role in maintaining product integrity, streamlining the process, and hence enhancing the overall efficiency.Packaging Conveyors Market - Regional OutlookGeographically, the global market for packaging conveyors is divided into seven key regions - North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APeJ), Middle East & Africa (MEA), and Japan.Lake Air Metal Products LLC, Kleenline Corp., Eaglestone Inc., Dorner Mfg. Corp., Delta Packaging Systems Inc., Conveyor & Automation Technologies Inc, Bastian Solutions, Inc., Wattco Corporation, FlexLink Systems, Inc., Multi-Conveyor, LLC (Includes players based in Europe region), Wrightfield Ltd , Syspal Ltd., Conveyor Units Ltd., BPE Europe Conveyor Solutions Ltd., Tier 3 (Includes players based in Asia Pacific (APAC) region), Sterling Engineering Company, Accura Pharmaquip Pvt. Ltd., Concept Packaging International Pvt. Ltd., Orbit Equipments Pvt. Ltd., Ace Technologies Ltd.Pre-book Global Packaging Conveyors 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:
Europe Wood-Pellets Market Growth to be Benefited by Technological Advancements 2017-2023

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Europe Wood-Pellets Industry Report" focuses on the Wood-Pellets in Europe market, especially in Germany, UK, France, Russia, and Italy. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, countries, type and application.You can get a single user copy at USD 4480 and can get discount on it @Scope of the Report:Wood pellet is a solid fuel that is produced by crushing and densifying waste timber like sawdust, forestry residues, industrial byproducts like old paper and forestry wastes. The length is 1-2 cm and the diameter is generally 6, 8, 10, or 12mm. It is possible to produce 25mm wood pellet at maximum. In Sweden, 6mm wood pellet is encouraged to use in house as it can realize the best condition of combustion. Wood pellet production doesn't need to add binder as lignin, an element of wood, plays a role of binder and helps to pelletize when it is melted by heat.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversGerman PelletsEnvivaPinnacleVyborgskaya CelluloseRentechInnogy (RWE)Graanul Invest GroupGreen Circle Bio EnergyZilkha Biomass EnergyCanforGeneral BiofuelsBlueFire RenewablesPacific BioEnergyProtocol EnergyPFEIFERBiomass Secure Power....Market Segment by Countries, coveringGermanyUKFranceRussiaItalyMarket Segment by Type, coversWhite PelletBlack PelletMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoPower GenerationIndustrial FurnaceCivil UseOthersGet FREE and detailed sample copy of updated Analysis & Status @Table of Content:There are 17 Chapters to deeply display the Europe Wood-Pellets market.Chapter 1, to describe Wood-Pellets Introduction, product type and application, market overview, market analysis by countries, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the manufacturers of Wood-Pellets, with profile, main business, news, sales, price, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers in Europe, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the Europe market by countries, covering Germany, UK, France, Italy and Russia, with sales, price, revenue and market share of Wood-Pellets, for each country, from 2013 to 2018;Chapter 5 and 6, to show the market by type and application, with sales, price, revenue, market share and growth rate by type and application, from 2013 to 2018;Chapter 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11, to analyze the key countries by manufacturers, Type and Application, covering Germany, UK, France, Italy and Russia, with sales, revenue and market share by manufacturers, types and applications;Chapter 12, Wood-Pellets market forecast, by countries, type and application, with sales, price, revenue and growth rate forecast, from 2018 to 2023;Chapter 13, to analyze the manufacturing cost, key raw materials and manufacturing process etc.Get complete insightful report @Chapter 14, to analyze the industrial chain, sourcing strategy and downstream end users (buyers);Chapter 15, to describe Wood-Pellets sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers etc.Chapter 16 and 17, to describe Wood-Pellets Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data sourceContinue....Who we areResearch Trades has team of experts who works on providing exhaustive analysis pertaining to market research on a global basis. This comprehensive analysis is obtained by a thorough research and study of the ongoing trends and provides predictive data regarding the future estimations, which can be utilized by various organizations for growth purposes.We distribute customized reports that focus on meeting the clients specific requirement. Our database consists of a large collection of high-quality reports obtained using a customer-centric approaches, thus providing valuable research insights.
Neuroscience Market to Exceed US$ 520.8 Mn in 2025

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With healthy CAGR of 6.4%, the global neuroscience market is likely to grow from US$ 301.6 Mn in 2016 to US$ 520.8 Mn by 2025 end. This growth is mainly fuelled by advancement in neuroimaging and increasing R & D in neuroinformatics. Neuroscience Market: Global Industry Analysis (2012-2016) and Forecast (2017-2025), is the new publication of Persistence Market Research that focuses on merger and acquisition, strategic collaborations and technology, and technology transfer agreements, which play a vital role in the global neuroscience market. North America and Europe are expected to dominate the global neuroscience market in the assessed period of 8-years that is between 2017 and 2025.Global Neuroscience Market: Relevance and Impact of FactorsIncreasing consumer awareness regarding neuroscience and easy accessibility of the technology. Growing acceptance of e-health and integrated medical system. Increasing strategic collaborations among key players. Rise in incidence rate of lifestyle diseases and geriatric population worldwide. Reforming healthcare IT spending structure and advancement in digital technology. Shift towards value-based healthcare model.Get full report now @Global Neuroscience Market: Forecast by Component TypeOn the basis of component type, the global neuroscience market is segmented into instrument, software and services. Instrument segmented is sub-segmented into MRI imaging systems and neuromicroscopy, while services segmented divided into consulting services, installation services and maintenance services. Instrument segment dominated the global neuroscience market in revenue terms in 2016 and is projected to continue to do so throughout the forecast period. Instrument segment is the most attractive segment, with attractiveness index of 2.6 over the forecast period. Instrument segment was valued at US$ 221.6 Mn in 2016 and is projected to be valued at US$ 408.1 Mn in 2025 growing at a CAGR of 7.2% during the forecast period. This segment is expected to accounts for high revenue contribution to the global neuroscience market as compared to software and services segments over the forecast period.Software segment is expected to be the second most lucrative segment in the global neuroscience market, with attractiveness index of 0.3 during the forecast period. This segment was accounted for 15.4% value share in 2017 which is expected to drop down to 12.9 % revenue share in 2025.Request Report Multiple Chapter @Global Neuroscience Market: Forecast by End UserOn the basis of end user, global neuroscience market is segmented into hospitals, diagnostic laboratories, research institutes, and academic institutes. Diagnostics laboratory segment is expected to be the second most lucrative segment in the global neuroscience market by 2025 end. However, in terms of CAGR and revenue share, hospitals segment is expected to lead he market throughout the estimated period. In 2025, hospital segment is likely to grab 40.2% market share in 2025, expanding at a robust CAGR of 7.3% during the estimated period. Research institutes segment is expected to be the least attractive segment in the global neuroscience market, with attractiveness index of 0.7 during the forecast period.Request to Sample of Report @Global Neuroscience Market: Forecast by RegionOn the basis of region, global neuroscience market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Europe, APAC and MEA. North America dominated the global neuroscience market in revenue terms in 2016 and is projected to continue to do so throughout the forecast period. North America is projected to be the most attractive market with attractiveness index of 2.3 during the forecast period. Europe is expected to be the second most lucrative market, with attractiveness index of 1.1 respectively during the forecast period. Europe Neuroscience market accounted for 23.9% share in 2017 and is projected to account for 23.1% share by 2025 end.Request for Table of Contents @Global Neuroscience Market: Key PlayersCarl ZEISS AG, Danaher Corporation (Leica Microsystems), GE Company, Siemens AG, Koninklijke Philips N.V., Toshiba Corporation, Hitachi Medical Corp., Esaote SpA, HAAG-STREIT Group, Opto fine Instruments Pvt. Ltd., Synaptive Medical, Operating Microscopes and Pridex Medicare Pvt. Ltd. are some of the key players operating in the global neuroscience market.For more information @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:
Innovative vacuum technology for chemical process technology

COBRA NC 0600 C dry screw vacuum pump for transporting explosive and temperature-sensitive gases

www.buschvacuum.com

Busch Vacuum Pumps and Systems will be showcasing its latest vacuum solutions at ACHEMA. The new Dolphin liquid ring vacuum pumps are the focus of this year's trade show presentation. With the ATEX T3-certified COBRA NC 0600 C screw vacuum pump, Busch will be presenting another new product, specially developed for transporting temperature-sensitive and potentially explosive gases.With the new series of Dolphin LM/LT liquid ring vacuum pumps, Busch has been able to optimize an existing product that has become an established component of many industrial processes, resulting in the development of extremely powerful, yet energy-efficient vacuum generators. Busch will be demonstrating its liquid ring vacuum pumps from these series for the first time at its trade show booth. They are available in 13 sizes with pumping speeds of 80 to 900 cubic metres per hour.Dolphin LM are single-stage vacuum pumps for rough vacuum applications from atmospheric pressure to 130 hPa (mbar) ultimate pressure. Dolphin LT models are available in two-stage versions and cover the vacuum range from atmospheric pressure to 33 hPa (mbar). Dolphin LM/LT vacuum pumps have a modular design and integrated flow channels. This makes them extremely compact and eliminates the need for base frames.With the new COBRA NC 0600 C, Busch is offering a dry screw vacuum pump that is certified according to ATEX T3. It enables the transport of potentially explosive gases or vapours at ultimate pressures of 0.01 hPa (mbar) without the risk of contamination with operating fluids. In general, Busch COBRA screw vacuum pumps can be individually configured and perfectly adapted to the respective processes. In addition to various versions for use in potentially explosive areas or for transporting potentially explosive gases or vapours, they can be optimized for practically all applications in the field of chemical process technology.Find out more about Busch's vacuum solutions for chemical and pharmaceutical process technology in hall 8.0, booth B27.About Busch:Busch Vacuum Pumps and Systems is one of the worlds largest producers of vacuum pumps, vacuum systems, blowers and compressors.Its extensive product portfolio comprises solutions for vacuum and overpressure applications in all industries, including the chemical, semiconductor, medical technology, plastics, and food sectors. It also covers the design and construction of customized vacuum systems, as well as a global service network.The Busch group is a family-owned company and is still managed by the Busch family. Busch Vacuum Pumps and Systems has 3,000 employees in more than 60 companies in over 40 countries worldwide. Busch is headquartered in Maulburg, in southwest Germany. This is the location of Busch SE headquarters, as well as the German production facility and German sales company. In addition to Maulburg, Busch also has its own production plants in Switzerland, the UK, Czech Republic, Korea and the USA.History:Busch Vacuum Pumps and Systems was founded by Dr.-Ing. Karl Busch and his wife Ayhan Busch in 1963. Dr.-Ing. Karl Busch developed the Huckepack, which was the first vacuum pump that could be used for vacuum packaging of foodstuffs. The follow-up product, the compact R 5 rotary vane vacuum pump, revolutionized food packaging. A further milestone represented the development of the COBRA screw vacuum pump. In 1971 the international expansion of the Busch group started with the founding of a sales company in the UK. The first production plant outside Germany was established in the USA in 1979.Busch Vacuum Pumps and SystemsSchauinslandstrae 179689 MaulburgTelephone: +49 (0) 7622 681 3376jasmin.markanic@busch.de
Sugar Free Chocolate Market, Trends, Absolute Opportunity and Value Chain 2023

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Sugar Free Chocolate MarketSummaryThe legal definition is that there has to be less than 0.5 g of sugars per reference serving size. For 100% sugar-free the reference serving size is 40 g, so the 0.5 g/40 g equates to less than 1.25 % sugars allowed. Sugars are considered to be mono and disaccharides and this will include glucose, sucrose, fructose and lactose. No-sugar added chocolate generally have no added sucrose, but may contain another sugar such as lactose, which is found in milk powder.The trend towards healthier food continues to gain ground and is significantly changing consumer lifestyles and purchasing habits. In response to a multitude of nutritional recommendations and consumers want products that allow them to indulge themselves without the need for sugar. The indispensable key to the success of a sugar-free product is that it is healthy version of unhealthy calories. Today's consumer is eager to try low-sugar or sugar-free products, but not at the expense of enjoyment, not least when it comes to chocolate. Maltitol probably the best substitute for sugar, not only provides sweetening power, but also the calories are cut down to half. This will delight confectionery gourmets with waistline worries and chocolate addicts trying to reduce their sugar intake.Click here for sample report @Key PlayersThe leading market players in the global Sugar free chocolate market primarily are Hershey (U.S.), Godiva Chocolatier, Inc. (U.S.), Lindt & Sprungli SAS (France), Russell stover (U.S.), Ghirardelli Chocolate Company (U.S.), Think Thin LLC (U.S.), Guilin chocolates (Belgium)Key FindingsHealth cognizant consumers understand that sweeteners are by no means simply replicas of sugar. They fail to reproduce the wide range of the functional properties of sugar which are used by food manufacturers to manipulate colour, aroma, texture and shelf-life of their products; this restricts their use in many products. Some sweeteners affect taste adversely, while others are unstable when stored or cooked; some have failed clearance for human consumption. However, sweeteners can have some cost and functional advantages over sugar. Competition among the various sugar and non-sugar sweeteners is fiercest in soft drinks manufacture, in countries where its use and production is permitted and in countries with artificially high sugar prices.Table of ContentsACRONYMS 141 Report Prologue 152 Introduction 162.1 Definition 162.1.1 Chocolate 162.1.2 Sugar-free Chocolate 162.2 Scope of the Study 172.2.1 Research Methodology 172.3 Assumptions 172.4 Limitations 172.5 Market Structure 183 Research Methodology 193.1 Research Process 193.2 Research Process of MRFR 203.3 Primary Research 203.4 Secondary Research 223.5 Forecast Model 23.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
Solar PV Module Market - Business and Innovation Trends 2017-2024

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The world is heavily treading toward the adoption of renewable energy sources, which will lucratively impel solar PV module market. There has been an increase in public awareness levels regarding the effects of GHG, released into environment after the burning of fossil fuels, which has prompted manufacturers to come up with suitable sustainable alternatives. This initiative will provide a push to solar PV module market growth. Several technological developments and the increasing number of manufacturing facilities has also resulted in reduced product cost, which will fuel the industry trends. According to Global Market Insights, Inc., Worldwide Solar PV Module Market was valued USD 20 billion in 2016 and will surpass a revenue collection of USD 30 billion by 2024.Many of the market players are engaged in collaborations with research institutes to bring about innovative technologies that will enhance the industry expansion. Growing investments in R&D activities, flexible integration, and better efficiency will boost the demand for thin film technology integrated products. In 2016, thin film covered more than 20% of the revenue share of technology segment in solar PV module market. The noteworthy participants in solar PV module market are First Solar, Canadian Solar, Trina Solar, JA Solar, Hanwha Q CELLS Co., Jinko Solar, SunPower, Yingli, ReneSola, Moser Baer, SFCE, Shine Solar, and Lanco.Request for a sample of this research report @Growing industrialization across the globe will fuel the need of renewable energy. Favorable government initiations in terms of financial support will prompt industry giants to adopt solar PV modules to enhance the growth of Solar Energy Market. Ground mounted systems are being deployed increasingly across the utility and commercial sectors subject to their numerous benefits. The ground mounted segment will exhibit an annual growth rate of more than 7% over the period of 2017 to 2024.The governments of various countries have lately been making huge efforts to enhance the grid connectivity of their nations. Speaking of which, the on-grid segment dominated the connectivity landscape of solar PV module industry by accounting for more than 55% of the revenue share in 2016. It is expected to record substantial growth rate over the coming timeframe.Browse key industry insights spread across 400 pages with 838 market data tables & 12 figures & charts from the report, Solar PV Module Market in detail along with the table of contents:Rural areas have witnessed a heavy deployment of micro-grids to fulfill the escalating need of off grid electricity, subject to which solar PV module market from off grid connectivity segment will generate a significant revenue over the coming seven years. To accomplish the need of sustainable energy, the U.S. has been installing micro grids on a large scale. U.S. solar PV module industry will register a CAGR of more than 6% over the coming years of 2017 to 2024. The attributing factor toward the market growth is deployment of stringent rules and regulations to control GHG emissions along with huge investments in power plants to increase the grid capacity.To reduce carbon emissions in the environment, the government has been promoting the usage of roof top mounting system. Government support and favorable subsidies will propel solar PV module market from roof top mounting systems. The Asia Development Bank recently granted a subsidy of US 500 million for the development of roof top systems. Escalating installation of these systems across the residential sector will also influence the product demand.Solar PV module industry from the residential sector collected a revenue of USD 4 billion in 2016 and is predicted grow lucratively over the years ahead. Monocrystalline products are also deployed across this sector, subject to which monocrystalline solar PV module market will grow at an annual growth rate of more than 6% over the period of 2017 to 2024. Additionally, the surging need to maintain energy efficiency will augment the product demand.China covered more than 60% of Asia Pacific solar PV module market share in 2016 and will generate considerable revenue over the coming seven years. Shifting preference toward the adoption of renewable technology is likely to impel China solar PV module market.Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @Market players are focusing toward strategies such as product innovation and differentiation to gain more profit. The efforts of these companies coupled with government norms to promote clean energy will suitably impel global solar PV module market.Table of ContentChapter 3. Solar PV Module Industry Insights3.1. Industry segmentation3.2. Industry growth landscape, 2013  20243.3. Industry ecosystem analysis3.3.1. Vendor matrix3.4. Innovation & sustainability3.5. Regulatory landscape3.5.1. U.S.3.5.2. UK3.5.3. France3.5.4. Germany3.5.5. China3.5.6. India3.5.7. Australia3.5.8. Chile3.5.9. South Africa3.6. Price trend analysis, by region3.6.1. North America3.6.2. Asia Pacific3.6.3. Europe3.6.4. Middle East3.6.5. Africa3.6.6. Latin America3.7. Feed in tariff landscape3.8. Technology Landscape3.8.1. Thin Film3.8.2. Ultra-Thin Film3.8.3. Crystalline Silicon3.9. Leading investment scenario in solar industry3.10.Industry impact forces3.10.1. Growth drivers3.10.1.1. Favorable government initiatives3.10.1.2. Rising clean energy demand3.10.1.3. Cost competitive3.10.1.4. Declining prices of solar component3.10.2. Industry pitfalls & challenges3.10.2.1. Lack of grid infrastructure3.11. Growth potential analysis3.12. Porter's analysis3.13. Competitive landscape, 20163.13.1. Strategy dashboard3.13.2. Merger & Acquisition analysis3.14. PESTEL analysisBrowse Full Toc of This Report @About Global Market Insights:Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Contact Us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone: 1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:Blog:Connect with us: Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Twitter
Mobile Floral Gifting Market in US to Worth $3 Billion by 2023 | Arizton

Floral Gifting Market in US - Market Research Report

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The floral gifting market in US is anticipated to reach values of around $16 billion by 2023, growing at a CAGR of over 6% during 2018-2023.Ariztons recent market research report on the floral gifting market in US identifies FTD Companies, 1-800-Flowers.com, Teleflora, and From You Flowers as the leading vendors that are likely to dominate the market during the forecast period. This research report provides a detailed analysis of market segmentation by platform (in-store, online, and mobile) and by occasion (personal gifting, wedding, self-gifting, corporate, and sympathy).Request for your free sample today!The floral gifting market in US is divided into three major segments that consist of by platform and by occasion.Mobile segment to grow at the fastest CAGR in the floral gifting market in US during the forecast periodThe floral gifting market in US by platform is classified into in-store, online, and mobile. Mobile platform occupied a considerable market share in 2017 and is the fastest growing segment, growing at a CAGR of approximately 10% during the forecast period. The increasing efforts on leveraging digital marketing and social media channels to influence consumer purchase decisions will augment the growth of this segment in the floral gifting market in US. The leading vendors are driving app downloads by offering exclusive offers that apply to purchases through the app. Additionally, companies are leveraging mobile apps for offering updates about deliveries and set reminders about upcoming events such as birthdays, anniversaries, and other occasions. Such additional features are making mobile applications very popular in the US market. For instance, apps provided by ProFlowers will import the address book and alert the consumer of upcoming events from Facebook. These technological innovations will fuel multiple selling opportunities and drive growth in the US floral gifting market.Request for your free sample today!Corporate sector to grow at a considerable CAGR in the floral gifting market in US during the forecast periodThe occasion segment in the floral gifting market in US is segmented into personal gifting, wedding, self-gifting, corporate, and sympathy. The corporate segment dominated significant market share in 2017, growing at a CAGR of more than 6% during the forecast period. The increasing investment made by various companies for special event gifts and periodic corporate gifts is propelling the growth of this segment in the US market. These gifts are usually part of retirement, employee recognition, promotion, successful business deal, and another such occasion which will be a touch point for the companies to bridge distances will boost the demand in the floral industry. Furthermore, more co-workers are becoming more connected owing to greater collaboration within the workplace and consistent growth of activities that break ice across departments. Such development will create lucrative opportunities for prominent players in the floral gifting market in US. The corporate organizations are looking to working with local artisans, offering gifts, and serving food and wine that has grown within a 100-mile radius of the event in order to support the neighboring area and promote local businesses in the US market. Such initiatives to promote local businesses will augment the growth of the floral gifting market in US.The other prominent players operating in the floral gifting market in US are Avas Flowers, BloomNation, Blooms Today, Farmgirl Flowers, Flora2000, Flowerbud.com, Flowerpetal.com, Just Flowers.com, KaBloom.com, Venus Et Fleur, The Bouqs, UrbanStems, Gotham Florist, and H Bloom.The complete overview of the latest market research report on floral gifting market in US by Arizton is now available.The report also offers a detailed study of major trends, drivers, challenges, and also provides the market size and forecast for major geographical regions and key countries.Order a report now:About AriztonArizton  Advisory and Intelligence is an innovation and quality-driven firm, which offers cutting-edge research solutions to clients across the world. We excel in providing comprehensive market intelligence reports and advisory and consulting services.We offer comprehensive market research reports on industries such as consumer goods & retail technology, automotive and mobility, smart tech, healthcare and life sciences, industrial machinery, chemicals and materials, IT and media, logistics and packaging. These reports contain detailed industry analysis, market size, share, growth drivers, and trend forecasts.Arizton comprises a team of exuberant and well-experienced analysts who have mastered in generating incisive reports. Our specialist analysts possess exemplary skills in market research. We train our team in advanced research practices, techniques, and ethics to outperform in fabricating impregnable research reports.Arizton Advisory & IntelligenceChicago, Illinois, 60605Mail: enquiry@arizton.comCall: +1-312-465-7864
Hydropower Market  Growth Opportunities and Challenges 2017-2024

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U.S. hydropower Market is set to expand over 2% on account of its huge untapped hydropower reserves. As per the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, in the U.S., hydropower provides around 6% to 8% of the country's electricity. Measures towards greenhouse gas emissions may further complement the industry outlook. Non-Powered Dams (NPDs) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) estimated existing untapped reserves capacity of 12,000 MW in 2015.Global Hydropower Market is expected to grow at over 2% and exceed 1,300 GW by 2024. Growing demand for electricity along with upsurge in investment towards sustainable energy will drive the global hydropower market. Europe and North America have introduced plans to renovate, upgrade, and modernize the ageing stations with an aim to ensure more efficient operations.Request for a sample of this research report @In March 2015, Latvenergo announced its plan to invest USD 222.26 million towards reconstruction of Plavinas, Kegums, and Riga hydroelectric power stations in Northern Europe by 2022.Reliability and low maintenance costs coupled with high operating life cycle are some of the key factors which will fuel the hydropower market. Flood control, tourism, irrigation, recreation and aquaculture in far-flung areas are some of the benefits, which will complement the business landscape. North America and Europe have introduced bond funds with an objective to raise investment for hydropower projects. These funds are specifically aimed at acquiring existing assets over the new build.Low generation cost coupled with ability to generate high electric output will propel the hydropower market. In 2016, Department of Energy projected levelized energy costs from hydroelectric at USD 56.2/MWh when compared with solar thermal at USD 191/MWh.Large hydropower capacity segment accounted for over 80% of global hydropower market share in 2016. Growing demand for reliable and continuous electricity coupled with upgradation of ageing generating stations will fuel the industry outlook. In 2016, Andritz announced the installation of three hydroelectric stations worth over USD 75 million in Brazil and Nicaragua with an objective to supply reliable and constant electricity.Cost competitiveness along with low ecological impact are some of the key factors which will complement the mini hydropower market. In February 2016, the University of Science and Technology of Hanoi (USTH) installed mini capacity grid connected power station in Vietnam with capacity range from 100 kW to 7500 kW. In September 2016, ORIX Corporation announced to acquire around 50% shares of Bitexco Power Corporation with an aim to expand its business in the hydropower generation in Vietnam.Low refurbishment cost coupled with measures to reduce greenhouse gas emission will embellish the micro and pico hydropower market. In 2016, Philippines announced its plan to construct more than 150 micro plants with increasing electricity generating capacity of approximately 50 MW.Browse key industry insights spread across 120 pages with 108 market data tables & 8 figures & charts from the report, Hydropower Market Size, By Capacity (Micro And Pico Hydropower, Mini Hydropower, Small Hydropower, Large Hydropower), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, Mexico, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Germany, China, India, Philippines, Japan, Vietnam, Nigeria, Kenya, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador), Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2017  2024 in detail along with the table of contents:Key participants in hydropower market include ANDRITZ HYDRO, General Electric, Voith, Alfa Laval, China Yangtze Power, China Three Gorges Corporation, Metso, RusHydro, Hydro-Quebec, Duke Energy, Georgia Power, StatKraft, Agder Energi, Ontario Power Generation, ABB, Engie, EDF and Tata Power.Table of Content (TOC-)Chapter 3 Hydropower Industry Insights3.1 Industry segmentation3.2 Industry landscape, 2014  20243.3 Industry ecosystem3.3.1 Vendor matrix3.4 Innovation & sustainability landscape3.5 Capital cost structure3.6 Regulatory landscape3.6.1 U.S.3.6.2 Europe3.6.3 China3.6.4 India3.6.5 Philippines3.6.7 Vietnam3.7 Industry impact forces3.7.1 Growth drivers3.7.1.1 Positive outlook towards renewable energy3.7.1.2 Growing demand for electricity3.7.1.3 Favorable government initiatives3.7.2 Industry pitfalls & challenges3.7.2.1 High initial investment for large hydropower3.8 Growth potential analysis3.9 Porters analysis3.10 Competitive landscape, 20163.10.1 Strategy dashboard3.10.2 Merger & acquisition landscape3.11 PESTEL analysisAbout Global Market Insights:Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Contact Us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone: 1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:Blog:
Global Change Management Software Market Size, Status and Forecast 2025 : BMC Software, Ivanti, EasyVista

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Change Management Software Market Size, Status and Forecast 2025" to its huge collection of research reports.This report is a comprehensive analysis of the global Change Management Software Market witches extensive and the internet is overloaded with information and data regarding this Market. However, it is extremely difficult to process through the humongous amount of data available and select or Target the ones which are important and discard the ones which are not so important and will not matter. The research analysts and Market experts who have carefully written this report helps to do just that and reduce the tedious task of going through numbers passes of content available on the internet.The report offers an extensive discussion of the various factors driving the growth of the market as well as those factors that are anticipated to restrain the growth of the market. It discusses the future growth opportunities as well as trends that are impacting the market. The past and present figures are taken into consideration for predicting the future Market figures and statistics. The report makes use of tables graphs infographics charts and maps in order to depict the data in a clear and concise manner. Facts and figures as well as references have been listed in the report.Request a Free Sample Report of this research to evaluate more:This report studies the global Change Management Software market, analyzes and researches the Change Management Software development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeBMC SoftwareServiceNow CorporationIBM CorporationCA TechnologiesIvantiAxios SystemsEasyVistaCherwell SoftwareZoho CorporationMarket segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEUJapanChinaIndiaSoutheast AsiaMarket segment by Type, the product can be split intoOn PremiseCloud-basedMarket segment by Application, Change Management Software can be split intoBFSIIT & TelecomEducationGovernmentHealth CareManufacturing RetailThe report profiles leading players operating within the global Change Management Software market for the purpose of case study. Each of the company's business and financial overview along with their strategik mergers and acquisitions having studied. The Strategies employed by these companies in order to stay ahead of Market competition are also revealed in the report. In addition to this, the challenges faced by the companies as well as the technological advancements they have made in the recent past have been given in the report.If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Read Complete Table of Content @Table of Contents1 Industry Overview of Change Management Software1.1 Change Management Software Market Overview1.1.1 Change Management Software Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Change Management Software Market Size and Analysis by Regions (2013-2018)1.3 Change Management Software Market by Type1.4 Change Management Software Market by End Users/Application2 Global Change Management Software Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Change Management Software Market Size (Value) by Players (2013-2018)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend2.2.1 Market Concentration Rate2.2.2 Product/Service Differences2.2.3 New Entrants2.2.4 The Technology Trends in Future3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 BMC Software3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Change Management Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 ServiceNow Corporation3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business OverviewEnquiry For Discount Visit @List of Tables and FiguresFigure Global Change Management Software Market Size (Million USD) Status and Outlook (2013-2018)Table Global Change Management Software Revenue (Million USD) Comparison by Regions (2013-2018)Figure Global Change Management Software Market Share by Regions (2013-2018)Figure United States Change Management Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2013-2018)Figure EU Change Management Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2013-2018)Figure Japan Change Management Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2013-2018)Figure China Change Management Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2013-2018)Figure India Change Management Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2013-2018)About Us:QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact Us:1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Global Toothcare Market 2017: Industry Overview, Trends and Growth Opportunities Forecasted till 2026

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The global market discussion on toothcare industry can be found in the latest study by Fact.MR, which has been freshly added to its massive collection of research database. The report is titled Toothcare Market Forecast, Trend Analysis & Competition Tracking  Global Review 2017 to 2026, which works to enlighten the readers about the major factors prompting the growth of the concerned market. Apart from that, the research majorly focuses on toothcare markets competitive outlook by profiling major players functioning across the globe. As the report moves ahead, information regarding the prominent trends as well as opportunities in the key geographical segments have also been elaborated, thus enabling companies to be able to make region-specific strategies for gaining competitive lead. Some of the prime regions emphasized in the study include key regions.Request for Sample ReportAccording to Fact.MRs recent forecast study, such factors have been influencing the dynamics of the global toothcare market till date. The report further projects a growing impetus of these factors on the expansion of global toothcare market during the forecast period, 2017-2026. Key findings from the report reveal that the global toothcare market will expand at a value CAGR of 2.6% over the forecast period. The report further estimates that by the end of 2026, more than 6,450,000 tons of toothcare products will be sold across the globe.Forecast HighlightsFollowing key predictions from Fact.MRs forecast study on the global toothcare market create a presumptive roadmap on how the demand for toothcare products will gain traction in the near future.1. In terms of volume, nearly 3,000,000 tons of toothpastes were sold in global toothcare market by the end of 20172. Demand for mouthwashes is also pegged to gain moderate traction and register a volume CAGR of 2.1% over the forecast period3. By the end of 2026, nearly US$ 9.5 Bn worth of toothcare products will be sold across modern trade channels4. In terms of revenues, online retailers will be observed as the fastest-growing sales channel in the global toothcare market through 2026Online Retailers to Register Fastest Sales through 2026In 2018 and beyond, modern trade outlets will continue to represent the largest sales channel for toothcare products. By the end of 2026, nearly 2,000,000 tons of toothcare products will be sold through modern trade channels across the globe. The report also reveals that online retailers will register a high volume CAGR of 4.2% over the forecast period. In terms of nature of the toothcare products, natural and organic products will gain highest traction, while the demand for conventional toothcare products will dwindle in the foreseeable future.Brimming Sales of Toothpastes to Drive Market GrowthKey insights from the report reveal that toothpastes are top-selling products in the global toothcare market. By 2026-end, toothpastes will represent more than half of global toothcare market volumes. The report also registers a growing demand for mouthwashes. In terms of region, North America is expected to register impressive growth in sales of toothcare products, while the APEJ region will register largest toothcare market through 2026.Competition TrackingLeading manufacturers of toothcare products have been profiled in the report. Reckitt Benckiser Group plc, GlaxoSmithKline plc, Adcock Ingram, Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive Company, Mundipharma International, Church & Dwight Co., Inc., Oral-B Laboratories, Royal Philips N.V., Kao Corp., and Henkel AG & Co. KGaA are observed as the key players in the global toothcare market. Majority of these companies are expected to work towards brand development. Several market players are also likely to invest in development of new formulations that can help them extend their product lines through 2026.Browse Full Report with TOC-Table of Content:1. Global Economic Outlook2. Global Tooth-care Market  Executive Summary3. Global Tooth-care Market Overview3.1. Introduction3.1.1. Global Tooth-Care Market Taxonomy3.1.2. Global Tooth-Care Market Definition3.2. Global Tooth-Care Market Size (US$ Mn) and Forecast, 2012-20263.2.1. Global Tooth-Care Market Y-o-Y Growth3.3. Global Tooth-Care Market Dynamics3.4. Supply Chain3.5. Cost Structure3.6. Regulatory Framework3.7. PESTLE Analysis3.8. Porters Five Force Analysis3.9. Key Participants Market Presence (Intensity Map) By Region4. Global Tooth-Care Market Analysis and Forecast 2012-20264.1. Global Tooth-Care Market Size and Forecast By Product Type, 2012-20264.1.1. Toothpaste Market Size and Forecast, 2012-20264.1.1.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) and Volume Comparison, By Region4.1.1.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region4.1.1.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By RegionContinued.Check Discount on This Report-About Fact.MRFact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized Retail & Consumer Goods 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:
Mylar Bags Market Assessment and Revenue Gains of Key Players Forecasted during 2018-2028

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As per the current market trends and the promising nature of the global mylar bags market, it can be estimated that the future holds positive outcomes. In order to provide a deep insight about the concerned market, Fact.MR would be publishing a resourceful analysis that will enclose knowledge about the regional market size, revenue and opportunity status. Readers will be offered the privilege to decode various facets of the market during the period 2018 to 2027, together with the active access to secondary and primary research methodology. Furthermore, various segments of the market associated to product, application, end-user etc., would also be present in this intelligent research report.Request TOC of this Report-Global Mylar Bags Market: OverviewFood packaging industry is witnessing a change in its market dynamics mainly influenced by demographic conditions, new customer demands, growing purchasing power in emerging markets and an increasing use of technical facilities. These bags are made up of BoPET film which possess high barrier properties, a highly recommended property for food packaging.Along with this, key manufacturers of films such as Uflex Ltd are also introducing super barrier polyester films that not only offer high flexibility but also offer excellent barrier-to-gas properties.Since high shelf life of the product is of high significance and mylar bags also eliminate the presence of oxygen from the packaged product, they are increasingly being used in the food packaging industry.Re-closable mylar bag segment is expected to account for a larger market share as compared to open end mylar bag particularly due to its reusability feature. Contrary to this, open end mylar bag have to be discarded after using it once. Ready-to-eat-food segment is the major end user of mylar bags and is expected to account for a relatively high market share with the concept of on-the-go lifestyle gaining traction. This trend is ultimately propelling the sales of ready-to-eat food.To know more @ Global Mylar Bags Market, visit -Constant innovation is the key mantra for industry participants to sustain their share in todays competitive scenario. North America is not only a highly competitive market but also stays upfront in terms of innovation, hence the region is expected to lead the global mylar bags market.Asia Pacific is expected to expand at the highest CAGR. The growth of the region can be attributed to an increase in the purchasing power of individual further fuelling the growth of on-the-go lifestyle leading to high consumption of mylar bags.Global Mylar Bags Market: Growth Contributors & Impact AnalysisThe major contributors to the growth of the mylar bags market is the rise of the on-the-go lifestyle which has led to the advent of mylar bags for food storage & preservation over a long period of time. On-the-go lifestyle is highly impacting the growth of the global mylar bags market.Apart from food industry, the diversified application of mylar bags in other verticals such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals etc. is also impacting the growth of the global mylar bags market.Global Mylar Bags Market: Competitive Landscape & InnovationSome of the key players operating in the global mylar bags market are Uline Company, ShieldPro Flexible Packaging, LLC, IMPAK Corporation, PackFresh USA, Impak Corporation, Sorbent Systems, Protective Packaging Corporation, Ningbo Norent Plastic Prouduct Co., Ltd., and Fine Package Co., Ltd.Mylar is a trademark of DuPont Tejin Films and the company has introduced a lot of variants of BoPET films over a period of time. Some of the BoPET films variants include flame retardant films, anti-fog mylar films, and dual ovenable mylar films to name a few.Pre-book Global Mylar Bags 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:
Solar PV Mounting Systems Market to Witness Steady Growth During the Forecast Period 2017-2024

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Key industry players in solar PV mounting systems market include, Quick Mount PV, Landpower Solar, K2 SYSTEMS, UNIRAC, RBI Solar, Schletter, DPW Solar, SolarWorld, Versolsolar, Mounting Systems, Clenergy, Xiamen Grace Solar Technology, Suyash Metatech, SNS Corporation.Solar PV Mounting Systems Market is expected to grow at over 6% and surpass 9 billion by 2024. Stringent government guidelines pertaining to carbon emissions and climate change will propel the installation of solar PV systems, which will augment the industry growth. Regulations including Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) and 2009/28/EC directive creating a need to adopt feasible technologies to generate electricity.Request for a sample of this research report @Shift of consumer emphasis towards acceptance of renewable energy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will further enhance the business growth. The EU has set targets for reduction of at least 40% domestic greenhouse gases by 2030 as compared with 1990 levels.Solar PV mounting systems market in Germany is set to grow over USD 150 million by 2024. Rising measures towards energy security along with growing adoption of energy efficient systems will complement the business landscape. In January 2016, Government of Germany introduced a law in which construction of new buildings will only be allowed if its energy requirement must be one-fourth of the previous threshold.Rising demand for standalone electricity system from far flung areas for reliable and uninterrupted supply will stimulate the growth of solar PV mounting systems market. High initial expense towards grid extension will steer the adoption of off-grid clean technologies including solar, which will positively influence the industry landscape.Introduction of several government initiatives including tax rebates, power purchase agreement, soft loans, and subsidies will further complement the solar PV mounting systems market. In September 2014, government of Chile announced net-metering scheme, which will benefit the individuals to receive credit on utility bills for feeding surplus electricity to the grid.Ground mounted exceed over 75% of solar PV mounting systems market share in 2016 owing to its high efficiency and facility for inclination & orientation. Ongoing expansion of existing systems along with increasing demand for high capacity PV plants will positively influence the industry growth.Browse key industry insights spread across 220 pages with 304 market data tables & 10 figures & charts from the report, Solar PV Mounting Systems Market Size By Product (Rooftop, Ground Mounted), By End-Use (Residential, Commercial, Utility), By Technology (Fixed, Tracking), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, Mexico, UK, Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Russia, Sweden, Austria, Netherland, China, Australia, India, South Korea, Japan, Israel, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Jordan, South Africa, Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, Brazil, Chile), Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2017  2024 in detail along with the table of contents:Rising investments towards energy efficient building structure along with introduction of norms for net zero energy emission building will steer the growth of commercial solar PV mounting systems market during forecast period. Lloyds bank in 2016 announced to finance approximately USD 1 billion for commercial assets to curb greenhouse gas emissions from their real estate properties.Favorable government scheme including soft loans to encourage utilization of renewable energy and reduction of carbon footprints will augment Canada solar PV mounting systems market. Green building council of Canada introduced net zero carbon building structure in 2016 to limit carbon emissions to 30% by 2030.Increasing measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions coupled with rising demand for distributed electricity generation will stimulate the China solar PV mounting systems market. In 2015, Government of China announced to cut carbon emissions per unit of GDP by 60-65% by 2030 when compared with 2005 levels.Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @Table of Content (TOC-)Chapter 3. Solar PV Mounting Systems Industry Insights3.1. Industry segmentation3.2. Industry landscape, 2013  20243.3. Industry ecosystem analysis3.3.1. Vendor Matrix3.3.2. Distribution Channel3.4. Innovation & sustainability3.5. Regulatory landscape3.5.1. U.S.3.5.2. UK3.5.3. Germany3.5.4. China3.5.5. Japan3.5.6. India3.5.7. UAE3.5.8. Iran3.5.9. Nigeria3.5.10. Kenya3.6. Price trend analysis, by region3.6.1. North America3.6.2. Asia Pacific3.6.3. Europe3.6.4. Middle East3.6.5. Africa3.6.6. Latin America3.7. Feed in tariff landscape3.8. Solar PV industry trend and forecast3.9. Competitive solar tariff trend, 2013-20163.10. Industry impact forces3.10.1. Growth drivers3.10.1.1. Strict government norms towards greenhouse gas emission3.10.1.2. Positive outlook towards renewable energy3.10.1.3. Decreasing solar component cost3.10.1.4. Increasing off grid electricity demand3.10.1.5. Favorable government initiatives3.10.2. Industry pitfalls & challenges3.10.2.1. Lack of consumer awareness3.11. Growth potential analysis3.12. Porter's analysis3.13. Competitive landscape, 20163.13.1. Strategy dashboard3.13.2. Merger & Acquisition analysis3.14. PESTEL analysisAbout Global Market Insights:Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Contact Us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone: 1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:Blog:
Pharmacodiagnostics Market in Global Industry : Market Size, Sales Volume, Trends, Challenges and Growth Drivers Analysis with top key Companies 2025

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Pharmacodiagnostics Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025" to its huge collection of research reports.Pharmacodiagnostics is defined as pre-treatment testing performed to determine whether a patient is expected to respond to a given therapy. Pharmacodiagnostics is also known as predictive test used for the implementation of personalized medicine. The process is essential to manage health care costs and improve patient care by targeting the treatments toward individuals more likely to benefit from the specific therapies. The pharmacodiagnostics market is growing rapidly driven by increase in demand for and recognition of personalized medicine. Pharmacodiagnostic tests are majorly involved in the treatment of certain investigational cancer drug candidates which are under pipeline of major market players.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Increase in prevalence of cancer and infectious diseases, extensive pipeline of cancer and other drugs, and demand for new and effective treatment methods for fighting against diseases are the major factors driving the global pharmacodiagnostics market. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cancer was the leading cause of death in 2012, accounting for 8.2 million deaths globally. Lung, liver, colorectal, stomach, and breast cancers are responsible for most of the deaths each year. Statistics also revealed that breast cancer incidence had risen by more than 20% in 2012 over that in 2009, while breast cancer mortality rate increased by 14%. High morbidity and mortality associated with cancer have increased demand for effective cancer treatment and management methods and personalized medicines. Pharmacodiagnostic tests are essential to provide beneficial personalized medicine therapy. This is likely to drive the market.According to Dako, an Agilent Technology Company, nearly 75% cancer drugs were targeted drugs and the remaining were cytotoxics in 2015. High proportion of targeted drugs and the need to perform pharmacodiagnostics for targeted drugs for effective cancer treatment is expected to propel the pharmacodiagnostics market during the forecast period. The company also estimated that cytotoxic drugs in the next few years will see usage of pharmacodiagnostic testing for better results. For example, pharmacodiagnostics was performed for anthracycline-containing therapy for the treatment of primary breast cancer patients. The pharmacodiagnostic test capability as a rational tool to lead the recognition that every cancer patient is unique and as such treatment should be individualized is the prime reason which will help the pharmacodiagnostics market in its growth.Make An Enquiry @Growing stem cell research and government support in promoting stem cell research for treating chronic diseases such as cancer and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome are also major factors propelling the global pharmacodiagnostics market during the forecast period. As part of the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development, the European Union funded four stem cell projects: HumEn, Neurostemcellrepair, PluriMes, and ThymiStem. Similarly, the Government of India has established a research institute specifically for drug development named Open Source Drug Discovery (OSDD), and invested US$ 12 Mn for OSDD projects from 2008 to 2012. Pharmacodiagnostics plays an important role in developing personalized medicines with the help of stem cell research. Extensive stem cell research coupled with rise in demand for personalized medicine and increased funding from government and market players toward stem cell research are increasing demand for pharmacodiagnostics globally.The global pharmacodiagnostics market can be segmented based on therapeutics, application, and end-user. In terms of therapeutics, the market can be divided into cancer management, infectious diseases, and others. Cancer management can be sub-segmented into lung cancer, breast cancer, and others. The infectious diseases segment includes human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and others. Based on application, the global pharmacodiagnostics market can be categorized into pharmaceutical, diagnostics, health care, and others. Based on end-user, the market can be classified into pharmaceutical & biotech companies, academic & research institutes, diagnostic centers, and others.Browse Report @Geographically, the global pharmacodiagnostics market can be segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. Major players in the global pharmacodiagnostics market include Abbott Laboratories, Becton, Dickinson and Company, GE Healthcare, Gen-Probe, Inc., Luminex Corporation, Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics, Roche Diagnostics, Ventana Medical Systems, Inc., and PerkinElmer, Inc.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.About 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 Blogger at:
Carpet Cleaning Equipment Market Scope, Share, Growth, Analysis and Outlook to 2022

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Carpet cleaning equipment is used by commercial and residential users. These machines include carpet extractor, air blower, and spray extraction machines. Vacuum cleaner are excluded from scope of the report. Based on product type, the global carpet cleaning equipment market is divided into canister, upright, and handheld carpet cleaning equipment segments. The end-users of carpet cleaning equipment are commercial and residential users.Publisher's analysts forecast the Global Carpet Cleaning Equipment Market to grow at a CAGR of 14.82% during the period 2017-2022.FREE | Request Sample Copy is Available atCovered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the Global Carpet Cleaning Equipment Market 2018-2022. To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue generated from the various end usersThe market is divided into the following segments based on geography:- Americas- APAC- EMEAPublisher's report, Global Carpet Cleaning Equipment Market 2018-2022, 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- Alfred Karcher- BISSELL- Hako Holding- Techtronic Industries- Tennant CompanyBuy nowMarket driver- Technological and design innovations- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge- Low labour costs in developing countries- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend- Advent of green cleaning technologies- For a full, detailed list, view our reportTable of ContinentsPART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARYPART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORTPART 03: RESEARCH METHODOLOGYPART 04: INTRODUCTIONPART 05: MARKET LANDSCAPEPART 06: MARKET SIZINGPART 07: FIVE FORCES ANALYSISPART 08: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPEPART 09: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY END-USERPART 10: REGIONAL LANDSCAPEART 11: DECISION FRAMEWORKPART 12: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGESPART 14: VENDOR LANDSCAPEPART 15: VENDOR ANALYSISPART 16: APPENDIXComplete Report is Available atContact 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
Optic Neuritis Treatment Market in Global Industry: Geographical Analysis, Latest Growth, Development Trends & Forecast Report to 2025

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Optic Neuritis Treatment Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025" to its huge collection of research reports.Demyelinating inflammation of optic nerve is referred as optic neuritis. It is also commonly termed as optic papillitis and retro tubular neuritis. In most cases, optic neuritis is found to be associated with multiple sclerosis and can lead to partial or complete vision loss. Other diseases likely to be diagnosed along with optic neuritis in early stages include hyperkalemia and diabetes mellitus. Major symptoms associated with optic neuritis are partial or complete vision loss, blurred vision, pain in eyes, etc. In several cases, primary symptoms of optic neuritis include photophobia, reduced night vision, and eye redness. Adult optic neuritis and pediatric optic neuritis are two types based on age group of patients diagnosed with optic neuritis.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The optic nerve consists of axons arising from retina and transmitting visual information to visual nuclei. Inflammation of this optic nerve causes improper functioning and can lead to vision loss because of destruction of myelin sheath attached to optic nerve. 40% to 50% patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) develop optic neuritis and around 30% optic neuritis patients show symptoms of multiple sclerosis. A recent article published in the Journal of Neurology stated that the annual incidence of optic neuritis in the U.S. is found to be around 5/1,000,000, with estimated prevalence 115/1,000,000.Growing awareness about early detection of optic neuritis associated with multiple sclerosis and availability of affordable treatment options are expected to drive the global optic neuritis treatment market during the forecast period. Increase in geriatric population, rise in multiple sclerosis patient pool, growing awareness and affordable prices are the major factors propelling the market. Side effects of optic neuritis treatment drugs and growth of the generic drugs market are likely to restrain the global optic neuritis treatment market during the forecast period. Availability of reimbursement and well-established health care infrastructure are other factors expected to augment the market during the forecast period.The global optic neuritis treatment market can be segmented based on type of therapy, distribution channel, and region. In terms of type of therapy, the market can be categorized into steroidal therapy, supplementary therapy, and immunomodulators therapy. Steroidal therapy includes cortecostreoidal drugs, which have proven efficacy for decades. Steroidal therapy is projected to hold major market share due to proven efficacy and easy availability. Supplementary therapy includes vitamin supplementation therapy with vitamin B12 and is considered to be adjacent therapy in the treatment of optic neuritis. Immunomodulators therapy involves disease modifying agents such as interferons beta1a and beta1b which are beneficial in optic neuritis and multiple sclerosis.Make An Enquiry @Based on distribution channel, the global optic neuritis treatment market can be divided into hospitals, ophthalmic clinics, and ambulatory surgical centers. The hospitals segment captured a major market share and is likely to sustain its leadership position during the forecast period. A large population prefers visiting hospitals first rather than ophthalmic clinics for treatment as the cost of therapy at hospitals is lower. Ambulatory surgical centers is the less preferred option for the treatment of optic neuritis.Geographically, the global optic neuritis treatment market can be segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America projected to be the largest market during the forecast period. The region is anticipated to continue to dominate the market during the forecast period due to increase in the geriatric population, growing awareness among the population regarding MS and optical neuritis, and well-established health care infrastructure. Europe is expected to be the next dominant region during the forecast period due to increase in volume sales of steroidal therapeutics especially corticosteroids and upcoming new launches of combined medication products. The market in Asia Pacific is likely to expand at a high CAGR during the forecast period.Browse Report @The market in Latin America and Middle East & Africa is projected to expand at a sluggish CAGR during the forecast period. Increased focus by federal governments on enhancing health care facilities and rising awareness among the population are the factors contributing to the growth of the market in these regions.A small number of players operate in the global optic neuritis treatment market; however, several companies are interested in investing in the market due to increase in demand for the therapy. Major players operating in the global optic neuritis treatment market are Biogen, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals Inc., Pfizer, Inc., Novartis AG., and Teijin Pharmaceutical Limited, 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 @Follow me on Blogger at:
Signal Jammer Market trends research and projections for 2017-2025

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The increasing use of unmanned aerial vehicles in restricted areas has become one of the key driving factors for the global signal jammer market. In addition to this, the increasing R&D investment by various government bodies across the globe will bolster the market growth over the forecast period. For example: the Battelle Memorial Institute in the U.S has developed signal jammers that are designed for the unmanned aerial vehicles, which is currently being used for training purposes by the U.S. government. Moreover, increasing global R&D investment in aerospace & defense sector also boost the market growth of signal jammer globally. According to Coherent Market Insights analysis, the global R&D expenditure in aerospace & defense sector was US$ 30.4 billion in 2016 up from US$ 29.8 billion in 2015.The signal jammer is a device used to protect devices from receiving signals from base station. According to Coherent Market Insights analysis, around 2991.4 thousand units of personal and commercial drones will be sold by the end of 2017 up from 2152.2 thousand units in 2016. This increasing sales of drones, in turn, is projected to fuel the market growth of signal jammer globally.Ask for detailed Sample of this Research Report @Military and defense segment held the dominant position in the global signal jammer market in 2016 and is projected to retain its dominance throughout the forecast period. The high governmental support to use the signal jammer in military and defense application acts as a key driver for the growth of the signal jammer market in the sector. The U.K. uses drone jammer technology, which helps track the UAV flown by terrorists. Similarly, the Russian government has taken initiatives to upgrade the helicopter fleet and the U.S. government has given contract award to Lockheed Martin for the testing and development of long range radar. Such government initiatives play a significant role in the growth of signal jammer market over the forecast period.Signal jammer Market Outlook  North America holds the largest market shareOn the basis of geography, global signal jammer market is classified into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East and Africa. North America held the dominant position in the global signal jammer market in 2016 and is projected to retain its dominance throughout the forecast period. Due to the presence of major venders such as Northrop Grumman Corporation, Raytheon, Harris Corporation, and Lockheed Martin, the region witnesses immense growth potential. In addition to this, the high R&D investment by the U.S. in aerospace & defense segment will also add to the signal jammer market growth. According to Coherent Market Insights analysis, the U.S spent US$ 14.3 billion in aerospace & defense R&D in 2016. The increasing R&D spending by the U.S. is projected to propel the signal jammer market growth as well.Key Companies in the Global Signal Jammer MarketBAE Systems, Northrop Grumman Corporation, Raytheon, HSS Development, Harris Corporation, Israel Aerospace Industries, Lockheed Martin, MCTECH TECHNOLOGY, NDR Resource International, Stratign, and WolvesFleet Technology are some of the key companies in the global signal jammer market.Request for Table of Content of this Report @About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website :
Medical X Ray Detectors Market to Exceed US$ 3.3 Bn in 2022

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Increasing private and public investment in digital imaging technology particularly in the field of healthcare, the numerous benefits offered by digital detectors, analog X-ray reimbursement cuts, and reducing prices are the main factors driving the medical X-ray detectors market. Furthermore, technological advancements coupled with strong encouragement by venture capitalists should boost the medical X-ray detectors market throughout the course of the study period. The medical X-ray detectors market is poised to grow with a robust CAGR of 6.1% from 2017-2022.Get full report now @Digital X-ray systems are twice the size of retrofit X-ray systems in terms of module type and are expected to become even more popular in the days ahead. The digital x-ray systems medical X-ray detectors segment is on track to be worth more than US$ 2 billion by the end of the study period, making it imperative for key stakeholders to target this segment. Retrofit systems are slowly but surely fading in popularity. Nonetheless, this segment still accounts for a revenue share approaching a third of the medical X-ray detectors market in 2017 and companies cannot overlook it entirely in favor of digital x-ray systemsFixed detectors comprise more than half the medical X-ray detectors market by revenue share. North America alone has a third of the market in 2017 and is expected to be the only region in the medical X-ray detectors market to record a robust CAGR in excess of 6%. Europe is the second largest region in the fixed detector segment of the medical X-ray detectors market but MEA and Latin America are predicted to grow at a higher CAGR. Portable detectors occupy the balance revenue share in the modality segment of the medical X-ray detectors market. This segment is highly likely to see strong growth and companies can try to target this lucrative segment accordinglyRequest Report Multiple Chapter @Large-area flat panel detectors are dominant in the medical X-ray detectors market by panel size segment in 2017 and are estimated to remain so going forward. The large-area flat panel detector segment in both North America and Europe is assessed to be worth more than US$ 600 million by the end of the forecast period, ensuring that all major players can be profitable in such a large market. The small-area flat panel detectors segment is particularly popular in North America with a high CAGR in the APEJ regionRequest to Sample of Report @Computed radiography has a revenue share of just over a fifth of the medical X-ray detectors market by product type segment and is likely to lose popularity over the study period. A similar CAGR greater than 4.5% exists in Latin America and APEJ but the latter is considerably larger in terms of market sizeNorth America is the largest region in the medical X-ray detectors market and the U.S. accounts for the lions share within the continent. The U.S. medical X-ray detectors market is anticipated to grow to more than a billion dollars by end 2022.Request for Table of Contents @The companies profiled in the medical X-ray detectors market report are Teledyne Technologies Incorporated, Rayence Co., KONICA MINOLTA, Hamamatsu Photonics, DRTECH Corporation, Canon Inc, Analogic Corporation, FUJIFILM Holdings Corporation, Onex Corporation, and Agfa-Gevaert N.V.For more information @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Automotive Laser Headlight System Market Size, Share, Trend, Key Manufacturer Analysis and Outlook to 2022

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Laser headlights are laser-assisted headlight with filaments (halogens or Xenons) and ionizable gases replaced by laser diodes and phosphorous lens.Publisher's analysts forecast the global automotive laser headlight system market to grow at a CAGR of 137.77% during the period 2018-2022.FREE | Request Sample Copy is Available atCovered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global automotive laser headlight system market for 2018-2022. To calculate the market size, the report presents a detailed picture of the market by way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:- Europe- China- US- ROWPublisher's report, Global Automotive Laser Headlight System Market 2018-2022, 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- OSRAM- AUDI- BMW- ZKW Group- SORAALASERBuy nowMarket driver- High energy efficiency of laser headlights as a benefit for the end consumers and OEMs alike- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge- The cost factor is a concern for the end customers- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend- Automotive OEMs going for cooptation- For a full, detailed list, view our reportTable of ContinentsPART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARYPART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORTPART 03: RESEARCH METHODOLOGYPART 04: INTRODUCTIONPART 05: MARKET LANDSCAPEPART 06: MARKET SIZINGPART 07: FIVE FORCES ANALYSISPART 08: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPEPART 09: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY END-USERPART 10: REGIONAL LANDSCAPEART 11: DECISION FRAMEWORKPART 12: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGESPART 14: VENDOR LANDSCAPEPART 15: VENDOR ANALYSISPART 16: APPENDIXComplete Report is Available atContact 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
SMS Firewall Market trends research and projections for 2017-2025

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The application to person messaging segment is anticipated to exhibit the highest CAGR over the forecast period. Increasing demand for application to person message in various verticals such as e-commerce, travel, healthcare, finance, banking industry provided a swift growth to this segment in the global SMS Firewall market. Notifications, sending alerts and marketing messages for instance, One Time Password (OTP) verifications, flight alerts, banking updates, and promotional messages are some of the common cases of the application to person messaging segment, which helps accelerate the global SMS firewall market.Ask for detailed Sample of this Research Report @SMS firewall helps monitor the traffic, detect fake message, and blocks spam messages. Firewall is a network security system that helps to monitor and control the network traffic according to predefined security rules. Increasing demand for application to person messaging by various industries such as e-commerce, banking, finance, healthcare, and retail has increased SMS traffic globally, which in turns fuel growth of the SMS firewall market.The managed service segment is anticipated to exhibit the highest CAGR over the forecast period. The managed services enable end users to configure and deploy application and software on their devices. The provision of various managed services by venders such as firewall configurations and management, client-hosted operations, 24/7 remote support, inventory tracking, monitoring and vigilance, and firewall services have increased the market share of managed services segment in the global SMS firewall market.SMS Firewall Market Outlook  North America holds the largest market share in the global SMS firewall.On the basis of geography, the global SMS firewall market is classified into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East, and Africa. North America held the dominant position in the global SMS firewall market in 2016 and is projected to retain its dominance throughout the forecast period. The large-scale implementation of SMS firewall software or solutions by SMS aggregators and mobile network operators have led to the growth of the market of SMS firewall in this region. Furthermore, the Asia Pacific SMS firewall market is expected to grow with the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Increasing demand for application to person messaging by various industries such as government, travel, e-commerce, finance, and banking has increased demand FOR SMS firewall, in turn fueling growth of market in this region.Key Companies of the Global SMS Firewall MarketKey players operating in SMS firewall market include Symsoft, Cellusys, Route Mobile Limited, ANAM Technologies Ltd., Tyntec, SAP SE, Belgacom ICS, Tata Communications Limited, Mahindra Comviva, Infobip Ltd., Twilio Inc., Syniverse Technologies, LLC., Omobio (PVT) Limited, and AMD Telecom S.A.Request for Table of Content of this Report @About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website :
Logistics Services (3PL and 4PL) Market 2018: Global Trends, Demand and Forecast Outlook 2023

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As per Global Logistics Services (3PL and 4PL) Market report for the period of 2018 to 2023, the Logistics Services (3PL and 4PL) Market is likely to reach an approximation of USD xx million at the end of the year 2023 rising at the rate of CAGR xx% throughout the forecast period of 2019 to 2023. The Global Logistics Services (3PL and 4PL) Market report covers an exhaustive understanding of the Logistics Services (3PL and 4PL) Industry that encompasses various important factors like the product type, sales, revenue, competition market size, regions, and applications.Request a sample of this report @The report further provides a thorough understanding of the Logistics Services (3PL and 4PL) Market through value chain analysis and SWOT, which helps the consumer/user/ reader to understand expected trends in the Logistics Services (3PL and 4PL) Industry, demand-supply situation in the market, its weaknesses, strengths and various opportunities the market can offer. Statistics and data have been included in the Logistics Services (3PL and 4PL) Market to support the information in the report through charts and tables for enhanced readability and to present more engaging content.The Global Logistics Services (3PL and 4PL) Market report also discusses, in detail, the regional distribution of the Logistics Services (3PL and 4PL) Market, which enables readers to plan an expansion of their business. The regional bifurcation of Logistics Services (3PL and 4PL) Market includes data with regard to sales, market share, revenue, growth rate and consumption for each region mentioned below: USA Europe Japan China India Southeast Asia South America South Africa OthersPlace a purchase order of this report @All products mentioned in the global Logistics Services (3PL and 4PL) Market report are examined in depth across all parameters which include drifts in the market based on market size, sales revenue, gross margin, price and market share.The following product types are included in the report: Transportation Warehousing Value-added Services Lead Logistics Provider Services/4PL OtherThe Global Logistics Services (3PL and 4PL) Market report mainly targets the outlook of major end users, their status through consumption, market share, and growth rate.The end user applications covered in this report include: Consumer Goods Healthcare Industrial Elements Food, Groceries Automotive Technological Retailing OtherBrowse the complete report @The Global Logistics Services (3PL and 4PL) Market report includes vendor profiles of major players in the Logistics Services (3PL and 4PL) Industry which provides the reader with the best view of the competitive landscape. The Global Logistics Services (3PL and 4PL) Market report includes market valuation and analysis of performance of the key players along with new product launches.Some of the major companies discussed in the report include: DHL Supply Chain & Global Forwarding Kuehne + Nagel DB Schenker Logistics Nippon Express C.H. Robinson Worldwide UPS Supply Chain Solutions DSV Sinotrans CEVA Logistics Expeditors International of Washington Dachser Panalpina GEODIS Toll Holdings J.B. Hunt (JBI, DCS & ICS) Hitachi Transport System XPO Logistics GEFCO Yusen Logistics AgilityMake an enquiry of this report @Major Points from Table of Content:1 Logistics Services (3PL & 4PL) Market Overview2 Global Logistics Services (3PL & 4PL) Competitions by Players3 Global Logistics Services (3PL & 4PL) Competitions by Types4 Global Logistics Services (3PL & 4PL) Competitions by Applications5 Global Logistics Services (3PL & 4PL) Production Market Analysis by Regions6 Global Logistics Services (3PL & 4PL) Sales Market Analysis by Region7 Imports and Exports Market Analysis8 Global Logistics Services (3PL & 4PL) Players Profiles and Sales Data9 Logistics Services (3PL & 4PL) Upstream and Downstream Analysis10 Global Logistics Services (3PL & 4PL) Market Forecast (2018-2023)11 Research Findings and ConclusionContact sales@orbisresearch.com for more information.About Us:Orbis Research (orbisresearch.com) is a single point aid for all your market research requirements. We have vast database of reports from the leading publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customized reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialization. This helps our clients to map their needs and we produce the perfect required market research study for our clients.Contact Us:Hector CostelloSenior Manager  Client Engagements4144N Central Expressway,Suite 600, Dallas,Texas - 75204, U.S.A.Phone No.: +1 (214) 884-6817; +912064101019Follow Us on LinkedIn:Follow us on Twitter:
Chatbots Market 2018-2025 Global Top Companies Like eGain Corporation., Creative Virtual Ltd., Artificial Solutions, Next IT Corp., [24]7.ai, Inc., CX Company, Speaktoit, Inc., iDAvatars, Baidu, Inc

"Global Chatbots Market Industry Trends and Forecast to 2025"

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Global Chatbots Market, By Type (Software, Services), By Usage (Websites, Contact Centres, Social Media, Mobile Platform), By Industry Vertical (Financial Services, Healthcare, Communication, Retail, Travel and Hospitality, Government, Education, Utilities), By Deployment Type, By End User (Small and Medium Enterprises, Large Enterprises), By Geography Industry Trends and Forecast to 2025Get Free Sample Report Visit @Market Analysis: Global Chatbots MarketThe Global Chatbots Market is expected to reach USD 4125.3 Million by 2025, from USD 750.3 Million in 2017 growing at a CAGR of 36.5% during the forecast period of 2018 to 2025. The upcoming market report contains data for historic years 2014 & 2015, the base year of calculation is 2016 and the forecast period is 2018 to 2025.The Global Chatbots Market report consists of below pages: No of pages: 350 No of Figures: 60 No of Tables: 220Market Definition: Global Chatbots MarketThis market report defines the market trends and forecast the upcoming opportunities and threats of the chatbots market in the next 8 years. Chatbots is a computer program designed to simulate chat with human users, over the Internet. It conducts conversation via auditing and textual messages. These are the computer programs that imitate conversation with people using artificial intelligence. The chatbot ecosystem includes several cross-linking features that enable enhanced performance of chatbots in various applications. Many companies prefer in-built chatbots on their websites as they facilitate companies in providing immediate customer interaction. Mostly slack and twitter messaging platforms are preferred by businesses. Chatbots allows companies to engross in continuous communication with their customers. Chatbots installed by the companies offer information related to product and brand, which helps the company to increase brand awareness, and inspire customers to sign up for the companys account. There is a huge growth for chatbots because large enterprises widely employ chatbot for digital marketing applications and for easy communication. The Kik Bot Store is going to launch chatbot with 16 bots, which will include the Weather Channel, H&M, Vine and Funny or Die.Major Market Drivers and Restraints:Acceptance of cloud-based technologyIncreasing demand for automated patient management tools in the healthcare industryPenetration of websites and mobile applications are increased.Lack of awareness due to early presence in tech-adoption life cycleHigh deployment cost and system integration complexitiesInquiry Before Buying Visit @Market Segmentation: Global Chatbots MarketThe global chatbots market is segmented into type, industry vertical, usage, deployment type, end user and by geography.Based on type, the global chatbots market is segmented into software and services. Services are further segmented into professional services and managed services.On the basis of usage, the global chatbots market is segmented into websites, contact centres, social media, and mobile platform.On the basis of industry vertical, the global chatbots market is segmented into financial services, healthcare, communication, retail, travel and hospitality, government, education, utilities and others.On the basis of deployment type, the global chatbots market is segmented into on-premises and on-cloud.On the basis of end user, the global chatbots market is segmented into small and medium enterprises, large enterprises.Based on geography, the global chatbots market report covers data points for 28 countries across multiple geographies namely 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: Global Chatbots MarketThe global chatbots market is highly fragmented and the major players have used various strategies such as new product launches, expansions, agreements, joint ventures, partnerships, acquisitions, and others to increase their footprints in this market. The report includes market shares of chatbots market for global, Europe, North America, Asia pacific and South America.Major Market Competitors/Players: Global Chatbots MarketSome of the major players operating in the global chatbots market are IBM, Nuance Communications, Inc., eGain Corporation., Creative Virtual Ltd., Artificial Solutions, Next IT Corp., [24]7.ai, Inc., CX Company, Speaktoit, Inc., iDAvatars, Baidu, Inc, Poncho, Kik., WeChat., Varo, Babylon, ReplyYes, SRI International, Inbenta Technologies Inc., Anboto, among others.Read more about the Global Chatbots Market Visit @Research Methodology: Global Chatbots MarketData collection and base year analysis is done using data collection modules with large sample sizes. The market data is analysed and forecasted using market statistical and coherent models. Also market share analysis and key trend analysis are the major success factors in the market report. To know more please Request an Analyst Call or can drop down your inquiry.Demand Side Primary Contributors: Software Developers, OEMs, Industrial Professionals, Researches, Suppliers and Distributors, Group Purchasing Organizations, Associations, Insurers, Universities, Technological Writers, Scientists, Promoters, Investors among others.Supply Side Primary Contributors: Product Managers, Marketing Managers, C-Level Executives, Distributors, Market Intelligence, Regulatory Affairs Managers among others.Related ReportGlobal Data Center Interconnect Market Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Global Data Center Interconnect market, By Geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Europe, South America, Middle East and Africa), By Type {Product (Packet Switching Networking, Packet Optical Transport/Packet Optical Networking, Converged Packet Optical), Software, Services (Professional Services, Managed Services)}; By Application (Real-Time Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity, Shared Data and Resources/Server High-Availability Clusters (Geoclustering), Workload (VM) and Data (Storage) Mobility) By End-Users (Communication Service Providers, Carrier Neutral Providers/Internet Content Providers, Government, Enterprises)  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Report Access:About Data Bridge Market Research:Data Bridge Market Research set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.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
Green Building Materials Market  Rising Concerns Regarding Environment Safety to Fuel Market Growth

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Green buildings, also known as sustainable buildings or green construction are buildings that make use of environment-friendly and resource-efficient processes for their designing, construction, maintenance, renovation, and operation throughout their lifecycle. Such green building also ensure more environmentally-safe demolition procedures than conventional methods.The popular materials that are used in making a green building include straw bales, grasscrete, rammed earth, hempcrete, bamboo, recycled plastic, and wood, among others. Mycelium, ferrock, ashcrete, and timbercrete are also used in the construction of green buildings. The primary aim underlying the green building construction is to define an approach that minimizes negative effects on the environment (air, water, and earth) as well as human health. The primary sources of green building materials are renewable sources (forests) and recycled materials (doors, old plumbing, recycled plastic, etc.)Sample Copy of This Report @Some of the major advantages that green buildings provide as compared to conventional buildings are efficient technology usage, easy maintenance, improved air quality, water and energy efficiency, and high return on investment. These building also ensure temperature moderation, waste reduction, water conservation, and improved physical and mental health of the inhabitants.Increasing health concerns among people, growing responsibility and concerns towards environment safety, and increasing demand for efficient energy usage is expected to drive growth of the green building materials market over the forecast period (20162024). A major spike has been witnessed in stress levels and related health problems among the global populace over the last couple of decades. Home and work environments majorly impact the wellbeing of an individual thus, resulting in an increased customer inclination towards aesthetically pleasing green buildings that look appealing, and at the same time help alleviate both physical and mental problems. This is a key factor fueling market growth. This trend is expected to gain further traction in the near future. However, higher initial costs, dearth of raw materials, time-consuming process of construction, and lack of skilled professionals impedes market growth. Basic construction materials used in green buildings, such as straw bales, grasscrete, rammed earth, hempcrete, bamboo, recycled plastic, and wood are not widely available across the globe. The process for using these materials in construction involves exorbitant expenditures and requires highly skilled workers, which makes the process of building green projects capital intensive.Green Building Materials Market Outlook  Rising Concerns Regarding Environment Safety to Fuel Market GrowthThe growing concern of environmental safety such as concerns regarding water wastage, inclination towards conservation of natural resources and protection of biodiversity fuels growth of the global green building materials market. Various dedicated regulatory bodies such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) have green building ratings, certification programs and have formed guidelines pertaining to green building construction. Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (GRIHA) is an environmental safety regulatory tool used by the United Nations for encouraging adoption of renewable materials in the construction sector. Another popular research institute dedicated towards sustainable development and environmental safety in India and South Asia is TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute).To get detailed table of content (ToC) @Product innovation is one of the key strategies adopted by the leading players in the green building materials market. Manufacturers are focusing on adding solar thermal cladding and bio-plastics. In 2016, Gunlocke, a furniture manufacturing company introduced Myco Board, which is new ecofriendly product offering cost-effective and environment-friendly solutions for interior products. Some of the major companies operating in the global green building materials market are Alumasc Group Plc, AMVIC Building Systems, Binderholz GmbH, Bauder Ltd, BASF SE, and Interface.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
Edureka launches courses in IoT and popular Blockchain technology - Ethereum Developer

Bangalore, 24 April, 2018: Edureka, a global e-learning platform providing training in trending technologies, has launched courses in IoT, and Ethereum Developer. The live, instructor-led courses are in-depth training programs that are packed with real-life case studies and practical demos at every stage.Both IoT and Blockchain platforms, including Ethereum, are ranked among the top tech skills to have in 2018. The courses have been launched at a time when re-skilling is not an option but a necessity for professionals in the volatile IT industry.Vineet Chaturvedi, Co-Founder, Edureka, said, The average life span of a technical skill is now lower than ever. Continuous up-skilling is the only way technology professionals can keep pace with the rapidly changing skill landscape. At Edureka, we are committed to help these professionals master the most relevant tech skills and stay on track with their career goals. With this objective, we have introduced structured training programs in IoT and Ethereum to enable mid-level executives close their skill gap and fast-track their career growth.The IoT market is expected to grow from USD 170.57 billion in 2017 to USD 561.04 billion by 2022 at CAGR of 26.9% according to market research reports. With devices becoming smart, there is a growing demand for professionals who can implement architecture to handle end-to-end computing at the device level. Adoption of intelligent agents like Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant is on the rise and IoT will become the backbone of future customer value, resulting in a five-fold increase in job opportunities in this area.The demand for professionals with skill sets in Blockchain technologies has increased by 50% in the last one year and India is emerging as a leader for Blockchain talent. LinkedIn data has shown a 30% increase in year-on-year job postings in Blockchain. Ethereum has multiple uses in domains such as Finance, Technology, Cybersecurity and Healthcare, among others. This has led to a demand for Blockchain specialists that far exceeds the supply. Demand is largely from IT/IT services, Finance and Security domains.The newly-launched courses are the latest additions to Edurekas growing portfolio of more than 100 courses in technologies that are in demand globally. It also reiterates Edurekas commitment to up-skill and retrain the IT talent pool with new age and futuristic technologies that will help them stay relevant and grow faster in their careers.Edurekas IoT Certification course is a first-of-its-kind 30-hour program tailored by industry experts, that is designed to help learners become IoT Solutions Architects. It will cover in-depth concepts such as IoT framework, IoT ecosystem, IoT solution architecture, networking protocols and application layer protocols. Learners will gain hands-on experience with Azure IoT hub and Alexa Voice and work on Raspberry Pi and Sense HAT.Edurekas Ethereum Developer Certification course is a 15-hour program that will train learners in the underlying concepts of Blockchain technology and provides them with complete understanding of Ethereum ecosystem. This Course is aimed at professionals who are interested in developing Smart contracts and DApps on Ethereum platform using Solidity programming language.About Edureka:Edureka is a global e-learning platform for live, instructor-led training in trending technologies. They offer short term courses supported by online resources, along with 24x7 lifetime support. Edureka has an unwavering commitment to help working professionals keep up with changing technologies and to cater to academic institutions inability to keep pace with changing needs. With an existing learner community of 600,000, Edurekas vision is to make learning easy, interesting, affordable and accessible to millions of learners across the globe.Edureka3rd Floor, No.38/4, Adjacent to Dell EMC2, Dodanekundi, Outer Ring Road, Bengaluru, Karnataka 5600489051511054
Hypercar Market - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 20172025

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Hypercar market refers to the business generated by the automotive sales of the vehicles that align with the designing concept of ultralight construction and aerodynamic body, utilizing advanced composite materials, hybrid drives and low-drag designs. These vehicles are as much as five times as fuel efficient, offer superior performance, safety, low center of gravity, and other functional attributes.Request For Sample Copy of this Research Report :Growing inclination towards premium luxury car brands creating a highly conducive environment for growth of the hypercar marketImproving economic conditions and subsequent increasing consumer spending on luxury products creates a highly conducive environment for growth of the hypercar market. In conjunction with these factors, increasing number of manufacturers that include Aston Martin, McLaren and Honda among many other sport car manufacturers are making significant efforts to develop of hypercar and provide high-end automotive to the consumers and establish their strong brand name in the global market.Incorporating these cars with enhanced safety features, high performance engines and differentiating their end solutions with distinct performance enhancements systems, is expected to be one of the major trends in the industry. For instance, several expected commercial vehicle launches expected to feature over 1000 hp over the near future, from Mercedes and Aston Martin are expected to feature electric motor assist to add on to their performance quotient. Such advancements are expected to present major growth prospects for the hypercar market through the forecast period.Intensive competition among the participants is expected drive the innovation and development of next generation hypercar marketIn May 2017, Mercedes highlighted the specs about its ongoing AMG Project One. The car is expected to be powered by a 1.6-liter turbocharged Forumla ONE engine and 1000 brake hp, featuring 43% thermal efficiency. Moreover, the entire drivetrain weighs 925 lbs. that powers the eight speed single clutch transmission is expected to cost around US$ 2.9 Mn. Another instance is the 800 bhp Tomhawk, featuring all-electric hypercar. The manufacturer of the automaker claims that the vehicle could reach 60mph in 2.0 seconds with its capability of generation 1.2g lateral force, which will be fastest accelerating car in production. However, as reported to Autocar by spokesman, that these figures were based on simulations.Major Aston Martin in collaboration with Red Bull Racing are working for Valkyrie and Boreas project developing 1000 bhp cars for Europe market, are among the few major other ongoing projects that are expected to materialize and gain traction over the next few years. This trend is expected to garner significant growth prospects for the hypercar market.Distinct regulations by government bodies and high initial costs of these vehicles is expected to be among the prominent industry growth challengesMclarens BP23 expected to be launched in 2018, is expected to be majorly challenged by the Australian Design Rules (ADRs), according to the companys spokesperson. Similar other regulatory challenges and infrastructural drawbacks are expected to present major growth challenge to the industry growth. Moreover, the price range of these vehicles are all over million dollars due to which these vehicles are expected to remain luxury asset. However, industry participants are increasingly taking initiatives to reduce the overall costs. For instance, next generation Honda NSX, featured to be an all-electric car, has earned the title of 'poor mans Porsche 918 Spyder'.Industry paradigm shift towards the development and electrification of machines to reduce their environmental impact, boost the progress of efficient hybrid and electric motors for the automobiles will present consistent demands over the forecast period. Key hypercar market participants include Automobili Lamborghini, Bugatti, Ferrari, Daimler Group, Hennessey Performance Engineering (HPE), Koenigsegg, Pagani Automobili, Porsche, Zenvo Automotive, and McLaren.Request For Table of Content of this Report :About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit Our New Website:
Global Inorganic Chemicals Market - Industry Trends, Outlook, Regulatory Bodies

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Inorganic chemicals are a combination of two or more elements other than carbon. Carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, carbides, carbonates, and cyanides are exceptions, as these are inorganic chemicals despite having carbon. Rising demand for inorganic chemicals in the fertilizers industry is expected to be one of the prime factors driving market growth. Moreover, due to stringent government regulations and stagnant economy in the developed countries of North America and Europe, the market is estimated to fuel growth of the market in emerging economies of Asia Pacific and Middle East. Cheap labor costs in countries such as China and India, makes these the preferred production hubs for global manufacturers. This helps reduce the overall cost of production of inorganic chemicals. Increasing environmental consciousness and implementation of stringent regulations influences market players to switch technology shifting and producing environment friendly products.Request Sample of Global Inorganic Chemicals Market:Inorganic Chemicals Market Outlook  Surge in Demand for Ammonia for Agricultural Application Augmenting Market GrowthPopulation explosion witnessed over the last five decades has put considerable strain upon the already stretched thin agricultural sector. Moreover, rapid urbanization led to steep fall in farmland which force down the farmer for duel cultivation, characterized by large volumes of fertilizers being used to maintain optimum soil fertility. Nitrogen-based fertilizers are widely used by farmers, as it is easily available, cost-effective, and rather effective in increasing fertility of the soil. This in turn is expected to fuel the inorganic chemicals market during the forecast period. Ammonia is also used for cold storage and food preservation in the food & beverages industry. Moreover, the explosive manufacturing industry uses ammonium nitrate in bomb manufacturing. Asia Pacific is expected to be one of the most lucrative markets of manufacturers of inorganic chemicals, due to strengthening of the economy and strong agricultural base in China, India, and South East Asian countries.Inorganic Chemicals Market Challenges  Fluctuating Crude Oil Price and Stringent Government RegulationsFluctuating prices of crude oil and natural gas is expected to significantly dampen growth of inorganic chemicals market. Crude oil and natural gas are the basic building blocks of numerous inorganic chemicals industry. Moreover, the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for 21st Century Act upon Toxic Chemicals and Chinese State Environment Protection Administration and General Administration of Custom has enforced strict regulation upon import and export of certain hazardous chemicals and pesticides. These are few challenges for inorganic chemical manufacturing company during the forecast period.Inorganic Chemicals Market  Regulatory Scenario:February 24, 2004, U.S. Department of State enforce the Rotterdam Convention as an international treaty designed to facilitate informed decision-making by countries with regard to trade in hazardous chemicals.January 01, 2006, The State Environment Protection Administration and the General Administration of Custom of China, In order to strictly prevent illegal export of toxic chemicals and earnestly improve the implementation of the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals Pesticides in International Trade and the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.June 22, 2016, the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical safety for 21st century act updated the 1976 toxic substances control act, which allows EPA to protect the people of US from toxic chemicals.To get detailed table of content (ToC) @Key players in the inorganic chemicals market include Akzo Nobel, BASF SE, Bayer, The Dow Chemicals Company, DuPont, Evonik Industries, Formosa Plastics, Ineos, LG Chem, LyondellBasell Industries, Mitsubishi Chemicals, Sabic, The Royal Dutch Shell, Sinopec, Sumitomo Chemicals. Strategic mergers and acquisitions is the new trend in the industry. For instance, BASF SE and Avantium on March 15, 2016, collaborated to establish production and marketing of furandicarboxylic acid and PEF based. Moreover, May 10, 2016, BASF SE launch new cross linking and water based dispersion coating product.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
Trauma Fixation Devices Market to Exceed US$ 3,333.1 Mn in 2025

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Global trauma fixation devices market is expected to witness robust growth during the forecast period. This growth is expected to be primarily driven by increasing demand for trauma fixation devices in hospitals emergency departments, as well as outpatient surgery. Increasing cases of accidents and other trauma-related indications are likely to provide a major boost for this market over the forecast period. In this newly published report titled, Trauma Fixation Devices Market: Global Industry Analysis (2012-2016) and Forecast (2017-2025), Persistence Market Research has not only offered the forecast analysis but has also presented the historical data of the global trauma fixation devices market. According to the report, this market is likely to grow from US$ 1,753.6 Mn in 2016 to US$ 3,333.1 Mn by 2025 end, registering a healthy CAGR of 7.4% during the period of eight years, i.e. 2017-2025.Get full report now @Global Trauma Fixation Devices Market: Trends, The incorporation of technology for the treatment of trauma and introduction of platform system for shoulder arthroplasty. International collaboration to expand domestic reach and increasing popularity of medical tourism. Technologically advanced products replacing traditional orthopedic devices, improved patient outcome and reduction in surgical time. Domestic companies gaining age in the developing regions trauma fixation devices market. Use of robotic technology during surgery to avoid complications. Incorporating technology to enable patient-centric approach.Global Trauma Fixation Devices Market: Forecast by Fixation TypeThis segment includes two key segments- internal fixation and external fixation. Internal fixation is the largest segment in global trauma fixation devices market, which is estimated to represent US$ 1,582.5 Mn, or 84.3% share of the total market in 2017 and US$ 2,889.5 Mn, or 86.7% by 2025 end, expanding at CAGR of 7.8% over the forecast period of 20172025. Internal fixation dominated the global trauma fixation devices market in revenue terms in 2016, and the trend is projected to continue throughout the forecast period. This segment is expected to be the most lucrative among all end users, with attractiveness index of 1.8.Request Report Multiple Chapter @Global Trauma Fixation Devices Market: Forecast by End UserEnd user segment is consists of hospital and ambulatory surgical centers. Hospital is the largest segment in global trauma fixation devices market, which is estimated to represent US$ 1,383.2 Mn of the total market in 2017 and is anticipated to be valued at US$ 2,537.5 Mn by 2025 end, expanding at CAGR of 7.9% over the forecast period of 20172025. While, ambulatory surgery centers segment is expected to be the second largest market for trauma fixation devices market, with market share index of 0.4.Global Trauma Fixation Devices Market: Forecast by Product TypeOn the basis of product type this market is segmented into metal plates and screws, pins/wires, nails and rods, circular fixator, hybrid fixator, unilateral fixator. With 42.9% revenue share in 2017, metal plates and screws is expected to be the most lucrative among all end users, with attractiveness index of 2.8. On the other hand the pins/wires segment is expected to be the second dominant product type in the trauma fixation devices market.Request to Sample of Report @Global Trauma Fixation Devices Market: Regional Forecast and AnalysisFive regions are covered in this reports namely, North America, Latin America, Europe, APAC and MEA. Europe is the largest region in trauma fixation devices market, which is estimated to represent US$ 1,013.0 Mn, or 54% share of the total market in 2017 and is projected to reach to US$ 1,818.2 Mn, or 54.6%, expanding at CAGR of 7.6% over the forecast period of 20172025. Europe dominated the global trauma fixation devices market in revenue terms in 2016 and is projected to continue to do so throughout the forecast period.Request for Table of Contents @Global Trauma Fixation Devices Market: Key PlayersZimmer Biomet Holding Inc, Stryker Corporation, Johnson and Johnson (DePuy Synthes), Medtronic Plc., Integra LifeSciences, B. Braun Melsungen AG, Martin LP, Poriferous LLC, Medartis Holding AG, Matrix Surgical USA., are some of the key players operating in the global trauma fixation devices market.For more information @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:
Numerous Reasons A Major Earthquake May Mean Mayday In Late May 2018 Says Expert Dr. Richard Ruhling

Dr. Richard Ruhling

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On this day designated to honor Charles Richter, inventor of the Richter Scale, Dr. Richard Ruhling reflects on an 85-99% risk of a major quake in three years reported by seismologists in the LA Times 2 1/2 years ago.Ruhling is an author on current events and Bible prophecy which he says offer a more precise timing for a major earthquake linked to the biblical end-times.The day of the LORD is the end-time period and its linked to an earthquake in Joel 2, verse 10, and current events support the day of the LORD as impending according to Ruhling.The prophet Zechariah said, The day of the LORD comes. He linked it to armies gathered against Jerusalem. The NY Times has reported tens of thousands of Muslim demonstrators on the Gaza border.Christ warned, when you see Jerusalem compassed with armies, know that its destruction is nigh Luke 21, verse 20.126 nations in the UN voted against President Trumps plan to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, and Pres. Erdogan of Turkey called for 57 Muslim nations to siege Jerusalem, according to WorldNetDaily.Ruhling says if there is destruction of Jerusalem, also suggested by the first sign in Matthew 24, that biblical end-times are starting and readers may expect a major earthquake to bring judgment to the US at the end of May.He claims poor translation has misled Christians into believing no one will know when events that Christ spoke of will come. He explains the Greek word, eido, means be aware or understand.Christ was telling his disciples that they didnt understand, and each time he said it, he gave an example of Passover as a time of judgment, but in the 2nd spring month as it fit provisions in the law of Numbers 9 (verses 10,11) for a month later as the days of Noah when the Flood came in the 2nd spring month.Ruhling says many Christians had expectancy for 2017, himself included, but he explains the Great Sign of Revelation 12a rare convergence of planets and constellations points to this spring because of the 9-month imagery of pregnancy. The 9-month period also fits 2nd Passover timing.Ruhling is author of 'The Destruction of Jerusalem: A Sign for US of Good News Amid Impending Calamity'. Readers can get a no-charge copy Saturday, April 28 at Amazon. Dr. Ruhling is available for media interviews and can be reached via email at ruhling7@juno.com More information is available at his website.Dr. Richard Ruhling is a retired physician who taught Health Science at Loma Linda University, an expert on Biblical prophecy and the author of 'The Alpha & Omega Bible Code', 'The Earthquake and the 7 Seals' and 'The Destruction of Jerusalem: A Sign for US of Good News Amid Impending Calamity'.PO Box 1613Shallotte, NC 28459
Protective Clothing Market  Increasing Safety Concerns and Hazard Prevention Expected to Fuel Demand

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Protective clothing are personal protective equipment designed to protect the wearers body from susceptible harm and infection. Protective clothing includes high-visibility vests, footwear, respiratory aids, gloves, helmets, harnesses, and eye protection gear. These clothings find application in various working environments that are deemed hazardous for legs and feet, such as dampness, falling objects, cuts, slips, chemical spillages, and abrasive materials. In order to prevent such hazards, there is an increased use of oil and chemical resistant soles on shoes and boots, safety boots with steel toe caps, leggings, and gaiters. This has augmented growth of protective clothing market across the globe.Protective Clothing Market Outlook  Increasing Safety Concerns and Hazard Prevention Expected to Fuel DemandHazardous work environment and stringent regulations for employee safety has rapidly amplified the consumption of protective clothing globally. Laws such as The Construction (Head Protection) Regulations 1989, The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002, The Control of Lead at Work Regulations 2002, The Ionising Radiations Regulations 1999, The Noise at Work Regulations 1989, The Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2002, and others have inadvertently boosted growth of the protective clothing market. The Asia Pacific region is expected to possess maximum potential for elastomeric coating manufacturers. The market in the region is projected to witness relatively high growth in terms of value, over the forecast period. Growing population coupled with rapidly increasing manufacturing and allied industries is expected to fuel demand for protective clothing in the region, which in turn is anticipated to enhance the protective clothing industry.Ask for detailed Sample of the Research Report@High initial price of the protective clothing is expected to be one of the restraining factors for the growth of the protective clothing market over the forecast period. Innovation in products and expansions in different geographies are some of the key strategies adopted by the top players in the protective clothing market. In 2016, Honeywell announced investment of US$ 100 million for expansion of the Asia Pacific regional headquarters and R&D facilities in Shanghai. This would complement the companys network of R&D facilities across the globe. Some of the major companies operating in the market globally are 3M Company, Kimberly Clark Corp, Ansell Limited, Lakeland industries, Honeywell International Inc., Royal Ten Cate, Sioen Industries NV, and E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company.Gloves, based on the chemical compatibility are being used while working with chemicals exhibiting a high acute toxicity and highly concentrated corrosive materials. In construction industry, fall arresting systems such as body harnesses, lifelines, and other accompanying equipment are used when fall hazards cannot be controlled by railings, floors, and nets. Protective clothing is used in the healthcare industry to prevent transmission of microorganisms such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and Staphylococcus aureus.Protective Clothing Market TaxonomyOn the basis of type of material, the global market is classified into:AramidPolyamidePolyolefinsCotton FibersPBIUHMW PolyethyleneLaminated PolyestersOn the basis of end-use industry, the global market is segmented into:ConstructionOil & GasMiningHealthcareMilitaryManufacturingOn the basis of application, the global market is segmented into:ThermalChemicalMechanicalBiological/RadiationVisibilityTo get detailed table of content (ToC) @Protective clothing is used in the construction, chemicals, and oil & gas industries, owing to properties such as inherent non-flammability, high durability, and excellent dimensional stability resistance to chemicals and heat. In the chemicals industry, it is used for protection against liquid chemicals such as sodium hydroxide, sulfuric acid, and also hazardous gases. It is also used for protection from flame, welding, heat, and sparks from molten metal. In the mining industry, protective equipment such as waterproof suits, breathing masks, and helmets are widely used. Protective clothing made from polyamides, offers various benefits such as protection against flames, high mechanical strength, excellent thermo stability, high chemical resistance, and protection against gas emissions.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,#3200 Seattle,WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.com
New Study Forecast Global Industrial and Commercial LED Lighting Market to Witness Sustained Growth in Coming Year

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Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has recently publicized a new study to its vast repository, which is titled as industrial and commercial LED lighting market delivers high efficiency, high level of brightness, long lifespan and high reliability than incandescent, fluorescent and HID lights. LED light minimizes the operating and maintenance cost and is also considered as environment friendly lighting, as it does not emit harmful gases. LEDs emit very less heat compared to incandescent bulbs and CFLs.Click here For Free Sample Report @The industrial and commercial LED lighting market is driven by various factors such as high efficiency and durability, government ban on incandescent lamps and attractive payback, as it consumes minimum electricity and reduces electricity bills. The global industrial and commercial LED lighting market was valued at 12,927.9 million in 2012 and is expected to grow at a CAGR 30.8% during the forecast period from 2013 to 2019. However, dominance of fluorescent lamps and high initial cost of deployment for LED lamps are some of the factors inhibiting the growth of this market.In terms of end-users, commercial segment was the largest and accounted for 52.5% share in 2012. Increasing awareness among end-users to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emission are the factors driving the growth of industrial and commercial LED lighting market during the forecast period. In addition, governments of various countries have been imposing ban on production and sale of incandescent lights. In 2012, the Chinese government announced that it would phase out the use and production of incandescent lights and imposed a ban on imports and sales of 100-watt and higher incandescent bulbs. This is expected to fuel the growth of market during the forecast period.Get More Info, View Complete Report With Table of Content @Geographically Europe was the largest industrial and commercial LED lighting market and accounted for 33.1% in 2012 owing to increase in investment by government. In addition, countries such as Russia, Germany, Denmark and the U.K. are focusing on deployment of efficient lighting to improve lighting quality and to lower overall operational cost, which will further increase the demand for LED lighting products and solutions. North America and Asia Pacific markets are expected to show strong growth owing to ban on incandescent lamps. With this, the demand for LED lighting is expected to fuel in near future. In addition, government funding to deploy LED lights is also one of the important drivers for this market.Most of LED light manufacturers are competing against each other by developing cost effective products with greater performance to get competitive advantage. The global industrial and commercial LED Lighting market is dominated by few organized players namely Philips Electronics N.V., Osram Opto, Cree Incorporation, Cooper Industries Plc and GE lightings.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:
Pectin Market Outlook, Regulatory Bodies & Regulations and Key Market Players 2017-25

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North America is the largest market for aerospace materials due to high demand for commercial and military aircraft. The busiest airport in the world, Atlanta handled 106 million passengers in 2015. Aviation is the preferred mode of transport over rail and road transport. Moreover, the US announced a budget of US$ 166.9 Bn, which will includes plans for modernizing current fleet of aircraft. With ongoing conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and escalating tensions in Korean peninsula, spending on military aircraft is expected to continue during the forecast period.Asia Pacific is the fastest growing market. The region has seen the growth of transit hubs such as Changi Airport (Singapore), Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Beijing, Tokyo and Shanghai. Moreover increased domestic air travel and tourism has boosted the industry. Though major obstacles include high jet fuel prices and airport costs which cut into profits. Popular airlines such as Kingfisher (India), TransAsia (Taiwan) have shut down after suffering losses. Also, national carriers of India and Malaysia have posted high losses and are in debt.Request Sample Copy of this Report:Middle East region is fast growing as a transit hub due to low fuel prices. The rise of carriers such as Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways can be attributed to this. Though recent diplomatic tensions resulting in airspace restrictions for Qatari airlines indefinitely may drive down the market if the issue is not amicably resolved.Europe is a major aviation hub due to a large tourism industry. France attracted 83 million tourists in 2016, followed by Spain 75 million. Though, recent terror attacks in Paris resulted in a fall in tourists, but the trend is expected to reverse with increased policing and anti-terror activities in place. Increased military spending by EU countries is a result of tensions with Russia which will boost the military aircraft segment.Latin America has experienced a slowdown due to political turmoil in major markets of Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Venezuela. Whereas Africa is expected to grow strongly over the forecast period due to strong economic growth in the region.The major driver for aerospace materials is increased demand for lightweight aircrafts to reduce fuel consumption. A rise in commercial aircraft manufacturing has intensified aerospace material demand. Moreover strict regulatory standards have boosted the need for high quality and high performance material. The major challenge is the steep maintenance cost of these materials.Toray Industries in 2017 merged with Toray Composites and Toray Carbon fibers to create a single business entity. The merged entity Toray Composite Materials America is expected to increase efficiency across the supply and product chains.Aerospace Materials Market TaxonomyOn basis of Material, Aluminum Alloys, Steel, Titanium Alloys, Super Alloys, Composite Materials, OthersOn basis of Aircraf, Commercial, Military, Business, Helicopters, OthersAluminum is the most widely used material. Its light weight, high strength and high corrosion resistance properties make it a preferred choice over other alternatives such as steel which is heavier. Advanced steel alloys are used in production of gas turbine engines, landing equipment and other aero-structures. Titanium is used in jet engine parts due to its low density, high strength and corrosion resistance. Super Alloys and Composite Materials are gradually entering the market but require more R&D before being employed on a large scale.To get detailed table of content (ToC)@The commercial aircraft segment is the largest market segment, with rise in air transportation due to increased domestic and inter-country travel.The major players in the market are Toray Industries, Inc., Alcoa Corporation, Cytec Solvay Group, Du Pont, Teijin Limited, ATI Metals, and Constellium N.V.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
Solar PV Glass Market : Evolving Technology, Trends and industry Analysis 2024

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Global Solar PV Glass Market is anticipated to surpass USD 3 billion by 2024. Increasing capital support from private and public financial organizations including Asian Development Bank (ADB) and World Bank to explore the untapped photovoltaic potential across developing economies will enhance the solar PV glass market. In 2017, the European Investment Bank (EIB) conceded a long term financial support of over USD 230 million to the State Bank of India (SBI) to successfully implement the national solar mission in the country.Stringent government policies to curb the carbon emissions coupled with increasing installation of sustainable energy sources will boost the solar PV glass market. In 2015, the government of UK introduced a target to substitute the fossil fuel fired power stations across the country with clean energy systems by 2025. The initiative will significantly support its national objective to achieve the long-term emission reduction target of 80% by 2050 with reference to 1990 levels.Request for a sample of this research report @Solar PV glass market from annealed is anticipated to witness substantial growth due to its ease of manufacturing and cost competitiveness. In 2016, the University of Utah developed a laser annealing method in thin film photovoltaic systems with an objective to cut down overall manufacturing costs. Ease of polishing & machining, easy cutting, and product flexibility regarding heat strengthening will further complement the industry outlook.Solar PV glass market in Netherlands was valued over USD 18 million in 2016.Stringent government norms to reduce Green House Gas emissions coupled with the government initiatives to rooftop installations will stimulate the industry landscape. In 2016, the government of Netherland prolonged their solar tax scheme in compliance to European Union climate action plan.Technical and financial supports including subsidies, rebates, and asset leveraging, provided by the government bodies will further stimulate the Solar PV glass market. In 2016, the government of France granted a feed-in-tariff premium for various building-integrated photovoltaics installations (BIPV). The average reward was valued between USD 0.15/kWh to USD 0.28/kWh based on the working capacity of the systems.Crystalline silicon module in solar PV glass market is anticipated to be over 5 million-metric tons by 2024 owing to increasing R&D investments and high operational efficiencies. In 2017, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in association with Sungkyunkwan University introduced a semi-transparent solar cell for solar windows for automobile and architectural applications. The perovskite integrated cell technology provides smart heat management for indoor activities and produces electricity.Key industry player in Solar PV glass market includes Nippon, Sunarc Technology, Onyx, Saint Gobain, Jin Jing Group, Guardian Industries, Guangdong Golden, Vidur Glass, Xinyi, Borosil, Euro Multivision India, Flat Group, Hecker Glastechnik, and Interfloat Corporation.Browse key industry insights spread across 310 pages with 744 market data tables & 11 figures & charts from the report, Solar PV Glass Market Size By Technology (Float, Pattern), By Product (Annealed, Tempered / Toughened), End Use (Crystalline Silicon Module, Amorphous Silicon / CdTe Module, Thin-Film CIS / CIGS Module), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, Mexico, UK, France, Netherland, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Russia, Spain, Austria, China, Australia, India, Japan, South Korea, Israel, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Jordan, South Africa, Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, Brazil, Chile), Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2017  2024 in detail along with the table of contents:Glimpse of Table of Content (ToC)Chapter 3. Solar PV Glass Industry Insights3.1. Industry segmentation3.2. Industry landscape, 2013  20243.3. Industry ecosystem analysis3.3.1. Vendor matrix3.3.2. Distribution channel3.4. Innovation & sustainability3.5. Price trend analysis3.6. U.S. PV module imports by country, 20153.7. Solar PV cost structure analysis3.8. Solar PV installed capacity trends and forecast3.9. Regulatory landscape3.9.1. U.S.3.9.2. UK3.9.3. France3.9.4. Germany3.9.5. China3.9.6. India3.9.7. Australia3.10. Industry impact forces3.10.1. Growth drivers3.10.1.1. Growing demand for clean fuel energy3.10.1.2. Favorable government incentives3.10.1.3. Growing solar PV installation3.10.2. Industry pitfalls & challenges3.10.2.1. Lower operational efficiencies of PV modules3.11. Growth potential analysis3.12. Porter's analysis3.13. Competitive Landscape, 20163.13.1. Strategy dashboard3.14. PESTEL analysisAbout 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 Us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone: 1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:
Global Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Market Survey 2018 | Delphi, Hyundai Mobis, Robert Bosch and Others

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Market Professional Survey Report 2018" to its huge collection of research reports.This report studies Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System 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, coveringAutoliv Inc.ContenentalDelphi Automotive PlcDensocorporationHyundai MobisRobert BoschTRW AutomotiveHitachi AutomotiveWABCOToyoda GoseiAutolivJohnson ElectricTo 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 intoABSESCBy Application, the market can be split intoCommercial VehiclesPassenger CarsBy Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)North AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaTable of ContentsGlobal Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Market Professional Survey Report 20181 Industry Overview of Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System1.1 Definition and Specifications of Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System1.1.1 Definition of Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System1.1.2 Specifications of Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System1.2 Classification of Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System1.2.1 ABS1.2.2 ESC1.3 Applications of Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System1.3.1 Commercial Vehicles1.3.2 Passenger Cars1.3.3 Application 31.4 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 Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control SystemGet Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Major Manufacturers in 20173.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Major Manufacturers in 20173.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Major Manufacturers in 20173.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Major Manufacturers in 20174 Global Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Overall Market Overview4.1 2013-2018E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Capacity Analysis4.2.1 2013-2018E Global Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis4.2.2 2017 Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)4.3 Sales Analysis4.3.1 2013-2018E Global Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Sales and Growth Rate Analysis4.3.2 2017 Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Sales Analysis (Company Segment)4.4 Sales Price Analysis4.4.1 2013-2018E Global Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Sales Price4.4.2 2017 Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment)5 Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Regional Market Analysis5.1 North America Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Market Analysis5.1.1 North America Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Market Overview5.1.2 North America 2013-2018E Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.1.3 North America 2013-2018E Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Sales Price Analysis5.1.4 North America 2017 Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Market Share Analysis5.2 China Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Market Analysis5.2.1 China Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Market Overview5.2.2 China 2013-2018E Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.2.3 China 2013-2018E Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Sales Price Analysis5.2.4 China 2017 Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Market Share Analysis5.3 Europe Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Market Analysis5.3.1 Europe Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Market Overview5.3.2 Europe 2013-2018E Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.3.3 Europe 2013-2018E Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Sales Price Analysis5.3.4 Europe 2017 Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Market Share Analysis5.4 Southeast Asia Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Market Analysis5.4.1 Southeast Asia Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Market Overview5.4.2 Southeast Asia 2013-2018E Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.4.3 Southeast Asia 2013-2018E Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Sales Price Analysis5.4.4 Southeast Asia 2017 Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Market Share Analysis5.5 Japan Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Market Analysis5.5.1 Japan Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Market Overview5.5.2 Japan 2013-2018E Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.5.3 Japan 2013-2018E Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Sales Price Analysis5.5.4 Japan 2017 Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Market Share Analysis5.6 India Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Market Analysis5.6.1 India Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Market Overview5.6.2 India 2013-2018E Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.6.3 India 2013-2018E Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Sales Price Analysis5.6.4 India 2017 Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Market Share Analysis6 Global 2013-2018E Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Segment Market Analysis (by Type)6.1 Global 2013-2018E Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Sales by Type6.2 Different Types of Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Product Interview Price Analysis6.3 Different Types of Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Product Driving Factors Analysis6.3.1 ABS of Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Growth Driving Factor Analysis6.3.2 ESC of Anti-Lock Braking System and Electronic Stability Control System Growth Driving Factor AnalysisContinue...About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Stationary Battery Storage Industry Share, Growth, Analysis, Statistics, Trends, Forecast Report, 2030

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Increasing investments toward research and development of energy efficient systems coupled with increasing deployment of improved storage units with high power density will fuel stationary battery storage market. Comparative efficiency, battery cost, weight, discharge rates, cycle life and voltage are key parameters that will positively influence the business outlook. The MDPI in 2017, denoted the comparative gravimetric energy density of lithium ion batteries to be 110  160 Wh/Kg as compared to lead acid and NiCd.Global Stationary Battery Storage Market size is set to surpass USD 35 billion by 2030. Ongoing expansion of microgrid network along with increasing investments across sustainable energy will embellish stationary battery storage market share. Advancement in distribution generation technologies along with growing demand for sustainable energy mix will further propel the business landscape. The IFC in 2017, declared a funding of USD 103 million toward amalgamation of solar green bonds in India. The corporation further affirmed the investments of USD 1.2 billion toward deployment of renewable energy technology in the nation.Request for a sample of this research report @Lead-acid stationary battery storage market size is predicted to witness substantial growth on account of favorable regulatory framework toward deployment of sustainable electrical infrastructure along with shifting trends toward advancing hybrid and redox systems. Lack of efficient monitoring system along with frequent power failures across the emerging economies will further embellish the industry landscape.Flow battery accounted for over 4% of stationary battery storage market in 2016. Growing investments toward integration of sustainable grid network along with technological advancement in development of cost-effective storage units will further propel the product penetration. Higher system efficiencies and longer shelf life as compared to its competitive counterparts will propel the product landscape.Stationary battery storage market in China is projected to exceed over USD 2 billion by 2030. Government aided funds and national renewable targets toward the development of clean energy network across the country will fuel the industry outlook. The CNEA in 2017, proposed a funding of USD 326.4 billion for expansion of renewable electrical network by 2020.Growing demand for refurbishment of ageing infrastructure along with upsurge in adoption of advance grid support system across the U.S. will stimulate the global stationary battery storage market. Rising concerns toward energy security favored by ongoing investments toward development of clean electrical network will complement the industry landscape.The major players in the global stationary battery storage market includes Samsung SDI, Tesla, Toshiba, Uniper, ACDelco, Durapower, Hitachi Maxell, BYD Co., Philips, LG Chem, Panasonic, Exide Technologies, Duracell, Valence Technology, GS Yuasa, Hitachi Chemical, Roofers Technology, Johnson Controls and A123.Browse key industry insights spread across 195 pages with 195 market data tables & 13 figures & charts from the report, Stationary Battery Storage Market Size By Battery (Lithium-ion, Sodium Sulphur (NAS), Lead acid, Flow Battery, Others), By Application (Communication Base Stations, Emergency Power, Local Energy Storage, Remote Relay Stations, Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS)), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, Germany, France, Italy, UK, Spain, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, Saudi Arabia, UAE, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico), Growth Potential, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2017  2030 in detail along with the table of contents:Glimpse of Table of Content (ToC)Chapter 3 Stationary Battery Storage Industry Insights3.1 Industry segmentation3.2 Industry landscape, 2013 - 20303.3 Industry ecosystem analysis3.3.1 Vendor matrix3.4 Regulatory Landscape3.4.1 Europe3.4.1.1 EU Battery Directive3.4.1.2 Secondary European Legislation on Batteries:3.4.2 UK3.4.2.1 The Batteries and Accumulators Regulations 20083.4.2.2 The Waste Batteries and Accumulators Regulations 20093.4.2.3 Northern Ireland3.4.3 Scotland3.4.4 U.S.3.4.4.1 Electronic Code of Federal Regulations3.4.4.2 DOE VTO Advanced Battery R&D Program3.4.4.3 Mercury-Containing and Rechargeable Battery Management Act of 19963.4.5 China3.4.5.1 China RoHS Directive3.4.6 Japan3.4.6.1 JISC Standards3.4.6.2 DENAN Law3.4.7 International Battery Standards and Testing3.4.7.1 General Battery Standards3.4.7.2 Safety Standards3.4.7.3 Quality Standards3.5 Innovation & technology landscape3.6 Lithium ion Battery leading production sites3.7 Global electric vehicle sales trends and forecast3.8 Industry impact forces3.8.1 Growth drivers3.8.1.1 Favourable regulatory framework3.8.1.2 Growth in the renewable energy sector3.8.1.3 Decline in battery costs3.8.1.4 Longer shelf life & high energy density3.8.2 Industry pitfalls and challenges3.8.2.1 Safety concerns3.9 Porters analysis3.10 Cost structure analysis3.10.1 TCO analysis between VRLA and Lithium ion batteries3.10.1.1 Battery Attributes3.10.1.2 Assumptions3.10.1.3 Capital Expense3.10.1.4 Operational Expense3.10.1.5 TCO Calculation3.11 Growth potential analysis3.12 Competitive landscape, 20163.12.1 Strategy dashboard3.12.1.1 GS Yuasa Corporation3.12.1.2 Samsung SDI3.12.1.3 LG Chem3.12.1.4 Johnson Controls3.12.1.5 Hitachi Chemical Co., Ltd.3.12.1.6 Tesla3.12.1.7 Uniper3.13 PESTEL analysisAbout 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 Us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone: 1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:
SC posts PIL of Noida resident, seeking removal of blockade at Delhi borders by protesting farmers, after Dussehra vacation.

Plea against blockade: SC issues notices to 42 leaders of farmers' bodies on plea of Haryana alleging they refuse to take part in talks.
Operational Amplifier Market foreseen to grow exponentially over 2025

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In today's growing market for electronic devices, higher performance operational amplifiers are in constant demand. Higher bandwidth, lower power, and greater accuracy are a few of the major parameters that are needed for new operational amplifiers. Operational Amplifier market is one of the significantly increasing market because of rise in demand of battery-powered products. In addition, the Global demand of sensors and transducers will fuel the growth of the Operational Amplifier market. Increase in use of electronics devices in various industry verticals across the globe is resulting in the quantitative increase in demand of Operational Amplifier. In addition adaptation of automation will drive the demand of Operational Amplifier across the globe.An operational amplifier is an integrated circuit that operates as a voltage amplifier. Moreover an operational amplifier is known as an instrumentation amplifier. Its greatest use is in Instrumentation as a PID/PI controller and operational amplifier is the basic component in all the instruments due to its versatile applications.Operational Amplifier market: Drivers and ChallengesThe major growth drivers of the Operational Amplifier market include increasing demand of sensors and transducers, increasing demand of connected devices and increasing adaptation of battery-powered products. In addition, Growth of automation will drive the growth of Operational Amplifier market. Increasing demand from electronics and semiconductor industry have led to growth of the Operational Amplifier across the globe.Request for Table of Contents @Customers' demand for lower current consumption can create quite a challenge for Operational Amplifier market. worldwide financial uncertainty and macroeconomic situations such as currency exchange rates and economic difficulties are some of the major factors which are hindering the growth of Operational Amplifier Market.Operational Amplifier market: SegmentationGlobal Operational Amplifier Market can be segmented as:Segmentation on the basis of Application:Further Operational Amplifier market segmented on the basis of Application. Now days, Operational Amplifier have these applications.Active FilterOscillatorVoltage ComparatorOtherCompetition LandscapeKey contractsKey Contracts in Operational Amplifier market are as:In August 2016, Maxim Integrated, an American, publicly traded company that designs, manufactures, and sells analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits, has acquired Intersil, an American semiconductor manufacturers.In Jan 2014, Texas Instruments, a global semiconductor design and manufacturing company, introduced the industry's first 36-V rail-to-rail input and output (RRIO) operational amplifier (op amp) to achieve precision offset voltage and drift without using auto-zero techniques.Request to View Sample of Research Report @Key PlayersSome of the major players in Global Operational Amplifier Market are Texas Instruments, STMicroelectronics, ON Semiconductor, API Technologies Corp, Analog Devices, Fairchild Semiconductor, NXP Semiconductors, KEC (Korea Electronics), Cirrus Logic and Maxim IntegratedABOUT 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:
Pumped Hydro Storage Market Trends 2017  Growth Forecast Research 2024

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" Global Pumped Hydro Storage Market is set to exceed USD 350 billion by 2024. Swift development of distributed generation technologies along with expansion of microgrid network will embellish the pumped hydro storage market share. Ongoing expansion and upgradation of existing PHS systems along with rising concerns to reduce carbon footprint will stimulate the business landscape. The government of Canada in 2016, promised to decrease emissions by 80% below 2005 levels by 2050.Grid stability, energy efficiency and high storage capacity are key specification that will fuel the pumped hydro storage market. Growing energy demand across the developing nations will further propel the business landscape. According to EASE, the average efficiency of a PHS plant is 70% - 80% when compared to other technologies.Favorable government policies pertaining to expansion and upgradation of electrical infrastructure coupled with adoption of renewable energy technologies will embellish the pumped hydro storage market share. Frequent power outages and lack of proper electricity infrastructure in emerging economies will further fuel the industry outlook. In 2017, the China National Energy Administration announced a funding of USD 326.4 billion for the development and expansion of sustainable electrical network by 2020.Open loop pumped hydro storage accounted for 90% of the global pumped hydro storage market share. Ease of compatibility with a hydropower plant along with abundant availability of river water sources will drive the product landscape. According to DOE in 2017, there are three open loop projects in under construction and announced stage in the U.S.Japan PHS market share is set to surpass 30 GW by 2024. Upsurge in the integration of sustainable energy technologies along with rising concerns toward energy security will propel the pumped hydro storage market. Increasing investments toward deployment of micro grid network across the nation will further compliment the business landscape. The Japan Ministry of Economy announced an investment of USD 700 million toward the development of sustainable energy storage technologies across the nation.Ongoing adoption of advanced grid system along with refurbishment and upgradation of existing grid network will embellish the pumped hydro storage market in the U.S. Expansion of micro grid network and integration of clean energy technology will further enhance the industry outlook.South Korea pumped hydro storage market share will grow substantially owing to ongoing investments toward modernization of grid infrastructure and increasing power consumption across the nation. Favorable government policies pertaining to sustainable energy mix will further embellish the business landscape. The South Korea government in 2017, approved proposed to invest USD 1.7 billion toward the development of sustainable energy technologies in the nation.Eminent players in the pumped hydro storage market comprises of EDF, Voith Hydro, Toshiba, Genex, Absaroka, Dongfang Electric, Northland Power, J-Power, Eskom, SinoHydo, Snowdonia and Schluchseewerk AG.Glimpse of Table of Content (ToC)Chapter 3. Pumped Hydro Storage Market Industry Insights3.1. Industry segmentation3.2. Industry landscape, 2014 - 20243.3. Industry ecosystem analysis3.3.1. Vendor matrix3.4. Technology & Innovation landscape3.5. Price trend analysis3.5.1. North America3.5.2. Europe3.5.3. Asia Pacific3.6. Regulatory landscape3.6.1. U.S.3.6.2. Europe3.6.3. UK3.6.4. China3.6.5. Japan3.7. Industry impact forces3.7.1. Growth drivers3.7.1.1. North America3.7.1.1.1. Increasing demand for grid storage3.7.1.1.2. Growing demand for sustainable energy mix3.7.1.2. Europe3.7.1.2.1. Favorable government policies3.7.1.2.2. Stringent government regulations against emissions3.7.1.3. Asia Pacific3.7.1.3.1. Increasing concerns toward security of supply3.7.1.3.2. Upsurge in electricity demand3.7.1.3.3. Ongoing renewable energy integration reforms3.7.1.4. Rest of World3.7.1.4.1. Growing adoption of sustainable energy sources3.7.2. Industry pitfalls & challenges3.7.2.1. High capital cost3.8. Major pumped hydro storage project outlook3.8.1. Operational3.8.2. Announced3.8.3. Under Construction3.9. Growth potential analysis3.10. Porter's analysis3.11. Competitive landscape3.11.1. Strategy dashboard3.12. PESTEL analysisAbout 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 Us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone: 1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:
Next Generation Network OSS/BSS Market Estimated to Experience a Hike in Growth by 2025

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Next Generation Network OSS/BSSs are Operations Support Systems (OSS) and Business Support Systems (BSS) are used by telecom service providers to run their business operations towards customers. Next generation advancements in telecommunication market is driving the growth of the Next Generation Network OSS/BSSs market across the globe. Rising preference to increase customer satisfaction and profit margins in telecom service providers are expected to drive the next-generation network OSS/BSS market.Next Generation Network OSS/BSS market is one of the significantly increasing market because of rise in demand from telecom services providers. In addition, the Global demand of next generation technologies in cloud and M2M communication will fuel the growth of the Next Generation Network OSS/BSS market in forecast period. In addition worldwide rising demand for customer care services will drive the demand of Next Generation Network OSS/BSS across the globe.Next Generation Network (NGN) Operational Support Systems (OSS) and Billing Support Systems (BSS) are used for OSS/BSS rationalization, next generation IP communications, and entirely new business models for Communication Services Providers (CSP) such as CSP support of various third parties including Over-the-Top (OTT) service providers.Request for Table of Contents @Next Generation Network OSS/BSS market: Drivers and ChallengesThe major growth drivers of the Next Generation Network OSS/BSS market include increasing requirement for faster time consumer services. In addition, Use of Next Generation Network OSS/BSS in telecom industry will drive the growth of Next Generation Network OSS/BSS market. Advancements cloud and M2M technologies across the globe have led to growth of the Next Generation Network OSS/BSS across the globe.Major challenges of Next Generation Network OSS/BSS market are optimization of Next Generation Network OSS/BSS systems and Complexities in integration of advanced systems with the legacy system are some of the major factors which are hindering the growth of Next Generation Network OSS/BSS Market.Next Generation Network OSS/BSS market: SegmentationGlobal Next Generation Network OSS/BSS Market can be segmented as:Segmentation on the basis of Application:Next Generation Network OSS/BSS market can be segmented on the basis of application, means areas where Next Generation Network OSS/BSS are used. Application includes IoT Platforms, IoT OSS and Billing and IoT Data ManagementCompetition LandscapeKey contractsKey Contracts in Next Generation Network OSS/BSS market are as:In May 2016, Huawei, a Chinese multinational networking and telecommunications equipment and services company, entered into partnership with Netscout, U.S. based application and network performance management products and solutions provider, with an objective to provide OSS interfaces under OSS interoperability initiative (OSSii).Request to View Sample of Research Report @Key PlayersSome of the major players in Global Next Generation Network OSS/BSS Market are Cerillion, Amdocs, comptel, Cisco System, Elitecore Technologies, AT&T Inc., Formula Telecom Solutions, Hewlett-Packard Company, Huawei, Alcatel Lucent S.A., LohNet Systems, Tata Consultancy Services Limited, Mycom, OpenCloud, Oracle Corporation, IBM Corporation, Tech Mahindra Limited, WebNMS, and ZTE.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:
Lactulose Market - Global Industry Insights, Trends, and Outlook

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Lactulose has been widely used to prevent constipation, treating hepatic encephalopathy and gastrointestinal disorders. The needs of elderly customers, athletes, nutrition conscious population leading the growth of lactulose market whereas the excessive consumption of lactulose lead to the effects such as abdominal discomfort, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting results in the moderate growth of lactulose market. The lactulose is widely used as a filler for capsules and tablets in the medicinal industry and there are quite a few health benefits of lactulose as nutrition ingredients which includes stimulating effect, improvement in calcium absorption and stimulation of intestinal flora fuels the growth of lactulose market. Lactulose is also used in fermented milk production to reduce the growth period and favor the growth of bifidobacteria.Sample Copy of This Report @Lactulose has been found as a component of colonic microflora of bottle feed babies is identical that of adults which is resulting in the growth of lactulose market during the forecast period. Lactulose consist of detoxifying properties which is helpful in the treatment of hyperammonemia caused by portal systematic encephalopathy led to increasing lactulose market in pharma industries. In healthcare industry, lactulose is specifically consumed by nursing mother and for the pediatric use, these factor is expected to fuel the growth of global lactulose market at some extent. The increasing demand for baby formula products containing lactose and its derivative i.e. lactulose by dual employed households is also projected to register a significant growth in the global lactulose market mainly in the emerging countries. Characteristics such as easy availability, cost effectiveness, and water solubility are expected to increase the global lactulose market during the forecast period.Europe represents the leading market worldwide owing to extensive popularity of lactose and its derivative products. Asia Pacific appeared as the fastest growing market with an accumulative CAGR led by increasing disposable income, changing lifestyle, growing population. Lactulose is mass-produced according to present guidelines of Good Manufacturing Practices and meet the specifications of the European Pharmacopoeia, US Pharmacopoeia and Japanese Pharmacopoeia.BIOFAC is one of the key manufacturer of lactose liquid finished product in Denmark, which has shelf life of about 3 years however, stability varies depending on the type of packaging.Lactulose is a non-absorbable form of sugar or prebiotic carbohydrate produced by isomerization of lactose, which stimulates the growth of health promoting bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract. It is used in treatment of hepatic encephalopathy, maintain insulin level, blood glucose level and in the treatment of constipation. It is a synthetic sugar solution that works by decreasing the amount of ammonia in the blood which is projected to growth of lactulose market. Modern lifestyle of the population has a strong impact on eating habits, with an ever-increasing consumption of highly processed foods and fast foods, whose adverse effect on health are apparent, this improper eating habits among population drives the growth of lactulose market. The rising awareness and prevalence of increasing diseases contribute towards the growth of healthcare sector in lactulose market. The new innovations and high rate investment in R&D in food and beverage industry is expected the revenue growth of the global lactulose market during forecast period. The prebiotic carbohydrates are outstanding components in functional foods that stimulates the healthy intestinal microbiota. The need to curtail costs, increased use of ever-changing product prices, strength of reserved label brands are some of the drivers leading the growth of global lactulose market.Lactulose Market Taxonomy-On the basis of product type, the global market is classified into: Liquid lactulose, Crystalline lactuloseOn the basis of isomeric forms, the global market is classified into:Alpha or beta-pyranose, Alpha or beta furanoseOn the basis of application, the global market is classified into:Food ingredients, Pharmaceuticals, Healthcare products,OthersRequest To View Table of Content@Some of the key players identified across the value chain in global lactulose market are Abbott, Morinaga Milk Industry CO., LTD., RELAX EXCELLENCE IN LACTULOSE, FRESENIUS KABI, BIOFAC A/S and Lactose India Limited.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
Tug Boat Market to Register Substantial Expansion by 2025

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Tug Boat Market: IntroductionA tug boat is a type of boat that maneuvers large container ships, tankers and cruiser ships by pushing or towing them in and around dockyards and harbors. These boats are also used to maneuver disabled ships and other non-self-propelled vessels, such as oil platforms. Tug boats are also used to steer large ships to create sideway movements in narrow seas and harbors. Due to their strong engine capacity, tug boats are also used as icebreakers and salvage boats  they are capable of breaking through one meter thick ice. There are various types of tug boats manufactured to cater to various requirements, such as type of assisting speed, type of ships assisted and environmental condition. In order to be more productive as well as competitive in the market, all ports must be equipped with better equipment. Being an irreplaceable part of the port infrastructure, the demand for tug boats is expected to witness significant growth during the forecast period.Tug Boat Market: DynamicsOngoing developments in the shipping industry across the globe will act as a key driver for the tug boat market. Rising demand as well as usage of large and bulky ships for transportation will also fuel the demand for tug boats. The growing oil and gas industry demands increasing number of oil tankers and shipping containers, which, in turn, will push the tug boat market into a forward direction. As a matter of fact, there are many traditions that use tug boats. For instance, the tug boat ballet in Germany utilizes tugboats as a prop. These traditions are also expected to add to the growth of the market.Higher engine power rating tug boats consume a huge amount of fuel. Fuel management for tugboats is becoming an increasing challenge for the manufacturers as fuel is becoming the most important as well as most expensive item with each passing day.Use of tug boats for naval purposes is an ongoing trend in the market. Modern tug boats are used for rescue purposes, evacuation, firefighting and other safety and defense purposes. Growing use of hybrid tug boats consisting of batteries and multiple generators with capacity below 800 horsepower seems to be a logical step towards emission compliance.Request for Table of Contents @Tug Boat Market: SegmentThe global Tug Boat Market can be segmented on the basis of engine power, fuel type and boat type.By engine power type, the global Tug Boat market can be segmented into:Less than 1000 HorsepowerBetween 1000 and 2000 HorsepowerBetween 2000 and 5000 HorsepowerGreater than 5000 HorsepowerBy boat type, the global Tug Boat market can be segmented into:Deep sea tugboatHarbor tugboatRiver tugboatOthersBy fuel type, the global Tug Boat market can be segmented into:DieselOthersTug Boat Market: Regional OutlookOwing to its significant features and growing demand, the market for tug boats is expected to grow at a good pace all across the globe during the forecast period. Growing attraction towards tug boat races held annually in North America is expected to fuel the demand for tug boats in the North America region. The growing oil and gas industry Middle East and Africa countries will create substantial demand for tug boats in the region. The expanding shipping and transportation industry in Asia Pacific will lead to a rise in demand for tug boats.Growing use of bulkier and heavy ships as well as cruise ships for transportation purposes in Eastern and Western Europe is causing significant rise in demand for tug boats in the region. Japan is a major port managing trade and commerce activities and is expected to create significant opportunities in the tug boat market during the forecast period. Latin America is also expected to show significant growth in the tug boat market over the forecast period.Request to View Sample of Research Report @Tug Boat Market: Key ParticipantsExamples of some of the market participants identified across the value chain of the global Tug Boat market include:Damen Shipyards GroupSanmar TugboatRanger Tugs.ODC MarineGladding-HearnFremont Tugboat Company IncMERRENorfolk Tug Company.ABOUT US:Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance. To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.CONTACT:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
New Data Shows Magnificent Trends for Asset Management Market

Asset Management Market

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Latest research study from HTF MI with title Global Asset Management by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023. The Research report presents a complete assessment of the market and contains Future trend, Current Growth Factors, attentive opinions, facts, historical data, and statistically supported and industry validated market data. The study is segmented by products type, application/end-users. The research study provides estimates for Global Asset Management Forecast till 2023.If you are involved in the Asset Management industry or intend to be, then this study will provide you comprehensive outlook. Its vital you keep your market knowledge up to date segmented by Applications Logistics & Transportation, Telecom & IT, Education, BFSI, Residential & Hospitality, Oil & Gas & Government, Product Types such as [] and some major players in the industry. 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.Request Sample of Global Asset Management Market Size, Status and Forecast 2025 @:This report studies the global Asset Management market size, industry status and forecast, competition landscape and growth opportunity. This research report categorizes the global Asset Management market by companies, region, type and end-use industry.Key Companies/players: Zebra, Sato, Honeywell, Trimble, TomTom, Topcon, Ubisense, Mojix, Impinj, Comarch, CA & Snow Software.Application: Logistics & Transportation, Telecom & IT, Education, BFSI, Residential & Hospitality, Oil & Gas & Government, Product Type: .The research covers the current & Future market size of the Global Asset Management market and its growth rates based on 5 year history data. It also covers various types of segmentation such as by geography [United States, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia & India]. The market competition is constantly growing higher with the rise in technological innovation and M&A activities in the industry. Moreover, many local and regional vendors are offering specific application products for varied end-users. On the basis of attributes such as company overview, recent developments, strategies adopted by the market leaders to ensure growth, sustainability, financial overview and recent developments.Stay up-to-date with Asset Management market research offered by HTF MI. Check how key trends and emerging drivers are shaping this industry growth as the study avails you with market characteristics, size and growth, segmentation, regional breakdowns, competitive landscape, shares, trend and strategies for this market. In the Global Asset Management Market Analysis & Forecast 2018-2023, the revenue is valued at USD XX million in 2017 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2023, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2018 and 2023. The production is estimated at XX million in 2017 and is forecasted to reach XX million by the end of 2023, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2018 and 2023.Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @Key questions answered in this report - Global Asset Management Market Size, Status and Forecast 2025What will the market size be in 2023 and what will the growth rate beWhat are the key market trendsWhat is driving Global Asset Management Market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in Asset Management Market space?What are the key market trends impacting the growth of the Global Asset Management Market ?What are the key outcomes of the five forces analysis of the Global Asset Management Market?What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in the Global Asset Management market? Get in-depth details about factors influencing the market shares of the Americas, APAC, and EMEA?Enquire for customization in Report @There are 15 Chapters to display the Global Asset Management market.Chapter 1, to describe Definition, Specifications and Classification of Global Asset Management, Applications of Asset 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 Date, 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, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia & India, Asset Management Segment Market Analysis (by Type);Chapter 7 and 8, to analyze the Asset Management Segment Market Analysis (by Application [Logistics & Transportation, Telecom & IT, Education, BFSI, Residential & Hospitality, Oil & Gas & Government]) Major Manufacturers Analysis;Chapter 9, Market Trend Analysis, Regional Market Trend, Market Trend by Product Type [], Market Trend by Application [Logistics & Transportation, Telecom & IT, Education, BFSI, Residential & Hospitality, Oil & Gas & Government];Chapter 10, Regional Marketing Type Analysis, International Trade Type Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis;Chapter 11, to analyze the Consumers Analysis of Global Asset Management by region, type and application ;Chapter 12, to describe Asset Management Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data source;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Asset Management sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.Buy 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 5-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.About Author: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
Special and Custom fastener parts from Challenge Europe now available

Special and custom fastener parts from Challenge Europe now available

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Challenge Europe specialise in small volume manufacturing projects  custom special jobs that are a problem for bigger manufacturers, where it is not cost-effective to program large and expensive automated equipment. This enables them to optimise performance across a customer manufacturing operation with standard products from stock including many specialist fastener items.However, when standard stock fastenings are not suitable they can offer a custom solution from their own manufacturing facility. This capability is ideal for small quantities and extends to partnering arrangements with fabricators and finishers so that they can cover a wide range of components from specialist threaded fasteners to sheet metal or cast fixings. Challenge Europe couple in-house machining with a global sourcing and supply infrastructure and in-depth expertise of the manufacturing cycle gained from over 30 years in the engineering arena.This capability enables them to produce components from alternative materials at short notice and to incorporate them into packaged sub-assemblies. In this way customers gain a complete service of high-quality and low-cost on standard mass-produced items and on small quantity specialist components.Typically this includes: Instrument Carrying Handles, Chrome Handles, Clamp Screws and Stud Rivet Nut Assembly. In addition they offer cut to length studding, vented screws, spacers and general modification work to standard fasteners e.g. shortening to non-standard lengths & cross drilling to take split cotter pins.Custom specialist machine parts are produced in most metals and sometimes plastics  non-standard items are specials to customer drawings or non-standard sizes to international standards, e.g. an intermediate diameter or length.Typical related items include instrument carrying handles in standard or custom dimensions for transport of instruments or use on cases, trollies etc., available in black or chrome.Further information on custom fastener parts from Challenge Europe can be found atChallenge (Europe) Ltd is an ISO 9001 stockist and distributor of threaded fasteners, with an emphasis on supplying manufacturing companies located within the UK with specialist standard or custom components.Challenge (Europe) LtdShuttleworth RoadBedfordMK41 0EPTel: 01234 346242email: sales@challenge-europe.co.ukPress contact: Kevin Moorcroft
Polio Vaccines Market - Global Industry Insights, 2025

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Poliomyelitis is highly infectious disease caused by poliovirus. It is also known as polio or infantile paralysis. The virus belongs to genus Enterovirus which is a type of single-stranded RNA virus. There are three serotypes of poliovirus: P1, P2 and P3 and development of immunity to one serotype does not produce significant immunity to the other serotypes. The virus is transmitted primarily via the fecal-oral route, by ingesting contaminated food or water and less commonly through oral-oral route. Those who are infected may spread the disease for up to 6 weeks even if no symptoms are present. Poliovirus colonizes the gastrointestinal tract, specifically intestine and oropharynx and after about a week, it invades local lymphoid tissue and enters bloodstream, and then may infect cells of the central nervous system. Replication of poliovirus in motor neurons of the anterior horn and brain stem results in destruction of cell and thus causes the typical manifestations of poliomyelitis. This is projected to favor a significant growth for polio vaccines market over the forecast period.To understand Research Methodology, please click:Symptoms of Poliomyelitis:Polio mainly affects children under 5 years of age. Up to 70% of all the infections in children are without any symptoms and about 25-30% of infections in children causes nonspecific illness without clinical or laboratory evidence of central nervous system invasion. This has created a gesture for the organizations to focus on the vaccines options for making prophylactic approach towards the prevention of the disorder, which in turn is expected to fuel the polio vaccines market in the near future.Polio vaccines market relies on the fact that around 1% of polio cases can develop into paralytic polio which causes paralysis in the spinal cord (spinal polio), brainstem (bulbar polio), or both (bulbospinal polio).According to WHO, 1 in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis. Among those paralyzed, 5% to 10% die when their breathing muscles become immobilized. The statistics regarding the prevalence of the disorder is expected to be one of the crucial factor that is to fuel the market of polio vaccines.In a report, WHO has reported that Polio cases have decreased by over 99% since 1988, from an estimated 350 000 cases then, to 74 reported cases in 2015. The reduction is the result of the global effort to eradicate the disease. Of the 3 serotypes, P2 was eradicated in 1999 and number of cases of P3 has decreased significantly.America has been declared polio free in 1994. In 2004, polio was declared to be eliminated from Australia, China and other 37 Pacific countries. Since 2011, there has been no cases of wild polio infections in India. This factor is projected to hinder the polio vaccines market in the near future.There are only 3 countries left in which wild polio infections still persist; Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan, which are somehow the reason for significant growth in the polio vaccines market in the near future.Indigenous wild poliovirus type 2 has not been detected since 1999. In 2015, the World Health Assembly agreed that all Member States which currently use OPV should prepare for the global withdrawal of the type 2 component of OPV in April 2016. According to WHO, member countries are required to introduce at least 1 dose of the IPV into routine immunization schedule.Sanofi Pasteur and Bilthoven Biologicals/ Serum Institute of India are the 2 companies which was awarded in 2014 by UNICEF for the supply of IPV in 1, 5 and 10 dose vials, and long term supply agreements were established through to 2018.Have a doubt? Speak to our analyst now!Since 2000, UNICEF OPV procurement has averaged 1.8 Bn doses annually. GPEI launched the End Game Strategic Plan 2013-2018 at the World Health Assembly in May 2013. This comprehensive strategy focuses on eliminating both wild and vaccine-derived polio incidence through routine immunization programs thereby gradually replacing OPV use with IPV vaccine. This in turn is expected to favour the growth in polio vaccines industry in the near future.According to UNICEF report, Bio Farma (Indonesia), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) (UK) and Sanofi Pasteur (France) are the only OPV bulk manufacturers. Novartis (Switzerland) has stopped their manufacture of OPV.Other players of polio vaccine market are: Merck & Co, Bibcol, Pfizer, Beijing Tiantan Biological, Bio-Med, Panacea Biotec Ltd, Adithya Vaccine Pharma, Sinovac Biotech Ltd, IPOLand Aventis Pasteur.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 Phone Gamepad Market Strategic Analysis 2018 to 2025

Mobile Phone Gamepad Market

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Latest research study from HTF MI with title EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Mobile Phone Gamepad by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023. The Research report presents a complete assessment of the market and contains Future trend, Current Growth Factors, attentive opinions, facts, historical data, and statistically supported and industry validated market data. The study is segmented by products type, application/end-users. The research study provides estimates for EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Mobile Phone Gamepad Forecast till 2023.If you are involved in the Mobile Phone Gamepad industry or intend to be, then this study will provide you comprehensive outlook. Its vital you keep your market knowledge up to date segmented by Applications Children & Adult, Product Types such as [iOS, Android, Wireless & Wired] and some major players in the industry. 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.Request Sample of EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Mobile Phone Gamepad Market Report 2018 @:Key Companies/players: Sony, Razer Inc, Logitech, Mad Catz, MOGAanywhere, Nyko, 8Bitdo, IPEGA, Wamo, AfterPad, Gametel, Betop & Gamesir.Application: Children & Adult, Product Type: iOS, Android, Wireless & Wired.The research covers the current & Future market size of the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Mobile Phone Gamepad market and its growth rates based on 5 year history data. It also covers various types of segmentation such as by geography [Europe: Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Benelux; & Middle East: Saudi Arabia, Israel, UAE and Iran;]. The market competition is constantly growing higher with the rise in technological innovation and M&A activities in the industry. Moreover, many local and regional vendors are offering specific application products for varied end-users. On the basis of attributes such as company overview, recent developments, strategies adopted by the market leaders to ensure growth, sustainability, financial overview and recent developments.Stay up-to-date with Mobile Phone Gamepad market research offered by HTF MI. Check how key trends and emerging drivers are shaping this industry growth as the study avails you with market characteristics, size and growth, segmentation, regional breakdowns, competitive landscape, shares, trend and strategies for this market. In the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Mobile Phone Gamepad Market Analysis & Forecast 2018-2023, the revenue is valued at USD XX million in 2017 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2023, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2018 and 2023. The production is estimated at XX million in 2017 and is forecasted to reach XX million by the end of 2023, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2018 and 2023.Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @Key questions answered in this report - EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Mobile Phone Gamepad Market Report 2018What will the market size be in 2023 and what will the growth rate beWhat are the key market trendsWhat is driving EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Mobile Phone Gamepad Market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in Mobile Phone Gamepad Market space?What are the key market trends impacting the growth of the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Mobile Phone Gamepad Market ?What are the key outcomes of the five forces analysis of the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Mobile Phone Gamepad Market?What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Mobile Phone Gamepad market? Get in-depth details about factors influencing the market shares of the Americas, APAC, and EMEA?Enquire for customization in Report @There are 15 Chapters to display the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Mobile Phone Gamepad market.Chapter 1, to describe Definition, Specifications and Classification of EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Mobile Phone Gamepad, Applications of Mobile Phone Gamepad, 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 Date, 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 Europe: Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Benelux; & Middle East: Saudi Arabia, Israel, UAE and Iran;, Mobile Phone Gamepad Segment Market Analysis (by Type);Chapter 7 and 8, to analyze the Mobile Phone Gamepad Segment Market Analysis (by Application [Children & Adult]) Major Manufacturers Analysis;Chapter 9, Market Trend Analysis, Regional Market Trend, Market Trend by Product Type [iOS, Android, Wireless & Wired], Market Trend by Application [Children & Adult];Chapter 10, Regional Marketing Type Analysis, International Trade Type Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis;Chapter 11, to analyze the Consumers Analysis of EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Mobile Phone Gamepad by region, type and application ;Chapter 12, to describe Mobile Phone Gamepad Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data source;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Mobile Phone Gamepad sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.Buy 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 5-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.About Author: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
Arthroscopy Devices  Increasing Geriatric Population Provides a Sea of Opportunities

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The examination of inside structures of the body is known as arthroscopy and the devices used for examination are known as arthroscopy devices. It is a minimally invasive procedure and is performed by using small probe through an incision. The primary application of arthroscopy is diagnosis of inner structure of the body. As the name suggests, surgical arthroscopy is the use of these devices during surgical procedures. Arthroscopy is widely used by orthopedic doctors to treat bone disorders and joint problems such as knee, shoulder and elbow related disorders.Arthroscopy devices include mechanical instruments, motorized instruments, electrosurgical instruments and special instruments such as probes, punches, shavers, electrocautery, laser, ACL sets, meniscus repair sets respectively.Request a sample copy of this report:As the arthroscopy procedure is minimally invasive, it helps avoid post-surgery complications, infection during surgery and significantly reduces patient recovery time.Increase in joint replacement surgery leading the growth of the arthroscopy devices market in developed regionsAs per the stats of Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), around 113,000 knee and hip surgeries are performed in Canada annually. The number of knee replacement surgery increased by 20.3% and hip replacements surgery increased by 20% in between 2009 to 2015 in the country. Furthermore, as per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in U.S., 54.4 million adults were diagnosed with arthritis during 2013-2015 and the number is expected to reach 78.4 million by 2040. This in turn would increase number of knee and joint surgeries and consequently, drive growth of the arthroscopy devices market in the near future.Integration of various technologically advanced features such as wireless camera heads and high-definition monitors will help increase adoption of these devices across the globe. Companies are increasingly inclined towards offering customizable solutions to doctors in order to enhance their market presence. For instance, Olympus offers multi-specialty digital imaging platform to specialize each procedure along with maintained standards and enables healthcare professional to record, store and share high quality moving images.Also, some companies such as Smith & Nephew provide enhanced design of arthroscopic device that allows for steam sterilization of whole equipment and also offers complex camera system for autoclave sterilization.The global arthroscopy devices market was valued at US$ 3,910.7 million in 2016 and is expected to witness a robust CAGR of 5.4% during the forecast period (2017  2025).Increase aging population is expected to be one of the primary factor for the growth of arthroscopy devices marketAccording to the data of Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, in 2016, 103 million people in India were over 60 years of age. Also, as per data published by Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the geriatric population accounted for 17.26% and 14.50% of the overall population in the U.K. and U.S., respectively in 2014 and the number is expected to steadily increase.As the rate of knee replacement and hip replacement surgical procedures is high among the geriatric population, it is expected that the aging population will be the major factor for the growth of arthroscopy devices market in the near future.Ask for customization:Increase in arthroscopic surgeries is expected to fuel the growth in arthroscopy devices marketContinuous rise in aging population is the major factor leading to rise in arthroscopic surgery procedures around the globe. As per the stats published by Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, in 2012-13, 33,682 patients aged over 55 years were admitted in hospitals for knee arthroscopy.Furthermore, according to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (U.N. DESA), in 2015, 1 in 8 people were aged over 60 years, which is expected to increase to 1 in 6 people by 2030. It is expected that this high increase in aging population will support the growth in number of arthroscopic procedures worldwide.The technological advancements in arthroscopic devices such as high definition camera, LCD touch panel interface, deflectable tip and flexible endo-eye video scopes are also the factors supporting to increase the adoption of arthroscopy devices in healthcare facilities around the globe.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave, #3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website:
Global Smartwatch : Strategy of Leading Vendors in 2018 Market- Sony, Apple, Fitbit, Pebble

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global Smartwatch Sales Market Report 2021 to its huge collection of research reports.This report studies sales (consumption) of Smartwatch in Global market, especially in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India, focuses on top players in these regions/countries, with sales, price, revenue and market share for each player in these regions, coveringAppleFitbitPebbleSamsungSonyASUSTeK ComputerPolarElectroDownload Free exclusive Sample of this report:The report can act as a source of key information about the global market for Smartwatch while providing guidelines for success to market players. The strategies that have fetched success for market players in the past have been explained in the report, which shall principally direct the new entrants into the market. Moreover, the business landscape of the global market for Smartwatch has been explained with a plush level of expertise within the report. Turbulence and unrest within the market could act as a major restraint, and hence, the report has given an extensive account of these obstructive elements of the market. The market players can use the information within the report to dodge the discrepancies that crop up in the market. Besides this, the segmentation of the market based on a wide set of parameters is also covered in the report.Table of ContentsGlobal Smartwatch Sales Market Report 20211 Smartwatch Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Smartwatch1.2 Classification of Smartwatch1.3 Applications of Smartwatch1.4 Smartwatch Market by Regions1.4.1 North America Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.2 China Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.4 Japan Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.5 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.6 India Status and Prospect (2011-2021)2 Global Smartwatch Competition by Manufacturers, Type and Application2.1 Global Smartwatch Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1.1 Global Smartwatch Sales and Market Share of Key Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.1.2 Global Smartwatch Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.2 Global Smartwatch (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Global Smartwatch Sales and Market Share by Type (2011-2021)2.2.2 Global Smartwatch Revenue and Market Share by Type (2011-2021)2.3 Global Smartwatch (Volume and Value) by Regions3 North America Smartwatch (Volume, Value and Sales Price4 China Smartwatch (Volume, Value and Sales Price5 Europe Smartwatch (Volume, Value and Sales Price6 Japan Smartwatch (Volume, Value and Sales PriceRead Complete Table of Content @List of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of SmartwatchTable Classification of SmartwatchFigure Global Sales Market Share of Smartwatch by Type in 2015Table Applications of SmartwatchFigure Global Sales Market Share of Smartwatch by Applications in 2015Figure North America Smartwatch Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2021)Figure China Smartwatch Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2021)Figure Europe Smartwatch Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2021)Enquiry For Discount Visit @QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
New Report By Coherent Market Insights: Zika Vaccines Market

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Zika vaccines are developed for immunization & prevention against diseases caused by Zika virus. This virus belongs to genus Flavivirus and is transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes. The virus can also be transmitted through blood transfusion, sexual contact or from infected pregnant women to the fetus. Diagnosis of this infection is confirmed by detecting viral DNA through PCR. However, only 1 in 4 people with zika infection are prone to develop symptoms. In November 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that zika infection no longer constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) as major cases of zika virus were asymptomatic.In April 2015, a major ongoing outbreak of Zika virus was registered in Brazil, which later affected the population in South and Central America. This outbreak caused mild illness (fever, rashes, joint pains, conjunctivitis, nausea, and muscle pain), though the recent outbreaks showed severe complications such as microcephaly, Guillain-Barre syndrome, and various congenital neurological abnormalities in infants who were born to infected mothers. The link between zika virus and microcephaly and Guillain-Barre syndrome was identified and reported in 2015 in Brazil.Request a sample copy of this report:According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 70 new zika virus infection cases were reported in the U.S. in 2015, which increased to 41,181 cases in 2016. Lack of reporting is a major factor for lower incidence rate in 2015. Increase in awareness can result in more diagnosis and reporting thus generating growth of the global zika vaccines market.Researchers at the Queensland University of Technology found that the extract of San Francisco plant (Codiaeum variegatum) found in Australia, can kill the zika virus. This extract can arrest the virus and stop it from replicating without causing any damage to the host cells.Continuous increase in human clinical trials and rise in number of zika cases will drive the growth of Zika vaccines marketAs of March 2016, 67 companies and research institutions were working on various kinds of R&D projects and clinical trials aided to develop effective vaccines against zika virus. The FDA approved the first human clinical trial for GLS5700 in June 2016, a zika vaccine being developed by Inovio Pharmaceuticals. Further in 2017, a grant was approved for phase 2 clinical trials for a DNA vaccine conducted by NIAIDs Vaccine Research Center (VRC).Increasing awareness among the population would aid in controlling the incidence rate of zika infection. The WHO implemented a global framework for creating public awareness through its Zika Strategic Response Framework and Joint Plan in February 2016. This plan outlines all the points to be taken care of at the time of infections. In June 2016, WHO Regional Office for Europe developed a training curriculum to increase awareness by the publication of Zika Risk Assessment for European Region.High investment costs required for R&D and the development of effective zika virus vaccines serves as a restraining factor for the global zika vaccines market.While major of the Zika virus cases occur in tropical regions such as Brazil, Paraguay, Venezuela, Colombia and Suriname, there are higher chances of mosquito infections in tropical areas of the U.S. like Texas and Florida. According to Pan American Health Organization, around 1,246 suspected and confirmed cases were reported between epidemiological week (EW) 10 and EW 14 of 2016 in the sub region which involves Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Ecuador.Ask for customization:Competitive LandscapeSome key players operating in the zika vaccines market are Cerus Corporation, Biken Inc, GlaxoSmithKline plc, Bharat Biotech International Pvt. Ltd, GeneOne Life Science, Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Immunovaccine Inc., NewLink Genetics Corp. and Sanofi S.A. The companies launched various R&D measures and clinical trials to attain immunogenicity against zika virus. In February 2016, Sanofi S.A launched a vaccine research and development project, with the introduction of Dengvaxia (Dengue vaccine) that will aid the company understand the Zika virus and develop an effective vaccine against it. Likewise, Inovio Pharmaceuticals initiated a clinical study of zika vaccine (GLS-5700) in Puerto Rico in August 2016. This trial may provide a potential push to Inovios vaccine if positive results are reported as there was a rapid progression of zika outbreak in Puerto Rico at that time. This could benefit the trial in assessing true efficacy and safety of the vaccine. Rapid progression in clinical trials and approval would augment the zika vaccines market growth.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:
Abrasion Resistant Cast Iron Market Global Outlook 2018: MetalTek, Pacific Alloy, Dandong Foundry, TH DIck

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global Abrasion Resistant Cast Iron Market Professional Survey Report 2018 to its huge collection of research reports.This report studies Abrasion Resistant Cast Iron 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, coveringMetalTekPacific AlloyDandong FoundryTH DIckDorrenberg Edelstahl GmbHItoh KikohLETH IRONDownload Free exclusive Sample of this report:On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoby TypeSevere CorrosionHeat Resistantby ProductNickel-CopperCobalt BasedNickel-CobaltOtherAs far as the competitive landscape in the global market for Abrasion Resistant Cast Iron is concerned, the report dissects it leveraging analytical tools of the likes of SWOT Analysis and Porters Five Forces. This enables it to find out the opportunities the players can ride on and the pitfalls they need to avoid. Overall, the report is a valuable repository of information on the various facets of the global Abrasion Resistant Cast Iron market which keen companies operating in it can bank on to frame winning strategies. Those would enable them to improve their bottom lines and to surge ahead of their competitors.Table of ContentsGlobal Abrasion Resistant Cast Iron Market Professional Survey Report 20181 Industry Overview of Abrasion Resistant Cast Iron1.1 Definition and Specifications of Abrasion Resistant Cast Iron1.1.1 Definition of Abrasion Resistant Cast Iron1.1.2 Specifications of Abrasion Resistant Cast Iron1.2 Classification of Abrasion Resistant Cast Iron1.2.1 Severe Corrosion1.2.2 Heat Resistant1.3 Applications of Abrasion Resistant Cast Iron1.3.1 Automotive1.3.2 Machinery & Equipment1.3.3 Aerospace & Defense1.3.4 Power Industry2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Abrasion Resistant Cast Iron2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Abrasion Resistant Cast Iron2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Abrasion Resistant Cast Iron2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Abrasion Resistant Cast Iron3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Abrasion Resistant Cast Iron3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Abrasion Resistant Cast Iron Major Manufacturers in 20173.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Abrasion Resistant Cast Iron Major Manufacturers in 20173.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Abrasion Resistant Cast Iron Major Manufacturers in 20173.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Abrasion Resistant Cast Iron Major Manufacturers in 20174 Global Abrasion Resistant Cast Iron Overall Market Overview4.1 2013-2018E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Capacity Analysis4.2.1 2013-2018E Global Abrasion Resistant Cast Iron Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis4.2.2 2017 Abrasion Resistant Cast Iron Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)4.3 Sales Analysis4.3.1 2013-2018E Global Abrasion Resistant Cast Iron Sales and Growth Rate Analysis4.3.2 2017 Abrasion Resistant Cast Iron Sales Analysis (Company Segment)4.4 Sales Price AnalysisRead Complete Table of Content @List of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Abrasion Resistant Cast IronTable Product Specifications of Abrasion Resistant Cast IronTable Classification of Abrasion Resistant Cast IronFigure Global Production Market Share of Abrasion Resistant Cast Iron by Type in 2017Figure Severe Corrosion PictureTable Major Manufacturers of Severe CorrosionFigure Heat Resistant PictureTable Major Manufacturers of Heat ResistantTable Applications of Abrasion Resistant Cast IronGet 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
Global Drone Analytics Market 2018 Key Players: Airware, Agribotix, Aeroevirnoment, Dronedeploy, Delta Drone, ESRI.

Drone Analytics Market

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Drone Analytics Market:WiseGuyReports.com adds Drone Analytics Market 2018 Global Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting to 2025reports to its database.Executive SummaryGlobal Drone Analytics Market valued approximately USD 1.4 billion in 2016 is anticipated to grow with a healthy growth rate of more than 30.0% over the forecast period 2017-2025. The market growth is attributed to increasing adoption of drone across various end user industries, rising demand for drone analytics from commercial applications, rising usage of drone for security and surveillance purpose and others.Effective navigation has been a major challenge before the drone technology since its inception. Thus, drone companies are rapidly focusing on merging the existing drone technologies with predictive analytics and artificial intelligence to execute precise inspections for enabling effective navigations in all areas. Effective developments are being made in the field of agriculture and forestry, mining and quarrying and others.The objective of the study is to define market sizes of different segments & countries in recent years and to forecast the values to the coming eight years. The report is designed to incorporate both qualitative and quantitative aspects of the industry within each of the regions and countries involved in the study. Furthermore, the report also caters the detailed information about the crucial aspects such as driving factors & challenges which will define the future growth of the market. Additionally, the report shall also incorporate available opportunities in micro markets for stakeholders to invest along with the detailed analysis of competitive landscape and product offerings of key players. The detailed segments and sub-segment of the market are explained below:Request Sample Report @By Industry:Agriculture & ForestryConstructionInsuranceMining & QuarryingUtilityTelecommunicationOil & GasTransportationScientific ResearchOthersBy Application:Thermal DefectionMilitaryGeolocation ExplorationAerial MonitoringGround ExplorationVolumetric Calculation3D ModellingOthersBy Type:On-PremisesSoftwareServiceOn-DemandSoftware as A ServicesBy Solution:End-To-End SolutionsPoint SolutionFurthermore, years considered for the study are as follows:Historical year  2015Base year  2016Forecast period  2017 to 2025Some of the key manufacturers involved in the market Airware, Agribotix, Aeroevirnoment, Dronedeploy, Delta Drone, ESRI, Precisonhawk, Viatechnik, Pix4d, Kespry, Optelos, Huvrdata, Sentera Frequent cross industry partnerships are leading to market consolidation.Target Audience of the Global Drone Analytics Market in Market Study:Key Consulting Companies & AdvisorsLarge, medium-sized, and small enterprisesVenture capitalistsValue-Added Resellers (VARs)Third-party knowledge providersInvestment bankersInvestorsTable of Content:Chapter 1. Global Drone Analytics Market Definition and Scope1.1. Research Objective1.2. Market Definition1.3. Scope of The Study1.4. Years Considered for The Study1.5. Currency Conversion Rates1.6. Report LimitationChapter 2. Research Methodology2.1. Research Process2.1.1. Data Mining2.1.2. Analysis2.1.3. Market Estimation2.1.4. Validation2.1.5. Publishing2.2. Research AssumptionChapter 3. Executive Summary3.1. Global & Segmental Market Estimates & Forecasts, 2015-2025 (USD Billion)3.2. Key TrendsChapter 4. Global Drone Analytics Market Dynamics4.1. Growth Prospects4.1.1. Drivers4.1.2. Restraints4.1.3. Opportunities4.2. Industry Analysis4.2.1. Porters 5 Force Model4.2.2. PEST Analysis4.2.3. Value Chain Analysis4.3. Analyst Recommendation & ConclusioChapter 5. Global Drone Analytics Market, By IndustryChapter 6. Global Drone Analytics Market, By ApplicationChapter 7. Global Drone Analytics Market, By TypeChapter 8. Global Drone Analytics Market, By SolutionChapter 9. Global Drone Analytics Market, by Regional AnalysisChapter 10. Competitive Intelligence10.1. Company Market Share (Subject to Data Availability)10.2. Top Market Strategies10.3. Company Profiles10.3.1. Airware10.3.1.1. Overview10.3.1.2. Financial (Subject to Data Availability)10.3.1.3. Product Summary10.3.1.4. Recent Developments10.3.2. Aeroevirnoment10.3.3. Agribotix10.3.4. Delta Drone10.3.5. Dronedeploy10.3.6. ESRI10.3.7. Huvrdata10.3.8. Kespry10.3.9. Optelos10.3.10. Pix4d10.3.11. Precisonhawk10.3.12. Sentera10.3.13. ViatechnikContinuousFor further information on this report, visit Contact Us:Norah Trentsales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US); +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:WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone :+91 841 198 5042
Seed Treatment Fungicides Market Competitive Intelligence and Tracking Report 2017  2025

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Seed treatment is defined as treating seeds with chemicals such as Metalaxyl 35 WS, Imidaclorpid 48% FS and others, which are used to biologically enhance and protect the seeds. This is used in order to control diseases caused due to soil borne infections, blight and root rot, fungal disease, termite bunt, false smut, loose smut, and others. Fungicide seed treatments help in protecting seedlings from both soil and seed pathogens. Seed-borne pathogens are those dwelling on the seed surface, or those situated in the inner part of the seed. Soil-borne pathogens infects the seed or seedling, which anchors the growth of both parasitic and non-parasitic diseases.Rising demand for genetically modified seeds, increase in feedstock fuelling demand for biofuel and feed, and the use of fungicides as a primary crop protection solution to high yield potential are some of the major drivers for growth of the seed treatment fungicides market. However, one of the major challenges for seed treatment fungicides market is increasing number of high number of farmers using treated seeds. In 2013, a study conducted by the Agricultural Health Study (AHS) in Iowa and North Carolina, reported that about 90% of the farmers used treated seeds and only 35% of the farmers were using fungicides as treated seeds are abundantly available and there is a large number of suppliers compare to fungicides manufacturers. According to FAO, Iowa was the leading country in corn production in 2015, closely followed by Illinois and Nebraska. Iowa and Illinois each produced about 2 billion bushels of corn crop in 2015 while Minnesota and Indiana, produced over 1 billion bushels of corn in 2015.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.Seed Treatment Fungicides Market Taxonomy:On the basis of crop type, global seed treatment fungicides market is classified into:Fruits & Vegetables,Cereals & Grains,Flowers & Ornaments,Oil SeedsOn the basis of product types, global seed treatment fungicides market is classified into:Biological agents,Captan,Carboxin,Difenoconazole,PCNB,OthersOn the basis of processes, global seed treatment fungicides market is classified into:Seed Dressing Fungicides,Seed Coating Fungicides,Seed Pelleting Fungicides,OthersIncreasing demand from the food & beverage industry and those dependent on agricultural feed is expected to fuel growth of the seed treatment fungicides market. Seed dressing fungicides is the most commonly used technique, due to low cost and easy procedure compared to others. Low cost earthen pots are used for mixing pesticides with seed or seed can be spread on a polythene sheet and required quantity of chemical can be sprinkled on seed and mixed mechanically by the farmers. Seed dressing fungicides technique is a biological process, which is used in various crop types such as in sugarcanes, pigeon pea, tomato, and chilies.Market OutlookIn North America, U.S. is the leading consumer of seed treatment fungicides. Stringent government regulations towards reducing or curbing the use of agrochemicals coupled with increasing consumer awareness towards the presence of fertilizer residues in the produce, has resulted in a substantial increase in demand for seed treatment fungicides. According to the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA); smuts and seedling-blight diseases caused in wheat, barley, oats, and others are controlled by seed treatment fungicides, which helps to kill the infections inside the seed during germination. The production of crops as feedstock for biofuels is another major reason for the large-scale use of seed treatment fungicides in North America. For instance, U.S. is a leading producer of maize, which is used for biofuel, thus the use of maize for biofuels drives the demands for seed treatment fungicides in the region.Access Table of Content (TOC) of the report:Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing region in the seed treatment fungicides market over the forecast period. According to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, in 2017, China and India are the leading producers of wheat across the globe. This could aid key players such as BASF and Bayer to establish its agrochemicals units in the region and thus, expand their presence. For instance, in August, 2017, BASF introduced the first strobilurin fungicides in the market to provide more control over the fungal pathogens. The other product named Stamina gives wheat and barley seeds the right start in cold conditions with high disease control to deliver a healthier and stronger plant. Other factors such as increasing innovation in generations of fungicides such as strobilurins is expected to fuel growth of the seed treatment fungicides market in Asia Pacific during the forecast period.In Latin America, the major part of the countrys GDP is from agricultural sector. Countries such as Brazil and Argentina, are majorly dependent on agriculture, due to which the production of crops such as corn, soybean, sorghum, and others is high. According to United States Department of Agriculture, Brazil corn production was estimated at 94.5 million metric tons in 2017 and Argentina corn production for 2017 is estimated at 36 million metric tons. Hence, farmers are focusing on increasing the use of seed treatment fungicides in order to improve yields and decrease the losses, due to fungus and other external factors. Increasing investments by key players such as Glencore, Cargill, and Bunge for development of advanced products is expected to boost demand for seed treatment fungicides in this region.Key players in seed treatment fungicides market are BASF SE, Syngenta AG, Nufarm Limited, Glencore, Cargill, Inc, Bunge Limited, Bayer Crop Science AG, and Platform Specialty Products Company, Monsanto Limited.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
Artificial Intelligence Products Market  Global Current Trends and Future Aspect Analysis

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global Artificial Intelligence Products Market Professional Survey Report 2018 to its huge collection of research reports.This report studies Artificial Intelligence Products 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, coveringOpen AIIBMNECNuancesGoogleMicrosoft CorpIpsoftGoogleRocket Fuel IncFingenius LtdDownload Free exclusive Sample of this report:The report presents a detailed account of the competitive dynamics of the Artificial Intelligence Products market and the detailed profiles of the key manufacturers of Artificial Intelligence Products in the global market. The future developmental plans of these market players are revealed based on a number of many interviews. Along with this, the report also covers business strategies and the road map of new application areas. The report also presents analysis of development policies and plans in the market, as well as cost structures and an account of the various manufacturing processes prevalent in the market. An analysis of supply, demand, import, export consumption, costs, prices, revenues and gross margins is also included.Table of ContentsGlobal Artificial Intelligence Products Market Professional Survey Report 20181 Industry Overview of Artificial Intelligence Products1.1 Definition and Specifications of Artificial Intelligence Products1.1.1 Definition of Artificial Intelligence Products1.1.2 Specifications of Artificial Intelligence Products1.2 Classification of Artificial Intelligence Products1.2.1 Computer/GPU Chip Hardware1.2.2 Cloud Hardware1.2.3 Other1.3 Applications of Artificial Intelligence Products1.3.1 Media & Advertising1.3.2 Healthcare1.3.3 Automotive & Transportation1.3.4 Other2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Artificial Intelligence Products2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Artificial Intelligence Products2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Artificial Intelligence Products2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Artificial Intelligence Products3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Artificial Intelligence Products3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Artificial Intelligence Products Major Manufacturers in 20173.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Artificial Intelligence Products Major Manufacturers in 20173.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Artificial Intelligence Products Major Manufacturers in 20173.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Artificial Intelligence Products Major Manufacturers in 20174 Global Artificial Intelligence Products Overall Market Overview4.1 2013-2018E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Capacity Analysis4.2.1 2013-2018E Global Artificial Intelligence Products Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis4.2.2 2017 Artificial Intelligence Products Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)4.3 Sales Analysis4.3.1 2013-2018E Global Artificial Intelligence Products Sales and Growth Rate Analysis4.3.2 2017 Artificial Intelligence Products Sales Analysis (Company Segment)4.4 Sales Price AnalysisRead Complete Table of Content @List of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Artificial Intelligence ProductsTable Product Specifications of Artificial Intelligence ProductsTable Classification of Artificial Intelligence ProductsFigure Global Production Market Share of Artificial Intelligence Products by Type in 2017Figure Computer/GPU Chip Hardware PictureTable Major Manufacturers of Computer/GPU Chip HardwareFigure Cloud Hardware PictureTable Major Manufacturers of Cloud HardwareGet 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
Consumer Healthcare Products Market 2018- Sanofi, GSK, Mylan, Johnson & Johnson, Merck

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global Consumer Healthcare Products Market Professional Survey Report 2018 to its huge collection of research reports.The global Consumer Healthcare Products 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.This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringPfizer, Inc.Bayer AGAbbott LaboratoriesIpsen, Sanofi S.A.Piramal Enterprises Ltd.Sun Pharmaceuticals Ltd.Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd.Download Free exclusive Sample of this report:On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoPain Relief ProductOral Health ProductRespiratory ProductNutrition/Gastro Intestinal ProductSkin Health ProductRegarding market rivalry, perusers could adjust their techniques to basic patterns of the global Consumer Healthcare Products 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 Consumer Healthcare Products Market Professional Survey Report 20181 Industry Overview of Consumer Healthcare Products1.1 Definition and Specifications of Consumer Healthcare Products1.1.1 Definition of Consumer Healthcare Products1.1.2 Specifications of Consumer Healthcare Products1.2 Classification of Consumer Healthcare Products1.3 Applications of Consumer Healthcare Products1.3.1 Hospital Pharmacy1.3.2 Retail Pharmacy2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Consumer Healthcare Products2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Consumer Healthcare Products2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Consumer Healthcare Products2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Consumer Healthcare Products3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Consumer Healthcare Products3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Consumer Healthcare Products Major Manufacturers in 20173.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Consumer Healthcare Products Major Manufacturers in 20173.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Consumer Healthcare Products Major Manufacturers in 20173.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Consumer Healthcare Products Major Manufacturers in 20174 Global Consumer Healthcare Products Overall Market Overview4.1 2013-2018E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Capacity Analysis4.2.1 2013-2018E Global Consumer Healthcare Products Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis4.2.2 2017 Consumer Healthcare Products Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)4.3 Sales Analysis4.3.1 2013-2018E Global Consumer Healthcare Products Sales and Growth Rate Analysis4.3.2 2017 Consumer Healthcare Products Sales Analysis (Company Segment)4.4 Sales Price AnalysisRead Complete Table of Content @List of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Consumer Healthcare ProductsTable Product Specifications of Consumer Healthcare ProductsTable Classification of Consumer Healthcare ProductsFigure Global Production Market Share of Consumer Healthcare Products by Type in 2017Figure Pain Relief Product PictureTable Major Manufacturers of Pain Relief ProductFigure Oral Health Product PictureTable Major Manufacturers of Oral Health ProductFigure Respiratory Product PictureTable Major Manufacturers of Respiratory ProductTo 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
Hydroelectric Market : 2018 Market Strategy and Major Participants -Lucid Energy, Xinda Green Energy, SoarHydro

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global Hydroelectric Market Research Report 2018 to its huge collection of research reports.In this report, the global Hydroelectric market is valued at USD XX million in 2017 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2017 and 2025.Global Hydroelectric market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingLucid EnergyLeviatan Energy HydroelectriXinda Green EnergySoarHydroToshiba Corporation Power SystemsRentricityEECA EnergywiseDownload Free exclusive Sample of this report:The report can act as a source of key information about the global market for Hydroelectric while providing guidelines for success to market players. The strategies that have fetched success for market players in the past have been explained in the report, which shall principally direct the new entrants into the market.On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoMicro-Hydro (Up to 5 Kw)Mini-Hydro (Between 5Kw and 20Kw)Small Commercial Hydro (Between 20Kw and 10MW)OtherTable of ContentsGlobal Hydroelectric Market Research Report 20181 Hydroelectric Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Hydroelectric1.2 Hydroelectric Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Hydroelectric Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Hydroelectric Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20172 Global Hydroelectric Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Hydroelectric Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.1 Global Hydroelectric Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Hydroelectric Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Hydroelectric Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)3 Global Hydroelectric Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)4 Global Hydroelectric Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2013-2018)5 Global Hydroelectric Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type6 Global Hydroelectric Market Analysis by Application6.1 Global Hydroelectric Consumption and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)6.2 Global Hydroelectric 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 HydroelectricFigure Global Hydroelectric Production (Units) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Types (Product Category) (2013-2025)Figure Global Hydroelectric Production Market Share by Types (Product Category) in 2017Figure Product Picture of Micro-Hydro (Up to 5 Kw)Table Major Manufacturers of Micro-Hydro (Up to 5 Kw)Figure Product Picture of Mini-Hydro (Between 5Kw and 20Kw)Table Major Manufacturers of Mini-Hydro (Between 5Kw and 20Kw)Figure Product Picture of Small Commercial Hydro (Between 20Kw and 10MW)Table Major Manufacturers of Small Commercial Hydro (Between 20Kw and 10MW)Enquiry For Discount Visit @QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Beer Market Business Segmentation by Revenue, Market Landscape, Present Scenario and Growth Prospects 2025

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Beer is the most widely consumed alcoholic drink across the world. This drink is generally brewed from cereal grains such as maize, rice, and wheat. Moreover, beer is brewed with hops that adds bitterness, stability, and flavor to the beer. Other flavoring agents such as herbs, fruits, and gruit can also be added instead of hops.The growth of this market is attributed to rise in consumer preference for beer over other alcoholic drinks. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2016, beer accounted for around 36% of the total alcohol consumption. This is further attributed to high consumption of beer among young people. Therefore, major players are focusing on launching new products to meet the rising demand. For instance, in 2018, MillerCoors Company, introduced a new light beer line named Two Hats, which features the pineapple and lime flavors, targeting the young population.Request a sample copy of this report:However, high excise duties and taxations on imported and local beer are key factors restraining growth of the global beer market. For instance, for imported beer in Switzerland, an individual subjected to customs is liable to pay beer excise tax, which includes US$ 17.85 per hectoliter of light beer, US$ 26.78 per hectoliter of regular beer, and US$ 35.71 per hectoliter of strong beer. Moreover, rising health concerns among the populace is expected to further restrain the growth of global beer market.Global Beer Market Taxonomy:Global Beer market is segmented into:By Product Type:Ales,Lagers,Stouts & Porters,Malts,OthersBy Category:Regular Beer,Premium Beer,Super Premium BeerBy Packaging:Bottled Beer,Canned Beer,Draught BeerLager type segment dominated the beer market in 2016, owing to its high acceptance rate over other types of beer by consumers. Therefore, major players are focusing on launching new lager beers to fulfil the growing demand. For instance, in 2016, Kopparbergs, a Swedish brewery and cider company expanded its portfolio in the fruit-beer by launching the Kopparberg fruit lager in lemon and lime flavor. This beer undergoes traditional lagering process and does not contain hops, instead contains fruit juice of lime and lemon.To know the latest trends and insights prevalent in this market, click the link below:Global Beer Market Outlook:Asia Pacific region dominated the global beer market in 2016 and is expected to retain its dominance over the forecast period. This is due to the increase in expenditure and changing lifestyle of people in this region. India and China are projected to be the growth engines in the region. In 2017, B9 Beverages Pvt. Ltd. expanded its beer portfolio by launching two variants namely; Bira 91 Light and Bira 91 Strong in India. Bira 91 light, is one of the low calorie alcoholic beverage having calorie lower than a glass of breezer, cocktails or champagne. Bira 91 strong is a high intensity wheat beer having 7% alcohol, as large portion of beer sold in India is strong having more than 5% alcohol.Europe is expected to be the second largest region in terms of revenue growth in the global beer market, owing to rampant increase in consumption of beer in this region. This is owing to the consumption habits of alcoholic drinks and popularity of beer among the younger generation. According to Brewers of Europe, the EU beer consumption rose from 35.25 billion liters in 2014 to 35.91 billion liters in 2016.North America region is projected to exhibit significant growth in the global beer market. In 2017, one of the leading U.S. beer brand Samuel Adams reformulated one of its flagship beers, Rebel IPA with a hop variety, which has more tropical, juicy, and citrus flavor. Moreover, in 2012, Anheuser-Busch InBev planned to launch 19 products in the U.S., which included small-batch craft brews, a cider, and an expanded malt beverage lineup, to further meet the growing demand of the region.Major players in the market are focusing on mergers, acquisitions, and new product launches in order to enhance their business in the competitive market. For instance, in 2016, Department of Justice approved merger between the worlds largest beer companies Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI) and SABMiller Plc. This resulting conglomerate was expected to control around 46% of the global beer profits.Major players in global beer market include Anheuser-Busch InBev, Carlsberg Group, Beijing Enterprises Holdings Limited, The Boston Beer Company Inc., Heineken N.V., Dogfish Head Brewery, Diageo Plc., Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Tsingtao Brewery Co. Ltd, Oettinger Brauerei, and The Molson Coors Brewing Company among others.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
Medical Equipment Maintenance Worldwide Market Advance with High Growing CAGR +7.6% Expected to US$ 48,257.4 million by 2025

Medical Maintenance Equipment Worldwide Market 2025

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Global medical equipment maintenance market is estimated to reach USD 48,257.4 million by 2025 from USD 27,060.0 million in 2017, at a CAGR of 7.6% in the forecast period 2018 to 2025. The new market report contains data for historic years 2016, the base year of calculation is 2017 and the forecast period is 2018 to 2025.Request For Free Sample Copy of Report Click Here@:Key market players for Global medical equipment maintenance market are listed below:Siemens AG is going to dominate the global medical equipment maintenance market followed by GE Healthcare and Philips Healthcare. Some of the other players are AGFA-GEVAERT, Canon Inc, Dragerwerk AG & CO. KGaA, Medtronic, Hitachi, Ltd, Fujifilm Holdings Corporation, B. Braun, HOYA Corporation among others.Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global medical maintenance equipment for 2018-2025. To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue generated from the sales of the web conferencing and unified communication and collaboration (UC&C) and video conferencing, secondary resources and doing in-depth company share analysis of major 10 players in the market.You can request one free hour of our analysts time when you purchase this market report. Details are provided within the report.Any Questions? Inquire Here Before Buying:Market Competitors Research Analysis: Siemens AGSiemens AG founded in 1847 and is headquartered in Munich, Germany. The company is involved in production and manufacturing of plants across the world. The company is involved in electrification, automation and digitalization technologies.Siemens AG works in following segments power and gas, energy management, building technologies, mobility, digital factory and process industries drives, healthineers and renewable energy. The Siemens Healthineers segment provides technology to the healthcare industry and, diagnostic imaging and laboratory diagnostics. Siemens AG provides medical maintenance services through imaging and therapy services. Its remote monitoring program can detect and corrects medical equipment before they need larger repair.The company has 377,000 employees and has global presence in more than 200 countries. It offers equipment services for medical equipment maintenance. It serves in Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East, North America and South America.Questions? Well Put You On The Right Path Request Analyst Call:Market segmented into: Device Service Type Service Provider End-userGlobal medical equipment maintenance market is segmented on the basis of device into imaging equipment, endoscopic device surgical instrument, electro-medical equipment and others. In 2018, imaging equipment is expected to dominate the market with 32.5% market share and is expected to reach 16,350.2 million by 2025, growing at the highest CAGR of 8.2% in the forecast period 2018 to 2025.Global medical equipment maintenance market is segmented on the basis of services type into preventive maintenance, corrective maintenance, and operational maintenance. In 2018, global preventive maintenance market is expected to dominate market with 45.4% market share and is expected to reach 22,471.7 million by 2025, growing at the highest CAGR of 8.0% in the forecast period 2018 to 2025.Global medical equipment maintenance market is segmented on the basis of service provider into original equipment manufacturers, independent service organizations and in-house maintenance. In 2018, global medical maintenance equipment original equipment manufacturers market is expected to dominate market with 47.0% market share and is expected to reach 23,052.2 million by 2025, growing at the highest CAGR of 7.9% in the forecast period 2018 to 2025.The original equipment manufacturers segment is further sub-segmented into multi-vendor OEMs and single-vendor OEMs. In 2018, global medical maintenance equipment multi-vendor OEMs market is expected to dominate market with 54.1% market share and is expected to reach 12,873.9 million by 2025, growing at the highest CAGR of 8.4% in the forecast period 2018 to 2025.Global medical equipment maintenance market is segmented on the basis of end-user into public-sector organizations and private-sector organizations. In 2018, global medical maintenance equipment private-sector organizations market is expected to dominate market with 57.2% market share and is expected to reach 28,053.7 million by 2025, growing at the highest CAGR of 7.8% in the forecast period 2018 to 2025.Based on geography, the market is segmented into 5 geographical regions: North America Europe Asia-Pacific South America Middle East and AfricaFull Report:TABLE OF CONTENTS GLOBAL MEDICAL EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE MARKET1. INTRODUCTION1.1. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY1.2. MARKET DEFINITION1.3. OVERVIEW OF GLOBAL MEDICAL EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE MARKET1.4. CURRENCY AND PRICING1.5. LIMITATION1.6. MARKETS COVERED2. MARKET SEGMENTATION2.1. MARKETS COVERED2.2. GEOGRAPHIC SCOPE2.3. YEARS CONSIDERED FOR THE STUDY2.4. CURRENCY AND PRICING2.5. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY2.6. PRIMARY INTERVIEWS WITH KEY OPINION LEADERS2.7. SECONDARY SOURCES2.8. ASSUMPTIONS3. MARKET OVERVIEW3.1. DRIVERS3.1.1. RISING FOCUS ON PREVENTIVE MEDICAL EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE3.1.2. INCREASING PREFERENCE FOR PURCHASE OF REFURBISHED MEDICAL EQUIPMENTS3.1.3. RISING INVESTMENTS OF KEY COMPANIES TO BUILD HEALTHCARE INFRASTRUCTURE3.1.4. TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS FOR COMPLEX EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE3.1.5. INCREASING NUMBER OF PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS3.2. RESTRAINTS3.2.1. HIGH INITIAL COST AND SIGNIFICANT MAINTENANCE EXPENDITURE3.2.2. LACK OF SKILLED PROFESSIONALS3.3. OPPORTUNITIES3.3.1. KEY STRATEGIES INCORPORATED BY VARIOUS COMPANIES3.3.2. UNTAPPED POTENTIAL IN EMERGING COUNTRIES3.4. CHALLENGES3.4.1. NEWER ALTERNATIVES TO OFFER TAILOR-MADE PRODUCTS4. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY5. PREMIUM INSIGHTS6. GLOBAL MEDICAL EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE MARKET, BY DEVICE6.1. OVERVIEW6.2. IMAGING EQUIPMENT6.2.1. ADVANCED IMAGING MODALITIES6.2.2. PRIMARY IMAGING MODALITIES6.3. ENDOSCOPIC DEVICE6.4. SURGICAL INSTRUMENT6.5. ELECTRO-MEDICAL EQUIPMENT6.6. OTHERS6.6.1. LIFE SUPPORT DEVICES6.6.2. DENTAL EQUIPMENT7. GLOBAL MEDICAL EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE MARKET, BY SERVICE TYPE7.1. OVERVIEW7.2. PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE7.3. CORRECTIVE MAINTENANCE7.4. OPERATIONAL MAINTENANCE8. GLOBAL MEDICAL EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE MARKET, BY SERVICE PROVIDER8.1. OVERVIEW8.2. ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURER (OEM)8.2.1. MULTI-VENDOR OEMS8.2.2. SINGLE-VENDOR OEMS8.3. INDEPENDENT SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS8.4. IN-HOUSE MAINTENANCE9. GLOBAL MEDICAL EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE MARKET, BY END USER9.1. OVERVIEW9.2. PRIVATE-SECTOR ORGANIZATIONS9.3. PUBLIC-SECTOR ORGANIZATIONS10. GLOBAL MEDICAL EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE MARKET, BY GEOGRAPHY10.1. OVERVIEW10.2. NORTH AMERICA10.2.1. U.S.10.2.1. CANADA10.2.2. MEXICO10.3. EUROPE10.3.1. GERMANY10.3.2. FRANCE10.3.3. U.K.10.3.4. ITALY10.3.5. SPAIN10.3.6. SWITZERLAND10.3.7. NETHERLANDS10.3.8. TURKEY10.3.9. BELGIUM10.3.10. RUSSIA10.3.11. REST OF EUROPE10.4. ASIA PACIFIC10.4.1. JAPAN10.4.2. CHINA10.4.3. INDIA10.4.4. SOUTH KOREA10.4.5. AUSTRALIA10.4.6. SINGAPPRE10.4.7. THAILAND10.4.8. MALAYSIA10.4.9. INDONESIA10.4.10. PHILIPPINES10.4.11. REST OF ASIA PACIFIC10.5. SOUTH AMERICA10.5.1. BRAZIL10.5.2. REST OF SOUTH AMERICA10.6. MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA10.6.1. SOUTH AFRICA10.6.2. REST OF MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA11. GLOBAL MEDICAL EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE MARKET, COMPANY LANDSCAPE11.1. COMPANY SHARE ANALYSIS: GLOBAL11.2. COMPANY SHARE ANALYSIS: NORTH AMERICA11.3. COMPANY SHARE ANALYSIS: EUROPE11.4. COMPANY SHARE ANALYSIS: ASIA-PACIFIC12. COMPANY PROFILES12.1. CARESTREAM HEALTH (A SUBSIDIARY OF ONEX CORPORATION)12.1.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW1.1.1. CARESTREAM HEALTH: COMPANY SNAPSHOT1.1.2. SERVICES1.1.3. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS12.2. AGFA-GEVAERT GROUP12.2.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW1.1.4. AGFA-GEVAERT GROUP: REVENUE ANALYSIS12.2.2. SERVICES1.1.5. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS12.3. DRAGERWERK AG & CO. KGAA12.3.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW12.3.2. DRAGERWERK AG & CO. KGAA: REVENUE ANALYSIS12.3.3. SERVICE1.1.6. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS12.4. CANON INC.12.4.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW1.1.7. CANON INC. CORPORATION: REVENUE ANALYSIS12.4.2. SERVICES12.4.3. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS12.5. MEDTRONIC12.5.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW12.5.2. MEDTRONIC: REVENUE ANALYSIS12.5.3. SERVICES12.5.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS12.6. HITACHI, LTD12.6.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW1.1.8. HITACHI: REVENUE ANALYSIS12.6.2. SERVICES12.6.3. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS12.7. OLYMPUS CORPORATION12.7.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW12.7.2. OLYMPUS CORPORATION: REVENUE ANALYSIS12.7.3. SERVICES12.7.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS12.8. ALTHEA GROUP (TBS G.B. TELEMATIC & BIOMEDICAL SERVICES LTD AND PANTHEON HEALTHCARE GROUP)12.8.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW12.8.2. ALTHEA GROUP (TBS G.B. TELEMATIC & BIOMEDICAL SERVICES LTD AND PANTHEON HEALTHCARE GROUP) REVENUE ANALYSIS12.8.3. SERVICES OF TBS G.B. TELEMATIC & BIOMEDICAL SERVICES LTD12.8.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS OF TBS G.B. TELEMATIC & BIOMEDICAL SERVICES LTD12.8.5. SERVICES OF PANTHEON HEALTHCARE GROUP12.8.6. RECENT DEVELOPMENTSOF PANTHEON HEALTHCARE GROUP12.9. SIEMENS AG12.9.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW12.9.2. SIEMENS AG: REVENUE ANALYSIS12.9.3. SERVICES1.9.1. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS12.10. B. BRAUN MELSUNGEN AG12.10.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW12.10.2. B. BRAUN MELSUNGEN AG: REVENUE ANALYSIS12.10.3. SERVICES12.10.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS12.11. AVENSYS UK LTD.12.11.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW12.11.2. AVENSYS: COMPANY SNAPSHOT12.11.3. SERVICES12.11.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS12.12. KARL STORZ GMBH & CO. KG12.12.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW12.12.2. KARL STORZ GMBH & CO. KG: SNAPSHOT12.12.3. SERVICES12.12.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS12.13. FUJIFILM HOLDINGS CORPORATION12.13.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW12.13.2. FUJIFILM HOLDINGS CORPORATION: REVENUE ANALYSIS12.13.3. SERVICES1.9.2. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS12.14. SHIMADZU CORPORATION12.14.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW12.14.2. SHIMADZU CORPORATION: REVENUE ANALYSIS12.14.3. SERVICES12.14.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS12.15. ALPHA SOURCE, INC. (BC TECHNICAL, INC.)12.15.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW12.15.2. ALPHA SOURCE, INC. (BC TECHNICAL, INC.): COMPANY SNAPSHOT12.15.3. BC TECHNICAL, INC.1.9.3. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS12.16. SAMSUNG MEDISON CO., LTD12.16.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW12.16.2. SAMSUNG MEDISON CO., LTD: REVENUE ANALYSIS12.16.3. SERVICES12.16.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS12.17. HOYA CORPORATION (PENTAX MEDICAL)12.17.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW12.17.2. HOYA CORPORATION: REVENUE ANALYSIS12.17.3. SERVICES12.17.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS12.18. MEDIPASS HEALTHCARE LIMITED12.18.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW12.18.2. MEDIPASS HEALTHCARE LIMITED: SNAPSHOT12.18.3. SERVICES12.18.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS12.19. GRUPO EMPRESARIAL ELECTROMEDICO12.19.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW12.19.2. GRUPO EMPRESARIAL ELECTROMEDICO: COMPANY SNAPSHOT12.19.3. SERVICES12.19.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS12.20. ARAMARK12.20.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW12.20.2. SNAPSHOT12.20.3. SERVICES12.20.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS12.21. GE HEALTHCARE12.21.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW12.21.2. GE HEALTHCARE: REVENUE ANALYSIS12.21.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO12.21.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS12.22. KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V.12.22.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW12.22.2. KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V.: REVENUE ANALYSIS12.22.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO12.22.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS13. RELATED REPORTSTo Get Detail TOC Analysis of Report Click Here @Related ReportNorth America Digital Health Monitoring Market  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024North America Digital Health Monitoring Market By Product Type Devices (Blood Pressure Monitors, Blood Glucose Monitors, ECG, Oximeters, Peak Flow Monitors, Multi Parameter Monitors, Sleep Neap Monitors, Neurological Monitors, Others), Software (Healthcare Apps, Chronic Disease Apps, Personal Health Apps, Others), Services (Remote Monitoring, Consultancy Services, Treatment Services, Fitness and Wellness Services, Others), By Country (U.S., Canada, Mexico)  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Report Access:About Data Bridge Market Research:Data Bridge Market Research set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.Contact:Vishal DixitData Bridge Market ResearchTel: +1-888-387-2818Email: sopan.gedam@databridgemarketresearch.com
Biochemical Sensors Market: Chemical and Biochemical Sensors Based On Advances In Materials Chemistry

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Market Scenario:Biochemical sensors have risen as a dynamic method for subjective and quantitative examination of various analyses in clinical analysis, ecological checking, also, sustenance and process control. The requirement for an ease, dependable, ultra-touchy, and fast sensor keeps on developing as the many-sided quality of use territories increments. New bio-sensing strategies are rising because of the requirement for shorter specimen planning conventions. Because of the requirement for cost effective, quick, and simple to utilize sensors for the past decades, biochemical sensors have emerged as a dynamic system for subjective and quantitative assurance of various analyses for natural, clinical, agrarian, sustenance, or military applications.Prominent applications of biochemical sensors go from clinical and non-clinical medicinal services to agribusiness, natural and nourishing fragments. Biochemical sensors are as a rule widely utilized for the speedier identification of pathogens, contaminants and chemicals. Be that as it may, high R&D use, absence of mindfulness, execution of stringent directions by governments, slower commercialization and appropriation of these items are real difficulties standing up to the global biochemical sensors market.Leading Key Players:Some of the major companies in the global biochemical sensors market are: GE Healthcare, Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc., Honeywell International Inc , Thermo Fisher Scientific, Polestar Technologies Inc., Melexis, Universal Biosensor Inc., Microchip Technology Inc., Texas Instrument Inc., Nova Biomedical Corporation.Request a Sample Report @Industry AnalysisIn the course of the most recent couple of years, selection of biochemical sensors from different end utilize parts has expanded essentially. Medicinal applications constitute the biggest end client section for biochemical sensors, all around. Developing wellbeing concerns, expanding entrance of hand-held biochemical detecting gadgets, rising utilization of these sensors in wearable gadgets and developing scaling down of gadgets are driving the utilization of biochemical sensors in medicinal applications. Moreover, improvement of mechanically propelled sensors, for example, nano-biochemical sensors is anticipated to build infiltration and fuel development in the worldwide biochemical sensors showcase through 2020. In spite of the fact that North America is the biggest market for biochemical sensors, Asia-Pacific is rising as a key request driver for biochemical sensors market because of developing interest from creating nations, for example, China and India.In global biochemical sensors market advancement of silicon miniaturized scale sensors, optical strands and car biochemical sensor innovation are few noteworthy patterns that the business is encountering right now. Quickly developing wearable hardware showcase and expanding requirement for security testing in farming and wholesome applications are being looked upon as significant open doors for biochemical sensors advertise. In farming, biochemical sensors are progressively being utilized to screen organic product quality and check nearness of pesticides and bug sprays. Rising utilization of biochemical sensors in different united areas is because of the developing requirement for speedier investigation of tests to identify nearness of contaminants.Market Segments:The global biochemical sensors market is segmented on the basis of product type, application and geography. On the basis on product type, the biochemical sensors market can be into optical, electrochemical, thermal, piezoelectric, and others. On the basis of application, the global biochemical sensors market can be segmented into healthcare, agriculture, and nutrition. On the basis of geography, the global biochemical sensors market can be segmented into North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Middle East & Africa.Browse Report @About us:Xpodence Research have the most extensive collection of market research reports of many categories. Xpodence Research provides the best market research solution for every industry by publishing the best possible results of great market research firms worldwide. For every particular problem, theres a particular solution, so according to the customer needs, we provide the best possible results to them from different market research organization, whether its a Custom Research or Syndicated Research reports because the product that wins is the one that bridges customers to the future, not the one that requires a giant leap.Every organization, whether it is related to Pharmaceuticals, Technology, Eatables, Consumable Goods and many more demands a market research results so that they can take important decisions for more productivity and better output in this swift world. Xpodence Research gives the best possible outcome, perfect forecast, analysis and insights of market research in the form of report which is beneficial for various organisations and also to the manufacturing companies in taking the best decisions for quality production.Contact us:Xpodence Research244 , Madison AvenueNew York City, NY - 10016United StatesToll Free +1- 844-445-2861Email: sales@xpodenceresearch.com
Metabolomics Services Market: Global Market Estimation, Dynamics, Regional Share, Trends, Competitor Analysis 2012-2016 and Forecast 2017-2023

Metabolomics Services Market

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Metabolomics Services Market: Metabolomics is the branch of science deals with the study of biochemical processes undergone by by-products and intermediates of metabolic activities, which are also known as metabolomes. Various types of analytical technologies are used in the metabolomics for quantification, identification, and extraction of relevant information of cellular metabolites. Metabolomics is commonly used in the research fields such as proteomics, genomics, and transcriptomics, which help to understand the biology and interaction of an organism with environment and genetic makeup. Major applications of metabolomics include compound discovery and optimization, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of drugs, and biomarker identification.Increase in the need for accurate disease diagnosis, growth in demand for personalized medicine, technological advancements in the field of metabolomics, and huge investments from the public and private sectors for R&D activities are anticipated to fuel the metabolomics market growth over the forecast period. Moreover, wide range of applications of metabolomics, increase in the prevalence of target diseases such as cancers, and increase in the scope of clinical trials and toxicological studies are boosting the metabolomics 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 might hamper the growth of metabolomics services over the forecast period.A sample of this report is available upon request @Metabolomics services market is segmented on the basis of product type, application, therapeutic area, and end-userBased on the service type, metabolomics services market is segmented into the following: Separation & Detection Serviceso Lipidomicso Proteomicso Targeted Metabolite Assayso Others Bioinformatics ServicesBased on the sample type, metabolomics services market is segmented into the following: Urine Tumour Cell culture Media Whole Blood Food Ingredients Plant OthersBased on the sample source, metabolomics services market is segmented into the following: Human Animal OthersBased on the end-user, metabolomics services market is segmented into the following: Medical Industry Agriculture Industry Food Processing Industry OthersBased on the region, metabolomics services market is segmented into the following: North America Europe Asia-Pacific Rest of the WorldTo view TOC of this report is available upon request @Metabolomics services market is growing at a significant CAGR owing to increase in the demand for personalized medicine and government initiations for the prevention of genetic disorders in new-born babies. Moreover, most of the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies are focusing on the R&D activities of metabolomics which are helping in the drug discovery, biomarker discovery, and other applications. Acquisitions & mergers, collaborations, and technological advancements are the strategies followed by the competitors for garnering the metabolomics market revenue. For instance, in August 2014, Cenix Bioscience GmbH inked an agreement with Metanomics Health GmbH for the development of metabolomic biomarkers. Moreover, in July 2017, Thermo Fisher Scientific collaborated with SRI international for the development of small molecule research.Need more information about this report @Geographically, metabolomics services market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World. North America estimated to hold large revenue share in global services market owing to a huge number of biopharmaceutical companies focusing on the R&D activities of metabolomics, rise in funding from the government organizations, and availability of professional researchers and well-established infrastructure in the region. Europe exhibiting significant growth due to high adoption of novel technologies, researchers and governments focusing on the prevention of genetic disorders, and increase in the target disease conditions are the factors drive the Europe metabolomics market over the forecast period. Moreover, due to increase in the population and birth rate, rise in the prevalence of diabetes and other targeted diseases, increase in R&D activities majorly in China, Japan, and India, and rise in demand for personalized medicine in Asia-Pacific region expected to create significant market opportunities over the forecast period.Some of the players in metabolomics services market are Metanomics Health GmbH (Germany), Metabolon, Inc. (U.S.), SRI International (U.S.), Metabolomic discoveries GmbH (Germany), OWL Metabolomics (Spain), Sanyal biotechnology (U.S.) Cenix BioScience GmbH (Germany), West Coast Metabolomics Center (U.S), The Metabolomics Innovation Centre (TMIC) (Canada), Creative Proteomics (U.S), Lipotype GmbH (Germany), Stemina Biomarker Discovery, Inc. (U.S), Chenomx Inc. (Canada) to name a few.Get 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 @
Multiple Sclerosis Drugs Market: Global Market Estimation, Dynamics, Regional Share, Trends, Competitor Analysis 2012-2016 and Forecast 2017-2023

Multiple Sclerosis Drugs Market

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Multiple Sclerosis Drugs Market: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating disease that affects spinal cord and brain. Multiple sclerosis damages myelin sheath, material that surrounds and protects nerve cells. This damage blocks or slows down messages between brain and body. The exact cause of the Multiple Sclerosis disease is unknown but it is an autoimmune disease. Some of the major problems include doubled vision, psychological, mental disturbances and not having coordination in body movements. Most of the people diagnosed with MS are between the age 20 to 50 years and it can occur in young children and significantly older adults.The unmet need of drugs for the treatment of multiple sclerosis, extensive R&D pipelines and prevalence of the disease are driving factors for the market growth of Multiple Sclerosis drug market. According to the Atlas MS, there are about 2.3 million people are with multiple sclerosis, and most of the patients are not diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and certain parts of the world due to the lacking of healthcare infrastructure and unawareness. The advancements in the biomedical science about to create a profitable opportunities for multiple sclerosis drug makers in near future. However patent expiry of the key drugs is key restraint for multiple sclerosis market, In addition strengthening of regulatory requirements and procedures also making difficulties in steady market growth.A sample of this report is available upon request @Multiple sclerosis drug market can be segmented into mode of administration, distribution channel, and drug classBased on route of administration, multiple sclerosis drugs market can be segmented into Oral ParenteralBased on distribution channel, multiple sclerosis drugs market can be segmented into Hospital Pharmacy Retail Pharmacy Online PharmacyBased on drug class, multiple sclerosis drugs market can be segmented into Disease Modifying Drugs (DMDs) Steroids OthersTo view TOC of this report is available upon request @The global multiple sclerosis drugs market is majorly influenced by increased number of patients from secondary progressive relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. The awareness in identifying multiple sclerosis disease conditions increased because of organizations such as National MS society and Multiple Sclerosis Association of America (MSAA) are actively involved in educating the people regarding associated symptoms and increasing the awareness. The presence of strong pipeline drugs such as pleneva (BTG international Ltd.), cladribine (Merck &Co., Inc) and their expected commercialization witness to boost the market share. Companies also actively involved in collaborating with other drug manufacturers for development of drugs such as ampryra (Acordda Therapeutics and Biogen Idec), laquinimod (Active Biotech and Teva Pharmaceuticals), and rebif (Merck Serono and Pfizer). These initiatives are enabling the manufactures to strengthen their product share in Multiple sclerosis drug market. In Multiple sclerosis drug market segments immunomodulators are predominantly used compared to other segments. On the arrival of the easier-to-use oral drugs, market share of the injectables has decreased.Need more information about this report @Geographically multiple sclerosis drug market segmented into following regions Viz. North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. Among these regions North America is more dominating in Multiple sclerosis drug market. Multiple sclerosis related healthcare estimated more than $10bn in U.S. In North America, U.S. dominates overall market and followed by Canada. In Europe countries like Italy, Spain, and the UK holds the major share due to increased prevalence rate of multiple sclerosis. In Asian pacific region developing countries like regions like India China have advantage for the drug makers over the developed markets due to low cost of production and high availability of talent pool. Because most of the multiple sclerosis drug are biomedical drugs and requires more investment and time for developing biological products.Key market players in multiple sclerosis drug market include Novartis AG (Switzerland), Teva Pharmaceutical industries Ltd. (Israel), Biogen, Inc. (U.S.), Merck & Co., Inc. (U.S.), Sanofi S.A. (France), Acorda Therapeuitics (U.S.), Pfizer Inc. (U.S.), Bayer AG (Germany) and Medtronic plc (Questcor Pharmaceuiticals) (U.S.) to name a few.Get 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 @
Global Human Growth Hormones Deficiency (GHD) Drugs Market Assessment to 2023

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A comprehensive study, with a prime focus on food industry has been publicized to the vast archive of Market Research Hub (MRH), which provides precise information on the human growth hormones deficiency, thus titled as 'Global Human Growth Hormones Deficiency (GHD) Drugs Market Assessment: Current Market, Pipeline Review, Clinical Trials, Market Potential - Forecast to 2023'. The report presents the market potential of four major pipeline drugs (TransCon-hGH, Somapacitan, Somavaratan, Somatrogonmeant) for the treatment of human Growth Hormone Deficiency (GHD). These four drugs that fall in the various categories of paediatrics and adults by end user have been recognized as being clinically effective in human Growth Hormone Deficiency treatment. Expected to be launched in the market within the next 4-5 years, these four potential drugs are likely to bring about major changes in the way Growth Hormone Deficiency is treated globally.Request For Sample Report-A comprehensive research report created through extensive primary research (inputs from industry experts, companies, stakeholders) and secondary research, the report aims to present the analysis of Global human Growth Hormone Deficiency (GHD) Pipeline Drugs Market by assessing the potential of the four drugs that will be launched in the near future. Also, the report assesses the results of various clinical trials undertaken for each of the four drugs, the product profile, description and regulatory phase of each of the four drugs. Also, 7Ps Analysis (Patent, Phase, Pathway, Patient, Physician, Payer, Partner) has been done for each of the four drugs to present the current perspective.The report titled Global Human Growth Hormones Deficiency (GHD) Drugs Market Assessment: Current Market, Pipeline Review, Clinical Trials, Market Potential  Forecast to 2023 also analyzes the overall sizing, growth and forecast of Growth Hormone Deficiency Drugs Market for the global market.Over the recent years, the human Growth Hormone Deficiency Drugs market is growing rapidly due to rising prevalence of patients with Growth Hormone Deficiency (GHD) around the world. Globally, the growth of human Growth Hormone Deficiency Drugs market is driven by increased penetration of drugs by market players coupled with introduction of new drugs with improved patient compliance.The global human Growth Hormone Deficiency (GHD) Pipeline Drugs Market is projected to display a robust growth during 2018  2023, chiefly driven by low efficacy and poor dosing schedules of present drugs and improved safety and efficacy of investigational drugs. The report has covered and analysed the present human Growth Hormone Deficiency (GHD) drugs in the market and has also analysed potential of four major pipeline drugs. The report intends to provide cutting-edge market intelligence and help decision makers take sound investment evaluation.Browse Full Report with TOC-Scope of the ReportGlobal MarketGlobal human Growth Hormone Deficiency (GHD) Pipeline Drugs Assessment  TransCon-hGH, Somapacitan, Somavaratan, Somatrogon (Forecast Period: 2020-2023)Market PotentialClinical TrialsProduct DescriptionRegulatory Phases7Ps AnalysisGlobal human Growth Hormone Deficiency (GHD) Pipeline Drugs Market  Sizing and GrowthActual Period: 2013-2017Forecast Period: 2018-2023Regional Analysis - Human Growth Hormone Deficiency (GHD) Pipeline Drugs Market  Sizing and Growth: North America, Europe, Rest of the WorldActual Period: 2013-2017Forecast Period: 2018-2023Country Analysis - Human Growth Hormone Deficiency (GHD) Pipeline Drugs Market  Sizing and Growth: US, UK, France, Spain, Germany, JapanActual Period: 2013-2017Forecast Period: 2018-2023Other Report HighlightsCompany Analysis  Ascendis Pharma A/S, Novo Nordisk A/S, Versartis Inc., Opko Health Inc., Pfizer Inc.Enquire about this Report-About Market Research HubMarket Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports and analysis. MRH's expansive collection of chemicals market research reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.Contact Us90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free: 800-998-4852 (US-Canada)Email: press@marketresearchhub.comWebsite:
Medical Breathable Tapes Market Global Opportunity Analysis, 20172025

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Medical breathable tape, also known as surgical tape is a pressure-sensitive adhesive tape used in first aid and medicine, commonly to hold a bandage onto a wound. Breathable tapes usually have a hypoallergenic adhesive, which is specially designed for firm holding onto skin and can be removed easily without damaging the skin. They are termed breathable as they easily allow air to reach the skin. Latex free medical grade adhesive offers a major advantage with patients suffering from sensitive and fragile skin. The breathable tapes such as Kinesiology Tape are elastic bandages with adhesives made of cotton. Surgical tapes contains zinc oxide which help in preventing infections. 3M tape made of microporous material are widely used post surgeries.Request a sample copy of this report:The common types of medical breathable tapes are:Medical Adhesive TapeAlso known as surgical tape, made with zinc oxide to reduce the risk of infection. The breathable nature allows air circulation which kills the bacteria and allows the wound to heal faster. Various materials are used for making these tapes, they include, silk, nylon, plastics, foam and paper1)Cloth Adhesive TapeThey are adhesive tapes made from cloth and offer durability and flexibility. They are used to secure ventilation tubes, intravenous lines and other devices in place.2)Pressure sensitive adhesive tapeThe pressure tape is wrapped on the wound to prevent movement and minimize friction. They are commonly available in first aids for securing bandages on the wounds. The adhesive is made of hypoallergenic material which does not leave any residue and can be painlessly removed. They are used by athletes on elbows, ankles for securing joints by giving them support.3)Waterproof tapeOwing to the hydroscopic nature of the tape, water does not penetrate the bandage and helps in preventing infection. The tape acts as insulator preventing blood from crossing the barrier, keeping the wound more sterile. They are commonly found in clinics, hospitals.4)Micro pore tapeAlso called paper tape, it is commonly used with people having sensitive and delicate skin. The elder people with thin skin are commonly treated by applying micro pore tape. The pores make the tape breathable and provides germ free environment.Innovative products offering patient safety is expected to fuel growth of the medical breathable tapes marketThe World Health Organization in 2014 stated that, 7 out of 100 hospitalized patients acquire hospital acquire infections (HAIs) due to the presence of a non-sterile environment. Growing clinical awareness, increase in incidence of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), rising awareness of medical tape related skin injuries are driving the medical breathable tapes market. Moreover, increase in adoption of medical breathable tapes for securing critical tubes and dressing, is propelling the growth of medical breathable tapes market.Access Table of Content (TOC) Of the Report:Alternative wound care products restraining the market growthAlthough the number of surgeries performed every year is increasing globally owing to increasing incidence of chronic diseases and accidents, impact of alternative wound care and closure products is expected to the restrain the market growth. Use of adhesives and sealants counters the market growth of medical breathable tapes. However, demand for medical breathable tapes is still significant in emerging economies where the penetration of newer wound care products is still lower compared to developed economies such as the U.S., Canada, Germany, France and the U.K.3M is at the forefront for adhesive innovation with a commitment to enhance patient safetyKey players operating in the medical breathable tapes market are 3M, DYNAREX, Medtronic, and Medline Industries. 3M is expected to dominate the global market with the production of innovatory adhesives like Universal Cloth Adhesive Tape to enhance patient safety. Other vendors focusing on strengthening their global presence by introducing inexpensive products include NICHIBAN, BSN Medical, McKesson, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies, DUKAL, Smith & Nephew plc.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 Scalpel Market - Comprehensive Market Study with Focus on Key Drivers and Trends

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Surgical scalpel is a small, extremely sharp bladed tool, which is used for a variety of purposes such as surgery and anatomical dissection. Scalpels may be of two types, single-use or disposable scalpel and reusable scalpel. Reusable scalpels have fixed blades that can be sharpened or may have removable single-use blades that are attached permanently. Disposable scalpels generally have a handle made of plastic with an extensible blade and only once, after which the entire instrument becomes redundant. Scalpel blades are generally packed in sterile pouches.Request a sample copy of this report:Scalpel blades are typically made of tempered and hardened steel, high carbon steel, or stainless steel. Ceramic, diamond, titanium, and obsidian knives are common. For instance, when a surgeon performs a surgery under MRI guidance, steel blades are unsuitable, as the blades may get attracted to the magnets and cause image artifacts. Traditionally, the material of choice for surgical scalpels used to be silver, because of its antimicrobial properties. Scalpel blades are offered by few manufacturers with a zirconium nitride-coated edge in order to improve sharpness and prolonged edge retention. Other vendors blades are generally polymer-coated which enhances lubricity during a cut. Some of the alternatives to scalpels in surgical applications are electrocautery and lasers, among others.Some of the market trends that are likely to fuel the growth of the surgical scalpel market are rising incidence of cardiovascular as well as neurological diseases. Moreover, rising demand for minimally invasive procedures coupled with recent technological developments in the field of surgical scalpel are some of the other factors that will drive the surgical scalpel market in the near future.Another driver that the increasing demand for surgical tools owing to increasing number of surgical procedures along with rising occurrence of various chronic diseases, as well as increasing geriatric population. Furthermore, increasing healthcare expenditure, rising demand for plastic and reconstructive surgery and growing demand for innovative surgical procedures are expected to propel the surgical scalpel market growth during the forecast period. Lack of proper reimbursement for surgical equipment, especially in the developing economies may affect the market negatively.High growth in the number of surgeries and rise in geriatric population will drive the overall surgical scalpel marketThe increasing volume of surgical procedures across the globe is likely to drive the overall growth of the surgical scalpel market during the forecast period. Surgeries are conducted to manage various diseases such as gastrointestinal diseases, cardiovascular diseases, spinal abnormalities, urological disorders, orthopedic deformities, and brain tumors. The significant growth in the number of surgeries, especially in the European countries will help in the growth of the general halogen surgical ceiling lights market in this region. For example, the amount of laparoscopic colostomy surgeries tripled in Spain and doubled in Slovenia between 2008 and 2014. Different types of surgeries performed in various ASCs or ambulatory surgical centers include hernia procedure, cervix and uterus removal, transurethral excision, lens and cataract, and hysterectomy. The increase in geriatric population as well as the growth in the number of surgeries will fuel the growth of the surgical scalpel market in the near future.Access Table of Content (TOC) Of the Report:By geography, North America held the maximum share of the market in 2016 and is likely to continue its dominance during the forecast period. The rising demand for surgery in labor patients is anticipated to propel the market growth as well. According to a report by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), around 3,984,502 child births, including caesarean and vaginal took place in 2016 in the U.S. alone.Some of the companies operating in the surgical scalpel market in the current scenario are Hill-Rom, KAI Group, Swann-Morton, Shanghai Surgical, Feather, Mani, Geister, Surgical Specialties, BD, Shinva, SteriLance, Ailee, Hu-Friedy, and Huaiyin 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:
Feed Palatability Enhancers and Modifiers Market: Global Market Estimation, Dynamics, Regional Share, Trends, Competitor Analysis 2012-2016 and Forecast 2017-2023

Feed Palatability Enhancers and Modifiers Market

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Palatability enhancers are used to disguise the smell, taste and texture of pet foods. Palatability enhancers, enhance desirability of feed and help to overcome the bitter taste of the feed additives added to the pet food. Palatability enhancers also raises the feed intake of animals. In addition this palatability enhancers increases the shelf life stability of the feed. Palatability enhancers can be used in conjunction for or sole palatine form.Growing demand for safe and healthy human food as well as mass production of meat is the major factors that are fuelling the growth of the feed palatability enhancers and modifiers market globally. Furthermore, rise in consumption of meat, consumer awareness regarding quality of meat, increased feed demand and the quality of pet food are the few other factors which are driving the market growth of feed palatability enhancers and modifiers market. The market is also facing some challenges. Some of the major restrains include rise in cost of raw materials cost and harmful effects related to ingredients which are responsible for holding back the market from reaching its actual potential.A sample of this report is available upon request @The Feed Palatability Enhancers and Modifiers Market is classified on the basis of product origin, livestock and geographical regions.Based on product, Global Feed Palatability Enhancers and Modifiers Market is segmented as Flavouring agents Sweeteners TexturantsBased on origin, Global Feed Palatability Enhancers and Modifiers Market is segmented as Natural SyntheticBased on livestock, Global Feed Palatability Enhancers and Modifiers Market is segmented as Poultry Ruminants Pets Equine OthersTo view TOC of this report is available upon request @Palatability is not only limited to the adding of flavours but also enhances the texture of the feed. Palatability enhancers plays a major role in the mold control, oxidation etc. Addition of palatability enhancers in the animal feed will have a positive effects on the health of animals and improves nutritive value which helps in the proliferation of indigenous lactic acid bacteria, that plays a vital role in activation of immunity against diseases. Ruminant livestock is the major source for the production of methane which is very harmful in agriculture sector. There are various methods available for the reduction of the methane emission in those palatable enhancers usage is the most desirable one as it reduces the major portion of methane emission which is release by the bad odour of the ruminants when it is added along with the feed of ruminants and also it helps in the desirability of feed.Need more information about this report @Geographically Feed Palatability Enhancers and Modifiers Market is segmented as Latin America, Europe, Asia- Pacific, North America, and The Middle East & Africa. Asia Pacific has the largest market for feed palatability enhancers and modifiers globally owing to the rise in animal health concerns and growing demand for animal feed. The North American feed palatability enhancers and modifiers market is growing significantly owing to growing awareness of pet owners about the quality products and regarding the chemicals used in the animal feeds. Over the past few years, feed palatability enhancers & modifiers market in European countries is experiencing stagnation due to stringent regulations in European countries.Some of the players in Feed Palatability Enhancers and Modifiers market are Ensign-Bickford Industries Inc. (U.s), British Foods PLC (London), Kemin Industries(U.S), Ferrer (Spain),Kent Feeds Inc.(U.S), Tanke International Group (China) and Kerry Group PLC(Ireland)Get 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 @
Global Saffron Extract Market 2018-Golden Spice Has Golden Health Benefits

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Market OverviewThe report begins from overview of Industry Chain structure, and describes industry environment, then analyses market size and forecast of Saffron Extract by product, region and application, in addition, this report introduces market competition situation among the vendors and company profile, besides, market price analysis and value chain features are covered in this report.Saffron is commonly used in cooking, which may lead you to believe that it's completely safe. While some preliminary studies suggest it may offer benefits, there's still a lack of large-scale clinical trials confirming these effects. Saffron has also been found to cause adverse effects, even in relatively small overall amounts, and may interact with medication.Scientific support for the health effects of saffron extract is fairly limited. However, several studies suggest that consuming saffron may provide certain benefits. Here's a look at some key findings on the benefits of saffron from the available research1) Depression2) Weight Loss and Appetite Management3) Premenstrual SyndromeRequest Sample Report @Top Market PlayersSafrante Global Company S.L.U., Evolva, Rowhani Saffron Co, Sara Nuts, Tarvand Saffron Co, Hijos de Eustaquio Abad & Co. S.L., USMS Saffron Co.Inc, Royal Saffron Company, Saharkhiz International Group Companies, Gohar Saffron, Novin Saffron Co., Azafranes Manchegos SL, Zargol SaffronSaffron is considered safe for most people when consumed in the small amounts typically used in cooking, use of saffron or saffron supplements may trigger several side effects (including dry mouth, dizziness, nausea, drowsiness, headache, uterine bleeding, low blood pressure, and reductions in red and white blood cells and platelets). What's more, taking saffron in excess amounts may be toxic and lead to vomiting, bleeding, numbness, and serotonin syndrome (a rare but potentially life-threatening condition).Market Segments Food Medical & Pharmaceuticals CosmeticsRegion Coverage (Regional Output, Demand & Forecast by Countries etc.): North America (U.S., Canada, Mexico) Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Italy, Russia, Spain etc.) Asia-Pacific (China, India, Japan, Southeast Asia etc.) South America (Brazil, Argentina etc.) Middle East & Africa (Saudi Arabia, South Africa etc.)To Know More in Detail @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
Global Dental Orthodontic Tool Market 2018 Key Players: 3M Unitek Corporation, Ormco Corporation, American Orthodontics, Dentsply International, Dental Morelli, Orthometric.

Dental Orthodontic Tool Market

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Dental Orthodontic Tool Market:WiseGuyReports.com adds Dental Orthodontic Tool Market 2017 Global Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting to 2022reports to its database.Executive SummaryGeographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Dental Orthodontic Tool in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaGlobal Dental Orthodontic Tool market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players including3M Unitek CorporationOrmco CorporationAmerican OrthodonticsDentsply InternationalDental MorelliOrthometricEurodontoAditek Do BrasilTecnident Orthodontic EquipmentForestadent BernhardOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoMetalCeramicsPlasticOthersOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate of Dental Orthodontic Tool for each application, includingHospitalClinicPrivate HealthIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Request Sample Report @Table of ContentsGlobal Dental Orthodontic Tool Market Research Report 20171 Dental Orthodontic Tool Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Dental Orthodontic Tool1.2 Dental Orthodontic Tool Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Dental Orthodontic Tool Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Dental Orthodontic Tool Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Metal1.2.4 Ceramics1.2.5 Plastic1.2.6 Others1.3 Global Dental Orthodontic Tool Segment by Application1.3.1 Dental Orthodontic Tool Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 Hospital1.3.3 Clinic1.3.4 Private Health1.4 Global Dental Orthodontic Tool Market by Region (2012-2022)1.4.1 Global Dental Orthodontic Tool Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 China Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Japan Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.7 India Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Dental Orthodontic Tool (2012-2022)1.5.1 Global Dental Orthodontic Tool Revenue Status and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5.2 Global Dental Orthodontic Tool Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2012-2022)2 Global Dental Orthodontic Tool Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Dental Orthodontic Tool Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.1 Global Dental Orthodontic Tool Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Dental Orthodontic Tool Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Dental Orthodontic Tool Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.3 Global Dental Orthodontic Tool Average Price by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.4 Manufacturers Dental Orthodontic Tool Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Dental Orthodontic Tool Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Dental Orthodontic Tool Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Dental Orthodontic Tool Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion3 Global Dental Orthodontic Tool Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)3.1 Global Dental Orthodontic Tool Capacity and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.2 Global Dental Orthodontic Tool Production and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.3 Global Dental Orthodontic Tool Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.4 Global Dental Orthodontic Tool Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.5 North America Dental Orthodontic Tool Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.6 Europe Dental Orthodontic Tool Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.7 China Dental Orthodontic Tool Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.8 Japan Dental Orthodontic Tool Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.9 Southeast Asia Dental Orthodontic Tool Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.10 India Dental Orthodontic Tool Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)4 Global Dental Orthodontic Tool Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2012-2017)4.1 Global Dental Orthodontic Tool Consumption by Region (2012-2017)4.2 North America Dental Orthodontic Tool Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.3 Europe Dental Orthodontic Tool Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.4 China Dental Orthodontic Tool Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.5 Japan Dental Orthodontic Tool Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.6 Southeast Asia Dental Orthodontic Tool Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.7 India Dental Orthodontic Tool Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)5 Global Dental Orthodontic Tool Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type5.1 Global Dental Orthodontic Tool Production and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.2 Global Dental Orthodontic Tool Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.3 Global Dental Orthodontic Tool Price by Type (2012-2017)5.4 Global Dental Orthodontic Tool Production Growth by Type (2012-2017)6 Global Dental Orthodontic Tool Market Analysis by Application6.1 Global Dental Orthodontic Tool Consumption and Market Share by Application (2012-2017)6.2 Global Dental Orthodontic Tool Consumption Growth Rate by Application (2012-2017)6.3 Market Drivers and Opportunities6.3.1 Potential Applications6.3.2 Emerging Markets/CountriesContinuousFor further information on this report, visit -Contact Us:Norah TrentContact Us: sales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US); +44 208 133 9349 (UKAbout 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:WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone :+91 841 198 5042
Hot Dogs And Sausages Market to See Incredible Growth By 2025

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Hot dogs and sausages are highly preferred across the globe due to its taste, flavors, and convenient packaging. The availability of hot dogs and sausages in different flavors such as honey, brown sugar, barbeque, Sajun, spicy, and teriyaki along with others is a major factor driving the market growth. According to the National Hot Dog and Sausages Council, on an average, people in the U.S. ate 20 billion hot dogs and spent over US$ 2.4 billion on hot dogs in the U.S. supermarkets in 2016. The sausages industry is segmented into both non-vegan and vegan categories. Companies such as Linda McCartney Foods provide vegetarian sausages, which are branded as Linda McCartneys. The vegetarian sausages are much healthier, as they are filled with 60 to 65% of high amount of soy protein along with other ingredients such as soy protein concentrates, sulfites, raising agents, and stabilizers. The casing provided in the vegetarian sausages are also edible, as they are made from collagen and other organic materials. Other factors such as rise in food truck business has fueled growth of hotdogs and sausages market, as they are easy to cook and can provide different varieties to the consumers. For instance, Mastiff Food Truck, a startup company in the U.S. provides their own variety of sausages such as protein-based sausages, fat-based sausages, and others with a variety of tastes. Owing to these factors, the hotdogs and sausages market is expected to grow at a high rate over the forecast period.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.Key Segment TrendsAccording to the National Consumer Survey (NCS), in 2017, sausages were breakfast meal for 247.93 million people in the U.S. Cocktail sausages accounted for highest revenue share in global hot dogs and sausages market, owing to its easy accessibility. Across the world, consumers are shifting from consumption of red meat to chicken due to its high cholesterol content as compared to chicken.On the basis of meat type, beef segment is expected to fuel growth of hot dogs and sausages market over the forecast period. According to the National Hot dogs and Sausages Council, in 2016, around 1 billion pounds of hot dogs were sold at retail stores in North America, out of which around 61% of hot dogs had beef content, 12% had pork, and 17% had turkey in it. Beef hot dogs are highly preferred, as they have natural casing and they are skinless, which provides a better taste, texture, and appearance.Market RestraintsAccording to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, large amount of sodium nitrate used in processed meat products such as hot dogs and sausages increases the risk of colon cancer. Other factors such as large amount of saturated fat with less amino acid molecules in sausages can cause type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Furthermore, long term consumption of sausages made from red meat are considered to be harmful, as it contains a red pigment known as haems that can cause cancer. Furthermore, the World Health Organization (WHO) has classified processed meat as carcinogenic to humans. According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), daily consumption of 50 gram of processed meat increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 18 percent.Access Table of Content (TOC) of the report:Key Market TrendsNorth America region held a dominant position in the hot dogs and sausages market in 2016. According to the National Hot dogs and Sausages Council, in 2016, around 19.4 million hot dogs were sold in this region. Furthermore, increasing consumption of hot dogs for breakfast is a major factor driving growth of hot dogs and sausages market in this region. According to NHDSC, around 89% of the people in the U.S. consume hotdogs for breakfast.Hot dogs and sausages market in Asia Pacific region is fueled by the rising preference for fast food among the younger generation in China and India, followed by Japan, Malaysia, Korea, Philippines, Thailand, and Australia. The demand for on-the-go breakfast products such as milk products, hot dogs, donuts and various others is increasing in this region, as economies in this region have large number of women going for work. According to Coherent Market Insights, the overall on-the-go breakfast market in Asia Pacific region is expected to reach US$ 372.3 Mn by 2025.Key Players in Hot Dogs and Sausages MarketThe major players in hot dogs and sausages market include Bar-S Foods Co., ConAgra Foods, Inc., Bob Evans Farms, Inc., Johnsonville Sausage, LLC, Sara Lee Food & Beverage, Family Dollar Stores, Inc., Boklunder, Atria Plc., Animex, Campofrio Food Group, Elpozo, Sigma Alimentos, JBS Argentina and Tyson Foods Inc., Fleury Michon SA, Nestle S.A, and Hormel Foods Corporation among others. Shineway Group, Venky's, and Goodman Fielder Ltd are some of the major players in the hot dogs and sausages market in Asia Pacific.Hot Dogs and Sausages Market TaxonomyOn the basis of product type, hot dogs and sausages market is segmented into:Frozen Hot Dogs and Sausages,Cocktail sausages,OthersOn the basis of meat type, hot dogs and sausages market is segmented into:Pork,Beef,Chicken,OthersOn the basis of distribution channel, hot dogs and sausages market is segmented into:Supermarket,Hypermarket,Online stores,Convenience store,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 Us:Mr.ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email:sales@coherentmarketinsights.com
Global Green Tea Leaves Market by Manufacturer Like Lipton, Bigelow, Yogi Tea, Numi and Basilur 2018 - 2025

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This report studies Green Tea Leaves 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, coveringRequest for discount atBigelowLiptonStash TeaYogi TeaNumiOrganic India24 MantraBasilurTyphooTwiningsGyokuroSenchaBanchaDragon WellPi Lo ChunMao FengXinyang MaojianAnji Green Tea LeavesOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoPrice: 0.4/GramBy Application, the market can be split intoResidential marketCommercial marketBy Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)North AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Request for free sample atTable of ContentsGlobal Green Tea Leaves Market Professional Survey Report 20181 Industry Overview of Green Tea Leaves1.1 Definition and Specifications of Green Tea Leaves1.1.1 Definition of Green Tea Leaves1.1.2 Specifications of Green Tea Leaves1.2 Classification of Green Tea Leaves1.2.1 Price: 0.4/Gram1.3 Applications of Green Tea Leaves1.3.1 Residential market1.3.2 Commercial market1.3.3 Application 31.4 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 Green Tea Leaves2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Green Tea Leaves2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Green Tea Leaves2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Green Tea Leaves3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Green Tea Leaves3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Green Tea Leaves Major Manufacturers in 20173.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Green Tea Leaves Major Manufacturers in 20173.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Green Tea Leaves Major Manufacturers in 20173.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Green Tea Leaves Major Manufacturers in 2017Browse complete report at4 Global Green Tea Leaves Overall Market Overview4.1 2013-2018E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Capacity Analysis4.2.1 2013-2018E Global Green Tea Leaves Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis4.2.2 2017 Green Tea Leaves Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)4.3 Sales Analysis4.3.1 2013-2018E Global Green Tea Leaves Sales and Growth Rate Analysis4.3.2 2017 Green Tea Leaves Sales Analysis (Company Segment)4.4 Sales Price Analysis4.4.1 2013-2018E Global Green Tea Leaves Sales Price4.4.2 2017 Green Tea Leaves Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment)Who we areResearch Trades has team of experts who works on providing exhaustive analysis pertaining to market research on a global basis. This comprehensive analysis is obtained by a thorough research and study of the ongoing trends and provides predictive data regarding the future estimations, which can be utilized by various organizations for growth purposes.We distribute customized reports that focus on meeting the clients specific requirement. Our database consists of a large collection of high-quality reports obtained using a customer-centric approaches, thus providing valuable research insights.Contact us:Email: sales@researchtrades.comCall us: +1 6269994607 (USA), +91 7507349866 (IND)Web:Skype ID: researchtradescon
Goose Creek, SC (29445)

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Areas of patchy fog early. Mostly sunny. High 86F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph..

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Mostly cloudy skies. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 67F. Winds light and variable.
Have we bridged the gender gap when it comes to household roles, domestic duties, and career choices? Not entirely  but a new survey suggests that women are leading the way in closing the gap and preparing the next generation of men and women to continue the fight.

According to the YouGov survey Women's Voices: Paving the way for future generations, women are making strides in the workplace but still tend to handle a majority of the domestic chores  even when they bring home a majority of the household income.

The survey of over 14,000 respondents in nine countries found that 22% of women who live with a partner contribute over half of the household income. Women in Hong Kong, Thailand, and Sweden were more likely to contribute more to the family coffers, while women in the U.S. and UK were more likely to have spouses as the major income contributor.

A slight majority (52%) of women who bring home at least half of the household income have greater responsibility for managing household finances (compared to 41% of all women living with a partner). However, other categories thought of as traditionally male responsibilities still follow the stereotype even when the woman makes more money.

Consider the following traditionally male tasks. Only 38% of higher-earning women handle most of the family's long-term financial planning. Just under one-third of higher-earning women make big-ticket purchasing decisions, and approximately one-quarter handle more household maintenance and/or driving chores.

Meanwhile, women continue to handle most traditional household chores  especially child care responsibilities. Only 2% of women worldwide reported that a partner had the major role in child care. 58% of women claimed the majority of child care responsibility (led by Germany's 74%), while 38% of women said the responsibility was equal between the spouses (led by Sweden's 61%).

Worldwide, women handled the majority of cooking chores (63%), cleaning and household upkeep (62%), and grocery buying (54%). All values remained above 50% even with higher-earning women.

To break the stereotypes, girls and boys must be encouraged to become more comfortable with tasks traditionally performed by the opposite sex and consider careers typically held by the opposite sex.

Both medicine and science are closer to equality.The survey found both men and women would encourage girls as well as boys to become doctors and scientists/engineers, in similar percentages. However, both men and women were more likely to encourage girls to go into the traditionally female world of teaching. Similarly, both sexes were more likely to encourage boys to go into the male-dominated IT field.

Survey data shows that across the globe, women are more likely to challenge the stereotypes and encourage boys to consider careers such as teachers, nannies, nurses, and homemakers while encouraging girls to consider careers as police officers, firefighters, entrepreneurs, and video game developers.

It's important to break gender stereotypes as early as possible  and this survey shows that while progress is slow, women are more determined than men to break these stereotypes. It's less of a switching of roles than it is a quest to consider all opportunities and find the situation that's right for you, regardless of your gender.

It appears that in the breaking of stereotypes, just as in the typical household, women are doing most of the work. Come on, men of the world! Do your part for equality and give your children and grandchildren the widest possible array of life opportunities.

Raising your credit score is a good way to manage your money, as it can reduce borrowing costs. You can check your credit score and read your credit report for free within minutes using Credit Manager by MoneyTips.

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The Dow Chemical Co. on Monday announced the selection of Spence Brothers as the Construction Manager collaborating with Shaheen Development to deliver a world-class Innovation Center for Dow, following a formal bidding process.

Together they form a group with unmatched capabilities to exceed Dow expectations, the company stated. The Great Lakes Bay Region is the home to both companies, and they have a strong commitment to working with local suppliers and subcontractors.

Construction of the Innovation Center was announced in July 2017. The Center is designed to drive innovation at the intersections of silicone science and organic chemistry at the heritage Dow Corning corporate campus in Auburn. The new facility will host about 200 research and development employees.

This state-of-the-art Innovation Center will be a hub for bringing together the best thinking and best science and technology to deploy against some of the worlds greatest challenges, said Andrew N. Liveris, chairman and chief executive officer of Dow. The center will become pivotal in propelling the future Dow forward as the worlds leading materials science company. We are proud to continue Dows more-than-120-year tradition of innovation in the Great Lakes Bay Region begun by our founder, Herbert H. Dow.

The Spence Brothers Team has also been selected as the construction manager for renovating an existing building located at the Auburn site in Williams Township and creating a 28,000-square foot expansion that will host Dows Product Safety Laboratory, currently located at Michigan Operations.

It brings the total combined investment to $121 million and is another example of Dows motivation for long-term growth and creating local business opportunities. Construction is anticipated to begin in the third quarter of 2018. The construction phase will support more than 180 Michigan-based jobs over one-and-a-half years. Employees are expected to start moving into the new Innovation Center and Product Safety Laboratory by the end of 2019.

The construction manager, Spence Brothers, has been based in Saginaw since 1893.

We are so grateful that Dow has selected Spence Brothers and our local project partner, Shaheen Development, to help them with this significant investment in the future growth and success of their company and our community, said Herbert A. Spence III, president and CEO of Spence Brothers Construction. We believe that our local construction management team will also be best suited to involve the most subcontractors and suppliers from the area, multiplying the benefit to our regions economy during the project.

Shaheen Development brings a client-focused delivery model from design concept to project completion.

Shaheen Development is pleased to be selected to partner in the development of the Dow Innovation Center here in the Great Lakes Bay Region  a project that demonstrates Dows commitment to contributing to the Great Lakes Bay Regions economy, said Dr. Samuel Shaheen, president and CEO of Shaheen Development. By teaming up with Spence Brothers, the region's preeminent construction manager, the project team will have exceptional capacity and experience. The team will develop a cost-effective and world-class project, while maintaining a local employment base and with a commitment to local contractors and suppliers.

Dow has several other building and renovation projects ongoing in the Great Lakes Bay Region, including the renovation of the Stoesser Center and the construction of a Visitors Center at its Corporate Headquarters campus in Midland, announced in 2017.

Between inflight projects and investments made over the last 10 years, Dow and development partners will have built or renovated more than $500 million in laboratory and office projects in the Great Lakes Bay Region, which will have supported more than 870 Michigan-based jobs and 1,160 jobs in other parts of North America.
The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriff's Office and the Midland Police Department. Compiled by reporter Kelly Dame.

Sunday, April 22

12:15 a.m. -- A Lee Township man, 42, was arrested for drunken driving after a crash in Homer Township.

3:36 a.m. -- A deputy was sent to an Edenville Township neighborhood for a report of a suspicious vehicle, and arrested a 24-year-old man for a probation violation and a warrant.

3:08 p.m. -- A driver reevaluation form is being sent to the state after a single-vehicle crash in Jerome Township.

5:51 p.m. -- Gasoline, valued at $34.19, was stolen from a Greendale Township gas station.

8:16 p.m. -- A tree fell across a Lee Township roadway. A deputy assisted firefighters with removing the tree.

10:28 p.m. -- A 39-year-old woman was arrested in Larkin Township for domestic assault and a conditional bond violation.

Saturday, April 21

12:28 p.m. -- A Midland man, 30, was arrested in Homer Township for driving while license suspended and drunken driving.

1:49 a.m. -- A deputy assisted Midland Police with a fight at a downtown bar.

2:24 a.m. -- A motorist was arrested at U.S. 10 and Saginaw Road for drunken driving.

1:11 p.m. -- Firewood was stolen from a Jerome Township location. Extra patrols were requested.

4:39 p.m. -- A deputy conducted a well-being check on a 13-year-old girl in the Village of Sanford. The girl was fine.

5:59 p.m. -- A deputy was sent to a Lee Township home for a report of children throwing wood chips at other children at a local park. No one was hurt. The parents were contacted.

7:35 p.m. -- A deputy was called to the emergency room for a report of a 44-year-old man who had a warrant. The man was arrested.

9:11 p.m. -- A deputy was sent to Lee Township to check a report of loud explosions.

10:45 p.m. -- A deputy checked Lee and Jerome townships for a report of an intoxicated driver. The driver was not intoxicated.

Friday, April 20

12:03 a.m. -- Police investigated a hit and run crash in the 1500 block of West Carpenter Street.

1:48 a.m. -- A motorist was arrested at U.S. 10 and Saginaw Road for drunken driving.

4:52 a.m. -- Police were sent to a parking violation in the 3000 block of Spruce Street.

12:24 p.m. -- A motorist was arrested at South Saginaw Road and Mark Putnam Drive for driving while license suspended.

6:04 p.m. -- A Midland man, 44, was arrested in Illinois on a felony neglect warrant.

7:59 p.m. -- Police were called to a retail fraud in the 900 block of Joe Mann Boulevard.

10:05 p.m. -- A Lee Township resident reported possible ghosts in his home. He was given information on a Bay City paranormal activity association.
Earlier this week, a Saudi-led airstrike in northern Yemen killed 20 people at a wedding party, including the bride. According to local medical officials, most of them were women and children. Another 45 people, including the groom, were injured, many of them ravaged with shrapnel, some missing limbs. Its the latest in a long list of Saudi attacks on civilians in the Yemen civil war, some of the worst being airstrikes on schools, markets, and even a funeral. These all appear to be war crimes, and the United States is complicit.

The war in Yemen is almost beyond understanding, from a humanitarian perspective as well as a geopolitical one. Heres a simple breakdown of what the U.S. says its doing, versus what its actually doing:

What we say: Were going after al Qaeda!

What we do: Were backing Saudi Arabia in a proxy war against Iran!

In this war, Saudi Arabia has intentionally targeted and killed hundreds if not thousands of Yemeni civilians. Knowing this, weve sold the Saudis well over $100 billion in arms and weapons systems that they use to kill those civilians. Trump announced last year we were doubling that amount.

Yemen is by all measures a catastrophe, and it could soon dwarf the humanitarian disaster in Syria. First off, the U.N. estimates at least 10,000 people have been killed in the Yemen civil war, though given the chaos that number is almost certainly low. To get a better idea of the situation there, though, look past the casualties: So far three million Yemenis have been displaced by the war; 17 million people, or about 60% of the population, are food insecure; and seven million people (nearly one in five) are in immediate danger of dying of starvation or thirst. Theres no medical aid available in most of the country because the infrastructure has been bombed or blockaded. Theres no functioning government. None. And todaythat is, right this very momentYemen faces the risk of a famine exponentially larger than any weve seen in recent memory. According to Mark Lowcock, head of the UNs humanitarian mission:

It will not be like the famine that we saw in South Sudan earlier in the year, where tens of thousands of people were affected. It will not be like the famine which cost 250,000 people their lives in Somalia in 2011. It will be the largest famine the world has seen in many decades, with millions of victims.

And even though we here in the U.S. hear next to nothing about Yemen in the news, weve been bombing the place for over a decade. Last year the U.S. military under Trumps orders carried out two ground raids in Yemen, killing dozens of civilians, including women, children, and babies.

These are war crimes.

This all raises three urgent questions I hope to address here:

1. Why are we in Yemen?

2. Why are we helping the Saudis commit war crimes?

3. Why arent we doing anything about it?

The war in Yemen is pretty much impossible to fully understand. Dozens of different rebel groups and terrorist groups and state groups and proxy groups and shadow groups and proxy shadow groups, all with ever-shifting alliances, are engaged in a years-long civil war. This conflict has broadened into a proxy war between Saudi Arabia, which backs the Yemeni government, and Iran, which backs the Houthi rebels. Somewhere in the mix, however, is a group called al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQIP), which is why the U.S. has been bombing the country for over a decade now. We do this under the marginally legal aegis of the Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF), which allows the President of the United States to target al Qaeda affiliates anywhere. Its how we justify our presence in Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Afghanistan, etc.

Obama over the years carried out dozens of airstrikes in Yemen, most of them secret. The first of these, in 2009, was supposed to target al Qaeda but instead hit a tribe. According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBI), the strike killed 55 people. Twelve of them were women, twenty-one were children, and ten were under five years old. Five of the women were pregnant.

Overall, according to TBI, Obamas strikes in Yemen killed a total of somewhere between 750 and 1075 people. Of those, between 120 and 160 were civilians. In 2016, however, the Obama administration reconsidered its operations in Yemen. Perhaps as a result, strikes that year killed a reported zero civilians.

Then about a year ago Trump ordered the first U.S. ground raid in Yemen in years. (Obama was presented with the opportunity but deferred to the incoming Trump administration.) The raid reportedly resulted in the deaths of somewhere around 40 people: 23 civilians (NBC estimated nine of them were under the age of 13, including a four-month-old); 14-16 al Qaeda militants; and a U.S. Navy SEAL, Chief Petty Officer William Ryan Owens. The White House repeatedly called this raid a success by any measure.

But where does Saudi Arabia come in? And at what cost?

So yeah, were supposedly going after al Qaeda in Yemen, but were also getting help from Saudi Arabia in exchange for weapons sales and tacit support of its messy proxy war against Iran. The Saudis are really dropping the ball there, though, because distracted by their ongoing campaign against the Iranian-backed Houthis, theyve allowed al Qaeda to quadruple in size.

In exchange, weve sold the Saudis well over $100 billion in weapons systems.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute lists us as the worlds number one arms exporter, with Saudi Arabia our number one customer. The Department of Defenses Security Cooperation Agency, the agency that handles arms sales, says that in 2015 we sold $1.29 billion in arms to Saudi Arabia. This included nearly 2,800 precision guided bombs. The U.S. military also refuels Saudi aircraft during strikes and provides targeting assistance on bombing runs.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia in its gratitude has been using our largesse to intentionally bomb Yemeni civilians. Theyve struck hospitals, schools, small villages, and other obvious civilian targets. Those attacks have used bombs with U.S. markings, including from Raytheon. One time the Saudi air force dropped some of its U.S.-made bombs on thousands of people at a funeral, killing 140 people and wounding over 500 more. Human Rights Watch has accused, backed by hard evidence and common sense, the Saudis of intentionally targeting civilians. The U.N. has leveled the same accusations.

These are obviously war crimes, and the U.S. is complicit. An international war crimes tribunal ruled in 2013, with the endorsement of the U.S., that in order to aid and abet a war crime, someone must offer support that has a substantial effect on the crime, and the person must be aware that this support has a substantial likelihood of aiding that crime.

And so eventually, following a particularly heinous Saudi attack in September 2016 that killed about 31 civilians near a well, the Obama administration condemned Saudi military operations in Yemen. Saudi Arabia bombed the funeral the next month. Shortly thereafter Obama stopped all weapons shipments to Saudi Arabia. This isnt a partisan issue, either: Senator Ted Lieu, a Democrat and former military lawyer, warned the Obama administration following those two 2016 attacks that members of our military could be prosecuted for war crimes.

Anyway, by the time Obama called off the sales, hed sold the Saudis about $115 billion in weapons systems. So why were we supplying them in the first place? Simple: Saudi Arabia didnt like the Iran deal. It made them uneasy, so we showed them our support by arming them in their proxy war against Iran.

Its all very much insane, and innocent people, including kids, are being sacrificed on the United Statess watch to geopolitical power moves.

Delayed and cynical as Obama was, he at least acted on this. But that didnt stop the attacks.

In late March of 2017, two months before Trump announced his deal, the Saudi coalition (they work with the UAE, among others) used what was almost certainly American-supplied aircraft (an Apache helicopter) to attack a boat carrying 140 Somali refugees. More than 40 people were killed. Not only do we provide the coalition with helicopters (the Houthi rebels dont have helicopters), we also refuel their aircraft and provide them with parts and maintenance. In other words, without direct support from the United States, the Saudis couldnt carry out these war crimes.

At the time, the non-profit Human Rights Watch had documented what were 81 apparently unlawful Saudi-backed attacks, two dozen of which used U.S. weapons.

Unbearably shameful. Even by U.S. government standards. And indeed, following this attack the top human rights officer in the Obama administration said theres a possibility of legal jeopardy for US officials if sales continue despite continuing evidence of violations of the laws of war.

And so it was that after the March 2017 attack, on the heels of the botched ground raid in Yemen, a bipartisan group of Senators introduced a bill to limit weapons sales to Saudi Arabia.

The bill also required the Trump administration to ensure Saudi Arabia was behaving and not blowing childrens bodies apart. Most importantly, it required the White House to tell Congress whether the Saudis were using U.S. weapons in these attacks.

One month later, Trump says were selling $110 billion in arms to Saudi Arabia.

This one deal matches Obamas spending over eight years. The Trump-Saudi deal as announced was worth $110 billion, and it included Raytheon bombs and our THAAD missile defense system. Trump also approved the weapons deal Obama suspended in December 2016. We will be sure to help our Saudi friends to get a good deal from our great American defense companies, the greatest anywhere in the world, Trump said to Arab and Muslim leaders on his trip to Riyadh last May.

This is all so obvious and sick that even Congress hasnt been able to ignore it. First youve got the U.S. condemning Saudi Arabia to the U.N. in September 2016. Then Senator Lieus letter to Obama a month later. Then Obama freezing an arms deal. Then the April congressional resolution to limit arms sales. Then, following Trumps deal, which when you read the details was mostly more Trumpian bullshittery, a bipartisan group of 47 U.S. Senators voted to block part of the weapons deal.

Trumps deal, of course, in the face of all of this odious stuff, still ended up passing.

And youll never guess what happened next!

In August a Saudi-led coalition airstrike killed 16 civilians, including seven children. The U.S. had made and supplied at least some of the bombs. The only survivor was a five-year-old girl, Buthaina Muhammad Mansour, who inspired a short-lived social media movement.

So then in November, Congress tries again. They introduced a resolution that said unambiguously the United States was aiding Saudi Arabias war crimes in Yemen. The resolution passed with an overwhelming 336-30 vote in support. The resolution, of course, was non-binding, so nothing happened.

Youll never guess what happens next!

Yesterday a Saudi-led airstrike in northern Yemen killed 20 people at a wedding party, including the bride! Most of the dead were women and children! Another 45 people, including the groom, were injured, many of them ravaged with shrapnel, some missing limbs!

First of all, things are thorny with the Saudis and the Iran deal. Trump loves the Saudis, or wants to be seen as loving them, and mostly because of business deals and the like. He registered eight companies in Saudi Arabia during his campaign. Coincidentally, the Saudis like our weapons, and coincidentally, both groups hate Iran and the nuclear deal.

In the end, its all about Iran. Our perceived need to check Iran is worth supporting war crimes that blow up weddings and funerals and the bodies of women and children.

But are we legally liable here? We might get off on a technicality that weve created.

It sounds insane, but because the United States has refused to join the International Criminal Court, citing constitutional reasons among other things, the ICC cant prosecute us. Ha ha! Whats more, it seems no country or group really has standing to prosecute us, aside from possibly the United Nations. Thats because the official government of Yemen, the one Saudi Arabia supports that got overthrown in 2015, is in favor of Saudi Arabias intervention.

Also worth noting, the seven countries that voted against the ICC treaty are China, Iraq, Israel, Libya, Qatar, the United States, and yes, Yemen.

That said, we might be able to act domestically. The Congressional bill from last November implies what should seem obvious by now: Our backing of the Saudis in Yemen is unconstitutional. The bill explicitly acknowledges that our government is assisting the Saudi refueling [and airstrike targeting] and acknowledges that such activity is unauthorized. And why would it be unauthorized?

The war the Saudis are fighting in Yemen isnt against al Qaeda. In fact, the Saudis military action has ironically allowed al Qaeda to flourish. If were to be honest about this war, its Saudi Arabia and the deposed Yemeni government against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels. The AUMF doesnt cover any of that. It covers U.S. actions such as the disastrous coalition raid last January, but it does not cover things such as providing active military support (refueling; targeting; knowingly selling weapons used in war crimes) to a separate sovereign country fighting another sovereign country.

The war in Yemen has helped create what the United Nations has labeled the worst humanitarian disaster since World War II. Weve helped create that war. Were already guilty of war crimes, American weapons will kill more kids, and eventually Yemen will starve. Then that place will indeed be invisible, and we wont have to learn about any of this awful stuff.
Though it isnt the equal of WDs Black NVMe in sustained writing, the 970 EVO nonetheless provides the same performance the other 99 percent of the time. A much better deal than its 970 Pro sibling, though the latter is still top dog performance-wise.

Samsungs EVO series has owned the title of fastest TLC-based M.2 NVMe SSD since there has been such a thing. But unfortunately for the company, that distinction went the way of the dodo with the release of the WDs game-changing Black NVMe earlier this month.

Samsungs response? The brand new 970 EVO. However, its a case of darn close, but no cigarthe Samsung 970 EVO outperforms the WD in several tests, but falls short in sustained write performance with larger amounts of data. That said, the shortfall is liable to affect few users.

Note: This review is part of our best SSDs roundup. Go there for details about competing products and how we tested them.

Specifications, price and warranty

The Samsung 970 EVO is your standard M.2, 2280 (22 millimeters wide, 80 mm long), NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) PCIe x4 solid state drive. That x4 means it can utilize four PCIe lanes for roughly 4GBps of available bandwidth, assuming a PCIe 3.0 connection.

The drive uses Samsungs 64-layer TLC (Triple-Level Cell/3-bit) NAND and is available in $110/250GB, $200/500GB, $400/1TB, and $800/2TB capacities. In terms of both price and capacity, that puts it in direct competition the aforementioned WD Black NVMe.

You may see Samsung refer to its TLC NAND as 3-bit MLC. MLC stands for Multi-Level Cell, so by the letter of the language, they are correct. However, the acronym MLC is generally reserved for the faster-writing 2-bit NAND to which it was first applied. Long story shortthe 970 EVOs NAND is what is commonly referred to as TLC.

Semantics aside, to overcome TLCs write-performance handicap (writing three bits simply takes longer than writing one or two), the Samsung 970 EVO treats some of the TLC as SLC (Single-Level Cell/1-bit) by writing only single bit. This creates a much faster cache as shown in the chart below.

Samsung Huge thanks to Samsung for this chart which shows exactly the amount of cache available for sustained writes, as well as what the speeds drop to when off cache.

Kudos to Samsung for providing the information above. Most companies wont talk about the amount of NAND cache they employ in their TLC drives, even though it becomes readily apparent during testing. Note that TurboWrite is the Samsungs name for intelligently adjusting the NAND cache size for the amount and type of data being written.

The Samsung 970 EVO also features DRAM cache to accelerate performance: 512MB on the 250GB and 500GB drives, 1GB on the 1TB drive, and 2GB on the 2TB drive.

Samsung The front and back of the 970 EVO without the label.

The 970 EVO is backed by a 5-year limited warranty and rated for 150 TBW (TeraBytes Written) per 250GB of capacity.

Performance

Im no Carnac the Magnificent, but it wasnt that hard to predict the 970 EVOs performance after testing the Samsung 970 Pro. The 500GB EVO we tested performed on par with the 970 Pro and WD Black NVMe, and a little faster on one or two testsright up until the time that it had to write a very large amount of data. Sustained write performance halved at about the 22GB mark of our 48GB large file copy test when the DRAM and NAND caches were exhausted. You can view the phenomenon below.

IDG Though most users will write this amount of data rarely, if ever, it can be disconcerting to see the

Reading the following charts, youll notice that Samsungs pricier 970 Pro (dark blue) is clearly that fastest M.2 NVMe SSD available to consumers. But between the cheaper 970 EVO and the WD Black NVMe, its pretty much a toss-up until the 48GB copy tests, where the WD Black proved unquestionably the faster sustained writer of the two.

IDG CDM6 preferred the WD Black NVMe to the 970 EVO on just about every test. Both fell shy of the 970 Pro

CrystalDiskMark 6, which highlights small file performance with various queue and thread depths, thought more highly of the WD Black NVMe (shown in gold in the above chart). AS SSD 2.0 (below) on the other hand, liked the Samsung 970 EVO (violet) better when it came to small writes. Go figure.

IDG Samsung

It was on our copy tests where differences between the Samsung 970 EVO and the WD Black became readily apparent. Still, this will only affect you on those rare occasions (for most users) when you copy large amounts of data, such as a game directory or a folder of virtual machines. If you go for one the 1TB or 2TB capacities, youre unlikely to run into the sustained write performance decline at all. Samsungs TurboWrite chart above will tell you exactly at what point the operation will fall out of the cache.

IDG The 500GB 970 EVO we tested ran out of cache, and steam for copying around the 20GB mark and its time suffered as a result.

Conclusion

This is a tough call thats mostly dictated on the performance differences at each capacity. In the 250GB and 500GB capacities, the WD Black NVMe has a slight edge for performance overall.

At 1TB and 2TB, where the Samsung 970 EVOs larger cache greatly reduces the chances of being overrun, its mostly a draw. That means your buying decision should mostly come down to which drive has the lower price when youre shopping. PCWorlds guide to the best SSDs has all the information you need to know about buying a new drive, including recommendations for top drives.

(Note: Weve updated our pricing to reflect street pricing rather than MSRP).
Petoskey competes for four quarters with TC West, comes up just short
Since joining YouTube in 2008, the edits of Austrian trial and mountain bike star Fabio Wibmer have accumulated over 125 million views. As just recently the number of his subscribers closed in on the mark of 1 million, it was clear to Fabio that he wanted to do something big to celebrate this milestone. The result is Fabiolous Escape 2.Refusing to let the snow of the Austrian winter keep him off his bike, Fabio heads to Saalbach Hinterglemm to enjoy a great day in the mountains. Unfortunately, the ski police has other ideas. Attempting to outrun  or rather out-ride - the police, Fabio makes use of everything the Austrian ski resort has to offer. No gap too large to hit, no roof too high to drop, this highly entertaining police chase has to be seen to be believed.Shot amongst the stunning scenery of Austrias Saalbach Hinterglemm over the length of 24 days, turning his crazy vision into reality was certainly Fabios biggest project to date.Keep up with Fabios activities and his newest videos:Photo credit: Hannes Berger / @hannesberger_com
Like a mighty oak that draws in kids and grandkids with sweeping branches and a rope swing, John Prine towers in a homespun sort of way. Maybe its his voice, a gnarly, world-weary thing that automatically conveys gravitas. Or his face, which shows 71 years of observations, experiences and life lessons.

That mug is starkly out front on the cover of The Tree of Forgiveness, Prines first record of fresh work since 2005s Fair and Square. His jowls, wide forehead and wispy grey hairs are surrounded by a pitch dark background and a simple black button-up shirt. Its a purposeful and intentional image for an album thats undoubtedly focused on mortality.

When I get to Heaven / Im gonna shake Gods hand, Prine sings on When I Get to Heaven. Thank Him for more blessings / Than one man can stand. In true John Prine fashion, this track balances an eventual reckoning with death with plenty of folksy whimsy. In his version of the afterlife, hes gonna smoke a cigarette / Thats nine miles long and start up a venue called The Tree of Forgiveness  a place where Prine will forgive everybody / Ever done me harm.

Signposts of mortality continue to pop up: The Tree of Forgiveness is dedicated to Max Barry, the late son of Megan Barry, the former mayor of Nashville, Prines town. And his co-write with the legendary and notorious producer Phil Spector weaves in lines from a childs prayer, including this bit: If I should die before I wake / I pray the Lord my Soul to take.

For balance, however, theres lots of the simple, joyful wordsmithing that has been Prines bread and butter for nearly half a century. Take, for instance, the delightful Egg & Daughter Nite, Lincoln Nebraska, 1967 (Crazy Bone). On this playful number  which could have easily fit into any of Prines first few albums in the 1970s  this master sings of Thursday, When the farmers come to town / And they spread them eggs around / And they drop their daughters down / At the roller rink. Part simple American small-town observational insight and part surreal wordplay, it is Prine in a prime light.

Star producer Dave Cobb deserves major credit for The Tree of Forgiveness: he converts Prines raw talent and authenticity into something that stacks up with the better Americana or AAA releases of this decade. It does not hurt that current genre stars Jason Isbell, Amanda Shires and Brandi Carlile appear on the album to provide vocal and instrumental support.

The melodies are plentiful and infectious. Starting with album lead Knockin on Your Screen Door and continuing throughout, The Tree of Forgiveness is full of lines and hooks that nestle in the head. With strains of both seriousness and goofy charm, this Prine album demands repeated spins: it makes you reflect and grin, often at the same time.
Kickstarter is the not-so-secret ingredient in much of this centurys wave of silent film restorations. Here is a sterling new example of what happens when individuals take it upon themselves to salvage forgotten movies.

As Eric Grayson explains in an extra on Little Orphant Annie, a rare 35mm copy of this 1918 feature was rotting away. Through a Kickstarter campaign, he collaborated with the Library of Congress to combine and digitally restore the best moments of the 35mm print with several lesser 16mm prints and one fuzzy video print. In his fascinating commentary, he points out every transition between prints while discussing what he had to do to stabilize or reframe the image and provide its proper tinting.

Does the film deserve all the attention? Now that we can finally get the best look at it that weve been able to have since the silent era, we can say yes, its a charming oddity with many remarkable effects and moments of style.

The source is James Whitcomb Rileys poem, now largely overlooked but known to just about all literate Americans when the film was made, basically as a poem for children. It combines spookery with sentimental Victorian moralism and didacticism whose intention is to scare straight any recalcitrant little ones who dont mind their manners and their elders.

Little Orphant Annies come to our house to stay begins the poem, seemingly narrated by one or more of the children. Annie is a servant who delights in telling tales of spooks and spirits, always ending with the refrain An the Gobble-unsll git you ef you Dont Watch Out! The goblins snatch away a little boy who wouldnt say his prayers, and then a sassy little girl who mocked em an shocked em, an said she didnt care!

Thus, the poem brings to heel any pernicious little atheists or disrespectful (female) upstarts who dont know their place. The innate conservatism of the poems warning is conveyed through a lascivious delight in the evil, the chaotic, the supernaturally rambunctious. Didactic works, especially those aimed at children, frequently exhibit this paradoxical tension between the conservative and subversive. For that matter, so do morally didactic works aimed at adults. When the titular Jezebel rides proudly to her fate in the last five minutes of that 1938 Bette Davis film, its only after audiences have vicariously enjoyed her scandalous behavior for two hours, and even her punishment is taken on her own willful terms.

Getting back to the poem, this much-anthologized bit of Americana from Indianas Hoosier poet was once so much a part of the cultural landscape that it inspired both the Raggedy Ann dolls (created by fellow Indiana author Johnny Gruelle) and the Little Orphan Annie comic strip, which continues to thrive in pop culture in musical form.

Annie was inspired by a real-life servant named Mary Alice Smith, whom Riley had known as a boy. She was still alive when this film was made. She also inspired a tragic short story, Where Is Mary Alice Smith? in which the servant loves to tell gruesome tales until she dies of a broken heart when her boyfriend is killed in the Civil War. Elements of both sources are thrown together by screenwriter Gilson Willetts, along with new melodrama, in order to expand the short title poem into a five-reel feature.

The movie begins with footage of Riley himself, filmed in 1916 shortly before he died and surrounded by children whom hes supposedly regaling with the films story. The Selig Polyscope Company shot this footage and recycled it in the first two of itsplanned cycle of Riley projects to star newcomer Colleen Moore. The first of these, A Hoosier Romance, is unfortunately lost. Little Orphant Annie, the second and last of the series before Selig went belly up, has only been available in a cluttered jumble of decaying and mis-edited prints for decades.

In one of the films several new inventions borrowed from elsewhere in the cultural minefields, Annies story opens in a shabby urban tenement, populated by drunks and women of uncertain virtue, where her linen-scrubbing mom suddenly drops dead in front of the crying child. Movie-goers of 1918 had heard about these tenements from other movies, or from muckrakers of the era, or perhaps from living in them. Annie is promptly dispatched to an orphanage, much nicer than Oliver Twists, until she comes of age and must leave. This still leaves her somewhere in her teens and now played by Moore.

(IMDB)

Moore would become one of the most famous stars of the 20s, playing flappers and other such modern phenomena of the wicked world, but here in the late 10s, shes still in Mary Pickford territory and very effectively so. Only in her teens herself, shes very natural and believable, especially in closeup. Her eyes were of different colors and seemingly of different sizes. You can detect this in certain shots if you look carefully, and it enhances Annies forlorn and otherworldly qualities.

At first, Annie is stuck with an uncle and aunt worse than Simon Legree. They spend all their time limping and slouching and hitting her and throwing her fluffy cat. Annie quickly moves to another family with more kids than the Von Trapps, or so it seems, and there settles until her sweetheart (Tom Santschi) goes off to WWI in the gloomy final reel. The movie still has a few narrative tricks in store.

The storys main attraction is Annies fantasy world, conveyed through elaborate in-camera superimpositions as she constantly imagines gnomes and fairy queens and goblins with big papier-mache heads dropping by. She imagines these things to herself or recounts them to the kids. Thus, her uncle and aunt make recurring appearances as a potato-headed goblin and a witch, and her sweetie-pie sometimes converts to an armored knight.

Even through the wear and tear on these multiple prints, Charles Stumars photographic prowess recommends itself. As the commentators justly remark, its more than the dazzling effects work or a couple of gratuitously beautiful tracking shots. He often moves the camera in subtle ways that werent very common in this nailed-down era. The Hungarian-born Stumar had a busy career until he died at age 44 in 1935, shortly after shooting The Werewolf of London and The Raven.

Hes clearly given a free hand and inspiration by prolific director Colin Campbell, whos credited on Wikipedia with 177 films from 1911 to 1922. The Scots-born Campbell is one of the eras remarkable journeyman eclipsed by memory and nitrate decay. He shoots much of the film on real locations, and it always looks expansive and outdoorsy. Even the slum scenes and the uncles farmhouse are rather capacious. He grasps how to block scenes of up to a dozen busy characters with clarity, and he keeps things moving through many moods and changes of scene.

Grayson undertook this restoration and 2K scanning as part of the Riley Centennial in 2016. Ben Model, who operates his own Kickstarter restorations, provides a good piano score idiomatic of the era. The restoration commentary by Grayson and Riley scholar Glory-June Greiff is informative and engaging, while the commentary by Moore biographer Jeff Codori is more desultory. In an extra, Greiff performs the poem and an excerpt from the short story. Their commitment to this little corner of Americas literary and cinematic culture is admirable, and this DVD/Blu-ray combo with an extensive booklet of liner notes makes a happy souvenir of their efforts.
Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Areas of patchy fog early. Mainly sunny to start, then a few afternoon clouds. High around 85F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low around 70F. Winds light and variable.
PR-Inside.com: 2018-04-24 16:02:03

CHARLOTTE, N.C., April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Barings, one of the world's leading financial services firms, announced today that it served as the sole agent and lead arranger on first lien senior credit facilities to support Liberty Hall Capital Partners' refinancing of the existing debt of its portfolio company, AIM Aerospace.

AIM Aerospace, based in Renton, Washington, is a leading designer and producer of advanced composite structures, systems, engine components and thermoplastic technology for the global aerospace industry. The company supplies thermoset and thermoplastic composite solutions to Tier 1 aero-structure and aero-equipment suppliers and to aircraft original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

"Liberty Hall appreciates the partner-like approach that Barings brought to support our investment in AIM Aerospace," said Rowan Taylor, Liberty Hall's founding Partner. "Barings' creativity in structuring, ability to move quickly and speak for the entire facility helped expedite the process and provide a solution to support AIM's future growth."

"Barings is grateful for the opportunity to partner with the team at Liberty Hall to meet the capital needs of AIM Aerospace," said Jessica Lee, a managing director at Barings. "The growth prospects for AIM are exciting given the Company's strong position as a key supplier, longstanding relationships with the aircraft industry's leading OEMs and the expertise Liberty Hall can offer based on more than a decade of investing in businesses serving the global aerospace and defense industry."

About Liberty Hall Capital Partners

Liberty Hall Capital Partners is a private equity firm focused exclusively on investments in businesses serving the global aerospace and defense industry. Liberty Hall's principals have a 25-plus year history of working together and have led the investment of $2.5 billion in equity capital in businesses serving multiple segments of the aerospace and defense industry and complementary industrial end markets. Liberty Hall develops actionable investment strategies for attractive segments of the aerospace and defense industry and then partners with entrepreneurs and management teams to acquire leading businesses serving these segments and, together with them, develops sound, long-term strategic plans to build these businesses through a combination of strategic investments and strategic acquisitions. For more information, please visit http://www.libertyhallcapital.com/.

About AIM Aerospace Corporation

AIM Aerospace Corporation is a leading designer and producer of advanced composite structures, systems, engine components and thermoplastic technology for the global aerospace industry based in greater Seattle, Washington, with four manufacturing facilities located in greater Seattle and Orange City, Iowa, and a research and technology center located in Poway, California. AIM is currently executing a strategic plan to build its business through strategic investments in further capabilities, customers and platforms. For more information, please visit http://aim-aerospace.com.

About Barings

Barings is a $305+ billion* global financial services firm dedicated to meeting the evolving investment and capital needs of our clients. We build lasting partnerships that leverage our distinctive expertise across traditional and alternative asset classes to deliver innovative solutions and exceptional service. Part of MassMutual, Barings maintains a strong global presence with over 1,800 professionals and offices in 16 countries. Learn more at www.barings.com.

*As of March 31, 2018

Contact:

Brian Whelan, Barings, 704.805.7244, brian.whelan@barings.com

18-472150

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: Barings via Globenewswire


PR-Inside.com: 2018-04-24 09:05:26

FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for 360 Blockchain Inc.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCWire) - 360 Blockchain Inc. (CSE:CODE). has issued a press release with the following headline:360 Blockchain Portfolio Company Pressland Names Award-Winning GrandArmy as Agency-of-RecordTo 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 360 Blockchain 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/360 Blockchain Inc.Source: 360 Blockchain Inc. (CSE: CODE, OTC Bulletin Board: BKLLF, FWB: C5B, WKN: A2JSTL, ISIN: CA88557T1084)Date: April 24, 2018Time: 3:05 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of 360 Blockchain Inc. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2018 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
PR-Inside.com: 2018-04-24 00:01:01

Customer solutions for Automotive Engineering, Smart Home, Green Life and Future Connectivity on display at Celanese booth

Celanese to Demonstrate the Art of Material Selection at Chinaplas 2018, Asias Largest Plastics Trade Show

Celanese

Investor Relations:

Surabhi Varshney, +1 972-443-3078

surabhi.varshney@celanese.com

or

Media Relations  Global:

W. Travis Jacobsen, +1 972-443-3750

william.jacobsen@celanese.com

or

Media Relations Asia (Shanghai):

Helen Zhang, +86 21 3861 9279

lan.zhang@celanese.com

or

Media Relations Europe (Germany):

Jens Kurth, +49(0)69 45009 1574

j.kurth@celanese.com

Celanese Corporation (NYSE: CE), a global technology and specialty materials company, will showcase its broad engineered materials product portfolio at Chinaplas 2018, Asias largest plastics trade fair, held in Shanghai April 24-27 at the National Exhibition and Convention Center.

With more than 50 years of technical and manufacturing expertise, Celanese is a trusted development partner and first-choice solution source globally, with one of the worlds broadest thermoplastics portfolios on the market, said Mark Oberle, senior vice president, Europe and Asia. Expanding through recent acquisitions and polymer innovations, Celanese has further strengthened its leadership position in the engineered materials market to become a global elastomers and nylon compounding provider as well.

At Chinaplas, Celanese will present four new polymer innovations at its stand in Hall 7.2 Booth #D35 to further demonstrate the Art of Material Selection. The four new polymer innovations will include:

Low-Emission Hostaform XLE POM: offers more than 100 times reduction in formaldehyde emissions over standard POM (acetal copolymer) and allows parts suppliers and original equipment manufacturers to meet strict formaldehyde-emission guidelines, such as GB/T 27630, for automotive interior components.

offers more than 100 times reduction in formaldehyde emissions over standard POM (acetal copolymer) and allows parts suppliers and original equipment manufacturers to meet strict formaldehyde-emission guidelines, such as GB/T 27630, for automotive interior components. Low-Odor Celstran XLE LFRT: provides superior odor and VOC emission performance and allows for the use of long-fiber enhanced thermoplastics in large automotive parts without significantly increasing overall odor or VOC levels of vehicle interiors.

provides superior odor and VOC emission performance and allows for the use of long-fiber enhanced thermoplastics in large automotive parts without significantly increasing overall odor or VOC levels of vehicle interiors. Celapex ultra high flow PEEK: addresses injection molding processing issues typically associated with PEEK. The Celanese solution enables molding of thin wall, intricate parts and long flow length components at lower injection pressure and lower melt temperature and enhances part making productivity at lower conversion cost as well as simplifies mold design.

addresses injection molding processing issues typically associated with PEEK. The Celanese solution enables molding of thin wall, intricate parts and long flow length components at lower injection pressure and lower melt temperature and enhances part making productivity at lower conversion cost as well as simplifies mold design. Zenite SEA Series: improves high-end compact camera modules in portable devices with less particle, good dimensional stability and mechanical properties enabling thin wall design, molding consistency and productivity.

While at Chinaplas, Celanese will provide customers with insight into its solution-centric customer approach with the main focus at the booth on the Celanese Innovation Station which highlights three key areas: Innovative Polymers, Innovative Solutions and Innovative Services. Key customer themes will include Automotive Engineering, Enabling Electrification, Structural Lightweighting, Low Emissions, Appearance Harmony, Future Connectivity, Smart Home, and Green Life.

As customer needs diversify, Celanese is well positioned within China -- as well as the greater Asia region -- to meet the demanding technical requirements of consumer and industrial customers, said Kevin Wu, vice president and managing director, Greater China and Korea. The need for our customers to rapidly develop products for their customer base is ever increasing; and thats why partnering with Celanese can provide a competitive advantage when bringing new and innovative products and applications to market.

For more information, visit the Celanese Chinaplas stand in Hall 7.2 Booth #D35 or go to https://celanese.com/Tradeshows/2018/chinaplas-201.

About Celanese

Celanese Corporation is a global technology leader in the production of differentiated chemistry solutions and specialty materials used in most major industries and consumer applications. Our businesses use the full breadth of Celanese's global chemistry, technology and commercial expertise to create value for our customers, employees, shareholders and the corporation. As we partner with our customers to solve their most critical business needs, we strive to make a positive impact on our communities and the world through The Celanese Foundation. Based in Dallas, Celanese employs approximately 7,700 employees worldwide and had 2017 net sales of $6.1 billion. For more information about Celanese Corporation and its product offerings, visit www.celanese.com or our blog at www.celaneseblog.com.

All registered trademarks are owned by Celanese International Corporation or its affiliates.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180423006
PR-Inside.com: 2018-04-24 08:32:29

Marine lights from Bright Light are available for use on boats, jet skis, docks, or in swimming pools. The 12 Watt Linear LED Underwater light has IP68 protection and is available in cool white or blue light, with either white and black finishes. It is designed to be used in submerged applications only. This linear LED is also available in 7 Watt. Bright Light also stocks the round version in 6 Watt.These underwater lights add drama, attract and illuminate marine life. They also make outdoor areas around pools and boats safe. With long LED bulb life, these lights provide constant output regardless of voltage fluctuations, ensuring long life and better protection. The products have been tested to ensure maximum resistance to corrosion. Bright Light marine products are brighter and powerful. Care should be taken while mounting and using them. They should be mounted by a professional and wired by an appropriate technician. All mounting and cable holes must be sealed by using a professional neutral care silicone adhesive, to protect the installed surface.Bright Light has been supplying LED light fittings and power supplies for residential and commercial facilities, hospitality, marine and architectural lighting industries. All Bright Light products have undergone strict quality checks, including local testing, to ensure they comply with Australasian safety regulations and come with warranties. The company provides warranty and returns information on the website.Experts in LED lights Bright Light Australia is a top wholesale supplier of LED light fittings and power supplies. They can advise their customers on how to choose the best product that will create the right atmosphere for their environment. Their online store sells a range of LED ribbon lights and LED controllers aimed at homes, shop fitters, signage suppliers, cabinet makers and contractors.Bright Light has started the online shop aimed at the signage supply market, cabinet makers and shop fitters, promotional companies and electrical contractors. Bright Lights lighting technicians discuss and provide expert advise on which LED colour temperature will provide the best result for the project. They can also help customers find the perfect solution for any lighting need.Their toll-free number is 1800 793 185. For more information on colour changing led strip, ribbon strip, LED supplies Australia, LED controller and more: https://www.brightlightled.com.au/
PR-Inside.com: 2018-04-24 02:34:19

Start-ups to Showcase Innovation and CreativityHONG KONG, Apr 20, 2018 - (ACN Newswire) - The 33rd HKTDC Hong Kong Houseware Fair and the ninth HKTDC Hong Kong International Home Textiles and Furnishings Fair opened today and continues through 23 April at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC). The four-day fairs are bringing together more than 2,600 exhibitors from 26 countries and regions to showcase the latest housewares, home textiles and furnishing products.Houseware Fair's "L.I.F.E." theme reveals latest design trends --As the largest trade fair of its kind in Asia, the Hong Kong Houseware Fair welcomes 2,300 exhibitors from 25 countries and regions, including new participants from Russia and Pakistan. In view of last year's encouraging response, the fair's main theme continues to be "L.I.F.E." which stands for its four major themed zones: Lifestyle, Interior, Feast and Enrich.To highlight these themes, the HKTDC collaborates with NellyRodi, a well-known Paris-based trend-forecasting agency, to present four corresponding trend concept displays, namely "Colonial Chic", "Vital Vibe", "Magnetic Mix" and "Super Solarium." The displays showcase a wide array of products of various colours, materials, shapes and moods handpicked from various exhibitors to bring inspiration to buyers. Representatives from NellyRodi also unveiled the houseware and home textiles trends for summer 2019 at a trend seminar held this afternoon.Highlight zones of the Houseware Fair this year include the Hall of Elegance, World of Fine Dining and World of Fine Decor, which come under the "Lifestyle" theme. "Feast" features the Coffee Alley, while the Startup Zone and World of Building & Hardware are highlighted under the "Enrich" theme. The HKTDC has organised 129 buying missions comprising around 7,000 buyers to visit the two fairs, creating further opportunities for the industries.Startup zone at Houseware Fair --The HKTDC fully supports startups, providing a business platform for them to connect with global buyers and potential investors through trade fairs and business matching services. The Startup zone returns this year, featuring 24 start-ups from Hong Kong, the Chinese mainland, Taiwan, as well as a newcomer from Bangladesh. Interesting exhibits include the mini electric gym bike Bicit, from Hong Kong exhibitor Maxcare (5D-A21), which is equipped with a dedicated game app allowing users to compete with friends online.Herb&Fish CONNECT, a trendy household aquaponics decoration incorporating smart technology that enables users to control its LED light and monitor the water temperature through a mobile app, comes from Taiwanese designer brand Arky Design (5D-A14), which has developed a range of smart products with support from crowdfunding."Entrepreneurs may lack funding, information and connections when starting their business. They also need support in brand positioning and promotion," said Benjamin Chau, HKTDC Deputy Executive Director. "We are organising a number of 'Startup, Smart Launch' sessions to enable start-ups to obtain advice from experts on their business ideas." Local and international brands showcase new designsHong Kong has long been known for its concentration of creative talent as well as agencies that source innovative designs from around the world. Innovative exhibits from Hong Kong exhibitors include: Chopping Boarding Kitchen Scale: a chopping board with stainless steel kitchen scale, allowing users to measure volume of water or food portions (3G-D08); Bowling Vacuum Wine Pump: a bowling pin-shaped wine pump equipped with a vacuum indicator (1E-A17).Interesting exhibits from international brands include: Carl Schmidt Sohn (Germany) - Aron cookware set: a winner of the Reddot, iF and Frankfurt Ambiente Solutions awards, the set comes with a lid that can hold utensil as well as flexi handles that secure the glass lid in place when straining (1E-B17); Korean Electronic Bidet: various cleansing modes including auto cleansing, bidet cleansing and child cleansing, with stronger water pressure and comfortable bubble washing (5E-D23); Honeycomb Rack (Taiwan): a patented product made with HIPS, a shock-absorbent material, and equipped with an iron wine rack (3C-E34).Home Textiles Fair creates additional opportunities --Held concurrently with the Houseware Fair, the Hong Kong International Home Textiles and Furnishings Fair has drawn more than 300 exhibitors from nine countries and regions, with new exhibitors from Pakistan. Nantong city of the mainland's Jiangsu province, dubbed "the Hometown of Textiles", as well as a number of Indian export associations are returning with dedicated pavilions.In line with the Houseware Fair, the Home Textiles and Furnishings Fair adopts the "Interior" theme and showcases a variety of home textiles, upholstery and furnishing products. Highlight zones include the Hall of Glamour spotlighting quality brands and designer collections, Baby & Bedroom Textiles, Bathroom & Kitchen Textiles, and Upholstery & Furnishing.Interesting products include the ALMAC 3D curtain featuring an unusual, origami-inspired 3D visual design from Hong Kong exhibitor Kangjia Group Co., Ltd (Booth: 3B-D07). Indian exhibitor Fibre World (Booth: 3B-D09) showcases a handmade Coco Rubber Mould Mat that uses coconut fibre, making the item highly durable with long-lasting colour.Market insight and intelligence --The HKTDC is staging a series of events during the fair period to help industry players keep abreast of the latest opportunities in the houseware and home textiles markets. A seminar will feature renowned trend forecaster WGSN predicting lifestyle trends, while other seminars cover a range of topics including the latest technological and market developments in the building industry, as well as testing, certification and inspection services for houseware products.Other activities include the "International Kitchenette" cooking demonstrations by chefs using the latest kitchenware, and the "Latte Art Performance" with professional baristas making coffee for fair participants. A number of Product Demo & Launch Pad sessions cover such products as housewares, pet supplies, home textiles, building and hardware products. Buyer forums will examine opportunities in the Australian, Brazilian, Turkish, Burmese and Indian markets.Enhanced services to facilitate buyers' sourcing --The HKTDC's e-Badge initiative, which was well-received when it was launched last November, will gradually be introduced to most of the trade fairs this year, including the Houseware Fair and the Home Textiles and Furnishings Fair.
PR-Inside.com: 2018-04-24 00:58:01

SHELTON, CT (April 23, 2018) - Hubbell Incorporated (NYSE: HUBB) will webcast its Annual Meeting of Shareholders to begin at 9:00 AM ET on Tuesday May 1, 2018.

The live audio of the event will be available and can be accessed by visiting Hubbell's corporate website under the Events and Presentations section. You can also access this information by going to www.hubbell.com and selecting "Investors" from the options at the bottom of the page and then "Events/Presentations" from the drop-down menu. The audio will be archived 24 hours after the event by going to www.hubbell.com and selecting "Investors" from the options at the bottom of the page and then "Events/Presentations" from the drop-down menu, then selecting "Past Events".

Hubbell Incorporated is an international manufacturer of quality electrical and electronic products for a broad range of non-residential and residential construction, industrial and utility applications. With 2017 revenues of $3.7 billion, Hubbell Incorporated operates manufacturing facilities in the United States and around the world. The corporate headquarters is located in Shelton, CT.

######

Contact:

Steve BeersHubbell Incorporated40 Waterview DriveP.O Box 1000Shelton, CT 06484(475) 882-4000





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: Hubbell Inc. via Globenewswire


PR-Inside.com: 2018-04-24 17:02:02

TORONTO, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Inspiration Mining Corporation (CSE:ISM) (the "Corporation") is pleased to announce that its ongoing negotiations with Compassion Cannabis Corp ("Compassion") and the related due diligence is going very well and ahead of the targeted date. The Corporation has commenced discussions pertaining to the terms and conditions of a proposed share exchange agreement and the resulting structure of the Corporation's board of directors.

Compassion is a private Ontario company which has expertise to forward various facets of the explosive new market of the marijuana industry, including but not limited to the "Vape" market and dispensary centers for the industry. The Corporation believes that this is an extremely lucrative space with tremendous demand in the medical cannabis industry.

The cannabis market is growing exponentially every day with new and exciting innovations in the industry. Compassion has narrowed down its possible research and development locations to Portugal, U.K., or Switzerland. The upcoming legalization of cannabis in Canada has almost become a reality, and is expected to do so in the upcoming months.

Compassion is contemplating applying for a multi-jurisdictional license to give the company the opportunity to exploit its future endeavours. The Corporation is quite confident that with the expertise it has around it, that it will be successful in its application.

For further information, please contact Randy Miller, Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation, at 416.842.9000, www.inspirationmining.com

The CSE has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This press release contains forward-looking statements based on assumptions, uncertainties and management's best estimates of future events. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated. Investors are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements are detailed from time to time in the Corporation's periodic reports filed with the Ontario Securities Commission and other regulatory authorities. The Corporation has no intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
PR-Inside.com: 2018-04-24 15:07:01

LatAm travel brands look to the data science company to improve customer experience and increase revenue

Intent Media Continues Its Growth in Latin America by Adding 10 New Advertising and Publishing Partners

for Intent Media

Laurel Getz, 203-767-5963

laurel.getz@actual.agency

Intent Media, the data science company for the worlds leading online travel companies, today announced its continued expansion across Latin America by adding more than 10 new advertising and publishing partners in the first three months of the year.

Intent Media connects travel brands around the globe to millions of ready-to-buy shoppers. Using advanced search marketing disciplines and its patented machine learning platform, the company intelligently serves comparison shopping ads to users who are still comparison shopping. These utility-like media placements help the user do what theyre already doing - comparison shopping - with a UX tailored specifically to their search in real-time.

Our partnership allows us to offer an improved customer experience through greater choice and easier comparison shopping, while helping us improve our overall site monetization, said Thomas Allier, co-founder/CEO at Viajala.

Intent Media's solutions create a win-win-win situation for users, advertisers and publishers. Users get an intuitive comparison shopping experience, advertisers get efficient access to highly relevant, in-market shoppers, and publishers provide better experiences for those segments of their users still in comparison shopping mode.

We continue to see growing enthusiasm for our platform across Latin America from both publishers and advertisers looking to better serve users, and increase revenue and margin, said Richard Harris, CEO and co-founder of Intent Media. We are eager to partner with these brands who range from Latin Americas premier metasearch and OTA sites to growing airline carriers as we continue to invest and expand our offerings throughout the region."

Intent Media currently has over 400 partners globally, including Priceline, Expedia, TripAdvisor, Hotels.com, Wotif, LATAM Airlines, Viajala, Skyscanner, Hotwire, ebookers, lastminute.com, Delta, AA, Lufthansa, Marriott, IGH, and Enterprise. In addition to Latin America, Intent Media's fastest growing markets include EMEA, North America and India.

About Intent Media

Intent Media is the data science company for the worlds largest online travel companies. Intent Medias proprietary products combine machine learning, media, conversion and data solutions to offer user-level customization that provides a better experience for travel shoppers and new revenue streams for Intent's partners. The company processes over 10TB of real-time data every month to help thousands of performance marketers at airlines, hotels, online travel agencies, and metasearch companies intelligently serve travel shoppers every day.

Intent Medias 400 publisher and advertiser network includes Priceline, Expedia, TripAdvisor, Hotels.com, Wotif, Skyscanner, Hotwire, ebookers, lastminute.com, Delta, AA, Lufthansa, Marriott, and Enterprise.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180424005
PR-Inside.com: 2018-04-24 15:43:29

FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Jadestone Energy Inc.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Singapore (FSCWire) - Jadestone Energy Inc. (TSX Venture:JSE). has issued a press release with the following headline:Jadestone Audited Results for 9M to Dec 2017To 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 Jadestone Energy 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/Jadestone Energy Inc.Source: Jadestone Energy Inc. (TSX Venture: JSE, ISIN: CA46989Q1000, WKN: A2DHZ1)Date: April 24, 2018Time: 9:38 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Jadestone Energy Inc. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2018 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
PR-Inside.com: 2018-04-24 16:29:23

FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Jadestone Energy Inc.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Singapore (FSCWire) - Jadestone Energy Inc. (TSX Venture:JSE). has issued a press release with the following headline:Jadestone MD and A for 9M Audited Results to Dec 2017To 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 Jadestone Energy 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/Jadestone Energy Inc.Source: Jadestone Energy Inc. (TSX Venture: JSE, ISIN: CA46989Q1000, WKN: A2DHZ1)Date: April 24, 2018Time: 10:26 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Jadestone Energy Inc. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2018 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
PR-Inside.com: 2018-04-24 10:03:02

SAN FRANCISCO, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Meltwater, a pioneer of media intelligence and now Outside Insight, today announced its acquisition of Sysomos, a leader in social analytics and engagement. The addition of Sysomos to Meltwater enables organizations to analyze social media, news and other human-generated content in one platform, furthering Meltwater's mission to give businesses the insights from outside data, helping them stay ahead.

"All the social analytics companies look at social data in isolation, limiting the insights for brands and businesses," says Jorn Lyseggen, founder and CEO of Meltwater. "With our acquisition of Sysomos, we can bring together news and social media under one company, giving social data context while adding social engagement to our news and media monitoring offering."

For the PR and communications teams who engage with influencers over social media, Meltwater's existing Media Intelligence division will now offer integrated news monitoring and social engagement. Under Meltwater, Sysomos will become the Social Analytics division with a focus on delivering timely and relevant insights to brands and marketing teams. Both divisions support Meltwater's mission to give businesses insights from external data.

"By joining the Meltwater team, our clients benefit from the leadership and global scale of one of the world's first SaaS companies," says Peter Heffring, the former Sysomos CEO who will run Meltwater's Social Analytics division. "In order to enhance the search and analytics experience in the Sysomos Platform, we will leverage the AI models and information extracted from the unstructured web by Meltwater. This will give our clients the context needed to collect more meaningful insights across their earned and owned social channels."

Following the acquisition of DataSift last month, the Sysomos acquisition cements Meltwater as the market leader of both Social Analytics and Media Intelligence. "It's not enough to simply give clients raw data or shallow analytics - businesses need relevant insights. Between our combined data partnerships, Sysomos' social analytics and Meltwater's AI models, we can combine social and news data to extract game-changing insights for both of our clients," says Niklas de Besche, Executive Director of Product at Meltwater. "At the same time, with Sysomos under the Meltwater brand, we can offer our clients greater integration between social engagement and media monitoring."

The Sysomos acquisition is Meltwater's seventh in the last 18 months.

About Meltwater

Meltwater, a pioneer of media intelligence and now Outside Insight, gives businesses the information advantage they need to stay ahead. More than 26,000 companies have used Meltwater's media intelligence to stay on top of billions of online conversations and extract relevant insights to strategically manage their brands. With nearly 20 years of experience analyzing data, Meltwater is dedicated to personal, global service built on the local expertise of 55 offices across six continents. Meltwater is also committed to fostering the data science ecosystem through MEST, a pan-African entrepreneurial program and incubator, and Shack15, a global data science community. Learn more at Meltwater.com.

About Sysomos

Sysomos is the global leader in social marketing and analytics empowering brands and agencies to turn data-driven insights into actionable customer engagement opportunities. Our unified, insights-driven social platform gives marketers the easiest way to Search, Discover, Listen, Publish, Engage and Analyze at scale across earned, owned and paid media. Sysomos serves more than 1,200 customers including 80% of the world's top agencies and global brands. Learn more at Sysomos.com.

Media contact:

Julia Thornton

Product Communications, Meltwater

julia.thornton@meltwater.com

+1.510.593.3604
PR-Inside.com: 2018-04-24 10:04:02

NEW YORK, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Competition in electronic trading is becoming fierce as global trade execution teams re-position themselves for delivering their solutions at scale in a post MiFID II regulatory environment.

J.P. Morgan continues to dominate claiming first place in electronic trading, for a second consecutive year, according to Institutional Investor's All-Europe Trading Team survey.

Meanwhile Bank of America Merrill Lynch took home second place, up two spots from fourth place last year; a significant move for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, which bumped its peers Credit Suisse in third place and UBS in fourth place to win the No. 2 position. The two-rung move is a marked shift away from its previous high-touch leadership and is an endorsement that the bank's investments in technology are resonating with clients.

In high-touch trading, UBS leapt to No. 1 swapping its fifth place position last year with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, who took fifth in the high-touch rankings this year. Unchanged from last year was J.P. Morgan in second place and Morgan Stanley in third place. Goldman Sachs, meanwhile, moved into fourth position pushing Citi out of the top five leading firms for high-touch trading.

In unique market color across Europe, the buy-side awarded Morgan Stanley first place, UBS second, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch into third as the top content providers for trading European companies.

"This year's results showed an interesting shakeup of the established order in Europe that is underscoring the tremendous recovery of US banks versus their European counter-parts," said Howard Tang, Product Director at II Research. "Through this nearly decade old bull market, US banks have been winning clients with their electronic offerings where most flow is gravitating to. It's an exciting development particularly as volatility has creeped back into the market."

The 2018 All-Europe Trading Team report reflects the opinions of more than 230 heads of trading, traders, and portfolio managers, who interact directly with the sell-side at 203 institutions. Collectively these institutions managed nearly $1 trillion in European equities and paid over $800 million in commissions to trade execution providers.

Details for electronic, high-touch, portfolio trading as well as unique market color rankings are available for All-Europe, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Nordics, Switzerland, and several other developed countries.

The complete results can be found at www.institutionalinvestor.com/research

For more information contact Howard Tang, Product Director, II Research, at howard.tang@institutionalinvestor.com.

To share your winning position in the 2018 All-Europe Trading Team ranking in your website content, advertisements, communications, marketing collateral, and more, please contact PARS International Corp. at www.ii-licensing.com .

About Institutional Investor

For 51 years Institutional Investor has consistently distinguished itself among the world's foremost media companies with groundbreaking journalism and incisive writing that provides essential intelligence for a global audience. In addition, Institutional Investor offers highly-respected proprietary benchmark research and rankings on buy-side and sell-side research, hedge funds, corporates, fixed income and asset management. For more information visit institutionalinvestor.com.

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: Institutional Investor News via Globenewswire


PR-Inside.com: 2018-04-24 06:15:25

FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Parana Copper Corporation--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCWire) - Parana Copper Corporation (CSE:COPR). has issued a press release with the following headline:Parana Copper Corp Provides an Update on Redfund Capital Corp ProjectsTo 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 Parana Copper Corporation, or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/Parana Copper CorporationSource: Parana Copper Corporation (CSE: COPR, OTC Pink: PNNRF, FWB: O3X4, WKN: A2H9VY, ISIN: CA6993552026)Date: April 24, 2018Time: 12:15 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Parana Copper Corporation and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2018 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
PR-Inside.com: 2018-04-24 10:01:01

Study finds the average cost of an insider-related incident over a 12-month period is $8.76 million

Research from Ponemon Institute and ObserveIT Reveals Insider Threat Incidents Increasing in Frequency and Cost

ObserveIT Media Contact:

Hannah Curtis, 617-502-4350

ObserveIT@pancomm.com

ObserveIT, the leading insider threat management provider with more than 1,700 customers around the world, today released a study, commissioned with Ponemon Institute, that uncovered the direct and indirect costs associated with insider threats.

Insider threats continue to threaten organizations across the globe, ultimately resulting in loss of mission critical data, downtime and lost productivity, and even reputational damage, said ObserveIT CEO Mike McKee. Understanding the growing costs and time associated with preventing and managing insider threats, organizations need to invest in a holistic cybersecurity solution to assist with real-time detection, deterrence, education and prevention.

Key findings include:

Since 2016, the average number of incidents involving employee or contractor negligence has increased by 26%, and by 53% for criminal and malicious insiders. The average number of credential theft incidents has more than doubled over the past two years.

The majority of respondents (64%) cited that the negligent insider is the root of most incidents.

Credential risk is the costliest type of insider incident at an average of $648,745 per event.

Large organizations with a headcount of more than 75,000 spent an average of $20 million over the past year to resolve insider-related incidents while smaller organizations with a headcount below 500 spent an average of $1.8 million.

Asia-Pacific and European and Middle Eastern (EMEA) companies had lower annualized costs to contain insider-related incidents at $5.88 and $7.04 million, respectively, compared to North American companies.

To read the full study, 2018 Cost of Insider Threats: Global Organizations, visit here.

About ObserveIT

ObserveIT is the leading Insider Threat Management solution with more than 1,700 customers across 87 countries. ObserveIT is the only solution that empowers security teams to detect insider threats, streamline the investigation process, and prevent data exfiltration. With 300+ out-of-the-box insider threat indicators of compromise, rich metadata and outstanding search capability and playback of any policy violation, ObserveIT provides comprehensive visibility into what people  contractors, privileged users and high-risk users  are doing, and reduces investigation time from days to minutes. For more information visit: www.observeit.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180424005
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Actress Tonto Dikeh has blasted musician and blogger, Tunde Ednut, for shading Nina Onyenobi a.k.a Nina, one of five finalists of the just concluded BBNaija Double Wahalareality show.

The actress commented on a blurry video of the ex-housemate that Tunde Ednut posted on his Instagram page.

He captioned the post, Nina, stop using android.

Tonto Dikeh commented some minutes later with her handle,@tontolet and she said, Tunde, you have been a celebrity longer than I can remember, so you can afford a phone.

Send her one, she needs it. We are waiting since you are the first to notice it.

Other fans of Nina applauded Dikeh for giving him the well-deserved reply.

@anuoluwapelumi said, Tontolet, God bless you for that reply.

@therealmandy05 said, Mama, thank you for this. This guy is just uncouth but hell meet his match someday #peace.

@adeolaoyerinde said, Youre the best, the reply was just perfect.

@zarabee said, Please leave Nina, what is wrong with using an android phone.

Nina and four other finalists are currently on media tour since returning to Nigeria.

Other finalists, Cee-C, Alex, Tobi and Miracle.

(NAN)
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Former Malawi President, Joyce Banda, will return home on Saturday after spending more than three years in self-imposed exile because of graft allegations, a spokesman for her political party, has said.

Cashgate, a corruption scandal in which senior government officials siphoned millions of dollars from state coffers, was uncovered in 2013, while she was president.

Donor countries cut off aid, hampered development in Malawi, one of the worlds poorest and most aid-dependent

countries.

Ms Banda, Malawis first female president, lost elections to Peter Mutharika a year later.

Facing allegations of abuse of office and money laundering, which she denied, she left the country, and

has not been back since.

I can confirm that as a party we have received communication from the office of the former president that

she arrives back in Malawi on Saturday to stay, said a Peoples Party deputy spokesman, Ackson Kaliyile.

In July 2017, police issued an arrest warrant against Ms Banda, saying her alleged offences were part of Cashgate.

In January, the Anti-Corruption Bureau said it had no solid evidence against her, partly clearing her of wrongdoing.

Police have not publicly said whether charges had been dropped.

A police spokesman said the police would make no comment on the matter until she was back in the country.

A former justice minister and attorney-general were convicted over Cashgate, along with a number of former

high-ranking government officials and business people.

Ms Banda has been living in the U.S., serving as a distinguished fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Centre and the Centre

for Global Development in Washington DC.

(Reuters/NAN)
An Egyptian military court on Tuesday sentenced the countrys former anti-corruption chief, Hisham Geneina, to five years imprisonment for allegedly insulting the state and military.

Mr Genena was arrested in February following incendiary comments he made in a television interview in which he claimed that the former chief-of-staff Sami Annan was in possession of documents incriminating the countrys leadership.

He said the documents were kept abroad.

A day before Mr Genenas arrest, the military said it would take action to safeguard its honor and dignity.

Mr Annan himself was arrested in January shortly after he announced his intention to challenge President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sissi in the March presidential election.

He was accused of incitement against the military and forgery.

Mr Al-Sissi ran virtually unopposed, winning the March 26 to March 28 election with 97 per cent of the vote.

Defence lawyer, Hossam Lotfy said the verdict against Mr Genena would be appealed before a higher military tribunal.

Another defence lawyer, Ali Taha, confirmed the verdict in a Facebook posting.

The arrest of both Messrs Genena and Annan were part of a pre-election crackdown that removed potentially serious challengers from the race.

A former prime minister and air force general, Ahmed Shafiq, quit the race just days after he announced his intention to run.

He was the target of an intense defamation campaign in the pro-government media, whose stalwarts hurled unsubstantiated corruption and personal misconduct accusations against him.

Other potentially candidates were intimidated out of the race.

Mr Genena, who was to be one of Mr Annans two top campaign aides, led Egypts watchdog agency until Mr Al-Sissi fired him in 2016.

On January 27, Mr Genena was assaulted by three men near his home, sustaining serious eye and knee injuries.

He later told The Associated Press in an interview that he suspected the attack was related to an appeal he planned to file the same day, contesting the removal of Mr Annans name from the list of presidential hopefuls.

Authorities said at the time that he was injured in a brawl following a car accident he was involved in.

(dpa/NAN)

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U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday described North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as very open and very honourable, saying Pyongyang was keen on a meeting very soon.

Mr Trump, speaking during a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House, said: Were going to be having a meeting with Kim  that will be very soon.

We have been told directly that they would like to have the meeting very soon. We think thats a great thing for the world.

On Friday, Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae In will conduct an historic summit in the border village of Panmunjom, only the third-ever such meeting.

Trump has previously mentioned late May or early June as a possible date for his talks with Kim.

The White House confirmed recently CIA Director Mike Pompeo, that Trumps pick for secretary of state, secretly visited Pyongyang and met the North Korean dictator.

Kim really has been very open and I think very honourable from everything were seeing, Trump said.

He called the sanctions imposed on North Korea the toughest weve ever imposed on any country, and warned that Washington would walk away from the table if the discussions were not productive.

Maybe it will be wonderful, maybe it wont, I think we have a chance of doing something special with respect to North Korea, Trump said of the likely meeting.

(dpa/NAN)
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In commemoration of the 2018 World Malaria Day, health advocates have called on governments, health bodies, private sector companies and members of the public to renew their focus on eliminating malaria by 2030.

This call is coming against the backdrop of a global rise in malaria cases for the first time in ten years, since the beginning of the campaign against the disease through the World Malaria Day celebrated every April 25 since 2008. The theme for this year is Were Ready to Beat Malaria- Are you?

Malaria is one of the world oldest and deadliest diseases in human history. In 2016, over 216 million people around the world had malaria, which is five million more than the year before. Malaria related death stood at 445,000, with 91 percent of these in Africa

Half the world is still at risk from malaria, a preventable, treatable disease, which still kills a child every two minutes. Some countries also saw an increase of over 20 percent in malaria cases between 2015 and 2016.

Unfortunately, 15 countries carried the heaviest malaria burden in 2016, together accounting for 80 percent of all global malaria cases and deaths.

Currently, Nigeria is the highest-burden country, accounting for 27 percent of global malaria cases and the overall financial gap over the next three years to implement national malaria strategy is US$ 1.4 billion.

In a press statement it made available to PREMIUM TIMES on Tuesday, RBM Partnership to End Malaria called on governments and health partners across the globe to accelerate progress against malaria.

This years World Malaria Day comes on the heels of two major malaria events  the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, where UK Prime Minister Theresa May and other Commonwealth leaders made a commitment to halve malaria burden across 53 member countries by 2023 in response to the London Malaria Summit.

In addition, the Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) conference in Dakar brought together scientists and researchers from across Africa to share the latest innovations in the fight against the disease.

The RBM Partnership to End Malaria is the largest global platform for coordinated action against malaria. Originally established as Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership in 1998, it mobilises for action and resources and forges consensus among partners.

The Partnership comprised more than 500 partners, including malaria endemic countries, their bilateral and multilateral development partners, the private sector, nongovernmental and community-based organisations, foundations, and research and academic institutions.

Kesete Admasu, CEO of the RBM Partnership to End Malaria, said the disease is on a rise again after a decade of success in pushing it back.

Malaria is on the rise again and will come back with a vengeance if we do not act decisively now. Half the world is still threatened by malaria, an entirely preventable, treatable disease which takes a childs life every two minutes.

Worldwide action is needed to meet the 2030 target of reducing malaria cases by at least 90 percent. We are delighted that more countries than ever, forty-four, are reporting less than 10,000 cases, however we must ensure we continue to press forward to end malaria  not only in high-burden nations but also those on track to eliminate the disease. It is our global responsibility to consign malaria to the history books, he added

According to Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director-General World Health Organization, the World Malaria Day reminds us of the challenges that remain.

The declining trend in malaria cases and deaths has stalled and vital funding for malaria programmes has flat lined. If we continue along this path, we will lose the gains for which we have fought so hard.

We call on countries and the global health community to close the critical gaps in the malaria response. Together we must ensure that no one is left behind in accessing lifesaving services to prevent, diagnose and treat malaria., he said
The ambitions of two leaders of Nigerias ruling party, APC, have caused a split among state chairpersons of the party.

The current National Chairman of the APC, John Odigie-Oyegun, and a former Edo State governor, Adams Oshiomhole, both seek to emerge the national chairman of the party at its forthcoming convention.

While Mr Odigie-Oyegun seeks to retain his position, Mr Oshiomhole, who is believed to enjoy the support of ex-Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu, wants to lead the party for the first time.

Both challengers are from Edo State, South-south Nigeria, the region the chairmanship is believed to have been zoned.

A major indication of the split in support for both contenders emerged on Monday after a meeting of APC chairpersons from the South-south.

At the end of the meeting, four state chairpersons of the party held a press conference, alleging they were ambushed to support Mr Oshiomhole.

The video of the press conference was sent to PREMIUM TIMES by the national leadership of the APC hours after a statement claimed the APC chairpersons had endorsed Mr Oshiomhole.

The South-south state chairpersons said they were ambushed with Mr Oshiomholes adoption agenda at the meeting insisting that Mr Odigie-Oyegun be given a right of first refusal to seek re-election for the position.

The state chairmen that opposed Mr Oshiomholes endorsement are the Rivers State chairman; Davies Ikanya; Bayelsa State chairman; Joseph Fafi; Cross River State chairman, Etim John; and the Akwa Ibom State APC chairman, Amadu Attai; as well as the APC Deputy National Secretary, Victor Giadom.

The National Vice Chairman, APC South-South Zone, Ntufam Eta, had earlier in a statement said the zone had endorsed Mr Oshiomole after a meeting of executive members of the party held in Benin City.

APC Chairman, Adams Oshiomole

He said Mr Odigie-Oyegun was invited for the meeting but failed to attend. Efforts by PREMIUM TIMES to reach Me Odigie-Oyegun via calls and text messages were unanswered.

However, the four APC chairmen in the video said they were at the South-south zonal caucus meeting held at the Edo State Government House on Sunday in protest at what they said were plans by the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, and Mr Eta to adopt Mr Oshiomhole as the zones candidate for the national chairmanship position.

The chairmen said any decision made is null and void as there was no voting done.

The Rivers State APC chairman, Mr Ikanya, said, We were here for a meeting only to be ambushed by the National Vice Chairman of the Party (Mr Eta) to adopt a preconceived candidate.

Yesterday (Sunday), we held a meeting which he attended, only for him to come and manipulate, sort out every suggestion and he is trying to say he has come out with a resolution.

First, I want us to know that the Zonal Executive Committee does not have the power to elect, nominate or to adopt candidates for national offices. It is the national convention that can do that.

Secondly, there are very senior members in the zone that were shut out of this meeting purposely. Number one, the national chairman of the party who is from this zone and the national vice chairman of the party ought to seek the permission of the national chairman of the party even to convene this meeting because the constitution states that the national vice chairman shall assist the national chairman.

So, in this zone where we have a sitting chairman and he is not invited to a meeting, you have six ministers, you have former governors, you have very senior citizens of this zone and they were shut out of the meeting only for the national vice chairman to ambush everybody, ignore every motion that was moved, even when somebody moved a motion that he should disqualify himself having shown bias from the beginning in this meeting, he still sat there and he is saying to the public that there was a resolution.

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We want you to know that out of the states of the zone, four states are saying that this was an ambush, it was not acceptable, there was no resolution. We have said that every person is free to run in the election.

We stand by the resolution of the National Executive Committee (NEC) that there is waiver. The national chairman can recontest if he wants to recontest, any other person from the zone can recontest if they want to recontest.

What has happened in this meeting is a farce, is not binding on anybody, it is null and void. Four states are saying no, whereas just two states  Edo and some parts of Delta are the people that are saying that they have a resolution.

This is not how democracy should be practiced. Arising from this meeting today, the majority view is that there is no consensus on any candidate.

The APC NEC had given a waiver to Mr Odigie-Oyegun and other members of the outgoing national executive to allow them seek re-election at the May 14 convention.

The NEC decision followed its reversal of a one-year tenure extension it initially granted the executives. The reversal was done following rejection of the extension by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Mr Odigie-Oyeguns reelection plan still faces an uphill task as it is believed to be opposed by Mr Buhari and Mr Tinubu.
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Former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, has said he is not desperate to become Nigerias president, come 2019, as some Nigerians have said.

If I am desperate, I wouldnt have stepped down for M.K.O Abiola in 1993 presidential race, he said.

Mr. Abubakar stated this on Tuesday, in an interview with BBC Hausa morning programme.

He said if Nigerians could follow his political antecedent, they would not see him as a desperate politician.

In 1993, I contested with M.K.O Abiola. I later withdrew from the race. In 1999, I was elected a governor of Adamawa state, then invited to be Nigerias vice president, under Olusegun Obasanjo, he said.

Mr Abubakar said in 2007 he contested against former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, to show the world that I have the right to contest and I did that to satisfy my conscience.

All the times I have been contesting for the presidency, I have been opportune only once to be presented to Nigerians as a candidate, he said, adding that the remaining times, he ended up only at the primary election.

I could have become Nigerias president in 2003 when virtually, all the state governors then, rallied support for me to contest which I declined. I am not desperate to be president as some Nigerians view it.

As a former vice president, I am opportune to know things. If I am opportune to be elected as a president, I will accomplish my mission by reviving the economy, by making Nigeria an investors haven.

The present administration discouraged investors into the country, because the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) exchange rate policies is too tedious for investors. CBN has three different exchange rate policies, which is not supposed to be.

If elected Nigerias president, I will expand the nations source of wealth to cater for the growing youth population in the country. Nigeria can justify my claims, going by the number of youth that are working in my industries across the country, he said.
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Suspected herdsmen have killed 15 people in an early morning attack on a Catholic Church in Benue State, officials told PREMIUM TIMES on Tuesday.

The attack occurred in Ayar-Mbalom, a community in Gwer East Local Government Area.

Terver Akase, a spokesperson to Governor Samuel Ortom, told PREMIUM TIMES the attackers also burnt 50 houses and sacked the entire community.

The name of the church is St. Ignatius Catholic Church. The murdered Catholic priests are Joseph Gor and Felix Tyolaha, both reverend fathers.

Fatai Owoseni, the Benue police commissioner, and Moses Yamu, the commands spokesperson, did not immediately return PREMIUM TIMES requests for comments about the killings Tuesday morning.

The attack comes barely four days after the murder of 10 persons by herdsmen in Guma Local Government Area, which has been one of the major scenes of carnage by suspects herdsmen since January 1.

It also comes barely a few days after Nigerian soldiers stormed Naka town in Gwer West Local Government Area of the state and set dozens of houses on fire. The soldiers said hoodlums in the community killed one of their colleagues. At least one man was burnt to death in the reprisal attack.
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The Catholic Diocese of Makurdi has confirmed the killing of two of its priests, Joseph Gor and Felix Tyolaha, both reverend fathers, in an early hour attack on St Ignatius Quasi Parish, Ukpor, Mbalom in Gwer West Local Government Council of Benue.

At least 15 people were killed in the attack, officials told PREMIUM TIMES.

A statement by its Director of Communications, Moses Iorapuu, said the attacks were perpetrated by herdsmen who stormed the Mbalom community and killed the two priests during the morning mass at the church.

The diocese expressed regret at the attitude of the security agencies in containing the killings.

It said the herdsmen, who stormed the community, burnt down houses, destroyed crops and killed people.

The church, therefore, urged the relevant authorities to stop the killings in the Benue valley.

Mr Iorapuu said the diocese had been active in providing food and relief materials to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) since the onset of hostilities in the state and wondered why it could be marked as a target of attacks.

The attacks on the priests is an attack on everything that we ever stood for and believed in, he said.

Meanwhile, efforts to get reaction from the Benue Police Command failed as its Public Relations Officer, Moses Yamu, was not forthcoming with remarks.

(NAN)
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The police have finally taken Dino Melaye into custody, his aides said.

The serving senator from Kogi State submitted himself to the police outside his Maitama, Abuja, home Tuesday morning, ending a day-long siege.

Mr Melaye initially declined to surrender to a team of mobile and regular police officers who arrived to arrest him at home Monday afternoon, saying he had done nothing wrong and expressing fears for his life.

He said officers would take him to Kogi where his security cannot guaranteed.

He finally submitted himself to the police around 8:00 a.m. following appeals from some of his colleagues at the Senate. He was taken to the special anti-robbery squad office in Guzape, Abuja, his media aide, Gideon Ayodele, told PREMIUM TIMES.

The police have not responded to a request for comments.

The fate of Mr Melaye now that the police have him remain unclear. Mr Ayodele said the police planned to take him to Kogi where he has been undergoing criminal investigation, but the senator declined.

They told us they wanted to take him to court here in Abuja, but they diverted towards Kogi now, Mr Ayodele said. But he has said he will not go to Kogi and there is currently a stalemate over that.

Mr Ayodele said dragging his principal to Kogi would be illegal because the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court had recently ruled that his case should be transfered to Abuja.

The police are after Mr Melaye for allegedly arming deadly criminal gangs and convening a political rally that ended with the death of at least one attendee.

The police also said they had arrested suspects who confirmed that Mr Melaye had provided arms and financial support to them.

There are also allegations that he provided false statement to the police when implicated the chief of staff to Kogi governor in an alleged attempt to assassinate him last year.

Mr Melaye denied the allegations, saying his ordeal was largely because of his outspoken stance against alleged impunity in the country.

He also accused his state governor Yahaya Bello, as the mastermind of his predicament, a claim the governor denied. Mr Bello said Mr Melaye should face the consequences of his actions.
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Dino Melaye has landed in hospital after reportedly jumping out of a moving police vehicle in Abuja, PREMIUM TIMES has learnt.

Mr Melaye, representing Kogi West Senatorial District, submitted himself to the police earlier today. But he was being taken to Lokoja, the capital of his home state, where he is expected to be interrogated by the police in connection to a murder case and other criminal activities.

The senator is currently at Zankli Medical Centre in Utako District, Abuja, a hospital spokesperson confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES by telephone Tuesday afternoon.

The medical official said Mr Melaye was not in critical condition, but he is suspected to have broken a vertebrae.

There were reports that the police were taking him to Lokoja to parade him alongside previously arrested suspects who have allegedly confessed to being supported by Mr Melaye.

But the Kogi police commissioner, Ali Janga, told PREMIUM TIMES he did not plan to arraign the senator, saying he would only convene a press briefing about the matter.

Mr Janga did not immediately say whether he would cancel his planned press conference now that Mr Melaye has apparently escaped from being taken to Lokoja.

Senator Dino Melaye, sitting on the floor after jumping out of a moving police van

Senator Dino Melaye arrived at Zankli Hospital Abuja in a stretcher

Senator Dino Melaye arrived at Zankli Hospital Abuja in a stretcher

Senator Dino Melaye arrived at Zankli Hospital Abuja in a stretcher
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The Minister of Mines and Steel, Kayode Fayemi, has said that he did not shun the Investment Forum organised by the Nigerian Embassy in Washington on Saturday, as he never confirmed his attendance of the meeting.

The Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, after the meeting on Saturday, criticised the vice president, Yemi Osinbajo, and some ministers for their absence at the forum.

Mr Sanusi had also expressed displeasure at the lateness of those who attended the meeting.

We had a meeting today with investors, we were supposed to start at 10.00 am, I got there early and I was taken to the Nigerian ambassadors office to sit down, he said.

The investors were outside waiting for the meeting; that is not how to attract investors.

Also, some top Nigerians were on the list to attend the meeting, such as the Vice President and some Ministers, but some of the ministers were in town, but they did not attend the meeting.

The U.S Commerce Secretary and some top investors came for the meeting, but Nigerian ministers are in Washington, but they did not attend the meeting to speak with them on how to invest in Nigeria.

But Mr Fayemi, who seeks the governorship ticket of the All Progressives Congress in Ekiti, said in a statement on Monday, that he was not billed to attend the investment forum.

He said the impression that he shunned the meeting was not correct and might be due to imcomplete information.

Dr Fayemi did not confirm attendance at any investment forum in Washington DC, USA, hence cannot be accused of shunning the event, the statement signed by his Special Assistant, Yinka Oyebode, said.

As a matter of fact, the minister and a few of his colleagues, during the said period, were attending some investment forum organised by the Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Head of Government meeting (CHOGM), in London, UK.

There have been instances where names of ministers and top government officials were announced as participants in some events without proper invitation and confirmation of attendance. This is certainly the case with the Washington event.

So, to suggest that that Dr Fayemi was in Washington and chose not to attend the event could not have been an accurate account of what transpired. He was certainly nowhere near America and the organisers cannot say he confirmed to be at the event.

Organisers of important events should not always assume they have put the necessary steps in place when they simply have not taken the pain to invite and also confirm attendance at an event, the statement highlighted.
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The 2018 Internet Freedom Forum will provide a platform to discuss issues relating to digital rights and inclusion in Africa, the organisers, Paradigm Initiative, have said.

The forum is holding between April 24 and 26 in Abuja.

According to Tope Ogundipe, the Director of Programs of Paradigm Initiative, IFF2018 will provide an important platform to discuss issues that bother many Africans.

The sessions and side-sessions at IFF 2018 will cover some of the most pertinent themes, including How to Ruin Elections in Africa, Cybercrime Laws and Freedom of Expression, and Bridging Gender Knowledge Gap in Wikipedia.

The forum will also discuss the state of internet in various African countries with report from scores of, Gender, Open Data and AI: Intersecting for Digital Equality, Empowering Human Rights Defenders in Digital Era In Africa, and Building a Healthy Internet in Africa.

The forum comes at an important time when many Africans fear for their freedom online.

According to the Lagos-based Paradigm Initiative, the Forum helps bring attention to important issues confronting digital rights such as data privacy, internet shutdown, access to the internet, among others.

The Forum, over the years, has gained the reputation as the platform where experts deliberate on issues relating to digital rights and inclusion. Now in its the sixth edition, it will welcome delegates from about 30 countries, including Uganda, Kenya, Namibia, Tanzania, South Africa, Cameroon, Togo, United Kingdom and the United States.

The Forum will also be live-streamed to the world to encourage virtual participation.

Speakers at the Forum will include Ayisha Osori, the author of Love Does not Win Elections; Tolu Ogunlesi, Nigerian Presidents Special Assistant on Digital Media; and Titi Akinsanmi, Head, Government Relations and Public Policy at Google.

Others are Dapo Olorunyomi, the publisher of Premium Times; Akua Gyekye, Facebooks Public Policy Manager; and Afef Abrougui of Ranking Digital Rights.

The range and depth of the discussions which have taken place at previous editions of the IFF has positioned the IFF as one of the premier platforms for shaping the conversations and policy outcomes on the Internet in Africa, Ms Ogundipe said.

The diversity of conversations also caters for the diverse range of participants within the continent and beyond, and across civil society, private sector, academia, government and other stakeholders.

The forum, which holds at the NAF Conference Centre, Abuja, is supported by organisations including Microsoft, Ford Foundation, Google, Facebook, Premium Times, The Guardian and Civicus.

Session organisers at the Forum include Amnesty International, Web Foundation, BudgIT and Mozilla.
The World Bank, through the FADAMA III Additional Financing (AFII) Programme, will soon disburse N8.6 billion to 5,916 youth across the country in the Graduate Unemployment Youths Support Scheme (FADAMA GUYS).

Kwaji Daguru, the Chairman of FADAMA GUYS Implementation Committee, disclosed this in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Tuesday.

Mr Daguru, who is also Procurement Specialist for FADAMA III (AFII) Programme, said that the programme targeted 5,916 youth in 23 states to improve the countrys agricultural production.

The states are Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Ebonyi, Ekiti, Jigawa, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Niger, Ogun and Ondo States.

Others include Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba and Zamfara states as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

He said that the involvement of youth in the agricultural programme would contribute significantly to the countrys efforts to achieve food security and boost capacity building as well as employment opportunities.

The enrolment for the programme ended on May 15, 2017 with the aim of selecting the beneficiary youth would boost job creation in the 23 states.

Mr Daguru, who said that the funds disbursement had yet to start, however, assured that the money earmarked for the project was intact.

He, nonetheless, said that the disbursement would be made through the Grant and Funds category of the project.

We have applied to the federal government, through Federal Ministry of Finance for permission to reallocate funds from other categories like Consultancy, Training, Civil Work into the Grant and Funds category.

Any moment from now, disbursement will take place, especially to those who would engage in rainy season agricultural activities because they have completed the grant agreement and submitted their land documents.

The Phase One is expected to gulp about N8, 675, 013, 679.12 to fund the business plans of the 5,916 candidates in 23 states.

If the resources permit in the last segment of the project, we will be able to upscale to other states in the second phase.

Mr Daguru said: The objective of the programme is to work with government in three areas of job creation, while building capacity of our youths and aiding efforts to keep the foreign exchange rates low.

We are making sure we import low quantities of rice and tomatoes, while putting less pressure on our Naira (currency) so as to make our economy strong.

He said that the target beneficiaries were those with ages between 18 and 35 as well as graduates and undergraduates of higher institutions.

The programme would support all aspects of agricultural production in a business or commercial manner; right from crop and livestock production, inputs support supply and advisory services.

It would also assist extension services and post-harvest production services like storage, warehousing, marketing and products distribution.

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Mr Daguru said that after the screening of the candidates, they would be exposed to a two-week intensive training in business and technical fields in the states.

During the application process, candidates would be allowed to choose specific enterprises of their choice in the agricultural value chain and they would be trained in the ventures accordingly.

At the end of the training, they would be asked to submit business plans on their chosen enterprises; we will then invite professionals to review the business plans and come up with standard modules.

We have 5,916 trainees and they have opened bank accounts with two selected commercial banks that are used by the FADAMA Coordinating Offices in the states.

The committee chairman said that the rationale behind the opening of the accounts was to have dedicated accounts for the project so as to facilitate proper project monitoring.

Mr Daguru said that the organisers did not want the trainees to use their existing bank accounts, as they could be tempted to use ATM (Automated Teller Machine) to withdraw money from the accounts arbitrarily.

We want to control the use of the funds, while ensuring that the funds are used for the intended purposes.

They would not be able to withdraw money from the dedicated accounts without prior approval of state FADAMA offices.

We will also ensure that they insure their businesses with the Nigeria Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC) in the business plans.

We have made provision for 2.5 per cent deduction from the total cost of the business as insurance premium, he explained.

(NAN)
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The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Lagos State Command, says it has prosecuted no fewer than 39 suspects between January 2018 and March 2018.

Lawal Opeloyeru, Principal Staff Officer, Operations and Intelligence of the agency, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Tuesday.

We have prosecuted no fewer than 39 suspects this year alone. That is Lagos State Command alone.

They were convicted and some of them were serving their terms of imprisonment in Kirikiri.

The dangers of drugs are very clear to everybody. Drugs kill; they disrupt the peace and security of the nation.

So the advice is that everybody should join hands with NDLEA to make sure that we rid the country of the menace of illicit drugs.

We are considering constituting a joint operation with the Nigeria Customs Service so that every agency will bring its experience and expertise to bear on efforts to beat these criminals.

The issue of seizing substances like this without apprehending the owner is not good for prosecution.

So we will work together to ensure that when we have a situation like this arises, those who are connected to it are arrested. 

He alleged that some of the illicit drugs were from Ghana, Togo, and Nigeria.

He added that the agency was working closely with other neighbouring countries to stop the smuggling of such drugs.

Mr Opeloyeru said the agency would deepen collaboration with customs to end the smuggling of illicit drugs.
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The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) on Tuesday said it would meet with the Federal Governments negotiation committee to review the progress on the 2017 Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) between the union and the government.

Usman Dutse, President of the Union, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the meeting would hold on Wednesday, April 25.

Mr Dutse said though the union was making progress with the agreement, it was not fully satisfied with what had been done so far, urging the government to be committed.

We are making some progress; the arrears of promotion have been paid, and issues of some allowances are being worked out with modalities on how to pay. We are continuing with the negotiation to address some other issues with the government.

We are meeting with the negotiation committee this week. We have given the government time to see how far and how committed they are with the issues. If we see that they are not forthcoming, at our next National Executive Council meeting, we will decide on the next action to take, he said.

The ASUP president expressed worry that the major issues of dispute raised by the union had not been implemented, almost five months after the union suspended its strike.

He listed issues yet to be addressed to include road-map for the implementation of NEEDS Assessment, Polytechnic Act, CONTISS 15 Migration arrears, promotion arrears, and victimisation of officers of the union.

Since then, nothing much; but the good thing is that we will be meeting with the negotiation committee on April 25. Our position is that we want the government to be up and doing; and to be committed to their own submission, to avoid any industrial dispute again, he said.

On the promotion arrears, Mr Dutse said that while 15 institutions had received their arrears, 12 others are yet to be paid.

The victimisation of our members in some institutions has not been resolved, particular in Adamawa State Polytechnic, Yola; Osun State Polytechnic, Ikire, and Delta State Polytechnic, Ogbachi.

Our lecturers are still sacked; they have not been reinstated. The government convened a meeting with the institutions and there are promises which have yet to be implemented.

We signed a Memorandum of Settlement and Action, and a committee of rapid response was formed to work on that and pursue the implementation of the issue.

ASUP suspended its 15-day nationwide indefinite strike on November 29, 2017, after signing an agreement with the government on resolutions reached.

Some of the resolutions reached include consideration for implementation of NEEDS Assessment report to the Presidency for approval and release of withheld shortfall owed affected polytechnics before December 31, 2017.

Others include a revisit of the report of Ministerial Committee on Verification of CONTISS 15 (2015) arrears, and conclusion of exercise by January 31, 2018, among others.
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A mild drama played out at the Ikeja Domestic Violence and Special Offences Court as an accused, Edwin Igbafe, in a bid to evade arraignment, bolted from the premises of the court.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Igbafe, a 31-year-old teacher, was to be arraigned for defiling and impregnating his 16-year-old student (name withheld) in 2015.

When the case was called, Mr Igbafe, who is on bail from the Magistrate Court for the alleged offence, did not come forward to the dock.

I. Solarin, the State Prosecutor, who was visibly worried, told the court: I saw Igbafe and his mother in court and even spoke

with them before proceedings started.

Mr Igbafe also did not have any legal representation in court.

Following the development, an infuriated judge, Sybil Nwaka, ordered that the courthouse guards search for the runaway defendant.

Gbenga Alagbe, a member of the prosecution team, went out is search of Mr Igbafe and his mother while the judge stood down

the case to hear other cases.

When Mr Alagbe returned, he informed the court that he had searched the courthouse and could not find the defendant.

The judge then revoked Mr Igbafes bail and issued a bench warrant for his arrest.

In view of the absence of the defendant, a bench warrant is issued and his sureties must show cause.

NAN reports that according to the charge sheet, Mr Igbafe committed the offence sometime in September 2014 at No. 6, Adeola St., Ijesha, Surulere, Lagos.

He allegedly defiled his 16-year-old student and the alleged sexual encounter with the underage student resulted in a pregnancy.

The offence violated Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2011 which attracts life imprisonment.

The case has been adjourned until May 15 for arraignment.
The Nigerian Immigration Service has cleared and issued visas to over 2,000 international visitors on arrival at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, between Monday and Tuesday.

The spokesperson for the Nigerian Immigration Service, Sunday James, confirmed to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that many of the visitors were in the country to attend the ongoing ID4Africa conference.

Mr James disclosed that over 2,000 visitors had so far been cleared and issued visas, adding that about 1,500 visas were issued to visitors on arrival on Monday alone.

He said that the laid down procedures required the immigration service to carry out thorough screening on the passengers in collaboration with other security agencies.

So far, over 2,000 visitors have been cleared and issued visas and about 1,500 were processed on Monday and there could still be more.

It is a routine kind of assignment, which they have been doing; it is not something new, because the procedure requires a passenger to be thoroughly screened.

There are about four clearance points and there are things that take place on the desks, apart from the passenger filling the arrival form.

There are officers that go through the documents submitted vis-a-vis the original documents before them to cross check.

Then, they also try to confirm whether the individual is not on any of our lists: the watch list, stop list or suspect index.

If there is no local objection they now pass the person to the payment point and the passenger makes necessary payment for the visa on arrival.

However, the Comptroller General has insisted that payment should be done with POS and that has been complied with.

The whole process takes maximum of five minutes to complete and it can be less, he said.

When the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), visited the airport on Tuesday, hundreds of international passengers were seen waiting to receive their visas upon arrival.

An official of the airport, who pleaded anonymity, said the airport had received about 2,000 visitors who were receiving their visas on arrival with the NIS.

The official said it was in line with the implementation of the Executive Order on ease of doing business from the Federal Government.

According to him, many of the visitors have been arriving since Monday for the ID4Africa international conference making the immigration point to be very busy.

Order 001 directed that visas on arrival should be granted at all Nigerian ports of entry once applicants have met all the published requirements.

The order also directed that processing of issuance of visas on arrival should be carried out in a transparent manner.

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The Federal Government has taken several steps through domestic policies and legislation, as well as multilateral cooperation and collaboration to fight cybercrime, the Attorney-General of the Federation, (AGF), Abubakar Malami, said.

Mr Malami said this on Tuesday in Abuja at a meeting with a delegation of the Council of Europe on an Initial Assessment Visit to Nigeria and inauguration of the Global Action on Cyber Crime Plus, (GLACY+), National Coordinating Team.

Mr Malami, who was represented by the Director, Public Prosecutions, Umar Mohammed said that the Cybercrime Act, 2015 outlined the legal and institutional framework needed to drive Nigerias preparedness to fight cybercrime.

The AGF who doubles as the Minister of Justice noted that in spite of the countrys efforts, there were still gaps in capacity building considering the fast evolving technological developments.

It is in this light that we welcome this initial assessment visit to identify the priorities that criminal justice authorities in Nigeria have to face, to pinpoint which areas to cover through the capacity building action of the GLACY+ Project.

This is through direct consultations with stakeholders and to formally inaugurate the requisite GLACY+ National Coordinating Team that will support the Council of Europe in the multi-sector coordination and implementation of the GLACY+ programme in Nigeria.

According to him, the consultations will serve parties to further identify capacity building issues and challenges particularly in the areas of legislation, capacity of investigators, digital forensics personnel, prosecutors, judges and trainers.

Matteo Lucchetti, the Project Manager, Cybercrime Programme Office said that the delegation was in Nigeria to among other things, establish the national team.

We are here to basically establish the national team in Nigeria to be the entry point for all activities to be developed in Nigeria and to assess the current criminal justice capacity in matters related to cybercrime.

We will also access the needs of the country in order to prioritise the activities in the country in the order that will be most suitable.

Mr Lucchetti, who said that the project was co-funded by the European Commission and the Council of Europe added that it currently had 12 countries and would last until 2021.

The National Coordinator, George-Maria Tyendezwa expressed appreciation for the confidence reposed in him and his team and pledged that the members would work to justify the confidence reposed in them.
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The Governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose, now has an opposition in his half brother, Olanipekun Oluwayose, who announced his resignation from the Peoples Democratic Party on Monday.

The politician said he was leaving the PDP for the Action Democratic Party (ADP) because he could no longer bear the continued impoverishment of Ekiti people by the Ayo Fayose administration.

Mr Oluwayoses declaration came at his home town, Afao-Ekiti, as the ADPs governorship aspirant, Segun Adewale, arrived the community for his campaign mobilisation.

He said that he dumped the PDP because of the failure of his brother whom he accused of making Ekiti people poorer than when he assumed office.

He described Mr Fayoses continuity agenda of working for his deputy, Kolapo Olusola, as an attempt to prolong the sufferings of Ekiti people and hold them in servitude

According him, although he has a blood tie with the governor, his conscience could not be reconciled with the directionless situation facing the state.

How can I ignore the pains that unpaid wages have brought on our people? Mr Oluwayose said.

If we want a better society, we must not let our relationship allow us to hold us back from standing by what is right.

My decision to dump PDP for ADP is borne out of my patriotism for Ekiti that works for everyone.

Ekiti is in shambles and we must embrace the right ideas that can take us out from the current economic and social doldrums.

Let me make something clear here, I think today is the first time Im meeting him (Adewale) but I have heard a lot about his capacity and resolve to turn a hopeless situation into an endless opportunity.

We need someone of his standing to bring to bear his experience and discipline to the resuscitation of our social and economic values.

Mr Oluwayose pledged his commitment to the success of Mr Adewales aspiration in Afao-Ekiti and the state as a whole at the July 14 poll, vowing to resist any attempt to manipulate the votes of the people.

Mr Adewale, on his part, welcomed Mr Oluwayose and his supporters to the ADP, saying the party had become a movement being joined by Ekiti residents on daily basis.

The aspirant said the party would provide good governance, create jobs and attract investment to Ekiti to make it a model state in Nigeria.
Monica Osagie, the victim in the sex-for-marks scandal at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, has told an investigative panel that the disgraced professor, Richard Akindele, deliberately failed her because she refused his sexual demand.

She said she did not score 33 per cent as the lecturer claimed, but was failed so that she could bow to his sexual demand.

Miss Osagie said this today when she appeared before the panel, her lawyer Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi told journalists.

The victim had appeared before the committee set up by the institutions authorities in company of her counsel.

Miss Osagie, a student in the Masters of Business Administration programme, released a recorded telephone conversation, which went viral, in which the lecturer identified as Mr Akindele, demanded five rounds of sex to enhance her marks.

The committee, which held its session at the Pro -Chancellors Lodge on the campus, allowed only Miss Osagie and her counsel into the venue.

Journalists, students and some members of the National Human Rights Commission who came to witness the sitting were not allowed into the venue by security personnel of the institution who blocked the entrance.

Mrs Akiyode-Afolabi, who spoke with newsmen after the closed door session which lasted more than seven hours, said Miss Osagie told the panel that she passed the course but was later failed by the don because of her refusal to sleep with him.

She said Miss Osagie narrated in details what transpired between her and the don, adding that lawyers present at the meeting were not allowed to make any contribution.

Mrs Akiyode-Afolabi, who is the Executive Director for Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre, Abuja, said Miss Osagie also informed the panel that she recorded the conversation between her and the professor as an evidence.

She said Miss Osagie also informed the panel that she reported the sexual harassment by the don to some lecturers in the university, adding that no action was taken by them.

Mrs Akiyode-Afolabi said some lawyers who represented the lecturers to whom Miss Osagie claimed she reported the case, also appeared before the panel.

She said that Miss Osagie also told the panel that she did not score 33 per cent as alleged but was failed so that she could bow to the sexual demands of the don.

Mrs Akiyode-Afolabi said she was optimistic that the outcome of the investigative panel would serve as a lesson to other lecturers who also engage in such act.

She, however, urged the panel to ensure that justice prevailed on the issue so as to maintain the integrity of the institution.

Mrs Akiyode-Afolabi, who did not allow Miss Osagie to talk to journalists, said her client would always be available to give evidence whenever she was called upon.

Members of the panel did not also speak with journalists after the meeting.

A recorded audio conversation of the don demanding for sex to increase the marks of the female postgraduate student had gone viral.

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The audio recording generated reactions from a cross-section of the public, making the university authorities to set up an investigative panel.

The vice chancellor, Eyitope Ogunbodede, on Friday confirmed the suspension of Mr Akindele.

Mr Ogunbodede, a professor, in a statement, said he had received and considered the interim report of the committee set up to investigate the allegation of sexual harassment revealed in the audio recording.

The vice chancellor said that though the investigative committee invited both Mr Akindele and Miss Osagie, only the don had appeared before the committee.

(NAN)
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Members of the Bring Back our Girls group advocating the return of 112 Chibok schoolgirls in captivity of Boko Haram were attacked by the police as they approached the Unity Fountain for a sit-out on Monday, the group has said.

The group also took to its Twitter handle @BBOG_Nigeria to post a video of police officers using tear gas to harass them.

In April 2014, 276 female students were kidnapped from the Government Secondary School in the town of Chibok in Borno State, with Boko Haram claiming responsibility.

Some of the girls have been rescued while others are still in captivity. The BBOG group has been consistent in demanding the release of those still in captivity.

A week ago, police officers attacked Shiite protesters who also took to the unity fountain beside Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, to demand the release of their leader who has been in detention for over three years despite a court ruling freeing him.

Prior to that, the Abuja police commissioner, Sadiq Bello, while sealing the venue, placed an indefinite ban on daily sit-outs at the Unity Fountain by pro-democracy and good governance advocates across Abuja.

This ban was however condemned by activists. The BBOG also gave the police 72 hours to unseal the venue of the outs.

Mr Bello said he took the decision because he saw the the groups as constituting public nuisance.

Jeff Okoroafor, a member of the BBOG said despite the attack on members yesterday, the group will come out to protest today by 4.30pm

The day a GOVERNMENT starts SUPPRESSING the VOICES of CITIZENS, that GOVERNMENT BECOMES UNFIT to GOVERN.@NGRPresident is in power and he seeks to suppress our voices, IT WILL NOT HAPPEN.#BringBackOurGirls pic.twitter.com/GaM6CJy4rH  Florence Ozor (@FlorenceOzor) April 24, 2018

Oh, absolutely, we will come out today by 4.30, he said.

Anjuguri Manzah, the FCT police spokesperson said he was not aware of an attack on the group..

Where? I am not aware of anything like that, he told PREMIUM TIMES.
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President Muhammadu Buhari has formally requested the House of Representatives to include the procurement of the Super Tucano aircraft to fight insecurity in the country in the 2018 Appropriation Act, after authorising the withdrawal of $462m from the excess crude account for the procurement.

In a letter read by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, Mr. Buhari said he granted the approval of the amount in anticipation that the National Assembly would have no objection.

In the expectation that the National Assembly would have no objection to the purchase of this highly specialized aircraft, which is critical to national security, I granted anticipatory approval for the release of US$469, 374, 470.00.

Mr Buhari transmitted the letter to the National Assembly leadership on April 13 and it was received in the Office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives on April 17.

It shows that Mr Buhari had already given anticipatory approval for the withdrawal of $496,374,470 (N151 394, 421, 355) from the ECA for the purchase of the aircraft and was only seeking the inclusion of same in the 2018 Appropriation Bill that the National Assembly is currently finalising.

PREMIUM TIMES had on Monday reported that President Buhari approved the withdrawal of $462 million from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) to pay the United States for the procurement of 12 Super Tucano aircraft, without a prior approval of the National Assembly.

Reacting to the executive communication, The house chairman on Public accounts, Kingsley Chinda (PDP, Rivers) moved a constitutional point of order, citing Section 80 and 81 of Constitution which talks about withdrawal of funds.

He said Nigerian law does not recognise anticipatory approval and questioned the presidents action.

If we fail to approve, what happens? he asked.

He added that it was a clear evidence of what had been happening in this administration and called for the impeachment of the President.

We should commence impeachment of Mr. President.

Another lawmaker, Sunday Karimi (PDP, Kogi) also condemned the Presidents action and described it as an afterthought.

Since he is trying to go through the back door to seek our approval, he should be ready to face the consequences

The speaker, however, said the communication by the President constitutes its first reading and would only be debated on the date for the second reading.
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The Nigerian National Assembly has tightened security in its premises following last Wednesdays invasion of the Senate by unknown persons who took away its mace.

This was evident from the numerous security checks and questioning from different security officers from the main entrance of the National Assembly to the main building.

The Senates plenary was on Wednesday invaded by thugs believed to be led by suspended lawmaker, Ovie Omo-Agege.

PREMIUM TIMES reported the complicity of security agencies in the incident.

The mace was recovered the following day by the police hours later, following a 24-hour ultimatum from the Senate.

This step to tighten security was also the resolution of the Senate at an executive session on Tuesday.

The closed door meeting lasted for over two and a half hours and had most of the lawmakers in attendance, presided over by the Senate President, Bukola Saraki.

Mr Saraki, after the session, explained the reasons for the decision as he called for the full cooperation of the public.

Clearly, there are some loopholes here and we need to tighten it, he said.

He further stated that a joint committee of the Senate and the House of Representatives had been set up to investigate the incident of the 18th of April, to look at the factors leading to it and to ensure that such never happens again at the National Assembly.

We also directed our committee on security, intelligence and police to engage with the Director of the SSS and the Inspector-General of Police to look at how to strengthen the security of the National Assembly to ensure that these security lapses will not occur.

The Chamber of the Nigerian Senate

The senate president, on behalf of the Senate appreciated two staff of the chamber, Chuks and Sandra (who were injured during the invasion), for their gallantry and the courageous actions that they took during the invasion of the Senate chamber on Wednesday, April, 18, 2018 as he wished them speedy recovery.

He further thanked the team of the Sergeant-at-Arms for the work they did not only as individuals but as an institution also for the country, adding that this legislature is a true representation of democracy and as long as we defend this legislature, we defend the democracy in this country.
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President Muhammadu Buhari has condemned the killings on Tuesday at a Catholic Church in Benue State.

Premium Times reported that suspected herdsmen killed 15 people in an early morning attack on the church in Ukpor-Mbalom, a community in Gwer West Local Government Area.

Terver Akase, a spokesperson to Governor Samuel Ortom, told the newspaper that the attackers also burnt 50 houses and sacked the entire community.

The Catholic Diocese of Makurdi later confirmed two of its priests, Joseph Gor and Felix Tyolaha, both reverend fathers, were killed in the attack on St Ignatius Quasi Parish in Ukpor, Mbalom.

In a State House statement by his spokesperson, Femi Adeshina, President Buhari described the killing as vile and satanic.

Below is the statement:

STATE HOUSE PRESS RELEASE

PRESIDENT BUHARI CONDEMNS DESPICABLE KILLING OF PRIESTS AND WORSHIPPERS IN BENUE CHURCH

President Muhammadu Buhari has described as vile and satanic the killing of worshippers and two priests at a Catholic church in Ukpor-Mbalom community in Gwer East Local Government Area of Benue State.

I extend my sincere condolences to the government and people of Benue State, the Mbalom community, and especially the Bishop, priests and members of the St Ignatius Catholic Church, whose premises was the unfortunate venue of the heinous killings by gunmen.

This latest assault on innocent persons is particularly despicable. Violating a place of worship, killing priests and worshippers is not only vile, evil and satanic, it is clearly calculated to stoke up religious conflict and plunge our communities into endless bloodletting, the President said.

Stressing that the country will not bow to the machinations of evildoers, President Buhari vowed that the assailants would be hunted down and made to pay for the sacrilege committed.

FEMI ADESINA

Special Adviser to the President

(Media and Publicity)

April 24, 2018
The Vice Chancellor of the University of Maiduguri, Abubakar Njodi, said over 36,000 undergraduate students recently applied to be admitted into the institution despite the Boko Haram insurgency affecting the state.

The second generation university is only allowed to admit 9,000 students every year.

The year before last we had a request of over 28,000 students who are vying for only 9000 spaces; so we took only 9000 and the remaining were asked to apply for another year, said Mr Njodi who spoke with journalists on Monday at a press briefing marking the flag off of the Universitys 23rd convocation ceremony.

He said the university which was established in 1975 and started its academic activities the following year with about 60 students, has now grown exponentially to have a large student population seeking to be admitted despite its limited intake quota given by the Nigeria University Commission.

The Professor of Physical Education said the greatest challenge ever experienced by the university was that of security especially in the past nine years.

Boko Haram has carried out attacks within and around the perimeters of the university leading to the deaths of students and staffers of the institution, including a renowned professor.

Despite the challenge, the VC said the university has never for once been shut, and ironically the students enrolment which was supposed to dwindle continued to increase.

As you are aware, the University of Maiduguri has never been closed, despite the sounds of bombs, guns amidst the risk of kidnapping in the last eight years, he said.

The first few years of the insurgency actually affected the student enrolment in the university, which had to do with the fear parents expressed over the security of their wards, he continued.

He said the fear was later overcome seeing the resilience and proactive measures the university had been taking to secure its campus.

University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID)

But somehow, by 2014, our student enrollment has grown so much that it has even surpassed the previous ones. Here, we have to be pleading and begging some of the prospective students that they should be patient until another year.

The year before last, we had a request of over 28,000 students who are (were) vying for only 9000 spaces. We took only 9000 and the remaining were asked to apply for another year.

We thought the following year would be better. But last year, we had over 37,000 qualified candidates who wanted to enroll into the University of Maiduguri. But of the 37,000, yet again, we are only allowed to enroll 9000. And of these 9000, all of them, except for a few, who did not meet the requirements of their departments have registered.

So that is to tell you that we are even doing better. Instead of the conflict bringing our enrollment and admission profile backward, it turns out that our challenge has turn out to be our strength.

So at it is now, we have been pleading for more space and pleading with the authority if they can increase the quota for us. But even if the authorities increase our quota, it certainly cannot go beyond or double the 9000. Assuming if it even doubles the number, we can only end up with 18, 000. And by the following year, we will end up with having about 40, 000 application.

As part of the activities marking the 23rd convocation ceremony, Mr Njodi said the university would invite dignitaries to commission projects executed via supports from TETFUND and other philanthropic individuals and corporate organisations worth over N2 billion.

The convocation will have 14,368 students of 2015/1016 and 2016/2017 academic session graduating with awards of degrees, diplomas and certificates. Of this figure, the VC said 78 students came out with First Class degrees.

Nigerias former Secretary to the Government of Federation, Yayale Ahmed, is expected to deliver the convocation lecture, titled The Nigerian Federation and the Clamour for Restructuring, which holds on Friday.

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The police in Nasarawa State on Tuesday confirmed a communal clash between the Ebira and Bassa ethnic groups in Ugya village in Toto Local Government Area of the state.

Kennedy Idirisu, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in the state, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lafia that the conflict was a spill-over of the crisis in the neighbouring Kogi.

We received information about the crisis this morning and our findings revealed that the situation is a spill-over of the crisis in Kogi over the weekend, he said.

Mr Idirisu said although police could not ascertain any casualty figures as at press time, the Police Command was doing its best to contain the situation and avert bloodletting.

He said the Commissioner of Police in the state, Ahmed Bello, had directed the deployment of officers from the New Karu and Keffi Area Commands to strengthen the personnel already on the ground in the area.

He called on the people of the area to refrain from taking laws into their own hands and seek redress over grievances through constituted authority.
The Kaduna State Government on Tuesday banned the activities of the Civilian JTF across the 23 Local Government Areas of the state.

The state government said the newly inaugurated Kaduna Vigilance Service will replace the group which has been helping the police combat crimes in communities across the state.

Governor Nasir ElRufai made the announcement at the Vigilance Service inauguration held at the Sir Kashim Ibrahim House in the state.

The governor, represented by his deputy, Barnabas Bantex, expressed his administrations readiness to fight crime in the state.

He said the Vigilance Service has been established to help improve security in the neighbourhoods by putting more (efforts) on the ground to deter and respond to threats.

The Vigilance Service will complement the existing security and law enforcement agencies which are all federal assets, the government said.

The governor said Officers of the State Vigilance Service will work closely with the Nigeria Police, the Civil Defence, the State Security Service and the Military, particularly in areas of intelligence sharing.

This government is committed to stopping the hoodlums and miscreants that menace our urban centres, and the bandits that threaten peace and harmony in our rural communities.

The security agencies have effected mass arrests of these urban hoodlums, and we hope that the judicial process metes out appropriate punishment to them, he said.

Mr Elrufai further added that his government will not allow any illegal group to use the provision of security as cover to perpetrate mayhem.

He warned that the service is established by law as the only state government owned and recognised security body.

We call for the utmost public cooperation with its officers. The law has no space for Vigilante Bodies like the Kato da Gora, Civilian JTF, CESSCUR, Neighbourhood Watch, Vigilante Group of Nigeria, Extreme Security, Jarumai da Gora, Yan Committee, Ujumeme, Yan Tuba and others, he said.

The Governor advised the Nigeria Police and other Security Agencies to arrest and prosecute any person operating under any of these bodies.

People who used to belong to these bodies are hereby called upon to join hands with the Kaduna Vigilance Service forthwith, he said.

Commander in Chief of the State Vigilance Service, Mohammed Ali said the Service is taking off when Nigeria is becoming a playground of carnage, insurgency, gang violence and acts of political rascality.

According to him, the members of the service will not be used as political thugs.

He also said they are men of integrity, even as he urged members of the banned civilian JTF to join hands with the service for a better Kaduna State.

Mr Ali said anybody found in possession of weapons in the name of JTF will be arrested and handed over to police for prosecution.

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A journalist in Akwa Ibom State, Ubong Otong, is dead.

Mr Otong, 50, died on April 3 at the Emmanuel Hospital, Eket, his younger brother, Mfon, told PREMIUM TIMES, Tuesday.

He came back home feeling so weak and was finding it difficult to breathe, we rushed him to the hospital where he died, the brother said.

He was surrounded by his mother and other family members as he passed on in the hospital, he said.

Mr Otong, an alumnus of the prestigious Etinan Institute, Etinan, studied journalism at the International Institute of Journalism (IIJ), Uyo. He was the pioneer photo editor of the defunct The Majesty newspaper, Uyo, before he became a freelance photojournalist and a writer.

He was a member of the Consolidated Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Akwa Ibom State Council.

The Chairman of the Consolidated Chapel, Sammy Charles, said the late journalist was a committed member of the union who stood always on the side of the people.

As a union we loved him. The union will miss him so much. We pray that the almighty God accepts his soul, Mr Charles said.

According to the family, the late journalist will be buried on June 9 in his hometown, Ikot Akpan Ishiet, Onna Local Government Area of the state.
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Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State has directed the demolition of all privately-owned houses sited within the perimeter fencing of the Asaba International Airport.

The governor gave the directive on Tuesday while inspecting the ongoing resurfacing of the airport runway and other ancillary work to ensure the contractors delivered as promised in May.

He said any building within the perimeter fencing that had relevant documents would be paid compensation, adding that the focus was to ensure safety at the airport.

We need to determine the perimeter of the airport to know where our land ends.

We need to look at the buildings close to the airport if they have relevant approvals and if they have no relevant approvals, the buildings will go down.

I have asked the Commissioner for Lands and Survey to take inventories for us to take necessary actions.

If the owners of the buildings have relevant documents, they will be compensated because, what is foremost on our mind is safety, Mr Okowa said.

He, however, lauded the level of work done at the airport, adding that the contractor was working hard to beat the five weeks deadline for the reopening of the airport for commercial activities.

The contractor is right on course and they will deliver before the deadline.

We are concentrating on the runway which must be of international standards, and we are confident that we will get one of the best in the country.

I am happy with the pace of work, he said.

The Project Manager, Setraco Nigeria Limited, Jihad Yaghi, thanked the governor for encouraging the company to speed up the delivery of the project.

He said that everybody was committed and working hard to ensure that the job was completed on schedule and according to specifications.

The Airport Special Project Director, Austin Ayemidejor, who took the governor and his team round the project site, assured that the contractor was working round the clock to deliver the project before the deadline and to specifications.

(NAN)
The Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Tuesday banned members who had spent a minimum of eight years as ward, council and state executive members from seeking re-election in its May congresses.

The National Leader of the party, Bola Tinubu, announced the ban in Ikeja while addressing party members at a stakeholders meeting.

He said the decision was to allow fresh people to occupy party offices at ward, local government and state levels with a view to taking the APC to the next level in the state.

The national leadership of the party had recently fixed May 2, 5, 9 and 14 for ward, local government, state and national congresses respectively.

The decision of the party to allow congresses followed appeals by President Muhammadu Buhari who had opposed the approval of tenure elongation for party executives at all levels.

With Tuesdays pronouncement by Mr Tinubu, the chairman of the party in the state, Henry Ajomale, who had led the chapter for a very long period, will be unable to seek re-election.

Mr Tinubu said at the meeting: We fought hard against tenure elongation, and now we are going to have our congresses.

Some of you who have spent two, three, four terms as ward, local government and state executive members, it is time to go.

We thank you, we appreciate you. But we want you to step aside. It is time for those who have been crawling for years to walk. It is time for the youths to take over.

I mean if you have spent eight years, twelve years, you have tried. You should give us chance, let us now have new people.

Mr Tinubu, however, said party executive members who had only spent one term were free to seek re-election, provided they did not have records of misconduct in office.

The APC leader, however, commended the affected long-serving officers of the party, saying they contributed immensely to the successes of the party in the state.

Mr Tinubu said arrangements were in top gear to conduct congresses at all levels in the state, and expressed the optimism that they would be successful.

He warned party members to abstain from violence before, during and after the congresses, saying any act of irregularities would be sanctioned by the party.

Mr Tinubu advised party members against infighting, urging them to learn to live in peace with one another for the progress of the party.

On the divisions among party members in Alimosho and Surulere areas over some issues, Mr Tinubu sued for peace, urging aggrieved members to channel their complaints to the secretariat of the party in the state for appropriate actions.

He, however, said it was wrong and premature for any member or groups to disagree over choice of candidates for the next election.

We shouldnt be talking of who and who should be the candidate for a particular position for the general election.

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We are at the congress stage, we have not even done the primary, so disagreements over candidate choice for the election should not arise, he said.

He congratulated the National Convention Committee on their inauguration on Monday, expressing optimism that the committee would conduct a free and fair convention.

The party chieftain said the committee members, headed by Jigawa State governor, Mohammed Badaru, were people of character and he expected nothing less from them.

Mr Tinubu thanked party members for staying with him on his last birthday, saying he was honoured by their support.

He particularly thanked President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo,and Minister of Power and Housing, Babatunde Fashola for attending his birthday.

President Muhammdu Buhari and Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo at the FEC meeting on the 22nd of March 2017

[Photo Credit: Novo Isioro]

Reacting, Mr Ajomale described the decision to ban long-serving party officers as a welcome development.

He said the decision would allow young blood to take over the party leadership at all levels in the state.

The party chairman said he was fulfilled having piloted the affairs of the party to several electoral victories in the state.

It is a good decision that people who have been in the executive for more than eight years should quit.

I mean, if you have spent more than eight years as party executive, you should have done whatever you need to do.

People like us have been around since the AD days to now that we are APC, so it is time to move on. I am fulfilled, as I have done my best for the party, he said.

Mr Ajomale said he had no fear about who would take over from him, as there were many competent people in the party who could take it to greater heights.

(NAN)
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.




WASHINGTON, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On April 26, some 30 national leaders of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, will attend the inauguration of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Ala.

The facility is "the nation's first memorial dedicated to the legacy of enslaved black people, people terrorized by lynching, African Americans humiliated by racial segregation and Jim Crow, and people of color burdened with contemporary presumptions of guilt and police violence."

SEE: This New Lynching Memorial Rewrites American History (CNN)

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/lynching-memorial-montgomery-alabama/index.html

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice

https://museumandmemorial.eji.org/memorial

"It is critically important that American Muslim leaders and activists learn about the legacy of those who suffered under brutal slavery and segregation for hundreds of years, who fought for basic dignity and human rights, and made the civil rights movement a reality," said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad, who will attend the memorial's inauguration.

He said CAIR national and chapter leaders will also visit Montgomery, Selma and Birmingham as part of a three-day civil rights educational tour.

The Washington-based civil rights organization said it has witnessed an unprecedented spike in bigotry targeting American Muslims and members of other minority groups since the election of Donald Trump as president.

Community members are being urged to report any bias incidents to police and to CAIR's Civil Rights Department at 202-742-6420 or by filing a report at: http://www.cair.com/report

CAIR launched an app to share critical "know your rights" information and to simplify the process to report hate crimes and bias incidents. CAIR is urging American Muslims and members of other minority groups to download the app and utilize this resource to stay informed and empowered.

For a quick download of CAIR's civil rights app, click here: http://www.cair.com/app

CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, protect civil rights, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.

La mision de CAIR es proteger las libertades civiles, mejorar la comprension del Islam, promover la justicia, y empoderar a los musulmanes en los Estados Unidos.

CONTACT: CAIR National Chapter Manager Asma Rehman, 202-909-3486, [email protected]; CAIR-Alabama Executive Director Khaula Hadeed, 334-224-2196, [email protected]; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, [email protected]

SOURCE Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)

Related Links

http://www.cair.com


Just last year, in Michigan, there were 1,167 influenza-associated hospitalizations 1 and the fast-spreading norovirus sickened hundreds, including students at two major Michigan universities. Outbreaks and resulting building closures can tarnish businesses' reputations, impact productivity and result financial losses and absenteeism, the impact of outbreaks can weigh heavily on businesses and schools.

On average, employers report four million nonfatal, work-related injuries and illnesses annually, which can lead to devastating productivity losses.2 Productivity losses linked to absenteeism cost an average of $1,685 per employee totaling to $225.8 billion each year.3

"A!BM purchased the Clorox Total 360 System to enhance our cleaning offerings and further safeguard against common bacteria and viruses, including difficult-to-treat infections like Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and fast-spreading stomach bugs like norovirus  the culprit of many illnesses we saw across Michigan last year," said John Markey, CBSE, Executive Vice President, Absolute! Building Maintenance.

The illness-causing viruses and bacteria that lead to these outbreaks can survive on surfaces from days to months, making cleaning and disinfecting surfaces an important first line of defense when it comes to protecting our clients' facilities. For example, MRSA can survive on surfaces anywhere from seven days to seven months.4 A!BM will offer the Clorox Total 360 System to a wide range of customers' facilities and surfaces, from local schools and TV stations to office buildings.

The Clorox Total 360 System uses a revolutionary patented electrostatic delivery system to deliver trusted Clorox disinfecting and sanitizing solutions quickly, enabling A!BM to carry out comprehensive cleanings with superior surface coverage on behalf of customers both with confidence and efficiency. The system works by charging and atomizing the Clorox disinfecting or sanitizing solution, delivering a powerful flow of charged particles that are attracted to surfaces with a force stronger than gravity, allowing the solution to easily reach and uniformly coat surfaces, including hotspots where trigger spray technology might easily miss.

"With this new technology, we can cover more surfaces, quickly and even the hardest-to-reach places that may be missed through manual cleaning, leaving illness-causing germs behind," said Markey. "Since we began providing our services to schools, not a single school has had absences as a result of the flu. The Clorox Total 360 System evolves our cleaning protocols to help ensure this record continues and provides assurance that we are safeguarding all environments. This system allows us to do our job better, keeping our clients, their employees and facility guests safer, healthier and happier."

To learn more about the Clorox Total 360 System and watch how the system works, visit www.cloroxtotal360.com.

About Absolute! Building Maintenance

Absolute! Building Maintenance is a total building services contracting firm that began operations in 1975. Currently the firm employs 185 part and full time associates that maintain 190 facilities from South from Brighton to North to West Branch and West from Alma to East to Bad Axe in Michigan. The firm provides custodial services, floor cleaning, carpet cleaning, window washing and restroom supplies to a wide variety of clients using the latest techniques.

A!BM has two managers on staff that have earned the designation Registered Building Service Managers (RBSM) and one that has earned the Certified Building Service Executive (CBSE) both are education programs thru the Building Service Contractors Association International (BSCAI).

1 MI Flu Focus Influenza Surveillance Updates. Michigan Department of Health & Human Services. May 15, 2017.

2"Healthy Workforce: Lowering costs, improving safety, health and productivity," CDC Foundation. (Accessed Dec. 1, 2017).

3 "Work Illness and Injury Costs U.S. Employers $225.8 Billion Annually," CDC Foundation, Jan. 28, 2015.

4 "How long do nosocomial pathogens persist on inanimate surfaces? A systematic review." BioMed Central, Aug. 16, 2006. (Accessed Dec. 1, 2017).

SOURCE Absolute! Building Maintenance

Related Links

http://www.abmservice.com/index.html


HAUPPAUGE, N.Y., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- AccountantsWorld, the leading provider of cloud-based software solutions for accountants, announces today its new and expanded 2018 Expert Webinar Series. From technology and strategy to firm management and marketing, 16 thought leaders - 12 of whom were named among the "Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting" by Accounting Today - will be using the exclusive series presented by AccountantsWorld to discuss transformative ideas for accounting professionals.

This year's list of presenters includes: Kimberly Ellison-Taylor, formerly of AICPA; Tom Hood, Maryland Association of CPAs; Jim Bourke, WithumSmith+Brown; K2 Enterprises' Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley; Gary Boomer, Boomer Consulting; Erik Asgeirsson, CPA.com; Jay Abraham, The Abraham Group; Ron Baker, VeraSage Institute; Chester Elton, The Culture Works; Joel Sinkin, Transition Advisors; Rick Telberg, CPA Trendlines; and AccountantsWorld's Hitendra Patil and Div Bhansali.

Now in its tenth year, the Expert Webinar Series has helped accountants tap into the insights of industry experts to better manage and grow their practices and add greater value to their clients' businesses.

Thought leaders will cover a broad range of topics that impact different aspects of public accounting practices. The first webinar, entitled "Don't Just Be an Advisor. Be Relevant," will feature Dr. Chandra Bhansali, AccountantsWorld CEO and co-founder, on Wednesday, May 2nd. In this session, he will bring a new perspective to one of the most important issues facing the profession: how to make accounting practices more relevant to the needs of their small business clients.

Registrants can learn from new influencers about popular topics, such as:

"Limitless Possibilities: Technology and Tomorrow's Profession" by Kimberly Ellison-Taylor on October 31 st .

on . "Technology Trends for the Profession" by Jim Bourke on October 3 rd .

on . "Audits in the Future" by Erik Asgeirsson on September 20 th .

on . "Ten Proven Paths to Exponential Growth" by Jay Abraham on May 9 th.

Active participants can earn one continuing professional education (CPE) credit for each session. Accountants and CPAs interested in joining the webinars can register for the series here.

About AccountantsWorld

Most accounting and payroll solution providers have chosen to grow their businesses by offering accounting software and payroll services directly to accountants' clients. This approach has weakened accountants' control over these core business services and hampered their ability to best serve their clients.

Since 2000, AccountantsWorld has committed to bring control of accounting and payroll services back to accountants. Stronger control of these services helps accountants better serve their clients, raise their relevance and become more successful. Today, AccountantsWorld offers a complete suite of professional accountant-centric cloud solutions for accounting, payroll processing, document management, client portals, after-the-fact payroll and practice management. AccountantsWorld never sells its products or services directly to accountants' clients. For more information about any of AccountantsWorld's cloud-based solutions, please visit www.accountantsworld.com or call 1-888-999-1366.

Contact:

Stephanie Chan

SHIFT Communications

[email protected]

SOURCE AccountantsWorld

Related Links

http://www.accountantsworld.com


IRVING, Texas, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Adeptus Health, a leading operator of hospital satellite emergency departments and freestanding emergency rooms, announced the appointment of LeAnne Zumwalt to its board of directors.

Ms. Zumwalt is an executive with over 28 years of experience, including leadership roles in managing stakeholder relationships and financial strategies in the healthcare industry. Ms. Zumwalt's contributions to the board will further Adeptus' multidisciplinary approach as it continues to expand access to the highest quality medical care.

"We are honored and excited to have LeAnne Zumwalt join our board of directors, and we recognize that her experience and collaborative approach will bring tremendous value as we continue to transform our organization," said Frank R. Williams, President and CEO of Adeptus. "LeAnne will help us continue to deliver outstanding healthcare to the communities we serve."

Currently, Ms. Zumwalt is the Group Vice President of DaVita, Inc., the leading provider of kidney care. In addition, for 17 years she served on the board of directors of The Advisory Board Company.

"I am privileged to have the opportunity to join Adeptus Health's Board of Directors, as it is an organization that shares my passion for transforming the delivery of healthcare," said LeAnne Zumwalt. "I look forward to working with the Adeptus team and lead investor Deerfield Management on the journey ahead."

The addition of Ms. Zumwalt furthers Adeptus Health's goal of building a profitable, efficient, and nimble organization that is patient-focused, team-powered, and data-driven.

Ms. Zumwalt presence supports the company's and Deerfield's strong commitment to building a governance structure that reflects the diversity of Adeptus's employee, patient and stakeholder base. This appointment is a concrete reflection of the objectives that inspired the founding of "Break into the Boardroom," a program co-sponsored by Deerfield to help promote gender diversity on the boards of the public and private healthcare companies it finances and interacts with.

About Adeptus

Adeptus Health is a leading patient-centered healthcare organization expanding access to the highest quality emergency medical care through its network of freestanding emergency rooms and partnerships with premier healthcare providers. For more information, please visit www.adpt.com.

About Deerfield

Deerfield is an investment management firm committed to advancing healthcare through investment, information and philanthropy. For more information, please visit www.deerfield.com

SOURCE Adeptus Health Inc.

Related Links

http://www.adpt.com


MIAMI, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- AFRIKIN presents AFRIKIN 2018 | Art  Culture  Community, on Saturday, May 19 at the beautiful Zenith Art & Fashion in Downtown Miami. The evening will celebrate the beauty, strength and progress of our people on the bornday of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz  the man also known as Malcolm X  in Haitian Heritage Month, uniting the various corners of the African Diaspora through current arts and culture.

AFRIKIN

AFRIKIN is a platform that curates the arts and culture of our people across the Diaspora, from the digital to the tangible, highlighting Black Excellence of today and tomorrow in afrofuturism, art, fashion, food, performance, and talks. AFRIKIN 2018 benefits Project OKURASE, an NGO based in Ghana that works to empower people in rural communities in Ghana, West Africa through education, skills training and health care.

AFRIKIN will showcase the works of clothing designers, natural hair and make-up professionals, and jewelry artisans from around the world using the art of fashion to properly reflect the idea that "Black is Beautiful" in a modern way. Emerging and renowned artists from Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, South America, and the U.S. will share their work and perspective of Black culture in new, fresh ways.

AFRIKIN recognizes the universal tradition of breaking bread with others, and AFRIKI 2018 will feature African food  including vegan and vegetarian options  by Awash Ethiopian Restaurant and Lovely Roots Gourmet as the centerpiece for sharing in the culture and building camaraderie amongst so diverse a people under the stars, accompanied by live jazz, tropical rhythms and West African drum and dance performances.

AFRIKIN actively works to frame the image of our people for generations to come. Next year marks the 400th year documented since the first Africans were promptly enslaved upon arriving to this country. While the media bombards our children with imagery of centuries of bondage, AFRIKIN will continue to present the truth of contemporary accomplishments and achievements. Our panel discussion "Crafting Our Narrative" will spur a crucial dialogue with the community on how arts and culture are the key to creating a long-lasting perspective of our people across the world, evidenced by the current success of the film Black Panther.

The discussion will be moderated by distinguished scholar Andrea Queeley, Ph.D. from Florida International University, whose research includes African diaspora, race, social inequality and black popular culture. The panel of diverse thought leaders, scholars, artists and revolutionaries includes cultural critics Jamilah Lemieux and Frank C. Martin, known to address issues of racial disparity and visual artists Doba Afolabi and Delphine Adama Fawundu a soldier in the fight against gentrification. Our keynote speaker Mutabaruka  Jamaican Rastafari dub poet, musician, educator, and talk-show host  will fire up the crowd with his address, one certain to leave the community prepared to act.

The recent March for Our Lives has inspired more youth to speak up and speak out and AFRIKIN provides the platform for their voices to be heard. High School students will share their concerns about gun laws and the impact of the tragedy their friends and peers suffered through. In addition, we recognize the great achievements of local heroes and will present the 2018 AFRIKIN Award of Excellence to Haitian-American Stichiz, rapper and 103.5 The Beat radio personality, for all the work she does in the community.

In keeping Miami recognized as the new hub for African art and African culture and as a home to the world-renowned Art Basel and Wynwood we will be featuring artists from 19 different countries for our exhibit. AFRIKIN 2018 takes place at Zenith Art & Fashion located in the heart of downtown Miami, hugging the Adrienne Arsht Center and Omni Station with easy access to the Metro Mover.

When Alfonso D'Niscio Brooks, founder of AFRIKIN, met Carla Cid de Diego, owner of Zenith Art & Fashion, they realized their partnership was a perfect fit. Carla asserts, "Our philosophy is uniting cultures through the fusion of the arts," a parallel to AFRIKIN's work to "curate the arts and culture of our people, across the African diaspora." Both recognize the need for unity, the understanding that we are all family, one people. This partnership is about uniting cultures for a better world, and AFRIKIN 2018 is one more step forward to that ambitious goal.

AFRIKIN 2018 brings together Art, Culture, Community to push past the status quo and use these tools to create a world of which our children can be proud, a world of great opportunities and stability. Join us in our initiative to advance the ingenuity and promise of our people around the world.

Tickets are available now at https://www.afrikin.org/upcoming-event.

Save the date: May 19, 2018 at 6 p.m. | for further information: afrikin.org, [email protected] or call 305.900.5523

Media Contact:

[email protected]

Alfonso Brooks

(305) 900-5523

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AFRIKIN

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Event Info

About US

Related Video

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SOURCE AFRIKIN

Related Links

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Now through December 2018, 20% of the purchase price of the new Armenian Flower Expandable Necklace ($38) and Armenian Flower Expandable Wire Bangle ($38) will benefit the Fund. Also known as a Forget-Me-Not, the flower is a symbol of remembrance, representing the passion and history of the Armenian people, honoring ancestors and genocide victims.

ALEX AND ANI Founder, CEO, and Chief Creative Officer Carolyn Rafaelian, the granddaughter of an Armenian immigrant, is committed to raising awareness and funds that will be used to transform the lives of Armenian families in need by providing them with a healthy place to live and thrive. "As children of survivors, together we can make a new, vital, and vibrant Armenia," says Rafaelian.

Along with the launch of this special partnership, ALEX AND ANI will donate 20% of sales proceeds from all site-wide online purchases on Tuesday, April 24th (Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day) to the organization, with the use of code DONATE20.

"We are excited about our continued partnership with ALEX AND ANI. I thank Carolyn Rafaelian for promoting her roots and her positive vision of changing lives around the world," said Maria Mehranian, President of Armenia Fund. "Ending homelessness in Armenia's earthquake zone is an attainable goal and Alex and Ani is a valuable partner in that endeavor".

The Armenia Fund is the latest beneficiary of the ALEX AND ANI CHARITY BY DESIGN partnership program, originally founded in 2011 to ignite the passion for the wellbeing of our planet, our communities, and our individual paths through design partnerships and charity events. To date, ALEX AND ANI has donated more than $50M to 50+ charity organizations.

Share your journey on Instagram

@alexandani #ALEXANDANI

@armeniafund #ArmeniaFund

ABOUT ALEX AND ANI

ALEX AND ANI creates meaningful, eco-conscious jewelry and accessories to positively empower and connect humanity. Carolyn Rafaelian, Founder, CEO, and Chief Creative Officer designs each piece. Carolyn believes that every individual has their own positive energy to share with the world. By incorporating powerful symbolism and personal meaning into each product, ALEX AND ANI provides a wearable and beautiful way for consumers to express their individuality. The company is passionate about the wellbeing of our planet, our communities, and our individual paths. ALEX AND ANI uses recycled materials with eco-conscious processes. Its CHARITY BY DESIGN division has strengthened non-profit organizations through innovative partnerships and collaborative experiences, resulting in donations of more than $50 million. An Inc. 500 Company, ALEX AND ANI has retail stores as well as retail partners worldwide. ALEX AND ANI products are proudly designed and crafted in America and made with love. The company's World Headquarters is located in the greater Providence, Rhode Island area. Please visit www.alexandani.com for more information.

ABOUT THE ARMENIA FUND

Armenia Fund is a 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt, non-political, non-sectarian, all-inclusive, not-for-profit corporation established in 1994 in California to help the people of Armenia and Artsakh. An umbrella organization, it unites ten largest Armenian-American organizations on its Board. Since 1994, Armenia Fund and its 25 global partners invested over $350 million in large-scale humanitarian relief, social infrastructure and development projects in Armenia and Artsakh. Armenia Fund adheres to the highest standards of transparency and accountability undergoing annual mandatory independent audits both in the United States and in Armenia utilizing rigorous internal and external quality control mechanisms. All donations are tax deductible to the full extent of the law.

Contact:

Charlotte Hohorst

THINK PR for ALEX AND ANI

[email protected]

212.343.3920

SOURCE ALEX AND ANI
Backed by "Xinyongzhu", which scores user credit history based on big data and Alipay's credit system, users will enjoy "deposit-free post-pay" service with payment automatically settled within 24 hours after checkout. All listings on Xiaozhu platform including overseas listings will support this service in batches.

Huang Yuzhou, Vice President and General Manager of Hospitality at Fliggy, said Fliggy, as an important part of Alibaba's travel business, is committed to improving user experiences based on Alibaba's capabilities in community managing and data marketing. The cooperation with Xiaozhu.com expands the use cases of Fliggy "Xinyongzhu" and becomes an extension of "Big Accommodation of the Future".

Chen Chi, co-founder and CEO of Xiaozhu.com, expects that the cooperation will greatly reduce the barriers for house-sharing users and remove their hesitation and worries in decision-making. Over the past five years, Xiaozhu had always led in transforming product experiences. "Starting from the cooperation with Fliggy, we will leverage mature technologies in more markets and further drive the development of house-sharing."

In addition to the cooperation on "Xinyongzhu", it is revealed that Fliggy is planning to launch its new house-sharing channel providing access to Xiaozhu high quality inventories to Fliggy users.

Data shows that Xiaozhu now has over 350,000 listings globally, covering 395 Chinese cities and 225 overseas destinations, with 28 million active users. Xiaozhu finished its latest financing round in last November, led by Jack Ma backed YF capital, bringing in a total of $120 million.

SOURCE Xiaozhu.com
DALLAS, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Alternet Systems, Inc. (USOTC: ALYI) has launched an Electric Vehicle (EV) business called ReVolt Electric Motorbikes utilizing the company's portfolio of patented lithium battery technologies developed by Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE: APD) and tested by Nissan Motor Company, Ltd. A recent research report released by Global Market Insights, Inc., predicts that the EV market will surpass $9 billion by 2024. Forbes reports in a recent article that battery technology and charging infrastructure are the essentials necessary to see the EV market continue to grow.

Alternet secured the lithium battery technology patents form Air Products and Chemicals last year. Alternet plans to further develop and commercialize its lithium battery technology by applying the technology to specific industrial and consumer applications. The recent launch of ReVolt Electric Motorbikes is Alternet's first initiative to apply its lithium battery technologies.

The Alternet lithium battery technologies were originally developed to provide a stable, long-lasting and safe solution for the growing electric vehicle (EV), and Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) market in addition to the portable power (PP) market for the growing number of personal electronic devices. Among other features, the Alternet lithium battery technologies expand the operating temperature window of lithium-ion batteries compared to currently available lithium-ion batteries thus improving safety by reducing the risk of combustion and also improving efficiency by reducing or eliminating a supplemental battery cooling function.

Alternet has launched ReVolt Electric Motorbikes as a subsidiary to integrate Alternet's patented lithium battery technology into a new line of Electric Motorcycles for both domestic and international markets. ReVolt will start with the production of retro-classic designs for the US market and later introduce a utility daily driver for everyday transportation in developing economic regions. The first motorcycle, currently in pilot production, is based on BMW's classic, WWII era, R71 motorcycle with sidecar. ReVolt is planning to produce a limited edition of the retro-classic electric motorcycle later this year in time for the holiday season.

Alternet's ReVolt Electric Motorbikes plans to become a world leader in the production of electric motorcycles by 1.) first establishing a manufacturing capacity and to then 2.) refine the Alternet lithium battery technology through the production and sales of a fun, useful and affordable electric motorbikes based on classic motorcycle designs for the U.S. consumer market. With a manufacturing capacity established and a lithium battery technology on the market, ReVolt Electric Motorbikes plans to begin delivering a line of daily driver electric motorbikes to developing economic regions.

Keep up with ReVolt's latest developments by checking back periodically to the company's website: http://www.revoltmotorbikes.com.

Learn more on the company's website: http://www.otc-alyi.com or http://www.lithiumip.com.

Disclaimer/Safe Harbor: This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Litigation Reform Act. The statements reflect the Company's current views with respect to future events that involve risks and uncertainties. Among others, these risks include the expectation that any of the companies mentioned herein will achieve significant sales, the failure to meet schedule or performance requirements of the companies' contracts, the companies' liquidity position, the companies' ability to obtain new contracts, the emergence of competitors with greater financial resources and the impact of competitive pricing. In the light of these uncertainties, the forward-looking events referred to in this release might not occur.

Alternet Systems, Inc. Contact:

Randell Torno

[email protected]

+1-800-713-0297

https://www.otc-alyi.com/contact/



SOURCE Alternet Systems, Inc.
The custom-wrapped American Airlines A321T aircraft will be in service between Los Angeles and New York. The graphic, which is more than 50 feet long, features Marvel Studios' Avengers: Infinity War heroes: Doctor Strange, Thor, Iron Man, Black Widow, Captain America and Black Panther; American Airlines LAX-based Customer Service agent and three-time breast cancer survivor Shandra Fitzpatrick, LAX-based Flight Attendant Michelle Ballard, Miami-based Fleet Service crew chief Juan Barquero, and Chicago-based Captain Ron France; and Stand Up To Cancer Scientific Advisor Dr. Phillip A. Sharp and SU2C researcher Dr. Marcela Maus.

This unprecedented integration across American Airlines, Marvel Studios' Avengers: Infinity War and SU2C is designed to raise awareness on the ground and in the air, underscoring the message of collaboration in battling this terrible disease.

The PSA campaign not only raises awareness for the cause, but also encourages American Airlines AAdvantage members to donate to Stand Up To Cancer. For every dollar donated to Stand Up To Cancer, American Airlines AAdvantage members will receive 10 American Airlines AAdvantage miles with a minimum $25 donation. Learn more at StandUpToCancer.org/AmericanAirlines.

SOURCE Stand Up To Cancer
GREEN BAY, Wis., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Associated Banc-Corp (NYSE:ASB) ("Associated") today announced the results of the actions taken at its 2018 Annual Meeting of Shareholders.

The following directors were re-elected:

William R. Hutchinson , chairman, Associated Banc-Corp, and president, W.R. Hutchinson & Associates, Inc.

, chairman, Associated Banc-Corp, and president, W.R. Hutchinson & Associates, Inc. Philip B. Flynn , president and chief executive officer, Associated Banc-Corp

, president and chief executive officer, Associated Banc-Corp John F. Bergstrom , chairman and chief executive officer, Bergstrom Corp.

, chairman and chief executive officer, Bergstrom Corp. Michael T. Crowley, Jr. , past chairman, Bank Mutual Corporation

, past chairman, Bank Mutual Corporation R. Jay Gerken , director of 18 mutual funds associated with Sanford C. Bernstein Fund, Inc.

, director of 18 mutual funds associated with Sanford C. Bernstein Fund, Inc. Judith P. Greffin , former chief investment officer, Allstate Corporation

, former chief investment officer, Allstate Corporation Robert A. Jeffe , director, OAG Analytics, Inc.

, director, OAG Analytics, Inc. Eileen A. Kamerick , adjunct professor of law and consultant

, adjunct professor of law and consultant Gale E. Klappa , chairman and chief executive officer, WEC Energy Group

, chairman and chief executive officer, WEC Energy Group Richard T. Lommen , chairman, Courtesy Corp.

, chairman, Courtesy Corp. Cory L. Nettles , founder and managing director, Generation Growth Capital, Inc.

, founder and managing director, Generation Growth Capital, Inc. Karen T. van Lith, business consultant

John (Jay) B. Williams , chairman, Church Mutual Insurance Company

Shareholders also (1) approved named executive officer compensation, (2) approved an annual vote on Associated Banc-Corp's named executive officer compensation, and (3) ratified the selection of KPMG LLP as Associated's independent accounting firm for 2018.

The Associated Board of Directors declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.15 per common share, payable on June 15, 2018, to shareholders of record at the close of business on June 1, 2018.

The Board of Directors also declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.3828125 per depositary share on Associated's 6.125% Series C Perpetual Preferred Stock, payable on June 15, 2018, to shareholders of record at the close of business on June 1, 2018.

The Board of Directors also declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.3359375 per depositary share on Associated's 5.375% Series D Perpetual Preferred Stock, payable on June 15, 2018, to shareholders of record at the close of business on June 1, 2018.

In addition, the Board authorized the repurchase of up to $100 million of Associated's common stock. This repurchase authorization is in addition to the authority remaining under the previous program. Repurchases under such programs are subject to regulatory limitations and may occur from time to time in open market purchases, block transactions, accelerated share repurchase programs or similar facilities.

ABOUT ASSOCIATED BANC-CORP

Associated Banc-Corp (NYSE: ASB) has total assets of $33 billion and is one of the top 50, publicly traded, U.S. bank holding companies. Headquartered in Green Bay, Wis., Associated is a leading Midwest banking franchise, offering a full range of financial products and services from more than 270 banking locations serving more than 110 communities throughout Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota, and commercial financial services in Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Texas. Associated Bank, N.A. is an Equal Housing Lender, Equal Opportunity Lender and Member FDIC. More information about Associated Banc-Corp is available at www.associatedbank.com.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

Statements made in this document which are not purely historical are forward-looking statements, as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. This includes any statements regarding management's plans, objectives, or goals for future operations, products or services, and forecasts of its revenues, earnings or other measures of performance. Such forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "plan", "estimate", "should", "will", "intend", "outlook", or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are based on current management expectations and, by their nature, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Factors which may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in such forward-looking statements include those identified in the company's most recent Form 10-K and subsequent SEC filings. Such factors are incorporated herein by reference.

Investor Contact:

Robb Timme, Vice President, Investor Relations

920-491-7059

Media Contact:

Jennifer Kaminski, Vice President, Public Relations Senior Manager

920-491-7576

SOURCE Associated Banc-Corp

Related Links

https://www.associatedbank.com


China has gradually become an important participant in the integration of global education. From April 16 th to 18 th , the 9th ASU+GSV Summit was successfully held in San Diego, United States. The 43 rd President of the United States, George Bush, former U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, senior adviser (former CEO) of Coursera and the former president of Yale University, Rick Levin, and more than 350 global political and educational leaders from over 40 countries have gathered to discuss leading trends in global education. TAL, as one of the sponsors, appeared on the global stage of "ASU+GSV" for the first time and made an important voice at the summit.

International Experts Engaged in Brainstorming

The "China Session" Gathers Innovative Forces

George W. Bush, the 43rd president of the US, highlighted the importance of educational development at the opening ceremony, "We want to ensure that everyone has access to education of the same quality so as to push for educational equality". Arne Duncan, the former former U.S. Education Secretary delivered in-depth remarks on global education policies and ICT trends in education. He believed that these "emerging forces" of education should be used to their full extent.

Rick Levin, senior adviser and former CEO of Coursera and the former president of Yale University pointed out, "Chinese education businesses are cooperating with the US in many fileds. The US also hopes to explore more opportunities in China's education market by means of establishing joint ventures". According to Michael Moe, founder and CEO of GSV, China is full of potential and future opportunities are to be found in China.

China's strategic layout for education in terms of investment, management systems, standard setting and professional development for teachers is pursing internationalization in all aspects step by step. During the three-day summit, Chinese education businesses such as TAL, XDF, Liulishuo, Yiqi Technology and Dada ABC had in-depth discussions with internationally renowned businesses such as Coursera and GSV on issues regarding China's education market, China's cooperation with other countries in education, local innovation models from China's education market, etc.

More Sophisticated Artificial Intelligence Leads China's Education onto the "Fast Track"

As the leading education technology summit in the world, this conference gathered leading technology companies including Microsoft, Google and Apple. Representatives from these companies had remarkable discussions on topics such as AI, AR/VR, machine learning and STEAM. "AI+education" was an important theme in the summit because of the wide use of AI in the area of education.

AI is gradually leading China's education onto the "fast track". As Huang Yan, CTO of TAL said, "China is taking the lead in education technology. TAL hopes to help children learn using science-based methods through adopting such advanced technologies as AI, big data and brain science, empowering the whole industry with open technologies and products. Meanwhile the Chinese government has always been committed to pushing for educational transformation along with nongovernmental sectors. The online broadcast and dual-teacher classroom of TAL will help more remote regions improve their education quality and work towards a balanced development of education."

Chinese education businesses such as TAL, Liulishuo and Yiqi Technology appeared in the Chinese Education Exhibition, which was set up for the first time during the summit. The Magic Mirror System (facial expression recognition technology) that TAL developed independently was one of the most popular educational technology products on show. Based on AI, the system captures data regarding the students' expressions and emotions in class, and forms an exclusive study report for each student.

"In terms of AI application in teaching, China has already covered areas including image, sound and semantic recognition. With sound assessment technology, we are able to judge whether the student's pronunciation is correct. With semantic recognition technology, we will know whether the student's answer is correct. With facial expression recognition technology, we can observe the student's level of concentration. In this way, teaching efficiency is greatly improved," said Chen Ningyu, the general manager of XRS Online School. Yang Songfan, director of the AI Lab at TAL, also emphasized on the educational technology philosophy of "digitalized classroom and personalized contents". He said that Chinese educational technology businesses, represented by TAL, would continue to push for AI-driven educational transformation.

Promote Exchange and Cooperation between China and Other Countries

Create "New Drivers" for the Internationalization of Education

In 2017, the size of China's education market exceeded 1.3 trillion USD with a growth rate of over 10%. The enormous size of the Chinese education market creates a wider space for China's educational cooperation with other countries. During her three-day state visit to China in February this year, British Prime Minister Theresa May signed a series of educational cooperation agreements. The total value of trade and investment cooperation projects in the field of education exceeded 550 million GBP. China is endowed with opportunities that will facilitate its efforts towards the internationalization of education.

Many overseas education businesses started planning for their entry into China's education market after learning of its development trend during the three-day ASU+GSV Summit. "In recent years, China's education market developed rapidly in terms of technology and content and the volume of this market is huge," according to Chen Dinghong, the chief overseas adviser of TAL. "Made in China" is gradually transformed into "Created in China, Made for the World". TAL as well as other Chinese education businesses hope to advance education with science and technology innovation and to step up exchanges with their overseas counterparts in both content and technology.

Introducing quality educational resources and creating standard international cooperation have become an important way for Chinese education businesses to expand their share in the global market. TAL, for instance, has localized learning materials of National Geographic and Reading A-Z, an American graded reading system. It works with ETS, the Oxford University Press and the Cambridge University Press and has formed strategic partnerships, making a great effort to enrich the core of its internationalized education.

It has been 40 years since the beginning of China's reform and opening up. Looking ahead, China's pursuit of internationalization for education carries great significance. The demonstration of "Chinese Forces" in educational technology and internationalization during the ASU+GSV Summit reflected China's strengths in education. But what was reflected during the summit was only the tip of the iceberg. With the continuous effort of TAL and other Chinese education businesses, China will be a driver for global education and constitute an essential part of global education.

SOURCE TAL Education Group
"With our CXM Platform, we believe we've built something unlike anything this industry has ever seen, and truthfully it couldn't have been released at a better time," says Favero. "As with any new technology, education is key, and Shawn's proven record of simplifying what could be complex makes him the perfect leader for our sales organization."

Morse has worked with AutoAlert CEO Mike Dullea and team at several other companies, including being a key leader in the sales organizations at VinSolutions and MotoFuze.

"Having worked with Mike in the past, I have an understanding of how both the technology and the organization can change quickly," says Morse. "My goal has always been to make the complex simple, so our sales teams can educate our dealers on the changing generations and how to communicate with them to help dealers find, sell, and keep customers more profitably."

"The promotion is an extension of AutoAlert's continued excellence in making sure that dealerships are educated on what it takes to remain competitive in the future marketplace," AutoAlert CEO Mike Dullea said.

Morse joined AutoAlert in December 2016 as Director of Sales and was promoted to his senior director post in July 2017. During that time, the company's revenue growth and network of dealerships has increased exponentially.

Morse was formerly Senior Vice President of Software Solutions at National Credit Center and Sales Director at VinSolutions, a Cox Automotive company.

About AutoAlert

A pioneer in data mining and new-client engagement, AutoAlert was founded in 2002 and now leads the automotive industry in data mining, communication platforms, and other software solutions. AutoAlert's technology bridges the communication gap between a dealership's management, employees, and customers, creating high-quality sales opportunities, increased gross margin, and improved customer retention.

Visit www.autoalert.com to learn more about AutoAlert's software solutions for growing and supporting dealerships.

For more information, contact Ryan Rigdon, AutoAlert's Senior Director of Strategy & Execution, at [email protected].

SOURCE AutoAlert, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.autoalert.com


WELLESLEY, Mass., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Babson College, the preeminent global leader in entrepreneurship education, hosted its fourth annual Babson Connect: Worldwide in Madrid, Spain April 20-22, 2018.

This year's premier global business summit brought together renowned figures in the international business community, as well as Babson alumni, faculty, parents, administrators, and friends, to celebrate the ways in which Entrepreneurial Thought & Action positively transforms businesses, societies, and lives worldwide.

Babson College and international business community convened for premier global summit April 20-22

"Babson Connect: Worldwide is an unmatched opportunity to gather, celebrate, learn and inspire one another in a different global entrepreneurial hub each year," said Babson College President Kerry Healey. "We invited the Babson community to join us this year in Madrida leading European financial and technological center rich in culture and history, and a natural next step in Babson's trip around the world."

Among this year's impressive list of speakers were fashion industry icons, Tommy Hilfiger, Elle Macpherson P'20, and Lawrence Stroll P'17, executives from some of the world's largest corporations, including Carlos Torres Vila, CEO of BBVA, and Ferit Sahenk P'20, Chairman of Dogus Holdings, and leading humanitarians, including Paul Farmer, Co-Founder and Chief Strategist of Partners In Health.

Highlights also included the presentation of Babson's newest Lewis Institute Community Changemaker honoreesLeila Janah, "Give Work" Founder and CEO of Samasource and LXMI, and Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, Permanent Member of the Spanish Council of State and President of the Women for Africa Foundation. This award is designed to recognize persons who have set something in motion in order to create positive change.

Babson also named its 2018 Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs InducteeJuan Roig, President of Mercadona, who was honored at a private event in Valencia on April 19. Established in 1978, the Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs is the world's first entrepreneurship hall of fame.

According to the latest report from the Babson-sponsored Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), more than 50 percent of adults in Spain see entrepreneurship as a good career choice, and 60 percent are undeterred by fear of failure when deciding whether or not to start a business. Regionally, Europe demonstrates the second highest rate of entrepreneurs driven by opportunity rather than necessity (75 percent), just below North America.

Launched in 2015 in historic Cartagena, Colombia, Babson Connect: Worldwide has since traveled to Dubai, UAE the international hub of entrepreneurial activity, and then Bangkok, Thailand, one of the great economic success stories of Asia.

Featured events included keynote speeches from Raj Sisodia, Babson's F.W. Olin Distinguished Professor of Global Business and Co-Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Conscious Capitalism Inc., and Arthur C. Brooks, President of American Enterprise Institute. This year's panels were focused on Family Entrepreneurship and Business, Global Finance, The Business of Fashion, Global Healthcare Entrepreneurship, A Glimpse into the World of Luxury Brands, and more.

BCW 2018 Advisory Committee:

Paloma Botin P'12

Cyril Camus '91, Babson Global Advisory Board

Marla Capozzi MBA'96, Chair of the Babson Board of Trustees

Said and Mariana Darwazah P'15 '20, Trustee

Angel De La Fuente P'21

Harish Fabiani P'17, Trustee

Susana Gallardo P'13, Babson Global Advisory Board

Jean-Paul Gut P'19

Muhammad Habib '81, P'09, Babson Global Advisory Board

Markus Krautli '81, P'12, Babson Global Advisory Board

Pierre Lacharlotte P'21, Babson Global Advisory Board

Suchitra Lohia P'06 '15, Trustee

Narender Madnani '91, Trustee

Ignacio Mora-Figueroa MBA'00

Francisco Riberas P'13 '15

Dianne and Ferit Sahenk P'20, Trustee

Adam Said '04

BCW 2018 Host Committee:

The Carabias Family '14 '14 '17

Simran H. Fabiani '17

Ricardo Gomez-Acebo Botin '12

Vasana Jantarach MBA'07

Pablo Kuszelewski MBA'15

Francois Nuyts MBA'96

Maria Pereda Ehrlich '15

The Perez Olivera Family '16

Martin Restrepo '17, Trustee

Monica Riberas '15

Patricia Riberas '13

Samuel Soria Santos MBA'11

Alexander Thomson-Payan '06

Dean's Student Ambassadors:

Elia M. Innamorati '20

'20 Defne Sahenk '20

Rayhaan Surve '20

Alvaro De La Fuente '21

About Babson College

Babson College is the educator, convener, and thought leader for Entrepreneurship of All Kinds. The top-ranked college for entrepreneurship education, Babson is a dynamic living and learning laboratory where students, faculty, and staff work together to address the real-world problems of business and society. We prepare the entrepreneurial leaders our world needs most: those with strong functional knowledge and the skills and vision to navigate change, accommodate ambiguity, surmount complexity, and motivate teams in a common purpose to make a difference in the world, and have an impact on organizations of all sizes and types. As we have for nearly a half-century, Babson continues to advance Entrepreneurial Thought & Action as the most positive force on the planet for generating sustainable economic and social value.

SOURCE Babson College

Related Links

http://www.babson.edu


Based on more than 230,000 individual ratings collected in the first quarter of 2018, the annual survey is the largest corporate reputation study of its kind, and provides comparative rankings, demographic trends, and unique insights into the dynamics behind reputational impact. The global study shows what drives trust including ethical behavior, fairness, product value and transparency while identifying behaviors including intent to purchase a company's products, willingness to invest in, or even work for, the company.

"I am proud to lead this company and our talented teams, and it makes it even more rewarding to know that consumers recognize us as a good corporate citizen and a positive force within our communities," said Mahesh Madhavan, chief executive officer, Bacardi Limited. "To be ranked six years in a row is an honor and a reflection of not only our portfolio of premium spirits but especially our thousands of dedicated employees around the world who embody the entrepreneurial spirit and values of family-owned Bacardi."

For more than 20 years, RI measures the reputation of thousands of companies using its RepTrak framework. The Global RepTrak 100 study measures multinational companies with a presence in all 15 surveyed countries and brand familiarity with at least 40% of the general population on seven dimensions of reputation including products and services, innovation, workplace, governance, citizenship, leadership and performance. The countries in the annual survey  Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Korea, Spain, United Kingdom and United States  represent the largest economies.

"The accomplishment of being consistently ranked as part of the Global RepTrak 100 is a testament to Bacardi's commitment to delivering upon its tradition of excellence," said Stephen Hahn-Griffiths, Chief Reputation Officer at Reputation Institute.

In putting together its annual list of the world's most reputable companies, RI assigns each company a score between 0 and 100  The RepTrak Pulse  ascertained by taking into account the esteem, trust, admiration and feelings the general public has for each company. A company's performance across seven categories of reputation explain the rational drivers behind the emotional bond.

"With seven generations of family owners, Bacardi's sterling reputation is both personal and deeply rooted in our identity as we never forget that a family name is on every bottle of our iconic rum," added Madhavan.

To access the fill list of the most reputable companies in the world, visit: http://www.reputationinstitute.com/thought-leadership/global-reptrak-100

About Reputation Institute

Reputation Institute powers the world's most reputable companies. By tracking and analyzing stakeholder perceptions, we unleash the power of reputation to enable leaders to build better companies. Our RepTrak model analyzes the reputations of companies and is best known as the Forbes-published Global RepTrak 100. Underlying the model is the RepTrak methodology, the global gold standard for measuring reputation. www.reputationinstitute.com

About Bacardi Limited

Bacardi Limited, the largest privately held spirits company in the world, produces and markets internationally recognized spirits and wines. The Bacardi brand portfolio comprises more than 200 brands and labels, including BACARDI rum, GREY GOOSE vodka, DEWAR'S Blended Scotch whisky, BOMBAY SAPPHIRE gin, MARTINI vermouth and sparkling wines, CAZADORES 100% blue agave tequila, and other leading and emerging brands including WILLIAM LAWSON'S, ERISTOFF vodka, and ST-GERMAIN elderflower liqueur.

Founded more than 156 years ago, in Santiago de Cuba on February 4, 1862, family-owned Bacardi currently employs approximately 5,500, operates more than 20 production facilities, including bottling, distilling and manufacturing sites, and sells its brands in more than 170 countries. Bacardi Limited refers to the Bacardi group of companies, including Bacardi International Limited. www.bacardilimited.com

Media Contact

Amy Federman, +1.441.294.1110, [email protected]

Enjoy Responsibly.

SOURCE Bacardi Limited
SEATTLE, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Bardy Diagnostics, Inc., ("BardyDx"), a leading provider of ambulatory cardiac monitoring technologies and custom data solutions, including the Carnation Ambulatory Monitor ("CAM"), the world's only P-wave centric ambulatory cardiac monitor and arrhythmia detection device, announced today the appointment of Alan J. Levy, PhD to its Board of Directors. He will serve as Executive Director, expanding Bardy Diagnostics' Board of Directors to seven members. Dr. Levy brings more than 40 years of senior operational leadership and entrepreneurial experience in the medical device industry.

"We are extraordinarily fortunate and honored to welcome Alan Levy as our newest board member," said Gust Bardy, MD, Bardy Diagnostics Founder and Chief Executive Officer. "Dr. Levy combines the strengths of being an astute business executive, investor, and scientist as demonstrated by his impressive track record of leading early-stage med tech companies to successful exits and IPOs. We are excited to draw upon his extensive experience helming some of the most cutting-edge, disruptive start-up medical device companies, to further elevate Bardy Diagnostics in its goals to revolutionize ECG technology."

Most recently, Dr. Levy served as the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board at Chrono Therapeutics. In addition, he was a Senior Advisor and Venture Partner of Frazier Healthcare Partners focusing on the Life Science sector. Dr. Levy's notable previous leadership experiences include serving as the founding Chief Executive Officer at Incline Therapeutics that was acquired by The Medicines Company for $390 million, Chief Executive Officer and President at Northstar Neuroscience that went public and raised $112 million in their IPO, Chief Executive Officer and President at Heartstream that was acquired by Hewlett-Packard for $140 million, and President at Heart Technology that was acquired by Boston Scientific for $500 million. In addition, he held several leadership positions at Ethicon, a division of Johnson & Johnson, including serving as the Vice President of Research and New Business Development and Director.

Dr. Levy serves as a board member of several public and private companies including Intuitive Surgical, Proteus Digital Health and Seattle BioMed. He received his PhD in Organic Chemistry from Purdue University, a BS in Chemistry from City University of New York, and holds an Honorary Doctor of Science from Purdue University.

"It is with great pleasure and excitement that I accept this position alongside the other high-caliber members of the board," said Dr. Levy. "I have been a part of various medical device companies and have had the opportunity to evaluate many investment opportunities in the space; the potential of Bardy Diagnostics is outstanding and I am eager to support the company through its next phase of growth in becoming the industry leader in cardiac monitoring."

About Bardy Diagnostics:

Bardy Diagnostics, Inc. is an innovator in digital health and remote patient monitoring, with a focus on providing diagnostically-accurate and patient-friendly cardiac and vital signs patch monitors to the industry. The company's CAM patch is a non-invasive, P-wave centric ambulatory cardiac monitor and arrhythmia detection device that is designed to improve patient compliance for men, women, and children through its lifestyle-enabling patch design. Designed to be worn comfortably and discreetly by both men and women, the female-friendly, hourglass-shaped CAM patch is placed on the center of the chest, directly over the heart for optimum ECG signal collection. The innovative and broadly-patented technology of the CAM patch provides optimal detection and clear recording of the often difficult-to-detect P-wave, the part of the ECG waveform that is essential for accurate arrhythmia diagnosis.

For more information please visit www.bardydx.com

MEDIA CONTACT:

Jonathan Wu

Director, Marketing

Bardy Diagnostics, Inc.

1-844-422-7393

[email protected]

SOURCE Bardy Diagnostics, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.bardydx.com


This year's flu season proved challenging as the state of North Carolina reached an Influenza-Like-Illness (ILI) rate of 11%, approximately 3% higher than the top ILI rate during the 2016-2017 season and 7% higher than the top ILI rate during the 2015-2016 flu season. 1 Influenza among other illness-causing viruses like the common cold and fast-spreading norovirus, that result in outbreaks, present schools with a unique challenge as they can survive on surfaces anywhere from days to months.

Moreover, schools have an abundance of large, frequently-shared spaces and touched surfaces, providing countless opportunities for illness-causing germs to be spread via cross contamination. Beaufort County School District is comprised of nearly 7,000 students and more than 800 staff members across our 14 schools and six administrative buildings. As a result, daily cleaning and disinfection is a critical line of defense against illness-causing bacteria and viruses.

The Clorox Total 360 System works by atomizing and charging trusted Clorox disinfecting and sanitizing solutions making them attracted to both frequently-touched and hard-to-reach surfaces with a force stronger than gravity, resulting in uniform and complete surface coverage. Beaufort County School District custodial staff can now cover more ground in less time, with less manpower and less product while providing more comprehensive surface coverage. The system can cover up to 18,000 sq. ft. per hour, providing superior surface coverage up to four times faster and using 65% less solution than traditional cleaners.

"Once we saw the Clorox Total 360 System demonstration, we were sold and so was our board. It is an easy sell because once you see the system in action, it instantly proves its worth," said Don Phipps, Superintendent, Beaufort County School District. "We received our first two systems right before the flu season and as a result, we were able to put them to use right away and we believe the systems help us mitigate the normal increases in the number of absences that we routinely see during flu season. In only two weeks, word had spread and everyone in our school district wanted the systems brought in to their classrooms and offices  demand became so high we decided to invest in a third system. In fact, word spread so far, a school district in another county heard about our success and requested a demo. Immediately thereafter, they invested in three systems themselves."

The Beaufort County School District use our two Clorox Total 360 System across our 14 schools, six administrative buildings and entire fleet of school buses to help maintain a clean learning environment during tough times of year like flu season as well as year-round. In addition, if high rates of sickness are reported, we can now quickly and effectively treat the affected areas, whereas before it would force us to shut down and take an entire afternoon to adequately disinfect the affected areas.

"We at Beaufort County School District saw this as an important investment for the well-being of our community and we have already seen the ROI in a short couple of months," added Phipps. "We are a relatively small school district with limited resources but the Clorox Total 360 System helps us better protect our students and faculty and therefore provides a better education making it worth every penny."

To learn more about the Clorox Total 360 System, visit www.cloroxtotal360.com.

1 "NORTH CAROLINA INFLUENZA SURVEILLANCE SUMMARY: WEEK ENDING MARCH 3, 2018." http://www.flu.nc.gov/. Accessed Mar. 12, 2018.

SOURCE Beaufort County Schools

Related Links

https://www.beaufort.k12.nc.us/schools


FLORENCE, S.C., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A drink cooler is an essential part of many leisure and business activities. The problem often is they can be quite uncomfortable to get drinks from, with the need to bend over again and again to keep a fresh drink or something cold to eat in hand. The good news is Florence, SC-based company Ben-No-Mo (or Bend No More) have tackled the issue head-on and developed a breakthrough cooler stand that's easy to use, reliable, durable, and works well with even the heavier more-expensive cooler brands on the market like Yeti and CAT. The company recently announced the nationwide release of the Ben-No-Mo and the response has been enthusiastic.

Chad and Larry Lyerly, inventors of Ben-No-Mo, the Next-Gen cooler stand. The adjustable, collapsible, industrial strength Next-Gen cooler Stand. Making it easy for travel, storage, lightweight and perfect fit for many different size coolers. http://www.ben-no-mo.com

"We saw a real need for something better made than the cooler stands that were on the market and the idea for Ben-No-Mo was born," commented a spokesperson from the company. "Things like tailgating, barbecues, picnics, and even business conventions are a big part of the American lifestyle, so why have a great cooler, if you don't have equally amazing cooler stand to make it more comfortable and convenient to use?"

According to Ben-No-Mo, the stand is both lightweight and easily folds up to take up less space when traveling. Being able to hold up to 300lbs it has become a quick favorite of campers, tailgaters, fishermen, and many other adventurous people across the globe. The product was the first developed in Gould Business Incubator on the SiMT campus at Florence-Darlington Technical College, in South Carolina being the first manufacturing business to take advantage of the benefits the incubator offers, something Ben-No-Mo is both grateful for and proud of.

Reviews for the new heavy duty collapsible cooler stand have been very positive across the board.

Michael S., from Georgia, recently said in a five-star review, "I couldn't be happier with my Ben-No-Mo cooler stand. It works perfectly with any of my coolers and I don't have to wince whenever I want to grab a drink tailgating. This is a first-class product all the way."

For more information, be sure to visit https://www.ben-no-mo.com.

Media Contact

Marie Giordano

[email protected]

843-496-1714

SOURCE Ben-No-Mo, LLC

Related Links

https://www.ben-no-mo.com


NASHVILLE, Tenn., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- OnlineSchoolsCenter.com has recently released their list of the Best Online Schools for Bachelor of Psychology Degree Programs for 2018, a comprehensive catalogue of the finest distance education programs of this discipline.

You may view the list, along with a description of the benefits of each institution, by clicking the link below:

https://www.onlineschoolscenter.com/best-online-bachelor-psychology/

Psychology is one of the most popular undergraduate majors at any higher education institution. This type of challenging curriculum educates students in the natures of human behavior and the inner-workings of the mind, while training them to address these natures to influence any number of future career paths and disciplines. Whether students plan on continuing their education in Master's of Psychology degree programs, or entering into positions of employment, this degree program will help them understand how people work.

These twenty outstanding online schools give students access to challenging coursework that is instructed and designed by some of the finest minds in the field of psychology. Students will undergo complex, real-world scenarios that teach them the proper ways to approach other human beings with compassion and understanding. This degree program is applicable to many different fields as well, such as business, human resources, marketing, etc., as an understanding of human nature is useful in all areas!

According to lead researcher and writer, Rowan Jones, "While it may seem intimidating, earning an online degree in psychology is a fantastic way for students of all ages to approach the discipline. Each school on this list makes a dedicated effort to serve their students by whatever means necessary."

Below we have listed the schools that have made the Best Online Schools for Bachelor of Psychology Degree Programs for 2018:

 Penn State World Campus  University Park, PA

 University of Florida  Gainesville, FL

 Oregon State University  Corvallis, OR

 Colorado State University  Fort Collins, CO

 University of North Dakota  Grand Folks, ND

 University of Central Florida  Orlando, FL

 Southern New Hampshire University  Hooksett, NH

 Drexel University  Philadelphia, PA

 Washington State University  Pullman, WA

 Florida International University  Miami, FL

 Arizona State University  Tempe, AZ

 Fort Hays State University  Hays, KS

 Touro University Worldwide  Los Alamitos, CA

 Liberty University  Lynchburg, VA

 University of Alabama at Birmingham  Birmingham, AL

 Central Michigan University  Mount Pleasant, MI

 Northeastern university  Boston, MA

 Brandman University  Irvine, CA

 Bellevue University  Bellevue NE

 Claflin University  Orangeburg, SC

Contact:

Rowan Jones

Researcher/Writer

OnlineSchoolsCenter.com

Email: [email protected]

Cell: (931) 636-4286

SOURCE OnlineSchoolsCenter.com

Related Links

https://www.onlineschoolscenter.com


COLUMBUS, Ohio, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Big Lots announced today this spring's national point-of-sale fundraising campaign, Give BIG for Kids benefitting Nationwide Children's Hospital, raised $2.6 million dollars over the last three and a half weeks. With this spring campaign's results, Big Lots and their generous customers have now raised over $13.5 million dollars in support of the life-saving research and care provided by Nationwide Children's.

Commenting on today's announcement Tim Johnson, Executive Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Big Lots said, "We are overwhelmed by the generosity of our customers and thrilled with the excitement and passion of our associates in another highly successful campaign. The proceeds raised will help transform how we talk about mental and behavioral health in our communities and work towards the critical research and care for our kids with behavioral health challenges. This is excellent example as to how we strive to Serve Big as a community retailer and I could not be prouder of our team."

"All of us here at Nationwide Children's Hospital cannot thank Big Lots, their associates and customers enough for their generosity," said Steve Testa, President of Nationwide Children's Hospital Foundation. "Big Lots is aiding greatly in helping our institution discuss the importance of behavioral and mental health care."

The campaign concluded with a beam-signing event at the Grandview, Ohio, Big Lots store on April 21st. One of the final beams that will top off the framework of the Nationwide Children's Hospital Big Lots Behavioral Health Pavilion next month was presented in store for customers and store associates to write their messages of strength and support onto the beam. These words and well wishes will surround the patients and caregivers who will use the new facility, which will open in 2020.

To learn more about the fundraising campaign, please visit biglots.com/give4kids.

About Big Lots, Inc.

Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Big Lots, Inc. (NYSE: BIG) is a community retailer operating 1,415 BIG LOTS stores in 47 states, dedicated to friendly service, trustworthy value, and affordable solutions in every season and category  furniture, food, decor, and more. We exist to serve everyone like family, providing a better shopping experience for our customers, valuing and developing our associates, and creating growth for our shareholders. Big Lots supports the communities it serves through the Big Lots Foundation, a charitable organization focused on four areas of need: hunger, housing, healthcare, and education. For more information about the Company, visit www.biglots.com.

About Nationwide Children's Hospital

Named to the Top 10 Honor Roll on U.S. News & World Report's 2017-18 list of "America's Best Children's Hospitals," Nationwide Children's Hospital is one of America's largest not-for-profit freestanding pediatric healthcare systems providing wellness, preventive, diagnostic, treatment and rehabilitative care for infants, children and adolescents, as well as adult patients with congenital disease. Nationwide Children's has a staff of nearly 13,000 providing state-of-the-art pediatric care during more than 1.4 million patient visits annually. As home to the Department of Pediatrics of The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Nationwide Children's physicians train the next generation of pediatricians and pediatric specialists. The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital is one of the Top 10 National Institutes of Health-funded freestanding pediatric research facilities. More information is available at NationwideChildrens.org.

SOURCE Big Lots, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.biglots.com


FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in coordination with the Department of Health's seed-to-sale traceability provider, BioTrackTHC, has officially deployed its government seed-to-sale Traceability System to oversee the island's medical cannabis industry. The system will enable the government to track and regulate the medical cannabis supply chain, product safety, and sales.

Puerto Rico originally announced BioTrackTHC as the winner apparent of the contract in late 2016. However, there was a series of protests from competing vendors that were ultimately dismissed. The contract was then officially executed by the Puerto Rico Department of Health and BioTrackTHC in February of 2018. The Traceability System is being deployed in phases, with the first phase going live today, Tuesday, April 24, 2018.

"Our goal is to provide safe access to medical cannabis for all of our patients in Puerto Rico. The Traceability System empowers us to provide them with access in a way that is both transparent and responsible," said Antonio Quilichini, Executive Director of the Regulatory Board for Medical Cannabis. "Additionally, it will enable the medical cannabis board to properly track the island's supply chain in real time, with complete visibility and accountability."

Because of the unique nature of Puerto Rico's medical cannabis program, as well as the fact that a large number of licensees and their employees are Spanish-speaking, BioTrackTHC recently opened an office on the island and currently employs two staff members locally who are exclusively focused on supporting the Department of Health, the Puerto Rico licensees, the company's Spanish-speaking customers, and the Puerto Rico Traceability program at-large.

"It is an honor to be in a position to help launch the island's medical cannabis program and assist the licensees in getting up and running on the Traceability System," said James Tolentino, Director of Puerto Rico Operations for BioTrackTHC.

There are currently over 60 licensed cannabis businesses who are approved by the State to distribute medical cannabis to approved patients in Puerto Rico. The launch of the Traceability System provides these patients with an accessible program as well as safe, lab-tested medical cannabis.

As previously announced in March of this year, BioTrackTHC and Helix TCS Inc. (OTCQB: HLIX) have signed a definitive merger agreement. The signing of this contract helps to further establish BioTrackTHC as a leader in government traceability as they now hold nine (9) executed seed-to-sale contracts.

About BioTrackTHC

Bio-Tech Medical Software, Inc., through its BioTrackTHC division, develops and provides effective, cutting-edge technology solutions for the emerging medical and recreational cannabis industry. Visit www.biotrack.com for more information, email [email protected] or call 1-800-797-4711 to order software. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for important updates and relevant industry news. BioTrackTHC currently holds 9 government contracts and operates in over 2000 locations across 28 states, D.C., and 4 countries. Bio-Tech Medical Software, Inc. is a privately-held company based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

CONTACT:

Jeff Gonring

BioTrackTHC

(303) 324-1022

[email protected]

https://www.biotrack.com

SOURCE BioTrackTHC

Related Links

https://www.biotrack.com


NEW YORK, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Shopin, the first universal shopper profile that delivers the most personal shopping experience on retailer websites, apps, and stores using blockchain and Artificial Intelligence, today welcomed veteran blockchain strategist and entrepreneur Brad Bulent Yasar to its Board of Advisors. A well-known angel investor and blockchain, cryptocurrency expert, Mr. Yasar brings considerable technology and business experience to Shopin's Board of Advisors, which collectively spans across the retail, fashion, technology, venture capital, cryptocurrency, and blockchain industries.

The Founder and Managing Partner of KrowdMentor, a strategic advisory firm for cryptocurrency and blockchain-focused organizations, Mr. Yasar is an investor, mentor, and advisor who has founded and scaled dozens of companies from inception to maturity over the last 20 years. He serves as COO of d10e, the leading global conference on decentralization, and he is the CoFounder of the Blockchain Investors Consortium (BIC), a 100-member group of investors that has allocated more than $5 billion dollars to blockchain and cryptocurrency projects.

"Having Brad join our brain trust of industry experts underscores the importance and timeliness of Shopin's mission to uniquely solve the current-day data disconnect between retailers and shoppers," said Eran Eyal, CEO of Shopin. "As a decentralized shopper profile built on the blockchain, Shopin is building the most valuable contextual understanding of user and purchase data, and it's vital to us that users own and manage their own data assets. But that can only be done through blockchain technology, which enables attestablity to the first-party data that is being leveraged in our product recommendation and advertising model. Having the qualified expertise of Brad on board, in addition to our all-star team of advisors and employees, makes Shopin even stronger and moves us closer to our goal of transforming the retailer and shopper experience."

Mr. Yasar speaks frequently at events related to decentralization, cryptocurrency, entrepreneurship, angel investing, and business strategy. Most recently, he presented at the True Global Ventures event in Mumbai and keynoted World Business Angels Investment Forum (WBAF). He also serves as a mentor for the Pepperdine Alumni Association, and as a guest lecturer at USC Marshall Business School.

"It's a great honor to come on board as an advisor for Shopin, one of the most exciting and promising blockchain businesses poised to radically uplift and redefine the retail industry by offering a decentralized secure data storage solution for users that also rewards them with the Shopin Token," said Mr. Yasar. "It's a passion point of mine to focus my energy and expertise only on businesses that are positively disruptive in how they reshape the world we live in -- for all of us, not just a select few."

Shopin recently hit a milestone Proof of Concept when company engineers and technologists were able to prove the physical function of the Shopin Token as an accountable and attestable utility that can move between a retailer and a Shopin user as intended, confirming the Shopin model and enabling the company to scale quickly as it approaches its official launch in Q3 of this year.

"Brad's work with the BIC has been so important in advancing the adoption of blockchain technology and bringing awareness to more mainstream industries such as retail," said Jeremy Harkness, BTO and CoFounder of Shopin. "Now that we have proved the validity and physicality of the Shopin business model and simplified the way the Shopin Token can move on and off the Ethereum blockchain through an Atomic swap, we are headed full throttle toward our launch, and we are truly pleased to have a blockchain visionary such as Brad be part of our valued and trusted Board of Advisors."

Shopin recently finalized its Private and Public Presale, raising more than $40 million. The company's Token Generation Event is currently underway until the end of April.

For more information about Shopin please visit Shopin.com.

About Shopin

Shopin is a universal shopper profile that delivers the most personal shopping experience on retailers' websites, apps, and stores based on shopper preferences and purchase history data. Shoppers are in full control of their data for the first time with a cryptocurrency to reward them when their attention is engaged with ads, content, and loyalty. Shopin empowers retailers to offer better product recommendations, easier and more secure transactions, and more valuable customer rewards using blockchain and Artificial Intelligence technology. Voted "Best ICO" at the North American Bitcoin Conference 2018, "Best ICO and Startup" by CoinAgenda Global, and the #5 "Top ICO" at Davos d10e, Shopin's vision is to create a more sustainable retail economy where retailers become stronger by working together with their consumers. Headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, Shopin is backed by Galaxy Investment Partners, Nima Capital, Passport, Block One Capital, Outbound Ventures, and angel investors from Google, ZocDoc, the founders of Docusign, Wiser, and others. Shopin is revolutionizing the world of retail. Learn more about Shopin and our Token Generation Event at www.shopin.com.

Media Contact:

Gretchen Hyman

[email protected]



SOURCE Shopin

Related Links

https://tokensale.shopin.com


ARLINGTON, Va., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Bloomberg Law today announced that the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) awarded its 2018 New Product of the Year Award to its Points of Law artificial intelligence solution. The award is to be presented at AALL's upcoming Annual Meeting & Conference, being held July 14-17, 2018 in Baltimore, Maryland.

Introduced in September 2017, Points of Law enables legal professionals to dramatically accelerate case law research by allowing them to pinpoint language critical to a court's reasoning to support their legal arguments. The tool, which includes over 1 million points of law and is updated daily, identifies statements of law within a court opinion and surfaces the most cited, relevant, and recent cases related to those statements.

"On behalf of all the members of AALL, I congratulate everyone at Bloomberg Law for being honored with the 2018 AALL New Product Award for Points of Law," said AALL President Greg Lambert. "As leaders of legal research best practices and advanced technology tools, our members recognize the value of powerful litigation support resources. Points of Law is an outstanding example of just such a tool, and we congratulate Bloomberg Law on their award."

The AALL New Product Award honors new and innovative commercial legal information products that enhance or improve existing law library services or procedures. Members of AALL's New Product Award Jury evaluate eligible products and select the recipient. Bloomberg Law previously received the award in 2012.

"We are honored that AALL selected Points of Law for this prestigious award," said Scott Mozarsky, President, Bloomberg Law. "Our commitment to the market and to our clients is that we will continue to make significant investments in Bloomberg Law in order to ensure that it continuously becomes more and more valuable to our subscribers. We value our longstanding relationship with AALL, whose members are at the intersection of technology, data and content and in a unique position to provide ideas and feedback that inform our product development efforts."

"The market's embrace of Points of Law underscores the enthusiasm for solutions that apply artificial intelligence to improve the efficiency and quality of legal research," said Joe Breda, Executive Vice President, Product, Bloomberg Law. "Points of Law is yet another example of our commitment to continuous innovation and we are already hard at work on Bloomberg Law's next generation of AI tools."

About Bloomberg Law

Bloomberg Law helps legal professionals provide world-class counsel with access to actionable legal intelligence in a business context. Bloomberg Law delivers a unique combination of practical guidance, comprehensive primary and secondary source material, trusted content from Bloomberg BNA, news, time-saving practice tools, market data and business intelligence. For more information, visit www.bna.com/bloomberglaw.

SOURCE Bloomberg Law

Related Links

http://www.bna.com/bloomberglaw


CHANTILLY, Va., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Blue Ridge Networks announced today that it will be exhibiting at the 2018 Control System Integrators Association (CSIA) Executive Conference from April 24-27 in San Francisco, CA. During the event, Blue Ridge Networks will be demonstrating its cybersecurity capabilities and seeking partners within the CSIA community to deploy critically important cybersecurity solutions into the industrial and manufacturing sectors.

This year's theme, "Growing Through Innovation and Sound Business Practices," will emphasize embracing the next step in digital transformation, while maximizing growth with industry best practices. While automation and the digital transformation of business processes have been a catalyst for progress for manufacturing and industrial industries, they have also made these organizations prime targets for hackers. To protect their growing network infrastructures, industrial organizations need to make end-to-end security a top priority, and a significant part of the digital transformation conversation.

According to the 2018 State of IoT Security report from Forrester, "As organizations digitize more business processes to improve customer outcomes, they're confronted with a diverse device landscape. The challenge is in assessing any given device's underlying security architecture and determining whether bringing such a device into the corporate environment creates new risks."1

"The introduction of smart-technology has also introduced a myriad of new entry points for hackers to infiltrate a network," said John Higginbotham, CEO of Blue Ridge Networks. "Without a comprehensive cyber strategy in place, these organizations are incredibly vulnerable to attacks. For more than 20 years we have been working to develop cybersecurity solutions that prevent just this kind of hack  and we are proud to say that they have never been breached. Our team is looking forward to partnering with the control systems integrator community to implement cyber solutions more broadly in the industrial sector."

The annual CSIA Executive Conference brings together more than 500 control system integrators and industry suppliers from around the world. CSIA is a non-profit organization founded in 1994, that aims to advance the industry of control system integration by providing an avenue for members to share industry expertise and discuss solutions to next-generation problems.

For more information, visit: www.blueridgenetworks.com or contact [email protected].

1 Forrester Report: The State of IoT Security 2018, Merritt Maxim, Stephanie Balaouras, Salvatore Schiano, Madeline Cyr, Peggy Dostie, January 2018

ABOUT BLUE RIDGE NETWORKS

Based in Northern Virginia, Blue Ridge Networks provides effective network segmentation and endpoint protection that eliminate cybersecurity vulnerabilities for critical infrastructure operations. Its Autonomous Cybersecurity Suite has protected critical operations for prominent US government, financial, healthcare, and other customers for more than twenty years with no reported breaches - ever.

SOURCE Blue Ridge Networks

Related Links

http://www.blueridgenetworks.com


Continuing a multi-year collaboration that has filmed stories in India, Africa, and Guatemala, Director/Creative Director Mark Littman led the BODEGA team to indigenous Mayan villages in the Yucatan Peninsula to record authentic stories in the voices of the Trickle Up's participants and local partners.

BODEGA created four original films, which launched at Trickle Up's Annual Gala on Monday, April 16, 2018 in NYC, giving attendees an inspiring look at the organization's impact, while being clear that there is much more work to do. The event was a success, raising close to $900,000 for Trickle Up.

In "Breaking Barriers" BODEGA Animation Director Hayley Morris uses handcrafted stop-motion animation to illustrate Trickle Up on a conceptual level. Says Morris, "I featured vibrant fabrics and textiles as a storytelling device to communicate from the perspective of a participant, navigating through her world."

Creative Director Mark Littman adds, "this is a unique film, and a perfect technique to tell the Trickle Up story. From the viewpoint to the materials, it conveys big ideas in a way that a Trickle Up participant herself might."

"Wilma" features Wilma Santiago, who learns the craft of beekeeping, leading to the creation of her own honey-production business. Not only is Wilma's a story of empowerment and financial independence-- at the end of the piece, you might expect to find her honey at your local gourmet store.

Sister companies BODEGA, Northern Lights, SuperExploder and Mr Wonderful worked together from their shared studios in Chelsea, NYC to craft these stories from concept through production and post, creating authentic films that reinforce Trickle Up's mission.

Since 1979, Trickle Up has helped 335,000 women gain the skills and confidence to achieve greater economic self-sufficiency. When women succeed, so can their children and families. Since on average, five people benefit for each woman reached, they've helped over 1.5 million people total. In the next five years, Trickle Up is committed to helping the next million graduate out of extreme poverty.

Credits: "Breaking Barriers"

Client: Trickle Up

Agency/Production Company: BODEGA

Creative Director: Mark Littman

Director: Hayley Morris

Producer: Min Park

EP/Animation: Bill Hewes

Additional Animation: Jessy Abid, Jade Stickle

Audio: SuperExploder

Sound Designer/Mixer: Ted Marcus

Sr. Producer: Meredith Nazzaro

Credits: "Wilma"

Client: Trickle Up

Agency/Production Company: BODEGA

Director: Mark Littman

Producer: Min Park

Editorial: Northern Lights

Editor: Chris Carson

Flame Artist/Colorist: Chris Hengeveld

Executive Producer: Robin Hall

Producer: Terry-Anne Alexander

Assistant Editor: Jessy Abid, Jay Chandran

Audio: SuperExploder

Sound Designer/Mixer: Brady Hearn

Sr. Producer: Meredith Nazzaro

About BODEGA

BODEGA is a content creation studio based in New York and San Francisco.

We create commercials, brand content, show opens, promos, films and digital media for any platform.

Our integrated approach encourages collaboration at every step, from creative development through production, animation, post-production and final delivery.

Together with our in-house partners Northern Lights (editorial), SuperExploder (sound) and Mr Wonderful (branding/design), we offer the resources of established, award-winning companies under one roof.

SOURCE BODEGA
CHICAGO, April 23, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Boeing [NYSE: BA] announced its investment in Morf3D, an El Segundo, Calif.-based company specializing in metal-based additive engineering and manufacturing. Morf3D's technology enables lighter and stronger 3D-printed parts for aerospace applications.

Since Morf3D was established in late 2015, the company has produced 3D-printed titanium and aluminum components for Boeing satellites and helicopters. With this investment, Morf3D will collaborate with Boeing to further develop manufacturing processes and engineering capabilities.

"Developing standard additive manufacturing processes for aerospace components benefits both companies and empowers us to fully unleash the value of this transformative technology," said Kim Smith, vice president and general manager of Fabrication for Boeing Commercial Airplanes and Boeing Additive Manufacturing leader.

Morf3D's metallurgy experts leverage a new set of additive manufacturing design rules to advance the technology and accelerate 3D-printing capabilities for commercial use. The company utilizes state-of-the-art software combined with engineering expertise to significantly reduce mass, and increase the performance and functionality of manufactured parts.

"We are excited to be a distinguished and trusted partner of Boeing's additive manufacturing supplier base, as we continue to industrialize our processes for the high-rate production of flight-worthy additively manufactured components," said Ivan Madera, CEO of Morf3D. "This investment will enable us to increase our engineering staff and expand our technology footprint of EOS M400-4 DMLS systems to better serve the growing demands of our aerospace customers."

"As innovative companies continue to revolutionize technologies and methods, we are proud to invest in the rapidly growing and competitive additive manufacturing landscape," said Steve Nordlund, vice president of Boeing HorizonX.

Boeing HorizonX Ventures co-led this Series A funding round. The Boeing HorizonX Ventures investment portfolio is made up of companies specializing in technologies for aerospace and manufacturing innovations, including autonomous systems, energy storage, advanced materials, augmented reality systems and software, machine learning, hybrid-electric and hypersonic propulsion, and Internet of Things connectivity.

Boeing's investment in Morf3D is the latest example of the company's achievements with additive manufacturing partners worldwide. In March 2018, Boeing and Norsk Titanium received the Aviation Week Laureate Award for Commercial Supplier Innovation for qualifying the first additively manufactured structural titanium parts on a commercial airplane. In February 2018, Boeing announced a five-year research agreement with Swiss-based supplier Oerlikon to develop standard materials and processes for titanium powder bed additive manufacturing.

Boeing is the world's largest aerospace company and leading manufacturer of commercial jetliners and defense, space and security systems. A top U.S. exporter, the company supports airlines and U.S. and allied government customers in more than 150 countries.

Contact

Megan Hilfer

Boeing Communications

Office: +1 425-237-9375

Mobile: +1 206-465-5379

[email protected]

Ivan Madera

Morf3D

Office: +1 310-607-0188

[email protected]

SOURCE Boeing

Related Links

http://www.boeing.com


"The attraction is on historic land farmed since the 18th century, with Philadelphia visible from the higher courses on a clear day," says Paul Hellerick, whose family has owned the scenic farm since the 1870s. City residents can reach the recreation in a fraction of the time it takes to travel to the nearest other courses in the Poconos.

"We are the closest Aerial Adventure Park to the city of Philadelphia, so people in this area don't have to drive all the way to the Poconos to experience this exhilarating and unique activity," Hellerick says.

Visitors on the Aerial Adventure Park are equipped with a sophisticated full body harness and helmet system, can enjoy courses at 10, 20, and 30 feet as well as two 30-foot jumps from the main tower with a free fall of 8-10 feet. Trained staff ensures comfort and safety. Children as young as 7 can participate. Admission includes 1.5 hours in the park. A video preview of the park can be seen by clicking here https://youtu.be/xEtZ301xtR0

"Our Adventure Elements are bridges between course platforms and are made of cable, rope, and wood configurations creating countless unique challenges to cross," Hellerick says. "Once you've climbed to the higher courses, you'll experience a bird's eye view of our farm and on a clear day even be able to see the skyline of Philadelphia, almost 40 miles away."

Hellerick's Family Farm (hellericksfarm.com) during their Fall Harvest Festival (September 15 to November4th) also offers an Adventure Farm area with family-friendly outdoor activities, including 2 corn mazes, a hayride, animal attractions, pumpkin rolling, rat racing, tractor pulling a Junior Farmer Fun area for children 5 and younger and 40+ other fun activities. They also have pick-your-own pumpkins, gourds, squash, apple, apple cider, baked goods and Halloween decorating supplies.

Contact: Paul Hellerick, 610-393-0354

SOURCE Hellerick's Family Farm

Related Links

http://www.hellericksfarm.com


SALT LAKE CITY, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- It was announced today that Caleb Chapman's Soundhouse, a Salt Lake City-based music school for bands, has won twelve 2018 DownBeat Student Music Awards recognizing outstanding performances by graduate and undergraduate soloists, ensembles, composers and engineers. This brings the total number of DownBeat awards won by the Soundhouse program since 2005 to 64. Asked why his program has become one of DownBeat's most awarded schools over the past decade, Soundhouse founder and chairman Caleb Chapman said, "We've got amazing instructors, a world-class facility and kids who work incredibly hard. It's a combination that works well for us."

As the oldest publication devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond," DownBeat celebrates high-caliber jazz education with its annual awards. 12 of the Salt Lake Soundhouse's 18 bands have been recognized with at least one award from the magazine, including the Crescent Super Band, the Voodoo Orchestra, Soul Research Foundation, Little Big Band, Vicious Beat, Time Check Jazz Orchestra, Kingston Winter, Jukebox Antihero, Hooligans Brass Band, The Inevitables, Lo-Fi Riot, and La Onda Caribena.

"Soundhouse is one of the winningest music programs of the last decade when it comes to the DownBeat Student Music Awards. What Caleb Chapman and his team at Soundhouse have done is nothing short of amazing. Soundhouse is teaching young musicians to perform and improvise with incredible technique, creativity and joy. It's one of the top music programs in the nation," said DownBeat publisher Frank Alkyer.

To pair with its record of award success, nearly every senior high school student member of Caleb Chapman's Soundhouse has received a college scholarship offer, putting the average annual total for scholarships offered to graduates at one million dollars. In 2017, scholarships offered to Soundhouse seniors totaled over $2 million.

It was also recently announced that new Soundhouses are set to open in Nashville, L.A. and Boston later this year, with a franchising plan in place to build Soundhouses across the country and globe. The combination rehearsal spaces and performance centers will offer local musicians the ultimate array of tools, instruction and opportunities to create, practice, and perform music in a wide variety of styles.

About Caleb Chapman's Soundhouse

Caleb Chapman's Soundhouse is a nationally recognized contemporary music school and performance center whose top-tier musicians, educators and celebrity guests mentor bands on performance, recording, touring and more. Chapman is an award winning music educator, producer, entrepreneur, author, bandleader and performer.

The Soundhouse program teaches and values teamwork, self-confidence, leadership, self-discipline, time management, marketing, problem solving, networking, entrepreneurship, creativity, improvisation, and other skills to help musicians achieve success. Soundhouse members rehearse with like-minded musicians on a weekly basis in facilities stocked with professional gear.

SOURCE Caleb Chapmans Soundhouse
NEW YORK, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

CannabisNewsWire Editorial Coverage

Financial services are undergoing a period of change as high-risk businesses, often excluded from conventional banking systems, search for alternative ways to process payments. Companies such as Global Payout, Inc. (OTC: GOHE) (GOHE Profile) are providing payment systems for high-risk ventures such as the cannabis industry, saving vendors from the need to operate exclusively on cash. SinglePoint, Inc. (OTC: SING) is also working in this sector, while bringing bitcoin payments into the mainstream. MassRoots, Inc. (OTC: MSRT) is moving from the cannabis sector into payment processing, adapting its expertise in cannabis tech solutions to provide financial services. Cannabis grower iAnthus Capital Holdings, Inc. (OTC: ITHUF) is looking at the wider set of managerial and service solutions that high-risk companies need, and smartphone payment provider Glance Technologies, Inc. (OTC: GLNNF) is also moving into the sector through an investment in cannabis sector intelligence and analysis.



The Payment Problem



Recent years have seen high-risk industries facing increasingly tough times in accessing banking and payment services. In the United States, the government-backed Operation Chokepoint discouraged banks from providing services to industries with a high risk of fraud, such as gun sellers and payday lenders. Meanwhile, federal legislation from the war on drugs hampers finance for cannabis businesses in states where the drug has been legalized. Despite the repeal of Operation Chokepoint (http://cnw.fm/Nof7L), the threat of government scrutiny still limits the willingness of banks to provide financial services to these businesses. Even in Canada, which is due to legalize recreational cannabis this summer, banks are only now making tentative steps toward supporting the industry (http://cnw.fm/mE49s)



The cannabis industry is leading the way in finding solutions to this problem. As marijuana legalization spreads across the United States and beyond, a growing industry needs basic financial services; the alternative is to continue in a cash-based economy with the associated risks of fraud, error and theft. Businesses are stepping in to fill the need.



Financial Solutions for a Changing World



Global Payout, Inc. (OTC: GOHE) is among the companies providing solutions for high-risk businesses. Global Payout started out as an innovative supplier of financial services to mainstream businesses. In an increasingly complex world of international transactions, managing finances can be a complicated and messy job. Web-based applications offer a potential solution, but the wide variety of financial transactions has created challenging complications.



The solution provided by Global Payout is the Global Reserve Platform (GRP). A banking-in-a-box system, GRP provides a fully customizable financial system that allows businesses to handle the full range of financial transactions in one place. From managing government benefits to making biometric payments, the system offers everything a business needs. Additionally, because the setup can be adapted to the needs of different companies, it doesn't force companies to accept a one-size-fits-all solution.



GRP is geared toward bridging divides between conventional banking and the businesses it serves. Global Payout has dealt with the practicalities of providing payment solutions in the mainstream, and, now, the company is applying its knowledge and expertise to the more challenging world of high-risk business.



Catering to the Cannabis Market



The company's foray into this area is being led by its partner, MoneyTrac Technology, Inc. MoneyTrac is specifically geared toward serving the cannabis industry in the United States and beyond.



Because of its particular legal challenges, both internationally and within the United States, the cannabis industry may be the most in need of unconventional banking solutions. In many cases, cannabis businesses can't access normal banking solutions as part of their daily work, making it difficult to manage payments from customers. This industry, therefore, may be the perfect sector in which to test alternative payment solutions.



Much like Global Payout, MoneyTrac provides a customizable web-based payment system. Powered by blockchain technology, the system provides fast, secure payment options that plug into conventional banking systems at either end, making it easy for customers to pay into the system and for businesses to extract their funds. This high-tech banking solution - MTRAC - was launched on April 4 (http://cnw.fm/st6rB), providing a solution for a sector in need.



"The goal of MTRAC from the beginning has been to leverage the different technologies available to us to remove the use of cash as the primary form of payment throughout the cannabis industry," MoneyTrac CEO Vanessa Luna stated in a news release. "While other companies have struggled to find supportive financial solutions, MTRAC opted to take a different approach, and one that has relied heavily on the use of blockchain technology to address this problem for a massive and growing industry."



By providing a payment system for the cannabis industry, MoneyTrac is fulfilling its "Key to Cashless" objective. This has been achieved through partnerships with a range of companies in the cannabis and technology sectors, including Integrated Compliance Solutions, Crypto Value Management Systems (http://cnw.fm/K8xYY) and Greenbox (http://cnw.fm/DOv0r). By bringing together the needs of a specific sector and the potential of blockchain technology, MoneyTrac is carving out a niche in the field of high-risk payments.



Beyond the Basics



There may even be great potential for MoneyTrac's payment solution to reach beyond the limits of the cannabis sector. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has encouraged banks to provide services to businesses based on risk-based analysis (http://cnw.fm/d2UsM) rather than cutting off entire sectors from key financial services. Despite this, banks remain wary of high-risk customers, due to both the financial and the legal risks. Given the inherent conservatism of established banks, the situation is not unexpected, creating a space for disruptive payment providers such as MoneyTrac to fill the gap.



The company has begun diversifying its services in other ways as well. Through an investment in cannabis community periodical PotSaver, it has been able to expand its reach within its core customer base. PotSaver will be providing readers with money-saving deals on a range of products not limited to cannabis and its paraphernalia. Simply by being part of the broadening of that community, MoneyTrac is investing in reaching beyond cannabis.



A New Financial Sector



As the new financial sector is evolving, a variety of companies have advanced alternative payment solutions and financial systems. Like Global Payout, SinglePoint, Inc. (OTCQB: SING) is working to provide financial services to the cannabis sector. The two companies have worked together on providing streamlined payment services based on blockchain technology. SinglePoint is also heavily invested in bringing the cryptocurrency sector into the mainstream. Its acquisition of Bitcoin Beyond (http://cnw.fm/Tar3n) could help the company bring cryptocurrency payments to everyday financial interactions, integrating what is currently a fringe area of finance more closely into everyday life.



Cannabis company MassRoots, Inc. (OTCQB: MSRT) is approaching the finance sector from another angle. The company is already providing a service to help customers judge the efficacy of cannabis strains and products, thereby demonstrating its ability to provide technological solutions to the needs of the sector. Now, it is establishing a subsidiary focused on blockchain, the technology at the core of cutting-edge payment solutions for high-risk industries. This will allow the company to provide financial services for cannabis suppliers and their consumers.



Finance isn't the only support service that cannabis companies are looking to reshape to suit their needs. iAnthus Capital Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB: ITHUF), an operator of cannabis facilities across the United States, is expanding into a range of support services. Its acquisition of Pilgrim Rock Management, LLC (http://cnw.fm/X7PbJ) provides it with intellectual property licensing, professional and management services, and real estate and equipment leasing - all geared toward its core business.



Glance Technologies, Inc. (OTCQB: GLNNF) offers another alternative approach to payment through its smartphone-based payment system. This streamlined payment process allows users to easily make and track payments. Glance's blockchain-based rewards system is being integrated into the app. The company recently invested in Loop Cannabis Insights Inc., providing it with more insight into the high-risk businesses that could benefit from its product.



Alternative payment systems offer a much-needed solution for high-risk businesses that struggle to access traditional finance. While the cannabis industry is providing a testing ground for these services, they are already spreading to the wider economy, allowing more people access to efficient payment systems.



For more information on Global Payout, visit Global Payout (OTC: GOHE).

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With this certification, RMC continues to be part of an elite group of health care organizations in the country focused on highly-specialized stroke care. To be eligible, hospitals must demonstrate compliance with stroke-related standards expected of primary stroke centers, and meet additional requirements, including volume of complex stroke and cerebrovascular patients, quality of care and outcome, advanced imaging capabilities, 24/7 availability of specialized treatments, and providing staff with the unique education and experience to care for complex stroke patients.

"As one of only eight Joint Commission certified Comprehensive Stroke Centers in New Jersey and Eastern PA, we continue to be our region's most experienced and trusted provider for assessing and treating the most complex strokes, aneurysms, AVMs and other cerebrovascular diseases," said Al Maghazehe, president and CEO of Capital Health.

"Over the last two years, our team has worked diligently to advance the stroke care in the region; always looking at how we can bring the latest treatments to the people of our community," said Dr. Michael F. Stiefel, director of Capital Institute for Neurosciences and Stroke and Cerebrovascular Center. "The Joint Commission review is a demanding process, but our re-certification as a Comprehensive Stroke Center is an affirmation of the lifesaving work our team does day in and day out to make a significant difference for stroke patients and their loved ones."

RMC underwent a rigorous onsite review late last year, when Joint Commission experts evaluated its compliance with stroke-related standards and requirements.

"By achieving this advanced certification, Capital Health Regional Medical Center has thoroughly demonstrated the greatest level of commitment to the care of its patients with a complex stroke condition," says Mark R. Chassin, MD, FACP, MPP, MPH, president and CEO, The Joint Commission. "Certification is a voluntary process and The Joint Commission commends Capital Health for successfully undertaking this challenge to elevate the standard of its care for the community it serves." The Joint commission certification is a national certification and provides a standard that must be met regardless of state and/or hospital size. Patients and their families can be assured that all comprehensive centers meet the same rigorous requirements inclusive of infrastructure and patient volume.

"The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association congratulates Capital Health on achieving Comprehensive Stroke Center certification," said Nancy Brown, chief executive officer, the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association. "Meeting the standards for Comprehensive Stroke Center certification represents a commitment to deliver high quality care to all patients affected by stroke."

Established in 2012, Advanced Certification for Comprehensive Stroke Centers is awarded for a two-year period to Joint Commission-accredited acute care hospitals. The certification was derived from the Brain Attack Coalition's"Recommendations for Comprehensive Stroke Centers" (Stroke, 2005), "Metrics for Measuring Quality of Care in Comprehensive Stroke Centers" (Stroke, 2011) and recommendations from a multidisciplinary advisory panel of experts in complex stroke care.

Stroke is the 5th leading cause of death and a leading cause of adult disability in the United States, according to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association. On average, someone suffers a stroke every 40 seconds; someone dies of a stroke every four minutes; and 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year. If you or someone you know is having a stroke, call 9-1-1 immediately.

About Capital Health's Comprehensive Stroke Center (part of Capital Institute for Neurosciences)

Capital Health Regional Medical Center in Trenton is the only Comprehensive Stroke Center in the region certified by The Joint Commission, one of only eight hospitals in New Jersey. The center, part of Capital Health's Capital Institute for Neurosciences, is available for patients who require the most advanced treatments for stroke and cerebrovascular care including endovascular and medical stroke services. Capital Health's Mobile Stroke Unit, the first unit of its kind in the Delaware Valley and just the seventh to go live in the United States, launched in 2017. The Institute includes New Jersey's largest and most advanced Neuro Intensive Care Unit. In addition to providing high level, tertiary level clinical care, the Institute has a strong focus on research and the Neurovascular Research Center houses the nation's only Neuroendovascular Simulator for teaching, surgical preparation, and device testing.



The Joint Commission

Founded in 1951, The Joint Commission seeks to continuously improve health care for the public, in collaboration with other stakeholders, by evaluating health care organizations and inspiring them to excel in providing safe and effective care of the highest quality and value. The Joint Commission accredits and certifies more than 21,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States. An independent, nonprofit organization, The Joint Commission is the nation's oldest and largest standards-setting and accrediting body in health care. Learn more about The Joint Commission at www.jointcommission.org.

The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association

The American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association are devoted to saving people from heart disease and stroke  America's No. 1 and No. 5 killers. We team with millions of volunteers to fund innovative research, fight for stronger public health policies, and provide lifesaving tools and information to prevent and treat these diseases. The Dallas-based American Heart Association is the nation's oldest and largest voluntary organization dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke. The American Stroke Association is a division of the American Heart Association. To learn more or to get involved, call 1-800-AHA-USA1, visit heart.org or call any of our offices around the country. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

The familiar Heart-Check mark now helps consumers evaluate their choices in hospital care. Each mark given to a hospital is earned by meeting specific standards for the care of patients with heart disease and/or stroke. The Heart-Check mark can only be displayed by hospitals that have achieved and defined requirements set by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.

SOURCE Capital Health

Related Links

http://capitalhealth.org


(All amounts in US$ unless otherwise specified)

VANCOUVER, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Capstone Mining Corp. ("Capstone" or the "Company") (TSX: CS) today announced its financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2018. Operating cash flow before changes in working capital1 from all operations was $24.6 million or $0.06 per share, with net income from continuing operations of $10.3 million and adjusted net income from continuing operations of $10.6 million or $0.03 per share after adjusting for certain non-cash and non-recurring charges. Copper production from continuing operations totalled 15,706 tonnes (15,152 tonnes of payable copper) at a C1 cash cost1 from continuing operations of $1.95 per payable pound produced.

"Capstone reported positive net income and cash flow in the first quarter of 2018, on contributions from both Pinto Valley and Cozamin," said Darren Pylot, President and CEO of Capstone. "We also announced the sale of our Minto Mine for $37.5 million of cash plus working capital."

"Additionally, we updated our 2018 guidance to reflect the decision to mine the San Rafael Zinc Zone, which is expected to significantly increase our by-product revenue at Cozamin" continued Mr. Pylot.

As of March 31, 2018, Minto is treated as a discontinued operation for financial reporting purposes. To comply with disclosure requirements, Capstone's results have been adjusted to exclude Minto's contribution in certain cases, and are referred to throughout this release as "continuing operations". Please refer to financial statements ended March 31, 2018 for further information.

Financial and Operational Overview



Q1 2018 Q1 2017 Revenue (2), (3), (4) ($ millions) 103.7 97.9





Copper produced by continuing operations (tonnes) 15,706 15,430





Payable copper produced by continuing operations (tonnes) 15,152 14,890 C1 cash cost per payable pound produced (1) ($/lb) 1.95 1.95 All-in sustaining cost per payable pound produced (1) ($/lb) 2.59 2.48





Net Income (loss) from continuing operations ($ millions) 10.3 (13.1) Net Income (loss) from continuing operations attributable to shareholders ($ millions) 10.5 (13.3) Net income (loss) from continuing operations attributable to shareholders per common share ($) 0.03 (0.03)





Adjusted net income (loss) from continuing operations (1) ($ millions) 10.6 (7.7) Adjusted net income (loss) from continuing operations attributable to shareholders (1) ($ millions) 10.8 (7.8) Adjusted net income (loss) attributable to shareholders per common share (1) ($) 0.03 (0.02)





Cash flow from operating activities (4) ($ millions) 32.8 22.0 Cash flow from operating activities per common share (1), (4) ($) 0.08 0.06 Operating cash flow before changes in working capital (1, (4) ($ millions) 24.6 24.2 Operating cash flow before changes in working capital per common share (1), (4) ($) 0.06 0.06





Long term debt (excluding financing fees) ($ millions) 274.9 308.9





Net debt (1) ($ millions) 160.1 199.5

2 Q1 2018 includes a provisional pricing adjustment of $(2.3) million (2017 - $2.2 million) related to prior shipments, equivalent to $(0.07) per pound (2017 - $0.06 per pound) of copper sold during the quarter.

3 Q1 2018 adjusted realized copper price does not include any realized derivative losses (2017 loss  $11.6 million) equivalent to nil per pound (2017 loss - $(0.29) per pound) related to copper derivative contracts exercised during the quarter.

4 In accordance with IFRS 5, Minto's results are excluded from revenue in both the current and comparative period. Minto's results are included within cash flow amounts in both the current and comparative period.

Financial and Operational Highlights for the Quarter Ended March 31, 2018

Net income from continuing operations of $10.3 million . The net income was attributable to higher realized copper prices of $2.98 per pound compared to $2.73 per pound in 2017.

. The net income was attributable to higher realized copper prices of per pound compared to per pound in 2017. The absence of any commodity derivative losses as Capstone has been completely unhedged from the beginning of 2018.

Cash flow from operating activities of $32.8 million or $0.08 per common share.

or per common share. Working capital decreased by $5.4 million to $184.0 million at March 31, 2018 from $189.4 million at December 31, 2017 .

to at from at . Operating cash flow before changes in working capital 1 of $24.6 million or $0.06 per share was slightly higher due to higher operating cash flows at Cozamin, primarily due to higher copper prices, the absence of any negative forward commodity derivative contracts settlements in Q1 2018, mostly offset by lower operating cash flows at Minto .

of or per share was slightly higher due to higher operating cash flows at Cozamin, primarily due to higher copper prices, the absence of any negative forward commodity derivative contracts settlements in Q1 2018, mostly offset by lower operating cash flows at . Produced a total of 15,152 tonnes of payable copper from continuing operations at a C1 cash cost 1 of $1.95 per pound of payable copper produced.

of per pound of payable copper produced. Revenue of $103.7 million generated primarily from the sale of 15,962 tonnes of copper from continuing operations.

Production and Additional Highlights for the Quarter Ended March 31, 2018

Pinto Valley Mine:

Produced 11,421 tonnes of copper during Q1 2018 at a C1 cash cost 1 of $2.41 per pound of payable copper produced and all-in sustaining cost 1 of $2.96 per pound of payable copper produced.

of per pound of payable copper produced and all-in sustaining cost of per pound of payable copper produced. At Pinto Valley, production was lower than planned with throughput and recoveries at the low end of expectations due to unplanned downtime. Grade was in line with the mine plan for the quarter, with higher head grade and production expected over the remainder of the year.

Cozamin Mine:

Produced 4,285 tonnes of copper during Q1 2018 at a C1 cash cost 1 of $0.71 per pound of payable copper produced and all-in sustaining cost 1 of $1.43 per pound of payable copper produced.

of per pound of payable copper produced and all-in sustaining cost of per pound of payable copper produced. At Cozamin, production for the quarter was better than expected from higher grade.

Metallurgical test work was completed around the technical and economic recoverability of the existing zinc resource in the San Rafael zinc zone. This resulted in a revision to the mine plan, bringing in additional zinc resources, starting in July. It is expected that in 2018 this could double contained zinc production (an additional 7 million pounds) and lower C1 cash cost1 by $0.25 per pound of payable copper produced and all-in sustaining cost1 by $0.15 per payable pound produced. Additional zinc production of between 7 million and 12 million pounds per year and approximately 200,000 ounces of silver per year are anticipated, with associated increases to by-product credits over the next three years. Copper production remains unchanged as the added zinc processing will come from existing unutilized mill capacity.

Operating Outlook

Capstone's consolidated production and cost guidance from continuing operations remains unchanged for the full year.

Cozamin's cost guidance has been updated to reflect lower unit costs resulting from the additional zinc resources expected to be mined from the San Rafael deposit in 2018, lowering Cozamin's expected 2018 C1 cash cost1 by approximately $0.25 and all-in sustaining cost1 by approximately $0.15 per payable pound of copper produced. Cozamin's 2018 capital guidance has been increased by $3.0 million as a result of this change, primarily related to the additional required development to access the San Rafael zone. Cozamin's expected 2018 copper production remains unchanged.

Exploration cost guidance is unchanged. Consolidated capital guidance is $90.0 million with the addition of the $3.0 million development expenditure related to San Rafael zone at Cozamin.

Conference Call and Webcast Details

Capstone will hold a conference call and webcast on Wednesday, April 25, 2018 at 11:30 a.m. Eastern time (8:30 a.m. Pacific time) to discuss these results; call-in details and information on associated slides are provided below. This release is not suitable on a standalone basis for readers unfamiliar with Capstone and should be read in conjunction with Capstone's consolidated financial statements and management's discussion and analysis ("MD&A") for the quarter ended March 31, 2018, which are available on Capstone's website at http://capstonemining.com/investors/financial-reporting/default.aspx and on SEDAR, all of which have been reviewed and approved by Capstone's Board of Directors. An updated corporate presentation, including results to March 31, 2018 and Q1 webcast slides will also be available at http://capstonemining.com/investors/events-and-presentations/default.aspx.



Date: Wednesday, April 25, 2018 Time: 11:30 am Eastern Time (8:30 am Pacific Time) Dial in: North America: 1-888-390-0546, International: +416-764-8688 Webcast: http://event.on24.com/r.htm?e=1626391&s=1&k=ED9664FBED1580A051E48EE6D0B7D2E2 Replay: North America: 1-888-390-0541, International: +416-764-8677 Replay Passcode: 285507#

The conference call replay will be available until Wednesday, May 2, 2018. The conference call audio and transcript will be available on Capstone's website within 48 hours of the call at http://capstonemining.com/investors/events-and-presentations/default.aspx.

About Capstone Mining Corp.

Capstone Mining Corp. is a Canadian base metals mining company, focused on copper. We are committed to the responsible development of our assets and the environments in which we operate. Our three producing mines are the Pinto Valley copper mine located in Arizona, US, the Cozamin polymetallic mine in Zacatecas State, Mexico and the Minto copper mine in Yukon, Canada. In addition, Capstone has the large scale 70% owned copper-iron Santo Domingo development project in Region III, Chile, in partnership with Korea Resources Corporation as well as a portfolio of exploration properties. Capstone's strategy is to focus on the optimization of operations and assets in politically stable, mining-friendly regions, centred in the Americas. Our headquarters are in Vancouver, Canada and we are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). Further information is available at www.capstonemining.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This document may contain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this document and Capstone does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements, except as required under applicable securities legislation.

Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect our expectations or beliefs regarding future events. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the estimation of mineral resources and mineral reserves, the realization of mineral reserve estimates, the timing and amount of estimated future production, costs of production and capital expenditures, the success of our mining operations, environmental risks, unanticipated reclamation expenses and title disputes. In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", "believes" or variations of such words and phrases, or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved" or the negative of these terms or comparable terminology. In this document certain forward-looking statements are identified by words including "anticipate", "guidance", "plan" and "expected". By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, amongst others, risks related to inherent hazards associated with mining operations, future prices of copper and other metals, compliance with financial covenants, surety bonding, our ability to raise capital, Capstone's ability to acquire properties for growth, counterparty risks associated with sales of our metals, use of financial derivative instruments and associated counterparty risks, foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations, changes in general economic conditions, accuracy of mineral resource and mineral reserve estimates, operating in foreign jurisdictions with risk of changes to governmental regulation, compliance with governmental regulations, compliance with environmental laws and regulations, reliance on approvals, licences and permits from governmental authorities, impact of climatic conditions on our Pinto Valley, Cozamin and Minto operations, aboriginal title claims and rights to consultation and accommodation, land reclamation and mine closure obligations, uncertainties and risks related to the potential development of the Santo Domingo Project, uncertainties related to the proposed transaction for the sale of Minto Explorations Ltd., uncertainties related to the proposed transaction for the sale of Minto Explorations Ltd., increased operating and capital costs, challenges to title to our mineral properties, maintaining ongoing social license to operate, dependence on key management personnel, potential conflicts of interest involving our directors and officers, corruption and bribery, limitations inherent in our insurance coverage, labour relations, increasing energy prices, competition in the mining industry, risks associated with joint venture partners, our ability to integrate new acquisitions into our operations, cybersecurity threats, legal proceedings and other risks of the mining industry as well as those factors detailed from time to time in the Company's interim and annual financial statements and management's discussion and analysis of those statements, all of which are filed and available for review under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those described in our forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause our results, performance or achievements not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that our forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as our actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements.

National Instrument 43-101 Compliance

Unless otherwise indicated, Capstone has prepared the technical information in this news release ("Technical Information") based on information contained in the technical reports, news releases and MD&A's (collectively the "Disclosure Documents") available under Capstone Mining Corp.'s company profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Each Disclosure Document was prepared by, or under the supervision of, a qualified person (a "Qualified Person") as defined in National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators ("NI 43-101"). Readers are encouraged to review the full text of the Disclosure Documents which qualifies the Technical Information. Readers are advised that mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The Disclosure Documents are each intended to be read as a whole, and sections should not be read or relied upon out of context. The Technical Information is subject to the assumptions and qualifications contained in the Disclosure Documents.

The technical information in this news release ("Technical Information") was prepared by, or under the supervision of, a qualified person (a "Qualified Person") as defined in National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators ("NI 43-101"). The disclosure of the Technical Information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Gregg Bush, P. Eng., Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Technical Information related to mineral exploration activities has been reviewed and approved by Brad Mercer, P. Geol., Senior Vice President, Exploration. Both are Qualified Persons under NI 43-101.

Alternative Performance Measures

The items marked with a "1" are alternative performance measures and readers should refer to Alternative Performance Measures in the Company's Consolidated Management's Discussion and Analysis for the quarter ended March 31, 2018 as filed on SEDAR and as available on the Company's website.

Cautionary Note to United States Investors

This news release contains disclosure that has been prepared in accordance with the requirements of Canadian securities laws, which differ from the requirements of US securities laws. Without limiting the foregoing, this news release may refer to technical reports that use the terms "indicated" and "inferred" resources. US investors are cautioned that, while such terms are recognized and required by Canadian securities laws, the SEC does not recognize them. Under US standards, mineralization may not be classified as a "reserve" unless the determination has been made that the mineralization could be economically and legally produced or extracted at the time the reserve determination is made. US investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of indicated resources will ever be converted into reserves. US investors should also understand that "inferred resources" have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence and as to whether they can be mined legally or economically. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of "inferred resources" will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Therefore, US investors are also cautioned not to assume that all or any part of inferred resources exist, or that they can be mined legally or economically. Accordingly, information concerning descriptions of mineralization and resources contained in this news release may not be comparable to information made public by US companies subject to the reporting and disclosure requirements of the SEC.

1. This is an alternative performance measure; please see "Alternative Performance Measures" at the end of this release. Certain prior period alternative performance measures have been restated to conform with current period classification.

SOURCE Capstone Mining Corp.

Related Links

www.capstonemining.com


BRYAN, Texas, April 23, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- CHI St. Joseph Health and Texas A&M University Health Science Center today announced plans to strengthen their partnership to establish a co-branded primary care network aimed at improving access to health care for the Brazos Valley community while also training future clinicians. This makes CHI St. Joseph Health the primary clinical partner for Texas A&M in the Bryan-College Station market.

The CHI St. Joseph and Texas A&M Health Network will be a network of experienced board-certified primary care physicians and advanced providers dedicated to providing exceptional care at locations across the Brazos Valley. The network will include 16 primary care locations, including pediatrics, housing 47 providers within a nine-county service area, offering access to expert specialists and ancillary services. The partnership will elevate the quality and delivery of health care for the community by partnering clinicians and faculty at Texas A&M Health Science Center with physicians and clinicians at CHI St. Joseph Health.

"Co-branding our primary care clinics to also reflect the Texas A&M brand is a win for both organizations and more importantly, the Brazos Valley. We both have a long history of supporting this community. Having both of these brands on our primary care clinics signifies a joint promise we're now making to the community to work together to impact the future of health care," said Donovan French, vice president of strategy & business development at CHI St. Joseph Health.

Primary care clinics are wholly owned and operated by CHI St. Joseph Health and will be identified as clinics for teaching. Texas A&M medical students will be trained in locations throughout CHI St. Joseph Health's system, offering the opportunity to learn medicine in both rural and urban community settings.

"Without our own teaching hospital, Texas A&M College of Medicine relies on collaborations with partners across the state who give medical students the best possible experiences," said Carrie L. Byington, MD, dean of the Texas A&M College of Medicine, senior vice president of the Texas A&M Health Science Center and vice chancellor for health services at The Texas A&M University System. "Together, Texas A&M and CHI St. Joseph will prepare physicians who can embrace the complexities of the changing health care environment, can navigate large systems and provide collaborative care."

The two organizations hope to work together to become more clinically integrated, which will also further enhance the quality of care and ease of access for patients across the region, ultimately lowering costs.

"The joint collaboration of physicians and expanded clinical integration that will occur as a result of our partnership will further enhance the quality of care and ease of access for patients throughout the Bryan-College Station community," said Kia Parsi, MD, interim chief executive officer and chief medical officer at CHI St. Joseph Health. "We are extending students and providers beyond the hospitals and clinics, moving them out into other care settings. We want to create an environment that mirrors the uniqueness of Aggieland in the clinics operated by CHI St. Joseph Health. Together, we will help lower costs and improve the overall quality of care provided to our patients."

Through a shared focus on education in rural medicine, the partnership will ultimately increase the number of rural physicians practicing across the state.

"The partnership between Texas A&M University Health Science Center and CHI St. Joseph Health is outstanding as the two entities share many of the same values," said Texas A&M University President Michael K. Young. "Both are committed to excellence, integrity and compassion in health care and health education. Having our medical students training at CHI St. Joseph clinics will be invaluable to their education. And the focus on rural medicine wholly aligns with the university's land-grant mission of helping underserved populations. I have high hopes this strengthened partnership will benefit both CHI St. Joseph and Texas A&M, and further improve patient care."

An added benefit of the collaboration, Texas A&M University System employees and their families will have a significant reduction in health insurance costs through new, lower-cost voluntary options in their network benefit plan. The plan features a 75 percent reduction in primary care co-pays, a 50 percent reduction in specialty care co-pays and a 50 percent reduction in co-insurance costs at all locations in the CHI St. Joseph Health market.

"I am happy to offer employees and retirees of the Texas A&M System access to a new and affordable option for health care," said Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp. "With this partnership, our people can save more of their hard-earned dollars while gaining access to quality medical providers."

CHI St. Joseph Health and Texas A&M College of Medicine have worked together for over 20 years, forming an initial relationship in 1997. The two organizations share similar missions, visions and values around improving patients' health and quality of life through research, education and innovation in health care. With this enhanced relationship with Texas A&M Health Science Center, CHI St. Joseph Health will continue to operate as a Catholic healthcare system, focused on the healing ministry of the church.

"We are proud to partner with Texas A&M to serve the health care needs of those in the Brazos Valley," said T. Douglas Lawson, PhD, CHI Senior Vice President, Divisional Operations Texas and CEO of the CHI Texas Division. "This partnership supports Catholic Health Initiative's mission to create healthier communities. The reach of CHI in Texas has expanded through this strengthened affiliation, offering access to patients throughout south, central and east Texas."

For more information about the partnership, please visit: www.CHI.TAMUHealth.org.

About CHI St. Joseph Health

CHI St. Joseph Health, part of the Texas Division of Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI), includes a comprehensive network of over 100 employed providers including primary care physicians, specialists and advanced practice clinicians. CHI St. Joseph Health is comprised of five hospitals across the Brazos Valley, including Regional Hospital in Bryan-College Station, home to a Level II Major Trauma Center, the highest in the region. Its network includes more than 30 ambulatory clinics featuring primary care, a freestanding Emergency Room, Express Clinics, and imaging and diagnostic services. As an active member of the Brazos Valley, CHI St. Joseph Health is a leader in providing compassionate care as well as addressing the overall health of the community.

Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) is one of the nation's largest nonprofit, faith-based health systems. CHI has locations in 18 states across 99 hospitals, including two academic health centers, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, and Creighton University, Omaha, and major teaching hospitals; accredited nursing colleges; home health agencies and other facilities and services that span the inpatient and outpatient continuum of care.

About Texas A&M Health Science Center

As the most comprehensive health science center in Texas, the Texas A&M Health Science Center is dedicated to addressing today's health care needs through forward-thinking medical research, service and health professions education. Impacting nearly every county in the State of Texas with education, research and outreach programs, the health science center operates eight campuses located around Texas. This geographically dispersed, multi-disciplinary model allows for innovative team training that supports the common goal of transforming health.

Contact: Heather Bush (713) 823-9493; Holly Shive (361) 782-8284

SOURCE CHI St. Joseph Health

Related Links

http://www.CHI.TAMUHealth.org


Facebook's recent data leak scandal has caused a huge public outcry. Data analysis company Cambridge Analytica accessed information from at least 87 million Facebook users without their knowledge. The leaked data was allegedly used to predict and influence the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. While the Facebook scandal was still unfolding, the U.S. Commerce Department imposed a seven-year ban on sales of components to ZTE, China's second largest telecom equipment maker, on April 16.

The sales ban is yet another action taken by Washington amid rising trade tensions with China. Its goal is to slow China's development in the information industry. It looks like a trade measure but it's actually a political one.

The United States boasts the most advanced internet technologies in the world. Home to many big monopolies, it possesses many core information technologies. As a result, it's self-confident and capable enough to use the technologies for commercial benefits, impede the development of other countries, and even threaten their national security.

In the Information Era, a few clicks on a keyboard can result in a widespread regional power outage. If key computer systems in the financial, energy, power, telecommunication, transportation or other crucial industries were invaded, the consequences would be disastrous. The surveillance program "Prism" disclosed by Edward Snowden only showed us the tip of the iceberg. In the future, the internet will inevitably play a bigger and bigger role in national security.

Since China was first connected to the internet in 1994, the internet has rapidly developed in the country over the past 20 years and, in particular, many new technologies and achievements in recent years have been remarkable. However, there remains a large gap in terms of core technologies, which is the reason why China has been regularly emphasizing its own control over its internet security and information development. At a national conference on the work of cyber security and information held from April 20 to 21, Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed the importance of innovation and called for building the country's strength in cyberspace.

The U.S. sanctions on ZTE are no doubt an alarm for China.

The design and production of chips require many steps that need to be improved upon and cannot be fulfilled with a single stroke. Nor can core technologies of the internet be developed in a single day. However, an old Chinese expression says like one can have the courage to mend one's ways and strive to make new progress with the awareness of shame. For China, the most terrible thing is not the challenges, but the failure to realize the advent of the challenges. As the Chinese government continues to open up to the outside world and work with other countries to promote economic growth, it is also important for China to hold the key to cyber security in its own hands.

China Mosaic

http://www.china.org.cn/video/node_7230027.htm

China: Hold the cyber security 'key' in its own hands

http://www.china.org.cn/video/2018-04/24/content_50957558.htm

About China.org.cn

Founded in 2000, China Internet Information Center (China.org.cn/China.com.cn) is a key state news website under the auspices of the State Council Information Office, and is managed by China International Publishing Group. We provide round-the-clock news service in ten languages. With users from more than 200 countries and regions, we have become China's leading multi-lingual news outlet introducing the country to the outside world.



We are one of the country's authoritative outlets for government press releases and are authorized to cover various major events. "Live Webcast" is our online webcasting service to present State Council Information Office press conferences in both Chinese and English languages. We are reputed for timely and accurate delivery of news and information, and wide interactions with audiences. In addition, we are authorized to publish and live broadcast major events and press conferences of ministries, local government agencies and institutions as well as enterprises.



In the era of mobile internet, we endeavor to create an array of products for mobile devices headed by the multilingual WAP platform and the mobile APP. We also use Chinese and international social media to publish information for different user groups.



In the future, CIIC will continue to offer authoritative information about China, tell China's stories, voice China's opinions, and introduce a vivid, panoramic and multicultural China to the world through multi-language, multi-media and multi-platforms.



SOURCE China.org.cn
The Black Heritage Festival scholarships are an annual endowment provided by CITGO. Selected recipients are chosen based on merit from a variety of applicants judged by the Black Heritage Festival Scholarship Committee.

CITGO Lake Charles Manufacturing Complex Vice President and General Manager Jerry Dunn said CITGO is proud to support local students in achieving their dreams. "We know that the CITGO scholarships will support these bright students in reaching their goals in future academic and professional careers," Dunn said.

The CITGO Lake Charles Refinery is proactive in supporting education at all levels throughout Calcasieu Parish. The CITGO scholarships are one more example of how CITGO supports education in the communities it serves.

CITGO has participated in the Calcasieu Parish school system Partners in Education program since 1988 and is partnered with four Calcasieu Parish public schools: Sulphur High School, Sulphur High 9th Grade Campus, E.K. Key Elementary School and the Calcasieu Parish Alternative Site. Additionally, CITGO is a proud sponsor of McNeese State University and SOWELA Technical Community College.

About CITGO

CITGO, based in Houston, is a refiner, transporter, and marketer of transportation fuels, lubricants, petrochemicals and other industrial products. The company is owned by CITGO Holding, Inc., an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A., the national oil company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. For more information, visit www.CITGO.com

SOURCE CITGO

Related Links

http://www.CITGO.com


PAINT ROCK, Texas, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Concho County Commissioners have approved the purchase of new election technology to replace an aging system. County election officials chose the Verity Voting system from trusted provider Hart InterCivic. Concho County has partnered with Hart on elections since 2005, relying on the company's technology and customer support.

"I love working with Hart; they always do a good job. When we considered a new system, I really didn't want to work with a different company," said Phyllis Lovell, Concho County/ District Clerk. "Communications go both ways. I know I can call Hart any time I need help, and they reach out to me when there's information to share."

Lovell added, "I knew it was time for a new voting system. My old equipment has been dependable, but it was starting to misbehave. I told my commissioners I wanted something foolproof  especially when their names were on the ballot. I am comfortable with Verity. It's safe and secure, and the touchscreen is easy to use. The small size is important  my election judges can't lift big, heavy equipment."

"We appreciate Concho County's confidence in Hart. We have had a strong working relationship with the County for many years, and we look forward to continuing to support successful elections there for many more," said Phillip Braithwaite, President and CEO of Hart InterCivic. Hart is based in Texas and has provided election solutions to jurisdictions of all sizes for more than 100 years.

Hart is a popular choice for election technology in Texas. More than half of the voters in the State cast their ballots on the company's voting systems. Hart's Verity Voting, designed and built in Texas, is a natural next step for those ready to modernize.

"I'm excited," said Lovell. "Life's going to be easier with this new equipment."

Learn more about Verity in Texas: https://www.hartintercivic.com/texas/.

About Hart InterCivic, Inc.

Austin-based Hart InterCivic is a full-service election solutions innovator, partnering with state and local governments to deliver secure, accurate and reliable elections. Working side-by-side with election professionals for more than 100 years, Hart's mission fuels passionate customer focus and a continuous drive for technological innovation. The company's new Verity Voting system makes voting more straightforward, equitable and accessibleand makes managing elections more transparent, more efficient and easier.

SOURCE Hart InterCivic, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.hartintercivic.com


TAICANG, China, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Connect Biopharmaceuticals, Ltd. today announced that it has submitted an application in Australia to begin a phase 1 clinical trial to evaluate CBP-201, the company's monoclonal antibody candidate for allergic inflammation.

The planned phase 1 clinical trial is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in healthy subjects to evaluate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics (PK), and pharmacodynamics (PD) of CBP-201. At least 40 healthy subjects will be enrolled in this single ascending dose study.

"We are very excited to begin the process of initiating our first-in-man study of CBP-201, a novel and highly potent monoclonal antibody against interleukin-4 receptor alpha (IL-4R). IL-4R is a clinically-validated target known to mediate the biological activities of both IL-4 and IL-13, two key cytokines driving a broad array of allergic inflammatory diseases," said Jeffery White, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Connect Biopharmaceuticals. "Preclinical studies showed that CBP-201 had superior potency and pharmacokinetic properties compared to existing IL-4R antibodies currently in clinical development. Using well-validated biomarkers, we expect this phase 1 study to provide important safety, PK, and PD data with CBP-201 to support further clinical development in patients."

"We are extremely pleased that Connect has once again advanced a high-quality, internally-discovered drug candidate into clinical studies," said Dr. Zheng Wei, CEO of Connect. "The progress of CBP-201 further validated our efficient operational strategy, which combines our strong expertise in T-cell modulation with efficient collaborations with top-quality CROs to deliver new therapeutics for inflammatory diseases with high unmet need both in China and globally."

About Connect Biopharmaceuticals

Connect Biopharmaceuticals is a China-based global clinical-stage company focused on discovery and development of novel immune modulators for the treatment of autoimmune diseases and inflammation. Our drug discovery technology platform is built on the biology of T cell functions, which identifies molecules that target clinically-validated disease pathways.

Our lead drug candidate is CBP-307, an orally-active, next-generation S1P1 and S1P5 (a G-protein coupled receptor -GPCR) modulator for the treatment of a range of autoimmune disorders, including inflammatory bowel disease, psoriasis, multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases. We have completed a phase 1b randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study that assessed the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of CBP-307. In this study, CBP-307 exhibited an excellent safety profile and potent T cell modulation activity as well as optimal pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profiles, demonstrating best-in-class potential. CBP-307 is entering phase 2 studies of ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease.

Our second drug candidate is CBP-201, a novel monoclonal antibody that targets IL-4R and blocks a central pathway in allergic inflammation, and will be studied for the treatment of atopic dermatitis, asthma, and other inflammatory conditions. Additional programs included CBP-174, CBP-233, and CBP-312.

Media Contact:

Rosemary Chang

Tel: +86-512-53577866

[email protected]

SOURCE Connect Biopharmaceuticals, Ltd.
WABAN, Mass., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Every organization makes mistakes, so an important area of loyalty is the willingness of customers to forgive them. That's why Temkin Groupa leading customer experience research, consulting, and training companyhas been measuring forgiveness for eight years.

Temkin Group: When Experience Matters! Temkin Group is a leading customer experience (CX) research, consulting, and training firm. We help many of the world's largest brands lead their transformational journeys towards customer-centricity and build loyalty by engaging the hearts and minds of their customers, employees, and partners. (TemkinGroup.com) Temkin Ratings: The Open-Source Benchmark of Customer Experience And Loyalty (TemkinRatings.com)

Based on a study of 10,000 U.S consumers, USAA (banking) and ACE Rent A Car took the top spots in the 2018 Temkin Forgiveness Ratings, which rates how willing consumers are to forgive 318 companies across 20 industries. Advantage Rent-A-Car, Wawa Food Markets, Navy Federal Credit Union, USAA (credit cards), Buick, H-E-B, Wegmans, ExpressJet, True Value, and Bath & Body Works fill out the rest of the top 12 firms.

At the other end of the Ratings, consumers are least likely to forgive Comcast, Motel 6, Optimum, Charter Spectrum, Cox Communications, Citibank, Cigna, Pacific Gas & Electric, DirecTV, and Anthem.

"Every organization makes mistakes, so forgiveness is a critical element of loyalty. TV & Internet service providers continue to do little to earn consumers' forgiveness," states Bruce Temkin, managing partner of Temkin Group.

Other highlights from the 2018 Temkin Forgiveness Ratings include:

Supermarkets is by far the highest scoring industry, well above the second-place industry, streaming media. TV & Internet service providers is the lowest scoring industry, more than 10 points lower than the next lowest industry, health plans.

USAA (banking and credit cards), ACE Rent A Car , Advantage Rent-A-Car , Navy Federal Credit Union , and TriCare earned Ratings that are 20 or more points higher than their industry averages.

(banking and credit cards), , , , and earned that are 20 or more points higher than their industry averages. McAfee , United Airlines , Pacific Gas and Electric , Sears , CarMax , Citibank , and Motel 6 earned Ratings that are 15 or more points lower than their industry averages.

, , , , , , and earned that are 15 or more points lower than their industry averages. Starz , MetroPCS , Fifth Third , Domino's , Dairy Queen , and Wendy's improved the most between 2017 and 2018.

, , , , , and improved the most between 2017 and 2018. Hitachi, Fox Rent A Car, Bosch, Appalachian Power Company, HSBC, AmazonFresh, and Motel 6 declined the most between 2017 and 2018.

In its eight year of publication, the 2018 Temkin Forgiveness Ratings examines the likelihood of consumers to forgive companies after they make a mistake. It evaluates 318 companies across 20 industries: Computers & Tablets, Insurance, Investments, Credit Cards, Health Plans, TV/Internet Service, Streaming Media, Wireless, Airlines, Hotels & Rooms, Retailers, Fast Food, Rental Cars & Transport, Supermarkets, Parcel Delivery, TVs & Appliances, Auto Dealers, Software Firms, and Utilities.

The 2018 Temkin Forgiveness Ratings along with other ratings can be accessed at the Temkin Ratings website, www.TemkinRatings.com.

Detailed datasets for the 2018 Temkin Forgiveness Ratings can be downloaded from the Customer Experience Matters blog, at ExperienceMatters.wordpress.com as well as from the Temkin Group website, www.TemkinGroup.com.

About Temkin Group: Temkin Group is a leading customer experience research, consulting, and training firm. Many of the world's largest brands rely on its insights and advice to steer their transformational journeys, and Temkin Group accelerates their results by combining customer experience thought leadership with a deep understanding of organizational dynamics. Rather than layering on cosmetic changes, Temkin Group helps companies embed practices within their culture by building up four core competencies: Purposeful Leadership, Employee Engagement, Compelling Brand Values, and Customer Connectedness. The firm's ongoing research identifies leading and emerging best practices for engaging the hearts and minds of customers, employees, and partners. Temkin Group also runs the CX Institute, which provides online training that instills a customer-centric mindset across all employees across an organization. For more information, contact Bruce Temkin at 617-916-2075 or send an email to [email protected].

About Bruce Temkin: Bruce Temkin is widely recognized as a customer experience visionary, and is Managing Partner of Temkin Group. He is also the co-founder and Emeritus Chair of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA.org), a global non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of customer experience management. Bruce is also the author of a very popular blog, Customer Experience Matters. Prior to forming Temkin Group, he was a Vice President at Forrester Research for 12 years where he ran the customer experience, eBusiness, financial services, and B2B sectors and was the most-read analyst for 13 consecutive quarters.

Customer Experience Matters is a registered trademark of Temkin Group.

SOURCE Temkin Group
MAUMEE, Ohio, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Dana Incorporated (NYSE: DAN) is contributing to the industrialization of high-performance fuel cell stacks through its support of the Autostack Industry project, an alliance of German automotive manufacturers, suppliers, and the Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research.

To help the project advance toward fuel-cell stack commercialization, Dana designed and optimized its metallic bipolar plate to meet cost and performance targets for early market entry. The company will display its latest fuel-cell technologies at Hannover Messe 2018, April 23-27, in Hannover, Germany.

Fuel cells offer a clean energy alternative for today's vehicles and are considered a great power source for vehicles with long range requirements, such as delivery trucks, city buses, and passenger cars, as they can be rapidly refueled. The Autostack Industry project is focused on decreasing the cost and improving the quality of fuel cells to further the opportunity for large-scale production.

"Dana leverages the latest research in new energy solutions to introduce cutting-edge fuel-cell components, assisting the industry in moving toward commercializing automotive fuel cells," said Dwayne Matthews, president of Dana Power Technologies. "The possibilities for fuel-cell technologies are very exciting and we believe our expertise in design-to-cost and high-volume manufacturing strongly supports the efforts of Autostack Industry."

At Hannover Messe, Dana will showcase its e-mobility products, including battery and electronics cooling solutions and fuel-cell components. Among the fuel-cell components exhibited will be bipolar plates made from stainless steel or graphite composite. These plates feature integrated sealing and conductive coating technologies and take advantage of the company's precision stamping and molding, as well as fluid management capabilities to deliver increased performance and reliability at a lower cost. Other fuel-cell component products Dana will showcase are its charge air coolers and a range of gas-to-liquid cooling solutions, as well as valves.

In addition, Dana will display its thermal management subsystems, which are critical in advanced fuel-cell engine performance. With state-of-the-art designs, they provide enhanced performance with reduced parasitic energy losses to help customers meet fuel efficiency and durability targets.

Dana first joined Autostack CORE, the predecessor to Autostack Industry, in 2010. Autostack Industry is comprised of major automotive manufacturers, including BMW, Daimler, Ford, and Volkswagen, with the objective to develop a generic fuel-cell stack.

In 2016, Dana announced it had joined the Project INSPIRE, a consortium made up of Europe's top fuel-cell catalyst researchers and development organizations along with BMW, to collaborate on accelerating the commercialization of fuel cells. For its role in this consortium, Dana engineers at its technology center in Neu-Ulm, Germany, will lead the development of an advanced metallic bipolar plate design for automotive fuel cells.

Dana is a proven supplier of solutions for tomorrow's power sources and has a long history of innovation in fuel-cell product technologies. The company has displayed these solutions at Hannover Messe for more than a decade.

Dana's booth (stand B69) at Hannover Messe is located in Hall 27 with the Hydrogen + Fuel Cells + Battery group.

For more about Dana's fuel-cell and thermal management solutions, visit dana.com.

About Dana Incorporated

Dana is a world leader in highly engineered solutions for improving the efficiency, performance, and sustainability of powered vehicles and machinery. Dana supports the passenger vehicle, commercial truck, and off-highway markets, as well as industrial and stationary equipment applications. Founded in 1904, Dana employs approximately 30,000 people in 33 countries on six continents who are committed to delivering long-term value to customers. The company reported sales of more than $7.2 billion in 2017. Based in Maumee, Ohio, the company's operations in Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan were selected as a Top Workplace for the last two years by The (Toledo) Blade and its research partner, Energage. Dana is ranked among the Drucker Institute's listing of the 250 most effectively managed companies. For more information, please visit www.dana.com.

SOURCE Dana Incorporated

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NEW YORK, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Times Square remains the beating heart of Manhattan, and now travelers can be at the center of the action while still having space to reflect with the opening of the new AC Hotel New York Times Square.

The Midtown hotel melds an urban vibe with classic elements that hark back to the brand's Spanish roots. The entrance lobby is 23 feet high with a large, open staircase to the lower level illuminated by a skylight shed roof. Its 290 guest rooms will offer an oasis in the midst of the bustle of NYC with a sleek and classic modern style. With options like floor-to-ceiling windows and private balconies, guests can enjoy unparalleled city views.

AC Hotel New York Times Square features two food and beverage experiences. The beloved NYC restaurant Boqueria will bring its lively Spanish tapas and signature convivial spirit to 260 West 40th Street, adjacent to the new AC Hotel lobby. The restaurant features a location-specific breakfast menu, a large rotisserie, and time-honored favorites like Pan Con Tomate, Pulpo a la Plancha, and Paella de Mariscos from Catalan chef Marc Vidal. Castell, a year-round rooftop lounge will be open to guests and locals alike when it debuts in May 2018, serving up views of NYC's iconic skyline along with shareable plates, Happy Hour rituals and cocktails, including the brand's signature Gin & Tonic.

"We are delighted to introduce New York City to the AC brand's 'New Way to Hotel,'" says Corry Oakes, President/CEO of OTO Development, the Johnson Management company that developed and operates the new hotel. "In addition to intriguing architectural details, local artwork in common spaces, and dynamic culinary options at Boqueria and Castell Lounge, what guests will truly appreciate is having space to breathe in this city that never sleeps."

AC Hotel New York Times Square brings travelers the best of contemporary European architecture infused with the design-forward spirit of the NYC Fashion District, as interpreted by Helpern Architects. Visitors are drawn into the elegant, double-height lobby via a granite-paved plaza; as they enter through the pleated glass facade, they become immediately aware of the signature materials such as Venetian terrazzo, quarter-sawn dark walnut millwork, and the dark patina of statuary bronze that makes the whole area glow. The modern-day grand stair that wraps top to bottom of the lobby and the large, open well-lit space make for the perfect backdrop for the property's impressive art installations.

"With the Spanish heritage of the AC Hotels by Marriott brand, our design-driven hotel brings new inspiration to the city," says Benjamin Britton, General Manager of AC Hotel New York Times Square. "We provide everything essential you need  and nothing you don't  creating a seamless, tranquil and frictionless experience for our guests, whether they're traveling for business or leisure."

The AC Hotel in Times Square has developed signature programming, with attention to detail at every step  each one crafted to encourage guests to slow down in this hectic city. With elements such as lavender sachets at turndown (freshly made each day) to help promote better sleep, guests will feel taken care of but not fussed over. Other amenities include a 24-hour fitness center, 3,365 square feet of event space, and an AC Market featuring locally sourced items such as Hell's Kitchen Hot Sauces.

"At AC Hotels, everything is done with intention while creating harmony  we believe if we have time to make it, we have time to make it beautiful," said Benoit Racle, Global Brand Leader, AC Hotels by Marriott. "We are so pleased to welcome AC Hotel New York Times Square to the AC Hotels family as our first New York City property, and to be able to offer visitors and locals in Manhattan a tranquil space in the heart of the city to relax, reflect and reset."

The purposeful design of AC Hotel New York Times Square features a collection of artwork by a mix of local and well-known artists. Ranging from sculptures to abstract painting, these expressive pieces are visible in shared spaces to inspire guests during their stay  one could almost call it a private art gallery. Guest room walls feature photography of New York City's unique and iconic architecture such as Fulton Street Station and the Oculus.

This new AC Hotel is perfectly positioned near the Garment District and only a half-block from the Times Square public transportation hub.

The hotel is the first of two planned for the European-inspired AC Hotels by Marriott brand in Manhattan this year, with a second property expected to open in the Financial District later in 2018.

For more information, visit www.ACHotelTimesSquare.com and follow the hotel on Facebook and Instagram.

About AC Hotels by Marriott

AC Hotels by Marriott, a lifestyle brand that celebrates a new way to hotel complemented by a European soul and Spanish roots, boasts more than 120 design-led hotels in 15 countries and territories. Design-driven AC Hotels by Marriott edit away the unnecessary to remove friction, providing thoughtfully designed moments of beauty, allowing guests to focus on what's important to them. The properties modern design for modern business include buzzing AC Lounges, the perfect place for locals or visitors to get work done in style or to enjoy handcrafted cocktails and tapas. High-design guest rooms and public spaces with sleek furnishings and intuitive technology features such as the Media Salons and AC Libraries inspire and connect. AC Hotels by Marriott is proud to participate in the industry's award-winning loyalty program, Marriott Rewards which includes The Ritz-Carlton Rewards. Members can now link accounts with Starwood Preferred Guest at members.marriott.com for instant elite status matching and unlimited points transfer. For more information, visit ac-hotels.com. For more information, visit http://achotels.marriott.com and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

SOURCE Marriott International, Inc.

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http://achotels.marriott.com


WASHINGTON, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Tonight, the Sabin Vaccine Institute (Sabin) will honor Dr. Paul Offit with the 2018 Albert B. Sabin Gold Medal. Sabin will recognize Dr. Offit for his contributions as co-inventor of an oral rotavirus vaccine and his leadership as one of the United States' most vocal and dedicated advocates for immunization.

More than 200,000 children under five years old die each year from rotavirus infections, the most common cause of diarrheal hospitalizations and deaths among children worldwide. Oral rehydration therapy is an effective treatment option for children with mild rotavirus infections, but many of the world's poorest children  who suffer the greatest burden of rotavirus  do not have access to such treatment. As a result, vaccination is the best way to prevent rotavirus disease and protect children's health.

Starting in the 1980s, Dr. Offit performed early research on rotavirus, alongside Dr. H Fred Clark and Dr. Stanley Plotkin, which led to the invention of RotaTeq, an oral vaccine that prevents rotavirus diarrhea. Within a decade of the vaccine's introduction in the United States, child hospitalizations from rotavirus dropped by 85 percent. In 2008, the vaccine became the first oral rotavirus vaccine to be prequalified by the World Health Organization, saving thousands of children's lives and preventing illness in children around the world.

Dr. Offit's contributions to protecting human health extend beyond the laboratory and for many years he has been a strong public advocate for childhood immunizations. Dr. Offit drives efforts to improve public understanding of vaccines through speaking engagements, media appearances and his books. Dr. Offit's many books make science accessible to lay audiences worldwide, highlighting the history of immunization, tackling vaccine myths and reinforcing the message that science is not a matter of faith but a matter of fact.

"Paul's contributions as a vaccinologist and advocate have improved the health of children in every corner of the world," said Amy Finan, chief executive officer of the Sabin Vaccine Institute. "His scientific accomplishments are rivaled only by his impact as a dedicated advocate for immunization. Paul truly exemplifies Albert Sabin's commitment to ensuring every child is protected from preventable disease. It is an honor to present Paul with this year's Albert B. Sabin Gold Medal."

"It's an honor to join the distinguished ranks of Albert B. Sabin Gold Medal recipients," said Dr. Offit. "Though our research may have focused on different diseases, we all share Dr. Sabin's commitment to reducing human suffering. We have accomplished so much, discovering and introducing several vaccines that have reshaped the world as we know it, but vaccines will always be a victim of their own success. As once-common diseases disappear, it is increasingly important to stand as vaccine champions. I thank the Sabin Vaccine Institute for recognizing my research and advocacy with tonight's award, and for its efforts to expand immunization globally."

Dr. Offit currently serves as the Maurice R. Hilleman professor of vaccinology and a professor of pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He has received numerous international and national awards for his work and has published more than 160 papers in medical and scientific journals in the areas of rotavirus-specific immune responses and vaccine safety.

The 2018 Albert B. Sabin Gold Medal ceremony will take place at the National Academy of Sciences building in Washington, D.C. Dr. Offit is the fourth Sabin Gold Medal recipient recognized for medical research contributions to rotavirus vaccines, following Stanley Plotkin, M.D. (2002), Albert Z. Kapikian, M.D. (2005) and Roger I. Glass M.D., Ph.D. (2015).

Awarded annually since 1994, the Albert B. Sabin Gold Medal recognizes those that have made extraordinary contributions in the field of vaccinology or a complementary field. The award commemorates the legacy of Dr. Albert B. Sabin, who developed the oral live virus polio vaccine that is widely heralded with making a huge contribution to the near eradication of polio worldwide. This year marks the 25th year that the Sabin Vaccine Institute has bestowed the award. Past participants of this award include D.A. Henderson, Maurice Hilleman, Roger Glass and Ciro de Quadros, who later served as Sabin's executive vice president.

The 2018 Albert B. Sabin Gold Medal ceremony was made possible in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

About The Sabin Vaccine Institute

The Sabin Vaccine Institute is a leading advocate for expanding vaccine access and uptake globally, advancing vaccine research and development, and amplifying vaccine knowledge and innovation. Unlocking the potential of vaccines through partnership, Sabin has built a robust ecosystem of funders, innovators, implementers, practitioners, policy makers and public stakeholders to advance its vision of a future free from preventable diseases. As a non-profit with more than two decades of experience, Sabin is committed to finding solutions that last and extending the full benefits of vaccines to all people, regardless of who they are or where they live. At Sabin, we believe in the power of vaccines to change the world. For more information, visit www.sabin.org and follow us on Twitter, @SabinVaccine.

SOURCE Sabin Vaccine Institute

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RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- High-end harvests do not happen overnight  dryland growers know this best. To celebrate season-long success, the elite FiberMax Maximizer Club recently honored 104 members, including 75 new growers. To qualify, growers produced half-ton and higher yields with FiberMax varieties on dryland acres in 2017.

The Maximizer Club recognizes growers who take on the challenge of dryland production. Delivering high yields in this environment demands a special artistry.

Farwell, Texas, growers Darren and Lorre Haseloff have a new tool in their crop management barn: a Polaris thats perfect for scouting FiberMax cotton on dryland fields. Gathering to celebrate their win at the FiberMax Maximizer Club event in Lubbock recently are: FiberMax Agronomist Tim Culpepper, Sales Representative Casey Hoelting, growers Darren and Lorrie Haseloff and Bayer Vice-President for U.S. Cotton Operations Monty Christian.

"Growers combine their skill with high-quality FiberMax varieties to achieve exceptional yields," says Kerry Grossweiler, Southern campaign manager for FiberMax cotton. "It's a challenge to deliver quality and yield on any land, especially dryland. This club exists to honor growers' hard work and commitment despite farming in tough conditions."

Charles and Janet Braden of Garden City, Texas recorded the highest yield among the 2017 FiberMax Club qualifiers with 1,795 pounds per acre.

of recorded the highest yield among the 2017 FiberMax Club qualifiers with 1,795 pounds per acre. Tate and Jennifer Greer and Bart and Shawnda Greer of Abernathy, Texas , came in with the highest loan value, garnering $0.5484 .

and of , came in with the highest loan value, garnering . Rann and Kerri Williams of Altus, Oklahoma , qualified the most acres for the club. They harvested at least a half-ton of dryland cotton yields averaging 624.44 acres.

Farwell, Texas, Grower Wins Polaris Ranger

Darren and Lorre Haseloff of Farwell, Texas, won the sweepstakes drawing for a Polaris Ranger XP 1000 EPS.

Please visit www.FiberMax.com/Maximizer for additional information on the FiberMax Maximizer Club.

For more information on how FiberMax cotton seed offers the right variety for the right field, contact your regional agronomist, talk to your local FiberMax representative, visit www.FiberMax.com, or call 1-866-99-BAYER (1-866-992-2937).

Bayer is committed to bringing new technology and solutions for agriculture and non-agricultural uses. For questions concerning the availability and use of products, contact a local Bayer representative, or visit Crop Science, a division of Bayer, online at www.cropscience.bayer.us.

Visit the Bayer Connect - Social Hub for social media, recent news, blog posts, videos and more from Crop Science, a division of Bayer.

About Bayer

Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the Life Science fields of health care and agriculture. Its products and services are designed to benefit people and improve their quality of life. At the same time, the Group aims to create value through innovation, growth and high earning power. Bayer is committed to the principles of sustainable development and to its social and ethical responsibilities as a corporate citizen. In fiscal 2017, the Group employed around 99,800 people and had sales of EUR 35.0 billion. Capital expenditures amounted to EUR 2.4 billion, R&D expenses to EUR 4.5 billion. For more information, go to www.bayer.us.

Contact :

Bayer Media Hotline, 1-862-404-5118, or

Linda Arnold Whaley

Crop Science, a division of Bayer

Tel: (919) 549-2836

Email: [email protected]

Pam Caraway

Rhea + Kaiser

Tel: (850) 758-8700

Email: [email protected]

Find more information at www.cropscience.bayer.us.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Bayer's public reports which are available on the Bayer website at www.bayer.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.

 2018 Bayer CropScience LP, 2 T.W. Alexander Drive, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709. Always read and follow label instructions. Bayer (reg'd), the Bayer Cross (reg'd), Fibermax and Maximizer Club are trademarks of Bayer. For additional product information, call toll-free 1-866-99-BAYER (1-866-992-2937) or visit our website at www.cropscience.bayer.us.

SE0318FIBMAXB069S00R0

SOURCE Bayer

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Available for sale in May 2018, the XPRO S is a game-changing product developed to provide the highest levels of productivity and quality in the industrial sector. Priced at $132,000, it was developed specifically for large companies that require a large printing area to quickly produce high-quality, high-resolution precision models such as realistic models, concept models, functional prototypes, and prototypes of consumer products. XPRO S is also the perfect choice for production departments that need to produce fast industrial and design objects.

"Durability and reliability are the hallmarks of this new 3D printer," said DWS's CTO Maurizio Costabeber. "For industrial scale applications, enterprises are looking for equipment that produces high and consistent output. The XPRO S delivers on these fronts while also providing industrial-grade precision parts with high resolution for every application."

The XPRO S is one of the most powerful and affordable large-format 3D printers on the market. The XPRO S delivers the most cost-effective precision parts using the best of DWS's purpose-made materials at a convincing scale. XPRO S shares DWS's large-format industrial-grade platform, its top of the line quad-laser system, and boasts a print platform of 300 x 300 x 300mm.

With low-running costs and zero planned maintenance cost, the printer is designed to operate 24 hours a day, ensuring maximum reliability. It uses a vast range of materials that DWS has developed specifically for the industrial sector: ABS-like, polypropylene-like, rubber-like, and transparent materials; nano-ceramic resins; materials for investment casting models and silicone molding masters; and many more.

About DWS Systems

DWS Systems is at the forefront of additive manufacturing technology. A respected Stereolithography pioneer and leader, DWS is making additive manufacturing 4.0 a reality by delivering the most advanced photopolymer additive manufacturing systems, materials and digital tools available. For decades, it has been enabling people to live better, engineers to optimize their designs, and companies to bring better products to market. For more information, please visit www.dwssystems.com.

SOURCE DWS Systems
BOSTON, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Eagle Investment Systems LLC, a BNY Mellon company and leading provider of financial services technology, announced today that it is collaborating with Microsoft to create a new cloud-based data management platform. Offered through Microsoft Azure, Eagle will work to develop a multi-tenant solution, leveraging 25 years of experience providing data management solutions to global investment institutions, with $24 trillion in assets currently managed on Eagle. The relationship with Microsoft will also build upon Eagle's secure private cloud, Eagle ACCESSSM, creating a robust hybrid cloud offering.

Benefiting from the power of Azure's global infrastructure, the multi-tenant data management platform will help investment managers capture the diverse data needed to manage assets and seek alpha, combined with the expertise of Eagle Managed ServicesSM and a visionary approach to helping clients ensure data validity and accuracy. Deploying on the Azure cloud platform will help to provide the resiliency, availability and scale needed to quickly adapt to today's dynamic markets.

"The cloud has already diminished many of the barriers that have traditionally impeded investment managers' ability to adopt and benefit from breakthrough technologies," said Mal Cullen, Eagle's Chief Executive Officer. "This collaboration represents a significant milestone for Eagle as we continue to innovate and develop data management and cloud solutions that meet both the current and future needs of our clients."

Judson Althoff, executive vice president, Worldwide Commercial Business at Microsoft, said, "We are excited to collaborate with Eagle Investment Systems, a BNY Mellon company, to support our mutual customers in the financial services industry. The benefits that Azure provides as an enterprise-grade cloud platform, coupled with Eagle's expertise in serving global investment managers, will allow companies to more efficiently manage costs and challenges while maximizing the value of their data."

Cullen added, "We are proud of our track record of providing solutions with a data-centric focus. Combining our knowledge with the strength of Microsoft and the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, this data management platform will also enable future opportunities for Performance and Accounting clients to benefit from enhanced analytics and reporting capabilities, and further combined with the breadth of the BNY Mellon Asset Servicing solutions will provide clients with many opportunities to leverage their data."

Eagle Investment Systems

Eagle is committed to helping financial institutions worldwide grow assets efficiently with its award-winning portfolio management suite of data management, investment accounting and performance measurement solutions that are delivered over its secure private cloud, Eagle ACCESSSM. Eagle deploys trusted solutions and services that create operational efficiencies and help reduce complexity and risk. Eagle Investment Systems LLC is a subsidiary of BNY Mellon. Additional information is available at http://www.eagleinvsys.com or follow us on Twitter @Eagleinvsys.

BNY Mellon

BNY Mellon is a global investments company dedicated to helping its clients manage and service their financial assets throughout the investment lifecycle. Whether providing financial services for institutions, corporations or individual investors, BNY Mellon delivers informed investment management and investment services in 35 countries. As of March 31, 2018, BNY Mellon had $33.5 trillion in assets under custody and/or administration, and $1.9 trillion in assets under management. BNY Mellon can act as a single point of contact for clients looking to create, trade, hold, manage, service, distribute or restructure investments. BNY Mellon is the corporate brand of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE: BK). Additional information is available on www.bnymellon.com. Follow us on Twitter @BNYMellon or visit our newsroom at www.bnymellon.com/newsroom for the latest company news.

Contact:

Jeremy Skaling

Eagle Investment Systems

781.943.2318

[email protected]

SOURCE Eagle Investment Systems LLC

Related Links

http://www.eagleinvsys.com


NEW YORK, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Elite SEM, an award-winning digital marketing agency, announced today that Gayle Meyers, Chief Marketing Officer at LUMA Partners, has joined its Board of Directors. Meyers has more than twenty years' experience in digital media and marketing as both CEO and CMO.

As CMO at LUMA, an Investment Bank with a singular focus on digital media and marketing, and the creators of the renowned LUMAscape, Meyers leads overall marketing, branding, communications, and partnership strategy. Meyers also frequently serves as a featured keynote speaker at LUMA client events, particularly in the technology and software industries. Before joining LUMA, she was Founder and CEO of Digital Media Review and Industry Index, which provides ratings, review, research, and management consulting services across the advertising technology landscape for CMOs. Prior to that, Meyers served in a variety of strategy, business development, and leadership roles at Conversant, DoubleClick, AOL, and 24/7 Media.

"Gayle brings a wealth of knowledge and experience on the tech side of our industry and, most importantly, a view into Elite from the eyes of leading industry CMOs," says Ben Kirshner, Founder and CEO of Elite SEM. "Her passion for marketing and for building connections across this fragmented, complex, and dynamic digital ecosystem is remarkable and is a common thread across her past and present endeavors. I look forward to seeing Elite SEM flourish and deliver even greater levels of performance for our clients."

Elite SEM has expanded its Board of Directors twice already this year, in support of accelerated growth for the agency. In March, George Gallate was announced as the first addition to the Elite SEM Board in 2018. Both of these announcements follow on the heels of a partnership with Mountaingate Capital and the acquisition of Social Advertising agency OrionCKB in 2017.

"Joining the Board of Directors at Elite SEM is an exciting opportunity for me; the business is achieving impressive growth through expanded digital marketing offerings and an increasing focus on marketing science and technology for its clients," said Meyers. "After meeting with Ben Kirshner, I was quickly drawn to Elite's unique and authentic approach to solving CMO problems by aligning client goals with team goals."

"Currently, there is a gap in the market for performance marketing agencies," Meyers continued, "and Elite helps bridge that chasm with an integrated approach to targeted marketing across the triopoly of Google, Facebook, and Amazon. I'm excited to further extend Elite's expertise on data and technology platforms in the team's relentless efforts to deliver outstanding client performance."

"Gayle is an accomplished leader in the digital media space, working closely with both agencies and enterprise brands," said Colton King, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Mountaingate Capital. "Her vast knowledge of the technology landscape across the digital media world brings an additional perspective to the Board that will help us advance strategic service offerings and ultimately improve our performance for clients. We're elated to welcome Gayle Meyers to the Elite SEM team."

About Elite SEM

Elite SEM is an award-winning digital marketing agency. Founded on search, and focused on holistic performance-driven digital marketing, Elite SEM's expertise spans Paid Search, Paid Social, Shopping & Feed, Display Advertising, SEO, Amazon & Marketplaces, Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), and Analytics. Elite SEM brings a unique business model to the market that ties account performance to account managers and rewards teams for continuous performance and satisfied clients with a share of company profits. Boasting unprecedented 94+% employee retention rates, Elite SEM's commitment to people and performance has cemented its position as one of the top digital marketing agencies in North America.

Elite SEM has won several prestigious industry awards and accolades for both its culture and performance including The Chair Award at 2017 US Drum Search Awards, Bing Independent Agency of the Year 2016, Ad Age 2015 Small Agency of the Year Award for Best Agency Culture, Entrepreneur 2015 #1 Top Company Culture, US Search Awards Best Agency (2013, 2014, 2015), Ad Age Top 25 US Search Agency, Crain's #1 Best Places to Work in NYC, Best Places to Work in San Francisco, Mashable #1 Best Tech Company, to Work For, and Inc. #3 Best Workplaces 2017.

SOURCE Elite SEM

Related Links

http://www.elitesem.com


Bai Lixin, founder of Zhiliangzhi Siheyuan, said that Wang Yangming philosophy could help regulate the Internet world, and develop positive initiatives from the entrepreneurs of the Internet age. He declared that the Internet world needs more virtue and responsibility, and that companies should pay more attention to the connections between people when pursuing innovation and high technology. All entrepreneurs should help build a more beautiful Internet world for all generations.

Some of them shared their experience and exchanged ideas about how to use Internet technologies to reduce costs, improve efficiency and boost sustainable growth in various industries - including healthcare, catering and food, education, manufacturing, community service and agriculture.

Joe Weinman, who brought up the idea of Cloud Economics, delivered a speech on corporate strategy and the new economy of Internet Plus. He mentioned that, technology innovation would be the source of most of the wealth, but if business model innovation happens at the same time, there will be a great-leap-forward development.

Liao Jieyuan, founder of WeDoctor, said that online medical services do help patients reduce the difficulty of seeing a doctor, but still has some space to improve. An 'AI doctor' project, developed by WeDoctor and Zhejiang University, has been used in more than 100 rural hospitals, which could help doctors in rural areas to make diagnoses. Mr. Liao mentioned that the AI doctor could be used in other developing countries. With Wuzhen Internet Hospital, WeDoctor is China's largest online medical platform with more than 110 million registered users.

Piero Scaruffi, an expert on AI from Silicon Valley, said that China may not be advanced enough to have a Silicon Valley like US, but it is actually not necessary for China to have a Silicon Valley. China may not be good at inventing new technology, but China is good at applying new technologies. There will be good future for applying innovative and high technologies in Chinese traditional industries.

Lastly, Zhiliangzhi Siheyuan issued 'The Wuzhen Initiative', a letter to the Internet world. The letter stated that entrepreneurs need to work together: with the application of the new technologies, they should take more social responsibility, obey the rules and improve the moral level. By promoting positive energy in commercial world, entrepreneurs could achieve greatness for their enterprises and help build a more beautiful Internet world.

SOURCE Zhiliangzhi Siheyuan
ERIE, Pa., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Erie Insurance is pleased to announce the promotion of Sheryl Rucker to senior vice president of Erie Insurance's Law Division. In this role Rucker will have oversight for Compliance, Special Investigations, Agency Operations & Marketing, Claims Legal, Insurance Operations, and Legal Support.

Sheryl Rucker, named senior vice president of Erie Insurance's Law Division.

Rucker joined Erie Insurance in 2003 as Associate General Counsel. In 2010, she was promoted to Senior Counsel, Insurance Operations. During her tenure, she has handled complex major litigation, government relations, corporate coverage matters and supported operations areas.

Rucker earned her bachelor's degree and J.D. at West Virginia University. Prior to joining Erie Insurance she served as a judicial law clerk for a U.S. Magistrate Judge and as an associate attorney and later partner with Lamp, Bartram, Levy, Trautwein and Perry in Huntington, West Virginia.

About Erie Insurance

According to A.M. Best Company, Erie Insurance Group, based in Erie, Pennsylvania, is the 10th largest homeowners insurer and 11th largest automobile insurer in the United States based on direct premiums written and the 15th largest property/casualty insurer in the United States based on total lines net premium written. The Group, rated A+ (Superior) by A.M. Best Company, has more than 5 million policies in force and operates in 12 states and the District of Columbia. Erie Insurance Group is a FORTUNE 500 company.

News releases and more information about Erie Insurance Group are available at www.erieinsurance.com .

SOURCE Erie Insurance

Related Links

http://www.erieinsurance.com


Slightly smaller than a modern quarter-dollar, the 164-year old gold piece now is estimated to be worth millions of dollars, according to NGC.

"It's like finding an original Picasso at a garage sale. It's the discovery of a lifetime," said Mark Salzberg, NGC Chairman.

"The owner of the coin is a life-long New England resident who wants to remain anonymous. He was stunned when we informed him that it is a genuine, multi-million dollar rare coin. He had shown it to a few collectors and dealers at a recent coin show, but everybody said they thought it was a fake because until now there were only three genuine surviving 1854 San Francisco Mint $5 gold pieces known," explained Salzberg.

"Our initial reaction on examining the coin was utter disbelief that a rarity of this magnitude could still be discovered in this era," said NGC President Rick Montgomery. "But upon seeing the coin in person for the first time it was apparent that the coin is genuine."

Collectors refer to U.S. $5 denomination gold coins as Half Eagles, and Mint records indicate just 268 of them were made in San Francisco in 1854, the first year that coins were produced there. Until now, only three surviving examples were known, and one of them is in the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. The Smithsonian provided a photograph of its coin to Numismatic Guaranty Corporation to assist with authentication of the one owned by the New England man, according to Salzberg.

Since 1987, Numismatic Guaranty Corporation experts have examined and authenticated more than 40 million coins. For additional information, contact NGC at 941-360-3990 or [email protected].

SOURCE Numismatic Guaranty Corporation

Related Links

http://www.ngccoin.com


Dr. Kane's initial research explored the effects of medication to treat schizophrenia and was integral to the research that led to the first Food and Drug Administration-approved medication for treatment-resistant schizophrenia. His current work focuses on early intervention programs for patients with mental illness to help improve their outcomes and the severity of their condition. Dr. Kane and his team developed and implemented the Recovery After an Initial Schizophrenia Episode Early Treatment Program (RAISE-ETP)  a specialty health care model to improve the trajectory of early-phase schizophrenia. Clinicians using the RAISE program found that those patients who received coordinated specialty care, to optimize medication management and provide individual as well as family therapy and psychoeducation along with supported employment or education, made greater strides in improvement in quality of life and return to work or school over the first two years of treatment than patients who received usual care.

Due to the impact of his research and the importance of RAISE, Dr. Kane is a public advocate for early intervention programs and has spoken before members of congress about their benefits. His research no doubt influenced the 21st Century Cures Act, a 2016 law which includes a provision requiring states to use at least 10 percent of their mental health block grants on early intervention for psychosis.

"Ever since my first encounter with a schizophrenia patient during medical school I have wanted to better understand this condition and help patients maintain a normal course of life," said Dr. Kane. "It is an honor to be recognized for my work and to join other leading researchers in AAP. I look forward to working toward the AAP mission of sharing ideas that advance our knowledge and contribute to the development of new and better treatments for medical conditions."

The AAP is a nonprofit, professional organization that was founded in 1885 to advance scientific and practical medicine. The membership is very selective  the organization has 1,700 active members and approximately 600 emeritus and honorary members. Each year nominees to the AAP have the opportunity to share their scientific discoveries and contributions with their colleagues at the AAP's annual meeting each year in Chicago.

About the Feinstein Institute

The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research is the research arm of Northwell Health, the largest healthcare provider in New York. Home to 50 research laboratories and to clinical research throughout dozens of hospitals and outpatient facilities, the Feinstein Institute includes 4,000 researchers and staff who are making breakthroughs in molecular medicine, genetics, oncology, brain research, mental health, autoimmunity, and bioelectronic medicine  a new field of science that has the potential to revolutionize medicine. For more information about how we empower imagination and pioneer discovery, visit FeinsteinInstitute.org.

Contact: Heather E. Ball Mayer

516-465-7917

[email protected]

SOURCE The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research

Related Links

http://www.feinsteininstitute.org


"We've seen a vital need here," said Lauri Topping. "Because of the high cost of living in Hawaii, most families need dual incomes, so a lot of people have to take off work to care for seniors or loved ones. We're looking forward to giving families peace of mind by providing consistent, high-quality care."

The new FirstLight Home Care office will serve area seniors, adults with disabilities, new mothers, those recovering from surgery and other adults in need of assistance. FirstLight caregivers help with many needs  from personal hygiene and household duties such as cooking, cleaning and running errands, to mobility assistance and dementia care.

"Lauri and Scott recognized the growing need in the Honolulu area for the brand of service FirstLight offers and stepped up to the challenge," said Jeff Bevis, FirstLight Home Care co-founder and CEO. "We're confident the service provided by the Toppings and the FirstLight caregivers will fill the needs of the communities they serve. This will be a great addition for the Honolulu area."

The couple learned firsthand the value of customer service in the airline industry, where they met. That's also what brought them to Oahu, when Scott Topping accepted a job at Hawaiian Airlines. He has also worked for Kamehameha Schools.

"We are most excited about FirstLight because of their culture of care," said Scott Topping. "That's what drew us to the company. The people of Hawaii aren't eager to complain, but we know we can raise the bar here when it comes to compassionate caregiving. It's also a way to contribute to the community."

Since opening its first franchise location in 2010, FirstLight Home Care has experienced steady growth and is now operating more than 250 locations in 34 states throughout the U.S.

About FirstLight Home Care

FirstLight Home Care is a top rated non-medical home care provider with a network of offices that provides 93,000 hours per week in care for more than 4,300 clients in over 34 states. The company has created a new standard in home care by combining best practices with innovative approaches to make them an emerging market leader in a rapidly-growing industry. Companion and personal care services can be provided at private residences, assisted living and retirement communities, nursing homes, adult-family homes or group homes. Clients include seniors, new mothers, individuals recovering from surgery, adults with disabilities and anyone who might just need a little extra care or assistance. Visit www.firstlighthomecare.com to learn more.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Heather Ripley

Ripley PR

865-977-1973

[email protected]

SOURCE FirstLight Home Care

Related Links

http://www.firstlightfranchise.com


DRAPER, Utah, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Flexpoint Sensor Systems, Inc. (FLXT) recently announced 2017 Year End Financials. Highlights included:

Full Year 2017 revenue increased 8.3% to $340,604 versus 2016 revenue of $314,494 . The 2017 revenue growth was primarily from the manufacturing of sensors for the wearable industry  especially Medical and Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality (VR/AR), design and development engineering as well as sales of fully integrated products. Management anticipates that revenue will increase as they continue to provide engineering services and customers continue to expand in their target markets; ordering more frequently and in larger quantities.

versus 2016 revenue of . The 2017 revenue growth was primarily from the manufacturing of sensors for the wearable industry  especially Medical and Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality (VR/AR), design and development engineering as well as sales of fully integrated products. Management anticipates that revenue will increase as they continue to provide engineering services and customers continue to expand in their target markets; ordering more frequently and in larger quantities. Full Year 2017 Net Losses were $1,083,642 or (.01) EPS compared to 2016 Net Loss of $2,093,184 , a decrease of 48.2%. These losses include many non-cash expenditures.

or (.01) EPS compared to 2016 Net Loss of , a decrease of 48.2%. These losses include many non-cash expenditures. Cash used in Operations decreased to $410,897 in 2017 from $506,131 in 2016, a 19% decrease. Based on current purchase orders and anticipated orders during 2018, projected revenues for 2018 are anticipated to more than cover operating expenses.

"Last year was an important year as we established new customer relationships, developed reseller channels and continued to strengthen existing relationships across a number of strategic market segments. We work with many research universities globally and, most notably, established two major research relationships with universities that are leaders in our consumer electronics industry space. We expect a significant jump in revenue during the 2nd half of 2018 and should close the year above $1 million in revenue, with the possibility of substantially more," stated Paul Sexauer, Flexpoint VP Sales & Marketing.

The company will host a conference call on Thursday, April 26, 2018 at 4:05 EDT.

The dial in number will be 530-881-1212 with the ID pin 615-253-385#

For more information about the company filings please visit www.sec.gov

About Flexpoint Sensor Systems, Inc.

Flexpoint Sensor Systems, Inc. (FLXT) is an innovative technology firm specializing in developing products that feature the Company's patented Bend Sensor and related technology. The Bend Sensor is a groundbreaking sensing solution that is revolutionizing applications in the consumer electronics, automotive, safety, medical and industrial industries. The Bend Sensor's single-layer, thin film construction cuts costs and mechanical bulk while introducing a range of functions and stylistic design possibilities that have never before been available in sensing technology. Flexpoint's technology and expertise have been recognized by the world's elite business and academic innovators for over 17 years. The company is continually setting new standards for sensing solutions in the "smart" age of technology.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that certain statements in this release are "forward-looking statements" and involve both known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors. Such uncertainties include, among others, certain risks associated with the operation of the company described above. The Company's actual results could differ materially from expected results.

Contact Information:

Flexpoint Sensor Systems

Clark Mower, President

801-568-5111

Brokers and Analysts

Chesapeake Group

410-825-3930

SOURCE Flexpoint Sensor Systems, Inc.
WASHINGTON, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has ordered an Acworth, Georgia-based trucking company, Daya Trucking, LLC, USDOT No. 3020203, to immediately cease all interstate and intrastate operations after investigators found the company to pose an imminent hazard to public safety. Daya Trucking, which operates 39 trucks hauling general freight, was served the federal order on April 23, 2018.

In March 2018, after receiving information that Daya Trucking may be a reincarnated and/or an affiliated entity of Ekam Truck Line, LLC, FMCSA initiated a compliance investigation. In 2017, Ekam agreed to enter into a Consent Order as a condition of upgrading its proposed FMCSA safety rating from Unsatisfactory to Conditional. Ekam's proposed Unsatisfactory safety rating had resulted from a federal compliance investigation revealing numerous safety violations. The 2017 Consent Order required Ekam to take specific actions to improve safety  and it prohibited Ekam, its owners and/or any individuals related to Ekam from applying for USDOT/FMCSA registration as another motor carrier.

Ekam Truck Lines, however, failed to comply with virtually all provisions in the Consent Order and instead evaded the Consent Order by applying for USDOT/FMCSA registration as Daya Trucking, LLC.

On March 24, 2018, FMCSA reinstated Ekam's Unsatisfactory safety rating placing the company out-of-service. Following discovery of the reincarnation, FMCSA also merged and consolidated the federal safety and enforcement records of Daya Trucking and Ekam Truck Lines.

The compliance investigation into Daya revealed numerous serious violations of federal safety statutes and regulations, including:

* Failing to properly monitor the dispatch of its drivers to ensure compliance with maximum hours-of-service (HOS) limitations to prevent fatigued driving. Daya does not review its drivers' records-of-duty-status (RODS) for falsification, completeness, accuracy or violations of HOS regulations.

Daya uses a non-compliant Automatic On-Board Recording Devices (AOBRD) system in which drivers can alter their RODS and can manually input odometer readings, violations of federal safety regulations. Between Jan. 1, 2018, and Feb. 28, 2018, Daya's AOBRD system recorded 4,802 hours of unidentified driving time resulting from 51 instances of drivers unplugging or disabling the recording mechanisms.

Investigators found an instance in which a Daya driver recorded his off-duty time commencing in Orangeburg, South Carolina. After disconnecting the AOBRD, the driver continued operating his vehicle. Global positioning system (GPS) records showed the vehicle leaving South Carolina, passing through Georgia and Florida, before arriving in Brewton, Alabama, where the driver reconnected the AOBRD. The following day, the same driver, after crossing Mississippi and now near Ruston, Louisiana, again recorded that he was commencing his off-duty time, however, he again disconnected the AOBRD and continued driving through Louisiana and across Texas before arriving in New Mexico, as documented by GPS records.

* Failing to ensure the company has negative pre-employment controlled substances/alcohol tests results prior to dispatching its drivers. Investigators found that Daya allowed seven drivers to operate a commercial motor vehicle (CMV) before receiving negative pre-employ tests as required by federal safety regulations. Four drivers known to have tested positive for controlled substances were found to have been dispatched by Daya.

* Failing to comply with certain driver qualification requirements, including ensuring that its drivers were properly licensed to operate a CMV, or were medically qualified. Investigators found instances of five drivers without a current commercial driver's license (CDL) or in possession of a suspended CDL, nevertheless, being allowed to operate a commercial motor vehicle.

* Failing to ensure that its vehicles were regularly inspected, maintained, repaired and met minimum safety standards.

In the past 12 months, Daya vehicles have been placed out-of-service at a rate of 46 percent and cited for inoperable required lamps, exposed tire fabric, defective brakes, broken or missing axle position components, and oil or grease leaks from hubs.

FMCSA's investigation found that Daya' Trucking's "complete and utter lack of compliance" with Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, and its effort to avoid the 2017 Consent Order to Ekam Truck Lines "substantially increases the likelihood of serious injury or death for its drivers and the motoring public if the operations of Daya are not discontinued immediately."

Daya Trucking may be assessed civil penalties of up to $26,126 for each violation of the out-of-service order. The carrier may also be assessed civil penalties of not less than $10,450 for providing transportation requiring federal operating authority registration and up to $14,739 for operating a commercial vehicle in interstate commerce without necessary USDOT registration.

If violations are determined to be willful, criminal penalties may be imposed, including a fine of up to $25,000 and imprisonment for a term not to exceed one year.

FMCSA is also considering civil penalties for the safety violations discovered during the investigation and may refer this matter for criminal prosecution.

A copy of the Imminent Hazard Out-of-Service Order is available at

https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/regulations/imminent-hazard-out-service-order-daya-trucking-llc

SOURCE Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

Related Links

http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov


TEL-AVIV, Israel, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Pioneering maritime risk analytics startup, Windward, today announced that former BP CEO, Lord Browne of Madingley, has joined the company's Board of Directors.

Lord Browne invested in Windward in 2016, since when he's been advising the company on strategy, including its push into London and the global marine insurance market. Such has been the impact of Lord Browne's advice, that Windward took the decision to invite him to join the company's board. Speaking to Windward employees at the company's headquarters, Lord Browne said:

"Windward is a company I have admired for a long time: for its vision; for the way it collaborates with organizations to solve real-world problems; and for using its technology to make the world - and the oceans - safer. I look forward to working with Windward to help it succeed in becoming the benchmark for marine risk."

At the same meeting, Ami Daniel, Windward's Co-Founder and CEO, said: "We're delighted to welcome Lord Browne to our Board of Directors. That a man of his experience and expertise chose Windward is humbling, and a testament to our team's success in marrying machine-learning with deep, maritime domain expertise. We're very much looking forward to working with Lord Browne more closely."

Lord Browne's appointment to the Windward Board comes just a month after the United Nations Security Council cited the company's technology in its investigation into North Korea's evasion of sanctions.

The same technology is now being applied by Windward to the marine insurance market, helping underwriters optimize their portfolios, reduce losses and boost profits.

About Windward

Windward is a pioneering maritime risk analytics startup with a mission to keep the oceans safe and protect maritime borders. Combining the traditional world of shipping with the new world of data, it helps governments reduce the trafficking of arms, drugs and people; and saves lives by predicting and preventing accidents. Windward is tackling these maritime challenges with data science, AI and deep domain expertise. Since its founding in 2010, the company has raised $22.4m from investors including Aleph, Horizons Ventures, former CIA Director David Petraeus, and Tom Glocer, the ex-CEO of Reuters. The company is headquartered in Tel-Aviv, with an office in London.

About Lord Browne

Lord Browne joined BP in 1966, rising to become CEO, a position he held from 1995-2007. He now holds a variety of executive and non-executive roles in business. He is Chairman of the Francis Crick Institute, Chairman of the Courtauld Institute of Art, and Chairman of the Trustees of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering. He is a former Chairman of the Trustees of the Tate galleries, and former President of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He is the author of four books.

Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Windward
SAN FRANCISCO, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- SpotOn Transact LLC ("SpotOn"), a cutting-edge payments and software company, today announced an initial investment of $20 million led by twin brothers and co-founders, Matt and Zach Hyman. The Hymans have 20 years of experience in the industry and most recently sold Central Payment to Total System Services ("TSYS").

SpotOn, founded by the Hyman brothers and Doron Friedman, brings together payment processing and a robust software solution, giving its merchants richer data and tools that empower them to market more effectively to their customers. The SpotOn platform offers the most comprehensive tools for SMB's including payments, marketing, reviews, analytics and loyalty.

"SpotOn is bringing new solutions to an industry that needs it. We are aggressively investing to bring best-in-class, integrated payment and software solutions to SMB's," said Matt Hyman. "In the past year, we have hired over 100 new employees across all departments to provide a strong bench of support to our merchants and Sales Partners."

"We bring a deep understanding of the concerns and challenges SMB's face to manage their businesses and build relationships with their customers," adds Zach Hyman. "A Small Business Owner has two primary finite resources: time and money. The SpotOn platform provides them a simple way to communicate with their customers and grow their business, all at their fingertips and for an extremely low cost."

As part of its continued growth and investment, SpotOn has made several strong additions to its Management team and Board of Advisors including Kevin Bryla, CMO of National Funding, and former CMO of ADP and Carl English, founder and CTO of Dinerware. The Company anticipates announcing significant partnerships, product releases and milestones in the coming months.

About SpotOn Transact LLC

SpotOn Transact LLC ("SpotOn") provides a leading technology platform for small businesses, combining payment processing with powerful customer engagement tools, all with industry-leading customer care. SpotOn Transact LLC was formed in 2017 and is headquartered in San Francisco, CA. For more information, visit SpotOn.com.

Contact: Adam Scholder, 847-204-0949, [email protected]

SOURCE SpotOn Transact LLC

Related Links

http://www.SpotOn.com


NEW YORK, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Global luxury travel network Virtuoso, renowned as a leading trend forecaster, has analyzed its data warehouse of $40.7 billion in transactions to reveal the top destinations for upscale travelers this summer, as well as the fastest-growing places of interest. While European countries continue to attract the most visitors, the ranking of the hottest locales displays surprising diversity, showcasing comeback destinations as well as others that may be starting an upward trajectory.

The Virtuoso Top 10:

The most popular destinations for summer vacations based on future bookings.

1. United Kingdom 6. Greece

2. Italy 7. Germany

3. Canada 8. Netherlands

4. France 9. Ireland

5. South Africa 10. Spain

The Top 10 Analysis: Europe remains eternally popular for summer travel, with eight countries cracking the Top 10. Its blend of landmark attractions, luxury accommodations, and distinctive cultures attracts all types of travelers from families to honeymooners and art fans to culinary enthusiasts. The boom in river cruising has boosted the popularity of countries such as Germany, opening up the opportunity to explore tucked away villages. The Netherlands draws in travelers with its all-around beauty, charm and history. Canada also finishes strongly thanks to its vibrant cities, gorgeous nature and proximity to the U.S. South Africa, already renowned as an adventure and family destination, is also garnering attention for its arts and culinary scene in locales like Cape Town as well.

The Virtuoso Hot 10:

The countries that have seen the largest percentage of growth in year-over-year bookings.

1. Greece 6. Morocco

2. Poland 7. Turks and Caicos Islands

3. Dominican Republic 8. St. Lucia

4. New Zealand 9. Vietnam

5. Zambia 10. Egypt

The Hot 10 Analysis: Emerging from its financial upheaval, Greece is this summer's fastest-growing destination due to pent-up demand. Its combination of ancient attractions and stunning scenery beckons travelers to return this year. Poland, a gem of Eastern Europe, is also seeing luxury traveler growth. It offers the same alluring history as the rest of the continent, but with better value and less-touristed sights. As adventurers seek the next great African safari destination, they're turning to Zambia, which boasts varied experiences alongside new luxury infrastructure. Travelers escaping the harried pace of daily life are fueling the popularity of island nations such as the Dominican Republic, Turks and Caicos, and St. Lucia, all of which had minimal to no impact from the September 2017 hurricanes.

Data is sourced from Virtuoso's U.S. and Canadian travel agency members and reflects future travel for June, July and August 2018.

About Virtuoso

Virtuoso is the leading international travel agency network specializing in luxury and experiential travel. This by-invitation-only organization comprises over 1,000 travel agency partners with 17,500 elite travel advisors in more than 45 countries throughout North America, Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Middle East. Drawing upon its preferred relationships with 1,700 of the world's best hotels and resorts, cruise lines, airlines, tour companies and premier destinations, the network provides its upscale clientele with exclusive amenities, rare experiences and privileged access. More than (U.S.) $23.7 billion in annual travel sales makes Virtuoso a powerhouse in the luxury travel industry. For more information, visit www.virtuoso.com.

Media Contacts:

Misty Ewing Belles Lauren Wintemberg

Managing Director, Global Public Relations Account Director

Virtuoso Alice Marshall Public Relations

Phone: 202.553.8817 Phone: 212.861.4031

Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Virtuoso

Related Links

http://www.virtuoso.com


TORONTO, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Front Row Solutions, the creator of a class-leading CRM platform that enables organizations to track and improve mobile worker efficiency, compliance and performance, announced today that it has been recommended as one of the world's top sales enablement partners by Selling Power Magazine.

Front Row Solutions Front Row Solutions class-leading CRM platform

Commented Etien D'Hollander, President of Front Row Solutions: "We are pleased that Selling Power has recommended Front Row Solutions as an elite sales enablement partner. We take pride in being part of the solution that today's sales organizations need to succeed and thrive."

Launched in 1981, Selling Power Magazine is the leading digital publication for sales executives and managers, and one of the internet's most trusted sources for B2B professional selling skills, motivation, and sales management knowledge. In its recommendation, Selling Power Magazine highlighted that Front Row Solutions' innovative mobile data collection solution:

Enables sales reps to easily submit a new sales report, or update a previous report, immediately after a customer interaction  and in less than 60 seconds.

Drives real-time reporting that enhances information flow and provides deep insight across all sales rep and customer activity.

Can be implemented as a standalone platform, or integrated as a user-friendly front end with any legacy CRM or ERP system.

Added Mr. D'Hollander: "Studies reveal that the average sales rep spends a staggering 64.8 percent of their time on non-revenue generating activities, and a massive chunk of this is wasted hunting down customer data and manually submitting reports and updates. At the same time, today's sales managers are expected to meet increasingly aggressive targets, but often lack the essential tools they need to track and optimize their distributed sales force.

"Front Row Solutions clearly solves both of these challenges. Sales reps dramatically increase their active selling time, which much means more time engaging with customers, and far less time on tedious administrative tasks. And sales managers get the real-time visibility they need to ensure compliance, optimize performance, and put their mobile sales reps in a position to succeed quarter after quarter. Everyone wins, including satisfied and impressed customers."

For more information or to set up a free trial call Front Row Solutions at 1-800-986-0983, or visit the company's website at www.frontrowsolutions.com.

About Front Row Solutions

Front Row Solutions (FRS) a North American company, was founded in 2008 to improve the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) process with a focus on the sales rep. The prime directives around the creation of FRS was sales rep engagement, sales rep enablement and sales rep productivity. FRS is a customizable app-based system which can be loaded on any mobile device and allows a sales rep to submit a new report, review and edit all previous reports, track and review all customer activity and access key customer information all from their cell phone. Front Row improves sales rep productivity and increases company sales.

Media Contact:

Etien D'Hollander

416-716-9734

[email protected]

SOURCE Front Row Solutions

Related Links

http://www.frontrowsolutions.com


LONDON, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Fully Automatic Coffee Machine Market: Overview

Transparency Market Research offer 8-year forecast for the Global Fully Automatic Coffee Machine market between 2017 and 2025. The Global Fully Automatic Coffee Machine market is expected to register a CAGR of 2.8% in terms of value during the forecast period. The primary objective of the report is to offer insights about the present product demand scenario in the Fully Automatic Coffee Machine market. The study demonstrates market dynamics that are expected to influence the current challenges and future status of the Global Fully Automatic Coffee Machines market over the forecast period. This report also offer updates on trends, drivers, restraints, value forecasts, and opportunities for manufacturers operating in the global and regional Fully Automatic Coffee Machine market.



Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5360353



Fully automatic coffee machines automatically grind the coffee beans, tamp it, and extract the coffee.Only the bean hopper is to be filled and, if the machine is not connected to a water line, water inlet is added to a reservoir.



It includes the "bean-to-cup" philosophy.Fully Automatic Coffee Machines are being manufactured by the various large scale companies with manufacturing units, where they are packaged and supplied globally.



The majority of European based manufacturers are supplying the products globally. Expansion of coffee chains and outlets globally is expected to drive the market in the forecasted period due to rising population, the advent of western culture, and rising awareness among people mainly youngsters.



Global Fully Automatic Coffee Machine Market: Segmentation

By HoReCa Type, the fully automatic coffee machine market is segmented into Quick service restaurants and the Full service restaurants. Both the segments are expected to significantly grow due to the rising cafe culture, advent of westernization, changing preferences on eating habits and increasing tourism resulting in growth of quick service and full service restaurants globally.



On the basis of price point, the Fully Automatic Coffee Machines market can be segmented into Less than US$ 2000, US$ 2000-4000, US$ 4000-6000 and more than US$ 6000. The market is likely to grow in APAC and MEA region where the rising millennial population is giving rise to cafe culture as well as simultaneous demand for fast food.



The report includes market share of each segment according to the region with analysis towards market trends respectively.A section of the report highlights Fully Automatic Coffee Machines' restraints.



It also provides a market outlook for 20172025 and sets the forecast within the context of the Fully Automatic Coffee Machines, including the new product developments as well as better product offerings in the Global Fully Automatic Coffee Machines market. This study discusses key trends of the Global Fully Automatic Coffee Machines market, as well as analyses the degree to which drivers and restraints are influencing the global market.



Global Fully Automatic Coffee Machine Market: Competitive Dynamics

In the final section of the report, a competitive landscape has been included to provide report audiences with a dashboard view.Key categories of providers covered in the report are Fully Automatic Coffee Machines' key players of the global Fully Automatic Coffee Machines market.



Detailed profiles of the providers are also included in the scope of the report to evaluate their long-term and short-term strategies, key offerings and recent developments in the Fully Automatic Coffee Machines space.



Key players in the global Fully Automatic Coffee Machines market includes Bravilor Bonamat B.V., Wilbur Curtis Co., N&W Global Vending S.p.A., Franke Holding AG, Rex-Royal AG, Group SEB, Gruppo Cimbali SpA, BSH Home Appliances Corporation, JURA Elektroapparate AG, Rancilio Group S.p.A., Animo B.V., De'Longhi Group, Eversys AG, Crem International AB and Bunn-o-matic Corp.



In addition, it is imperative to note that in an ever-fluctuating global economy, we not only conduct forecasts in terms of CAGR, but also analyze on the basis of key parameters such as year-on-year (Y-o-Y) growth to understand the predictability of the market and to identify the right opportunities.Also, another key feature of this report is the analysis of all key segments in terms of absolute dollar.



This is traditionally overlooked while forecasting the market. The market value and volume is used to identify the potential of the global Fully Automatic Coffee Machines market.



Key Segments Covered

HoReCa Type



Quick Service Restaurants

Fast Food Restaurants

Cafeterias

Carryout Restaurants

Full Service Restaurants

Fine Dining Restaurants

Casual Dining Restaurants

Hotel & Club Foodservice



Price Point

Less Than US$ 2,000

US$ 2,000- US$ 4,000

US$ 4,000  US$ 6,000

More Than US$ 6,000



Region

North America

Latin America

Europe

APAC

MEA



Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5360353



About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers



For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +1 (718) 213 4904

Website: www.reportbuyer.com

SOURCE ReportBuyer

Related Links

http://www.reportbuyer.com


HOLLYWOOD, Calif., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Generated by the momentum of Britney Spears' award-winning and record-breaking Las Vegas residency, "Britney: Piece of Me," and in anticipation of her upcoming tour, the multi-platinum, Grammy Award-winning pop icon is joining forces with global brand management and licensing company Epic Rights to develop and launch a line of high quality fashion and lifestyle branded products that reflect her personal sense of style, lifestyle, artistry, and creativity.

Grammy Award-winning pop icon Britney Spears joins forces with global brand management and licensing company Epic Rights to develop and launch a line of high quality fashion and lifestyle branded products that reflect her personal sense of style, lifestyle, artistry, and creativity.

"I am excited to collaborate with Epic Rights to create a new contemporary lifestyle collection," said Britney Spears.

"We see this new lifestyle collection as Britney's next step in connecting with her legions of loyal fans around the globe," added Larry Rudolph, who manages Britney Spears. "Sharing her style and fashion sense through products she has developed is a testament to her authenticity as well as her commitment to and appreciation of the fans that have made it all possible."

"Britney continues to be one of the biggest pop stars in the world with numerous multi-platinum records and awards over the past 20 years. As a passionate artist, successful businesswoman and devoted mother, her strive for excellence is unparalleled," added Dell Furano, CEO of Epic Rights.

With one of the bestselling fragrance lines of all time, with Elizabeth Arden, available in over 85 countries and her recent campaign starring as the face of Kenzo, Spears and Epic Rights together, will continue to expand her brand presence in the marketplace, globally. Spears' personal involvement in all aspects of the collection will ensure authenticity across a number of targeted categories including fashion apparel, hair care, accessories, exercise and electronics. The anticipated retail launch for the Britney Spears Lifestyle program is Spring 2019.

Epic Rights will also manage Spears' e-commerce initiatives including Amazon.

Spears recently announced her tour across the U.S. and Europe, following her record-breaking, four-year headlining residency, "Britney: Piece of Me," at The AXIS at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, where Spears received rave reviews from both critics and fans alike since opening in Dec. 2013. As the first contemporary superstar resident in the city, and with over 250 shows, the record-setting residency was sold out on a regular basis, generating over $140 million gross revenue and selling nearly 1 million tickets. Spears' tourwhich sold out in minutes prompting additional shows--kicks off on July 12 in National Harbor, MD and concludes on Aug. 24 in London.

About Britney Spears

Multi-platinum, Grammy Award-winning pop icon Britney Spears is one of the most successful and celebrated entertainers in pop history with nearly 150 million records worldwide. In the U.S. alone, she has sold more than 70 million albums, singles and songs, according to Nielsen Music.

Born in Mississippi and raised in Louisiana, Spears became a household name as a teenager when she released her first single "Baby One More Time," a Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 smash and international hit that broke sales records with more than 20 million copies sold worldwide and is currently 14x Platinum in the U.S. Her musical career boasts countless awards and accolades, including six Billboard Music Awards and Billboard's Millennium Award, which recognizes outstanding career achievements and influence in the music industry as well as an American Music Award and the 2011 MTV Video Vanguard Award. So far, Spears has earned a total of six No.1-debuting albums on the Billboard 200 chart and 22 top 40 hit singles on the Billboard Hot 100  four of which went to No. 1. Spears has been nominated for eight Grammy Awards and won for Best Dance Recording in 2005.

In 2018, Spears received GLAAD's highest honor, the GLAAD Media Awards' Vanguard Award for her support for the LGBTQ community. Her award-winning and record-breaking cutting-edge pop Las Vegas residency, "Britney: Piece of Me," at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino was voted "Best Show in Las Vegas" and "Best Bachelorette Show in Las Vegas." She also has been creating fragrances for over ten years, and currently has over 20 fragrances available in over 85 countries around the world. Spears was honored at the 2018 Hollywood Beauty Awards for Fragrance of the Year Award for Fantasy In Bloom.

About Epic Rights

Epic Rights, Inc. is a leading music industry retail branding, merchandising and concert artist services company representing many top artists. Epic Rights provides a broad scope of services, including retail branding and licensing, on which they work very closely with Prominent Brand + Talent, official artist's website and social media management, official concert artists online shops, VIP ticketing, official fan communities and trademark registration consultation. Epic Rights is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. For more information, visit: www.epicrights.com

Media Contacts:

Michelle Orsi

Three.Sixty Marketing & Communications

310.418.6430

[email protected]

SOURCE Epic Rights

Related Links

http://www.epicrights.com


SOLON, Ohio, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- MRI Software, a global leader in real estate software solutions, today announced that Grainger plc, the U.K.'s largest listed residential landlord, has selected MRI Software's open and connected property accounting and financial management platform to support its digital transformation and help power its expanding portfolio.

Grainger plc is the U.K.'s largest listed residential landlord, with a portfolio of 9,000 residential properties valued at 2.7 billion. Grainger has major growth plans with a commitment to invest a further 850 million into purpose-built rental housing in the U.K. by 2020.

As Grainger has shifted its portfolio toward the emerging U.K. build-to-rent market in recent years, the company has announced intentions to build a scalable technology foundation to enable its efficient, rapid growth in the sector. A first step in Grainger's digital transformation is to deploy an open and extensible core real estate management platform to automate business processes and enable scalability without increasing administrative overhead. Grainger also needs the ability to easily integrate software from third-party vendors as it continues to build its customer-facing technology solution, complementing MRI's open software strategy.

"At Grainger, we take pride in developing, owning and operating our properties," said Michael Robinson, Business Technology Director at Grainger. "So, naturally, we need a proptech solution that is tailored to our unique needs and that will protect our competitive advantage. Choosing the right technology is critical as it underpins our growth plans, allows us to build an outstanding customer experience and helps control overheads and costs. We chose MRI's property and financial management suite as we believe its open and connected approach will provide a robust core upon which to build the Grainger business and our range of digital platforms."

The MRI solutions suite selected by Grainger includes Residential Management, a full Financials suite with AP Automation powered by Nexus Systems and Fixed Asset Accounting, as well as Facilities Management solutions.

"The future of software is open and connected," said Dermot Briody, Executive Director for Europe at MRI Software. "Grainger's selection of our platform demonstrates how our approach is resonating in the rapidly growing European property sector. Adopting a customer / tenant centric approach while securing an efficient management platform is critical for real estate organizations as the build-to-rent market continues to expand in Europe. Our partnership with Grainger is a testament to our capabilities in that regard."

About Grainger PLC

Grainger, a FTSE250 business, is the UK's largest listed residential landlord. Established in 1912, Grainger prides itself as a leading, responsible and long-term landlord. A market leader in the UK private rented sector ("PRS") and at the forefront of the build to rent sector, Grainger invests in and provides long term, purpose-built, rental homes across the UK. Grainger has a portfolio of residential rental property assets worth over c. 2.7bn and has pledged to invest over 850m into the PRS by 2020 with 690m secured to date.



About MRI Software

MRI Software is a leading provider of innovative real estate software applications and hosted solutions. MRI's comprehensive and flexible technology platform coupled with an open and connected ecosystem meets the unique needs of real estate businessesfrom property-level management and accounting to investment modelling and analytics for the global commercial and residential markets. A pioneer of the real estate software industry, MRI develops lasting client relationships based on nearly five decades of expertise and insight. Through leading solutions and a rich partner ecosystem, MRI liberates real estate companies to elevate their business and gain a competitive edge. For more information, please visit mrisoftware.com.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Jeff Miller

LEWIS

[email protected]

541.207-3461

SOURCE MRI Software

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MINNEAPOLIS, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Guaranteed Rate, one of the largest retail mortgage lenders in the United States, has chosen Total Expert as its strategic technology partner to deploy its new proprietary marketing operating system (MOS), named Red Arrow Connect. The system is designed for the modern top producer, bringing together best-in-class marketing tools and existing industry leading technology, custom built by Guaranteed Rate's in-house technology team.

"As part of Guaranteed Rate's commitment to leading the industry in innovation, we selected Total Expert as a partner who most closely aligns with our needs and vision for the future," said Chief Operating Officer Nikolaos Athanasiou of Guaranteed Rate. "Total Expert demonstrated its ability to scale to our needs, allowing us to customize our existing best-in-class technology platform. This streamlines the process for our loan officers to make it easier to build their brand and generate more business."

Total Expert, the first modern enterprise sales and marketing technology platform built to meet the unique needs of mortgage lenders, banks and financial institutions, will empower Guaranteed Rate's nearly 1,500 loan officers across the country to manage and communicate with their customers and referral partners, while maintaining company brand standards and regulatory requirements.

"Guaranteed Rate has been recognized by numerous publications for being a leader in technology, which demonstrates the company's ability to be agile and innovative  two words we use to describe Total Expert. We're pleased that our shared vision has translated into a strong partnership," said Joe Welu, founder and CEO of Total Expert.

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.

ABOUT TOTAL EXPERT

Eight of the top 15 mortgage lenders in the country put their confidence in Total Expert. Total Expert Inc. provides the first modern, web based, enterprise-level marketing and sales software solution built specifically for mortgage and financial services. Marketing, compliance, and sales are aligned in a single system of record with tools including marketing, co-marketing and CRM. Every marketing asset ever created, downloaded, or deployed is tracked with on-demand audit level reporting. The highly flexible, profile-based architecture provides precise permission controls and hierarchy settings for endless custom reporting and analytics options based on the unique preferences of the organization. For more information, visit totalexpert.com.

Press Contacts:

Henry Drennan

Strategic Vantage

(615) 497-8358

[email protected]

SOURCE Total Expert

Related Links

http://www.totalexpert.com


SAVANNAH, Ga., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. today announced plans to build a new service center at Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport in response to its growing customer fleet's needs for maintenance and service. The service center is expected to open in the second quarter of 2019 and create about 200 jobs.

Gulfstream will invest approximately US$55 million to build the 202,000-square-foot/18,766-square-meter maintenance, repair and overhaul facility on the east side of the airport. The building will include hangar space, offices and back shops, and will complement the main Gulfstream Savannah Service Center, the world's largest purpose-built business jet maintenance facility.

"This expansion of our customer service and support organization is the result of the strong and steady fleet growth we've had for several years and the arrival of the Gulfstream G500 and G600 in the coming months," said Mark Burns, president, Gulfstream. "As we've announced recently, we're also growing to meet customer needs in Appleton, Wisconsin, and Van Nuys, California. These new facilities will keep us well-positioned for support, maintenance and refurbishment of the Gulfstream fleet, which is now at nearly 2,700 aircraft and continues to grow."

Attending the expansion announcement event were state and local dignitaries, including Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal and U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter. The event was held at Savannah Technical College's Aviation Training Center, whose students will play a key role in Gulfstream's growth.

Said Burns: "Our Savannah expansion is also the direct result of our strong partnership with Savannah Technical College. The school's aviation programs, which have provided us with more than 500 knowledgeable and skilled employees over nearly 20 years and continue to grow, will help us meet the workforce needs this expansion creates. We are proud to continue our work together to provide outstanding training and careers in a dynamic industry that's essential to the economy in Savannah and throughout our great state."

When the new service center, named Savannah Service Center East, is completed, Gulfstream will have more than 1 million sq ft/92,903 sq m of dedicated customer-support hangar space, offices and back shops in Savannah. Like the existing Savannah service center, the new Savannah location will offer a wide range of services, including aircraft-on-ground resources, hourly and calendar-driven airframe inspections, avionics installations and interior refurbishments.

"We appreciate the assistance and cooperation we have received from Savannah Technical College, the Georgia Department of Economic Development, the Savannah Economic Development Authority, the Savannah Airport Commission and the city of Savannah in supporting our site expansion," Burns said.

In addition to Savannah, Gulfstream operates service centers in Brunswick, Georgia; Long Beach, California; Cahokia, Illinois; Appleton; Dallas; Beijing; Sorocaba, Brazil; and Luton, England.

Savannah Technical College's aviation technology division offers associate degree, diploma and certificate programs in aircraft structural technology and aviation maintenance, including airframe and powerplant. The aviation maintenance technology program is certified by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. The college's nearly 30,000-sq-ft/2,787-sq-m Aviation Training Center at its Crossroads campus near Gulfstream includes labs, classrooms and a 5,000-sq-ft/465-sq m-hangar. Students also benefit from hands-on training with resources donated by Gulfstream, including a Gulfstream G100 business jet that the college has used since June 2014.

"Gulfstream is the reason Savannah Technical College is able to provide quality aerospace-related programs for our students and a highly skilled workforce for our region," said Dr. Kathy Love, president, Savannah Tech. "Thank you, Gulfstream, for your confidence in Savannah Tech and in our graduates. We congratulate you on your past and future successes in the great state of Georgia."

NOTE TO EDITORS

Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), designs, develops, manufactures, markets, services and supports the world's most technologically advanced business-jet aircraft. Gulfstream has produced more than 2,800 aircraft for customers around the world since 1958. To meet the diverse transportation needs of the future, Gulfstream offers a comprehensive fleet of aircraft, comprising the Gulfstream G280TM, the Gulfstream G550TM, the Gulfstream G500TM, the Gulfstream G600TM, the Gulfstream G650TM and the Gulfstream G650ERTM. We invite you to visit our website for more information and photos at www.gulfstreamnews.com.

More information about General Dynamics is available at www.generaldynamics.com.

SOURCE Gulfstream
VANCOUVER, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Hannan Metals Limited ("Hannan" or the "Company") (TSX.V: HAN) (OTCPK: HANNF) is pleased to present initial results of processing and interpretation of the 40.6km seismic survey completed at the Company's Kilbricken zinc-lead-silver prospect and extensive 35,444 hectare Clare project in County Clare, Ireland.

Key points:

The 40.6 line kilometre 2D seismic survey identified the high-grade zinc mineralized position at Kilbricken (Figure 5a) and defined multiple new high priority targets in similar settings over a combined 12 kilometres trend immediately along strike and up dip from the Kilbricken resource (Figures 1 to 3).





Over the regional scale, multiple drill targets were also identified across much of the Clare project, including major north dipping faults that are well documented to preferentially host economic zinc deposits in Ireland ;





; The 20,000 metre drill program currently being planned will initially test targets over the combined 12 kilometres trend immediately along strike and up dip from the Kilbricken resource;





In total the Clare project now has 68 kilometres of 2D seismic and 5 square kilometres of 3D seismic surveys which constrain depths and geometry of potentially mineralized targets, which will substantially decrease exploration costs and increase exploration effectiveness.





Seismic surveying is not a technique commonly used in hard rock mining while is endemic in the oil and gas industry. Hannan is one of few hard rock exploration companies to use the method globally. A variation on the seismic method won this years' Disrupt Mining competition at the PDAC in Toronto ;

Mr Michael Hudson, Chairman & CEO states, "In the search for the next giant zinc deposit in Ireland, bold new strategies are required as exploration moves to deeper and untested levels. Reflection seismic presents an opportunity to use new data to think differently in a well understood geological environment. This survey has re-written the geological understanding of the Clare basin and opens the door to a new generation of major zinc deposits. We look forward to drill testing these exciting targets."

The regional seismic survey is a first for the area and has delivered a critical new set of subsurface data across Hannan's 35,444 hectare prospecting licence. Combined with earlier surveys, Hannan now owns 68 kilometres of 2D seismic and a 5 square kilometre 3D seismic survey. The Company has also invested in the processing of historic seismic data acquired in 2011 and 2012 by earlier operators, to refine structural architecture interpretation and substantially decrease future exploration cost and risk.

Base metal mineralization in Ireland is consistently developed within well-known stratigraphic and structural settings. The seismic program not only identified the high-grade zinc mineralized position at Kilbricken (Figure 5a), but defined multiple new targets in similar settings. This includes a highest priority 12 kilometre long trend immediately along strike and up dip from the Kilbricken resource (Figures 1 to 3). These new and untested targets in combination with Hannan's extensive soil sampling presents form compelling drill-ready targets across much of the Clare prospecting licence (Figures 4, 5a and 5b).

Importantly, it has been previously well documented that north-facing faults in the Irish Midlands zinc district which dip away from interpreted topographic highs, may preferentially host economic deposits. Major north dipping faults in the new seismic data are therefore considered significant, both on the southerly extent of Kilbricken, and 9 kilometres south southeast at Kilmurry, where 5.0m @ 3.0 % Zn+Pb was drill intersected in an interpreted footwall position adjacent to a large north dipping fault in the seismic dataset. This area is coincident with anomalous zinc and lead surface geochemical sampling (Figures 4, 5a and 5b).

Seismic surveys use sound waves to map features beneath the earth's surface. A convoy of specialized vehicles (Vibrators) generate the sound waves which travel through the earth and are reflected back to surface from geological layers. These faint echoes are recorded by sensors, which are then processed to produce images of the underlying geological layers and structures. The seismic technique has advanced rapidly over the recent years as researchers adapt and introduce new methods, algorithms and approaches with increasing computing power. Hannan is one of only a handful of hard rock exploration companies to use the method globally. A variation on the seismic method won this years' Disrupt Mining competition at the PDAC in Toronto.

The seismic survey was designed by Hannan, together with its geophysical consultants and was carried out by Gallego Technic Geophysics and Rees Onshore Seismic Ltd. A crew of 34 people performed the survey. Three north-south lines and one east-west tie line were completed to test for structures in multiple orientations (Figure 4). IMC Geophysical Services Limited were selected to process all of Hannan's new data. Charles Hope acted as client representative and quality control for the survey design, execution and processing. Glenn Morgan from Morgan Geophysics acted as quality control during processing and conducted the interpretation of all seismic data.

About Hannan Metals Limited (TSX.V:HAN) (OTCPK: HANNF)

Hannan Metals Limited has 100% ownership of the County Clare Zn-Pb-Ag-Cu project in Ireland, which consists of 9 prospecting licences for 35,444 hectares. Zinc remains in tight supply amidst rising demand and stagnant supply. Ireland is a leading global jurisdiction for zinc mining and exploration. In 2015, Ireland was the world's 10th largest zinc producing nation with 230,000 tonnes produced.

The maiden mineral resource1, dated July 10, 2017, immediately ranked Kilbricken as one of the top ten base metal deposits discovered in Ireland by tonnes and grade. Total indicated mineral resources were calculated as 2.7 million tonnes at 8.8% zinc equivalent ("ZnEq"), including 1.4 million tonnes at 10.8% ZnEq and total inferred mineral resources of 1.7 million tonnes at 8.2% ZnEq, including 0.6 million tonnes at 10.4% ZnEq.

Over the last decade, the team behind Hannan has forged a long and successful record of financing and discovering mineral projects in Europe. Additionally, the team holds extensive zinc experience, gained from the world's largest integrated zinc producer of the time, Pasminco Ltd.

Mr. Michael Hudson FAusIMM, Hannan's Chairman and CEO, a Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the technical disclosure contained in this news release.

NI 43-101 Technical Report:

On August 22, 2017, Hannan filed an independent National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report (the "NI 43-101 Technical Report") on The Mineral Resource Estimate for the Kilbricken Zinc-Silver-Lead-Copper Project Co. Clare, Ireland For Hannan Metals Ltd in support of the Company's news release dated July 10, 2017. The NI 43-101 Technical Report was authored by Mr. Geoff Reed of Reed Leyton Consultants and Dr. John Colthurst who are independent "qualified persons" as defined by National Instrument 43-101. The NI 43-101 Technical Report may be found under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the Company's website at www.hannanmetals.com.

On behalf of the Board,



"Michael Hudson"

Michael Hudson, Chairman & CEO



Forward Looking Statements

Certain information set forth in this news release contains "forward-looking statements", and "forward- looking information" under applicable securities laws. Except for statements of historical fact, certain information contained herein constitutes forward-looking statements, which include the Company's expectations regarding future performance based on current results, expected cash costs based on the Company's current internal expectations, estimates, projections, assumptions and beliefs, which may prove to be incorrect. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and undue reliance should not be placed on them. Such forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause the Company's actual performance and financial results in future periods to differ materially from any projects of future performance or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statement. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: The Company's expectations regarding the current drill program, liabilities inherent in mine development and production, geological risks, the financial markets generally, and the ability of the Company to raise additional capital to fund future operations. 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. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change except as required by applicable securities laws. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

SOURCE Hannan Metals Ltd.
PUNE, India, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The report "High Strength Aluminum Alloys Market by End-use Industry Type (Automotive & transportation, Aerospace & defense, Marine), Alloy Type (Cast, and Wrought), Strength Type (High, and ultra-high strength), and Region - Global Forecast to 2023", published by MarketsandMarkets, the High Strength Aluminum Alloys Market was valued at USD 37.94 Billion in 2018 and is projected to reach USD 55.24 Billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 7.8% from 2018 to 2023. The excellent properties, such as high corrosion resistance, durability, design flexibility, and weight reduction have contributed to the high growth of the high strength aluminum market.

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Browse 71 market data Tables and 47 Figures spread through 131 Pages and in-depth TOC on "High Strength Aluminum Alloys Market"

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/high-strength-aluminum-alloy-market-47549886.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report

Automotive & Transportation industry is at the forefront and is driving the high strength aluminum market

High strength aluminum alloys has been used in the automotive & transportation industry in many application like wheel rims, engine components, pistons, powertrain, front & rear longitudinal frame, and many more. High strength aluminum alloys provides superior properties such as high-mechanical performance, Corrosion resistance and light weight. High strength aluminum alloys provides the best alternative to achieve improved performance, which includes high mechanical properties and low weight. With the increasing demand for the lightweight and efficient materials in the global automotive industry, the market for high strength aluminum alloys is also projected to grow, as aluminum can reduce the weight of automobile components as well as the complete body by up to 50%.

Get PDF Brochure @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=47549886

Wrought Alloy: The largest alloy type for high strength aluminum alloys

Wrought alloy are the most common used alloy in many different end-use industries. In high strength aluminum alloy market also the major share is capture by wrought aluminum alloys as they represent better mechanical properties such as high strength to weight ratio, corrosion resistant, lightweight and among others

APAC is the key region for High Strength Aluminum Alloys Market

The High Strength Aluminum Alloys Market in APAC is segmented into China, India, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and the Rest of APAC. China, South Korea, India, and Thailand are the growing economies in the region that contribute to the growth of the market in the region. The market in this region is also expected to witness significant growth in the next five years because of rapid economic expansion and increase in foreign direct investment in China, India, and South Korea. The automobile industry in this region has witnessed tremendous growth in the past few years, attributable to growing population, favorable investment policies, growing economies, and government initiatives directed at promoting industry growth in the region. Cheap labor costs, coupled with favorable import-export policies, have made Asia-Pacific an ideal market for automotive OEMs as well as for aluminum manufacturers/suppliers.

Some of the key global players prevailing in the High Strength Aluminum Alloys Market are Rio Tinto PLC (U.K.), Aluminum Bahrain B.S.C. (Bahrain), Norsk Hydro ASA (Norway), Hindalco Industries Limited (India), and Alco Inc. (US). These players adopted various organic and inorganic developmental strategies. For instance, Norsk Hydro entered into an agreement to acquire Rio Tinto's Icelandic aluminum plant ISAL for $345 million. The agreement also includes buying Rio's 53.3-percent share in Dutch anode plant Aluchemie and its 50-percent share in Swedish aluminum fluoride plant Alufluor.

Know more about High Strength Aluminum Alloys Market:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/high-strength-aluminum-alloy-market-47549886.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, "Knowledge Store" 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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Visit Our Blog @ http://www.marketsandmarketsblog.com/market-reports/chemical

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SOURCE MarketsandMarkets
BATESVILLE, Ind., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Hillenbrand, Inc. (NYSE: HI) will hold a conference call and simultaneous webcast Thursday, May 3, 2018, at 8:00 a.m. ET. They will discuss the results for the second quarter of fiscal year 2018, which ended March 31, 2018. The live webcast, including a slide presentation, will be available at http://ir.hillenbrand.com under the "Events & Presentations" tab and will be archived on the company's investor relations website through Friday, June 1, 2018.

To access the conference call, listeners in the United States and Canada may dial +1 (833) 241-7251, and international callers may dial +1 (647) 689-4215. Please use conference call ID number 1197739. A replay of the call will be available until midnight ET, Thursday, May 17, 2018, by dialing +1 (800) 585-8367 toll free in the United States and Canada or +1 (416) 621-4642 internationally and using the conference ID number 1197739.

Hillenbrand will issue a press release reporting its results after the market closes on Wednesday, May 2, 2018. The full text of the release and financials will be available at http://ir.hillenbrand.com.

About Hillenbrand

Hillenbrand (www.hillenbrand.com) is a global diversified industrial company with multiple market-leading brands that serve a wide variety of industries across the globe. We pursue profitable growth and robust cash generation in order to drive increased value for our shareholders. Hillenbrand's portfolio is composed of two business segments: the Process Equipment Group and Batesville. The Process Equipment Group businesses design, develop, manufacture and service highly engineered industrial equipment around the world. Batesville is a recognized leader in the North American death care industry. Hillenbrand is publicly traded on the NYSE under "HI".

SOURCE Hillenbrand, Inc.

Related Links

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Hino customers can expect an Ultimate Ownership Experience that delivers higher standards at every touch-point throughout the lifecycle of product ownership at these locations. With the following newly inducted Certified Ultimate Dealerships, Hino now has 18 locations nationwide that are setting a new benchmark in the industry. Congratulations goes out to:

Donahue Trucks Santa Maria Santa Maria, CA Ry-Den Truck Center, Inc. Fresno, CA Bentley Truck Sales of Philadelphia, LLC Philadelphia, PA Old River Truck Sales Richland, MS Lesher Hino Camp Hill, PA General Truck Sales of Toledo, LLC Toledo, OH

Fred Bentley, President of Bentley Truck Services commented, "The Bentley Truck Services team is proud to be recognized as a Hino Certified Ultimate dealer at two Bentley locations and are already recognizing benefits of being a Hino Certified Ultimate dealer. It has always been in the culture of the Bentley organization to Sort, Set, Shine, and Standardize but more importantly to Sustain. That is where we believe the partnership with Hino as a Certified Ultimate Dealer will bring consistency and accountability to our dealership sales, service, and parts departments. At Bentley, we are committed to excellence and now in partnership with the Hino Certified Ultimate program we integrate the principles of Kaizen daily for continuous improvement."

Mark Dysarz, Sr. Manager of Dealer Operations for Hino Trucks added, "Hino's Certified dealer network is quickly becoming the benchmark for the industry. Our customers can be assured that our Certified Ultimate dealers will provide a superior ownership experience as our certification program requires they meet and maintain our high standards."

Hino recently introduced the Hino XL Series, an all-new lineup that rounds out Hino Trucks Class 7 product offering and launches them into the Class 8 market for the first time in the U.S. As with everything Hino Trucks does, the Hino XL Series is more than a product, it is about providing Hino customers an ultimate ownership experience. These Certified Ultimate dealerships, and Hino dealers around the country, are dedicated to this way of doing business.

Hino Trucks, a Toyota Group Company, manufactures, sells, and services a lineup of Class 4-8 commercial trucks in the United States. Hino Trucks is the premier heavy & medium duty nameplate in the United States with a product lineup that offers fully connected vehicles with low total cost of ownership, superior fuel economy, unmatched reliability and maneuverability and the most comprehensive bundle of standard features in the market. Headquartered in Novi, Michigan, Hino has a network of over 230 dealers nationwide committed to achieving excellence in the ultimate ownership experience. Learn more about Hino Trucks at http://www.hino.com or follow us on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and YouTube.

SOURCE Hino Trucks

Related Links

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CORAOPOLIS, Pa., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- H&K Equipment, a Pittsburgh-based forklift and material handling equipment distributor, announced today that it has become the authorized Taylor Machine Works dealer for Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio, the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia, and Garrett and Allegany counties in Maryland. H&K Equipment will now provide all sales, service, and support for Taylor products in these areas.

H&K Equipment's affiliate company, Taylor Northeast, already represents Taylor forklifts in geographically congruent territories in Eastern Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and portions of Virginia. The move unifies regional distribution of Taylor products under a single company and establishes H&K Equipment and Taylor Northeast as the largest Taylor lift truck provider in the Mid-Atlantic. Taylor was formerly represented in the Pittsburgh metropolitan region by Burns Industrial Equipment, which changed its focus to lift truck models outside of Taylor's product lines in early 2018.

George Koch, president of H&K Equipment, described the move as a logical step in the evolution of the company. "We have been representing Taylor for over 30 years," Koch said. "We are thrilled to bring our passion and expertise for this equipment to customers in the expanded territory."

H&K Equipment, which is headquartered 15 miles from downtown Pittsburgh, is situated in the middle of the new territory it will be managing. The company's central location, Koch said, puts every former Burns Industrial Equipment customer within easy reach of its sales and support teams. H&K Equipment's now-combined territory, Koch added, crosses eight states and covers over 100,000 square miles of area.

"With our affiliate Taylor Northeast, we have facilities in Pittsburgh, throughout the eastern half of Pennsylvania, down into Baltimore, and up into Syracuse, New York. That gives us the ability to bring a range of expanded rental and service options to these customers. All of our fleet and service capabilities were developed with that goal in mind."

In 2017, before acquiring the new territory, H&K Equipment's association of companies was the second-largest Taylor distributor in the United States. In addition to having the largest Taylor sales and rental fleet in the area, Koch said, H&K Equipment has long distinguished itself as an authority in large, difficult-to-source material handling equipment.

"We have a reputation for being the big truck guys," Koch said. "These are some of the biggest trucks out there. Our service specialists are among the most experienced and knowledgeable in the country. That's something we've cultivated at our companies over a period of decades."

Taylor Machine Works is a privately held American company that specializes in manufacturing high-capacity lift trucks, some of which handle loads in excess of 100,000 pounds. Koch described the product line, which includes traditional forklifts as well as rough terrain forklifts, container handlers, and reach stackers, as being among the most dependable and lowest total cost machines in the industry. Taylor forklifts have a wide range of applications and are frequently used at ports, lumber yards, and industrial sites where bulk and large loads need to be maneuvered through active work zones.

H&K Equipment was founded in 1983 and employs over 300 people across six affiliate companies that operate from 11 locations in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New York. In addition to high-capacity lift trucks, H&K Equipment companies also provide or manufacture small-capacity forklifts, railcar movers, personnel carriers, overhead cranes, industrial electromagnets, warehouse and racking solutions, and industrial cleaning equipment.

SOURCE H&K Equipment
WASHINGTON, April 23, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Iranian backed Houthi militias in Yemen are holding hostage 19 ships, carrying over 200 thousand tons of petroleum byproducts in the anchoring zone outside of the port of Hodeida, which is under the militia's control. Some of these ships have now been detained for over 26 days, and are prevented from going into the port, despite the port being free of any other ships. The Yemen Comprehensive Humanitarian Operations (YCHO) center in Saudi Arabia has reached out to the United Nations OCHA office in Riyadh and the UNVIM offices in Djibouti to express their concern over the tactics used by the Houthi militias, which are exacerbating the suffering of the people of Yemen. This move hinders relief efforts, prevents aid from properly reaching the Yemeni people, and grows the black market for goods while enabling the Houthi militias to benefit and extend the war further. There is a strong fear that the Iranian backed Houthi militias intend to destroy these ships, which would create an environmental disaster in the Red Sea in addition to depriving the Yemeni people of intended aid. The Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen, which is responsible for issuing the permits that allow ships to dock, works in coordination with UNVIM regularly to allow aid shipments to get to the Yemeni people in a timely and efficient manner. The coalition has provided all 19 ships with permits to dock in the port of Hodeida.

SOURCE Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, Information Office

Related Links

http://saudiembassy.net


CHICAGO, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Hub International Limited (Hub), a leading global insurance brokerage, announced today that it has acquired the assets of BK-JET Group, LLC (BK-JET). Terms of the acquisitions were not disclosed.

Headquartered in Spokane, Washington, BK-JET provides its clients with business insurance, surety and bonding, and personal and life insurance as well as access to industry-specific insurance resources and capabilities. BK-JET's accomplished brokers have extensive knowledge and deep industry experience in the following fields: construction, manufacturing, aviation/aerospace, hospitality, real estate, non-profit, healthcare, technology, energy, agriculture, financial services and start-ups. BK-JET's industry-focused approach supports Hub's recent launch of its Specialty practices. The strategic acquisition of BK-JET also complements and strengthens Hub's existing operations in the Inland Northwest region of Washington state.

"All of our clients will benefit from the synergies of this partnership," said Andy Prill, President of Hub Northwest. "To really understand the current and emerging risks associated with an industry, clients benefit most from insurance producers with specialized industry knowledge. We're excited to welcome BK-JET to strengthen our Hub Northwest industry-specific insurance solutions as we continue to grow through strategic mergers and acquisitions in the Inland Northwest and throughout the Pacific Northwest."

Joining Hub Northwest are BK-JET's founding partners Josh Tyndell, Erin Repp, Tom Blue, Keith McNally and Bill Dinneen, along with the BK-JET staff. They will report to Ryan Pugh, Vice President of Sales for Hub Northwest.

"BK-JET's clients trust us because our team goes above and beyond expectations and understands how to create solutions specifically designed for their industry," said Tyndell. "Joining Hub allows us to offer our clients a broader suite of insurance solutions and risk services to help them grow and protect their business."

About Hub's M&A Activities

Hub International Limited is committed to growing organically and through acquisitions to expand its geographic footprint and strengthen industry and product expertise. For more information on the Hub M&A experience, visit WeAreHub.com.

About Hub International

Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Hub International Limited (Hub) is a leading full-service global insurance broker providing property and casualty, life and health, employee benefits, investment and risk management products and services. From offices located throughout North America, Hub's vast network of specialists provides peace of mind on what matters most by protecting clients through unrelenting advocacy and tailored insurance solutions. For more information, please visit hubinternational.com.

CONTACT:

Media: Marni Gordon

Phone: 312-279-4601

[email protected]

M&A: Clark Wormer

Phone: 312.279.4848

[email protected]

SOURCE Hub International Limited

Related Links

http://www.hubinternational.com


LONDON, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Humaniq recently announced additional bioID settings will as an extra safeguard be integrated into Humaniq app, which has already had over 100,000 downloads in the Google Play store. This technology allows the tracking of executed transactions to ensure they comply with a user's pattern of transactions.

Humaniq is seizing the opportunity presented by Blockchain ledgers providing complete, unchangeable histories of transactions. This allows a specific behavioural pattern for every wallet activated in the app to be identified. If transactions are detected as not fitting this pattern for a user, Humaniq's smart system will request further biometric identification data. The more transactions a user carries out, the more detailed and thorough the profiling of their wallet is.

The Humaniq team also reveals today that the total transaction volume has reached 400,000 HMQ in more than 250,000 transactions per month.With the introduction of an additional layer of biometric authentication, this means over 10,000 transactions will be totally secured from fraud, benefitting over 100,000 users of Humaniq App.

The measures announced today build on the high ratings Humaniq users have already given to the app for its superior safety features and high-security standards. The Humaniq community has responded positively to the current features in the Humaniq app: a wallet, secure messenger, live support chat, peer-to-peer transactions in African countries (Uganda, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and Rwanda) and P2P encryption for file-sharing and transactions. Moreover, Humaniq earlier this year achieved the launch of the first ever working hybrid Blockchain, providing an inexpensive method to secure the network and allowing users to make small transactions with transaction fees close to zero.

ABOUT HUMANIQ

Humaniq is a London-based Fintech firm that provides next-generation financial services using its Blockchain-based mobile application for the unbanked and underprivileged in emerging economies globally. Humaniq is focused on worldwide financial inclusion by providing access to global markets, greater opportunities, and novel financial solutions using repurposed technologies for those gaining access to financial services for the first time.

Media contact:

Alex Fork, office

[email protected]

Join our community:

https://humaniq-co.slack.com

https://t.me/HMQtrader

https://www.reddit.com/r/Humaniq

https://open.kakao.com/o/gR94ctw

SOURCE Humaniq

Related Links

http://humaniq.com


COLUMBUS, Ohio, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Think outside the box for this Mother's Day and give mom a gift she can get fired up about, literally. Ditch the ordinary flowers and chocolate, and instead help mom reach for something new, challenging and exciting by giving her a blowtorch. According to a new survey from Bernzomatic, the leader in hand-held torches, a torch might be higher up on her wish list than anyone thought. It will inspire the leading lady in your life to 'torch like a mother' with dozens of creative uses in and around the house, from home decor to crafting and cooking.

Bernzomatic surveyed 1,200 moms aged 18-65 to learn more about what makes them feel the most empowered, and what types of creative projects they're interested in trying, to see if a torch could potentially help them. Turns out that it certainly can, as when asked about what makes them feel most empowered, 69 percent said mastering a new skill, 54 percent said completing home repairs by themselves and 49 percent said using tools to create, fix or build.

"There's nothing better than the sense of accomplishment from mastering or creating something for the first time," said Janna Stanford, director of customer engagement for Bernzomatic. "Give that feeling to mom this Mother's Day. She will learn that using a torch is truly exhilarating and opens the door to endless creative possibilities through the transformative power of fire. Whether discovering a new hobby or fixing something with her own hands, a torch is the gift that keeps on giving."

How to Utilize a Torch: Setting Creative Possibilities Ablaze

When it comes to creative projects moms want to try, home decor (54 percent), crafting (46 percent) and new kitchen techniques (45 percent) rose to the top of the list. And while two-thirds (69 percent) of moms said they feel empowered to try new hobbies in their day-to-day lives, 57 percent have never actually used a torch because they just "never really thought about it."

Unlike other tools that perform one sole function, with a torch, the opportunities to create are plentiful. Bernzomatic recommends these torch projects to spark ideas for you and mom:

Home Decor  To add a rustic, chic look to wooden home pieces, use a Bernzomatic TS3500 Multi-Use Torch to apply a patina effect. A few quick strokes with the torch along the wood grain will make new items look aged. The same torch can be used to remove paint by applying short strokes and then scraping away  perfect for rehabbing that old set of patio furniture.

 To add a rustic, chic look to wooden home pieces, use a Bernzomatic TS3500 Multi-Use Torch to apply a patina effect. A few quick strokes with the torch along the wood grain will make new items look aged. The same torch can be used to remove paint by applying short strokes and then scraping away  perfect for rehabbing that old set of patio furniture. Crafting  From jewelry making, such as soldering together pendants, shaping glass, and enamel work, to woodworking and engraving, moms can tackle endless craft projects with the small butane Bernzomatic ST2200 Detail Torch. The torch's small, precise flame is a crafter's best friend and can even be used for jewelry repair.

From jewelry making, such as soldering together pendants, shaping glass, and enamel work, to woodworking and engraving, moms can tackle endless craft projects with the small butane Bernzomatic ST2200 Detail Torch. The torch's small, precise flame is a crafter's best friend and can even be used for jewelry repair. Cooking  Nothing intensifies flavors like fire, and the Bernzomatic TS4000 High Heat Torch is a must-have kitchen tool for the foodie mom. The torch is perfect for adding a sear to steak or finishing off roasted vegetables. Also use the torch to brown merengue, as well as create dessert masterpieces like creme brulee and even torched cocktails.

 Nothing intensifies flavors like fire, and the Bernzomatic TS4000 High Heat Torch is a must-have kitchen tool for the foodie mom. The torch is perfect for adding a sear to steak or finishing off roasted vegetables. Also use the torch to brown merengue, as well as create dessert masterpieces like creme brulee and even torched cocktails. Home Repair  For moms ready to take on bigger repair projects around the house, the Bernzomatic TS4000 High Heat Torch is the go-to torch. Use it to fix leaky windows by loosening the caulk with a few quick strokes of flame to scrape away before resealing. The torch can also be used to loosen rusty bolts and solder copper pipe.

To give the gift of fire, you can find Bernzomatic torches at major hardware retailers nationwide. Find more inspiration and ideas at www.Bernzomatic.com.

Survey Methodology

This United States survey was conducted online by Bernzomatic from March 15  20, 2018 among 1,211 respondents of moms, aged 18-65, with one or more children.

About Bernzomatic

Bernzomatic, a Worthington Industries brand, has been the leader in the blowtorch category since 1876. With a passion for craftsmanship and creation, Bernzomatic believes in providing the right tools and inspiration to take on projects and redefine what you can achieve. Bernzomatic products set the standard in safety, durability and performance, and include handheld torches, fuel cylinders, butane lighters and project accessories that can be used on the job site, in the home and in the hands of those with a desire to create. Find your fire at www.Bernzomatic.com.

MEDIA CONTACT

Maureen Murray

312-396-4390

[email protected]

SOURCE Bernzomatic

Related Links

http://www.Bernzomatic.com


LONDON, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Former IgnitionOne MD, Florian Gramshammer appointed as new MD EMEA

Today, Impact, a natively-integrated suite of products for fraud detection, marketing attribution and analytics, and creating and optimizing performance partnerships, announces the appointment of Florian Gramshammer as Managing Director, EMEA. Gramshammer has held senior positions in companies such as CJ Affiliate by Conversant, Gartner, and most recently, Managing Director of IgnitionOne. With 17 years of marketing and ad tech leadership, Gramshammer will be responsible for the day-to-day management of the commercial and client services teams. He will also be responsible for the development and execution of Impact's European growth plan following the recent re-brand Impact announced globally.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/656461/Impact_Logo.jpg )



"Impact has more than doubled its volume year-over-year, expanded our team in the UK, and made major moves in bolstering our suite of products, including the native integration of two acquisitions - Forensiq and ClearSaleing," said David Yovanno, CEO, Impact. "Florian has unique domain expertise in performance partnerships, as well as both martech and adtech. He has an exemplary and proven track record in leadership across both sales and client service teams in EMEA."

"Impact has recently announced a full re-brand of the business and product suites, and it is an incredibly exciting time to be joining a business that is accelerating growth on a strong platform. I am excited to join the EMEA team and spearhead the growth plans across UK and EMEA," said Gramshammer.

Based in Impact's London office, Gramshammer will report to Impact CEO, David Yovanno.

About Impact:

Impact is a marketing technology company helping brands grow by optimizing their paid marketing and media spend. The Impact platform was designed to respond to marketers' demands for simplicity, transparency, performance, and confidence to drive growth through marketing. Impact's platform is the first native integration of leading solutions to stop ad fraud, enable more confident decisions through media measurement, attribution, and mix optimization, and create new performance partnerships, including with influencers and strategic partners.

Founded in Santa Barbara, CA in 2008, Impact has grown to over 300 employees and seven offices across the United States, Europe, and Asia. To learn more visit http://www.Impact.com.

SOURCE Impact
SOUTHPORT, Conn., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Broken Shed Distilleries, Inc. announced that Steve Bellini has been named Executive Vice President of Business Development. Steve will be leading business development and sales strategy, expanding distribution for the Broken Shed Vodka brand. Steve will report to Samuel A. Brown, Executive Chairman and Jonathan Bailey, Chief Executive Officer and President.

As New Exec VP, Steve Bellini brings 40 years of distilled spirits experience to the fast growing Broken Shed Vodka brand.

Steve Bellini is an accomplished beverage alcohol industry veteran with 40+ years of experience on world-renowned brands such as Jagermeister, Captain Morgan, Crown Royal, Maker's Mark and Absolut Vodka. Steve most recently worked at Mast-Jagermeister US where he served as Senior VP of Distribution and Control State Strategy and as EVP Sales. Previously, Bellini served as President/CEO of Future Brands LLC and as President of Seagram Americas. Steve has also held leadership roles in DISCUS and The Century Council.

"I am excited for the opportunity to join Broken Shed," commented Bellini. "The brand has shown great promise in the markets where we are currently engaged. It's clear that retailers across the country are reevaluating their selection of vodka brands. I'm confident that Broken Shed is a unique and profitable opportunity in the changing vodka set."

"Steve's experience in the distilled spirits industry and his knowledge of the open and control state markets are second to none," said Samuel Brown, executive Chairman of Broken Shed. "We are honored to have him as part of our team."

About Broken Shed Distilleries, Inc.

Broken Shed Distilleries, Inc. is the home of BROKEN SHED VODKA the award-winning New Zealand vodka rolling out across the USA. The premium vodka known for its distinctive clean, crisp taste is crafted from the finest, most natural ingredients: whey distillate "Milk Honey" and the freshest clearest water from two pristine water sources. Broken Shed Vodka has no additives and is naturally gluten and GMO free. Enjoy Broken Shed Vodka Responsibly. Come inside at BrokenShedVodka.com.

40% ABV. Imported by Broken Shed Imports, LLC Manhasset, NY / [email protected] www.facebook.com/BrokenShedVodka, Twitter @BrokenShedVodka and Instagram @BrokenShed.

Awards: Platinum Medal: 2017 SIP Awards | Double Gold in Spirits: 2017 74th WSWA Exhibition & Convention Tasting Competition | Gold Medal: 2017 Los Angeles International Spirits Competition

SOURCE Broken Shed Distilleries, Inc.
CAESAREA, Israel, April 24, 2018 InfiniDome Ltd. (Previously, GPSdome Ltd.), the GPS Cyber Company, announced a collaboration agreement with a US based system integrator, which provides fleet management solutions to Latin American and US truck fleets. The collaboration includes the integration of its GPSdome technology within the fleet management tracking unit. The new solution will protect against GPS jamming and spoofing attacks, as well as report such attacks back to the control center.

The company will introduce its GPSdome cyber solutions to the fleet management industry at NAFA 2018 Expo (Anaheim, CA, April 25-26), and at ACT Expo (Long Beach, CA, May 1-2).

"We conducted a joint demonstration of the GPSdome-protected tracker to major truck fleet managers in Mexico, who showed a huge interest in this new product," said Moshe Kaplan, InfiniDome's CTO. "Our demo showed a successful functioning of the fleet management tracking unit under GPS jamming attacks plus sending a jamming alert indication which could notify the fleet management control center that an attempt to attack the truck is undertaking".

"Using GPS jamming in freight truck hijacking becomes more common, in order to make the hijacked truck disappear from the fleet management control center," said Ehud Sharar, InfiniDome's President. "Our GPSdome protection allows the truck to continue transmitting its precise location under GPS jamming and spoofing attacks and send alarm signals to the control center which allows it to respond in time to prevent the hijacking attempt".

"Adding this new layer of cyber-security for the massive fleets deployed worldwide will be a game-changer for the theft-ridden, multi-billion dollar transportation industry since the weapon-of-choice for the hijackers are these GPS jammers," said Omer Sharar, GPSdome's CEO. "We offer integrating our cyber protection technology inside fleet management trackers and systems at an affordable price, and we will continuously develop our technology further to meet new jamming and spoofing challenges".

InfiniDome Ltd. (previously, GPSdome Ltd.) developed a cyber protection solution against jamming and spoofing for GPS-based systems, such as Asset-Tracking applications, autonomous vehicles, UAVs, homeland security, smart city and timing systems. Its competitive advantages are its minimal SWaP (size, weight and power consumption), and an affordable price comparing to existing solutions developed for military applications that require military export license. The company's cyber solutions have been successfully proven in the field, and are commercially available globally.

For more information: www.infinidome.com

SOURCE InifiniDome Ltd

Related Links

http://www.infinidome.com


NORWOOD, Mass., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Infusion Nurses Society (INS) is heading to the shores of Lake Erie and the bustling city of Cleveland, Ohio for INS 2018, the society's Annual Meeting and Industrial Exhibition. This year's meeting will include 4 days of evidence-based information on the infusion specialty, other health-related educational sessions, peer presentations, round-table discussions, as well as dozens of presenters and speakers. Visit ereg.me/INS2018 for a complete schedule and registration information.

In a captivating keynote address, Elizabeth Smart will share her story of perseverance in the face of unimaginable adversity. Abducted at knife point from her home in 2002 at age 14, then raped, drugged, and abused for 9 months, Elizabeth's ordeal gripped the nation. Incredibly, after witnesses spotted Elizabeth walking with her captors on a public street, she was safely returned to her family in March 2003.

Her address not only tells her personal story, but also discusses topics such as overcoming extreme adversity, the importance and process of recovery, and not allowing your past to dictate your future. She reminds her audiences not to compare themselves or their personal traumas to anyone else's, because everyone's situation is unique. There is no "one-size fits all" formula to healing but learning to love yourself again is one of the first steps.

Other highlights for INS 2018 attendees will include a chance to:

Test their infusion IQ in an interactive quiz show

Ask infusion nurse experts about the top 10 most common questions and answers

Collaborate in a 2-hour boot camp on immunoglobulin therapy

Accompanying the education, attendees can roam the jam-packed exhibition hall, experience a special event at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and enjoy countless networking opportunities with colleagues.

Can't make it to Cleveland? The INS Virtual Infusion Education platform is designed to deliver conference programming directly to your home or office. Programming is presented to a live audience and streamed simultaneously, then made available on demand. Learn more at www.learningcenter.ins1.org/virtual-infusion-education.

Infusion Nurses Society (INS) is a national nonprofit organization representing infusion nurses and other clinicians who practice infusion therapy. Membership is open to nurses and health care professionals from all practice settings. Learn more at www.ins1.org.

Contact:

Leslie Nikou, Associate Managing Editor

Infusion Nurses Society

(781) 440-9408 x312

[email protected]

SOURCE Infusion Nurses Society

Related Links

http://www.ins1.org


PROVIDENCIALES, Turks & Caicos, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- interCaribbean Airways with a heavy heart must advise the Caribbean traveling public that services to St Thomas and to St Croix are canceled. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this causes those customers with planned travel arrangements on these flights.

interCaribbean has been working for some months to have the USVI filings process completed, for which it is not possible to manage simultaneously with the setup of all other operations in parallel. Such has been the process, that other requirements to setup at the airports are unable to be advanced without this completed.

interCaribbean over a month ago deployed an additional aircraft to Tortola in readiness for these flights but given the unusually lengthy processes to get to a starting point, it has become clear that the approval process and our priorities are not aligned. interCaribbean will now redeploy the aircraft into other operations and growth opportunities. We operate in 13 countries and have not faced the prolonged or protracted challenges of setting up an operation timely in any country. We wish to acknowledge we have seen the full cooperation from the CPB (Customs and Border Protection) and the TSA (Transport Security Administration) Agencies in receiving their early and timely approvals for both St Thomas and St Croix.

A key element at any new city served is selecting a partner handling company. In the case of the USVI, we are confronted with handling costs that are three to four times the norm across our entire network of cities. We simply will not pay such outrageous prices. We cannot expect to have to double our everyday affordable low airfares to compensate, for we will not see support from the traveling public.

Given the work necessary to make these cities a viable destination with airfares for which we have become known, we have elected to postpone until the winter season of this year 2018 and give time and opportunity to consider other options to create effective partner handling, and for all authorities to take all the time needed. Should we find a satisfactory point. We will update the traveling public as we move forward and keep you appraised.

Visit interCaribbean.com to learn more about the company and its operations.

About interCaribbean

interCaribbean operates EMB 120, Twin Otter and shortly ERJ145 aircraft connecting the Turks & Caicos Islands, Antigua, the British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Dominica, St Lucia and St. Maarten and shortly new services to Aruba and Curacao. Domestic flights are operated in the Turks & Caicos Islands, as well as in Jamaica between Kingston and Montego Bay.

SOURCE interCaribbean Airways

Related Links

http://intercaribbean.com


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The delivery center will be IGT's strategic LATAM center within its existing global delivery network of 15 delivery centers across 5 continents. It will serve as a regional hub offering Voice, Non-voice and Digital Services, in various local languages, to its global and domestic clients. In particular, IGT will provide omni-channel customer care to Priceline.com's air, hotel, and car rental services. IGT looks to further work with Priceline.com to identify additional opportunities to leverage innovative tools developed to help streamline processes and create additional efficiencies.

The planned investment establishes IGT in Latin America with near-shore sourcing capabilities in local time zones for the U.S. and LATAM market. An industry leader with over 10,000+ travel experts, IGT is part of InterGlobe Enterprises, with its headquarters in Gurgaon, India. IGT's strategic investment takes into account Bogota's reputation as one of the fastest growing outsourcing hubs in LATAM, the time zone advantages and availability of a skilled multi-lingual workforce, to successfully cater to industry needs.

Vipul Doshi, CEO, IGT said, "The launch of the IGT Bogota delivery center was a very logical extension of our global network to meet current and future delivery and service capabilities for our clients. Europe and LATAM are key regions to our business; we serve some of the largest airlines and travel companies here, and our decision to increase investment is to provide more transformational efficiencies and near-shore options to our clients. It's an exciting new chapter for IGT."

InterGlobe Technologies focused efforts have centered on elevating its global credentials with key market expansions. The Bogota delivery center launch follows closely IGT's Bucharest center launch in 2017 driving significant efficiencies of scale. IGT also recently was ranked 'Leader' for Customer Experience in Travel, Transport & Hospitality by the NelsonHall NEAT report 2018.

About InterGlobe Technologies

InterGlobe Technologies (IGT) is a leading provider of integrated IT-BPM and Digital services and solutions for the global travel industry. The company offers integrated IT-BPM, RPA, Application Development and Maintenance Digital Contact Center, Back Office Services and Frameworks for the travel industry. IGT is part of InterGlobe Enterprises Limited, with worldwide presence across 5 continents and 10,000+ travel experts.

Visit http://www.interglobetechnologies.com.



Contact:

Renee Kishore

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE InterGlobe Technologies
PITTSBURGH, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Pain and stiffness in the lower joints often prevents people from engaging in physical activities they used to enjoy. That is exactly why an inventor from Norwalk, Conn., decided to look for a new way to help these people improve their mobility.

He developed patent pending JOINT FORCER to provide a comfortable way to exercise the hip and knee joints. As such, it relieves joint pain in the lower body and provides the independence to exercise unassisted. At the same time it improves flexibility and helps maintain proper circulation and strengthens muscles in the lower body joints. This innovative piece of fitness equipment is also sturdy, practical and easy to operate. In addition, it is convenient, effective and affordably priced.

The inventor's personal observations inspired the idea. "I saw a doctor on television advise viewers that swimming was the best exercise for hips and knees. However, since not everyone has easy access to a pool, I thought this idea was an even better alternative," he said.

The original design was submitted to the Connecticut office of InventHelp. It is currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers. For more information, write Dept. 17-CPC-299, 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


IRVINE, Calif., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Irvine Company and Southern California Edison (SCE) conducted a 'virtual ribbon cutting' today on the world's first fleet of Hybrid Electric Buildings which feature state-of-the-art Tesla Powerpack battery systems.

The 21 high-rise office buildings are also equipped with Advanced Microgrid Solutions (AMS) energy management and optimization software that employs advanced analytics to enable each building to control its demand from the electric grid and respond in unison when SCE signals a need to reduce load on the grid.

"Distributed energy storage is an entirely new class of resource for balancing the grid and a viable replacement for 'peaker' plants  expensive power plants that run only when there is high demand," said California Energy Commission Chair, Robert B. Weisenmiller. "Harnessing the power of the customer to manage demand on the grid is the next generation of grid management efficiency."

Each building's energy demand is controlled by sophisticated software that seamlessly shifts the building to battery power, in the same way a hybrid-electric car shifts from gas to battery power. The cloud-based optimization software continuously monitors grid conditions and coordinates demand reduction from all the buildings simultaneously when SCE calls for grid support. The Hybrid Electric Building fleet can reduce peak demand by 25% and provide up to 10 megawatts (MW) of instantaneous load reduction for up to four hours to help SCE balance the grid. This is the equivalent to offsetting power demand of 10 high-rise buildings or enough power to serve more than 10,000 homes.

The first buildings were dispatched by SCE in November 2017. The fleet was dispatched 32 business days straight with zero emissions, zero customer fatigue and zero impact on building operations  "No demand response program in the history of the energy industry has ever done that," said Susan Kennedy, CEO of AMS.

In addition to providing clean, grid balancing resources to SCE, Irvine Company is reducing energy expenses and operating costs by an estimated 10%.

"Irvine Company takes great pride in being a national leader in sustainability while developing some of the nation's most vibrant workplace communities in the world," said Doug Holte, president, Irvine Company Office Properties, adding the company has the most LEED and ENERGY Star certified buildings in California. "New technologies are making sustainable development a triple win  good for the community and good for the environment and good for our customers' bottom line."

SCE officials said they are looking for customers to play a larger role in helping to operate a modern electric grid, and they hope other companies realize that investments in advanced energy technologies will benefit their customers, their bottom line and help power a brighter and cleaner future.

"SCE is proud to join the Irvine Company in this innovative approach to achieving our vision for a clean energy future," said Mike Marelli, Vice President of SCE's Business Customer Division. "Projects like this will help us to accommodate more and more renewable resources on the electric grid while maintaining reliability and providing even more clean power to our customers."

About Irvine Company Office Properties | Irvine Company has evolved the traditional office to something much more: a vibrant workplace community. A place where collaboration is encouraged and creativity is enabled to elevate business success. The Company owns and manages 150 premier coastal California workplace communities in Orange County, Los Angeles, Silicon Valley and San Diego, as well as trophy buildings in Chicago and New York. Its timeless design and quality craftsmanship is consistent with its long-term view and pride of ownership.

About Southern California Edison | An Edison International company, Southern California Edison is one of the nation's largest electric utilities, serving a population of nearly 15 million via 5 million customer accounts in a 50,000-square-mile service area within Central, Coastal and Southern California.

About Advanced Microgrid Solutions | Advanced Microgrid Solutions (AMS) is an energy platform and services company that assesses, designs, develops, finances, aggregates, optimizes, and monetizes portfolios of distributed energy resources (DER) to maximize customer value, provide dynamic grid and utility services, and earn revenues in wholesale energy markets. AMS's business is powered by its industry-leading Transactive Energy Management Platform, which AMS and its partners utilize to offer compelling and innovative energy management services to customers, utilities, and asset owners and operators. To learn more, visit www.advmicrogrid.com and follow us on twitter: @advmicrogrid.

SOURCE Advanced Microgrid Solutions

Related Links

http://www.advmicrogrid.com


ROHNERT PARK, Calif., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Prospective college students may be weighing their options as College Decision day approaches, spending their time comparing academics and price tags of various colleges. While the topic of college value is prominent, college graduates may reflect on their own experience and determine if it was worth it for them. Ameritech Financial, a document preparation company that helps borrowers with federal repayment plan applications, reminds borrowers that value is a matter of perspective, which can be improved through successful management of their student loans.

"The value of a college education might come down to success in a career or simply how easily borrowers are making their loan payments," said Tom Knickerbocker, Executive Vice President of Ameritech Financial. "Borrowers who have trouble with their student loan payments might decide it wasn't worth it, but they should know that they might have options to make repayment easier, and potentially improve their outlook."

A college degree can cost tens of thousands of dollars or even over a hundred thousand for advanced degrees. Borrowers end up paying more over the life of the loan than the original balance due to interest. In severe cases, loans can inflate tens of thousands of dollars from poor management. However, even those costs may be justified when compared to potential earnings.

College graduates typically earn $20k more per year than those with just a high school diploma. Moreover, they can earn upwards of a million more in lifetime earnings depending on the degree obtained. Those additional earnings can position college graduates to build wealth and sufficiently prepare for retirement. However, the first 10 years or so of borrowers' careers are focused on student loan repayment and may lead to such borrowers falling behind on retirement or other savings.

Student loan borrowers may factor in financial stress when deciding whether college was worth it or not. While many borrowers are experiencing physical symptoms from student-loan related stress, others may simply be overwhelmed by tight finances, letting those negative emotions affect their opinion about college.

Borrowers struggling to manage their loans and the negative feelings associated with them may find a solution in the form of federal income-driven repayment plans (IDRs). Such plans calculate payments based on income and family size and can potentially reduce payments. Smaller payments may also reduce stress and increase saving power.

"Borrowers are past the point of deciding whether college is the right move, so they should focus on making it worth it," said Knickerbocker. "At Ameritech Financial, we help borrowers understand and apply for IDRs that may improve their financial situation. We hope that our clients feel their college degree was worth the cost and that they are able to pursue their financial goals."

About Ameritech Financial

Ameritech Financial is a private company located in Rohnert Park, California. Ameritech Financial has already helped thousands of consumers with financial analysis and student loan document preparation to apply for federal student loan repayment programs offered through the Department of Education.

Each Ameritech Financial telephone representative has received the Certified Student Loan Professional certification through the International Association of Professional Debt Arbitrators (IAPDA).

Ameritech Financial prides itself on its exceptional Customer Service.

Contact

To learn more about Ameritech Financial, please contact:

Ameritech Financial

5789 State Farm Drive #265

Rohnert Park, CA 94928

1-800-792-8621

[email protected]

Related Links

Ameritech Financial home page

SOURCE Ameritech Financial

Related Links

https://ameritechfinancial.com


BALTIMORE, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Everyone knows that people with seasonal affective disorder (SAD) find fall and winter, with their lessened sunlight, hard seasons to get through. But did you know that some people continue to have seasonal depression in the spring when the rest of us are more likely to be in good spirits?

Ex-Army Cpt. Shateka Husser, who has a new book series called Soar Higher coming out this summer, can talk about why springtime remains challenging for people with depression. She can discuss:

Shateka Husser is a combat veteran and ex-army captain. Shateka Husser, author

The impact of seasonal depression on productivity, personal development, and overall success

How increasing self-awareness and understanding these symptoms gives a better quality of life

Seven sure ways to beat depression holistically (without resorting to medicine, money, shopping, or sex).

Husser, who calls herself the Soar Strategist, is no stranger to depression herself, having silently suffered from PTSD from her military experience. She notes that 8,000 veterans with PTSD commit suicide every year while half of the veterans who receive such a diagnosis are not treated for it.

CREDENTIALS: Shateka Husser, MBA, is a combat veteran and ex-army captain who has spent 20 years as an operations executive in the fields of logistics and retail. She has appeared on KAHI Radio out of Sacramento, Calif., and Radio One out of Charleston, S.C.

AVAILABILITY: Maryland, nationwide by arrangement, telephone, Skype, and Google Hangout

CONTACT: Shateka Husser, (770) 873-9118 (MD); [email protected]; www.ShatekaHusser.com

SOURCE Shateka Husser

Related Links

http://www.ShatekaHusser.com


SUGAR LAND, Texas, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas) is pleased to be holding a complimentary Market Outlook & Networking Event on May 2 in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Industrial Info's industry experts will be discussing the latest trends that will impact project spending in North America, including the Northeast and New England market regions, where Industrial Info is tracking more than 2,000 industrial projects valued at more than $94.5 billion that are planned to kick off construction in 2018 and 2019.



As abundant and inexpensive natural gas continues flowing from the Marcellus Shale, a wave of natural gas-fired Power projects is occurring in the region, which Industrial Info will be discussing in its outlook. Other items to be addressed include:

Potential impact of changes to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

Rising oil prices and their impact on liquefied natural gas and Oil & Gas spending

How global food demand is fueling Food & Beverage Industry expansion

Expectations surrounding the next waves of petrochemical investments

Impact of an aging population and medical cannabis on spending in the Pharmaceutical-Biotech Industry

Industries covered will include:

Power

Oil & Gas

Petroleum Refining

Chemical Processing

Food & Beverage

Pharmaceutical-Biotech

After the presentations, complementary drinks and hors d'oeuvres will be served, allowing you time to network with your peers or ask questions of our industry experts. You will also be able to get live demonstrations or our updated tools and databases.



The event will take place at the Radisson Valley Forge on May 2. Registration begins at 3:30 p.m., followed by the outlook presentations at 4 p.m. Space is limited, so make sure to RSVP today!

Browse other breaking industrial news stories at www.industrialinfo.com.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, six offices in North America and 12 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. To contact an office in your area, visit the www.industrialinfo.com "Contact Us" page.

Brian Ford

(713) 980-9393

SOURCE Industrial Info Resources, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.industrialinfo.com


DES MOINES, Iowa, April 23, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Kemin Industries, a global ingredient company that uses science to touch 3.8 billion people every day with its products and services, announced today the launch of a new Kemin Animal Nutrition and Health division, AquaKulture.

The AquaKulture division will direct the expertise of Kemin in inspired molecular solutions and consumer insights toward aquatic species and aqua feed. Kemin will use its 50-plus years of experience, expertise and innovation to apply its pioneering animal nutrition and health products and solutions to the aquaculture industry.

"Nearly half of the human food consumption of animal protein is in the form of fish and/or shrimp. With the focus on 'sustainable production,' producers are quickly moving from using wild-caught to farmed fish," said G.S. Ramesh, Group President, Kemin Animal Nutrition and Health. "With this shift, the industry is expected to grow rapidly. For these reasons and a variety of others, we decided to make AquaKulture its own division within Kemin Animal Nutrition and Health."

Kemin AquaKulture will offer a variety of products and solutions to help customers prevent microbial spoilage, strengthen oxidative control, boost lipid nutrition, promote better health in aqua species by enhancing immunity and ensure water quality to optimize growth. This portfolio of programs will help aqua feed companies, aqua farms and fish meal producers to raise the healthiest aqua species with better growth, uniformity and economic returns.

"Over the years, several Kemin Animal Nutrition and Health teams have successfully ventured into the aquaculture market. We're excited to now launch a complete AquaKulture division that will provide even greater resources to strengthen the quality of aqua feed and feed ingredients and improve the health and survival of aqua species. We look forward to serving those in the aquaculture industry," said Ramesh.

The AquaKulture brand will debut April 24 at the World Aqua Culture Symposium in Taipei, Taiwan.

About Kemin Industries

Kemin Industries (www.kemin.com) is a global ingredient manufacturer with a focus on improving the quality of life for over 3.8 billion people each day with more than 500 specialty ingredients made for the human and animal health, pet food, nutraceutical, food technology, crop technologies and textile industries.

For over half a century, Kemin has been dedicated to using applied science to address industry challenges and offers product solutions to customers in more than 120 countries. Kemin provides ingredients to feed a growing population with its commitment to the quality, safety and efficacy of food, feed and health-related products.

Established in 1961, Kemin is a privately-held, family-owned and operated company with more than 2,500 employees globally and operations in 90 countries, including manufacturing facilities in Belgium, Brazil, China, India, Italy, Russia, Singapore, South Africa and the United States.

Media Contact:

Lauren Burt, Worldwide Communications Manager, [email protected], +1 (515) 559-5589

SOURCE Kemin Industries

Related Links

http://kemin.com


NEW YORK, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Christopher Life Achievement Award will be presented to documentary filmmaker Ken Burns here on Thursday, May 17th, for his decades-long career exploring the important people, places, and events of American history, focusing always on the power of the human spirit. The award recognizes individuals whose personal and professional contributions to making the world a better place have left an indelible mark on our culture. Previous winners include jazz legend Dave Brubeck, actor Carroll O'Connor, and author/historian David McCullough.

"One of the most admirable aspects of Ken Burns' approach to filmmaking," says The Christophers' Director of Communications Tony Rossi, "is that he doesn't approach history as dry facts. Instead, it's about stories, human connections, and the emotions and experiences that bind us together by transcending time and place. And while Ken knows that America and its citizens have sometimes fallen short of their own ideals, his films ultimately convey a spirit of hope that we learn from our mistakes to become better as a people and a nation. For that reason, The Christophers are honored to present Ken Burns with our 2018 Christopher Life Achievement Award."

Ken Burns has been making films for almost forty years. Since the Academy Award-nominated and Christopher Award-winning Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, he has gone on to direct and produce some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made, including six other Christopher Award winners: The Statue of Liberty, The Civil War, Not For Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, Jazz, Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip, and The War.

Born in Brooklyn, NY, in 1953, Burns graduated from Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, in 1975 and went on to be one of the co-founders of Florentine Films. His passion for history guided his filmmaking because, as he said in a 1990 interview with American Heritage magazine, "It is the great arrogance of the present to forget the intelligence of the past."

A December 2002 poll conducted by Real Screen Magazine listed The Civil War as second only to Robert Flaherty's Nanook of the North as the "most influential documentary of all time." In March 2009, David Zurawik of The Baltimore Sun said, " Burns is not only the greatest documentarian of the day, but also the most influential filmmaker period...I say that because Burns not only turned millions of persons onto history with his films, he showed us a new way of looking at our collective past and ourselves." The late historian Stephen Ambrose said of his films, "More Americans get their history from Ken Burns than any other source."

Films by Burns have won fifteen Emmy Awards and two Oscar nominations, and in September of 2008, at the News & Documentary Emmy Awards, he was honored by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

In September 2017, PBS broadcast The Vietnam War, a ten-episode, eighteen-hour series Burns co-directed with Lynn Novick that helped prompt a national conversation about the most significant event in American history during the last half of the twentieth century. Future projects include films on the history of Country Music, Ernest Hemingway, Muhammad Ali, Benjamin Franklin, the American Revolution, the history of Crime and Punishment in America, Lyndon B. Johnson and Civil Rights, Leonardo da Vinci, the history of Reconstruction, and Winston Churchill, among others.

The Christophers, a nonprofit organization, is rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition of service to God and humanity. The ancient Chinese proverb "It's better to light one candle than to curse the darkness" serves as the Christopher motto and guides its publishing, radio, online and awards programs. More information is available at www.christophers.org.

CONTACT:

David Reich

Reich Communications

914 325-9997

[email protected]

SOURCE The Christophers
Former New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly praised Lauder, saying he has "a profound commitment to public service." "Ronald has dedicated his life to helping other people," Kelly said, "and he's never wavered in his staunch support for law enforcement."

"Even as we face challenges and threats like never before," Ambassador Lauder said, addressing federal agents past and present, and their families, "America is with you."

"Our nation is in your debt," said Lauder, "and we will not take you for granted."

Mr. Lauder, who served in the Pentagon under President Reagan and as U.S. Ambassador to Austria during the Reagan Administration, has been President of the World Jewish Congress since 2007.

The Foundation event was attended by over 400 current and former law enforcement officials, community representatives and business leaders.

The Federal Enforcement Homeland Security Foundation (FEHSF) is a non-partisan organization that supports the families of officers serving in America's vital national law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and other frontline institutions.

For information about FEHSF, go to https://www.fehsf.org/

For further inquiries, please contact: Michal Grayevsky, Senior Advisor to Ronald S. Lauder [email protected]

SOURCE Federal Enforcement Homeland Security Foundation (FEHSF)

Related Links

https://www.fehsf.org


NEW YORK, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- TrustSphere, a pioneer of real-time Organizational Network Analytics is pleased to announce that People Analytics thought leader, David Green is joining its advisory board. David will help TrustSphere's executive team support the next level of the company's evolution as a leading provider in the People Analytics space.

Leading People Analytics Practitioner & Future of Work Visionary, David Green joins TrustSphere's Advisory Board

Recognized as a thought leader on the Future of Work, David has been invited to chair and speak at industry forums, conferences and seminars across the world. As an opinion leader, his articles and blogs on People Analytics have extensive following and impact. Most recently, he was Global Director, People Analytics Solutions at IBM Watson Talent where he was responsible for enabling customers to embark upon and then subsequently help progress their People Analytics journeys.

His appointment comes at a landmark moment in the HR industry when an increased focus on increasing diversity and inclusion, improving leadership development as well as supporting employee wellness programmes are making People Analytics a vital part of running high-performing organizations.

"Every technology has an interface moment when its potential can create significant impact. For People Analytics, that moment is now and the industry has never been more vibrant. David is a highly respected People Analytics leader who has both a vision of the future and a pulse on today. With HR becoming increasing agile and business-centric, we look forward to leveraging his extensive industry knowledge, insights and thought leadership," said TrustSphere's CEO, Manish Goel.

Commenting on his appointment David Green said, "I'm thrilled to be joining TrustSphere's advisory board. When I speak to people analytics leaders, Organizational Network Analysis is consistently the practice most of the leaders want to know more about. That is because Organizational Network Analysis can help companies unlock new insights that can drive performance and productivity, engender innovation and improve employee wellness. TrustSphere's technology is highly impressive as are its people, and I'm delighted to be able to support Manish and the team in the next stage of their evolution."

TrustSphere, which started its People Analytics business in 2016 has brought a significant new perspective to the solutions available to HR practitioners. The company's pioneering Organizational Network Analytics based solution has received recognition from leading industry analysts including Bersin by Deloitte (a part of Deloitte Consulting LLP) and has been the recipient of multiple awards including the Tucana Global 2017 People Analytics Forum Judges Choice and People Choice awards.

Following David's appointment, TrustSphere's advisory board now comprises several People Analytics experts including Prof. Boris Groysberg of Harvard Business School and author of the award-winning book Chasing Stars: The Myth of Talent and the Portability of Performance, Prof. Adam Grant, one of HR's most influential thinkers, Jonathan Ferrar, a prominent HR analytics practitioner and Lau Yin Cheng, former CHRO of Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore.

For more information, please contact:

TrustSphere

Priya Bagga  VP, Marketing

3 Phillip Street

#13-03 Royal Group Building, Singapore 048693

+65 6536 5203

About TrustSphere

TrustSphere is a widely recognized market leader in Relationship Analytics. We help organizations leverage their most valuable-asset  their collective relationship network. Our solutions enable organizations to unlock the inherent value of their own networks, using intelligence built using our proprietary Relationship Analytics platform. This rich set of analytics surface insights which help our clients across the globe improve key business challenges including talent management, sales force effectiveness and enterprise-wide collaboration. Our Workplace analytics solutions help organizations impact leadership development, improve employee wellness and measure workplace diversity and inclusion. We deliver our solutions through an increasing number of leading technology and business partners including IBM, Salesforce.com, SugarCRM, Veritas and leading management consultancies.

SOURCE TrustSphere
SAN FRANCISCO and SINGAPORE, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Leanplum, the leader in mobile engagement, today announced an add-on raise from Beijing-based private equity firm Waterwood Group to scale and fuel growth in China and the greater Asia Pacific (APAC) region, bringing their Series D total financing to $52 million. Leanplum continues to gain momentum across APAC, where the region's most innovative brands rely on its platform to drive mobile growth and deeper customer relationships.

"Chinese consumers demand a best-in-class mobile experience, however, companies in China are underserved in terms of sophisticated marketing technology," said Waikit Lau, partner, Waterwood Group. "We were especially impressed with Leanplum's A/B testing and data analytics capabilities because it quickly delivers value to brands in a highly competitive market. In order to meet the exponential growth in mobile usage, Chinese brands are hungry for the real-time insights and personalization at scale that only Leanplum provides. We look forward to working together to build the future of the Chinese market."

This investment highlights the growing opportunity for brands to reach mobile consumers across APAC. According to GSMA, more than half the world's mobile subscribers live in Asia Pacific, and China will account for 21 percent (or 155 million) of the approximately 753 million new mobile subscribers expected be added globally by the end of 2020.

"APAC is at the forefront of mobile adoption, and the potential for Leanplum to help brands across the region reach such a highly-engaged mobile generation who are on their phones 24/7, is truly exciting," said Momchil Kyurkchiev, CEO and co-founder, Leanplum. "We're thrilled to partner with Waterwood because they share our vision for transforming mobile engagement for the modern marketer."

Today, APAC's most prominent mobile apps lean on Leanplum to power their marketing campaigns, including:

Liven, Australia's #1 payment & loyalty platform;

#1 payment & loyalty platform; Lomotif, Singapore -made social video app;

-made social video app; ofo, station-free bike sharing platform and mobile app based in Beijing ;

; TMON, leading Korean e-commerce company, often referred to as the 'Amazon of South Korea .'

Leanplum is expanding its footprint across APAC and making strategic new hires to meet growing demand in key markets such as China, Australia, Indonesia, and Japan. Julio Bermudez, formerly of Optimizely, was hired to lead sales and operations from Leanplum's regional headquarters in Singapore. He has grown the team more than 400 percent in recent months, drawing key talent from Adobe, Asics, and Salesforce.

The company is focused on building a great work culture in its offices around the world, and was recently recognized as one of Fortune's Best Companies to Work For and Best Entrepreneurial Companies in America by Entrepreneur magazine.

Leanplum is building the next generation marketing cloud, leveraging the unique power of mobile to help brands drive deep and meaningful customer relationships. Capturing more than 18 billion mobile data points daily and delivering over 50 million messages every hour, the Leanplum platform provides the real-time insights and capabilities to help marketers deliver in-the-moment engagement and build meaningful customer relationships.

To demo Leanplum and find out about job opportunities, come say hello at www.leanplum.com and follow us on Twitter @leanplum.

About Leanplum

Leanplum is the mobile marketing platform built for engagement. Brands rely on Leanplum to help them orchestrate multi-channel campaigns  from messaging to the in-app experience  all from a single, integrated platform. Global brands such as Tinder, Grab, Tesco, and Zynga turn to Leanplum to accelerate growth and build long-term customer relationships. Founded in 2012, Leanplum is based in San Francisco, with offices across North America, Europe, and Asia. Leanplum has received more than $98 million in funding from Norwest Venture Partners, Canaan Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Shasta Ventures. Leanplum has been named to Business Insider's Most Valuable Enterprise Startups and SF Business Times' Best Places to Work. Learn more at www.leanplum.com.

Media Contacts

Maya Komadina

+1-925-200-2469

[email protected]

SOURCE Leanplum

Related Links

http://www.leanplum.com


CLEVELAND, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Council of Legislators from Gaming States (NCLGS) today announced the roster of speakers for its Summer Meeting that takes place July 13-15 in Cleveland. Registration is open to the public.

"Our slate of speakers includes many of the most respected and thought-provoking experts from different fields, including regulators, gaming operators, attorneys, financial analysts, problem-gambling specialists, and other gaming-related professionals," said incoming NCLGS President William Coley, a senator from Ohio. "Everyone with a stake in the future of legalized gambling  in any form  should join dozens of state legislators and attend our Cleveland meeting."

In addition to legislators who will chair Committee sessions, the following experts will speak in Committee and general sessions:

Andy Abboud , VP, Government Relations & Community Development, Las Vegas Sands

, VP, Government Relations & Community Development, Las Vegas Sands Joe Asher , CEO, William Hill US

, CEO, William Hill US Karl Bennison , Chief, Enforcement Division, Nevada Gaming Control Board

, Chief, Enforcement Division, Nevada Gaming Control Board Dennis Berg , Director, Ohio Lottery

, Director, Ohio Lottery Byron Boothe , Vice President, Government Relations, Intralot

, Vice President, Government Relations, Intralot Michael Burke , Executive Director, Michigan Association on Problem Gambling

, Executive Director, Michigan Association on Problem Gambling Anthony Cabot , Distinguished Fellow, University of Nevada-Las Vegas , William S. Boyd School of Law

, Distinguished Fellow, , of Law Richard Carter , CEO, SBTech

, CEO, SBTech Heather Chapman , Supervisory Psychologist/Director Gambling Program, Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center

, Supervisory Psychologist/Director Gambling Program, Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center Andy Cunningham , Director Global Strategy Integrity Services, Sportradar

, Director Global Strategy Integrity Services, Sportradar Brian Egger , Senior Gaming & Lodging Analyst, Bloomberg Intelligence

, Senior Gaming & Lodging Analyst, Steve Geller, Esquire , Geller Law Firm

, Geller Law Firm Ken George Jr. , Chair, Forest County Potawatomi Gaming Commission

, Chair, Forest County Potawatomi Gaming Commission Will Green , Senior Director, Research, American Gaming Association

, Senior Director, Research, American Gaming Association Becky Harris , Chair, Nevada Gaming Control Board

, Chair, Nevada Gaming Control Board Mark Hemmerle , VP, Legal and Compliance, Worldpay Gaming

, VP, Legal and Compliance, Worldpay Gaming Jeremy Kleiman , Member, Saiber LLC

, Member, Saiber LLC Derek Longmeier , The Problem Gambling Network of Ohio , Executive Director

, The Problem Gambling Network of , Executive Director Tim Lowry , Partner, DLA Piper

, Partner, DLA Piper John Maddox , Vice President Government Relations & Development, Caesars Entertainment

, Vice President Government Relations & Development, Caesars Entertainment Art Manteris , Vice President, Race & Sports Operations, Station Casinos

, Vice President, Race & Sports Operations, Station Casinos Stephen Martino , Senior Vice President & Chief Compliance Officer, MGM Resorts International

, Senior Vice President & Chief Compliance Officer, MGM Resorts International Christopher McErlean , Vice President - Racing, Penn National Gaming

, Vice President - Racing, Penn National Gaming Dan Metelsky , Public Gaming Strategist and Public Policy Leader, Public Gaming Creative Strategies

, Public Gaming Strategist and Public Policy Leader, Public Gaming Creative Strategies Kevin Mullally , Vice President of Government Relations & General Counsel, GLI

, Vice President of Government Relations & General Counsel, GLI Dave Payton , Vice President of Sales, AmTote International

, Vice President of Sales, AmTote International Michael Pollock , Managing Director, Spectrum Gaming Group

, Managing Director, Spectrum Gaming Group F. Douglas Reed , Senior Pari-Mutuel Associate, Spectrum Gaming Group

, Senior Pari-Mutuel Associate, Spectrum Gaming Group Tim Richards Chief Product Strategy Officer, Everi

Chief Product Strategy Officer, Everi Lindsay Slader , Operations Manager, Geocomply

, Operations Manager, Geocomply Ernie Stevens Jr. , Chair, National Indian Gaming Association

, Chair, National Indian Gaming Association Lovell Walker, Executive Director of Interactive Gaming Development, MGM Resorts International

Daniel Wallach , Shareholder, Becker & Poliakoff

, Shareholder, Becker & Poliakoff Joseph Weinert , Executive Vice President, Spectrum Gaming Group

The NCLGS Summer Meeting agenda includes:

Six legislative committee sessions: Casinos, Emerging Forms of Gaming, Lotteries, Pari-Mutuels, Responsible Gaming, and State-Federal Relations

Two Masterclass panels conducted by the International Masters of Gaming Law focusing on sports betting and online gaming

Special general session panel examining the economic impacts of gaming

Friday evening welcome reception

Saturday afternoon tour of Intralot's facility serving the Ohio Lottery

Optional Saturday night baseball game (via separate registration fee at special group rate): New York Yankees at Cleveland Indians

To view the agenda, register, and book hotel rooms at the host Marriott at special attendee rates, visit http://www.nclgs.org/meetings.html.

For sponsorship information, contact Dawn Wagner at [email protected]. Legislators and others seeking NCLGS membership information should contact Wayne Marlin at [email protected].

NCLGS is the only organization of state lawmakers that meets on a regular basis to discuss issues relating to gaming. Members of NCLGS serve as chairpersons or members of state legislative committees responsible for the regulation of gaming in their state legislative houses. NCLGS does not promote or oppose gaming but is primarily concerned with the regulation and economic and social impacts of the industry. The NCLGS Foundation is the educational and research arm of NCLGS. The 501(c)(3) non-profit is a source of non-partisan data on issues of gaming legislation and regulation.

Spectrum Gaming Group, which has performed advisory and consulting work for gaming operators, regulators and legislatures in 36 US states and territories and in 47 countries on six continents, serves as the Executive Director of NCLGS.

SOURCE National Council of Legislators from Gaming States

Related Links

http://www.nclgs.org


SAN FRANCISCO, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Les Schiefelbein, CEO and founder of Schiefelbein Global Dispute Resolution, today announced a gift to the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University to establish the Les Schiefelbein Global Dispute Resolution Program and Endowed Scholarship.

A goal of the Les Schiefelbein Global Dispute Resolution Program is to provide students at ASU Law an innovative and interactive environment to gain knowledge, experience and develop professional connections that will help prepare them for practice in international arbitration and mediation with global law firms, multinational corporations, governments and non-government organizations.

The program will feature an annual International Arbitration Forum where top lawyers, counsel for global corporations, internationally recognized arbitrators and mediators, as well as leaders at arbitration institutions will engage in discussions on timely issues in international dispute resolution.

The Les Schiefelbein Endowed Scholarship Fund will provide scholarship support for law students pursuing careers in global dispute resolution.

"The generous gift from Les and Linda Schiefelbein to create the Global Dispute Resolution Program, at the Law School's Lodestar Dispute Resolution Center, will improve our ability to offer a world-class legal education to our students and prepare them for careers in the field of global dispute resolution," said Douglas Sylvester, dean of the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. "Through this collaborative program, our students will have opportunities to interact with and learn from leading lawyers, arbitrators and mediators across multiple disciplines."

"International dispute resolution is complex, constantly evolving due to the breadth of a global economy and the fast pace of technology innovation and the need for new practitioners, both men and women, is paramount," said Les Schiefelbein. "The Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law has an impressive commitment to dispute resolution education, being ranked Number 7 in U.S. law schools for dispute resolution by U.S. News & World Report. It is the right place and this is the right time to provide a focused program to nurture the learning, talents, passion, and leadership skills for the next generation to be successful practitioners in global dispute resolution, especially where it is growing at a rapid pace in Asia, Europe and the United States."

Les Schiefelbein is a leading domestic and international arbitrator serving in complex commercial, government and technology disputes. Les has an extensive business and law background which includes thirty years as vice president and deputy general counsel at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company. At Lockheed Martin, Les advised senior leaders on a wide range of international aerospace, technology and national security matters and acted as counsel in many international arbitrations. Les further acted as counsel on global dispute matters as an Air Force Judge Advocate (Colonel) lawyer.

Les currently serves as CEO and vice-chairman of the executive committee of the Silicon Valley Arbitration & Mediation Center, a non-profit which serves the global technology sector by promoting business practical resolution of disputes. He has been named to the "Tech List" list of the world's leading technology arbitrators and mediators in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.

Les received his J.D. from the Sandra Day O'Connor College at Arizona State University.

SOURCE Schiefelbein Global Dispute Resolution

Related Links

http://schiefelbeingdr.com


CHICAGO, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Liquidware, the leading third party provider of platform-agnostic end-user computing solutions, today announced the release of v6.7.6 of ProfileUnity, its User Environment Management (UEM) solution. This latest version breaks new ground with its universal object-based cloud storage for Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Liquidware is now the only company capable of moving a user profile from Microsoft Windows to object-based cloud storage, or multiple clouds, without the use of a Server Message Block (SMB).

The new functionality enables organizations, agencies, and enterprises to fully leverage the cloud in their end user computing strategies, reducing the reliance on costly, complex, and commodity based legacy storage solutions.

"ProfileUnity v6.7.6 introduces the ability to natively host user profiles and user authored data (docs) on enterprise grade cloud storage such as Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, or Microsoft Azure Blob Storage. Enterprises can now seamlessly automate their user profiles from on-prem SMB storage to the cloud," said Jason Mattox, CTO of Liquidware. "A key benefit is the ability to move user profiles to the cloud in advance of a full Desktop as a Service (DaaS) transition with the promise of a seamless cutover to DaaS when the enterprise is ready to make that move. Other benefits include zero user downtime, built-in disaster recovery, and secure authentication."

ProfileUnity's zero transition downtime breaks down a significant barrier to DaaS adoption for large-scale enterprises. Silently, and unattended in the background  ProfileUnity harvests the local settings, documents, and other personal attributes of user state from the current desktop, and writes that natively to the cloud(s). With no loss of user productivity, the modern organization can liberate the IP and Goodwill land-locked on each users' desktop moving high value resources to the cloud. Leveraging the intrinsic storage attributes of each cloud provider also has additional benefits, and Liquidware is prepared to assist with those recommendations as well.

"Desktop-as-a-Service has become an important enabling technology in the enterprise and engagement layers of the digital enterprise," said Shannon Kalvar, IDC Research Manager for IT Service Management and Virtual Client Computing. "Tools that seamlessly provision and transition user information between on-premises and multiple cloud providers allow enterprises to leverage hybrid solutions to meet rapidly changing stakeholder needs."

ProfileUnity v6.7.6 stores user-authored data to native cloud storage like Dropbox Business, OneDrive, Amazon WorkDocs, and Google Drive. The new release builds on ProfileUnity's already well-rounded User Environment Management (UEM) capabilities that end the need for roaming profiles or basic profile tools. The solution supports automated migrations to Windows 10 and Server 2016. It speeds overall logon times and streamlines user management by providing unified User Profiles with Application Rights Management and Context-Aware Policies for granular control of users on any Windows OS, on any desktop delivery platform, including physical, virtual or cloud. ProfileDisk is a special feature in ProfileUnity that leverages a provisioned VHD or VMDK to handle extremely large profiles  including those with MS Outlook Index and Search, and Microsoft Office 365 Caching  to deliver lightning-fast profiles that are fully customizable.

"By using object-based storage to store user profiles and user-authored data in the cloud, ProfileUnity v6.7.6 removes the last stumbling block for companies trying to get off-prem and into the cloud (or a truly hybrid environment), where they can begin to unlock the potential of DaaS," said Chris Noon, director at Nuvens, a Liquidware partner.

Check out Liquidware's Object-Based Cloud Storage webinar to learn more!

About Liquidware

Liquidware provides industry leading, platform-agnostic desktop solutions for hybrid Windows desktop environments including Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop, VMware Horizon View, Amazon WorkSpaces and physical Microsoft Windows PCs. The company's Stratusphere UX solution delivers visibility into desktop environments to support assessment, design, monitoring and diagnostics (Health Checks). ProfileUnity provides just in time delivery of User Profiles, application and user rights management and context-aware policies. FlexApp delivers advanced Application Layering. The solutions are available in an extremely cost-effectively priced bundle called Liquidware Essentials. Liquidware products are Citrix Ready, VMware-certified, and are available through a global network of partners. Visit www.liquidware.com for further information.

Media Contact:

Waters Communications| [email protected] | 737.333.4549

SOURCE Liquidware

Related Links

http://www.liquidware.com


In 2017, Global Top Ten Vital Fashion Weeks are Paris Fashion Week, Milan Fashion Week, New York Fashion Week, London Fashion Week, Amazon Fashion Week in Tokyo, Shanghai Fashion Week, China Fashion Week (Beijing), Seoul Fashion Week, Russia Fashion Week and Singapore Fashion Week successively, i.e. 5 from Asia, 4 from Europe and 1 from America. As a whole, Paris Fashion Week, Milan Fashion Week, New York Fashion Week and London Fashion Week are still in prominent positions, while those from Asia rise in a rather faster speed. "Chinese elements" and "Chinese beauty" are now gradually leading the global fashion trend.

Leaders and officials witnessing the press conference include Xiao Guiyu, Vice Chairman of Shanghai Municipal People's Congress of China, Shang Yuying, Director of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, Jiang Wei, President of Shanghai Branch of Xinhua News Agency, Tong Jisheng, President of Orient International (Holding) Co., Ltd., Liu Ping, Deputy Governor of Changning District, Shanghai, Liu Min, Deputy Director of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, and Cao Wenzhong, Vice President of China Economic Information Service of Xinhua News Agency.

Global Fashion Industry Index - Fashion Week Vitality Index comprehensively assesses the development vitality of global fashion weeks from three dimensions of media coverage, business circle radiation and element convergence. Generally, China's fashion industry keeps rising. Chinese consumers play an increasingly important role in global consumer markets and constitute an extremely important part of global fashion consumption.

According to research, the gradually improved specialization level and increasingly perfected industry chain of local fashion weeks drive the consumption of the fashion industry to different extents. As the model of China's fashion circle, Shanghai Fashion Week is well-balanced in the above three aspects and witnesses rapid growth in scale and continuous innovation in forms, impressing the world with its huge potential for development. In addition to well-developed Shanghai Fashion Week and China Fashion Week (Beijing), city fashion weeks in Shenzhen, Dalian, Xiamen, and Wuhan are also distinctively featured.

According to Tong Jisheng, President of Orient International (Holding) Co., Ltd., today's international fashion culture exchange shows three trends. First, platform for fashion communication between the east and the west has been transferred from the west in last century to the east, with China emerging as the center for fashion communication. Shanghai is expected to be the next fashion cradle that integrates both eastern and western civilizations following Milan, Paris, London and New York. Second, there are more communication activities held more frequently, with higher levels, more participants and enriched contents. Third, the fashion theory research is gradually rising, which will continuously enrich both eastern and western fashion theories and accelerates the trans-time, trans-regional and trans-cultural integration of eastern and western fashions.

It is specified in Shanghai Master Plan (2017-2035) to build the brand of an international cultural metropolis, gather the global cultural talents and organizations, and make Shanghai the center of global design and fashion industry, creativity design center and occupational education center. Recently, Shanghai is vigorously building four major brands of Shanghai Service, Made in Shanghai, Shopping in Shanghai, and Shanghai Culture. Perfectly combining the four major brands, the fashion industry vividly represents Shanghai's integrated strength, and is one of the key industries crucial for the future urban development of Shanghai.

Image Attachments Links:

http://asianetnews.net/view-attachment?attach-id=310827

http://asianetnews.net/view-attachment?attach-id=310828

http://asianetnews.net/view-attachment?attach-id=310829

http://asianetnews.net/view-attachment?attach-id=310830

SOURCE China Economic Information Service (CEIS)
"We're very excited to have an individual with Larry's deep experience in the homebuilding industry joining Mattamy's Board of Directors," says Peter Gilgan, Mattamy's Founder & CEO. "In particular, we look forward to benefiting from his advice on a range of opportunities and issues as we grow our US business by a significant amount over the next five years. His recent experience in the important US marketplace will be invaluable on our Board as we continue to pursue our ambitious growth plans."

"Among private builders, Mattamy Homes has an exceptionally strong balance sheet and is in the best position to grow exponentially. As such it represents a great opportunity," says Mr. Nicholson. "I have observed a great culture and leadership team, and a number of respected industry players have noted to me what a great company Mattamy is. I'm excited to be joining and look forward to contributing."

Mr. Nicholson was President and CEO, and a member of the Board of Directors, of CalAtlantic Group, a firm that was formed after the merger of The Ryland Group and Standard Pacific Corp. in 2015. From 1996 to 2015, he held a number of executive positions with The Ryland Group, including President and CEO, Chief Operating Officer, President Southeast Region, President Orlando Division and VP Operations South Region. Before joining Ryland Mr. Nicholson served as the VP Construction for Transeastern Properties in Florida, and Vice President and Apartment Developer for the Berman Development Corporation. He began his career in the homebuilding industry in 1983 with Fairfield Communities as a Construction Manager.

Mr. Nicholson is a member of the Policy Advisory Board, Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University and a member of the Executive Committee of Leading Builders of America. A native of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, he earned a Bachelor's degree from Ohio University in 1979.

Privately owned Mattamy Homes chose to establish an external Board of Directors of knowledgeable advisors in 2010 as a governance best practice. In addition to Mr. Nicholson, the other external members of Mattamy's Board also have significant experience and expertise:

Dave Williams (Lead Director), former non-Executive Chairman of Shoppers Drug Mart, and former CFO and President, Eastern Canada Operations, of Loblaw Companies Ltd.

(Lead Director), former non-Executive Chairman of Shoppers Drug Mart, and former CFO and President, Eastern Canada Operations, of Loblaw Companies Ltd. Rupert Duchesne , former Group Chief Executive of Aimia

, former Group Chief Executive of Aimia The Honorable David H. Wilkins, former US Ambassador to Canada and Partner, Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP

and Partner, & Scarborough LLP Margaret Whelan , CEO of Whelan Advisory LLC

About Mattamy Homes

Mattamy Homes is the largest privately owned homebuilder in North America, with a 40-year history of operations across the United States and Canada. Every year, Mattamy helps 7,000 families realize their dream of home ownership. In the United States, the company is represented in 10 markets  Charlotte, Raleigh, Phoenix, Tucson, Jacksonville, Orlando (where its US head office is located), Tampa, Sarasota, Naples and Southeast Florida  and in Canada, those communities stretch across the Greater Toronto Area, as well as in Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton. Visit www.mattamyhomes.com for more information.

SOURCE Mattamy Homes Limited

Related Links

http://www.mattamyhomes.com/


"We're grateful to work with Google as an early development partner and excited to see how our collaboration will help McClatchy's brand of independent local journalism reach a wider audience," said Craig Forman, president and CEO of McClatchy. "The importance of local news is gaining wider recognition and we know first-hand the deep impact it can have in changing lives, improving communities and strengthening our democracy."

"One of our primary motivations for building Subscribe with Google has been to contribute to the sustainability of local journalism. So we're thrilled to have McClatchy--whose newsrooms play such an important civic role in communities across the United States--as our first launch partner," said Jim Albrecht, Project Management Director, Subscribe with Google.

Subscribe With Google simplifies the subscription process. This is how it works: when a Google user hits a paywall on any McClatchy news site, a subscription box will offer the option to subscribe directly with the local publisher, or with Google. When a user selects to pay with Google, access to premier local news content is merely a click away. Subscribe with Google also allows a user to access McClatchy's digital news content across platforms and highlights content in search, "...when you search for a news topic for which your subscribed publication has relevant results, we'll showcase these so they're easy for you to see and accesswithout disrupting search ranking for the rest of the page," according to Google.

Separately, McClatchy announced a campaign to boost awareness of the important role local journalism plays in society. McClatchy announced that it will begin using the hashtag #ReadLocal on its social media platforms to highlight the work of local reporters producing independent journalism.

"The independent reporting produced by our dedicated and passionate journalists on the ground has significant impact on communities and individuals," said Craig Forman. "Everyday, our reporters in 30 markets around the country bravely speak truth to power, expose abuse, corruption and injustice and hold leaders and public officials accountable. It is this work that changes laws and makes our democracy stronger. In honor of our indefatigable and tenacious journalists, we invite you to add #ReadLocal to your social media posts to highlight the great local journalism that you discover. And, we also invite you to subscribe. Your support of this vital public service will ensure the future of local journalism."

About McClatchy

McClatchy operates 30 media companies in 14 states, providing each of its communities with high-quality news and advertising services in a wide array of digital and print formats. McClatchy is a publisher of iconic brands such as the Miami Herald, The Kansas City Star, The Sacramento Bee, The Charlotte Observer, The (Raleigh) News & Observer, and the (Fort Worth) Star-Telegram. McClatchy is headquartered in Sacramento, Calif., and listed on the New York Stock Exchange American under the symbol MNI. #ReadLocal

SOURCE McClatchy

Related Links

http://www.mcclatchy.com


METALTECH is Malaysia's only annual event covering the entire manufacturing process industry and hosts nearly 500 exhibiting companies who are manufacturers, agents, and distributors of machine tools, sheet metal technology, and of the tools & tooling industries. It is the largest and longest serving metalworking and machine tools show in the country. The 24 th edition of METALTECH will take place 23-26 May at the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This year's event is expected to welcome over 20,000 international professionals from the electronics, automotive, aerospace, machinery and component manufacturing industries.

Since the 1970s, Malaysia has rapidly developed as a manufacturing hub in Asia backed by the country's strong government support. Manufacturing is now the second largest economic sector in the country and accounts for 25% of Malaysia's GDP. Malaysia has a track record in world-class manufacturing, as well as infrastructure, a talent pool, an existing manufacturing eco-system and a strategic location for the wider South East Asia region. METALTECH represents the complete spectrum of the machine tools and metalworking industry with 9 specialised profiles ranging from Sheetmetal Technology, to Precision Engineering, to Surface & Heat Treatment, to Machine Tools and more. In addition, 2018 will also play host to the return of AUTOMEX, the event within METALTECH which features automation companies and robotics technology.

"METALTECH is now part of a network of the most important metalworking and machine tools exhibitions in Southeast Asia which includes Manufacturing Indonesia, MTA Vietnam, Intermach Thailand, and MTA in Singapore," said M Gandhi, Group Managing Director ASEAN Business and Vice President of UBM Asia. "The synergies between our shows will offer even greater value for exhibitors and visitors."

"It pleases me and all of UBM to welcome METALTECH to our growing family of top exhibitions," said Jime Essink, President and CEO of UBM Asia. "We are able to continue with our agile growth strategies within Southeast Asia because of our global reach and scale within and outside of Asia. UBM's strong portfolio of advanced manufacturing events within the Americas coupled with our network and events in Asia will offer the type of next-step opportunities METALTECH's customers have never seen before."

METALTECH joins UBM Asia's pantheon of 9 dedicated machine technology, manufacturing, and tool events held across Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Indonesia, and Singapore. For more information on METALTECH and AUTOMEX 2018 visit www.METALTECH.com.my and www.AUTOMEX.com.my.

For more information, please contact:

Gloria Mok

Regional Director of Corporate Marketing and Communications, UBM Asia Limited

E: [email protected]

T: +852-2516-1600

About UBM Plc (www.ubm.com)

UBM plc is the largest pure-play B2B Events organiser in the world. In an increasingly digital world, the value of connecting on a meaningful, human level has never been more important. At UBM, our deep knowledge and passion for the industry sectors we serve allow us to create valuable experiences where people can succeed. At our events people build relationships, close deals and grow their businesses. Our 3,750+ people, based in more than 20 countries, serve more than 50 different sectors -- from fashion to pharmaceutical ingredients. These global networks, skilled, passionate people and market-leading events provide exciting opportunities for business people to achieve their ambitions.

For more information, go to www.ubm.com; for UBM corporate news, follow us on Twitter at @UBM, UBM Plc LinkedIn

SOURCE UBM Malaysia

Related Links

http://www.METALTECH.com.my


BATON ROUGE, La., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Michael Baker International, a global leader in engineering, planning and consulting services, today announced that Ralph B. Hennessy, C.M., will join the firm as the Aviation Services Group Lead for the state of Louisiana. Based in Michael Baker's Baton Rouge office, Mr. Hennessy will be a strategic partner for the firm's Louisiana-based aviation clients and utilize his expertise to help secure funding for capital improvement projects. He also will be responsible for new business development, strategic planning, quality allocation plan and operation excellence for the office's Aviation Services practice, as well as provide support for aviation projects throughout Michael Baker's Gulf Coast Region.

Mr. Hennessy brings more than two decades of experience to his role at Michael Baker, most recently serving as the Director of Aviation for the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport (BTR). As Director at BTR, Mr. Hennessy was responsible for all aviation matters within the East Baton Rouge Parish and the airport, including the overall operations, the long-term financial planning, and the development and implementation of a $15 million annual operating budget. He also was responsible for implementing the airport's new master plan and overseeing the development of the corresponding environmental assessment and benefit cost analysis. In his 17 years with BTR, Mr. Hennessy was instrumental in many facets of the airport's growth, having assisted with airline negotiations and airline service development, as well as overseeing planning and construction for more than $300 million in improvement and noise mitigation projects utilizing multiple funding sources.

"As Michael Baker continues to grow our Aviation Services practice in Louisiana, bringing a talent like Ralph Hennessy onboard helps set us apart to provide our clients with innovative solutions for managing and funding their projects," said Chuck Duggar, PE, DBIA, Vice President and Office Executive for Michael Baker International's Baton Rouge office. "We are confident that Ralph will help further demonstrate that We Make a Difference for our aviation partners in Louisiana and throughout the Gulf Coast Region."

Mr. Hennessy added: "I am excited to transition from the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport to Michael Baker International as we have a strong team with proven experience helping clients solve their most complex challenges. I look forward to leading the growth of Michael Baker's Aviation Services practice in Louisiana and throughout the region."

A notable figure in the aviation community, Mr. Hennessy has held numerous positions with the Louisiana Airport Managers and Associates, including his current role as Vice President. The organization also recognized him with the President's Award in 2017 for his service to airports. Nationally, Mr. Hennessy serves on several committees for the American Association of Airport Executives and Airports Council International (ACI). His efforts in promoting workplace diversity earned him the ACI Unity Award in 2017.

Additionally, Mr. Hennessy is an active member of his community, serving on the Board of Directors for Habitat for Humanity and as a District Board Member and Troop Committee Member for the Boy Scouts of America. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Professional Aviation/Airport Management from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana.

About Michael Baker International

Michael Baker International is a leading provider of engineering and consulting services, including design, planning, architectural, environmental, construction and program management. The company provides its comprehensive range of services and solutions to support U.S. federal, state, and municipal governments, foreign allied governments, and a wide range of commercial clients. Michael Baker's more than 3,000 employees across nearly 100 locations are committed to a culture of innovation, collaboration and technological advancement to help solve challenges for clients and communities throughout the country. To learn more, visit www.mbakerintl.com.

Contact: Justin Falce

[email protected]

(866) 293-4609

SOURCE Michael Baker International

Related Links

http://www.mbakerintl.com


MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- OMNICOMMANDER, a financial technology firm specializing in website design, social media and marketing for credit unions; announced today that the National Council of Firefighter Credit Unions has selected OMNICOMMANDER as its partner for website design and hosting.

OMNICOMMANDER Founder and CEO Eric Isham said, "Partnering with the Firefighter Council is especially important to me because the members they serve are heroes. Therefore, they deserve a fantastic web experience. One of our employees is a New York City Firefighter that works as a liaison for the Council. The credit unions love working with one of their own through the website selection process."

National Council of Firefighter Credit Unions CEO Grant Sheehan said, "We needed a partner that was experienced in working with credit unions. When we found OMNICOMMANDER, we knew they would be perfect for our group. They are building user-friendly and easy to navigate websites all while providing seamless and engaging experiences. The 5 star, white glove service they provide is what most intrigued me in the first place. The work they are doing is the future of what credit union websites will look like."

About OMNICOMMANDER

OMNICOMMANDER is a veteran owned and operated credit union website design, social media, and marketing firm. With a focus on member experience, the company ensures every touchpoint has the same user interface. Along with incredible design, OMNICOMMANDER creates sites with built-in mobile responsiveness, SSL encryption while observing ADA guidelines on accessibility for disabled members.

For more information, visit OMNICOMMANDER on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

About the National Council of Firefighter Credit Unions

The National Council of Firefighter's Credit Unions (NCOFCU), was founded in October of 2010, by representatives of the nation's credit unions primarily serving firefighters and first responders. NCOFCU is the only organization exclusively representing these credit unions that collectively serve over 750,000 members and control more than 14 billion in assets. NCOFCU's purpose is to provide its members with the knowledge, skills, tools, resources and educational and informational exchange opportunities necessary to ensure their ongoing professional development, and the ability to deliver exceptional value to their organizations. More information is available from the council's website at www.ncofcu.org or by contacting Grant Sheehan CEO at 305-951-3306 / [email protected]

Contact: Aleah Reaves, 850.269.7111, [email protected]

SOURCE OMNICOMMANDER

Related Links

https://www.omnicommander.com


ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- National Industries for the Blind (NIB), the nation's largest employment resource for people who are blind, celebrates the 50th anniversary of the SKILCRAFT U.S. Government Pen during 2018. The ubiquitous pen, released to the federal government in 1968, has become a beloved product among generations of federal government employees and members of the U.S. military. Success of the government pen project paved the way for thousands of new SKILCRAFT products to be introduced in the following decades.

Three NIB associated nonprofit agencies are involved in the production of the pen: Alphapointe in Kansas City, Missouri, manufactures and supplies component parts to Industries for the Blind in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Industries of the Blind in Greensboro, North Carolina, where employees who are blind assemble and package the pens for sale to government customers through the AbilityOne Program. Collectively, these agencies manufacture more than 8 million SKILCRAFT U.S. Government Pens each year, sustaining meaningful employment for more than 100 people who are blind.

"The government pen is one of our most iconic products and has been a workhorse for the federal government and military for decades," says NIB President and CEO Kevin Lynch. "This humble pen symbolizes so much morethe strength of American manufacturing and the limitless capabilities of people who are blind."

The story of the pen began in 1965 when the General Services Administration (GSA) wrote a 16-page federal specifications document for a retractable ballpoint pen with a replaceable ink cartridge. After receiving a shipment of 13 million defective ballpoint pens from a commercial supplier in 1967, then-GSA Commissioner Heinz Abersfeller sought a new supplier and offered NIB the opportunity to produce the U.S. Government ballpoint pens.

Within a year, the pen project provided employment for 166 employees, 133 of whom were blind. By 1970, NIB associated agencies met the GSA Commissioner's challenge by delivering 70 million SKILCRAFT U.S. Government Pens to the government.

SKILCRAFT U.S. Government Pens still conform to the requirements outlined in GSA's original specifications document. Among dozens of other performance specifications, the pen must be able to write continuously for a mile and in temperatures up to 160 degrees and down to 40 degrees below zero. Its original design of a brass ink tube, plastic barrel, and tungsten carbide and cobalt ball, has changed little over the decades.

The most significant aspect of the project, however, was and remains the outstanding quality of the pens produced by employees who are blind working at NIB associated agencies. The quality of the pen shifted perceptions about the capabilities of NIB associated agencies and led to new SKILCRAFT products introduced in the following decades. Today, employees who are blind produce more than 5,000 different SKILCRAFT products, such as office supplies, cleaning supplies, hardware and paints, and a wide range of products to equip the U.S. military, including uniforms, bedding, and protective equipment.

The SKILCRAFT U.S. Government Pen and other SKILCRAFT products are available for purchase by federal government customers through AbilityOne.com, GSAAdvantage.gov, AbilityOne Base Supply CentersTM, or AbilityOne Authorized Distributors. Visit NIB.org/Pen to learn more.

About National Industries for the Blind

Since 1938, National Industries for the Blind (NIB) has focused on enhancing the opportunities for economic and personal independence of people who are blind, primarily through creating, sustaining and improving employment. NIB and its network of associated nonprofit agencies are the nation's largest employer of people who are blind through the manufacture and provision of SKILCRAFT and other products and services of the AbilityOne Program. For more information about NIB, visit NIB.org.

SOURCE National Industries for the Blind

Related Links

http://www.nib.org/


WASHINGTON, April 23, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is being released by the Notice Provider, Kinsella Media, LLC, about the coordinated lawsuits in In re Automotive Parts Antitrust Litigation, MDL No. 2311.

There is an update for affected purchasers in these lawsuits about certain vehicle components, as there have been additional Settlements that may affect their rights.

Thirty-three Defendants have agreed to new Settlements resolving claims that they fixed the price of certain vehicle components. (The Court previously approved settlements totaling approximately $604 million.) The additional Settlements being presented for Court Approval total approximately $432 million.

The lawsuits allege that Defendants fixed the price of certain vehicle components, causing millions of consumers and businesses from around the country to pay more for certain new or leased vehicles and replacement parts. A complete list of included parts is available at the website, www.AutoPartsClass.com.

Consumers and businesses may be included in the Classes if, from 1995 to 2018, they:

Bought or leased a qualifying new vehicle in the U.S. (not for resale), or Bought a qualifying vehicle replacement part (not for resale) from someone other than the manufacturer of the part.

In general, qualifying vehicles include four-wheeled passenger automobiles, cars, light trucks, pickup trucks, crossovers, vans, mini-vans, and sport utility vehicles. Individuals can visit the website, www.AutoPartsClass.com, or call 1-877-940-5043 to determine if they are included in one or more Settlement Classes.

The Settlement Funds (after litigation expenses, attorney fees, and other costs) will be used to pay consumers and businesses in the District of Columbia and 30 states: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. The Settlements also provide non-monetary relief, including cooperation, and an agreement by certain Settling Defendants not to engage in certain anticompetitive conduct for a period of 24 months.

Affected consumers and businesses can submit a claim form online or by mail to get a payment. There is no deadline yet to submit a claim. If eligible consumers and businesses already filed a claim, they do not need to submit another claim for the same vehicle (or part) to get a payment. Claim forms are available at the website, www.AutoPartsClass.com, or by calling 1-877-940-5043. At this time, it is unknown how much each individual or entity that submits a valid claim will receive. Payments will be based on the Plan of Allocation that is approved by the Court. Settlement Class Counsel's proposed Plan of Allocation is available for review on the website.

Important Information and Dates:

Eligible consumers or businesses that want to sue the additional Settling Defendants regarding a particular component part must exclude themselves from Settlement Class(es) that they would otherwise be part of by July 13, 2018 .

Eligible consumers or businesses can object to one or more of the additional Settlements, Plan of Allocation, or motion for attorneys' fees by July 13, 2018 .

. Eligible consumers or businesses may submit a claim form online or by mail.

The Court has scheduled a hearing on August 1, 2018 , to consider whether to approve the Settlements and the Plan of Allocation. Settlement Class Counsel may also request reimbursement of litigation costs and expenses as well as attorneys' fees of up to 25% of the Settlement Funds (after litigation costs and expenses).

For more information:

Visit: www.AutoPartsClass.com

Call: 1-877-940-5043

Write to: Auto Parts Settlements, P.O. Box 10163, Dublin, OH 43017-3163

SOURCE Kinsella Media, LLC

Related Links

http://www.autopartsclass.com/


WASHINGTON, April 23, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is being released by the Notice Provider, Kinsella Media, LLC, about the coordinated lawsuits in In re Automotive Parts Antitrust Litigation, MDL No. 2311.

There is an update for affected purchasers in these lawsuits about certain vehicle components, as there have been additional Settlements that may affect their rights.

Thirty-three Defendants have agreed to new Settlements resolving claims that they fixed the price of certain vehicle components. (The Court previously approved settlements totaling approximately $604 million.) The additional Settlements being presented for Court Approval total approximately $432 million.

The lawsuits allege that Defendants fixed the price of certain vehicle components, causing millions of consumers and businesses from around the country to pay more for certain new or leased vehicles and replacement parts. A complete list of included parts is available at the website, www.AutoPartsClass.com.

Consumers and businesses may be included in the Classes if, from 1995 to 2018, they:

Bought or leased a qualifying new vehicle in the U.S. (not for resale), or Bought a qualifying vehicle replacement part (not for resale) from someone other than the manufacturer of the part.

In general, qualifying vehicles include four-wheeled passenger automobiles, cars, light trucks, pickup trucks, crossovers, vans, mini-vans, and sport utility vehicles. Individuals can visit the website, www.AutoPartsClass.com, or call 1-877-940-5043 to determine if they are included in one or more Settlement Classes.

The Settlement Funds (after litigation expenses, attorney fees, and other costs) will be used to pay consumers and businesses in the District of Columbia and 30 states: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. The Settlements also provide non-monetary relief, including cooperation, and an agreement by certain Settling Defendants not to engage in certain anticompetitive conduct for a period of 24 months.

Affected consumers and businesses can submit a claim form online or by mail to get a payment. There is no deadline yet to submit a claim. If eligible consumers and businesses already filed a claim, they do not need to submit another claim for the same vehicle (or part) to get a payment. Claim forms are available at the website, www.AutoPartsClass.com, or by calling 1-877-940-5043. At this time, it is unknown how much each individual or entity that submits a valid claim will receive. Payments will be based on the Plan of Allocation that is approved by the Court. Settlement Class Counsel's proposed Plan of Allocation is available for review on the website.

Important Information and Dates:

Eligible consumers or businesses that want to sue the additional Settling Defendants regarding a particular component part must exclude themselves from Settlement Class(es) that they would otherwise be part of by July 13, 2018 .

Eligible consumers or businesses can object to one or more of the additional Settlements, Plan of Allocation, or motion for attorneys' fees by July 13, 2018 .

. Eligible consumers or businesses may submit a claim form online or by mail.

The Court has scheduled a hearing on August 1, 2018 , to consider whether to approve the Settlements and the Plan of Allocation. Settlement Class Counsel may also request reimbursement of litigation costs and expenses as well as attorneys' fees of up to 25% of the Settlement Funds (after litigation costs and expenses).

For more information:

Visit: www.AutoPartsClass.com

Call: 1-877-940-5043

Write to: Auto Parts Settlements, P.O. Box 10163, Dublin, OH 43017-3163

SOURCE Kinsella Media, LLC

Related Links

http://www.autopartsclass.com


REDWOOD CITY, Calif., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Lastline Inc., the leader in advanced network-based malware protection, today announced the results of its first comprehensive malware behavior report, the Q4 2017 Malscape Monitor Report. This report is the first in an on-going series that will deliver previously unavailable trends and actionable insights into malicious behaviors and how threats unfold.

The tens of millions of samples that Lastline analyzed for this report were for the most part scanned and released by other security solutions, meaning Lastline is literally "The Last Line of Defense." Reflecting the objects analyzed in the last quarter of 2017, the report found:

Enterprises, and malware authors, use a wide range of file types, illustrating the need to have protection parity across all attack vectors

Of the objects received via email or online and cleared by other security tools, one in 500 were found to be malicious, resulting in malware being introduced daily into enterprise networks

Sixty-five percent of malware files had never been submitted to VirusTotal and were seen only once by Lastline, leaving signature-based detection technologies ineffective

One in 12 malware samples exhibit particular advanced persistent threat capabilities that make them hard to detect and particularly dangerous

Ninety percent of files that Lastline determined to be malicious were given generic labels by AV tools, such as trojan.generic, providing limited guidance for successful remediation and leaving enterprises exposed to subsequent attacks resulting from compromised credentials

The file types that malware authors used to launch attacks varied widely across regions, as did the payloads and targets

The company also is announcing the Lastline Behavioral Intelligence Program, an innovative behavior-based approach to threat intelligence that will improve security effectiveness, speed to remediation, and completeness of remediation. Using data from Lastline's global deployment of millions of sensors, the program will make unique actionable information about cybersecurity threats publicly available to inform security teams' ability to detect and block attacks and improve their efforts to secure email, web access, corporate networks, and cloud storage and apps.

"The Lastline Behavioral Intelligence Program is built on core strengths of Lastline  our understanding of malicious behaviors and our ability to connect them to intrusions and breaches," noted Lastline CEO and co-founder, Chris Kruegel. "With this program, we're overcoming serious shortcomings in existing threat intelligence systems that deliver one-time IoCs that are essentially useless for blocking future attacks, resulting in broken incident response processes and ineffective intrusion defenses."

The program initially will consist of online access to threat analysis showing how malicious files are delivered, including new trends as they emerge, which will help security teams bolster defenses. In addition, Lastline will release high-level views of malware in the wild, such as the Malscape Monitor Report, details of threats against specific market segments or geographies, and details of a particular attack's capabilities plus remediation recommendations.

Go to the Threat Intelligence section of the company's website to access all materials available through the Lastline Behavioral Intelligence Program.

About Lastline

Lastline provides breach protection products that are innovating the way companies defend against advanced malware with fewer resources and at lower cost. We deliver the visibility, context, analysis, and integrations enterprise security teams need to quickly and completely eradicate malware-based threats before damaging and costly data breaches occur. Headquartered in Redwood City, California with offices throughout North America, Europe and Asia, Lastline's technology is used by Global 5000 enterprises, is offered directly and through resellers and security service providers, and is integrated into leading third-party security technologies worldwide. www.lastline.com

SOURCE Lastline Inc.

Related Links

http://www.lastline.com


CHICAGO, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A new report by A.T. Kearney and RapidRatings shows that supply chain risk management has climbed in priority among most companies, based on current geopolitical volatility. According to the research, most companies (78 percent of typical companies and 90 percent of procurement leaders) expect their procurement organizations to be given more responsibility for managing risk in the next two years.

The report, "Managing Supply Risk: Are You Prepared for a Black Swan Event?" concludes that while disruptions are inevitable, procurement is often unprepared for responding. Organizations that can quickly identify, diagnose, and resolve such issues are best positioned to proactively manage their supply chain risk. The companies that invest in risk management practices that link procurement, category, and supplier management strategies produce optimal results.

Other insights from the report include the following:

Top 5 predictions likely to impact supply chains in the coming year

Overview of financial health by country, supply market, and public vs. private company

Involvement of 90% of procurement leaders in corporate risk management initiatives

Companies' expectation that procurement organizations will have greater responsibility for managing risk in the next two years

Carrie Ericson, vice president with A.T. Kearney Procurement and Analytic Solutions, and co-author of the study, commented, "Most organizations acknowledge that supply disruption will occur. Unfortunately, few have invested in the systems and programs needed to respond quickly and efficiently to increased geopolitical unrest and the unpredictability of natural disasters."

The report also demonstrates, with comparison across industries and regions, how RapidRatings' FHR can be effectively used to analyze the financial health of public and private companies globally. It is the second time a study such as this has been published showing how combining the mega trends analysis with a micro bottom-up company and industry analysis provides procurement executives with relevant industry insights to make informed risk management decisions.

"We're seeing companies place greater emphasis on brand reputation and operational resilience than ever before. Disruptions are inevitable, and the best way to mitigate risks in the supply chain is by fostering an agile organization armed with the right tools to select the strongest partners," explains James H. Gellert, RapidRatings Chairman and CEO. "However, many supply management organizations report a lack in capacity, bandwidth, and technology to address potential risks. Using financial health as a KPI is the clearest proxy to see how suppliers will withstand geopolitical, economic, and market turmoil and continue to operate resiliently."

Click here to download a copy of the report.

About A.T. Kearney

A.T. Kearney is a leading global management consulting firm with offices in more than 40 countries. Since 1926, we have been trusted advisors to the world's foremost organizations. A.T. Kearney is a partner-owned firm, committed to helping clients achieve immediate impact and growing advantage on their most mission-critical issues. For more information, visit www.atkearney.com.

About Rapid Ratings

RapidRatings is transforming the way the world's leading companies manage enterprise and financial risk. RapidRatings provides the most sophisticated analysis of the financial health of public and private companies in the world. The company's analytics system provides predictive insights into third-party partners, suppliers, vendors, customers and securities issuers. Every business conversation becomes more productive, transparent and efficient with the RapidRatings Financial Health System. For more information, visit www.rapidratings.com.

Contacts:

Eileen Jodlowski

A.T. Kearney

312-223-6070

[email protected]

Alla Valente

RapidRatings

[email protected]

SOURCE A.T. Kearney

Related Links

http://www.atkearney.com


NEW YORK, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- NYMail has a perfect solution for entrepreneurs. They are able to get their own prestigious Fifth Avenue virtual office address by taking advantage of NYMail's 30-day risk-free trial with no further obligation.

Since 1985, NYMail has served local, national, and international customers. They offer a variety of services to accommodate customers' business needs. In addition to offering a virtual address on Fifth Avenue for mail and package receiving, NYMail also offers mail scanning and mail forwarding services. Get a dedicated 212-area code voicemail or fax-to-email telephone number for your business.

NYMail will take care of the business owner's mail and packages, providing them with convenience, reliability, and security so they can run your business smoothly. There are no cancellation fees, no long-term contracts or set-up fees. NYMail is open extended hours for mail pick-up.

Sign up today at www.nymail.com or call 212-679-0000 for more information. It's the most cost-effective virtual office address in the city.

Media contact:

Tina Rai

[email protected]

212-679-0000

SOURCE NYMail

Related Links

http://www.nymail.com


The NIC+ZOE Spring footwear collection consists of 15 styles across five categories  espadrilles, heels, sandals, sneakers, and wedges. The shoes range in price from $98 - $170 SRP and are available now for purchase in-store and online at NIC+ZOE , Nordstrom and Von Maur and online only at Lord & Taylor .

NIC+ZOE shoes are thoughtfully crafted for comfort with quality materials and include lightweight and flexible outsoles, and ultra-padded foot beds. The entire line is sleek enough to wear all day and versatile enough to wear from day to night, with modern feminine shapes designed to be worn from season to season.

"At NIC+ZOE we strive to be a women's one-stop wardrobe solution and with the addition of NIC+ZOE Shoes we can truly provide that from head to toe," said Susie Mulder, Chief Executive Officer at NIC+ZOE. "The shoes were designed to meet our customer's ever-changing lifestyles by providing comfort and support with the same high-quality materials and unexpected details they have come to expect and love from our clothes."

The line consists of creative, on-trend shoes for women who need the utmost flexibility with their wardrobe. Product highlights include:

Espadrille  Eliza ( $98 SRP)  Combining woven suede and leather in a classic espadrille gives this sandal just the right amount of textural interest. Available in Black, Pewter, and Rose Gold .



Combining woven suede and leather in a classic espadrille gives this sandal just the right amount of textural interest. Available in Black, Pewter, and . Heel  Priya ( $170 SRP)  A sock-like fit crafted with texture variation gives this bootie serious style. The fully knit pull on bootie with peep toe and generous block heel transitions the bootie into summer. Available in Black or Fawn knit.



A sock-like fit crafted with texture variation gives this bootie serious style. The fully knit pull on bootie with peep toe and generous block heel transitions the bootie into summer. Available in Black or Fawn knit. Sandal  Sandy ( $110 SRP)  The summer sandal reinvented in an easy single band slide, the perfect low block heel shoe for long summer dresses or poolside parties. Available in Silver/White chain with fringe embellished, Black sequin or Gunmetal fringe.



Sandy The summer sandal reinvented in an easy single band slide, the perfect low block heel shoe for long summer dresses or poolside parties. Available in Silver/White chain with fringe embellished, Black sequin or Gunmetal fringe. Sneaker  Brooke ( $130 SRP)  This fully knit, slip on stretch sneaker is unexpectedly snug and sleek for a casual/athleisure look. The breathable upper, ultra-padded insole, and comfort flex sole runner bottom give new meaning to casual chic. Available in Black/French Linen knit and White/French Linen knit.



 This fully knit, slip on stretch sneaker is unexpectedly snug and sleek for a casual/athleisure look. The breathable upper, ultra-padded insole, and comfort flex sole runner bottom give new meaning to casual chic. Available in Black/French Linen knit and White/French Linen knit. Wedge  Flora ( $135 SRP)  Perforated cut-outs on the upper and delicate ankle strap give this mid-height wedge feminine appeal. Available in Fawn suede, Spiced Rose suede, White calfskin or Black calfskin.

As part of the launch, customers who purchase a pair of shoes in one of the brands eight retail stores will receive a gift with purchase  a NIC+ZOE shoe bag. For more information about NIC+ZOE Shoes and to shop the full collection, visit nicandzoe.com/the-latest/niczoe-shoes.

About NIC+ZOE

Founded in 2006, NIC+ZOE is an American fashion brand rooted in Boston, known for its expertise in innovative knitwear and making apparel that moves with women throughout their inspired and fulfilling lives. The close-knit company reflects the spirit and wanderlust of its founder and designer, Dorian Lightbown, who has given the brand a name for itself through its commitment to craftsmanship and quality featuring designs tailored to dynamic and layered women, making it easy for them to dress for all of life's moments both big and small. NIC+ZOE has approximately 800 points of sale throughout the U.S. and Canada in major department stores such as Nordstrom, Bloomingdales, Lord & Taylor, Hudson's Bay and Neiman Marcus Direct as well as 600+ specialty stores. The full collection is also available online at www.nicandzoe.com.

SOURCE NIC+ZOE

Related Links

http://www.nicandzoe.com


SAN FRANCISCO and TOKYO, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, today announced the full schedule of sessions, speakers and activities for Open Source Summit Japan + Automotive Linux Summit, taking place June 20-22 in Tokyo. One registration provides access to all content at both events.

Open Source Summit Japan is the leading conference in Japan connecting the open source ecosystem under one roof, providing a forum for technologists and open source industry leaders to collaborate and share information, learn about the latest in open source technologies and find out how to gain a competitive advantage by using innovative, open solutions. The event covers cornerstone open source technology areas such as Linux, cloud infrastructure, and cloud native applications and explores the newest trends including networking, blockchain, serverless, edge computing and AI. It also offers an open source leadership track covering compliance, governance and community.

Automotive Linux Summit connects those driving innovation in automotive Linux from the developer community with the vendors and users providing and using the code, in order to propel the future of embedded devices in the automotive arena.

Keynote speakers come from organizations actively contributing to and using open source, including:

Brian Behlendorf , Executive Director, Hyperledger

, Executive Director, Hyperledger Dan Cauchy , Executive Director, Automotive Grade Linux

, Executive Director, Automotive Grade Linux Seiji Goto , Manager of IVI Advanced Development, Mazda Motor Corporation

, Manager of IVI Advanced Development, Mazda Motor Corporation Mitchell Hashimoto , Founder & CTO, HashiCorp

, Founder & CTO, HashiCorp Kelsey Hightower , Developer Advocate, Google

, Developer Advocate, Google Greg Kroah-Hartman , Linux Kernel Maintainer

, Linux Kernel Maintainer Ken-ichi Murata, Project General Manager - Connected Strategy, Connected Management Division, Connected Company & Masato Endo , Project Manager, Connected Vehicle Group, Intellectual Property Division, Toyota Motor Corporation

, Project Manager, Connected Vehicle Group, Intellectual Property Division, Toyota Motor Corporation Michelle Noorali , Senior Software Engineer, Microsoft

, Senior Software Engineer, Microsoft Linus Torvalds, Creator of Linux & Git, in conversation with Dirk Hohndel, VP & Chief Open Source Officer, VMware

Jim Zemlin , Executive Director, The Linux Foundation

Session highlights for Automotive Linux Summit:

AGL Development Tools - What's New in FF? - Stephane Desneux , IoT.bzh

, IoT.bzh High-level API for Smartphone Connectivity on AGL - Takeshi Kanemoto , RealVNC Ltd.

, RealVNC Ltd. Beyond the AGL Virtualization Architecture - AGL Virtualization Expert Group (EG-VIRT) - Michele Paolino , Virtual Open Systems

Session highlights for Open Source Summit Japan:

Building the Next Generation of IoT Applications - Dave Chen , GE Digital

, GE Digital Hitchhiker's Guide to Machine Learning with Kubernetes - Vishnu Kannan, Google

OSS Vulnerability Trends and PoC 2017-2018 - Kazuki Omo , SIOS Technology, Inc.

, SIOS Technology, Inc. Microservices, Service Mesh and CI/CD Pipelines - Making it All Work Together - Brian Redmond , Microsoft

, Microsoft Use Cases for Permissioned Blockchain Platforms - Swetha Repakula , IBM

, IBM Using Linux for Long Term - Community Status and the Way We Go - Tsugikazu Shibata, NEC

The conference agenda for both Open Source Summit Japan and Automotive Linux Summit can be viewed here.

Registration is discounted to USD$350 through April 28, and members of The Linux Foundation receive a 20% discount. Discounted academic and student rates are also available. Applications for diversity and needs-based scholarships are currently being accepted. For information on eligibility and how to apply, please click here.

The Linux Foundation events are where the world's leading technologists meet, collaborate, learn and network in order to advance innovations that support the world's largest shared technologies.

Members of the press who would like to request a press pass to attend should contact Noriko Otake at [email protected].

Open Source Summit Japan is made possible thanks to Platinum Sponsors Microsoft Azure and Fujitsu. Automotive Linux Summit is made possible thanks to Diamond Sponsor Automotive Grade Linux; Platinum Sponsors Intel, Panasonic and Toyota; and Gold Sponsors Microchip, NTT Data MSE and Renesas.

Additional Resources

YouTube: Why Attend Linux Foundation Events (https://youtu.be/X_rLxfmLlYY)

Open Source Summit Japan 2017 Event Recap (https://events17.linuxfoundation.org/events/open-source-summit-japan)

Automotive Linux Summit 2017 Event Recap (https://events17.linuxfoundation.org/events/automotive-linux-summit)

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.

The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of The Linux Foundation, please see our trademark usage page: https://www.linuxfoundation.org/trademark-usage.

Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

Media Contact:

Dan Brown

The Linux Foundation

415-420-7880

[email protected]

SOURCE The Linux Foundation

Related Links

http://www.linuxfoundation.org


SEATTLE, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Outreach, the leading customer engagement platform, today announced the winners of the company's first annual Nucleo Awards, recognizing those Outreach customers who have achieved sales excellence through their use of Outreach's customer engagement software. The winners will be formally recognized next week during Outreach's annual user conference, Unleash, taking place May 6-8 at Paradise Point in San Diego.

"We developed the Nucleos as a way to recognize the central role our customers play in everything we do at Outreach," said Manny Medina, CEO and co-founder of Outreach. "These seven customers have used Outreach to drive incredible sales success at each of their organizations and are showing no signs of slowing down. They are fierce advocates for our brand, a continual source of inspiration and we couldn't be more proud to call them customers."

The 2018 Nucleo Award winners include:

The Outreach Wizard Award: Lisa Goldsher , Director of Business Development at FinancialForce. The Outreach Wizard has a gift for making Outreach work like magic and uses the platform to simplify and improve their (or their team's) life.

, Director of Business Development at FinancialForce. The Outreach Wizard has a gift for making Outreach work like magic and uses the platform to simplify and improve their (or their team's) life. The Gold Miner Award: Nichole Vine , Content Marketing Manager at SurveyMonkey. The Gold Miner is a strategic expert who delivers content that helps their team connecting with prospects illustrate the value of their product immediately.

, Content Marketing Manager at SurveyMonkey. The Gold Miner is a strategic expert who delivers content that helps their team connecting with prospects illustrate the value of their product immediately. The Outreach Outside the Box Award: Ed Sellitto , Director, Customer Success Operations at Newsela. The Outreach Outside the Box is awarded to a customer who knows Outreach so well that they've developed a use case or strategy that takes their sales process to completely new levels.

, Director, Customer Success Operations at Newsela. The Outreach Outside the Box is awarded to a customer who knows Outreach so well that they've developed a use case or strategy that takes their sales process to completely new levels. The Rookie of the Year Award: Alex Hudzik , Director of Inside Sales at Nasuni. The Rookie of the Year award recognizes a superstar user, admin, or sales leader who has been using Outreach for less than a year, but has already seen evidence of increased success.

, Director of Inside Sales at Nasuni. The Rookie of the Year award recognizes a superstar user, admin, or sales leader who has been using Outreach for less than a year, but has already seen evidence of increased success. The No Sequence Unreplied Award: Marya Dzmitruk, Sponsorship Manager at Talkdesk. The No Sequence Unreplied is awarded to an Outreach customer who has a knack for developing incredible content and sequences that lead to high engagement and reply rates.

Marya Dzmitruk, Sponsorship Manager at Talkdesk. The No Sequence Unreplied is awarded to an Outreach customer who has a knack for developing incredible content and sequences that lead to high engagement and reply rates. The SuperHero Award: Ryan Schertzer , Director of Inside Sales at Seal Software. The SuperHero award goes to a customer who has helped build Outreach's customer community from the ground up.

, Director of Inside Sales at Seal Software. The SuperHero award goes to a customer who has helped build Outreach's customer community from the ground up. The Power Couple of the Year Award: Tyler Bench , Director of Demand Generation at Lucidchart and McClain Smith , Manager of Sales Development at Lucidchart. The Power Couple of the Year award goes to a marketing and sales leader pair who has ensured that all leads are followed up with, sales is enabled with the best language and assets, and both teams are kept outstandingly happy.

"At SurveyMonkey, listening to existing and potential customers and making impactful data-driven improvements is core to who we are as a company. Outreach provides a fool-proof way of making sure each prospect gets the proper communication, and since implementing it, we have seen great results in engagement and an increase in meeting conversion." - Nichole Vine, Content Marketing Manager at SurveyMonkey.

Unleash 2018 is a unique opportunity for more than 500 sales leaders to connect with like-minded professionals, gain new insights into sales excellence, and learn new techniques for driving higher levels of performance and success. For more information and to register, go to unleash.outreach.io.

About Outreach

Outreach, the leading sales engagement platform, automates and prioritizes customer touch points throughout the sales process, resulting in increased productivity for sales teams. Thousands of customers rely on Outreach to transform the sales process, drive collaboration between sales and marketing, and deliver higher revenue per sales rep. Outreach is a privately held company based in Seattle, Washington. To learn more, please visit www.outreach.io.

Media Contact:

Jennefer Traeger

Traeger Communications

720-988-6149

[email protected]

SOURCE Outreach

Related Links

http://www.outreach.io


CLEVELAND, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Cleveland law firm Peiffer Rosca Wolf Abdullah Carr & Kane (PRW), which is nationally recognized for its handling of a number cases involving embryo loss/related cryogenic issues, today responded to the decision of the Court of Common Pleas, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, to consolidate more than 40 lawsuits involving the embryo-loss crisis at University Hospitals Fertility Clinic (UHFC).

Speaking on behalf of PRW, Cleveland attorney Lydia Floyd said:

"We are pleased to see the Court's order granting consolidation. Consolidation of the various cases should promote the efficient and fair administration of the needed remedies in this matter."

"This ruling settles an initial procedural question and allows the families affected by this tragedy to continue to pursue their goal of holding UHFC accountable for its failure to protect their eggs and embryos entrusted to its care."

"We look forward to continuing our pursuit of justice for the families affected by this tragedy and encourage all parties who have been affected by UHFC to seek the legal help they need and deserve."

On March 12, 2018, PRW filed a class-action lawsuit in the names of a Pennsylvania couple and on behalf of the victims of University Hospitals Health System, Inc., University Hospitals Ahuja Medical Center, Inc., University Hospitals Medical Group, Inc., and University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, all of Ohio. For details on the class-action lawsuit filed by PRW, go to https://www.uhembryolawsuit.com/.

PRW also has filed a class-action lawsuit in connection with the embryo destruction at Pacific Fertility Center in San Francisco. Both the UHFC and Pacific tragedies took place within days of each other last month.

PWR has handled multiple cases in which fertility clinics were accused of either destroying or losing eggs and embryos. This is a highly technical area of law and science and individuals seeking legal representation in the UHFC matter would be well advised to look to the law firm that has successfully handled such cases in the past.

The law firm Peiffer Rosca Wolf Abdullah Carr & Kane maintains offices in Cleveland, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Missouri, and New Orleans. PRW is available on the web at https://prwlegal.com.

SOURCE Peiffer Rosca Wolf Abdullah Carr & Kane - Cleveland, OH

Related Links

https://prwlegal.com/


SANTA CLARA, California and PUNE, India, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

News Summary:

Persistent Systems (BSE: PERSISTENT) (NSE: PERSISTENT), today announced the Company's audited financial results for the quarter and year ended March 31, 2018, as approved by the Board of Directors.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/681466/Persistent_Systems_Logo.jpg )



Consolidated Financial Highlights for the Financial Year 2017-18:

FY18 FY17 YoY growth Revenue (USD Million) 470.55 429.01 9.7% EBITDA (USD Million) 72.70 67.66 7.5% PBT (USD Million) 66.58 59.72 11.5% PAT (USD Million) 50.11 44.93 11.5%

Consolidated Financial Highlights for the Quarter ended March 31,2018:

Q4FY18 YoY growth QoQ growth Revenue (USD Million) 116.95 7.3% -4.6% EBITDA (USD Million) 17.26 -3.1% -18.9% PBT (USD Million) 15.28 8.9% -15.9% PAT (USD Million) 11.45 4.9% -19.2%

Dividend:

The Board of Directors at its meeting concluded on April 24, 2018, recommended 30% final dividend taking the total dividend for FY 2017-18 to 100%. This was against 90% dividend paid in the previous year. The dividend recommended by the Board is subject to approval of the Members during the Annual General Meeting.

Management Update:

The Board of Directors, at its meeting concluded on April 24, 2018, has appointed Prof. Deepak B Phatak, recipient of Padma Shri award, who recently retired as Professor of Computer Science at IIT Bombay and Mr. Guy Eiferman who is an expert in Life Sciences and Healthcare, having held several important positions at Merck & Co., as Additional Directors (Independent Members) on the Board with immediate effect subject to the approval of the Members in the next General Meeting of the Company.

Business Highlights and Awards:

Dr. Anand Deshpande, Chairman and Managing Director, Persistent Systems:

"In the last two years, our focus on digital has helped us build capabilities in key technology areas and experience in helping customers as they transform to being software driven businesses. Looking ahead, we are doubling down on three industry markets - Financial Services, Healthcare & Life Sciences and Industrial IoT in addition to our strong presence in Software and Technology.

We are delighted by the grand success of the Software Edition of Smart India Hackathon 2018 and look forward to innovative solutions at the Hardware Edition in June this year."

Key Highlights and Wins during the Quarter:

Customer Highlights

Momentum around Software Product Engineering

Design, develop and accelerate the roadmap for an industry leading fin tech product in the US

Micro-services cloud architecture for advanced IoT sensor- based motion capture

Engineering partner to build AI and ML powered cloud based solutions for an industry leading software provider

Momentum in Healthcare

Engineering partner for chromatography data system, cloud, mobility and ML of a US based global healthcare and life sciences company

Enterprise class architecture to drive patient and staff satisfaction and improve cross departmental efficiency for a renowned US based children's specialty hospital

Develop mobile device automation with data lake implementation for US based IoT driven human health organization

Momentum in Financial Services

Built a BOT platform powered by AI & ML for a large US based bank

Drive critical data initiatives around regulatory compliance and risk management for a leading US based bank

Implementing API based integration for identity initiatives for a large US based banking brokerage firm

IP-led win to provide secure access to customer policy information and transactions using Neuro, providing risk based authentication for an insurance and financial organization in the US

About Persistent Systems:

Persistent Systems (BSE & NSE: PERSISTENT) builds software that drives the business of our customers; serving software product companies and enterprises with software at the core of their digital transformation.

Forward-looking and Cautionary Statements: For risks and uncertainties relating to forward-looking statements, please visit www.persistent.com/FLCS

Media Contacts:

Saviera Barretto

Text100

+91-84249-17719

[email protected]

Isha Kulkarni

Persistent Systems

+91-86696-70068

[email protected]

Ken Montgomery

Persistent Systems (US)

+1-949-939-5164

[email protected]



SOURCE Persistent Systems
NEW YORK, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Persistent Systems, LLC ("Persistent") announced today that it successfully demonstrated that its MPU5 smart radio could scale up to an unprecedented 320-node mobile ad hoc network (MANET) at a military operation urban training facility, at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

The MPU5 runs the Wave Relay MANET routing protocol, allowing the radio to transmit and relay secure voice, video, text, and sensor data in a robust, peer-to-peer fashionall without external communications infrastructure. It's a capability that the U.S. Army has been looking for with its Brigade Combat Teams.

"The Army wants a MANET that can scale up to 250 mobile radios in a flat, layer-2 network," said Herbert Rubens, founder and CEO of Persistent Systems. "However, such a network would exceed the capability of most other solutions currently available."

By contrast, Persistent's Wave Relay was designed to achieve extremely high levels of scalability without any limitation on the number of nodes or routing hops permitted in the network. And the Fort Bragg demonstrationin which, 320 MPU5 radios, spread across 37 multi-story buildings including basement levels, communicated successfully on a single RF channelproved this capability.

"Let's be clear: A flat MANET network of this size has never been demonstrated by any other organization," Rubens said. "We not only proved that it is possible to scale up to a 320-node, flat, layer-2 network, but that it works, and it works well."

During the demonstration, the MPU5:

Tethered with Samsung Galaxy S7 phones, reported their GPS locations, to provide situational awareness in both ATAK and WinTAK;

Connected a video camera on a Polaris DAGOR lightweight tactical vehicle, streamed more than 2 Mbps of multicast video over the network; and

Used its Radio over IP (RoIP) capability to tether multiple legacy land mobile radios into the network, allowing dismounts to speak on Tactical Satellite while carrying only an MPU5 and the Persistent Dual PTT Device.

The load on the network was representative of an extremely large team running voice, video, and situational awareness. Yet despite the load on the network, the MANET still had additional capacity to spare.

"Persistent has a reputation for advancing the state-of-the-art in scalable MANET technology," Rubens said. "And we have proven that the MPU5 can deliver a tactical MANET network that scales beyond the Army's requirements."

About Persistent Systems, LLC

Headquartered in New York City since 2007, Persistent Systems, LLC is a global communications technology company which develops, manufactures, and integrates a patented and secure Mobile Ad Hoc Networking (MANET) system: Wave Relay. The company's industry leading R&D team has designed wireless networking protocols to support their cutting-edge Wave Relay system and technology. Wave Relay transmits and receives data, video, voice and other applications under the most difficult and unpredictable conditions. Their suite of products is field proven and utilized in Commercial, Military, Government, Industrial, Agriculture, Robotics, and Unmanned System markets.

Please visit http://www.persistentsystems.com to learn more. Follow Persistent Systems on Twitter to get updates on the latest developments @pswaverelay.

SOURCE Persistent Systems, LLC

Related Links

http://www.persistentsystems.com


IRVING, Texas, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Caris Life Sciences, a leading innovator in molecular science focused on fulfilling the promise of precision medicine, today announced that Piedmont Cancer has joined Caris' Precision Oncology Alliance (POA) as its 22nd member and will work with other leading cancer centers to develop standards of care and best practices for the use of tumor profiling, making cancer treatment more precise and effective.

"We are pleased to welcome our colleagues at Piedmont Cancer to the Alliance. Their extensive footprint across Georgia and commitment to improving cancer treatment within each of the communities they serve makes Piedmont a valuable and productive member of our Alliance," said John Marshall, M.D., Director of the Otto J. Ruesch Center for the Cure of Gastrointestinal Cancer at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and Chief of the Division of Hematology-Oncology at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C., and Chairman of the POA Executive Committee.

The POA, which now consists of 22 academic, hospital and community-based cancer institutions including five NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers, is broadening patient access to precision medicine tools and establishing evidence-based standards for tumor profiling and molecular testing in oncology. The POA utilizes Caris Molecular Intelligence, Caris' suite of comprehensive genomic and proteomic tumor profiling services, to enable the practice of precision medicine by identifying therapy options and clinical trial opportunities based on the unique molecular characteristics of a patient's tumor. Piedmont Cancer will also actively participate in collecting molecular data and longitudinally tracking outcomes data for those patients that have had their tumors profiled.

"Advancing molecular profiling and precision medicine to identify effective treatments to ultimately improve patient care and survival for each of our cancer patients is an important objective of Piedmont Cancer," said Erin Dunbar, M.D., Medical Director at the Piedmont Brain Tumor Center. "Caris Life Sciences has built a distinguished group of institutions to serve cancer patients through the Precision Oncology Alliance, and we look forward to working with Caris and the other POA members to further advance molecular profiling and precision medicine to make it a standard of care in cancer treatment."

Caris Molecular Intelligence assesses DNA, RNA and proteins to reveal a molecular profile to guide more precise and individualized treatment decisions. Based on the unique molecular characteristics of an individual patient's cancer, the results help inform treatment decisions by identifying therapies that have the potential to be most effective and to rule out those that are less likely to work.

About Caris Life Sciences

Caris Life Sciences is a leading innovator in molecular science focused on fulfilling the promise of precision medicine through quality and innovation, and the world's leading immunotherapy diagnostic expert. Caris Molecular Intelligence, the company's Comprehensive Genomic Profiling Plus (CGP+) molecular testing service, assesses DNA, RNA and proteins, including microsatellite instability (MSI), tumor mutational burden (TMB) and PD-L1, to reveal a molecular blueprint to guide more precise and personalized treatment decisions. Caris' profiling services are routinely covered by third-party payors, including CMS for Medicare patients. The ADAPT Biotargeting System, the company's revolutionary and unbiased profiling platform, is currently being utilized for drug target identification, therapeutic discovery and development, fixed tissue-based companion diagnostics, blood-based cancer screening and biomarker identification. Headquartered in Irving, Texas, Caris Life Sciences offers services throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia and other international markets. To learn more, please visit www.CarisLifeSciences.com.

About the Precision Oncology Alliance

The Precision Oncology Alliance (POA) was established by Caris Life Sciences to promote the study and appropriate use of molecular testing in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The POA consists of 22 leading cancer centers, including five NCI-Designated Cancer Centers, that have demonstrated a commitment to precision medicine and work collaboratively toward a common goal: to advance tumor profiling and establish standards of care for molecular testing in oncology. The POA has produced more than five peer-reviewed manuscripts and presented over 40 posters at industry conferences.

About Piedmont Cancer

Piedmont is a major provider of healthcare in Georgia, operating 11 hospitals, 21 urgent care centers, 28 Piedmont QuickCare locations, and 527 Piedmont Clinic physician practice locations. Piedmont Cancer provides community oncology care for patients across the system, with 8,500 analytic cancer cases each year. Tertiary care sites are located in Athens and Atlanta, and at the John B. Amos Cancer Center in Columbus. For more information contact Piedmont Cancer, 1800 Howell Mill Road, Suite 625, Atlanta, GA. Telephone 404-425-1800.

Media Inquiries:

The Ruth Group

Kirsten Thomas / Joanna Zimmerman

[email protected] / [email protected]

Tel: +1-508-280-6592 / +1-646-536-7006

SOURCE Caris Life Sciences

Related Links

http://www.carislifesciences.com


MEMPHIS, Tenn., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Public agencies in New York and Pennsylvania will expand services to former foster and transition-age youth through public-private partnerships with Youth Villages, backed by local and national philanthropists.

New Yorkers For Children, on behalf of the New York City Administration for Children's Services, and Allegheny County Department of Human Services in Pennsylvania are launching YVLifeSet, an evidence-informed intensive program designed to help former foster and transition-age youth who need the most comprehensive support.



While some youth who age out of state care are resilient and capable, statistics show that without help, many are more likely than their peers to be homeless, unemployed or incarcerated. These young adults are more likely to have significant mental and/or behavioral health issues than other young adults. Many will face challenges with relationships, family planning and achieving stability.

YVLifeSet, developed by national nonprofit Youth Villages, is an evidence-informed program to assist young adults ages 17 to 22 who need intensive help as they transition to independent adulthood.

"We are proud that New Yorkers For Children, in partnership with ACS, has been selected as a partner for the YVLifeSet program," said ACS Commissioner David A. Hansell. "We are committed to helping every youth in foster care succeed in adulthood. This program delivers an intensive model to help young people with their education, employment, housing and health care, and to establish a support network. We look forward to working with New Yorkers For Children to ensure youth in care can thrive."

The agencies participated in a competitive grant-making process and will receive nearly $3 million over the next three years to begin implementation of the program. The funding comes by way of a national effort by Youth Villages to expand effective services for former foster youth across the country. The funds will serve as a match for local public and philanthropic funds, allowing the jurisdictions to expand their investment in former foster youth.

"Making the transition to independent living is a particularly vulnerable time for youth, and it's crucial to have good supports in place," said Marc Cherna, director of Allegheny County Department of Human Services. "The YVLifeSet model has proven effective in other jurisdictions, and we thank Youth Villages for the opportunity to offer it to those we are serving in Allegheny County."

In Pittsburgh, Pressley Ridge has begun helping its first young people. In New York City, Children's Aid Society will begin the program next month, and The New York Foundling will start YVLifeSet in the spring of 2019. They join the Accelerator YMCA in Seattle, Washington, and Turning Points for Children in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as YVLifeSet implementation partners.

Youth Villages will provide administrative, training, clinical and research support to implementation partners. The organization provides YVLifeSet directly in Georgia, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon and Tennessee.

"These are strong public agency partners for this expansion effort. I've been impressed with the passion of the leadership teams in these jurisdictions," said Patrick Lawler, CEO of Youth Villages. "They've shown a real commitment to helping young people who age out of state services in their communities have a greater chance for long-term adult success. We'll be working closely with them every step of the way going forward."

In the grant-making process, government agencies submitted proposals, and the selections were made based on the strength of program design, the public/private funding match, a commitment to a multi-year implementation and plans for sustainability of the program after the initial funding period. Public agencies interested in applying for funding can find more information at yvlifeset.org.

Learn more about New Yorkers For Children and NYC Administration of Children's Services.

Learn more about Allegheny County Department of Human Services.



About YVLifeSet

Youth Villages has helped nearly 12,000 young people through the program since it began in 1999. YVLifeSet is one of the largest programs helping transition-age young people in the country and one of the only to show, positive impacts in multiple areas of a young person's life in a large randomized trial. A five-year study by MDRC showed that YVLifeSet decreases homelessness, increases employment and earnings, increases mental health and decreases domestic violence. The community-based program pairs young people with specialists who are specifically trained in navigating the complexities of the transition to adulthood. Specialists have small caseloads and see young people face-to-face at least once each week, helping them set and achieve their goals around housing, transportation, education, employment, health and relationships through experiential learning.

Learn more at yvlifeset.org.



About Youth Villages

Youth Villages is a national leader in children's mental and behavioral health. Founded in 1986, the organization helps more than 25,000 children annually through programs that involve intensive work with the child and family, as well as a focus on measuring outcomes; keeping children in the community whenever safely possible; and providing accountability to families and funders. With locations across the U.S., Youth Villages' continuum of programs includes intensive in-home services; residential treatment; foster care and adoption; YVLifeSet for transition-age youth; mentoring; and crisis services. The organization has been recognized by the Harvard Business School and U.S. News & World Report and was identified by The White House as one of the nation's most promising results-oriented nonprofit organizations. Learn more at www.youthvillages.org.

SOURCE Youth Villages

Related Links

http://www.youthvillages.org


TEL AVIV, Israel, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- RADWIN (www.radwin.com), the global wireless broadband provider, today announced that Peoples Wireless - a subsidiary of the Peoples Telephone Cooperative in Texas, U.S. - has deployed the RADWIN JET PRO 750 Mbps and JET AIR 250 Mbps Point-to-Multipoint beamforming solutions and RADWIN 2000 D+ Point-to-Point in its network. RADWIN's portfolio delivers high-speed broadband to residential and enterprise customers (e.g. banks, school campuses, public water companies) that reside in areas not served by the company's traditional DSL and fiber services. Using RADWIN's gear, Peoples Wireless can offer a variety of service packages for residential and enterprise customers of up to 100 Mbps.

Keith Kindle, Director of Wireless Operations, Peoples Wireless: "Our goal is to serve residents living outside of the cooperative's fiber footprint. We tested JET side-by-side with other wireless equipment and found RADWIN's gear to be the most reliable, hands down! In our area we have to deal with severe weather such as thunderstorms, tornados, damaging winds and torrential rains. In some areas there is also heavy congestion in the 5 GHz spectrum. But with JET PtMP and RADWIN 2000 PtP we consistently get excellent service, even when the equipment is deployed on the same tower with other 5 GHz radios. Our field technicians love the simplicity of the installation and the fact that once RADWIN's systems are installed, they rarely have to return on a trouble issue."

Concluded Kindle: "We have found that a major advantage of RADWIN's wireless broadband equipment over fiber are the costs. In areas where fiber is too expensive, RADWIN enables us to expand into new areas more cost effectively."

Dennis Stipati, RADWIN GM, North America: "JET is rapidly emerging as the number 1 choice of Telephone Cooperatives whose target is to serve local communities, no matter how remote. Time and again COOPs turn to RADWIN as they are assured a dependable carrier-class product that delivers the highest capacity with utmost reliability."

Click here to see the video

About RADWIN

RADWIN is a leading provider of Point-to-Multipoint and Point-to-Point broadband wireless solutions. Deployed in over 170 countries, RADWIN's solutions power applications including backhaul, broadband access, private network connectivity, video surveillance transmission as well as delivering broadband on the move for trains, vehicles and vessels.

www.radwin.com



RADWIN Sales

US: +1-201-252-4224

HQ: +972-3-769-2820

Email: [email protected]



Media Contact

Tammy Levy

RADWIN

Tel: +972-3-766-2916

Email: [email protected]



Peoples Telephone Cooperative, Inc.

Organized in 1952, Peoples Telephone continues to provide dependable, high quality telephone service in Wood County and beyond. Peoples offers fixed wireless broadband, Ignyte, in areas that are not served with our traditional DSL and landline service. This unlimited Internet service is available in 21 East Texas communities.

Contact:

Tel: 1-800-333-9779 / 903-763-2214

SOURCE RADWIN

Related Links

http://www.radwin.com


CINCINNATI, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Effective April 24, 2018, RCL Benziger, a Kendall Hunt company, announced today that it has established a strategic partnership with Veritas of Ireland to become the exclusive United States distributor of the Catholic high school series, Credo. Under the terms of this agreement, RCL Benziger will hold the exclusive rights to market, sell, and distribute the acclaimed series throughout the United States.

The Credo series is a comprehensive presentation of the Catholic faith for high school students. In the series, students are called upon to live as people of faith through prayer, reflection, and meditation. The spiral format includes a strong social justice theme that moves "from life to faith to life," moving them from information to formation to transformation. The Credo series also speaks to the multicultural nature of the high school population and contains both print and digital components.

Catholic Publisher, RCL Benziger, is well known for its religious education programs for Catholic schools and parishes, making the company an ideal distribution partner with Veritas and the Credo series. The partnership will enable both organizations to meet the growing customer demand for more comprehensive solutions for Catholic high schools.

"We are excited to partner with RCL Benziger to expand our reach in the United States market," said Aidan Chester CEO, Veritas. "The series is already being used in schools across the country but this agreement will give Credo the on the ground presence needed to significantly increase the number of schools using the series. By joining forces with one of the most respected U.S. Catholic publishing houses, we are confident that many more schools across the U.S. will get to see the Credo series including the innovative interactive website that accompanies the series with additional resources for teachers, students, and their families."

"With the addition of Credo to our current product line, we can provide even more catechetical resources for Catholics of all ages from early childhood through adulthood," said Charley Cook, Vice President of RCL Benziger and Kendall Hunt Publishing. "Like RCL Benziger, Veritas is known for excellence in publishing and strictly following the catechetical guidelines of the Catholic Church, making them an ideal distribution partner. We are proud to add Credo to the many great resources we currently offer to the Catholic schools we serve, and are confident that we can expand distribution of this valuable resource."

ABOUT RCL BENZIGER

RCL Benziger is one of the oldest publishers of Catholic educational materials and faith formation resources in the United States. Known for its digital product offerings and bilingual resources, RCL Benziger is a major provider of religious education programs for Catholic schools and parishes. The RCL Benziger family of products supports catechists, educators, students, families, and individuals. In 2016, Dubuque, Iowa-based Kendall Hunt Publishing Company acquired RCL Benziger, joining two leaders in the K-12 publishing industry. Family owned and operated, Kendall Hunt was previously part of William C. Brown that published religious education materials for the Catholic faith, starting with The Archdiocese of Chicago in the early 1970s, before expanding throughout the United States in the 1980s under the name Brown ROA. Visit www.RCLBenziger.com to learn more.

ABOUT VERITAS

Veritas is Ireland's leading religious publisher and retailer. They publish more than 40 books each year in the areas of theology, scripture, prayer, spirituality, parenting, counselling, children's issues, social commentary, and liturgical resource. They also publish religious education texts for primary and post-primary schools, which are used throughout Ireland, as well as the widely acclaimed Credo series in the U.S. In addition to a strong publishing profile, they are also Ireland's foremost religious retailer, with stores nationwide in Dublin, Cork, Derry, Ennis, Letterkenny, Monaghan, Naas, Newry, and Sligo. For more information visit www.veritas.ie.

SOURCE RCL Benziger

Related Links

http://www.rclbenziger.com


ROSEVILLE, Minn., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Rebiotix Inc. announced today the presentation of two posters during the 28th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2018) being held in Madrid, Spain. Collectively, the posters add to the growing library of data recently published and presented by Rebiotix highlighting the company's microbiome drug products, clinical programs, and pioneering research involving microbiome composition and health.

"The analysis of our RBX2660 Phase 2B and open-label Phase 2 clinical trials and additional findings from the Microbiome Health Index presented at ECCMID 2018 serve to demonstrate the potential of our microbiota-based drug platform to restore a dysbiotic microbiome and potentially prevent recurrent Clostridium difficile (C. diff) infection," said Lee Jones, Rebiotix's president and CEO. "Moreover, the data presented at ECCMID 2018 exemplify an ongoing mission at Rebiotix to conduct scientific research to explore the potential of our microbiome drug products and to advance the understanding of the human microbiome itself."

The first poster (P0368) titled, "The Microbiota-based Drug RBX2660 is Efficacious and Safe in Patients with Recurrent Clostridium Difficile Infections: Results from 2 Controlled Clinical Trials," provided a comparative analysis from the Phase 2B (PUNCH CD2) and open-label Phase 2 (PUNCH SOS) clinical trials of RBX2660 for the prevention of recurrent C. diff infection (rCDI). According to the researchers, the data collectively demonstrate the safety and the effectiveness of RBX2660 in preventing rCDI when compared to placebo-treated and historical control groups. These two controlled studies provided the foundational data for advancing RBX2660 into the current, ongoing Phase 3 clinical trial for the prevention of rCDI. In total, 369 rCDI patients were evaluated across both Phase 2 trials. In the Phase 2B trial, the efficacy among patients who received > 1 blinded RBX2660 treatment was 66.7% (n=83) compared to 45.5% for placebo-treated patients (n=42; p<0.05). In the multi-center Open-Label Phase 2 trial, efficacy among patients who received > 1 RBX2660 treatment was 79.4% (n=136), compared to 51.8% in the Control group (n=110) and was highly significant (p<0.0001).

In the second poster (P0369) titled, "Developing Microbiome Rehabilitation Biomarkers for Clostridium difficile Infections: Evaluation of a Prototype Microbiome Health Index (MHI)," the researchers explored the potential of the MHI to enable a non-biased comparison of the efficacy of microbiome-based therapeutics by providing a unidimensional expression of changes in four taxonomic classes known to have relevance to microbiome health and colonization resistance  Bacteriodia, Clostridia, Gammaproteobacteria and Bacilli. This analysis, through statistical measures and in clinical trials, distinguishes patients with rCDI dysbiosis from controls and illustrates MHI increases can be measured post-treatment of RBX2660 to demonstrate restoration toward a healthier microbiome composition.

About Rebiotix Inc.

Rebiotix Inc, which is part of the Ferring Pharmaceuticals Group, is a late-stage clinical microbiome company focused on harnessing the power of the human microbiome to revolutionize the treatment of debilitating diseases. Rebiotix possesses a deep and diverse clinical pipeline, with its lead drug candidate, RBX2660, in Phase 3 clinical development for the prevention of recurrent Clostridium difficile (C. diff) infection. RBX2660 has been granted Fast Track status, Orphan Drug and Breakthrough Therapy designation from the FDA for its potential to prevent recurrent C. diff infection. Rebiotix's clinical pipeline also features RBX7455, a lyophilized non-frozen, oral capsule formulation, which is currently the subject of an investigator-sponsored Phase 1 trial for the prevention of recurrent C. diff infection. In addition, Rebiotix is targeting several other disease states with drug products built on its pioneering Microbiota Restoration Therapy (MRT) platform. The MRT platform is a standardized, stabilized drug technology that is designed to rehabilitate the human microbiome by delivering a broad consortium of live microbes into a patient's intestinal tract via a ready-to-use and easy-to-administer format. For more information on Rebiotix and its pipeline of human microbiome-directed therapies, visit www.rebiotix.com.

About Ferring Pharmaceuticals

Ferring Pharmaceuticals is a research-driven, specialty biopharmaceutical group committed to helping people around the world build families and live better lives. Headquartered in Saint-Prex, Switzerland, Ferring is a leader in reproductive medicine and women's health, and in specialty areas within gastroenterology and urology. Ferring has been developing treatments for mothers and babies for over 50 years. Today, over one third of the company's research and development investment goes towards finding innovative and personalised healthcare solutions to help mothers and babies, from conception to birth. Founded in 1950, Ferring now employs approximately 6,500 people worldwide, has its own operating subsidiaries in nearly 60 countries and markets its products in 110 countries.

Learn more at www.ferring.com

Rebiotix Media Contact:

Jason Rando

Tiberend Strategic Advisors

212-375-2665

[email protected]

SOURCE Rebiotix Inc.

Related Links

http://www.rebiotix.com


"Three out of every five home fire deaths happen in homes that don't have working smoke alarms," said Gail McGovern, President and CEO of the American Red Cross. "Please help lower these tragic statistics by joining us in this lifesaving effort to Sound the Alarm against home fires. Smoke alarms save lives, so we've made it our goal to install 100,000 alarms in homes that need them most."

During Sound the Alarm, Red Cross volunteers and partners will canvass high-risk neighborhoods to install free smoke alarms, replace batteries in existing alarms, and help families create escape plans. These smoke alarm installation events are part of the multi-year Red Cross Home Fire Campaign, launched in 2014 to reduce the number of home fire deaths and injuries in this country. The campaign is making a difference. As of March 31, 2018:

The Home Fire Campaign is credited with helping to save 416 lives.

Red Cross volunteers and 4,400 campaign partners have installed more than 1.2 million smoke alarms.

1.3 million people have been served through visits to more than an half-million homes.

More than a million children have been reached through specially targeted programs.

Jimi and Stevie know the importance of having smoke alarms and a fire escape plan in place. They experienced a home fire where they lost their home, but luckily their whole family  including their two dogs  got out safe due to a visit from the Red Cross just one year before. "[The Red Cross] installed the smoke alarms for us, and talked about the fire prevention, and also the fire escape plan, which was the major issue that saved our lives and got us out of the house in time," said Jimi. Watch Jimi and Stevie's life-changing story here: https://vimeo.com/265792441.

Join the Red Cross to help families like Jimi and Stevie's and fight against home fires today by volunteering to install smoke alarms in your community, making a financial contribution at redcross.org, or taking two easy steps to help save lives  practicing fire drills at home and checking your smoke alarms every month. Together, we can Sound the Alarm about fire safety and help save lives. Learn more at soundthealarm.org.

This work is made possible thanks to generous financial donations from national partners: Almost Family, Delta Air Lines and International Paper. The Red Cross has also received funding from FEMA through the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program.

About the American Red Cross:

The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies about 40 percent of the nation's blood; teaches skills that save lives; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a not-for-profit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org or cruzrojaamericana.org, or visit us on Twitter at @RedCross.

SOURCE American Red Cross

Related Links

http://www.redcross.org


HONG KONG, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today marks the launch of Reolink Go, a game-changing 4G mobile rechargeable battery-powered security camera on Indiegogo. Incorporating 4G connectivity, 1080p HD, starlight night vision, solar charging, and cloud storage, Reolink Go provides an easy security solution for locations with no Wi-Fi and power access.

Reolink Go Wire-Free 4G Rechargeable Battery-Powered & Solar-Powered Security Camera

Reolink Go connects to the 4G LTE mobile network provided by various network service providers including the nationwide AT&T (US), T-Mobile (US & Germany), EE Limited (UK), Vodafone (UK, Germany & Italy), O2 (UK & Germany), Three UK, Wind Tre (Italy), and more, allowing it to roam freely in places with no WiFi or bandwidth network.

It's powered by the long-running rechargeable battery (up to months' battery life per charge) and can be hooked up to the Reolink Solar Panel for constant solar charging. Weatherproof and wire-free Reolink Go can be set up in seconds and easily deployed and re-deployed with a simple tap on the intuitive mobile app. It streams true 1080p HD quality videos and captures starlight night vision videos in low-light environments. With the built-in smart motion sensor, Reolink Go is capable of sensing movement, sending real-time motion alerts via push notification and email, and recording motions to Reolink Cloud or a micro SD card. Two-way audio allows users to listen in and talk back through the microphone and speaker in real time, or even use pre-recorded voice message to even warm or scare off potential intruders or invaders.

"At Reolink, we've focused on helping people stay connected and secure anywhere at any time, even in places with no Wi-Fi and power," said Colin Liu, the CEO of Reolink. "We are proud to launch our first 4G-LTE security camera Reolink Go on Indiegogo today."

Features of Reolink Go:

100% Wire-Free : Reolink Go is 100% wire-free portable security camera that allows users to place it anywhere. No wires, no hassle.

: Reolink Go is 100% wire-free portable security camera that allows users to place it anywhere. No wires, no hassle. 4G Connectivity : It connects to 4G LTE wireless network, enabling it to roam free in locations with limited or no Wi-Fi. No Wi-Fi, no worries.

: It connects to 4G LTE wireless network, enabling it to roam free in locations with limited or no Wi-Fi. No Wi-Fi, no worries. Rechargeable Battery : Long-running rechargeable battery extends battery life and cuts costs. Save troubles and save money.

: Long-running rechargeable battery extends battery life and cuts costs. Save troubles and save money. Solar Charging : It can connect to Reolink Solar Panel for constant solar charging and non-stop power supply. Flexible and eco-friendly.

: It can connect to Reolink Solar Panel for constant solar charging and non-stop power supply. Flexible and eco-friendly. Starlight Night Vision : It captures better and sharper videos (up to 33 ft) at night. More visual details and better clarity even in the dark.

: It captures better and sharper videos (up to 33 ft) at night. More visual details and better clarity even in the dark. 1080p Full HD : It provides true 1080p (1920*1080) Full HD with 130 wide viewing angle.

: It provides true 1080p (1920*1080) Full HD with 130 wide viewing angle. Smart Motion Sensing & Alerts : It detects motion smartly and sends alerts via notification & email in real-time; customizable voice alert is available.

: It detects motion smartly and sends alerts via notification & email in real-time; customizable voice alert is available. 2-Way Audio : The built-in speakers and microphone let users listen in and talk back interactively.

: The built-in speakers and microphone let users listen in and talk back interactively. Cloud Storage : Save motion-triggered recordings securely in the Reolink Cloud and never miss important details.

: Save motion-triggered recordings securely in the Reolink Cloud and never miss important details. Live View & Streaming on Apps : View live video feeds, record, snapshot, or just checking in with intuitive Smartphone apps (iOS & Android).

: View live video feeds, record, snapshot, or just checking in with intuitive Smartphone apps (iOS & Android). Weatherproof Design: IP65 weatherproof Reolink Go braves elements, rain or shine, inside and out.

Pricing & Availability

Pre-order of Reolink Go (MSRP $250) is now available on Indiegogo starting from $119 USD (52 percent off) for the early birds on a first-come-first-serve basis. Early bird perks including $159 USD ($91 off) for one Reolink Go, $299 USD ($201 off) for Reolink Go 2-Pack and more special offers are available on Indiegogo. All items are estimated to be shipped in July 2018 to the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy.

See more at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/reolink-go-wire-free-4g-rechargeable-security-cam#

A cellular data plan is required for use and can be selected individually by consumers. More supported mobile network service providers in European countries will be updated later.

About Reolink

Reolink, a leading provider of home security products and camera solutions, has been dedicating to delivering advanced and high-quality consumers security cameras/system and reliable solutions for home and business. The products range from PoE security cameras/system, wireless security cameras/systems, to wire-free battery-powered security cameras, which are widely used in home surveillance, business surveillance, baby monitoring, etc. Reolink products are available and sold worldwide, providing video surveillance and protection for millions of homes and families.

For more information about Reolink and its products, please visit https://reolink.com.

Media Contact

Olivia/PR manager

Email: [email protected]

Reolink Digital Technology Co., Ltd.

Tel: +1 2134012832

Room G, 8th Floor, King Palace Plaza, 55 King Yip Street, Kwun Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Related Links

Reolink Go

SOURCE Reolink Digital Technology Co,. Ltd.

Related Links

https://www.reolink.com


"We took a very deliberate approach to finding the right leader for security operations, conducting a nationwide search," said Jay Farner, Quicken Loans CEO. "No matter who we spoke with, or where we looked, Charles' name and skill set always stood out, and he was already leading the security apparatus at Greektown Casino-Hotel, which will make his transition seamless. His strong background and experience makes him the perfect match for this dynamic and important position, and the fact that he is a native Detroiter is another tremendous plus."

In addition to most recently serving as the Vice President of Support Services at Greektown Casino-Hotel for the last four years, Wilson served 20 years in the Detroit Police Department (DPD), retiring as Commander and Chief of Staff to current Chief, James Craig.

Among other responsibilities, he was a direct liaison to the business community, fostering a positive working relationship between DPD and local businesses. Wilson held several other prominent leadership positions during his tenure at DPD, including Commanding Officer of the Northwestern District, as well as roles within the homicide, auto theft, internal affairs and tactical operations.

"I am inspired by the new challenge before me and look forward to working alongside all of the talented men and women of the security team and the entire Rock Family of Companies," Wilson said. "I have dedicated my career to Detroit, and it is an honor and privilege to be part of an organization so actively involved in the community. The Rock Family of Companies has hired thousands of Detroiters, breathed new life into historic buildings and committed its significant resources to both the rebirth of downtown and Detroit's neighborhoods. I am proud to be leading the organization's focus on safety as a key pillar of its overall mission."

Wilson, a self-described 'sneakerhead,' (and naturally, a StockX customer) was born and raised in the city of Detroit.

About Bedrock

Detroit-based Bedrock acquires, develops, leases, finances, and manages commercial and residential buildings primarily in Detroit and Cleveland. Since its founding in 2011, Bedrock and its affiliates have invested more than $5.6 billion in acquiring and developing more than 100 properties in Detroit and Cleveland totaling more than 16 million square feet. Bedrock's real estate portfolio consists of more than 330 office and retail tenants in Detroit's technology-centric downtown. For more information, visit bedrockdetroit.com.

About Quicken Loans

Detroit-based Quicken Loans Inc. is the nation's largest home mortgage lender. The company closed more than $400 billion of mortgage volume across all 50 states from 2013 through 2017. Quicken Loans moved its headquarters to downtown Detroit in 2010. Today, Quicken Loans and its Family of Companies employ more than 17,000 full-time team members in Detroit's urban core. The company generates loan production from web centers located in Detroit, Cleveland and Phoenix. Quicken Loans also operates a centralized loan processing facility in Detroit, as well as its San Diego-based One Reverse Mortgage unit. Quicken Loans ranked highest in the country for customer satisfaction for primary mortgage origination by J.D. Power for the past eight consecutive years, 2010  2017, and also ranked highest in the country for customer satisfaction among all mortgage servicers the past four consecutive years, 2014  2017.

Quicken Loans was once again named to FORTUNE magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For" list in 2018 and has been included in the magazine's top 1/3rd of companies named to the list for the past 15 consecutive years. The company was also named the #1 place to work in technology in 2017 by Computerworld magazine's "100 Best Places to Work in IT," a recognition it has received 8 times in the past 12 years.

For more information and company news visit QuickenLoans.com/press-room.

SOURCE Rock Family of Companies
WASHINGTON and PARIS, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), the global leader in CRM, today announced plans to invest $2.2 billion in its French business over the next five years.

The company made the announcement to French President Emmanuel Macron ahead of an event in his honor during his first state visit to the United States. Salesforce President & Chief Financial Officer Mark Hawkins will attend the event at the U.S. State Department, hosted by Vice President Mike Pence and Second Lady Karen Pence.

Salesforce is experiencing rapid growth in France and plans to significantly increase its headcount, real estate footprint and data center capacity in the country to support its growing customer base.

"France is home to some of the world's most respected and innovative brands, and a growing number are turning to Salesforce to power their digital transformations," said Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO, Salesforce. "We see tremendous opportunity in France and with this investment, Salesforce will continue to drive outstanding growth, innovation and customer success in the country."

Salesforce: #1 CRM, #1 Best Place to Work in France

Salesforce is the #1 CRM provider in France and is also the fastest growing among the three largest enterprise software vendors in the region according to Gartner Inc.'s April 2017 Market Share All Software Markets, Worldwide, 2016 market share report, based on 2016 total software revenue.

Leading French companies including AccorHotels, AXA, Michelin and PSA, as well as many small and mid-sized businesses including Good Gout, Leetchi and Petzl, use Salesforce to connect with their customers in a whole new way across sales, service, marketing, commerce and more.

In March, Salesforce was named the #1 Best Place to Work in France1, highlighting the company's focus on its employees, values and culture.

Salesforce Ecosystem Fueling French Economic Growth

Salesforce and its ecosystem of customers and partners in France will create more than 37,100 direct jobs and 100,000 indirect jobs by 2022, and $24.3 billion in new business revenue according to research by IDC.2

Additionally, French Trailblazers have earned more than 162,000 badges on Trailhead  Salesforce's free, gamified online learning platform  acquiring the skills needed to succeed in today's technology-driven economy and be a part of Salesforce's flourishing ecosystem.

Salesforce is investing in innovation in France through Salesforce Ventures' $100 million EMEA Fund. Salesforce Ventures has invested in innovative French companies including Augment, Devenson, FollowAnalytics, OpenDataSoft and Sigfox. Since 2008, Salesforce has acquired French companies InStranet, EntropySoft, and Kerensen Consulting. The company has also established research and development centres in Paris and Grenoble.

Salesforce's Commitment to Giving Back in France

Salesforce.org leverages Salesforce's technology, people and resources to give back to communities around the world. As part of the announcement, Salesforce employees in France are committing to volunteer 20,000 hours in their local communities in 2018.

Local employees volunteered more than 16,000 hours in 2017 with local nonprofits including ParisCode, an ongoing initiative of the city of Paris aimed at training 1,000 developers by 2020, and Lightforce, an initiative of the French Salesforce employees aimed to ensure access to electric lighting to a community in Kenya.

Salesforce.org has also donated nearly $400,000 in strategic grants to the local community in France and more than 175 French nonprofits  including Cultural Action for Alzheimer's and Handicap International  use Salesforce for free or at a discounted rate.

Additional Information

Join Salesforce, alongside thousands of customer Trailblazers, at World Tour Paris on June 6: https://www.salesforce.com/fr/events/paris/

Like Salesforce on Facebook: http://facebook.com/salesforce

Follow @salesforce on Twitter: http://twitter.com/salesforce

Read the Salesforce blog: http://blogs.salesforce.com/

About Salesforce

Salesforce, the global CRM leader, empowers companies to connect with their customers in a whole new way. For more information about Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), visit: www.salesforce.com.

Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase Salesforce applications should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available. Salesforce has headquarters in San Francisco, with offices in Europe and Asia, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "CRM." For more information please visit https://www.salesforce.com, or call 1-800-NO-SOFTWARE.

1 Source: Great Place to Work, Best Workplaces France 2018

2 Source: IDC White Paper sponsored by Salesforce, "The Salesforce Economy Forecast: 3.3 Million New Jobs and $859 Billion New Business Revenues to Be Created from 2016 to 2022," IDC #US43158917, October 2017.

SOURCE Salesforce

Related Links

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DALLAS, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc. (NYSE: SC) ("SC") today announced net income for the first quarter ended March 31, 2018 ("Q1 2018") of $242 million, or $0.67 per diluted common share.

The Company has declared a cash dividend of $0.05 per share, to be paid on May 14, 2018, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on May 4, 2018.

"Our focus has been on optimizing pricing, ensuring strong credit risk management and improving dealer and customer experience," said Scott Powell, SC President and CEO, who is also CEO of Santander US. "We delivered strong financial performance in the first quarter and increased originations across all of our channels, including Chrysler loans and leases."

Juan Carlos Alvarez, Chief Financial Officer, added, "During the quarter we saw continued stabilization in credit performance with a lower net-charge-off ratio and stable delinquency ratios compared to the first quarter of last year. This led to strong financial performance in the first quarter and we remain focused on increasing volume with the appropriate risk-adjusted returns and disciplined expense management."

Q1 2018 Highlights (variances compared to the first quarter of 2017 ("Q1 2017"), unless otherwise noted):

Total auto originations of $6.3 billion , up 18%

, up 18% Core retail auto loan originations of $2.3 billion , up 4%

, up 4%

Chrysler Capital loan originations of $1.9 billion , up 24%

, up 24%

Chrysler Capital lease originations of $2.1 billion, up 31%

Chrysler average quarterly penetration rate of 28%, up from 23% during the same quarter last year

Net finance and other interest income of $1.0 billion , decreased 8%

, decreased 8% Net leased vehicle income of $146 million , increased 14%

, increased 14% Retail Installment Contract "RIC" gross charge-off ratio of 18.5%, up 40 basis points

RIC net charge-off ratio of 8.3%, down 50 basis points

Troubled Debt Restructuring ("TDR") balance of $6.0 billion , down from $6.3 billion as of December 31, 2017

, down from as of Auction-plus recovery rate of 55.1%, up 400 basis points

Return on average assets of 2.4%, up from 1.5%

Common equity tier 1 ("CET1") ratio of 16.9%, up from 13.8%

Expense ratio of 2.4%, flat

Asset sales of $1.5 billion executed through the Santander flow agreement

executed through the Santander flow agreement $3.3 billion in asset-backed securities "ABS" offered and sold

in asset-backed securities "ABS" offered and sold Launched pilot program with Santander Bank , N. A. to facilitate the origination and servicing of primarily Chrysler loans

, N. A. to facilitate the origination and servicing of primarily Chrysler loans Reached agreements with AutoFi and AutoGravity expanding SC's digital partnerships in an effort to further streamline and simplify the car-buying process for consumers

Subsequent Events:

Completed prime auto loan portfolio conversion with a new third party increasing serviced for others balance by $1.0 billion

$1.0 billion in ABS offered and sold via the SDART platform

Finance receivables, loans and leases, net1 of $34.8 billion, flat compared to $34.8 billion at December 31, 2017.

Net finance and other interest income decreased 8 percent to $1.0 billion in Q1 2018 from $1.1 billion in Q1 2017, primarily driven by lower average RIC balances and an increase in benchmark rates.

Servicing fee income decreased 17 percent to $26 million in Q1 2018, from $32 million in Q1 2017, driven by lower prime originations and lower prime asset sales. SC's serviced for others portfolio of $8.7 billion as of Q1 2018 is down 21 percent from $11.0 billion the prior year quarter.

RIC delinquency ratio2 of 3.8 percent in Q1 2018 was stable compared to 3.9 percent in Q1 2017.

RIC net charge-off ratio3 improved to 8.3 percent in Q1 2018 from 8.8 percent in Q1 2017. Provision for credit losses decreased to $459 million in Q1 2018 from $635 million the prior year quarter.

Allowance ratio4 decreased 30 basis points, to 12.3 percent at the end of Q1 2018, from 12.6 percent at the end of Q4 2017.

Recorded net investment losses of $87 million in Q1 2018, compared to net investment losses of $76 million in Q1 2017. The current period losses were primarily driven by held for sale accounting for SC's personal lending portfolio5. Excluding the impact of personal lending, net investment losses totaled $28 million.

During Q1 2018 SC incurred $288 million of operating expenses, down 6 percent from $305 million in Q1 2017. SC's expense ratio of 2.4 percent for the quarter, was flat compared to 2.4 percent during the same period last year.

1 Includes Finance receivables held for investment, Finance receivables held for sale and Leased vehicles.

2Delinquency ratio is defined as the ratio of end of period delinquent principal over 60 days to end of period gross balance of the respective portfolio, excludes capital leases.

3Net charge-off ratio stated on a recorded investment basis, which is unpaid principal balance adjusted for unaccreted net discounts, subvention and origination costs.

4 Ratio for allowance for credit losses excludes end of period balances on purchased receivables portfolio of $39 million and finance receivables and personal loans held for sale of $1.6 billion.

5The current period losses were primarily driven by $59 million of lower of cost or market adjustments related to the held for sale personal lending portfolio, comprised of $106 million in customer default activity, partially offset by a $47 million decrease in market discount, consistent with typical seasonal patterns.

Conference Call Information

SC will host a conference call and webcast to discuss its Q1 2018 results and other general matters at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, April 24, 2018. The conference call will be accessible by dialing 888-394-8218 (U.S. domestic), or 323-701-0225 (international), conference ID 7441298. Please join 10 minutes prior to the start of the call. The conference call will also be accessible via live audio webcast through the Investor Relations section of SC's corporate website at http://investors.santanderconsumerusa.com. Choose "Events" and select the information pertaining to the Q1 2018 SC Earnings Conference Call. Additionally, there will be slides accompanying the webcast. Please allow at least 15 minutes prior to the call to register, download and install any necessary software prior to the call.

For those unable to listen to the live broadcast, a replay of the call will be available on the Company's website or by dialing 844-512-2921 (U.S. domestic), or 412-317-6671 (international), conference ID 7441298, approximately two hours after the conference call. An audio webcast of the call and investor presentation will also be archived on the Investor Relations section of SC's corporate website at http://investors.santanderconsumerusa.com, under "Events".

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any statements about our expectations, beliefs, plans, predictions, forecasts, objectives, assumptions, or future events or performance are not historical facts and may be forward-looking. These statements are often, but not always, made through the use of words or phrases such as anticipates, believes, can, could, may, predicts, potential, should, will, estimates, plans, projects, continuing, ongoing, expects, intends, and similar words or phrases. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, these statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are subject to change based on various important factors, some of which are beyond our control. For additional discussion of these risks, refer to the section entitled Risk Factors and elsewhere in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q filed by us with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Among the factors that could cause the forward-looking statements in this press release and/or our financial performance to differ materially from that suggested by the forward-looking statements are (a) the inherent limitations in internal control over financial reporting; (b) our ability to remediate any material weaknesses in internal controls over financial reporting completely and in a timely manner; (c) continually changing federal, state, and local laws and regulations could materially adversely affect our business; (d) adverse economic conditions in the United States and worldwide may negatively impact our results; (e) our business could suffer if our access to funding is reduced; (f) significant risks we face implementing our growth strategy, some of which are outside our control; (g) unexpected costs and delays in connection with exiting our personal lending business; (h) our agreement with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles US LLC may not result in currently anticipated levels of growth and is subject to certain conditions that could result in termination of the agreement; (i) our business could suffer if we are unsuccessful in developing and maintaining relationships with automobile dealerships; (j) our financial condition, liquidity, and results of operations depend on the credit performance of our loans; (k) loss of our key management or other personnel, or an inability to attract such management and personnel; (l) certain regulations, including but not limited to oversight by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the European Central Bank, and the Federal Reserve, whose oversight and regulation may limit certain of our activities, including the timing and amount of dividends and other limitations on our business; and (m) future changes in our relationship with SHUSA and Banco Santander that could adversely affect our operations. If one or more of the factors affecting our forward-looking information and statements proves incorrect, our actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, forward-looking information and statements. Therefore, we caution the reader not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information or statements. The effect of these factors is difficult to predict. Factors other than these also could adversely affect our results, and the reader should not consider these factors to be a complete set of all potential risks or uncertainties as new factors emerge from time to time. Any forward-looking statements only speak as of the date of this document, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking information or statements, whether written or oral, to reflect any change, except as required by law. All forward-looking statements attributable to us are expressly qualified by these cautionary statements.

Contacts: Investor Relations Evan Black 800.493.8219 [email protected]

Media Relations Laurie Kight 214.801.6455 [email protected]

About Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc.

Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc. (NYSE: SC) ("SC") is a full-service, consumer finance company focused on vehicle finance, third-party servicing and delivering superior service to our more than 2.7 million customers across the full credit spectrum. The company, which began originating retail installment contracts in 1997, has an average managed asset portfolio of approximately $48 billion (as of March 31, 2018), and is headquartered in Dallas. ( www.santanderconsumerusa.com )

Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc.

Financial Supplement

First Quarter 2018

Table of Contents





Table 1: Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets 6

Table 2: Condensed Consolidated Statements of Income 6

Table 3: Other Financial Information 8

Table 4: Credit Quality 10

Table 5: Originations 11

Table 6: Asset Sales 12

Table 7: Ending Portfolio 13

Table 8: Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Measures 14



Table 1: Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets



March 31,

2018

December 31, 2017 Assets (Unaudited, Dollars in thousands) Cash and cash equivalents $ 618,809



$ 527,805

Finance receivables held for sale, net 1,611,535



2,210,421

Finance receivables held for investment, net 22,587,358



22,427,769

Restricted cash 2,895,615



2,553,902

Accrued interest receivable 269,258



326,640

Leased vehicles, net 10,612,824



10,160,327

Furniture and equipment, net 65,961



69,609

Federal, state and other income taxes receivable 99,099



95,060

Related party taxes receivable 634



467

Goodwill 74,056



74,056

Intangible assets 31,088



29,734

Due from affiliates 53,408



33,270

Other assets 1,125,543



913,244

Total assets $ 40,045,188



$ 39,422,304

Liabilities and Equity





Liabilities:





Notes payable  credit facilities $ 5,294,358



$ 4,848,316

Notes payable  secured structured financings 22,862,607



22,557,895

Notes payable  related party 3,148,194



3,754,223

Accrued interest payable 38,375



38,529

Accounts payable and accrued expenses 430,361



429,531

Deferred tax liabilities, net 966,444



897,121

Due to affiliates 103,012



82,382

Other liabilities 475,822



333,806

Total liabilities $ 33,319,173



$ 32,941,803









Equity:





Common stock, $0.01 par value 3,610



3,605

Additional paid-in capital 1,689,996



1,681,558

Accumulated other comprehensive income, net 63,211



44,262

Retained earnings 4,969,198



4,751,076

Total stockholders' equity $ 6,726,015



$ 6,480,501

Total liabilities and equity $ 40,045,188



$ 39,422,304



Table 2: Condensed Consolidated Statements of Income



Three Months Ended

March 31,

2018

2017

(Unaudited, Dollars in thousands, except per share amounts) Interest on finance receivables and loans $ 1,114,137



$ 1,209,186

Leased vehicle income 504,278



418,233

Other finance and interest income 7,137



3,825

Total finance and other interest income 1,625,552



1,631,244

Interest expense 241,028



227,089

Leased vehicle expense 358,683



290,171

Net finance and other interest income 1,025,841



1,113,984

Provision for credit losses 458,995



635,013

Net finance and other interest income after provision for credit losses 566,846



478,971

Profit sharing 4,377



7,945

Net finance and other interest income after provision for credit losses and profit sharing 562,469



471,026

Investment losses, net (86,520)



(76,399)

Servicing fee income 26,182



31,684

Fees, commissions, and other 85,391



100,195

Total other income 25,053



55,480

Compensation expense 122,005



136,262

Repossession expense 72,081



71,299

Other operating costs 93,826



97,517

Total operating expenses 287,912



305,078

Income before income taxes 299,610



221,428

Income tax expense 57,311



78,001

Net income $ 242,299



$ 143,427









Net income per common share (basic) $ 0.67



$ 0.40

Net income per common share (diluted) $ 0.67



$ 0.40

Dividend paid per common share $ 0.05



$ 

Weighted average common shares (basic) 360,703,234



359,105,050

Weighted average common shares (diluted) 361,616,732



360,616,032



Table 3: Other Financial Information



Three Months Ended

March 31,



2018

2017 Ratios (Unaudited, Dollars in thousands)

Yield on individually acquired retail installment contracts 15.2 %

15.7 %

Yield on purchased receivables portfolios 27.6 %

20.2 %

Yield on receivables from dealers 3.1 %

5.3 %

Yield on personal loans (1) 24.5 %

24.8 %

Yield on earning assets (2) 12.7 %

13.5 %

Cost of debt (3) 3.1 %

2.9 %

Net interest margin (4) 10.3 %

11.2 %

Expense ratio (5) 2.4 %

2.4 %

Return on average assets (6) 2.4 %

1.5 %

Return on average equity (7) 14.7 %

10.8 %

Net charge-off ratio on individually acquired retail installment contracts (8) 8.3 %

8.8 %

Net charge-off ratio on purchased receivables portfolios (8) (4.2) %

0.6 %

Net charge-off ratio on personal loans (8) 49.9 %

78.5 %

Net charge-off ratio (8) 8.3 %

8.8 %

Delinquency ratio on individually acquired retail installment contracts held for investment, end of period (9) 3.8 %

3.9 %

Delinquency ratio on personal loans, end of period (9) 11.7 %

12.0 %

Delinquency ratio on loans held for investment, end of period (9) 3.8 %

3.8 %

Allowance ratio (10) 12.3 %

12.7 %

Common stock dividend payout ratio (11) 7.5 %

 %

Common Equity Tier 1 capital ratio (12) 16.9 %

13.8 % Other Financial Information







Charge-offs, net of recoveries, on individually acquired retail installment contracts $ 537,792



$ 598,933



Charge-offs, net of recoveries, on purchased receivables portfolios (428)



353



Charge-offs, net of recoveries, on personal loans 749



3,458



Charge-offs, net of recoveries, on capital leases 306



1,314



Total charge-offs, net of recoveries $ 538,419



$ 604,058



End of period delinquent principal over 60 days, individually acquired retail installment contracts held for investment 984,755



1,044,288



End of period delinquent principal over 60 days, personal loans 162,061



169,429



End of period delinquent principal over 60 days, loans held for investment 986,886



1,049,030



End of period assets covered by allowance for credit losses 26,028,935



27,188,404



End of period gross individually acquired retail installment contracts held for investment 25,986,531



27,074,856



End of period gross personal loans 1,387,713



1,414,313



End of period gross finance receivables and loans held for investment 26,046,356



27,371,719



End of period gross finance receivables, loans, and leases held for investment 37,720,946



37,447,052



Average gross individually acquired retail installment contracts held for investment 25,911,063



27,089,438



Average gross personal loans held for investment 6,010



17,610



Average gross individually acquired retail installment contracts held for investment and held for sale 26,820,166



28,200,907



Average gross purchased receivables portfolios 41,209



220,786



Average gross receivables from dealers 15,651



70,165



Average gross personal loans 1,459,308



1,488,665



Average gross capital leases 22,474



30,599



Average gross finance receivables and loans $ 28,358,808



$ 30,011,122



Average gross operating leases 11,441,789



9,849,077



Average gross finance receivables, loans, and leases 39,800,597



39,860,199



Average managed assets 48,421,303



51,229,729



Average total assets 39,694,041



38,910,193



Average debt 31,208,250



31,553,342



Average total equity 6,579,416



5,325,581







(1) Includes Finance and other interest income; excludes fees (2) "Yield on earning assets" is defined as the ratio of annualized Total finance and other interest income, net of Leased vehicle expense, to Average gross finance receivables, loans and leases (3) "Cost of debt" is defined as the ratio of annualized Interest expense to Average debt (4) "Net interest margin" is defined as the ratio of annualized Net finance and other interest income to Average gross finance receivables, loans and leases (5) "Expense ratio" is defined as the ratio of annualized Operating expenses to Average managed assets (6) "Return on average assets" is defined as the ratio of annualized Net income to Average total assets (7) "Return on average equity" is defined as the ratio of annualized Net income to Average total equity (8) "Net charge-off ratio" is defined as the ratio of annualized Charge-offs, on a recorded investment basis, net of recoveries, to average unpaid principal balance of the respective held-for-investment portfolio. Effective as of September 30, 2016, the Company records the charge-off activity for certain personal loans within the provision for credit losses due to the reclassification of these loans from held for sale to held for investment. (9) "Delinquency ratio" is defined as the ratio of End of period Delinquent principal over 60 days to End of period gross balance of the respective portfolio, excludes capital leases (10) "Allowance ratio" is defined as the ratio of Allowance for credit losses, which excludes impairment on purchased receivables portfolios, to End of period assets covered by allowance for credit losses (11) "Common stock dividend payout ratio" is defined as the ratio of Dividends declared per share of common stock to Earnings per share attributable to the Company's shareholders. (12) "Common Equity Tier 1 Capital ratio" is a non-GAAP ratio defined as the ratio of Total common equity tier 1 capital to Total risk-weighted assets (for a reconciliation from GAAP to this non-GAAP measure, see "Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Measures" in Table 8 of this release)

Table 4: Credit Quality The activity in the credit loss allowance for individually acquired retail installment contracts for the three months ended March 31, 2018 and 2017 was as follows (Unaudited, Dollar amounts in thousands):



Three Months Ended March 31,

2018

2017 Credit loss allowance  beginning of period $ 3,261,135



$ 3,411,055

Provision for credit losses 458,679



629,097

Charge-offs (1,199,021)



(1,224,697)

Recoveries 661,229



625,764

Credit loss allowance  end of period $ 3,182,022



$ 3,441,219









Net charge-offs $ 537,792



$ 598,933

Average unpaid principal balance 25,911,063



27,089,438

Net charge-off ratio1 8.3 %

8.8 %

A summary of delinquencies of our individually acquired retail installment contracts as of March 31, 2018 and December 31, 2017 is as follows (Unaudited, Dollar amounts in thousands):



March 31, 20182

December 31, 20172 Principal 30-59 days past due $ 2,234,126



8.6 %

$ 2,822,686



10.9 % Delinquent principal over 59 days3 1,087,491



4.2 %

1,541,728



5.9 % Total delinquent contracts $ 3,321,617



12.8 %

$ 4,364,414



16.9 %

Within the total delinquent principal above, retail installment contracts acquired individually held for investment that were placed on nonaccrual status, as of March 31, 2018 and December 31, 2017 (Unaudited, Dollar amounts in thousands):



March 31, 20182

December 31, 20172 Non-TDR $ 470,674



1.8 %

$ 666,926



2.6 % TDR 1,346,148



5.2 %

1,390,373



5.4 % Total nonaccrual principal $ 1,816,822



7.0 %

$ 2,057,299



7.9 %

The table below presents the Company's allowance ratio for TDR and non-TDR individually acquired retail installment contracts as of March 31, 2018 and December 31, 2017 (Unaudited, Dollar amounts in thousands):



March 31,

2018

December 31,

2017 TDR - Unpaid principal balance $ 5,998,768



$ 6,261,894

TDR - Impairment 1,595,465



1,731,320

TDR allowance ratio 26.6 %

27.6 %







Non-TDR - Unpaid principal balance $ 19,987,763



$ 19,681,394

Non-TDR - Allowance 1,586,557



1,529,815

Non-TDR allowance ratio 7.9 %

7.8 %







Total - Unpaid principal balance $ 25,986,531



$ 25,943,288

Total - Allowance 3,182,022



3,261,135

Total allowance ratio 12.2 %

12.6 %



1"Net charge-off ratio" is defined as the ratio of annualized Charge-offs, on a recorded investment basis, net of recoveries, to average unpaid principal balance of the respective held-for-investment portfolio 2Percent of unpaid principal balance. 3Interest is accrued until 60 days past due in accordance with the Company's account policy for retail installment contracts.

Table 5: Originations The Company's originations of individually acquired loans and leases, including revolving loans, average APR, and discount were as follows:

Three Months Ended Three Months Ended

March 31, 2018

March 31, 2017 December 31, 2017 Retained Originations (Unaudited, Dollar amounts in thousands) Retail installment contracts $ 3,866,494



$ 3,185,373

$ 3,014,433

Average APR 16.1 %

17.0 % 14.0 % Average FICO (a) 611



593

631

Discount 0.3 %

0.4 % 0.2 %









Personal loans (b) $ 273,328



$ 287,696

$ 528,705

Average APR 26.0 %

25.3 % 25.7 %









Leased vehicles $ 2,093,604



$ 1,600,659

$ 1,294,256











Capital lease $ 2,398



$ 1,177

$ 4,640

Total originations retained $ 6,235,824



$ 5,074,905

$ 4,842,034











Sold Originations (c)







Retail installment contracts $ 386,956



$ 601,205

$ 

Average APR 6.8 %

5.8 %  % Average FICO (d) 732



727



Total originations sold $ 386,956



$ 601,205

$ 











Total originations $ 6,622,780



$ 5,676,110

$ 4,842,034







(a) Unpaid principal balance excluded from the weighted average FICO score is $461 million, $443 million, and $372 million for the three months ended March 31, 2018 and 2017, and the three months ended December 31, 2017, respectively, as the borrowers on these loans did not have FICO scores at origination. Of these amounts, $54 million, $40 million, and $68 million, respectively, were commercial loans. (b) Effective as of three months ended December 31, 2017, the Company revised its approach to define origination volumes for Personal Loans to include new originations, gross of paydowns and charge-offs, related to customers who took additional advances on existing accounts (including capitalized late fees, interest and other charges), and newly opened accounts. In the prior periods, the Company reported net balance increases on personal loans as origination volume. Included in the total origination volume is $17 million , $23 million and $132 million for the three months ended March 31, 2018 and 2017, and the three months ended December 31, 2017, respectively, related to newly opened accounts. (c) Only includes assets both originated and sold in the period. Total asset sales for the period are shown in Table 6. (d) Unpaid principal balance excluded from the weighted average FICO score is $32 million, $80 million, and zero for the three months ended March 31, 2018 and 2017, and the three months ended December 31, 2017, respectively, as the borrowers on these loans did not have FICO scores at origination. Of these amounts, $20 million, $31 million, and zero, respectively, were commercial loans.

Beginning in 2018, the Company agreed to provide SBNA with origination support services in connection with the processing, underwriting and purchase of retail loans, primarily from Chrysler dealers. In addition, the Company agreed to perform the servicing for any loans originated on SBNA's behalf. During the three months ended March 31, 2018, the Company facilitated the purchase of $24 million of retail installment contacts.

Table 6: Asset Sales Asset sales may include assets originated in prior periods.

Three Months Ended Three Months Ended

March 31, 2018

March 31, 2017 December 31, 2017

(Unaudited, Dollar amounts in thousands) Retail installment contracts $ 1,475,253



$ 930,590

$ 

Average APR 6.5 %

5.9 %  % Average FICO 727



726













Total asset sales $ 1,475,253



$ 930,590

$ 



Table 7: Ending Portfolio Ending outstanding balance, average APR and remaining unaccreted dealer discount of our held for investment portfolio as of March 31, 2018, and December 31, 2017, are as follows:



March 31, 2018

December 31, 2017

(Unaudited, Dollar amounts in thousands) Retail installment contracts $ 26,025,703



$ 25,986,532

Average APR 16.6 %

16.5 % Discount 1.4 %

1.5 %







Personal loans $ 5,158



$ 6,887

Average APR 31.8 %

31.8 %







Receivables from dealers $ 15,495



$ 15,787

Average APR 4.2 %

4.2 %







Leased vehicles $ 11,652,841



$ 11,175,602









Capital leases $ 21,750



$ 22,857



Table 8: Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Measures



March 31, 2018

March 31, 2017

(Unaudited, Dollar amounts in thousands) Total equity $ 6,726,015



$ 5,418,998

Deduct: Goodwill, intangibles, and other assets, net of deferred tax liabilities 169,870



182,156

Deduct: Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss), net 63,211



35,504

Tier 1 common capital $ 6,492,934



$ 5,201,338

Risk weighted assets (a) $ 38,517,988



$ 37,799,513

Common Equity Tier 1 capital ratio (b) 16.9 %

13.8 %





(a) Under the banking agencies' risk-based capital guidelines, assets and credit equivalent amounts of derivatives and off-balance sheet exposures are assigned to broad risk categories. The aggregate dollar amount in each risk category is multiplied by the associated risk weight of the category. The resulting weighted values are added together with the measure for market risk, resulting in the Company's total Risk weighted assets. (b) CET1 is calculated under Basel III regulations required as of January 1, 2015. The fully phased-in capital ratios are non-GAAP financial measures.

SOURCE Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc.

Related Links

http://www.santanderconsumerusa.com


SF Airlines Co., Ltd., organizer of the competition, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SF Holdings, China's well-known comprehensive logistics service provider. Headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, SF Airlines is committed to providing safe and efficient air freight services for SF Express. It operates over 40 freighters and its service network has been extended to nearly 50 cities and areas in and out of China.

By the end of 2017, SF Airlines had a successful auction on a well-known online auction platform in China for two Boeing 747-400ER freighters, marking a milestone in breakthrough of its fleet construction. "SF Airlines Global Competition for livery Design Schemes for its Boeing 747 Cargo freighters" is tailored for designing the livery of two big freighters. In 2018, the art works of creative talents will fly into the sky together with SF Airlines' Boeing 747 freighter, and SF services will also fly into the world along with SF's self-owned Boeing 747 freighter with brand new livery.

Web site of the Competition: http://pk.arting365.com/sfairlines

SOURCE SF Airlines
"With a lower-cost developmental approach, the Vito project is a very competitive and attractive opportunity industry-wide," said Andy Brown, Shell Upstream Director. "Our ability to advance this world-class resource is a testament to the skill and ingenuity of our development, engineering and drilling teams."

In 2015, Shell began to redesign the Vito project, reducing cost estimates by more than 70% from the original concept. Vito's cost savings are due to the simplified design, in addition to working collaboratively with vendors in a variety of areas including well design and completions, subsea, contracting, and topsides design.

The Vito development is owned by Shell Offshore Inc. (63.11% operator) and Statoil USA E&P Inc. (36.89%); the field is located beneath more than 4,000 feet of water, approximately 150-miles southeast of New Orleans.

With 40-years of Shell leadership in deep water, Vito will be Shell's 11th deep-water host in the Gulf of Mexico and is currently scheduled to begin producing oil in 2021. With global production progressing to more than 900,000 boe per day, Shell has deep-water projects and opportunities in the U.S., Brazil, Nigeria, Malaysia, and Mexico.

EDITOR'S NOTE:

Located over four blocks in the Mississippi Canyon area of the Gulf of Mexico , the Vito development will consist of eight subsea wells with deep (18,000 feet) in-well gas lift.

, the Vito development will consist of eight subsea wells with deep (18,000 feet) in-well gas lift. The forward-looking breakeven price presented above is calculated based on all forward-looking costs associated from FID. Accordingly, this typically excludes exploration and appraisal costs, lease bonuses, exploration seismic and exploration team overhead costs. The forward-looking breakeven price is calculated based on our estimate of resources volumes that are currently classified as 2p and 2c under the Society of Petroleum Engineers' Resource Classification System. As this project is expected to be multi-decade producing, the less than $35 per barrel projection will not be reflected either in earnings or cash flow in the next five years.

per barrel projection will not be reflected either in earnings or cash flow in the next five years. The estimated peak production and current estimated recoverable resources presented above are 100% total gross figures.

Cautionary Note

The companies in which Royal Dutch Shell plc directly and indirectly owns investments are separate legal entities. In this release "Shell", "Shell group" and "Royal Dutch Shell" are sometimes used for convenience where references are made to Royal Dutch Shell plc and its subsidiaries in general. Likewise, the words "we", "us" and "our" are also used to refer to Royal Dutch Shell plc and its subsidiaries in general or to those who work for them. These terms are also used where no useful purpose is served by identifying the particular entity or entities. ''Subsidiaries'', "Shell subsidiaries" and "Shell companies" as used in this release refer to entities over which Royal Dutch Shell plc either directly or indirectly has control. Entities and unincorporated arrangements over which Shell has joint control are generally referred to as "joint ventures" and "joint operations", respectively. Entities over which Shell has significant influence but neither control nor joint control are referred to as "associates". The term "Shell interest" is used for convenience to indicate the direct and/or indirect ownership interest held by Shell in an entity or unincorporated joint arrangement, after exclusion of all third-party interest.

This release contains forward-looking statements (within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) concerning the financial condition, results of operations and businesses of Royal Dutch Shell. All statements other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements of future expectations that are based on management's current expectations and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. Forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements concerning the potential exposure of Royal Dutch Shell to market risks and statements expressing management's expectations, beliefs, estimates, forecasts, projections and assumptions. These forward-looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as "aim", "ambition', ''anticipate'', ''believe'', ''could'', ''estimate'', ''expect'', ''goals'', ''intend'', ''may'', ''objectives'', ''outlook'', ''plan'', ''probably'', ''project'', ''risks'', "schedule", ''seek'', ''should'', ''target'', ''will'' and similar terms and phrases. There are a number of factors that could affect the future operations of Royal Dutch Shell and could cause those results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements included in this release, including (without limitation): (a) price fluctuations in crude oil and natural gas; (b) changes in demand for Shell's products; (c) currency fluctuations; (d) drilling and production results; (e) reserves estimates; (f) loss of market share and industry competition; (g) environmental and physical risks; (h) risks associated with the identification of suitable potential acquisition properties and targets, and successful negotiation and completion of such transactions; (i) the risk of doing business in developing countries and countries subject to international sanctions; (j) legislative, fiscal and regulatory developments including regulatory measures addressing climate change; (k) economic and financial market conditions in various countries and regions; (l) political risks, including the risks of expropriation and renegotiation of the terms of contracts with governmental entities, delays or advancements in the approval of projects and delays in the reimbursement for shared costs; and (m) changes in trading conditions. No assurance is provided that future dividend payments will match or exceed previous dividend payments. All forward-looking statements contained in this release are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this section. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Additional risk factors that may affect future results are contained in Royal Dutch Shell's Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2017 (available at www.shell.com/investor and www.sec.gov ). These risk factors also expressly qualify all forward-looking statements contained in this release and should be considered by the reader. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this release, April 24, 2018. Neither Royal Dutch Shell plc nor any of its subsidiaries undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or other information. In light of these risks, results could differ materially from those stated, implied or inferred from the forward-looking statements contained in this release.

We may have used certain terms, such as resources, in this release that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) strictly prohibits us from including in our filings with the SEC. U.S. Investors are urged to consider closely the disclosure in our Form 20-F, File No 1-32575, available on the SEC website www.sec.gov.

SOURCE Shell Offshore Inc.
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Site Fuel, Inc., the creator of the only nationwide digital fuel exchange, connecting suppliers, buyers, and 3rd party haulers, has completed a $5 million Series A financing, led by Checkmate Capital. The company will use the funds to accelerate its rapid growth, scale its technology service, pursue strategic partnerships, and expand its team. Site Fuel connects thousands of fuel suppliers and independent haulers with businesses and government agencies who need to buy fuel via its exchange marketplace; in 2017, the company grew its business by more than 450%.

Site Fuel

The financing was led by Checkmate Capital, a strategic investment group which will be a long term capital and technology partner to Site Fuel and join the Site Fuel Board. Checkmate is acquiring 25% of Site Fuel including 10% already funded and an additional 15% staged over the next several months.

"Our goal has always been to build a service that seamlessly connects the players in the fuel market: Buyers, suppliers, and 3rd party hauling services all come together on the Site Fuel exchange. We provide the only integrated service that combines real-time visibility into nationwide fuel pricing with complete transparency around the delivery process  or what is often referred to as 'the last mile'," said Brandon Huff, COO & CTO of Site Fuel. "We're thrilled to have such world-class, visionary investors joining forces with us."

"We are delighted to have provided this financing and believe Site Fuel has the potential to become an iconic technology company," said Tom Paschall, Partner/Director at Checkmate Capital. "Site Fuel brings proven profitability with industry-leading and sophisticated yet user-friendly technology to a fragmented industry at lower cost. The management team's focus on enhanced functionality of their exchange and app-based technology platform is both visionary and pragmatic, and Site Fuel's operations have many touch points within Checkmate's networks in the energy, construction, technology and ag-tech sectors where we can help maximize mutual opportunities in the future."

About Site Fuel

The mission of Site Fuel is to simplify the fuel delivery process for all parties involved; by creating the world's first digital fuel exchange marketplace, Site Fuel automates the entire process  from supplier selection and delivery to automated drop ticket and invoice creation. The company's service has been used on projects in all 50 states and in some of the largest construction projects in the world. Site Fuel was founded in Newport Beach, CA in 2015, and has offices located in Charleston, SC, and Pune, India.

About Checkmate Capital

Checkmate Capital is an investment group managing family office assets and Asian-Pacific institutional funds. Checkmate's primary areas of investment are energy and energy technology, biomedical and biotechnology, and diversified special situations opportunities. With offices in Los Angeles, Beijing and an affiliate office in Singapore,

Checkmate's investment partners provide seasoned and diverse expertise in their relevant industries and leverage a powerfully efficient international ecosystem of strategic partners, business talent and resources. Typically, long-term focused, Checkmate's investment approach embodies strategic oversight and an ownership paradigm.

Media Contact:

Erica Lee

323-718-5298

[email protected]

https://checkmate.capital/

SOURCE Checkmate Capital

Related Links

https://checkmate.capital


NEW YORK, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Trilogy, New Zealand's number 1 natural skincare brand*, is now available in Ulta Beauty - the largest beauty retailer in the United States and the premier beauty destination for cosmetics, fragrance, skin, hair care products and salon services.

Trilogy will be launching in 1080 of Ulta Beauty's new curated beauty spaces in their prestige skincare department. Five of the brand's most popular products will be showcased in the space, with a wider range of 14 products available through ulta.com.

"It is a huge accolade for Trilogy to have been selected to showcase in Ulta Beauty's new curated natural skincare offering. Broadening our consumer reach with such a successful omnichannel beauty retailer has been a key objective for USA growth and we are excited to have joined forces with a progressive retailer such as Ulta Beauty," says Trilogy International Ltd CEO Angela Buglass.

Since opening its first store 25 years ago, Ulta Beauty has grown to become the top national retailer, providing 'All Things Beauty, All in One Place.' The company offers more than 20,000 products from over 500 well-established and emerging beauty brands across all categories and price points.

"I am very excited to introduce Trilogy to the Ulta guest as part of our natural products offering within our Prestige Skincare department. I believe she's going to fall in love with Certified Organic Rosehip Oil and incorporate it into her skincare routine," says Ulta Beauty Prestige Skincare Buyer Karen Srtoz.

Designed around the mantra of 'everything your skin needs, nothing it doesn't', the Trilogy range is a powerhouse of clinically proven natural botanicals and super-seed plant oils, such as wonder oil Certified Organic Rosehip Oil, which is a key oil across the entire Trilogy collection.

Founded in 2002 by New Zealand sisters Catherine de Groot and Sarah Gibbs, Trilogy is recognised as having an international reputation for producing ethical, sustainable, high-performance natural skincare. Today, the range consists of over 50 products loved by customers and celebrities throughout the world with the brand's hero product Certified Organic Rosehip Oil selling one bottle every 20 seconds around the world.

Trilogy is now sold in over 7,300 stores and retail outlets in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Denmark, New Zealand and the United States.

*Source: IRI MarketEdge NZ National Pharmacy - Total Defined Skincare Self Select  Value MAT ending 21/05/2017

#discovertrilogy #discovernaturespower #ultabeauty

SOURCE Trilogy
WASHINGTON, April 23, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is being released by the Notice Provider, Kinsella Media, LLC, about the coordinated lawsuits in In re Automotive Parts Antitrust Litigation, MDL No. 2311.

There is an update for affected purchasers in these lawsuits about certain vehicle components, as there have been additional Settlements that may affect their rights.

Thirty-three Defendants have agreed to new Settlements resolving claims that they fixed the price of certain vehicle components. (The Court previously approved settlements totaling approximately $604 million.) The additional Settlements being presented for Court Approval total approximately $432 million.

The lawsuits allege that Defendants fixed the price of certain vehicle components, causing millions of consumers and businesses from around the country to pay more for certain new or leased vehicles and replacement parts. A complete list of included parts is available at the website, www.AutoPartsClass.com.

Consumers and businesses may be included in the Classes if, from 1995 to 2018, they:

Bought or leased a qualifying new vehicle in the U.S. (not for resale), or Bought a qualifying vehicle replacement part (not for resale) from someone other than the manufacturer of the part.

In general, qualifying vehicles include four-wheeled passenger automobiles, cars, light trucks, pickup trucks, crossovers, vans, mini-vans, and sport utility vehicles. Individuals can visit the website, www.AutoPartsClass.com, or call 1-877-940-5043 to determine if they are included in one or more Settlement Classes.

The Settlement Funds (after litigation expenses, attorney fees, and other costs) will be used to pay consumers and businesses in the District of Columbia and 30 states: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. The Settlements also provide non-monetary relief, including cooperation, and an agreement by certain Settling Defendants not to engage in certain anticompetitive conduct for a period of 24 months.

Affected consumers and businesses can submit a claim form online or by mail to get a payment. There is no deadline yet to submit a claim. If eligible consumers and businesses already filed a claim, they do not need to submit another claim for the same vehicle (or part) to get a payment. Claim forms are available at the website, www.AutoPartsClass.com, or by calling 1-877-940-5043. At this time, it is unknown how much each individual or entity that submits a valid claim will receive. Payments will be based on the Plan of Allocation that is approved by the Court. Settlement Class Counsel's proposed Plan of Allocation is available for review on the website.

Important Information and Dates:

Eligible consumers or businesses that want to sue the additional Settling Defendants regarding a particular component part must exclude themselves from Settlement Class(es) that they would otherwise be part of by July 13, 2018 .

Eligible consumers or businesses can object to one or more of the additional Settlements, Plan of Allocation, or motion for attorneys' fees by July 13, 2018 .

. Eligible consumers or businesses may submit a claim form online or by mail.

The Court has scheduled a hearing on August 1, 2018 , to consider whether to approve the Settlements and the Plan of Allocation. Settlement Class Counsel may also request reimbursement of litigation costs and expenses as well as attorneys' fees of up to 25% of the Settlement Funds (after litigation costs and expenses).

For more information:

Visit: www.AutoPartsClass.com

Call: 1-877-940-5043

Write to: Auto Parts Settlements, P.O. Box 10163, Dublin, OH 43017-3163

SOURCE Kinsella Media, LLC

Related Links

http://www.AutoPartsClass.com


NORTHFIELD, Ill., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Stepan Company (NYSE: SCL) today reported:

First Quarter Highlights

Reported net income was $30.7 million , or $1.31 per diluted share versus prior year record net income of $31.9 million , or $1.37 per diluted share. Adjusted net income* was $32.0 million , or $1.37 per diluted share versus $31.7 million , or $1.36 per diluted share, in the prior year.



, or per diluted share versus prior year record net income of , or per diluted share. Adjusted net income* was , or per diluted share versus , or per diluted share, in the prior year. Consolidated net sales were $499.3 million , up 7% versus the prior year. This increase was attributable to 3% local currency growth and a 4% translation benefit.



, up 7% versus the prior year. This increase was attributable to 3% local currency growth and a 4% translation benefit. Surfactant operating income was a record $40.3 million versus $38.4 million in the prior year. This increase was primarily attributable to growth in key global markets, principally in North America and Europe , and improved internal efficiencies. Global Surfactant sales volume increased 4% versus the prior year.



versus in the prior year. This increase was primarily attributable to growth in key global markets, principally in and , and improved internal efficiencies. Global Surfactant sales volume increased 4% versus the prior year. Polymer operating income was $16.9 million versus $21.4 million in the prior year. This decrease was primarily attributable to lower North American rigid polyol margins and lower volumes in North America and Europe. Global Polymer sales volume was down 9% versus the prior year.



versus in the prior year. This decrease was primarily attributable to lower North American rigid polyol margins and lower volumes in and Europe. Global Polymer sales volume was down 9% versus the prior year. Specialty Product operating income was down $1.6 million versus the prior year. This decrease was primarily attributable to order timing differences within our pharmaceutical and flavor business.



versus the prior year. This decrease was primarily attributable to order timing differences within our pharmaceutical and flavor business. On March 26, 2018 , the Company closed on the acquisition of BASF's Mexicana, S.A. DE C.V.'s surfactant production facility in Ecatepec, Mexico and a portion of the associated surfactants business. The Company believes this acquisition significantly enhances Stepan's market position and supply capabilities for surfactants in Mexico and positions the Company to grow in both the Consumer and Functional markets for surfactants.



, the Company closed on the acquisition of BASF's Mexicana, S.A. DE C.V.'s surfactant production facility in and a portion of the associated surfactants business. The Company believes this acquisition significantly enhances Stepan's market position and supply capabilities for surfactants in and positions the Company to grow in both the Consumer and Functional markets for surfactants. The effect of foreign currency translation positively impacted net income by $0.8 million , or $0.04 per diluted share, versus prior year.

* Adjusted net income is a non-GAAP measure which excludes deferred compensation income/expense as well as other significant and infrequent/non-recurring items. See Table II for reconciliations of non-GAAP adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per share.

"The Company had a good start to the year driven by record Surfactant results," said F. Quinn Stepan, Jr., Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. "Surfactant operating income grew due to an improved product mix, improved internal efficiencies and the stabilization of commodity surfactant volumes. Our North American Polymer business continued to face headwinds related to lost share and lower margins. In Europe, the Polymer business was negatively impacted by the lingering effect of the 2017 MDI shortage and extended winter weather. Despite a disappointing quarter for our Polymer business, the market for insulation materials remains attractive due to continued global energy conservation efforts. Our Specialty Product business results were down due to changing order patterns for our pharmaceutical and flavor customers. Specialty results for the year should improve over 2017."

Financial Summary





Three Months Ended March 31

($ in thousands, except per share data)

2018

2017

% Change

Net Sales

$ 499,335

$ 468,269



7 % Operating Income

$ 39,655

$ 46,230



-14 % Net Income

$ 30,723

$ 31,913



-4 % Earnings per Diluted Share

$ 1.31

$ 1.37



-4 %





















Adjusted Net Income *

$ 32,030

$ 31,700



1 % Adjusted Earnings per Diluted Share *

$ 1.37

$ 1.36



1 %





* See Table II for reconciliations of non-GAAP Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted Earnings per Diluted Share.



Summary of First Quarter Adjusted Net Income Items

Adjusted net income excludes non-operational deferred compensation income/expense and other significant and infrequent or non-recurring items.

Deferred Compensation: The current year quarter includes $1.0 million of after-tax expense versus $0.8 million of after-tax income in the prior year.



The current year quarter includes of after-tax expense versus of after-tax income in the prior year. Business Restructuring: The current year quarter includes $0.3 million of after-tax expense attributable to decommissioning costs related to the Canadian plant closure versus $0.6 million of after-tax expense in the prior year.

Percentage Change in Net Sales

The 7% increase in quarterly net sales was primarily due to the positive impact of foreign currency translation, mostly related to stronger European currencies versus the U.S. dollar. Current quarter net sales also benefited from a 2% increase in selling prices, mostly attributable to the pass through of certain higher raw material costs, and higher volume.





Three Months Ended March 31, 2018

Volume



1 % Selling Price



2 % Foreign Currency Translation



4 % Total



7 %

Segment Results





Three Months Ended March 31 ($ in thousands)

2018

2017

% Change

Net Sales



















Surfactants

$ 358,940

$ 322,603



11 % Polymers

$ 121,933

$ 126,610



(4) % Specialty Products

$ 18,462

$ 19,056



(3) % Total Net Sales

$ 499,335

$ 468,269



7 %





Three Months Ended March 31

($ in thousands, all amounts pre-tax)

2018

2017

% Change

Operating Income



















Surfactants

$ 40,251

$ 38,371



5 % Polymers

$ 16,894

$ 21,425



(21) % Specialty Products

$ (350)

$ 1,286



(127) % Segment Operating Income

$ 56,795

$ 61,082



(7) % Corporate Expenses

$ (17,140)

$ (14,852)



15 % Consolidated Operating Income

$ 39,655

$ 46,230



(14) %

Total segment operating income decreased $4.3 million or 7% versus the prior year.

Surfactant net sales were $358.9 million for the quarter, an 11% increase versus prior year. Sales volume increased 4% mostly due to higher North American and European consumer product, oilfield, and agricultural volumes. Higher sales volume to our distribution partners in North America also contributed to this increase. Selling prices were up 4% primarily due to the pass-through of higher raw material costs. The translation impact of a weaker U.S. dollar increased net sales by 3%. Surfactant operating income increased $1.9 million versus the prior year, primarily due to higher volumes, a more favorable product mix and improved internal efficiencies.



for the quarter, an 11% increase versus prior year. Sales volume increased 4% mostly due to higher North American and European consumer product, oilfield, and agricultural volumes. Higher sales volume to our distribution partners in also contributed to this increase. Selling prices were up 4% primarily due to the pass-through of higher raw material costs. The translation impact of a weaker U.S. dollar increased net sales by 3%. Surfactant operating income increased versus the prior year, primarily due to higher volumes, a more favorable product mix and improved internal efficiencies. Polymer net sales were $121.9 million in the first quarter, a 4% decrease versus prior year. Sales volume decreased 9% in the quarter primarily due to lower North American and European polyol volumes used in rigid foam insulation and insulated metal panels. This volume shortfall reflects lower customer demand due to adverse winter weather that delayed project starts, lost share in North America and the lingering effects of the 2017 MDI shortfall in Europe. The Company believes that, fundamentally, the market for insulation materials remains strong due to continued global energy conservation efforts. The translation impact of a weaker U.S. dollar favorably impacted net sales by 5% while selling prices did not change significantly. Polymer operating income decreased $4.5 million versus the prior year due to lower volumes and margins that were partially offset by proceeds received from a class action settlement.



in the first quarter, a 4% decrease versus prior year. Sales volume decreased 9% in the quarter primarily due to lower North American and European polyol volumes used in rigid foam insulation and insulated metal panels. This volume shortfall reflects lower customer demand due to adverse winter weather that delayed project starts, lost share in and the lingering effects of the 2017 MDI shortfall in Europe. The Company believes that, fundamentally, the market for insulation materials remains strong due to continued global energy conservation efforts. The translation impact of a weaker U.S. dollar favorably impacted net sales by 5% while selling prices did not change significantly. Polymer operating income decreased versus the prior year due to lower volumes and margins that were partially offset by proceeds received from a class action settlement. Specialty Products net sales were $18.5 million for the quarter, a 3% decrease versus prior year. Sales volume increased 2% for the quarter while selling prices declined. Operating income decreased $1.6 million versus the prior year primarily due to recurring fluctuations in the timing of orders in our pharmaceutical and flavor businesses.

Corporate Expenses





Three Months Ended March 31 ($ in thousands)

2018

2017

% Change

Total - Corporate Expenses

$ 17,140

$ 14,852



15 % Deferred Compensation Expense/(Income) *

$ 1,614

$ 376



329 % Business Restructuring Expense

$ 358

$ 786



(54) % Adjusted Corporate Expenses

$ 15,168

$ 13,690



11 %



* See Table III for a discussion of deferred compensation plan accounting.

Corporate expenses, excluding deferred compensation and business restructuring expense, increased $1.5 million , or 11%, for the quarter. This increase was mostly attributable to higher legal expenses, partially driven by the Company's first quarter acquisition in Mexico.

Income Taxes

The Company's effective tax rate was 18.4% for the first quarter of 2018 versus 28.0% for the first quarter of 2017. The decrease was primarily attributable to: (a) higher excess tax benefits derived from stock based compensation awards exercised or distributed in the first quarter of 2018 versus 2017, and (b) the net impact of the lower U.S. statutory tax rate of 21% in the first quarter of 2018 versus 35% in the first quarter of 2017. The 2017 U.S. Tax Reform Act favorably benefited the current year quarter by $0.8 million. The Company expects its full year effective tax rate to be in the range of 20% to 23%.

Selected Balance Sheet Information

The Company's net debt level increased $54.3 million versus prior year-end and the net debt ratio increased from -1% to 6%. The increase related entirely to lower cash as total debt remained unchanged. The decrease in cash was primarily due to the first quarter acquisition in Mexico and higher working capital requirements which is typical for the Company in the first quarter.

($ in millions)

March 31, 2018



December 31, 2017

Net Debt















Total Debt

$ 290.8



$ 290.8

Cash



244.6





298.9

Net Debt

$ 46.2



$ (8.1)

Equity



774.6





740.1

Net Debt + Equity

$ 820.8



$ 732.0

Net Debt / (Net Debt + Equity)



6 %



-1 %

The major working capital components were:

($ in millions)

March 31, 2018



December 31, 2017 Net Receivables

$ 325.3



$ 293.5 Inventories



187.7





172.7 Accounts Payable



(202.4)





(205.0) Net Total

$ 310.6



$ 261.2

Capital spending was $27.4 million versus $20.4 million in the prior year quarter. For the full year, the Company expects capital spending to be between $105 million and $115 million.

Outlook

"Looking forward, we believe our Surfactant business will continue to build upon its strong start and benefit from our diversification efforts into functional products, new technologies, improved internal efficiencies and expanded sales into our broad customer base globally," said F. Quinn Stepan, Jr., Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. "However, headwinds in our North America Polymer business will continue to challenge us in 2018. Improved European weather should restore demand for insulation and contribute to better Polymer results. Overall, we remain optimistic about the balance of the year."

Conference Call

Stepan Company will host a conference call to discuss the first quarter results at 8:00 a.m. ET (7:00 a.m. CT) on April 24, 2018. The call can be accessed by phone and webcast. Telephone access will be available by dialing 888-228-0609, and the webcast can be accessed through the Investor Relations/Conference Calls page at www.stepan.com. A webcast replay of the conference call will be available at the same location shortly after the call.

Supporting Slides

Slides supporting this press release will be made available at www.stepan.com under the Investor Relations center at approximately the same time as this press release is issued.

Corporate Profile

Stepan Company is a major manufacturer of specialty and intermediate chemicals used in a broad range of industries. Stepan is a leading merchant producer of surfactants, which are the key ingredients in consumer and industrial cleaning compounds and in agricultural and oilfield solutions. The Company is also a leading supplier of polyurethane polyols used in the expanding thermal insulation market, and CASE (Coatings, Adhesives, Sealants, and Elastomers) industries.

Headquartered in Northfield, Illinois, Stepan utilizes a network of modern production facilities located in North and South America, Europe and Asia.

The Company's common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol SCL. For more information about Stepan Company please visit the Company online at www.stepan.com

Contact: Matthew J. Eaken (847) 446-7500

Tables follow

Certain information in this presentation consists of forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements include statements about Stepan Company's plans, objectives, strategies, financial performance and outlook, trends, the amount and timing of future cash distributions, prospects or future events and involve known and unknown risks that are difficult to predict. As a result, Stepan Company's actual financial results, performance, achievements or prospects may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the use of words such as "may," "could," "expect," "intend," "plan," "seek," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "guidance," "predict," "potential," "continue," "likely," "will," "would," "should," "illustrative" and variations of these terms and similar expressions, or the negative of these terms or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by Stepan Company and its management based on their knowledge and understanding of the business and industry, are inherently uncertain. These statements are not guarantees of future performance, and stockholders should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

There are a number of risks, uncertainties and other important factors, many of which are beyond Stepan Company's control, that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained in this news release. Such risks, uncertainties and other important factors include, among other factors, the risks, uncertainties and factors described in Stepan Company's Form 10-K, Form 8-K and Form 10-Q reports and exhibits to those reports, and include (but are not limited to) risks and uncertainties related to disruptions in production or accidents at manufacturing facilities, global competition, volatility of raw material and energy costs, disruptions in transportation or significant changes in transportation costs, reduced demand due to customer product reformulations or new technologies, the probability of future acquisitions and the uncertainties related to the integration of acquired businesses, maintaining and protecting intellectual property rights, international business risks, including currency exchange rate fluctuations, legal restrictions and taxes, the impact of changes in the tax code as a result of recent federal tax legislation and uncertainty as to how some of those changes may be applied, our ability to estimate and maintain appropriate levels of recorded liabilities, our debt covenants, our ability to access capital markets, downturns in certain industries and general economic downturns, global political, military, security or other instability, costs related to expansion or other capital projects, interruption or breaches of information technology systems, the costs and other effects of governmental regulation and legal and administrative proceedings and our ability to retain executive management and key personnel.

These forward-looking statements are made only as of the date hereof, and Stepan Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

STEPAN COMPANY For the Three Months Ended March 31, 2018 and 2017 (Unaudited  '000s Omitted)





Three Months Ended March 31



2018

2017 Net Sales

$ 499,335

$ 468,269 Cost of Sales *



409,765



376,150 Gross Profit *



89,570



92,119 Operating Expenses:











Selling *



14,890



13,456 Administrative *



19,439



17,892 Research, Development and Technical Services *



13,614



13,379 Deferred Compensation Expense



1,614



376





49,557



45,103













Business Restructuring



358



786 Operating Income *



39,655



46,230 Other Income (Expense):











Interest, Net



(3,151)



(2,992) Other, Net *



1,160



1,092





(1,991)



(1,900)













Income Before Income Taxes



37,664



44,330 Provision for Income Taxes



6,948



12,418 Net Income



30,716



31,912 Net Income Attributable to Noncontrolling Interests



7



1 Net Income Attributable to Stepan Company

$ 30,723

$ 31,913 Net Income Per Common Share Attributable to Stepan Company











Basic

$ 1.33

$ 1.39 Diluted

$ 1.31

$ 1.37 Shares Used to Compute Net Income Per Common Share Attributable to Stepan Company











Basic



23,082



22,901 Diluted



23,389



23,331

* The 2017 amounts for the noted line items have been immaterially changed from the amounts originally reported as a result of the Company's 1st quarter 2018 adoption of ASU No. 2017-07 Compensation - Retirement Benefits (Topic 715). The changes reflect line item reclassifications only and have no impact to pre-tax income or net income.

Reconciliations of Non-GAAP Net Income and Earnings per Diluted Share*





Three Months Ended March 31 ($ in thousands, except per share amounts)

2018

EPS

2017

EPS Net Income Reported

$ 30,723

$ 1.31

$ 31,913

$ 1.37

























Deferred Compensation (Income) Expense

$ 1,038

$ 0.05

$ (802)

$ (0.03) Business Restructuring



269

$ 0.01



589

$ 0.02 Adjusted Net Income

$ 32,030

$ 1.37

$ 31,700

$ 1.36

* All amounts in this table are presented after-tax

The Company believes that certain measures that are not in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), when presented in conjunction with comparable GAAP measures, are useful for evaluating the Company's operating performance and provide better clarity on the impact of non-operational items. Internally, the Company uses this non-GAAP information as an indicator of business performance, and evaluates management's effectiveness with specific reference to these indicators. These measures should be considered in addition to, and are neither a substitute for, nor superior to, measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP.





Three Months Ended March 31 ($ in thousands, except per share amounts)

2018

EPS

2017

EPS Pre-Tax Adjustments























Deferred Compensation (Income)

Expense

$ 1,365







$ (1,293)





Business Restructuring



358









786





Total Pre-Tax Adjustments

$ 1,723







$ (507)































Cumulative Tax Effect on Adjustments

$ (416)







$ 294





After-Tax Adjustments

$ 1,307

$ 0.06

$ (213)

$ (0.01)

Deferred Compensation Plan

The full effect of the deferred compensation plan on quarterly pre-tax income was $1.4 million of expense versus $1.3 million of income in the prior year. The accounting for the deferred compensation plan results in operating income when the prices of Stepan Company common stock or mutual fund shares held in the plan fall and expense when they rise. The Company also recognizes the change in value of mutual fund shares as investment income or loss. The quarter end market prices of Stepan Company common stock are as follows:





2018

2017



3/31

12/31

9/30

6/30

3/31 Stepan Company

$ 83.18

$ 78.97

$ 83.66

$ 87.14

$ 78.81

































The deferred compensation income statement impact is summarized below:





Three Months Ended March 31 ($ in thousands)

2018

2017 Deferred Compensation











Operating Expense

$ (1,614)

$ (376) Other, net  Mutual Fund Gain (Loss)



249



1,669 Total Pre-Tax

$ (1,365)

$ 1,293 Total After Tax

$ (1,038)

$ 802

Effects of Foreign Currency Translation

The Company's foreign subsidiaries transact business and report financial results in their respective local currencies. As a result, foreign subsidiary income statements are translated into U.S. dollars at average foreign exchange rates appropriate for the reporting period. Because foreign exchange rates fluctuate against the U.S. dollar over time, foreign currency translation affects period-to-period comparisons of financial statement items (i.e., because foreign exchange rates fluctuate, similar period-to-period local currency results for a foreign subsidiary may translate into different U.S. dollar results). Below is a table that presents the impact that foreign currency translation had on the changes in consolidated net sales and various income line items for the three month period ending March 31, 2018 as compared to 2017:

($ in millions)

Three Months Ended March 31

Increase (Decrease)

Increase Due to Foreign Currency Translation



2018

2017













Net Sales

$ 499.3

$ 468.3

$ 31.0

$ 17.6

Gross Profit



89.6



92.1



(2.5)



2.1

Operating Income



39.7



46.2



(6.5)



1.0

Pretax Income



37.7



44.3



(6.6)



1.1



Stepan Company Consolidated Balance Sheets March 31, 2018 and December 31, 2017





March 31, 2018

December 31, 2017 ASSETS











Current Assets

$ 782,010



788,736 Property, Plant & Equipment, Net



616,051



598,443 Other Assets



82,572



83,682 Total Assets

$ 1,480,633



1,470,861 LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY











Current Liabilities

$ 299,554



320,253 Deferred Income Taxes



11,932



10,962 Long-term Debt



268,173



268,299 Other Non-current Liabilities



125,548



130,433 Total Stepan Company Stockholders' Equity



774,583



740,096 Noncontrolling Interest



843



818 Total Liabilities and Stockholders' Equity

$ 1,480,633



1,470,861

SOURCE Stepan Company

Related Links

http://www.stepan.com


DETROIT, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- StockX, the world's first online 'stock market of things' for high-demand consumer products, today announced the addition of BAPE and PALACE to its growing streetwear vertical. The iconic Japanese and UK brands join industry-leading, New York-based Supreme and Kith, as the newest streetwear collections available on the platform. The catalog will include both men's and women's offerings and feature pieces from some of the world's most coveted capsule collections and collaborations.

"Streetwear has been a priority of ours from the outset," said StockX CEO and co-founder, Josh Luber. "In just two years, we have seen incredible growth across all four of our categories  sneakers, watches, handbags and streetwear. Adding BAPE and Palace to the lineup is not only an illustrative example of that growth, but a testament to our commitment of giving our users access to the brands they want in a transparent, anonymous and authentic fashion."

The streetwear category officially launched with an exclusive collection of Supreme merchandise in October 2017. Today, StockX is the largest collection of authentic Supreme merchandise available for sale in the world. Leading the BAPE team is Scotty Newman, who joined StockX as its general manager from 3peatLA, the long-running Los Angeles-based clothing store and showroom, which was the largest BAPE reseller in the country. Kenny Locklier serves as StockX's PALACE general manager and is responsible for the curation of what is the most complete catalogue of PALACE available online.

"We're looking forward to building on the success of Supreme and Kith and expanding our reach to include two of the foremost brands in the streetwear space," said Newman, StockX's BAPE general manager. "Upon launch, StockX will be the largest authenticated marketplace for both BAPE, with over 4000 products dating back to 2010, and PALACE, with more than 3000 products."

Founded in 1993, BAPE is the brainchild of Japanese fashion designer-turned-music industry entrepreneur, NIGO. The lifestyle brand encompasses men's, women's and children's clothing along with a wide range of accessories and gift items. In 2011, the Hong Kong-based fashion conglomerate I.T. Group acquired the company for $2.8 million and parted ways with NIGO in 2013.

PALACE was launched in 2010 by Lev Tanju. Since then, it has grown into one of the most sought-after independent British skateboard brands. The line has rapidly extended its reach beyond the skate community and counts artists A$AP Rocky, Jay-Z, and Drake as fans.

StockX was founded by Luber, StockX COO Greg Schwartz, and Dan Gilbert, founder and chairman of Quicken Loans and majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers. The fast-growing 'new luxury' marketplace has many high-profile investors including Eminem, Mark Wahlberg, Ted Leonsis, Tim Armstrong, Scooter Braun and Ron Conway's SV Angel. Launched in February 2016, the StockX team is comprised of more than 200 team members and does more than $2MM in daily sales. For more information, or to buy or sell on the platform, visit: www.stockx.com.

About StockX

Detroit-based StockX launched in February 2016 and is the world's first "Stock Market of Things." StockX enables the buying and selling of high-demand consumer products, including sneakers, watches, handbags and streetwear. StockX connects buyers and sellers by the same methods as the world's stock markets  using anonymity and standardization to provide real-time market pricing and complete transparency. All products are physically inspected and authenticated by StockX. The StockX platform also supplies in-depth market analysis, individual portfolio tracking, historical sales and volume metrics.

For more information, visit stockx.com or follow the brand on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

SOURCE StockX

Related Links

http://www.stockx.com


SALT LAKE CITY, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Strategic Student & Senior Housing Trust, Inc., a private real estate investment trust sponsored by SmartStop Asset Management, LLC (SmartStop), announced today that The Wellington, a 140-bed assisted living community within its portfolio, has won a Best of State award for one of the senior living categories in Utah.

The property is managed by an affiliate of MBK Senior Living, LLC, an owner/manager of independent living, assisted living and memory care communities throughout the United States. The Wellington is a multi-year Best of State award recipient for independent senior living and assisted living facilities in the merchandising and consumer services category.

"We are proud of the accomplishments of MBK Senior Living and their mission to exceed the quality, service and care expectations of the seniors they serve," said John Strockis, chief investment officer. "Their dedication at The Wellington shines brightly as a multi-year Best of State award recipient, a prestigious recognition for their hard work."

The Wellington is a Class A, 119-unit/140-bed, assisted living community located at 4522 South 1300 East in Millcreek, Utah. Amenities at the property include a library, computer center, dining room, bistro, art studio, fitness center, beauty salon and common area Wi-Fi. The Wellington also features an assisted living-focused resident enrichment program that offers classes and activities that promote physical fitness, intellectual stimulation and social interactions.

The Best of State Awards were created to recognize outstanding individuals, organizations and businesses in Utah. The judges look for individuals, businesses and organizations that excel in their endeavors, use innovative approaches or methods, and contribute to a better quality of life in Utah. For more information about the awards program, visit www.bestofstate.org.

About Strategic Student & Senior Housing Trust, Inc. (SSSHT)

SSSHT is a Maryland corporation that intends to qualify as a real estate investment trust for federal income tax purposes. SSSHT focuses on the acquisition of income-producing, Class "A" student housing and senior housing communities. SSSHT owns two student housing properties, along with an approximately 2.6 percent beneficial interest in a DST that owns another student housing property, and three senior housing properties.

About SmartStop Asset Management, LLC (SmartStop)

SmartStop is a diversified real estate company focused on self storage assets, along with student and senior housing. The company has approximately $1.5 billion of real estate assets under management, including 114 self storage facilities located throughout the United States and Toronto, Canada, comprised of approximately 72,000 units and 8.3 million rentable square feet. SmartStop's real estate portfolio also includes five student housing communities with approximately 2,800 beds and 1.1 million square feet of space, as well as three senior housing communities with approximately 350 beds and 250,000 rentable square feet of space. SmartStop is the sponsor of Strategic Storage Trust IV, Inc., Strategic Storage Trust II, Inc., and Strategic Storage Growth Trust, Inc., all public non-traded REITs focusing on self storage assets. The company is also a national sponsor of Section 1031 exchange offerings using the Delaware statutory trust structure. The facilities offer affordable and accessible storage units for residential and commercial customers. In addition, they offer secure interior and exterior storage units as well as outside storage areas for vehicles, RVs and boats. Additional information regarding SmartStop is available at www.SAM.com and more information regarding SmartStop Self Storage in the United States and Canada is available at www.smartstopselfstorage.com.

Contacts

Julie Leber Lauren Burgos Spotlight Marketing Communications Spotlight Marketing Communications 949.427.5172, ext. 703 949.427.5172, ext. 704 [email protected] [email protected]

SOURCE Strategic Student & Senior Housing Trust, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.SAM.com


NEW YORK, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The complicated world of New York real estate market data just got easier to navigate with a comprehensive new platform from leading NYC-based brokerage Stribling & Associates. Developed in-house, Stribling Analytics is an interactive online station that offers real-time housing data to real estate professionals and consumers alike -- and is the first program of its kind to cover current inventory, contracts signed, and recorded sales metrics borough-wide across Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens.

"In addition to quarterly market reports which provide a snapshot of recent housing trends, we felt consumers and agents would benefit from easily accessible current housing statistics for a more accurate picture of the market right now," said Garrett Derderian, Stribling's Director of Data & Reporting, who spearheaded the new initiative. "Instead of making decisions based solely on housing data from previous quarters, people can log-on and find out what's going into contract in Sunnyside, or what the Sales activity was in DUMBO last month, or the average asking price of a one-bedroom on the Upper East Side. It's a really well-rounded look at New York's dynamic real estate market."

Stribling Analytics is free to use by creating an account, and is accessible on desktop, tablet, and mobile devices. Users can search using broad or granular criteria including time-frame, borough, submarket or neighborhood-specific data. The platform also offers live interactive graphs and metrics displaying average, median, and price-per-square-foot figures; days on market; total sales volume and number of sales. The data is powered by Stribling's proprietary in-house database and can be found at data.stribling.com.

"Stribling Analytics offers neutral, transparent, and accurate data to consumers and industry professionals who are bombarded with market reports that all seem to tell a different story," said Stribling President Elizabeth Ann Stribling-Kivlan. "We are proud to offer our proprietary housing information for free in an ongoing commitment to our customers, agents, and data integrity."

Since joining Stribling & Associates in early 2017, Derderian has overseen and implemented quarterly market reports for Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. He also launched a weekly Brooklyn Luxury Report which outlines contracts signed for properties priced $2 million and up, a Townhouse report, and a monthly economic report. Additionally, he co-authors Stribling's annual Luxury Report for Manhattan co-ops and condos priced $5 million and up. All of these reports can be found in the Knowledge section on Stribling.com

Stribling's ramped up data department is just one of the ways the company has grown as of late. In March, the firm opened a Long Island City WeWork outpost, and was recently named the #3 top brokerage in Manhattan by closed sales volume with the highest average sales price -- all while ranking #13 in size.

About Stribling & Associates

Stribling & Associates, Ltd. is a premier residential real estate firm with over 300 agents throughout four locations across Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Long Island City. As one of the most renowned brokerages in New York, Stribling uses its respected expertise in the current market to provide individualized services to both buyer and sellers. Stribling agents specialize in the sale of luxury townhouses and cooperative and condominium apartments. The company's philosophy is based on professional, personalized services coupled with exceptional knowledge of key residential market trends. Stribling Private Brokerage specializes in the discreet marketing of properties over $5 million and commands a prominent market share in that sector of Manhattan residential real estate. Through strategic partnerships with Miami's Cervera and international estate services firm Savills, Stribling's global reach extends to more than 700 offices worldwide.

Press Contact:

Ashley Murphy, Director of Public Relations

[email protected]

646-675-5068

SOURCE Stribling & Associates

Related Links

http://www.stribling.com


CHANTILLY, Va., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Gross sales for concrete paver contractors in the United States and Canada increased by 7.7% during 2017, while four of every five contractors reported difficulty in recruiting and hiring quality employees, according to a new survey released today by the Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute (ICPI).

The 2018 ICPI Contractor Industry Report identified business trends from 171 segmental concrete pavement contractors in 2017. Respondents included ICPI members and non-members. Industry Insights of Columbus, Ohio conducted the study in January 2018 for ICPI.

"This report confirms a significant challenge for the segmental concrete pavement industry," said Kendall Anderegg, ICPI Board Chair. "There is a large and growing demand among residential and commercial consumers for our industry's products. Our goal is training more contractors and installers to help meet this demand. ICPI and its members already have the industry's top education and training programs for in-service contractors. We are now creating and launching a Workforce Development program to attract more young people to the concrete paver installation trade. There are tremendous opportunities in our industry for more contractors and installers."

Other key findings include:

The residential market remains strong representing 69.5% of sales, while commercial/ government projects are surging with 30.5% of sales (an increase of 6.5% from the previous year).

90.1% of contractors provided worksite safety training to their employees.

A 5.0% median wage/salary increase occurred in 2017, while a similar 5.0% median rise is forecasted for 2018.

The study also includes data on technologies contractors use to monitor and reduce exposure of crew members to respirable silica, as well as on company promotion and certification trends. Besides reporting overall data, results provide insight into the industry regarding gross sales, ICPI membership level, length of construction season, and number of employees during the construction season. The 64-page report is available for purchase at http://www.icpi.org/shop.

About Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute

ICPI is the trade association representing the growing industry of segmental concrete pavement systems in the United States and Canada. The association's membership includes producers, contractors, suppliers, design professionals, and distributors. ICPI is the authority for concrete pavers, which are universally recognized as the best value for pavement systems. The association delivers education and technical guidance leading to awareness, acceptance and use of segmental concrete pavement systems in the United States and Canada. For more information, visit www.icpi.org.

SOURCE Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute

Related Links

http://www.icpi.org


BEIJING, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On 19th April 2018, the First Maritime Silk Road ECI International Innovation Festival Press Conference was held at the First Studio of People's Daily Online. ECI Awards and the People's Government of Quanzhou announced that they will jointly run the First Maritime Silk Road ECI International Innovation Festival in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, and jointly promote the economic and cultural development of the Maritime Silk Road and exchanges and cooperation under the major initiative to build the "twenty-first Century Maritime Silk Road".

The event was co-organized by the ECIA, CAAC and People's Government of the Quanzhou city, Fujian Province; Leaders from Quanzhou People's Government and other ECIA representatives attended the press conference. In addition, innovation representatives from the fields of technology, investment, marketing and others, in addition to ECI Awards's final judging experts as well as representatives from more than 20 authoritative media bodies such as China com, Huanqiu com, China News com, CNR, GMW cn, CCTV Online, Tencent, NetEase and Phoenix Online Sina participated in this press conference to witness the launching ceremony of the First Maritime Silk Road ECI International Innovation Festival.

As an international award for "innovative application", the ECI Awards celebrates the leaders in global business innovation standards by commending innovative works in terms of commercial application (including business model, product, technology, service, management, marketing and so on), encouraging creation and guiding innovation to promote the development of business innovation in the world. Currently the ECIA hands out awards in six categories: 'Business Model Innovation', 'Management Innovation', 'Marketing Innovation', 'Product Innovation', 'Service Innovation' and 'Technology Innovation'.

As the unique starting point of the Maritime Silk Road recognized by UNESCO, Quanzhou has a demonstrative role and leading position in the development and promotion of the 'One Belt and One Road' initiative. At the first "Maritime Silk Road ECI International Innovation Festival" in June, ECI will bring together sophisticated organizations and individuals to Quanzhou; around the spirit of 'digital business innovation', it will facilitate the integration of creativity, entrepreneurship and venture capital; and relying on the first 'Maritime Silk Road ECI International Innovation Festival' it will strengthen exchanges and cooperation along the Maritime Silk Road between countries, regions and cities to achieve mutual benefits and win-win results.

Live Video on People's Daily online: http://t.cn/Rm1pUDJ

Photo: http://t.cn/Rm1pzIA

SOURCE ECI Awards
MANILA, Philippines, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Housal Inc., an online real estate platform for developers, agents, and brokers, are launching their state-of-the-art sales tool that will revolutionize the real estate industry. The advanced online sales tool is a unique solution with a purpose to streamline the process of buying, selling and renting out properties. Housal Inc. is a company that aims to create an ecosystem that links together buyers, tenants, sellers, developers, agencies, and brokers.

Housal - Connecting Dots in Real Estate Housal Real Estate without Hassle

Mr. Yogesh Mathur, CEO of Housal says, "Our solution connects dots in the Real Estate Sector, which will make life easy for all stakeholders."

Housal Inc. aims to deliver a pleasant and stress-free property experience through trustworthy, consistent and expert services. Its technology-infused tool brings forth the best real estate search and buying experience in the digital and mobile space, and helps property seekers succeed in real estate investment in the Philippines. Starting from the Philippines, this solution which completes the cycle of real estate is set to launch in multiple locations around the globe.

Housal is partnering with some of the top developers in the Philippines and will be offering their properties on their platform. Housal Inc. is reinventing the immovable industry with its groundbreaking sales and analytic tool which will define the future of the real estate sector.

Housal  Connecting dots in Real Estate!

If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Housal Inc. at +63-9177717171 or email at [email protected].

Related Images

housal-connecting-dots-in-real.jpg

Housal Connecting Dots in Real Estate

Housal Real Estate without Hassle

android-app.jpg

Android App

Housal App Android Screen Shots

ios-app.png

iOS App

Housal App iOS Screen Shots

housal-connecting-dots-in-real.jpg

Housal Connecting Dots in Real Estate

Housal Launching on April 26, 2018 in Manila

Related Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k6rFIyc158

SOURCE Housal Inc.
NEW YORK, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative; Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund; and Heather McGhee, president of Demos released a statement today regarding their participation on the Starbucks Advisory Committee, which is addressing the company's efforts to prevent discrimination in its stores.

On April 12, two black men, Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson, were arrested by police at a Starbucks location while merely waiting to meet with a business associate. A Starbucks manager had called the police because she said the men  who had only been in the store for a brief period  had yet to make a purchase.

The racial justice leaders issued the following statement:

"The arrest of the two young men in Starbucks is a stark example of the ongoing struggle of African Americans for full citizenship and dignity in American life. Since last week, a number of other high-profile incidents involving discrimination against African Americans demonstrates the breadth and shameful persistence of this problem.

"We were encouraged by the clear and unequivocal statements by Starbucks' leadership, expressing their desire and intention to deal directly with the issue of racism. This is a rare phenomenon in corporate America. We have pushed and will continue to work to ensure that this highly visible moment  for Starbucks' 175,000 employees, the other major corporations who watch Starbucks, and the country  is done right. We have been clear from the start that the company must build a framework for anti-bias training that extends beyond the planned May 29th training and that becomes part of the company culture. In addition to the need for an anti-discrimination curriculum  which will consist of an ongoing education for all employees, with real measures for evaluation and monitoring  we made clear that a thorough review of the company policies, as well as consultation with local, not just national leaders, is necessary as they move forward.

"Even with these caveats and concerns  and, we imagine, there will be more as this process unfolds  we realize the extraordinary step that Starbucks is taking to do better on an issue that affects every workplace. Starbucks exists in 8,000 communities in our country. We see this effort as an opportunity for Starbucks to demonstrate leadership in advancing a commitment to equal treatment and opportunity in true partnership with the communities they serve. We expect to issue a report to Starbucks, with recommendations about the company's policies, a multi-phase training framework, and the ongoing work they will need to undertake in order to really move the ball.

"We know that the problem of anti-Black bias and other forms of discrimination is not Starbucks' problem alone; it's a deeply American problem, made consequential and often lethal by the compounding force of unaccountable, discriminatory policing. A larger issue here is the mass criminalization of our people, and we each made it clear to Starbucks that they have the privilege and responsibility to influence not just employee practices, but police practices in Philadelphia and across the country. We will continue to advocate on that front, both with Starbucks and with the police, and welcome your thoughts about how we can make the greatest impact."

For additional media inquiries, please contact Michael K. Frisby 202-625-4382/ [email protected]

SOURCE DEMOS; NAACP LDF
PALO ALTO, Calif., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- TIBCO Software Inc., a global leader in integration, API management, and analytics, has been acknowledged as a top vendor in Dresner Advisory Services' 2018 Cloud Computing and Business Intelligence Market Study, a part of the Wisdom of Crowds series of research. In this year's report, TIBCO improved on its 2017 ranking, excelling in the cloud architecture and cloud security categories.

"We're excited to be recognized as a top vendor in this year's study, given our continued efforts to revolutionize this market," said Thomas Been, chief marketing officer, TIBCO. "As the report notes, cloud business intelligence spending has consistently increased over the past years. TIBCO is committed to delivering a comprehensive portfolio of cloud services to our customers, equipping them with the robust solutions necessary for their digital transformations."

Dresner's seventh annual report examined 22 vendors in four categories: cloud business intelligence features, cloud architecture, cloud security, and web data connectors. TIBCO ranked high for cloud architecture, which includes relational database support, automatic upgrades, and connectors capabilities.

TIBCO's business intelligence offering includes TIBCO Spotfire, which provides customers with enterprise-class business intelligence, geo-analytics, and predictive analytics solutions in the cloud. With built-in data wrangling, threaded discussions, and filtered analytics views, customers can easily collaborate, connect to data sources, and visually interact with their data, creating new opportunities to discover actionable insights.

"There is a clear and consistent increase in current use of public cloud BI, driven in part by an abundance of cloud-based solutions," said Howard Dresner, founder and chief research officer at Dresner Advisory Services. "Deployment of cloud BI applications continues to grow steadily, with organizations citing substantial benefits realized over traditional on-premises implementations."

Learn more about TIBCO Spotfire here.

Follow us @TIBCO on Twitter, and on our Facebook and LinkedIn pages to hear the latest news and updates from our team.

About Wisdom of Crowds Research

Wisdom of Crowds research is based on data collected on usage and deployment trends, products, and vendors. Business intelligence users in all roles and throughout all industries contributed to provide a complete view of realities, plans, and perceptions of the market.

About Dresner Advisory Services

Dresner Advisory Services was formed by Howard Dresner, an independent analyst, author, lecturer, and business adviser. Dresner Advisory Services, LLC focuses on creating and sharing thought leadership for Business Intelligence (BI), information management, performance management, and related areas.

About TIBCO

TIBCO fuels digital business by enabling better decisions and faster, smarter actions through the TIBCO Connected Intelligence Cloud. From APIs and systems to devices and people, we interconnect everything, capture data in real time wherever it is, and augment the intelligence of your business through analytical insights. Thousands of customers around the globe rely on us to build compelling experiences, energize operations, and propel innovation. Learn how TIBCO makes digital smarter at www.tibco.com.

TIBCO, Spotfire, and the TIBCO logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of TIBCO Software Inc. and/or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries. All other product and company names and marks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners and are mentioned for identification.

Media Contact:

Lindsey Ashjian Torres

TIBCO Software Inc.

(650) 846-8862

[email protected]

SOURCE TIBCO Software Inc.

Related Links

http://www.tibco.com


Pairing the engineering and development backgrounds between Titus Chang and Wayne Chein for a fully integrated LED experience using nano-photocatalysis technology, with Luft Qi, the two have created a totally new kind of air purifying experience. Luft means "Air" in German and used to describe space or breath. Qi (pronounced "chee") - literally means "air, breath" in Mandarin Chinese. In traditional Chinese culture, "Qi" is described as "vital life force." By balancing the flow of Qi, all the discomforts will be eliminated. Luft Qi is designed in the spirit of Qi, offering fresh, clean air by eliminating airborne pollutants.

"As our first innovative product, we are launching the release in accordance with a crowdfunding campaign to help spread the word," said Chang, CoFounder of Titus&Wayne. "Luft Qi is a filter-free air purifier that utilizes the latest UV LED technology together with nano-photocatalyst through an IP protected reaction chamber. It's never been done before. Simply plug the Luft Qi air purifier into a USB charger power port, and you're all set."

Luft Qi has a 360-degree air intake, a patented nano-reactor, and comprehensive air cleaning at all times. It takes in the surrounding air and pollutants from every angle. A chemical reaction is created when the patented nano-reactor is activated by UV LED light. Pollutants are broken down into harmless molecules. Clean air is dispersed with only harmless molecules such as water. It is the first compact air purifier of its kind using nanotechnology that destroys mold, airborne bacteria, formaldehyde, viruses, and toxic chemicals, using absolutely no filters.

"Although traditional HEPA filters can trap bacteria and mold, they are also perfect places for these microorganisms to grow," said Chein, CoFounder of Titus&Wayne. "No larger than a beverage can, this new air purifying concept will go unnoticed in any home or location."

"This air purifier is designed for anyone who suffers from allergies, fatigue, or dizziness, as well as those living in old homes, or homes with unwanted smells," said Chang. "It's an effective agent when battling the airborne illnesses that can cause significant harm to our loved ones today. Spread the word on the official launch of our forthcoming campaign and consider investing in quality air."

The Indiegogo campaign officially launches at 8AM EST on April 24th with an MSRP at $169 and super early bird tickets at $79. $25,000 funding goal. Total 6 color variations available, Bright White + Silver Ring, Bright White + Maroon Ring, Bright White + Iron Black, Pink, Aqua, and Wood.

Watch the video and learn how Luft Qi works: https://youtu.be/fN6T1E7ctU4

For more information about the crowdfunding campaign, visit: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/luft-qi-the-smallest-filterless-air-purifier/x

Product images download: https://goo.gl/wGqPXN

About Titus&Wayne

Created from a fateful collaboration between Titus Chang and Wayne Chein, pooling their backgrounds in material science and chemical engineering, Titus&Wayne was founded in Taiwan on October 6, 2016. Since then, the dynamic duo has fully integrated their strong LED expertise with nano-photocatalysis technology to create simpler, enhanced products that improve everyone's quality of life. Their very first product, the Luft Qi, features a filter-free air purifier goes live on Indiegogo at on April 24, 2018.

Follow us:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/luft.purifier

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HelloLuft

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luftqi

YouTube: https://goo.gl/zyXAVz

Media Contact

Rita Kuo

+1-8184278933

[email protected]



SOURCE Titus&Wayne
Since 2004, Fisher has argued 35 cases in the Court (including three this Term), making him one of the most familiar faces to appear before the Justices. Those cases have encompassed a wide range of issues, including criminal procedure, maritime law, telecommunications law, and civil and human rights. His successes include several landmark cases:

Crawford v. Washington and Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts , in which he persuaded the Court to adopt a new approach to the Constitution's Confrontation Clause;

and , in which he persuaded the Court to adopt a new approach to the Constitution's Confrontation Clause; Riley v. California , in which the Court for the first time applied the Fourth Amendment's protections against unreasonable searches to digital information on smart phones;

, in which the Court for the first time applied the Fourth Amendment's protections against unreasonable searches to digital information on smart phones; Endrew F. v. Douglas County Sch. Dist. , in which the Court established the substantive standard for enforcing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act; and

, in which the Court established the substantive standard for enforcing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act; and Pena-Rodriguez v. Colorado, in which the Court held that the Sixth Amendment's right to an impartial jury requires courts to consider evidence from jurors that racial bias was a significant motivating factor in deliberations.

Fisher was also co-counsel for the plaintiffs in the historic marriage equality case Obergefell v. Hodges, in which the Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees same-sex couples a right to marry. He has received scores of accolades over the course of his career, including being named one of the America's "100 Most Influential Lawyers" by The National Law Journal.

Over the past decade, Fisher has argued more Supreme Court cases than all but a few members of the private bar. His success rate in 5-4 cases is the highest of any member of the Supreme Court bar, including government lawyers, according to a study by legal blog Empirical SCOTUS. The same blog found that Fisher has also obtained more grants of certiorari since 2013 than any other member of the private bar.

"We are delighted to welcome Jeff to the O'Melveny family," said Jonathan Hacker, chair of the firm's Supreme Court and Appellate Practice. "I have known Jeff for almost 20 years. His commanding advocacy skills are matched by his personal warmth and charm. He will connect with our colleagues and clients as easily as he connects with courts. I cannot imagine a better addition to our team."

"O'Melveny's appellate lawyers have long been recognized as among the very best, and I'm greatly looking forward to joining the team," said Fisher. "O'Melveny has a storied history of advocating for clientsand winningin the most high-stakes matters. It also maintains a culture of excellencefrom its long record of public service, to its dedication to integrity, to its internal training and mentoring of the profession's future leaders. It's my pleasure to come aboard."

In addition to his teaching and appellate work, Fisher has published numerous articles on various criminal and constitutional issues. Before joining the Stanford faculty, he co-chaired the appellate practice group of Davis Wright Tremaine. He clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens and Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.



O'Melveny's appellate attorneys work with clients at every step of the litigation, from dispositive motions in trial court to merits briefing and argument in the US Supreme Court, to develop and present cutting-edge legal arguments designed to persuade generalist judges. The practice is supported by a deep bench of talent, including multiple former Supreme Court and federal appellate clerks, as well as the former Acting Solicitor General of the United States and head of the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel. Recent alumni of our practice include three federal appellate judges, two state appellate judges, two state solicitors general, and senior government lawyers.

O'Melveny is among the few elite firms regularly tapped for big-ticket litigation, appellate and trial work, and large streams of ongoing litigation and major transactions. Firm lawyers are arguing two cases in the Supreme Court this Term, including one by appointment from the Court itself. Among other major trial and appellate matters, O'Melveny currently serves as lead trial counsel for AT&T and Time Warner in their proposed merger, a case that has been called the "Antitrust Trial of the Century."

About O'Melveny

It's more than what you do: it's how you do it. Across sectors and borders, in board rooms and courtrooms, we measure our success by yours. And in our interactions, we commit to making your O'Melveny experience as satisfying as the outcomes we help you achieve. Our greatest accomplishment is ensuring that you never have to choose between premier lawyering and exceptional service. So, tell us. What do you want to achieve? Visit us at omm.com.

SOURCE O'Melveny & Myers LLP

Related Links

http://www.omm.com


ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Canada is a top destination for United States travelers but many travelers may be on edge after a man drove a rental van and killed 10 pedestrians and injured at least 15 others in Toronto. Canadian authorities are calling the act deliberate but have not classified it as terrorism. Travel insurance comparison site, Squaremouth, breaks down traveler behavior for trips to Canada and explains what options travelers have if they're concerned about traveling to Canada after the Toronto van attack.

Recent Concern for Terrorism Coverage Low

Most travel insurance policies include Terrorism coverage which allows a traveler to cancel or end their trip early in the event of an act of terror. However, despite a 34% increase in travelers purchasing travel insurance for trips to Canada, the number of travelers specifically searching for Terrorism coverage has decreased by 27% compared to this time last year, suggesting travelers consider Canada to be a safe and peaceful country that would not require the Terrorism coverage.

Terrorism Benefit Explained

Travel insurance is always available for future trips but travelers who want to cancel their trip to Canada can no longer buy a policy with cancellation coverage for the van attack. Any policies purchased after the attack happened on April 23rd will not provide coverage for this event.

While it is still unclear if it was an act of terrorism, if the U.S. Department of State declares it terrorism, travelers who purchased a policy before the attack happened may be able to cancel or end their trip in Canada early. Additionally, in order to have coverage, many policies state that travelers must be traveling within a certain distance from where the attack happened and within a certain amount of time from when the attack occurred.

Cancel For Any Reason Coverage Explained

Travelers who purchased policies before April 23rd with the added Cancel For Any Reason coverage, can cancel their upcoming trip to Canada and receive a partial refund of their trip costs. This time-sensitive benefit allows travelers to cancel their trip without giving any reason. While this benefit can be more expensive and only refunds travelers up to 75% of their costs, it is the best option for those who are nervous to travel.

Squaremouth created the Toronto Van Attack Travel Insurance Information Center to explain coverage for the attack. This page is regularly updated by Squaremouth's travel insurance experts, and includes answers to frequently asked questions and official statements from providers.

ABOUT SQUAREMOUTH

Squaremouth compares travel insurance policies from every major travel insurance provider in the United States. Using Squaremouth's comparison engine and third-party customer reviews, travelers can research and compare travel insurance policies side-by-side. More information can be found at www.squaremouth.com

Available Topic Expert:

Carolyn Leckie

[email protected]

727-260-5012

SOURCE Squaremouth

Related Links

http://www.squaremouth.com


DORNBIRN, Austria, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Tridonic, a leading global provider of smart and efficient lighting solutions, today announced its new DC-String technology, the DC String is now commercially available with a new 100-watt AC/DC power supply designed for the US market. The AC/DC driver and the DC/DC board are intentionally separated, the innovative 48V DC-String lighting solution does away with bulky track boxes, leading to a slimmer design. The DC-String technology gives luminaire manufacturers a new freedom of design and provides simplicity, a lower cost to wire, and use of familiar lighting controls with a 0-10V bridge, which allows for safe interchangeability for occupants in the space.

Ease of Use

Thanks to DC-String technology, users benefit not only from designs with local dimming convenience, called localDIM, but also from dimming with the aid of a 0-10V bridge to enable lighting control on a familiar platform for different uses in day and night applications. In the past, rail or metal-extruded track lighting systems required additional circuitry and conductors for multiple control channels and/or multi-dimming functions. With DC-String, the system cost savings comes from using two wires and conductors instead of the five conductors normally used in these track applications. And for those instances where users want to move a luminaire to another location, the hot plug allows easy and safe removal and replacement of those luminaires without having to switch off the primary power.

Flexible, Aesthetic Design

DC-String technology offers OEMs unique options for luminaire design and miniaturisation. Tridonic has now ensured that spotlights and track heads will make a positive design impression because there is no visible track box. Ultimately, the benefits come from optimized light output, as well as miniaturization and aesthetic design capabilities that are ideal for lighting applications in retail, hospitality, art galleries, museums and residential niches. Click on the link to view the short video showcasing the flexible, aesthetic design capabilities of Tridonic's DC-String technology: http://bit.ly/2zovryD.

Central Driver for Multiple LED Light Sources

With DC-String, Tridonic's ingenuity reorganizes power supply performance and signal transmission for LED spotlight and track lighting applications. The central AC/DC driver efficiently supplies 48V power to multiple luminaire bodies. This efficient design is maximized due to the DC board both supplying the LED module with its required power and serving as a control interface, all done in a small package with big performance.

About Tridonic

Tridonic is a world-leading supplier of lighting technology, supporting its customers with intelligent hardware and software and offering the highest level of quality, reliability and energy savings. As a global driver of innovation in the field of lighting-based network technology, Tridonic develops scalable, future-oriented solutions that enable new business models for lighting manufacturers, building managers, systems integrators, planners and many other types of customers.

To promote the vision of the "Internet of Light", Tridonic relies on partnerships with other specialists. The goal is the joint development of innovative technological solutions that convert lighting systems into intelligent networks and thereby enable associated services. Its profound, technical industry expertise makes Tridonic an ideal partner for established brands and for newcomers to the market.

Tridonic is the technology company of the Zumtobel Group and is headquartered in Dornbirn, Austria. In the 2016/17 tax year, Tridonic generated sales of 377.2 million. 1,590 highly skilled employees and a worldwide sales presence in over 50 countries reflect the company's commitment to the development and deployment of new, smart and connected lighting systems.

www.tridonic.com

SOURCE Tridonic

Related Links

http://www.tridonic.us/us/


BEAVERCREEK, Ohio, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- myCUmortgage, a leading Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO), today announced it has partnered with two new credit unions to provide them with comprehensive mortgage lending services. myCUmortgage is wholly-owned by Wright-Patt Credit Union in Beavercreek, Ohio.

The new partner credit unions, listed below, have a combined membership of nearly 16,000 and assets of over $115 million:

Tim Mislansky, President, myCUmortgage

Illinois Community Credit Union  Sycamore, Ill.

Southern Teachers & Parents Federal Credit Union  Baton Rouge, La.

"Being owned by a credit union, myCUmortgage understands the philosophy of 'people helping people' and strive for this through every detail of the lending process," said Tim Mislansky, President of myCUmortgage. "We look forward to helping both of these new partners as they help their members with home ownership."

Both new partners benefit from myCUmortgage's full suite of mortgage solutions, including origination, processing, underwriting and servicing. Built on powerful mortgage origination technology, the experts at myCUmortgage take member applications, process, underwrite and close each loan.

"Originating a mortgage loan is the first step in creating a positive mortgage experience for the member," said Mislansky. "We treat members with the quality service they have come to expect from their credit unions."

Building upon its 17 years of mortgage industry experience, myCUmortgage is driven to empower its partner credit unions to become great mortgage lenders and dedicated solely to the credit union industry.

About myCUmortgage

myCUmortgage is a wholly-owned Credit Union Service Organization of Wright-Patt Credit Union, based in Beavercreek, Ohio. myCUmortgage helps nearly 200 credit unions nationwide to assist their members with homeownership through quality, cost-efficient, service-driven mortgage solutions. Visit www.myCUmortgage.com for more information.

For more information, contact:

Bob Sadowski, APR

937.912.7276

[email protected]

SOURCE myCUmortgage

Related Links

http://www.myCUmortgage.com


LOS ANGELES, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- UNIQUE LA is a modern pop-up marketplace that features over 250 hand-selected, independent designers, artists, and emerging brands. The energetic festival-like atmosphere includes interactive art installations, a free DIY area, DJs, artisanal food vendors, and more.

Shoppers will find curated, one-of-a-kind goods, support the local economy, and get an exclusive 10th anniversary commemorative magazine, and a limited edition tote!

Admission also includes free ice cream from Tillamook, drinks from Califia Farms, GT's Kombucha, Harmless Harvest Coconut Water, cocktails from Chareau, DIY floral crowns, photobooth fun with Oh! Snap Studios, and more!

DETAILS + TICKETS: www.uniquemarkets.com/markets-la

Clothing & Accessories  Stationery  Jewelry  Home Decor  Art  Gourmet Foods 

Men's Goods  Apothecary  Books  Photography  Screenprints  Plus more!

DATES & LOCATION

Saturday, May 12, 10 am  5 pm

Sunday, May 13, 10 am  5 pm

California Market Center, Penthouse

110 E 9th St, 13th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90079

WEBSITE & SOCIAL

www.uniquemarkets.com | Instagram.com/uniquemarkets | Facebook.com/uniquemarkets

TICKETS

$15 general admission (kids 12 and under free) / $35 VIP Experience tickets (limited)

FAST FACTS

- Admission includes a special edition tote and commemorative magazine

- 250+ hand-selected designers and artists

- Over 5,000 attendees generating $1M for the local economy

- Celebrity fans include JJ Abrams, Kesha, and January Jones

- VIP tickets include a VIP lounge, complimentary wine bar, admission both Saturday and Sunday, a DIY art project, and more!

- Unique LA has worked with ~7500 entrepreneurs and was started by Sonja Rasula in 2008 to showcase talented independent designers while helping support the local economy

Founder Sonja Rasula says, "10 years ago, after working in tech for years, I intentionally created a shopping experience that was in-person and not online at all. I wanted to create an environment where people could witness creativity, interact with each other, be inspired, and support community A decade later, I'm amazed that even as giant retailers are closing, online shopping is taking over, and addictions to cell phones are growing, UNIQUE LA is not just still here but thriving! In this tech-fueled world, people are craving an in-person experience of shopping where they can see and touch the products, meet the designers and spend time with friends. That's what UNIQUE LA is all about!"

SOURCE Unique Markets

Related Links

http://www.uniquemarkets.com


PETALUMA, Calif., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Small businesses can have great potential. Focusing on that potential is important in following a business roadmap, but it can be tricky to turn that potential into results. That goes for business performance, business tools and employee performance. Brandon Frere, CEO of Frere Enterprises, considers himself a servant leader and strives to help unlock the potential of those around him.

"Potential is a moving target, but one of my greatest goals is to unlock my own and help others work to unlock theirs," said Frere. "When the goal is unlocking the potential of my businesses, I often turn to myself and my employees. Together we can make a business far greater than I alone can."

How does one unlock potential? Frere explained his philosophy of opportunity in which he creates opportunities that might lead to success. He encourages creativity and innovation. He seeks input on business workflows and company culture and listens to what those around him have to say. He strives to challenge his employees to meet goals that benefit themselves and the company.

Such an approach can encourage employees to intellectually invest in the company and put forward ideas for improvements. Employees working directly with customers have a unique perspective and can provide feedback about what potential changes might help customers the most. Others working more behind the scenes may have similar suggestions for streamlining processes and other changes.

"The success of a company has a lot to do with the employees," said Frere. "A company cannot possibly thrive if its workers are not thriving. That's one reason why I pay so much attention to the people around me and how they are doing with their goals. If I can help them unlock their potential, maybe they can help with that of my respective companies."

About Frere Enterprises

Brandon Frere is an entrepreneur and businessman who lives in Sonoma County, California. He has designed and created multiple companies to meet the ever-demanding needs of businesses and consumers alike. His company website, www.FrereEnterprises.com, is used as a means to communicate many of the lessons, fundamentals and information he has learned throughout his extensive business and personal endeavors, most recently in advocating on behalf of student loan borrowers nationwide.

As experienced during his own student loan repayment, Mr. Frere found out how difficult it can be to work with federally contracted student loan servicers and the repayment programs designed to help borrowers. Through those efforts, he gained an insider's look into the repayment process and the motivations behind the inflating student loan debt bubble. His knowledge of the confusing landscape of student loan repayment became a vital theme in his future endeavors, and he now uses those experiences to help guide others through the daunting process of applying for available federal repayment and loan forgiveness programs.

FrereEnterprises.com

Related Links

Frere Enterprises home page

SOURCE Frere Enterprises

Related Links

https://brandonfrere.com


SAO PAULO, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Aiming million online users in a country with a GDP per capita of $15,220, Uruguay was a natural choice for UOL BoaCompra's expansion in Latin America. The cross-border payments provider - specialized in emerging markets such as Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Chile and Turkey - announces its launch in Uruguayan territory this month.

"With our support, international companies can boost their sales in a country with one of the highest internet penetration rates in Latin America (83%). BoaCompra simplifies any local payments in Uruguayan Pesos (UYU) with six different local payment methods and a 24x7 Spanish speaking customer support", explains Alain Delcourt, General Manager at UOL BoaCompra.

With Redpagos, the largest payment option in Uruguay for cash payments which is present in hundreds of points of sale all over Uruguay, merchants can also reach the unbanked population. With a full coverage, international e-commerce companies can benefit from UOL BoaCompra's expertise on emerging markets, monetize their products/services with a single integration, contract and settlement.

Operating in Latin America since 2004, UOL BoaCompra has expanded its operations from Brazil to nine countries in different continents. Bringing more than 150 different local payments and working with more than 300 partners, UOL BoaCompra allows merchants to connect their digital business with more than 350 million potential online customers.

NOTE TO EDITORS

UOL BoaCompra is an online payments company specialized in monetizing for international platforms throughout Brazil, Latin America, Portugal, Spain and Turkey. With the most comprehensive portfolio of 150+ local payment methods, including BoaCompra GOLD, the company services more than 6,000 titles from over 300 partners such as Valve, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, RedFox Games, Smilegate, Bigpoint and Aeria Games.

For more information, please visit https://boacompra.com/en and keep up-to-date on the latest news at http://www.boacompra.eu/blog/.

Contacts:

Alain Delcourt  [email protected]

Daniele Godoi  [email protected]

SOURCE UOL BoaCompra

Related Links

https://boacompra.com/en


GURUGRAM, India, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The US was the first to offer the Executive MBA program for professionals seeking to advance in their careers to upper management and executive positions. The first Executive MBA program was created at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business in 1943. Many employers at that time saw it as an opportunity to develop the skills of managers while maintaining their involvement in the organization. Since then, the number of executive MBA programs has increased in the US with many programs offering joint degree programs and partnerships with business schools in Europe and Asia.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/661352/Ken_Research_Logo.jp )

US Executive MBA market is at late growth stage with approximately 181 business schools offering EMBA program in the country. The domestic students dominated the type of enrollees in the EMBA program in the US in SY'2018 due to high local population in the country looking to enhance their skill sets, coupled with the rising awareness regarding the benefits of the EMBA program among employees and employers in US.

"Four in ten US colleges experienced a decline in international applicants in the fall of 2017 term due to the change in visa policies."

The largest ethnic groups in the US as of 2017 include Germans (17.1%), African American (14.6%), English, Scottish, and/or Scotch Irish (12.6%), Irish (11.6%), Mexican (10.9%), American native English speaking (6.7%), Italian (5.9%), Polish (3.0%), French (2.9%) and Native American, First Nations, or Alaskan Native (1.6%). These ethnic groups have attributed to the enrollees in the EMBA program.

The highest number of enrollments in EMBA program in US was found to be from IT and healthcare industry. Increase in number of jobs in digital health, insurance, finance, Pharma biotech, venture capital, medical devices and entrepreneurship has aided the enrollment growth. The US Bureau of Labor and Statistics reported that healthcare management jobs are expected to grow 23% each year. Another industry is computer systems design (and related services) which is ranked as one of the 10 fastest-growing industries in US, having posted, on average, 18% growth for the 12 months ended Dec. 31, 2017. Bureau of Labor Statistics, US projects employment in the construction business to be the fastest compared to any industry in the 2018 and 2019.

Analysts at Ken Research in their latest publication "US Executive MBA Market Outlook to 2022 - By Structured and Customized and by EMBA and GEMBA Programs" believe that hybrid pedagogy style (virtual classes + traditional classroom session), content authoring tools to monitor results and content for executive MBA, interactive and case study based curriculum will aid the enrollment for EMBA market.

Strategic Alliance with Other Institutions for exchange programs and Corporate and marketing initiatives by the colleges will also have a positive impact on the market.

The decrease in corporate sponsorships will lead to more students self funding their EMBA program and negotiating for scholarships in the near future.

Key Topics Covered in the Report:

US Executive MBA Market Overview and Market Size, 2014-2017

US Executive MBA Market Segmentation, SY'2018 By Structured and Customized Programs, SY'2018 By Funding of Program (Self Funding, Partial Funding and Full Sponsorship), SY'2018 By Duration of the Course (12-16 Months, 17-21 Months and More than 21 Months), SY'2018 By Domestic and International Students, SY'2018 By EMBA and GEMBA, SY'2018

Strategies Adopted by Colleges in US Executive MBA Market

Target Profile of the US Executive MBA Market Average Age in Program (34-39 Years, 28-33 Years and Above 39 Years) and Work Experience (11-14 Years, More than 14 Years and 6-10 Years), 2018

Work Experience in Program (11-14 Years, More than 14 Years and 6-10 Years), SY'2018 Gender (Male and Female), SY'2018 Industries Represented by Students in the Last Profile (IT, Healthcare, Financial services, manufacturing, Construction, Consulting and Others), 2018

Application Trends Survey

Global Synopsis of Executive MBA Programs

Comparison of Top Five Executive MBA Programs

Trends and Development for US Executive MBA Market

Government Initiatives for the US Executive MBA Market

Decision Making Parameters for the Students While Opting for EMBA

SWOT Analysis of the US Executive MBA Market

Competitive Scenario for US Executive MBA Market Share of Major Players in the US Executive MBA Market, SY'2018

Company Profiles Columbia Business School University of Chicago Booth School Of Business The Wharton School Cornell SC Johnson School of Business UC Berkeley Haas School of Business NYU Stern School of Business University of Virginia ( Darden School of Business) Yale School of Management UCLA Anderson School of Business MIT Sloan School of Business Stephen M. Ross School of Business Kellogg School of Management

Future Outlook and Projections for US Executive MBA Market, 2018-2022 By Revenue By Funding of Program (Self Funding, Partial Funding and Full Sponsorship), 2022 By Structured and Customized Programs By Domestic and International Students Future Trends in the US Executive MBA Market

Analyst Recommendations for the US Executive MBA Market

For more information on the research report, refer to below link:

https://www.kenresearch.com/education-and-recruitment/education/us-executive-mba-market/144733-99.html

Related Reports

US Executive Education Programs Market By Type (Open and Customized Programs), By Universities (Private and State), By Mode of Delivery (Business Schools, Online, Foreign Collaborations) - Outlook to 2022

The report also provides trends and developments in the market, key issues and challenges in the market, government initiatives for executive education in the US, Entry barriers in US Executive Education Programs market, SWOT analysis of the market and covering competitive landscape of major institutions.

India Executive Education Market Outlook to 2020 - Preference for Skill Based MDPs and Virtual Education to Drive Future

The Executive Education Market in India has focused mainly upon the middle and senior management executives and has designed courses which could fulfill the needs of this management group.

Australia Education Market Forecast to 2020- Expanding Higher Education Segment and International Enrollments to Drive the Market

The report provides a comprehensive analysis of the K-12, VET, higher education, test preparation, e-learning and private tutoring industry in Australia.

Contact Us:

Ken Research

Ankur Gupta, Head Marketing & Communications

[email protected]

+91-9015378249



SOURCE Ken Research
WASHINGTON, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- For National Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month, USA Medical recognizes the 25 million people in America who suffer from these diseases. The Company offers assistance by providing discounts on medications prescribed for asthma and allergies through its customized prescription savings programs in all 50 states including: Texas Prescription Assistance Program, Florida Prescription Assistance Program and California Prescription Assistance Program.

Many are unaware that the triggers of asthma and allergies can change during the year. USA Medical identifies the common causes by season and shares helpful tips to address them:

Winter: Dust, debris, & pet hair

Dust, debris, & pet hair Reduce the amount of these allergens by frequently cleaning.

Spring: Pollen & hay fever

Pollen & hay fever Changing clothes after being outside can diminish the risk of allergy or asthma attacks.

Summer: Humidity & air contaminants

Humidity & air contaminants Use a dehumidifier or air conditioner to help regulate allergens that thrive in moist temperatures.

Fall: Ragweed, cold & flu

Ragweed, cold & flu The flu shot can help reduce the risk of asthma flare-ups.

USA Medical Co-Founder and President Jordan Sessler says, "Asthma and allergies can be difficult conditions to manage. That's why taking your medicines regularly as prescribed for these diseases is crucial. We designed our program to help you afford your medications, whenever you need them. All brand name and generic prescriptions qualify for savings up to 75%."

The pre-activated card is accepted at more than 60,000 pharmacies across the countrylocal, regional and national chains such as CVS, Costco, Target, Walmart and Walgreens. Eligible Rx medications include levalbuterol, naltrexone, and fluticasone prescribed for asthma and allergies as well as thousands of other popular medications. Go to prescriptionassistance.info to get a customized Pharmacy Discount Card for all 50 states, including:

Alabama Prescription Assistance Program

North Carolina Prescription Assistance Program

Georgia Prescription Assistance Program

Pennsylvania Prescription Assistance Program

Tennessee Prescription Assistance Program

Virginia Prescription Assistance Program

These programs are not affiliated with the government.

About USA Medical Prescription Assistance Program

USA Medical Prescription Assistance Program is a division of USA Medical, which reaches out to individuals and seniors among the estimated 100+ million people in America with inadequate prescription coverage. The Company's mission is to help individuals save money on prescriptions they need. USA Medical has been given an "A+" rating by the Better Business Bureau.

CONTACT: Ceci West, [email protected]

SOURCE USA Medical
LOS ANGELES, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Viking (www.vikingcruises.com) today announced it has renewed its sponsorship of National Geographic's fully scripted anthology series, "Genius," which in season two explores the life and work of influential Spanish artist and pioneer of the Cubist movement, Pablo Picasso. The premier partnership extension with National Geographic builds on Viking's continued commitment to supporting enriching cultural programming, with current and past partnerships including PBS' MASTERPIECE, the Los Angeles Philharmonic at The Hollywood Bowl, The Metropolitan Opera, Oslo's Munch Museum, St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theatre, Ballet Sun Valley and more. The Emmy-, Golden Globe- and Screen Actors Guild Award-nominated series will return for a second 10-part global event tonight, April 24, at 9 p.m. ET/PT, with a special two-hour premiere on National Geographic.

"We are pleased to continue our partnership with National Geographic's Genius. Together we are engaging audiences who strongly believe in the value of learning and exploration," said Torstein Hagen, Chairman of Viking.

"National Geographic and Viking are two brands innately driven to enrich lives  through history, culture, art and exploration," said Brendan Ripp, EVP, National Geographic. "We are delighted that, once again, Viking is lending their brand synergy to support Genius and our commitment to premium content."

Dramatizing the stories of some of the world's most brilliant icons, Genius: Picasso will explore the artist's contribution to modern art and his turbulent personal life, which included tumultuous marriages, numerous affairs and ever-shifting political and personal alliances. The star-studded cast includes Antonio Banderas ("The Skin I'm In," "The Mask of Zorro") as the world-renowned artist, Pablo Picasso, and joining him as the younger Pablo is Alex Rich ("Glow," "True Detective"), who rejects academic study and joins the circle of young bohemian artists and writers struggling to make it in early 20th century Spain and France. Clemence Poesy ("The Tunnel," "Final Portrait") portrays Francoise Gilot, the French painter and author who had a decade long affair with Picasso yielding two children, and Sebastian Roche ("Young Pope," "The Man in the High Castle") plays Emile Gilot, Francoise's tyrannical father.

The series takes the audience to iconic locations from Picasso's life in Europe, including Paris, Budapest, Barcelona and Malaga, Spain, birthplace to both Picasso and Antonio Banderas. All of these featured locations are also destinations on Viking's river and ocean cruise itineraries. In several destinations, Viking also offers guests real experiences to learn more about the life of Picasso. In Malaga, guests can choose a dedicated shore excursion that visits Museo Picasso and provides history about the city of his birth. Also, on other popular Viking itineraries in Europe, guests may opt to visit the museums that house the three largest collections of Picasso's work  Musee Picasso in Paris; Museu Picasso in Barcelona; and Museum Ludwig in Cologne.

The Viking Difference

Designed for discerning travelers with interests in history, art, music and cuisine, Chairman Torstein Hagen often says Viking offers guests "the thinking person's cruise" as an alternative to mainstream cruises. Ships are small to get guests closer to their destination, with more time in port and more overnights. On board, guests find serene Scandinavian spaces, where every room is both beautiful and functional, quiet and filled with light. With the most al fresco dining opportunities at sea, featuring regional cuisines and always-available American classics, Viking's guests can truly dine in their destination. A focus on cultural enrichment brings immersive experiences ashore and on board. And only The Viking Way of Exploration provides guests with itineraries that feature Local Life, Working World and Privileged Access experiences.

This announcement comes on the heels of an impressive list of recent accolades and growth for Viking. In March, the company's fourth ocean ship, Viking Sun, was named in Shanghai during its first-ever sold out World Cruise. Viking also made several fleet development announcements recently, including the addition of 24 new river vessels and the options for more ocean ships, which will expand the ocean fleet to 16 vessels by 2027. Additionally, in February Viking swept Cruise Critic's 8th Annual Cruisers' Choice Awards with 10 First Place honors. In 2017, the company was named the #1 ocean cruise line in Travel + Leisure's 2017 World's Best Awards  and was voted the Best River Cruise Line by Conde Nast Traveler in the publication's 2017 Readers' Choice Awards.

Booking Details

From now through April 30, 2018, Viking is offering U.S. residents 2-for-1 cruise fares on select 2018 ocean and river cruise itineraries, with additional savings on international air. Call Viking toll free at 1-855-8-VIKING (1-855-884-5464) or contact a travel agent.

Media Assets

For more information, images and b-roll for Viking Cruises, contact [email protected].

About Viking Cruises

Viking was founded in 1997 with the purchase of four ships in Russia and is now the leader in river and small ship ocean cruising. Designed for discerning travelers with interests in science, history, culture and cuisine, Chairman Torstein Hagen often says Viking offers guests "the thinking person's cruise" as an alternative to mainstream cruises. In its first two years of operation, Viking has been rated the #1 ocean cruise line in Travel + Leisure's 2016 and 2017 "World's Best" Awards. Viking currently operates a fleet of 65 vessels, offering scenic cruising on rivers and oceans around the world. By 2027 the company will operate 16 930-guest ocean cruise ships. In addition to the Travel + Leisure honors, Viking has also been honored multiple times on Conde Nast Traveler's "Gold List" as well as recognized by Cruise Critic as "Best Overall" Small-Mid size ship in the 2018 Cruisers' Choice Awards, "Best River Cruise Line" and "Best River Itineraries," with the entire Viking Longships fleet being named "Best New River Ships" in the website's Editors' Picks Awards. For additional information, contact Viking at 1-855-8-VIKING (1-855-884-5464) or visit www.vikingcruises.com.

About National Geographic Partners LLC

National Geographic Partners LLC (NGP), a joint venture between National Geographic and 21st Century Fox, is committed to bringing the world premium science, adventure and exploration content across an unrivaled portfolio of media assets. NGP combines the global National Geographic television channels (National Geographic Channel, Nat Geo WILD, Nat Geo MUNDO, Nat Geo PEOPLE) with National Geographic's media and consumer-oriented assets, including National Geographic magazines; National Geographic studios; related digital and social media platforms; books; maps; children's media; and ancillary activities that include travel, global experiences and events, archival sales, licensing and e-commerce businesses. Furthering knowledge and understanding of our world has been the core purpose of National Geographic for 130 years, and now we are committed to going deeper, pushing boundaries, going further for our consumersand reaching millions of people around the world in 172 countries and 43 languages every month as we do it. NGP returns 27 percent of our proceeds to the nonprofit National Geographic Society to fund work in the areas of science, exploration, conservation and education. For more information visit natgeotv.com or nationalgeographic.com, or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, YouTube, LinkedIn and Pinterest.

SOURCE Viking

Related Links

https://www.vikingcruises.com


SYRACUSE, N.Y., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Quadrant Biosciences Inc., a Syracuse, New York-based Life Science company, announced today that Wall Street veteran Peter Cohen will be joining its Board of Directors. Mr. Cohen is currently Chairman of the Board of Cowen Inc., a well-known diversified financial services firm. Quadrant Bioscience, which focuses on the development of functional assessment and epigenetic biomarkers for various neurological conditions, has recently announced licensing agreements for its novel application of salivary RNAs as biomarkers for autism spectrum disorder, Parkinson's disease and concussion.

From November 1992 to May 1994, Mr. Cohen was Vice Chairman and director of Republic New York Corporation, as well as Chairman of Republic's subsidiary, Republic New York Securities Corporation. Earlier, he was Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Shearson Lehman Brothers from 1983 to 1990. During that time, Mr. Cohen played a prominent role in the RJR Nabisco takeover deal that later became the subject of the book and movie "Barbarians at the Gate."

Over his career, Mr. Cohen has served on a number of corporate, industry and philanthropic boards, including the New York Stock Exchange, The Federal Reserve International Capital Markets Advisory Committee, The Depository Trust Company, The American Express Company, Olivetti SpA, Telecom Italia SpA, and Kroll Inc. He is presently a Trustee of Mount Sinai Medical Center, Vice Chairman and Lead Director of the Board of Directors of Scientific Games Corporation and a director of Safe Auto Insurance.

Cohen will be joining a Board of Directors that includes Dr. Ira Fedder, prominent orthopedic surgeon from Maryland, Andrew Rock, co-founder of K2Medical and NeuroSpine Ventures, and MaryAnn Tyszko, former CEO of SRC, a research and development company. According to Richard Uhlig, Founder and CEO of Quadrant Biosciences, Mr. Cohen's addition comes at a perfect time. "As we move into the next phase of our business with the Quadrant token offering, having a Board of Directors with this depth and breadth of experience in science, medicine, and finance is critical. I couldn't be more thrilled to have Peter join us and bring his considerable experience and skillset to our company."

Mr. Cohen agrees. "I am very excited to be joining Quadrant Biosciences as I truly believe in their vision of addressing important global healthcare concerns with their groundbreaking functional and epigenetic biomarker technologies." Currently Mr. Cohen is Lead Director of Scientific Games Corporation, where he is also Vice Chairman and a member of its Finance Committee. He received a Bachelor of Science from The Ohio State University in 1968 and his Masters of Business Administration from Columbia University in 1969.

About

Quadrant Biosciences Inc. is a Life Science company involved in the development of functional assessments and epigenetic diagnostic solutions for large-scale health issues. The company participates in the Start-up NY program, a New York State economic development program. Quadrant Biosciences has also entered into collaborative research relationships with a number of institutions including SUNY Upstate Medical University and Penn State University to explore and develop novel biomarker technologies with a focus on Autism Spectrum Disorder, concussion, and Parkinson's Disease. For information about the company contact Quadrant Biosciences at [email protected] or visit their website at www.QuadrantBiosciences.com.

SOURCE Quadrant Biosciences Inc.

Related Links

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This year's expo will feature exhibits that illustrate the scope of engineering and the applied sciences  and their potential for improving the world. The most exciting work being done in labs and prototyping facilities will come alive for spectators of all ages, and projects developed for and by the students in NYU Tandon's many K12 STEM Education programs will be of special interest to even the youngest attendees, their parents, and teachers.

Highlights will include:

Small-scale autonomous vehicles capable of communicating for cooperative cruise control

Innovative concrete with half the weight and double the strength of conventional forms of the material, thanks to the inclusion of glass micro-balloons

A demonstration of how Internet-of-Things (IoT) technology can be used to ensure that packages are delivered safely and securely

A robotic librarian that alerts the human one when a book is shelved improperly

Customized 3D-printed prosthetics that can be manufactured quickly and affordably

A chance to interact with a swarm of spheroid robots

A totally self-contained and self-sustaining urban farm

Controlling neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's with protein engineering

Dean Katepalli R. Sreenivasan said, "Our annual Research Expo is a chance to demonstrate to the public that engineers and applied scientists are impacting society in positive ways. Here at NYU Tandon, we're developing practical solutions to problems we all face, and we want to inspire others, particularly young people, to join us in becoming inventors and innovators."

Vikram Kapila, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at NYU Tandon and academic organizer of the event added, "The Research Expo will no doubt be as fun and educational as it is each year, and it will certainly open our visitors' eyes to the important work being done right here in Downtown Brooklyn. If it sparks a love of science and a desire to further explore the STEM fields in our attendees, the event will have truly met our objectives."

About the New York University Tandon School of Engineering

The NYU Tandon School of Engineering dates to 1854, the founding date for both the New York University School of Civil Engineering and Architecture and the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute (widely known as Brooklyn Poly). A January 2014 merger created a comprehensive school of education and research in engineering and applied sciences, rooted in a tradition of invention and entrepreneurship and dedicated to furthering technology in service to society. In addition to its main location in Brooklyn, NYU Tandon collaborates with other schools within NYU, one of the country's foremost private research university, and is closely connected to engineering programs at NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai. It operates Future Labs focused on start-up businesses in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn and an award-winning online graduate program. For more information, visit http://engineering.nyu.edu.

www.facebook.com/nyutandon

@NYUTandon

Note: Images from 2017 available at http://dam.engineering.nyu.edu/?c=2078&k=2178863887; video at http://engineering.nyu.edu/multimedia/videos/2017/04/2017-research-expo

SOURCE NYU Tandon School of Engineering

Related Links

http://engineering.nyu.edu


The event was held in the presence of Jayden Wei, Managing Director of CollinStar Capital, and moderated by Acqeel Ziyad, who on top of being a marketing representative for WhatEOS, is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Fintech Review - a publication focusing on the intersection of finance and technology.

During his presentation, Acqeel emphasized that "EOS is a leader in the Blockchain sphere globally. Technologies being developed by the team are going to have a major impact on the way people see parts of Blockchain technology, most notably consensus algorithms such as EOS' DPoS mechanism".

Roger then introduced the organisation as one aiming to become Oceania's most stable and secure EOS Block Producer (BP). EOS Block Producers are points of connection in a Blockchain which collect transactional information and pack them into blocks. According to the EOS.IO Technical White Paper, the consensus algorithm utilised by EOS  Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS)  requires 21 Block Producers to run the entirety of the EOS network.

Block Producer elections help mitigate centralization and maintain the stability of the EOS network. Using the DPoS algorithm, those who hold EOS tokens can vote for Block Producers through a continuous approval voting system. Anyone can choose to participate in block production, and will be given an opportunity to produce blocks, provided they can persuade token holders to vote for them.

Roger explained that to achieve this, "the WhatEOS team has created multiple specialist departments, including the cloud service development team, legal team, and a vetted security team, with additional help and support from world-renowned cryptocurrency development communities".

WhatEOS uses local and cloud servers to store data, creating a hybrid system which will adopt the advantages, and alleviate some of the disadvantages of both systems. They take a multi-regional approach to building the node, which will help prevent it from facing certain geo-political obstacles while ensuring that it won't be exclusively running in one single country for security and availability purposes.

WhatEOS consists of an exceedingly experienced and educated team, including members of many other highly successful Blockchain projects, exchange platforms and related companies. Many members of the team have previously worked on projects together and are able to communicate effectively with each other.

WhatEOS has a number of co-sponsors, providing funding to set up the crucial infrastructure to run the system. These consist of the aforementioned CollinStar Capital; Hyper Pay - a company providing a multi-functional zero-fee digital asset wallet; and JNB - an exchange platform based in Japan, focused on providing strong service, security and support.

Additionally, there are four main strategic partners joining WhatEOS. These are: Alibaba Cloud, who will be providing WhatEOS with world-class cloud computing infrastructure; Hatchstone, a VC investment and advisory firm, which will be providing legal and compliance advisory; and HPX, a cryptocurrency exchange with a focus on providing RMB pairs for leading cryptocurrencies with zero-fees for EOS trades. Finally, the CollinStar Joint Laboratory, based at Monash University's Clayton campus in Melbourne, with a newly established arm at Hong Kong Polytechnic university, will provide necessary academic research to assist with WhatEOS' future services.

The WhatEOS ecosystem is held accountable by a three-part system. Firstly, with a range of rigorous internal control measures, then using professional external auditing services to act as a more in-depth accountability system, and lastly by the community, ensuring that WhatEOS works in the best interests of the EOS and Blockchain community. The architecture of WhatEOS' server is highly capable, with an advanced security design, incident response plan, and robust disaster recovery strategy. This, alongside WhatEOS' technical capabilities including all aspects relating to the industry  from research to building core infrastructure, to complex management systems, to app development, and beyond, makes it a top-tier competitor in the race to become an EOS Block Producer.

About CollinStar Capital

CollinStar Capital operates as the interface for investors and FinTech innovators to collaborate and interact. Acting as a premier asset management firm, CollinStar Capital has established one of the largest Blockchain asset funds in the Asia-Pacific region. The company's specialised investment banking advisory solutions provide entrepreneurs with deep insights into the Blockchain revolution and financing development process.

SOURCE CollinStar Capital
NEW YORK, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The fashion industry has changed dramatically over the past decade. U.S. census bureau data shows that for the second year in a row, total apparel retail sales have gone down. Meanwhile, according to statista.com (https://www.statista.com/statistics/281594/share-of-apparel-and-accessories-sales-in-total-us-e-retail-sales/), in 2017 online fashion sales accounted for 19.8 percent of total retail e-commerce sales in the United States. Clearly, the market is shifting towards online sales and the fashion industry is struggling to adapt to this new landscape.

Vibe Consulting

Maria Pesin, fashion business consultant (https://vibeconsulting.co/) and CEO of Vibe Consulting, explains, "It's absolutely essential that new fashion entrepreneurs start thinking outside of the box. Given the competitive landscape, traditional sales reps are reluctant to take on unproven brands and most independent boutiques have taken on a hunker down mentality. To succeed, fashion startups need to approach the market in innovative new ways."

While established department stores are struggling to keep their heads above water, new formulas for reaching consumers are thriving. Discount stores, pop up stores, subscription services and direct-to-consumer sales are increasing their market shares. In a recent interview Karl-Johan Persson, CEO of H&M, recognized, "The fashion industry is changing fast. At the heart of the transformation is digitalization, and it is driving the need to transform and rethink faster and faster."

The increase in the e-commerce statistics does not, however, open a door to immediate success. Opening an online store is not sufficient for assuring online sales. In an increasingly competitive space, fashion startups are also struggling to set themselves apart. Hampered by complicated technologies and limited advertising budgets, aspiring fashion designers often feel overwhelmed by the complexity of launching a modern fashion startup.

"Consumers are much more demanding than they used to be. They want to feel a connection with the brands they buy, and they want to know that they share something in common with the designers that they are wearing," explained Pesin. "Fashion startups need to have strong opinionated voices that deeply resonate with their target audiences. Together with innovative sales and marketing strategies, small fashion entrepreneurs can effectively compete with the big brands whose influence is waning."

While the current market conditions represent a significant opportunity for up and coming fashion brands, navigating this opportunity is not easy. Fashion entrepreneurs need to understand complicated subjects such as digital marketing, production optimization, costing, pricing and direct-to-consumer sales.

At Vibe Consulting (https://vibeconsulting.co/), Maria Pesin brings over 25 years of real world proven fashion business experience to her clients. She has developed brands from the ground up and taken well-known names to new heights of excellence. Her proven leadership ability has led her to spearhead marketing operations and construct and implement business plans for New York apparel giants like Fleet Street and GIII Apparel Group building multi-million dollar brands. Establishing new businesses, growing existing businesses and bringing new fashion trends into the marketplace is what she enjoys most about her job.

Media Contact:

Maria Pesin

[email protected]

866-833-1354

SOURCE Vibe Consulting

Related Links

https://vibeconsulting.co


Accessed through the Viverae employer portal, wellness administrators can quickly display wellness program metrics and export presentation-ready visuals. Using an interactive dashboard and simple interface, users without technical experience can easily apply filters to slice and dice reports to gain meaningful insights. With Viverae Analytics, wellness administrators can review real-time metrics to pull data-driven messages that validate wellness program spend to the C-suite, and identify and support areas of emphasis to achieve even more impressive outcomes.

"Results are the absolute essence of our business. Our programs are built specifically with true, real-life, sustainable engagement drivers that result in healthy changes, which can and should be easily reported on," said Mike Lamb, Viverae president and chief executive officer. "With instant access to data like program participation metrics, clients can manage living, breathing programs that they can adjust and alter as necessary."

With 20 years of expertise designing successful workplace wellness programs, Viverae serves more than 600 clients and 1.2 million members throughout the United States. Its wellness platform can be accessed anywhere internet access is available.

About Viverae

Viverae is a workplace wellness technology company based in Dallas, Texas. Rooted in care and focused on reducing health risks, our innovative application empowers employers to create cultures of health and well-being. We bring clarity. We inspire. We support. Learn more: www.viverae.com.

Viverae's workplace wellness programs are compliant with Affordable Care Act requirements and applicable law, and National Committee for Quality Assurance and national health advocacy group standards.

SOURCE Viverae

Related Links

http://www.viverae.com


More than half of the lenders in the Mozo database now offer a rate under 3.70%.

Mozo director Kirsty Lamont says many mortgage holders consider the banks offerings to be 'good enough.'

By taking out the best mortgage for your needs, you can easily save tens of thousands of dollars over the course of a loan," Lamont said.

"What we're seeing is that many mortgage holders consider the banks offerings to be 'good enough' when really, they're offering their best deals for new customers while hiking rates for existing customers.

Whether youve had your home loan for one year, or twenty, it pays to check home loan offerings to ensure youre getting the best deal for your needs.

"Despite paltry offerings for many existing mortgage-holders, 42% of Australians believe their home loan rate is competitive and only 18% considered making the switch to a new lender.

Mozo recently compared 525 home loans from 88 financial providers for the Mozos Experts Choice Awards to find the most competitive offerings on the market for both owner occupier and investor home loans.

Newcastle Permanent took out home lender of the year while loans.com.au won awards for both low cost, offset and investor home loan.

Click here to enlarge.

Click here for the full list of Mozo Expert Choice Home Loan award winners.

Comparing loans, the Experts Choice home loan judges found that the potential savings between an average and competitive loan was up to $68,400 based on a typical loan of $350,000 over 30 years.

When it comes to customer satisfaction, the big four banks ranked poorly with 70 percent of mortgage holders feeling dissatisfied about their current mortgage rate.

Despite this, only 17 percent consider making a switch. Smaller banks fared slightly better with nearly 60% of respondents believing their home loan is competitive.

Only 27 percent of Tasmanians have a rate above 4 percent compared to a whopping 63 percent of mortgage holders from Northern Territory.

Interestingly, Tasmanians are fiercely loyal to their banks with an overwhelming 91 percent saying they would not consider switching banks.

Mortgage holders in the 25-34-year-old age bracket were most like to switch with one in four considering a change in provider while only 8 percent of mortgage holders over 65 years consider making the switch.

With the banks reserving their best and brightest deals for new customers, its worth shopping around to secure the best home loan for you. Mozo research shows that there are owner occupier home loans on the market with rates as low as 3.39%, says Lamont.
Fairfax Media property columnists have amended articles that reported the Academy award-winning actor Russell Crowe had sold two of his four apartments in Woolloomooloo Wharf last Saturday.

The Australian Financial Review's Su-Lin Tan had the Sunday "exclusive" which was followed up Monday by Lucy Macken at Domain, Channel 7 and The West Australian.

The Sydney Daily Telegraph checked the initial report and did not publish on receiving a denial.

Macken's Monday afternoon rewrite wrote "in a bizarre twist, Russell Crowes media agent Grant Vandenberg denied any sale had occurred."

It hasnt sold and it wasnt for sale, Vandenberg told Domain which then duly noted as a footer that it had amended its initial $13 million sale report.

Their URL however remained: "Russell Crowe sells half home on Sydney's finger wharf."

Last month a prestige Bellevue Hill article was also amended subsequent to publication.

The AFR kept its headline and URL, and without any acknowledgement, amended its article to instead suggest Crowe "is in discussions to sell two of his Finger Wharf apartments in Woolloomooloo to new Sydney entrant Sam Barnett, former Western Australia premier Colin Barnett's youngest son, for just under $13 million."

The article confusingly further advised "an offer and acceptance for the sale of the two smaller Finger Wharf properties of about 900 square metres had occurred, but settlement of the property has not."

The AFR labelled the little known Barnett a "premium property investor", crediting him for having "negotiated the purchase of the two apartments privately."

The original article was gushingly retweeted by fewer AFR colleagues than normal practice.

The near 1000-square-metre amalgamation of four lots was bought by Crowe in 2003 for a then-apartment record of $14.35 million. It was listed in 2016 with $30 million hopes, but pulled from the market last year despite offer around $25 million given Crowe's other property listings yielded high prices.
An AMP planner ran a secret property advocacy business while advising clients to source investment properties from his firm, the banking royal commission has been told.

AMP planner Adam Palmer advised several of his clients to set up self managed super funds to buy investment properties through Property Saint of which he owned 60 per cent.

AMP had hired Palmer in May 2013 despite knowing Palmer had been found to have given poor advice previously.

AMP was also told ahead of Mr Palmers employment that the planner had been found by Financial Ombudsman Service in 2009 to have provided inappropriate advice to a client by recommending they invest in Basis Capital.

Basis Capitals high risk Basis Yield hedge fund collapsed in 2008.

AMP did not conduct an audit of his advice until July 2014 when it was revealed he had at least 10 clients not told of his conflict of interest involving Property Saint.
After another spray from the Federal Court, the Mossgreen administrators have thrown in the towel, telling the no-pushover owners of $5 million worth of art and antiques that their insurance coverage had lapsed.

The letter sent by the BDO administrators on Anzac Eve stunned clients, already angered at the way the administration had been undertaken ever since their appointment just prior to Christmas.

BDO have advised the auction house clients to help themselves to their stored contents, though not to come through the besieged accountancy firm which had expended a $1 million stocktake that the Federal Court described as "intermeddling".

BDO sent an update today to consignors of Mossgreen. The second creditors' meeting has been decided as May 4. Secured creditors have been advised their payment is likely to be 2 cents in the dollar.

"The voluntary administrators are without funds to meet the ongoing expenses of preserving and facilitating the return of goods," James White, the admonished BDO administrator advised all Mossgreen clients by email on Thursday.

"Consequently, the voluntary administrators are no longer in a position to retain the companys remaining two leasehold premises and have no alternative but to arrange for possession of those premises to be returned to their respective landlords, as of close of business, Monday, 23 April 2018.

Click here to enlarge.

"It will now be up to the landlords of those premises to co-ordinate the return of your consigned goods.

"Please contact the relevant landlord," the long suffering Mossgreen clients were told.

At the time of issuing the correspondence, the landlord for the Clayton warehouse indicated that he will seek to contact consignors directly in relation to the return of their consigned items.

BDO offered no indication of the return process of the former High Street headquarters.

"We remain in discussions with the landlords regarding how we might be able to assist them with the goods collection process, and to make available the work we have done to date to bring order to that process."

"However, you will appreciate that as we are without funds, we can no longer maintain insurance in respect of the consigned goods.

"We strongly recommend that you immediately ensure that you have your own insurance in place," White said.

One client indicated the "BDO's bloody-mindedness will tip the scales to ensuring state government's move to ensure in future that auction houses are covered by trust fund style regulations."

Mossgreen clients hope both landlords are disposed to readily assist in the return of the goods and chatels. Property Observer anticipated the landlords would become key stakeholders in our reportage last week.

BDO never provided "any satisfactory explanation" as to why they did not adopt a "common-sense approach" on an earlier quick return of the $5 million in art and antiques caught in the Mossgreen administration, the Federal Court of Appeal noted earlier this week.

The now published judgement that admonished BDO came after BDO was thrawted in its attempt to impose a hefty fee on all clients of the collapsed auction house, as they sought to recoup the $1 million in expenses undertaken without reference to the courts.

The fee often was more than the content's value.

The initial judgement by Federal Court judge Nye Perram ruled the BDO administrators were "intermeddling" in other people's goods in circumstances "where they had not been invited to do so, were not performing their statuatory functions and had not been appointed receivers."

While not agreeing to the entirety of Justice Perram's ruling, the judgement, signed off by the Honourable Chief Justice Allsop and Justices Banks-Smith and Colvin, reiterated the error in BDO's administration.

The judges noted given that the BDO administrators only sought directions after the event, in effect to approve the course that they had already undertaken.

It was initially estimated that Mossgreen held in excess of 10,000 items on consignment, held across three premises in Victoria, their High Street, Armidale premises, a site in NSW on Queen Street, Woollahra and a third party warehouse in Clayton, Victoria.

The goods were classified into the following categories:

1. Items sold at auction prior to our appointment and not yet collected by purchasers;

2. Unsold items of recent auctions held on consignment on behalf of vendors;

3. Items held on consignment for future auctions;

4. Items abandoned by purchasers and vendors;

5. Items stored at the Companys warehouse awaiting collection by vendors; and

6. Artwork consigned to the Company to hang in the gallery.

The stocktake identified that Mossgreen retained 6,935 lots (or 4,663 lots excluding stamps and coins) on behalf of in excess of 800 consignors (or in excess 600 consignors excluding stamps and coins).

After including abandoned items, and allowing for the prospect that owners of such items were unlikely to make claims, the judges noted it could be seen that the extent of claims by individual owners to the return of individual items was not as overwhelming a task as BDO advised.

The total cost of the stocktaking exercise was $1,048,072. It comprised the following: wages of $240,747 as of the companys 36 employees, after 19 were terminated in January 2018, the remainder were kept on.

An amount of $180,075 had been included for rent. An amount of $54,000 was included for insurance and $45,849 was included for security.

There was $122,605 allocated for the costs of engaging the Tiger stocktake company to undertake a complete stocktake of all consigned goods.

Some $72,500 had been included for legal costs for obtaining advice as to consignor Tasks and seeking directions from the court.

Fes for the administrators were put at $126,551 and disbursements of $11,033 to 31 January 2018.

Actual administrators costs from 1 February 2018 to 16 March 2018 have been $200,715.

All of the above were based on estimates to 31 March 2018.

The names of the art and antique creditors are a who's who from across Australia, ranging from passionate collectors, socialites, low key business tycoons to deceased estates.

Caught amid the clients, were Sydney's society Coppleson family listed as owed $465,000, the third highest-owed creditor.
Italian Novel Emerges as Hot LBF Title

Coming out of the just-wrapped London Book Fair, one novel that had people talking was Story of A Decent Family by Rosa Ventrella, which will be published this month by Newton Compton in Italy. The book has sold to Xander Uitgevers (the Netherlands), Suma/ Penguin/ Random House (Spain) and Patakis (Greece). Rights to the novel, which is about the relationship between a woman and a man who is a member of an organized crime family, are controlled by Italy's Malatesta Agency.

Dutch Thriller Sells in Germany

The debut thriller Recollection, by Dutch producer Kasper van Beek, has sold to Goldmann Verlag in Germany. The book follows a man whose life is falling apart, and it all starts when he is sent a photo of himself in Finland, a place he thought he had never before visited, with a man he has never met before. He begins a search for the man in the photograph. Rights to the book are controlled by the originating publisher, De Bezige Bij/Cargo.

French Title on Confidence Heats Up

The new book from the author of The Virtue's of Failure, Charles Pepin's Self-Confidence: A Philosophy, has just sold to La Nave di Teseo in Italy. There are also offers in on the book from publishers in multiple countries including Spain, Germany, and Korea. The book was published in France, in March, by Allary Editions. Self-Confidence draws on principles of psychology and philosophy to pinpoint the origins of self-confidence, and explain how it works. Rights to the book are controlled by 2 Seas Literary Agency.

Finnish Novel Sold in France

A Whale Called Goliath by Cristina Sandu has sold to Robert Laffont in France. The book, which was published in September 2017 by Otava, was nominated for the Finlandia Prize, the prestigious award given by the Finnish Book Foundation. The author is of Finnish and Romanian descent, and the book is set in a Romanian village that has a history of legends and myths. The Finnish agency Rights and Brands controls all rights to the book.
Last week, the U.K. announced it was establishing diplomatic representation in nine countries: Lesotho, Swaziland, the Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu. From an Oceanian perspective, this might be a game changer.

There has been concern in capitals around the globe that the region is drifting towards China. Some analysts believe that politicians in Australia and New Zealand, the major Western nations tasked with strategic management in the region, have prioritised a narrow domestic economic agenda over regional prosperity and security, opening the door to Beijing in the process  often to the dismay of their defence and intelligence communities.

This opening up seemingly accelerated once the semi-autonomous New Zealand Aid was integrated into Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (2009), and the Australian Agency for International Development came under the control of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (2013). Some aid funding started to be more directly linked to economic advantage for New Zealand and Australia, as opposed to creating domestic security in the Pacific.

For example, large amounts of Australian and New Zealand aid have been earmarked for harmonising the legal systems of countries signed on to the PACER Plus free trade agreement, despite the fact that the deal is regionally divisive and seemingly of little value to Pacific nations, which already have quota- and tariff-free access to Australia and New Zealand markets via the South Pacific Regional Trade and Economic Co-operation Agreement.

PACER Plus is overtly designed to enshrine Australias and New Zealands economic primacy in the region. The New Zealand Government National Interest Analysis of the deal said it would preserve New Zealands position against major competitors from outside of the region in the years to come. One of these competitors is the U.K..

That focus on trying to grab as much of the economic pie as possible, even if it makes the pie smaller, has hobbled regional economies and made them more open to Chinese engagement. That has resulted in the loss not only of political leverage for Canberra and Wellington (and by extension their strategic partners), but also, ultimately, of economic leverage as well. The policy hasnt been working for anyone except China.

There were recent reports, denied by the parties concerned, that China was interested in a naval base in Vanuatu. A standard component of Chinese expansion has been an interest in ports. There is talk of a port development in Samoa, and a slipway in Tonga.

These projects are usually presented as commercial in nature, but there are concerns they could become dual-use (commercial and military). Additionally, given Chinas penchant for exporting domestic corruption, there is the possibility they will become triple-use (commercial, military, and criminal), and function as conduits for drugs and human trafficking.

However, especially given the denials coming from Vanuatu, there are questions about how the naval base story was broken, and whether it would be used as a pretext for intervention. It would be good to have another set of friendly eyes analysing the situation.

Enter the U.K.. In the post-Brexit era, the U.K. will be looking to make itself more valuable to its various partners. One area in which it already has a very deep bench is intelligence and strategic analysis. Two of the diplomatic missions the U.K. is reopening, in Tonga and Vanuatu, were only closed in 2006. There are people in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and other circles with strong knowledge of the region and good contacts.

The U.K. also had existing representation in Fiji, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea. With six posts in the South Pacific, the U.K. will have better coverage in the region than the U.S. (excluding its Freely Associated States), France, Germany, India, or just about anyone else except Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Taiwan, and China.

Within the region, the U.K. is seen as a benign, if not actively friendly, partner. Tongans, Samoans, and ni-Vanuatu can receive six-month visitor visas on arrival in the U.K., unlike the costly and onerous process involved in visiting Australia or New Zealand. In the U.K., the Tongan King has a higher diplomatic status than any Australian or New Zealand politician. The generational relationships between traditional leaders in the Pacific and royals and others in the U.K. offer a permanent backchannel built on long-standing trust.

Additionally, with the Commonwealth positioning itself as an environmental leader (especially under its new Head, Prince Charles), the U.K. is seen as a place that might take the concerns of small island states seriously, including leveraging its position as a P5 country, as it did when it brought climate change to the UN Security Council. London will also likely re-engage with direct bilateral aid, informed by in-country assessments, allowing it to be much more targeted and effective.

If Pacific leaders think they might actually be listened to, they are more likely to open up. All of which means the new U.K. posts might become extremely valuable strategically, and offer insight into issues such as the Vanuatu base.

The U.K., not as blinded by a short-term economic agenda and with a global perspective, can bring a new layer of Oceania analysis to the Five Eyes. It looks keen to give France a run for its money as the go-to European voice in the Indo-Pacific. And it may also suddenly find itself with many more new voting island friends in the UN and elsewhere.

As for benefits to the region itself, if the U.K. helps bring a more comprehensive understanding of the dynamics of Oceania, it will give more space to those within the Australian and New Zealand strategic communities who are concerned by the way their countries policies have been destabilising the region.

By shifting the focus from small economic benefits for small sectors of the Australian and New Zealand business communities to regional prosperity and security on the islands own terms, everybody benefits. Except China.

Cleo Paskal is Associate Fellow, Chatham House, London and Director, The Oceania Research Project (protorp.org).

This article appeared originally at Lowy Institute's the interpreter.
Yemen has become a major battleground for the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The UAE provides the second largest force in the Saudi-led military coalition fighting in the country. While the coalition came about to halt the advances of the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, however, the UAE has since focused on its own agenda.

By backing certain warring parties, the UAE hopes to confront both the Shia Houthi rebels, backed by Iran, and tackle the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood. Further, the UAEs strategy not only aims to address the perceived threat of the Muslim Brotherhood across the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA), but it also reflects Abu Dhabis aspirations for greater geopolitical influence in the region.

Shia Iran, which has a long-standing territorial dispute with the UAE, remains a rival regional power that represents a threat to the Sunni Arab monarchies, especially Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Meanwhile, the UAE is also dedicating more resources to its confrontation with the Muslim Brotherhood and its political outfit in Yementhe al-Islah party.

Aden Clashes

For the UAE, Yemen is increasingly a space where it is extending its power, working with local partnersnotably southern secessionists and remnants of the regime of the late president Ali Abdullah Salehat the expense of the internationally recognized government.

The UAEs strategy to raise its geopolitical standing includes a very significant naval dimension, and Abu Dhabi has moved to seize more control of strategically important shipping routes.

The main justification for the coalitions intervention was to shore up Yemens internationally recognized government in the face of the Houthi rebels. Nevertheless, recent developments indicate that the UAE favors supporting alternative partners, most significantly the southern secessionists of the Southern Transitional Council (STC), and the remnants of Salehs General Peoples Congress (GPC).

The government, albeit weak and dysfunctional, has been an important partner for the Saudi-led coalition. However, on January 28, UAE-backed STC forces launched an operation to capture and control the city of Aden. The port city is the seat of Yemens beleaguered governmentwhile President Abd-Rabbuh Mansour Hadi lives in Saudi Arabia, the cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Ahmed Obeid Bin Daghr, still resides there.

Neither Hadi nor Bin Daghr are members of the Muslim Brotherhoods al-Islah party, but government institutions and the military are dominated by al-Islahs members and allies. In the eyes of the UAE, that represents a threat at least equal to, and probably now greater than, the Shia Houthis. As a consequence, the STC attacked government positions in the city and demanded Bin Daghars removal.

The uprising was brought to an end by Saudi-UAE mediation in February. Though Bin Daghr kept his position, the STC, led by general Aidarus al-Zoubaidi, gained significant areas of control in the city (al-Arabiya January 30; sabq.org, February 1).

The UAEs Priorities

The UAE has always considered the Muslim Brotherhood to be a national security threat. In the 1990s and early 2000s, tensions existed between the government and the Brotherhood, and crackdowns on Emirati members of the movement resulted in hundreds of arrests. After the wave of Arab Spring protests across the MENA region in 2011, the UAE grew even more concerned about the group.

Despite the UAEs population enjoying one of the worlds highest living standards and generous government subsidies and welfare payments, members of the Emirati branch of the Muslim Brotherhood called for more reform and more rights. The governments response was to arrest five Brotherhood members and charge them with offending the ruler (al-Khaleej al-Jadeed, November 25, 2016).

Faced with what appeared to be the growing appeal of the Muslim Brotherhood throughout the MENA regionmanifested in the group winning elections in Egypt, Tunisia and Libyathe UAE set in motion an anti-Brotherhood strategy opting to support any viable force that confronted the group.

This intensified after Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain cut diplomatic ties and imposed sanctions on Qatar, accusing their Gulf neighbor of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood. Qatar denies supporting the group, but unlike its accusers does not ban the organization and believes it should be included in political processes around the region. It has supported Brotherhood-led governments elected in Egypt and Tunisia, as well as backing Brotherhood-linked factions in Libya and Syria.

With Qatar under pressure, the UAE aims to weaken the Muslim Brotherhood across the region. Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE support the military government of General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Egypt, which removed the Brotherhoods Mohammed Morsi from power and cracked down on the Egyptian branch of the group, the oldest and strongest in the MENA region.

The situation in Yemen, however, is more complicated. The UAE could not exclude the Brotherhoods al-Islah party as it was a powerful component in the opposition, and had been central to the protest movement that in 2012 brought an end to then-President Salehs 32-year reign. However, the UAE supported politicians who occupied senior positions in post-Saleh Yemen, the most prominent among them being former prime minister Khalid Bahah who had been minister of oil under Saleh between 2006 and 2008 and had a reputation as a reformer (arabi21.com, April 29, 2017). [1]

Allies Divided

Saudi Arabia, by contrast, is committed to supporting the Hadi government as part of the deal that led to Salehs removal and exempts al-Islah from its classification of the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. In the wake of the Aden clashes, the difference between the strategies of Saudi Arabia and the UAE has become clearer. While Saudi Arabia leads the coalition and commands the largest force within it, the UAE has moved more quickly to influence internal Yemeni dynamics for its own interests.

The division between Saudi Arabia and the UAE over Yemen can be traced to Hadis decision last year, made from his base in Saudi Arabia, to replace the UAE-backed Prime Minister Bahah with rival Bin Dhagar. Hadi also elevated General Ali Muhsin al-Ahmar, an ally of al-Islah and once Salehs lieutenant, and appoint him vice president, another position that Bahah had previously held.

While Saudi Arabia did not necessarily support Hadis decisions, neither did it oppose them. The UAE, however, condemned the move and embarked on a strategy that aimed to break the alliance between the Houthis and Saleh, deciding the latter would be the best hope of defeating the Houthis in northern Yemen. Meanwhile, in the south, the UAE also supported the formation of the STC (Sky News Arabia, May 21, 2017).

Saleh made his move in December and turned against the Houthis. However, his uprising in Sanaa failed, and his former Houthi allies killed him (al-Jazeera, December 4, 2017). The UAE quickly embraced his nephew, Brigadier General Tariq Saleh, the head of Salehs protection force, and offered him a refuge in the south. With the support of the UAE, Tariq Saleh is now building a fighting force with the intention of taking on the Houthis in the north (see Militant Leadership Monitor, February 7; al-Jazeera, February 8).

The STCs Aden operation occurred a few weeks after the failed Sanaa uprising. The southern secessionists and Salehs supporters, enemies for 25 years, are now signaling they are open to cooperation and building a strategic alliance. [2] This remarkable shift, and the alliance of these two actors, demonstrates just how complex the conflict in Yemen has become.

The southern secessionists of the STC and Salehs supporters had both received support from Shia Iran, but have come to also enjoy the support of Sunni Arab countries opposed to Tehran. The leaders of both groups now spout anti-Iranian rhetoric and claim their strategies are part of a pan-Arab effort led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Hidden Agendas

Outside of Yemen, the UAE has also moved to extend its presence and influence around the Bab al-Mandab strait. In addition to its naval bases in Asab, Eritrea, and Barbara, in the de facto state of Somaliland, the UAE also controls the Yemeni island of Socotra. Yemeni critics of the UAE now openly accuse it of being a colonial force pursuing an agenda to dominate the Bab al-Mandab area (noonpost.org, May 3, 2017).

At the same time, the UAE is accused of wanting to prevent Aden from returning to its golden agein the 1950s, it was one of the busiest harbors in the world, second only to New Yorkand becoming a rival to Dubai. [3] The UAE denies the claims, but its influence in Yemen, especially in the south, and its naval deployments has put it in a strong strategic position (Yemen Monitor, March 26).

Yemen is a difficult country when it comes to political and military alliances. Its modern history is a litany of civil wars and shifting alliances. From Hadhramaut to Aden, the UAE is supporting local militias and has secured a network of alliances and local partners in various southern Yemeni provinces.

While the tribes have been historically influential in the politics of northern Yemen, the political allegiances in the south are typically formed along provincial lines. Aware of these dynamics, the UAE supported General al-Zubaidi to assume the leadership of the STC. Al-Zubaidi comes from the province of al-Dhala. He and many military officers and local leaders from his home province and neighboring Lahij have deep-rooted feuds with their peers in President Hadis home province of Abyan.

Another important STC faction is led by the preacher Hani Bin Buraik, who was fired from his cabinet post by President Hadi in April 2017 in a move aimed at curtailing the UAEs influence in Yemen. He has attracted Salafists away from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), but his Islamist credentials have also been important in the confrontation with al-Islah (Sasa Post, November 2, 2017.)

Divide and Conquer

Abu Dhabi has used its proxies to great effect, succeeding in driving AQAP out of the city of al-Mukalla, the provincial capital of Hadhramaut, in 2016 (ME Online, April 24, 2016). Yet the militias are accused of human rights violations and have significantly weakened the power of President Hadis government, on whose side the Saudi-led coalition is supposedly intervening (al-Jazeera, July 5, 2017).

Meanwhile, the STC secessionist movement, which once received support from Iran and was on friendly terms with the Houthis when Saleh, their common enemy, was in power, is now an ally of the UAE and the coalition. However, while it has encouraged the STC to turn its back Iran, the UAE is unlikely to support a full secession and a return of the old South Yemen state. That would be too costly and would bring new geopolitical challenges. Instead, the UAE benefits from keeping Yemen weak and divided.

The UAEs naval capabilities have led to some successes when attacking the Houthis in coastal towns, most evident in the retaking of the port of al-Mukha (al-Ittihad, February 12, 2017). That strength has not been matched by any significant advances elsewhere, however, and in northern Yemen, the UAEs strategy is facing difficulties. Three years since the war started, the coalition, with all its military superiority, is clearly struggling to counter the Houthis.

Tariq Saleh, the UAEs new point man in Yemen, does not seem to be moving fast enough in his attempts to build a force capable of attacking the Houthis and re-capturing Sanaa. The southerners, meanwhile, have proven themselves to be a powerful fighting force against the Houthi-Saleh alliance in their areas, but are unlikely to have the same impact in the north.

Before they make a move on Sanaa, the UAE and its allies may need to address the fronts of Taiz and Marib, where most of the forces loyal to the government and sympathetic to al-Islah are concentrated. Further, any fundamental progress for the UAEs efforts in Yemen will require Saudi approval.

This article appeared originally at The Jamestown Foundation's Terrorism Monitor.

NOTES

[1] Bahah made his reputation when as minister of oil between 2006-2008, introducing anti-corruption measures. He reportedly angered influential figures within the ruling establishment, leading to his removal. He later served ambassador to Canada and then the UN.

[2] See interview with General Aidarus al-Zubaidi head of the STC (Youtube, January 30).

[3] See Mawby, Spencer. British Policy in Aden and the Protectorates 1955-1967, Last Outpost of a Middle East Empire. Routledge, London 2005. p.16
As members of the U.S. Senate consider how to vote on CIA Director Mike Pompeos nomination to be secretary of state, they should take one particularly persuasive quote to heart: My general rule is that the president gets to choose who he wants or who she wants for their Cabinet members.

Those words werent uttered by an official inside the Trump administration or one of their allies outside. Rather, they are the words of former Vice President Joe Biden, who served with President Obama and spent decades in the Senate, including several years atop the very foreign relations committee charged with vetting Pompeos nomination.

Funny thing about Washington: While nearly everyone pays lip service to presidential prerogatives when a president from their party occupies the White House, they become less deferential when the president leads the other party. If anything riles the American public, its blatant political hypocrisy. And when it comes to executive branch nominations, hypocrisy in Washington has reached a fevered pitch.

At No Labels, we dont often take a position on who should serve in a presidents Cabinet. But we have a major problem with how the presidential nomination process is being abused.

In 2011, No Labels released our Make Congress Work! reform agenda, in which we wrote: When our Founders gave the Senate Advise and Consent power over presidential appointments, they hoped it would encourage the president to appoint qualified people and avoid conflicts of interest. Today, its the senators themselves who seem to have conflicts of interest, with key presidential appointments routinely held up for trivial reasons or to serve the narrow interests of a single senator. We noted at the time the egregious example of Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby putting a blanket hold on 70 Obama administration nominees in order to secure additional funding for his state.

This behavior was wrong then. Its wrong now. The president is the elected leader of the country, chosen by the nations citizens through a democratic process to run the executive branch. Unless someone is blatantly unqualified or ethically suspect, we share former Vice President Bidens principled standard that the president should get to choose his or her Cabinet officials and advisers.

You may disagree with CIA Director Pompeos political views. You may take issue with his approach to foreign policy. But if youre a member of the U.S. Senate, those disagreements simply arent compelling grounds to oppose his nomination.

Aside from leading the CIA, Pompeo is also a former congressman who served on the Harvard Law Review and finished first in his class at West Point. He is clearly qualified to run the State Department.

He also has the presidents trust, as evidenced by his being chosen by Trump to make a top-secret visit to North Korea earlier this month to meet with its leader, Kim Jong Un.

In the next few months, Trump is likely to meet directly with Kim to discuss North Koreas destabilizing nuclear program. It could be the most significant and consequential negotiation on the Korean peninsula since the end of the Korean War.

Wouldnt Americas best interests be served by our president having a trusted secretary of state by his side? More than a few senators apparently dont think so.

Mike Pompeo might not have been the choice any number of the nations senators would have made had they been elected president. But thats the pointthey werent elected president. Donald Trump was and that means giving him some degree of deference when choosing who serves in his Cabinet.

None of this is to say that Congress needs to rubber-stamp every nominee. The Founders required senatorial advice and consent for a reason. But in the case of Pompeo, as with so many during the Obama years, this seems once again like nothing more than political posturing.

Only now, the cost of this posturing is rising. America is challenged by North Korean nukes, a resurgent Russia and Iran and an unfolding catastrophe in Syria, just to name a few of the worlds metastasizing problems.

Many senators are fond of the saying that there are moments when one needs to put country over party. This is one of those moments.
Senate Democrats continued their strong fundraising in the first three months of 2018, maintaining a strong cash advantage in every state theyre defending this fall.

Democrats are defending 25 seats total  including 10 in states President Trump won in 2016 -- to just nine for Republicans. In all 10 of those Trump-state races, the incumbent outraised every Republican challenger. (Three Republicans surpassed Democrats after making sizable loans to their campaigns.) Still, every Democratic incumbent ended March with more cash on hand than their GOP challengers.

And even in the states where Republicans are defending seats, Democrats put up strong fundraising quarters that either matched or led their GOP counterparts. Nevada Rep. Jacky Rosen doubled Sen. Dean Hellers first-quarter fundraising, taking in $2.6 million compared to just $1.1 million for the incumbent, though Heller still had more money in the bank.

We can look across the map and see that Republican donors are not as engaged as Democratic donors are, said Brad Todd, a GOP consultant advising several candidates. Its going to take more work to get the money we need to win the election because their donors are red hot and ours are waiting and seeing.

In several cases, crowded and divisive GOP primaries are slowing down fundraising and causing headaches for Republicans focused on flipping red states.

In West Virginia, Sen. Joe Manchin failed to top $1 million fundraising for the quarter, a poor showing for an incumbent. But he still has more than $5 million in the bank and Republicans are concerned the seat could fall off the map if Don Blankenship, a former coal executive who recently finished a prison sentence for conspiring to violate mine safety standards, wins the GOP primary. Blankenship is entirely self-funding his race, and loaned himself $1.6 million so far this year. His opponents, Rep. Evan Jenkins and Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, each raised less than $400,000, and had just over $1.3 million in the bank heading into the May 8 primary.

In Indiana, Sen. Joe Donnelly raised three times more than Reps. Todd Rokita and Luke Messer, who are competing in the GOP primary with businessman Mike Braun, who loaned himself $2.2 million to fund most of his campaign.

In Arizona, Rep. Martha McSally raised $2.8 million, narrowly outpacing Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema in the race to succeed retiring Sen. Jeff Flake. McSally far surpassed her two primary competitors, former state Rep. Kelli Ward and former Sheriff Joe Arpaio, two candidates who many Washington Republicans worry wouldnt be able to win the general election. One poll last week showed McSally with a 10-point lead in the primary, while a second showed her trailing Ward by nine points. Meanwhile, Sinema has $6.7 million in the bank.

And in Wisconsin, which has seen the highest percentage of outside money so far this cycle, Sen. Tammy Baldwin hauled in $3.7 million and had nearly $8 million in the bank. Meanwhile, the two Republicans competing in the primary to run against her, Kevin Nicholson and state Sen. Leah Vukmir, both ended the quarter with less than $1 million in the bank, though the primary isnt until August.

In Missouri, Sen. Claire McCaskill raised nearly $4 million, and had $11.5 million in the bank, second only to Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown. Attorney General Josh Hawley pulled in $1.5 million, and has just $2.2 million on hand. Hawleys allies argued that that amount is in line with their fundraising goals and with top recruits from previous cycles, but some Republicans privately expressed concern that his numbers lagged McCaskill so heavily.

One national GOP operative, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, said it could simply come down to bad candidates in races across the map.

I dont know what it is. We should be able to raise more, the operative said.

Still, some party operatives said Republicans shouldnt panic just yet. Rob Jesmer, a former executive director of the partys campaign committee, said once primaries are in the rear-view mirror, he expects Republicans to have the necessary funds to compete across the map.

These races get nationalized and by the time the shooting starts, theres usually close to parity in money, Jesmer said.

I think were in for a very challenging cycle, he added in reference to the political environment facing Republicans. But no matter what happens, it wont be because the GOP didnt have enough money.

Still, Democrats holding such a large cash advantage at this point in the cycle is significant. TV advertising is cheaper for candidates than outside groups, meaning it could be difficult for Republicans to make up the difference this fall if challengers continue to be outraised in the coming months.

There were, however, several bright spots for the party. In North Dakota, Rep. Kevin Cramer pulled in $1 million after reversing course and announcing his Senate bid only in mid-February -- though Sen. Heidi Heitkamp maintained a strong cash advantage.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn, who is running to replace retiring Sen. Bob Corker in Tennessee, raised $2 million and has $6 million in the bank. Her Democratic opponent, former Gov. Phil Bredesen, outraised Blackburn, but only after making a seven-figure loan to his campaign. Blackburn still has more than three times the cash on hand, and one GOP operative pointed out that her fundraising quarter came amid weeks of speculation that Corker might reverse his retirement decision and run again.

Perhaps the brightest spot for Republicans, however, came right after the fundraising quarter ended. Florida Gov. Rick Scott announced he will run against Sen. Bill Nelson earlier this month. Nelson ended the first quarter with $10.5 million, but Scott is independently wealthy and a strong fundraiser, and is expected to tally large sums in the coming months.
China will be keen to woo India away from a U.S. alliance against Beijing when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Chinese President Xi Jinping for informal talks in Wuhan this week, diplomatic observers said.

The two days of talks starting on Friday come as China faces threats of U.S. trade action and India seeks to put its economic development on track ahead of an election next year.
It took less than two weeks of protests for Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan, the former two-term president who had previously said he would not take the premiership, to step down from the position. The leader of the protests last week called it a velvet revolution, a reference to the pro-democracy color revolutions of the early 2000s that swept the former Soviet Union and the Balkans. But this was no color revolution. The color revolutions pulled states out of Russias orbit. Armenia, however, has nowhere else to go.

Limits of the West

In the color revolutions of the past, the West offered indirect support to the protesters through vehicles like nongovernmental organizations. Yet there is no overt evidence that the United States or any European countries directly funded or otherwise materially supported the Armenian protests. In fact, no Western government even made statements criticizing Sargsyan or his government. A few Western-funded NGOs went so far as to sign a petition in support of the protests, but this hardly suggests that a dramatic political transformation is imminent.

But just because the protests were unlikely to have been directed from abroad does not mean foreign powers cant take advantage of them. If Armenian unrest continues  with Western help, perhaps  neighboring Azerbaijan could be tempted to try to take advantage. Both countries are in a vulnerable spot in the South Caucasus near Russias border, and instability there would force Moscow to divert resources from places the West is focused on, like Syria, to restore control. For now, with the way things are trending, the West is content to watch the situation unfold. Armenia is a key Russian ally in a crucial buffer zone, so Russia is already on the defensive.

But although the West could make things worse, it cannot hope to flip Armenia into the Western camp. The opposition in Armenia has traditionally criticized Sargsyan for his close ties with Russia, yet there is no strong anti-Russian current in Armenian politics. The Way Out alliance, or Yelk, the one liberal party in the parliament that opposes integration with the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union, holds only nine seats out of 105. For now, there will be an interim government, and the protesters are calling for a new election. But even if protest votes weaken the ruling Republican Party, the new government will follow the foreign policy lines of the previous one when it comes to Russia. Unlike the 2013-14 Euromaidan revolution in Ukraine, where a majority of the country was pro-West, in Armenia even the interim government will lean toward Russia. Instability, not regime change, is the Wests goal for now.

Russian Guarantees

This is because Armenias economic and defense imperatives dictate a close alignment with Russia. Armenia is landlocked, and its borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey are closed. It has about a 27-mile (44-kilometer) border to the south with Iran, and a much larger border with Georgia to the north. In 2016, 31 percent of its imports came from Russia via Georgia, including energy resources, food supplies and transport vehicles. The fortunes of numerous Armenian oligarchs depend on trade with Russia, and, as is common in post-Soviet states, they wield considerable political power. If Armenia is to avoid a severe recession and import shortages of energy, food and other essentials, good trade relations with Russia are a must.

Russia also shields Armenia from security threats posed by Azerbaijan and Turkey. Armenia is locked in a frozen conflict with Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakhand a number of Azerbaijani provinces that Armenia occupied during the war over the region in the early 1990s. The border between the two countries is always tense, with daily cease-fire violations. Russia keeps the conflict from boiling over by making sure that no side gets enough of an advantage over the other that warfare would become an option. It does this by positioning itself as the primary weapons supplier of both sides. If war between Armenia and Azerbaijan broke out, Turkey may intervene on the side of Azerbaijan. Such a conflict would threaten to spill over into Russias Muslim regions in the North Caucasus. War in the Caucasus is the last thing Russia wants, especially as its considering how best to respond to U.S.-led airstrikes against Assad regime targets in Syria.

Azerbaijan does not have a decisive military advantage over Armenia, but if unrest in Armenia leads to political chaos in the upper echelons of the government, Azerbaijan might seek to take advantage and reconquer some of the territory it lost in the 1988-94 war. The political situation in Armenia isnt yet so dire, so for now Azerbaijan is biding its time. But members of parliament in Azerbaijan have endorsed the protests in Armenia in hopes that Sargsyans removal will be followed by the demise of a clan of Armenian politicians who hail from Nagorno-Karabakh, Sargsyan being one of them. Azerbaijans statements of support for the protests are an indication that the country seeks to exploit the protests for its own ends.

The Turkish threat to Armenia is less straightforward. Turkey, like Russia, is bogged down in Syria. But even though Turkey is not in a position to project military power in Armenia, the South Caucasus is as important for Turkey as it is for Russia. Moreover, Turkeys ambition and power are growing, which is worrying for Armenia. Just last month, Armenia scrapped a peace agreement it signed with Turkey in 2009, accusing Turkey of making no efforts to ratify it. Animosity between the two countries goes back over a century, and besides, Russia is easier for Armenia to work with  its farther away and less demanding. A Russian military base in Gyumri, Armenia, acts as a security guarantee against the Turkish expansionism that Armenians fear. Its also a guarantee that Russia will not forsake Armenia.

Until Armenias economic and defense constraints change, it will continue to need to align with Russia. But even though the protests may not be a color revolution, that does not preclude them from having serious consequences. The U.S. and EU, Azerbaijan, Russia and Turkey each has its own interests in Armenias fate. A fragile political environment forces Russia to ensure that its position in Armenia remains strong and creates possibilities for challengers to try to weaken Russia or even to increase their own standing in the Caucasus. Because Armenia is in the middle of these forces, the resilience of the protests constitutes a serious threat to the South Caucasus fragile political balance. The likeliest scenario is still that they fizzle out, but the fault lines they have laid bare are not going anywhere. There is a lot of tinder here waiting for a match.
President Emmanuel Macron of France and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany have back-to-back visits this week with President Donald Trump, a European doubleheader at a pivotal moment. There is much to discuss: managing the worlds largest economic relationship as U.S. tariffs loom; coordinating on Iran; forging a Russia policy; and moving forward on Syria after U.S., French, and British strikes on Syrian chemical weapons sites.

Over a year ago, many of the United States allies hastened to Washington to meet the disruptor-in-chief. Amid mostly productive private conversations with President Trump and roller-coaster press conferences, the media focused mainly on symbols over substanceholding hands with Prime Minister Theresa May of the United Kingdom, not shaking hands with Chancellor Merkel. President Macron (of the firm handshake) was the most audacious and benefitted from his colleagues earlier experience: he invited President Trump to Bastille Day, and the president was so impressed that he is hosting the Macrons for his first state visit.

The United States policy toward Europe is a jolt of iconoclasm from the president and soothing continuity from the U.S. foreign-policy machinery. Candidate Trump declared NATO obsolete and said allies rip the U.S. off, yet his administration has vastly expanded U.S. resources for European security. He imposed tariffs on aluminum and steel but temporarily exempted the European Union, even as he threatens a 25 percent tariff on European cars. Trump excoriates the Iran nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration but has demanded France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the European Union amend the agreement and toughen actions against Iran by May 12.

Whatever the political zig and zag, it is clear the United States alliance relationships are no longer Washingtons foreign policy lodestar, as they were for the past 70 years. These alliance structures were fraying long before Trumps election however.

The United States allies have been slowest to adjust to this unhappy fact. Washingtons adversaries are comfortable with confrontation and caustic rhetoric; they use it themselves. Allies are different. They balance private disagreements with public unity because they depend on the United States for security and to uphold the international system. Allies downplay serious differences and focus on half-full glasses, but transatlantic relations are drifting toward dangerous cliffs: trade altercations that could damage the global economy; dissolution of the international constraints on Irans nuclear program; divergences on Russia that will make our democracies more vulnerable to outside interference; and uncoordinated responses to Chinas economic policies that dissipate the power the two largest economies in the world, the U.S. and the EU, would have working together.

How should European allies adapt? They should begin with greater candor, privately and publicly. Macron stands out as Europes greatest natural talent in this respect. He balances good personal relations with President Trump and significant contributions to shared security goals, while self-confidently addressing their many disagreements. As Macron said in a Vanity Fair interview, Our strong bilateral relations actually enable us to address our divergences in a constructive way. His April 25 address to a joint session of Congress could be another rare exception to U.S. allies public reticence on difficult but unavoidable problems in our relations.

Confrontation for its own sake is not the point. Europe has demonstrated it can have impact by embracing friction as the price for frankness. Ambassadors from France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the European Union mounted a vigorousand successfuldiplomatic and public campaign around the renewal of waivers connected to the Iran nuclear deal early in Trumps presidency.

Would a more undiplomatic European diplomacy make a difference? In 2002, French and German opposition to the Iraq war was vocal and early. Paris and Berlin made clear the United States risked serious damage by pursuing a military solution. It did not stop the war, and it deeply divided Europe as well as the transatlantic relationship.

Yet there are significant differences now. The George W. Bush administration was set on war, had bipartisan support, and U.S. national resolve after September 11 combined a sense of heightened vulnerability with high confidence in military action for achieving policy goals. In 2018, the Trump administration struggles to formulate policies, and many contending views remainbetween the president and his administration and in Congress. This suggests that a more assertive European diplomacy could shape U.S. policies, as these are countries that share the United States core values and objectives and will be asked to bear some of the burden for implementing whatever initiatives Washington proposes.

The United States relies on Europe to pursue nearly every pressing international objective, as French and British participation in the Syria strike attests. The U.S. public debate needs greater involvement from our most dependable partners to create sustainable and effective policies. Confrontation, just like friction, can generate heat and rancor, but it is also necessary to challenge and refine, to hone and polish. Now is the time for the United States closest friends to adapt to these undiplomatic times with a more robust and if necessary confrontational diplomacy to shore up careening U.S. policy and strengthen fundamental bonds.

Reprinted with permission from CSIS. Jeffrey Rathke is a senior fellow and deputy director of the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.
The contract issue puts even more stress on Athens resident, and this stress is related to what many Athens residents who have never been able to afford insurance feel.
Athens, GA (30605)

Today

Rain this morning. Scattered thunderstorms for the afternoon. High 79F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Showers and thundershowers this evening will give way to steady rain overnight. Low 66F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near an inch. Locally heavy rainfall possible.
BRIDGEPORT - A couple evicted from a Monroe home were arrested after police said they trashed the house and deserted a cat and dog, leaving the animals without food and water.

William Totten, 32, and Erika Terdik, 37, were both charged with cruelty to animals, criminal mischief and third-degree larceny.

During their arraignment hearing Monday afternoon, Superior Court Judge Kevin Doyle agreed to release both Totten and Terdik on promises to appear in court but ordered them to undergo mental health evaluations.

Police said they were called to the Harvester Road home by the homeowner who said he had gone there to change the locks after evicting Totten and Terdik.

Police said they found the dog and cat in poor condition without food and water. They found feces from the pets in every room which resulted in numerous flies and other insects in the home.

Numerous holes had been made in the walls which were marked up with drawings and profane graffiti, police said. The kitchen and floor were covered in debris and garbage had been stuffed in the toilets to clog them.

Police said there were several items missing from the home including a washing machine and a portable generator.
SHARON  Sharon Hospital and Mental Health Connecticut have teamed up to offer Mental Health First Aid, a training program that teaches participants how to help someone who is developing a mental health problem or experiencing a mental health crisis.

The training is from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 8, and Thursday, May 10, at Sharon Hospital, 50 Hospital Hill Road, in the general surgery and wound care lobby at the north entrance of the hospital.

This complimentary event is open to the public and has limited seating.

Led by Valerie English Cooper, community educator for Mental Health Connecticut, this two-day, eight-hour training course will teach participants about common risk factors, warning signs of mental health issues and how to better assist someone experiencing a mental health crisis.

Participants must attend both four-hour training sessions to complete the program.

As with any illness, early intervention leads to early recovery. Research has already shown that Mental Health First Aid increases mental health literacy, instills confidence in people to reach out for help, and increases referral rates to mental health support options, Cooper said. We want to bring the benefits of training here to Litchfield County so our friends, family and neighbors will reap the benefits of this incredible program.

Online registration is required. To register, visit www.mhconn.org/education/mental-health-first-aid.

For more information, contact Jim Hutchinson at jhutchis@health-quest.org or 860-364-4493 (TTY: 800-842-9710).

DAR Chapter to hold Spring Tea Social fundraiser

WINSTED  The Torrington-Winsted Brooks-Green Woods Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution will hold a Spring Tea fundraising event from 2-4 p.m. on Saturday, April 28. The Tea will be held at Indian Meadow Estate, Knights of Columbus Hall, 122 Marshall St, Winsted.

The event will feature Kevin Johnson from the Connecticut State Library History and Genealogy Unit. Johnson will provide a presentation on Jordan Freedman. Freeman, from Old Lyme, was an African-American servant of John Ledyard and the body servant of Col. William Ledyard during the Revolutionary War. Although Freedman was not enlisted in the military, he witnessed events during the War for Independence. Johnson bases his presentation on research from the CT State Library and Museum of CT History collections.

Tea, assorted finger sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and pastries will be offered. Silent auction items and a raffle basket will also be available. Tea hats and pearls are encouraged, if desired, but not required. Proceeds are to benefit community projects by the Brooks-Green Woods DAR Chapter.

Warners Summer Arts Program enrollment now open

TORRINGTON  Each summer, the Warner Theatre Center For Arts Education offers three exciting opportunities for arts education and enrichment for young people ages 5-16, through the Summer Arts Program. Learn all about the ins and outs of theatre and have a chance to perform in one of our summer productions. Sessions are offered to ages 5-16 and begin on July 9.

Session 1 (July 9-20, ages 7-12) A two-week theatrical journey for our younger campers, brimming with music, acting and choreography and culminating in a full-scale production of Disneys The Aristocats Kids in the Warner Studio Theatre! Based on the beloved Disney animated film and featuring a jazzy, upbeat score, it is a non-stop thrill ride of feline fun, complete with unbelievable twists and turns.

Session 2 (July 23-August 3, ages 7-12) Each camp day provides plenty of artistic expression: Acting, Improvisation, Dance, Music, Visual Art, Creative Writing, Crafts, Tech Theatre, and more! Plus a field trip to Lake Compounce theme park. An informal Share Day for family and friends wraps up this fun-filled session.

Session 3 (August 6-18, ages 9-16) A whirlwind two-week theatrical adventure for our older campers as we conduct intensive rehearsals brimming with music, acting, and choreography, culminating in a full-scale production of Disneys Mulan Jr. in the Warner Studio Theatre! Based on Disneys Oscar-nominated film, it is a heartwarming celebration of culture, honor and the fighting spirit.

A special mini-camp, a convenient one-week half-day sessions for younger campers, is a great way to introduce the fun and exciting world of creative drama, arts and crafts, song and dance. Includes a special field trip to KidsPlay Childrens Museum, as well as a special Share Day performance for family and friends.

Financial aid is available for those who qualify. For more information or to register, call the WTCAE at 860-489-7180 x 148 or visit warnertheatre.org.

The Summer Arts Program is sponsored by XL Catlin, Lake Compounce and All-Star Transportation.

Civitan Club to hold dance

TORRINGTON  The Torrington Civitan Club will sponsor a Scholarship Fundraiser Dance on Sat. April 28 from 7:30 - 11 p.m. at Chatterleys Banquet Hall, 371 Pinewoods Rd, Torrington. Dance to the music of popular Night Moves Band. There will be a cash bar, bring your own snacks. A gift basket raffle will be held. Proceeds benefit local college-bound high school seniors.

Tickets are $15 per person and can be purchased from any Civitan member or purchased at the door by cash only. For info or to purchase tickets, call Stephanie at 860-482-5655 or jwpeltier@yahoo.com.

Throughout the years, Civitan Club has awarded thousands of dollars in scholarships to Torrington area college bound seniors. Civitan Club is an international non-profit group of citizens who volunteer in a wide range of charity projects across their communities. They conduct fundraisers and participate in charity projects to help others in the community, with a special emphasis on helping people with developmental disabilities.

The club meets 6 p.m. the second Tuesday of the month at Marinos Restaurant in Torrington. For more information about Civitan International, go to www.Civitan.org. Follow us on Facebook @ Civitan International-Torrington CT.
TORRINGTON  Mayor Elinor Carbone recently revealed her plans to introduce the Save Money And Reduce Trash program, an initiative that rewards municipalities for reducing the quantity of waste that ends up in the garbage can. If done properly, cities and towns can save enough money annually to pay for garbage disposal, thereby reducing taxes.

But during Monday nights public information meeting, many members of a standing-room-only crowd of residents were against the SMART idea, calling it a new tax.

Its not clear whether supporters of the proposed trash reduction program will convince homeowners and tenants that the initiative will save them money. SMART is projected to save enough money annually to cover the cost of trash disposal.

Kristen Brown of Waste Zero, a consultant hired by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to implement the SMART program in Connecticut, spoke on its benefits at the meeting. There is a value in being accountable for our own trash, she said.

Public Works Director Jerry Rollett said the SMART program would reduce the cost of waste disposal for the city by $2 million a year. During the hearing, he told residents that in 1996, the cost to dispose of waste was $30 a ton. It is now $68 a ton, and Rollett said the cost will not decrease in the coming years.

There is a lot of passion, but not logic, said resident Bob Demallie at the meeting. It rewards those who recycle. He said he supports the program, but suggested the city hold a referendum on the program after one year of operation.

The publics negative response prompted Mayor Elinor Carbone Tuesday morning to delay a planned vote by the city council, scheduled for May 7. Instead, the next step for the proposed program will be a joint meeting of the board of finance and the council, Carbone said.

This is an emotional issue. Some in the audience (on Monday) were worked up to a frenzy, Carbone noted.

Several residents voiced concerns at the meeting about someone illegally dumping garbage into their trash bins to avoid following the new programs guidelines. Others were worried about the government going through trash bags to see if residents are in compliance with the proposed program.

Its irrational, Carbone said. The city government wont dig through any garbage for any reason.

However, Carbone said she understood that the information on enforcement wasnt clear enough. I dont want to be punitive. There will not be an onerous fine (for non-compliance), she said.

A key issue of concern for residents is the proposed requirement of the SMART program that residents purchase special garbage bags at local stores. The bags would range in size from 8 to 33 gallons, with the largest bag costing $2.70 and the smallest priced at $1.20.

The reasoning behind the requirement to use special bags that cost more than standard trash bags is simple: money. Residents are likely to throw away less trash each week if the cost of the bag is higher. Its an incentive to recycle more items and throw less garbage into the green trash bins.

Experts say most families will use only one large trash bag a week.

On Tuesday, Carbone said she is now considering a one-year pilot program for the SMART initiative. She said at that point, the city would be able to measure whether the program reduced the cost of waste disposal.
A Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) supporter holds a placard with a portrait of CNRP leader Kem Sokha as police block a street during a protest outside the court of appeal in Phnom Penh, Sept. 26, 2017.

Four of eight lawyers working for jailed Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) President Kem Sokha abruptly resigned on Tuesday, telling RFAs Khmer Service the decision was made at the opposition leaders request, while vowing to support his partys quest to restore democracy in the authoritarian Southeast Asian nation.

The four lawyers  Sam Sokong, Hem Socheat, Keth Khy and Choung Choungy  sent a joint letter on Tuesday to the president of Phnom Penh Municipal court saying that Kem Sokha asked them to terminate their legal services for him.

We would like to inform the President [of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court] that Mr. Kem Sokha informed us via his two other lawyers, Mr. Chan Cheng and Mr. Phan Chansak, that he has decided to terminate the four of us from defending his case at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, the Appeal Court and the Supreme Court, read the letter, seen by RFA.

Kem Sokhas remaining legal team consists of Chan Cheng, Phan Chansak, Meng Sopheary and Pheng Heng.

We respect Kem Sokhas decision, Hem Socheat told RFA on Tuesday.

We remain loyal to him since he is a leader of the opposition party with support from millions of people, he added.

We remain loyal to assist him. It does not mean that we are abandoning him or we are disappointed with him. This is purely a personal request from Kem Sokha, said Hem Socheat.

Our mission is to assist him and to help the opposition party that follows democracy and complies with laws in Cambodia. Then as now, we remain committed to helping him in all circumstances as long as he continues to lead the CNRP and to helping support democracy in Cambodia, the lawyer added.

Kem Sokha was arrested last September on charges of collaborating with the U.S. to overthrow the government, and the Supreme Court followed in November with a decision to dissolve the CNRP for its role in his alleged plot, stripping officials of their posts and banning many from politics for five years.

In early April, Kem Sokha called on court authorities to release him so that he can seek medical treatment abroad and restart negotiations with Prime Minister Hun Sens ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) ahead of a general election slated for July 29.

At the end of March, Cambodias Appeals Court upheld Kem Sokhas continued detention without bail, despite what the CNRP leaders lawyers have said is his rapidly worsening health as a result of the unhygienic conditions of his jail cell in Tbong Khmum provinces remote Trapeang Phlong prison. They have also complained that guards prevent his family members from providing him with medicine.



Kem Sokha also appealed to his supporters and those of former CNRP President Sam Rainsy, who is currently living in self-imposed exile to avoid convictions seen as politically motivated, to maintain a united front in the hopes of reinstating the banned opposition party.



His plea for release comes amid an ongoing government crackdown on the political opposition, NGOs and the mediaactions widely seen as part of a bid by Hun Sen to ensure the CPP remains in power for another term following the vote planned for July in which the CPP is the only significant party on the ballot.

Reported by RFA's Khmer Service. Translated by Sovannarith Keo. Written in English by Paul Eckert.


Blatantly sexist recruitment advertising is rife in China, with many companies using sexist tropes with impunity in a labor market that routinely and systematically discriminates against women, rights groups said this week.



"Sexual objectification of womentreating women as a mere object of sexual desireis prevalent in Chinese job advertising," the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a recent report, citing job postings requiring women with a certain height, weight, voice, or facial type that have nothing to do with the skills needed to do the job.



One job ad for train conductors in Hebei province required female applicants to be between 162 centimeters and 173 centimeters tall and have a bodyweight of below 65 kilograms, HRW said.



Other recruitment posters used the perceived attractiveness of women at a given company as a draw for male applicants.



"Tencent, Baidu, and Alibaba have repeatedly published recruitment ads boasting that there are 'beautiful girls' or 'goddesses' working for the companies," the report said.



"A Tencent male employee is featured stating this is the primary reason he joined Tencent and a Baidu male employee saying it is one reason why he is 'so happy every day' at work," it said.



Meanwhile, Alibaba posted a series of photos of young female employees late at night, describing them as "late night benefits," HRW said.



Chinese women still face major barriers to finding work in the graduate labor market and fear getting pregnant if they have a job, out of concern their employer will fire thema common practice despite protection on paper offered by China's Labor Law.



Recruitment ads specifying a requirement or preference for men are still common, and the proportion of women in the labor market has fallen by 2.5 percentage points in the past decade, HRW said.



And in Hong Kong, the rights group China Labour Bulletin (CLB) said in a report this week that women often have to score much higher than men in college entrance examinations for certain majors, especially at institutions concerned with the military or police training.



The practice often extends to majors with little relation to gender, such as languages and sciences, CLB said.



"Explanations given by university administrators often amount to nothing more than paternalistic judgments about the roles women are best suited to," it said.



A recent report by the World Economic Forum showed that Chinas gender parity ranking in 2017 fell for the ninth consecutive year, leaving China in 100th place out of 144, compared with 57th 10 years ago.



'Men only' ads

According to HRW, 13 percent of job ads for civil service positions specified "men only," "men preferred," or "suitable for men." That proportion rose to 19 percent in 2018. None of the ads called for female applicants.



In the Ministry of Public Security, 55 percent of jobs advertised in 2017 specified men only, sometimes citing the need for "high intensity work" with frequent overtime. Job ads that don't exclude women sometimes require female applicants to be married with children, HRW found.



"These job ads reflect traditional and deeply discriminatory views: that women are less physically, intellectually, and psychologically capable than men," the group said.



There is a widespread assumption that women are the main carers for children, making them unsuited to a full-time career, or that they will likely leave a company when the time comes to have a family.



Companies are also keen to avoid the costs associated with maternity leave, it said.



While some women have successfully complained about gender discrimination in recruitment, companies are rarely punished, and fines, when they are handed out, have typically been only in the hundreds of dollars.



U.S.-based rights activist Wang Xueli said China appears to be reversing the progress initially made towards gender equality in the early years of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.



"I think we really have seen things regress in terms of employment discrimination in recent years in China," Wang told RFA. "Part of that may be that enterprises have more say in how they are run, but there is a lack of action by the government."



"Jobs are usually labeled in terms of what a man is suited to do, and what a woman is suited to do," she said. "But there is no scientific basis for these labels in the vast majority of cases; it's just the result of long-running social attitudes."



"But the key issue is that women have very little protection, because the majority of leadership and executive positions are held by men," Wang said.



China has a set of laws stemming from the constitution that prohibit gender discrimination in the workplace, not least the 1994 Labour Law.



But the vagueness of the laws and a lack of clear guidelines on their implementation has meant that many courts and arbitration committees refuse to hear employment discrimination cases, according to CLB.



The group called for an equal opportunities commission to oversee the labor market, clearer guidelines from the top, and tougher penalties for organizations that break the rules.



Reported by Wang Yun for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Authorities at China's prestigious Peking University are moving to silence a public outcry after students called for answers over a decades-old rape-and-suicide scandal they suspect was hushed up by officials at the time.



Yue Xin, a student of Peking University's Foreign Languages Institute, was among eight students who submitted a freedom-of-information request to the school on Apr. 9 asking for information on its handling of an allegation made 20 years ago against former lecturer Shen Yang, that he raped a student who later committed suicide.



Publicly, Peking University issued a statement saying it "attached great importance" to the conduct of its staff, and that the university's ethics committee would review the request.



But privately, the university has been putting huge pressure on Yue and her family to remain silent, she said in an open letter, the contents of which were posted online on .



"Since Apr. 9, I have been called in continually for 'chats' with university staff, lecturers and senior leaders, even at 1.00 a.m. or 2.00 a.m. on a couple of occasions," Yue wrote. "During these chats, the phrase 'whether or not you will be able to graduate successfully' was mentioned many times."



Yue is currently working on her undergraduate thesis, but has yet to graduate, and has now been "sent home" with her mother, with her future now in doubt.



She said her student adviser and her mother had woken her at 1.00 a.m. on at her student dormitory, and forced her to delete anything relating to the request from her phone and computer. She was also forced to write a "guarantee" that she wouldn't be taking the matter any further, before being told to leave campus.



"I can't return to campus at the moment," Yue wrote.



The university replied to the students' request , saying it had "insufficient records" from Shen Yang's tenure there to make public, and that it hadn't been privy to the police investigation of the rape allegations against him. Transcripts of interviews with Shen carried out by the university had been "lost," it said.



"I was very disappointed with this response," Yue wrote. She was apparently not alone.



'Big character poster'

A three-page "big character poster" typically associated with public protest appeared on an official noticeboard of the Communist Party Youth League on the Peking University main campus on , denouncing the university's response, and its subsequent repression of Yue.



"We, the anonymous, respect and admire the courage of classmate Yue," the poster said. "She wanted to be worthy of the spirit of our ancestors of the May Fourth movement ... but all you care about is that there might be some trouble."



"So who is fighting who here? There are two Beidas that are pitted against each other," said the poster, which was removed by security guards soon after posting, but not before being photographed and posted to social media.

Beida is the Chinese-language shorthand for Peking University.



A Peking University student surnamed Zhou said she also supports Yue.



"We totally agree with and support our classmate Yue," Zhou said. "We women have to learn to protect ourselves from sexual harassment on campus ... and it takes a lot of courage for women to speak out about such things."



Meanwhile, Yue called on the university to make a full, written and public explanation of its treatment of her and her family, and formally apologize, as well as to ensure that the incident didn't affect her graduation or future employment prospects.



Repeated calls to Yue's cell phone rang unanswered on . But sources close to the situation said her family are currently not taking any calls from the outside world, so as to avoid further trouble with the university.



There are signs that the authorities were shaken by the poster and its references to Peking University's history of student protest movements.



A WeChat message circulating on chat groups linked to Peking University this week called on students to "protect themselves" against a potential crackdown by the ruling Chinese Communist Party on what has been designated a potential political movement.



Student protest fears

It also alluded to another student, surnamed Hao, who was also called in for "a chat," suggesting that the crackdown on campus hasn't been confined to Yue and her family.



"I need to remind teachers and students alike, now that our classmate Hao has been called in for a chat, that the university party committee has decided that this bears the hallmarks of a student protest, that it's a political movement, because students are already starting to organize, and are in touch with forces off-campus," the message said.



"They need to ensure that that there are no negative media reports in China, and that no foreign media organizations report it to further an agenda," the message, posted online by SUPChina, said.



Ni Lihui, an employee who answered the phone at the Peking University Foreign Languages Institute, declined to comment.



"This is the Foreign Languages Institute office, and I know nothing about this," Ni told RFA. "I am totally overwhelmed . There have been so many phone calls like this."



An official who answered the phone at the Peking University party committee propaganda department asked for an interview request in writing, then said they were unable to give interviews to overseas media organizations.



An official who answered the phone at the foreign cooperation department declined to answer questions when contacted by RFA.



Nanjing University, where Shen had been teaching until the scandal broke, said earlier this month that it was investigating the allegations against him.



Peking University student Gao Yan committed suicide in 1998 after making allegations of rape against Shen.



The case came to light as the #MeToo sexual harassment and assault violence began to go viral in China, leading to a number of high-profile allegations, many leveled against university lecturers in positions of power over their students.



Reported by Wong Siu-san and Lam Kwok-lap for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Qiao Long and Xi Wang for the Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.


Songro Mro, the widow of a man killed by a landmine along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, explains why her family tried to enter Myanmar, April 13, 2018.

While hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims refugees have poured into Bangladesh from Myanmar over the past year, a few hundred impoverished tribal people have migrated in the opposite direction, lured by promises of land and citizenship, villagers and officials said.

Bangladesh officials say they have long been aware of a Myanmar government project to make Buddhists a majority in Rakhine, the rural state now largely abandoned by the Rohingya after a military crackdown caused close to 700,000 people to flee.

Those efforts intensified after September 2017, the height of the refugee outflow, a Bangladesh Home Ministry official told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service, citing intelligence reports.

After eviction of the Rohingya people, economic activities in Rakhine virtually collapsed. So, Myanmar needs people to cultivate the land and implement the development projects, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

So, they lure the Buddhists from Bangladesh, the official said.

At least 35 families left a cluster of villages perched on ridges in remote Alikadam sub-district in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of southeastern Bangladesh, BenarNews learned in a visit to the region.

Since October last year, 35 families have left from our nearby villages and settled in Burma. Some of the family members informed us that they would get free food, land, cattle, houses and citizenship, Prenglung Mro, a resident of Raraipara village of Bandarban district, told BenarNews, standing outside his bamboo and wood house.

The four tribal groups that live in the hills of southeastern Bangladesh number fewer than 500,000 people and embrace Buddhist, Hindu and animist beliefs. All are ethnically related to groups found across the border in Myanmar and northeastern India.

Promises of a better life

A hardscrabble existence in the nearly inaccessible villages of the region makes such promises alluring.

Raraipara resident Limwai Mro told BenarNews that people in the area lend money to the Mro and other tribal people at exorbitant rates.

If I take 1,000 taka [U.S. $12], I have to return 2,000 taka in six months. Besides, we the poor people do not get fair price of our agricultural products such as turmeric, mango, pineapple, ginger, he said.

Many people have decided to go to Burma to evade the loans of the local money lenders. Again, the production of rice and other products has come down over the years, Limwai said.

He said businesses and the government in Myanmar support new arrivals.

Everything is free there (in Rakhine), he said.

That lure proved deadly for one family last month.

Songro Mro and her three children returned home after her husband died in a landmine blast in the border region on March 14. Her 8-year-old daughter also lost an eye.

One Mro man, Aung San, lured my husband to go to Burma as we had been having very bad days here. The paddy we have here was not enough to meet our growing demand for food and other necessities, Songro Mro said.

She said Aung San, who had once lived in Alikadam, told Pawai Mro that the Myanmar government would provide for the family in Rakhine.

If we could reach Burma, we must live in a tent or temporary camps for two years. Then we will get a free house and land, and citizenship, said Songro Mro, who suffered shrapnel injuries to her face.

Poverty is here, but no violence. I was not interested in leaving Raraipara. But my husband was stubborn to go to Burma. We will never go to Burma again, she said.

Bangladesh officials aware

K.S. Hla, chairman of Bandarban Hill District Council, said people belonging to the Mro, Marma, Modok and Tripura tribes had left for Rakhine state in recent months from Alikadam and the nearby sub-districts of Thanchi and Naikhangchhari. He did not specify how many.

We have come to know that there has been some luring from the other side of the border, Hla told BenarNews at his office in Bandarban town.

Now, it has stopped. Our BGB and the BGP have been patrolling the border to stop such movement, Hla said, referring to the border forces of Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told BenarNews that he knew about tribal people departing from Bandarban district to Rakhine.

I cannot give you the exact number, but some of them have left for Myanmar. Some of them have come back, too, as they could not move there freely, Khan said.

Bangladesh Ambassador to Myanmar Manjurul Karim Khan Chowdhury told BenarNews he was not sure why Bangladesh nationals would want to go to Myanmar.

There is no persecution of the Buddhists and other tribal people in Bangladesh. But we have to find out why they, though very small in number, have been crossing the border, he said.

Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.
Members of the Union Solidarity and Development Party hold a press conference to express their opposition to the lifting of travel restrictions on Rohingya Muslims with National Verification Cards, in Yangon, April 24, 2018.

Myanmars main opposition political party and members of some minor parties say they oppose the governments decision to grant freedom of travel to Rohingya Muslims who possess National Verification Cards (NVCs).

Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) members told the media on Tuesday at party headquarters in Yangon that they will send a letter to President Myint Win expressing their disagreement with the decision which Win Myat Aye, Myanmars social welfare minister, announced last week.

He said that Rohingya who have lived in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps since fleeing violence in Myanmars Rakhine state are free to travel if they accept the NVC and fill out an associated immigration form.

Win Myat Aye also said that anyone who holds the card can apply for citizenship and can become a citizen within five months.

Besides denying the Rohingya citizenship, Myanmar also prevents them from traveling freely outside camps without permission and denies them access to education, employment, and health care.

A military crackdown on Rohingya in the northern part of Rakhine state that began in late August following deadly attacks by a Muslim militant group left thousands dead and drove nearly 700,000 across the border to Bangladesh, where they live in squalor in sprawling refugee camps.

Myanmar and Bangladesh have agreed to repatriate those who want to voluntarily return to Rakhine as long as they can prove prior residency.

Ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, with whom the Muslims clashed in communal violence in 2012, fear that lifting the travel restrictions could invite further attacks by Rohingya militants.

If NVC holders can travel freely, it will be very dangerous for our country, said USDP spokesperson Nanda Hla Myint.

What we want to say today is that we will do something decisively together with other parties that have the same attitude as ours and are against allowing NVC cardholders to travel freely if authorities do permit such travel, he said.

Nanda Hla Myint also said he will submit a proposal about the NVC issue at the national parliament.

Rohingya refugees who have applied to return to Myanmar from camps in neighboring Bangladesh and IDPs in Myanmar see the NVCs as unnecessary and instead have demanded full citizenship because they claim their forefathers were Myanmar nationals.

The government says the Rohingya, an ethnicity not officially recognized in Myanmar, must undergo a verification process in line with the 1982 Citizenship Law and accept NVCs before they can become citizens.

Other parties weigh in

The USDP is not the only political party whose members oppose the granting of travel rights to Rohingya with NVCs.

Han Shwe vice chairman of the National Unity Party, pointed out that Myanmars 2008 constitution says that only those who are citizens can have full citizens rights, including the right to free movement around the country.

The constitution doesnt allow anybody who holds an NVC to travel freely around the country, he said.

The Rakhine problem occurred because of ARSA, he said, referring to the Muslim militant group Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army that claimed responsibility for attacks on police outposts on Aug. 25 that sparked the crackdown by the military.

Thats why this issue should be handled very carefully, he said.

Khin Maung Swe, chairman of National Democratic Force (NDF) party, took the NLD to task for allowing free travel for NVC holders.

It shouldnt allow NVC holders to travel freely, he said. If so, they will be like citizens, but they are not.

Authorities must amend the countrys Immigration Act to legally allow NVC holders to travel freely, he said, adding that he wasnt aware that the NLD made the decision to alleviate some international pressure on Myanmar.

It is not even a good sign; it is dangerous, he said. The NDF doesnt like it.

Thein Nyunt, chairman of the New National Democracy Party, said the right to move around freely should not apply to NVC holders.

They are not yet citizens, he said. Giving citizens rights to non-citizens is something the government shouldnt do. Our party doesnt agree with it because it is very dangerous for national security.

Tun Aung Kyaw, Secretary of the Arakan Nations Party, which represents the interests of the ethnic Rakhine people in Rakhine state, urged the government to reconsider its decision.

Bengalis who really lived in Rakhine state can speak Burmese or the Rakhine language, he said, using a disparaging term for the Rohingya who are considered illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

If authorities give them NVCs and allow them to travel freely, its OK, he said. But there are a lot of people who have entered Rakhine illegally, and if they are given NVCs and allowed to travel freely, it will be very dangerous. Please think about it very carefully.

NLDs response

An NLD spokesman defended the governments decision to allow cardholders to travel freely and stressed that officials will issue them only to those who are eligible to apply for them under the Citizenship Law.

The constitution says that every citizen must have equal rights, said NLD spokesman Myo Nyunt. If we dont accept this point, it is like we are violating the constitution.

He said the NLD expected there to be objections to the decision to allow NVC holders in turmoil-rocked Rakhine state to travel freely because people have had this wrong way of thinking for generations.

The government made the decision to let Rohingya with cards travel in accordance with the law and in the interest of the people, he said.

Myanmar has come under heavy fire from the international community for its treatment of the Rohingya, especially during the brutal military crackdown when soldiers killed and raped Rohingya civilians and burned their villages.

The United Nations and United States have said that the violence amounted to ethnic cleansing, though the government and army have denied that soldiers committed widespread atrocities.

Myo Nyunt blamed western media for the buildup of pressure on Myanmar by the international community over the Rohingya crisis.

What I think is that the international pressure on Myanmar is in response to western medias influence on the international community, including U.N. agencies, he said.

I would expect that if the international media knew the news and information from both sides openly, we would have an impartial reaction from the international community to our country, he said.

U.N. agencies and rights groups have called for assurances that the Rohingya who return to Rakhine state from Bangladesh will be safe from further attacks and given the same opportunities as citizens.

We always thoroughly consider the international communitys suggestions, but we mainly have to think about the domestic situation, said Myo Nyunt. Because this problem has occurred in Myanmar for generations, the most important thing we need is to see how people in Myanmar respond to this problem.

We will work to solve this problem based on peoples responses and according to the law, bylaws, and regulations in Myanmar, he said.

Reported by Thant Zin Oo, Thinn Thiri, and Khin Khin Ei for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
A Tibetan monk was detained this month in Qinghai on suspicion of sharing politically sensitive content on social media and is being held at an undisclosed location with his current condition unknown, according to a Tibetan human rights group in India.



Woechung Gyatso, a monk at the Tsang monastery in the Tsolho Tibetan Autonomous Prefectures Ba county, was taken into custody after taking part in March in a Chinese-led workshop on cyber security, Trisong Dorjee, a researcher at the Dharamsala-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), told RFAs Tibetan Service.



Recently, the monks of Tsang monastery were summoned for a political education workshop on [Chinas] cybersecurity laws and regulations, Dorjee said.



At that time, several Tibetan monks including Woechung Gyatso were forced to write self-criticism letters for having posted pictures and articles on their personal web chats that were deemed to have broken the law.



The violations were discovered after police investigations into the suspects personal social media accounts, Dorjee said, adding that on April 16, police from Ba, also called Gepasumdo, county took Gyatso and another Tsang monastery monk into custody.



The other monk was later released, but the Chinese police are still holding Woechung Gyatso, Dorjee said.



Due to heightened restrictions in the area, no details on Gyatsos present whereabouts or condition can be obtained, Dorjee said.



Chinas Cybersecurity Law, which came into effect in June 2017, violates individuals right to freedom of expression, opinion and information, TCHRD said in an April 18 statement.



[Detained under] vague and overbroad charges such as leaking state secrets and inciting separatism, Tibetans are subjected to arbitrary arrests, detention and torture for exercising their right to freedom of expression on the internet, the rights group said.



Reported by Lobe Socktsang for RFAs Tibetan Service. Translated by Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Richard Finney.
Ghulja (in Chinese, Yining) city, in northwest Chinas Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) is home to five different political re-education camps, according to a Uyghur businessman, who said the facilities are actually prisons where detainees are brainwashed by authorities.



Since April 2017, Uyghurs accused of harboring strong religious views and politically incorrect views have been jailed or detained in re-education camps throughout the XUAR, where members of the ethnic group have long complained of pervasive discrimination, religious repression, and cultural suppression under Chinese rule.



A Uyghur businessman based in Central Asia, who recently visited Ghulja, in Ili Kazakh (Yili Hasake) Autonomous Prefecture, told RFAs Uyghur Service that five buildings in the city had been repurposed as re-education camps in the past year to accommodate a growing number of detainees who have been held for months, despite being told they were only required to briefly study there.



In Ghulja city, the Flax Factory has been turned into a re-education camp, there is another one close to the Electrical Power Station, the former Communist Party School  and there is one in No. 7 Street in the Qardong district, where most of the cadres are locked up, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.



Do you know the Su Derwaza Hospital? It was moved somewhere else 10 days ago, and they are moving in beds and other items as a matter of urgency to turn it into a re-education camp.



According to the source, who is originally from the area, the detainees include teachers, people who have travelled abroad, and even people who have received phone calls from outside the country, including from neighboring Kazakhstan, where many local residents have relatives.



There are numerous teachers in these prisons, and it is difficult for me to understand how they can return to teaching when they are released, the source said, due to the conditions they are held under in the camps.



I have visited these camps myself and they are actually prisons, with detainees wearing the same type of prison uniform.



The source dismissed claims by authorities that the camps provide opportunities for local residents to learn Mandarin Chinese, laws and regulations, and technical skills that can allow them to find better jobs.



That is a liethey are locking up these people purely to brainwash them and are driving them insane, he said.



My friends wife was locked up in the Flax Factory re-education camp and her teeth turned black after eating the food thereit seems like they were adding something to the food.



The source said that while visiting one of the camps, he noted that the detainees didnt look normal and appeared to be in a daze.



Security is tight and they are under surveillance at all times, he said.



On the ground floor there are many armed police guards. When a prisoner needs the toilet, he or she cannot go without first getting permission. How you can call that kind of place an education center? Its no different than a prison.



According to the source, the Flax Factory was initially used as a training center for some 1,500 police officers who were recruited in the area following ethnic unrest in the XUAR capital Urumqi in 2009, but the facility was repurposed after authorities began detaining area residents for political re-education last year.



They are now arbitrarily arresting people, he said.



Those who were first arrested have been inside now for more than eight months. Many were told they would only be at the camps studying for 15 days, but that was a big lie.



Vast network



China's central government authorities have not publicly acknowledged the existence of re-education camps in the XUAR, and the number of inmates kept in each facility remains a closely guarded secret, but local officials in many parts of the region have in RFA telephone interviews forthrightly described sending significant numbers of Uyghurs to the camps and even described overcrowding in some facilities.



Maya Wang of the New York-based Human Rights Watch told The Guardian in January that estimates of XUAR residents who had spent time in the camps went as high as 800,000, while at least one Uyghur exile group estimates that up to 1 million Uyghurs have been detained throughout the region since April 2017, and some Uyghur activists say nearly every Uyghur household has been affected by the campaign.



Last week, the U.S. State Department said in its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices that official repression of the freedoms of speech, religion, movement, association, and assembly of Uyghurs in the XUAR and Tibetans in Chinas Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) worsened and were more severe than in other areas of the country in 2017.



Officials in the XUAR imposed new regulations, increased severely repressive security measures, and subjected individuals engaged in peaceful expression of political and religious views to arbitrary arrest, detention harassment, and expedited judicial procedures without due process in the name of combatting terrorism and extremism, the report said.



The State Department noted that many of the Uyghurs who disappeared in the XUAR in 2017 had been detained after returning home from studying abroad, that Uyghurs reported great difficulty in getting passports, and that they also faced restrictions on movement within the XUAR itself.



Since XUAR 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 the XUAR, 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.



While China blames some Uyghurs for "terrorist" attacks, experts outside China say Beijing has exaggerated the threat from the Uyghurs and that repressive domestic policies are responsible for an upsurge in violence there that has left hundreds dead since 2009.



Reported by Shohret Hoshur for RFAs Uyghur Service and Joshua Lipes. Translated by RFA's Uyghur Service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Australian author and professor of public ethics Clive Hamiltons new book, Silent Invasion: Chinas Influence in Australia, was initially turned down by three publishers citing fears of reprisals from Beijing. Finally published in February 2018, Silent Invasion investigates the ruling Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) influence and interference operations in Australia, the structure of the partys overseas influence network, and the techniques it uses. In the book, Hamilton asserts that Australias elites, and parts of the countrys large Chinese-Australian diaspora, have been mobilized by Beijing to gain access to politicians, limit academic freedom, intimidate critics, gather information for Chinese intelligence agencies, and organize protests against Australian government policy. He recently spoke with RFAs Uyghur Service about what he believes are Chinas soft power goals in Australia.



RFA: Why did you choose the word invasion for your title?



Clive Hamilton: I'm really talking about an invasion of the influence of the CCP into Australia and throughout Australia's political and social institutions. And it's a silent invasion because it has been done secretly, covertly, underneath the radar. And that's why it's so insidious ... the influence of the Chinese Communist Party has been secretive and subtle.



RFA: Chinas emergence as a new economic power comes amid the expansion of its influence as a soft power. How does soft power help China to silence overseas dissidents and criticism of the CCP?



Clive Hamilton: Beijing's objective is to ... pacify criticism of Beijing's actions and Beijing's policies. If it succeeds in doing that through this campaign of influence in Australia, it will essentially make Australia not so much a client state, but a country which is unwilling to resist whatever Beijing doesfor example, in the South China Seaand essentially succumbs to Beijing's demands. And we've already seen some of that happening in the business community and in the political arena. Beijing already exerts a great deal of influence in our major political parties, especially the Labor Party. So that is what I was drawing attention to in the book.



I think for many years the first objective of the Chinese Communist Party in Australia was to silence dissenting and critical voices in the Chinese-Australian community and from groups like those calling for Tibetan and Uyghur autonomy, and of course Falun Gong, and they have been extremely successful over the last 15 or 20 years in silencing those groups and marginalizing them from the mainstream of political discussion in Australia. But then I realized that was only part of the story or the first phase, that the CCP ... wanted to not only silence those critical voiceswhether it be Uyghurs or Tibetans or pro-democracy activists in Australiait wanted to build on that, especially making use of the Chinese-Australian community to build its political influence in the mainstream of Australian society, and that is why it targeted the main political parties and intellectuals and the media in Australia and has made some considerable inroads. Although in recent months, many people in Australia are starting to wake up to what is happening and there are significant moves to push back against Beijing's intrusions into this country.



RFA: In 2009, a documentary telling the life story of Uyghur exile leader Rebiya Kadeer was screened at the Melbourne Film Festival, despite strong objections from the Chinese government. People are worried about these kinds of objections leading to self-censorship in Australia. How do you link this kind of behavior with the ongoing Chinese invasion of Australia?



Clive Hamilton: I think sometimes successful attempts by the Chinese government to restrict what Australians see at the movies, or read in books or newspapers is outrageous. It fundamentally goes against the democratic principles which Australia is built on. And it distresses me enormously that sometimes Beijing succeeds in its attempts in Australia and it distresses me even more when governments in Australia go along with that. I think that there is a growing awareness among the population in Australia that this is really intolerable. And I think that it will become increasingly difficult for governments to turn a blind eye to Beijing's attempts to influence what we in Australia see at the movies or read in newspapers or in books.



RFA: Some scholars argue that you mischaracterize a culture clash as an invasion in Australia. How do you respond to this assertion?



Clive Hamilton: My book has been welcomed very strongly and enthusiastically by many Chinese-Australians in this country, because they ... are the biggest victims of Beijing's influence and intrusion in this country. So I think that any Chinese scholars who say that Beijing's influence is really a spread of Chinese culture, that's something we can welcome ... But not if it's Chinese Communist Party culture and not if it's the political power of the Communist Party that's being veiled behind so-called "Chinese culture" as a way of manipulating this country and the way that Beijing tries to manipulate other countries. Many China scholars in Australia have come out an endorsed, in an open letter, exactly the kinds of claims that I am making in my book.



RFA: What might be Chinas final goal or motivation in Australia?



Clive Hamilton: I think the Communist Party and especially now under President Xi Jinping sees China as a hegemonic power that wants to dominate Asia and that includes Australia. Australia is a very valuable prize for the CCP because we are an advanced Western nation allied to the United States at the end of the Southeast Asian region. So if Beijing can control Australia, they've won an enormous strategic advantage against the United States. That's why they've put so much effort into trying to influence Australia.



RFA: Chinas government is increasing its investments in Australia. What role do you see trade and the economy playing in an expansion of Chinas invasion of the country?



Clive Hamilton: The Chinese Communist Party is a master at using economic blackmail to gain political and security goals in other countries. And, of course, we've seen that kind of blackmail exerted particularly strongly on South Korea and Taiwan and Japan. In Australia, it's been the threat of it, rather than actual attempts at blackmail, so far, but Australian politicians and businesspeople are very, very afraid of what Beijing might do if we take any measure that displeases it. Because people know that Beijing is capable of causing a great deal of economic pain to other countries when they are acting ways it doesn't like, Australian decision-makers are very wary and constrain their own actions in ways that satisfy Beijing because they see what Beijing might do. It's a very effective way of exerting influence.



Reporting by Kurban Niyaz for RFA's Uyghur Service.
An appeals court in Vietnams central Nghe An province today upheld a 14-year prison term handed in February to environmental activist Hoang Duc Binh, sending him back to prison to serve his sentence, Binhs lawyer told RFAs Vietnamese Service.



Binh, a blogger on environmental issues, had been charged under Articles 257 and 258 of Vietnams penal code for abusing democratic freedoms and obstructing officials in the performance of their duties, sources said.



He was arrested on May 15, 2017, by police officers who dragged him from a car more than a year after organizing protests over the governments response to a waste spill the year before by a Taiwan-owned Formosa Plastics Group steel plant.



The spill killed an estimated 115 tons of fish and left fishermen jobless in four coastal provinces.



Speaking to RFA by phone, Binhs lawyer Ha Huy Son said that prosecutors had failed both in Binhs initial trial and at todays appeal hearing to present direct evidence against him.



They relied only on the unsupported testimony of traffic policemen to convict him, Son said, adding that Binh had been beaten by other prisoners in his cell following his arrest.



He told me that before his appearance in the lower court, he had been kept in a cell with prisoners under sentence of death, who had physically attacked him, Son said.



In an April 23 statement, Phil Robertson, Deputy Asia Director for Human Rights Watch, said that Binhs only crime has been to demand that Vietnams government respect human rights.



[But] in Vietnams one party dictatorship thats enough for an outrageously long prison sentence, Robertson said.



Vietnam should immediately drop all charges against Binh and free him and other political prisoners held in the countrys jails, he said.



Until then, international trade partners and donors should publicly pressure Vietnam to end its intensifying crackdown against activists that has made it one of the worst rights abusing governments in Southeast Asia, Robertson said.



'Constant pain'



Meanwhile, a blogger held in northern Vietnams Hoa Binh province on charges of having worked to overthrow the government has been hospitalized after suffering ill treatment in prison, his daughter told RFA on April 23.



Dao Quang Thuc, a retired teacher detained for his writings on Facebook, was first sent on April 13 to a local hospital but was later transferred to a hospital run by the police, his daughter Dao Ngoc Binh Quynh Trang said.



He complains of constant pain. His blood pressure is elevated, and he has headaches, Trang said.



Trang said that she and her mother tried to visit Thuc at the hospital on April 21, but were refused access by the police.



My father was inside that room and shouted out for us to hear, she said.



He said that he had not been given enough to eat during the first two months he was in jail, and was not allowed to receive supplies from his family. He said that he was continually interrogated by four policemen who beat him, she said.



Arrested on Oct. 5, 2017 by Hoa Binh provincial police, Thuc was charged under Article 79 of Vietnams penal code, a vaguely worded provision frequently used by authorities to silence human rights and environmental activists and other dissenting voices in Vietnam.



Reported by RFAs Vietnamese Service. Translated by Viet Ha. Written in English by Richard Finney.
Afghan officials say a new wave of Taliban attacks has killed at least nine soldiers and police officers.

Mohammad Naser Mehri, the spokesman for the governor of the western Farah Province, said on April 24 that at least five soldiers were killed and two were wounded when their checkpoint was attacked by Taliban militants in the province's Bala Buluk district.

Six Taliban fighters were killed and three others were wounded in the battle, which lasted several hours, Mehri said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for an attack in the eastern Ghazni Province that killed at least four members of the local police force and wounded seven.

The assailants targeted a security post in the district of Jaghatu, according to Arif Noori, spokesman for the provincial governor. Noori said the battle lasted several hours and that the attackers used artillery and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the Ghazni attack in a message to the media.

Also on April 24, the Health Ministry raised the death toll from an April 22 suicide bombing by the extremist group Islamic State (IS) in Kabul to 60, after three more victims died in the hospital.

On April 23, Taliban attacks in western Afghanistan killed 18 soldiers and police officers.

Based on reporting by AP and Tolo News
Photos by RFE/RL's Amos Chapple YEREVAN -- In Yerevan, April 24 is a day when the country mourns the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians under Ottoman rule during the World War I era. This year, coming just one day after the resignation of Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian after 11 days of mass demonstrations, the somber mood of the traditional march to a memorial on Yerevan's Tsitsernakaberd Hill was also mixed with a sense of confidence on the part of opposition supporters. That's because, for the first time, many were commemorating Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day as victors rather than as victims. "Victory is now in the hearts of the people," said Ruzanna Hakobian, an opposition supporter from Yerevan who spoke to RFE/RL's Armenian Service while marching uphill to the Armenian Genocide memorial complex. "We are coming here in a heady mood," Hakobian said. "Although today is the day to remember the genocide victims, yesterday's victory for us is the beginning of a new life in Armenia."

Opposition supporter Anna Barseghian told RFE/RL that April 24 will have "a different meaning" in Armenia than in years past. "It will not be the same April 24 that it used to be," Barseghian said. "We feel liberated. Something good has happened." Speaking on the eve of the uphill commemoration march late on April 23, protest leader Nikol Pashinian said Armenians were going "together to tell our martyrs that the people have won and that the genocide of our people is in the past." During the march, some of Pashinian's supporters who had faced off defiantly against Armenian riot police during the previous 11 days suddenly found themselves being escorted politely by the same police.

Instead of the defiance sometimes shown in recent days at protests, the opposition supporters on April 24 respectfully obeyed police requests for them to move to one side of the road. But the commemoration march fell short of being a display of unconditional unity among Armenians. Pashinian and his supporters did not start their hike up the hill until acting Prime Minister Karen Karapetian had already completed the climb and had paid his respects at the memorial. Karapetian, who served as the previous prime minister under Sarkisian and is a member of his ruling Republican Party of Armenia, had called a day earlier for all Armenians to show the world that they "can unite in critical times, hold negotiations, and find logical solutions."
YEREVAN -- Armenian lawmaker Nikol Pashinian, the leader of opposition protests that pushed longtime leader Serzh Sarkisian to abruptly step down as prime minister, says he is ready to step in and lead the country if people want.

After leading thousands of supporters in a procession to a hilltop memorial complex in Yerevan to mark the anniversary of the World War I-era massacre of their ancestors in Ottoman Turkey, Pashinian told reporters on April 24 that the rule of Sarkisians Republican Party is over.

After the pause for the memorial ceremonies, high politics were expected to begin again on April 25, when Pashinian, 42, was set to meet with acting Prime Minister Karen Karapetian to discuss what comes next for the South Caucasus country of some 3 million.

However, a leader of his Civil Contract party, Tigran Avinian, later told RFE/RL that the meeting will not take place. He declined to elaborate.

The planned talks on April 25 "should be about the transfer of power without any shocks," Pashinian said, adding that he plans to give supporters a progress report at a rally on Yerevan's central Republic Square that evening.

"Today we will use the opportunity and have certain political discussions to clearly state what stage we are at and what specific steps we should take to ensure the people's victory," Pashinian said in a video posted on Facebook.

Pashinian said on April 23 that he plans to discuss the "peaceful transfer of power with Karapetian, who is a member of Sarkisian's long-ruling Republican Party, and that snap parliamentary elections should be held "within a reasonable time frame."

"I hope that the leaders of the Republican Party will unequivocally and unconditionally recognize the victory of the people's velvet, nonviolent revolution," he said.

Pashinian's remarks suggested that he wants to serve as prime minister for a transitional period, followed by elections that could reduce the Republican Party's dominance and bolster the position of his own party -- which now holds four mandates in the 105-seat National Assembly.

Under Armenia's constitution, when the prime minister leaves office political factions in parliament have seven days to put forward the name of a new one for a vote in the legislature. But new parliamentary elections do not necessarily follow, and it was not immediately clear whether the Republican Party will support Pashinian's plans.

Sarkisian's resignation came shortly after talks between Pashinian and Karapetian -- who was prime minister from September 2016 until early April -- but the details of the discussion have not been revealed.

That has left questions about what the future holds for the former Soviet republic, where Sarkisian's resignation was a relatively rare case in which street protests prompted a longtime leader to step down.

'I Got It Wrong'

The catalyst for the protests was Sarkisian's shift to the newly powerful post of prime minister after a decade as president -- a move critics charged was a blatant bid to cling to power when he reached the limit of two straight presidential terms.

Sarkisian was elected prime minister by parliament on April 17, eight days after his presidency ended on April 9.

Under constitutional changes that he pushed through in 2015, the prime minister is now more powerful than the president, who is more of a figurehead.

Protesters charged that Sarkisian violated previous pledges not to seek to become prime minister under the new system, claiming the shift threatened to make the 63-year-old the leader for life.

Sarkisian's resignation came one day after he suggested that he would not step down, telling Pashinian that demands for him to do so were "blackmail."

But in the statement on April 23, Sarkisian acknowledged that "the street movement is against me" and suggested that he did not want to resort to disperse protesters.

"Nikol Pashinian was right. I got it wrong," he said in the statement. "The situation has several possible solutions, but I will not take any of them. That is not my way. I am leaving the office of the country's leader, of prime minister."

Balancing Act

Armenia has pursued a delicate balancing act over the past decade, maintaining strong ties with Moscow while also developing relations with European Union.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on April 24 that Russia hopes order and stability will be maintained in Armenia as politicians work on a new political configuration, which he said should be based on "consensus."

"We see at this point that the situation is not heading toward destabilization. We are satisfied with that," Peskov told reporters in Moscow.

He said that any comparisons between the events in Yerevan with the upheaval in 2014 in Ukraine -- where Moscow-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych was pushed out by pro-European protests -- were "inappropriate."

Russia seized Crimea and backed antigovernment forces in eastern Ukraine after Yanukovych's downfall, contributing to a conflict that has killed more than 10,300 people, badly damaging relations with Ukraine, and prompting Kyiv to seek closer ties with the West.

Armenia hosts a large Russian military base and is a member of regional economic and security organizations dominated by Moscow.

Ahead of Pashinian's planned procession to the memorial complex, thousands of others streamed to the site and laid flowers around a flame at the center of a stark, towering monument.

On April 24, Armenians around the world commemorate the killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians in Ottoman Turkey during the World War I era.

Twenty-seven other countries and the majority of U.S. states have joined Armenia in formally considering the killings to be genocide.

Turkey rejects the term, claiming that the death toll has been inflated and that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest rather than a systematic plan to exterminate the Armenian population in Ottoman Turkey.
Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has used an annual address to criticize both the West and Russia, accusing Western countries of "inciting trade wars" and charging that Moscow has blocked Belarusian goods from the Russian market.

In the wide-ranging televised speech to parliament on April 24, Lukashenka also handed Russia a coded warning against "isolation" and signaled that badly strained ties between Moscow and the West will not stop Belarus from seeking closer relations with the European Union and United States.

In "the current difficult situation the world has entered, Belarusians must stay strong to preserve unity and stability," the authoritarian leader said.

The address was in line with previous speeches in which Lukashenka, who has been president since 1994, has said that solidarity is needed in the face of what he casts as threats to Belarus from both east and west.

"The United States led by its strict protectionist interests launched [a trade war] against China. Along with that there is a wide-scale sanctions war against Russia," Lukashenka said.

"And look at those milk, meat, and sugar wars our closest partner has launched against us in order to block our goods from entering the Russian market," he added.

Apparently referring to Russia and Western countries including the United States, Lukashenka said that "the world's leading countries" were "fighting for their places in the world's hierarchy," which "leads to increased tension and confrontation."

"National selfishness, ignoring the interests of their partners and even allies, egocentrism, violation of international norms are turning into inseparable parts of the policies of the world's leading players," Lukashenka said.

But he said that although the confrontation between bigger powers might affect Belarus, his country will remain open for cooperation with everyone, suggesting that the ongoing standoff between Russia and the West will not affect what he says are Minsk's attempts to improve ties with the EU and the United States.

"The level of our political contacts with the European Union and widening of our mutual economic interaction are visible. We have to use the constructive potential of the EU's Eastern Partnership to its maximum," Lukashenka said, talking up ties with the EU at a time when Russia has been hit by mounting sanctions amid disputes with the West over its actions in Ukraine and elsewhere.

"The sanction wars will inevitably ricochet and hit us as well. Either via trade or financial structures we will feel it. But we will not shut ourselves off from the outer world," Lukashenka said. In a warning to Russia, he added, "No country, even one from the list of the great countries, can be successful if it becomes isolated from others."

Stuck In The Middle

An authoritarian leader who has ruled Belarus since 1994, Lukashenka has sought to strike a balance between eastern neighbor Russia, which he depicts as both an ally and a threat, and the EU to the west.

The EU eased sanctions against Belarus in 2016 after the release of several people considered political prisoners, but has criticized Lukashenka's government for a violent clampdown on demonstrators protesting an unemployment tax in March 2017.

Belarus and Russia are joined in a Union State that exists mainly on paper, and their militaries have close ties -- though Lukashenka has resisted some Russian efforts to beef up its military presence in Belarus, which lies between Russia and the NATO nations.

Belarus is a member of the Eurasian Economic Union and the Collective Security Treaty Organization, regional groupings observers say Russian President Vladimir Putin uses to seek to bolster Moscow's influence in the former Soviet Union and counter the EU and NATO.

Lukashenka, who has hosted talks aimed to end the war in between Ukrainian government forces and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, has ambitiously offered to host what he said should be "a new wide-scale dialogue between East and West."

With reporting by Merhat Sharipzhan
Canadian police say 10 people were killed and 15 others injured after a driver rammed a rented van into pedestrians in Toronto in what police and witnesses said appeared to be a "deliberate" attack.

But authorities initially ruled out terrorism as a motive in the attack at a busy intersection in Canada's capital late on April 23.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said on Twitter that "there appears to be NO national security connection to the horrible event." The government did not raise its terrorism alert level after the incident.

Police took the driver, who they identified as Alek Minassian, 25, into custody at the scene. They said Minassian was from Toronto and not previously known to police.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation aired a video it said was shot by a bystander that showed police arresting a suspect after he shouted "Kill me" and pointed an unidentified object at an officer.

Witness Phil Zullo told Canadian Press that he saw people "strewn all over the road" after the incident. "It was awful. Brutal," he said.

About 30 kilometers from the incident, foreign ministers from the Group of Seven leading industrialized countries -- the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan -- were holding talks.

But Canadian authorities said their initial investigation found no connection between the events.

Former classmates at a surburban Toronto high school where Minassian was in a program for students with special needs said he would often walk the halls with his head down and hands tightly clasped, Reuters reported.

Based on reporting by AFP, AP, Reuters, and the BBC
The United Nations and the European Union have appealed for quick political talks to end the seven-year conflict in Syria, saying the latest territorial gains by Damascus and its allies hadnt brought peace any closer.

The UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini issued the calls on April 24 in Brussels, where they held talks as part of efforts to restart the UN-sponsored Geneva peace talks.

The previous eight rounds of talks have made little progress.

Russia and Iran, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's key allies, last year launched a separate negotiations process together with Turkey in the Kazakh capital, Astana.

"Military gains, territorial gains, and military escalation do not bring a political solution, have not brought any change, on the contrary," de Mistura told a news conference.

"There is a job that the Astana three [guarantor] countries are supposed to do and they claim they want to do it, and that is de-escalation. We have seen recently the opposite: escalation. So it is right that we expect and ask them to do that job," he added.

Mogherini said that the Astana process "brought some hope on the possibility of calming down the situation in terms of military activities, but that seems very long ago and that seems gone.

The meeting between de Mistura and Mogherini came as a two-day international conference aimed at securing humanitarian support for victims of the Syrian war kicked off in the Belgian capital.

UN and EU officials held talks on April 24 with more than 200 aid groups and NGOs working in Syria and neighboring countries, and drawing up recommendations that will be discussed with high-level delegations on April 25.

The seventh such annual gathering is co-sponsored by the EU and the UN, and brings together donor countries, aid groups, and UN agencies.

EU officials hope to surpass the $6 billion pledged at last year's gathering.

The UN has warned that its own appeal for this year's humanitarian funding for Syria has so far garnered less than $800 million of the $3.5 billion needed.

The conference comes as Syrian government forces and their allies are pushing a military offensive to wipe out the last few rebel enclaves near the capital, Damascus.

It also follows air strikes by the United States, France, and Britain on Syrian military installations on April 14 in response to an alleged chemical attack in Douma.

According to EU estimates, some 6.1 million Syrians are now internally displaced, while more than 5 million have fled Syria.

It also estimates that 13 million people, including six million children, are in need of aid.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, dpa, and Rikard Jozwiak in Brussels




Security authorities in Russia's Tatarstan region have detained 14 alleged members of the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir organization.

The regional branch of the Federal Security Service (FSB) said on April 24 that the suspects were detained after an operation in which 14 homes were searched in Tatarstans capital, Kazan, and nearby districts.

FSB officers confiscated books with suspected extremist content, it said.

Authorities in Russia and other former Soviet republics say Hizb ut-Tahrir plays a role in a strategy used by Islamic State (IS) militants to radicalize young people and recruit them to fight in Syria and Iraq.

Hizb ut-Tahrir is a London-based Sunni political organization that seeks to unite all Muslim countries into an Islamic caliphate.

The group, which is banned in Russia and Central Asian former Soviet republics, says it is peaceful.
Has a symbol of Iran's pre-revolutionary past come back to haunt it?

Speculation that a body found near a former mausoleum south of the Iranian capital might be that of Reza Shah, the founder of the Pahlavi Dynasty who once strived to modernize the former Persia, has stoked Iranian interest in their country's pre-revolutionary and pre-Islamic past.

It has also prompted a warning for Iranian authorities from Reza Shah's grandson, Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, who has campaigned against Iran's clerically dominated political establishment from his exile in the United States.

Reza Pahlavi tweeted that he was watching the news "closely" and cautioned Iranian leaders against any "cover-up" or "lack of transparency."

The mummified body was found at the former site of Reza Shah's tomb, which was destroyed following Iran's Islamic revolution in 1979 in one of the first in a long line of official and semiofficial actions to distance the country from its royal past.

The head of the Tehran council's cultural heritage and tourism committee, Hassan Khalilabadi, was quoted by government news agency IRNA, conceding that it was "possible" the gauze-wrapped body found at the site belonged to Reza Shah Pahlavi.

"Some believe it is possible that the body belongs to the first Pahlavi that was transferred to Tehran after being mummified and buried in the shrine of Abdol Azim Haasani," he said on April 23.

But the head of the public-relations office of the shrine was quoted by local media as dismissing the reports about the body as "rumors" created on social media.

"The area surrounding the shrine was previously a cemetery, so discovering a body in this area is natural," the semiofficial ISNA news agency quoted Mostafa Ajorlou as saying.

Khalilabadi said that it would be up to heritage experts and physicians to determine the identity of the body.

He said that regardless of whose remains they were, they have a "heritage aspect" and should be preserved.

The statements have set the rumor mill spinning.

On social media, some people circulated a photo of Reza Shah's body next to the mummified body to claim -- ostensibly based on clues like the position of the hand and the face -- that they could be one and the same.

Many used the hashtags #Rezashah, #Mummy_of_Reza_Shah and #Where_is_the_mummy alongside pleas for the body to be preserved and for authorities to take good care of it.

"#The_Mummmy_of_Reza_Shah is historic heritage and it belongs to all the people and the future [generations]. It should be preserved," Abbas Khansari tweeted, noting in a separate tweet that the remains "can bring many tourists."

Others suggested that the Iranian clerical establishment still fears Reza Shah, who is seen by many as having brought progress and prosperity to the country, and they echoed Reza Pahlavi's suggestion that Iranian officials might attempt to cover up the identity of the mummified body.

"Even his dead body scares the heck out of the Ayatollahs," user Shahriar Ershadi wrote on Twitter.

"You were so mighty and strong that they even fear your mummy," another user tweeted.

Reza Shah, who was forced to abdicate under Allied pressure during World War II, died in South African exile in 1944. His remains were flown back to Iran in 1950 and buried in a mausoleum in Ray, south of Tehran.

Reza Shah's huge tomb was destroyed in 1980 by a crowd that was said to have been led by Sadegh Khalakhali, who had been appointed by the founder of the Islamic republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, as the head of the revolutionary courts.

Khalkhali, nicknamed the "hanging judge" for ordering hundreds of summary executions, wrote in memoirs published in 2000 that it took 20 days to destroy the tomb due to its sturdy construction.

"We were forced to use dynamite to gradually destroy the mausoleum," he wrote.

Khalkhali said that revolutionaries were unable to find Reza Shah's remains, claiming that his son, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, had taken his father's "bones" with him when he left Tehran for Cairo shortly before the revolution.

That claim was later denied by the Shah's wife, Farah Diba, according to RFE/RL's Radio Farda.

Reza Pahlavi's media office also told RFE/RL in an email that the body of Reza Shah was never removed from Iran "as rumored by the regime and its proxies."

"It was left at his mausoleum where he was buried," the email said.

Many Iranians are nostalgic about their pre-revolutionary past, including young Iranians who were born after the 1979 revolution and the creation of the Islamic republic.

During antiestablishment protests that took place in dozens of cities across the country in December and January, some chanted slogans in support of the Pahlavi Dynasty, including: "Reza Shah, may your soul be blessed!" "Reza Shah, apologies, apologies!" and "What a mistake we made by taking part in the revolution."

"I'm not superstitious, but it's interesting for me that the mummy of Reza Shah was found after the 'Reza Shah, may your soul be blessed' chants," a user wrote on Twitter, adding that it was as if Reza Shah had come to watch the fate of the Iranian nation.


Iranian President Hassan Rohani has warned U.S. President Donald Trump not to pull out of a landmark nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, saying that the United States will face "severe consequences" if it violates the pact.

"I am telling those in the White House that if they do not live up to their commitments, the Iranian government will firmly react," Rohani said in a speech broadcast live on state television on April 24.

Trump has given the deal's European signatories a May 12 deadline to fix what he calls its "terrible flaws," threatening to effectively withdraw the United States by refusing to extend waivers on U.S. sanctions if they do not do so.

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which Iran signed with the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France, and Germany in 2015, put curbs on Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

Aside from the United States, the other signatories of the agreement have all voiced support for the deal.

Speaking to a crowd of thousands in the northeastern city of Tabriz, Rohani said: "If anyone betrays the deal, they should know that they would face severe consequences. Iran is prepared for all possible situations."

French President Emmanuel Macron, a vocal proponent of the deal, is in the United States and is seeking to convince Trump not to torpedo the agreement.

At a UN nonproliferation conference in Geneva, Russia's delegate said on April 24 that his country and China had submitted a draft statement voicing "unwavering support" for the deal and hope the draft will receive broad backing at the meeting.

Vladimir Yermakov, the Russian Foreign Ministry's director-general for nonproliferation and arms control, told the meeting that the Iran agreement was fragile and any attempt to change it would impact on the global nonproliferation regime.

On April 23, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he had agreed with his Chinese counterpart that Moscow and Beijing would try to block any U.S. attempt to sabotage the nuclear deal.

Iran has warned that it will revive and step up its nuclear program if the deal collapses.

With reporting by Reuters and IRNA
Iran's foreign minister has said that neither Iran nor Saudi Arabia can be the dominant power in the Middle East and called on countries in the Persian Gulf region to start talking to each other.

"In an attempt to be the strongest in the region, to exclude one another from the region, we have managed to destroy the region," Mohammad Javad Zarif said in an address to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York late on April 23.

Zarif said there was "a dire need for change" and "Iran is ready for it because we are big enough, old enough, mature enough to appreciate this reality."

"None of us can become the new hegemon" in the region, he said. "The era of hegemonic influence is long gone," he said. "Neither Iran nor Saudi Arabia can be the hegemons of the region. That's a fact."

Zarif called for a new "regional dialogue forum" that would include five Gulf Cooperation Council countries along with Iran, Iraq, and Yemen. He said such a dialogue had the potential to transform the Middle East.

Zarif's visit to New York comes two weeks after a visit to Washington and New York by Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, the heir apparent to the Saudi throne who has portrayed Iran as Riyadh's biggest foe.

"Our neighbors, particularly Saudi Arabia, want to create an impression that we are an existential threat against them," Zarif said, asserting that was "one of the most important messages" conveyed by Salman to audiences in the United States.

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump signed off on the sale of more than $1.3 billion in artillery to Saudi Arabia during his visit. Zarif said other Gulf Arab countries were now trying "to compete with one another in buying more weapons."

But "security cannot be purchased," he said. Rather, he said, it requires "understanding in the region."

Saudi Arabia and Iran are engaged in proxy conflicts in Syria and Yemen, and they also back opposing groups in Lebanon, Bahrain, and Iraq.

Zarif said the region was suffering from "a dialogue deficit," and that's why he has suggested creating "a regional dialogue forum."

Such a forum should include Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and probably Yemen, he said.

To join the forum, he said, countries should agree on a number of principles: the inviolability of borders, respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, and nonintervention in each other's internal affairs.

In addition to the "dialogue deficit," Zarif said there was also "a confidence deficit."

He said Persian Gulf countries not only need to start talking but to work on confidence-building measures.

Zarif suggested joint task forces on issues ranging from nuclear safety -- because "very soon" there will be a growing number of nuclear reactors on the Persian Gulf coast --to tourism, cultural exchanges, women's empowerment, and democratic processes.

"We need to have a strong region," he said, "not to be the strongest in the region."

Unless this transformation takes place, Zarif warned that no matter how many weapons the United States sells to its Arab allies, "at the end of the day the cost for the United States will be much higher than the profits made by the weapons sold."

A day earlier, on April 22, Zarif told the Al-Monitor television network that the Saudis have not been able to help Yemen's embattled government win a war against Iranian-backed Huthi rebels despite having "beautiful U.S. weapons."

"The Saudis remain under the false assumption, which they also had in Syria, that they can achieve a military victory. This is why the war on Yemen continues," he said.

Zarif said that the only solution to the civil war in Yemen was a political settlement.

With reporting by AP and Press TV.
QARAGHANDY, Kazakhstan -- The trial of a Kazakh citizen who fought alongside Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine has started in Kazakhstans central city of Qaraghandy.

The 31-year-old defendant, whose identity the court ordered not to be released by media, pleaded guilty to "participation in an armed conflict in the foreign country" in 2015 and 2016 as the trial started on April 24.

He pleaded not guilty to separate murder charges in the deaths of two Qaraghandy residents in 2016.

A co-defendant pleaded guilty to failing to report a crime.

Several Kazakh citizens have been tried and convicted on charges related to the war in eastern Ukraine, including joining the Russia-backed separatists and inciting ethnic hatred by discussing the conflict on the Internet.

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, after deploying troops and engineering the takeover of the regional legislature, in a move denounced by Kyiv, the West, and 100 countries in the UN General Assembly.

Russia has also supported separatists fighting government forces in eastern Ukraine, where more than 10,300 people have been killed since April 2014.

Russia's interference in Ukraine has raised concerns among its neighbors that it may have designs on parts of their territory -- particularly those which, like Qaraghandy and parts of northern Kazakhstan, are home to many ethnic Russians.
TALDYQORGHAN, Kazakhstan -- The chief of the KazTAG news agency in Kazakhstan, Aset Mataev, who was sentenced to five years in prison in 2016 on a tax-evasion conviction he disputes, will be transferred to a lower-security facility.

A court in the southeastern city of Taldyqorghan ruled on April 24 that Mataev, 33, will be transferred from a prison to a penitentiary in his native Almaty in which convicts live close to an industrial facility or a farm where they work.

Mataev's father, Seitqazy Mataev, 63, was tried with his son and sentenced to six years in prison on tax evasion and embezzlement charges. He was released in December, after his sentence was reduced under a 2016 mass amnesty marking the 25th anniversary of Kazakhstan's independence.

Seitqazy and Aset Mataev were arrested in February 2016. They were sentenced in October that year after a court convicted both men of tax evasion and found the older man guilty of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from Kazakhstan's Communications Ministry.

Both have denied the charges. Rights groups say Seitqazy Mataev was prosecuted on trumped-up charges in response to his work as head of the Union of Kazakhstan's Journalists.
The owners of vehicles in Moldovas separatist region of Transdniester will receive neutral registration plates and will be allowed to participate in international road traffic as of September this year, according to an agreement between Chisinau and Tiraspol backed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Moldova's government said that, under the protocol signed in the city of Bender in Transdniester on April 24, privately-owned vehicle' registration plates will have three letters and three figures.

Each vehicle will have a technical passport in line with requirements of the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic.

The registration of the vehicles is to be conducted at two offices to be set up in the cities of Tiraspol and Rabnita with the assistance of the OSCE's Mission in Moldova.

Moscow-backed Transdniester declared independence from Moldova in 1990. The two sides fought a brief war in 1992 that ended when the Russian military intervened on the side of Transdniester.

Transdniester's independence is not recognized by any country.

In a statement, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherinis spokesperson, Maja Kocijancic, said the agreement represents an important step forward and contributes to a positive dynamic in the Transnistrian settlement process.

The statement called for a swift and thorough implementation of the agreement, saying it would bring tangible benefits to the population, bringing both banks closer together.

With reporting by Moldpress
Three suicide bombers attacked Pakistani police and paramilitary troopers in the country's southwest, killing at least five security force members and wounding seven others.

A military statement said on April 24 that a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device -near a police van on Airport Road in Balochistan Province's capital, Quetta, killing five officers and wounding seven others.

Provincial police chief Moazzam Jah Ansari put the death toll at six.

The military said two other suicide bombers tried to hit a checkpoint manned by the paramilitary Frontier Corps in the Mian Ghundi area, but were killed before they could explode their suicide vests.

No group claimed responsibility, but Islamic militants operating in the region have claimed similar attacks in similar past attacks.

Resource-rich Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, has also been plagued by sectarian violence and a separatist insurgency that has led to thousands of casualties since 2004.

With reporting by AP and Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump has praised France's "key partnership" in what he called a "campaign of maximum pressure" on the North Korean regime aimed at ensuring peace in the surrounding region. Speaking to reporters following talks with French President Emmanuel Macron in Washington on April 24, Trump also criticized Iranian authorities, saying Tehran "must end its support of terrorism." (AP)
Activists of an unregistered Bashqort organization that promotes Bashkir culture in the Russian region of Bashkortostan have urged the regional leadership to investigate a recent performance by a Russian comic, in which, they say, he insulted the Bashkir language and a historic figure.

Bashqort activists wrote on the VKontakte social network that they sent requests on April 24 to the regional leader Rustem Khamitov, Bashkortostans parliament and Russian lawmakers representing the region, asking them to make sure that the comic, Ruslan Bely, was held responsible for the "insult" and "punished in accordance with the law."

Earlier in April, the Moscow-based TNT TV channel broadcast Bely's performance, in which he mocked Bashkir national hero Salavat Yulayev, who in the 18th century joined Yemelyan Pugachyov's rebellion against the Russian Tsar.

Bely called Yulayev "a bandit" and compared specific phonetic peculiarities of the Bashkir language with "a drunkards mumbling."

The performance sparked an outcry in Bashkortostan.

Hundreds rallied in Bashkortostans capital, Ufa, on April 19, demanding an investigation into TNT TV, accusing it of "inciting ethnic hatred."

Language has become a touchy subject in recent months in Russia's so-called "ethnic" regions, where indigenous, non-Russian groups are well represented.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in July that children in these regions must not be forced to learn languages that are not their mother tongues, and ordered prosecutors to determine whether that was taking place.

That led to the abolition of mandatory indigenous-language classes in the regions.

The move caused an outcry in Bashkortostan and other regions where local languages have official status alongside Russian.
The former speaker of the Kemerovo regional legislature, who quit the post to make way for veteran politician Aman Tuleyev earlier in April, has become deputy governor of the Russian region.

Aleksei Sinitsyn wrote on Facebook on April 24 that he had been appointed as the governor's acting deputy for cooperation with municipal authorities in the region, a new post.

On April 6, Sinitsyn stepped down as chairman of the regional legislature and said that Tuleyev -- who had resigned as governor days earlier in the wake of a deadly fire at a shopping mall -- deserved the post.

Tuleyev, who is 73 and had been governor of the coal-mining region since 1997, resigned on April 1 amid calls to step down over the March 25 that killed 60 people, many of them children, at the Zimnyaya Vishnya (Winter Cherry) mall in the regional capital.

Tuleyev took a seat in the regional parliament two days later, and was elected its speaker on April 10.

Kemerovo residents and activists who blamed corruption and officials' negligence for the high casualty toll in the fire have voiced anger over Tuleyev's political survival after the blaze.

They planned a rally in the city on April 21, but the Kemerovo regional court banned the protest a day before it was scheduled to take place.
The Moscow Chamber of Attorneys has disbarred prominent lawyer Mark Feigin for allegedly unethical behavior.

The lawyer said he considers the April 24 decision to be politically motivated and plans to appeal against it.

The decision comes after lawyer Stalina Gurevich demanded that Feigin be deprived of his status for violating the norms of the lawyers' code of ethics by using obscene vocabulary on social media against his colleagues and their clients.

Gurevich called allegations that the decision was politically related "a lie."

Feigin has defended the punk protest band Pussy Riot and Nadia Savchenko, the Ukrainian airwoman who spent nearly two years in Russian captivity, in politically sensitive cases.

He is also defending Ukrainian journalist Roman Sushchenko, who is on trial in Moscow on espionage charges.

Based on reporting by the BBC Russian, TASS, and Interfax


A 10th-grade student near Moscow has complained that he and his classmates are being compelled to participate in a Victory Day event that is billed as a solemn commemoration of Soviet soldiers and civilians who were killed in World War II.

"My desire not to be forced to participate in this demonstration does not stem from any distaste for the event itself," the student told RFE/RL, "but rather from my convictions about human liberty."

RFE/RL is not publishing the student's name because he is a minor. At the student's request, RFE/RL is also withholding the name of the school involved because the student said he experienced "pressure" from school officials after RFE/RL approached them for comment.

The school, in the Moscow Oblast town of Korolyov, is listed as one of the 100 best schools of the region, and the student has been featured in the local press as a winner of an international academic competition.

Each year, hundreds of thousands of Russians across the country and around the world mark the May 9 anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany by marching with portraits of their relatives who gave their lives to defeat Hitler's army.

Since 2015, high-ranking Russian officials up to and including President Vladimir Putin have participated in the so-called Immortal Regiment demonstration, which has evolved from a grassroots initiative of three friends in Tomsk in 2011 to a quasi-official mass demonstration of patriotism and support for the government.

Increasingly, however, the event -- which is intended to evoke and honor the estimated 27 million Soviets who died in World War II and those who lived to see victory -- has been clouded by charges that people are being coerced into participating. In 2017, Izvestia reported that Putin's administration had instructed local officials not to force people to participate.

There have also been allegations that participants have marched with photographs of people they didn't know that had been provided by local-event organizers and that were quickly discarded after the march.

Mandatory Or Voluntary?

Officials at the Kovolyov school and municipal officials told RFE/RL that no one was required to participate in Immortal Regiment.

The Kovolyov student said his class had been told several times during lessons this term that participation in Immortal Regiment was obligatory. The event, the student said, had been included as part of his class's mandatory military training.

The student and six of his classmates sent an open letter to the Moscow Oblast children's rights ombudsman and the municipal Education Committee saying they believe they have the right to refuse to participate in organized activities on May 9 because that day is a state holiday.

The student also asked the municipal Education Committee to present a schedule of his class's required military training. When he got no response, he complained to the local prosecutor's office. After that, acting committee Chairwoman Natalya Sushilina wrote to the student that participation in Immortal Regiment was "strictly voluntary."

The student told RFE/RL that this flurry of activity on his part prompted "numerous conversations" between school officials, students, and their parents. In the end, the school announced it would proceed with its organized representation at Immortal Regiment but without the participation of "complainers."

Return Of 'Poster Patriotism'?

Sergei Lapenko, one of the original creators of Immortal Regiment in 2011 and chairman of the nongovernmental Immortal Regiment organization, told RFE/RL that he had not heard about the complaints in Korolyov but that his organization opposes any such coercion. He said his organization "regularly" encounters such complaints, usually in locations where the Immortal Regiment event is organized by local officials.

"I perfectly well remember the 'poster patriotism' of the Soviet era, because I was in school myself at that time," Lapenko said. "When I was in 10th grade, my class had to participate in various demonstrations and it was just an excuse for us to drink a bottle of port wine with our friends."

In addition, Lapenko said the idea of separating the students into their own group also violated the spirit of his event.

"This history must be a family thing," he said. "The Immortal Regiment is the story of each family's personal memory, the memory of specific individuals. When you begin to break up the family -- papa has to march with his company, mama together with some state agency, and the son and daughter with their schools -- it undermines the point of the event."

Written by Robert Coalson on the basis of reporting by RFE/RL's Russian Service correspondent Aleksandr Litoi
A Soviet-era monument to an Uzbek family that adopted 15 children of different ethnicities during World War II will be returned to its original place in central Tashkent.

The city administration said on April 24 that the monument to Shoahmad and Bahri Shomahmudov, who adopted orphans evacuated to Tashkent in the 1940s from the former Soviet Union's western regions during the war, will be back on the square in front of the Independence Palace in the near future.

"The monument that has been considered a symbol of the people's friendship will reinforce Tashkent's beauty again and will strengthen the unity and friendship of all ethnic groups living as one family in the city," it said in a statement.

The Shomahmudovs adopted 15 children of Russian, Kazakh, Belarusian, Moldovan, Latvian, Jewish, and Tatar origin.

The monument was erected in 1982 and removed from the center of Uzbekistan's capital in 2008.

On May 9 last year, the monument was moved to the newly opened Friendship Park in Tashkent.


Russian state television has shown footage from the 2016 set of a Syrian film in a report pushing Moscow's claim that a suspected gas attack in Syria was "staged."

The April 22 report by state-run Channel One aired two weeks after the suspected gas attack in the Syrian town of Douma that the United States, France, and Britain blame on the forces of Syria's Russia-backed leader, Bashar al-Assad.

Those Western allies conducted missile strikes on Syrian government targets in response to the April 7 incident, while Russia denies any chemical attack took place and says "what did take place was...staged."

The Channel One report backed that same position, accusing Western politicians and media of "ignoring clear evidence that there was no chemical attack" in Douma.

As the news anchor cited alleged witness accounts that the videos purporting to show the aftermath of the attack were staged, the segment showed behind-the-scenes images from the set of a 2016 short film being produced at the time by Syrian director Humam Husari.

The independent Russian television network Dozhd, whose April 23 report flagged the old photographs used in the Channel One report, noted that the images were previously published by Reuters and the Chinese tabloid Global Times.

The Reuters report said Husari's film was a fictional retelling of what United Nations inspectors concluded was the use of sarin gas in rebel-controlled Ghouta, outside Damascus, in 2013.

Washington blamed Syrian forces for that attack, an allegation Assad's government denies.

Channel One did not immediately respond to a request for comment on April 24.

Images from the set of Husari's film were also used in an April 22 segment on Russian state media boss Dmitry Kiselyov's weekly current-events program on state-run Rossia-1.

The reporter for the segment, Yevgeny Poddubny, claims that there is a "critical amount of evidence" showing that "foreign intelligence services" are "staging" video materials in Syria in order to "demonize" Assad.

The report then cuts straight to a man -- identified in the report as part of Husari's production team on the film -- who is quoted through a translator as saying that the extras were made to look as if they had "truly suffered from a chemical attack."

Based on the Russian translation, at no point does the man interviewed suggest the scenes were being staged for anything other than Husari's film, which from the beginning was billed as a fictional drama based on real events.

'Many Witnesses'

In an April 24 telephone interview from northern Syria, Husari confirmed to RFE/RL that the man shown in the video -- Faris Muhammad Mayasa -- was involved in the production, "as many people were."

"It's important for me [and] for the world to know that it's a drama production. It's not staging or faking any chemical attacks," Husari said.

"When we made this production in 2016, we talked about it, we didn't hide it," he added.

Husari called the use of images from his set in the Russian news segments as "very cheap and very tacky," saying that "many witnesses" and video footage demonstrate that chemical attacks were carried out.

The World Health Organization said 43 people who died at the site of the suspected chemical attack in Douma, Syria, on April 7 suffered "symptoms consistent with exposure to highly toxic chemicals."

Inspectors from the Organization of the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), a global agency that monitors chemical weapons, arrived in Douma on April 21 to collect samples at the site of the alleged April 7 gas attack.

"I think this is a cheap attempt by the Russians to deny the obvious, and I think this is very desperate," Husari said.

Russia has cited a state television report in which a boy says he took part in a fake chemical-attack video as evidence that images are being manipulated to discredit the Syrian government.

Russian Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzya pledged on April 19 that the Rossia-24 report would be shown to the UN Security Council.

An April 24 report by the U.S. website The Intercept indicates that the TV segment showed the boy and his father at the Syrian Army officers club in Damascus.

Poddubny, who was also the reporter for that segment about the boy, insisted on Twitter that the interview "was recorded without pressure on the child's father and the boy himself."

Russian state television has broadcast old, unrelated images over the years in news reports that hew closely to Kremlin messaging.

In 2014, Channel One aired a nearly 20-year-old photograph of a mass grave from Russia's first war with Chechen separatists in the 1990s, describing it as one of several "horrifying images" of the war between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

In a 2014 report by Rossia-1 claiming that "every day peaceful civilians continue to die" in eastern Ukraine, Rossia-1 used an image, featuring a corpse, that was previously used 18 months earlier in a report on a counterterrorist operation in Russia's North Caucasus region.

Kiselyov later called the use of the image "an error" but "in no way a manipulation," adding that "young, nymph video technicians" may have been responsible.




Chahat fled from parents who threatened to hand her over to the Taliban, but found refuge with transgender friends in Peshawar, northwest Pakistan. Despite discrimination and the threat of violence, she and her flatmates are witnessing small steps towards a more accepting society.
U.S. President Donald Trump called the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers "a disaster," and warned that if Iran restarts its nuclear program, "they will have bigger problems than they have ever had before." Trump made the comments at the start of a White House meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.
U.S. President Donald Trump has warned that Iran "will have bigger problems than they have ever had before" if it follows through with threats to restart its nuclear program.

Speaking at the start of a White House meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, Trump called the 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and six world powers "insane."

He said that the accord -- inked under his predecessor Barack Obama -- does nothing to tackle Tehran's ballistic missiles program or its role in conflicts in the Middle East.

"It just seems that no matter where you go, especially in the Middle East, Iran is behind it; wherever there is trouble -- Yemen, Syria; no matter where you have it Iran is behind it," Trump said. "And now, unfortunately, Russia is getting more and more involved, but Iran seems to be behind everything where there is a problem."

Macron told reporters that the accord was part of a "broader picture" of security in region.

"What we want to do is to contain the Iranian presence in the region," he said.

One of the French presidents main objectives during his three-day state visit to Washington is to persuade Trump not to torpedo the deal.

His visit will be followed by one later this week by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has also defended the Iran nuclear agreement.

'Substantive Talks'

During an open part of his meeting with Macron, Trump said the two could have an agreement soon on the Iran nuclear deal.

He suggested he was open to "doing something" on the Iran agreement as long as it was done "strongly."

At a joint news conference with Trump later in the day, Macron said they had discussed a "new deal" that would address Iran's ballistic missile program, its influence across the Middle East, and what happens after 2025, when -- under the current agreement -- Tehran would be able to progressively restart part of its nuclear program.

The current accord can be seen one "pillar" to which the other elements should be added, Macron said.

Trump said France and the United States agree that Iran "cannot be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon and that regime must end its support of terrorism."

Trump has given the nuclear agreement's European signatories a May 12 deadline to fix what he calls its "terrible flaws," threatening to effectively withdraw the United States by refusing to extend waivers on U.S. sanctions if they do not do so.

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which Iran signed with the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France, and Germany, put curbs on Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

Aside from the United States, the other signatories of the agreement have all voiced support for the deal.

'Severe Consequences'

Tehran has always claimed that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. It has also warned that it will revive and step up its nuclear program if the deal collapses.

In a speech broadcast live on state television on April 24, Iranian President Hassan Rohani said the United States would face "severe consequences" if it violates the pact.

"I am telling those in the White House that if they do not live up to their commitments, the Iranian government will firmly react," Rohani told a crowd of thousands in the northeastern city of Tabriz.

"If anyone betrays the deal, they should know that they would face severe consequences. Iran is prepared for all possible situations," he added.

In an interview with the Associated Press news agency, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on April 24 that if the United States were to withdraw from the nuclear deal, the immediate consequence in all likelihood would be that Iran would reciprocate and withdraw."

"There won't be any deal for Iran to stay in," he added.

At a UN nonproliferation conference in Geneva, Russia's delegate said on April 24 that his country and China have submitted a draft statement voicing "unwavering support" for the deal and hope the draft will receive broad backing at the meeting.

Vladimir Yermakov, the Russian Foreign Ministry's director general for nonproliferation and arms control, told the meeting that the Iran agreement was fragile and any attempt to change it would impact on the global nonproliferation regime.

Yermakov's remarks came a day after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he had agreed with his Chinese counterpart that Moscow and Beijing would try to block any U.S. attempt to sabotage the deal.

Besides the Iran nuclear accord, Trump and Macron were expected to discuss the war in Syria, North Korea, and other issues during a day of meetings at the White House.

In the evening, Donald and Melania Trump will host the French president and his wife, Brigitte Macron at the first state dinner conducted by the U.S. president since his inauguration in January 2017.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters
The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee has approved the nomination of CIA Director Mike Pompeo to become President Donald Trump's second secretary of state.

The nomination was approved late on April 23 on a party-line vote, with all 11 Republicans backing him and nine Democrats opposed.

One Democrat, Chris Coons, voted "present" after previously announcing opposition to Pompeo, citing his concern that the hawkish CIA director might "embolden, rather than moderate or restrain" Trump's "most belligerent and dangerous instincts." Coons did not explain his vote switch.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell welcomed the committee's approval and said there were enough votes in the full Senate to confirm Pompeo as secretary of state later this week. That would allow Pompeo to attend a NATO summit on April 27.

"The United States will have a chief diplomat who enjoys the total confidence of the president," McConnell said.

Pompeo has become one of Trump's most trusted advisers during his 15 months as CIA director. Most recently, he has been deeply involved in preparations for Trump's summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, including meeting with the Korean leader three weeks ago.

While committee Democrats unanimously opposed Pompeo because they consider him too hawkish and worry about his past harsh statements about Islam, he has the support of at least three Democrats in the full Senate, and no Senate Republican has announced opposition. That means he is all but certain to be approved as the country's top diplomat.

The committee's approval was in doubt for days, however, because of opposition from Republican Senator Rand Paul, who criticized Pompeo for advocating the U.S. war in Iraq.

But Paul switched his vote to "yes" at the last minute before the April 23 vote after getting what he said were assurances from Pompeo that he now believes the Iraq war was a "mistake" that has "destabilized the region."

Paul said Pompeo also told him he now also wants to end the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan.

Paul's vote switch enabled Pompeo to avoid the embarrassment of being the first secretary-of-state nominee on record to be rejected by the committee.

Trump fired his first secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, last month, citing differences over key policy questions, including whether to continue honoring the Iran nuclear deal.

With reporting by AP, AFP, dpa, and Reuters
A senior Russian official says the government has not ruled out buying a stake in aluminum giant Rusal from tycoon Oleg Deripaska in order to protect the company from U.S. sanctions.

Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov spoke briefly about the issue on April 24, a day after the United States said it could lift the sanctions against Rusal if Deripaska ceded control.

"I think that this option is not ruled out, but there have been no detailed discussions on this matter yet," Manturov said of the possibility that the state could buy a stake in the company from Deripaska.

Deripaska and Rusal were among 24 prominent Russians and 14 entities hit with U.S. sanctions announced on April 6 in response to "malign activity" by Moscow, including its alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.

But the U.S. Treasury Department said on April 23 that it was giving customers of Russia's biggest aluminum producer more time to comply with the sanctions, and that it could lift them if Derispaska gave up his controlling stake.

"Rusal has felt the impact of U.S. sanctions because of its entanglement with Oleg Deripaska, but the U.S. government is not targeting the hardworking people who depend on Rusal and its subsidiaries," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.

"Rusal has approached us to petition for delisting," Mnuchin said. "Given the impact on our partners and allies, we are issuing a general license extending the maintenance and wind-down period while we consider Rusal's petition."

The Treasury Department said that "the path for the United States to provide sanctions relief is through divestment and relinquishment of control of RUSAL by Oleg Deripaska," the well-connected billionaire who owns a 48 percent stake in Rusal.

The moves sent Rusal's soaring by over 15 percent, while aluminum prices fell sharply.

Rusal, the world's second-largest aluminum maker, was among the companies hit hardest by the sanctions announced on April 6, which caused a steep selloff in Russian stocks and the ruble.

The value of Rusal's stock had been cut in half by the beginning of this week, with investors fearing it could go out of business as customers around the world sever ties because of the sanctions and as its financing dries up in U.S.-dominated financial markets.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman declined to comment in detail on the U.S. Treasury department's latest statements about Rusal.

"In this case I would be rather cautious, as these statements are so hypothetical," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on April 24.

"It is clear that the decisions that have been taken are a painful blow to aluminium buyers on many continents, and naturally buyers are asking themselves why they have to bear the burden," Peskov said.

Deripaska has denounced the sanctions as "ridiculous" and Russia has described them as a thinly veiled attack on its economy.

In its April 23 announcement, the Treasury effectively gave Rusal months longer to sell off large quantities of aluminum that have been piling up at its factories unsold since the sanctions were imposed.

The stockpiles of aluminum will now be easier to sell because the Treasury said it will give U.S. customers of Rusal until October 23 instead of June 5 to wind down their business with Rusal.

The Treasury also said it will not impose secondary sanctions on companies outside the United States that do business with Rusal and its subsidiaries. The decision not to impose secondary sanctions particularly benefits European customers of Rusal.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who is visiting Washington this week, and other European leaders have worked behind the scenes to persuade U.S. President Donald Trump to ease the new sanctions on Russian business tycoons to ensure that European businesses are not unfairly penalized. Mnuchin said in his announcement that he factored the "impact on our partners and allies" into his reprieve.

Rusal's aluminum customers also now have more time to seek other suppliers.

Last week, aluminum prices hit their highest levels since mid-2011 amid fears the global market could face shortages as a result of the U.S. sanctions.

Wood Mackenzie, a Britain-based consulting firm, said that the Treasury' Department's announcement provided "much-needed breathing space" for the aluminum market.

Rusal and Deripaska did not immediately respond to the Treasury Department announcement.

Besides being close to the Kremlin, Deripaska is a former associate of Paul Manafort, who was Trump's campaign chairman ahead of he 2016 election and is a top target of U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Moscow's alleged meddling as well as ties between Trump associates and Russia.

With reporting by AFP, AP, TASS, and Reuters
Gunmen ambush Cancun city police unit

Cancun, Q.R.  Several gunmen ambushed a city police unit in Cancun Monday leaving two wounded.

Gunmen in the subdivision of Vilas del Sol in Cancun ambushed a city patrol unit Monday on a closed street. Several gunmen were reported to have fired on the police unit, hitting at least once officer.

The shooting took place at noon when police were fired upon while sitting at the corner of Talleres Avenue and Villa Imperial Street. Police say at least 19 shots were fired at their unit by two types of weapons, one AR-15 and one AK-47.

One policeman, Enrique Martinez Arevalo, was wounded in the leg and was the only reported injured officer.

The attack resulted in the activation of Code Red with additional units rushing to the scene in an attempt to arrest those involved.

Additional police scoured the area, blocking off 155 Street were the gunmen were seen. As they were preparing to shoot at the new units, municipal police opened fire, hitting one of the shooters. Two of the gunmen were arrested.

Unconfirmed reports say the gunmen were hired to execute police who were believed linked to drug gangs. Authorities have not confirmed these reports.

The wounded policeman was transferred in a private ambulance to the IMSS for treatment. The injured gunmen was transferred to the General Hospital of Cancun.

The two men arrested have been identified as 20-year-old Manuel Aldair from Cancun and Eduardo N, 43 years old from Chiapas. A gray Ford Ranger vehicle was also secured at the site.

In December, two Cancun policemen were fired at while on duty in their police vehicles. In January, a veteran police officer was shot and killed inside his guardhouse in Cancun.

In February, an off-duty police officer was shot and killed outside a school in Playa del Carmen when he arrived to pick up one of his children.
United Arab Emirates could soon be flying to Cancun

Cancun, Q.R.  The Mexican government has reached an agreement that will soon see a United Arab Emirates plane land on Mexican soil.

The announcement was made by the Secretary of Tourism, Marisol Vanegas and Lizzie Cole, representative of the Tourism Promotion Council of Quintana Roo who say that the Emirates flight would bring the Dubai market to the Mexican Caribbean.

While Lizzie Cole points out that there are no visitor figures available from the Middle East, Arab princes have vacationed in the region.

The new flight, which is expected to begin this year, will be a luxury flight from Dubai to Mexico City and eventually, to Cancun.

We know that this is a very special tourism niche that requests certain requirements in terms of treatment, food, culture and we are preparing ourselves. Dubai is very important because it is a hub, so this flight, will allow us to access tourism from many other countries including India, she explained.

The news came as Mexico participated in the Arabian Travel Market 2018 in Dubai and was visited by His Highness Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, governor of Dubai, during the opening of the largest commercial travel event and tourism in the region.

Emirates has 159 destinations to 85 countries and transports more than 59 million passengers per year from its hub in Dubai.

Last year, the company expressed interest in flying Dubai to Mexico City to Cancun, however legalities delayed the initiation of these new flights.
A DISUSED building is set to go from fire to fryer  with plans to transform it into a chippy.

Applicant John Radford wants to open a fish and chips restaurant and takeaway at the former Maltby fire station on High Street.

He said: This building is ideal for the proposed use. The layout is good and also the site provides approximately 20 off-street car parking spaces.

A planning application said new business would create ten full-time and ten part-time jobs at the 17-hectare site.

South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue moved in with the police on Byford Road in Maltby last year thanks to 560,000 funding from the Government.

This created the regions first joint station, which the emergency services said would help them save cash and share skills.
Chelsey Peart

THE inquest into the death of a young teacher was opened yesterday (Monday).

Chelsey Peart (27), an arts and textiles teacher at Rawmarsh Community School, was found dead at her Manor Road home in Brampton Bierlow on April 11.

Police said the death was not suspicious.

The Doncaster Coroner, Ms Nicola Mundy, opened the inquest into Mrs Pearts death at Doncaster Coroner's Court.

The preliminary cause of death was given as hanging.

Ms Mundy adjourned the hearing until October 1 for further investigations to be carried out.
After getting into a tie-up with Ola in Nagpur, Mahindra Electric has now got into a tie-up with Meru to explore the use of eVeritos in the city of Nizams. As per the official press release, Mahindra Electric and Meru have got into a collaboration to pilot a project for EV taxis, using the Mahindra eVerito. The learnings from the pilot will facilitate the two companies to improve upon similar projects in other cities in the future.

The Mahindra eVerito will be available for booking in Hyderabad via Merus mobile app, website and also the Meru Zone at the Hyderabad airport. Charges will be governed by the rules laid down by the Telengana government for radio taxis in the state. Meru also mentioned that it plans to move a major part of its fleet to EVs in the next four years

As the nation continues its march towards adoption of e-vehicles, such kind of partnerships can lead the way to raise awareness and improve the infrastructure for e-vehicles in the country. The government too has been taking initiatives in the direction, for example, the large 10,000 e-vehicle EESL tender which was bagged by Tata Motors & Mahindra Electric in 70-30 share.

At the moment, Mahindra Electric continues to be the only e-vehicle manufacturer in the country which offers vehicles for the mass-market. The line-up consists of the E20 Plus hatchback and the eVerito sedan, both offering a driving range of 110-140 km., depending upon the variant.

Speaking on the collaboration Mahesh Babu, CEO Mahindra Electric said, As pioneers of electric mobility, we at Mahindra Electric are happy to lead electric fleet adoption in India and are glad to partner with Meru for pilot deployment of eVeritos in Hyderabad. This is definitely going to make it easier for the city to adopt EV technology and will also be in line with our constant endeavor to make EVs more accessible to a larger urban population. We believe that innovative and unique partnership models like this pilot, will lead the way towards sustainable transportation in urban cities. We are now looking forward to working with Meru to have this project rolled out to more cities.

Speaking on the new initiative, Nilesh Sangoi, CEO, Meru said Electric Vehicle ecosystem is growing at a rapid pace towards the inflection point where it would soon bridge the viability gap. EVs potential to bring down the air pollution levels and savings in countrys energy bills is unparalleled. Government is actively promoting adoption of EVs through National Electric Mobility Mission and other initiatives through various ministries. We are launching a pilot in Hyderabad with Mahindra eVerito sedan cars in association with AimGreen. Based on the learnings of this pilot, we will expand this initiative to induct more EVs in our network in other cities that we operate in. Over next 4 years, we intend to move major part of our fleet to EVs. We believe that this initiative will greatly benefit the society, consumers and also enhance the earnings of our driver partners.
Skoda Auto India sales for 2017 were reported at 17,438 cars sold, up 30 percent from CY 2016. Following a successful year, Skoda Auto India Q1 2018 sales stands at 4,200 units. This accounts for 7.3 percent growth, up from 3,900 cars sold in Q1 2017.

Skoda Auto India Q1 2018 sales breakup  The company sold 1,300 vehicles in January 2018, up 13.8 percent from 1,220 vehicles sold in January 2017. Deliveries through Feb 18 stood at 1,400 vehicles, up 16.8 percent from Feb 17 when 1,200 cars were sold. March 2018 sales are down 4.6 percent at 1,500 vehicles, down from 1,600 cars sold in March 2017.

Despite a slow-ish March, Skoda Auto India Q1 2018 sales remains positive owing to double digit sales growth through Jan and Feb.

The company today inaugurated the Bhoomi Cars dealership, a 3S (Sales, Service and Spares) facility in Patna. Ashutosh Dixit, Director  Sales, Service & Marketing, Skoda Auto India, and Rahul Kumar, Dealer Principal, inaugurated the showroom.

Leh-Manali Highway with Skoda Karoq and Kodiaq Leh-Manali Highway with Skoda Karoq and Kodiaq Posted by RushLane on Tuesday, 24 April 2018

Bhoomi Cars will strengthen the brands position in Bihar, and in eastern market. Skoda will open five new dealerships in the next 6 months. Bhoomi Cars is located at Bailey Road, and is built over 4379 sq. ft. to accommodate a six car display. The service facility is located at Danapur Khagaul Road, and is spread over an area of 11211 sq. ft.

Ashutosh Dixit, Director  Sales, Service & Marketing, SKODA AUTO India Pvt Ltd said, Through, refreshed model line-up and innovative customer service initiatives, we are focusing on strengthening the brand in India. With Bhoomi Cars in Patna, we will further affirm our presence in Bihar, and commence our journey to create a strong footprint in the eastern markets. We plan to grow substantially in the region and Bhoomi Cars Pvt Ltd is the rightful partner to boost our business campaign in that direction.

Rahul Kumar, Dealer Principal said, We are happy to partner with SKODA AUTO to unveil our newly designed dealership facility that will represent the brand in Patna. The evolution of the brand makes us more affirmative, confident and committed to our valued customers in this geography.
This article was supported by The Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center.

[SINGAPORE] Joel Kaiser arrived in Nepal just after the deadliest disaster to hit the Himalayan country. It was late in April 2015; two major earthquakes had killed nearly 9,000 people and injured close to 17,000 more. Kaiser, a seasoned humanitarian and emergency response specialist, was trying to figure out how to get emergency supplies to villagers in a tiny hamlet high up in the mountains.

There was only one road, and it was very steep on either side, recalls Kaiser from WeRobotics, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to providing humanitarian aid, social development, and environmental protection through the use of robotics. Relief distribution had to be done on that road, and the team was thinking ahead to the risks in case large crowds showed up. So we wanted to make a map of the village just in case we had some sort of security problem.

To make the map, Kaiser and his team from AidRobotics  a WeRobotics programme that focuses on disaster response  would use a small drone they had brought with them to Nepal. They needed roughly 20 minutes to fly the drone over the village to snap some pictures. But first, they needed the mayors permission.

Its important to reach out to the local community before flying unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) overhead, says Kaiser, even when time is of the essence.

Engaging the community is one guiding principle, along with 14 others, that form the Humanitarian UAV Code of Conduct  a set of guidelines established in 2014 that informs the safe, responsible, and effective use of drones in humanitarian settings.

The past five years have seen humanitarian organisations increasingly embrace UAV usage in their work. Because they are small, lightweight and can be remotely operated, drones have many useful applications. Most often, they are used to map out disaster-affected areas, providing aerial images that are much more detailed than those taken by satellites. Drones are also deployed to help with search and rescue efforts, for monitoring and surveillance, and to deliver food, medical supplies, and other small cargo.

Because laws in many countries around drones are uncertain or unstable, its still really unclear where drones used for emergency response purposes legally stand  how that pertains to property rights, licensing, and so on, Faine Greenwood

In late 2015, a survey of close to 200 humanitarian aid workers found that 60 per cent believed drones could help their work. However, 86 per cent felt clearer guidelines and rules were needed.

A code is born

A couple of years earlier, Patrick Meier found himself sharing the same sentiment. It was November 2013 and Meier, WeRobotics co-founder and an expert in humanitarian technologies, was in the Philippines aiding the UN relief effort following Typhoon Haiyan.

There, he encountered an unprecedented scenario. In no other disaster beforehand had there been any drone team that I had come across, let alone half a dozen in the space of a week, recalls Meier.

But I soon realised that the teams werent quite sure how to share imagery with governments, let alone humanitarians and the local community, he says. Wanting to help, Meier spent an evening Google-searching codes of conduct and best practices for drone use following a disaster. Much to my alarm, I didnt find anything. And I was very concerned because clearly this wasnt just going to be a one-off, says Meier.

When he got back home, he founded the Humanitarian UAViators Network as a platform to discuss best practices in the field  and drafting a code of conduct was the first order of business.

The code was officially launched in March 2014, and its website went live after a workshop Meier organised at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center in Italy. Since then, it has been revised several times following consultation with humanitarian organisations such as the American Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders (MSF-Medicins Sans Frontieres), and the World Bank.

Among its recommendations, the code calls for drone operators to respect universal humanitarian principles such as impartiality, to prioritise safety above all else, to be sensitive to conflict, and to collect, use and store data responsibly. It also emphasises building trust with local communities by taking the time to explain projects and share flight plans with them.

I think a standardised code of conduct is absolutely essential because without one, basically anyone with a drone could call themselves a disaster responder, and thats really dangerous and problematic, says Faine Greenwood from the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, where she studies the use of UAVs and satellites in humanitarian situations.

Greenwood cites past incidences where well-meaning but untrained drone operators failed to coordinate with flight controllers, making it difficult for manned aircraft to fly. In some cases people on the ground were angered or frightened because they werent informed of what was going on beforehand.

Earlier this month, Amrita Lal, WeRobotics Pacific Flying Labs coordinator, was working with the Red Cross in Fiji to help survey damage to houses following Cyclone Keni. She avoided taking aerial shots of one village in particular because it was close to the airport and photographing it needed special permission from the airmen, and there just wasnt time to get it. The code is never far from her mind when she works. [It] makes sure that people are not doing whatever they want, Lal says.

Uttam Pudasaini saw this disregard for flying over restricted areas first hand. In the weeks following the 2015 earthquakes, Pudasaini, the coordinator of WeRobotics Nepal Flying Lab, witnessed how operators would fly their drones over the capitals seven World Heritage Sites without government permission.

The next frontiers

What he would like to see, however, is the code becoming better integrated with country-level regulations.

That is the number one challenge, agrees Harvards Greenwood. Because laws in many countries around drones are uncertain or unstable, its still really unclear where drones used for emergency response purposes legally stand  how that pertains to property rights, licensing, and so on.

Another pressing concern at the forefront of practitioners minds is data protection. Incorporated into the code in 2015, privacy guidelines currently recommend things like collecting informed consent where possible, having a data management plan, and using blurring and other technologies to protect those photographed.

But theres room to do more. Theres a whole range of things to consider, says Sanjana Hattotuwa, special advisor to the ICT4Peace Foundation  things like what imagery is being gathered, how it is used, who has access to it, how it is retained and for how long, he says.

Meier, the codes creator, is acutely aware of data privacy and protection issues. Hes made the topic a priority for next months meeting in Boston, where experts will gather to discuss how to update the code. Lets not wait for our Facebook moment, he says.

The next big frontier for the code is how to use drones in conflict environments, says Greenwood. Humanitarian law is really unclear on the context of telling small drones apart from one another in the air, she explains. This means you could have situations where a humanitarian, a reporter or a member of ISIS are all flying identical consumer drones.

Something else that needs to be worked into future versions is how to use machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to process the large amount of data thats collected with drones.

Theres a certain inevitability to seeing more drones being used in humanitarian work as drone technology, both hardware and software, evolves in the coming years, says Kaiser. He hopes that more information means better decision-making and more lives saved. And he hopes that one day drones will become a go-to solution for a lot of humanitarian decision-makers.

This article was supported by The Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center. For nearly 60 years the Bellagio Center has supported individuals working to improve the lives of poor and vulnerable people globally through its conference and residency programs, and has served as a catalyst for transformative ideas, initiatives, and collaborations.

From November 5  December 3, 2018, the Bellagio Center will host a special thematic residency on Science for Development, with a cohort of up to 15 scholars, practitioners, and artists whose work is advancing, informing, communicating, or is inspired by the use or design of science and technology to address social and environmental challenges around the world.
Over the last 50 years climate change has not been the key driver of the human displacement or conflict in East Africa, rather it is politics and poverty, according to new research by UCL.

Human displacement refers to the total number of forcibly displaced people, and includes internally displaced people -- the largest group represented -- and refugees, those forced to across international borders.

"Terms such as climate migrants and climate wars have increasingly been used to describe displacement and conflict, however these terms imply that climate change is the main cause. Our research suggests that socio-political factors are the primary cause while climate change is a threat multiplier," said Professor Mark Maslin (UCL Geography).

The study, published in Palgrave Communications, found that climate variations such as regional drought and global temperature played little part in the causation of conflict and displacement of people in East Africa over the last 50 years.

The major driving forces on conflict were rapid population growth, reduced or negative economic growth and instability of political regimes. While the total number of displaced people is linked to rapid population growth and low or stagnating economic growth.

However the study found that variations in refugee numbers, people forced to cross international borders, are significantly linked to the incidence of severe regional droughts as well as political instability, rapid population growth and low economic growth.

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The UN Refugee Agency report there were over 20 million displaced people in Africa in 2016 -- a third of the world's total. There has been considerable debate as to whether climate change will exacerbate this situation in the future by increasing conflict and triggering displacement of people.

This new study suggests that stable effective governance, sustained economic growth and reduced population growth are essential if conflict and forced displacement of people are to be reduced in Africa, which will be severally affected by climate change.

A new composite conflict and displacement database was used to identify major episodes of political violence and number of displaced people at country level, for the last 50 years. These were compared to past global temperatures, the Palmer Drought Index, and data for the 10 East African countries represented in the study on population size, population growth, GDP per capita, rate of change of GDP per capita, life expectancy and political stability.

The data were then analysed together using optimisation regression modelling to identify whether climate change between 1963 and 2014 impacted the risk of conflict and displacement of people in East Africa.

The findings suggest that about 80% of conflict throughout the period can be explained by population growth that occurred 10 years ago, political stability that occurred three years ago and economic growth within the same year.

For total displacement of people, the modelling suggests that 70% can be predicted by population growth and economic growth from 10 years before.

While for refugees, 90% can be explained by severe droughts that occurred one year ago, population growth that occurred 10 years ago, economic growth one year ago, and political stability two years ago. This correlates with an increase in refugees in the 1980s during a period of major droughts across East Africa.

"The question remains as to whether drought would have exacerbated the refugee situation in East Africa had there been slower expansion of population, positive economic growth and more stable political regimes in the region," said Erin Owain, first author of the study.

"Our research suggests that the fundamental cause of conflict and displacement of large numbers of people is the failure of political systems to support and protect their people," concluded Professor Maslin.
A University of Cambridge researcher is calling for the voices of women to be given a fairer platform at a leading scientific conference.

Dr Heather Ford and her colleagues analysed data from the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting and found that, overall; female scientists are offered fewer opportunities than men to present their research.

The team examined the gender, career stage and type of presentation delivered by each participant from 2014 to 2016. They found that female members are at a disadvantage because the majority of them are students or in the early stages of their careers, groups whose members are typically given fewer chances to present their research. The results are reported in the journal Nature Communications.

Conference speakers are often at more senior stages of their careers, where there are usually fewer women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) fields. A further problem is that men are more likely to provide speaking opportunities to other men, potentially limiting women's career prospects.

"The burden of representation often falls on under-represented groups. We need the majority groups to think about representation, otherwise minority voices will continue to be drowned out," said Ford, who is a NERC Independent Research Fellow in Cambridge's Department of Earth Sciences.

However, the research showed some positive signs, as women were invited at a much higher rate than men in the early and mid-career stages.

The researchers are calling for more students and early career researchers to have opportunities to speak at future conferences, in a bid to help some of the many female members who are at the beginning of their careers. They also want to see more women selecting the conference speakers, and suggest that all members may benefit from diversity training before they can invite speakers and assign conference presentations.

Attending and presenting at conferences helps academics at every stage of their careers to build their network, meet potential collaborators and share their research.

Conferences are important for career progression and can be key in helping researchers to find funding and receive job offers. Presenting at academic conferences can also help researchers to gain recognition and awards for their work.

Ford says she and her co-author Petra Dekens from San Francisco State University were motivated to look into this topic after sitting in "too many conference sessions" with either no female speakers, or a single female speaker.

The global context is also an important issue for Ford, particular the ongoing campaign for gender equality. She said; "A lot of women have been motivated to speak out about gender inequality in the past year -- people are much more vocal about how they've been treated. I wanted to find a productive way to channel my frustrations."

The AGU Fall Meeting is the world's largest geoscience conference, with more than 22,000 presentation proposals each year. The AGU has more than 60,000 members in 137 countries, and around a third of its members are women. Geoscience is one of the least diverse STEM fields.
Early childhood interventions may have some efficacy in boosting measures of child health and development in low income countries, but more work is needed to sort out how to implement these interventions, according to a new set of studies published this week in PLOS Medicine.

Previous work has suggested that early childhood interventions -- those focused on the first 1000 days of life -- have the potential to offset some negative impacts of adversity on child development. In one new study, Peter Rockers of Boston University, USA, and colleagues followed 526 pairs of children and caregivers in a cluster-randomized trial done in Southern Province, Zambia. All children were 6 to 12 months of age at the start of the study. 258 pairs received no intervention, while the other 268 were visited twice a month by a Child Development Agent, to monitor the child's health, and invited to attend twice monthly parenting group meetings, where they learned a diverse parenting curriculum.

After two years, children who had been in the intervention group were less likely to show signs of stunting and scored higher on measures of language, but the intervention did not significantly impact cognition, motor skills, or adaptive behavior. "In settings like Zambia, where optimal child nutrition and stimulation are often lacking, parenting groups hold promise for improving child health and welfare," the authors say. "However, improvements in child development may not be immediate and continued and sustained efforts are likely needed."

In a second paper, Alison Andrew of University College London, UK, and colleagues randomized 1419 children aged 12-24 months, living in 96 towns in Colombia, to receive either no intervention, participation in a home visit program, micronutrient supplementation, or both of the latter interventions. Home visits followed a structured curriculum, with an emphasis on cognition and language, and the goal of increasing maternal-child interactions. After two years, the researchers found no effect on cognition, behavior, or home stimulation. "It is possible that the initial effects on child development were too small to be sustained or that the lack of continued impact on home stimulation contributed to fade out," the authors write.

In an accompanying Perspective, Mark Tomlinson of Stellenbosch University, South Africa, discusses the challenge of determining why the effects of early interventions may fade out by middle childhood. "In contexts of high risk and adversity the impact of early interventions may be more durable when they are built upon by interventions during later years," he writes. Scaling up these interventions also requires more work, he adds, noting that some interventions are not scalable in their current form. "Looking to the future, the early childhood development field requires rigorous implementation science research that examines the best models... to achieve impact."
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a biotech start-up formerly based in Massachusetts, its CEO, and another employee with lying about their progress in seeking FDA approval for a non-opiate pain treatment and with lying about the company's finances. The SEC also alleges that the insiders along with the CEO's close friend manipulated the company's publicly trading stock, and the CEO and his friend kept about $400,000 for themselves.

As alleged in the SEC's complaint, PixarBio Corporation, its founder and CEO Frank Reynolds, and employee Kenneth Stromsland misled investors with false claims about PixarBio's progress in developing "NeuroRelease," a purported method of delivering non-opiate, post-operative pain medication. From December 2015 to the present, the defendants are alleged to have falsely told investors that the FDA had lowered PixarBio's hurdles for regulatory approval. They are also charged with misleading investors about the amount of money PixarBio had raised and about a phony takeover bid of a company that Reynolds had previously led. According to the complaint, the defendants raised about $12.7 million from about 211 investors in an unregistered offering.

The SEC's complaint also alleges that from about July 2016 to January 2017, Reynolds, his close friend M. Jay Herod, and Stromsland engaged in a fraudulent scheme to acquire and merge PixarBio with a publicly traded company and to secretly manipulate the sales of shares in the new entity. From these sales, Reynolds and Herod pocketed about $400,000, and they used an additional $500,000 to keep PixarBio afloat as Reynolds misled investors about how much money they had raised in the unregistered offering. The defendants are also charged with violating the registration requirements for securities offerings, while Reynolds and Stromsland are charged with selling securities without being registered as a broker or dealer. Investors can quickly check whether people selling investments are registered by using the SEC's Investor.gov website.

The SEC charges each of the defendants with violating the anti-fraud and registration provisions of the securities laws, Herod and Stromsland with stock manipulation, and Reynolds and Stromsland with acting as unregistered broker-dealers. The SEC's complaint seeks a permanent injunction, the return of allegedly ill-gotten gains plus interest, a penalty, and industry and penny stock bars. The SEC also seeks a court order to immediately freeze the assets of PixarBio and Reynolds and to prohibit each of the defendants from soliciting money from investors.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts today announced parallel criminal charges against Reynolds, Herod, and Stromsland.

The SEC's case is being handled by Jonathan Allen, Sofia Hussain, Frank Huntington, and Amy Gwiazda of the Boston office and was assisted by Robert Nesbitt in the SEC's Washington, D.C. Office of Market Intelligence.
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San Francisco and other cities cant show theyre likely to be harmed by the Defense Departments failure to notify the FBI that some service members had committed acts during their time in the military that should prohibit them from owning guns in civilian life, a federal judge ruled Tuesday in dismissing a suit prompted by a massacre at a Texas church.

San Francisco, Philadelphia and New York City sued the Pentagon and top military officials in December after Devin Kelley, a former member of the Air Force, used an assault rifle to kill 26 people in Sutherland Springs, Texas, before taking his own life. Kelley had been dishonorably discharged from the service in 2014 after being convicted at a court-martial of assaulting his wife and stepson and serving time in a military brig. Both his conviction and the dishonorable discharge should have made him ineligible to buy or possess a gun.

The Air Force admitted that it had failed to report the conviction to the FBI, which would have been required to include Kelleys name in its nationwide database, preventing him from legally purchasing the rifle. Later, the Pentagons inspector general told Congress that the military had failed to tell the FBI about 31 percent of service members criminal convictions in 2015-16, and had been lax in its reporting for more than 20 years.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions called the situation alarming and ordered the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which run the nationwide background-check system jointly, to get noncompliant military branches to turn over their records. In February, CNN reported that the military had disclosed more than 4,000 dishonorably discharged service members to the FBI since the Nov. 5 shootings.

In their suit, the cities said they rely on the FBIs background checks to approve firearms permits and because of the Defense Departments omissions, may have allowed sales to individuals who should have been barred from owning guns. They sought court orders requiring thorough record checks by all military branches and monthly reporting under court supervision.

But U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton of Alexandria, Va., said Tuesday that the cities have failed to show that they had been harmed, or would be likely to suffer harm, because of the Defense Departments alleged violations of law.

In the first place, Hilton said, the cities have no right to the Defense Department information, which under federal law is reported only to the agencies that manage the background-check system. And even if they were legally entitled to the reports, he said, their claim that errors would lead to wrongful gun sales was too speculative to show the specific, impending harm needed to proceed with a suit.

In addition, the judge said, a local government may be allowed to sue over a dispute with a federal agency, such as denial of federal funding, but cant use the courts to launch a broad programmatic attack on an agencys compliance with federal law or seek court supervision to guarantee compliance.

The ruling does not affect separate lawsuits against the Air Force and the Defense Department filed by survivors of Kelleys shootings and family members of his victims.

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City Attorney Dennis Herrera was disappointed by the ruling and may ask an appeals court to overturn it, said spokesman John Cote.

The bottom line is the Pentagon needs to do a much better job reporting military convictions so that people who shouldnt have guns arent able to buy them, get a concealed permit for them, or have them returned if police confiscate them, Cote said. Nothing in the courts opinion disputes that. Instead, our case was dismissed on a legal technicality.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko
Rachel Sutton woke up dazed, lying in an unfamiliar bed, and began to panic. She struggled to recall what had happened since shed lost consciousness on the bathroom floor of a San Francisco apartment.

Then, pieces of that night started coming back. Memories, she said, that included a painful and traumatic drugging and rape by a co-worker. She grabbed her clothes, texted her boyfriend for help, and ran.

Sutton, 24, shared her account of the February 2014 episode and its aftermath recently with The Chronicle, speaking out about years of frustration over her alleged assailant never being criminally charged, despite a lengthy police investigation.

Her experiences, and those of several other women who say they have been victims of drug-facilitated sexual assaults, include allegations of critical delays, potential missteps and mistreatment by officials across various city agencies.

Their complaints include: blood and urine samples not being taken for several hours, making it less likely drugs would be detected. A key witness not being interviewed for months, while other evidence went uncollected or was withheld from them. And police and prosecutors coming across as uninterested or rude, leaving the women believing their cases were not being taken seriously.

At a time when sexual assault has been thrust into the national spotlight  with the #MeToo movement, the downfall of comedian Bill Cosby and renewed attention on campus rape following the Brock Turner case at Stanford University  these women and their advocates say their cases raise a troubling question: Is San Francisco doing enough to investigate and prosecute sexual assaults, particularly those involving drugs and alcohol?

It is like everyone is standing around watching you drown, Sutton said. I have experienced firsthand how the system has failed. There is nothing to do other than scream and flail.

In response to the complaints, Supervisor Hillary Ronen has scheduled a hearing Wednesday before the Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee to examine how the public hospital, police and prosecutors handled reports of sex assault in San Francisco. By reviewing the system with representatives from those agencies, Ronen said she hopes to see how it might be improved.

You would think in San Francisco, such a liberal and progressive city with a majority of women on the Board of Supervisors, that we would be on the cutting edge of treating survivors of sexual assault with the dignity and respect they deserve, Ronen said in an interview. And were not. Its outrageous.

A San Francisco Police Department spokesman said police could not comment on specific cases for confidentiality reasons, but that they are committed to treating sexual-assault survivors with empathy, dignity and respect.

We take these cases seriously and devote the time and resources necessary to thoroughly investigate these allegations, while remaining mindful of the rights of all parties involved, David Stevenson said.

A spokesman for the district attorneys office said the office has re-reviewed two of the cases at issue, which are still open and under investigation, after the victims and their advocates raised questions.

We care deeply about every victim, and where appropriate, we file cases to hold offenders accountable, Max Szabo said. Equally important are our efforts to prevent these crimes from happening in the first place.

Sexual-assault cases are challenging to prosecute in general, experts said, and become particularly difficult when alcohol or drugs are involved. Evidence can be hard to collect, and victims are usually called to testify in emotional trials that pit accuser against accused. Though officials may believe a crime has happened, cases can remain open and uncharged for years if prosecutors dont believe they have enough evidence to obtain a conviction.

Nationwide, very few rapes  between 0.4 and 5.4 percent  are prosecuted, according to a 2012 article in the peer-reviewed journal Violence Against Women. The article compiled research evidence suggesting cases are less likely to be prosecuted if they dont involve a crime committed by a stranger with a weapon, partly because people are frequently skeptical of reports that involve acquaintances and alcohol.

No equivalent statistics were available for San Francisco.

Jane Manning, a former New York City prosecutor who specializes in crimes against women and director of advocacy for Womens Justice NOW, said that in such cases there is a tendency to blame victims who may have been drinking socially before a possible drugging, even when there is corroborating evidence .

Many of these cases are prosecutable cases, Manning said. The biggest obstacle to prosecuting drug-facilitated rape cases is not the difficulty, and not the lack of evidence  it is an unwillingness of prosecutors to bring charges even where there is sufficient evidence.

For the past two years, Manning has advocated on behalf of six women, including Sutton, who have alleged that their sexual-assault investigations were mishandled in San Francisco and were never charged. Her work, along with that of Ronen and other advocates, has led to the appointment of a new prosecutor on two cases, and to changes in how San Francisco General Hospital collects blood and urine evidence from sexual-assault victims.

Sutton and some of the other women plan to share their experiences at the hearing on Wednesday.

Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle

Ronen said the matter came into focus for her two years ago when a longtime colleague told her that she had been drugged and raped by a man she had met at a bar. Although the woman had come forward less than a day after she said she was assaulted, Ronen said, she immediately confronted obstacles.

The woman declined to give her name but spoke extensively with The Chronicle. She plans to speak as Jane Doe at the hearing.

At San Francisco General Hospital, she said she waited for hours in a basement room behind a line of women reporting sexual assaults. Police then discouraged her from filing a report, she said, asking whether she really wanted this guy arrested. Finally, she said, the prosecutor said her case wasnt even a he said, she said case, but he said, she doesnt remember, though she had told him she recalled the rape.

Manning, who aided the womans case, said the investigation suffered from other errors. Police waited months to talk to the womans friend, Manning said, even though that witness was in the apartment where the woman said the rape occurred. She added that investigators waited weeks to try to retrieve video from the bar where the woman said she was drugged, ultimately failing to obtain it.

It was like entering the twilight zone, the woman said about the process. It is profoundly sad and unsettling to have been dehumanized first by the predator who raped me, and then, by the police, the organization I went to for protection and justice.

Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

Tiffany Tonel, 28, also plans to speak at the hearing about how she was treated after she told police she was drugged and raped by an acquaintance in 2016.

Tonel said the investigator told her: Alcohol played a big role in all of this, and I think everyone involved needs to accept responsibility for their actions.

In the absence of criminal prosecutions, some of the women  including Sutton  have pursued their cases in civil court. Two are pending. Sutton recently settled her case for $400,000.

Her alleged assailant has not admitted fault. He declined to comment when reached by phone. The Chronicle is not identifying him because he has not been criminally charged.

In court records, he denied all allegations, including that he drugged, raped or had sex with Sutton.

According to her lawsuit, Sutton, then 20, met the man at his apartment on a night in February 2014.

During the course of about three hours, she said, she had one shot of Tequila, one beer and a few sips of a second beer. She then began to feel extremely nauseous and dizzy, according to court records. A short time later, she said, she passed out in the mans bathroom and later woke to find him raping her in his bed. She then lost consciousness, according to court records.

After waking again and leaving the apartment, records show Sutton immediately reported the incident and went to the hospital to undergo a sexual-assault examination. But, she said, her experience since has been fraught.

It started at the hospital, she said, when she had to wait hours to be examined. Her blood and urine samples were collected more than two hours after she arrived, records show.

In a later phone call that police recorded, Suttons alleged assailant told her they could have had sex a couple times, and when she asked him if he used a condom, he said, I always use protection, according to civil case records.

In a text message to Sutton, the man also wrote that he had never seen someone so passed out and told her that he was both concerned and trying to get you comfortable, according to his deposition in the civil case.

When police searched his apartment, they found two pills they believed were Ambien, according to court records.

Police said they had enough evidence to arrest the man on suspicion of two counts of raping an intoxicated person, and two counts of raping an unconscious person.

But in an interview with police, the man denied having sex with Sutton, and disputed how his comments in the recorded phone call had been interpreted, according to court records.

Its just me playing along with her, he said in his deposition when asked about the recorded call. Ive already told her nothing happened.

Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle

About a week after being arrested, the man was released from San Francisco County Jail when the district attorneys office declined to pursue charges. Roughly a year and a half later, after police obtained more forensic evidence in the case, prosecutors again declined to file charges.

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Sutton, who now works for a federal government contractor doing security clearance investigations, said she was told her blood and urine samples did not show any traces of date rape drugs. The mans DNA was found on her neck, but not in the vaginal swabs collected at the hospital, records show.

According to Sutton and the police investigator, the prosecutor did not believe he could secure a guilty verdict.

Society needs to have a paradigm shift before juries will convict in a case of her type, Sutton recalled the prosecutor saying.

When advocates complained in the fall of 2016 about such responses, Sutton and the woman who will be speaking at the hearing as Jane Doe had their cases reassigned to a new prosecutor.

The fact that this is still open makes it impossible to move forward, said Sutton, who also goes by the last name Zader professionally. So, essentially, I am in a state of limbo, almost half a decade later. It is impossible not to feel incapacitated.

Of the six women whom Manning has advocated for in San Francisco, she said all recalled critical portions of their assaults. There were varying amounts of physical or other corroborating evidence in their cases, she said, including eyewitnesses, injuries, DNA evidence and symptoms that expert toxicologists described as not being attributable to alcohol alone. In the cases where drugging was alleged, however, none of the blood and urine tests turned up drugs that could have been used to commit assault.

Many drugs used in sexual assaults pass through the body quickly, said Linda Richards, a sexual-assault nurse examiner for 25 years and retired manager of the Silicon Valley Sexual Assault Response Team at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center.

Thats the vicious, evil thing about those drugs, she said. Theyre tasteless, sightless, and they do damage, cause amnesia and theyre gone. That doesnt mean they werent there to begin with.

Officials at San Francisco General Hospital, where Sutton and the other victims were examined, said a new policy in effect since last year calls for the collection of blood and urine samples within 30 minutes of a sexual-assault victims arrival.

Thats a legitimate concern, and this is something that weve been working hard at, said Catherine Classen, division head of Trauma Recovery Services at SFGH.

But she acknowledged that there can still be delays in doing examinations if more than one victim shows up, because most trauma centers are equipped to handle one patient at a time.

Absence of certain evidence  like drugs or DNA  can make prosecuting a case challenging but not impossible, said Rick Barton, a retired investigator with the Butte County district attorneys office, who teaches courses to law enforcement on investigating sexual assault and child abuse.

The burden of proof is on the prosecution, he said. They have to be able to convince 12 jurors beyond a reasonable doubt, and that can be a heavy burden.

But even when there is little or no physical evidence, a victims statement is often legally enough for a district attorney to file charges, according to Barton, who said he firmly believes in aggressively prosecuting sexual-assault cases by using such testimony.

Victims in sexual-assault cases rarely lie, Barton said. Instead, he said, they are often reluctant to come forward due to stigmas around sexual assault.

Without positive toxicology tests, prosecutors can still call experts to testify about drugs that could cause a victim to pass out but may be hard to detect, Manning said.

She said she hopes Wednesdays hearing will lead to some resolution for victims, encourage others to come forward and send a message that the city is serious about how it handles sexual assaults.

These women are doing something incredibly brave, talking publicly about the most painful episode of their lives, in the hopes that the justice system can be made better for others, Manning said. We owe it to them to make sure that happens.

Cynthia Dizikes and Evan Sernoffsky are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: cdizikes@sfchronicle.com, esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @cdizikes, @EvanSernoffsky

Hearing

The Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee will look into how reports of sexual assaults are handled in San Francisco.

When: 10 a.m. Wednesday

Where: City Hall, Committee Room 263
The coffee shop was gone. Jane Chai was sure of it.

It was early on the morning of Oct. 9, and the Tubbs Fire was encircling the Larkfield Shopping Center off Old Redwood Highway north of Santa Rosa. Everyone had been evacuated. Local television stations were reporting that the center  and with it Chais business, Blue Beagle Coffee  was burning. Nearly one-third of the surrounding neighborhood was already in ashes, the once-familiar landscape obliterated.

Then the Diablo winds suddenly shifted. The most destructive wildfire in state history was well on its way to scorching more than 36,000 acres and destroying 5,636 structures. But the early TV reports were wrong  the devastation had blasted south, and the shopping center in the Larkfield-Wikiup community in unincorporated Sonoma County was unscathed.

And yet the store owners were not spared. Their businesses remained, but their customers  from Mark West to the west, Fountaingrove to the east, Coffey Park to the south  were gone. Theirs is an odd kind of luck, the kind that visits survivors of a cataclysm that destroys everything they knew. Its no luck at all.

The first thing we wanted to do after we found out the shop was still standing was to open, said Chai, 36. It was a place to reunite and connect. But then the depression would hit again, and you would feel this heaviness in the shop. It just wasnt the same.

More than a dozen locally owned businesses, like Chais, are located in the shopping center 5 miles north of downtown Santa Rosa. There are Thai and Japanese restaurants, an insurance office, a grocery store, a skylight shop and a nail salon. Poster-board advertisements  Lunch special! Holiday sale! Happy hour!  are staked on the corner. If they werent there, it would be hard to tell that the shops were open.

That area, in particular, is being hit hard financially because the surrounding neighborhoods were virtually destroyed, said Peter Rumble, chief executive officer of the Santa Rosa Metro Chamber. The coffee shops, the restaurants, the places people go to on their way to work and on their way home. In other parts of Santa Rosa, there is certainly an impact. But its not as stark as it is here.

And it will take time to recover, Rumble said. Neighborhood businesses need a neighborhood, and it could be a decade before the term burn zone no longer applies around the shopping center. The city offers low-interest business loans, and there is philanthropic money that struggling stores can apply for. For some, it may not be enough.

There are a number of businesses that are looking at whether or not they can make it through, Rumble said. I think its really dependent on how quickly we can put sticks in the ground and put people back in their homes.

In the months after the fire, soot and ash were always smeared on the floor of Chais shop. Residents wanted routine, and routine was stopping at the Blue Beagle for their morning coffee. Some handed her wads of cash  she was struggling to pay rent and salaries for six employees. Others donated to a running tab for first responders. The ones who did that got their drinks free.

Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

Chais home in Fountaingrove sustained severe smoke damage, so she and her husband moved to an in-law unit in Santa Rosa. Her 21-month-old daughter, Jasmine, started acting out. The toddler didnt like napping in her car seat in the parking lot, or in the back of the Blue Beagle.

Before, their home was a short drive away. It was too much. In February, Chai sold the shop.

It was really difficult, said Chai, who is now a project manager for a parenting blog. It was really, really difficult. We were counting every coin just to make sure we could cover rent.

Nearly 40 percent of shops never reopen after a disaster, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Local officials say Santa Rosa will miss out on more than $163,000 in business taxes this fiscal year, and another $163,000 next year. Theyre also anticipating a drop of $4.2 million in sales taxes through 2019.

Thats because businesses like George Fioris had to close for months. His restaurant, Fioris Buns and Burgers, takes up the shopping centers spacious corner unit. In the summer, he hosts car shows on Friday nights. Everyone eats hot dogs and inspects vintage cars. But the place suffered water, electrical and smoke damage in the fire. It didnt reopen until January.

Fiori, 72, lost his nearby home in the fire, and we really thought the center was gone, he said. Three of our employees had their homes destroyed, and they moved.

Before the fire, Fiori said, we had a consistent customer base. It wasnt so bad. But now, 30 to 40 percent are gone. Its a disaster.

Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

Around the corner, Brian Molsberry, 56, stocked shelves and wandered the aisles of the family business, Molsberry Market. Construction workers lined the deli counter, and a few people pushed shopping carts past the produce section. Molsberrys grandfather opened the grocery in 1959. Thirteen family members still run it; Molsberry is the oldest.

After the fire, Molsberry and some employees dragged wheelbarrows into the store. The milk was spoiled, the frozen foods thawed, the meat rotting. But they wanted to reopen. The next day, before the shelves were fully stocked, they did. The store filled. For an hour, customers could pretend the devastation didnt exist.

These are people we have known for an entire lifetime, Molsberry said. I grew up with their families. You see people who would come in as a kid now coming in with their kids.

Soon, that rally-round-the-survivors community spirit faded. It was hard to maintain without the community.

Its not the same now, Molsberry said. With all the loss, we are not what we were.

When Thanksgiving came, Molsberry cut the stores order for turkeys. Fewer pumpkins were sold at Halloween. The losses arent in double digits, but there are losses, he said.

The Larkfield Shopping Center is the middle ground, the divide between normalcy and destruction, said Karly Walzer, 25. She and her boyfriend, Alex Ligon, 29, worked at Homerun Pizza for years. This spring, after Chai called it quits, they bought Blue Beagle Coffee, four storefronts away.

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Some of the old regulars still drive from their new homes in Sebastopol or Petaluma for a mug of coffee. But theyre more wistful than optimistic.

Once people realized the shopping center was still here, it gave them a little hope, Walzer said. It made people feel like they didnt lose everything. But it is depressing. Its unreal. Ill see these beautiful patches of land and say, I used to babysit for a kid who had a home there.

On a bright and breezy Wednesday, Ann Shin wrapped a long red prom dress in plastic. Laundered clothes whirred past on a conveyer belt, waiting to be picked up. Otherwise, Larkfield Cleaners was quiet. The bell above the door  the one that jingles when a customer walks in  had been silent for an hour.

The 57-year-old Shin has owned the business with her husband for 18 years. In October, she made a list of all their customers who had lost homes. After 100 names, she stopped. Her home was gone, too, and she needed to find a rental.

Its really hard, Shin said. I dont know what we are going to do. I pray every day.

Just then, the bell chirped. Scott Murray, 58, walked in holding a stack of Carhartt flannels. They were brand-new  he had to replace the ones he used to wear after his house burned up. Now hes living in Healdsburg.

Everybody is in a funk, he said. The process is just so slow. And it doesnt go away. If I go somewhere familiar, it makes me feel normal, like nothing happened. But every day, I think about it.

Until October, he and the Shins lived three blocks from each other in the neighborhood behind the shopping center. Sometimes he cooked them salmon. She always gave him discounted cleaning. Today, he brought a handful of lemon cough drops.

How are you doing? Shin asked.

Murray paused, rubbing the sleeves of a shirt.

Oh, you know, he said. Better.

Lizzie Johnson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ljohnson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @LizzieJohnsonnn
A San Francisco judge has rejected a challenge to a new sheriffs department policy allowing transgender inmates to choose the sex of the deputy who conducts a jailhouse strip search.

The San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs Association filed a motion in February claiming the policy would violate the privacy of transgender deputies who didnt match the gender identity of the inmate who selected them.

Superior Court Judge Richard Ulmer denied the motion on Friday to halt the first law enforcement policy in the nation to take into account gender identity during visual body cavity searches, known colloquially as strip searches.

The undisputed evidence showed that deputies are not required to disclose anything, Ulmer wrote. They are assigned to conduct searches by how they identify and present themselves at work, which is the same way the former search policy worked.

The decision prevents the association from immediately halting the sheriffs departments Transgender, Gender Variant and Non-Binary, or TGN, policy, but it does not dismiss the lawsuit.

Ken Lomba, president of the deputy sheriffs association, said the union proudly represents many LGBT members, some of whom have not publicly disclosed their gender identity. He said the preliminary injunction was filed to prevent deputies from being forced to disclose that information, a concern he still believes is relevant.

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One of our members immediate concerns was the policy requires deputies to be of the same gender identity as the inmates they are searching, Lomba said. The way the policy is written, they could be forced to out their gender identity.

He said he is disappointed by the decision, but the association will move forward with the next phase of the case.

Sheriff Vicki Hennessy said the policy was adopted in consultation with numerous groups, including the deputy sheriffs association, with the goal of protecting transgender inmates.

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Our TGN policy is about respecting TGN individuals, making them feel safe and facilitating their participation in county jail rehabilitation programs, Hennessy said.

There are about 13 TGN inmates out of the 1,318 inmates in the San Francisco County jails, less than 1 percent of the population, sheriffs officials said.

Hennessys new policies also assign housing based on an inmates preferences, mental health, history of behavioral problems, criminal sophistication and gang affiliation. They include provisions for gender awareness training of sheriffs deputies and civilian employees.

The department implemented policies in 2016 that allow inmates to choose their pronouns and began moving them out of 12-person cells at the Hall of Justice to a re-entry housing pod at the County Jail.

Peter Fimrite is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: pfimrite@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @pfimrite
Just days before he rolls out a citywide plan to clean up San Franciscos fetid and filthy streets, Mayor Mark Farrell announced plans to hire a 10-person team of health professionals dedicated to cleaning up used needles.

Farrell and Department of Public Health Director Barbara Garcia said on Monday that the city would allocate $750,000 to hire the new employees through a contract with the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.

People are, quite frankly, fed up with the conditions of our streets, and so am I, Farrell said, speaking at a news conference assembled in an alley at the corner of Natoma and Russ streets. The status quo on our streets today is simply unacceptable, and were not going to stand for it, he said.

Just behind where Farrell and Garcia were speaking, a sign reading HELP!!! was affixed to the side of Tamara Freedmans picture-framing business, with an arrow pointing down toward a pile of human feces that she had covered in cat litter. She hung the sign earlier in the day, unaware that the alley would later be teeming with reporters. She reported the mess to 311 Sunday.

Its been a war zone for me, Freedman said, citing the near-weekly battles she has to wage to clear human waste near her place of business.

The city and its partners, like the AIDS Foundation, collect around 275,000 used syringes each month, about 8,000 of which come from on-the-ground sweeps like the one the new AIDS Foundation team will be conducting, said Joe Hollendoner, the foundations CEO. Needles are also collected from syringe-disposal boxes located in areas where drug use is prevalent.

No needles on the streets  thats our goal, Garcia said.

The new AIDS Foundation team will conduct targeted needle sweeps at areas identified as syringe hot spots by complaint data from the citys 311 service portal. The city expects the team to be in place within the next month.

Farrell said he is aware of the frustration of many residents, who complain that it can take 24 hours or more to get the city to respond to 311 reports of needles on streets and sidewalks. Creating a dedicated team to solely address needle litter was intended to help fix that problem.

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We want to be responsive to our residents, he said.

In the coming days, Farrell is expected to veto a street-cleaning budget supplemental that passed the Board of Supervisors last week. The measure was introduced by Supervisor Jane Kim.

Farrell previously vowed to veto the measure, saying that it was too narrowly focused on Kims district, which includes the notoriously grungy South of Market and Tenderloin neighborhoods. Kim had said that she intended to leave the decision-making on where to focus street-cleaning efforts with Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru.

Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa
The Pacific Ocean was just a little too much on Tuesday for a 37-year-old British woman, her rowboat and her packets of cold spaghetti.

Lia Ditton, adventurer and motivational speaker, shoved off from Belvedere at daybreak, intending to be the first person to row from San Francisco Bay, circle the Farallon Islands and return.

She passed beneath the Golden Gate Bridge around 10 a.m., heading west. Almost immediately, nature began to show who was boss.

The weather and wind, which were supposed to let up, didnt. After about 15 miles of rowing  much of it in the wrong direction  Ditton decided to give up. She had been stuck rowing northwest along the Marin County coast, which is not the prescribed route to the Farallones.

If the marine layer had burned off, I could have made it, she said, over her mobile phone from outside the Golden Gate. It didnt. Its disappointing, but Im ready to give it another go.

Over the phone, Ditton was laughing and in good spirits. She said she would have kept going except for her proximity to shore.

If I could take a nap, Id rest and then continue, she said. But Im too close to the rocks to take a nap. Ive been pinned to the coast and there hasnt been any letup.

Ditton said she had planned to make the 70-mile round trip in three days, eating cold spaghetti for breakfast and cold oatmeal for dinner, and part of the time wearing no clothes, in order to prevent chafing.

The trouble with rowing only as far as the Farallones, Ditton said, is that its really too short a distance to row naked. Too many passing vessels, big and little. When she rowed across the Atlantic Ocean in 2010, other boats were few and she was naked much of the time. Its just common sense to row naked, she said.

You eliminate chafing and you eliminate the need to do laundry, she said.

Ditton said the Farallones trip figured to be one of those things that the Guinness Book of World Records takes note of, in addition to highest jump on a pogo stick (11 feet, 1 inch) and most hard-boiled eggs eaten in eight minutes (141).

There arent that many things left that havent been done before, said Ditton.

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Of her unusual diet, Ditton said that freeze-dried meals rehydrated with cold water are best, because when youre all alone on a wave-tossed rowboat, naked or otherwise, a pot of boiling water can be as challenging as whatever the Pacific Ocean has in mind.

What most people would consider too much time in a rowboat, Ditton was calling a little jaunt to prepare to row a boat from Japan to San Francisco next year. First she needs to find a sponsor with $500,000 in order to cover the cost of four months worth of cold spaghetti and red gummy bears, along with a new high-tech rowboat.

Two people have rowed solo across the Pacific, she said, but both rowers got a smidgen of help from tow boats as they approached the West Coast. Ditton said she hopes to set an asterisk-free record.

As she headed back to San Francisco at 2 knots, Ditton said she bore no hard feelings toward nature and that she was ready to try the Farallones trip again  perhaps as early as Wednesday, depending on the weather.

Next time I think Ill go anti-clockwise, she said. Clockwise was a mistake.

Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com
SACRAMENTO  The state Assembly issued a subpoena Monday to a Bay Area woman who is willing to testify in support of a bill but says she is unable to because of a nondisclosure agreement.

The subpoena, which was approved by the Assembly Rules Committee, is the first issued by the state Legislature since 2001, when lawmakers tried to force Enron officials to testify in the state Capitol about energy market manipulation in the state.

Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, D-San Diego, said last week that she asked Speaker Anthony Rendon for a subpoena so Tara Zoumer could speak at a hearing Tuesday.

A lawyer for Zoumer confirmed that the subpoena has been received and that she plans to testify before the Assembly Judiciary Committee.

Zoumer was an associate community manager at WeWork, a multibillion-dollar startup that rents office space to entrepreneurs, when the company instituted a policy in 2015 requiring workers to agree to take employment disputes to binding arbitration and not court.

Zoumer said she was fired when she refused to sign the policy. She later sued the company, claiming wrongful termination. A nondisclosure agreement signed as part of a settlement with the company bars her from speaking publicly, she said.

A spokesman for WeWork declined to comment.

Zoumer appeared but did not speak at a Capitol news conference last week in support of AB3080 by Gonzalez Fletcher, which would bar employers from requiring workers to sign arbitration waivers. Companies could still ask workers to sign them on a voluntary basis, but would be barred from retaliating against those who decline.

Gonzalez Fletcher said subpoenas could become a tool for allowing victims of sexual harassment, discrimination and wage theft to talk freely despite settlements stemming from forced arbitration agreements.

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The bill is supported by the California Labor Federation, which argues that force arbitration is a secretive process that enables workplace misconduct to go unchecked.

For women toiling in low-wage work, getting fired for speaking out isnt an option and being thrust into a rigged arbitration system with no one at their side is impossibly daunting to overcome, Caitlin Vega, legislative director at the California Labor Federation, said in a statement.

The California Chamber of Commerce has placed AB3080 on its annual list of job killers in the Legislature. The chamber argues that it will lead to more lawsuits against employers.

Banning (arbitration) agreements benefits the trial attorneys, not the employer or employee, the group said.

Melody Gutierrez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MelodyGutierrez
The median Bay Area home price surged to an all-time high of $820,000 in March, up 9.3 percent from February and up 14.7 percent from March of last year, research firm CoreLogic reported Tuesday.

The previous peak was $784,000 in November. The report includes newly built and existing homes and condos sold in all nine counties. For the past six months, the median price has risen 12.8 percent year over year on average.

For the fourth consecutive month, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties showed the steepest year over year gains: 33.6 and 25.7 percent, respectively.

New home construction in Silicon Valley hasnt come close to keeping up with the growth in high-paying jobs. Facebook, based in Menlo Park, disclosed in an April 13 filing that its employees earned a median pay package of $240,430 last year.

Rising mortgage rates and shrinking tax breaks for mortgages were expected to put a damper on home prices, but so far that has not proved to be true in the Bay Area.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which serves as a benchmark for mortgage rates, surpassed 3 percent Tuesday for the first time since January 2014. Coincidentally, Freddie Mac reported on Thursday that the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate increased 0.05 percentage points to 4.47 percent last week, its highest level since January 2014.

The federal tax law passed in December was expected to discourage home buying. It limited the itemized deduction for all state and local property and income tax combined to $10,000 per year (previously there was no cap) and reduced the basic mortgage-interest deduction to interest on up to $750,000 in debt, from $1 million previously.

People are trying to desperately buy something before it becomes completely unaffordable, said Scott Anderson, chief economist with Bank of the West. Six months, a year from now, you will see more of the downside from rising rates.

A 650-square-foot home in South San Francisco with no garage that fronts an alley went on the market this month for $599,000, or nearly $1,000 per square foot. After a busy open house last weekend, listing agent Kent Flinn expects it to sell for much more.

South San Francisco, the erstwhile industrial city, and neighboring San Bruno have traditionally been two of the more affordable cities in San Mateo County, but like everywhere else in the Bay Area, demand is heavy and supply is limited, Flinn said.

As demand has grown in those cities, it also has changed. It used to be a three-bedroom, two-bath home in a certain district would sell better in one area than another, Flinn said. Today buyers are less concerned about neighborhood and more about size. They want enough space for their family or a spare room to rent out.

In the past, people didnt want to live near Caltrain in those cities. Now its a draw. People want to be able to walk to BART or Caltrain, said Flinns wife and business partner, Beverly Flinn.

Marchs 14.7 percent increase in median home prices across the region was the highest year over year for any month since last September, when it was also 14.7 percent, CoreLogic analyst Andrew LePage said.

That increase is significant, and it stands out statewide and nationally, but there is a mix issue, he said. The median price is the halfway point between the highest and lowest prices homes sold for in a particular month. In recent months, there has been a shift toward more mid- to high-price homes selling and less in the lower end, LePage said. That tends to raise the median price.

The number of homes and condos sold last month was 7,122, up 43.9 percent from February but down 3.3 percent from last March. An increase between February and March is typical, as the spring selling season heats up. Since 1988, the average increase between those months is 39.8 percent, CoreLogic said.

But last months sales were 17.1 percent below the March average of 8,590 sales since 1988.

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The Bay Area has been sheltered from rising rates and the new tax law because its housing market is chronically undersupplied, Anderson said.

The California Association of Realtors reported this week that the median time a home in the Bay Area sat on the market before an offer was accepted was just 12 days in March, down from 13 in February and 14 a year ago. At the current pace of sales, it would take just 1.9 months to sell every Bay Area home on the market, down from 2.6 months in February and 2.2 last March.

Home prices havent been hurt by rising mortgage rates because at 4.5 percent, they are still low by historical standards, said Aaron Terrazas, chief economist with Zillow, a real estate website. He expects mortgage rates will peak at 5.5 to 6 percent in a year or two.

We think mortgage rates can go up to 5 percent or a little above before we see any headwind on the housing market, Terrazas said. When that happens, I dont think it will cause a decline in prices; it will cause a slowdown (nationwide). The risks are bigger in the Bay Area because home prices are so high.

On a $650,000 mortgage, going to 5 percent from 4 percent would add $386 to the monthly payment.

Anderson predicts that the new tax law eventually will depress home prices  by about 4 percent nationwide over two years  by raising the after-tax cost of homeownership. In higher cost areas, the impact would be greater, he said.

People have been leaving California for other states, but its population has continued to grow thanks to immigration from other countries and the natural increase from births minus deaths. But we expect more out-migration from the Bay Area and the state as a result of high housing costs, Anderson said. I think by the end of this year, the states population will decline for this first time in this economic expansion.

Kathleen Pender is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: kpender@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kathpender
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The city of Oakland and East Bay Municipal Utility District must pay more than $360,000 for violating the Clean Water Act by allowing untreated sewage into the San Francisco Bay, officials said Tuesday.

In 2014, EBMUD and seven East Bay communities it serves, including Oakland and Berkeley, paid $1.5 million in civil penalties for past sewage discharges. The settlement also required the parties to assess and upgrade a total of 1,500 miles of sewer system infrastructure over a 21-year period.
This week, hip-hop artist RZA will be trippin back to his childhood, even as he progresses into a mature phase of his career.

When he live-scores his favorite film of all time, the 1978 martial arts classic The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 26, at the Castro Theatre, RZA will hark back to 12-year-old Robert Fitzgerald Diggs  later to front the influential rap group Wu-Tang Clan as RZA and much later launch the 36th Chambers clothing line who first saw the Hong Kong chop-socky on VHS and became a superfan of star Gordon Liu.

And when he hits the Castro stage, the 48-year-old rapper, hip-hop artist, record producer, musician, actor, author and now film director will be accompanied by two of his old hometown friends, who have helped him perfect the presentation.

This film means a lot to me personally, says RZA (pronounced Rizza) by phone. Also, a lot to the Wu-Tang universe, shall we say? Some samples from this film have found its way into my music production. Kind of following that same thing here, finding the quotes and the energy that made sense to my music production. Taking the same approach and reversing it now. Finding the cool tracks that will match the sequence of cool events happening in the film.

And, of course, most importantly, have fun and give the audience a new experience of seeing the film.

Many, including RZA, think of the movie directed by Lau Kar-leung as the Citizen Kane of martial arts films. Not only is there wall-to-wall action, but also there is a strong thread of spiritual development in the tale of legendary 17th century Shaolin master San Te.

RZA first live scored 36th Chamber about two years ago, but he was overwhelmed and felt something was not right. So he brought in two high school buddies from Staten Island, N.Y., DJ Skein and Tom Shannon, to assist him and revamp the show. Theyll accompany him at the Castro on Thursday as they finish a five-city April tour.

Ive definitely faced some technical challenges doing this, RZA says. But Ive learned. The first two or three times was very taxing. ... After about the third or fourth date, I was like, I need help.

RZA credits Shannon as inventing live scoring, back in their high school days.

So this is like 1987. Im a pretty good DJ at this time. DJ Skein is pretty good. Tom  hes not that good, he recalls, with a laugh. He loses the battles with us. But he daisy-chained some VCRs together, along with his turntables, and he would dub Looney Tunes with old James Brown or Bill Johnson breakbeats.

Then he would play them. Guys coming over, drinking beer, smoking weed ... and it was incredible. Technology never allowed that to happen in any other format, until video DJ-ing.

Whereas film used to inform RZAs music, now its his music that is informing film. Live-scoring 36th Chamber is part of a slow artistic transformation into full-time filmmaking.

RZA starred in and directed his first film, the martial arts homage The Man With the Iron Fists (which had a Liu cameo) in 2012. Now hes ramping up his directing career. His second film, Love Beats Rhymes, about a struggling female rapper (real-life artist Azealia Banks plays the role), was released last year. He is in postproduction on his third film, Cut Throat City, and in preproduction on his fourth, Blood Brothers.

I think as a director Ive found my pure, true, all-encompassing creative energy, he says. It satisfies every creative nerve in my body. ... You get to take every element and put it in a film, and transit yourself. Its super thrilling, and so fulfilling as an entity.

RZA wanted to stress that he wanted the 36th Chamber tour to end in San Francisco, one of his favorite cities. A New Jersey resident, he was here in September at the Asian Art Museum to drop his 36th Chambers clothing line and the first track of Wu-Tang Clans latest album, Wu-Tang: The Saga Continues.

Every once in awhile, if you go down Haight Street, you might catch me, RZA says. I kind of sneak away to San Francisco every once in awhile. Me and my family love it. We love the art that it has there, we love the culture ... and performing there is a joy for me.

G. Allen Johnson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ajohnson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BRfilmsAllen

RZA Live from The 36th Chamber of Shaolin: 7 p.m. Thursday, April 26. $56. Castro Theatre, 429 Castro St., S.F. (415) 621-6120. www.castrotheatre.com; www.eventbrite.com.
Our next mayor must clean up San Franciscos degraded street environment.

Increasingly, our streets are unsafe and dangerously dirty, forcing residents and guests to step carefully over human waste, broken glass and discarded syringes. It is a daily risk for residents, an impediment to maintaining and growing businesses and a blight that is eroding San Franciscos global reputation.

We, and the other CleanSafe365 coalition members, represent tens of thousands of employees and thousands of businesses who proudly serve as city ambassadors, many of whom are longtime San Francisco residents. They understand the difficult job San Francisco faces to find a lasting solution, but they are frustrated with the recipe of more funding, more programs and more taxes that isnt working.

In fact, our streets have gotten worse in recent years despite the hundreds of millions of dollars that San Francisco spends on programs, policing and cleanup.

As longtime contributing community partners, we have hands-on experience with the citys service providers addressing the needs of people who are homeless, mentally ill and addicted. Our coalition members and our employees need the next mayor to:

Declare a crisis on San Franciscos streets. This would generate the urgent attention our city needs from the mayor, our citys service providers and the Board of Supervisors.

Enforce laws protecting residents and visitors. We no longer can ignore those who are a threat to themselves and to our residents, employees and visitors.

Increase accountability for results. We need transparency about resources spent, actions taken and improvements generated by taxpayer-funded service providers.

CleanSafe365 members are willing partners for the next mayor, the next administration and the city of San Francisco. On behalf of our businesses, merchant groups, civic organizations, community benefit districts and property owners, were committed to finding and supporting sustainable solutions.

Without strong leadership to produce immediate and ongoing results, our citys businesses, employees and visitors undoubtedly will follow the path of so many who have left for safer locations. Yes, our economy is good and our businesses remain resilient and determined, but the prolonged effect of what our employees, visitors and customers confront daily on the streets of San Francisco risks our citys future and can no longer go unresolved.

We need to fix this crisis now. City Halls top priority must be a solution. Were tired of being apologists for the city we love. We will continue to be a strong partner for San Francisco, but we implore the next mayor to deliver to San Francisco Clean and Safe Streets 365 Days Each and Every Year.

Kevin Carroll is executive director of the Hotel Council of San Francisco. He is joined in this commentary by Tallia Hart, president and CEO of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce; Joe DAlessandro, president and CEO of San Francisco Travel; Marc Intermaggio, executive vice president of BOMA San Francisco, and Gwyneth Borden, executive director of Golden Gate Restaurant Association.
Caldwell Tidicue scratches his beard. It still felt, he says, a little new having one. For the past 10 years or so, hed kept his face smooth. Makeup goes on easier that way, and Tidicue has to layer it on when he takes the stage as Bob the Drag Queen, best known as one of the winners (and fan favorites) from RuPauls Drag Race.

But  and this was in late March  it had been three weeks since hed done drag, the longest hed been out of drag since he started, so there wasnt much of a reason to worry about shaving. Instead, hed been focused on rehearsals for Berkeley Repertory Theatres three-month run of Tony Kushners Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning play Angels in America. Tidicue is playing the role of Belize, a straight-talking nurse and former drag queen.

The rehearsal schedule for the production, which includes both parts of the sprawling epic about AIDS, gay identity, politics and personal relationships, was intense. Eight hours a day, six days a week for two months.

This is the longest rehearsal process Ive ever done for anything, Tidicue said before the play opened in previews last week. It is a lot. It is a lot. I just want to get on the stage. Im ready to get on the stage. (The theater had promised to buy him lunch if hed give up his hour-long break for a day to do an interview. So, he ordered Thai.)

Tidicue isnt new to acting. He studied it in college. And hes done some film and television projects recently. But its been a decade since hes been in a production like this, with large, moving set pieces. And his drag, though performance, isnt really a put-on character. Its just Tidicue in, as he put it, a fabulous outfit.

But playwright Tony Kushner had seen his work as Bob, and thought hed make a good Belize, so he recommended he audition. And when Tony Kushner recommends you audition, Tidicue says, you audition. Even if it means putting drag on hold. Im really grateful actually that he did see that in me, Tidicue says.

Hes a great performer, but that doesnt tell you if somebody is going to be able to act in Angels in America, says the plays director, Tony Taccone. It obviously helped that Caldwell  he really, really wanted to do it. He wanted to prove hes legit, and this is going to do it.

Part of his grasp of the character, Taccone and Caldwell agree, has to do with some of the biographical similarities. Both drag queens. Both black queer men. Both the sort of people who dont worry so much  in Tidicues words  about being nice as they do about being good.

He is a hard-ass, and he will not give you an inch, which I relate, to, Tidicue says. The stone face of Belize.

Everybody is cast in some ways that are pretty close to the bone, Taccone says. The places were able to go, the nuances were able to reveal  the way were able to explore in an imaginative way the lives of the characters, it just feels natural.

Tidicue gets one of the best runs of dialogue  if not the best  in the whole piece, something colloquially known as the I Hate America speech. The thing is, its not really ... everybody remembers it as, like, this showstopper, and hes talking for 10 minutes. Tidicue says, before trailing off and suddenly reciting the lines from memory, getting faster as he goes.

I hate America, Louis. I hate this country. Its just big ideas, and stories, and people dying, and people like you. The white cracker who wrote the national anthem knew what he was doing. He set the word 'free' to a note so high nobody can reach it. That was deliberate. Nothing on Earth sounds less like freedom to me.

He takes a short breath. Thats the line. But everybody remembers it as (a long monologue) and thats because that little line is so well written.

Given the decade away from this sort of production, Tidicue seems to have settled in without much trouble, aside from initial culture shock.

I was really intimidated because these are all really good actors, talking about references I dont get, he says. Theyve been making jokes about Waiting for Godot. And I dont fing know what that show is about. Now when the conversation turns to Mean Girls or Mommie Dearest, then I can relate to that.

It also helped that he had a standing date to watch the latest episode of Drag Race with two of his fellow cast members, Randy Harrison and Benjamin Ismail, at the Port Bar in Oakland.

Its my favorite show, he says, even still. Its the most important show to queer culture ever. Where else, he asks, is there so much representation of queer people of color, trans women and trans people of color?

He already has plans to bring back Bob the Drag Queen for a string of Monday-night cabaret-style shows starting May 7 at Oasis in San Francisco.

I have always loved drag. I will always love drag, he says. And Ill probably always do it.

This new role, this time on a more formal stage is not me running from Drag Race, Tidicue says. Its just another lane Im in now.

Ryan Kost is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rkost@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @RyanKost

Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and Perestroika: Two linked plays by Tony Kushner. Directed by Tony Taccone. Through July 22. Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2015 Addison St., Berkeley. $40-$100. (510) 647-2949, www.berkeleyrep.org
Lisa Brown is a Democrat and her husband, Ben Patty, is a Republican, but the Moss Beach couple were surprised to agree on something after seeing fired FBI Director James Comey speak Monday night in San Francisco.

I thought hed have an ax to grind or it would be some boring lecture, Brown said after hearing Comey hold court for an hour before a sold-out 1,667-seat Curran Theater. But hes actually funny. I think I have a crush on him.

And he focused on the truth, Patty said.

After a week where he was a nonstop presence on East Coast national media outlets, San Francisco is an early stop on Comeys tour in support of his best-selling new book, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership. The book is far from the anti-President Trump screed it is often portrayed as on cable news  only three of its 14 chapters are about the president. The rest is part memoir, part meditation on leadership. And so was Mondays show  which ended with a standing ovation.

The shows format was bare-bones. It was just the 6-foot-8 Comey  clad in a tan sport jacket, brown slacks and an open-necked dark shirt  standing upstage in front of the Currans gold curtain ... and talking. No notes. And he looked and sounded pretty comfortable, even if he professed to not be so as the show started.

Im freaked out enough, he said, trying to calm a nearly 30-second ovation after he walked on stage; kissed the evenings host, Book Passage owner Elaine Petrocelli, on the cheek; and flashed a wide smile.

He couldnt have been too freaked out, given that he breezily arrived at the Curran at 6:25 p.m.  35 minutes before walking onstage. A black SUV pulled in front of the theater, and Comey unfurled from within. As he strode into the theaters side door, he waved to people filing inside, but didnt stop to chat or pose for photos. Photo taking was banned inside the theater, where tickets were going for more than $150 Monday on Craigslist. Those prescient enough to buy early paid a face-value price of $45 to $85, which included a copy of the book.

Comey spoke for roughly 30 minutes, sharing a couple of stories about leadership  neither of which directly involved Trump  except to show that he was the antithesis of a good leader. Then he answered questions that audience members had submitted in writing moments before the show started.

In the book, Comey acknowledged that he doesnt have fans on either side of the Republican-Democrat divide. Republicans blame Comey for inspiring the special counsels investigation into whether the Trump campaign was involved in Russian meddling with the 2016 election. Democrats blame Comey for costing Hillary Clinton the presidency by sending a letter to Congress 11 days before the election saying he was reopening the investigation into her use of a private server for government emails.

Now Playing: San Francisco political columnist Joe Garofoli dissects James Comey's book tour at the Curran Theater. Video: KTVU

Despite that, in a very un-San Francisco moment, there were no protests outside the event.

San Francisco resident Alex Edwards was disappointed that Comey wasnt asked about Clintons emails.

I get that its San Francisco and its a liberal audience, but I cant believe that wasnt asked, Edwards said.

Gina Edwards, Alexs mother, acknowledged that there was a time that I was mad at him for his handling of Clintons email investigation and his explanation hasnt really vindicated him.

But after hearing him Monday, Gina Edwards said, I liked him a whole lot more than I thought I would. I like his emphasis on the rule of law  and Im not getting that message a lot every day from Washington.

If you didnt know Comeys previous job, it would have been hard to guess that this funny, self-deprecating, self-professed high school nerd was previously one of the nations highest-ranking law enforcement officers. J. Edgar Hoover he was not.

Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle

Twice he verged on tearing up. Once, when he described the moment he faced rank-and-file FBI officers in Los Angeles shortly after he learned he was fired from a cable TV news headline flashing in a corner of the room. And the other, when he mentioned his infant son who died days after birth.

Monday was also the rare Curran show where FBI agents got a shout-out from the stage  and roared back their approval.

John Bennett, the special agent in charge at San Franciscos FBI office, was in the audience and said the Comey on stage Monday is just like the one he knows from work.

Ive seen him do this many times, Bennett said, who estimated there were double digit FBI officers in the audience. James Comey is always talking about leadership, and the responsibility involved in being a leader.

The lack of leadership traits is mostly where Comey got his digs in on Trump. He stains everything he touches, Comey said.

Comey said all leaders are measured by how they are tethered to the truth. He recalled how President George W. Bush spent much of his administration explaining how he had lied about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction, and President Obama had problems regaining trust after he said Obamacare would allow people to keep their same doctor.

But Trump, Comey said, is much more untethered to the truth than either. And he excoriated Trumps fellow Republicans for not calling him out for it. What will you tell your grandchildren? Shame on you, Comey said to loud applause.

He encouraged the audience not to ignore erroneous things they hear from Washington for fear of normalizing them. And he urged people to vote, without telling them whom to support.

He also sought to clarify one of his remarks about Special Counsel Robert Mueller from one of his many interviews last week. He meant to say that hes confident that Mueller  his predecessor at the FBI  will end up at the truth.

I dont know where Mueller will end up and I dont care, Comey said, as long as he is able to complete his work.

Ultimately, Comey was optimistic. One questioner asked if he thought the nations institutions would withstand the stresses currently on them. He said he did. Besides, he said, no president serves long enough to screw it up.

Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli
San Francisco officials are beefing up security measures at some of the citys most vulnerable locations for smash-and-grab car break-ins: the parking garages owned by the Municipal Transportation Agency.

Since May, the SFMTA has added high-definition security cameras, license plate readers, protective fencing, intercom systems and, in some cases, police officers at seven city-owned parking garages in an effort to curb break-ins. Parking garages, with hundreds of vehicles packed closely together, present a tempting target to thieves seeking to nab valuables left in plain sight.

The results so far, city officials say, have been promising. And on Thursday, Mayor Mark Farrell, SFMTA Director Ed Reiskin and San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott will announce a $32.5 million plan to roll out similar security upgrades and other improvements at all 20 of the citys parking garages and two of its lots by 2020.

The pilot efforts in these initial garages have had great initial success, and we need to blow this out across all of our city garages, Farrell said. Parking garages are an obvious hot-spot area, but its also an area that we can control as a city government. People shouldnt feel like its a gamble to park their cars at city-owned garages in San Francisco.

The added security measures at parking garages dovetail with the citys broader efforts to crack down on San Franciscos property crime epidemic, including a public-safety campaign meant to remind residents and tourists not to leave valuables in their vehicles. The city has seen some modest success so far this year. Citywide, auto break-ins fell 17 percent in the period from January through March, compared with the same period last year, according to figures released by the city last week.

Last year there were 1,520 car break-ins reported at city garages, according to the SFMTA. The most targeted by far was the Fifth and Mission garage, which saw 588 break-ins. The second most, at 418, occurred at the Sutter-Stockton garage in Union Square.

The Sutter-Stockton garage was among the first batch of facilities the SFMTA selected for upgrades, and its being held up as one of the biggest successes so far in reducing break-ins.

Ted Graff, the agencys parking director, said most of the first seven facilities were chosen because of their size.

We decided to work on some of the smaller facilities first, Graff said. The city wanted to work out the kinks of installing new cameras and other infrastructure at those garages before working up to larger ones, like the one at Fifth and Mission, he said.

Tom Maguire, director of the SFMTAs Sustainable Streets program, said that the Sutter-Stockton garage was averaging around 40 break-ins a month from November 2017 to January. After the installation in February of the cameras, fencing and other security measures, like brighter lighting, reported break-ins dropped precipitously. There were nine reported in March and, so far this month, none have been reported.

City officials said that the other six garages that received camera upgrades saw a sustained drop in vehicle break-ins, with several reporting zero break-ins for several consecutive months. Both of the citys garages on Vallejo Street have also received security upgrades, as have the garages on Lombard, Bush and Pierce streets, and the garage at Portsmouth Square.

We think that anybody who parks in an SFMTA garage is our customer, and we want our customers to feel safe and secure, however they get around our city, Maguire said.

The Sutter-Stockton garage also benefited from the regular presence of a uniformed police officer  something that not all of the garages will get.

That becomes a resources issue, Scott said. Were not in a position to do that for every garage, but where we need to, we can step up our deployment and have patrols focused on those garages, he said.

The footage collected by the new high-definition cameras, which Graff said would be placed on every point of exit and entry to the citys garages, as well as point-of-sale areas where transactions occur, will be fed into a newly created centralized hub where SFMTA officials can actively monitor any of its garages.

What we want to do is step up and give (the San Francisco Police Department) the data and intelligence they need for their efforts, Maguire said.

Scott, who has been candid about the challenges of investigating vehicle break-ins, said having more cameras in city garages will help his department build cases, particularly against repeat offenders.

While property crimes rose 24 percent last year, compared with 2016, less than 2 percent of those incidents resulted in arrests.

It doesnt always lead to an arrest, but sometimes it leads to an identification, and we can sometimes parlay that into a bigger investigation, Scott said. That evidence is really important and leads to the kind of cases that we can put together.

City lawmakers will have another chance to check in with the SFMTAs progress at its garages in June. Supervisors Catherine Stefani and Sandra Lee Fewer called for a hearing on property crime in city parking garages last month. The hearing has been scheduled for June 13 before the boards Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee.

Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa
After 28 years and more than five Bay Area addresses, modernist design mecca Zinc Details is closing April 30.

The store has been a labor of love for UC Berkeley grad Vasilios Vas Kiniris and his wife (and fellow architect) Wendy Nishimura Kiniris. During its decades-long run, Zinc opened and closed several locations, including one on Fourth Street in Berkeley, dabbled in wholesale and hosted countless pop-ups, workshops and events. It called various spots on Fillmore Street home, and Pacific Heights is where the store truly flourished and fostered a tight-knit community.

The shuttering is sure to send shockwaves through the local design community and among customers who have purchased everything from starter furniture for tiny S.F. studios to treasured pieces for Marin houses. San Franciscans  and their homes  have grown up with Zinc Details. The first incarnation, in 1990, was a jewel-box space in the Tenderloin (906 Post St.).

Ill miss my awesome customers and the design community of S.F., Kiniris says.

Why is Kiniris waving goodbye to the brick-and-mortar life now? Its time, he said. Retail is morphing into a new reality, and Im parlaying my knowledge of small business and what makes a vibrant street.

To that end, Kiniris and his signature chapeau (and electric bike) will continue to frequent the neighborhood; hes staying on as executive director of the Fillmore Merchants Association. Along with working for a couple of other merchant organizations, design will remain part of his life.

Im a guest speaker in the industrial design department of the Academy of Art University, and Im on the board of S.F. Design Week, he says.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

There is some solace for ZD fans  the website will live on, with more vintage and curated artisan items. But design hunters looking for a monster blowout sale on furniture, lighting and home accessories from the likes of Kartell, Knoll, Pablo Lighting, Gus Modern and Blu Dot should head over to the 4,000-square-foot San Francisco store. As they say, everything must go.

Thats because, Kiniris hints: a cool new tenant, who cant yet be named, will be moving into the old digs.

Shop: 1633 Fillmore St., S.F., www.zincdetails.net.
A half century ago, the Black Panthers clashed with Oakland police in a violent episode that forever changed the political organization and the city from which it grew.

Amid the gunfire of April 6, 1968, Bobby Hutton, the Panthers first recruit and the groups treasurer, was shot dead by Oakland officers, instantly becoming a martyr for many in the black power movement. After 50 years, Huttons memory lives on, and a trip to The Chronicles archive turned up Black Panthers photos and images surrounding Huttons death, many of which havent been seen in decades.

The Black Panther Party was founded by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton in October 1966 to combat police brutality against Oaklands black community. Less than two years later, blood spilled in the streets across the nation in the wake of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.s assassination in Memphis, Tenn., on April 4, 1968.

In Oakland, tensions between the Panthers and the police were frayed beyond repair, and an explosion of racially charged violence seemed unavoidable. Two days after Kings death, the expectations in Oakland were realized, as a group of Black Panthers ambushed police, culminating in a shootout that lasted 90 minutes. A tear gas barrage led to the Panthers surrender at Union and 25th streets. Four people, including two police officers, were wounded. One person, Hutton, was dead.

The details of his death remain disputed five decades later.

The police version of the story: Hutton, 17, came out of the house armed and tried to flee before being shot. Eldridge Cleaver, the Panthers charismatic minister of education, who admitted to leading the siege, told The Chronicle that Hutton had his hands high in the air until he died.

Huttons funeral on April 12, 1968, at Ephesian Church of God and Christ in Berkeley was attended by about 1,200 people. It was preceded by a news conference held by Seale at the site of the shooting. Seale had a heartfelt message at the funeral: Bobby Hutton was an living example of infinite love for his people ... and their peace and freedom. Looking down at the open coffin, Seale added, We salute you, Bobby.

After the funeral, a large rally was held at Lake Merritt near the Alameda County Courthouse. Actor Marlon Brando and Panther Kathleen Cleaver, wife of Eldridge Cleaver, who was sitting in jail after the shootout, rallied the crowd.

Thirty years later, at a memorial in 1998 at an Oakland park referred to as Bobby Hutton Park, Will Jennings, a former Black Panther and the events organizer, said of Hutton: He was a brother who at 15 had enough consciousness to see the conditions in the black community and wanted to do something about it.

Bill Van Niekerken is the library director of The San Francisco Chronicle, where he has worked since 1985. In his weekly column, From the Archive, he explores the depths of The Chronicles vast photography archive in search of interesting historical tales related to the city by the bay.
ARLINGTON, Texas - Renato Nunez signed with the As as a 16-year-old in Venezuela, and he turned into one of the top young power hitters in the minors, belting 33 homers last year between Triple-A Nashville and Oakland.

Now, hes with the Rangers, who claimed Nunez on waivers on April 15 as he was on a rehab assignment with Nashville. Nunez, 24, was a little surprised by the move, he said Monday, but he was out of options and he knew Oakland either would have to put him on the big-league roster or expose him to waivers.

I was playing at Triple-A, doing my rehab and my agent called me and told me, said Nunez, who strained his left hamstring in the second game of spring training New team, new experience. But I always liked the As, I have nothing bad to say about the As, they gave me my first big-league opportunity.

Nunez plays third base and first, spots that the As have sewn up for years with Matt Chapman and Matt Olson. He also could DH. but Oakland has a right-handed hitting DH, Khris Davis, who has hit 91 homers since the start of 2016.

In Texas, Nunez has made four starts in left and one at third. He might be the eventual replacement for projected Hall of Fame third baseman Adrian Beltre, and, Nunez said, hes trying to learn everything he can from Beltre.

Hes the player I always watched growing up, and now that Im here with him, Im watching everything he does all time, trying to pick up something every day, Nunez said. Hes the boss. Im like, Yes sir! 

As manager Bob Melvin said hed had a chance to chat with Nunez on Monday afternoon.

I feel like he is a big-leaguer, Melvin said. He was just blocked here (with Oakland). Im glad hes got the opportunity at the big-league level now. Hes put up numbers that suggest he can play in the big leagues. Im happy for him. I hope he stays idle in this series, but you root for a guy whos been in your organization for a while, worked hard and had success.

Susan Slusser is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sslusser@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @susanslusser
Just a day before California law enforcement announced an arrest in the Golden State Killer case, newspapers in Australia reported their local police were contacted about a potential suspect.

American law enforcement reportedly reached out to police in Australia to determine if California's Golden State Killer may have moved abroad, becoming the infamous "Mr. Cruel."

The Golden State Killer  sometimes known as the East Area Rapist or the Original Night Stalker  murdered at least 12 people and raped, at minimum, 45 women between 1976-86. There were victims in Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, Sacramento, Yolo, Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties. After a prolific spree, he disappeared in 1986.

Thanks in part to investigating done by true crime writer Michelle McNamara, the California cold case became increasingly warm over the past few years. And now Australian newspapers are reporting U.S. law enforcement have spoken to their counterparts in Victoria.

The Australian wrote Tuesday that Los Angeles investigators had a suspect in the California slayings who they learned moved to Australia. The year after the Golden State Killer murders ended, Mr. Cruel emerged in Australia.

California law enforcement now believes the Golden State Killer is 72-year-old Joseph James DeAngelo of Citrus Heights. At a press conference on Wednesday, they announced DeAngelo's DNA linked him to multiple crime scenes.

ALSO: Was the East Area Rapist also the Visalia Ransacker? Authorities think he may be.

Although it seems unlikely the Golden State Killer was also Mr. Cruel, DeAngelo appears to have one link to Australia. According to a 1967 article in the Auburn Journal, DeAngelo was serving aboard the USS Canberra during a tour of duty in North Vietnam. The Canberra returned to California via Australia.

Mr. Cruel, who was also never caught, raped three girls under the age of 14 from 1987-91. The crimes stopped after the murder of a fourth, 13-year-old Karmein Chan, in a suburb of Melbourne.

Mr. Cruel and the Golden State Killers shared similarities: They broke into homes wearing a mask and claimed they were there to rob the victims, they had long hair, and they'd sometimes pause during attacks to eat food they found in the victim's kitchen. They were also pathologically meticulous, putting entire neighborhoods under surveillance for weeks while they planned their attacks.

They had significant differences, too. Mr. Cruel abducted three of his victims, something the Golden State Killer never did. And Mr. Cruel was fixated on young girls; the Golden State Killer generally targeted single women or couples, although his youngest victim was 13.

MORE: The sadistic Golden State Killer terrorized California 40 years ago. Is he still out there?

Australian law enforcement, for one, isn't convinced the California killer emerged in their backyard.

"Victoria Police is aware of the matter regarding the Golden State Killer in the U.S.," police wrote in a statement to the Australian.

"This was reviewed in relation to the outstanding Mr. Cruel investigations in Victoria and any connection has been ruled out."

If Mr. Cruel is still alive, he would likely be close to 70 years old.
3 1 of 3 Alcatraz Cruises Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times 2015 Show More Show Less 3 of 3





This year marks the 55th anniversary of the closure of Alcatraz as a federal prison. To mark the occasion, Parc 55 Hotel in downtown San Francisco hosts the traveling exhibit, Alcatraz: Life on the Rock, providing visitors with a glimpse of the notorious islands history.

In conjunction with the exhibit, on view through June 28, the hotel features a free speaker series with lectures by survivors of the prison and other Alcatraz experts.
Although plenty of people scoff at psychics, there's no question spiritual guidance is a big business.

"Psychic services" is already a nearly $2 billion industry, according to research firm IBIS World, and it's only projected to grow in the coming years. In the Bay Area, a quick perusal of Yelp turns up 23 pages of results when querying for local "supernatural readers," the site's catch-all term for psychics, numerologists, clairvoyants, Tarot card readers and the like.
3 1 of 3 Dean D. Dixon Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Courtesy Richard Powers Show More Show Less 3 of 3





Prolific American novelist Richard Powers is known for his brilliant scientist protagonists whose smarts and creativity illuminate the world, often in unnerving ways. In The Overstory, Powers 12th and most recent novel, Patricia Westerford makes a revolutionary discovery about the interconnectedness of trees. Like the other central characters in the novel, whose lives merge and diverge in a complex network of branches, Westerfords interest in trees extends far past curiosity into the realm of spiritual kinship. But Powers, a National Book Award winner and MacArthur Genius, has created a novel that is about trees  their intricacies, their tenacity and their precarious position on an Earth dominated by humans  as much as a book about the loves and losses of a colorful cast of characters.

Powers discusses The Overstory at Green Apple Books, 1231 Ninth Ave., San Francisco, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 26, and at Benicia Public Library, 150 E. L St., Benicia, at 7 p.m. Friday, April 27.
Alphabet posted its strongest sales growth in almost four years, indicating marketers kept flocking to its services even as lawmakers scrutinized how Internet companies harness user data to sell ads.

Costs also surged as the Mountain View company, the parent of Google, bought real estate and invested in opportunities such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, consumer devices and a voice-control digital assistant.

Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat said demand for mobile search ads and a strong performance by the YouTube video service helped drive revenue growth. Googles business of selling targeted ads on other sites across the Web also contributed, Porat said on a conference call with analysts.

We have a clear set of exciting opportunities ahead, and our strong growth enables us to invest in them with confidence, the executive said.

First-quarter sales came in at $24.9 billion, excluding payments to partners that distribute Google services and ads. That was up 24 percent from a year earlier and ahead of analysts forecasts.

So far, Google has shrugged off a privacy backlash set off by disclosures about lapses in Facebooks data-collection practices. Google is the worlds largest digital-ad provider, a business that relies on targeted messages based on users online information and behavior. While increased concern about privacy and new regulation may crimp Googles ad business at some point, the companys broad reach, vast resources and dominant market share mean smaller rivals may have more to lose.

Alphabet gave investors several new metrics this quarter. It disclosed more details on its huge investments in private companies like Uber for the first time. It reported a $3 billion gain on equity securities in the first quarter, which boosted earnings by $3.40 a share. Excluding those gains, Alphabet would have made a profit of $9.93 per share.

Alphabet capital spending almost tripled to $7.7 billion. That reflected a large real estate investment and investments in cloud, hardware and the Google Assistant. The higher spending shaved operating profit margins to 22 percent from 27 percent a year earlier.

Porat told analysts the spending was almost equally split between real estate and the computing power and networking needed to support internal operations and the cloud business, which rents capacity to other companies. Google is building data centers and investing in undersea cables to connect them with customers, as well as the latest machines for its artificial intelligence work.

Google payouts to distribution partners, known as traffic acquisition costs, jumped 36 percent to $6.3 billion. Alphabet executives said last quarter that their growth would slow down after the first quarter.

Mark Bergen is a Bloomberg writer. Email: mbergen10@bloomberg.net
About two-thirds of smokers will die early from cigarette-related illnesses. Cigarettes are also very addictive. Because of this, it seems reasonable to place warnings on their labels.

If a Los Angeles Superior Court judge has his way, California businesses will have to put similar warnings on something else that can be addictive: coffee. His ruling, being challenged by coffee producers, is harder to justify in terms of health  if it can be justified at all.

Californias Proposition 65, enacted in 1986, mandates that businesses with more than 10 employees warn consumers if their products contain one of many chemicals that the state has ruled as carcinogenic. One of these chemicals is acrylamide. Like many other substances, acrylamide causes cancer in rats  when they are pumped full of huge doses in ways that dont approximate real life.

In humans, the data are far less clear. The American Cancer Society (which does not shrink from saying things cause cancer) reports on its website that there are currently no cancer types for which there is clearly an increased risk related to acrylamide intake.

Other organizations, such as the International Agency for Research on Cancer, have warned that acrylamide is a probable human carcinogen. But this is based almost entirely on animal studies, and the agency has backpedaled in recent years. Its also worth pointing out that of the nearly 1,000 substances the agency has classified, it has ruled almost none to be noncarcinogenic.

Regardless, acrylamide isnt an industrial additive. Its a chemical that is made almost any time you cook starches at temperatures above 250 degrees. You can make acrylamide from frying, baking, broiling or roasting  essentially anything that isnt boiling or microwaving.

Toast contains acrylamide. So do fried and roasted potatoes. So do roasted coffee beans. Acrylamide formation occurs whether this cooking is done by a corporation or by you in your home. Its made even when you cook organic food  theres just not much of a way to avoid it. Acrylamide is found in about 40 percent of the calories consumed by people in the United States.

Some California businesses that serve food and drinks, unwilling to wage a legal fight against Prop. 65 or possibly hedging against fines, have already posted warnings about acrylamide over the years. A handful of makers of potato chips and fries also agreed to reduce their levels of acrylamide by 20 percent. There have been no studies showing this has made any difference in health, certainly not with respect to cancer.

Coffee has had acrylamide in it since humans started drinking it. The Food and Drug Administration, in its Guidance for Industry Acrylamide in Foods, reports that there is no viable commercial process for making coffee without producing at least some acrylamide.

If there were such a process, there wouldnt be a reason to use it. After all, we have a wealth of evidence about coffees effects. Meta analyses have shown that coffee is associated with lower risks of liver cancer, and no increased risk of prostate cancer or breast cancer. When we look at cancer overall, it appears that coffee  if anything  is associated with a lower risk of cancer.

Even the International Agency for Research on Cancer has essentially reversed itself. In 2016, it declared that drinking coffee was not classifiable as to its carcinogenicity to humans.

The more serious problem with Californias law is one of effect size. Health, and cancer, arent binary. Consumers cant just be concerned with whether a danger exists; they also need to be concerned about the magnitude of that risk. Even if theres a statistically significant risk between huge quantities of coffee and some cancer (and thats not proven), its very, very small.

Cigarettes have a clear and easily measured negative impact on peoples health. Acrylamide, especially the acrylamide in coffee, isnt even close.

Warning labels should be applied when a danger is clear, a danger is large, and a danger is avoidable. Its not clear that, with respect to acrylamide, any of these criteria are met. Its certainly not the case regarding coffee. Whatever the intentions of Prop. 65, this latest development could do more harm than good.

In 1994, a systematic review in the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing on the unintended consequences of warning messages said, The emphasis of policymaking in the past has tended to focus more on the identification of potential hazards than on helping consumers develop an understanding of the magnitude and probability of a potential hazard that can be used for informed decision making.

If Americans slap a label on every substance that has the potential to cause cancer, eventually those labels will stop having any meaning. If nearly inconsequential dangers get the same warning as significant dangers, people might start ignoring preventive efforts entirely.

Aaron E. Carroll is a New York Times writer.
A hush fell over a small corridor of San Francisco's Haight Street in February. Costumes on Haight  a longstanding destination for the thespian, the drag queen and the layman in pursuit of an outfit to dazzle  would be closing its doors at a future, unspecified date.

"It's just one more interesting, quirky, fabulous part of San Francisco that's being swallowed up by the growing blandness encroaching this city like The Nothing," mused a Feb. 7 story on "Broke-Ass Stuart," which broke the news with a statement from the then-manager of Costumes on Haight.

Outrage ensued. The 29-year-old costume shop was but another fallen soldier in the battle of gentrification versus the quirky Bay Area brick-and-mortar. But the vitriol was to be for naught.

"Where will we get our costumes now?" asked local performer Kat Robichaud, host of Kat Robichaud's Misfit Cabaret, in a February interview with SFGATE.

"Besides having local designers and tailors make my garments," she said, "we'll probably have to rely on Amazon if we can't get what we need from Fantasy Costumes in SoMa."

SFGATE reached out to Costumes on Haight for an official statement on the closing, but employees remained mum. "Check our Instagram for updates," they said.

The social media platform yielded few answers. A Feb. 9 post announced a "we-most-definitely-are-not-going-out-of-business sale" with a shrugging emoji. On Feb. 25 an additional 25-percent-off sale was declared. Then came the "winter hours" announcement: the shop would be closed Monday to Wednesday and open Thursday through Sunday. Finally, on March 31, came a liquidation sale, which in most contexts would imply impending closure.

But on April 1, the tone shifted. It was an Instagram video of a person dancing with joyous abandon.

"The sale really twerked y'all," read the caption. "We raised enough money to keep the doors open for at least a bit longer."

And just like that, a legacy queer-owned business was saved (for the time being).

The fervor of the un-costumed masses was not alone in rescuing the shop. Moved by the "amount of community curiosity about the 'closing' of the store," performance artist and shop employee Austin Efurd went hunting for a solution. Efurd took over management of the shop after the February closure announcement from the former manager, who goes by Gordo.

Efurd took a job as a sales associate at Costumes on Haight in September as a temporary gig to get his footing in San Francisco after a year abroad. It was the first time Efurd, a longtime yoga teacher, had worked in retail since his teen years.

After poring over the books, Efurd realized operational costs could be cut in half by consolidating storage space and reducing hours of operation.

"While not a solve-all solution, this consolidation has kept us open and offers the SF community a chance to vote with their dollars to keep a part of quirky and queer San Francisco alive," he wrote in an April 23 statement to SFGATE.

Yes, you can buy a costume with a press of your pointer finger on Amazon, but Costumes on Haight is more than a grab-your-tutu-and-go sort of establishment.

Efurd touted the "experts" working behind the counter at Costumes on Haight, all of whom are local visual and performance artists.

"Keeping the store a part of the city also means the community will continue to provide a source of income for local artists," he said.

If the store continues making sales, and pulling itself out of old debts, Efurd envisions the Haight outpost becoming a "a hot spot for connecting the community with local (artists) who craft magical and affordable wearable art."

In many ways, the store already is such a place, says Marke Bieschke, who has lived down the street from Costumes on Haight for more than 22 years. He calls the shop a "point of civic pride," where "the gay, the Burning Man, rocker, hippie, and just regular office worker" can unite over a common predilection to dress in outrageous get-ups.

Costumes on Haight is a gay-owned store that kept selling its quirky wares even after one of its original owner's passed from AIDS, Bieschke said. These spaces are increasingly becoming unicorns in San Francisco, he said, citing the recent closures of multiple "gay businesses"  The Gangway, Worn Out West, Retro Fit.

"It seems like we're losing so much of our gay brick-and-mortar heritage without really making up for it in online business," he said. The persistence of Costumes on Haight "is a ray of sunshine for queer (and costumed) San Francisco."

Efurd said he sees the shop as paying homage to the generation of queer people who stood up for the right to be yourself in San Francisco.

"That generation is starting to pass," he said. As a queer person himself, Efurd recognizes the importance of honoring their memory and the legacy of personal liberty they left behind.

"That's one thing Costumes on Haight does  it allows people to play the character they think they are, to express themselves in a different, possibly more authentic way."

Costumes on Haight will host a "Help-Us-Liquidate-To-Stay-Afloat" sale on Saturday and Sunday. All store merchandise will be sold at half-price, and rental costumes can be purchased at their rental price.

Michelle Robertson is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @mrobertsonsf.
For a small airline, Californias JetSuiteX must be doing something right. Besides investing in JetSuiteX (it bought a minority stake in 2016), JetBlue Airways said this week it plans to start code-sharing on JetSuiteX flights.

And... the little carrier attracted another big partner this month: Qatar Airways, which has been making strategic investments in select airlines worldwide.

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With all this cash pouring in, JetSuiteX aims to grow its fleet from five small jets today to 100 in five years, possibly transforming itself from a West Coast niche operator to a national player. It will also move its headquarters from Irvine, California to the Dallas-Ft. Worth area this summer.

Two-year-old JetSuiteX currently has five 30-seat Embraer E-135 jets, with plans to add two more in July. It offers scheduled flights on a public charter basis across a network that includes Oakland and Concord in Northern California, Burbank in Southern California, and Las Vegas. JetSuiteX is a division of JetSuite, a private charter operator with 22 aircraft.

In announcing that its B6 code will go onto all of JetSuiteXs flights starting May 1, JetBlue noted that this is not the usual code-sharing deal because it is not intended to feed connecting traffic to JetBlues flights.

Easy connections would be difficult because JetSuiteXs flights operate out of private terminals at the airports it serves. Which means, technically, you could fly JetBlue from its JFK hub into Oakland International, but to connect, you'd have to exit the airport and catch a ride to the other side of the runways to board your JetSuiteX plane.

JetBlue said the arrangement marks the first codeshare between a semi-private public charter operator (JetSuiteX) and a major national carrier, and is intended to offer new point-to-point routes for JetBlue customers.

Besides, JetSuiteXs product is different from those of major airlines. The use of private terminals lets its passengers avoid crowded airports and long security lines; its jets offer legroom comparable to major domestic carriers business class; customers get free seat assignments and power ports at every seat, and free drinks and snacks. JetSuiteX describes its customers flying experience as semi-private.

Meanwhile, Qatar Airways this month said it has taken a minority stake in JetSuite/JetSuiteX.

JetSuiteX fills a niche in underserved short haul markets and small airports, and enjoys a Net Promoter Score over 90, higher than the major U.S. airlines, Qatar said in announcing its investment. (The Net Promoter score is a measure of customer loyalty.) The Qatar Airways investment will enable faster expansion of this fleet and the ability to reach new destinations, including the potential to bring the semi-private model to additional U.S. regions, Qatar said.

Qatar Airways has made strategic investments in several airlines in the past few years, acquiring minority stakes in Air Italy (formerly known as Meridiana), Cathay Pacific, LatAm, and International Airlines Group (the parent of British Airways and Iberia). It also sought to buy a 10 percent stake in American Airlines last year but backed off after opposition from Americans management and labor unions.

Have you flown JetSuiteX yet? Would you? Put your thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook page, please.

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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 arrested on suspicion of human trafficking after San Bruno police found a teenage girl who had been trying to get away from the suspects, officials said.

Officers responded to a report near the intersection of East Huntington Avenue and Herman Street at 12:03 a.m. on Sunday of a girl who told a bystander that she needed to get away from somebody before leaving the scene.
More than 100 inmates at Santa Clara Countys main jail entered the 10th day of a hunger strike Tuesday in protest of solitary confinement, among other complaints.

Prisoners United of Silicon Valley initiated the strike April 15 and sent a letter addressed to Sheriff Laurie Smith that outlined their requests.

We are deprived of our due process rights, our grievances/appeals are habitually delayed and our chief concerns are often misrepresented by staff or ignored completely, inmates wrote.

Jose Valle, a community organizer advocating for the inmates, said that Sheriffs Office sergeants and lieutenants met with inmates over the weekend but no formal negotiations have taken place.

Its now on day 10  as of day eight, some individuals are losing up to 22 pounds, Valle said. Its getting a little dangerous now.

The strike has been confined to 109 inmates at the main jail, although some inmates at the Elmwood branch participated in the beginning, sheriffs officials said in a statement.

The health and safety of our staff, visitors and inmates is always our top priority. Per protocol, medical staff has been evaluating participants in this voluntary protest, officials said. Our ongoing jail reforms have been collaborative and productive, this hunger strike remains counterproductive.

Prisoners United listed four main demands in its letter to the sheriff.

First, inmates called for an end to meaningless classification reviews and instead recommended inmates receive more information on decisions made regarding inmates housing or security level.

Prisoners also called for an end to arbitrary solitary confinement practices, asking for advance written notice of the reason an inmate is receiving such a punishment except in case of an emergency. In addition, inmates want hearings where they can present evidence to challenge solitary confinement placement and have more opportunities to take part in constructive rehabilitative programs.

The group also wants a faster appeals and grievances process, asking that filings be responded to within 30 days.

The final request is for administration to ensure proper out-of-cell time for inmates whose privileges were interrupted during lockdowns. Included in this request is the creation of a memo to schedule times to clean the day room and showers, as well as the necessary cleaning equipment.

This years hunger strike marks the third such action since 2016, and coincides with mediation in a federal class-action lawsuit filed over Santa Clara Countys use of solitary confinement. The suit, filed in 2015 on behalf of inmates Brian Chavez and Brandon Bracamonte, challenged what they call an inhumane and unconstitutional use of solitary confinement.

Jenna Lyons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jlyons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JennaJourno
A man fatally shot over the weekend in Union City was identified Tuesday as a 56-year-old resident of the city, authorities said.

Sorin Chereji was shot and killed about 10:15 p.m. Sunday inside his home on Feldspar Court, according to the Alameda County Coroners Bureau.

His wife, Sara Chereji, 56, was booked at 10:37 a.m. Monday into Santa Rita Jail on suspicion of his murder and weapon enhancements, according to the jail records. She is being held without bail, and no court date has been set.

The couple has three adult children, said Lt. Doug Calcagno, a Union City police spokesman.

Officers reportedly responded to a domestic violence incident involving the Chereji family at the same residence in 2004. In that particular case, Calcagno said, Sorin Chereji was arrested. The exact details of the incident were not immediately available.

On Sunday, dispatchers received a 911 call about 10:15 p.m. Sunday from the wife saying that she just shot her husband, according to the police dispatch.

Shes saying she doesnt know what happened, the dispatcher said.

She says hes been treating her really bad all week. Shes not sure where she shot him. Shes saying she shot him 16 to 18 times.

Sorin Chereji was found inside his home with gunshot wounds and pronounced dead at the scene.

The motive for the slaying is unknown, said Calcagno, who described the circumstances of the shooting as unusual.

Ive been a policeman for 25 years. Although it does happen, its not regular by any means, he said.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera wants to remove 80 percent of people from the citys Western Addition gang injunction as city leaders have called for a review of the controversial effort to stem street violence, officials said Tuesday.

Herrera asked a judge last Wednesday to remove 34 of 42 people named as members of three Western Addition gangs known as the Knock Out Posse, Chopper City and Eddy Rock. Many of the members have quit, aged out or died, he said, and Knock Out Posse is no longer an organized gang.

Herrera will also review the citys three other civil gang injunctions  in the Bayview-Hunters Point, Visitacion Valley and Mission neighborhoods  to see whether more names should be removed.

Gang injunctions are civil restraining orders that designate a neighborhood area mirroring a gangs alleged turf and prohibit named members from associating with other suspected gang members within the zones. The injunctions also bar listed people from engaging in certain behavior, including painting graffiti, loitering and flashing gang signs. Violators can face misdemeanor charges if they break the order, or enhanced penalties if they commit a felony.

Critics of the injunctions, like Public Defender Jeff Adachi, say they unfairly target minorities and lead to racial profiling by police. All of the people on San Franciscos gang injunctions are black and brown, he noted.

While Im pleased City Attorney Herrera is taking names off the list, it baffles me why he doesnt scrap the injunctions altogether, Adachi said. Injunctions are a relic from the era of super predator and war on drugs.

The decision Tuesday comes as jurisdictions up and down the West Coast have overhauled similar gang injunctions. Opponents have long questioned whether they violate citizens civil liberties and right to due process.

Last month, a federal judge blocked the city of Los Angeles from enforcing almost all of its gang injunctions, and last year the city of Portland ended its two-decade-old practice. Oakland dropped its controversial gang injunctions in 2015.

Sandra Lee Fewer, San Franciscos District 1 supervisor, requested the city attorney review the injunctions and plans to hold a hearing June 13.

I think the city and county of San Francisco needs to have a discussion about the usefulness and the impact of gang injunctions, and whether or not this is a strategy that is showing results, Fewer said.

Herrera brought the four injunctions against seven street gangs between 2006 and 2010, and hes credited them with a sharp downturn in violence in San Francisco.

Homicides in the city spiked between 2005 and 2008, with nearly 100 a year, according to statistics from the state Department of Justice. But in 2009, killings dropped to 45 and have since stayed well under the century mark.

The bottom line is our gang injunctions have always been designed to protect civil rights while achieving public safety, Herrera said in a statement. Theyre effective, theyre focused and theyre working.

Of the 42 people named in the Western Addition injunction, 30 are no longer in gangs and four have died, Herrera said. Eight people remain on the list, which has not added new members.

When the list was compiled, all of the members had significant criminal and nuisance conduct leading up to the injunction, Herrera said. By 2010, 46 percent of the people on the list had not been arrested for major crimes.

The most recent review showed 75 percent of people on the list were no longer engaged in criminal gang activity, according to the city attorneys office.

Adachi said those statistics dont necessarily indicate success.

The fact that most of the people have no criminal contact says they shouldnt have been on this list in the first place, he said.

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky
Carl Hall stopped in at his independent bookstore, Christophers on Potrero Hill, and was surprised to discover that the new James Comey book, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership, was selling like coldcakes. Hall, a loyal customer, was moved to buy a copy.

Store owner Tee Minot said people have been asking about the book, but not buying it, in contrast to the demand for Michael Wolffs Fire and Fury. I think people wanted the gossip of Fire and Fury, she said. I almost think there was too much of a media blitz for this book. All the juicy parts have already been excerpted or talked about on TV or in interviews. ... Probably some of the things Comey is talking about are incredibly on target. But we all know them already.

I checked a few places around town. In two days, Green Apple had sold 11 copies, a healthy number but nothing like Fire and Fury, which sold out of the first order in hours, said used book manager E.H. Mann. We literally had a wait list. Mann said that the response of Donald Trump himself may have spurred sales of the Wolff book. I think the White House came out stronger against the Fire and Fury book, and further in advance. They literally just started out after the Comey book less than a week ago.

In Laurel Village, closest perhaps to the neighborhoods that might include the largest (although small in S.F.) proportion of Trump supporters, manager Ingrid Nystrom also said the Comey book is doing well, but sales do not compare to those of Fire and Fury. The first hour we had Michael Wolffs book, we sold as many as weve sold (of the Comey book) for the last three days.

Why? Weve been hearing the Comey story for a while. Theres a gossipy-ness about the Michael Wolff book that makes it doubly horrifying and fun to read. With the Comey book, readers think, I am going to have that with a cup of coffee, she said. With the Wolff book, theyre going to have it with a cocktail.

Civic benefactor is such a dry term; how about San Francisco cheerleader? Native daughter Ellen Newman threw what she called a friendship party last week, and pals  board members, fundraisers, donors, spirit leaders, fellow San Francisco team members  with whom shed shared her love of the city gathered to toast her and attend a performance of her beloved Beach Blanket Babylon (which ended with its traditional big hat decorated with greetings to the hostess).

This was not a birthday party, it was said, but noting that shed been at every opening day and every spring training for the last 60 years, the Giants Larry Baer presented her with a jersey with a significant number on the back. And San Francisco Symphony maestro Michael Tilson Thomas sang his tribute to the tune of Hey, Look Me Over (Our Ellen Newman/ Shes superhuman ...).

Thomas said the next morning that when he and Joshua Robison arrived in San Francisco, Newman had swept them up, giving them a grand tour of the city, sharing its best views and sparkling places that were her favorites. There are big thoughts and big purposes in her mind, he said, but the way shes accomplished things is with a spontaneous joie de vivre. You cant learn that.

Education, health care, homelessness, housing, immigration, the environment: The issues are familiar, as sprawling as the state of California. Over heaping platters of chicken and halibut at lunch on April 16, a team from CALmatters  editor and CEO David Lesher, opinion columnist Dan Walters and political reporter Laurel Rosenhall  addressed the Monday Group, which convenes to hear speakers.

Lesher cited stats: 23 percent of Californians live in poverty, and 60 percent of the kids in public school qualify as poor. Walters talked about the effect of a two-step vote, primary before final, on the results; and Rosenhall tackled the role of special interest groups, the splits for instance, between pro-labor and pro-business Democrats.

The state of the state, as Jerry Brown prepares to step down: uncertain, and disquieting.

P.S.: Not afraid to count, Gar Smith received his copy of the June ballot and discovered 27 candidates for governor and 32 for senator. Most interesting-sounding name in the governors race: Thomas Jefferson Cares.

Leah Garchik is open for business in San Francisco, (415) 777-8426. Email: lgarchik@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @leahgarchik

Public Eavesdropping

If you keep cradling that ketchup bottle like a baby doll, you will definitely be sorry if the lid flips open.
Not long after locals caught Tom Hardy and Michelle Williams on set around San Francisco, Sony Pictures and Marvel have debuted the first full-length trailer for "Venom."

The super-antihero flick revolves around a San Francisco journalist named Eddie Brock (Hardy) who becomes host to a Symbiote alien called Venom, escaped from a nearby lab. Much of the footage was shot on location in Northern California, but other scenes were filmed in Atlanta, Georgia.
NASHVILLE, Tenn.  The man who snatched an AR-15 rifle away from a gunman at a Tennessee restaurant told state lawmakers Tuesday he faced the true test of a man, drawing a standing ovation during his brief address.

As the House hailed him as a hero with a resolution, James Shaw Jr. said he acted early Sunday at a Nashville Waffle House to save his own life, and saved others in the process.

I never thought Id be in a room with all the eyes on me but, you know, Im very grateful to be here, Shaw told House members.

The 29-year-old said he has since gone to see some of the shooting victims in the hospital and they all remembered him. He apologized to the people whose loved ones died in the attack.

On the floor afterward, Democratic House Minority Leader Craig Fitzhugh read a full New York Times column criticizing the Republican-led General Assemblys record of passing pro-gun laws.

The Senate also honored Shaw on Tuesday.

Meanwhile Tuesday, a Nashville judge revoked the bond of the shooting suspect.

Court records show that a judge struck the $2 million bond for Travis Reinking until a hearing can be held Wednesday. The records did not give a reason why General Sessions Judge Michael Mondelli revoked the bond.

An attorney listed as Reinkings lawyer did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Reinking, 29, has been charged with four counts of criminal homicide. Police say he opened fire outside the restaurant with an AR-15 rifle and then stormed the restaurant, wearing only a green jacket. Four other people were injured in the shooting.

Reinking once lived in Colorado, where police say a co-worker described him as being paranoid and delusional at times. The co-worker also told a detective the man was infatuated with Taylor Swift and claimed to be a sovereign citizen.

Detective Sgt. Rob Martellaro of the Salida Police Department said in a report Monday that Travis Reinking lived in Salida, Colo., for several months in 2016 and 2017 and worked at a company called Rocky Mountain Crane.

One of Reinkings former co-workers told Martellaro that Reinking had identified himself as an antigovernment sovereign citizen. The FBI says sovereign citizens believe they are separate from the U.S. and dont have to answer to any government authority, including courts and law enforcement.

Sheila Burke and Jonathan Mattise are Associated Press writers.
WASHINGTON  The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in a late pivot Monday evening, approved the confirmation of Mike Pompeo to be the next secretary of state, after Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., bowed to pressure from President Trump and dropped his opposition.

For days, the committee appeared ready to deliver a historic rebuke. Since it began considering nominees in the late 19th century, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has never given a nominee for secretary of state anything but a favorable vote, according to the Senate historian. It has been almost 30 years since any Cabinet nominee was reported to the full Senate with an unfavorable recommendation.

But minutes before the committee convened, Paul, an ardent opponent of interventionist foreign policy, declared his support for Pompeo, the CIA director, to lead the State Department, securing approval from the committee.

After calling continuously for weeks for Director Pompeo to support President Trumps belief that the Iraq War was a mistake, and that it is time to leave Afghanistan, today I received confirmation that Director Pompeo agrees with President Trump, Paul wrote. President Trump believes that Iraq was a mistake, that regime change has destabilized the region and that we must end our involvement with Afghanistan. Having received assurances from President Trump and Director Pompeo that he agrees with the president on these important issues, I have decided to support his nomination.

With two moderate Democrats signaling their support for Pompeo earlier Monday, the confirmation of the United States top diplomat by the full Senate this week was all but secured anyway.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the majority leader, intends to move the full chamber to begin debate on Pompeos nomination as soon as Wednesday, with a final vote expected before senators leave Friday for a weeklong recess.

But supporters of Pompeo feared that he would become the countrys 70th secretary of state with a bruised standing on the world stage after a Foreign Relations Committee rebuke.

I understand the climate we are in. I understand the polarization we have as a nation, Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the committees chairman, said Monday. But Corker touted Pompeo as one of the most qualified secretaries of state in history, ticking through his resume.

That partisan environment had, in the end, provided Pompeo a lift. Democrats up for re-election in states Trump carried in the 2016 election broke the nominees way: Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Joe Donnelly of Indiana pledged their support Monday, joining Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, who declared her yes vote last week. Other endangered Democrats from Trump states are under pressure to also fall in line.

On Monday, White House officials trained their fire on Senate Democrats, who they said are stonewalling the presidents nominees without good cause.

Committee Democrats stood by their opposition.

This is not about policy difference, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said before casting a vote against Pompeo. I dont want to vote for people who are anti-diplomatic to be the nations chief diplomat.

Nicholas Fandos is a New York Times writer.
BRANDON, Miss.  Jerry Sanders has been sitting in a jail cell on a relatively minor charge of methamphetamine possession for more than a year  longer than the sentence he could get if hes convicted.

And with no money to post bail or hire his own lawyer, he may be sitting there for weeks or months more.

I miss my children, I miss my woman, I miss my dog, I miss my job, I miss my home  everything, Sanders, 58, said recently by video conference from inside the Rankin County jail in Brandon.

Long pretrial detentions are not unheard of elsewhere in the United States. But poverty, scarce resources, and a pattern of locking up people for low-level crimes make them particularly prevalent here, in the countrys poorest state.

A recent survey of Mississippi jails conducted by the MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Mississippi School of Law shows that 2,500 defendants  more than one-third of all of those jailed before trial  have been in jail 90 or more consecutive days. More than 600 have been in jail longer than a year.

The most recent census conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 2013, showed an average pretrial jail stay in Mississippi of 40 days, the sixth-longest in the country. The census also revealed that Mississippi had the second-highest number of local jail inmates per capita, behind Louisiana.

Cliff Johnson, who directs the Ole Miss branch of Chicago-based MacArthur, said he hopes the information will show the true extent of long pretrial jail stays in Mississippi and bolster efforts to lessen them. MacArthur has repeatedly sued cities and counties in Mississippi for jailing poor people who cant afford to pay bail or fines.

Data was nearly impossible to compile until last July, when the state Supreme Court, lobbied by the MacArthur center, ordered sheriffs offices to provide it.

The numbers reinforce what Johnson says he already knew: Mississippis criminal justice system, for a variety of reasons, is set up so that lengthy pretrial incarceration is not only possible, its common.

Among those reasons:

 Most defendants in Mississippi cant afford their own lawyers or the high bails judges continue to slap on them, despite decades-old federal court rulings that they consider what a defendant can pay.

Theyve been convicted of nothing, Johnson said. Theyre presumed innocent, and I think we lose sight of that fact.

Public defenders in Mississippi are overworked and underpaid. Attorneys may spend five minutes with a defendant while a judge sets bail, but defendants may not see lawyers again until after theyve been indicted. A recent report slamming indigent defense called this period the black hole of representation. Judicial leaders plan to ask lawmakers for more funding to increase the amount of help available to poor defendants.

 In many rural Mississippi counties, grand juries and courts meet only twice a year. In 2012, a woman in Choctaw County was jailed for more than three months without a preliminary hearing because the court was out of session.

In January, records show, a Lauderdale County man pleaded guilty to disposing stolen property. His sentence carried no prison time, but hed already been in jail 310 days.

Such long jail stays pressure people into pleading guilty, public defenders say.

For Sanders, state officials cant act fast enough.

Ive told them I want to plead guilty to my charge, he said. Ive done lost my car, my home, my job, over some nonsense. ... I should have been home a long time ago.

Jeff Amy is an Associated Press writer.
NEW YORK  A federal judge in Brooklyn agreed to release former television actress Allison Mack on $5 million bond Tuesday as she awaits trial on an indictment charging her and NXIVM founder Keith Raniere with sex trafficking and forced labor.

Mack, who is known for her role in the former television series "Smallville," and Raniere, 57, are accused in an indictment unsealed last week of using coercive tactics to lure multiple women into a secret sex-slave club in which many of the women said they were branded with the pair's initials during secret rituals in Saratoga County.

The Times Union first reported two weeks ago that Mack, 35, was identified in FBI records as an alleged co-conspirator with Raniere in his efforts to coerce women into joining the club.

Mack was arrested Friday and held in federal custody over the weekend pending Monday's detention hearing.

On Tuesday, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn consented to Mack's release under the conditions set by the judge. Those include forbidding her from using a cell phone or computer and also prohibiting her from communicating with any current or former NXIVM associates.

"Let's not have any lack of clarity about that," U.S. Magistrate Viktor V. Pohorelsky said, cautioning Mack and her attorney that she should not violate the conditions. "In other words, basically avoid anyone you know who has associated in any way with NXIVM, do you understand?"

Mack replied "yes." The actress, dressed in a tan prison jumpsuit, held her hands behind her back as she stood for the proceeding. She left the courthouse late Tuesday afternoon while flanked by her attorneys and refused to comment as she was whisked into a waiting vehicle.

Mack's mother, Melinda, agreed to sign the bond securing her release, including putting up her California residence as collateral. Mack also agreed to use her retirement savings as collateral. Her father, John Mack, must sign the bond agreement by May 4 because he shares ownership of the couple's California residence in Los Alamitos, Orange County.

Pohorelsky said conditions of Mack's release will include electronic monitoring and she must reside at her parents' California residence while her case is pending. Her passport was seized by the FBI on Friday.

Raniere has been held in custody without bond since his arrest last month and will be arraigned on the indictment at a later date, prosecutors said.

The indictment charges Raniere and Mack with multiple counts of sex trafficking, conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit forced labor. They each face a potential minimum sentence of 15 years in prison if convicted.

FBI records unsealed two weeks ago at the request of the Times Union allege Mack helped recruit women into the club and made them pose for nude photographs that she would forward to Raniere. She also delivered some of the women to Raniere for sexual encounters, and at least one alleged victim described the sex as unwanted.

According to people familiar with NXIVM, Mack joined the organization about a decade ago, around the same time several other young actresses were pulled into its ranks, including Nicki Clyne, Grace Park and Kristin Kreuk, who recruited Mack. Kreuk left NXIVM several years ago and has denounced the practices made public recently.

Federal authorities on Friday said Mack and Clyne are a couple  married in February 2017  and have shared an apartment in Saratoga County for more than a year. Mack also owns a residence in Halfmoon that she rents for about $500 a month, they said.

The prosecutors described Mack as a high-ranking member of Raniere's inner circle who took part in his scheme to lure women into the slave-sex club. Assistant U.S. Attorney Moira Penza said that "under the guise of female empowerment ... she starved women until they fit her co-defendant's sexual ideal and she targeted vulnerable women in order to do that."

Penza told the judge on Friday that Mack poses "a true risk of danger here in the form of witness intimidation. She has ... slaves underneath her who have pledged vows of obedience and she literally has collateral on a number of the people who we view to be victims or potential witnesses in this case."

Mack was with Raniere in Mexico when he was taken into custody on March 25 by Mexican federal police officers, who arrested Raniere at the request of U.S. law enforcement authorities. Raniere, whose organization has been described by experts as a cult, was arrested at a luxury villa in Puerto Vallarta.

The federal complaint alleges that Raniere organized the secret group within NXIVM in which women said they were coerced into joining a slave-master club and later branded with a design that included the initials of Raniere and Mack.

Raniere, in statements previously posted on NXIVM's website, had characterized the slave-master group as a consenting, private "sorority" and said that he and the corporation had no role in it.

But federal court records indicate emails seized from Raniere's private messaging accounts "support the conclusion that Raniere created" the club, which was known as "Dominus Obsequious Sororium," which means "Master Over the Slave Women."

The women in the group, according to the federal complaint, were lured into the club by other female NXIVM members, including Mack, who considered Raniere her "grand master," and were required to provide "collateral" in order to join. If they tried to leave, they were threatened that their collateral --sometimes damaging information about family members or close-up photographs of their genitalia -- would be released.

In the federal criminal complaint filed last month against Raniere, prosecutors said a Halfmoon residence known as the Library was where Raniere, 57, repeatedly had sex with an unidentified actress in her 30s.

That townhouse on Hale Drive, which was searched by the FBI on March 27, is where federal authorities say the unidentified actress, who is listed as "Jane Doe 1" in the criminal complaint, became a victim of sex trafficking and forced labor. The actress lived in Brooklyn during the time she was allegedly a victim of Raniere's -- which is part of the reason the case is being pursued in Brooklyn.

During one of her trips to Halfmoon, the actress said Mack instructed her to meet Raniere in the middle of the night near his residence. He allegedly instructed the actress to remove her clothing, placed a blindfold over her eyes and drove her around. Once he stopped the vehicle, they walked through some woods to a shack where the actress said she was tied to a table and forced to engage in oral sex with an unidentified person who was in the room with Raniere. It's unclear if the unidentified person was male or female.



According to information referenced in a complaint filed with the state Health Department last year by Sarah Edmondson of Vancouver, at least 20 women associated with NXIVM were lured into the club and required to provide "collateral."

Edmondson and another woman involved with NXIVM told the Times Union that they were brought into the club and subsequently branded by a physician associated with NXIVM, Dr. Danielle Roberts, who then gave them special bandages and advice on helping the wounds heal.

Edmondson said she was told it would be a "tattoo" and that the symbol was a Latin symbol for "the elements." She learned weeks later that the brand was actually the initials of Raniere and Mack, whom Edmondson's complaint identified as having "started" the secret women's group with Raniere.



The U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn opened its investigation last fall.



Brendan J. Lyons contributed reporting for this story.
Federal prosecutors said NXIVM founder Keith Raniere's "decades' long history of abusing women and girls" is among the reasons he should remain in custody without bond while his criminal case is pending.

The U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn filed a letter in federal District Court late Thursday outlining multiple reasons that they said Raniere is a danger to the community and poses a high risk of fleeing if he is released on bond.

"The defendant has a decades' long history of abusing women and girls," wrote assistant U.S. Attorney Moira Kim Penza. "According to confidential sources, the defendant had repeated sexual encounters with multiple teenage girls in the mid-to-late 1980s and early 1990s. In one instance, the defendant met a fifteen-year-old girl while he was in his 20s and had repeated sexual contact with her."

The allegations of Raniere's alleged sexual contact with underage girls was first reported by the Times Union in a 2012 series on the secretive organization and its controversial leader.

Prosecutors this week indicated they had affirmed the information.

"In another instance, the defendant met a twelve-year-old girl whose mother worked for the defendant and began tutoring her," Penza wrote. "Shortly thereafter, the defendant began having regular sexual intercourse with her, including at his home where he lived with multiple adult sexual partners. One of those partners hired the girl to walk her dog, giving the defendant daily access to the girl."

Prosecutors said that Raniere also has told his followers that the age of consent is "too rigid and that it should be lowered to when a childs parent says the child is capable of consent."

The letter was filed by federal prosecutors in advance of Raniere's appearance Friday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn on charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit forced labor. He has been held in custody since he was deported from Mexico on March 25 and taken into custody by federal law enforcement officials in Texas.

There was no bail hearing but a magistrate judge who arraigned Raniere on the federal criminal charges ordered that he remain in the custody of U.S. marshals. The judge scheduled a preliminary hearing in the case for April 27.

The FBI in New York City issued a statement Friday asking "possible victims or anyone with information related to Keith Raniere to please contact us at 212-384-1000."

The Times Union reported on Thursday that FBI agents seized more than $520,000 in cash when they raided the Saratoga County residence of NXIVM President Nancy Salzman last month as part of a widening investigation of NXIVM's business dealings.

FBI affidavits filed in support of the search warrant application  which was unsealed by a judge at the request of the Times Union  also confirmed that Allison Mack, a television actress who has been part of Raniere's inner circle in NXIVM for many years, was an alleged co-conspirator with Raniere in his efforts to recruit women into a secret slave-master club.

The records say Mack helped recruit women into the club and made them pose for nude photographs that she would forward to Raniere. She also delivered some of the women to Raniere for sexual encounters, and at least one alleged victim described the sex as unwanted.

Penza urged the federal magistrate judge to keep Raniere locked up.

"The defendant is charged with sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit forced labor in a scheme involving over fifty female slaves he directed others to recruit on his behalf. He is charged with trafficking these women through coercion and manipulation, tactics that he has used before," she wrote. "After law enforcement began interviewing witnesses about the defendants criminal conduct, he fled to Mexico where he was apprehended only after a month-and-a-half of active searching."

Raniere was arrested by Mexican federal police at a luxury villa in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. He was with several female devotees, including Mack, when Mexican federal police took him into custody and deported him to the United States, where he was arrested on a federal criminal complaint charging him with sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit forced labor.

The federal complaint alleges that Raniere, organized the secret group within NXIVM in which women said they were coerced into joining a slave-master club and later branded with a design that included the initials of Raniere and Mack.

Raniere, in statements previously posted on NXIVM's website, had characterized the slave-master group as a consenting, private "sorority" and said that he and the corporation had no role in it.

But federal court records indicate emails seized from Raniere's private messaging accounts "support the conclusion that Raniere created" the club, which was known as "Dominus Obsequious Sororium," which means "Master Over the Slave Women."

Prosecutors, in arguing for Raniere to remain in custody, also recounted information about a young Mexican woman who was locked in a Halfmoon residence against her will for more than a year as punishment handed out by Raniere. They said Raniere kept the woman, who was in her 20s, locked up because she had developed personal feelings for someone other than Raniere.

"During her approximately 18-month confinement, with limited exceptions, the woman had extremely limited contact with her family or other members of the community and she received limited medical attention," federal authorities said. "Her period of confinement was repeatedly extended for other supposed ethical breaches, including, in one instance, because she cut her hair. The woman felt she could not leave because of the repercussions on her family and also because she was illegally in the United States and the defendant and other members of Nxivm had helped her illegally enter."

The federal search warrant records disclose the support that Raniere has received from Clare W. Bronfman, an heiress of the Seagram Co. business empire who has described herself as the operations director of NXIVM. The records indicate Bronfman assisted Raniere in sending threatening letters purported to be from a Mexican attorney to women who had defected from the secret club or criticized NXIVM.



Raniere fled to Mexico last fall with Bronfman, a member of NXIVM's executive board who has supplied Raniere with access to millions of dollars and private jets, the records indicate.

"Prior to this trip, Raniere had not flown out of the country since 2015, when he visited the heiress' private island in Fiji," according to the FBI.

Raniere's appearance in federal court comes as NXIVM's worldwide operations are foundering. Leaders of the Mexican counterpart to a NXIVM corporation, Executive Success Programs, announced this week they were giving up their control of the organization. NXIVM at one time had thousands of clients and followers in Mexico.
Tens of thousands of Californians who speak limited English are being denied meaningful access to the ballot because the states top elections officer is failing to provide materials in other languages that the law requires, voting-rights advocates charged in a lawsuit Monday.

The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, accused Secretary of State Alex Padilla of misinterpreting the law and shirking the states duty to provide ballots and voting information in other languages to some of the voters who need them.

In the nations most linguistically and culturally diverse state, 80,000 voters who predominantly speak any of 34 languages other than English are affected, the lawyers said. They said some of the most severely impacted are speakers of Farsi, Arabic, Japanese and Russian  and even many speakers of Spanish, under Padillas interpretation of the areas where aid is required.

California has an obligation to lead our nation in reducing barriers to voting for those with limited English skills, particularly when the federal government and many states are trying to restrict ballot access, said attorney Jonathan Stein of the Asian Law Caucus. The American Civil Liberties Union also took part in the suit.

In response, Sam Mahood, a spokesman for Padilla, said his office has taken a leading role in removing barriers for limited-English-proficient voters, and ordered elections officials in 14 counties in December to provide ballot materials in six additional languages to voters in specified precincts.

State law requires Padillas office to decide every four years which areas need language assistance, and to order county officials to provide translations of sample ballots and other materials enabling voters to fill out English-language ballots. Language aid is required if at least 3 percent of voting-age residents in a county or precinct lack sufficient skills in English to vote without assistance.

The suit contended the law mandates assistance throughout a county that meets the 3 percent threshold  including 18 California counties where at least 3 percent of voting-age residents speak primarily Spanish  but Padilla has required assistance only in individual voting precincts rather than county-wide.

The state is also failing to provide assistance to many people of African, Middle Eastern or Eastern European descent by relying on a narrow definition of ethnic groups covered by the federal Voting Rights Act, the suit said. And it said Padillas definition of those who need language assistance leaves out many who are not fully fluent in English.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter:@BobEgelko
SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

A San Bruno man indicted by a grand jury on 20 counts related to an alleged auto burglary spree that lasted more than a year pleaded not guilty today in San Francisco Superior Court.

Prosecutors have described Deshawn Patton, 21, as a "prolific auto burglar" for allegedly burglarizing vehicles between 2016 and 2017. The indictment against him was handed down Thursday, prosecutors said.

Patton has been indicted on 11 felonies, including eight counts of auto burglary, one of receiving stolen property, one of resisting an executive officer, and one of hit-and-run causing injury.

He was also indicted on nine misdemeanors, including two counts of receiving stolen property, one of possession of a burglary tool, one of unauthorized use of radio communication, three of resisting police officers, one of theft and one of hit-and-run causing property damage.

"A case like this doesn't happen by accident," District Attorney George Gascon said, explaining that his office worked for months to bring the indictment against Patton.

"Auto burglaries in the city are primarily being driven by organized groups. They're breaking into many, many vehicles. This property is being fenced through an organized network of people who are selling the stolen property," Gascon said.

According to the district attorney's office, the alleged auto burglaries occurred between April 12, 2016, and May 18, 2017. Of the eight cases Patton is accused of, six involved victims from out-of-town and six involved rental cars.

On four different occasions, officers tried to arrest Patton, but he fled each time, once by ramming a police car, another time by ramming a vehicle he had just burglarized and another time by running on foot, prosecutors said.

Patton has been arrested since the crimes began, but had posted bail afterward.

Prosecutors filed a bail source motion to ensure that Patton wouldn't be able to use illegally obtained funds to post bail. According to jail records, he has now been in custody since November.

"We knew that he was going to bail, we knew that he had the money to bail. And where was the money coming from? Guess what, it was coming from stealing and ripping people off," Gascon said.

A judge has set a trial date for Patton for June 11. Patton, however, must appear before that for a pretrial hearing on May 18.

Defense attorney Lisa Dewberry wasn't immediately available for comment on the case.

###
OAKLAND (BCN)

Three Oakland Technical High School students were taken to the hospital this afternoon after a vehicle hit them while they were crossing the street, an Oakland Unified School District spokesman said.

The students were in a crosswalk at 45th Street and Broadway at about 2:30 p.m. when they were struck. The pedestrians appear to have had the right-of-way, according to district spokesman John Sasaki.

"There's no indication that it was on purpose," he said.

None of the students suffered serious injuries but they were all taken to the hospital.

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SEBASTOPOL (BCN)

Authorities are asking for the public's help in finding a vehicle driven by a suspect who fled after a fatal stabbing in Sebastopol on Saturday afternoon but was eventually arrested, a Sonoma County sheriff's sergeant said today.

The slain man, Cory Alan Vaughn, 19, was with friends at a house party near the intersection of Bodega Avenue and Pleasant Hill Road in west Sebastopol, Sgt. Spencer Crum said.

Anthony William Ibach, 18, arrived in the area in a burgundy-colored BMW and parked in the parking lot of the nearby Gravenstein Grill around 12:30 p.m.

Friends told Vaughn that Ibach was in the parking lot and Vaughn left the party to meet Ibach. Witnesses have provided varying accounts regarding the nature of the dispute between the two, according to Crum.

There was a fight and Ibach hit Vaughn several times with a cutting instrument. One of the blows caused a deep cut to Vaughn's upper chest and ended the fight, Crum said.

Several of Vaughn's friends gave him first aid but Vaughn died from his injuries.

Ibach fled in the burgundy BMW and a poster was sent to law enforcement agencies. San Rafael police spotted Ibach walking in the 500 block of Francisco Boulevard, where Ibach gave a false name to police, Crum said.

Detectives are still looking for the 2001 burgundy BMW. The car's license plate 4SVW467 was placed on the dashboard. Anyone who has seen the car is asked to call the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office at (707) 565-2121.

Ibach is being held under no bail in the Sonoma County Jail for murder and is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday afternoon in Sonoma County Superior Court.

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SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

Community poets will spin verses in a spoken word contest Thursday in San Francisco to voice their frustration with the tobacco industry.

The contest, titled "What's Menthol Got to Do With It? Everything!" invites participants to link social injustice with tobacco.

Organizers say the tobacco industry spends millions of dollars "to entice young people" into purchasing menthol and candy-flavored products.

The San Francisco Cancer Initiative and the African American Tobacco Leadership Control Council are sponsoring the competition.

San Francisco voters in June will also consider Proposition E, a ballot measure to prohibit local retailers from selling flavored tobacco products and menthol cigarettes.

The contest will take place Thursday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in San Francisco's Bayview Opera House at 4705 Third St. The champion will receive gift cards worth $750, second place will receive a value of $500 and third place will receive a value of $250.

The free event will have a live DJ, catered food and a family-friendly environment, according to organizers.

###
OAKLAND (BCN)

Elected officials and rent control activists rallied in Oakland and other locations around the state today to place on the November ballot a measure that would repeal a 1995 law that limits cities' ability to impose residential rent control.

Supporters of the Affordable Housing Act, which would repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, said they have submitted 588,000 signatures, many more than the 402,000 total needed to place the measure on the ballot.

The California Secretary of State will now have a month to determine if there are enough valid signatures to put the measure on the November ballot.

Costa-Hawkins allows landlords in cities with rent control, including San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and several others in the Bay Area, to raise the price of a unit to market rate whenever a tenant moves out. It also bans cities from imposing any rent caps on units built after February 1995.

At a rally in front of Oakland City Hall, Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan said, "Skyrocketing rents are causing suffering for families and community. Neighborhood cohesion is undermined and our communities struggle to attract and retain teachers, nurses, and other vital workers who can't afford rising rents."

Kaplan said, "There are so many people who can no longer afford to live in the places where they work."

Kaplan said it's time to repeal Costa-Hawkins "so cities can protect the most vulnerable people," who she said are renters who are in danger of being evicted from their apartments.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Delaine Eastin said, "California ranks 49th out of the 50 states in the number of housing units per person and we're in a housing crisis in which people are suffering like we've never seen before."

Eastin said Costa-Hawkins would increase the number of housing units in the state but she said "the exact opposite has happened."

Eastin said, "We should give cities the right to have rent control."

Oakland City Councilman Dan Kalb said if the Affordable Housing Act passes, vacancy controls would not automatically be imposed because cities and counties would have to make that decision individually. The same is true for imposing price caps on post-1995 construction.

Kalb said he thinks Costa-Hawkins should be repealed "because local jurisdictions should be able to decide on their own what protections they need for renters.

Kalb said passing the Affordable Housing Act "will give tools to cities and counties around the state to address the housing affordability problem."

The California Apartment Association, which opposes the proposed ballot measure, says Costa-Hawkins "protects property owners of all sizes from radical, local rent control measures."

In a statement on its website, the association said, "This protection prevents local governments from regulating and setting rents on single-family homes, individually owned condominiums and townhouses."

The association says the vacancy decontrol provision of Costa-Hawkins is important because, "When vacancy controls are in place, owners of rent-controlled housing are forever prohibited from resetting rents to market rates, even after changes in tenancy."

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701-8201

Sam Gelsing for Affordable Housing Act (415) 914-5511

California Apartment Association (916) 449-6426
SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

A federal court hearing in the firearms case of an undocumented Mexican immigrant who was acquitted of the murder of a woman on a San Francisco pier was postponed today until May 8.

Jose Inez Garcia Zarate is charged in federal court in San Francisco with two counts of being an ex-felon in possession of a gun and an undocumented person in charge of a gun.

In a separate state court case, Garcia Zarate was charged with the murder of Kate Steinle, who was fatally shot as she walked on Pier 14 with her father and a friend on July 1, 2015.

In the state case, Garcia Zarate was acquitted by a San Francisco Superior Court jury in November of murder and assault with a deadly weapon, but was found guilty of a state charge of being an ex-felon in possession of a gun.

Several days later, he was indicted by a federal grand jury on the two federal firearms charges.

Today's hearing before U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco was scheduled for arguments on two pretrial defense motions.

But defense attorney Maria Belyi told Chhabria that lead defense attorney Tony Serra, 83, wasn't feeling well and wanted to postpone the hearing. Chhabria agreed and rescheduled the hearing for May 8.

One of the defense motions asks for dismissal of one of the two gun charges on the grounds they are redundant. The other motion asks for court permission to gather evidence to support a defense claim that the federal prosecution is unfairly vindictive because Garcia Zarate is undocumented.

Chhabria did not say how he plans to rule, but did say he may rule on the motions in advance of the May 8 hearing on the basis of briefs filed by the defense and prosecution. In that event, the May 8 hearing will be a status conference on next steps in the case, he said.

###

986-5591

U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman Abraham Simmons (415) 436-7264
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (BCN)

A human rights activist who was attempting to visit the U.S. from the Philippines last week claims he was supplied with weapons and tortured by federal agents during a 28-hour detention at San Francisco International Airport.

Jerome Aladdin Aba arrived at SFO around 8 p.m. last Tuesday, but was detained for questioning by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents due to unspecified problems with his visa. He was eventually denied entry, and was placed on a departing flight to Manila around 12:30 a.m. Thursday.

In a subsequent news conference, Aba said he was forced to strip naked in an air-conditioned room and stand in front of a large fan during a lengthy interrogation.

Aba claims he was questioned extensively about his political beliefs and President Rodrigo Duterte's controversial drug war, which has been condemned by human rights activists who say that thousands have died in the ensuing civil unrest.

President Donald Trump has praised Duterte's actions, saying his Filipino counterpart has done an unbelievable job combating illicit drugs, according to an article by the New York Times last May. This was one of the human rights issues Aba was visiting the U.S. to discuss.

One of his interrogating officers, identified only as Lopez, repeatedly touched a handgun he was wearing and said he would "not hesitate to shoot," Aba said.

While in detention, Aba said he was left alone with a gun and later a hand grenade in an apparent attempt to tempt him into using the weapons. He has speculated that this may have been an effort to portray him as a suicide bomber.

Before authorizing his release, Aba claims he was coerced into signing a blank document. He included the letters U.P. to indicate that he did so under pressure or duress, but federal agents reportedly made him sign another one and then forced him to record a video statement saying that he hadn't been tortured.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman said today in a statement that the agency is aware of the allegations, but claimed they are false.

Customs officials say he was not asked to remove his clothing. Their officers would never give Aba access to a weapon he could potentially use against them, and their airport personnel don't have hand grenades.

Among other forms of mistreatment, Aba said he informed customs officials that he could not eat pork due to his religious beliefs as a Muslim, and they responded by offering him a ham sandwich after depriving him of food for 24 hours.

Agency officials said Aba was kept in a "lounge" area with reclining chairs and blankets where he had access to food, water and bathroom facilities.

They refuted Aba's claims about the ham sandwich, saying that while he was in custody they provided an egg and cheese sandwich as well as a turkey and cheese sandwich. He was also offered noodles, but declined.

"No pork was provided and no religious discrimination took place," a CBP spokesman said in a statement.

Aba and his colleagues with the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines have called on U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, to condemn the alleged actions of the customs agents involved in Aba's case.

Their offices did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the matter.

###
A Sig-alert has been issued for southbound Interstate Highway 680 in unincorporated Alameda County after a two-vehicle collision has blocked at least one lane of traffic, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The CHP said at least one person has suffered minor injuries in the collision that was first reported around 4:55 a.m. There is no estimated time of re-opening.
Family members and friends of Santa Clara County inmates taking part in the third hunger strike since 2016 will rally out of support and concern for their loved ones today, the ninth day of the protest, according to a local advocacy group organizer.

Community members will gather at 6 p.m. on the corner of West Hedding Street and North San Pedro Street just outside of the Santa Clara County Main Jail in San Jose "in hopes that the jail administration and/or Sheriff Laurie Smith will engage with participating hunger strikers," the coalition Prisoners United of Silicon Valley said in a statement.

Those participating in the hunger strikes at both the Main Jail and the Elmwood Correctional Facility in Milpitas have not ordered food from the commissary and many have not ordered canteens since April 15.

The inmates are protesting the fact that their concerns regarding the inmate classification system, solitary confinement issues, how grievances are filed and access to sanitary surroundings have not been settled.

Silicon Valley De-Bug organizer Jose Valle is in close contact with inmates and their family members through the group Silicon Valley De-Bug and reported last Tuesday that the fourth, fifth and seventh floors of the main jail were participating in the strike.

He said today that more than 200 detainees are striking.

Some strikers have lost up to 22 pounds since the efforts began, Valle said. He issued a statement on behalf of the inmates that mentioned symptoms they are experiencing, including dizzy spells, massive headaches and stomach cramps.

A recorded call from an unnamed detainee at one of the Santa Clara County jails was posted to Silicon Valley De-Bug's YouTube channel. The man states that he is not being monitored properly under the conditions of a hunger strike.

"I am not being weighed nor checked for dehydration," the man says on the recording. "I am not able to focus on simple things, daily tasks and I have extremely low energy.

The inmate in the recording said he is participating in the hunger strike due to "unequal application of policy which has resulted in discrimination and unfair treatment by the administration."

He goes on to blame Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith specifically and alleges that she is responsible for the inception of the strike.

Since Saturday, the coalition of prisoners has been assessing each day whether or not they will continue to strike. However, they said they were prepared to strike for another seven days or until negotiations are offered.

Santa Clara County sheriff's officials have acknowledged the strike and called it "an unproductive negotiating tactic for change."

Last Tuesday, the sheriff's office said custody improvements and reforms would continue as scheduled irrespective of the protest. They believe that the hunger strike was "instigated by a select few individuals."

Valle struck back at the statement, saying that inmates had no desire to go without food or risk their health.

"When someone chooses to go on a hunger strike, it's their last straw," he said. "It should show how much of a concern this really is."

Sheriff's officials said medical staff would evaluate all participants during the duration of the strike.

The sheriff's office was not immediately available today for an updated comment on the strike.

###
SANTA CLARA (BCN)

Today marked the beginning of the trial in a lawsuit filed by a group of Asian-American voters against the city of Santa Clara that alleges the city's voting system has diluted the demographic's voting strength.

Residents Ladonna Yumori-Kaku, Michael Kaku, Wesley Kazuo Mukoyama, Umar Kamal and Herminio Hernando filed their complaint in October after they say they or their attorney notified the city four times of how they believe the city's at-large election system violates the California Voting Rights Act.

Threats of similar lawsuits have prompted other cities around the Bay Area and state to change from at-large to district elections.

Attorney Robert Rubin alleged that Santa Clara had denied the Asian-American community, which a plaintiff expert estimated to be about 20 percent of the city's voters, their constitutional right since not one Asian-American has been elected there since 1951 when the city's current charter was enacted.

The complaint in the lawsuit states that the six-person Santa Clara City Council passed a resolution on July 18, 2017, stating its intention to place an election system on the ballot in which the city was split into two "districts."

Three councilmembers would be elected at-large from each district under the proposal, which will be on the ballot this June as Measure A in the city.

However, Rubin sent a letter saying that the proposed system would still be an at-large system that would violate the Voting Rights Act.

City Council elections in 2012, 2014 and 2016 are specifically named in the lawsuit as examples of minority candidates losing to white candidates because of racial polarization. In 2016, five Asian-American candidates ran for council seats and not one was elected.

In his opening statement this morning, Rubin said the community has been patient while awaiting structural changes to the at-large voting system.

"Patience is one thing, 67 years is another," he said.

Steven Churchwell, the attorney representing Santa Clara, sought to discredit the analysis done of the city's history and voting patterns by J. Morgan Kousser, a professor of history and social sciences at the California Institute of Technology with a background in researching racial discrimination in schools and politics.

Churchwell said Kousser did not factor in who the Asian-American population would have considered their preferred candidate and assumed in his data that it would be the Asian-American running for any office. He made the point that it could have been an opposing white candidate.

The attorney said he gave the most recent 2016 election data that he had to the attorneys representing the residents and that he believes that the at-large system does work.

Kousser said that in most of the elections since 1951, Asian Americans voted very cohesively in Santa Clara. In the instances that this was not the case, he agreed that the concept of strategic voting could have played a role.

Strategic voting was explained by Kousser as the possibility of a group voting for someone other than their preferred candidate but considered the next best option because they believe that their preferred candidate does not have a chance.

The trial is expected to conclude on Thursday.

###
A three-alarm fire at a 180-unit apartment complex that was still under construction in Concord injured two people early this morning and led to the evacuation of roughly 260 people from a neighboring building, causing roughly $55 million in damage, firefighters said.

The fire was reported at 12:55 a.m. at an apartment building under construction near the intersection of Clayton Road and Galindo streets, according to the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District.

The two people injured suffered from smoke inhalation and were taken to a hospital. Fire crews had contained the blaze as of 5 a.m. but will remain at the scene today to put out any hot spots.

The fire triggered a number of road closures as first responders arrived at the scene. Some have reopened since then, but police said areas of Willow Pass and Clayton roads will remain closed in the area around the scene of the 2.78-acre fire for the duration of the investigation.

County health officials had issued a public health advisory, saying smoke and other pollutants from the fire could affect people sensitive to respiratory illnesses.

There is still smoke coming from the structure, but that advisory was lifted at 7:39 a.m.

Residents should avoid direct contact with or inhalation of ash and debris from the fire. Those materials can be cleaned with soap and water. County health officials recommend dampening the ash before sweeping to minimize the generation of dust.

The pollution from the fire could accumulate in nearby creeks and rivers, so people who live nearby should avoid sweeping any ash or debris into storm drains where it might adversely affect the watershed.

Fire Marshal Robert Marshall said the building was the second phase of the Renaissance Square apartments. It was 60 percent complete and a mostly wood structure.

"The majority of the building was under construction without any sheetrock whatsoever, so there's just no way to control that," Marshall said.

Buildings still under construction tend to burn more quickly than completed structures because fire prevention measures like a sprinkler system typically may not be in place yet, Marshall said.

He said a large portion of the building had collapsed as a result of the fire.

Residents who were evacuated from a neighboring building, also part of the Renaissance Square complex, have not yet been allowed to return home due to concerns that the damaged structure could further collapse. First responders and structural engineers are working to make the scene safe, firefighters said.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, with the assistance of the U.S. Bureau of Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

That agency was also called in to investigate a series of three fires at large apartment complexes that were under construction in Oakland and Emeryville in 2016 and 2017.

Then in July, they released photos of a man they said was an arson suspect and announced a $100,000 reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction.

Concord Mayor Edi Birsan said that although this was one of the city's largest fires in recent memory, Concord has a history of rebuilding after major fires.

"We will rebuild," Birsan said. "This is Concord."

A possible residential burglary suspect who fled San Rafael police drowned Monday evening when he jumped into the San Rafael Canal in an escape attempt, according to the Marin County Sheriff's Office.

Two officers who responded around 6:40 p.m. to a possible burglary in progress in the 300 block of North San Pedro Road saw a man standing in a driveway, sheriff's officials said.

The suspect ignored the officers' commands and jumped into the canal at the rear of the residence near Summit Avenue, according to the sheriff's office.

Officers threw flotation items to the suspect and one officer jumped into the water and swam toward the suspect as he went underwater. The suspect disappeared under water and the San Rafael Fire Department and Southern Marin Fire Department dive team responded, sheriff's officials said.

Authorities eventually recovered the suspect, who was pronounced dead. His name has not yet been released.

One person died in a multi-vehicle collision on Lakeville Highway in Petaluma this morning, a REDCOM fire and emergency center dispatcher said.

The collision was reported at 7:15 a.m., the dispatcher said.

Lakeville Highway between Browns Lane and the South McDowell Boulevard extension are closed and side roads in the area are blocked, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The Solano County coroner's office has identified a pedestrian who was struck by a vehicle Friday as 37-year-old Larry Jones II.

A Vallejo police sergeant on patrol saw a man down on Sonoma Boulevard south of Lewis Brown Road around 11:50 p.m. Friday. Emergency responders pronounced him dead at the scene.

A 30-year-old Vallejo man who also was struck by a vehicle in the same collision was injured and taken to a hospital, police Lt. Michael Nichelini said.

The pedestrians were walking east across Sonoma Boulevard outside a crosswalk and well south of a controlled intersection when a 2008 Ford Focus struck them, Nichelini said.

Police located the driver, a 47-year-old Vallejo man, near the scene, according to Nichelini.

Impairment and speed do not appear to be factors in the collision, he said.

Two men suffered gunshot wounds in a shooting in East Oakland on Monday evening, police said.

A preliminary investigation indicates that the two men were shot during a dispute inside a building in the 400 block of Pendleton Way, between Edgewater and Capwell drives, shortly before 6:30 p.m., according to police.

Authorities didn't release any information on the victims' conditions or possible suspects or a motive for the shooting.

A federal court hearing in the firearms case of an undocumented Mexican immigrant who was acquitted of the murder of a woman on a San Francisco pier was postponed today until May 8.

Jose Inez Garcia Zarate is charged in federal court in San Francisco with two counts of being an ex-felon in possession of a gun and an undocumented person in charge of a gun.

In a separate state court case, Garcia Zarate was charged with the murder of Kate Steinle, who was fatally shot as she walked on Pier 14 with her father and a friend on July 1, 2015.

In the state case, Garcia Zarate was acquitted by a San Francisco Superior Court jury in November of murder and assault with a deadly weapon, but was found guilty of a state charge of being an ex-felon in possession of a gun.

Several days later, he was indicted by a federal grand jury on the two federal firearms charges.

Today's hearing before U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco was scheduled for arguments on two pretrial defense motions.

But defense attorney Maria Belyi told Chhabria that lead defense attorney Tony Serra, 83, wasn't feeling well and wanted to postpone the hearing. Chhabria agreed and rescheduled the hearing for May 8.

One of the defense motions asks for dismissal of one of the two gun charges on the grounds they are redundant. The other motion asks for court permission to gather evidence to support a defense claim that the federal prosecution is unfairly vindictive because Garcia Zarate is undocumented.

Chhabria did not say how he plans to rule, but did say he may rule on the motions in advance of the May 8 hearing on the basis of briefs filed by the defense and prosecution. In that event, the May 8 hearing will be a status conference on next steps in the case, he said.

Petaluma police have been approved to outfit officers with the anti-opioid medication naloxone.

Naloxone, also known as Narcan, reverses the effects of an overdose of heroin and other opioids including synthetic fentanyl. Petaluma police partnered with the Petaluma Fire Department to receive additional first aid training on the application of naloxone in the field.

Many police and fire departments are now carrying naloxone in response to the national epidemic of opioid addictions and deaths, and there have been a number of overdoses in Petaluma that led to deaths and hospitalizations, police said.

The California Health and Safety Code prohibits the arrest and prosecution of a person under the influence or in possession of narcotics or paraphernalia when they seek medical assistance for a person experiencing an overdose and they do not obstruct medical or law enforcement, police said.

Police ask that 911 be called promptly at the first signs of someone overdosing or having a medical emergency.

Petaluma police participate in the safe medicine disposal program that includes an anonymous drop-off bin in the Police Department lobby for unwanted or unused medication. More information is available at safemedicaldisposal.org.

The Santa Clara County Office of Reentry Services opened its new resource center in Gilroy this morning to expand the amount of aid that can be offered to people after incarceration.

The new South County Reentry Resource Center, located at 8425 Murray Ave., will offer resources to individuals in the Gilroy, Morgan Hill and San Martin areas, according to county officials.

The center was set up due to the hardships that those coming from the southern part of the county were facing to get to San Jose for reentry services. The new center in Gilroy offers many of the same resources such as substance use screenings and assessments, behavioral health, primary health care and psychiatric services.

Probation support and faith-based services like food, housing and community connections will also be available to people at the center.

County officials said the center replaced a pilot program center in San Martin that began in April 2015 as a response to concerns of residents.

"There were high arrest and conviction rates in these areas for low level offenders who had been recently released from custody or were serving the remainder of their sentences under mandatory supervision by probation departments," county officials said in a statement.

The county's original reentry services center in San Jose was established in 2012 to comply with the 2011 California Public Safety Realignment Act, which focused on reducing overcrowding in California prisons.

According to the county, the San Jose center has helped more than 10,000 residents re-entering the community from jail or prison since its founding.

Community poets will spin verses in a spoken word contest Thursday in San Francisco to voice their frustration with the tobacco industry.

The contest, titled "What's Menthol Got to Do With It? Everything!" invites participants to link social injustice with tobacco.

Organizers say the tobacco industry spends millions of dollars "to entice young people" into purchasing menthol and candy-flavored products.

The San Francisco Cancer Initiative and the African American Tobacco Leadership Control Council are sponsoring the competition.

San Francisco voters in June will also consider Proposition E, a ballot measure to prohibit local retailers from selling flavored tobacco products and menthol cigarettes.

The contest will take place Thursday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in San Francisco's Bayview Opera House at 4705 Third St. The champion will receive gift cards worth $750, second place will receive a value of $500 and third place will receive a value of $250.

The free event will have a live DJ, catered food and a family-friendly environment, according to organizers.

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SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

Lawyers for an undocumented Mexican immigrant who was acquitted of murdering a woman on a San Francisco pier and who now faces federal firearms charges will argue two pretrial defense motions before a U.S. District Court judge in the city on Tuesday.

Jose Inez Garcia-Zarate was acquitted by a San Francisco Superior Court jury on Nov. 30 of state charges of murder and assault with a deadly weapon in the fatal shooting of Kate Steinle, who was walking on Pier 14 with her father and a friend on July 1, 2015.

He was convicted of an additional state charge of being an ex-felon in possession of a gun.

Steinle was killed when a bullet from a gun held by Zarate ricocheted off part of the pier and hit her 90 feet away.

Zarate contended the shooting occurred accidentally when he picked up a gun he found under a bench, while prosecutors in the Superior Court case argued it was deliberate.

A few days after the Superior Court verdict, a federal grand jury on Dec. 5 indicted Zarate on two U.S. charges of being an ex-felon in possession of a gun and being an undocumented person in possession of a gun.

Zarate is being held without bail and U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria has not yet set a trial date.

In one of the motions to be heard by Chhabria on Tuesday, veteran defense attorney Tony Serra and his colleague, Maria Belyi, will ask for the dismissal of one of the two gun charges on the grounds the two counts are redundant.

Prosecutors argued in a response that the two charges require different elements of proof. They said that if Zarate is convicted of both, Chhabria can merge the charges when considering a sentence.

In the second motion, the defense attorneys are seeking permission from the judge to gather evidence supporting their claim that the federal case is vindictive prosecution in the wake of the partial acquittal in the state court trial.

The defense attorneys cited statements by President Donald Trump and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions criticizing the verdict.

"The true federal interest in pursuing this prosecution is to punish and make an example out of Mr. Garcia-Zarate for his high-profile acquittal in state court," Serra and Belyi wrote.

"This prosecution seeks to demonstrate to any high-profile defendant, especially one that is an undocumented immigrant, that their successful exercise of due process rights will not be respected and will result in the heavy hammer of a federal prosecution," the defense attorneys said in their motion.

Federal prosecutors wrote in a response that the U.S. charges were being prepared before the Superior Court verdict and that the government had a "strong and preexisting interest" in those charges.

"The federal government has its own reasons for pursuing this prosecution, including to prosecute a dangerous felon and unlawful alien with an extensive criminal history who, while on federal supervised release, illegally possessed a loaded pistol and killed a woman with it," the U.S. prosecutors wrote.

The purpose of the hearing Tuesday is not to determine whether the federal prosecution is in fact vindictive, but rather whether the defense attorneys can collect evidence to pursue that claim.

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986-5591

U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman Abraham Simmons (415)

436-7264




HOUSTON (AP)  Former President George H.W. Bush has been hospitalized in Houston with an infection, just after attending the funeral of his wife, Barbara, a spokesman said Monday.





Jim McGrath said on Twitter that the 93-year-old Bush is "responding to treatments and appears to be recovering." He was admitted Sunday morning to Houston Methodist Hospital after an infection spread to his blood, McGrath said.





Barbara Bush was laid to rest Saturday in a ceremony attended by her husband and former presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and their wives, along with current first lady Melania Trump. She was 92, and she and her husband had been married 73 years  the longest presidential marriage in U.S. history.





The elder Bush uses a wheelchair and an electric scooter for mobility after developing a form of Parkinson's disease, and he has needed hospital treatment several times in recent years for respiratory problems.





He attended the funeral wearing a pair of knitted socks decorated in blue, red and yellow books  a tribute to his late wife's work promoting literacy.





On Friday, during the public viewing of Barbara Bush's casket, George H.W. Bush offered his hand to many of the around 2,500 people who walked through the church to pay their respects.





A year ago this month, Bush spent two weeks in the hospital for treatment of pneumonia and chronic bronchitis, a constant irritation of the lining of tubes that carry air to one's lungs. Bush's doctors said chronic bronchitis is a condition more prevalent with age and can aggravate the symptoms of pneumonia.





Bush was hospitalized for 16 days in January 2017 for pneumonia. During that hospital stay, which included time in intensive care, doctors inserted a breathing tube and connected him to a ventilator.





He also was hospitalized in 2015 in Maine after falling at home and breaking a bone in his neck, and in December 2014 for about a week for shortness of breath. He spent Christmas 2012 in intensive care for a bronchitis-related cough and other issues.





People in their 90s with Parkinson's disease are often at higher risk of pneumonia and other infections because their swallowing process can be compromised, said Dr. David Reuben, professor of geriatric medicine at the UCLA medical school in Los Angeles.





"And the stress of losing a loved one can weaken the immune system," he said.





Bacterial infections are treated with antibiotics, he said, while viral infections require other treatments. Infections that spread to the blood usually are not viral, however, he said.





The prognosis for such a case would depend on a number of factors, including heart rate, blood pressure and oxygenation, Reuben said.





"The more of these parameters are abnormal, the more serious the case is," he said.




Lest We Forget  ANZAC Day 2018

ANZAC Day, the 25th of April, has been described as Australias most important national occasion. While many public holidays are just about getting an extra day off, ANZAC Day has real significance for many Australians.

It marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. While the date is aligned with that event in the First World War, the day is a remembrance of all those who have been to war to protect our freedom.

ANZAC Day goes beyond the anniversary of the landing on Gallipoli in 1915. It is the day we remember all Australians who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations. The spirit of ANZAC, with its human qualities of courage, mateship, and sacrifice, continues to have meaning and relevance for our sense of national identity. On ANZAC day, ceremonies are held in towns and cities across the nation to acknowledge the service of our veterans.

My parents served in the Royal Australian Air Force during the Second World War. (You can click on any of the photos for a closer look. As well as the individual photos of my parents, the top picture shows my dad on the far right with his father and two of his brothers.)

Ive watched television coverage of many ANZAC ceremonies over many years and for a couple of years, I volunteered at the march in Perth. After all these years the support for these commemorations continues to grow as the stories of heroism are remembered. As I look at the faces of those who served our country I see the pain as they remember their service during the dawn services as well as the joy of being remembered as they travel the route of the marches along city streets.

When they see the faces in the crowds and hear the cheering as they pass, they know that this country is grateful for their sacrifice and the sacrifice of those who didnt make it home.



War is a terrible thing, and Im glad that Ive never had to fight, but I am grateful for the courage and sacrifice of those who fought for our country. I shudder when I imagine what it would be like to face a hostile enemy, knowing that any moment could be my last.

I would hate to have to go to war. I cant even imagine what it would be like to say goodbye to my loved ones, not knowing if Id ever see them again. Having kids of my own, I dont even want to think about the parents that have seen their children go to war. My hope is that we will continue to work towards finding better, peaceful ways to overcome conflict. War should never be the answer.

ANZAC Day isnt about glorifying war, its about paying our respects to those who put their lives on the line for their countrymen and the generations to come.

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European Politics and Policy (LSE) blog - 6 April 2018

The share of workers belonging to unions has declined in many countries, and new patterns of employment, such as the rise of the so called agig economya, are making unorganised labour the norm in a large number of industries. For Pranab Bardhan, this weakening of labour organisations has been a factor in enabling the growth of inequality and the rise of right-wing populism. He outlines some suggested steps for reversing this trend.

Along with rising income and wealth inequalities, the share of labour (particularly of unskilled labour) is declining both in rich and poor countries. The institutional factor behind this is, of course, the systematic weakening of labour organisations. Outside of the Nordic countries, union membership among workers is now often in dismal low percentages. In rich countries unorganised labour is growing particularly in the agig economya of free-lancers and aindependent contractorsa. In poor countries the number of workers in the traditional informal sector often exceeds those in the formal sector.

Without the disciplining influence of worker associations many blue-collar workers are falling for the seductively simple solutions offered by political demagogues. So, in a way, both the rising inequality and the resurgence of right-wing populism a the defining twin menace facing the world today a are enabled by the weakening of labour organisations.

How to reverse this trend? Here are some suggested steps toward coping with the challenge.

a The main threat capital wields to domestic labour in a global economy is that of taking their business elsewhere. Without relaxing on the general commitment to relatively free trade, countries can try to move toward a system of more restricted international capital flows, as was the case under the postwar Bretton Woods system. Many otherwise free-market economists agree on the need for some capital controls, though disagreeing on their desirable extent.

a Corporate shareholders need to be persuaded that stability of employment and worker welfare negotiated with labour organisations may be good for long-run productivity and profits, in contrast to the short-run focus of managers on the next quarterly earnings. Unions may put pressure on the big pension funds for more long-term investment goals, and may actually help in asaving capitalism from capitalistsa.

a Workers often care less about the top 1% making more money (the topic that preoccupies the aoccupya movement), and more about their own job insecurity and the precariousness that technology and competition have brought about. In poor countries the main concern of most informal workers is being trapped in low-paying dead-end jobs. For both these groups of workers a universal basic income supplement can provide some minimum security, allowing them to look for better jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities. If labour organisations lobby for such universal programmes (universal basic income, universal health care, free vocational training), they can also build a bridge across a labour movement that is now divided, between the formal and informal workers, between ainsidersa and aoutsidersa. Such measures of economic security may also make labour unions less hostile to the reform of labour laws like the stringent ones in France, Italy or India.

a Labour organisations should try to move away from decentralised wage bargaining and toward a more Nordic-style confederate model, which will not merely improve their collective bargaining power, but may encompass the larger macro-economic realities so that aggregative compromises between capital and labour in line with those realities are achievable.

a Some form of wage subsidies can encourage hiring of more labour in the formal sector. This may be funded by redirecting some of the current budgetary subsidies in most countries like capital subsidies or tax concessions for investment or fossil fuel subsidies, which induce more capital-intensive or energy-intensive methods of production.

a Labour organisations should demand a greater say in the internal governance of firms, so that they have some influence on the firmas decisions to outsource or relocate. (A possible example is the German Works Council).

a Finally, if political parties are to win blue-collar workers back from the pied pipers of populism, they have to be aware that workers today are angry about their cultural distance from the footloose cosmopolitan professional liberal elite who seem to dominate the opinion-making circles of social democratic parties. Trade unions, instead of just being narrow wage-bargaining platforms or lobbies, may try to take an active role in the local cultural life, involving the neighbourhood community and religious organisations, as they used to in some European and Latin American countries. This is one way trade unions enabled workers to tame and transcend their nativist passions and prejudices against minorities and immigrants. Both on local delivery of social services and environmental protection, labour and religious organisations can find some common cause. On policies like affirmative action for under-privileged groups, a more open attitude to including poor workers from the majority ethnic groups may assuage the feeling (among some sections of whites in the US and UK or the Hindus in India) that the liberals only care for the minorities, but not for ausa . Trade unions can try to accommodate such policies of economic justice and relieve some identity-based tension.

Itas a steep uphill task to revive the strength of todayas beleaguered labour organisations. But considering the importance of resisting the twin menace of rising inequality and intolerance, few other tasks are as imperative.
Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- After decades of decline, the critically-endangered Mekong river dolphin has increased in population for the first time in a census released by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the government of Cambodia.



One of just a few species of river dolphins in the world, Mekong dolphins had plummeted from 200 in 1997, the first year they were counted, to just 80 in 2015. Today the population is estimated at 97 with three dolphins born just this year.



Effective patrolling by teams of river guards and the strict confiscation of illegal gill nets which trap and drown the dolphins are the main reasons for the increase, according to experts.



Law enforcement efforts and increased ecotourism has helped draw attention to the dolphins while bringing economic opportunities beyond fishing.



The latest survey shows other encouraging signs, with improvements in survival rates, an increase in the number of calves and a drop in deaths.



River dolphins are indicators of the health of the Mekong River and their recovery is a hopeful sign for the river and the millions of people who depend on it, said Seng Teak, country director of WWF Cambodia.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
A state-owned farm near the central town of Vrede was leased to a little-known company, Estina Pty Ltd., in 2012 under a free 99-year contract and the regional government agreed to help develop it, ostensibly to set up a dairy project that would create 200 jobs. Prosecutors say most of the 220 million rand in public funds transferred to the company ended up in the hands of the Guptas.

read more at:

Guptas: From R9k to R34m in a day https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2018-01-22-estina-how-the-guptas-stole-millions/
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WASHINGTON  Weighing U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear accord, President Trump declared on Tuesday that if the Iranians restart their nuclear program, they will have bigger problems than theyve ever had before.

Trump issued his warning alongside French President Emmanuel Macron in the Oval Office, where the two allies discussed the multinational nuclear agreement, the war in Syria and trade issues.

At a joint news conference Tuesday, Trump was asked by reporters if he might be willing to stay in the Iran agreement. He replied, People know my views on the Iran deal. ... Its insane, its ridiculous. It should have never been made.

One of Macrons main objectives during his three-day visit to Washington is to persuade Trump to stay in the accord, which is aimed at restricting Irans development of nuclear weapons. Trump, skeptical of the pacts effectiveness, has been eager to pull out as a May 12 waiver deadline nears to come up with fixes to the deal.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif warned the Trump administration Tuesday that pulling out would undermine Americas talks with North Korea by proving the U.S. reneges on its promises.

He said if Trump withdraws, Iran would most likely abandon the deal as well. Zarif added that would free Iran to resume enrichment activity beyond the limits imposed by the 2015 accord.

Trump remains publicly undecided on the deal, saying Tuesday no one knows what hell do at the deadline he set to determine Americas position. But he reminded his French counterpart of what he sees as flaws in the agreement, which he said fails to address ballistic missiles or Irans activities in Yemen or Syria.

Darlene Superville and Ken Thomas are Associated Press writers.
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The California Senate Judiciary Committee has approved a bill that could possibly make HR professionals and other employees personally liable for retaliating against workers who complain about harassment and discrimination.



"Individuals need to understand that they will be held accountable if they try to interfere with or threaten someone who has made a  claim," said Sen. Connie Leyva, D-Chino, at a committee hearing on April 17.

Employers, however, are concerned about this bill, said Benjamin Ebbink, an attorney with Fisher Phillips in Sacramento. "As the bill is worded now, it is extremely broad and would potentially make any employee  personally liable for alleged retaliation."

The California State Council of the Society for Human Resource Management (CalSHRM) opposes the bill (S.B. 1038). "Our 25,000 HR professionals in California will be among those most negatively impacted by the proposed change," said Michael Kalt, the government affairs director for CalSHRM, to the California Senate Judiciary Committee. Kalt is an attorney with Wilson Turner Kosmo in San Diego.

CalSHRM is committed to preventing unlawful retaliation and working with employers and legislatures to prevent it, but it opposes S.B. 1038 because the bill would chill effective workplace management, he said. "HR professionals must be allowed to make the best personnel decisions, not simply the personnel decision least likely to prompt a retaliation claim."

Management Decisions

The California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) prohibits workplace harassment and discrimination based on a number of characteristics, including race, religion and sex. Employers also may not retaliate against workers who complain about harassment or discrimination or who participate in any proceedings related to a complaint.

[SHRM members-only HR Q&A: What is FEHA and what does it cover?]

In addition to suing the business, aggrieved employees may sue an alleged harasser personally for the underlying harassment complaint. But the California Supreme Court has held that the individual can't be held personally liable for retaliation.

Here's the distinction: Employees can always refrain from engaging in harassing behavior at work, but HR staff and supervisors can't avoid making employment-related decisions. Those decisions could later be interpreted as retaliatory.

CalSHRM and SHRM want members to report unlawful harassment so it can be addressed and harassers can be disciplined, Kalt said. But HR duties include making management decisions, which sometimes involve individuals who previously complained about misconduct.

"Our members are specifically tasked with making sometimes tough personnel management decisions and, while they endeavor to ensure these decisions are made for lawful reasons, they cannot always guarantee that an individual will not subjectively disagree with the decision reached," he said.

Outlook

The California Judiciary Committee approved the bill in a 4-2 vote. "Although the bill passed, several members of the committee, including Democrats, expressed some real concerns about this bill," Ebbink said.

The bill could potentially be amended to impose personal liability only on supervisory employeeswhich would limit HR's exposureor on employees who have actually engaged in the harassing behavior and are retaliating against the victim to cover it up. "However, the bill has not yet been amended and is still extremely broad," Ebbink noted.

The bill next moves to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
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.
President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday approved an ordinance to provide death penalty for those convicted of raping girls below age 12 years besides clearing another ordinance to confiscate property of fugitive economic offenders.



The President promulgated The Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2018, which was approved by the cabinet on Saturday and which seeks to provide effective deterrence against rape and instil a sense of security among women, particularly young girls.



The ordinance follows outrage over rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir and similar crimes in other parts of the country.



Following the President's approval, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO), The Indian Penal Code (IPC) and The Evidence Act stand amended.



The development puts in place a number of measures for speedy investigation and trial of rape cases including a two-month time limit for investigation, two months for completion of trial and six months for disposal of appeals.



There will be no provision for anticipatory bail for a person accused of rape or gang rape of a girl under 16 years.



It also aims at strengthening investigation and prosecution including setting up fast track courts and special forensic labs in each state besides maintaining a national database of sexual offenders.



Kovind also promulgated The Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance, 2018, which followed the Punjab National Bank fraud case, in which the main accused, diamond trader Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, fled the country after duping banks to the tune of over Rs 30,000 crore.



The ordinance would provide for attachment and confiscation of the properties of the economic offenders in a bid to bring back defaulters of huge bank loans who flee abroad.

Read more news:

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Kerala real estate market is very fertile and this sector plays an imperative role in the growth of the state. Thrissur, Calicut, Guruvayur, Kozhikode, etc. are the places where you can find the maximum growth and development. Many people are also investing a chunk of money in the real estate sector in Kerala because of its prosperity, growth, connectivity, climate, and stable political environment. Thats why many prodigious real estate companies are trying to embrace the citizens with some lucrative residential projects. Here, we are mentioning the top cities in Kerala to invest in the real estate market.

1. Calicut: Over the past few years, the popularity of Calicut is outstanding and it is one of the most liked places for people who want to invest in real estate in Kerala. People are planning to settle down in Calicut because this place is crammed with many facilities and the environment is also comfortable here. Calicut is just only 34 km away from the airport. Moreover, Kozhikode railway station or Calicut railway station is a famous railway station which connects Calicut with other places. Calicut is the heart of IT and industrial development. Every company has their offices in Calicut and Cyberpark and UL Cyberparks are the two prominent places for all the IT developments. Calicut is thronged with near about 40 prodigious IT companies and many government offices. Many education institutes like IIM Kozhikode is situated here. Since this place has all the facilities, hence many builders in Calicut are making affordable flats in Calicut which are jam-packed with all the latest amenities so that the residents can lead a comfortable life. The climate is another reason that will motivate you to invest in the real estate market of Calicut. Calicut has a moderate temperature during the summer and the winter season. Calicut is a very cultured and hallowed place in Kerala. There are many temples and shrines in Calicut. Moreover, this place has a stable social and political environment.

2. Thrissur: Thrissur is another popular city in Kerala which is ideal for any kind of real estate investment. Thrissur railway station is just 2.1 km away from Thrissur city and Cochin international airport is 50 km away from Thrissur city. Not only that, Thrissur bus stop is also just 1.7 km away from the city so that people can afford their journey comfortably. Thrissur has easy access to all leading social infrastructures. Educational institutions like Kerala Agricultural University, Govt. Medical College, IES engineering college, Vidya Academy, hospitals like Westfort hospital, Aswini Hospital, retail establishments and shopping centers can be found in close proximity to the suburb. Thrissur enjoys a moderate temperature throughout the year. There are many temples and other holy places in Thrissur. Sri Vadakkumnathan Shiva temple, Thiruvambady Sri Krishna temple, Paramekkavu Bhagavathi temple, etc. are the popular temples in Thrissur. You wont find not many criminals or unscrupulous person here because most of the people lead a peaceful life in Thrissur. These are the reasons which motivate many eminent builders in Thrissur to develop some luxurious apartments in Thrissur at a good rate.

3. Guruvayur: Guruvayur is also a famous city in Kerala where you can find many residential and commercial buildings, markets, complexes, etc. Guruvayur has many famous schools, colleges, IT hubs, hospitals, shopping centers, theatres, etc. which make this place an ideal choice for the real estate investment. As Guruvayur belongs to Kerala, hence the climate is also very pleasant and enjoyable.

These are the top cities in Kerala which are developing hurriedly and are the prime choices for the investors who want to make an investment in the real estate market of Kerala.

Read More News:



Malaysia in one weekend - staying healthy and organized



Why Kerala is Famous for Tourism?
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Millions of dollars in bonuses for AMP executives could be clawed back if revelations of misconduct at the royal commission are upheld up by an internal investigation, a leading proxy adviser says.

The potential for payments to be scrapped or clawed back was raised as investors drove AMP shares to a new five-and-a-half year low, with one analyst saying the business would struggle to recover to the massive hit to its reputation over the last week.

AMP could claw back millions of dollars in executive bonuses, ISS said. Credit:Ken Irwin

AMP is reeling after last week it admitted to misleading the corporate watchdog and customers over an over-charging scandal, with the chief executive Craig Meller stepping down on Friday.

As pressure mounts on the board led by chair Catherine Brenner, on Tuesday proxy firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) gave the company something of a reprieve, recommending investors support AMP's remuneration report at next month's annual meeting.
Australia's largest casino operator, Crown Resorts, has been hit with fresh allegations that it has overseen questionable modifications to its poker machines designed to boost gambling turnover.

A former big-spending pokies player at Crown's flagship Melbourne casino has approached independent federal MP Andrew Wilkie with the allegations, and, on Tuesday, handed over detailed testimony of her experience to authorities.

The woman, whose name has not been publicly revealed, claims Crown's gaming-floor staff provided her with small plastic picks for the purpose of wedging next to the poker machines' betting buttons, holding them down, and allowing for automatic and continuous play.

She also alleges she was provided with multiple loyalty cards so she could earn loyalty points from the multiple machines she was able to play at once.
Super funds Cbus, VicSuper and Hesta have thrown their support behind a call for more transparency from Rio Tinto about its business lobby group memberships, saying they will vote in favour of a resolution on the issue at the mining giant's AGM in Melbourne next week.

Advisory firm Regnan, which guides institutional investors on responsible investment and so-called "ESG" issues, is also understood to have recommended in favour of the shareholder motion, which asks Rio Tinto to review and reveal details about its membership of the Minerals Council of Australia and other groups that advocate on climate change and energy issues.

VicSuper said the resolution - lodged by industry fund Local Government Super, the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility and two other institutions - was "important".

"We believe that business, the community and government need to work together to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels," VicSuper said, adding that it had backed a similar resolution at BHP's AGM late last year. Hesta and Cbus both also said that they would support the Rio Tinto resolution. The three funds combined manage more than $100 billion in assets under management.
Jessica Buntrock was angry when she saw the flyer. The 33-year-old skincare blogger has never been to Real Health in Sydney's Bankstown but her image appears on a flyer advertising its beauty and massage treatments.

Buntrock, who uses the brand name Jess Bunty on her blog as well as YouTube, Instagram and Twitter, lives on the Gold Coast and found out about the flyer when she was contacted by one of her 93,000 YouTube subscribers.

Skincare blogger Jessica Buntrock's photo was used by a Bankstown business without her permission.

Images of Buntrock, purporting to show her "before" and "after" a laser facial treatment at Real Health to combat acne and inflammation, had been photoshopped to show dramatic results.

"It's a very frustrating situation," Buntrock said. "I'm not looking for financial compensation, even though they're using my image for a commercial purpose. I just want them to stop using it."
Jobs and growth. Its a familiar promise. But when it comes to young people and unemployment, our nation faces a paradox  and a crisis. We have many young Australians who desperately need jobs. And as the Boomer generation of workers retires, we have many jobs that desperately need filling. Why then todays mismatch, and its miserable consequences for far too many young people?

A report by the Brotherhood of St Laurence revealed more than a third of all unemployed people in Australia are aged 15-24. The youth unemployment rate is above 12.2 per cent, double the national unemployment rate of 5.6 per cent. To put that in context, 11 per cent unemployment is equivalent to the overall joblessness rate experienced in the early 1990s after a global recession  the highest in the last 20 years. Outside metropolitan areas, the statistics are worse  with areas like Murray in NSW recording youth unemployment levels of 21.5 per cent and the Shoalhaven and Southern Highlands almost 29 per cent. This is a youth unemployment crisis.

The confusing part is this; there are jobs available. The 2017 Skills Shortage List NSW listed 25 occupations where businesses were experiencing a shortage or difficulty recruiting. And there will be more in the future, according to a report by the National Centre for Vocation Education Research, which predicts increasing job opportunities for young people as the Baby Boomer generation retires. More than half of employers in NSW say they are experiencing skill shortages  and 64 per cent of the jobs we need filled are in the trades. This reflects NCVERs analysis modelling, which found only a quarter of workers will be employed as professionals by 2024, while every trade will experience job growth in their market.

This shift towards online learning raises some questions - how exactly can a computer teach a bricklayer to build a wall? Credit:Fairfax

So whats going wrong? The jobs available are largely in the trades, which require vocational education. Vocational education and training (VET) used to be synonymous with TAFE; a system that was affordable, trusted and recognised by industry. A TAFE qualification meant graduates were job ready; having gained practical, hands-on training delivered by teachers with real industry experience.
Variety's Marilyn Stasio said the show brings enchantment to a world that really could use a little magic right now in her review of the opening night.

"Visually and aurally, the show presents a panorama of dazzling effects that draw audible gasps from the audience," she wrote.

While hardcore Harry Potter fans argue the play should exist outside the traditional Harry Potter canon, despite it being devised by author JK Rowling, Stasio found there was plenty about the show audiences would be familiar with.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child production images.

"The story is a brand-new one, but there are plenty of familiar pleasures. The talking portraits, for one thing. Theres a wonderful scene in which that long-gone sage, Albus Dumbledore (Edward James Hyland) leans out of his own portrait to speak to Harry. Those alarmingly mobile staircases also play a central role and are even more fun than the ones in the movies, because theres always a chance that someone will go flying around a curve. Best of all, theres a set of bookcases in the Hogwarts library that keep swallowing and spitting out unwary readers," she wrote.
Catherine McGregor and Ayla Holdom's lives have unfolded on opposite sides of the planet with striking parallels.

Both women have had distinguished military careers  Holdom was a jet and helicopter pilot in the British RAF, while McGregor left the RAAF in 2016 with the rank of group captain.

Firm friends Ayla Holdom and Catherine McGregor at Canberra's National Memorial to the Royal Australian Air Force. Credit:Sitthixay Ditthavong

They say they share the same sense of humour.

They also have the unique distinction of having transitioned genders while serving their respective countries.
For decades the fossil fuel industry has prioritised making money over the future of our planet.

Whether its been big oil in the US, or big coal in Australia, fossil fuel companies have deep pockets and unprecedented political influence.

This industry has steamrolled over environmental protection using money, political donations and a revolving door between lobbyists and government to get polluting projects approved. Its slick public relations campaigns, meanwhile, parrot the line that fossil fuel jobs, energy security and profit more than compensate any damage done to the environment.

A power station in the Hunter Valley. Credit:Fairfax

The result is more than one degree of global warming so far, millions of early deaths directly related to air pollution; a Great Barrier Reef profoundly threatened by warming ocean waters; and new global weather patterns where extreme storms and devastating bushfires are the norm.
Marijuana use is linked to increased risk for mental illnesses like psychosis (although the exact nature of this relationship continues to be debated). Whether marijuana law reform shifts community levels of mental illness is not yet known. Other potential harms include accidental childhood exposure, and driving-related risks. Drug-driving is a particular issue because current roadside tests do not measure levels that cause impairment, but rather any exposure. An urgent question will be how to detect impairing levels of exposure, if use itself is no longer illegal.

Opponents of legalisation have used the gateway theory of marijuana to argue that marijuana use leads to use of "harder" drugs, such as methamphetamine or heroin. There is clear evidence for a progression of drug use, with people who use harder drugs often starting with cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana. However, most people who use marijuana do not go on to use harder drugs. Even in those who do, there is no evidence that marijuana is the cause.

Legalisation could substantially reduce harms caused by marijuanas illegality. It would reduce the high personal costs of criminal justice involvement for individuals and community costs incurred for policing use. Regulation of production and supply would improve control over the contents and dose of marijuana used.

Another argument in favour of marijuana legalisation is that regulating and taxing marijuana would destroy the black market for the drug. Although this may be true in time, it will depend on the model adopted. If the cost of legal marijuana is too high, or the quality not sufficient, illegal supply will persist.

A major issue in the USA is "big marijuana". This has led to a proliferation of marijuana products, including extremely potent "edibles", flavoured products likely to appeal to children and young people, and even artisanal cannabis. In Australia, lessons from cigarette and alcohol regulation must be applied to reduce the potentially harmful influence of powerful corporate interests in an emerging legal marijuana industry.
Anzac Day is always special but the last three, including Wednesday's, have been extraordinary. Over the triennium, Australians have gradually turned their attention and their remembrance from the carnage at Gallipoli to the victories on the Western Front. It would be almost like an Easter pageant of death and renewal, if only those victories hadn't cost 46,000 Australian lives.

It worked. Australian and British troops launched their attack before dawn on the 25th and by sunrise the Germans had fled or been taken prisoner. The battle is regarded as having been critical in turning the tide of the war but it came at the terrible sacrifice of a further 1200 Australian lives.

The Germans, after being pushed back from Villers-Bretonneux at the beginning of April 1918, had captured it on the 24th. Potentially, it was an important staging post for an assault on nearby Amiens and the channel ports. Rallying the troops for a renewed assault on Villers-Bretonneux on the third anniversary of the Anzac landing, General Sir John Monash specifically invoked the slaughter of more than 8000 of their comrades by Turkish forces at Gallipoli.

Over the last half-century, Anzac Day has both broadened and deepened. It has turned into a day of thanks and remembrance for all Australians who have served their country overseas, including those serving now; in addition, the "Anzac spirit" has come to mean something far more nuanced and inclusive, and less triumphalist and martial, than it did originally. And yet, these three centenary Anzac Days have narrowed the focus again, in the best possible way, onto what was done and suffered by those diggers, on those faraway promontories and fields, a century ago.

Fittingly, this movement will culminate on Wednesday with the opening of the Sir John Monash Centre at the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux, where thousands of Australians will gather this dawn, just as they will at Gallipoli. Named after Australia's greatest soldier, the centre describes itself as less a traditional museum of objects than an interpretive centre. It employs the arts of modern multimedia to give visitors a visceral sense of how those fields, so pleasant today, could have resembled the mythic landscape of hell, 100 years ago.

Across the decades, Anzac Day has also been something of a shape-shifter, summoning Australians to a sense of unity and higher purpose but also doggedly reflecting the temper of the generations and their divisions. Nowadays, of course, it tends to get processed through the dreary filter of the culture wars, those pseudo-battles in which the greatest conceivable defeat is a deleted tweet. That is a shame. All civilised nations have special days to remember their fallen and it shouldn't be beyond us to mark ours with reserve and dignity.

But here, too, a narrowing of focus might be useful. The words we will hear and repeat most frequently on Wednesday, "Lest we forget," point to this most primitive function of Anzac Day. Our simply remembering cannot help our fallen diggers in Europe or Asia but it can help us. At this level, remembering is a mental and spiritual discipline. We would do well to turn off our devices, still the chattering voices in our heads, and exercise it.
The magistrate found the 31-year-old guilty of intimidation but dismissed another charge of contravening an apprehended violence order, as the prosecution had not proven the AVO was served on Mehajer and that he knew its conditions.

Magistrate Jacqueline Trad on Tuesday rejected Mehajer's "confusing" and "self- serving" evidence that he hadn't sent certain emails and an Instagram message to ex-wife Aysha Learmonth.

Controversial property developer Salim Mehajer has been found guilty of intimidating his ex-wife when he emailed and messaged her in 2017.

The property developer had suggested Ms Learmonth could have used his phone to send the 5am Instagram message from his account in November 2017 - as she occasionally slept over during that time.

He told Burwood Local Court she'd continued to email and message him after she moved out of the matrimonial home in 2016 and was "flirtatious" during social gatherings at his home.

But Ms Learmonth previously told the court she hadn't contacted Mehajer since leaving him and the Instagram message to her new business account made her feel uneasy and unsafe.

"I'd made every effort to have no contact with Salim whatsoever and having that business was the first time I'd put myself back into life basically, where he would know where I was," she said.

The message congratulated Ms Learmonth on her new business and said he hoped she would one day realise the person he'd become.
These changes are due to the "life cycle stages" of an area where the "empty-nester syndrome" sets in, Professor McManus said. "People move into these suburbs with a couple of kids and when the kids grow up and form a household somewhere else, the demographics change."

The area around Parramatta had the largest shifts in NSW for three measurements of regional population growth - the most new overseas migrants (2840), the highest natural increase (565 more births than deaths) and the most internal migration of people moving out (1434) between June 2016 and June 2017.

The migrants' movement throughout Sydney is concentrated in some suburbs, such as Parramatta and Auburn, that serve as "landing pads" for thousands of new arrivals while other growth suburbs, such as Kellyville, provide a second more permanent stop in their journey.

Western Sydney University associate professor of urban planning Awais Piracha said Parramata was the entry point for many migrants to Sydney because of its access to public transport and the existing ethnic communities from south Asia who provide a support network.

"The second stop for many of these migrants after they save some money to buy a house is north west of Sydney, places like Kellyville, Rouse Hill, and other growth areas," Mr Piracha said. "And at the same time, what we could also be seeing [in this data] is a bit of white flight going on, which is where people see too many immigrants, or the density is getting too high, and they decide to leave."
The Prime Minister has done the right thing to apologise for the Liberal Party's error of judgment in not forcing the banks into a banking royal commission earlier this year, as late as that apology may have been. Now, about a federal ICAC. Let's hope this time they rethink their approach and consider the citizens of this country as a higher priority than opposing the opposition or looking after their friends in lobby groups or special interest groups. - Serge Calve, Como Spare a thought, and prayer, for Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison. They were only doing their job in opposing a royal commission. If anyone is at fault for the behaviour of the banks it is their boards who are responsible for targeting the little people. - Michael Harrington, Bonnet Bay Mr Turnbull claims that, with the benefit of hindsight, his government would have suffered less political damage if they had instigated a banking royal commission earlier. It has nothing to do with hindsight. With the benefit of good judgment, common sense and leadership the government would have suffered less political damage. And the real damage has not been to the government but to the people of Australia. - Jim Croke, Stanmore The corruption and greed that infests our finance industry could be cured by simply banning commissions and bonuses. All bank executives, fund managers, financial planners, insurance and mortgage brokers should be compelled to work on a single base salary, verifiable through their group tax certificates. If they have helped deliver a profit to their company and its clients, perhaps they can be given a $200 gift voucher at Christmas time, just like me and countless other ordinary salary men. - Greg Cantori, Kareela

If the bosses of the rogue financial planners got a few hundred hours of community work, or spent their leave doing a month's detention, I am sure the desired change of culture would be much more effective than employing battalions of consultants, educators and/or ethicists. - Peter Hay, Islington Where do I sign up for the class action against Malcolm Turnbull and his government for the dodgy financial products delivered while they delayed the inevitable? - Dave Venn, Huskisson Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge with their third child. Credit:PA Royal addition Congratulations to the new young prince on winning the genetic lottery ("And then there were five: Kate shows off newborn son", smh.com.au, April 24). -Tony Pople, Centennial Park

I did not know she was pregnant. Clearly the magazines available at my doctor's and my hairdresser are well out of date. - Genevieve Milton, Newtown Young and old Ceded bus seats apart, you know you're old if cars wait for you to complete crossing the road when you're standing at a pedestrian refuge (Letters, April 24). - Colin Booth, Narrabeen I am 70 years old. When a charity collector came to the door, she couldn't believe I was pensioner, claiming I looked 40. No wonder people won't stand up for me on the bus. - Richard Mason, Newtown

Lure of lucre As Israel Folau contemplates million-dollar offers from overseas rugby clubs, I wonder if he will take into account that other passage from his religion's sacred book: "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God"? - Peter French, Balmain Put plan for Centrelink call centre on hold The federal government's claim that a private call centre for Centrelink will be more efficient rings hollow ("1000 private contractors to answer Centrelink phones", April 24). A government employee answers the phone and, with knowledge of the job, gives the required advice. If there are unusual circumstances, they will refer the caller to someone higher in the chain, or they may seek the information themselves and put the caller on hold. As for the minister suggesting most people will use computers for future inquiries, there are good reasons for people wishing to speak to a human. Computer programs may be useful for simple transactions, but even these can lead to an impasse, where human intelligence and knowledge is required. - Donald Hawes, Blayney

Although most people know how call centres are unsuitable to meet customer needs, the federal government is to employ a private company to assist in Centrelink telephone calls. Centrelink issues are very complicated and temporary employees are no solution. Old-age pensioners cannot use online access for a variety of reasons that should be obvious to all. With an ageing population, Centrelink will receive more calls not fewer. - Barry O'Connell, Old Toongabbie Commercial call centres, with their emphasis on fast processing to maintain KPIs, are not suitable for Centrelink with often complex problems needing to be dealt with carefully and responsibly. Commercial call centres have a high turnover of staff due to the burnout rate. Add to that Serco's record, which would make a bank blush. All of which makes you wonder what the federal government's real agenda is: client care is not even on the radar. A prelude to full privatisation to benefit their corporate mates? - Graeme Finn,St Peters Stadium bid off rails The stadiums rebuild is just as opaque and scandalous as the light-rail fiasco ("Stadiums chief: spending will 'haunt' government", April 24). There is the appearance of the Moore Park Trust silvertails driving NSW government policy behind closed doors. The hugely expensive light-rail extension to the eastern suburbs appears designed to mainly serve the Randwick Racecourse. With much greater capacity, heavy rail from Bondi Junction to Maroubra would be a much better transport solution. - Tony Simons, Balmain

Ignoring expertise Climate change scepticism and doubts about the ATAR are all the same; distrust of expertise and the idea that if I don't understand it, it can't be true ("Chief scientist attacks 'obscure' ATAR", April 24). The underlying principle of the ATAR, when it's all boiled down, is that for the purpose of university entry you get more credit for doing a hard subject than an easy subject. It doesn't mean some studies are less worthy than others, just that some are a better guide to what a student ought to pursue in higher education. - Alex Jones, Kirribilli Painful truth on drugs Christopher Woodley is indeed a lucky man not to know anyone experiencing chronic pain (Letters, April 24). My brother has had a tumour in his spine for 30 years and, after every effort by experts, it has been declared inoperable.

Now it is pain management. At their maximum, the conventional "legal" drugs give him four hours of mild relief a day, which he uses to get some sleep. The other 20 hours are spent in a pain I can barely comprehend. Forget about legalising only marijuana - legalise any drug that can free a person from suffering. - Tim Colwell, Woolooware Christopher Woodley assumes legalising currently illicit drugs will lead to "more drugs flooding the market". The experience where this has been tried, such as Portugal, is that more drugs do not flood the market but the market does change for the better. - Denis Goodwin, Dee why Unfair on landlords As an ex-landlord, I was offended by Jenna Price's description of me as "the coalition of the mean and greedy" ("Bank of Mum and Dad risks financial future for children", April 24). We always had our rental property professionally cleaned prior to tenants moving in. No request for maintenance was ever ignored and we made sure it was completed in a timely manner.

My husband and I bought our investment property on the south coast as our retirement home, so we will become self-funded retirees. How is that greedy when we will be saving the country money? I can never understand why landlords are such a maligned group: there are some bad landlords out there, but most of us try really hard to keep our tenants happy. - Lee Harrison, North Rocks Country practice Nic Batten suggests we have enough medical trainees, so a rural medical school is not required ("Nationals' rural health prescription is all wrong", April 24). Western Sydney Uni medical school, although intended to cater to locals, is full of students from the eastern suburbs and north shore like every other medical school. The only sure way to obtain doctors who want to live and work in the country is to source them from the country in the first place. Open a rural school addressing rural issues and taking rural kids: build it and they will come, and then stay. - Eva Elbourne, Normanhurst

Expose the truth Kate McClymont has a great and undisputed record for her reporting of criminal and underhand activities ("An execution foretold", April 24). Her comments about the Medich trial and claims of the existence of a tape revealing allegations of the involvement of Medich in bribery of politicians, government officials and councillors to smooth the way for developments, surely must make the ICAC apply its resources intensively to expose the truth of such allegations. If true, they would strike at the very heart of today's events. - Fergan O'Sullivan, Artarmon Joyce misses spotlight I understand the plea to leave Barnaby Joyce in peace (Letters, April 24). However, this is not possible while he draws attention to himself, as he has done about providing his opinion on working with one's partner. He seems incapable of shutting up, perhaps because he suffers from withdrawal now he is out of the limelight. I can see shades of Bjelke-Petersen in Barnaby's ways of coping. A difference, however, is that Joh at least made one smile. - Christine Perrott , Armidale
An old US diplomatic cable uncovered by Privacy International has confirmed the existence of a secret room at Americas Pine Gap spy base that Australians were not allowed to enter - except for one time when Bill Hayden had a look.

It calls into question a claim made at the time in March, 1985, by then defence minister Kim Beazley, who said the government was fully aware of everything that takes place at Pine Gap, near Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.

The Joint Facility at Pine Gap - the spy station at the centre of fascination and consternation in the Australia-United States alliance. Credit:Kristian Laemmle-Ruff

The cable was released to PI by the US State Department after a lawsuit seeking access to details of the scope of intelligence gathering across the globe.

PI said it was a "case study" of how intelligence sharing arrangements are "typically confidential and not subject to parliamentary scrutiny" and could be used to circumvent a countrys laws.
Assistant Commissioner Tess Walsh Credit:Rob Gunstone

A Victoria Police assistant commissioner appointed to head of crime after disgraced former anti-corruption chief Brett Guerin resigned from the organisation has herself been the subject of a bullying investigation.

Mr Guerin, the former head of Victoria Police's ethical standards body, quit in Feburay after being linked to racist YouTube comments and making inappropriate remarks about former colleagues.

Victoria Police chief commissioner Graham Ashton announced on Monday that Assistant Commissioner Tess Walsh, who has led the forces western region for the past three years, has been selected as the new head of crime command.

While her rank of assistant commissioner remains the same, Ms Walsh's new role takes in high-profile police areas such as armed offenders squad, the anti-bikie Echo taskforce, homicide squad and the fraud and extortion investigative unit.
One of the teenagers charged over a hit-and-run crash that killed a married couple posted footage from inside the stolen Lexus on social media, before the crash occurred.

The footage offers a chilling glimpse of the joyride around suburban Melbourne that the pair allegedly took before they smashed.

The footage, believed to have been posted by the 15-year-old to her Instagram account on Friday, was allegedly shot from inside the stolen $170,000 four-wheel-drive, which police believe was involved in the crash that killed Matt Goland and Bita Zaeim.

Matt Goland, 38, and Bita Zaeim, 32, after their wedding in Bali.

As RnB music blares from speakers inside the car, a short video taken from the front passenger seat sways and shows a dark interior with a large display monitor blaring blurred white text.
But for me, well, Im blowed if I know why children or relatives, let alone anyone else, would want to march.

Many I know will be, of course. As will others Ive met wearing uniforms from Cyprus to Cambodia; Afghanistan to Iraq. And good on them.

This time last year Id just returned from Mosul, Iraq. Nobody who saw that horror would want to commemorate war. Its simply evil.

I can still smell the filth, the lingering odour of death (think vomit plus defecation) that seeped up from under fallen masonry blocking the street. I can still see, in the houses, the scattered detritus of clothes and baby toys, the remains of lives torn apart by horror. No glory there, watching Iraqi people dying senselessly while our planes flew overhead. None, either, amongst the confusion of militias, each attempting to rule their own tiny patch of land according to the one true faith, whichever it happened to be at that particular moment of time; Shia or Sunni, Orthodox or Catholic, animist, nationalist or, when all else failed, simply a lust for power and money.

A bricked-up hole in the wall of a Mosul house. Credit:Nicholas Stuart

Pick a flag. Green or red, black and gold, the tribes held them all. They could be seen, flapping limply around hastily-erected poles as we passed through rival checkpoints on the way to war, manned by boys nervously groping their AKs or M16s. Children too young to hold a woman; too undeveloped to make love; unable to marry; yet old enough to kill.

So no, I wont be marching, although I do respect old soldiers who choose so to do. Its just that I feel no need to "remember" war, let alone legitimise the politically-inspired industry thats being built around such "commemorations" by leaders and business. These are always ready to jump on the back of genuine emotion and hi-jack real concerns for their own purposes or needs.
Queensland has become a national hotspot for land clearing, accounting for 50 to 65 per cent of the total loss of native forests in Australia over the past four decades, a report reveals.

It comes as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk confirmed her government's vegetation management laws would be debated, and likely passed, next month.

A Queensland parliamentary committee has recommended land clearing laws be passed. Credit:Wilderness Society

More than 1 million hectares of woody vegetation, an area about seven times the size of Brisbane, was cleared in the three years to 2015-16, the Climate Council's latest report showed.

Climate Council spokesman Professor Will Steffen said Queensland's land-use sector was responsible for 19 million tonnes of greenhouse gas pollution in 2015.
A new maximum security mens prison with 700 beds will be built in Lara, at a cost of almost $700 million, as Victorias prison population grows to record levels.

The Andrews government will commit $689.5 million in next weeks state budget  almost $1 million per prisoner  to build the jail, which it says will open in 2022.

But it has not yet secured the site for the prison, and remains in negotiations with landowners, even though it hopes to begin construction next year.

The Grevillea unit at Barwon Prison. Credit:Angela Wylie

It plans to build the jail near the existing Barwon and Marngoneet prisons just north of Geelong.
Selangor: Malaysia's deputy opposition leader, Wan Azizah, has predicted a hung parliament after the country's May 9 election, as messages about the alleged corruption of the current Prime Minister Najib Razak start to hit home.

In an exclusive interview with Fairfax Media, Azizah has suggested that Najib and his Barisan Nasional ruling coalition  which has effectively ruled the country continuously since 1957  is in the fight of its political life.

"It is expected that he is going to cheat, and do a lot of things to steal the election," she warned.

Seri Wan Azizah, the Malaysian opposition leader on stage at Pakatan Harapan campaign rally in Selangor Malaysia, on Monday. Credit:Amilia Rosa

Close to 10,000 Malaysians turned out for a rally of the Pakatan Harapan (Pact of Hope) opposition parties at the stadium Kuala Selangor, about an hour and a half from Kuala Lumpur, on Monday evening.
Men of the 1st Divisional Signal Company about to land at Anzac Cove. Credit:Courtesy of the Australian War Memorial Thousands of the bravest are buried on the battle field where they fell. A number are still fighting in France  some in their old units and others in the divisions to which they were transformed after the evacuation. Many, bearing the witnesses of their gallantry in wounds and broken health, will march through Melbourne's streets today. A few score, unfortunately, are not strong enough in health to leave their homes. To each of them is due the honour that a virile people extends to the brave. Australian soldiers in a trench on Anzac Cove. Credit:Lincoln Thomas Since their unsurpassed feat of arms, Australian soldiers in France have stood to the end against a more terrible enemy, armed with a greater perfection of death-dealing; but the men of Anzac were the pioneers, and their gallantry is the pride and example of the whole army.

The first two divisions were typically Australian. At the first call to arms the most adventurous spirits hastened to the recruiting depots from all parts of the Commonwealth. There were thousands of bushmen, who had sought adventure in many callings and places. The mission of this Australian gun unit was to 'quieten' a Turkish 75mm gun nicknamed The Pipsqueak. Credit:Andrew Brooks There were veterans from the South African war, who found "soldiering" pleasant to their rugged manliness, but the city worker found, often to his surprise, that the candidates for admission to the forces for overseas included numbers of mere youths whose martial ardour had been concealed in city shops and offices. Those were the days when the military authorities could pick and choose, and thousands were rejected for physical defects that were trifling. Most of those went to war afterwards. When the first convoy steamed out of Port Phillip Bay in October, 1914, the public, as well as the men themselves, were ignorant of the destination. The dugouts that housed the Anzac Corps Signal Office at Gallipoli. Credit:Australian War Memorial

The first landing was in Egypt, where the soldiers were put through months of training that made them one of the finest bodies of men ever enlisted. In physique and spirit there were matchless among the world's soldiers, and probably were not approached in these respects by the heroes of past ages in whose footsteps they were travelling. These high-spirited men from the new world had little reverence for the imperishable relics of antiquity amongst which they temporarily lived. Egyptian history or the wonders of dead civilisations could not penetrate their excessive modernity. An Australian despitch rider galloping from Suvla Bay to Anzac Cove to avoid being sniped at. Great risk was run by these men in carrying out their very important duties. Credit:Australian War Memorial They camped on the sands where Napoleon reminded the men of France that 4000 years of history looked down upon their conquests. The French soldiers are said to have trembled with emotion; the Australians made derisive jokes about the Sphinx, and impatiently wondered when they were to leave the hated desert for action. They shipped at last to Lemnos, and on the night of 24th April left in 71 ships for the Gallipoli landing. They knew what was expected of them. No man slept that night. They spent the time in preparations or sat grimly in little groups ruminating on the morrow. The magazines of their rifles were empty, for the approaching conflict was to be to the death with cold steel.

Private John Simpson Kirkpatrick, of the 3rd Field Ambulance, he was known as 'The Man with the Donkey'. He is seen here working in Shrapnel Gully at Anzac Cove, with a wounded soldier on his donkey. *** MUST CREDIT: Australian War Memorial, P09300.001 *** ID: mls WWI / W.W. I / ANZAC Credit:Australian War Memorial The story of the landing has been told with thrilling realism in "Australia in Arms"; and by John Masefield, and by numbers of the men who came through the ordeal. It ought to be read by each citizen and in every school on every Anzac anniversary, for it goes to the Australian heart, and appeals to our nationality more poignantly than any other event in Australian history. The troops were landed from the ships in small boats, many of which were sunk by the enemy's shells. Numbers were killed before they landed; others leapt into water waist deep, and were shot down as they waded. Australian troops in Egypt where they were sent to Mena Camp, an AIF training base, before the Gallipoli landings. Credit:Phillip Schuler "The Australians leapt ashore," wrote General Sir Ian Hamilton, "and each man as he did so went straight as his bayonet at the enemy. So vigorous was the onslaught that the Turks made no attempt to withstand it, and fled from ridge to ridge, pursued by the Australian infantry."

As active and enduring as athletes, they scaled heights which were almost precipices, amidst sweeping fire. There was no forming up in military order. Each man depended upon his own initiative. Australian troops get ready to leave the Mena training camp in Egypt, heading to Gallipoli. Credit:Phillip Schuler The undergrowth through which they charged was thick with Turkish sharpshooter. Once at close quarters, the Turk, whose prowess with the bayonet was acknowledged throughout the armies of Europe, was cut down by the first frenzied stroke. For fifteen hours our men hung desperately on to the ridges amidst a withering fire, weary from want of sleep, parched from lack of water, and often with undressed wounds. At the beaches below and through the scrub many hundreds lay dead and mangled. Anzac Day procession marches down Swanston Street, Melbourne in 1918. Credit:State Library of Victoria

The Turks charged in repeated counter attacks. The Australians leapt out to meet them, and at the close of the day wiped their bayonets "for lack of argument". When the conflict temporarily ceased their sporting instinct led the Australian regiment to say, in spite of death and agony, that the Turk was a "clean fighter". The Anzac Day procession marches down Swanston Street, Melbourne in 1918. Credit:State Library of Victoria For nearly eight months these and other valiant men who came to their aid endured blistering heat, plagues of venomous insects, thirst and hunger, and then numbing cold, on this narrow coastal ridge, growing leaner and more unkempt with each passing dat. The spirit of them made hardship a joke, and gave to the literature of war a volume of collated writings which discloses a sense of humour in adversity and a conquering morale almost beyond imagination.

Resting in the trenches in the Anzac area. Credit:Phillip Schuler The spirit of Anzac is the deathless spirit of victory. Today's celebration is important, because it may help to spread the influence of that spirit throughout the civil population, and nerve the people to endure discomfort and loss until the national democratic ideals are attained, as the men of Anzac endured haunting death and gripping torture in the same sacred cause. It is appropriate that while Australia celebrates the memorable war baptism of its Imperial forces, the cable brings us an enthralling story, showing the fires of heroism still burn as brightly amongst the race in the old world from which we sprang. An Australian soldier in a trench at Gallipoli. Credit:Phillip Schuler The Anzac soldiers were eloquent of the sublime indifference with which the men of the Royal Navy went backwards and forwards in boats between the transports and the shore throughout the day of the landing. They were shot down at the oars, but others coolly took their places and pulled away.

The men of the Navy have now made a night sortie under the guns of Ostend and Zeebrugge that compares, for cold courage and dauntless daring, with the most thrilling exploits of the days of Drake, Effingham, Blake or Nelson. Men of the 8th Battalion in an abandoned Turkish position on Bolton's Ridge. Credit:Australian War Memorial They landed on a foreign coast, amidst the guns and fortifications of the enemy. A handful of men engaged the defenders in their own stronghold, while a few ships' companies destroyed the defences and blocked the fairway. It was an escapade in the jaws of death, from which few would be expected to return, but naval men eagerly volunteered for the intrepid exploit in much greater numbers than were needed. These are the deeds that bind the British peoples of the Empire in the pride of kinship. The Anzacs have taken a place of honour amongst the boldest, and in doing so have proved worthy of their breeding.
Toronto: Police say 10 people have been killed after a rented white van mounted a kerb in Toronto and struck pedestrians.

The driver has been identified by police as 25-year-old Alek Minassian in the incident which left a further 15 people injured.

Police were pictured at Minassian's home in the northern Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill. Minassian was not believed to be associated with any organised militant group.

Canadian Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Ralph Goodale said that, based on consultations with "top security officials...there appears to be no national security connection" to the event.
Toronto: A 25-year-old man who drove a rental van into a crowded Toronto footpath was charged on Tuesday with 10 counts of murder and 13 of attempted murder as Canadian authorities searched for a motive in the deadliest mass murders in the country's modern history.

Alek Minassian showed little overt emotion as he made a brief appearance in a Toronto courtroom in a white jumpsuit and handcuffs. The judge ordered him to be detained without bond and scheduled the next hearing for May 10.

His father, Vahe Minassian, cried in court and was mobbed by camera crews as he left. He only said "sorry" when asked if he had a message for the people of Toronto.

Police, meanwhile, still appeared to be gathering evidence and combing the van's deadly path on Yonge Street. Nearby, mourners had put together a makeshift memorial to the victims.
Vipnet selects Bulb Technologies to deliver a personalised and enhanced customer service

London, UK  April, 24th 2018  Bulb Technologies, a leader in service management and customer experience solutions, today announced that Vipnet, a leading operator in Croatia and part of the A1 Telekom Austria Group, has selected CEMPRESSO Customer Care, a platform for customer support process automation and knowledge management, to automate its customer care service and enhance its network troubleshooting service.

Vipnet needed a comprehensive single diagnostics and troubleshooting tool across all its services and infrastructure domains in order to automate customer care across its xDSL, FTTx, Mobile and cable access infrastructure. As part of Vipnet\-\-s digital transformation, there was a requirement to replace its legacy troubleshooting systems across its mobile and fixed access infrastructure in order to enable the delivery of new services that meet its customer experience and support promises.

\Today\-\-s subscribers want and demand the very best experience and expect it to be consistent across all channels, and all services. This means, quite simply, that digital transformation isn\-\-t a nice-to-have, it is a fundamental driver for how our business will continue to serve, support and delight our customers,\ said Ivan Skender, Chief Digital Officer, Vipnet. \Our ability to deliver personalised and enhanced customer service means that subscribers will now be able to interact with our service desks instantly at anytime and from anywhere through our mobile and web applications.

\The marketing lexicon of the industry now is all about Communications Service Providers becoming Digital Service Providers, but what does this really mean in practice?\ said Neven Stipcevic, CTO, Bulb Technologies. \For Vipnet, it meant that in just four months, Bulb had worked with them to implement a customer care system that was integrated with multi-vendor infrastructure elements for fixed access, including xDSL CPEs and OSS / BSS, based on real insights from periodic performance data collected from all CPE devices (Cable Modems, xDSL CPEs) and delivering diagnostics and remedy tools for enhanced customer care. The Vipnet team is recognised in the industry as being among a select group of service providers who are redefining what it means to be a digital operator and we\-\-re excited to be working closely with them to drive a digital transformation of customer service.\

Vipnet\-\-s Chief Digital Officer, Ivan Skender, will be speaking at the TM Forum\-\-s Digital Transformation World in Nice on a panel on \-\-2020 Digital Operator\-\-. Bulb Technologies will be exhibiting at the event, showcasing its CEMPRESSO Customer Care solution as part of its portfolio that delivers 360 service visibility across voice, internet, TV, mobile and cloud services.

Find out more about Bulb Technologies\-\- CEMPRESSO Customer Care platform here: https://www.bulbtech.com/cempresso-customer-care/.

To meet with Bulb Technologies at Digital Transformation World in Nice (14-16 May 2018), please register here: https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.bulbtech.com_request-2Da-2Dmeeting_&d=DwMFAg&c=qwStF0e4-YFyvjCeML3ehA&r=FiokgI-zKfSg9QnvYLuBv4U7Gar3q4P-l3TGrdOWHDA&m=zUiifGZqx9TF8TtIsJnM7bKgO0PMV7zp8DepRsYjEHs&s=kIKP7EioKej2y7JFlKqhRP8T1nsyHUtrluiP6VFP6fQ&e=.
Georgetown, SC (29440)

Today

Sunny to partly cloudy. High 83F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. Low 67F. Winds light and variable.
COLORADO SPRINGS  The chief executive of Blue Origin says he expects the company's BE-4 engine to complete qualification testing by the end of the year as the company ramps up work on its New Glenn orbital rocket.

In an April 19 interview during the 34th Space Symposium here, Bob Smith said testing of the BE-4 engine, which uses methane and liquid oxygen propellants, was going well as the company stepped through a methodical process of increased durations and thrust levels.

"We continue to progress along the lines of changing the power levels and going from various throttle settings," he said. That includes, he said, a test the company announced in March when the engine fired for 114 seconds at 65 percent of rated power. That duration is about half a typical mission duty cycle for the engine. [Blue Origin's New Glenn Megarocket in Pictures]

"We continue to roll through our test program and hope to qualify that engine by the end of the year," he said. "We're walking our way through that just to make sure we understand and characterize the engine fully."

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Smith said the success the BE-4 program has enjoyed so far is based on a long, incremental development process. "I think people don't have a full understanding of how long this development has been going on. It's been going on for seven years," he said, progressing from injector testing to preburner and powerpack testing prior to full-scale hotfire tests. "It means we have a huge amount of component information to actually go rely on."

Blue Origin is developing BE-4 for its New Glenn launch vehicle, which will use seven such engines in its first stage. The company has completed all the architectural trades in the design of the large rocket, he said, and is now is making some of the first parts for the vehicle.

"We have the performance characteristics that cover all the missions  civil, commercial, national security  that we'd like," he said.

One of the recent changes in New Glenn's design is to use a version of its BE-3 engine, which runs on liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, over an upper-stage version of the BE-4 on the second stage. "It's a nice change for us, because it reduces a good amount of risk," he said.

The shift in engines reduces development risk, he said, since the company doesn't have to develop an additional version of the BE-4. It also provides a performance boost, as the BE-3's propellant combination has a higher specific impulse, or Isp, over liquid oxygen and methane.

"Having a highly energetic upper stage really works," he said. "You want on the first stage thrust and on the second stage Isp, and having a hydrogen upper stage obviously gives you that higher Isp."

He declined to comment on whether Blue Origin is competing for a Launch Services Agreement award from the U.S. Air Force. The Air Force is expected to award up to three such agreements this summer to fund development of new launch vehicles, with Orbital ATK, SpaceX and United Launch Alliance among those competing.

Smith did state that national security was a market Blue Origin would pursue for New Glenn, a shift from a couple years ago when company founder Jeff Bezos said it would leave such missions to other companies. "We're making sure it's available for as many payloads as we can possibly go fly," he said of the vehicle.

ULA is also considering the BE-4 for the first stage of its next-generation Vulcan vehicle, along with Aerojet Rocketdyne's AR1. Smith said ULA has employees embedded at Blue Origin to monitor BE-4 development. "I think they're happy with the progress that we're making in terms of the technical performance and general characterization of the engine," he said.

The companies are working on the details of a production contract to supply BE-4 engines to ULA. Asked when that contact might be finalized, he offered the same one-word response that Tory Bruno, president and chief executive of ULA, gives when asked when his company will make a decision on Vulcan's engine: "Soon."

Blue Origin's BE-4 engine on display at the 34th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs. (Image credit: Blue Origin)

New Shepard testing

In parallel with development of New Glenn and the BE-4 engine is the company's New Shepard suborbital launch vehicle. The company flew a new version of the New Shepard vehicle in December, the most recent test flight of the vehicle.

The next New Shepard test flight should take place soon. "Hopefully in the next few weeks," Smith said.

Blue Origin has been making updates to the vehicle, he said, intended primarily to improve operability rather than performance or reliability. Those upgrades took longer than expected, he said, hence the four-month gap since the last test flight.

Once the test flights resume, Smith said the company planned several flights to verify the vehicle's performance before putting people on board. "What we want to do is get a series of flights, test out the incorporation of some of the changes that we've made, and then make sure we've got a stable configuration that we can repeat several times before we get to first human flight," he said. That first crewed flight, he said, is expected by the end of the year.

Blue Origin has flown research payloads on several of its New Shepard test flights and plans to do so on upcoming flights as well. "We've had an incredibly good response," he said. "We've been able to sell out a lot of our capacity for our upcoming flights."

However, Blue Origin has yet to start selling tickets for suborbital space tourism flights on New Shepard, and Smith said there's no schedule for doing so. "We continue to be head down on making sure the configuration is good and stable and ready to fly," he said. "Once we all feel confident that that's the case, then we'll have the conversation internally about what prices are and what that whole process looks like."

This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.
Jim Bridenstine, seen here at his November confirmation hearing, will be sworn in as NASA administrator April 23.

WASHINGTON  NASA's next administrator, Jim Bridenstine, was sworn into office April 23 as the space industry breathes a sigh of relief that his extended confirmation process is finally over.

NASA announced late April 20 that Bridenstine would be sworn in as NASA's 13th administrator in an April 23 ceremony at NASA Headquarters. Vice President Mike Pence officiated the proceedings, and the two will also spoke with the three NASA astronauts currently on the International Space Station.

Bridenstine was confirmed by the Senate on a party-line 5049 vote April 19, more than seven and a half months after the administration nominated him to the position. The vote, which came only after Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) decided to end his opposition to the nomination because of the impending retirement of Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot, ended the most contentious confirmation process in the agency's nearly 60-year history. [Presidential Visions for Space Exploration: From Ike to Trump]

That long-awaited confirmation has been warmly received by companies and industry groups who had supported Bridenstine's nomination, in large part because of his track record in Congress. Bridenstine, first elected to the House as a Republican from Oklahoma in 2012, quickly became a leading figure in space policy through such legislative efforts as the American Space Renaissance Act.

"Bridenstine has been a champion of civil, commercial and military space policy during his time in Congress," said Jim Maser, president of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), in an April 19 statement. "AIAA looks forward to supporting him in his new role as we strive to maintain our nation's leadership in space exploration and scientific discovery."

"Bridenstine is one of a growing group in Congress that fully appreciates the importance of space commerce and space resources to the human future," said Bruce Pittman, senior vice president of the National Space Society, a space advocacy group, in a statement. "We look forward with great anticipation to working with Administrator Bridenstine to lead America back to the moon and to develop a thriving economy in space."

Both established and entrepreneurial sectors of the space industry said they were pleased Bridenstine was confirmed. "The Coalition and its member companies stand ready to support Administrator Bridenstine as we take the next steps in the exploration of deep space, returning to the moon and going on to Mars," said Mary Lynne Dittmar, president and chief executive of the Coalition for Deep Space Exploration, a group that represents companies involved in NASA's human space exploration programs.

"Since he was elected to Congress, Rep. Bridenstine has been a constant champion and advocate for the space industry," said Eric Stallmer, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. "His knowledge and passion for space, science and technology will serve him well in the position of administrator."

Other advocacy groups also weighed in. "We look forward to working with him to explore space, advance space science and search for life on other worlds," said Bill Nye, chief executive of The Planetary Society. Nye attended the State of the Union address Jan. 30 as the guest of Bridenstine.

"The Mars Society offers you its full support in any effort you make to give the American people a purpose-driven space program that is really going somewhere," said Robert Zubrin, president of The Mars Society.

While Bridenstine has won support from much of the space industry, others criticized his confirmation as NASA administrator. Those critics include those who are worried about Bridenstine's views on climate change, views that Bridenstine said at his November confirmation hearing have changed over time.

"Scientific integrity matters at NASA. I hope the new administrator begins to listen to career employees rather than engage in political grandstanding," said RL Miller, political director of Climate Hawks Vote, a climate change advocacy group, after Bridenstine was confirmed. "I hope he doesn't follow through on his bill, written as a member of Congress, to end NASA's Earth science research."

That comment appears to be a reference to language in one version of his American Space Renaissance Act that would amend the objectives of NASA in federal law to no longer explicitly include the "expansion of human knowledge of the Earth." As administrator, Bridenstine would not have the ability to unilaterally end Earth science research at the agency.

Democratic senators, who voted as a bloc against Bridenstine, also expressed concern about Bridenstine's experience and positions on science issues. "While this nomination is problematic due to Congressman Bridenstine's lack of relevant qualifications and the importance of this position to our nation, I am deeply concerned that his nomination is further evidence of a deeper problem," said Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) in a speech on the Senate floor prior to the April 19 vote. "I am concerned that this Administration does not respect science, especially science in government institutions."

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said that Bridenstine was unqualified to run the agency, expressing particular concern over his judgement in his role to provide "final launch authority" for a mission. "Remember the part in the astronaut movie when the unqualified former member of Congress running NASA saves the day by making the right decision regarding a launch? Me neither," he tweeted as the Senate voted to confirm Bridenstine.

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) was one of the strongest critics of Bridenstine's nomination because of his qualifications. In comments on the Senate floor April 18, he reiterated his opposition to Bridenstine, but also took a more conciliatory tone.

"I hold nothing against him personally. He's a very likable fellow. My decision is not politically motivated," he said, adding that he backed the nomination of Jeff DeWit as NASA's chief financial officer in March. "And, of course, if Congressman Bridenstine is, in fact, confirmed, I will work with him for the good of our nation's space program."

This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.
It's both solid and liquid, it's 60 times denser than ordinary water ice, and it forms at temperatures almost as hot as the sun's surface.

It's superionic ice  and for the first time, scientists have made it in the lab.

This high-pressure form of water ice has long been thought to exist in the interiors of Uranus and Neptune. But until now, its existence was only theoretical.

"Our work provides experimental evidence for superionic ice and shows that these predictions were not due to artifacts in the simulations, but actually captured the extraordinary behavior of water at those conditions," Marius Millot, a physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, said in a statement from the laboratory. Millot was the leader author of a new study describing the work.

Scientists first predicted the existence of a weird water phase that makes the substance both solid and liquid at the same time 30 years ago. It's also way denser than ordinary water ice because it forms only under extreme heat and pressure, such as those found inside giant planets. During the superionic phase, the hydrogen and oxygen within water molecules behave bizarrely; hydrogen ions move like a liquid, inside of a solid crystal lattice of oxygen. [The Surprisingly Strange Physics of Water]

Making the ice was complicated. First, the team compressed water into an ultrastrong cubic crystalline ice, in a different crystal form than what you see in ordinary ice cubes. To do that, the researchers used diamond anvil cells to apply 360,000 pounds per square inch (2.5 gigapascals (GPa) of pressure; that's about 25,000 times the atmospheric pressure on Earth). Next, the researchers heated and compressed the cells even further, using laser-driven shocks. Each crystal ice structure received up to six laser beams of more than 100 times that high pressure.

"Because we pre-compressed the water, there is less shock-heating than if we shock-compressed ambient liquid water," Millot said. The new method lets researchers "access much colder states at high pressure than in previous shock-compression studies."

Visualizations from computer simulations showing hydrogen atoms flow like a liquid within the solid lattice of oxygen in superionic ice. (Image credit: S. Hamel/M. Millot/J.Wickboldt/LLNL/NIF)

Once the superionic ice was ready, the team moved quickly to analyze its optical and thermodynamic properties. They had only 10 to 20 nanoseconds to perform the work, before pressure waves released the compression, and the water dissolved. And the results were bizarre. They found that the ice melts at an extraordinary 8,540 degrees Fahrenheit (4,725 degrees Celsius ) at 29 million pounds per square inch (200 GPa) of pressure. That pressure is about 2 million times the atmospheric pressure on Earth.

"It's  mind-boggling that frozen water ice is present at thousands of degrees inside these planets, but that's what the experiments show," Raymond Jeanloz, a co-author of the study and planetary physicist at the University of California, Berkeley, said in the same statement.

The new findings could provide a peek inside the interiors of planets such as Uranus and Neptune. Planetary scientists suggest these worlds' innards are composed of up to 65 percent water by mass, plus some ammonia and methane.

Previous work suggested these planets would have "fully fluid" heat-transferring interiors, but the addition of superionic ice changes the picture. The new research instead proposes "a relatively thin layer of fluid and a large 'mantle' of superionic ice," the researchers said in the statement.

That picture of the mini-giant planets' interiors would confirm a computer simulation performed a decade ago that tried to explain the weird magnetic fields at Uranus and Neptune. Uranus' magnetic field is tilted 59 degrees away from the planet's axis. Neptune's magnetic poles have a roughly 47-degree tilt. This is extreme compared with Earth, which has only an 11-degree tilt. Their magnetic fields also may behave differently; for example, Uranus' field may turn on and off like a strobe.

More detailed study of these planets will have to wait until a spacecraft is available. Fortunately, NASA is proposing a Uranus and/or Neptune spacecraft that would zoom out to these planets sometime in the next few decades. Meanwhile, the experimenters plan to push their compression further to simulate conditions inside of even larger giant planets, such as Jupiter or Saturn.

A study based on the research was published in February in the journal Nature Physics.

Original article on Live Science.
A new, ultraprecise measurement of a fundamental physical constant has so far found no hint of mysterious particles known as dark photons.

If they existed, these hypothetical shadowy twins of ordinary light particles would be one way to explain the presence of dark matter, a mysterious form of matter that emits no light yet exerts a gravitational pull.

But the most precise measurement yet of the fine structure constant  which determines how strongly electrons and photons interact, or "couple"  has eliminated the possibility of dark photons at a large range of masses and coupling strengths. If they did exist, they would have to be much heavier than previously predicted, scientists wrote in a new paper describing the work.

"Our measurement rules out these dark photons very strongly," said University of California, Berkeley physicist Holger Muller, one of the co-authors of the new paper.

By mixing with regular photons, dark photons could theoretically be detected, because the mixing would have an effect on the fine structure constant. But in this new, exact measurement of the constant, evidence of the dark photon was nowhere to be found.

Measuring the fine structure constant

Physicists use the Standard Model, which describes the physics of subatomic particles such as electrons and photons, to predict the value of the fine structure constant. First, however, they need to know a physical property of the electron: its magnetic moment. Previous measurements of the constant have used indirect prediction by combining Standard Model predictions with experiments that measure this magnetic moment. The new study takes a more direct approach.

To do this, the researchers made a tiny "atomic fountain" of cesium atoms. Atoms were launched upward in a single stream and then were hit with lasers to force them into a quantum superposition, in which each cesium atom was in two places at the same time. This made two streams, paradoxically made of the same atoms. When the two streams of cesium atoms were recombined, the atoms interfered with themselves in just the right way for scientists to calculate the atoms' velocity when they were hit by the photons in the laser. Because the speed reveals how much force these atoms were hit with, and thereby how strongly photons and electrons "couple," the fine structure constant could be calculated to unparalleled precision, the researchers reported April 13 in the journal Science. [Strange Quarks and Muons, Oh My! Nature's Tiniest Particles Dissected]

But what does this have to do with dark photons?

Dark photons

If the dark photon exists, it would be an electromagnetic force carrier, like the photon. But instead of working between charged particles of regular matter, like a photon does, the dark photon would enable electromagnetic interactions between particles of dark matter. [The World's Most Beautiful Equations]

Dark photons don't fit into the Standard Model. So, if they really exist, real-life measurements wouldn't match up with predictions made by the Standard Model. Specifically, the direct measurement of the fine structure constant should differ from the previous values derived from indirect measurements andthe Standard Model, said Muller.

The new research did find a different value of the fine structure constant than the Standard Model predicts, which might suggest that dark photons exist. But there's a catch.

The disagreement they found "is in the opposite direction of what you'd expect if the dark photon exists," Muller told Live Science. "It's disagreement, but it's the wrong way."

However, there's still a narrow escape path, through which theoretical dark photons could escape the dustbin of discarded physics theories. The field of particle physics has a general standard for measuring the significance of results: Typically, a truly significant resultmust have less than a 1-in-3.5-million probability of being due to random chance, which is a "5-sigma" level of significance. In this case, the difference between this measurement and the previous most-precise measurement is only a "2.5-sigma" level of significance, or a 1-in-200 probability of being due to random chance  far too likelyto meet thestrong standard of the field.

"It's too far off to call it agreement, but not far enough to call it significant disagreement," Muller said, calling it "almost a gray area."

But at this point, it may not matter. If the measurements agree, that severely limits the possibilities for dark photons. If the measurements disagree, the disagreement is in the wrong direction  and that, Muller said, is also powerful evidence against them.

"It's like you think someone stole your money, and then when you look in your wallet, you find you have more money than you did before," Muller said.

Originally published on Live Science.
An Astronaut's Video Guide to Life in Space

MasterClass

For wannabe astronauts and space tourists, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield offers a lengthy video guide that goes over the intricacies of spaceflight. In more than 9 hours of content, Hadfield's MasterClass series covers everything from basic orbital mechanics and rocketry, to how to train as an astronaut, to what the future holds for space exploration.



"This class is for anyone who's interested in exploration, and not just exploring space," Hadfield says in the video series. "That's the obvious core, being an astronaut, but you learn a lot of things along the way." He adds that, as an astronaut, you learn "how to turn yourself into somebody different than you used to be" through diligent practice, observation and thinking about how to mitigate problems.



Here are some of his key spaceflight tips.



In this photo: Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield flew three times in space and commanded the International Space Station during Expedition 35 in 2013.

Start astronaut life as an expert, and become a generalist.

NASA

Astronauts need to manage danger and do delicate tasks at the same time.

NASA

Hadfield's final mission in space was his longest  five months on the space station, including commanding the orbiting complex during Expedition 35 in 2013. But no matter how long the mission, astronauts must always be aware of the danger and be able to work effectively through it.



Astronauts always need to be ready to spring into action if an emergency happens. On the other hand, an astronaut must also fully focus on the experiment at hand, which could represent a scientist's lifework. So while working under demanding conditions, every astronaut also must take responsibility for the experiment that people on the ground are hoping will go well.



"You just have to recognize that this is worth doing; exploring the rest of the universe is worth taking a risk for," Hadfield said, adding that the key is to "get ready for the things that would otherwise normally unnerve you, or make you afraid or nervous. Astronauts overcome fear through constant practice.



In this photo: Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield holds a radiation experiment made up of bubble detectors during Expedition 34 in 2013.

Survival training will forge the right astronaut team.

NASA

Hadfield went into space three times with astronauts from all over the world. He said he always tried to behave in the Astronaut Office as though anybody there would be on his crew. This meant trying to predict the best way he could behave to improve interpersonal relations, no matter what the other person's personality.



Astronauts are also required to undergo survival training and use the time to not only figure out how to survive in extreme conditions but also practice leadership techniques with prospective crewmates.



For example, Hadfield recalled a rural Utah expedition in which one crewmember practiced "silent leadership," meaning they commanded the others without saying anything. (For example, that leader could have used gestures such as pointing to accomplish a task.) This situation could happen in spaceflight if crewmembers were in a situation in which they couldn't hear one another. Hadfield said the practice was valuable under a relatively safe set of circumstances on the ground. [What It's Like to Become a NASA Astronaut: 10 Surprising Facts]



In this photo: In 2013, then-NASA astronaut candidates Anne McClain (left) and Josh Cassada build survival gear during a three-day wilderness session.

The moment of launch feels totally unreal.

NASA

Hadfield spent three years preparing for launch day as an astronaut, and 26 years from the time he decided to be an astronaut, at age 9. He spent most of his life practicing and preparing for the moment when he would take his seat on a space shuttle, which was the world's first reusable spacecraft and carried astronauts to space from 1981 to 2011. He described his first launch day in 1995 as an unreal experience.



"You're in the final stages of doing something very demanding, but you try to be as ready for it as any human being can be," he said. "It's pretty amazing to come around that corner at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida," he added, saying the view of "your spaceship" was a magnificent sight.



"You don't actually believe you are leaving Earth today," Hadfield said, adding that the reality grew clearer as the crew completed the normal prelaunch checks and everything appeared fine. When Atlantis finally lifted off, he said, the noise and vibration made him feel like a leaf in a hurricane. "You are puny compared to what is going to happen," he added.



In this photo: The April 2001 launch of space shuttle Atlantis during mission STS-100 to the International Space Station. Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield was one of the crewmembers.

Use the right tool for the job.

NASA

Astronauts can only carry so much into space with them, which means they have to know how to improvise. (3D printing is now available on the space station to help with that issue, but the tool may not necessarily be ready if the need is urgent.) Hadfield encountered that need himself during his first spaceflight, in 1995, during STS-74. His crew had docked with the Russian Mir space station, and it was Hadfield's job to open the hatch.



"Some very strong and well-meaning technician from Russia had decided that his part of the station was going to be secure, and he had strapped down that hatch and put a webbing across it, and wire tires. It was almost impenetrable to get through this hatch," Hadfield recalled.



With few tools available in the space shuttle and the clock ticking away, Hadfield improvised with a jackknife and successfully sawed the webbing away. "I felt like I was breaking into the Russian space station all by myself," he joked. "The moral of the story is, when you're going into somebody else's spaceship, bring a jackknife."



In this photo: NASA astronaut Sunita Williams uses a pistol grip tool during a spacewalk on Expedition 14 in 2007.

Visualize how Earth looks when you get ready for a spacewalk.

NASA

Astronauts spend hundreds of hours practicing spacewalks at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory near Johnson Space Center in Houston. It's a huge pool that holds 6.2 million gallons (23.5 million liters) of water. While the crew is surrounded by safety divers, Hadfield said he tried to keep the simulation as high-fidelity as possible. He urged the astronauts around him to use correct radio protocols and to otherwise behave as though they were far from help, working on the space station.



One thing he practiced repeatedly was the overwhelming view he would face upon opening the hatch for the first time. By pretending Earth was in front of him when he opened the hatch, he felt better prepared during his first spacewalk, in 2001. "It's as if the next time you come out of the bathroom  you are standing on the top of Mount Everest," he said of the view of our planet, upon leaving the space station. "It's that sort of weirdness of juxtaposition of one place to another," he added.



In this photo: NASA astronaut Clay Anderson on a July 2007 spacewalk during Expedition 15.

One-pagers will get you through.

MasterClass

Astronauts need to be learning machines, mastering everything from how to fix the ISS toilet to how to capture a visiting spacecraft using the robotic Canadarm2. Procedures and safety protocols for each system can easily fill textbooks. Hadfield's solution? He created a manual for his STS-100 shuttle mission full of one-pagers, such as one for how to operate the pistol grip tool during a spacewalk.



Hadfield created his short guides by envisioning how he  the operator of a specific system  would turn dials, view displays or otherwise complete the functions of that system. And he would remember to write everything with a goal in mind, such as how to dock with a space station. This method came in handy during the approach to the Russian space station Mir, he recalled, when two sensors on the shuttle showed different distances to the hatch. Hadfield had a one-pager for manual dockings on hand, and with that procedure, the crew arrived safely. [Astronaut Chris Hadfield's Guide to Writing 'An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth]



In this photo: Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield shows a training manual for STS-100, his space shuttle mission in 2001. This included several one-pagers for tools, procedures and other vital spaceflight information.

Astronauts mourn lost crewmates but realize fear is a choice.

NASA

Hadfield was close to Rick Husband, the commander of Columbia space shuttle mission STS-107. Columbia broke up during re-entry due to a breach in the shuttle's protective tiles on its belly, killing all seven astronauts on board. Hadfield and Husband were test pilots together and shared many interests; Hadfield said he expected they would have been friends through the rest of a natural human life span.



Hadfield, along with the rest of his colleagues and friends, deeply mourned the loss of Husband and all of the other astronauts on STS-107. But, Hadfield said, "what really matters  of course, in life  is what do you choose to do next." Hadfield imagined what would have happened if he had died and Husband remained alive. "It never occurred to me for a second that I would expect Rick would quit  or to say, 'Wow, I never knew there was danger with this job and someone's been killed. I need to run away.' That would be ridiculous," Hadfield said.



So Hadfield remained an astronaut. He added that all pilots are familiar with "boldface" sections in their manuals  the sections that are critical to safety. "That section of the book is written in blood," Hadfield said. He, along with all of his colleagues, tried to remember the "boldface" added to the manuals after Columbia to improve safety on future spaceflights.



In this photo: The STS-107 shuttle crew that died during shuttle Columbia's re-entry in February 2003. Bottom row, left to right: Kalpana Chawla, Rick Husband, Laurel Clark, Ilan Ramon. Top row, left to right: David Brown, William McCool, Michael Anderson. All of the astronauts were from NASA except Ramon, who represented Israel.

There's a reason they put astronauts in Mission Control.

NASA

There are at least four "mission controls" that space station astronauts talk to, Hadfield said. Along with the most famous one in Houston, there are mission control centers near Moscow, near Munich and near Montreal. But it was the Houston Mission Control with which Hadfield was most familiar. He served as a "capsule communicator," or "capcom," for 25 space shuttle missions and was also NASA's chief capcom for a while.



Traditionally, the capcom is an astronaut, and Hadfield said that is a necessary item for astronauts in space. When people are away from home for months at a time, he said, they become so focused on the mission that they need to put away thoughts of home and family much of the time.



So the astronaut capcom on the ground acts as a trusted colleague to consider Earth's priorities. This "trusted agent," as Hadfield called the capcom, makes decisions that the capcom knows will benefit the crew, because the capcom is an astronaut, too. "We don't have to question it, [and] we don't have to argue about it; this is a person we trust in Mission Control," Hadfield said.



In this photo: Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield (center) worked as a capcom during space shuttle mission STS-106 in September 2000.

Every space machine has a design trade-off.

MasterClass

There can never be a perfect machine in space; every design has a trade-off. There will always be something designers have to give up, whether it be fuel efficiency, time, performance, safety or some other metric.



Hadfield used the space shuttle as an example. The shuttle had wings and a large payload bay, which allowed it to bring satellites into space and return them home. It also could carry large facilities such as Spacelab, a reusable scientific laboratory. But the design also complicated re-entry  so much so that astronauts preferred to use a computer rather than fly in manually.



Today, the next generation of spacecraft are a bit of a throwback to the 1960s and 1970s capsules NASA used, Hadfield said. Although the Boeing Starliner and the SpaceX Dragon commercial crew vehicles have more advanced electronics than their predecessors, their shape resembles the gumdrops of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. It appears that sending the crew and cargo separately into space might be the best way to go, Hadfield said.



In this photo: Chris Hadfield with a mock rocket.
Adam Hadhazy, writer and editor for The Kavli Foundation, contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Jacqueline Hewitt discusses how the TESS exoplanet mission has already changed the institute she directs and will bring about further evolution in the years to come.

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has begun its mission to discover thousands of new exoplanets right in our cosmic background. The lead organization behind TESS is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where members of its Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research (MKI) spearheaded the mission's development and are serving in prominent science roles today. [NASA's TESS Exoplanet-Hunting Mission in Pictures]

Nurturing TESS from an idea to the drawing board, and then from the fabrication lab into the final frontier has churned up a whirlwind of activity at MKI for a decade. The director of MKI, Jacqueline Hewitt, has been there for all of it. She pushed to get TESS originally approved by NASA, oversaw its instrument development and will also oversee its science operations over the next two years in the hunt for Earth-like planets that could conceivably host alien life.

For a perspective on the impact TESS has already had and will have on MKI, The Kavli Foundation spoke with Hewitt shortly after TESS' launch on April 18, 2018. In this candid conversation, Hewitt describes the successes and challenges in making TESS a reality, as well as the excitement she and her colleagues feel serving in the vanguard of advancing our understanding of the broader universe.

The following is an edited transcript of the discussion. The participant has been provided the opportunity to amend or edit her remarks.

THE KAVLI FOUNDATION: How did the idea for TESS first emerge at MIT?

JACQUELINE HEWITT: It was 12 years ago, and the field of exoplanets was still in its relative infancy. We did not know yet if exoplanets were these rare things or quite common in the galaxy. Astronomers were talking about the measurements we needed in order to find more planets and to study them. Its a really difficult problem because exoplanets are, of course, so far away and so tiny and faint from a cosmic perspective.

Back then, George Ricker, a Senior Research Scientist here at MIT and MKI, had finished up his work on the satellite HETE-2. This mission looked for sudden brightening events out in the universe, called transients, caused by the explosions of stars and other phenomena. TESS grew out of HETE-2. George and his colleagues had the realization that going to space would give them the ability to accurately gather enough light to find exoplanets when they cross their host stars, causing just a slight dimming, and also to be able to scan a big portion of the sky to find lots of these planets.

So, I remember George walked into my office and said he had this idea for this mission. In your job as director of a place like MKI, you have to figure out how to put scarce resources into different things. A lot of people will walk into my office with ideas, and to be honest, oftentimes theyre not very good ideas. But this idea for TESS, as soon as I heard it, I thought: "Wow  this is timely, the technology is up to it, this is something we'd be able to do now." I went into high gear at that point, trying to raise money and develop a consensus within our astronomical community that TESS would be a good thing to do.

George had to do some technology development to make this work, to get it funded. NASA tends to avoid risk in these space missions because theyre so expensive. If youre going to spend millions sending something in orbit, you want it to work, you know? We put quite a bit of money and time into developing a prototype camera. The whole time, George has really been the champion of TESS. Hes someone who has a real talent for designing instruments to meet a particular scientific problem.

All the hard work paid off and NASA greenlit the mission, with George serving as the TESS principal investigator. [10 Exoplanets That Could Host Alien Life]

Jacqueline Hewitt is the Director of the MIT Kavli Institute (MKI), a lead institution behind the TESS mission. (Image credit: MIKI)

I feel very lucky being here at MIT because were able to gather together the resources needed, in terms of funding and intellectual people power. The Kavli Foundation played a big and direct role, too. The TESS development began shortly after wed received our Kavli endowment, so that helped us be in a position to have resources that we could spend on things like TESS. Also, during a period when significant funding was critically needed to support research staff, the Foundation encouraged us to redirect some funds toward TESS, making sure the program stayed strong and kept moving forward.

So, all these things have had to come together. Its been incredible. And sort of crazy at times. [Laughter]

TKF: Historically, the Institute has had a very broad astrophysics and cosmology portfolio., Could it develop more of a specialty in exoplanets in the years ahead as TESS begins delivering its bounty?

HEWITT: Id say in the next five years, exoplanets are definitely going to be a big part of our portfolio. Since we started doing TESS, Ive had a number of people say to me, "Oh, MIT is the best place to be for exoplanets now." Which we certainly werent 12 years ago! Im not even sure thats true now  there are a lot of really good places  but at least were in the running. We have new faculty and a lot of postdocs have shown up over the last couple of years because of TESS.

TKF: How else has MKI evolved as a result of pursuing the TESS mission?

HEWITT: I told you about our evolution scientifically, but another way weve evolved is in engineering and project management. One thing thats very hard for a university to do is maintain the staff needed to do space missions, or even ground-based instruments, because you need mechanical engineers and other specialized staff long term. You need to keep these people employed in between missions so you don't have to go through the process of staffing up again. Fortunately, TESS was a nice, long sustained mission to develop. We were able to maintain some staff and theyve been working on other projects as well as TESS. So that's strengthened our capability moving forward.

The TESS mission also deepened the ties between MKI and MIT's Lincoln Laboratory, which is a federally funded research and development center that built TESS' cameras. The engineers at Lincoln have been developing the detectors for X-ray missions for us for decades. But TESS certainly was the biggest thing weve ever done with Lincoln. Weve really built a relationship between our people and those out at Lincoln, about 20 miles away, where they maintain a very deep expertise in engineering that we just cannot.

TKF: I understand the TESS mission has physically changed MKI's office space, too. Isnt there now a science operations center in your building on MIT's campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts?

HEWITT: That's right. Well actually be running the science payloadthose cameras and related equipment  on TESS and thatll be really cool. We'll be doing that from a sort of a war room, where we have a bunch of computer screens on the wall. Well be getting the data from NASA's Deep Space Network of radio dishes worldwide, and well be sending out the commands for TESS' observing sequence.

Now, were not actually running the TESS spacecraft itself, mind you; a company called Orbital ATK is doing that. They wont let us touch the spacecraft. They dont want a bunch of astronomers running the spacecraft! [Laughter]

TKF: With a major mission like TESS under its belt, do you foresee MIT and MKI making additional forays into primary mission development and operation?

HEWITT: We are having discussions about that. We are presently doing development studies on two other instruments that see the universe in X-rays. One is called Arcus, which will let us study hot gas throughout the universe that we haven't really been able to see before. The other mission concept is called ISS-TAO, for Transient Astrophysics Observer on the International Space Station, and it will capture transients, such as gamma-ray bursts, and help us better understand them. Those transients include follow-up of the gravitational-wave events detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO, which as you know is co-led by MIT; and, one its founders, Rai Weiss, is an MKI member and a Kavli Prize in Astrophysics- and Nobel Prize in Physics-winner. We have some ideas, too, about putting radio arrays in space or on the moon, and thats something very challenging that I feel more confident about even trying to do now that we have the TESS experience behind us. We kind of have a feeling for whats involved. [Hunting Gravitational Waves: The LIGO Laser Interferometer Project in Photos]

TKF: TESS is the first NASA mission sent to space aboard a rocket from the commercial company SpaceX, which offers less costly rides off-Earth than legacy rockets. What is the significance of this milestone?

HEWITT: Im a big fan of SpaceX. I still set my alarm for three oclock in the morning when they have a launch and I watch it on TV and then go back to bed. [Laughter]

It was just so exciting that TESS got launched in this way, but it's always a little scary for any spacecraft, come launch time. You spend 12 years working on this remarkable machine, and then we put it on top of a column of rocket fuel. I mean, how crazy is that? [Laughter]

This milestone really could be a game-changer in the science we can do. With it not being so monstrously expensive to put something into space anymore, that might get us to start doing missions that are a little bit riskier and bleeding-edge in terms of technology, but which could potentially have big science rewards.

Adam Hadhazy, Spring 2018

Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates  and become part of the discussion  on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was published on Space.com.
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Laura Linney and Olympia Dukakis Return; Ellen Page Joins the Cast; Working Title TV and NBCUniversal International Studios Produce 10-Part Limited SeriesArmistead Maupins Tales of the City is a 10-part Netflix original limited series, expected to start production later this year and debut in 2019.Academy Award nominee and Emmy-, SAG- and Golden Globe-Award winning actress Laura Linney and Academy Award and Golden Globe winner Olympia Dukakis will reprise their roles as Mary Ann Singleton and Anna Madrigal. Barbara Garrick also to return. Additional cast to be announced.Academy Award, BAFTA, Golden Globe and SAG Award nominee Ellen Page will join the cast as Shawna.Lauren Morelli (WGA nominee; co-EP and writer Orange is The New Black) serves as showrunner/executive producer and writer.Armistead Maupin will executive produce; Alan Poul returns to direct and executive produce. Laura Linney also executive produces.Armistead Maupins Tales of the City is a Working Title Television and NBCUniversal International studios production for Netflix. Working Titles Andrew Stearn, Liza Chasin, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner also executive produce. Michael Cunningham will serve as a consulting producer.Quotes:"I couldn't be more excited about this new brand-new incarnation of Tales. It's set in present-day San Francisco with all the joys and complications that might suggest for the residents of 28 Barbary Lane, said Maupin. Mrs. Madrigal's tenants, both old and new, will be entangled in delicious new adventures and ever-expanding possibilities for love."The magical, vivid world that Armistead Maupin built in Tales of the City is one that offered so many particularly the LGBTQ+ community a home for the first time. For many, Tales was the first time they saw themselves on screen, said writer and showrunner Lauren Morelli. I am humbled to now find my own home within Tales and to continue telling Armisteads stories.Poul added, "For me, the opportunity to come back to a series I started work on 25 years ago is the homecoming of a lifetime. There's never been a better moment to reignite Armistead's timeless take on family and community, and I'm thrilled to be collaborating with such a brilliant mix of old friends and new."Logline: Based on the books by Armistead Maupin, this next chapter - Armistead Maupins Tales of the City - follows Mary Ann (Laura Linney), who returns home to San Francisco and is reunited with her daughter (Ellen Page) and ex-husband Brian, twenty years after leaving them behind to pursue her career. Fleeing the midlife crisis that her picture perfect Connecticut life created, Mary Ann returns home to her chosen family and will quickly be drawn back into the orbit of Anna Madrigal (Olympia Dukakis) and the residents of 28 Barbary Lane.Armistead Maupin is the author of eleven novels, including the nine-volume Tales of the City, which led to three Tales of the City limited series starring Laura Linney and Olympia Dukakis. Alan Poul served as producer of the first three adaptations (Tales of the City, More Tales of the City, Further Tales of the City) which earned a Peabody Award and multiple Emmy Award nominations.
Press Release

HOLMES AND WATSON ENTER THE WORLD OF RARE ANTIQUITIES WHEN THEY INVESTIGATE A CASE IN WHICH THE VICTIM WAS KILLED DURING A REVOLUTIONARY WAR REENACTMENT, ON ELEMENTARY, MONDAY, MAY 14Pushing Buttons  Holmes and Watson enter the world of rare antiquities when they investigate a case in which victim was killed during a Revolutionary War reenactment. Also, as Holmes grows frustrated with the length of his cognitive recovery, he finds solace in his growing friendship with Michael (Desmond Harrington), on ELEMENTARY, Monday, May 14 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT), on the CBS Television Network.CHEAT TWEET: Ancient history! Holmes & Watsons latest case involves a Revolutionary War reenactment & rare antiquities! @Elementary_CBS 5/14 at 10pm on #CBS http://bit.ly/2qTuJDbREGULAR CAST:Jonny Lee Miller (Sherlock Holmes)Lucy Liu (Joan Watson)Aidan Quinn (Captain Tommy Gregson)Jon Michael Hill (Detective Marcus Bell)Desmond Harrington (Michael)GUEST CAST:Kevin Ray (Kevin)Mike Doyle (Chris Holland)James Monroe Iglehart (Detective Mason)Juan Carlos Hernandez (Adrian Cruz)Geno Segers (Bodyguard)Gia Crovatin (Marcy Nix)Robert Vincent Smith (George Nix)Michael Potts (Dr. Peter Hanson)Arnie Burton (Paul Chambers)Bruce Sabath (David)Ron Menzel (Brian)Ami Sheth (Mrs. Holland)WRITTEN BY: Jeffrey Paul KingDIRECTED BY: Christine Moore




NCIS: New Orleans - Powder Keg - Review: New Percy

4.20 - Powder Keg

Directed by Mary Lou Belli

Written by Talicia Raggs

Reviewed by Kelly Anne Blount



This episode starts out with an action-packed police chase. There is a car with three bad guys. They have guns and theyre desperate to get away from the cops.



Meanwhile, over at Sydney Halliday, from the episode in South America, shows up at Prides bar.



As Pride buys her a drink, the car chase ends up at the bars front doors, literally. The bad guys get out of the car and race into his bar with their guns drawn.



The bad guys take everyone in the bar hostage. They make everyone put their phones and wallets on the bar. Pride tries to keep the situation calm, but things arent looking good.



Outside, more police arrive and helicopters swarm overhead. The bad guys inside, Boomer, Red, and Curtis, are incredibly agitated.



Officer Wallace Leroi shows up and tells Captain Estes that Curtis, one of the bad guys, killed his partner, Detective Franklin.



Pride asks if he can barricade the back door. He says he wants everyone to get out alive. Curtis heads to the back room with him.



Back at HQ, Sebastian is on his seventh cup of coffee. Gregorio tells him to calm down. Hes missing the donuts that Percy usually brings in on a Saturday. Aw, Percy!



LaSalle bursts into HQ and tells them that Pride and everyone in his bar are being held hostage. The team races over to the scene of the crime.



In the back room, Curtis tells Pride that hes been set up. He says that he was Detective Franklins confidential informant (C.I.). He says that when he went to his place to meet Franklin, he had already been shot and killed. Curtis tells Pride he was trying to get out of living a life of crime.



Pride tells Curtis to give him his phone. Thats the only way he can try to clear Curtis name and keep everyone in the bar safe.



Outside, Gregorio and LaSalle speak with Captain Estes and Officer Leroi. LaSalle and Gregorio want NCIS to take point. Captain Davis, from S.O.D. comes in and tells them that they are going to take the lead. He invites Gregorio and LaSalle to stay on, as his guests.





Gregorio and Pride decide that they arent standing down. Sebastian points out that Curtis handler sounds fishy. How did the death get called in immediately? LaSalle sends Sebastian to the scene where the Detective Franklin was shot and killed. He sends Gregorio back to HQ to investigate.Captain Davis calls the bars landline. The bad guys dont answer it. Sydney Halliday sees an opportunity and attacks one of the armed gunmen. It backfires, and she ends up tied up and Boomer points a shotgun in Prides face.Captain Davis calls again. This time, Boomer, the leader of the crew, answers. Captain Davis asks what Boomer wants. He says he wants a way out or people are going to get hurt.Curtis passes Pride his cell phone while he looks after an injured Halliday.Boomer demands a helicopter and wants to be flown to Mexico. Captain Davis tells him that isnt happening, as they cant land a helicopter in the streets of downtown New Orleans. Also, a helicopter wouldnt be able to fly them all of the way to Mexico. Boomer tells him to figure out a way to get him and his crew to the airport and have a plane waiting for them.Pride shoots off a quick text to LaSalle. It says, Its Pride. Curtis was Franklins CI, says he was framed. Please check. LaSalle doesnt tell Captain Davis or anyone else but the NCIS crew about the text.Captain Davis tries to get some hostages out, but Boomer isnt having it. He wants a plane. Bottom line.LaSalle questions Captain Davis about Leroi being on the tactical team. After all, his partner was just killed. Captain Davis isnt hearing it. Captain Estes tells LaSalle that he can try to work with Pride, but he has to figure out how to reach him. He doesnt know about the secret text conversation.Uh oh. The media have showed up. This makes everyone nervous.Gregorio and Patton are going over Boomer, Red, and Curtis files. Curtis has only been convicted of burglary, unlike the other two with much more serious crimes. Patton has more information. It appears that the final text sent to Curtis from his handlers phone wasnt actually sent from the Franklin. It was someone else luring Curtis to the scene of the crime. The clues are pointing to Curtis being set up, but why? Was he going to snitch on his crew? Or is something else going on that we dont know about yet? Either way, they have a new lead, the name Riley.Outside the bar, LaSalle tells Captain Estes that he knows something, but its not worth mentioning yet. Captain Davis joins them. They have a plane at the airport for the bad guys. This should help with negotiations.One of the band members who was playing while the bad guys charged into the bar has a heart condition and is having a difficult time. Boomer wont let anyone help him.The police call the bar again, which gives Pride the chance to talk to Curtis and Halliday. Pride asks him about the name Riley. Curtis tells Pride that Riley is his girlfriend, but that shes been out of the life for a couple of years.Curtis tells Pride that there was some kind dust up at his girlfriends work last week. She was mugged after leaving a shift. Pride thinks Curtis old handler may have gotten involved with the situation that way.The musician with the heart condition collapses. Pride drops Curtis cell phone to provide aid. Boomer sees the cell phone and flips out. He quickly realizes that Curtis is working with Pride. Yikes!Pride tells Boomer that hes an NCIS officer. This makes Boomer even more angry. He blames Pride for the Clearwater incident and his family not having jobs.Curtis tells the crew that he didnt kill his handler. He says that he was set up.Pride manages to calm down Boomer, but it doesnt look like it based on the camera that the tactical just dropped in through the roof. Luckily, Pride convinces Boomer to give him his cell phone back. Pride texts a message to LaSalle, who relays it to Captain Davis and Captain Estes. He tells them that they are going to let the sick man out. They tell the snipers and media to stand down.LaSalle tells Captain Davis and Captain Estes that they think Curtis may have been set up. He also shares that he thinks their friends death may have had something to do with Curtis girlfriend, Riley. Captain Davis kicks him off the scene.LaSalle calls Sebastian. Turns out he got kicked out of the scene as well. He was able to get several high definition pictures of the body and the crime scene before being sent away. Sebastian tells LaSalle that Gregorio is following up at the club where Riley works to see if she can figure out how Curtis girlfriend is involved.Gregorio speaks with Lorna, who works at the same club as Riley. She says that shes been covering Rileys shifts for a week. She also says that Riley left after Curtis handler, Detective Franklin, came and spoke with her at the club. Lorna is worried about losing her job. They arent supposed to speak about their rich club members. Gregorio convinces her to spill the beans. Riley told Franklin that she saw someone put something in one of her regulars drinks. Shortly after, Dezzie, her regular customer, was in a car accident. The next night, Riley was mugged and Lorna hasnt seen her since. Lorna tells Gregorio that Dezzie works for the city or the government. He barely survived the car accident he was in. He is a major VIP at the club. Thats all Lorna can tell Gregorio.Curtis tells Pride that Dezzie comes in once a month and tips Riley really well. He thinks that hes a lawyer. Pride asks if its Desmond Whitney, the State Attorney General. Pride says, Hes been waging a war on corruption. It looks like a dirty cop is trying to take Dezzie out.Boomer is getting anxious. The bus thats going to transport them to the airport just arrived.Captain Davis and his team have a plan to take out the bad guys as they are transported and arrive at the airport. LaSalle asks them if they plan to attempt to take everyone in alive. It doesnt seem like it, based on Captain Davis response. LaSalle tells him that he thinks a police officer killed Detective Franklin. This makes Captain Davis even more angry. They almost come to blows, but Captain Estes walks LaSalle out of the room.The bad buys need cover to go with them on the bus ride to the airport. Pride says hell go and to leave everyone else behind. Boomer tells him that isnt good enough, they need more people. Halliday volunteers as well.Outside, LaSalle and Captain Estes talk as the hostages pour out of the front doors. Pride, Halliday, Curtis, Red, and Boomer head toward the bus. When the doors open, Pride sees Captain Davis behind the wheel.Pride tells Halliday that the bus driver is an NOPD Captain.Captain Estes tells LaSalle that hes heading to the airport. LaSalle tells him hes going with and that he thinks Curtis was indeed set up.Back at HQ, Gregorio, Sebastian, and Patton have a massive breakthrough. The fingerprints on the gun used to kill Detective Franklin are indeed Curtis; however, they are perfect and not smudged at all, like the kind you would have access to if you were a police officer. This helps prove Curtis innocence, but it doesnt help them figure out who killed Detective Franklin.Patton has another lead. Theres footage from a nearby gas station, while it doesnt have footage of the killer, it has something else just as important, a time stamp. The two people in the video turn around when they hear a gunshot, which happens at 11:24AM. The text that was sent from Detective Franklins phone, came through at 11:25AM. Theres no way he could have sent the text if he was already dead.Bad news, Loretta has Riley in her morgue. She is dead, due to an alleged heroin overdose. She shows no previous signs of drug use. Something isnt adding up here. Loretta also notes that the heroin was extremely pure, which will make it easy to trace the strain.In the bus, Pride receives word of Rileys death. He tells Curtis that she died of an overdose. Curtis tells Pride that Riley didnt use drugs. Pride tells him not to worry, that theyll find the person who killed Detective Franklin and Riley.Captain Davis stops the bus at the gate leading to the airport. There are snipers everywhere.Sebastian calls with news. Captain Davis led a raid several months ago, which resulted in acquiring the heroin that killed Riley. He had access to the drugs. LaSalle tells Captain Estes to tell S.O.D. to stand down immediately and that Captain Davis is the killer.Captain Davis stands up and gives the word for his team to start shooting. Pride, Curtis, and Halliday duck. Red has been shot, everyone else seems to be alive and not injured. Boomer stands up and accuses Pride of playing him. He tells Pride that hes going to die and points his shotgun at him. Before he can pull the trigger, Captain Davis shoots Boomer three times and kills him. He turns his gun on Curtis next and says hes, cleaning house.Halliday attacks Captain Davis and pushes him out of the way before he can shoot Curtis. Pride shoots and kills Captain Davis.As they get off the bus, Pride tells them that the killer is on the bus and that Curtis isnt guilty, he was set up.Halliday rubs her neck and says that she had easier days in Fallujah.LaSalle smiles and asks, Im sorry and who are you exactly?Pride introduces Sydney Halliday and says, Shes been making the habit of saving my ass.Halliday and LaSalle shake hands.Back at HQ, Sebastian walks in with a box of donuts. Turns out everyone brought in a box in to work. Ha ha! Now they have close to forty donuts and strudel. The team puts Sebastian on coffee duty.Pride is putting his bar back together when Captain Estes stops by to give him an update. He tells Pride that Curtis is not being brought up on any charges and that hes placing him in protective custody until he can make sure that hes safe.Captain Estes and Pride talk about Davis covering up corruption and Desmond Whitney, the State Attorney General, trying to put an end to it. Pride doesnt think that Davis was working alone. Captain Estes agrees and adds that Pride and his team saved Mayor Taylor from an attempted assassination a few months ago. Thats two attempted assassinations on two major politicians in the state of Louisiana that are standing up to corruption. Captain Estes asks Pride, You thinking, what Im thinking? To which Pride responds, Where theres smoke, theres fire.




Once Upon a Time 718





The Guardian finally gives a Weaver/ Rumple storyline for Robert Carlyle to work with. In the episode 'Beauty' we knew for him to be with Belle Rumple must find the Guardian. We learned, Anastasia was the Guardian but Rumples ease at letting her go made you believe there could be someone else though questions still needed answering. In flashbacks this week more pieces of the puzzle are revealed including how Rumple once again became Rumpelstiltskin. While in Hyperion Heights you really wonder if Weaver/Rumple has learned anything at all as he uses the same old Rumple dirty tricks to get his way even alienating his one true friend.



Enchanted Forest

Rumple is still grieving Belle as he goes to a place to mourn the dead he encounters Dr Facilier from this we believe this is their first interaction. Facilier thinks he can simply kill the dark one with voodoo and claim the dagger. Of course, the Dark One is Immortal and not easy to kill. He almost chokes Facilier and his hand starts to turn green/ gold again. Facilier says he can speak to the dead and tells him Belle fears he will give into the darkness before he can find a way to join her in the afterlife.





Seeking out Alice he sees her with Robin who is delivering a letter from her father Hook/Nook. Hook isnt a fan of Rumple in this realm either as his quest in the tower was all about finding something for his revenge but as we know thats when this Hooks story changed. He certainly doesnt trust him, but Rumple goes to Alice anyway who has been warned by her father not to talk to him. Alice and Rumple have a history as we know from earlier episodes. Rumple does what he does best manipulates Alice into thinking Facilier may have the answers to breaking her and her Papas curse.Alice is tricked into taking Faciliers heart but despite Rumple trying to get in her head she resists passing the pure of heart test, but Rumpelstiltskin is close to the surface. I loved the way his voice slips every now and then. Both his hands are green now but as they arrive at his makeshift altar in the place of the dead Alice knows what to do as she can hear the dagger. Rumple knows of her love for Robin and at the last minute stops her. He wants Alice to live a normal life and not become immortal. Hearing Belle, he knows he will find another way.As he has fully turned into Rumpelstiltskin he looks on at Robin and Alice, Hook knows what he did, and they shake hands old grievances forgotten. You can tell his mind is once again slipping into his true form.In Hyperion Heights, it picks up after the events of last week as Weaver and Rogers go to interview Nick who is held in an interview room, but they discover him dead with no forced entry. Weaver/Rumple orders the station to be locked down as he picks up a piece of straw, rushing to his lockup he discovers the dark ones dagger missing. As he leaves the station to investigate Rogers notices he looks scared.Tilly is sat at the troll drawing a sketch a place we always seem to find her in H town, so no surprise that Margot goes and asks her to spend the day with her. Alice is reluctant at first as she keeps hearing a buzzing, but this soon disappears. Spending the day together Alice and Robin learn more about each other you can clearly see the romance blossoming and events mirror those of the flashbacks in the Enchanted Forest. I loved the Bracelet scene both in the library and later at the bar. The date is cut short when poor Tilly runs when the buzzing starts again. Later that night she apologies to Margot saying she didnt want her to see the not good days. I adore this Tilly/Alice and Margot/Robin pairing and the true love's kiss that will break the curse may come from these two.Jacinda tries to talk to Henry about what happened when he was captured with Nick, but he is reluctant to talk about it. Going to Rogers in the hopes to speak to Nick he learns he of Nicks death but they both head to Nicks apartment. Henry finds the blood test results and Rogers finds Drew snooping around. We saw earlier Rogers has Drew and Samdi on CCTV opposite the police station near Nicks time of death, so he demands answers. Drew tells him he was looking for something to protect himself from Samdi thinking Nick had something thats why Samdi killed him, telling Rogers, he wouldnt believe the truth if he told him. Drew says to study the ME report into Nicks death. The reports stated Nick died from a stab in the heart from the inside, this has both Henry and Rogers confused.Henry takes the test results to Jacinda after telling her he validated them at the hospital neither knows what it means. How can he be Lucys father?As for Weaver / Rumple well he certainly was up to his old tricks this episode. First confronting Roni accusing Samdi of stealing his dagger he sees she has some magic as we know courtesy of Samdi. Roni confronts him but Samdi admits to killing Nick but not to take the dagger. Weaver having followed Roni threatens Samdi at gunpoint, but he still denies all knowledge and needles him further by saying Belle would not be happy by his actions before he dismisses him with magic.Frustrated Weaver takes Ronis magic to locate the dagger but when it points him to the troll he realizes how wrong he was. Tilly is unaware of the dagger but it was the cause of the buzzing for her as she had it in her backpack. Being the guardian, she was protecting it although she doesnt know this yet.After his confrontation with Roni, who is angry because the magic was to save Henry, you realize how little Rumple has changed, always out for his own gains no matter who he has hurt .. Yes, he clearly is ashamed of himself as he stated at the Troll to Tilly, but Roni has had enough especially when she learns his dagger wasnt in any danger at all.The curse that started the Onces journey was Rumple manipulating Regina for his own gains. Through the series and even while with Belle, he always has given in to his dark instincts and cowardice ways. Belle saw the man behind the beast but alone he once again returns to that form. His brief reprise is seeing that Alice shouldnt be burdened by the dagger but as it called to her I fear this may be the inevitable outcome and perhaps the only cure so that she can be truly reunited with her Papa.This is what Once Upon a time is all about, dark ones and magic prophecies with a dose of true love thrown in. I really enjoyed this episode and found myself eager to see where it all leads for the first time this season.What did you think of this episode?Can Rumple be saved and will Alice be the key?
Press Release

THE BOLD, BRILLIANT AND BADASS BABES ARE BACK IN THE TWO-HOUR PREMIERE OF THE BOLD TYPE, ON TUESDAY, JUNE 12Fans Can Catch Up on Season 1 on Hulu, Freeform.com and the Freeform AppIn the two-hour season premiere of Freeforms breakout hit series The Bold Type, Jane, Kat and Sutton are each faced with new beginnings and wrestle with the changes in their careers, friendships and love lives. The series, named one of USA Todays 10 Best New TV Shows of 2017, makes its highly anticipated return, on TUESDAY, JUNE 12, with a special two-episode premiere, beginning at 8:00 p.m. EDT/PDT. To get ready for the new season, fans can catch up on season one on Hulu, Freeform.com and the Freeform app. Additionally, the first episode will be available one week early to Hulu subscribers, beginning Tuesday, June 5.In the first episode, Feminist Army, Jane is excited to publish her first big piece for Incite, especially since shes writing about a female CEO she admires, and she knows Jacqueline will be reading it. Sutton is thrown when a new corporate policy seems to give her and Richard the green light on their romance. And Adena grows frustrated when Kat seems too eager to flaunt their burgeoning relationship.In the second hour, Rose Colored Glasses, believing it shouldnt matter, Kat bristles when Alex recommends she highlights that she is black in her company bio. However, while introducing her parents to Adena, Kat is forced to confront how her avoidance of labels has affected her life. Sutton is horrified when she discovers her fellow fashion assistants think she was asked to organize a photo shoot featuring honorable men for reasons other than her talent. And Jane tries to defend herself after the fallout from her Incite article, which doesnt go as planned.The Bold Type stars Katie Stevens, Aisha Dee, Meghann Fahy, Sam Page, Matt Ward, Nikohl Boosheri, Stephen Conrad Moore and Melora Hardin as Jacqueline, editor in chief of Scarlet Magazine. The Bold Type is executive produced by Amanda Lasher, Sarah Watson, David Bernad, Joanna Coles and Ruben Fleischer. Holly Whidden is co-executive producer. The series is a co-production between Freeform, Universal Television and The District production.




The King of the Delta Blues written by Anselm Richardson and directed by Greg Beeman. The episode visits an historical figure that Eric Kripke also used on("Crossroad Blues")- Robert Johnson (Kamahl Naiqui)  who famously made a deal with the devil to become the best guitar player ever. In fact, in addition to a number of great shout outs to the Clockblockers  the fans of the show  there are a number of Supernatural echoes. I loved the history in this episode  and Paterson Joseph delivers a terrific performance in this episode!The episode begins in San Antonio, Texas, on November 23, 1936. Its therecording of Johnson with Don Law (Gavin Stenhouse). Check out at least the Wikipedia entry on Johnson, which confirms that he insisted on playing to the wall. There are so many cultural influences that stem from Johnson, making him a fantastic pick for the show.At the bunker, Rufus (Malcolm Barrett) is sleeping  badly  on the couch. Jiya (Claudia Doumit) has another vision, which she initially decides to keep from Rufus. Rufus has given up sharing the room with Wyatt (Matt Lanter), so that Wyatt can share it with Jessica. I felt bad for Lucy (Abigail Spencer) when she interrupts Rufus and Wyatt giggling like schoolboysRufus is working on putting a fourth seat in the Lifeboat. Jiya tells him she slept badly, and he reminds her he doesnt want to hear about her visions. She tells him it was because she drank too much red wine. The math works and Rufus gives Jiya a big kiss  before they are interrupted by Connor (Paterson Joseph), who is drunk - Joseph does a great drunk! Hes been reading scathing articles about himself  Icarus Descending  and today is the day that he officially loses control of Mason Enterprises and all his holdings. Also? Nice Shakespeare delivery from JosephDenise (Sakina Jaffrey) tells Wyatt that she wants to talk to him, but then the Mothership jumps. Lucy keys in on the Texas Exposition on that date  but thats in Dallas. Garcia (Goran Visnjic) has no Rittenhouse intel on the date. Its Connor who insists that its obviously got to be the Gunter Hotel! He knows that Johnson and Law recorded and a series of albums  there on that day. Connor is the only one to realize Johnsons importance to the development of music  including rock and roll!The others want to simply dismiss Connors concerns about some Blues artist, but Lucy sees the bigger picture. Its not just music that Rittenhouse would be killing, it would be the cultural revolution of the 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement, the fall of Nixon, the end of the Vietnam War  the counter-culture as we know it! I love the way this show looks at history from such a holistic viewpoint. Lets not forget how much Keynes disliked womens pants and how much he liked Nixon!Rufus suggests that Connor should take the new fourth seat in the Lifeboat, but Connor insists that he can simply debrief Lucy. And then Garcia realizes that Connor is afraid of riding in his own invention! And then Lucy accuses him of never riding in his own invention!The decision is made that Connor will go, and then surprisingly, Denise pulls Wyatt from the mission. She assigns Garcia to go because its time that they start trusting him. She even gives him a gun. I was a little surprised that Wyatt didnt protest more, but he simply tells Garcia to keep them safe  and Garcia, who is pleased with his new toy, tells Wyatt that he wouldnt have it any other way.Wyatt plays the good soldier, obediently following his orders before the Lifeboat jumps. Once its gone, he wants to know why Denise held him back  after all, she doesnt trust Rittenhouse any more than he does. She asks him how hed like to take Rittenhouse out for good!Denises chip was pinging from the warehouse that Carol kept her in for 8 hours  really? How did no one notice this?!?! Shes sending Wyatt in alone because she doesnt trust the cavalry. Wyatt is fine with the mission  after all modern weapons and equipment! Denise assures him that hell have helmet-cam and that she and Jiya will monitor his mission from there.Denise notices that Jiya is troubled about something. Jiya asks if its ok to keep secrets from someone you love. I thought she was about to tell Denise about the visions, but she brushes the whole thing off as relationship issues, and Denise tells her to concentrate on the mission.Its hilarious when the team lands in 1936 and Connor waxes poetic about landing in the past and the time/space compression and is then interrupted by having to throw up! Its also hilarious when Connor asks how they begin and Rufus and Lucy answer in unison: Get some clothes. Steal a car.Once again, Garcia bursts in and kills the sleeper agent just as hes about to shoot the target. The aliases are now hilarious  another lift from, and particularly apropos this episode. On Supernatural, the brothers almost always use rock aliases as their FBI covers. Here, Lucy claims Taylor Swift and dubs Garcia Agent Timberlake (ie Justin!!!). Connor goes right for Star Wars and introduces himself as Lando Calrissian! Which is utterly perfect as Hans best friend who first betrays him to the evil empire and then helps to save him. He insists that hes British Intelligence  Kenya station.The team tells them that theyll just remove the body, and Johnson and Law can go back to whatever they were doing. However, the damage is already done. Law assumes that the man was there to kill Johnson, and hes been warned that Johnson is cursed. Garcia tries to maintain that the whole thing is a misunderstanding  that the dead man is simply a confused bootlegger. While they are arguing with Law to keep recording  by ending up lamely saying that its important because they are big fans, Johnson disappears. But of course, that isnt a lame reason, is it??? Its yet another shout out to the Clockblockers who changed the history of the show!!! Its us again!While they are convincing Law to give Johnson another chance, Johnson disappears. And hes famous for his disappearance acts. Connor and Rufus go after Johnson while Garcia and Lucy stay with Law. In fact, Law is still ready to give up on Johnson. Hes convinced that his father was right about him and that hes just a three-time loser. I loved that Lucy uses her FBI cover to account for her knowing that Law was a bookkeeper  and to help prove that she knows that Johnson is important and will be the next big thing. Law knows shes manipulating him  but it works anyway! I liked that they wrote him as being clever enough to figure it out!Rufus and Connor find Johnson walking along the road to visit his sister. Hes convinced that the man who came to kill him is an agent of the Devil  who he made a deal with for his talent. Connor pretends he knows Johnsons sister, Carrie (Niketa Calame)  and has drunk at her Jukebar many times  shes very lively! Rufus is upset that Connor isnt following the plan when he offers to take Johnson to his sisters rather than back to Law. Connor points out that they can have Garcia and Lucy bring Law to them.Meanwhile, in the present, Wyatt infiltrates the warehouse and is immediately attacked by a Rittenhouse agent. Jiya and Denise are poor backup as they simply keep calling Wyatt??? Not much help, distracting, and is he really going to take time to talk to them while fighting for his life??? However, this was a really cool way to shoot the scene! I loved the shot of the gun pointing directly at the camera from the helmet-cam on Wyatts helmet. The only thing Wyatt finds on the Agent is a key fob. Jiya needs a couple of hours to crack the firewall to find out where the location is to what it opens.In the past, they stop for Rufus to use a phone booth  that clearly says Whites only  No dogs, Mexicans or Negroes. I also like when the show just subtley integrates historical content. Johnson is concerned that Rufus make the call quickly or they will all be in big trouble. Connor asks if theyll hear Johnson play at his sisters  hes clearly dying to hear Johnson play! Fanboy! But Johnson insists that hell only be there long enough to say goodbye. Hes going to just disappear. Connor tells him that hes a poet and he can be truly great. Johnson has been followed by death his whole life  made a widower at 18 and again at 21  because of his deal with the Devil. Rufus cant believe they are talking about it like it really happened. Whether it did or not is immaterial as Johnson himself believes it. Johnson says to Connor  if youve ever struck a deal with the Devil, you know what Im talking about. And of course, that beautifully strikes a chord with Connor. Rittenhouse was his Devil  and it cost him everything he had. Rufus listens to the exchange and it resonates with him too.While Law is out getting the equipment to fix the recording machine, Garcia wants to have a frank conversation with Lucy. Garcia knows that its awkward for Lucy to have Wyatt and Rufus giggling like schoolboys over Jessica  and he knows that Connor isnt the only one drowning their sorrows  Lucy has a bottle of vodka under her bed. Garcia doesnt know these things because hes been spying on her, but because of the journal! I loved how they brought back the importance of the journal here. Its allowed Garcia to feel like he knows Lucy. And its not preposterous that he knows her better than she knows herself at this moment because the journal will have Lucys own understanding of whats happened to her from the future. Lucy insists that he doesnt know her. Theyre interrupted by the bellhop (Dustin Ryder Jones) delivering Rufus message. This is hilarious because of the Star Wars connection  Harrison Fords (Han Solo  and really, I shouldnt have to add this) first known role in a film was as an uncredited bellhop inConnor is absolutely thrilled to find himself in an actual Jukejoint  and it only gets better as he meets legends Muddy Waters (Wiley B Oscar), Eddie Son House Jr (Keith Machekanyanga), and Miss Bessy Smith (Radha Blank). Joseph is fabulous in this scene. Rufus isnt sure what to do as Connor declares the drinks are on me (how IS he going to pay?) and sits down with his idols. Johnsons sister isnt there, so Johnson is likely not going anywhere in the immediate future.As Garcia and Lucy are leaving the hotel, they stop Law on the way up with the equipment, telling him theyre going to meet Johnson at Carries bar. However, his assistant  Betty (Natasha Marc)  turns out to be another sleeper agent, who shoots and kills Law before taking off to Carries herself.As Garcia and Lucy chase after her, music brings them together too. Garcia starts humming a song on the radio and mentions that his wife used to sing it. Its important to remember that he too has lost family and loved ones to Rittenhouse. He also tries to explain that he wants to get to know Lucy, but understands if she doesnt want that. She offers an olive branch by sharing that her mother used to sing the song to her. The two also share details about their loved ones  his wife and her sister. Garcia apologizes for her sister  he never wanted to hurt her, and hes sure that if they dont give up hope that they will get their loved ones back somehow. Just as Law knew when Lucy was manipulating him, Lucy knows Garcia knew about her mother singing the song from the journal. Garcia doesnt deny it  and he tells her that she should know the Lucy from the journal. Shes very impressive. I know the Lyatt people are going crazy  but I love these two together! In that they have great chemistry  they dont have to be a couple  after all, theres that wife thing again, right???I loved how entranced Connor is by simply being in the past. I also loved the group discussing why Johnson faced the wall  all good theories that have been floated: so no one could steal the secrets of how he played, stage-fright or for the acoustics as the music bounced off the walls. Meanwhile, Rufus has been gathering information  no one knows when Carrie is coming back, and hes worried that Lucy and Garcia didnt get the message. Connor has decided that hes leaving when they get back to the present. Hes taking his cue from Johnson. He doesnt feel hes contributing to the team, so hes just going to start over. Rufus tells him they dont have time for his mid-life crisis  he needs to focus on the mission! And then Carrie shows up, and they are out of time.In the present, Wyatt arrives at what they hope is the Rittenhouse headquarters. Jiya wants to call in back up now, but Denise again refuses because she doesnt trust the military. Wyatt is clearly outmanned, and Keynes (Michael Rady) hits the switch to set everything on fire to burn down the evidence. When Wyatt comes upon Carol (Susanna Thompson), Denise orders him to shoot, but he cant do it. Keynes has no hesitation to shoot around Carol and then use her as a human shield to get to the Mothership  which hes told Emma (Annie Wersching) to fire up  and they escape. Wyatts body armor saves him.At the bar, everything happens quickly. Rufus tells Connor they have to act quickly to convince Johnson to stay and record. Johnson is on his way out when Betty arrives and is about to shoot him. Rufus tackles Johnson just as Garcia comes in apparently in the nick of time yet again and takes her out. I loved how theyve set us up to just expect that this is what has happened by having Garcia do it twice in the last two episodes  but its Connor who has shot her.Connor is devastated, but hes also possibly the only one who can work the equipment and convince Johnson to record the music. Lucy and Garcia leave it to Rufus to convince him. Connor is sure that he cant do it  inferior equipment, inferior producer, it wont have the same impact. But Rufus points out that Connor was the one obsessed with Johnsons music. Connor is the one who knows how its supposed to sound. And yet another shoutout to the Clockblockers! Connor maintains that fanboys dont save the world  BUT THEY DO!!!I loved this scene between Joseph and Barrett. They are both terrific in it. Rufus points out that he was Connors fanboy. In his senior year at MIT he was the prodigy, but 2 weeks before finals, Rufus cracked  and Connor came to his rescue. Rufus tells him this is him returning the favor.Connor stops Johnson on the way out the door. He asks him why he picked up the guitar to begin with, and Johnson says to become the greatest blues guitarist. Connor assures him he is, but no one will ever know it if he doesnt show a little backbone and make the recording. Connor tells Johnson that hes at the same crossroads that he is  does he walk away or fight back? It works and Johnson does the recording  complete with a whoop from Connor!Denise and Wyatt sort through the wreckage. Denise reprimands Wyatt for not taking out Carol. She knows its because of Lucy and she tells him to sort out whatever it is thats going on between them.The team returns  and clearly had fun on the mission. They are relieved to find out that Jiya knows all about Led Zepplin! Connor grabs Rufus into a hug and thanks him for everything. Rufus asks if Robert Johnson ever told Connor what really happened at the crossroad, but Connor isnt giving up that secret!Wyatt and Lucy catch each other up. Wyatt tells Lucy that her mother got away  Spencer is great here as she subtly conveys that Lucy is glad that her mother got away. Wyatt asks after Garcia, and isnt quite so happy with Lucys declaration that he was great on the mission. Wyatt wants details, but Lucy pushes him away, telling him shell tell him tomorrow, but he should go to Jessica whos likely worried sick.Connor returns to his room and immediately puts on his copy of Johnsons record  and is thrilled to hear his own yeah! Even better is that the album jacket identifies Lando Calrissian as the engineer!Lucy brings her bottle to Garcias room. Jiya and Rufus are crammed onto her single bed. And the episode ends with her telling Rufus her latest  and most devastating vision. Shes seen his death  near the ocean and trapped by what appear to be cowboys. Honestly, this is the best way that Ive ever seen previews for the next episode for any show!!I loved this episode pretty much from start to finish. There were great parallels between Johnson and Connor and enough history to even satisfy me. I loved how the importance of music was woven into the episode as well. Its also great to see Connor really back on the team. I dont see Lucy necessarily falling for Garcia, so Im happy to see him more integrated into the team as Im really enjoying Visnjic. Peterson Joseph gets performance of the week. What did you think of the episode? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
El-Aaiun (Occupied Territories), April 23, 2018 (SPS) - Two Sahrawi journalists, Mohammed Salem Miyara, RASD Radio and Television correspondent, and Mohammed al-Jumayi, a photography and installation technician, on Monday appeared before the so-called investigating judge at the Court of Appeal in the occupied city of El-Aaiun.



The two journalists were arrested a month ago in the occupied city of Smara. They are now detained at Carcel Negra (Black Prison) in the occupied city of El-Aaiun, after fabricating several charges in order to keep them away from their media activities that expose Morocco and its crimes against Sahrawis. (SPS)



062/SPS/TRA
Madrid, April 23, 2018 (SPS) - The parliament of Navarre (Spain) passed an institutional statement in which it reiterated its solidarity with the Sahrawi political prisoners in the Moroccan prisons and called for their immediate release, said Monday this institution, while denouncing all the legal proceedings as well as all the political trials conducted by the Moroccan authorities against the Sahrawi population.



In its statement, the Parliament of Navarre called on the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) and also UN Secretary Generals personal Envoy for Western Sahara Horst Kohler to ensure the strict respect of the international law in terms of dealing with the prisoners as well as the respect of the humanitarian international law.



The parliament of Navarre denounced the ongoing human rights violation in the occupied territories of Western Sahara and the situation of Sahrawi political prisoners in all the prisons of Morocco and occupied Western Sahara.



The Spanish movement of solidarity with the Sahrawi people, committed to accompanying the Sahrawi population in its struggle for independence, organizes various activities to shed light on this conflict and denounce the systematic human rights violations by the Moroccan occupier.



In this regard, Spanish filmmaker Laura Sipan will present Tuesday at the movie theatre of Zaragoza her documentary entitled "Soukeina" shot in Western Sahara. (SPS)



062/SPS/APS
With Ann Taylors closure in downtown Westport as part of a national contraction by its parent company, a replacement could be on the horizon in short order with a link to a familiar name.

Sundance, created nearly 30 years ago by actor and director Robert Redford as an apparel catalog company, is eyeing space at 97 Main St. vacated by Ann Taylor, according to a source knowledgeable with the towns retail scene, with the company not responding immediately Tuesday to a Hearst Connecticut Media query.

Sundance is notable for an unconditional guarantee of quality that some other retailers have backed away from, to include L.L Bean earlier this year.

Redford is no stranger to Westport, having performed at the Westport Country Playhouse in 2011 alongside his Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid co-star Paul Newman, and with Redford once owning a home himself in Weston.

Any Sundance arrival would provide a fresh boost for Westport, which has seen the recent departures of The Nike Store and Allen Edmonds among others on Main Street, but where the new Bedford Square development has helped compensate as a magnet for multiple retailers new to southwestern Connecticut, including the new Anthropologie & Co. concept store and Nic+Zoe selling womens apparel.

An Ascena spokesperson did not respond immediately Monday to a query on why the company chose to close in Westport, which has a median household income of $120,000. The Ann Taylor store is part of a retail row owned by Empire State Realty Trust extending from the vacated Nike Store to Athleta, with Main Street the only locale where Empire State Realty has stand-alone retail properties outside New York City, where it is based.

Ascena acquired Ann Inc. in August 2015, adding the Ann Taylor, Loft and Lou & Grey retail brands, with Loft having a location a few blocks from the former Ann Taylor in Westport. Other Ascena stores with multiple locations in southwestern Connecticut include Dressbarn, Justice and Lane Bryant.

Ann Taylor has remaining Connecticut locations in Danbury, New Canaan and Stamford, among others. Midway through a three-year plan targeting $300 million in cost savings by 2019, in March Ascena executives said the company has closed 400 of nearly 670 locations across its brands, including more than 100 stores between November and January as part of a fleet optimization program that left it with 4,600 locations entering 2018.

CEO David Jaffe expressed confidence on a March conference call that women will continue to want to shop in local stores for the ability to touch clothes and try them on, and for the social aspects of the shopping experience.

I think the retail apocalypse is vastly overstated  I think that womens apparel may still be coming out of a little bit of a doldrums over the last number of years, Jaffe said in March. I think the winners are going to be the guys that deliver great product. ... Where weve had great product, weve had great success. Our challenge is to become a little more consistent in that.

Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; @casoulman
Former President George H.W. Bush has been hospitalized in Houston with an infection, just after attending the funeral of his wife Barbara, a spokesman said Monday.

Bush lived in Greenwich before going away to school. His father was Prescott Bush, a U.S. senator from Connecticut. The former president was living in New Haven with his wife, Barbara Bush, when their son George W. Bush was born while Bush was attending Yale University.

Jim McGrath said on Twitter that the 93-year-old Bush is responding to treatments and appears to be recovering. He was admitted Sunday morning to Houston Methodist Hospital after an infection spread to his blood, McGrath said.

Barbara Bush was laid to rest Saturday in a ceremony attended by her husband and former presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and their wives, along with current first lady Melania Trump.

The elder Bush uses a wheelchair and an electric scooter for mobility after developing a former of Parkinsons disease, and he has needed hospital treatment several times in recent years for respiratory problems.

A year ago this month, Bush spent two weeks in the hospital for treatment of pneumonia and chronic bronchitis, a constant irritation of the lining of tubes that carry air to ones lungs. Bushs doctors said chronic bronchitis is a condition more prevalent with age and can aggravate the symptoms of pneumonia.

Bush was hospitalized for 16 days in January 2017 for pneumonia. During that hospital stay, which included time in intensive care, doctors inserted a breathing tube and connected him to a ventilator.

He also was hospitalized in 2015 in Maine after falling at home and breaking a bone in his neck, and in December 2014 for about a week for shortness of breath. He spent Christmas 2012 in intensive care for a bronchitis-related cough and other issues.

George Herbert Walker Bush served as president from 1989 to 1993. Born June 12, 1924, in Milton, Massachusetts, Bush also served as a congressman, CIA director and Ronald Reagans vice president.
STAMFORD  When Anthony Spadaccini started working at the post office, a popular stamp featured a picture of the Stars & Stripes with Long May It Wave printed beneath.

The flag on the 4-cent stamp had 48 stars  Alaska and Hawaii werent even states yet.

When Postal Service officials commemorated Spadaccini this week for his years on the job, they couldnt give him the traditional pin. The USPS doesnt make a pin for 60 years of service.

Tonys going to get a plaque instead, area vice president Ed Phelan said during a ceremony at the Camp Avenue post office.

Then Phelan read a proclamation. The last few words captured the 81-year-old Spadaccini, who still sorts his letters and packages, loads up his truck, and delivers mail eight hours a day, five days a week.

Phelan cited Spadaccini for a continued job well done.

Thats me, Spadaccini said.

Im reliable, he said. Im consistent.

He never calls in sick, fellow mail carrier Dominick Frattaroli said.

Tony probably has three years of sick time on the books, Frattaroli said. All that goes away. Hell never see it.

Thats fine with him, said Spadaccini, who began delivering mail when he was 19.

I like working, he said. I like serving the public.

His experience dates to days when postal workers, wearing badges and guns, brought mail out of New York to Stamford by train, stopping at the downtown rail station and branches in Glenbrook, Springdale and New Canaan.

They sorted the mail on the way up. There would be two rail cars  one for passengers, one for mail, Spadaccini said. They would get in around 2 a.m. and we would be there to pick up our mail. Then they would pick up our outgoing mail and sort that on the way back to New York.

For most of his career Spadaccinis route has been in New Canaan, his hometown.

The wealthy people would get their mail special delivery - that had to go the same day, he recalled. I would have special delivery mail by the sacks, lined up by street name.

When Spadaccini started in 1957, mail carriers delivered to homes in the morning, then picked up mail for businesses and walked the same route to deliver that in the afternoon, often working more than 75 hours a week.

Everything was hand-sorted, Spadaccini said. Mail was all over the place.

Staying power

As USPS officials Monday prepared for Spadaccinis ceremony in the sorting area of the Camp Avenue post office, fellow mail carriers ribbed him.

Hey, Tony, how was it working for Ben Franklin?

Franklin was the nations first postmaster general, appointed by the Continental Congress in 1775.

During the ceremony, a union official pointed out that Spadaccinis first wage was $1.87 an hour.

He probably still makes that, mail carriers joked.

What do they think about hitting the 60-year mark?

Its amazing, mail carrier Danny Thompson said. Ive been here 30 years. If I try to do what Tony did, Ill be 90 years old. I wont last that long.

Its unreal, said carrier Michael Giordano, whose sorting station is beside Spadaccinis. Ive been here 33 years. Id have to be here another 27 years to match him. I couldnt do it.

Its unbelievable, carrier Michael Pelazza said. I was 1 years old when Tony started working here, and I have 42 years with the post office.

Its a remarkable achievement, said Philip Gioia, manager of post office operations.

Tony knows his customers names, their kids names, their dogs names, Gioia said. Everybody - his customers, his peers - likes him.

No date set

David Mastroiani, manager of the USPS district that includes Connecticut, Rhode Island and half of Massachusetts - some 6,000 employees - said its not so much that Spadaccini is an octogenarian.

Its the 60 years on the job. Thats the thing, Mastroiani said. This is the first one Ive seen, and Ive been with the post office 39 years.

Several of the USPS officials who spoke said they werent born when Spadaccini began walking his route.

Stamford Postmaster Jeffrey Salamon said his first assignment as a mail carrier was filling in for Spadaccini.

I was his floater, Salamon said. Hes a great employee. Hes pleasant. He has a good attitude. Hes the guy who cares about his customers. I look up to him.

After receiving his plaque, Spadaccini said a few words to his co-workers.

Youre all nice people, he said. As long as you have your health and you can come to work, you come.

He doesnt have a retirement date, Spadaccini said afterward.

The doctor told me, Dont ever stand still, he said. Its true. Retire, and next thing, youre gone.

acarella@stamfordadvocate.com.
Gong Cha | Facebook

Anchal Lamba and her family have been big fans of bubble tea, a drink popularized in Taiwan made with tea, milk and tapioca balls. When her father returned from a business trip to Hong Kong, he told her that a company named Gong Cha made the best bubble tea he ever had.

On that tip, Lamba sought franchising rights from the Taiwan-based company. It took two years.
NEW CANAAN  In mid-March, the Town Council was divided on whether or not to support a $1 million project for Waveny House renovations. A month later, the council remains split.

I find myself in the unusual position of agreeing with our First Selectman Kevin Moynihan (to support the $1 million bond resolution). This project is 28 years overdue and its waited long enough, Councilman Jim Kucharczyk said at the Town Council meeting Thursday evening.

Waveny House, which can be rented as a venue for weddings and other social events, currently does not have restrooms that abide by the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) passed by Congress in 1990. Officials are concerned that the town could be held liable and face potential lawsuits from the Department of Justice or private law firms for discriminating against individuals with disabilities.

The $1 million bond resolution includes the installation of a conveying system and ADA improvements to the restrooms and the installation of accessible routes of the Waveny House. A birdcage elevator, faithful to a 1900s style and with a price tag of $500,000, has been suggested to fit with the houses historic look.

I feel there are other options than installing a birdcage elevator. Its very expensive and I think it would ruin the historical value of the building, council member Cristina Ross said.

Council member Christa Kenin, who has also served on the Waveny House Committee and the Building Use Committee, was concerned if an elevator was necessary at all.

How are we using the building in the end? I dont think theres enough going on in the second floor to justify the elevator, Kenin said.

Other Town Council members inquired about possible changes regarding the use of the Waveny House if renovations were to take place but the majority agreed that ADA-compliance is the foremost issue.

I want an enhanced social use of the building but it requires ADA compliance by law, Moynihan, who attended the Town Council meeting, said.

The Board of Finance approved the recommendation to bond for this item April 17 but the Town Council will issue its vote on the project May 16.

When Town Council Chairman John Engel asked about the number of members who had objections on approving the bond resolution, at least six members of the council raised their hands. If a tie were to occur on the day of the decision, the First Selectman can cast the tie-breaking vote.

Engel, who pressed on the specificity of the Waveny House project, brought up the budget overruns of the high school fields project that was originally scheduled to be completed last summer but is just now in the final phases. That project went $800,000 over an initially estimated $5.8 million budget.

We got a lot of heat when we didnt ask for that kind of specificity on the fields project and we pledged that we would be very careful going forward, Engel said.

humberto.juarez@hearstmediact.com
I was at a bar recently with MICK, a successful DJ who spins for celebrities and big brands, and we were discussing his future. He has ambitious plans to expand his business, but like any entrepreneur, hes also concerned: Can he pull it off? What if he isnt equipped for the next steps?

Related: 5 Tips for Entrepreneurs to Keep Moving Forward

A day earlier, Id heard a different example of that same fear. A friend in media was considering changing jobs and asked for my advice. Shes a rock star at her publication. But at this new job, Ill just be another employee, she said. What if she cant repeat the success she has right now?

Dig into anybodys future plans and youll hit some version of this anxiety. Its always there, aching and sometimes paralyzing. If we indulge it, we turn down amazing opportunities. We sacrifice our futures in order to cling to the past. We lose. And thats unacceptable. The only way forward is to overcome this anxiety -- and to do that, we first need to understand it. So lets put the question another way. Lets see it for what it really is.

Related: 10 Ways to Move Forward After Suffering a Big Setback

When we worry that we cant repeat our past successes, were essentially asking: What if everything thus far was luck? What if it was my team, or timing, or the benefits of youth? What if none of it had to do with me?

And let me tell you something: Thats crap.

I know this because of the entrepreneurs I meet. They encountered setbacks -- everyone does! -- but they overcame them. The experience taught them that they can survive future setbacks, too. They built one company and learned they can build another. They evolved as leaders and learned they can keep evolving. At the beginning of their journeys, they may not have had such confidence in themselves. But that confidence grew. They proved their worth -- to others, yes, but most importantly to themselves.

I also know this because Ive lived it myself. I remember being at my first magazine job in Boston and considering taking a new job at Mens Health. It was scary. Id made good friends and done good work in Boston; what if I couldnt repeat that? But frightened as I was, I decided to try my hand. Three years later, I was on repeat. Id made good friends and done good work at Mens Health, was offered another job elsewhere, and felt the same fear. What if I cant repeat the success a second time? But I did. And so I came to a conclusion that, frankly, may sound pompous and self-aggrandizing but has helped me walk into every new situation afterward: My success, I decided, wasnt created by the company where I worked. It was created by me.

Entrepreneurs talk a lot about taking responsibility for failure. Its a good message: No excuses! We need to own our mistakes; its the only way to learn from them. But lets not forget to own our successes, too. Our confidence should build upon itself -- knowing that we only start from scratch once, that we have what it takes, that our past simply shows a way forward.

Related: 8 Highly Effective Business Success Tips for Entrepreneurs

Is there a little luck in every success? Sure. We all took risks in our careers, and, through some unmeasurable balance of skill and timing and good fortune, they paid off in ways that led us to where we are. But was it all luck? If we had to do it over again, is there a chance wed end up as failures? No way. Luck just influenced the path. It shifted the winds. If luck had broken for me differently, I wouldnt have this job I have now -- but I am absolutely certain that Id have found some other satisfying path and built some different version of success, and I think the same is true for us all.

Were entrepreneurs: We work with what weve got. Sometimes its a lucky break. Sometimes its not. The important thing is that we keep moving forward -- and know that because we took one big step forward, and we didnt fall down, we will stay standing when we take that next step, too.

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April 22-28 is National Infertility Awareness Week. As both an employer and someone who has struggled with infertility personally, I know this is a topic most leaders know little about.

Related: Employees With Infertility Are Leaving. How These 11 Companies Entice Them to Stay.

As a result, they unknowingly ignore how infertility affects their employees. They don't consider these employees' needs when making decisions, leaving the employees to struggle in silence.

One aspect of the employee experience that isn't often considered from an infertility perspective is parental leave. When a couple struggling with fertility finds a way to become parents, they still have unique needs. They might be exhausted after long and stressful treatments; they may be facing large medical bills.

Unless employers strive to understand and accommodate the unique needs these employees have, "parental benefits" will never be completely inclusive. Here are four things employers can do.

Don't earmark benefits.

Infertility and its causes are far from rare, yet many treatments aren't covered by traditional healthcare benefits. And while most health insurance plans help cover the costs of a traditional pregnancy, an infertile couple can't use insurance to cover the cost of an adoption.

Related: 19 Companies and Industries With Radically Awesome Parental Leave Policies

"At any given time, it's likely that a large portion of a company's employees are either thinking about starting a family, already pregnant or struggling to balance work and a family," Paris Wallace, CEO of the Boston-based women's health and technology company Ovia Health, said via email. "There is no other issue that impacts an organization as profoundly as these challenges."

This is why many employers suggest offering other options, such as a flexible health-spending account. As Lori Casselman, chief health officer of the Toronto-based employee benefit and wellness platform League, pointed out, employees should have more discretion over how they use that money.

Other organizations, like Ovia Health, give new parents a "baby bonus." This means that, no matter how a couple become parents, they receive money to help them financially. The important thing is that every case of infertility is different. So, the less red tape attached to parental benefits, the better.

Provide time up-front.

Most parental-leave policies focus on time off after the child is born. But in the case of infertility, employees often need to take time for significantly more doctor appointments and treatments before any confirmed pregnancy results. If employers aren't understanding of this need, the result for the employee(s) may be more stress on top of an already difficult situation.

To create better flexibility, the New Yorkbased fertility benefits company Progyny has established safety nets. "This support gives people the peace of mind that if they need extra time, they can take it. That comfort level goes a long way," vice president of people Cassandra Pratt said in an email.

The key to making flexibility work is letting employees know their responsibilities are being covered; their absence is not burdening co-workers. Instead, companies plan for situations where, when one employee is out of the office -- for whatever reason -- other members of the team pick up the slack. This way, every employee can help support his or her co-workers without being overworked.

Build understanding.

At all stages of infertility, employees need support and understanding. Unfortunately, there's a stigma around talking about these issues. As a result, most people don't know about or understand what couples with this issue are dealing with.

"Even if your company isn't in a position to offer a fertility benefit, we suggest to first understand the problem and understand what your employee is going through," Pratt said. "Be there for them by showing your support, organizing a support group or by providing outbound education and support."

Never pressure an employee to discuss his or her confidential medical history. But do make sure the workplace is a safe place to share, if that's needed. Also, take the time to raise your team's awareness of infertility. Even if employees don't want to talk about their struggle, the rest of the company can benefit from knowing more about these issues and how to be supportive if someone they know is facing them.

Get feedback.

No matter how well-thought-out their parental benefits are, leaders may still overlook something. This is why it's imperative to gather feedback from employees to identify any gaps.

Start by focusing on which benefits employees actually use, and for how long. Sometimes, a benefit or perk seems like a great idea, but when employees actually use it, they discover it doesn't meet all their needs.

Related: How to Calculate the Right Parental Leave Policy

Also, take the time to ask employees for their opinions. Most people facing infertility are tapped into a network of others with the same issues. They hear about what other companies offer and how they've helped. Encourage employees to reach out when they learn about a new benefit that just might better address their needs.

Related:

The Issue You Probably Forgot to Consider When You Created Your Parental Leave Policies

Employees With Infertility Are Leaving. How These 11 Companies Entice Them to Stay.



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
Its been an April to remember for the legal marijuana industry in the United States.

First came the news that former marijuana opponent John Boehner, the former Speaker of the House, had joined the board of Acreage Holdings, one of the largest cannabis companies in the United States.

Now President Donald Trump has reportedly assured U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado that he will support protection of states that have legalized marijuana from federal interference.

But Trump apparently went beyond even that. In January, Attorney General Jeff Sessions decision to rescind the Cole Memo -- an Obama-era Justice Department memo that essentially protected states that have legalized marijuana from federal interference -- caused concern in the cannabis industry that a crackdown could happen.

According to Gardner, Trump told him that will not be the case. He then went one step beyond that, saying he plans to support changes at the federal level that will strengthen states rights.

Related: Where to Find Funding for a Cannabis Business

All this is based on a statement Gardner released on his website, in which he said, I received a commitment from the president that the Department of Justices rescission of the Cole memo will not impact Colorados legal marijuana industry. Furthermore, President Trump has assured me that he will support a federalism-based legislative solution to fix this states rights issue once and for all.

The White House later confirmed the accuracy of Gardners statement.

Art of the Marijuana Deal

Apparently, all of this -- which seemed unlikely just months ago -- happened because of Sessions decision to rescind the memo.

In reaction to Sessions action, Gardner has since held up 20 of the Trump Administrations nominations to the Department of Justice. Gardner said he would stop blocking nominees based on these commitments he received from Trump that Colorados marijuana industry is not in jeopardy.

While not straightforward, its one of the first signs from the Trump Administration that it wont crack down on legal marijuana states.

Sessions position is well known. Up until this month, Trump had remained largely silent on the marijuana. Marc Short, the legislative affairs director for the White House, told the Washington Post the administration was reluctant to reward Gardners maneuvering.

But at the same time, we're anxious to get our team at the Department of Justice," Short said. He also went on to say that Trump does respect Colorado's right to decide for themselves how to best approach this issue."

That last part is likely what marijuana industry entrepreneurs will most pay attention to.

Related: Marijuana Edibles Make the List of Top 10 Food Trends This Year

Challenges Ahead

Trumps assurances to Gardner, coupled with the Boehner decision, has created yet another buzz in many places about marijuana moving into the mainstream and the challenges it still faces.

One good example is from NPR. While making the point that Boehner certainly did well politically in opposing marijuana, the article also notes that his decision to join the Acreage Holdings board signals a shift.

His decision comes in time to help people who see cannabis as a promising business opportunity, the article states. However, it also points out that minorities continue to get arrested for marijuana in disproportionate numbers and could get shut out of the legal marijuana industry.

To stay up to date on the latest marijuana related news make sure to like dispensaries.com on Facebook

Related:

Trump Basically Says Obama-Era Marijuana Policies Aren't Going to Change

Where to Find Funding for a Cannabis Business

Palantir's Data-Mining Software Was Used to Spy on JPMorgan Staff, and Company Terms Are Getting a Rewrite. 3 Things to Know Today.



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
President Donald Trump just dumped White House physician Ronny Jackson, his ill-chosen nominee to become the Veterans Affairs secretary. Oh, Trump still insists he supports the well-liked doctor, but make no mistake about it: Jackson has been shown the door.

When Trump was asked about the troubled nomination during a joint news conference alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, Trump claimed: "I said to Dr. Jackson, what do you need it for?"

"The fact is I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't do it. What does he need it for? To be abused by a bunch of politicians that aren't thinking nicely about our country? I really don't think personally he should do it but it's totally his - I would stand behind him - totally his decision," Trump said.

Jackson, a Navy rear admiral, was a poor selection from the start, given his lack of experience at running anything that resembles the gargantuan agency that features more than 375,000 employees and a budget that exceeds $185 billion. Then came word late Monday that his confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs was being delayed because of allegations the panel received regarding Jackson's oversight of the White House medical staff, as well as his conduct while in that job.

The president did not pretend to make an argument that Jackson is actually qualified for the job of running a department that Trump has insisted is one of his top priorities. Instead, he said pretty much the opposite: "I know there's an experience problem, because lack of experience. But there's an experience problem - the Veterans Administration is very important to me."

Trump should not blame the ugliness of the confirmation process, when the real fault is entirely his own. Again and again, this president has made personnel decisions the way he did on "Celebrity Apprentice": based on his own whims, rather than anything that resembles a conventional vetting process.

In this case, it was Trump's impulsive decision to abruptly fire David Shulkin, the previous VA secretary, with a tweet, and replace him with a doctor known mostly for an effusively rosy public assessment of the president's own health.

At the news conference, Trump repeated - no fewer than six times - the question he claimed to have put to Jackson: What does Jackson need this job for?

But if the president had actually posed that question, the nominee apparently did not get the message. On Tuesday afternoon, Jackson was still making the rounds of Senate offices on Capitol Hill. Pulled aside in a hallway by NBC News, Jackson expressed disappointment that the committee had postponed his appearance, and said, "I'm looking forward to the hearing, so we can sit down and I can explain everything to everyone and answer all the senators' questions."

Now, it looks like that opportunity may never come.

So yes, in one sense, it was reasonable that Trump would ask why Jackson would want a post for which he was completely unqualified, or be willing to endure the process of getting it. The problem is, Trump should have done that before he offered it.
STAMFORD  A Bridgeport man who is accused of a knifepoint carjacking had an extra year tacked onto his sentence for leading police on a wild chase in 2015.

A Stamford judge increased the sentence to four years for Michael Rivera, 31, who pleaded guilty to engaging police in pursuit, reckless endangerment and criminal mischief.

In February, a Bridgeport judge sentenced Rivera to three years in jail and five years probation after he pleaded guilty to third-degree larceny, carrying a dangerous weapon and possession of a weapon in a motor vehicle.

Rivera said he did not remember the incident because he was high on angle dust at the time.

The chase began after he took a Honda Civic from a man at a Bridgeport gas station at 5:45 a.m. on Oct. 7, 2015. Bridgeport police initially chased Rivera, but state troopers in the area took over as the car headed south on Interstate 95.

The Civic was spotted around Westport speeding and making erratic lane changes, according to police reports.

While approaching exit 14, Rivera twice struck a police cruiser as they tried to box him in, police said.

As traffic increased in the area, another trooper forced the car into the center divider to end the pursuit.

Rivera told police he had been smoking angel dust, a powerful hallucinogenic also known as PCP, according to police reports. He said he believed people were chasing him and asked some guy for his car.

jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com
STAMFORD  An unexpected guilty plea has brought some closure for a woman whose mother was strangled to death by her longtime boyfriend in their Wolfpit Avenue apartment four years ago.

Days before his murder trial was set to begin, Bertony Thompson, 48, pleaded guilty Tuesday to killing Jacalyn Silverman, 62. Thompson will be sentenced in July to 25 years in jail.

Our families can finally put this past us, Silvermans daughter, Jennifer, said.

My mother was a great person and had many other people who looked up to her. She was taken away from us abruptly. She is truly missed and she will always be with us with everything we do. She was an awesome person.

As the fourth day of jury selection was set to begin, the guilty murder plea was made according to the Alford Doctrine, which states the defendant does not agree with the states case, but Thompson realizes he likely would have been found guilty if he went to trial.

Permitting the Alford plea and the offer of the minimum mandatory sentence outweighed the risk the jury might not accept that Bertony Thompson was so intoxicated that his intoxication caused a substantial disturbance of his mental capacities, Thompsons defense attorney Allen L. Williams, said in an email.

Thompson previously rejected a deal that would have sent him to jail for 28 years.

But as the trial was set to begin next week, Thompsons defense became more difficult to present to the jury. Judge John Blawie ruled last week that Thompsons confession could be presented at the trial.

Hours after Thompson was found lying unconscious in bed next to his dead girlfriend of 20 years, police said he confessed to wrapping his hands around Silvermans neck and pushed her away. He said the two got into a tussle over his drinking.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner later determined Silverman had been strangled and she had bruises and other injuries consistent with Thompson putting a knee on her chest and choking her when she died.

When he realized she was dead, Thompson tried to drink himself to death and sent a text message to his father, asking his body be brought home to North Carolina.

Police said Thompson was taken to Norwalk Hospital with a blood-alcohol level of 0.409, about five times the legal driving limit of 0.08.

Thompsons attorney had argued the confession should be thrown out because his client was not in his right mind.

But an emergency room doctor testified that Thompson would have metabolized the alcohol by the time police spoke to him 16 hours later and the judge agreed to allow the confession to be presented to a jury.

jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com
First up CityFibre.

The AIM listed firm is being bought by a consortium that includes Goldman Sachs for 538 million, a deal that increases the pressure on BTs Openreach arm.

Private equity house Antin and Goldman Sachs West Street Infrastructure Partners are paying 81p a share for CityFibre, near double yesterdays share price.

CityFibre has been targeting areas Openreach has struggled to reach, building ultra-fast full-fibre internet networks in cities such as Peterborough and elsewhere.

It signed a deal to expand with Vodafone last year and aims to reach 20% of the UK population. Previously, it set up a broadband network in York in partnership with TalkTalk and Sky.

CityFibre is only just in profit, but revenues doubled to 35 million for the year.

Peel Hunt said in a note: CityFibre has had a weak equity performance since the Vodafone deal despite positive news from the industry. TalkTalk and Openreach playing catch-up shows they are concerned and that the investment made by CityFibre since inception was right.

CityFibre chairman Chris Stone said: Under private ownership, CityFibre will be able to gain alternative and potentially easier access to the financing required for its announced FTTH (fibre-to-the-home) deployment.
I ts been 50 years since Enoch Powells poisonous Rivers of Blood speech, some 25 years since Stephen Lawrences murder, and the Home Office is embroiled in a race scandal of disgraceful proportions. Fresh tales of the Windrush generation living in fear of deportation surface, their lives left in tatters by uncivilised politics and divisive policy.

As the anti-immigration rhetoric emanating out of Brexit persists, I recognised St Georges Day with a weary sigh: Stephen Lawrences legacy serves to remind us of one thing  he would be ashamed of this nations government, just as I am.

On that day in 1993, I woke up, put on my school uniform, went downstairs and made some toast before running for my bus. Dont take your usual route, said my mum. Avoid Well Hall, theres been a murder.

The night before, Stephen Lawrence, an 18-year-old aspiring architect, was fatally stabbed by a gang of racists a few roads away from his home, and mine. His death rocked our community, changing us all for ever. Stephen was at school with my friends brothers, no rougher than any other south-east London comprehensive. Some of those linked to Stephens murder went to my school  some of their relations were in my year.

His death made an indelible mark on this countrys psyche. It forced British society to think differently about race, and has finally prompted Theresa May to announce a memorial day in his honour. But all these years later, in a horrible irony, the anniversary coincides with the scandal which could have easily affected his own parents, who came to England in the Sixties as part of the Windrush generation.

Stephens mother, Doreen, has warned that racism still blights Britain, that discrimination is rife within education, housing and employment. As Dawn Butler MP accuses Theresa May of presiding over racist legislation, we are reminded of the words of Imran Khan, the Lawrence family lawyer  politicians set the parameters of how society behaves.

Amber Rudd has at last issued an apology for the unintended and devastating effects of the hostile immigration policy which has affected people like Trevor and Desmond Johnson, who arrived from Jamaica in 1971. Trevor has faced threats of deportation. Desmond has not been able to return since going to his fathers funeral in Jamaica in 2001, nor seen his daughter for 16 years.

Their plight and others like them was put into sharp focus last week when I attended the citizenship ceremony of a Canadian friend at Kensington Town Hall. It could have passed for a Richard Curtis film; dedicated, hard-working people striving to be part of our nation. Were they doing it to take advantage of our NHS and benefits system? It didnt look like it to me.

These people were wearing red, white and blue, hugging their loved ones, taking family photos underneath a portrait of the Queen. Welcome aboard, said the registrar, before we stood for the national anthem and celebrated with tea and biscuits.

They left clutching certificates  their proof that they are valued by this nation, and that they belong. Its all right for some.

Contraceptive implants for teens? Try sex education first

The news that 10,000 under-15s were fitted with contraceptive implants without their parents knowledge is enough to floor even the most liberal among us.

GPs implanting something into a child without informing parents is shocking. Not to mention that an implant prevents pregnancy but does not stop the spread of STDs, putting the onus on the girl to protect herself and arming the boy with a persuasive argument: Tell Miss you need one of those contraceptive thingys.

Of course underage teenagers will do it anyway, so its better they are protected. Having a device implanted in her arm is arguably better than a girl having to get an abortion when faced with the prospect of a careless conception and unwanted pregnancy.

But surely this treats the symptom and not the cause. Wheres decent sex education when you need it?

* Congratulations to the Duchess and Duke of Cambridge upon the arrival of their little boy, yet to be named at the time of going to press, but who arrived inside the Ibis hotel in Mayfair, sorry, I mean the Lindo Wing.

Kate Middleton with her new prince
A nti-semitism is a poison that must be challenged wherever it raises its head, across Europe and at home. Hatred and bigotry towards Jewish people has no place in our society, whether on the streets or online. And that of course goes for the Labour Party too.

Today I am meeting leaders of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council to discuss working together to tackle both old and new forms of anti-Semitism.

We have a particular duty to lead the fight against anti-Semitism in and around our party and movement. Jews have found a natural home in the Labour Party since its foundation, and been central to our movement.

The party has a long and proud record of standing against anti-Semitism. Jews belong in the Labour Party and we are utterly committed to making it a safe and welcoming place for them.

But we must also face the uncomfortable fact that a small number of our members and supporters hold anti-Semitic views and attitudes, which need to be confronted and dealt with more rapidly and effectively.

The evidence is clear enough. Labour staff have seen examples of Holocaust denial, crude stereotypes of Jewish bankers, conspiracy theories blaming 9/11 on Israel, and even one member who appeared to believe that Hitler had been misunderstood.

So let me be clear. People holding those views have no place in the Labour Party. They may be few  the number of cases over the past three years represents less than 0.1 per cent of Labours membership of more than half a million  but one is too many.

We are taking action. In the past fortnight more than 20 individuals have been suspended from party membership, and more are being investigated. But we have not done enough to get to grips with the problem, and the Jewish community and our Jewish members deserve an apology. My party and I are sorry for the hurt and distress caused.

Protest: Labour MP Luciana Berger speaks out at an anti-Semitism march last month / Getty Images

We must strive to understand why anti-Semitism has surfaced in our party, which has always stood for equality for all and opposed racism and discrimination.

As I indicated in my letter last month to the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council, there are two particular contemporary sources. First, individuals on the fringes of the movement of solidarity with the Palestinian people can stray into anti-Semitic views.

The struggle for justice for the Palestinian people and an end to their dispossession is a noble one  just as a genuine two-state solution is essential to lasting peace in the Middle East. But when criticism of or opposition to the Israeli government uses anti-Semitic ideas  attributing its injustices to Jewish identity, demanding that Jews in Britain or elsewhere answer for its conduct, or comparing Israel to the Nazis  then a line must be drawn.

Anti-Zionism is not in itself anti-Semitic and many Jews themselves are not Zionists. But there are also a very few who are drawn to the Palestinian question precisely because it affords an opportunity to express hostility to Jewish people in a respectable setting. Our movement must not be a home for such individuals.

Second, there are people who have come to see capitalism and imperialism as the product of conspiracy by a small shadowy elite rather than a political, economic, legal and social system. That is only a step from hoary myths about Jewish bankers and sinister global forces.

I have no truck with any attempt to divide the Jewish community into the right and wrong sort of Jews

These views do no service to the struggle for a just society. Instead, they reproduce the sort of scapegoating that we recognise when directed at ethnic or religious minorities.

Anti-Semitism was responsible for the worst crimes of the 20th century. According to a survey conducted last year by two leading Jewish community organisations, anti-Semitic views are held by a minority in Britain, and are more likely to be found on the right of politics. But we did not look closely enough at ourselves.

I also believe our partys structures, built to service a far smaller membership than we have now, have been simply not fully fit for purpose when it has come to dealing with complaints about anti-Semitism.

The problem has been aggravated by social media, which is where most of the instances of abuse appear to take place. Some high-profile cases have also been delayed by legal proceedings, and the reforms proposed by Shami Chakrabarti two years ago to make our response more effective were not fully implemented.

That is why our new general secretary Jennie Formby has, on my instruction, made it her priority to get on top of this problem and ensure that all complaints are dealt with swiftly and fairly, with investigations resourced as necessary. She will be setting out her plans in the coming weeks, including the appointment of a new legal adviser, and we are already taking action in many cases.

We will also embark on a programme of political education to deepen Labour members understanding of what anti-Semitism is and how to counter it.

When members of Jewish communities express genuine anxieties we must recognise them as we would those of any other community. Their concerns are not smears.

I want to engage with the full range and diversity of Jewish organisations and have no truck with any attempt to divide the Jewish community into the right and wrong sort of Jews. Debate and pluralism are abiding characteristics of the Jewish community, and I celebrate them both within and without the Labour Party.

I hope that by taking the steps outlined, Labour will be reconnecting with our finest traditions of solidarity and equality. We stand with any community beleaguered or subject to hateful prejudice.
T he appearance of the Duchess of Cambridge with her new son yesterday was nothing short of incredible. She had only seemed to be in labour for a matter of minutes  and then she was standing on the steps of the Lindo Wing, looking as fresh as a daisy, clutching the new royal baby in her arms, smiling into hundreds of camera lenses.

Well might Prince William have beamed too. His wifes embrace of royal dutifulness is a source of great credit to her and reflects well on him. They are writing the handbook of how to be royal in the 21st century  and doing so with aplomb. For William, steeped in this world from his birth, such an achievement is impressive but expected. Catherine has learned as an adult and shown great skill.

She demonstrated that yesterday. I suspect appearing before the worlds media hours after giving birth would not have been her first choice but she did it, and had the grace to smile through the experience.

This young prince is a welcome diversion from the otherwise rancorous and depressing atmosphere of our news cycle.

Cynics be damned: the birth of new life is always worth celebrating, even more so when we can do so as a nation. The royal baby has brightened up our days, not just with thoughts of the future but with smiles.

Ray Stokes

EDITOR'S REPLY

Dear Ray

From the moment she married William in April 2011, Catherines life has been only half her own. It was a choice she made, but it was a brave one. She could not have known what was to come.

So it is with this child. He is already a product of his age  the first royal son whose sister, Charlotte, two years older, will be ahead of him in the line of succession.

Every new baby is cause for celebration but a royal baby lets the rest of the nation in on the party. Thats what the royal family does; it projects the joys and sorrows of family life on to the national stage. It is this familial aspect that makes it easy for people to identify with, in a way that doesnt tend to happen in a presidency.

Still, the Duchess has set a formidable example for other women, in presenting herself flawless before the cameras, hours after having a baby. Other new mothers should not feel obliged to follow suit.

Melanie McDonagh, Senior Writer

Too many farmers are still ignoring the benefits of veganism

It is good to see so much mention of vegan food by Emily Sheffield in her column [Vegan burgers are a trial for my family, April 20] and Joy Lo Dico in hers [Eat greens  and drink infrared water, April 20].

I suspect that Lo Dico was slightly tongue-in-cheek but there is a serious point to her pondering of the fate of livestock farmers. There is currently too much livestock farming for the good of the environment, especially in countries such as Britain. There is a genuine need to retrain livestock farmers in environmentally less damaging work.

Agriculture needs to be environmentally scrutinised as toughly as any other industry. It certainly does not warrant special privileges on the basis of being a food-producing industry.

Charles EL Gilman

London Vegans

Dont rely for trade on Commonwealth

Carl Mortished [Commonwealth trade is not a rational solution to Brexit, April 19) clearly spells out our future outside the EU, giving the lie to those who refuse to accept the outlook is not as they pretend: that Commonwealth countries will welcome us as their partners.

With the 53 nations of the Commonwealth providing only 9 per cent of the UKs trade against 43 per cent with the EU, how can those negotiating our future claim this will provide jobs for this country? Commonwealth countries are mainly developing nations who value the agreements they have struck with the EU and would not want to throw their efforts away. If we leave the single market and the customs union, the future for this country adrift from our closest and richest market does not look bright.

Linda Green

Immigration law must be clearer

Enforcing immigration law (and laws in general) should be the job of accountable entities, such as the Home Office and the police. If we make everyone responsible for enforcing immigration laws, and fine landlords, banks, employers and doctors for failing to ask someone for their documents, then we are making ordinary people a part of the apparatus of the state, under threat of punishment.

The British legal system is based on the assumption of innocence. People suspected of being illegal are stripped of this right. We must return to an immigration system that is enforced responsibly, and only by a legally accountable branch of the state, acting in a transparent way, before we slide too far to come back.

We are all migrants or the descendants of migrants.

Caroline Kraabel

We have to stay in the customs union

THERESA May should have the courage to keep Britain in the customs union, as recommended last week by a large majority in the House of Lords. A clear majority in the country would support this, as it would safeguard jobs and livelihoods. Leaving the customs union would require a vast increase in bureaucracy at great cost to taxpayers, as thousands of customs officers would have to be hired for the new system of control.
T he unveiling of the statue of suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square is a dream come true, says the woman behind the campaign for it.

Caroline Criado Perezs petition calling for a statue recognising the suffrage campaign was signed by almost 85,000 people. Today she attended the ceremony alongside artist Gillian Wearing, Sadiq Khan and Theresa May.

She said: When I went for a run in Parliament Square two years ago and first noticed that all the statues there were of men I could never have imagined quite how perfectly the dream would eventually be realised.

Gillian Wearings design is everything I could ever have wanted and more for the first statue of a woman in Parliament Square. Im so grateful to everyone who worked so hard on this campaign to make this happen. Its been a brilliant team effort, and one Im so proud to have played a part in.

Millicent Fawcett statue unveiled in Parliament Square

To unveil the work, she joined Jennifer Loehnis, a descendant of Fawcett, deputy mayor for culture Justine Simons, and two schoolgirls from Westminster and Lambeth. Mr Khan said he hoped the statue would lead to further change across society  driving forward gender equality and inspiring women and girls across the capital and UK.

My huge thanks to Caroline for her passionate campaigning and to Gillian Wearing, who has brought Millicent Fawcett and her legacy to life through this magnificent work.

Fawcett, the first woman to be commemorated with a statue in the square, was a prominent campaigner for the right to vote as well as attempting to open up higher education to women.

In 1918, she watched from the public gallery as MPs passed the Representation of the People Act, granting voting rights for the first time to some women. She died a year later.
T he chef behind the worlds first Michelin-starred Indian restaurant is to launch a new venue in Chelsea where diners will be encouraged to eat with their fingers.

Peter Joseph, who was until recently head chef at Mayfairs Tamarind  which won its star in 2001  will launch Kahani opposite Cadogan Hall this summer.

The new restaurant is inspired by the chefs upbringing in Tamil Nadu, Indias southern-most state, and will encourage diners to forgo the formalities of fine dining by using their fingers for the first course.

The menu will feature just two curries alongside many more grills and salads, with only three or four ingredients used per dish in contrast to traditionally complex Indian cooking.

Star chef: Peter Joseph

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Dishes will include golden beetroot tikka, masala-grilled avocado and tandoori calamari along with build-your-own skewers studded with rabbit kebabs, venison, langoustines and blue crabs. A chilli chocolate mousse bomb and melt-in-the-middle rose and pistachio cheesecake will be among the non-traditional puddings.

Seasonal British ingredients will take centre stage  literally  as they are cooked on a central Japanese-style robata grill and in an Indian tandoor oven. The restaurant, due to open in July, will make use of brightly coloured Indian-style fabrics for decoration, while a bar area will serve spice-infused cocktails.
S treet food weather is shining back down on the capital  and balmier days have us all feeling a little more continental than usual, even if you do have to have a jacket on hand.

There are few better ways to beat the brisk breeze and summon the sights and smells of an Iberian mercado than by picking up a portion of traditional Spanish churros and dunking them in a cup of hot, rich chocolate sauce.

The dish of deep fried dough sticks can be spotted at street markets across London, charming London with their simplicity and for being just about most indulgent thing you can eat.

Heres where you can get dipping your dough in London.

Churros Garcia

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This family run business has been championing the churro for fifty years, harking back to when matriarch Encarnacion Garcia Fuenteseca bought her first churros oven. Since then, the family have continued to make churros in the traditional way in London, freshly fried on site and doused in sugar, cinnamon and Spanish Valor chocolate. Find them summoning up the snack at Portobello Market and popping up at events across the capital.

Portobello Road Market, W10 5TA, churrosgarcia.co.uk

Love Churros

Love Churros started out as a stall at Hyde Parks Winter Wonderland, before the popularity of the dish encouraged them to serve them up all year round. Theyre so dedicated to the quality of their doughnut-like delight that they take all new staff members out to training courses in Valladolid, Spain. Dipping fodder comes courtesy of some silky Belgian chocolate.

Pop Brixton, 49 Brixton Station Road, SW9 8PQ, lovechurrosuk.com

La Churreria

They may be named after the traditional churros shops of Spain but La Churreria is thinking outside the box with its churros menu. The churros here are served with toppings including marshmallows and popping candy for the adventurous and the option of a butterscotch dipping sauce. Catch them in Camden Market at their KERB street food spot.

Camden Lock Place, Camden Town, NW1 8AF, kerbfood.com

Brazilian Churros

The Spanish can claim the origin of the deep-fried dish but its also popular across South America. This stall in Greenwich Market show London how the Brazilians do it. Theres come with an abundance of ridges to catch the sugary goodness and the option of filling the tube with dulce de leche. They pride themselves on using totally vegan dough, and serving them with vegan chocolate fudge sauce.

Greenwich Market, SE10 9HZ, greenwichmarket.london

Seven at Brixton

Walking down the street with churros is quite a joy but if you want a seat then Seven at Brixton is a more than adequate spot for both. This simple but satisfying tapas and cocktails spot in Brixton Market serves up their churros with cinnamon and hot chocolate. Its perfect bar food for the sweet-toothed, especially with an ample Spanish wine menu on hand to accompany it.

7 Market Row, Brixton, SW9 8LB, sevenatbrixton.com
H ave you ever wondered how long it took for you and your friend to become friends? If so, a recent study appears to have uncovered the answer: 90 hours. That's 90 hours of quality time spent chatting, joking, laughing... (Simply 'working together' doesn't count).

The research, carried out by Jeffrey Hall, associate communications professor at the University of Kansas, looked into how long new acquaintances had spent getting acquainted, and how their relationships had developed the more they saw each other.

A study in two parts, the first questioned 355 adults who had recently relocated and made new friends, on how many hours they'd spent with their new pals, and about the shared activities they'd undertaken.

The study then asked participants to categorise each of the friends into one of four categories: acquaintance, casual friend, friend and close friend.

He used this information to work out how long it takes people to move those they meet up their personal scale of friendship.

In the second part of the study, Dr. Hall questioned 112 freshers from the University of Kansas on the number of hours they had spent with two new friends, three times, over nine weeks.

Combining the results of both studies, Dr. Hall concluded it takes 50 hours for people to view those they meet as 'casual friends', and up to 90 hours before they're important enough to be considered a 'friend'.

For a really good pal, however, the research revealed 200 hours of quality time was needed for a person to earn themselves the coveted title of 'close friend'.

When people transition between stages, theyll double or triple the amount of time they spend with that other person in three weeks time, Dr. Hall explained.

We have to put that time in, he said. You cant snap your fingers and make a friend. Maintaining close relationships is the most important work we do in our lives - most people on their deathbeds agree.
I m sitting at a wooden bench surrounded by food trucks overlooking a huge, colourful mural. I sip my Jamaica  an icy blend of hibiscus and lime  as the sun beats down on the baked sidewalks of the Los Angeles Arts District.

On the other side of the street, a photographer directs a slim Latina model, and hipster types wander past clutching iced coffees, trying to find shade.

In a city gridlocked with cars, the Arts District stands out as walkable  and also offers a constantly evolving street culture of art galleries, craft coffee, microbreweries and fine dining.

Sandwiched between 28,000 homeless people who sleep on Skid Row every night and the fiercely proud immigrant community of Boyle Heights, the Arts Districts revamp of a former industrial area is, at a glance, typical gentrification.

But as artists moved into its factories, warehouses and abandoned buildings in the Seventies, their creativity spilled out into murals, galleries  and now bars and restaurants.

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Today its dubbed LAs outdoor museum.

LA in a nutshell

Part of the Arts Districts appeal is that you can still find LA hipster staples: an outpost of Venice Beachs infamous vegan restaurant Cafe Gratitude; sausage and beer joint Wurstkuche; gourmet cake store The Pie Hole. Theyre tucked inside old industrial buildings that yield up their past in proud, peeling paint signs lovingly preserved from the last century.

Cafe Gratitude in LA's Arts District / Nicholas Roberts

Restaurants and coffee shops sit alongside quirky bookstores such as Hennessey + Ingalls, the largest art, architecture and design shop in the western US, and incredible gallery spaces such as the high-ceilinged Hauser & Wirth.

The Box fiercely advocates for its Skid Row neighbours with exhibitions such as the current Zillionaires Against Humanity: Sabotaging the Skid Row Neighborhood Council.

Hipster eats

Art draws people to the area but its food that keeps them here.

Long before the Arts District was on the map, Mexican restaurant La Reyna was serving tacos for $2. Forced out by developers, it closed in 2016 after two decades, but the defiant owners bought food trucks instead and can be found rolling all over downtown.

Popular French bistro Church & State occupies the Twenties headquarters of the National Biscuit Company alongside the ivy-covered, exposed-brick Bestia.

Festival, Arts District in Los Angeles / LHB Photo / Alamy Stock Photo

The latters simple but exceptional fresh pasta and pizza has garnered chef Ori Menashe countless gongs in the four years since it opened. Book well ahead or beg for a seat at the bar when it opens at 5pm.

Another must-eat? The Everson Royce Bar, or ERB, as famous for its organic burgers as its mixology, giving traditional cocktails a unique twist with rare and homemade ingredients. It was named one of the best bars in America in 2017.

Sleek stays

Like every major city, Los Angeles struggles with the balance between development and affordability but the Arts District has always reappropriated spaces with a nod to the original inhabitants, promoting community projects such as Art Share LA, which provides affordable live-work spaces for artists.

Pretty much every location in the Arts District has some obvious history etched into fading signs, rusty pipes and crumbling brick. The details are a whiff of a different, grimier era  anywhere from art deco to punk, whether thats the laid-back budget American Hotel or one of the oldest artist communities in the world, the Brewery Arts Colony, which is located in a former beer factory.

In a city so sprawling that Angelenos often feel isolated in their Prius bubbles, the Arts District fosters a laid-back, 24-hour, chill-out vibe, plus a real sense of pride and community.

Here, your tourist status wont be held against you. Instead, youll find yourself patted on the back for being smart enough to swap the bars of the Sunset Strip for a freshly pulled pint in the peace of the art deco Angel City Brewery or playing restored vintage pinball at EightyTwo.

Think of it as the Dalston of LA  with better weather, of course.

Details
F our men have been arrested in an armed swoop by South African police investigating the shooting of a woman on a remote farm.

Shaun Vorster, 51, David Thomas, 67, and his wife Brenda, 61, had been enjoying a reunion barbecue with Mrs Thomass sister Heila Kilian, 63, when five masked and armed robbers appeared out of the darkness.

One fired a single shot, killing Ms Kilian instantly. The three others were tied up, beaten and threatened by the robbers, who demanded money and weapons.

Mr Thomas, originally from London, told his torturers they had no money but were Christians building a community on their farm where people were welcome to stay.

Mr Vorster, a tenant farmer, eventually handed over around 2,300 in cash. The gang also took a collection of firearms and hunting knives from a safe, before escaping in Mr Thomass estate car.

Last weeks attack  just outside Stilbaai in the Western Cape, a four-hour drive from Cape Town  has spread alarm through the farming community, which has been targeted frequently.
T his is the first picture of the man suspected of driving a van into pedestrians in Toronto, killing 10 people and injuring 15.

Alek Minassian, 25, was detained several streets away from the scene of the horrific crash in the Canadian city on Monday.

He was not previously known to authorities, police said.

Police chief Mark Saunders said the incident definitely looked deliberate but added that the motive was still unknown.

Moment Toronto van attack suspect is arrested

Former classmates of Minassian, from the suburb of Richmond Hill in northern Toronto, said he attended a school for students with special needs.

Shereen Chami said he would be seen walking around Thornlea Secondary School with his hands together and his head down, making meowing noises.

Toronto van incident - in pictures 1 /15 Toronto van incident - in pictures Police are seen near a damaged van after a vehicle mounted a pavement crashing into pedestrians in Toronto AP Emergency services close Yonge Street in Toronto after the van mounted a sidewalk AP A rented van sits on a sidewalk about a mile from where several pedestrians were killed EPA Toronto police talk to a woman in the aftermath of the crash Rex Features Police investigate at the scene EPA A couple look down the road after an incident where a van struck multiple people at a major intersection in north Toronto Reuters A police officer speaks with a witness Reuters The road was closed off following the horrifying incident Getty Images Emergency services closed Yonge Street while police investigated AP A Toronto police officer patrols along Yonge Street EPA The front end damage of the van AFP/Getty Images People react to an incident where a van struck multiple people at a major intersection in Toronto's northern suburbs, in Ontario, Canada Reuters Police work the scene on Yonge Street at near Finch Avenue Getty Images People light candles at a makeshift memorial to the victims after a van mounted a sidewalk crashing into pedestrians in Toronto AP The front end damage of the van sits on a sidewalk about a mile from where several pedestrians were injured EPA

"He wasn't a social person, but from what I remember he was absolutely harmless," she said.

Video footage, shot by a bystander, has emerged appearing to show the moment he was arrested.

In the clip, a man claiming to have a gun repeatedly points an object at a police officer who shouts at him to get down as the suspect demands "kill me".

Toronto attack: Police name man arrested as 10 confirmed dead

The man was then detained. No shots were fired, according to reports.

Horrified witnesses described how the speeding vehicle mounted the curb and hit people walking on the pavement in one of Toronto's busiest streets.

Shoes, torn clothing and bodies covered with tarpaulins were pictured strewn across Yonge Street after the attack at about 1.30pm local time.

Witness Phil Zullo told Canadian Press he saw people "strewn all over the road".

"It must have seen about five, six people being resuscitated by bystanders and by ambulance drivers," he added. "It was awful. Brutal."

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described it as a "tragic and senseless attack" that brought him "great sadness".

He said: "On behalf of all Canadians, I offer my heartfelt condolences to the loved ones of those who were killed, and my thoughts for a fast and full recovery to those injured.
A n irate wife who threw bleach into the face of a woman she believed was having an affair with her husband has been jailed for two years.

Aboseda Ajayi, 42, flew into a rage when she saw Jane Ocran sitting in her convertible Mercedes outside her home. She emptied a bottle of household bleach over her head and beat her with her wig.

Ajayi, a former Ministry of Justice administrator, repeatedly slapped and punched Ms Ocran before battering her with her own handbag, Inner London crown court heard.

Prosecutor Polly Dyer said Ms Ocran escaped serious injury as her sunglasses protected her eyes from the bleach, but she was left screaming in pain after the attack on June 17 last year.

The court heard Ms Ocran, who denies an affair was taking place, had been shopping that day with Mr Ajayi and had just returned to his home in Brixton. Ms Ajayi was shouting at her you b*tch, sleeping with my husband, f***ing my husband, said Ms Dyer.

The prosecutor said Ajayi grabbed Ms Ocrans handbag during the attack. The defendant took off her own wig and used it to hit Ms Ocran, slapping and punching her a number of times in the head, said Ms Dyer. The defendant emptied the contents of the handbag into the street and then walked back inside her home.

Passers-by doused Ms Ocrans face with water, and she was treated in hospital for soreness to her eyes. In a victim impact statement, she revealed she lives in fear of Ajayi doing it to her again. Gerwyn Wise, mitigating, said Ajayi had been the victim of domestic violence during her 16-year marriage, and her husband had openly embarked on several extra-marital affairs.

Judge Benedict Kelleher sentenced Ajayi to two years in prison, telling her: This was a vicious attack that could have caused serious and disfiguring injuries.
A nightclub at the centre of a murder investigation has been shut down after staff were allegedly caught selling laughing gas balloons over the bar.

The South Pole in Greenwich High Road had its licence called in for review. Workers were reportedly seen on CCTV handing the balloons, filled with nitrous oxide, also known as hippy crack, to customers. It followed a series of violent incidents, including punters turning up armed with bats, knives and knuckledusters, and attacking staff.

In February, Jozef Boci was beaten on the street following a brawl inside. The 30-year-old from Catford died in hospital six days later. Four men have since been charged with his murder.

Scotland Yard asked Greenwich council to review the licence for the basement nightclub and its upstairs sister venue the North Pole, a restaurant/bar.

Officers say there were 12 violent incidents across the venues in seven months and extensive use of laughing gas.

They agreed the North Pole can stay open with reduced hours.

The South Pole has since been closed by owners the Zinnureyin family, who say they intend to take it upmarket. A police spokesman said: There are allegations of drugs being smoked within the premises and police have CCTV of bar staff selling inflated balloons to patrons, who are seen to suck the balloons.

This is believed to be ... nitrous oxide, an offence under the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016. There have been reports of door staff being bottled, fights outside, including a male being hit with a bat, another with a knuckleduster and suspects armed with knives.

Gary Grant, barrister at Francis Taylor Building, said owner Osman Zinnureyin had agreed to make way for a new pre-mises supervisor. The bar staff alleged to have provided balloons were no long employed and the North Pole would be turned into a modern venue serving craft beer and high-quality food.
E U chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier piled pressure on Theresa May today to adapt her red lines to gain a good trade deal for Britain.

He demanded more clarity from the Government over its aims and stressed that the role of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) overseeing any Brexit agreement still had to be resolved.

Mr Barnier also warned that while the divorce settlement could be signed off by Brussels and EU governments, the future trade deal needed the unanimous consent of European parliaments.

The Prime Minister has laid down a series of red lines for Britain to take back control of its borders, laws and money. She says the UK will not sign up to a new customs union and will leave the single market.

In a speech in Hanover, Germany, last night, Mr Barnier said: It is now up to the UK to come up with its vision for the future, which should confirm the UKs red lines or adapt them.

Michael Barnier: The EU's chief negotiator says Britain has until the end of 2020 to change its mind on the single market / REUTERS

He said that to get a frictionless trade relationship, such as the so-called Norway Plus model, which would include open access to the single market and for selling British financial services into the EU, the Government would have to make major concessions. Norway plus means  they have to change their red lines, he explained. This is the only frictionless model for the business to avoid controls.

You cannot have free movement of services without free movement of goods, and so forth. And you cannot have free movement of goods without free movement of people.

He also appeared to signal a tough line on the ECJ continuing to have judicial oversight over the final Brexit agreement. Without an agreement on governance, there is no credibility of this treaty for stakeholders, for business, he said.

Key Brexit Players - In pictures 1 /6 Key Brexit Players - In pictures David Davis Reuters Michel Barnier AP Tim Barrow AFP/Getty Images Oliver Robbins Sabine Weyand Didier Seeuws AFP/Getty Images

A trade deal would have to be ratified by unanimity by the 27 remaining EU nations parliaments, and in some cases regional parliaments, as well as the EU institutions, he said. Nobody can underestimate the risks, he added.

Meanwhile, Valdis Dombrovskis, the European commissioner for financial services, said a probable outcome for the City after Brexit would be a regime of equivalence, with Brussels exercising unilateral and discretionary powers to judge whether UK regulations met its standards. If they did not, the EU could withdraw access to its markets.

Britain is seeking a more bespoke and permanent arrangement.
J eremy Corbyn today admits that anti-Semitism is a clear problem in Labour that the party has failed to tackle properly.

Writing exclusively in the Evening Standard ahead of a key meeting with Jewish community leaders, he offers his most contrite apology yet for the failings.

We have not done enough fully to get to grips with the problem, and for that the Jewish community and our own Jewish members deserve an apology, he writes. My party and I are sorry for the hurt and distress caused.

His emotional mea culpa goes further than ever before by confessing the scale of the problem and by telling his own Left-wing followers they need to change their thinking and behaviour.

Jeremy Corbyn arriving to attend the unveiling of a statue of suffragist and women's rights campaigner Millicent Fawcett on Tuesday / AFP/Getty Images

Mr Corbyn says the partys internal checks have been simply not fully fit for purpose and we did not look closely enough at ourselves.

Labour must strive to understand why anti-Semitism has surfaced in its ranks. He also expresses regret that Baroness Chakrabartis reform plans were not fully implemented two years ago. Mr Corbyn is due to hold a one-hour meeting tonight with the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council. Both groups said they would not comment until after the meeting, which they hoped would result in action not words.

It comes a week after Labours leadership was humiliated in a Commons debate as MPs and others stood up to reveal how they had suffered anti-Semitic abuse including death threats. MPs say they are worried the issue will depress the partys hopes of winning seats in next weeks borough elections.

Standing ovation in Parliament for anti-semitism speech

In a message to Left-wingers who have used social media to round on Jewish critics, Mr Corbyn writes: Their concerns are not smears. He goes on: We must strive to understand why anti-Semitism has surfaced in our party, which has always stood for equality for all, and opposed racism and discrimination. He also unveils an action plan including, critically, the delayed implementation of Baroness Chakrabartis 2016 recommendations that were made after an inquiry into the problem.

Among the immediate measures will be her call for the appointment of a specialist legal counsel to advise on cases, one of 20 recommendations that were not fully implemented. New general secretary Jennie Formby will shortly set out the plans, which include measures to investigate complaints more quickly and a programme of political education at grass roots level.

The Labour leaders admissions go further than his previous statement about pockets of anti-Semitism being a problem. He says anti-Semitic views, although confined to a minority, are undeniable and horrific. The evidence is clear enough, he said, pointing to examples of Holocaust denial, crude stereotypes of Jewish bankers, conspiracy theories blaming 9/11 on Israel, and even one member who appeared to believe that Hitler had been misunderstood. His reference to crude stereotypes recalls the row when he tweeted about an east London mural that contained caricatures of Jewish bankers. Allies of the leader said the article is the fullest account so far from Mr Corbyn of where he thinks Labour has gone wrong.

Hundreds protest outside parliament over Labour's anti-Semitic accusations

He identifies two sources of anti-Semitic behaviour: where those supporting Palestinian causes can stray into anti-Semitic views and Left-wingers who attack capitalism as a conspiracy. On the first, Mr Corbyn says it is unacceptable to suggest British Jews are somehow answerable for the actions of the State of Israel, and it is never acceptable to compare Israel with the Nazis.
J eremy Corbyn is set to meet with Jewish leaders for talks after weeks of turmoil over his handling of anti-Semitism in the Labour party.

Organisations representing Jewish communities will call on Mr Corbyn to use his "personal authority" to drive through changes to wipe out the problem in the party.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan admitted Jewish people who would like to vote Labour are "finding it very difficult" because of the party's handling of the issue.

Standing ovation in Parliament for anti-semitism speech

Prime Minister Theresa May accused Mr Corbyn of allowing anti-Semitism to "run rife" in his party.

The Board of Deputies, made up of almost 300 deputies directly elected by synagogues and community organisations, and the JLC, a charity supporting the Jewish community, took the step of protesting outside Parliament in March before delivering an open letter to a meeting of Labour MPs and peers about their concerns.

The Labour leader has said he is "happy to meet" the two bodies "without any preconditions" and pledged to hear their concerns about tackling anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.

In a letter accepting his invitation, the organisations thanked Mr Corbyn for his commitment to addressing the "anguish" caused by anti-Semitic incidents.

But they said recent events had not been "reassuring" for Jewish people in Britain, and told him he must root anti-Semitism out of his party.

A convoy of three billboard advertising vans with an anti-semitism message for Jeremy Corbyn / PA

And they later refused to attend a roundtable meeting Labour had proposed to hold on Wednesday with a wider group of Jewish organisations that reportedly included Jewish Voice for Labour, a recently established group that has downplayed the issue.

Supporters of Mr Corbyn have claimed the row has been stoked up by his opponents to damage him.

Anti-semitism protesters shout 'Corbyn Out' and 'Racist' during demo at Labour HQ

The Labour leader has admitted the party needs to "do better" in the fight against abuse and has issued an apology for the "pain and hurt" caused by anti-Semitism.

Israel's Labor party suspended relations with Mr Corbyn over the "hostility" it claims the leader has shown to the Jewish community.
T he Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council have said their meeting with Jeremy Corbyn was "a disappointing missed opportunity" to deal with the problems of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.

Writing in the Standard on Tuesday, the Labour leader said he was "sorry for the hurt and distress caused" by anti-Semitic supporters before meeting with the groups.

But in a joint statement, the Jewish Leadership Council and Board of Deputies of British Jews said: "Our meeting with Jeremy Corbyn today was a disappointing missed opportunity regarding the problem of antisemitism in the Labour Party.

"We welcomed Mr Corbyn's personal involvement in the discussion and his new comments recognising and apologising for antisemitism in the Labour Party but he failed to agree to any of the concrete actions we asked for in our letter to him of March 28.

Labour MP Luciana Berger speaks out at an anti-Semitism march last month / Getty Images

"Last month the Jewish community held an unprecedented demonstration outside Parliament to express our hurt and anger about the level of antisemitism in the Labour Party, and Jeremy Corbyn's failure to take strong action against it.

"Following that demonstration we wrote to Mr Corbyn to set out six areas of concrete action he and the party could take to address the antisemitism that has grown under his leadership. These represented the minimum level of action the community expected after more than two years of inactivity.

A convoy of three billboard advertising vans was driven around Westminster / PA

"Today we met Mr Corbyn to convey in no uncertain terms the Jewish community's feelings to him in person and to discuss his response to our proposals. It was a difficult yet important meeting.

"We are disappointed that Mr Corbyn's proposals fell short of the minimum level of action which our letter suggested.

"In particular, they did not agree in the meeting with our proposals that there should be a fixed timetable to deal with antisemitism cases; that they should expedite the long-standing cases involving Ken Livingstone and Jackie Walker; that no MP should share a platform with somebody expelled or suspended for antisemitism; that they adopt the full International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism with all its examples and clauses; that there should be transparent oversight of their disciplinary process.

"Words in letters and newspaper articles will never be enough. We welcome the fact that Mr Corbyn's words have changed but it is action by which the Jewish community will judge him and the Labour Party.

May accuses Corbyn over anti-Semitism after immigration criticism at PMQs

"Our sole objective from this meeting was to build trust with Mr Corbyn, but this will not be possible until and unless he and the party turn their many strong words against antisemitism into equally strong actions in order to bring about a deep cultural change in his supporters' attitude to Jews.

"Thousands of British Jews did not demonstrate outside Parliament just for a few lawyers and another newspaper article; they demanded action and so do we.

"We will hold the Labour Party to account for any future failures and continue to represent the interests of British Jews with clarity and resolve.

"We also commit to do our utmost to work with all those within Labour who want to help make it a safe and equal space for all of its members."

Mr Corbyn also released a statement after the meeting, one which struck a considerably more conciliatory note: "I am grateful to the Board of Deputies, the Jewish Leadership Council and the Community Security Trust for a positive and constructive meeting about tackling antisemitism.

"I am absolutely committed to rooting out antisemitism from our party and our society.

"When members of Jewish communities express genuine anxieties, we must recognise them as we would those of any other community. Their concerns are not 'smears'. Jews belong in the Labour Party and we are utterly committed to making it a safe and welcoming place for them.

"I have charged our new General Secretary Jennie Formby with improving our disciplinary procedures as her top priority to ensure all complaints are dealt with swiftly and fairly. We are grateful for the input from Jewish community groups, who we will continue to listen to carefully.

"We will lay out the further steps we are taking in the coming weeks. We will continue to engage and work with Jewish community organisations to deal with this issue. Our party will not fail our Jewish brothers and sisters."
Collusion by AIA screeners not plausible  CEO

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THE THEORY THAT a security screener at the Argyle International Airport (AIA), placed a bullet in the bag of a passenger who was leaving the country last December is not plausible.

That is according to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Argyle International Airport (AIA) Hadley Bourne, who told journalists that looking at this logically, a lot of things would have to be on the screeners side for him to achieve such an act.

Bourne was answering a question in relation to an incident on Wednesday December 27, 2017 when United States based Vincentian Robert Steele was charged with having one round of nine-millimetre ammunition without a license at the AIA.

The Police charged Steele with possession of ammunition without a licence after the nine-millimetre round was discovered in his luggage when he was returning to the United States via the AIA. The charge was later dismissed after a trial at the Serious Offences Court.

The AIAs CEO said those who accused AIA security personnel of setting up Steele must understand that security screeners must go through the same security procedures before they enter restricted or sterile areas, so it would be highly unlikely they would be able to get a bullet in an area where they could place it in someones luggage. He said Steeles charges were dismissed because all the procedures were not followed to get a conviction.

Bourne however noted that the airports intention is to prevent unwanted items from reaching an aircraft and they did their job in this case by identifying the restricted item and it was up to law enforcement and the judiciary to move forward.

Head of Security at the AIA Keith Miller supported Bourne, emphasizing that screeners are subject to the same set of security procedures as persons who are travelling.

Screeners do not know where they are going to work until the brief 15 minutes before the hour they are posted. So then are you asking if they are going to be collusion with several screeners? Highly unlikely, stressed Miller.

Miller, a former Commissioner of Police said that the AIA wrote to then Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Colin Williams, asking him to explain the grounds on which the matter was dismissed, and the DPP responded.

And honestly, he said it is something that he has spoken about repeatedly in terms of procedures like that and I am not going to mention it here, said Miller.

Reiterating that the system works, Bourne referred to another incident with a bullet at the AIA which saw someone convicted.

On Monday January 15, Gerald Walters was charged with being in possession of one round of .38mm ammunition at AIA. The Canouan worker was on his way to Canouan when he was caught with the unlicenced ammunition and pleaded guilty in court. He was fined $700, $200 to be paid forthwith and $500 the day after.

HADLEY BOURNE CEO of AIA
V ictims of the Windrush scandal have faced a "double whammy" of racial prejudice since arriving in Britain, Doreen Lawrence has said.

The Labour peer said the same people who had suffered discrimination then over jobs and housing were now being threatened with deportation seven decades later.

Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon, mother of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, also argued the role of the Windrush generation had not been properly explained at the time.

A raft of cases have been highlighted of people facing deportation or being denied access to healthcare over UK paperwork issues.

Urgent steps are being taken by the Home Office in a bid to tackle the crisis and compensation is to be offered to those affected.

What is the Windrush generation

Responding to a ministerial statement on the fiasco, Lady Lawrence pointed to the hostile reception that had greeted the Windrush generation, named after the first ship that brought them to Britain in 1948.

"And now here we are again almost 70 years later we are talking about the same people facing deportation. It's like a double whammy," she said.

The peer added: "They should never have been in this position because they came here as British citizens. They were invited here.

Windrush generation arrive in Britain 1 /14 Windrush generation arrive in Britain Some of the pioneering Windrush generation arrive at Tilbury Docks, from Jamaica Getty Images The journey to the UK cost 28 Getty Images They arrived on June 22, 1948 Getty Images The ex-troopship 'Empire Windrush' arriving at Tilbury Docks from Jamaica, with 482 Jamaicans on board, emigrating to Britain SSPL via Getty Images The group were the first of the Windrush generation to emigrate to Britain Getty Images Arrivals scrutinise a map of the London Underground Getty Images The Windrush generation helped to rebuild post-war Britain Getty Images Members of the 55 Independent Squadron wait to board the Empire Windrush at Southampton, to fight in the Korean War Getty Images A black man walks past graffiti stating 'Powell For PM', referring to Enoch Powell who caused controversy with his outspoken attitude to black immigration and racial integration Getty Images Three Jamaicans (left to right) John Hazel, a 21-year-old boxer, Harold Wilmot, 32, and John Richards, a 22-year-old carpenter, arriving at Tilbury Docks Getty Images Nearly 1000 West Indian immigrants arrive in three boats trains at Waterloo Station. Many brought with them packing cases containing treasured possessions, 15th October 1961 Mirrorpix/Getty Images West Indian immigrants arriving in the United Kingdom, 19th May 1962 Mirrorpix/Getty Images Nearly 1000 West Indian immigrants arrive in three boats trains at Waterloo Station. Many brought with them packing cases containing treasured possessions, 15th October 1961 Mirrorpix/Getty Images 27th May 1956: Immigrants to Britain from the West Indies queuing up on arrival at Southampton holding documents Getty Images

"I think what the country never did in the first place was to tell the country that these people were invited, they didn't just come here, they came here to build the country up.

"I think the residents of this country never understood the reason why the Windrush people came here in the first place."

Home Office Minister Baroness Williams of Trafford said: "It is a double whammy."

Home Secretary Amber Rudd has faced calls to resign over the Windrush scandal"We are a country of immigrants, these people were here by right and she is absolutely right they were here by right because we invited them."

Former civil service chief Lord Kerslake, who is an adviser to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, branded it a "shameful and terrible miscarriage of justice".

"It makes me personally feel ashamed that this has happened in my country," he said.

Warning over the "risk of further injustices", he said: "There is much talk of a change in culture and a change in practice, but very little talk about a change in policy.

"And unless that happens I think the practice will always be trumped by the policy."

Windrush mother declares MP's "Should be ashamed of themselves"

He questioned continuing the "hostile environment" approach towards illegal immigration.

Lady Williams said successive governments had sought to make the UK a hostile environment for people who should not be in the country.

She said: "We do want this country to be a friendly environment for people who are here legally."

But Lady Williams made clear the Government "will not back down...on tackling the pernicious practice of illegal migration to this country."
T he worlds biggest youth summit is to return to London for the first time since it was launched here in 2010.

One Young World, which brings together global icons and youth leaders, will hold its 10th annual summit in Westminster in October next year.

The UK-based charity will draw in 1,500 young people from across 196 countries to discuss global issues.

Theresa May said she was proud to welcome the summit, which is seen as the junior Davos forum.

The Prime Minister said: Around the world, this generation of young people is the most informed, the best educated, and the most interconnected in human history.

"For centuries, London has been a crucible for creative thinking and the free exchange of ideas. The delegates who come next year will work together to identify solutions to some of the most pressing issues facing our societies.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: Todays young people are the leaders of tomorrow London will provide the perfect backdrop for discussing how to tackle global issues such as climate change, human rights, gender equality and conflict resolution.

Canadas prime minister Justin Trudeau, who spoke at the Ottawa summit in 2016, described the event as an unparalleled network of forward-thinking, progressive leaders.

Meghan Markle served as a counsellor at the 2014 Dublin and 2016 Ottawa summits.

One Young World has more than 9,000 young ambassadors.

Kate Robertson, who co-founded One Young World, said political and business leaders needed to listen to young leaders to ensure that change happened.
A High Court judge is set to rule on whether severely ill toddler Alfie Evans could be flown to Italy for treatment.

The 23-month-old child could immediately be flown to a childrens hospital in Rome for treatment if the appeal is successful.

His father said Alfies life support machine was switched off on Monday evening, but that he has been breathing on his own since then.

Parents Tom Evans and Kate James are to ask the Family Division of the High Court in Manchester for an order stopping Alfie being removed from Alder Hey hospital in Liverpool can be lifted.

Judge Mr Justice Hayden will be asked to allow medical experts in Italy, where he has been offered treatment and granted citizenship, to examine Alfie, who is in a semi-vegetative state. The hearing is due to take place on Tuesday afternoon.

Alfie Evans: The story so far

A spokeswoman for the Christian Legal Centre, which is assisting the toddlers parents, said: Alfie has survived much longer than the doctors predicted, lending support to the request from Alfie's parents for Alfie to be seen by medical experts in Italy.

Parents: Tom Evans and Kate James / PA

An air ambulance is now waiting outside Alder Hey Hospital ready to take Alfie to hospital in Italy," she added.

She said a barrister representing Alfie's parents, who are both in their 20s and from Liverpool, would argue that it could not be in Alfie's best interests to be "left to die in Alder Hey".

The spokeswoman added: "He will argue that Alfie should be allowed to travel to Italy where doctors are ready to care for him."

Alfie's parents have lost two rounds of court fights.

Judges have heard that Alfie, born on May 9 2016, is in a "semi-vegetative state" and has a degenerative neurological condition doctors have not definitively diagnosed.

Specialists say his brain has been "eroded", but his parents insist their son is not experiencing pain or suffering.

Alfie Evans protesters try to storm hospital 23/04/2018 1 /6 Alfie Evans protesters try to storm hospital 23/04/2018 Police block protesters from the entrance to Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool PA Police block protesters from the entrance to Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool PA Protesters gather outside Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool PA Police block protesters from the entrance to Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool PA Police block the entrance to Alder Hey Children's Hospital PA Police block protesters from the entrance to Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool PA

In February, Mr Justice Hayden had ruled that doctors at Alder Hey could stop treating Alfie against the wishes of his parents following hearings in the Family Division of the High Court in London and Liverpool.

Specialists at Alder Hey said life-support treatment should stop and Mr Justice Hayden said he accepted medical evidence which showed that further treatment was futile.

He said flying Alfie to a foreign hospital would be wrong and pointless.

Court of Appeal judges upheld his decisions. Supreme Court justices and European Court of Human Rights judges refused to intervene.

The couple then argued Alfie was being wrongly "detained" at Alder Hey.
T he father of seriously ill toddler Alfie Evans has said his son has continued breathing despite doctors turning off his life-support following a court ruling.

Tom Evans told reporters outside Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool that the 23-month-old had been breathing on his own for nine hours.

He claimed doctors had been left gobsmacked that the child was able to survive after oxygen, food and water were withdrawn.

The hospital has not yet commented on Mr Evans claims.

Alfie Evans' father Tom Evans speaks to reporters outside Alder Hey children's hospital / Good Morning Britain

Speaking to reporters outside the hospital early on Tuesday, Mr Evans it was clear his son was breathing alone after a few minutes of the ventilator being turned off.

For nine hours Alfie has been breathing for. He is still breathing now, he said, adding that his sons stats arent his best and that he would most likely need more life support in the next couple of hours.

Tom Evans and Kate James, the parents of Alfie Evans / PA

He said that, after Alfie began breathing on his own, Mr Evans sat down with doctors and told them that this was becoming unlawful in my opinion.

It wasnt in the court order that he would be starved of food or hydration and that we would potentially be starved of oxygen as well, he said.

[The doctor] ended up saying I am right. I have always been right - they say Alfie is suffering and look at him now, he is not even on a ventilator and he is not suffering.

He said the toddler, who doctors say has a degenerative neurological condition, was without nutrients or water for six hours but doctors will now hydrate him and provide oxygen.

He is still working, he is doing as good as he can but we do need him to be supported in the next hour. Its going to be hard, he has been doing this for nine hours totally unexpected - the doctors are gobsmacked - so I do think he will need some kind of life support it he next couple of hours.

Alfie: the toddler suffers with a serious neurological condition / PA

On Monday night High Court judge Mr Justice Hayden dismissed a "last-ditch appeal" by Mr Evans and his partner Kate James  both in their early 20s  and said doctors could stop providing life-support treatment to Alfie.

Mr Evans and Ms James asked for a delay to give them time to mount a further challenge but the judge refused their application and gave doctors the go-ahead to stop treatment and bring Alfie's life to an end.

The judge had heard submissions from lawyers representing hospital bosses, Alfie's parents and Alfie.

Alfie's parents wanted treatment to continue and wanted to fly their son to a hospital in Rome.

Barrister Paul Diamond, who represents the couple, told the judge that Alfie had been granted Italian citizenship on Monday.

Alfie Evans protesters attempt to storm Alder Hey Children's Hospital

But Michael Mylonas QC, who leads Alder Hey's team, said any granting of Italian citizenship made no difference.

Sophia Roper, who represents Alfie and takes instructions from a court-appointed guardian, agreed with Mr Mylonas.

Mr Justice Hayden dismissed Mr Diamond's application as a "last-ditch appeal".

Police outside the children's hospital where Alfie is / PA

At one point on Monday supporters of the family had attempted to storm Alder Hey and ran towards the main doors but police blocked their way. Police remained outside the entrances to the children's hospital throughout the day.

Alfie's parents have fought a lengthy legal battle.

Judges have heard that Alfie, born on May 9 2016, is in a "semi-vegetative state" and has a degenerative neurological condition doctors had not definitively diagnosed. Specialists say his brain has been "eroded".

A spokesman for Alder Hey Children's Hospital said: "We wish to reassure patients and families attending Alder Hey hospital today that we are operating as usual and that, although you will see a police presence, the hospital is calm. Please attend your appointments as normal."

He added: "Please be aware, out of respect for the privacy of Alfie and his family we will not be issuing any updates about his condition.
S everely ill toddler Alfie Evans cannot be taken to Italy for treatment, a judge has said.

His parents Tom Evans and Kate James sought permission from a High Court judge to take the 23-month-old out of Liverpools Alder Hey Childrens Hospital.

His father said Alfies life support machine was switched off on Monday evening, but that he has been breathing on his own since then.

The boy has been at the centre of an ongoing legal battle over treatment administered to him.

But judge Mr Justice Hayden said on Tuesday: This represents the final chapter in the case of this extraordinary little boy."

He added that Alfie was "a fighter, resilient, courageous" and said he should be "cared for, on his final days or hours, however long it may be, in a hospice or home or on a ward".

But Mr Justice Hayden ruled there was no substance to the parents' application by the Christian Legal Centre, representing Alfie's parents, to move him to a hospital in Italy.

Alfie Evans: The story so far

Alfies life support machine was switched off on Monday evening, but he has been breathing on his own since then, his father said.

Writing on Facebook later, he added: "Coming up to 24 hours and hes fighting with his gorgeous features, pink lips, handsome grown up face, and odd cheeky smile now and again."

Mr Justice Hayden was asked to allow medical experts in Italy, where he has been offered treatment and granted citizenship, to examine Alfie.

Judges have heard that Alfie, born on May 9 2016, is in a "semi-vegetative state" and has a degenerative neurological condition doctors have not definitively diagnosed.

Alfie Evans protesters try to storm hospital 23/04/2018 1 /6 Alfie Evans protesters try to storm hospital 23/04/2018 Police block protesters from the entrance to Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool PA Police block protesters from the entrance to Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool PA Protesters gather outside Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool PA Police block protesters from the entrance to Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool PA Police block the entrance to Alder Hey Children's Hospital PA Police block protesters from the entrance to Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool PA

Specialists say his brain has been "eroded", but his parents, who are in their 20s and from Liverpool, insist their son is not experiencing pain or suffering.

Mr Justice Hayden said at Tuesday's hearing that Alfie's brain had been "damaged entirely and so too had the capacity of sight, hearing, taste and sense of touch".

"A brain cannot regenerate itself, as I have been told," he added.

In February, Mr Justice Hayden had ruled that doctors at Alder Hey could stop treating Alfie against the wishes of his parents following hearings in the Family Division of the High Court in London and Liverpool.

Specialists at Alder Hey said life-support treatment should stop and Mr Justice Hayden said he accepted medical evidence which showed that further treatment was futile.

Alfie Evans' father says son has been breathing unassisted for nine hours

He said flying Alfie to a foreign hospital would be wrong and pointless.

Court of Appeal judges upheld his decisions. Supreme Court justices and European Court of Human Rights judges refused to intervene.

The couple then argued Alfie was being wrongly "detained" at Alder Hey.
T he Prince of Wales has reacted to the birth of his latest grandson .

He said it is a great joy to have another grandchild.

In a statement from Clarence House on behalf of Charles and Camilla, he said: We are both so pleased at the news.

It is a great joy to have another grandchild, the only trouble is I dont know how I am going to keep up with them.

Louis, the new Royal baby - in pictures 1 /23 Louis, the new Royal baby - in pictures The Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William leave the Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital with their new baby boy Reuters The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their newborn son outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London Jeremy Selwyn The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their newborn son outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London Jeremy Selwyn The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their newborn son outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London John Stillwell/PA The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their newborn son outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London PA The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their newborn son outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London AFP/Getty Images The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (not pictured) and their newborn son outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London Jeremy Selwyn The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their newborn son outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington PA The Duchess of Cambridge with her newborn son outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London Jeremy Selwyn The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their newborn son outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London PA The Duchess of Cambridge with her newborn son outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London PA Wellwishers await the departure of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge with their newborn son from the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital Getty Images Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and the Duchess of Cambridge show their newly-born son, their third child, to the media outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital AFP/Getty Images The Duchess of Cambridge outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital PA The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their newborn son outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital PA Princess Charlotte of Cambridge turns to wave at the media as she is lead in with her brother Prince George of Cambridge by their father Britain's Prince William, Duke of Cambridge at the Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images Prince William, Duke of Cambridge arrives with Prince George and Princess Charlotte at the Lindo Wing Getty Images Town Crier Tony Appleton announces that the Duchess of Cambridge has given birth to a baby boy outside the Lindo wing at St Mary's Hospital in London AP A notice is placed on an easel in the forecourt of Buckingham Palace in London to formally announce the birth of a baby boy to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at St Mary's Hospita PA Prince William waves as he leaves the Lindo wing at St Mary's Hospita AP The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their newborn son leave the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington PA A waxwork of Queen Elizabeth II sits in a black London taxi as it drives past the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in central London following the news that the Duchess of Cambridge has given birth to a baby boy AFP/Getty Images A general view of the BT Tower as it announces the birth of the Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge's newborn son Getty Images

It is not known if the prince has been to see the yet unnamed prince.

The prince, who is fifth in line to the throne, was born yesterday at the Lindo Wing of St Marys Hospital in Paddington, weighing 8lb 7oz, and gun salutes were set to be fired today from the Tower of London and Hyde Park to mark his birth.

Today, bookies shortened their odds from 3-1 to 2-1 on him being named Arthur. Betfair said James and Philip were second favourites at 4-1, after a flurry of punts on James resulted in the odds being cut from 5-1 this morning.

Royal baby name odds: What will the Duchess of Cambridge's third child be called?

William and Kate will want to share the name with the Queen and the rest of their family before making it public.

Kensington Palace said the name would be announced in "due course".

Kate with her new prince

The baby is the Queen and Philip's sixth great-grandchild and Kensington Palace said the couple, along with the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Harry, and the Middletons, were delighted with the news of the new arrival.

George, 4, and Charlotte, 2, visited their new sibling at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London, on Monday afternoon.

Prince George and Princess Charlotte go to meet their new brother / Getty Images

A confident, excited Charlotte, who turns three on May 2, turned to wave at the photographers outside the hospital as she led the way up the steps holding William's hand.

Four-year-old George, in his school uniform, appeared more wary of the huge crowds of media.

During his first photocall, the baby, who was wrapped in a white lace shawl with a matching bonnet, could be seen moving his fingers as he was cradled by Kate.

Fresh: the royal baby (Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images) / Getty Images

Smiling broadly, the duchess was dressed in a vibrant red Jenny Packham dress with a white lace collar, reminiscent of William's late mother Diana, Princess of Wales - who wore red and white outside the Lindo Wing after Prince Harry was born in 1984.

As William and Kate headed home after appearing in front of the banks of cameras with their seven-hour-old son, the duke said they were "very happy" and "very delighted".

He joked, holding up three fingers, that he had "thrice the worry now", adding: "We didn't keep you waiting too long this time."

The duke and duchess thanked the hospital for their care and the public for their wishes.

Kensington Palace said: "Their Royal Highnesses would like to thank all staff at the hospital for the care and treatment they have received.
P rince Harry and Meghan Markle have shared some further details about the Royal Wedding service at St George's Chapel.

Both Harry and Meghan have taken a great deal of interest and care in choosing the music for their service, which will include a number of well-known hymns and choral works.

The music will be under the direction of James Vivian, Director of Music, St Georges Chapel.

Mr. Vivian said: "The Choristers, Lay Clerks, Organists and I are very much looking forward to this exciting day and are pleased to be performing at the service music chosen by the couple.

The couple have announced who will be performing at their wedding / PA

We are also looking forward to welcoming to St Georges musical colleagues from near and far who will be performing at this very special and joyful occasion."

A selection of choral groups, soloists, and musicians will perform at the Wedding Service of Prince Harry and Ms Markle at St George's Chapel on May 19.

These are:

The Choir of St Georges Chapel

Conducted by James Vivian, the Choir of St Georges Chapel comprises up to 23 boy choristers from St Georges School and twelve Lay Clerks singing alto, tenor and bass. The Choir, which was founded in 1348, can be heard in venues throughout Europe in addition to its liturgical schedule of eight services per week in St Georges Chapel. Its repertoire draws on music from all ages.

Sheku Kanneh-Mason

Nineteen-year-old cellist, Sheku Kanneh-Mason won BBC Young Musician 2016, made his BBC Proms debut the following year, and released his debut album, Inspiration, earlier this year. Sheku is a student at the Royal Academy of Music and combines his studies there with a busy international concert career. He is passionate about making classical music accessible to all and is Junior Ambassador for the music education charity London Music Masters. Last June, Prince Harry saw Sheku play at an event in London in support of the work of Antiguan charity the Halo Foundation.

Sheku Kanneh-Mason said: Im so excited and honoured to perform at Prince Harry and Ms. Meghan Markles wedding. I was bowled over when Ms. Markle called me to ask if I would play during the ceremony, and of course I immediately said yes. What a privilege to be able to play the cello at such a wonderful event. I cant wait!

Karen Gibson and The Kingdom Choir

Founded and directed by gospel conductor Karen Gibson, The Kingdom Choir is a Christian gospel group based in the South-East of England. The Choir is made up of a group of British artists dedicated to creating a sound that demonstrates the community they share, and has been performing both nationally and internationally for over 20 years. Over this time, the choir has become known for its united sound, warm energy and enthusiastic performance.

Karen Gibson said: "The Kingdom Choir is truly honoured to be invited to sing at the wedding of Prince Harry and Ms. Markle, and very excited to be taking part in such a historic moment. It will be a moment that we will always treasure, and wed like to take the opportunity to wish the couple all the very best for their coming union."

The Orchestra

The Orchestra, conducted by Christopher Warren-Green, will be made up of musicians from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the English Chamber Orchestra and the Philharmonia.

Elin Manahan Thomas

Elin Manahan Thomas will join the orchestra. Ms. Thomas is a Welsh soprano, best known for her performances of Baroque masterpieces, alongside classical and contemporary works.

Royal wedding countdown: The plan so far for Harry and Meghan

David Blackadder

The trumpet will be played by David Blackadder, who will join the Orchestra. Mr. Blackadder is the principal trumpet with both the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Academy of Ancient Music, and is a specialist in music of the Baroque.

Luke Bond

The Organ will be played by Luke Bond, Assistant Director of Music, St Georges Chapel.

Events at St George's Chapel, Windsor - In pictures 1 /26 Events at St George's Chapel, Windsor - In pictures Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall leave a blessing at St. Georges Chapel in Windsor Castle after their civil wedding on 9 Apri, 2005 AFP/Getty Images The Prince of Wales, and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, during their wedding blessing at Windsor Castle's St George's Chapel, Saturday on 9 April 2005 PA the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, formerly Camilla Parker Bowles (front right), lead guests after a Service of Prayer and Dedication at the Service of Prayer and Dedication in St George's Chapel. St George's Chapel on 9 April 2005 PA Wire/PA Images His Royal Highness The Prince Of Wales and his new bride The Duchess of Cornwall arrive for the Service of Prayer and Dedication in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA A general view of the procession leaving St Georges's Chapel after attending the Garter Ceremony PA Prince Edward, the youngest son the Queen, his brother the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York walk through Windsor Castle to St George's Chapel where he is to married Sophie Rhys-Jones on 19 June 1999 AFP/Getty Images King George VI and his wife Queen Elizabeth leaving St George's Chapel after the installation of the King of Denmark as a Knight of the Garter in Windsor on 9 May 1951 Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh arrive at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle for the Garter Service in 1957 PA Archive/PA Images The Queen hangs on to her windswept millinery outside St. George's Chapel, Windsor, following a Christmas Day service attended by her and other members of the Royal Family in 1983 PA Archive/PA Images Members of the Royal Family leave St George's Chapel after the Christmas service. (l-r) The Queen Mother, Princess and Prince of Wales, Viscount Linley and his mother Princess Margaret in 1983 PA The Princess of Wales leaves St George's Chapel after the Christmas service, attended by her husband and other members of the Royal Family PA The Princess of Wales escorts the royal youngsters after attending the Christmas Day service at St George's Chapel, Windsor in 1987 PA Archive/PA Images The Princess of Wales escorts the royal youngsters after attending the Christmas Day service at St George's Chapel, Windsor in 1987 PA Archive/PA Images Sophie Rhys-Jones waves to the crowd along with her husband Prince Edward as they leave St Georges Chapel, Windsor Castle on Saturday 19 June 1999 AFP/Getty Images Prince Edward and Sophie Rhys-Jones leave St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle 19 June 1999 after their wedding AFP/Getty Images Peter Phillips and Autumn Kelly leave St George's Chapel in Windsor on 17 May 2008 after their marriage vows AFP/Getty Images Zara Phillips arrives for the wedding of her brother Peter to Autumn Kelly at St George's Chapel, Windsor at the St George's Chapel, Windsor. PA Archive/PA Images The Duchess of Cambridge and the Duchess of Cornwall talk as they watch the procession at the Order of the Garter Service at St George's Chapel on 13 June 2011 AFP/Getty Images General view of the procession before the annual Order of the Garter Service at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle in Windsor, Berkshire on 18 June 2012 PA The Queen leaves the Order of the Garter Service at St George's Chapel in a royal carriage at Windsor Castle on 15 June 2015 Getty Images Prince William, Duke of Cambridge attends the Order of the Garter Service at St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle on 15 June 2015 Getty Images Duchess of Cambridge arrives for the Order of The Garter Service at Windsor Castle on 13 June 2016 Getty Images Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, (4L), The Duchess of Cambridge (5L), Princess Eugenie of York (2L), Princess Beatrice of York (3L), Sophie, Countess of Wessex, (2R), Lady Louise Windsor (3R) and Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, (R) arrive to attend the Easter Sunday service at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle on 16 April 16 2017 AFP/Getty Images The Queen leaves the Easter Day service at St George's Chapel on 16 April 2017 Getty Images Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge attend the Easter Day service at St George's Chapel on 16 April 2017 Getty Images The Queen and Prince Philip, Duke Of Edinburgh stand with local children on the steps of St Georges Chapel following the traditional Royal Maundy Service at Windsor Castle on 24 March 2016 Getty Images

State Trumpeters
* UPDATE [12 March 2020]: On 14 October 2019 the tribunal dismissed the entirety of Miss Gillards claim.

A QC at one of Londons top legal chambers is accused of hounding out a fellow barrister when she leaked that he had paid 75 for his daughter to have a splinter removed from her finger, a tribunal heard.

Karen Gillard claims she was sacked after telling website Legal Cheek about Anthony Metzer QC using Goldsmith Chambers funds for the private medical treatment.

Miss Gillard, 44, who was the deputy treasurer, has also accused Mr Metzer of nepotism, employing family members and paying them more than other interns.

The chambers say she was sacked after complaints of bullying and intimidating behaviour to staff. It denies all of the claims made against it.

Mr Metzer, described online as a highly distinguished and established silk, has appeared in a string of high-profile cases over the years, representing Nigella Lawsons former nannies and defending killer nurse Lea Ledesma.

At a employment tribunal yesterday, Miss Gillard said the chambers administrator had been left fuming after finding out about the 75 medical treatment for Mr Metzers daughter in January 2016. She was moving some boxes in the basement and got a splinter. Anthony Metzer QC took her up to a medical business on Fleet Street and had the splinter removed, she said.

Ashley Perkins, who dealt with payments as Chambers administrator, was so angry when she found out about the 75 bill. I quote If he had walked a little facking further he could have made it to facking Boots and bought a pair of facking tweezers for 2.

She said two of Mr Metzers daughters and their friends had been taken on as interns. Miss Gillard told the tribunal they were known as Metzers interns, and claims were given preferential treatment and paid 250 a week, above the normal rate.

She said she had made public interest disclosures to Legal Cheek after her attempts to improve bad practices at the chambers failed.

She said bullying had left her with night terrors, and is claiming unfair dismissal and sex discrimination.
A history of naming Royal babiesWhen William arrived in 1982, his parents the Prince and Princess of Wales waited seven days before deciding on and announcing his chosen forenames.

Diana was thought to have preferred names such as Sebastian and Oliver, while Charles was reportedly holding out for Albert.

When the names were finally revealed as William Arthur Philip Louis it ended a week of intense speculation.

Experts correctly predicted Louis would be among the names in honour of the Prince of Wales's late great-uncle Lord Mountbatten, as well as Philip in a nod to the Duke of Edinburgh.

Buckingham Palace revealed at the time that the name William would not be shortened in any way and the duke himself has since insisted he is never known as "Wills".

Out of courtesy, the Queen has to be told what has been decided before a name is announced.

Prince Harry's name was announced much more quickly than his brother's after he was born in September 1984, with the palace confirming it on the day he left hospital and saying that although he was called Henry, he would be known as Harry.

When Princess Beatrice was born in 1988, it was two weeks before her name was known.

Her sister's little known name Princess Eugenie took people by surprise in 1990. It was the second name of one of Queen Victoria's granddaughters.

The Prince of Wales's name remained a mystery to the wider world for a month and was only declared ahead of his christening in the Music Room of Buckingham Palace in December 1948.

When the Queen's first great-grandchild Savannah Phillips was born in December 2010, her name was first disclosed at a church service at the royal estate of Sandringham, Norfolk, attended by the royal family.
A Met Police officer who stood guard outside the Lindo Wing has hailed the birth of the Royal Baby as the "highlight of his career".

PC Tyler O'Hare has told of his "amazing day" in a series of heartwarming posts online after he manned the door of St Mary's Hospital maternity wing during the birth of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's third child.

The police officer added that although he "looked very miserable", he was "so excited" inside.

He wrote: "An honour and utter privilege to have been the 'Door Officer' for the birth of Their Royal Highnesses new baby boy! Today was an amazing day and a highlight of my career!"

The police officer could be seen standing behind the royal couple as they gave the world its first glimpse of the fifth in line to the throne on Monday.

Kate and William's new baby son was born at 11.01am, weighing 8lb 7oz, just five hours after the duchess was driven to the Paddington hospital. The baby's name has not yet been revealed.

PC O'Hare was stationed outside the Lindo Wing throughout the day.

The officer was cast into the spotlight as the couple emerged with their new son / Getty Images

He was seen patrolling in front of the maternity wing as the duchess was safely delivered of her son.

And he was also pictured standing guard with other officers when Prince George and Princess Charlotte came to visit their new brother.

But as the couple emerged from the building shortly before 6pm, the officer found himself cast into the spotlight during a whirlwind of media attention.

The officer shared pictures on Twitter of the moment Kate stepped out of the door cradling her newborn, with William by her side.

He could also be seen standing by as Prince George and Princess Charlotte came to meet their new brother / Getty Images

He was stood to the left of the couple, gazing forward with a serious expression on his face.

But on Twitter he said he was "so excited inside".

The royal baby leaves hospital

He posted: "Apparently I looked very miserable but I was so excited inside! You have to look serious in this job!"

Responding to well-wishers the officer said he was "shaking with nerves" throughout at the thought of how many people across the globe were looking at him.

One person, Michelle Maynard, commented: "To think how many billions have now seen you across the world."

PC O'Hare added that there is "something special about being a copper in London".

'There is something special about being a copper in London' / Getty Images

William and Kate have returned to Kensington Palace, where they are settling into life as a family of five.

Speculation is now underway as to the name of their new baby son.

Newborn: Kate and William's third child was born on Monday / Jeremy Selwyn

It is thought that the couple will want to share the name with the Queen and the rest of their family before making it public.

Kensington Palace said the name would be announced in "due course" but the favourite at the bookies is currently Arthur, followed by James, Philip and Albert.

The duke and duchess thanked the hospital for their care and the public for their wishes.

Kensington Palace said: "Their Royal Highnesses would like to thank all staff at the hospital for the care and treatment they have received.
Culture of violence can be avoided advises UWI Professor

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THERE ARE SEVERAL things that must be looked at when talking about murders, where there is a period of stable plateau, a period which there is considerable oscillation, then a period of a steady increase, with less oscillation.

I am very familiar with that pattern, as Trinidad and Jamaica exhibit it and it is quite a different thing when you move from that second stage into that third stage, when you permit the third stage to become chronic to consolidate itself, said Professor Anthony Harriot, a Jamaican crime researcher and psychologist.

Speaking at the Methodist Church Hall on Wednesday, the Professor said in the third stage, the culture of peace begins to lose to a subculture of violence and it becomes very difficult to manage the problem.

Professor Harriot was in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) as a guest speaker at a two-day national conversation on crime and violence organized by the SVG Christian Council, in collaboration with local churches and other stakeholders.

He said that a culture of violence can be avoided when a murder is committed if persons allow the police to do their job and the matter is settled in the court.

and that would keep your rate stable, but when a murder is committed and a young man takes it upon himself to retaliate with revenge, you get a different dynamic and then it goes from reply to reply and takes on a dynamic of its own, and the criminal justice system has great difficulty managing that kind of situation, said the Professor.

He noted also that a culture of violence is fuelled when there is a hypersensitivity to disrespect and when a wide range of behaviours and offences are interpreted as quote, unquote, a diss and you reply to a diss, with violence.

Thats your chronic third stage and you dont want to get there; and you have to craft very careful interventions, because the data is suggesting that you (SVG) may be inching in that direction, stated Professor Harriot, who said when he looks across the region, he sees countries with an emerging crime problem, but different countries have to have different responses.

He noted that simple public opinion matters, as it shapes policy, but at times, when crime reaches a chronic state, a cynicism sets in and persons believe that things will only get worse and the police also think they cant solve the problem and people say things like leave it to God, while other persons interpret this to mean, God help those that help themselves, and we dont want it to get to that level.

In relation to the criminal justice system in the region, the Professor believes the investment in policing has not been enough, as right across the region, we have not done what is required. Investment in civic organisations that are to play an important role, we as citizens, allow them to die.

He noted there are programs in the region in crime reduction and prevention, but they have not been evaluated, so we do not know if they are working.

It is one thing to do poverty reductiongender equality, these things are good, but it is quite another thing to do crime prevention and we should not confuse these things, we have to be very specifi c, so my first lesson is, programs must be targeted and they must have a degree of specificity, said Professor Harriot, who added that we must target program efficiency and ensure that they do not waste money, as programs must be enhancing, not draining.

If you are spending millions of dollars and the crime rate is going up, then it is not effective and not worthy of support. We have to invest in institutions that are responsible for controlling and reducing the problems, stressed the Professor.

PROFESSOR ANTHONY HARRIOT
T orrential downpours are set to batter parts of London over the weekend forcing the Met Office to issue a yellow alert for rain across a huge swathe of the south east.

Brits face a washout with gale force winds and plunging temperatures predicted to set in later today.

Forecasters have issued a yellow weather warning for rain from Sunday evening until midnight on Monday for parts of London and the South East and parts of East Anglia .

As much as 70mm of rain is expected to fall between 9pm on Saturday and midnight on Monday in some places.

Motorists have been warned of floods on parts of busy roads and dangerous conditions due to the rain.

Downpours will be accompanied by gale force northerly winds and forecasters have even said that there could be the potential for some snow on areas of higher ground as temperatures fall.

Hot Weather: April 2018 - In pictures 1 /27 Hot Weather: April 2018 - In pictures People sit in St James Park on a sunny day in London EPA People relax in the sunshine beside the River Thames in Richmond upon Thames Reuters Jade Newsome nd Kate Whitfied from London, enjoy the hot weather on Richmond riverside PA People sit on deckchairs on a sunny day in London EPA Hercules the Blackpool horse cools down in the sea with rider Tyrone, on what is believed to be the hottest day of the year so far PA People punt along the River Cam in Cambridge PA A group of friends kick a ball in Greenwich Park as London has clear blue skies and temperatures rise Getty Images People relax in the sunshine on Primrose Hill Reuters A woman reads a book in the sun at Green Park in London PA Sunshine on Primrose Hill Jeremy Selwyn People enjoy the hot weather in St. James's Par PA Glorious sunshine in central London Alex Lentati People enjoy the hot weather in St James's Park, London PA A couple enjoy the sun at Green Park in London PA Runners enjoy a warm morning in St James's Park Alex Lentati Londoners enjoy a sunny view from Primrose Hill Jeremy Selwyn A couple enjoy the warm weather at Green Park in London PA St James's Park dazzles in the sunshine Alex Lentati Londoners bask in soaring temperatures Jeremy Selwyn The sun rises over London Jeremy Selwyn Emma Peleshok enjoys the flowers in St James's Park Alex Lentati Members of the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery ride out in front of Buckingham Palace en route to Green Park for the 53 Gun Salute which will mark the official opening of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. PA Horse Guard's Parade pictured in the sunshine Alex Lentati Long awaited warm weather pleased Londoners Alex Lentati The mercury could hit 28C today Alex Lentati Sunrise at Hyde Park Jeremy Selwyn PA

This miserable weather may come as a shock for Londoners who were enjoying the hottest day in April for 70 years last week when temperatures soared to 29C.

Londoners can expect outbreaks of rain as early as Friday morning, forecaster Luke Miall told the Standard.

Much of the day will be characterised by rain, he said.

It wont be particularly inspiring as we are coming to the end of April.

Moving into Saturday it will be a damp start in the capital with rain easing up into lighter showers expected to persist throughout the day.

Mr Miall said that temperatures will peak at 12C on Friday, but by Sunday the mercury will struggle to reach 7C.

Elsewhere in the country it will be brighter and clearer in the north west of England and the west of Scotland with some frost expected in the morning.

On Sunday more rain is expected as temperatures continue to fall across the country.

Heading into next week Mr Miall said: Temperatures are expected to fall to 8C in south east and central England, which is well below normal for this time of year.
T he UK's newspapers celebrated the birth of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's third child with pictures of the newborn prince splashed across the front pages.

The royal infant, wrapped up against the cool Spring weather, was pictured nestled in the arms of his mother as the couple posed with their new son outside the Lindo Wing on Monday.

The Daily Telegraph carried a full page photograph of Kate cradling the new prince in her arms on the steps of Londons St Mary's Hospital.

Its headline read: Welcome to the family: a new prince for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Daily Telegraph: Welcome to the family: a new prince for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

Having been born on St Georges Day, the Suns front page featured a similar image alongside the caption: Cry for mummy, England and St. George.

Louis, the new Royal baby - in pictures 1 /23 Louis, the new Royal baby - in pictures The Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William leave the Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital with their new baby boy Reuters The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their newborn son outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London Jeremy Selwyn The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their newborn son outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London Jeremy Selwyn The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their newborn son outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London John Stillwell/PA The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their newborn son outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London PA The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their newborn son outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London AFP/Getty Images The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (not pictured) and their newborn son outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London Jeremy Selwyn The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their newborn son outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington PA The Duchess of Cambridge with her newborn son outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London Jeremy Selwyn The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their newborn son outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London PA The Duchess of Cambridge with her newborn son outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London PA Wellwishers await the departure of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge with their newborn son from the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital Getty Images Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and the Duchess of Cambridge show their newly-born son, their third child, to the media outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital AFP/Getty Images The Duchess of Cambridge outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital PA The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their newborn son outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital PA Princess Charlotte of Cambridge turns to wave at the media as she is lead in with her brother Prince George of Cambridge by their father Britain's Prince William, Duke of Cambridge at the Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images Prince William, Duke of Cambridge arrives with Prince George and Princess Charlotte at the Lindo Wing Getty Images Town Crier Tony Appleton announces that the Duchess of Cambridge has given birth to a baby boy outside the Lindo wing at St Mary's Hospital in London AP A notice is placed on an easel in the forecourt of Buckingham Palace in London to formally announce the birth of a baby boy to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at St Mary's Hospita PA Prince William waves as he leaves the Lindo wing at St Mary's Hospita AP The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their newborn son leave the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington PA A waxwork of Queen Elizabeth II sits in a black London taxi as it drives past the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in central London following the news that the Duchess of Cambridge has given birth to a baby boy AFP/Getty Images A general view of the BT Tower as it announces the birth of the Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge's newborn son Getty Images

The Daily Mail went with the headline: His first royal wave!, adding: Wrapped in a white shawl, our newest royal makes his first public appearance at less than seven hours old.

The Mirror described the birth as a triple crown for the royal couple, while the Daily Star wrote: Red, White and New above a front page image of William and Kate with the baby.

Daily Mail: "His first royal wave!"

It comes after the pair showed off their new son to adoring crowds for the first time when they left the hospital just hours after the birth on Monday.

Prince George, 4, and Princess Charlotte, 2, also travelled to the hospital to visit their new baby brother.

They are now settling into life as a family of five after bringing their new baby son home from hospital.

William and Kate posed for photos with the new born on Monday / PA

William and Kate have now retreated to Kensington Palace after introducing their third child to the world on the steps of the exclusive maternity unit, the Lindo Wing.

The name of the baby prince of Cambridge, who was born on Monday at 11.01am weighing 8lb 7oz, has yet to be revealed.

The royal baby leaves hospital

Royals traditionally keep the public guessing before revealing their choice.
T he first statue of a woman in Parliament Square has been unveiled today two years after a campaign to get female representation outside the Palace of Westminster began.

The bronze statue of Millicent Fawcett joins 11 all-male statues including Sir Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi.

The unveiling on Tuesday came seven months after the statue, which features a 50-year-old suffragist Fawcett holding a banner reading "Courage calls to courage everywhere", first went into production.

Ms Fawcett was considered to have been a instrumental force in getting the womens vote and ultimately paving the way for female politicians and female Prime Ministers.

Millicent Fawcett statue unveiled in Parliament Square

Speaking before the unveiling Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said: "When you think of the great people in Parliament Square and when you realise that not one of them is a woman, it sort of begs the question, are we saying there haven't been incredible women in the past? That our country hasn't been built on the back of great women?"

Here's everything you need to know about the Millicent Fawcett.

Technician Chloe Hughes, Sadiq Khan, Caroline Criado-Perez, artist Gillian Wearing, and Deputy Mayor for Culture and Creative Industries Justine Simons

Background

Millicent Garrett was born in 1847 in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, to entrepreneur and his wife. She was the eighth of ten children and biographers have previously written that the family had a happy home in which children were encouraged to be physically active, read widely, speak their minds, and share in the political interests of their father, a convert from Conservatism to Gladstonian Liberalism.

In 1858, aged 12, she was sent to boarding school in in Blackheath, London, where she relished studying literature.

She was not the only pioneering woman to emerge from her family - her sister Elizabeth Garrett Anderson went on to become the first female doctor in the UK.

Pioneer: Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett / Getty Images

Early campaigning

According to historians, a pivotal moment in the young womens life came when she went to hear MP Joh Stuart Mill speak at the age of 19.

Mr Mill  a radical politician  supported female suffrage and equal rights for women and his address in 1866 had a big impact on Ms Fawcett.

Her and a group of young women, including her sister and suffragist Emily Davies, formed the Kensington Society - a discussion group focused women's suffrage. Together they organised signatures for the first petition for women's suffrage.

Throughout her campaign work she met with other prominent activists including Brighton MP Henry Fawcett who would later become her husband.

Campaigner: suffragist Millicent Fawcett (1847 - 1929), circa 1870 / Getty Images

Ms Fawcett - now going by the name Millicent Garrett Fawcett - became an influential writer. Her first book Political Economy for Beginners was published in 1870 and well-received.

And her and her husband continued to be prominent campaigners in the battle for womens education at Oxford University.

After her husbands death in 1884 Ms Fawcett  who was just 38  devoted more her time to political campaigning.

NUWSS

In 1890 Ms Fawcett was elected president of the National Union of Womens Suffrage Societies which was the leading group in campaigning for the womens vote.

The suffragist organisation, under Ms Fawcett, campaigned for female suffrage as well as a myriad of humanitarian issues including the abolition of the slave trade and funding for overseas aid.

The NUWSS believed in fighting for the vote through peaceful and constitutional means. Ms Fawcett believed that by demonstrating that women were intelligent, law-abiding citizens then they would be seen to be responsible enough to participate fully in politics.

Suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett statue - In pictures 1 /16 Suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett statue - In pictures A statue in honour of the first female Suffragette Millicent Fawcett is unveiled during a ceremony in Parliament Square Getty Images London Mayor Sadiq Khan speaks during the unveiling of a statue of suffragist and women's rights campaigner Millicent Fawcett by British artist Gillian Wearing in Parliament Square in London AFP/Getty Images Prime Minister Theresa May attends the unveiling of the statue of suffragist Millicent Fawcett on Parliament Square Reuters Prime Minister Theresa May and London Mayor Sadiq Khan applaud as a statue of suffragist and women's rights campaigner Millicent Fawcett is unveiled in Parliament Square AFP/Getty Images Members of the public attend the official unveiling of a statue in honour of the first female Suffragette Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square Getty Images Helen McCrory speaks at the unveiling of the statue of suffragist Millicent Fawcett on Parliament Square Reuters Mayor of London Sadiq Khan speaks at the unveiling of the statue of suffragist Millicent Fawcett on Parliament Square Reuters Technician Chloe Hughes, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, Caroline Criado-Perez, artist Gillian Wearing, and Deputy Mayor for Culture and Creative Industries Justine Simons, during a visit to AB Fine Art Foundry, in east London, to see the finishing touches to a statue of suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett before its unveiling in Parliament Squar PA The finishing touches to a statue of suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett at AB Fine Art Foundry, east London PA A 3D-printed head - used as a starting point to model the finished head of the statue - alongside a banner and a pair of boots that will be fitted to an unfinished statue of suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett at AB Fine Art Foundry, east London, before its unveiling in Parliament Square PA Caroline Criado-Perez with artist Gillian Wearing - who designed the statue - during a visit to AB Fine Art Foundry, in east London, to see the finishing touches to a statue of suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett before its unveiling in Parliament Square PA A 3D-printed head - used as a starting point to model the finished head of the statue - alongside a pair of boots that will be fitted to an unfinished statue of suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett at AB Fine Art Foundry, east London, before its unveiling in Parliament Square PA Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, Caroline Criado-Perez, artist Gillian Wearing, Deputy Mayor for Culture and Creative Industries Justine Simons, and technician Chloe Hughes during a visit to AB Fine Art Foundry, in east London, to see the finishing touches to a statue of suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett before its unveiling in Parliament Square PA British feminist and suffragist Millicent Fawcett (1847 - 1929), circa 1870 Getty Images A march of the National Union of Women's Suffrage, 1908. From left to right, Lady Frances Balfour (1858 - 1931), Millicent Fawcett (1847 - 1929), Ethel Snowden (1880 - 1951), Emily Davies (1830 - 1921) and Sophie Bryant (1850 - 1922) Getty Images/Hulton Archive London contingent arriving with Millicent Fawcett on the left of the banner PA

During the Liberal Government who led the country between 1901 and 1914, there was increasing frustration at the lack of progress.

This sparked action taken by the militant suffragettes  who were in support of more extreme tactics including violence and, when jailed, hunger strikes.

The contrast between the two approaches caused a deep divide in the womens movement.

This was enhanced when the war broke out in 1914 and suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst publicly supported the conflict  encouraging men to sign up.

A march of the National Union of Women's Suffrage, 1908. From left to right, Lady Frances Balfour (1858 - 1931), Millicent Fawcett (1847 - 1929), Ethel Snowden (1880 - 1951), Emily Davies (1830 - 1921) and Sophie Bryant (1850 - 1922). / Getty Images/Hulton Archive

The suffragists, however, were largely pacifists and in favour of international peace treaties. When Ms Fawcett spoke out to say that she also, in fact, supported the war, writing women: your country needs you, many campaigners quit the NUWSS, damaging the movement.

Success

Despite the detrimental divisions and conflict plaguing the womens suffrage movement, the female effort in the First World War was widely acknowledged and it became more accepted that women should have the right to vote.

In 1918, the Qualification of Women Act was passed  giving women over the age of 30 the vote. To qualify, you had to be over 30 years old and hold 5 of property, or have a husband who did.

London contingent arriving at an event, with Mrs. Millicent Fawcett on the left of the banner. / PA

Shortly after the act was passed, the NUWSS was disbanded and Ms Millicent retired from active engagement in politics.

She was appointed a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in the 1925 New Year Honours.

In 1928, voting rights were extended to all women over 21, in line with men, and an 81-year-old Fawcett watched on in the public gallery in the House of Commons as the bill was passed.

It is almost exactly 61 years ago since I heard John Stuart Mill introduce his suffrage amendment to the Reform Bill on May 20th, 1867. So I have had extraordinary good luck in having seen the struggle from the beginning, she later wrote.

The finishing touches to a statue of suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett at AB Fine Art Foundry, east London / PA

A year later, she died.

She is considered to have been a instrumental force in getting the womens vote and ultimately paving the way for female politicians and female Prime Ministers.
A s Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron met at the Oval Office to discuss such pressing issues as trade, Syria and the Iran nuclear deal, social media picked up on the sometimes bizarre spectacle.

Surreal photo opps abounded, with the two leaders planting a tree, kissing each other's cheeks and - perhaps most strangely - Mr Trump brushing his counterpart down "for dandruff".

Viewers were shocked when the US president began vigorously wiping Mr Macron's shoulders in front of a crowd of reporters, yelling: "We have a special relationship.

"In fact...I'll get that little piece of dandruff off...we have to make him perfect...he is perfect."

Twitter user @Pellet48 wrote: "Did Trump just make a very public display and announcement of brushing dandruff from President Macrons shoulder?

"Good Lord! He has no class, I know, but how about common polite behaviour?"

Meanwhile writer Jon Zal recycled a popular Trump meme, featuring the US president yelling at a child on the White House lawn, implying he liked Macron "because his name reminds him of macaroni".

Another branded the dandruff move an "overly blatant dominance play by an insecure man".

Later, in a show of goodwill, Mr Macron brought with him a tree to be planted on the White House's south lawn, originating in the Belleau Wood where US Marines died protecting France in 1918.

But photos of Trump and Macron planting the sapling, watched on by their wives, drew mixed reactions.

Twitter user Jeff Meltz said: "Melania's hand makes this a true Renaissance painting candidate."

Jonathan Page wrote: "A funny scene on the White House lawn: Trump, Melania, Emmanuel Macron, and his wife Brigitte - each in their own worlds."

Meanwhile Yanis implied the French president might help Melania Trump bury her husband, captioning a close up of the pair "Don't worry Melania, no one will think of looking in the north lawn".

The two leaders pledged on Tuesday to try to resolve US-European differences on Iran but Mr Trump gave no clear signal about whether he would carry out a threat to abandon an international nuclear deal with Tehran.
D onald Trump has praised North Korean despot Kim Jong Un as very honourable as he said the dictator wants to hold a meeting with him as soon as possible.

The US president has previously dismissed Kim as Little Rocket Man, but has softened his rhetoric ahead of a planned summit between the two leaders in May or June.

He said the countries were having good discussions after Kim signalled North Korea could scale back its nuclear programme.

"We have been told directly that they would like to have the meeting as soon as possible. We think that's a great thing for the world," Mr Trump said at the White House alongside French President Emmanuel Macron.

He added: "Kim Jong Un, he really has been very open and I think very honourable from everything we're seeing."

Donald Trump was speaking alongside French President Emmanuel Macron / AP

However, Mr Trump again suggested that he would "leave the table" if the negotiations were not productive or if North Korea was not operating in good faith.

We'll see where that all goes," he said. "Maybe it will be wonderful or maybe it won't."

Mr Trump later sidestepped a question as to why he would use the word "honourable" to describe Kim, who has been accused of starving his own people, executing his political opponents and ordering the killing of a member of his own family.

The comments came days after a flurry of moves from North Korea that the White House was anxious to promote as signs that its coercion campaign was working.

Donald Trump welcomes Emmanuel Macron to the White House

On Saturday, North Korea announced it will close its nuclear testing facility and suspend nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests - a move welcomed by Trump as "big progress."

However, the North stopped short of suggesting it will give up its nuclear weapons - as Mr Trump suggested in a weekend tweet - or scale back its production of missiles and their related components.

When pressed on what he meant by the goal of "denuclearisation," Trump said "It means they get rid of their nukes. Very simple."

"It would be easy for me to make a simple deal and declare victory. I don't want to do that," the president said.

This week, US-allied South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Kim will hold a summit in the demilitarized zone between the Koreas that could lay the ground for Trump's planned meeting with the North Korean dictator. The leaders of the US and North Korea have never met during six decades of hostility since the Korean War.

Last year, the US spearheaded through the U.N. Security Council the toughest international sanctions yet against North Korea in response to three long-range missile launches and its most powerful nuclear test explosion yet. The Trump administration supplemented those restrictions with unilateral U. sanctions against firms that had conducted illicit trade with the North.
A baby deer was rescued from a blaze in the Florida Keys by a firefighter who jumped into the flames to save it.

Jen Shockley Brack risked her life to help the endangered Key deer fawn when she saw it running for its life.

I wasnt scared. I saw his big eyes and he was so scared and trembling, I just had to get him, she told ABC News.

The baby deers mother was not found after the fire.

Ms Shockley Brack, a firefighter of Monroe Country Fire Rescue, saw the young spotted fawn while responding to a fire at Big Pine Key in the Florida Keys.

The heroic firefighter with the fawn / Monroe County BOCC

Flames tore through woodland after it was sparked on Saturday.

She added: I saw this little guy run out and he was terrified. He was scared to death and his little legs were shaking.

I think he knew I was there to help him."

She scooped him up from the burning bush but claims to have singed her eyelashes as they both escaped the flames.

The uninjured deer was given oxygen, water and wrapped in a sheet.

He was kept inside a Monroe County Fire Rescue truck until the fire was under control and was released back into the wild on Monday.

Monroe County Public Information Officer Cammy Clark said finding a fawn without its mother in sight is a unique situation.

While wildfires are natural to the ecosystem in the Florida Keys.

This year's blaze was made worst by damage caused by last year's devastating Hurricane Irma.
I ran today warned Donald Trump to stand by the nuclear deal it signed with world powers or face severe consequences.

President Hassan Rouhanis message came as Mr Trump and Emmanuel Macron were expected to discuss the deal on the second day of the French presidents state visit to the USA.

At the White House, the French president was hoping to convince his US counterpart not to tear up the agreement and issue new sanctions.

He and French First Lady Brigitte were set to be welcomed to Washington DC with a 21-gun salute and ceremony featuring 500 members of the US military.

Hours earlier, in a televised speech, Mr Rouhani warned: I am telling those in the White House that if they do not live up to their commitments, the Iranian government will firmly react. If anyone betrays the deal, they should know that they would face severe consequences. Iran is prepared for all possible situations.

Mr Trump appears set to pull out of the deal next month. It was signed by his predecessor Barack Obama and Russia, China, Germany, Britain and France. Under the terms, Iran agreed to curb its nuclear programme in exchange for lifting sanctions.

Mr Trump claims it is not tough enough on Tehran. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to lobby Mr Trump to stay in the deal when they meet at the end of the week.

But among European leaders, Mr Macron is thought to have the closest relationship with the US president, earning him the nickname the Trump whisperer.
A man on an American Airlines was tasered and arrested after allegedly groping a female passenger.

The Chicago-bound flight was still at the gate in Miami International Airport on Sunday night when a male passenger reported that someone had inappropriately touched his girlfriend.

American Airlines said the flight attendants asked passengers to disembark the plane after the suspect, identified as 28-year-old Jacob Garcia, refused to move seats and began screaming insults.

A scuffle then broke out with the boyfriend of the woman and Garcia  who had been accused of fondling her.

Jacob Garcia in Miami. Garcia, a passenger on an American Airlines flight bound for Chicago was removed following an incident / AP

NBC shared a video, filmed by a passenger, showing Garcia being held back by three police officers while he asked: "What is the reason you're removing me from this plane?"

Another person is heard saying: "Well, you just assaulted a lady, for one."

"American began the process of deplaning the entire aircraft. During that process, a physical altercation between the same two passengers took place. Once law enforcement was on the aircraft, the passenger then became combative with the officers," American Airlines said in a statement.

The video shows the suspect struggling with police as they try to hold him down, before one officer gets out his taser and uses it on Garcia.

Sergeant Lazaro Llerena, from Miami-Dade police, told NBC that during the struggle Garcia had attempted to reach for one of the officer's gun but was unable to remove it from the holster.

The suspect was charged with battery, depriving an officer of a firearm, criminal mischief and disorderly conduct, police said.
M ichelle Obama has congratulated the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on their new arrival in an adorable message on Twitter.

The former US first lady sent her and husband Barack Obamas congratulations to the proud parents after the birth of their third child on Monday.

Mrs Obama tweeted: Barack and I are thrilled to congratulate The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on their newest arrival! We hope to meet him soon for a Kensington Palace pajama (sic) party. Ill wear my robe!

The message was accompanied by a picture of the Obamas meeting Prince George in his dressing gown at Kensington Palace during their state visit to the UK in April 2016.

The tweet was liked over 230,000 times.

The Obamas trip to Britain two years ago also included lunch with the Queen and Prince Philip and a meeting with then Prime Minister, David Cameron.

During their time at the Palace, Prince George showed the former first couple that he was enjoying the rocking horse they gifted to him when he was born and stayed up 15 minutes past his bedtime to meet them in his white robe and chequered pyjamas.

Since leaving the White House, the Obamas have sustained a friendship with the royals.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with their newborn son / PA

Mr Obama even joined Prince Harry for a BBC radio interview in Kensington Palace in May last year.

He also congratulated him and Meghan Markle on their engagement, tweeting: 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.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge made a swift departure from the Lindo Wing of St Marys Hospital, Paddington, just hours after the birth of their new baby.

The couples second son was born at 11.01am, weighing 8lb 7oz, and is fifth in line to the throne.

Prince George meets the Obamas 1 /15 Prince George meets the Obamas Play-time: Prince George showed the president his rocking horse Up late: The young prince met the leader of the free world in his pyjamas Royal occasion: Mr Obama and his wife Michelle visited the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at Kensington Palace All smiles: The Obamas pose with Prince Harry as well as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge Rainy evening: Spring showers did little to dampen spirits The two families met in the Drawing Room of Apartment 1A Kensington Palace Behind closed doors: Photographers were allowed inside the Palace for a rare glimpse of the Cambridges' home Around the table: The Obamas dropped by following the president's major intervention in the EU debate Michelle Obama chats to the Duchess of Cambridge as they sit on one of the Palace's sofas The Beast: The President's motorcade arrives at Kensington Palace Wet weather: Mr Obama shields his wife Michelle from the rain with an umbrella Royal welcome: The Obamas were greeted at the door by Prince Harry as well as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge In conversation: A photograph posted on Twitter by Kensington Palace of Prince Harry talking to Mrs Obama and the Duchess Special occasion: Prince Harry pecks Mrs Obama on the cheek Relaxed: Prince William and Mr Obama chatted casually after Prince George had gone to bed

Prince George and Princess Charlotte paid a visit to their new brother at the hospital yesterday.

Prince William and Kate greet crowds as they left with their new arrival.

William said the couple were very happy before holding up three fingers and joking he had thrice the worry now.

He added: We didnt keep you waiting too long this time.

Louis, the new Royal baby - in pictures 1 /23 Louis, the new Royal baby - in pictures The Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William leave the Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital with their new baby boy Reuters The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their newborn son outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London Jeremy Selwyn The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their newborn son outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London Jeremy Selwyn The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their newborn son outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London John Stillwell/PA The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their newborn son outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London PA The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their newborn son outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London AFP/Getty Images The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (not pictured) and their newborn son outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London Jeremy Selwyn The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their newborn son outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington PA The Duchess of Cambridge with her newborn son outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London Jeremy Selwyn The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their newborn son outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London PA The Duchess of Cambridge with her newborn son outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London PA Wellwishers await the departure of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge with their newborn son from the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital Getty Images Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and the Duchess of Cambridge show their newly-born son, their third child, to the media outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital AFP/Getty Images The Duchess of Cambridge outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital PA The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their newborn son outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital PA Princess Charlotte of Cambridge turns to wave at the media as she is lead in with her brother Prince George of Cambridge by their father Britain's Prince William, Duke of Cambridge at the Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images Prince William, Duke of Cambridge arrives with Prince George and Princess Charlotte at the Lindo Wing Getty Images Town Crier Tony Appleton announces that the Duchess of Cambridge has given birth to a baby boy outside the Lindo wing at St Mary's Hospital in London AP A notice is placed on an easel in the forecourt of Buckingham Palace in London to formally announce the birth of a baby boy to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at St Mary's Hospita PA Prince William waves as he leaves the Lindo wing at St Mary's Hospita AP The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their newborn son leave the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington PA A waxwork of Queen Elizabeth II sits in a black London taxi as it drives past the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in central London following the news that the Duchess of Cambridge has given birth to a baby boy AFP/Getty Images A general view of the BT Tower as it announces the birth of the Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge's newborn son Getty Images
P akistan has opened its first school specialising in education for transgender people.

The school launched in the city of Lahore, in the Punjab province, with 30 students enrolled.

The institution, called The Gender Guardian, marks a historic move in the country which has already made headlines for its progressive attitude towards transgender people.

A news channel in the same city recently announced it had hired the country's first transgender TV anchor Maavia Malik who attended the launch of the school alongside transgender activists.

Launch: 'The Gender Guardian' school opened in April / AFP/Getty Images

The school, that opened on April 15, offers 12 years of education from primary level to college, it has been reported.

It also offers technical and vocational courses for those who dont want to pursue an academic route. There is no upper age limit for students.

The school was launched by the NGO Exploring Future Foundation (EFF).

Managing Director Moizzah Tariq said the aim was to provide skill-based training and curriculum to the transgender community that has enrolled with us.

Pakistan's first transgender news anchor Marvia Malik / AFP/Getty Images

He added: Most of them have shown interest in sectors of the fashion industry including learning about cosmetics, fashion designing, embroidery, and stitching while some have also shown interest in graphic designing and culinary skills.

Having gained information from them first we designed our courses for them."

He said he decided to begin the project after seeing a bomb attack at a transgender school in Indonesia.

I was moved after seeing the bomb blast in Indonesia in 2016 at a transgender school, he told a local news agency.
Local firefighters receive advanced training

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THE LOCAL constabulary should now have improved capacity to fight fires, following participation in a one-week advanced fire fighting training course delivered by an international non-profit organization.

The course was facilitated by Global Fire, which is based in Canada and they, along with Global Medix, also donated firefi ghting equipment and hurricane supplies. At a closing ceremony on Wednesday, April 18, where over 60 people received certificates of participation, Fitzgerald Huggins, consul general of St Vincent and the Grenadines to Canada disclosed that the course came at no cost to the Royal St Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force (RSVGPF).

The value of this training is in excess of Cdn $200,000 at a cost burdened mostly by Global Fire and Global Medix Huggins said the hurricane relief supplies were donated to the National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO).  Theyll be readily able to feed a few people if they are displaced, Huggins stated.

Assistant Commissioner of Police, Carlos Sampson, said the RSVGPF was extremely happy for the training and that learning how to manage a fire was necessary.

Understand the way we approach and execute what is learnt, is key to saving lives and property. Remember it could be your own lives, said Sampson.

Sixty-three persons, of whom 57 were from different departments in the police force and six were civilians from Ministry of Tourism, Red Cross, Argyle International Airport and Teachers Credit Union, took part in the training program.

The training program, which included topics such as search and rescue and steep bank rescue was a partnership between the RSVGPF, Global Fire and the consulate of SVG in Canada.

MEMBERS OF THE Royal St Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force (RSVGPF) along with officials of Global Fire and Global Medix
T he Spanish city of Palma is planning to ban the owners of flats from renting out their apartments to tourists.

On the island of Majorca, it is to become the first Spanish city to launch such a prohibition.

It comes after residents complained of rising rents caused by flats being let out via website and apps.

Palma mayor Antoni Noguera said his government will vote for the ban at city council.

Mr Noguera said he will back the ban because "there is nothing worse than having residents who can't live in their city nor afford a rent".

Rents in Palma are said to have increased by as much as 40 per cent since 2013.

Many residents and local politicians blame the price rise on internet sites and apps that allow travellers to rent apartments short-term directly from homeowners.

Mr Noguera said that houses will be excluded from the ban, unless they are in protected areas, near airports or in industrial areas.

Jose Hila, Palma's chief of urban planning, said: "There is a parallel between the evolution of vacation rentals and the rise in rental prices.

"All European cities are being transformed overnight by this type of offer. We need some order. There will be vacation rental in Palma, but only where there needs to be."
A US court has ruled monkeys cannot sue over the copyright of photographs, the latest decision in the long-running saga of a selfie-taking macaque.

The dispute began when Naruto, a rare crested macaque who lives on an nature reserve, snapped a selfie using a camera that British photographer David Slater left mounted and unattended during a 2011 trip.

The image of his grinning face went viral, leading to PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) activists attempting to sue for copyright infringement on his behalf.

Judges of the ninth US circuit court of appeals, based in San Francisco, ruled: "The panel held that the monkey lacked statutory standing because the Copyright Act does not expressly authorise animals to file copyright infringement suits.

The monkey grabbed Mr Slater's camera during a 2011 trip / Mark Large/Daily Mail

"Denying him (Naruto) the right to sue under the US Copyright Act emphasises what PETA has argued all along that he is discriminated against simply because he's a nonhuman animal."

PETA had argued the monkey was the legal owner of all photos he took. But a federal judge in San Francisco ruled in January 2016 that copyright law does not apply to animals

A settlement was reached out of court in the case last year. Attorneys for Naruto and Slater announced that Slater had agreed to donate 25 percent of future revenue from the photograph to charitable groups that protect Naruto and other members of his species in Indonesia.

It was not clear how much the photograph has been worth to Slater, who previously said that fewer than 100 copies of his self-published book had been sold, despite the publicity.
R ising star Mackenzie Foy has said that shes looking forward to completing her final year of high school and trying her hand at directing after starring in Disneys forthcoming blockbuster, The Nutcracker.

The US model and actress, 17, is set to become a household name thanks to her role in the eagerly-awaited fantasy epic, starring opposite Keira Knightley and Morgan Freeman and set for release in November.

Foy said she was in the shower when she got the call from director Lasse Hallstrom, telling her that shed landed the role of Clara.

I was actually in the shower when my mom ran into the bathroom and told me Lasse was on the phone, she said in an interview with Rollacoaster Magazine.

Keira Knightley and Mackenzie Foy in The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018) / Disney

He asked me if I would be Clara and, of course, I said yes. I was just ridiculously excited to go on a new adventure.

She added: It was amazing. It was just like wow, were doing this! The costumes, the hair, the make-up, the set design; everything is so detailed and absolutely stunning.

It was really fun working with Lasse. In the beginning process for the film, Lasse and I had a lot of meetings where we would talk and develop Clara. I had a wonderful time creating Claras story with him.

Foy first rose to fame as a child star in the final two Twilight films, before landing roles in hit horror The Conjuring and Christopher Nolans sci-fi epic Interstellar in 2014.

But it seems that the teenage star has even higher aspirations as she wants to try her hand at directing after she leaves school.

Ill be working on my senior year, which is very exciting. Its so cool to be finishing high school. I want to be a director once I finish high school, she said.

I pretty much want to make films that will make people end up looking at the world in a different way, so that they will feel inspired and learn something new.

British actor Sam Claflin told the magazine that he was keen to pursue more three dimensional roles now that he feels more confident in his career.

The Hunger Games star, 31, said that hed felt too nervous to speak up for himself while filming blockbusters Snow White and the Huntsman and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

Read the full interview with Mackenzie Foy in Rollacoaster magazine / Rollacoaster magazine

With Pirates and Snow White, they were a year apart, both supporting roles, both romantically involved, both with no great characterisation. They were very well written pieces - Im not holding it against them - its just I creatively have so much more to offer and I was too afraid to speak up for myself, he said.

I feel that now that I have been through the experience I would definitely go into the same experience being able to speak up for myself and come up with my own ideas.

Back then [filming Pirates and Snow White], I was too nervous and I think Ive grown in comfort and Im excited to get an opportunity to prove that I am now a collaborator and not just someone who gets told where to stand.

Claflin has pursued meatier roles in recent years, including the recent Journeys End and My Cousin Rachel, and is set to star in Jennifer Kents gritty drama, The Nightingale.

I want to play three-dimensional roles. I want to challenge myself as much as I can. I think Ive made conscious decisions and done things that are very challenging, be it learning new skills or working in difficult locations playing complex characters, he said.
BEST SONG MUSICALLY AND LYRICALLY

Cant Do

Written by Jonathan Higgs, Jeremy Pritchard, Alex Robertshaw and Michael Spearman

Performed by Everything Everything

Published in the UK by Black Butter Music Publishing  BMG

Magnificent (She Says)

Written by Guy Garvey, Craig Potter, Mark Potter and Pete Turner

Performed by Elbow

Published in the UK by Salvation Music Ltd - Warner/Chappell Music Publishing Ltd

(No One Knows Me) Like the Piano

Written by Sampha

Performed by Sampha

Published in the UK by Beggars Music - Young Turks Music

BEST CONTEMPORARY SONG

Cola

Written by Michael di Scala, Alexander Kotz AKA Elderbrook and Dave Whelan

Performed by CamelPhat and Elderbrook

Published in the UK by Defected Music Ltd and Black Butter Music Publishing  BMG

Dont Cry For Me

Written by Michael 'Stormzy' Omari, Varren Wade and Wizzy Wow

Performed by Stormzy ft. Raleigh Ritchie

Published in the UK by Warner/Chappell Music Ltd, Bucks Music Group and Wardlaw Music

Question Time

Written by Dave and Fraser T Smith

Performed by Dave

Published in the UK by Warner/Chappell Music Ltd and Kobalt Music Publishing

PRS FOR MUSIC MOST PERFORMED WORK

Castle on the Hill

Written by Benny Blanco and Ed Sheeran

Performed by Ed Sheeran

Published in the UK by Universal Music Publishing and Ed Sheeran Limited - Sony/ATV Music Publishing (UK) Ltd

Human

Written by Jamie Hartman and Rag n Bone Man

Performed by Rag n Bone Man

Published in the UK by Reservoir Reverb Music and Warner/Chappell Music Ltd

Shape of You

Written by Steve Mac, Johnny McDaid and Ed Sheeran

Performed by Ed Sheeran

Published in the UK by Rokstone Music - Universal Music Publishing, Spirit B-Unique - Polar Patrol and Ed Sheeran Limited - Sony/ATV Music Publishing (UK) Ltd

ALBUM AWARD

A Fever Dream

Written by Jonathan Higgs, Jeremy Pritchard, Alex Robertshaw and Michael Spearman

Performed by Everything Everything

Published in the UK by Black Butter Music Publishing - BMG

Gang Signs & Prayer

Written by Michael 'Stormzy' Omari

Performed by Stormzy

Published in the UK by Warner/Chappell Music Ltd

Moonshine Freeze

Written by Kate Stables

Performed by This is the Kit

Published in the UK by Beggars Music - 4AD Songs

BEST ORIGINAL FILM SCORE

IT

Composed by Benjamin Wallfisch

Published in the UK by Universal Music Publishing

Jackie

Composed by Mica Levi

Published in the UK by Beggars Music

Paddington 2

Composed by Dario Marianelli

Published in the UK by Studiocanal

BEST TELEVISION SOUNDTRACK

Babs

Composed by Rob Lane

Published in the UK by Du Vinage Publishing

SS-GB

Composed by Dan Jones

Published in the UK by Faber Music and Universal Music Publishing

The Miniaturist

Composed by Dan Jones

Published in the UK by Faber Music

BEST ORIGINAL VIDEO GAME SCORE

Hellblade: Senuas Sacrifice

Composed by David Garcia Diaz and Andy LaPlegua

Horizon Zero Dawn

Composed by Joris de Man, Joe Henson and Alexis Smith

Life is Strange: Before the Storm

Composed by Igor Haefeli and Elena Tonra

Published in the UK by Universal Music Publishing
A Perfect Circle

Eat the Elephant

(BMG)

****

Eat The Elephant: A Perfect Circle

Revered US rock band A Perfect Circle have kept us waiting 14 years for their comeback, a delay partly explained by frontman Maynard James Keenans sideline as a winemaker. Recording Eat the Elephant  a typically abstruse title  had to be scheduled around the grape harvest in Arizona. Yet theres no sign that Keenans rock star hobby has weakened his partnership with guitarist Billy Howerdel. Their belated album opens with a delicate vocal and groaning piano, and ends with beguiling trip-hop. Its not the heavy-metal assault you might expect based on the sleeve art. Nevertheless, the dark lyrics reflect troubled times. During Talk Talk, Keenan exudes menace as he snarls Get the f* out of my way. On The Doomed, their rampaging rock briefly reasserts itself. Disillusioned feels timely amid the Facebook data scandal. Addicts of the immediate keep us obedient and unaware, sings a weary Keenan. While their agenda makes for a largely downbeat hour, the record does include their most uplifting pop moment: So Long and Thanks For All the Fish. Inspired by Douglas Adamss comic sci-fi novel, its proof that these rockers also have a sense of humour.

Andre Paine

Accidentally on

Purpose

(Decca)

**

The Shires: Accidentally On Purpose

Following their debut in 2015 The Shires quickly became the UKs most successful country act, earning two gold albums and a prestigious Country Music Award. Their latest doesnt veer much from the style of their last two albums: inoffensive, radio-friendly country-pop that does little to inspire or challenge. Bland ballads with simplistic, grimace-inducing lyrics lsuch as Your heart is like an ocean, I want to dive into you on the Ed Sheeranpenned Stay the Night are abundant, as are forgettable country-pop jaunts like Echo and Guilty. While the more upbeat songs lack individuality, they do at least provide some relief from the balladry. At a time when artists like Kacey Musgraves are showing what can be done to develop the genre, Accidentally on Purpose feels like a missed opportunity.

Elizabeth Aubrey

44/876

(Polydor)

**

Sting & Shaggy: 44/876

Is it an April fool? Whens Comic Relief? Perhaps, given the motorbikes on the cover, its a midlife crisis? Having been immersed in folk music in recent years, Sting is lightening up  and you dont get much lighter than a reggae duets album with Mr Boombastic. The pair got together to make one song, the tuneful single Dont Make Me Wait, and enjoyed the process so much that they kept going. Its all sunny and hummable enough. Dreaming in the USA is a bright pop-rock number in the style of The Police. The problem is that Shaggys dreadful quacking makes everything sound like comedy even when its not. Sad Trombone is a low point and an appropriate summary of the whole bizarre endeavour.

David Smyth

Alexis Taylor

Beautiful Thing

(Domino)

***

Alexis Taylor: Beautiful Thing

Alexis Taylor has never made much conceptual distinction between body, head and heart. He can drop a schizoid festival banger with his main band, Hot Chip; he can indulge in the pseudiest side-projects; and he can floor you with his rich creampuff of a voice. And, sometimes, try your patience a little bit. Im dreaming another life, he sings on the opening track of his latest solo project. Its one I cant hold inside. Produced by Tim Goldsworthy, its an introspective, even bashful album whose ballads, such as I Feel You and Out of Time veer close to pastiche. The title track finds a better balance, and theres one outrageously fun pop tune here: Oh Baby, produced by Hot Chip bandmate Joe Goddard.

Richard Godwin

Martin Speake

Intention

(Ubuntu)

****

Martin Speake: Intention

This latest album from the British saxophone elder Martin Speake balances pretty lyricism and jagged improvisation with a sort of deliberate calm. Speake wields his alto in ways thoughtful and surprising, aided by a clutch of fellow veterans including bassist Fred Thomas, drummer James Maddren and former Bad Plus pianist Ethan Iverson, whose free, sprightly playing adds liveliness to tracks including opening ballad Becky, and Broadway tune Dancing in the Dark. Nine of the records 11 compositions are Speakes, some new, some revisited, veering from bop to groove to less-is-more understatement. Quality stuff.

Speake plays Pizza Express Jazz Club, W1, on April 24 and 25.
Winkleman, who presents the successful BBC show alongside Tess Daly, has swapped the ballroom for the kitchen as host of upcoming cookery show, Britains Best Home Cook.

Former Great British Bake Off legend Berry will judge the hopefuls in the new show, with the help of Chris Bavin and Dan Doherty.

But Winkleman suggested that their mind could already be on her next project, as she teases Berry picking up her dancing shoes.

Strictly: Could Mary Berry be on the dancefloor this September? / PA Images on behalf of So TV/PA Wire

When asked if Berry would do Strictly, she told TV Times: Yes, they're all doing it!

I probably shouldnt say it but you'll see them all in September. Mary starts with a rumba!

Her comments come days after judge Craig Revel Horwood teased more changes ahead of the new series, months after news of Brendan Coles axe.

New show: Britain's Best Home Cook starts on May 3 / BBC/KEO

The Kiwi professional revealed back in January that he would not be returning to the show in the autumn, with Horwood suggesting that nobody is safe.

He told the Daily Star Sunday: Everyone is replaceable, everyone. They could get someone else to replace me. They wouldnt be as good though!

I usually know around June. So it will be a month and a half before I know if Im doing the next series.

Ive been on the panel for a long time. Its been fantastic. Ive been very lucky.

Britain's Best Home Cook starts Thursday 3 May on BBC One.
T ransport for London (TfL) only introduced contactless payments on the tube in 2014, but the payment method has taken off.

In just four years, people have adapted to the technology to such an extent that they are using contactless cards or mobile devices to make 17 million journeys a week.

Now, half of all pay as you go journeys made on Londons tube and rail services are using contactless payments.

Its intriguing to see the level of contactless payments across the network. For instance, half a million contactless journeys are made from Oxford Circus every week  the equivalent of 50 cards touching in every minute.

And the use of mobile payments, such as Apple Pay and Android Pay, are on the rise. Around one in eight contactless journeys are being made using a smartphone or smart device, like the Apple Watch.

Its not just commuters taking advantage of the easy payment methods. Londons airports support pay as you go travel now, meaning tourists visiting the city can step off their plane at Heathrow or Gatwick, and start their journey on TfLs network straight away.

As a result, contactless cards from more than 120 countries across the world have been used on the network. In the last year, cards from Grenada, Dominican Republic and Pakistan were seen on our network for the first time.

TfLs chief technology officer Shashi Verma said the contactless ticketing has made travelling in and around London quicker and convenient.

Were delighted with how popular this innovation has become and with the future extension of this technology across the Elizabeth line, even more customers will benefit in the future," said Verma.

The success of contactless payments in London means more cities around the world are looking to use TfLs contactless ticketing system. In 2016, TfL signed a deal worth up to 15 million with Cubic Transportation Systems, which is adapting the ticketing system in places like New York, Sydney, Miami and Boston.

Though, it is perhaps unsurprising that London has been so adaptive to contactless payments, considering the city is increasingly becoming cashless. Londoners themselves have predicted that London will be completely cashless by 2036.

Fintech start-up Revolut thinks the cashless society is a long time coming. With the rise of contactless and mobile payments, I hope and believe that it will be possible for the UK to be fully cashless within the next 10 years, said Vlad Yatsenko, Revoluts co-founder and CTO.
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Mixed reaction to Prince Charles as new Commonwealth head

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THERE HAS BEEN mixed reaction to the agreement of Commonwealth Heads of States to make the heir to the British throne, Prince Charles of Windsor, the next Head of the 53- member grouping. His mother, Britains Queen Elizabeth, is the outgoing Head having succeeded to that post as far back as 1952 when most of the Commonwealth countries were colonies of the British crown.

The matter was placed on the agenda of the2018 Summit of Heads which ended in London last Friday. However even before a formal decision was taken, statements were made, by outgoing Chairman, Joseph Muscat of Malta, by some Caribbean leaders, and even by Queen Elizabeth herself, which gave the impression that the elevation of Prince Charles was a done deal. In a rare departure from established practice, Queen Elizabeth had publicly expressed the wish, when she opened the Conference at Buckingham palace, her home, that Charles would succeed her.

While her wish got the expected backing from the Heads, several questions have been raised in the media and among civil society personnel about the process and the timing. The retention of the British monarch came amidst concern about Britains treatment of nonwhite immigrants as evidenced by the Windrush scandal.

Many Caribbean-born citizens, who have been living in Britain for more than 40 years, face the threat of deportation from their home because of immigration laws which many have branded as racist. UK Prime Minister Theresa May and her Home Secretary have been forced to apologize publicly and to promise not to deport such persons.

But there is also a scandal about a public statement from Prince Charles, chosen to head a community of nations, of which more than three-quarters of the 2.4 billion population are non-white. A report in the International Business Times has accused him of racism on account of a statement he made to a British journalist of Asian descent.

The journalist, Anita Sethi, had been chatting with Prince Charles during the Commonwealth Youth Forum, one of the several meetings for Commonwealth groupings during the Heads meeting. According to the report, the new Commonwealth head had asked Anita where she is from, and after she replied Manchester (a British city), he is reported to have said that she does not look like if she is from that city.

Anita in turn, has questioned whether a person who assumes that a citizen of Manchester must be white, ought to be Head of a Commonwealth of nations of mostly non-white people. It has added to disquiet about the continued image of the Commonwealth.

WINDSORS PRINCE CHARLES
The Romanian Parliament, through its two chambers' heads, Calin Popescu-Tariceanu on behalf of the Senate and Liviu Dragnea on the Chamber of Deputies' behalf, have inked on Monday in Tallinn, the Declaration of Cooperation between the legislative forums of the trio that is to take over Presidency of the Council of the European Union starting with 1 January 2019.

The other two signatory states were represented by Paula Risikko, the President of the Parliament of Finland, and Gordan Jandrokovic, the President of Croatia's Parliament.

The Declaration of Cooperation among the three countries' parliaments - Romania, Finland and Croatia - was signed on the sidelines of the high dignitaries' attending the EU Parliaments' Presidents' Conference that is staged in Tallinn, Estonia, Monday through Tuesday.Romania is the first country of the three that follows to the Presidency of the EU Council, with its tenure from January to June 2019, subsequently followed by Finland and Croatia."It is an important step we have taken today, in Tallinn. In fact, it is the first document assumed with regard to the collaboration and setting up of the targets of the Presidency of the EU Council. Romania is opening the Presidency's trio in January 2019, and the fact that we have agreed upon this working tool, the declaration, shows that we are open to promoting a joint agenda at European level," Liviu Dragnea said, according to a release sent by the Chamber of Deputies' Cabinet.The said document outlines the principles which will provide the basis of the trilateral cooperation, representing the parties' firm commitment to use the parliamentary resources to promote the targets of the EU Council's Presidency, to ensure an efficient communication among the legislatives and to consult on a regular basis regarding the stances assumed on European topics.As a matter of fact, from the very beginning of the text of the Declaration, the three states acknowledge the special context they are to hold Presidency in, mentioning the challenge posed by the future European elections and the impact they will have upon the post-Brexit EU's institutional architecture, the preparation of the next multiannual financial exercise, as well as the need of a greater implication of the citizens and the national levels in the EU decision-making process.
National leader of the National Liberal Party (PNL) Ludovic Orban is paying a three-day visit to Brussels, Tuesday through Thursday, to meet European officials and representatives of the European People's Party (EPP).

According to an official press statement, on Tuesday evening, Orban is scheduled to meet EPP vice-president and campaign manager for the European election of 2009 Dara Murphy.

On Wednesday, he will meet Secretary General of the EPP Antonio Lopez; European Commission's chief negotiator with the United Kingdom over leaving the European Union Michael Barnier; and EPP group leader Manfred Weber, as well as European Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources Gunther H. Oettinger.Orban is scheduled to have some meetings on Thursday also, with EPP President Joseph Daul; Chairman of Martens Centre Mikulas Dzurinda and EPP head of the European Committee of the Regions Michael Schneider.
President Klaus Iohannis welcomed on Tuesday at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace visiting former president of the Federal Republic of Germany Christian Wulff.

According to press statement released by the Romanian Presidential Administration, Iohannis mentioned the constant dynamics of the Romanian-German relationship that has strategic valences and is one of the most complex relations of Romania with another member state of the European Union.

"The former president of Germany commended of Romania's president for his actions and emphasised the latter's importance to promoting a positive imagine of Romania abroad and to strengthening the friendship with Germany, which is based on mutual trust and respect and development opportunities," reads the statement.Iohannis highlighted the necessity for the bilateral political dialogue to be developed at all levels to boost sectorial cooperation, pointing to the very important role, that of a binder, that the Romanian community in Germany and the German minority in Romania play in strengthening the bilateral relationship.He underscored that the good integration and contributions of the Romanian and German minorities deserve increased attention.Wulff mentioned the importance of the economic dimension of the bilateral relationship and the satisfaction of German investors in Romania. In this context, Iohannis emphasised the favourable economic conditions provided by the Romanian market and encouraged the German companies to maintain their confidence and positive attitude towards Romania, while continuing to invest in Romania.The two high officials also talked about the large files that must be managed by the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2019, as well as about the European political context of that time."President Klaus Iohannis showed that Romania taking over the Presidency of the Council of the EU represents a window of opportunity, with the country set to follow a pragmatic approach, with feasible objectives so that the citizens can perceive tangible results and the added value of the European design," according to the Presidential Administration, which quotes Iohannis as giving assurances that he will personally get involved so that Romania successfully plays this important role.The Presidential Administration quotes Wulff as saying that Romania, through its strong pro-European profile, has the vocation and the legitimacy to contribute to the strengthening of the EU, especially because of the involvement and vision of President Klaus Iohannis."Former President Christian Wulff pointed out that, given the circumstances, he hopes that the Romanian Presidency of the EU Council will give vitality to the European design and represent a real impetus todevelopment."
French President Emmanuel Macron has a ruthless streak of ambition that should make democracy-seeking people shudder.

On an official state visit this week to the United States, Macron was posing as the polar opposite to President Trump, and the standard-bearer of liberal centrism in the West, according to the Washington Post.

Ironically, too, he presented himself last week  yet again  as the savior of Europe with a major address Tuesday to the European Union parliament in Strasbourg.

The Strasbourg address was only four days after the French leader unleashed a joint bombing blitzkrieg on Syria along with the US and Britain.

As if to add further mockery to his virtuous pretensions, while Macron was regaling the EU parliamentarians with grandiose visions of democracy, his own country is crippled by nationwide industrial strikes fighting against his plans to demolish workers rights.

At age 40, Macron is the youngest elected French president and currently one of the youngest EU leaders, along with Austrias Sebastian Kurz (31).

Kurz is among the European zeitgeist of populist politicians whom Macron would deprecate as regressive owing to the Austrian Chancellors independent nationalist policies.

The French leaders youthful appearance and apparent zest for democracy, however, belie a very old and darker tendency towards authoritarianism and contempt for democracy.

Macron had the brass neck last week to lecture some 750 EU parliamentarians about defending democracy. His speech in the Strasbourg parliament was littered with empty platitudes, like challenging authoritarianism with the authority of democracy.

Admittedly, the French president did not get a free ride while in Strasbourg. As he spoke from the podium, several lawmakers held up placards reading Hands of Syria.

What Macron has lots of is appealing image and liberal-sounding soundbites. He is also deft at posing as some kind of progressive. But not far from the surface is a ruthless, anti-democratic authoritarian elitist.

Paradoxically, in his Strasbourg address, he theatrically conjured up a drama of existential crisis in Europe, claiming that the 28-nation bloc was facing a civil war between liberal democracy  of which he presumes to be a standard-bearer  and the rise of populist authoritarianism. The latter refers to nationalist political leaders like Austrias Sebastian Kurz and Hungarys Prime Minister Viktor Orban who recently won his third re-election.

Macron would like to present people like Kurz and Orban and their anti-immigration policies as the bete noire of Europe who are destroying the social fabric and unity of the bloc.

As the New York Times reported: Macron said the EU is in a battle between the liberal democracy that shaped the postwar vision and a new populist authoritarianism that stifles dissent and cares little about the rule of law.

Hold on a minute. Cares little about the rule of law? This spiel was uttered by someone who had just bombed a sovereign country, Syria, on the back of baseless claims about a chemical-weapons incident that in all probability did not even take place.

Macron was also a minister in the government of his predecessor Francois Hollande, which began bombing of Syria in 2014 without a mandate from the UN Security Council.

Whatever about Austrias Kurz or Hungarys Orban and their brand of nationalist politics one thing to be said in their immense favor vis-a-vis Macron is that neither of those two leaders is bombing sovereign nations.

Later last week, the French president visited German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. Again, he puffed up his peacock feathers as the savior of Europe by calling for the embrace of liberal values of sovereignty, rule of law, democracy and peace.

One suspects that Frau Merkel is growing weary of the wheedling French leader, whose ambitions of being the top European politician have seen him sidling alongside US President Trump in an attempt to sideline Germany as the strongest EU nation.

Macron is a charlatan. He is shameless in his mendacity.

His image-making of a reformist, progressive European visionary is a mirror of vanity and pretentious ideals. Macron deprecates populist politicians like Orban, Kurz and others by setting himself up as some kind of noble opposite in the same way as he uses Trump as a foil for his supposed centrist liberalism  whatever that means.

The truth is that Macron, in reality, is a much more dangerous authoritarian than Orban and his ilk could ever be.

As well as his shocking disregard for international law in the April 14 missile barrage of Syria, Macron has the temerity to lecture about authoritarians who stifle dissent.

Days after this utterance, hundreds of baton-wielding French police launched a dawn raid last Friday on a university in Paris to break up a peaceful student sit-in protest.

The students have joined millions of French workers and unemployed who have taken to the streets and college campuses to stop Macron ripping up employment rights.

Macron euphemistically calls his plans reforms. But the way millions of French citizens see it, the overhaul of the labour code is a full-frontal attack on democratic rights. Those rights have been won by workers over decades to help make capitalist economics relatively civilized. Now Macron, in the service of big business and international capital, wants to shred French workers rights.

How Macron got elected last year is a curious question. Prior to his election, the former Rothschild investment banker had never held an elected position in his life. He was drafted into the former Hollande government (2012-2017) as economics minister by way of political appointment, not through the ballot box.

Macrons presidential mandate is dubious. Many French voters abstained from the election last April-May because they didnt want to vote for Marine Le Pen of the Front National owing to her partys fascistic history. Arguably, Macron got elected by default.

But it seems clear that within a year of having been in office, he has managed to unite French citizens in militant opposition to his anti-democratic reforms.

Macrons florid rhetoric about European renewal is pretentious piffle.

The cardinal problem with Europe is the void in democratic representation of citizens. Governments and politicians are looked upon with contempt because democratic needs are chronically neglected. Public investment and services are waning, workers rights are being trampled on, pensioners are being neglected, wars are pursued by a few without any justice, because politicians are too often serving the agenda of big business, capital and militarism overseas.

There seems to be no democratic accountability to the majority of the 500 million citizens living across the EU. This dysfunction is due to self-serving elitist politicians like Emmanuel Macron. He is the personification of bankrupt bourgeois Western politics. That is, pandering to capitalist and imperialist tendencies of the ruling class, while also having the brass neck to paint himself as a savior.

Macron is a saboteur of European democracy. The rise of populism across Europe is not some extraneous phenomenon, which people like Macron condescendingly disparage. It is a backlash to charlatans like Macron who have a far more dangerous streak of authoritarianism than the people whom he affects to deplore.

European democracy is endangered precisely because of politicians like Macron who cloaks himself with the rhetoric of being a savior.
While the world's attention is riveted on Syria, the US is significantly boosting its forces in Europe. And these are not just divisions streaming in to take part in some exercises that will leave once those are over. This is a serious buildup to create a potentially offensive posture. The beefing up of the US forces is taking place amid preparations for a Russia-US summit. Thats a rather peculiar background for the event, to put it mildly!

The 4th Combat Aviation Brigade and the 4th Infantry Division will deploy to Europe as part of its Operation Atlantic Resolve. Based in Germany, the forces will participate in multiple exercises, most of which will be held very near the Russian border in Poland, Hungary, Romania, and the Baltic States. The Army is considering deploying an entire division in a Reforger type of exercise, with troops coming over to use the pre-positioned hardware. Those forces could potentially see a surge, with a division-level deployment in late 2018 or 2019.

The plans include the creation of a rear-area operations command to be hosted by Germany. Another command is planned that will ensure mobility in the North Atlantic shipping lanes. A "military Schengen" to allow easy movement across borders is under consideration. NATO is rotating four battalion-size, combat-ready, air-power-supported battle groups throughout Poland  which is hosting 800 American troops  and the Baltic States.

In February, the US Army held the largest artillery exercise in Europe since the Cold War. The event was dubbed Dynamic Front 18 and involved seven rocket-launching systems, 94 artillery pieces, including eight German Panzerhaubitze 2000 armored howitzers, 14 British L118 light guns, and 18 US M777 155 mm howitzers.

The US military command is weighing the option of keeping the USS Harry S. Truman carrier strike group in the Mediterranean, the European commands area of responsibility, instead of deploying it to the Middle East, which is under the control of Central Command. The group left Norfolk on April 11. This move would be intended to check Russia, freeing other American naval assets to carry out missions in the Baltic and the Black Sea. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told the House Armed Services Committee on April 12 that he was studying the possibility of shaking up his departments employment of carrier groups. The rotational deployments have been increased from the traditional six to ten months. A large number of US ships are concentrated in the vicinity of Syria.

Poland will host Anakonda 2018, the largest ever NATO military exercise, the scale of which is truly exceptional this year. It will involve about 100,000 troops, 5,000 vehicles, 150 aircraft, and 45 warships. The event was much smaller two years ago. The scenario is based on the premise of a surprise attack against Russia. Obviously this huge force will be assembled for offensive, not defensive operations. One hundred thousand troops, just imagine! This is the most flagrant violation of the NATO-Russia Founding Act, signed between NATO and Russia in 1997, which contains a passage about NATO refraining from the stationing of substantial combat forces.

Meanwhile, around 3,600 American soldiers have landed in Jordan. They are participating in the two-week US-Jordanian exercise, Eager Lion, which kicked off on April 15. The training event is a drill for AV-8B Harriers, MV-22 Ospreys, and attack helicopters. It follows the US, UK, and French air strikes on Syria. The situation in southern Syria is fraught with conflict, which might easily pull in US and Russian armed forces.

In his remarks about a possible Russia-US summit, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that he is confident Russian and American military leaders will prevent an armed conflict. US officials have said many times they are ready to do anything to keep hostilities from erupting. Well, thats what they say, but actions speak louder than words. Forces are amassing that are poised for attack. The US deployments cannot be seen as anything other than war preparations that are already well underway, and Moscow has to be doubly vigilant.

The two nations leaders will have a host of urgent issues to discuss, but moving to tame the heightened tensions would be a step in the right direction. Some things could be done without delay, reviving some existing agreements that have been undeservedly forgotten for instance, such as the 1989 Prevention of Dangerous Military Activities Agreement or the Incidents at Sea (INCSEA) agreement of 1972. The INCSEA stood both parties in good stead, preventing a military clash between the Soviet and US navies during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. It can do so again in the same region.

Provocative military deployments in Europe are hardly the way to create a propitious environment for a summit. Nor do they enhance the security of the United States. But they are taking place, poisoning the atmosphere and creating a big problem.
In the 1970s and 80s, as various South Pacific colonial entities were achieving independence, the arcane Australia-New Zealand-United States (ANZUS) military alliance infrastructure was fond of squawking like an Australian kookaburra during mating season that the Soviets are coming! It was a reference to a few fisheries agreements signed between the Soviet Union and a few newly-independent South Pacific states. For good measure, the ANZUS trough feeders tossed in the threats posed by Libya and Iran, both of which sent a few diplomats to the South Pacific region to establish diplomatic ties.

During the 1970s and 80s, the threat from outside the South Pacific region was hyped by Canberra and Wellington, acting at the behest of their masters in Washington, to keep the small island states in line, politically, economically, and militarily.

Today, the ANZUS powers are warning that China is posing a significant threat to the nations of the South Pacific. It is as if China were still a 1970s medium-size power confined to East Asia and not the global economic and political force that exists today.

Over the past few months, Australia has been circling the wagons against what it perceives as a Chinese invasion of the South Pacific. Canberra put pressure on the Solomon Islands to freeze out from an undersea high-speed Internet cable project the Chinese firm Huawei Technologies Company. Instead, Australia said it will foot the bill for the project to connect the Solomon Islands by a submarine cable to Papua New Guinea via Australia. Of course, the Australian Signals Directorate, under the direction of its U.S. National Security Agency bosses, will ensure that the cable is fully compliant with FIVE EYES (Australia, United Kingdom, United States, New Zealand, and Canada) signals intelligence technical capabilities.

A $90 million wharf project, financed by China and planned for Vanuatus port of Luganville, also has the military-intelligence cadres in Canberra taking time off from swilling beer to complain about Vanuatu becoming a future Chinese military base. The Australian political think tank denizens, along with their compatriots in Wellington and Honolulu, are pointing to the large debts being racked up by Vanuatu, Samoa, and Papua New Guinea for Chinese infrastructure improvement projects as some sort of proof of a long-term Chinese goal of controlling the South Pacific. These experts fail to mention that Japan, which has a much more onerous military history in the region, has also engaged in major infrastructure projects in the island-states, driving these micro-economies into huge debts to Tokyo.

China-bashing is now the vogue in Australia and New Zealand, with U.S. President Donald Trump leading the way with his trade war against China. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull used the occasion of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in London to pull aside Vanuatu Prime Minister Charlot Salwai to warn him about allowing China to build a naval base in Luganville.

Salwai and Beijing had previously vehemently denied an unsourced report by Australias Fairfax Media Group that China planned to establish a base in the island nation. That dubious report led to high-level discussions between Canberra, Wellington, and Washington about standing firm against any Chinese military forays into the region. Fairfax Media Group  which publishes The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian Financial Review, The Dominion Post of New Zealand, and maintains the Huffpo Australia joint venture with the sensationalist Huffington Post  is well known for its close ties to the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO), Australias version of the Central Intelligence Agency.

In London, following his meeting with Salwai, Turnbull told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the Prime Minister of Vanuatu has made it very clear, quite unequivocally, that the media reports about Chinese interest in establishing a military base in Vanuatu have no basis in fact, so he said those reports are absolutely untrue. Turnbull also assured Solomon Islands Prime Minister Rick Houenipwela that Australia was committed to building the undersea cable link with Papua New Guinea, following the freezing out of Huawei.

Before the CHOGM summit in London, Turnbull has fanned the anti-China flames by warning Vanuatu against allowing China to build a base in the island nation. Vanuatu Foreign Minister Ralph Regenvanu had rejected the allegations made in the Fairfax Media Group report as false and questioned the standards of Australian journalism. The denial did little to calm the reactionaries in Canberra. Canberra had its own agent of influence peddling the China scare in the Vanuatu capital of Port-Vila. Opposition leader Ishmael Kalsakau stoked the China scare fervor by pointing to a Chinese naval visit to the islands last year and Vanuatus diplomatic support for China in the South China Sea standoff.

New Zealand Labor Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who comes from a New Zealand colonialist family, owing to her father having been the most recent Administrator of the New Zealand territory of Tokelau, weighed in with her own anti-China scare tactics, stressing that her government is opposed to the militarization of the Pacific. Ardern does not seem to care that the United States is currently building up its military presence in Darwin and Queensland in Australia, American Samoa, and Guam.

Ardern, who governs in coalition with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters  an outspoken opponent of Asian immigration to New Zealand  has, like her recent Labor Party Prime Minister predecessors, moved the New Zealand Labor Party to the right. This shift began in the 1980s following the ouster of Labor Prime Minister David Lange, an opponent of the arcane ANZUS relationship with Washington and Canberra and an opponent of nuclear weapons in the South Pacific.

After Vanuatu, which had been a colonial joint Anglo-French condominium known as the New Hebrides, became independent in 1980, the saber-rattlers in the Ronald Reagan administration, bolstered by their right-wing allies in Australia and New Zealand, began warning that Vanuatu was destined to become the Cuba of the Pacific. This was primarily due to the non-alignment pursued by Vanuatus first prime minister, Father Walter Lini, who found an enthusiastic ally in Prime Minister Lange.

Fairfax Media was not the only Western media outlet to pounce on Vanuatu and the fake news Chinese military base story. The Associated Press, in a report datelined April 10, 2018 from Canberra, not only echoed the Fairfax Media story but claimed the Chinese were looking to establish a permanent military presence in Vanuatu, which the AP cited as a former French colony. This was factually incorrect. Vanuatu was an Anglo-French condominium. But, by calling Vanuatu a former French colony, the AP, which is nothing more than a consortium of wealthy newspaper owners, a subliminal finger was being pointed at the French territory of New Caledonia, which lies to the southwest of Vanuatu.

China bashing has also led to the outbreak of violence against ethnic Chinese in the Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Timor-Leste, all of which have been accused of entertaining proposals for Chinese naval installations. There is a belief that Israel, which ensures that the South Pacific island states support it in the United Nations General Assembly, has convinced the islanders to adopt Jerusalems policy of setting off violence by Jewish settlers in the West Bank against Palestinians to encourage the evacuation of the Palestinians. Riots against ethnic Chinese in the Solomons, Tonga, Papua New Guinea, and Timor-Leste, as well as growing native resentment being stirred against ethnic Chinese in Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, and the Cook Islands, may be the result of encouragement by Israeli agents provocateur, egged on by the intelligence services of Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. Israeli agents have been deported for certain dubious intelligence-related activities from the Cook Islands, Solomon Islands, Fiji, and New Zealand.

On November 4, 2018, an independence referendum will be held in New Caledonia. Right-wing parties, representing the French colonial interests, have warned an independent New Caledonia  or Kanaky, as it is known by the indigenous population  may go the way of Vanuatu, the implication being that the Chinese may be welcomed to the new nation. This is nothing more than the same fear-mongering being pursued in Canberra, Wellington, Washington, and by the opposition in Vanuatu. When the Chinese send a few navy, satellite tracking, and fishing ships; a trade delegation; or an economic development team to the impoverished islands of the South Pacific, the neo-colonial powers shout the Chinese are coming. The knee-jerk reaction in Canberra, Wellington, and Washington about the Chinese is as wrong-headed in 2018 as it was with the Soviets, Libyans, and Iranians in the 1980s.
UN officials are loudly denying any responsibility for the failure of of some UN peacekeepers to protect civilians during the February 2016 incident at Malakal (Upper Nile state). A UN investigation concluded that some peacekeepers wfailed to do what was expected of them. The report used more diplomatic language but it was clear that UN leaders are claiming that they have no responsibility for the performance of peacekeepers hired and paid for by the UN. The money comes from donations by member states, who are also responsible for selecting the officials who supervise these peacekeeping missions. Contingents from three nations were deployed in Malakal: Rwanda, Ethiopia and India. Soldiers from all three countries are generally regarded as good peacekeepers. The Ethiopians and Indians are often rated as excellent. But they werent excellent in Malakal. The UN decided to punish some of the soldiers by repatriating the soldiers and their commanders -- in other words, sending them home in shame. So far the units and commanders have not been named, at least in public. However, when they go back home, everyone will know. Is that sufficient punishment? We will see. The UN needs India, Ethiopia and Rwanda to continue to provide troops for peacekeeping operations. However, they must be reliable, trained soldiers who will act. The investigators initial report was released on June 22. The assault consisted of a series of attacks from February 17 to February 18. Some violent attacks occurred inside the UN compound, which was designated a UN Protection of Civilians (POC) compound. Some thirty civilians were killed (perhaps more, some sources say 40) and 123 injured (many of casualties were hit by gunfire). Investigators found that some of the dead were slain when the attackers entered the UN compound --in other words, they were killed in full view of peacekeepers. The refugee camp suffered heavy damage, but selective damage. Investigators determined that many houses in the camp were selectively torched based on the tribe of the people living in the house. In other words, the attackers had time to find out who lived where. The finding is in line with an NGO report that some of the killing and burning was systematic. The destruction at the camp was so severe that over 20,000 refugees were left without shelter. Investigators concluded that some peacekeepers in Malakal failed to respond to the attacks on the civilians -- and protecting civilians was one of there primary missions. One peacekeeping troop contingent abandoned its post on the refugee camps eastern perimeter. The peacekeepers also demonstrated they did not understand the rules of engagement. The report did note that the UN force in Malakal did not have the personnel to provide complete protection to the 48,000 refugees in the town.

Meanwhile, the UN Security Council is once again considering sanctioning leaders of both factions in South Sudan.It is awkward to refer to them as warring factions since they now co-exist in a transitional government. However, the UN is responding to reports of renewed violence in Wau state involving the South Sudan army, the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA). (Austin Bay)

June 26, 2016: The South Sudan government has cancelled the nations Independence Day celebration scheduled for July 9. Why? No funds for it. The country is in the midst of a financial crisis.

June 24, 2016: Fighting that began on June 15 when a group of gunmen overran the town of Raja has spread to the nearby city of Wau (now in the new state of Wau, which is part of what was Western Bahr el Ghazal state). South Sudanese troops engaged what the government now calls an unnamed armed group. Initial reports suggested the enemy belonged to the JEM rebels from Darfur in western Sudan. The government has now declared a state of emergency in Wau state. Aid agencies reported that several thousand people have fled the city. The UN is sending more peacekeepers in and called on the government and the rebels to end the fighting.

June 23, 2016: China continues to deploy more troops to the UN peacekeeping operations in Sudan and South Sudan. There are about 230 Chinese troops in South Sudan and about a thousand in Sudan. A Chinese infantry battalion (700 men) is stationed near South Sudans capital, Juba. A reinforced engineer company of 300 is operating near the city of Wau. However, China is once again receiving criticism for what rebels and aid groups call preferential support for the South Sudan and Sudan governments. Both of these nations supply China with oil. The Chinese government has majority ownership in three of the five major oil consortiums operating in Sudan and South Sudan. At least one Darfur rebel group has threatened to attack Chinese troops over perceived favoritism, though as yet no specific attacks have occurred.

June 22, 2016: The UN thanked Sudan for agreeing to halt attacks for four months in Blue Nile and South Kordofan states. In April the rebels (the SRF) announced a unilateral six-month long ceasefire in both states.

In South Sudan deep tribal antagonism continues to create political friction. The First Vice President (the former rebel leader) rejected allegations by a supporter of president (who the rebels were fighting against) that the rebel leader only appointed members of his Dok Nuer clan to key political posts.

June 21, 2016: Six gunmen in military uniforms ambushed a car in the disputed (between Sudan and South Sudan) Abyei region. The attack killed three people and wounded two. The car was traveling toward a market town in the northern half of Abyei (towards Sudan). The attackers left the wounded and stole the vehicle.

Authorities in Sudans Central Darfur state reported gunmen killed five people and wounded 13 in a series of attacks carried near Central Darfur states capital. The attackers are believed to be members of a pro-government Janjaweed militia. The attackers were mounted on camels, horses and motorcycles. They also had a four-wheel drive vehicle to carry loot. The gunmen looted numerous houses in the area

June 20, 2016: Sudan has agreed to let Saudi Arabia lease and cultivate about 440,000 hectares (1.1 million acres) of land. The lease runs for 99 years. The lease deal includes rights to irrigation water. The precise details, however, are secret. Several members of Sudans parliament have objected to the confidentiality. They want the agreement to be renegotiated in 20 to 25 years.

June 19, 2016: The Sudan government is claiming that it is observing its own cessation of hostilities agreement in Blue Nile and South Kordofan. Meanwhile, the main rebel movement in the states, the SPLM-N, is calling for negotiations. Ethiopia is prepared to host negotiations. The SPLM-N declared a unilateral cessation of hostilities in April 2016.

June 18, 2016: In Sudan government forces unexpectedly advanced yesterday in South Kordofan state seized a major rebel (SPLM-N) position yesterday. That was a day before the new cessation of hostilities agreement in South Kordofan takes effect. The rebel position was near the town of Kauda, which is a major rebel stronghold.

Members of South Sudans opposition (SPLM-IO, led by the current First Vice President) rejected accusations that its forces were involved in the June 15 attack on the town of Raja (Lol state). The state governor, a supporter of the president, accused the SPLM-IO of being involved in the attack. So far no group has taken responsibility for the assault.

June 17, 2016: Its something of a flip. The UN has released figures that indicate Sudan has 232,000 refugees from South Sudan. The refugees fled fighting in the civil war that began in December 2013. Usually the focus is on Sudanese refugees who have fled to South Sudan. The UN report said that 71,000 South Sudanese arrived in Sudan between January 1, 2016 and the end of May 2016. Most of the new arrivals are in camps in Sudans East Darfur state. This means Sudan has as many South Sudanese refugees as Ethiopia, perhaps slightly more. Ethiopia officially has 230,000. Kenya has 57,000. Uganda has 202,000.

June 16, 2016: Aid workers operating in Sudans Blue Nile state has estimated that the Sudanese Air Force has dropped over 4,000 bombs on SPLM-N controlled areas in the state and that 69 bombs were dropped from May 6 to May 12, 2016.

June 15, 2016: An unidentified group of gunmen attacked the town of Raja (capital of the new state of Lol). The governor of Lol has fled the town. The attackers may belong to the JEM Sudan Darfur rebels, which allegedly has a base camp not far from Raja.

June 14, 2016: UN peacekeepings officials believe that Sudans Darfur region remainsl unstable and recommend that the African Union-UN peacekeeping oprtsyion continue for another year not be reduced. Earlier this year senior UN officials suggested reducing the size of that forces.. Some 2.6 million Darfuris are still displaced.

Apparently some South Sudan troops attacked and plundered a civilian market in Kajokeji County (Central Equatoria state) leaving twenty dead. The unit was known to be loyal to the president.

June 13, 2016: The pre-peaced deal by the South Sudan government form 28 states from South Sudans original ten continues to cause major problems in the transitional government. One issue is how to pay for the new civil servants. Oil royalty income has plummeted. Tribal favoritism remains the biggest issue. A member of the former rebel SPLM-IO accused the president of giving jobs in the new states to members of his Dinka tribe.

June 12, 2016: The Sudan government has promised to provide South Sudan with important geological information regarding oil and valuable minerals. The two Sudans recently signed several mutual cooperation agreements. One dealt with exploiting and developing minerals.

June 6, 2016: Sudan and South Sudan have signed a series of new security agreements. One authorizes the immediate deployment of a joint military force long the border -- the Safe Demilitarized Border Zone (SDBZ). The two countries have also agreed to stop rebel groups from using their territory. If that sounds awkward, what it means is South Sudan will try to do a better job of denying its territory to Sudanese rebel groups and Sudan will try to do a better job of denying its territory to South Sudanese rebels.

June 5, 2016: A new contingent of 300 British combat engineers arrived in South Sudans capital, Juba. The British engineers will operate as two separate engineer squadrons (reinforced companies) to work on some infrastructure projects but also provide training assistance.

June 4, 2016: The Sudan government and two Darfuri rebel groups have agreed to hold negotiations in Chad. The rebel groups are the SLMJ and the SLM-SR.

June 3, 2016: A senior Catholic bishop who formerly had a diocese in Sudans Nuba Mountain region has demanded that the Sudan government cease aerial bombing attacks in the region. The retired bishop claimed that Sudanese Air Force aircraft attacked a town in Heiban County (South Kordofan state) on May 18 and destroyed a Catholic school. The Sudanese Air Force dropped 15 bombs in that attack and three struck the school. On May 26 a Sudanese fighter jet fired a missile that hit the school compound and hit the school library. In other words, the attacks were deliberate, not incidental.

June 1, 2016: The Sudan government has decided that it will not participate in the African Union-sponsored effort to find and destroy the Lords Resistance Army (RA). The Sudan government claimed that the Ugandan rebel LRA does not operate in its territory. The claim flies in the face of numerous reports that LRA senior commander Joseph Kony has a hiding place in southwestern Sudan (possibly the Kafia Kingi area). Uganda has accused Sudan of supplying and financing the LRA. In fact, 15 years ago Uganda claimed that Sudanese intelligence services kept the LRA alive. Sudan now claims that it has nothing to do with the LRA

May 31, 2016: The Sudan government claimed that its forces had driven a contingent of SPLM-N rebels from the Jebel Kilgu area in Blue Nile state. An SPLM-N spokesman denied the claim.
NTRC begins ICT pilot project at Calliaqua Anglican School

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THE Calliaqua Anglican School is the latest educational institution to benefit from an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) pilot project being implemented by the National Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (NTRC).Last Friday, the project, which aims to encourage the use of technology in education, saw the Calliaqua Anglican School receiving five new Acer Chrome touch screen desktop computers, an electronic whiteboard, a scanner and other equipment.

Speaking at the handing over ceremony, Minister of Finance, Economic Planning, Sustainable Development and Information Technology, Camillo Gonsalves stated that the computers come with Google Classroom and this is a plus for both teachers and students.

Google Classroom is a free learning management system developed by Google for schools. It aims to simplify creating, distributing and grading assignments in a paperless way.

The Minister, who is also parliamentary representative for East St George said that Google Classroom allows for the sharing of documents in one place where everyone can access it, the grading of exams and the posting of results online. The NTRC will provide training for teachers in Google Classroom.

We are working on other things that will aid in learning and teaching and step-by-step we will get there, said Gonsalves who added that the pilot project has also seen computers installed at the Fitz Hughes Government School and will also see computers placed at the primary schools in Colonaire and Coulls Hill.

We are going to evaluate how that works before we decide it is worth going forward, explained Gonsalves who added that Director of the NTRC Apollo Knights should be commended for his very extensive negotiations with Google to make sure that the software and other aspects of the Google Classroom, that may sometimes attract a fee, are being used free of cost for this pilot project.

Knights has done incredibly well using the limited resources of the NTRC to further the issue of technology in education and I think he should be commended for that, said Gonsalves.

Addressing the gathering, the NTRCs Director said the NTRC wants to make sure that primary school students use the Internet. The NTRC as well as the government sees your development as very important for the development of the country, said Knights to the students gathered.

Headteacher at the school Corselle Smith said the school is grateful for the donation as the computers they had before had outlived their usefulness.

The equipment was bought for just under EC$11,000 and paid for by the Universal Service Fund (USF).
It has long been feared that the years of Islamic terrorist violence in the south would lead to ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) establishing a presence in southern Thailand. That has long been feared because of some ISIL activity in neighboring Malaysia and major outbreaks in the Philippines and Burma. So far there has been no ISIL activity in Thailand and the outbreaks in nearby nations have been put down. Malaysia had reported that one of the known ISIL members that were being south in Malaysia was a Thai Moslem who apparently hoped to establish an ISIL operation in Thailand. So far, nothing has happened in Malaysia or Thailand except individuals reported as trying to get something going but not actually doing so.

Generals Versus Reality

The military government has now put off elections until 2019 and is seeking to find more ways to change the political system to maintain political power for the military and the monarchy no matter who is elected. An anti-coup demonstration in late March seems to provide a reason to further delay elections. Meanwhile, the generals have to deal with more immediate economic problems.

Although GDP growth is expected to hit 4.1 percent in 2018 the economy still seems is stuck with GDP growth between 3.6 and 4 percent. Elections are expected by 2019, which may be just in time for the generals. Paying attention to what people want wins elections, not just ordering people to do what some generals and their cronies think is best. Eventually, the coup must end or face the risk of a nationwide insurrection. As with past coups, there will be elections and the generals want to ensure that a vindictive elected government doesnt get power and seek revenge. The most obvious potential error the generals made was changing the constitution to give the military more power permanently. The other damaging policy was depending on China (for weapons and investment) despite the knowledge that such an approach drives away traditional (Western) business partners. The continuing decline in their ratings indicate a failure to deal with these problems.

Another obstacle is the fact that most Thais prefer to maintain the alliance with the United States rather than do more business with China. It was the American connection that made Thailand a popular (and profitable) place for Western (especially American) firms to set up Asian manufacturing operations since the 1960s. Thailand became one of the most prosperous nations in the region with per-capita GDP increasing tenfold from 1960 to 2016. Thais expect this to continue but instead Thai GDP growth has fallen behind all of the neighbors since the 2014 coup. The army realized the economic problems could not be ignored. Unemployment is still low but income was declining as are opportunities for getting better jobs. As far as the economy goes everyone else in the region is doing better and the military cannot hide that or explain it away.

Most Thais remember that in all the post-World War II coups (1951, 1957, 1958, 1971, 1976, 1977, 1991 and 2006) the economy improved after the army took over. So the army suffers when it fails here. Accepting major investments from China did not help as much impact as hoped. Worse, the increased presence of the Chinese was not welcome. Many Thais fear greater Chinese influence in the economy will hurt Thailand in the long run. The American government has now accepted that the military government may be around for a while and has changed its foreign policy to maintain the long-term links the two countries have while continuing to pressure the generals to allow elections and democracy. Even the Thai generals have come to realize that getting too close to China is not beneficial for Thailand, or the military, in the long run.

Peace Talk Safe Zones

The government and separatists have agreed on the first safety zone. It will be the Cho Airong district in Narathiwat province and is expected to be operational by May. The separatists believe that district is quiet enough so that there wont be a confrontation between the peace negotiators and hardcore Islamic terrorists or separatists. This agreement comes after nearly five years of peace talks, which have largely been held in Malaysia between Thailand and southern separatists willing to negotiate. Since 2017 there have been efforts to find one or more districts in one of the three southern provinces where the safety zone concept could be tried out. This would serve as a pilot test to settle disagreements over the safety zone concept. Until now lack of unity among the separatist groups made it difficult to get agreement on any peace deal details. The basic idea is that security in the south would be supervised by representatives from separatists and the government and when this worked (neither side attacked) the safety zone would be expanded until it included all three southern provinces that were majority Moslem. The government could then expand economic development and infrastructure projects. Islamic terrorism and radicalism is no longer as much of an issue as it used to be. That particular cause is generally seen as counterproductive and lacks much local support.

A lot of the negotiations are an effort to create some trust. For example, the BRN (Barisan Revolusi Nasional) the oldest (founded in 1960) separatist group in the south, as well as one of the largest, had long rejected the safety zone proposal. The main objection was the government refused to allow foreign observers to monitor any peace agreement. BRN considers the Thai government an occupying force but the government refuses to accept that label. These attitudes are the main reason why it has been so difficult to get peace talks going at all, much less make any progress. The government openly blames disagreements among the southern separatist organizations for the difficulties in achieving a negotiated settlement.

April 20, 2018: While Chinese political influence is not popular in Thailand, online services are another matter. The Chinese Alibaba Group has signed deals which allows it to operate in Thailand. Alibaba has been one of the most successful Internet based businesses in China, mainly because it has provided the same services developed and delivered in the United States by eBay, Amazon and other online firms. Alibaba succeeded in China because its managers understood how to do business in a country run by often corrupt officials of a communist police state. Currently, Thailand has a similar situation and the military government is allowing Alibaba in because they understand this Chinese firm will stay out of politics and just deliver the goods (and any data the Thai generals need to stay in power).

April 19, 2018: Police have released Awae Wae-Eya, a Thai man wanted by Malaysia for questioning about pro-ISIL activities. Police recently arrested the Thai suspect in the south, where they were also looking for three other Malaysian men wanted by Malaysia for pro-ISIL activities. Thai police did a background check on Awae and questioned him extensively. Police concluded that Awae had discussed and supported ISIL on the Internet but was not connected with any actual ISIL operatives. For that reason, they did not extradite Awae to Malaysia, where he is wanted for questioning, not any specific crime. Thai police believe Awae and his Malaysian associates were seeking to raise money for themselves while pretending to do it for ISIL activities. The four had not gotten that far yet because the Malaysian police detected their activities and decided to be on the safe side and issue arrest warrants for the four self-described ISIL fans so the four could be questioned.

April 16, 2018: In the south (Pattani province) six gunmen ambushed a police vehicle that was carrying policemen who had been providing security for a school. Two policemen were killed. This attack was believed part of an effort by local Islamic terrorists to intimidate the police and local security volunteers, especially those that are Moslem.

April 11, 2018: In the south (Pattani province) a police patrol encountered three men who, when approached, opened fire and tried to flee. One man got away on a motorbike but the other two died after a gun battle. These two were identified as known members of RKK (Runda Kumpulan Kecil) a known separatist group. One of the dead men was a RKK leaders.

April 9, 2018: In the south border guards checking cargoes of trucks headed for Malaysia found 125 kg (275 pounds) of methamphetamine from Burma and headed for Malaysia. This seizure was worth about $4 million when sold to users. Called "yaba" ("crazy drug") locally, most of it is smuggled out via Thailand. The truck driver was paid a thousand dollars to deliver the hidden cargo to someone in Malaysia.

April 8, 2018: In the south (Pattani province) local Islamic terrorists ambushed and killed a popular local defense volunteer.

April 5, 2018: In the south (Narathiwat province) a policeman was ambushed and killed by local Islamic terrorists.

April 4, 2018: The air force announced that the first four (of 12) South Korean T-50 jet trainers it had ordered had entered service. Another eight were ordered in July 2017 for $33 million each. This followed a 2015 order for four at about $28 million each. The T-50 can also operate as a ground attack aircraft. The first four aircraft were delivered on schedule in early January. The first order included an option to buy twenty more. The T-50 is used for advanced training of pilots for the Jas-39 and F-16 fighters used by the air force.

April 3, 2018: In the south, an army investigation has found massive fraud in some schools, with much of the stolen money going to Islamic terrorist and separatist groups. In Pattani province alone some $22 million was stolen in the last year. Corruption in the south is quite common but it was a shock to see the extent of it in some schools. Most parents in the south support a good education for their children and it was complaints from some parents that triggered the army investigation. Some of the schools hardest hit by the theft were also used as hiding places for weapons and bomb making materials. Some of the worst corruption was in religious schools, where traditional subjects (math and such) are often skipped and replaced with religious subjects.

March 28, 2018: In the south border guards checking cargoes of trucks headed for Malaysia found 700 kg (1,540 pounds) of methamphetamine. The drugs were hidden under hundreds of melons and were worth about $22 million when sold to users. Malaysia has found that most of the methamphetamine coming in from Thailand is shipped to other nations in the region, but some of the meth stays in Malaysia where it is becoming a problem.
The UN is trying to raise an additional $1.7 billion for emergency aid in Congo. The aid will be directed toward helping refugees and internally displace people (IDPs) who have fled fighting in northeast Congo (Ituri province) and the southwest (Kasai region). An estimated 13 to 14 million people have fled the violence. Some have begun returning home but right now Congo has almost six million IDPs. The refugees have fled to Uganda, Angola, Tanzania and Zambia. A few thousand fled into the Central African Republic (CAR) which is in many respects experiencing more chaos than Congo. Congo's situation has led foreign aid agencies (both secular and sectarian) to call for new economic and political reforms. A couple of aid groups claim they have evidence that the government of President Joseph Kabila is stirring violence in order to justify an delay in national elections. There are also allegations by Congolese opposition groups and UN personnel that some of the recent fighting in Ituri province was stirred by corrupt Congolese elites (to include members of the military) who want to retain control of Ituri's mineral deposits. Ituri, like Katanga province in the southwest, has several large mining operations.

April 23, 2018: The UN has called for "urgent reconciliation" among tribes in Congo's Ituri province. Foreign aid groups claim in the last month another 300 people have been murdered in Ituri.

April 22, 2018: The Angolan government is continuing to pursue the anti-corruption program it began in late 2017. Earlier this month government officials accused the son of former president Jose Eduardo dos Santos of stealing $1.5 billion from Angolas sovereign wealth fund. The fund is currently valued at $5 billion. The government also charged a former governor of the Bank of Angola with being involved in the theft. The International Monetary Fund recently praised the Angolan government for taking significant steps to improve the country's "macroeconomic stability." That noted, anti-corruption activists say bribery is still a common practice in Angola. Government bureaucrats seek facilitation payments." Dos Santos was president from 1979 to 2017. When he left office in 2017 one of his daughter's was worth an estimated $2.6 billion.

April 20, 2018: Botswana has become the first sub-Saharan Africa country to directly criticize President Joseph Kabila for remaining in office illegally. Botswana's president asked Kabila to refrain from running for office again in the national election scheduled for December 23, 2018. Then he added that Kabila should not attempt to retain power in any fashion. Botswana had previously accused Kabila of being responsible for Congos humanitarian crisis.

April 19, 2018: Rwanda is still trying to address the issue of property stolen or destroyed during the 1994 genocide. The government recently acknowledged that 54,160 cases remain unsettled. Of that number almost 29,000 will never be resolved because the perpetrators are either dead or have no way of paying off the just claims. Most of the claims are being addressed in community courts, called "Gacaca courts."

April 18, 2018: The U.S. said that Congo's recent decision to establish a fund to manage aid donations was a good one. Actually, the decision was long overdue. Donor nations and private aid groups have been demanding the government provide more transparency and accountability for aid that flows through Congolese government channels. Theft by bureaucrats is a concern, however, the biggest worry is redirection of aid donations from region's needing humanitarian assistance to areas controlled by supporters of the Kabila government.

April 17, 2018: Foreign aid groups are accusing the Burundi government of using violent attacks and murder to intimidate political groups who oppose a referendum that would extend presidential terms from five years to seven years. If it passes, President Pierre Nkurunziza could remain in office through 2034. The foreign aid groups are asking for an investigation into "state sponsored crimes" committed by police and members of the ruling party's Imbonerakure youth organization.

April 12, 2016: Political opposition groups are criticizing Congo's national election commission (CENI) for insisting on using electronic voting machines. So far CENI has held two demonstrations and the electronic machines have failed to function properly.

April 11, 2018: UN officials claimed protestors in the CAR have used dead bodies as "propaganda" in order to accuse UN personnel of murdering civilians. The UN responded after a group of protestors placed 17 dead bodies outside the UN headquarters building in Bangui, capital of the CAR and claimed the dead had been slain by UN troops. The UN said the dead were "armed criminals" who had launched attack on UN peacekeepers and CAR security personnel. Some of the dead were killed on April 10 when UN peacekeeping troops disarmed militiamen (vigilantes according to one report) who were operating in Bangui's PK5 district. PK5 is a predominantly Muslim area. The UN operation in PK5 began on April 8. UN sources reported 21 people died in clashes in PK5. A foreign aid group reported that it had treated over 40 people for gunshot wounds.

April 10, 2018: Some 6,000 refugees have left a refugee camp in Betou (northern Republic of Congo-Brazzaville) and returned home to the CAR. The refugees are from an area in the western CAR. Several of the returning refugees have been living in Republic of Congo since 2013.

April 9, 2018: In eastern Congo (North Kivu province) a militia operating in Virunga National Park murdered five park rangers. The militia is involved in the "illegal charcoal trade." In other words, militiamen cut down trees and turn the wood into charcoal. The charcoal is then sold throughout eastern and northeastern Congo. It may not seem like a big business, but it has become a major problem in Virunga. The militias involved in the trade are usually involved in other smuggling operations.

April 8, 2018: In eastern Congo (North Kivu province) the Catholic Church in Congo reported gunmen attacked a church and killed the priest after he had finished Mass. Over the last six months attacks on priests and church workers have once again increased. Catholic bishops mediated the December Accord (December 31, 2016) that was supposed to frame a process for removing Kabila from power.

April 6, 2018: The Congolese government accused political opposition leader Moise Katumbi of maintaining Italian citizenship from October 2000 until January 2017. The move is an attempt to keep Katumbi from running for president. Many Congolese have dual citizenship. However, the constitution says Congolese cannot hold dual citizenship. If they do they must petition the government to have their Congolese citizenship reinstated.

April 4, 2018: In northeast Congo (Ituri province) fighting continues. The UN and the Catholic Church claim nearly 400,000 people have been displaced by renewed violence. More than 40,000 of them have fled Congo to Uganda. Security officials report that someone has supplied warring ethnic groups with light weapons. The weapons may have come from South Sudan.

April 1, 2018: The government of the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville) and rebels in the Pool region have reached a disarmament agreement. Between April 5 and mid-May, fourteen sites in the Pool region will be established where rebels may assemble and disarm. They will also be eligible for re-integration training.

March 31, 2018: In eastern Congo (North Kivu province) ADF (Allied Democratic Forces) Islamist rebels killed at least 11 civilians in an attack on the city of Beni.
TICKERS: CBR; CBGZF

Source: Streetwise Reports (4/23/18)

With a project located on the site of a massive gold rush, this explorer is attempting to find the hard-rock source of the region's placer gold, and an updated resource is expected any day.



The land that Cabral Gold Inc.'s (CBR:TSX.V; CBGZF:OTC) Cuiu Cuiu gold project sits on was once the territory of garimperos, migrating miners who came during the massive Brazilian gold rush of 1978-1995 and panned for gold. It's believed that the garimperos mined some 2 million ounces of placer gold in the area which would make it the largest placer camp in the entire region. The hard-rock source of all that gold has never been identified, but Cabral Gold Inc. is focused on fixing that.

Last month, Cabral came one step closer with the announcement on March 21 that it has identified several new high-grade targets on the Cuiu Cuiu property in northern Brazil.

The company explained that the "initial 2018 campaign of work involves trenching, mapping, auger sampling, soil sampling, and rock sampling in areas of recent and abandoned artisanal workings."

Cabral highlighted the following results:

Select results from reconnaissance rock sampling on new targets include:

264.0 g/t gold from the Germano target.



80.1 g/t gold from the Vila Rica target



17.7 g/t gold from the Belisca Lua target

Initial channel sampling returned:

0.5m @ 43.3g/t gold at the Vila Rica target



5m @ 3.16g/t gold at the Jerimum de Cima target

The only area of that five that has seen historical drilling is the Jerimum de Cima target. Cabral noted that among the 13 holes drilled there included results of 39m @ 5.13g/t gold and 18m @ 1.17g/t gold.

Back in 2011, a previous operator of the project identified an Indicated resource of 0.1 million ounces gold and an Inferred resource of 1.2 million ounces. Cabral noted that it is updating that resource estimate to include drilling performed after 2011 and expects to release it soon.

The company expects to begin drilling in June.

The region has grabbed the attention of other miners. Cuiu Cuiu is near Eldorado's Tocantinzinho's project, which has Measured and Indicated resources of 2.1 million ounces.

Neighboring Mato Grosso state has seen a staking rush recently, with Anglo American and Nexa Resources acquiring more than 3 million hectares of land in September and Altamira Gold announcing the additional acquisition of 52,000 hectares. According to Altamira Gold, "the catalyst for this staking rush is a rumored porphyry copper discovery in the eastern part of the Juruena Belt."

Cabral has caught the attention of industry observers. Brien Lundin, in the April issue of Gold Newsletter, finds that Cabral has a "near-ideal combination of near-term and long-term price catalysts."

On the new resource estimate that is expected shortly, Lundin states, "Just how much this new estimate will grow the resource is unknown, but the underlying data suggest it will be substantial. If so, the estimate's release could be a short-term catalyst for a higher valuation for Cabral."

And longer term, Lundin believes that "there's plenty of room for optimism that Cuiu Cuiu can grow via the drill bit. The property encompasses an 18-kilometer gold-in-soil anomaly. It also lies within the Tapajos region of Para State, which hosted the world's largest ever gold rush between the 1970s and 1990s."

Cabral "is trading at bargain levels, given Cuiu Cuiu's current resource. Add in the potential resource expansion due in the coming days and the extensive exploration program planned for this target-rich project, and you have the makings of an outstanding vehicle to leverage rising gold prices," Lundin concluded.

Gwen Preston also highlights Cabral's potential. Writing in Resource Maven on March 23, she notes that Cuiu Cuiu is in "an area that produced millions of ounces of placer gold and placer riches like that don't come from low-grade deposits."

The new resource estimate "will almost double the drill meters in the model and almost certainly increase the count notably," Preston states. In addition, "there are eight zones outside of the resource with gold drill intercepts that deserve the follow up they will now get. Outside of those, Cabral is extending soil sampling and prospecting across the license areafor the first time."

Preston highlights the improving infrastructure in the Tapajos region, "A new highway runs past Cuiu Cuiu to the east, there are new hydroelectric power plants throughout the region, and the neighbouring deposit is nearing construction."

She stresses that the management team has a lot of experience in Brazil: "In 20 years working in the country they have made four gold discoveries, including the 2-million-oz. Tocantinzinho deposit next door to Cuiu Cuiu, where Eldorado Gold (TSX: ELD) is primed to make a construction decision."

Cabral has 31.4 million shares issued and 8 million warrants. The stock is closely held; board and management control around 45% of the shares.

Want to read more Gold Report articles like this? Sign up for our free e-newsletter, and you'll learn when new articles have been published. To see a list of recent articles and interviews with industry analysts and commentators, visit our Streetwise Interviews page.

Disclosure:

1) Patrice Fusillo compiled this article for Streetwise Reports LLC and provides services to Streetwise Reports as an employee. She or members of her household own securities of the following companies mentioned in the article: None. She or members of her 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: Cabral Gold. Click here for important disclosures about sponsor fees. As of the date of this article, an affiliate of Streetwise Reports has a consulting relationship with Cabral Gold.

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. As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own securities of Cabral Gold, a company mentioned in this article.

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.

Disclosures from Resource Maven, Mar. 23, 2018

Companies are selected based solely on merit; fees are not paid.

The publisher, owner, writer or their affiliates may own securities of or may have participated in the financings of some or all of the companies mentioned in this publication.
Deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday launched another round of criticism at the chief justice and said the judiciary has always provided relief from restrictions put in place by dictators, however, that is not the case currently.

Speaking informally with the media in the accountability court, Nawaz said the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) should stop behaving as if a martial law is in place.

The former premier also said that the Musharraf era black law needs to be scrapped, and the people and the civil society agree that the judiciary should be reformed.

The PML-N Quaid also claimed that there is no evidence of multiple cases he is under trial for. Allegations of millions and billions of rupees are levelled against us, but not a single allegation has been proven to date, he added.

We didnt purchase the London flats from the national treasury, if they claim we obtained assets through corruption, then it should be made clarified and lacking proof of corruption, this matter should be closed, Nawaz said.

A five-member bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan disqualified the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif on July 28, 2017.

Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, who headed the apex courts implementation bench, had announced the bench had deemed Nawaz unfit for holding office.

The court also ordered an accountability court to open references against Nawaz and his family, and other respondents.
Friends and classmates of a missing swimmer embraced each other for support as police informed the group they had located a body at Omanawa Falls.

While a formal identification is still pending, the discovery confirmed the news the group of Waikato University students had been dreading to hear.

Support is now being offered to fellow students, at least two of whom were with the man swimming at the picturesque waterfall south of Tauranga on Sunday.

Hes understood to be an international student.

The friends who were swimming with the man, along with other students, were at the scene much of Monday. Police informed them at the scene after the body was found.

The man failed to surface about 3pm on Sunday after spending time swimming and taking photos with friends at the waterfall.

On Monday, the Police National Dive Squad arrived at the scene, a 30-minute drive south from Tauranga.

The person who called the emergency services asked not to be named but says shed just left the falls in mid-afternoon when she heard someone running up the access path calling for help.

"The woman was German and didnt know the emergency number.

"She said a swimmer had not come back up and I knew who she was talking about - we had just been with that group earlier. Theyd helped us find a way down to the falls."

After calling 111, she ran back down to see what she could do.

But a friend of the missing man said there was no point.

"I wish I was around. Maybe I could have seen him or kept an eye out."

Friends of the victim were told at the scene that a body had been found. Photos: Matt Shand.

Friend shivering and distressed

One of the girls with the man was so cold and shocked by what shed witnessed, she was unable to move unaided from a rock at the base of the waterfall.

"She was very distressed having seen the other guy go under and not come up again," Whitianga-based Westpac Rescue pilot James Tayler said on Monday.

"The water was pretty cold and as there was no sun on it, it never warmed up."

The helicopter crew got the call to help in the rescue around 3pm on Sunday.

A half-hour flight later, they arrived to find emergency services already there, assessing how to reach the two men and a woman at the bottom of the falls.

By then, the man had been missing for more than an hour.

"We then flew into the narrow, steep gorge about 70 metres deep. We had to carefully position the helicopter to get it into the gorge close to the waterfall."

But the rock the three were on was too close to the cliff face for the helicopter to hover above and winch them out.

Instead, intensive care paramedic Casey Drum was lowered into the pool. He swam to the three.

"After he assessed them, the two males were happy to walk out, meeting other emergency services, who helped them out.

"The female wasnt able to get out from where she was."

He said the group in their early 20s were wearing shorts and T-shirts. By then, daylight was quickly fading.

"We winched her and the paramedic out and flew her to the top of the gorge, leaving her with the ambulance.

"Although she couldnt walk out, she wasnt in a bad enough state she needed a ride to hospital."

After refuelling at Tauranga Hospital, the helicopter returned at dusk to search the gorge for any sign of the missing man.

"After about half an hour, we didnt find anything and it was getting too dark to be safe."

Tauranga City Council spokesman Warren Aitken said a gate blocking access to Omanawa Falls had been cut at some point

Aitken said keeping people out of the falls is an ongoing challenge, as social media promotes the location as being picturesque with no mention of the risks.

The only way to access the location is to climb over fences. Some people climb down sheer cliff faces using roots as handholds.

"The message to the public is to stay away," he said.

Police have not yet confirmed there has been a fatality, but if it is confirmed, it will be the first death at the location.

Aitken said there have been three emergency callouts to the falls this year alone.

- Stuff/Matt Shand and Phillipa Yalden
Central North Island mayors say they are thrilled that their bid to keep rescue helicopters based in the region will now be considered.

Under a proposed re-design of the national air ambulance service, the Central North Island would be left without helicopter bases, meaning it would have to rely on choppers coming from Taranaki, Hamilton, Tauranga, Napier or Palmerston North.

The mayors of Taupo, Rotorua and the Ruapehu District travelled to Wellington today to meet with Health Minister David Clark and his officials.

The mayor of Rotorua, Steve Chadwick, says they are thrilled with the outcome of the meeting.

"It was a difficult and challenging meeting, but we brought a wonderful team with us and we were listened to, we challenged some of the assumptions that were put on the table but we are back in the tendering round now for our wider district... so we are really pleased about that."

Steve says todays outcome is just the next stage in the process.

"Weve been scrambling for two weeks to find the documents, to find all the ministry papers, to look for the gaps to do our own analysis with the District Health Board, and the Helicopter Trust and with our own clinician and DHB Chair.

"So, its a pretty formidable group that came before the minister and the ministry today, but it was free and frank, and a wonderful open end to the process today."

Taupo Mayor, David Trewavas, says the tender is due in the middle of May.

"We knew there could be a positive outcome today, so we have done a pro-forma tender within ourselves, so we are pretty well organised as far as Taupo goes.

"We are excited, this is exactly what we wanted to achieve today was to get back in that tendering process, to see that our tender will be as good as anyone elses."
The preventable drowning of an international student at Taurangas Omanawa Falls has highlighted how New Zealands natural beauty can mask the danger that exists in our great outdoors, says Water Safety New Zealand.



The death of 27-year-old Kishore Kumar Aravindan is the 30th preventable drowning in New Zealand for 2018.

First and foremost I would like to offer my condolences to the Aravindan family. Every preventable drowning is a terrible tragedy for a family and a community, says Water Safety New Zealand CEO Jonty Mills.



This tragedy highlights how our waterways can appear tranquil, but contain hidden dangers. We advise everyone to remember the Water Safety Code.

"Be prepared, watch out for yourself and others, be aware of the dangers and know your limits.



WSNZ is currently supporting work on a water safety strategy for Bay of Plenty to promote a community led, locally focused effort to reduce (and eventually eliminate) preventable drowning incidents.



We want to engage with communities and identify what needs to be addressed at all levels in Bay of Plenty," says Jonty.

"Actions to support individuals, help whanau support and protect each other, and identify what public infrastructure might be needed to reduce the number of preventable drownings.



There were 12 preventable drowning fatalities in Bay of Plenty in 2017 out of the national toll of 88. In 2018 so far there have been six.



Mountain Safety Council CEO Mike Daisley is keen to remind people heading into the outdoors to plan their trips carefully.



"Its critical that folks heading into the outdoors, even for a short day trips like this one, to plan their trip with the Outdoor Safety Code in mind.

"That includes thinking about how would help find you if something did go wrong? An unexpected night out can happen very easily."



"If someone in your group suffers an injury, or you take a wrong turn at a junction or lose the track altogether time can slip away and you might be out overnight."



"Even if youre only a few hundred meters from the car park it can feel like the middle of nowhere in the dark.

"If youve left your trip plan and intentions - especially when youre due back - with a trusted contact they can raise the alarm if youre not back in time"
Tauranga City Council has today announced that former High Court Judge, Paul Heath will undertake a thorough investigation into Councils role in the Bella Vista buildings on Lakes Boulevard and Aneta Way.

Paul Heath was appointed as a Judge of the High Court of New Zealand in April 2002, and has recently retired from the bench.

Council Chief Executive Garry Poole says Paul has confirmed that he can deliver a report by June 1. This will allow Elected Members to consider its findings ahead of making a decision on Councils preferred option for homeowners on June 6.

Garry says the appointment of Paul will ensure an independent, fair and impartial investigation.

As a former High Court Judge, Paul Heath is experienced and highly regarded.

He has been involved in a number of high-profile and complex cases including the Earthquake Commission against the Insurance Council following the Christchurch Earthquakes, and the Judge alone trial of the directors and Chief Executive Officer of South Canterbury Finance.

Council will provide him with full access to our records and staff if required. I believe owners and our ratepayers can have absolute confidence in this investigation, says Mr Poole.

Paul Heath is independent and has no personal connections to Council. He has experience with the Building Act, having ruled in a case commonly known as Sunset Terraces between the North Shore City Council and Body Corporate 188529.

He found against the Council, and ruled that local bodies owed a duty of care to homeowners when inspecting residential buildings pursuant to the Building Act 1991. That decision was upheld by the Supreme Court.

As part of the investigation Paul will hold a public meeting with owners from the Bella Vista Homes development on May 8.

Other parties directly associated with the development will also be able to attend, such as sub-contractors and builders, to provide their feedback. The outcome of the investigation will be shared with homeowners.
Opposition Leaders tenure in parliament questioned

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THE CONSTITUTIONALITY of the tenure in Parliament of the Leader of the Opposition and Member for the Northern Grenadines is being questioned.

The question has been raised by pharmacist and social commentator Matthew Thomas, who in a letter to the editor (see page 8) questioned whether Dr Godwin Friday, who has been an MP since 2001, has a Canadian passport and if so, by being a member of Parliament, has he violated the Constitution of St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG)?

Thomas questions come two months after Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves, at a rally at Argyle, called on Friday to tell the people of SVG why he has a Canadian passport. He likened the opposition leader to a man who is betting on a horse race and bets on two horses because he is not sure which horse will win.

Friday must tell you why is it, that if he wants to be Prime Minister of this country, why is it he has a Canadian passport, Gonsalves said on February 17 at a rally to celebrate the first anniversary of the Argyle International Airport.

Thomas in his letter said the Prime Minister did not go far enough in his comments.

To simply say, its time that  [Friday] gives up his Canadian passport  is an insult to the electorate. It is not a choice of Dr Friday. It is a Constitutional requirement. He owes it to the electorate to give an explanation, Thomas said.

Yesterday, in an interview with SEARCHLIGHT, Dr Friday admitted that he holds dual citizenship,but said that does not prevent him from being a member of Parliament in SVG.

The Constitution of SVG under Section 25 (Qualifications for Representatives and Senators), Subsection (1), states: Subject to the provisions of Section 26 of this Constitution, a person shall be qualified to be elected as a Representative if, and shall not be so qualified unless, he  (a) Is a Commonwealth citizen of the age of 21 years and upwards.

Section 26 (Disqualifications for Representatives and Senators) (1) states: No person shall be qualified to be elected or appointed as a Representative or Senator if he  (a) Is by virtue of his own act, under any acknowledgement of allegiance, obedience or adherence to a foreign power or state.

The Canadian Oath of Citizenship is a statement recited and signed by those who apply to become citizens of Canada. Administered at a ceremony presided over by a designated official, the oath is a promise or declaration of loyalty to the Canadian monarch and a promise to abide by Canadas laws and uphold the duties of a Canadian citizen; upon signing the oath, citizenship is granted to the applicant.

The Canadian oath says, I swear (or affirm) that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, Her Heirs and Successors, and that I will faithfully observe the laws of Canada and fulfil my duties as a Canadian citizen.

Did you just discover that I am a Canadian citizen? Well thats not news. I have always said that I am a Canadian citizen and I have lived in Canada for 20 years. I am a Canadian citizen, I have a Canadian passport. Whats the big deal about that? I am a Commonwealth citizen, Dr Friday told SEARCHLIGHT yesterday.

Friday said his being a member of Parliament while a Canadian citizen does not violate the Constitution.

You have to be a Commonwealth citizen to be a member of Parliament. I am a Commonwealth citizen in Canada and a Commonwealth citizen in St Vincent. How can that be a disqualifier? Its a non-issue, he declared.

However, according to a constitutional expert who practices law before the local bar, the development is an interesting one.

 It makes a lot of sense in that it brings into question, Dr Fridays tenure as a member of Parliament, a position he has held since 2001. It seems to me that Section 25 is subject to Section 26, which means that the contents of Section 26 take precedence over those of Section 25, the lawyer said.

It is a serious thing because it may be a breach of the Constitution, [Dr Friday] being born in St Vincent and migrating to Canada as an adult could only have obtained Canadian citizenship by pledging his allegiance to that country. It seems to me that if he gained Canadian citizenship as a child he would have been helped by Section 25, but as it stands there is some merit in Matthews article, the legal expert added.

When contacted yesterday, Matthew Thomas said he investigated the issue after he heard the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves make the statement about Fridays citizenship. I point out by our Constitution, that if you hold dual citizenship, youre not eligible if this second citizenship is by your own act, you cant be a representative, said Thomas while adding that Friday should have commented on the issue when the Prime Minister spoke about it in February.

He had a right to come out and explain that in February or in the first place he should not have gone into Parliament under those conditions, but then after it has made the rounds in February at a political meeting, he hasnt said anything, Thomas commented while adding that he withdrew his support for the NDP in 2010 because he does not think they are a serious entity.

In 2015, I did not vote and until now, until you have an election and there is not another party I would not vote. I would not vote for the Unity Labour Party (either), said Thomas.
Click the image above to watch the video

Hundreds gathered before sunrise at the Mount Cenotaph this morning to commemorate Anzac Day.

Members of the public, cadets, and RSA members began gathering from 5am, with the parade beginning at 5.50am.

Mount Maunganui RSA chaplain Reverend Marie Gilpin led the service, reading from the Book of Ecclesiasticus.

As part of the service, Mount Maunganui College student Ella Cox also led the national anthem and concluded with a rendition of Sons of Gallipoli.

Bill Newell from the Mount Maunganui RSA also spoke about the sacrifices made by New Zealand soldiers during the First World War.

The Battle of Passchendaele, a village near Ypres in Flanders, Belgium, has become a byword for the horrors of the Great War. By the time they were finally withdrawn from the Flanders front line in February 1918, New Zealand had suffered more than 18,000 casualties, including around 5000 deaths, and three Victoria Crosses had been won for bravery.

My partner and I were privileged to be at Ypres in October of last year for the centenary of the Battle of Passchendaele. Whilst there we were allowed to leave a wreath on behalf of Mount Maunganui RSA.

He says the RSA continues to do valuable work more than a century after its formation.

This year is the 102nd anniversary of the formation of the New Zealand Returned and Services Association, and I want those returning servicemen and women from todays conflicts and their families to know the RSA is here to support them, as we have supported our veterans through the last 100 years.

Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller also attended the dawn service at the Mount Cenotaph, which he has done so for a number of years.

Its incredibly special and touches me deeply. Its a reflection not only of the sacrifice of so many, but its such a beautiful place. You can hear the sea crashing in the background, and when people talk about Gallipoli you can be transported there for a moment and get a sense of the extraordinary bravery of those New Zealanders.

For more information on other services to be held this morning, check out the Whats On story here.

Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller and his family.

From left: Caitlyn Ward from TS Chatham, Mason Tresidder from Western Bay of Plenty Army cadets, Louis Donovan from 16th Squadron Air Training Corps, Gabrielle Topp from Western Bay of Plenty Army cadets, and Sean Berry from TS Chatham.

Reverend Marie Gilpin and Mount RSA executive committee member Norm Harvey.

Eddie Pinkerton and Bill Newell from Mount RSA.
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Good morning, today is Anzac Day, Wednesday April 25, 2018.

The weather forecast today is for a fine day apart from some evening cloud. Also southwest breezes.

Its a three-clothing layer day today with a high of 21 and an overnight low of 9 degrees. Humidity is 95 per cent.

Low tide is at 8.30am and high tide at 2.40pm. Theres a sea swell of .4m, with a sea temperature of 19 degrees. Sunset tonight is at 5.33pm.

If youre going fishing the next best fish bite time is between 5.30 and 7.30pm.

In NZ history on this day in 1915 were the Gallipoli landings. Each year on Anzac Day, New Zealanders and Australians mark the anniversary of the Gallipoli landings of April 25, 1915.

In 1916 the first Anzac Day commemoration was held. Communities across New Zealand and overseas gathered to commemorate the first anniversary of the Gallipoli landings.

In 1963 New Zealand medics started work in South Vietnam. On Anzac Day 1963, a six-strong New Zealand civilian surgical team arrived in Qui Nhon, South Vietnam as part of the Colombo Plan assistance programme. Their deployment marked the beginning of New Zealands involvement in the Vietnam War.

In world history on this day in 1719 Daniel Defoes novel Robinson Crusoe was published in London. In 1792 the guillotine was used for the first time. In 1859 work began on the Suez Canal in Egypt. In 1867 Tokyo opened for foreign trade. In 1938 a seeing eye dog was used for the first time.

In 1953 the magazine Nature published an article by biologists Francis Crick and James Watson, describing the double helix of DNA. In 1956 Elvis Presleys Heartbreak Hotel went to number one on the charts.

In 1960 the first submerged circumnavigation of the Earth was completed by a Triton submarine. In 1962 a U.S. Ranger spacecraft crash landed on the Moon. In 1971 the country of Bangladesh was established.

Today is the birthday of Guglielmo Marconi. Born in 1874, he was an Italian physicist and inventor of the radio. He once said "The coming of the wireless era will make war impossible, because it will make war ridiculous."

To get involved in some of the many activities happening around the Bay, please check out our Whats on page.

Have a great day!
Denmark May Reduce Electricity Tax 'Significantly'

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

24 April 2018

Danish Tax Minister Karsten Lauritzen has suggested that the Government should reduce the level of tax on electricity consumption, which is currently the highest in Europe.

According to the Tax Ministry, approximately 40 percent of a household electricity bill is tax, and these revenues have enabled Denmmark to subsidize the development of renewable energy.

However, with more than 50 percent of Denmark's energy now coming from renewable sources, there is no need for the tax on electricity to remain at such a high level, says a recent ministry analysis.

"We can see that the high electricity tax no longer supports the green change, and at the same time it is both expensive to consumers and a burden on the economy," said Lauritzen. "Therefore, it is only sensible to lower the tax significantly."

Lauritzen suggested that revenues lost from an electricity tax cut would be offset because economic growth would increase the overall tax take.
Hong Kong Tables Bill For Research And Development Tax Breaks

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

24 April 2018

The Hong Kong Government has released a draft bill containing its 2017 proposal to provide an enhanced tax deduction for research and development expenditure.

The Inland Revenue (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2018 is intended to encourage more enterprises to conduct R&D activities in Hong Kong by amending and restructuring section 16B of the Inland Revenue Ordinance to provide for a new schedule, which sets out the operational details of the basic and enhanced tax deduction regimes for R&D activities.

Subject to passage of the bill through Hong Kong's parliament, enterprises will be able to enjoy an additional tax deduction for expenditure incurred on domestic R&D. The first HKD2m (USD255,000) spent on qualifying R&D will enjoy a 300 percent tax deduction and expenditure above this threshold will benefit from a 200 percent deduction. There is no cap on the amount of enhanced tax deduction.

At present, the Inland Revenue Ordinance provides a 100 percent deduction for expenditure on R&D, as well as 100 percent deduction for capital expenditure incurred on the purchase of plant or machinery for R&D in the year it was incurred.

The bill is scheduled to be introduced into Hong Kong's Parliament for first and second readings on May 2, 2018.
Ireland Consults On Local Property Tax Changes

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

24 April 2018

The Irish Finance Department has launched a public consultation on the Local Property Tax (LPT), as part of a broader review of the tax.

The review was launched in January. The aim is to provide Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe with information on any possible measures he might recommend to the Government regarding the revenue yield from the LPT and the LPT's contribution to the total tax take.

The purpose of the consultation process is to provide stakeholders and interested parties with an opportunity to submit their suggestions to the review process. The LPT review group will consider the submissions received in the context of their deliberations and will then report any recommendations to Donohoe.

The Finance Department is interested in receiving comments on the following:

How to provide a basis for future review as property values vary over time;

The relationship between property price movements and tax liability;

Mechanisms for ensuring relative revenue stability and providing a level of certainty in terms of the LPT liability for 2020 and beyond;

The considerations around continuing to operate the current range of LPT exemptions and deferral options; and

The outstanding recommendations from the 2015 Thornhill review of the LPT, which include a switch from a three-year to a five-year valuation period, a move to a system in which local authorities retain 100 percent of the LPT revenues raised in their areas, and that the LPT be re-designated as a local council tax.

A revaluation of property prices is due to take place in November 2019, which will be used to calculate LPT liabilities from 2020. Donohoe has said that any changes to property tax bills will be "moderate" and "affordable".

The LPT is charged at 0.18 percent on the market value of properties worth up to EUR1m (USD1.2m), and at 0.25 percent on any excess value over EUR1m. Property values are organized into bands and the tax liability is calculated by applying the LPT rate to the midpoint of the relevant band. A "local decision factor" allows local authorities to vary the rate by up to 15 percent.

The consultation will close on May 10. The review is expected to conclude in August 2018.
IRS Issues Guide On New Depreciation And Expensing Rules

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

24 April 2018

The United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued a new fact sheet explaining the new deprecation and expensing rules included in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA).

Fact sheet FS-2018-9, last updated on April 20, 2018, includes information on section 179 expensing, temporary 100 percent bonus depreciation, changes to depreciation limitations on luxury automobiles and personal use property, alterations to the treatment of farm equipment and property, and the recovery period for real property.

With regards to the section 179 deduction, the fact sheet explains that a taxpayer may elect to expense the cost of any section 179 property and deduct it in the year the property is placed in service. The new law increased the maximum deduction from USD500,000 to USD1m. It also increased the phase-out threshold from USD2m to USD2.5m.

The new law also expands the definition of section 179 property to allow the taxpayer to elect to include the following improvements made to nonresidential real property after the date when the property was first placed in service:

Qualified improvement property, which means any improvement to a building's interior. Improvements do not qualify if they are attributable to:

the enlargement of the building,



any elevator or escalator or



the internal structural framework of the building.

Roofs, heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), fire protection systems, alarm systems and security systems.

These changes apply to property placed in service in taxable years beginning after December 31, 2017.

The fact sheet explains that the TCJA increases to the bonus depreciation percentage from 50 percent to 100 percent for qualified property acquired and placed in service after September 27, 2017, and before January 1, 2023. The bonus depreciation percentage for qualified property that a taxpayer acquired before September 28, 2017, and placed in service before January 1, 2018, remains at 50 percent. Special rules apply for longer production period property and certain aircraft.

The definition of property eligible for 100 percent bonus depreciation was expanded to include used qualified property acquired and placed in service after September 27, 2017, although the cost of the used qualified property eligible for bonus depreciation doesn't include any carryover basis of the property, for example in a like-kind exchange or involuntary conversion.

However, the TCJA added qualified film, television, and live theatrical productions as types of qualified property that are eligible for 100 percent bonus depreciation. This provision also applies to property acquired and placed in service after September 27, 2017.

The new law also changed depreciation limits for passenger vehicles placed in service after December 31, 2017. If the taxpayer doesn't claim bonus depreciation, the greatest allowable depreciation deduction is:

USD10,000 for the first year,

USD16,000 for the second year,

USD9,600 for the third year, and

USD5,760 for each later taxable year in the recovery period.

If a taxpayer claims 100 percent bonus depreciation, the greatest allowable depreciation deduction is:

USD18,000 for the first year,

USD16,000 for the second year,

USD9,600 for the third year, and

USD5,760 for each later taxable year in the recovery period.

However, the new law removes computer or peripheral equipment from the definition of listed property. This change applies to property placed in service after December 31, 2017.

The fact sheet also reiterates that the TCJA shortens the recovery period for machinery and equipment used in a farming business from seven to five years. However, farm businesses electing out of the new interest deduction limit (which applies to farms with gross receipts of more than USD25m), must use the alternative depreciation system to depreciate any property with a recovery period of 10 years or more, such as single purpose agricultural or horticultural structures, trees or vines bearing fruit or nuts, farm buildings, and certain land improvements. This provision applies to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2017.

Last, it explains that the new law keeps the general recovery periods of 39 years for nonresidential real property and 27.5 years for residential rental property. But, effective January 31, 2017, the law changes the alternative depreciation system recovery period for residential rental property from 40 years to 30 years. Qualified leasehold improvement property, qualified restaurant property, and qualified retail improvement property are no longer separately defined and given a special 15-year recovery period under the new law.
New Zealand's Tax Reform Consultation Ends This Week

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

24 April 2018

New Zealand is to soon begin formulating new tax reform measures, aimed at improving the balance and fairness of the tax regime, based on the feedback to a public consultation that ends April 30.

The feedback to an ongoing government consultation will influence the design of measures that will be put before government ministers in September. The recommendations will be finalized in February 2019.

When the Tax Working Group was announced to lead the reform efforts, Finance Minister Grant Robertson explained the review: "This Government is committed to a fair and progressive tax system. It is important that New Zealanders have confidence in their tax system and know that everyone is paying their fair share. At the moment the tax system appears unfair  for example, it doesn't treat income from speculation in housing as it does income from work. We want to consider how we can create a better balanced system and can encourage a shift to investment in the productive economy."

"Individual wage-earners, businesses, asset owners, and speculators should pay their fair share of tax. Right now we don't think that is happening. This working group is not about increasing income tax or the rate of GST, but rather introducing more fairness across all taxpayers. The Working Group will also consider how the tax system can contribute to positive environmental outcomes and the impact of likely changes to the economic environment, demographics, technology, and employment practices over the next decade."

"As promised before the election, any significant changes legislated for from the Group's final report will not come into force until the 2021 tax year. As we promised during the election campaign, certain areas will be outside the scope of the review, including increasing any income tax rate, the rate of GST, inheritance tax, and changes that would apply to the family home or land beneath it," Robertson said.

The head of the review, Michael Cullen, said the response to the consultation so far has been excellent. "There has been a steady flow of people visiting the website and going through the information. The quick polls have been popular with more than 10,000 responses so far and it's encouraging that a good proportion of those votes have been followed up with a submission."

"It's rare to have an opportunity to influence the future of tax so I would encourage anyone who has been thinking about making a submission to get on to the website and have their say before the window closes. All New Zealanders have a stake in the design of a future tax system so it's important that we hear as many different perspectives as possible."

New Zealand recently enacted The Taxation (Annual Rates for 201718, Employment and Investment Income, and Remedial Matters) Act, which reformed the administration of PAYE (wage and salary deductions) to require employers to provide more timely information to New Zealand's Inland Revenue Department and modernized the taxation of employee share schemes. The way banks and other institutions provide information about investment income to the Inland Revenue Department was also reformed, and residential investment properties sold within five years of purchase are now subject to tax under the so-called "bright line test." Previously, properties were subject to tax if sold within two years of purchase.
Julian Assanges invitation to the Cambridge Union Society is already arousing controversy as a leaked email reveals plans by Cambridge University Students Union (CUSU) Womens Campaign to stop him from speaking.

The question and answer session, due to take place on 27th November via video-link, would be the Wikileaks founders first public appearance since seeking political asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy last August. Assanges protection against extradition, despite charges against him in Sweden of rape and sexual assault, has been subject to extensive criticism. Assange has appeared at the Union before, speaking in person in March 2011, but in light of the recent accusations, CUSU Womens Campaign has already launched a petition to force the Union to revoke the invitation. The petition had already attracted more than 530 signatories at the time of publication.

Speaking to The Cambridge Student, CUSU Womens Officer Susy Langsdale reiterated her dissatisfaction with the Unions invitation. We are deeply disappointed that the current committee of Cambridge Union Society have decided to re-invite Assange. Yet again, the Cambridge Union Society is enabling the rebuilding of the public personae of an alleged rapist. By inviting Assange, and Strauss-Kahn previously, the Cambridge Union Society are colluding in the horrific silence and shame around rape.

Langsdale has also challenged the question and answer format of the Union talk.Equally insulting to survivors of rape within the student body and nationally, she notes that it is clearly the case that Assange will not be able to talk about anything legally affecting his case and will, most probably, turn any reference into the case into an attempt to talk about his own defence.

However, an email leaked to The Tab has revealed that the Cambridge group have plans for direct action. This would parallel the large-scale protests in retaliation against the Unions invitation to Dominique Strauss-Kahn in March this year. In the message, which was addressed to the signatories of the petition put together against Strauss-Kahns visit, CUSU Womens Officer, Susy Langsdale called for the email recipients to sign the petition. However, she went further to warn recipients to keep their plans for mobilising secret, asking to please keep it quite quiet, and adding we dont want a big invite Assange campaign to be ready to go when the open meeting is organised. The Tab suggests in its article that this silence could represent an affront to the democratic process.

Langsdale labelled The Tabs accusations that Langsdale was deliberately trying to conceal her activities as boringly sensationalist. The email we sent out was not an affront to the democratic process', she insisted, but an attempt to utilise those very democratic processes in place within the Union in order to get the invitation revoked by a members vote.

Louise Ashwell  Deputy News Editor

Photo: Rob Palmer
HSPS and PPS students have this week been complaining about a proposal to divide the SPS library into different sections and to move much of the material to the Sidgwick site.

The plans include: moving the Politics undergraduate reading lists to the Sidgwick site, moving the International Studies collection (which serves mostly MPhils) to the Sidgwick site (though to a different location from the Politics section) and moving other identifiable politics stock to Sidgwick (i.e. old and non-reading list titles).

The university is aiming to divide up the SPS library in to different sections and move much of it to the Sidgewick sight. So far all we know is that the aim is to transfer from SPS:

The SPS Library does, however, plan to ensure that any shortages in the Sociology provision would be compensated for by a new purchase.

Student representatives expressed their concern in an internal email sent to all Part I HSPS students, arguing that the divisions would negatively affect our undergraduate experience. They added that the multidisciplinary selection of books represents the nature of the HSPS tripos and therefore should definitely be maintained. They called on students concerned by the move to contact their student representatives as soon as possible.

However, one third-year PPS student commented: I dont actually think the division will be that big a deal, especially as HSPS students tend to specialise by second year. I go to a hill college, and this move means that I wont have to make separate trips to go to lectures on the Sidgwick site and books from the SPS library in the New Museums Site.

The move is planned for Summer 2015, and a decision may be made as soon as April.
Spotify announced a major upgrade to its mobile app at an event at the Gramercy Theater in New York City today. The service will no longer treat its free users as second-class citizens. Now, whether you're one of Spotify's 90 million free users or opt to pay $10 a month to unlock the full experience, your music will take center stage, with curated playlists, on-demand listening, and smarter playlist creation. It's so good, in fact, some users might want to consider downgrading to the free tier from the premium one. Here are five reasons why you might want to switch (and five reasons why you shouldn't):

5 reasons to go free

It's way more personal

When you sign up for the free plan inside the new Spotify app, you'll be greeted with a redesigned on-boarding screen that asks you to select your favorite artists. That sets the machine learning algorithm in motion, and you'll instantly be greeted with a playlist of songs you might enjoy. Then, as you listen, like, and hide songs, your invisible curator will become smarter and deliver more personal recommendations every day.

Spotify Spotify's free tier is way more personal than it was before.

You can play songs on demand

This is the big one. Where Spotify's free users previously had access to all the service's playlists, they could only listen to them in shuffle mode. That's changing with the new app. Spotify will now offer 15 playlists a day to its free usersincluding popular ones like the awesome Rap Caviar mixwith unrestricted listening, meaning you can play the same song 100 times in a row if you'd like. Some of these playlists will be updated daily, others weekly, but Spotify promises more than 750 personalized tracks will be available for on-demand streaming every day.

It'll keep your playlists fresh

One of the Spotify app's greatest strengths over its competitors has been easy playlist creation on its mobile app. That's not changing with the new versionnor is the shuffle-only restrictions on the free tierbut there is one feature Spotify is bringing over from Premium that might help you make better mixes. As you curate your playlists, Spotify will continually suggest songs based on your musical tastes, the artists and genres you've picked, and even the name of the playlist itself. And what's more, it'll keep recommending new songs as you listen to it, so your favorite playlists won't get stale.

Spotify You don't have to be a Premium user to get playlist assistance anymore.

It'll save your data

With the new app update, Spotify is removing one of the major pain points for its free users, mobile data usage. While free users still won't be able to download songs for offline listening, Spotify is introducing a new Data Saver toggle in Settings that will enable automatic caching of your favorite songs and playlists so you won't have to burn through you monthly data allotment while working out at the gym. With prompts based on mobile data usage, Spotify estimates this will decrease data usage by as much as 75 percent.

Radio is everywhere

One of the first things people will notice when launching the new Spotify app is that the Radio tab is gone. That means you won't be able to quickly jump into a station and start rocking out to J. Cole or Drake, but that doesn't mean you won't get a radio-style listening experience with the free tier. In fact, it's just the opposite. When you hit the Search tab now, you'll be presented with a list of genres to help the service focus on your mood. Then you'll get recommendations of artists, songs, and playlists tailored specifically for your tastes rather than generic radio stations that may or may not fit the bill.

Spotify From search to playlists, Spotify's radio stations are everywhere now.

5 reasons to stay Premium

There aren't any ads

Obviously, ads are the main reason why people opt to pay Spotify $10 a month, and after today's update, that hasn't changed. If you don't want to hear 15-second ads between songs, stay on the Premium tier.

You have full access to Spotify's library

While Spotify is giving its free users on-demand access to hundreds of songs every day, it pales in comparison to the 35-million-song library that Premium users get. Sure, free users can search the entire catalogue, select songs for playlists, and add anything to their library, but only paid subscribers have the ability to play them whenever they like. So if you want to hear J. Cole's "Friends" without waiting for it to appear on one of the free tier's unrestricted playlists, Premium is the only way to go.

Michael Simon/IDG You can pick and play some songs on the free tier, but only Premium gives you access to all of them.

You can listen offline

Spotify's new app might have a data-saver mode for on-the-go listening, but nothing beats the ability to download songs right to your device. If they have a spotty connection or a dwindling data pool, Spotify's free users may be out of luck, while Premium subscribers can listen for hours and hours without using a single megabyte of LTE data.

You can listen through a smart speaker

Spotify didn't announce a speaker or any other hardware at its event, so you'll still need to use a Google Home, Amazon Echo, or Sonos One (sorry HomePod fans), if you want a voice-controlled listening experience at home. But to do that you'll need a Premium subscription.

You can get Hulu for super cheap

A few weeks ago, Spotify and Hulu announced they were teaming up to offer a one-of-a-kind digital bundle. For $13 a month, you'll get a subscription to Spotify Premium (normally $10 a month) and Hulu's Limited Commercial plan (normally $8 a month). That's a savings of $5 a month or $70 a year, and it lets you choose between streaming Taylor Swift's Reputation or Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. If that's not a double-threat, I don't know what is.
SJCK receives gift of piano from New Kingstown Chorale

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A SHINY PIANO was handed over to the students of St Josephs Convent Kingstown last Friday, in hopes that the instrument would strike a chord in the music program.

The New Kingstown Chorale chimed in to the weekly assembly of the school bearing gifts of musical notes and instruments for the students who had gathered to welcome them last Friday.

The over 60-year-old chorale had a story of gratitude to share, in the halls of the space where they had been practicing for years upon years.

Rachel Haslam, the new manager of the Chorale addressing the young crowd, said, The New Kingstown Chorale has practiced here, we were getting some dates this morning, and we think its back to 1997. Suffice it to say, that is before any of you were born.

She continued, We have been practicing here on a Tuesday evening, and sometimes on a Thursdaysometimes all weekend.

A former principal, Sister Maureen Alexander, was the first who had offered the venue to the Chorale, she said.

Extending more thanks, she indicated, We are also grateful to the Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny, and in general to the entire student body of the St Josephs Convent Kingstown. I know a time weve actually had to wait on students, or throw students out of the room for us to practice, and were very appreciative of having this place.

Haslam thanked the people of St Vincent and the Grenadines, and the fans of the Chorale for allowing the gift to come about.

From time to time we have concerts, we perform round and about St Vincent, and weve been overseas on many occasions, and we would charge for persons to come to our concerts. It is actually part of these funds that we have used to purchase the piano, she informed.

With a young crowd before her, Haslam invited the students to become part of the junior arm of the choir. I would like to extend an invitation to anyone who loves singing, once you love to sing, and youre prepared to learn and to sing properly, by all means get in touch with us, she implored.

After this the Chorale broke in the piano with a rendition of The Lord is my Shepherd, with in-tune voices and an intune piano, as made sure of by Brenton Bailey.

The voices of a choir that is used to using them rang through the hall alongside the playing of Music Director of the choir since 1985, Jeanne Horne.

When they were finished, there was a ready applause by the students, who promised to take care of the piano.(KR)

ACTING PRINCIPAL OF SJCK ANTOINETTE JARDINE (left) accepts piano from Music Director of the New Kingstown Chorale Jeanne Horne
His administration will establish the "Agrarian Civil Service," a program through which thousands of young university students will technically support the farmers. | Read More
SJCM to host IMF senior economist at public lecture

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AS ACTIVITIES continue to mark the 50th Anniversary of St Josephs Convent Marriaqua, formerly the Marriaqua Secondary School, the 50th Anniversary Committee in collaboration with the school will on May 3 host a public lecture at Frenches House in Kingstown.

The lecture will be presented by Dr Garth P Nicholls, Senior Economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Dr Nicholls is a Vincentian and 1983 graduate of the Marriaqua Secondary School. Some of his works have been published in books, journals, working papers etc. Dr Nicholls will speak on the topic: What must a fragile economy such as St Vincent and the Grenadines do to manage the effects of global vulnerabilities and ensure economic growth.

Members of the public are invited to attend this forum which we anticipate will draw interest from a wide cross section of the society and especially so from those who are charged with the management of our economy and students across the country.

DR GARTH P NICHOLLS
High-flying celebrity financial planner Sam Henderson's world came crashing down on Tuesday as the banking royal commission heard he instructed his employees to impersonate a client and misrepresented his tertiary qualifications.

Mr Henderson, a regular host on Sky News Business, also failed to disclose a conflict of interest and gave advice to one client that was described as "risible," the commission heard.

Client Donna McKenna, who is a Fair Work Commissioner, outlined just what it was like to be a client of Mr Henderson, a principal of a financial planning firm awarded Practice of the Year.
Australian building materials giant Boral has suffered a sharp share-price plunge after revealing a long North American winter and heavy rain in Texas had taken a toll on its US operations' profits.

The ASX-listed Boral has a strong North American business and dramatically increased its exposure to the US market last year when it bought out the Utah-based Headwaters, one of the country's leading producers of fly ash.

Australia's Boral increased its exposure to the US market last year. Credit:Ben Rushton

The $US2.6 billion acquisition expanded five-fold Boral's production of fly ash  a byproduct of burning pulverised coal that is commonly used as a partial replacement for cement  and doubled the size of its US roofing and manufactured stone divisions.

But Boral told investors on Tuesday that its North America division's profits in the March quarter had come in below expectations, as had its quarterly profits in Australia, which the company attributed to a kiln outage, challenging conditions in Western Australia and rain in Queensland.
The chief executive of Alibaba Group, the Chinese retail goliath often described as Asia's Amazon, says rising political tension between China and Australia has not damaged business or trade relations.

Daniel Zhang instead insists that demand from middle-class Chinese consumers is too great to be disrupted by geopolitical friction, and sees "tremendous" growth ahead for Australian exporters to the region.

Daniel Zhang speaking at an event in Melbourne on Monday. Credit:Luis Enrique Ascui

Some business leaders, including Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest, have criticised domestic debate about Chinese Communist Party influence on Australian politics and China's territorial ambitions in the South China Sea, saying it jeopardised the relationship with our largest trading partner.

But Mr Zhang said he saw no sign of it damaging business relationships, with his first trip to Australia as CEO of the $US449 billion ($590 billion) group highlighting to him the potential for more cross-border trade.
Google, which dominates online advertising, continues to thrive amid escalating threats of regulation in Washington and a wider backlash against Silicon Valley and widespread data collection.

Google goes from strength to strength, Credit:Tamara Voninski

In the first quarter, Google parent company Alphabet's net income grew by 73 per cent, totaling about $US9.4 billion ($12.4 billion). Revenue rose 26 per cent to $US31 billion from $US25 billion last year, beating analyst estimates. Alphabet's stock climbed upward nearly 1 per cent in aftermarket trading.

Following Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg's highly publicised hearings on Capitol Hill this month, lawmakers from both parties have pledged to introduce new data privacy regulations that would strike at the heart of Google's business.
For more than a year, Finland has been testing the proposition that the best way to lift economic fortunes may be the simplest: Hand out money without rules or restrictions on how people use it.

The nation's experiment with so-called universal basic income has captured global attention as a potentially promising way to restore economic security at a time of worry about inequality and automation.

Finland introduced the experiment just over a year ago, Credit:Alamy

Now, the experiment is ending. The Finnish government has opted not to continue financing it past this year, a reflection of public discomfort with the idea of dispensing government largess free of requirements that its recipients seek work.

Finland has actually reversed course on that front this year, adopting rules that threaten to cut benefits for jobless people unless they actively look for work or engage in job training.
Nicola Bodor's second child is due next week, and along with a hospital bag, she has got the application form for SCEGGS Darlinghurst ready to go.

Ms Bodor toured the private school when she was pregnant with her first daughter Poppy, and said she was told she had about a month after Poppy was born to get on the waiting list to have a chance of being accepted.

"We sent in the form for SCEGGS when Poppy was five days old," Ms Bodor, who lives in Balmain, said.

Nicola Bodor sent in the application for SCEGGS when her daughter Poppy was five days old.

Ms Bodor also put Poppy on the waiting list at Ascham and had to pay an application fee of $250 for each school, and is planning to do the same for her second child.
The National Gallery of Australia teamed up with Sydney philanthrophic organisation The Balnaves Foundation to commission an annual series of intervention art by Australian contemporary artists.

The first works commissioned for the acquisitive exhibition, which will be launched with a party on May 4, were Sarah Contos's suspension work Nikola Teska Sends Theda Bara To Mars (2017-18) and New Zealanders Jess Johnson and Simon Ward's virtual reality interactive world Terminus (2017-18). Both were firsts of their kind: it was the first time a contemporary suspension work was hung in the foyer and the first time a virtual reality world had been created for the national collection.

Sarah Contos with her work Nikola Tesla sends Theda Bara to Mars in the National Gallery of Australia's intervention art series. Credit:Jamila Toderas

Senior curator of contemporary art Jaklyn Babington said Sydney artist Contos was someone who could work with the challenge posed by the gallery's foyer with its 14-metre height, uneven spacing and pedestrian traffic.

As for Contos's work's title, while a Serbian-American engineer and a silent screen siren might seem to have nothing in common, Contos said the inspiration for the title came from "a great story about Nikola Tesla working on wireless communication.
Work of four artists being featured at Youlou Art Centre

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THE YOULOU ART Centre in keeping with its mission to focus on showcasing the work of local artists and artisans of St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), is inviting the public to view the art work of four local artists.

An opening reception for the artists is planned for Saturday, April 28 from five to eight pm. The featured artists are: Kingsley Roberts, Anthony McDowall, Marc Erdrich and Sean Roache, whose work will be on showcase from April 21 to June, 30, 2018.

Photographer Kingsley Roberts who is known for photographing everyday life in SVG, currently has his photograph of the iconic Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption, in Kingstown, on the cover of the 2018 Telephone directory. He is a prize winning photographer who has been practicing his craft for over 30 years.

Kingsley is originally from Sandy Bay and is of Carib descent. He recalled he became interested in photography in the 60s when an American visited his village with a camera. Kingsley owns Photographic Elegance and also operates from his residence at Dorsetshire Hill.

Anthony Mc Dowall has always had a passion for art making. He studied art while a student at the Emanuel High School in Mesopotamia. He has had various work experiences. He has been a farmer, a policeman, ran a mini mart and bar, and currently he works for an insurance company. He restarted his painting career when his daughter entered secondary school. He realized he could be a role model for her.

McDowall is inspired by nature. He sees his art as an avenue to make the statement, Beauty is in everything we see. His paintings are about the natural beauty of St. Vincent. He wants the public to cherish their surroundings and detests the destruction of the environment through littering and other means of controllable pollution.

Reluctant to call himself a photographer, Marc Erdrich prefers to call himself an imagist. He started his career as a journalist which entailed writing as well as taking pictures and spanned many decades. During his career as a journalist, he harnessed his talents in the literary arts and has tried his hand at play writing, wrote short stories and essays. While living in SVG, he has been assembling all these various skills into something resembling the creative process.

The result has been a number of theatre projects under the guise of a production company called Theatre Arts. He has had several photo exhibitions and a number of writing and graphic design projects. Marc has been living in St Vincent for the past 20 years. He said, I prefer to ply my trade quietly and without fanfare. I am at an age when it gives me great pleasure to see young Vincentian artists creating new work. There is a lot of talent here begging to be seen and heard and if by sharing my work it encourages others, then my art has succeeded.

Abstract painter Sean Roache is a policeman, but his heart is in the world of art making. All his life he has been surrounded by a creative mother, who has encouraged and nurtured his creative side. Roache said he grew up watching his mother painting abstract designs on fabric which were then made into clothing. He witnessed her approach to art making as something special. He could see this style of painting allowed the painter power to add, and display a range of emotions and ideas. Sean is in total agreement with the statement: Abstract Art expresses underlying thoughts in an indirect way, in a code that is unique to the sender and the listener. He acknowledges the fact that abstraction in art takes courage and the reward is a pouring out of ones thoughts and experiences  a freeing of the soul. As a youth Roache attended the Growing Young SVG Artists program, organized by the Youlou Arts Foundation.

The Youlou Art Centre launched just over a year is owned and operated by Youlou Arts Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on developing and preserving the arts in SVG.
For a former newspaper photographer, Samantha Everton goes to elaborate lengths to capture a striking image.

Her latest exhibition of 15 colour-saturated portraits took 18 months, starting with sketching the images she had in mind then assembling collages on her lounge room wall.

"The success of the images is in the detail": Samantha Everton with photographs from her exhibition Indochine. Credit:Nick Moir

Once Everton settled on a concept for each photograph, she then assembled all the elements for what was like a mini film shoot in a Vietnamese studio.

To dress model Trang Pham, described as "the Miranda Kerr of Vietnam", she called on the head costume designer for Cirque du Soleil, a Saigon seamstress and a Greek milliner.
Loveless

Directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev

Written by Oleg Negin and Andrey Zvyagintsev

127 minutes, rated MA 15+

National release



Before 1989, Eastern European filmmakers were the best in the world at saying a lot by appearing to say very little.

Twelve-year-old Alyosha, played by Matvey Novikov, is at the centre of this bleak thriller.

In Poland, Hungary, the USSR, Czechoslovakia and East Germany, the state-run film bodies kept such a tight rein on the apparatus that filmmakers had to find indirect paths. There was no freedom of expression, so artists found new ways to outwit the censors and bureaucrats with allegory or parody or clever use of metaphor.

The paradox was that each of these places produced not just one or two, but waves of great directors and writers. The repression took a huge toll, but some of the films were magnificent, even if we had to wait until the Berlin Wall came down to see them.
On Monday night's episode of Disney-owned Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the late-night host asked his five guests promoting Avengers: Infinity War who might die in the new film, which officially opens on Wednesday in Australia. After all, Kimmel noted, someone has to perish in a war.

The cast members stayed mum, but their nervous laughter only seemed to confirm the speculation that has swirled around the Disney/Marvel movie for months. Surely, one of the major superhero players won't live to see the final credits, will they?

Here is our breakdown on who, among the major players, is most likely to die in Infinity War:

Mark Ruffalo as Hulk.

10. The Hulk/Bruce Banner: The Hulk makes for an awfully big target, narratively speaking, and as Thor: Ragnarok showed, he can be beaten in the ring. Plus, there are obstacles to Hulk starring in his own film again (the past two have not been memorable). Yet Hulk has become a great second (green) banana, and besides, Mark Ruffalo is still working on a multi-year contract. Verdict: Hulk lives!
It's a turnaround time most new mothers could not (and would not want to) achieve.

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Just hours after the birth of each of her (now) three children, the Duchess of Cambridge has fronted up to a post-partum red carpet of sorts, ready to greet the press gathered outside the Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London.

And, sure enough, after giving birth to her third child  a boy  on Monday, there she was. With her makeup done and her hair blow-dried, the Duchess waved to the cameras as her husband, Prince William, joked about having "thrice the worry".
Groovin The Moo is back on at University of Canberra on Sunday. Credit:Melissa Adams

Celebrate all things Dutch at the Dutch Food and Culture Festival on Sunday at Albert Hall. Taste your way through Dutch pancakes, Heineken and other Dutch treats, shop at the flea market or have a go at the escape room. There will also be games, a bike ride, giant kites and stalls. It's on from 10am  4pm and entry is free. For the full program see oranjefeestcanberra.org .

Flight Facilities, Paul Kelly, Royal Blood, Vera Blue, and Duke Dumont are part of a huge lineup visiting Canberra on Sunday for music festival Groovin The Moo at the University of Canberra. Tickets are sold out, but if you managed to snag one, gates open from 10.30am, with the first bands on from 11am. For the lineup and information on how to get there, see gtm.net.au/canberra.

3. STYLE Q&A

Meet Jesinta Franklin at the Canberra Centre on Saturday, where she will share her tips on fashion and beauty. From 11.30am there will be canapes and drinks, plus a pamper and styling session, before Jesinta takes centre stage. Tickets are $50 which includes a $20 Canberra Centre gift card and a gift bag, from Eventbrite.
On a rainy Anzac Day almost 40 years ago, five veterans walked up the steps to the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne to lay a rainbow wreath. They were turned away.

But this year, a splash of colour will lie at the base of the Stone of Remembrance in Canberra as the ACT government and the Defence LGBTI Information Service (DEFGLIS) join forces to honour the message of those five men - and the diversity of Australia's troops.

ACT minister for veterans Gordon Ramsay will join Vince Chong of DEFGLIS to lay the rainbow wreath this Anzac Day in Canberra, alongside Cate McGregor

DEFGLIS president Vince Chong has lain a rainbow wreath at the War Memorial every Anzac Day for the past four years, but says the gravity of what he is doing still hits him each time he salutes.

"That first year, we had members come up to us afterwards and say 'thank you for including us as part of our modern Anzacs and as part of the Anzac legend'," he said.
While it is true that George Orwell, who fought in the Spanish Civil War, did famously say that wars are won by fighting, no army in history has ever been focused on indiscriminate killing. Indeed over the centuries there have been developed strict and sophisticated laws relating to war and the use of armed force.

My father, who is 91, saw action in Europe at the end of the Second World War. He has never talked about his experience of war, nor has he ever marched on Anzac Day. I suspect many are like him.

But having seen the face of battle he is deeply suspicious of politicians and commentators who demand that there is a right and wrong way to honour those who served in war. After all, to dictate that there is only one way to love ones country and to be a patriot is to act exactly like the people that we all fought against in the two great wars of the last century. Or to quote Orwell again, All the war-propaganda  invariably comes from people who are not fighting.

Yassmin Abdel-Magied: in the eye of the storm this time last year. Credit:Kristoffer Paulsen

We honour and respect the Anzacs not by wrapping ourselves in the flag or displaying death insignia but by understanding that our soldiers, sailors and nurses who have served in war have in the words of Paul Keating, taught us to endure hardship, to show courage, to be bold as well as resilient, to believe in ourselves, to stick together.
Sydney man Rupert 'Squatter' Donaldson joined the AIF at 15, served with distinction in WWI, then enlisted again in WWII.

Malcolm Donaldson recalls glimpsing the stark scars etched on his fathers body, crisscrossing shoulders and back.

They were a visible legacy of seeing action in two world wars.

Rupert John (Squatter) Donaldson rarely spoke of his wounds or his WWI and WWII experiences, except when young Malcolm or his brothers asked why he bore such brutal scars.

The usual answer? I didnt run fast enough, Squatter would quip.

Born in 1899, Squatter was at Sydney Technical High School when he signed up for the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) as a bugler at age 15, after telling recruiters, with his fathers permission, that he was 18.

After joining up, Dad met his maths teacher on the gang plank as they were about to sail for war, says Malcolm. Dad told us the teacher said, Donaldson, what are you doing here? and my father replied, Same as you, sir, Im going to war to fight for my country.

Squatter was sent to Gallipoli, later joining the mass evacuation from those shores in December, 1915.

Squatter Donaldson's medals are treasured by his son, Malcolm.

On enlisting, young Squatter was just five foot three inches, and he literally grew as he fought  on discharge his papers record a height of five foot nine. However, like many Anzacs, Squatter was then sent to Europe, where he and his comrades in the 54th Battalion were wounded in 1916 in the Battle of Fromelles, the first major battle fought by Australian troops on the Western Front.

In the wake of his injuries, Squatter was repatriated to a London hospital for surgery and recovery, a little taller and still strong, despite enduring front line action.

On his return to Australia, he entered Graythwaite, a military convalescent hospital in North Sydney. By 1916 the Red Cross had set up local military and field hospitals and at Graythwaite Squatter met Ruth (Topsy) Marks, a voluntary aid detachment (VAD) member.

The pair married in 1920, had three sons and settled in to a peaceable life in Sydney.

Those years spent at war would be enough for many men, especially decorated war heroes, yet Malcolm also recalls being told as a child to be quiet when he came home from school because his father was resting, seeking to bring his blood pressure down.

The reason Squatter wanted an impeccable bill of health? So he could pass the physical exam and join up for a second time.

In WW11, Squatter served with distinction, achieving the rank of captain while serving in the New Guinea campaign. It wasnt a short sharp conflict, either. Rather, the Allied campaign against the Japanese, from January, 1942 to September, 1945 ranks as one of the longest of WWII.

In all, Squatter earned eight Campaign Medals during WWI and WWII, however Malcolm says his father spoke mostly of the camaraderie and bonds between fellow troops, rather than discuss the conflicts.

The Anzac bond was true mateship, says Malcolm, who in turn is proud to have made the journey to Gallipoli in 2005 to join the 90th anniversary commemorations.

We are so proud of my father and those like him, he says.
A serial sex attacker accused of grabbing and trying to kiss a teenage girl in a western Sydney supermarket, weeks after he allegedly breached strict supervision orders, will fight the charges.

Graham James Kay, 66, sexually assaulted eight women aged from 16 to 39 in the northern Sydney suburbs of Balgowlah, Artarmon, Epping, Eastwood and Wollstonecraft between December 1995 and December 1996.

Graham James Kay, 66, was responsible for a wave of sexual assaults on women in the 1990s. Credit:Seven News

Two of those women, named as Juanita and Angela, were at Parramatta Local Court on Tuesday expecting to see Kay, who has been back behind bars since the weekend.

Kay was released on parole in February 2015 after serving about 18 years of a 20-year maximum jail sentence.
Queenslands Gallery of Modern Art will present and develop the Brisbane International Film Festival over the next three years.

BIFF 2018, supported by the Queensland government through Screen Queensland in association with Screen Australia, will be presented in October at GOMAs Australian Cinematheque and several supporting venues throughout the city.

Queensland's Gallery of Modern Art will present the BIFF over the next three years. Credit:Glenn Hunt.

QAGOMA Director Chris Saines said the festival would take advantage of GOMA's years of expertise in developing film-focused programs such as last years record-breaking Marvel: Creating the Cinematic Universe and David Lynch: Between Two Worlds in 2015.

"Im pleased to announce that QAGOMAs acting curatorial manager of the Australian Cinematheque, Amanda Slack-Smith will be Artistic Director for BIFF 2018, he said.
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Police numbers will be boosted at Anzac Day events in Brisbane despite authorities saying there's no increased terrorism threat.

Chief Superintendent Cameron Harsley said police levels will rise in Queensland's capital due to the expected increase in attendance for commemorations of the final year of the Anzac Centenary.

Adam Turner will play the bugle at the Anzac Day Dawn Service at Elephant Rock on Currumbin Beach tomorrow. Credit:Dave Hunt/AAP

"Importantly there are no known threats to Queensland events," he said on Tuesday.

A huge attendance is expected for the Brisbane march with police predicting between 40,000 and 60,000 people, as well as 20,000 people for the dawn service at Anzac Square.
As the thundering of drums echo through a silent square, thousands of Queenslanders will stand in unity celebrating courage and mateship, others will weep solemn tears for our fallen.

Wednesdays Anzac Day commemoration marks the 103rd anniversary of the first major military operations fought by Australia and New Zealand along the beaches of Gallipoli.

Veterans will march with pride down Adelaide Street with their families in recognition of their contribution to country. Credit:AAP

The official Anzac Day Dawn Service in Brisbane commences from 4:28am at Brisbanes Shrine of Remembrance in Anzac Square, located between Ann Street and Adelaide Street.

Veterans will march with pride down Adelaide Street with their families in recognition of their contribution to country.
A teacher's aide who faked two separate bomb scares at a Brisbane school has been sentenced to probation.

Boondall State School in the city's north was evacuated in October 2016 after Nicole Willmott wrote a threatening letter to herself and a teacher.

Two months later Willmott placed an empty box under a car in the school car park and led her colleagues to believe she had planted a bomb.

Willmott did not face disciplinary action but later resigned from her position.

Her crimes had created fear and anxiety within the school community, Judge Julie Dick told the Brisbane District Court in a sentencing hearing on Tuesday.
A woman has been charged with murder as family and friends are mourning a man who was stabbed to death on an island off Brisbane.

John Windle, 41, was found dead at a Macleay Island home on Monday afternoon after police were called to the High Central Road address about noon.

John Windle, 41, and his mother Jeannette Mines.

A 41-year-old Macleay Island woman known to the father-of-three spent the night in custody at Cleveland police station and on Tuesday afternoon was charged with murder.

She was due to appear in Cleveland Magistrates Court later today.
Sir, she began. I write to ask you to grant me the favour of continued rations as I am buying a nice new two-roomed cottage and three quarter acres of land, fenced secure with paling, new large tank and lovely stove for 50 cash. My only son and only single child has been serving his countrys good since May 1915, and I have received 1 8s weekly [from him] and have saved it for my long-looked-for wish for a home of our own if he is spared... If not, I have secured the service of a grown girl to live with me and it is having to feed a second person that I will be very grateful to you if you continue allowing me one adult ration. Reg Saunders with a picture of his father Chris. Taking care not to offend a bureaucracy that had caused hardship, hunger and humiliation to her and her people, Eliza added: I also wish much to thank you deeply for your great goodness to me for years.

I feel a sadness leaving the station, but a woman does love her own little home  Chris Saunders' name on the Lake Condah mission's Roll of Honour. Credit:Joe Armao She said shed been assured the house she was to buy in the nearby township of Heywood was a bargain. "I have the money ready," she said, proud that she'd been able to save it because her soldiering son had allocated two thirds of his pay every week to her for the house they would share when  and if  he returned. The local police officer, Constable Graham of Heywood, and flint-hearted officials of the Board for the Protection of Aborigines, werent impressed.

Constable Graham reported to the board that Mrs Saunders was a cripple (she suffered rheumatoid arthritis, exacerbated by decades of freezing winters) and that hed been requested by her Aboriginal friends to endeavour to stop her leaving the station. The board refused to allow Mrs Saunders to leave the mission or to buy a house until her son returned from the war. Mrs Saunders dream of her own little home evaporated. The house was sold to another buyer. Worse, the board was indignant to learn that Mrs Saunders son was sending to her four shillings from his six shillings-a-day soldiers pay. Reg Saunders with his family at Spencer Street Station after arriving back in Australia from Korea.

Her letter innocently informing them of her boy's generosity damned her. The board ordered the manager of the Lake Condah Mission to cease giving her rations because she was receiving military pay. Mrs Saunders, broken, dictated a new letter. I longed for a home and weeping bitterly now, she said. My son wanted it if he returned. She accused fellow Aborigines of going to the police to stop her leaving the mission because they were jealous, and suggested one of them was worried about losing the money she paid them for delivering her sons mailed allotment to her each fortnight. My home is the only bit of brightness, she wrote.

No brightness would ever come for Eliza Saunders. She died in December, 1918, a month after the end of the war. Several months later, her son  full name Walter Christopher George Saunders  arrived back in Australia. Like all the other Indigenous soldiers of Lake Condah, he would discover the old mission was being cut up for soldier settlers' farms - and every one of those farms would go to returned white soldiers, despite requests for land from most of the Aboriginal men. Eliza Saunders' pleas to be allowed to buy a home can be found in a collection called Letters from Aboriginal Women in Victoria 1867-1926, edited by Elizabeth Nelson, Sandra Smith and Patricia Grimshaw of the History Department of the University of Melbourne.

Chris Saunders married in 1920 and settled at the Framlingham Aboriginal Mission near Warrnambool, where he and his wife Mabel [Arden] had two children, Reginald and Harry. Mabel died in 1924, and Chris, fearing hed lose his boys to the welfare, took his sons to Lake Condah to be raised by his late wife's mother while he sought work in sawmills. Little Reginald was named after his uncle, William Reginald Rawlings, also born at Framlingham, who had been awarded the Military Medal for bravery on the Western Front a month before being killed in action in 1918, aged 27. Reginald, known as Reg, and younger brother Harry joined the Australian Army at the outbreak of World War II. Harry would be killed in action in New Guinea while fighting with the 2/14th Battalion. His nephew, Richard Frankland  another of Eliza's descendants who served as a soldier before becoming a playwright and musician, based near Portland  wrote and directed the 1999 feature film Harry's War about his uncle.

Reg won legendary status, fighting with the 2/7th Battalion in North Africa, Greece and Crete, where he was trapped, avoiding German patrols, for a year. He went on to fight with his battalion in New Guinea as a sergeant, and in 1944, was commissioned as Australias first Indigenous officer. MP Dan Tehan and Lieutenant General Angus Campbell applaud as Hilary Saunders uncovers her father's medals, which will be displayed at the Warrnambool RSL, with Purnim community member Geoff Rollinson. Credit:The Standard He signed up again for the Korean War, fighting in some of the most furious battles, at Kapyong and Maryang San, before resigning from the Army in 1954. Two years ago the people of the tiny village of Purnim near Framlingham raised $9000 to buy a set of Reg Saunders wartime medals at auction. They are kept at the Warrnambool RSL.
Wyndham Council has been proactive in trying to secure funding for infrastructure to help cope with rapid population growth. Credit:Joe Armao

Melbourne's soaring population growth is a testament to our city's many strengths and our state's booming economy. But a lot more work must be done to maintain our livability as we shift from a middle-sized city to a supersized metropolis  especially in the rapidly growing outer suburbs.

There are some startling statistics in the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics population data, released on Tuesday. Greater Melbourne's population grew by about 125,000 in the year ending June 2017, it shows. That equates to about 2.7 per cent, or 350 people each day. The majority of Melbourne's growth is due to immigration: 80,000 of those who moved to the city came from overseas, comprising 64 per cent of the influx.

It's those who live in the outer reaches of our city who bear the brunt of the crush. They have the worst access to jobs, public transport, roads, hospitals and other core amenities.

Cranbourne East in Melbourne's outer south east grew by a whopping 27.4 per cent in 12 months, making it our fastest-growing suburb.
Mr Doyle resigned from the lord mayoralty in February, and was hospitalised suffering from stress. He in no longer in hospital.

Health Minister Jill Hennessy ordered the investigation after The Age revealed the wife of a senior specialist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital alleged Mr Doyle sexually harassed her at a medical awards ceremony in June 2016.

A second investigation into sexual harassment claims against former lord mayor Robert Doyle has been unable to reach a conclusion because Mr Doyle is too ill to participate.

In a statement on Tuesday, Mr Doyle's lawyer Nick Ruskin of K&L Gates said: "Robert has not been well enough to participate in the Melbourne Health investigation and has received no material from the investigator regarding the allegations."

Meanwhile, Melbourne City councillors on Tuesday night unanimously agreed to provide up to $20,000 each towards legal costs for two councillors who accused Mr Doyle of sexual harassment late last year.

In the latest investigation, Charles Scerri, QC, said he did not doubt the veracity of the most recent complainant, but in the absence of any response from Mr Doyle, could not reach any conclusions.

In his report, Mr Scerri said the alleged conduct varied in degrees of seriousness, and that some - particularly touching the complainant's inner thigh - would constitute "serious misconduct of a sexual nature".

The woman and her husband were invited to the Royal Melbourne Research Gala on June 25 where her husband was receiving a prestigious award.


A teenager accused of a double fatal hit-run after he allegedly crashed a stolen Lexus SUV into another vehicle must see a psychiatric nurse and give police a DNA sample.

Eric Victorsen, 19, appeared before Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday, charged over the crash in Wantirna South in the early hours of Saturday morning that killed married couple Matt Goland and Bita Zaeim, who were in their Holden Commodore.

Eric Victorsen.

Mr Goland, 38, died at the scene while Ms Zaeim, 32, died in hospital.
Violent footage of dozens of teenagers kicking and punching each other in a wild schoolyard brawl in Melbourne's north-west has emerged.

Students at Staughton College in Melton can be heard screaming as teachers attempt to break up the altercation, which was filmed on a smartphone during recess on Tuesday morning.

The disturbing footage was later shared on Snapchat and widely circulated on social media.
Now we look at the historic ways Anzacs have been commemorated in WA, and contemporary efforts to find new meanings and symbols for their legacy. A living legacy While the recognition of Anzac Day flourished, the trees didn't, and the European species were replaced with Australian eucalyptus, all except one oak on the corner of May and Lovelin drives. "This is the last one left, and it's been preserved as a reminder of what the avenues once were. But as you can see the avenues are all eucalypt now, and they're thriving." Chris Olney is a volunteer guide at Kings Park and a former sub-editor at the West Australian, the cross town rival of the Daily News, a now defunct newspaper whose famed editor Arthur Lovekin is widely credited with coming up with the idea for the Honour Avenues in WA.

The Honour Avenues are amongst her favourite places in the park, and hold a special significance for many families that visit. "What Lovekin did was support something that was very precious to people who had lost loved ones. Each of the trees on the avenues represent a person who died overseas and has no grave here. This is a place where families can grieve. It's much more personal." Perth's iconic Kings Park war memorial. Credit:Tony McDonough Just a few hundred metres away from the last oak treet on May Drive is the State War Memorial with its concrete, brick and granite obelisk perched above a commanding view of the city and river. On Anzac Day tens of thousands of people will gather in the dark before the sunrise to pay their respects to Western Australian servicemen and women who have served in all the wars and conflicts Australia has been involved with.

"I can remember coming as a child to the dawn service here with my father and they would lay out chairs on the lawn on both sides of the path, and most of the crowd would sit down as the diggers came up the middle and laid their wreaths," Olney said. "These days there are screens all the way down Fraser Avenue so people can see. It's quite amazing really, that progression." The plaques remember soldiers whop died overseas. And while Anzac Day services continue to evolve, so too do the Honour Avenues, whose plaques are maintained by volunteers from the Highgate branch of the RSL, who will, for a small fee, create new plaques for the families of soldiers who qualify. "Originally the plaques cost ten shillings. These days you can buy one for a relative who served and was killed overseas and there are memorial services helf four times a year in which new plaques are dedicated," Ms Olney said.

Loading "It's great that the avenues are continuing to grow. Many of the trees have two plaques now, and they try to match them up as much as they can." Kings Park's website has a database of the 1700 plaques to allow the community to allows the community to search for relatives and explore their history. One tree with two plaques shows two men from the 11th Battalion who were killed in Belgium two days apart in 1917 - Corporal John Lee and Private Nathan Barrett, aged 23 and 26. "They were in the same unit, so there's a chance I'd dare say they knew each other," Olney says. "And now here they are, side by side."

Lighting up Albany's Anzac legacy On November the 1st, 1914, the chilly Great Southern port of Albany was the last piece of Australia the diggers stepped off on their way to the hell of Gallipoli. The city is often cited as one of the first places to host a dawn service, and the memorial atop Mount Clarence and the new National Anzac Centre have cemented it as one of the main places of commemmoration in Australia. National Anzac Centre in Albany. It's a place steeped in history, but there are new efforts afoot to breathe new life into the memorials there.

"When I visited the National Anzac Centre for the first time we were looking to place the field of light under the trees, and the Avenue of Honour was just such a moving space." Bruce Munro is an artist "mainly working in light" who was behind the wildly successful Field of Light installation at Uluru, which placed more than fifty thousand spindles of light in front of the iconic sandstone monolith. The Field of Light at Uluru is coming to Albany's Avenue of Honour. Credit:Mark Pickthall He's now turned his talents to illuminating the Avenue of Honour on Apex Drive, which leads to the Anzac memorial on Mount Clarence. "The predominant colours for the Field of Light will be green, white and gold," Munro said.
The ship that sparked calls for a ban on live exports to the Middle East looks set to embark on its next voyage within days after complying with a ventilation improvement order.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority imposed the order on Emanuel Exports' Awassi Express after footage of 2400 sheep dying in filth and extreme heat on an August journey was broadcast earlier this month.

The Awassi Express is currently docked at Fremantle Port. Credit:Tony McDonough

AMSA would not renew the ship's livestock carriage certificate until third-party ventilation testing demonstrated the vessel complied with existing requirements for minimum airflow across pens.

On Tuesday, AMSA confirmed the order had been met and said the operator had also installed an automatic watering system to keep troughs filled.
"So she can go from a high period of irritability - screaming, banging her head, trying to get the pain out - where everything that she does is uncomfortable. "You can't touch her, you can't look at her ... noise, crowds, people around her ... it drives her crazy basically... and she just needs to be alone and in a quiet dark place. "Then she'll go completely quiet, and the quiet means she's in a seizure... and so that essentially can happen all day, every day, so you can imagine the impact on her quality of life, having to endure that going on inside her head. "You can imagine what people think when they see her as well, and quite often there are situations where she's been labelled as having bad behaviour because of the way her condition manifests, so it's quite humiliating to have that go on." Medicinal cannabis will be dispensed to children in Victoria with severe epilepsy.

Regular family life just can't exist for the Spences ... reading books, watching movies, opening Christmas presents, family weddings, picnics... they basically cannot do if Mikayla is going through a particularly difficult time. "The impact for her brother [aged 14] and his quality of life has been profound as well and as a family unit if you can't do those basic and essential things that bond a family together, of course it's going to have an effect," Ms Spence said. "Our family bond has suffered and you can understand why families in situations like ours can end up breaking down because the pressure is so great." Medicinal cannabis: A new hope Effective treatments for Mikayla's epilepsy were non-existent before the medicinal cannabis road opened for the Spence family.

"In 13 years we have tried pretty much everything," she said. "Essentially we were getting a whole bunch of side effects without much benefit. "So that's why parents like myself will look to something because you've tried everything else and nothing else has worked." Ms Spence convinced Mikayla's neurologist to submit an application to the Therapeutic Goods Administration for special access to MC, with a panel in Canberra determining whether the young teenager was worthy of access to the drug. "It took several months to receive approval ... Mikayla's neurologist did infer it would be expensive, but I didn't have any idea of how expensive until I put the script into the pharmacy and was committed to buying it."

Only one supplier in Perth sells MC in oil form that contains no THC - the marijuana component that gives cannabis smokers a high - and 100 per cent CBD, the hemp part that provides health benefits to epilepsy sufferers like Mikayla. Her family ordered three 25ml bottles initially and were hit with a $533 charge... per bottle, which usually lasted only six days - or $30,000 each year for the Spences to help their girl. After starting "low and slow" with dosage levels for Mikayla, the effects were markedly more positive after a higher amount was administered. It left the Spences with no choice but to continue down the expensive road so their daughter - and family as a whole - could live each day as close to a "normal life". "She's been on it now for about four weeks ... as we increased the dose I could see an immediate change," Ms Spence said.

"She is still having some seizures but they have definitely reduced. "What is happening now is, the time between her seizure cycles, she is a completely different person. "It has helped with the severe irritability ... so she's no longer screaming, no longer trying to bang her head on her arms or legs or whatever she can reach. "Her cognition has improved significantly, so she can focus, concentrate, read books, look at things, respond to your voice in a really timely manner ... there's no huge delay like there was before. Mikayla has also been able to communicate more effectively with those around her, something that was blocked to her before.

"This is key to someone who can't speak using words," her mum said. "It means they can make themselves understood ... and I can see her personality, her cheeky nature. "She's actually enjoying herself, which she wasn't before, so her quality of life has been significantly improved." Family life had also become much more happier in the Spence household. "There's calm, everyone's relaxed, we can actually talk to each other, actually sit around the table and eat together... as opposed to us eating together and Mikayla eating somewhere else separately," Ms Spence said.

Given the current high costs of approved medicinal cannabis products in Australia, are they still a realistic option for an ongoing treatment program, especially for young people like Mikayla? "Absolutely not," Ms Spence lamented. "And that's the dilemma. "I had to try it because nothing else worked and we were desperate, and now we're in the situation where I'm thinking 'oh my gosh, it has had a significant impact, how on earth am I going to continue to pay for this'. "And how can I actually let her go back to her life before this."

What does the future look like now? Adult concoctions of medicinal cannabis are generally cheaper, as they contain some THC and require less processing to break down the marijuana components. There are also more suppliers of these types of strains in Perth. Dr Joe Kosterich, a medical advisor for Little Green Pharma, the Perth-based medicinal cannabis company awarded the first licence to grow and produce the product in WA, said prospective patients were realistically years from having cheaper access to MC. Dr Joe Kosterich is an advocate for using medicinal cannabis to treat certain patients.

Those were generally epilepsy sufferers like Mikayla, chemotherapy patients who endure nausea and vomiting, or those with multiple sclerosis or chronic pain. "We need more access ... the bigger the market, the more companies and competition we will have, and that will drive prices down," Dr Kosterich told WAtoday. "It's not even an approved product yet, so each application requires TGA approval. "To get on the PBS (Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme), you then need a number of placebo-controlled trials in each area [MS, epilepsy, chronic pain and chemotherapy patients)." Dr Kosterich said companies in these spaces were looking at opportunities to conduct trials ... "initially dosage regime, side-effect profiles".

But despite growing interest and awareness of medicinal cannabis as an appropriate treatment option for those with any of the four conditions, "big pharma" was not so keen. "This is not your stock-standard medication, it's complex and not just about molecules, for example," he said. "[Big pharma] also can't patent medicinal cannabis, like they can a vitamin." Once companies in the industry had received TGA approval for their strains of cannabis, it didn't necessarily mean the product would be PBS-listed either, despite the success of similar ones overseas as a safe, simple and effective form of treatment. "We're using a plant, an extract ... and we know what we're dealing with," Dr Kosterich said.

"We know it's safe for humans to take, we've seen evidence of its effect as a successful treatment overseas. "It's now up to individual companies to get their product approved... then production will increase, we will need more harvesting, we'll start producing more and it will become cheaper to buy." But in WA, this day is still years away, a gap that will feel like a lifetime for Mikayla Spence, her family and the many others in similar situations all across Australia. So given the Spence's extraordinary dilemma, what does Marina see as the future for them and her 13-year-old daughter? "I'm almost numb to it, I'm almost feeling like I will robotically go to the pharmacy and order the next script, and order the next script and put it in on the credit card and put it on the credit card and end up all of a sudden in a huge dire financial situation," Ms Spence told Parker's program.
The prospect of the Turnbull government's company tax cuts passing Parliament is becoming increasingly remote as key crossbench senators outline conflicting demands in return for their support.

Independent senator Tim Storer, who holds the power to kill off the $35.6 billion bill along with fellow crossbencher Derryn Hinch, reaffirmed his opposition during a rare interview on Tuesday.

Senator Storer wants broader tax reform and has expressed concern about the impact of the tax cuts on government revenue, suggesting the money could be put to better use.

"I am still of the same mind," he told ABC radio.

He also rejected a push from Senator Hinch to amend the legislation to deny Australia's banks the reduction given a series of damning revelations out of the financial services royal commission.
The federal government's insurance fund has footed a bill nearing $30,000 to repair three chauffeur cars impaled by bollards deployed in error at Parliament House.

Problems seem to have emerged since authorities turned off the automated system, leaving it to drivers to manually operate the security measure.

Comcover, the self-managed insurance covering government agencies, shelled out for the repairs after the Finance Department paid $500 in excess for each of the three Comcar vehicles damaged by the retractable electronic bollards.

In three separate incidents during November, the bollards were deployed manually in what the Department of Parliamentary Services called "human error", hitting cars from underneath as they were mid-transport and causing $28,935 in damage.
Professor Beaumont argues that Anzac Parade is a key component in the political rhetoric that service in war is something to affirm and tributes to military heroism can legitimise present-day conflicts.

The Anzac legend and the Australian War Memorial promotes, on balance, a message which is positive, she says. The purpose of that, I believe, is to ensure that Australians continue to think that it is appropriate to die in the defense of the nation. Not just in the past, but now. Kevin Rudd complimenting the 2009 veterans in Iraq as the Anzacs of today, she points out, is one such example.

In the 1960s Anzac Parade was developed into a new precinct as a part of Menzies vision to make Canberra, with its dwindling population and popularity at the time, a symbol of national pride. It included the striking red floor we are familiar with today, made from Canberras iconic red bricks crushed into gravel which are supposed to emulate the sound of soldiers marching, and awaited for monuments relating to war to  according to Menzies  inspire national sentiment.

It was officially opened in 1965, coinciding with the 50th Anniversary of the Anzac landing in Gallipoli. It also coincided with the Vietnam War. The sacred site, built to remember the Anzacs, was born in a time when Australia had military commitment abroad. What is more, a mere four days after the unveiling of the Parade, the government announced it would upgrade their commitment to South Vietnam, providing an infantry battalion made-up of drafted citizens. The Anzac Parade event made for both, an opportune time for government to pair military service with nationalism, and a disappointing realisation for the public that history indeed repeats itself. If Walter Burley Griffin wanted his grand axis to be rich in symbolism, this would be it.

By the 1980s, anti-war sentiments were a thing of the past and the memory of war had somewhat of a renaissance. The Anzac spirit was depicted in feature films, documentaries, special newspaper editions and the word mateship was having its moment (arguably even more so than during the Gallipoli campaign). Anzac Parade was home to two memorials: the Desert Mounted Corps, installed in 1968, and the Royal Australian Air Force, 1973. Today, that number has grown to 12, changing not only the face of Anzac Parade, but the narrative of Australian warfare. For many years, what was critiqued as being militaristic, masculine and nationalist, Anzac Parade now presents a more inclusive representation of Australia at war, recognising multiculturalism and honouring women in service.
However, Education Queensland is not considering any more applications from schools to join the list, with the final expressions of interest closing in November 2016.

Independent public schools are still state schools, but principals are allowed greater autonomy in hiring teachers, governance and a certain element of prestige.

Queensland has 250 independent public schools, in a model created under the former Newman government.

The future of Queenslands independent public schools is being reviewed, Education Minister Grace Grace has revealed.

Education Minister Grace Grace said the independent public schools were under review to discover the pluses and minuses of the program.

Were not considering having any extras at the moment, she said.

We want to have a look at what are the benefits of independent public schools, I want to have a look at what are some of the negatives.

And while were undergoing that review we will not be considering those applications at the moment.

Ms Grace said the existing independent public schools would stay the way they are, at the moment.
You can hardly walk down the street in Melbournes far-flung south-east lately without tripping over a state politician with an announcement to make.

Residents might consider taking action against this annoying influx of Spring Street types, but they have bigger things to worry about.

Premier Daniel Andrews in Melbourne's south-east this month to announce a new road. Credit:Paul Jeffers

After all, what's a couple more blow-ins, more or less, in a place like Cranbourne East, on headcount the fastest growing suburb in Australia in the 12 months ending June 2017. It added more than 7000 souls for a population rise of 27 per cent.

This part of town is ground zero, not just for Melbournes historic population explosion, but for just about every issue looming large in this years Victorian state election, and it's home to some of the marginal seats where the thing will be won and lost.
The Cambridge University figure at the centre of the Facebook data scandal has claimed that the social network regularly handed its user data to academics without questioning how it would be used.

Dr Aleksandr Kogan, who created an app that harvested 87 million Facebook users' data, which was then allegedly used by Cambridge Analytica for political purposes, revealed that Facebook workers sent him several caches of user data when requested over email, without any measures in place to protect who accessed it.

Dr Aleksandr Kogan created an app that harvested 87 million Facebook users' data. Credit:AP

Giving evidence to the digital, culture, media and sport select committee on Tuesday (UK time), he claimed the social network "gave me the data set without any agreement to sign" and that many employees worked closely with academics to share this data to make their jobs more interesting.

Dr Kogan said: "My perception was that management tolerated this because it makes employees happy. This was something they gave their employees to stimulate them."
Washington: Emmanuel Macron will on Wednesday urge Donald Trump to keep the United States engaged in Syria for the long run as the pair meet in the White House.

The French President was expected to warn that new terrorist threats could emerge if the US disengaged from the country as it remains locked in civil war.

The Macrons and The Trumps arrive for dinner at Mount Vernon on Monday.

The White House has confirmed that a "way ahead in Syria" would be discussed in what officials predicted would be a "full and free airing of points of view" with Macron.

America's Syrian policy is up in the air as Trump balances his instinctive opposition to foreign intervention with a determination to police a "red line" over chemical weapons use.
New York: In a surprise move that experts say sends a "terrible message" to Australia, the Trump administration's proposed ambassador to Australia has been nominated to be ambassador to South Korea instead.

Admiral Harry Harris, the head of the US Pacific Command, was announced last year as President Donald Trump's pick for the ambassador to Australia, a post that has been vacant for more than a year.

Admiral Harry Harris's ambassador posting has been switched at the last minute. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

He was set to face a nomination hearing on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to finalise his posting.

But, in a sign of the disfunction plaguing the White House, it was postponed at the last minute just before media reports emerged that he would switch roles to fill the vacant post of ambassador to South Korea.
Washington: US Attorney-General Jeff Sessions has decided against recusing himself from the investigation into President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, but will consider stepping back from specific questions tied to the probe, according to a person familiar with the matter.

By contrast, Sessions recused himself from the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election that's now led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, a decision that angered Trump and left Deputy Attorney-General Rod Rosenstein in charge of the inquiry.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticised Attorney-General Jeff Sessions, right. Credit:AP

Sessions, who was a top adviser to Trump's presidential campaign, announced in March 2017 that he had decided he should steer clear of "any matters arising from the campaigns" for president. Trump has called Sessions weak for doing so and said he never would have named him as attorney-general had he known the recusal would follow.

By staying involved in the Cohen probe, Sessions is entitled to briefings on the status of the investigation, which is being conducted by the US Attorney's Office of the Southern District of New York. That could put Sessions in the position of being asked by Trump, who strongly condemned the FBI's raid on his long-time lawyer, to divulge information about the Cohen investigation.
Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross and GT-PHEV Scoop Prestigious GOOD DESIGN Awards

TOKYO April 23, 2018; Two of Mitsubishi Motors latest creations  the Eclipse Cross CUV and the GT-PHEV Concept  have received GOOD DESIGN* awards from experts at The Chicago Athenaeum.

The awards are an indication of the success of Mitsubishi Motors design renaissance, which include the face-lift for the Outlander, a string of acclaimed concept cars, and the all-new Eclipse Cross.

The GOOD DESIGN awards are the oldest and the most prestigious Global Awards Program for Design Excellence and Design Innovation. Organized by the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design, they are intended to create an awareness of contemporary design and to honor both products and industry leaders in design and manufacturing. GOOD DESIGN was founded in Chicago in 1950 by architecture and design legends Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., Eero Saarinen, and Charles and Ray Eames.

It is an honor to have our hard work recognized by such a prestigious organization, said Tsunehiro Kunimoto, CVP of the Design Division, MMC. The Eclipse Cross is the first all-new car which features our Robust and Ingenious design philosophy. The GT-PHEV Concept hints at how this direction will shape the next generation of Mitsubishi SUVs.

The Eclipse Cross is a fusion of sharp coupe looks and dynamic SUV mobility with signature Mitsubishi styling, technology and driving confidence. It features Mitsubishi's signature DYNAMIC SHIELD front design concept, with a protective shield shape visually formed by the black central area and chrome accents.

The rear design is distinguished by the almost cubist styling created around the high-mounted, stretched rear lamps and a horizontally divided rear window.

The MITSUBISHI GT-PHEV Concept, first seen at the Paris Motor Show in 2016, also features Mitsubishis latest design language together with MMCs advanced and proprietary electric and all-wheel control technologies.

In its overall design, the MITSUBISHI GT-PHEV Concept projects the image of a ground tourer, expressing robust and ingenious qualities.

The GT-PHEV is not a production car. But it gives a clear indication of how Mitsubishis design language will evolve into cars you will be able to buy in the near future, said Kunimoto. I hope our work to bring Robust and Ingenious designs to fruition will continue to be recognized.

* GOOD DESIGN is a Federally Registered and Protected Trademark of The Chicago Athenaeum.

Eclipse Cross: http://good-designawards.com/award-details.html?award=31770

GT-PHEV Concept: http://good-designawards.com/award-category.html?cat=30178&page=4

About Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc.

Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc., (MMNA) is responsible for all research and development, marketing, and sales for Mitsubishi Motors in the United States. MMNA sells sedans and crossovers/SUVs through a network of approximately 360 dealers. MMNA is leading the way in the development of highly efficient, affordably priced new gasoline-powered automobiles while using its industry-leading knowledge in battery electric vehicles to develop future EV and PHEV models. Mitsubishi has been producing cars for over 100 years. For more information, contact the Mitsubishi Motors News Bureau at (888) 560-6672 or visit media.mitsubishicars.com.

About Mitsubishi Motors Corporation

Mitsubishi Motors Corporation is a global automobile company based in Tokyo, Japan, which has a competitive edge in SUVs and pickup trucks, electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Since the Mitsubishi group produced its first car more than a century ago, we have demonstrated an ambitious and often disruptive approach, developing new vehicle genres and pioneering cutting-edge technologies. Deeply rooted in Mitsubishi Motors DNA, our brand strategy will appeal to ambitious drivers, willing to challenge conventional wisdom and ready to embrace change. Consistent with this mindset, Mitsubishi Motors introduced its new brand strategy in 2017, expressed in its Drive your Ambition tagline  a combination of personal drive and forward attitude, and a reflection of the constant dialogue between the brand and its customers. Today Mitsubishi Motors is committed to continuous investment in innovative new technologies, attractive design and product development, bringing exciting and authentic new vehicles to customers around the world.
Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors Team Up on Spare Parts Warehousing in Japan's Kanto Region







Companies also join forces on delivery for increased synergies

TOKYO, Apr, 24 2018; Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. will jointly use a spare parts warehouse near Tokyo and share a regional delivery network as they work together more closely to reduce costs.

The companies will both use Nissan's Sagamihara Parts Center, about 30 kilometers southwest of Tokyo, beginning in October this year. They also plan to share the warehouse's delivery network in the Kanto region, which includes the Tokyo metropolitan area.

Sagamihara Parts Center

The plan is part of a convergence of aftersales functions led by the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi partnership, which Mitsubishi joined in October 2016. Nissan and Mitsubishi expect the joint operations to reduce costs through synergies such as more effective use of vacant storage space and increased efficiency in transportation.

Under the plan, more than 30,000 spare parts and accessories for Mitsubishi customers will be stored at the Sagamihara center and some will be shipped jointly with Nissan spare parts. Mitsubishi doesn't currently own a large-scale spare parts warehouse in the Kanto region. By reducing lead times between orders and deliveries, the companies aim to improve customer satisfaction with Mitsubishi aftersales in the region.

About Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.

Nissan is a global full-line vehicle manufacturer that sells more than 60 models under the Nissan, INFINITI and Datsun brands. In fiscal year 2016, the company sold 5.63 million vehicles globally, generating revenues of 11.72 trillion yen. In fiscal 2017, the company embarked on Nissan M.O.V.E. to 2022, a six-year plan targeting a 30% increase in annualized revenues to 16.5 trillion yen by the end of fiscal 2022, along with cumulative free cash flow of 2.5 trillion yen. As part of Nissan M.O.V.E. to 2022, the company plans to extend its leadership in electric vehicles, symbolized by the world's best-selling all-electric vehicle in history, the Nissan LEAF. Nissan's global headquarters in Yokohama, Japan, manages operations in six regions: Asia & Oceania; Africa, the Middle East & India; China; Europe; Latin America; and North America. Nissan has a global workforce of 247,500 and has been partnered with French manufacturer Renault since 1999. In 2016, Nissan acquired a 34% stake in Mitsubishi Motors. Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi is today the world's largest automotive partnership, with combined sales of more than 10.6 million vehicles in calendar year 2017.

About Mitsubishi Motors

Mitsubishi Motors Corporation is the sixth largest automaker in Japan and the sixteenth largest in the world. It is part of the Mitsubishi keiretsu, formerly the biggest industrial group in Japan, and was formed in 1970 from the automotive division of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. From October 2016, Mitsubishi is one-third owned by Nissan, and a part of the Renault - Nissan - Mitsubishi Alliance. For more information, please visit www.mitsubishi-motors.com/en/index.html.
2018 BMW 640i xDrive GT Review Touring At It's Best By Larry Nutson

LEARN MORE: The Web's Original 4-Car-Compar-a-graph, Compare Vehicle Specs; Side by Side by Side by Side

2018 BMW 640i xDrive GT

Touring at its best

By Larry Nutson

Senior Editor and Bureau Chief

Chicago Bureau

The Auto Channel

How about the sleek look of a coupe body style, the convenience of 4-doors to accommodate 5-people, a somewhat higher driving position, the cargo hauling ability of a station wagon, all-wheel drive for slippery roads and plenty of performance all wrapped up in one vehicle?

Now you have the 2018 BMW 640i xDrive Gran Turismo.

A new model for 2018, the GT is based on the new 5 Series platform and is basically a redesign of the old 5 Series Gran Turismo.

Coupe body styling on a 4-door sedan is somewhat popular these days with entries on the market from a number of brands. I happen to prefer those that are very car-like without some of the SUV attributes such as increased ride-height. I am also a big fan of station wagons. Weve owned a number of them, even after our children moved out, mostly for the need to accommodate our two Labrador retrievers.

BMW dropped its 5-series station wagon offering in the U.S. a number of years ago, but you can still get a 3-series wagon. With everyone wanting an SUV, its best to put your effort in a product people want. Ill agree the 640i comes close to being as versatile as a station wagon, which has a more vertical rear roof design for better cargo hauling.

From the drivers seat the 640i delivers. Its 3.0-L 6-cylinder engine puts our 335 horsepower that will take you from zero to 60 mph in 5.1 seconds. The 8-speed automatic shifts smoothly and for some added fun and performance theres a sport mode as well as shift paddles. BMWs xDrive AWD is standard.

As it turned out I ended up with lots of seat time in the 640i. Thank you BMW! I had a planned day-trip from my Chicago home north to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin for some auto-writer related business. What got added on was a trip to southeast Michigan where daughter number one was giving birth to grandchild number two.

In one day I spent 600 miles in the drivers seat. The cabin is well appointed, roomy, and comfortable. The materials, textures and overall finish are all delightful. BMW does a great job with seat design and I knew that would help to minimize any driver fatigue. And it did.

Its also been my experience with BMWs, and weve owned a few, that its relatively easy to equal or exceed the EPA highway fuel economy rating. The Gran Turismo has EPA test-cycle ratings of 23 mpg combined (thats 4.3 gallons per 100 miles) with 20 city mpg and 28 highway mpg. For my road-tripping I matched the 28 mpg while traveling at the prevailing spirited highway speeds. A nicety is the18-gallon fuel tank that makes for long non-stop driving, in the range of 500 miles.

I was alone for the first portion of my road trip to Wisconsin and then with my wife was along to Michigan. Thus, the GT wasnt too heavily loaded. There is 32 cubic feet of space behind the rear seats and this increases up to 65 cubic feet with them folded.

The 6 Series Gran Turismo comes standard with Active Driving Assistant, a package of driving assistant functions that use of cameras, radars, and ultrasonic sensors that monitor the vehicles surroundings. Included are Active Blind Spot Detection, Lane Departure Warning, Daytime Pedestrian Protection, Frontal Collision Warning with City Collision Mitigation, Speed Limit Info, and Cross-traffic alert rear.

An optional Driving Assistant Plus Package ($1,700) was also on my media-loaner and adds Active Cruise Control with Stop & Go, Active Lane Keeping Assistant with Side Collision Avoidance, Traffic Jam Assistant, Evasion Aid and Cross-traffic alert front.

I strongly encourage every new car buyer to opt for all the driver-assistance safety features that are offered by a carmaker. If this equipment saves you from just one crash they will have paid for themselves. On my long road trip, which extended into night driving, I did appreciate blind spot detection and lane departure warning, especially when fatigue starts to set in. I also used the smart cruise control quite a bit which allows for changing feet and leg positions on long trips.

Base price on the 2018 640i xDrive GT is $69,700. My loaner was pretty loaded up with a bottom line of $84,010. An M Sport package for $1,200 added aero bodywork, unique 19-inch wheels as well as unique interior trim.

The M Sport package was further enhanced with the optional Dynamic Handling Package for $4,100 that added Integral Active Steering, Adaptive Drive two-axle air suspension, Active Roll Stabilization and Dynamic Damper Control. All this will give you a more sporty driving behavior.

The optional $2,150 Executive Package adds parking assistant features that are great to have in tight parking situations. A gesture control feature allows you to change audio volume by a simple rotating motion of a pointed index finger in front of the display screen. I preferred using the steering wheel mounted volume control.

More information, product features and specifications on the 2018 BMW 640i can be found at www.bmwusa.com.

BMWs, in general, are very nice road cars. As you move up the product line they get better and better offering more features to make for a very enjoyable driving experience. The 640i GT did not disappoint. I enjoyed every moment behind the wheel, and that should be the case for all drivers.

 2018 Larry Nutson, the Chicago Car Guy

The Most In-Depth Independent BMW Research - Anywhere!
Pointing at flowers. Photo: @FLOTUS/Twitter

French President and beauty influencer Emmanuel Macron is coming to Washington, D.C., this week for an official state visit, and Melania Trump has been a blur of activity.

In a series of tweets posted on Monday, the First Lady shared how busy shes been getting ready for Tuesday nights official state dinner at the White House, and let me tell you, it looks exhausting. Shes been pointing at absolutely everything  flowers, chairs, fabric swatches, documents, desserts, a whiteboard on the Truman balcony, table settings, blueprints, seating arrangements, invitations, more fabric swatches  you name it, shes pointed at it.

After months of preparations, @POTUS and I are looking forward to hosting our first State Dinner with France! Thank you to everyone who has worked so hard to make this visit a success.   pic.twitter.com/j7fKmUhISJ  Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) April 23, 2018

Spent yesterday with my team checking on the final details of our first State Dinner with France. pic.twitter.com/vHoQ1rTA3s  Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) April 23, 2018

According to the Hill, the menu the First Lady pointed at will include a rack of spring lamb with Carolina gold rice jambalaya, and wines made from French grapes harvested in Oregon. Ooh la la!

This is not the first time the Trumps and the Macrons have met, of course. The president and First Lady visited France last July, where Trump shook Macrons hand for approximately 45 minutes, and told his wife, Brigitte, that shes in such good shape. Who knows what weird comments he has in store for this trip.
Canal Street Market. Photo: Melissa Hom

One of the last holdouts of grimy, uncomfortable, authentic downtown New York will soon disappear. And ten years from now, when were all nostalgic about the overcrowded Canal Street of fake Chanel bags and sun bleached Fuck You You Fucking Fuck T-shirts, well have two landlords to blame (or thank, readers choice): Philip Chong Jr. of HCRE and Albert Laboz of United American Land.

It was Chong first, a Chinatown native, who conceived of Canal Street Market, a 12,000-square-foot bazaar and food hall that opened off of Lafayette Street in September of 2016. We were trying to offer something new to the neighborhood where people could come eat and shop and hang out, he says. A year-and-a-half later the market has become both a foodie and ceramics destination. During that time the office spaces above the market and down the block filled with stylists (Mel Ottenberg was a famous first) and fashion brands. Mansur Gavriel, Acne, and Area all have headquarters on the block, their hidden offices quietly foreshadowing what all those ground floor empty storefronts might eventually become.

Then, in December, the massive Roman and Williams Guild arrived, taking over one whole corner of Canal. As the first multi-hyphenate retail showroom/flower shop/restaurant/cafe for Roman and Williams, a design firm that has worked on both Gwyneth Paltrows home and the Ace Hotel, it gave a tony veneer to the street, but the Guilds entrance is still on Howard Street, Canals more fashionable parallel. Same with the sneaker reseller emporium Stadium Goods, which was recently infused with an investment from LVMH. Resellers could sell their wares off Canal, but to shop the rare goods, the cobblestoned streets of Howard were still the point of entry. Aside from a stunt Diesel pop-up T-shirt shop playfully selling fake-looking merch alongside Canals real knockoff heroes, there wasnt much to see on the block besides empty, graffitied storefronts.

And thats where Laboz comes in, the man who owns many of those vacant storefronts. Over the past few months hes united a coalition of fellow Canal commercial real-estate landlords, whove been sitting on empty properties for years, to turn their 22 vacant stores on Canal between Broadway and West Broadway into what hes calling an Experiential Arts & Innovation District. Theyve partnered with Laura OReilly of Wallplay, a platform that matches empty storefronts with artists, brands, and programming, and Sonny Gindi, the guy behind the Instagram account @Vibes to fill the stores with a mix of new media art galleries and experimental retail pop-ups.

Were not just hanging paintings in the window and calling it an art gallery, Laboz says. The stores will be similar to the types of experimental branded spaces OReilly and Wallplay have worked on in the past like Refinery 29s 29 Rooms, where she transformed a warehouse in Williamsburg into an Instagrammable mecca that people waited on lines around two blocks to photograph. While those kinds of heavily branded not-quite-retail, not-quite-gallery, meant-for-social-media spaces have popped up all over the city, Laboz and OReilly plan on making Canal Streets 22 storefronts the official destination for them.

Theyve already signed on KidSuper, a fashion brand thatll open an art gallery and retail pop-up. In their effort to highlight and acknowledge the history of Canal, and work alongside the existing Canal Rubbers and Canal Plastics, the Brooklyn-based light art collective NITEMIND will have its own gallery space of rotating installations right next to the lighting shops theyve purchased from for over a decade. And OReilly will work with fellow members of the New Museums creative tech incubator New Inc., of which Wallplays a member, to give them spaces to present and experiment with their work, in real life, in front of a live audience of window shoppers. There will be a food and beverage concept. A musician, who has yet to be named, will take over one of the shops. All of the shopkeepers and artists will rotate out at varying intervals from weekly to monthly to longer, and the entire experiment is ongoing until, one presumes, the whole of Canal is nearly unrecognizable. Or at least filled with lines of influencers.

The hope is that while Chelsea and the Lower East Side have become clusters for traditional galleries, Canal will become the home for new media art and tech-related experiences like VR museums and digital works that the art world doesnt quite know what to do with yet because its harder to sell and collect and there are just fewer places to showcase it. Were creating a much needed outlet for what will be the future of art, which is technology integration, OReilly says.

As for whats already there on the street, OReilly and Laboz are hoping to co-exist, becoming a destination that can drive even more foot traffic to everything else on Canal, a street that already gets something like 10,000 passerbys a day. But of course well see if the artists ultimately lead the way to higher rents.

We think this is going to be transformative, says Laboz.

Literally. Laura finishes.
Michelle and Barack Obama. Photo: Aude Guerrucci-Pool/Getty Images

Right on schedule Monday, Kate Middleton popped out a historically large baby boy, who does not yet have a name but could very, very soon. While an incalculable number of people would like to swaddle and coo at the Big Boy, one person publicly congratulated the Duchess and Prince William who actually has a shot at meeting the little cherub: Michelle Obama.

On Monday evening, the former First Lady Instagrammed a photo of Barack, Prince William, and Prince George, whos adorably sporting a white bathrobe, with a caption that speaks for herself and her husband.

Barack and I are thrilled to congratulate The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on their newest arrival! she wrote. We hope to meet him soon for a Kensington Palace pajama party. Ill wear my robe!

Hopefully, by their future meeting, the baby boy has the perfect name.
In March alone, Vietnam welcomed over 1.3 million tourists.



Visitors chose to fly to Vietnam accounts for 27.9 percent of arrivals during the first quarter of 2018 (Q1) while the number of tourists coming by sea and land was 6.9 percent and 53.6 percent respectively.

Of which, more than 3.1 million visitors are from Asian market. The number of visitors from China increased most by 43 percent, South Korea 69 percent and Japan 7 percent.

Visa exemption program has raised the number of visitors from the European market to Vietnam by 15.4 percent. The number of visitors from Russian increased by 15.8 percent, the UK 14.4 percent, France 12 percent, Germany 9.8 percent and Sweden 20.6 percent.

Tourism revenue totaled VND138 trillion, a year on year increase of 30 percent.







By KIM HUYEN  Translated by Kim Khanh
Armenia's former President Serzh Sarksyan attends a session of the parliament in Yerevan, Armenia Apr. 17, 2018. (REUTERS/Vahram Baghdasaryan/Photolure/File photo)

Armenian PM Sarksyan Quits After 11 Days of Street Protests

By Hasmik Mkrtchyan

YEREVANArmenian Prime Minister Serzh Sarksyan resigned on Monday after almost two weeks of mass street protests that have plunged the ex-Soviet republic into political crisis.

Sarksyan, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, had served as Armenias president for a decade until this month and had faced accusations of clinging to power when parliament elected him as prime minister last week.

Under a revised constitution, the prime minister now holds most power in the southern Caucasus nation, while the presidency has become largely ceremonial.

Pressure on the 63-year-old to quit had increased sharply on Monday when unarmed soldiers in the capital Yerevan joined the anti-government protests, which first erupted on April 13.

Though peaceful, the tumult has threatened to destabilise Armenia, a Russian ally in a volatile region riven by its decades-long, low-level conflict with Azerbaijan. Moscow, which has two military bases in Armenia, was closely watching events.

I got it wrong, Sarksyan said in a statement.

In the current situation there are several solutions, but I wont choose any of them. Its not my style. I am quitting the countrys leadership and the post of prime minister of Armenia.

He said he was bowing to protesters demands and wanted his country to remain peaceful.

Former Armenian prime minister Karen Karapetyan, an ally of Sarksyan from his ruling pro-Russian Republican Party, was named as acting prime minister, the government said in a statement.

President Armen Sarkissian accepted the prime ministers and the governments resignation.

Armenias political parties in parliament now have seven days to put forward the name of a new prime minister. Sarksyans allies remain in key positions in the government and it remains unclear whether his resignation will herald any real change.

CELEBRATIONS

Protesters loudly celebrated Sarksyans resignation.

Some hugged policemen in the street amid cheers, others beeped car horns, and some danced and drank.

Its the happiest day in my life, said 20-year-old student Karine Stepanyan. We showed to the entire world that our countrys destiny is in hands of Armenian people.

Tens of thousands filled the capitals central Republic Square, waving national flags, blowing vuvuzelas and chanting:Victory!

The first stage of our revolution is over  prime minister has resigned, Nikol Pashinyan, a lawmaker regarded as the main opposition leader, said to loud applause from the crowd.

On Sunday police had detained him, two other opposition leaders and nearly 200 protesters, drawing a rebuke from the European Union. [nL8N1RZ05H] Police released Pashinyan and others on Monday.

Pashinyan said he would hold talks with Karapetyan to discuss what happens next.

We are ready to continue talks with acting prime minister Karen Karapetyan on Wednesday to ensure a transfer of power to the people, Pashinyan told tens of thousands of supporters.

I hope that the high echelons of the (ruling) Republican Party will unequivocally recognise the popular velvet and non-violent revolution, he said.

Early parliamentary elections should be held, he said.

The protests which toppled Sarksyan lasted for 11 days and saw tens of thousands of protesters march through Yerevan and other towns, blocking streets and staging sit-ins that disrupted daily life.

Asked about the crisis on Monday before Sarksyans resignation, the Kremlin called Armenia an extraordinarily important country for Russia, but dismissed the idea it might intervene, calling the crisis a domestic matter.

Last week Putin rang Sarksyan to congratulate him on becoming premier. As president, Sarksyan took Armenia, a country of about three million people, into a Russia-backed economic bloc and bought weapons from Moscow.

The protesters complaints were mainly domestic and focused on pervasive corruption and poverty in a country that won independence from Moscow in 1991 but has been hampered by its conflict with Azerbaijan over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh and other issues.

But critics have also accused Sarkasyan of moving landlocked Armenia too close to Russia at the expense of better ties with the West and increased prosperity, and it was unclear whether his political demise could lead to a change in foreign policy.

Armenias 2025 dollar-denominated bond fell 0.83 cents after Sarksyan said he would resign, hitting a one-year low.

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Audience at Harvested Alive Movie Screening Says Stand Behind Human Rights

More than 100 people attended the Harvested Alive-Ten Years of Investigations film screening at NSW Parliament House last Wednesday, April 11.

The audience response to the documentary was overwhelming with many expressing feeling a sense of urgency after watching the film for the need to end crimes of forced organ harvesting in China.

Many signed petitions and said that Australians and the Australian government can do more to stand behind human rights.

The one-hour award-winning documentary details significant evidence that has been gathered regarding the state-sanctioned, military-controlled forced organ harvesting of prisoners of conscience that continues to occur in China.

The film was produced shortly after the release of a 2016 report by the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) on crimes of live organ harvesting from adherents of Falun Gong in China.

The report compiled evidence of which 95 percent was sourced directly from the doctors, judges, legislators, military officials, government officials, the media, and hospital websites found to be linked to organ harvesting activities in China.

The investigation and research revealed an unthinkable situation  that Chinas state-controlled hospitals, judiciary, and military had been working together under the authority of former Chinese president Jiang Zemin to mercilessly slaughter persecuted Falun Gong practitioners and harvest their organs.

Via internet link, WOIPFGs chief investigator Dr. Wang Zhiyuan joined the audience for a Q&A discussion from New York. One audience member asked: Does the CCP harvest organs from Falun Gong because they are afraid of them, or because they are very healthy and have healthy organs?

Dr Wang answered: The CCP has three strategies for persecuting Falun Gong: ruin their reputations, bankrupt them financially, and destroy them physically. Organ harvesting is a strategy for the CCP to eliminate Falun Gong physically.

He explained further: The system encourages the organ harvesting crimes as they make huge profits from it. At the same time, they use the strategy to bind all the people who engaged in the crime together with this huge killing machine.

Another audience asked, What is the estimation of the profit for this industry?

I can give you some examples, Dr Wang said. The No. 3 military hospital in China had a profit of 30 million Chinese yuan (US$4.4 million) in 2006. By 2011, it increased to 230 million (US$33.8 million)  8 times more than five years ago.

In the late 1990s, the Third Military Medical University affiliated with Daping Hospital had an annual profit of 36 million (US$5.3 million), and by 2009, the annual profit exceeded to 900 million (US$132.3 million). It increased more than 25 times.

NSW Greens MLC David Shoebridge who hosted the event told the audience: I had a conversation with an organ transplant surgeon from Sydney.

He said one of his colleagues had spoken to him and said: I have an ethical dilemma. One of my patients who is on long term dialysis said he wont be turning up for dialysis on Monday because he going to go to China to receive an organ transplant.

Shoebridge continued, China has a very developed organ transplant system which has dozens and dozens of facilities with very large, modern, and high capacity operating theatres that can carry out hundreds of thousands of organs transplants every year.

On the other hand, they have an infantile organ donation system. The Chinese culture is resistance to the organs donations. They have only begun voluntary organ donation last few years ago.

Put that together, and you get maybe 5000 donations a year but the Industry has the capacity to deliver at least 100,000 transplant a year. Where does the other 95% come from?

The shortfall must be made up somewhere  made up unethically.

Thats why we have the bill that I presented in NSW government to make it a crime for anyone from New South Wales to travel anywhere overseas and engage in unethical organ transplants, he said.

People reacted overwhelmingly after viewing the movie and gathered around the information table to sign the petition. One government employee, Brad, said after he signed the petition: Ive done my bit and I hope it starts from there.

Musician Danielle said: Ive heard there is misconduct going on in China, but I did not look it further. I was shocked after watching the movie and the numbers presented in the movie were obvious. She then said: I hope the world stands behind what we should, in terms of human rights. I hope we have the courage to put people above the profits and be strong to against this type of behaviour.

Queenie who works in the finance sector said: For me, its very moving because its a human rights issue. It is widespread and is very disturbing. I was surprised there was not more media coverage in Australia about the persecution, which is a sad thing. But it will go down to the history as the Nazi persecution two.

She suggested the government should pass the legislation to ban organ tourism. She also thinks that strong action should be taken globally. It isnt going to be sufficient, as to stop individuals going to China for transplants wont hurt China very much. The world should come together and put the economic sanctions on Chinese government.

The movie screening was co-sponsored by The International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China (ETAC) and Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH).

Watch the film:
Members of U.S. armed forces try to record U.S. President Barack Obama with smartphones during an address in Dec. 15, 2014 at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey. (Mark Makela/Getty Images)

China-Made Huawei Phones Sold at US Bases Could Be Spying on American Soldiers

Smartphones made by the Chinese company Huawei are being sold to soldiers at U.S. military bases in Germany. These sales raise national security concerns, as U.S. intelligence officials and lawmakers have repeatedly accused Huawei of spying for the Chinese regime, to which it is closely tied.

Stars and Stripes, a U.S. military-affiliated newspaper, first reported that the Chinese-made Huawei phones are being sold by TKS, a subsidiary of Vodaphone, to American services members through Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) stores across several bases in Germany.

Service members who purchase these Huawei phones are only supposed to use them privately, since they are not among the secured communication devices approved by the Pentagon for official use. However, simply by carrying these phones, soldiers, even if they only use the phones for their private communications, run the risk of falling under Chinese surveillance.

In carrying these phones, soldiers, even if they only use the phones for their private communications, run the risk of falling under Chinese surveillance.

An AAFES spokesman said that it would continue to allow Huawei phones to be sold at the stores until the Pentagon explicitly tells it not to, since there is currently no regulation barring their sale.

A House bill introduced by Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas) in January would explicitly bar government contractors from using Huawei and ZTE equipment.

Many U.S. intelligence officials and congressional lawmakers consider Huawei devices to pose a national security threat to Americans who use them. In February, the heads of the CIA, FBI, National Security Agency, and others testified before a Senate hearing, and all of the witnesses at the hearing said that Americans should not use Chinese smartphones manufactured by Huawei and ZTE.

Were deeply concerned about the risks of allowing any company or entity that is beholden to foreign governments that dont share our values to gain positions of power inside our telecommunications networks, said FBI Director Chris Wray. It provides the capacity to maliciously modify or steal information, and it provides capacity to conduct undetected espionage.

Just last week, a new U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission report said that, on average, 51 percent of the parts for IT equipment supplied to the U.S. government comes from China. The report says this reliance on Chinese parts constitutes a great risk to U.S. national security, economic competitiveness, and the privacy of American citizens.

Huawei was targeted prominently by the report, which said that the company has extensive ties with the Chinese regime. Ren Zhengfei, the founder of the company, was a former officer in the Peoples Liberation Army. He continues to run the company today.

Huawei has consistently denied the allegation that its devices could be used by the Chinese regime for spying and has always maintained that the company is owned by its employees. However, U.S. officials have continued to warn Americans not to use Huawei phones.

In 2016, it was discovered that Adups, a Shanghai-based company that sells firmware to smartphone manufacturers like Huawei and ZTE, had inserted a backdoor in the firmware provided to American phone manufacturer BLU Products that would send a users text messages to a Chinese server every 72 hours. Huawei insisted that Adups was not one of its suppliers.
Exhibitors from U.S. tech giant Intel at a booth at Computex Taipei, Asia's biggest information technology and communications trade fair, on May 31, 2011. (Patrick Lin/AFP/Getty Images)

China Poaches Semiconductor Technology via Employees at Taiwans Top Chipmakers

Taiwan prosecutors have filed charges against a former employee at the worlds largest contract chipmaker, alleging that he stole technology with the intention of providing it to a state-owned firm in mainland China.

The case brings to light Chinas ambition to acquire semiconductor technology by any means necessary. The chips are essential for making most electronic devices, yet the Chinese regime relies heavily on imported foreign chips, as it has lagged behind in advancing its own domestic technology. When the U.S. government recently announced that it would ban American firms from supplying tech parts to top Chinese smartphone maker, ZTE, the companys dependence on American chips was laid bare.

Meanwhile, the Chinese regime has aggressively directed Chinese firms to invest in or acquire foreign semiconductor firms in order to obtain the technological innovation it desires for its own national interests.

According to a report by Taiwans Central News Agency on April 18, Hsinchu District prosecutors discovered that an engineer at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), identified only by his surname, Wu, had copied documents related to 28-nanometer technology in September 2017. He planned to leave the company in December, after which he would take the documents to his new job at China Resources, a state-owned firm, to reproduce the proprietary technology.

China Resources is a conglomerate under the direction of Chinas State Council. One of its subsidiary companies, China Resources Semico Co., supplies chips to many domestic consumer electronic products.

Prosecutors are charging Wu with theft of trade secrets and breach of trust.

A similar case emerged in May 2017, when an engineer at TSMC surnamed Hsu made copies of documents related to the same technology. The technology features high performance and low power consumption, according to a report by Taipei Times.

Prosecutors discovered that Hsu had visited the Chinese tech firm, Shanghai Huali Microelectronics Corp., a month before he submitted his resignation letter. They allege that Hsu had used those documents as leverage to obtain a job at the Chinese firm. After TSMC staff confronted Hsu, he admitted to the theft and the staff recovered the documents.

The phenomenon of Chinese firms luring away Taiwanese tech talent is a major issue of concern for Taiwanese tech companies.

The CEO of Taiwan chipmaker Nanya Technology, Lee Pei-Ing, recently made remarks in which he said that the companys DRAM technologyused in personal computers and serverswas being poached by China via former employees. Some 50 odd former staff were enticed with lucrative positions in China, he said, according to a report by Taiwan media United Daily News.

Back in March, a senior official at the U.S. Commerce Department, Ian Steff, visited Taiwan to meet with TSMC chairman Morris Chang and discuss ways to collaborate, according to a report by Nikkei Asian Review, a Japanese magazine.

Steff also met with local chip industry executives and local representatives of American chipmakers to discuss topics ranging from the protection of intellectual property, trade secrets, to information security issues, according to the Nikkei report, citing an industry executive. Steff had informed the group that Taiwan would be an important ally for the United States in tackling intellectual property issues with China, according to the report.

Chinas intellectual property (IP) theft was the key issue that U.S. President Donald Trump sought to tackle with recent trade tariffs enacted on Chinese imported goods.

Taiwans Minister of Economic Affairs, Shen Jong-chin, also told Nikkei Asian Review in a March interview that Taiwan chipmakers were particularly concerned about IP theft by their Chinese competitors, especially through forced technology transfers when doing business in China. Many business owners are really careful about this and could be reluctant to invest too much there, Shen told Nikkei Asian Review.

Li Jing contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump (not pictured), President of France Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron (not pictured) return to the White House from Mount Vernon, Va., on April 23, 2018. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

French President Agrees With Trump That Broader Approach to Iran Is Needed

President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that a broader approach is needed to curb Irans influence in the region.

Macrons visit to the White House comes less than three weeks ahead of the expiration of a deadline set by President Trump for a solution to be found to the Iran nuclear deal.

The 2015 agreement, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, reached between Iran and the United States, Russia, China, France, UK, and Germany, was intended to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, but in effect guarantees it can develop such a weapon by 2026.

In that year certain key limitations on Irans nuclear program are dropped, allowing the regime at that time to install thousands of advanced uranium centrifuges, which expert estimate would allow it to develop a nuclear weapon within six months.

Another major weakness in the agreement is the fact that Irans development of advanced missile technology is not covered under the agreement, but instead under a separate U.N. resolution. This means that Irans continued development of ballistic missile technology has no bearing on whether it is compliant with the nuclear deal.

Speaking at the White House on Tuesday, President Trump described the deal as a terrible deal that should never ever been made.

Frances Macron, whose country has been an ardent supporter of the 2015 deal, said that a broader approach to Irans activities in the region is needed.

The Iran deal is an important issue but we have to take a far broader picture which is security in the overall region. He added: What we want to do is to contain Iran and its presence in the region, Macron said at the White House.

President Trump agreed with Macrons assessment.

It just seems that no matter where you go, especially in the Middle East, Iran is behind it, wherever theres trouble, Yemen, Syria, no matter where you have it, Iran is behind it. And now, unfortunately, Russia is getting more and more involved. But Iran seems behind everything where theres a problem. And we just have to take a look, Trump said.

In January, Trump said he would sign the last 3-month certification for the Iran deal.

Ahead of the expiration of the 3-month period on May 12, concerns have arisen that Iran could restart its nuclear weapons program.

It wont be so easy for them to restart it. Theyre not going to be restarting anything. If they restart it, theyre going to have big problems, bigger than they ever had before, Trump said.
In UK Parliament, Investigators Shed Light on Chinese Regimes Forced Organ Harvesting

Lawmakers at the UK Parliament heard evidence from leading investigators at an April 17 briefing about forced organ harvesting in China.

The investigators pieced together the evidence that they say shows that organs are being forcibly extracted from prisoners of conscience in China and then sold for profit on an industrial scale.

This is thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people being forced to hand over, unwillingly, their organs, said Jim Shannon MP, who co-hosted the talk with Fiona Bruce MP in the parliament building.

In the room today, you had Conservatives, DUP, Labour and others who would hold positions as peers in the house, he said. Were all horrified, totally horrified about whats taken place.

Among the nine speakers were Nobel Peace Prize nominee Ethan Gutmann, former Canadian Secretary of State (Asia-Pacific) David Kilgour, and Benedict Rogers, Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission.

Research by Gutmann, Kilgour, and human rights lawyer David Matas, found that the main supply of harvested organs is from adherents of Falun Gong, a traditional Chinese practice of the Buddhist school that has been persecuted by the Chinese regime since 1999.

Their vital organs, including kidneys, livers, corneas and hearts, were seized involuntarily for sale at high prices, sometimes to foreigners, who normally face long waits for voluntary donations of such organs in their home countries, notes a 2006 report by David Matas and David Kilgour.

The report found that Uyghurs, Tibetan Buddhists, and some house Christians were also victimized.

Transplants from those who voluntarily donate their organs and from death-row prisoners come nowhere near to explaining the total number of transplants taking place in China. In China there is a cultural prohibition to donating organs, and a voluntary organ donation system is in its infancy.

According to the investigators, Falun Gong practitioners who were illegally detained but later got out of China almost all spoke of a similar experience: they had their blood tested and organs examined while they were in forced labour camps. According to investigators, this was not for health reasons, as they were victims of torture, but a test to assess if their organs were suitable for harvesting.

Until you start reading the reports and the investigations and all the evidence, I dont think you can grasp how serious it is, said the chair of the event, Becky James, who is a co-founder of Bristol Against Forced Organ Harvesting.

Bristol is twinned with Guangzhou, a city in China that has several hospitals implicated in organ harvesting, according to researchers.

Its so horrible, people can easily think its not true.

A comprehensive 2016 report by Kilgour, Matas, and Gutmann called Bloody Harvest/The Slaughter: An Update includes research into the public records of 712 hospitals in China that carry out liver and kidney transplants. It found that the numbers of organ transplantations was exponentially higher than the official statistics of 10,000 to 20,000 per year.

In June 2016, the U.S. Congress unanimously passed legislation condemning the harvesting of organs from Falun Gong practitioners in China, and the European Parliament passed legislation on stopping organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience in China July of the same year.

Well just keep going

Chinese authorities said they would stop all organ harvesting from prisoners by Jan. 1, 2015, but the evidence presented at this discussion suggests otherwise.

The official position from the transplantation society is that things have changed in China but the problem is, theres no transparency, theres no openness theres no way of verifying that, said Dr. Adnan Sharif, a consultant nephrologist and Secretary for Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH).

Well just keep going until we have complete evidence that [forced organ harvesting] has stopped and theres some accountability and recognition for what has happened. And until that happens well carry on, he said.

Its a determination thats echoed by Benedict Rogers, Vice-Chair of the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission who penned a report (pdf) for the commission on forced organ harvesting in China in 2016.

If they [Chinese authorities] say theyve stopped this, they ought to open up all of the hospitals in the country to truly independent international inspection, inspections without advance notice, he said.

With additional reporting from Xiaomin Pang and Shuya Lee

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Japan Should Not Be a Second Thought in US Policy

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited the United States from April 17 to 18, but the importance of his visit was largely lost in the maelstrom of media reporting on the U.S.-led strike on Syrian chemical weapons facilities, the seizure of President Donald Trumps personal lawyers records, and the release of former FBI Director James Comeys smear-all account of his relations with Trump.

The treatment of Abe was not quite on the level of disrespect, but rather it reflected the medias inability to differentiate between the strategically significant and the tactically transitory. Without belaboring the obvious, U.S. relations with Tokyo are more important than Assads use of chemical weapons and Comeys strained analogy of Trump as a mafia chief or his snippy comment on the size of Trumps hands.

What we have, however, is a serious need to review the bilateral and multilateral bidding between Washington and Tokyo.

Abe has invested heavily in Trump. He was the first foreign leader to visit Trump after the election and, reportedly, they have met and spoken 20 timesmore than Trump has met with any other foreign leader. Good relations with Trump were to be an Abe trump card in Japanese domestic politics as Abe seeks his partys support for an unprecedented third term as prime minister.

Read More US Should Embrace JapanIndia Alliance and TPP

Unfortunately for Abe, the trump card has become something of a joker. Washington caught Tokyo by surprise both by opening to direct discussions with Pyongyang and by not waiving aluminum/steel tariffs as it had for other major allies.

Abe has also been deviled with nagging fiscal scandals in his Finance Ministry recently, augmented by sexual harassment charges by a female reporter against a senior finance ministry official. These have been coupled with political opposition to Abes commitment to modify the pacifistic Japanese constitution to weaken some of its restrictions on military action.

The upshot has been to drive popular support for Abes cabinet to record lows. In one popular poll, it dropped to 26.7 percent. Other polls are less dire, but Abes popularity has declined markedly from a year ago. The intimation from these projections is that Abe could be forced out in a party leadership review later this year.

Consequently, Abe wants Washington to reinforce its commitments to Japanese security in any prospective talks with Pyongyang. Japan is far more under the gun from Pyongyangs missile and nuclear threat than the still abstract ability of Kim to strike the United States with nuclear ICBMs.

Abe may fear that Pyongyang could beguile an inexperienced and impetuous U.S. negotiating team with vague blandishments regarding a nuclear-free peninsula without providing any verifiable commitments. He will probably note that Washington has been down this road before, with Pyongyang extracting useful economic concessions while effectively evading ostensible commitments and continuing its nuclear and missile programs.

In short, Abe will want to know that Washington is intimately aware of the false hopes previous negotiations with Pyongyang have generated. Does Washington really believe that Kim will surrender its nuclear power without massive concessions (damaging to Japanese interests) from Washington and Seoul?

Abe will also be struggling to secure a coherent understanding of U.S. economic strategy. Just what is behind recent intimations that Washington is considering returning to participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership? What would be the quid for the United States waiving tariffs on Japanese aluminum and steel exports?

But more generally, Abe will be seeking a better understanding of U.S. regional policy. Just how does Washington project its relations with Beijing and Chinese regime leader Xi? Where does Seoul come into play in this multilateral balance? What role does Washington project for Tokyo (if any) in the U.S. schema?

Abe may take some comfort in the presence of a more hardline group of U.S. national security officials, including national security adviser John Bolton and prospectively Mike Pompeo as secretary of state. One may assume they will view the North Korean threat with closer to the same optic as does Abe.

However, Washington dares not take Abes presence and support as a given. Without question, he is our best bet for maintaining Japanese foreign policy support. His domestic and internal party contretemps probably reflect temporary problems that he can navigate past without being ousted.

But recent foreign policy has been replete with surprises; we must cross fingers in the hope that Abe continues as prime minister.

David T. Jones is a retired U.S. State Department senior foreign service career officer who has published several hundred books, articles, columns, and reviews on U.S.Canadian bilateral issues and general foreign policy. During a career that spanned over 30 years, he concentrated on politico-military issues, serving as adviser for two Army chiefs of staff. Among his books is Alternative North Americas: What Canada and the United States Can Learn from Each Other.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Judge Loses Job Over What She told Woman in Court

A Florida judge is facing criticism after she had an angry exchange with a frail inmate who was confined to a wheelchair in Broward County.

Circuit Court Judge Merrilee Ehrlich snapped at Sandra Twiggs, 59, as she explained her ailments and breathing treatments. Her family told CBS News that she suffered from COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Maam, do you need water? Just nod your head, Ehrlich said. When she responded, the judge shouted: Maam, Im not here to talk to you!

I need a breathing treatment, Twiggs said. Maam, Im not here to talk to you about your breathing treatment, Ehrlich said.

Im not here to talk about your breathing treatment, Ehrlich told her. Then she just told her to listen.

Maam, dont even say yes. Just listen, she said.

She allowed Twiggs to be released without bond for a domestic violence charge. You have to arrange for someone to carry you if you cannot get there yourself, Ehrlich said.

Twiggs then died in her sleep several days later, CBS reported.

Twiggs tried to tell us how they treated her, but she had anxiety, and every time she tried to talk about it, she couldnt breathe, Twiggs goddaughter, Carolyn Porter, was quoted as saying.

When she came home from being in there she was never the same, she said.

Broward Chief Administrative Judge Jack Tuter said Saturday, April 21, that the judge wont return to the courthouse due to her conduct, saying that shell retire over the summer. She filed paperwork to retire a few weeks before the incident.

To see a person begging you for help and trying to you, and you treat them like a dog for what reason? Carolyn Twiggs said, Fox19 reported. If that judge is listening to us and looking at us, I hope you can sleep at night knowing that you killed her, Carolyn Twiggs said, adding that the way the judge treated her combined with the night in jail may have contributed to her death.

Tuter said hell apologize to Twiggs family.

I am saddened and disappointed in the way Judge Ehrlich behaved on the video. Her behavior cannot be condoned, he told CBS.

The incident was described aggressive and tyrannical behavior and revealed her lack of emotional fitness to sit on the bench, Broward Public Defender Howard Finkelstein said.

Twiggs appeared via a live video stream before Ehrlich at bond court on a misdemeanor charge after she fought with her daughter.

Video Credit: Broward County via Sun Sentinel via Storyful

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A journalist shows a picture of Mexican journalist Javier Valdez, murdered on the eve, during a protest by journalists in Mexico City on May 16, 2017. Mexico ranks third in the world for the number of journalists killed, after Syria and Afghanistan, according to media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF). (PEDRO PARDO/AFP/Getty Images)

Mexico Arrests Alleged Killer of Drug War Journalist, Says Minister

MEXICO CITYMexicos interior minister on Monday said that authorities had arrested the alleged murderer of a renowned journalist in northern Mexico whose death had become emblematic of a spike in violence across the country.

Javier Valdez was assassinated last year in the state of Sinaloa, which has been the scene of violent battles between gangs following the arrest and subsequent extradition early last year to the United States of drug lord Joaquin El Chapo Guzman.

Interior Minister Alfonso Navarrete said via Twitter that federal police and prosecutors had arrested Valdez alleged murderer and congratulated officials for the joint operation. He did not provide further details.

Felicito a los elementos de la @PoliciaFedMx, #CNS y @PGR_mx, que en una operacion conjunta, hace unos momentos detuvieron al presunto responsable del homicidio del periodista Javier Valdez, quien lamentablemente fue privado de la vida el ano pasado en #Sinaloa.  Alfonso Navarrete (@navarreteprida) April 24, 2018

Sinaloa officials and federal authorities did not immediately respond to requests for further information.

The reporter, known for his signature straw hat, was the founder of Sinaloas RioDoce online newspaper.

Shortly before his murder he published a book called Narcoreporting, where he wrote about the dangers faced by journalists who insisted on covering the countrys drug war, despite risks of angering gangs and authorities.

Free speech advocates Article 19 said in a report this year that Mexico remains the most dangerous country to practice journalism in Latin America, with murder rates similar to war zones such as Syria.

So far this year three journalists have been killed in Mexico, while there were 12 cases last year. Human rights activists and other journalists have criticized the government for failing to investigate reporter killings.

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Mexico President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) at the Palacio de Mineria after the first presidential debate in Mexico City, Mexico Apr. 22, 2018. (REUTERS/Henry Romero)

Mexicos Second-Placed Presidential Candidate Boosted by TV Debate: Poll

By Dave Graham

MEXICO CITYThe second-placed contender in Mexicos presidential race won the opening televised debate of the campaign on Sunday night, a telephone survey found, after the front-runner came under relentless attack from competitors.

Tapping into discontent with the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) over corruption and violence, leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has led polls for months, and all four rivals trained their fire on him during the debate.

Second-placed Ricardo Anaya led the charge, accusing Lopez Obrador of endangering Mexico with a vague proposal to explore an amnesty for criminals to curb the violence, and of hypocrisy for making common cause with people he had once called corrupt.

Running as the candidate of a right-left coalition, the 39-year-old Anaya was deemed the winner of the debate by 36 percent of 245 respondents in the telephone poll by newspaper Reforma. Lopez Obrador came second with 34 percent, it showed.

Pollsters say ad hoc telephone surveys should be treated with caution, but as an initial indication of the ebb and flow of the contest, the positive reception of Anaya was in line with how many Mexican political analysts called the debate.

Lopez Obrador, 64, ignored many attacks and sought to avoid getting into scraps with his adversaries. But he showed signs of irritation as the evening wore on, at one point pulling out a board with his polling numbers to answer critics.

A separate poll of financial market analysts by Reuters on Monday found that 11 out of 13 saw Anaya as the winner. The other two analysts identified no victor.

Anayas co-campaign manager, Jorge Castaneda, said the two-hour debate had shown his candidate was the only real alternative to a Lopez Obrador victory on July 1.

The contrast was very clear between the tired change of Andres Manuel and the radical, fresh, youthful, new change of Ricardo Anaya, he told Mexican television. And I think it became clear that this is an election between two (choices).

Only last week, a Reforma voter survey showed Lopez Obrador extending his poll lead to 22 percentage points over Anaya.

A separate Reforma consultation of 903 leading citizens from academia, civil society, business, and politics in Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey showed that 68 percent felt Anaya had won the debate, with 16 percent for Lopez Obrador.

That second survey showed that, apart from Anaya, the candidate who most improved his standing in the eyes of respondents was independent contender Jaime Rodriguez.

Rodriguez, a state governor from northern Mexico, put on a confident display, and created a stir by saying politicians who steal money should have their hands cut off.

Polls suggest that Rodriguez has no chance of winning the presidency himself, but his maverick candidacy could plunder votes from the anti-establishment campaign of Lopez Obrador, said Jorge Buendia of polling firm Buendia & Laredo.

Both of Reformas ad hoc surveys also found many respondents thought Lopez Obrador was the main loser in the debate.

Afterwards, Lopez Obrador posted a video online saying he believed he had won the debate, but added: I would like to have responded to other lies, especially from (Anaya).

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Russian model Irina Shayk presents a creation of the Pronovias 2019 collection ahead of the Barcelona Bridal Week at the brand's headquarters in Prat del Llobregat, on April 22, 2018. (Photo credit should read PAU BARRENA/AFP/Getty Images)

Model Irina Shayk Speaks Out Against Pressure Created by Social Media

Russian model Irina Shayk visited Atelier Pronovias in Barcelona on Sunday, April 22, ahead of their catwalk show on Monday, April 23, where the Catalan brand will showcase its new bridal collection In Bloom.

Shayk recommended that young girls should try to avoid pressure from social media on the way they look or what they wear. She said that it is not important if you wear a size four or sixteen as long as you love your body.

My message to young girls would be just, you know, be yourself. Just to be beautiful thats not it. You know, you just have to be smart, intelligent, you have to have a sense of humor, she said.

You have to be a human being and thats what makes beauty. You know, its not only how we look outside, and definitely young generations should remember that.

Shayk said that all women should appreciate their bodies and not pay too much attention to what dress size they are.

#PronoviasFashionShow official fitting with flawless @theirishayk wearing Tetuan jumpsuit #AtelierPronovias2019 "Im really excited for tomorrows show. PRONOVIAS has a really special place in my heart." https://t.co/OpoKOlPNUG pic.twitter.com/KKN3zcyAKt  Pronovias (@pronovias) April 22, 2018

Dutch beauty Romee Strijd dazzled on last year's WISH #PronoviasFashionShow runway and were so excited that she'll be joining us again! {Watch our most magical show ever on Facebook Live on April 23rd at 9pm (GMT +2)} Photo: @DarioAranyo https://t.co/ZTIQWYASt7 pic.twitter.com/8dMTQ3ss4w  Pronovias (@pronovias) April 22, 2018

I feel that we live in a time of social media, of Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook, and when we go on those social platforms we see a perfect woman with a perfect waist and we feel pressure, and I feel that we all have to step down and just love our bodies and just enjoy ourselves, because we live once, you know, and we were born in this way for a reason and it doesnt matter if youre wearing dress size four or sixteen, we just have to love ourselves, she said.

Pronovias is a Catalan brand specializing in bridal dresses with more than 44 stores around the world.

Shayk, 32, a Russian model, is engaged to American actor Bradley Cooper and has one child. The couples daughter, Lea, is one-year-old.

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New Development on North Korean Nuclear Test Site Reveals a Serious Problem

North Koreas primary nuclear test site remains fully operational and could be used for further testing in the future, according to a report on Monday.

Kim Jong Un made an announcement on Friday, April 20, that his isolated, communist regime would stop testing nuclear weapons and long-range missiles. He also said that the mountainous Punggye-ri nuclear test site would be closed.

Under the proven condition of complete nuclear weapons, we no longer need any nuclear tests, mid-range and intercontinental ballistic rocket tests, and that the nuclear test site in northern area has also completed its mission, Pyongyang said via state-run media, according to media reports.

But 38 North, a United States-based watchdog, said, North Koreas Punggye-ri nuclear test site, where North Korea has conducted six acknowledged underground detonations is still, as far as we can tell, fully operational.

However, significant new tunneling was noted at the West Portal, another area of the site, up through early March 2018. That renewed tunneling was curtailed by mid-March, but not entirely stopped through early April, suggesting that either the tunnel was completed and ready for future renewed testing or that the slowdown simply mirrored the ongoing political changes underway, the organization said.

The watchdog said that test tunnels, which can be accessed via the southern entrance, have primary and secondary entrances that could be used for testing.

In short, there is no basis to conclude that the Punggye-ri nuclear test site is no longer viable for future nuclear testing. There remain two portal areas located in more pristine competent rock that can be used for future tests if Pyongyang were to give the order. Whether that will stay an option will depend on reaching verifiable agreements that build on Pyongyangs pledge to shut down the facility, 38 North said.

The Punggye-ri site is where all of the regimes nuclear tests have been carried out.

In an update on Tuesday, 38 North also said that unusual activity was observed at the test site.

Most notably, approximately one dozen mining cartsat least eight connected in a long traincould be observed in an unusual arrangement on the spoil pile in the area closest to the West Portal. It is too early to conclude whether this display is related to Kim Jong Uns announcement, 38 North said on Tuesday.

After North Korea announced that it was scrapping its nuclear program, President Donald Trump praised the move on Twitter. Progress being made for all! Trump tweeted.

Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd of Fake News NBC just stated that we have given up so much in our negotiations with North Korea, and they have given up nothing. Wow, we havent given up anything & they have agreed to denuclearization (so great for World), site closure, & no more testing!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 22, 2018

A message from Kim Jong Un: North Korea will stop nuclear tests and launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Also will Shut down a nuclear test site in the countrys Northern Side to prove the vow to suspend nuclear tests. Progress being made for all!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2018

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Practitioners of the spiritual practice Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, march in a parade in Flushing, New York, on April 22, 2018. (Larry Dai/The Epoch Times)

New York Couple Remembers Peaceful April 25 Appeal in China

NEW YORKNearly 20 years ago on April 25, 1999, more than 10,000 followers of the spiritual practice Falun Gong gathered on the streets of Beijing to silently appeal for the right to practice their faith, without persecution.

That day, the sidewalks near the compound of the Chinese Communist Party leadership were filled with polite, peaceful meditators wondering why the police had started arresting their friends.

You Zhaohe, 65, and his wife, Wang Lurui, 61, were among the many who stood in solidarity near the compound just days after the police had arrested and beaten dozens of practitioners in the city of Tianjin, a two-hour drive from Beijing. The practitioners in Tianjin had been calmly appealing to a magazine publisher who had written an article falsely attacking the practice.

Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, is a traditional Chinese spiritual discipline based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.

You, Wang, and the rest of the group settled in peacefully without any shouting. Some stood; others sat down reading Zhuan Falun, the main text of Falun Gong; and some meditated, the couple recalled.

We wanted people to know that the people arrested in Tianjin are innocent people. We wanted society to learn about the truth and what kind of people we are. You Zhaohe,  Falun Gong practitioner

Seeing so many practitioners there was very emotional for me, Wang said. They are all good people, so seeing them stand up in the face of such injustice was very touching.

The group had three simple requests for officials: release the innocent Falun Gong practitioners arrested in Tianjin; allow Falun Gong to be practiced freely, without state interference; and allow the publication of Falun Gong books.

We didnt know how long we should stand for, but we knew that we did nothing wrong, Wang said.

But the April 25 gathering in Beijing didnt yield any favorable results, and by late July, then-leader of the Chinese Communist Party Jiang Zemin had launched a large-scale persecution of Falun Gong that continues to today.

Two Decades of Determination

Nearly two decades later, on April 22, the sidewalks of Queens, New York, were filled with pedestrians who had stopped to watch and record the whirlwind of colors from a marching band, meticulously designed floats, bustling dragon dance troupes, and cheerful ladies playing Chinese waist drums. About 1,000 Falun Gong practitioners from the New York area paraded through Queens to mark the 19th anniversary of that fateful day in 1999.

For Wang and You, the anniversary carries personal meaning.

Wang first discovered Falun Gong years ago in 1996 after suffering from multiple illnesses, including a giant hemangioma (an exposed blood vessel) that was difficult to treat.

After starting the practice, in just a few months, I was totally different in body and spirit. I then knew what it is like to have no sickness at all and for my body to feel light, said Wang, who was a public servant when she took up the practice.

When Wangs husband, You, a philosophy professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, witnessed the changes in her, he also starting practicing.

On April 25, 1999, the couple made the trip to Beijing because they wanted people to know that the people arrested in Tianjin are innocent people, You said. We wanted society to learn about the truth and what kind of people we are.

Wang recalled a meaningful encounter she had with one of the many policemen on Fuyou Street, the location of Chinas Central Appeals Office. The office was right next to Zhongnanhai, the seat of the Chinese communist regime and living quarters for the Party leadership.

She said the atmosphere changed when police saw how the practitioners behaved.

The policemen standing before us were nervous at first, but then relaxed after a while, seeing how peaceful we were, Wang said. One of them who was standing close to me told me hes from Beijing and over his many years hed never seen such a peaceful group of people gathered there.

They spent about one year each in labor camps, where prison guards beat them and tortured them in a bid to make them renounce their faith.

As the day progressed, representatives from among the Falun Gong practitioners managed to speak with officials. The practitioners believed the discussion to be a success, and by 10 p.m., everyone had quietly left.

But months later, as the brutal persecution ensued, Wang and You were both arrested. They were tortured on at least 10 different occasions. They spent about one year each in labor camps, where prison guards beat them and tortured them in a bid to make them renounce their faith.

Even when Wang wasnt in custody, she was under constant surveillance on extreme levels, from morning to night. At times the pressure on Wang and You was so great, their will nearly faltered.

Saying that we were not scared, that is an impossible statement, Wang said. One time, I was chased through the streets and I had to outrun them. I cant tell you what it was like, but the pressure was intense.

During this tumultuous period, the couples daughter, Teresa You, asked them, Why not go to America?

The family decided to follow their daughters idea and secretly prepared to leave. On April 21, 2015, they were arrested again and kept in custody for one month. They were told not to leave Beijing. But on March 29, 2016, they managed to escape.

After the family arrived in the United States, it took some time for them to release their fear. We were unsettled for a long time, Wang said.

Now, they are thankful to be in a free environment where they can tell people about how Falun Gong changed their lives and about the persecution still taking place in China. They are just as committed today as they were on that pivotal day in April 1999.

As Wang and You marched down the street with hundreds of other Falun Gong practitioners on April 22, their faces beamed, expressing hope and unflinching resolve.

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U.S. President Barack Obama (R) makes a statement in response to the attack at the U.S. Consulate in Libya as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (L) looks at the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on Sept. 12, 2012. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Obama Official Tried to Terminate Clinton Foundation Probe During 2016 Election, Report Says

A high-ranking official at the Department of Justice under President Barack Obama attempted to shut down the FBI investigation on the Clinton Foundation while Hillary Clinton was running for president in 2016, according to a report by the Justice Departments Office of Inspector General.

The revelation is part of a report on former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe that led to his firing in March. McCabe told investigators that on Aug. 12, 2016, he received a call from the principal associate deputy attorney general, who expressed concerns about FBI agents taking overt steps in the Clinton Foundation investigation during the presidential campaign.

Are you telling me that I need to shut down a validly predicated investigation? McCabe fired back.

McCabe described the conversation as very dramatic and told the inspector generals office that he never had a similar confrontation in his entire FBI career.

Are you telling me that I need to shut down a validly predicated investigation?  Andrew McCabe, former deputy director, FBI

Although he is not named in the OIG report, Matthew Axelrod was the principal associate deputy attorney general at the time. Axelrod was fired along with his boss, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, shortly after President Donald Trump assumed office.

Axelrod was one of DOJs highest-ranking officials and a member of the senior leadership team, according to his profile at the Linklaters law firm, where he is a partner.

Matt also took the lead in advising on crisis management within DOJ, working closely with the White House, Congress, the FBI, and the media on DOJs most sensitive and high-profile matters, the profile says.

McCabe authorized a leak to The Wall Street Journal about his conversation with Axelrod. In the resulting article, Axelrod was described as being very pissed off when asking why the FBI was still chasing a matter the department considered dormant.

When McCabe asked if he is being told to shut down the investigation, Axelrod replied, Of course not.

The two senior FBI officials whom McCabe authorized to leak to the Journal were Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. Text messages sent between Strzok and Page revealed that they were extremely biased against Trump. Strzok was the top investigator in the Clinton email case and was later part of the special counsel probe into allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Strzok was removed when the texts became public.

On April 18, 11 congressmen referred McCabes case to the FBI and DOJ for criminal investigation. The lawmakers say that there is evidence that McCabe lied to his boss and investigators about the leak.

McCabes boss at the time, former FBI Director James Comey, is himself under investigation for leaking classified information to The New York Times via a friend.

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SECRET/ /NOFORN Marking Did Not Stop Comeys Leaks

The Comey memos, released April 19, reveal more about former FBI Director James Comey than they do about President Donald Trump.

Until last week, it was unclear whether the Comey memos were, in fact, memos to the filethat is, to real, official FBI files, which are more probative and are subject to official reviewor they were memos to my bedroom drawer, personal notes that were never made official, which are less probative (that is, they are subject to alteration and re-writing) and are essentially Comeys personal property.

As the memos are now known to fall in the first category, Comey would presumably have signed the same contract signed by all FBI employees, prohibiting any disclosure without review and authorization by the FBIs Prepublication Review Unit. Such unauthorized disclosures would subject Comey to civil and criminal penalties.

At first glance, it appears that Comey has committed a crime, perhaps several crimes. The markings SECRET/ /NOFORN (as they are called in the intel community) inform the reader that the contents have been judged secret; that they are accessible only to those who have been investigated and deemed worthy of trust; that the reader must have a need to know the contents; and that they are absolutely not to be disseminated to foreign officials, regardless of such foreigners access level. Comeys memos were released by the Department of Justice with its redactions of text that the DOJ did not want declassified; those parts were blacked out with markers.

But when Comey himself leaked the memos, he made no redactions; he leaked them in their SECRET entirety. The point is that, although he chose to leak them, the memos remained classified. Classified documents that have been leakedby Comey, Snowden, or whomeverare still classified, and are still illegal to disseminate, even if they have appeared on the front page of major newspapers. (Such is the arcane nature of the intelligence worlds legal infrastructure. Only when declassified and redacted can they legally be published.)

Comey cannot claim he was unaware of the classification. In his first email memo, dated Jan. 2, 2017, and addressed to Andrew McCabe and other members of the DO (Directors Office, the executive staff), he states that he classified the memo at that level himself, and asks the recipients whether it should be classified at a higher levelTOP SECRET.

As a career U.S. attorney, Comey would necessarily have dealt with classified documents, and in all probability oversaw cases in which the defendants were being prosecuted for just such illegal disclosures as he himself had made. Comeys disclosure was revealed in his sworn testimony to Congress last fall. (That was a good judgment call on Comeys part, because his disclosure would inevitably have surfaced, and so it looked better coming from his own lips.)

When Comey himself leaked the memos, he made no redactions; he leaked them in their SECRET entirety.

Disingenuous from the start, in the first SECRET leaked memo, Comey tells the president that the Russians allegedly had tapes involving [Trump] and prostitutes according to source reports. That this reflects an anti-Trump agenda on the part of the former FBI director is essentially confirmed by his inexcusable failure to inform the chief of state that the source was a paid Democratic party operative.

Comey followed this gratuitous observation, which was wholly speculative and indicative of nothing other than his strong desire to cast Trump in as negative a light as possible, this way: He [the president] said 2013 to himself, as if trying to remember that period of time. It is clear here that Comey is suggesting the president was trying to recall whether he had been involved with Russian prostitutes during the time frame and travel being discussed. Shame on Comey for these underhanded tactics.

In a subsequent SECRET memo, Comeys discussion with then-chief of staff Reince Priebus is worthy of a good undercover agent. He chats about the risks posed by leakers, that every president is plagued by them, then rushes to his car to type out a memo memorializing the conversation for future unauthorized disseminationthat is, a leak.

He concludes the memo with a self-serving he [the President] clearly noticed I had directly criticized him when he responded to a comment by Trump to the effect that expressing respect for Putin, as head of a major country, was appropriate. Comeys message to us: He had the courage to criticize the president of the United States. Wow, how impressive.

Last week, the Department of Justice inspector general, Michael Horowitz, filed a criminal referral against former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe. Will former FBI executive Peter Strzok and counsel Lisa Page be next? The interwoven text messages between these three executives certainly are suggestive of intrigue that may have crossed the line into the criminal realm. Horowitz has shown true grit, searching for the truth, wherever it may be found. Perhaps it is time to add Mr. Comey to the referral list.

Marc Ruskin, a 27-year veteran of the FBI, is a regular contributor and the author of The Pretender: My Life Undercover for the FBI. He served on the legislative staff of U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan and as an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn, New York.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Smoke billows behind a building following a reported air strike by the Saudi-led coalition in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Jan. 22, 2017. (MOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP/Getty Images)

Saudi-Led Coalition Air Strike Kills Top Houthi Official in Yemen

RIYADHA Saudi-led Sunni coalition air strike last week killed the top civilian leader in the armed Iran-backed Houthi Shiite rebel movement in Yemen, the Houthis reported on Monday. Saleh al-Samad is the most senior official to be killed by the Western-backed alliance in the three-year-old war.

Samad held the post of president in the Houthi-backed political body which runs most of northern Yemen.

Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said in a televised statement that Samad was killed on Thursday in the port city of Hodeidah, on Yemens west coast, in several strikes which killed six others in his retinue.

The forces of aggression, led by America and Saudi Arabia, bear the legal responsibility for this crime and all its consequences, al-Houthi said.

There was no immediate coalition comment on the reports but Saudi broadcaster Al Arabiya TV said the alliance had killed Samad after a precise monitoring of his movements.

At the United Nations meanwhile, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned air strikes on a wedding party in Yemen that killed at least 20 civilians on Sunday.

Saudi Arabia and its mostly Gulf Arab allies accuse the Houthis of being proxies of rival Iran  charges the Houthis and Tehran deny.

The Houthis control the capital Sanaa in the countrys north and are fighting forces loyal to the internationally-recognized Yemeni government based in the southern port city of Aden. The government is backed by a mostly Sunni Gulf Arab alliance which in turn receives arms and other support from the United States and Britain.

Samad was second on the coalitions most wanted list of Houthi leaders, after al-Houthi. It had offered a $20 million reward for any information that led to Samads capture.

The death of Samad, the groups Ansarullah political council chief, dealt one of the biggest blows yet to the Houthi in a war that has killed more than 10,000 people and unleashed the worlds most urgent humanitarian crisis.

Houthis TV network Al-Masirah reported that the Houthis had appointed Mahdi al-Mashat, once director of al-Houthis office, to replace Samad.

Residents and medical sources said coalition air strikes also killed at least 20 people attending a wedding in a village in northwestern Yemen on Sunday night, and about 30 people were wounded. The coalition said it would investigate the report.

The United Nations Guterres also called for a prompt and transparent investigation.

The Secretary-General reminds all parties of their obligations under international humanitarian law concerning the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure during armed conflicts, a U.N. statement said.

The Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemens civil war in 2015 against the Houthis who ousted the internationally recognized Yemeni government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. The Houthis now control the capital Sanaa.

Coalition air strikes have repeatedly hit schools, markets and hospitals, killing hundred of civilians, while trying to target Houthi forces during the three-year war. The coalition says it does not target civilians.

Three million Yemenis have been displaced by the conflict.

By Marwa Rashad and Sarah Dadouch
Trump Welcomes Frances President Macron to White House

President Donald Trump treated French President Emmanuel Macron to a colorful welcome ceremony at the White House on Tuesday.

The two leaders were then to launch into a morning of talks expected to include how to salvage the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which Trump wants to withdraw the United States from unless European powers strengthen its terms.

Trump, in welcoming remarks, thanked France for joining with the United States and Britain in launching airstrikes in Syria earlier this month in response to a chemical weapons attack blamed on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Macron, in his remarks, called for the two countries to work together against Islamist militants, on North Korea and Iran, on free and fair trade, and on climate change.

It is together that we will counter the proliferation in weapons of mass destruction, whether it is in North Korea or in Iran, Macron said.

In the evening, the Trumps are to host the Macrons at the first state dinner conducted by Trump since assuming office.

Macron hosted Trump in Paris last year. The pair attended a military parade on Bastille Day. The parade inspired Trump to call for a military parade in the United States. The Pentagon announced that the parade will take place on November 11, which is also Veterans Day.

Epoch Times reporter Ivan Pentchoukov contributed to this report.
A rolling process of Nippon Steel's Kimitsu iron mill plant in suburban Tokyo on Nov. 26, 2010. Tariffs placed by the Trump administration on Japanese steel have created tension in the U.S.-Japan relationship. (JIJI PRESS/AFP/Getty Images)

US Should Embrace JapanIndia Alliance and TPP

Japans Shinzo Abe was the first foreign leader to meet president-elect Donald Trump face-to-face after the 2016 American electionno doubt because Japan has the worlds third-largest economy and plays a major role internationally in trade, development aid, capital, and credit.

Abes recent visit with Trump in Florida occurred as the bilateral relationship was fraying. Tokyo was blindsided when the president announced his intention to hold talks with North Koreas Kim Jong Un, contrary to the longstanding principle that the United States, Japan, and South Korea speak with one voice to prevent Pyongyang from driving a wedge between them.

During Abes visit, Trump confirmed that his secretary of state designate Mike Pompeo had already held private talks with Kim, moving the two governments to a summit that would see their sitting leaders meet for the first time ever.

Kims recently announced suspension of nuclear testing might open new doors for regional discussions as the leader attempts to improve the Norths lifeless economy. Some verified denuclearization would be an essential precondition for such an outcome, given past cheating and a hideous human rights record by all three Kims as Stalinist monarchs.

A summit between the two Koreas is scheduled for April 27; Trump is expected to meet with Kim in early June. Japan, excluded, must rely on South KoreaU.S. negotiations.

Read More Japan Should Not Be a Second Thought in US Policy

Abe wants Japanese nationals abducted by earlier Kims to be returned and Pyongyang cleared of shorter-range missiles that pose a threat to Japan.

Trump committed to [doing] everything possible to have (the abductees) brought back, and the U.S. State Department insisted that Washington remains committed to achieving the  irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and that its commitment to the defense of South Korea and Japan is ironclad.

The second American announcement was that new aluminum and steel import tariffs, which could seriously affect Japanese companies, would be implemented with temporary exceptions for the European Union and six countries, including South Korea and other U.S. allies, but not Japan.

Abe failed to persuade Trump to rethink the tariffs, because Washington is concerned about its massive trade deficit with Japan. The two leaders did agree, however, to initiate new trade and investment consultations.

Abes government has been dealing with domestic scandals since it won decisively a snap election last October. He undoubtedly sees the international stage as an opportunity to mitigate the damage by confirming strong JapanU.S. solidarity, after being caught off-guard by Trumps recent policy shifts on North Korea and trade issues.

Abe urged Trump to return to the multinational Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free-trade pact, but the latter emphasized the United States wont rejoin the framework unless hes offered a deal he cant refuse.

The TPP was designed as an economic bulwark against Chinaa means to get ahead of Beijing in writing the 21st-century rules of the road for global trade. The geostrategic case for the TPP is probably even stronger than it was before, given everything that is happening in the world.

Negotiating a free-trade agreement with an increasingly totalitarian and plutocratic party-state in China, which treats its Tibetan, Falun Gong, Uyghur, Christian, farm, urban worker, and other communities appallingly, should be unthinkable for any democracy. A revised TPP, including a number of other regional democracies with rule of law, is the best major trade option for both Canada and the United States in Asia and the Pacific Rim.

Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose a visit to Tokyo in 2016 as the occasion to reproach China on its misbehavior in Asia, alluding to its military buildup in the South China Sea, heavy-handedness in Tibet, territorial ambitions in northern India, and more. He added, Everywhere  we see an 18th-century expansionist mindset: encroaching in other countries, intruding in others waters, invading other countries, and capturing territory.

Australia, similar to Canada in many ways but with a heightened awareness of the security challenge represented by Beijing, has embraced the emerging JapanIndia coalition.

Australias participation is significant because it indicates that smaller democracies with Pacific interests neednt choose between China and their traditional alliances. Australia has a bilateral free-trade deal with Beijing, but this doesnt mean Australians are naive about the need to protect their security interests or the dangers of becoming overly reliant on a regime that believes any attempt to counter its ambitions is an affront.

The world economy is now improving overall, and unemployment is falling in some nations despite predatory trade and other economic practices by China, Russia, and others.

Canada should still trade cautiously with the Middle Kingdom, but our experience with the aborted launch of free-trade negotiations in Beijing indicates that trade cannot outrank a judicious advancing of our strategic interests in concert with those who share our values.

Japan, India, and a revised TPP are the best trade option for both Canada and the United States in Asia.

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.
Chef Matt Storch is a staple in the Fairfield County food scene. He grew up in Westport and has been the chef and owner of Match in Norwalk for 19 years. In 2016, he opened Nom-Eez, a Vietnamese street food restaurant in Bridgeport, and this past September, he opened Match Burger Lobster, a burger and lobster roll joint in Westport.

"One of my true loves is all the roadside shacks in New England with lobster rolls, burgers, hot dogs and onion rings. So that's the concept," he said.

"Chopped" Viewing Party When: 9pm, April 24 Where: Match, Norwalk What:Big screen projector, cocktails, live Q&A with Ken Tuccio and CT Bites See More Collapse

After tonight, Storch will be able to add a national TV appearance to his resume. Storch competed on an episode of Food Network's "Chopped" titled "Sensational Sandwiches" airing tonight at 10pm. The show pins chefs from around the country against each other and challenges them to cook dishes on the spot using secret ingredients from a basket.

While he can't give away what was in the secret ingredients baskets or what he cookedor if he wonwe caught up with Storch to get some insight into what went into filming:

Q. How did you get on the show?

A. I tried out many moons ago when the show first came out but they didn't take me and I didn't push it because I was having kids. But I have seven-year-old old twin boys now that love the show and wanted me to go on, so I pushed the show a little bit and I was selected to go on. That was almost a year ago now. It's crazy how long it takes; we filmed seven or eight months ago.

Q. What's the process like?

A. They call you to the studio in New York City for an on camera interview, and then they come to you to shoot B roll at the restaurant. A couple months later they give you the day you are going to compete and it's a full day process starting at like 4 a.m.

Q. What was the challenge day like?

A. It is way harder than it looks when you have absolutely no idea what is in the baskets; the pressure is insane. That 20 minutes to make an appetizer goes a hell of a lot faster than you think. I was sweating and uncertain that I would be able to finish, but I did. It was a fun experience.

You walk in and there's got to be 20 cameras going at once. They don't miss a beat and the judges are intimidating. They are people that you respect in the industry. You're up against three other people. We were all multi-unit restaurant owners, so were all on the same level. The other chefs were from Arizona and Kentucky.

Q. How did you decide what to make?

A. I had a plan in my head of what I wanted to do, and that plan totally got brushed to the side when I opened my basket. I own an Asian restaurant, so I was planning something along those lines. The ingredients were very interesting. It definitely catches you off guard...your mind almost goes blank and you just go back to what you've been doing for 25 years. But that's where the best dishes come fromwhen you're under the gun.

Q. Who were the judges for your challenge?

A. Geoffrey Zakarian, Alex Guarnaschelli and Jeff Mauro. I have interviewed Zakarian and Alex Mauro. I had interviewed them before at Greenwich Wine + Food Festival so we are familiar with each other, but not to the extent that it would influence the judging.

Q. Are your kids excited for the episode to air?

A. They are so excited, but unfortunately they're only seven so they can't stay up until 10 p.m. to watch, so I promised we'd watch it first thing in the morning.

Q. What do you hope this means for your restaurants?

A. It was fun. I'm not expecting too much from it. The show has been on for so long that the industry thinks it's cool, and if you happen to win that's cool as well. My customers, I think, will find it exciting. It's a nice little blue ribbon.

Q. You are not the first Fairfield County chef to go on Chopped. How do you feel about the CT food scene getting more attention?

A. It needs more! We are in between Boston and NYC and they gobble up all the talent and they gobble up all the attention. Trying to get on the map in Connecticut is difficult. But finally it seems we have a pretty large talent pool out here and it's drawing more attention.

Q. What are your favorite local restaurants?

A. Fortina in Stamford and The Cottage and OKO in Westport
HARTFORD  A controversial and unprecedented plan to merge the states 12 community college into one was summarily rejected Tuesday by a regional accrediting body.

In a pointed three-page letter dated April 24 to system President Mark Ojakian, architect of the plan called Students First, the New England Association of Schools and Colleges Higher Education Commission called the plan unrealistic.

Ojakian, who had proposed merging the states community college into one accredited body with 12 campuses to save money and preserve student services, called the decision devastating.

"Students First was created to avert a major crisis for our institutions and our students, said Ojakian in a statement released jointly with Matt Fleury, chairman of the Board of Regents that oversees not only community colleges but the states four regional universities.

Without NEASC approval, the colleges would not be authorized to issue diplomas.

Critics of the plan were surprised but pleased by the rejection.

Its not what we expected, but (NEASC) saw what we saw, said Barbara Richards, a professor at Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport who is on the systems Faculty Advisory Committee.

In his letter to Ojakian, David Angel, chair of the NEASC commission, said the commission determined that what as being proposed wasnt just a substantive change needing a specific set of paperwork, but an entirely new institution that needs to go through an entirely different vetting process. That process can take up to five years.

Ojakian said the NEASC decision is not in the best interest of students and will damage the systems ability to hold the line on tuition and keep all campuses open.

In the face of an on-going fiscal emergency, it forces us to consider options that we have strongly fought against because it will harm the 50,000 students who rely on their campuses and their campus communities, said Ojakian.

The system has struggled with dropping enrollment and diminished state support for several years.

The consolidation plan, however, got vocal pushback from some faculty, staff and foundations that work to support the 12 colleges. Some claimed the process wasnt transparent enough. Others feared the colleges would lose the community focus that makes them special.

Still, Lauren Doninger, a psychology professor at Gateway Community College in New Haven said she was stunned by the decision.

It was all moving very fast, she said. And we were all moving along with the assumption it was going to happen.

She worries about what will happen next.

So does Richards, who nonetheless called the decision thoughtful.

David Blitz, a philosophy professor at Central Connecticut State University and member of Centrals faculty senate, said he too was pleasantly surprised by the decision.

I was not sure what NEASC would do but clearly they saw it as the poorly formulated plan it was, Blitz said.

Blitz maintains the system would do better to start by chipping away at office personnel to save money.

Louise Blakeney Williams, president of Centrals AAUP chapter, said she was relieved.

Rather than putting students first, Williams said, faculty throughout the state system worried the plan would put them at a serious disadvantage.

NEASC saw that the Board of Regents consolidation plan ... was ill-researched and woefully underestimated the scope of the undertaking, Williams said.

The Connecticut State Colleges and Universities has been working for a year on the plan and hoped to complete the merger by the fall of 2019.

It would have created one application and one financial aid form for students to fill out. Many administrative positions would have been eliminated or merged. What resources would have been saved presumably would have been redirected to students services.

During the planning process, the state consulted several times with NEASC and in January the accrediting organization issued a lengthy set of questions and concerns before the final application was submitted last month.

Last week, the commission met to vote on the plan. It disclosed its decision to state officials Tuesday.

The commission is concerned that the potential for a disorderly environment for students is too high, Angel said. The commission also faulted the merger plan for not appearing to have sufficient administrative staff at the campus level.

State Rep. Pam Staneski said she is shocked that after working with the Board of Regents on the application, they now want them to fill out a different kind of application.

This plan was put forth in good faith and would have saved students money while keeping our community colleges open. ... Our students cannot afford another tuition increase, and I am not sure that we can afford to keep schools open that are operating in the red.

NEASC said the 12 separately accredited colleges can continue as they are now. Ojakian said the accrediting body is aware that individually, the colleges cannot financially survive.

While we expected further guidance, we did not expect NEASC to redirect us to consider ... a new process that will take another five years, Ojakian said. The problems that our institutions and students face cannot wait five years. In five years, our institutions will be financially insolvent.

Kelly Donnelly, a spokesperson for Gov. Dannel P. Malloy predicted the decision will have an adverse impact on the entire CSCU system if an alternative solution is not found soon.

We stand ready to serve as thought partners to President Ojakian and Chairmen Fleury as they review their options to mitigate this setback, Donnelly said

In the coming days, Ojakian said the Board of Regents will review its options, including legislative and accrediting options, a review of tuition rates and closing one or more campuses.
HARTFORD  Both men are Supreme Court justices. Both would be firsts if they took the states top courts job. But when the General Assemblys Judiciary Committee weighed the nominations of Andrew McDonald and Richard Robinson for chief justice, lawmakers spent 10 more hours interrogating McDonald than Robinson.

With legislators of both parties peppering their remarks with praise, Robinson sailed through questioning in under three hours Monday. Robinsons jokes drew laughs. Applause echoed in the hearing room when he promised committee chair Sen. John Kissel, R-Enfield, that he would take care of the Judicial Branch.

The 40-member committee voted unanimously to advance Robinson toward becoming the states first African American chief justice, a decision that will ultimately be made by the House and Senate.

But despite all the positivity, the shadow of the acrimonious McDonald hearing in February - the harbinger of his ultimate failure to become chief justice - hung in the air.

This has been a hard few months for us and a hard few months for a nomination for this job in the Judicial Branch, said committee co-chair Rep. William Tong, D-Stamford.

Robinson, 60, was nominated for the chief justice job by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy after Republican claims of judicial activism and a 19-16 Senate vote stopped McDonald from becoming the states first openly gay chief justice. Robinsons name was floated as a more-desirable nominee by Republicans even before the Senate vote and repeatedly after.

Sen. Ed Gomes, D-Bridgeport, assured Robinson Monday that lawmakers viewed Robinson, who has sat on the Supreme Court for five years, as equally qualified as McDonald for the job.

I want you to know you are not an alternative, he said.

Like McDonald, Robinson was questioned about his view on the relationship between the legislature and the courts, how he decided cases when he personally disagreed with the law and when he chose to recuse himself from decisions.

But Robinsons questioning also focused on how his experience as a black man will influence his leadership of the courts. The president of the Stamford branch of the NAACP from 1988 until 1990, Robinson shared his views on affirmative action, his chairmanship of a judiciary cultural competency committee and how he would handle discrimination within the Branch.

He told legislators a story about how when he was in an Appellate Court judge, a hardware store clerk grabbed him and accused him of stealing a tiki torch.

I dont think you can imagine how that makes me feel when people perceive you a certain way for the color of your skin, he said.

Several lawmakers asked Robinson to work to restore confidence that the courts provide justice for all people, not just us.

A Stratford resident, Robinson was appointed to the Superior Court in 2000. He was born in Stamford and was counsel for the city from 1985 to 2000, where he worked with Malloy. At the time, Malloy was a member of the local finance board before becoming mayor for 14 years.

Malloy also named Superior Court Judge Steven D. Ecker, 56, of New Haven, to the high court. If the two are approved, Malloy will have named six of the seven members of the Supreme Court.

The Judiciary Committee also questioned 30 people nominated to Superior Court judgeships, including Tracy Lee Dayton of Weston, Lisa Grasso Egan of New Haven, Francis Lee OReilly of Fairfield and Ronald E. Kowalski II and Stephanie A. McLaughlin of Stamford.

Political editor Ken Dixon contributed to this report.

emunson@hearstmediact.com; Twitter: @emiliemunson
Despite President Donald Trumps resistance to climate control measures, Connecticut and nine other regional states are reaping huge economic rewards from cutting carbon emissions.

A new report on the nations first Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative shows participating states realized $1.4 billion in economic value between 2015 and 2017, and the RGGI created more than 14,500 new jobs.

Connecticut gained $78.3 million in proceeds, including $41.7 million for energy efficiency projects, $25.4 million for renewable energy investments and $7 million for the states General Fund, a report by the Analysis Group concluded.

For years, many on the right, including many in the Trump Administration, have peddled a false choice between protecting our environment for future generations and growing our economy, said Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

As this report proves, promoting clean energy both benefits the environment and creates good jobs, Malloy said. We must commit to ensuring RGGI remains strong now and in the future.

Nearly a decade ago, Connecticut and nine other states  Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont  formed the RGGI and set carbon reduction goals.

The compact allows energy producers to bid against each other for the right to emit carbon and the proceeds help pay for renewable energy projects that reduce emissions.

RGGI was not designed to be an economic development program, said Susan Tierney, a senior advisor with Analysis Group.

It was designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions, which it is doing successfully, Tierney said. The data continue to show that cutting carbon emissions can be a positive for the economy.

Tighter emissions standards

The report noted that, despite tightening emissions standards, the economic benefits continued, including employment growth and reduced costs for electricity consumers.

During this period, the emissions cap for power plants in the region was lowered, and the prices power generators had to pay for emissions rose, said report co-author Paul Hibbard, a principal with Analysis Group.

Some observers had wondered whether tightening emissions targets would choke off the modest but consistent stream of economic benefits the region has seen since RGGI went into effect in 2009, Hibbard said.

But that didnt happen. Economic benefits and job creation continued at magnitudes similar to what weve seen in previous study periods, Hibbard said.

Leah Lopez Schmalz, chief program officer for the Connecticut Fund for the Environment, said the RGGI is one of the best deals for Connecticut.

We know clean energy is the future, and this report proves it once again, Schmalz said Well-paying, impossible-to-outsource jobs like solar panel installer, HVAC tech and insulation expert are being generated by the efficiency and renewable energy programs that RGGI supports.

Schmalz added, Its good for public health, too  another report last year found that pollution reduction from RGGI has prevented over 8,000 asthma attacks and 40,000 lost days of work around the region.

Although New Jersey was a founding member of the RGGI, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, pulled out of the pact. The states new governor, Democrat Philip Murphy, a Democrat, rejoined the compact in January.

bcummings@ctpost.com
Subscription companies have a unique opportunity to connect with their customers. By offering a recurring product, they get multiple chances to interact. Products range from razors like those sold by Dollar Shave Club to wristwatches like the ones we offer at my company, Watch Gang. Then there's BarkBox, which treats your dog to a monthly shipment of toys and treats. These companies are vastly different but share a common goal: curating a high-value experience for members.

Related: 5 Essentials for Building a Subscription Business Customers Won't Quit

Thousands of businesses have adopted the subscription model. We're seeing new companies launching all the time, in every niche, from Sock Work, which sends monthly socks and donates some of its revenues to veterans, to iFind Seekers, sending monthly puzzles.

What may be surprising to some is that businesses offering a recurring product have been around since the dawn of commerce: The Romans sold and delivered food and newspapers on a repeating schedule 2,000 years ago. In this country, weekly milk deliveries were common even before the Constitution was written.

Related: 6 Easy Ways to Grow Your Subscription-Based Startup

Interested in establishing a subscription business for your product? In my experience, I've come to recognize what I call the "five pillars" for the foundation of a successful and sustainable subscription business. Those pillars -- community, value, discovery, service and integrity -- are exactly what you should focus on:

Pillar 1: A thriving community

Having a community of enthusiasts speaks volumes about your company. It's a sign of trust and brand affinity, and proof that people are genuinely interested in what you have to offer. They are willing to share their experience with others. Your community is a trusted group of peers who are more than ready to authenticate a product, provide feedback on the service and help create a sense of belonging for like-minded members.

Your community drives your business forward, motivates you to improve and helps you craft service improvements. You have to be dedicated to growing and nurturing your community, because ultimately it is the backbone of your business.

Pillar 2: The delivery of value

Consider this: Why would customers want to "set it and forget it" when they can just order when it's convenient for them? Why would they agree to a recurring payment every month for your service? The answer is value.

People have to get a product far more valuable than what they are paying for, which means you as the company founder have to go above and beyond to deliver added value.

Watch Gang, for instance, has price levels to fit all budgets, from $29 to $999 a month, and the watches members receive have a value that's higher than their membership fee. At Barkbox, a $20 box is valued at over $40. Bluum, which offers a box containing the best-reviewed baby, toddler and mom products, has a monthly subscription fee of $34 with the box's guaranteed retail value at $45. These are tangible savings, and for customers they provide convenience.

Apparently, customers agree. A Gang member recently sent a testimonial that stated, "My Watch Gang subscription is the only bill I actually look forward to paying every month." A bill that's welcome? This tells me that we have honored our commitment to delivering value.

Pillar 3: Opportunities for discovery

Subscription companies need to serve as a point of discovery. One of the reasons why subscription businesses continue to be so successful is because of the element of surprise -- people love to open a box without knowing what's inside. Subscription boxes give members the opportunity to discover new brands and styles.

Companies today are engaging members beyond just the monthly shipment. Birchbox offers loyalty points and money back for purchasing the full-size version of samples. At Watch Gang, we launched the "Wheel of Watches," where members can spin a virtual wheel full of watches they may be interested in. They earn points to apply to the wheel every month they remain a member. This has become one of the biggest draws at Watch Gang, because it provides an entirely new kind of discovery experience -- and it's fun.

Pillar 4: Amazing customer service

While not a subscription box, Zappos has repeatedly been recognized as a shining example of how to treat customers. The often forgotten, but arguably crucial, benefit you can provide to a member of a subscription company (or any company) is world-class customer service.

Of course it's easier and cheaper to outsource customer service or offer email-only support to cut costs. But you have to remember that every call, every customer and every situation is unique. Your customers deserve exceptional service from real people whom you've empowered to solve their problems.

Some of the most important changes your company can make may revolve around your customer service department. A single phone call can have immense impact. Having a well-trained customer service team gives your company the opportunity to learn from valuable feedback. It's crucial to give your team members a voice in your business and encourage them to share what customers are saying, both positive and negative. These team members are on the front lines with your customers every day, so they need to be adequately supported and compensated.

Pillar 5: A high standard of integrity

Without a sincere commitment to the above four pillars, your subscription business may never be profitable or sustainable. That's why maintaining a high standard of integrity means you put people over profit. You need to take a stand to help your customers and deliver on your promises -- even when that might cost you.

Every time a customer reaches out for support, you have an opportunity to demonstrate your integrity. It's not an opportunity to make more money from the customer or even to deter him or her from canceling. It's an opportunity for you to shine, as a beacon of good morals. Set an example for all your employees and team members from the top, and it will trickle down to all day-to-day dealings within your company -- with your customers, with your shareholders and with the public at large.

Related: How to Improve Your Subscription Business Churn Rate

Today, anyone can launch a subscription business and start selling memberships; however, the businesses that will stand the test of time and truly become successful are those built with a solid foundation using these five pillars. Investing time and resources into these five areas will help you not only grow quickly but also stand out as a company committed to taking care of its customers and employees.

Related:

You Too Can Grow a Successful Subscription Company. Here's How.

This Is What It Takes to Be a Subscription Industry Standout

Lyft Will Test All-Access Monthly Subscriptions



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
KAZ Minerals PLC, together with its subsidiaries, engages in mining and processing copper and other metals primarily in Kazakhstan, Russia, and Kyrgyzstan. It operates through Bozshakol, Aktogay, East Region and Bozymchak, and Mining Projects segments. The company operates the Aktogay and Bozshakol open pit copper mines in the east region and Pavlodar region of Kazakhstan; three underground mines in the east region of Kazakhstan; and the Bozymchak copper-gold mine in Kyrgyzstan. It also develops greenfield metal deposits; operates Koksay deposit in Kazakhstan, and the Baimskaya licence area in the Chukotka region of Russia; and produces and sells various by-products, such as gold, silver, molybdenum, and zinc. In addition, the company supplies and distributes heat, water, and electricity; and offers construction, project management, financing, management, sales and logistics, and repairs and maintenance services. The company was formerly known as Kazakhmys PLC and changed its name to KAZ Minerals PLC in October 2014. KAZ Minerals PLC was founded in 1930 and is based in London, the United Kingdom.

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The following companies are subsidiares of NRG Energy: 3279405 Nova Scotia Company, 3283764 Nova Scotia Company, 7549709 Canada Inc., 7644868 Canada Inc., 7711565 Canada Inc., AC Solar Holdings LLC, Ace Energy Inc., Agua Caliente Borrower 1 LLC, Agua Caliente Solar Holdings LLC, Agua Caliente Solar LLC, Allied Home Warranty GP LLC, Allied Warranty LLC, Arthur Kill Gas Turbines LLC, Arthur Kill Power LLC, Astoria Gas Turbine Power LLC, Bayou Cove Peaking Power LLC, Beheer-en Beleggingsmaatschappij Plogema B.V., Berrians I Gas Turbine Power LLC, BidURenergy Inc., Big Cajun I Peaking Power LLC, Bluewater Wind Delaware LLC, Bluewater Wind Maryland LLC, Bluewater Wind New Jersey Energy LLC, Boquillas Wind LLC, Cabrillo Power I LLC, Cabrillo Power II LLC, Camino Energy LLC, Carbon Management Solutions LLC, Carlsbad Energy Center LLC, Carlsbad Energy Holdings LLC, Chester Energy LLC, Chickahominy River Energy Corp., Cirro Energy Services Inc., Cirro Group Inc., Citizens Power Holdings One LLC, Commonwealth Atlantic Power LLC, Connecticut Jet Power LLC, Cottonwood Development LLC, Cottonwood Energy Company LP, Cottonwood Generating Partners I LLC, Cottonwood Generating Partners II LLC, Cottonwood Generating Partners III LLC, Cottonwood Technology Partners LP, Delaware Power Development LLC, Devon Power LLC, Doga Enerji Uretim Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Doga Isi Satis Hizmetleri Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Doga Isletme ve Bakim Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Dunkirk Gas Corporation, Dunkirk Power LLC, EHI Development Fund LLC, EME Eastern Holdings LLC, EVgo Services LLC, Eastern Sierra Energy Company LLC, Ecokap Power LLC, El Segundo Energy Center II LLC, El Segundo Power II LLC, El Segundo Power LLC, Elkhorn Ridge Wind II LLC, Energy Alternatives Wholesale LLC, Energy Choice Solutions LLC, Energy Curtailment Specialists, Energy Plus Holdings LLC, Energy Plus Natural Gas LLC, Energy Protection Insurance Company, Everything Energy LLC, Forward Home Security LLC, GCP Funding Company LLC, GenOn Energy, Geostellar Inc., Gladstone Power Station Joint Venture, Goal Zero, Goal Zero Europe GmbH, Goal Zero LLC, Granite II Holding LLC, Granite Power Partners II L.P., Green Mountain Energy, Green Mountain Energy Company, Green Mountain Energy Sun Club, Gregory Partners LLC, Gregory Power Partners LLC, Hanover Energy Company, Huntley IGCC LLC, Huntley Power LLC, Independence Energy Alliance LLC, Independence Energy Group LLC, Independence Energy Natural Gas LLC, Indian River Operations Inc., Indian River Power LLC, Intellastar LLC, Ivanpah Master Holdings LLC, Ivanpah Project I Holdings LLC, Ivanpah Project II Holdings LLC, Ivanpah Project III Holdings LLC, James River Power LLC, Kaufman Cogen LP, LSP-Nelson Energy LLC, Long Beach Generation LLC, Long Beach Peakers LLC, Long Beach Power LLC, Louisiana Generating LLC, MEC Esenyurt B.V., MEC San Pascual B.V., Maplekey UK Finance Limited, Maplekey UK Limited, Meriden Gas Turbines LLC, Middletown Power LLC, Midway-Sunset Cogeneration Company, Midwest Finance Company LLC, Midwest Generation EME LLC, Midwest Generation Holdings I LLC, Midwest Generation Holdings II LLC, Midwest Generation LLC, Midwest Generation Procurement Services LLC, Midwest Peaker Holdings LLC, Mission Bingham Lake Wind LLC, Mission Del Cielo LLC, Mission Energy Construction Services LLC, Mission Energy Holdings International LLC, Mission Energy Wales LLC, Mission Funding Zeta LLC, Mission Midway-Sunset Holdings LLC, Mission Midwest Coal LLC, Mission Minnesota Wind LLC, Mission Watson Holdings LLC, Mission Wind Boquillas LLC, Mission Wind New Mexico II LLC, Mission Wind Owaissa LLC, Mission Wind Pinnacle LLC, Mission del Sol LLC, Montville IGCC LLC, Montville Power LLC, NEO Chester-Gen LLC, NEO Corporation, NRG Acquisition Holdings Inc., NRG Advisory Services LLC, NRG Affiliate Services Inc., NRG Alexandria LLC, NRG Arroyo Nogales LLC, NRG Arthur Kill Operations Inc., NRG Asia-Pacific Ltd., NRG Astoria Gas Turbine Operations Inc., NRG Astoria Power LLC, NRG Audrain Generating LLC, NRG Audrain Holding LLC, NRG Bayou Cove LLC, NRG Berrians East Development LLC, NRG Bluewater Holdings LLC, NRG Bluewater Wind Massachusetts LLC, NRG Bourbonnais Equipment LLC, NRG Bourbonnais LLC, NRG Brazoria Energy LLC, NRG Business Services LLC, NRG CTA Holdings LLC, NRG Cabrillo Power Operations Inc., NRG Cadillac Inc., NRG Cadillac Operations Inc., NRG California Peaker Operations LLC, NRG Capital II LLC, NRG Carbon 360 LLC, NRG Cedar Bayou Development Company LLC, NRG Chalk Point CT LLC, NRG CleanTech Investments LLC, NRG Coal Development Company LLC, NRG ComLease LLC, NRG Common Stock Finance I LLC, NRG Common Stock Finance II LLC, NRG Connected Home LLC, NRG Connecticut Affiliate Services Inc., NRG Connecticut Peaking Development LLC, NRG Construction LLC, NRG Cottonwood Tenant LLC, NRG Curtailment Solutions Canada Inc., NRG Curtailment Solutions Inc., NRG DG Development LLC, NRG Development Company Inc., NRG 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CALGARYCivic engagement doesnt come naturally for everyone, so one councillor is trying to further bulldoze barriers to getting involved.

This week, Coun. George Chahal will bring forward a notice of motion asking administration to revamp the citys approach to engaging ethnocultural citizens with better-tailored approaches depending on projects and communities along with more translation resources.

Its being proactive and preventative and doing the work upfront, said Chahal. Understanding who were speaking to ... maybe we need to actually go to them rather than expecting them to come to us.

This comes after his Ward 5 office began fielding calls from diverse constituents in need of help from simple city service offerings and answers to basic questions they couldnt easily find elsewhere.

But his idea has brought out questions from some of his council colleagues who believe civic engagement is important but may require more than translation and shifting the citys tactics.

What we have to do is reach out to leaders in the community and organizations involved in things like settlement services and outreach and help them get word out, said Coun. Jyoti Gondek. There is a cross organizational and cross institutional responsibility to make sure were lifting up the cause of engagement.

According to city statistics, 30 per cent of Calgary residents dont identify English or French as their primary language. In Chahals ward, 65 per cent of residents dont speak English or French as their first language.

The Canadian government predicts immigration will be the main driver of population growth in Calgary until at least 2036.

As our city changes and grows moving forward these issues are going to be more and more prevalent, said Chahal. We need to be more proactive with strategies in place to make sure our residents understand what were doing for them.

This is something his community members have been asking for, and in an interview with StarMetro, one of those community voices, Atiya Ashna, said South Asian residents in the citys northeast often feel frustrated and alienated with how the citys gone about consulting with them.

But Ward 10 Coun. Ray Jones, who represented Ward 5 in his last term, said in a lot of cases the city already engages its citizens in the language they speak by sending out materials in different languages.

I havent had an issue (representing constituents) over the last 25 years, he said. I go to quite a few of their functions. Its strange  they invite me to their functions and do it all in their own language. Its really strange sitting there going, OK that was my name, what are they saying about me?

He said hes interested in supporting Chahals motion but warned the city cant please everyones language preference.

Gondek said Chahals notice of motion is attempting to advance the cause of inclusivity in Calgary while also trying to enable citizens to be civically engaged.

Where Coun. Chahal and I may differ a little bit is that I feel that language may not be the underlying issue here, said Gondek. I think it might actually be (the issue of) sparking enough interest in civic affairs amongst Calgarians in general, and subgroups, in particular.

His request to administration, if backed by his council colleagues, would ask administrators to report back to council by the second quarter of 2019 with a strategy and plans to implement translation service standards, resources and budgets to incorporate the citys work on the Channel Strategy

Chahal is also looking for recommendations on any budgetary resources for the Office of the Councillors and Office of the Mayor to tackle ethnic-communication initiatives.

Helen Pike is a Calgary-based reporter covering urban affairs, civic accountability and diversity. Follow her on Twitter: @Metropike

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EDMONTONThe cost of gas in Edmonton spiked Tuesday morning, with stations around the city reporting prices as high as $1.31 per litre.

According to Gasbuddy.com, a gas price monitoring website that crowdsources data from app users, the average cost of gas in the city Tuesday afternoon is sitting at $1.28 per litre, which is up 6.5 cents from Mondays average.

Dan McTeague, a senior petroleum analyist with GasBuddy, said he hasnt seen a climb that steep since May 2013.

Several variables contribute to the cost of gas, such as the strength of the Canadian dollar, the price of oil and Chicago spot markets, which trades energy prices.

When western Canada develops a price for gasoline, its usually based on the Chicago spot market. So, wholesale prices for gasoline have shot up from USD $1.92 to USD $2.15 a gallon just in the last couple of weeks  good enough for about a 6 or 7 cent increase, McTeague explained.

There are other factors, however, that are harder to account for, such as the state of refineries here in Edmonton, which arent always made public.

Spring is a common time for refineries to conduct maintenace, which can affect output and in turn, the cost of gas. But McTeague doesnt suspect that the hike will last long.

You can see prices, likely by Sunday or Monday, trending back toward $1.23 to $1.24, McTeague said. But thats probably as low as were going to get until we see some decline on the wholesale side, either with spot market prices dropping in Chicago, or the refineries coming back online.

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EDMONTON  Anti-Semitic harassment spiked in Alberta last year, according to a report from Bnai Brith Canada released on Tuesday.

Combined numbers from Alberta and the Northwest Territories show 206 recorded incidents of harassment and vandalism in 2017. Last year, when the report grouped Alberta and British Columbia together, it showed 121 incidents between those two provinces.

Abe Silverman, Bnai Briths manager of public affairs for Alberta, said the numbers should concern all Albertans.

Jews are only the canary in the coal mine, he said. They come for us first, and then everybody else comes after.

Silverman said the bulk of the anti-Semitic harassment in the province is coming from southern Alberta.

Nationally, Bnai Brith said Canada registered its second straight record-setting year for anti-Semitic incidents with 1,752.

Vandalism represented the most significant increase, more than doubling from last year with 327 incidents.

The report tracks incidents reported directly to Bnai Briths 24/7 anti-hate hotline, as well as hate crime reports from law enforcement agencies.

The group has published its annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents for 36 years.

The belief is that what is being reported is only the tip of the iceberg. Theres many, many more incidences that we never hear about, Silverman said.

The report states white supremacists are increasingly active in Canada, galvanized partly by the neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Va., last August.

Incidents increased in August, but spiked the most in December, which the report suggests was prompted in part by the United States decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital.

There is every indication that the white supremacists, the neo-Nazis, are much more active and are emboldened for a variety of reasons, Silverman said.

He said anti-Semitism is also emerging on the extreme left and on university campuses.

Jared Shore, chair of the community relations committee for the Calgary Jewish Federation, said there were incidents at both the University of Lethbridge and University of Calgary that concerned him.

Weve definitely seen rhetoric get a lot more polarized with social media giving people both anonymity and also an echo chamber, Shore said. You can have very polarized views that wouldve been marginalized in day-to-day interactions with most Canadians.

He said the numbers are nothing new to Calgarys Jewish community, and its something theyve dealt with for years.

We feel really well supported by government agencies, by our local law enforcement, our national law enforcement and our neighbours. The vast majority of Canadians stand shoulder-to-shoulder with us against hate, as we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them.

Bnai Brith makes eight recommendations at the end of the report, including enhanced training for police officers on hate crime units.

Edmonton Police Service Deputy Chief Brian Simpson said police are seeing more issues around harassment of various communities, particularly on social media.

Certain individuals seem more emboldened in terms of expressing their thoughts, Simpson said.

Thats why its important to have these community conversations. Because a lot of good people are working in various communities across the city to work together, to put things in a better place, but its an ongoing process.

With files from Brodie Thomas

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EDMONTONThe University of Albertas president is standing by a decision to grant David Suzuki an honorary degree regardless of his stance on the oilsands.

In a public letter posted online Tuesday, president and vice chancellor David Turpin said it isnt the universitys place to censor the famed environmentalists views.

We will stand by our decision because our reputation as a universityan institution founded on the principles of freedom of inquiry, academic integrity, and independencedepends on it, the statement read.

Read more:

Law firm pulls donation from University of Alberta as Suzuki backlash continues

University of Alberta stands by decision to give David Suzuki honorary degree  in spite of online backlash

The decision comes amidst an increasingly tense fight between Alberta and British Columbia over the fate of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline, which has been interpreted by many Albertans as an attack on the oilsands and the provinces economic engine.

Some critics have argued that Suzuki, an active critic of the oilsands, shouldnt be recognized by an Alberta institution.

The Calgary office of tax law firm Moodys Gartner announced Monday that it had pulled the remaining two years of a five-year $100,000 donation to the universitys law school. Members of the universitys faculty of engineering and school of business have also spoken out against the honourary degree.

Andrew Leach, an associate professor of marketing and economics, wrote on Twitter that hes glad his students wont be convocating on June 7, the day Suzuki is scheduled to recieve the honour.

It saves me from a horrible decision Id have to make: Theres no way Id share a stage with David Suzuki as he receives an honourary degree from (the University of Alberta), Leach wrote.

Fraser Forbes, dean of the faculty of engineering, issued a statement Monday saying he felt betrayed by the decision to honor one of the oil industrys most vocal critics.

Turpin acknowledged that Suzuki is unpopular among many Albertans. But, he said, universities shouldnt fear controversy. Instead, they should champion it.

Stifle controversy and you also stifle the pursuit of knowledge, the generation of ideas and the discovery of new truths, Turpin said. Take uncomfortable ideas, debate and conflict out of the university and its fundamental role in society disappears.

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Overcrowding at the provinces largest emergency department is becoming more common. Patients wait up to 12 hours in the Halifax Infirmary hallway, dubbed Ambulance Alley. Paramedics spend entire shifts there, unable to respond to calls. Physicians sometimes see patients in those hallways. This week, StarMetro Halifax talks to people on the ground in a series we call Code Crisis.

HALIFAX  Dr. Kirk Magee doesnt like to use the word crisis to describe the overcrowding at the Halifax Infirmary.

Thats because he doesnt want people to think they wont get quality medical care when they need it. But he also believes the situation needs to be named.

It feels almost like were at a tipping point, Magee said. As the problem has gotten worse over the years, you begin to almost accept that this is the new normal. Its tough to change the path of a boulder thats rolling down a hill once it gets going. Thats kind of what the overcrowding issue is.

In Day 1 of this series, StarMetro went inside one of the worst days in recent memory at the Infirmary, when patients and paramedics packed the corridors for hours on end as they waited to be seen. As the largest and busiest emergency department in the region, patients come not only from Halifax and surrounding communities but from throughout the province.

The reality is that internal medicine, which probably is our biggest stakeholder, is frequently running at 105 to 110 per cent of capacity, Magee said, noting that most studies suggest in-patient units need to operate at 85 to 90 per cent capacity to handle spikes in volume. Its hard to squeeze blood out of a stone.

But the overcrowding problem isnt unique to the Infirmary, and it harms doctors and patients alike.

Physicians find it very difficult because theyre often practising in a way that they werent originally trained to practise. Theyre seeing patients in hallways, seeing patients in family rooms, seeing patients on benches, Magee said.

Read more:

Code Crisis: Inside the quagmire that is the Halifax emergency department

Somethings brewing: Halifax hospitals saying so long to Tim Hortons, Pizza Pizza

Halifax hospital rewrites wait-time rules, end-of-life protocols after mans death highlighted overcrowding issues

In addition to his work at the Infirmary, Magees other roles provide insight into the challenges facing emergency department physicians across the Halifax region. Hes interim chief for the central zone network of emergency departments for the Nova Scotia Health Authority and also serves as interim head of Dalhousie Universitys department of emergency medicine.

The provinces aging population means more older patients with complicated medical problems are showing up at emergency departments. Magee said they often bring with them social issues that are challenging to deal with in that environment.

Someone will come in and maybe they have pneumonia, which is something were all very comfortable treating, but that person coming in also has multiple other medical problems and that pneumonia means they can no longer live independently, Magee said.

So youre trying to arrange all the social supports, and then you throw in the fact that maybe their partner is just as frail and maybe theyre the main caregiver and it really compounds the problem.

Magee said those who cant be discharged to their homes or to an appropriate facility back up into the emergency department.

It means we have a lot of boarded patients, so a lot of patients that are admitted but cant leave the emerg, and that means we dont have the space to see new patients that are coming in, Magee said.

Overcrowding begets more overcrowding, and the problem gets worse and worse.

One short-term solution, Magee said, would be to implement surge protocols. When in-patient floors near capacity at the Halifax Infirmary, for example, staff will begin to release people who can be safely discharged a little early.

When that fails, and the emergency department begins to back up, theres the need for an overcapacity protocol so that when certain targets are reached, patients are moved out of the emergency department onto in-patient units, he said.

At the NSHA there is a working group that is working on a provincial-wide NSHA overcapacity protocol. That is encouraging, and I would say its much needed.

Magee said the lack of emergency physicians is also a nationwide predicament, one thats only going to get worse with time.

In June 2016, the Collaborative Working Group on the Future of Emergency Medicine in Canada released the results of a report commissioned to examine human-resources issues in emergency medicine. It also looked at the countrys emergency medicine training programs.

When the report was released, it noted that Canada had a shortfall of 478 emergency physicians in 2016.

If the countrys residency training position numbers dont increase, the study projected the shortfall to rise to 1,071 emergency physicians by 2020. That number was expected to increase to a shortage of 1,518 emergency physicians by 2025.

The current shortfall is equivalent to the student body of an entire Canadian medical school. This represents a very significant shortage, and if urgent measures are not taken ... the situation (will) become dire in five and 10 years, working group chairman Douglas Sinclair said following the reports release.

Magee said trying to get emergency physicians to come back to Nova Scotia is very difficult, in part because theyre compensated at a lower rate here than elsewhere in Canada.

I can tell you at the Halifax Infirmary we are currently a little over four physicians short, which means that in order to cover the hours we have, physicians have to work basically overtime, he said. They have to give up family time in order to staff the department, and that model is not sustainable.

It takes up to five years to train an emergency physician out of medical school.

The longer we wait to implement that solution, the more behind the eight ball we get, Magee said.

He said implementing more community resources  from long-term care beds to supports helping seniors stay in their homes as long as possible  could also help alleviate overcrowding at the Halifax Infirmary and elsewhere.

Additional funding, while needed, must come with clear accountability. Magee said the solutions are long-term and require follow-through.

Its not that today is necessarily 100 times worse than what it was last year, but with each successive year the problems do compound.... It makes it harder to implement solutions, Magee said.

The problem is so complicated and its gotten to such a degree that when the system does make changes and there are gains, the gains are relatively small compared to how its gotten worse over time  and thats frustrating. Its frustrating to people who work very, very hard.

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OTTAWAA B.C. firm connected to the Facebook data scandal defended their political work Tuesday, suggesting their high-tech campaign tools were no different than traditional electioneering techniques.

Victoria-based AggregateIQ has been linked to Cambridge Analytica, the U.K.-based political consultants at the heart of the ongoing Facebook data scandal.

But AggregateIQ chief operating officer Jeff Silvester downplayed his companys services as simply a modern version of time-tested political campaigning. Silvester said AggregateIQ helps political campaigns design and place advertising campaigns, and develops tools to keep track of voter outreach efforts.

The ads that we show, its the digital equivalent of an ad on someones lawn or on a street corner, Silvester told MPs on the House of Commons ethics committee Tuesday.

You choose where you want it to go, you put your message on there and people drive by and see it. And its the same for the internet and (the) same with going door-to-door and the same with making phone calls.

The committee began a second week of hearings into the Cambridge Analytica/Facebook scandal on Tuesday. Cambridge Analytica is accused of purchasing the data of 87 million Facebook users, and selling their analysis of that data to help influence political campaigns in the U.S. and U.K. More than 600,000 Canadian Facebook users had their personal information harvested by Cambridge Analytica.

Testifying before the U.K. parliament last month, whistleblower Christopher Wylie suggested AggregateIQ was closely tied to Cambridge Analytica. Wylie, a former colleague of Silvesters, said he believed AggregateIQ had access to Cambridge Analytica databases while working for the Brexits Leave campaign in the U.K.

AggregateIQ is also currently facing questions from authorities in the U.K. for their role in alleged campaign spending violations by the Leave campaign.

Silvester told Canadian MPs that AggregateIQ used data provided by SCL Group, a company also affiliated with Cambridge Analytica, for their work in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. But Silvester claimed AggregateIQ deletes their clients data after every job.

(The data) did contain some scores or ranking within that information. Some of that was, for example, turnout score, Silvester said, explaining that turnout score indicated the likelihood a particular citizen would vote.

But it also had five rankings for scores for personality in it.

Silvester repeatedly disputed Wylies testimony about the connections between AggregateIQ, Cambridge Analytica, and SCL. But MPs were incredulous at the companys explanations.

Were talking about the integrity of electoral and democratic institutions around the world. Questions very straightforward about their corporate ties to SCL, their deep connections to Cambridge Analytica, their role in possibly undermining the Brexit vote  we couldnt even get the decency of an honest answer, said NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus.

They didnt seem to be as honest or as fulsome as they should have been, said Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, the Liberals deputy chair on the committee.

The committee was originally thought to be planning just over two weeks of hearings on the Cambridge Analytica scandal. But committee chair Bob Zimmer said its likely the committee will extend those hearings, after the first three days of testimony have raised more questions than theyve answered.

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ISLAMABADPakistani police on Tuesday arrested the father and the uncle suspected in an honour killing of a 25-year-old Italian citizen, a woman of Pakistani origin who refused to marry the man they chose for her.

The two men were charged with the killing of Sana Cheema in the neighbourhood of Mangowal in the city of Gujrat in eastern Punjab province, police official Intisar Hussain said, adding that the police were still searching for the womans brother.

He is also suspected of playing a role in her murder, Hussain said.

Read more:

Multiculturalism isnt bad for women  but racism is: Kanji

By any definition, Shafia murders were honour killings: DiManno

Mother convicted of killing daughters in honour killing ordered deported  after life sentence served

Nearly 1,000 women are killed every year in Pakistan in so-called honour killings, cases in which members of their families or relatives kill them for violating conservative norms on love, marriage and public behaviour.

The Italian Foreign Ministry said it was following the case through its embassy in Islamabad, which was gathering information from Pakistani authorities to define the circumstances of the case and offer any assistance that might be necessary.

Pakistani police say Cheema died on April 18 under mysterious circumstances. Her body is expected to be exhumed on Wednesday morning to determine the cause of death.

Cheemas case came to light after her friends shared posts on social media about her death, eventually prompting police to arrest her family members.

The death was reported earlier this week by a local Italian newspaper, Giornale di Brescia, amid conflicting reports that attributed her killing to refusing an arranged marriage or a sudden illness 10 days earlier.

Members of the Pakistani community in Brescia, Italy, rallied this weekend there, demanding the truth about her death.

Cheema graduated from high school in Brescia, receiving Italian citizenship last September. She opened an agency that handled paperwork for drivers licenses but it closed a while later. She returned to Pakistan in November, the news agency ANSA reported.

Hussain also said Cheema was twice taken to hospital by her family earlier this month, and that the police are trying to get details from the doctors about her hospital stays.

According to Italian media, she was in love with a man from Brescia who like her was a second-generation immigrant with Italian citizenship.

If confirmed, her case will be the second recently publicized honour killing in Punjab where the father and the ex-husband of a British-Pakistani woman, Samia Shahid, were charged in 2016 over her rape and murder.

The trial in Shahids case is still underway but her father died last year, leaving only her ex-husband in the docks now.

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OTTAWAPrime Minister Justin Trudeau lead Parliament Hill tributes to the victims of Mondays senseless attack and horrific tragedy even as federal cabinet ministers conceded that preventing such vehicle attacks in the future would be difficult.

A subdued Trudeau addressed reporters in the Commons foyer Tuesday morning, offering comfort for those affected by the incident, praise for those who responded while acknowledging the many questions that still exist.

I think all Canadians are with Toronto today, in our hearts and our prayers and our thoughts, he said.

Trudeau called the incident an attack and said it would prompt discussions about what we can do better, what we need to do.

Obviously we need to reflect on the changing situations in which were in and do everything we can to keep Canadians safe, Trudeau said.

We need to focus on doing what we can . . . to keep Canadians safe while we stay true to the freedoms and values that we all as Canadians hold dear, he said.

We are pulling together and trying to find answers while keeping people safe, Trudeau said.

Transport Minister Marc Garneau conceded the challenge of protecting residents against attacks when vehicles are used as the weapon.

Theres no question that this is a situation that is very difficult to cover off that kind of situation, but you know, you cannot in life protect people against everything, Garneau said.

Our job is to try to do the best we can where we have some degree of control and thats what well continue to do in Canada, he said.

The issue was on the agenda as security ministers from G7 nations met in Toronto Tuesday to discuss, among other things, how best to protect so-called soft targets where people gather in large numbers with little protection.

We need to plan in advance how we deploy measures of that kind in order to protect public places and so-called soft targets, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said Tuesday.

He noted how Toronto moved quickly Monday to take special precautions around certain city landmarks, like putting up concrete barriers at Union Station and trucks strategically parked to protect crowds gathered around the Air Canada Centre.

Authorities . . . have planned, they have prepared. They understand where their assets and resources are. They are able to marshal them and deploy them, Goodale said.

Trudeau was the first to speak on a day when the tragedy in Toronto hung heavy over Parliament Hill.

On behalf of all Canadians I offer my deepest heartfelt condolences to the loved ones of all those who were killed and we wish a full recovery to those injured and stand with the families and friends of the victims, Trudeau said.

The prime minister also singled out emergency personnel who responded for handling an extremely difficult situation with professionalism and bravery.

They faced danger without a moment of hesitation and there is no doubt their courage saved lives and prevented further injuries, he said.

The prime minister said he would visit Toronto as soon as it makes sense.

But right now, its very much an active ongoing situation and I wouldnt want to distract or remove any personnel or focus away from the important work that is being done, he said.

Later in the Commons, other MPs offered their own statements of condolences and together stood for a minute of silence.

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer reflected how a busy Toronto street became the scene of a horrible crime and how a peaceful day was marred by senseless brutality.

In the midst of these horrors, there were still moments to inspire our faith in humanity, Scheer said.

NDP MP Guy Caron urged all Canadians to pause and remember the 10 lives lost.

Politicians singled out Toronto police officer Ken Lam, who confronted the alleged driver and took him into custody without firing a shot, for special praise.

That was a powerful example of a very skillful, very well-trained, very brave Canadian policeman. He deserves the admiration and respect of the whole country, Goodale said.

Read more:

Sunny spring day turns to unforgettable tragedy as van driver kills 10 and injures 15

Suspected van driver Alek Minassian due in court Tuesday morning

Cop deserves a medal: Toronto officer praised for cool response in tense standoff with van suspect

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At a meeting on Tuesday, council will decide whether to move ahead with a plan to spend up to $1.46 billion on six new GO stations.

The stops are what remains of Mayor John Torys 2014 campaign promise to create a heavy rail transit service called SmartTrack using existing GO lines. With a deadline to include the stations in the provinces transit plans and the October municipal election looming, theres much at stake for Tory.

Read more:

City staff adjusted numbers to boost case for GO station promised by John Tory, documents show

Cost of Mayor John Torys SmartTrack plan could rise, report shows

Opinion | Edward Keenan: Has John Torys SmartTrack come off the rails?

But is the project being portrayed accurately and can council rely on the financing plan city staff have proposed? We look at the facts:

Is this the SmartTrack Tory promised on the campaign trail?

Torys plan has shrunk significantly from the version he pitched during his successful 2014 mayoral bid. At the time, he promised a service that would include 22 new stations, and a heavy rail spur to Pearson International Airport.

The version going before council has only six new stations. The spur to Pearson has been replaced with a plan to extend the Eglinton Crosstown LRT further west, which would operate independently of the rest of the service and it is not part of the plan being advanced at council Tuesday.

At a meeting of his executive committee last week, Tory defended the changes to SmartTrack, citing a projected ridership of 33 million annual trips by 2041 and saying its only natural that a major project evolve over time. The bottom line is were going to have transit people are going to be riding on.

Has the project gone over budget?

In an October 2016 report, city staff estimated the cost of the six new stations would be $1.25 billion, but noted the city would have to pay for any additional infrastructure that deviates from what would be required for a regular GO station.

Staff now estimate the total cost at up to $1.46 billion, which includes up to $268 million in additional spending for city-initiated station requirements. Those are components required to fit stations into Torontos urban context, such as a bus loop to allow for transfers to other transit.

Despite the additional expense, Tory maintains the project has stayed on budget. Thats because the latest staff report broke down the total cost into two sections: $1.19 billion for base station infrastructure, which is what is required for a simple GO station, and the additional $268 million.

Tory has described the additional $268 million in costs as discretionary, and argued the fact that the base infrastructure still falls under the original $1.25-billion projection means the stops will be delivered for the budgeted amount.

What are the service frequencies and fares that SmartTrack trains will run on?

Tory has said the stations will see trains every six to 10 minutes, and riders will be allowed to board using a TTC fare.

However, neither one is set in stone. Last month, the provincial Liberals pledged that fares for all GO Transit trips within Toronto will be reduced to just $3. That would mean a trip from SmartTrack stations would cost about the same as the TTC. However, the cheaper fares wouldnt go into effect until next year and may not survive the provincial election in June.

Tory also pledged there would be no cost to transfer between the TTC and SmartTrack, but there are no immediate plans to implement such a policy.

The most detailed study by Metrolinx assumed train frequencies of up to 15 minutes at some SmartTrack stops, but the agency says it expects six- to 10-minute service is possible and should be in place by the time the stations are complete in 2025.

Has Tory kept his promise that SmartTrack will not be financed by raising property taxes?

Of the $1.46-billion cost, the city expects to pay $878 million, with the federal government contributing the rest.

To pay the citys share, the proposal before council is to use three sources: development charges, tax increment financing, and the City Building Fund.

With Torys backing, council established the fund in 2017 to raise money for transit and housing. Its being generated through five successive years of 0.5-per-cent property tax increases, and once all of the increases are in place, the fund will generate roughly $74 million a year. Starting in 2025, about $18 million would be allocated from the fund every year for 30 years to pay for SmartTrack.

Although the fund is being created through property tax increases, Tory argues he has kept his promise because the City Building Fund was created to raise money for transit in general, not specifically SmartTrack.

Do the benefits of SmartTrack outweigh the costs?

Tory has said SmartTrack will deliver $4 in economic and social benefits for every dollar spent on construction costs.

The figures are from a March Metrolinx report that found building the six stops would cost $1.19 billion, and the resulting benefits would be $4.59 billion.

That analysis didnt take into account the additional $268 million in station costs. It also showed the vast majority of the benefits would be derived from the two busiest stations: King-Liberty and East Harbour.

The expense of building the other four stations is actually expected to be greater than their benefits. Metrolinx has said it will continue working to improve the performance of the four less beneficial stops.

Can future development pay for part of the plan?

City officials say they can cover $292 million in costs using tax increment financing, which has never been used in Toronto on this scale. Essentially, the city would borrow money and pay back the debt using property tax revenue from new developments in areas designated TIF zones.

The city hired a firm called Strategic Regional Research Associates (SRRA) to estimate how much development could be expected.

Consultants who have since reviewed that work have noted several concerns with SRRAs calculations, including undocumented methodology and potentially out of date numbers that could mean less revenue than expected.

The more the projections are off, the more the city will need to dip into existing property tax revenue, which is used to fund services across the city, to pay for the transit stops instead.

Critically, SRRA assumed office sizes similar to suburban spaces rather than those in dense urban settings where most of the stations would be located. Denser offices, which Ernst & Young said should be considered, could alone result in five to 9 per cent reduction in revenue compared to SRRAs predictions.

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Craig Ruthowskys job was to get guns and drugs and bad guys off the streets of Hamilton and to do that, he says he sometimes had to push the boundaries. Lie to the liars, squeeze a little more out of a source, extend a favour here and there to keep the information flowing.

He was an aggressive police officer who was interested in fighting crime, summed up his lawyer, Greg Lafontaine.

Theres a lot of muck that sinks to the bottom of the criminal underworld, and one way for a cop to slog through the mire is with the help provided by a stable of confidential informants.

Craig Ruthowsky, a member of the Hamilton police guns and gangs unit, had more than 60 of them. Unfortunately for me, I have so many informants that they start to overlap, Ruthowsky said at one point on the witness stand.

One of his informants, he alleges, is Mr. X, a Hamilton drug dealer whose identity is protected by a court-ordered publication ban.

After he was scooped up in a large police raid three years ago, Mr. X made some shocking allegations about Ruthowsky. As it turns out, Toronto police had already intercepted a lengthy phone call between Ruthowsky and Mr. X where the Hamilton cop appeared to have been providing the dealer with information about covert police tactics.

By that point, Ruthowsky had been suspended from duty for three years and hed been ordered by the police chief to have no contact with informants.

The Toronto cops played Mr. X the tape of the phone call and he decided to tell them his story.

Ruthowsky is now facing criminal charges of bribery, obstruction of justice, breach of trust, trafficking in a controlled substance and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence. He has pleaded not guilty.

Mr. Xs most explosive allegation was that he and a few of his drug-dealer associates were paying Ruthowsky $20,000 a month in bribes from September 2011 until late fall 2012. Several of the payments, Mr. X testified, were made after Ruthowsky had already been suspended.

In exchange for the payments, Mr. X alleged, he received vital information from Ruthowsky about police drug enforcement and surveillance activities which, the dealer testified, allowed him to sell drugs with impunity.

What hes telling you at first glance is difficult to believe, Crown attorney John Pollard told the jury during his closing submission last week.

Youd expect a story like that to crumble in an instant, he said. But it didnt.

Mr. Xs story, Pollard said, holds up well to scrutiny.

After five weeks of testimony, the jury is now deliberating its verdicts on the five charges.

Im here fighting for my life, Ruthowsky said at one point on the stand.

Much of the courtroom battle has revolved around a single axis. Was Mr. X a confidential informant or was he not?

Ruthowsky is adamant he was, Mr. X is just as adamant he was not.

To believe the Crown is to believe that Mr. X was a compelling and truthful witness, according to Pollard, even though he may have been an unsavoury character.

He did not hide anything from you about his criminal past, Pollard told the jury.

He did not try to rationalize it, minimize it or deny it.

To believe Ruthowskys defence is to believe that Mr. X was an informant who was trying to save his skin, in the words of Greg Lafontaine, Ruthowskys lawyer.

Mr. X, he claims, concocted his story about Ruthowsky out of thin air because he was afraid of being exposed as an informant.

His evidence was a joke, Lafontaine told the jury. Total, absolute perjury.

Ruthowsky spent hours on the stand highlighting the valuable information he received from Mr. X, like the tip that led to a late-night raid of a massive marijuana grow operation on Green Mountain Road.

But Ruthowsky was also forced to admit that he never registered Mr. X as a confidential informant, as per police policy. There were 349 entries in Ruthowskys confidential informant notebooks relating to 63 different sources but not a single mention of Mr. X.

There were a few references to him on some torn-out pieces of paper that were shoved into Ruthowskys personalized system of case files.

Rather than writing everything down in his regular police notebook and then a separate confidential informant notebook, Ruthowsky testified he would keep all the information gathered together in file folders, with the name of the target written on the outside.

When he was suspended in June 2012, Ruthowsky said he had 130 case files at the office. He said he asked his boss what he should do with them and was told to clear them out of the office.

So Ruthowsky took them home, which led to one of the more bizarre revelations in the trial.

Those case files, full of potentially sensitive police information, had apparently been sitting in Ruthowskys basement for six years in plastic bins until two weeks after his trial started  even though Ruthowskys home was subjected to a police search in the summer of 2015 when he was arrested.

It was never made clear during the trial how the case files were overlooked.

It was revealed during cross-examination that Ruthowsky had added information to one of the case files as recently as March 24  after the trial had already started.

You fabricated your tearaway notes after the fact, Pollard challenged during his cross-examination, to make it look like Mr. X was an informant.

Absolutely not, Ruthowsky fired back. I didnt need to do that.

Read more:

Hamilton cop in corruption trial testifies drug dealers are lying, he wasnt on the take

Craig Ruthowsky spars with Crown over dirty cop allegations

Jury hears final arguments in Hamilton police corruption case

Samir Abdelgadir. The name would float through Craig Ruthowskys defence every so often like a menacing spectre, a phantom.

Abdelgadir was one of the people Ruthowsky was trying to get off the street.

He was portrayed by Ruthowsky as a dangerous target, a person of interest, to use the police jargon.

Mostly, his name kept surfacing as Ruthowsky attempted to bolster his narrative that Mr. X was an informant, and a useful one at that.

According to Ruthowsky, Mr. X provided a tip that helped a 2011 investigation of Abdelgadir, who had residences in Hamilton and Mississauga at the time.

A joint operation between Hamilton and Peel Regional police led to a search of Abdelgadirs Hamilton home followed quickly by a raid on some storage lockers in Abdelgadirs Mississauga condominium building.

Police found eight handguns, ammunition, marijuana and cocaine, and Abdelgadir was hit with 23 weapons-related charges.

Mr. X, Ruthowsky said, helped get a bunch of guns off the street.

When the Crown suggested at one point that Mr. X had never provided any significant information, Ruthowsky shot back, I wouldnt call eight guns insignificant.

But theres a lot more to the story.

For one thing, the raid on Abdelgadirs condo building took place on June 9, 2011. According to testimony in Ruthowskys case, it was only after Mr. X was arrested in August 2011 that he allegedly began providing information  two months after the Abdelgadir raid.

The tip that led to the raid on Abdelgadir came from other informants, the Crown noted, so Mr. X couldnt possibly be responsible for getting those guns off the street.

Much more problematic, though, is information that was never presented by the Crown for legal reasons to the jury about Ruthowskys actions leading up to the Abdelgadir raid.

On Nov. 3, 2015, Justice John Sproat issued a ruling on the admissibility of evidence in Abdelgadirs case.

The judge found Ruthowsky had deliberately fabricated a date for a search warrant and deliberately transposed information. He also ruled that Ruthowsky had deliberately fabricated information that Abdelgadir kept 10 pounds (about 4.5 kg) of marijuana at his Hamilton address.

Sproat further ruled that Ruthowsky had lied on the stand when he gave testimony related to the search warrant.

The judge said he was troubled by the ends justifies the means attitude on display.

He quashed the search warrant and ruled the guns and drugs that had been seized were inadmissible as evidence.

Without the guns and drugs, the case against Abdelgadir collapsed instantly.

He was found not guilty on the 23 criminal charges on the same day as Sproats ruling about Ruthowskys actions.

Credibility is often found at the heart of criminal cases, and this one is no different.

Credibility is a matter of common sense, Crown attorney John Pollard told the jury. The truth is seldom an either-or proposition.

There are plenty of credibility problems to go around in this case.

One of the Crowns early witnesses was former Hamilton cop Robert Hansen, Ruthowskys former partner in the guns and gangs unit.

The jury wasnt aware Hansen is serving a five-year penitentiary sentence after being found guilty of encouraging an informant to plant a gun at a suspected drug dealers home and lying to secure a search warrant.

When Mr. X was arrested in 2015, he was facing some serious weapons and drug charges. That alone may have been motivation for him to find a way to get the charges knocked down.

And if Mr. X was an informant who feared being found out, that too could have spurred him to spin a tale at Ruthowskys expense.

The Crown also called two other Hamilton drug dealers as witnesses, and both acknowledged they had lengthy criminal records.

Ruthowsky, though, has his own credibility issues.

It was revealed during cross-examination that earlier in his career, Ruthowsky had been removed from the Hamilton police drug unit after just three months for mishandling evidence.

A financial report prepared for the Crown suggested Ruthowsky had as much as $130,000 in unexplained income between 2011 and 2015.

Ruthowsky testified he kept tens of thousands of dollars in cash in his bedroom closet from a pool business he ran on the side because he thought hed fritter it away if he put it in a bank account.

He also admitted that he didnt report all of his pool business income to the Canada Revenue Agency.

Sloppy bookkeeping, Ruthowsky said. Tax evasion, the Crown said.

Ruthowsky acknowledged he tipped off Mr. X about the Green Mountain Road grow-op bust and then took him inside the building while the search was still in progress. He also acknowledged he made no notes about Mr. Xs presence at the site that night.

Ruthowsky admitted he didnt always follow police procedures and even disobeyed an order from the chief.

But he was motivated by his desire to protect the public good, Lafontaine, his lawyer, told the jury.

He was trying to get guns off the street, he was trying to get drugs off the street, Lafontaine said.

He was committed to protecting his community.

Regardless of what the jury finds, Ruthowsky faces a daunting future.

Ruthowsky is still facing 16 more criminal charges that were laid last August, a fact that was kept from the jury.

Those charges include bribery, two counts of breach of trust, two counts of obstructing justice, public mischief, two counts of weapons trafficking, fraud under $5,000, trafficking marijuana, perjury, two counts of conspiracy to commit an indictable offence, robbery and two counts of trafficking cocaine.
The Halton Regional Police Service officer accused of stealing opioid drugs from an evidence locker pleaded guilty to charges in Milton court.

Staff-Sgt. Brad Murray, who headed the drug squad, is a 16-year veteran with the service. He was charged with two counts each of theft under $5,000 and breach of trust, and one count of obstructing justice.

He pleaded guilty to the breach of trust charges and to tampering with seized elements of a case Monday.

The Crown is seeking a conditional sentence while the defence is asking for a suspended sentence and 18 months probation.

A sentencing hearing will be set for sometime this spring.
Without knowing what sparked a horrific rampage on Yonge St. killing 10 people and injuring 15 more, police services and Metrolinx beefed up security across the city. Other agencies were on standby.

As Sunnybrook hospitals doctors and nurses received a number of patients from the scene shortly after a rental van plowed down pedestrians, Monday, it increased security and locked down its emergency room, spokesperson Craig DuHamel said.

GO Transit sent additional transit safety officers to Union Station until it knew for certain whatever this horrific incident is or isnt, out of an abundance of caution, said Metrolinx spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins.

New York City police announced it would be deploying counter-terror officers in and around Toronto as a precaution.

Around 5 p.m., Toronto Maple Leafs fans navigated road closures and additional security measures as they made their way into the Air Canada Centre for the playoff game against Boston. The Leafs and MLSE said they were working closely with police.

The incidents that happened on the street are horrendous but they appear to not be connected in anyway to national security, said Ralph Goodale, minister of public safety, at an evening news conference.

Police Chief Mark Saunders added it was too early in the investigation to dismiss a terrorism motive, but so far there was no evidence that pointed to it.

This is very early in the investigation, theres no avenue we wont explore, Saunders told reporters. We open all lanes at the start and follow wherever the evidence takes us.

Toronto police called in its evening and midnight crews early to help with the investigation, and non-uniformed officers are on standby, Saunders said. It will take some time to process the scene and the investigation is ongoing.

Toronto police are leading the investigation, with assistance from the Ontario Provincial Police and RCMP.

If it was a terror-related incident, the OPP would wait for directions from the RCMP who are primarily responsible for national security, said OPP Staff Sgt. Carol Dionne. The OPP also has an anti-terrorism unit.

The RCMP did not provide comment.

The Toronto Transit Commission worked closely with police, and suspended Line 1 subway service between Sheppard and Finch Aves., said spokesperson Stuart Green. The TTC will continue to follow police directions.

The City of Toronto also deferred to police, saying it would add security if law enforcement determined there was a terrorism incident or threat, or if the national terrorism threat increased from its current level of medium.

Metrolinx was also watching the national threat level, said Aikins. It sent out an email to staff to be particularly sensitive to suspicious things and to report them.

Metrolinx has two offices close to where the incident happened, one of which has 200 staff. At the same time the van plowed into pedestrians, many were heading back to the office after grabbing lunch and enjoying the spring weather, Aikins said.

They have witnessed an awful, awful horrific event and one had to leap out of the way, she said. We are very lucky none of our staff was badly hurt, or worse.

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The driver of a white rental van who is alleged to have deliberately run down pedestrians along a northern stretch of Yonge St. Monday, killing 10 and injuring 15, has been identified as a 25-year-old man from Richmond Hill.

Alek Minassian was arrested by Toronto police at 1:52 p.m.  26 minutes after the first 911 call came in alerting police to the horror unfolding during Mondays sunny lunch hour.

A thorough check through Toronto police records did not return any results, meaning Minassian was not previously known to police, said Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders, who flew in from New York to supervise the police response.

No charges against Minassian have been laid and the police investigation has not ruled out terrorism, though Saunders stressed there is no evidence that national security is threatened.

Read more:

Sunny spring day turns to unforgettable tragedy as van driver kills 10 and injures 15

Opinion | Rosie Dimanno: Toronto van tragedy bonds city in blood. But no one will say the word terrorism

What we know and dont know about the van crash

Police, including the OPP and the RCMP, are looking very strongly at the motive.

Witness accounts suggest the drivers actions were not accidental, Saunders said. They indicate that as the van drove south down Yonge St., at some points it mounted the sidewalks, while at others it drove southbound in northbound lanes.

So its very clear just from a general perspective to say that the actions definitely look deliberate, Saunders said.

Saunders revealed little else about the man.

A LinkedIn profile for a man of the same name states he is a student at Seneca College. According to Joseph Pham, 25, who took a computer programming class with Minassian at Seneca, he was at school just last week. He described him as socially awkward.

He kept to himself. He didnt really talk to anyone, Pham said.

A curb-jumping Ryder van barrelled through pedestrians along Yonge St., killing at least 10 people on Monday.

A source with information confirmed to the Star that three of those who were injured attended Seneca Colleges English Language Institute. Two suffered minor injuries, while one was taken away in an ambulance, status not known.

As the sun set on Elmsley Dr. in Richmond Hill, a brick home connected to Minassia was surrounded by police tape on both sides, the road blocked off.

Neighbours congregated, taking pictures of the scene and speaking to each other.

In the hours after the incident, witnesses posted videos on social media showing police apprehending the driver. Shortly before the arrest, the suspect points what appears to be a weapon at police, and seems to say, kill me and that he has something in his pocket.

The officer tells the man repeatedly to get down. A few seconds later the suspect raises his arms and is apprehended by police. No shots were fired. Saunders later said the man did not have a gun.

According to public records the rental van is owned by Ryder and lists the companys Concord, Ont., truck rental location at 700 Creditstone Rd.

A spokesperson said it was aware of the fatal incident involving one of its vehicles.

We are saddened by this tragic event, and our deepest sympathies go out to those impacted, Claudia Panfil, Ryders vice-president of communications, said in an email to the Star. We take the safety and security related to the use of our entire fleet very seriously and we are co-operating fully with authorities.

With files from Tamar Harris

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Yonge St. has reopened but police will continue to investigate in the area after Mondays van attack in North York.

Yonge St., from Sheppard Ave. to Finch Ave., was closed to both foot and vehicle traffic, Toronto police said in a tweet early Tuesday morning. Businesses along this stretch of road had been asked to access their premises through rear entrances.

On Tuesday night, Toronto police reopened the streets but asked the public to stay clear of the area if they didnt live nearby or didnt have business there.

Police presence will still be there as detectives investigate. We ask this just for the next few days, Const. David Hopkinson tweeted.

The area was shut down since Monday afternoon when a van mounted the sidewalk near Yonge St. and Finch Ave. and rammed pedestrians along a 2.2-kilometre stretch of Yonge St. Police have arrested and charged a suspect in the incident.

The Toronto Transit Commission tweeted Tuesday night that regular service was resuming on Line 1. Trains had previously been bypassing North York Centre Station. The 97 Yonge bus and 36 Finch bus routes also resumed regular service Tuesday night.

Mayor John Tory said the North York Civic Centre will be open for business as usual Wednesday.

Metrolinx offices at North York Centre Station and offices at Yonge. St. and Finch Ave. were being closed on Tuesday for more than 200 staff to recover from the incident, according to Metrolinx spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins. She also said there would be no GO bus service from York Mills to Finch on Tuesday.

The Douglas Snow Aquatic Centre, and indoor pool located inside the North York Civic Centre, was to be closed on Tuesday and until further notice.

Mel Lastman Square also remains closed for the police investigation until further notice.

Toronto police say they have the driver of the van that struck pedestrians in custody. In their first update, the citys deputy police chief said the force has mobilized all available resources. (The Canadian Press)

According to the city of Toronto, all other city facilities remain open and meetings and public consultations are running as scheduled.

On Tuesday, the Toronto District School Board says school bus transportation to and from schools near the Yonge and Finch area may experience delays. The TDSBs head office at 5050 Yonge St. was also closed Tuesday. They say depending on the status of the investigation, they will update on their website when they are able to have normal central services resume.

Toronto police said the roads surrounding Air Canada Centre may be closed on Wednesday for Game 7 between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Boston Bruins.

With files from Alexandra Jones and Fakiha Baig

Read more:

Sunny spring day turns to unforgettable tragedy as van driver kills 10 and injures 14

Security beefed up across city following van rampage

What we know and dont know about the North York van attack

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The majority of the victims in Mondays deadly Yonge St. rampage are female, but there is no evidence that the driver was expressly aiming the vehicle at women, the lead homicide investigator on the case told reporters.

Toronto police Det.-Sgt. Graham Gibson also said investigators are looking into a cryptic Facebook message the accused killer allegedly posted just before he deliberately struck pedestrians in on Yonge  but stressed the investigation is in its early stages.

Speaking at a news conference Tuesday inside the Toronto police auditorium, packed with local and international press, Gibson provided details from the first 24 hours of an investigation  a massive probe being conducted with the help of outside police agencies.

Read more:

Who is Alek Minassian, the man accused in the van rampage?

She was the best grandma anyone could ever ask for. More victims of van rampage identified

The suspect in the Toronto van attack that killed 10 people and injured 15 others on Monday is a 25-year-old man named Alek Minassian from the Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill.









Opinion | Edward Keenan: Cop who faced down suspect in Yonge St. carnage an example for all of us

Alek Minassian, a 25-year-old with no prior criminal record, stands accused of first-degree murder in the deaths of 10 people, whose names have not yet been released pending identification of bodies.

That process that will likely take a few more days, Dr. Dirk Huyer, chief coroner for Ontario, told reporters at the conference. Some families have been told that officials believe their loved one has died but confirmation has not been made as officials are working to have 100 per cent accuracy.

Minassian is also charged with 13 counts of attempted murder, with a fourteenth charge expected to be laid shortly. The injuries range from scrapes and bruises to terrible injuries that I wont get into discussing here, Gibson said.

The Richmond Hill man appeared briefly in court handcuffed and in a white jumpsuit, his eyes darting around but otherwise wearing a poker face. A man believed to be Minassians father was in court and escorted out by police, surrounded by a throng of media.

Minassian is accused of jumping the sidewalk with a rented van and ramming pedestrians along a two-kilometre stretch of Yonge St., between Sheppard Ave. and Finch Ave. on Monday afternoon.

According to Gibson, Minassian rented the vehicle that morning at a Ryder truck facility just north of Toronto. Shortly thereafter, he made his way to Finch and Yonge; investigators are now trying to determine what Minassian did in the interim.

The first 911 call about the rampage came in at 1:25 p.m., and by 1:32 Minassian was arrested. On Monday, police wrongly said the time between the first 911 call and the arrest was 26 minutes, an error caused by the chaos of cataloguing multiple emergency calls, a police spokesperson said.

In witness video posted online, shortly before the arrest the driver appears to ditch the vehicle and has a standoff with a police officer on Poyntz Ave. south of Sheppard Ave., yelling shoot me in the head and claiming to have a gun in his pocket.

The arresting officer who has been widely praised for his handling of the situation is Const. Ken Lam, the Star has confirmed.

The victims who lay wounded and dead in the vans wake are predominantly female, and range in age from mid-20s up to 80s, Gibson said. While he stressed that there was no evidence that the driver was deliberately aiming at women, the detective said Minassian allegedly posted a cryptic message on Facebook minutes before he began driving the rented van.

The message is a post allegedly made by Minassian, circulating on social media in the hours after the rampage, that references incel and invokes U.S. mass murderer Elliot Rodger. Incel refers to an online community of the involuntarily celibate, or men who feel frustrated by their inability to find romantic relationships or sex. Online community forums often feature misogynistic rhetoric.

A spokesperson for Facebook Canada said it immediately deleted the suspects account Monday afternoon.

Gibson said police would be taking the post into consideration as the investigation progresses. Asked if the suspect was frustrated with his relationships with women, Gibson said it would be part of the probe, and he declined to comment when asked about the reference to Rodger, the U.S. mass murderer, in the alleged post by Minassian.

We are collecting all of the information that we can find. Its an ongoing process and we will over the coming weeks investigate all of those aspects, Gibson said.

There is also no indication that Minassian knew any of the victims, Gibson added.

Mark Mendelson, a former lead detective with the Toronto police homicide squad, said a key part of the investigation in the coming days will be a forensic analysis of Minassians online activity, examining the websites he visited and posts he made online.

His mental health will be an important factor going forward, too, Mendelson said, predicting that the accused killer may attempt to claim to be not criminally responsible in the deaths  a legal defence known as NCR.

Asked if it is possible Minassian is mentally ill, Gibson said it is something that might be explored but its far too early to say anything about that.

Minassians next court appearance is via video May 10. He needs to find a lawyer and, given the seriousness of the charges, Justice of the Peace Stephen Waisberg told court that he was required to detain the accused.

With files from Sabrina Nanji and Jennifer Yang Wendy Gillis can be reached at wgillis@thestar.ca

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Why?

Such a tiny word. A piddling monosyllable. Three measly letters.

But a question that looms as large today as anything Toronto authorities have ever faced, as the city struggles to grasp the salient facts behind Mondays Yonge St. massacre.

On Tuesday, as handcuffed suspect Alek Minassian, 25, appeared briefly in a Toronto courtroom to be formally charged with 10 counts of murder and 13 counts of attempted murder, his darting eyes and poker face offered no hint of motive.

Yet as new clues emerged, a fragmented portrait began to take shape with disturbing glimpses into the life of the man charged with wilfully racing a rented Ryder van along a 2.2-kilometre stretch of North York sidewalk, causing widespread carnage.

When the worlds gaze first settled on Toronto as Mondays chaos took hold, conclusion-leapers online were quick to declare the city a victim of the Islamic State and/or like-minded jihadists. The attack, they argued, bore all the hallmarks of Nice, France, where a 19-tonne truck tore through crowds celebrating Bastille Day two years ago, killing 86 people and triggering three days of national mourning.

Those first baseless, Islamophobic assumptions melted away quickly enough  only to be replaced with new social media notions, none evidently tethered to fact. Everything from Armenian nationalism (the attack came on the eve of Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day) to autism (the suspect is believed to be on the spectrum, a fact that health professionals emphasize carries no correlation to violence) to outright misogyny were offered up as working theories.

On Tuesday afternoon, as police confirmed Minassian would be charged with a 14th count of attempted murder, suspicions hardened toward the grim possibility that a virulent hatred of women was behind the tragedy.

A 25-year-old who plowed a van into a crowded Toronto sidewalk was ordered held Tuesday on 10 counts of murder 13 of attempted murder. (The Associated Press)

At the centre of that suspicion is a Facebook post first believed by many to be a hoax  only to be authenticated by Facebook itself as real. Toronto police, however, also alluded to the post but stopped short of confirming it was written by the suspect.

The jarring message, apparently time-bombed to appear on the suspects Facebook account as Mondays tragedy unfolded, offered praise to an infamous figure worshipped by a dark corner of the internet that seethes misogyny  U.S. mass murderer Elliot Rodger, who in 2014 killed six people near the University of California, Santa Barbara, by stabbing and shooting his victims. He injured another 13 people, striking four of them with his black BMW while engaged in gunfire with police. Rodger, 22, killed himself before he could be arrested.

In a YouTube video Rodger posted before his arrest, he described himself as a virgin who wanted to exact revenge on women.

The message that appeared on Minassians account  if indeed it was posted by the suspect  suggested Mondays rampage may have been the work of a distinctly 21st-century version of Marc Lepine. In 1989, Lepine murdered 14 women and wounded 13 others at Montreals Ecole Polytechnique before turning his gun on himself, leaving behind a suicide note that said feminists had ruined his life.

The Facebook post spoke in a sort of misogynistic digital code. The Incel Rebellion has already begun! the post said, referencing an online community or movement of people claiming to be involuntarily celibate. All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger!

Researchers who specialize in such messaging warn that despite Facebooks authentication, the post could yet prove nothing more than a hoax by 4chan, whose troll-happy members delight in duping journalists into writing their name within breaking news.

If (Minassian) actually posted that ... it would be like a meme coming to life ... it would really call attention to the idea that we cannot think about online violence as being cordoned off from physical violence that can take lives, said Whitney Phillips, an assistant professor with Mercer University who studies online communities.

If this is a hoax, Im going to be irritated. If its true Im going to be terrified.

The Facebook post referred to Minassian as Private (Recruit) Minassian Infantry 00010 in his post  an allusion to the suspects failed attempt in 2017 to join the Canadian Armed Forces. Military sources confirmed the number is a part of Canadas military lexicon.

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan confirmed that Minassian was a member for about two months, starting in late August 2017, beginning. He was then released after 16 days of recruit training, having made the request to exit the forces voluntarily.

Minassian did his training at the Canadian Forces Leadership and Recruit School at the Saint-Jean Garrison in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., where all new recruits begin their military careers. Sajjan said there were no red flags when Minassian signed on.

The military declined to formally say more about his time in uniform, citing privacy reasons. But a source told the Star Minassian struggled during his short stint in the regular-force basic training, lasting just over two weeks in a course that takes up to four months. In that time, he would have done drills, such as saluting and marching, and perhaps basic work with equipment, but is unlikely to have done any weapons handling.

He wasnt very good at taking direction, fellow recruit Andrew Summerfield told CBC News. There was a lot of disciplinary action put towards Alek because he wouldnt understand something and theyd want him to do it, and then he wouldnt do it right.

Summerfield said it appeared Minassian had some sort of condition, but he never shared what it was with Summerfield and other members of their platoon.

Schoolmates offered similar assessments of Minassian, from Grade 5 all the way through to his final days at Seneca College, where he was a student from 2011 to 2018, according to a LinkedIn profile. He was also a member of the support staff at Senecas Office of Research and Innovation, according to the colleges directory. His name has since been removed.

Joseph Pham, 25, said he sat next to Minassian in a computer programming class at Seneca, and that he saw him a week before the attack.

An excerpt from TPS press conference on Tuesday, April 24th, 2018, 3:00PM. Video courtesy of TPS via YouTube.

I never talked to him, Pham said. I sat beside him a few times. He kept to himself. He didnt really talk to anyone. He participated in class. He is, you could say, socially awkward.

Pham described Minassian as someone who would fidget or twitch frequently, and kept to himself. He also had a knack for computer programming, and developed an app to allow users to find parking in Toronto, Pham said.

Access to a Richmond Hill street, near Bayview and 16th Aves., remained restricted, with yellow police tape surrounding a home listed to Vahe and Sona Minassian, property records show.

In a 2009 interview with the Richmond Hill Liberal, a Sona Minassian said her son lives with a condition called Aspergers syndrome, a form of autism, and relied on Helpmate, a social service community program whose lack of funding threatened to shutter it.

My son would spend afternoons working with Helpmate. They were sensitive to his needs, she said, not naming her son.

He was able to take the experience provided by Helpmate and apply it. This kind of service for my son wasnt available elsewhere. I am convinced that if we didnt have Helpmate, my son would not have had such an opportunity, Sona Minassian said of the job her son was able to land at a local IT company.

Minassian was part of a special needs program at Thornlea Secondary School, said former classmate Will Cornish, 25. Minassian didnt behave violently, he said, but could be seen in the hallways twisting his hands together.

A curb-jumping Ryder van barrelled through pedestrians along Yonge St., killing at least 10 people on Monday.

Dominic Reynolds was in Grade 11 when Minassian began high school, but would often share the special needs program classroom with him. Though Reynolds, 28, wasnt in the special needs program, he said to accommodate his learning disability he was sometimes required to study in the same room.

He (had) notable special needs, Reynolds said of Minassian, citing his behaviour of making meowing noises and hugging his arms around himself in the hallways at school.

He said he was surprised to hear Minassian was the suspected driver as he didnt believe Minassian would be able to drive given his special needs condition. Reynolds said special needs students were well supported at Thornlea, and doesnt believe Minassian was a bullying victim.

Shannon Goel, 25, said Minassian was in her Grade 5 class at Sixteenth Avenue Public School in Richmond Hill. When she heard his name reported on the news she got out her old yearbook.

I just remember him acting out, she said. He would throw fits, he would always act out, and it was hard for people to control him.

With files from May Warren, Sabrina Nanji, Tamar Harris, Julien Gignac, and Star Staff
The future of province-wide standardized testing will be determined in consultation with parents, teachers and others in the system, says Ontarios education minister in response to a report that recommends changes to the contentious literacy and numeracy evaluations given to students in four grades.

The report, released online Tuesday, says that over the next several years, the government should phase out tests in Grade 3, as well as in Grade 9 math, substantially modernize Grade 6 assessments, and end but then reform the mandatory Grade 10 literacy test.

It even suggests that in transforming testing by the Education Quality and Accountability Office, or EQAO, that the government consider re-naming and re-launching the Crown agency which has been a source of much frustration among teacher unions.

Scroll down to answer a selection of sample questions from the Grade 10 literacy test

The province will work with education sector partners to move forward on the recommendations for strengthening classroom assessment and reporting, said Education Minister Indira Naidoo-Harris in a written statement.

She also said more feedback is needed from Indigenous communities.

Charles Pascal, a former deputy education minister and former chair of the EQAO, said the report attempts to appease too many constituents.

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He prefers either modernizing EQAO or, as he recommended years ago, a random sampling approach that selects schools according to key characteristics and randomly chooses kids within those schools who are told  along with parents  that they are going to act as consultants to see how the Ontario curriculum is doing by filling out some forms, he said.

This would best deal with the reports interest in an annual snapshot rather than the school improvement approach at present, said Pascal, a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto.

Pascal also questioned the recommendation to end Grade 3 testing, saying it is needed to see if the benefits of full-day kindergarten last as children progress through the primary years.

The report, commissioned by the government, was led by Carol Campbell of the University of Torontos faculty of education, and involved consultations with thousands of people either online, in person or written submissions.
The province is providing extra resources  any support that is necessary  in the aftermath of Mondays tragedy, said Premier Kathleen Wynne.

Additional teams have been dispatched to aid in the identification of victims in order to expedite that process, to move as quickly as possible to give families, who are desperate for information  more information  and to give it to them more quickly, because those hours of waiting are very, very painful.

Speaking outside her office at Queens Park Tuesday morning, reading from four pages of handwritten notes, Wynne offered condolences to the families and friends of the victims and the victims themselves who have survived, whose lives will never be the same.

Our hearts reach out (to them), and we desperately want to give them comfort.

She said Ontario Provincial Police are in constant contact with the RCMP and Toronto Police Service officials and the government is consistently offering any support that is necessary.

Wynne also expressed her deepest admiration to police, firefighters, paramedics and Sunnybrook staff for their efforts. The premier visited the hospital as well as the site of the incident, on Yonge St. between Finch and Sheppard Aves., Monday night.

I had a hard time getting the pictures of a shoe, or a backpack out of my mind  those very human objects that people were wearing, and carrying, that were still on the street where they lay, an emotional Wynne said of the scene.

I think the other thing was that the street was so silent, she said of an area that is typically very busy and vibrant.

The way Mel Lastman Square is designed  and I spent years as a school board trustee, at the school board (headquarters) there  there are always students, theres always a festival going on in Mel Lastman Square. There are people having lunch, going to movies. It is a very alive, diverse part of the city, and it was so silent.

Before Question Period, MPPs observed a moment of silence for the victims, and flags at the legislature were lowered to half-mast.

When Progressive Conservative MPP Vic Fedeli rose to speak in the house, he noted the work of first responders, which prompted a standing ovation.

We genuinely appreciate the work of the first responders and the EMS teams that are out there, Fedeli said. There are many questions that will be answered over the coming days ... Our hearts ache for the families and for the victims.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, who visited the scene Tuesday morning, said the on-site memorial is an outpouring of peoples emotions and feelings. There were people crying, it was devastating.

... Its something that is going to take a long time for us to heal from.

PC Leader Doug Ford, emerged from a meeting with his caucus at Queens Park, and said this is a tough time, but in these moments our country, our province and our city come together.

Wynne told reporters the emergency health teams at Sunnybrook prepare for tragedy in the hope that it will never come.

And when it does, and when it did, and the calls were made (Monday) to off-duty nurses or off-duty personnel, they were already on their way; they knew exactly what had to be done.

She also thanked area residents and passersby who helped the injured, those who had a hand in comforting souls.
BEIJINGA fire that tore through a karaoke bar in southern China in the early hours of Tuesday killed 18 people, the police said, adding that arson was probably the cause.

A brief initial police account of the blaze in Qingyuan, a city in Guangdong province, said firefighters received an emergency call about 30 minutes past midnight.

By the time they extinguished the fire about 25 minutes later, the karaoke bar was gutted. In addition to the 18 dead, the police said, five people rescued from the fire were hospitalized.

According to a preliminary investigation, the blaze was arson, the online statement from the Qingyuan police said. Currently, the public security authorities are stepping up their investigation.

Video footage shown by Chinese news outlets showed bystanders watching helplessly as intense flames flared out of the three-story building containing the karaoke bar and climbed up its walls.

The police did not identify a suspect or motive, nor did they say how many of the dead were found in the bar. Often karaoke bars in China feature small rooms padded with carpet, and at least some of the dead may have been trapped in such rooms.

The person believed to have started the fire had been in a quarrel beforehand and used a motorbike to block the only entrance to the karaoke club, then lit the fire at the door, a reporter for CCTV, the state-run broadcaster, said in an online report that did not cite the source of the account.

The China News Service, a state-run news agency, said police in Qingyuan  an industrial and commercial center  had blocked off roads to catch the person responsible.

The deadly fire is likely to prompt another round of calls from the Chinese government to tighten up safety, especially in the crowded fringes of cities and industrial zones where fires often break out.

After a fire roared through an apartment on the outskirts of Beijing in November, killing 19 people, the city intensified a program to expel migrant workers who live in such areas, displacing hundreds of thousands of people.

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HOUSTON  Former U.S. president George H.W. Bush has been hospitalized in Houston with an infection, just after attending the funeral of his wife, Barbara, a spokesperson said Monday.

Jim McGrath said on Twitter that the 93-year-old Bush is responding to treatments and appears to be recovering. He was admitted Sunday morning to Houston Methodist Hospital after an infection spread to his blood, McGrath said.

Barbara Bush was laid to rest Saturday in a ceremony attended by her husband and former presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and their wives, along with current first lady Melania Trump. She was 92, and she and her husband had been married 73 years  the longest presidential marriage in U.S. history.

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The elder Bush uses a wheelchair and an electric scooter for mobility after developing a form of Parkinsons disease, and he has needed hospital treatment several times in recent years for respiratory problems.

He attended the funeral wearing a pair of knitted socks decorated in blue, red and yellow books  a tribute to his late wifes work promoting literacy.

McGrath wouldnt elaborate Monday night on the specifics of Bushs condition, saying additional updates would be issued as events warrant.

But he said the 41st president was eager to get well so he can get to his summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine.

Hes the most goal-oriented person on this planet, McGrath said.

Their son, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, indicated during his eulogy Saturday that his father had been hospitalized recently at the same time Barbara Bush was in the hospital for the last time.

Those hospitalizations were not publicly disclosed at the time.

I think Dad got sick on purpose so that he could be with her, Jeb Bush said.

First lady Melania Trump, who attended the funeral, sent her best wishes to the former president Monday evening.

Sending healing thoughts of strength, along with prayers, for President George HW Bush tonight, Melania Trump tweeted.

On Friday, during the public viewing of Barbara Bushs casket, George H.W. Bush offered his hand to many of the around 2,500 people who walked through the church to pay their respects.

A year ago this month, Bush spent two weeks in the hospital for treatment of pneumonia and chronic bronchitis, a constant irritation of the lining of tubes that carry air to ones lungs. Bushs doctors said chronic bronchitis is a condition more prevalent with age and can aggravate the symptoms of pneumonia.

Bush was hospitalized for 16 days in January 2017 for pneumonia. During that hospital stay, which included time in intensive care, doctors inserted a breathing tube and connected him to a ventilator.

He also was hospitalized in 2015 in Maine after falling at home and breaking a bone in his neck, and in December 2014 for about a week for shortness of breath. He spent Christmas 2012 in intensive care for a bronchitis-related cough and other issues.

People in their 90s with Parkinsons disease are often at higher risk of pneumonia and other infections because their swallowing process can be compromised, said Dr. David Reuben, professor of geriatric medicine at the UCLA medical school in Los Angeles.

And the stress of losing a loved one can weaken the immune system, he said.

Bacterial infections are treated with antibiotics, he said, while viral infections require other treatments. Infections that spread to the blood usually are not viral, however, he said.

The prognosis for such a case would depend on a number of factors, including heart rate, blood pressure and oxygenation, Reuben said.

The more of these parameters are abnormal, the more serious the case is, he said.

George Herbert Walker Bush served as president from 1989 to 1993. Born June 12, 1924, in Milton, Massachusetts, Bush also served as a congressman, CIA director and Ronald Reagans vice-president.

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LIMA, Peru  Perus attorney general has ordered the arrest of two suspects in the killing of a Canadian man who travelled to the Amazon rain forest to study hallucinogenic medicine, officials said Monday.

Authorities said over the weekend that a mob dragged Sebastian Woodroffe by the neck to his death shortly after people accused him of killing Olivia Arevalo, an octogenarian plant healer from the Shipibo-Konibo tribe of northeastern Peru.

Prosecutors said Monday the two suspects were identified in a video shot on a cellphone showing the moment Woodroffe, who was 41, was killed last week.

Officials said forensic experts were studying Woodroffes body to determine whether he had any involvement in Arevalos killing as was initially suggested after they backed away from reports that he was the principal suspect.

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Arevalo and Woodroffe were both killed Thursday in the indigenous community of Victoria Gracia, officials said. But police did not begin to investigate until a cellphone video appeared in local media showing a man purported to be Woodroffe begging for mercy while being dragged between thatch-roofed homes. He was then left motionless on the muddy ground.

On Saturday, officials dug up Woodroffes body from an unmarked grave where he had been hastily buried.

Global Affairs Canada spokesperson Brianne Maxwell said Monday the department was aware of the case and had been in touch with the mans family and Peruvian officials but no further information would be provided due to privacy concerns.

Every year thousands of foreign tourists travel to the Peruvian Amazon to experiment with ayahuasca  a bitter, dark-coloured brew made of a mixture of native plants.

The hallucinogenic cocktail, also known as yage, has been venerated for centuries by indigenous tribes in Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia as a cure for all sorts of ailments. Its also increasingly consumed by Western tourists looking for mind-altering experiences, sometimes with deadly consequences.

Arevalo was a staunch defender of indigenous peoples rights in the region. She also practised a traditional form of singing medicine that the Shipibo believe removes negative energies from individuals and a group alike.

Woodroffe, who was from Vancouver Island, said before going to Peru that he hoped an apprenticeship with a plant healer from the Shipibo tribe would help his goal of changing careers to become an addiction counsellor using hallucinogenic medicine.

A recent family intervention for a relative with an alcohol addiction has opened my eyes to what I should be doing for work, he wrote on the Indiegogo crowd-funding website seeking financial help to advance his studies.

The plant medicine I have the opportunity of learning is far deeper than ingesting a plant and being healed. It is not about getting high either. It is true some of the plants I will be learning about do have a perception-altering effect, but these are a few plants out of thousands I will be working with, he said.

A close family member of Woodroffe declined to comment on Woodroffes death in a Facebook message to The Canadian Press.

In December 2015, Winnipeg resident Joshua Stevens fatally stabbed a fellow tourist from England after the two drank ayahuasca together in a spiritual ceremony a few hours drive from where Woodroffe was killed.

Stevens, 31, said he found relief from a rash that covered 40 per cent of his body by drinking the brew at a ceremony in Winnipeg and went to the Phoenix Ayahuasca retreat near the town of Iquitos to pay homage to the natives down there and to learn with them.

He and British tourist Unais Gomes, 25, drank the hallucinogenic brew, but things quickly went wrong, Stevens said.

Gomes attacked the Canadian and two workers at the retreat with a large butcher knife and Stevens said he was forced to make a life-or-death decision to stab the British man, who died a short time later.

I still have a hard time with it myself because on one hand I was cured and on the other hand what happened to me and what happened with this man, its making me wonder and question it, Stevens said. Im not sure what to think of it because I hold very dearly onto the suffering I had for three years and I was able to receive relief through the plant, so Im confused about it.

The British newspaper The Guardian reported that police concluded Stevens had acted in self-defence.

Also in 2015, Canadian Jennifer Logan died in Peru after drinking a tobacco purge tea at the Canto Luz Centre outside Puerto Maldonado.

Logans sister said the tea was not the hallucinogenic ayahuasca, but it caused the 32-year-old to vomit until she lost consciousness. The centre described her reaction to the tea as extreme and unusual.

Initial autopsy results found Jennifer Logan died of pulmonary edema, an accumulation of fluid in the lungs that can cause respiratory failure.

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An Alabama police department said Monday that three white police officers who threw a black woman onto the floor of a Waffle House during an arrest on Sunday, threatened to break her arm, placed a hand on her throat and exposed her breasts, had acted appropriately.

The officers, from the Saraland Police Department, were sharply criticized after a cellphone video of the confrontation was posted on Facebook, with some calling them racist and overly aggressive. The footage starts with one of the officers standing over the woman, Chikesia Clemons, and trying to place her right arm behind her back as she sits in a chair.

The video then skips ahead, picking up as two officers grab Clemons arms and shoulders and toss her onto the restaurant floor. What are you doing, Clemons yells at the officers, as they try to bend her arms behind her back.

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About to break your arm, thats what Im about to do, an officer replies.

During the scuffle, Clemons strapless shirt comes undone, exposing her breasts in the middle of the restaurant. When she is handcuffed, an officer turns to her friend Canita Adams, who is recording the video, and says, You want to come fix her clothes?

Within hours of the video being posted online, members of the local NAACP chapter and others began protesting at the Waffle House, which is just north of Mobile, Ala., comparing the episode to the arrest of two black men at a Starbucks in Philadelphia this month.

I dont feel like she was treated fairly, her mother, Chiquita Clemons-Howard, said at an NAACP meeting Sunday evening. I want to get justice for my daughter.

David Smith, president of the Mobile County NAACP, did not respond to a message seeking comment Tuesday.

In an odd coincidence, the arrest of Clemons occurred at about 3 a.m. Sunday, around the same time a man armed with a rifle opened fire in a Waffle House outside Nashville, Tenn., killing four young people of colour and injuring four others.

Clemons, who was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, and Adams, who was not arrested, could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Clemons-Howard, who told the Alabama news media that she was speaking on her daughters behalf, did not return a call seeking comment.

After the Starbucks arrest, the Philadelphia police chief apologized, as did Starbuckss chief executive, and the company announced it would shut down 8,000 stores in the United States for a day next month for racial-bias training. The arrest in Saraland, Ala., has not drawn the same reaction from Waffle House.

Both the Police Department and Waffle House have said that the cellphone video did not show the full story and that the officers acted appropriately and had reason to arrest Clemons. A Waffle House spokesman said police intervention was appropriate.

On Monday afternoon, the Police Department released a portion of a 911 call from a Waffle House employee and footage from two security cameras inside the restaurant.

In the 911 call, the worker said her manager had asked her to call because two women and a man acting drunk and disorderly had arrived with alcohol and were refusing to throw it away. The security footage had no audio but showed Clemons, 25, and Adams, 26, pointing and yelling at employees.

At a news conference Monday, Detective Brian Mims said the women were cursing and threatening them.

You aint going to be here tomorrow, Mims said the women told employees. I may have a gun. I may have anything. I can come back up here and shoot this place up if I need to.

When the officers arrived, Mims said, Clemons refused to comply with their orders and resisted placing her hands behind her back. He said her race played no role in what happened.

Based on the interviews conducted, he said, it was based solely on that they were asked to take their beverages out and not to consume them on premises.

The Police Department did not release the names of the officers but said that none of them would be disciplined.

Clemons mother told AL.com that the encounter Sunday morning had started over plastic utensils. The women asked for plastic ware with their meal, her mother said, but a waitress told them that the utensils cost 50 cents extra. When Clemons and Adams objected and said they had not been charged for them in the past, the waitress cancelled their order, Clemons-Howard said.

The police arrived when the women were trying to get the name of a Waffle House supervisor to file a complaint, Clemons-Howard said. The footage shows the story completely, she told AL.com, referring to the cellphone video.

Mims said Monday that the waitress was following Waffle House policy to charge customers for plastic ware if they plan to dine at the restaurant. A company spokesman did not immediately answer an email seeking comment about its plastic ware policy.

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WASHINGTON  The White House rallied around Ronny Jacksons nomination to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs late Tuesday as the presidents former doctor was besieged by complaints that he improperly prescribed drugs, created a hostile workplace and became intoxicated on duty.

The administrations decision to fight on in defence of the VA nomination came just hours after Trump suggested at a news conference that Jackson should consider pulling out because of the abuse he was facing. But by late afternoon, Trump huddled with Jackson and White House aides vowed to fight the charges.

I dont want to put a man through a process like this, Trump had said earlier when asked about Jacksons nomination during a joint news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron. Its too ugly, and its too disgusting.

Trump added, I said to Dr. Jackson, what do you need it for? To be abused by a bunch of politicians? ... If I was him . . . I wouldnt do it.

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Jacksons worsening problems flared into public view Tuesday when lawmakers nixed his confirmation hearing scheduled for Wednesday. The nomination was officially postponed by Georgia Sen. Johnny Isakson, the Republican chair of the veterans committee, and Sen. Jon Tester, the ranking Montana Democrat.

Later Tuesday, Tester said during an NPR interview that the committee had heard complaints from more than 20 current and former military members that Jackson had improperly given drugs, had become intoxicated on professional trips and belittled staff members.

We were told stories where he was repeatedly drunk on while duty where his main job was to take care of the most powerful man in the world, Tester said. Thats not acceptable.

Tester said concerns about the allegations were bipartisan in nature, including from Isakson.

An Isakson spokesperson said the senator remained undecided about the nomination but continues to harbour serious concerns.

Hours after the presidents news conference, more allegations emerged about Jackson, including a 2012 government report obtained by the Associated Press that said he exhibited unprofessional behaviour and should be removed from his post.

There is a severe and pervasive lack of trust in the leadership that has deteriorated to the point that staff walk on eggshells, the report found, according to AP.

It was another episode where a previously respected figure was lifted to prominence in Trumps orbit  only to have their sheen and reputation tarnished. Jackson had been widely hailed by three presidents and their aides as competent, charming and fiercely protective before Trump stunned Washington last month by picking the doctor to run the countrys second-largest federal agency.

Jackson declined to comment on the accusations, and senior aides said he showed no willingness to drop out as he trudged through meetings with senators on Capitol Hill Tuesday afternoon. Privately, he dismissed some of the charges to senior aides, according to administration officials, and said he was being unfairly attacked.

No, Im looking forward to the hearing, Jackson said. I was looking forward to doing it tomorrow, so Im looking forward to getting it rescheduled and answering all the questions.

White House officials said they were aware of accusations that Jackson gave out medicine to aides or others, including reporters, without rigorous scrutiny. But several senior officials said the drugs were usually nonnarcotic drugs, like Ambien. They also said Jackson was never intoxicated or drinking while working in the White House near Trump.

In a private meeting with Sen. Jerry Moran on Capitol Hill, Jackson denied any wrongdoing, according to the senator.

He does deny that hes done anything wrong in his service to the country and particularly his time at the White House as a physician in the medical unit, Moran said. Jackson indicated that he knows of nothing that would prohibit him from being qualified, capable and the right person to be secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Jacksons nomination also marked the shattering of another norm in Trumps Washington: Veterans Affairs secretaries have historically been approved unanimously, even sometimes by a voice vote. The president left David Shulkin, an Obama nominee, in the job, in the tradition of having a bipartisan cabinet. But he soured on Shulkin and removed him after an inspectors general report showed he took exorbitant trips and misled others about them.

There was uncertain congressional support for Jackson, a longtime presidential physician with little management experience, even before questions were raised about his conduct.

It was unclear why White House aides had not reviewed the allegations before Jackson was nominated last month. He was picked seemingly on a whim by Trump, who fondly calls him the Doc and did not formally interview him before nominating him  and ousting Shulkin  by tweet.

Concerns about Jackson were bipartisan. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell remained uncommitted to supporting the nominee, and a number of senior GOP aides on Capitol Hill estimated his chances of confirmation were slim.

Isakson, who chairs the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, had called White House Chief of Staff John Kelly twice in recent days to express concerns about new information, spokesperson Amanda Maddox said.

Isakson and Tester wrote to Trump on Tuesday morning, asking the White House to provide all documents related to Jacksons service in the White House medical unit as well as all communications between the Pentagon and the White House military office since 2006 that involve allegations or incidents connected to the physician. The senators also requested information the White House has about any allegations involving Jackson that were never relayed to the Pentagon.

In addition to Jacksons lack of management experience at a large organization, the physician had come under fire for his glowing appraisal of Trumps health after the president had his annual physical in January. Jackson declared that the president might live to the age of 200 with a healthier diet.

Isakson said the confirmation hearing is being delayed because the committee needs some time to get more information.

Im concerned that the press is making up far too many stories that arent true before we even get a chance to have a meeting, Isakson said after meeting privately with Tester on Tuesday morning. So I think Mr. Jackson and myself and Senator Tester and everybody in Congress need to take a deep breath.

A leading veterans group said Tuesday that it was important for the Senate to fully vet a nominee to lead the department, which has had seven secretaries since the start of the war in Afghanistan.

On this critical leadership position at this turbulent time, [America] cannot afford a misfire by the White House, said Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. IAVA members nationwide are calling on the Senate to do its job at this defining time and ensure that any nominee for VA Secretary will live up to this awesome responsibility.

Sen. Patty Murray, a member of Veterans Affairs Committee, said Trump didnt take the time to send over a fully vetted nominee.

It is sloppy, it is disrespectful to our veterans and it is wrong, Murray said.

Read more about:
COPENHAGENOne of the most talked-about and macabre court cases in recent Danish history is set to conclude Wednesday when the verdict is handed down on whether Peter Madsen tortured and murdered a Swedish journalist during a private submarine trip.

The 12-day trial has seen a series of gruesome allegations made against the inventor, but the autopsy of the cut-up remains of Kim Wall has not been able to specifically identify a precise cause of death.

Wall, 30, who wrote for The New York Times, The Guardian and other publications, set out on the submarine on a sunny August evening last year to interview Madsen, the co-founder of a company that develops and builds manned spacecraft. Her remains were found in plastic bags on the Baltic Sea bed weeks later.

Read more:

Danish inventor Peter Madsen, accused of murdering journalist Kim Wall, testifies in court

Danish inventor Peter Madsen charged with killing journalist Kim Wall on his submarine

Danish submarine inventor admits dismembering journalist Kim Wall, still denies killing her

After offering various explanations, the 47-year-old Madsen has claimed that Wall died as a result of a buildup in pressure inside his homemade UC3 Nautilus submarine. On Wednesday at 1 p.m. local time , a judge and two jurors will rule whether her death was an accident or a murder.

Prosecutors are seeking a life sentence for Madsen, who has confessed to cutting up Walls body up into pieces after he was unable to lift her corpse through the submarine tower so he could bury her at sea.

What do you do when you have a large problem? You make it smaller, he told the Copenhagen City Court. I am really, really sorry about what happened.

During the trial that began on March 8 and lasted for 12 court days, prosecutor Jakob Buch-Jepsen sought to prove there was no accident and that Wall may have been tied with her own stockings before Madsen impaled her.

He also said Walls dismembered torso had multiple stabs, including in the genitals and that semen had been found in Madsens underwear. Buch-Jepsen also said videos of women being tortured and killed were found on his personal computer  snuff-like videos that he did not make himself. And Madsen had, according to the prosecution, brought along tools he normally didnt take when sailing.

While arguing that Madsen is not insane, Buch-Jepsen quoted a court-ordered psychiatric report that described him as emotionally impaired with severe lack of empathy, anger and guilt and having psychopathic tendencies.

Before the trial, Madsen had offered shifting explanations for Walls death  something Buch-Jepsen used against him. The pair clashed verbally as Madsen brushed off Buch-Jepsen allegations.

Madsen initially said he had dropped Wall off on a Copenhagen island several hours into their submarine trip. Then he said Wall died accidentally inside the submarine when a hatch fell and hit her on the head  but no indication of a skull injury was found when her head was finally located.

He finally said Wall died because of a pressure problem inside the submarine which Madsen is suspected of having sunk deliberately. Wall, he said, had had a wonderful evening until it ended in an accident.

Buch-Jepsen said forensic experts had found nothing to back Madsens claim and that there is a risk he could commit the same kind of crime again.

In Denmark, life sentences are on average 16 years, but the term can be extended if necessary. Or he could be sent to a secure mental facility and locked up as long as he is considered a danger to others.

Madsens lawyer Betina Hald Engmark has described it a horror story but that the prosecution case was based on undocumented claims. Clearly, she says Madsen did something horrible by cutting Wall into pieces, and that he should only be sentenced for that. Under Danish law, indecent handling of a corpse can lead to six months in jail.

It is not my clients duty to prove that he is innocent. It is the task of the prosecutor to prove that he is guilty, she said in her final argument before the courtroom.

The parents of the Swedish reporter  Ingrid and Joachim Wall  have listened silently during the trial.

As they have done for most of the time since losing their daughter who had reported from post-earthquake Haiti, among other places, studied at Paris Sorbonne University, the London School of Economics and Columbia University in New York.
This Saturday, families of workers who have been killed or injured on the job will be commemorating their loved ones on the annual Day of Mourning; and many will once again join Canadas unions in calling for better protections for the living. In the age of #metoo and #timesup, this important tradition takes on an added dimension, providing the opportunity to more widely address violence and harassment in the workplace.

For decades, the focus of this solemn day has understandably been on workplace accidents and exposure to dangerous materials like asbestos. According to the Association of Workers Compensation Boards of Canada, there were 905 reported workplace deaths in 2016, and over 241, 508 claims accepted for lost time due to a work-related injury or disease.

Many tragic stories of loss and hurt will be highlighted on the Day of Mourning, including ones like those currently featured by Ontarios Workplace Safety and Insurance Board. There is the pilot whose plane crashed during a routine flight, the young woman who fell off a scaffold to her death, and the father who succumbed to cancer after a tiny piece of asbestos entered his body. Far too many workers have perished on the job.

One way we honour their memories is to do all we can to make sure no one elses family has to say goodbye prematurely, or struggle to care for their loved one. It also means we break the silence on violence and harassment in the workplace to better understand and prevent the full range of harmful behaviours that can occur. Without these critical conversations, employers and governments will have little incentive to act.

Take the heartbreaking case of the late Eric Donavan of Hazelbrook, P.E.I. The 47-year-old man had worked for over 17 years with a non-profit organization. By all accounts, he loved his work until a supervisor began to severely bully and harass him. He became increasingly anxious and stressed, eventually dying from a cardiac arrest.

After a three-year battle, the Workers' Compensation Board of Prince Edward Island accepted the arguments of Donovans wife and doctor and awarded the family compensation. His case represents one of the rare glimpses into understanding the toll that workplace bullying and harassment can have.

Its astonishing how many people are saying that they have been in workplaces where there has been consistent, health-threatening and health-injurious bullying and where nothing has been done by supervisors, said the familys lawyer James W. Macnutt.

Earlier this year, a Saskatchewan family similarly received compensation after arguing that workplace bullying led to their loved ones suicide.

The situation is acute for women workers, many of whom are working in caregiving professions including nurses, personal support workers, and teachers. Women workers are too often the target of workplace violence and harassment, including sexual and physical harassment or violence. Another risk is that domestic violence may also follow women to work. For some, the outcome can be fatal.

This Day of Mourning, Canadas unions are urging workers to seek support if they are the victims of violence and harassment. This impacts every sector. For instance, a 2017 Public Service Employee Survey found that 18 per cent of public servants reported being harassed at work in the preceding two years. For front-line workers, including bus drivers, paramedics, flight attendants, call centre workers and many others  particularly those who work alone  the dangers are significant.

Working with Canadas unions and employers, the federal government has developed strong regulations on workplace violence and federal Bill C-65 promises to finally address sexual harassment as a workplace hazard.

However, workers are also calling for new measures: whistleblower protection, to protect complainants from reprisal; the hiring of properly trained federal health and safety officers in appropriate numbers; and the recognition of domestic violence as a workplace hazard, as Ontario explicitly wrote into legislation following the workplace murders of Lori Dupont and Theresa Vince.

Its time to collectively renew our commitment to ensuring that all workers are safe and supported at work.
Something terrible happened in Toronto on Monday. And something outstanding happened as well.

The terrible thing was obvious.

A man drove a van south on Yonge St., careening along a busy sidewalk and deliberately targeting innocent people out for a stroll on a sunny afternoon, basking in the warmth of a spring that was late but all the more welcome for that.

Tragically, he succeeded all too well: at least 10 people were killed and others lie broken in hospital, some of them fighting for their lives.

It was a horrific act, made all the worse by coming out of nowhere in the heart of a peaceful city.

The outstanding thing that happened on Monday was less obvious. In fact, much of it involved things that did not happen, but well might have in another place or time.

Politicians and police stuck to the facts as they had them. They refused to speculate on what might have been behind the attack, despite the legitimate impatience of journalists and others for instant explanations. They did not feed fear or take advantage of the situation to score cheap political points.

The public, aside from the usual shameful suspects on social media, by and large also refused to indulge in finger-pointing or blame-throwing. There was shock, naturally, that such violence could be visited in the heart of a city that likes to consider itself more than usually immune to such things. But there was very little anger and no evidence of widespread panic that terrorism might have been at the root of the attack.

Officials did not overreact with a major security crackdown that would have escalated the situation and given the impression we were facing a bigger threat. Naturally, police closed off the crime scene along Yonge between Finch and Sheppard Aves. But the security was comparatively mild and most of the transit system kept operating.

Finally, the incident came to a close without further bloodshed. A police officer faced down the driver (identified Monday evening as 25-year-old Alek Minassian of Richmond Hill) and forced him to the ground. This, even though the driver seemed determined to die, courting suicide by cop by brandishing a metal object (which turned out to be a cellphone) and calling on the officer who subdued him to kill me.

This confrontation could easily have ended in yet another death, and it must have taken remarkable restraint to avoid shooting in the heat of such a charged moment. The driver is alive to face justice and, just as important for the public good, to give his own explanation of why he inflicted this horror.

All this speaks very well of the city we call home. We cannot prevent all violence in our midst; there will always be individuals who lash out for personal or political reasons and take innocent life. But we can do something about how we react collectively when we come under attack.

It would have been all too easy for things to have turned very ugly very quickly in the wake of Mondays attack.

After all, we are all too aware that in other cities in recent months trucks and vans have been used to kill people for ideological or religious reasons. Barcelona, Nice, London, Stockholm, New York City  all have witnessed vehicles turned into lethal weapons by those motivated by allegiance to a terrorist cause or group.

Based on that, parallels could easily have been drawn to the Yonge St. incident, fuelling fear and suspicion of minorities (Muslims, in particular). But, with few exceptions in the darker recesses of social media, that didnt happen.

And in fact, by Monday evening federal officials were downplaying that idea by saying the driver had no known connections to any organized terrorist group and there was no larger threat to national security. That should go a long way toward assuaging public fears about a generalized or continuing danger.

Still, we still need to find out what was behind what happened on Monday. Restraint in spreading doubtful information is good, but the public also deserves to know the full story of what was behind the attack.

Most important, we need to find out what motives the driver might have had. He could have been driven by personal grievances or grudges, or some form of psychological illness or delusion.

And, indeed, it could still turn out that he had some political or ideological motive. Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders pointedly refused to rule out that possibility when questioned on Monday evening, saying only that there wasnt any evidence of that at the moment. The truth is we have no idea why the driver did what he did.

Already, though, we can say that Toronto, its people and its officials, acquitted themselves well in the first hours after the attack. Fortunate city and country that we are, we have comparatively little experience in dealing with this kind of mass killing, whatever the motive behind it. Yet we managed to face it without over-reacting or making things worse.

And that, in itself, is something to be proud of.
At various times in her testimony in a Toronto court, a woman, whose name is under a publication ban, has said her first marriage was not consummated. She has said that marriage broke down right away when it turned out that the groom was in love with his cousin. She has described that cousin standing in the bridal party and telling her  the bride  that the groom would never touch her. She recently mentioned how the man married her because he wanted her to sponsor him so he could come to Canada.

Yesterday, the woman were calling Sakhi described how, after they went into the bridal bedroom, the cousin was sleeping there.

Why havent you told us this before? demanded defence lawyer George Tsimiklis at the Ontario Court of Justice on Monday.

Because you havent asked before, said Sakhi.

That marriage isnt even the reason Sakhi is in court; its because of a second marriage, one that has led to multiple charges of assault, sexual assault and uttering threats being laid against Rajinder Gupta, and charges of assault and uttering threats being laid against his mother Sheela Gupta. His father Vinod Gupta is charged with uttering threats. They have all pleaded not guilty in a trial before Superior Court Justice James Diamond that began April 9.

Sakhi has testified to being bitten, slapped, raped, having her hair pulled and threatened with death. Her cross examination began last week and continues.

The defence seems to be making the case that Sakhi is trying to get out of the marriage without stigma by using the second of two honourable ways, as defence lawyer George Tsimiklis called them last week: by claiming assault. For evidence, they are trying to establish a pattern, saying she has tried this before, using the other honourable way: professing a marriage wasnt consummated.

Based on what the defence has said so far, Sakhi would have to be both bold enough to bring false accusations to court, and timid enough to acquiesce to sex, even if she didnt want it.

The expectation on you was to obey your husbands reasonable requests? Tsmiklis asked.

Yes.

Isnt it reasonable that your husbands wishes to consummate a marriage is something you would comply with?

Reasonable  however it has to have happened with the consent of both, she said.

A little earlier, Tsmiklis had said, Im going to suggest that you were nervous and scared, but you never said no.

I was saying no, but he was not agreeing. I was extremely scared, Sakhi said.

In the third week of this trial, its starting to feel as though to be a woman is to be burdened with the task of maintaining a detailed diary documenting every tedious detail of your life  for fear it be needed some day in court.

Sakhi had to dredge up every detail from a past marriage. Then she also had to remember the minutiae of not just the assaults she alleges, but the events around them.

Tsmiklis fell ill halfway through Monday and Sheela Guptas lawyer Lakhwinder Sandhu took over the cross-examination.

Sandhu asked Sakhi how many times in the course of her three-month marriage her parents visited her.

Maybe two or three times, she said.

When was the first time your parents visited his (Guptas) house?

When I was sick, they came for the first time, she said.

How many days after your wedding did they come, he asked.

I dont remember.

When was the last time your parents visited Rajinder Guptas house?

I dont remember the date.

How many days before July 13, 2015 (the day she went to police) did your parents visit?

I dont remember.

I suggest you cannot tell us, because you didnt memorize this point of your story.

Under pressure, Sakhi sometimes gives spirited responses: I cant remember the dates. That doesnt mean its a story.

There is no jury at this trial.

Sakhi testifies in Punjabi through interpreters. Its a thankless job, interpretation: its expected to be seamless and only comes under scrutiny when theres a mistake.

At one point last week, Tsmiklis was suggesting to Sakhi that, on one occasion, when she said no to sex, Gupta complied, and didnt force her.

But he gave me pain, she said through the interpreter. Then the interpreter said, My body was red from biting and he put his penis into my vagina that night.

That wasnt what I heard.

From the bits of the language I understood, I thought what she said translated to, He didnt have sex with me. That was the only pain left to give. In other words, I understood her to be saying he violated her in every way short of having sex.

Im a mute spectator here, but crown attorney Kelly Simpson who sits with the Toronto Police officer-in-charge Jessie Verma, who does speak Punjabi, stood up to correct that.

Sakhi was asked to leave the courtroom, and on return, was re-examined on that point. He bit me, she said clearly, but didnt have sex.

Sometimes the system works. Sakhis cross-examination continues this week.

Shree Paradkar writes about discrimination and identity. You can follow her @shreeparadkar
A sneaker. A purse. A tiny backpack. A cellphone.

Personal possessions scattered along the path of a rampaging, careering white van, the maniacal and homicidal man at the wheel purposefully mowing down pedestrians.

Heartbreaking artifacts now of a weaponized vehicle attack.

And the bodies. My God, the bodies.

Two near a pharmacy south of Finch, one at Yonge and Empress, one close to Parkview.

A trail of blood and wreckage stretching from Finch to Sheppard on a sunny spring afternoon in Toronto.

A day when apparent random terrorism struck in this city.

Any fanciful notion that we are far away from the dogs of war unleashed, from the seething corners of the world where hatred fulminates, buffered from European capitals, from American metropolises where mayhem has been inflicted down through these recent years  that comforting thought died on Monday.

Along with the 10, at least, killed in a mass murder, and the 15, at least, injured, ambulances racing to hospitals and sirens blaring.

An abomination of a day.

Read more:

Sunny spring day turns to unforgettable tragedy as van driver kills 10 and injures 15

Van rampage suspect identified as Alek Minassian, 25, of Richmond Hill

What we know and dont know about the van crash

How naive we have been, whistling by the graveyard as carnage was wrought in Manchester, in Nice, in Paris, in Orlando, in London, in Madrid, in Toulouse, in Barcelona, in Istanbul, in Berlin, in Stockholm, in Boston. On and on in this new normal. When its not guns and makeshift bombs, its knives and axes and the thousands of pounds of lurching vehicle steel. Into a promenade crowd, into a Christmas market, into a pop concert, into the subway.

When its not a clash of civilization ideology or the desecration of a religion, its the madness of a nihilist shooter bristling with assault weapons  Las Vegas, Parkland, Sandy Hook, nursing a grudge.

Maddened or mesmerized or mentally ill. And how can you even sift the difference anymore?

On Monday, the horror rose on its hind legs in Toronto, up onto the sidewalk along the citys main artery, the pulsing core of North York.

The bedlam began around 1:10 p.m., the van racing helter-skelter, banging into bus shelters and fire hydrants, mailboxes and benches, but mostly, according to stunned witnesses, mounting the curb and dead-aiming at people. Young people, including students. Old people, basking in rare April warmth.

Hours later, in ghastly scenes along the miscreants route, lifeless bodies still lay on the ground, tarps thrown over them.

How many fearful families, unable to reach loved ones, must have scoured those photographs of victims, straining to recognize a shoe, a hoodie, an outstretched arm. Please dont let it be, dont let it be 

And the countless many who saw it unfold, from the driver of a TTC bus who raised the first alarm, to other motorists who slammed on their brakes to avoid colliding with the erratic van, to scores of pedestrians jumping out of the way, running for their lives.

A van apparently jumped a curb Monday in a busy intersection in Toronto, striking several people. Canadian police said the driver was later taken into custody. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said "our hearts go out to everyone affected." (The Associated Press)

I thought someone had a heart attack, one driver who found himself close to the van told CP24. Oh my God. Oh my  it wasnt a heart attack. This person was intentionally doing this, he was killing everybody. Im going to be sick  I stopped at Empress, he was just going on one after the other, all the way down to Yonge and Sheppard, I seen people get hit, one by one  They went down one after another. An old lady, crumpled. I seen a stroller split in half  flying in the air. Ah man, I cant believe this. Oh my God. The most gruesome  a womans leg  blood all over. Ah man, ah man.

Another bystander: It was indiscriminate. He was hitting whoever he could hit. He was hitting innocent people.

And yet another driver who said he actually caught a glimpse of the suspect, through the window. He looked really angry. But he also looked scared.

Rebuking himself, the man admitted to reporters, for not ramming the vehicle when he had the chance. I regret not doing that. Im not sure its legal. But if I could have stopped him, I wish I would have.

Screams, chaos, shattering glass raining. some rushing forward to perform CPR, others frozen where they stood with fear. Because you never know how youll react and Lord willing youll never have to find out.

At Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, which received 10 casualties, one victim was pronounced DOA; others were rushed into surgery. Those who were at the hospital for their own business were corralled into the trauma, distraught by what they were seeing in front of their eyes  mangled bodies and doctors frantically working on them in emergency.

The lucky ones, said John Flengas, EMS acting supervisor, suffered fractures.

On the job for nearly 21 years, Ive never seen anything like this.

Read more:

Security beefed up across city following van rampage

How to help victims of Torontos deadly van crash

Most havent. Hardly anyone thinks of it happening in their midst. Which is the only way to be, when the odds are infinitesimally teensy. We put our faith in the vast apparatus of national security and shared intelligence agencies, but the lone attacker keeps slipping through, the very randomness of it near impossible to avert. The bitter and radicalized individual who never appears as even a blip on the radar. The mentally deranged loner. The freak fanatic. The angry young man who hates women.

But of course, as the hours wore on, not a single elected official, not a senior cop, allowed the word terrorism to cross their lips. Not Mayor John Tory, not the acting police chief. (Federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said Monday evening: This incident that happened here on the street behind us was horrendous but it does not appear to be connected in any way to national security.)

Promptly Tory leapt to the next phase, reminding that Canada is admired for its peaceful multiculturalism. Know what? We dont need reminding, any more than we did collectively mourning the murder of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo at the National War Memorial in Ottawa in 2014 and the horrific mass shooting of Muslims at the Islamic Cultural Centre in Quebec City last year.

Condolences and assurances, of course. But mealy-mouthed non-speak. Even shorn of death-cult association, devoid of jihad affiliation or political messaging, its terrorism.

From my point of view, it was a terrorist attack, said the young man who wished hed crashed the van.

The motive may be unknown, the suspects ideology unclarified, if such exists, and thus far the suspect may have been just one more male rejected by women  the Twitter chatter  taking out his grievances on innocents.

But weve seen the footage captured on phone video.

Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders says a 25-year-old named Alek Minassian is in custody, after a van drove on busy sidewalks on Monday. Saunders says it appears to be a deliberate act. At least ten people were killed and 15 were injured. (The Associated Press)

A remarkably composed cop, standing mere feet from the suspect where his battered van came to a halt near Sheppard, the man extending his arm, stiff, with something in his hand that could have been a firearm. (It was apparently a cellphone but wielded like a gun.)

SHOOT ME! SHOOT ME! KILL ME! he yelled.

All the fingerprints of suicide by cop.

But the officer didnt shoot and the suspect dropped to his knees, flinging his arms in the air.

The cop de-escalated the melodrama, moving in to take the suspect down, cuffing him. On a day of many heroes, that brave cop is at the top of the list, along with the many first responders, paramedics and hospital resources stretched to the limits.

Read more: Cop deserves a medal: Toronto officer praised for cool response in tense standoff with van suspect

No identifying him, except that the officer is a veteran with 32 Division. Because this is a country, unlike the U.S., laggard in releasing any information.

Hes shaken up by the whole thing, and shaken up by the magnitude, Mike McCormack, president of the Toronto Police Association, told reporters. He said, you know, I was just doing my job. I wanted to arrest this guy. 

Police named the suspect as Alek Minassian, 25, taken into custody. Forensic teams are now faced with the monumental task of processing a crime scene that extends for two kilometres, numerous points of impact to meticulously cull for evidence, a frenzied attack to reconstruct, and that battered Ryder van.

For block after block, cops ministered to the shaken and comforted the traumatized, scared-witless kids, senior citizens, merchants who ventured cautiously outside.

We are often described as a cold-shoulder city where neighbours are strangers. But we are bonded in blood and tragedy now, as perhaps never before.

April 23, 2018: A day that will live in infamy, strewn with the dying and the maimed.
VANCOUVERLocal environmental advocates say bolder solutions are needed to solve what they call a global plastic crisis as the world marked Earth Day on Sunday.

The Vancouver-based Wilderness Committee lauded federal environment minister Catherine McKennas Earth Day announcement of an online public consultation to ask Canadians views on plastic waste and reduction.

Conservationists are applauding the move, said Wilderness Committee climate campaigner Peter McCartney, even though many environmental groups are weary of consultations. But if the input helps curb plastic waste, anything is helpful.

Folks might be aware of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is larger than the state of Texas, McCartney told StarMetro in a phone interview. People dont often think about it but these things last for hundreds of years and they all add up.

McKenna said in a statement she wants to see Canadians ensure plastics such as grocery bags are reused and recycled in ways that benefit the economy and environment.

Plastic products are polluting our oceans and waterways  not just in Canada but around the world, she said in a statement.

But the environmental group wants Ottawa to do even more, soon.

We would like to see a ban on non-biodegradable single-use plastics nationwide, McCartney said. We have everything we need to replace them so theres no good reason to allow them.

Vancouver environmentalists attended an annual Earth Day Parade and Festival on Saturday in East Vancouver, organized by Windermere Secondary School student group Youth for Climate Justice Now.

Their focus this year was the relationship between every day life choices and conserving the planet.

Its so much easier to put the responsibility on someone else we think is more capable, more efficient and more experienced, said Clara Sun, one of the student groups members. We only have one shot at saving our planet and if our generation doesnt take action, the earthquakes and floods will.

Plastic pollution was a global focus for this years Earth Day, with thousands of events marked worldwide.

Tackling plastic waste  which threatens human health and the well-being of ecosystems  is a major part of tackling climate change, said the executive director of Simon Fraser Universitys Adaptation to Climate Change team.

The action by the federal government to take advantage of its current role as president of the G7  thats what we need (in order) to get change, Deborah Harford said in a phone interview. You dont get action without champions. And those champions have to be leading decision makers or nobody listens.

The problem is not exclusive to Canada. Some of the most pristine areas left in the world are being choked by plastic debris, she warned, citing a recent study which found plastic in almost every oyster tested in B.C.

Another study, by the Vancouver Aquarium last month, cited 25,000 microplastics per square cubic metre in the Strait of Georgia.

Plankton  a species at the bottom of the marine food chain  ingest microplastics. But we still dont know for certain how that might affect human health.

Were eating our own debris, Harford said. Convenience is what makes this so difficult to change.

And changes have to make economic sense, she added. The challenge is that plastics are very cheap, ubiquitous and useful.

Our economy is based on these products, she said, and we havent figured out to replace plastics.

Theres more than 150 million tonnes of plastic waste in the ocean worldwide and it is estimated that plastic will outweigh fish in the ocean by 2050, according to the federal government.

But Harford said theres also opportunity for ingenuity as more Canadians learn of the extent of the problem  and what is needed to solve it.

Humans are creative, industrious beings so we just have to use those attributes to solve this problem, she said. But weve got to start now.

Canadians can access the online survey on a federal government website.

Melanie Green is a Vancouver-based reporter covering food culture and policy. Follow her on Twitter: @mdgmedia

Read more about:
VANCOUVERThe Vancouver park boards closure Saturday of the Sunset Beach lawn  following Fridays massive 4/20 cannabis festival  may not last the full 10 weeks as announced, according to the boards chair.

Stuart MacKinnon, chair of the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, told StarMetro staff they were not yet able to accurately assess how much damage had been done to the seaside park after tens of thousands of revellers came to the West End for the annual pot rally.

The field is saturated at the moment so until it dries out we cant do a full study of it, MacKinnon said in a phone interview Sunday. We hope its open before Canada day. Im sure it will be.

Park board commissioner Mike Wiebe had told StarMetro on Saturday the city was satisfied with the state of the field.

But the board released an official statement on Twitter the same day announcing the closure of the park for 10 weeks for turf repair, and posting photos of puddles in the grass.

Caution to park users: there is still event debris on the field, read the statement. We will erect fencing and close field for major rehabilitation today.

Fridays celebration was likely the last 4/20 event before marijuana is legalized by Ottawa later this year.

Wiebe told StarMetro in a phone interview the grass was in better condition than last year, when 4/20 festival-goers turned the field into a mud bath, causing a months-long closure and damages worth nearly $7,000  which 4/20 Vancouver organizers repaid.

Dana Larsen, one of the events planners, said the group will be repaying all financial costs to the city this year as well, including sanitation, clean-up, transportation control, turf restoration and lost revenue for the concession stands and aquatic centre.

MacKinnon confirmed this arrangement to StarMetro. And 4/20 Vancouver also shelled out $30,000 for plastic flooring to protect the park grounds, the organizers said.

No other unpermitted protest event pays any of those costs at all, Larsen said. Not a single one.

Larsen alleged the park board is the only city agency that will not sit down with 4/20 organizers; meanwhile he said other departments, including police and sanitation, had been in talks with the planners in advance.

It was frustrating, he said, not being given the opportunity to partner with the board, even after years of requesting an audience.

Ive never even had the chance to present to park board, Larsen said.

Cannabis activist Jodie Emery told StarMetro she feels 4/20 Vancouver is being unfairly singled out by the board because of its focus on pot culture.

Its very hard for us to continue to suffer this stigma and demonization, depicting us as reckless and trashy, Emery said.

West End residents who spoke to StarMetro early Saturday morning said they felt satisfied with the state of the beachfront lawn after the cannabis rally.

Trina Notman, a local resident who was walking her dog along the beach around 7 a.m. Saturday, said shed been on the lookout for damage  but didnt see anything near the 2017 impacts.

The field looks a lot better than it did last year, Notman said, adding she was withholding final judgment until the organizers plastic turf protectors were removed.

Last year the field was just destroyed, she said. It was just a mud pit, and unusable for two-and-a-half, three months.

David McLoughlin, who lives a block away from the park with his three kids, was taking a video Saturday morning to document how much better the turf was looking this year.

At this time last year this field was trashed, and it was really disappointing, he said. But Im impressed. I am. I mean, this is amazing.

MacKinnon acknowledged the park board permitted huge groups of people to gather for other events like Pride Parade and the Celebration of Light.

But thats in July and August when its generally much drier, he said, adding that wet spring weather in Vancouver made the Second Beach grass more vulnerable to damage.

Larsen said the tussle over turf was political, and believes the day will come when his organization and city officials can come to agreement.

4/20 will outlast the current park board and will probably outlast the next park board and the park board after that, he said. Everything will change. We will be treated like other events.

MacKinnon also seemed to relent a little, suggesting the boards attitude to 4/20 could change once Canada legalizes marijuana.

Come July or August  in the fall  when it is legalized, that will be a different matter, MacKinnon said of the boards stance. Well be looking into options.

Correction - Apr. 23, 2018  This article was updated from a previous version which misspelled Stuart MacKinnons name.

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Members of the Upper Nicola Band voted last week to develop what could be B.C.s largest solar farm on their Quilchena reserve lands.

Ninety-two per cent of the First Nations members who voted in the referendum supported the development of the 15-megawatt solar farm.

In B.C. it will be the largest solar farm by quite a large margin, said Grant Bierlmeier, FortisBCs director of business development. Upper Nicola Band is partnering with FortisBC on the project.

Currently, B.C.s largest solar farm  the SunMine owned by the City of Kimberly  produces one megawatt of electricity, he said.

The First Nation government began looking for a renewable energy project to develop in 2011. They considered solar, wind and geothermal, opting for solar because they could develop the project on their reserve lands in sunny South-Central B.C.

We wanted to see our membership have something happen on the reserve that theyre going to see every day because its right beside the road. Theyre going to say thats ours, were doing something for the environment, were doing something for the land, said Upper Nicola Chief Harvey McLeod. Its all about hope.

Over the next 40 years, the solar project is expected to bring some economic benefits to the Upper Nicola Band, but it wont eliminate economic pressures on the community, he said.

While the voter turnout for the referendum  24 per cent  was lower than McLeod was hoping for, he said hes comfortable with the result because of the number of information sessions and meetings they held over the last year-and-a-half to ensure the community was informed about the project.

The next step is confirming the solar resource at the site. Upper Nicola and FortisBC set up a measuring device called a pyranometer in October and will keep it there for a year to confirm the results of previous modelling.

At this point, the measurements from the pyranometer are lining up with the predicted results, Bierlmeier said.

Once the solar farm is operational, the power will be sold directly to BC Hydro, McLeod said, adding that negotiations are ongoing with the utility.

BC Hydro remains committed to creating opportunities for Indigenous groups to build small, clean energy projects in B.C., said Tanya Fish, a spokesperson for the utility, in a statement.

While the utility has also agreed to purchase electricity from the Tsilhqotin Nation, which is planning a one-megawatt solar project, BC Hydro has just one solar electricity purchase agreement in place with the Kimberly SunMine project.

Ainslie Cruickshank is a Vancouver-based reporter covering the environment. Follow her on Twitter: @ainscruickshank

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GODFREY  For the second time this month, authorities have charged a man with aggravated battery for allegedly attacking a firefighter during the performance of his duties.

Christopher M. Roemer, 28, of the 2800 block of Gerson Avenue, Godfrey, was charged for allegedly kicking a firefighter in the shin and groin on Saturday.
ALTON  Events in Alton and Jerseyville will be among those happening nationwide as part of the National Day of Prayer Thursday, May 3.

This years theme is Pray for America-UNITY and is based on Ephesians 4:3 Making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

The National Day of Prayer was established as an annual event in 1952. The law was later amended in 1988 designating the first Thursday in May.

Historically, days of prayer have been called for since 1775, when the Continental Congress designated a time for prayer in forming the nation, according to the National Day of Prayer website.

In 1863, Abraham Lincoln called for a day of prayer.

The Rotary Club of the Riverbend will host its eighth annual Day of Prayer event at the Post Commons, 300 Alby St., Alton.

The goal is to bring people of all faiths together to pray for a variety of topics such as youth, sanctity of life, education, business, the churches, national unity, families, government, law enforcement, military, first responders, media, the sick and those in need, said organizer Lori Ehlers.

Participants this year include Larry Trent, former director of Illinois State Police director and the RiverBend Growth Association; St. Louis television meteorologist Mike Roberts; Jon Carroll; Paula Mattix-Wand; Larry Thompson; Sheila and David Goins; Bill Pyatt; Mike Adams; Mark Scandrett and Jason Harrison.

In Jerseyville, an observance will be from 6:30-8 p.m. at the Jersey County Courthouse.

The event will be filled with prayer for our governmental leaders, churches, families and schools, said organizer Linda Minor. Pastor Mark Clifft will deliver a special message on prayer and the importance to our nations present and future. The Gibson Girls will be singing worship.

State Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer, R-Jacksonville, will be among the speakers.

Locally, other events are planned for Shiloh and OFallon, Illinois. For more information, including specific events, visit www.nationaldayofprayer.org.

Reach reporter Scott Cousins at 618-208-6447.
JERSEYVILLE  New evidence leading to murder charges in the disappearance and death of an East Alton woman in 2010 surfaced after the suspect was charged in a domestic violence incident and his son was subpoenaed by a Madison County grand jury.

Additional charges have been filed against Roger W. Carroll in the death of Bonnie Woodward, and details of the investigation came out during testimony during his preliminary hearing in Jerseyville Monday morning.

Carroll was charged April 12 with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of concealing a homicide in Jersey County, and one count of aggravated kidnapping in Madison County. The Jersey County charges were amended April 20 to include a third first degree murder and aggravated kidnapping charge. He was also charged March 5 with unlawful restraint, a felony, and misdemeanor domestic battery, after allegedly using a stun gun on his wife.

On Monday, Carroll pleaded innocent on all charges.

Madison County States Attorney Tom Gibbons said the additional murder charge stems from a murder committed during the course of a felony, the aggravated kidnapping charge, so it needed to be filed in Jersey County. He said the Madison County charge would probably be dropped.

Madison County Lead Assistant States Attorney Jennifer Mudge has been named a special prosecutor in the Jersey County cases.

During Mondays hearing retired Alton Police Department Capt. Scott Golike, now a special investigator for the Madison County States Attorneys Office, testified for about 40 minutes before Circuit Judge Eric Pistorius found enough evidence to move forward with the case and set a pre-trial hearing for 9 a.m. Thursday, June 14.

Before hearing evidence several potential witnesses who were attending the hearing were told to leave the courtroom.

Mudge first questioned Golike about the initial investigation into Woodwards disappearance. Woodward was last seen June 25, 2010 near her vehicle in the parking lot of the Eunice Smith Nursing Home, where she had worked for 27 years. Golike noted several times that since then there has been no activity with her cell phone or social media accounts.

Part of the initial investigation also centered on the disappearance of Woodwards stepdaughter Heather Woodward, then 17.

Later in his testimony, Golike said Nathan confirmed that he (Carroll) used Heather as bait.

Bonnie was desperately looking for Heather and he used that to get her to come with him, Golike said.

Golike described the relationship between the two as particularly stressful and said Heather had moved out of their home on June 10, 2010, and spent a week with a teacher who was attempting to help her before staying at the Carrolls. She was reported as a runaway on June 17, 2010.

She went on a vacation with the Carrolls to Goreville, Illinois, where Monica Carrolls family was. Heather eventually walked into the East Alton Public Library and told them police were looking for her.

Golike said that multiple witnesses said they saw Bonnie Woodward near the car talking to a white male described as being in his 40s and several saw her leave with the man.

Fingerprints found on Woodwards car were later matched to Carroll, who told investigators he was cutting brush on his property in Jerseyville on that day.

Golike said that after to March 2 domestic incident Carroll was found on his property in what Golike said was an attempted suicide.

He also said Carrolls wife, Monica Carroll, said he killed for her before.

Golike then said Carrolls son, Nathan Carroll, who was 16 at the time of the incident, was subpoenaed and appeared before a Madison County grand jury on March 29.

Nathan and his father made an unusual departure from Goreville the morning of June 25, according to Golike, leaving early in the morning.

The son testified that on the trip home his father said Bonnie Woodward was a bad person and he was going to kill her, Golike said.

The two did a surveillance trip to Woodwards East Alton home and the nursing home, then Roger Carroll dropped Nathan off at home, and got out a 9mm handgun and loaded it. Roger Carroll then shaved, cut his fingernails and left.

Nathan testified that he later heard eight or nine gunshots, and saw Woodwards body when he went to see what was going on. According to Golike, Nathan described seeing the lower part of a body wearing tan hospital scrubs similar to Woodwards work clothes.

According to Golike, Nathan said his father used a bucket loader to move the body to a pre-prepared pile of brush, then lit the brush on fire.

The two tended the fire for approximately eight to 10 days.

Golike said based on that testimony they got a search warrant and excavated at the site of the fire, and found a spent 9mm shell casing and a 9mm projectile. Both matched the pistol that Nathan Carroll described his father loading.

Golike also said they found what appeared to be teeth in the area, but did not say if they were matched to Woodward.

After Mudge finished, defense attorney Scott Snider had a few questions.

It was noted that none of the witnesses who saw Bonnie Woodward in the nursing home parking lot were able to pick Carroll out of a photo lineup, or positively identify the car the two allegedly left in.

Carroll remains in custody at the Jersey County Jail with no bond.

Gibbons said that Nathan Carroll has been given full immunity, in part because he was a juvenile and was dragged into the incident.

It was also noted during testimony that both Nathan and Monica Carroll had invoked their Fifth Amendment rights during the initial interviews. Gibbons also noted that Monica Carroll did not have a legal obligation to come forward about the crime.

Reach reporter Scott Cousins at 618-208-6447.
ALTON  Thursday is the day for group leaders and individuals to sign up and select what houses they will paint for the 31st annual Pride Inc., Bucket Brigade.

We always need teams, we have a nice selection of houses and wed like to have more teams to paint them, said new Bucket Brigade co-chairman Karen Wilson. They can come, look over the pictures of the houses and read comments about what needs to be done at each.

The organizational, captains meeting is scheduled for 6-7 p.m. Thursday, April 26, at Main Street United Methodist Church, 1400 Main St., Alton.

The main painting date, weather permitting, is May 12.

Representatives from groups of volunteers, or people coming forward to join teams to paint houses should come to the meeting to determine which homes are within their painting ability range, Wilson said.

Bucket Brigade paints peoples homes for free if they are unable to do so or cannot afford to pay for the work. The houses must have only one story, be owner-occupied and located from Jerseyville through South Roxana.

While Thursdays meeting is important, Wilson said those who cannot attend may go later to her brother Scott Neudeckers State Farm insurance office to view photos of the houses that remain unclaimed. The office is located at 1646 Main St., Alton.

For more information, call Wilsons State Farm office at (618) 466-5774 or Neudeckers office at (618) 465-6303.

Karen and Scotts father, Dale Neudecker, founded Bucket Brigade in 1988. Since then, the corps of volunteers has painted 1,437 homes and public structures. Each year, co-sponsor Sherwin Williams donates paint for the effort; The Telegraph is a third sponsor.

After 30 years, Dale Neudecker stepped down from the chairmanship this spring, with his daughter and son assuming roles of co-chairmen. He remains involved in Bucket Brigade as advisor and committee member.

Wilson, her daughter Meredith Elfrink, and Scott Neudecker  all of Godfrey  are on Bucket Brigades committee.

Wilson and Dale Neudecker, also of Godfrey, are members of Pride Inc, a Godfrey-based beautification organizations board of directors.

Reach Linda N. Weller at 618-208-6450, or on Twitter @Linda_Weller
I serve as recording secretary of the Godfrey Democratic precinct committeepersons. On the evening of April 18, I attended the Madison County Democratic convention at the Edwardsville courthouse, where we elected our partys officers.

Mark Von Nida, re-elected by acclamation as our chairman, made one of the most stirring speeches Ive heard in some time. The GOP, he noted, is the party of fear. It demonizes entire segments of the population as part of its strategy to win elections. We Democrats are the party of hope, Mark said. Were the party of the future, which is why we so strongly support education and teachers.

Republicans promote right to work laws, which they claim will make any state prosperous by driving down wages and supposedly attracting new jobs. We Democrats, Mark stated, back organized labor because we know that unions help to ensure good wages and safe working conditions.

Sarah Smith, whos running for circuit judge, earned cheers and a standing ovation when she said that we Democrats wont just win the November election. Well crush this election! she predicted in her speech. Mark Von Nida also introduced Chris Miller, a Millennial whos running for county treasurer. We Democrats are indeed the party of the future!

Before the convention opened, deputy registrars such as myself were given a refresher course in the process of registering new voters. We Democrats want our fellow citizens to participate in the electoral process. We celebrate the act of voting because we see it as a victory for democracy. This distinguishes us from the Republicans, who thrive on voter suppression.

Its become an accepted truth of modern politics that Republican electoral prospects go up as the number of voters goes down, the New York Times noted in an editorial this month. Conservatives have known this for a long time, which helps explain their intensifying efforts to make it harder to vote, or to eliminate large numbers of people from political representation entirely.

Which people, specifically? The poor and non-whites, since they tend to vote for Democratic candidates. Disenfranchising voters who are likely to vote Democratic facilitates Republican victories on election day. The GOP particularly seeks to minimize the number of blacks who cast ballots. Since 1964, blacks have overwhelmingly voted Democratic.

What means do Republicans use to disenfranchise Democratic voters? In a 2016 editorial, The Washington Post stated, Measures have included new voting ID laws, shuttering some polling places and reducing hours for early voting. Since the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the GOP-dominated legislatures of southern states have been throwing up barriers to black turnout, as The Washington Post put it. These states have adopted a voting-rights-be-damned attitude as Republican lawmakers scheme to keep their states fire-engine Red.

Some Republicans will accuse us of hypocrisy by noting that long-ago southern Democrats disenfranchised blacks, who at that time wanted to vote for the GOP. True enough. But as Tova Andrea Wang noted in her book The Politics of Voter Suppression, this despicable practice is now exclusively in the electoral toolbox of the GOP and has been so for the last fifty years.

Voter suppression in states with Republican legislatures played a crucial role in placing Donald Trump in the White House and gave him a GOP-dominated congress to facilitate his chicanery. That alone should convince any thinking person that voter suppression is a threat to our nation.

Let it be known that we Madison County Democrats condemn voter suppression and will not tolerate it here  or anywhere else in the United States. Many Republicans evidently believe that the right to vote is limited to those of a certain race or income level. We Democrats believe that voting is a basic human right, and we will vigorously oppose those who attempt to deprive our fellow Americans of this right.

John J. Dunphy is the author of Lewis and Clarks Illinois Volunteers and Abolitionism and the Civil War in Southwestern Illinois. He owns The Second Reading Book Shop in Alton.
The last gasp of a futile fight is to lob a blanket label like partisan politics at legislation in the hopes of bringing its demise.

Fortunately, lawmakers in the state House saw through the smoke in advancing legislation that would do away with the long-standing practice of off-shoring employees in the Governors Office.

The Senate should do the same when it takes up the issue.

Simply put, off-shoring involves paying a portion of an employees salary from another agencys budget. Because the money is coming from somewhere else, the person doing the hiring can give the illusion of having a tight, well-controlled budget.

Gov. Bruce Rauner, for example, has 44 staff members costing $4.9 million in his offices budget. While that seems reasonable on paper, it doesnt clarify that the office has 58 more staff members  being paid a total $5.5 million  who are being off-shored and drawing salaries from other agencies funds.

In actuality, the Governors Office has 102 staff members and is spending $10.4 million this fiscal year, according to Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza.

Since some of that money comes from another budget  $140,000 for a deputy chief of staff from Illinois State Police funds and $250,000 from Department of Human Services finances for an education adviser, for example  the Governors Office budget appears in order.

Why is that wrong?

Because its misleading.

That prompted Mendoza to work with Andy Manar, a Bunker Hill Democrat, in the Senate and Christian Mitchell, a Chicago Democrat, in the House to push the Truth in Hiring Act and say no more.

Rauners office certainly is not the first to play this game. Hopefully, he will be the last.

The outlook appears good. It passed the House with unanimous backing and has bipartisan support in the Senate.

It will be interesting to see if Rauner tries to veto the measure when  not if  it passes. Theres certainly been friction between the comptroller and the Governors Office in the past and we wont be surprised to hear it referred to as partisan politics in the days and weeks to come.

Dont fall for it.

Mendoza has been quick to point out that past administrations on both sides of the political aisle have done the same thing, from Pat Quinn to Rod Blagojevich to George Ryan.

To her, it is more a matter of transparency.

This bad practice is siphoning money from health care, environmental protection, juvenile justice and public safety, she said earlier this month at the Capitol in Springfield.

Truthfulness is not a partisan issue.

It is the foundation of good government.
By the time you finish reading this article, four more people will experience sexual assault. Every 98 seconds, another American is sexually assaulted according to RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network). Sexual assault is never the victims fault. Whether the assault occurred recently or years ago, everyone has the right to be heard and be supported.

The probability that you know someone who has experienced sexual trauma is high. Nearly one in five women and 1 in 67 men in the U.S. have experienced rape or attempted rape some time in their lives, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Recent movements, campaigns and public discussions happening across our nation about sexual harassment, assault and trauma are creating change and refining many views on an issue that, unfortunately, has been happening for decades and harming thousands of Americans each year. Here are several things you can do to help.

Know the misconceptions

We can all stop the spread of false information about sexual assault and trauma by knowing the misconceptions that exist. Sexual assault is about power and control. Its not about sex.

Rarely is an individual sexually assaulted by a stranger. Out of the sexual abuse cases reported to law enforcement, 93 percent of juvenile victims knew the perpetrator, according to RAINN. Sexual harassment, assault and trauma can happen to anyone. It is not limited to one industry, age group, gender, race or community.

The effects trauma has on a child or an adults life can also be underestimated. It can influence a persons mind and behavior and impact every part of their life. The process a person takes to identifying trauma as a root cause can vary from person to person, so having a clinical team and professionals who incorporate evidence-based practices, like cognitive behavior therapy and individualized treatment plans can help a child or adult experiencing trauma build a network of support and rebuild their life.

Dont blame the victim

Statements like Why didnt he or she run? or They should take self-defense classes, can come across as blaming the victim without a person even realizing it, making it more difficult for an individual who has experienced sexual assault to speak out about his or her experience. Studies show the majority of sexual assaults are not reported. Sexual assault thrives on secrecy and blaming the victim. Speak up and support victims of sexual assault.

Provide support

Everyone can support individuals going through sexual trauma by listening to them, believing them, and when theyre ready, offering to help connect them with advocates who are dedicated to supporting survivors of sexual assault.

The National Sexual Assault Hotline, 1-800-656-HOPE (4673), is free and confidential. Trained staff members are there 24/7 to listen, support, answer questions and provide resources. At Centerstone, we offer hope and healing for all who have experienced sexual trauma.

Sexual trauma should not ultimately determine an individuals future life path. Each of us has the capacity to ensure no one journeys on their path to healing alone.

Julie Bailey, LPC, CADC, QMHP is a mental health and substance abuse counselor at Centerstone in Marion, Illinois, with a focus on trauma-informed care. She holds a Masters degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, and in June, will have completed national certification in TF-CBT (Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy).
Britain's Prince Harry (R) and his US fiancee Meghan Markle leave after attending a memorial service at St Martin-in-the-Fields in Trafalgar Square in London, on April 23, 2018

Britain's Prince Harry (R) and his US fiancee Meghan Markle arrive to attend a memorial service at St Martin-in-the-Fields in Trafalgar Square in London, on April 23, 2018

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have chosen a number of well-known hymns for their wedding Service, after taking 'a great deal of interest and care' in choosing their wedding music.

Kensington Palace have revealed that the music for the big day will be under the direction of James Vivian, the Director of Music at St George's Chapel, and will include a selection of choral groups and soloists.

Expand Close Undated handout released by Kensington Palace of cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason who will be playing at the wedding next month of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Tuesday April 24, 2018. See PA story ROYAL Music. Photo credit should read: Lars Borges/PA Wire / Facebook

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Whatsapp Undated handout released by Kensington Palace of cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason who will be playing at the wedding next month of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Tuesday April 24, 2018. See PA story ROYAL Music. Photo credit should read: Lars Borges/PA Wire

Sheku Kanneh Mason - Cellist

The musicians chosen include the Choir of St George's Chapel, whose repertoire draws on music from all ages. and 19-year-old cellist Sheku Kanneh Mason, who won the BBC Young Musician 2016.

Sheku made his debut at the BBC proms in 2017, and released an album entitled 'Inspiration' earlier this year.

Prince Harry saw Sheku play at an event in London in support of the work of Antiguan charity the Halo Foundation, and admired his passion for classical music.

Sheku revealed in a Tweet that he was asked personally by bride-to-be Meghan Markle to perform at the wedding.

"I'm so excited and honoured to perform at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding. I was bowled over when Ms Markle called me to ask if I would play during the ceremony," he said.

Other Royal Wedding Musicians

Gospel Choir The Kingdom Choir will perform under Karen Gibson, who says it is an 'honour' to be asked to sing at the royal wedding.

"It will be a moment that we will always treasure," she said.

Soprano Elin Manahan Thomas, trumpeter David Blackadder and organist Luke Bond will also perform at the service.
The government has started the exercise to frame a national policy on e-commerce, with a think-tank constituted on the issue under the chairmanship of Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu set to hold its first meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Senior officers of various ministries and departments, representatives from industry bodies, e-commerce companies, telecommunication and IT firms, RBI and independent experts have been invited to participate in the meeting, the Commerce Ministry stated.

The think-tank, it said, will provide a platform for an inclusive and fact-based dialogue leading to recommendations for informed policy making so that the country is adequately prepared to take advantage of the opportunities and meet the challenges that would arise from the next wave of advancements in digital economy.

The group "will seek to collectively deliberate on the challenges confronting India in the arena of digital economy with a view to developing recommendations for a comprehensive and overarching national policy on e-commerce," it said.

Issues that will be discussed during the meeting include aspects of e-commerce, digital economy, physical and digital infrastructure, regulatory regime, taxation policy, data flows, server localisation, intellectual property rights protection, FDI, and trade-related aspects.

"Developments on e-commerce at the WTO and evolving appropriate national position on the underlying issues, would be another important dimension of the discussions of the think tank on the framework for national policy on e-commerce," it added.

The think-tank will explore options for providing a fillip to entrepreneurship in digital economy.

It will identify specific policy interventions for nurturing domestic firms and create jobs in e-commerce, it said.

Representatives of almost fifty organisations are expected to participate in the first meeting of the think-tank.

The setting up of the about 70-member body assumes significance as cross-border digital trade is growing at a faster pace and developed countries want an agreement on e-commerce trade under the aegis of the World Trade Organisation.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said Congress' decision to bring an impeachment motion against Chief Justice Dipak Misra was incorrect, and clarified that her party did not support the move.

"The Congress' decision to submit an impeachment motion against the Chief Justice was not correct. They wanted us to support it. But Trinamool Congress did not support it," Banerjee said during an interview to News18 Bangla.

"I told Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi not to go for impeachment," Banerjee added.

Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Monday rejected the impeachment motion filed by 64 MPs belonging to seven parties, led by the Congress against the CJI, on the ground that there was lack of "credible and verifiable" information on charges of "misbehaviour", which, he said, undermined judiciary's independence.

However, Congress leader and former law minister Kapil Sibal, termed Naidu's decision as illegal and unconstitutional and said the order will be challenged in the Supreme Court.
Former Delhi High Court Chief Justice A.P. Shah, along with other child rights activists and lawyers expressed their dissatisfaction over the recent ordinance to amend the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

Addressing the media at the Press Club of India on Monday, Justice Shah urged everyone to reject the ordinance and focus on reforming the criminal justice system.

"Not only is the enhancement of punishment to include death penalty futile, but it will also have disastrous consequences for children. I urge everyone to reject the ordinance and focus on reforming the criminal justice system," Justice Shah said.

"Mostly there are pressures of settling the matter within the family.The death penalty diverts attention from other problems in the criminal justice system such as poor investigation, crime prevention," he added.

The issues were raised by a six-member bench headed by Justice AP Shah, advocate Vrinda Grover, Anuja Gupta from RAHI Foundation, Bharti Ali of HAQ and including child rights activists.

The Centre on April 21 cleared the amendment in the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act to award death sentence to the rapists of children below the age of 12.
Three missing Mexican students were killed last month in the western state of Jalisco and their bodies dissolved in acid after criminals confused them with members of a rival gang, authorities said Monday.

The three film students were last seen in the municipality of Tonala after their car broke down and they were later kidnapped by at least six people, who tortured and killed them, according to Jalisco state prosecutors.

Subsequently their bodies were dissolved in acid so that no trace of them remained, the state prosecutors office said.

State prosecutor Raul Sanchez said that two people had been arrested so far in the investigation.

Another official told Reuters, on condition of anonymity since he was not authorized to speak to the media, that investigators are analyzing more human remains found on the premises of the building where the young men were dissolved.

Prosecutors said the youths were confused with members of a another gang by gunmen from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), which has become the most powerful in Mexico, according to U.S. authorities.

Criminal groups in Mexico often kidnap, torture, dismember and even dissolve their victims in acid and many of the remains are dumped in clandestine graves.

In 2014, 43 student teachers disappeared in the southern state of Guerrero and the government said they were kidnapped by police who handed them over to a criminal group that killed them and burned their bodies.

International observers objected to the governments investigation and the case shook the administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto, who has seen his popularity decline sharply amid corruption allegations and a spike in violence.

More than 25,000 people were murdered last year in Mexico. Homicides hit their highest level in records going back 20 years.
New York/London  Cryptocurrency trading by financial firms could increase in 2018 according to Thomson Reuters survey, with approximately 20% of the participants indicating they are considering trading cryptocurrency over the next 3-12 months. The survey was conducted among 400+ clients across all of Thomson Reuters trading solutions including Eikon, REDI, and its FX platforms.

Among those who indicated they would trade cryptocurrencies in 2018, approximately 70% said they were planning to do so over the next 3-6 months with an additional 22% planning to trade over the next 6-12 months. This indicates that cryptocurrency trading is more of a 2018 project than something longer-term. The survey also found generally widespread familiarity with cryptocurrencies.

Cryptocurrency is still a relatively small part of the trading market, but this survey indicates this niche segment is starting to enter the mainstream of the financial services industry. This is a major change from a year ago, said Neill Penney, co-head of Trading, Thomson Reuters. The current priority for our clients appears to be seamless access to news and data around cryptocurrencies to facilitate informed trading decisions. As a leading provider of news, data, and trading capabilities, Thomson Reuters is well-positioned to deliver solutions that address client demand in the growing cryptocurrency market.

Thomson Reuters delivers transparent cross-asset insight into both traditional and new and emerging asset classes like crypto assets. Thomson Reuters currently provides prices for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies via our flagship financial desktop platform Eikon. Thomson Reuters also recently launched a new version of our MarketPsych Indices (TRMI v3.0), which includes the first sentiment data feed for Bitcoin in addition to new and/or enhanced market sentiment data for several asset classes, new user capabilities and coverage.

Thomson Reuters intends to introduce further capabilities in this sector throughout 2018 as it continues to meet the changing needs of our customers.

Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters is the worlds leading source of news and information for professional markets. Our customers rely on us to deliver the intelligence, technology and expertise they need to find trusted answers. The business has operated in more than 100 countries for more than 100 years. Thomson Reuters shares are listed on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges. For more information, visit www.thomsonreuters.com.

CONTACT



Brian Bertsch

+1-646-223-5985

brian.bertsch@thomsonreuters.com

Felice Tobin

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felice.tobin@thomsonreuters.com
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.
Weatherford International plc, an oilfield service company, provides equipment and services for the drilling, evaluation, completion, production, and intervention of oil and natural gas wells worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Western Hemisphere and Eastern Hemisphere. It offers artificial lift systems, including reciprocating rod, progressing cavity pumping, gas, hydraulic, plunger, and hybrid lift systems, as well as related automation and control systems; pressure pumping and reservoir stimulation services, such as acidizing, fracturing and fluid systems, cementing, and coiled-tubing intervention; and drill stem test tools, and surface well testing and multiphase flow measurement services. The company also provides safety, downhole reservoir monitoring, flow control, and multistage fracturing systems, as well as sand-control technologies, and production and isolation packers; liner hangers to suspend a casing string in high-temperature and high-pressure wells; cementing products, including plugs, float and stage equipment, and torque-and-drag reduction technology for zonal isolation; and pre-job planning and installation services. In addition, it offers directional drilling services, and logging and measurement services while drilling; services related to rotary-steerable systems, high-temperature and high-pressure sensors, drilling reamers, and circulation subs; managed pressure drilling, conventional mud-logging, drilling instrumentation, gas analysis, wellsite consultancy, and open hole and cased-hole logging services; reservoir solutions and software products; and intervention and remediation services. Further, the company provides equipment and drilling tools; tubular handling, management, and connection services; equipment rental services; and onshore contract drilling and related services through a fleet of land drilling and workover rigs. Weatherford International plc was incorporated in 1972 and is headquartered in Baar, Switzerland.

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Colonie

Siena College named 1980 graduate Daniel Rutnik its 2018 Entrepreneur of the Year on Tuesday.

Rutnik, of Delmar, runs Bender Lane Advisory, a wealth management firm based in downtown Albany with 25 employees.

Rutnik was given the award Tuesday afternoon during a special ceremony at the college's Yates Gallery in the Standish Library.

"The entire Siena College community congratulates Dan Rutnik on this award," Siena President Brother F. Edward Coughlin said. "His business achievements are an inspiration to Siena students and fellow alumni."

Rutnik started Bender Lane Advisory in 2002 to provide financial services to wealthy families and private investment partnerships. Before starting his own firm, Rutnik worked at Ayco in its family office division.

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Rutnik got his degree from Siena in political science and holds a law degree from Albany Law School. He was a speaker this semester at Siena's Stack Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Rutnik's father, George Rutnik, is a 1956 Siena graduate, and his son Danny is currently a freshman at Siena.
Schenectady

As an impressionable 18-year-old Union College freshman, Richard Lazzaro recalled spending several hours on campus with a pioneering heart surgeon named George Magovern, an experience that had an indelible impact on him.

On Monday, Lazzaro, who is now 54 years old and chief of thoracic surgery at Lenox Hospital in New York City, returned to his alma mater in hopes of doing some inspiring himself.

"When I look at the students, I look at them, and I say, 'I was them. Let me just share everything that I know,'" he said before touting the benefits of robotic surgery at Reamer Auditorium as part of the college's alumni speaker series.

He talked with the students about the journey of life and the principles he learned during his days at Union, including always saying yes when someone asks for help.

Students had a chance to test their skills and dexterity using a simulated da Vinci surgical system, a robotics-assisted surgery machine that Lazzaro said has helped revolutionize the medical field since 2001.

"The precision of the instrument because it's got more dexterity to it allows you to do things previously unimaginable," said Lazzaro, a member of the class of 1984 who went on to Albany Medical College. "The nice thing about that technology is it doesn't limit you. You can do almost any procedure that you can do through big incision."

Robotics surgery has proven especially beneficial for tumors of the thymus gland, esophogeal cancer and hiatal hernia as well as fixing the trachea, or windpipe, in frail or elderly patients, Lazzaro said.

But not all doctors have embraced robotics surgery, which Lazzaro said some naysayers describe as disruptive technology.

Most doctors train for a decade after medical school and, for some, learning a new-cutting edge technology can be daunting.

"I guess it has a lot to do with a comfort level of changing from one technique to another," said Lazzaro, who teaches the new technology for the Society of Thoracic Surgeons. "When someone is an expert in an open technique, they may be reluctant to take a perceived step backwards in order to learn a new technique."

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Nationally, more than 90 percent of lung operations for lung cancer  the most common procedures thoracic surgeons do  are still being done through traditional incision surgery, said Lazzaro.

He said California-based Intuitive Surgical has been in robotics-assisted surgery for more than 17 years and major companies, including Google and Johnson & Johnson, are getting involved.

Lazzaro, who stressed the importance of giving back, seemed to be relishing his time back at Union.

"The students here are great because they're the future, and they may see things in a little bit of a different way, utilizing technology to overcome obstacles that we may not perceive as obstacles," he said. "I'm looking forward to the next decade of interfacing with the students here at Union in order to develop better imaging."

pnelson@timesunion.com  518-454-5347 @apaulnelson
NEW YORK  A federal judge in Brooklyn agreed to release former television actress Allison Mack on $5 million bond Tuesday as she awaits trial on an indictment charging her and NXIVM founder Keith Raniere with sex trafficking and forced labor.

Mack, who is known for her role in the former television series "Smallville," and Raniere, 57, are accused in an indictment unsealed last week of using coercive tactics to lure multiple women into a secret sex-slave club in which many of the women said they were branded with the pair's initials during secret rituals in Saratoga County.

The Times Union first reported two weeks ago that Mack, 35, was identified in FBI records as an alleged co-conspirator with Raniere in his efforts to coerce women into joining the club.

Mack was arrested Friday and held in federal custody over the weekend pending Monday's detention hearing.

On Tuesday, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn consented to Mack's release under the conditions set by the judge. Those include forbidding her from using a cell phone or computer and also prohibiting her from communicating with any current or former NXIVM associates.

"Let's not have any lack of clarity about that," U.S. Magistrate Viktor V. Pohorelsky said, cautioning Mack and her attorney that she should not violate the conditions. "In other words, basically avoid anyone you know who has associated in any way with NXIVM, do you understand?"

Mack replied "yes." The actress, dressed in a tan prison jumpsuit, held her hands behind her back as she stood for the proceeding. She left the courthouse late Tuesday afternoon while flanked by her attorneys and refused to comment as she was whisked into a waiting vehicle.

Mack's mother, Melinda, agreed to sign the bond securing her release, including putting up her California residence as collateral. Mack also agreed to use her retirement savings as collateral. Her father, John Mack, must sign the bond agreement by May 4 because he shares ownership of the couple's California residence in Los Alamitos, Orange County.

Pohorelsky said conditions of Mack's release will include electronic monitoring and she must reside at her parents' California residence while her case is pending. Her passport was seized by the FBI on Friday.

Raniere has been held in custody without bond since his arrest last month and will be arraigned on the indictment at a later date, prosecutors said.

The indictment charges Raniere and Mack with multiple counts of sex trafficking, conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit forced labor. They each face a potential minimum sentence of 15 years in prison if convicted.

FBI records unsealed two weeks ago at the request of the Times Union allege Mack helped recruit women into the club and made them pose for nude photographs that she would forward to Raniere. She also delivered some of the women to Raniere for sexual encounters, and at least one alleged victim described the sex as unwanted.

According to people familiar with NXIVM, Mack joined the organization about a decade ago, around the same time several other young actresses were pulled into its ranks, including Nicki Clyne, Grace Park and Kristin Kreuk, who recruited Mack. Kreuk left NXIVM several years ago and has denounced the practices made public recently.

Federal authorities on Friday said Mack and Clyne are a couple  married in February 2017  and have shared an apartment in Saratoga County for more than a year. Mack also owns a residence in Halfmoon that she rents for about $500 a month, they said.

The prosecutors described Mack as a high-ranking member of Raniere's inner circle who took part in his scheme to lure women into the slave-sex club. Assistant U.S. Attorney Moira Penza said that "under the guise of female empowerment ... she starved women until they fit her co-defendant's sexual ideal and she targeted vulnerable women in order to do that."

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Penza told the judge on Friday that Mack poses "a true risk of danger here in the form of witness intimidation. She has ... slaves underneath her who have pledged vows of obedience and she literally has collateral on a number of the people who we view to be victims or potential witnesses in this case."

Mack was with Raniere in Mexico when he was taken into custody on March 25 by Mexican federal police officers, who arrested Raniere at the request of U.S. law enforcement authorities. Raniere, whose organization has been described by experts as a cult, was arrested at a luxury villa in Puerto Vallarta.

The federal complaint alleges that Raniere organized the secret group within NXIVM in which women said they were coerced into joining a slave-master club and later branded with a design that included the initials of Raniere and Mack.

Raniere, in statements previously posted on NXIVM's website, had characterized the slave-master group as a consenting, private "sorority" and said that he and the corporation had no role in it.

But federal court records indicate emails seized from Raniere's private messaging accounts "support the conclusion that Raniere created" the club, which was known as "Dominus Obsequious Sororium," which means "Master Over the Slave Women."

The women in the group, according to the federal complaint, were lured into the club by other female NXIVM members, including Mack, who considered Raniere her "grand master," and were required to provide "collateral" in order to join. If they tried to leave, they were threatened that their collateral --sometimes damaging information about family members or close-up photographs of their genitalia -- would be released.

In the federal criminal complaint filed last month against Raniere, prosecutors said a Halfmoon residence known as the Library was where Raniere, 57, repeatedly had sex with an unidentified actress in her 30s.

That townhouse on Hale Drive, which was searched by the FBI on March 27, is where federal authorities say the unidentified actress, who is listed as "Jane Doe 1" in the criminal complaint, became a victim of sex trafficking and forced labor. The actress lived in Brooklyn during the time she was allegedly a victim of Raniere's -- which is part of the reason the case is being pursued in Brooklyn.

During one of her trips to Halfmoon, the actress said Mack instructed her to meet Raniere in the middle of the night near his residence. He allegedly instructed the actress to remove her clothing, placed a blindfold over her eyes and drove her around. Once he stopped the vehicle, they walked through some woods to a shack where the actress said she was tied to a table and forced to engage in oral sex with an unidentified person who was in the room with Raniere. It's unclear if the unidentified person was male or female.



According to information referenced in a complaint filed with the state Health Department last year by Sarah Edmondson of Vancouver, at least 20 women associated with NXIVM were lured into the club and required to provide "collateral."

Edmondson and another woman involved with NXIVM told the Times Union that they were brought into the club and subsequently branded by a physician associated with NXIVM, Dr. Danielle Roberts, who then gave them special bandages and advice on helping the wounds heal.

Edmondson said she was told it would be a "tattoo" and that the symbol was a Latin symbol for "the elements." She learned weeks later that the brand was actually the initials of Raniere and Mack, whom Edmondson's complaint identified as having "started" the secret women's group with Raniere.



The U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn opened its investigation last fall.



Brendan J. Lyons contributed reporting for this story.
MILTON - The town's $1 million deal with the Twin Rivers Council of the Boy Scouts of America for the 300-acre Boyhaven park might fall through if the Town Board doesn't act Wednesday night.

Larry Woolbright, chair of the town Planning Board, who is heading up the purchase, said the Boy Scouts Council has told him it needs approval of a contract between the town, the anonymous donor who is giving $500,000 to the town for the park and the council by the council's next board meeting on Thursday.

"I've been told if we don't have a closing schedule approved, the Boy Scouts will be going with a developer," Woolbright said.

The town agreed to buy the property on Middle Grove Road and Route 29 in July 2017 after the council decided to sell, a decision it came to after years of declining membership and underuse of the park. Aside from approval of a bond for the additional $500,000 to buy the property, the town has not moved on the agreement. If it falls through because of town apathy, Woolbright said it would be devastating as many in the community have demonstrated support for preserving the wooded acres that feature trails and a swimming lake.

"It will be a tragedy for the town if it goes to development and not a town park," Woobright said. "I'm not optimistic."

Mark Switzer, executive and CEO of the Twin Rivers Council, said he and the council board are committed to the deal with the town and will not kill it. But he did say he needs a closing date from the town by Thursday.

"At our last board meeting, we asked for a closing date," Switzer said. "If I don't walk in to our next board meeting on Thursday with a closing date, it is a concern."

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Woolbright has been told that town park employees, whose are led by Buildings and Grounds Supervisor Jason Miller, are resisting adding to their workload.

After working on it for more than a year, under the direction of the supervisors and the town board, Woolbright said he won't be happy if the deal dissolves.

"I would feel that I had been misled, lied to and stabbed in the back," Woolbright said. "The money is in the bank. The board only needs to approve the contract and schedule a closing."

Supervisor Scott Ostrander did not return a Times Union phone call on this matter Tuesday afternoon.
CATSKILL  Earlier this month an engineer looked at the Greene County jail and came away with earth-shattering news.

One of the walls in the jails two operational cell blocks was dangerously unstable and a slight tremor could bring it down, endangering the inmates and jail guards inside, Greene County Sheriff George Seeley said Tuesday.

The verbal report wasnt good, he said. It was pretty earth-shattering.

So, Seeley, after conferring with several county legislators, closed the 131-year-old jail that has been the subject of debate in the county for years. He must now find a way to pay to house prisoners outside the county while he and others in the local government figure out how repair or replace the jail.

Seeley said in the end the decision to close the jail was his. It boiled down to simple safety, he said.

The inmates in the jail were transferred to neighboring Columbia and Ulster counties. Workers in the jail have been reassigned to other duties.

"I'm not laying off anyone while the jail is closed," he said.

The jail was named in February as one of the five worst in the state, according to a report from the state Commission on Corrections.

The report determined the jail was unsafe, unsanitary and had outlived its usefulness. The report said, "absent demonstrated and immediate improvement of present jail operations, it is foreseeable that the commission will be forced to institute further enforcement action, to possibly include closure."

More for you Greene County jail named one of the worst in the state

County legislators have been debating over the past few years whether to build a new jail or close it and send inmates to nearby counties.

Seeley said he is adamantly against a shared services option, arguing the county has given away too much already by sharing a hospital and community college with nearby Columbia County.

The bottom line here is weve got to build this new jail, he said. They cant keep kicking this can down the road.

The engineering firm is expected to submit a full report in the next few days and the county will be able to decide whether to re-open the jail or close it permanently.

Seeley said plans for the new jail are about 85 percent of the way through the design phase and urged county legislators to authorize the bonds to finance the construction. Seeley estimated it would take at least two years to build the jail and move in.

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County Legislator William Lawrence, who chaired the task force to oversee the design and construction of the new jail, said if the jail remains closed the county will have to pay $2 million to 3 million a year to house inmates in other counties, transport them to county courts and cover their medical costs. A proposal on the county website put the cost of a new jail capable of holding 98 inmates at around $34 million.

The county is paying Columbia and Ulster counties about $75 a day for each of the 53 inmates that were in the jail as of Friday. Columbia County Sheriff David Bartlett said his jail accepted 35 of the inmates. The remainder were sent to Ulster County.

State's accounting of jail issues

The state Commission of Correction provide this accounting of problems at the Greene County Jail:

The commission has a long record of the physical plant deficiencies observed at the Greene County Jail, constructed in 1905 and in dire need of replacement. These deficiencies were prominently noted in evaluations in 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2017.

On Friday, the sheriff alerted the commission to an engineering problem at the jail that necessitated the transfer of the 20 inmates housed there.

The commission has placed increased pressure on the jail to correct all of its issues of noncompliance. This included issuing a May 2017 citation for the county to show cause why the jail should not be closed based on its failure to address numerous violations of minimum standard regulations. While subsequent site visits revealed some of the violations had been addressed, there were others that remained.

The last jail ordered closed was the Schoharie County Jail, evacuated due to flooding and damage in 2011. The commission also ordered sections of the Essex County Jail closed in the early 2000s, until a new facility could be constructed.

"The Commission and Greene County agree that this jail  among the oldest jails in the state  is in immediate need of replacement. It is up to the county to determine the best path forward. The Commission continues to closely monitor this situation and is prepared to take all actions necessary to ensure the safety and security of the jail's incarcerated individuals and staff, as well as the public."


NASSAU  The state Comptrollers Office has advised the Village Board to consider cutting property taxes to help bring down its budget surpluses created by collecting more money than it spends.

The village budget generated surpluses at the end of 2016-17 fiscal year that amounted to $477,621, or 68.5 percent of the 2017-18 budget of $697,543, state auditors said.

Formulate a plan for the use of excess unrestricted fund balance in the general fund in a manner that benefits village residents  for example, reducing property taxes when developing the budget, establishing necessary reserves or financing one-time expenditures, the audit recommends.

Its the second time this month that a Capital Region municipality has been advised to cut property taxes. A week earlier, the town of Moreau received that recommendation.

The recommendation to lower property taxes has occurred in other communities as a result of audit findings, said Brian Butry, deputy press secretary for Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. In 2017, the state audits of the town of Carlisle in Schoharie County and the village of Candor in Tioga made this suggestion to deal with huge surpluses.

On April 11 the Nassau Village Board cut property taxes for the 2018-19 budget by 2 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. The tax rate fell to $5.05 per $1,000 from the 2017-18 rate of $5.07 per $1,000. The village of 1,133 residents has a recently adopted budget of $751,703 for 2018-19.

While many villages and cities have struggled with finding money to balance their budgets, Nassau has so much money it doesnt even spend the surplus it does budget for the general fund, according to the audit released Friday.

While the adopted general fund budgets included reasonable revenue estimates, appropriations significantly exceeded expenditures, the audit stated.

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Village response

Mayor Robert W. Valenty said in his response:

Beginning with the 2018-19 budget we will adopt a more accurate budget that includes realistic estimates for expenditures and the amount of fund balance to be available and used to fund operations.

The village will use its reserves to pay for planned capital projects over the next few years; will reduce the fund balance in the water fund by paying off existing debt; and will find a corrective action plan, he wrote.

The implementation of these recommendations will give the board the opportunity to positively improve our budgeting process, and provide more efficient services to our residents, Valenty wrote.
A day after his wife Barbara was buried, former President George H.W. Bush was admitted to a Houston hospital Sunday for treatment of an infection that had spread to his bloodstream, his spokesman said. By Monday evening, however, the spokesman said the condition of the 93-year-old Bush was improving.

Bush spokesman Jim McGrath revealed the 41st president's hospitalization on Twitter just before 6 p.m. Monday, following a weekend of events celebrating the life of Barbara Bush.

"President Bush was admitted to the Houston Methodist Hospital yesterday morning after contracting an infection that spread to his blood," McGrath wrote Monday. "He is responding to treatments and appears to be recovering. We will issue additional updates as events warrant."

READ ALSO: Well-wishers line up at Barbara Bush's gravesite in College Station

McGrath declined to confirm news reports that Bush was in intensive care and did not immediately clarify why the family decided to wait a day to announce his condition. But the spokesman said Bush was eager to get back to the family's summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine, adding, "The 41st president want to go to Maine. He's the most goal-oriented person on the planet and I would not bet against him."

"There is no prediction, per se," as to whether the president might continue recovering or take a turn for the worse, said Dr. Hana El Sahly, an expert in infectious diseases with Baylor College of Medicine. Blood infections typically come from a specific source, such as a bowel infection, pneumonia or a skin infection  but it's not immediately clear what led to Bush's condition, though he has had pneumonia in the past.

Mild blood infections don't always develop into the more serious condition known as sepsis, said Dr. Coburn Allen, an infectious disease specialist with the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin.

READ ALSO: At Barbara Bush Literacy Plaza, fans recall the former first lady's legacy

"It sounds like he was septic at first because they said he was stabilized  and generally if they say you're stabilized it means you weren't at one point," Allen said.

"Generally if you get through the unstable part with a blood stream infection, you don't go back to unstable so it's likely he'll recover completely."

As news of Bush's health troubles spread, supporters took to social media to offer their best wishes for the Bush family patriarch.

"Prayers are with President George H.W. Bush and praying God's grace for his recovery," tweeted U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Houston Democrat.

Senate Republicans tweeted their support as well.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with former President George H.W. Bush and the entire Bush family at this time," the group's official account, @SenateGOP, wrote on Twitter.

SAYING GOODBYE: Houston dresses in blue and pearls for Barbara Bush

Bush's wife Barbara was buried Saturday after a funeral service in Houston that drew more than 1,500 invited guests. She died at home April 17 of complications from congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, having forgone additional medical treatment. The Bushes had been married for 73 years and were holding hands throughout the day she died.

The former president made several public appearances last week, including an unexpected one Friday at St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Houston, where Barbara lay in repose for 12 hours. According to McGrath, Bush decided to go to St. Martin's at the last minute Friday afternoon. He greeted well-wishers for just a few minutes, shaking hands with dozens of Houstonians from his wheelchair.

Saturday morning, Bush attended his wife's private funeral service, where he posed for a now-famous photo with his son, former President George W. Bush, former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, former first ladies Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama, and current first lady Melania Trump.

EDITORIAL: The nation mourns a first lady. Houston mourns a neighbor.

After the funeral, Bush made the 90-minute trip to College Station with the family motorcade, where he attended Barbara Bush's burial at the family plot at his presidential library.

The elder Bush's public outings have been limited in recent years, as he suffers from Parkinson's disease and is confined to a wheelchair. But in mid-March Bush attended a bareback riding competition at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo, where he shook hands and posed for pictures with a fellow World War II veteran. Months earlier, he and George W. Bush appeared together at a pregame ceremony at Minute Maid Park during the Astros' World Series run.

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Last week, Bush did not attend Thursday's public Celebration of Life for Barbara Bush outside City Hall, but he sent a letter to be read to the crowd.

"Barbara would be so moved you came out to honor her tonight," he wrote. "Barbara and I have been in love with Houston since we moved here in 1959. Nowhere are people's hearts more generous than here, something we saw after Hurricane Harvey."

In January 2017, a case of pneumonia landed Bush at Houston Methodist for 12 days, five of them in the intensive care unit. He missed President Donald Trump's inauguration  "My doctor says if I sit outside in January, it likely will put me six feet under," he wrote in a note to Trump. But by early February last year, he and Barbara Bush were at NRG Stadium for Super Bowl 51, where they oversaw the coin toss.

In April of last year, Bush was back at Methodist for two weeks with another case of pneumonia. In June, he celebrated his 93rd birthday with family in Kennebunkport.

Bush has a long history of defying the odds, dating to when he survived his torpedo bomber being shot down over the Pacific Ocean by the Japanese during World War II.

As McGrath said last year, "There's no one more resilient."

Todd Ackerman contributed to this report

keri.blakinger@chron.com

twitter.com/keribla

alyson.ward@chron.com

See photos of the Bush family through the years in the gallery above.
There was a time not long ago that natural gas was hailed by environmentalists as a cleaner energy solution. During his first Earth Day speech as President, Barack Obama lauded domestic natural gas as a critical bridge fuel to a renewable energy future. Towards the end of his presidency, Obama credited the use of natural gas for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reminding the audience of a climate change event at the White House that "we've got to live in the real world." Somewhere along the line that message got lost, and if we don't start remembering that we live in the real world, the cost of heat and electricity will be unaffordable for most New Yorkers. In the real world, demand for natural gas is at an all-time high  and that's been a good thing for the environment and the U.S. economy, particularly in our neighboring state of Pennsylvania.

Since 1990, U.S. natural gas production is up 37 percent and greenhouse gas emissions are down 17 percent. From 2005-2015, natural gas consumption increased 24 percent  contributing to dramatic drops in a number of air pollutants, including sulfur dioxide (down 66 percent), fine particulate matter (down 34 percent), and nitrogen oxide (down 20 percent). One of the important benefits of natural gas is the way it works in concert with renewable forms of energy. The main challenge with relying on renewable sources of energy, such as wind or solar, is their inherent unreliability. Storage capacity simply is not ready for prime time yet and cannot meet our energy demands. Continued innovation and investment in this area is critical to the future viability of renewables.
Gasgon Medical and Cortechs Connect have become Irelands top two entrepreneurial companies in the Bridge to MassChallenge Cork competition - Cork County Councils ground-breaking start-up programme with Boston based MassChallenge, also endorsed by Enterprise Ireland and Health Innovation Hub Ireland.

The Cork and Dublin based companies, with Tipperary CEOs, competed against over fifty of their peers in a competition where they were evaluated by a panel of Bridge to MassChallenge experts who then selected twenty ambitious start-ups in the Life Sciences, Medical Technology and/or Digital Health Sectors to progress to the next stage. These start-ups displayed plans to scale up and connect internationally and were then given the opportunity to participate in a three-day Cork boot camp. Following an intensive pitching session at the end of the Cork bootcamp, twelve progressed to a week-long all expenses paid boot camp in Boston.

At the Boston boot camp, the top twelve participated in hands-on sales workshops, sessions dedicated to entering the US market and received one-on-one mentorship from Bridge to MassChallenges network of expert mentors from the Boston ecosystem. During the course of the week the Boston Irish Business Association (BIBA) convened a networking reception where 100+ business leaders gathered to meet and support Irelands most impressive Life Science entrepreneurs. The boot camp culminated in a rigorous pitch competition to a panel of seasoned Bridge to MassChallenge judges, from which the top two start-ups were selected - Gasgon Medical and Cortechs Connect.

The Cork-based Gasgon Medical is a start-up company that will support front-line medical staff through innovative IV tube products and procedures to ensure better patient outcomes by de-risking infusions. Cortechs Connect, headquartered in Dublin, are developing new ways to transform the way cognitive healthcare is delivered by using digital brainwave solutions to remotely track and improve attention.

Both ambitious start-ups will now participate in an in-person judging round for the 2018 MassChallenge accelerator from June to November. If selected, they will join one of MassChallenge's zero-equity programs that connects participants to up to $2M USD in cash prizes, an established international community of start-ups, world-class mentoring from industry experts, tailored programming, and unrivalled access to corporate partners.

Speaking of her first-hand experience at the Boston Boot Camp, Elaine Walsh, Programme Manager for Bridge to MassChallenge at Cork County Council, said:

Cork County Council are privileged to have been able to offer this once in a lifetime experience to Irelands top entrepreneurs. Travelling with the top twelve to Boston and seeing how eager they are to learn and develop was inspiring. I sincerely hope that each participant learned and prospers as a result of their involvement and I have no doubt all twelve will do wonderfully in their respective areas. Having seen these companies grow from their application in November to now I am in awe of the homegrown skill and talent here in Ireland. Despite the fact only two could accelerate to the next round, I am positive this is not the last we will see of the top twenty Irish applicants. Bridge to MassChallenge Cork has also unearthed fifty-four high-caliber companies with whom we will continue to work.

She added: We are so proud of Gasgon Medical and Cortechs Connect for the strides they have made, and we wish them luck at MassChallenges international accelerator this summer. We would like to assure them of Cork County Councils support of and pride in our homegrown entrepreneurs.

Bridge to MassChallenge Cork was brought to Ireland by Cork County Council and is endorsed by Enterprise Ireland and Health Innovation Hub Ireland. This ground-breaking partnership with MassChallenge, a global network of zero equity start-up accelerators based in Boston, Massachusetts, is the first ever Bridge to MassChallenge partnership in Ireland. To date, MassChallenge has accelerated more than 1,500 start-ups worldwide, which together have raised $3 billion USD in funding, generated $2 billion USD in revenue and created over 80,000 total jobs in several locations across the world, including Boston, Massachusetts (USA), Mexico City (Mexico), Lausanne (Switzerland), London (United Kingdom), Jerusalem (Middle East) and more recently Austin, Texas (USA).

For further information see www.corkcoco.ie/b2mccork. To follow the progress of these top 2 lucky start-ups and to join the conversation online follow Bridge to MassChallenge Cork on Facebook\b2mcCork, Twitter @b2mcCork or LinkedIn. #B2MCCork
Its time to get your walking boots out! Ballyhoura International Walking festival is here again. With 23 years experience, they know how to run a walking festival.

The bank holiday weekend from Friday 4th May until Monday 7th May in Ballyhoura will be action packed and thought provoking. Following a short nature trail walk, the festival will kick off in the Deebert Hotel in Kilmallock at 7.30 p.m. with a talk by Irish writer, traveller and TV documentary maker Manchan Magan. He will tell wild and interesting stories about his 20 years travelling in Africa, India and South America, talk about sustainable eco-tourism in Ireland and give a global perspective on eco-tourism.

Then the walking festival will heat up, providing opportunities to explore some of Ballyhoura Countrys stunning countryside guided by experts in local flora and fauna, archaeology and history.

Saturday morning will see walkers take to the Galtee Mountains, a grade A walk for experienced and fit walkers. This will be a charity event, the proceeds of which will go to support a reputable local charity Liams Lifts which helps people in need of transport for oncology appointments in Cork city. Meanwhile lesser mortals will take to the tracks and trails for more moderate walks on a learning curve informed by local guides. For the more romantically minded there will be a singles walk along the Keale River from Darragh to Ballyorgan for people over 18, followed by guided night walks and a blue grass music session in Kilfinane, music to be provided by Pilgrim St and the Bootleggers.

Having listened to Manchan Magan talk about his adventures and about eco-tourism on Friday night, on Sunday, people will be enthused at the prospect of a strenuous walk in the Galtee mountains guided by members of The Earths Edge, Irelands only fully licenced adventure travel company. This walk will incorporate workshops/discussions on navigation, steep ground, multi-day trekking, high altitude trekking and wilderness camping and cooking.

The Earths Edge specialise in organising adventure holidays and trekking, biking, river and tri-adventure expeditions in 40 countries throughout the world. They organise expeditions to Kilimanjaro, Machu Picchu, Everest base camp and so on. For those interested in hearing more, on Sunday evening in Coote Hall in Kilmallock the Earths Edge guides will give an information talk. Free tickets for that information session can be booked at https://eventbrite.ie/e/ballyhoura-international-walking-festival-earths-edgetalk-tickets-44547960148.

On Sunday night the Church of Ireland will host a Hikers Hooley ball with traditional music provided by Kilfinane Comhaltas.

On Monday if you can still stand up you can go on one of several moderate grade walks to finish up a great weekend.

To be sure not to miss any walk or event that would be of special interest to you, go to http://visitballyhoura.com/index.php/home/ballyhoura-international-walking-festival-2018/ and check out the brochure. There you will see the timetable and details of all the walks and events that will take place over the bank holiday weekend. Alternatively, there are a limited number of brochures for Ballyhoura International Walking Festival available in local shops. Tickets are available for purchase on the above website and we would urge you to book ahead so you are not disappointed as some events are selling fast and there are limited spaces!!
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The United States government may impose sanctions on Kaspersky Lab products, Cyberscoop reports, as part of a larger package of sanctions against Russia.

(Image credit: Kaspersky's virus lab in Moscow. Credit: Alexxsun/Creative Commons 4.0)

The move might effectively ban the sale of Kaspersky antivirus packages and other Kaspersky products in the U.S. But the sanction would not be enacted until two lawsuits that Kaspersky Lab has filed against the U.S. government are resolved, Cyberscoop said.

It's not clear what the justification for banning Kaspersky products would be. We at Tom's Guide have yet to be persuaded that the company, which makes excellent antivirus software, is a tool of the Kremlin, or favors any particular government over another. Yesterday (April 23), the company blog posted a report summarizing the activities of a Russian state-sponsored hacking group that has been targeting the energy industry worldwide.

MORE: Yes, It's Still Safe to Use Kaspersky Antivirus Software

Last week, Twitter announced that it would no longer accept ads from Kaspersky Lab, lumping the company together with Russian bots and disinformation campaigns. But at the same time, Kaspersky courted the press at a private luncheon in San Francisco, unveiling a transparency initiative that aims to show the world that the company, which is registered in London but keeps its headquarters in Moscow, has nothing to hide.

Kaspersky's efforts at goodwill have done nothing to quell criticism on Capitol Hill.

"The evidence of close ties and cooperation between Kaspersky Lab and the Kremlin is overwhelming," Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., told Cyberscoop. "Sanctioning Kaspersky Lab is a logical next step."

Sen. Shaheen may have information that we don't, because most of the evidence we've seen against Kaspersky Lab amounts to normal antivirus activity. It may well be that the U.S. government has conclusive proof that the company is working with the Kremlin, but if so, the government has yet to reveal it publicly.

In response to the possible ban, Kaspersky told Cyberscoop (and later gave the same statement to Tom's Guide): "The continued actions by the U.S. government against Kaspersky Lab lack sufficient basis, have been taken without any evidence of wrongdoing by the company, and rely upon subjective, non-technical public sources, such as uncorroborated and often anonymously sourced media reports and rumors, which is why the company has challenged the validity of these actions in federal court."

The U.S. government has already banned its own agencies and contractors from using Kaspersky software, which prompted the Kaspersky lawsuits, but the government ban does make sense. To use a common term, using any Russian or Chinese antivirus software on those systems would create an unacceptable risk. (Arguably, Kaspersky Lab brought this mess upon itself when it opened a Washington office and tried to go after U.S. government contracts a few years ago.)

That's not to say you should be running Kaspersky Lab software on your home machines if you work in the U.S. government or the defense industry. You shouldn't. But for everyone else, it's great software.
Netflix used to have a lot of Marvel movies, but then Disney Plus showed up and snatched up than a dozen of those films faster than Thanos can snap his fingers. So you might be wondering what's left?

Unfortunately, big red has just one MCU movie left, two other chapters that are pretty darn good too. We're just as eager to re-watch them ourselves, so we've already looked them up for you.

The 56 best Netflix series are

Our picks for the best streaming devices

Trying to figure out what order to watch all the MCU film in? We've got them sorted by release date and in-film chronology in our how to watch the Marvel movies in order guide.

Ant-man and the Wasp (2018)

(Image credit: Marvel Studios/Disney)

PG-13 / 1hr 58min

Situated oddly in the MCU, many might have skipped Ant-man and the Wasp while they waited for Avengers: Endgame (which is on Disney Plus). Those folks missed out, though, as Paul Rudd's return to the Ant-man suit proved for a solid funny action romp, with a good dose of wholesome feels. I won't spoil what happens, but let's just say we learn a bit more of the Pym family's history. Randall Park stole scenes as FBI agent Jimmy Woo.

Watch now on Netflix
The best Android phones offer you an excellent variety of choice. Whether you're on not wanting to spent or you're looking to drop up to $2,000 on a phone, you have a lot to choose from. You have the power to prioritize what features matter most to you.

Those on a budget can get a good-enough Android phone for under $200. Step up to the $400 range, and the choices get considerably better, especially when it comes to camera quality. And you can get flagship-level performance starting at under $700, so long as you're willing to live without some bells and whistles and the finest photography.

Premium Android flagship phones start at $799, offering the sharpest and brightest displays, the most advanced photography, and cutting edge features like reverse wireless charging and 120Hz screens. 5G has also come to more affordable options, like the Pixel 5a, so it's nice to see more Android phones able to take advantage of faster download speeds.

Read on to find the best Android phone for your needs and budget.

Editor's note: We crowned our picks in the Tom's Guide Awards 2021 for the phones category.

What are the best Android phones?

Weve tested all of the most popular Android phones in all shapes, sizes and prices here at Toms Guide, and our current top pick is the Galaxy S21 Ultra from Samsung. It offers an incredible display, crazy powerful cameras, and a huge battery to power it all. Plus, it's the first Galaxy S phone to support the S Pen (sold separately). The OnePlus 9 Pro, another excellent premium Android phone, is a close second. Of course, with Google just announcing the new Pixel 6, which is coming this fall with a new premium design and Tensor chip for advanced AI.

If you want the best camera for the lowest cost, look no further than Google's Pixel 5a. Its camera comes straight out of Google's premium Pixels, and its excellent display and quality design make it a steal for $449. It's also one of the better back to school options, providing a solid Android and camera experience for its low price. it also has the added 5G benefit, too.

Bargain hunters striving to spend the absolute least can find a very good option in the latest version of the Moto G Power, which lasts the whole day on a charge, but starts at just $199. On the other end of the price spectrum, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 is the best foldable phone Samsung has built yet, even if its $1,799 price makes it one of the priciest phones on this list.

The best Android phones you can buy today

(Image credit: Future)

1. Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra The best premium Android phone Specifications Display: 6.8-inch OLED (3200x1400; 10 to 120Hz) Android version: 11 CPU: Snapdragon 888 RAM: 12GB, 16GB Storage / Expandable: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB / No Rear camera: 108MP main (/1.8); 12MP ultrawide (/2.2); 10MP telephoto (3x zoom, /2.4), 10MP telephoto (10x zoom, /4.9), laser AF sensor Front camera: 40MP (/2.2) Battery life (Hrs:Mins): 11:25 TODAY'S BEST DEALS $799.83 View at Amazon $1,199.99 View at Best Buy $1,199.99 View at Samsung Reasons to buy + Dual telephoto lenses + Dynamic 6.8-inch AMOLED display + S Pen support Reasons to avoid - No charger in box - Lacks microSD card slot

The Galaxy S21 Ultra is the Android phone to get, if you dont mind spending more than $1,000 on your next handset. Even with its lofty price, though, the S21 Ultra still debuts for $200 less than last years Galaxy S20 Ultra, so youre getting a lot of value. With the S21 Ultra, Samsung has packed an incredible amount of premium features into its newest flagship.

The 6.8-inch display on the Galaxy S21 Ultra has a dynamic refresh rate that automatically scales between 10Hz and 120Hz, depending on if the task youre performing benefits from a faster refresh rate. You get two telephoto lenses that help you capture an amazing amount of detail when you zoom in, and other software-driven photo features help the S21 Ultra capture some great shots. And this is the first Galaxy S phone to offer S Pen support, making this a productivity booster.

The Galaxy S21 Ultra offers other attractive features, including a best-in-class Snapdragon 888 processor. The Pixel 4a may be a better bargain, but the S21 Ultra leaves no premium feature unexplored.

The Galaxy S21 Ultra won the award for the best phone design and two highly recommended awards.

Read our full Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review .

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

2. OnePlus 9 Pro The best Android phone you can get Specifications Display: 6.7-inch AMOLED (3168 x 1440; 1-120 Hz) Android version: 11 CPU: Snapdragon 888 RAM: 8GB, 12GB Storage / Expandable: 128GB, 256GB / No Rear cameras: 48MP wide (/1.8), 50MP ultrawide (/2.2), 8MP telephoto with 3x optical (/2.4), 2MP monochrome Front camera: 16MP (/2.4) Battery life (Hrs:Mins): 10:40 (120Hz) / 10:38 (60Hz) TODAY'S BEST DEALS $915.25 View at BHPhoto $939.99 View at Amazon $969.99 View at Best Buy Reasons to buy + Gorgeous design + Beautiful 120Hz display + Excellent performance + Crazy fast wired and wireless charging Reasons to avoid - Nightscape photos are inconsistent

The OnePlus 9 Pro is big, its beautiful, and its very powerful. It completely wowed us, from its gorgeous display to its battery life and charging. The OxygenOS software experience is top-notch, complete with plenty of tweaks and features to help you make the phone truly yours.

It also excels as a camera phone thanks to the new partnership with Hasselblad. The 48MP main shooter captures wonderful photos with natural color tones and excellent dynamic range. The 50MP ultrawide sensor is huge and captures just as much detail. It even has a freeform lens over top, helping to practically eliminate edge distortion in ultrawide shots. The 8MP telephoto lens has 3.3x optical zoom, 30x digital zoom, and OIS. Video is also a highlight, with support for up to 8K 30 FPS, 4K 120 FPS, DOL-HDR, and Nightscape for low-light footage.

Youll want for nothing with the OnePlus 9 Pro (unless it's 5G on AT&T), even if it is the most expensive OnePlus phone to date at over $1,000. Rest assured that youre getting a huge bang for your buck, especially when compared to the competition.

The OnePlus 9 Pro won the fastest charging phone award and three highly recommended awards.

Read our full OnePlus 9 Pro review .

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

3. Google Pixel 5a The best Android experience under $500 Specifications Display: 6.43-inch OLED (2400 x 1080) Android version: 11 CPU: Snapdragon 765G RAM: 6GB Storage / Expandable: 128GB / No Rear cameras: 12.2MP (f/1.7), 16MP (f/2.2) ultrawide Front camera: 8MP (f/2.0) Battery life (Hrs:Mins): 9:45 TODAY'S BEST DEALS $449 View at Google Store $614.89 View at Amazon Reasons to buy + Excellent cameras + Bright OLED display + 128GB of storage Reasons to avoid - Older chipset - Limited to US and Japan

The Google Pixel 5a is one of the best Android phones because of its price, its cameras, and its software experience. Google really nailed it with the 5a, offering the biggest battery ever in a Pixel. The 5a is also quite larger than its predecessor, with a big and bright 6.43-inch OLED display.

While the $100 price hike over the Pixel 4a might sting a little, the Pixel 5a is nonetheless a solid phone for the money, coming in at $50 cheaper than last years Pixel 4a 5G. The Snapdragon 765G in the Pixel 5a is the same processor youll find in the Pixel 5 and 4a 5G and it helps the 5a power through any task you can throw at it. The 765G is, however, old at this point  its possible that Qualcomm either gave Google a good deal, or only had 765G chips to spare due to the chip shortage.

The Pixel 4a last year was a great phone, but the 5a is even better. With stronger battery life, more horsepower, and a second ultrawide camera, the 5a is definitely the best Android phone under $500.

And with the Pixel 6 on the horizon, we have to wonder if Google's latest flagship(s) will be good enough to make the cut for this list. With rumored upgrades to the cameras and Google's announcement of the new Tensor system-on-chip, the Pixel 6 has a lot riding on it.

Read our full Google Pixel 5a review.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

4. Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra The best premium Android phone Specifications Display: 6.9-inch AMOLED (3088x1440) Android version: 10 with Samsung One UI 2.5 CPU: Snapdragon 865 Plus RAM: 12GB Storage / Expandable: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB / Yes Rear camera: 108MP wide (/1.8); 12MP telephoto with 5x optical zoom (/3.0); 12MP ultrawide (/2.2) Front camera: 10MP (/2.2) Battery life (Hrs:Mins): 10:15 TODAY'S BEST DEALS Prime $999.99 View at Amazon $1,199.99 View at Samsung $1,292 View at Walmart Reasons to buy + Dynamic 6.9-inch 120Hz display + Smoother S Pen performance + Powerful 50x zoom camera and laser autofocus + Very good battery life Reasons to avoid - Expensive

The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra takes the crown as the best Android phone for those willing to pay an ultra-premium price. And thats because this device is much more than a phone. Its a powerful note-taking tool with lots of S Pen upgrades; its a pro-level camera with a 108MP sensor and 50x zoom; and its a mini game console with the ability to stream Xbox games.

The Note 20 Ultra also boasts the best display on a phone yet, as its huge 6.9-inch OLED screen has a dynamic 120Hz refresh rate. So its smart enough to dial things up or down based on what's being displayed, which saves battery life. The 4,500 mAh battery lasts a long time on a charge, and you get quick 25-watt charging out of the box.

Overall, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra more than lives up to its name. It is, however, getting a little long in the tooth, and the Galaxy Z Fold 3 has officially replaced it. If you want a top-tier stylus experience in 2021, you'll need to spring for a Galaxy S21 Ultra or Fold 3.

Read our full Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra review.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

5. OnePlus 9 Yet another home run from OnePlus Specifications Display: 6.65-inch AMOLED (2400 x 1080; 120 Hz) Android version: 11 CPU: Snapdragon 888 RAM: 8GB, 12GB Storage / Expandable: 128GB, 256GB / No Rear cameras: 48MP main (f/1.8); 50MP ultrawide (f/2.2); 2MP monochrome Front camera: 16MP (f/2.4) Battery life: 10:51 (120Hz); 10:53 (60Hz) TODAY'S BEST DEALS Prime $669.99 View at Amazon $670.73 View at BHPhoto $679.99 View at Best Buy Reasons to buy + Ridiculously fast charging + Top-performing Android phone + Better cameras than previous OnePlus models + Solid battery life Reasons to avoid - Some color inconsistencies remain with cameras

Though not quite as fancy as its Pro brother, the OnePlus 9 is still a fantastic phone, especially for the money. You get a flat 6.65-inch FHD+ 120 Hz display that looks amazing, the same 48MP wide and 50MP ultrawide cameras as the OnePlus 9 Pro, and the best processor you can get with an Android device, the Snapdragon 888.

Battery life is another major plus, with the OnePlus 9 lasting for 10 hours and 51 minutes in the Toms Guide battery test with the 120 Hz mode enabled. The cameras are much improved over the OnePlus 8T and other OnePlus phones, too, meaning that you can capture vivid scenes with more accurate colors and dynamic range. The lack of a telephoto lens is a bummer, though.

Best of all, the OnePlus 9 starts at $729 for the 8GB/128GB model. Thats a lot of phone for the money and it offers a real challenge to Samsungs Android crown. But OnePlus' twice-yearly release schedule is coming due for the next entrant, the OnePlus 9T. That could appear in the October timeframe. And although rumors about the upcoming phone are a bit sparse right now, we'll probably hear a lot about it from OnePlus in the weeks leading up to the launch.

Read our full OnePlus 9 review .

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

6. Moto G Power (2021) The longest-lasting new Android phone Specifications Display: 6.6-inch LCD (1600x720) Android version: 10 with My UX CPU: Snapdragon 662 RAM: 3GB, 4GB Storage / Expandable: 32GB, 64GB / Yes Rear camera: 48MP (/1.7) main; 2MP (/2.4) macro; 2MP (/2.4) depth Front camera: 8MP (/2.0) Battery life (Hrs:Mins): 14:04 TODAY'S BEST DEALS $159.99 View at Best Buy Prime $179.99 View at Amazon $179.99 View at motorola Reasons to buy + All-day battery life + Low price including a sub-$200 model + Attractive design for a budget phone Reasons to avoid - Only one Android software update - Ho-hum performance

In recent years, theres been one phone to turn to when you want the absolute best battery life for an Android phone  the Moto G Power. The 2021 edition of this phone doesnt make many changes from its predecessor, sticking with the 5,000mAh battery that sets the pace for other phones. The Moto G Power (2021) lasted more than 14 hours on our battery test, roughly 4 hours longer than the average smartphone.

Motorola has made one crucial change with the Moto G Power  its price. While you can still get a version of the phone with 4GB of memory and 64GB of storage for an attractive $249, if you can live with less RAM and storage, the price drops to $199. Thats an incredible price for a device that lasts all day and then some on a single charge.

The Moto G Power (2021) won a Tom's Guide award for the best phone battery life.

Read our full Moto G Power (2021) review .

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

7. Samsung Galaxy S21 Samsung's low-cost flagship Specifications Display: 6.2-inch OLED (2400x1080; 48 to 120Hz) Android version: 11 CPU: Snapdragon 888 RAM: 8GB Storage / Expandable: 128GB, 256GB / No Rear camera: 12MP main (/1.8); 12MP ultrawide (/2.2); 64MP telephoto (/2.0) with 3x optical zoom Front camera: 40MP (/2.2) Battery life (Hrs:Mins): 9:54 TODAY'S BEST DEALS $629 View at Amazon $792 View at Visible $829 View at Walmart Reasons to buy + Excellent dynamic 120Hz display + Powerful performance + Refined design Reasons to avoid - No charger or microSD card slot - Plastic back

If youre enticed by some of the features Samsung has introduced in its Galaxy S21 lineup but put off by the thought of $1,000 phones, then the standard Galaxy S21 is the phone for you. Youll enjoy the dynamic refresh rate, excellent cameras and Snapdragon 888 chipset found in other members of the S21 family, but at a low $799 starting price. Thats $200 less than last years Galaxy S20.

Samsung makes some sacrifices to get this lower price, starting with the materials it uses for the phones design. But thats a small consideration when you get a phone this powerful for less than $800. With an excellent zoom lens aided by wonderful software additions, this is also a great phone to get if you want great photos and videos.

Be sure to read our Google Pixel 5a vs. Samsung Galaxy S21 comparison if you're having trouble deciding between these two excellent and affordable phones.

Read our full Samsung Galaxy S21 review .

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

8. Asus ROG Phone 5 The ultimate gaming smartphone Specifications Display Size: 6.78-inch AMOLED (2448 x 1080); 60 - 144Hz Android version: 11 with ZenUI CPU: Snapdragon 888 RAM: 8GB, 12GB, 16GB Storage / Expandable: 128GB, 256GB / No Rear camera: 64MP ultrawide (f/1.8), 13MP ultrawide (f/2.4), 5MP macro (f/2.0) Front camera: 24MP (f/2.45) Battery life (Hrs:Mins): 12:23 (60Hz) / 10:53 (120Hz) / 10:27 (144Hz) TODAY'S BEST DEALS $649 View at Amazon $659.99 View at Amazon $719.99 View at Amazon Reasons to buy + Superb performance + Beautiful AMOLED display with 144Hz refresh rate + Excellent battery life + Powerful front-facing speakers Reasons to avoid - Disappointing night mode

Asus launched the latest version of its gaming phone, the ROG Phone 5, in March. It's a huge phone with an equally large 6,000 mAh battery, a 6.78-inch AMOLED display with a 144Hz refresh rate, incredible front-facing speakers, two USB-C ports, and a whole host of software goodies to make sure you have the ultimate mobile gaming experience.

With the ROG Phone 5, you get uncompromising power with up to 16GB of RAM and the best Android processor yet, the Snapdragon 888. Everything about this phone is designed for gaming, even right down to the SoC placement and the split battery for faster 65W charging. If you want more, there's the ROG Phone 5 Pro with 512GB of storage and 16GB of RAM, or the limited edition ROG Phone 5 Ultimate with a whopping 18GB of RAM.

The phone is limited to GSM networks and sub-6GHz 5G. Where the ROG Phone 5 falters is its camera performance, especially its night mode. You won't be amazed by the photos it takes, but we expect you want this phone for its gaming prowess. Rest assured, it delivers on that front.

The ROG Phone 5 won two highly recommended awards from Tom's Guide.

Read our full ROG Phone 5 review.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

9. Samsung Galaxy A32 5G Specifications Display Size: 6.5-inch LCD (1600 x 720); 90Hz Android version: 11 with OneUI 3.1 CPU: MediaTek Dimensity 720 RAM: 4GB Storage / Expandable: 64GB / Yes Rear camera: 68MP (f/1.8) main, 8MP (f/2.2) ultrawide, 5MP (f/2.4) macro, 2MP (f/2.34) depth Front camera: 13MP (f/2.2) Battery life (Hrs:Mins): 11:39 (adaptive), 12:22 (60hz) TODAY'S BEST DEALS $279.99 View at Samsung Prime $292.39 View at Amazon $299 View at Walmart Reasons to buy + Long-lasting battery + Inexpensive 5G device + Four years of security patches Reasons to avoid - Subpar performance - Middling display with so-so brightness

Phones that work with 5G networks no longer require four-figure outlays. Prices have dropped dramatically in the past year, and the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G is proof of that. For $279, you'll get a 5G-capable phone that's less expensive than even Google's affordable Pixel 5a.

You'll make some compromises for that lower price  the MediaTek Dimensity 720 that powers the phone isn't the most powerful chipset we've come across  but not as many sacrifices as you might think. For starters, the Galaxy A32 5G screen has a 90Hz refresh rate for smoother scrolling. And its battery lasts a very long time, even when you have the faster rate enabled.

Samsung also promises four years of security patches so you can wring every last penny out of the Galaxy A32. That makes this Android phone an even better value.

Read our full Samsung Galaxy A32 5G review.

(Image credit: Future)

10. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 The best Android phone that's also foldable Specifications Display: 7.6-inch OLED (2208x1768) main; 6.2-inch OLED (2268 x 832) cover Android Version: 11 with OneUI 3.1 CPU: Snapdragon 888 RAM: 12GB Storage / Expandable: 256GB, 512GB / No Rear camera: 12MP wide (/1.8); 12MP ultrawide (/2.2); 12MP telephoto (/2.4) Front camera: 10MP (/2.2) cover; 4MP (/1.8) under display Battery life (Hrs:Mins): 7:52 (60Hz); 6:35 (120Hz) TODAY'S BEST DEALS $1,149.99 View at Samsung Prime $1,599.99 View at Amazon $1,799.99 View at Best Buy Reasons to buy + More durable, water resistant design + Dual 120Hz displays + Improved multitasking Reasons to avoid - Still expensive - S Pen isn't included

The Galaxy Z Fold 3 is the best foldable phone Samsung has ever built, improving upon the Galaxy Z Fold 2 that came before it. Both displays on this new model now refresh at 120Hz for smoother scrolling, and Samsung has made the phone more durable overall. S Pen support brings added functionality, though the S Pen is an optional accessory that you'll have to pay extra to add.

Samsung's latest foldable takes a step back in terms of battery life, possibly because of that faster refresh rate, and the cameras haven't changed from last year's model. But there's a faster processor and better app support for the foldable screen. The debut price is $200 lower, too, at $1,799, though for a cheaper foldable phone, try Samsung's $999 Galaxy Z Flip 3.

Read our full Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 review.

How to choose the best Android phone for you

The first place to start when shopping for the best Android phone for you is your budget. And there are essentially a few tiers, The cheapest Android phones cost under $200 and offer mostly the basics for using apps, taking pictures and staying connected.

As you move up to under $400, you'll find more compelling handsets, touting better processors, higher-grade materials and more camera lenses. Progress into the $700-and-up range, and the best phones offer flagship-caliber performance along with cutting-edge computational photography and special features.

The most premium Android phones offer foldable designs. The Galaxy Z Fold 3 is the most fully-featured of these phones, but the Galaxy Z Flip 3 and its sub-$1,000 price make it the more appealing option.

How we test smartphones

Every smartphone Toms Guide evaluates is tested for several days in real-world use cases and benchmarked with a gamut of performance-measuring apps. In terms of performance, we used Geekbench 5 to measure overall speed and 3DMark to measure graphics performance.

We also use our own video editing test in the Adobe Premiere Rush app to see how long it takes to transcode a clip, which we run on both Android phones and iPhone to compare performance.

We use a light meter to ascertain display quality data, like brightness and color accuracy, and our proprietary battery test determines longevity on a charge by continuously loading live webpages over a 4G or 5G network. We set each phone to 150 nits of screen brightness and try to use T-Mobile's network each time in order to achieve comparable results across phones.

Lastly, we explore the software, test gaming performance and conduct live camera comparisons with rival handsets  and each of these factors play a part in our comprehensive verdict.
Audis got a nice little surprise for the 2018 Beijing Auto Show, and from the looks of it, we might be close to finally seeing the production version of the Q8 SUV. Granted, Audi isnt spilling the beans until Beijing, but the automaker did release a new teaser image on its official Facebook page of what looks to be a side profile outline of a big SUV, accompanied by a short caption that says, He carries the gene of the #Audi #Urquattro. Unless this is a model that were not expecting, maybe nows the time to start getting excited about the upcoming Q8.

Unless its a model that we have no idea about, it might as well be

He carries the gene of the #Audi #Urquattro  Posted by Audi on Monday, April 23, 2018

I have a prediction: if this is the Q8, its going to be the production version of the model. Weve already seen two concept versions of the SUV last year  the Q8 Sport Concept and the Q8 e-Tron Concept  so unless Audis taking a page out of Ssangyong, this teaser image is a preview of the production Q8.

Based on what we can see from the teasers, we know its going to be an SUV. The tall body and the large wheels are dead giveaways. You can also tell its an SUV based on the proportions illuminated by the fluorescent tape. Then theres the sloped backend, a distinctive feature that we saw on the two Q8 concepts from last year and the number of spy shots of the SUV doing test runs while it was still dressed in heavy camouflage. So yes, unless Audis got a big swerve ready for Beijing, our hunch is that this unveiling is going to be the production version of the Q8.

Theres no better place these days to debut a highly anticipated SUV than China

Its perfect timing for Audi, too. Theres no better place these days to debut a highly anticipated SUV than China. The worlds largest auto market has fed into the crossover and SUV craze like no other country has. More specifically, the demand is high for luxury SUVs in China, so it makes perfect sense for the German automaker to introduce its flagship SUV in that market.

From what we know about the model, the Q8 is expected to share its MLBEvo platform with the Lamborghini Urus and the Bentley Bentayga, two high-priced SUVs that are also in-demand in China. Specific details are still unavailable, but the good news is that well get to learn more about it once the Q8 makes its debut later this week.

As far as hyped SUVs go, this one is on top of that list. Its nice to know that were finally going to see it in full production form.

References

Read our full speculative review on the 2019 Audi Q8.

Read our full review on the 2017 Audi Q8 Sport Concept.

Read our full review on the 2017 Audi Q8 E-tron Concept.

Read more Audi news.

Read more 2018 Beijing Auto Show news.
The Nissan Navara may not be very familiar to U.S. pickup truck enthusiasts, but its a popular model in Europe. Redesigned in 2014, its also the truck on which the new Mercedes-Benz X-Class is based. While all automotive eyes are set on the Beijing Auto Show, Nissan just unleashed the most capable Navara ever at the Commercial Vehicle Show in Birmingham. Its called the Navara Off-Roader AT32 and was developed in cooperation with Arctic Trucks; an Icelandic company specialized in building four-wheel-drive vehicles for the worlds harshest environments.

The AT32 looks decidedly more aggressive on the outside thanks to its larger wheel arch extensions, 17-inch alloy wheels designed by Arctic Trucks, and the 32-inch off-road tires

Available for the Double Cab trim, the AT32 looks decidedly more aggressive on the outside thanks to its larger wheel arch extensions, 17-inch alloy wheels designed by Arctic Trucks, and the 32-inch off-road tires. The truck also sits higher above the ground thanks to a 20mm (0.8-inch) suspension lift. With the bigger tires, the Navara now rides 40 mm (1.6 inches) higher than the standard model. Optionally, Nissan offers a snorkel that boosts wading depth from 600 to 800 mm (23.6 to 31.5 inches). The feature also improves air intake and protects the engine from dust and water ingress.

The larger tires and higher suspension also improve maximum approach angle, which increases from 30.4 to 35 inches. Likewise, breakover angle is up to 24 inches from the standard 22.2. The package also includes protective plates for key underbody components, including the engine, transmission, propeller, and the fuel tank. The optional front differential locker, which works in tandem with the standard rear differential locker, is supposed to provide better traction on every type of surface.

Although the Navara AT32 is significantly more aggressive than the standard model, it definitely doesn't have the looks and the output to compete with the Ford Ranger Raptor

The AT32 also comes with extra standard equipment like Hill Start Assist, Hill Descent Control, Intelligent Emergency Braking, and Intelligent Around View Monitor. Nissan had nothing to say about the engines, so its safe to assume that the AT32 gets the standard units. Options should include the 2.3-liter diesel with either 160 and 190 horsepower, the 2.5-liter gasoline with 160 horses, and naturally aspirated, 2.5-liter diesel also with 160 or 190 horsepower.

Although the Navara AT32 is significantly more aggressive than the standard model, it definitely doesnt have the looks and the output to compete with the Ford Ranger Raptor. Not to mention that the Navara isnt available Stateside, while the Ranger Raptor likely wont be sold outside North America anytime soon.

References

Read our full review on the 2017 Nissan Navara.

Styled after the F150 Raptor, The Ranger Raptor gets some serious equipment

Read our full review on the 2019 Ford Ranger Raptor.

Read more Nissan news.

Read more 2018 Beijing Auto Show news.
Purchased by Geely in 2010, Volvo has made a tremendous comeback to the premium market with the latest-generation XC90, the brand-new S90 sedan, and other smaller vehicles. The companys previous competitor for the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and BMW 5 Series was far from competitive, but the S90 that Volvo launched under Chinese ownership is surprisingly good. Now, the Swedish brand plans to move the S90 even higher on the luxury market with a range of new features. These were introduced at the 2018 Beijing Auto Show in the S90 Ambiance concept.

The concept vehicle is basically a standard sedan in Excellence trim, so it's easy to ignore it on the showroom floor

Despite the concept badge, theres nothing futuristic about the S90 Ambiance on the outside. The concept vehicle is basically a standard sedan in Excellence trim, so its easy to ignore it on the showroom floor. The same goes for the cabin, which features the same interior as the S90 Excellence. This is by no means usual though, as it has a three-seat layout. The Excellence model focuses on chauffeured passengers in the rear seat rather than the driving enthusiasts, and this is why the front passenger side was removed.

The Ambiance concept builds on this idea with seven visual themes synchronized with audio and scent. The themes can be activated using a smartphone app and are projected on the cars ceiling, just like in the Rolls-Royce Phantom. However, while the Phantom only has constellation themes, Volvo offers Northern Lights, Scandinavian Forest, Swan Lake, Archipelago, and Rain. A Nocturnal theme for resting and a Freedom theme for a "boost of fresh and uplifting energy" are also included.

Each theme starts with a synchronized audio soundtrack that plays through the premium Bower and Wilkins sound system

Each theme starts with a synchronized audio soundtrack that plays through the premium Bower and Wilkins sound system. The audio system includes small tweeters in the headrests. Each theme is also matched with one of four scents that deploy from the center console. The scents are created by Byredo, a luxury house from Stockholm, Sweden.

While just a concept for now, the Ambiance will become available in S90 Excellence production cars in the future, according to Volvo. Needless to say, this feature doesnt move the S90 into Rolls-Royce and Bentley territory, but maybe Volvo has bigger plans in future.

References

Read our full review on the 2018 Volvo S90.

Read our full review on the 2017 Volvo S90 Excellence.

Read more Volvo news.

Read more 2018 Beijing Auto Show news.
Canadian three-wheel autocycle manufacturer, Campagna, has showcased its latest venture into a new breed of machine. Unveiled at the recently concluded Montreal Electric Vehicle Show, the Electric T-Rex prototype will be the worlds first three-wheeled production autocycle.

Time and again it has been proved that electric/hybrid vehicles have an overwhelming advantage especially to ride within the town and this evolution has been a gradual process for some  and an exciting start for others like Campagna.

Jumped to fame way back in 1996, the Canadian Campagna T-Rex showcased bonkers three-wheeled trikes that ran on a 1.4-liter Kawasaki inline-four engine and two side-by-side seats. Later, a 1.6 liter BMW inline-six engine made a 160 horsepower in the T-Rex. 20 years later, Campagna has announced plans to build an electric version of its T-Rex three-wheeler.

After trying out powertrain from industrys bigwigs like Kawasaki, BMW, and Harley-Davidson, Campagna will now source their powerplant from Zero Motorcycles including the motors, batteries, and controllers creating a high-performance vehicle, without the need for gasoline. With just a decade of experience in the industry, ZERO Motorcycles has been at the epitome of electrically powered machines on two wheels. Joining hands with them will be Campagna Motors. Zero provides electric powertrain to Curtiss Motorcycles too.

The prototype on display will be powered by two electric motors together producing 140 hp and 232 lb-ft of instant peak torque. Power is supplied by double 26 kWh Total batteries that will provide a maximum range of around 180-190 miles around town and around 140 miles on the highways. Top speed of this electric T-Rex will be 111 mph with 0-62 mph coming in just 3.2 seconds.

Unfortunately, that is all the information we could gather right now. Later in the year, Campagna will develop a more advanced prototype and a production version of the new T-rex running on electric power. Campagna will later also equip their more premium V13R trike also with the electric powertrain from ZERO.

Our collaboration with Zero Motorcycles brings a whole new level of innovation and originality to this already exhilarating platform, says Andre Morissette, president of Campagna Motors. Zeros electric powertrain is an ideal solution for the ultimate three-wheeled experience. This vehicle is an absolute thrill to drive.

Stay tuned with us while we bring you fresh developments regarding this new collaboration towards a cleaner future.
The 51st session of the Economic Commission for Africa and the Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development will be held at the United Nations Conference Centre in Addis Ababa from 11 to 15 May 2018.

The ministerial segment will be preceded by a preparatory meeting of the Committee of Experts, which will open on Friday, 11 May 2018. The ministerial segment will open on Monday, 14 May 2018. Further inspiring discussions and findings are anticipated from a number of parallel side events scheduled to be held on 13 May 2018.

The plenary sessions of the Conference will commence with a high-level policy dialogue on the theme, African Continental Free Trade Area and fiscal space for jobs and economic diversification, followed by plenary sessions on a series of subthemes.

The discussions will benefit from the contributions of seasoned and high-level panellists from within and outside Africa and will build on the issues paper and technical background materials, which synthesize the results of recent research on the matters under consideration, with a view to achieving an agreed outcome that will have important implications for the continents future.

Overview of recent economic and social conditions in Africa

Africas growth rebounds in 2017

Africas economic growth performance modestly recovered in 2017, rising to 3 per cent, after experiencing its lowest level (1.7 per cent) in 2016 since the beginning of this century. Africa is the second fastest-growing region after East and South Asia (6 per cent), followed by South-Eastern Europe (2.5 per cent), and the Latin American and Caribbean region (1 per cent)

Africas economy expanded due to the slight increase in commodity prices and improved domestic conditions supported by improved macroeconomic management. Growth in private consumption and increase in investments led the recovery in Africas growth, despite relatively low commodity prices, adverse weather conditions and fragile global economic conditions, which affected some countries. The recovery in some major economies (such as Angola, Morocco and Nigeria) and the continued robust growth in other economies (such as Cote dIvoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, and the United Republic of Tanzania) underpinned the continents growth. Nevertheless, low growth performance in large economies muted the continents growth, including in Nigeria (0.9 per cent) and South Africa (0.6 per cent).

However, the recent growth rates registered in both 2016 and 2017 are below the 7 per cent Sustainable Development Goals target and could not significantly reduce poverty in the continent where 41 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line. The continent should therefore ramp up efforts to boost growth by underscoring the importance of measures to promote shared growth, through structural transformation and job creation. In order to enhance Africas economic performance and move towards the 7 per cent target mentioned previously, domestic demand needs to be strengthened. Government spending on infrastructure needs to be aggressively increased to fill the infrastructure gap in Africa. The rise in public investment should not cause any further deterioration in fiscal balances and African Governments need to continue their efforts to consolidate their fiscal position. Enhancing tax administration, fighting illicit capital outflows, and tapping excess liquidity in the banking sector are potential sources to finance public investment, particularly in infrastructure.

Africas fiscal deficit is narrowing albeit high

The overall fiscal deficit share in gross domestic product (GDP) declined due to fiscal consolidation through the reduction in fiscal expenditures and raising or introducing new taxes. Fiscal deficits declined by 0.7 percentage points from 5.9 per cent in 2016 to 5.2 per cent in 2017 and are projected to decline further to 4.9 per cent in 2018. While underlying factors behind the fiscal shortage vary across countries, this trend demonstrates continued commitment to sound macroeconomic management practices through fiscal consolidation boosted by the slight recovery in commodity prices since early 2016. All the subregions and economic groups registered an improvement in their fiscal positions in 2017, a trend projected to continue in 2018. However, in some countries, fiscal deficit widened as a result of increased public expenditure, especially on infrastructure development.

Relatively high fiscal deficits coupled with exchange rate depreciations have put pressure on rising public debt levels in some countries as Africas total debt share in gross domestic product hovers around 32 per cent. It is elevated to levels above 40 per cent in Southern Africa and among oil importing countries. Significant non-concessional borrowing for infrastructure development has led to high debt-servicing costs in several countries, such as Botswana and Mozambique.

This aggregate picture, however, masks the significant debt levels in 13 countries, three of which, all small island developing States, have debt shares above 100 per cent of their GDP (Cabo Verde: 111 per cent; Mauritius: 117.5 per cent; and Seychelles: 165 per cent); four with debt shares between 76 and 100 per cent (Djibouti: 80 per cent; Mauritania: 75.4 per cent; Sao Tome and Principe: 84 per cent; and Tunisia: 79 per cent); and the remaining six with debt shares between 50 and 75 per cent (Gambia: 69 per cent; Ghana: 52 per cent; Liberia: 51 per cent; Namibia: 60 per cent; Senegal: 53 per cent; and Zimbabwe: 69 per cent). 3 The rising public debt levels, currency depreciations and growing recourse to non-concessional borrowing for infrastructure development are fast raising debt-servicing costs, thereby diminishing fiscal space for the affected countries.

Assessment of progress on regional integration in Africa

Amid rising protectionism in some parts of the world, regional integration in Africa is critical to meeting the continents development ambitions. There is a consensus that the inclusive development goals of Africa cannot be achieved without dynamic industrial sectors and an increase in formal intra-African trade. The fragmentation of African economies, however, limits the ability of African businesses to build their competitiveness. Further integration is, therefore, required to achieve economies of scale and to boost African production and trade.

The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) estimates that the African Continental Free Trade Area has the potential to boost intra-African trade by more than 52 per cent through the elimination of import duties alone. It is estimated that the benefits would double if combined with trade facilitation measures to further reduce non-tariff barriers. The majority of the benefit is focused on industrial goods, providing fertile ground for the development of regional value chains. Trade facilitation measures will also be important to ensure that the benefits are felt more widely, given the challenges often faced in accessing even regional markets. In particular, there is scope for improving conditions for informal cross-border traders, the majority of whom are women.

The present paper aims to provide an assessment of regional integration in Africa, beginning with an overview of the state of regional integration in Africa, as evaluated by the African Regional Integration Index. Central dimensions of regional integration in Africa are also discussed herein. Finally, the paper sheds light on several key issues related to the African Continental Free Trade Area.

Regional integration in Africa: key dimensions

Trade integration

Africa currently counts four functioning free trade areas among the regional economic communities that are recognized by the African Union: COMESA, EAC, ECOWAS and SADC. Intra-African trade has also been liberalized through mechanisms outside the African Union-recognized regional economic communities, including the Pan-Arab Free Trade Area, the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) and the Southern African Customs Union (SACU).

Except for a few regions, trade between African countries has slightly increased or remained stable over the years, but has been generally low in value. Intra-African exports of goods reached 18 per cent of total exports of goods in 2016, up from 9 per cent in 2000, while the corresponding shares for imports were 13 and 14 per cent, respectively. In comparison, in 2016, the shares of intraregional trade in Asia and the European Union were, respectively, 59 and 64 per cent for exports and 61 and 60 per cent for imports.

At the subregional level, among the African Union-recognized regional economic communities, EAC and SADC remained the best performers in terms of exports of goods within their respective subregion in 2016, while SADC performed relatively well in respect of imports within its subregion. These notwithstanding, none of the subregions recorded a share of trade within their respective subregion of more than 25 per cent.

Progress is being made in liberalizing trade through lower tariffs between African countries. Looking at the tariffs applied to imports within economic communities in 2017, EAC had no tariffs on intra-EAC trade; that was also the case for 80 per cent of ECOWAS countries. The average tariff applied by UMA was 5 per cent, with the figures varying from 0 per cent for Libya to as high as 13 per cent for Mauritania. The corresponding figures for the other African Union-recognized regional economic communities were as follows: 0.33 per cent for SADC; 5.07 per cent for IGAD; 3.75 per cent for ECCAS; 0.94 per cent for COMESA; and 14.16 per cent for CEN-SAD.

With trade trends within regional economic communities looking promising, it will also be important to tackle the barriers between the regional economic groupings. The African Continental Free Trade Area is designed to address exactly this, by bringing the whole continent under one free trade agreement. The African Continental Free Trade Area builds on the progress made by the regional economic communities and the Tripartite Free Trade Area Agreement among COMESA, EAC and SADC.

Productive integration

The integration of Africa into regional and continental value chains is limited by over-reliance on trade in primary commodities, with a limited share in manufactured goods. During the period 2000-2016, intraAfrican exports accounted, on average, for 57 per cent of primary commodity exports. The corresponding share for manufactured goods was only 16 per cent. These figures reflect the limited capacity of African countries to develop regional value chains by adding and retaining value locally or regionally. The situation has been underpinned by several factors, including gaps in infrastructure facilities that are key to boosting industrial activities; lack of capacity (financial and human) to support industrial projects; barriers to trade; and the fragmentation of African economies, which makes it difficult for manufacturers to benefit from economies of scale.

Boosting productive integration among African economies requires scaling up industrial activities across the continent. Examples of sectors with the potential for value chain development include the cotton-to-textile sector in West, East and Southern Africa; cocoa-to-chocolate products in West and Central Africa; coffee and its by-products in East and Southern Africa; and olives and their by-products in North Africa. Such development would require addressing the constraints faced by the manufacturing sector while removing barriers to trade and promoting investment. Doing so calls for the effective implementation of continental initiatives, including the African Continental Free Trade Area, the Action Plan for Accelerated Industrial Development in Africa and other regional or national industrial strategies in an integrated and coordinated manner.

African Continental Free Trade Area and the African development agenda

Progress made in respect of the African Continental Free Trade Area

The economic integration of Africa reached a new milestone on 21 March 2018 in Kigali, when 44 States members of the African Union signed the Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area. In total, 50 countries signed either the Agreement itself or the Kigali Declaration, which was indicative of the commitment of the signatories to join the African Continental Free Trade Area upon the finalization of national legal requirements. The signing of the Agreement marks significant progress towards realizing the vision for African regional integration, as set out in the Abuja Treaty, which envisages the eventual establishment of a pan-African economic community.

The signing of the Agreement was the culmination of the negotiations launched in June 2015 in Johannesburg, South Africa. In early March 2018, the negotiations forum was convened for a tenth time to finalize outstanding matters and conclude legal vetting in preparation for the signature of the Agreement. During negotiations forum, participants also agreed on a transition and implementation work programme to finalize offers for goods and services and to prepare product-specific rules of origin, as part of the built-in agenda.

Following the recommendation of the Executive Council at its eighteenth extraordinary session, held on 19 March 2018, the Assembly of the African Union, at its tenth extraordinary session, held on 21 March 2018, adopted the Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area, the Protocol on Trade in Goods, the Protocol on Trade in Services and the Protocol on Rules and Procedures on the Settlement of Disputes. The Agreement will enter into force upon ratification by 22 States members of the African Union.

The outstanding issues in the first phase of negotiations include the annexes to the adopted protocols and the schedules on goods and services. The annexes to the Protocol on Trade in Goods, the annexes to the Protocol on the Rules and Procedures on the Settlement of Disputes, and the List of Priority Sectors on Trade in Services are expected to be adopted by the Assembly in July 2018. The Schedules of Tariff Concessions and the Schedules of Specific Commitments on Trade in Services are expected to be concluded and adopted during the Assembly session to be held in January 2019.

The second phase of the negotiations is expected to begin in late 2018. That phase will focus on provisions for investment, competition and intellectual property rights. A facilitative environment for e -commerce is also being mooted as a possible additional topic for the second phase. The negotiations are expected to be completed by January 2020.

Towards an effective African Continental Free Trade Area

The benefits of the African Continental Free Trade Area will depend on both the effective implementation of the Agreement itself and a range of supporting policies to address other barriers to trade, investment and industrialization. Such policies need to include measures to overcome the short-term costs to particular countries and to economic groups within countries.

Overall, it is expected that the tariff revenue losses will not be considerable. However, countries with high initial tariffs on intra-African trade and with larger volumes of intra-African imports will experience the highest revenue impact. Exclusion lists within the African Continental Free Trade Area can provide an avenue for decreasing tariff revenue losses. It has been estimated that, even with a 1 per cent exclusion list, the average African country could reduce tariff revenue losses under the Free Trade Area from 8 to 1 per cent of total tariff revenue. Overly liberal exclusion lists should be avoided, however, as they could erode the value and benefits of trade liberalization.

A critical step for ensuring that less industrialized countries within the continent benefit from the African Continental Free Trade Area is the effective implementation of the Action Plan for Boosting Intra-African Trade, which identifies seven priority clusters for boosting intra-African trade, namely, trade policy, trade facilitation, productive capacity, trade-related infrastructure, trade finance, trade information and factor market integration. Trade liberalization alone cannot deliver transformative results; other barriers to intra-African trade and investment must also be addressed. So far, the implementation of the Action Plan has been hindered by a lack of dedicated institutions, a shortage of funding and an absence of monitoring mechanisms. As the African Continental Free Trade Area initiative moves forward, it will be important to link the implementation and monitoring of the Agreement to effective implementation and adequate resources, including those linked to the Aid for Trade initiative, for activities under the Action Plan.

Within countries, in order to alleviate the impact of structural adjustment costs, a gradual and measured approach to implementation should be considered. Exclusion lists and safeguard measures can be used for that purpose, but can result in distorted consumption and are, therefore, not optimal. Another approach would be to apply adjustment assistance to vulnerable groups facing adverse effects from the African Continental Free Trade Area. For example, smallholder farmers are likely to need assistance to connect to value chains and to take advantage of new opportunities. Similarly, informal cross-border traders, many of whom are women, should be supported in joining the formal sector so as to benefit from the Free Trade Area.

Trade facilitation measures are of particular relevance to efforts to ensure that gains are inclusive. The chapter on trade facilitation under the Agreement and the global momentum around the topic as a consequence of the entry into force of the Trade Facilitation Agreement under the World Trade Organization both highlight the fact that trade facilitation can be an area of quick wins. At the continental level, landlocked countries, which have economies that are more sensitive to issues surrounding ease of access to ports and value chains, can gain from the effective implementation of the provisions on trade facilitation, transit and customs cooperation.

At the national level, trade facilitation measures can be used to support small-scale businesses and female entrepreneurs, who face greater barriers to trade. The perishable nature of agricultural goods also means that agricultural producers could benefit from related processes becoming smoother and faster across the continent. Support will need to be provided to small and mediumsized enterprises in the form of market information, trade facilitation and trade finance.

The effective implementation of the Agreement will further depend on a strong institutional structure. At the continental level, the responsibility for coordinating the implementation of the Agreement will rest with the secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area, which will form an autonomous institutional body within the African Union system and have an independent legal personality, akin to an agency of the African Union. It will work closely with the African Union Commission and its departments. The Commission will provide the necessary transitional support until the secretariat is fully operational. Funding for the secretariat will come from the overall budget of the African Union.

The regional economic communities will remain important implementing partners and be represented in a committee of senior trade officials of the African Continental Free Trade Area. Their role will include the coordination of implementation and of measures to address non-tariff barriers, harmonize standards and monitor implementation. At the national level, it will be critical to have a strategy for the Free Trade Area and dedicated institutional arrangements in place to carry out implementation and to fully utilize the opportunities arising from the Free Trade Area. Among the structures that complement the Free Trade Area, the African Business Council will aggregate and articulate the views of the private sector.

Given the high ambitions for the Agreement, the monitoring and evaluation framework for the African Continental Free Trade Area should not be limited to compliance. Instead, it should also consider to what extent the Agreement is delivering on its development aims and supporting inclusive transformation. Systematic evaluations and reviews should be carried out to assess the impact of the Free Trade Area at the economy and sector level, in addition to its impact on vulnerable groups. Special consideration should be given to the impact of the Free Trade Area on gender equality. An observatory on trade is foreseen as part of the institutional set-up under the Agreement, with a view to ensuring its effective monitoring and evaluation.
We talk a lot about the wonders of wood construction but really, the industry is just getting started.

Mass Timber is all the rage in the construction industry and many magazines and websites are full of headlines like first mass-timber building constructed in Minnesota or wherever, when in fact, people have been building with mass timber for centuries; just about every funky old warehouse in North America is mass timber, built of 2x8s or 2x10s on 2 inch spacing, nailed one to another. Thats now known as NLT or nail laminated timber. I was blown away by a presentation a few years ago by engineer Lucas Epp of StructureCraft in British Columbia, showing how the company is doing amazing things with it, so I went out to visit.

Installation of StructureCraft Office and Shop - Time Lapse (part 2 - new footage) from StructureCraft on Vimeo.

StructureCraft recently opened a new factory in Abbotsford, British Columbia to make a different mass timber product, Dowel Laminated Timber (DLT). The factory itself is a bit of a wooden wonder; it is built out of prefabricated components and after the foundations were finished, the wood section was assembled in just five days. It does things that I wouldnt have thought were possible in wood; the wall panels support glue-laminated beams that hold up prefabricated roof panels. The walls and columns are strong enough to support 10 ton travelling cranes.

DLT machine/ Lloyd Alter/CC BY 2.0

Inside, half the factory is used for manufacturing DLT panels; lumber is finger-jointed together into lengths up to 60 feet, run through a milling machine to get the desired finish, then stacked up side by each to be drilled and dowelled with very dry hardwood dowels, which then expand as moisture equalizes and then hold the panels together. The other half of the factory is used for fabricating other complex timber structures.

DLT with acoustic absorption/ Lloyd Alter /CC BY 2.0

The DLT is impressive stuff; it can be milled to a number of different profiles with different architectural properties, depending on aesthetics or acoustics. It can have that look of the old warehouse, or a different, modern finish. But unlike the old NLT or mill decking, it is a consistent, planed product. The panels can be huge (12 x 60). Structurally, DLT is more efficient than CLT for floors and roofs with one-way spans between beams, but it is not as flexible as CLT for two-way spans or cantilevers; however, it is quite a bit cheaper to manufacture, easier to engineer and get approvals because it has been in the building codes since there were building codes.

Michael Green Talk  The Future of Wood & Dowel Laminated Timber from StructureCraft on Vimeo.

NLT was used in Michael Greens T3 building in Minneapolis, but DLT is the new NLT; it is not as labor intensive to make, it can be milled on a CNC machine and recycled more easily because there are no nails in it. But DLT is not intended to replace CLT  rather it is just another option in the mass timber toolbox.

Lucas Epp/ Photo Lloyd Alter/CC BY 2.0

When they built their factory, StructureCraft didnt build it out of their CLT or NLT or DLT products; they built it out of prefabricated panels built up out of wood studs- they are simpler and cheaper and use less wood. CLT may be fashionable, but as Lucas Epp noted, sustainability is about using as little material as possible. (Thats why I go on about what they are doing in Sweden with panelized, computerized, roboticized wood frame). You pick the right tool for the job.

Inside factory, not the DLT side/ Lloyd Alter/CC BY 2.0

My understanding before visiting the factory in Abbotsford was that StructureCraft was in the wood business; in fact, they are in the engineering business and the DLT is part of their toolbox. The company was founded by Gerry Epp, formerly of Fast + Epp, because nobody was around who would be willing to produce and install the timber components they needed for the designs they were engineering for architects like the late great Bing Thom. Gerrys son Lucas spent years in the UK with Buro Happold working on projects designed by Zaha Hadid and Norman Foster. Lucas is using the same tools that Gehry or Zaha used for parametric design, like Rhino and Grasshopper, to build totally amazing things out of wood, which Lucas says is still one of the least understood building materials. They are pushing it to its very limits.

 StructureCraft

They are building giant domes in China, swoopy ceilings in Calgary for Snohetta, and re-thinking the way one designs with wood.

 StructureCraft/ there is incredible complexity buried in that wood

Even what look like relatively ordinary buildings have incredible complexity in todays world where buildings have to withstand seismic, fire and wind loads. Epp notes that prior to the Christchurch earthquake, buildings were designed for life safety and most did what they were designed to do- protect the occupants. But then the buildings were tilted or otherwise useless and had to be taken down; now, timber engineers like StructureCraft are designing buildings to be resilient; to rock and roll and recover from the earthquake instead of just stay up. This is incredible, invisible engineering.

 StructureCraft

We go on about how wood from properly managed forests is the most sustainable building material, being renewable and storing carbon for the life of the building. But good engineering is about using materials wisely, and using as little of them as possible. Fast + Epp and StructureCraft engineered the roof of the Richmond Olympic Skating Oval out of a bunch of beetle-damaged 2x4s and StructureCraft is now designing 300 foot wide domes in China that seem to be built out of air rather than wood. This truly is the building material of the future.
WHEN he steps up to the podium this afternoon to deliver his seventh budget presentation, Finance Minister Colm Imbert will have a real dilemma: does he continue running the economy with borrowed funds and withdrawals from the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund (HSF) or does he opt, for the first time, to impose fiscal discipline on the population?
Even before Covid-19 Trinidad and Tobago was in serious financial difficulties.

A declining energy sector and the persistent growth of public expenditure fuelled by reckless spending and incompetence explain the large fiscal gaps.
Dear Trip Advisor and Travel Experts,

1st of all, let me thank you all to provide me inputs on various threads of mine and others. This has helped to plan my trip. I would like to share my final iternary for 3 day trip to Sydney and request you to suggest, any improvements to make experience better.

Hotel Stay - At King Cross

Landing at Syndey International Airport (around 6am on 29th April, Sunday)

Departure to GC (around 8am on 2nd May, Wednesday)

29th April:

1. Visit Manly beach and cruise in morning (before doing check in) - appx 2 hours

2. Visit Sydney Opera house and the rocks - appx 2-3 hours

3. Visit Queen Victoria (and check into hotel)

4. Visit Syndey Towe Eye till 6pm

*** Please suggest, where we can roam after 6pm and have dinner.

30th April - Self exploring Blue Mountains. Since we are traveling own, we have dropped featherdale park

1st May:

1. Visit Taronga Zoo - Not sure how much time it will require

2. Visit Harbour Bridge (just go near bridge)

3. Darling Harbour - Not sure if we should visit there

*** Please let me know what else we can cover on 1st may (for sight seeing & shopping for family). Also suggest to roam around, in evening

2nd May: check out from hotel for taking flight to GC.
13 days, three destinations max. TheGBR stretches more than 2000km, and in Jan/Feb, you are best to stick to the southern end of the reef. Look at visiting Lady Elliot Island. You should also find a local swimming pool andpractice snorkeling with pool noodles rather than a life vest to give you better ability to look straight down and even duck dive if you wish.

Lady Elliot Island is off Hervey Bay. You could combine a day trip or overnight there with a two day/one night tour of Fraser Island. You can fly from Brisbane to Hervey Bay, do your tours and then fly HB to Sydney.

So, two nights in Brisbane, five/six nights Hervey Bay/islands, five/four nights Sydney including a day trip to Blue Mountains, and your final night back in Brisbane for departure. How does that sound?

Cheers.
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Other than flying (limited), public transport will mean bus; they are quite limited and I suspect you'll find them rather expensive too.

Here's one option:

September is getting pretty late for whale sharks - the season is generally mid March through mid September.

What exactly do you mean by backpacking?

As for itineraries, that really depends on what you want to do, but when we made the trip from Perth to Exmouth and return several years ago, we took a leap frog approach - there's a whole lot of nuthin' between towns, so it pay to plan well. This is what we did over 17 days, 4,060 km.

Perth - Kalbarri  three nights

Kalbarri - Denham  three nights

Denham - Carnarvon  one night

Carnarvon - Exmouth  three nights

Exmouth - Coral Bay  three nights

Coral Bay - Carnarvon  one night

Carnarvon - Greenough  one night

Greenough - Cervantes  one night

Cervantes  Perth

You of course have more time, and you'll need it!
My husband and I visited Costa Rica for our honeymoon in 2017 and loved it. We would like to go back in the near future and were discussing where we would go this time. We would want to see other parts of the country but at the same time visit some of the places we really loved. When we visited, we went to Puerto Viejo, Tortuguero, La Fortuna, and Monteverde. We loved Puerto Viejo and Tortuguro most of all. We stayed just a short walk north of town in Puerto Viejo and loved the beautiful beaches and the beach vibe of the town. While we were there, the ocean was very calm and we spent many hours just enjoying the water. We also loved all the wildlife and seclusion of Tortuguero. We liked La Fortuna, although some was a bit touristy for us. But we were considering going back because we were only there for two days and didn't see everything. Also, wow those hot springs. Anywhere else in the country with hot springs? We didn't care much for Monteverde.

We really loved the beach town vibe of Puerto Viejo and the calm water that we could swim in so if there is somewhere similar on the Pacific side that would be good. We also love animals and nature and would enjoy a place like Tortuguero where we can see a lot of animals in one place. Finally, some place with exciting things to do is good. We loved the hike to La Fortuna waterfall and the white water rafting trip we took between Tortuguero and La Fortuna.
My family of 5 has been planning to vacation in Nicaragua this June. Given the political unrest that has arisen there in the last few days and now the departure of U.S. government personnel, we feel like we need to come up with a Plan B. We had already planned on flying in and out of the Liberia airport (tickets already booked), so we are thinking that instead of crossing the border into Nicaragua, we may just stay in Costa Rica. But I imagine we're pretty late to game in getting accommodations booked there. And because all our planning has been focused on Nicaragua, we're not sure where in Costa Rica we should go. I've spent the morning trying to understand the different areas, but it is a lot of information to process in a short period of time! I do know that we are limited to areas that would be reasonably accessible (2-3 hours drive) from the Liberia airport. In Nicaragua, we had been planning to visit the volcanos, Ometepe Island, the beach, Granada, ride horses, zip line, etc.

Does anyone have suggestions for areas and accommodation options in Costa Rica we should explore? Maybe Arenal (if we can find lodging) and Samara? We have 9 nights and a budget of $250-375 per night. The kids are 15, 13, and 8, so we need something a little bigger than a standard hotel room.

We still plan on monitoring the situation in Nicaragua and hope for the sake of the people there that the tensions are resolved quickly. However, due to cancellation policies of the accommodations we've previously booked in Nicaragua, we can't monitor for too long. We'll need to make the final decision to continue with our plans or switch to Costa Rica in the next couple of weeks.

Any suggestions or guidance would be very appreciated!
Book when you arrive, either ask your hotel if they can help you or use one of the numerous travel agents in the old quarter of Hanoi.

When you do bookings face to face in Vietnam, you have more chance of satisfaction and getting what you paid for.

And you will more than likely pay less.

Edited: 3 years ago
Re: Which airport(s) for both upstate NY and Manhattan?

5. Re: Which airport(s) for both upstate NY and Manhattan?

Either LGA or Newark work, but it is a bit of a hike to High Falls (you sure not Highland Falls?)

And on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend, the trip can be awful heading towards the mountains of New York state for the holiday.

Be sure to figure in the cost of a hotel near the airport and rental car costs (most likely much higher from the airport) before discounting flying into Westchester.
The Kitenge fabric is a popular attire in the East African part of the continent and resembles the West African Ankara fabric owing to its bold and colorful pattern like designs. Traditionally, Kitenge, designs were worn by women in form of dresses or headscarves. Presently, there are numerous ways in which the Kitenge fabric is worn and whats more interesting is that even men have embraced it in their wardrobes wearing Kitenge shirts and pants.

READ ALSO: Latest Ankara styles from Nigeria 2018

In East Africa, particularly Kenya and Tanzania, Kitenge clothes were reserved for special occasions like weddings but times have changed and Kitenge has been incorporated as a daily wear for most ladies. African designers are thinking out of the box and are creating several Kitenge designs that ensure you slay; whether it is in the office, casually, or for an important event. Kitenge designs for ladies can be paired up with accessories like belts, purses, and jewelry and headscarves. Moreover, Kitenge is a multipurpose fabric used to make hats, blazers, bags, shoes, and earrings just to name a few.

Source: Pinterest

The company that creates a specific Kitenge design prints its name and registration number on the salvage of the fabric as a way of protecting its design from copycats and also to advise on the quality. This piece of writing will explore several best Kitenge designs for women that will blow away your mind and have you running to your tailor as soon as you finish reading it.

A. Kitenge dress designs for weddings

At present, the Kitenge fabric is used and experimented in numerous ways particularly when it comes to bridal wear designs. The main reason why Kitenge is embraced by most bridal designers is due to its versatility in patterns, designs, and colors. As such, these tailors are mixing the traditional Kitenge design with the modern one to bring out a unique characteristic of the piece of fabric. Well, if you are a vibrant bride that would like to wear a Kitenge wedding gown, remember to choose a Kitenge dress design that is not only comfortable and stylish but also features a feminine look and fits well too. You can choose any of the styles below.

Kitenge dress with lace

The Kitenge and lace fabric combo present a unique dress design for ladies in 2018. This particular look with a front slitcut offers a subtle uniqueness accompanied by an aura of simplicity and complete sophistication.

Source: Pinterest

His and hers Kitenge design

To make your wedding day even more memorable, you can opt to wear similar couple designs with the same combination or pattern. This will bring out an extremely adorable and eye-catching design just like in the image below which has a culturally inspired long dress with a beautiful Kitenge head wrap like in the second figure.

Source: Pinterest

Source: Pinterest

Gorgeous red/maroon Kitenge wedding outfit

The following plain silky red skirt paired with a green bodice offers a jaw-dropping attention that will ensure you slay at your event.

Source: Outfit Trends

Source: Pinterest

Flowy mermaid gown

A Mermaid design has always been embraced as the most fashionable owing to its elegance and delicacy. Designers can incorporate many variations of the mermaid style while maintaining the same concept. In fact, most of the Kitenge bride wear mainly features an exquisitely flowing mermaid gown. One can decide to design their dress with sleeves or without. Check out the image below.

Source: DHgate

A neck strap maxi in gold

This particular Kitenge dress design combines the Eastern and African looks to give a great example of a stunning wedding dress. Moreover, the rust or gold neck strap accompanied a vivid contrast color presents a chic style for the wedding day. For this reason, if you would like to have unique multicultural attire with a robust sense from the African culture, then this style is what you can go for.

Source: Pinterest

Kitenge bride gown with a net top

The black net top paired with the long maxi design of fresh colored Kitenge is a nice wedding outfit. This is because its stylish and vibrant. Please note that when you decide to wear a long Kitenge maxi dress then you must accompany it with high heels to elongate the legs. This particular look is suitable for slightly plus-sized brides as it has a great design that offers a sleek or slim look.

Source: Outfit Trends

Source: Fashion Qe

B. Kitenge designs for plus-sized ladies

The Kitenge design not only reveals appeal but also expresses the African fashion spirit in varied patterns and hues. The loveliness of the Kitenge fabric can be appreciated in all shapes and sizes and offers a dazzling look for plus size women. Below are some of the latest Kitenge designs for plus size ladies.

A flowery maxi Kitenge design

This particular style is an amazing piece of art and one of the favorite Kitenge designs for plus size women. It is a popular choice because the pattern in the style offers an immense flare to the lady and the addition of the belt brings in a subtle balance to it.

Source: Outfit Trends

Silky single print

Another excellent way to slay a plus size Kitenge gown is by creating an illusion of depth and dimension. This particular look does just that as the silky glory complements the Kitenge print making the look an elegant piece for Kitenge designs for plus size women.

Source: Pinterest

Mid-section Kitenge print

This Kitenge dress for plus size ladies offers a print royalty in a very simple sophisticated fashion. This is because it exploits the simple aspect of symmetry and common style in the entire attire. Furthermore, the positioning of the print offers a slimmed illusion to the dress.

Slitcut-maxi Kitenge gown

This amazing style is the reason why Kitenge is taking over the fashion industry. The piece offers the best allure you will ever get from a Kitenge outfit for plus sizes. Moreover, it embodies all the African charm you can get from a Kitenge fabric.

Reed Fashion

Bubbly midi dress

This is another lovely design for plus size women with a mid-single pleat that offers a diverse presence while maintaining a simple look. Because of the mid pleat, the design brings out a striking patterned story with a top and skirt part. The two parts look different and help create a stunningly beautiful piece as seen in the picture below.

Source: Ladies - IBMARF

Midi simplicity Kitenge gown

The degree intricacy of the following simple design is what makes this plus size Kitenge dress stand out the most. Even better you do not need many accessories with this look.

Source: Reed Fashion Mag

High-low Kitenge print dress

Last but not least, we have the high-low Kitenge plus size gown that radiates elegance from all angles. The Kitenge design offers a modern sparkle to the African print while the diverse patterns and bold colors create an edgy style. You may decide to accentuate your curves with a belt.

Source: Pinterest

C. Kitenge designs long dresses

Maxi Kitenge print

Maxi gowns are timeless and classic dress designs. When done in Kitenge fabric like in this look below, the pattern matches well with the design offering refreshing African attire.

Source: Reed Fashion Mag

High-low pleat

Another one of the great Kitenge dresses designs for ladies is a high low dress with pleats like in the picture below

Source: i.pinimg.

Fancy style dress

This particular Kitenge design offers a sexy and slender look suitable for fancy events. The high ponytail hairstyle furthers highlight the design.

Source: Outfit trends

Here are other pretty long Kitenge dress designs

D. Kitenge skirt and top designs

Coat-skirt Kitenge blend

I love the Coat Skirt Kitenge combo as it brings out a fashionable piece. The Kitenge skirts design matches well with the fitting top cot. The is attire is suitable for a formal event as well as a casual look.

Source: Ciaafrique

The Kitenge pencil skirt

The other way to pair up a top and a Kitenge skirt design is by wearing a pencil skirt. This is because a pencil skirt brings out a striking appeal offering a fashion statement. Furthermore, you can pair it up with a neutral top to accentuate the Kitenge print making it a masterpiece design.

Pinterest

Strip skater Kitenge skirt

The Strip-Skater dress is another excellent Kitenge skirt design. The detailed glam in the design below creates a beautiful African-modern fusion at its best. Moreover, the detailed stripes make it easier to select a matching blouse or top to complement the look.

Source: Reed Fashion Mag

Kitenge crop top and skirt combo

Are you a daring individual when it comes to fashion? If you are, then this look is for you. The design has a matching Kitenge crop top and pencil skirt. Furthermore, the skirt is embroidered with egg patterns that add the charm to this look.

Source: Fashion, Beauty, Lifestyle!

E. Kitenge designs for pregnant women

In the past, pregnant ladies were limited to the choice of fashionable Kitenge print wear as the only way was to tie a wrapper around their waist. However, at present, pregnant women have a variety of styles to choose from at their various stages of pregnancy. There is no excuse not look good while pregnant today as you can choose from any of the below trendy Kitenge dress designs images.

The shirt dress

The Shirt dress style is a popular Kitenge designs for short dresses for pregnant ladies. The best part about this lovely choice of outfit is that one can make it by themselves at home if they have some bit of sewing expertise. A shirt dress in Kitenge fabric offers a statement design that will make out stand out. Check the image below.

Source: Le Style Parfait Kenya

The baggy midi with cold shoulder sleeves

Has your tailor design an over-sized Kitenge dress as in the image below with cold shoulder sleeves. This makes a great fashion piece and offers total comfort for a pregnant lady.

Source: Alibaba

High low Kitenge maternity dress

Maternity dresses can also be designed in a high low fashion just like in the picture below.

Source: Afro Cosmopolitan

Stretchy Kitenge maternity dress

As earlier mentioned, African designers are exploring more varieties of the Kitenge fabric including have a stretchy feel. As such, pregnant women who are into figure-hugging dresses can have stretchy maternity dresses made from them like in the picture below.

Source: Pinterest

F. Kitenge shorts design

Short designs are increasingly becoming popular fashion trends in the present world today. Nevertheless, many are not aware that one can still pull off a sophisticated yet fancy look with a pair of Kitenge shorts. That said, depending on the length of the shorts, one can wear shorts to the office paired with heels to give off a classy look. This will only work if your workplace allows for casual wear. Here are different ways to rock that Kitenge short

Two piece design

One can design to pair up their Kitenge shorts with a matching top or blouse like in the picture below.

Source: Wheretoget

High-waist Kitenge shorts

Another way ladies can wear Kitenge shorts is to wear a high waist pair of shorts accompanied by a button-up shirt. This presents an edgy yet classy look.

Source: adanze's

Bright top and Kitenge shorts

This includes pairing up your Kitenge shorts with a colorful top or blouse just like the picture below.

Source: Pinterest

Mixed prints

In this look, you can pair up your Kitenge shorts with a different Kitenge print top which could be polka dots or even stripes. You may also put on a chiffon top with kitenge prints. Check out how the Kitenge prints have been combined in this look below.

Source: Pinterest

Over-sized Kitenge shorts

Some ladies will prefer wearing colorful oversized Kitenge shorts. What one can do with such shorts is to pair them up with a black top just like in the image below as black pairs up with most colors.

Source: Pinterest

You can also try this Kitenge design

G. Kitenge blouses designs

Ladies can pair up their Kitenge blouses with a pair of skinny jeans, tights or pencil skirt. Just remember whatever you decide to wear, the main success with a Kitenge blouse is pairing it up with the appropriate shoes, accessories, and jewelry. Below are some ideas on how you can pair up your Kitenge blouse in 2018.

An off shoulder crop Kitenge blouse

Just like the name suggests, the blouse is an off shoulder one and is also a crop top for daring ladies. It is paired with nice skinny jeans that offer a great fashion statement.

Source: YouTube

An off shoulder over-sized Kitenge blouse

This is another killer look for a Kitenge Blouse. Furthermore, it can be worn by women of all shapes and sizes including pregnant ladies.

Source: Pinterest

An unlined Kitenge blouse

This particular blouse offers a nice fashion piece that can be worn either with your favorite skinny jeans or even a pencil skirt.

Source: Carabin

Peplum Kitenge blouse

A Kitenge peplum blouse is also another beautiful fashion piece as seen in the image below.

Source: Sophie Mbeyu

Kimono-looking Kitenge blouse

Presently, Kimonos are lovely fashion pieces adorned by most ladies. Doing a Kimono looking blouse in Kitenge fabric offers a sophisticated look that will make you stand out from the crowd.

Source: Pinterest

READ ALSO: African latest Kitenge designs for young ladies 2018

Chic and stylish Kitenge blouse

The following Kitenge blouse creates a chic and fab design and therefore is one of the Kitenge design blouses to adopt in 2018.

Source: FabWoman

There you go! Try these kitenge designs for ladies this year and you will enjoy every moment in them.

READ ALSO:

African Fashion 2018: trendy Ankara dresses and Ankara styles

African kitenge designs for plus size ladies

Cute Kitenge designs for slim ladies that are trending in Kenya

Latest Kitenge fashion 2018 - trends for fashionistas!

Latest Kitenge Dress Designs for Kenyan Girls

Source: Kenyan Breaking News
- Ford Kenya leaders said the Raila-Uhuru handshake would not affect Ruto's 2022 ambitions

- Eseli Simiyu said Ford Kenya was however not supporting Ruto following developments in Jubilee

- Kiambu Senator said Ruto was a smart politician who will find his way round the dynasties if they gang up against him

Deputy President William Ruto received unlikely support from Opposition leaders who said the Jubilee leader was not looking for sympathy votes in his stab at the presidency.

Ruto who is seeking to succeed President Uhuru Kenyatta, is facing one of his major political battles with an onslaught from the opposition and the ruling Jubilee Party.

Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens

READ ALSO: Kijakazi wa ajabu aponyoka na KSh 3 milioni kutoka kwa mwajiri

In an interview on NTV seen by TUKO.co.ke, Ford Kenya deputy party leader Boni Khalwale and party secretary general Eseli Simiyu said Ruto was not after sympathy votes, agreeing with Kiambu Senator Kimani Wamatangi.

Retired President Daniel Moi and Raila Odinga during their meeting. Photo: Raila Odinga/Facebook.

READ ALSO: KANU claws Khalwale after ex-Senator attacked Moi over Matiba

They trio said the famous handshakes between Kenyas major political dynasties-Kenyattas Mois, and Odingas, was not a major threat to Ruto, explaining that, infact, the DP would win easily.

Eseli said by pointing out issues arising from the handshakes, it was not to be construed as being sympathetic to Ruto.

READ ALSO: IEBC clears the air following claims Wafula Chebukati has resigned

Raila Odinga shakes hands with former President Mwai Kibaki on April 20, 2018. Photo: Raila Odinga/Facebook.

According to Wamatangi, sympathy votes do not last and argued that Ruto was a smart politician who will find his way round the dynasties if they gang up against him in the 2022 race.

"I do not think he is expecting to be a beneficiary of sympathy votes," Wamatangi said in reference to Ruto.

NASA leader Raila Odinga met Uhuru and Moi in surprise turn of events and later held talks with retired president Mwai Kibaki in his latest efforts to lead national reconciliation, following the divisive 2017 General Election.

DP William Ruto addressing a past public event. He is eyeing the Presidency in 2022. Photo: William Ruto/Facebook.

READ ALSO: Governor abandons church service to chase after illegal sand harvesters

The nation is divided in opinion following Railas new moves, with a section thinking he is positioning himself for the 2022 election, while others think the three families are planning to frustrate Ruto in his bid to become Kenyas fifth president.

Campaigns for the 2022 elections have already kicked off in full gear barely a year after the last election.

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.

Amazing Story of Kenya's Oldest Makanga ( Documentary) | Faces of Kenya - on TUKO TV

Source: Tuko
- Tamara Risheel caused a stir on the internet after claiming to be Uhuru's kid

- She was later arrested and locked up for three days at Kilimani police statlion

- The young lass left people suggesting she could be mentally unstable after a video surfaced online

- She appeared in a show on Ebru TV and her though process seemed disjoined

On hearing the case of Tamara Risheel, the lady who claimed to be the president's daughter, comedian Chipukeezy rushed to social media to try and get her to attend his show as a guest.

Of course he worked hard enough and managed to track her down at Kilimani Police Station just when her bailed had been posted.

READ ALSO:Video of Kirinyaga county deputy governor in bed with married woman goes viral

In a candid interview with the comedian on his new show on Ebru TV, Chipukeezy Show, Risheel appeared to be out of touch with reality.

She went on and on about how she was a big fan of President Uhuru Kenyatta and was only trying to score a meeting with him.

"I was the first to wish him Merry Christmas. I had my bare body painted while standing at Kenya National Archives," she said as her host giggled.

READ ALSO:Men move closer, here are 17 sure signs she has already surrendered to you

Her gaze appeared to be distant and she'd constantly nod while trying to comprehend the comedian's questions.

According to her, as an upcoming artiste, so far she's managed to pen down down a whopping 30, 000 songs. Yea, you heard it right.

Whenever she'd say something out of the ordinary during the show leaving people bursting into laughter, she'd stand perplexed wondering why guys found her sentiments to be entertaining.

READ ALSO:Singer and ex-househelp Nyota Ndogo finally improves makeup skills after fans criticised her

Tamara became an overnight sensation after walking around Yaya Centre and Hurlingam with a plaque reading, "meet Tamara Risheel President Uhuru Kenyatta's unknown daughter."

She was later apprehended and bailed out by Starehe MP Charles Njagua after spending three days in the slammer.

Tamara was bailed out of police custody by Jaguar. Photo: Chipukeezy/Facebook

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.

Willy Paul Interview for Tuko Buzz: Willy Paul Reveals it All | Tuko TV

Source: Tuko
- Kirinyaga's number two was heavily criticised by a large section of Kenyans

- This was after a video of him alongside a married woman surfaced online

- The two were busted having an illicit affair

- Kenyans were typically unimpressed by Ndambiri's acts and made their feelings known online

Kirinyaga Deputy governor Peter Ndambiri has become the subject of mass criticism from Kenyans after a video of him in a compromising situation emerged.

The deputy governor, on Tuesday, April 24, received a heavy dress down from Kenyans for allegedly sleeping with a married woman.

Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens

READ ALSO: Viagra sasa sio ya kuongeza nguvu kitandani tu; watafiti wapata matumizi mapya

Ndambiri was busted in bed with a married woman. Photo: United states of Kiambu/Facebook

Earlier TUKO.co.ke reported of an apologetic Ndambiri who is seen in the video trying to beg forgiveness from a man believed to be the husband of the woman in the video.

While the deputy governor maintains that he did not know the lady was someones spouse, unforgiving Kenyans were relentless in their online attacks on him.

Majority of Kenyans could not hide their distaste in the respected politician who just might have thrown away his reputation.

Here are some the reactions from Kenyans:

READ ALSO: Matiang'i should deputise Ruto in 2022 - Kisii leaders

Some were of the opinion that Ndambiri should resign because of the shameful situation he was caught in.

READ ALSO: Ruto not looking for sympathy vote - top Opposition leaders defend DP

Others could not help but tackle the deputy on a more personal level:

READ ALSO: Sonko installs CCTV cameras to monitor pedestrians stepping on grass

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.

Amazing Story of Kenya's Oldest Makanga ( Documentary) | Faces of Kenya:

Source: Tuko
The opposition UNC is urging the population to stand up and fight for their rights. During this morning's weekly press briefing, one opposition Senator and an opposition member of the house highlighted issues of mandatory vaccination and the PSC fiasco.
Ukrainian citizens were not killed or injured in a tragedy in the Canadian city of Toronto, where a van ploughed into a crowd early on Monday, April 23, Ukrainian Ambassador to Canada Andriy Shevchenko has told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Consular staff contacted local police. According to tentative reports, none of those killed or injured have Ukrainian citizenship, but the information will still be specified.

Canadian law enforcers promised that if they receive information about injured foreigners, they will immediately report this to the embassy of a respective country in Ottawa.

A van ploughed into lunch-hour crowd in Toronto on Monday, leaving at least nine people dead and 16 injured. Police arrested the driver.

op
Five Ukrainian soldiers were wounded in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) area in eastern Ukraine over the past day.

Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Spokesperson Maksym Prauta said this at a press briefing on Tuesday, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.

"Three servicepersons were wounded in an unknown object explosion near Novohryhorivka. Two of them are in critical condition, another one is in good condition. Also, two Ukrainian defenders were wounded in enemy shelling. The state of their health is moderately severe, he said.

Prauta also added that Russian-backed militants continued to violate the ceasefire regime. Over the past day, they launched 44 attacks on the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The Ukrainian side returned fire 23 times, using weapons that are not prohibited under the Minsk agreements.

iy
Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak has said that there are no grounds for a new wave of mobilization in Ukraine.

He said this in an interview with the BBC Ukrainian, which was published on the Defense Ministry's website on Tuesday.

"As for the next wave of mobilization, we do not have such a necessity today. There are several reasons, and one of them is that we managed to carry out serious work with the reserve of the first stage, that is, with people who have combat experience," Poltorak said.

According to him, reservists have already been registered not only with military recruitment offices, but also with military units. "A teaching and methodological training is conducted every year. They are trained for two to three weeks in a brigade for combat coordination. These people are ready to take weapons in a few days - finish the staffing of the units or form new units and perform tasks. We [...] clearly understand how many people we have and what we can count on. We have learned to calculate the risks in case of the need to conduct mobilization, but once again I want to say that I do not see such a necessity today," he said.

He said that the minimum salary of a serviceman was UAH 7,500-7,800 and noted that "it is a small amount of money" given the risks of "losing life and health in the army." At the same time, Poltorak said, salaries for those serving in the area of the anti-terrorist operation managed were raised from UAH 2,400 to UAH 10,000 per month. "I think that the main reason for the reinforcement of the Ukrainian Armed Forces with contract soldiers is motivation, patriotism and a sense of responsibility and the need to fulfill your male duty. Money, of course, is in the second place," he said.

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The strength of a UN peacekeeping force in Donbas can range from 10,000 to 40,000, depending on the goals of maintaining or enforcing peace, Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak has said.

He said this in an interview with the BBC Ukrainian, which was published on the website of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry on Tuesday.

"In order to accurately calculate the number of peacekeepers we need, it is important to determine what task will be performed by the peacekeeping force. There may be two options - keeping peace and enforcing peace. If we talk about keeping peace, then, according to our calculations, the force can consist of 10,000 to 25,000. If we talk about enforcing peace, the figure can be 35,000-40,000," Poltorak said.

When asked whether the Defense Ministry has already developed a plan for cooperation between the Ukrainian Armed Forces and peacekeepers, he said that Ukraine has vast experience in this matter, as many officers, generals and servicemen participated in peacekeeping missions, starting with the Chief of the General Staff and finishing with the commanders of military units. "Therefore, we clearly understand how to interact with the force," the minister said.

According to him, more than 20,000 Ukrainian servicemen passed through peacekeeping missions, and now Ukrainian peacekeepers are fulfilling international obligations abroad. Poltorak noted that today he does not see the need to return them to Ukraine in the event of the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force in Donbas. "The servicemen who are in the east of Ukraine have enough experience. It's certainly bigger than that of peacekeepers," the minister said.

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Ukraine has made significant progress in implementing reforms, according to a joint communique by the G7 foreign ministers.

"We reconfirm our support for Ukraine's reform and are encouraged by steps taken to date, especially in the areas of decentralization and economic growth," the communique reads.

At the same time, the Group of Seven urged Ukraine to continue such changes. "We urge the Government of Ukraine to make continued, clear progress along the reform path on which it has embarked and which its people demand. This includes the creation of an anti-corruption court in line with the Venice Commission's recommendations, as well as progress on electoral reforms and the National Security Law," the document says.

In addition, the ministers expressed their support for the G7 Ambassadors Group in Ukraine. "We reiterate our full confidence in the G7 Ambassadors Group in Ukraine and acknowledge the role of this group in monitoring and supporting the implementation of reforms," reads the communique.

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The IT industry in Ukraine has grown by 20% over the past year.

Ukraine's Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said this during a meeting with representatives of the leading IT companies of Ukraine, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"Ukraine's IT sector grew by 20% over the past year. This year we have the same growth plans. Ukrainian intellectual potential is very high in the world. Ukraine has contributed into many international technology products," Groysman said.

According to him, last year the IT industry brought the country $3.6 billion in export revenue. The share of the IT industry in the country's GDP amounted to about 3.4%.

"As of early 2018, the industry employed more than 120,000 developers and engineers. Their number is growing rapidly," the head of the government added.

Groysman notes that another deregulation meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers is scheduled for May. "We will continue to abolish a lot of unnecessary regulations and to make necessary decisions, especially for the IT sector," he said.

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South Korea and Ukraine have agreed to boost bilateral economic cooperation.

Yonhap reported this with reference to the Ministry of Finance of South Korea.

"During a meeting with First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Stepan Kubiv, South Korean Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon said South Korea's prowess in the IT, aerospace and other sectors would help support bilateral economic cooperation," the report reads.

In turn, Kubiv said that more South Korean companies should take part in his country's infrastructure development projects and the privatization of state-run enterprises.

The parties also agreed to expand human resource exchanges.

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Norway has allocated EUR 3.6 million for the implementation of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine 2018-2021.

This was reported by the press office of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine.

"Norway announced a decision to allocate additional NOK 34 million (approximately EUR 3.6 million) for the implementation of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine for 2018-2021 in addition to NOK 10 million provided previously in the form of financial assistance," the report reads.

Norway's total contribution of NOK 44 million (approximately EUR 4.6 million) will be spent on Ukraines projects on reforms in areas defined as priority for Ukraine by the new action plan for 2018-2021. "The priority areas include further support for judicial reform, execution of judgments, reform of decentralization, fight against corruption, support for internally displaced persons, safety of journalists and others," the report reads.

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Francis Fukuyama, a well-known U.S. philosopher, political scientist, professor at the Stanford University's Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, in the presence of Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, has launched cooperation between Stanford University and the Cabinet of Ministers in the field of reforming the system of public administration of Ukraine.

State Secretary of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Volodymyr Bondarenko and Fukuyama signed a respective memorandum of cooperation on Monday, April 23, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.

"A new quality of civil service is what Ukrainians need. People do not need to help the government. People need to come and work in the government in order to move the civil service apparatus. Our goal is to make a strong country, with a strong democracy, a strong economy, and a strong judicial system," Groysman said.

According to Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers Oleksandr Sayenko, the signing of such a document is the result of the government's prior agreement on cooperation in implementing the reform of the public administration system in Ukraine, in particular the implementation of the Civil Service Feedback Loop Initiative supported by the Professional Government Association (PGA), the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL), Kyiv School of Economics and the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers to conduct a basic study of civil service in Ukraine with the aim of continuous improvement.

This research will be held in Ukraine for the first time. It foresees interviews with different categories of officials on key parameters of modern civil service, such as meritocracy, autonomy, organizational values and effectiveness. This will help better understand the current state of the state apparatus in Ukraine and work out specific recommendations for solving existing problems.

Sayenko expressed confidence that the recommendations to be made to government officials would help improve the state system, improve the quality of government decisions and speed up the development of public administration reform in Ukraine.

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The Group of Seven (G7) members have promised to continue supporting Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland has said.

She said this at the G7 summit in Toronto on Monday, April 23, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.

Ukraine is too well familiar with the true consequences of Russia's ill-treatment, so the G7 countries will continue to support Ukraine during the next elections in the face of aggression, Freeland said.

She added that G7 members would also help conduct the necessary anti-corruption and economic reforms in Ukraine.

The G7, as a group, needs to be united in its firm commitment to resolving instability, wherever it emerged, Freeland said.

The G7 Foreign and Security Ministers meeting is being held in Toronto, Canada. The Ukrainian side also received an invitation to take part in the summit's familiarization session.

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In Canada, the G7 foreign ministers have confirmed the importance of full implementation of the Minsk agreements, and called on Ukraine to continue its reforms.

Deputy Press Secretary of the Foreign Ministry of Japan Mr. Toshihide Ando said this at a briefing in Toronto, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"The issue of Ukraine was discussed at the G7 foreign ministers' summit. The G7 ministers reaffirmed the importance of full compliance with the Minsk agreement and called on Ukraine to continue carrying out reforms," Ando said.

As Ukrinform reported, the G7 foreign ministers' summit is being held in Toronto, Canada. Ukraine also received an invitation to take part in the summit's familiarization session.

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Francis Fukuyama, a well-known U.S. philosopher, political scientist, professor at the Stanford University's Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, is confident that Russia is now committing aggression against Ukraine, because President Vladimir Putin realizes that if Ukraine succeeds in building democracy, this will automatically affect his country.

He said this at a meeting with Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman at a ceremony to sign a memorandum on the launch of the Civil Service Feedback Loop Initiative, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.

In my opinion, Ukraine is now at the forefront of the global struggle for democracy. Russia committed aggression in Donbas, because Putin understands that if Ukraine succeeds in building democracy, this will also have consequences for his country, for the entire post-Soviet space, for many countries around the world, Fukuyama said.

The professor expressed confidence that Ukraine would not surrender, but, on the contrary, would fight to the end, but it should simultaneously solve a number of other problems, in particular, in the fight against corruption.

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04/24/2018

Contacts for media: Christine Gillette, 978-934-2209 or Christine_Gillette@uml.edu and Nancy Cicco, 978-934-4944 or Nancy_Cicco@uml.edu

LOWELL, Mass.  What started as a pilot program in 2014 with nine UMass Lowell students visiting India over winter break to learn about entrepreneurship and innovation has grown into a nationally recognized model of international education.

The Institute of International Education (IIE) has named UMass Lowells Global Entrepreneurship Exchange (GE2) program as the winner of one of this years IIE Andrew Heiskell Awards for Innovation in International Education.

The GE2 program, led by Manning School of Business senior lecturer Ashwin Mehta, recently received the award in the category of study abroad at the IIEs annual Best Practices in Internationalization Conference. Mehta is a resident of Hudson, N.H.

Its a great recognition that wouldnt have been possible without the efforts of so many faculty and staff members, not only here in the Manning School, but across the campus. Its also recognition that UMass Lowell is at the forefront when it comes to global engagement and entrepreneurship, said Mehta, who added that the success of the program is also the result of the strong partnership between UMass Lowell and KLE Technological University in Hubli, India, the first institution to participate in the exchange. They are our key collaborator in this program.

Since the UMass Lowell programs inception four years ago, more than 670 students from 12 countries have come together to experience multidisciplinary and multicultural immersion in entrepreneurship, complete with project-based activities and field visits to businesses in the region. Five sessions are being held in 2018 and include faculty in not only entrepreneurship, but also accounting, management and marketing.

Through the program, UMass Lowell students earn three credits as they study abroad for two weeks in India (over winter or summer break) or China (summer). They can also take part in a three-credit summer course on campus with students visiting from China, Guyana, Haiti, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Thailand and Vietnam. The program is open to both undergraduate and graduate students and while it is offered through the Manning School of Business, participants have included engineering, science and nursing majors, along with those in business.

The GE2 program is a great example of a successful short-term experiential program with reaches across academic disciplines and cultures, said Fern McKinnon, director of UMass Lowells Office of Study Abroad and International Experiences. We are proud to be able to offer the enriching exchange it provides to its participants.

I never thought it would grow into something like this, said Mehta, who, along with Assistant Prof. Michael Obal, led eight UMass Lowell students to India over winter break on the programs 12th session. It shows that UMass Lowell has a global footprint.

At the IIE conference where the award was presented, Mehta and leaders from the other award-winning campuses, which included Virginia Commonwealth University and the Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute, presented their programs to help higher education policymakers and officials advance their internationalization efforts.

We congratulate the winners of this years IIE Andrew Heiskell Awards for their innovative work, said IIE President and CEO Allan Goodman. We hope these programs will not only be adapted by institutions for their own campuses, but that they will also spark new creative ideas for internationalization.

The IIE Heiskell Awards are named for the late Andrew Heiskell, former chairman of Time Inc., and a dedicated supporter of international education. Since they were launched 17 years ago, the awards have recognized nearly 140 programs that advance international education on the campuses of IIEs 1,300 members. Founded in 1919, the nonprofit collaborates with corporate, government and foundation partners around the world to design and manage scholarship, study abroad, workforce training and leadership development programs.

In 2014, UMass Lowell joined the IIEs Generation Study Abroad initiative, which aims to double the number of U.S. students studying abroad by 2020. The university has already nearly doubled its participation rate three years ahead of schedule, according to MacKinnon.

Through support to our faculty in the development of international experiences, we aim to offer a diverse range of programs to suit our students academic, personal and professional interests, McKinnon said. The GE2 program highlights the universitys commitment to providing students with a transformational, experiential education.

UMass Lowell is a national research university located on a high-energy campus in the heart of a global community. The university offers its more than 18,000 students bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees in business, education, engineering, fine arts, health, humanities, sciences and social sciences. UMass Lowell delivers high-quality educational programs, vigorous hands-on learning and personal attention from leading faculty and staff, all of which prepare graduates to be ready for work, for life and for all the world offers. www.uml.edu
Russia's Bastion and Bal coastal defense missile systems are deployed in Crimea.

The Russian occupation forces have begun military drills in Crimea.

Coastal defense missile systems will be involved in the exercises, RFE/RL's Krym-Realii media project reported with reference to the press service of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

Read alsoRussian war pilots to practice landing on highway near Ukraine border

According to the source, Russia's Bastion and Bal coastal defense missile systems were deployed in Crimea. The command and staff training of the missile brigade of the Russian Black Sea Fleet is taking place on the training ground in Crimea.

"The next stage of the exercise is the deployment of the missile systems on the ground and the change of firing positions. The final stage of the drills will be the execution by missile specialists of tasks for the detection of conventional surface targets with further transfer of the received data to the command post," the report says.
Poroshenko has not communicated with the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church since the beginning of Russian aggression against Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said Russian Patriarch Kirill is not authorized to veto a decision by the Ecumenical Patriarch on autocephaly the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is seeking.

"Nobody, including Kirill, has the veto on the decision of the Ecumenical Patriarch. He doesn't ask for permission from Kirill, he is holding consultations on this issue," Poroshenko told a Svoboda Slova [Freedom of Speech] talk show on Ukraine's ICTV channel, answering a question whether Patriarch Kirill could stop the process of granting the Tomos of Autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the president's press service reports.

Read alsoUOC of Moscow Patriarchate: Ecumenical Patriarchate to discuss autocephalous church in Ukraine

Poroshenko stressed he had not spoken to the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church since the beginning of Russian aggression against Ukraine.

"I would like to emphasize separately that it would be an ideal scenario for me that along with Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, all the Orthodox Churches, including the Russian Patriarch, confirm our autocephaly," Poroshenko said.

"This is the only way [for Russia] to clean itself at least somehow from the anger and sins committed by Russian military, propagandists and sometimes, unfortunately, Russian priests on the territory of Ukraine," the president said, adding he believed it could happen. "The God works wonders," Poroshenko added.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Poroshenko announced on April 17 that the heads of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church had decided to officially appeal to Archbishop of Constantinople and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I for autocephaly.

Autocephaly is the status of a hierarchical Christian Church whose head bishop does not report to any higher-ranking bishop (used especially in Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Independent Catholic churches).

Autocephaly opens the way for the creation of a United Orthodox Church in Ukraine, which will not be subordinate to Moscow.

The split between the Moscow and Kyiv branches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church happened during the collapse of the Soviet Union, when Ukraine's Primate Filaret broke with the Russian Orthodox Church. He argued that an independent Ukraine deserved a national church truly independent of Moscow. The Moscow Patriarchate whose parishes prevail in Ukraine has never recognized the Ukrainian Patriarchate.
Late in March the court started hearings of the Sushchenko case on the merits. The journalist pleaded not guilty to espionage.

The prosecution has completed the presentation of evidence incriminating Ukrainian journalist Roman Sushchenko in espionage in the Moscow City Court.

"The prosecution has completed the presentation of evidence in the case against Ukrainian journalist Roman Sushchenko in the Moscow City Court. On May 25, 2018, the defense will commence to present its written evidence and pleas," his attorney Mark Feygin told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI) on Monday.

Late in March the court started hearings of the Sushchenko case on the merits. The journalist pleaded not guilty to espionage.

Read alsoUkrainian journalist on trial in Russia uses tea, onion skins, pens to create pictures (Photo)

According to Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), the Ukrainian citizen has "purposively collected classified information about the Armed Forces and National Guard of Russia." Leak of data abroad could cause damage to the national defense capability, the FSB officials claimed earlier.

Charges were brought against Sushchenko in October 2016. He could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Ukrinform news agency earlier confirmed that Sushchenko had been acting as its reporter since 2002. Since 2010, he has been working as Ukrinform's personal correspondent in France. According to the agency, Sushchenko arrived in Moscow on private business during his vacation and was arrested immediately upon his arrival.

Ukrinform repelled accusations against Sushchenko calling him "a journalist with years of unblemished professional reputation."
The ministers also said Russia must be a constructive partner in Syria, or it will be held accountable.

The U.S Department of State says the G7 countries stand united in the commitment to hold Russia accountable for its activities in Ukraine.

"We also stand united in our commitment to hold Russia accountable for its activities in Ukraine. Together, the G7 call on Russia to honor its Minsk commitments, to de-escalate violence, and to return control of Crimea to Ukraine," the U.S. Department of State said, with reference to John J. Sullivan, the Acting Secretary of State, who spoke at the G7 ministerial meeting in Toronto, Canada, on April 23, 2018.

Read alsoG7 countries stand ready to step up sanctions against Russia

The ministers also said Russia must be a constructive partner in Syria, or it will be held accountable.

"The G7 countries agree that Russia must stop creating impediments to peace and abide by the commitments it entered into under UN Security Council Resolution 2401 and compel the Assad regime to do the same," reads the report.

As UNIAN reported, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), in consultation with the Department of State, on April 6 designated seven Russian oligarchs and 12 companies they own or control, 17 senior Russian government officials, and a state-owned Russian weapons trading company and its subsidiary, a Russian bank.

The list includes such oligarchs as Vladimir Bogdanov, Oleg Deripaska, Suleiman Kerimov, Igor Rotenberg, Kirill Shamalov, Andrei Skoch and Viktor Vekselberg, oligarch-owned companies, such as B-Finance Ltd., Basic Element Limited, EN+ Group, EuroSibEnergo, United Company RUSAL PLC, Russian Machines, GAZ Group, Agroholding Kuban, Gazprom Burenie, NPV Engineering Open Joint Stock Company, Ladoga Menedzhment and Renova Group. Furthermore, it lists Russian state-owned firms, such as Rosoboroneksport and the Russian Financial Corporation Bank (RFC Bank). Moreover, the U.S. Treasury designated several Russian government officials, including Minister of Internal Affairs and General Police of the Russian Federation Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Director of the Federal Service of National Guard Troops and Commander of the National Guard Troops of the Russian Federation Viktor Zolotov, Head of Roskomnadzor Alexander Zharov, President, Chairman of the Management Board, and Member of the Supervisory Council of state-owned VTB Bank Andrey Kostin, Governor of the Tula region of Russia Alexey Dyumin, and others.
Ariev also said PACE had taken into account an amendment proposed by the Ukrainian delegation.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has adopted a decision recognizing the Russian-occupied areas in eastern Ukraine as "effectively controlled" by Russia.

While considering a resolution on Ukraine, PACE nearly unanimously supported two amendments stating that the uncontrolled areas in Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine (also known as the "DPR" and "LPR," or "ORDLO") are "territories under effective control by the Russian Federation," the Ukrainian news outlet Yevropeiska Pravda reported.

Previously, the document used the notions "government-controlled and non government-controlled territories."

The final wording of the resolution does not mention the ORDLO as "occupied terriitory"  the amendments were changed at the last moment to "effectively controlled."

PACE Vice President Volodymyr Ariev wrote on Facebook on Tuesday, April 24, to comment the event: "It's a victory! An important amendment proposed by the Ukrainian delegation to PACE was adopted in the report 'State of emergency: proportionality issues concerning derogations under Article 15 of the European Convention on Human Rights,' and the Assembly voted to recognize the actual occupation (effective control) by Russia of part of Donbas! Fairy tales about coal miners, tractor drivers and post exchanges are no longer part of international documents."

Read alsoUkraine's envoy: PACE corruption report "beginning of a major scandal"

As UNIAN reported earlier, Ariev said on April 23 PACE had rejected Ukraine's request to hold an urgent debate over the illegal election of the Russian president in occupied Crimea and other aspects of Russian policy.
Security expert Rosian Vasiloi told BIRN that intelligence services from Moldova and Ukraine have worked together for some years to stop the phenomenon.

Moldova's intelligence service says its operatives have identified at least 62 people, mostly from the breakaway region of Transnistria, fighting for pro-Russian separatists in Eastern Ukraine.

Moldova's Security and Intelligence Service, SIS, told BIRN that it has identified 62 persons from the country as taking part in mercenary activities in Ukraine since Russia's annexation of Crimea in March 2014 and in the conflict in the Eastern Ukraine between Ukrainian and pro-Russian separatist forces.

"Evidence of these persons [activities] was handed over to the Prosecutor's Office of Moldova. It is worth mentioning that 17 mercenaries have been convicted by the courts of Moldova," SIS said in an official answer regarding this topic, Balkan Insight reports.

A journalistic investigation by RISE Moldova also showed how Moldovan citizens have opted to fight both for the separatists in Donbas but also for Ukrainian battalions, some for the money and others for ideological reasons.

Security expert Rosian Vasiloi told BIRN that intelligence services from Moldova and Ukraine have worked together for some years to stop the phenomenon.

He added that most of the fighters come from Moldova's pro-Russian breakaway region of Transnistria and from the autonomous region of Gagauzia, but some hail from the western districts of Moldova, like Ungheni, close to the Romanian border.

Read alsoDangers of Russia withdrawal corridor from Transnistria via Ukraine"Some are former soldiers who used to be in the armed forces of Moldova, either from the Ministry of Defense, the Gendarmerie or even the police. For them, there is no need for special military training," Vasiloi added.

In July 2014, soon after Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine, the ex-KGB chief in Transnistria, Vladimir Antiufeev, became vice prime minister of the self-proclaimed Republic of Donetsk, in Eastern Ukraine.

During 2017, Russian soldiers stationed in Transnistria and separatist forces loyal to Tiraspol held around 200 joint military exercises.

Read alsoUkraine ready to provide Russia with corridor for withdrawal of troops from TransnistriaRussia keeps around 1,500 soldiers in Transnistria as "peacekeepers" and in the Operative Group of Russian Troops, OGRT, which has had the duty of guarding an ammunitions depot since Soviet times in Colbasna.

In May 2017, Moldova expelled five Russian diplomats, some of them identified as working for Russian military intelligence services GRU.

Reuters wrote that, according to government sources in Moldova, these diplomats were trying also to recruit Moldovan citizens to fight in Eastern Ukraine.

As UNIAN reported earlier, at a security conference held on April 17 in Kyiv, called "Traps of the Transnistrian settlement: How to avoid them", Moldovan ambassador Radu Bolbocean said that many military instructors from Transnistria had been detained in Moldova, without giving their exact numbers or names.

"We've been seeing a very high-level dialogue between Moldova and Ukraine. This promotes very close interdepartmental interaction between representatives of the two countries' border and customs services, and those of security agencies," he added.

Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip and Ukrainian authorities at a security forum in Kyiv on April 11 again called on Russia to redraw its soldiers from Transnistria.

"Our principled position is that the Russian troops must be withdrawn from Transnistria; they should have been withdrawn from there long ago," Ukraine's special representative for conflict settlement in Transnistria, Viktor Kryzhanovsky, said.

Russian Vice-Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin immediately dismissed the offer, insisting that Russian withdrawal would lead to "the degradation of the status of Transnistria, where our fellow citizens live."

Russian has awarded Russian citizenship to more than 200,000 people in the region out of a total population of less than 500,000.

Constantin Zatulin, first Deputy Chairperson of the Russian-led Commonwealth of Independent States' Affairs Committee on Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots of the Russian State Duma sent Moldova an open warning.

He said he wanted to "remind the Moldovan government that the corridor could operate in both directions"  suggesting that Russian soldiers could enter into it, not just withdraw.
Despite the court decision, Russia never allowed the representative body to renew operations.

Ukraine has appealed to the UN International Court of Justice to provide an explanation regarding its decision to oblige Russia to resume activities of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people.

Ukrainian Ambassador to The Netherlands, Vsevolod Chentsov, has handed over the corresponding note to the ICJ secretary, Philippe Courvreur, according to ZN.ua.

Ukraine has lodged claims with the International Court of Justice in The Hague, accusing Russia of violating two conventions: the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

A year ago, the ICJ issued a preliminary decision on temporary measures, practically recognizing the Mejlis a legitimate representative body of the Crimean Tatar people.

Despite the court decision, Russia never allowed the representative body to renew operations. At the same time, over the past year, Ukraine has appealed to Russia twice demanding that Moscow lift the ban on Mejlis.

The International Court of Justice in The Hague handed down its preliminary decision on April 19, 2017, acknowledging own jurisdiction over the Ukraine vs Russia case. Secondly, the Court stated that "Crimean Tatars and ethnic Ukrainians in Crimea appear to remain vulnerable."

Read alsoDzhemilev warns fake Mejlis may be created in occupied Crimea"The Court considers that these reports show, prima facie, that there have been limitations on the ability of the Crimean Tatars to choose their representative institutions, and restrictions in terms of the availability of Ukrainian-language education in Crimean schools. The Court concludes from this that there is an imminent risk that the acts, as set out above, could lead to irreparable prejudice to the rights invoked by Ukraine.

The Russian Federation was therefore ordered to refrain from maintaining or imposing limitations on the ability of the Crimean Tatar community to conserve its representative institutions, including the Mejlis and to ensure the availability of education in the Ukrainian language.

For Ukraine, this decision is a matter of principle because the ICJ has put forward demands to a single party (Russia), not both. Besides, in their ruling, the judges choose not to operate an abstract term "ethnic groups" but speak precisely of Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars. And finally, the ICJ has practically recognized the Mejlis a legitimate body representing Crimean Tatars.

Thirdly, the ICJ has obliged Ukraine and Russia to fully implement all provisions of agreements reached in Minsk.
Russia also deployed eight warships and submarines equipped with Kalibr missiles, and set up coastal anti-ship missile systems Bastion and Bal.

Russia has amassed in the temporarily occupied Crimea more than 32,000 military personnel, 174 artillery systems, 113 aircraft, warships and submarines, as well as S-400 air defense and Iskander tactical missile systems.

Anatoly Petrenko, Deputy Defense Minister of Ukraine on European Integration, spoke at an international conference "Ukraine-Georgia-NATO: Modern challenges to the Security of the Black Sea Region," according to the BPP "Solidarity" party's project titled "Ukraine-Solidarity-NATO."

"Figures of Russian military presense in Crimea (compared to 2013): over 32,000 personnel against nearly 12,000 in the previous period; 40 main battle tanks this year against no Russian tanks [at the previous period] at all, 680 armored personnel carriers against 92; 174 various artillery systems against 24," the report said.

Read alsoRussia's missile systems drills kick off in CrimeaIn addition, Petrenko said that before the occupation, Russia had 22 warplanes in Crimea, and to date there are 113.

Also, the Russian Federation deployed to Crimea eight warships and submarines, equipped with Kalibr missiles with the range of 1,500 to 2,500 km.

In addition, Russian S-400 air defense systems have been installed in the occupied peninsula as well as coastal anti-ship missile systems Bastion and Bal, and tactical missile systems Iskander.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Mark Feygin called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to facilitate the exchange of his client, Ukrainian journalist Roman Sushchenko.

Mark Feygin, the Russian lawyer of a Ukrainian journalist Roman Sushchenko whom the FSB has accused of "espionage", has been deprived of his official license in Russia.

According to Feygin, the move is a result of "three tweets" he posted earlier. Reporting on the ban, also via Twitter, Mark Feygin did not elaborate on the exact postings that triggered action on the part of the authorities.

In another tweet, Feygin shamed the Russian Bar Association which he says "bowed before the Kremlin."

As UNIAN reported earlier, Mark Feygin called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to facilitate the exchange of his client, Ukrainian journalist Roman Sushchenko, who is being tried in Moscow on "espionage" charges.

Feygin told UNIAN that the "political" case itself, the ongoing trial and everything related is the result of strained relations between the two countries. At the same time, the lawyer noted that he did not lose hope for a "humanitarian decision" in the Sushchenko case, as happened with his other client, Ilmi Umerov of Crimea.

Revocation of Feygin's license poses a challenge to Sushchenko's defense. As the prosecution has completed presenting their evidence in the Suschenko case, the defense team is now set to show its written evidence and pleas on May 25.
The militants used proscribed weapons both in the Donetsk and Luhansk sectors.

Russia's hybrid military forces attacked Ukrainian army positions in Donbas 44 times in the past 24 hours, with five Ukrainian soldiers reported as wounded in action (WIA).

Read alsoUkraine to switch from Anti-Terrorist Operation to Joint Forces Operation on April 30

"In the Luhansk sector, the occupiers fired 120mm and 82mm mortars and grenade launchers at our fortified positions near the village of Troyitske. The enemy also used 82mm mortars near the town of Popasna and three times near the village of Novo-Oleksandrivka. In addition, the defenders of the village of Novozvanivka came under fire from grenade launchers and heavy machine guns, while those in the village of Novoselivka were attacked with the use of an anti-aircraft gun and small arms," the press center of the headquarters of Ukraine's military operations reported on Facebook on Tuesday morning.

In the Donetsk sector, the Russian occupation forces used 120mm mortars to shell the Ukrainian positions near the village of Vodiane, while the positions near Butivka coal mine came under 82mm mortar fire.

"The militants also opened fire from grenade launchers, heavy machine guns and small arms to attack the defenders of the town of Avdiyivka, Butivka mine, the villages of Verkhniotoretske, Vodiane, Hnutove, Kamianka and Talakivka. Moreover, our fortified positions near the town of Maryinka, and the villages of Pavlopil and Lebedynske came under fire from heavy machine guns, as well as from small arms near the villages of Nevelske, Pavlopil, Lebedynske and Pyshchevyk. A sniper was active near the towns of Krasnohorivka and Maryinka," the report says.
A lasting peace is a broader notion than a ceasefire.

Ukrainian Deputy Minister for temporarily occupied territories and internally displaced persons George Tuka has said establishing a lasting peace in the east of Ukraine may require decades.

Read alsoTuka comments on interior minister's plan for Donbas de-occupation

"In the perception of the vast majority of citizens, peace is a ceasefire. And there is such a more professional term as a lasting peace. And building sustainable peace may takes decades, since we have received serious wounds," he told Ukrainian TV Channel 5.

"First of all, it's not about destroyed infrastructure. Neither is it about human losses, though it may hurt victims' families. One person has been killed and many people around him or her have got moral, emotional, psychological traumas. That's what it's about. And it will take many years for these wounds to heal," Tuka said.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov on April 16 said he had a plan for the return of the occupied territory of Donbas to Ukraine. It is called the "tactics of small steps, which everyone applauds." In his words, a law on collaboration and amnesty should be passed to get the occupied areas in Donetsk and Luhansk regions reintegrated. He also claims it will not be possible to reintegrated the entire uncontrolled area at once even if a UN peacekeeping mission is deployed there.
Representatives of Ukraine in Minsk will have stronger grounds to defend their position.

Ukraine's representative to the political subgroup on the Minsk Trilateral Contact Group, ex-Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States Oleksandr Motsyk says that switching from the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) to the Joint Forces Operation in Donbas will not affect the negotiation process in Minsk.

"As for the Minsk process, it will not affect the Minsk process," Motsyk told an UNIAN correspondent, commenting on the change in the format of the operation in Donbas.

Read alsoUkraine to switch from Anti-Terrorist Operation to Joint Forces Operation on April 30

"The law, which provides for the transition from the ATO to the Joint Forces Operation, was adopted since society, and the state, and the government need such a law. The law clearly defines the situation that exists, noting that there is Russian aggression against Ukraine, Russia is called an aggressor state  this is very important," he said.

According to Motsyk, the law on the reintegration of Donbas enshrined the steps that Ukraine will take to get the occupied areas reintegrated after the withdrawal of Russian troops.

"This law allows representatives of Ukraine in Minsk to have stronger grounds to advance their position," he stressed.

As UNIAN reported earlier, the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament on January 18 passed draft law No. 7163 on special aspects of state policy to ensure Ukraine's state sovereignty in temporarily occupied areas in Donetsk and Luhansk regions (the so-called Donbas reintegration bill).

On March 16, Poroshenko announced the end of the ATO and further transition to the Operation of Joint Forces.

He also appointed Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Lt. Gen Serhiy Nayev to the newly created post of Ukraine's Commander of the Joint Forces.

On April 13, Poroshenko said that the Anti-Terrorist Operation would be transformed into the Joint Forces Operation in Donbas as early as from April 30.
The resignation of Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan is unlikely to lead to any substantial change the country's foreign policy or its positioning in both regional and global arenas. There are still many objective preconditions for Armenia's dependence on Russia.

First of all, this is due to a certain isolation of Armenia - it is surrounded by unfriendly states. First of all, it's about Turkey and Azerbaijan. This is also due to the complex and conflict-filled situation in the Caucasus. Among other factors, there's Armenia's significant orientation toward post-Soviet values, which is evidenced by the latest polls showing that the Armenians remain nostalgic for their Soviet past and feel sorry for the Union's collapse, even more so than the Russians are.

Therefore, we should not expect that the new leadership will decisively and drastically change the country's geopolitical orientation.

Protests and mobilization of civil society in Armenia erupted against a clearly negative trend, that is, a seemingly endless sticking to power by Serzh Sargsyan and officials affiliated with him. Meanwhile, the positive part of the agenda is yet to be cleared up. Obviously, it will be of a compromise nature. In particular, this is indicated by a voluntary resignation of a freshly appointed Prime Minister (also ex-president) Sargsyan. Apparently some agreements have been reached, guaranteeing his status and security, or even a certain continuity of power.

We should not expect that the new leadership will decisively and drastically change the country's geopolitical orientation

Therefore, the objective circumstances for Russia to preserve its influence over the country, the unclear nature of the new Armenian government, and the need for this Cabinet to seek compromise with their own people, their moods and expectations, as well as with the previous government - all of this leads us to suggest that the new authorities will make no sharp movements and transform the country at a light pace. This is especially true of Armenia's foreign policy course.

But, obviously, changes in Armenia will start from this very moment. An active search will start for alternative political models and alternative development vectors. Foreign-political contacts will intensify, although they never actually shrank under the previous government. That is, Armenia had quite active diplomatic and other types of contacts with the western world and never severed them. Besides, the West will now start perceiving Armenia from a different perspective. So it is quite possible that Armenia's foreign political vector, if it doesn't start to change dramatically, will certainly be adjusted. Thus, we will be seeing the country's withdrawal from being directly tied to Russian politics.

Moreover, the external factor that has a significant impact on this is the change in Turkey's positioning in the region and in its global policies. When Turkey is a U.S. ally and an active NATO Ally, it's one thing, but when Turkey sides with Russia and Iran, the United States, as a leading geopolitical player, is beginning to seek new allies and new coalitions. So, Armenia can take advantage of the trend and limit its dependence on Russia. Moreover, the Armenian diaspora is very powerful in the U.S.

But first, Armenia will have to overcome its own political crisis, then find some more or less viable economic model, and only then think about geopolitical alliances and a geopolitical game

Such are the starting conditions. But first, Armenia will have to overcome its own political crisis, then find some more or less viable economic model, and only then think about geopolitical alliances and a geopolitical game. It should be noted that along this path, pro-Russian forces in Armenia will keep trying to regain ground from time to time.

There is a difficult situation in the Caucasus: one thing is what we hear the parties declare and how we see them from our perspective and a completely different thing is what's going on there in terms of all sorts of local intertwining and political dependencies. Therefore, political rhetoric may vary. Armenia is a country with a rather mature political and national elite generally. Therefore, I don't believe there will be a purely ideological twist in either direction. But the internal struggle will be quite serious. Various groups and elites could exploit different slogans, while the "Russian card" will remain very active. After all, keeping a focus on Russia remains one of the obviously winning landmarks for a significant part of the country's population. But I think that in the end, Armenia will choose a vector that will be directed toward getting rid of any dependence on Russia.

Most likely, Sargsyan's resignation came as a surprise for Russia. And now, Moscow has taken a wait-and-see position precisely because the situation is being read so poorly understood, and little can be predicted. At the same time, Russia is not seeing a real threat to its influence on Armenia. They are not seeing any prerequisites for Armenia to become much stronger and more independent as a result of the latest events. Rather, on the contrary, Moscow expects that the internal crisis will weaken Armenia, and thus there will be room for control over the country. Therefore, Russia will keep waiting patiently and remain restrained in its response.

Maksym Rozumny is a PhD in Political Sciences, Head of the Center for Russia Research at the National Institute for Strategic Studies
Russia has used its security council veto powers 11 times to block action targeting its ally Syria.

Western powers seem to have found an effective way to bypass Russian veto on Syria probe at the UN Security Council.

Ian Martin, a former UN official and Amnesty International chief, said: The Russian veto need not be the end of efforts for collective action by the UN. The responsibility of asserting accountability for the use of chemical weapons, and for bringing an end to the horrors of the Syrian conflict, rests with the world community as a whole, The Guardian reports.

The proposal is known to have support among western officials fearing the absence of an attribution mechanism not only gives Syria free range to continue to use chemical weapons, but also to deliver a severe blow to the international world order.

Western governments, worried that the impasse is weakening the wider authority of the security council, want to pick up a rarely used route, first set up in the 1950 Korean crisis. Called uniting for peace, it would enable nine members of the 15-strong security council to bypass a Russian veto and refer the matter to a full vote at the general assembly. It would then require a two-thirds majority by the general assembly for an attribution mechanism to be agreed.

Read alsoRussia vetoes U.S. bid to form new Syria chemical weapons inquiry  mediaThe 1950 uniting for peace route was explicitly designed to be used when the security council could not meet its responsibilities over maintenance of peace.

The UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, said at the weekend that the world had entered a new cold war era where the threat of instability was greater than the previous cold war.

The western powers have made concessions to secure a compromise UN resolution on attribution, but will not concede the principle that Russian could veto the inspection team findings on Syria chemical attacks.
Green Power: College tops again among Liberty League schools in electricity sources
Chairman National Assembly's Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs, Qaiser Ahmed Shaikh said Tuesday that he vigorously supported Amnesty Scheme launched by the government through Ordinances.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Apr, 2018 ) :Chairman National Assembly's Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs, Qaiser Ahmed Shaikh said Tuesday that he vigorously supported Amnesty Scheme launched by the government through Ordinances.

Addressing a press conference here, he said that some newspapers in their publications of Tuesday, April 24, had attributed him to have joined opposition members in rejecting the amnesty scheme, which was absolutely wrong.

"I have been participating in television debates and have always vigorously supported the scheme on the grounds that it would be beneficial for the country," he said adding that the scheme was aimed at bringing back money from abroad, which was a positive for economy and the country.

He said that when money pours into country, it would definitely help job creation and would be beneficial for economy, businesses and even the common man could benefit from it. He said that the opposition members were opposing the scheme on the grounds that it was a way to whiten black money.

He said that some English and urdu Newspapers misreported that Qaiser Ahmed Shaikh had supported the rejection of bills pertaining to Amnesty Scheme during the meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs, which was held on 23rd April, 2018.

Shaikh had categorically supported the amnesty scheme in the meeting and expressed that the scheme would provide huge benefits to business and economic development of the country.
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The exports of fish and fish preparations witnessed increase of 14.43 percent during the first three quarters of the current fiscal year against the exports of the corresponding period of last year.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Apr, 2018 ) :The exports of fish and fish preparations witnessed increase of 14.43 percent during the first three quarters of the current fiscal year against the exports of the corresponding period of last year. Pakistan exported seafood worth $315.597 million during July-March (2017-18) against the exports of $275.807 million in July-March (2016-17), showing growth of 14.43 percent, according to latest data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. In terms of quantity, Pakistan exported 130,148 metric tons during the current year against the exports of 105,039 metric tons during last year, showing growth of 23.90 percent. The overall food group exports from the country witnessed increase of 28.

06 percent during the first three quarters by growing from $2.679 billion last year to $3.431 billion during the current year. Meanwhile, on year-on-year basis, the seafood exports from the country increased by 42.67 percent in March 2018 when compared to the same month of last year. The exports of fish and fish preparation during March 2018 were recorded at $51.388 million against the exports of 36.019 million in March 2017. On month-on-month basis, the seafood exports from the country increased by 48.71 percent in March 2017 when compared to the exports of $34.555 million in February 2018.
Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) will hold a two-day second national conference on early childhood care and Education (ECCE) next week in its efforts to bring neglected sections of the society into educational net, with special focus on child's well-being.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Apr, 2018 ) :Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) will hold a two-day second national conference on early childhood care and Education (ECCE) next week in its efforts to bring neglected sections of the society into educational net, with special focus on child's well-being.

The event is the part of series conferences and seminars being arranged by the University on regular basis to address the society-related issues, on the initiative of the Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Shahid Siddiqui, said a press release issued on Tuesday.

The proposed event will provide a forum to ECCE stakeholders for sharing experiences, researches, developments and innovations in the field of early childhood care, development and education. According to the Faculty of Education, the conference will envisage for re-conceptualizing the concept of ECCE keeping in view the current practices, challenges and trends at national/global level.

It also aimed at appraising latest trends and address challenges in Early Childhood Care and Education. The AIOU is in process of setting up Early Childhood Care and Education Centre in collaboration with Ministry of Education and Professional Development and some other relevant institutions.

Dr Shahid Siddiqui has recently announced that the University will undertake research work on early childhood development to fulfill its academic responsibility in the nation-building for a better future. A research journal on early childhood will also be published soon. The University has also planned to offer special certificate courses on early childhood.
(@FahadShabbir)

Federal Minister for Interior Prof Ahsan Iqbal has lauded the role on International Islamic University in promotion of Islamic (IIUI) character.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Apr, 2018 ) :Federal Minister for Interior Prof Ahsan Iqbal has lauded the role on International Islamic University in promotion of Islamic (IIUI) character.

During a meeting with the IIUI President, Dr Ahmed Yousif Al-Draiweesh, the minister congratulated him on his appointment as IIUI President for further four years unanimously by the board of Trustees of IIUI, a press release said on Monday.

The minister praised the achievements of the University during the tenure of Dr Al-Draiweesh and hoped that his leadership would double the pace of varsity progress. IIUI President thanked the Interior Minister for his visit to the university.

He apprised the minister about the university's goals, latest achievements, especially in the field of dissemination of peace, moderation and tranquility.
Wait for an upturn, or pick up stakes and look for work elsewhere? That's the dilemma facing oil workers around Carlsbad in New Mexico, where a brutal drop in petroleum prices has hit the local economy hard

The sources say the meeting would take advantage of the reduction in oil prices while considering the summary of purchase of oil at lower prices with the issue of petroleum levy on LPG.

Putin will deliver an address to the nation in the second half of Monday, focusing on further support for citizens and the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Kremlin said

Switzerland believes that the budget of the World Health Organization (WHO) should be increased and made more independent of voluntary contributions, Swiss Ambassador to Russia Yves Rossier said in an interview with RIA Novosti on Monday

Petroleum Division on Monday clarified that the country had sufficient diesel stock to meet its seven to ten-day needs, rejecting speculations over 'severe' diesel supply amid wheat harvesting season in most areas of the country

Amid growth projections of negative 1 to 1.5 percent for Pakistan, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue, Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said Monday that poorer countries genuinely need to be favoured through debt rescheduling at the G-20 forum to provide them relief to deal with Covid-19 (Coronavirus) challenges

The exchange rate of Pakistani rupee dropped by 11 paisas in the interbank on Monday against US dollar to close at Rs160.07 against the last closing of Rs159.96

The Saudi Arabian Energy Ministry has instructed state oil giant Aramco to reduce crude oil output in June by a further one million barrels per day above the planned reductions agreed in the April 12 OPEC+ deal, the state-run Saudi Press Agency said Monday citing a ministry official

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:As many as 250 students from different educational institutions of the country visited Balochistan Assembly to see the house proceedings as the assembly session was held here Tuesday presided by Speaker Raheela Hamid Khan Durrani.

QUETTA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Apr, 2018 ) :As many as 250 students from different educational institutions of the country visited Balochistan Assembly to see the house proceedings as the assembly session was held here Tuesday presided by Speaker Raheela Hamid Khan Durrani.

Assembly members including Provincial Minister Prince Ahmad Ali, Opposition Leader Abdul Rahim Ziaratwal, MPAs Sardar Abdul Rehman Khaitran, Rehmat Saleh Baloch warmly welcomed the students. Opposition Leader Abdul Rahim Ziraratwal said in Canada students regularly visit and observe the House proceedings.

He further said these students were our future and we need to motivate and invest in them. Meanwhile, Rehmat Saleh Baloch while presenting joint resolution in the House regarding death of two persons in Naal area of district Khuzdar due to measles said by now, two people had died and ten people were affected by the disease.

He said no campaign was launched to curb the disease. Although health department officials were provided new vehicles in all districts but still they pay no attention to people dying in these far flung areas.

He urged the House to approve this resolution for discussion. Provincial Minister for Health, Mir Abdul Majid Abaro while expressing his views said no negligence would be tolerated in this regard and strict action would be taken against the responsible persons.

He said the government had already provided vaccinations to all the districts and secretary health had been directed to send vaccinating teams and health workers to these areas on immediate basis.

Later, the House unanimously approved the joint resolution and further discussion regarding this issue would be done in the coming session on April 27. Provincial Minister for Local Government Ghulam Dastaghir Badini presented a draft for the infrastructure development of the slum areas in Baluchistan, which was handed over to related standing committee.

Speaker Raheela Hameed Durani said that it is a very important draft which would uplift the marginalized community and constituent standing committee should start working on it. Later, the session was adjourned till April 27.
Three persons were shot dead while 22 others sustained multiple injuries over old property dispute in the limits of Rodala Road police station.

FAISALABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Apr, 2018 ) :Three persons were shot dead while 22 others sustained multiple injuries over old property dispute in the limits of Rodala Road police station.

Police spokesman said here Tuesday that Pir Khurram Abbas Shah resident of Chak 377-GB had an old property dispute with Sarwar Chaddar of the same locality. Over this issue, Pir Khurram Abbas Shah along with his accomplices attacked Sarwar Chaddhar Group when they were busy in harvesting wheat crops.

The assailants reportedly opened indiscriminate firing which resulted in killing of three persons including Sughra Bibi wife of Ahmad Ali, her daughter Pathani Bibi and son Sadi Ahmad on the spot.

In this incident, 22 persons including 6 women received bullet injuries and were shifted to hospital. Among them include Mondan Bibi, Kausar Bibi, Mughlan Bibi, Talha Bibi, Waziran Bibi, Fatima Bibi, Saleh, Bashir Ali, Jaffar Ali, Zahid Iqbal, Afzaal, Khadim Hussain, Abdul Sattar, Umar Hayat, Sarang Ali, Ali Sher, Dost Muhammad, Anwar Ali, Akbar Ali, Asif, Mehndi Ahmad and Azam.

The area people along with relatives of the victims staged a demonstration and demanded immediate arrest of the culprits who managed to escape from the scene after firing. Receiving information, area police rushed to the spot and took bodies into custody.

The police also dispersed the protestors by pacifying and assuring them that the accused would be arrested soon and taken to task according to law. On other hand, City Police Officer (CPO) Faisalabad took notice of the incident and directed Superintendent Police Jaranwala to submit its report at the earliest.

SP Jaranwala Town Shehbaz Elahi also constituted various police teams and directed them to arrest the culprits at the earliest, spokesman added.
A three-member Chinese delegation from Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) here on Tuesday visited University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) and held a meeting with UAF Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Iqbal Zafar.

FAISALABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Apr, 2018 ) :A three-member Chinese delegation from Chinese academy of Sciences (CAS) here on Tuesday visited University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) and held a meeting with UAF Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Iqbal Zafar.

The CAS delegation comprising Prof Dr Yanjun Shen, Prof Dr Jiansheng Cao, Dr Leilei Min, and Dr Muhammad Umair was flanked by UAF Prof Dr Manzoor Ahmad Chaudhry, Dr Muhammad Irshad and Muhammad Bilal Arshad, director Bilal Farms, Khanpur District Rahimyar Khan, Punjab Pakistan.

The Chinese delegation, which was associated with Key Laboratory of Agricultural Water Resources, Centre for Agricultural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), is partnering UAF experts in 'One Belt and One Road' special project on agriculture water saving and water resources in China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Talking to the visiting Chinese delegation, UAF Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Muhammad Iqbal Zafar said that out of total available water on earth 97.2 per cent is of ocean, followed by 2.15 and 0.61 per cent of glaciers and groundwater, respectively.

Therefore, we need to conserve the precious water resources by adopting water saving and high efficiency irrigation techniques. Later, the Chinese delegation visited Water Management Research Centre at Postgraduate Agriculture Research Station (PARS), UAF, to witness the hydroponic system and other techniques of water saving.
The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) held a ceremony here Tuesday to recognize the good performance of police officers and Jawans of Islamabad Police who had traced and arrested the gang that was hitting Chinese nationals in the country.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Apr, 2018 ) :The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) held a ceremony here Tuesday to recognize the good performance of police officers and Jawans of Islamabad Police who had traced and arrested the gang that was hitting Chinese nationals in the country.

Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dr. Sultan Azam Temuri, SSP Operations, Janeeb ur Rehman Bugvi, SP Zubair Ahmed Sheikh and other police officers and jawan attended the ceremony. Speaking at the occasion, Dr.

Sultan Azam Temuri said that case of Chinese nationals was a big challenge for Islamabad Police as it was badly affecting the image of the country at national and international level. He said due to this situation, Chinese were considering to curtail their activities in Pakistan and investment in China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was also in jeopardy.

He said a team was constituted under Janeeb ur Rehman Bugvi SSP Operations and Zubair Ahmed Sheikh SP Investigations to trace the gang that was hitting the Chinese nationals. The team worked hard and managed to trace and arrest the gang which was a great success for the police.

He paid tributes to all police officers and Jawans who nabbed the gang. He also thanked ICCI for holding ceremony to recognize the good performance of Islamabad Police and hoped that it would boost the morale of police.

Highlighting other major initiatives, Dr. Sultan Azam Temuri said that many steps were taken to make Islamabad Police a model of excellence. He said 7 model police stations were developed while all police stations were being automated to improve service delivery.

He said E-FIR and digital challans had been launched to facilitate the people.

Culture of police stations was being improved to make them people friendly, he added. He said that CPLC would be inaugurated soon in Islamabad and Reconciliation Committees had been formed in police stations.

He said a community policing room had been established in every police station so that the community could play positive role in improving police performance adding neighborhood watch groups were established to monitor the performance of police.

He hoped that these initiatives would help in making Islamabad Police a model of excellence. Addressing the ceremony, Sheikh Amir Waheed, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry lauded the role of police officers and Jawans for arresting the gang that was targeting the Chinese nationals.

He said due to good performance of ICT Police, crime rate in Islamabad was less as compared to other major cities of the country was that laudable. He said under Dr. Sultan Azam Temuri, many positive changes were being seen in Islamabad Police.

He also lauded Islamabad Police for arresting car lifters, recovering thousands of stolen vehicles and motorbikes. Muhammad Naveed Malik Senior Vice President, Nisar Mirza Vice President ICCI and Saif ur Rehman Chairman ICCI Police Committee also lauded the good role of Islamabad police and assured that ICCI would recognize ICT Police for good performance in future as well.

Janeeb ur Rehman Bugvi SSP Operations and Zubair Ahmed Sheikh SP Investigations were given shield while Anees Akbar Inspector, Suleman Shah ASI, Tariq Khan ASI, Fahad Ameen, Ali Asghar, Waseem Iqbal and Muhammad Saeed Constables were given cash prizes and certificates in recognition of their good services.
Metropolitan Corporation of Islamabad Tuesday passed resolution unanimously for lauding efforts of Mayor Sheikh Anser Aziz for getting approval of Rs 14 billion funds. The 22nd session of Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) was held at Pak China Friendship Centre.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Apr, 2018 ) :Metropolitan Corporation of Islamabad Tuesday passed resolution unanimously for lauding efforts of Mayor Sheikh Anser Aziz for getting approval of Rs 14 billion funds.

The 22nd session of Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) was held at Pak China Friendship Centre. The session was presided over by the Mayor of Islamabad Sheikh Anser Aziz and also attended by the elected representatives of MCI.

The session approved proceedings of the 21st session of MCI. Chairman Union Council I-9, Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan presented a resolution for lauding the efforts of Mayor of Islamabad for getting approval of funds amounting to Rs 14 billion.

The house unanimously approved the resolution. During the session, Chief Officer MCI gave detailed briefing about the approval of funds and different development projects. He said that Federal Government was requested to allocate budget for different development projects in the city and acceded to our request.

Funds more than Rs.13 billions have been approved for MCI. Mayor Islamabad said that the approved funds will be utilized on Islamabad Bus Service, Rawal Lake Treatment Water Plant, machinery Emergency and Disaster Management, construction of town hall, construction of union councils offices, up-gradation of Marghzar Zoo, beautification projects of Islamabad, parks and Play Grounds, sewerage and Sanitation system, water supply scheme for rural areas, construction of connecting roads other uplift of Sanitation Services and other welfare projects.

The meeting also discussed the fair price shops constructed in different sectors of Islamabad. Director Municipal Administration gave detailed briefing on this issue. On this occasion, Mayor of Islamabad said that the main objective of these shops was to provide fruits and vegetables to the local population at concessional rates.

However, allottees of these shops did not follow the purpose for which these shops were allotted. Due to this reason some shops were sealed by the MCI and few allottees have obtained stay orders from different courts of law.

Mayor said that policy formulated by the house would be implemented in true letter and spirit. During the meeting, issues pertaining to rural areas were also discussed. Mayor of Islamabad said that it was for first time that local body system was being experienced in the Federal Capital and representation from all parts of city was present in the MCI.

He said that by utilizing approved funds development projects would be initiated in rural areas of the city. Mayor of Islamabad informed the house that staff of environment wing has been deputed to carry out cleanliness of Muslim grave yards in sector H-8 and sector H-9 while graveyards of non-muslim community would also be swept during this campaign.

The house also discussed the issue of allocating space for graveyard in rural areas of the city.
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Managing Director, Pakistan Tourism Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor Khan has said that Pakistan and Iran had agreed to increase cooperation in tourism sector.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Apr, 2018 ) :Managing Director, Pakistan Tourism Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor Khan has said that Pakistan and Iran had agreed to increase cooperation in tourism sector.

Addressing Pakistani pilgrims in Iran during his five-day visit at Shrine of Imam Raza, he said that providing proper facilities for accommodation, increasing frequency of flights and transport was our Primary priority, which would increase the flow of visitors and boost cooperation in both the countries, said a press release issued here on Tuesday.

He said that Pakistan and Iran were members of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) and Regional Cooperation Development (RCD) and these organizations were working closely on the peace and development projects in the region.

Tour operators of both the countries should work together by sharing tour packages. Many tour operators are operating illegal groups due to which visitors have to face difficulties.

Prevention of such tour operators is very important.

He further added that drop-box facility would be provided soon to facilitate group tourists and visitors between Pakistan and Iran. "There are numerous opportunities for investment in Pakistan under Public Private Partnership in tourism sector, " he added.

Earlier, Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor also addressed potential investors of Iran. He also visited Mashhad Museum, saying that Pakistani people wanted Iran to be more stable. Deputy Governor Mashhad Hameed Mousavi said direct flights for Pakistan from Mashhad were operating whereas road and sea links were also open.

Hameed Mosavi said that the visit of Pakistani delegation would increase tourism relations between the two countries and the Iranian delegation would visit Pakistan soon.
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The Provincial President Pakistan Muslim League (N) Sindh, Shah Muhammad Shah, has informed that the party would soon launch a massive mass contact campaign in every nook and corner of Sindh province adding that the party's candidates would be fielded from all constituencies of the province

HYDERABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Apr, 2018 ) :The Provincial President Pakistan Muslim League (N) Sindh, Shah Muhammad Shah, has informed that the party would soon launch a massive mass contact campaign in every nook and corner of Sindh province adding that the party's candidates would be fielded from all Constituencies of the province.

Addressing a news conference here at Hyderabad Press Club on Tuesday, Shah Muhammad Shah dispelled the impression that the government of PML (N) did nothing in Sindh adding that during the tenure of the than Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, mega development projects including K-4, Green Bus Route, Thar Coal Project, Motorway-9 and many others were initiated in Sindh which are now near completion.

The restoration of law and order in Sindh particularly in Karachi was the great achievement of PML (N) government, he said and added that provincial PPP government has vastly disappointed the people of Sindh due to bad governance and it was the reason that people of the province have started looking towards the leadership of PML (N).

He informed that the provincial chapter of PML (N) Sindh has now been changed with his appointment as President, Senator Saleem Zia as General Secretary, Aslam Abro as Senior Vice President, Gul Muhammad Raza as Vice President and Choudhry Muhammad Tariq as Additional General Secretary.

Shah Muhammad Shah was of the view that the party was gaining popularity in the province with visits of the President PML (N) and Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif who wanted to interact with leadership of all political parties of Sindh.

If the MQM Pakistan (PIB) invited him like MQM Pakistan (Bahadurabad), he will also hold dialogues with their leadership as well, he remarked.He said at present, the party is not a part of any political alliance however, in future the political understanding with seat adjustments could not be ruled out.He said that the both Federal and provincial caretaker governments should be formed in accordance to the constitution and the general elections should he conducted in free, fair and impartial manner.

The PML (N) has due respect to judiciary and the restoration of judiciary was its great achievement, he said and remarked that no case of corruption was proved in the court of law against the than premier Mohammad Nawaz Sharif, but he was dismissed from the post.

The narrative of the than Prime Minister is gaining popularity among the masses and the general elections 2018 would set a new direction of the country, he added. Among others, Ex-MNA Sahibzada Shabbir Hassan Ansari, General Secretary PML (N) Minority Wing Sindh Kheyal Das Kohistani, Khalid Shaikh, Jamal Arif Suharwardi, Hanif Siddiqui, Raja Ghazanfar and Raheel Shah were also present on the occasion.
Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Tuesday strongly condemned terror attack in Quetta resulting in loss of precious lives and injuries to many.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Apr, 2018 ) :Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Tuesday strongly condemned terror attack in Quetta resulting in loss of precious lives and injuries to many.

The Prime Minister expressed his deep sympathies with the bereaved families.

The Prime Minister directed the law enforcing agencies to investigate and bring the perpetrators of Quetta attack to justice. The Prime Minister directed IG Balochistan and intelligence agencies to investigate and identify the culprits involved in the attack and bring them to account.
Provincial general secretary ANP, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sardar Hussain Babak said that the PTI is lacking the support of the required number of legislators in the provincial assembly.

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Apr, 2018 ) :Provincial general secretary ANP, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sardar Hussain Babak said that the PTI is lacking the support of the required number of legislators in the provincial assembly.

Therefore, it cannot pass budget in any circumstances. In a statement issued here Tuesday, Sardar Hussain Babak, who is the parliamentary leader of ANP in KP Assembly said that if the provincial government really enjoy the backing of majority, then before the passage of budget it should first fill the vacant post of the Deputy Speaker in the house.

He said that for the sake of the passage of budget, the PTI government in KP has started knocking the doors of legislators. However, he said that opposition will not harm the worst flopped government.

But, serious consultations for elections on the posts of Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the provincial assembly is continued. The parliamentary leader of ANP in KP assembly said that during the period of last five years, the provincial government had kept the opposition pushed towards the wall and after emptying the public exchequer it had now launched the propaganda campaign of presenting the provincial budget.

But, he said people could not made fool through such tactics. He said that the provincial government is leaving behind a huge budget of Rs.600 billion to create gigantic hardships for the upcoming government in the province.

He questioned that how the people of the province will pay a debt of Rs.300 billion back. Sardar Babak said that the government, which had escaped the session of the provincial government could not face the members of the house.

He asked the Speaker to fill the vacant post of the Deputy Speaker with immediate effect. Otherwise, his own position would become at stake. He said that those claiming of coming back should tell about the number of their supporters in the provincial assembly.
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Rawalpindi City Traffic Officer (CTO), SSP Bilal Iftikhar Tuesday directed the City Traffic Police (CTP) Education Wing to accelerate the public awareness campaign about traffic rules and road safety.

RAWALPINDI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Apr, 2018 ) :Rawalpindi City Traffic Officer (CTO), SSP Bilal Iftikhar Tuesday directed the City Traffic Police (CTP) Education Wing to accelerate the public awareness campaign about traffic rules and road safety.

The CTO while distributing pamphlets among the road users during special traffic awareness campaign at Katchery Chowk here said the traffic police officers had been directed to ensure that the road users strictly observe traffic signs, signals, traffic rules and regulations on the city roads.

He said that maximum pamphlets should be distributed among the public, especially frequent road users, to spread awareness about traffic rules and road safety. Furthermore, the traffic officer directed the education wing to arrange lectures, seminars, walks, radio programmes and also use other mediums of communication to spread awareness among the general public.

The CTO informed that on the directives of Rawalpindi Regional Police Officer Muhammad Wisal Fakhar Sultan Raja, the CTP officials were creating traffic rules awareness among the citizens, as well as striving hard to regulate the city traffic.

Moreover, Bilal Iftikhar also said that the citizens, during the awareness campaign, should be informed that the use of mobile phone while driving was dangerous and the habit should be avoided altogether. He said the Education Wing had been making efforts to spread road safety awareness among the public so that travelling could be made safe and easy for all road users.
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The second unit of Neelum Jhelum Hydropower Project, which went into trial generation two days ago, achieved full generation capacity of 242 MW on Tuesday after having been tested successfully with 100 per cent load rejection.

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Apr, 2018 ) :The second unit of Neelum Jhelum Hydropower Project, which went into trial generation two days ago, achieved full generation capacity of 242 MW on Tuesday after having been tested successfully with 100 per cent load rejection.

According to WAPDA sources, the first unit of Neelum Jhelum Hydropower Project started electricity generation on trial basis on April 9, while the project was formally inaugurated on April 13, 2018.

The project has so far injected over one million units of hydel electricity into the National Grid. The first and second units of the project are expected to start their commercial operation soon.

It is pertient to mention here that Neelum Jhelum Hydropower Project is located in the vicinity of Muzaffarabad in Azad Jammu & Kashmir. The project comprises of four generating units, each of them having a generation capacity of 242.25 MW.

All four units of the project are scheduled to be completed by July 2018. Neelum Jhelum Hydropower Project is considered to be an engineering marvel, with 90 per cent of the project being underground in the high mountainous areas.

The project will provide about five billion units of electricity annually to the National Grid. The benefits of the project have been estimated at Rs 55 billion per annum.
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Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi Monday said that regional peace was a shared objective of Pakistan and Sri Lanka and called for greater cooperation and sharing of expertise in the field of defence between the two countries.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Apr, 2018 ) :Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi Monday said that regional peace was a shared objective of Pakistan and Sri Lanka and called for greater cooperation and sharing of expertise in the field of defence between the two countries.

The prime minister said this during a meeting with Commander of the Sri Lankan Army Lt. Gen. Mahesh Senanayake who called on him at Prime Minister's Office here, said a PM Office statement. The prime minister also expressed satisfaction over the existing level of security cooperation between the two countries.

During the meeting, the two sides discussed the matters relating to Pak-Sri Lanka bilateral defence relations and mutual cooperation. Lt. Gen. Mahesh Senanayake thanked the prime minister for his warm welcome and appreciated the huge sacrifices of the Pakistani nation and its valiant armed forces in the fight against terrorism.

He said that Sri Lanka was keen to further strengthen its ties with Pakistan and promote multi-faceted cooperation in the areas of security and defence.
United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) under its ongoing Global Environment Facility (GEF) funded project titled "Sustainable Energy Initiative for Industries in Pakistan" successfully conducted a round of two back to back training sessions on Renewable Energy (RE) and Energy Efficiency (EE), by an international expert

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Apr, 2018 ) :United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) under its ongoing Global Environment Facility (GEF) funded project titled "Sustainable Energy Initiative for Industries in Pakistan" successfully conducted a round of two back to back training sessions on Renewable Energy (RE) and Energy Efficiency (EE), by an international expert.

According to press release issued here on Tuesday, the first leg of training was held in Punjab provincial capital, Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry for vendor and suppliers on market potential and business opportunities for EE and RE Technologies.

The second training session was held at a local hotel, which was focused on the providing awareness to the top management of the industrial sector on technology and business retrospect and future opportunities.

The trainings was attended by more than hundred professionals including a good number of women participants from various industrial sectors and technology solution providers, including top managers from industry , consultants and equipment suppliers for energy efficiency and renewable energy and also public and private sector organizations.

The goal of these training was to build the capacity of top management on technologies, by highlighting the business cases that could enable the managers to take knowledge base decisions, as well as enabling vendors and technology manufacturers (VTMs) to understand Energy system optimization (ESO) opportunities and strategies that can be broadened into value-added services to offer an ESCO approach.

During the two day sessions on Vendors Training, trainer focused on orienting participants towards a valued services mindset and developing the enabling environment for VBF ESCO models, and participants were introduced with the basic concepts of the ESCO approach and the VBF model.

Finally, participants were made aware on the fundamentals of measurement and verification of savings and ways and means to market these services. During the top management awareness session, trainer introduced the concepts of Enterprise Energy Management as well as explained the strategic business drivers and barriers.

The finance related issues were also touched upon such as on funding EE and RE projects through value chains, by giving presentations on case studies. Khawaja Khawer Rasheed, Senior Vice Preside Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industries, in his address at Vendors Training, congratulated UNIDO on the efforts in this project to promote sustainable energy in industrial sector.

Ashfaq Ahmed, represented Small and Medium Enterprise Authority (SMEDA), and elaborated on the UNIDO and SMEDA combined efforts to foster RE and EE growth. He stressed upon the greater involvement of private sector, as well as upon incentivising the industry to have more and more energy survey at their premises.

The Energy department of government of Punjab, was represented by Abdur Rehman, who on behalf of Secretary Energy, congratulated UNIDO for conducting the most imported training on the topic. In his special remarks, Ms.

Nadia Tahir, Director Lahore Chamber, on behalf of LCCI president Malik Tahir Javed, also appreciated UNIDO on holding these training sessions, on the most critical issue of energy, which tackled the real issues in the industry.

She highlighted the importance of collaboration of UNIDO & LCCI for such initiatives which she said would support the businesses specially to those based on renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Earlier on, in her welcome remarks, UNIDO Country representative, Ms. Nadia Aftab expressed her delight on the active participation of high level delegates from industry. She elaborated upon the goal and mission of UNIDO, while highlighting contribution by UNIDO on sustainable development goal # 9 (SDG #9) under the policy of Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development (ISID).

The National Project Manager REEE, Masroor Ahmad Khan, apprised the participants of the key features of the Project. He marked the Vendors Training and Top management orientations session as the most important ones at a time when new opportunities were arising in the country.

One of the participants from equipment supplier, Khalid islam, Chief consultant of Zorays Solar shared that this training had been a source of valuable information regarding business opportunities for its products.

Ms Anila Hayat, a woman professional from Green Building Council greatly applauded the efforts of GEF and UNIDO helping to motivate women participation and shared that this training would help her in diversifying her work on energy.

Faraz Ahmed, Senior Vice President of Shakarganj Foods, showed his delight in having getting learned some new things and assure UNIDO about the active collaboration in implementation of Energy initiative in his company. The participants were awarded the certificates on the last day of the Vendors Training, marking the conclusion of the training session.
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Austria's chancellor said Tuesday he is powerless to stop an upcoming commemoration of a 1945 massacre that has become a magnet for supporters of the Nazis' Croatian allies and far-right sympathisers.

Vienna, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Apr, 2018 ) :Austria's chancellor said Tuesday he is powerless to stop an upcoming commemoration of a 1945 massacre that has become a magnet for supporters of the Nazis' Croatian allies and far-right sympathisers.

"The event taking place is an event organised by the (Croatian) Church," Sebastian Kurz said ahead of the annual May 12 gathering in Bleiburg in the southern Austrian state of Carinthia. "That means it is neither the decision of the Federal government nor of the state premier (of Carinthia) and his administration whether this event takes place," Kurz told reporters.

He added however: "If there are breaches of (Austrian) law then of course the authorities will act in a very decisive manner." The memorial remembers the killing of sympathisers of Croatia's Ustasha regime and others at the hands of communist partisans at the end of World War II in and around Bleiburg.

The number of those killed is still debated. Estimates vary from a few dozen to tens of thousands. The Ustasha were allied to Nazi Germany and persecuted and killed hundreds of thousands of ethnic Serbs, Jews, Roma and political opponents, many in the Jasenovac death camp.

But in recent years the ceremony has drawn more than 10,000 people including Croatians who still revere the Ustasha as well as neo-Nazis from across Europe. Austria's DOW resistance archive centre, which specialises in documenting Nazism and neo-Nazism, has called Bleiburg "the biggest fascist meeting in Europe".

The state premier of Carinthia, Peter Kaiser, told public radio on Tuesday that Austria should ban Ustasha symbols in the same way that Nazi insignia are outlawed.
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Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said on Tuesday that the Cambodia-China ties were solid and were reaching a high level.

PHNOM PENH, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Apr, 2018 ) ::Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said on Tuesday that the Cambodia-China ties were solid and were reaching a high level.

He made the remarks during a meeting here with Chen Wu, chairman of southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, according to Eang Sophalleth, an assistant to the prime minister. "Samdech Techo also lent his support to every Chinese investment from Guangxi to Cambodia," the assistant told reporters after the meeting.

Meanwhile, Hun Sen also supported a memorandum of understanding signed on Tuesday between Guangxi and Cambodia in the development of a sea port in southwestern Cambodia's Kampot province.

He said the port project was very important and could be an economic corridor that went in line with China's Belt and Road Initiative.

Meanwhile, the prime minister also accepted an invitation from Chen to attend the 15th China-ASEAN Expo, which will be held in Nanning city from September 12 to 15. For his part, Chen expressed his gratitude to Hun Sen for supporting the China-ASEAN Expo and promised to encourage more Chinese investors and tourists to Cambodia.
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Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), met with senior military officials from Laos, Uzbekistan, and Belarus on Tuesday.

BEIJING, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Apr, 2018 ) :Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), met with senior military officials from Laos, Uzbekistan, and Belarus on Tuesday.

While meeting with Laotian Vice Defense Minister Vilay Lakhamfong, Zhang said the Chinese military is willing to work with its Laotian counterpart in deepening pragmatic cooperation and mutual support, so as to elevate bilateral military relations and pursue more benefits for the two peoples.

The vice minister expressed thanks for China's long-term assistance in boosting Laotian national development and military building, saying that Laos is willing to deepen pragmatic cooperation between the two militaries in various fields.

During his meeting with Uzbek Defense Minister Abdusalom Azizov, Zhang said China is ready to strengthen communication and coordination with Uzbekistan under the Shanghai Cooperation Organization framework, continuously consolidate and deepen mutual political and strategic trust, and enhance pragmatic cooperation in various fields.

Azizov said Uzbekistan is ready to seek potential cooperation with China and enable relations between the two militaries to help promote common prosperity and development. While meeting with Defense Minister of Belarus Andrei Ravkov, Zhang said the Chinese military is willing to further deepen communication and cooperation in high-level exchanges and joint personnel training with its counterpart in Belarus.

Ravkov said Belarus is willing to work with China to improve cooperation in defense and security.
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Chinese Defence Minister, Wei Fenghe said on Monday that China and Pakistan defence and military cooperation was the pillar of the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries.

BEIJING, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Apr, 2018 ) :Chinese Defence Minister, Wei Fenghe said on Monday that China and Pakistan defence and military cooperation was the pillar of the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries.

He made these remarks while talking to visiting Defence Minister, Engr Khurram Dastgir Khan in a meeting held here. The Chinese defence minister acknowledged the unprecedented sacrifices made by the armed forces and people of Pakistan during the ongoing fight against the menace of terrorism.

Wei Fenghe said that China supported Pakistan's stance over longstanding Kashmir issue, which was pending unresolved for the last 70 years. He said that all-weather partnership and the defence military cooperation between the two countries helped maintain a strategic balance in the region.

Khurram Dastgir discussed way and means to further strengthen defence cooperation between the two countries. He also briefed the Chinese defence minister about the latest situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir and massive human rights violations by Indian troops against the innocent Kashmiris.

Meanwhile, Khurram Dastgir met Defence Minister of Belarus, Andrei Ravkov on the sidelines of SCO defence ministers meeting here. Both the ministers discussed bilateral defence and military cooperation during the meeting.

They agreed to further broaden and deepen the defence cooperation and said, this cooperation should be visible in the bilateral relations of the two countries. Khurram Dastgir is visiting China on a two-day official visit to attend a meeting of the defence ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

The SCO, an inter-governmental organization, founded in Shanghai, China on June 15, 2001, now includes China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and India as full members. Pakistan and India were admitted as full members of the organisation at the summit in Astana last year.
Only one woman, Fatima Al Rasheedi, will be contesting in Kuwait's municipal elections next month compared with the 72 men who signed up their names.

ISLAMABAD, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Apr, 2018 ) :Only one woman, Fatima Al Rasheedi, will be contesting in Kuwait's municipal elections next month compared with the 72 men who signed up their Names.

According to Gulf news, Kuwait typically has low female representation, but the number marks a sharp decrease from the last election in 2013 where four women registered to run. Municipal elections usually generate less excitement than parliamentary polls among voters.

The Fourth District is leading with 17 candidates, followed by the Third District with 13 candidates, the eighth with nine, the sixth with seven, including one woman, the ninth with six, the fifth and tenth with five each, the first and second with four each and seventh with three candidates.

The assistant director general for legal affairs in elections Salah Shatti said that the education ministry would provide 102 schools that would be used as polling stations in the elections on May 12.

Candidates who want to pull out of the race have until the end of the working hours on May 4 to withdraw their applications, he said. "They must submit a handwritten letter stating their intention to withdraw," he said.

If candidates in a specific district withdraw and only one remains in the race, he or she is automatically elected, Al Shatti added. Municipal elections are held in Kuwait every four years with the winners of the ten districts forming the Municipal Council.

Six other members are appointed by the prime minister, bringing the total number of the council to 16. The council elects its own chairman and vice chairman. Women were given the right to vote and run in parliamentary and municipal elections in 2005. Only one woman was elected Member of Parliament in November last year.
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Foreign Minister, Khawaja Muhammad Asif held a bilateral meeting with Foreign Minister of Uzbekistan, Kamilov Abdul Aziz Khafizovich here on Tuesday.

BEIJING, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Apr, 2018 ) :Foreign Minister, Khawaja Muhammad Asif held a bilateral meeting with Foreign Minister of Uzbekistan, Kamilov Abdul Aziz Khafizovich here on Tuesday.

During the meeting held on the sidelines of the Council of Foreign Ministers' meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, both the ministers spoke highly of the historical relations between the two countries and their deep cultural linkages.

Khawaja Asif appreciated the active support of Uzbekistan for Pakistan's membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization which was finalized during the SCO Astana Summit in Uzbekistan. The two Foreign Ministers also discussed various issues of mutual interest and agreed to further strengthen bilateral, political, economic and people-to-people relations.
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South Korea's science ministry said Tuesday it will support the development of 30 new materials that will shape the ongoing fourth industrial revolution.

SEOUL, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Apr, 2018 ) :South Korea's science ministry said Tuesday it will support the development of 30 new materials that will shape the ongoing fourth industrial revolution.

The Ministry of Science and ICT said it has designated the 30 materials that are the foundation for a fusion of cutting-edge technologies, such as big data, the internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence.

"Success of developing new materials will eventually create a new market amid increased competition in the global market," the ministry said in a press release, citing other developed countries, such as the United States and Japan, are also mapping out a long-term plan to develop the new materials.

Under the plan, the ministry will support developing eight kinds of the "smart" materials, such as nano-materials that can be used for wearable devices. The plan also includes developing nine materials that can be applied to various items in light of the super-aging society, as well as five materials to tackle global climate change, such as hydrogen storage.

Eight kinds of new materials to be used for energy sources, such as superfast rechargeable batteries, were also included, officials said.
Thailand on Tuesday volunteered to host the hotly-anticipated summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as speculation swirls about the venue.

Bangkok, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Apr, 2018 ) :Thailand on Tuesday volunteered to host the hotly-anticipated summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as speculation swirls about the venue.

"Thailand is ready to facilitate and host the talks," Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai told reporters, though he stressed that the kingdom has not been contacted about the possibility. The US embassy declined to comment.

Kim is set to meet South Korea's president Moon Jae-in on Friday, an event seen as a major stepping stone towards the summit with Trump. Earlier this month Trump said five locations were under consideration for a summit "probably in early June", which he hopes will result in a denuclearisation deal with North Korea.

But he did not specify where, leaving observers to speculate on anywhere from Mongolia to Scandinavia and Singapore. Thailand is a historic US ally which also has diplomatic relations with North Korea.

The Thai junta number two Prawit Wongsuwon is currently in the US where he has met Defense Secretary James Mattis and senior Homeland Security officials, according to the Thai defence ministry. Over the weekend Pyongyang announced a moratorium on nuclear tests and intercontinental ballistic missile launches.

Analysts are divided over the headline-grabbing offer, with many noting it is reversible and did not signal any intention of actual nuclear disarmament.
The Central African Republic's President Faustin-Archange Touadera told the United Nations on Monday he wants to "accelerate" the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of members of armed groups.

United Nations, United States, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Apr, 2018 ) :The Central African Republic's President Faustin-Archange Touadera told the United Nations on Monday he wants to "accelerate" the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of members of armed groups.

"I have instructed my government to work toward reducing the harm and threat of armed groups in the Central African Republic, by accelerating the implementation of the disarmament, reintegration and repatriation program," he said at a meeting concerning the peace process in his country.

Such an operation would require "necessary reforms of the security sector for the reconstitution of national defense forces and interior security forces," Touadera added. His comments come as the FPRC -- the Popular Front for the Rebirth of Central Africa, one of the country's main armed groups -- threatened to march on Bangui.

The group said it wanted to act following a UN peacekeeper operation against militia in the volatile PK5 Muslim enclave of the capital. Touadera urged "dialogue" as the preferred approach to combat the violence that has ravaged his country since 2013.

He stressed that "consolidation of peace... can only be achieved through the restoration of security throughout the territory, the fight against impunity, the restoration of state authority throughout the territory." Morocco's UN envoy Omar Hilale, who initiated Monday's meeting, assured the Central African Republic of the UN's "support" and said he would soon travel to Bangui.

The country's authorities control only a small part of the national territory, with a number of armed groups fighting over control of diamonds, gold and livestock in one of the world's poorest countries.
Seminarian John Waters talks with Vatican News about meeting Pope Francis during an audience for the Venerable English College

By Vatican News

As the Venerable English College in Rome celebrated the feast of Saint George, patron Saint of England, one student reflected on the seminarys recent Audience with Pope Francis. The audience was granted on 21st April, as the English college celebrates 3 significant anniversaries in 2018. John Waters, a sixth year seminarian for the Archdiocese of Birmingham, shared his thoughts on the encounter with Vatican News.

A commitment to Christ



One key part of the Popes address to the seminarians focused on the difficulties of making a commitment to Christ and the Church when surrounded by what the Pope called the culture of the temporary. John Waters noted that many of his friends at home had difficulty in picturing the Priesthood as a life of service rather than a career. I think its because thats how our society encourages people to think," he said. "They are always looking for the next thing, the next development, the next step up the ladder. Particularly in the West weve forgotten a sense of anything transcendental and a sense of the things that last. I had heard other bishops and priests mention this problem before but when you hear the earthly leader of the Church describing this, it becomes clear that this is a potentially huge problem for the Church. 



The importance of friendships



Another key part of the Popes speech mentioned the importance of friendships in the seminary. The Pope encouraged the seminarians to nurture friendships and wholesome relationships which will sustain them in their future ministry. Reflecting on the reality of these friendships in his own journey, John said Quite simply, without the friends I got in the seminary, both here in Rome and back in England, I dont think I could have got this far. Its easy to think that youre facing this all alone, especially in the early years when you begin to discern your vocation." He continued, "Then you go to visit the seminary and you meet others who are going through the same things. These guys know exactly whats going with you, because its happening to them. My friends have helped me when I was not very happy and was doubting my vocation. Then I in turn was able to help them when they went through similar rough patches, because were all in this together.

Meeting the Pope



Describing the moment he met with Pope Francis, John told Vatican news how he was conscious of the enormous privilege he had in meeting the Pope, and how impressed he was with the Popes pastoral care and affection.

I asked him if he would pray for my family, especially my Grandmother. He replied 'Of course I will, tell me her name.' So I told him and when I looked in his eyes there was a determination there and I knew that he really was going to pray for her, by name. Thats the quality of the man whos sitting on the throne of St Peter today.

As a final thought on the meeting, John reflected a little on the Popes role as a spiritual Father. the Pope "said that he was pleased to be able to speak to us, as a Father," John explained. "There was a warmth and affection in his voice that could only have come from his own prayer and his own relationship with God the Father.
Cardinal Thomas Collins and the Archdiocese of Toronto are praying for those killed and injured in an attack which took place Monday in Canadas largest city.

By Christopher Wells

Ten people were killed and at least fifteen others wounded when a rental van was driven onto the sidewalk of a busy street in the Canadian city of Toronto on Monday afternoon. Torontos police chief, Mark Saunders, said the incident definitely looked deliberate, although the nations Public Safety Minister, Ralph Goodale said the horrendous attack does not appear to be connected in any way to national security.

Suspect arrested



After the van came to a stop, a Toronto police officer confronted the driver, who appeared to be holding a gun. The officer was praised for determining the man did not have weapon, and arresting the 25-year-old without further incident. Police Chief Saunders said, The officer [on Monday] did a fantastic job with respect to utilizing his ability of understanding the circumstance and environment and having a peaceful resolution at the end of the day."

Authorities are still trying to determine a motive for the attack, and are encouraging people to avoid unwarranted speculation.

Statement of Cardinal Collins



As news of the tragedy spread, reactions began pouring in. Cardinal Thomas Collins, the Archbishop of Toronto, spoke briefly Tuesday morning with Vatican News. Its very sad what has happened, he said, when all these innocent people going about their daily life have been struck down in such a tragic way  I certainly pray for them, for all of their relatives  when this violence came just out of nowhere. The Cardinal said he is asking all the parishes in the Archdiocese to offer special prayers this weekend for all of those who suffer so much and are continuing to suffer because of this terrible act of violence.

We pray the Lord to bless and to guide all of those who are in this terrible situation which has occurred here in our city, Cardinal Collins said. May the Lord be with us in this time.

Prime Minister responds to attack



Also Tuesday morning, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed the nation from the Canadian Parliament, saying, On behalf of all Canadians I offered my deepest, heartfelt condolences to the loved ones of all those who were killed and we wish a full recovery to the injured and stand with the families and friends of the victims.

Trudeau also thanked first responders who, he said, handled this extremely difficult situation with courage and professionalism. He said the government is monitoring this situation closely, and will continue working with our law enforcement partners around the country to ensure the safety and security of all Canadians.
World Immunization Week begins today and extends to 30 April. The World Health Organization provides optimistic statistics regarding the effectiveness of vaccination, as well as cases where progress still needs to be made.

By Sr Bernadette Mary Reis, fsp

In May 2012, 194 countries endorsed the Global Vaccine Action Plan at the World Health Assembly. Today, the WHO reports that their goal of eliminating such diseases as measles, rubella, and maternal and neonatal tetanus by 2020 is behind schedule.

The WHO estimates that between 2 and 3 million deaths are prevented every year thanks to vaccination. On the other hand, around 1.5 deaths could be prevented with an increase in the percentage of vaccination coverage throughout the world.

Vaccinations not only prevent death, they can also prevent illness, and the long-term consequences accompanying those illnessesincluding disability. These illnesss include: diphtheria, measles, mumps, rubella, pneumonia, whooping cough, polio, tetanus, hepatitis B, and rotavirus diarrhea.

In 2016, 86% of the worlds infant population (116.5 million infants) received the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccineup 34% from 30 years ago. 1 child of every 7 is unvaccinatedthats approximately 19.5 million children, half of whom live in 6 countries: Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Ethiopia, and the Congo.

Quick facts

Vaccination coverage decreases in countries during periods of conflict.



Vaccination coverage is increasing in Palau, Malta, the Congo, Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, East Timor, Barbados, Costa Rica and India.

There are an estimated 1 million cases of cholera in Yemenmaking it one of the worst cholera epidemics in history.

Diptheria, which has almost been wiped out, is seeing a resurgence. There has been on outbreak of diphtheria among the Rohingya refugees75% of these cases involve children.

Polio has almost been completely wiped out. Last year only 22 cases were reported in 2 countries.

By 2026 an estimated 1 billion Africans will have been vaccinated against yellow fever.

Maternal and neonatal tetanus has been eradicated in all but 15 countries. The last three countries in which it was eliminated in 2017 are the Philippines, Ethiopia and Haiti.


Freeds Bakery, a family-owned establishment of 59 years and featured bakery on Food Networks hit show Vegas Cakes, will celebrate Mothers Day with a cookie decorating class for moms and their minis on Saturday, May 12 (Pictured: Freeds Bakery Mothers Day Cookies).

Guided by Freeds Bakery decorators, cookie lovers can make memories with mom during a 20-minute cookie decorating session. Classes will include an opportunity for each guest to decorate heart and flower shaped cookies with an assortment of icings and toppings.

Each Mommy and Me class is priced at $10 per person. Six decorating sessions will be available at 2, 2:20, 2:40, 3, 3:20, and 3:40 p.m.Space is limited, and participants must register by Friday, May 11.

Additional Mothers Day offerings include: Freeds signature Flower Pot for Mom, a cake decorated as a flower pot with the choice of any flavor including vanilla cake with Bavarian cream or strawberry puree, chocolate cake with Bavarian cream or raspberry puree, almond cake with Bavarian cream filling, red velvet cake with cream cheese filling, marble cake with chocolate mousse, or lemon cake with lemon mousse or Bavarian cream and strawberry puree, priced at $74.95; Mothers Day strawberries, plump California strawberries dipped in milk chocolate and white chocolate, priced at $27 per dozen; and Canvas Cakes, a buttercream iced cake covered in white fondant with an edible marker set for a do-it-yourself gift for mom, priced at $57.15.
The White House on Monday declared the ultimate goal of any negotiations that President Donald Trump has with North Korea is Pyongyangs denuclearization.



Theyve already started making some steps that we feel are progress, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. But we certainly know we have a long way to go and were going to continue pushing forward.



Huckabee Sanders told reporters on the West Wing driveway that were going to continue the maximum pressure campaign. We have to see real and concrete steps taken towards denuclearization, but Im not going to get ahead of any negotiations the presidents going to have.



North Korean leader Kim Jong Uns recent announcement suspending nuclear weapons tests and intercontinental ballistic missile launches is certainly a step in the right direction, declared Sanders, but were going to need something a little bit more than that to start the relief of sanctions.

Asked how the president defines denuclearization, Huckabee Sanders responded, it means that North Korea doesnt have or isnt testing nuclear missiles.

Trump, on Sunday, said the United States has given up nothing ahead of his planned summit with Kim, while Pyongyang has already curtailed its nuclear weapons development.

The U.S. leader said on Twitter, "We havent given up anything & they have agreed to denuclearization (so great for World), site closure, & no more testing!"

But Trump acknowledged that the eventual outcome of his talks with Kim, which could occur in late May or early June, is uncertain. Pyongyang has yet to agree to dismantle its nuclear arsenal and, despite Trump's claim, has not agreed to the permanent denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

South Korea has said that the North has expressed interest in doing away with its nuclear weapons.

Long way from conclusion

"We are a long way from conclusion on North Korea, maybe things will work out, and maybe they wont - only time will tell," Trump said, "But the work I am doing now should have been done a long time ago!"

Trump, as is often the case, offered his thoughts after hearing television news commentary he didn't like - this time from Chuck Todd, the host of NBCs Meet the Press public affairs program.

"Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd of Fake News NBC just stated that we have given up so much in our negotiations with North Korea, and they have given up nothing," tweeted Trump.

Todd said of Kim's overtures ahead of the summit, He seems to be giving very little but making it seem like hes giving a lot."

The television newsman added that "theres not many preconditions the United States is asking for. So far in this potential summit, North Koreans have gotten a lot out of it. What has the United States gotten yet? We dont have a release of any of those Americans that they held captive, we dont have a pledge of denuclearization as the ultimate goal. Theres a lot of things they are not promising that is raising some red flags.

Before the planned summit with Trump, for which no location or date has been determined, Kim is set to meet Friday with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at a Korean border village.

South Korea on Monday halted its broadcasts of propaganda messages and pop music across the border. South Korea's Defense Ministry said in a statement it hopes the move will help contribute to creating peace between the two countries.



Neither South Korea nor the United States has diplomatic relations with North Korea.



A state of war technically persists on the peninsula. Active combat in the 37-month long Korean War ended with an armistice in 1953. South Korea was not a signatory.



Moons government says Seoul hopes to resolve the 65-year impasse.



The signing of a peace treaty must be pursued after an end to the war is declared, Moon told media representatives at the presidential Blue House last Thursday.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee narrowly voted to recommend CIA Director Mike Pompeo to be confirmed as secretary of state in a vote expected later this week in the full Senate. In a dramatic reversal, Republican Senator Rand Paul changed his mind moments before the meeting started, giving Pompeo the minimum number of votes he needed. VOAs Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
The U.S. Department of State has urged its citizens to reconsider traveling to Nicaragua. The warning follows several days of violent clashes between law enforcement and demonstrators, resulting in hundreds of injuries and dozens of deaths. The confrontations were sparked by a move to increase taxes and reduce benefits in the Central American country's pension system. Celia Mendoza reports from Managua, the Nicaraguan capital.
When you picture an African immigrant in the United States, do you imagine someone with little or no schooling, struggling to find work?

New research shows a different reality: African immigrants in the United States are college-educated and employed at about the same rates as the general population, and far more likely to be educated and working than their counterparts in Europe.

The report, by the Pew Research Center, found 69 percent of sub-Saharan African immigrants in the United States have some college education. That number is six percentage points higher than the level for native-born Americans, and far higher than levels in Europe.

In Britain, about half of sub-Saharan African immigrants have some college education. In France, the number is 30 percent. In Italy it is only 10 percent.

The Pew study, based on 2015 data from the U.S. Census Bureau and Eurostats Labor Force Survey, also found about 93 percent of African immigrants in the United States were employed, whereas in Europe employment figures ranged from 80 percent in Italy to 92 percent in the U.K. These numbers were roughly equal to the general population in each country.

Monica Anderson is a research associate at Pew and a co-author of the report. The research team wanted to compare demographics of African immigrants in the United States to their counterparts in Europe, Anderson told VOA by phone.

What we found is that the sub-Saharan African immigrant population [in the U.S.] really stands out and that they are a very highly educated group, Anderson said.

The majority of sub-Saharan African immigrants in all of these countries that we looked at are employed, and when you look at their employment compared to those who were actually  who were born in those specific countries  theres really not a lot of difference, she added.

Migration routes

In 2015, about 2.1 million African immigrants were living in the U.S., according to Pew. That number has more than doubled since 2000.

They came to the United States in different ways - to study, for employment opportunities, and through family reunification programs, the latter denounced by President Donald Trump as "chain migration."

Some Africans come to the United States as refugees and asylum seekers. In 2016, about 31,000 Africans were admitted into the United States as refugees, accounting for 37 percent of all admissions. About 19 percent of admissions came from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where conflict has displaced nearly two million people in the past 18 months.

Thousands more come through the State Department's diversity visa lottery, which provides 50,000 permanent resident visas annually to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. In 2015, the last year for which data is available, African immigrants made up 46 percent of applicants invited to request immigrant visas.

Ease of reach

One explanation for the difference in education levels is that Europe is much easier to reach for low-income Africans who travel by boat or other means.

Since 2010, violence, turmoil and poverty have driven approximately 1.5 million Africans to leave the continent for the United States or Europe, and the numbers have grown each year, according to the United Nations.

Hundreds of thousands have risked crossing the Mediterranean Sea on rickety boats, hoping to make it to Italy or Greece.

In contrast, Africans coming to America often have the money to travel by plane, and the permission to enter the country once they arrive.

It is also about proximity, and I think there are other studies and literature out there about how proximity might impact the kind of characteristics that different groups might have when theyre migrating, Anderson said. So those who have a lower socioeconomic status may not have the capabilities or have the resources to move to a distant country.

Better off?

Higher education and employment levels dont necessarily translate into a higher quality of life for African immigrants in the United States, based on previous research by Pew.

Despite high education and employment rates, black immigrants  including those from Africa, the Caribbean, Central America and South America  have a median household income thats about $8,200 lower than the U.S. average, Pew researchers found.

Forty percent of black immigrants are homeowners, 24 percent less than the overall U.S. population, and 20 percent of black immigrants live below the poverty line, compared to 16 percent of the overall U.S. population.

These numbers suggest that, despite relatively high education and employment rates, African immigrants face challenges getting access to all the opportunities that other groups enjoy.
From the streets of the Armenian capital to think tanks across the Atlantic, activists and experts alike grappled with implications of Monday's shock resignation of Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan after 11 straight days of protest over the former president's new political appointment.

"Proud citizens of the Republic of Armenia, you have won!" protest leader Nikol Pashinyan announced to thousands celebrating Sargsyan's resignation in Yerevan on Monday.

Sargsyan, who was elected prime minister by parliament on April 17some eight days after his two-term presidency endedhad previously said he would not seek to become prime minister after newly implemented constitutional changes, which he championed during his presidency, made the office of prime minister more powerful than that of the president.

When parliament convened for last week's vote, tens of thousands of protesters had already amassed in Yerevan's Republic Square, upset at Sargsyan's violation of his own pledge, claiming the shift threatened to make the 63-year-old leader for life.

Calling the rare populist political victory a "purely Armenian velvet revolution"a reference to the 1989 protests that ended communist rule in CzechoslovakiaPashinyan himself had particular reason to celebrate. The 42-year-old opposition lawmaker had been arrested shortly after a brief Sunday meeting with Sargsyan, which was organized with the aim of peacefully ending the protests.

Sargsyan walked out when Pashinyan said he came to discuss his resignation, to which the prime minister responded, "This is blackmail."

Within hours of Pashinyan's Sunday jailing, however, it was announced that he and other demonstrators detained or arrested during the protests would be released.

Early Monday came Sargsyan's official statement, declaring "Nikol Pashinyan was right. I was mistaken. ... I am giving up the post of the countrys prime minister. ... The movement in the streets is against my tenure. I comply with your demand."

On Monday evening, Armenians still reeling from the dramatic turn of events reacted with everything from smug determination to exuberant optimism to deep skepticism.

"We were certainly expecting this outcome, we knew the protests would have this result!" said one man who appeared to be in his 30s and, like others, did not share his name. "There were no other options. Good for everybody!"

"Has anyone even seen the video of him resigning? We dont believe it, and we wont believe it until we see it," said another man, surrounded by a group of fellow revelers. "We were certainly hoping for it, but its unbelievable."

Armenian officials say parliament has accepted the resignation and now have seven days to put forward the name of a new prime minister. In the meantime, former Armenian prime minister Karen Karapetyan, an ally from Sargsyan's ruling Republican Party was named acting prime minister.

Sargsyan's allies remain in key positions in the government and it remains unclear whether his resignation will herald any real change.

According to one young Armenian demonstrator, Sargsyan's resignation alone represents a political benchmark for the small southern Caucuses nation.

"I know that after this, Armenian people understand that they can [bring about political change]," she told VOA's Armenian Service. "If after this the country gets into this type of neglected situation again, the people will rely on this event to know that we are powerful and able to change things.

"And we wont have this type of situation again in our country," she said.

Some experts, however, aren't so sure.

"Because Armenia and Russia have a military alliance, there are 3,000 Russian troops in Armenia itself ... there is no 'will Armenia go in a different direction?' Yuval Weber of the Wilson Center's Kennan Institute in Washington told VOA.

"Armenia is set with Russia in order to help defend itself against Azerbaijan and to maintain its control over Nagorno-Karabakh, he added, referring to a mountainous part of Azerbaijan run by ethnic Armenians who declared independence during a conflict that broke out as the Soviet Union crumbled in 1991.

"Any leader of Armenia has to essentially be pro-Russian."

Other experts, however, suggested the unexpected resignationespecially how quickly it came to passmay indicate a broader political sea-change in the tiny nation of 3 million.

"What surprised me is not the fact that there were protests, but how quickly they became large-scale and the fact the former Prime Minister Sargsyan has actually resigned," said Paul Stronski, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former National Security Council staffer during the Obama administration.

"I am surprised at the success of the protest movement has so quickly galvanized the government, the establishment, and convinced Sargsyan that it was time to go," he added. "Even the opposition Armenian politicians didnt see this as a move that would lead to a clear change of leadership."

"This regime that was based on fear of people to speak out and protest, is coming to an end," said Gevorg Ter-Gabrielyan, an analyst with the Yerevan-based Eurasia Partnership Foundation, which is supported in part by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Sargsyan's resignation, he said, is just the first move in a broader political shift.

"It happened despite all political prognoses that democracy has left post-Soviet countries," he said in an interview with VOA's Russian Service. "Armenia just demonstrated that people have voice and power. The historic importance of this event is enormousit is not just a local Armenian issue. The most important is the possibility of peaceful and democratic change of power. We did not let one more regime in post-Soviet bloc become everlasting."

Responding to the latest developments, a State Department spokesman thanked Sargsyan "for his many years of service and his contributions to the strong U.S.-Armenia partnership."

"We expect the democratic process to determine his successor will be conducted in a transparent manner, consistent with Armenias laws and international obligations, and we look forward to working closely with the new government," the official added.

U.S. Senator Edward Markey, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the resignation marks "a good day for democracy in Armenia.

It is a good day for the rule of law in Armenia, and it is a good day for the Armenian people," he added. "I congratulate the people of Armenia on their continued move towards a free and open democratic society. I look forward to continuing to work to enhance the friendship between the United States and Armenia based on our shared values.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was "very attentively observing what is happening in Armenia," which was once a Soviet republic that has retained close ties to Moscow.

This story originated in VOA's Armenian Service. Anush Avetisyan of VOA's Russian Service contributed original reporting.
Antonio Banderas, who shares his birthplace with Pablo Picasso, decided it finally was time to portray his hometown hero. But he leaves it to viewers of National Geographic's drama series "Genius: Picasso" to reconcile the artist's revelatory work with his treatment of the women who helped inspire it.



The actor had passed on two other chances to play Picasso, intimidated by the prospect of playing the man he calls a "huge figure" from their shared birthplace of Malaga, Spain. Learning more about the titan of 20th-century painting, who died in 1973 at age 91, made the mature Banderas cautious for other reasons.



"I started realizing he was not just complicated but mysterious, because of what he did as an artist and because of his life. There were so many opinions of him, some of them good and some bad, his behavior with art and with women and his friends," Banderas said.



But he was impressed by the first season of "Genius" from executive producers Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, with Geoffrey Rush playing Albert Einstein, and decided this was the time to take Picasso's complex story and paintbrushes in hand, literally.



"I wanted to be familiar with all the tools, brushes and oils and acrylics and everything. I bought canvasses and starting painting" to prepare for the role, he said, although he counts himself only a dedicated novice.



Howard said he had no reservations that Banderas the actor, if not painter, was up to the task in the 10-part series that debuted at 9 p.m. EDT Tuesday.



"It took us a while to settle on Picasso as the next 'Genius,' but once we did Antonio's name was immediately thrown into the mix, and everyone agreed he would be perfect for the role," Howard said. "He put in an incredible amount of work to bring the artist to life on-screen and I think he has delivered an exceptional performance that we're all very proud of."



A convincingly prosthetics-aged Banderas plays Picasso in his later years, with Alex Rich as the youthful artist. Those co-starring as Picasso's lovers and muses are Samantha Colley as photographer Dora Maar; Poppy Delevingne as Marie-Therese Walter, and Clemence Poesy as the artist Francoise Gilot, now 96, who left him after a decade and two children.



It was Gilot who, in her 1964 memoir, quoted Picasso as saying, "For me, there are only two kinds of women  goddesses and doormats." A Paris Review column about a 2017 exhibition of Picasso artwork and memorabilia related to his daughter Maya (born to mistress Walter during his marriage to first wife Olga Khokhlova) was headlined: "How Picasso Bled the Women in His Life for Art."



Picasso married second wife Jacqueline Roque when he was 79 and she was 27, and they remained together until his death, with Roque his inspiration for that prolific final period. Banderas said that much of Picasso's work was deeply intertwined with the women who shared his life.



"When he was upset with Dora Maar, for example, you could tell how he painted her. He kind of made her a monster," he said. "Without those women around him, the pieces of Picasso, it would be a completely different story."



His relationships didn't always start or stop cleanly, the actor said, and there was "something of them that always was kept in the soul of Picasso."



The artist's colleagues had reason to be wary of his brilliance: They would hide their own works from him because they knew he could improve on whatever style he saw, Banderas said. There is also a cloudy chapter in which Picasso refuses to sign a petition to save French poet Max Jacob (played by T.R. Knight) from a Nazi internment camp, claiming it would hurt his close friend's cause. Jacob died in the camp in 1944.



How an artist's conduct influences the perception of his art, or its acceptance, has particular currency, with the careers of some top creative lights derailed or sullied by a range of alleged sexual misconduct. In Picasso's case, women were willing partners and research uncovered no evidence of physical abuse, said Banderas.



But there was betrayal and abandonment.



"I don't think the goal of the show is to celebrate someone," executive producer Ken Biller told TV critics. "The goal of the show is to explore a very complex, complicated individual and all of the people around him. This is the stuff of drama. We are not sugarcoating Picasso."



How did Banderas weigh Picasso's genius against his character?



"I don't want to be the morality judge, because that can be difficult to do. We can do that from our time. But if we go back in time, how can you do that for a man born in 1881," Banderas said. "The audience has the opportunity to go in one direction or another as we tell the story. But me, as an interpreter, I shouldn't do it. I shouldn't do it."
The alleged former bodyguard of 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden has been found collecting welfare checks from the German government, according to local media, because he cannot be deported  even though he was refused asylum status.

A report in the German tabloid Bild said the man, named only as "Sami A" to protect his privacy, cannot be deported to his native Tunisia because he is at risk of torture there. He has lived in Bochum, Germany, since 1997 with his German wife and three children.

Sami A, 42, collects around $1,430 a month in welfare from the German government, a figure revealed after the far-right political party Alternative for Germany asked questions of the local authority where Sami A. lives. It is likely that Sami A. and his family also benefit from other social programs that help with housing, heating and clothing needs.

Security officials determined that Sami A. was trained at al-Qaida's terror camps in Afghanistan between 1999 and 2000, and later became one of bin Laden's security guards.

Bild reported that Sami A. was accused by witnesses in a terrorism trial in 2005 of having been bin Laden's bodyguard near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border for a few months at the turn of the millennium, something the judge said he believed to be true, though Sami A denied it.

His residency permit was not renewed in 2005. A deportation order was subsequently issued, but Bild reported that Sami A. appealed it several times. The courts then revoked the order in April 2017 after reviewing the case and deciding that he would face torture if he were to be deported.

Though considered a security risk, Sami A. must report every day to the police in Bochum, which he has done so since 2006. He was refused asylum status because of the security concerns.
Bosnia's Serb Republic rolled out the red carpet with a police honor guard on Tuesday for a visiting Russian delegation in a warm VIP welcome hitherto unseen in the region's capital, though Bosnian state flags were noticeably missing.

Bosnian Serbs see Russia as an historic ally and are blocking moves by the pro-Western state, of which they form a part, to take Bosnia into the U.S.-led NATO alliance.

Valentina Matviyenko, head of the Russian group of lawmakers, received a president's welcome from Milorad Dodik, the region's president who advocates the secession of the region from Bosnia and favors ties with Russia over those with the West.

Russian and Bosnian Serb flags flew in the city center, which was emptied after police warned citizens to stay indoors, while symbols of the Bosnian state were removed from public buildings.

The Russian delegation visited the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo on Monday, where Matviyenko warned in a speech to parliament that NATO membership by Balkan countries would threaten security in the region.

Dodik reassured Matviyenko that Bosnia would not join the military alliance because Serb Republic would block any move to membership.

"The cooperation with the European Union can never be at the expense of Russia and against our interests," Dodik said at a news conference with Matviyenko.

"True friends such as the Russian Federation and its President Vladimir Putin have helped us to clearly set our goals, get back self-confidence and fight for our original rights," Dodik said in a speech in the regional parliament.

He expressed gratitude for Russia's support in the United Nations Security Council where the Serb Republic is often singled out for obstructing peace reforms in the region and decorated Matviyenko with an honorary medal for her role in strengthening ties between the two governments.
Chinese ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing on Monday began offering its service in the Mexican city of Toluca, the company said, setting up a potentially costly battle with rival Uber Technologies in a key Latin American market.

The Mexican launch marks the first time Didi has brought its own app-based ride service outside of Asia, a critical global expansion that comes as the company faces increased competition at home from internet giant Meituan-Dianping, which recently launched its own ride-hailing service.

Didi Express has launched in the capital city of the State of Mexico, an urban hub about 40 miles (60 km) west of Mexico City, adding a number of new safety features for drivers and riders.

Reuters was first to report Didi's plans for Toluca earlier this month.

In Mexico, Didi will go up against Uber, its chief international rival, for the first time since Uber's launch in China that ended with a merger of the two companies' operations in 2016. Uber is the ride-hailing leader in Mexico, where it has 7 million users in more than three dozen cities.

Didi, which has an operations hub in the Juarez neighborhood in Mexico City, said it hopes to bring its ride-hailing service to other major Mexican cities later this year.

Didi said teams in Mexico, Beijing and California studied the Mexican market to adapt Didi's algorithms and other ride-service technologies for the local market, addressing issues such as crime.

Didi is bringing to Mexico a number of new safety features, including an emergency alert button in the app that will connect drivers and passengers with police and other emergency contacts if they find themselves in danger, a safety monitoring system and a way for passengers to share their ride itinerary.

The company started recruiting drivers early this month, promising not to take any piece of their fares until June 17.

After mid-June, Didi plans to take a 20 percent cut, below Uber's 25 percent commission, Reuters previously reported.

Didi late last year bought Brazilian ride-hailing firm 99, giving the company its first toehold in Latin America.
Chinese tech firms pledged on Monday to tackle gender bias in recruitment after a rights group said they routinely favored male candidates, luring applicants with the promise of working with "beautiful girls" in job advertisements.

A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report found that major technology companies including Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent had widely used "gender discriminatory job advertisements," which said men were preferred or specifically barred women applicants.

Some ads promised candidates they would work with "beautiful girls" and "goddesses," HRW said in a report based on an analysis of 36,000 job posts between 2013 and 2018.

Tencent, which runs China's most popular messenger app WeChat, apologized for the ads after the HRW report was published on Monday.

"We are sorry they occurred and we will take swift action to ensure they do not happen again," a Tencent spokesman told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

E-commerce giant Alibaba, founded by billionaire Jack Ma, vowed to conduct stricter reviews to ensure its job ads followed workplace equality principles, but refused to say whether the ads singled out in the report were still being used.

"Our track record of not just hiring but promoting women in leadership positions speaks for itself," said a spokeswoman.

Baidu, the Chinese equivalent of search engine Google, meanwhile said the postings were "isolated instances."

HRW urged Chinese authorities to take action to end discriminatory hiring practices.

Its report also found nearly one in five ads for Chinese government jobs this year were "men only" or "men preferred."

"Sexist job ads pander to the antiquated stereotypes that persist within Chinese companies," HRW China director Sophie Richardson said in a statement.

"These companies pride themselves on being forces of modernity and progress, yet they fall back on such recruitment strategies, which shows how deeply entrenched discrimination against women remains in China," she added.

China was ranked 100 out of 144 countries in the World Economic Forum's 2017 Gender Gap Report, after it said the country's progress towards gender parity has slowed.
Hundreds of civilians living in a militant-held pocket of southern Damascus were caught in fierce clashes between Russian-backed Syrian government forces and militant groups controlling southern Damascus neighborhoods.

Syrian government forces launched a military operation five days ago to seize the area.

Dozens of families took refuge in basements and shelters, suffering in dire conditions from lack of water and food, as fighter jets continue to pummel the area, Mattar Ismael, a journalist living in south Damascus, told VOA.

Ismael added that the Syrian government deployed large numbers of forces and heavy artillery encircling Yarmouk after taking over rebel-held territories in eastern Ghouta.

The United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA), an organization that works to help Palestinian refugees in the Near East, estimates the number of civilians living in southern Damascus are about 12,000. About 6,000 of them are Palestinian refugees.

Supplies of food and medicine are running low. There is no running water and very little electricity. Health care options are limited, and there are no doctors in the area, Reuters reported, citing UNRWA spokesperson Chris Gunness.

Yarmouk camp witnessed one of the most devastating embargo campaigns when the Syrian government besieged the area for several months in 2013, causing severe deprivation and hunger among civilians.

Who controls south Damascus?

Different rebel groups and militants control the district of southern Damascus. In April 2015, Islamic State took over Yarmouk camp, the biggest Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, displacing thousands of civilians. IS also controls the neighborhoods of Hajr Al Aswad, Tadamun and Al Asali.

Yarmouk camp was established in 1957 for the Palestinian refugees who fled the 1948 war with Israel. According to UNRWA, the camp was home to about 160,000 Palestinians before Syria's conflict in 2011.

In the adjacent areas, the Free Syrian Army rebels control Yalda, Babila and Beit Sahm. A small pocket called Al Rijeh is controlled by former al-Qaida-affiliate group Tahrir Al Sham.

Syrian government forces have encircled all militant-controlled areas in south Damascus.

Negotiations with IS

Negotiations between the Syrian government and IS failed mainly because the leaders of IS asked for a guarantee from Russia for its safety when they were evacuated to the Syrian desert.

IS militants wanted a guarantee to not be attacked by any party when they evacuate, like the coalition, in case they went to east Syria, nor by the Free Syrian Army, in case they went south, where an IS-affiliated group exists there, Ismael said.

Ismael added that the Syrian governments push into Yarmouk aims to force IS militants to leave the area without any guarantees, as the current IS leader in Yarmouk camp, Abu Mohammed Thiabieh, vowed to carry out suicide attacks under the Syrian government's control.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based rights group monitoring the situation in Syria, said a counterattack targeted neighborhoods in Damascus under the control of the regime, killing 11 civilians and injuring dozens.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he is leaving it up to his White House physician, Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson, whether to walk away from his nomination as the country's Veterans Affairs chief after serious allegations surfaced accusing him of professional and personal misconduct.

Trump said he continues to support Jackson's nomination, but had asked Jackson, "What do you need it for?"

"The fact is I wouldn't do it," Trump told a White House news conference alongside French President Emmanuel Macron. "What does he need it for? To be abused by a bunch of politicians that aren't thinking nicely about our country, I really don't think personally he should do it, but it's totally his decision."

"I don't want to put a man through, who's not a political person, I don't want to put a man through a process that's too ugly and too disgusting," Trump said.

Trump offered his thoughts on Jackson's nomination to the Cabinet position hours after Senate lawmakers indefinitely delayed his confirmation hearing before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee that was scheduled for Wednesday. The hearing was called off as lawmakers considered as yet unsubstantiated allegations made by whistleblowers accusing him of overseeing a toxic work environment at the White House and excessive drinking.

Both Republican and Democratic senators agreed to postpone the hearing so a more thorough investigation of his background could be conducted, although the Republican Trump blamed Democrats as "obstructionists" in delaying approval of his nominees for an array of government positions.

"We take very seriously our constitutional duty to thoroughly and carefully vet each nominee sent to the Senate for confirmation," the committee chairman, Republican Senator Johnny Isakson, and the panel's top Democrat, Senator Jon Tester, said in a statement. "We will continue looking into these serious allegations and have requested additional information from the White House to enable the committee to conduct a full review."

Another senator, Democrat Ed Markey, told CNN, "Clearly, there was no comprehensive vetting of this nominee" by the White House before Trump nominated him to the Cabinet position. "Let's stop, let's learn more of his background both professionally and personally."

Jackson, who currently serves as Trump's physician, already was facing scrutiny over his lack of experience managing an agency as large as the VA. With 377,000 employees, it's the U.S. government's second-largest agency.

Trump scoffed at that concern, saying, "You could run the biggest hospital system in the world and it's small time compared to the Veterans Administration. So nobody has the experience."

Jackson gained a degree of fame unusual for White House physicians earlier this year when he took questions from the White House press corps on national television, gushing at length about Trump's health after conducting the president's physical exam.

Trump, the oldest first-term president in American history, was plagued at the time by questions about his physical health, weight and mental stability. But Jackson gave the president a top rating. "The president's overall health is excellent," Jackson declared at the time.

Trump picked Jackson to replace David Shulkin, a holdover from the administration of former president Barack Obama, whom Trump fired.

Amidst the allegations surfacing against Jackson, the White House has continued to stick by his nomination.

On Tuesday, a White House spokesman said, "Admiral Jackson has been on the front lines of deadly combat and saved the lives of many others in service to this country. He has served as the physician to three presidents - Republican and Democrat - and been praised by them all. Admiral Jackson's record of strong, decisive leadership is exactly what's needed at the VA to ensure our veterans receive the benefits they deserve."
Congolese opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi rejected suggestions that he might make a deal with President Joseph Kabila, at a rally which passed off peacefully Tuesday.

Tshisekedi is one of two main figures expected to seek to run in a delayed election scheduled for December.

Exiled businessman Moise Katumbi is the other.

Tshisekedi dismissed speculation he might accept the post of prime minister, something Kabila has offered in the past to appease opponents.

"There is nothing like any dialogue for a prime ministerial post," Tshisekedi told the cheering crowd. "The [party] elected me to be presidential candidate, so how can I be lowered to prime minister? Rather, let me be led to the final victory in the presidential election."

Kabila's opposition is weak and divided. Many opposition politicians joined a power-sharing government after the death of opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, Felix's father, last year.

Dozens have died in protests, most shot dead by security forces, since Kabila refused to step down at the end of his constitutional mandate in December 2016. But Tuesday's rally was unusual in that it was permitted, watched closely by armed police.

Popular anger could easily boil over if elections are delayed again or are not perceived to be fair. In addition, several parts of the country are dealing with armed rebellions.

Donors have expressed concern about plans to use new electronic voting machines, saying the system is untested and could allow fraud. Congo's government reacted by saying it would reject foreign aid for the poll.

"Their machine is a machine to cheat. The electoral register is corrupt and merits a serious audit," Tshisekedi said.

The electoral commission has denied accusations of bias.
The European Unions justice commissioner said on Monday she will visit Malta in the coming weeks to look at its anti-money laundering moves and check on how an investigation is going into the murder of an investigative journalist.

Her visit will increase pressure on the EU member after the European Parliament expressed serious concerns about police independence and international money-laundering on the island in a resolution adopted last year.

The resolution was adopted after Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, an anti-corruption campaigner, was killed in October by a car bomb.

Commissioner Vera Jourova said she planned to go to Malta by June to discuss several open issues with the authorities.

The parliamentary body of the Council of Europe, a European human rights watchdog, also said on Monday it would monitor the investigation, adding it was crucial to bring to justice not only the perpetrators but also those who ordered the killing.

These decisions came as a group of local and international media groups, including Reuters, began following up stories covered by Caruana Galizia, in an initiative called the Daphne Project.

Malta, together with other EU states, faces a sanction procedure for its delay in adopting new EU rules against money laundering.

Jourova said she wanted to address this issue in her forthcoming visit and also the strengthening of the Maltese agency to tackle money laundering, the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit.

I of course want to inquiry about the state of play in the investigation on the murder of Madame Galizia, Jourova told a news conference in Brussels.

Three people have been charged so far for the murder but police have not yet identified who ordered the killing.

This investigation is not just about bringing to justice the people who have actually made the bomb, and made the explosion that killed Daphne. This is also about uncovering who gave the order to do that, commission vice president Frans Timmermans said, speaking at the news conference with Jourova.

We will keep pushing the Maltese authorities, he said.

Jourova also said she will discuss Maltas program to sell citizenship to wealthy individuals.

Timmermans insisted that EU passports can be sold only to individuals who have a clear demonstrable link to an European Union country.

"This is a question that, I think, can be raised with the Maltese authorities when discussing the passport scheme, he said.

The commission forced Malta in 2014 to amend its scheme so that only people who had effectively resided on the island for at least 12 months could obtain citizenship, but the country has since allowed foreigners to buy passports with laxer requirements, the Daphne Project consortium found.
A senior European Union official said Tuesday that a summit next month will reaffirm the "European perspective" of the Western Balkans, a region with fresh memories of war and a long history with Russia.

European Council President Donald Tusk's comments came as he started a weeklong tour to prepare for the May 17 summit of EU and Western Balkan leaders.

The agenda of the event, to be held in Bulgaria, is status talks on making Balkan countries EU members.

Last week, the European Commission said enough progress had been made for Albania and Macedonia's accession to begin. Tusk said the road to EU membership would be tough, but "worth the effort."

"The process will resemble more a hurdles race than a motorway. But full integration remains our common destiny," Tusk said at a news conference with his host, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.

The 28 EU member states must agree unanimously for any country to become a member. The process of joining the EU has been a powerful driver of political and democratic reform in post-communist countries.

"I have no doubt that it's in the best interest of the EU and Albania that the entire Western Balkans region is fully integrated," Tusk said.

The summit will also be an occasion to discuss common security challenges, such as migrant smuggling, terrorism and organized crime, he said.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Europe's door must remain open, and that he didn't want to see a return to war "in this extremely complicated region."

However, French President Emmanuel Macron has said he thinks the EU should not expand until Brussels itself undergoes reforms.

Later Tuesday, Tusk visited Montenegro. Along with Serbia, the Adriatic nation is slated to be next in line to join the EU, possibly in 2025.

Montenegro joined NATO last year despite Russia's opposition. Serbia, which Tusk visits next, maintains close ties to Moscow despite formally seeking EU membership.

Meanwhile, leaders from Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia met Tuesday in the Romanian capital to discuss regional issues, including ways to bring the Western Balkans "back to the European family where they belong," Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said.

Bulgaria, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, supports Serbia joining the bloc.

The four leaders also discussed Kosovo's status as a country independent of Serbia. Kosovo declared independence a decade ago, but Serbia and some of its allies don't recognize it as a country.

"Without [a solution for] Kosovo, the Western Balkans can't move forward," Borissov warned.
"The Handmaid's Tale" returns to television this week with its chilling portrait of a near future where women are turned into second-class citizens seeming even darker and more prescient than ever.

That's not by chance. As the Emmy-winning series moves away from Margaret Atwood's dystopian 1985 novel, it delves further into how the United States moved from democracy into a fictional totalitarian state called Gilead.

Here, pollution has caused widespread infertility, women are forbidden to read, cannot control money, and people spy on each other.

"We began Season 1 feeling we cannot let Margaret Atwood down," said Warren Littlefield, one of the show's executive producers. "Then right after the [2016 presidential] election, as this pre-Gilead Trump administration unfolded, we felt the responsibility that we can't let down America.

"We are storytellers, but our world that we depict is relevant and the themes are more relevant than ever before," Littlefield added.

Season 2 starts on Wednesday on streaming platform Hulu, resuming immediately where Season 1 ended last June, with the pregnant Offred (Elisabeth Moss) taken away to face punishment for an act of mass rebellion by a group of handmaids in Gilead.

Pre-Gilead flashbacks show the undermining of human and civil rights, where women need their partner's consent to get birth control, are pressured to be stay-at-home mothers, and gay people lose legal protections to face persecution.

It also gives viewers a first, terrifying glimpse of the book's polluted colonies, where infertile or dissident women are sent to live in concentration camp-like conditions.

"There is a lot that we draw upon from the world we are living in," Littlefield said. "The series tried to dramatize some of the human rights issues that we are experiencing in the world and understand, 'How did that happen?'"

Season 1 premiered in April 2017 but production started long before Hillary Clinton lost her bid to become the first woman in the White House and Donald Trump was elected U.S. president.

The TV series, striking for its handmaids dressed in red capes and white face-obscuring bonnets, won awards in its first season.

Canadian author Atwood remains as a consultant and producer as the second season moves beyond her book, which became one of the top 10 best-selling novels of 2017.

"Margaret is probably the biggest cheerleader for go, move, do not fear going past the book," Littlefield said.
An International Committee of the Red Cross spokesperson says the organization suspended services in South Sudans Leer county after its compound came under attack earlier this month.

Aid agencies have confirmed reports of continued fighting between government forces and rebels loyal to former vice president Riek Machar in the region.

Mari Mortvedt said the attack by what she calls unknown armed men two weeks ago on the ICRC compound violates international humanitarian law and the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement both warring parties signed in December.

Armed men went outside our compound around midnight and they fired shots inside the compound. There were eight staff members of the ICRC sleeping and one of the shots hit the leg of one of the security guards, Mortvedt told South Sudan in Focus.

Mortvedt said the ICRC evacuated staff and suspended its operations in Leer.

Handouts of seed, tools on hold

We had to postpone the distribution of seeds and farming tools that was going on when this happened. This was a distribution that was meant to benefit 24,600 people, said Mortvedt. She said only a fraction of the tools and seeds had been delivered when the attack occurred.

The ICRC distributes free seeds and tools to families in Leer so that farmers can plant their crops ahead of the rainy season.

Leer is one of two areas in which the United Nations declared a famine last year. Its one of the hardest hit areas of South Sudans five-year-long conflict.

Wounded soldiers airlifted to safety

Mortvedt said the ICRC has been busy airlifting soldiers injured in the latest fighting in and around Leer.

Part of the mandate of ICRC is to evacuate the war-wounded from wherever they are in the country and we do this by either helicopter or airplanes, said Mortvedt. She said the wounded are brought for surgical treatment in four different areas of the country.

The ICRC spokesperson said targeting aid workers violates international humanitarian law.

This is really heartbreaking when something like this happens because an attack on the ICRC is not just an attack on us, its also an attack on the people we are there to assist because we have to cancel and postpone our activities when we are targeted and this frightens us, it shocks us, said Mortvedt.

'Serious security incident'

Mortvedt called it the most serious security incident we have had since August when an ICRC truck driver was shot dead in the Equatorial region.

She said the ICRC is talking to armed groups in the area to get assurances that aid agencies will not be targeted once they resume operations.

Spokesmen for the government and for the rebels led by Machar confirm the clashes took place, but they accuse each other of violating the cease-fire signed in December.
No one knows where Indonesias Baduy people got their name: some say it is from the Cibaduy river in West Java, or that its a reference to the grass, Areuy Baduyut, that grows in their territory, or that it is a derivative of the bedouin nomadic tribes of Africa and the Middle East.

They dont keep any written records themselves. But this hermetic community is a rare success story: an indigenous group that has maintained its ancient way of life, spurning modern technology, formal schooling, and state-sanctioned religion, just four hours from Jakarta, the largest city in Southeast Asia.

One way they have done this is through canny relations with the regional government. Once a year, thousands of Baduy men walk on foot to the local regents and governors offices for a ceremony called seba, where they pay tribute in the form of rice, honey, and crops to express gratitude for another year of peaceful relations and protection of their customary way of life.

So once again this year, 2,000 Baduy men trekked to the town of Rangkasbitung to do just that. Fifty walked the whole way on foot, leaving their settlement at 4:00 am, and the rest decamped after lunch on buses, pick-up trucks, cars, and angkot vans, although in the end, the ensuing traffic jam meant they too had to walk the final stretch to the governors office. Luckily, if theres one thing the Baduy know how to do well, its walk.

The seba ceremony

By 5:00 pm last Friday, thousands of Baduy men reached the regents office in Rangkasbitung exactly as the sky unleashed a soggy downpour on the whole town. They lit up cigarettes and unloaded the gifts they had brought: long green plantains, jars of sweet and bitter honey, sacks of rice. They would sleep overnight in the pavilion and then visit the governors office before returning home on Sunday.

The exact date of seba varies year to year, but its always shortly after the spring harvest. There was a time when Baduy people did not use fiat money at all, so the in-kind tribute was the only way for them to pay the government. But today, although they do engage in monetary transactions, they have retained the symbolic aspects of the ceremony.

Seba is promoted locally as a cultural event and many townspeople stopped the visiting Baduy for photo ops. The Baduy mostly speak Sundanese, a regional language of West Java, to each other. But many of them have picked up the national Indonesian language too.

They also practice an indigenous religion called Sunda Wiwitan, an animist faith that includes ancestor and nature worship. This is the first full year that indigenous faiths (outside of mainstream, state-sanctioned religions like Islam and Christianity) are once again legally recognized in Indonesia.

A split community

The Baduy community is split between inner (Baduy dalam) and outer (Baduy luar) parts. The Inner Baduy, comprised of about 40 families, are more traditional, and completely reject technology; no outsiders can stay the night in their land. They dont even ride on motorized vehicles driven by others. Inner Baduy men regularly sell their handicrafts in cities as far as Jakarta, but they walk each way, a two-day journey, and dont use phones or maps en route.

Outer Baduy people may use phones and ride in, but not drive, modern vehicles. Sometimes they go into town to watch films.

There is a customary law council in Baduy Dalam [Inner Baduy] that decides whether we can use certain technologies, said Sarikam, a 55-year-old Outer Baduy man who serves as a liaison with the local government. For example, they said phones are okay but computers are not.

However, he explained, since there is no electricity in any Baduy territory, they have to leave the village to charge their phones. Sometimes twice a day, he said sheepishly.

The Baduy peoples pragmatic approach to modernity is unique, and may be the key to their success in a nation where indigenous peoples rights are constantly under threat by the state, deforestation, and majority groups.

They are famous for their woven textiles, and the two groups have different variants of traditional dress: inner Baduy people wear cream and black cloth, whereas outer Baduy wear black cloth and blue batik. There is no intermarriage between the groups, but they socialize and work together almost every day.

The community is also open to cultural tourism and does brisk traffic in foreign and domestic visitors most of the year, except for the three months leading up to seba, when they close their doors to outside visitors.

The tug of modernity

A handful of Baduy people leave the community every few years to make their way in the modern world. That is, said Saprinaya, one of the risks that come with constant contact. Inner Baduy people are sometimes expelled to Outer Baduy as well, for reasons including using technology and doing an extraordinary volume of business.

But for every case like that, the vast majority of Baduy people seem proud of their way of life.

Ive never wanted to ride in a car, said Jama, a 35-year-old from Inner Baduy who frequently walks to and from Jakarta to sell textiles. And I think its weird that people look at phones all day long.
An Iranian opposition leaders website is raising the alarm about the health of a female member of Irans Gonabadi dervish minority who was arrested in Tehran in a violent clash with police in February.

The Saham News site of Mehdi Karroubi, who has been under house arrest for years, published the report about the detained woman, Shokoufeh Yadollahi, on Monday. It said she is in a poor physical condition after having suffered fractures to her ribs and skull in the February 20 clash.

The report also said Iranian security personnel have prevented Yadollahi from obtaining appropriate medical treatment during her detention at Qarchak prison, east of Tehran.

London-based human rights group Amnesty International issued a statement on March 29 appealing for global support for Yadollahi and 10 other Gonabadi dervish women whom it said have been ill-treated and arbitrarily detained since the Tehran incident. It called for the 11 women to be released immediately.

Iranian officials said five members of the countrys security forces were killed and more than 300 people arrested during the clashes between police and Gonabadi dervishes, also known as Sufis.

The Sufi protesters had been demanding the release of arrested members of their community and the removal of security checkpoints around the house of their 90-year-old leader, Noor Ali Tabandeh.

In Iran, the group is subject to continued scrutiny and harassment because the government views them as heretics.

This report was produced in collaboration with VOAs Persian Service.
Divisions have emerged within Irans Kurdistan province about how to pressure Tehran to stop blocking border footpaths used by residents to trade with fellow Kurds in Iraq.

Iranian Kurdish activists who contacted VOA Persian from the region via social media said shopkeepers were back at work on Monday in seven towns where most had been on strike the previous week to protest the Iranian governments border blockade. The activists said the workers in those areas wanted to give Iranian authorities several weeks to follow up on pledges to address their grievances.

Residents reported shops re-opening on Sunday in Javanrud, Mahabad, Saqqez, Sardasht and Sarpol Zahab, and on Monday in Marivan and Piranshahr. Workers in the seven towns had progressively joined the strike that began in Javanrud and the city of Baneh on April 15.

But activists said shopkeepers in Baneh extended their strike into a ninth day on Monday after rejecting government appeals to return to work. Banehs economy is more reliant than the other areas on porters, known as kolbars, importing goods from Iraqi Kurdistan via the blocked border footpaths.

WATCH: Shops closed in protest

Iranian state media said Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Falzi discussed the concerns of Iranian Kurdish border traders at a meeting in Tehran on Monday and pledged to come up with solutions. Activists in the region said shopkeepers were threatening to resume their strikes in three weeks unless the border footpaths are re-opened by then.

This report was produced in collaboration with VOAs Persian Service. Michael Lipin contributed additional reporting from Washington.
Workers in Irans southwestern province of Khuzestan have launched an extended protest against water shortages and nonpayment of wages.

Social media users who contacted VOA Persian said farmers from the town of Bavi protested for a third straight day outside a local government building in nearby Ahvaz city on Monday. They said the farmers complained of not receiving enough water to irrigate their crops.

Meanwhile, social media activists reported a second consecutive day of protests by municipal irrigation workers in the town of Hamidiyeh on Monday.

The activists said dozens of workers began the protest on Sunday, rallying outside a municipal building to protest delays in their salary payments. They said a local official in Hamidiyeh, also near Ahvaz, acknowledged that five months wages had not been paid.

But it was not clear when the issue would be resolved.

This report was produced in collaboration with VOAs Persian Service.
Islamic State militants decapitated three brothers in Chaparhar district, its traditional stronghold in eastern Nangarhar province, officials told VOA.

Nisar, Naeem and Abul Wahab, all working in the medical profession, did not have any links to the Afghan government, Attullah Khogyani Nangarhar, provincial government spokesperson, told VOA. They were all taken out from their residence in Chaprahar district and were slain brutally, he said.

IS militants operate in different parts of eastern Nangarhar province where they target local residents and Afghan security forces, officials claim.

Father killed earlier

Hazrat Hussain Mashiqiwal, Nangarhar province police chief, said, Militants killed the father of the three brothers last year, but no group claimed responsibility for the killing. We are investigating the killing of the three brothers.

Local residents claim the brothers were killed in public.

They (IS militants) warned us to not touch the bodies," Taaj Mohammad, a local resident of Chaprahar district, told VOA. Chaprahar district is located 20 kilometers south of Jalalabad, the capital city of eastern Nangarhar province.

Doctors plan strike

Medical professionals in eastern Nangarhar province claim to have been threatened, kidnapped and even killed by various criminal groups.

We condemn the killing of the medical profession members. It is a barbarous act, Gulam Sakhi Rahmanzai, director of Doctors Union in eastern Nangarhar province, told VOA.

On Sunday, several people associated with the medical profession said they would go on strike in eight days unless the government improves their security.

According to the Nangarhar Medical Sector, during the past six months, two doctors were killed, five more were wounded, and seven doctors were released after they paid ransom.

National security forces have arrested six suspected kidnappers, including two Taliban insurgents. Two of the suspects have confessed to having links with (the) Islamic State terror group, said Khogyani.

Artillery attack claims 17

ISs self-styled Khorasan province branch (IS-K) emerged in the mountainous areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan more than two years ago and has wreaked havoc in several Afghan provinces, including eastern Nangarhar province.

But Afghan officials said they and their U.S. allies are fighting back. Monday, a U.S. artillery attack on the Deh Bala district of eastern Nangarhar province killed at least 17 IS militants.

Ziaurrahman Hasrat contributed to this report from Nangarhar, Afghanistan.
The Israeli government said on Tuesday it was abandoning a plan to forcibly deport African migrants who entered the country illegally.

The government had been working for months on an arrangement to expel thousands of mostly Eritrean and Sudanese men who crossed into Israel through Egypt's Sinai desert.

"At this stage, the possibility of carrying out an unwilling deportation to a third country is not on the agenda," the government wrote in a response to the court.



The migrants, it said, will again be able to renew residency permits every 60 days, as they were before the deportation push.

The migrants and rights groups say they are seeking asylum and are fleeing war and persecution. The government says they are job seekers and that it has every right to protect its borders.

Around 4,000 migrants have left Israel for Rwanda and Uganda since 2013 under a voluntary program, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come under pressure from his right-wing voter base to expel thousands more.

After leaving a U.N.-backed relocation plan a few weeks ago, Israel shifted efforts towards finalizing an arrangement to send the migrants against their will to Uganda.

A number of migrant rights groups petitioned the Supreme Court to block any such policy.
It has been 24 years since the Malawi government executed a convicted murderer, but President Peter Mutharika has called for discussions on implementing the death penalty to deter attacks on people with albinism.

False beliefs that the body parts of albinos bring good fortune have led to a series of attacks on them in Malawi. Since 2013, at least 20 albinos have been killed and 130 injured in the southern African country.

Most recently, police officers, a medical officer and a Roman Catholic priest were charged in last month's slaying of MacDonald Masambuka, 22, whose body was found dismembered.

Mutharika wants the nation to debate imposing the death penalty for murder.

While the country has a death penalty law on the books, it hasn't been used since the change to a democratic government in 1994. Instead, convicted murderers remain in prison for life, even if they are given a death sentence.

That is cruel because there is no pardon or commutation of the sentence, says Imran Shareef of the Chancellor College of the University of Malawi. It "means the person still lives with psychological torture in his mind," Shareef said. "What if the incoming president will be willing to sign [a death warrant]?"

Shareef believes the death penalty is the best way to deter potential murderers.

Ahmed Chiyenda agrees.

"The perpetrators should be taken to an open ground, and they should be executed there while the public is watching," he said. "It will be dehumanizing at that moment, yes, but they [other people] will also stop thinking of killing each other like what people are doing at the moment."

The United Nations, however, encourages Malawi to take other approaches to end attacks on albinos.

Maria Jose Torres, the U.N. Development Program's representative in Malawi, says the U.N. opposes the death penalty.

"First, because it undermines human dignity," she said. "Second, it is because it is irreversible, meaning that innocent persons can be executed but if they prove she or he was innocent, it will never be reversible. And, thirdly, there is no conclusive evidence that death penalty is the deterrent to future perpetrators."

Instead, Torres said, Malawi should strengthen its justice system to ensure that killers receive tough sentences.

What's more, the death penalty isn't necessarily popular nationwide. A study by the Paralegal Advisory Service Institute, or PASI, and the Cornell Law School in the United States found that 94 percent of traditional leaders in Malawi oppose capital punishment.

There are several reasons why, says Clifford Msiska, PASI's national director.

"For instance, innocent people have been killed, and it would not give people a chance to reform," he said. "And people who have been killed cannot contribute to the society, and the trauma that is associated with death penalty."

Hetherwick Ntaba, who leads the government's technical committee tasked with ending attacks on people with albinism, said the topic is a contentious one.

"You know, there are some [people in the] international community, some people of our own, saying 'No, no, no, we should not implement that.' So it's not that simple, it's not that straightforward," he said.

And while it's debated, Ntaba says the government will continue to look for new approaches to end attacks on albinos.
Pakistan has barred a U.S. diplomat from leaving the country pending a court case stemming from his involvement in a recent fatal traffic accident.



Authorities say that on April 7, Defense Attache Colonel Joseph Emanuel Hall was driving an embassy vehicle when it collided with a motorcycle, killing 22-year-old Attique Baig and injuring another person on the bike.



The deputy attorney general, Raja Khalid, informed the court on Tuesday that the federal government had placed Hall's name on Pakistan's "black list," preventing him from leaving Pakistan. He went on to add that all airports around the country have been alerted.



The dead man's family has petitioned the capital city's High Court, asking that Hall's name be placed on the so-called Exit Control List, or ECL, which bars people facing judicial proceedings from leaving Pakistan.



Khalid told the court that placing the U.S. diplomat's name on the ECL required a long legal process.



He argued during Tuesday's proceedings that Hall could neither be tried nor arrested because the Vienna Convention guarantees immunity to designated diplomats from criminal jurisdiction.



The deputy attorney general emphasized the diplomat could only be tried if the U.S. waived his immunity.



Before adjourning the proceedings until next week, the single-judge court ordered the Foreign Ministry to submit its report on the question of diplomatic immunity and on putting Hall's name on the ECL.



A day after the fatal accident, Pakistani police released to media identification documents of the U.S. diplomat along with video footage which showed the vehicle running a red light and hitting the motorcycle.



The family of the deceased, 22-year-old Attique Baig, has also staged a street demonstration, demanding the government ensure justice is served.



U.S. officials have expressed their "deep sympathy to the family of the deceased and those injured," and pledged to fully cooperate with local authorities in the investigation.



Diplomatic Tension



The accident comes amid increased diplomatic tensions with Washington over allegations insurgents in Afghanistan are using Pakistani soil to plot deadly attacks. Pakistani officials reject the allegations.



On Monday, a senior Department of State official, Alice Wells, visited Islamabad and discussed, among other subjects, the diplomat's case in discussions with top Foreign Ministry officials.



The Pakistani side during the meeting demanded a waiver of diplomatic immunity enjoyed by Hall so that he could be prosecuted, the DAWN newspaper reported Tuesday quoting its sources. It gave no further details.



The U.S. embassy, in a brief post-visit statement, did not give details on issues Wells discussed with Pakistani interlocutors.



"In her meetings, she discussed the status of the U.S. South Asia strategy and efforts to make progress on regional security and stability," it said.



The U.S. government recently notified Islamabad that Pakistani diplomats will be placed under new travel restrictions starting May 1, underscoring a consistent deterioration in bilateral ties.



The historically turbulent relationship was severely strained in 2011 when a CIA contractor in the city of Lahore shot and killed two Pakistanis riding a motorcycle.



The contractor, Raymond Davis, defended his actions, saying he had to open fire to prevent the robbery of his vehicle. Washington claimed diplomatic immunity for Davis, but Islamabad rejected it and a court later charged the American with murder.



The contractor, however, was later acquitted and freed after families of the victims forgave him in return for financial compensation, an action permitted under Pakistani law.
Paraguay's business-friendly ruling party performed better than expected in Sunday's Senate election, losing fewer seats than polls had projected and ensuring strict fiscal policies while lessening chances of a tax hike on the key soy sector.

Farmers in the world's No. 4 soybean exporter had feared that the new Senate might approves a measure, defeated last year, that would slap a 10 percent levy on exports.

Surveys had projected that the ruling Colorado Party, whose presidential candidate Mario "Marito" Abdo won by a 3.7-point margin over his center-left opponent, could lose up to seven of the 20 seats it currently controls in the 45-member Senate.

But with 97.33 percent of the Senate vote officially counted on Monday, the Colorado Party looked to have lost only three.

"It appears that the shift toward the political left that had been projected did not happen," political analyst and former member of Congress Sebastian Acha said in a telephone interview.

"Abdo kept a strong presence in the Senate," he added.

Abdo, a 46-year-old former senator who campaigned on an anti-corruption platform and is set to be sworn in as president in mid-August, beat his main rival Efrain Alegre, a lawyer from the center-left GANAR coalition. But his margin of victory was much smaller than had been projected in polls.

Outgoing President Horacio Cartes had vetoed the proposed soybean export tax, and Abdo is also against the measure, which the business community feared would slow growth of the country soy sector.

Abdo was expected to keep most of Cartes' policies unchanged.

Credit ratings agency Fitch in a statement kept Paraguay's outlook at positive, considering its opinion that Abdo would maintain Cartes' fiscal discipline. The agency said it projected that "Paraguay's recent trend of robust growth and diversification will continue."

Moody's said that although the presidential election result was much tighter than anticipated, it expected Abdo's government to broadly maintain the previous administration's policies.

"Paraguay has a strong track record of fiscally conservative policies, supporting our view that the country will keep low debt burdens," Moody's analyst Samar Maziad said.

Results of Sunday's election of members of the lower house of Congress, where the Colorado Party currently has 46 of the chamber's 80 seats, are expected to be released next month.
Vice President Mike Pence has chosen retired Army Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, a top official with the National Security Council, to serve as his national security adviser.



Pence selected Kellogg, a national security aide to President Donald Trump, to fill the role after his top choice, Jon Lerner, withdrew his name from consideration.



Lerner, an adviser to U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, pulled out of a proposed dual role after Trump learned of his planned hiring. Lerner is a longtime Republican strategist and pollster who previously worked with the Club for Growth, which aired ads critical of Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.



Pence said in a statement that Kellogg "brings a wealth of experience in national security and foreign policy matters to this role and has already been an integral part of the President's national security team."



Kellogg has served as chief of staff at the National Security Council and is the latest NSC official to depart after the arrival of Trump national security adviser John Bolton. Also gone are spokesman Michael Anton, homeland security adviser Tom Bossert, and deputy national security advisers Ricky Waddell and Nadia Schadlow.



Kellogg served as acting national security adviser after Michael Flynn resigned in February 2017 as Trump's first national security adviser. Flynn's successor, H.R. McMaster, was recently replaced by Bolton.



Kellogg, who served in the U.S. Army for more than three decades, previously served as commander of the 82nd Airborne Division and as a top aide to Paul Bremer, who led the Coalition Provisional Authority during the reconstruction of Iraq.
A Nashville judge has revoked the $2 million bond set for the suspect who allegedly gunned down four people at a Waffle House restaurant early Sunday.

The Nashville district attorney's office says it was "inundated with calls" from people outraged that Travis Reinking may be back on the streets.

"The fact that he might be able to bond out set that fear and panic back in their hearts again," a spokesman said.

A night court magistrate set bond for Reinking, hours after he was arrested Monday. Legal experts say it is unusual for bond to be set for such a serious crime without a bond hearing or other procedures.

The 29-year-old was reportedly wearing a green jacket and nothing else when he began firing an AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle outside a Waffle House restaurant near Nashville. When he began shooting inside, Reinking aborted his attack and ran when customer James Shaw Jr. wrestled the rifle from him  an act authorities described as heroism.

"We do not know why he went into Waffle House," Metropolitan Nashville Police spokesman Don Aaron said Monday. But Nashville police chief Steve Anderson said Reinking came into the restaurant with a "lot of firepower," carrying four weapons. Two guns were found at the scene.

Reinking has a history of abnormal behavior.

Police records show he was arrested in July 2017 for trying to enter White House grounds, prompting authorities to revoke his gun license and seize four firearms, including the rifle that was used in the Waffle House killings. Police gave the guns to Reinking's father, who told them he would keep them away from his son. But police said Sunday the father returned the weapons to him.

U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent Marcus Watson said Reinking's father, Jeffrey, could be charged with federal crimes if he knowingly gave weapons to someone who was prohibited from owning them. Jeffrey Reinking was not immediately available for comment.

Sunday's massacre was the latest in a series of mass shootings in the United States in which a gunman used an AR-15 style rifle.

One of the most deadly massacres was carried out on February 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in the southeastern city of Parkland, Florida, a tragedy that sparked a nationwide movement for tougher gun control laws. The suspected shooter was a former Marjory Stoneman student who was also brandishing an AR-15.
Armenia's government and the country's opposition are putting their differences aside Tuesday to mark the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians a century ago by Ottoman Turks.



A day after the opposition succeeded in pushing the prime minister out of office, Armenians across the country are commemorating the massacre that began 103 years and which Armenians and many historians consider to be genocide. Turkey, successor of the Ottoman Empire, vehemently denies the claim and insists that the massacre was part of hostilities around World War I.



Armenia's acting prime minister and other officials laid flowers at a hilltop memorial complex in Yerevan, the capital of the Caucasus Mountains country, early Tuesday along with thousands of residents.



Leaders of the opposition and some 10,000 supporters marched to the memorial later. Protesters carried the Armenian tricolor and chanted the name of the protest leader Nikol Pashinian who was leading the procession.



Opposition supporters were celebrating the resignation of Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan on Monday after days of anti-government protests.



"We need a change of government," said 43-year-old businessman Gregor Adamyan. "We're tired of pressure and corruption of one clan."



The protests, which lasted ten days, mostly focused on people's frustration with the current authorities. The coalition of the three parties leading the protest currently holds just 7 percent of the parliamentary seats and has not taken any stand on relations with Russia, Armenia's key ally and economic donor.



Ties with Russia did not appear to be at the forefront of most protesters, and many of those marching in Yerevan spoke favorably of Russia.



Ruben Ter-Martirosyan, a 37-year-old unemployed man, wants to see a more balanced relationship between the two former Soviet nations: "Armenia needs to be a bridge between Russia and Europe, not a vassal of the Kremlin."



Earlier Tuesday, a deputy Russian Foreign Minister earlier met with the Armenian ambassador in Moscow. The ministry said Moscow is following developments in Armenia closely and wishes the country a smooth and peaceful political transition.



Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a statement on Tuesday offered condolences "to the children and grandchildren of Ottoman Armenians who lost their lives during World War I."



But in an apparent stab at Armenian authorities, he took the chance to criticize "those who resort to create hatred, grudge and hostility by distorting our common history."



Russia has recognized the massacre as genocide. U.S. President Donald Trump last year described it as "one of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th century," but stopped short of calling it genocide.
When New Delhi-based lawyer Alakh Alok Srivastav filed a petition in the Supreme Court earlier this year asking for capital punishment for child rapists following the brutal gang rape of an eight-month old baby, the government lawyer argued "the death penalty is not the answer to everything."

Three months later, an outburst of national outrage over the gang rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kashmir and the rape of a 16-year-old in Uttar Pradesh, prompted a change in the government's stance.

The government has approved the death penalty for rape of children below 12 years of age and increased minimum jail terms from 10 to 20 years for the rape of a girl below 16 and from seven to 10 years for older women.Suspects can be tried using the emergency measure for the next six months but it must eventually be approved by parliament to become law.

Many enraged citizens have called it a step in the right direction. "It is an extremely welcome decision. When the rapist comes to know that the death penalty is there, then a majority of criminals will be actually deterred," asserts Srivastav.

But many lawyers and child rights activists warn that instead of acting as a deterrent, capital punishment for child rapists will simply drive the crime underground. They say in a country where conviction rates are already abysmally low, the need is not harsher punishments but swifter and fairer justice.

"It will silence the issue," laments Anuja Gupta at the voluntary group RAHI Foundation, who has been working with victims of child sexual abuse for more than two decades.

She points out that in India rapists and child abusers are mostly family members or relatives, making the process of bringing them to justice very traumatic. "For the victims and survivors to think that their perpetrators will be put to death, that journey is way too much, it will be completely traumatic for the child. People are not going to be disclosing," she asserts.

A women rights activist points out that the death sentence pronounced for four men convicted for the rape of a 23-old-physiotherapy student in New Delhi in 2012 has not proved to be a deterrent -- the number of cases of sexual assault since the incident rocked India has jumped about 60 percent, partly due to increased reporting. Children were the victims in about 40 percent of the reported cases.

Lawyers say the solution is not making the law more stringent, but solving systemic problems plaguing the country's police and courts. That has not happened despite promises made in 2012 to speed up rape trials. The backlog of rape cases pending in court since then has risen more than 30 percent.

"If you have no convictions, who are we handing the death penalties to," questions lawyer and rights activist Vrinda Grover. "The conviction rate is low because the Indian criminal justice system is in shambles -- from the time of the lodging of the FIR (first information report), which itself is a Herculean task, to the investigation, which is both shoddy and partisan."

Activists point to the two cases that led to the recent outrage. The crimes happened months ago eight-year-old Asifa Bano was gang raped and killed in January in the Kathua region of Indian Kashmir and the 16-year-old girl in Uttar Pradesh last June.

In the case of Bano, who belonged to a family of Muslim nomads, police have charged a retired bureaucrat of hatching a conspiracy to brutally gang rape and kill the girl in an effort to drive the nomads from the area. Police have said that two local police officers accepted nearly $5,000 in bribes from the bureaucrat to destroy evidence. They are now being tried in a fast track court.

In Uttar Pradesh, police are alleged to have bowed to pressure from people with political influence to bury the case. The 16-year-old rape victim from Unnao accused the local police station of blocking her efforts to accuse a powerful lawmaker of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of raping her. When she refused to withdraw the complaint, the lawmaker's brother and several other men allegedly beat her father resulting in his death. The lawmaker is now in custody but was arrested only after the case hit national headlines.

"Let us not forget that both in Kathua and Unnao there is a clear patronage, an impunity for rape through political and social affiliation," says Grover.

While there appears to be no easy answers as India tries to tackle the problem of sexual violence, almost all agree that it should be treated as a crisis.

And as the government tries to address the public outrage, people like Anuja Gupta say it needs to take a different tack. "It's a public health issue, it needs to be dealt with as an epidemic and how would you deal with an epidemic? You would give out mass information to people for awareness and prevention," she says.
Van Morrison has come up with a simple, and surprisingly effective, way to combat possible writer's block  recycle old songs and standards with a brand new approach.

He's tried it before with Duets: Re-Working the Catalogue in 2015 and is at it again in You're Driving Me Crazy.

This time hes teamed with Joey DeFrancesco in a supremely relaxed, jazzy workout notable for its easy, almost effortless swing.

This is Morrison when hes not trying too hard, not looking for new ways to express the emotions captured so brilliantly in his earlier work, simply enjoying the chance to team up with a superb organist and trumpeter to revisit some of his older songs mixed in with a few classics.

They shine on a number of standards, including Cole Porters Miss Otis Regrets, which Morrison personalizes with some distinctive mumbling. By now his vocal tics are so familiar that listeners can feel him trying to find, and stretch out, a moment of bliss.

He reaches all the way back to Astral Weeks for an updated The Way Young Lovers Do, one of the most evocative pieces from that landmark album. The composition stands the test of the time, and Morrisons vocal performance meets the challenge, even if hes decades past the coming-of-age drama depicted in that song.

Hes taking a number of songs originally performed in more of a rock style and put them in a jazz context. The joy he finds is clear from the opening moments, and there are several occasions when the sometimes grumpy Morrison laughs with pure delight.

Taking away the pressure of coming up with new masterworks to match Into the Mystic and Moondance seems to have liberated Morrison. And, lest ye forget, this man can sing.
Russia has launched a campaign urging about 60,000 of its citizens studying abroad to return home.

The marketing campaign is responding to "Russophobic attitudes" toward its citizens and students living abroad, according to the state-run RIA-Novosti news agency.

The campaign, announced April 16, is led by a government agency in charge of shaping Russia's image and supporting citizens living abroad.

Governments in many countries  especially Europe  "have increasingly taken on a harshly expressed anti-Russian character," the agency asserted.

Many of those countries, including the U.S., have accused the Russian government of ordering the poisoning of former Russian military intelligence official Sergei Skripal and his daughter on March 4 in Salisbury, Britain. The two were seriously injured.

Russia has denied involvement in the attack.

The incident led many Western nations to expel dozens of Russian diplomats. Russia answered by expelling diplomats from Western countries.

Another official told the Kommersant newspaper there were concerns that young Russians may experience difficulties in nations expressing "unfriendly" feelings about Russia.

"It's an important question of safety for our youth, who study abroad. There are serious concerns that young Russians may fall victims of provocations in countries that have shown an unfriendly attitude toward our country," said Oksana Buryak, moderator at the presentation of the Rossotrudnichestvo project on bringing Russian students back.

The Moscow Times has reported that an agency official said the program was mainly designed to seek the return of Russians studying in Britain.

Schools across Russia are ready to accept Russians back to continue their studies at home, said Genri Sardarian, head of the department of management and politics at Moscow's MGIMO University.

"We often overrate foreign universities and underrate the level of education in Russian institutions," Sardarian said.

The worsening ties between the U.S. and Russia have made it more difficult for some American students seeking to study in Russia.

Stanford University in California suspended its study-abroad program in Russia after the U.S. State Department in January listed Russia as one of the most dangerous countries to visit. The advisory cited harassment and terrorism.

The U.S.-based Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies said in a statement that most universities feel they can trust their Russian partners to keep students safe at their programs. Most of its members still operate study-abroad programs, it said.

The Russian marketing campaign is called "Highly Likely Welcome Back," reflecting comments made by British Prime Minister Theresa May that a British investigation found it "highly likely" Russia was responsible for the poisoning.

The Russian agencies overseeing the campaign are officially called the Federal Agency for CIS Matters, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation.
When the Southern Africa Development Conference meets Tuesday to discuss the Democratic Republic of Congos efforts to hold elections and stabilize the country, the DRCs leader might not attend.

A government official told VOA that President Joseph Kabila instead would send Prime Minister Bruno Tshibala to the meeting in Luanda, Angola's capital. But Kabila's office has made no announcement.

Martin Fayulu, a member of the main DRC opposition coalition known as the Rassemblement, told VOA that the conference leadership should tell Kabila to step down so the country can have a peaceful election.

What he has demonstrated is he doesnt want to organize the elections, Fayulu said.

Fayulu discounted the governments statements that its preparing for elections, now scheduled for Dec. 23. He said theres evidence that government officials have interfered with the work of the Independent National Election Commission, known as CENI.

Rassamblement wants to see a neutral group, not the government, coordinate elections so its members can be confident that voting will be a legitimate exercise, Fayulu said.

We want a credible transference election, and Mr. Kabilia is not ready to organize those elections, he said.

SADC last week opened an office in Kinshasa to support the country as it prepares for the election amid rising violence.

Kabilas term in office was to have ended in December 2016, but the government repeatedly has postponed elections. Part of the delay, according to the government, has been the sheer logistics of arranging an election in the vast, impoverished Central African nation of 83 million.

Kabila has been in office 17 years and has grown increasingly unpopular. His refusal to hold elections in 2016 has prompted numerous protests. The United Nations Security Council, in a December report, noted that political tensions have been exacerbated by the DRC governments curbing of political freedoms of the opposition and curtailing the freedom of the press. It cited another report tallying at least 53 anti-government protesters were killed during demonstrations.

In a rare move, Botswanas President Mokgweetsi Masisi last week urged Kabila not to seek another term. Masisi took office earlier this month in one of Africa's most stable democracies.

Masisi said in an interview with London's International Institute for Strategic Studies that he hoped to see a commitment from Kabila to leave office at years end.

Botswana political journalist Kealeboga Dihutso, a Botswana broadcaster in the capital, Gaborone, told VOA that some there are unhappy that Masisi spoke out.

Its a generally held view (that Kabila should not run), though we dont really enjoy it when our president or one of our leaders has commentary on other counties, Dihutso said.

However, he said, people elsewhere in Africa often like it when Botswanas leadership speaks out.

I think internationally, it improves our status, our stature in Africa, because we generally get appreciated by a lot of African countries for Botswanas long history of peaceful, democratic political transitions.

Kate Pound Dawson contributed to this report.
Civilians can no longer flee fighting and bombing raids in Syria because borders are so tightly controlled and neighboring countries are overwhelmed by refugees, creating some of the worst suffering in modern times, a top U.N. agency chief said.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi was warning of a new disaster if the rebel-controlled Syrian city of Idlib was the next target of the Syrian military.

"The country is becoming a trap, in some places a death trap for civilians," Grandi told Reuters during a donor conference for Syria.

"There is an entire population out there that cannot bear its refugees anymore, that is suffering from one of the worse ordeals in modern history."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based war monitor, said last month about 511,000 people had been killed in the war since it began in March 2011.

Some 5.5 million Syrians are living as refugees in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, and now account for a quarter of Lebanon's population. Another 6.1 million people are still in Syria but have been forced to flee their homes.

Grandi is hoping to raise $5.6 billion from international donors for emergency humanitarian aid for Syrian refugees this year, but that money is not for Syria itself, instead going to help host countries such as Jordan, Iraq, Egypt and Lebanon.

Meanwhile, the United Nations estimates that more than 400,000 civilians are trapped in besieged areas throughout Syria.

That the number could rise dramatically because 2 million people live in the northwestern Idlib region, the largest populated area of Syria in the hands of insurgents fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government in Damascus.

Some aid agencies are predicting suffering on an even greater scale than during the siege of Aleppo last year and in eastern Ghouta and Raqqa this year if the Syrian army and its Russian and Iranian backers turn their full fire on Idlib.

Tens of thousands of fighters and civilians have fled to the area from parts of the country which the army has recaptured with the help of Russia and Iran.

"Idlib is where an area where a lot of fighters have transferred," Grandi said. "If fighting moves more decisively to that area, it could be very dangerous for civilians."

However, Grandi and other aid agencies predict they will have nowhere to flee to because Turkey's southern border with Syria at Gaziantep is tightly controlled, mainly letting aid supplies through to Idlib, forcing refugees deeper into Syria.

"I think we are going to lose not only a generation but a population," Grandi said.
Bloggers and others running online platforms in Tanzania have two weeks to register with the government or face fines and jail time. Rights groups are expressing concern about the measure, which stems from a new law regulating online content.

The new law in Tanzania targets online platforms such as blogs, podcasts and live streaming content, for example via YouTube channels.



The government said it will monitor the platforms for hate speech, obscene content and threats to national security and public order.



Local bloggers fear the oversight will be used to stifle dissent.

Maxence Melo is the co-founder of Jamii forums, a website about corruption in Tanzania. He has been detained several times since 2015, with two formal arrests.



"We have been a lot of pressure from our government in the past years because authorities wanted to know our whistleblowers, and we said we cannot do this," said Melo. "And most of the whistleblowers were people helping to reveal some misconduct in the government. As we speak, we are facing three trials, and all of them are about revealing our sources of our stories."



Tanzania's government spokesman declined VOA's request for an interview.



On Friday, the Tanzania communication regulatory authority said the owners of online platforms must pay about $900 to get a license. The state agency also said it would use suspensions to force the removal of content it deems in violation of the law.



Those who fail to comply with the new regulations could face fines and up to a year in jail.



Reporters Without Borders has slammed the license fee as "exorbitant" and called the new law "the latest blow to free speech in Tanzania."

Since taking office in 2015, President John Magufuli has cracked down on a range of issues, including corruption, tardiness among civil servants, and criticism of his government.



Newspapers seen as critical of his administration have been shut down or had their licenses suspended.In February, two opposition politicians were jailed for allegedly insulting the president.



Henry Maina is the East Africa regional director for Article 19, a global NGO that promotes freedom of expression and information worldwide.



"Tanzanians are beginning to organize themselves online, and so here is a clear measure of a state policy to try and close down civic space," said Maina. "And in so doing, they are not only closing down civic space, but they are closing down virtual space so that Tanzanians cannot organize."



Maina points to a regional trend. Countries including Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia have cut the internet or restricted access to certain social media sites during times of unrest.



Rights groups such as Article 19 urge restraint.



"There is a big discussion globally on how to regulate social media, but that must not be equated to criminalizing social media. Yes, regulation may be required," but only for several purposes, Maina said, adding those would include protecting national security, public morality, public health and individuals' reputations. "Any other reason that a state may throw up as a reason for regulating or controlling social media in itself will be a violation of human rights."



In Tanzania, bloggers and other administrators of online platforms have until May 5 to register. Their licenses will then come up for renewal, for a fee, every three years.



Khaleed Abubakar contributed reporting for this story from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Authorities in Pakistan say three suicide bombers Tuesday separately attacked police and paramilitary forces in Quetta, killing at least six and wounding several others.



Officials report a suicide bomber blew himself up near a police van on the main road leading to the city's airport, causing the fatalities.Rescue workers said that seven policemen were taken to the hospital in "critical condition."



The blast occurred shortly after a pair of heavily armed suicide bombers raided a paramilitary Frontier Corps (F.C.) installation in the Mian Ghundi area just outside Quetta.

Pakistani officials say security guards engaged and gunned down one attacker while the other stormed the facility and blew himself up in the process. Rescue teams reported several casualties but authorities have not confirmed them.



There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the violence in and around the capital city of Baluchistan province, where separatist insurgents and militants linked to the outlawed Pakistani Taliban routinely carry out such attacks.



The largest Pakistani province borders Afghanistan and also is allegedly serving as a hideout for the Afghan Taliban fighting local and international forces on the other side of the border.
Although Migmar Tsering crossed the border into India when he was just six-years-old, he remained closely connected to his Tibetan culture and language at the school for Tibetan refugees in the hill town of Mussoorie where he studied.



Now as principal of TCV Day School Samyeling in the Indian capital, 29-year-old Tsering, and his staff ensure that the more than 100 children of Tibetan refugees enrolled here imbibe Tibetan culture just as he did.



"They advise [the children] about Tibetan situation not related with political we have beautiful country, we have good language, we have a good identity, we have good religion," he said.



Led by teachers dressed in the Tibetan traditional dress, the chuba, young kids learn to write the script and chant nursery rhymes translated in Tibetan. And the noisy chatter as they run around and play is in their native language.



Amid fears that six decades of Chinese rule has resulted in Tibetan traditions being lost and its culture being assimilated into Chinese, the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama has frequently stressed the need to safeguard Tibetan culture. And as the Tibetan Exile Administration marks 60 years since the Dalai Lama fled to India, analysts say this goal has met with more success than the political struggle to gain autonomy for Tibet.

The heart of that effort is about 70 schools run by the Tibetan exile administration in India, which is home to the world's largest Tibetan refugee community. After the Dalai Lama fled to India following the 1959 failed uprising against Chinese rule, New Delhi allowed the setting up of separate Tibetan settlements and schools where a third generation of Tibetan refugees now study.



These schools emphasize learning in Tibetan until grade three. Teacher Sonam Choedon at the Tibetan school in the Indian capital points out that Beijing has sharply scaled back the teaching of languages spoken by ethnic minorities.



"In Tibet, now Tibetan language, Chinese they are suppressing, even in class they are not allowed to talk in Tibetan," she said. "So to preserve our language here in exile, especially in school, everything we try to convert in Tibetan only."



All subjects from science to math and environmental studies are taught in Tibetan in the junior classes. A reading room is not just stacked with books translated into Tibetan children sit on the floor to peruse the books placed on low desks in keeping with Tibetan tradition. In an adjoining room, young girls and boys play music on traditional Tibetan instruments.



"With the unparalleled support from India we have from the ashes of destruction revived Tibetan civilization, rebuilt Tibetan Buddhism, revived Tibetan culture, and preserved and promote Tibetan identity in India," Lobsang Sangay, prime minister of the Tibetan exile administration, said recently at a "Thank You India" event held to observe 60 years of the Dalai Lama's arrival in India.



The effort has made its mark. In Majnu-ka-Tilla, the Tibetan settlement where the New Delhi school is located, prayer flags are strung across a central square, maroon-robed monks light candles inside a Buddhist temple, old and young come to turn a prayer wheel and Tibetan food is commonly available. Nearby Tibetan handicrafts made by those who know the craft are sold.

However challenges lie ahead as a younger generation growing up in India gets restless and many look for opportunities overseas where Tibetans are more dispersed. The number of refugees coming to India has also slowed to a trickle.



Still hopes are high in the Tibetan exile community that those educated and brought up in India will carry the Tibetan influence and tradition with them outside.



Twenty-three-year-old Tenzin Dekong migrated to Australia in 2014 with her family. In India recently on holiday, she said she misses the Tibetan ambience in communities like Majnu-ka-Tilla. But the culture she assimilated as she grew up and studied in Dharamsala, the seat of the Tibetan government in exile, remains strongly with her.



"I am very sad that I can't see Tibet, but through the elder stories and through our teachers, when we learn Tibetan subjects we learn a lot of histories and I do really feel very connected with Tibetan cultures and I do have some imagination how Tibet looks like surrounded by all mountains, all the monastery," she said.



At his most recent appearance at the event to mark his 60 years in India, the Dalai Lama again stressed the importance of saving Tibetan culture. "We are not demanding separation from China but the Tibetan people should have the autonomy to preserve their culture, language, environment and religion," he said.



And many like principal Tsering, hope one day to carry the cultural roots they are so carefully nurturing in India to the homeland they fled or never saw. "We have truth, one day we go back to Tibet, I just believe that," he said.
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lu Kang's Regular Press Conference on April 24, 2018

2018/04/24

Q: Yesterday, the China Central Television and the KCNA of the DPRK reported that Kim Jong-un, the Supreme Leader of the DPRK, went to the Chinese Embassy and the hospital where the injured of the April 22 traffic accident were treated and expressed his condolences to the Chinese side. Can you give us more information?

A: On the night of April 22, a major traffic accident in the DPRK killed 32 Chinese citizens and four DPRK workers. The DPRK government attaches great importance to this. On the early morning of April 23, Kim Jong-un, Chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea, paid a special visit to the Chinese Embassy in the DPRK to express his condolences. Chairman Kim Jong-un asked Ambassador Li Jinjun to extend his sincere condolences to General Secretary Xi Jinping, to the Chinese party and government, to the families of the bereaved and the injured, and expressed deep sorrow over the many casualties caused by this traffic accident. On the evening of the same day, Chairman Kim Jong-un made a special trip to the hospital to visit the two seriously injured Chinese citizens and said that the DPRK would offer its best medical care and treatment and work with China to handle all follow-up matters. The Chinese side thanked Chairman Kim Jong-un for visiting the Chinese Embassy in the DPRK in person to express condolences and travelling to the hospital to visit the injured Chinese citizens.

Upon learning about this unfortunate accident, the Chinese side coordinated efforts with relevant DPRK authorities to carry out emergency rescue, make necessary arrangements for follow-up matters and conduct investigation. The relevant departments on the DPRK side also reacted at the first time possible. The party and state leaders of the DPRK and heads of relevant departments went to the scene of the accident and the hospital to guide the rescue and follow-up work.

At present, the Chinese team, including the Foreign Ministry's working group and the Chinese Embassy in the DPRK, is in close coordination and collaboration with the relevant DPRK departments. We will keep you updated on the latest development.

Q: Human Rights Watch yesterday released a report about sexism in job advertisements of some Chinese companies. These companies said that there are problems and they have promised to fix them. I was just wondering if China is aware of this report and do you have any comment on it?

A: I have not seen this report mentioned by you. The Chinese government always requires the Chinese enterprises to operate in strict accordance with laws and regulations and will handle all the violations according to Chinese laws and regulations.

Q: Chairman Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Modi will hold an informal meeting in Wuhan from April 27th to 28th. What led to the choice of an informal meeting? Any special considerations?

A: The frequent exchanges between President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Modi in recent years have taken place in various forms. One example is the "hometown diplomacy" as characterized by President Xi Jinping's visit to India in 2014 and Prime Minister Modi's visit to China in 2015. In addition, President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Modi have met several times on the sidelines of the summits of multilateral mechanisms such as BRICS, the G20, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. On these occasions, they exchanged views on issues of common interest and reached many important consensus, which has offered strong guidance to the China-India relations and enabled a good working relationship and personal friendship between the two leaders.

At the same time, in the face of unprecedented changes in the world today as well as uncertainty and instability in the current international situation, President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Modi, as the leaders of the two largest developing countries, also feel that the two countries need to communicate in great depth on some long-term, comprehensive, and strategic issues embedded in bilateral relations and international affairs. The two sides agreed that an informal meeting would be a good idea so that the two leaders would make full and in-depth exchanges on major issues of common concern in a suitable atmosphere. We believe that more important consensus will be reached during the informal meeting in Wuhan which will contribute to the sound and stable development of China-India relations.

Q: The US Treasury Secretary expressed his hope to visit China to discuss economic and trade issues. How is the discussion going on regarding the arrangement of his visit and do you have a timetable for the visit?

A: After US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin expressed his hope to visit China, the spokesperson of the Commerce Ministry responded that China has received the information about the US side hoping to come to Beijing for consultations on economic and trade issues and we welcome it. That attitude remains unchanged, and I would refer you to the competent authority for detailed information.

I want to stress that China-US economic ties are mutually beneficial in nature and have long been delivering tangible benefits to the business communities and consumers of the two countries. It is not surprising for China and the US, the two large economies, to have some problems in the economic field. These problems can be solved through bilateral consultations or within a commonly recognized multilateral framework. However, they can never be solved through unilateral means.

Q: It is reported that yesterday, China has unveiled a monument to mark its construction work in the South China Sea. Do you have more information? What is the purpose of this activity?

A: Yesterday, the Xinhua News Agency released the relevant information. China's construction activities on the Nansha islands and reefs mainly aim to improve the relevant facilities of those islands and reefs as well as the working and living conditions for the personnel stationed there, so that China could better fulfill its international responsibilities and obligations, provide more public goods to the international community, and help to safeguard the security of the South China Sea navigation channels which are vital to the development of China and regional countries.
According to news reports some members of a caravan of migrants that has been crossing Mexico have arrived at the U.S. border.

The reports say that a several dozen members of the caravan have reached the border in Tijuana, Mexico. A few have applied for asylum, but most are awaiting a larger caravan contingent of about 500 asylum-seekers that is expected to reach the border in coming days.

The caravan was formed at the Mexico-Guatemala border a couple of weeks ago. At the time, it was much larger with 1,200 participants, mostly from Honduras. The group made its way to the Mexican capitol, Mexico City, where it splintered. Some of the migrants planned to stay in Mexico.

WATCH: Asylum or Not: Migrants at the US/Mexico Border Consider Choices

The caravan is a yearly event, carried out by the group, Pueblo Sin Fronteras, to dramatize the plight of migrants, driven to seek better lives because of violence and poor economic conditions in their home countries. This years caravan was bigger than those in the past. In 2017, only about 200 people participated.

Not welcome at the border

From the beginning, President Donald Trump has reacted with alarm at the prospect of so many people marching towards the U.S. border. Monday, he tweeted about the subject again.

U.S. law requires that people who present themselves for asylum be allowed to make their case and apply.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen M. Nielsen issued a statement Monday, saying that her agency would fast track caravan asylum cases.

DHS, in partnership with (Department of Justice), is taking a number of steps to ensure that all cases and claims are adjudicated promptly including sending additional USCIS asylum officers, ICE attorneys, DOJ Immigration Judges, and DOJ prosecutors to the Southern border, she wrote, adding that migrants requesting asylum would likely be detained and those whose requests were rejected would promptly be sent back.

DHS set to 'defend' US border

In the meantime, she said DHS is monitoring the reduced caravan's progress and would defend U.S. borders.

If members of the caravan enter the country illegally, they will be referred for prosecution for illegal entry in accordance with existing law.Trump seemed set of preventing future caravans:

Asylum-seekers must demonstrate they have a credible fear of returning to their own countries because of religious, racial, social or political persecution. If asylum were granted they would be able to live and work legally in the U.S.
President Donald Trump says he expects to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "very soon" and praised Kim as being "very open" and "very honorable."

"We have been told directly that they would like to have the meeting as soon as possible. We think that's a great thing for the world," Trump said Tuesday after talks with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.

"We'll see where that will all go," Trump added. He repeated that he was willing to walk away from talks with North Korea but stressed "I think we have the chance to do something very special."

The White House has said the ultimate goal of any negotiations between Trump and Kim denuclearization, adding the United States' maximum pressure campaign on Pyongyang will continue and sanctions on the isolated country will not be lifted until concrete actions are taken towards complete and total denuclearization.



When asked what complete denuclearization means, Trump said "It means they get rid of their nukes, very simple."

"We're not going to take the North Koreans simply at their word," White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday in response to a question from VOA News about recent declarations by Pyongyang.

"We're not naive in this process," added she said. "We've seen some steps in the right direction, but we have a long way to go."

Kim has announced a freeze of nuclear weapons tests and intercontinental ballistic missile launches.

Trump on Sunday appeared to infer that the North Korean leader had already agreed to give up his nuclear arsenal, despite such no such announcement from Pyongyang.

The president said on Twitter, "We haven't given up anything & they have agreed to denuclearization (so great for World), site closure, & no more testing!"

Although South Korea has said the North has expressed interest in doing away with its nuclear weapons, Kim, however, in Saturday's testing freeze statement, indicated North Korea's nuclear arsenal would remain intact, calling it a "powerful treasured sword" that would firmly guarantee "our descendants can enjoy the most dignified and happiest life in the world".

Experts skeptical

Nuclear and missile proliferation scholar Joshua Pollack of the Monterey Institute of International Studies says: "I'm not at all convinced Kim Jong Un has any interest in discussing his nuclear arsenal with anyone else. He's made his move and we can take it or leave it."

Sung-Yoon Lee, assistant professor in Korean Studies at Tufts University, said it is only a matter of time before Kim demands the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Korea.

"But for now, Kim is creating the illusion of coming across as a reasonable guy who is willing to make some major concessions when in fact no concession has been made at all," he said.

Before the planned summit with Trump, for which no location or date has been determined, Kim is set to meet Friday with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at a Korean border village.

South Korean on Monday stopped its broadcasts of propaganda messages and pop music across the border. South Korea's defense ministry said in a statement it hopes the move will help contribute to creating peace between the two countries.



Neither South Korea nor the United States has diplomatic relations with North Korea.



A state of war technically persists on the peninsula. Active combat in the 37-month long Korean War ended with an armistice in 1953. South Korea was not a signatory.



Moon's government says Seoul hopes to resolve the 65-year impasse.



"The signing of a peace treaty must be pursued after an end to the war is declared," Moon, last Thursday, told media representatives at the presidential Blue House.

Pollack, who is also editor of the The Nonproliferation Review, tells VOA that if Washington's position remains that there cannot be sanctions relief "without complete, verifiable, irreversible dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear program," then the South Koreans will be left with a stark choice: "Either break from the U.S. or leave both of these issues alone. They can focus instead on a peace treaty."
Confirmation of U.S. President Donald Trump's pick to lead Veterans Affairs agency may be in jeopardy.

The Washington Post reported late Monday that Senate lawmakers have postponed the confirmation hearing for Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson after top Republicans and Democrats raised concerns about his qualifications.

Jackson was scheduled to testify before the Senate Committee for Veterans Affairs on Wednesday.

Two sources told CNN that committee members have been informed of allegations of improper conduct at more than one stage in Jackson's career.

Jackson, who currently serves as Trump's physician, is already facing scrutiny over his lack of experience managing an agency as large as the VA  the U.S. government's second-largest agency.

Jackson gained a degree of fame unusual for White House physicians in 2017 when he took questions from the White House press corps on national television, discussing at length the president's physical exam.

Trump, the oldest first-term president in American history, was plagued at the time by questions about his physical health, weight and mental stability. But Jackson gave the president top rating. "The president's overall health is excellent," Jackson declared at the time.

Trump picked Jackson to replace David Shulkin, a holdover from the Obama era.
Snap elections in Turkey are threatening to put Ankara on a collision course with several parts of Europe with large Turkish minorities. Germany, Austria and Amsterdam have ruled out any campaigning by Turkish political parties ahead of the June 24 elections.

Regardless, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan indicated he might be ready to flout the electioneering ban.

"Our preparations abroad are most likely complete by now," Erdogan said. "I will not name the country where, but I will be addressing Turkish citizens at an indoor gym with a capacity to hold about 10,000 to 11,000 [people]. Most likely, we will be gathering in Europe, and God willing, l will make our address."

Germany has been very vocal about campaigning for the elections.

"Our stance in this regard is firm. Campaigning for a foreign country's elections in Germany is not allowed three months prior to the elections," German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said, speaking on the sidelines of the G-7 summit in Toronto. "That applies to everyone, regardless of where they come from."

Speeches 'are unwanted'

Austrian and Dutch governments are enforcing similar bans.

"Speeches by Turkish politicians that are part of the election campaign are unwanted in Austria, and we will no longer allow them," Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz told a radio station Saturday.

"On the one hand, they block the exercise of most fundamental democratic rights, and on the other hand they argue that there are negative developments in terms of democracy in Turkey," shot back Turkey's European Union Affairs Minister Omer Celik.

The campaign ban will come as a particular blow to Celik's ruling AKP and the re-election bid of its leader, Erdogan.

"Erdogan is a very hands-on politician. He wants to be seen by his constituents, and he believes he has very active constituents in Europe," said political columnist Semih Idiz of the Al-Monitor website. "And these voters are very important. It can swing an election. We are talking about a very, very large number of Turks who are eligible to vote. We are talking about a population of 4 [million to] 5 million people  it's a very important voting basket he can't overlook," added Idiz.

Analysts point out that Turkish voters in Europe have a strong urge to support Erdogan and his AKP party. They say such support could prove decisive in June's election.

Ergogan 'may not make it'

"It's clear that all the opinion polls indicate he [Erdogan] may not make it," said political scientist Cengiz Aktar. "It won't be easy. He will need all the support he can get. It going to be very risky for Turkey's European neighbors."

Last year's referendum to turn Turkey into an executive presidency plunged Turkish-European relations into crisis. The Netherlands and Germany, in particular, voiced strong opposition. Both countries blocked planned rallies after officials cited security concerns or said the rallies could stoke tensions.

The Turkish president responded by saying the two countries were behaving like Nazi regimes.

Analysts say the tough rhetoric played well with many members of Europe's Turkish minority, bolstering Erdogan's campaign to narrowly pass the ballot measure.

Some observers suggest the latest campaign bans could play out again in Erdogan's favor.

"It is very hard to believe that they [Germany, Austria, Amsterdam] are so oblivious to the fact that the more they make campaigning hard for the AKP, the more it will fuel support for the party and its leader to secure victory in the elections," wrote columnist Barcin Yinanc in the Hurriyet Daily News.
Efforts to find a political solution to the Syrian civil war resumed Tuesday as representatives and ministers from 85 countries gathered in Brussels for a two-day conference, co-chaired by the United Nations and the European Union.



Its stated aim is to mobilize humanitarian aid to Syrians inside the country and boost support for the U.N.-led Geneva peace process. However, with Syrian government forces -backed by their Russian allies - seemingly determined to try to secure a military victory, hopes for a diplomatic breakthrough in Brussels are low.



Syrian jets continued to pound opposition targets in southern Damascus Monday. The Hajr al-Aswad neighborhood and the nearby Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp are the last pockets of the capital held by Islamic State fighters and other militant groups.



The districts are also home to thousands of civilians. Spokesperson for the United Nations' agency for Palestinian refugees Chris Gunness described conditions in the Yarmouk camp as akin to hell.'



"We are seeing intense clashes on the ground, we're seeing fire power from the air as well, so of course even in their homes people are unsafe. In addition there is absolutely no public infrastructure. The last remaining hospital in Yarmouk camp has become completely non-functional," Gunness said Monday.

Seven years since the first protests erupted in Syrian towns and cities against the government of Bashar al-Assad, there is no sign of an end to the civil war that has killed an estimated 400,000 people and forced 12 million from their homes.



The Brussels conference is titled supporting the future of Syria and the region', and is the latest effort to kick-start peace talks following the stalled U.N. negotiations in Geneva, and the Astana and Sochi rounds of talks brokered by Russia.



"It's the first huge international event that gathers different players that are, let's say, on different sides in this war. And the EU-U.N. co-chairmanship is obviously an excellent opportunity to try and build a path towards a political solution," the EU Foreign Affairs Chief Federica Mogherini said last week ahead of the Brussels conference.



The EU and the U.N. insist there can be no military solution. But expectations are low that the conference can kick start a peace deal, says analyst Lina Khatib of London's Chatham House.



"Unfortunately with no political will in Washington, any EU conference on Syria is only going to be able to deal with the symptoms of the conflict, not the drivers of the conflict. Nor will it bring the conflict to an end," she said.



Syrian forcesand their Russian backersappear undeterred by the recent U.S., French and British air strikes on alleged chemical weapons facilities. Western allies should use the continued threat of force to leverage Moscow, argues Khatib.



"As the Geneva process has shown, the U..N itself is not able to push Russia to take seriously the idea of a peace settlement for Syria. It is only the United States that can do that because the U.S. is the only super power in the world, the only entity that has the potential to exercise pressure on Russia," Khatib told VOA in an interview Monday.

The United Nations Syria envoy Staffan De Mistura appeared more upbeat Sunday, following a weekend informal retreat for U.N. ambassadors in Sweden.



"In Syria we have had so many ups and downs but there's a new attempt for a new start and I think that was clearly there," De Mistura told reporters.



Progress towards any U.N.-brokered peace deal has been stalled by deep divides at the Security Council. Until those divisions are overcome, the route to a political solution in Syria remains far from clear.
The U.N. Human Rights Office is calling for an investigation into the killings of dozens of civilians in Yemen during the past four days by Saudi-led Coalition airstrikes.



The office reports Saudi-led airstrikes killed at least 45 people, all civilians, and wounded many more, including women and children in three separate incidents.



The first attack on Friday reportedly killed 21 civilians, including five children traveling in a vehicle in a village in Taizz governorate. Two days later, human rights monitors report many people were killed and injured in two separate incidents.



U.N. Human Rights Office spokeswoman Liz Throssell said the most devastating of these occurred at a wedding ceremony. She says two coalition airstrikes destroyed a wedding tent killing at least 19 civilians and injuring some 50 others.She says the final toll of deaths and injuries may be higher.



"Local inhabitants informed our staff that the victims do not have any political affiliations, not to say that that would have made the wedding party a legitimate target.They also said that there were no military objectives in the vicinity of the targeted area at the time of the attack," she said.

Throssell told VOA she does not know whether the attacks on civilian targets resulted from mistakes or were part of deliberate actions.



"We have over the years, since March 2015 documented numerous attacks often when large numbers of civilians have been killed in cases like wedding parties or funerals where civilians gather. But it is clear that such incidents continue to shock, and that is why it is so important that there is an independent thorough investigation," said the spokeswoman.



The U.N. Human Rights Office is urging the Saudi-led coalition to fully investigate all these latest deadly attacks. It adds those found to be responsible should be held accountable and reparations should be provided to the victims.
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) on Monday criticized what it called the forced deportation of 82 Venezuelan asylum seekers by Trinidad and Tobago that the Caribbean country's government insisted was voluntary.

The UNHCR said the people had been held in detention in Trinidad and Tobago and that they were deported on Saturday without the agency being given access to them.

"The forced return of this group is of great concern," Volker Turk, UNHCR's Assistant High Commissioner for Protection said in a statement.

"We are in contact with the authorities and are seeking clarification on the legal process which has led to the deportations," Turk said.

The UNHCR said the group was made up of registered asylum seekers and others who had declared an intention to apply for refugee status, and the government had not granted the agency access to the detainees prior to deportation.

The agency in March reported a 2,000 percent increase in the number of Venezuelans seeking asylum worldwide since 2014, encouraging countries to give them access to refugee measures and warning that it was crucial people were not forcibly

deported.

The agency has been working with governments in the Caribbean to help them cope with the influx of refugee.

Venezuela has descended into an economic and social crisis, with millions suffering political insecurity.

Economic collapse has driven an estimated 3 million people from the country.

Trinidad and Tobago denied the deportations were forced and said the Venezuelans had been detained at the immigration detention center (IDC) for various offenses.

"At the airport, each person was asked if they had any fear or objection to returning to their homeland; all stated that they wanted to leave," the Ministry of National Security said in a statement. "No one was forced or coerced to leave the IDC."

UNHCR spokesman Chris Boian said established procedures agreed with the government of Trinidad and Tobago had not been followed.

"Registered asylum seekers who decide to return home must first receive counseling from UNHCR and submit a written statement," that the decision was voluntary, he said.

The ministry said the repatriation of the 53 men and 29 women was a collaborative effort with the Venezuelan embassy, which arranged for the detainees to return to Caracas on a Venezuelan government aircraft.
International efforts to rebuild Syria once the civil war is over should center on agriculture to kick-start the economy and quickly improve the livelihoods of the people, a high-level U.N. official said Tuesday.

In an interview with The Associated Press ahead of an international Syria donors conference, Daniel Gustafson, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's deputy director general, said that in case of a return to peace, the impact of funding farming would yield almost immediate results.

"If you invest in that, you are going to get a quick return," he said.

Despite seven years of warfare through much of the Middle Eastern nation, which also blighted farmland and destroyed facilities, farming still accounts for about a quarter of Syria's gross domestic product.

U.N. figures show that $16 billion in production has been lost because of the war and it will take about as much to get the recovery of farming going again. At the two-day Syria conference opening Tuesday, donors from across the globe hoped to commit several billion in assistance to alleviate the pressing needs of Syrians. Over $5 billion was committed last year.

Farming in Syria goes back many thousands of years, and the nation was long a breadbasket for the area. When the war started, almost half the population was still employed in farming.

And despite the horrific war that ravaged orchards and fields, cut the availability of seeds and fertilizers, and sent many millions fleeing, half the output survives to this day.

"The resilience of the agriculture sector is an astonishing story. You still have half the production of wheat of what you had before the war"  2 million tons, instead of 4 million before the war, Gustafson said.

Still, 6.5 million people urgently need assistance because they lack food, said Gustafson.

While most of the attention goes to shocking events like bombings or even gas attacks, war in the countryside often has a more creeping effect.

"It is this continuous deterioration of their livelihoods. You cannot get seeds, you cannot sell stuff, you cannot trade, you cannot get spare parts," Gustafson said. "The whole thing just kind of grinds down."

He said that fortunately, the situation can pick up again soon once the conditions are right, once the right seeds come in again, and once people and goods are again free to move around the country.
Chinese Ambassador WU Peng Pay a Courtesy Call on Vice President Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh

2018/04/23

On April 20, 2018, H.E. WU Peng, the Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to Sierra Leone, paid a courtesy call on H.E. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, the Vice President of the Republic of Sierra Leone.

Ambassador WU firstly congratulated Vice President Jalloh on his election as the Vice President of Republic of Sierra Leone, and conveyed the congratulatory message from the Chinese Vice President WANG Qishan. Ambassador WU pointed out that, China and Sierra Leone enjoy profound traditional friendship. Since the establishment of diplomatic ties 47 years ago, our two countries have established high-level mutual political trust, conducted productive cooperation, and brought tangible benefits to our two peoples. China would like to work with Sierra Leone to promote the continuous development of the Comprehensive Partnership of Strategic Cooperation between our two countries.

Vice President Jalloh thanked the congratulatory message from Vice President WANG and welcomed Ambassador WU. He stated that, Sierra Leone and China have been maintaining good bilateral relations and cooperation. We appreciated the continuous support from China towards the development of Sierra Leone and the welfare of its people. Sierra Leone is willing to cooperate with China to make new contributions to reinforcing the friendship and cooperation between the two countries and peoples.
The U.S. Supreme Court appeared to be leaning toward upholding President Donald Trump's travel ban limiting travelers from mostly Muslim-majority countries--Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, Somalia and Yemen-- from coming to the U.S.

During a hearing Wednesday, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Anthony Kennedy both signaled support for the policy. A vote would be needed from either one to shift the court in favor of the plaintiffs.

WATCH: Supreme Court Hears Arguments in Travel Ban Case

Since taking office, Trump has issued three versions of his travel ban since taking office. The previous two versions were temporary. The current ban has no expiration date.



The so-called travel ban spent most of last year in and out of courts where its legality was called into question by immigration advocates who say the ban amounts to a Muslim ban. It still faces the ultimate challenge in the Supreme Court.

The plaintiffs in the case  the State of Hawaii, the Muslim Association of Hawaii and three individuals  are expected to argue that the ban discriminates against the Muslim community, and exceeds presidential power over immigration.

In return, U.S. attorneys will argue the president has authority over immigration. Ahead of the hearing, Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a statement saying "President Trump determined this travel order is critical to protecting the American people. We look forward to defending the orders lawfulness today in the Supreme Court."



To support plaintiffs, Yemeni-Americans may shut down their businesses to protest of the presidents ban. Travellers from Yemen are prohibited by the ban. According to the Yemeni American Merchants Association web site, owners of bodegas, shops, and grocery stores will close between 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday in support of neighbors, workers, and families members affected by the ban.



"Bodega owners across the country call on their neighbors to stand with them and their workers outside their stores to show that America is bigger than this, that we are better when united than we we allow bigoted policies to divide us," according to a statement from Yemeni American Merchants Association.



But one country that was added in September has come off the list: Chad. It was taken off early April. Trump said in a proclamation the African country had improved its security measures making its passports "more secure" and improving its information sharing with the U.S. on known or suspected terrorists.

The other seven countries, however, "did not make notable or sufficient improvements in their identity-management and information-sharing practices" and remain on the list.



A ruling in the case is expected by the end of June.
A senior World Food Program official warns that a Syrian government offensive to wrest the besieged province of Idlib from rebel armed groups would be catastrophic and trigger a humanitarian crisis.



Now that the besieged enclave of eastern Ghouta has fallen, Idlib remains the last rebel stronghold in Syria. Troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, backed by Russian air forces, are advancing on Idlib, which is home to 2 million people.

One half of this population is composed of internally displaced people from formerly besieged territories such as eastern Aleppo, Homs and eastern Ghouta. As part of truce agreements with the Syrian government, rebels and their families have been taken to Idlib.

The World Food Program country director in Syria, Jakob Kern, says Idlib has about 100,000 armed fighters from these different places. He says the fighters do not comprise one homogeneous army. Rather, they represent different rebel factions that are fighting each other. Caught in between these groups, he says, are civilians.

"I am not speculating anymore what can happen in Idlib. But, it certainly will be the next big battle and I just hope for the sake of the 2 million people that are living there, that we find a political solution because if we do that again, if we see the same pattern again, it is going to be a much bigger catastrophe than we have seen in east Aleppo," he said.

Kern warns a battle for Idlib will trigger a humanitarian nightmare. He says he does not know where people will flee as the border between Idlib and Turkey is closed. Kern says delivering food to the war victims will not be an issue as WFP has a system worked out with local partners for distributing rations.

But, Kern tells VOA, providing proper shelter for hundreds of thousands of displaced people is very difficult. He says cramming thousands of people into schools and other structures without latrines and such basic necessities as blankets and mattresses is dehumanizing.

Kern says 2 million people on the move from Idlib would stretch the capacity of what the WFP and other aid agencies would be able to do.
WhatsApp, the popular messaging service owned by Facebook Inc, is raising its minimum age from 13 to 16 in Europe to help it comply with new data privacy rules coming into force next month.

WhatsApp will ask European users to confirm they are at least 16 years old when they are prompted to agree to new terms of service and a privacy policy provided by a new WhatsApp Ireland Ltd entity in the next few weeks.

It is not clear how or if the age limit will be checked given the limited data requested and held by the service.

Facebook, which has a separate data policy, is taking a different approach to teens aged between 13 and 15 in order to comply with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) law.

It is asking them to nominate a parent or guardian to give permission for them to share information on the platform, otherwise they will not see a fully personalized version of the social media platform.

But WhatsApp, which had more than 1.5 billion users in January according to Facebook, said in a blog post it was not asking for any new rights to collect personal information in the agreement it has created for the European Union.

"Our goal is simply to explain how we use and protect the limited information we have about you," it said.

WhatsApp, founded in 2009, has come under pressure from some European governments in recent years because of its end-to-end encrypted messaging system and its plan to share more data with its parent, Facebook.

Facebook itself is under scrutiny from regulators and lawmakers around the world since disclosing last month that the personal information of millions of users wrongly ended up in the hands of political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, setting off wider concerns about how it handles user data.

WhatsApp's minimum age of use will remain 13 years in the rest of the world, in line with its parent.

GDPR is the biggest overhaul of online privacy since the birth of the internet, giving Europeans the right to know what data is stored on them and the right to have it deleted.

Apple Inc and some other tech firms have said they plan to give people in the United States and elsewhere the same protections and rights that Europeans will gain.

European regulators have already disrupted a move by WhatsApp to change its policies to allow it to share users' phone numbers and other information with Facebook to help improve the product and more effectively target ads.

WhatsApp suspended the change in Europe after widespread regulatory scrutiny. It said on Tuesday it still wanted to share the data at some point.

"As we have said in the past, we want to work closer with other Facebook companies in the future and we will keep you updated as we develop our plans," it said.

Other changes announced by WhatsApp on Tuesday include allowing users to download a report detailing the data it holds on them, such as the make and model of the device they used, their contacts and groups and any blocked numbers.

"This feature will be rolling out to all users around the world on the newest version of the app," it said.

The blog post also points to safety tips on the service, such as the ability to block unwanted users, and delete and report spam.
Around 16,000 nurses in Zimbabwe resumed work Monday, bringing to an end one week of strikes that affected health services in the country.

Zimbabwes health ministry said the situation had returned to normal in all hospitals.

The majority of nurses dismissed have applied for re-engagement, and the government has permitted them to resume duty, pending final approval from the employer, the health ministry public relations office in Harare said Monday.

Strike lasts week

The nurses went on strike a week ago to press demands for improved allowances and an irregular salary grading system, its union said.

Many of Zimbabwes nurses operate in poorly equipped state-run institutions, and patients are expected to supply basics such as drugs and equipment.

Since taking charge of Zimbabwe late last year, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has vowed to improve the beleaguered economy and seek foreign investment to improve public services.

Nurses offer free treatment

The nurses were fired last week by Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, who said they refused to go back to work after $17 million was released to improve their pay.

Hundreds of the nurses offered free treatment to the public in the countrys parliament to protest their dismissal Friday.

Zimbabwes government said at the time that the decision would not be reversed and ordered heads of hospitals to recruit new nurses to replace those who were sacked.

This report originated in VOA's Zimbabwe Service.
The Libyan navy said it has recovered the bodies of 11 migrants and rescued 263 others in two separate operations off Libya's western coast.

The migrants were from various sub-Saharan African countries, he said.

Libya is the most common departure point for migrants trying to reach Europe by sea. More than 600,000 crossed the central Mediterranean to Italy in the past four years, the vast majority from Libya.

The United Nations migration agency said through mid-April of this year, 18,575 migrants and refugees arrived in Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Spain by crossing the Mediterranean Sea.

The International Organization for Migration said that is less than half of last years pace.

More notable is the steep decline this year, to 9 percent, of the number of arrivals in Europe from 2016, which exceeded 200,000.

And yet, some of these attempts to flee conflict and poverty proved fatal. Last year alone, 3,116 people died attempting the crossing, according to the IOM, including 2,833 from Libya.

The conflict-riven country is regularly singled out for the exploitation and ill-treatment of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa.
LONDON (Reuters) - Zimbabwe is committed to clearing its debt obligations with the World Bank, African Development Bank and other financial institutions, Foreign Minister Sibusiso Moyo said on Monday.

The country needs to clear about $1.8 billion in arrears with the World Bank and the African Development Bank before it can tap other sources of development financing.

We are committed to engaging with these key institutions as partners for growth in Zimbabwe, committed to clearing the outstanding debt with the World Bank and the African Development Bank, among others, said Moyo, speaking in London at a Chatham House event.

We believe that we are going to be able to meet all of our obligations.
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe is considering issuing between $2.5 and $3.5 billion in sovereign bonds after elections set for July and will use some of the money to clear arrears to foreign lenders, Deputy Finance Minister Terrence Mukupe said on Tuesday.

Mukupe, whose comments were broadcast on state television, said the southern African nation would use export receipts from tobacco, gold and horticulture to repay the bond.

The position that we have is that post election we should be able to put in place a sovereign or export-related bond and we think we should be able to raise between $2.5 to $3.5 billion, Mukupe said.

During a speech in London on Monday, Foreign Minister Sibusiso Moyo said his country was committed to clear about $1.8 billion in arrears with the World Bank and the African Development Bank before it taps other sources of financing.

Zimbabwe has not received funding from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and African Development Bank since it defaulted on its debt in 1999.

Under President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who succeeded Robert Mugabe last November, Zimbabwe is trying to mend ties with the West, including rejoining the Commonwealth. (Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe Editing by Ed Stoddard)
Stratovolcano 4835 m (15,863 ft)Kamchatka, 56.06N / 160.64E(1 out of 5)1697-98, 1720-21, 1727-31, 1737, 1740, 1762, 1767, 1770, 1772, 1785, 1787, 1788, 1789-90, 1791, 1807, 1812, 1813, 1819-22, 1829, 1840, 1848, 1852, 1853-54, 1865, 1877, 1878, 1879, 1882, 1883, 1890, 1896-97, 1890, 1896-97, 1898, 1904, 1907, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1913, 1915, 1922, 1923, 1925, 1926, 1929, 1931, 1932, 1935-36, 1937-39, 1944-1945, 1946, 1948, 1949, 1951, 1953, 1954, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960-63, 1963-64, 1965-1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1971-73, 1974, 1977-80, 1981, 1982, 1982-83, 1984-85, 1986, 1986-90, 1991, 1992, 1992-93, 1994-95, 1996-97, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2002-04, 2005 - ongoingDominantly explosive, strombolian and vulcanian activity, sometimes lava flows from fissure vents. At present in a phase of near-persistant activity.(volcano expedition to Kamchatka)

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Kliuchevskoi is Kamchatka's highest and most active volcano. Since its origin about 6000 years ago, the beautifully symmetrical, 4835-m-high basaltic stratovolcano has produced frequent moderate-volume explosive and effusive eruptions without major periods of inactivity. Kliuchevskoi rises above a saddle NE of sharp-peaked Kamen volcano and lies SE of the broad Ushkovsky massif. More than 100 flank eruptions have occurred at Kliuchevskoi during the past roughly 3000 years, with most lateral craters and cones occurring along radial fissures between the unconfined NE-to-SE flanks of the conical volcano between 500 m and 3600 m elevation. The morphology of its 700-m-wide summit crater has been frequently modified by historical eruptions, which have been recorded since the late-17th century. Historical eruptions have originated primarily from the summit crater, but have also included numerous major explosive and effusive eruptions from flank craters.

NASA photo of the eruption of Klyuchevsky volcano on 30 September, 1994, the volcano's largest explosion in 40 years. The large

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Satellite image of Langila volcano (image by Google Earth View)

Langila volcano stratovolcano 1330 m / 4,363 ft

New Britain, Papua New Guinea, -5.53S / 148.42E

Current status: minor activity or eruption warning (3 out of 5) Langila volcano eruptions:

2009-2013, 2002-08, 1973-2000, 1971-72, 1970, 1969, 1967-68, 1964-66, 1962-63, 1960-61, 1958, 1956, 1955, 1954, 1942 (?), 1907, 1900, 1890, 1884, 1878

Typical eruption style:

explosive

Last nearby quakes Latest satellite images stratovolcano 1330 m / 4,363 ftNew Britain, Papua New Guinea, -5.53S / 148.42E(3 out of 5)2009-2013, 2002-08, 1973-2000, 1971-72, 1970, 1969, 1967-68, 1964-66, 1962-63, 1960-61, 1958, 1956, 1955, 1954, 1942 (?), 1907, 1900, 1890, 1884, 1878explosive

Background

Updated: Oct 4, 2021 14:38 GMT - Refresh

Langila volcano, whose activity record goes back to the 19th century only, is one of the most active volcanoes of New Britain, Papua New Guinea. Langila's frequent activity consists typically of mild-to-moderate explosive eruptions, that are sometimes accompanied by lava flows.

The volcano consists of four small overlapping cones on the lower eastern flank of the extinct Talawe volcano,- the highest volcano in NW New Britain. The rectangular, 2.5-km-long crater of Talawe has a large gap to the SE; the younger Langila volcano formed NE of Talawe's breached crater.

Extensive lava flows have reached the sea from the N and NE flanks of the volcano. Since observations have begun, 3 summit craters have been active. The youngest and smallest of these, with a diameter of 150 m, was formed in 1960.

NASA Earth Observatory

Explosion of Langila volcano 1985
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.
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SAVE, a local human rights group and advocate for the LGBT community, recently hosted the first of a new series of lunch and learn events in support of its Business Equality Network in Miami. SAVE's Business Equality Network is a group of South Florida businesses that are taking a stand and saying that discrimination is bad for business.

We want the most qualified workers here in the state, regardless of who they are, said Tony Lima, executive director of SAVE. We stand behind equality for all, including people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. The values of equality are good for business and creates an environment of fairness and inclusion, which helps our businesses thrive.

The first Business Equality Network luncheon took place April 4 at El Novillo restaurant in Miami. Attendees were welcomed by Lima and City of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, an ally of the local LGBT community. In 2016, SAVE joined forces with Miami Congressman Carlos Curbelo and marketing executive Mike Valdez-Fauli to inaugurate the Business Equality Network and recruit local businesses in favor of workplace equality. Businesses and organizations who have joined the network include Lyft, Uber, IKEA, SunTrust, Magic City Casino and Ball & Chain.

"We've seen our Business Equality Network grow from just a handful of small business owners to well over 200 businesses, large and small over the last two years, Lima said. We hope our luncheons will foster a place for these like-minded business leaders to meet and network with one another and learn why equality is good for business.

Right now in Florida, it's legal to discriminate against LGBT people. Lima said thats wrong and it's costing us. According to a 2016 study by Dr. Dale Brill of Think Spot, Florida could boost its economic output by $5.46 billion over 10 years if it was more LGBT inclusive. By attracting millennials and the creative class, Florida could generate an additional $3.91 billion in personal income and $3.47 billion in disposable income in 10 years.

In many parts of Florida, people can be fired from their jobs just for being gay or transgender. We are taking a stand and saying that Florida should be open for business to everyone, said Bren Pantilione, former campaign manager for SAVE. If we want to live in a Florida that grows by attracting the very best talent, has a strong economy and is a vibrant place to live, then we must celebrate, respect and protect everyone who works, lives and plays in our great state.

Currently, there is no non-discrimination law in Florida that protects LGBT people from discrimination in employment. Lima says non-discrimination policies would help business owners recruit and retain top talent and help businesses create a welcoming environment for customers and clients.

Passing this type of legislation would ensure that everyone is treated with dignity and respect, help Florida companies attract the best and brightest employees and enhance the state's reputation as an open and inclusive world business center, Lima said. We support any proposal that furthers full equality for all Floridians.

SAVE's Business Equality Network luncheon series runs in partnership with the Miami-Dade Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, Florida International University, Greater Miami Society for Human Resource Management, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Career X Change and Influence Communications. The next luncheon is slated to take place Wednesday, May 2 at FIUs south campus.

Business owners who wish to sign on to the Business Equality Network can visit www.save.lgbt/business_equality_network. For more information, email Tommy Gomez at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
(WB) El Salvadors Ministry of Justice and Public Security on April 16 unveiled its new policy towards the LGBTI community. The countrys secretary of social inclusion and its director of sexual diversity and different LGBTI organizations attended the event.

This effort began in October 2016 with a roundtable on security and the LGBTI communitys access to the justice system that included representatives of the Director General of Prisons, the National Civil Police, the Director General of Migration and Foreign Affairs, the National Academy of Public Security, the Inspector General of Public Security, halfway houses and organizations that are part of the LGBTI Salvadoran Federation.

Our country must continue to undertake actions that move us towards making a society that is truly inclusive and secure for all people, said Justice and Social Inclusion Minister Vanda Pignato, who urged the Ministry of Justice and Public Securitys different institutions to put into practice these policies that promote respect of LGBTI peoples rights.

This policy emerged from the need to guarantee the rights of a portion of the Salvadoran population that has historically faced discrimination, such as the LGBTI community. It is the result of a joint effort carried out by the aforementioned departments.

The creation of this policy is without a doubt an achievement, Ambar Alfaro, projects coordinator for ASPIDH Arcoiris Trans, a trans Salvadoran advocacy group, told the Washington Blade. We cannot deny the opening of the ministry, but it should also be stressed that this is the result of the pressure and all of the work that the organized LGBTI community has been doing.

This will seek to open roads for all these laws and public policies that are very needed for the recognition of our LGBTI communitys rights, she added.

Independent activists who know little about the specific details of these policies also think they have good elements if they are expanded, but they nevertheless worry about whether they will actually be applied.

The capacity for transparency of the institution is fundamental, said Ana Cisneros, an independent LGBTI activist. Otherwise it will be the same as any other social policy that is on paper only.

Alfaro at the same time notes that apart from having a well-established document, the challenge now is its distribution to the ministers different agencies aside from knowing about it and knowing how to apply it.

Although the state must seek to apply these public policies, the LGBTI Salvadoran Federation has a lot of work to do with respect to the release of and the correct application of these new policies, she concluded.

 Ernesto Valle, Washington Blade courtesy of the National LGBTQ Media Association.
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.




Today - Live Public Affairs Office (PAO) Event from ISS: Following today's swearing-in of NASA Administrator Bridenstine, the US crew spoke with US Vice President Pence and Bridenstine about their experiences on the ISS and their time at NASA.

Bridenstine was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Thursday, April 19, to serve as the agency's 13th administrator. Prior to this position, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives for the state of Oklahoma, where he held positions on the House Armed Services Committee and the Science, Space and Technology Committee. Bridenstine also is a pilot in the U.S. Navy Reserve and the former executive director of the Tulsa Air and Space Museum and Planetarium.

Multi-Use Variable-G Platform (MVP): The crew inserted food cylinders in the food chambers in each Drosophila module in the MVP today. They collected solid and liquid samples, fixated them and inserted them into a Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI). MVP is used to conduct research in space with a wide variety of sample types, such as fruit flies, flatworms, plants, fish, cells, protein crystals and many others. It includes 2 internal carousels that simultaneously can produce up to 2 g of artificial gravity. Each carousel hosts 6 separate removable experiment modules on each carousel. Video and still imagery, including microscopy, can be included. The platform provides temperature and humidity controls and monitors and records oxygen and carbon dioxide levels.

Mouse Stress Defense: The crew replaced waste collecting equipment and odor filters in the Mouse Habitat Cage Units today. Microgravity provokes cellular mechanical stresses and perturbs cellular signaling, leading to reduction of muscle and bone density. To overcome these stresses, one of the promising strategies is to activate Nrf2, a master regulator of antioxidant pathway. Mouse Stress Defense investigates how Nrf2 contributes to effective prevention of space-originated stresses.

Water Processor Assembly (WPA) Maintenance: There has been an increased ionic breakthrough on both WPA Multi-Filtration (MF) beds identified by a steep increase in the conductivity of the bed's effluent. The beds were previously sampled to determine the species that is saturating the bed. Those samples, however, were inconclusive and it is believed the bicarbonate converted to carbon dioxide (CO2) and permeated through the sample bags. Today the crew collected new samples of the effluent from MF Beds 1 and 2 using ITCS sample bags that will not allow for CO2 permeation. These samples will be returned for analysis. The crew also replaced the WPA Separator Filter located on the Mostly Liquid Separator (MLS) and replaced a Waste Water Filter.

Remote Power Controller Module (RPCM) Remove and Replace (R&R): The N21B4B_B Remote Power Controller (RPC) 16 tripped on April 12, 2017 removing power from the Node 2 Moderate Temperature Loop (MTL) System Flow Control Assembly (SFCA) valve. Today, the crew, with ground team support, performed a power down, R&R, and successful checkout of RPC 16 and the Node 2 MTL SFCA.

Dragon Cargo Status: Over the weekend, the crew performed 6 hours of cargo ops, completing message #3. ISO estimates 14h 30m of cargo operations remain to complete Dragon loading prior to vehicle unberths on May 2.

Camcorder Deploy: Today the crew unpacked, configured and deployed five new camcorders that were delivered on SpaceX-14. These new camcorders will replace old camcorders that were stowed in a trash location for later disposal.

Today's Planned Activities

All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.

Regeneration of Micropurification Unit () 1 Absorption Cartridge (begin)

Powerdown Deck Crew Quarters Laptop

FAZOPEREKHOD. Experiment Setup and Start ops.

NOD2O4 Closeout Panel Audit

PILOT-T. Preparation for the experiment

Environmental Health System (EHS) Rad Detector Power Off

Columbus Equipment power off

 maintenance

PILOT-T. Experiment Ops and Data Downlink

Mouse Stress Defense Item Gathering

Mouse Stress Defense Ice Brick Stowing

PILOT-T. Experiment Ops

Cleaning of gas-liquid heat exchangers 1,2,3 () screens in FGB

XF305 Camcorder Setup

Mouse Stress Defense Cage Maintenance for Micro-G 3

Total Organic Carbon Analyzer (TOCA) Water Recovery System (WRS) Sample Analysis

PILOT-T. Closeout Ops

PHASE CHANGE Closeout Ops

Photo/TV Camcorder Setup Verification

PHASE CHANGE Experiment Setup and Start ops

MOTOCARD. Experiment ops, session 1

SSC HP Printer Checkout

MOTOCARD. Experiment Assistance. Video of the locomotor test

Crew Medical Officer (CMO) On Board Training (OBT)

MOTOCARD. End of Video-recording And Closeout Ops Tagup with specialists

Mouse Stress Defense Cage Maintenance for 1G 3

PHASE CHANGE Closeout Ops

Total Organic Carbon Analyzer (TOCA) Sample Data Record

Water Processor Assembly (WPA) Waste Water Filter R&R

Remote-Power-Controller-Module (RPCM) N21B4B_B Removal and Replacement

Vacuum cleaning ventilation grille on FGB interior panels (201, 301, 401)

URAGAN. HA "Video-spectral System" Solid-State Accumulator's Contacts Cleanup and Test Shooting

Water Process Assembly (WPA) Multifiltration Bed (MF Bed) Efflent Samples

NOD2O4 Closeout Panel Audit

Photo/TV XF305 Camcorder Deploy and Trash

PCS Battery Swap

Camcorder setup to capture -2 exercise

Station Support Computer 9 Relocate to NOD3

Emergency Operations (EMER) Chip Measurement System (CMS) Battery Changeout

Regen Urine Processing Assembly (UPA) 6.3 Gather

Testing -2 Treadmill (Exercise 3)

Health Maintenance System (HMS) Profile of Mood States (POMS) Questionnaire

Public Affairs Office (PAO) Social Media Event

In Flight Maintenance (IFM) Separator Filter Removal and Replace (R&R)

Removal of Video Equipment Used to Capture -2 Exercise and Downlink the file

Portable CO2 Monitor Calibration

Exercise Data Downlink via OCA

Multi-use Variable-g Platform MWA Preparation

Water Processor Assembly (WPA) Waste Water Filter R&R Kabin Replacement

IVA Toolbox Drawer 2 Tool Labeling and Socket Peg R&Rs

Multi-Use Variable-G Platform Sample MELFI Insertion

Multi-use Variable-g Platform Sample Fixative

GEMATOKRIT. Equipment setup

Public Affairs Office (PAO) High Definition (HD) Config LAB Setup

PAO Preparation

Public Affairs Office (PAO) Event in High Definition (HD) - Lab

Regeneration of  1 Absorption Cartridge (term)

Columbus GFI Test - Inverter reconfiguration

Columbus Equipment power up

Environmental Health System (EHS) Rad Detector Power On

Completed Task List Activities

JAXA Report Part 6

Columbus Photo Documentation [completed Saturday]

ARED Upper Stop Cable Remove and Replace [completed Sunday]

Recorded Greeting Request Rice Space Day [completed Sunday]

Recorded Greeting Request Space Center Houston [completed Sunday]

Ground Activities

All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.

RPCM N21B4B_B R&R Powerdown and Recovery

Three-Day Look Ahead:

Tuesday, 04/24: Pretreat Tank R&R, PCG, JSL Firewall, OGS O2 FSE Removal, HRF BRIC T/S, UPA S/W 6.3 Setup, Dragon Cargo Ops, Educational Imagery Recording, Circadian Rhythms

Wednesday, 04/25: Veggie Ponds Exp, Dragon Cargo Ops, ETVCG Teardown, Mouse Stress Defense

Thursday, 04/26: Node 3 LTL PPA R&R, EVA Preps (Tether/RET Inspect, EMU Swap, EMU Water Dump), Locker Reconfig, Dragon Cargo Ops, Dragon LiOH install, Meteor Hard Drive Swapout, Mouse Stress Defense, Circadian Rhythms.

QUICK ISS Status - Environmental Control Group:

Component - Status

Elektron - On

Vozdukh - Manual

[] 1 - SM Air Conditioner System ("SKV1") - Off

[] 2 - SM Air Conditioner System ("SKV2") - Off

Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Lab - Operate

Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Node 3 - Standby

Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Lab - Operate

Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Node 3 - Standby

Oxygen Generation Assembly (OGA) - Process

Urine Processing Assembly (UPA) - Standby

Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Lab - Full Up

Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Node 3 - Off

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Sixty million albums sold worldwide; 11 Top-40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, including three that went all the way to No. 1; a 50-year recording career that culminated with an induction into the Rock and Roll of Fame in 2016.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 24/4/2018 (1259 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Sixty million albums sold worldwide; 11 Top-40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, including three that went all the way to No. 1; a 50-year recording career that culminated with an induction into the Rock and Roll of Fame in 2016.

When youre examining the life and times of Steve Miller, who will perform live at Bell MTS Place tonight as part of a double-bill with fellow 70s guitar god Peter Frampton, one of the most efficient ways to do so is by the numbers.

Take for instance Oct. 5, the day the Milwaukee native turns 75. Or the fact 34 different musicians have been a member of the Steve Miller Band, since its inception as the Steve Miller Blues Band in 1966. Consider also his compilation album Greatest Hits 1974-78, which, with sales of 15 million copies in North America alone, is the 37th biggest selling record, all-time, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. Or, closer to home, theres July 27, 1978, the day more than 27,000 people packed Assiniboia Downs to watch the Steve Miller Band co-headline an outdoor show with the Eagles. (Music nerds will happily point out a photo taken that night, with the racetracks grandstand clearly visible in the background, graces the inside sleeve of Millers aforementioned greatest hits album.)

To prepare concert-goers for this evenings performance, which will mark the second time the Space Cowboy  others call him the Gangster of Love  has appeared at the downtown rink in the last four years, we decided to take a numerical look back at the ageless axemans rock and roll legacy. Heres a bit of what we turned up...

1968: year Miller recorded and released his debut album, Children of the Future. Named to a Rolling Stone magazine list entitled, "20 Albums Rolling Stone Loved in the Sixties That Youve Never Heard," Children of the Future contains tracks Miller largely wrote in the early 1960s, when he toiled as a janitor at a recording studio.

Zero: amount, in dollars, Miller paid Paul Ramon to play drums and bass guitar on his 1969 album, Brave New World. What did you say? Whos Paul Ramon? Thats the alias Paul McCartney routinely used when he checked into hotels while on tour with the Beatles (perhaps youve heard of them).

14: not counting double or triple-word scores, the number of points youd be awarded in the board game Scrabble for spelling pompatus, except youd have to give em all back, as its not a real word. "Some people call me Maurice, cause I speak of the pompatus of love," Miller sang, on the title track of his 1973 hit album, The Joker. Pompatus, a term Miller admits to fabricating, has taken on a life of its own since The Joker made its way to the top of the pop charts. Exhibit A: in the 1996 film The Pompatus of Love, the protagonists spend an inordinate amount of time discussing their individual relationships, as well as the meaning of the word pompatus.

25 to life: in years, length of the prison sentence youre likely to receive if youre found guilty of armed robbery in Texas. In Take the Money and Run, the first single from Millers multi-platinum album Fly Like an Eagle, Billie Joe and Bobbie Sue shoot an El Paso resident "while robbing his castle," then hit the road, doing their best to elude a detective named Billy Mack. If the pair is still on the lam, as the last line of the song "and theyre still running today," seems to indicate, they can come out of hiding any time soon. The statute of limitations for robbery offenses in Texas is five years.

4,500: altitude, in metres, bald eagles are reportedly capable of flying Miller wrote Fly Like an Eagle, one of his signature tunes, in 1973, but didnt get around to recording it until three years later. The song was famously covered by Seal for the soundtrack to the 1996 movie Space Jam. Miller apparently called Seal after hearing the finished version, declaring it the "best cover" of the song he had ever heard.

12,226: distance, in kilometres, traveled by Miller in the lyrics of his No. 1 hit Rockn Me. Talk about a roundabout route: in Rockn Me, Miller sings of going from "Phoenix, Arizona, all the way to Tacoma, Philadelphia, Atlanta, L.A..." Although he doesnt specify where in northern California ("where the girls are warm") he winds up at songs end, we took that to mean San Francisco, where the Steve Miller Band was born, for the sake of our calculations.

19: years Tarzan and Jane would have maintained a relationship, based on a complicated formula created by a dating app called lunchclick. Originally written by Millers bass player for Dave Mason, ex- of the rock band Traffic, Jungle Love, a tune that climbed to No. 23 on the charts, was presented to Miller after Mason said thanks, but no thanks. Miller reportedly recorded it in a blazing 30 minutes, on his final day in the studio for 1977s Book of Dreams.

213: "likes" Swingtown, a Steve Miller tribute act based in Pensacola, Fla. has received to date, on its Facebook page Swingtown was the third and final single released from Book of Dreams. The songs slow build of an intro, punctuated by Miller trilling "Ooo oooohhhh Ooo oooohhhh" over and over, was later featured in a TV commercial advertising the 1979 Ford Mustang.

Ready, Pet, Go! Leesa Dahl looks at everything to do with our furry, fuzzy, feathered, fishy (and more!) pet friends. Arrives in your inbox each Monday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

60,173: in dollars, the average annual salary of a Las Vegas-based magician Abracadabra, the title track from Millers 1982 smash, was his last No. 1 single in Canada and the U.S. The five-minute, eight-second-long track, which magically rhymes "abracadabra" with "grab ya," also ascended to the top of the charts in Australia, Austria, Switzerland and Sweden.

1: number of solo albums Miller has under his belt In 1988, Miller offered up Born 2 B Blue, a 10-track collection of jazz covers originally recorded by the likes of Billie Holiday, Mel Torme and Lionel Hampton. While Born 2 B Blue resonated with music critics  one online review describes it as "charmingly laid-back" and "pleasant as can be"  it wasnt a commercial success, by any stretch, peaking at No. 108 on Billboards weekly album chart.

17: how many years passed between Millers 1993 release Wide River, and its follow-up Bingo!, which came out in 2010 Miller didnt waste time issuing his next work: Let Your Hair Down, his last studio album, hit store shelves in April 2011, 10 months after the release of Bingo!.

22: according to advance reports, amount of songs concert-goers can expect Miller to perform this evening, including a few blues standards when hell be accompanied on stage by Frampton. Despite what it says on his birth certificate, Miller, 74, continues to log close to two hours on stage, an average 50 nights per year. A 2019 world tour is said to be in the works plus there are also whispers of a new studio album in the offing. Both of which mean if you werent able to snag tickets to tonights show, you probably wont have to wait too long until your next opportunity to see him live rolls around.

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca
BOISSEVAIN This weeks grand opening of a yoga studio in Boissevain was pre-empted by the distribution of an anonymous letter warning residents of its anti-Christian properties.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 24/4/2018 (1259 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BOISSEVAIN This weeks grand opening of a yoga studio in Boissevain was pre-empted by the distribution of an anonymous letter warning residents of its anti-Christian properties.

Signed by "Marie," the letter warns Christians that yogas spirituality runs counter to their faith, and that yogas Hindu origins could be disruptive to Christianity.

Although the letter addresses the practice of yoga in general, the author cites "the opening of a yoga studio in town" as being their motivation for moving forward with their caution at this time.

At mid-afternoon yesterday, Soul Worx Yoga & Fitness owner Lindsay Alvis joined a handful of family volunteers in putting the finishing touches on her business space, at 320 Railway St.

Large mirrors were being unwrapped by some participants, while others circled the space with paintbrushes touching up whatever imperfections remained.

Alviss goal is to open up her yoga studio by the end of the week, and to hold a public open house shortly thereafter in order to help clarify what yoga is all about and to help put peoples minds at ease.

Born and raised in Boissevain, Alvis said that both the anti-yoga letter and the community buzz it has created have been both surprising and confusing.

Although yogas origins are in India, shes a practitioner of Budi Yoga, which was developed in the United States and is about as far removed from religion as the various subcategories of yoga can be.

"It seriously has nothing to do with religion," she said, throwing her hands up in confusion.

Alvis learned the ins and outs of yoga during her time in Alberta, returning to her home community two years ago when her husband, Todd, took over his familys farm.

Working as a nurse full-time in Brandon, Alvis said that she has been instructing yoga groups as a fun side job for the past couple years, only to up the ante by taking possession of 320 Railway St. last month.

Received by a "very supportive" community so far, Alvis said that she was taken aback by the letter, which she believes to represent only a small, albeit vocal, segment of the population.

This support included front-page coverage in the Boissevain Recorder when she acquired the vacant building last month, which editor Lorraine Houston said she was enthusiastic to provide.

TIM SMITH/THE BRANDON SUN Lindsay Alvis is the owner of Soul Worx, a new yoga studio opening in Boissevain.

"The addition of a yoga and fitness studio is just one more anchor for our vibrant town," she said, adding that she looks forward to participating in future yoga classes herself.

The Municipality of Boissevain Morton helped promote Alviss earlier classes. Recreation director Samantha Dyck said yesterday that she has never heard of the anti-Christian parallel, nor has she received any opposition to yoga during her past year in the position.

Turtle Mountain Yoga and Wellness instructor Wendy Giesbrecht said that she heard about the letter through various sources, and has even had a few members drop out of yoga classes as a result of it.

Giesbrecht said that the anti-yoga message has been percolating in Boissevain for some time, prompting her to hold a few public information nights during the past few months at a local coffee shop to help clarify what its all about.

"In a small town like this, the letter spread pretty quickly and has a large impact," she said.

Giesbrecht said that she was disappointed that no local church leaders showed up for these meetings, including those she believes have been sharing an anti-yoga message in their sermons.

Boissevain-based Family Worship Centre pastor Bob Wilson said that although yoga has never come up in his congregation of approximately 50 Pentecostal Assembly of Canada churchgoers, he agrees with the letters message.

"I have been taught that its roots come from Hinduism and should not be practised by Christians," he said. "Thats always been my understanding."

Mennonite Brethren Church pastor Geoff Unrau declined comment on this topic, including whether the practice of yoga has been addressed in his sermons.

"I dont want to make enemies in my own community," he said.

Several people polled along Boissevains main street yesterday echoed this sentiment, with the vast majority either refusing comment or declining to share their names.

Even so, those who did share their views were unanimous in supporting yoga, with some laughing at the idea of it carrying an anti-Christian message.

Among those who laughed at the notion that yoga should not be practised by Christians was Penny Olson, who said that she has enjoyed yoga in the past, and used the words "relaxing" and "soothing" to describe it.

St. Matthews Anglican Church Rev. Michael Canning said that while he doesnt practise yoga himself, his understanding is that yoga is not anti-Christian, and could in fact bolster Christianity.

TIM SMITH/THE BRANDON SUN Judy Stobbe and Wendy Giesbrecht, right, strike yoga poses at Turtle Mountain Yoga and Wellness in Boissevain on Monday. Giesbrecht runs Turtle Mountain Yoga and Wellness in town.

"Its what you take to it," he said. "Its about being centred and looking at your body."

While she disagrees with the assertion that it runs counter to Christianity, Giesbrecht said that the religious parallel isnt without merit.

In addition to the plethora of stretches involved in yoga, it all encourages its practitioners to connect "to a higher consciousness."

Christians might view this as being God, while those who follow other religions, or no religion at all, carrying their own interpretation of a "higher consciousness."

"Its an individual journey based on your own experience," Giesbrecht said.

Judy Stobbe said that she doesnt see any contradiction between her Christian beliefs and her interest in yoga.

A regular attendee of Giesbrechts classes, Stobbe said that yoga has allowed her to stretch out parts of her body she might not otherwise stretch, which she said has allowed her to age without a lot of the aches and pains that others might experience.

While a spiritual component can accompany yoga, she said that Giesbrecht has always steered clear of it.

Instead, she ends each session by encouraging people to consider how they might make the rest of their day enjoyable.

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"Whats wrong with that?" she asked.

Although technically competition, Giesbrecht said that she wishes Alvis well with her upcoming yoga studio, and that the prospect of more people practising yoga in Boissevain is nothing but positive.

While the anti-yoga letter has stripped a few members form the local yoga community, Giesbrecht said that she expects to see people fill their places as greater awareness about yoga spreads.

Alvis is of a similar mindset, shrugging off the letter as a small bump on an otherwise positive road.

 tclarke@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @TylerClarkeMB
In recent years, Canada has seen a spike in youth engagement in the volunteer sector. Thats very good news. This has come about largely because of high-school programs that require a minimum number of volunteer hours to graduate. The idea is that youth have plenty to offer and their engagement creates stronger community bonds  and better services.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 24/4/2018 (1259 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

In recent years, Canada has seen a spike in youth engagement in the volunteer sector. Thats very good news. This has come about largely because of high-school programs that require a minimum number of volunteer hours to graduate. The idea is that youth have plenty to offer and their engagement creates stronger community bonds  and better services.

Youth can both learn and lead when they are involved in their local communities.

Now, a new federal initiative  the Canada Service Corps.  will invest $105 million in national volunteer organizations with the goal of encouraging young Canadians to stay involved in their communities.

This is significant.

If youth can be engaged effectively beyond their high-school years, they can play an important role in strengthening and developing the voluntary sector, as well as increasing community participation more broadly. They could help us create meaningful civic engagement for a new generation.

A recent open caucus in the Senate brought together leaders at non-profit and charitable organizations to offer insight and tactics on working with the next generation of leaders. What emerged were three ways we can get youth engaged in community-building for a better Canada:

1. Youth want authentic and meaningful engagement

The key to authentic engagement is to dispense with stereotypes about millennials, according to Lily Viggiano, youth engagement specialist with Volunteer Canadas Pan-Canadian Volunteer Matching Platform. "Youth are not self-involved; rather, they have incredible empathy that leads to action." She noted that youth might be motivated to gain life experience or work experience, or to develop a sense of their own identities.

Andy Garrow, director of Youth Development at Katimavik, emphasized the importance of leaving space for youth to come up with their own ideas. Youth will stay engaged if they are supported, listened to and are given the space to develop their own paths forward.

2. Include youth from diverse communities

At one point, volunteers were usually those with extra time and money; middle-class retirees willing to give back. At the Boys & Girls Club Canada, Marlene Deboisbriand, vice-president of programming and member services, noted that youth in underserved communities dont often see themselves in leadership roles. The organization works to foster a sense of belonging in youth so that they develop a desire to serve society.

Viggiano said her organization often goes right to underserved communities to engage youth, rather than asking people to travel to a volunteer organization, thereby removing a barrier. She said the value in meeting people where they are helps to foster long-term bonds. She also noted that volunteer organizations need to consider various physical abilities and accessibility issues when organizing opportunities for youth.

When youth are engaged by their communities, they will feel included and see themselves as potential community leaders.

3. Foster intergenerational leadership

Intergenerational leadership means seeing youth not as the leaders of tomorrow, but as the leaders of today, Garrow noted.

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Viggiano said its important to recognize the impact of small actions and to create pathways for youth to grow their volunteer experience within an organization even if it is more event-based or episodic.

This might also mean mentorship from an older generation in a way that is not unidirectional, but recognizes that young people have as much to teach as they do to learn.

Intergenerational leadership might also mean stepping back, as Colin Jackson noted. The chair of ImagiNation 150 said youth have a formidable capacity, but that "we must promote and encourage their expertise," which he did when he deferred to his 19-year-old colleague, Safira Teja, a youth ambassador.

Teja noted volunteer opportunities should be fun and socially engaging, so that youth can prioritize them within their other time commitments. "Give them agency," Teja said. "Allow them to have accountability, rather than just giving them a task that is overseen by an older person."

Young people are keen to make a real difference and we need to harness that desire. Positive youth engagement can have a multiplier effect. Those engaged in the voluntary sector are shown a path to civic engagement, which could lead to increased voter turnout and develop positive advocates for social issues.

Sen. Art Eggleton is a member of the Canadian Senate. Sen. Raymonde Saint-Germain is deputy facilitator of the Independent Senators Group. The Open Caucus is a forum for discussion on issues of national importance, and is open to all members of Parliament, senators, parliamentary staff, media and the public.
It is one of the bitter ironies of the information age that people in general dont know what to do with all of the information that bombards them every day.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 24/4/2018 (1259 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

It is one of the bitter ironies of the information age that people in general dont know what to do with all of the information that bombards them every day.

Realizing which information is important sorts it into knowledge that could be useful. Understanding which knowledge we should use is a sign of wisdom.

Thats just common sense, right? Except we also hear on a daily basis that common sense just isnt that common anymore.

Nor is critical thinking. Perhaps because its a subject I teach, it seems to me that the number of mistakes people make is on the rise.

While the comments section of this newspaper (and others) provides a regular checklist of basic logical fallacies, the "spewling" of anonymous internet trolls is a degraded version of the common conversation I hear in coffee shops, around campus or around town.

That conversation reflects little common sense, ignores information, dismisses knowledge and prefers ignorance to wisdom.

The subject? You guessed it: the environment, climate change and what we can do to mitigate the disastrous future in which our children otherwise will surely live.

If anyone wants a fund-raising project, consider selling green T-shirts with the words "Brain ON" in large letters. At the moment, when it comes to their own survival or to the future of the planet on which we need to live, most peoples brains are simply not on.

If they were, then they would realize there is a lot of information out there about changing planetary conditions. Use your cellphone for more than playing games and you can find it easily.

Want information? Read scientific reports  there are plenty, with new and scarier ones released almost every day. Feel like exercising some common sense? Ask yourself how anyone with a working brain could think seven-plus-billion people can live on the Earth without dramatically changing it  or how anyone could pretend bulldozing the landscape, fouling the water and poisoning the air has no significant effect on natural or ecological systems.

Take a trip to the Marshall Islands and check out rising sea levels  before the islands completely disappear under the waves. Build a snowman in the Arctic  while there is still snow. Eat fish from an ocean that (at the moment) still has more fish in it than plastic  but not for long. Visit a rhino in a zoo, because thats about the only place they can still live.

If you havent gotten cancer yet, chances are you will  and not because youve lived a long and healthy life. Polluting the planet damages people, too  common sense tells us we literally are what we eat, drink and breathe.

Despite the obvious evidence of environmental and ecological devastation, everywhere, environmentalists are still not supported by the general public, but are attacked instead for their politics  often literally. Last year, 197 environmental defenders worldwide were murdered for trying to protect their communities and their families  murdered by commercial interests who are making good money off the misery of others and at the expense of future generations.

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In a common-sense sort of way, breathing clean air has become a political act. So is eating good food or drinking clean water. Never mind waiting for the next election; you vote every time you pull out your money and spend it. Unfortunately, too many people leave their brains at home when they go shopping  or forget to turn them on, when they are making decisions about what to buy and why.

You could call me a pragmatic idealist. As a historian focused on the nexus of science, technology, culture, environment and society, I see the world exactly for what it is, with no illusions. At the same time, however, I also believe that we can change things, because we can be better than what we are revealed to be at any moment.

There are many reasons for despair, because people self-destructively insist on being people, against all common sense and critical thinking. Political leaders who do nothing, or who act on whims and leave future generations to fend for themselves, further undermine our future.

But there are reasons for hope, too. Being human can also mean thinking about more than just yourself, seeing beyond the moment, caring, loving, doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do  not just for our own children, but respecting all the children of Earth.

Want a better future? Brain ON  and choose it.

Peter Denton is the author of six books and was elected as a civil society representative for North America to the United Nations Environment Programme from 2012-2016.
13 minutes ago

Oil prices up by more than $2 per barrel after OPEC decision

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP)  OPEC and allied oil producing countries have stayed with their cautious approach to restoring oil production slashed during the pandemic, agreeing to add 400,000 barrels per day in November.

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Travis Perkins plc distributes building materials to the building, construction, and home improvement markets in the United Kingdom. It operates through four segments: Merchanting, Retail, Toolstation, and Plumbing & Heating. The Merchanting segment distributes interior building products, which include drywalls, ceilings, external envelopes, fire protection products, flooring and partitioning products, and tools and accessories to professionals within the construction industry; civil, drainage, and heavy building materials to specialist contractors and trade professionals; and pipeline and heating solutions. This segment also distributes building materials, plumbing and heating products, landscaping materials, timber and sheet materials, painting and decorating products, dry lining and insulation products, doors and joinery, and hand and power tools to trade professionals and self-builders. The Retail segment operates as a home improvement retailer, which sells kitchen, bathroom, paint, and timber products. The Toolstation segment supplies products to the trade, home improvers, and self-builders industry through approximately 350 branches, as well as online, call center, and a mobile website. The Plumbing & Heating segment supplies its products to the trade, home improvement, and DIY markets. The company also offers kitchens and joinery products to specialist joiners, kitchen fitters, house builders, local authorities, and national house builders; and operates as a tile retailer. The company was formerly known as Sandell Perkins Public Limited Company and changed its name to Travis Perkins plc in October 1988. Travis Perkins plc was founded in 1797 and is headquartered in Northampton, the United Kingdom.

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Wall Street analysts have given Hertz Global 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 Hertz Global 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 Occidental Petroleum: 1PointFive Inc., 1PointFive P1 LLC, APC Aviation Inc., APC International Holdings LLC, APC Midstream Holdings LLC, APC Venezuela Srl, ARCO Long Beach, Altura Energy, Amarok Gathering LLC, Anadarko 20-25 Company, Anadarko 20-36 Company, Anadarko 20-47 Company, Anadarko 20-48 Company, Anadarko 20-49 Company, Anadarko Algeria Block 403 c/e Company, Anadarko Algeria Block 406B Company, Anadarko Algeria Company LLC, Anadarko Algeria Oil & Gas Company, Anadarko Brazil Investment I LLC, Anadarko Brazil Investment II LLC, Anadarko Canada E&P Limited, Anadarko China Holdings 2 Company, Anadarko Colombia Company, Anadarko Consolidated Holdings LLC, Anadarko Cote d'Ivoire Block 103 Company, Anadarko Cote d'Ivoire Company, Anadarko DBMOS Operator LLC, Anadarko Development Company, Anadarko Development Holding Limited, Anadarko E&P Onshore LLC, Anadarko Egypt Holdings Company, Anadarko Energy Holding Limited, Anadarko Energy Services Company, Anadarko Exploracao e Producao de Petroleo e Gas Natural Ltda., Anadarko Finance Company, Anadarko Gabon Company, Anadarko Ghana Mahogany-1 Company, Anadarko Global Energy S.a.r.l, Anadarko Global Funding 1 Company, Anadarko Global Funding II Ltd., Anadarko Guyana Company, Anadarko Holding Company, Anadarko International Development S.a.r.l, Anadarko International Energy Company, Anadarko International O&G Company, Anadarko International Trading Corporation, Anadarko Jordan Company, Anadarko Kenya Company, Anadarko LMM S.a.r.l, Anadarko Land Corp., Anadarko Mexico B.V., Anadarko Mexico S.a.r.l, Anadarko Midkiff/Chaney Dell BR Corp., Anadarko Midkiff/Chaney Dell LLC, Anadarko Natural Gas Company LLC, Anadarko New Zealand Company, Anadarko OGC Company, Anadarko Offshore Holding Company LLC, Anadarko Offshore Well Containment Company LLC, Anadarko Oil & Gas 5 LLC, Anadarko Peru B.V., Anadarko Petroleum, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, Anadarko Realty LLC, Anadarko Rockies LLC, Anadarko Royalty Holdings Company, Anadarko UK Corporate Limited, Anadarko US Offshore LLC, Anadarko USH1 Corporation, Anadarko Venezuela Company, Anadarko Venezuela LLC, Anadarko Venezuela Srl, Anadarko WCTP Company, Anadarko West Texas BR Corp., Anadarko West Texas LLC, Anadarko Worldwide Holdings C.V., Atlantic Rim Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Aventine LLC, Baseball Merger Sub 2 Inc., Bear Branch Exploration LLC, Big Island Trona Company, Bitter Creek Coal Company, Bravo Pipeline Company, Cain Chemical, Cain Chemical Inc., Carbon Finance Labs LLC, Concord Petroleum Corporation, Conn Creek Shale Company, D.S. 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(Canada), Occidental Crude Sales Inc. (International), Occidental Dolphin Holdings Ltd., Occidental Energy Marketing Inc., Occidental Energy Ventures LLC, Occidental Exploradora del Peru Ltd., Occidental Exploration and Production Company, Occidental Hafar LLC, Occidental International (Libya) Inc., Occidental International Corporation, Occidental International Exploration and Production Company, Occidental International Holdings Ltd., Occidental International Oil and Gas Ltd., Occidental International Services Inc., Occidental Joslyn GP 2 Co., Occidental LNG (Malaysia) Ltd., Occidental Latin America Holdings LLC, Occidental Libya Oil & Gas B.V., Occidental MENA Manager Ltd., Occidental Middle East Development Company, Occidental Midland Basin LLC, Occidental Mukhaizna LLC, Occidental Oil Asia Pte. Ltd., Occidental Oil Shale Inc., Occidental Oil and Gas (Oman) Ltd., Occidental Oil and Gas Corporation, Occidental Oil and Gas International Inc., Occidental Oil and Gas International LLC, Occidental Oil and Gas Pakistan LLC, Occidental Oil and Gas of Peru LLC, Occidental Oman (Block 27) Holdings Ltd., Occidental Oman Block 51 Holding Ltd., Occidental Oman Block 51 LLC, Occidental Oman Block 65 Holding Ltd., Occidental Oman Block 65 LLC, Occidental Oman Block 72 Holding Ltd., Occidental Oman Block 72 LLC, Occidental Oman Gas Company LLC, Occidental Oman Gas Holdings Ltd., Occidental Oman North Holdings Ltd., Occidental Oriente Exploration and Production Ltd., Occidental Overseas Holdings B.V., Occidental PVC LLC, Occidental Peninsula II Inc., Occidental Peninsula LLC, Occidental Permian Ltd., Occidental Permian Manager LLC, Occidental Permian Services Inc., Occidental Peruana Inc., Occidental Petrolera del Peru (Block 101) Inc., Occidental Petrolera del Peru (Block 103) Inc., Occidental Petroleum (Pakistan) Inc., Occidental Petroleum Corporation, Occidental Petroleum Corporation Political Action Committee, Occidental Petroleum de Venezuela S.A., Occidental Petroleum of Nigeria, Occidental Petroleum of Oman Ltd., Occidental Petroleum of Qatar Ltd., Occidental Power Marketing L.P., Occidental Power Services Inc., Occidental Qatar Energy Company LLC, Occidental Red Sea Development LLC, Occidental Research Corporation, Occidental Resource Recovery Systems Inc., Occidental Resources Company, Occidental Shah Gas Holdings Ltd., Occidental South America Finance LLC, Occidental Specialty Marketing Inc., Occidental Tower Corporation, Occidental Transportation Holding Corporation, Occidental West Texas Overthrust Inc., Occidental Yemen Ltd., Occidental Yemen Sabatain Inc., Occidental del Ecuador Inc., Occidental of Abu Dhabi (Bab) Ltd., Occidental of Abu Dhabi (Shah) Ltd., Occidental of Abu Dhabi Holdings Ltd., Occidental of Abu Dhabi LLC, Occidental of Abu Dhabi Ltd., Occidental of Bahrain Ltd., Occidental of Bangladesh Inc., Occidental of Colombia (Chipiron) Inc., Occidental of Colombia (Cosecha) Inc., Occidental of Colombia (Medina) Inc., Occidental of Colombia (Putumayo) Ltd., Occidental of Colombia (Teca) Ltd., Occidental of Colombia PUT-36 LLC, Occidental of Dubai Inc., Occidental of Iraq Holdings Ltd., Occidental of Iraq LLC, Occidental of Oman Inc., Occidental of Russia Ltd., Occidental of South Africa (Offshore) Inc., Occidental of Yemen (Block 75) LLC, Oceanic Marine Transport Ltd., Opcal Insurance Inc., Oryx Crude Trading & Transportation Inc., Oxy BridgeTex Limited Partnership, Oxy C & I Bulk Sales LLC, Oxy Canada Sales Inc., Oxy Carbon Solutions LLC, Oxy Carbon Storage LLC, Oxy Climate Ventures Inc., Oxy Cogeneration Holding Company LLC, Oxy Colombia Holdings LLC, Oxy Colombia TopCo Ltd., Oxy Delaware Basin LLC, Oxy Delaware Basin Plant LLC, Oxy Dolphin E&P LLC, Oxy Dolphin Pipeline LLC, Oxy Energy Canada Inc., Oxy Energy Services LLC, Oxy Expatriate Services Inc., Oxy FFT Holdings Inc., Oxy Holding Company (Pipeline) Inc., Oxy International Ventures Ltd., Oxy LPG Terminal LLC, Oxy Levelland Pipeline Company LLC, Oxy Levelland Terminal Company LLC, Oxy Low Carbon Ventures LLC, Oxy Midstream Strategic Development LLC, Oxy Oleoducto SOP LLC, Oxy Overseas Services Ltd., Oxy Permian Gathering LLC, Oxy Permian Plaza LLC, Oxy Petroleum de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Oxy Renewable Energy LLC, Oxy Salt Creek Pipeline LLC, Oxy TL LLC, Oxy Taft Hub LLC, Oxy Technology Ventures Inc., Oxy Transport I Company LLC, Oxy Vinyls Canada Co., Oxy Vinyls Export Sales LLC, Oxy Vinyls LP, Oxy Westwood Corporation, Oxy Y-1 Company, OxyChem Ingleside Ethylene Holdings Inc., OxyChem do Brasil Ltda., OxyChile Investments LLC, Oxychem Shipping Ltd., Permian Basin JV Tax Matters Member LLC, Permian Basin Limited Partnership, Permian VPP Holder LP, Permian VPP Manager LLC, Phibro, Placid Oil LLC, Ramlat Oxy Ltd., Rio de Viento Inc., Rodeo Midland Basin LLC, San Patricio Pipeline LLC, Scanports Shipping LLC, SequestCo LLC, Stetson Exploration LLC, Sun Offshore Gathering Company, Swiflite Aircraft Corporation, Transok Properties LLC, Troy Potter Inc., Turavent Oil GmbH [in liquidation], Tuscaloosa Holdings Inc., UP Petroleo III Ltd., Upland Industries Corporation, Venezuela US SRL, Vintage Gas Inc., Vintage Petroleum, Vintage Petroleum Argentina Ltd., Vintage Petroleum Boliviana Ltd., Vintage Petroleum International Finance B.V., Vintage Petroleum International Holdings LLC, Vintage Petroleum International LLC, Vintage Petroleum International Ventures Inc., Vintage Petroleum Italy Inc., Vintage Petroleum South America Holdings Inc., Vintage Petroleum South America LLC, Vintage Petroleum Turkey Inc., WGR Asset Holding Company LLC, WGR Canada Inc., Wardner Ranch Inc., Western Gas Resources Inc., Western Gas Resources-Westana Inc., Western Midstream Holdings LLC, Woodlands International Insurance Ltd., and YT Ranch LLC.
The following companies are subsidiares of Quest Diagnostics: AmeriPath, AmeriPath Cincinnati Inc. (OH), AmeriPath Cleveland Inc. (OH), AmeriPath Consolidated Labs Inc. (FL), AmeriPath Florida LLC (DE), AmeriPath Hospital Services Florida LLC (DE), AmeriPath Inc. (DE), AmeriPath Indianapolis PC (IN), AmeriPath Kentucky Inc. (KY), AmeriPath Lubbock 5.01(A) Corporation (TX), AmeriPath New York LLC (DE), AmeriPath Texas Inc. (DE), AmeriPath Tucson Inc. (AZ), American Medical Laboratories, American Medical Laboratories Incorporated (DE), Associated Clinical Laboratories L.P. (PA), Associated Clinical Laboratories of Pennsylvania L.L.C. (PA), Athena Diagnostics, Athena Diagnostics Inc. (DE), Blueprint Genetics, Blueprint Genetics FZ-LLC (UAE), Blueprint Genetics Inc. (DE), Blueprint Genetics Oy (Finland), California Laboratory Associates, Cape Cod Healthcare - Business, Celera, ClearPoint Diagnostic, Clearpoint Diagnostic Laboratories LLC (TX), Cleveland HeartLab, Cleveland HeartLab Inc. (DE), Clinical Laboratory Partners, Colorado Pathology Consultants P.C. (CO), ConVerge Diagnostic Services, Consolidated DermPath Inc. (DE), DFW 5.01(a) Corporation (TX), DGXWMT JV LLC (DE), Dermatopathology of Wisconsin S.C. (WI), Diagnostic Laboratory of Oklahoma LLC (OK), Diagnostic Pathology Services Inc. (OK), Diagnostic Reference Services Inc. (MD), ExamOne Canada Inc. (New Brunswick), ExamOne LLC (DE), ExamOne World Wide Inc. (PA), ExamOne World Wide of NJ Inc. (NJ), Focus Diagnostics, HemoCue, Hoffman M.D. Associated Pathologists Chartered (NV), Institute for Dermatopathology Inc. (PA), Isabella Street Urban Renewal LLC (NJ), Kailash B. Sharma M.D. Inc. (GA), Kilpatrick Pathology P.A. (NC), LabOne, LabOne LLC (MO), LabOne of Ohio Inc. (DE), Laboratorio de Analisis Biomedicos S.A. (Mexico), Lancet Labs, MACL, Med Fusion LLC (TX), Med fusion, MedPlus, Mid America Clinical Laboratories LLC (IN), Nomad Massachusetts Inc. (MA), Nuclear Medicine and Pathology Associates (GA), Ocmulgee Medical Pathology Association Inc. (GA), Pathology Building Partnership (MD) (gen. ptnrshp.), PeaceHealth Laboratories, PhenoPath Laboratories, PhenoPath Laboratories PLLC (WA), Q Squared Solutions Holdings LLC (DE), Q Squared Solutions Holdings Limited (UK), Quest Diagnostics (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. (China), Quest Diagnostics Brasil Holdings Ltd. (UK), Quest Diagnostics Clinical Laboratories, Quest Diagnostics Clinical Laboratories Inc. (DE), Quest Diagnostics Domestic Holder LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics HTAS India Private Limited (India), Quest Diagnostics Health & Wellness LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics Holdings Incorporated (DE), Quest Diagnostics Holdings Ltd. (UK), Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (MD), Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NV), Quest Diagnostics India Private Limited (India), Quest Diagnostics Infectious Disease Inc. (DE), Quest Diagnostics International Holdings Limited (UK), Quest Diagnostics International LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics Investments LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics Ireland Limited (Ireland), Quest Diagnostics LLC (CT), Quest Diagnostics LLC (IL), Quest Diagnostics LLC (MA), Quest Diagnostics Massachusetts LLC (MA), Quest Diagnostics Mexico Holding Company Trust (Mexico), Quest Diagnostics Mexico S de RL de CV (Mexico), Quest Diagnostics Nichols Institute (CA), Quest Diagnostics Nichols Institute Inc. (VA), Quest Diagnostics Receivables Inc. (DE), Quest Diagnostics Subsidiary Holdings Ltd. (UK), Quest Diagnostics TB LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics Terracotta LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics Venture LLC (PA), Quest Diagnostics Ventures LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics do Brasil Ltda. (Brazil), Quest Diagnostics of Pennsylvania Inc. (DE), Quest Diagnostics of Puerto Rico Inc. (PR), Quest HealthConnect LLC (CA), ReproSource, Reprosource Fertility Diagnostics Inc. (MA), Solstas Lab Partners, Sonora Quest Laboratories LLC (AZ), Specialty Laboratories Inc. (CA), Summit Health, UMass Memorial Medical Center - Anatomic Pathology Outreach Laboratory Business, Unilab Corporation, and Unilab Corporation (DE).
GNC Holdings, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a specialty retailer of health, wellness, and performance products. The company operates through three segments: U.S. and Canada, International, and Manufacturing/Wholesale. Its products include proteins, performance supplements, weight management supplements, vitamins, herbs and greens, wellness supplements, health and beauty products, food and drink products, and other general merchandise. The company also provides third-party contract manufacturing services. It sells its products under the GNC proprietary brands, as well as under third-party brands. As of December 31, 2018, the company had approximately 8,400 locations of which approximately 6,200 retail locations in the United States and franchise operations in approximately 50 countries. It sells its products through company-owned retail stores and its Website GNC.com, as well as third-party Websites; wholesale partnerships; and domestic and international franchise activities. GNC Holdings, Inc. has a strategic partnership with Harbin Pharmaceutical Group Holding Co., Ltd. and International Vitamin Corporation. The company was founded in 1935 and is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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Suriname is the smallest country in South America and is located along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in the northeastern part of the continent. The country covers an area of about 165,000 square km and has a population of 558,368 individuals. Prior to the arrival of Europeans in the 16th century, Suriname was home to a number of indigenous peoples. Following the colonization of Suriname by the Dutch, African slaves and later indentured laborers from Asia were brought to work in the countrys European-owned plantations. Accordingly, the religious demographics of Suriname reflect of the multicultural nature of the country's population.

According to the 2012 census, Christianity is the predominant religion in Suriname, accounting for 48.4% of the total population of the country. Hinduism and Islam have the second and third largest religious populations in the country, composing 22.3% and 13.9% of the population, respectively. Other religions practiced in Suriname include Winti (1.8%), Javanism (0.8%), and Judaism. Additionally, 7.5% of the population identify with no religion, while 3.2% chose not to respond to the question.

Christianity Is the Predominant Religion in Suriname

Christianity is the dominant religion in Suriname. The Anglican Church is the oldest Christian denomination in the country, while Catholicism and Protestantism have a significant presence. In particular, the Pentecostal church and the Moravians are the largest Protestant denominations active in Suriname. The first Catholic missions arrived in Suriname in 1683, however the growth of Christianity was initially slow, and did not spread rapidly until the country came under Dutch rule in 1816. A large proportion of the indigenous inhabitants and West African slaves accepted the religion, and their descendants now comprise the majority of Surinames Christian population.

Hinduism in Suriname

The population of Suriname contains the third highest proportion of Hindus in in the Western Hemisphere. Most arrived from India to work in Suriname's Dutch plantations, often as indentured laborers from British India and supported by an agreement between the Dutch and British. The more liberal policies of the Dutch allowed Hindus to practice their religion in Suriname. Following Suriname's independence, most Hindus settled in the coastal regions in north Suriname, where the form the religious majority. Several Hindu temples exist in Suriname today.

Islam in Suriname

Muslims of Suriname trace their origins to South Asia and Indonesia, where they were brought as indentured laborers. Most Muslims in Suriname are Sunnis, while small sections of the population follow Sufism, Javanese Kejawen, and other syncretic faiths.

Indigenous Religions in Suriname

Many indigenous inhabitants of Suriname continue to practice traditional religions, most of which focus on the worship of nature and all living beings. A significant segment of Africans brought to Suriname as slaves also follow their traditional African religions. Ancestor worship is a common practice of such religions. Amerindian and Afro-descendant converts to Christianity in Suriname also include traditional beliefs and rituals in their worship.

Religious Freedom and Tolerance in Suriname

Suriname provides its citizens the freedom to choose and practice a religious faith of their choice. The level of religious tolerance in the Surinamese society is generally high, however political parties usually have strong ethnic ties to one particular faith. However, these parties do not mandate its members or leaders to adhere to any particular faith.
Amid an international wave of educators struggles, 3,000 graduate students at Columbia University in New York City are set to begin a weeklong strike today after the university refused to negotiate with the Graduate Workers of Columbia-United Auto Workers (GWC-UAW) Local 2110. The students, who work as teaching and research assistants (TAs and RAs, respectively), voted 93 percent in favor of a strike.

The union said the walkout would begin at 10 am Tuesday if the university does not agree to bargain. The strike is scheduled to last from April 24 to April 30, with picketing in front of academic buildings and delivery entrances.

Columbia TAs and RAs make poverty-level wages: less than $23,000 for a teaching assistant, on average. The median teaching assistant salary is about $4,000 higher, according to 2016 figures from Glassdoor.com, which aggregates salaries. The national average for part-time work, in comparison, is $24,500, still more than what Columbia TAs make. Graduate students must often take on exorbitant debtabove and beyond the debt they have from their undergraduate degreesin order to finance their education.

Graduate students also lack essential benefits like vision and dental insurance, despite Columbia having an endowment of $10 billion. According to the College Hill Independent, Researchers and TAs also face late or irregular paychecks, jeopardizing their housing and financial security.

These stipends must sustain university workers in one of the most expensive cities on Earth, especially in terms of housing. A 2015 report estimated that a worker would need to make $44.60 an hour to have the median Manhattan rent be considered affordable (under 30 percent of income).

Graduate students broader grievances are motivated in part by their increased workload, as higher education becomes increasingly corporatized. The College Hill Independent reports, With the decline of tenured or tenure-track jobs in academia, from 57 percent in 1957 to 30 percent in 2011 according to the New Yorker, graduate workers are taking on a steadily rising amount of universities undergraduate instruction and research, often with low pay or uncertain funding.

Graduate students voted to unionize in December 2016 after a protracted legal dispute. The GWC was certified last year by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) as the students bargaining representative. Columbia administrators have refused to bargain with the union in a blatant violation of labor law, and have pursued legal action, arguing that Columbia graduate students have no right to organize.

The case is being decided through appellate courts rather than before the NLRB. Both the unions and the university note that the NLRB, based on its composition of Democratic or Republican appointees, has issued contradictory rulings on whether graduate students at private universities have the right to organize. Graduate student unions at Yale University, Boston College and the University of Chicago have all withdrawn petitions for recognition by the NLRB rather than face an unfavorable ruling from the board, whose majority now consists of Trump administration appointees.

Columbia Provost John Coatsworth, in an email prior to the strike, announced that the university will circulate contingency plans that fully respect both the right of strikers to express their views and the right of all students and faculty to continue teaching and learning. In other words, the university will work to have the strike have as little impact as possible.

The email concludes, Columbia is a world-class university and our responsibility is to protect and enhance what makes it soeven when it means standing up for what we believe is essential to do that, including when others in our community hold sharply different views. That is what makes Columbia a uniquely vibrant academic community ... This statement, which fraudulently portrays the dispute as a difference of opinion, akin to an academic debate, is aimed at concealing the universitys insistence that grad workers remain a cheap labor force with no rights.

Students are willing to fight for living wages and decent conditions. However, students cannot rely on the GWC-UAW or other graduate student unions to carry forward their struggle. The GWC has already announced the strike will end April 30, even if the administration does not agree to bargain, and the unions have every intention to isolate the struggle as they have done to countless other betrayed strikes.

The GWC-UAW has pledged to end the strike before finals begin, minimizing its impact and letting the administration know it can wait out the students. The Columbia Spectator has also reported that the union will not require any graduate students to participate in the strike, so graduate students may continue grading and teaching classes throughout the course of the strike.

Columbia students must assimilate the lessons of the 12-day strike by graduate students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where the Graduate Employees Union-Illinois Federation of Teachers (GEO-IFT) was able to push through a deal that keeps students wages thousands of dollars below the minimum living wage in the area and did not contain guaranteed tuition waivers.

GWC, like GEO, is allied with the Democratic Party, which has pioneered attacks on education nationally and in New York. The UAW has sought to organize university workers because it has lost over a million members in the auto industry due to decades of collaboration with the corporations and the government in the downsizing of the industry and the impoverishment of autoworkers. The UAW is currently mired in a corruption scandal after its negotiators accepted bribes from Fiat Chrysler Automotive to sign company friendly contracts, which included, among other things, the halving of wages of new hires and a vast expansion of part-time workers.

Graduate students allies in the fight for decent working conditions and accessible education are students and workers internationally, not the unions and the capitalist parties to which they kowtow. University students in France are engaging in protests and occupations against restrictions to higher education and in support of striking workers. Teachers in Arizona will begin a statewide strike on April 26 and lecturers in Kenya have been on strike for weeks. Lecturers in the United Kingdom and teachers in Oklahoma and West Virginia are still restless after their strikes were sold out by the unions.

The International Youth and Students for Social Equality and its parent organization, the Socialist Equality Party, fight for the unity of the working class internationally to guarantee decent jobs and basic social rights, including the right to a free high-quality education.

To pursue this fight, Columbia University graduate students must break from the UAW and form a rank-and-file committee that will fight for the active support of teachers, health care workers and every other section of the powerful working class in New York City.

Students interested in taking up this struggle should contact the IYSSE.

The author also recommends:

Columbia University refuses to recognize graduate student union

[9 February 2018]
America is strong and roaring back. Paychecks are climbing. Tax rates are going down. Businesses are investing in our great country. And most important, the American people are winning, wrote Donald Trump in a guest column published by USA Today and various newspapers across the United States last week.

These lying words stand in sharp contrast to the reality facing millions of households across the country who are struggling to put food on the table, keep a roof over their heads and maintain their health. In what can be described only as a sadistic crusade, the ruling elite is waging a war against the most vulnerable segments of American society in the form of cuts to social programs on which people depend to keep them from plunging further into poverty and despair.

While Trump and corporate boardrooms celebrate the booming economy and the rising stockpiles of cash for the super-rich, they are seeking ways to gut what remains of the social safety net for millions of workers and the poor. A key component of this assault is the imposition of work requirements for recipients of Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps.

With the aim of expanding work requirements, earlier this month President Trump ordered the secretaries of six federal departments to seek out new ways to gut existing programs and impose onerous work requirements for continuing assistance. Medicaid, food stamps, housing assistance and welfare programs all face being substantially diminished by the presidents executive order.

More than 67 million people are currently covered by Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor jointly administered by the federal government and the states. About 1.7 million of these could be impacted by work requirements being proposed in 10 states, according to a recent report by the PwC Health Research Institute. Those targeted by the work requirements account for nearly $8 billion in annual medical expenditures and it is these funds that the federal and state governments want to claw back to the greatest extent possible.

With a straight face, Trump administration officials told state Medicaid directors in January that work or community engagement requirements would promote better mental, physical, and emotional health and help families rise out of poverty and attain independence. In fact, it would punish the unemployed or under-employed by pushing them into deeper poverty and robbing them of health insurance in the bargain.

An estimated 42 million people receive SNAP benefits, with the average benefit per household only about $128 a month. Republicans have proposed work requirement provisions in the farm bill now going through Congress that would, if enacted, reduce benefits for 2 million people or eliminate them altogether, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

The measure would require most adults, ages 18 to 59, to work at least 20 hours a week, enroll in job training, or look for work under the supervision of a case manager. All but the elderly would be required to present utility bills. In a particularly cruel twist, those current SNAP beneficiaries most likely to face cutbacks would be in working householdsthose with members who work but are paid wages so low that they qualify for food assistance.

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), many people would be cut off because they would be unable to document working 20 hours a week, their employers would cut their work hours below 20, or they could not work due to a mental or physical health problem but did not submit the necessary paperwork to document their condition.

The bill would allocate only $1 billion a year for employment, vastly underfunding programs that would have to provide places for some 3 million people or more each month who are not employed. The intent is clear: compel people to adhere to impossible work requirements, set up sham work training programs andwhen they do not complyaxe their benefits.

Wisconsin has been in the forefront of the attack on food stamp beneficiaries. In February, the state passed a law prohibiting food stamp recipients from owning a car valued at more than $20,000. This regulation means that in order to receive the already inadequate SNAP benefits, a family would need to divest itself of a reliable vehicle, the only way in many areas to commute to work.

In 2013, Wisconsins governor, Republican Scott Walker, signed legislation requiring childless adults who are not disabled to work at least 20 hours a week or attend training programs at a few scattered centers across the state in order to continue receiving food stamps.

Walker also pushed the ban on SNAP recipients owning $20,000 cars with the preposterous declaration that he wanted to ensure that people with giant mansions and fancy cars dont get welfare checks while hardworking taxpayers have to pay the bill. This from a man who lives in the governors mansion in Oak Bluffwith 34 rooms, 13 bathrooms and seven bedrooms and fireplacesand is driven around by state police escort, all at taxpayers expense.

This attack on food stamp benefits in Wisconsin has yielded a 28 percent reduction in SNAP spending, from $1.2 billion in 2013 to about $867 million in 2017, according to a detailed report Monday in the Washington Post. State officials report that only 25,000 of 700,000 food stamp recipients in the state have found work, while more than 86,000 people were cut off food stamps but did not report getting jobs.

Such cuts have a dual purpose: slashing expenditure to finance additional tax cuts for the wealthy, and driving the starving poor into low-wage employment at new centers of capitalist exploitation like that being set up for Foxconn, the giant Taiwanese subcontractor for Apple and other consumer electronics firms. Foxconn has found that it can operate just as profitably in southeast Wisconsin, with cheap labor and state tax breaks, as in its notorious sweatshops in southern China.

As Trump and the Republicans plan the expansion of work requirements for social programs, Democrats in Congress have offered a tepid response. Predictably, Senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts have put forward legislation which they know has no chance of passing, but allows them to pose as champions of the countrys most vulnerable children. Their SNAP for KIDS Act would increase food aid for school-age children by a measly $42 a month.

These maneuvers cannot disguise the joint responsibility of the two corporate-controlled parties for the catastrophe confronting the working class.

It was Democratic President Bill Clinton who modeled his destruction of welfare as we know it in 1996, ending the federal entitlement with the passage of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families act, on the example of Governor Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin (1987-2001), who limited how long the poor could receive cash assistance. Clintons welfare reform yielded the intended results, reducing the number of families on welfare from 12.4 million in 1996 to 4.6 million in 2012.

Now, while President Trump has touted the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 as a boon to hiring, two-thirds of respondents to a survey by the National Association for Business Economics say the tax cuts have not changed their plans about hiring and investment.

Rather, the acts impact in increasing the national debt by an estimated $1.5 trillion over 10 years has been seized upon by retiring Speaker of the House Paul Ryan of Wisconsin to call for entitlement reform in the form of deeper cuts to Medicaid and food stamps, but with the ultimate aim of dismantling Medicare, the health insurance program for the elderly, and the Social Security retirement program.
Before French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Washington, DC for a three-day state visit last night, he granted an extensive interview to Fox News calling for long-term NATO war in Syria. As tensions between Europe and America continue to mount over Trumps threats of trade war and of an assault against Iran, the major imperialist powers are trying to resolve their differences on the basis of an aggressive militarist program.

These proposals are a warning that Macrons calls for a return to the draft in France, and similar calls in Sweden and across Europe are directly bound up with plans for escalating war. Faced with the collapse of their proxy forces military position in the seven-year war in Syria, the major NATO powers are preparing an aggressive escalation in the Middle East that will require vastly larger forces, and to push to recruit those forces among the youth.

Fox News reporter Chris Wallace began with a question obliquely referring to the mounting internal crisis in the United States. Wallace asked if the nomination of a special counsel investigating Trump affected the US presidencys international credibility, and if Macron thought Trump would serve out his term in office.

Macron, who came to office last year with France under a state of emergency suspending basic democratic rights and wrote many of its provisions into a new antiterrorist law, clumsily tried to dismiss the significance of the unprecedented factional warfare in Washington: You have your system. You are a free country with a rule of law, which isI mean, very good, I have the same in my country.

Despite mounting speculation and alarm in ruling elites internationally over the meltdown in Washington and the threat to the political survival of the US president, Macron improbably claimed that it did not concern him: I never wonder about that. I mean, I work with him (Trump) because both of us are very much in the service of our country.

Asked about the NATO proxy war in Syria, Macron insisted that he believed that it was vital for French interests that the United Statesand, implicitly, its European alliesexert control over the former French colony. We will have to build the new Syria afterward, and thats why I think the U.S. hold is very important, he said.

Macron continued, I will be very blunt. The day we will finish this war against ISIS, if we leave, definitely and totally, even from a political point of view, we will leave the floor to the Iranian regime, Bashar al-Assad and his guys, and they will prepare the new war. They will fuel the new terrorists. So, my point is to say, even after the end of the war against ISIS, the US, France, our allies, all the countries of the region, even Russia and Turkey, will have a very important role to play in order to create this new Syria and ensure Syrian people to decide for the future.

Macrons justification for the war drive against Syria was, as usual, a pack of lies. It is not the Syrian regime and its Iranian allies, but the Islamist rebel militias and their Saudi and NATO allies, that carried out terrorist attacks in Syria and across Europe. The pretense that an endless war in Syria would serve to fight terrorism is a political fraud, underscored by the fact that already in 2012, US officials admitted they were fighting in Syria in an alliance with Al Qaeda-linked groups.

The war on terror is simply a convenient pretext for the major imperialist powers to assert their financial and strategic interests in the oil-rich heart of the Eurasian landmass, and to escalate attacks on democratic rights at home. At the same time, it allows the major NATO powers to posture as united, despite the growing and explosive commercial and military rivalries between them, which twice in the 20th century exploded into world war.

Wallace asked Macron about two key disputes between Washington and the European Union (EU), on US threats to suspend the Iranian nuclear treaty and to impose trade tariffs on EU exports to the United States. The responses of the French president suggested mounting confusion and panic in ruling circles in Paris, faced with the growing threat that US policies will provoke a collapse of trading relations and large-scale wars with nuclear-armed enemies.

On US threats of trade war against Europe, Macron baldly predicted that Trump will not implement these new tariffs and he will decide for an exemption for the European Union. You dont make trade war with your ally Its too complicated if you make war against everybody. You make trade war against China, trade war against Europe, war in Syriacome on, it doesnt work. You need allies. We are the ally.

Macron restated the position of the major European powers, which are all hostile to Trumps threats to scrap the 2015 Iranian nuclear treaty. He called the treaty a perfect thing for our relationship with Iran, no. But for nuclear, what do you have as a better option? I dont see it. What is the what-if scenario, or your plan B? I dont have any plan B...

Macron expressed doubts as to whether Trumps threats could take credit for forcing North Korea to negotiate with Washington over its nuclear arsenal, and insisted that he wanted to work with Russian President Vladimir Putin while also blaming Moscow for alleged fake news.

Macrons remarks are a warning that the world capitalist system is passing through a mortal crisis. Notwithstanding the deep and growing tensions between US imperialism and its European counterparts, all of them are set on a course of escalating war. After a quarter century of imperialist war across the Middle East and Africa since the first Gulf War against Iraq and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Paris just like Washington is moving for a neocolonial redivision of the world.

Macron joined in the US-led missile strikes on Syria on April 14, which risked provoking a direct military clash with Russian forces stationed in Syria and showed that the world is on the brink of a conflict between the major nuclear-armed powers.

Macrons visit itself points to growing conflicts among the NATO powers themselves provoked by their attempts to redivide the world among them. Trumps invitation to Macron for a three-day visit, including a joint press conference today and an address to both houses of the US Congress tomorrow, contrasts very sharply with the treatment of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Her invitation for a one-day working visit on Friday, after the three-day state visit accorded to Macron, amounts to a deliberate US snub to Berlin.

Coming only shortly after Berlin and Paris announced plans to lead the EU in the formation of a European army, which provoked US concern and demands for assurances that these plans would be compatible with the NATO alliance, this amounts to an attempt to split the Berlin-Paris axiscoming as Berlin has indicated its opposition to Macrons calls for a reform of the EUs financial institutions, and amid growing jockeying after Brexit between the European powers over which EU power can develop the closest relations with Washington after Britain leaves the EU.

Despite their bitter differences among each other, the ruling elites are united in insisting that the working class be made to pay for the military build-up and plans for war, despite growing opposition and strike struggles by the working class.

Asked by Wallace whether he could defend his policy of increasing taxes on retirees in order to fund a multibillion-euro tax cut for the rich, Macron brazenly defended it as a necessary measure to keep business from leaving France. He replied that he thought the measure was fair, adding: Because when people succeeded with a company and so on, especially entrepreneurs, they had to leave the country if they wanted to escape. So, we lost a lot of opportunities.

Asked about strikes in the railway industry against plans to privatize the national railways and slash rail workers wages and social rights, Macron said: I know the situation, I know what is fair and unfair, and what can be delivered and what cannot be delivered.
The C.K.G. Billings Harness Driving Series will kick off its 37th season on Sunday, April 29 at Miami Valley Raceway.

The schedule will then call for a leg at Freehold Raceway on Saturday, May 5 and then at the Meadowlands Racetrack on Friday, May 11.

Following that there will be competitions at various racetracks in the United States and Canada almost weekly until the end of November.

The Billings will again be run under the auspices of the Delvin Miller Harness Drivers Association.

The series, which began in the early 1980s, is considered the Grand Circuit of Amateur Racing. Known for its constant travelling sideshow over the years, some of the top amateur drivers in North America compete, or have competed, in it. And because of the success of the Billings, a multitude of amateur clubs have now become part of the harness racing landscape.

At seasons end the Gold & Silver Cup Finals will be held at Yonkers Raceway on November 26th.

Yonkers has graciously offered to host the races at our normal purse level. They will feature the Gold Cup on their France simulcast program, which should be a great showcase for amateur racing here in the States, said CKG Billings Series President Tony Verruso.

There is a very big amateur colony in Europe, so it will be very nice to put on a good show for them. We will have to go with 10 horses at one and a quarter miles as all the French races do.

To become a member of the Delvin Miller Harness Drivers Association, or for a complete listing of conditions and nominating costs, please contact Verruso at [email protected] or Billings Series VP Steve Oldford at [email protected].

(With files from the Billing Series)
As tensions heighten between the US and China, an encounter between Australian and Chinese naval vessels reportedly occurred on April 15. Though both sides disputed the facts of the event, international media outlets gave it prominent coverage, depicting it as a Chinese challenge to Australian warships.

From the limited details provided in media and government statements, it appears that Chinese naval forces approached three Australian warships as they transited from the Philippines to Vietnam to participate in joint training exercises with Vietnamese forces. The encounter occurred when the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) was conducting large military exercises in the South China Sea.

The precise course of the Australian ships remains unclear, and whether this would have brought them near Chinese exercises or military facilities, prompting the PLAN to engage them, is unknown.

No information has been provided on the actual interaction between the ships. The Australian Defence Department refused to answer any questions, saying only that communication between the ships was polite but robust. However, the Australian Defence Force did confirm the identities of the ships involvedthe frigates HMAS Anzac and HMAS Toowoomba, and the resupply ship HMAS Success.

Australian government officials have been similarly tight-lipped. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull refused to confirm any details of the incident while insisting that Australia had every right to conduct freedom of navigation operations and overflight operationsa phrase used by the US to refer to challenges to Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea.

Other government figures echoed this sentiment, including Minister for Defence Industry Christopher Pyne, who said the encounter was routine and media reports had been exaggerated.

The Chinese Defence Ministry disputed the Australian accounts of the incident as different from the facts, but did not provide any further information, other than to say that PLAN ships had robustly challenged the Australian vessels. The implication of the statement is that the Australian ships had in some way neared territory claimed by China.

Australia has not officially conducted US-style freedom of navigation operations within the 12-mile exclusion zones of various islets claimed by China in the South China Sea. Accusing China of militarising the South China Sea, the US has used these operations to directly challenge Chinese holdings.

Such military provocations are reckless and risk triggering war between the US and China. Nevertheless, the US has continued these operations, conducting one barely more than a month ago.

The US is not even a signatory to the international maritime laws it quotes against China. Additionally, other countries, including the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia, control similar numbers of islands to China in the region, undermining the claims about Chinese expansionism propagated by the US and its allies.

Washington has also asked Australia to conduct similar operations, in order to lend its actions a veneer of legitimacy. Those making such calls include the recently-named US ambassador to Australia, Admiral Harry Harris, who is a hawkish advocate of increased military action against China.

There has been no evidence presented by either the Australian or Chinese authorities to confirm or deny that a freedom of navigation operation was underway when the Australian ships were approached.

There are fears within the Australian ruling elite, particularly among mining, agricultural and education businesses, that China, their largest trading partner, may retaliate economically to such provocations.

Nevertheless, major media outlets, especially in Australia and the US, have portrayed the event in the South China Sea as a substantial military confrontation. In Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the Murdoch-owned media both ran headlines such as: Australian warships challenged by Chinese military in South China Sea. The Washington Post was equally inflammatory in its rhetoric, with its article on the incident titled: Australia wont abandon S. China Sea patrols after encounter.

Whatever the true events or motives behind the face off in the South China Sea, the attention paid to it by the media reflects the growing tensions in the region. As a result, an incident that in previous years would have been treated as a trivial encounter between two navies became world news.

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Mass demonstrations took place across Nicaragua yesterday against an executive decree that drastically cuts pensions and requires workers and employers to contribute more to the near-bankrupt Nicaraguan Social Security Institute (INSS). The protests grew even after President Daniel Ortega, the former commander of the Sandinista Front for National Liberation (FSLN), canceled the proposed pension reform that was demanded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

After nearly a week of protests, the Red Cross reports 428 injured and anti-government NGOs say 27 were dead by Sunday.

The demonstrations began last Wednesday with marches by pensioners and public university students in Managua and Leon. Over the next few days, the protests spread to other major cities and towns across the country and have increased in size and militancy in response to deadly repression by the state forces. Sandinista youth groups have also functioned as pro-government shock groups, inflicting violence on demonstrators.

After criminalizing protests and threatening to step up the repression on Saturday, Ortega retreated Sunday, calling for negotiations with business organizations, trade unions and the Catholic Church.

The right wing is intervening in the demonstrations to calm social tensions and block the growth of opposition to Ortegas capitalist government. Although the IMF reform was intended to make Nicaragua a more attractive investment for Wall Street and foreign capitala prospect which the top business organization, Cosep, welcomesbig business has disagreements with the way the plan was implemented.

First, they opposed the pension reform measure from the right, demanding lower contributions from business. Second, they fear the measure was introduced in a provocative manner and are now engaged in a full scale effort to pre-empt working class opposition, including by locking out employees Monday and urging workers to participate in a march in the capital, Managua, against the reform. Cosep has collaborated closely with the FSLN government on economic policy since Ortega returned to power in 2007, but is now using the demonstrations to pressure the government for further pro-business concessions.

After the temporary cancellation of the decree, the official FSLN press claims that everything has gone back to normal were revealed as wishful thinking.

Tensions remain at fever pitch. The demands of the protests by university students and demonstrators across the country has grown to include demands that the government halt state repression. On Sunday night, police brutally cracked down on student protesters at the Polytechnic University (Upoli) in Managua. Students had formed barricades to defend themselves from the anti-riot police and pro-government groups, and the crackdown left four students dead. There are growing popular calls for overthrowing the Ortega government.

The authorities described the Upoli crackdown as a clash between gangs and denied any police involvement. They also announced the second death of a police officer, which occurred on Saturday, a further signal that the death toll will continue to mount.

On Monday, the demonstration organized by Cosep was joined by tens of thousands with Nicaraguan flags who marched toward Upoli to accompany the students.

The government deployed the military in some areas after government and FSLN buildings were attacked and burned on Friday night. A spokesperson for the army announced that starting Monday all vital areas in Managua would be occupied, including the main highways entering the city, presumably to prevent roadblocks. Classes have been canceled since last Friday until further notice and the US embassy instructed the families of its officials to leave the country.

The US State Department released its first press statement on the protests, condemning the violence by police and others against civilians and urging calm. On Monday, three US House representatives who are sponsoring the Nicaragua Investment Conditionality Act, led by Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, denounced the crackdown and called on the Senate to take up their bill, which would cut credit access to the country from international financial institutions until it takes significant steps to restore democratic order.

These imperialist machinations, however, have nothing to do with respecting democratic rights. The US has orchestrated countless coups, carried out invasions to install puppet regimes, and regularly conducted electoral fraud across the region to elect pro-Wall Street leaders. Most recently, the US backed the electoral fraud and bloody repression by the death-squad regime in Honduras last November, which left up to 30 protesters dead.

The main concern of Washington is that the FSLN bureaucracy has sought to maneuver between economic and military ties with the US and its two main rivals, Russia and China. For instance, the Nicaraguan military has recently carried out military exercises with both US and Russian troops and called on both countries to help replenish its equipment.

As the US deepens its global confrontation against Russia and China, it is increasing its pressure on the Ortega government to bow down to US demands to undercut its rivals influence from Central America. In this way, sections of the Nicaraguan elite more closely aligned with US imperialism, like the opposition Broad Front for Democracy (FAD), have used the genuine mass protests against pension cuts as a means to advance this pro-imperialist agenda.

This is highlighted by the murder of journalist Angel Gahona whose death was captured on Facebook live on Saturday. Gahona ran a local news program in Bluefields where he was covering protests against the INSS reform when he was shot in the head, apparently by a sharpshooter.

The government claimed Gahona worked for the pro-FSLN Channel 6 and that he was killed by right-wing criminal groups. However, Gahonas wife and colleague told the BBC that he was targeted for reporting the repression. Another journalist at the scene, Ileana Lacayo, presented herself as an organizer of the protests along with Gahona, and declared on 100% Noticias, a channel censored by the government, that the government itself was to blame for Gahonas death.

Ileana Lacayo identifies herself on social media as a journalist for the program Community Action for Reading and Security (CARS), which, along with a similar program called CARSI, are the top-listed receivers of USAID money so far in 2018 (just under $1 million each), supposedly to help at-risk youth. However, Lacayo sought to separate her own peaceful march from the independent angry protests Saturday night by youth in Bluefields, located in the South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region. Pro-US elements close to Cosep are likely involved in the demonstrations in an attempt to take advantage of genuine opposition to pension reforms and channel protests in a right-wing direction.

However, the demonstrations are of a popular, left-wing character. Students have denounced the fact that their older family members who receive a meager income, on average about $150 a month, which will be cut 5 percent (alongside cuts of 12 percent for future pensioners). The FSLN has demonstrated since it came to power in 1979 that it is a defender of the interests of the national bourgeoisie and a collaborator with US imperialism.
The continuing massacre on the heavily militarized border dividing the Gaza Strip from Israel is a calculated and deliberate war crime carried out by the Israeli government with the backing of Washington.

The death toll among unarmed Palestinians participating in the Great March of Return, which began on March 30, rose to at least 40 Monday with the deaths of two demonstrators who had earlier suffered grievous gunshot wounds.

One of them, Tahrir Mahmoud Wahba, was 18 years old and deaf. He had clung to life for 10 days after being shot in the head by an Israeli sniper during the mass protest of April 13. Another youth, Abdullah Muhammad al-Shamali, 20, died late Sunday night from wounds he suffered during last Fridays demonstration.

The latest deaths follow the fatal shooting last Friday of four Gazan demonstrators, including 14-year-old Mohammed Ibrahim Ayoub.

In addition to the dead, some 5,000 Palestinians have been wounded in the protests from live ammunition, rubber bullets and gas attacks. Of these, 1,600 have been struck down by live ammunition, many of them suffering wounds that will leave them impaired for life.

Vastly disproportionate and highly lethal violence has been unleashed against the tens of thousands of Gazans who have gathered each Friday along the Israeli border fence not because of any imminent security threat their protest poses to Israel. Rather, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been given shoot-to-kill orders in an effort to suppress the existential challenge posed to the Zionist state by the demand the demonstrations are raising: the rightrecognized under international law and affirmed by United Nations resolutionsof Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to the homes and villages from which they were violently expelled seven decades ago.

What is most striking about the Gaza demonstrations is the utter indifference shown by Western governments and their stenographers in the corporate media to the scenes of unarmed demonstrators marching again and again into gunfire to demand their rights and to protest against the appalling conditions in the Gaza Strip, justifiably described as the largest open-air prison on the planet.

One can well imagine the response to similar scenes were they taking place in Russia, China, Syria, Iran, North Korea or Venezuela. Nikki Haley would be using her seat on the UN Security Council to issue blistering denunciations of atrocities, threats of military force and hypocritical invocations of human rights. The killings would dominate the front pages of every newspaper and lead the broadcast news.

In the case of Gaza, however, the reaction is one of complicity, indifference and silence. At a US State Department press briefing last Friday on the release of the agencys new global human rights reports, officials repeatedly refused to take any questions on the slaughter in Gaza. The report released relating to Israel dropped all references to occupied territoriesa term used by successive American governments since 1967signaling Washingtons acceptance of Israels colonial oppression and ultimate annexation of the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights.

While the US media has endlessly repeated the discredited lies about a chemical weapons attack in Syria, airing again and again a videoexposed as a staged hoaxof people being hosed down in a clinic, none of them has bothered to send a reporter to the clinics in Gaza, overflowing with wounded and confronting shortages of even the most basic medical supplies due to the blockade by Israeland Egyptof the occupied territory.

The most significant coverage in the American media has been given to the statement by Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman declaring her refusal to attend an awards ceremony in Israel. She published a statement over the weekend saying that Israel was created exactly 70 years ago as a haven for refugees from the Holocaust. But the mistreatment of those suffering from todays atrocities is simply not in line with my Jewish values.

Portman, who holds dual US-Israeli citizenship, is not an opponent of Zionism, which in some ways makes her reaction to the slaughter in Gaza all the more significant. The response of leading Israeli political figures has been vicious, charging her with being a dupe of Hamas and engaging in conduct bordering on anti-Semitism.

One Knesset member of the Kulanu party, part of Benjamin Netanyahus right-wing government, offered a more sober assessment. Natalie Portmans cancellation should be a warning sign, tweeted lawmaker Rachel Azaria. Shes totally one of us, identifies with her Jewishness and Israeliness. Shes expressing the voices of many in US Jewry, and particularly those of the younger generation. This is a community that was always a significant anchor for the State of Israel and the price of losing it is likely to be too high.

It is indeed a warning sign. Despite the media blackout and US government support, masses of people around the world, including millions of Jews in the US and other countries, are disgusted and dismayed by the scenes unfolding on Gazas border.

These killings are not an aberration, but flow from the malignant contradictions underlying the state of Israel and the intensifying crisis gripping its society and government. A regime compelled to carry out such crimes is inherently unstable.

With the 70th anniversary of Israels founding only weeks away, the Zionist myth that the carving out of a Jewish state in Palestineby driving three quarters of a million Palestinians from their homeswould secure peace and security for the Jewish people after the horrors of the Holocaust is unraveling.

The killings on the Gaza border are the horrific expression of the impossibility of resolving the Palestinian question within the framework of the existing capitalist nation-state system. Both the right-wing Netanyahu government and US imperialism have effectively jettisoned the so-called two-state solutionalways a political fiction, but now a patent impossibility given the uninterrupted growth of Israeli settlements and security zones in the occupied West Bank.

The March of Return is itself a manifestation of the disillusionment of the Palestinian people with the conception that their rights and aspirations can be realized through the creation of some divided mini-state led by the corrupt Palestinian bourgeoisie. Every political faction, from the collaborationist Palestinian Authority of Abbas to the bourgeois Islamist Hamas, has been discredited.

The Israeli state, mired in corruption and beset by deep social contradictions, is driven to carry out ever greater repression and prepare ever more dangerous wars, first and foremost against Iran, posing the threat of a regional and even global conflagration.

Israeli society ranks second only to the US as the most unequal among the Organization for Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. Its poverty rate is almost double the OECD average, with fully one third of the countrys children living in poverty. At the opposite end of the social spectrum is a small layer of tycoons who have reaped fortunes from the countrys export markets while controlling all of the major political parties.

As in Iran, Tunisia and elsewhere in the region, as well as internationally, these conditions are creating the conditions for a resurgence of class struggle within Israel. Last December saw factory occupations and protests against mass layoffs by workers at Teva, the worlds largest generic drug manufacturer, accompanied by a half-day general strike by both private and public-sector workers.

In Israel, as in every other country, it is class, rather than race, religion or ethnicity, that is the fundamental driving force. The way out of the bloodletting, repression, reaction and war that are the stock-in-trade of the Israeli state on its 70th anniversary lies in the development of a unified struggle of Arab and Jewish workers against capitalism, for the building of a socialist society and the eradication of the irrational national borders that divide the region.

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On Saturday, hundreds of police descended on the town of Newnan, Georgia to protect a small rally of neo-Nazis from anti-fascist counterprotesters, arresting several protesters under a 1951 law designed to prevent the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan (KKK) from demonstrating in public.

The rally, which took place Saturday afternoon, drew only about two dozen members of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement, who stood in black clothing on a platform chanting White Power and giving the Heil Hitler salute while police stood guard nearby.

Seven hundred police officers from 42 different agencies descended on the small city 40 miles southwest of Atlanta Saturday, dressed in full riot gear and carrying military-style assault rifles.

At least 100 people showed up to demonstrate in opposition to the rally, including some members of Antifa. Some of the counterprotesters wore bandannas or masks to hide their identities. Before the anti-fascist protesters could get near the white supremacists, however, they were headed off by heavily armed police units.

Around 2:30 p.m., police began pointing their assault rifles at counter-protestors and threatening them with arrest. One SWAT officer shouted: State law requires you to remove your masks right now. You will do it right now or you will be arrested.

Within minutes, police started grabbing those wearing masks from the crowd, slamming them to the ground and placing them in handcuffs, yelling Remove your masks! Horrified protesters held up their hands and shouted Hands up, dont shoot.

They were trying to find any pretext to shut us down, Daniel Hanley, who was arrested for blocking a pedestrian roadway, told the Atlanta Journal Constitution. He said he believed that he was singled out for carrying a megaphone and leading the crowd in chants. Hanley continued, The moment we stepped foot there, they intimidated us and strategically tried to target people.

At least 10 anti-fascist protesters were arrested, most for wearing masks and a few others for obstructing roadways or similar offenses. Tellingly, not a single one of the neo-Nazis was arrested and police never made any attempt to confront them. The police presence, which outweighed by several times the combined numbers of the neo-Nazis and counterdemonstrators, was a clear attempt to intimidate the counterprotesters in support of the white supremacists.

In arresting demonstrators for wearing masks, the police cited a 1951 Georgia law known as the Anti-Mask Act, which was designed to curtail public gatherings of the Ku Klux Klan. The law prohibits a person from wearing hoods, masks, or other items to conceal the persons identity while on public property or even on private property without the permission of the property owner, under most circumstances. Exceptions are carved out for theatrical productions, sporting events, holidays, and civil emergencies.

One of the central justifications cited by lawmakers in support of the laws passage was an incident two years prior in which a KKK rally on the eve of an election prevented 400 African-American voters from going to the polls on election day. Over the following decades, the law was primarily employed against white supremacists demonstrating in public.

Several court rulings upheld the law citing the need to curtail masked vigilantes from engaging in public intimidation, obviously referring to the KKK and other groups whose explicit goal is to terrorize minority groups and their defenders into submission.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, 18 states enacted similar laws during the 20th Century, mostly between the 1920s and 1950s.

However, in recent years so-called anti-mask laws have been employed almost exclusively to arrest and prosecute left-wing and anti-fascist protesters in several states. New York used its own anti-mask law as a pretext to arrest Occupy Wall Street demonstrators wearing Guy Fawkes masks during the crackdown on the Occupy protests coordinated by the Obama administration in 2011 and 2012.

In 2016, eight demonstrators were arrested at a white supremacist rally in Georgia for wearing masks while protesting a similar neo-Nazi rally at Stone Mountain Park. Last year, police in Alabama employed a similar law against Antifa protesters arriving at an event hosted by the notorious white supremacist figure Richard Spencer.

The use of anti-mask laws to break up demonstrations against white supremacist and far-right organizations is highly significant. By standing the intent of the laws on its head, the state is creating a precedent for the repressive tactics that will be employed to suppress popular protests and strikes as the working class enters into mass struggle.

The use of anti-Klan laws to protect fascist groups marks yet another step in the international drive by the ruling classes of all capitalist nations toward authoritarian forms of rule in preparation for the wars and revolutionary struggles to come.
Thousands of teachers across Arizona participated in walk-in protests yesterday and today, lining up outside schools with students and parents before walking in together, in the lead-up to this Thursdays statewide walkout. The walkout will coincide with strikes by teachers in Colorado, which have forced school districts to close on Thursday and Friday.

In the wake of this years nine- and ten-day walkouts by educators in Oklahoma and West Virginia, which were only ended due to the betrayals of the National Education Association (NEA) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT), there is enormous support among teachers for a united struggle in defense of the right to public education.

Arizona teachers have rejected the proposal by Republican Governor Doug Ducey for a 20 percent wage rise, staged over three years, which would do nothing for other school employees, or resolve the systematic cuts to the education budget over the past decade by more than $1 billion. The raise would also be funded through brutal cuts to programs for people with developmental disabilities, state universities and hospitals, and Medicaid for low-income adults and children.

Rats caught by a teacher in Arizona classroom [Source Arizona Educators United Facebook page]

Arizona educators are among the lowest-paid in the country, many of them working one or two extra jobs, and pay anywhere from $500 to $2,000 per year out of pocket for school supplies for their students.

While the Arizona Education Association, the state affiliate of the NEA, has called for a walkout only on Thursday, a number of school districts have already been forced to announce they will close on Friday, and some on Monday, due to the large number of teachers who have already declared they will not be coming to work. Phoenix United High School District has signaled it will be forced to close until Monday. Judy, an Arizona teacher, told the WSWS that the teachers at her school will not be returning before the weekend.

From the outset, the strike has been driven by rank-and-file teachers, tens of thousands of whom joined a Facebook page, Arizona Educators United, initiated by teachers, in support of strike action. The administrators of the page, however, have no independence from the union, and appear alongside union officials in press conferences.

A walkin protest yesterday at Rincon High School in Tuscon, Arizona [Source Arizona Educators United Facebook Page]

The AEA is working to turn the walkout into a lobbying day at the capital and to shut down any broader strike action by channeling teachers opposition behind the election of Democrats in the November elections. This was the means by which the unions in Oklahoma and West Virginia shut down teacher strikes, sending educators back to work without meeting any of their main demands.

A video released by Stephanie Parra, the AEAs government relations director, on Sunday, declared, until we have the right governance in our state, we have got to be willing to take matters into our own hands. Its going to be up to us to go to voters ourselves and ask them to invest in our schools.

Above all, the unions are working to prevent the expanding wave of teachers strikes from linking up across states into a nationwide strike.

While the unions and the corporate media have presented the ongoing wave of teachers strikes as part of a red state rebellion against Republican governors and state legislatures, the teachers in Colorado are confronting no less determined enemies in Democratic governor John Hickenlooper and the state legislature, where both major parties control a majority in one of the two houses.

The role of the unions in isolating teachers and partnering with state governments was displayed in the states capital, Denver, where the unions reached an agreement with the school district last month to avert a walkout that would have taken place in the midst of the strikes in West Virginia and Oklahoma.

The Colorado Education Association had previously authorized strike action in Denver for midnight on March 15 upon the expiration of a pay-for-performance agreement with the school district. At the last minute, the union proposed that the hated merit pay scheme, which scapegoats teachers for the crisis of public education produced by cuts to funding and seeks to narrow the school curriculum by forcing them to teach to the test, be extended for a year, in order to prevent a walkout that would have risked triggering a statewide strike.

Union officials in other states across the country, including in Kentucky, Florida, North Carolina, Iowa and elsewhere, have issued statements opposing strike action and warning that they are standing atop a social powder keg.

The latest was Teresa Meredith, the president of the Indiana State Teachers Association, who told the Tribune Star on April 21, I think teachers are growing restless across the country and they just have reached a boiling point, adding that there was a growing unrest in our state. Meredith admitted that members are calling almost every day or emailing almost every day. They are asking, Why arent we marching? or responding in other ways.

She declared that the union would not be calling any strike action because the state legislature is not currently in session. I have to find the right path to lead them on, she said.

Discussions are taking place between teachers across different states, including via social media, in opposition to the unions efforts to shut down the strikes. Several teachers from Oklahoma and West Virginia have posted comments on the Arizona Educators United Facebook page, warning Arizona teachers not to trust the unions.

Carey, an Oklahoma teacher, wrote, Probably the two most important points to take away so far from Oklahoma is that your union will buckle to the pressure at some point and let you down, and leverage is your most valuable asset. He noted that the unions had decided to hold the walkout in Arizona after state testing occurred, thus limiting the damage to the government of any walkout. Abish, an Arizona teacher, commented in response, I do NOT like how the union has basically taken this over. They DO NOT speak for me.

A poll released yesterday conducted by Associated Press and the NORC Center for Research revealed the overwhelming support for the teachers struggles in the working class across the US. Of those polled, 78 percent believed that teachers are not paid enough, while only 15 percent believed they were paid the right amount, and 6 percent that they are overpaid. This is in spite of the efforts by Democrats and Republicans for more than three decades to scapegoat teachers for the crisis of public education.

The widespread support in the working class for the teachers struggle points to the real allies of educators. The mobilization of this support requires the formation of new organizations, rank-and-file committees, independent of the unions in every school, to take the struggle out of the hands of the strike-breaking unions, and to turn out to teachers and workers throughout the country in a common struggle to defend the right to high-quality public education.
Ten people were killed yesterday and at least 15 injured when a rented van mounted the sidewalk, then raced south for well over a mile in a busy commercial area of northern Toronto. Numerous witnesses said the driver appeared in a rage and deliberately veered to hit pedestrians.

At the time, the streets of downtown North York, an area that is home to large numbers of Chinese, Korean and Iranian immigrants, were full of people enjoying a warm sunny day after a long winter.

The first casualties were reported just after 1:30 p.m. local time.

Ultimately the vehicle came to a stop and the driver, on getting out, was challenged by a police officer who ordered him to get down on the ground.

At first, the driver did not do this. He shouted back Kill me several times, as well as repeatedly saying that he had a gun. The cop, gun in hand, responded by repeating his order for the suspect to lie on the ground. Eventually he did so.

Toronto police have identified the van driver as 25-year-old Alek Minassian of Richmond Hill, a Toronto suburb. They say Minassian was not previously known to them and have, as yet, filed no charges against him.

As of 11:00 p.m. Toronto time, police had said nothing about a possible motive, only that they have not definitively ruled anything out.

Earlier in the evening, federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said: The events that happened on the street behind us are horrendous. But they do not appear to be connected in any way to national security, based on the information available at this time.

Goodale and Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland were in downtown Toronto at the time of the pedestrian attack. They were hosting meetings with their G-7 counterparts in preparation for the annual G-7 summit, which will be held in Charlevoix, Quebec this June.

Like imperialist governments around the world, Canadas has systematically invoked the purported threat of Islamist terrorism since 2001 to justify a massive increase in the power and reach of the national security apparatus, and participation in a series of ruinous, predatory wars in the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia.

Stephen Harper and his Conservative government seized on two lone wolf attacks carried out by Islamist terrorist sympathizers in October 2014 to declare Canada under siege and push through legislation, Bill C-51, that gives the security-intelligence agencies sweeping new powers. These include virtually unlimited access to Canadians government-held personal information and the right for the countrys premier intelligence agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), to break virtually any law in disrupting threats to public security.

Justin Trudeau and his Liberals voted for Bill C-51, while claiming that it went too far. Predictably, however, their promise to fix it when they came to power resulted in few and largely cosmetic changes. And some of these gave Canadas signals intelligence agency and Five Eyes partner, the Communications Security Establishment, new powers to spy on Canadians and engage in cyber-war.

Commentators on US networks expressed surprise that the police did not open fire on Minassian when he did not immediately surrender. In fact, Canadian police have a long record of shooting, tasering, and killing people in obvious mental distress.

According to a recent CBC investigation, more than 70 percent of the 460 people who have died in encounters with police across Canada since 2000 suffered from mental health problems or substance abuse problems or both.

This includes 17-year-old Syrian immigrant Sammy Yatim, who was gunned down in 2013 by a Toronto cop on an immobilized streetcar after he had exposed himself and prevailed on all the passengers to disembark by wielding a knife. Following a public outcry, the cop who shot nine bullets into Yatims body was convicted, but only of attempted murder, because his lawyer successfully argued the initial volley of bullets that killed Yatim was justified.

For close to two decades, the Canadian public has been inundated with government and media propaganda about the threat of Islamist terrorism. Such propaganda almost invariably excludes any discussion of the relationship of forces such as Al Qaeda and ISIS to the machinations of US imperialism in the greater Middle East and of its allies, Canada included. The Ottawa Citizen did reveal, however, that Canadian Armed Forces personnel involved in the 2011 regime-change war in Libya referred to themselves as Al Qaedas air force.

For all the lurid accounts of the threat of Islamist terrorism, the most lethal terrorist attack in Canada since 2001 was the January 2017 attack on a Quebec City mosque, which left six worshippers dead. The shooter, Alexandre Bissonette, was an admirer of Donald Trump and Frances Marine Le Pen and heavily influenced by right-wing Quebec nationalists who have portrayed immigrants, especially Muslims, as a threat to Quebec values.
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Longtime Standardbred trainer Joan M. Brown, 79, of Harrisburg, Illinois, passed away on Saturday, April 21 at Harrisburg Medical Center.

She was born in Muscatine, Iowa, on January 11, 1939, to the late Alfred and Mary Jane (Schauland) Beach.

She was a member of the United States Trotting Association and the Kentucky Harness Horsemen's Association. She loved all animals but harness horses drew her special attention. She loved racing at county fairs, Quad City Downs, Fairmount Park, Maywood Park, Balmoral Park, the Red Mile and Bluegrass Downs where she was honoured as the tracks trainer of the year in 2014.

She relished the relationships she made with fellow trainers and drivers. She strived to race healthy, happy horses which included racing both trotters and pacers barefoot. Just a few of her standout pupils over the years included the free-legged sensation Purdue Boy and the hard-knocking trotters Alcatraz Boy, Bonfire Red and Strong Kiss.

She married David Brown on March 25, 1995 and he survives. Also surviving are her children, Fred Canarr, Chuck (Julie) Canarr, Lane (Julie) McDonald, Jody Canarr, Kelly Canarr and Robin (Mike) Dudley; 15 grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren.

Private funeral services will be held on Wednesday (April 25) at Watson Funeral Home in Eldorado, Ill. Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.watsonfuneralhome.net.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to New Vocations Racehorse Adoption at www.horseadoption.com.

Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Joan Brown.

(USTA)
Standardbred Canada is looking for an individual to fill an important role of SC Field Representative at Georgian Downs. The individual will also job share with the current representative.

This is a part time, contract position that requires working during the track's live racing and qualifiers.

Various duties will include, but are not limited to, entering race results on the SC database, the collection and input of memberships, renewals, invoices and eligibility fees. Input fines and suspensions, transfers of ownership, coggins, etc. and remit to Standardbred Canada on a regular basis.

Successful candidate must:

have a good knowledge of the Standardbred industry

be able to work in a co-operative environment with others

be able to type accurately

be available to train at a track designated for training

have reliable transportation

be able to meet deadlines for all responsibilities

If interested, please email your resume and cover letter to [email protected] with GEORGIAN DOWNS in the subject line, or fax to Valerie Boom at 905-858-8047 by Wednesday, May 9, 2018. No phone calls please.

We thank all those who apply, but only those applicants who are selected for an interview will be contacted.
Announcing the 2018 Winning Titles of the Christian Indie Awards

Contact: Sarah Bolme, Christian Small Publishers Association, 704-277-7194



CHARLOTTE, N.C., April 24, 2018 /Standard Newswire/ -- Christian Small Publishers Association (CSPA) is pleased to announce the winning titles for the 2018 Christian Indie Awards. The Christian Indie Awards honor books produced by small publishers and independent authors each year for outstanding contribution to Christian life.



Book lovers and retailers selling Christian products voted on the nominated titles in each of thirteen categories. "Independent publishers and small presses often publish unique books with story themes or topics that touch readers in new and profound ways," says Sarah Bolme, the Director of Christian Small Publishers Association, the sponsor of the award. "The Christian Indie Awards brings these books recognition."



The winners in each of the thirteen categories are:

Fiction:

Waiting for Butterflies, Karen Sargent, Walrus Publishing, 978-1940442204



Historical Fiction:

Solve by Christmas, Amber Schamel, Vision Writer Publications, 978-0999176726



Romance:

An Improper Proposal, Davalynn Spencer, 978-0998951201



Christian Living:

Pizza With Jesus (No Black Olives), P.J. Frick, Lighthouse Christian Publishing, 978-1546901709



Bible Study / Theology:

The Supremacy of Christ, Dr. William McCarrell and Rev. Richard McCarrell, Grace Acres Press, 978-1602650428



Devotional:

Delight Thyself Also In The Lord, Delight Thyself Design Ministries, Delight In Him Publications, 978-0999517505



Biography / Memoir:

Go West: 10 Principles that Guided My Cowboy Journey, Jeremy Sparks, Elevate Publishing,

978-0996465595



Relationships / Family:

Helicopter Mom, Bethany L. Douglas, 978-0983928867



Children's (age 4 to 8):

Made for a Purpose, Kristie Wilde, Wilde Art Press, 978-0997482805



Children's (age 8 to 12):

The Kool Kids & The Land Of The Giants, James Tate, author, Jay Reed, illustrator, Beyond W8 Loss, LLC, 978-0999131503



Young Adult (age 12+):

Huntress (Life After Book 1), Julie Hall, 978-0998986708



Gift Book:

Fear Not: You are in Partnership with God To Manage His Creation, Jose Bonilla, 978-1544144870



Christian Education:

Leading by Example: A Parental Guide To Teaching and Modeling Christian Faith At Home, Rev. Dr. Tim Tooten, Sr., 978-1545605318

The winning titles can be viewed at www.christianaward.com/2018winnners.



The Christian Indie Awards is sponsored by Christian Small Publishers Association (CSPA). A total of 189 titles were nominated for the award categories.



About Christian Small Publishers Association (CSPA):

CSPA represents and promotes small publishers and independent authors in the Christian marketplace. CSPA represents a membership of over 170 publishers and independent authors producing materials for the Christian Marketplace. CSPA is a supplier member of CBA. For more information about Christian Small Publishers Association visit www.christianpublishers.net.


French President Emmanuel Macron is arriving today in Washington for the first state visit of a foreign leader since President Donald Trump took office.

For the 40-year-old Frenchman, the three-day trip is an opportunity to demonstrate the strong relationship between France and the United States, but also to discuss the topics on which the two allies diverge.

Strong, deep, old and solid, Nicholas Dungan, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and a professor at Paris-based institute Sciences Po, said, describing the relationship between the United States and its oldest ally.

This U.S. invitation is perceived by the Elysee Palace  the French White House -- as an opportunity to celebrate 250 years of friendship between our two countries.

PHOTO: French President Emmanuel Macron walks with President Donald J. Trump as they leave Les Invalides museum in Paris, July 13, 2017. (Ian Langsdon via Shutterstock)

Macron and Trump displayed their warm ties during last years Bastille Day celebrations in Paris.

They are getting along, senior research fellow Marie-Cecile Naves of the French institute of International and Strategic Relations said, especially if you compare to Trumps relationship with other foreign leaders.

The French and U.S. presidents recently proved their capacity to act together by striking the chemical facilities of the Assad regime in Syria during a military operation alongside the United Kingdom.

There are also topics of disagreement, most notably the Iran nuclear deal, the Paris Climate Accord and trade. Such issues will be discussed during the visit, according to the Elysee Palace.

Trump is due to decide in the coming weeks whether to pull out of the Iran nuclear agreement.

PHOTO: France's president Emmanuel Macron meets with President Donald Trump in New York on the sidelines of the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly, Sept. 18, 2017. (Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images, FILE)

What kind of progress France makes on this issue during the state visit remains to be seen. We will develop our arguments and try to convince, but we do not expect to make diplomatic breakthroughs, the Elysee Palace said.

The French delegation is being cautious on the Iran agreement, senior research fellow Naves said, but Emmanuel Macron still hopes to persuade Trump to remain in the deal; it would be a big diplomatic victory for the French president.

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Presidents Trump, Macron solidify political bromance with state visit

President Trump, first lady to host Macrons at Mount Vernon

The state visit will also be an opportunity for Macron to introduce himself to the U.S. people. He will address -- in English -- a joint session of Congress Wednesday.

PHOTO: President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron shake hands before a lunch ahead of a NATO Summit in Brussels, Belgium, May 25, 2017. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

He will send a message of friendship, respect and affection toward the American nation, the Elysee Palace said.

Macron will host a town hall with George Washington University students the same day, allowing him to reach a younger U.S. audience.

Emmanuel Macron has characteristics that are more classically American than French, the Atlantic Councils Dungan said.

He is professional, rigorous and understands the value of work.
Photo: Getty Images

Ronny Jackson has served as a White House physician since 2006, and was recently nominated by President Trump to become the secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs. But a ranking Democrat on the Senate Veterans Affairs committee is reportedly investigating claims that Jackson behaved inappropriately on the job.

Sources tell CBS News that current or former White House medical staff have accused Jackson of creating a hostile work environment, including accusations of excessive drinking on the job [and] improperly dispensing meds. The allegations are currently being investigated by the staff of Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and, if theyre proven, will sink Jacksons nomination, one of the sources said.

Tester and his staff reportedly began hearing allegations over the weekend from people who worked with Jackson, but the White House initially stood by the nominee. Admiral Jackson has been on the front lines of deadly combat and saved the lives of many others in service to this country, White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley told CNN on Tuesday. Hes served as the physician to three presidentsRepublican and Democratand been praised by them all. Admiral Jacksons record of strong, decisive leadership is exactly whats needed at the VA to ensure our veterans receive the benefits they deserve. However, Jacksons confirmation hearing (which was originally scheduled for Wednesday) has been postponed. At a press conference with President Emmanuel Macron of France Wednesday, President Trump said that if he were in Jacksons shoes, he would seriously reconsider whether to pursue the nomination. If I were him, I wouldnt do it, he said, while adding, Its totally his decision.

If the allegations are true, Jackson would hardly be the first doctor to drink on the job. Kentucky plastic surgeon Theodore Gerstle was arrested in January on public intoxication charges after he allegedly showed up for surgery while intoxicated, WKYT reported. In 2017, Texas-based ER doctor Gregory Gibbons had his medical license suspended after he appeared drunk, passed out in a doctors sleep room, and was later found to have had a blood alcohol level of 0.293, according to ABC 13. And Fox News reported that a doctor in New Hampshire had his medical license suspended in 2012 after he showed up to work while appearing intoxicated (his blood alcohol level was .186, testing revealed).

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The American Medical Association specifically states on its website that doctors should not practice if their ability to do so safely is impaired by use of a controlled substance, alcohol, other chemical agent or a health condition. The AMA also urges doctors to avoid drinking an amount of alcohol that has the potential to impair their performance when they work, or cause a hangover.

There are a slew of things that can happen in this kind of situation, if a doctor is caught, health expert Jennifer Wider, MD, tells Yahoo Lifestyle: Doctors can lose their medical license, their job, and even be arrested. Doctors take the Hippocratic Oath and promise to do no harm,' she points out. Being under the influence or impaired by substances while practicing medicine certainly puts patients at risk and would violate this oath.

No word yet on when Jacksons hearing will actually take place.

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A group of truckers banded together to stop a man from dying by suicide after he attempted to jump off a highway overpass.

On Tuesday morning, 13 heroic Michigan truckers stopped their vehicles in the middle of I-696 to create both a wall and a makeshift platform to shorten the distance the man would have fallen if he had jumped.

A group of truckers in Michigan helped prevent a man from committing suicide on a busy highway. (Photo: Twitter mspmetrodet)

According to local news station Fox 2 Detroit, police received a call just before 1 a.m. that an unidentified man was standing on the overpass threatening to jump. When the Michigan State Police arrived, they closed all lanes of the 696 and signaled semi-trailer trucks to stop under the bridge and form a wall, covering both sides of the freeway.

This photo does show the work troopers and local officers do to serve the public. But also in that photo is a man struggling with the decision to take his own life. Please remember help is available through the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. pic.twitter.com/RBAlCIXT1o  MSP Metro Detroit (@mspmetrodet) April 24, 2018

A man named Chris Harrison, who wrote on Facebook that he was driving one of the trucks, posted a photo with the caption, Teamwork in Detroit..guy over on the bridge in the white was trying to commit suicide, truckers all lined up to try to prevent it.

While the truckers were positioned, the police talked the man into leaving the bridge unharmed. Harrison wrote on Facebook that after the ordeal was over, the police stopped at each truck to shake the drivers hands and thank them for their efforts.

We received a call that a man had climbed over the fence of the overpass, and we commandeered the truck drivers to stop, Lt. Mike Shaw of the Michigan State Police, who organized the intervention, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. In this case, we were able to identify the trigger that led the man to this point and take him to the hospital.

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What happens next for the man is unknown, but according to Julie Cerel, president of the nonprofit American Association of Suicidology, each state has systems in place to ensure a person receives treatment. Usually, a person is evaluated in the emergency room to ensure they arent acutely suicidal, Cerel tells Yahoo Lifestyle. Unfortunately, some learn quickly that the easiest way to leave is to answer in a favorable way; other times a person learns he or she has options and support.

If a person has a mental health condition that can be treated, theyre given medication, and if theyre homeless, theres an attempt to secure housing. What happened in Michigan, says Cerel, is an example of ordinary people driving by who stopped to save someones life. Its incredible when a method this lethal can be stopped, she says.

Sgt. Kevin Richards Briggs, a retired member of the California Highway Patrol and a crisis intervention specialist who has stopped several hundred people from jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Fransisco, tells Yahoo Lifestyle that in similar situations he has anywhere from five minutes to several hours to make an impact.

I usually introduce myself to the person in crisis and ask their permission to approach, says Briggs, adding that he tries to close the physical gap between him and a subject without endangering his own life. If theyre open to it, I ask basic questions about their life, in part as a distraction and to show that someone cares about them.

Briggs says its key for anyone in his position not to consume the conversation. Even if I can relate to the other persons problems, I keep the focus off me to avoid an unintentional comparison unless Im directly asked, he says. If his efforts dont resonate, Briggs calls for backup, be it a person of the same sex or ethnicity, who may succeed in establishing a connection.

Most of the time, he says, people just want to be heard and validated.

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Shortly after Kate Middleton gave birth to the third royal baby on Monday, a town crier stood on the steps of the Lindo Wing to announce the joyous news to all those gathered outside St. Marys Hospital. It was then that a meme was born.

Tony Appleton may not be the royal familys official town crier, but he has been at St. Marys to announce the birth of each of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridges three children: Prince George, Princess Charlotte and the couples still unnamed new baby boy.

Following Kensington Palaces confirmation that Middleton successfully delivered a baby boy at 6 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on April 23the new prince weighs 8 lbs. 7 oz. and both he and his mom are healthythe 81-year-old Appleton took to the steps of the Lindo Wing to make his royal baby announcement.

Every proclamation I make is important to me, whether it is a friend, a company, or a member of the royal family, he told Town & Country. They all deserve my best efforts to celebrate good news.

The Internet, of course, couldnt help but have some fun with the scene outside the hospital. See a selection of reactions below.

This image is meme-able. pic.twitter.com/X0ZDxKS9kx  Katelyn Burns (@transscribe) April 23, 2018

Town crier in front of Lindo wing #royal baby. The look on the face police officer pic.twitter.com/XpA4amrhRL  Marlene Koenig ???????? (@royalmusing) April 23, 2018

Lots of questions about the #royalbaby. Actually, just two about the town crier. Is he on Twitter, and if so, does he start every tweet with "o yea, o yea, o yea"? Pease @ me.  Greg Furgala (@gregfurgala) April 23, 2018

Nothing but respect for MY town crier. pic.twitter.com/YW1QH8aKDV  Lisa Tozzi (@lisatozzi) April 23, 2018

Going to apply to be a town crier. It won't be easy but I think I'm in with a shout.  Davey Six-Toes (@HutchinsonDave) April 23, 2018
Ten people were killed and 14 were injured when a man plowed a van into a crowd of pedestrians on a Toronto sidewalk Monday afternoon in what Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called a senseless attack and a horrific tragedy.

The driver, identified by authorities as Alek Minassian, was charged Tuesday morning with 10 counts of first-degree murder and 13 counts of attempted murder. Homicide Detective Sergeant Graham Gibson of the Toronto Police Service said he is anticipating a 14th count of attempted murder to come.

This is a time when this community should come together, Toronto Mayor John Tory said at a press briefing on Monday. I hope that we will, as a city, remind ourselves of the fact that we are admired around the world for being inclusive and for being accepting and understanding and considerate, and that we are united in standing in solidarity, especially with those who have fallen victim to this terrible tragedy today.

Heres what we know so far:

Victims are mostly women

The identities of the ten people killed in the attack are emerging. Toronto police say most of the victims are women, although they declined to say the suspect was specifically targeting women. Among those identified thus far are am 80-year-old grandmother, a Jordanian-Canadian citizen and an employee at an investment firm who had a passion for volunteering.

Two South Koreans were slain and a third injured according to Yonhap News Agency, AP reports A female student from Torontos Seneca College was also killed, the school confirmed, but her identity has also not been revealed.

Anne Marie DAmico

Anne Marie D'Amico, who was identified by Toronto City Councilor Cesar Palacio on April 24, 2018 as one of the victims of of a van attack in Toronto, Canada.

Anne Marie DAmico, 30, was always smiling and full of life, coworkers told CBC News.

I can now confirm that unfortunately one of our employees has succumbed to her injuries, Peter Intraligi, the president of Invesco Canada, the company she worked for, said in a statement. Out of respect for her and her family, we will not be providing any further comments.

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CTV News reports that DAmico was voted Tennis Canadas Volunteer of the Year in 2016 for her passionate work with the Badminton and Racquet Club of Toronto. She also volunteered with the charity Live Different.

Dorothy Sewell

A B.C. man has identified one of the victims of the Toronto van attack as his grandmother, 80-year-old Dorothy Sewell.



"You will always be loved and your love for sports will always be with me while I cheer with you," wrote Elwood Delaney of Kamloops in a Facebook post. pic.twitter.com/p1Dgyw3M5a  Simon Little (@simonplittle) April 25, 2018

Dorothy Sewell, an 80-year-old grandmother and dedicated supporter of Toronto sports teams, was also identified as a victim in Mondays attack. Sewells death was confirmed by her grandson, Elwood Delaney of Kamloops in British Columbia, according to the Associated Press. He wrote on Facebook that his mother had almost as much affection for the Blue Jays and the Maple Leafs as she did for her family.

You will always be loved and your love for sports will always be with me while I cheer with you, he wrote. Go Toronto Go. Love you Nan.

Chul Min Eddie Kang

#Breaking: The owner of Copacabana restaurant has confirmed that chef Chul Min Eddie Kang was one of the victims killed in Mondays van rampage. His smile would always light up the room, said Michael Rudan. https://t.co/277djVuDJk pic.twitter.com/rulQV7siYQ  TorontoStar (@TorontoStar) April 25, 2018

Chul Min Eddie Kang was a chef at Copacabana Brazilian Steakhouses.

The restaurant chain confirmed his death in a statement to Global News with great sadness.

The companys director, John Paul Mannella, said, There are times when it is necessary to communicate news that is painful. It is in these times where were must all be prepared to comfort each other as we deal with the many emotions that we may experience.

Ten people were killed in the attack

At least 10 people were killed when the van plowed onto the sidewalk, and an additional 14 people were injured, authorities said at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon. Police had initially said there were 15 people injured, but they said Tuesday that was a miscount.

Gibson said Tuesday that the victims were predominantly female.

Ten victims were transported to Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, where two people were pronounced dead upon arrival.

Five people remain in critical condition at Sunnybrook, two are in serious condition, and one is in fair condition, Sunnybrook said.

UPDATE:

We have received a total of 10 victims from the incident today at Yonge & Finch:

- unfortunately, 2 patients arrived vital signs absent and were pronounced dead upon arrival

- 5 in critical condition

- 2 in serious condition

- 1 in fair condition: https://t.co/4dG1Pk5Unf  Sunnybrook Hospital (@Sunnybrook) April 23, 2018

Suspect Alek Minassian has been arrested

Police have taken the driver  identified as 25-year-old Alek Minassian  into custody. He appeared in court on Tuesday morning and has been charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder and 13 counts of attempted murder. He did not enter a plea, the Associated Press reported.

MEDIA ADVISORY:

Alek Minassian, 25

-He will appear in court Tuesday, April 24, 2018

-10 am at 1000 Finch Avenue West court

-Information on charges to be released at that time

^dh  Toronto Police (@TorontoPolice) April 24, 2018

Toronto Police Service Chief Mark Saunders is updating media. It can be watched #LiveNow at media link below. Arrested male is Alex MINASSIAN, 25 of Richmond Hill ^sm https://t.co/EKnAD8MfuC  Toronto Police (@TorontoPolice) April 24, 2018

Investigators are appealing for information from the public. A hotline for witnesses to the incident will be announced later today. A separate hotline for family members will also be made available. ^js  Toronto Police (@TorontoPolice) April 23, 2018

Authorities have not yet determined a motive

Toronto Police Service Chief Mark Saunders said its very clear that the attack definitely looked deliberate, but authorities have not yet determined a motive.

At this time, we have no reason to suspect that there is any national security element to this attack, but obviously the investigations continue, Prime Minister Trudeau said at a press conference Tuesday morning.

Vehicles have been used as a deadly weapon in some recent terror attacks. A man in a pickup truck hit several pedestrians in New York City in October, killing eight people and injuring others. In Nice, France, 86 people were killed after a man drove a truck into a Bastille Day celebration in July 2016. And at least 13 people were killed when a van plowed into a crowd of people in Barcelona in August 2017.

Gibson said Minassian rented the van he drove on Monday morning and allegedly posted a cryptic message on Facebook minutes before he began driving the rented van. Gibson declined to elaborate further on the Facebook post. But Minassian had written a post praising Elliot Rodger, who killed six people at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2014. Rodger had written a manifesto in which he said he sought to punish all females for the crime of depriving me of sex.

While Gibson said the victims of Mondays attack were predominantly female, he said he did not know if Minassian had deliberately targeted women. At this stage we have no evidence of that occurring, he said at Tuesdays press conference.

World leaders condemned the horrific tragedy

The incident came as foreign ministers from the Group of Seven gathered in Toronto ahead of the G7 summit in Quebec in June.

Canadas Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland sent her tremendous sympathy and sadness to the families of the victims.

I would like to express my tremendous sympathy and sadness at the tragic event in the vicinity of Yonge and Finch, and my thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. #Toronto  Chrystia Freeland (@cafreeland) April 23, 2018

The events that took place yesterday in Toronto were a senseless attack and a horrific tragedy, Prime Minister Trudeau said at a press conference Tuesday morning.

Obviously, we need to continue to reflect on the changing situations in which were in and do everything we can to keep Canadians safe, he added. But we cannot, as Canadians, choose to live in fear every single day as we go about our daily business. We need to focus on doing what we can and we must to keep Canadians safe while we stay true to the freedoms and values that we all, as Canadians, hold dear.

PM Justin Trudeau Makes Statement on Toronto Van Incident https://t.co/VhIaTOLaJj  CPAC (@CPAC_TV) April 24, 2018

The White House released a statement late Monday, saying the U.S. stands with the Canadian people in the aftermath of todays traffic event and pledging to provide any support Canada may need.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those affected, and we wish a full recovery to those injured, the statement said.

To our city, our people and all those affected by todays tragic events, our thoughts and prayers are with you.  Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) April 23, 2018
Aleksandr Kogan, the Cambridge Analytica-linked expert at the center of the recent Facebook scandal, told the U.K. government on Tuesday that despite links to a St. Petersburg university, his data was not abused by the Kremlin.

His work thereallegedly a study on cyberbullyingwas funded by a block grant provided by the Russian government. But Kogan told British politicians that he believes all modern superpowers, including the U.K., U.S. and Russia, have similar interests in election interference and social media influencing.

"You could make the same argument about the U.K. government and the U.S. government funding anything," he said. "Both countries are very famous for their spies. Theres a long history of the United States interfering with foreign elections and doing the exact same thing. In general, I would say the governments that are most high-profile, I am dubious about the moral scruples of their activities."

Trending: Even a Little Caffeine While Pregnant Could Increase Childs Obesity Risk: Study

Kogan said trying to equate the covert activities of the U.K., the U.S. and Russia was a "silly process."

"I think certainly all of these countries have engaged in activities that people feel uncomfortable with [and] are covert," Kogan said, noting the attempts to link his academic work to Russian collusion. "If you're going to go down the Russia line, I think we have to go down the U.K. line and the U.S. line [too]."

Kogan designed the personality quiz application that was used to harvest the personal information of up to 87 million Facebook users. He works in the Department of Psychology at Cambridge University and had a relationship with Cambridge Analytica via his company, Global Science Research (GSR).

Kogan added that he had not read the final report published on cyberbullying and, in an interview with BuzzFeed News this week, said, I am not a Russian spy.

Kogan told the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committees inquiry into fake news that he specifically worked with an entity called SCL Elections and confirmed that he had business dealings with former Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix.

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He said that previous testimony to the committee provided by Nix, who recently declined to reappear due to ongoing legal issues, contained fabrications.

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We gave them data, that's indisputable, Kogan said in response to Nixs prior suggestion that he had never obtained Facebook-linked information from his company. Kogan also hit out at the whistleblower who first revealed details of the story to the press, Christopher Wylie. [He] has invented many things, he said.

Aleksandr Kogan

Parliament TV

Kogan said that if Cambridge Analytica had wanted to use an application for target advertising, it would have been an incompetent approach. Rather, Cambridge Analytica could have simply used Facebooks powerful advertising capabilities.

Kogans application, called This Is Your Digital Life, collected Facebook data, including locations, genders, ages and likes of those who signed up to use the service, as well as their list of friends, who did not consent to have their data used.

Cambridge Analytica reportedly paid about 230,000 to access the service, but Kogan told the politicians he did not personally profit from the sale. He said the money went to legal fees and another product that was never developed.

The data scientist has maintained that GSR was far from the only company using Facebook data and has said that tens of thousands of other apps were likely involved in similar practices. Kogan believes that he is being used as a scapegoat.

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But Kogan had a relationship with Facebook long before the scandal broke. He has said that the social network previously hired his students and that he had even worked on a consulting project with the company in 2015, specifically on what lessons were learned from working with the data set collected for Cambridge Analytica.

Kogans former business partner, Joseph Chancellor, now works as a researcher at Facebook. GSR was officially dissolved last year.

Cambridge Analytica

Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images

The 2018 revelations of data abuse caused an unprecedented controversy for Facebook, which is the worlds most widely used social network, with more than 2 billion users. CEO Mark Zuckerberg was recently called before the U.S. Congress, where he apologized. The company said it is now conducting a full audit of its applications.

In its blog posts, Facebook has repeatedly focused the blame on Kogan but conceded the data abuse that took place was a breach of trust with its users. Cambridge Analytica has said it acted legally at all times and previously branded the investigations into its company as entrapment and mischaracterization.

In a release this week responding to Kogans 60 Minutes TV appearance, Cambridge Analytica distanced itself from the researcher. Cambridge Analyticas research showed that the personality types licensed by GSR/Kogan underperformed compared to more traditional ways of grouping people by demographics, it said.

Cambridge Analytica worked on Donald Trumps presidential campaign in 2016 but said that Kogans data was not used in that operation. Its parent company, SCL Group, has worked with several defense and intelligence partners and claims to have conducted behavioral change programs in more than 60 countries.

Cambridge Analytica spokesperson Clarence Mitchell held a press conference following the researchers committee appearance, stressing that no U.S. laws had been broken and that any GSR data previously held had been deleted.

Responding to the allegation that former CEO Nix lied to the U.K. committee, Mitchell said: I am not here to speak for him. Dr. Kogan is entitled to his interpretation, his view, and it is for others to assess whether he is correct or not.

Mark Zuckerberg

Alex Wong/Getty Images

This article was first written by Newsweek

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(Corrects 11 kg to 11 pounds in paragraph 14 of April 20 story)

By Scot J. Paltrow

AMARILLO, Texas (Reuters) - In a sprawling plant near Amarillo, Texas, rows of workers perform by hand one of the most dangerous jobs in American industry. Contract workers at the U.S. Department of Energys Pantex facility gingerly remove the plutonium cores from retired nuclear warheads.

Although many safety rules are in place, a slip of the hand could mean disaster.

In Energy Department facilities around the country, there are 54 metric tons of surplus plutonium. Pantex, the plant near Amarillo, holds so much plutonium that it has exceeded the 20,000 cores, called pits, regulations allow it to hold in its temporary storage facility. There are enough cores there to cause thousands of megatons of nuclear explosions. More are added each day.

The delicate, potentially deadly dismantling of nuclear warheads at Pantex, while little noticed, has grown increasingly urgent to keep the United States from exceeding a limit of 1,550 warheads permitted under a 2010 treaty with Russia. The United States wants to dismantle older warheads so that it can substitute some of them with newer, more lethal weapons. Russia, too, is building new, dangerous weapons.

The United States has a vast amount of deadly plutonium, which terrorists would love to get their hands on. Under another agreement, Washington and Moscow each are required to render unusable for weapons 34 metric tons of plutonium. The purpose is twofold: keep the material out of the hands of bad guys, and eliminate the possibility of the two countries themselves using it again for weapons. An Energy Department website says the two countries combined have 68 metric tons designated for destruction - enough to make 17,000 nuclear weapons. But the United States has no permanent plan for what to do with its share.

Plutonium must be made permanently inaccessible because it has a radioactive half-life of 24,000 years.

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(Graphic: Burying the problem - https://tmsnrt.rs/2K1HTG3)

"A MUCH MORE DANGEROUS SITUATION"

Edwin Lyman, a physicist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a science advocacy group based in Washington, says solving the problem of plutonium storage is urgent. In an increasingly unstable world, with terrorism, heightened international tensions and non-nuclear countries coveting the bomb, he says, the risk is that this metal of mass annihilation will be used again. William Potter, director of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, told Reuters: We are in a much more dangerous situation today than we were in the Cold War.

Washington has not even begun to take the steps needed to acquire additional space for burying plutonium more than 2,000 feet below ground - the depth considered safe. Much of Americas plutonium currently is stored in a building at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina - like Pantex, an Energy Department site. Savannah River used to house a reactor. Local opponents of the storage, such as Tom Clements, director of SRS Watch, contend the facility was never built for holding plutonium and say there is a risk of leakage and accidents in which large amounts of radioactivity are released.

The Energy Department has a small experimental storage site underground in New Mexico. The department controls the radioactive materials - plutonium, uranium and tritium - used in Americas nuclear weapons and in the reactors of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines. In a Senate hearing in June 2017, Energy Secretary Rick Perry said the Energy Department has been in talks with New Mexico officials to enlarge the site. Environmental groups there have strongly opposed expansion.

Under an agreement with Russia, the United States was to convert 34 metric tons of plutonium into fuel for civilian reactors that generate electricity. The fuel is known as MOX, for mixed oxide fuel. Plutonium and uranium are converted into chemical compounds called oxides, and mixed together in fuel rods for civilian nuclear power plants. The two metals are converted into oxides because these cant cause nuclear explosions. But the U.S. effort has run into severe delays and cost overruns.

The alternative method is known as dilute-and-dispose. It involves blending plutonium with an inert material and storing it in casks. The casks, however, are projected to last only 50 years before beginning to leak, and so would need to be buried permanently deep underground.

THE MOX MESS

President Donald Trump has sided with the Energy Department in wanting to kill the MOX project because of the extreme cost overruns and delays. The Energy Department, beginning in the Obama administration, favored closing down the MOX project for the same reason, but Congress overruled it. The federal budget adopted in February, however, specifies a means for ending the project, if a study shows that dilute-and-dispose would be at least 50 percent cheaper than making MOX.

The National Nuclear Security Administration, the part of the Energy Department that oversees the nuclear sites and materials, favors switching to the dilute-and-dispose method. In recent testimony before a House of Representatives subcommittee, Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, the new NNSA administrator, said that method would cost billions less than completing the MOX plant.

Plutonium is a versatile nuclear bomb material. Terrorists would need only 11 pounds (5 kg) or less to make a bomb, Lyman says.

Its ordinarily limited radioactivity makes plutonium safe for terrorists or other thieves to transport with little risk of radiation injury. It goes undetected by most sensors. It radiates alpha particles, relatively large on an atomic scale, which means the thin glass of a test tube, the leather of a briefcase, or even air or skin stop them. The danger from handling small amounts is inhaling plutonium dust. In that case, the dust spreads from the lungs throughout the body, causing multiple kinds of cancer.

The federal government now has no solution in sight to dispose of the plutonium permanently. Its one effort to make it unusable for bombs has turned into what the White House and Energy Department say is a costly failure. The MOX project, at the Energy Departments Savannah River Site in South Carolina, has been kept on life support by Congress thanks to the influence of South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham and other lawmakers. The MOX plant employs about 2,000 people in Grahams state.

Graham and other Congressional backers say MOX is the best way to keep plutonium out of the hands of terrorists. They note too that the pact with Russia requires the United States to use MOX as the method for disposal.

A spokeswoman for Graham declined to comment on his behalf but sent a link to a YouTube video of a Senate hearing in March. In the hearing, Graham, referring to steps already taken to limit work on the MOX plant, said: What I think weve done is ended the biggest non-proliferation program in the world, and Im going to try and fix that.

Todays plutonium glut mainly is a legacy of the Cold War. The quantities now seem surreal. By 1967 the U.S. nuclear arsenal reached its apex, with 37,000 warheads. The Soviet Unions peak came in the 1970s, with approximately 45,000. These were enough to destroy life on Earth thousands of times over.

A RADIOACTIVE PEACE DIVIDEND

Amid the terror and aggressiveness then of government and military leaders on both sides, little or no thought was given what to do with the warheads should the risk of mass annihilation ebb.

Daniel Ellsberg, best known for leaking in 1971 the Pentagon Papers about the Vietnam war, in the early 1960s was an adviser to the Air Force and White House on nuclear policy. He recently published a book detailing and criticizing the nuclear policy debates and decisions of that era. In a phone interview, he said disposal of weapons was never considered at the time.

I dont think one person gave one moment of thought to that, Ellsberg said. No one thought that the Cold War would end.

Treaties that dramatically reduced U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals were signed soon after the Soviet Union fell. It was then that the magnitude of the problem  disposing of the surplus plutonium  dawned on the two countries.

Scientists proffered ideas, nearly all involving making the plutonium forbiddingly dangerous for malefactors to transport and burying it deep underground.

Instead, under a 2000 treaty, the United States agreed to transform the 34 metric tons of plutonium into MOX, unusable for bombs. Russia agreed to destroy the same quantity using a special type of reactor. But the United States had never before built a MOX plant. No U.S. civilian reactor had ever used MOX as fuel.

This misplaced optimism led to one of the costliest snafus ever in U.S. government construction. Work began in 2007 to build a MOX plant that was to be operational by November 2016. The Energy Department now estimates that, if allowed to proceed, it will not be finished until 2048. In 2007 the Energy Department said the total cost would be $4.8 billion. Now it estimates the cost at more than $17 billion.

Building of the plant began when detailed designs were between 20 percent and 40 percent complete. But once initial construction finished, the contractor, under instructions from the Energy Department, breezed ahead without architectural plans.

Reports from the Union of Concerned Scientists said rooms were built for laboratories and offices where none were needed. Ventilation ducts and electrical wiring were in the wrong places. Plumbing was a maze of misplaced pipes. The contractor later had to rip out much of its work and start over.

The contractor is a consortium of companies, CB&I Areva MOX Services. It includes CB&I (formerly Chicago Bridge and Iron), based in the Netherlands, and Areva, which specializes in nuclear-related and alternative power projects, majority owned by the French government.

GIVING IT AWAY

In an e-mailed statement to Reuters, the consortium said it expects to finish the facility. It said the project is over 70 percent physically complete.

But Gordon-Hagerty, the National Nuclear Security Administrations new chief, testified in March before a House Appropriations Subcommittee that it is nowhere near 50% complete. Government Accountability Office reports (https://www.gao.gov/assets/690/688369.pdf and https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-17-651T ) criticized the Energy Department for awarding a cost plus contract, which guarantees a profit regardless of how much work is done.

In an emailed response to questions for this article, Lindsey Geisler, a spokesperson for the NNSA, said that in 2011, after the contract had been awarded, NNSA recognized the need to institute project management reforms. She said the NNSA established a new office to better oversee contracting and acquisition, and that practices have improved significantly.

Echoing other critics, Frank von Hippel, a Princeton University professor who researches nuclear arms control and policymaking, said weak oversight continues. The problem at DOE is that the quality of managers, with some exceptions, is quite low, he said. Contractors just milk them for money.

An Energy Department panel reported in 2016 that there is no US market for MOX. To use MOX fuel rods, civilian power plants would have to modify their reactors, requiring lengthy relicensing by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The report said the best the Energy Department could hope for was to give the stuff away.

(Edited by Michael Williams)
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A letter written by German composer Richard Wagner that underscored his anti-Semitism was sold to Jewish collector from Switzerland at auction in Israel on Tuesday for $34,000, the auction house said. The letter, written on a yellowing double-spread sheet of paper, was penned by Wagner in Lucerne, Switzerland in 1869. It was apparently intended for the French philosopher Edouard Schoure, said Meron Eren, of the Kedem Auction House. The buyer's identity was not made public. In the letter, Wagner attempts to explain the ideas in his anti-Semitic essay "Judaism in Music" to Schoure and writes that the French were unable to discern "the destructive influence of the Jewish spirit on modern culture", the Kedem website said. Wagner, whose expansive operas are hailed as musical masterpieces, was Adolf Hitler's favorite composer and he and his Nazi followers embraced the composer's anti-Semitic writings and ideology. Wagner died in 1883 in Venice, more than six years before Hitler's birth in Austria. "Surprisingly, this letter came from a collector in Israel who probably bought it at an auction in Europe ten or 20 years ago," the auction house chief Eren told Reuters. Eren said that selling an anti-Semitic letter in Israel was "a problem for us" but that private collectors or museums focusing on the Holocaust and hatred of Jews would be interested in the item. "We think this is the right thing to do," he said. Wagner's music is rarely performed in Israel, where it evokes memories of the Holocaust, although some leading musicians have called for an end to the unofficial ban. (Reporting by Eli Berlzon and Dedi Hayoun, Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

UPDATE: 4:47 p.m. EDT: Deputy Chief Peter Yuen confirmed in a press conference Monday that nine people were killed and another 16 were injured when a van struck pedestrians in Toronto.

Yuen said authorities had located the vehicle and that the unidentified suspect was in custody.

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UPDATE: 4:13 p.m. EDT: Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center announced that its trauma center received seven patients from the scene of the incident. The hospital also announced that its emergency department has been placed on lockdown as an added precaution." Sunnybook did not specify the extent of patients injuries.

The hospital reportedly received an eighth patient in critical condition. Sunnybrook reportedly confirmed to CP24 that one person was dead, five people were in critical condition, one was in serious condition and another was in fair condition.

Original story:

A number of pedestrians have reportedly been struck by a van near Yonge Street and Finch Avenue East just before 1:30 p.m. in Toronto, Canada, police said. Authorities have arrested the van's driver following the incident.

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Toronto Police said that there was a collision where numerous pedestrians were struck by a white van. Police were called to Yonge Street and Finch Avenue East for a collision, with eight to 10 people possibly hit.

RTX5WIIS

REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

The white van, which was stopped by police, may have driven over the curb and hit pedestrians on the sidewalk, Toronto Police Constable Jenifferjit Sidhu told CBC Toronto.

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Story continues

Global News Toronto's Jeremy Cohn reported that about 10 people were hit, "at least four are vital signs absent." Toronto Police said on Twitter that it was "too early to confirm the number of pedestrians struck or their injuries.

Southbound on Yonge at Finch is closed due to the collision, authorities said. CBC News reported that subway service on Line 1 between Sheppard and Finch Stations has been shut down.

RTX5WING

REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau extended his condolences in a statement posted on Twitter. "Our thoughts are with all those affected by the terrible incident at Yonge and Finch in Toronto. Thank you to the first responders working at the scene  we're monitoring the situation closely," Trudeau tweeted.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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President Donald Trump has launched yet another Sunday morning Twitter tear  a familiar practice in the last few weeks  this one aimed at NBC News political director Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd.

The tweets came after Todd questioned the Trump Administrations approach to negotiations with North Korea in a segment on the Today show ahead of Todds Meet the Press hour.

Trump shot back with within minutes: Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd of Fake News NBC just stated that we have given up so much in our negotiations with North Korea, and they have given up nothing. Wow, we havent given up anything & they have agreed to denuclearization (so great for World), site closure, & no more testing!

Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd of Fake News NBC just stated that we have given up so much in our negotiations with North Korea, and they have given up nothing. Wow, we havent given up anything & they have agreed to denuclearization (so great for World), site closure, & no more testing!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 22, 2018

....We are a long way from conclusion on North Korea, maybe things will work out, and maybe they wont - only time will tell....But the work I am doing now should have been done a long time ago!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 22, 2018

Talking to Hallie Jackson, NBCs chief White House correspondent, on the Today show, Todd said that while North Koreas dictator, Kim Jong Un, appears to be acting cooperatively, North Korea really hasnt promised the U.S. much of anything in negotiations so far.

You can watch the full clip of Todds comments here:
YEREVAN (Reuters) - Armenian opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan called on supporters to stage a rally on Wednesday after talks with ruling Republican Party planned were canceled. Talks were initially planned for Wednesday after the resignation of prime minister Serzh Sarksyan on Monday following almost two weeks of street protests that plunged the impoverished ex-Soviet republic into political crisis. "The Republican Party is thinking about taking advantage of Serzh Sarksyan's resignation and wants to keep power," Pashinyan said in a video appeal posted on his Facebook page. "We can't agree on the appointment this party's representative as prime minister and we can't allow this corrupted system to continue existence." (Reporting by Hasmik Mkrtchyan; writing by Margarita Antidze; editing by Robin Pomeroy)
Armenian protesters celebrated on the streets of Yerevan on April 23 after hearing news that Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan had resigned, Radio Free Europe said.

The announcement of Sargsyan s resignation was posted to his website following more than a week of protests.

The protesters had demanded that Sargsyan step down from the role that he was elected to on April 17, following a decade as president. His resignation came shortly after opposition leader Nikol Pashinian was released from custody following a day of detention. Credit: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty via Storyful
The prime ministers of France and Australia urged their countries never to forget the horrors of World War I on Tuesday, as they opened a high-tech museum dedicated to the 295,000 Australians who volunteered on the Western Front.

A hundred years to the day since the key battle of Villers-Bretonneux in which Australian, British and French troops served alongside each other, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull paid tribute to his country's war dead.

"Both our countries lost the finest of their generation in this dreadful conflict," Turnbull told French premier Edouard Philippe as they opened the Sir John Monash Centre, a new museum in the Somme region of northern France that became synonymous with the wartime slaughter.

"We must remember all of this -- especially our nations' leaders -- reminding us why we always strive to resolve conflict."

Turnbull spoke after he and his wife Lucy laid flowers at the grave of her great-uncle, an army doctor who died in his brothers' arms aged 26.

The 63-million-euro ($76-million) museum, at the Australian National Memorial just outside Villers-Bretonneux, uses life-size videos of soldiers and a 360-degree cinema to showcase the role of Australian troops.

"Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson advised on the filming of scenes for its video displays, which were shot in Australia, France and New Zealand to bring the experience of trench warfare to life.

Its inauguration came as thousands of Australians flocked to the Somme ahead of a dawn ceremony at the memorial Wednesday to mark Anzac Day, Australia's national day of remembrance.

"You walk through the graveyards and see that they're 19, they're 20. It breaks your heart to see it," said Greg Henderson, a salesman from Brisbane.

He came to honour his great-grandfather Charles Joseph Mackie, who died at nearby Proyart.

Henderson will be among some 8,000 Australians marking the special centenary Anzac Day at the memorial, where Turnbull, Philippe and Britain's Prince Charles are set to give speeches.

Story continues

- Far from home -

German troops seized Villers-Bretonneux on April 24, 1918, in a major westward push towards the end of the war.

But Australian and British troops, backed by French forces, launched a counter-offensive, stopping the German advance towards the strategic city of Amiens.

Over the course of the war, some 46,000 Australian troops died and more than 130,000 were injured -- huge losses for a nation whose population was only five million at the time.

Only one soldier's identified body was ever repatriated to Australia, where the country's war losses remain deeply ingrained in the national identity.

Philippe told the museum's opening ceremony that France had a duty to remember those who died on its soil so far from home.

"We have to tell their stories, and again and again show the young faces of these men who lost their youth in the mud of the trenches," he said.

"We will never forget their sacrifice."

The museum, which opened to the public earlier this month, is named after Australian general John Monash.

Visitors can enter a recreation of the trenches, view soldiers' diaries, photographs and letters and watch archive footage on hundreds of screens.
Sydney (AFP) - Australia's extinction rate for mammals, already the highest in the world, could worsen unless efforts are made to protect the most endangered species over the next two decades, scientists said Tuesday.

Researchers from the government-funded Threatened Species Recovery Hub identified 10 Australian birds and seven mammals whose extinctions could mostly be prevented if governments and communities were made aware of the risks they faced.

"This would be an increase in Australia's exceptionally dire extinction rate, which -- for mammals -- is the highest in the world," said John Woinarski of Charles Darwin University.

"Over the last two hundred years at least 34 Australian mammal species and 29 birds have become extinct," added Woinarski, who co-led the research published in the scientific journal Pacific Conservation Biology this month.

"Identifying the species at greatest risk of extinction is a crucial first step in avoiding their extinctions," he said in a statement.

The most at-risk bird is the endangered King Island brown thornbill, found on an island off the island state of Tasmania.

It has little more than a five percent chance of surviving the next 20 years unless conservation efforts are stepped up, the researchers said.

Other birds that have a 50-50 or greater chance of becoming extinct include the orange-bellied parrot, western ground parrot, plains-wanderer, regent honeyeater and herald petrel.

Most are found on islands or in the more heavily developed regions of southern Australia.

In the case of mammals, the central rock-rat -- a small rodent that lives in the arid areas of central Australia -- has an estimated 65 percent chance of becoming extinct over the next two decades.

Second on the at-risk list is the northern hopping-mouse, another small rodent, at 48 percent.

Another rodent, the Carpentarian rock-rat, as well as the Christmas Island flying-fox bat, are also among the most in peril.

Story continues

Many of the at-risk mammals are from northern Australia, which is already experiencing a "rapid and severe decline in mammals generally", said researcher Hayley Geyle from Charles Darwin University.

Woinarski said the two most-recent mammal extinctions were the Bramble Cay melomys and Christmas Island pipistrelle, which disappeared from Earth in the past decade.

A study released in 2014 said Australia's mammal extinction rate was the world's highest, with more than 10 percent of species wiped out since Europeans settled the country two centuries ago.

The main causes of species decline that have been identified include habitat loss, such as through land clearing and other development, and feral cats and foxes.
Unlike first lady Melania Trump, French President Emmanuel Macrons wife Brigitte Macron does not officially hold the title of first lady, something that has affected what she has been able to accomplish during her husband's close to one year in office. The first couples of France and the United States will be united at the White House on Tuesday for the first state dinner of Donald Trump's presidency.

As President Donald Trumps wife, Melania Trump in her role as first lady has expanded her footprint since her husband was inaugurated in January 2017. Having remained in New York with son Barron for close to the first five months of her husband's term, she has increasingly taken on tasks independently of the president.

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After visiting Hurricane Harvey victims in Texas alongside her husband wearing high heels that some Americans took as a sign of their disconnect with everyday citizens, Melania Trump revisited victims without him in December and gained praise for uplifting families and their children.

The first lady held her first major talk on cyberbullying, an issue she vowed to tackle, in March with tech executives. Her spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham later that month said Melania Trumps platform, which has yet to be announced, reached beyond just cyberbullying and will involve a variety of childrens issues, everything theyre facing as a group.

Melania Trump, who has a design background, has embraced decorating the White House on holidays including Halloween and Christmas and planned the Easter Egg Roll event. In a tweet Monday morning before welcoming the Macrons to Washington, the first lady shared her months of preparations for the state dinner planned for Tuesday.

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Story continues

By contrast, Brigitte Macron is only a de-facto first lady because more than 275,000 French citizens signed a petition to make sure she didnt receive the official title, nor an office or a budget funded by taxpayer money. In France, presidents spouses receive only office space, a small staff and security guards from the Elysee Palace budget.

Emmanuel Macron, who was upset by the pushback to his wife, told a Swiss broadcaster in January that he constantly speaks with her due to her sensitivity and the pair's shared outlook.

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She is not in the role of adviser. That is not what she wants to do, anyway, he said at the time. She embodies both femininity, and takes on a few areas within her gaze, to which she brings her light touch and sensitivity.

04_23_18_MelaniaBrigitte

Aurelien Meunier/Getty Images

As a result, Brigitte Macron as Frances first lady has been limited to mostly supporting her husband. Perhaps her most notable public role to date was welcoming and naming the first panda ever born in France. The birth of Yuan Meng, or "Dream Come True," was not just a significant zoological event but was hailed as a "big diplomatic moment" by China's ambassador to France.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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Toronto (Canada) (AFP) - A Canadian man who apparently had a grudge against women was charged with murder Tuesday after allegedly plowing a rented van onto a crowded Toronto sidewalk, killing 10 people -- an incident that shocked the nation.

Police said the suspect, 25-year-old Alek Minassian, was not known to them before Monday's carnage in Canada's most populous city, which also left 14 people injured. Most of the victims were women.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale played down any suggestion that the attack bore the hallmarks of those carried out by truck-driving extremists in London, Nice and other cities, saying "there is no discernable connection to national security."

But authorities said the incident during the busy lunch hour Monday was undoubtedly deliberate.

Lead investigator Detective-Sergeant Graham Gibson said Minassian had posted a "cryptic message on Facebook minutes before he began driving the rented van" along a long stretch of Yonge Street, eventually jumping the curb onto the sidewalk.

In the post, Minassian praised mass killer Elliot Rodger -- a 22-year-old American who murdered six people and then killed himself in California in 2014, and who had professed frustration over his virginity and women rejecting him.

The suspect's post also referred to the "Incel Rebellion" -- "incel" is short for "involuntarily celibate" and is often used in connection with online groups of sexually frustrated men who are known to rant against women.

"We will overthrow all the Chads and Stacys!" the post read, monikers used in the community to describe people who have no trouble finding sexual partners.

Gibson said the victims of the Toronto attack were "predominantly women" and ranged in age from the mid-20s to 80s.

Minassian also referred to himself on social media as a private in the army. Canadian military spokeswoman Jessica Lamirande confirmed that he enlisted last August but asked to be discharged after only 16 days of basic training.

Story continues

A shaven-headed Minassian appeared in court early Tuesday to hear the charges against him -- 10 counts of premeditated murder and 13 of attempted murder. A 14th count of attempted murder was pending after the toll of injured was revised down.

Minassian stood impassively with his hands behind his back, wearing a white police jumpsuit. He was calm as he was led away.

The suspect is scheduled to return to court on May 10 for a bail hearing.

- Victim was 'shining light' -

Several of the victims were named in court documents, but others were still being identified by the coroner, who brought in extra help overnight.

The first of the dead to be publicly identified was Anne Marie D'Amico, who worked at an investment management company near the scene.

Her family called her a "shining light," saying in a statement: "We hope that in this time, people fight with the same altruism (she had) rather than anger and hatred."

Two South Koreans were among the dead, a foreign ministry official in Seoul told AFP, adding that another of the country's citizens was seriously injured.

A Jordanian national was also killed.

- 'Quite strange' -

Minassian lived with his father in the Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill, and police searched the home on Tuesday.

Students who attended a vocational school with the suspect described him as withdrawn and awkward.

Ari Blaff, who went to high school with Minassian, told public broadcaster CBC that his behavior "was usually quite strange."

But Blaff said he'd "never noticed anything violent" -- the suspect just "made people feel uneasy around him."

Minassian's mother told a community newspaper in 2009 that he suffered from a form of autism known as Asperger's syndrome.

- 'Senseless attack' -

On Tuesday, police continued to comb the crime scene for evidence, while crowds gathered at a makeshift memorial to leave messages of condolences and flowers.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne was among those who stopped to leave flowers, pausing to read cards left in remembrance of the dead.

In Ottawa, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a news conference: "Canadians across the country are shocked and saddened by this senseless attack."

But, he added: "We must not start living in fear and uncertainty every day as we go about our daily lives."
Ottawa (AFP) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed his "serious concern" over the continued jailing of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi to the kingdom's King Salman bin Abdulaziz, his office said Tuesday.

The 34-year-old prisoner, who ran a blog that promoted free speech and women's rights in Saudi Arabia, was arrested in 2012 and sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in jail for "insulting Islam" in a case that sparked an international outcry.

His wife Ensaf Haidar has been granted asylum by Canada, where she is raising their three children now aged 14, 13 and 10 as a single mother.

According to a readout of Trudeau's call with the Saudi king, the two "spoke about the importance of respecting human rights and freedom of speech, as well as democratic reforms in Saudi Arabia."

Trudeau "also raised consular issues, and expressed his ongoing, serious concern about the imprisonment of human rights activist Raif Badawi."

In January, Haidar had held out fresh hopes that her husband might receive a royal pardon, after European lawmaker Josef Weidenholzer returned from meetings with human rights groups in Riyadh a few months earlier.

But that did not materialize.

Badawi received the first 50 of his 1,000 lashes sentence in January 2015 but there have been no more, following criticism from the European Union, United States, Sweden, Canada, the United Nations and others.
LIMA (Reuters) - A Canadian man was lynched in the Peruvian Amazon after residents of a remote village accused him of killing an 81-year-old medicine woman a day earlier, a spokesman for the attorney general's office said on Sunday. Olivia Arevalo, a traditional healer of the Shipibo-Conibo tribe, was shot twice and died on Thursday near her home in the Amazonian region of Ucayali, said Ricardo Palma Jimenez, the head of a group of prosecutors in Ucayali. Some villagers had blamed Arevalo's murder on Sebastian Paul Woodroffe, a 41-year-old Canadian citizen who lived in the region and who was believed to have been one of her clients, said Jimenez. Police found Woodroffe's body buried about 1 km (0.6 mile)from Arevalo's home on Saturday, after a cellphone video recording of the Friday lynching was shared on social media, said Jimenez. The video shows a man groaning in a puddle near a thatched-roof structure as another man puts a rope around his neck and drags him with others looking on. Jimenez said prosecutors were exploring several hypotheses related to Arevalo's murder and that it was too early to name suspects in the case. No arrests had been made yet related to Woodroffe's death, he added. "We will not rest until both murders, of the indigenous woman as well as the Canadian man, are solved," said Jimenez in a phone interview. Jimenez said the man in the video was Woodroffe and that an autopsy of his body showed he died by strangulation after receiving several blows across his body. Arevalo's murder had prompted outrage in Peru following other unsolved murders of indigenous activists who had repeatedly faced death threats related to efforts to keep illegal loggers and oil palm growers off native lands. Policing is scant over much of the Peruvian Andes and Amazon and villagers in far-flung provinces often punish suspected criminals according to local customs and without the involvement of state police and prosecutors. "Canada extends its deepest condolences following the reported assassination of Olivia Arevalo Lomas, an Indigenous elder and human rights defender," Global Affairs Canada, which manages Canadian foreign relations, said in a statement. "We are also aware that a Canadian was killed in a related incident. Consular services are being provided to the family of the Canadian," it added. (Reporting by Mitra Taj; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
LIMA (Reuters) - Prosecutors in Peru suspect that a Canadian man murdered a revered indigenous medicine woman in an Amazonian village last week before being lynched in retribution, a spokesman for the attorney general's office said on Tuesday. Olivia Arevalo, an 81-year-old shaman of the Shipibo-Conibo tribe, was shot to death near her home in the region of Ucayali on Thursday, prompting outrage from villagers who blamed Sebastian Woodroffe, a native of Vancouver Island. Prosecutors had initially been pursuing several potential leads into who killed Arevalo. But their main hypotheses now is that Woodroffe murdered Arevalo because he was upset that her son had not repaid him 14,000 soles ($4,335), said Ricardo Jimenez, the head of a regional group of prosecutors. Authorities found a document showing that Woodroffe bought a gun on April 3 from a police officer, Jimenez said, adding that the police officer is now being sought for questioning. A witness also testified that a silver-colored pistol fell from a backpack that Woodroffe was carrying as villagers grabbed him before the lynching, Jimenez said. "We want to see if that weapon actually existed. We haven't found it yet but we're looking," Jimenez said. "With the new evidence that has appeared, he is the main suspect." Neither Woodroffe's nor Arevalo's family could be reached for comment. Arevalo was considered a wealth of knowledge about Amazonian plants and native traditions. Yarrow Willard, a friend of Woodroffe's in Canada, said Woodroffe was not violent and had never used a gun. "He was a loving father and kind man who was not capable of the crimes he was accused of," Willard said in an email. Willard said Woodroffe had gone to Peru "seeking healing as he was feeling troubled and slightly lost." The case has spotlighted surging tourism in Peru's Amazon related to the hallucinogenic plant brew ayahuasca, which has long been used by tribes in spiritual and healing rituals and is now popular among foreigners seeking vivid spiritual experiences or help with addiction. Woodroffe traveled to Peru to learn about ayahuasca and plant medicine so he could become an addictions counselor, according to his post on the crowdfunding website Indiegogo.com. Tests of Woodroffe's remains are expected to determine if he fired a weapon or was intoxicated before dying. Authorities have expedited the laboratory work and results are now expected this week, instead of in more than two weeks as initially estimated, Jimenez said. Two men sought by police for allegedly lynching Woodroffe appear to have fled, Jimenez said. In 2015, a Canadian killed a friend in self-defense during an ayahuasca session. In 2012, an 18-year-old U.S. citizen died after taking the drug and workers at an ayahuasca retreat tried to hide his body. (Reporting by Mitra Taj; editing by Dan Grebler and Leslie Adler)
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China has conducted live combat drills in the East China Sea, state news agency Xinhua reported late on Monday, the latest in a series of air and sea military exercises it has conducted over the past 10 days. Xinhua said a Chinese aircraft formation, which included the Liaoning carrier and J-15 planes, conducted anti-aircraft and anti-submarine warfare training where they intercepted "enemy" jets, fired anti-air missiles from ships surrounding the carrier and dodged "enemy" submarines. It did not specify where exactly the exercises took place. The carrier formation has in the past 10 days carried out military exercises in the western Pacific, South China Sea and Taiwan Strait, which drew criticism from self-ruled Taiwan as amounting to "intimidation". China claims self-ruled Taiwan as its sacred territory, under its "one China" policy, and Beijing has never renounced the use of force to bring what it sees as a wayward province under its control. (Reporting by Brenda Goh; Editing by Michael Perry)
BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Monday reassured Pakistan that relations between the two countries were as firm as ever and would "never rust", ahead of a meeting this week between President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that could unnerve Islamabad. China and Pakistan like to call each other "all weather friends" and their traditional close ties have long been viewed with suspicion by Pakistan's neighbor and traditional enemy, India. But Modi has tried to reset relations with Beijing after a years of disagreements over everything from their border to exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, and will hold an informal summit with Xi on Friday and Saturday in China. China will continue to firmly support Pakistan, its top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, told Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif at a meeting in Beijing. "We are ready to work together with our Pakistani brothers to undertake the historical mission of national rejuvenation and achieve the great dream of national prosperity and development," Wang said. "In this way, our iron friendship with Pakistan will never rust and be tempered into steel." There was no mention of the Xi-Modi meeting in comments made in front of reporters. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
BEIJING (Reuters) - China has unveiled a monument to mark its construction work in the disputed South China Sea, which has included reclaiming land for artificial islands, the Chinese military's official newspaper said on Tuesday. China's building work has unnerved its neighbors and caused alarm in Washington, especially as much of the construction has been for military facilities like airports. China has repeatedly defended the work, saying it has every right to build on what it considers inherent Chinese territory and that it is building public facilities, like weather stations and typhoon harbors. In a brief report, the People's Liberation Army Daily said the monument was unveiled on Monday on Fiery Cross Reef on the Spratly Islands, where China has built one of its airstrips and other military facilities. The monument sends a message about China's determination to protect its territory and maritime rights, the brief report added. China recently completed extensive military exercises in the South China Sea, where its claims are hotly disputed by Vietnam as well as the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei. Taiwan also lays claim to most of the sea. China's construction of islands and military facilities in the South China Sea, through which some $3 trillion in trade passes annually, has sparked concern it is seeking to restrict free movement and extend its strategic reach. The United States has conducted "freedom of navigation patrols" through the South China Sea, stoking tension with China which says it will protect its sovereignty. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Nick Macfie)
BEIJING (Reuters) - China first domestically developed aircraft carrier looks set to begin sea trials after pictures appeared on the Chinese internet on Monday of it leaving its dock in the northeastern port of Dalian. The still-unnamed carrier was launched this time last year but since then has been undergoing fitting of weapons and other systems and has not yet entered service. Chinese President Xi Jinping is overseeing an ambitious military modernization scheme, including stealth jets and anti-satellite missiles, as China ramps up its presence in the disputed South China Sea and around self-ruled Taiwan, an island it considers its own. Online Chinese news portals, including Sina, showed pictures on their sites on Monday of the ship being eased out of its dock by tugs, though it was unclear where it might be heading. Monday is the 69th anniversary of the founding of modern China's navy. The report said the carrier was likely being readied for its first sea trials. China's Defense Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. Pictures of the carrier have been widely leaked on the Chinese internet, with little apparent concern from the government. State media has previously quoted military experts as saying the carrier, China's second, is not expected to enter service until 2020, once it has been fully kitted out and armed. Little is known about China's aircraft carrier program, which is a state secret. But the government has said the new carrier's design draws on experiences from the country's first carrier, the Liaoning, bought second-hand from Ukraine in 1998 and refitted in China. The new conventionally powered carrier will be able to operate China's Shenyang J-15 fighter jets. Unlike the U.S. navy's longer-range nuclear carriers, both of China's feature Soviet-design ski-jump bows, intended to give fighter jets enough lift to take off from their shorter decks. But they lack the powerful catapult technology for launching aircraft of their U.S. counterparts. The Liaoning has taken part in military exercises, including in the South China Sea and Western Pacific, but is expected to serve more as a training vessel. Taiwan has said China is actually building two new aircraft carriers, but China has not officially confirmed the existence of another carrier. Chinese state media has quoted experts as saying that the country needs at least six carriers. The United States operates 10 and plans to build two more. Most experts agree that developing such a force will be a decades-long endeavor for China but the launch of the second carrier holds a certain prestige value for Beijing, seen by many analysts as keen to eventually erode U.S. military prominence in the region. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Nick Macfie)
China's sole aircraft carrier has led a flotilla of naval vessels in a "live combat drill" in the East China Sea, state media reported Tuesday, the latest show of force by Beijing's burgeoning navy.

The official Xinhua news agency said the vessels "took part in anti-aircraft and anti-submarine warfare training" with a simulated "opposing force".

Xinhua said the drill, which took place on Sunday, included multiple take-offs from the deck of the Liaoning aircraft carrier by J-15 fighter jets and that "anti-air missiles were fired from ships surrounding the carrier".

The manoeuvre occurred in the East China Sea, though the report did not give an exact location.

The sea is home to uninhabited islets at the centre of a festering row between Tokyo and Beijing. The Japanese government has long complained about China's routine dispatch of coast guard ships to waters surrounding the islands.

The presence of a naval convoy carrying out live fire drills in the East China Sea could anger Tokyo.

The Liaoning is a refurbished Cold War-era aircraft carrier that was bought from Ukraine and commissioned in 2012.

It has been on a high-visibility tour in recent weeks, carrying out a series of muscle-flexing drills accompanied by a flotilla of support ships, including destroyers.

Earlier this month, Chinese President Xi Jinping inspected the convoy as it conducted exercises in the disputed South China Sea.

Beijing asserts sovereignty over almost all of the resource-rich waterway, building an archipelago of artificial islands there capable of hosting military equipment, despite rival claims from several of its Southeast Asian neighbours.

The flotilla then held two separate drills last week in waters on either side of Taiwan, infuriating the government in Taipei.

China sees democratically-governed Taiwan as a renegade part of its territory to be brought back into the fold and has not ruled out reunification by force.

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The Liaoning is the pride of China's rapidly expanding navy, with Beijing determined to become a major global naval power, particularly in the Pacific.

The state-run Global Times newspaper said China's first home-made carrier started moving from its berth on Monday as it prepares for its first sea trial, while a third, more advanced model is under construction in a Shanghai shipyard.

China's chief Pacific rival the United States currently boasts 11 operating aircraft carriers and two more currently under construction.
By Patient Ligodi KINSHASA (Reuters) - Congolese opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi rejected suggestions that he might do a deal with President Joseph Kabila, at a rally which passed off peacefully on Tuesday. Tshisekedi is one of two main figures expected to seek to run in a delayed election scheduled for December. Exiled businessman Moise Katumbi is the other. Tshisekedi dismissed speculation he might accept the post of prime minister, something Kabila has offered in the past to appease opponents. "There is nothing like any dialogue for a prime ministerial post," Tshisekedi told the cheering crowd. "The (party) elected me to be presidential candidate, so how can I be lowered to prime minister? Rather, let me be led to the final victory in the presidential election." Kabila's opposition is weak and divided. Many opposition politicians joined a power-sharing government after the death of opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, Felix's father, last year. Dozens have died in protests, most shot dead by security forces, since Kabila refused to step down at the end of his constitutional mandate in December 2016. But Tuesday's rally was unusual in that it was permitted, watched closely by armed police. Popular anger could easily boil over if elections are delayed again or are not perceived to be fair. In addition, several parts of the country are dealing with armed rebellions. Donors have expressed concern about plans to use new electronic voting machines, saying the system is untested and could allow fraud. Congo's government reacted by saying it would reject foreign aid for the poll. "Their machine is a machine to cheat. The electoral register is corrupt and merits a serious audit," Tshisekedi said. The electoral commission has denied accusations of bias. (Reporting by Amedee Mwarabu; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
Beirut (AFP) - At least 18 pro-Syrian regime combatants have been killed in 24 hours of fighting in southern Damascus against the Islamic State group, a monitor said Tuesday.

That brought to at least 52 the number of pro-government fighters killed in nearly a week of military operations against Yarmuk and adjacent IS-held neighbourhoods, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

No confirmation of the casualties was available from Syrian officials, who do not usually disclose losses within army ranks.

The Britain-based Observatory said at least 35 jihadist fighters were also killed during the same period.

There are an estimated 1,000 IS fighters left inside the enclave in the capital's southern neighbourhoods, which include Yarmuk and the adjacent districts of Hajar al-Aswad and Qadam.

In Qadam on Tuesday, soldiers could be seen pushing a fresh advance, backed by Syrian government air strikes and artillery fire, during an organised press tour.

Columns of black smoke were snaking up from a monochrome sea of devastated buildings, an AFP correspondent said.

The salvos of shelling paused briefly, and the steady crack of machinegun fire took their place.

Barricades sealed off every street in Qadam, which was once a bustling stop on Syria's train line but whose carriages are now abandoned and left in ruins.

From their perch in Yarmuk -- which has a view of the presidential palace in Damascus -- jihadists have fired rockets on the capital's centre.

According to state news agency SANA, five civilians were killed Tuesday when a mortar shell crashed into a market area.

The Observatory said the fighting on the ground was fierce, as IS attempted a desperate defence of one of its very last bastions in the country.

After the crumbling of its so-called "caliphate" including its main urban bastions in Syria's north and east, IS is estimated to hold five percent of the country's territory.

IS entrenched itself in large parts of Yarmuk in 2015 and has managed to stay on since then.

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The Syrian army's focus on Yarmuk, once the country's largest Palestinian refugee camp, comes as part of its campaign to secure the capital.

It recently retook the opposition enclave of Eastern Ghouta, then reached a string of deals last week for the transfer to northern Syria of rebels who had been allowed to remain in villages near Damascus as part of 2016 reconciliation agreements.

A successful operation in Yarmuk, which is anticipated, would seal the regime's reconquest of the capital, a major prize for a resurgent President Bashar al-Assad.

More than 350,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Assad broke out in 2011 and millions have been displaced.
Human remains found during an Earth Day cleanup Saturday belong to a 32-year-old Indiana mother who has been missing since December, PEOPLE has learned.

Jaime Beasleys family had been searching for her since she vanished on Dec. 15, 2017 after sending a text to a friend at about 10:45 p.m., according to a Facebook post by her family.

On Saturday, a group of volunteers who cleaning up their Indianapolis neighborhood for Earth Day  which officially falls on Sunday  made a grisly discovery when they found human remains along a creek, local station CBS 4 reports.

The partially covered remains were discovered on the citys east side around 11 a.m., the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department told local station FOX59.

On Monday afternoon, the Marion County Coroners Office in Indianapolis confirmed to PEOPLE that they had identified the remains and that they were those of Beasley.

Police who arrived at the scene on Saturday said they believed the remains were those of a female and called in homicide detectives to investigate, Fox News reports.

Beasleys sister, Susanne Gill, came to the scene where the remains were found.

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It scares me because its so close to the house she went missing in, Gill told reporters, Fox 59 reports. Weve checked here several times, many people have checked here.

She and her family were awaiting the results of an autopsy, which was scheduled for Monday.

Its not easy to say that I want it to be her because I want the peace and I want her laid to rest, if thats the case, she said. At the same time, how can someone do that to anybody and leave them like that?

Beasley, who has a 9-year-old daughter, had no personal items with her when she went missing, her familys Facebook post says.

She was going to spend the holidays with her family out of town but never arrived, the post says. She has had no contact with her family or friends since she vanished.

Attempts to reach Beasleys family were unsuccessful.

Anyone with information should contact the IMPDs homicide office at 317-327-3475 or Crime Stoppers at 317-262-TIPS.
Experts say suit alleging election conspiracy could inform the public about Trump and Russia, but some Democrats have voiced concern

Donald Trump at a rally in 2016. The DNCs suit claims his campaign was involved in an illegal conspiracy to influence the elections results. Photograph: ddp USA/Rex/Shutterstock

By suing the Trump campaign, the Russian government and others, the Democratic National Committee has opened up a new front in a legal battle that is either a campaign for justice or a pitiable attempt to overturn the 2016 election result, depending on whom you ask.

Donald Trumps 2020 campaign manager, Brad Parscale, branded the DNC action a last-ditch effort to revive the witch-hunt with a lawsuit.

Trump tweeted that it was so funny, the Democrats have sued the Republicans for Winning.

Even some Democrats have expressed reservations. I think this sidebar lawsuit is not in the interest of the American people, the US congresswoman Jackie Speier of San Francisco, who has a law degree, told CNN.

But the lawsuit is distinct in significant ways from parallel legal actions and  if it is not dismissed outright at an early stage  it could add significantly to public knowledge, at least, about Trump campaign activities and Russian election tampering, legal experts said.

[It] might end up becoming a really, really powerful tool for the DNC to actually unearth new information, Susan Hennessey, executive editor of the Lawfare blog and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told PBS Newshour on Friday.

The DNC suit alleges that the Trump campaign was a racketeering enterprise engaged in an illegal conspiracy to influence the outcome of the election. Unlike parallel legal actions, the lawsuit names as defendants Donald Trump Jr and Jared Kushner, the presidents son-in-law and adviser.

While both men have been subject to grand jury subpoenas issued by the special counsel Robert Mueller, and Kushner sat for a private meeting with Mueller in November 2017, neither has been charged by Mueller, as far as is publicly known.

The brothers-in-law have separately denied any wrongdoing.

The DNC lawsuit could be seen as an outrider to Muellers investigation of alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia and related matters, Hennessey told PBS.

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I think that they are fundamentally unrelated, she said. We dont know much about the Mueller investigation. The DNC suit both relies on the Mueller investigation, because it uses some evidence that actually comes from those court filings, and it also gets quite a bit ahead  it is alleging this actual conspiracy [and] we havent seen Mueller make that showing.

I think the best way to think about it is sort of parallel tracks, the same subject matter but not necessarily related.

In a separate lawsuit filed in July 2017, three plaintiffs whose emails were hacked and disseminated in the cyber-attacks on the DNC accused the Trump campaign and Trumps former adviser Roger Stone of an invasion of privacy. Stone had boasted of communications with Julian Assange of WikiLeaks, which published the emails.

A hearing on a motion to dismiss the suit, filed in US district court for the District of Columbia by the DNC donors Roy Cockrum and Eric Schoenberg, and the former DNC staffer Scott Comer, is scheduled for 17 May.

Writing last year on that lawsuit, Andrew Wright, a former White House associate counsel and a professor at Savannah Law School, concluded: This is an extraordinary case in which discovery orders on the path to that proof could be as important to the public discourse as the outcome of the case itself.

The same dynamic could hold in the DNC suit, Wright said in an email to the Guardian, with important information coming to light through judicial proceedings.

Hennessey, meanwhile, said: This is an amazingly complex legal landscape.


Cairo (AFP) - An Egyptian military court Tuesday sentenced a former anti-corruption chief, Hisham Geneina, to five years in jail after he said a presidential candidate had secret documents allegedly damaging to the army, his lawyer said.

"The verdict is five years, and we're doing the appeal (procedure) now," lawyer Ali Taha said.

The military detained Geneina in February accusing him of "spreading news that harms the armed forces" following an interview he gave to Huffpost Arabi, the Arabic version of the US news site.

Taha said he was convicted on the same charge.

Geneina had been a top campaign aide to General Sami Anan, a former armed forces chief of staff whom the military also detained after he announced he would stand in last month's presidential election against Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who swept to victory for a second term.

Geneina had said Anan allegedly possessed documents on "political events and crises that Egyptian society has passed through" since the 2011 uprising which toppled veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak.

He said the documents were being held at a "secure" location abroad and could be released if Anan was harmed.

Moataz Wadnan, the journalist who conducted the interview, was also arrested.

Geneina, a qualified judge, was sacked by Sisi as head of the Central Auditing Authority in 2016 after he was accused of exaggerating the cost of corruption in Egypt.
Mexico should start cutting thieves' hands off to stop corruption, one of the countrys presidential candidates has declared during a televised debate.

Speaking alongside four other contenders for office, outsider candidate Jaime Rodriguez, nicknamed El Bronco, shocked the moderator by repeatedly saying he wants to bring back corporal punishment for the theft of public funds.

"We have to cut off the hands of those who rob, Rodriguez said live on national broadcaster Telemundo s broadcast. It's that simple."

Trending: Assad to Get Free S-300 Missile Systems From Russia, Sending Strong Message to Israel

This is not something bad. Countries that have put corruption behind them have done it, the controversial contender, famous for his outlandish remarks and predilection for posing on horseback, said. He did not give examples of the countries he believes have successfully defeated graft by cutting off limbs.

Read More: Will Mexicos presidential election leave the country in economic limbo

Bewildered, the moderator of the debate asked him to clarify his remarks several times. You are not speaking literally, or are you?

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Of course, of course, Rodriguez doubled down, telling her repeatedly that the phrase was not only a figure of speech but he literally intended to submit a law to Mexican lawmakers to cut off the hand of someone found guilty of theft.

Although Rodriguezs remarks mentioned corruption and thieves in public services, it was not totally clear if he only intends to punish graft by public officials, or other kinds of theft as well. Mexicos El Universal newspaper and several other large news publications have inferred that Rodriguezs proposal applies only to public officials, but the his comments gave sparked numerous social media posts, lampooning the brutality of his proposal. In one post, El Broncos face was superimposed on what appeared to be an Islamist militant chopping off a captured man's hand, Reuters reported.

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Crime and corruption are the top issues in Mexicos election, however, and Rodriguez has billed himself as an outsider, keen to root out corruption. He swept to a rare victory for an independent politician in the governors elections in 2015, when he declared :"There will be no more corruption.

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He is seen as a long shot in the presidential election, however, as controversial comments such as his remark about the recent deadly earthquake in Mexico being the fault of people being too liberal in the topic of faith have been met with widespread criticism. He was the last of the five presidential candidates to be registered on the ballot, and even that was in circumstances, as most signatures supporting his candidature were deemed invalid.

Left-wing veteran Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador began his campaign this month with 38 percent of the votean 18-point lead over second-placed Ricardo Anaya, according to Reuters.

During the debate, Lopez Obrador boasted that his lead in the polls was so dramatic that something terrible would have to happen" for him not to claim victory.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump escort Emmanuel Macron and Brigitte Macron as they arrive together on the Marine One helicopter on a visit to the estate of the first U.S. President George Washington in Mount Vernon - REUTERS

Emmanuel Macron will urge Donald Trump to keep America engaged in Syria for the long run on Tuesday as the pair meet for face-to-face talks in the White House.

The French president is expected to warn that new terrorist threats could emerge if the US disengages from the country as it remains locked in civil war.

The White House has confirmed a way ahead in Syria will be discussed in what officials predicted will be a full and free airing of points of view with Mr Macron.

Americas Syrian policy is up in the air as Mr Trump balances his instinctive opposition to foreign intervention with a determination to police a red line over chemical weapons use.

Mr Trump said last month that US troops would withdraw from Syria very soon, only to be convinced by advisers to stay for the time being to defeat the last remaining Isil fighters.

Emmanuel Macron arrives in America, becoming the first world leader to enjoy a US state visit under Donald Trump Credit: AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

Then just weeks later the US president sanctioned air strikes on Syrian regime facilities alongside Britain and France to punish Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian dictator, for a chemical weapons attack.

Mr Macron, who arrived in Washington DC on Monday for a three-day state visit, was said to have played a central role in convincing Mr Trump to approve the strikes.

Emmanuel Macron holds hands with wife Brigitte Macron as they arrive at Andrews Air Force Base Credit: AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

He has since lobbied for the US to remain for the long-term in Syria. Mr Macron said recently he had convinced Mr Trump it was necessary to stay  a comment pushed back by the White House.

Mr Macron also used a Fox News interview on Sunday to declare that pulling out of Syria would leave the floor to the Iranian regime and Assad, adding: They will fuel the new terrorists.

The Macrons were scheduled to dine with the Trumps on Monday night at Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington Credit: AFP PHOTO / LUDOVIC MARIN

The US president has repeatedly criticised US involvement in the Middle East, saying that America has got nothing from the trillions of pounds spent in the region in the last few decades.

However he has boasted of outdoing his predecessor Barack Obama by responding with military force when the Assad regime crossed a red line over chemical weapons use.

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A decision over future Syrian engagement has become more pressing amid Russian media reports that the Kremlin is considering further arming Assads forces.

The Kommersant newspaper quoted diplomatic and military sources as saying that Russia was planning to give S-300 surface-to-air missiles to the Syrian government in the near future.

The move would anger Israel, which helped quash a similar move in 2013, and increase volatility in the region. Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said on Monday that no final decision had been taken.

French first lady Brigitte Macron and US first lady Melania Trump listen as US President Donald Trump speaks with French President Emmanuel Macron at Mount Vernon Credit: LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP

Mr Macron was given a red carpet welcome as he arrived with his wife Brigitte, becoming the first world leader to get a US state visit under Mr Trump. The French president said it was a great honour as he touched down in the US.

Mr Macron was due to have a private couples dinner with the Trumps at Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington, Americas first president, on Monday night.

Mr Macron and Mr Trump will have a one-on-one meeting in the Oval Office on Tuesday, followed by talks with a wider group of aides and then a press conference.

As well as Syria, the two leaders are expected to discuss the Iran nuclear deal, US steel tariffs on the EU and the Paris climate change agreement.

On Tuesday night Mr Macron will be served goat cheese gateau followed by a rack of spring lamb and then nectarine tart infused with White House honey at a state dinner.

Mr Macron will also be given a review of the troops with 500 US soldiers in attendance, mirroring a military march that Mr Trump attended during his Paris visit.

The French president, who has become one of the world leaders who enjoys the best relationship with Mr Trump, is under pressure to convert his influence into tangible policy changes.

Emmanuel Macron has built a strong working relationship with Donald Trump after clashing with him before being elected French president Credit: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Gilles Platret, spokesman for the French opposition conservative Republicans party, said Mr Trump was using Mr Macron to "try and find some respectability on the international stage".

He told Sud Radio: "It serves the interests of Mr Macron who loves all that shines. Red carpets suit him well. But what are the concrete results? Is it in France's interests? That's still a question that is out there.

Benjamin Griveaux, the French governments spokesman, played down the closeness of the relationship between Mr Trump and Mr Macron.

I dont think they are buddies. The goal is not to have affectionate relations, but to establish some sort of personal connection, he said.
Brussels (AFP) - The UN's Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura on Tuesday urged the world to prevent a fresh humanitarian disaster in the rebel-held region of Idlib, as officials warned aid funding was running "desperately short".

Mistura told a major donor conference that Idlib, the likely next target of the Syrian regime's fightback, risked suffering the same fate as Aleppo, seized in a Russian-backed Syrian offensive in 2016, and Eastern Ghouta, retaken by the regime shortly after an alleged chemical attack in early April.

Donor countries, aid organisations and UN agencies are gathering in Brussels for the seventh annual conference on Syria's future, as forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad launched a new offensive against Islamic State jihadists entrenched in a southern district of Damascus.

"We were and are concerned on the humanitarian side by Idlib. Because Idlib is the big new challenge, 2.5 million people," Mistura told a press conference with EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini.

"We hope that this would be an occasion for making sure that Idlib does not become the new new Aleppo, the new Eastern Ghouta, because the dimensions are completely different."

The head of UN aid agency UNOCHA chief Mark Lowcock said the two-day gathering needed to raise some $8 billion in pledges for work inside Syria and with refugees in neighbouring countries, warning that some programmes may have to be cut back if funds are not forthcoming.

"We are quite desperately short of resources," he told reporters, saying UNOCHA managed to raise only half of the funds it needed in 2017 and urging Damascus and its main backer Russia to do more to help civilians suffering in the war.

- 'Can't meet urgent needs' -

Some 6.1 people are now internally displaced, more than five million have fled Syria and 13 million including six million children are in need of aid, according to the UN. More than 700,000 people have been displaced since the start of this year alone.

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"Within the resources we can plausibly expect to mobilise this year we cannot meet even all the urgent needs," Lowcock said.

UN and EU officials held talks with aid groups working in Syria and neighbouring countries on Tuesday to get their views before government ministers arrive on Wednesday.

Save the Children International chief executive, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, urged donors to focus on education, saying a third of Syrian youngsters are out of school and a third of Syrian schools are unusable because of the war.

"We have let Syrian children down. This is the seventh year and they're still being let down," Thorning-Schmidt told AFP.

UN children's agency UNICEF said some 2.8 million Syrian children had missed out on education, warning that in parts of the country simply going to school "has at times become a matter of life and death".

- 'Syria is not a chessboard' -

The EU also wants to use the conference to re-energise floundering UN-led peace talks in Geneva, which have made virtually no progress in eight rounds, with Assad's government paying little interest and Russia, Iran and Turkey launching a rival process in the Kazakh capital Astana last year.

Russia and Iran are Assad's key allies and their military intervention in Syria is widely seen as tipping the balance in the civil war.

Mogherini and de Mistura both called on Russia, Iran and Turkey -- the three powers involved in the so-called Astana process seeking peace in Syria -- to do more to reach a ceasefire.

"The main message is that Syria is not a chessboard, it's not geopolitical game," Mogherini said.

The conference comes in the wake of strikes by the United States, France and Britain on Syrian military installations in response to the alleged chemical weapons incident in Douma which has been widely blamed on Damascus.

Mistura said a UN Security Council retreat in a secluded farmhouse in Sweden at the weekend, called in a bid to overcome its paralysis on Syria, had lowered the "temperature" but failed to find a political solution.

"After two weeks of terribly tense and rhetorically intense meetings, there was a need again to bring down the temperature," Mistura said.

"Has this avoided or completely resolved the division which exists in the Security Council on Syria, which is the biggest problem the UN has... no," he added.

"Has the atmosphere gone down and the understanding that there are common issues that can be faced together, yes," Mistura said.
By Dave Graham MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The trailing pack of candidates in Mexico's July 1 presidential election on Sunday launched repeated attacks on the leftist front-runner in a first televised debate, putting him on the defensive without luring him out into an open verbal brawl. Race leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador came under sustained fire from his nearest challenger Ricardo Anaya, who sold himself as the only viable alternative for the presidency, calling out his rival for evading questions and accusing him of hypocrisy. Buoyed by massive discontent with the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) over corruption, record levels of violence and sluggish growth, Lopez Obrador has pledged to clean up politics, reduce lawlessness and tackle inequality. Many of the attacks on him focused on a proposal he floated to explore an amnesty for criminals to pacify the country. Last year Mexico suffered its worst murder tally on record under President Enrique Pena Nieto, who cannot run for office again. "Proposing a pardon for criminals is madness, and would lead to an immense amount of violence in the country," Anaya said. Lopez Obrador rarely responded directly to the criticism, but about a quarter of the way into the debate focusing on security, corruption and democracy, his patience wore thin. "Obviously everyone's against me, ganging up on me, look," said the former Mexico City mayor, 64. Independent candidate Jaime Rodriguez shot back: "It's not ganging up, Andres, it's that you say any old nonsense." Twice a runner-up for the presidency, Lopez Obrador has led polls for months, and one in the past week by newspaper Reforma put him 22 points ahead of Anaya. At times he appeared amused by the verbal jousting, at others, distracted. At one point he deflected a round of criticism by simply pulling out a poster board with the Reforma numbers on it showing him with 48 percent support. "It's not to show off. 48 percent. Something terrible would need to happen..," he added without completing the sentence, and then said his numbers would rise further. "That's my reply." Anaya, 39, who heads a right-left alliance, and Jose Antonio Meade, candidate of the centrist PRI, have spent months battling each other for second place. But they took turns time and again to attack Lopez Obrador during the two-hour debate. Meade, 49, called Lopez Obrador a "puppet of criminals" and described his political party as a "family business". Lopez Obrador defended his security plans, saying anemic growth had brought about a breakdown in law and order and noting "you can't fight fire with fire". He repeated his pledge to sweep corruption out of the government from "top to bottom." Lopez Obrador has cut a more relaxed figure on the campaign trail than in previous years, generally avoiding the kind of outbursts that in the past helped adversaries depict him as a radical menace to stability in Latin America's No. 2 economy. But he showed no great enthusiasm for the debate on Sunday and began leaving the stage while the camera was still trained on the five candidates at the close. Anaya has struggled to shrug off accusations by the PRI that he laundered money in a 2014-2016 property deal, but he remained collected throughout the debate. He quickly rejected the allegations again to turn his fire back on the front-runner. "Our coalition is the only one that can beat Lopez Obrador," Anaya said during his closing remarks. (Reporting by Dave Graham; Additional reporting by Diego Ore; Editing by Peter Cooney)
By Nate Raymond

(Reuters) - A former Insys Therapeutics Inc sales representative was sentenced on Monday to six months of home confinement after admitting that she participated in a scheme to pay kickbacks to two Alabama doctors to prescribe a fentanyl-based medication.

Natalie Perhacs, 32, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Callie Granade in Mobile, Alabama, after pleading guilty to conspiring to pay kickbacks to the doctors to prescribe Insys' product Subsys, according to court records.

The home confinement is part of a five-year period of probation imposed by Granade, who also ordered Perhacs to participate in 300 hours of community service. Her lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.

Perhacs is one of at least 14 former Insys employees or executives to face charges related to what prosecutors say was a scheme to pay kickbacks to medical practitioners who prescribed Subsys and to defraud insurers into paying for it.

Among those charged were billionaire Insys founder John Kapoor, who has pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy and other charges.

Insys has said it has taken steps to prevent past mistakes from happening again. It has said it may need to pay at least $150 million to resolve the U.S. Justice Department's probe.

Subsys is an under-the-tongue spray containing fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times as potent as heroin. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Subsys only for treating pain in cancer patients.

Prosecutors say executives and employees at Chandler, Arizona-based Insys used sham speaker programs ostensibly meant to educate healthcare professionals about Subsys to funnel kickbacks to medical practitioners.

Perhacs, who pleaded guilty in 2016 to conspiring to violate the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, testified at trial against the two Alabama doctors, Xiulu Ruan and John Couch.

Prosecutors said the two regularly wrote prescriptions for large quantities of addictive medications including fentanyl without a legitimate medical purpose and regularly prescribed Subsys for off-label purposes to non-cancer patients.

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Prosecutors said Insys paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaker fees to Couch and Ruan, who for a time was the top prescriber of Subsys nationally.

Prosecutors said Perhacs after being hired by Insys in 2013 as a sales representative was tasked with increasing the volume of Subsys that Ruan and Couch prescribed and setting up paid speaker programs for the two doctors.

Ruan and Couch were convicted of racketeering conspiracy and other felonies and were sentenced in May 2017 to prison terms of 21 years and 20 years, respectively.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
By Brendan Pierson

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York City lawyer was found guilty in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday of bribing a police sergeant to help his clients get gun licenses.

John Chambers, who once worked as an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn, was convicted by a jury of bribery, conspiracy and fraud after a little more than three hours of deliberations, which began Monday afternoon.

"We are disappointed in the verdict and will take the case up on appeal," said Chambers' lawyer, Roger Stavis.

Chambers, 63, was arrested in April 2017.

Prosecutors said he paid bribes including cash, Broadway tickets, clothes and an $8,000 watch to David Villanueva, a former sergeant in the New York Police Department's gun licensing division. In exchange, they said, Villanueva helped Chambers' clients bypass the normal channels for getting gun licenses.

"John Chambers paid bribe after bribe to put guns in the hands of people who had no business having them," Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Monteleoni told jurors during his closing argument on Monday.

Villanueva was also charged, but pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and testified against Chambers during the trial last week. He said he repeatedly used his power to help Chambers' clients, including one whose license was reinstated after being suspended after a report of a "domestic incident."

Stavis told jurors during his closing argument that Chambers' gifts were motivated by genuine friendship, and that Villanueva was a "dirty cop" who lied about his former friend to save himself.

"John Chambers became David Villanueva's get out of jail free card," Stavis said.

Chambers' wife, Christina Chambers, testified in her husband's defense, saying he considered his friendship with Villanueva a "gem."

One of the jurors, who asked not to be named, told reporters after the verdict that the jury had been sympathetic to Chambers but that much of the evidence against him, in the form of text messages and emails, was "black and white."

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The case emerged from a broader investigation in which at least two others have pleaded guilty to paying bribes for gun licenses. Alex Lichtenstein, a member of a volunteer safety patrol in an Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn, was sentenced to 32 months in prison last year, while another man, Frank Soohoo, has been cooperating with authorities, according to court records. A lawyer for Soohoo could not immediately be reached for comment.

Villanueva testified last week that he took bribes from both men.

(Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Frances Kerry)
President Donald Trump twice gave James Comey an alibi for why a salacious report about the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow couldnt be true: He never even spent the night in Russia during that trip, Trump told the former FBI director, according to Comeys memos about the conversations.

Yet the broad timeline of Trumps stay, stretching from Friday, Nov. 8, 2013, through the following Sunday morning, has been widely reported. And its substantiated by social media posts that show he slept in Moscow the night before the Miss Universe contest.

Now, flight records obtained by Bloomberg provide to-the-minute details, from wheels down to departure. Combined with existing accounts and Trumps own social-media posts, they capture a mere 45 hours and 43 minutes that, nearly five years later, loom large in the controversy engulfing the White House and at the heart of the Comey memos, which the Justice Department turned over last week to Congress.

Neither the White House nor Trump Organization immediately responded to requests for comment.

According to Comeys accounts of his 2017 meetings with the president, Trump said the Moscow trip was so quick that his head never hit a pillow  even for one night. Trump fired Comey on May 9, 2017.

The first denial came over dinner at the White House in late January 2017. He said he arrived in the morning, did events, then showered and dressed for the pageant at the hotel, and then left for the event, Comey wrote. Afterwards, he returned only to get his things because they departed for New York by plane that same night.

On the second occasion in February 2017, Trump explained, as he did at our dinner, that he hadnt stayed overnight in Russia during the Miss Universe trip, Comey wrote.

A reconstruction of events shows the future U.S. presidents journey to Moscow began in North Carolina, where he attended a birthday tribute to evangelist Billy Graham on Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013. While flight records show Trumps own Cessna jet headed back to New York that night from Asheville, North Carolina, Trump himself apparently wasnt aboard.

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Instead, Trump flew to Moscow on a Bombardier Global 5000 private jet owned by Phil Ruffin, his partner in the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Las Vegas, the New York Times reported in January 2017. Trumps use of Ruffins jet is also reported in the newly published book, Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putins War on America and the Election of Donald Trump, by Michael Isikoff and David Corn.

The jet  tail number N443PR  had flown from Las Vegas to Asheville on Nov. 6, according to the flight records, which Bloomberg purchased from FlightAware, an aviation data company. The flight records dont say who was aboard the jet, which took off from Asheville at 9:15 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 7, bound for Moscows Vnukovo International Airport.

At the Ritz

The Bombardier jet landed in Moscow at 6:15 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 8. From Vnukovo airport, its less than an hours drive to the Ritz-Carlton hotel, where Trump stayed, according to the pageants host, developer Aras Agalarov.

Trump surfaced online later that day in a Facebook post by the restaurant Nobu Moscow. That night he attended a birthday party for Agalarov.

The next day, Saturday, Nov. 9, Facebook posts showed Trump at the Ritz during the day, and in the afternoon he tweeted that hed gotten a tour of Moscow. That evening, he attended the Miss Universe pageant, followed by an after-party whose scheduled start time was 1 a.m.  by that time, Sunday, Nov. 10.

At this point, the flight records support a narrow slice of what Trump told Comey: On the night of the pageant itself, the plane Trump was said to be using didnt fully overnight in Russia. Ruffins Bombardier took off from Vnukovo airport at 3:58 a.m. Moscow time, the records show.

When the jet touched down at Newark Liberty International Airport, just outside New York City, it was still Sunday morning  4:11 a.m. local time. That evening, Trump tweeted about his return, I just got back from Russia-learned lots & lots. Moscow is a very interesting and amazing place!
By Bernie Woodall

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (Reuters) - The man charged with killing 17 people at Florida high school qualifies to have a public defender represent him at taxpayer expense, even though he may inherit money from his late mother's estate, a Florida judge ruled on Tuesday.

The 19-year-old suspect, Nikolas Cruz, has a current net worth of about $28,000 and access to only part of that sum, Broward County Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer wrote in a court ruling. As a result, paying for a private lawyer would impose a substantial hardship on the defendant, she said.

The judge said she would reconsider the question of whether Cruz qualified for a public defender should he inherit money from the estate, according to a court filing.

Cruz is accused of using an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle on Feb. 14 to kill 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and wound 17 others. Cruz is a former student at the school in Parkland.

At an April 11 hearing on Cruz's finances, Melissa McNeil of the Broward Public Defender's office told the court that Cruz wanted to donate to charity any money left to him in a trust set up by his mother.

Before the shooting, Cruz told the parents of a schoolmate who took him in after his mother's death that he would inherit $800,000 when he turns 22. His mother died in November 2017, according to a report in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper. His father died a few years earlier.

Any money that Cruz inherits would have to be split with his younger brother, Zachary.

Broward Public Defender Howard Finkelstein also said in an email on Tuesday that the attorney handling the estate has not yet filed to open it for administration.

Prosecutors have signaled their intention to seek the death penalty for Cruz in the massacre, which was the deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history. His public defense attorneys have said he would plead guilty if prosecutors withdrew the threat of capital punishment, but they have declined to do that.

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"We still stand ready to plead guilty to 34 consecutive life sentences without parole," Finkelstein said in an email to Reuters on Tuesday.

"We still believe it is in the best interests of the families and the community to end this case," he wrote.

(Reporting by Bernie Woodall; Editing by Frank McGurty and Frances Kerry)
A Sarasota, Florida, high school student is in hot water after asking a person to prom using a racist sign. His school, Riverview High School, is investigating the matter with possible disciplinary action to follow.

A photograph of the sign was captured via the potential dates Snapchat account and then circulated on social media Sunday, according to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

The sign read: If I was black Id be picking cotton, but Im white so Im picking u 4 Prom?

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Riverview

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Confirming to Newsweek that the student does go to Riverview, school district spokesperson Tracey Beeker said the school was investigating the incident and working with organizations to schedule forums on the topic of race regarding the proposal. Beeker also said that an automated call with a message about the incident went out to students and parents before school Monday.

We want to make everyone aware of a students social media post that has caused a very concerning situation. It involves one of our seniors and his 'promposal' to another student. It was racial in nature and administration became aware of it last night. Many who saw the post are understandably upset with its contents as well as the subsequent commentary to the post. Riverview High School absolutely does not condone or support the message conveyed in this post, said the message from the schools principal Kathy Wilks.

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The message also said that the students parents were made aware of the incident and that guidance counselors would be on hand to speak with students about the issue.

Riverview High School has a wonderful student population and we know our school will use this incident as an opportunity to have productive conversations about respect for one another, the message continued.

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The schools prom is scheduled for May 5, 2018, at the Hyatt of Sarasota.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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This article originally appeared on the Atlantic Council.

As French President Emmanuel Macron arrives in Washington, a top priority will be convincing his American counterpart to stay within the landmark nuclear agreement with Iran.

But judging from this analysts conversations with Iranian diplomats in Europe and New York over the past week, Macron and his colleagues in Germany and Britain may have an equally crucial task persuading Iran to remain within the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) if US President Donald J. Trump fails to reissue waivers of US sanctions on the next deadline, May 12.

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Javad Zarif

Maxim Zmeyev/Reuters

Despite all the attention paid to the US-Iran aspect of the nuclear issue, Irans main expectation upon signing the JCPOA was that it would be able to restore and increase economic relations with Europe, traditionally Irans major trading partner.

While Iran-European trade has increased over the past few years, it has not met Iranian expectations (and remains eclipsed by Iran-China commerce). Very few major deals have been signedone by the French oil giant, Total, is an exception that is now under threat because of uncertainty over US sanctions. There is still no major European bank willing to finance trade with or investment in Iran because of fear of possible US penalties. Iranian diplomats in London complain that they cannot even open a bank account to finance their embassys routine functions.

Since Trump last waived sanctions on January 12 and threatened that this would be the last time without a major fix to the agreement, Britain, France and Germanythe so-called E-3have labored to achieve a joint statement with the United States augmenting the JCPOAs provisions. As of this writing, it is not clear if a text will be ready for Macron to present to Trump.

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On April 27, German Chancellor Angela Merkel will arrive in Washington as the other half of a European tag team to try to convince the US president that Western interests will be far better served if the United States stays in the Iran deal.

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But if Europe hopes that its premier diplomatic achievement can survive, it also needs to make some gestures to Iran, not simply agree to new sanctions connected to Irans missile program and regional interventions. The E-3 could declare in advance that a restoration of US secondary sanctions would be illegalif Iran remains in the JCPOAand threaten trade penalties if the United States tries to enforce resumed sanctions on oil imports from Iran. The European Union could devise a reliable financial mechanism for European companies to do legal business with Iran.

It is this analysts understanding that in return for a package of new sanctions designations and language intended to address concerns about the expiration of certain restrictions on Irans nuclear program, the Europeans are demanding that the Trump administration guarantee that it will stay within the agreement for the long term.

At a meeting with journalists in New York on April 21, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said that for European leaders to try to appease the [US] president would be an exercise in futility. Instead of coming up with new ways to punish Iran, Zarif said, the Europeans should try to convince the leader of the United States to live up to its commitments under the JCPOA.

It is the lack of certainty over US intentions since Trump was inaugurated that has drained much of the value from the JCPOA for Iran, scaring off potential investors and contributing to a precipitous drop in the value of the Iranian currency. If the Europeans and the United States do reach an agreement, the US Congress might then step in and codify changes to legislation that requires the president to certify every ninety days that the JCPOA is in US national security interests. Provisions might also be added to change the timing for sanctions waivers from every three to six months to once a year or once every two years.

Some US analysts have insisted that Iran will abide by the JCPOA even if Trump does not re-issue sanctions waivers on May 12, arguing that Irans fragile economy leaves it no other recourse. Zarif said, however, that that was highly unlikely.

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Iran has several options to respond to a US withdrawal, including a rapid acceleration of uranium enrichment, the Iranian foreign minister said. The most likely is that Tehran would invoke a dispute resolution mechanism in the agreement, which could buy another forty-five days for the Europeans to come up with new arguments to convince the United States to return to the JCPOA fold and Iran to continue its compliance.

Frankly, since the Trump administration has already succeeded in reducing the economic benefits of the agreement for Iran, it is hard to understand why it would create a potential new proliferation crisis. Some administration hawks have suggested that walking out of what they perceive as a flawed deal with Iran would strengthen Trumps hand when he meets North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. But to the extent Kim compares his countrys situation to Irans, he is likelier to demand more concrete benefits from the United States upfront in return for concessions to an interlocutor who violates nuclear agreements negotiated by predecessors.

With much of the Middle East in turmoil, even more is riding on the continuation of the JCPOA than a possible impact on North Korea talks. Europe and Iran have also been engaged in discussions on finding an end to the ruinous war in Yemen and would like to broaden the dialogue to Syria. With both Iran and the United States out of the JCPOA, however, regional conflicts are likely to escalate, with the potential for armed clashes between US forces in the region and Iranian proxies. Israel could also become embroiled in a new conflict with Hezbollah in Syria.

Also at stake is the fate of a dozen Iranian dual nationals languishing in prison in Tehran. They include several Americans and British, Canadian, and Swedish citizens.

Pressed on this issue, Zarif repeated his standard line that these were matters for Irans judiciary, which is independent of the executive branch. He suggested that Iran might swap the Iranian-American detainees for Iranians imprisoned in the United States and other countries, primarily for violation of US sanctions that were lifted by the JCPOA. But while there have been talks on such swaps in the past, none of that is ongoing right now, Zarif said. We have not sensed the necessary mutual respect that would be required for such an operation.

Barbara Slavin is director of the Future of Iran Initiative at the Atlantic Council. Follow her on Twitter @barbaraslavin1.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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CAIRO (Reuters) - A military court has sentenced Egypt's former anti-corruption chief to five years in prison on charges of spreading false news harmful to the military, his lawyer said on Tuesday. Hisham Genena ran alongside former military chief-of-staff Sami Anan as a member of his short-lived presidential campaign before the latter was detained in January and accused by the army of running for office without permission, bringing his bid to an end. Genena was arrested and put under investigation by the military prosecutor in February over comments he allegedly made in an interview with the HuffPost Arabi news website. In the interview, Genena said Anan possessed documents that were damning of senior Egyptian officials. He gave no details. Anan's lawyer criticized Genena and wrote on his Facebook page that the statements Genena had made were "completely untrue". He did not specify which statements. The former auditor was beaten up outside his home shortly after Anan's arrest, and he has accused the government of being behind the assault. Three alleged assailants said Genena's injuries were the result of a fight after a car accident. "A petition to the military leader is all we have now," Ali Taha, Genena's lawyer, told Reuters on Tuesday. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who last month won a second term of office in a vote that involved only one other candidate - who said he himself supported Sisi - is by law the military leader of the country. Egypt expanded the jurisdiction of military courts in 2014 to try civilians accused of acts ranging from attacking state facilities to blocking roads. The practice is seen by critics as another clampdown on dissent by a government that has jailed thousands of Muslim Brotherhood supporters and targeted other activists. It is a controversial issue in Egypt, where the armed forces play an influential role in both political and economic spheres. (This story corrects name in paragraph 6 to Genena not Anan.) (Reporting by Amina Ismail; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
This article originally appeared on the Conversation.

French President Emmanuel Macron can expect a warm welcome from Donald Trumpand, most likely, some glitz and pompwhen he arrives in Washington on April 23 for a two-day summit. It is the Trump administrations first state visit of a foreign leader.

The two leaders, both political outsiders who achieved surprising electoral victories, have developed a strong working relationship despite their many ideological differences. Macron and Trump speak regularly on the phone, and Trump reportedly greatly appreciated the warm reception he received in France when he visited Macron in July 2017.

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10_25_MacronTrump_01

(Photo by Thierry Chesnot/Getty Images)

As a scholar who studies France, I believe the stakes in the summit are particularly high for Macron. The two presidents will tackle a list of complex international challenges, such as the Syrian civil war, terrorism and relations with Russia and North Korea.

Macron will also have to convince Trump, a conservative with protectionist instincts, not to break with Europe over trade tariffs and the Iran nuclear deal.

A successful return from Washington would give Macron a political boost at home and abroad.

Triumphs, then strikes

Macrons rise to power was remarkable.

In 2014, most French people had no idea who he was. By 2017, he was elected president in his first-ever run for public office. Shortly afterward, the political party he created from scratch, En Marche, captured a large majority in the French Parliament. Macron achieved all this before turning 40.

In office, Macron has tried to deliver on his campaign promises of transforming France by revitalizing its moribund economy and restoring its influence on the world stage.

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After years of sluggish growth and persistently high unemployment, he easily passed controversial reforms to Frances labor market. Among other changes, the new rules make it easier for companies to hire and fire employees.

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But the French president faces stiffer resistance to his latest batch of proposed reforms.

A government plan to prevent new hires at Frances state-owned national railway from being awarded the same generous benefits as current workerssuch as early retirement, extra vacation time and lifelong employment guaranteehas been met with three months of strikes. Railworkers also oppose Macrons decision to end the railways monopoly, opening it up to foreign competition by 2020, in line with European Union rules.

At the same time, college students across the country are also protesting a proposal to make university admissions more selective and merit-based. They have staged sit-ins, barricaded campuses and disrupted classes.

French medical workers and Air France pilots have now joined this broader strike movement.

Challenges at home and abroad

Union opposition is a significant first political test for Macron. It comes at a critical time: A year into his presidency, Macrons approval rate is 40 percent. It was 64 percent just after his election.

Macron also faces challenges abroad. He campaigned as a uniter who would deepen European cooperation. He has championed the European Union at a time when rising nationalism threatens to divide its membership.

Macron enjoyed early support from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has emerged in recent years as the reluctant leader of Europe. But Germanys new coalition government disagrees with parts of Macrons plans to create a largerand more flexibleEuropean Monetary Fund that would offer countries bailouts to prevent a repeat of Europes continuing debt crisis.

Frances strikes mark a particularly crucial juncture for Macron. If he faces down Frances powerful unions to implement his labor reforms, he will have achieved something none of his predecessors could do. And that, I expect, is something Donald Trump could respect.

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Convincing Trump

Trump is rolling out the red carpet for Macrons visit: a private dinner at George Washingtons home, Mount Vernon, and a joint address to Congress.

Macron and Trump agree on several important foreign policy issues. France joined recent U.S.-led air strikes against Syrias chemical laboratories and both countries continue to cooperate well on counterterrorism.

But it is less clear that Macron can leverage his good relationship with Trump to prevent a major breakdown over two important areas of discord: trade and Iran.

The U.S. administration temporarily exempted the European Union from its major tariffs on steel and aluminum imports announced last month, but this exemption is set to expire on May 1. Trump has called on the European bloc to rectify what he deems unfair trade practices.

Macron is probably hoping to secure a permanent exemption for Europe while in Washington. But European leaders have stated their steadfast refusal to negotiate under what they consider blackmail, so Macron has limited room to maneuver on trade.

Macron will also try to convince Trump to stick with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal President Barack Obama signed along with France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia and China. Trump has said the agreement has disastrous flaws and gave Congress until May 18 to fix them. Otherwise, he has said, he will withdraw the U.S. from the deal.

Do no harm

The French president is a skilled diplomat, but still I find the odds of a breakthrough over trade and Iran unpromising. Donald Trump has historically paid little heed to his foreign counterparts input on global issues like climate change and NATO.

Reports suggest that Macron himself is not very optimistic. He probably hopes simply to avoid further damaging transatlantic relations by entering in a prolonged dispute on either subjector, worse, on both.

A trade war would be very costly for the U.S. and Europe, which are economically interdependent. And if Trump withdraws from the Iran deal, it would both provoke and humiliate the United States European partners who spent more than a decade crafting this agreement.

The summit could not have higher stakes for Macron. He must realize that the fate of the more than a half-century-old Western alliance might rest on his ability to sway Donald Trump in Europes directionwhich will be no easy task.

Garret Martin, Professorial Lecturer, American University School of International Service.

The Conversation

This article was first written by Newsweek

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Washington (AFP) - Elegantly matched in white outfits, Melania Trump and Brigitte Macron split off from their husbands on Tuesday to visit a Paul Cezanne exhibit at Washington's National Gallery of Art.

The American and French first ladies spent about half an hour visiting the show of 59 portraits by the 19th century French painter, the first ever dedicated to this aspect of his work.

Trump and Macron were accompanied on the tour of the downtown Washington gallery by Mary Morton, who co-curated the exhibit and heads the museum's department of French paintings.

Both women wore impeccably tailored white dresses and high heels and the American first lady complemented her ensemble with a wide-brimmed white hat.

"Paul Cezanne's work is a celebration," Melania Trump said in a statement released by the White House. "It was perfect timing to have these exquisite paintings in Washington while Mrs Macron was in town."

Macron and Trump chatted together and with Morton and Frank Kelly, senior curator of American and British painting, as they toured the museum.

Besides the Cezanne exhibit, the White House said they viewed paintings by 19th century American artist Mary Cassatt and the "Ginevra de' Benci," the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the Americas.

- First state dinner -

"Everyone understands the language of art," Melania Trump said. "The historically famous and beautiful works that currently live in the National Gallery of Art are breathtaking."

Asked by a journalist if she was enjoying her visit to Washington, Brigitte Macron replied in English: "Very nice, thank you."

The pair of first ladies appear to have struck up a warm relationship despite their age difference and the initial wariness between their husbands.

At 65, Brigitte Macron is 25 years older than her husband while Melania Trump, at 47, is 24 years younger than Donald Trump.

Both women have a passion for children's education -- Macron is a former teacher -- and high fashion.

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They also both have husbands elected in presidential races they were not initially expected to win.

Brigitte and Emmanuel Macron arrived in Washington on Monday for their three-day visit.

They were given a welcoming ceremony full of pomp and circumstance and a 21-gun salute at the White House early Tuesday.

The Trumps will host the French couple Tuesday evening for an elegant state dinner at the White House, the first of the Trump presidency.

Melania Trump and her staff have spent months preparing for the event and the White House released pictures and a video of her overseeing the details.

Late Monday, the US and French presidents and their wives dined at Mount Vernon, the home on the banks of the Potomac River of George Washington, the Revolutionary War hero and first American president.

Brigitte Macron and Melania Trump have met previously at NATO and G7 summits and, most notably, during the Trumps' visit to Paris in July of last year.

During that visit, the Macrons and the Trumps shared an intimate dinner in the Eiffel Tower, while Brigitte Macron and Melania Trump visited the Cathedral of Notre Dame together.
French President Emmanuel Macron visits Trump in 3-day trip to Washington French President Emmanuel Macron smiles as he listens to a question in French from a student at George Washington University, Wednesday April 25, 2018, in Washington. (Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

Frances Emmanuel Macron left Washington looking like a superstar  whether or not he changed President Donald Trumps mind on staying in Syria, how to contain Iran or anything at all.

Macron upped his global status by standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the American president amid all the pageantry of a state visit. Then he attacked Trumps policies head-on in a speech to Congress, and defended his own vision of a globalist world order.

And he wrapped up the trip by rolling up his sleeves and stunning Georgetown students by telling them: You dont always have to play by the rules.

Thats bulls, he added.

Now, back to the reality of fixing France. After blow-by-blow coverage of Macrons Washington trip for three days, the French media turned quickly to domestic issues upon his return Thursday  damaging train strikes, crime-ridden housing projects, lagging school results. (AP)

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Paris (AFP) - Billionaire French industrialist Vincent Bollore was charged Wednesday as part of a probe into allegations his company helped two African leaders win elections in return for lucrative contracts, after two days of questioning by police.

The 66-year-old head of the Bollore Group was taken into custody Tuesday in the Paris suburb of Nanterre after authorities launched an investigation into how its African logistics subsidiary secured contracts to run Lome port in Togo and Conakry port in Guinea.

Prosecutors are looking at whether Bollore Group's communications arm, Havas, undercharged Guinean President Alpha Conde and Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe for work on their campaigns as a sweetener for the contracts, Le Monde newspaper reported.

After questioning, Bollore and two senior executives -- group chief executive Gilles Alix, and the head of the international division of Havas, Jean-Philippe Dorent -- were presented to magistrates.

A spokesman confirmed that the tycoon had been charged as part of the investigation. A judicial source said he had been charged with bribing a foreign national, breach of trust and forgery and use of fake documents.

"Vincent Bollore, who remains presumed innocent, will finally now be able to access this file and respond to the allegations against him," the spokesman said in a statement.

Bollore, one of France's most powerful businessmen, was allowed to leave court once the hearing finished.

He sits at the head of a tentacular empire with revenues of 18.3 billion euros ($22.4 billion) in 2017 and interests in everything from construction and logistics to media, advertising and agriculture.

The group is heavily invested in Africa, where it operates 10 container ports and has stakes in several others, as well as three railway concessions and interests in palm oil production.

The company has insisted that it won the port tenders on the basis of its expertise and more than two billion euros of investment in Africa over the past eight years.

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"Attempting to link the attribution of a port concession with communication services" was "a great misunderstanding of this economic sector and economic activity in general," it said in a statement.

- Togo, Guinea campaigns -

Havas worked on the campaign that brought Alpha Conde to power in Guinea in 2010, as the country's first freely elected president.

Months after taking office, Conde summarily terminated the contract of Conakry's port operator -- a subsidiary of French shipping company Necotrans -- and gave it to rival Bollore.

Opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo, who has lost two elections to Conde, told AFP that the decision had "surprised many."

"It is due to the ongoing inquiry in France that Guineans discover the true motive of this unjust and illegal move taken by Alpha Conde in the wake of his taking power," he said.

A French court in 2013 ordered the Bollore Group to pay Necotrans two million euros in compensation, but Bollore took over the company shortly afterwards.

Havas also worked on the communications strategy of Togo's Gnassingbe, who succeeded his father Gnassingbe Eyadema upon his death in 2005.

After Gnassingbe's re-election to a second term in 2010, the Bollore Group won the 35-year Lome port contract -- a decision also challenged by a rival.

The French investigation was triggered by a complaint from a former Bollore associate, Jacques Dupuydauby, who is appealing a Spanish jail sentence for misappropriation of company assets.

In 2016, police searched Bollore Group's headquarters in the Paris suburb of Puteaux.

The probe is one of several in recent years over the dealings of French groups in former African colonies.

- Paper for Bibles -

Others to have been investigated include oil company Elf Aquitaine, now part of Total, which the French state was accused of using to funnel millions in bribes to African leaders in the 1990s, and nuclear giant Areva, which is under scrutiny over a controversial uranium deal in Niger.

Bollore's empire began life in 1822 as a family-run manufacturer of paper for cigarettes and Bibles.

He revived its flagging fortunes after taking the helm in the early 1980s and embarked on a blitz of acquisitions, earning a reputation as a formidable businessman.

The group owns a majority stake in telecom conglomerate Vivendi, owner of the Canal+ Group which is headed by Vincent Bollore's son Yannick.
Berlin (AFP) - Germany will put on trial Tuesday the only suspect held over what it calls a brazen Cold War-style kidnapping by Vietnamese secret agents that has badly bruised bilateral ties.

The accused -- a Vietnamese-Czech man identified only as 47-year-old Long N.H. -- allegedly rented and drove the van used in last year's abduction of a fugitive Vietnamese state company official in a central Berlin park.

The kidnapped man, Trinh Xuan Thanh, 52, who was seeking asylum in Germany, was quickly spirited back to Hanoi, where he was sentenced this year to two life terms in prison on corruption charges.

Germany condemned the July 23, 2017, operation as a "scandalous violation" of its sovereignty and a "gross violation of international law".

It expelled two Vietnamese diplomats, summoned the ambassador several times and put on ice a strategic bilateral partnership.

Communist-ruled Vietnam has insisted that Thanh, the former head of PetroVietnam Construction, returned voluntarily to face embezzlement charges.

Vietnam, like China, has recently convicted scores of figures from its business and political elite as part of an anti-graft drive which observers say also serves to settle scores between hardline and reformist factions.

German prosecutors are investigating a high-ranking Vietnamese security official, General Duong Minh Hung, who allegedly commanded the abduction in Berlin before returning to Vietnam, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily reported last month.

Hung is suspected of holding more than 100 cellphone talks or text message exchanges with the agents from his temporary "command centre" inside a hotel, a few blocks from the Tiergarten park where the abduction took place.

Long N.H., the van's alleged driver who was arrested in the Czech Republic on August 12 and extradited to Germany on August 23, is the only suspect in German custody.

- Violent struggle -

Once among thousands of so-called guest workers in communist East Germany, he was later denied asylum and resettled in Prague, where he most recently ran a currency exchange business.

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Prosecutors charge that he rented a Volkswagen Multivan T5 there and drove it to Berlin, where several armed men dragged Thanh and a female companion into the vehicle, which he allegedly returned to Prague the same day.

Thanh and his female companion were first taken to the Vietnamese embassy in Berlin before she was flown to Hanoi, while Thanh was abducted to Vietnam "by unknown means", prosecutors charge.

Long N.H., who had also allegedly rented a BMW X5 sedan that had been used for surveillance, is charged with working for a foreign intelligence service and aiding in an abduction, which each carry up to 10 years in prison.

News weekly Der Spiegel has reported that German investigators reconstructed the abduction using the van's GPS system, witness statements, footage from multiple security cameras on streets, petrol stations and inside hotels, and Thanh's smartphone, which was left at the scene.

It said that the Vietnamese snatch team found Thanh -- who had been living in seclusion in Berlin with his wife and children since mid-2016 -- when his secret lover, Thi Minh P.D., flew in from Paris to meet him at a hotel and the two then took a walk in the Tiergarten park.

The report said that in the violent struggle Thanh hit back at his attackers and the woman lashed out so strongly that "eyewitnesses thought she had suffered an epileptic seizure".

The Sueddeutsche previously reported that in the abduction, "it seems that half the embassy was involved" -- with the mission used as a drop-off stop in the kidnapping, some people involved being accredited diplomatic staff, and the wife of the defence attache booking the flights home for the agents.

The article also said that investigators had found blood traces in the rented van, pointing to a struggle.

The Berlin court has scheduled 21 days of hearings until May 17.
Santiago (AFP) - A German delegation was in Chile on Tuesday to learn more about the ongoing investigation into Colonia Dignidad, a notorious Nazi pedophile sect founded by German immigrants in the 1960s.

Judge Mario Carroza held nearly two hours of talks with German prosecutors and representatives of the justice ministry on Monday, updating them on the Chilean probe into the sect's leaders, judicial officials said.

The visit comes as German courts are mulling an appeal filed by Dr Hartmut Hopp, a central figure in the scandal who fled Chile in 2011 after being convicted of complicity in 16 cases of child abuse.

Colonia Dignidad was a strictly-governed commune founded in 1961 by a group of German immigrants led by former Nazi medic Paul Schaefer, who had fled Germany to escape child abuse charges.

At the colony -- a 13,000-hectare (32,000-acre) mountain resort located in an isolated region south of Santiago -- residents were abused, tortured, indoctrinated and kept as virtual slaves for over three decades.

In 1996, Schaefer went on the run again -- fleeing to Argentina to escape further abuse charges -- but was caught in 2005 and jailed a year later for 20 years for abusing and torturing children and other residents.

He was also charged with collaborating with the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), whose secret police used the colony as a place to torture opponents. He died in prison in 2010, aged 88.

The scale of the atrocities only came to light after the fall of the Pinochet regime.

"We have shared information, provided certain documents and opened the way for witnesses to testify in Germany," Carroza told reporters.

German prosecutor Axel Stahl also requested information on Hopp, Schaefer's right-hand man who fled Chile for Germany in 2011 to escape jail for child abuse.

Although Berlin refused a Chilean request to extradite him, in 2017, a German court upheld the sentence, saying he should serve five years behind bars in Germany.

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But with an appeal under way, Hopp remains free.

Carroza said he had requested permission to question people in Germany who could have been involved or may have fresh information on Colonia Dignidad.

The German delegation will also meet with an appeal court judge involved in the case.
Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) won't be listed on the ballot for the Republican primary this year. (Photo: Hyoung Chang/Getty Images)

UPDATE: May 1  A federal judge ruled that Lamborn can be on the primary ballot, rejecting the residency requirement for petition circulators.

PREVIOUSLY:

Colorado GOP Rep. Doug Lamborn wont be on the ballot as a Republican in 2018 after the states Supreme Court ruled on Monday, April 23, that one of his petition gatherers wasnt a Colorado resident.

Five Republicans living in Lamborns district had challenged his candidacy earlier this month, arguing he hadnt properly collected the 1,000 signatures necessary to make the ballot. A lower court had knocked off just 58 signatures, leaving Lamborn with enough to qualify for the ballot. But the state Supreme Court said more than 200 additional signatures were collected by an ineligible petition gatherer and booted Lamborn from the ballot for the June 26 primary.

We recognize the gravity of this conclusion, but Colorado law does not permit us to conclude otherwise, the court wrote in a 26-page opinion.

The ruling bars Lamborn for running on the ballot as a Republican. He could challenge the ruling, or potentially mount a re-election bid as an independent.

We are disappointed by the outcome and we believe it was wrongly decided, a representative from Lamborns campaign told Gray Television News D.C. bureau. The campaign will reportedly turn to federal court, seeking to overturn the part of Colorado law that deprives voters who have petitioned to have Congressman Lamborn on the ballot of their Constitutional rights.

The decision potentially opens up a lane for Darryl Glenn, an El Paso County Commissioner and Air Force veteran who was the GOP nominee against Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet in 2016. Glenn had announced a primary challenge to Lamborn late last year. State Sen. Owen Hill, another Air Force veteran, is also challenging the incumbent.

Lamborns attorney didnt immediately respond to a request for comment. In an earlier statement on the case, the campaign blamed the legal issues on political tricks by political allies of Hill.

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Lamborns district, which is based around heavily conservative Colorado Springs, isnt considered a Democratic pickup opportunity and isnt a DCCC target. President Donald Trump won the district in 2016 with 57 percent of the vote to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clintons 33 percent.

While Lamborn had typically cruised to general election victories, he had faced prior scares in GOP primaries. He originally won the seat with a plurality in a three-way contest and earned just 52 percent of the vote in 2014.

Many states require petition gatherers to be registered voters in the state. Colorado requires they be a resident of the state, but a lower court had suggested a petition gatherers intent to live in Colorado in the long term was sufficient. The Supreme Court disagreed, noting the petition gatherer didnt have a place to live in the state.



The firm Lamborn hired to gather signatures, Kennedy Enterprises, is also at the center of a controversy in the governors race. State Treasurer Walker Stapleton, the GOP frontrunner and a cousin of former President George W. Bush, qualified for the ballot through a convention after determining Kennedy Enterprises had committed fraud while gathering signatures for him.

The Colorado Secretary of States office told the Denver Post they feared Lamborn could challenge the legality of the residency requirement in federal court.

The Colorado Supreme Court just provided an avenue to have a federal court strike down residency requirements for candidate circulators, Deputy Colorado Secretary of State Suzanne Staiert told the paper.

Clarification: Language in this story has been amended to include more detail about Colorados requirements for petition gatherers.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
A Brexit supporter shows their support with their iPhone during the EU referendum campaign (Getty)

Technology being developed by the government to allow EU citizens to apply for settled status in the UK after Brexit isnt fully compatible with Apple phones, it has been claimed.

The government is building a mobile application which will help the three million EU citizens living in the UK with their application to remain in the country.

Home Office officials gave a presentation on the app to members of the European Parliament in Brussels today in a bid to dispel fears that Brexit could spark a new Windrush-style scandal affecting EU citizens.

But it emerged that theres a problem with the app that will hit the huge number of iPhone users, according to British MEPs who were in the room for the behind-closed-doors briefing.

Lib Dem MEP Catherine Bearder said a Home Office official suggested EU citizens get round the problem by making their application on the Android phone of a friend or family member.

He said that some of it works on iPhone, the iOS, but you could borrow somebody elses Android and do it, she revealed.

Its just beyond belief.

Lib Dem MEP Catherine Bearder said the problem with the app is beyond belief (European Parliament)

Labour MEP Claude Moraes explained the problem stems from the fact that iPhones cant read the biometric chip on passports.

That isnt going to be necessary for every application because its also possible to make an application by uploading a photo of the passport page.

But Mr Moraes said: If you ever have to do the chip alone, then Apple wont do that.

Theyve [the Home Office] acknowledged that Apple cuts out the biometric chip so they have to work their way around it.

At the moment the safe thing is just Android phones but that does cut out more than 50% [of people].

The Home Office said the app is only to help with part of the registration process and that there will be other ways to apply for those who do not have Android devices.

The technical problem threatened to overshadow a meeting that was designed to build trust over the treatment of EU citizens in the wake of the Windrush scandal.

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European Parliament Brexit coordinator Guy Verhofstadt said after the meeting: After the Windrush scandal there was a lot  and there is still a lot  of anxiety among our EU citizens living in Britain that they could have the same experience in their future.

So, for us, its important that the system that will apply after the withdrawal is a smooth system.

European Parliament Brexit coordinator Guy Verhofstadt (Getty)

But Green MEP Molly Scott Cato said the Windrush scandal showed the treatment of EU citizens shouldnt be considered a technical point.

What happened with Windrush wasnt about form filling, but the fact that a hostile culture was established, she said.

Imagine if Brexit goes ahead and we have a rise in unemployment and British people are saying I cant find a job and the new Home Secretary comes in and shifts the culture and says actually were going to have a more hostile environment for our European neighbours.

They [EU citizens] have no guarantees, which is why they say they still want the protection of the ECJ (European Court of Justice) and you can entirely understand why theyd want that.

She added that the government should have sent a politician to address MEPs rather than what she described as four guys and a glamorous assistant from the Home Office.

Mr Verhofstadt said he would not push to extend the role of the ECJ in the UK after Brexit, saying the eight-year period written into the Withdrawal Agreement was sufficient.

He said though that he wants the registration system to be cost free and work on the basis of one application per family rather than one per individual.

He also wants it to be a system of registration rather than application.

It means that if people fill in all the data that is necessary that from that moment on there is this status and it not necessary to wait for weeks or months, not to say years, before the Home Office is agreeing, the former Prime Minister of Belgium explained.

A Home Office spokesperson said:

We are developing from scratch a user-friendly scheme for EU citizens to safeguard their right to stay in the UK after we leave the EU.

Our voluntary settled status scheme will be opening later this year and we continue to closely engage with technology companies.

There will be alternative non-digital routes available to all applicants to prove their identity.




Guatemala City (AFP) - Thousands of Guatemalan protesters including farmers, activists and indigenous groups, marched through the capital of the Central American country Tuesday to demand the resignation of President Jimmy Morales, who faces allegations of campaign finance corruption.

The protesters converged on the historic center of Guatemala City demanding not only that Morales quit, but that members of Congress who have refused to strip him of his legal immunity so he can be fully investigated also step down.

"We demand the resignation of President Jimmy Morales and the corrupt deputies," said Erika Martinez, head of the Committee for Rural Development in Guatemala, the organization that called the protests.

The crowds took almost six hours to march from all corners of the city, occupying public squares as they went, before converging in the center where speaker after speaker ripped into the government.

Morales, a 49-year-old former television comedian, has spent the past eight months denying that his right-wing FCN-Nation party received campaign donations which it failed to report to the Supreme Court, as it was required by law to do.

The International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), a UN-sponsored body charged with fighting corruption in the country, has backed prosecutors' calls for Morales' presidential immunity to be lifted, to allow investigators to properly delve into the case, but Congress has so far sidestepped any move to do so.

Both prosecutors and CICIG announced last week a second investigation into allegations that Morales had skirted the rules on reporting campaign funds in order to accept a million dollars' worth of donations from business leaders to his party.

Protesters carried placards that repeated Morales' campaign slogan that promised "no corruption, no thieves" and called his election a "fraud."

The march organizers also demanded an investigation into links between organized crime and the judicial sector -- following the revelation earlier this year of a bribery ring led by a high-profile lawyer designed to rig elections for supreme court justices.

Martinez said they are demanding assurances that the country's next chief prosecutor will have "no links to corruption."

Morales has until mid-May to replace Thelma Aldana, the current attorney general who has worked with CICIG to combat public sector fraud.
Port-au-Prince (AFP) - Haitian Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant, a political novice just over a year into governing the impoverished Caribbean country, has made his first cabinet shuffle after pressure from legislators.

Following his appointment in February 2017, Lafontant, a doctor by profession, nominated his first cabinet of 18 ministers overnight Monday, including five women.

They lack political experience except for a few technocrats.

On Thursday, a lawmaker who backs President Jovenel Moise -- a banana exporter who is also a newcomer to politics -- issued a 72-hour ultimatum for him to make ministerial changes.

The demand came after more than a month of pressure from lawmakers who publicly support the president.

Moise's spokesman had said Friday that the president was not acting "under either pressure or threat from another power," but in the end a shuffle took place.

State television overnight broadcast a recorded message from Lafontant announcing the cabinet changes, but there was no official explanation as to why the reshuffle occurred.

The changes are:

- Jean-Marie Reynaldo Brunet named minister of interior and territorial community. Until 2016, he was an acting mayor appointed by former president Michel Martelly in the absence of local elections.

- Jean Roody Aly appointed justice minister. He was previously the ministry's director general.

- Joubert Angrand, who was coordinator of the national coffee institute, became agriculture minister.

- Guy Andre Junior Francois was named minister responsible for Haitians abroad. He is a former consul in Miami, which is home to most of the diaspora.

- Guyler C. Delva, a journalist, will head the Ministry of Culture and Communication, where he served as secretary of state for communication between 2012 and 2013.

Haiti is still recovering from Hurricane Matthew, which struck in 2016, and almost 40,000 people remain in makeshift camps eight years after an earthquake killed more than 200,000 people.

Since 2010, about 10,000 people have died from a cholera epidemic in Haiti.
Portugalete (Spain) (AFP) - Ivan Ramos often sees the ETA-linked murderer of his mother in his Basque town of Portugalete and has had to learn to live with it.

Just a five-minute drive away, Encarni Blanco, a one-time collaborator of the Basque separatist group, has struggled to piece her life back together years after she said police detained and tortured her.

Once on opposite sides of the deadly campaign waged by ETA for an independent Basque homeland in northern Spain and southern France, both went through years of therapy to try and come to terms with what happened and move on.

Their individual struggle is a micro-example of what awaits the region as it tackles the delicate balancing act of healing and remembering after ETA's expected dissolution next month.

- No to hate, resentment -

"I was one of the first victims who coexisted with the murderers of my mother," says Ramos, 44, sitting in a bar which used to be part of the Socialist party headquarters in the industrial town of Portugalete.

Behind him is a mural representing part of Picasso's anti-war painting Guernica complete with "1987" -- the year his mother Maite Torrano, an activist of the Socialist party in power in Spain at the time, was killed by separatists who threw petrol bombs inside.

She later died of her wounds, one of at least 829 victims of ETA, a group created in 1959 at the height of Francisco Franco's dictatorship that laid down its arms in 2011.

Not content with having killed his mother, one of the perpetrators taunted Ramos for years after his release from prison, following him in the streets for instance.

While that has stopped, he still sees him often.

"I'll go to the pool, and he'll be in a hammock there... My son will play in the same park as his son," he says.

With the help of a "great psychiatrist," Ramos learnt to deal with it.

But while he has yet to tell his eight-year-old how his grandmother died, he has one thing clear -- he will never reveal who murdered her.

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"I don't want to pass on any hate, any resentment to him."

He warns though that as more and more ETA prisoners are released after serving their sentences, other victims are going to face the same problem. And they "aren't being prepared for this."

Ramos himself has put hate behind and participates in regional government or Church-run gatherings where he recounts his experience -- part of a process towards reconciliation.

- 'Shatter as a person' -

Some of these meetings gather together victims of ETA and those whose loved ones were hurt or killed by anti-ETA groups like the GAL death squads -- later found to be linked to the Spanish interior ministry -- or tortured by police.

People like Blanco, 59, who still wakes up with a start when she hears noises at night, years after the Guardia Civil police came for her and her husband in January 1992.

For five days, she was held incognito and says she was hooded, beaten up and given electroshocks, a case she later took to the United Nations which criticised Spain for not investigating it.

"You shatter as a person," she says, standing next to the entrance of the apartment building in the Basque town of Santurtzi where police came to get her in 1992, and which she eventually left after years of sleeplessness.

"At the end you ask 'what do you want of me. Whatever you want, I'll do it because I want to get out of this hell.' When they said I was going to prison, I was happy."

She and her husband Josu were sentenced to six years in jail for collaborating with ETA -- a fact they don't deny.

Blanco says they had agreed to house ETA members when they were in town, even if that never happened in practice.

But she insists the state should recognise what they did to her and others to move on, speaking on the same day as ETA itself acknowledged the harm done and apologised to its victims -- although not to those it considered legitimate such as police.

According to a December report commissioned by the Basque regional government, more than 4,100 complaints of police torture were made between 1960 and 2014.

Gaizka Fernandez Soldevilla, a historian for the Memorial Centre for Terrorism Victims in the Basque capital Vitoria, estimates around 60 people have been proven to have died at the hands of the GAL, para-police or far-right groups.

"That must be told, but you can't put it all on the same level," he says.

For him, the Basque separatist left-wing movement is trying to portray decades of bombings and kidnappings as a conflict between two belligerent sides to justify what happened.

But for Fernandez, "there was a terrorist group that killed."

- Remembering -

He adds it is crucial to teach the past in schools in a country where dark periods of history like the 1936-9 civil war or ETA violence are often skirted over.

Especially given around half of the Basque population wants to "turn the page without having read it first," according to a survey conducted by the centre.

"Fear of talking politics is still very present in the Basque Country," he says.

But "if you don't know your history, there is a danger that you will repeat the worst of it."

And that's where gatherings attended by the likes of Ramos are of double help.

Manu Arrue, a Jesuit priest active in the reconciliation process, recalls one such meeting last year when a woman who attended "talked for the first time of her father who had been killed (in the civil war), of an uncle who is still missing."

"These meetings help to unite, to build bridges between... all sorts of different sufferings."
KIGALI (Reuters) - Eighteen people died overnight on Monday when heavy rains ripped through several parts of Rwanda, causing landslides, the government said. The East African nation, dubbed a country of a thousand hills, has recently been affected by landslides as a result of heavy downpours flattening houses on mountain slopes. "Eighteen people passed on due to disasters caused by heavy rains in the night of 23rd April," Rwandas ministry in charge of disaster management said on Twitter. Seven people died in Rwandas north, eight in the capital Kigali and three in Gatsibo in the east, with 79 houses and 56 hectares of crops destroyed, it said. The ministry was still assessing the extent of damage from the heavy rain. The government has in the past urged Rwandans who live on mountain slopes to move to areas less prone to disasters. Monday's toll follows the deaths of 51 people in heavy rains and lightning between January and mid-April, the ministry said. That toll included 16 people who died when lightning struck a church in March. (Reporting by Clement Uwiringiyimana; Writing by George Obulutsa, Editing by William Maclean)
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo departs his guest house in Pyongyang, North Korea, Saturday, July 7, 2018, to call President Donald Trump on a secure phone. Pompeo is on a trip traveling to North Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Abu Dhabi, and Brussels. Andrew

Robert E Kelly

Security, Asia

Mike Pompeo's powers of negotiations may now be limited.

Pompeo in Pyongyang: Yet Another Nothingburger in Trumps North Korea Diplomacy

American Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently returned from North Korea on his latest effort to cajole the North into some manner of denuclearization. Unfortunately he returned with nothing, yet again. This is now becoming a pattern in this years American and South Korean outreach to North Korea.

South Korean president Moon Jae-in has met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un twice this year. President Donald Trump took the unprecedented step of meeting Kim in Singapore last month, a first for a U.S. president. And Pompeo has gone several times and appears to be planning to try yet again.

In each case, the North has not agreed to any manner of timeline or specific details for denuclearization, inspections, biological and chemical weapons disarmament, conventional force withdrawals along the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas, and so on. Nor has it given even any details about what materials it has. Outsiders still do not have even the shape of the nuclear and missile programshow many nuclear warheads, how many missiles of what ranges, how many launchers, how many centrifuges, how many kilograms of plutonium and highly enriched uranium, what safety, and command and controls protocols, and so on.

Conversely the North Koreans have captured prestige gains, particularly from the meeting with Trump in Singapore. North Korea is a small, backward country irrelevant to the global economy. Were it not in the middle of such a dynamic, fast-paced region, no one would care about it. Yet it, unlike any other rogue state in the world, commanded an audience with no less than the president of the United States. And we know now that the North Korea advance team in Singapore put a lot more work into the optics and artifice of that meetinginsuring that Trump and Kim met on equal-appearing termsthan the technical groups actually discussing the relevant weapons.

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To be sure, both sides have swapped small favorsthe North has not tested a warhead or missile since the start of year, and it released U.S. hostages; the United States has cancelled this Augusts Ulchi Freedom Guardian military exercise. But these are minor trades and easily reversible. They do not get to the heart of the controversythe nuclear and missile programs in the North and the corresponding effort by the international community, led by the United States, to isolate and sanction North Korea for these efforts.

Going forward then, Pompeo needs to extract from the North Koreans several minimal steps to insure that this process is worth continuing. It is clear now that CVID (complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization) or FFVD (final, fully verified denuclearization) is not going to happen for a long time, if at all. Instead, lets start with low-hanging fruit:

MIA Returns

The fourth element of the Singapore declaration is the return of the remains of U.S. soldiers missing in action from the Korea War. While this is morally important for the affected families, this is not a strategic concession and should not be difficult for North Korea to comply with politically (although the technical issues may be a challenge).

It is mark of just how poorly Pompeos latest visit went that he could not even get this. As the easiest element of the Singapore declaration, this is a trial balloon of the Norths intentions.

Rhetorical Restraint

Yet another unhappy outcome of the latest meeting is the North describing the talks as regrettable and gangster-ish. This is disturbing, because it would have been easy for the North Koreans to simply say nothing. Pompeo gave a fairly anodyne judgment, talking about productive meetings and more work to be done. He announced no breakthroughs and used no florid, Trumpian language. Yet the North punched back anyway.

Going forward, if Pompeo cannot even leave a working-level meeting with the NorthPompeo did not meet Kimwithout this manner of language, then that is a pretty strong indication that either the United States is making extraordinary demands or that the North is not willing to budge on the strategic issues.

An Inventory

As mentioned above, if the talks are to move toward denuclearization, which Trump insists Singapore set in motion, then at minimum, we need to get a reasonable sense of what they have. United States and South Korean intelligence have guesstimates. Those could be matched against what the North Koreans tell us so that we might begin to have a sense of the shape and dimensions of the problem.

Without this information, any kind of denuclearization is impossible. We would have no idea if they had ten warheads or sixty (the usual estimates thrown around) or more, making it impossible for us to judge if the North was meeting its commitments. I would guess that this was one of Pompeos demands in Pyongyang, as all else is premised on it. Again, it shows what a nothingburger this meeting was that we could not get even some movement on this, without which no next step is possible.

A Timeline

This is the highest of the low-hanging fruit. Once we have a sense of what they have, then we could begin to sketch a timeline of how and when it would be dismantled. The North Koreans could then ask usas they most certainly willfor counter-concessions for each step. This would ignite the real negotiations of give-and-take. Certainly the process will take a lot longer than the preferred Trump timeline set around the upcoming U.S. midterm and presidential elections, but at least we could have a window to work with. (I would guess the North would ask for a ten- to fifteen-year process.) Again, Pompeo seems to have gotten nothing on this.

The secretary deserves credit for trying. The risks of conflict with the North are so high, that talking to them is usually a good choice. But Trump continues to insist that something like CVID is at hand, and Pompeo is in a terrible bind, because he likely knows that this is untrue. Kim refused to even meet with Pompeo, suggesting that now, postSingapore, Kim will only meet with Trump himself. Were Trump to do that, with a rumored White House visit this fall, then it would only normalize North Korea even further, with still no clear denuclearization movement. How much longer can the Trump administration speak as though this is going well?

Robert Kelly is an associate professor of international relations in the Department of Political Science at Pusan National University. More of his writing can be found at his website . He tweets at @Robert_E_Kelly.

Image: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo departs his guest house in Pyongyang, North Korea, Saturday, July 7, 2018, to call President Donald Trump on a secure phone. Pompeo is on a trip traveling to North Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Abu Dhabi, and Brussels. Andrew Harnik/Pool via REUTERS

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Tehran (AFP) - A top Iranian official on Tuesday welcomed European powers' efforts to salvage a historic nuclear deal, but warned they should not simply hand over "a ransom" to US President Donald Trump.

Trump has threatened not to renew the 2015 accord, which curbed Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.

His threats have prompted pressure from European officials ahead of a May 12 deadline for his decision.

"We have welcomed the insistence of the European Union on keeping America in the JCPOA (nuclear deal)," said Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran's Supreme Council for National Security, in a televised press conference.

"But if this means degrading the Islamic republic of Iran or paying a ransom to Trump, the Europeans are making a strategic mistake," he said.

The European parties to the agreement -- Britain, France, Germany and the European Union -- have been trying to convince Trump to stick to the accord.

French President Emmanuel Macron is currently in Washington, hoping to address Trump's concerns and keep the US in the deal.

The White House has demanded tighter restrictions on Iran's regional behaviour and its nuclear and missile programmes.

But Iran says any talk of curbing its missile programme -- which is central to its defence systems -- is off limits.

"The Islamic republic of Iran will not allow any country, under any circumstances, to cross its red lines," said Shamkhani.
United Nations (United States) (AFP) - Iran invited Gulf countries Tuesday to open talks on regional security, telling the United Nations it was time to move away from "hegemonic illusions" that have fueled devastating wars.

Addressing a UN meeting on sustaining peace, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif proposed the creation of a "regional dialogue forum."

"We here invite our neighbors in this volatile waterway, which has seen too many wars, to join us in this endeavor," Zarif added.

The initiative came as US President Donald Trump met his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in Washington to discuss shared concerns about Iran's behavior in the region.

Trump is threatening to scrap the 2015 nuclear deal reached with Iran unless concerns about Tehran's missile program and military role in Syria, Yemen and Lebanon are addressed.

"All over, no matter where you go in the Middle East, you see fingerprints of Iran," Trump told a news conference with Macron in Washington.

In a UN General Assembly speech, Zarif said "advancing hegemonic illusions or attempting to achieve security at the expense of the insecurity of others" had caused conflict, in an apparent reference to arch-rival Saudi Arabia.

The foreign minister said it was crucial to "now shift to a new paradigm based on combining our forces... instead of any one of us seeking to be the strongest in our region."

He suggested creating new security networks to replace what he termed as "security blocs."

Iran is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, supports Hezbollah militias in Lebanon and backs Yemen's Huthi rebels, who are locked in a war with a Saudi-led coalition.

The United Nations is pushing for political talks to end the war in Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country that has been brought to its knees in the three-year conflict.

UN diplomats say Iran has signaled it is ready to put pressure on the Huthis to go to the negotiating table, in what some see as a sign that Tehran wants to confront US complaints about its behavior.

Zarif met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who has held recent meetings with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to press for an end to the war in Yemen.

On the sidelines of the UN meeting, Zarif also held talks with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas to discuss the fate of the Iran nuclear deal as Chancellor Angela Merkel prepares for her White House visit on Friday.
The Islamic State militant group (ISIS) has reportedly agreed to surrender its only stronghold south of Damascus, but the Syrian military and its allies continue to battle the jihadis as the two sides attempt to negotiate the return of the neighborhoods to the Syrian government.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rightsa U.K.-based monitor supportive of Syria's beleaguered oppositionfirst reported Thursday that ISIS militants had agreed to give up the southern capital neighborhoods of Yarmouk Camp, Al-Qadam, Al-Hajar Al-Aswad and Al-Tadamon, following a violent pro-Syrian government offensive. Fighting continued through the weekend, however, as the activist group said negotiations over when to implement the evacuation remained underway between ISIS, the government and Russian intermediaries supportive of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The Syrian military and its allies, including the pro-government National Defense Forces, have pledged to continue fighting until the jihadis expressed "total seriousness in committing to the agreement," the observatory reported Monday. As the jihadis appeared poised to fall near Damascus, however, a thinning list of territories elsewhere put the group's very existence at risk.

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RAMI AL SAYED/AFP/Getty Images

Rebels in the neighboring villages of Yalda, Babbila and Beit Sahem have already agreed to either reconcile with the government or relocate to other insurgent-held territories, but an ISIS surrender was much rarer. The jihadis cut deals following losses last summer to Lebanese, Syrian and Hezbollah campaigns in eastern Lebanon and western Syria as well as a U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces offensive in Raqqa in October, but have been known to fight to the death to defend their self-proclaimed ultraconservative caliphate, as they did in Iraq's second city of Mosul.

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ISIS spawned from a collaboration of jihadi groups, including Al-Qaeda in Iraq, following the 2003 U.S. invasion that overthrew Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The militants took advantage of a 2011 uprising sponsored by the West, Turkey and Gulf Arab states in neighboring Syria to spread there in 2013. Once in Syria, ISIS absorbed or defeated many Syrian rebel groups, adding a new dynamic to an already complex civil war and drawing direct intervention from the U.S. and Russia.

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Since controlling about half of Iraq and Syria at its height in 2014, ISIS has lost about 90 percent of its territory to a pro-Syrian government campaign, backed by Russia and Iran, and the U.S.-led coalition, which supported the Syrian Democratic Forces. The jihadis have lost nearly all their land in Iraq and coalition spokesman Ryan Dillion said Tuesday that they remained confined to two pockets in Syria, "near the Hajin, which is along the Euphrates River, north of Al-Bukamal; and in Al-Dashisha, near the Syria-Iraq border."

Eastern Syria, where the separate pro-Syrian government and U.S.-led campaigns met, has been a hotbed for international tensions. The Syrian Democratic Forces campaign has largely stalled since Pentagon-backed Kurds fled in an attempt to repel an incursion from fellow U.S. ally Turkey in the north, where they formed an alliance with the Syrian government. The majority-Arab faction of the Syrian Democratic Forces positioned in eastern Syria near has clashed with pro-Syrian government fighters, who themselves have faced recent losses to ISIS in this region, according to Dillon.

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Reuters

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In previous ISIS deals, such as the one brokered by Syrian and Lebanese allies last summer and the agreement reached by U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in October, the defeated jihadis were sent to Deir Ezzor. Since the city was retaken by the Syrian military and its partners in November, ISIS militants had little room to move even if they did surrender. Iraq, an ally of both the U.S. and Assad, has also conducted air strikes in eastern Syria, joining an ongoing coalition and Russian campaigns.

Fellow jihadi group and former Al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham also appeared likely to lose its footing in southern Damascus, but claimed influence in the last rebel-held province of Idlib in the northwest. Other rebel groups that recently surrendered in the Damascus suburbs of eastern Ghouta have also left for Idlib as part of Russia-brokered agreements following intense military campaigns in which the West alleged Assad and his allies committed war crimes, including the use of chemical weapons. Syria, Russia and Iran have denied this.

Outside of Iraq and Syria, ISIS's global network of affiliates has also lost major cities in Libya and the Philippines. The group maintains limited influence in Yemenwhere it has targeted both warring parties in a civil war between Zaidi Shiite Muslim Houthis and the Saudi-backed forces of exiled Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadiand in Afghanistan, where it claimed responsibility for a deadly suicide bombing that targeted prospective voters in Kabul on Sunday.

ISIS also claimed responsibility earlier this year for the deaths of four U.S. Special Forces personnel and five of their Nigerien allies during a patrol mission near the Mali border last October, highlighting the group's lingering influence in Africa. Iran, whichlike the U.S.has sponsored forces battling ISIS in Iraq and Syria, has warned that the jihadis may next recollect itself in Central and Southern Asia.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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Israel has denied that Mossad was behind the assassination of a Palestinian scientist in Malaysia on Saturday.

Fadi Mohammad al-Batsh, 35, was shot dead by motorcycle gunmen in a suburb of Kuala Lumpur while on his way to dawn prayers at his local mosque. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has dismissed suggestions that Israel was involved, the BBC reported.

Hamasthe Islamist group that controls the Gaza Striphas admitted that Batsh was a member of the group. Speaking on Israeli radio, Lieberman alleged that Batsh had been involved in rocket production and suggested the killing was score settling between rival militant groups.

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Fadi Mohammad al-Batsh

MAHMUD HAMS/AFP/Getty Images

Hamas admitted that the dead scientist was a member. An autopsy is being conducted on Batsh, who had lived in Malaysia for 10 years and was working as a lecturer in electrical engineering. Journalist Ronen Bergman said Batsh was part of one of Hamass most secret units that dealt with the development of advanced weapons.

There's a tradition among terror organisations of blaming Israel for every instance of settling of accounts, Lieberman said. The man was no saint and settling accounts among terror groups and different factions is something we see all the time, he continued. I assume this was the case here too.

No arrests have been made but Malaysian police have released computer-generated photographs of the two suspects, who have been described as tall, light skinned and likely of European or Middle Eastern origin. Police chief Mohamad Fuzi Harun said a task force had been set up to investigate the murder, and urged people not to jump to conclusions about the motive.

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Hamas said one of its members had been assassinated and described Batsh as a martyr, a term often used for those killed by Israeli forces. The group did not directly accuse Israel of the killing. Members of Batsh's family have said they believe Mossad was behind the attack.

Bullet holes kuala lumpur

MOHD RASFAN/AFP/Getty Images

Tensions between Israel and Hamas are high after weeks of protests along the Gaza border fence. Palestinian demonstrators are calling for the right of return for refugees and their descendants who fled or were forced to leave their homes after the creation of Israel in 1948. Dozens have been killed and hundreds wounded by Israeli fire since the protests began on March 30.

Mossad has been accused of assassinating several Palestinian militants and scientists in the past, and such operations are rarely confirmed.

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Hamas accused Mossad of the 2010 murder of drone expert Mohamed Zouari in Tunisia. Zouari was ambushed while sat in his car and killed by gunmen using silenced pistols. Zouari had also been accused of working on naval drones for Hamas. After the assassination, hackers erased security footage taken from a nearby restaurant.

Hamas Zouari

SAID KHATIB/AFP/Getty Images

Batsh and Zouari's deaths could indicate a shift in Mossad strategy, in which more high-tech weapons experts are being targeted. In the past, most Hamas members allegedly targeted have been high-level military commanders. Director Yossi Cohen has already demonstrated the importance of cutting-edge technology to the organization, having set up a Mossad-run fund for investing in start-ups.

In 2010, senior Hamas militant Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was murdered in a Dubai hotel room. Mabhouh was one of the founders of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the groups military wing. An investigation identified at least 11 suspected Mossad members who had been following Mabhouh shortly before his death. The individuals travelled to Dubai on fake or fraudulently-obtained Western passports.

Scientists involved in Irans nuclear program have regularly been targeted by assassins. Four were killed and another wounded in bomb and gun attacks in Tehran between 2010 and 2012, when Israel was attempting to curb Irans nuclear research. There have been suggestions that Israel worked with Iranian dissident groups to organize the assassinations.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Israeli government said on Tuesday it had abandoned a plan to forcibly deport African migrants who entered the country illegally after failing to find a willing country to take in the migrants. The government had been working for months on an arrangement to expel thousands of mostly Eritrean and Sudanese men who crossed into Israel through Egypt's Sinai desert. "At this stage, the possibility of carrying out an unwilling deportation to a third country is not on the agenda," the government wrote in a response to Israel's Supreme Court, which has been examining the case. The migrants will again be able to renew residency permits every 60 days, as they were before the deportation push, the government said. The migrants and rights groups say they are seeking asylum and are fleeing war and persecution. The government says they are job seekers and that it has every right to protect its borders. Despite Tuesday's climbdown, the government said immigration authorities would still try to deport migrants voluntarily, drawing criticism from rights group Amnesty International. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later said that after failing to reach agreement with any country to take them in, he would try to draft legislation that would allow the reopening of detention centers in Israel for the migrants. The Supreme Court has previously struck down legislation that permits such detention and ordered the facilities shut. "I'M THRILLED" The government's U-turn was welcomed by those targeted for expulsion. "Im thrilled. Im speechless. I was so scared every day. If I can stay here it will be good, Ive lived here so long - I have a job, I have Israeli friends. I am used to the place, said Ristom Haliesilase, a 34-year-old Eritrean who lives in Tel Aviv, working as a carer for the elderly. The fate of some 37,000 Africans in Israel has posed a moral dilemma for a state founded as a haven for Jews from persecution and a national home. Around 4,000 migrants have left Israel for Rwanda and Uganda since 2013 under a voluntary program, but Netanyahu has come under pressure from his right-wing voter base to expel thousands more. After pulling out of a U.N.-backed relocation plan a few weeks ago, Israel shifted efforts toward finalizing an arrangement to send the migrants against their will to Uganda. A number of migrant rights groups then petitioned the Supreme Court to block any such policy. Amnesty also welcomed Tuesday's decision but criticized Israel's plan to continue with voluntary deportations. "... in reality there is nothing voluntary about them. Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers agree to them under pressure. Israel remains under the obligation not to transfer anyone to a country" where they would be unsafe, said Magdalena Mughrabi, Amnesty deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa. Amnesty will closely monitor the deportations, it said. (Reporting by Maayan Lubell and Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Gareth Jones)
President Donald Trump has signaled a willingness to aggressively challenge Iran.



Speaking after his meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday, Mr. Trump said, Were looking forward to doing something, but it has to be done, and it has to be done strongly. Theyve very much been butchers and we cant allow that to happen.



Trump made his comments to reporters after an expanded meeting with Macron and members of his staff to discuss the Iran nuclear deal and other issues. Macron believes that the Iran deal is important to maintaining peace in the Middle East, while Trump repeatedly decries the deal as terrible.



Neither president detailed the possible actions against Iran, but that the two leaders said after the meeting that they understood each other on the issue.

President Donald Trump held a press conference with French president Emmanuel Macron, and suggested there'll be action taken against Iran's dictatorship:Well the deal as made by Obama is terrible, and has to be repealed. Macron better understand that, and in fact, he'd better understand that his own country's in danger of similar situations with all the jihadists both foreign and homegrown running rampant there.It's time to bring down the Iranian regime, and if done, could be a good way to bring down Islamofascists in other parts of the globe too.

Labels: anti-americanism, anti-semitism, dhimmitude, France, iran, islam, Israel, jihad, military, political corruption, racism, terrorism, United States, war on terror, White House
Jerusalem (AFP) - Israel announced on Tuesday it has abandoned controversial plans to expel African migrants who entered the Jewish state illegally, after failing to find a country willing to host them.

The plan had targeted some 42,000 migrants of Eritrean and Sudanese origin currently living in Israel and denied refugee status or asylum.

Government legal advisers informed the Supreme Court of the plan's cancellation after certain unspecified countries refused to host the migrants, a government source said.

"At this stage, the possibility of removal to a third country is no longer relevant," the advisers said in a statement.

Migrants and aid workers have said Israel was negotiating with Rwanda and Uganda to accept the deportees.

The deportation plan has attracted a wave of criticism, including from the UN refugee agency, Holocaust survivors, and parts of Israeli civil society.

The government originally announced a plan under which it would present migrants with $3,500 (2,800 euros) and the opportunity to leave on their own accord, or face indefinite imprisonment with eventual forced expulsion.

In early April, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to cancel the plan, saying a new agreement with the UN would allow 16,000 migrants to be transferred to "developed countries like Canada, Germany or Italy".

In exchange, Israel would give residency to an equal number of migrants.

But the premier cancelled the plan several hours later, after caving to pressure from his right-wing base.

Shortly after news of Tuesday's cancellation broke, Netanyahu tweeted that he had instructed Interior Minister Aryeh Deri "to immediately prepare for the reopening of the detention facilities to the infiltrators".

The prime minister was referring to the February closure of the Holot detention centre in southern Israel.

Some 200 migrants detained for refusing to leave Israel were released in mid-April following a Supreme Court ruling.

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Israel's highest judicial authority had ordered their release because of the government's inability to conclude an agreement with third-party host countries.

Human rights groups have long condemned Israel for its immigration policy and treatment of Africans seeking asylum.

Most of the migrants arrived to Israel after 2007, mainly from the Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

Security along the once porous border has since been signficantly tightened.

Most of the migrants have settled in a number of poor neighbourhoods in the coastal city of Tel Aviv, the country's economic capital.

Amnesty International welcomed the cancellation, but expressed concern government's plan but voiced concern over the continued practise of "voluntary" expulsions.

"Israel is still conducting what it calls 'voluntary' deportations, though in reality there is nothing voluntary about them," the London-based rights watchdog said in a statement.

"Israel remains under the obligation not to transfer anyone to a country where they would be at real risk of serious human rights violations," it added.
Jerusalem (AFP) - Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman is travelling to the United States for talks Wednesday on countering Iran's "expansion" across the Middle East, especially in Syria, his office said.

During his visit, Lieberman will meet Defence Secretary James Mattis, National Security Adviser John Bolton and members of the Senate, the Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement.

"Discussions will focus on the close security coordination between Israeli and American defence establishments against negative developments resulting from Iranian expansion in the Middle East, with an emphasis on Syria and additional mutual security concerns," it added.

The visit comes ahead of a May 12 deadline US President Donald Trump has set to decide on the fate of a nuclear deal with Iran.

Trump has derided the deal as a capitulation to Tehran, saying it is no longer in the US's interest to maintain the sanctions relief granted to Iran by his predecessor Barack Obama in return for controls on its nuclear programme.

During a visit to Washington on Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron called jointly with Trump for a new nuclear deal with Iran.

Trump's European allies have repeatedly tried to persuade him not to walk away from the 2015 deal, which gave Iran massive sanctions relief and the guarantee of a civilian nuclear program in return for curbs on programmes that could be used to develop an atomic weapon.
Rome (AFP) - Italy's highest court of appeal on Tuesday rejected a request by the German NGO Jugend Rettet to release its migrant rescue boat, impounded eight months ago on suspicion of facilitating illegal immigration.

The Italian Court of Cassation did not say why it had turned down the NGO's request for the release of the Iuventa, a 33-metre (110-foot) motorboat seized off the island of Lampedusa on August 2.

At the time, the state police force had said that circumstantial evidence had come to light in a probe dating back to October 2016 which suggested the boat was being used for "activities facilitating illegal immigration".

Two security officers employed on another rescue boat presented images that they alleged showed Jugend Rettet members conversing with suspected smugglers. They had also allegedly been seen sending back a wooden boat to Libya that was then used to transport more migrants.

But Jugend Rettet denies the allegations, saying the officers had misinterpreted particularly complicated rescue operations carried out on two days in June 2017 when many boats were in distress.

A detailed study by the Forensic Oceanography collective of all available images and radio exchanges in the area over those two days also cast doubt on the allegations.

At a news conference in Berlin, Jugend Rettet spokesman, Philipp Kuelker, said the Iuventa case "sets a precedent."

The court was making it possible to "criminalise rescue at sea and showing solidarity with other human beings on the run. But as long as people continue to die at sea, we will continue our fight," Kuelker said.

By contrast, an Italian judge last week ordered the release of another migrant rescue ship, belonging to the Spanish aid group Proactiva Open Arms.

That boat had been seized in mid-March after NGO workers refused to hand over migrants saved during a rescue mission off the Libyan coast to the Libyan coastguard, instead delivering them to the Italian island of Sicily.

The judge argued that Libya "was not yet in a position to take in rescued migrants while ensuring their fundamental rights were respected" and considered that the NGO had acted "out of necessity".

In recent days, more than 1,500 migrants were rescued off Libya and at least 11 people have died after boats capsized.
Rome (AFP) - Italy's centre-left took a tentative step Tuesday towards ending weeks of political deadlock, saying it was "willing to think about" joining forces with the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S0.

On Monday Italian President Sergio Mattarella tasked speaker of the lower house Roberto Fico with seeing if a M5S/PD government could be formed after talks between the M5S and a rightwing coalition led by the nationalist League party failed.

The Democratic Party (PD) had previously refused to countenance being "a crutch" to an M5S government.

However, on Tuesday interim PD leader Maurizio Martina said he would consider negotiating with the M5S, should they confirm that their talks with the far-right League were definitively closed.

M5S leader Luigi Di Maio late Monday appeared to slam the door on Matteo Salvini's League, which is partnered with Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia and minor far-right party Brothers of Italy, after Salvini refused Di Maio's demand that the League dump Berlusconi and come to the negotiating table alone.

"If Di Maio's recent significant announcements are confirmed, we're ready to assess the new situation," Martina said to reporters after meeting Fico on Tuesday.

The PD led a coalition that came third in last month's election with around 23 percent of the vote but has enough seats in both the lower and upper houses to form a majority with the M5S, which is Italy's largest single party after picking up 33 percent.

It has refused to partner Di Maio's M5S up to now due to the fierce attacks it has been subject to from the M5S since it first entered parliament in 2013.

Later Tuesday Fico, a M5S MP, will meet a delegation from his own party to see if there can be further discussions with the PD.
A judge in Peru ordered the arrest of two men Monday for allegedly lynching a Canadian man last week in the Amazon, Reuters reports.

Sebastian Woodroffe, 41, was murdered in the region of Ucayali after indigenous community members blamed him for the death of a spiritual leader. Perus interior ministry says the Canadian was killed in retribution by a mob, Reuters reports.

Video footage on social media reportedly shows a man in a puddle before another man wrapped a rope around his neck and dragged him as onlookers watched.

Olivia Arevalo, the spiritual leader of the Shipibo-Conibo tribe and an indigenous rights activist, was killed last Thursday after being shot twice. Woodroffe was believed to have been a client of the 81-year-old shaman.

According to Ricardo Jimenez, the head prosecutor in Ucayali, her family suspects Woodroffe killed Arevalo for declining to conduct a ritual involving ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic plant brew used for spiritual healing.

Jimenez added that officials are looking into other theories as well, such as murder by another foreigner over unpaid debt.

According to a crowdfunding site, Woodroffe had moved to Ucayali to study plant medicine and become an addiction counselor, Reuters reports.

The foreign affairs department of Canada is in touch with officials in Peru. We are aware of this case and actively seeking further information, Global Affairs Canada said in a statement.
By Tim Ghianni

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Reuters) - A Tennessee judge on Tuesday revoked a $2 million bond set for the man accused of opening fire at a Nashville-area Waffle House restaurant, killing four people, while new details emerged of the suspect's struggles with paranoia and delusions.

Davidson County Judge Michael Mondelli did not give a reason for overturning the bond order issued by a night magistrate following the arrest of Travis Reinking, but his decision followed a public outcry over the possibility that the suspect could potentially be freed from jail.

The Nashville District Attorney's office was "inundated with calls" from angry members of the public saying the shooting rampage suspect should not be released under any circumstances, spokesman Steve Hayslip said.

"The fact that he might be able to bond out set that fear and panic back in their hearts again," Hayslip said.

Reinking, a 29-year-old construction worker with a history of erratic behavior and brushes with the law, was captured in woods outside Nashville on Monday after more than a day on the run and charged with four counts of murder.

A hearing set in the case for Wednesday was postponed until May 7. Jon Wing, a Davidson County public defender representing Reinking, did not respond to a request for comment.

Police say a nearly naked Reinking opened fire with an AR-15 rifle at about 3:30 a.m. Sunday at the Waffle House restaurant.

The gunman, who began shooting outside before moving inside, aborted his attack and fled when a customer, 29-year-old James Shaw Jr., wrestled the rifle from him in what authorities called an act of heroism.

Police say they still did not know what motivated the attack and that Reinking was not speaking to investigators.

Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall told reporters on Tuesday that the suspect was under medical observation and a suicide watch.

We have to protect other inmates from him, Hall said. And we have to protect him from other inmates.

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Previous brushes with law enforcement show that Reinking appeared to struggle with delusions of being stalked by people, including pop star Taylor Swift.

Former colleagues at the Rocky Mountain Crane Service where Reinking worked in Salida, Colorado, told a Salida Police Department investigator this week that he was intelligent and quiet, but they worried about his mental health.

They described him as a loner who often played video games, especially ones that involve shooting, and that he was obsessed with Swift, according to a report released by Salida police. Reinking lived in Salida for six months starting in late 2016.

Reinking told everyone he was gay, which two colleagues said appeared to contradict his claims that he would someday marry the 28-year-old female singer.

Travis was a good kid, very polite and a hard worker but a little off. Its just unfortunate that he snapped, John Turley, a mechanic at the Crane service, told Reuters in a telephone interview. As the laws are written, he never should have had a gun. I feel sorry for everybody who is suffering.

Reinking moved to Nashville in 2017 from Illinois. The U.S. Secret Service said it arrested him in Washington in July of last year after he attempted to get into the White House.

After that episode, authorities in Illinois revoked his gun license and confiscated four firearms, including what police said was the rifle used in the Waffle House shooting.

The guns were given to his father, Jeffrey Reinking, who told police he would lock them up and keep them away from his son at their home in Tazewell County, Illinois.

But the elder Reinking eventually returned the weapons to his son, Nashville police said on Sunday. The Tazewell County Sheriff's Office never took custody of the guns and was not investigating the matter, Chief Deputy Jeffrey Lower said in an email.

Marcus Watson, an agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said Reinking's father could face federal charges if he knowingly transferred weapons to a person who was prohibited from owning them. Jeffrey Reinking could not be reached for comment.

(Reporting by Tim Ghianni; Additional reporting by Jonathan Allen, Brendan O'Brien and Keith Coffman; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Leslie Adler and Grant McCool)
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, stepped out in a chic red shift dress after giving birth to her third child, a baby boy.

Kate Middleton, whos known for her polished and sophisticated sense of style, sported the cherry red dress by designer Jenny Packham, which featured a white lace eyelet Peter Pan collar, while stepping out of the Lindo Wing of St. Marys Hospital in London on Monday. Middleton and Prince William welcomed the baby boy on April 23, adding a third child to their royal brood; their son Prince George was born in 2013, while their daughter Princess Charlotte was joined them two years later in 2015.

This isnt the first time that Middleton made headlines wearing Jenny Packham; she was widely applauded for her selection of a blue polka dot Jenny Peckham dress she wore when introducing Prince George to the world, not only because it was considered an homage to Princess Dianas polka dot dress after Prince William was born, but also because the dress showed off Middletons post-pregnancy baby bump.

Meet the new little Prince of Cambridge with his proud parents William and Kate! #royalbaby pic.twitter.com/nDHPAqxJan  Rebecca English (@RE_DailyMail) April 23, 2018

Middleton paired her springy dress with a pair of low nude suede pumps from Gianvito Rossi, which are still available to buy for $675 while her baby boy wore a white baby hat and was wrapped in a white swaddle. Twitter users were quick to point out that her look paralleled that of Princess Dianas when she exited the hospital after giving birth to her second son, Harry, just as Middleton had also given birth to her second son.

Twitter users also believe that the red dress  with white detailing  may have been in honor of St. Georges Day today, meaning that the newest royal baby will share his birthday with the important British holiday, which honors the countrys patron saint.

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Wearing almost the same dress as our beloved Princess of Hearts. So beautiful ????????#KateMiddleton #PrincessDiana #cambridgebaby3 pic.twitter.com/yTlJ3nOaDt  elizabeth bennet (@secretrose92) April 23, 2018

Kate Middleton wore a red dress with white details in honour of St George (Patron saint of England ????????????????????????????) pic.twitter.com/49mkfgtTzZ  Veronica (@venachia) April 23, 2018

The baby boys arrival is just one of many exciting life events for the royal family this spring; in May, Prince Harry will marry Meghan Markle on May 19 in whats sure to be a royal wedding to remember.
White House advisor Kellyanne Conway blasted CNN for dredging up her husband's criticism of President Donald Trump and suggested that it was inappropriate for spouses to be brought into political debatesdespite Trump's public history of mocking the spouses of opponents.

During a Sunday appearance on CNN, host Dana Bash confronted Conway about husband George Conway's criticism of the Trump administration. Bash pointed to a tweet in which the prominent conservative lawyer slammed Trump's habit of "saying one thing" and doing "the opposite" as "absurd."

When Bash asked Conway "What is up" with those tweets, Conway kept her composure but appeared annoyed.

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Its fascinating to me that CNN would go there, Conway said. But its very good for the whole world to just witness that its now fair game...how peoples spouses and significant others may differ with them. Im really surprised, but very, in some ways, relieved and gratified to see that. That should really be fun.

Conway went on to blast the question as a sexist attempt meant to "harass" and "embarrass."

You just brought him into this, a piqued Conway warned Bash. This ought to be fun moving forward, Dana. Were now going to talk about other peoples spouses and significant others just because they either work at the White House or CNN? CNN just went there," adding that it was a "cross the Rubicon" moment.

Conway's apparent disapproval of Bash's questioning is at odds with her boss' own campaign strategy. Throughout Trump's tenure in politics, he has routinely used family members and spouses as weapons to insult his critics and opponents.

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For example, Trump attacked Heidi Cruz, the wife of Senator Ted Cruz, during the rancorous 2016 presidential campaign and floated the unfounded idea that Cruz's father was linked to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Trump also retweeted an unflattering composite image of Heidi Cruz and Melania Trumpan attack he claimed was in retaliation for the actions of Cruz supporters.

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Conway likely remembers both of those attacks, having chaired a pro-Cruz political action committee before taking a job as a senior advisor and then campaign manager with the Trump campaign. According to Roll Call, her organization was behind three anti-Trump attack ads that were scheduled to run in Iowa and South Carolina during the primary campaign. Conway also spoke out as a commentator against Trump during that time, once dinging the blustery business mogul for slinging "personal insults."

The Cruz spat wasn't the only time Trump invoked the name of a spouse or family member to attack a political opponent. According to January report from NBC, an irate Trump called then-acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe to grill him on James Comey using an FBI plane after having been fired from the department. During a phone conversation, Trump allegedly suggested McCabe ask his wife Jill "how it feels to be a loser," referring to her failed 2015 bid for a seat in the Virginia legislature. The White House denied that account of the phone call.

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"To have my personal reputation and integrity and those of my family attacked this way is beyond horrible. It feels awful every day. It keeps me up nights," Jill McCabe later wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post. "I made the decision to run for office because I was trying to help people. Instead, it turned into something that was used to attack our family, my husbands career and the entire FBI."

During the primary campaign, Trump also suggested in a now-deleted retweet that Jeb Bush's proposed immigration policy was influenced by his Mexican-American wife. "@RobHeilbron: @realDonaldTrump #JebBush has to like the Mexican Illegals because of his wife," the retweet, captured by The Wrap, said.

And, of course, while competing against Hillary Clinton in the general election, Trump frequently invoked former president Bill Clinton's infidelity, culminating with a press conference moments before a presidential debate that featured a panel of women who allegedly had affairs with Bill Clinton or accused him of assault.

Since turning to team Trump, Conway's opinion appears to have changed. In an October speech at the conservative Family Research Council's annual Values Voters Summit, the advisor praised the work environment in the White House for "elevating" women in politics, calling it a "great untold story."

"[Trump is] very respectful of who we are personally, what our home life is like, whether we are married or not, have children or not," she said. "He is always interested in the personal story of everyone. He is a great storyteller himself."

Kellyanne Conway

Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

This article was first written by Newsweek

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South Korea has revealed the menu that will be served at the dinner following the first summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday.

North and South Korea have finalized preparations for their leaders' meeting at the Peace House on the southern side of the Panmunjom truce village down to the smallest detail, including the time of their very first handshake, Yonhap news agency reported.

The dinner between the two leaders has been thoughtfully prepared to reflect the meeting's historic significance. "This menu was selected so as to honor those who have endeavored to achieve peace and unification on the Korean Peninsula over the past many years," South Korean presidential spokesperson Kim Eui-kyeom said at a press briefing.

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04_24_KJU_banquet

KCNA/via Reuters

Details of the menu were published on Tuesday on a South Korean government website launched last week entirely dedicated to covering the inter-Korean summit, which was given the slogan "Peace, a new start."

Two dishes in the menuthe John Dory fish and the Swiss potato fritters known as rostiare respectively meant to symbolize the childhoods of Moon, who grew up in the coastal city of Busan, and Kim, who attended boarding school in Switzerland as a teenager.

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Other dishes are associated with people and places who have contributed milestones to the inter-Korean peace process. One such example is the steamed square dumplings filled with croaker and sea cucumber from Gageodo Island, the hometown of former President Kim Dae-jung. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for his reconciliation efforts with Pyongyang.

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The charcoal-grilled beef comes from the Seosan Beef Farm, the ranch from where Chung Joo-young, the former honorary chairman of Hyundai Group, gifted a number of cattle to North Korea in 1998 in what was dubbed "Operation Rawhide."

The octopus in the naengchae (a traditional Korean cold salad) is sourced from the hometown of Korean composer Yun Isang, who traveled to North Korea numerous times to develop the country's classical music scene and eventually led a group of South Korean musicians to Pyongyang for a joint performance with North Korean artists in 1990.

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At Moon's request, North Korea will send a group of chefs from the Okryu-Gwan restaurant in Pyongyang which, according to NPR, has branches in China, Nepal, Thailand and Dubai. The chefs will set up a noodle-making machine near the summit venue to deliver freshly made cold noodles, a North Korean trademark dish, to the leaders' dinner table.

The dessert will display the idea of reconciliation will most blatantly, decorating a mango mousse with the unification flag. The meal will be washed down and toasted with two different types of traditional Korean alcoholic drinks, the Myeoncheon Dugyeonju liquor brewed from azalea flowers and glutinous rice, and the Moonbaesool, a liquor that has been distilled on the peninsula for centuries.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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Tuesday is Election Day in Arizonas 8th Congressional District, where Democrats have mounted a serious bid to flip a GOP-held House seat in a district Donald Trump won by 21 percentage points.

Democrat Hiral Tipirneni, a health care advocate and physician, is battling Republican Debbie Lesko, a conservative former state senator, for a seat representing an area that encompasses a swath of Phoenixs western and northern suburbs.

Although national Republican operatives privately profess their confidence in a Lesko victory, the party brass is investing heavily in the race to guard against another embarrassing defeat. Three national GOP arms  the National Republican Congressional Committee, the Republican National Committee, and the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.)  have together spent more than $1.2 million on Leskos behalf.

In addition, President Donald Trump recorded a robocall for Lesko, and several Republican leaders have traveled to the district to campaign and raise money for her.

The GOP would suffer a blow to morale from even a narrow win in the solidly Republican seat, which explains why national GOP leaders are not taking any chances, according to Gina Woodall, an Arizona State University politics expert.

If this very safe Republican seat flips, then anything goes at the state level and at the federal level in November, Woodall said. Republicans have a tremendous amount to lose in Arizona.

Democrat Hiral Tipernini has mounted a competitive bid for Arizona's 8th Congressional District, but pundits consider a win for her unlikely. (Photo: Hiral for Congress)

The fact that the contest has been competitive is a promising sign for Democrats. The state party, which has set up a field office and dedicated staffers to Tipirnenis bid, is using the race as an opportunity to generate excitement and infrastructure for upcoming midterm opportunities.

Democrats have a serious shot in November of flipping the state Senate, where the GOP has a four-seat edge. The party plans to target at least six GOP-held state Senate seats, and has fielded promising candidates for an open U.S. Senate seat as well, including Rep. Kyrsten Sinema.

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The 8th District special election has already done some magic for local Democrats, said Ann Teeters Johnson, a retiree from Sun City West. Because there is a primary and an election again so soon, I think it would carry over.

The demographics of Arizonas 8th fundamentally favor Republicans. Over 84 percent of residents are white, and nearly 22 percent are aged 65 or older  both groups that generally lean Republican.

Prior to his resignation in December, Rep. Trent Franks (R) routinely won re-election by more than 30 percentage points. (Franks resigned in December after allegedly offering a female aide $5 million to serve as a surrogate mother for him and his wife.)

Related...

Republicans Are Scrambling To Save An Arizona House Seat In GOP Territory

Democratic Energy Thats A Little Different

A number of forces have converged to give Democrats a fighting chance in the district, nestled in a section of Maricopa County known as the West Valley.

Chief among them are energized Democratic voters, and grassroots groups that have sprouted since the 2016 election.

Ann Teeters Johnson, who has used the Democratic National Committees digital programs to make calls and text messages for Tipirneni, joined Rogue Democratic Women, a 100-person group that organized a Democratic candidate forum during the primary. Tipirnenis bid has unleashed Democratic pride that has wowed Johnson, who likens the Republican stronghold to hostile territory.

Johnson shows her partisan colors with a bumper sticker that says, Had Enough? Vote Democratic. On a number of occasions in recent weeks, people have left notes on her windshield to share their agreement with the stickers message.

Ive been in Democratic politics a long time and it is a little different, Johnson said. I havent seen something like this.

The struggle to increase Arizona teachers pay and funding for the states schools has only heightened the excitement for Tipirnenis bid. Tens of thousands of teachers, students, parents and other supporters wore red during a school walkout on April 11, protesting low pay and school budget cuts.

The movement, which they christened #RedforEd, got the attention of Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican up for re-election in November. Ducey vowed to give teachers a 20-percent raise by 2020, and restore education funding. Nonetheless, teachers skeptical that the money would not be cut from other essential services plan a statewide strike on Thursday.

Tipirneni, an ardent supporter of #RedforEd and public-school parent, has found an appealing foil in Lesko, who championed a costly private-school voucher bill. The legislation aroused opposition from many of the same suburban women now attracted to Tipirnenis bid. While Lesko helped shepherd the bill into law, grassroots resistance to the measure has won voters the opportunity to decide its fate on the November ballot.

Spinning The Outcome

Tipirneni, who has focused her campaign on kitchen-table issues like health care, education and retirement, has proven a prodigious fundraiser. As of the beginning of the month, she had raised nearly $180,000 more than Lesko.

But the national cavalry for Lesko, which has more than closed the individual candidates fundraising gap, has not been matched by Democratic cash. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which helps elect Democrats to the House, has spent nothing toward Tipirnenis bid.

The outside GOP money appears to be having an impact. One public poll that showed Tipirneni leading by 1 percentage point two weeks ago, more recently found Lesko with a 6-point lead.

Election watchers pessimistic about Tipirnenis chances of an upset also point to the makeup of voters who have already cast their ballots in the states capacious early voting program. Arizonans have been able to vote in person and by mail since March 28, and the types of voters who have already submitted ballots bode well for Lesko.

Of more than 154,000 ballots already cast, 49 percent of voters were registered Republicans, compared with 28 percent Democrats and 23 percent independents. The median age of the people who have already voted is 67.

National Republicans are already casting a Lesko win as a referendum on progressive health care policies. Tipirneni advocates allowing Americans of all ages to buy into Medicare, as well as offering Medicaid beneficiaries the opportunity to purchase private coverage. But Lesko and national Republicans have dubbed her a proponent of single-payer health care in which the federal government would be the sole insurer for all Americans.

Hiral Tipirneni will be the first of many single-payer supporters to suffer defeat this year, said National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Jesse Hunt.

Progressives hope to argue that Tipirneni kept the race close because she ran strongly as a champion of affordable health care, and defender of Social Security and Medicare. Tipirneni has vowed to protect the social insurance programs and denounced the budget-busting GOP tax cuts for creating a political impetus to cut them.

Ady Barkan, an ALS-stricken progressive activist whose Be A Hero initiative targets Republicans who voted for, or back the tax cuts, traveled to the district to campaign on Tipirnenis behalf. While in Arizona, Barkan, who will need Medicare as his body deteriorates, asked Lesko to respond to the stated intentions of several Republican leaders, including House Speaker Ryan and White House budget director Mick Mulvaney, to seek major cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Barkan features a key moment in the exchange in a one-minute ad  one of two starring Barkan that the progressive Working Families Party has spent $100,000 to air in the district. In the snippet, Lesko tells Barkan, who will be on Medicare, she is not familiar with GOP plans to cut social programs.

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It's election weekend in #AZ08.



I've got exciting news. Because of your generosity, @BeAHeroTeam has partnered w/ @WorkingFamilies to produce a great closing argument.



We're putting $50,000 behind it on broadcast cable & digital.



If you like it, donate: https://t.co/y0m4MDQfN1 pic.twitter.com/KiGdDg2sVa  Ady Barkan (@AdyBarkan) April 21, 2018

The video cuts to a Washington Post article from December: Ryan says Republicans to target welfare, Medicare, Medicaid spending in 2018.

Lesko didnt even know that her agenda would rip health care away from people like me, Barkan concludes.

Also on HuffPost

Taking Security Seriously

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) talks with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) before the start of a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing concerning the roles and responsibilities for defending the nation against cyberattacks, on Oct. 19, 2017.

With Liberty And Justice...

Members of Code Pink for Peace protest before the start of a hearing where U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions will testify to the Senate Judiciary Committee in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on Oct. 18, 2017. Committee members questioned Sessions about conversations he had with President Donald Trump about the firing of former FBI Director James Comey, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, the ongoing investigation about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and other subjects.

Whispers

Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), right, speaks with Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) before a confirmation hearing for Christopher Sharpley, nominee for inspector general of the CIA, on Oct. 17, 2017.

Not Throwing Away His Shot

Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of the musical "Hamilton," makes his way to a meeting of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies in the Rayburn Office Building during a round of meetings to urge federal funding for the arts and humanities on Sept. 13, 2017.

Medicare For All

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), center, speaks on health care as Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), left, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), right, listen during an event to introduce the Medicare for All Act on Sept. 13, 2017.

Bernie Bros

Supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) pack his office on Sept. 8, 2017. Members of the "Draft Bernie for a People's Party" campaign delivered a petition with more than 50,000 signatures to urge the senator to start and lead a new political party.

McCain Appearance

Sen. John McCain, second from left, leaves the Capitol after his first appearance since being diagnosed with cancer. He arrived to cast a vote to help Republican senators narrowly pass the motion to proceed for the replacement of the Affordable Care Act on July 25, 2017.

A Narrow Win

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, center, speaks alongside Sens. John Barrasso, left, John Cornyn, right, and John Thune, rear, after the Senate narrowly passed the motion to proceed for the replacement of the Affordable Care Act on July 25, 2017.

Kushner Questioning

Jared Kushner, White House senior adviser and son-in-law to President Donald Trump, arrives at the Capitol on July 25, 2017. Kushner was interviewed by the House Intelligence Committee in a closed-door meeting about contacts he had with Russia.

Hot Dogs On The Hill

Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) prepares a hot dog during the American Meat Institute's annual Hot Dog Lunch in the Rayburn Office Building courtyard on July 19, 2017.

And Their Veggie Counterparts

Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) visits the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals veggie dog giveaway on July 19, 2017, countering a National Hot Dog Day event being held elsewhere on Capitol Hill.

Poised For Questions

Callista Gingrich, wife of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, waits for a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on her nomination to be the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican on July 18, 2017.

Speaking Up

Health care activists protest to stop the Republican health care bill at Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on July 17, 2017.

In The Fray

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) speaks to members of the media after announcing the revised version of the Senate Republican health care bill on Capitol Hill on July 13, 2017.

Anticipation

Christopher Wray is seated with his daughter Caroline, left, as he prepares to testify at a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on his nomination to be the next FBI director on July 12, 2017.

Up In Arms

Health care activists protest to stop the Republican health care bill at Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on July 10, 2017.

Across A Table

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) meets with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Capitol Hill on June 29, 2017.

Somber Day

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) speaks about the recent attack on the Republican congressional baseball team during her weekly press conference on Capitol Hill on June 15, 2017.

Family Matters

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), right, and his sons, Jack, 10, and Brad, arrive in the basement of the Capitol after a shooting at the Republican baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia, on June 14, 2017.

A Bipartisan Pause

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), right, coach of the Republican congressional baseball team, tells the story of the shooting that occurred during a baseball practice while he stands alongside Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.), left, a coach of the Democratic congressional baseball team on June 14, 2017.

Hats On

Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) reacts about the shooting he was present for at a Republican congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia, as he speaks with reporters at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on June 14, 2017.

Public Testimony

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is sworn in to testify before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on June 13, 2017.

Comey's Big Day

Former FBI Director James Comey testifies before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election on Capitol Hill on June 8, 2017.

Conveying His Point

U.S. Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats testifies at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on his interactions with the Trump White House and on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act on June 7, 2017.

Selfie Time

Vice President Mike Pence takes a selfie with a tourist wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat inside the U.S. Capitol rotunda on June 6, 2017. The vice president walked through the rotunda after attending the Senate Republican policy luncheon.

Budget Queries

Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney testifies before the House Budget Committee about President Donald Trump's fiscal 2018 budget proposal on Capitol Hill on May 24, 2017.

Flagged Down By Reporters

Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, leaves a closed committee meeting on Capitol Hill on May 24, 2017. The committee is investigating possible Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election.

Shock And Awe

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) hold a news conference on the release of the president's fiscal 2018 budget proposal on Capitol Hill on May 23, 2017.

Seeing Double

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) arrives in the Capitol for the Senate Democrats' policy lunch on May 16, 2017.

Honoring Officers

President Donald Trump speaks at the National Peace Officers Memorial Service on the West Lawn of the Capitol on May 15, 2017.

Whispers

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.), right, and ranking member Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) talk during a hearing with the heads of the U.S. intelligence agencies in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on May 11, 2017.

Skeptical

Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates arrives to testify before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election on Capitol Hill on May 8, 2017.

Differing Opinions

Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) gives a thumbs-up to protesters on the East Front of the Capitol after the House passed the Republicans' bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act on May 4, 2017. The protesters support the ACA.

Real Talk

United States Naval Academy Midshipman 2nd Class Shiela Craine (left), a sexual assault survivor, testifies before the House Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Military Personnel with (2nd from left to right) Ariana Bullard, Stephanie Gross and Annie Kendzior in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill on May 2, 2017. Kendzior, a former midshipman, and Gross, a former cadet, were both raped twice during their time at the military academies. The academy superintendents were called to testify following the release of a survey last month by the Pentagon that said 12.2 percent of academy women and 1.7 percent of academy men reported experiencing unwanted sexual contact during the 2015-16 academic year.

In Support Of Immigrants

Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.), center, is joined by dozens of Democratic members of the House of Representatives to mark "Immigrant Rights Day" in the Capitol Visitor Center on May 1, 2017 in Washington, D.C. The Democratic legislators called on Republicans and President Donald Trump to join their push for comprehensive immigration reform.

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Toronto police have identified a 25-year-old man as the suspect in the van attack on Monday that left at least 10 people dead and 15 others injured.

Alek Minassian  of Richmond Hill in the greater Toronto area  was arrested near the scene of the Toronto attack after a short, intense stand-off with Toronto police on Monday. He appeared in court Tuesday morning and was charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder and 13 counts of attempted murder. He did not enter a plea and will return to court on May 10, the Associated Press reported.

The correct spelling of arrested party is Alek MINASSIAN ^sm  Toronto Police (@TorontoPolice) April 24, 2018

MEDIA ADVISORY:

Alek Minassian, 25

-He will appear in court Tuesday, April 24, 2018

-10 am at 1000 Finch Avenue West court

-Information on charges to be released at that time

^dh  Toronto Police OPS (@TPSOperations) April 24, 2018

Heres what to know about the Toronto van attack suspect:

Alek Minassian attended a local college

A LinkedIn profile that appears to belong to Minassian says he attended Senaca College in Toronto from 2011 through 2018. The university did not immediately respond to a request for comment from TIME.

Classmates from high school and college told Canadas Globe and Mail that Minassian appeared to be socially awkward and had significant knowledge of computers and computer chips. One classmate told the Globe and Mail he did not believe Minassian knew how to drive a car.

My memory is not perfect, but certainly, it would not be, I dont think, a misstatement to say that he wasnt overly social, Ari Bluff, who went to Thornlea Secondary School with Minassian, told CBC News.

The motive is still under investigation

Story continues

Police said Monday that the motive for the attack is still unclear, but noted that it definitely looked deliberate. Officials also said Minassian was not previously known to police

Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders said the city is safe, but said officials have a long way to go in the investigation.

Witness accounts suggested the driver was not swerving accidentally when driving on sidewalks or in the incorrect lane, Saunders said.

At this time, we have no reason to suspect that there is any national security element to this attack, but obviously the investigations continue, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at a press conference Tuesday morning.

Minassian had a tense standoff with police

Videos posted on social media of the brief stand-off between Minassian and police showed the suspect holding what appears to be a cell phone and pointing it to look like a handgun.

In the video, a police officer could be heard shouting, Get down! Get down!

The video showed the officer pointing a gun at the suspect and giving him multiple warnings. During the confrontation, the suspect yelled shoot me in the head. The officer eventually stepped closer to him until the suspect dropped the object. Officers then arrested him.

Minassian reportedly praised the University of California, Santa Barbara killer

A Facebook profile that appeared to belong to Minassian included a post Monday that praised Elliot Rodger, who killed six people and injured 14 others in the 2014 attack at the University of California, Santa Barbara, CNN reports.

The message read, in part, All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger!

Rodger had crashed his car into pedestrians, shot at passersby and stabbed others during the incident.

Vehicles have been used as a weapon in other attacks around the world. A man killed eight people using a pickup truck in New York City last fall. In Nice, France, a man drove a truck into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in July 2016, killing 86 people.

Police are still seeking witnesses of the attack

As police continue their investigation, they are still seeking witnesses of the attack to provide further information. Witnesses with photos or videos of the incident can upload them here.
Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - Brazil's ex-president Lula, who is imprisoned for corruption, on Tuesday gave his Workers' Party (PT) the green light to find a new candidate for the October presidential election in which he remains the frontrunner.

"I want you to feel totally free to take whatever decision you need because 2018 is an important year for the PT, for the left and for democracy," wrote Luis Inacio Lula da Silva in a letter to the party leadership.

But the PT dismissed his offer, with party president Gleisi Hoffmann writing on Facebook that they would keep him as their candidate.

"The people want Lula freed, that Lula be president! There is no plan B because Lula is innocent," she wrote, saying his candidacy would be formally approved at a national convention later this year.

The party has said it will exhaust all legal avenues in the hope that he can run in an election that he is the favorite to win.

Ahead of the vote, the PT has stepped up displays of unconditional support for its co-founder who was jailed for 12 years on April 7, moving its headquarters to the southern city of Curitiba where he is serving his sentence.

But experts say it is highly unlikely he will be allowed to run and the party has no other leaders with his charisma or experience to replace him, with polls predicting it will struggle to pass the 2.0 percent mark.

One possible substitute is ex-Sao Paulo mayor Fernando Haddad, while another is former minister Jaques Wagner -- but the former is unlikely to win unanimous support and the latter is plagued by suspicions of corruption.

In his letter, Lula said he was "happy" about the latest Datafolha research, which showed that despite his incarceration, he would still receive 31 percent of the vote -- although that was six percentage points lower than the previous poll.

The former head of state was convicted for accepting a seaside apartment as a bribe from a huge construction company linked to the state-controlled oil major Petrobras.

Story continues

He claims he has been framed to prevent him from running in October's election.

The deadline for registering as a candidate is August 15.

Under Brazil's clean slate law, his conviction means he would be barred from running, but the Superior Electoral Tribunal will make a definitive ruling by September 17.
Emmanuel Macron has arrived in Washington as the guest of Donald Trumps first state visit, hoping to persuade the US president not to disengage from the Iran nuclear deal or punish Europe with trade tariffs.

The so-called Trump whisperer  Mr Macron appears to have earned the US leaders respect after engaging in a knuckle-whitening handshake and inviting him and the first lady for Bastille Day celebrations in Paris  is being treated to a private dinner at Mount Vernon, the home of Americas first president George Washington. On Tuesday, he will be the guest of honour at a state dinner at the White House, featuring lobster bisque, lamb with tomato fondue, green beans and sweet potato casserole.

While Mr Macron is known as someone with a taste for fine food, the 40-year-old French leader is coming with a lengthy diplomatic shopping list  on Iran, Syria and trade. His main aim will be to cement the idea in Mr Trumps mind that France is the go-to nation in Europe.

LIVE | Tout juste arrive a Washington. Les objectifs de cette visite dEtat : https://t.co/oArbuMQqVM  Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) April 23, 2018

He wants France to be primus inter pares among the US allies, Nicholas Dungan, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, told The Independent. That will give him much greater room for manoeuvre, both within Europe and globally.

While some European leaders have created distance between themselves and Mr Trump, especially after his disparaging comments about the relevance of Nato, Mr Macron has sought to build a close relationship. Reports suggest the two leaders speak by phone frequently.

Yet, the worst thing Mr Macron could do, said Mr Dungan, would be to play up the idea he knows how to handle Mr Trump, somebody who notoriously hates to be handled. Rather, he should work on developing the personal chemistry between the two, something Mr Trump believes is the key to good international relations.

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Better to let the policy be made at the policy level, but statesmanship should be done at the statesmanship level, he said.

Mr Macron is keen to seek support from Mr Trump on several areas  Syria, trade and backing for the Iran nuclear deal, the seven-party brokered agreement that halts Tehrans nuclear programme in exchange for relief on sanctions.

During the election campaign, Mr Trump repeatedly denounced the deal, which was signed by Barack Obamas administration. He has said he will decide by the middle of next month whether European nations have fixed what he called terrible flaws in the deal, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or whether Washington should pull out.

Ahead of his three-day trip, Mr Macron, who previously urged the US president to keep Washington a member of the Paris Accord on climate change, told Fox News that despite Mr Trumps reservations, the Iran deal was the best way of dealing with the problem.

Is this agreement perfect and this JCPOA a perfect thing for our relationship with Iran? No, he said. But for nuclear  what do you have? As a better option? I dont see it.

Mr Macron, who on Wednesday will deliver a speech to Congress on the anniversary of the day president General Charles de Gaulle addressed a joint session of Congress in 1960, also wants to persuade Mr Trump not to immediately withdraw the 2,000 or so US troops currently operating in Syria.

As the head of a country that has had to repeatedly deal with terror attacks from Islamist extremists, he will argue that a sudden withdrawal could allow those Isis fighters still present in Syria to regroup, despite recent success in destroying their bases.

France recently joined the US and UK in attacking three targets in Syria linked to chemical weapons, following an alleged gas attack the West has accused the Syrian government of carrying out in the Damascus suburb of Douma. Syria and its ally Russia have denied there was such an attack.

If we leave, we leave the floor to the Iranian regime, Bashar al-Assad and these guys, and they will prepare the new war. They will fuel the new terrorists, said Mr Macron.

Mr Macron, whose visit will be followed later this week by one from German chancellor Angela Merkel, will also seek to persuade Mr Trump to make permanent the exemptions for the EU to recent tariffs Washington announced on steel and aluminium imports.

Adam Plowright, a Paris-based journalist and author of a recent biography of the French leader, The French Exception: Emmanuel Macron, the Extraordinary Rise and Risk, said Mr Macron will be seeking to fill the vacuum created by the withdrawal of the US from international leadership and Britains distraction as a result of Brexit.

Macron is the only European leader in good standing in the White House  not Germany or Britain, he said.

Reuters said the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, had called on European leaders to support the nuclear deal.

It is either all or nothing. European leaders should encourage Trump not just to stay in the nuclear deal, but more important to begin implementing his part of the bargain in good faith, Mr Zarif wrote on Twitter.

The news agency said Mr Macrons visit comes at a time of mounting alarm in Europe over the knock-on effect US sanctions on Russia could have on their own manufacturing industries.

French officials said Paris and other European governments were coordinating efforts to persuade Mr Trump to ease sanctions on Russia, including measures against Russian aluminium producers.

There are concerns raised by the extraterritoriality effects of the new sets of sanctions, it quoted one French finance ministry source as saying. Europeans... have jointly warned the US administration about the economic impact and consequences and the need to find solutions.
WARNING: This story includes graphic photos

Dylan McWilliams has survived both a rattlesnake bite and a terrifying bear attack. Now, the 20-year-old adventure-seeker has yet another death-defying story to tell.

The Grand Junction, Colorado, native was boogie boarding in the clear Kauai waters during a vacation to Hawaii on Thursday when he encountered what he believes was an at least 6-foot tiger shark.

Something hit my leg and I started looking around and saw blood, McWilliams tells PEOPLE. I saw the shark underneath me and I just started kicking at it and swimming for shore as fast as I could. It was pretty scary.

He adds, I remember thinking I had to get to the shore, so I just kept swimming.

When McWilliams  who has spoken about the ordeal to multiple outlets  reached land, a woman rushed to his aid and an ambulance soon arrived to transport him to a local hospital. There, he says doctors gave him seven stitches to close the bite marks on his right calf.

Still, McWilliams says the brush with death didnt faze him.

Dylan Mcwilliams after shark attack

Dylan McWilliams after shark attack

I wouldve gotten back in the water that same day, but I couldnt because of my leg, he tells PEOPLE, noting that he plans to hit the waves again as soon as he can.

The incident comes just months after McWilliams says he fought for his life in July 2017 when a bear attacked him during a camping trip. PEOPLE previously interviewed McWilliams at the time of the incident.

I woke up and a bear had the back my head and was dragging me out of my sleeping bag, McWilliams  who was working as a wilderness survival teacher at the time  now recalls to PEOPLE, claiming that the animal was a nearly 300-lb. black bear. I just started fighting back as best I could and it ended up dropping me about 15 feet away from my camp. It was scary.

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Graphic photos taken after the incident appear to show McWilliams bloodied head. However, other images featured the adventurous man smiling as his fellow campers helped him after the incident. McWilliams said he got nine staples in his head as a result of the attack.

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McWilliams was taken to a nearby hospital after staffers called 911. There, he was given nine staples to his scalp before being released. During the time of the attack, preteen and teen campers were sleeping in cabins 100 feet away. No one else was injured in the attack.

After the attack, CBS Denver reported that Colorado Parks and Wildlife said that they trapped and euthanized a 280-pound black bear believed to have been the one that attacked McWilliams.

Camp site where Dylan McWilliams suffered bear attack

About two years earlier, McWilliams says he suffered a rattlesnake bite while exploring in Utah. Still, he says that out of all the near-death experiences, the bear attack was the worst.

Waking up to a bear dragging me was pretty scary, he tells PEOPLE. I didnt know what was going on, I just knew I had a bear dragging me. I didnt know how bad the bite marks were.

Dylan McWilliams after bear attack

Now, McWilliams says it feels good to have survived so many potentially fatal situations  but he has no plans to change his lifestyle.

Im not gonna let those things change what I wanna do. Im still gonna be going camping and sleeping under the stars and surfing and swimming, he says. Ever since I was little, Ive always wanted to be like Steve Irwin and doing this kind of stuff is helping me get to do a little bit of what he did.
TORONTO  Almost inexplicably, the Toronto Maple Leafs are back on equal footing with the Boston Bruins.

Twice the Leafs were curled up, trembling, left to unpack the grim realities attached to falling behind two games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. First it was the consequence of their complete no-show in Boston, a two-game set in which they appeared far more outmatched than the 12-4 aggregate score would suggest. Then they returned to the hole they dug themselves for a second time after Game 4 when they failed to take advantage of Patrice Bergerons surprise absence.

And yet somehow, they came out on a top in a third, mostly shaky performance in Boston. And then in the return leg Monday night in Toronto, they delivered their most convincing effort in the series so far, triumphing 3-1 to force an improbable Game 7  the only one well see in the first round.

Even on the scorecards. And maybe now, perhaps in their minds, a nose ahead.

Heres how the Maple Leafs found their way back:

Great Dane

Despite the heat on Auston Matthews at points in the series, since Toronto had its back pressed against the wall, the situation only really demanded brilliance from one Maple Leaf.

That burden belonged to Freddie Andersen.

As the walls were caving in around him in Boston on Saturday, Andersen stood tall with a sensational 42-save performance (which earned him FRED-DY, FRED-DY chants before having to make a stop on Monday). Then in Game 6, which saw the opposition again own roughly two thirds of the total shot attempts, Andersen delivered a second indispensable effort, stopping 32-of-33 shots placed on target.

His highlight reel on Monday included a second magnificent paddle save made in the series, this one leaving scratched forward Josh Leivo to collect his jaw off the desk up in the press box.

All told, since the margin for error in the series was left razor thin, the Leafs have been outshot 78-51 and out-attempted 162-82.

Survival begins and ends with Andersen.

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Hes been our best player for a long time, said Mitch Marner. Hes always there for us, bails us out a lot. Without him were not having the success were having.

Hes been phenomenal.

Play to win

Maybe it was because the scoreboard read 4-1. Perhaps it didnt matter at all.

Either way, the Leafs taking a one-goal lead into the third period in Game 6 was far from a comfortable position given how shook they seemed from the moment they secured a three-goal cushion two nights previous. Had they retreated in similar fashion, or given up anywhere close to the 53-17 shot attempt spread that Boston had in its Game 5 push, surely it wouldnt yield the same result again.

But, to much surprise, the Maple Leafs best shift-to-shift stretch in the entire series came while protecting their one-goal lead Monday. Sure there was a push, but what the Bruins did to Toronto in Game 4  cordoning off the high-danger area with devotion and organization while unafraid to mix in honest spurts of offence  the Maple Leafs were able to return in Game 6.

The difference?

We took it to them a lot more, Andersen described from his vantage point. We controlled the neutral zone and they had trouble getting (the puck) in. I think thats just a commitment to winning.

We dont want to sit back, Marner said. Were done with that.

Shifting frustrations

With changes to the lineup (and his use of decoys in practice), Mike Babcock has been, at least at times, able to check Bostons top line. Eventually though, whether its Tomas Plekanec, Nazem Kadri or Matthews having to wear the matchup, Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak eventually do start to tilt the ice in their favour. This was true again Monday, despite Babcocks matchup control, as the trio each finished with over a 65 percent shot share.

But what has changed as the series has transitioned into deeper waters is the production of Bruce Cassidys top unit. After combining for 20 points in the first two games, the trio has had a hand in two goals in the four games since, with the banged-up Bergeron left off the board completely.

Most reflective of this dominant drought: Pastrnak counted 10 shot attempts himself in Game 6, but hit the target only once.

At the root of so much frustration for the Maple Leafs in the early stages of the series, Marchand in particular is beginning to wear the effects of being unable to contribute offensively. Slapping his stick and barking at officials, Marchand had his worst period of the entire series in the third Monday  while it was there for the taking.

Even with Kadris return to the lineup, Plekanec has been the essential component to slowing the top line  much like he was for many seasons with the Montreal Canadiens. Hes felt the frustration of Bostons top players many times before and appears to be again  however reluctant he is to admit it.

I dont pay attention to if theyre frustrated or not, Plekanec said. Im just trying to focus on our game, on our system. Whatever they do, its not my business to watch that.

M(arner)VP

There has been no more important decision from a lineup standpoint than Babcocks deployment on the right side of his shutdown line.

Marner, whose listless performance as a rookie last spring had some questioning his value long term, has been, by far, the Maple Leafs best skater this time around.

Starting in his own end countless times, with Marchand lined up directly across, Marner has not just played a major role in helping seal the defensive end on a line with Plekanec and Patrick Marleau, but firmly swung the goals-for ratio in Torontos favour.

Preventing the Bruins from completely seizing control in Game 6 with the go-ahead marker in an isolated moment in the offensive end, then adding an assist on Plekanecs empty-net marker, Marner now has a hand in one half of Torontos total output in the series with two goals and eight points in six games.

The secret?

What hes done at playoff time is put his work ahead of his skill, Babcock said. And hes having success.

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When Dr. Hiral Tipirneni was 3 years old and new to the United States, her parents would leave her home alone for 30 minutes on workdays. After moving from India, the family opened a 7-Eleven in Buena Park, California, but did not have enough money to hire employees or a baby sitter, according to Tipirneni. So during the length of time it took one parent to walk to work and relieve the other, and for the other to walk home, Tipirneni would stay on the phone with the parent at the store.

It was heartbreaking for them, Tipirneni said in a phone interview ahead of Tuesdays special election in Arizona, in which she is running for Congress. I remember when my mom told me that story, she was in tears. Because who wants to leave their kid home alone?

But the family had no choice. There was no return-ticket home to India, she said. They didnt know what their future held, but they were going to work hard and do whatever it took to make this life work for their children.

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Tipirneni, an emergency room physician, is running to fill Arizonas 8th District seat that Representative Trent Franks left vacant in December after news broke that he had approached two staff members about becoming surrogates for him and his wife. The race on Tuesday is the latest special election to garner national attention, as political analysts and the public look for indicators of how the November midterm elections might go. Despite warnings by some conservatives about a potential blue wave of support for Democrats, Republicans have won the majority of the special races since the 2016 general election, and the Republican National Committee is out-fundraising its Democratic counterpart.

Given that Tipirneni is a Democrat running in a district that encompasses part of Maricopa County, home to Phoenix, a county President Donald Trump carried in 2016 and where, as of April 11, registered Republicans outnumbered registered Democrats almost 2-to-1, her run has seemed like a long shot. (The county is also 84 percent white.) But a recent poll put her and Debbie Lesko, a Republican state senator, within a percentage point of each other, meaning the race has been even more closely watched nationally, with the Republican establishment seemingly scrambling to send surrogates and cash.

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Tipirneni insisted that she could win in the red district, at least partly because shes a self-identified moderate who can possibly attract independents and Republicans. My platform has been something that has resonated with people all along the political spectrum, she told Newsweek. I have spoken with countless Republicans who are clearly moderate Republicans who are frustrated by the current administration, the current House and Senate.

But shes also relying on her own party. The Democrats have come alive in this district. They were sort of a sleeping giant in a sense that nobody had really run in quite a while a strong campaign for a Democrat in this district and there just wasnt any feeling of a real choice on the ballot, she said. Now, people are coming out of the woodwork and engaging with our campaign and incredibly excited.

04_23_Arizona_Tipirneni_special_election

Gage Skidmore via flickr

After living in California, Tipirneni grew up near Cleveland. She later moved to Arizona and became a physician, working at hospitals in the Phoenix area. While the mother of three has not previously held political office, she said her medical experience has prepared her for Congress.

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Its all about problem solving. Ive spent my entire life basically in these situations where people come to me in times of crisis with really serious issues or problems or emergencies, she said, and its been my job to...look at the facts, be able to analyze the data, work with others on a team that may not agree with me and really be able to diagnose the issue and then implement a real-life solution.

As with others running this year, her candidacy is a reaction to the 2016 election. She said she felt upset about Trumps win and what she believed it meant for issues she cared about, such as access to health care. The day after his victory, she was speaking on FaceTime with one of her daughters about how they should stay politically involved, she recalled. In particular, they discussed how more women should run for office. Thats when her daughter said, Well, Mom, if not you, then who?

It was sort of like, Put your money where your mouth is, Tipirneni said. A day or two later, she applied to Emerge America, a national program that since 2005 has trained more than 3,000 women on how to run for office as Democrats.

Tipirnenis training started in January 2017. She was the only doctor in the class, said Dr. Sharmin Dharas, executive director of Emerge Americas Arizona program, who, like Tipirneni, is a physician as well as a first-generation American. Tipirneni has motivated the entire Emerge network with her success so far, Dharas added.

By March 2017, Tipirneni had her sights set on the Franks seat. She announced her candidacy that July, and after Franks resigned in December, she decided to run in the special election instead.

04_23_Tipirneni_special_election_02

Drew Angerer/Getty

Tipirnenis moderate platform includes investing in public schools, reducing student debt, simplifying the federal tax code, expanding workforce training and making child care affordable. She also wants to reduce wait times at the Department of Veterans Affairs and expand Medicare so that access is less costly. For certain topics, she seems to lean more to the left. She calls for secure borders with an immigration system that is clear and affordable and supports the Second Amendment but also gun safety reform.

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Meanwhile, the website for Lesko, her opponent, touts the Republican candidates National Rifle Association membership and says the U.S. must defend itself from insane madmen like Kim Jung Un [sic]. She also says she wants to be working with President Trump to build his border wall, and she describes herself as pro-life and pro-family. She calls the Second Amendment a precious civil right.

Arizonas Republican Party directed requests for comment to the Lesko campaign. A spokesman for Lesko said she was not available for an interview.

Not everyone is so sure Tipirneni has a shot. Its just a very, very solid Republican district, said Constantin Querard, an Arizona-based Republican political operative. I really dont think theres any concern.... The action was all in the primary, and I think folks understood that whoever won that primary [as a Republican] was going to be the next congressperson.

He noted that, as of early April, Tipirneni had raised around $670,000, a fraction of the millions that Democrat Conor Lamb had when he ran in a special election in Pennsylvania last month, which he narrowly won. (The amount for Tipirneni is still more than the $540,000 or so that Lesko had as of early April.) He also dismissed the April 16 poll that showed the candidates in a tight race as an outlier and noted that at least one-third of voters cast their ballots early, when she was lower down in the polls.

But Republicans do seem nervous. In the past month, high-profile surrogates such as House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy have flown in to support Lesko, and the Republican National Committee has infused her campaign with last-minute cash.

We have a great candidate in Dr. Hiral Tipirneni, said Drew Anderson, senior communications adviser to Arizonas Democratic Party. She is running a race that is fitting the district.

The candidate who wins on Tuesday doesnt get to relax for long. The seat will be up for grabs again during the midterms in November, so Tipirneni or Lesko will have just about a month to register to run in the August primary for that race. If the person who wins on Tuesday loses in the primary or in November, she will hold the seat only until January.

The special election, obviously, its its own beast, said the Arizona Democratic Partys Anderson. But were confident the hard work we are doing in this special election will only pay dividends down the road.

If Tipirneni does win in the special election, shell be in the minority in Congress, regardless of party. This year, just 19.8 percent of members of Congress are women. As of 2015, just 1 percent were immigrants, and in 2017, 19 percent were people of color.

When you get that opportunity to come to America, you want to invest back and give back to the country that has given you so much, said Emerge America in Arizonas Dharas. And when you see something going awry and not working the way that youve been always dreaming of when you were little, you want to do something about it.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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First lady Melania Trump has not failed in planning the Trump administrations first state dinner to be held Tuesday, her spokeswoman insisted amid criticism around the event including its uncharacteristically small guest list that includes no Democratic Congress members.

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Instead of engaging an event planner, Trump took charge of putting together the dinner welcoming French President Emmanuel Macron and executed her vision with the help of 10 East Wing staffers and four White House Visitors Office aides, The New York Times reported Monday. The first ladys choices included using Clinton White House china to serve the main course, and decorating with cherry blossoms like the Obamas once did.

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Trump reportedly told her staff not to stress about the details and block out scrutiny. Were probably not going to get the credit we deserve, but I know this team is great and she knows this team is great, the first ladys spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham told the Times. We have not failed, and she has not failed.

The White House in a statement Monday said the first lady carefully selected the dinner elements to complement and pay homage to the long-standing friendship between the United States and France."

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White House social secretary Rickie Niceta, who played the biggest role in organizing the state dinner after Trump, defended the first lady's hosting skills. She is very organized and she is very exact in how she wants something, Niceta said. There is no wavering.

President Donald Trump excluded Democrats and members of the media from attending the dinner with Macron in a departure from White House tradition. Senator John Kennedy (R-La.) said Tuesday the first family made the wrong call in limiting the guest list.

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I think it would have sent a better message, just my opinion, if we included a cross-section of Congress. You cant include everybody, but thats Democrats, independents and Republicans, Kennedy said on CNNs New Day.

The state dinner is much more than just a dinner and all eyes will be on the president's wife, Kate Andersen Brower, author of First Women: The Grace and Power of America's Modern First Ladies, told NPR. "I think it's a lot of pressure," Brower said. Melania I mean, God, everyone's going to be watching to see her expression and what she's wearing. We just know nothing about her. She's such a cipher."

This article was first written by Newsweek

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A photo of First Lady Melania Trump smiling next to former President Barack Obama at Barbara Bushs funeral over the weekend has taken the internet by storm.

The image, captured by someone who attended the private service for the former first lady Saturday in Houston, showed Obama saying something to Trump and her flashing back a smile. Trump was representing the current White House at the ceremony with President Donald Trump opting not to attend.

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Find someone who smiles like Melania Trump does when she's talking to Obama & far away from Donald, tweeted Adam Blickstein, who previously worked as a public affairs strategic planner for the Pentagon.

Some suggested the first lady responded with a more natural expression of joy than she has often shown beside her husband.

This is Melania and Obama sitting together today at former First Lady Barbara Bush's funeral. Have you ever, ever, EVER seen Melania smile like this, and look this relaxed, beside her own husband? Ever? pic.twitter.com/9qYLT2glIH Don't miss: Mexican Gangsters Dissolved Bodies of Three Missing Students in Acid: Police  Steve Silberman (@stevesilberman) April 21, 2018

Others praised Obama for showing such pleasantness toward the wife of a man who has repeatedly attacked him in recent years.

As well as the former president and first lady, the service was attended by Michelle Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton and both George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. President Trump, however, did not attend in order to avoid disruptions due to added security, and out of respect for the Bush family and friends, according to a statement issued by the White House a few days before the funeral.

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Melania Trumps joyful reaction is not the first time she has hinted at a more favorable view of Barack Obama than her husband possessed. The former president is one of only five accounts she follows through her official @FLOTUS Twitter handle.

There has been much focus on the relationship between the Trumps following allegations that her husband had affairs with adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal. The allegations came to light following reports of payments made to the two women facilitated by the president's personal attorney Michael Cohen.

After the Daniels reports permeated the media, Melania Trump was suggested to have distanced herself from her husband, canceling some of her public appearances with him and arriving on her own to some of his events including the State of the Union address.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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President Trump and first lady Melania Trump welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, to the White House this week ahead of the formal state dinner planned for this evening.

Yesterday, the political families planted a tree together on the White House lawn, and today they stood together for the state arrival ceremony, with both President Trump and President Macron giving speeches.

The first lady, however, stole the show with her stunning outfit for the event. She wore an all-white Michael Kors suit with a matching wide-brimmed hat. The outfit was a big hit on social media.

But the hat became the center of attention for another reason: President Trump couldnt maneuver his way around the brim to kiss his wifes cheeks. As seen in the video below, he tries, hesitates, then settles for a fake kiss on either cheek.
Melania Trump seems to be taking a cue from her predecessor when it comes to sartorial diplomacy. On Monday, to host French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, for the first state visit of her husbands presidency, Melania chose to wear a tuxedo cape over a little black dress from Givenchy. The first lady was worn the label before. In her first post-inauguration outing for a trip down to Florida, Melania wore a similar cape style, available for $2,095, in a bright red with matching flats from Christian Louboutin.
Melania Trump seems to be taking a cue from her predecessor when it comes to sartorial diplomacy.

On Monday, to host French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, for the first state visit of her husbands presidency, Melania chose to wear a tuxedo cape over a little black dress from Givenchy.

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump greet French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron at the White House, Monday, April 3, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The sleeveless topper with shiny lapels, which retails for $2,790, was most likely selected because of its connection to the Macrons country. The label was founded in 1952 by Hubert de Givenchy, who passed away last month at 91. According to the New York Times, Givenchy was emblematic of a generation of gentlemanly designers who established their couture houses in postwar Paris, nurturing personal relationships with customers and creating entire collections with specific women in mind.

In a red Givenchy dress and flats while landing at the Palm Beach Airport to meet President Trump at Mar-a-Lago. (Photo: Getty Images)

The first lady was worn the label before. In her first post-inauguration outing for a trip down to Florida, Melania wore a similar cape style, available for $2,095, in a bright red with matching flats from Christian Louboutin.

First lady Melania Trump, left, President Donald Trump, second from left, French President Emmanuel Macron, second from right, and his wife Brigitte Macron, right, pose for a photo during a visit and private dinner at George Washingtons Mount Vernon estate in Mount Vernon, Va., Monday, April 23, 2018. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

As for Brigitte, she also opted for a French label wearing a pale yellow coat with black buttons and a ribbon tie around the waist from Louis Vuitton. The 64-year-old former teacher is rarely seen in clothing from any other company, frequently calling on the brands head designer Nicolas Ghesquiere for custom creations.

US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump invited French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron for a private dinner at Mount Vernon, the estate of the first US President George Washington. (Photo: AP)

After the Macrons arrival stateside, they planted a tree at the White House before boarding a helicopter and heading off to Mount Vernon where the couples had a private dinner. On Tuesday night, the Trumps will hold their first official state dinner. Melania has been very involved in the planning of the event, with her communications director Stephanie Grisham telling CNN, She has been very focused on the experience of the guests and wants to ensure they are able to truly enjoy and remember the occasion. Mrs. Trump selected every item and every detail for the dinner, from the entree to the chair cushions.

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The first ladys hat stole the show as she posed with her husband and the Macrons. (Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Melania Trump is used to turning heads with her fashion-forward style, but her latest look isnt necessarily a universal hit.

The first lady wore an all-white ensemble to join President Trump in hosting President Emmanuel Macron of France and his wife, Brigitte Macron, for a White House state visit Tuesday morning.

While the French first lady opted for a classic sheath with a matching jacket, Trump channeled Dynasty in a belted skirt suit with an asymmetrical peplum detail. The blazer is a Michael Kors design priced at $2,195.

All eyes were on her dramatic choice of headgear, however: an oversized white hat with a wide, flat brim, also by Michael Kors.

Social media was quick to react to the look, with some praising it as classy and others poking fun. Some suggested that the hat should have its own Twitter account.

Trump could inspire a style trend.

Update from the South Lawn: @FLOTUS looks incredible and Im buying a white hat #StateVisit  Cassie Williams (@cassielee514) April 24, 2018

Politics, but make it fashion  That hat is @FLOTUS https://t.co/XZ7xrKwYGX  Anastasia Thibodeau (@Ana_Tibs) April 24, 2018

The first ladys hat from the back. (Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)

Or, she may just inspire some jokes  and comparisons to Curious Georges Man in the Yellow Hat and Scandals Olivia Pope.

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Kinda wishing a bird would land on the brim of @FLOTUS hat right about now. #winning  TBFan (@welovetherays) April 24, 2018

@FLOTUS hat that reminds me of Curious George  christina shell (@etina42) April 24, 2018

Melania's hat keeps Trump from making contact for a real kiss. Brilliant. pic.twitter.com/JEvUaJZU5q  DrLearnALot (@DrLearnALot) April 24, 2018

Melania Trump is dressed how I would to go undercover to spy on a friends date just to be extra about it.  Taylor (@TADupree) April 24, 2018

Melania looks ridiculous in that hat, maybe shes trying to hide her disdain for Trump under that hat  Andrea (@mindful_me2) April 24, 2018

I'm getting serious Alejandro Jodorowsky vibes from Melania Trump's hat pic.twitter.com/4Y0u2LChTd  Austin McCollum (@Austins_Day) April 24, 2018

Is Melania Trumps white hat a symbol of morality like Olivia Popes? pic.twitter.com/JZRHL7iuOi  KOlive (@kmomonahan) April 24, 2018

Perhaps more controversially, she did not remove her headgear while the French and the U.S. national anthems were played.

The national anthems of France and the United States play as the Trumps welcome the Macrons to the White House https://t.co/6wEMAUXLby  CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) April 24, 2018

Whats your take? Did the style risk pay off  and should she have taken it off during the anthems?

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Melania Trump is used to turning heads with her fashion-forward style, but her latest look isnt necessarily a universal hit. The first lady wore an all-white ensemble to join President Trump in hosting President Emmanuel Macron of France and his wife, Brigitte Macron, for a White House state visit Tuesday morning. All eyes were on her dramatic choice of headgear, however: an oversized white hat with a wide, flat brim, also by Michael Kors. Social media was quick to react to the look, with some praising it as classy and others poking fun. Some suggested that the hat should have its own Twitter account.
Three missing students are dead after criminals in Mexico beat them to death and dissolved their bodies in acid, according to police.

Mexican authorities in Jalisco state announced that the mystery around the three students fate had finally been solved weeks after their disappearance triggered massive protests. The film students went missing in the municipality of Tonala after they were forced into a car by between six and eight gang members.

Subsequently their bodies were dissolved in acid so that no trace of them remained," the state prosecutors office said, according to Reuters.

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Drug cartels have used the violent tactic to erase evidence in the past and police believe gang members falsely assumed the three victims were from a rival gang.

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According to witnesses, heavily armed men posing as police officers accosted the students after their car broke down. They were never seen again, the Los Angeles Times reported.

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The victimsSalomon Aceves Gastelum, Daniel Diaz and Marco Avalosjourneyed outside the city of Guadalajara to shoot a project for the University of Audiovisual Media, AFP reported. Police have stressed that the students had no known link to organized crime.

04_24_Mexico_students

Ulises Ruiz/AFP/Getty Images

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Police believe that Gastelum, Diaz and Avalos were taken to a property outside Guadalajara for interrogation, during which at least one of them was being beaten to death. The fact that the other two had witnessed a homicide could have convinced the kidnappers to execute them.

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Authorities have arrested two suspects in connection with the crime. The investigation is continuing as more potential culprits may be at large, the Jalisco state attorney general, Raul Sanchez said in a news conference.

More than 33,000 people are currently missing in Mexico and organized crime is expected to be a major issue in the current presidential campaign.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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Mexico City (AFP) - The alleged perpetrator behind the murder of Mexican journalist Javier Valdez -- a long-time AFP collaborator killed in May 2017 -- is in police custody, Interior Minister Alfonso Navarrete said Monday.

"A few moments ago, (police and prosecutors) detained the alleged perpetrator of the murder of journalist Javier Valdez, whose life was unfortunately taken last year in #Sinaloa," tweeted Navarrete.

Interior ministry spokesmen said they had no further details.

Valdez, an award-winning journalist who covered Mexico's powerful drug cartels, was gunned down in broad daylight outside the offices of Riodoce, the newspaper he co-founded in Culiacan, the capital of his native Sinaloa state. He was 50 years old.

He was one of the most prominent chroniclers of Mexico's deadly drug war in a state where Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, now imprisoned in the United States, once ruled.

In 2011, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists honored Valdez for his work with the prestigious Freedom of Expression Award.

Valdez was among at least 11 journalists murdered in Mexico last year, making it the deadliest country in the world for the press after Syria, according to watchdog group Reporters Without Borders.

Racked by brutal violence linked to the multi-billion-dollar narcotics trade, Mexico posted a record number of homicides last year: 25,339.

More than 90 percent of violent crimes go unpunished.

Valdez's widow, Griselda, cautiously welcomed the arrest.

"If they can demonstrate that this is really the killer... we'll need to know why he did it, what the motive was and who gave the order," she told AFP.

"I hope it will be soon," she said in Mexico City, where she now lives. "I think there's a possibility the crime will be solved."

The arrest announcement came on the same day that prosecutors in Mexico's second city, Guadalajara, confirmed that three film students who had been missing for five weeks were kidnapped, tortured, killed and likely dissolved in acid.

There are currently more than 33,000 people missing in Mexico, a number that has exploded along with the murder rate as the country struggles to stop the wave of violence.

Prosecutors said they suspected the film students were killed by the powerful Jalisco New Generation drug cartel.
By Dave Graham MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The second-placed contender in Mexico's presidential race won the opening televised debate of the campaign on Sunday night, a telephone survey found, after the front-runner came under relentless attack from competitors. Tapping into discontent with the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) over corruption and violence, leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has led polls for months, and all four rivals trained their fire on him during the debate. Second-placed Ricardo Anaya led the charge, accusing Lopez Obrador of endangering Mexico with a vague proposal to explore an amnesty for criminals to curb the violence, and of hypocrisy for making common cause with people he had once called corrupt. Running as the candidate of a right-left coalition, the 39-year-old Anaya was deemed the winner of the debate by 36 percent of 245 respondents in the telephone poll by newspaper Reforma. Lopez Obrador came second with 34 percent, it showed. Pollsters say ad hoc telephone surveys should be treated with caution, but as an initial indication of the ebb and flow of the contest, the positive reception of Anaya was in line with how many Mexican political analysts called the debate. Lopez Obrador, 64, ignored many attacks and sought to avoid getting into scraps with his adversaries. But he showed signs of irritation as the evening wore on, at one point pulling out a board with his polling numbers to answer critics. A separate poll of financial market analysts by Reuters on Monday found that 11 out of 13 saw Anaya as the winner. The other two analysts identified no victor. Anaya's co-campaign manager, Jorge Castaneda, said the two-hour debate had shown his candidate was the only real alternative to a Lopez Obrador victory on July 1. "The contrast was very clear between the tired change of Andres Manuel and the radical, fresh, youthful, new change of Ricardo Anaya," he told Mexican television. "And I think it became clear that this is an election between two (choices)." Only last week, a Reforma voter survey showed Lopez Obrador extending his poll lead to 22 percentage points over Anaya. A separate Reforma consultation of "903 leading citizens" from academia, civil society, business, and politics in Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey showed that 68 percent felt Anaya had won the debate, with 16 percent for Lopez Obrador. That second survey showed that, apart from Anaya, the candidate who most improved his standing in the eyes of respondents was independent contender Jaime Rodriguez. Rodriguez, a state governor from northern Mexico, put on a confident display, and created a stir by saying politicians who steal money should have their hands cut off. Polls suggest that Rodriguez has no chance of winning the presidency himself, but his maverick candidacy could plunder votes from the anti-establishment campaign of Lopez Obrador, said Jorge Buendia of polling firm Buendia & Laredo. Both of Reforma's ad hoc surveys also found many respondents thought Lopez Obrador was the main loser in the debate. Afterwards, Lopez Obrador posted a video online saying he believed he had won the debate, but added: "I would like to have responded to other lies, especially from (Anaya)." (Reporting by Dave Graham; additional reporting by Sharay Angulo; editing by Frank Jack Daniel, Bernadette Baum and Jonathan Oatis)
TheObamassent a sweet message to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge after theywelcomed their third childon Monday.

Barack and I are thrilled to congratulate The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on their newest arrival! Michelle Obamawroteon her Instagram and Twitter accounts. We hope to meet him soon for a Kensington Palace pajama party. Ill wear my robe!

The message was accompanied by a photo of the Obamas seeing Prince George in his white robe and pjs:

A post shared by Michelle Obama (@michelleobama)on Apr 23, 2018 at 2:19pm PDT

The royal baby boy was born at 11:01 a.m. local time Monday in London. The duke and duchess introduced their son to the world on the steps of St. Marys Hospital about seven hours later. At the time, the boys name had not been announced.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with their newborn son.

The former first ladys request for a pajama party doesnt seem too out of the the question, as Michelle has said before thatshe enjoyed a sleepover at Buckingham Palace in 2016.

They hosted us for the state dinner. When youre the guest country you stay at Buckingham Palace, she said on The Late Show that year. I do remember ordering french fries at the palace. They were good. They were some good fries.

It seems the Obamas switch off congratulating the royals, as it was the former president whowrote to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle(on social media, anyway) after the two got engaged:

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.  Barack Obama (@BarackObama)November 27, 2017

Fans of the Obamas and the royals will have to wait a little while for their next sighting together, as the Obamas arenot invitedto the royal wedding (and neither are the Trumps or any other political leaders).

When this pajama party does occur, hopefully there are some photographers around so that fans have some adorable evidence.

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The Obamas with Prince Harry, left, and Prince William and his wife, Cathethe Duchess of Cambridge, on April 22, 2016.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Ohio police are investigating the fatal shooting of a 2-year-old girl. The toddler's mother told authorities that she was handling a handgun on Friday night when it slipped from her hands and fired a bullet that struck the child in the chest, according to a statement.

Police said the shooting happened inside a hotel room at Econo Lodge Wickliffe-Cleveland East, about 16 miles from Cleveland. Emergency responders rushed the girl to the hospital, where doctors said the toddler died from a gunshot wound to the chest.

Police have said the incident appears to be an accident. The mother was a registered gun owner and had a concealed carry permit, local news reports stated.

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"The safety was on when I dropped the gun and the bullet shot her," the mother said in a 911 call, obtained by WEWS-TV. "The gun dropped, I dropped my gun. She's gone. My baby's gone. She's not breathing at all. She's gone."

Police in Wickliffe, Ohio did not release the identity of the young child or her mother. No further information was immediately available.

More than 150 children have been killed or injured in shootings in 2018, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that tracks shootings.

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Ohio is one of the more lax states when it comes to firearm restrictions, according to the National Rifle Association. In the wake of the Parkland, Florida high school shooting, however, Ohio lawmakers have moved forward with additional gun control legislation. Such measures include tightening background checks and introducing so-called "red flag" laws, which could allow authorities to confiscate firearms belonging to people who pose an immediate threat to themselves or others.

The legislation signals a pivot from Governor John Kasich's past positions. He was once endorsed by the National Rifle Association and boasted on his website about supporting "every pro-2nd Amendment bill" that has crossed his desk. Recently, the governor urged President Donald Trump to take steps to strengthen gun control laws. His website was also updated to include a section on "common-sense" gun reform, a move criticized by conservative media.

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On Monday, the Republican lawmaker tweeted that he planned to take additional steps to bolster the National Criminal Background Check system.

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"In too many communities, convictions arent uploaded to the National Criminal Background Check system as they should be," Kasich said. "This afternoon, Ill take action to help close this gap to keep weapons out of the wrong hands in our state."

GettyImages-857660930

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

This article was first written by Newsweek

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By Tom Polansek CHICAGO (Reuters) - Monsanto Co is launching the first product that deactivates a controversial weed killer inside spraying equipment after it is used, the company said on Tuesday, its latest attempt to prevent unintended crop damage associated with the herbicide. The product aims to stop farmers from accidentally applying traces of the herbicide, known as dicamba, on crops that can not tolerate it when the chemical's residue remains in spraying equipment. Growers across the U.S. farm belt said last summer that dicamba herbicides, which are also sold by BASF SE and DowDuPont Inc, vaporized and drifted away from where they were sprayed on soybeans and cotton that Monsanto engineered to resist the chemical. This damaged millions of acres of other crops, triggering lawsuits against the manufacturers. Monsanto has blamed much of last year's field damage on improper applications, including by farmers who did not adequately clean spraying equipment. The company has said its dicamba-based herbicide is safe when used properly. The product that deactivates dicamba will be launched in the coming weeks, as U.S. farmers advance crop plantings, said Ryan Rubischko, Monsanto's dicamba portfolio lead. "Having technologies like this, it helps farmers be able to really just focus in further on ensuring their sprayer systems are clean and preventing this from happening," he said about equipment contamination. Monsanto and a company called Adjuvants Unlimited tested the product, which does not have a name yet, over the past few years, according to a statement. Weed experts doubted it would do much on its own to prevent the type of crop damage associated with dicamba in 2017. "That's not going to solve the problem," said Bob Hartzler, an agronomy professor at Iowa State University. Last year's problems were more commonly associated with dicamba evaporating in a process known as volatilization and drifting, experts said. In Indiana, contaminated spraying tanks were linked to 3 percent of complaints about crop damage associated with dicamba, according to a Purdue University presentation. "That did not make but just a small fraction of the claims," said Fred Whitford, director of Purdue's pesticides program. Monsanto, which is being acquired by Bayer AG, is banking on its dicamba-based herbicide and soybean seeds engineered to resist it to dominate soybean production in the United States, the worlds second-largest exporter. Facing complaints last year, the company proposed changes to the herbicide's label instructions that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved for 2018. (Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Tom Brown)
Dinner over, Trump, Macron get down to business

US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron are to meet face to face for half an hour, and then again for an hour in a broader meeting with more aides.

AFP :

After a friendly dinner at a US landmark, US President Donald Trump and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron were to get down to business Tuesday on divisive issues like the Iran nuclear accord and international trade.

They were to meet face to face for half an hour, and then again for an hour in a broader meeting with more aides-the climax of of Macron's three-day state visit to Washington.

Before getting the full red carpet treatment at the White House on Monday-payback for wooing Trump with military parades and a dazzling Eiffel Tower dinner in Paris last July-Macron took an impromptu stroll to the Lincoln Memorial with his wife Brigitte.

Hailing the "very important" visit, Macron then rolled into the West Wing from Lafayette Square-named after the storied French general who fought in America's war for independence-beneath dozens of fluttering tricolor French flags and before a full US military color guard. Waiting at the door, the US president smiled and held out his hand for Macron to shake, and the French leader kissed him on both cheeks.

Later, the first couples had dinner at Mount Vernon, the mansion that was the home of George Washington, the first US president.

They talked about the state of the US economy, Trump's approval rating, the mid-term elections in November in the US, internet regulation and the fight against Islamist terror, according to the French leader's office.

Trump is deeply unpopular in France and Macron, like other world leaders-from Japan's Shinzo Abe to Britain's Theresa May-is under growing pressure to show voters the benefits of his courtship with the 71-year-old Republican. Looming over it all are two May deadlines that have the potential to wreck already fragile trans-Atlantic relations.

Biting trade sanctions on European steel and aluminum will enter into force on May 1 unless Trump agrees to sign a waiver. If he refuses, there are fears of a full-fledged trade war.

Meanwhile, France and other European nations are battling to save a complex nuclear deal with Iran, which Trump will scuttle if he refuses to waive sanctions against Tehran by a May 12 deadline.

Iran says it is ready to relaunch its nuclear program-which the West suspects is designed to produce a bomb-if Trump kills the deal.

European officials say Trump's demand to reopen the deal are impossible, and are scrambling to address his concerns on Tehran's missile testing, inspections and the regime's behavior in the region.
By Hamid Ould Ahmed ALGIERS (Reuters) - More than 250 people were killed when a military plane crashed in a field outside Algerias capital on Wednesday, state media said, in the country's worst air disaster. Television footage showed crowds and emergency vehicles massing around the smoking and flaming wreckage near Boufarik airport southwest of Algiers. A line of white body bags could be seen on the ground next to what media said was a Russian Ilyushin transport plane. A total of 257 people were killed, most of them military, the defence ministry said. Ten crew and other people described as family members also died, and a number of survivors were being treated at an army hospital, the ministry added. A member of Algerias ruling FLN party told the private Ennahar TV station the dead included 26 members of Polisario, an Algerian-backed group fighting for the independence of neighbouring Western Sahara  a territory also claimed by Morocco in a long-running dispute. The plane was heading to Tindouf, an area on Algerias border with Western Sahara, but crashed on the airports perimeter, Algerias defence ministry said. Tindouf is home to thousands of refugees from the Western Sahara standoff, many of them Polisario supporters. U.N. attempts to broker a settlement have failed for years in the vast desert area, which has contested since 1975 when Spanish colonial powers left. Morocco claimed the territory while Polisario established its self-declared Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic there. Algerias defence ministry issued a statement expressing condolences to families of the victims. An Air Algerie flight crashed in northern Mali carrying 116 passengers and crew, nearly half of them French, en route from Burkina Faso to Algeria in July 2014. In February that year, an Algerian Air Force Lockheed C-130 Hercules crashed in a mountainous area in eastern Algeria killing 77 passengers and leaving one survivor. (Reporting by Lamine Chikhi, Hamid Ould Ahmed, Aidan Lewis, Ahmed Tolba and Ulf Laessing; Writing by Ulf Laessing and Aidan Lewis; Editing by John Stonestreet and Andrew Heavens)
The body found in a construction site in Tehran may belong to Reza Shah Pahlavi - Iran's State News Agency (ISNA)

A construction worker in southern Tehran may have stumbled across the mummified body of Reza Shah Pahlavi, the Iranian ruler whose son was overthrown in the revolution of 1979.

Builders were carrying out construction work at a Shia shrine in Tehran when they found the body amid a pile of rubble.

Pahlavi was buried in a mausoleum nearby after his death in 1944 but the tomb was blown up by Iranian revolutionaries as they tried to erase all traces of the previous regime.

The shahs body was never found in the ruins and has been missing for nearly 40 years.

Hassan Khalilabadi, the head of Tehrans heritage committee, said it was a possibility that the corpse may be that of the former Iranian leader. This will be examined by responsible bodies," he said.

The body was reportedly found by construction workers

Pahlavi was a military officer who overthrew the ruling Persian dynasty in 1921 and seized power for himself, first becoming the countrys prime minister and then its monarch.

He introduced widespread reforms and is credited by some as the founder of modern Iran. But he was forced from power in 1941 by British and Russian troops and abdicated in favour of his son.

Pahlavi went into exile and died in South Africa in 1944. His son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was overthrown during the Iranian revolution in 1979.

Reza Shah's body as it was buried in 1944

Pahlavis legacy is a taboo subject for Irans government. While his son is still deeply controversial, some Iranians think fondly of the older Pahlavi because of his modernisation programme and his expansion of some freedoms for women.

During the widespread protests in Iran in late 2017 and early 2018, many protesters shouted out Pahlavis name as a way of defying Irans revolutionary regime. Reza Shah, bless your soul, people cried.

If the body found in Tehran is indeed that of Reza Shah Pahlavi, Irans current rulers may have a delicate task figuring out what to do with it.

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Islamic custom demands that all bodies be treated with respect but Iranian authorities will also be wary of allowing it to become a rallying point for opposition groups.

A spokesman for the Shah Abdol Azim shrine said the body was not Pahlavis. "All the rumours on the social media that claim this mummified body belongs to Reza Shah are false and void of any truth, he said.

Reza Shah Pahlavi took power in 1921 but was forced to abdicate in 1941 by the UK and the Soviet Union

Pahlavis grandson, Reza Pahlavi, said in a statement that he was closely following the reports that his grandfathers body had been found. He warned Irans government against any secrecy or lack of transparency in its handling of the body.

Iranian authorities said the body had been reburied. It was not immediately clear what steps Iran planned to take to verify if the body did belong to Pahlavi.

A widely-shared photograph on social media appeared to show an Iranian construction work taking a selfie with the body after discovering it at the foot of his bulldozer.
By Tim Ghianni

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Reuters) - Police on Monday arrested the man suspected of fatally shooting four people at a Waffle House restaurant, ending a 36-hour manhunt after tips from the public led police to search secluded woods nearby.

Photos posted online by Nashville police showed Travis Reinking, a 29-year-old construction worker, in custody. He was suspected of opening fire with an assault rifle at the restaurant early Sunday then fleeing the scene naked.

Photographed in the back of a police car, he looked disheveled and was wearing a torn red shirt and dirty blue jeans. He had scratches on his shoulder.

No motive was known for the attack that sent shudders through one of the biggest cities in the U.S. South and stoked a simmering national debate on gun control.

Reinking, who had a pistol and ammunition in a backpack when he was arrested, was not talking to police. He was being held at a Nashville jail with initial bond set at $500,000 for each of four murder charges, online jail records showed.

More than 150 city, state and local law enforcement agents searched for the gunman, who has had a history of bizarre behavior, delusions and multiple encounters with authorities, including an episode in Washington in July 2017 when he was arrested for trying to get into the White House, according to police records.

"We need to move on as a community and do what we can to curb this violence," Nashville Mayor David Briley told a news conference near the Waffle House, describing the attack as a tragedy.

Tips from people in the neighborhood helped lead police to search through the woods about two miles from the restaurant using sniffer dogs on the ground and aircraft overhead.

Metropolitan Nashville police Lieutenant Carlos Lara said as soon as a detective saw Reinking and ordered him to get on the ground, the suspect cooperated.

"He did not try to run," Lara said at the same news conference.

In addition to the four deaths, two people were injured in the attack.

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The suspect was taken to a hospital for evaluation before he was booked by police. Reinking lived in Illinois before moving to Nashville. After the White House incident, Illinois authorities revoked his license to carry concealed weapons.

After that, Reinking's father had told police he would lock up his son's guns, which they said included the rifle used in the Waffle House shooting. But the father returned the weapons to his son, Nashville police said on Sunday.

Marcus Watson, an agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said Reinking's father, Jeffrey, could face federal charges if he knowingly transferred weapons to a person who was prohibited from owning them. The father was not immediately available for comment.

The killings in Tennessee's capital were the latest in a string of high-profile U.S. mass shootings in which a gunman used an AR-15 style rifle. These include a Feb. 14 mass shooting when a former student killed 17 people with an AR-15 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

RESIDENTS RELIEVED

In the area near the Nashville Waffle House, local resident Sheryl Friend, a woman in her 60s, said there was a sense of relief. "Everybody was taking precautions," she said. "You never knew which direction he was going to go and what was going to happen."

Reinking is accused of shooting two people to death outside the restaurant around 3:30 a.m. on Sunday, and killing two inside. The suspect fled after a 29-year-old diner, James Shaw Jr., wrestled the rifle from him.

Shaw, grazed by a bullet during the attack, was praised for his courage, but on Sunday he denied he was a hero. "I just wanted to live," he said.

David Hogg, a Marjory Stoneman student and leader in a student movement for gun control that has emerged from the Parkland, Florida, attack, used Shaw's example to taunt the National Rifle Association, which lobbies for gun rights, on Twitter.

"So only a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun?" Hogg wrote in a message directed at the NRA.

An NRA representative could not immediately be reached to comment.

(Additional reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta, Bernie Woodall in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Jonathan Allen in New York; Writing by Ben Klayman in Detroit and Jon Herskovitz in Austin; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Cynthia Osterman)
GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) -- Republican Debbie Lesko won the special election in Arizona's 8th Congressional District on Tuesday, keeping the U.S. House seat in GOP control but by a much narrower margin than expected.

The former state senator defeated Hiral Tipirneni, a former emergency room physician who had hoped to replicate surprising Democratic wins in Pennsylvania, Alabama and other states in a year where opposition to President Donald Trump's policies have boosted the party's chances in Republican strongholds.

Trump won the district by 21 percentage points in 2016, but early returns show Lesko winning by just 6 percentage points. Republican political consultant Chuck Coughlin called the margin "not good" for national Republicans looking at their chances in November.

"They should clean house in this election," said Coughlin, longtime adviser to former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer. "There's a drag on the midterms for Republican candidates that's being created by the national narrative. And it would be very hard to buck that trend if you're in swing districts, much less close districts, if you can't change that narrative between now and November."

Lesko replaces former Rep. Trent Franks, a Republican who resigned in December amid sexual misconduct allegations.

At a victory party in her Glendale neighborhood, Lesko greeted supporters and looked back in wonder.

"I've really come a long way and this is really quite overwhelming, it's very surreal," she said. "Twenty-five years ago I left an abusive husband and I sure as heck never would have dreamt in a million years that I would be running for Congress to be a congresswoman. I mean, that's right, now I'm actually running for Congress, I won!"

The district sprawls across western Phoenix suburbs, covering some of the most conservative areas of the red state, including the retirement community of Sun City.

Tipirneni worked the district hard, making inroads rarely seen in an area that hadn't elected a Democrat since the early 1980s. She was seen as a fresh Democratic face with relatively moderate views that could get support in the district. Making a push for older voters, she had said Lesko would vote to go after entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicaid to pay for tax cuts that mainly benefit the wealthy. She's pushed a plan to allow some people to buy into Medicare.

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Tipirneni said she still plans to run again in November. She said she wasn't shocked to see her close to Lesko, despite the big GOP advantage in the district, saying people were ready for a change.

"We weren't surprised, we're not surprised," Tipirneni said. "And we're still waiting to see the rest of the votes. We're not conceding. We're still waiting for votes to be counted -- so this isn't over."

The Associated Press called the race for Lesko after state officials released tallies of more than 155,000 mail-in ballots, which represent about 75 percent of the votes expected.

National Republican groups spent big to back Lesko, pouring in more than $500,000 in the suburban Phoenix district for television and mail ads and phone calls to voters. National Democratic groups didn't commit money to the race, a sign they didn't believe the seat was in play.

In the Feb. 27 primary, two out of every three ballots were cast for a Republican.

The seat became open when Franks stepped down after acknowledging that he had discussed surrogacy with two female staffers. A former aide told The Associated Press that he pressed her to carry his child as a surrogate and offered her $5 million.

Lesko slammed Tipirneni as being out of touch with voters who oppose government-run health care. She called the Democrat too liberal for the area, and pointed to Tipirneni's opposition to a wall on the Mexican border.

Several Republican voters who spoke with AP said they backed Lesko primarily because she supported Trump's border security plans.

David Hunt, a 64-year-old retired construction and warehouse worker from Glendale, said he cast his vote Tuesday for Lesko because he believed that immigrants in the country illegally are creating unfair competition for jobs for recent high school students in Arizona.

"She's the best candidate to deal with the porous border," Hunt said.

His views were echoed by Larry Bettis, a retiree from Glendale.

"Immigration - the fence," Bettis said. "That's all I really care about."

Democrats said they wanted to send a message to Trump and supported Democratic health care plans.

"I don't like the president and felt it was time to take a stand," said Nikole Allen, a 45-year-old medical assistant from New York now living in Glendale. "It's time for us to vote the Republicans out." .
Geneva (AFP) - The United Nations called Tuesday on Nicaragua to investigate a crackdown on protests that have left at least 27 dead, saying that a number of the killings may have been "unlawful".

Pension reforms sparked nearly a week of deadly unrest underscoring public resentment of 72-year-old leftist President Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo, his vice president.

"We are particularly concerned that a number of these deaths may amount to unlawful killings," Liz Throssel of the Geneva-based UN rights office told reporters.

"We call on the Nicaraguan authorities to ensure that there are prompt, thorough, independent and transparent investigations into these deaths," the spokeswoman added.

The UN said at least 25 people, including a police officer, had been killed in the unrest as of Sunday.

But the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights has given a death toll of 26 since last Wednesday when the pension reforms were unveiled, including a Nicaraguan journalist shot in the head while covering the chaos in a city on the country's Caribbean coast.

Murillo added another death to the count on Monday, saying a police officer succumbed to fatal injuries sustained in Sunday's protests.

"It is essential that all allegations of excessive use of force by police and other security forces are effectively investigated to ensure those responsible are held to account," Throssel said.

"We are also concerned at reports that dozens of people have been injured or detained over the past few days," she said, adding that "there should also be investigations into acts of violence, including looting, allegedly committed during the protests."

The protests have taken root across the country, airing long-simmering grievances over political stagnation, economic issues and the authoritarian style of Ortega, a former Marxist rebel who has ruled Nicaragua for 22 of the past 39 years.

Students have led the street protests that have degenerated into stone-throwing clashes with police firing weapons, while other groups, including workers, pensioners and ordinary residents, have also made their voices heard.
Paris (AFP) - No one will be protected during a probe into the death of a Maltese journalist who had been investigating corruption by politicians on the island, Malta's foreign minister told AFP Tuesday.

Three men have been arrested over the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, 53, who died in a car bomb on October 16 last year just down the road from her residence on the island.

They have pleaded not guilty but are suspected of carrying out the attack on behalf of someone else.

"The government wants to know whether they acted on their own or whether someone sent them and who are these people," Foreign Minister Carmelo Abela told AFP in Paris.

"Whoever he, she or they are, they will be prosecuted in accordance with the law... no one is going to be protected," he added.

Since the murder, 45 journalists from 18 media outlets around the world have worked together to continue Caruana Galizia's work by poring over a mass of documents she left behind.

"I can understand the international media's attention on this case, it's unprecedented, it's a case that merits attention," Abela said.

"But I would like to know the reasons behind that. There was another case, unfortunately, when a journalist and his girlfriend in Slovakia were killed, I'm not seeing the same fuss that this consortium of journalists is making on this case," he added.

Slovakian journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova were shot dead in February, leading the European Parliament to pass a resolution last week calling for a full and independent investigation.

In the years leading up to her death, Caruana Galizia had gone after the ruling Labour party, virulently attacking Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, and more recently also the leader of the opposition.

Articles based on her work have since focused on abuses of Malta's "golden passport" law which allows foreigners to buy Maltese citizenship for one million euros, providing that the buyer has resided on the island for at least one year.

Another article outlined dubious links between the Azerbaijani and Maltese governments.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited the Chinese Embassy and the hospital where the victims of a bus accident were receiving treatment on Monday.

North Korean state-controlled media painted a portrait of a grief-stricken, compassionate leader. "The unexpected accident brought bitter sorrow to his heart," an article published in both the North Korean news agency KCNA and in the ruling party's daily newspaper Rodong Sinmun said. "He couldn't control his grief at the thought of the bereaved families who lost their blood relatives."

The vehicle crashed on Sunday in the North Hwanghae province on a North Korean road connecting the tourism attraction of Kaesong with the capital Pyongyang, in circumstances still to be clarified. Chinese officials said 32 Chinese tourists and four North Koreans were killed in the crash.

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04_24_Chinese_Embassy_KJU

KCNA/via Reuters

Kim visited the Chinese Embassy early on Monday, North Korean media reported, describing Chinese ambassador Li Jinjun's "deep impression" at the visit, in which Kim expressed his condolences to both Chinese president Xi Jinping and the victims' families.

Kim then visited the victims in the hospital, holding a meeting with the hospital staff to "personally learn" about their treatment and promising to take "follow-up" measures to alleviate their pain, according to the reports.

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04_24_KJU_Hospital

KCNA/via Reuters

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The visit represented another moment for Kim to present himself like a legitimate president rather than the authoritarian leader of a country brutally repressing his citizens and any form of dissentan image of which he is all too aware and has been trying to shed with his offer of talks with South Korea and the U.S.

Kim said he would stop nuclear and missile testsa step South Korean President Moon Jae-in praised as a first step towards denuclearizationbut his position on giving up nuclear weapons, as well as what he would want in return for it, remains unclear ahead of the inter-Korean summit scheduled for Friday.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from Newsweek
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited the Chinese embassy in Pyongyang on Monday to express "deep sympathy" over a bus accident that killed 32 Chinese tourists and critically injured two, the North's state media said on Tuesday. "He said that the unexpected accident brought bitter sorrow to his heart and that he couldn't control his grief at the thought of the bereaved families who lost their blood relatives," the North's central news agency said. The accident occurred on Sunday when a bus crashed off a bridge in North Hwanghae Province. Four North Koreans had also been killed in the accident. China is North Korea's most important economic and diplomatic backer, although Beijing has been angered by Pyongyang's numerous missile and nuclear tests. Chinese Ambassador to North Korea Li Jinjun said Chinese President Xi Jinping and the families of the crash victims would be notified of Kim's visit, while promising close cooperation with North Korean officials regarding the accident, the central news agency reported. Kim also visited the hospital where the injured were being treated, the report said, adding that he "personally learned about the treatment of the wounded." The North Korean leader was cited as saying the North's party and government would take follow-up measures to the accident "with utmost sincerity in a mind to alleviate the pain of the bereaved families even a bit." Chinese tourists make up about 80 percent of all foreign visitors to North Korea, says a South Korean think-tank, the Korea Maritime Institute, which estimates that tourism generates annual revenue of about $44 million for the isolated country. Bilateral ties between the North and China showed signs of warming after Kim Jong Un made a surprise visit to Beijing in March, where he met with Xi Jinping and pledged to work toward denuclearizing the Korean peninsula. (Reporting by Christine Kim; Editing by Tom Brown and Richard Chang)
Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Andrea Morales/Getty Images, J. Scott Applewhite/AP, Ted S. Warren/AP, Anna Bryukhanova/Getty Images

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in its last and most highly anticipated case of the current term: Trump v. Hawaii, aka the Travel Ban case.

This case is being heard because of the governments appeal of several lower court rulings against the presidents orders seeking to ban travel to the United States from several Muslim-majority countries. The third and most recent iteration the so-called travel ban was introduced last September.

Wednesdays arguments may present to the court some novel questions, including whether retweets may be considered endorsements. The justices will be asked to consider four main issues, two of them procedural: whether the Supreme Court can even hear the case, since it concerns non-U.S. citizens abroad; and whether the lower courts have the power to issue nationwide injunctions against enforcing the ban.

The other two questions consider the merits of the ban, and whether the president acted beyond his authority under the Immigration and Nationalization Act, and if the proclamation violates the establishment clause of the Constitutions First Amendment, by effectively discriminating against Muslims. The order doesnt single out Muslims as such, but looming over the arguments is Trumps proclamation, as a candidate in late 2015, calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslim entry into the United States.

President Trump, with Vice President Mike Pence, left, and Defense Secretary James Mattis, signs an executive action on extreme vetting, Jan. 27, 2017. (Photo: Susan Walsh/AP)

The suit, filed by the state of Hawaii, three individuals and the nonprofit Muslim Association of Hawaii, is the latest twist in the saga of Trumps efforts to crack down on immigration from a specific group of nations. It began in the first week of his presidency with an executive order titled Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States. That order, which prompted nationwide protests and was quickly blocked by a federal court in Washington State, suspended for 90 days nationals from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the country. On March 6, Trump signed a second order with the same title and only slightly different provisions. Again, the order faced immediate legal challenges and was enjoined by district courts in Hawaii and Maryland.

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Slideshow: Protests against Trumps travel ban hit the streets of NYC >>>

In September, the White House tried again with a presidential proclamation that it claimed was written in response to a report by the secretary of homeland security on countries it deemed inadequate at sharing information related to terrorism. This time, in addition to blocking entry for most nationals of six majority-Muslim countries, now including Chad, it excluded nationals of North Korea, and some government officials from Venezuela. Unlike the first two executive orders, which were intended to last for 90 days, the September proclamation was essentially open-ended.

As before, the administration was taken to court and the district court in Hawaii issued a preliminary nationwide injunction against the proclamation, which the court deemed had the same flaws as the second executive order. The government appealed to the Supreme Court, which agreed to allow enforcement of Travel Ban 3.0, pending a final ruling.

The latest proclamation may have prompted considerably fewer public demonstrations than the first two bans, but it faces no less controversy. Since agreeing to hear oral arguments in the contentious case, the Supreme Court has been flooded with amicus curiae (friend of the court) briefs from a wide variety of individuals and organizations.

More than 50 such briefs have been submitted in opposition to the ban, including from various civil and immigrant rights organizations, legal advocacy groups and faith-based associations who argue that the ban amounts to governmental discrimination. Briefs filed on behalf of the Japanese American Citizens League, the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality and others point to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II as a cautionary example of what can happen when vague notions of national security are used to justify vast, unprecedented exclusionary measures that target disfavored classes.

In addition to a long list of mostly Democratic current members of congress, the court has received briefs opposing the ban from a group of former Republican members of Congress and executive branch lawyers for past Republican administrations, as well as several other conservative and libertarian politicians and commentators.

A brief submitted on behalf of 52 former national security officials, including former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, ex-CIA director John Brennan and others including ambassadors to the Middle East, disputes the governments argument that the court should defer to the presidents foreign policy and national-security judgments regarding the merits of the ban.

The former officials argue that the three sweeping Travel Bans that the President has issued over the past fourteen months, do not deserve such deference, as they are overbroad, blanket entry bans based on national origin, are not supported by any intelligence  and did not emerge from a careful interagency policy and legal review involving the considered judgment of national security and foreign policy officials.

Overwhelming evidence demonstrates that the Proclamations overbroad suspension of travel has not only failed to advance our national security or foreign policy interests, but is seriously damaging those interests, reads the brief, which also urges that governments national security claim is undermined when considered in light of the President and his advisors well-publicized statements calling for a Muslim Ban.

Slideshow: Protests at U.S. airports over travel ban >>>

Protesters against a Trump-ordered travel ban, at OHare airport in Chicago. (Photo: Kamil Krzaczynski/Reuters)

The bans critics also received support from 115 major U.S. businesses (including Yahoos parent company, Oath), national labor organizations, and several educational entities including the Association for American Medical Colleges, more than 30 colleges and universities, the American Council on Education and 32 other higher education associations.

The cities of Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia and others also submitted briefs opposing the ban, as did several states, including New York, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois and others

Not all states were in agreement, however. Texas lead a number of other states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana and Missouri, in submitting a brief in support of the government.

The court has received about 13 briefs in favor of the ban, from conservative interest groups like the Eagle Forum Education & Legal Defense Fund, Christian-based legal advocacy organizations like the Foundation for Moral Law , which argues that the travel ban is compatible with the teaching of the Bible on immigration, and the Immigration Reform Law Institute, the legal arm of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR, which advocates for reduced immigration to the United States.

The presidents actions and authority received support from a handful of national security experts represented by David Yerushalmi, an attorney and political activist known for driving the movement against Sharia in the United States. The experts named in the brief submitted by Yerushalmi include a number of former government, military officials and one wealthy businessman. Among them is Frank Gaffney, a former Reagan administration official and founder of the Center for Security Policy (CSP) a far-right think tank accused of promoting anti-Muslim conspiracy theories, including a claim that top Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin is a Muslim Brotherhood spy and the belief that former President Barack Obama is a Muslim.

Trumps original 2015 campaign statement calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States cited data released by the CSP that showed 25 percent of [U.S. Muslims] polled agreed that violence against Americans here in the United States is justified as part of the global jihad. Politifact rated this claim Mostly False.

Most supporters of the government position deny that the ban violates the establishment clause, either by arguing that it does not deliberately discriminate against Muslims, or that the order applies to noncitizens residing in other countries and are therefore not protected by the First Amendment.

A protester at an anti-Sharia rally in Seattle. (Photo: David Ryder/Reuters)

But one brief, submitted on behalf of several groups including Citizens United, Gun Owners of America and the English First Foundation, among others, doesnt dispute that the ban disfavors the Muslim religion. Nor does it attempt to make the case, advanced by the government, that comments made by Trump as a presidential candidate should be construed as signifying the motivation behind his actions as president.

In fact, Candidate Trump repeatedly expressed his plan to limit entry into the country from certain majority-Muslim countries and, based on that, the American people voted him into office, reads the brief, arguing that if the court is to charge the President with discrimination, it also levels that charge against the American people who elected him, and the judiciary has no role to second-guess the results of an election.

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Read more from Yahoo News:
Beximco exports third item to US market

Economic Reporter :

Beximco Pharmaceuticals has started the export of its third item -Methocarbamol (500mg and 700mg) to the United States.

Following the successful marketing of Carvedilol and Sotalol in August 2016 and November 2017, respectively in the world's largest pharmaceuticals market, the first consignment of its third item was delivered on this April 21, said a press release on Tuesday.

Methocarbamol is generic equivalent to muscle relaxant drug Robaxin from Auxilium Pharmaceuticals. According to IQVIA market data, the US market for Methocarbamol is currently valued at USD 23.37 million.

Beximco Pharma managing director Nazmul Hassan, MP, said: "We will continue to focus on growing our portfolio in the US, which we believe will be a major export market for Beximco Pharma in the coming years."

"We remain focused on our strategic goal to bring high quality, differentiated products to both developed and key emerging markets to create value for our customers and shareholders," he added.

Beximco Pharma is the only Bangladeshi pharmaceutical company to export medicine to the US market following its manufacturing site approval by the US Food and Drug Administration in June 2015.

Beximco Pharma currently has a global footprint in more than 50 countries and has been accredited by the leading global regulatory authorities namely US FDA, AGES (EU), TGA (Australia), Health Canada, GCC (Gulf) and TFDA (Taiwan).
(Recasts with half of official result counted)

By Daniela Desantis and Mariel Cristaldo

ASUNCION, April 22 (Reuters) - The candidate from Paraguay's ruling Colorado Party easily won Sunday's presidential election, according to official results with 50 percent of ballots counted, pointing toward another five years of pro-business policies in the major soy producer.

Mario Abdo, a 46-year-old former senator who campaigned on an anti-corruption platform, clinched 47.3 percent of the vote, according to the country's elections tribunal.

Abdo supports current low-tax policies aimed at stimulating foreign investment and agricultural production in the world's No. 4 soybean exporter and a major supplier of beef.

His main rival, Efrain Alegre, a lawyer from the center-left GANAR coalition Alegre, trailed with 42.2 percent.

Abdo set the stage for governing with a minority in Congress by calling for dialogue with opposition parties. He has promised to fight pressure to raise taxes despite calls from the opposition for a levy on soybean exports.

Outgoing president Horacio Cartes, who tried but failed to change the constitution to allow him to seek a second term, won a Senate seat in Sunday's vote.

Abdo is the son of the late private secretary of dictator Alfredo Stroessner, who ruled Paraguay with an iron hand for 35 years. Abdo, who was 16 when Stroessner's regime ended, vowed before the election to respect human rights and democratic institutions if he won.

"I am going to lead a wide national dialogue," Abdo told reporters before casting his ballot. Later he visited the tomb of his father, as he did on the day of the primary election in December when he won the nomination of the Colorado Party.

Abdo's conservative policies and family history were a concern to some voters who have doubts about his commitment to clean up government.

"This is a country of corruption and until we end that we will not move forward. Mario Abdo is a son of the dictatorship and I do not think he will govern well," said Edgar Gonzalez, 45, on his way out of his voting station in a high school in the upper-middle-class neighborhood of Trinidad in Asuncion.

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SOY TAX DEBATE

Grains-dependent Paraguay produced more than 10 million tonnes of soy last year and is trying to attract investment needed to reach its goal of 20 million tonnes by 2028.

Polls say Abdo's party is likely to lose some of the 20 seats it has in Paraguay's 45-member Senate, which last year debated a bill to slap a 10 percent tax on soybean exports.

"The push for an export tax will intensify after the election, which is likely to see the empowering of the Frente Guasu, a major proponent of the initiative, and a party which is expected to substantially increase its presence in Congress," said Thomaz Favaro, an analyst for consultancy Control Risks.

Abdo may have to support the export tax to safeguard other parts of his investment-friendly agenda.

"Uncertainty over the level of taxation for the agriculture industry will thus likely persist in the short-to-medium term," Favaro said. (Writing and additional reporting by Hugh Bronstein; Editing by Daniel Wallis and James Dalgleish)
London (AFP) - A judge has ruled that terminally ill British toddler Alfie Evans will not be allowed to go to Rome for further treatment but can go home, following a court appeal by his family on Tuesday.

Judge Anthony Hayden told a High Court hearing in Manchester, northwest England, that the long-running case had now reached its "final chapter" as he turned down a bid to take the 23-month-old to Italy to continue medical treatment.

Pope Francis had issued an appeal on Twitter Monday that the parents' "desire to seek new forms of treatment may be granted" for the boy, who suffers from a rare degenerative neurological condition.

Italy has previously said it was granting citizenship to the toddler.

But Hayden rejected the move and claims by his parents that Evans was "significantly better" since doctors first withdrew life support on Monday.

The judge said the best they could hope for was to "explore" the options of removing the boy from intensive care either to a ward, a hospice or his home.

Hayden had on Monday rejected another appeal by the parents, Tom Evans and Kate James, for a delay in order to give them time to present a new challenge.

The ruling allowed doctors at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool, northwest England, to withdraw treatment.

The boy's father told reporters on Tuesday that the doctors had withdrawn life support on Monday but his son was still alive.

The Bambino Gesu (Baby Jesus) paediatric hospital in Rome, which is administered by the Vatican, has said a specially-equipped plane from the Italian defence ministry is on standby to fly to Britain to pick up the boy if he is released.

Evans met Pope Francis in the Vatican last Wednesday after several statements of support made by the pope.

"Moved by the prayers and immense solidarity shown little Alfie Evans, I renew my appeal that the suffering of his parents may be heard and that their desire to seek new forms of treatment may be granted," the pope said on Twitter.

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At an audience last week, he told attendees in reference to the case: "I want to reiterate and strongly confirm that the only master of life, from the beginning to its natural end, is God, and our duty is to do everything to protect life".

Hundreds of people have protested outside the Liverpool hospital in support of the father's plea for the boy to be discharged.

On Monday, a large group of protesters attempted to storm the entrance before being blocked by police.
Lima (AFP) - Peruvian police searched Tuesday for two men over the lynching of a Canadian suspected of killing an elderly shaman in the Amazon, judicial sources said Tuesday.

Judge David Panduro ordered the men's arrest for the "alleged offense of aggravated homicide" after police discovered the body of Sebastian Paul Woodroffe, 42, in the Ucayali region of northeastern Peru.

Grisly footage of his death at the hands of a mob had been widely circulated on social media over the weekend.

In the video, a man is seen making aggressive attempts to put a black rope around the neck of another man slumped in a puddle with blood on his face, who tries, unsuccessfully, to fight him off.

"Please, no!" he mumbles in Spanish, as someone can be heard saying: "You asked for it."

Prosecutors confirmed Woodroffe's death was linked to the murder of Olivia Arevalo, an 81-year-old healer, rights activist and respected leader within the indigenous Shipibo-Konibo community who was shot dead on April 19.

According to a local rights group, a man with a foreign accent went to her home and when she opened the door, he opened fire at short range before fleeing on a motorcycle.

Police immediately launched a search for the main suspect, whom they identified as a Canadian national, finding his body buried nearby on Saturday.

- Ayahuasca dispute? -

Judicial officials named the two suspects wanted for his murder as Jose Ramirez and Nicolas Mori, both members of the same indigenous community as Arevalo.

Within the Shipibo-Konibo community, Arevalo was a healer widely revered for her knowledge of traditional medicine who was believed to have special powers.

Woodroffe had been living in the area for about two years and had acquired 20 hectares (50 acres) of land there, Peruvian media said.

Police investigating her murder are reportedly pursuing two theories, one of which involved Woodroffe killing the shaman because she refused to let him participate in an ayahuasca ceremony.

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Ayahuasca is a powerful hallucinogenic concoction from the Amazon consumed as part of a shamanic ritual.

The other theory is that he killed her over a debt, local media said, without giving any further information.

There are some 31,000 ethnic Shipibo-Konibo people living in Peru's Amazon jungle region.

This is not the first such murder.

In September 2014, four leaders of the indigenous Ashaninka people were killed in the Ucayali region that borders Brazil after illegal loggers and drug traffickers had threatened them.
A man has been shocked repeatedly with a Taser gun and arrested on board a plane after he allegedly groped another passenger, Miami police said.

According to American Airlines, there was a disagreement between Jacob Garcia, 28, and others on Flight 2446 as the aircraft was waiting to depart Miami International Airport for Chicago.

The dispute started after Mr Garcia allegedly touched a woman without her permission, according to an arrest report.

He was moved to another seat, but started to shout abuse at the female passenger and her partner, the report said. Flight attendants asked Mr Garcia to get off the plane but he refused, the file claimed.

Footage of the incident showed three officers surrounding the 28-year-old, who is reportedly from Chicago.

What is the reason why youre removing me from this plane? he asks.

A male voice says: Well you just assaulted a lady for one.

Mr Garcia then says: No, you guys are just trying to get on social media.

The unknown male then says: Youre a racist, for two.

The struggle continues, with one officer urging Mr Garcia not to fight.

When the man asks again why he is being removed from the flight, an officer takes out a Taser and fires it at him.

In between shocks the man asks why he is being removed from the aircraft.

The police report says the Miami-Dade officer used his Taser 10 times because he was unable to holster his electronic control weapon due to Mr Garcias actions and the close quarters of the engagement.

Eventually, Mr Garcia walked off the plane under police escort, but he continued to resist and twice tried to grab a police officers gun, according to the report.

He was taken to Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Centre, where he was charged with battery, depriving an officer of a firearm, criminal mischief and disorderly conduct, officials said.

American Airlines said in its statement it followed its normal procedures after the disagreement between passengers broke out, adding that the flight departed with the remaining passengers about an hour after the scheduled time.
Ten people are dead and at least 15 others are injured after a van drove onto a sidewalk in Torontos North York neighborhood on Monday.

The driver was taken into custody shortly after the incident. Deputy Chief Peter Yuen of the Toronto police confirmed the number of fatalities during a press briefing on Monday afternoon.

Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders later identified the suspect as 25-year-old Alek Minassian, of Richmond Hill, Ontario. He said at a news conference Monday evening that the actions definitely looked deliberate.

Investigators were looking into terrorism as a possible motive behind the attack, Reuters reported, citing a U.S. security source. But government officials familiar with the investigation later said there was no evidence that the attack was linked to an organized terrorist group, the CBC reported.

The events that happened on the street behind us are horrendous, but they do not appear to be connected in any way to national security based on the information available at this time, Canadas public safety minister, Ralph Goodale, said during a news briefing.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed his great sadness following the tragic and senseless attack.

Tonight, the hearts & thoughts of an entire country are with the families and friends of those killed in Toronto today. We also wish all those injured a fast and full recovery. Full statement: https://t.co/TbgMTDXhJB  Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) April 24, 2018

On behalf of all Canadians, I offer my heartfelt condolences to the loved ones of those who were killed, and my thoughts for a fast and full recovery to those injured, Trudeau said in a statement. We should all feel safe walking in our cities and communities.

He also praised the courage and professionalism of first responders, who he said faced danger without hesitation.

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The Toronto Police Operations Centre tweeted Monday afternoon that police were responding to an incident in which a white van had struck numerous pedestrians at the intersection of Yonge Street and Finch Avenue East just before 1:30 p.m. local time.

Alex Shaker, who was driving southbound on Yonge Street at the time of the incident, told CTV News Channel that he saw the van driving at a high speed on the sidewalk.

People left candles and messages at a memorial for victims of a crash late Monday. (Photo: Cole Burston via Getty Images)

He started going down on the sidewalk and crumbling down people one by one, Shaker said Monday afternoon, noting that he saw the vehicle hit someone with a stroller.

He just destroyed so many peoples lives, he said. Every single thing that got in his way.

Police said the van mounted the curb, striking several pedestrians, before fleeing the scene, according to City News. Authorities apprehended the vehicle roughly a mile south of the collision, and the driver was taken into custody, a police department spokesperson confirmed to HuffPost.

Aerial footage appeared to show a white van from rental company Ryder that eyewitnesses identified as the vehicle from the incident.

Aerial footage shows scene in Toronto after van struck numerous pedestrians; eyewitness accounts identified this as the van in the incident, CTV reports. https://t.co/V7MuBB6bCJ pic.twitter.com/hEhDX6cnrB  ABC News (@ABC) April 23, 2018

We are saddened by this tragic event, and our deepest sympathies go out to those impacted, Ryder said in a statement. We take the safety and security of our entire fleet very seriously and we are cooperating fully with authorities.

The Toronto Star published video of the suspects arrest, apparently taken by a bystander. In it, the suspect appears to be holding an object in his hand and pointing it at police officers, though it is not clear what the object is.

Officers can be heard yelling at the suspect, identified as Minassian, to get down or youll be shot, according to The New York Times.

Shoot me in the head, he reportedly replied. He was later detained without any shots fired.

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The area around the collision was closed to traffic on Monday afternoon after the incident. Subway service was also suspended in the area, CNN reported.

Toronto Mayor John Tory said in a press briefing that there would likely be several days of disruption in the area as the investigation continues. He asked that businesses and office buildings close for the remainder of the day and send employees home.

Tory also noted that the city was in the process of establishing two hotlines  one for those worried about loved ones who may have been affected and a second for anyone with information that might help the police investigation.

More: Toronto subway service shut down after report that a van struck a number of people at Yonge Street and Finch Avenue East. No service on Line 1, between Sheppard and Finch Stations, and no shuttle buses at the moment. Yonge Street SB shut as well in area. (Photo by Jon Tam) pic.twitter.com/kwtacY7A0u  CBC News Alerts (@CBCAlerts) April 23, 2018

In a statement late Monday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the people of the United States stand with the Canadian people in the aftermath of todays tragic event.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those affected, and we wish a full recovery to those injured, she said. The United States government pledges to provide any support Canada may need.

See more photos from the scene below:

Police inspect a van suspected of being involved in a collision injuring at least eight people at Yonge Street and Finch Avenue in Toronto.

People react near the scene of the crash.

A tarp lies on top of a body.

Police inspect the van.

Law enforcement and first responders are on scene.

Firemen cover a victim.

Toronto police investigate the scene of the crash.

Shoes from victims are strewn across the scene.

A member of the police stands next to an unidentified body near the crime scene.

Nick Robins-Early and Sarah Ruiz-Grossman contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Police arrested an American Airlines passenger in Miami after he allegedly touched a female passenger without her permission Sunday.

Officers reportedly used a Taser on the passenger, identified as Jacob Garcia of Chicago, several times before forcibly removing him from the aircraft, ABC News reports.

A video posted on Twitter taken by another passenger appears to show three Miami-Dade police officers holding down Garcia and shooting him with a Taser multiple times. Garcia repeatedly asked why he was getting arrested, and an officer responded, You just assaulted a lady.

Garcia was originally asked to deplane from Chicago-bound Flight 2446 but he refused. American Airlines then began to deplane the entire aircraft. During that process, a physical altercation between the same two passengers took place, according to a statement from American Airlines.

Once law enforcement was on the aircraft, the passenger then became combative with the officers from the Miami-Dade Police Department. The same passenger was subsequently arrested.

The flight remained at the gate of Miami International Airport for more than an hour due to the disruption.

All passengers remained on the flight.
US President Trump and first lady Melania welcome French President Macron and his wife for a State Dinner at the White House in Washington - REUTERS

Emmanuel Macron has called for a new deal with Iran after Donald Trump criticised the current nuclear agreement as insane and ridiculous.

The comments came ahead of a State Dinner at the White House, the culmination of a day which showcased the "bromance" between the two leaders.

The French president said the deal should cover Irans ballistic missiles activity and involvement in the Middle East, including Syria, as well as nuclear issues.

The comments will not calm EU fears that Mr Trump is preparing to rip up the existing Iran deal when it is up for renewal on May 12.

That agreement was secured by Barack Obama, his predecessor, and waives economic sanctions in turn from Iran not pursuing its nuclear programme.

Convincing Mr Trump to stick by the deal was one of Mr Macrons stated goals for his three-day state visit to America, with the French leader initially saying there was no Plan B.

Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron's 'special relationship'

However, at a press conference after talks on Tuesday, Mr Macron hinted that France and other supporters of the deal  such as Britain  must work on a new agreement.

Mr Macron said of the pairs discussions on Iran: It is not a mystery, we did not have the same starting stances and neither you nor I have a habit of changing our stances or going with the wind."

He said the discussion had been very frank, adding: We therefore wish, from now on, to work on a new deal with Iran.

Mr Macron said four areas needed to be addressed: Irans nuclear programme before 2025, long-term nuclear ambitions, ballistic missile activities and involvement in the Middle East.

US President Trump and first lady Melania welcome French President Macron and his wife for a State Dinner at the White House in Washington Credit: Reuters

The French president said he believed the current nuclear deal agreement addresses the first of those areas but accepted that Mr Trump did not share the view.

Mr Trump said just before the talks: The Iran deal is a terrible deal  Its insane, its ridiculous, it should have never been made.

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He warned Iran that they would face bigger problems than they have ever had before if they restarted their nuclear programme.

Mohammad Javad Zarif, Irans foreign minister, said the country would most likely' abandon the nuclear deal if Mr Trump pulled America out.

Trump: Troops 'coming home from Syria'

Mr Trump vowed to pull US troops out of Syria "relatively soon" and refused to waive steel tariffs as he declined to give any major concessions to Mr Macron.

However, Mr Trump did offer an olive branch by appearing to soften his tone on the Syria withdrawal, indicating he did not want his forces to leave until their mission was "accomplished".

Mr Macron has pushed Mr Trump, in public and private, to keep troops in Syria to fight Islamic State.

He will face further pressure to do so from Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, who visits Washington later this week.

At a press conference in the White House with Mr Macron, the US president said: "We want to come home. We'll be coming home. We're going to be coming home relatively soon."

We finished at least almost our work and we have done a job that nobody has been able to. I would love to get out, bring our incredible warriors back home. They have obliterated Isis."

But he added that the US wanted to "leave a long and lasting footprint".

He said: "We don't want to give Iran open season to the Mediterranean, so we'll see what happens.

"But with that being said, I do want to come home, but I want to come home also with having accomplished what we have to accomplish."

Mr Macron said the two leaders had "raised new solutions together and the Syria situation should be part of this bigger picture" in the Middle East.

Mr Trump accepted that there was a "broader picture" involving Iran, but said "incredibly wealthy" nations in the region must start paying for, and putting troops on the ground.

No promise to waive steel sanctions

On the issue of trade, Mr Macron had been critical of Mr Trump's protectionist policies going into their meeting, and he had called on the US to exempt European countries from 25 per cent tariffs on steel and 10 per cent on aluminum.

There was no such concession from Mr Trump, but Mr Macron said he was "confident" about the future of the trading relationship. He said trade was "balanced" between the two countries.

There was also no movement from Mr Trump on his decision to withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate accord.

Mr Macron said the US and France did "not always agree on the solution" and added "the fate of our children is at stake".

Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron hold hands outside of the White House Credit: AFP PHOTO / Brendan Smialowski

Trump: Kim Jong-un 'very honourable'

The US president informed Mr Macron that he would be meeting Kim Jong-un soon and plans for a summit with the North Korean leader were progressing well.

Mr Trump said: "We have been told directly that they would like to have the meeting as soon as possible, and we think that's a great thing for the world. We're having very good discussions.

"Kim Jong-un, he really has been very open and I think very honourable from everything we're seeing."

Mr Trump was asked to define what he meant by North Korea "denuclearising" and indicated he would not countenance any deal under which the rogue nation kept any of its nuclear capability.

He said: "It means they get rid of nukes. Very simple. It would be very easy for me to make a deal, but I don't want to do that. I want them to get rid of their nukes."

Emmaneul Macron is trying to convince Mr Trump to stay in the Iran deal Credit: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Jokes and joshing in the White House

The new 'relation speciale' between France and America was on full display on the second day of Mr Macrons state visit to Washington.

Mr President, they're all saying what a great relationship we have and they're actually correct, Mr Trump told Mr Macron as the cameras rolled. Finally, its not fake news."

Mr Macron, 31 years younger and half a foot shorter than Mr Trump, beamed up at his counterpart during many of their engagements. Mr Trump, for his part, appeared unusually relaxed.

There had been hand-holding with Theresa May during her visit, a brief moment designed to steady the president that the Prime Minister soon recoiled from.

But with Mr Macron there were multiple joining of hands and waving to the cameras - occasionally with their wives, always with smiles.

The pair did not disguise their policy differences but made much of their special friendship, not holding back on the flattery.

We have a very special relationship, in fact Ill get that little piece of dandruff off, Mr Trump joked at one point, brushing at the French presidents shoulder. We have to make him perfect, he is perfect.

Donald Trump pretends to brush a bit of dandruff off Emmanuel Macron's shoulder Credit: LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP/Getty Images

State dinner celebrates US-French links

As he gave a toast at the state dinner, Mr Trump hailed the bonds between the US and France, saying, "May our friendship grow even deeper, may our kinship grow even stronger and may our sacred liberty never die."

But while the day had been about the leaders, all eyes were on Mrs Trump on Tuesday night.

There were no celebrity guests, Hollywood entertainers or superstar chefs. But as she stepped out of the background to host her first state dinner, the First Lady sought to sparkle at in her moment in the spotlight.

U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. First Lady Melania Trump arrive to greet Emmanuel Macron, France's president, and Brigitte Macron, France's first lady Credit: Bloomberg

After ditching her trademark dark sunglasses for a white skirt suit and hat earlier on Tuesday, the first lady appeared in a Chanel gown to greet Mr Macron and his wife, Brigitte.

It was a big moment in fashion - and public life - for the former model, who has kept a relatively low profile since Trump took office and who was playing hostess at her highest-profile event yet.

With her first state dinner, Mrs. Trump seemed to be aiming to make a statement. In a nod to France, she wore a black Chantilly lace Chanel haute couture gown, hand-painted with silver and embroidered with crystal and sequins, according to her spokeswoman. Her French counterpart wore Louis Vuitton.

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk into the State Dining Room to attend a State Dinner Credit: AP

The president lavished praise on his wife as he gave a toast at the opulent affair, calling her "America's absolutely incredible first lady."

The meal was selected to match America's links with France.

For starters there was goat cheese gateau coupled with buttermilk biscuit crumbles, with greens picked from the White House kitchen garden.

For mains there was spring lamb served with Carolina gold rice jambalaya, cooked in a style from New Orleans - a US city renowned for its historic ties to France.

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump greet French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron as they arrive for a State Dinner at the White House Credit: AP

And for pudding, there was a nectarine tart infused with White House honey and accented by creme fraiche ice cream.

The US-French references were deliberate, a note from the White House explained: The menu will be a showcase of the best of Americas cuisines and traditions, with nuances of French influences.

And it was not just the food. The wine was selected to embody the historic friendship between the United States and France, which dates back to the American Revolution, a White House official explained.

Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner, Trump's senior advisor arrive in the Booksellers Area of the White House to attend a state dinner honoring French President Emmanuel Macron Credit: AFP

The Domaine Serene Chardonnay Evenstad Reserve, a 2015 vintage, was made with French plants from Dijon planted in volcanic soil from Oregon. It was a product of American and French collaboration.

Mrs Trump designed the menu and the flower arrangement: 1,200 branches of cherry blossom in the White Houses Cross Hall, 500 stems of white sweet peas and almost 1,000 stems of white lilac in its State Dining Room.

President Macron is correct in saying there's no "Plan B" on JCPOA. It's either all or nothing. European leaders should encourage President Trump not just to stay in the nuclear deal, but more importantly to begin implementing his part of the bargain in good faith.  Javad Zarif (@JZarif) April 23, 2018

But with the spotlight fixed on Mr Trump and my friend Emmanuel, the First Ladys team predicted little praise for her soft power diplomacy.

Were probably not going to get the credit we deserve, grumbled one of her aides.
BSC to get new vessel made in China

Chattagram Bureau :

New vessel named "MV Banglaer Joyjatra" made in China is set to add to the fleet of Bangladesh Shipping Corporation after 27 years. The first of the six Chinese vessels would be delivered by the supplier on July 5, an official release said yesterday.

Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan left Dhaka for China tonight to attend the launching ceremony of the vessel which was made by China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation there. The function for announcing the name of vessel will be held on April 24.

The minister will lead a five-member delegation, the press release added. He will return home on April 27.

Each of the vessels is of 39,000 deadweight tonnage (DWT) , BSC sources said.




(WASHINGTON)  President Donald Trumps pick to be Veterans Affairs secretary is facing late-surfacing allegations about inappropriate behavior on the job and over-prescribing prescription drugs, forcing a delay in his confirmation hearing.

The hearing for Ronny Jackson had been set for Wednesday at the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.

We take very seriously our constitutional duty to thoroughly and carefully vet each nominee sent to the Senate for confirmation, said the chairman, Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and the top Democrat on the committee, Sen. Jon Tester of Montana. We will continue looking into these serious allegations and have requested additional information from the White House to enable the committee to conduct a full review.

The two lawmakers sent a letter to Trump on Tuesday requesting additional information about Jackson, who has served as a White House physician since 2006. It demands any communication between the Pentagon and the White House for the last 12 years regarding allegations or incidents involving him.

With Congress set to recess Friday for a week, Tester said the soonest a hearing could be held would be in about 10 days. Were vetting hard right now, he told reporters. We still have more information to find out.

Allegations began surfacing late last week involving Jacksons workplace practices, including claims of inappropriate behavior and over-prescribing prescription drugs, according to two aides granted anonymity to discuss the situation.

Isakson told fellow GOP senators over the weekend about the allegations prompting those on the panel to give their support for delaying the hearing, one senator said.

Chairman Isakson had a phone conversation with a lot of us around the committee over the weekend, indicated that there had been some unsubstantiated allegations made, and he wants to do it right, said Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D. on Fox News @ Night With Shannon Bream.

We told him that if he wanted to delay the meeting, that was fine with us. We most certainly want to get all the facts out, he said.

Story continues

Democrats on the committee assembled privately late Monday. Tester reiterated to the other senators that the allegations were out there, one aide said. But no specific evidence of wrongdoing was offered.

White House and VA officials were quietly discussing a delay with key allies outside the administration, even as the White House on Tuesday scrambled to save Jacksons troubled nomination.

Admiral Jackson has been on the front lines of deadly combat and saved the lives of many others in service to this country. Hes served as the physician to three Presidents_Republican and Democrat_and been praised by them all, said White House spokesman Hogan Gidley. Admiral Jacksons record of strong, decisive leadership is exactly whats needed at the VA to ensure our veterans receive the benefits they deserve.

Trump selected Jackson to head the VA last month after firing former Obama administration official David Shulkin following an ethics scandal and mounting rebellion within the agency. But Jackson, who has worked as a White House physician since 2006, has faced numerous questions from Republican and Democratic lawmakers as well as veterans groups about whether he has the experience to manage the massive department of 360,000 employees serving 9 million veterans.

A doomed nomination would be a political blow to the White House, which has faced criticism for sloppy vetting of Cabinet nominees and tough confirmation battles in a Senate where Republicans hold a slim 51-49 majority. Prior to Jacksons nomination, Trump had told aides and outside advisers that he was fond of Jackson personally and was said to be particularly impressed with Jacksons performance at the podium in January when he offered a glowing report on the presidents physical and mental well-being.

The White House does not vet their nominees. That leaves us as members having to look at their personal and leadership and other qualities, and they didnt do a good job and now were doing it, said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., a member of the Senate committee. She did not comment on the specific allegations against Jackson.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who is not on the veterans panel, also criticized the White House vetting process, saying that the allegations against him arose after Trump nominated him. I dont know whether this is an aberration or not, but it certainly is something that bears looking into. She said recent allegations of ethical violations in Oklahoma by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt also raise questions about White House vetting.

Late Monday, Jackson was still pursuing support, and held a late-afternoon conference call with veterans groups from West Virginia and the states Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, a member of the committee, whose vote could be vital for support.

Rounds said Jacksons small staff at the White House will be an issue as he prepares to lead the VA.

Weve got 360,000 people there, he said. Are they going to manage the secretary or is the secretary going to manage the VA? Thats a good question to ask, and he needs to answer it. He needs to be the leader. A lot of folks want to be led and managed.
The Daily Beast

GEORGES GOBETFour Italian men between the ages of 40 and 70 perished while producing wine from their family vineyard over the weekend, according to Italys fire brigade.The menSantino and Massimo Carnevale, aged 70 and 45, and brothers Giacomo and Valerio Scofano, aged 70 and 50 were all related and taking part in an annual winemaking tradition near the city of Paola in the southern region of Calabria. One of the victims, Valerio Scofano, was not supposed to be in the shed, having been condemn
By Steve Holland and David Ljunggren WASHINGTON/TORONTO (Reuters) - Western allies stepped up pressure on U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday to keep alive an international nuclear deal with Iran, with French President Emmanuel Macron due to urge him in person not to tear up the 2015 agreement. Trump has said that unless European allies fix what he has called its "terrible flaws" by May 12, he will restore U.S. economic sanctions on Iran, which would be a severe blow to the pact. Macron, who arrived in Washington on Monday for a state visit, said on Sunday there was no "Plan B" for keeping a lid on Iran's nuclear ambitions. Minutes after Macron's plane touched down, the White House said it had no announcements on the Iran deal. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders added, "The president has been extremely clear that he thinks it's a bad deal. That certainly has not changed." The agreement between Iran, the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany was born of longstanding concern among major powers that Iran was seeking to develop an atomic weapon and imposed curbs on Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief for Tehran. Critics of the pact, including Trump, have said it does not adequately contain Iran. Trump sees three defects: a failure to address Iran's ballistic missile program; 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. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said both Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is due to meet Trump in Washington on Friday, would urge the U.S. president to stay in the deal, which is formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). "We believe it is extremely important to uphold this agreement. Were it to fail or the U.S. to drop out, we would not have anything comparable to it and we fear that the situation would significantly deteriorate with everything that goes with it," Maas told reporters. He was speaking at a meeting in Toronto of foreign ministers from the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations. Britain's foreign minister, Boris Johnson, echoed this, telling reporters in Toronto, "There is a strong view around the (G7) table that we need to make the case for the JCPOA." "We accept that Iranian behavior has been disruptive in the region, we accept the president (Trump) has some valid points that need to be addressed, but we believe they are capable of being addressed (inside the deal)," Johnson said. 'ENCOURAGE' TRUMP TO STAY Iran has said it will stick to the accord as long as the other parties respect it, but will "shred" it if Washington pulls out. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called on European leaders on Monday to support it. "It is either all or nothing. European leaders should encourage Trump not just to stay in the nuclear deal, but more important to begin implementing his part of the bargain in good faith," Zarif wrote on Twitter. On a visit to Beijing, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he had agreed with his Chinese counterpart to block any U.S. attempt to sabotage the deal. Trump's opposition to the deal has been welcomed by Israel, which has rejected the pact since it was being hammered out under former U.S. President Barack Obama's administration. "Israel will not allow regimes that seek our annihilation to acquire nuclear weapons. This is why we opposed so resolutely the Iran deal, because it gives Iran a clear path to a nuclear arsenal," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech to foreign diplomats on Monday in Jerusalem. Listing objections, Netanyahu added, "This is why this deal has to be either fully fixed or fully nixed." At a nuclear non-proliferation conference in Geneva on Monday, there were repeated calls for parties to the deal to ensure its implementation and preservation. U.N. High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu said it "continues to be the best way to ensure the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program and to realize the promised tangible economic benefits for the Iranian people." Trump's threat to restore U.S economic sanctions on oil-producing Iran have been one factor helping drive up global oil prices this month to their highest since late 2014. (Reporting by Steve Holland in Washington and David Ljunggren in Toronto; Additional reporting by Yara Bayoumy and Doina Chiacu in Washington, Tom Miles in Geneva, Maria Kiselyova in Moscow, Michel Rose and Richard Lough in Paris, Parisa Hafezi in Ankara, Sabine Siebold and Lesley Wroughton in Toronto, Ori Lewis in Jerusalem; Writing by Frances Kerry; Editing by Alistair Bell and Will Dunham)
Speculation about the name of the new royal baby has run rampant  and its possible that Arthur might be the winning guess. Thats the rumor circulating after Prince William called out the name of a photographer while exiting the hospital with Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and their newborn prince son on Monday.

According to some Twitter accounts, the Duke of Cambridge said, Theres Arthur, there he is, while pointing to a photographer who works for The Sun, a popular British tabloid. The photographer in question, Arthur Edwards, is referred to as a veteran in his field, so would be known by sight to the royals.

Oddsmakers have been taking bets on the name of the new royal baby for months now. While Alice was favored early on before the gender of the child was revealed, Arthur has since taken the lead as the most betted-on moniker for the addition to the Windsor family. James, Charles and Albert were also popular in the early odds.

As for the photographer Arthur Edwards? Hes no stranger to royal baby hullabaloo. According to his Twitter bio, he has been working with The Sun on royals coverage for over four decades and been behind the lens for seven royal births, plus seven royal weddings.
Princess Charlotte stole the show as she arrived for a first visit with her newborn baby brother.

The 2-year-old smiled and waved to journalists and royal supporters at St. Mary's Hospital in London, where her mother, Kate Middleton had given birthday to a boy who weighed 8 pounds and 7 ounces.

Her big brother, 4-year-old George, clad in his school uniform, held his father's hand, but didn't pay much attention to the roaring crowd.

Charlotte, in a tiny navy sweater and a blue-flowered frock, turned back and gave another wave as she entered the hospital with dad William and George.

The two were taken back to Kensington Palace after meeting the new baby.

William, Kate and the newest heir to the throne later left the hospital themselves after pausing to greet the public outside the hospital.

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When it was revealed that Kate Middleton gave birth to the newest member of the royal family on Monday, April 23, there were plenty of people filled with excitement at the news, but no reaction was as precious as the ones that siblings Prince George and Princess Charlotte had about their new baby brother.

The little prince and princess, who were spotted on their way to visit their mother and the new baby in the Lindo Wing at St. Marys Hospital in London, gave two very on-brand reactions to the birth. Charlotte, whos charmed the press in the past with her exquisite foreign diplomacy skills, offered more sweet overtures by waving to spectators on her way into the hospital. George, however, adopted a cool and casual air as he made the walk into the Lindo Wing, no doubt because as the oldest child who had already welcomed a younger sibling, he felt like a seasoned pro.

See Princess Charlotte and Prince Georges journey to meet their new little brother below.

So cute! Prince William arrives at the hospital with Prince George and Princess Charlotte to visit their new baby brother. pic.twitter.com/vHYf6ezY0l  TODAY (@TODAYshow) April 23, 2018
Aleksandr Kogan, the University of Cambridge psychology professor who harvested data from Facebook and sold it to Cambridge Analytica, apologized for a tactic that has spawned the wrath of internet users worldwide.

Kogan told CBS 60 Minutes he was sincerely sorry for assuming that everyone knew their data was being mined, but didnt care. He was the one who designed the personality quiz that granted access to personal data  location, gender, birthday and page likes for the person taking the quiz as well as their friends  on tens of millions of Facebook users.

Back then, we thought it was fine. Right now, my opinion has really been changed, he said. If I had any inkling that I was going to cause people to be upset, I wouldve never done it.

Kogan insisted the ability to access vast amounts of user data was a core feature of the Facebook platform for years. This was not a special permission you had to get. This was just something that was available to anybody who wanted it who was a developer. Tens of thousands of developers, he guessed, likely did the same thing.

He said he knew that the data he sold to Cambridge Analytica was going to be used for elections in some way, and he surmised that the client was on the Republican side.

He failed to disclose that what he was really after was access to their friends and that he was doing the survey for Cambridge Analytica which used the material to influence people on how to vote. (2/2) #60Minutes pic.twitter.com/lkVaiENxTd  60 Minutes (@60Minutes) April 22, 2018

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg pointed a finger at Kogan during his congressional testimony last week, accusing the psychologist of violating his agreement with Facebook by selling the data to Cambridge Analytica. Paul Grewal, Facebooks vice president and deputy general counsel, called Kogans work a scam and a fraud (Facebook also suspended Kogans account.)

Story continues

Kogan acknowledged he may have broken Facebook rules by selling the data, admitting that he likely didnt read the social media giants developer policy.

This is the frustrating bit, where Facebook clearly has never cared. I mean, it never enforced this agreement, Kogan said. Theyll let you know if you do anything wrong. I had a terms of service that was up there for a year and a half that said I could transfer and sell the data. Never heard a word.

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Secretary of State nominee Mike Pompeo received a favorable endorsement from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. (Photo: Aaron Bernstein/Reuters)

WASHINGTON  Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) announced Monday that he would support Mike Pompeo to be secretary of state, a change in position that allowed the CIA chief to be recommended favorably out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee after all.

Paul, a libertarian-leaning critic of U.S. military intervention abroad, has spoken out against Pompeo for weeks, citing concerns with his support for the Iraq War. Last month, in a news conference announcing his position, Paul said he was perplexed by Pompeos nomination and even called him the wrong fit for America.

It goes against most of the things President Trump campaigned on, that the unintended consequences of regime change in Iraq led to instability in the Middle East, Paul said then.

But on Monday, shortly before the committee was expected to vote, Paul tweeted that hed received assurances from President Donald Trump that Pompeo agrees with him that Iraq was a mistake, that regime change has destabilized the region, and that we must end our involvement with Afghanistan.

Explaining his changed position in remarks before the committee, Paul said Pompeo had sufficiently incorporated the idea that the Iraq War was a mistake into his worldview. But the senator added that he wished the CIA director would say so publicly.

Time will tell if those assurances are true or not, Paul said before the vote on Monday, but I do take him at his word.

Paul also pointed to recent talks hes had with Trump about surveillance policy as another factor in his decision to support Pompeos appointment.

Ive been very concerned that the FBIs allowed to look at Americans information without a warrant, Paul said Tuesday during an appearance on MSNBCs Morning Joe.

Ive had some discussions with [Trump] over whether or not we could actually have an executive order from the president that simply says from now on were going to obey the Fourth Amendment and that FBI agents will have to get a warrant to look at these foreign surveillance databases, he continued. Thats a big step forward for me, too.

Story continues

During a White House event Monday with French President Emmanuel Macron, Trump thanked Paul for coming around to his nominee. Trump said the senator never let us down and called him a good man.

In a tweet earlier Monday when Pompeos prospects didnt look as good, Trump had blasted Democrats for being obstructionists.

Hard to believe Obstructionists May vote against Mike Pompeo for Secretary of State. The Dems will not approve hundreds of good people, including the Ambassador to Germany. They are maxing out the time on approval process for all, never happened before. Need more Republicans!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2018

Pompeo, a former Republican congressman from Kansas, is well-known for his militaristic foreign policy stances. He has pushed for regime change in Iran and openly mused about the U.S. overthrowing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, whom he recently met during a secret trip. He also supported ending the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran, the U.S. and five other countries. But he reversed or walked back many of those positions during his confirmation hearing earlier this month.

Democrats, meanwhile, grilled Pompeo about his ties to an anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist during his confirmation hearing and questioned him about his past homophobic remarks. Pompeo said he would treat every individual, regardless of their sexual orientation, with respect despite his personal belief that same-sex couples should not have the right to marry.

Although 15 members of the Democratic caucus voted to confirm Pompeo to run the CIA last year, many of those same senators have opposed his nomination to be secretary of state this year, expressing concern that he is ill-suited to be the nations top diplomat.

Earlier Monday, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) joined Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), another vulnerable Democrat up for re-election this year, in announcing his support for Pompeo, whom Manchin praised for his exemplary career in public service.

After meeting with Mike Pompeo, discussing his foreign policy perspectives, & considering his distinguished time as CIA Director & his exemplary career in public service, I will vote to confirm Mike Pompeo to be our next Secretary of State.  Senator Joe Manchin (@Sen_JoeManchin) April 23, 2018

This story has been updated with Sen. Pauls remarks before the committee and on Morning Joe, Trumps response to his change of mind and news of Pompeos favorable committee endorsement.

Hayley Miller contributed reporting.

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CPA to be turned into users' friendly port soon

Chairman of Chattogram Port Authority Commodore Zulfiqur Aziz speaks at an workshop on the Matarbari Port Development\" at Chattogram Port Training Institute Auditorium on Monday .

Chattagram Bureau :

Chairman of the Chattagram Port Authority(CPA) Commodore Zulfiqur Aziz said with the govt's vision of 2021 , Chattagram Port will be turned into a users friendly seaport in the south aisa. He disclosed it while addressing the journalists on occasion of 131st founding anniversary program at Fazlur Rahman Munshi Auditorium yesterday afternoon .

He said increasing bulk cargo, container and vessel handling became a challenge for this port. With the vision of government, CPA undertaken three phases master plan to meet the increasing cargo handling. He also said the New Mooring container terminal will be operated in full swing through procuring necessary handling equipments and in the meantime nine gantry cranes, 4 straddle carriers, 5 container movers, one rail mounted crane already procured.

He further informed that tender for procurement of 6 ship to shore gantry crane,

2 RTG, one mobile harbor crane already finalised and L/C for these equipments will be opened in Bank very shortly.

Port chairman further said that British India government formulated Port Commissioners Act in 1987 which came into effect from 25 th April 1988.

From that date of effective of the commissioner act, the founding anniversary of the port is being observed on 25th April every year. He further said, the retired officials of the port authority will be honoured in the founding anniversary date.

Among others, Members of CPA Commodore Shahin Rahman, Captain Khondakar Akhter Hossain and Kamrul Amin, Port Secretary Omar Faruk were present on the occasion.


Pippa Middleton, top right, was the first family member to be pictured outside Kensington Palace to meet the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's new baby - Paul Grover for The Telegraph

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have begun introducing their new prince to family members, as the world awaits an announcement on the baby's name.

Prince William and Kate have retreated to the sanctuary of Kensington Palace after showing off their third child to the world on the steps of the Lindo Wing.

As the Duke and Duchess settle into life as a family of five, the first visitors began arriving at their west London home on Tuesday. Pippa Middleton, the Duchess's sister, was the first to be pictured after meeting the as-yet-unnamed baby.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle could have been the first to visit as they are neighbours at Kensington Palace. The new baby prince's great-grandmother the Queen, 92, is still at Windsor Castle with the Duke of Edinburgh who is recuperating after a hip operation.

Prince Charles said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon that he and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, are "both so pleased at the news". He added: "It is a great joy to have another grandchild, the only trouble is I dont know how I am going to keep up with them."

The name of the baby Prince of Cambridge, who was born on Monday at 11.01am weighing 8lb 7oz, has yet to be unveiled. Royals traditionally keep the public guessing before revealing their choice and William and Kate will want to share the name with the Queen and the rest of their family before making it public.

Story continues

Kensington Palace said the name would be announced in "due course" but the favourite at the bookies is currently Arthur, followed by James, Philip and Albert.

The Duke fuelled speculation about the name of his new baby boy, telling a man who suggested he could suit Prince Alexander: "Funny you should say that..."

William, who left his two-day-old son with the Duchess to attend a commemoration service, teased attendees about the as-yet-unknown name, as the world waited to hear what the Prince would be called.

Told by Alexander Downer, the Australian High Commissioner, that he favoured his own Christian name as a frontrunner for the Prince, the Duke replied: "Funny you should say that... It's a good name."

The Dean of Westminster, introducing the Duke to Mr Downer's New Zealand counterpart Sir Jerry Mateparae, joked: "And Jerry would like it to be Jerry".

"It's a strong name, I have to say," the Duke conceded smiling, speaking publicly for the first time since he took his new addition home from hospital.

The Duke joined his brother Prince Harry and soon-to-be sister-in-law Meghan Markle at Westminster Abbey for an Anzac Day service, but the topic of conversation quickly turned to the new Prince.

Asked how the Duchess and the baby were doing, Prince William said: "They're very well thanks."

The now father-of-three said they are "in good form, luckily", and added: "Sleeping's going reasonably well so far, so he's behaving himself which is good news."

While the Duke's words stoked further speculation about the possibility of a Prince Alexander, the name is not likely to be a final contender as it is one of Prince George's middle names.

Video: 9 Facts About the Royal Baby

Born fifth in line, the baby is the Queen and Philip's sixth great-grandchild and Kensington Palace said the couple, along with the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Harry, and the Middletons, were delighted with the news of the new arrival.

George and Charlotte, who visited their new sibling at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London, on Monday afternoon, are likely to be at school and nursery on Tuesday.

At 2pm on Tuesday, gun salutes were fired in London by the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery in Hyde Park and the Honourable Artillery Company at the Tower of London to mark the birth.

4:32PM

Floral dress worn by Princess Charlotte on Monday sells out online

The floral smocked dress worn by Princess Charlotte as she went to meet her new baby brother has sold out online.

Confident Charlotte, who is just days away from her third birthday, was at ease in front of the world's media at the Lindo Wing in London.

She charmed the crowds on Monday, by turning to wave as she led her father the Duke of Cambridge up the steps to the hospital to meet the newborn baby prince.

Her blue Periwinkle dress, with Peter Pan collar and short sleeves, and blue daisy smocking was by Little Alice London.

The floral smocked dress worn by Princess Charlotte as she went to meet her new baby brother has sold out online Credit: Samir Hussein/WireImage

The outfit, which is priced from 40 for aged six months to 45 for six years, has sold out in all sizes.

The dress features contrast piping on the collar and sleeves, and a button back and sash tie.

The brand, which specialises in smocked clothes, is owned by Alice Avenel - who went to school at Marlborough College with Charlotte's mother the Duchess of Cambridge.

3:59PM

Young Pc tells of 'highlight of my career' as he appears in background of Royal baby photos

A young Metropolitan Police constable, Tyler O'Hare, took centre of stage during the Royal baby's first public appearance. Sort of...

He was in the background of many of the pictures outside the Lindo Wing as the "door officer" when the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge stepped outside with the new prince.

Pc O'Hare posted pictures on Twitter, saying it was "an honour and utter privilege". He added: "Today was an amazing day and a highlight of my career!"

The Royal couple introduced two new members to the family today....



An honour and utter privilege to have been the Door Officer for the birth of Their Royal Highnesses new baby boy! Today was an amazing day and a highlight of my career! #RoyalBaby3#RoyalBaby3#RoyalBabypic.twitter.com/md6kMw3WSs

 PC Tyler O'Hare (@TylerOHare) April 23, 2018

3:52PM

New father Prince William pictured leaving palace

The Duke of Cambridge has been spotted leaving Kensington Palace this afternoon. Prince William was pictured driving himself away from the family home. It's unclear where he was going - perhaps popping out for some essential supplies?

Prince William leaves Kensington Palace by car on Tuesday afternoon Credit: Jack Taylor /Getty

3:17PM

Historian Hugo Vickers on why the Royal baby's name might not matter as much as you think

Hugo Vickers, the Royal biographer and historian, explains in this video the meaning behind the most popular possible name choices for the latest baby Cambridge - and why the choice might not matter as much as you think.

2:50PM

Countess of Wessex 'thrilled' for Cambridge family

During a visit to Tregolls School in Truro, Cornwall, the Countess of Wessex said she did not know the name of the latest addition to the Royal family.

She said: The jurys out on that one. I dont know, were all just going to have to wait and see.

Im thrilled for them all, its lovely - really good news.

2:48PM

Video: Moment royal birth was marked by 41 round gun salute

2:02PM

Gun salutes mark Royal birth

Gun salutes have been fired in London by the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery and the Honourable Artillery Company to mark the birth of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's baby boy.

The soldiers, horses and Guns of The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery rode out from Wellington Barracks into Hyde Park for a 41 round salute.

And the Honourable Artillery Company (HAC), the City of London's Army Reserve regiment, fired a 62-round Gun Salute from The Tower of London.

Members of the Kings Troop Royal Horse Artillery fire a First World War era gun during a 41 gun Royal salute in Hyde Park Credit: ADRIAN DENNIS /AFP

Members of the Kings Troop Royal Horse Artillery on Tuesday afternoon Credit: ADRIAN DENNIS /AFP

Gun salutes have also been used to mark other Royal events Credit: ADRIAN DENNIS /AFP

1:57PM

Punters back James and Henry... but Arthur remains bookies' favourite

Punters have been racing to place bets on the possible name of the royal baby boy, with James and Henry catching favourite Arthur.

Bookies still have the moniker of the legendary king as their top name, but are seeing Royal fans taking a punt on other choices facing the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

William Hill spokesman Rupert Adams said: "Henry has been very popular overnight and might well be in the frame."

The firm has Arthur as 2-1 favourite, but the odds on Henry have been shortened from 14-1 to 10-1.

Other popular names include James 4/1, Phillip 5/1 and Albert 6/1.

Coral spokesman Harry Aitkenhead said: "Arthur is the hot favourite at the moment and ever since the birth yesterday our customers have been queuing up to get their bets on.

"James, Albert and Philip have also been backed and anything else would be a major shock."

He added their favourite was Arthur 2-1, followed by James 4-1, Albert 5-1, Philip 6-1, and Alexander and Henry both with odds of 12-1.

Click here for the latest odds on possible Royal baby names - and history behind them.

1:16PM

Auntie Pippa meets the new prince: Kate's sister pictured leaving Kensington Palace

Pippa Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge's sister, is the first member of the family to be spotted at Kensington Palace today.

The 34-year-old was pictured leaving the Royal couple's home after meeting the as-yet-unnamed baby for the first time.

Pippa Middleton pictured leaving Kensington Palace on Tuesday afternoon Credit: Paul Grover for The Telegraph

1:08PM

Westminster Abbey bells ring out to celebrate Royal birth

The birth of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's baby boy has been marked by bell ringing at Westminster Abbey.

Bell-ringers ring a peal from 1pm to celebrate the prince's arrival.

12:20PM

Prince Charles: I dont know how I am going to keep up with grandchildren

The Prince of Wales said he and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, are "both so pleased at the news".

Prince Charles said in a statement: "It is a great joy to have another grandchild, the only trouble is I dont know how I am going to keep up with them.

11:41AM

Royal Collection releases official souvenirs before baby even has a name

The official commemorative souvenirs marking the birth of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's baby son have gone on sale - before the new prince's name has been announced.

Featuring a lion cub and unicorn inspired by the Royal Arms, the Royal Collection china is decorated with gold ribbons, silver pompoms and a coronet-inspired pattern.

The pieces bear the words "Welcome to our new royal baby" and display William and Kate's coronet.

The range of official commemorative chinaware to celebrate the prince's birth Credit: Royal Collection Trust

The official range includes a pillbox costing 35, a tankard for 39 and a plate priced at 49.

Each item in the range is gilded with 22-carat gold and made in Stoke-on-Trent using traditional methods.

There is also a pram-shaped woven decoration, made with glistening threads, delicate pearl detail, and embroidered on the back with "Royal Baby 2018", for 14.95.

11:12AM

Royal history of Arthur... and other names new prince could be given

Arthur

A middle name of the Prince of Wales, Arthur is also one of Prince William's middle names as well as the Queen's father, George VI.

The legendary King Arthur was the mythical leader of the knights of the Round Table, who supposedly lived in the 5th or 6th century.

Once popular, the name fell out of fashion, but has had a revival in recent years. Former prime minister David Cameron has a son called Arthur.

Albert

Queen Victoria used to insist that the name Albert was used as a middle name by her descendants, if not a first, in honour of her much-loved consort Prince Albert.

By choosing Albert or Bertie for a boy, the Duke and Duchess would be honouring Queen Elizabeth II's father, George VI, who was actually Albert Frederick Arthur George but always known to his family as Bertie.

Shy, stammering Bertie was forced to become king when his brother Edward VIII abdicated, but won the nation's affection by standing firm in London during the Second World War.

Philip

A lasting tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh might see the new Prince of Cambridge called Philip.

Both Prince Charles and Prince William have Philip as a middle name.

The Duke of Edinburgh - known for his dedication to duty and his acerbic wit - has been married to the Queen for more than 70 years and is the nation's longest serving consort.

Frederick

A Prince Freddie of Cambridge would have a historical link to the 1st Duke of Cambridge.

Prince Adolphus Frederick lived from 1774 to 1850 and was a son of George III.

He was apparently very fond of interrupting church services by bellowing out "By all means" if the priest said "Let us pray".

Charles

William may want to pay tribute to his father - but perhaps as a middle name as it may be considered too similar to Charlotte.

James

James could be chosen to signify the Duchess's affection for her brother, the baby's uncle, James Middleton.

William already has a cousin James, the Earl and Countess of Wessex's son, Viscount Severn.

James is a Stuart name. James I, son of Mary, Queen of Scots, had been king of Scotland for 36 years as James VI when he became king of England in 1603.

Other names

They could choose William as a middle name for a boy, but also perhaps Michael as a middle name out of respect for Kate's father.

Kate's grandfather on her paternal side was called Peter, while on her maternal side, her grandfather was Ronald.

Thomas also appears several times in Kate's family tree, as does Francis.

Royal baby name popularity interactive

10:48AM

Who will be godparents to the new Baby Cambridge?

When it comes to godparents, the youngest Cambridge child might well be dealt the best hand yet. After seven years of marriage (and three children), the Duke and Duchess now know exactly who their real friends are.

Plus, with 12 godparents between them, Prince George and Princess Charlotte have already ticked off all those their parents felt obliged to ask. Admittedly a few of their oldest and best friends have already been bagged  Emilia dErlanger, for example, is Georges godmother and Prince Williams friend, Tom Van Straubenzee belongs to Chalotte  but there are plenty more of their friends waiting in the wings, as well as a few close cousins.

Click here for our best guestimate at who might be in the frame for possible godparents to the new prince.

Some of the runners and riders in our shortlist in the race to become the youngest royal's godparents

10:40AM

Meet the Duchess of Cambridge's Royal 'glam squad'

It would be a worst nightmare for most new mothers, but the Duchess of Cambridge had a close knit team of helpers on hand to help ensure she looked her best for her moment in front of the world's media.

For the past few years, the Duchess has worked closely with former PA Natasha Archer and hairdresser Amanda Cook Tucker to ensure that her every public appearance is pristine.

Natasha Archer and Amanda Cook Tucker arriving to tend to Kate after the birth of Prince George Credit: Geoff Pugh for The Telegraph

The duo are often spotted loading vanity cases and suit carriers onto the royal jet during tours or lurking behind the scenes to tend to the Duchess whenever she needs.

Here is everything you need to know about the Royal "glam squad", who were on hand for the Duchess's Lindo Wing exit.

10:01AM

Arthur is bookies' favourite - but James most popular with punters

Arthur remains the bookmakers' favourite for the new Royal baby's name, but James is the most popular for individual wagers placed with Ladbrokes.

James has seen the largest amount of bets and money placed since the Duchess of Cambridge gave birth.

It is the same name as the Duchess of Cambridge's brother, James Middleton. Prince William also has a cousin James, Viscount Severn.

Despite being the favourite in the betting at 2/1, Arthur is left for second spot in the Top 10 list, followed by Albert (5/1), Philip (6/1) and Henry (12/1), according to Ladbrokes.

Jessica Bridge, of Ladbrokes, said: "Over 100,000 bets have placed across the UK betting industry on the baby name, and punters are eagerly awaiting the announcement from Kensington Palace to see if they will be quids in."

Latest Prince of Cambridge name odds

Arthur 2/1

James 4/1

Albert 5/1

Philip 6/1

Alexander 12/1

Henry 12/1

Edward 16/1

Frederick 14/1

Thomas 16/1

Alfred 20/1

Jack 20/1

Louis 20/1

Michael 20/1

Charles 25/1

William 25/1

Top 10 names according to bets and money wagered

James Arthur Albert Philip Henry Alexander Edward Frederick Thomas Alfred

9:13AM

Royal gun salutes to mark birth of new baby

As well as an expected flurry of family visitors to Kensington Palace on Tuesday, Royal Gun Salutes will also celebrate the birth of the new Royal baby.

The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery and The Honourable Artillery Company will each fire celebratory Royal Salutes at 2pm.

The Duchess of Cambridge shows her new prince to the world Credit: John Stillwell /PA

The soldiers, horses and Guns of The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery will ride out from Wellington Barracks into Hyde Park for a 41 round salute.

And the Honourable Artillery Company (HAC), the City of London's Army Reserve regiment, will fire a 62-round Gun Salute from The Tower of London.

8:54AM

Royal baby name odds: Runners and riders for new Prince of Cambridge

Prince Arthur... Prince Albert... Prince Philip... or something else?

Asked on Monday evening whether or not he and his wife had decided on a name, the Duke of Cambridge said: "You'll find out soon enough."

As the bookmakers continue to take bets on the new Royal baby's name, click here to take a look at all the contenders.

What do you think the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will call their third child? Vote in our poll below.

8:49AM

Baby prince's first achievement is to make history for gender equality

By welcoming a baby prince, William and Kate are following the birth pattern of the Queen and Philip's children - a son, a daughter and then another son.

The Queen and the Duke had Prince Charles, then Princess Anne, followed by, after a gap of 10 years, Prince Andrew, with a fourth child, Prince Edward, born four years later.

George and Charlotte visit their new baby brother in hospital Credit: DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS /AFP

The prince's birth also made history for Royal gender equality - he is the first child to be born since an Act that secured girls' place in the line of succession.

Here's how the route to the British throne now looks.

Line of succession to the British throne

8:46AM

Duke says couple are 'very happy' but have 'thrice the worry now'

Smiling broadly, the Duchess was dressed in a vibrant red Jenny Packham dress with a white lace collar, reminiscent of William's late mother Diana, Princess of Wales - who wore red and white outside the Lindo Wing after Prince Harry was born in 1984.

As William and Kate headed home after appearing in front of the banks of cameras with their seven-hour-old son, the Duke said they were "very happy" and "very delighted".

He joked, holding up three fingers, that he had "thrice the worry now", adding: "We didn't keep you waiting too long this time."

The Duke of Cambridge holds up three fingers as he tells the media he has 'thrice the worry now' as he leaves the Lindo Wing Credit: BEN STANSALL /AFP

The Duke and Duchess thanked the hospital for their care and the public for their wishes.

Kensington Palace said: "Their Royal Highnesses would like to thank all staff at the hospital for the care and treatment they have received.

"They would also like to thank everyone for their warm wishes."
Dave Majumdar

Security,

It depends who you ask--and when.

Russia's S-300 or S-400: F-35 Killer or Overhyped?

The Pentagon is casting doubt on the effectiveness of Russian-made air defense systems.

The Pentagons move appears to be aimed at deterring Turkey from purchasing the Russian-made S-400. However, the Pentagons statements call into question why the United States and its allies are investing hundreds of billions of dollars into stealth aircraft and stealthy long-range cruise missiles if Russian-made surface-to-air weapons are completely ineffective. Until the Pentagons April 19 press briefing, the Defense Department would routinely scaremonger how the S-400 would effectively turn an area into an anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) bubble.

The Pentagon noted that all allied missiles hit their targets inside Syria during the April 13 raiddespite the Russians patently ridiculous assertions that the Syrians shot down the majority of the incoming missiles. Following our operations, Russia falsely claimed Syria air defenses shot down a significant number of missiles, when in fact we hit all of our targets, Pentagon Chief spokesperson Dana W. White told reporters on April 19. Of the surface-to-air missiles that the Assad regime launched, nearly every one was launched after the last of our missiles hit their targets.

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White, however, went on to say that Russian manufactured air defenses were completely ineffective. The Russian manufactured air defense systems were totally ineffective, White said. Russia and the regime demonstrated the ineffectiveness of their systems again two days later when those systems engaged accidentally.

Joint Staff Director Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. walked those comments back somewhat. McKenzie noted that Russian air defenses were active during the American-led attack on Syria, but did not attempt to engage the incoming attack. In the attack on Friday night, Russian air defenses were energized, McKenzie said. They were scanning, they had a [Beriev A-50] Mainstay air defense aircraft up. They did not choose to engage, so I can't speculate about why they did or didn't do that.

Story continues

However, McKenzie stood by the comment that Russian-made air defenses were ineffectivebut allowed that there is a difference between the antiquated systems operated by the Syrians and those used by the Kremlins own forces. I can tell you though that the rest of Syrian air defense capability, which is completely Russian made, Russian designed, Russian supported, engaged extensively and comprehensively failed, McKenzie said. So I think there's a distinction there, and I recognize that. The Russians didn't do anything, although they're very closely allied to all the systems that the Syrians deployed to no effect.

McKenzie and Whites comments seem to be implicitly aimed at Turkey, a wayward NATO ally that the United States is trying to convince to forego purchasing the Russian S-400 Triumph system. We have talked to the Turks about the issue of interoperability, White said. But ultimately the Turks have to decide what's in their best strategic interest, and that's for Ankara to determine.

If we accept the Pentagons assertion that Russian air defenses are completely ineffective, then why is the United States investing hundreds of billions of dollars into stealth technology? The argument used to justify the outrageous cost of stealth aircraft simply evaporates since the threat they were built to counter does not exist.

Thus far, the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit has cost more than $45 billion and the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor has cost almost $67 billion to develop and field. Meanwhile, Lockheed Martins F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program is set to cost $406 billion and the Northrop Grumman B-21 is set to cost at least $56 billionbut the Air Force refuses to release cost figures for the Raider. And none of these numbers includes sustainment costs for these aircraft.

In addition to the aircraft, the Pentagon continues to invest in stealthy cruise missiles such as the JASSM-ER, the future Long Range Standoff (LRSO) weapon and a host of other long-range missiles to overcome enemyoverwhelmingly Russian-builtair defenses. What is the point if Russian-built air defenseswhich are used by the overwhelming majority of threatsare useless? Even the Chinese largely use copies of Moscows hardware.

For the next House or Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, expect leaders from the Pentagon to sound the alarm over the threat posed by the S-300, S-400 and other Russian-made air defenses to justify their programs and budgets. There will undoubtedly be much hand wringing about A2/AD bubbles in Kaliningrad or Crimea or elsewhere. The cycle will begin anew.

Dave Majumdar is the defense editor for The National Interest. You can follow him on Twitter: @davemajumdar.

Image: Flickr.

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Geneva (AFP) - Russia on Tuesday urged a United Nations nuclear disarmament forum to show its support for the "fragile" Iran nuclear accord by signing onto a statement, co-written by China, backing the deal.

The head of the arms control unit at Russia's foreign ministry, Vladimir Yermakov, called on UN members to not "keep silence in hope that the situation will somehow blow over".

Addressing the preliminary review meeting of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Yermakov described the landmark 2015 Iran nuclear agreement as "quite a fragile compromise".

US President Donald Trump has fiercely criticised the complex deal and has threatened to ditch it completely if the signatories do not sign up to tougher measures against Iran.

The president is supposed to waive US sanctions against Tehran by a May 12 deadline to keep the agreement alive but if he refuses to do so, it may unravel.

Russia and China, both supporters of the pact known as the Joint Comprehensive Action Plan (JCPOA), drafted a statement affirming their "unwavering support for the comprehensive and effective implementation" of the deal.

Yermakov urged all nations at the UN nuclear meeting to sign on.

"We believe there is a demand for such a collective message by the (meeting) and hope that the document will find broad support," he said.

The Russian official then took a thinly veiled shot at Trump's call to renegotiate the JCPOA in hopes of securing tougher terms.

"Any attempts to amend (the) text for someone's benefit will inevitably... have powerful negative consequences for regional global stability and security," Yermakov said.

- No renegotiation -

In his own speech to the forum, Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency Reza Najafi took on Trump directly, rejecting what he described as Washington's "ultimatum to certain JCPOA participants for one-sided alterations of the deal's provisions".

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"Our response to that threat is clear and firm: No, the JCPOA will not be renegotiated or altered," Najafi said, echoing a stance adopted by Tehran after Trump first raised the prospects of re-visiting a pact negotiated by his predecessor Barack Obama.

The joint Russia-China text was introduced at the UN meeting after Moscow's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov vowed in Beijing Monday that China and Russia would block any attempts to "sabotage" the Iran nuclear agreement.

During a first day of discussions on the NPT in Geneva Monday, a long line of speakers had voiced their support for the Iran deal, including the UN's top representative for disarmament affairs Izumi Nakamitsu.

European leaders are also scrambling to the save the deal.

French President Emmanuel Macron is in Washington this week lobbying Trump to preserve the pact, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel due in the US capital on Friday.
By Tom Miles GENEVA (Reuters) - Russia and China are asking U.N. member states to back a draft statement expressing "unwavering support" for the Iran nuclear deal, a senior Russian diplomat said on Tuesday, in a bid to put pressure on U.S. President Donald Trump not to withdraw from it. Russia's arms control envoy Vladimir Yermakov told a U.N. non-proliferation conference in Geneva that the Iran deal, known as the JCPOA, was fragile and any attempt to amend it would affect the global non-proliferation regime. "We call upon our colleagues in this hall today not to remain silent in hopes that this situation will somehow blow over by itself but rather to take serious steps to preserve the JCPOA," Yermakov said. French President Emmanuel Macron, who was on a state visit to Washington on Tuesday, is expected to try to avert an abrupt U.S. pull out from the treaty, and has said there is no Plan B. The Chinese-Russian draft text asks states to "confirm their unwavering support for the comprehensive and effective implementation" of the JCPOA, and to recognize its significant contribution to international security. Yermakov told Reuters he was hopeful of getting the backing of all major states at the end of the two week conference, including Washington's allies in Europe who have voiced their support for the JCPOA. "I hope to have all of them on board. Our joint statement has nothing negative, its quite understandable, and the wording is difficult not to support," he said. He also expected North Korea to give its backing, and said the fate of the Iran deal was a key factor in upcoming talks on North Korea's nuclear programs. "The efforts to settle the nuclear problem on the Korean peninsular through diplomatic means will to a large extent depend on the JCPOA," he told the conference. "A breach of the JCPOA without any reason and against the will of the international community is hardly likely to assure the DPRK's people that any potential future agreement would be observed." Shortly after Yermakov, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono took the floor and added his voice to those supporting the JCPOA, saying it contributed to the global non-proliferation regime. "Its continued and full implementation is important," Kono said. (Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)
Dave Majumdar

Security,

Would Putin really do it?

Would Russia Really Sell to Syria the S-300 Air Defense System? (And Why It Might Not Matter)

Russia has not made a final decision to supply Damascus with the S-300 surface-to-air missile defense system following an American-led attack on Syria on April 13. However, even if Moscow were to proceed with the delivery of the S-300 system to the Assad regime, the Russian-made weapon would not likely be able to stop an American cruise missile strike even if it could complicate allied air operations over Syria.

"I cannot say that this question has been settled," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the state-owned TASS news agency. "We know what Russian President Vladimir Putin said. He has discussed such matters with an official of our Defense Ministry from the standpoint of preventing a situation where Syria might turn out insufficiently prepared for aggressive attacks, like the one that occurred on April 14. It remains to be seen what decisions will be made by the Russian leadership and Syrian officials. Apparently, no secrets are due here. All this can be announced."

Russian officials suggest that Moscow could deliver the weapon to Syria within a month once the green light is given. "Naturally, the used S-300 systems that may be taken to Syria will have to be reconfigured to suit the standards of the Syrian air defense. This work may take about a month," a Russian military source told TASS.

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However, as the Pentagon has noted, Russian-built air defenses operated by the Syrian regime failed to intercept the April 13 attack where the U.S. and its allies launched some 105 cruise missiles at targets inside Syria. I can tell you though that the rest of Syrian air defense capability, which is completely Russian made, Russian designed, Russian supported, engaged extensively and comprehensively failed, Joint Staff Director Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. told reporters. So I think there's a distinction there, and I recognize that. The Russians didn't do anything, although they're very closely allied to all the systems that the Syrians deployed to no effect.

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McKenzie noted that the Russian owned and operated S-300V4 and S-400 systems stationed in Syria did not attempt to engage the incoming cruise missiles. In the attack on Friday night, Russian air defenses were energized, McKenzie said. They were scanning, they had a [Beriev A-50] Mainstay air defense aircraft up. They did not choose to engage, so I can't speculate about why they did or didn't do that.

One reason for Moscow not to engage was that Russian forces were not under attack and, as such, the Kremlin did not feel the need to shoot back. Another reason that the Kremlins forces did not engage is that they did not have enough interceptor missiles to shoot down that many missiles, but a much more important reason is simply that they could not engage the low-flying terrain hugging Tomahawks.

Because the Tomahawkand othercruise missiles fly at extremely low altitudes, they are extremely difficult to detect, track and intercept except at very short distances because of the curvature of the Earth and terrain features such a hills, mountains and valleys. A ground-based radar is inherently limited by line-of-sight and against a very low-flying object, the radar horizon is shortas little as 12 miles depending on the terrain features in the area.

One potential way to counter that is to cue interceptor missiles from the air using an airborne platform such as a Northrop Grumman E-2D and a data network, such as the Naval Integrated Fire Control - Counter Air (NIFC-CA). However, overland, even that would have disadvantages because of the difficulty of picking up cruise missiles from ground clutter. It is just a fact of life that radar cannot see through solid rock.

As McKenzie noted, the Russians did have A-50 radar aircraftwhich are similar in concept if not capability to the E-2D and the E-3 Sentry AWACSavailable and in the air. That means that the Russians might have been able to detect and track the American attack. However, it is not clear if the S-300V4 and the S-400 can be datalinked to the A-50 to provide target cuing. Some Russian sources suggest that the S-400 can be linked to the A-50, however, that is dubious at best. It is unlikely that Moscow has such a capability integrated onto the A-50 or S-400 at this point. The Russians tend to prefer self-contained systems that do not rely on off-board sensors.

In any case, the Syrians do not have A-50 aircraftnor is Moscow likely to be able to sell Damascus a Mainstay any time soon. A Syrian operated S-300 would, therefore, have to rely on terrestrial radar. As such, a Syrian operated S-300 would be able to provide area air defense at medium and high altitude where the radar horizon allows for broad coverage, but physics limit the weapon to being a point defense system at low altitude. Thus, even with the S-300, Syria would have no defense against an American cruise missile attack.

Dave Majumdar is the defense editor for The National Interest. You can follow him on Twitter: @davemajumdar.

Image: Creative Commons.

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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday the United States had no intention to leave Syria despite Washington saying it had such plans, the RIA state news agency said. Lavrov told reporters in Beijing he hoped it would become clearer how to cooperate on settling the Syrian issue after contacts with his counterparts from France. Commenting on foreign ministers from Group of Seven leading industrialized nations who united on Monday to condemn Russia, Lavrov said they had an obvious "Russophobic rationale," RIA added. (This version of the story was refiled to fix paragraph 1 mispunch to "no" instead of "to") (Reporting by Andrey Ostroukh; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
DUBAI (Reuters) - Air strikes by a Saudi-led military coalition killed at least 20 people attending a wedding in a village in northwestern Yemen late on Sunday, residents and medical sources said. The head of Al Jumhouri hospital in Hajjah told Reuters by telephone that the hospital had received 40 bodies, most of them torn to pieces, and that 46 people had been injured, including 30 children, in air strikes that hit a wedding gathering. Residents and medics told Reuters that 20 people attending the celebration were killed and at least 30 injured. "We take this report very seriously and it will be fully investigated as all reports of this nature are," a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition told Reuters. Residents of a village called Taiba elsewhere in the province told Reuters that a separate air strike killed a family of four in their house on Sunday night. The Western-backed alliance has been fighting a war for three years against the armed Houthi movement which controls the area and much of northern Yemen. It has launched thousands of air strikes in a campaign to restore the internationally recognized government. Errant strikes have killed hundreds of civilians at hospitals, schools and markets. Al-Masirah, the TV station of the armed Houthi movement which controls the area and much of northern Yemen, said on its Twitter account that 33 people had been killed and 55 wounded. The coalition says it does not target civilians and has set up an investigation committee into alleged mass casualty air strikes which have mostly cleared the coalition of any blame. The Yemen war has killed more than 10,000 people, displaced more than 2 million and driven the country to the verge of famine, according to the United Nations. (Writing by Ghaida Ghantous; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)
London (AFP) - The academic behind the app that allowed consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to farm the data of some 87 million Facebook users said Tuesday he was being scapegoated while the social network was being "mined left and right by thousands" of companies.

Aleksandr Kogan, who teaches at Cambridge University, told a British parliamentary committee that criticism of his work by Facebook showed the US social media giant was in "PR crisis mode".

"I don't believe they actually think these things because I think they realise that their platform has been mined left and right by thousands of others," said the Russian-American scientist, who is now banned from Facebook.

"I was just the unlucky person that ended up somehow linked to the Trump campaign. It's convenient to point the finger at a single entity," he said, playing down his own work as of little political value.

Kogan created a personality prediction app through his company Global Science Research (GSR), which offered a small financial payment in return for users filling out a personality test.

Facebook says it was downloaded by 270,000 people, but it also gave Kogan access to their friends, giving him a wealth of information on 87 million users, according to the social media giant's boss Mark Zuckerberg.

Cambridge Analytica went on to work on Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, using message micro-targeting through personality profiles.

However, Kogan told MPs on Tuesday that the data was too imprecise to build up accurate profiles that could be used to effectively target political Facebook ads.

"One of the biggest points of confusion has been how accurate the personality scores we provided to SCL (CA's parent company) were," he said.

"The scores were highly inaccurate. We found that the scores were more accurate than a random guess, but less accurate than assuming everyone is average on every trait."

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Facebook's own tools "provide companies a far more effective pathway to target people based on their personalities than using scores from users from our work," he added.

Kogan said that CA assured him that what he was doing was "perfectly legal and within the terms of service" of the social media giant.

CA's former chief executive Alexander Nix has denied using data collected by GSR, but Kogan called the claim "a fabrication".

- 'Unfortunate coincidence' -

He also accused Facebook of feigning ignorance of how their users' data was being used, saying it was "well documented that Facebook collaborates with researchers.

"They gave me the data set without any agreement signed," he explained. "Sometime later they came and we did have a signed agreement."

When asked why Facebook would be so accommodating, Kogan replied that "this was something they gave their employees to stimulate them."

Committee chairman Damien Collins asked if that meant Facebook let its employees give data to academics "and let them play with it?", to which Kogan responded; "Yes".

The scientist claimed in an earlier interview that "tens of thousands" of apps will have taken advantage of Facebook data rules.

It was, however, not part of Facebook's terms for Kogan to sell data, and he denied he had ever done so.

Born in Moldova and raised in Russia, before emigrating to the United States at the age of seven, Kogan studied at the University of California, Berkeley, and obtained his doctorate at the University of Hong Kong.

He joined the University of Cambridge's Department of Psychology as a lecturer in 2012.

He has also conducted work funded by the Russian government with St Petersburg University, but said that was irrelevant to the Facebook scandal.

The scientist also goes by the name Aleksandr Spectre, which he took when he married his Singaporean bride.

When an MP pointed out that the name was also the evil organisation in James Bond films, Kogan said this was just an "unfortunate coincidence".
Maya for relocating people living on hill slopes

BSS, Rangamati :

Disaster Management and Relief Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya on Monday. Said the people living on the hill slopes should be shifted to safe places soon aiming to protect them from possible landslides during the upcoming monsoon.

"The tasks of shifting the dwellers living in the risky hilly areas have to be completed soon by forming a district level committee in coordination with all agencies concerned," he said while addressing a workshop on 'hill- slide and pre-cautionary awareness programme'. Rangamati district administration organised the workshop at cultural centre for ethnic minorities in the district, an official release said. Chaired by deputy commissioner of Rangamati AKM Mamunur Rashid, the workshop was addressed, among others, by Disaster Management and Relief secretary Md Shah Kamal, former state minister Dipankar Talukdar, brigade commander of Rangamati 305 Brigade Golam Faruq and chairman of Rangamati Hill District Council Brishaketu Chakma.

Additional secretary of the ministry Md Mohsin presented a keynote paper at the workshop.

Speaking as the chief guest, Maya said the hill management should be modernised and it is the state's responsibility to relocate the hill dwellers living on the risky slopes to safe places.

Recalling the deadly landslides that took place in the hilly districts last year, he said the government does not want to see further loss of any life in hill-slides.

Reading out his keynote paper, Mohsin said the deadly landslides were triggered by incessant rainfall in Rangamati in 2017, which claimed the lives of 120 people.

He said unplanned settlements in the hills, hill-cutting, deforestation and lack of drainage system lead to the landslides in the hilly region.

Mohsin stressed the need for taking a coordinated hill management policy, forecasting weather data accurately and applying modern technology and strategies in hill management.

Earlier, the district administration in association with the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief brought out a procession from Pourasabha office premises aiming to make the hilly dwellers aware of the consequences of landslides.




Shell company tied to the Fox News host bought homes through Jeff Brock, who was charged in 2016 with fraud and conspiracy for his role in a scheme to rig auctions on foreclosed properties



A shell company linked to Sean Hannity bought 11 homes in Georgia through Jeff Brock. Hannitys attorney says he had no knowledge of Brocks wrongdoing. Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters

Sean Hannitys real estate venture bought houses through a property dealer who was involved in a criminal conspiracy to fraudulently obtain foreclosed homes, according to records reviewed by the Guardian.



In 2012, a shell company linked to the Fox News host bought 11 homes in Georgia that had been purchased by the dealer, Jeff Brock, following foreclosures. Brock transferred the properties to corporate vehicles that sold them on to the Hannity-linked company at a profit.

Brock pleaded guilty in 2016 to federal charges of bank fraud and conspiracy for his role in an operation to rig foreclosure auctions between 2007 and 2012. He was sentenced to six months in prison and had to pay more than $166,000 in fines and restitution.

Some of the houses sold on to the Hannity-linked firm in 2012 had been acquired by Brock from banks later named by prosecutors among his victims. But the justice department declined to identify specific properties sold in the rigged auctions. Hannity has not been accused of any wrongdoing and there is no evidence he was aware that Brock was involved in fraud.

Christopher Reeves, an attorney for Hannity, said the Fox News host was not involved in choosing the houses bought via Brock and has no knowledge whether these properties were involved in the fraud.

Reeves said neither Hannity nor the company used to buy the properties had any knowledge regarding Mr Brocks wrongdoing before being informed by the Guardian on Monday.

An attorney for Brock, Don Samuel, said in an email: Jeff has nothing to say.

The company linked to Hannity was one of a group identified by the Guardian on Sunday that spent $90m buying more than 870 homes in seven states over the past decade. Hannity was confirmed as the hidden owner behind some of the companies and has not disputed that he is the owner of all of them.

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Hannity defended his real estate investments on Monday, stating in a post to his website that he had chosen to invest his personal wealth in communities that badly need such investment and that he had limited involvement in the ventures day-to-day operation.

The fact is, these are investments that I do not individually select, control, or know the details about; except that obviously I believe in putting my money to work in communities that otherwise struggle to receive such support, Hannity wrote.

Hannity-linked companys purchases

In February 2012, the Hannity-linked company spent about $540,000 buying 10 single-family houses in Georgias Fulton, Cobb, Clayton and DeKalb counties, according to county records. It bought an additional DeKalb county property later that year for about $60,000.

The company was formed in Georgia days before the February purchases by an attorney for Hannity. It was registered to the offices of Henssler Financial, Hannitys wealth managers. As a limited liability company (LLC), it was not required to report its actual owner to Georgia regulators. Hannity is not mentioned in the companys publicly available filings.

Sean Hannity in the White House briefing room. Photograph: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images

Brock had bought the 11 Georgia houses in foreclosure auctions in 2011 and 2012, after the previous owners defaulted on mortgages. He transferred the properties to five LLCs. Brock was the registered agent for two of the five LLCs and a colleague at Key Property was the agent for another. Then the Hannity-linked company bought the houses from these five LLCs, paying a total of $600,000.

Where payment information was clear in the records, it indicated that the sales created significant profits. One four-bedroom home in College Park that Brock bought for $14,000 in January 2012 was sold to the Hannity-linked company for $47,000 the following month. Another in Forest Park, for which Brock paid $19,000 in October 2011, was sold on for $55,000.

Brocks auction-rigging scheme

US prosecutors said that, during the period in which he was buying the properties, Brock and two co-defendants were running a scheme to rig foreclosure auctions, where people bid to buy homes that have been repossessed by mortgage lenders.

The men agreed not to compete on property sales so one could win the auctions with artificially low bids, according to charging documents. The winning bidder would then give payoffs to the others to reward them for not having competed.

When asked for details on specific houses bought in the rigged sales, Jeremy Edwards, a spokesman for the justice department, said in an email: As a matter of policy, DoJ does not disclose that type of information.

Those involved in the auction scheme agreed they would not compete on property sales, resulting in artificially low bids for homes. Photograph: Rick Wilking/Reuters

Reeves, Hannitys attorney, said the Fox News host and the company used to buy the houses ceased doing business with Mr Brock and Key Properties in 2012.

Brock was released from the US penitentiary in Atlanta, a medium-security facility, in June 2017, according to federal records. He remains under the supervision of a probation officer until 2019. As part of Brocks plea agreement, he has agreed to cooperate with US authorities on related investigations and any new inquiries arising from them.

Federal officials said Brock was at the time of his plea one of 20 people who had been charged as part of a major investigation into corruption around property foreclosure sales in the Atlanta region.

These defendants conspired to corrupt foreclosure auctions that should have benefited lenders and homeowners, the deputy assistant attorney general, Renata Hesse, who is head of the justice departments antitrust division, said in a statement at the time.

Special Agent J Britt Johnson of the FBIs Atlanta division said: By the very nature of this criminal act, the bank, and more importantly, the homeowner in financial distress, are the victims that these federal laws were created to protect.
TOP STORIES

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DR. NO Senators have canceled confirmation hearings for Rear Adm. Ronny L. Jackson, the White House doctor and President Donald Trumps pick to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, over concerns he lacks any relevant experience for the job. [HuffPost] [Tweet | Share on Facebook]

TORONTO TRAGEDY Ten people died and 15 were injured when a van drove onto a sidewalk in Toronto Monday, an act police said definitely looked deliberate, but didnt appear to be terrorism. [HuffPost]

GAME OF PHONES Trump has reportedly dumped security protocol and taken to calling advisers outside the White House on his private cell phone  possibly so chief of staff John Kelly doesnt know who hes talking to. [HuffPost]

RAND REVERSAL CIA Director Mike Pompeo received a favorable endorsement from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to become secretary of state after a late and not entirely unexpected flip-flop from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). [HuffPost]

MISTAKES ON A PLANE Reporters have found flight records for a private jet carrying Trump that indicate he spent two nights in Moscow in November 2013  exactly the time when the infamous pee tape was allegedly made. [HuffPost]

BOY MEETS WORLD The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge introduced their new son to waiting media Monday outside St. Marys Hospital in London. Michelle Obama posted a lovely message on her Instagram to welcome the new arrival, while HuffPost reveals the top names in the running for the fifth in line to the throne. [HuffPost]

SEAN OF PLENTY Embattled Fox News entertainer Sean Hannity has defended his failure to publicly disclose his extensive property investments, which included foreclosed houses bought through shell companies, while receiving support from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. [HuffPost]

WHATS BREWING

BUSH IN HOSPITAL Former President George H.W. Bush was admitted to intensive care  a day after he attended the funeral for his late wife, Barbara Bush. [CNN]

Story continues

DOUG DUMPED Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) has been thrown off the ballot for the June 26 primary after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that one of his petition gatherers was not a resident of the state. [HuffPost]

INTERVENTION WAS APPROPRIATE Alabama police are defending a controversial Waffle House arrest that ended with 25-year-old woman handcuffed and topless on the restaurant floor. [HuffPost]

WE ARE VENOM! A new trailer for the Sony superhero flick Venom just dropped, featuring Tom Hardy as the toothy alien symbiote. [HuffPost]

HOUSE BOLTON Emboldened White House national security adviser John Bolton has appointed a known foe of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to be his deputy. [HuffPost]

PILLOW TALK Laura Ingraham has hit out at advertisers who fled her Fox News show following comments about Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg. The besieged host still has one faithful friend whos sticking around  the My Pillow guy. [HuffPost]

BEFORE YOU GO

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By Marwa Rashad and Sarah Dadouch RIYADH (Reuters) - A Saudi-led coalition air strike last week killed the top civilian leader in the armed Houthi movement in Yemen, the group reported on Monday, the most senior official to be killed by the Western-backed alliance in the three-year-old war. Saleh al-Samad held the post of president in the Houthi-backed political body which runs most of northern Yemen. Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said in a televised statement that Samad was killed on Thursday in the port city of Hodeidah, on Yemen's west coast, in several strikes which killed six others in his retinue. "The forces of aggression, led by America and Saudi Arabia, bear the legal responsibility for this crime and all its consequences," al-Houthi said. There was no immediate coalition comment on the reports but Saudi broadcaster Al Arabiya TV said the alliance had killed Samad after a "precise monitoring" of his movements. At the United Nations meanwhile, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned air strikes on a wedding party in Yemen that killed at least 20 civilians on Sunday. Saudi Arabia and its mostly Gulf Arab allies accuse the Houthis of being proxies of their arch-rival Iran -- charges the group and Tehran deny. The Houthis control the capital Sanaa and are fighting forces loyal to the internationally-recognized government based in the southern port city of Aden. The government is backed by a mostly Gulf Arab alliance which in turn receives arms and other support from the United States and Britain. Samad was second on the coalition's most wanted list of Houthi leaders, after al-Houthi. It had offered a $20 million reward for any information that led to Samad's capture. The death of Samad, the group's Ansarullah political council chief, dealt one of the biggest blows yet to the Houthi in a war that has killed more than 10,000 people and unleashed the world's most urgent humanitarian crisis. The United Nations has been advancing efforts to bring the warring sides closer together and achieve a peace deal to spare the impoverished country further bloodshed. "This can potentially escalate the conflict, as it comes comes amidst tense political negotiations," said Adam Baron of the European Council for Foreign Relations. "The Houthis will feel the need to respond," he added. Al-Masirah reported that the Houthis had appointed Mahdi al-Mashat, once director of al-Houthi's office, to replace Samad. Residents and medical sources said coalition air strikes also killed at least 20 people attending a wedding in a village in northwestern Yemen on Sunday night, and about 30 people were wounded. The coalition said it would investigate the report. The United Nations' Guterres also called for a prompt and transparent investigation. "The Secretary-General reminds all parties of their obligations under international humanitarian law concerning the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure during armed conflicts," a U.N. statement said. The coalition has carried out thousands of air strikes in Yemen that have hit schools, markets and hospitals, killing hundreds of people, although it says it does not target civilians. (Reporting by Sarah Dadouch, Marwa Rashad and Mohammed Ghobari; Writing by Noah Browning; editing by Mark Heinrich)
Spotify is improving its free offering and updates its iOS and Android apps.

Spotify (SPOT) is finally giving its mobile app a major facelift, as part of a push to improve its free service. The new app will roll out globally to the companys 157 million users in the coming weeks.

The Swedish company operates the largest paid music streaming service in the world, followed by Apple Music. And if it wants to hold on to that lead, its going to have to funnel more users into its premium offering. And as the company explained during its press event announcing improvements to its free service, the more people listen, the more theyll spend.

To do that Spotify is rolling out an improved user experience that should entice more free users to spend the $9.99 a month on the premium version of the app.

The biggest improvements to Spotifys free offering include 15 new on-demand playlists each day ranging from RapCaviar and Ultimate Indie to Daily Mix and Discover Weekly. Each playlist will, naturally, be built around users personal tastes.

Youll also be able to listen to those playlists in any order youd like and skip as many songs in them as often as you want. You still wont, however, be able to do that with playlists you curate on your own. Youll still be limited to skipping 6 songs an hour, be unable to replay songs and wont be able to save songs for offline listening. Thats all still reserved for premium customers.

Improving discovery

Spotify says new users will no longer have to wait for the companys algorithms to learn their tastes before they can begin making accurate recommendations. Thats because when you sign up for Spotify, youll now be able to identify your favorite artists. When you select an artist from the provided list, say, Kendrick Lamar, the app will give you additional recommendations.

When I picked Iron Maiden, for example, the app gave me a larger list of metal bands. The feature is similar to the onboarding process for Apple (AAPL) Music, though it seems like Spotify provides a larger list of artists and bands to choose from than Apple Music.

Story continues

Spotify is also adding a new Data Saver option for users that the company says caches music you might like on your device, so you can still listen to your favorite band or musician without using too much mobile data. Spotify, however, wouldnt say how much music it would cache on your phone or tablet, which could be an issue  especially if youre running out of storage space on your device and every little bit counts.

Improving its free service will give Spotify more ammunition in its fight against both Apple Music and Googles (GOOG, GOOGL) YouTube, which will soon begin trying to woo users to its premium service by adding more advertisements during free listening sessions and outlining the benefits of its premium offering such as offline listening.

A brand-new look

While the improvements to Spotifys free offering are good news for most users, Im more excited about the fact that the company has finally decided to give its Android and iOS apps a much-needed facelift.

I use Spotify on a daily basis and, despite that, still have trouble navigating its menus. The simple fact that the Settings page is hidden in the Library tab has boggled my mind since the first day I downloaded the app. Now Settings will be accessible from the apps Home tab, where it should have always been.

Whats more, the company is doing away with the Radio and Browse tabs and moving them all into the Search tab. It makes for a much cleaner experience, and should prove less confusing for users.

It will be interesting to see if this new version of Spotify gives the company an even greater edge over the competition when it rolls out in the coming weeks.

More from Dan:

Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@oath.com; follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley.

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Was the royal babys birth written in the stars? (Photo: Getty)

ICYMI, the royal baby has arrived.

On April 23, Prince William and Kate Middleton welcomed their third child  a second son  at St. Marys Hospital in London.

The prince made his first public appearance hours later, cradled by his mother, who emerged post-birth in a red Jenny Packham collared dress.

While the world is still waiting to find out what the royal couple have chosen to name their new arrival, there are other nuggets of information we can glean from the newborns astrological chart.

The new prince was born on April 23, 2018 at 11:01 am in London, a time and date which astrologer and author Sally Kirkman believes is no coincidence.

At first glance, the new addition to the royal family has the right credentials to fit in and join one of the most famous families in the world, Kirkman tells Yahoo Style UK.

Baby number three is a little boy who was born only two days after his great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth lls actual birthday (April 21), which is a lovely birthday present for her.

What does the new royals astrological chart reveal about his future? (Photo: Getty)

Like the Queen, and his elder sister, Princess Charlotte, the new royal is a Sun Taurus, which according to Kirkman is a steady earth sign  reliable and nurturing, persistent, and stubborn.

The newborns timely arrival means that everyone in his immediate family are earth and water signs, which Kirkman says go well together.

William and Prince George are both Sun Cancer, an emotional and sensitive water sign, she explains. Princess Diana was a Sun Cancer too. Kate is a Sun Capricorn, a traditional and conservative earth sign, and William and Kate now have two more earth sign children, Sun Taurus Charlotte and baby no. 3.

The new baby was also born with the Moon in Leo, the royal sign.

This means hes likely to get on well with his new aunt-to-be, Meghan Markle, as her Sun Leo sits close to his Moon Leo, Kirkman predicts.

Born a month before her wedding to Prince Harry, this is likely to create a special bond between them.

The newborn should slot right in with the family. (Photo: Getty)

Kirkman says the timing of the babys birth suggests he is born to shine bright, as the Moon in Leo likes to be in the spotlight.

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As the Moon was next to the karmic north node in Leo on the day of his birth, hes likely to feel a strong pull of destiny and will need to find his stage to perform on, she says.

Kirkman says that basic astrology indicates that the new baby will slot into the conventional family values of his parents.

But a deeper look into the astrology reveals that the new royal could also show similar characteristics to that of Markle and his uncle.

The new baby continues this modern theme, she says. This is because Uranus, the unconventional planet, was next to the Sun in Taurus when he was born. Traditionally, Sun Taurus doesnt like change whereas Uranus is the planet of change and all things new and innovative.

The royal baby will likely get on well with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. (Photo: Getty)

Another factor to take into consideration is the fact that the new baby was born with Chiron at 0 degrees Aries on his Midheaven, the pinnacle of the birth chart and linked to his vocation.

This gives him the potential of being a maverick, a healer, or teacher, Kirkman reveals.

She concludes that the current astrology for the newborn is exciting and unpredictable, with his birth chart including a progressive and distinctive hallmark.

On the surface, hes going to fit in perfectly with his family, she says. His personal destiny, however, may see him treading a more unusual path.

Sally is the author of twelve sun sign guides for Hodder & Stoughton. Visit www.sallykirkman.com/books for more information.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

The royal baby shares a birthday with some very famous folks

New royal baby looks strikingly similar to Prince George and Princess Charlotte

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An upcoming Supreme Court decision in a case most Americans have never heard of, and even lawyers will find obscure, could offer a clue about how the justices would react to President Trump firing Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Technically, the case of Raymond J. Lucia v. Securities and Exchange Commission, being argued Monday, involves only the arcane question of whether SEC Administrative Law Judges are officers or employees of the United States. The Trump Administrations handling of the case reveals it, however, to be the latest chapter in a right-wing campaign to weaken independent administrators and to enlarge the power of presidents to bend the bureaucracy to their will. It may be one of the Courts most important decisions for the future of the rule of law.

Raymond J. Lucia and his company allegedly defrauded investors at seminars touting a so-called Buckets of Money retirement wealth-management strategy. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Lucia falsely claimed to have proof that investors who followed the Buckets of Money approach would have weathered dramatic market downturns in earlier decades. Although the sanctions imposed on Lucia came from the SEC, its proceedings started with an Administrative Law Judge, or ALJ, who heard testimony, took evidence, and made several preliminary decisions that the Commission ultimately reviewed.

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Heres the arcane part: Instead of appointing Administrative Law Judges, the SEC delegated that power to its chief administrative law judge. In Lucias case, as in others, the chief ALJ selected an ALJ whom the federal Office of Personnel Management had properly found to be qualified for that role. Lucia argued unsuccessfully to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that this selection was unconstitutional. He asserted that, under Article II of the Constitution, the ALJ had to be considered an Officer of the United States. As such, she could properly be appointed only by the president or by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The chief ALJ could appoint another ALJ only if the appointed ALJ were a mere employee, not an officer. The Supreme Court agreed to take the question under review.

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This appointments issue has no direct implications for Mueller. As the head of a department, Acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed the special counsel, is constitutionally qualified to make both officer and employee appointments. Yet the Courts handling of the appointments question will have enormous implications for administrative justice in the United States. As pointed out in an amicus brief for neither party by administrative law scholars, Congress created the ALJ system in the 1940s to help with the multifarious oral evidentiary hearings that are common throughout the federal government. Most ALJs, 1,655 out of 1,926, provide hearings regarding claims before the Social Security Administration. The system was intended to respond to complaints that federal hearing officers were too biased in favor of the agencies they worked for. By giving administrative adjudicators a measure of independence, Congressand the Securities and Exchange Commissionwere trying to give private parties like Lucia more a fair shake when their cases came before the government.

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Far from being hurt by the system, Lucia, if anything, was helped by it. If Lucia wins his case on the Appointments Clause issue, it could wreak havoc with the varied universe of federal programs of administrative adjudication, replacing merit-system appointments with a system more easily politicized. I am among a group of constitutional and administrative law scholars who have filed another amicus brief opposed on historical grounds to this outcome.

The deeper threat to the rule of law, however, comes not from the issue of appointments, but from another issue that the Court initially seemed to dodgenamely, whether administrative law judges must be dischargeable at will or whether, as is now the case, they may be fired only for good cause. And make no mistake, the ultimate target here is not just administrative law judges, but all federal administrators who are officers of the United States, includingperhaps especiallyindependent prosecutors like Mueller.

The Trump Administrators eagerness to pursue the removal issue could not be more palpable. First, the current solicitor general, Noel Francisco, reversed the position of the Obama Administration, which had defended the Securities and Exchange Commission, and put the government instead on Lucias side. Then, contrary to Lucias lawyers, who have explicitly argued that the removal question is not properly presented, Francisco urged the Court to address the removal question. When the Court declined to include the removal issue in its grant of certiorari, Francisco went ahead and briefed it anyway, urging that ALJs must be dischargeable for any failure to perform adequately or to follow agency policies, procedures, or instructions. The Supreme Court has now granted him permission to share in the oral argument on behalf of Lucia, even though among the reasons Francisco gave for sharing the podium is precisely that only the government has addressed in its brief the merits of the removal question. In a normal case, that would be a very strong reason for the Court not to take up the issue.

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The solicitor generals breach of norms is best seen as the latest official salvo in the battle for unitary-executive theory, a constitutional view embraced by the Federalist Society since its founding in the 1980s. Adherents to this theory believe that the Constitution guarantees the president complete authority over how officials within the executive branch exercise all the administrative discretion Congress has vested in them. This implies, in their view, a presidential entitlement to remove all such officials at willor at least for failure  to follow  instructions. They believe the Supreme Court was wrong in 1935 to uphold Congresss power to insulate members of the Federal Trade Commission from at-will discharge. They believe the Court was wrong in 1988, when it upheld Congresss power to similarly protect independent counsels.

And they are chomping at the bit to put this theory into action. In 2011, U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Brett Kavanaugh, a Federalist Society stalwart, wrote a concurrence that, despite his disclaimer, was all but a brief for overturning the Supreme Courts 1935 precedent. His opinion was gratuitous advocacy in a case that did not require calling the Supreme Courts earlier decisions into question, a performance he all but repeated just last year. (Judge Kavanaughs zeal may seem ironic given that his first claim to fame was as associate counsel to the independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr, whose remit to pursue President Bill Clinton Kavanaugh presumably now thinks was unconstitutional.)

But as the solicitor generals current conduct illustrates, neither lawyerly nor judicial norms may deter champions of unitary-executive theory from trying to goad the Supreme Court into whittling away at administrative independence from the president. A Supreme Court majority could oblige. They may well be unwilling to strip adjudicators like ALJs of all removal protection. But the way they write an opinion could affect public perception surrounding the legitimacy of a potential Mueller dismissal. The Court might suggest without deciding, for example, that there is a genuine and unresolved issue whether presidents are entitled to fire all Officers of the United States who are not adjudicators like the ALJs. Yet five votes even hinting that the constitutional status of an officer in Muellers position is in question will embolden President Trump and his most constitutionally aggressive advisers. They will baselessly assert that the Courts handling of the issueeven if not addressing, much less resolving the questionimplies that a Court majority might uphold a direct presidential dismissal of the special counsel.

The alternative to a unitary-executive presidency is a checks-and-balances presidency, in which it is most often up to Congress and to the departments of government that Congress created whether and how to balance the values of independent judgment and politically insulated accountability to the rule of law against the value of political accountability to the president. A case like Lucia, which implicates the evenhandedness of administrative judges, presents the least appealing context for expanding the presidents capacity to make political appointments. But equally, Americas Trumpian moment marks the least enticing time to certify a presidents supposed constitutional authority to fire officials at will. Dont let the technical details fool you. A lot is at stake in Lucia.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
Taiwan will simulate taking on an invading force in war games next week amid its increasing tensions with China.

Taipei will conduct exercises in which it will repair a major air base and use civilian operated drones, Reuters reported.

The annual Han Kuang drills, which start on April 30, make no mention of China, only offensive forces invading Taiwan and will include a live-fire field training exercise and enemy elimination on beaches.

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REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

Drones will aid with battlefield surveillance, building companies with runway repairs for the Ching Chuan Kang airbase and there will be air defense drills and exercises with the navy. Live fire drills will take place between June 4 and June 8 in what will be the first time civilian forces will work with other government branches.

Civilian resources will also be integrated into this exercise to support military operations, Taiwans defense ministry said.

In January, Taiwan held a military drill at the Port of Hualien using reconnaissance planes and F-16 fighter jets.

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Chinas claim on Taiwan, which has autonomy, has become more vociferous after the election of Tsai Ing-Wen as president, from the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party.

China has breached Taiwans sea and air borders over the last year during its increased military maneuvers. On April 18, it undertook live-fire military exercises.

Chieh Chung, from the Taipei-based think tank, the National Policy Foundation, said Beijing's actions were part of its mind games with its neighbor.

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Story continues

"What is worth noticing is that over the past one or two years, Beijing has regularly taken advantage of these cheap, routine, small-sized, regional drills to serve its purpose of psychological warfare against Taiwan," he told Channel News Asia.

The U.S. recognizes Beijings One China policy but has stated it would defend the island against any Chinese invasion and equipped it with American-made weapons.

In a survey conducted in January by the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, 68 percent of people said they would join the army or find other means of resistance should China invade.

Some 55 percent of people said they would go to war for Taiwans independence while 91 percent said they preferred the status quo, whereby it kept its de facto sovereign status.

Only 1.5 percent of people believed Taiwan should be reunited with the mainland, the National Interest reported.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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Johannesburg (AFP) - South African police said on Tuesday one of their officers had shot dead a teenager during anti-corruption protests which have forced the president to cut short a foreign trip.

Riots over alleged government corruption and poor public services erupted last week in the North West province, where cars were set ablaze and shops looted in the first wave of unrest to face President Cyril Ramaphosa, who came to power in February.

"A 16-year-old boy was found dead during a violent protest yesterday evening in Taung," provincial police spokesman Sabata Mokgwabone told AFP.

"He was shot dead by the police," police watchdog spokesman Moses Dlamini told AFP, adding that investigators had been dispatched to the town where the situation was "still very volatile".

"At this stage we are trying to gather information about what happened," said Dlamini, of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate.

After prematurely returning home from a Commonwealth summit in London on Friday and going straight into talks with local provincial leaders, Ramaphosa appealed for calm and promised a "speedy" resolution of the crisis.

Following a lull over the weekend, new protests broke out on Monday -- this time in Taung town, 300 kilometres (about 200 miles) from the provincial capital Mahikeng which was the epicentre of last week's protests.

Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets during clashes with the protesters.

The North West province has been a hotbed of unrest due to frustration over lack of housing, health services and jobs.

Much of the anger has been directed at Supra Mahumapelo, the provincial premier, who is accused of involvement in graft scandals that have engulfed the ruling African National Congress party.

He is accused of diverting 1.5 million rand ($120,000) from government coffers to buy cattle for former president Jacob Zuma.

His son allegedly received a 1.1 million rand pilot-training bursary from the state arms manufacturer under suspicious circumstances.

Ramaphosa, who took over from Zuma three months ago, has vowed to crack down on government corruption.
Poet Belal Chy passes away

UNB, Dhaka :

Ekushey Padak winning poet Belal Chowdhury died at a city hospital on Tuesday. He was 79.

The prominent poet breathed his last at 12:30pm at Anwar Khan Modern Hospital in

Dhanmondi, Abdullah Pratik Chowdhury, eldest son of the poet, told UNB.

The first namaz-e-janza of the poet was held at Paltan Mosque after Maghrib prayer on Tuesday, said Mohammad Samad, president of Kabita Parishad.
The president of Iran has raised the stakes in President Donald Trumps talks with his French counterpart by warning him not to pull out of the nuclear deal the Islamic republic signed in 2015.

In a televised speech Tuesday, Hassan Rouhani said Trump should honor the deal struck with five other world powers, in which Tehran agreed to ease its nuclear program in exchange for a lifting of sanctions. Trump has criticized it as one of the worst deals ever negotiated.

I am telling those in the White House that if they do not live up to their commitments, the Iranian government will react firmly," he said, according to Reuters.

Trending: Even a Little Caffeine While Pregnant Could Increase Childs Obesity Risk: Study

RTX5WXYB

REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/File Photo

"If anyone betrays the deal, they should know that they would face severe consequences," he added.

Iran is on the table during this weeks talks with French leader Emmanuel Macron on the second day of his state visit to the U.S.

Don't miss: Emanuel Macron's New Immigration Bill: What You Need to Know

The Telegraph reported that German Chancellor Angela Merkel is also expected to tell Trump to stick to the deal as he has until May 12 to decide whether to continue with the eased sanctions or to reimpose them.

U.S. disarmament ambassador Robert Wood said urgent discussions were being held with European allies ahead of that deadline.

Trump says the Obama-era deal is not tough enough and wants Tehrans ballistic missile programs and its military activities in the region to be included. However, Irans Foreign Minister Javad Zarif wrote on Twitter that there is no Plan B and Washington must accept the three-year-old agreement all or nothing.

European leaders should encourage President Trump not just to stay in the nuclear deal, but more importantly to begin implementing his part of the bargain in good faith, he said.

Story continues

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from Newsweek
By Gul Yousafzai QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Three suicide bombers attacked Pakistani police and paramilitary soldiers in the southwestern city of Quetta on Tuesday, killing six police and wounding 15 members of the security forces, officials said. One bomber detonated his explosives near a police truck, provincial police chief Moazzam Jah Ansari said. Seven police officers were wounded in that attack. "It is a suicide attack, and we have a confirmation that six of our police officials are dead," Ansari told Reuters. Half an hour earlier, two suicide bombers tried to attack a paramilitary checkpoint on the city's outskirts, but troops deployed there engaged them, a paramilitary officer said. He said the troops had opened fire at the attackers, who detonated their explosives, wounding eight soldiers. Both the suicide bombers died, he said on condition of anonymity because the army was due to issue an official statement. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks. Quetta is the capital city of the southwestern province of Baluchistan, which has been plagued by violence. Islamist militants linked to the Taliban, al Qaeda and Islamic State have been operating in the province, which borders Iran as well as Afghanistan. It also has an indigenous ethnic Baloch insurgency fighting the central government. Islamic State has created a branch in Pakistan and Afghanistan, mostly by recruiting among break away factions of other established militant groups. Its followers have claimed some of Pakistan's most deadly recent attacks. Six members of Pakistan's tiny Christian minority community, four of them from the same family, and two people from the Shi'ite Muslim minority were gunned down in Quetta this month. In December two suicide bombers stormed a packed church in southwestern Pakistan, killing at least 10 people and wounding up to 56. Pakistan a nuclear armed nation of 208 million people has for some time seen a decrease in militant violence, but the Islamists, who want to install their own harsh brand of Islamic law, remain potent. (Writing by Asif Shahzad; Editing by Alison Williams)
Washington (AFP) - Victims of attacks in Israel cannot use an 18th century law to sue the Arab Bank, a multinational financial institution, the US Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday in a precedent-setting case for other foreign businesses.

The decision rests on a legal provision almost 230 years old.

Plaintiffs accused the Jordan-based bank of facilitating transfers to Hamas, the Islamist movement which controls the Gaza Strip and which Israel and the United States label a terrorist group.

A majority of five conservative judges on the top US court outnumbered four others who dissented.

The Arab Bank was founded in Jerusalem in 1930 when Palestine was under the British Mandate, and now has more than 600 branches worldwide.

It hailed the decision as a "historic victory" and insisted it would continue to carry out its activities in accordance with "international banking norms".

The bank plays a central role in the Palestinian territories where it works with major international development agencies.

The roughly 6,000 foreign claimants in the case included victims of militant attacks in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, primarily during the second Intifada from 2000 to 2005.

They said the Bank contravened international laws by allowing financial transfers aimed at funding the violence to be made to accounts held by Hamas leaders.

The plaintiffs based their action on the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) of 1789, which was adopted following an altercation some five years earlier in which a French diplomat was assaulted by a French national in the US.

The statute was largely dormant for nearly 200 years before reemerging onto the legal scene. Various legal actions were begun against foreign dictators and multinational corporations implicated in cases outside US territory.

But the judges on Tuesday, worried over the risk of diplomatic tensions, refused to extend application of the ATS to multinationals with no link to the United States.

Story continues

"The Court holds that foreign corporations may not be defendants in suits brought under the ATS," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority.

He said it is up to Congress to revise the law if it sees fit.

In a dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the majority ruling "absolves corporations from responsibility under the ATS for conscience-shocking behavior" and human rights violations.

burs-del/mm




Police have confirmed 10 people are dead and 14 are injured after a van rammed into a crowd of people walking on Yonge Street in north Toronto on Monday afternoon.

Alek Minassian, a 25-year-old man from Richmond Hill, Ont., is the alleged driver in the incident and is in police custody. He was arrested by Toronto police without any gunshots fired.

Minassian is believed to be responsible for hitting pedestrians with a white van in a busy part of the city. The suspect allegedly hit pedestrians on a one-kilometre stretch of Yonge Street near Finch Avenue, driving on the sidewalk and against the normal flow of the traffic at times, Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders told reporters with high-ranking officials by his side.

PHOTOS: Several pedestrians struck by van in Toronto

PHOTOS: Van plows down multiple pedestrians in Toronto

Its very clear, just from a general perspective, to say the actions definitely looked deliberate, Saunders said, adding the suspect is not believed to be known to Toronto police.

We dont rule out anything, Saunders replied when asked if police are ruling out terrorism as a possible motive. It is early  were not excluding anything.

Saunders insisted the city is safe and police are not believed to be looking for any other suspects at this time. Toronto Police Services first tweeted about the incident being reported just before 1:30 p.m. ET.

Editorial cartoonist Naseeba Khader commemorates Torontos strength with an illustration of the CN Tower bathed in light. 10 people died and 14 more were injured after a driver mounted a curb and ploughed unsuspecting pedestrians in one of the citys major intersections on April 23, 2018.

Toronto Mayor John Tory is urging people to stay away from the area as a very complicated investigation is in process.

These are not the kinds of things that we expect to happen in this city, Tory told reporters. We hope they dont happen anywhere in the world, but we especially dont expect them to happen in Toronto.

The mayor stressed it is a time to be as calm as we can be in the city.





Senior members of the federal government are aware of the incident. Toronto is hosting a meeting with G7 leaders where Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale and Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland spoke to the media about the incident.

I cannot provide details at this stage, Goodale said, confirming that Toronto police is the lead investigative agency in this investigation.

We cannot come to any firm conclusions at this stage, Goodale continued. When asked whether the incident was an act of terror, the public safety minister said it would be inappropriate to speculate.

Grateful for the brave and professional response of @TorontoPolice and other first responders to the horrific attack at Yonge and Finch. Canadians are appalled at what happened. The victims and their families have our deepest condolences.  Ralph Goodale (@RalphGoodale) April 23, 2018

However, Goodale said he has no information that would cause him to make any changes to Canadas National Terrorism Threat Level.

Freeland called the incident a very sad moment. Both leaders thanked first responders and law enforcement officials while expressing their sympathies to those affected.

Our thoughts are with all thosed affected by the terrible incident at Yonge and Finch in Toronto, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Twitter. Thank you to the first responders working at the scene  were monitoring the situation closely.

Our thoughts are with all those affected by the terrible incident at Yonge and Finch in Toronto. Thank you to the first responders working at the scene  we're monitoring the situation closely.  Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) April 23, 2018

Toronto Fire was the first to tell Yahoo Canada about numerous casualties. Stephan Powell, district chief at Toronto Fire, is urging people to stay away from the area near the North York Civic Centre as first responders are working at the scene.

I think we are all unsettled and deeply disturbed, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne told reporters at Queens Park in Toronto. I think its impossible not to be. Its frightening.

The premier said on Twitter that she is heartbroken and Ontario is united in grief.

Heartbroken to hear police confirm so many dead and injured today in Toronto. Ontario is united in grief. Our deepest condolences to the victims and their families. Provincial, municipal and federal officials continue to work closely together to investigate.  Kathleen Wynne (@Kathleen_Wynne) April 23, 2018

Photos circulating on social media showed multiple bloodied bodies on the ground. Some of them were covered in orange tarps. A spokeswoman for Toronto Paramedic Services said all resources were being used and the public is being asked to stay away from the area.

Photo from Canva.

Police said all of their resources have been deployed to the scene. North York Centre Subway Station has been closed, along with roads in the area.

The news of the incident was mentioned briefly during Question Period in the House of Commons in Ottawa.




The suspect in a shooting that left four people dead at a Tennessee Waffle House over the weekend was arrested last year for being in a restricted area near the White House, authorities said.

Travis Reinking, 29, was arrested on the grounds of the White House complex area by Secret Service officers on July 7, 2017, officials said.

Reinking, who was not believed to have been armed during the White House incident, said he wanted a meeting with President Trump and was arrested when he refused to leave, U.S. Secret Service Special Agent Todd Hudson told reporters Sunday.

He was released and later interviewed by the FBI.

Four of Reinkings weapons, including the AR-15 used in Sundays shooting, were seized by law enforcement and his license to possess firearms was revoked, according to reports.

The weapons were given to Reinkings father, who police believe later gave them back to his son, according to reports.

Members of Reinkings family had previously expressed concerns about his apparent delusional behavior, including his belief that Taylor Swift was stalking him, according to The New York Times.

Reinking was delusional and believed the famous entertainer, Taylor Swift, was harassing him via stalking and hacking his phone, a sheriffs report from May 27, 2016 obtained by The Times said.

His delusions regarding Swift began in August 2014, the report said.

The report also noted that Reinking believed he had found Swift at a Dairy Queen and chased her before she disappeared.

Travis is hostile towards police and does not recognize police authority, the report said.

On June 16, 2017, Reinking allegedly threatened someone with an AR-15 while wearing a womans pink housecoat, according to The Tennessean. Reinking then drove to a public pool, dove in and allegedly exposed himself to others.

No one at the pool wanted to press charges, The Tennessean reported. One month later, Reinking was arrested at the White House.

Metro Nashville Police are now searching for Reinking, who was last spotted behind his apartment complex early Sunday.

Story continues

Before being seen at his building, police said Reinking opened fire outside a Waffle House in Antioch about 3:25 a.m. He then went into the restaurant to continue his rampage, police said.

Six people were shot before 29-year-old James Shaw, Jr., wrestled Reinkings AR-15 rifle away from him, officials said.

Three people died at the scene and a fourth person later died at the hospital.

The victims were identified as 29-year-old Taurean C. Sanderlin, 20-year-old Joe R. Perez, 21-year-old DeEbony Groves and 23-year-old Akilah DaSilva.

Two others were being treated for gunshot wounds at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, authorities said.

Reinking, who was wearing only a jacket during the shooting, fled the area on foot and is believed to have returned home to put on a pair of pants.

As of Monday morning, there have been no credible sightings of Reinking, MNPD said on Twitter.

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reacts during a celebration for nuclear scientists and engineers who contributed to a hydrogen bomb test, in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang on September 10, 2017.

As hes prone to do, Donald Trump yesterday (April 22) tweeted angrily in response to something he saw on TV.

What enraged him this time appears to have been a line of negative questioning by NBCs Chuck Todd on Meet the Press to Marc Short, Trumps chief congressional negotiator. Todd asked Short what the US got out of agreeing to a top-level summit with North Korea.

Using one of his signature personal insults against Todd, Trump tweeted that we havent given up anything and that North Korea has agreed to denuclearization.

Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd of Fake News NBC just stated that we have given up so much in our negotiations with North Korea, and they have given up nothing. Wow, we havent given up anything & they have agreed to denuclearization (so great for World), site closure, & no more testing!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 22, 2018

In truth, granting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un a direct meeting with the president of the US is a major concession, as Todd suggested, and North Korea looks highly unlikely to give up its nuclear weapons.

Lets meet up

North Korea has long sought, without success, a summit with a sitting US president because it would confer legitimacy upon the Kim regime. The US has never extended diplomatic recognition to North Korea. Technically the two nations are still at war, going back to the 1950-53 conflict, which ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

Last month, Trump abruptly agreed to a summit with Kim, after South Korean officials relayed the invitation in person following an earlier meeting with the North Korean leader in Pyongyang. It was a major victory for North Koreagenerally in such a scenario, one might expect the White House to agree to diplomatic meetings at lower levels to lay the groundwork for a possible top-level summit, but here the North Koreans had achieved something much bigger.

Story continues

South Korean president Moon Jae-in also played a major role, putting to rest fears of Korea passing, a term describing concerns in South Korea that the country had been sidelined as other powers decided the fate of the Korean peninsula.

Trump, ever the showman, has never been big on international diplomacy. In November he told Fox News, when asked about the many vacancies in the State Department, that Im the only one that matters. His administration still has no ambassador to South Korea.

North Korea has long believed that by developing and demonstrating its nuclear prowess, it would leave the US with no choice but to agree to a top-level summit. Though doubts persist over whether North Korea can deliver nuclear warheads via long-range missiles in working order, as it claims, Kim declared in November that his nation had finally realized the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force. Having Trump agree after that to a top-level summit was a clear win for Pyongyang.

A treasured sword

Trump also stated in his tweet yesterday that North Korea has agreed to denuclearization, after Kim announced over the weekend that he would discontinue testing nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles. Trump tweeted in response to the development that it was very good news.

But many observers believe Kim will never give up his nukes, seeing them as essential to his regimes survival, and noted that agreeing to suspend nuclear activities in exchange for economic concessionsonly to resume them again lateris a well-established part of North Koreas playbook.

The report on Kims announcement by KCNA, North Koreas state-run news agency, said the country will not use nuclear weapons nor transfer nuclear weapons or nuclear technology under any circumstances unless there is nuclear threat and nuclear provocation against it.

That doesnt sound like a country planning to give up its existing nukes, which KCNA described as a powerful treasured sword acquired through hard work and belt-tightening by the North Korean people. With that sword acquired, it added, the country will now focus on building a powerful socialist economy and markedly improving the standard of peoples living.

Looking ahead to the potential US-North Korea summit, one possibility is that Pyongyang will insist upon numerous, prolonged stages for reducing its nuclear capabilitieseven as, ultimately, it keeps its treasured sword. As for the nuclear test site North Korea said it would dismantle, the reasons for that might be more practical than anything elseafter hosting six nuclear tests over the years, it may have become too unstable to use any longer.

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Washington (AFP) - French President Emmanuel Macron and his American counterpart Donald Trump called jointly Tuesday for a new nuclear deal with Iran, after the US leader denounced the three-year-old accord as "insane."

"I can say that we have had very frank discussions on that, just the two of us," Macron told a joint press conference with Trump at his side.

"We, therefore, wish from now on to work on a new deal with Iran."

Trump's European allies have repeatedly tried to persuade him not to walk away from the 2015 deal, which gave Iran massive sanctions relief and the guarantee of a civilian nuclear program in return for curbs on programs that could be used to develop an atomic weapon.

It did not tackle western complaints about Iran's ballistic missile programs or support for militant groups across the Middle East.

Trump faces a May 12 deadline to decide on its fate and is demanding changes that many in European capitals believe would represent a legal breach.

"I think we will have a great shot at doing a much bigger, maybe, deal," said Trump, stressing that any new deal would have to be built on "solid foundations."

"This is a deal with decayed foundations. It's a bad deal, it's a bad structure. It's falling down," the US leader said. "We're going to see what happens on the 12th."

When asked to clarify if he meant he was pushing for a new accord, or an add-on agreement, Macron said: "I'm not saying that we move from one agreement to another."

The French president said a new deal would have to include three additional elements: Tehran's ballistic missile program, its influence across the Middle East, and what happens after 2025 -- when under the current accord Iran would be able to progressively restart part of its nuclear program.

He called the initial 2015 deal only the "first pillar" of an eventual wider deal.

Story continues

For months, American and European officials have been working behind the scenes to try to find a compromise over Trump's demands to change the agreement.

Officials have toyed with the idea of a separate joint declaration: promising to tackle non-nuclear issues, while searching for a tougher successor accord.

Iran, meanwhile, has warned it will ramp up enrichment activities if Trump walks away from the accord, prompting Trump to issue a blunt warning.

"They're not going to be restarting anything. If they restart it, they're going to have big problems, bigger than they ever had before. And you can mark it down," the US president said.
Washington (AFP) - President Donald Trump said on Monday he may make Mexico halting the flow of undocumented migrants into the United States a condition for a renegotiated trade deal.

"Mexico, whose laws on immigration are very tough, must stop people from going through Mexico and into the U.S. We may make this a new condition of our new NAFTA Agreement. Our Country cannot accept what is happening! Also, we must get Wall funding fast," he wrote on Twitter.

The social media announcement came more than a week after the US leader said talks to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada were "coming along great," although he said there was no deadline for a new deal to be completed.

Trump's threats to exit NAFTA have unnerved US industry and members of his own Republican party, who say the United States has benefited from the pact.

They have also rattled Canada and Mexico.

The latter, which sends some 80 percent of its exports to the United States, lashed out at Trump's tweet.

Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said it was "unacceptable" to link NAFTA to migration issues.

"Mexico decides its own migration policy, as a sovereign state," he wrote on Twitter.

US-Mexican relations have tensed again in recent weeks as Trump fired off a series of furious tweets about a caravan of more than 1,000 Central American migrants traveling toward the US border, calling on the Mexican government to stop them.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto warned Trump that "threatening or disrespectful attitudes" were uncalled for, and ordered his government to carry out a sweeping review of all cooperation with the United States.

The caravan, whose numbers have dwindled to about 600 people, is nearing the US border. The activists leading it said they would help some 200 migrants request asylum in the United States because they are fleeing violence or repression.

Ties between the United States and Mexico have been strained since Trump won election in 2016 on the back of a campaign heavy on anti-Mexican rhetoric and promises to build a wall on the two countries' border and make Mexico pay for it.
Donald Trump reportedly sent a jokey, handwritten note to French leader Emmanuel Macron, which read: Yes, Emmanuel, its true. I love you!

As the French leader arrived in Washington, the first foreign leader to be honoured by a state visit since Mr Trump became president, attention has focussed on the warm relationship between the men, apparently initially started when the two engaged in long handshake during a summit in Europe last year.

After Mr Trump returned to Washington, he apparently followed up by sending the French leader press clippings about their budding relationship, sometimes annotated by Mr Trumps handwritten messages. A New York Times article published in at the end of August 2017, arrived covered in florescent highlighter pen and a message scrawled in the margin: Yes, Emmanuel, its true. I love you!

Les Etats-Unis et la France ont une responsabilite particuliere. Nous sommes garants du multilateralisme contemporain. Cette visite est tres importante dans le contexte dincertitudes, troubles et menaces qui est le notre. Nous avons de nombreux defis a relever. pic.twitter.com/EqluDUPpUr  Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) April 23, 2018

The details of the note, which have not previously been reported, are contained in a biography of the French leader, an updated version of which is to be published in the US and Europe later this year.

In the book, The French Exception: Emmanuel Macron, the Extraordinary Rise and Risk, journalist Adam Plowright reveals the clippings with their messages arrived at Mr Macrons office at the Elysee Palace, via diplomatic mail sent to the US Embassy in Paris from the White House.

Mr Plowright quotes one French diplomat who is not named, as saying: Macron is very intelligent and he speaks perfect English and he worked Trump out. He knows how to talk to him. Our British friends rubbed him up the wrong way at the beginning.

Story continues

He says the move to send press clippings came at a time when Mr Trump was speaking warmly of his relationship with the French leader in media interviews.

Hes a great guy - smart, strong, loves holding my hand, Mr Trump told the New York Times. People dont realise he loves holding my hand. And thats good, as far as that goes. I mean, really. Hes a very good person. And a tough guy, but look, he has to be. I think he is going to be a terrific president of France. But he does love holding my hand.

Mr Plowright says US officials have on occasion asked Mr Macron to telephone the White House and leave a message for Mr Trump.

Among other occasions, this occurred in October 2017 when Trump was considering walking away from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, against the advice of his foreign and defence secretaries, he says.

He quotes Mr Macrons diplomatic advisor Aurelien Lechevallier, as saying: We are not going to change Donald Trumps convictions or the programme on which he was democratically elected.

But there is a possibility to try to work with him to modify his decisions so that he tones them down. Or to work collectively with others to help overcome the consequences, on the climate change issue for example.

During the three-day visit, Mr Macron and Mr Trump are expected to discuss the Iran nuclear deal, Syria and US tariffs.

There was no immediate response from the White House to enquiries.
Rana Plaza was a man-made disaster: Rushanara

UNB, Dhaka :

Five years after the Rana Plaza disaster, Bangladesh-born British MP Rushanara Ali has described what happened as "not an accident" but "a man-made disaster".

She was speaking at a panel debate at the Houses of Parliament focused on improvements for women workers in the fashion industry, five years on from Rana Plaza on Monday, reports The Guardian.

The Labour MP directed the majority of her criticism towards fashion brands using factories and buildings such as Rana Plaza.

"Considering the profits these companies are making, they are paying workers a pittance" she said.

"We have to pay more, and brands have to pay more." Despite "improvements", workers in Bangladesh are paid less than $68 (pound 48) a month, less than half their counterparts in Vietnam, she said.
Lima (AFP) - Peruvian police hunted Tuesday for two men wanted in connection with the lynching of a Canadian man suspected of killing an elderly female shaman in a remote part of the country's Amazon rainforest.

The body of Sebastian Paul Woodroffe, 42, was discovered Saturday in the Ucayali region of northeastern Peru bordering Brazil, not far from where the 81-year-old woman was killed a few days earlier.

Grisly footage of Woodroffe's death at the hands of a mob has been widely circulated on social media.

In the video, a man is seen making aggressive attempts to put a black rope around the neck of another man slumped in a puddle with blood on his face who tries -- unsuccessfully -- to fight him off.

"Please, no!" he mumbles in Spanish, as someone can be heard saying: "You asked for it."

Judge David Panduro ordered the arrest of two suspects -- identified as Jose Ramirez and Nicolas Mori -- for the "alleged offense of aggravated homicide."

Prosecutors said the cause of Woodroffe's death was strangulation, noting there was also evidence of multiple other injuries.

They said Woodroffe's lynching was linked to the murder of Olivia Arevalo, an 81-year-old healer, rights activist and respected leader within the indigenous Shipibo-Konibo community who was shot dead on April 19.

According to a local rights group, a man with a foreign accent went to her home and when she opened the door, he opened fire at short range before fleeing on a motorcycle.

Police immediately launched a search for the main suspect, whom they identified as a Canadian national. They found Woodroffe's body buried nearby on Saturday.

The men wanted for his death are members of Arevalo's community.

- Unpaid debt or ayahuasca dispute? -

Within the Shipibo-Konibo community, Arevalo was a healer widely revered for her knowledge of traditional medicine who was believed to have special powers.

Woodroffe had been living in the area for about two years and had acquired 20 hectares (50 acres) of land there, Peruvian media said.

Story continues

Prosecutor Ricardo Jimenez said police believed one of the main motives for the murder was an unpaid debt of 14,000 Peruvian soles (US$4,300) that Arevalo's son owed to Woodroffe.

"The hypothesis is that the Canadian may have had some kind of dealings with Olivia Arevalo over the loan of some money," he told reporters in Pucallpa, a town in the Ucayali region.

"Apparently he didn't pay the money back and this murder was revenge. This is the hypothesis that we are working on."

But media reports said police were also working on another theory: that Woodroffe killed the shaman because she refused to let him participate in an ayahuasca ceremony.

Ayahuasca is a powerful hallucinogenic concoction from the Amazon consumed as part of a shamanic ritual.

- Environmental activist -

The elderly shaman's murder has shocked Peru, with Prime Minister Cesar Villanueva promising to do everything to find the person responsible.

"Being of Amazonian origin myself, I feel very dismayed by the murder of Olivia Arevalo," he wrote on Twitter.

The French chapter of Friends of the Earth described her as "the memory of her people," saying she had "dedicated her life to defending and promoting the culture, traditions and songs of the Shipibo people, and lamenting her death as "a terrible loss."

Her murder was also condemned by EarthRights International, who described her as a defender of environmental rights and said she had "suffered the consequences of a lack of government protection and a guarantee to exercise her rights without being harmed."

There are some 31,000 ethnic Shipibo-Konibo people living in Peru's Amazon jungle region.

In September 2014, four leaders of the indigenous Ashaninka people were killed in the Ucayali region after illegal loggers and drug traffickers had threatened them.
By Paul Ingram

TUCSON, Ariz. (Reuters) - A U.S. Border Patrol agent was found not guilty of second-degree murder on Monday in the shooting death of a Mexican teenager through the fence between Arizona and Mexico.

Lonnie Swartz, 43, was acquitted by a federal jury in Tucson after four days of deliberations in the Oct. 10, 2012, death of 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez.

But the jurors deadlocked on a separate charge of involuntary manslaughter against Swartz, prompting the judge to declare a mistrial on that count.

It was not immediately clear if prosecutors would seek to put Swartz, who said that he shot Elena Rodriguez in self-defense after rocks were thrown at him, on trial a second time on that count. Swartz has been on leave without pay from the Border Patrol while facing the criminal charges.

The trial, which lasted more than four weeks, is a rare prosecution against an agent for using deadly force. In 2008, Nicholas W. Corbett was tried for shooting and killing a man near the border, but the jury deadlocked and the charges were dismissed.

Since Corbetts case, Swartz is the only agent to face prosecution in Arizona for using deadly force.

Swartz was standing on an embankment about 14 feet (4.27 m)above Elena Rodriguez and behind the 22-foot-high metal wall that separates Nogales, Arizona, from Nogales, Sonora, when he fired 16 rounds in 34 seconds from three different firing positions, emptying one magazine from his pistol, before he reloaded and firing three more shots.

Last week, federal prosecutors said during closing arguments in U.S. District Court that Swartz fired three shots at the teen and that his first shot hit Elena Rodriguez in the back, sending him reeling to the ground.

Swartz then continued to fire on Elena Rodriguez while he was still alive and fighting for his life after he was shot in the back, Assistant U.S. Attorney Wallace Kleindienst said.

A final shot to the head killed Elena Rodriguez, Kleindienst said.

Story continues

Sean Chapman, one of Swartzs defense attorneys, said Swartz was a man in a very dangerous situation who did the very best he could, which was to fire his weapon into Mexico in defense of himself, his fellow agents and Nogales police officers.

At the moment he decided to fire, the rocking was ongoing, Chapman said. Chapman argued that Swartz thought he was firing on a second rock-thrower.

Prosecutors stipulated that Elena Rodriguez may have been throwing rocks, but argued that whatever his actions that night, they were not a capital offense.

(Reporting by Paul Ingram in Tucson; Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Leslie Adler)
Athens (AFP) - Prosecutors in Athens on Tuesday ordered a preliminary investigation into UNICEF in Greece over suspected corruption, according to judicial sources.

It comes after the head of the Greek branch Sophia Tzitzikou wrote to the prosecutor's office after noting "irregularities" in the organisation's finances since she took over two years ago.

UNICEF has frozen operations by the Greek team for 60 days until the situation is clearer.

In a statement last week, the organisation said it was terminating arrangements with its Greek committee "due to concerns arising out of a recent independent audit."

"UNICEF has concluded that the necessary reforms in the group will not be achieved and we have taken steps accordingly," it added.

It said it would be establishing new arrangements to continue its work.

The Greek branch, which has around 30 employees, took control of its financial situation in 2002 when it became a private NGO.

The UN children's agency has recently been heavily focused on the migration and refugee crisis, which has seen tens of thousands of children arrive in Europe.

In February deputy director of the international organisation Justin Forsyth quit following complaints of inappropriate behaviour, when the global aid sector was hit by a wave of sexual misconduct claims.
United Nations (United States) (AFP) - The United States postponed a vote scheduled on Wednesday at the UN Security Council on preparing talks on Western Sahara to allow for more time for negotiations, diplomats said.

A draft resolution presented by the United States last week would press Morocco and the Algerian-backed Polisario Front to set their sights on a return to the negotiating table to seek a settlement to the decades-old conflict.

Diplomats said Russia and Ethiopia had proposed amendments to the text after complaining that it lacked balance, indicating that Morocco's stance was given more prominence.

The US mission told council members on Tuesday that it "needs a bit more time to consider" the proposed changes and planned to circulate a new draft resolution, according to an email message seen by AFP.

The draft resolution is to renew for one year the mandate of the small UN mission monitoring a ceasefire in Western Sahara but it also lays the groundwork for a return to talks.

Morocco maintains that negotiations on a settlement should focus on its proposal for autonomy for Western Sahara and rejects the Polisario's insistence on an independence referendum.

The draft resolution "emphasizes the importance of the parties' commitment to advancing the political process in preparation for a fifth round of negotiations."

A fourth round of UN-brokered negotiations on a Western Sahara settlement was held in 2008.

The draft resolution sets no timetable for re-launching talks, but stressed "the need to make progress toward a realistic, practicable and enduring political solution to the question of Western Sahara."

Morocco and the Polisario fought for control of Western Sahara from 1975 to 1991, when a ceasefire was reached and the UN mission deployed to monitor the truce.

The Saharan Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), declared by the Polisario in 1976, is a full member of the African Union.

The mostly desert territory has rich fishing grounds off its coast and may have untapped offshore oil deposits.
Travis Reinking exhibited multiple warning signs that he was mentally unstable: He talked openly about delusions that he was being stalked by Taylor Swift. He insisted unknown people were making barking noises outside his home. He even went to the White House on a mission to talk to the president.

Reinkings behavior resulted in the revocation of his Illinois firearms license, and his weapons were turned over to his father. But his father simply returned the three rifles and a handgun to his son when he decided to move out of state. The son now stands accused of opening fire Sunday at a Waffle House in Tennessee using an AR-15 that had been among the firearms seized. Four people were killed in the attack.

The case illustrates the difficulty of keeping guns away from mentally disturbed people and shows how easy it is for them to retrieve confiscated weapons.

Its a story of a highly effective law that then has a really dangerous loophole, said Jonas Oransky, deputy legal director for Everytown for Gun Safety, which works to tighten gun laws.

Reinking was disarmed by a man at the restaurant and fled. He was captured Monday.

Under federal law, a gun owners weapons can be seized if that person is convicted of a felony or involuntarily committed for mental health treatment. Illinois is one of the few states with a mechanism to allow firearms to be seized if someones behavior constitutes a clear and present danger but does not necessarily rise to the level of a felony conviction or an involuntary commitment.

Police reports describe Reinking as unstable but not violent. He was well known by local law enforcement, and his troubles were not a mystery to his relatives, who told authorities that he had been having delusions since 2014.

In May 2016, Reinking told deputies from Tazewell County, Illinois, that Swift was stalking him and hacking his phone, and that his family was also involved. He agreed to go to a hospital for an evaluation after repeatedly resisting the request, a sheriffs report said.

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Another sheriffs report said Reinking barged into a community pool in Tremont, Illinois, last June, and jumped into the water wearing a pink womans coat over his underwear. Investigators believed he had an AR-15 rifle in his car trunk, but it was never displayed. No charges were filed.

Last July, Reinking was arrested by the Secret Service after he crossed into a restricted area near the White House and refused to leave, saying he wanted to meet President Donald Trump. Reinking was not armed at the time, but at the FBIs request, state police in Illinois revoked his state firearms card and seized four guns from him, authorities said.

It seems like they were proactive and effective at suspending this dangerous persons access to guns in the first place, particularly since thats not something they couldve done in most states, said Ari Freilich, a staff attorney at the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. But they did not foresee the father being so irresponsible and dangerous in returning the guns to this person.

The father could face charges for returning the guns, according to Marcus Watson, an agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who spoke Monday at a news conference.

Reinking told police last August that he wanted to file a report about 20 to 30 people tapping into his computer and phone and people barking like dogs outside his residence, according to a report.

Theres certainly evidence that theres some sort of mental health issues involved, Tazewell County Sheriff Robert Huston said. He said deputies returned the guns to Reinkings father on the promise that he would keep the weapons secure and out of the possession of Travis.

Reinkings father has now acknowledged giving them back to his son, Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron said. Phone calls to a number listed for the father, Jeffrey Reinking, went unanswered.

It is not clear why Reinking moved recently from Morton, Illinois, and if it had anything to do with being near Swift, who has a home in Nashville. Police say he was employed in construction for a while, and there would have been enough work in the booming city for him.

Several states have so-called red flag laws that allow relatives, friends or others to go to a court expressing concern about someone being a danger to themselves or others and seeking a court-ordered emergency hearing to consider seizing firearms. But the laws are still rare. After the Parkland shooting, Florida and Vermont  both traditionally gun-friendly states  enacted laws allow firearms to be confiscated before someone commits an act of violence.

States vary in what they do with firearms that are seized. Some states give the option of selling or transferring the guns to a licensed dealer or law enforcement. Others allow the person to give them a friend, relative or some other third party. Experts caution about the danger of allowing relatives or friends to take possession of the firearms.

Family dynamics are unusual. And heres a situation where the family knew of his danger and still gave him a gun, said Adam Winkler, a professor at the University of California Los Angeles School of Law and gun industry expert.

Reinkings move to Tennessee  which has considerably more lax gun laws than Illinois  exposes another loophole with the laws, experts say.

That safety net in Illinois that works so well  evaporated when he moved to Tennessee, said Everytowns Oransky.
Travis Reinking, the suspect in a shooting that left four people dead at a Tennessee Waffle House over the weekend, has been arrested after more than a day on the run, police said.

Reinking, 29, was taken into custody about 2 p.m. Monday, Metro Nashville Police announced on its verified Twitter page.

"Arrested moments ago," MNPD wrote at 2:05 p.m.

Police also released images of Reinking after he was taken into custody.

"Travis Reinking apprehended moments ago in a wooded area near Old Hickory Blvd & Hobson Pk.," police said.

A tip from a community member led police to the woods not far from Reinking's home. There, he was apparently spotted and made no attempts at running.

"As soon as the detective saw him, [the detective] pulled out his weapon and told him to get on the ground," Lt. Carlos Lara with the Nashville Police told reporters at a press conference Monday.

Police found Reinking's identification in his back pocket and a gun and ammunition in a black backpack he was carrying, police said.

Reinking is not believed to have made any statements when he was taken into custody, officials said.

Reinking is accused of opening fire outside a Waffle House in Antioch at about 3:25 a.m. Sunday. He then entered the restaurant to continue his rampage, police said.

Six people were shot before 29-year-old James Shaw, Jr., wrestled Reinkings AR-15 rifle away from him, officials said.

Three people died at the scene and a fourth person later died at the hospital. The victims were identified as 29-year-old Taurean C. Sanderlin, 20-year-old Joe R. Perez, 21-year-old DeEbony Groves and 23-year-old Akilah DaSilva.

Two others were being treated for gunshot wounds at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, authorities said.

Reinking, who was wearing only a jacket during the shooting, fled the area on foot and returned home to put on a pair of pants, police said.

Reinking was arrested on the grounds of the White House complex area by Secret Service officers on July 7, 2017 after refusing to leave, officials said. He reportedly said he wanted a meeting with President Trump.

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He was released and later interviewed by the FBI. Four of Reinkings weapons, including the AR-15 used in Sundays shooting, were seized by law enforcement and his license to possess firearms was revoked, according to reports.

The weapons were given to Reinkings father, who police believe later gave them back to his son, according to reports.

Officials said they are investigating whether Reinking's father broke any laws if he did in fact give the weapons back to his son.

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President Trump and first lady Melania Trump welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, to the White House this week ahead of the formal state dinner planned for this evening.

Yesterday, the political families planted a tree together on the White House lawn, and today they stood together for the state arrival ceremony, with both President Trump and President Macron giving speeches.

The first lady, however, stole the show with her stunning outfit for the event. She wore an all-white Michael Kors suit with a matching wide-brimmed hat. The outfit was a big hit on social media.

MELANIA TRUMP COULD NOT LOOK MORE BEAUTIFUL TODAY!  Marena (@marena_k57) April 24, 2018

But the hat became the center of attention for another reason: President Trump couldnt maneuver his way around the brim to kiss his wifes cheeks. As seen in the video below, he tries, hesitates, then settles for a fake kiss on either cheek.

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Trump didn't kiss Melania but didn't have any issue kissing the French First Lady Brigitte Macron. pic.twitter.com/7mIdo7SNg6  Red T Raccoon (@RedTRaccoon) April 24, 2018

Funny enough, President Macron managed to make his way around the hat just fine, making contact with the first ladys cheeks.

But don't blame the hat. It looks like Melania was much more warm to Emmanuel Macron and Brigitte. pic.twitter.com/kw07RLqoyv  Red T Raccoon (@RedTRaccoon) April 24, 2018

Twitter blew up with responses wondering if Melania had purposefully worn the hat to avoid her husband, given their lack of public affection in the past.

The hat is her line of defense to keep him from getting too close to her face.  PSU Blaze (@PSU_Blaze) April 24, 2018

Classic. Everyone knows exactly why Melania is wearing that wide-brimmed hat.  Dan Schroeder (@fsa1996) April 24, 2018

LOL it's like those dog 'funnel' collars! Too funny!!  McDes (@HiFlowHead) April 24, 2018

Trump's air-kiss to Melania was just within the legal limits of her restraining order.  pwitham (@pwtham11) April 24, 2018

The hat was a brilliant move Melania.  FED UP (@KY_native) April 24, 2018

When your wife won't even let you fake kiss her for the sake of appearances anymore. So much winning  Grey (@Knowldgispwr420) April 24, 2018

We obviously dont know the real reason Melania wore the hat  we suspect it was just another flawless fashion decision  but MSNBC caught another moment from the ceremony, where President Trump tries to hold his wifes hand and she declines. Perhaps Twitter users have a point.

Look at Melania, refusing to hold hands with Trump. Hilarious.pic.twitter.com/JG6EMZVthK  Denizcan James (@MrFilmkritik) April 24, 2018

Watch: Shania Twain apologizes for pro-Trump comments, but conservatives wanted her to stand her ground:

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:
The "Dead" newborn baby finally dies

Staff Reporter :

The newborn girl, who moved and breathed at the time of her last bath after declared dead by the hospital doctors on Monday, finally died at Dhaka Shishu Hospital on Tuesday under treatment.

Director of Dhaka Shishu Hospital Professor MA Aziz, who treated the baby in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), declared the baby dead at 1.30 am on Tuesday.

Deputy Director of Shishu Hospital Abu Tayab said that the baby was still in danger on Monday as they arranged artificial respiration as the best possible measure to get her cured.

Meanwhile, the DMCH formed a four-member committee headed by Assistant Director Bidyut Kanti Paul to investigate the incident.

"We are investigating to ascertain whether this was the same baby. We shall conduct DNA tests if necessary," said Brigadier General AKM Nasir Uddin, Director of the hospital.

Sharmin Akhter, 20, wife of Minhaz Uddin, hailing from Dhamrai, was admitted to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) with labour pain on Sunday.

She delivered a baby girl at 7:30am on Monday. The on-duty doctors declared the newborn dead just within few minutes of the delivery. The DMCH also issued a death certificate.

The baby was first rushed to Azimpur Maternity Hospital, and then to Dhaka Shishu (Children) Hospital at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar.
At first glance, President Donald Trumps strategy in threatening tariffs on Chinese imports appears aimed at addressing his goals of reducing the U.S. trade deficit with China and bringing back manufacturing jobs. In this, he is unlikely to succeed. The U.S. trade deficit is primarily caused by domestic rather than external factors: Americans consume more than they produce. Tariffs may strike Chinese imports in the short run, but soon substitutes from other low-cost labour economies will fill in. In addition, prices of goods affected by the tariffs would rise, threatening American jobs and limiting American purchasing power, while Chinas retaliation with counter-tariffs on U.S. exports to China, if implemented, would threaten more American jobs.

But the actual intention behind the Trump administrations recent series of anti-China moves goes beyond this rhetoric. It has two aspects: (1) forcing Beijing to open its market further for U.S. goods and services and to provide U.S. companies with more favourable investment conditions; and (2) curbing the state-backed high-tech sectors that form the core of Beijings Made in China 2025 strategy.

The first aspect is Trumps answer to the strategy of previous U.S. administrations to advance American interests by bringing China into the U.S.-led international liberal economic system. In contrast, under an America first slogan, the Trump administration is demanding more direct benefits from international cooperation while tolerating fewer rewards for others.

The second aspect reflects the concern of President Trump and his hawkish allies in the White House that the Sino-U.S. economic competition dynamic is changing in favor of China and threatening the U.S. high-tech sectors. Moreover, Chinas intensive state support for its technological expansion reinforces its challenge not only to U.S. dominance in the worlds cutting-edge technology but also the supremacy of the U.S. economic model.

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As a result, Trumps tariff list particularly targets imports of Chinese high-tech industries, including aerospace, marine, telecommunications, robotics, medical devices and electric vehicles. It is a punishment for Chinas mandatory technology transfer requests, its discriminatory rules on licensing intellectual property (IP) against foreign companies, Chinese government-sponsored acquisitions of U.S. high-tech companies and theft of U.S. technologies.

Besides tariffs, other weapons have also been used to target Chinas high-tech sectors. Before the tariff list was announced, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), with expanded power granted by the White House, had already blocked several Chinese government-backed acquisitions of U.S. high-tech companies in order to protect national security and sensitive civil data.

Moreover, the U.S. Commerce Departments latest seven-year-ban on all American exports, notably high-end chip sets, to Chinese telecommunication equipment and mobile phone producer ZTE appears to be an attempt to suppress Chinese development of 5G technology.

These actions go beyond pursuing a remedy for trade deficit. They are evidently attempts to push for a better business environment in China for U.S. goods and services and suppress Chinas high-tech sector.

Although both governments need to sound tough in public, there is still space for negotiation.

President Xi Jinpings speech at the Boao Forum emphasized Chinas intent to deepen market-oriented reforms, especially to reduce tariffs on imported cars, improve IP practices and ease foreign ownership limits in the automotive and financial sectors. Although Trump willingly read Xis speech as a compromising reaction to his earlier tariff threat, Xis words should in fact be taken as a response to a longer list of U.S. (and other foreign government) complaints about Chinas restricted market and heavy government intervention in the economy, rather than the current trade dispute alone. It also reflects Chinas own need for market-oriented economic growth.

Hence, China can compromise on the first aspect by making the Chinese market and investment environment more favourable for U.S. companies. But some other types of compromise, especially on the second, are less feasible, if not impossible, for Beijing.

The Chinese state will not withdraw support for strategic industries, especially those at the core of Made in China 2025. Advancement in these sectors, including information technology, automated machinery and robotics, aerospace, marine equipment and shipping, advanced rail transport, new-energy vehicles, power equipment, agricultural machinery, new materials and biopharma and medical, allows Chinese industries to upgrade and move up along global production chains. They will likely continue to receive financial and policy assistance from the government, as a core part of Chinas industrial policy, and keep trying to acquire advanced foreign technologies and IPs.

Among all the incentives, the latest ZTE turmoil has further convinced Chinese leaders that the country must have its own high-end semiconductor industry, though this needs to be balanced to ensure that excess government intervention does not undermine the efficiency and creativity of the industry.

As long as China keeps growing, conflicts centered on Chinas challenge to the U.S. high-tech sector and Chinas industrial policy will continue to exist and proliferate between the worlds two largest economies. But both can make moves right now to ease tensions and move toward mutually beneficial resolutions.

The Chinese government should ensure that the market-oriented reforms raised by Xi are promptly implemented, and they should make more of an effort to understand the optimal methods and avenues for communicating with the Trump White House. Substantial improvements in trade and investment practices would help China to reach out to the worlds other major economies, notably the EU, the U.K., Japan and Germany, as would firmly supporting the WTO process against President Trumps attacks and persuading the U.S. to solve disputes within multilateral frameworks.

For its part, as the worlds largest economic power, the U.S. should be able to accommodate technological progress of a country with a GDP per capita as low as Chinas, especially as both countries would benefit in the long run from skilful negotiations and deepening economic ties.

This piece was originally published by Chatham House.
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Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- French President Emmanuel Macron has been notably active on the national scene since his election last year, launching initiatives aimed at modernizing France. He has also applied the same energy to foreign policy, with a global strategy dubbed France is back.

Since his election a year ago, Emmanuel Macron has improved Frances image around the world and re-established mutual trust with foreign countries, deputy director Bruno Tertrais of the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research said.

A novice on foreign affairs, the French president, amid a state visit this week to the United States, has thrown himself into putting France at the center of the international stage. "Emmanuel Macrons foreign policy is realistic but not cynical, Tertrais said, and he has a good understanding of the worldwide balance of power.

Others share that sentiment.

When comparing Emmanuel Macrons foreign policy with his two predecessors -- Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande -- there is a contrast, Thomas Gomart, director of the French Institute for International Relations, said. He wants to enhance the stature of the French president by giving more significance to his addresses and his behavior.

At home, the 40-year-old Frenchman has taken advantage of British Prime Minister Theresa Mays struggles with Brexit and German Chancellor Angela Merkels national political turmoil to become the main voice of the European Union. He is pushing for E.U. reforms and advocating deeper cooperation and integration among the 28 member states.

On the military front, Macron has committed to promoting the G5 Sahel, an African regional security bloc comprising Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Niger fighting terrorism in northern Africa. The French president mobilized the international community to help finance the G5 anti-terror military force.

In Syria, the French president proved his capacity to coordinate with his U.S. and British counterparts earlier this month during a joint military operation targeting the Syrian regimes chemical facilities.

On climate change, Macro declared last year that he wanted to make our planet great again after President Donald Trump decided to pull out of the Paris Climate Accord. He has since taken the lead on the issue by mobilizing public and private funding in the fight against global warming. During the One Planet Summit in Paris in December, banks and companies announced billions of dollars of intended divestment from coal, oil and gas.

Finally, Macron has also played the role of mediator on the international stage by personally helping to resolve a political crisis between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia in November 2017.

We have to assess foreign policy on the long term, Gomart, of the French Institute for International Relations, said. But, undeniably, Frances foreign policy is now more articulated, credible and serious.

Despite all his efforts, however, the French president failed to persuade Trump to stay in the Paris Climate Accord. The U.S. president also threatened to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, an agreement supported by France.

On both issues, Macrons diplomatic skills will be tested more than ever in efforts to reverse Trumps positions.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
BGMEA demands

Exempt garment industry from tax at source

Special Correspondent :

Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) has urged the government to exempt the garment industry from tax at source for at least three more years.

It made the call during a pre-budget discussion with National Board of Revenue (NBR) on Tuesday. NBR Chairman Md Mosarraf Hossain Bhuiyan presided over the meeting held at its headquarters in Dhaka.

BGMEA, the apex trade body of apparel exporters, also raised the demand for restructuring the current corporate tax regime in the next budget for 2018-19 fiscal.

In its 11-point demands, BGMEA has also sought slashing of corporate tax to 10 per cent from the existing 12 per cent for the three years starting next fiscal year.

Furthermore, the trade body urged the government to frame a long-term tax policy for the sector, as frequent changes in the policy is creating discontent for the exporters.

"The tax policy for the garment sector should be made for a minimum of five-year period. Changes in policy every year create a lot of problems for the entrepreneurs," said BGMEA President M Siddiqur Rahman.

He said, rationalization of corporate tax and exemption of tax at source is necessary to create a breathing space for the apparel industry, which is now struggling to stay competitive in global arena due rising cost of production.

He also suggested for an equal tax measures for all the export sub-sectors.

BGMEA President during the discussion raised the issue of 'harassment' by taxmen in the name of audit requesting the NBR Chairman to look at the issue for creating a more business-friendly tax-regime.

BGMEA also sought exemption from VAT on products and services used locally by export-oriented garment industries, and duty-free import facility for the capital machinery, fire preventive and energy savings equipment and spare-parts and CC cameras, VAT exemption on gas, electricity and water bills, conducting audit in two years instead of one year and increasing the time to six months from existing three to provide related documents.

NBR Chairman Md Mosarraf Hossain Bhuiyan gave patience hearing to the demands of BGMEA and said the revenue board will extent the same facility for all the export -oriented industries to boost exports.

"And it is crucial for Bangladesh to elevate itself to the developing country status from least developed one."
Search and rescue units belonging to Home Front Command have recently been outfitted with drones equipped with hi-tech cameras. The cameras will produce real-time three dimensional images of disaster zones, such as structures hit by missiles or ones damaged during an earthquake.

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The civilian-manufactured drone, which can remain in the air for up to 30 minutes, will enable rescue units to scan the desired area from above and help them navigate among the rubble in order to locate the people who may be trapped inside.

IDF officer explains new drone's capabilities (Hebrew)

X

"With the new drone, we can understand the extent of the destruction and the nature of the collapse and its main points, as well as the attack's focal pointsthereby allowing us to get to the trapped people more quickly," said Maj. Oz Gino.

Drone image of a disaster scene

"In the past year, we have conducted a series of experiments with civilian companies in search of a three-dimensional mapping system, as the main goal of units that arrive at a disaster site is to know where to focus their rescue efforts in the first moments, considering that we do not always receive quality information from the populace. We are ordering a new, very specific scanning system for the drones to enable units to get an accurate picture of the destruction," he added.

Home Front Command further noted that the amount of time it takes to reach trapped persons is critical since even those who survived a structure's collapse may die in the first few hours from dehydration, being crushed and shock injuries if they do not receive help.

Once deployed, the new drone can help locate hollow pockets underneath ruins within minutes, showing forces where to tunnel in order to reach trapped victims without wasting precious time.

The drone provides a real-time overhead view of the scene

Another drone is currently undergoing testing and is in the advanced development stages. The second iteration will be smaller and able to penetrate said hollow spaces between ruins, photograph what is happening therein in real time and even communicate with the trapped.

The testing phase is expected to be completed this summer and after a process of additional tests, it is expected to be operational in Home Front Command units by the end of the year.

Currently, every Home Front Command commander has access to a drone used for routine security operations in the West Bank.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Esther Hayut agreed Monday to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next Sunday to discuss the proposed override power bill, on condition that the Ministerial Committee on Legislation meeting on the same day, which is supposed to advance the bill, is postponed by one week.

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The bill, intended to bypass the High Court of Justice's rulings with the approval of a simple majority of 61 members of Knesset, became a top priority for nationalist lawmakers following the uncertainty over the fate of illegal African migrants in the aftermath of a series of failed deals for their deportation.

Netanyahu turned to Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, who together with Minister Naftali Bennett is promoting the controversial bill, and she agreed to the postponement of the Ministerial Committee meeting.

PM Netanyahu and Supreme Court Chief Justice Esther Hayut (Photo: Reuters, High Court's website)

Shaked said the meeting was delayed at Netanyahu's request, but sources close to the prime minister say that the decision to postpone the meeting stems from technical, rather than ideological, considerations, and accused Bennett and his Bayit Yehudi party of undermining the coalition.

"Once again, a media spin by the Bayit Yehudi party, which does not miss an opportunity to distort the facts and undermine the nationalist camp. At the last meeting of the heads of the coalition, it was agreed that immediately after Independence Day, the prime minister and justice minister would meet with the chief justice of the Supreme Court," the source said.

"Since the justice minister is flying abroad at the end of the week, the meeting with the Supreme Court president was postponed to Sunday, and consequently the vote was postponed as well. That is the reason for the postponement, and there is no other reason," the source insisted.

Ministers Bennett and Shaked plan to submit for a vote their proposal for Basic Law: Legislation, which includes the notwithstanding clause, enabling the Knesset to override a bill that has been rejected by the High Court of Justice and re-legislate it by way of a simple majority of only 61 out of 120 MKs.

Chief Justice Hayut is expected to strongly oppose the idea of a simple majority currently being mooted and promoted by the bill's backers.

As an alternative, the court may be amenable to the law that overrides its rulings on the proviso that such a move garners a majority of at least 80 MKs. Hayut is expected to express her firm opposition in the meeting with Netanyahu, joined by Justice Hanan Melcer.

It is widely assumed, however, that Hayut will compromise and consent to a required majority of 75 MKs. The Likud and Kulanu parties agree on a majority of 65 MKs.

Last week, Netanyahu met with former Supreme Court Chief Justice and "father of the constitutional revolution" Aharon Barak, who expressed his opposition to the proposed legislation in its current form. He called the proposal by Bennett and Shaked a "poisonous pill that would destroy human rights In Israel."

Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

The decision to hold the meeting was made following Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit's appeal to Netanyahu during a coalition meeting convened to discuss the prime minister's initiative to enact a broad overriding power clause.

Mandelblit told the prime minister and coalition ministers that in the current climate and in the absence of a dialogue with the Supreme Court justices, or at least the Supreme Court chief justice, the process to implement the move would come to a standstill.

At the ministerial meeting, Mandelblit raised a number of international models which contain notwithstanding clauses. The attorney general explained that the model that he and the judicial system would accept was legislation of a clause that would be included in a new Basic Law: Legislation, proposed by Ministers Bennett and Shaked.

However, Mandelblit has rejected the notion that High Court decision could be disregarded through reapproval of a law by a meager 61 MKs, advocating instead a minimum requirement of 70 MKsa number he believes would prevent any coalition from bypassing the HJC as and when it pleases.

In a speech delivered recently, Mandelblit said that the plan set out by Shaked and Bennett would be translated as a serious blow to Israeli democracy.

According to Mandelblit, the meaning of the notion that a simple majority of 61 Knesset members suffices for deciding on the override bill essentially constitutes a comprehensive removal of the HCJ's authority and its role to protect minorities.

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

It makes it more difficult for the court to make effective constitutional reviews. Accepting this would bring about, in my opinion, a serious blow to Israeli democracy. This is a lack of understanding of the term of majority rule, Mandelblit demurred.

The British model, the attorney general said, which empowers the high court to only recommend that a law be struck down, could not be adopted. This law, he explained, fundamentally differs from that which is practiced in Israel and therefore cannot be emulated.

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlons suggestion could also not be adopted, Mandelblit said, which would have seen the ratification of the override bill that would only have been applicable to the illegal migrants, which he described as patch work.

In his opinion, the exclusion of a particular issue from the HCJs authority would constitute a precedent and a slippery slope, after which every political group would strive to pursue its own interest.

Offering one hypothetical example, he said that such a precedent would enable the Haredi parties to argue that the issue of military conscription should also fall outside the HCJs authority.

Mandelblit therefore, concluded that granting the Knesset the power to ratify legislation that has already been struck down by the HCJ would be unconstitutional with a narrow majority of 61 MKs and would almost entirely strip the court of its ability to defend human rights.

Moreover, it would adversely affect vulnerable segments of the society. We are talking about groups who need constitutional protection more than anybody, he concluded.
NEW YORK - Iran's foreign minister said Monday that neither Iran nor Saudi Arabia can be the dominant power in the Middle East and what's needed most is for countries in the Persian Gulf region to talk to each othernot about each other.

Mohammad Javad Zarif said, "In an attempt to be the strongest in the region, to exclude one another from the region, we have managed to destroy the region."

He told the Council on Foreign Relations that there is "a dire need for change" and "Iran is ready for it because we are big enough, old enough, mature enough to appreciate this reality."

Zarif expressed hope that Iran's neighbors, with help from other governments, can also appreciate the fact that "none of us can become the new hegemon" in the region.

He called for a new "regional dialogue forum" that would include five Gulf Cooperation Council countries along with Iran, Iraq and Yemen. And he urged the others to embark with Tehran on a transformation of the Middle East.
Former Jerusalem District Police chief Niso Shaham, who was charged with sexual harassment, was convicted Tuesday morning of committing an indecent act, but acquitted of all other charges against him.

Shaham has refused to take a plea, which would've seen him admit only to breach of trust.
A 2013 article written by Fadi Albatsh, a Hamas electrical engineer who was assassinated in Malaysia, shows his research dealt with drones.

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The article, titled the "Challenges of integrating unmanned aerial vehicles in civil applications," was written by Albatsh and two other researchers at the International Islamic University Malaysia.

The article, along with Hamas's admission that he was a member of the terror group, bolsters the assertion he was targeted for his expertise and possible role in the development of Hamas's drones apparatus in Gaza.

Fadi Albatsh

assassination of another drone engineer Mohammad al-Zawahri in Tunisia in 2016.

Albatsh's study states that "Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) has evolved rapidly over the past decade. There have been an increased number of studies aiming at improving UAV and in its use for different civil applications.

"This paper highlights the fundamentals of UAV system and examines the challenges related with the major components such as motors, drives, power systems, communication system and image processing tools and equipment."

The study further examines motors' efficiency, battery functioning, the importance of reducing the weight of the aircraft, and the communications system.

In the article's conclusion, Albatsh and the other writers note that further research into the aforementioned challenges could help drones stay in the air longer and in any kind of weather.

The investigation into the assassination is still underway in Malaysia, where police released facial composites of two suspects

According to the Malaysian police's description, the two suspects are well-built, fair-skinned men, approximately 180 centimeters tall, and it is still uncertain whether they are still in the country or left after the assassination. The two suspects are believed to be of European or Middle Eastern descent.

Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi implied Monday that Israel was behind the assassination.

"We know of a country in the Middle East that will do anything to deny the potential of the Palestinian people. They target Palestinians who have certain expertise, so that they can quell the possibility of an intifada happening there before it can even begin," he said.

His said the Home Ministry, which he also leads, had detected foreign agents abusing passports of countries that have diplomatic ties with Malaysia in order to carry out "certain missions."

The Palestinian Ambassador to Malaysia, Anwar Al Agha, has said he believes Albatsh's body will likely be brought back to Gaza within 24 hours.

"I've started communicating with different parties in Egypt through the Egypt embassy in Kuala Lumpur, as well as through our Palestine embassy in Cairo. They told me they are in the midst of the process, and I am sure they are certain of the procedures and regulations involved," he said in a radio interview. "Today or tomorrow we'll get the approval and the clearance to bring the body to Palestine."
Tearful tributes to Rana Plaza victims

Survivors' wait for justice sees no end

Relatives and members of various workers\' organisations placing floral wreaths at the graves of Rana Plaza tragedy victims at the Jurain gravyard on Tuesday.

Staff Reporter :

Labor Safety Forum, a right group on Tuesday paid tearful tribute and staged protests demanding quick delivery of justice to victims of Rana Plaza tragedy assessment of compensation and awarding punishments to people responsible for the tragedy.

The forum leaders came up with the demand at a programme commemorating the victims of Rana Plaza collapse. It paid respects to the victims by placing floral wreaths at their graves at Jurain graveyard in Dhaka yesterday.

The Rana Plaza tragedy is the world's worst industrial disasters, when a textile fctory complex collapsed and killed at least 1,130 people.

Several members of the forum including its convener Dr. Hamida Hossain, President of National Labor Alliance, Mejbah Uddin Ahmed, Honarary Executive Director of Bangladesh Legal Aid and Service Trust (BLAST) Sara Hossain addressed the programme.

The family members and relatives of the victim of Rana Plaza tragedy broke into tears and demanded capital punishment to Rana plaza owner Sohel Rana, and the guilty.

Md Enamur Rahman, member of Parliament from Savar, also placed wreaths at the site remembering the victims. A doa mahfil was held at Adhar Chandra High School field.

Several hundred people held photos of those unaccounted for since the collapse. About 3,500 workers were inside the complex making clothes for top western brands when tragedy struck.

More than 2,000 were injured in addition to the huge death toll.

But a murder trial in the case has been repeatedly delayed and no one has so far been convicted.

Abdul Awal, 58, visited the ruins in the Dhaka suburb of Savar to honour his 25-year-old daughter, Rozina Khatun. Her body has still not been found.

"She left an 11-month old son. Her husband got married again, leaving the son to us. Even after DNA tests on the bodies, I still have no trace of my daughter's body," said a tearful Awal, who comes from the northern rural district of Pabna.

"The boy does not have any memories of his mother. He doesn't even have a grave to mourn."

Police said some 500 people held demonstrations and marched on the highway in front of the ruins at the start of the day.

Others arrived as the day wore on, placing wreaths at the memorial and the unmarked graves of hundreds of workers whose mangled bodies were never identified.

Workers holding black flags placed wreaths and silently prayed at the graves.

Union leaders and survivors have expressed anger at the slow pace of the trial of Sohel Rana, whose family owned the complex which collapsed after it was illegally extended.

"We demand justice, We want Rana to be hanged. We want other criminals to be hanged," workers chanted as they marched in front of the hole where the complex once stood. It has since become a pond covered with hyacinths.

"The injured workers have become the living dead. We demand the quick trial of the culprits. Five years have gone and yet there is hardly any progress in the murder trial," said union leader Jolly Talukder.

Talukder also demanded the release of some $14.5 million, which, she said, was donated to a government fund to help Rana Plaza victims.

Survivors are still haunted by the collapse which trapped more than 2,000 people, some for days.

Sufia Begum, 36, was rescued after nine hours from inside sandwiched floors. She suffered broken vertebrae and ribs and now wears a steel corset.She no longer believes that justice will be served, but still travelled 330 kilometres (205 miles) from her village to pay respects to dead colleagues.

Fatima Begum came to the site with her five-year old granddaughter, who was born 21 days after her father died in the disaster. "I want my grandchildren's future to be taken care of. We are ordinary people, we have been asking for the last five years," she told media.

Others survivors recalled bitterly how reluctant employees were forced to work on the day of the disaster despite cracks appeared on the day in columns supporting the complex.

"It was cold-blooded murder," said one.

The sector employs some four million workers but wages start at $65 a month, among the world's lowest.

Groups which oversee safety upgrades say factories have improved since the tragedy. The 20 reported accidents in 2017 was the lowest number in recent years.

A group representing more than 100 European brands warned, however, that "major life-threatening safety concerns remain" among the country's 4,500 textile plants.

Several foreigners representing international textile brands visited the memorial to pay respects to the dead workers.
Indonesia is investigating reports from Islamic State supporters that the most senior Southeast Asian commander of the militant group was killed by US air strikes in eastern Syria last week, counter-terrorism officials said.

Online messages from Islamic State propagandists viewed by Reuters say Bahrumsyah, an Indonesian national, died after US air strikes hit Hajin, north of the Syrian city of Abu Kamal, last Tuesday.

A spokesman for Indonesia's foreign ministry, Arrmanatha Nasir, said the embassy in Syria had made inquiries but had yet to confirm Bahrumsyah's death.

Two senior Indonesian counter-terrorism officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they were taking the online reports seriously.
An IDF soldier was lightly wounded overnight Monday after riots broke out between IDF soldier and Palestinians in Jenin during the demolition of a home belonging to Ahmed Konba, one of the members of the terror cell behind the murder of Rabbi Raziel Shevah in an attack near Havat Gilad in January.

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During the demolition, carried out by the IDFs combat engineers, violence erupted when Palestinians began throwing rocks and firebombs at the Israeli soldiers, and opened fire at the forces, according to the army.

Home demolition (:  ")

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As a result of the gunsfire, a female Border Policewoman was lightly injured and evacuated to HaEmek Medical Center in Afula. According to the hospital staff, the 19-year-old had been shot in the leg and was set to undergo surgery on Tuesday.

(Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)

The cell which carried out Januarys deadly drive-by shooting was led by Ahmad Nassr Jarrar, a Hamas activist who was killed at the end of a wide scale manhunt during a shootout with IDF and security forces in the town of Al-Yamun in February.

(Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)

Soldiers shot him after he emerged from his hiding place, and charged at them with an M-16 rifle and a bag containing an explosive device.

(Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)

The indictment that was served by the Military Prosecution against Konba two weeks ago detailed how he, Jarrar and others made a series of attempts to carry out an attack against Mevo Dotan, shooting at motorhomes in the West Bank settlement.

(Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)

Another cell shot at Israeli vehicles in the Samaria region of the West Bank. In another case, Konba carried out an intelligence observation and shot at a bus carrying Israeli soldiers. No one was hurt in the attack.
Tourism Minister Yariv Levin met with the President of Guatemala Jimmy Morales on Monday and thanked him for his decision to move the country's embassy to Jerusalem.

Levin told Morales he will be remembered by history for this decision.

The two also agreed on a series of steps to bolster tourism ties between the two countries.
Former Jerusalem District Police chief Niso Shaham, who was charged with sexual harassment , was convicted Tuesday morning of committing an indecent act by kissing a policewoman under his command, but acquitted of all other charges against him.

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"A six year journey and much ado about nothing," Shaham said after the ruling. "This isn't the end, and we will continue to fight. In the end, justice will prevail. I've gone through six years of delusional accusations."

The Police Investigation Unit launched a probe against Shaham in 2012 amid allegations he abused his power as a senior commander to have forbidden sexual relations with several female police officers under his command.

Niso Shaham (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

He was fired from the Israel Police in October 2013 after an indictment was filed against him, charging him with sexual harassment, two counts of indecent acts, and five counts of breach of trust.

He later said he asked to retire from the police "in order to focus on defending my good name and proving my innocence."

Shaham refused to take a plea, which would've seen him admit only to breach of trust.

He said Tuesday that he did not regret that decision. "Even if I was convicted of all charges, it would've made me very sad, but I wouldn't have regretted my decision," he insisted.

The Tel Aviv District Court criticized the prosecution's conduct, saying "Its thesis is not in line with the word of the law and the circumstances."

Shaham's laywer, Boaz Ben-Zur, said his client intends to seek a non-conviction. "The court criticized the fact the investigation crossed the line. We cannot allow an investigation to be carried out as a witch hunt. Policewomen who said they had no complaints were interrogated in a brutal, humiliating manner and under considerable threats. Lessons were learned on how to investigate, but it's too late," he said.

Amid criticism of the investigation and the prosecution, attorney Ronen Yitzhak from the Police Investigation Unit stressed that "the court convicted Shaham of committing an incident act against a junior policewoman, while emphasizing the gap in roles and ranks and the severity of the actions of a senior and admired commander who chooses to kiss a young policewoman in need of his help."

Yitzhak further argued there is no dispute over the facts. "During his service as a senior officer in the Israel Police, (Shaham) had intimate relations, sexual in nature, with young policewomen, mostly in low ranks, junior roles and significantly younger than him, who were under his command. Despite these relationships, Shaham did not recuse himself of making decisions about them."
We dont have to agree with Natalie Portman or support her boycott of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu . We can even disagree with her opinions and perceptions on the Palestinian issue and on whether there is or isnt an occupation. But we definitely shouldnt ignore the nervously ringing alarm bells emerging from the famous Jewish actresss declarative move.

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This move may have been the result of her own personal feelings. Thats possible. But Portman, in her boycott of Netanyahu and his policy, stands firm on stable ground (which is expanding, unfortunately)fertile ground of a deep ideological dispute from which US Jewry is growing these days.

The figures are familiar and have been rehashed numerous times: About 80 percent of US Jews voted for Hillary Clinton in the last presidential election. In other words, they voted for the Democratic Party. In other words, they voted for the complete opposite of everything represented by Donald Trump, Netanyahu's soul mate and the person many US Jews despise.

We shouldnt ignore the alarm bells emerging from the famous Jewish actresss declarative move (Photo: Getty Images)

Portman is part of this Jewryenlightened, progressive, self-confident, well-established, humane and engageda Jewry which doesnt turn a blind eye to human rights, Jewish morals and universal values, in America or in Israel.

This Jewry isnt ignoring Israel and its policy, as it is portrayed in recent years, but has no trouble criticizing it. It isnt ignoring it, because Israel is still part of the DNA of most of America's Jews.

But even a DNA changes through the generations. Indeed, US Jewry has undergone a considerable change in the past two decades. Israel may still cause vibrations among some people, but many people see it as annoying and divisive.

Ideological detachment

American Jewrys ideological detachment in 2018 from what the only democracy in the Middle East represents is a fait accompli. We can be moved to tears by the prime ministers reception at the recent AIPAC conference, and we can also remember that the 20,000 attendees are exactly what they are: 20,000 people out of almost 7 million, or a bit less.

And those who didnt applaud enthusiastically slightly outnumber those who stood there and cheered as if they were at a rock concert.

WATCH: Natalie Portman explains Hebrew slang

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We can rely on the Pew studies and polls to feel good about ourselves concerning Americans love for Israel. On the other hand, we can also remember that the Democrats havent really forgotten about the brawl between Netanyahu and former president Barack Obama and are still looking into its impact in an era of rapid changes in American demography.

Back to Natalie Portman: It would be very dangerous to see her defiant move as a passing episode or a meaningless provocation.

She is much more than that: She is a symbol of dramatic changes taking place in the interfamilial relations, a sign of US Jews profound disapproval of what they see as a very problematic direction the Jewish state is headed in. At the end of the day, its their state too.
The discovery in Iran of a mummified body near the site of a former royal mausoleum has raised speculation it could be the remains of the late Reza Shah Pahlavi, founder of the Pahlavi dynasty.

Hassan Khalilabadi, the head of Tehran City Council's cultural heritage and tourism committee, says it's "possible" the mummy is of Reza Shah. Khalilabadi told the state-run IRNA news agency the body was discovered during construction work at a Shiite shrine in Tehran.

Reza Shah pushed to modernize Iran before being deposed and dying in exile during World War II.

His son, Mohammad Reza Shah, became Iran's last shah before the 1979 Islamic Revolution installed the country's Shiite-dominated theocracy.

His grandson, the US-based exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, warned Iran on Twitter: "not to hide anything."
Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned Tuesday that if Syria uses Russian-made air defense missiles against Israel, the IDF will strike back.

"What's important to us is that the defensive weapons the Russians are giving Syria won't be used against us," Lieberman told Ynet, talking about Russia's plans to give Syrian President Bashar Assad S-300 missiles. "If they're used against us, we'll act against them."

The defense minister went on to say that Israel "doesn't interfere in Syria's internal affairs, but on the other hand we won't allow Iran to flood (the country) with advanced weapons systems that would be aimed against Israel."
The small synagogue in the remote village of San Nicandro, in the province of Puglia in southeastern Italy, is the only one in the world where the womens section is three times as large as that of the men.

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The women of the community maintain a flourishing Jewish lifestyle in the heart of a devout Catholic area. In most cases, their husbands are Catholics and many of them are not considered Jewish according to Jewish lawbut this does not prevent them from feeling that they are proud Jews.

The unique synagogue is located in a small building which the women, many of whom are engaged in agriculture, bought in 1994 with money they had collected on their own, lira by lira, and without any external help, so that they would have a place to pray. We would tell our husbands that the price of the dress we bought was a bit more expensive, and we would save the difference in money for the purchase of the synagogue, one says with a wry smile.

Freund at a Torah scroll introduction ceremony. The small Jewish community has only eight children, and the women fear there will be no Jews left

We came to visit the village together with Michael Freund, the founder and chairman of Shavei Israel an international Jewish organization based in Jerusalem. Its goal is to reach out to communities around the world with Jewish ancestry as well as those who want to connect with the Jewish people. Rabbi Pinhas Punturello, Shavei Israels emissary to Italy, also joined us.

The women of the community were very moved by their visit, and they received the guests from Israel with songs and hymns in Hebrew and Italian. We were welcomed into the home of Lucia Guellano Leone, 50, one of the dominant women in the community. Her husband, Matteo, is a former Catholic who underwent conversion with her, and now works as a kosher supervisor at a cracker factory in the port city of Bari.

Inside the Holy Ark in the local synagogue there is, among other things, a particularly old Torah scroll that is 300 to 400 years old. Next to it is a Megillat Esther, the Book of Esther that is read on the holiday of Purim, which the women of the community had prepared many years agoalthough it was clear to them that according to Jewish law it was invalid. Two years ago, they received a kosher scroll, which is used for reading on the festival, but they refuse to discard the non-kosher scroll, which for them serves as a symbol.

The story of the community of converts from San Nicandro, which could easily become a Hollywood movie, begins in the first World War. Donato Manduzio (1885-1948) was a farmers son who had never set foot in a school. During World War I, he was drafted into the army and wounded, and then hospitalized in a military hospital in Pisa with his legs paralyzed. In the bed next to him lay a wounded man who taught him to read and write, and so he began to read books.

When Manduzio returned to San Nicandro, he read a great deal of Italian literature and became a healer who brewed potions. After undergoing a divine revelation in the middle of the night, he began to study the Old Testament and came to the conclusion that Judaism is the true religion. He began observing Shabbat and gradually other commandments. He conveyed his new teachings to his followers, and established the San Nicandro Jewish community, which at its height numbered 80 people.

Sometime afterward, a merchant who happened upon the village found himself in the midst of a conversation between Manduzio and one of his followers, who were discussing the Book of Psalms. The merchant asked Manduzio if he was an evangelical, and Manduzio replied: No, we are the people of God ("Popolo di Dio).

When the merchant told him that there were thousands of Jews living in Rome, Milan, and Florence, Manduzio was stunned. He was convinced that the people of Israel he had read about in the Old Testament were extinct and no longer existed. He asked the merchant to give him the addresses of the Jewish communities and immediately sent them letters. After a lengthy exchange of correspondence, the Jewish community of Rome concluded that the San Nicandro community was serious and worthy of being converted.

The Chief Rabbi of Rome dispatched a messenger to visit the Mityahadim, or Jews-by-choice as the Italian Jewish community called themand on that visit the villages first synagogue was dedicated and the community received prayer shawls, a menorah and several other religious articles.

Jeeps with Star of David

Today, there are about 50 people living in the village who continue to maintain a Jewish lifestyle. They observe Shabbat, perform public prayers on Shabbat and Jewish holidays in Hebrew and in Italian, and consider themselves Jews in every way.

The Jewish women of San Nicandro eat kosher food, which they prepare themselves. They even make kosher cheese on their own under supervision. On Sukkot, they erect a large sukkah, organize joint meals on festivals, and every Friday they make a communal Kiddush and Shabbat meal. They make sure to eat only kosher meat, which is brought from Rome, separate meat and dairy, bake their own challahs and of course light Shabbat candles.

The synagogue compound has a screen, which they use to connect to a virtual class on-line with Italian rabbis in order to study Torah. There is a Beit Midrash, which also serves as a museum of the San Nicandro community. On the wall are historical photographs that describe the life of the community from the days of the prophet Manduzio until the present. Among the pictures are children dressed up in costume on Purim, lighting Hanukkah candles, dancing with a Torah scroll and celebrating Israel's Independence Day, which the community in the village marks every year.

Lucia Zorro and her sister Josephina outside the village synagogue

The small Jewish community in the village has only eight children, and the women fear that there will be no Jews left in San Nicandro in the future.

The small and well-kept synagogue is located on a central street in the village. There are about 30 people praying on Friday night and about 40 on Shabbat, most of them women. The prayer includes melodies and fragments of poetry. The morning prayer lasts four hours, part in Hebrew and partly in Italian, and the Shabbat service in the synagogue is the center of life for the Jews of the village.

The Jews of San Nicandro are a unique phenomenon. It is the first time in the modern era in Europe that an entire group of people formally embraced Judaism, says Shavei Israel Chairman Michael Freund.

Manduzio and his followers, Freund says, discovered the truth of Judaism entirely by themselves and without any external prompting. Despite the rise of fascism and hatred towards Jews at that time, they adopted a Jewish lifestyle with courage and determination and did not give up even after Mussolini decreed the racial laws against the Jews in 1938. They see themselves as spiritually connected with the Jewish people and the religion of Moses and Israel.

The racial laws against the Jews of Italy were not applied against Manduzio and his followers, due to their Italian Catholic origin, despite their insistence on telling Italian fascist policemen, and later the German Nazi soldiers who entered the village, that they were Jews. Luckily, no one believed them. In 1943, Manduzio quarreled with one of the fascists in the village, who threatened to go to the police the next day and ask to arrest all the Jews. The legend in the community relates that Manduzio, who engaged in Kabbalah, told him: You will not arrive tomorrow. A few hours later, the man fell and died.

In October of that year, the British army captured the village from the Germans. Several jeeps belonging to the Jewish Brigade, a group of Jewish fighters from the Land of Israel who served in the British Army during World War II, passed through San Nicandro and they were emblazoned with the Star of David. Manduzios followers saw the jeeps pass but did not manage to stop them. They ran to tell Manduzio about the encounter and he decided to paint a flag with a Star of David on a blue background and hang it on his housein case the jeeps passed by again.

And so it was. The Jewish officers from Israel, who did not know a word in Italian, were astonished to meet Jewish farmers in the remote village. The soldiers of the Jewish Brigade spoke to Manduzio and heard his story. They decided to call him the Prophet, a nickname that would accompany him later on.

Members of the Jewish Brigade urged the people of San Nicandro to immigrate to Israel, telling them a Jews place was in the Land of Israel. In 1946, the rabbinate in Rome converted the community. In the years 1947-1949, 74 members of the San Nicandro community immigrated to Israel on ships that brought Holocaust survivors from Europe. They settled in three communities: Ashkelon, Bat Yam, and Safed.

The prophet Manduzio objected to their emigration on the grounds that the role of the community was to be a light unto the nations. He remained in the village with his wife and three other women who were married to Catholics.

A few months prior to the establishment of the State of Israel, Manduzio passed away and was buried in the Jewish section of the small cemetery in San Nicandro. On his grave is a Star of David and the inscription: Here is buried he who lived under the delusion of worshipping foreign gods until 1930, but on August 11 of that year, by Divine inspiration, called himself Levi, proclaimed the unity of God and the observance of the Sabbath.

6,800 euros for a 'Shabbat clock'

In recent years, 14 of the 50 members of the San Nicandro community have undergone conversion by an Italian rabbinical court, thanks in large measure to the efforts of the late Rabbi Giuseppe Laras, one of Italys most prominent rabbis, and Shavei Israel. The rest of the women have encountered difficulties in undergoing the complex conversion process, which requires undertaking a long trip and residing in one of the larger Jewish communities in Italy, such as Rome or Milan. Apart from the fact that this will disconnect them from the village and their fields, the requirement that they convert to be officially recognized as Jews offends some of them.

The fact that they do not officially recognize me does not change the fact that I'm Jewish, says Grazia Casavecchia, a member of the community. "I study Torah without calling it a conversion process because I am already Jewish. When I follow the commandments and maintain a Jewish lifestyle it gives me a good feeling and I dont care if I do not have a formal stamp of approval. It is like discovering one day that you are an adopted daughter of Judaism, and it's hard to accept it.

The prophet Donato Manduzio

Lucia Leone, who specializes in growing tomatoes, peppers and olives, and also makes excellent olive oil, describes the insult she felt before she completed her conversion: I cried when I heard from the rabbis that I was not Jewish according to halacha. How can it be? I am a descendant of Manduzios followers and I also have a Jewish family living for many years in Israel.

Lucia Zorro, 50, who is married like most women in the community to a Catholic man, boasts that, my children live as Jews, but when they grew up they moved away from it a little. The amazing thing is that my husband got angry at them and asked them to respect their mother and continue to live a Jewish life.

Her husband, Nazzario, stopped eating pork two years ago and refrains from going to a cafe or restaurant on Shabbat. The women, though, do not pressure the husbands to convert: There is mutual respect here, explain the men and women alike.

Thus, for example, the Catholic husband of Grazia Sochi, one of the community activists, prepared a menorah and a Star of David at his workshop and then placed them in their field. She boasts that he also paid 6,800 euros to bring into the house a smart clock system that operates all the electricity in an automated fashion, including lighting and shutters, in order to observe Shabbat properly.

My husband even encourages our sons to go to synagogue with me, she says. He respects me very much and at home we celebrate only Jewish holidays. We do not celebrate any Catholic holidays, but my husband does not want to convert and I respect him.

The San Nicandro community in Israel continues to maintain contact with the mother community in Italy and their members come for visits and vacations in the summer. According to them, they did not experience any problems of anti-Semitism, and the mayor even named a square in the town after Manduzio.

The women of San Nicandro consider the possibility of immigrating to Israel, but they claim that without conversion it is unrealistic. Their economic situation also makes it difficult for many to visit Israel, but that does not stop them from dreaming about the Promised Land.

Every day when I pray, I close my eyes and imagine myself at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, says Grazia with glistening eyes. And who knows, perhaps her prayer will soon come true. Michael Freund of Shavei Israel says he hopes to organize a trip to Israel for San Nicandros determined Jews-by-choice this summer, enabling them at last to realize their dream.
Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned Tuesday that if Syria uses Russian-made air defense missiles against Israel, the IDF will strike back.

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"What's important to us is that the defensive weapons the Russians are giving Syria won't be used against us," Lieberman told Ynet. "If they're used against us, we'll act against them."

Russias daily Kommersant newspaper, citing unnamed military sources, reported earlier on Monday that Russia might start supplying the anti-aircraft missile systems to Syria in the near future.

Russian-made S-300 missiles; Defense Minister Lieberman (Photos: EPA, Shamir Elbaz)

Kommersant said that experts believed that Israel would react negatively to any decision to supply the missiles and might bomb the area where they would be deployed.

A Russian diplomat told Reuters on Monday that Israel has asked Moscow not to supply the Syrian military with the advanced S-300 missile systems.

"I hear and read most of these reports, (but) they have no basis in reality," Lieberman said. "One thing should be clearif anyone's shooting at our planes, we'll destroy them."

The defense minister went on to say that while Israel "doesn't interfere in Syria's internal affairs, but on the other hand we won't allow Iran to flood (the country) with advanced weapons systems that would be aimed against Israel."

He argued that Iran was the problem and not Russia, as Russian air defense systems have already been stationed in Syria and have not been used against Israel.

"We have an open line; we really do have discourse (with the Russians). Sometimes it's a complicated discourse, but it is open," he explained. "For several years we've been constantly in coordination and able to avoid friction with the Russians."

"The only ones to act against us are the Syrians. When the Syrian systems acted against us, we destroyed them," the defense minister stressed.

Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah blamed Israel for the mysterious assassination of Palestinian Hamas electrical engineer Fadi Albatsh in Malaysia over the weekend.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah (Photo: EPA)

This is an expression of the ongoing Israeli plan that does not spare any Arab minda mind that contains knowledge, expertise, experience, or a mind that may one day be part of the Arab nation, Nasrallah said in a speech.

According to the Hezbollah leader, this is the reason that they are pursuing Arab scientists and academics, from Iran to Tunisia to Malaysia. Even a number of Lebanese minds were killed in the last weeks and months under mysterious circumstances around the world.

Lieberman rejected the allegation, saying "I have no idea what he's talking about. He's in the middle of a campaign (for Lebanese parliament elections in Mayed)... I don't know what they made up. He needs to give some speech, make some headline every now and again, I wouldn't treat it very seriously."

US President Donald Trump is set to decide next month whether to withdraw from the nuclear deal signed with Iran. Lieberman said the US "doesn't ask us" what to do, "and it'll act based on its own considerations."

"The US president will make his decision regardless of pressures put on him, and there is a lot of pressure," the defense minister added, noting current and upcoming visits to Washington by French President Macron, German Chancellor Merkel and likely British Prime Minister May.

Regardless of the decision, "We're prepared for any scenario," he said.
Police recommended on Tuesday to indict deputy Rishon LeZion mayor Aryeh Cohen and another public official on suspicion of ethical offenses among others.

Cohen, who was also in charge of Haredi education, is suspected of inflating the costs of cultural events in the city.
Solar power needed for energy security

Md. Atikur Rahman :

Government has taken an initiative to popularize solar power in the face of the severe shortage of power in Bangladesh But when the power deficit surpasses almost two thousand megawatts, then how much will the demand of alternative energy such as solar energy be met?

Encouraging NGOs and commercial firms interested in alternative fuels are very optimistic about this: Erat is particularly likely to have solar power to meet the needs of poor people in remote areas. But the experts are skeptical - they think it is not a solution to the current crisis. In the past 15 years, non-governmental organizations are working to encourage solar power in Bangladesh.

As such, about 40 lakh people in the rural areas of Bangladesh are now being benefited using solar energy. If solar panels are installed from one to five kilowatts of solar panels on the roofs of the city's buildings, then it is possible to provide an additional power grid line by meeting the demand of the room, reduce the load shedding. According to the estimates of private companies, about ten megawatts of electricity coming from solar power in Bangladesh now feel it can be increased up to two to three hundred megawatts, which gives us hope light.

According to experts, solar power has become a huge part of economic development in the developing countries of the modern world. New communication system for the growing population in Bangladesh, the development and expansion of the industrial sector and the necessity of this alternative energy of new technologies are essential. The demand for solar in the country is increasing for the global market to survive. Especially in the remote areas of the country, the power supply will be used and the alternative energy to protect the industry from frequent loadsheding. Similarly, if the government can bring residential customers under the system, then the amount spent for electricity bill will be reduced considerably. The government's plan is being implemented gradually to produce renewable solar power. Basically most of the projects are stuck at the planning stage.

Although the solar home system (SHS) is expanding, no new projects of sustainable energy for grid-based sustainable projects have been accepted. Even though the two projects of solar power were formal contracts, the implementation could not be started. Due to the dispute over financing, land crisis and land, the project is delayed due to the delay in the implementation of the project.

However, experts say production costs are high for renewable energy. According to them, if all the machinery for solar power production was produced in the country, the price would have been very low. But so far all the parts of solar power generation in the country are imported from abroad. However, the indigenously built battery is used for this purpose. But the cost of solar electricity is not decreasing due to the high battery prices. The government withdrew all types of tariffs from the solar panel in 2009. As a result, the price of solar panels is slightly reduced but there is no major change in overall electricity generation cost. Talking to the stakeholders of the sector, the government has not done anything much for this sector except the withdrawal of tax from the solar parts. According to them, it is possible to reduce the cost of producing solar panels by importing the equipment in the local market as an alternative to importing.

Meanwhile, the solar power system is expanding and solar power system is expanding. Solar Home System is being set up in residential areas, public buildings and shops in areas where it is not possible to reach the national grid due to the geographical area of the country. And the World Bank's funding is helping this project, the Infrastructure Development Company IDCOL. They are implementing this project through various NGOs. There are 15 non-governmental organizations, especially Rural Energy, BRAC, Creative, Bridge, Rural Services Bangladesh and the Sonali Development Foundation, to establish this solar home system in rural areas. Currently, about one million solar power systems are being used for production. By the end of next year IDCOL plans to install more than 6.5 million solar home systems through IDCOL.

Digital Bangladesh is one of the most discussed election pledges of the current Awami government. After the formation of the government, the Prime Minister and the Minister MPs are going all the way to making a Digital Bangladesh.

But to ensure the spread of information technology in the country of digital Bangladesh, we must first ensure uninterrupted power supply. And this work will never be possible in this government's time. It is not possible to give uninterrupted power only to the government that will come in future. Limited energy resources, including oil, gas and coal, are not only in Bangladesh, but also in the world. Scientists are thinking of solar power as an alternative. We now need to streamline the thinking in that sector. So that the advancement of information technology is not in any way hindered. Solar power is getting popular in the world due to the ease of alternative electricity in the world.

According to the scientists, if the electricity demand is increasing, alternate fuel will not be able to produce electricity by oil, and only 35 years, until the beginning of 2045. The coal reserves will end in 215 AD. However, the amount of energy that the sun gives in the hour in an hour is possible to meet the demand of electricity of all the people of the world all year round. This is not an awkward story, scientists have researched this information. Currently, the supply of two major raw materials of fuel and coal is not inaccessible; they will end in one day. But there is no reason to worry, scientists think that. The amount of energy that comes from the Sun's light is closer to the total amount of all fossil fuels and atomic energy in the world. According to the DesertTech Foundation's data, if one percent of solar panels are installed all over the world in the desert, then it is possible to meet the demand for electricity of the entire world. New research is going on in the country in search of alternative energy solutions to solve the crisis of electricity.

Solar power is getting popular in the world due to the ease of alternative electricity in the world. According to the International Energy Council statistics, in 2008, the investment in solar power surpassed $ 33.5 billion. Solar power production increased 6 years in 5 years, and investment increased 172 times. Although advanced countries are far ahead of technology, the popularity of solar power has increased in the developing countries of Asia. Especially in China, India and Bangladesh. EPAA, the European Association of Solar Power Producers, said in 2009, the use of solar power increased 44 percent worldwide. The production of solar power has increased to 20,000 megawatts. Of this, 6,400 megawatts have increased last year. According to the 2010 solar forecast, this year, solar energy will increase by more than 40 percent in the world. Europe is at the top with the use of solar power technology. But the United States is not behind. China has finalized plans for Europe to be top of the world Germany is not the only manufacturer; the country is one of the top solar power companies in Germany. The list of the top 50 solar panels in the world is Spain and Germany's Dapat. However, the world's largest 60-megawatt solar panel is in Spain's Amedilla. Bangladesh is a very promising country for solar power. Because there is more than 300 days of sunshine a year.

Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus's village power organization has brought a breakthrough in the development of solar power in Bangladesh. The 5.5 million solar home system of IDCOL has been established in different parts of the country so far, of which, three and a half million have made rural power. The company has plans to increase the number to 20 lakh by 2017. With the demand for electricity production and not being able to cope with it, the country is in dire need of the crisis when solar power is being discussed.

The solar panel has been set up at the Prime Minister's Office. Not only rural or isolated populations, Bangladesh Bank has set up the country's largest solar panel to encourage the use of solar power in the capital. There is no major central bank in the world, now they are illuminated by the sunlight and they have shown it. This is the first such initiative taken by any central bank in the world. Under the Bangladesh Bank's refinance scheme, there is a fund of Tk 200 crore, from which 20 banks offer easy conditions for projects like solar power and biogas.

Even after that the truth is true, Although its popularity in Bangladesh as an alternative fuel for solar power, its foundation has not yet been strengthened.

As a result, people think that by the year 2021, there may be a lot of government skepticism to get electricity from home. According to the sources of electricity, energy and mineral resources, up to 430 megawatts of alternative energy has been added so far. Of this, 175 MW from solar home system, solar system 3-megawatt in government-owned office, solar power system 1 megawatt, solar power PV installed 11 MW, solar irrigation 2 MW, 2 MW wind power based power plant, biomass-based electricity 1 megawatt of production, 5 megawatts of electricity and biodegradable electricity Or 230 MW of power.

After that the question remains how much capacity we could bring in the energy security. What are our problem places? Identify it quickly and find ways to fix it. In order to establish country's overall energy security and to make the country a middle income country, the concerned people will have more importance in this regard.



( Md. Atikur Rahman, atik@buft.edu.bd)
Russia and China are asking UN member states to back a draft statement expressing "unwavering support" for the Iran nuclear deal, a senior Russian diplomat said on Tuesday, in a bid to put pressure on US President Donald Trump not to withdraw from it.

Russia's arms control envoy Vladimir Yermakov told a UN non-proliferation conference in Geneva that the Iran deal, known as the JCPOA, was fragile and any attempt to amend it would affect the global non-proliferation regime.

"We call upon our colleagues in this hall today not to remain silent in hopes that this situation will somehow blow over by itself but rather to take serious steps to preserve the JCPOA," Yermakov said.
Germany's main Jewish leader says he would advise people visiting big cities against wearing Jewish skullcaps, following a street assault last week on two young men wearing them.

The attack in Berlin, in which a 19-year-old Syrian asylum-seeker is a suspect, added to growing concern in Germany about anti-Semitism.
The family of Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khdeir, who was burned alive by three Jewish terrorists, is suing his murderers for NIS 5.5 million in damages.

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The main defendant, Yosef Haim Ben David, was sentenced to a life term plus 20 years in prison, while another defendant, a minor at the time of the murder, got a life sentence , and a third defendant, also a minor, was sentenced to 21 years.

In February, the High Court of Justice rejected the appeals filed by the three defendants of their punishment. Now that the criminal proceedings against them have concluded, the Abu Khdeir family can file their civil lawsuit.

Teenager Mohammed Abu Khdeir was murder in 2014. His parents are now suing the murderers for damages (Photo: Reuters)

"This was done with the respondents' malicious intent to harm the deceased. They displayed indifference and cynicism in the face of the most horrible outcome of allthe death of the deceased in suffering and agony. They also did not spare the parents of the deceased, who were left with nothing after the death of their son.

"Courts in Israel have recognized the possibility of obliging a damager to pay punitive remuneration. Such remuneration is meant to serve as both a tool of education and deterrence."

Abu Khdeir's parents (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

In the Supreme Court's decision from two months ago to reject the defendants' appeal, Justice Yitzhak Amit wrote, "The murder may be termed a strategic terror attack that ignited Jerusalem in general and east Jerusalem specifically."

"The murder necessitates a harsh reckoning in Israeli society regarding the handling of racism and its various expressions, self-examination from the bottom up to excise it from the state's body," he added.

Hussein Abu Khdeir, Mohammed's father, welcomed the court's decision at the time, saying, "They burned not only Mohammed but an entire family. Their appeal to reduce their sentence drove me mad. Had they been given a lighter sentence, more such crimes would follow. I want Mohammed to be the last victim of such a crime."

"The murderers are like the Nazis who burned people," the father concluded.

The murder of Abu Khdeir in Shuafat in July 2014 ignited a wave of terrorism in Jerusalem. The young Abu Khdeir was kidnapped and then murdered by three Israelis after the funerals of Naftali Frenkel, Gil-Ad Shaer and Eyal Yifrach whose own kidnapping and murder sparked an IDF operation to locate them in the same year.

Main defendant Yosef Haim Ben David (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

A day before Abu Khdeir's kidnapping the three attempted to kidnap 7-year-old Musa Zalum while he was walking with his mother and two brothers in Beit Hanina. The three drove around from the Old City's Damascus Gate to Wadi al-Joz and Beit Hanina until finally settling on Shuafat.

They canvassed the neighborhood for about 20 minutes arguing amongst themselves on the question of who they should kidnap. "Let's kidnap a young man," one suggested. "A woman screams more than a man."

In the three's sentence by the Jerusalem District Court from two years ago, judges determined that the fact that the group's ringleader Ben David "worked on the first night to find a victim, and did so again on the second night, shows determination and a conscious, ideologically-motivated decision to exact revenge, rather than uncontrolled obsessiveness."
The Palestinian envoy in Malaysia says the body of a Hamas militant killed last week in Kuala Lumpur will be repatriated to the Gaza Strip for burial.

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Anwar al-Agha said Tuesday that Egypt agreed to allow the body to be returned through its border with Gaza.

Fadi Albatsh (Photo: Reuters)

Israel's Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman had appealed to Egypt to refuse the Palestinian request. The body is expected to arrive in Gaza on Thursday.

Fadi Albatsh, an electrical engineering lecturer at a Malaysian university, was gunned down by two men on a motorcycle as he was on his way to a mosque early Saturday.

Hamas, a militant terror group sworn to Israel's destruction, described Albatsh as a "commander" in its military wing and accused Israel of assassinating him. Israel has not commented.

Picture of motorbike used by assassins

On Tuesday, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah also blamed Israel for the mysterious assassination, slamming it as a Zionist crime.

"We must condemn this Israeli assassination of a Palestinian-Arab scientist and the martyr Fadi al-Batsh, Nasrallah said during a speech delivered at an event organized by the Hezbollah terror group ahead of the Lebanese parliamentary elections next month.
Emergency food aid for around a million Palestinians in Gaza may run out from June if the UN agency for Palestinian refugees cannot raise another $200 million following a cut-off in US funding, the agency said on Tuesday.

Pierre Kraehenbuehl, who heads the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) providing aid for Palestinians across the Middle East, said US President Donald Trump had withheld $305 million in funding, far more than the $65 million reported in January.

"You already have a very, very fragile community (in Gaza)," Kraehenbuehl told Reuters in an interview during an international donor conference in Syria in Brussels.
Israel's Chief Rabbi David Lau called the Jewish community in Germany on Tuesday to continue proudly wearing skullcaps in public areas. "The skullcap is a Jewish symbol, wear it proudly," the rabbi said.

"While Jews are not supposed to be asked to remove the skullcap, law enforcement authorities in Germany must ensure Jews' safety," he stated." I intend to raise this matter with the relevant authorities."

The rabbi's statement followed a recommendation by Joseph Schuster, chairman of the Central Council of Jews in Germany organization, issued to members of his community and advising them to refrain from being seen with a skullcap in main streets across Germany.
US President Donald Trump warned Iran on Tuesday not to follow through with threats to restart its nuclear program, as he and French President Emmanuel Macron struggled to find common ground on saving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

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Weighing withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, President Donald Trump declared that if the Iranians "restart their nuclear program, they will have bigger problems than they've ever had before."

Trump and Macron meet to discuss Iran nuclear deal ()

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Trump issued his warning alongside French President Emmanuel Macron in the Oval Office, where the two allies were to discuss the multinational nuclear accord, the war in Syria and other issues during a day of meetings at the White House.

Trump and Macron to discuss Iran nuclear deal (Photo: AFP)

"You can mark it down, if they restart their nuclear program, they will have bigger problems than they've ever had before," Trump repeated. "Iran will pay if it restarts nuclear program."

Trump called the agreement a "terrible deal" that was "insane" and "ridiculous" because it did not deal with ballistic missiles or Iran's activities in conflicts in places like Yemen or Syria.

"We made this terrible deal but we're going to discuss it," he said. Under the deal, Iran agreed to curb its nuclear ambitions in return for relief from economic sanctions.

One of Macron's main objectives during his three-day visit to Washington is to persuade Trump to stay in the deal. Trump remains publicly undecided but reminded his French counterpart of what he sees as flaws in the agreement.

Macron told reporters that he and Trump would look at the Iran deal "in a wider regional context," taking into account the situation in Syria. "We have a common objective, we want to make sure there's no escalation and no nuclear proliferation in the region. We now need to find the right path forward," Macron said.

Trump suggested he was open to "doing something" on the Iran agreement as long as it was done "strongly." He told Macron, "We could have at least an agreement among ourselves very quickly." But when he was asked by reporters what that agreement would be, Trump said, "You'll find out."

For all their camaraderie, Macron and Trump disagree on some fundamental issues, including the multinational nuclear deal, which is aimed at restricting Iran's development of nuclear weapons.

Trump, skeptical of the pact's effectiveness, has been eager to pull out as a May 12 deadline nears. Macron says he is not satisfied with the situation in Iran and thinks the agreement is imperfect, but he has argued for the US sticking with the deal on the grounds that there is not yet a "Plan B."

Iran has said it will ramp up its nuclear program if the deal collapses and a senior Iranian official said on Tuesday that Tehran might quit a treaty designed to stop the spread of nuclear weapons if Trump scraps the agreement. Tehran says its nuclear program is only for peaceful means.

Trumps calls the Iran nuclear deal 'insane' (Photo: AFP)

Russia and China seek international support for Iran nuclear deal

Russia's arms control envoy Vladimir Yermakov told a UN non-proliferation conference in Geneva that the Iran deal, known as the JCPOA, was fragile and any attempt to amend it would affect the global non-proliferation regime.

"We call upon our colleagues in this hall today not to remain silent in hopes that this situation will somehow blow over by itself but rather to take serious steps to preserve the JCPOA," Yermakov said.

The Chinese-Russian draft text asks states to "confirm their unwavering support for the comprehensive and effective implementation" of the JCPOA, and to recognize its significant contribution to international security.

Yermakov told Reuters he was hopeful of getting the backing of all major states at the end of the two week conference, including Washington's allies in Europe who have voiced their support for the JCPOA.

He also expected North Korea to give its backing, and said the fate of the Iran deal was a key factor in upcoming talks on North Korea's nuclear programs.

Kim and nuclear scientists (Photo: Reuters)

Shortly after Yermakov, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono took the floor and added his voice to those supporting the JCPOA, saying it contributed to the global non-proliferation regime.

Iran warns Trump it might withdraw from Non-Proliferation Treaty

A senior Iranian official said on Tuesday that Tehran might quit a treaty designed to stop the spread of nuclear weapons if US President Donald Trump scraps the nuclear accord Iran signed with world powers in 2015.

The other powers that signed itRussia, China, Germany, Britain and Francehave all said they want to preserve the agreement that curbed Iran's nuclear program in return for the lifting of most international sanctions.

In a news conference broadcast on state television, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, said the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran was ready for some "surprising actions" if the nuclear deal was scrapped.

Answering a question about the possibility of Tehran withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Shamkhani said: "This is one of three options that we are considering."

Hassan Rouhani says consequences to be severe if deal is betrayed (Photo: EPA)

Hassan Rouhani also warned Trump on Tuesday to stay in the nuclear deal or face "severe consequences."

"I am telling those in the White House that if they do not live up to their commitments the Iranian government will firmly react," Rouhani said in a speech.

"If anyone betrays the deal, they should know that they would face severe consequences," he told a cheering crowd of thousands gathered in the city of Tabriz. "Iran is prepared for all possible situations," he added.
Algeria's criminal court sentenced on Tuesday seven people to death and incarceration following their conviction of spying for Israel.

The head of the group, who is of Lebanese origin and has a Liberian citizenship, was sentenced to death. The other six members of the group were sentenced to 10 years in jail in addition to a fine.
Algeria has handed down death and prison sentences to seven defendants who stood accused of spying for Israel. The head of the alleged group was sentenced to death, whereas its remaining six members were given ten-year jail sentences.

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The group was headed by a Lebanese national with a dual Liberian citizenship, an Algerian news agency reported Tuesday, whose aim was said to be "crippling Algeria's security."

Seven alleged spies for Israel were sentenced to death and prison terms in the North African country (Photo: AP)

The remaining defendants held various African citizenships. In addition to the prison sentence they received, an Algerian criminal court ordered them to pay fines.

Algeria's Interior Minister Noureddine Bedoui said the exposure of the "international spy ring" working for Israel was clear proof that the Mossad and other foreign entities were trying to undermine the country's security and stability.

The interior minister's remarks came days after a Malaysia assassination in which a Palestinian was shot in the capital of Kuala Lumpur. Fadi Albatsh was a Hamas engineer, and the terror groupand Malaysia itself claim he was assassinated by the Mossad.

Lebanese actor and director Ziad Itani was previously accused of spying for Israel (Photo: AFP)

Other Muslim countries frequently accuse either locals or foreigners of spying for Israel. The most notable example, perhaps, is Lebanon. This past November, the country was in turmoil over the Ziad Itani affair, when the actor-director was arrested on suspicion of colluding with Israel.

It was revealed last month, however, that a former senior Lebanese intelligence services official had a hacker fabricate the supposedly damning phone calls served up as evidence of Itani's treachery. The official was arrested , and Itani was consequently released
The Israeli government acknowledged Tuesday it cannot expel African migrants against their will and has canceled all pending deportation orders.

In a statement to the Supreme Court, the state says: "It is not possible to implement expulsions to a third country without (migrants') consent."

Some 35,000 African migrants, mostly from Sudan and Eritrea, are in Israel. The government wants most of them to leave, but has not been able to find a way to expel them lawfully.

Last month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reached a deal with the UN to resettle half of the migrants in Western nations and absorb the rest. But he called it off hours later amid objections from nationalist critics.

Later Tuesday, Netanyahu tweeted that he agreed with the interior minister to prepare to reopen detention camps for migrants.
Police must not feel free to abuse police power against police discipline

A MOTORCYCLE was stolen from in front of a high police official's residence last week. Motorbikes are the easiest target for thieves. They either stealthily take away the bikes or stop the riders at night and snatch away their bikes. Sometimes, the bikers are knifed or beaten up. Last year, 285 such incidents took place in Dhaka city.

This time, it happened to a high police official. So the official called the Officer-in-Charge of local police station and asked him to take action. So on Friday, police conducted several raids in the area and picked up many persons, including workshop owners and motorcycle spares sellers. But their arbitrary arrest raised questions.

Much like the controversial and draconian Section 54 of the CrPC, Section 151 also gives the police wide and discretionary power to arrest and detain anybody. Under Section 54, police could arrest anybody just on suspicion that the person was planning to commit a crime. But this section had widely been abused by the police, the most sensational of it being the arrest and murder in custody of a private university student, Shamim Reza Rubel, in 1998. His death in police custody caused a huge outcry that led to a legal battle against this arbitrary power of police. Finally, the Supreme Court in 2016 issued a guideline that restricted arrests under Section 54. After this court ruling the use of this draconian law declined. But then police found an alternative to harass people by applying the Section 151 which gives police a similar arbitrary power to arrest anyone without a warrant.

Due to misuse of this law the police were able to pick up workshop owners and motorcycle spare parts sellers arbitrarily without any solid proof. The arrestees were kept in custody and they suffered mental torture. The detainees also suffered tremendous economic losses with regard to lost income and the money they had to spring to get lawyers to get them out of custody.

Why should ordinary citizens be harassed in such a manner? Such actions may end up by turning people into hardened criminals. The police should rather focus on information gathering to ensure that when they do arrest people it is the real criminals which they get. Police have no right to harass innocent citizens in such a fashion.






News

Washington, DC - Remarks by Vice President Pence at Swearing-In Ceremony of NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and Call to the International Space Station:

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, good afternoon. It is a great honor to join all of you here today at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C. and via NASA TV to be able to speak to Team NASA all across the United States of America.

It is a great privilege for me to be here today to be able to usher in, on behalf of the President of the United States, what we believe is a new chapter of renewed American leadership in space with the swearing-in of the newest Administrator of NASA, Jim Bridenstine. (Applause.)

Let me thank a few people who are here, bring a few reflections, and then well get down to business because I know thats what NASA is all about  not wasting a lot of time but getting a lot done and getting it done quickly and efficiently.

First and foremost, I want to thank several of our honored guests who are here. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, thank you for your great leadership on behalf of space and for being with us here today. (Applause.)

I also want to recognize the Bridenstine family thats with us today. Youll see a little bit more of them in a few minutes. But Jims long and distinguished career in uniform and in public service would not have been possible without the dedication of his wonderful family  his wife, Michelle, and their three children, Walker, and Sarah, and Grant. We are honored to have you with us there today. (Applause.)

And to all of our distinguished guests, its a great privilege to be here at the James E. Webb Auditorium and to also be joined by the men and women of NASA of this facility and all of those scattered across the 20 centers and facilities in 13 states and two foreign countries. Thank you all for your time and your attention to this important moment in the life of this agency and in the life our nation.

And first and foremost, I want to bring greetings from a great champion of American leadership, a champion of the pioneering work of NASA, and a man who is absolutely committed to renewing American leadership in the boundless expanse of space. I bring greetings from the 45th President of the United States of America, President Donald Trump. (Applause.)

Since the very first day of our administration, President Trump has been keeping his promise to restore Americas proud legacy and leadership in space.

Last year, after it had lain dormant for nearly a quarter of a century, President Trump kept a promise that he made in the course of the campaign and relaunched the National Space Council. And it is my great honor, as Vice President of the United States, to serve as the Chairman of the newly renewed National Space Council. And weve been busy and hard at work. (Applause.)

Last December, President Trump also signed the first set of the National Space Councils recommendations. Under Space Policy Directive-1, we will send American astronauts back to the moon. And after that, we will establish the capacity, with international and commercial partners, to send Americans to Mars. And NASA will lead the way. (Applause.)

But today marks the beginning of a new and exciting chapter for this storied agency, because President Trump has chosen a distinguished leader to serve as Administrator of NASA in this new era of human space exploration: the honorable Jim Bridenstine.

This year marks NASAs 60th anniversary. And as President Trump said just over one year ago, before signing the first NASA Authorization Act in seven years, in his words, for the past six decades, NASAs work has inspired millions of Americans to imagine distant worlds and a better future right here on Earth.

For my part, Ive seen the importance of your work firsthand. Ive traveled on the Presidents behalf to meet with the men and women of NASA at Johnson and Kennedy Space Centers, and at the Marshall Space Flight Center.

I was also inspired to meet the newest class of astronauts not too many long ago  men and women who embody the courage and pioneering spirit that has always defined this country and will continue to spur our nation on to break new barriers, set new records, and carry America to even greater heights.

The work that NASA does every day is essential also to Americas national security. Its essential to our prosperity. And in a very real sense  as President Trump knows well  the work of NASA speaks to the very character of our nation. No matter what role you play in this great organization, you can be assured you have an advocate, and an ally, and a champion in President Donald Trump. (Applause.)

The budget the President advocated for and signed last month demonstrates our administrations commitment to ensure that you have the resources and support you need to continue to advance American leadership in space.

But as all of you here at NASA and around the country understand very well, mission success depends on more than just resources alone. It requires leadership. You need clear, ambitious goals. But you also need proven leaders who can implement a practical plan and achieve it.

You need schedules that are realistic, but driven by the same sense of urgency thats spurred historys greatest pioneers and explorers, and a constancy of purpose that will sustain your work through triumphs, and tragedies, and through transitions. Thats exactly the kind of leadership that you will have, starting today, with NASAs new Administrator, Jim Bridenstine. (Applause.)

Let me also, at Jims urging, acknowledge someone else I just swore in a few minutes ago. A man who brings an extraordinary background in public service and private life, who also joins us here today with his wonderful family, the new Chief Financial Officer of NASA, Jeff DeWit is with us today. Thanks for stepping up. (Applause.)

But about our new Administrator, its a great joy to be with you today. Following in the tradition of the leader who is memorialized by this  the name on this auditorium, the great James Webb  Jim Bridenstine comes from a distinguished career in the military, in public service, in management, and in business. And he will bring that full range of experience, as well as character, to his new role leading this vital agency.

Jim Bridenstine began his career as a naval aviator, flying the E-2C Hawkeye off the USS Abraham Lincoln where he performed combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over the course of his distinguished service, Jim gathered 1,900 flight hours and executed more than 300 carrier arrested landings. An extraordinary accomplishment.

He went on to fly the F-18 Hornet at the Naval Strike Air Warfare Center. And after nine years of active duty, he served as the Executive Director of the Tulsa Air and Space Museum and Planetarium.

But that didnt stop him from continuing to serve in uniform. In 2012, he was promoted Lieutenant Commander of the United States Navy Reserve, while flying missions to combat drug trafficking in Central and South America.

For the past six years, Jim has spent more time here in Washington, D.C. than he had in his prior life. Hes represented the people of Oklahomas 1st Congressional District in the House of Representatives with distinction, where he served on the Science, Space, and Technology Committee. And Jim Bridenstine played a lead role in authoring the American Space Renaissance Act, and earned a reputation, quite frankly, as one of Congresss most dedicated champions of American space leadership.

Now, thats not surprising, though, given Jims reputation for educational excellence as well. He actually triple majored as an undergraduate at Rice University  triple majored  (applause)  and earned his MBA at Cornell University.

Jims professional experiences, as well, will contribute to his ability to lead the extraordinary efforts of this agency. From real estate and ranching, to public policy, theyve given him the kind of outstanding managerial skills that made James Webb such a successful manager of NASA. And we know, will lead to a great success  a great success under the administration of Jim Bridenstine.

Above all, Jim brings to this position an unrivaled passion for Americas space program; an unwavering respect for the more than 18,000 scientists, engineers, astronauts, lawyers, contract officers, analysts, security personnel of this great organization  men and women who each and every day make NASA the extraordinary institution that it is, cherished by everyone who carries the name, American. Jim Bridenstine understands the words of NASAs vision to reach for new heights and reveal the unknown for the benefit of mankind.

Jim, President Trump and I are absolutely confident that with your background in military service, with your understanding of public policy, with your experience in management and with your love for American leadership in space, that you will bring all of those qualities to bear, along with your character, on a new chapter of renewed American leadership in space as the newest Administrator of NASA.

And so, on behalf of President Trump, its my great privilege to administer to you the oath of office. If your family would like to join us up on stage, well do that now.

MR. BRIDENSTINE: Thank you.

(The oath of office is administered.)

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Congratulations.

ADMINISTRATOR BRIDENSTINE: Thank you. (Applause.)

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Ladies and gentlemen, it is a great privilege for me to introduce to you the new Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Jim Bridenstine. (Applause.)

ADMINISTRATOR BRIDENSTINE: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. Thank you for those exceptionally kind remarks. Thank you, also, to you and the President, and for what you are doing to ensure that the United States of America remains the preeminent space-bearing nation in the world.

In these last few days, I have heard numerous times, Welcome to the NASA family. I will tell you it truly does feel like a family here, and I am very humbled to be a part of it.

Speaking of family, this is really only possible because of my family: my wife, Michelle, my children, Walker, Sarah, and Grant. They have all been so supportive in all that I do, and I am thrilled that you guys are here with me today. Thank you. (Applause.)

Thank you also to my congressional staff who have spent an inordinate amount of time and work helping me develop and promote our space policy objectives in Congress. They, along with the NASA political staff, have supported me throughout the confirmation process and ensured that I was as prepared as possible every step along the way.

I would not be here without the time, education, and support of stakeholders across the entire space community, from industry to academia and government. All of you have been great partners and have been immensely helpful and invaluable resources for me and my team.

To my friends in Congress: Chairman Ted Cruz, thank you for all the help you have provided. Id also like to thank Chairman Smith and Chairman Babin and Ranking Member Perlmutter. Your friendship has been invaluable and your bipartisan  thats important in space  its been very bipartisan  your bipartisan leadership has been critical to our country. I am excited to continue working with you in this new role.

I also want to thank Robert Lightfoot for his strong leadership as the Acting Administrator during a time of transition and for his decades of service to NASA and to our great country. (Applause.)

His legacy is one of commitment to our mission and leadership in all capacities. NASA has a history of great leaders, from the early days of Hugh Dryden and James Webb, to our most recent leaders, Sean OKeefe, Michael Griffin, and Charlie Bolden. I will do my best to serve our storied agency to the utmost of my abilities as we reach for new heights and reveal the unknown for the benefit of humankind.

NASA represents what is best about the United States of America. We lead, we discover, we pioneer, and we inspire. I look forward to our journey together. Thank you so much. (Applause.)

MS. WANG: ISS, this is headquarters. How do you hear us? (Laughter.) ISS, this is headquarters. How do you hear us? It is 220 million miles away. ISS? This is headquarters. How do you hear us? Im being told in my ear that were connecting through Johnson Space Center right now.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Did you pay the bill? (Laughter.)

MS. WANG: ISS, this is headquarters. How do you hear us?

MR. TINGLE: This is crew of Expedition 55 onboard ISS. We hear you loud and clear. And a hearty congratulations to our new administrator. Congratulations on your selection to lead NASA as you report to duty.

Mr. Vice President, Mr. Bridenstine, welcome onboard the International Space Station.

ADMINISTRATOR BRIDENSTINE: Well, thank you. (Applause.) In case you didnt know, you got a really loud ovation here on Earth. So thank you for what youre doing for our country. Thank you for congratulating me. We have a really special guest here today. Hes the Vice President of the United States, and I think he might have maybe a few thoughts for you and maybe a few questions. So Im going to turn the mic over to the Vice President.

MR. TINGLE: Sounds great. Thank you.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you. The Administrator and I are delighted that youd help us make this occasion special. Been a long day for you all, but its an honor to be able to speak with each one of you. And let me just say hello to the International Space Station. To Andrew Feustel, Ricky Arnold, and Scott Tingle, on behalf of President Donald Trump and a proud nation, thank you for your service in space. (Applause.)

MR. TINGLE: Thank you, Mr. Vice President. Its truly an honor to serve in such a great capacity at the leading edge of human space flight. And were honored to have this meeting with all of you today.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, we appreciate you men, not only your courageous service in space but also helping to make this a special occasion. As you all know, we now have a new administrator at NASA. But a year ago, President Trump relaunched the National Space Council, and our administration is going to continue to work to ensure that the United States continues to lead in space. You are all a part of that today, but I know how proud you are to know that your nation is once again stepping forward to lead in space, and particularly to lead in human exploration. But I thank you for being part of a vanguard of space in this day. And you have our prayers and our gratitude.

They did tell me I could ask a couple of questions of you while we have the connection. Andrew and Ricky, I understand you two are space veterans. Could you maybe reflect on how youve seen our space capabilities change over the course of your career?

MR. FEUSTEL: Certainly can. And again, welcome to the Space Station. Its a privilege for us to speak with you both today and the rest of the folks at headquarters. For myself, as an astronaut for the last 18 years, Ive seen us progress from the days of shuttle and the retirement of that spacecraft, and embarking on a new endeavor after we had completed the space station now, to move into commercial crew opportunities, and also with NASAs development of the Orion spacecraft that we hope will take us off to distant destinations beginning, we hope, with the moon, and eventually onto Mars and wherever that might lead us.

But were really excited about that and happy to have seen the shuttle do the work that it did. It was a magnificent spacecraft, and we certainly wouldnt have the International Space Station without it. But were happy and excited to continue to move on with our capability.

MR. ARNOLD: Good afternoon, its great to be here with you today. Again, congratulations. Ill just tack onto what Drew said. We have the distinct privilege of help building the International Space Station. And now for us to live up here with an international community at the leading edge of science and laying the groundwork in preparation for exploration, its just an absolute thrill to have that opportunity to live and work here with the crew that were here with.

THE VICE PRESDIENT: How about a big round of applause for Andrew and Ricky, these great space veterans. (Applause.) These are extraordinary Americans. Thank you both.

And, Scott, Im jealous of all three of you, to be quite honest about it. But, Scott, this is your first space mission. Can you reflect on your training? Whats been the greatest challenge living and working in space for those that are looking on?

MR. TINGLE: Well, the training was fantastic. You know, we have a lot of great folks that put their heart and soul into this back at home in all of the centers, as well as in our international partners.

The team will water your eyes if you go through the process and watch the process work on yourself as you go through the training. By the time you get to the end of training, you feel so ready to go that youre just  youre not even afraid, youre not anxious, youre not anything. Its just you want to go do the job. And when we got up here, everything clicked. Everything clicked in really well and fit into the right spots. So a lot of great things to say about our training team back at home.

THE VICE PRESDIENT: Oh, thats great. I know they appreciate hearing that. But why dont we give Scott a round of applause too? First timer. (Applause.) Well done, Scott. Well said.

This would be for the whole team. You know, the President has signed his first space policy directive that were going to renew Americas commitment to human space exploration, starting with the moon on to Mars. Any one of you can take this one. The work youre doing on the International Space Station, the experiments, can you reflect on how thats going to contribute to our ability to carry missions to the moon and to Mars?

MR. TINGLE: Well, one of the most important things were doing is an experiment called AMS, and its a spectrometer that were measuring anti-matter, trying to find evidence of anti-matter. But were also looking at radiation. And the radiation problem is one of the biggest problems that we have to solve if we want to have a more robust presence in space. We have to learn how to send our people long duration, long distances in space, and protect them from the intense radiation that they will have to live in and work in for that.

And so thats one of the experiments that were doing that I think is very important to our future endeavors towards Mars.

MR. FEUSTEL: I think whats been really encouraging to me is to see the science that were doing up here that gives us the ability to monitor the Earth and whats going on down beneath us.

I think its important as a species that we develop the capability to live off of the planet because we know that there are challenges on Earth, and we also know that single-planet species dont last forever, and the dinosaurs are evidence of that. So changes might be far off for us. In fact, catastrophic changes may be far off, or they might be tomorrow depending on what else is out there lurking in space that could collide with the planet or cause other challenges for us.

So I think its important as humans to understand whats happening to the Earth, and this is a great platform to do that. And our ability to start into exploration will give us opportunities to live and work in space, and provide capability for us to be not a single-planet species.

MR. ARNOLD: The International Space Station, I really believe, is a beacon of hope, of what humans can accomplish when they put aside their differences and work together for the common good. And so Id like to think that the groundwork weve laid here by the construction of the International Space Station, the science were doing together, and just the work and trust were building with one another, that we are laying the foundation for a robust human presence in the solar system. And Im encouraged to hear that the United States is going to lead that effort.

And what were doing here with our international partners  were showing what were capable of as a species. And I look forward to watching the next generation pick up the torch and carry it for us.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, Im going to give the Administrator the last word here, but I am  Im actually told, Andrew, that youre a fan of the Indianapolis 500-mile race?

MR. FEUSTEL: There arent not many racing vehicles that I am not a fan of. But, yeah, Ive been watching races every weekend, getting some great shots from up above, and folks can look forward to another one of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway here coming up in a couple of weeks.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, Ill tell you what, Andrew, I know that all those racecar drivers would be a little jealous of the speed that youre lapping right now. (Laughter.) So I share your passion for motorsports, especially the Indy 500. Had to make that connection.

Listen, Im going hand it back to our new Administrator. I think were about down to our time. I know its late in the evening for all of you. I thought I would give him the last word.

But I hope all of you, even from the International Space Station, can see that in President Donald Trump, America is leading in space once again. We have a President that is absolutely determined to build on all of the extraordinary work of the past six decades of NASA and make that just a preamble to great, great American leadership in the cosmos.

So God bless you. Godspeed. And thank you for your courageous service in space. Its an honor to be with you all. Here is the Administrator for the last word. (Applause.)

MR. TINGLE: Thank you, Mr. Vice President.

ADMINISTRATOR BRIDENSTINE: Well, thank you so much, Mr. Vice President. Since you were able to plug Indianapolis, Im going to go ahead and plug the great city of Tulsa, Oklahoma. All of the truss structures on that International Space Station were built in my hometown, Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Applause.) So were  I like to say we have maybe a little more speed than the Indianapolis 500.

But its an honor to have you here today. We are down to our remaining two minutes. I just wanted to say, America loves what you guys are doing; that we are thrilled for your levels of education, your commitment to the program, your commitment to our country. And were thrilled that you were able to join us today on this very special day. I am deeply honored. So thank you all so much. (Applause.)

MR. TINGLE: Thank you, sir. Its an honor for us as well. And congratulations.

ADMINISTRATOR BRIDENSTINE: And Im sure well be talking again soon. Thank you all very much. (Applause.)

MS. WANG: Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, that will conclude our program today. Please join me one more time in a round of applause for the vice President of the United States and our new NASA Administrator, Jim Bridenstine.
Border News

Lukeville, Arizona - U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at Arizonas Port of Lukeville arrested two women after seizing almost $60,000 worth of marijuana.

Officers referred a 24-year-old Phoenix woman and her 27-year-old passenger, from Las Vegas, Nevada, for a secondary inspection of a Chrysler van after the pair applied to return to the United States from Mexico. The search of the vehicle led to the discovery of 110 pounds of marijuana, worth nearly $60,000, which was found beneath the rear seats as well as within the rear compartment.

Officers arrested both subjects and turned them over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations, while the drugs and the vehicle were seized.
Border News

Nogales, Arizona - U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at Arizonas Port of Nogales apprehended a U.S. citizen and 2 Mexican nationals involved in separate failed attempts to smuggle more than $558,000 worth of methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin into the United States over the weekend.

Officers working at the Mariposa Crossing referred a 36-year-old Nogales, Arizona man for further inspection of his Ford Mustang early Saturday morning. A CBP narcotics detection canine alerted to a scent that it was trained to detect, resulting in drugs being located in the vehicle engines manifold. The inspection led to the discovery of more than 6 pounds of meth, worth nearly $19,000.

A few hours later, officers at the Mariposas crossing referred a 23-year-old Mexican woman for a further search of her Nissan sedan. A canine alert led to the discovery of more than 66 pounds of meth, worth in excess of $198,000, nearly 3 pounds of cocaine, worth more than $33,000 and almost 4 pounds of heroin, worth more $61,000 throughout the vehicle.

Sunday morning, officers at the Mariposa crossing referred a 44-year-old Mexican woman for an additional search of her Mercury SUV. Following a canine alert, officers removed more than 35 pounds of meth, worth more than $106,000 as well as more than 8 pounds of heroin, worth in excess of $140,000 from within the spare tire.

Officers seized the drugs and vehicles, and after their arrests turned all three subjects over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations.
Border News

Tucson, Arizona - Border Patrol agents and Nogales Police Department officers arrested 11 illegal aliens hiding in a mobile home park Monday morning in Nogales, Arizona.

Agents were dispatched to The Preston Trailer Park after a caller reported suspicious activity and vehicles in the neighborhood. Agents observed two men, believed to be illegally present in the country, enter an abandoned mobile home.

Border Patrol enlisted the assistance of Nogales Police Department who arrived and performed a welfare check on the mobile home. Inside the dwelling, authorities encountered the two men seen outside, as well as nine additional individuals.

The nine adult males, one adult female and one unaccompanied teenage boy were all illegally present in the country.

All 11 individuals were found in good health, and were subsequently transported to the Nogales Station to be processed for immigration violations.

Smugglers continue to victimize illegal immigrants by exposing them to dangerous situations, including confinement for long periods of time in inhumane conditions.
Border News

Santa Rosa, Arizona - Border Patrol agents from the Casa Grande Station assisted Tohono OOdham Police Department (TOPD) in the arrest of one Mexican national after finding narcotics in large burlap sacks attached to horses near Federal Route 15 Wednesday afternoon.

Casa Grande Border Patrol agents and

a TOPD officer arrested a Mexican

national after finding him with horses

and drugs

A TOPD officer encountered a male subject leading two horses with large burlap sacks near the village of Santa Rosa, Arizona. As the officer approached the subject, the 25-year-old Mexican national left the horses and fled on foot. The officer was able to seize the horses and call for Border Patrol assistance. Agents responded to search for the subject and later arrested him in the vicinity.

A search of the bags revealed more than 262 pounds of marijuana and 6 pounds of methamphetamine, with a combined value of more than $123,000. The illegal alien was arrested for drug smuggling and the case was turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations.

Border Patrol relies on the collaboration between state, local, tribal and federal law enforcement agencies to combat the transport of illegal aliens and drugs into the country.
Border News

Nogales, Arizona - U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at Arizonas Port of Nogales apprehended a U.S. citizen involved in connection with a failed attempt to smuggle almost $291,000 worth of methamphetamine and heroin into the United States this past Wednesday.

Officers discovered drugs

within the back of the seats

of a smuggling vehicle

Officers working at the Mariposa Crossing referred a 39-year-old man for further inspection of his Infinity sedan Wednesday evening. A CBP narcotics detection canine alerted to a scent that it was trained to detect, resulting in drugs being located throughout the vehicle. The inspection led to the discovery of more than 82 pounds of meth, worth more than $248,000 as well as more than 2 pounds of heroin, worth in excess of $42,000.

Smugglers attempted to hide packages

of meth and heroin within the spare tire

of a smuggling vehicle

Officers seized the drugs as well as the vehicle, and after being arrested turned the subject over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations.
Latest News

Sells, Arizona - Three male U.S. citizens hiking in the Baboquivari Mountains east of Sells, Arizona, lost their way and called 9-1-1 for help late Tuesday evening.

Border Patrol agents from the Three Points substation, along with a Border Patrol Search, Trauma and Rescue team (BORSTAR), responded with Arizona Department of Public Safety troopers to prepare for a rescue operation beginning at first light Wednesday.

Before daylight, however, Three Points agents located two of the hikers who had made their way to the bottom of a trailhead. The hikers told agents that the third hiker was still on top of the mountain and unable to proceed. After agents located the third hiker, a 66-year-old man, they stayed with him until sunrise when the BORSTAR team arrived to extract him.

After BORSTAR agents evaluated the hiker, they requested assistance from an Arizona DPS Ranger helicopter for a hoist extraction from the mountaintop to an awaiting ambulance for further treatment, evaluation and transport to a local area hospital.

In the Tucson Sectors harsh desert environment, Border Patrol security operations often turn into humanitarian rescue missions. Border Patrol officials encourage anyone in distress, or witnessing others in distress, to call 9-1-1 or activate a rescue beacon before a casualty occurs.
Latest News

Yuma, Arizona - Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents in Blythe, California seized a sizeable amount of cash and recovered a stolen vehicle in two separate incidents over the past week.

In the first event, Blythe Station Border Patrol Integrated Targeting Team (ITT) agents were performing anti-smuggling operations on Interstate 40 on April 13. At approximately 3:15 a.m. they conducted an immigration stop on a 2006 Honda Civic bearing a Georgia license plate. A Border Patrol canine positively alerted to the vehicle. Agents seized $18,540 in cash and other drug paraphernalia. The 25-year-old male driver and 24-year-old male passenger were both United States citizens.

In the second event, agents with the Blythe Station ITT attempted to perform an immigration stop on a 2018 Range Rover at approximately 2:45 a.m. on Wednesday. The vehicle initially stopped and then sped off after agents tried to run checks on the Vehicle Identification Number. After a short pursuit, the vehicle stopped and the suspect fled on foot. The suspect later surrendered after a short search of the area. During questioning, the suspect stated that he had stolen the vehicle in Tucson, Arizona. The male suspect, a 23-year-old United States citizen, and stolen vehicle were turned over to the La Paz County Sheriffs Office.

Both ITT seizures were a part of a concentrated effort on Interstate 40 focused on Alien Smuggling. Agents also apprehended a total of 17 illegal aliens of various nationalities over a two-week period.

Integrated Targeting Teams were established in Yuma Sector to enhance U.S. Customs and Border Protections Counter Network Approach. They perform synchronized targeting of high-risk transnational and illicit criminal organizations.
Latest News

Yuma, Arizona - Yuma Sector Border Patrol welcomed Arizona National Guard Soldiers and Airmen last week to the Yuma Sector headquarters.

Leadership greeted 25 National Guard members and provided initial instructions on support requirements.

National Guard members arrive at

Yuma Sector Headquarters

Yuma Sector is highly appreciative of the support we will receive from the men and women of the Arizona National Guard, Deputy Chief Patrol Agent Carl Landrum said. The success of Yuma Sector begins with hard working employees, synergistic partnerships with local, state, federal and tribal agencies and the continued support of local citizens and communities.

National Guard personnel receive an

incoming briefing by Yuma Sector

staff

The initial wave of Soldiers and Airmen are assigned to jobs such as vegetation clearing, camera operators, criminal analysts, administration clerks and training assistance.

Yuma is expected to receive more than 60 National Guard members over the next few months. The length of tours vary and are subject to changes in mission requirements.
Latest News

Washington, DC - Today, Acting Secretary of State John J. Sullivan announced $50 million in additional humanitarian assistance for vulnerable people fleeing the Rakhine State crisis. This brings the United States response to the crisis in Burma and Bangladesh to more than $163 million since August 2017, and total humanitarian assistance for displaced people in and from Burma to more than $255 million since the start of FY 2017.

The Acting Secretary of State announced this new funding at the G7 Summit in Toronto, where he stood united with other G7 members to denounce human rights violations and abuses, including atrocities, committed in Rakhine State.

Nearly 700,000 people, mostly Rohingya women and children, have fled violence in Rakhine State, Burma since August. The total number of refugees hosted in Bangladesh is now approximately one million.

The United States continues to provide life-saving assistance that will support refugees and Bangladeshi host communities to provide protection, emergency shelter, water, sanitation, health care, and psychosocial support for people affected by the crisis, as well as to prepare for the impending monsoon and cyclone seasons, in order to help prevent loss of life, shelter, and access to critical services.

We applaud the Government of Bangladeshs generosity in responding to this humanitarian crisis and appreciate its continued efforts to ensure assistance reaches people in need. We continue to urge all actors to play a constructive role in resolving this crisis  ending violence in Burma and restoring the rule of law, immediately granting humanitarian and media access, guaranteeing those who want to voluntarily return to their homes are able to do so in a safe and dignified manner, and addressing the root causes of the crisis in Rakhine State. To this end, we call for the Burmese Government to immediately implement the recommendations of the 2017 Advisory Commission on Rakhine State.

This $50 million contribution reflects strong bipartisan support for this urgent crisis by the U.S. Congress, for which we are grateful. We urge other donors to join in providing the additional humanitarian assistance still needed for those affected by the crisis.
Cruelty of this nature is unbelievable, sociologists must enquire

POLICE on Sunday arrested one Jahid alias Jahangir and his accomplice Md Abdul Majid from the city's Badda area in connection with the killing of his own son to entrap a neighbour. Police on April 18 recovered the body of Ausar with head and neck injuries from a paddy field near Badda area. Since Jahid had enmity with his neighbour, he plotted to kill his son to entrap them as murderers. So, he hired Majid to kill his son on April 17. Jahid filed a murder case with the Badda Police Station against his neighbour as the prime suspect. Based on video footage, police arrested Abdul Majid from Satarkul area who confessed before the court that Jahid (father) ordered him to kill Ausar and he was overseeing the killing standing nearby.

It is not a first incident of this kind. There are several identical incidents. On November 4 last year, Nusrat Jahan, 9, was killed by her mother Arzina Begum as she witnessed her father Jamil Sheikh's murder. The girl witnessed how her mother in association with her boyfriend Shahin killed her father. According to the police, Arzina and Shahin killed father and daughter to remove barriers on the way to their extra-marital affairs. What a ferocious incident! A mother killed her daughter along with the husband only for her personal pleasure.

In both incidents, the killer father and mother created scene to divert attention of neighbours and police. Their moaning was so touchy and perfect that, the neigbours were also melted by it. There are opposite incidents also. A police officer and his wife were killed by their daughter Oishee in Dhaka three years back

We find it extremely difficult to believe that parents could be so cruel if they are normal. Nobody will care to take the incidents seriously to know their mental condition or social pressure they were under. Not to take life and death of ordinary people seriously is the social and political mentality under the selfishly cruel atmosphere we are living in.
Yuma News

Yuma, Arizona - Therapy dogs will be visiting the Arizona Western College Yuma Campus to help alleviate stress as students prepare for final exams.

The Yuma Chapter of Love on a Leash will be volunteering to share their carefree canine companions with students during the Pet-A-Pup Stress Relief event, which will be held at 9 a.m. on Thursday, May 3, in the 3C Breezeway.

In addition to relieving stress, the event will also help raise awareness surrounding the topic of mental health, which is AWCs health and wellness theme for the month of May.

The entire campus community is welcome and encouraged to participate in the event.

For more information, contact Christine Rouff at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or (928) 317-6067
Karachi: Industrialists representing the Chengdu Chamber of Commerce for Commercial Services (CCCCS), China, have shown interest in setting up an industrial incubator in Pakistan with a focus on technology transfer, reported a news source. To promote trade between the two countries, the CCCCS is also interested in setting up a Pakistan Commodity Centre in Chengdu.

To explore opportunities to establish an industrial zone in Lahore, Karachi, or Gwadar, a nine-member delegation of the CCCCS visited Pakistan recently. According to the CCCCSs strategic partner Professor Song Zhihui, the delegation held successful meetings with all concerned stakeholders including Sindh Board of Investment, Karachi Chamber of Commerce, furniture manufacturers and other government functionaries. The delegation also visited Bin Qasim Industrial Park during their visit.

The Chairperson Sindh Board of Investment Naheed Memon called the meeting very successful as both sides identified areas which could be worked on. CCCCS Chairman Li Tiansu has said that the trade body is considering establishing a Pakistan Commodity Centre in Chengdu, where local products from Pakistan would be displayed to facilitate trade. With improvements in road-rail networks between the two countries, China Logistics Corporation is looking for ways to facilitate transportation of goods to and from Sichuan.

The delegation from Chengdu also met with China Overseas Ports Holding Company Ltd. and the Gwadar Ports Authority Chairman Dostain Khan Jamaldini, and expressed their earnest for investment and business ties in Gwadar Free Zone.
While smart cities earlier focused on connecting infrastructure for better insights, the spotlight is slowly shifting to better engaging governments, citizens, and businesses with the goal of providing improved city services and a higher quality of life. What exactly is Smart City 2.0?

Executive summary

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The next generation of urban evolution is here. Moving beyond just connected infrastructure and smarter things, the smart cities of tomorrow engage governments, citizens, visitors, and businesses in an intelligent, connected ecosystem. The goal: better city services and a higher quality of life. This evolution, Smart City 2.0, enhances citizens experience and city decision-making using the 3Dsdata, digital, and (user) design.

Although the focus of cities remains the samecreating livable environments where people and businesses can thrivethe ways to achieve that goal are evolving. Increasingly, cities are putting data in the hands of end users to drive better decision-making. They tap into the collective intelligence of their constituents to create solutions around some of the toughest urban problems. They adopt a platform approach that enables constituents to use technology to reimagine core city operations.

These shifts democratize the development of cities and upend the traditional roles of governments, businesses, and residents. With governments evolving into solution enablers, businesses becoming more participative, and a growing cadre of citizen co-creators, tomorrows smart cities will be more connected, networked, and collaborative.

Tomorrows smart cities will be more connected, networked, and collaborative.

What is our view of smart cities?

Recently, many cities have upgraded their infrastructure, using sensing technology and data analytics to better manage urban assets such as public transit, wastewater systems, and roads. This connected infrastructure vision comprises what is known as Smart City 1.0physical assets networked via sensor technology that generate streams of valuable data from smart parking meters, streetlights, and even trash receptacles.

For cities that have yet to progress along the smart city journey, this is still a powerful vision. Connected sensors that collect data can help cities to optimize the performance of their physical infrastructure, and are a key part of what it takes to build a smart city.

Today, however, we are beginning to see the dawn of the next generation of urban evolutionSmart City 2.0as some of the more advanced cities have begun to move beyond mere infrastructure, tapping the wisdom of their residents and visitors. Ultimately, the smart cities of tomorrow will involve not just government, but citizens, visitors, and business in an intelligent, connected ecosystem built on a sensor-based physical infrastructure.

Beyond improving infrastructure, Smart City 2.0 focuses on enhancing the citizen experience by operating at the intersection of the 3Ds: data, digital, and human-centered design. The goal is to enable better decision-making through the use of data for all stakeholdersgovernment, business, and residents.

The focus of any smart city should be its people, providing benefits such as:

A better quality of life for residents and visitors

Economic competitiveness to attract industry and talent

An environmentally conscious focus on sustainability

These three goalsquality of life, economic competitiveness, and sustainabilitycan provide the foundation for a smart city initiative. Deloittes smart city framework (figure 1) offers a lens through which technology can seed change in six urban domains: economy, mobility, security, education, living, and environment.1 This framework can help cities as they move along their smart city journey.

These three goalsquality of life, economic competitiveness, and sustainabilitycan provide the foundation for a smart city initiative.

The SmartSantander project in Santander, Spain, provides an early peek into how data and citizens can together transform a city in a more environmentally sustainable, economically attractive, and responsive environment that provides a better quality of life to its residents.2 In addition to the 20,000 sensors the city has installed, residents can turn their smartphones into sensors by downloading the Pulse of the City (PoC) app. Becoming, in essence, mobile intelligent sensors for the city, citizens play the role of prosumers in the SmartSantander project.

City officials can analyze data in real time to adjust energy use, the number of trash pickups needed in a given week, and even how much water to sprinkle on the lawns of city parks. Critically, citizens can also tap into that data via the PoC app and use it for their daily needs. Commuters can access real-time traffic information to plan commutes and know when the next bus is due. An asthma patient can plan her day to avoid areas of high pollution, while a driver can use the app to track the progress on requests filed for road maintenance. The city has also made the information available to developers to create consumer services. For example, SmartSantanderRA, an augmented reality mobile application, includes information on more than 2,700 beaches, parks, and other city sites.3

This two-way flow of information allows the city to unleash tremendous value, creating an information ecosystem that benefits all participants.4

Why do smart cities matter?

Smart cities matter because cities are important. Urban centers have long been engines of economic growth and opportunity. A World Bank analysis of 750 cities around the globe found that from 2005 through 2012, economic growth in 72 percent of cities outpaced their respective national economies.5 By 2025, the worlds top 600 cities are expected to account for 60 percent of global GDP. London today accounts for almost a fifth of the United Kingdoms gross product.6 In the United States, the Northeast corridor (Boston to Washington, D.C.) and the Los Angeles metropolitan area together account for nearly a third of the national GDP.7

The world is seeing a continued concentration of population in cities. Cities that arent equipped to handle growth can experience negative impacts on their environmentand residents. This challenge is becoming increasingly relevant as many urban centers around the world undergo explosive growth. Over the next three decades, the rate of urbanization is expected to grow steeply (figure 2)8. Currently, more than half of the worlds population lives in towns and cities, and by 2050 this number could swell to about 66 percent, adding more than 2.5 billion people to the urban population.9

Rapid urbanization puts tremendous pressure on population centers, and presents a challenge for cities to provide environmental sustainability and ensure the physical security and safety of residents. Economic advances represent little actual progress if they degrade the air, water, and soil. In addition, the threat of rising crime rates, poverty, and civic unrest make cities fragile. To avoid these challenges as much as possible, most thriving cities seek sustainable, but also resilient, growth. Smart city technology represents part of the solution.

Further, governments arent the only entities facing the challenges of urban growth; businesses are also affected by the same factors as they reassess their ability to drive continued growth. To attract the educated talent they need, businesses need cities to be livable. In addition, companies are increasingly taking an active role in being good corporate citizens, which means being an active partner in the urban ecosystem.

Finally, smart cities are pivoting toward their most important constituent: people. The economic clout of cities is an important factor that attracts talented individuals to migrate to urban centers.

Cities are responding by finding ways to prompt better decision-making, not only by government but by business and residents, tapping into the collective intelligence of the city.

Enabling smarter decision-making

Smart cities enable not just smarter things, but smarter decisions. A truly smart city uses technology to promote better decision-making for city officials and its residents.

Installing sensors that collect data for optimizing the performance of physical devices is one part of what it takes to achieve the smart city. In Amman, Jordan, for example, the city has adopted a data-driven approach to streamlining the waste management process.11 City officials can now monitor factors such as waste tonnage per district and complaints resolved, and track vehicles through a new fleet management system. Garbage trucks that once returned nearly empty are now redirected to routes where full trucks have skipped collections.

Cities are applying similar smart infrastructure to street lights, water use, traffic management, and more. Thanks to new data generated by sensing infrastructure, the city can make smarter decisions.

Cities are responding by finding ways to prompt better decision-making, not only by government but by business and residents, tapping into the collective intelligence of the city.

Achieving collective intelligence: The new urban ballet

Collective intelligence is nothing new. Groups of people, including families, armies, and business teams, have always exhibited varying degrees of collective intelligence. Collective intelligence is manifested even in groups of animals: Swarms of insects and flocks of birds are capable of aggregating the information gleaned from individual group members to find food and nesting places.12

Thomas Malone, the founder of the MIT Collective Intelligence Center, points out that Internet technology enables new forms of collective intelligence that were impossible only a few decades ago. The automated world of the Internet of Things (IoT) allows us to take Malones point still further. Citizens equipped with mobile phones capable of capturing, transmitting, and receiving information form a digital sidewalk ballet, contributing localized bits of knowledge, ideas, and opinions that lead to smarter decisions.

Consider one experiment in Boston. The citys usual food safety process, in which health inspectors selected restaurants randomly for further scrutiny, was not optimal. At the same time, the citys Data Portal hosts data sets available for public use on restaurant food safety inspections and other aspects of city life. To better target the restaurants in need of attention, the city partnered with Yelp and Harvard Business School to sponsor an open competition and made available both Bostons restaurant inspection data and Yelps restaurant reviews dating back to 2006 to more than 700 contestants. The goal was to develop an algorithm that would predict health violations and enable city officials to better target restaurants for inspections.

The participants analyzed the text of the reviews, including common words and phrases, and the Harvard economists evaluated the submissions against the citys actual inspections covering 364 restaurants conducted in the six weeks following the competition. The verdict: Using the winning algorithm would have made inspectors 3050 percent more productive in finding violations.13

Human-centered design also promotes collective intelligence, and is central to the smart city movement. For instance, by using a mobile app and social media to aggregate citizen complaints, the city of Buenos Aires was able to become more responsive and improved on almost all quality of life parameters.14 Similarly, the city of Bostons Street Bump app uses sensors in phones to map bumpy roads and empowers drivers to report potholes themselves. In other words, city data + smart citizens = better city decisions.15

Rise of city-as-a-platform

This new information-sharing partnership between the city, residents, and business can be thought of as the city-as-a-platform. Consider a few examples of this type of approach and the improved decision outcomes that it can generate:

In 2013, the city of Amsterdam sought to expand its 11 existing air quality measurement stations. The city wanted a street-level hyperlocal measurement of air quality that the existing infrastructure did not support. Whats more, the existing air quality measurement apparatus was too expensive to be scalable. The city decided to take a different route to tackle this problem, 16 launching the Amsterdam smart citizens lab. The lab provided a platform for citizens, scientists, engineers, and designers to develop low-cost, easy-to-build-and-maintain sensor kits to measure temperature, humidity, light, sound, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen dioxide. Citizens were active participants and were taught how to upload data to the online platform. 17

launching the Amsterdam smart citizens lab. The lab provided a platform for citizens, scientists, engineers, and designers to develop low-cost, easy-to-build-and-maintain sensor kits to measure temperature, humidity, light, sound, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen dioxide. Citizens were active participants and were taught how to upload data to the online platform. The Greater London Authority created the London Dashboard, a centralized data repository available to Londoners free of charge. The data is organized around key public services, enabling Londoners to develop the raw data into new data sets, apps, and websiteswhile encouraging transparency and better management by city authorities.18

These examples provide a peek into the concept of city-as-a-platform: the role of government shifts from doing things to enabling participation in civic innovation. As cities start to leverage decentralized expertise, they can embrace a new way of governance in which constituents utilize technology to reinventand sometimes overhaulcore processes.19

City data + smart citizens = better city decisions.

What are the impacts of smart cities?

Implications for government

Evolve as a convener of problem-solvers

In the drive to smarter cities, city governments can foster the creation of environments in which ecosystem innovatorsincluding government, businesses, social entrepreneurs, and individualscan thrive. Governments help build platforms, recruit an ecosystem of partners, hold partners accountable for targeted outcomes, attract new investment, open up services to choice, and manage crowdsourced campaigns and competitions.20 This requires them to assemble an ecosystem of partners across government, established businesses, start-ups, the academic sector, and the nonprofit world.

Build a governance structure

Because they unite a diverse ecosystem of stakeholders, smart cities require clearly defined governance. City leaders, regional governments, transportation districts, corporate and nonprofit partners and, depending on the funding model, state and federal agencies may all participate in establishing and executing a smart city vision. Stakeholders should be able to articulate their responsibilities and ensure that appropriate information flows to the right decision-makers. Establishing accountability up front and creating mechanisms to drive timely decisions are also critical.21

Develop sustainable and innovative funding streams

Financing constitutes a major obstacle for many smart city initiatives. Many innovative projects struggle to get off the ground due to lack of funding. However, cities can address this challenge through creative approaches to fund smart city projects that depart from traditional models of infrastructure finance.

Public-private partnership (PPP) models will play an important role in smart city financing and funding. However, the success of the model will depend on how risk and reward are reallocated between public and private entities.22 Some novel approaches already underway can provide a path forward.

As one approach, cities can take stock of their assets and identify resources that can be monetized. Understanding the relative value of the asset to both the city and to the private sector is critical. For instance, through its LinkNYC program, New York City is replacing its legacy phone booths with more than 7,500 digital kiosks that provide citizens with free high-speed Wi-Fi, wayfinding services for visitors, and sensors for monitoring environmental data. The advertising revenue from such kiosks would be used to cover the costs of installation, equipment maintenance, and digital advertising.23

Implications for the private sector

Align to smart city goals

The smart city movement provides an opportunity for both for-profit and nonprofit partners to engage with governments. Cash-strapped city governments are always exploring opportunities to partner with the private sector. Thus, organizations need to be proactive in finding mutually beneficial opportunities.

For example, Columbus, Ohio, developed strategic partnerships with private entities while it was still contending for the Smart Cities grant. Private partners both inside and outside of Ohio have continued to contribute to the Smart Columbus Acceleration fund. For its part, the federal government grant indicated to potential investors that the Smart Columbus initiative was viable, well-developed, and likely to succeed, encouraging businesses to not only fund initiatives but also explore their own growth opportunities in the form of user fees, access to data, and others.24 Ultimately, the city was able to multiply its initial funding of $50 million to more than $500 million by building a large ecosystem of smart city partners.

Implications for residents

Residents as co-creators

While citizens are the ultimate beneficiaries of any smart city initiative, citizen participation can also be engaged to help develop citizen-centric solutions. Residents can be an important source of data generation, solution development, and testing for both governments and businesses.

Co-creation of policies is one area where residents who are most affected by a policy can work alongside its designers. For example, the Australian Center for Social Innovation tackled the issue of chaotic families (domestic violence, child abuse, and substance abuse) by co-designing a solution called Family by Family with the people they sought to support. Such co-creation approaches allow policy designers to build better prototypes and test them in real-life scenarios, increasing effectiveness.25

Citizens as sensors

Co-creation is not limited to just the policy arena, however. With the growing ubiquity of wearable and connected devices, citizens can co-create data itself. For instance, the FixCascais app in Cascais, Portugal, allows citizens to photograph and report incidents and problems to municipal services.26 Data gathered through these types of programs can not only inform decision-making in cities, but enable better customization and experiences for residents.

Louisville, Kentucky, for example, had gained a reputation as one of the worst cities for breathing disorders.27 To address the problem, the city developed AIR Louisville, a public-private partnership that uses data analytics to inform the public on triggers that aggravate asthma. The technology behind the project, a sensor that attaches to an asthma inhaler, was brought in by Propeller Health, a manufacturer of sensors.

The sensor collects data about the surrounding environment each time an individual uses the inhaler. Consumers can view reporting data through a smartphone app. The user can then better identify personal respiratory triggerstime of day, location, temperature, pollen count, and pollution. This data is also communicated to health care providers, enabling them to tailor a personalized plan for managing participants asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In its first year, AIR Louisville helped participants to reduce their asthma rescue inhaler use by 82 percent and more than double their number of symptom-free days.28

Empowered citizen consumers

Armed with the right data and tools, citizens can become more proactive, connected, collaborative, and participative in the smart city movement. Some of the earliest examples are already visible in the sustainability space, where energy agencies spearhead efforts to simplify electricity bills and visualize data from the smart grid. 29

Opower, a company working in energy sector, creates home energy reports using a mix of utilities data on user consumption pattern and crowdsourced data from energy users themselves. It then gamifies the experience for users by allowing them to complete challenges, participate in groups, and earn points and badges tied to reduced energy use.30 In doing so, they help consumers make better decisions for themselves, while contributing toward energy policy goals that benefit the public good.

Armed with the right data and tools, citizens can become more proactive, connected, collaborative, and participative in the smart city movement.

What should you do next?

Here are a few ways cities, businesses, and citizens can kick start their smart city journeys.

Government

Start with a compelling business case. Present an idea city residents can easily understand and articulate. Run the effort as a portfolio. Rather than a single, huge project, create a portfolio of projects, each with its own business case. Employ a phased approach with a series of small wins. Demonstrating success early is important, so organize resources to make this happen. Communicate throughout the journey. Dont underestimate change management and communicationschanging a culture and mind-set takes time. Focus on results. Pick three things to announce as successes one year from now to demonstrate progress.

Businesses, nonprofits, and social enterprises

Look for opportunities to partner with cities. Look for initiatives that match organizational goals. The growing ecosystem of partners in Columbus, Ohio, shows us how nongovernmental players can play an important role in driving smart city initiatives. Look beyond just financing smart city initiatives. Identify opportunities that could add value to both the city as well as business. Balancing the risk and reward between public and private entities will be critical.

Citizens

Take a proactive role as co-creators in shaping smart city policies and initiatives.

as co-creators in shaping smart city policies and initiatives. Be conscious and vocal about the change that smart city transformation will entail. Garner better understanding around emerging technologies and identify their implications to security and privacy.

In an era of explosive growth, emerging technologies will shape the way cities change. Increasingly, residents and businesses will take a central role in driving the future of our cities, with governments enabling their participation.
Are the BECE 2019 results out? Currently, this is the man concern for many Ghanaians. The most affected are the students who sat for the examination and are waiting with bated breaths for the results. Their future in the Senior High School solely depends on their performance in the BECE exams.

Source: AdomOnline

Source: UGC

The BECE examination is used to accredit successful candidates who sat for it with certificates to advance from Junior High School to Senior High School. In Ghana, it is a tradition for the BECE Exam to be dished out annually in the month of June.

When are the BECE 2019 results release dates?

The 2017/2018 BECE results have already been released. Of the candidates that sat for the exams, 2,061 of them had their results cancelled. You can check out a full list of results and statistics for 2017-2018 BECE students.

BECE results checker 2019-2020

Having answered your concerns on; are the BECE 2017-2018 results out, it is important to know the procedure of which students undertake to check results. The WAEC has put up a simple way to help the candidates access their results.

Source: Ghana Politics Online

BECE subjects

The following are the subjects taken under the Basic Education Certificate Examination:

English Language

Mathematics

Integrated Sciences

Social Studies

Religious and Moral Education

Social Studies

French

Ghanaian Language

Basic Design and Technology

Information Communication Technology.

BECE result checker

Here is a step by step guide to help students check BECE results 2019. It is mandatory for all students to purchase a scratch card that contains a Personal Information Number (PIN) and a serial number. The scratch cards are available in the various recognized banks, posters, authorized dealers and in the WAEC offices spread across Ghana.

Waec.direct.org BECE 2019

Once you have the scratch card, you can launch the internet browser on your device. You can use alternatively any of the following browsers; Internet Explorer, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.

After launching the browser, type in WAEC's official site in the address bar. You will automatically be directed to the main page of the WAEC site. Scroll down the main menu bar into the BECE results options.

Once you have clicked the option, enter the details of your personal information. This includes your examination number. Select the type of examination which you sat for. In this instance, you will select the BECE examination option.

Select the year of examination which you sat for. Next you will be required to enter the details of your scratch card number. The details include the12-digits PIN and the serial number which is usually at the back of the scratch card.

Confirm the details of the information you have provided to ensure they are correct to avoid instances where you cant log in. If you have counterchecked and ensured the information is correct, click on submit and wait for the pop-up display icon on the window. This will take several minutes.

READ ALSO: Top 50 Senior High Schools in Ghana

Source: Modern Ghana

BECE result for JSS3

The BECE junior WAEC exam usually takes place annually on the month of April. Below is the procedure of the BECE 2018 results checker for junior WAEC results:

Just like the scratch card is mandatory for checking the BECE results, it is mandatory to purchase the NECO result cards at the nearest NECO office. The NECO results cards contain a PIN and a serial number.

Using an appropriate browser, access the NECO 2018 Result Checking Page. You will be redirected to the main page of the site. Scroll down the main menu under the type of examination and select JSS3.

Enter the details of the exam year. Scratch the back of the NECO result card and enter the PIN. Finally, conclude by adding your examination number. Go through the details to check if they are correct to avoid complications during log in. If they are correct you can proceed to click the check my result option.

Ghana BECE 2019 certificate

Despite the online results being released in September, the certificates are provided to successful candidates within 30 days of BECE results announcement date. They are automatically sent to the respective schools of the candidates where they can be individually collected. They are only produced once and in case of damages or loss, they cannot be replaced.

BECE results placement

The education service requires students to collect the certificates from their respective schools. WAEC employs a computerized school selection and placement system (CSSPS) which places students in different Senior High Schools and technical institutions around Ghana.

CSSPS provides a categorized system that places different students based on their performance in different clusters for different Senior High Schools, technical institutions and vocational institutions.

Source: Graphic Online

Students can receive details of their school placement straight to their phones. All successful candidates can send a text message with their 10-digit index number to the short code 1060. You will receive a confirmation message from WAEC with the school you have been placed to attend. Do not space the code containing the index number.

BECE 2019 school placement system

If the first method fails to work, add the two digits of the year of the examination to the index number. In this instance, you will add 18 to the index number. Students are urged to keep trying sending the message since there exists complications especially when many students send the message at the same time.

Students experiencing serious problems in receiving their placement details are advised to reach the following hotline number 0302 747 778 or WhatsApp 0207 407 499 to receive further assistance.

In case this passed you, you can always apply for the second batch of BECE placement. You will have to visit the back up link. Avail details of your index number and PIN behind the scratch card.

Choose the placement status on the main menu. The system will automatically provide you with a link for self-placement. When you click on the self-placement link, you will select your preferred region. You will also choose your preferred school and program. Finally, you will click on the submit option. Your placement details will be sent to WAEC where it will be analyzed and a response sent directly to your email address.

READ ALSO: List of Aviation Schools in Ghana

Source: Yen News
Old boyism is a cherished phenomenon on Ghanas social landscape and the Adisadel College 1975 year group have raised it some notches higher with the publication of their book, Reminiscences of Adisadel College 1970-1975.

It is a 310-page hardcover published by Buck Press that meticulously narrates the entire story of the year group during their time on the Adisadel Hill.

In the process, the book edited by Dr Paul K. A. Mensah and Dr Kwesi Bentum, ropes in vast amounts of information to interest all Santaclausians (as Adisadel old boys are referred to) and perhaps everyone in a secondary school somewhere in this country in the 1970s.

Establishment

Adisadel College was founded in 1910 and the schools motto is Vel Primus Vel Cum Primus, a Latin expression which translates in English as Either The First Or With The First.

In setting about the book, the Santa 75 year group was aware they were up to a venture which was not only the first among Adisadel year groups but perhaps also among year groups from other secondary schools across the country.

The idea for the book took hold in January 2015 when the Santa 75 group decided to come up with a small publication to accompany their 40th anniversary reunion celebration. An initial work came out and it subsequently transformed into the current edition.

In the first chapter, The History of the great Class of 1975, Dr Bentum, currently a psychologist in the United States, lays out a detailed tale of happenings in the school and beyond from when the 124 boys arrived in September, 1970 till they left in June, 1975.

He refers to various activities such as dances, debates and quizzes involving other others schools. His vivid, encyclopedic recollection of activities has set some of his mates wondering if he kept a diary all through his stay at Adisadel.

Book Cover

Discipline

Adisadel had a healthy, democratic approach to the election of prefects and a chapter on Politics on the Hill deals with that. The Music on the Hill piece succinctly covers musical activities and the contributions of the Class of 1975 to that thrilling era.

Other topics touched on in the book include how school discipline influenced members of the group; nicknames in the school between 1970 and 1977; tribute to the art tradition of Adisadel as well as a piece on the teachers who educated the boys.

The book also consists of a fascinating photo gallery showcasing a lot of young men in bell-bottom trousers; campus lingo, contributions of Santa 75 to the schools development and a tribute to departed classmates.

Adisadel and Mfantsipim students have always seen themselves as friendly enemies and the chapter called "The Adisadel /Mfansipim Rivalry: A Force for Good? will definitely interest Kwabotwe boys.

Members

Members of the Santa 75 year group include COP David Ampah-Bennin of the Ghana Police Service, Mr Ben Appah of B. Appah Electricals Ltd, Dr Gademor Demanya of the Metropolitan Hospital in Cape Coast, Mr Harold Otabil of Hords Ltd and Mr Daniel Owiredu of Golden Star Resources mining company.

Others include Rev. Robert Ampiah-Kwofie of Global Revival Ministries, Mr Eddie Duplan of Aquatec Services Limited, Brigadier General Emmanuel Tetteh Akunor, businessman/politician Horace Ankrah and Prof Kobina Turkson of the University of Ghana.

There are rumours that other Adisadel year groups and a fair amount of others from other schools are planning to publish books on their times in secondary school.

Until those ones see the light of day, Reminiscences of Adisadel College 1970-1975 by the Santa 75 year group remains an essential history of Adisadel College and a lively overview of life in Ghanaian secondary schools in the 1970s.

Life-long friendships

The book set out to capture the atmosphere of an important period in the lives of young men when many of them formed life-long habits and friendships, realised what talents they had and also made crucial career decisions.

It succeeds at meeting those goals and also serves as a collective memoir that a variety of social groups may like to emulate if members are not able to publish individual biographies.

Members of the Santa 75 group are scattered around the world and some have not met since leaving school. Reading the book will certainly make them feel like they have met again on the famous hill in Cape Coast.

Adisadels famous school ode urges Santaclusians to give nothing but their best, never think of rest and play up for the schools great name. Thats exactly what the Santa 75 year group have done with their book!

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- Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has announced that the government has initiated processes to produced 275 ambulances

- The one constituency, one ambulance policy is expected to boost the operation of the national ambulance service

The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has revealed that government has begun plans to provide ambulances to all constituencies around the country.

According to him, 275 ambulances will be provided to the various constituencies to boost the operations of the National Ambulance Service.

Dr. Bawumia made this known while speaking at the opening of the 2018 Annual Health Summit organized by the Ghana Health Service in Accra.

Vice Presiddent, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia

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In his view, the effective operation of the Ghana Ambulance Service would contribute to the general improvement of health delivery in the country.

He said the initiative is geared towards revamping the National Ambulance Service, which has lacked logistics to work over the years.

You cannot have a National Ambulance Service without ambulances, it becomes a problem. So the government has through the Ministry of Special Development Initiative, which works with the development authorities, begun the processes of procuring ambulances for every constituency in this country, and we have 275 constituencies, so we will procure 275 ambulances, all of which will become a part of the national ambulances system to help in the development of health services, the Vice President stated.

He further revealed that government has initiated plans on how to distribute essential medicines to remote parts of the country.

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According to him, by September, drones will be acquired to be used to deliver blood and essential medicines to some areas in the country that are hard to reach.

Dr. Bawumia added: there are ongoing discussions, we are looking at innovative ways to deliver blood supplies as well as essential medicines to remote areas. As the rains come in, some areas are going to be cut off Do we allow mothers to die because we cant have blood supplies or essential medicines? Ghana this week, will be signing an MOU and by the middle of this year or by September, we will join Malawi and Rwanda with using drone technology to deliver blood supplies and essential medicines. So, we are going to do that this year."

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- Police officers at Weija in Accra have been arrested for hiring guns to robbers

- Two of these officers are known as Biggie and Stanley

- The robbers engaged in an accident during their activity

Three police officers at the Weija District Command have been arrested by the Anti-Robbery Squad of the Greater Accra Regional Police for hiring some AK47 rifles to armed robbers.

Adom FM is reporting that these police officers who often station at Kokrobite and Weija, hired guns to some robbers over the weekend.

READ ALSO: Don't legalize homosexuality in Ghana - Gay man insists

Also, an eyewitness claims these robbers were involved in a serious accident on their way for the alleged robbery activities.

So far, the names of these policemen are unknown but two men have the popular names of Biggie and Stanley.

READ ALSO: 5 fierce, powerful lawyers we have in Ghana today

Meanwhile, the Weija District Police Commander, DSP Joseph Afuakpah has expressed shock over the development that says the situation is now in the hands of the Anti-Robbery Unit of the Ghana Police Service.

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Source: Yen
- Some Ghanaian personalities are expected to be honoured by the United Nations

- The include Lil Win, an actor, and Prophet Badu Kobi, the Founder and Leader of the Glorious Wave Ministry

- Several dignitaries are expected to be present at the ceremony to honour them

A number of Ghanaians have been selected for the United Nations (UN) Excellent Sustainable Development award.

The list of nominees includes Lil Win, a Kumawood actor, Kenpong, a businessman, Prophet Badu Kobi of the Glorious Wave Ministry, and some traditional leaders in the country.

The award scheme, which is part of a program to campaign against illegal immigrants in West Africa, recognized the actor as one of its outstanding trailblazers who has contributed significantly to the course of the UN institution.

Kenpong, a businessman, has been named as one of the nominees

READ ALSO: Top Kumawood actor claims he is the second to import a very expensive car into Ghana

The event is slated for April 28, 2018 at the International Gods Way Church, at Ashaley Botwe school junction, Accra.

Dignitaries expected to be present include the Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana, Her Excellency Heather Cameron, the Turkish Ambassador to Ghana, Her Excellency Nesrin Bayazit, the Deputy Morocco Ambassador to Ghana, His Excellency Moulat Zaine and the National Chief Imam of Ghana, Sheikh Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu.

Kwadwo Nkansah Lilwin is being honored alongside astute business professionals like Kennedy Agyapong. CEO of Kenpong Group, Prophet Badu Kobi and others.

READ ALSO: Berla Mundi 'blasts' Mark Okraku Mantey over his VGMA criticism

In this video, Ebonys father names some people he believes are guilty of his daughters death. The question of whether homosexuality should be legalized in Ghana becomes a bone of contention:

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Source: Yen
- Lawyer Foh-Amoaning says Christiane Amanpour is a known homosexual and she cannot deny about it

- The Senior Law lecturer is accusing Christiane Amanpour and three others of leading gay agenda in Africa

A Senior Law lecturer at the Ghana School of Law, and Anti-gay campaigner, Moses Foh-Amoaning has accused popular CNN Journalist, Christian Amanpour of being homosexual.

According to the legal practitioner, Amanpour and three other journalists from the international network are leading foreign media agenda in legalizing homosexuality, particularly in African countries.

Lawyer Moses Foh-Amoaning

READ ALSO: UK-born Ghanaian stabbed to death in London

Lawyer Foh-Amoaning speaking to Joy News in Accra on Monday, disclosed that it is quite evident with Christiane Amanpour on how she is touring African countries with her Love and Sex Around the Globe series.

The Ghanaian lawyer in his conversation revealed, Anderson Cooper is a homosexual, Richard Quest is a homosexual, Christiane Amanpour is and the lady who asked our president the question that is Jane Dutton is homosexualthe gay or lesbian and that is a fact.

Mr Foh-Amoaning insisted that a number of these international media practitioners will admit and have opened up about their sexuality preference, while others cover theirs with marriage.

Im not too sure that Richard Quest will deny that he is homosexual or Anderson Cooper, hes not going to deny it, he said.

READ ALSO: Youre my type of lady  Patapaa lusts after Delay (Video)

When asked by the validity of his accusations, especially regarding Christiane Amanpour, lawyer Foh-Amoaning said Well go and find out, she has got a child but I know as a matter of fact that she's involved.

He further alleged that persons championing the LGBT agenda have connections, contacts and high profile people.

In Europe they are the ones that go to the Oxford, to Cambridge, in the United States they go to the Harvard, Yale and Standford and when they finish they are the ones that go to the business, politics and in the United Kingdom they lead the way as they got people in the media, he said.

He believes that the agenda geared towards getting Africans to accept homosexuality has been well planned and the right persons put in strategic places to ensure that is achieved.

When the United States Ambassador says in an interview that in ten-years-time Ghana will adopt LGBT rights, the Canadian High Commissioner with the Australia Ambassador was on air and whatever they said was connected, he stressed.

READ ALSO: My husband can now last longer in bed - US lady shares unbelievable 'Obinim sticker' testimony

In this video, Ebonys father names some people he believes are guilty of his daughters death. The question of whether homosexuality should be legalized in Ghana becomes a bone of contention:

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Source: Yen
Govt plans to face exports challenges

Kazi Zahidul Hasan

The government has formulated a draft strategy to withstand challenges in export sector after Bangladesh's graduation from the LDC group.

'Export Wing' under the Ministry of Commerce has prepared the draft to be placed before a meeting of the 'National Committee on Export,' for its approval.

The highest-level committee on export promotion, headed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, will sit for the meeting soon, trade officials said on Tuesday.

"We have prepared the strategy in view with the challenges on exports during post-LDC era," a senior trade official told The New Nation yesterday, wishing not to be named.

The strategy include availing of the GSP plus facility with European Union (EU), signing free-trade agreements (FTAs) with potential regional and bilateral trade partners, providing incentives to prospective export sectors and new products, setting up common digital platform for the trade facilitating (government) agencies, strengthening commercial wings in Bangladesh Missions abroad, transforming Geneva's Bangladesh economic wing into a full-fledged trade office and appointing honorary councillors abroad for expanding export markets. The trade official said the country's graduation from the LDC bracket will lead to erosion of trade privileges with European Union (EU) and some other developed countries. Furthermore, Bangladesh's exports will face an additional 6.7 percent tariff, which could result in an estimated export loss of about $2.7 billion.

"We will try for availing the GSP plus facility in the EU to prevent the potential export loss. In addition to, we will go for signing FTA deals with other developed and LDC countries to boost our exports," he said.

He, however, said availing of the GSP plus, a standard scheme for the developing country to provide trade benefits, is crucial for Bangladesh because the EU market accounts for over 50 percent of its total export.

Currently, Bangladeshi commodities enjoy duty-free market access to the EU under the GSP facility.

"The government is giving high priority to keep Bangladesh's export market intact during post-LDC era by sound policymaking. Strategies have been fixed in line with the government plan," said the trade official, adding, "The 'National Committee on Export is expected to approve the draft in its next meeting."

Bangladesh, the largest least developed country (LDC) in terms of population and economic size, is likely to leave the LDC category by 2024, propelled by better health and education, lower vulnerability and an economic boom, according to the United Nations.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development has estimated that exports may fall by 5.5 percent to 7.5 percent after graduation.




- NDC's General Secretary, General Mosquito, has described President Akufo-Addo as a visiting president to Ghana

- According to him, the president is constantly on trips abroad

- He went on to say that it is a drain on the same public purse the president promised to keep safe

The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, has likened President Akufo-Addo to a visiting president to Ghana.

According to him, the president barely stays in his own country, as he is almost always on a trip.

In that regard, he went on, President Akufo-Addo is unable to attend to the needs of Ghanaians who voted his government into office.

President Akufo-Addo

READ ALSO: Kumawood actor claims he is the second to import a very expensive car into Ghana

Speaking on Okays FM's 'Ade Akye Abia' programme, he explained that the President has not spent more than a month in the country without traveling outside.

According to Asiedu Nketiah, who is also known as General Mosquito, the President, who promised to cut profligate spending and save the public purse, has done the exact opposite with his constant travels.

"Rarely do you see or hear of him in the country; he has been traveling around to other countries as if he is a visiting president in the country. He gets his plane fueled and then moves around other countries., he added.

He went ahead to inquire how the president can claim to be a protector of the public purse, if he is constantly traveling.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo left Accra on Saturday, April 21, 2018, to attend the 25th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in London, United Kingdom.

The meeting took place from Monday and ended on Friday on the theme Towards a Common Future". President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has however returned to the country.

READ ALSO: Ahoufe Patri opens up about her pregnancy rumours

In this video, Ebonys father names some people he believes are guilty of his daughters death. The question of whether homosexuality should be legalized in Ghana becomes a bone of contention:

Want to be featured on YEN.com.gh? Send us a message on our Facebook page or on Instagram with your stories, photos or videos

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Organizers of the annual Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMAs), Charterhouse, has hit back at popular gospel musician, Patience Nyarko for defaming their brand.

According to the Head of Communication at Charterhouse, George Quaye, the barrage of accusations and discrediting comments made by Patience Nyarko are bogus and unfounded.

Head of Communications at Charterhouse, George Quaye

READ ALSO: Zylofon Music logo 'missing' in Stonebwoy's 'Tomorrow' music video

The gospel artiste who recently spoke on Accra-based Power FM, alleged that she was robbed of an award at the recent edition of the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards.

The musician in her radio interview, alleged that the popular Atinka television programme, Di Asa was more credible than Charterhouses award scheme.

The angry musician added that, in the past, she did not talk about her loss because she thought she was becoming better by the day and hoped her hit song, Obi nnyane me would win an award.

But George Quaye in a response, told Mikki Osei Berko on TV3, that the gospel artiste devaluing the award scheme was her own opinion and that she should be considered by the organizers of the Mentor Reality show.

READ ALSO: Popular Ghanaian lawyer reveals 'dirty secret' about CNN's Christiane Amanpour

Its her opinion I didnt know Patience Nyarko was interested in participating in Mentor, maybe TV3 should consider putting her on and Im sure she would make a good contestant, George Quaye told Mikki Osei Berko.

Patience Nyarkos popular song, Obi nnyane me which was nominated to the best gospel song of the year category lost to Joe Mettles Boo noni at the 19th edition of the event.

She also did not win the Gospel Artiste of the year award.

READ ALSO: UK-born Ghanaian stabbed to death in London

In this video, Ebonys father names some people he believes are guilty of his daughters death. The question of whether homosexuality should be legalized in Ghana becomes a bone of contention:

Yen.com.gh is building a platform where Ghanaians can share local news and own experiences with each other. Witnessing an incident? Want to tell about a local problem? Know someone who is extremely talented and needs recognition? Your stories and photos are always welcome. Message us on Facebook.

Source: Yen
We all saw him when he was a young and sweet young boy in the Beast of Nations blockbuster movie. He won the hearts of so many Ghanaians including the president of Ghana, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo.

But the Abraham Atta we know of is no longer the baby boy we saw him to be. He is now a grown young man 'doing his own thing' as a star actor.

READ ALSO: Legon polls: Fancy Gadams candidate places third

YEN.com.gh has visited the Instagram page of the young actor and the pictures we are seeing there are just amazing and breathtaking!

We can not forget the six packs and nice tone of muscles around the flesh of the young and determined actor.

Thanks to lady luck, we see Abraham Attah being very much managed by a team of well-experienced managers who are.

Abraham Attah shot into the limelight for the role he played in the movie, Beast of No Nation. Abraham, who played Agu in the movie was a child soldier and a victim of circumstance as a result of the outbreak of war in his country.

The role won him many awards and his prominence has taken him many places all over the world. He currently is an ambassador for Toms, a shoe company. He is working on distributing some of the shoes to needy children in the country.

Addressing the nation on February 21 this year in the first State of the Nation address, President Akufo-Addo mentioned that September was going to be the month in which the Free SHS policy was going to take off.

READ ALSO: Does Ghana have a president? General Mosquito sounds an alarm

But if nothing at all, these pictures from Abraham Attah must give us hope that no matter how small we begin, there is always a time to shine if only we remain true to ourselves and dreams.

In this video, Ebonys father names some people he believes are guilty of his daughters death. The question of whether homosexuality should be legalized in Ghana becomes a bone of contention:

We are looking for unique stories and photos about developments happening in your area. Get in touch with YEN on Facebook or Instagram

Source: Yen.com.gh
YEN.com.gh has sighted a new photo by talented Kumawood actress, Maame Serwaa, and she indeed looks great.

Maame Serwaa is captured dazzling in this red jumpsuit with a white purse to match.

The photo was taken at the Women Honours Awards which was held last weekend in Accra.

The beautiful Maame Serwaa

READ ALSO: Latest photo by Ahuofe Patri proves she is indeed not pregnant

Maame Serwaa shared this photo to her Instagram page with what could be best described as a powerful caption.

She wrote: Be a queen when you think, be a queen when you decide, no one has the power to defeat the tremendous power inside a woman! Our strength can cross any hurdle in our lives!!! Over the Weekend at the Ghana Women Of The Year Award Honours. #YoungLegend#SilvanusRecords.

Her caption also seeks to empower women, especially young women like herself to persevere in their various fields of endeavours.

READ ALSO: Shatta Wale releases new photo after breakup with Michy, and its a sad distin

Her fans and followers on Instagram have left some flattering comments for Maame Serwaa.

Read some of these comments here:

jamilatuyakubu: My respect fr u grow even more each time I see u dress. U are indeed an African woman. And a good example to our upcoming.

appiahkubipeprahdavid: Cute and lovely.

berky_mawusi: I just love your simplicity and decency keep it up dear @officialmaameserwaa.

senzo_richie: : Young legend. . be my Queen.

READ ALSO: Ebony's response to her managers when they asked her about her 17 tattoos

Maame Serwaa has been in the news recently.

She has long been accused of having illicit affair with actor Bill Asamoah.

But Maame Serwaa has refuted those accusations, explaining that Bill Asamoah is just like her father, adding that she is a virgin.

Meanwhile, Maame Serwaa has been signed onto a new record label, Silvanus Records, to help her go international with her brand.

READ ALSO: Woman recounts how she 'kills' men she sleeps with who sleep with other women

Ghana trends: Ebony's father names the guilty | Homosexuality legalized in Ghana?

READ ALSO: Brave woman Juliet Ibrahim goes fishing in latest video

Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish on YEN.com.gh? Please contact us on Facebook now!

Source: Yen.com.gh
The Undead Archives

I have finally salvaged my pre-Blogger TDR archives and added them into Blogger. They are almost totally in the form of one giant post for each month. And the formatting strayed from the originals. Sorry. But historians everywhere can rejoice that this treasure trove of my thoughts is restored to the world.
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Al Salam Bank-Bahrain (ASBB), one of the pioneering Sharia-compliant banks in the Kingdom, has appointed Rafik Nayed as Group chief executive officer (CEO) of the bank following regulatory approvals.



Chairman of the Board of Directors of ASBB Khaleefa Butti Bin Omair Al Muhairi said: "We are pleased to welcome Rafik Nayed to Al Salam Bank and wish him success in his new position as Group CEO. Rafik has a proven international track record in banking and finance as well as the necessary expertise which we are confident will give the Bank the momentum to reach new heights in Bahrain and beyond.



Nayed is a seasoned banker with over 25 years experience. He joins Al Salam Bank from Deutsche Bank where he was most recently the Vice Chairman of the Mena region, chief country officer for the UAE and senior executive officer of Deutsche Bank AG Dubai (DIFC).



It is an honour to join Al Salam Bank, a successful organization that is fast establishing itself as one of the pioneering Banks in the Kingdom with strong ambitions for growth, said Nayed.



I would like to thank the Board of Directors for their confidence and I am very much looking forward to working with the Board and the entire team at Al Salam to continue delivering best-in-class service to our clients and further supporting our vision to become an influential force in the Islamic banking industry while enhancing stakeholder value, he added.



Al Salam Bank-Bahrain established in 2006 in Bahrain with paid-up capital of BD120 million ($318 million) and was the largest Initial Public Offering (IPO) in the Kingdoms history with subscriptions reaching over BD2.7 billion ($7 billion).



In addition to its retail banking services, the bank also offers corporate banking, private banking, investment banking as well as treasury services.  TradeArabia News Service
The UAEs tax efficient system and sustainable economic model make it the most attractive wealth management destination for High Net-Worth Individuals (HNWIs) in the GCC, said Emirates Investment Bank (EIBank) in a new report.



The2018 edition of the banks annual GCC Wealth Insight report provides intelligence on the collective economic and investment outlook of HNWIs from across the GCC and the main elements that drive their investment decisions.



For the purposes of this study, HNWIs are defined as individuals with $2 million or more in investable assets.



Increased economic optimism amongst HNWIs in the GCC is the overriding theme of the 2018 report. Almost two thirds of HNWIs included in the survey believe the current global and regional economy is improving or staying the same, attributing their optimism to the perceived recovery from previous economic crises and increased political stability. HNWIs in the GCC also expect the positive global and regional economic trajectory to continue over the next five years.



Positive economic sentiment in the GCC region has coincided with an uptick in preference for keeping assets closer to home and investing in GCC assets. Confidence in the GCCs economic stability, together with the recognition of external risks, has prompted GCC HNWIs to mitigate risk and increase their exposure to regional markets.



Alongside the optimism and positive outlook seen in this years survey, the 2018 report indicates that HNWIs are still somewhat cautious about the uncertainty in the economic and political environments. This is evident in the increase in HNWIs concerned with preserving wealth, as over a third say their priority now is to preserve wealth rather than pursuing a strategy of growing wealth, a notable increase from 2017.The percentage of those focused on growing their wealth has dropped to less than two thirds of respondents, bringing wealth accumulation to a five-year low.



The distribution of HNWIs wealth is broadly similar to previous years, with investing in their own business remaining the top choice. However, there does appear to be an uptick in allocation to real estate and a slight shift away from cash in comparison to last year.



Khaled Sifri, CEO of Emirates Investment Bank, said: 2017 was certainly a surprising year. The global economys strong performance has given HNWIs in the GCC a greater sense of optimism, both in the global and the GCC economy. Factors like the GCCs stability, attractive investment opportunities and the low-tax environment are seen as the main drivers behind the growing confidence in the regions economy, and the increased preference for investing in Gulf assets. This confidence was also evidenced by the strong appeal for the GCC and the UAE in particular, as an attractive location for wealth management.



At Emirates Investment Bank, we support our clients through every stage of their wealth journey. Through these uncertain, but increasingly hopeful times, we ensure that our clients get the support they need to navigate the most complex of situations.



Current economic sentiment



HNWIs in the GCC are more positive about the condition of the global economic situation in 2018 than they have been in the last two years. Respondents were evenly split with a third believing the global economic situation is improving, another third thinking it will remain the same, while a third sharing a view that it is worsening in 2018.This increase in economic optimism is driven by a sense that economic recovery is underway, that there is greater stability, and that business growth is leading to more investment opportunities.



Similar to global sentiment, nearly a third of HNWIs believe that the economic situation in the GCC will improve in 2018, showing a more positive sentiment for the region in comparison to 2017. Those who are negative about the economic prospects for the region remain relatively high, albeit lower than last year. A lower portion of respondents in 2018 have taken the view that the situation will remain the same than any other year the survey has been conducted.



2018 shows increased positivity amongst HNWIS when asked about the economic situation in their own GCC country. HNWIs in the UAE remains amongst the most positive, despite a decline in positivity from 2017.Despite some improvement in HNWI views in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, and Qatar in comparison to 2017, around half of the respondents in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait believe the situation is worsening in 2018.



Economic outlook



Consistent with previous years, just over three quarters of HNWIs are optimistic about the economic prospects for the global economy over the next five years. The outlook has picked up significantly in 2018 compared to 2017. This optimism is mainly driven by stability and positive economic signs, although almost a quarter of HNWIs are still cautious, with instability of major economies and geopolitics causing the most concern.



For the Gulf region, three in four HNWIs say that they are optimistic about the economic prospects over the next five years  slightly down compared to previous years. Nevertheless, the proportion of HNWIs who say that they are very optimistic about prospects for the Gulf region shows a significant improvement over last year. Current oil prices and upcoming high-profile events, such as Expo 2020, were stated as reasons for optimism, whilst the economic impact of regional conflict is still creating a concern.



UAE: a contender for global wealth management



In this 2018 GCC Wealth Insight report, HNWIs outline the UAEs tax efficient system and sustainable economic model  one that strives to modernise itself regularly and introduce the latest technologies to build a knowledge economy - as the main reasons they choose the UAE as a wealth management destination. The majority of HNWIs based in the UAE manage their assets at home and nearly three quarters of GCC HNWIs rate the UAE as a top destination for wealth management in the region. Over the past three years a growing number of HNWIs have opted to keep their assets closer to home, which has also underwritten the evolution of the UAEs regional wealth management hub status.



Investment decisions





Over two thirds of HNWIs say the local economic situation has changed their approach to investing and investment decisions, with the most commonly cited impact being the discontinuation of projects. A smaller portion  over half of HNWIs  say the global economic situation has changed their approach to investing, while the most commonly cited impact is them becoming more cautious and more risk-averse about making new investment decisions.



More than half of HNWIs say that the geopolitical situation in the Arab region has changed their approach to investing. Other than regional geopolitics, oil prices, economic reforms and the introduction of VAT have had the most impact on investment decisions over the past year.



Financial allocation decisions



In 2018, there has been an increase in HNWIs concerned with preserving wealth versus growing it. Those focused on growing their wealth has dropped to below two thirds of total respondents, bringing wealth accumulation to a five-year low.



The distribution of HNWIs wealth is broadly similar to previous years, with wealth most likely to be allocated to their own business. However, there does appear to be an uptick in allocation to real estate and a slight shift away from cash in comparison to last year.



In the near future, half of HNWIs say that they plan to increase their investment in their own business and in cash, whilst the same amount, also plan to increase their investment in real estate. HNWIs are more likely to decrease their investments in cryptocurrency and bonds than any other asset class. Meanwhile, three quarters of HNWIs believe they are well positioned in the equity markets.



Consistent with previous years, investors prefer to keep their assets closer to home, with nearly eight in ten HNWIs say that they prefer to invest in GCC assets. This is mainly driven by their confidence in the security of investments in the region, which is consistent with 2017. This year there is an elevated sense that other economies lack stability and present risk.



Those who prefer a global investment portfolio has dipped to below a quarter, the second lowest reading over the last 5 years. For those global investors, the desire for diversification and risk management continues to be the driving force. In terms of geographical preferences, there has been a shift towards emerging markets both currently and in the future. HNWIs with a global investment portfolio are looking to invest more in China, India and Brazil over the next 3-5 years.  TradeArabia News Service


The BENEFIT Company, Bahrains electronic network for financial transactions, has signed an agreement with the Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance (BIBF), for training, qualifications and capacity-building programmes.



The BENEFIT Company, Bahrains electronic network for financial transactions, has signed an agreement with the Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance (BIBF), for training, qualifications and capacity-building programmes offered by the Institute.



The CEO of BENEFIT Abdulwahed AlJanahi said: This partnership is part of the company's plan to expand the horizons of cooperation on aspects of training and development. We strongly believe that the BIBF plays a vital role in providing high-quality training, as the Institute provides customised training solutions, especially those related to the services provided by the company. Training will include topics on the credit information system, the system of exchange checks, and electronic financial transfer systems.



BIBF director Dr Ahmed Abdul Hameed Al Shaikh said: "The BIBF seeks to strengthen its training services and capacity building programmes both within and outside the Kingdom of Bahrain, as we provide high-quality training to more than 63 countries around the world.



"We are proud to collaborate with BENEFIT as a strategic partner in providing the training requirements for the company related to the services of Banking and Government Institutions on the latest financial trends, such as Financial Technology, Cloud Computing and more, he added.  TradeArabia News Service
Steel Wood Industries has unveiled a key solution in green building materials during the recent Future Cities Show at Dubai World Trade Centre. Manufactured in the UAE under the name Gusolid-PCS (precast-steel wood), the 100 per cent recycled/sustainable wood replaces concrete as the core building material and can be used to construct building structures.

Until yesterday, the concept of creating 100 per cent green and sustainable structures was not considered possible, says the company in a statement. However, once Gusolid-PCS becomes widely used on a global scale, it can help in cutting down carbon dioxide emissions and reduce global warming, it said.



Furthermore, the technical specifications and the physical properties of this new material returned all off the charts through third-party independent lab testing, the company said. Weighing exactly one-third compared to that of ordinary concrete and scaling by far higher in strength, Gusolid-PCS is the ideal choice for future green building materials even for record-breaking high towers, according to the statement.



In addition, Gusolid-PCS has elastic characteristics acting as a natural shock absorber during earthquakes or heavy wind streams retaining its original form once the extra pressure is negated.



Being a pre-cast material, Gusolid-PCS allows architects to cut down the construction time to a minimum considering that the progress of the project depends on how fast the pre-cast parts are produced and simply assembled rather than cast on site. Besides being a pre-casted wooden material, Gusolid-PCS opens the door to more creative designs with further limits unlocked which previously where out question.



To showcase its effectiveness, Steel Wood Industries has built a prototype of a caravan made of Gusolid-PCS and displayed it at its stand. The vehicle is branded as NousaVan-X (NV-X) inspired by the Finnish word Nousevan which means The Emerging and X as the Roman numeral for 10 sq m area.



NV-X is a mobile home of the future, constructed from 100 per cent recycled and sustainable wood  which is ironically produced in a desert country; solar-powered with an electrical-charging socket in the absence of sunlight, air-conditioned, with internet wi-fi connection, a shower with access to hot water, a microwave, an18-below zero cooling fridge, a 43-inch LED TV and many more. This is the most environmental-friendly smart-home ever built till date all controlled from a mobile app all developed in-house in fabrication record-breaking time of three weeks.  TradeArabia News Service
Bahrain-based Impact Estate is showcasing its new global investment projects at the Gulf Property Show 2018 which opened today (April 24) at Bahrain International Exhibition and Convention Centre.



The key projects on display at the expo are Liverpool-based developments which include fully managed student accommodation and the residential towers with a guaranteed annual income besides properties in Kent and Manchester as well as other lucrative hassle-free investment offers.



Impact Estate, which was set up in 2008, is an expert in project marketing including feasibility studies, market assessment and project launch, property and building management together with rental activities and tenancy management, commercial and residential property brokerage as well as relocation.



During the three-day event, the Impact Estate team will be offering visitors a number of new affordable investment opportunities in UK.



Patricia Powell, the head of international Properties Department of Impact Estate, said: "For many years the Gulf Property Show has been a great platform bringing together the property investors and real estate professionals."



"We are excited to be part of this years exhibition, and to present investment options outside of Bahrain," stated Powell.



"During the show visitors will be able to benefit from special offers and discounts which we extend for the exhibition period only. I believe that with affordable prices starting from as low as BD35,000 ($92,436) and a guaranteed annual income of 8 per cent UKs property market could be considered as one of the best investment opportunity, she added.

The projects and developments presented by International Properties of Impact Estate can be viewed at the stand L12.-TradeArabia News Service
The Big 5 Heavy, the largest event dedicated to heavy machinery in the Middle East region, ended on a successful note clinching deals worth a total of $2.5 million, said the organisers.



The event will return to the Dubai World Trade Centre next year running from January 14 to 16. In its debut edition last month, The Big 5 Heavy brought together over 300 exhibitors across 7,000 sqm of specialized exhibition space and also played host to more than 6,000 visitors.



When asked, 90 per cent of visitors said that they would return next year, said the organisers.



Richard Pavitt, the event director for The Big 5 Heavy, said it is now the largest event dedicated to heavy machinery in the Middle East.



When combined, deals that were made at The Big 5 Heavy between leading manufacturers like Total Foundation Solutions, Deewan, and Putzmeister, came in at a total of $2.5 million, he noted.



"The event this year was a visually stunning crowd pleaser. And as for the deals, well they support a growing infrastructure industry in the Middle Eastern region," he added.



Andrea Bristot, the area sales manager (Middle East) for leading Spanish tower crane manufacturer, Linden Comansa, agreed wholeheartedly.



"During the three days of the show, we were very busy with customers and potential buyers, not only from the emirates but also from Egypt, Oman, Saudi Arabia or Kuwait, which shows that the entire region is under an evident recovery," noted Bristot.



"Another good indicator is that the worlds main tower crane manufacturers were at the Big 5 Heavy show," he added.



The exhibition showcased heavy equipment from a range of industries with product variety including concrete, mining, and construction.



In addition to mega tyre displays, scaffolding structures, tower crane and heavy vehicle spectacles, there were also over 40 learning opportunities free-of-charge to visitors.



Speaker Omar Essam Barakat, Dubai Novus Chairperson for The Chartered Institute of Building, said: "Events like this should be mandatory for professionals to come and see, and companies should be encouraging their employees to come and visit - it's a must."



The Big 5 Heavy is the largest exhibition dedicated to the infrastructure and heavy construction industry in the Middle East showcasing innovative solutions and products clustered into five sectors: Middle East Concrete, PMV Live, Foundations & Geotechnical, Mining & Quarrying, and Road Construction.



Organised by dmg events Middle East, Asia & Africa, the event is the re-launch of the former Middle East Concrete and PMV Live shows, part of The Big 5 portfolio of events.-TradeArabia News Service
Turkish real estate firm Innside Property is showcasing a number of luxury property developments at the Gulf Property Show in Manama, Bahrain.



The boutique showcase for the real estate and property development sectors in the Northern Gulf region, Gulf Property Show opened on April 24 at the Bahrain International Exhibition and Convention Centre.



The three-day event is being held under the patronage of HRH Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, Prime Minister of Bahrain, said the event organiser Hilal Conferences and Exhibitions (HCE).



Among the top projects on display are The Park Levent comprising four luxury apartment blocks in the first Ottoman capital city of Bursa. The present day capital of Istanbul is represented with the Kozapark development, which is a luxury lifestyle residence in Istanbul with a lake view stretching 30 acres.



Innside Property, which has offices in Istanbul and also Bahrain, is a specialist in property investment consultancy, property sourcing, project development as well as tax and legal services.



The company represents key developments in Istanbul, Yalova, Trazon, Burza, Sapanca and Iznik.



Co-founder Selen Cobanoglu said: "Gulf Property Show is a well-established international real estate event. Our focus during the show is to promote our new office in Bahrain and the services we provide."



"Our property portfolio consists of affordable luxury residences, villas, vacation homes and serviced-apartments located in major cities in Turkey, including Istanbul, Bursa, Yalova and Kusadasi," noted Cobanoglu.



"Investing in Turkey through the Innside method is simple and affordable at Gulf Property Show. Investors are protected first and most importantly with all the down payments made on developments with us," he noted.



"Affordability has been made possible by smaller down payment requirements with just 20 per cent deposit and instalments spread over a period of 24-36 years," she stated.



Jubran Abdulrahman, the managing director of HCE, said: "Innside Property provides a fresh and innovative approach to investing in real estate in the GCCs popular destination country  Turkey."



"Our visitors can take advantage of the special developments and Gulf Property Show offers available on Innside Propertys stand at the expo," he added.



The Gulf Property Show takes place alongside two other major exhibitions  Interiors Expo and Gulf Construction Expo, continuing the success of the only integrated B2B and B2C platforms for the construction, interior and property sectors in the Northern Gulf.-TradeArabia News Service
Microsoft has announced the appointment of Thamer Alharbi as president for Microsoft Arabia in Saudi Arabia.



In his new role, Alharbi will spearhead Microsofts efforts in accelerating digital transformation and innovation across industries, leveraging his over fifteen years of professional experience and industry knowledge in Saudi and Middle East.



Thamer is joining Microsoft at a time where our technologies are translating the Saudi Vision 2030 into a reality, and we are delighted to have Thamer Alharbi leading Microsoft in Saudi Arabia, said Samer Abu-Ltaif, president Microsoft Middle East & Africa.



He is a tremendous asset to building and driving our business in the Saudi market, as the Kingdom advances towards becoming a technology hub for the region. We believe he is the perfect leader to strengthen Microsofts business with the government, our customers and our partners, as well as building on our commitment to prepare the workforce with the IT skills required for future success.



Microsoft, with its solutions from the intelligent cloud to the intelligent edge, will be an enabler and driver of the Saudi vision 2030, said Alharbi. I am excited to take the responsibility that is entrusted to me to lead Microsoft in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and to drive our customers digital transformation powered by Microsoft intelligent cloud and bringing our best expertise to a secure and modern workplace. I have had the blessing to partner with some of the best minds in the IT sector to encourage the spirit of innovation and creativity across public and private sectors.



Alharbis areas of expertise cover business transformation, consultancy, and information technology services. He successfully managed and led initiatives for organizations to optimize operations and enhance efficiency. Prior to joining Microsoft, Alharbi held key positions in Saudi Arabia and Middle East; where he drove the business and growth agendas for number of global companies.



Alharbi holds a Bachelor of Systems Engineering degree from King Fahad University of Petroleum & Minerals and studied in Stephen M Ross Business School of the University of Michigan.  TradeArabia News Service
Kuwait-based Alyasra Foods, a leading food and beverage distributor, has been awarded the Best Foodservice Distributor in the Middle East at the recent MEA Markets Business Awards 2017.



Alyasra Foods, a trusted name in the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and foodservice industry since its formation in 1989, saw off some stiff competition from around the region for the prestigious award, said the company in a statement.



The company was honoured for its commitment to providing the best quality food and services, and unrivalled industry excellence to thousands of homes, hotels, businesses and retail outlets across Kuwait, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, it stated.



Alyasra Foods has achieved international standards, namely the ISO 22000:2005 certification for food quality and safety in receiving, storing and delivering goods and services the interests of all its stakeholders as one of the largest suppliers to the regions hotel, restaurant, cafe (Horeca), foodservice and retail sectors.



CEO Niels Frandsen said: Everyone at our company is committed to the highest standards, from senior management, right through the team.



This prestigious award from MEA Markets is a reflection of that and a tribute to the hard work of all involved, remarked Frandsen.



Our mission is to deliver services perfectly, making life easier for them, allowing them to focus on growth and development. We are committed to fostering and strengthening strong relationships with our clients and across our entire staff. That is what makes us unique, he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Top leaders underscored the importance of strengthening the cooperation and economic relations between Arab countries and Brazil at various levels at the recently held Arab-Brazilian Economic Forum in Sao Paulo, Brazil.



The event, themed Building the Future, was held following a booming trade exchange between the South American country and the Arab region, which has reached $20 billion in 2017, said a statement.



Nidal Abou Zaki, managing director of Orient Planet Group, who led a panel session focused on Image, Branding, and Tourism at the event, highlighted that managing the reputation of countries is a vital and continuing process which requires accumulated efforts to meet its objectives of creating a positive and strong image that could boost economic and social development.



Zaki noted: Arab countries need to take serious and deliberate steps to help improve their image in various communities in the international arena, which then becomes the ambassadors that further encourage and promote tourism.



He also emphasised the importance of social media and traditional press in exploring the bilateral historical relations between the Arab World and Brazil and spur cultural communication, which is a strong component in boosting the respective countries' reputation, adding that positive perception enhances the trade relations between their economies.



During the session, which was held with the participation of several officials, government representatives and private entities, experts, specialists and entrepreneurs, Zaki discussed the impact of digital technology in the tourism sector in the Arab World, where 42 per cent of the population are internet users, which has positively changed the image of the region across the world.



He underlined that developing the Arabic language of 15 million Brazilians of Arab origin from the second and third generations, most of whom hold prominent administrative and diplomatic posts which could help build strong bridges in enhancing the cultural, economic and historical ties between the Arab World and Brazil, and cited that the forum serves the opportunity to develop these relations and enhance cooperation to achieve a comprehensive and sustainable growth in trade and economy.



Brazilian President Michel Temer, whose roots were from Lebanon, attended the forum and spoke about the depths of the historical relations between the Arab World and Brazil. He expressed his desire to visit the Arab countries soon, and also shared the Brazilian governments various social development initiatives aimed at further enhancing the lives of Brazilians.



Temer said: Despite the robust trade growth between Brazil and the Arab World reaching $20 billion over the past year, we must work together to bring it to the next phase of development and open broad areas of investment and cooperation. Currently, we are discussing our trade agreements with some Arab countries at various levels.



The forum also welcomed a speech by Ibrahim Al-Zabin, Ambassador of Palestine in Brazil and Dean of the Arab Diplomatic Corps, who highlighted the need to alleviate the bureaucratic procedures that hinder the entry of Arab products into the Brazilian market, it said.



He called on Brazil to support the Arab countries that seek to join the Mercosur, based on Brazils influential role in decision-making within the assembly countries.  TradeArabia News Service



A series of lectures was also held under the theme Economic Scenarios: Brazil and Arab Countries followed by panel discussions on several topics, including technology and innovation, food security, and increasing trade in the halal sector, where Arab countries are considered as one of the biggest markets for halal products, such as food and cosmetics, among others and Brazil is the largest food exporter to Arab countries, said a statement.



The participants also discussed current investments and future opportunities between Arab and Brazilian enterprises as the South American nation gained about $700 billion in cumulative foreign investment. The event also focused on the potentials of renewable energy and sustainability where Brazil offered its vast expertise in the field, noting that 68 per cent of power sources in Sao Paulo comes from renewable energy, it added.



The forum also explored new strategies for Arab-Brazilian cooperation focused on investment and tourism. It also discussed the need to establish an Arab-Brazilian bank with large capital to meet the growing needs of the two countries, joint initiatives to develop biomedical and engineering industries, developing the transport sector aimed at enhancing inter-regional trade and establish mega investment projects in heavy industries, logistics, renewable energy, among others.



The Arab countries have recently been included as a strategic hub for Brazil through the Secretariat of the Presidency, which works to promote strategic political and economic partnership. It was also revealed during the forum that research is underway which explores the possibilities of establishing an investment authority which will promote cooperation between Brazil and the various Arab countries in key investment areas.



The speakers at the event concurred that considering Brazils economic resurgence, which is now the sixth largest economy in the world, the next coming years will witness a stronger cooperation among these nations, given that Brazil and the Arab World enjoy a steady and inclusive relationship.



The meeting concluded on a high note which highlighted the importance of promoting and sustaining present and future growth and endorsed the need to take this historic initiative to the next level and bring fruitful cooperation, leading to increased trade relations and cultural, tourism and technological exchange, it stated.  TradeArabia News Service
France-based Switch Made, a leading manufacturer of LED lighting solutions, revealed it is further expanding its operations in the UAE with the opening of a new global hub office in Dubai.



This coincides with the 10th anniversary of Switch Mades operations in the UAE, with the new global office being beefed up with a dedicated team of experts from the companys France office taking up positions in Dubai, said a statement.



The unveiling of the global base of Switch Made in the UAE complements the call by French President Emmanuel Macron to enhance the role of French companies in international entrepreneurship, it said.



The French Ambassador to the UAE, Ludovic Pouille, marked the new expansion and opening of the global office and congratulated the company for its strategic focus on expanding its presence in the country. He was accompanied by Emmanuel Mayer, vice consul general of France in Dubai, and other dignitaries and business leaders, it added.



Pouille said: This is a commendable example of French companies strengthening their international footprint and sharing invaluable French expertise for supporting the development of the UAE.



Over the past years, France-UAE ties have grown manifold, with French business expertise, especially in areas such as sustainable development and renewable energy, complementing the development vision of the UAE, he added.



Switch Made has an accomplished track-record in delivering energy-efficient lighting solutions and the new office will enable it to further contribute to the UAEs Vision 2021, he said.



Jeremy Loisel, CEO, Switch Made, said: With our expanded presence, we are building on 10 strong years of operations in the UAE, marking a new milestone in our growth journey.



We are bringing top-notch French experts to support our business growth in the UAE, complementing the development goals of the nation. French companies already play a significant role here by providing cutting edge technology and expertise, and through our enhanced local presence, we can be more agile and closer to our customers in meeting their requirements, he said.



Our French headquarter is currently being restructured, and reflecting the consequent change of business model, focusing on manufacturing LED luminaires for projects. We are also in the final stages of partnering with a reputable industrial group, which will take our growth to the next level. 2018 is a decisive year for our French market, he added.



Switch Made has already been associated with several landmark projects in the UAE including the provision of energy-efficient sustainable lighting solutions for the facade of The Dubai Mall, supplying more than 52,000 LED luminaires. It also delivered over 8,800 LED light fittings and over 2 km of linear solutions for the Swiss International Scientific School in Dubai, which is the Middle East regions first low-energy building that complies with the MINERGIE Ecolabel, a Swiss sustainable building standard.



Several flagship projects in the UAE have been developed through close co-operation with France, such as Louvre Abu Dhabi and the Paris-Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi, the only French-language university in the Gulf.



Total trade between the two countries was estimated at $5.6 billion in 2016. The UAE is Frances second-largest trading partner in the Gulf, and is also the second largest Gulf investor in France. There are over 600 French subsidiaries in the UAE.



The UAE has outlined a clear vision to be among the best nations in the world, and has set tangible targets in reducing energy consumption and promoting sustainable solutions. As a French company with proven expertise in supporting the needs of nations and companies with sustainable lighting solutions, we are committed to be a partner in the progress of the UAE by bringing French expertise to the nations development projects, concluded Loisel.  TradeArabia News Service
Mubadala Investment Company, the UAE-based strategic investment company, said it has reached an agreement with Mubadala Infrastructure Partners (MIP), an emerging markets infrastructure fund manager, to sell their combined equity interest of 50 per cent in Abu Dhabi Terminals to the remaining shareholder, Abu Dhabi Ports.



ADT is the first commercial port operator in Abu Dhabi, whose core business is to operate and manage a 30-year concession at the Khalifa Port Container Terminal, the regions first semi-automated and most technologically-advanced container terminal.



Our strategic investment in ADT is a demonstration of our continued commitment to growing and developing core industry sectors in Abu Dhabi, remarked Khaled Al Qubaisi, Mubadalas Chief Executive Officer of Aerospace, Renewables & ICT.



We are confident ADT will see even greater success as it starts its next chapter, while retaining its important role in Abu Dhabis economy, he added.



Abu Dhabi Ports CEO Captain Mohamed Juma Al Shamsi said: "We wish to thank Mubadala and MIP for their valuable contribution since the inception of ADT. We are committed to continuing ADTs growth and attracting more shipping lines to use Khalifa Port as their main hub port, consolidating its central role in Abu Dhabis port system and economy."



Commenting on the transaction, Philip K. Haddad, the managing partner of MIP, said: "ADT has consistently grown its activities throughout our ownership period."



"This is a testimony of our strong engagement with our partners and ADTs management team who have implemented consistent strategic and operational improvements that continue to transform and drive ADT as a leading dynamic and innovative port operator in the region," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Personal data of more than 14 million customers of Middle East's popular ride-hailing service Careem in the Middle East, North Africa, Pakistan and Turkey have been stolen by cyber criminals, reports said.

In a blog post, Careem said it has identified a cyber incident involving unauthorised access to the system it uses to store data.

"While we have seen no evidence of fraud or misuse related to this incident, it is our responsibility to be open and honest with you, and to reaffirm our commitment to protecting your privacy and data," it said.

It said on January 14 of this year, it became aware that online criminals gained access to its computer systems which hold customer and captain account data. Customers and captains who have signed up with us since that date are not affected, it said.

"As soon as we detected the breach, we launched a thorough investigation and engaged leading cybersecurity experts to assist us in strengthening our security systems. We are also working with law enforcement agencies," it added.

"20 million customers have signed up across our platform. We are currently in 14 countries and close to 100 cities. 14 million of these customers were affected by the incident," a spokesman of the company was quoted as saying by Khaleej Times.

Moving forward, Careem said it understands the importance of customer privacy and it regularly reviews and updates its security systems, thought "this time it wasn't enough to prevent an attack".

Careem is operating as normal across the region despite the incident.

Commenting on the incident, Gregg Petersen, regional sales vice president, Middle East & Africa at Veeam Software, said: "The Careem breach of driver and rider account data is extremely concerning. Customers need the confidence and trust that digital transactions and the handling of data will always work as expected. With GDPR only a month away from being enforced, this is a timely reminder for businesses of all shapes and sizes to ensure business and personal data is subject to the most rigorous of standards and service levels and security. It appears from the reports today that this is the first public notification of a breach that happened in mid-January, which if the case isn't acceptable."

"Security breaches are getting bigger and bigger. What started off as a few files or records is now being regularly measured in the millions of users. Businesses must understand and act fast to ensure the chain of trust between them and their customers is never broken; not just to retain a customer, but to attract new customers and avoid business-changing fines," he said. - TradeArabia News Service
Security Devices International (SDI), a US-based technology company, has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with the King Abdullah II Design and Development Bureau in Jordan.



A specialist in the areas of military, law enforcement and private security, SDI develops and manufactures innovative, less lethal equipment and munitions.



The LOI was formalised to establish a partnership between SDI and Jordanian adesign bureau to open a production line in the kingdom to supply SDIs less lethal 40mm munitions in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region, said a statement from the US company.



The Middle East Non-Lethal Weapons Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.15 per cent until 2020, according to the firm Research and Markets.



We are very excited to develop our partnership with SDI, said King Abdullah II Design and Development Bureau CEO Support Brigadier General Mohammad Arajneh.



"SDI has proven themselves to be leaders in innovating new technologies that offer improved safety, accuracy and effectiveness in the use of less lethal force," stated Arajneh.



SDI President Paul Jensen said the Jordanian design bureau was an ideal partner for SDI to introduce its patented collapsible head technology into one of the company's targeted areas, the Mena region.



"Jordan, through the establishment of the bureau, continues to demonstrate real leadership in the region by embracing innovative solutions and advanced technologies to serve National Security. We are honored to assist them in this worthy effort," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Flight bookings in Saudi Arabia grew 14 per cent in 2017, reveals 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.



Stuart Crighton, founder and chief executive officer, Cleartrip, said: 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 has aptly captured the evolving needs and preferences of travellers in the kingdom, he said.



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, he added.



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 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, it stated.  TradeArabia News Service
Citymax Hotels, part of Landmark Group, has unveiled plans for a new hotel in Ras Al Khaimah, which will be ready to welcome guests in Q4.



The Citymax Hotel Ras Al Khaimah is being developed as a joint venture between Landmark Group and ST Group.



Sanjay Dube, chief executive officer at Landmark Hospitality Division, and Eng. Sheikh Salem Sultan Saqr Al Qasimi, chairman of ST Group, signed a management agreement for Citymax Hotels to operate the 204-bedroom hotel at this years Arabian Travel Market.



We are delighted to be partnered with Eng. Sheikh Salem Sultan Saqr Al Qasimi to bring the Citymax brand to a third emirate within the UAE, adding to our current hotel portfolio in Dubai and Sharjah, commented Dube.



Al Qasimi said: I feel the Citymax brand and bedroom design will be very successful in Ras Al Khaimah and the other facilities including food and beverage outlets, swimming pool and gym will give guests a fantastic experience



This hotel will showcase our refreshed contemporary and vibrant brand identity, aimed at meeting the design and functionality needs of the millennial traveller. We pride ourselves on delivering a unique combination of service and value for money  our new design is a step change and were thrilled to be launching this hotel, said Aly Shariff, chief operating officer, Citymax Hotels.



Citymax Ras Al Khaimah is centrally located by the creek in the Al Nakheel area of the city, close to Al Naeem Mall and only 15 minutes from RAK Airport, the hotel will cater to both business and leisure travellers with meeting rooms, high quality restaurants, roof top swimming pool and exclusive beach access. - TradeArabia News Service
Secretary of state nominee Mike Pompeo narrowly eked out an endorsement from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Monday after President Trump and a Democratic senator intervened at the last minute, all but guaranteeing that he will be confirmed by the full Senate later this week.





Pompeo had seemed unlikely to secure a majority of the panels support. But Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who had pledged to oppose him, tweeted moments before the vote that Trump had talked with him and changed his mind.





Pauls key concern had been that Pompeo, currently director of the CIA, would not support Trumps campaign pledge to pull troops out of Afghanistan. The senator also had called on Pompeo to support President Trumps belief that the Iraq war was a mistake.





Having received assurances from President Trump and Director Pompeo that he agrees with the President on these important issues, I have decided to support his nomination to be our next secretary of state, Paul said.





The panels vote was largely symbolic, since Pompeo had secured enough votes to be confirmed by the full Senate earlier in the day, when two Democrats facing difficult reelection challenges in 2018  Sens. Joe Manchin III (W.Va.) and Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.)  announced that they would back his nomination on the floor.





But Trumps supporters were determined to have Pompeo enter office without the mark of being the first secretary of state in almost a century to fail a committee vote.





The committee ultimately voted 11 to 10 along party lines to endorse Pompeo. But because of a quirk in the Senate rules, the panel could not send its recommendation to the full Senate, as one of those 11 Republicans  Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.)  was not present for the vote. He was out of town delivering a eulogy at his best friends funeral, senators said.




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The Iranian military may team up with the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) for an offensive against the PKK terrorist group in Iraq provided that the Iraqi government gives consent. Daily Sabah reports that Iranian Defense Minister Amir Hatami said that Iran and Turkey could take action against the PKK in northern Iraq if the Baghdad government allows it.

Turkey, Iran and Iraq indeed previously took joint action against the terrorist group. In last November, Turkish jets carried out airstrikes on PKK positions in northern Iraq, reportedly coordinated with Iranian and Iraqi intelligence.

Ankara and Tehran have been strengthening relations at a growing pace in Syria. The two countries are part of the Astana process and the Syrian National Dialogue Congress. The presidents of the two countries also met earlier this month in Ankara as a sign of solidarity.

The Turkish government has been signaling an all-around offensive against PKK headquarters in the Qandil Mountains and the Sinjar region in northern Iraq. Previously, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in mid-March that Sinjar would be the next target after Operation Olive Branch, which succeeded in eliminating the PKK's Syrian affiliate People's Protection Units (YPG) from Afrin, Syria.

"Turkey asked the Iraqi government to clean PKK terrorists from northern Iraq and will carry out a cross-border operation there anytime if necessary," Erdogan said, referring to the terrorist group's headquarters in Sinjar province, which is considered to be the second major camp after Mount Qandil.

Ankara also argues that the Turkish state is entitled to an operation in northern Iraq if the central Iraqi government cannot eradicate a threat that poses concern to Turkey's national security.

Last month, the PKK announced that it withdrew from Sinjar. However, Turkish security and intelligence sources were cited as saying that PKK terrorists are hiding in the town center as civilians and remain ready to take up arms and attack whenever need be.

Anadolu Agency (AA) reporters in the center of Sincar district have said that the information they received from the region suggests that only a few Iraqi army and federal police forces seem to have controlled the center, while the local YBS militants affiliated to the PKK continue to carry out their activities in the city as they have camouflaged their weapons.

In mid-2014, the PKK managed to establish a foothold in Sinjar on the pretext that it was protecting the local Yazidi community from Daesh.
Serzh Sargsyan, who ruled Armenia for 10 years, resigned Monday as prime minister after thousands of people poured into the streets to protest his political maneuvering to cling to power in this former Soviet republic.

The Los Angeles Times reports in its article Saying 'I was wrong,' Armenia's prime minister resigns amid large-scale protests that the stunning development touched off jubilation in the capital, Yerevan, with car horns blaring and people dancing, hugging and waving the tricolor Armenian flag. The opposition called for a meeting with the acting prime minister to discuss a "peaceful transfer of power."

Sargsyan, 63, was president of the Caucasus nation from 2008 until term limits forced him out in March. But parliament, which is controlled by his party, voted to reduce the powers of the presidency and give them to the prime minister, ultimately installing Sargsyan in that post last week.

The move echoed a maneuver a decade ago by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Armenia's closest ally. Leaders of other former Soviet republics, from Belarus to Central Asia, have similarly extended their terms.

The parliament's action had triggered massive anti-government protests in Yerevan since April 13, with demonstrators blocking government buildings and facing off with police. A rally on Sunday attracted about 50,000 people, and about 200 soldiers joined the protesters on Monday.

Protest leader Nikol Pashinian met Sunday with Sargsyan, who walked out of the session after Pashinian refused to talk about anything but the prime minister's resignation. Pashinian was later arrested but released Monday.

In his surprise resignation announcement posted on his website, Sargsyan said he should not have resisted the opposition's demands.

"Nikol Pashinian was right. I was wrong," Sargsyan said. "The movement on the streets is against my rule. I'm complying with their demands."

The government quickly named former Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan as acting prime minister. A Sargsyan ally, he also was mayor of Yerevan and worked in Russia for five years as a top executive of the state-controlled gas giant Gazprom.

Pashinian told an evening rally of tens of thousands of people at Republic Square in Yerevan that opposition activists want to meet with Karapetyan on Wednesday to discuss a "peaceful transfer of power."

The opposition will push for an early parliamentary election to prevent Sargsyan from running Armenia from behind the scenes, Pashinian said.

Alexander Iskandaryan, director of the Caucasus Institute in Yerevan, said the protests pushed Sargsyan into a corner:

"The protests in the past couple of days have swelled to a point that you either had to use violence or find another way out," Iskandaryan told the Associated Press.
U.S. allies and rivals spoke out in support of the Iran nuclear deal on Monday, bolstering French President Emmanuel Macrons pitch to U.S. President Donald Trump that there was no Plan B for keeping a lid on Tehrans atomic ambitions.

Reuters reports in its article U.N., EU, Russia back Iran nuclear deal as Trump meets Macron that Macron is on something of a rescue mission for the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which Trump has vowed to scrap unless European allies strengthen it by mid-May.

A nuclear non-proliferation conference in Geneva heard repeated calls for parties to the deal  the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany  to ensure its implementation and preservation. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action continues to be the best way to ensure the exclusively peaceful nature of Irans nuclear programme and to realise the promised tangible economic benefits for the Iranian people, U.N. High representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu said.

But U.S. non-proliferation envoy Christopher Ford said Iran presented a very real long-term challenge to the non-proliferation regime. Iran (is) a country that for years illegally and secretly sought to develop nuclear weapons, suspended its weaponization work only when confronted by the potentially direst of consequences without ever coming clean about its illicit endeavours, he said. For several more years (it) continued its efforts to enrich uranium in violation of legally-binding U.N. Security Council requirements, and retains the ability to position itself, several years hence, dangerously close to rapid weaponization.

On a visit to Beijing, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he had agreed with his Chinese counterpart to block any U.S. attempt to sabotage the deal. We are against revising these agreements, we consider it very counter productive to try to reduce to zero years of international work carried out via talks between the six major powers and Iran, Lavrov said after talks with the Chinese governments top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi. We will obstruct attempts to sabotage these agreements which were enshrined in a U.N. Security Council resolution, Lavrov said.

EU disarmament envoy Jacek Bylica said the deal strengthened the international non-proliferation regime, contributed to regional and international security and ensured the exclusively peaceful nature of Irans nuclear programme.

Cornel Feruta, a senior official at the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the deal had significantly improved access to Iran. In short, Iran is now subject to the most robust nuclear verification regime and Iran is implementing its nuclear related commitments under the JCPOA, he said. It is essential that Iran continues to fully implement those commitments.
Kyrgyzstan supports most, if not all, of Russia's initiatives, Kyrgyz Ambassador to Russia Bolot Otunbayev said. He recalled that last year marked the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, and it was filled with visits: "The heads of state met eight times, the prime ministers - seven times, the foreign ministers - six times... We all came from one great country, from the USSR. I shall not dwell much on the events, due to which our two former presidents were forced to leave the country."

Bolot Otunbayev drew attention to the fact that Kyrgyzstan became a party to all integration associations established in the post-Soviet space - CIS, EEU, CSTO, SCO: "Along with other countries of the former Soviet Union, we are actively engaged in dialogue with Russia, which is our most important strategic partner, at all these integration sites... Kyrgyzstan's accession to the EEU was due to objective necessity, since we are a landlocked country located in the very center of Central Asia. We needed close economic ties with the countries with which we have traditionally conducted a dialogue. We made an informed choice by joining the EEU in 2015. We view this integration association not as a political club, but as an economic one."

Speaking about the preferences that Kyrgyzstan received from joining the EEU, the ambassador said: "The country received assistance from Russia, a Kyrgyz-Russian fund was created, to which Russia invested a considerable amount of money, about $500 million. Today the fund works in our republic and finances many economic projects. But the biggest benefit came from the fact that about a million of our compatriots who are present in the Russian territory. Although, according to the official data of the Main Directorate for Migration Affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, 632,000 of our citizens are present in the Russian territory. Our citizens have received the greatest preferences in comparison with the citizens of other countries. In addition to the citizens of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Armenia, they are exempted from buying a patent, from taking the Russian language examination, the Russian history examination, from obtaining permission to work, which greatly facilitated their stay on the territory of Russia."

Bolot Otunbayev stressed that, according to the Constitution, the Russian language is the official language of Kyrgyzstan: "Therefore, our citizens are more prepared, speak Russian, know local traditions, mentality and culture. Due to this it easier for them to find work here. And they do not do dirty work, but work in the field of service, in hotels, restaurants, supermarkets. When last year a discussion arose about whether citizens of other countries can work in Russia using their national driving licenses, the Russian side met our need. Today our citizens may work here using their national driving licenses. We are very grateful for this."
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered condolences to the participants of the commemoration ceremony for the 1915 tragic events, which was held in the Armenian Church in Istanbul.

"It is Turkeys conscientious and ethical responsibility to share the historical pain of our Armenian citizens, read the statement at the Istanbul Armenian Church on the 103rd anniversary of the mass killing of Ottoman Armenians during World War I, posted on the official presidential website.

"We will continue to share your pain and try to resolve your problems in the future," Erdogan added.

Erdogan also expressed "condolences to the Turkish nation over loss of lives of millions of Ottoman citizens due to wars, migrations, conflicts and diseases during the same period."

The statement also called on the Armenian community to not allow those "who are trying to ignite hatred and hostility by distorting [our] shared past," Daily Sabah reported.

An associate professor of the Faculty of International Relations of the TOBB University of Economics and Technology (Ankara), Togrul Ismail, speaking with Vestnik Kavkaza, said that the 1915 events were tragic for all the peoples in Turkey. "The President of Turkey, expressing his condolences today, stressed that these tragic events occurred during the First World War, and now no one wants to repeat them, especially since there were mass killings of the Turkish population of the Ottoman Empire. The president expresses his condolences to prevent the political ambitions of Western countries and show that the opinion of those countries, which view these events as "the Armenian genocide," is inappropriate, since the Turkish state has long been ensured the safety of the Armenian population living in the republic," he noted.

"Armenians are full-fledged members of the Turkish state, they vote in presidential and parliamentary elections, they have an opportunity to receive a full-fledged education in the Armenian language. Virtually all political parties have Armenian deputies. There is an Armenian newspaper in Istanbul, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Armenian community of Istanbul is large, other large cities of Turkey also have Armenian communities. Many left for the Republic of Armenia, but now, on the contrary, there are many illegal migrants here. There is no such thing in Turkey as ethnic strife, there are no anti-Armenian sentiments, attempts of provocation on this issue have always come to nothing," Togrul Ismail drew attention.

Political scientist Orhan Gafarli, in turn, recalled that such condolences of the Turkish authorities to the Armenian citizens on April 24 are traditional. "This statement is aimed at showing that the 1915 events cannot be viewed in a one-sided perspective, because not only Armenians, but also Turks and other peoples were killed at that times. Ankara seeks to explain that Turkey does not deny the murder of Armenians, but it was not genocide, it was a massacre between ethnic groups, which affected not only Armenians, but Turks as well," he stressed.

The expert also noted that Armenians are full-fledged citizens of Turkey. "Armenians live in all Turkish regions, they freely realize the constitutional rights and freedoms of Turkish citizens, including religious freedoms, there is the Armenian Apostolic Church in the country. They are also free in doing politics and business. Armenian MPs work in the ruling Justice and Development Party and in all opposition parties. No state event is held without the participation of Armenian activists. Today in Turkey there are no signs of either anti-Armenian policy of the state or anti-Armenian moods in the society," Orhan Gafarli summed up.
Baku hopes that following the end of Serzh Sargsyans regime of military dictatorship in Armenia, sensible political forces to come to power, spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Hikmat Hajiyev said.

The diplomat said that as a consequence of the policy the Sargsyan regime pursued to suppress Armenian people, no visible progress was achieved to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The former Sargysan regimes hysterical statements on the alleged deployment of manpower and military equipment by Azerbaijan to the frontline do not correspond to reality and are based on information from the past year. "The purpose was to mislead the society," Hajiyev said.

The spokesman noted that the presence of Armenian troops in the occupied Azerbaijani territories remains a major threat to peace and stability in the region.

"Armenia must withdraw its troops from the occupied Azerbaijani territories in order to eliminate the risk of tension. We stand ready to continue negotiations with sensible political forces in Armenia in order for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to be settled in accordance with international law and the UN Security Councils relevant resolutions," the diplomat stressed.

Hajiyev noted that an early peaceful solution to the conflict will help ensure lasting peace and security in the region and open up new opportunities for comprehensive regional cooperation. "Azerbaijan will sooner or later ensure the territorial integrity and sovereignty within its internationally recognized borders," the spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry pointed out.
The British Council Azerbaijan in partnership with the British Embassy in Azerbaijan and Nizami Cinema Centre will organize the fourth British Film Spring, bringing the best and brightest new UK films to an Azerbaijan audience on May 1-6, 2018.

The festival will be held as part of a series of events to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the British Council in Azerbaijan. This year, eight remarkable and very diverse films including Breathe, Daphne, Notes of Blindness, David Browie is, City of Tiny Lights, England is Mine, The Carer, and Crooked House will be screened at the festival.

All films will be screened in English, and Breathe, Daphne, and England is Mine will be subtitled in Azerbaijani.

Director of British Council Azerbaijan, Elizabeth White, said that this years British Film Spring has a selection of really interesting new films. "I hope that Baku audiences get to see all these great films. We seek to connect UK films and filmmakers with Azerbaijani audiences, profiling innovation, diversity and excellence and seeking opportunities for creative exchange," AzerTAc cited her as saying.

British Ambassador to Azerbaijan Dr Carole Crofts, in turn, said that 2017 was a strong year for the UK film industry, with impressive dramas, blockbusters and comedies.

"Independent figures published by the BFI reveal a record breaking performance from the UK film industry in 2017, reinforcing its global reputation as a leading destination for film, alongside the continued growth of UK cinema audiences," she said.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has arrived in Turkey on an official visit today, according to the official website of the president.

A guard of honor was arranged for President Aliyev at Esenboga Airport in Ankara decorated with national flags of Azerbaijan and Turkey.

Ilham Aliyev was welcomed by Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Fikri Isik and other high-ranking state and governmental officials.

The chief of the guard of honor reported to the President of Azerbaijan, who saluted the guard of honor.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said that he has put sanctions against US President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel a long time ago.

"If they come to our republic, we will instantly arrest them and put in jail, he said, adding that all their possible accounts on Chechen territory will be frozen, RT reported.

In December 2017, Washington added five Russian nationals, including Ramzan Kadyrov, to the sanctions list under the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act. US officials accused Kadyrov of "human rights violations."
The Russophobic connotations in the work of the G7 are obvious, but Moscow is ready to patiently defend its position, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, commenting on the outcome of the meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Toronto.

"As for the outcome of the meeting of foreign ministers in Toronto, of course, the Russophobic connotations there are obvious. We will patiently defend our position, wait until our partners realize that such policy is a dead end," TASS cited him as saying,

The top diplomat noted that the main issues that are important for the international community are being discussed in other formats. "Political, military and political issues are discussed in the UN Security Council, generally within the UN, and economic issues, of course, cannot be resolved outside the framework of the Group of Twenty," Lavrov recalled.

Russia was the main topic on the agenda of the two-day meeting of the G7 Foreign Ministers, which was attended by representatives of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Britain, Japan and the United States, as well as High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini. According to the statement, the countries could impose new sanctions against the Russian Federation because of the situation in Donbass, and accused Moscow of destabilizing the situation in the world.

The meeting of foreign ministers of the G7 countries was held in Toronto, Canada, on April 22-23.
Members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) have spoken out in favor of stepping up their activities to fight extremism and prevent conflict situations in Afghanistan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on the sidelines of the SCO foreign ministers meeting.

"We have discussed the situation in Afghanistan and the region in general, we are all concerned over the strengthening position of extremists, first and foremost, ISIS members, who are coming to the country from Iraq and Syria, trying to gain a foothold in Afghanistan, particularly in its northern regions that border our allied countries from the CSTO (the Collective Security Treaty Organization). It definitely requires stepping up our efforts to counter conflict trends in Afghanistan and facilitate a political solution to the Afghan crisis," Lavrov stressed.

The Russian minister noted that the meetings participants had agreed there was the need to launch talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban movement in the near future.

"We welcomed the outcome of the Tashkent conference on Afghanistan held in late March, that called for early negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban movement, preventing ISIS members from recruiting Taliban members to join their ranks," TASS cited the top diplomat as saying.
French President Emmanuel Macron has congratulated President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev on winning in the presidential election.

Macron stressed that Paris will do its utmost to contribute to the efforts to find a negotiated solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

He also wished Ilham Aliyev success in his activity for the well-being of the people of Azerbaijan and emphasized that he intends to develop the bilateral relations.

"As I mentioned in my letter to you on February 21 this year, it is important to exchange views about these issues and I would like to meet with you in Paris in the coming months. I once again convey my best wishes to you and to the people of Azerbaijan. Please accept the assurances of my highest respect," the French president said in a statement.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed an interim agreement with a term of 4 years that provides for the formation of a free trade area on a limited range of goods between the EEU and Iran, according to the government website.

"The agreement provides for the formation of a free trade area on a limited range of goods between the EEU and Iran. The EEU will grant Iran tariff concessions on 502 harmonised commodity codes," the statement says.

"In accordance with the federal law On the International Treaties of the Russian Federation the agreement is subject to ratification after signing because it contains rules that differ from those envisaged by Russian legislation," the statement says.

According to the statement, the draft agreement was prepared to fulfill the decision of the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council of December 26, 2016, on starting talks with Iran on concluding an interim agreement leading to the formation of a free trade area, and endorsed at the session of the Council of the Eurasian Economic Commission on March 7, 2017.
Turkey's main opposition Republican Peoples Partys (CHP) and IYI Party may put forward Abdullah Gul as candidate for president.

The parties will announce the final decision in the end of this week, Turkish media reported.

On April 18, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said about the need for early presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkey.

"The government welcomed the proposal of Bahceli [leader of the Nationalist Movement Party] to hold early elections. The elections will be held on June 24, 2018," he said.
HCM CITY  Shareholders of the Saigon Beer-Alcohol-Beverage Corporation (Sabeco) voted to add three new members to the management board, including one from Thai Beverage Public Co Ltd, at an extraordinary general meeting yesterday.

All three are foreigners.

Koh Poh Tiong, a Singaporean national, is chairman of the Thai Beverage-owned Beer Group, which owns a 49 per cent stake in Vietnam Beverage.

Malcolm Tan Tiang Hing, CEO of Shanghai-based alcoholic beverages distributor Dxcel International, and Sunyaluck Chaikajornawat of Thai law firm Weerawong Chinnavat & Partners Ltd, were elected as independent members.

The meeting was held after the Ministry of Industry and Trade had told Sabeco to tackle its personnel matters after ThaiBev sent a letter to the Government expressing concern that it has not been directly involved in Sabecos management until now despite owning 53.59 per cent of its charter capital.

In December 2017, ThaiBev, through its subsidiary Vietnam Beverage Co Ltd, had bought the stake for nearly US$5 billion through an auction at the HCM Stock Exchange.

Also at the meeting, more than 94 per cent of the shareholders voted to dismiss chairman Vo Thanh Ha.

The brewer has also been in the news recently after being told by the Ministry of Finance to pay around VN2.5 trillion (US$111 million) worth of undistributed profit to the Government.

The amount is part of Sabecos VN2.7 trillion in undistributed profits and the dividend the Government should have received from Sabeco for its 89.6 per cent ownership of the company as of December 31, 2016.

After selling more than a 50 per cent stake to ThaiBev, the Government now has 36 per cent.

This tax issue is expected to be discussed at Sabecos annual general meeting in June.VNS
HA NOI  South Logistics Joint Stock Company (Sotrans) will cancel its listing on HCM Stock Exchange and move to the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) by the end of this year.

This was revealed at the companys annual shareholders meeting in HCM City on Monday.

Since December 2017, two largest shareholders of Sotrans  Viet Nam Electrical Equipment Joint Stock Corporation and Indo Trans Logistics Corporation (ITL)  have increased their holdings to over 88 per cent of Sotrans charter capital.

As per the regulation of HCM Stock Exchange, Sotrans shares, traded with the code STG, are no longer eligible to be listed on the southern exchange because the total number of voting shares held by non-large shareholders fall below the required threshold of 20 per cent.

We will terminate the listing after one year as per regulation, so around December this year, Sotrans will cancel the listing and transfer to UPCoM, a representative of Sotrans said at the meeting.

ITL now has 28.4 million shares, equivalent to 33.28 per cent of Sotrans capital. The company wants to lift its ownership rate here.

Sotrans has submitted a plan to faciliate ITLs share purchase to increase its holding here to a maximum of 43.2 per cent without having to make a public tender offer. The plan will be implemented after receiving shareholders approval.

Sotrans shares are being traded at some VN20,600 (US$0.90) per share on HCM Stock Exchange. ITL is expected to spend some VN176 billion for the planned purchase. Transactions will be carried out via order matching or put-through methods.

UPCoM is a minor stock exchange under the management of Ha Noi Stock Exchange with lower requirements for listing standards or information disclosure. With more listing of State-owned enterprises after equitisation, the markets profile has risen significantly, with over 730 listed companies.

Paying stock dividend

Sotrans business improved last year with total sales of VN1.46 trillion, up by 115 per cent year-on-year, thanks to the launch of the Phu My warehouse project and development of a new agent system.

Its consolidated net profit reached VN521.3 trillion, 4.7 times higher than 2016.

The company has decided to pay dividends at the rate of 15 per cent in the form of stocks. It will finalise the shareholders list for the payout in May.

It has targeted a revenue growth of 12 per cent in 2018 to earn VN1.66 trillion, but the net profit is projected at just VN171.4 billion, down 67 per cent from 2017, due to the absence of large dividend earnings like in 2017.  VNS
HCM CITY  Maybank Kim Eng Securities Limited has added US$10 million to its charter capital to VN1.06 trillion ($46.38 million).

John Chong, CEO of Maybank Kim Eng Group, said the decision to hike the capital is in line with Maybank Kim Eng Groups business strategy and clearly demonstrates the firms long-term commitment in Viet Nam.

Viet Nam is one of the fastest growing economies in the region and a key component of Maybank Kim Engs ASEAN strategy.

Being the first 100 per cent foreign-owned securities company in Viet Nam, we are deeply invested here; we strongly believe in the potential of the countrys economy and want to ensure that its capital markets continue to grow.

Kim Thien Quang, CEO of Maybank Kim Eng Vietnam (MKEV), said: Since we started our operations in Viet Nam in December 2007 with a charter capital of only VN200 billion, we have increased our capital four times and by more than 400 per cent.

This additional capital will give us a strong foundation to enhance our competitiveness and increase our product offerings. In particular, with a capital of more than a trillion ong, we will now be able to enter a new market to offer covered warrants."

The company has had a successful first decade, he said.

To maintain our leading position, we will continue to focus on strengthening our retail brokerage, particularly online brokerage.

Currently 86 per cent of our brokerage transactions are via online trading. Our target is to grow it to 90 per cent. We are also looking to grow our institutional brokerage by tapping on MKE Groups regional footprint and strong presence in ASEAN.

As the gateway to ASEAN, we will continue to give Viet Nams corporates access to global investors, and bring global investors to Viet Nam.  VNS
HA NOI  Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has affirmed that having more control over the market will help the Vietnamese economy in the long run.

He made the statement during a national conference in Ha Noi yesterday, hosted by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, while discussing comprehensive measures to boost exports.

The PM said that successful countries and businesses considered the world as a market that they could exploit to expand their reaches, and thus they sought ways to improve their competitiveness.

The domestic market, with a population of more than 90 million, was important, but it was necessary to look at the global market to achieve sustainable growth, he said.

The leader noted that while administrative procedures had improved, they remained below international standards. He expressed his wish to listen to policy feedback from localities and associations, in order to increase the value of exported commodities, and make it easier for Vietnamese firms to join the global value chain.

He underscored the need to update Vietnamese exporters about market information and legal regulations abroad, as well as potential opportunities and risks, and orientations to manufacturing and exports.

Ministers, alongside leaders of localities, are to be required to look towards exports to contribute to sustainable growth. Based on public feedback, the PM will issue a directive on measures to boost manufacturing and exports.

At the conference, Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh said the countrys exports grew by 15.8 per cent last year, exclusive of cell phones, computers and electronic spare parts.

In 2017, there were four new items that recorded export revenue of over US$1 billion, bringing the total number of items to 29. The number of items with an export revenue of over $2 billion was 20, while eight had an export revenue of over $6 billion.

Exported products of the processing industry continued to play an important role in export growth, accounting for more than 81 per cent of total exports, up sharply from 61 per cent in 2011. The proportion of agricultural and aquatic products decreased to 12.1 per cent. Meanwhile, export of crude, coal, petrol and minerals accounted for just 2 per cent of total export turnover.

The export market was also expanded toward diversification and multilateralisation, especially for industrial goods, Tuan Anh said.

In 2017, the US market accounted for 20.6 per cent of exports of industrial goods, the European Union (EU) market accounted for 17.6 per cent, while China, Japan and South Korea combined accounted for close to 30 per cent.

The leader of the MoIT said that local firms had made good use of opportunities from integration.

Exports to countries that have signed free trade agreements with Viet Nam recorded high growth rate in 2017, such as ASEAN, increasing by 24.2 per cent to $21.68 billion. Exports to China were up by 61.5 per cent to $35.46 billion, while Japan climbed by 14.8 per cent to $16.8 billion and South Korea surged by 30 per cent to $14.8 billion.

The localisation rate in export products was also gradually improved. For example, in the textile sector, the localisation rate increased from15-17 per cent in 2000 to over 50 per cent in 2017.

However, Tuan Anh said exports still predominantly relied on foreign-invested enterprises, which contributed over 70 per cent of the countrys total export value, up 23 per cent against 2016.

Though tariffs have been removed, Viet Nams farm produce such as milk, pork, fruits and vegetables still find it hard to enter foreign markets, he said.

The MoIT proposed three major measures to sustainably step up exports, including restructuring agriculture, closely controlling supply, and gradually improving the quality of agricultural and aquatic products.

It will also work to maintain stable export markets, improve the efficiency of trade promotion, and cope with trade defence and protectionism that are not in line with international commitments.

At the same time, the ministry will step up institutional reform, refine legal corridors for export activities, accelerate administrative reform, and clear barriers to payment and credit to ensure there is sufficient capital for manufacturing and export, the minister added.  VNS
HA NOI  The US$1.75-billion Vinh Tan 1 thermal power project will begin operations ahead of its schedule owing to concerns about the risk of power shortage in the southern provinces in future.

This is the largest project in the country made with Chinese investment and involvement.

According to latest reports, the first unit of the project will begin commercial operations in July 2018, five months earlier than its schedule.

Phan Ngoc Cam Thanh, deputy director of Vinh Tan 1, told the National Steering Committee for Power Development that after 1,025 consecutive construction days, the project was 93 per cent complete.

We target to push forward the date for commercial operations, he said.

On April 18, the first unit of Vinh Tan 1 successfully connected to the national grid for the first time and met all standards during a test.

inh The Phuc, member of the National Steering Committee for Power Development and deputy director of the Electricity Regulatory Authority of Viet Nam under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said Vinh Tan 1 thermal power plant had a huge generation capacity and was expected to help increase energy supply in the country.

The 1,240MW project is the first thermal power plant in Viet Nam to apply the pulverised coal combustion technology. It will play an important role in supplying power to the countrys southern part as there have been delays in the operationalisation of the Song Hau 1 and Long Phu 1 thermal power plants.

These projects, in the Mekong River Delta provinces of Soc Trang and Hau Giang, respectively, are designed to produce an annual 1,200MW of power each, but they are many years behind schedule. Viet Nams State-run oil and gas group PetroVietnam invested in both the projects.

Vinh Tan 1 is expected to generate more than 7.2 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, increasing the southern regions electricity supply capacity and helping reduce its dependence on hydropower, especially in the dry season or during droughts.

The power demand in Viet Nam is expected to see a remarkable increase of more than 10 per cent per annum in the coming years due to rising population and economic growth. Southern Viet Nam in particular, the countrys largest economic bloc, which includes HCM City, faces a critical situation in relation to the current imbalance between the existing supply and the increasing demand for electricity. This calls for urgent development of power generation infrastructure in the region.

In his recent tour to the southern provinces, Deputy Prime Minister Trinh inh Dung underlined that accelerating the pace of constructing power plants, especially in the south, as well as upgrading transmission projects would remain a prime task for years to come.  VNS
PHU THO  A constant stream of vehicles have been flowing to Nghia Linh Mountain in Phu Tho Province to commemorate the Hung Kings and the early ancestors of the Vietnamese people.

Parking lots surrounding the area are practically full as people of all ages and regions arrive to pay tribute to their ancestors.

Stages have been constructed on one main road leading to the mountain, where musicians and artists are performing, bringing a festive atmosphere to the area.

The stream of people continue from the parking lots up the mountain, where they pass en Ha (Low Temple), en Trung (Middle Temple) and en Thuong (Upper Temple), as well as the Hung King Mausoleum and en Gieng (Well Temple).

Towards the top of the mountain the journey becomes more challenging, as the crowds congratulate at the temples, although nobody is in a rush, and delight seems to be the overwhelming emotion displayed.

I visit the site every year on this occasion, said Mai Trung Tinh, from Ha Noi, I see that this year the organisers have done a better job. Security guards stand along the staircases to support old people and children, and remind people to mind their steps.

Pilgrimage: A non-strop stream of people flock to Nghia Linh Mountain to celebrate. VNS Photo Tran Mai Huong

Each temple at the Hung Temples Complex has its own story from the early period of Vietnamese history.

Legend has it that the Lower Temple was where Mother Au Co  who in folk tales the Vietnamese people are said to have descended from  gave birth to 100 eggs, which then hatched into 50 boys and 50 girls, the first of the Vietnamese people.

Inside the temple is a large stele with an engraving of a sentence spoke by president Ho Chi Minh, it reads: The Hung Kings established the country. You and I together should protect the country.

The Middle Temple is said to be where the Hung Kings and their generals discussed national issues, and watched over the surrounding landscapes. The Upper Temple on the peak of the mountain is referenced in folk tales to be where holy ceremonies were held, wishing for good weather and bumper harvests.

The Hung King Mausoleum in the east of the Upper Temple is believed to contain the tomb of the 6th Hung King.

The Well Temple contains the remnants of an ancient well, which is said to be the mirror that the princesses Tien Dung and Ngoc Hoa used when combing their hair and doing their make up.

The local authorities of Phu Tho have prepared extensively for the Hung King memorial event with both spiritual and festive ceremonies. The event this year is jointly organised by the provinces of Binh Duong, Kien Giang, Thai Nguyen and Quang Nam. It runs from April 21 utill April 25 (the 6th to 10th of the third lunar year).

Affection: People from all around the country pay tribute to the Hung Kings with deep gratitude. VNS Photo Tran Mai Huong

A street festival was held on 21st April, gathering thousands of locals.

Nguyen Van Van, deputy chairman of Viet Tri City Peoples Committee, said the street festival this year was widely supported by locals in both human and financial capactities.

Each of 23 communes, wards and towns in Viet Tri City contributed a performance with a different theme. Nine folk art troupes from nine districts in Phu Tho Province also joined in the show.

We performed an ancient dance called Lap Tinh, a ritual from the Mature Ceremony of the Dao ethnic group, said Ly Van Thu of Kim Thuong Commune, Tan Son District, We were all very happy and proud to be there.

As well as the festivities, a book fair and photo exhibition are also being held in the centre of Viet Tri City.

The book fair consists of 16 stalls by 13 publishing companies. As many as 15,000 titles are available to buy at the fair, alongside discussions between students and authors.

As many as 100 photos of Phu Tho and the local people in the area are on displayed at the event.

On the morning of April 23, a palanquin and offering procession was organised by seven communes and wards surrounding the Hung King Temple Complex.

The palanquin procession featured hundreds of folk dancers and musicians, performing traditional music and dance. Offerings of flowers and cakes were made during the procession, followed by a cake making contest.

Mirror, mirror: The ancient well said to have been used by princesses to do their make up. VNS Photo Tran Mai Huong

The contest involved 14 teams, who each had 10 minutes to make cakes out of a limited amount of sticky rice.

Teams from Ha Noi and Cam Khe District of Phu Tho Province won the contest. They will have the honour to offer their cakes on the official commemorate ceremony next year.

Vietnamese legend has it that Lac Long Quan, the son of King Duong Vuong, married Au Co, the daughter of the King e Lai. Au Co then gave birth to a sack containing 100 eggs, from which 100 children were born.

The couple then decided to separate in order to populate the land. Half of the children followed their mother to the highlands, while the rest went with their father to the sea.

The first child went with his mother Au Co to Phong Chau, now Phu Tho Province. He then became King Hung and founded Van Lang - the first recorded nation in the history of Viet Nam.

Ruling the country for 18 generations, the Hung Kings taught the people how to grow wet rice. They chose Nghia Linh Mountain, the highest in the region, to perform rituals devoted to rice and sun deities to pray for lush crops.

The worshipping rituals of the Hung Kings was recognised as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2012.  VNS
Vice President ang Thi Ngoc Thinh meeting with Vice Chancellor Martin Bean and other leaders of RMIT University in Melbourne yesterday. VNA/VNS Photo Quang Hai

MELBOURNE  Vice President ang Thi Ngoc Thinh called on Australias Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT University) to expand its links with educational institutions in Viet Nam to share experiences, cooperate on scientific research and boost student exchanges.

She made the appeal at a meeting with Vice Chancellor Martin Bean and other leaders of RMIT University in Melbourne yesterday as part of her trip to Australia to attend the 28th Global Summit of Women (GSW).

According to Thinh, Viet Nam always appreciates Australias educational achievements and stands ready to create the best possible conditions for Australian educational institutions, including RMIT University, to step up cooperation with Viet Nam.

Thinh stressed that education is one of the important cooperation pillars between Viet Nam and Australia, adding that about 30,000 Vietnamese students are studying in Australia and more than 1,000 Australian students have come to Viet Nam since 2014 under the New Colombo Plan.

On this occasion, the official spoke with nearly 1,000 Vietnamese students at the university.

She said the establishment of the Viet Nam-Australia strategic partnership had set the stage for the two countries to step up their collaboration across fields, including education.

The Vice President asked the students to study hard to contribute to the homeland after graduation.

She also lauded Vietnamese students in the state of Victoria for their activities aiming to preserve Vietnamese traditions, expressing her hope that Vietnamese students at RMIT University in particular and Victoria in general will become ambassadors of the Viet Nam-Australia friendship.

As the third-oldest university in Victoria, RMIT University ranks 13th among the top universities of Australia. It has opened two branches in Ha Noi and HCM City.

Vice President Thinh yesterday morning visited the high-tech tomato farm of a Vietnamese investor named Thai Ngoc Nha, who was urged to share his tips for success with Vietnamese businesses.

She also attended the opening ceremony of the Club of Vietnamese Women Entrepreneurs in Australia on the same day.  VNS
Vice Chairman of the National Assembly o Ba Ty yesterday received a delegation of the Ukraine-Viet Nam Friendship Parliamentarians Group led by its chairwoman Yurynets Oksana Vasylivna. Photo daibieunhandan.vn

HA NOI  Vice Chairman of the National Assembly o Ba Ty yesterday received a delegation of the Ukraine-Viet Nam Friendship Parliamentarians Group led by its chairwoman Yurynets Oksana Vasylivna.

Ty affirmed Viet Nam always attached importance to strengthening and developing friendship and multi-faceted cooperation with long-time partners, including Ukraine .

He praised the close coordination and mutual support between the two countries at recent international organisations and forums, including Ukraine s commitment to supporting Viet Nam s candidacy for a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) during the 2020-21 tenure.

He asked the parliaments and parliamentarians of both countries to maintain and increase coordination and support each other at multilateral inter-parliamentary forums in which Viet Nam and Ukraine are members.

Ty proposed the Ukrainian parliament and concerned agencies continue creating favourable conditions for the Vietnamese community in Ukraine to live, study and work.

Chairwoman Vasylivna expressed her wish that both countries parliamentarians will promote their role as representatives of regions and localities to boost connectivity between Ukraine and Viet Nam in the field of economy, trade and investment.

Earlier, the Viet Nam-Ukraine Friendship Parliamentarians Group led by deputy head of the NA Finance - Budget Committee inh Van Nha held talks with their Ukrainian counterpart.

During the talks, both groups leaders expressed their joy at the thriving economic co-operation of the two countries, while affirming that contact between the two countries parliamentarians is a good opportunity for the two legislative bodies to exchange information, experience in making laws and supervising issues of shared concern.
Vietnamese and Cambodian agencies met in Phnom Penh yesterday to discuss the handling of legal residency procedures for Vietnamese Cambodians. VNA/VNS Illustrative Image

HA NOI  Vietnamese and Cambodian agencies met in Phnom Penh yesterday to discuss the handling of legal residency procedures for Vietnamese Cambodians.

The Vietnamese side included representatives from the Ministry of Public Security and the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs, while the Cambodian side consisted of officials from the General Department of Immigration and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation.

Both sides said historical factors have resulted in shortcomings in the licensing of legal documents to Vietnamese Cambodians, creating conflicts with Cambodia s current law.

The issue has caused difficulty for local authorities and hindered the community from carrying out their responsibilities to the country and protecting their legal rights.

Relevant Cambodian agencies have assessed the current conditions of local document licensing and management for over 170,000 Vietnamese Cambodians. About half of the group has completed their related legal procedures; many of them with adequate documents to prove their legal immigration have received permanent residency permits.

The Vietnamese side welcomed the Cambodian sides policy on tackling the issue for Vietnamese Cambodians, which facilitated them to settle their life and make contribution to the host country. The work not only helped Cambodia manage local security affairs more effectively but also reflected the countrys traditional relationship with Viet Nam .
Vice Chairwoman of the Vietnamese National Assembly Tong Thi Phong (L) meets with Chairwoman of the Lao National Assembly Pany Yathotou yesterday in Laos.  VNA/VNS Photo Pham Kien

VIENTIANE  Viet Nam persistently treasures and prioritises consolidating and enhancing the traditional friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation with Laos , said Vice Chairwoman of the Vietnamese National Assembly Tong Thi Phong.

The legislator made the statement at a meeting with Chairwoman of the Lao National Assembly Pany Yathotou yesterday as part of her official visit to Laos from April 23-25.

Viet Nam would do its utmost, together with the Party, State and people of Laos , to preserve and foster the special relationship, which is a valuable asset of the two nations, she said.

Pany Yathotou said Phongs visit would contribute to intensifying relations between the two countries in general and their legislative bodies in particular.

During their talks, Phong and the Vice Chairman of the Lao National Assembly Sengnuon Sayalat reviewed co-operation between the two legislatures in 2017 and discussed co-operation orientations in the time to come.

They exchanged operational experience from each legislative body, while seeking measures to boost coordination at multi-lateral inter-parliamentary forums in the region and the world as well.

The two sides agreed to continue exchanging high-ranking delegations, implementing reached agreements, joining hands in personnel training and sharing experience, especially in institution and law building, and law enforcement monitoring.  VNS
HA NOI  The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) yesterday declared that Chinas temporary ban of fishing activities in Viet Nams territorial waters is null and void.

The ministry made the statement in response to an announcement released by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture which says that the fishing ban will last from May 1 to August 16, 2018, covering Viet Nams East Sea, including the Gulf of Tonkin and Viet Nams territorial waters.

In a document issued on April 23, the ministry asked competent agencies to inform fishermen about Chinas fishing ban.

Coastal localities were also requested to encourage fishermen to maintain their normal fishing activities in Viet Nams waters and go sailing in groups in order to support each other at sea.

Of note, fishing boats licensed to go fishing in the shared fishing grounds in the Gulf of Tonkin in 2017-2018 should not operate in the eastern area of the demarcation line in the Gulf during the period of the Chinese fishing ban, the ministry said.

Peoples Committees of coastal cities and provinces were asked to instruct competent agencies to closely monitor the operation of fishing boats during the period, and promptly report incidents emerging at sea to the MARD.

Earlier, the Viet Nam Fisheries Society (VINAFIS) has voiced its protest against Chinas unilateral decision to ban fishing in the East Sea, saying that it has no validity.

The ban hampers fishing activities of Vietnamese fishermen and violates Viet Nams sovereignty over Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago and territorial waters in the Tonkin Gulf as well as its legitimate rights and interests.

The ban also infringes international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and related international legal documents, and runs counter to the spirit and wording of the Declaration on the Conduct of the Parties in the East Sea (DOC) signed between ASEAN and China in 2002.

Chinas unilateral action is not in line with the development trend of Viet Nam-China relations and is not beneficial to peace and stability in the region, the association said.

The VINAFIS urged Vietnamese authorities to take effective measures to stop Chinas action and increase patrols in the sea to protect fishermen and facilitate their fishing activities in Viet Nams territorial waters.  VNS
HCM CITY  Workers from outlying rural areas of HCM City have been taking agricultural courses at vocational training centres in the city as part of a plan issued in March to meet demand for more skilled workers, according to the citys Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The citys Peoples Committee said the project is expected to train 10,500 rural workers, including 2,556 agricultural trainees and 7,944 non-agricultural trainees.

The rate of employment after training is targeted to be 80 per cent or higher.

The committee, which has given financial support to four public vocational education institutions in new rural districts, said the total cost of vocational training for rural workers would be around VN38 billion (US$ 1.6 million).

Although 78 per cent of rural workers had received training in the past, only 7 per cent had reached an intermediate level, according to the citys Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.  VNS
HA TINH  A working group of environmental experts has discovered underground diesel leaks in wells located in Huong Trach Communes Tan Phuc Village in the central province of Ha Tinh.

Phan Quoc Lap, head of Huong Khe Districts Natural Resources and Environment Department in HaTinh Province, told zing.vn online newspaper .

The working group, set up on the order of Ha Tinh Province Peoples Committee Deputy Chairman ang Ngoc Son, was responsible for guiding, inspecting and supervising the treatment of oil-contaminated wells.

Lap said the group had dug four deep holes outside the wells which showed the presence of polluted diesel, considered a hazardous waste.

On April 19, the functional forces used a drilling machine to dig four 3-5m deep holes. We noticed a light-yellow liquid at the bottom of the holes, which emitted a strong smell of oil, he said. We took the liquid for further tests and found that it was combustible, he added.

On April 20, upon further investigation, the working group discovered an underground oil tank of Viet-Laos Vilaco Company (located in Huong Trach Commune). When it was dug up, the group found cracks in the tank.

We cannot confirm the cause of this phenomenon. However, if a company causes oil leakage, the relevant authorities will strictly handle the matter and claim damages to the affected people, Lap said.

On April 8, Nguyen Xuan Hai, a resident of Tan Phuc Village, noticed the smell of oil in his well. A day later, six other families in the village found their wells contaminated with oil. Two of them were severely polluted.

Hai said he and other families suspected the oil leakage to be caused by a plaster area of the Viet-Laos Vilaco Company. They had requested the local authorities to dig down to find the cause.

According to residents, the plaster area was first an oil-supply area, with each oil tank containing some 25,000 litres of oil.

In July 2017, an oil tank was damaged, resulting in an oil spill which destroyed rice and vegetables in the surrounding fields, said a villager.

The company, however, denied the oil leak and said the underground tank had been unoperational since October 2017. But according to o Khoa Van, director of the Ha Tinh Provinces Department of Science and Technology, inspectors had discovered cracks in some of the oil containers.

As the next step, Huong Khe District authorities will sign a contract with a local company that would use specialised equipment to absorb the diesel-polluted water in the contaminated wells. The water would be transported to a waste treatment plant, Lap said.  VNS
HA NOI  Thousands of mobile phone subscribers are rushing to service providers across the country to update their personal information.

Under the governments Decree No. 49/N-CP, issued on April 22, 2017, mobile connection can be blocked by service providers if customers fail to update their personal details before April 24.

Under the decree, all mobile phone subscriptions activated before April 24, 2017, have to be registered with accurate information of owners, including name, identification/passport number and a profile picture. If they fail to register, the service provider will block incoming calls after 15 days and stop providing services in the next 15 days.

The nearing of the deadline has caused a huge rush of customers to service providers overloading them, prompting the two giant telecommunications MobiFone and VinaPhone to delay the deadline until May 15.

A staff at a service station in Ha Nois Huynh Thuc Khang Street told Lao ong (Labour) newspaper the number of subscribers visiting the centre to add their personal information has rocketed in the past 10 days.

Especially on Saturday, the centres staff had to work until 9pm to serve the large number of subscribers, she said.

Nguyen Viet Chien, a resident of Dich Vong Hau, said he had to wait for two hours at a service station in Ha Nois Nguyen Phong Sac Street.

A staff of the station said, Its normal to wait for hours for your turn, because the number of subscribers we had to serve was too large, he added.

In the meantime, the ministry has blamed the last-minute chaos on service providers, saying they had sent notification letters to their subscribers too late.

They had one year to update their subscribers personal information since the decree was issued last April. But they only sent a notification to their subscribers in March, one month before the deadline, the ministry said.

In a related movement, on Monday afternoon, a representative the ministrys Telecommunication Department said not all subscribers would be locked after today, only subscribers, who ignored to comply with the update after they received the notice from the service providers.

In cases that subscribers have yet to receive the notice from the service providers, the service providers have no right to lock or suspend the provision of services to the subscribers.

Data from the ministry shows that only four million out of 38 million pre-paid subscribers in the country updated their personal information until the end of March.  VNS
NINH THUAN  Every year around this time, people in the south-central province of Ninh Thuan have the same worry: water.

Thousands of households have been facing a shortage of fresh water due to severe drought conditions, mostly in Ninh Hai, Ninh Son, Thuan Bac and Bac Ai districts.

Tran Van Tuan, head of the provincial Irrigation Department, said more than 2,300 households with 9,947 residents across the country would not have access to clean water for daily use if it does not rain in May.

According to the Agriculture and Rural Development Ministrys Irrigation General Department, the total volume of all reservoirs in the province is 125 million cubic metres, nearly 64 per cent of designed capacity.

But many small reservoirs have started to run out of water, such as Phuoc Trung, Phuoc Nhon, Bau Zon, Ta Ranh, Bau Ngu, Suoi Lon, Ong Kinh, CK7 and Ma Tra, Nong Nghiep (Agriculture) newspaper reported.

Remarkably, Ong Kinh, the main reservoir to supply water for the provinces high-value plants, such as grapes and apples, has dried out.

The local authorities informed the farmers living around the irrigation systems that they should stop planting summer-autumn crops this year in order to save water for daily activities and for their cattle.

I am very worried about this dry season. Peoples lives will be very difficult if the hot weather continues to last like this for two to three months, a local resident in Thuan Bac District told Viet Nam Television.

Not only adults, but also children at kindergartens also have to save water. In order to get a little water, teachers have to buy it from other places, said Nguyen Thi Tuyen, a teacher of Phuoc Khang Kindergarten.

The provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) said that the cause of the drying out of reservoirs and seasonal dams was that some districts did not coordinate cultivation of crops according to the recommended schedule, resulting in the area of cultivation exceeding the capacity of the water supply.

Another factor is that due to the large amount of rainfall in 2017, people have expanded cultivation in areas where water resources for irrigation are not available when drought happens, leading to a more severe water shortage.

Many families have had to abandon their crops to go to other regions to find jobs.

Some even accepted the high costs of drilling a well in dried-up reservoirs in an effort to find groundwater, but not everyone is lucky enough to succeed.

Ninh Thuan suffered from a historic drought in 2015. So far, 2018 seems to be a repeat of this scenario. More than 800 out of the provinces 3,000 sheep have been killed.

DARD said that localities with drought and water shortages were concentrating on regulating use and digging ponds and wells to pump water into dried-up cultivation areas.

However, the dry season in Ninh Thuan would last until September so the drought situation would become even more severe and complicated, DARD added.

The Water Resource Directorate advised provincial authorities to check specific situations to enact suitable measures to cope with disaster.

The province has stopped production on about 1,785ha of rice and vegetables around reservoirs which are nearly out of water. All remaining water will be kept for daily use and for livestock and about 840ha of rice will be converted into other crops.

The province has also focused on digging ponds and wells and dredging water supply systems to prioritise water for perennial plants and cattle.  VNS
TORONTO, Canada  The driver of the van that plowed into a crowd in Toronto did so in a "deliberate" act that killed at least 10 people and wounded 15 others Monday, police chief Mark Saunders said.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale wrote on Twitter that "there appears to be NO National Security connection to the horrible event" in Canadas biggest city.

Police identified the driver as Alex Minassian, 25, from the citys north.

Officers were called to the scene -- on Yonge Street at the corner with Finch Avenue -- at 1:27 pm (1727 GMT), police said, without specifying whether or not the incident was deliberate.

A white rental van with a dented front bumper was stopped on the sidewalk of a major intersection, surrounded by police vehicles.

"Our hearts go to anyone affected," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the House of Commons.

"We are going to have more to learn and more to say in the coming hours," he said.

Really fast

The incident occurred as Toronto was hosting a meeting of public security ministers from the G7 leading industrialised nations, and on the heels of a weekend gathering in the city for the foreign ministers from the same seven countries -- the United States, Japan, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Canada.

Vehicle attacks have been carried out to deadly effect by extremists in a number of capitals and major cities, including London, Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, New York, Nice and Barcelona.

Torontos police had not stated what they believe the drivers motives may have been in Mondays incident.

"He was going really fast," one witness, Alex Shaker, told CTV television.

"All I could see was just people one by one getting knocked out, knocked out, one by one," Shaker said. "There are so many people lying down on the streets."

And in Quebec in October 2014, a Canadian man ran over two soldiers in a parking lot with his car, killing one of them. The driver was shot dead by police when he attacked them with a knife.

And in March 2016, a Canadian who claimed to have radical Islamist sympathies attacked two soldiers at a military recruitment center in Toronto.  AFP
By West Kentucky Star Staff Apr. 23, 2018 | 06:25 PM | PADUCAH, KY

As of Monday, the daily afternoon arrival and departure at Barkley Airport will move to its earliest time in the history of United Express service at Barkley, allowing for earlier connections, and possibly even fewer cancellations.Over the last two months, the flight arrived in Paducah at 6:00 pm and departed for Chicago around 6:30 pm, as of today, the flight will arrive in Paducah around 2:08 pm, with the departure for Chicago set for 2:38 pm.We are very excited about these schedule changes, said Airport Marketing Director Eddie Grant. Before, you really couldnt get anywhere beyond Chicago until around midnight local time. But with this new schedule you can make earlier connections to almost anywhere, even if there is a delay.He added that new schedule could improve the airlines flight completion percentage, which for 2017 was 97 percent.Between weather related issues, and the fact that is the busiest period of the day for OHare, if flights were cancelled, chances are it was the afternoon, Grant said. Faced with storms or other traffic issues, United Airlines would often cancel the afternoon flight(s) instead of risk stranding a plane here, or there would be protracted delays.He added, Now that the plane will depart and return to OHare much earlier, we are optimistic that it can get from Chicago and back before the weather or traffic has any effect, leading to fewer flight cancellations.Grant said he has been told by United Airlines, that the flight will stay at this time forthe foreseeable future. He also said he doesnt anticipate any changes to the early morning departure and late evening arrival, anytime soon either.For more information, visit the website link below.

On the Net:
By WestKyStar Staff Apr. 14, 2018 | 08:22 AM | WASHINGTON DC

This is a historic day for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, as Leader McConnell has introduced a bipartisan bill to legalize hemp as an agricultural commodity, Kentucky Commissioner of Agriculture Ryan Quarles said. This is an incredible milestone for the Industrial Hemp Research Pilot Program weve built here in Kentucky.





The legislation is co-sponsored by Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, Democrats from Oregon.



























Kentucky US Senator Mitch McConnell introduced a bill on the Senate floor Thursday which would remove hemp from the list of controlled substances and open the door for farmers to sell and grow it as an agricultural product.McConnell said Kentucky farmers are optimistic about the legislation concerning the plant which is closely related to marijuana.
Waffle House Shooting Suspect Arrested

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By The Associated Press

Apr. 22, 2018 | NASHVILLE, TN

By The Associated Press Apr. 22, 2018 | 01:16 PM | NASHVILLE, TN

Authorities say the suspect in a quadruple homicide at a Waffle House in Nashville has been arrested.



Metropolitan Nashville Police announced Monday on Twitter that 29-year-old Travis Reinking was taken into custody not far from his apartment. Photos posted by police in Nashville showed him clothed and in a police car.



Police and agents with the FBI, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and troopers with the Tennessee Highway Patrol had mounted a massive manhunt following the slayings early Sunday.



Metropolitan Nashville Police Department Lt. Carlos Lara said at a news conference Monday that Reinking had a loaded semi-automatic gun, .45-caliber ammunition, a flashlight and a holster in a backpack.



Lara says construction workers told officers a person matching the suspect's description walked through the area and into woods. He says that when confronted, the suspect lay down on the ground and officers cuffed him.



Police say Reinking was nearly naked and brandishing an assault-style rifle when he opened fire in the parking lot and then stormed the restaurant. Four people killed, four others were injured.



Meanwhile, a federal official says Reinking's father could face charges for returning guns that were taken from him after an incident last year at the White House.



Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Special Agent Marcus Watson said at a news conference Monday that Jeffrey Reinking's act of returning the guns to his son is "potentially a violation of federal law."



Reinking's right to own guns was revoked by Illinois authorities after he was charged with "unlawful entry" at the White House last July. He was demanding a meeting with President Donald Trump.



Illinois authorities returned the guns to Reinking's father, who lives in Illinois. Authorities say the younger Reinking moved to Nashville last fall.







Original Story (Sunday, 1:16 pm):

A man wearing nothing but a green jacket and brandishing an assault rifle stormed a Waffle House restaurant in Tennessee and shot four people to death before dawn Sunday, according to police, who credited a customer with saving lives by wresting the gunmans weapon away.



The gunman shot people in the parking lot before entering the restaurant, where he continued firing until a customer snatched the rifle, Nashville Police spokesman Don Aaron said. Four people were injured.



The police department tweeted that authorities are searching for 29-year-old Travis Reinking. Police named him as a person of interest because the pickup truck the gunman drove to the restaurant was registered to Reinking.



Witness Chuck Cordero told The Tennessean newspaper he had stopped to get a cup of coffee and was outside the restaurant when he saw the chaos unfold around 3:25 a.m.



He did not say anything, Cordero said of the gunman, who he described as all business.



Cordero said the man who wrested the gun from the suspect saved lives. Had that guy had a chance to reload his weapon, there was plenty more people in that restaurant, he said.



Police identified the customer as 29-year-old James Shaw, Jr.



Shaw told the Tennessean in an interview that he was just trying to get myself out. I saw the opportunity and pretty much took it.



The newspaper said Shaw was grazed by a bullet, treated and released.



When I was in the ambulance to hospital I kept thinking that Im going to wake up and its not going to be real, Shaw said. It is something out a movie. Im OK though, but I hate that it happened.



Police spokesman Aaron said three people died at the restaurant and one person died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where two others were being treated for gunshot wounds. Medical Center spokeswoman Jennifer Wetzel said one was in critical condition and the other was in critical but stable condition.



TriStar Southern Hills Medical Center spokeswoman Katie Radel in Nashville said two people were treated for minor injuries and released.



Aaron said the gunman arrived at the restaurant, sat in the parking lot for four minutes before shooting two people outside, then entering.



Inside, Shaw grabbed the rifle from the suspect and tossed it over a counter, Aaron said. After that, the gunman fled.



No doubt he saved many lives, Aaron said of the customer, who he described as a hero.



After fleeing, the suspect shed his jacket. Aaron said he lived at an apartment complex in the working- and middle-class area of southeast Nashville and, based on witness reports, went there and put on a pair of pants.



Aaron said witnesses saw a man in a nearby wooded area, and police were still tracking the man more than eight hours after the shooting.



Police said Reinking, the person of interest to whom the truck the gunman drove was registered, was from Morton, Illinois. Later on Sunday, Metro Nashville police tweeted that they were drafting murder warrants against him.



Aaron said Reinking was known to both Illinois and federal law enforcement.



The victims names werent immediately released.



This is a very sad day for the Waffle House family, the company said in a statement on Twitter. We ask for everyone to keep the victims and their families in their thoughts and prayers.



Nashville Mayor David Briley said the shooting represents a tragic day for the city.



My heart goes out to the families & friends of every person who was killed or wounded in this mornings shooting. I know all of their lives will be forever changed by this devastating crime, Briley said in an emailed statement.



U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, whose district includes Nashville, said in an emailed statement that the shooting shows the need for tighter restrictions on widespread civilian access to military-grade assault weapons.



Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam said he and his wife, Crissy, are deeply saddened by the tragic incident in Antioch early this morning, and we mourn the lives taken in this senseless act of violence.
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Yes, you can transfer your domain to any registrar or hosting company once you have purchased it. Since domain transfers are a manual process, it can take up to 5 days to transfer the domain.

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Macron: Europe must prioritise emission reductions

24 April 2018

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The European Union must ensure it retains sovereignty over energy and climate, French President Emmanuel Macron told the European Parliament last week. Reducing emissions must remain a priority for Europe, and replacing phased-out nuclear plants with coal would not achieve this, he warned.

Emmanuel Macron debates the future of Europe with MEPs on 17 April (Image: European Union 2018 - European Parliament)

In an introductory address to a debate on the future of Europe, Macron said Europe was distinguished from other powers by its "common commitment" to issues including the protection of the environment, climate and health. The USA, he said, was "facing the temptation" of disengaging and rejecting multilateralism, climate and free trade issues. He called on Europe to defend its commitment.

Macron said climate and energy sovereignty is indispensable to the EU, and called for the bloc to reopen the debate on increasing European contributions under the Paris climate change agreement. France would push for a minimum price and a border tax for CO2, he said.

France currently obtains about 75% of its energy from nuclear, but the French government in 2015 established an energy transition law which set a target of reducing the share of nuclear in the power mix to 50% by 2025. During the debate which followed his address to the Parliament, Macron said French reductions in the share of nuclear power must be at a pace which allows the country to retain energy sovereignty.

"Nuclear  does not emit CO2," he acknowledged. "If the closure of power plants leads to the reopening of coal plants, which was the case in Germany unfortunately, you degrade your CO2 balance, which is exactly contrary to the Paris agreements, and if the acceleration of this pace  leads to increasing dependence on [some] non-European sovereign power, especially Russia, to import energy, is not a good decision. I therefore fully assume to have an energy strategy that has a top priority: reduce emissions," he said.

EU at a crossroads



Nuclear energy currently provides 27% of the EU's electricity generation and 50% of its low-carbon electricity, but the European nuclear energy sector faces several challenges, Yves Desbazeille, director general of European nuclear trade body Foratom, said last week at the World Nuclear Fuel Cycle (WNFC) conference in Madrid.

Desbazeille identified several key challenges at the EU level. EU goals on energy and climate remain ambiguous, with goals for both carbon and renewables. This has meant that that specific targets in the European Commission's Clean Energy Package tabled in 2016 to set out a post-2020 regulatory framework - including the role of nuclear - cannot be set. Individual states have the freedom to decide their own energy mix, but some countries such as Austria and Luxembourg have made legal filings against the use of nuclear power by other countries. The UK - a major advocate of nuclear power - has decided to leave the EU.

Desbazeille said the position of France left a "big question mark", but said Macron's speech had been a "positive signal". Macron, he said, had "made it very clear that the German Energiewende [the policy of closing all of its nuclear power plants by 2022 and aiming to replace them with renewables] was totally missing the point."

Nuclear energy contributes to all the European Energy Union's key energy objectives of environmental sustainability, competitiveness and security of supply, Desbazeille said. The EU currently imports 54% of all its energy, and has an external energy bill of EUR1 billion per day. Six member states rely on Russia to supply all their gas, while Russia and Norway are responsible for 50% of the EU's gas supply and 40% of its oil. On the other hand, the cost of uranium imported into the EU is EUR2 billion per year, from a range of suppliers around the world, and the cost of nuclear power is less vulnerable to fluctuations in uranium prices. Aggregate stocks of uranium held in the bloc would be enough to fuel the EU's reactors for about three years.

"The EU is now at a crossroads and must make long-term decisions," Desbazeille said. "Will it rely only on renewable solutions and take the risk of blackouts or will it take the smart route, where renewables and nuclear each can play their role?" he asked.

Nuclear voice



France is a symbol and proof of concept for a high nuclear share following policy decisions taken in the 1940s and 1950s, Myrto Tripathi, president of Voices of Nuclear, told the WNFC. The stability and load-following capability of the country's generation sector has increasingly seen it acting as a central stabiliser of the European grid.

However, French plans to reduce nuclear's share mean that - along with some other European nuclear generating countries such as Sweden and Switzerland - it is at risk of passing legislation that is adverse to nuclear, she said.

Germany's Energiewende is being held up as a "proof of concept" for decarbonising without nuclear, but studies have found that seven years and EUR25 billion after the decision to pursue this policy the only objective that has been met is an increase in Germany's share of renewables. Germany is increasingly basing its grid stability on the capability of its neighbours, she said.

The French government's decision to close the Fessenheim nuclear power plant when the Flamanville 3 EPR begins operations is for purely ideological reasons, Tripathi said. She highlighted several other issues that could also affect the future of France's nuclear programme, including public perceptions of nuclear and the "increasing appropriation" by policymakers of "myths" including the "impossible dream" of 100% renewables.

"The need for nuclear has never been so great - nor has opposition to it," she said.

Voices of Nuclear is an NGO which aims to provide nuclear employees a channel to express their support for and pride in their industry.

Researched and written by World Nuclear News

Related topics
French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, arrived in the US today, marking the first state visit of Trump's presidency.





The couple joined President Trump and first lady Melania Trump at the White House, where they planted a European sessile oak tree on the South Lawn. They later boarded a helicopter

, the riverfront estate of George Washington, for a private dinner.




Simina Mistreanu in Foreign Policy:

Rongcheng was built for the future. Its broad streets and suburban communities were constructed with an eye to future expansion, as the city sprawls on the eastern tip of Chinas Shandong province overlooking the Yellow Sea. Colorful billboards depicting swans bank on the birds  one of the citys tourist attractions  returning there every winter to escape the Siberian cold.

In an attempt to ease bureaucracy, the city hall, a glass building that resembles a flying saucer, has been fashioned as a one-stop shop for most permits. Instead of driving from one office to another to get their paperwork in order, residents simply cross the gleaming corridors to talk to officials seated at desks in the open-space area.

At one of these stations, Rongcheng residents can pick up their social credit score.

In what it calls an attempt to promote trustworthiness in its economy and society, China is experimenting with a social credit system that mixes familiar Western-style credit scores with more expansive  and intrusive  measures. It includes everything from rankings calculated by online payment providers to scores doled out by neighborhoods or companies. High-flyers receive perks such as discounts on heating bills and favorable bank loans, while bad debtors cannot buy high-speed train or plane tickets.

By 2020, the government has promised to roll out a national social credit system. According to the systems founding document, released by the State Council in 2014, the scheme should allow the trustworthy to roam everywhere under heaven while making it hard for the discredited to take a single step. But at a time when the Chinese Communist Party is aggressively advancing its presence across town hall offices and company boardrooms, this move has sparked fears that it is another step in the tightening of Chinas already scant freedoms.

But it has been hard to distinguish future promises  or threats  from the realities of how social credit is being implemented. Rongcheng is one place where that future is visible.

More here.
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Orbis Research (orbisresearch.com) is a single point aid for all your market research requirements. We have vast database of reports from the Nickel Powdering publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customized reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialization. This helps our clients to map their needs and we produce the perfect required market research study for our clients.

Media Contact

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Contact Person: Hector Costello, Senior Manager  Client Engagements

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Website: http://orbisresearch.com/reports/index/the-future-of-ghana-oil-and-gas-markets-to-2025
South Korea Cyber Security Industry and South Korea Defense Market 2025

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New market trends continue to emerge in South Korea Cyber Security, in particular, driven by improving economic conditions. Foray of new companies coupled with technological advancements continue to shape new market dynamics.

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About Us

Orbis Research (orbisresearch.com) is a single point aid for all your market research requirements. We have vast database of reports from the Nickel Powdering publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customized reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialization. This helps our clients to map their needs and we produce the perfect required market research study for our clients.

Media Contact

Company Name: Orbis Research

Contact Person: Hector Costello, Senior Manager  Client Engagements

Email: Send Email

Phone: +1 (214) 884-6817, +9164101019

Address:4144N Central Expressway, Suite 600

City: Dallas

State: TX 75204

Country: United States

Website: http://orbisresearch.com/reports/index/the-future-of-south-korea-cyber-security-markets-to-2025


Appointment of Chief Operating Officer

Brisbane, April 24, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Brisbane-based conventional gas developer State Gas Limited ( ASX:GAS ) is pleased to advise it has appointed Mr James Crowley as Chief Operating Officer.A significant milestone in building the capacity of the Company, Mr Crowley's appointment will help drive progress in the appraisal and development of the Company's Reid's Dome - Cattle Creek conventional gas project (PL-231) southwest of Rolleston in the Bowen Basin in Central Queensland.Within this new strategic role at State Gas, Mr Crowley will also facilitate consideration and assessment of new projects, as the Company looks to expand its portfolio.Currently Gas Operations Manager and Head of Subsurface at energy major AGL Energy Ltd, Mr Crowley holds a Bachelor of Science (Hons) and brings global expertise in petroleum exploration, appraisal, development and production. With a petroleum career spanning 34 years in Australia, Egypt, New Zealand and the North Sea, James has held senior executive roles for Senex Ltd, Origin Energy Ltd, and Apache Corporation as well as AGL.Mr Crowley has a proven track record adding production and reserves via management of petroleum projects from initial exploration, appraisal, development, through to brown-fields redevelopment. He has particular expertise in conventional oil and gas, which includes project definition, capital planning and resource allocation, as well as joint venture management, government relations and investor liaison.State Gas Chairman, Tony Bellas, said that the appointment of James Crowley was a very significant development for the Company and will provide in house capability to oversee the Company's Reid's Dome and Cattle Creek Project as well as facilitate building a strong exploration and production portfolio."James expertise, together with CEO Lucy Snelling's commercial and leadership acumen and the Board's existing skill set puts State Gas in a strong position to deliver on our plans for the PL-231 project and future opportunities," Mr Bellas said.The appointment will take effect on expiration of Mr Crowley's notice period for his current employment.About State Gas Limited

State Gas Limited (ASX:GAS) is a Queensland-based developer of the Reid's Dome gas field, originally discovered during drilling in 1955, located in the Bowen Basin in Central Queensland. State Gas is 100%-owner of the Reid's Dome Gas Project (PL-231) a CSG and conventional gas play, which is well-located 30 kilometres southwest of Rolleston, approximately 50 kilometres from the Queensland Gas Pipeline and interconnected east coast gas network.

Permian coal measures within the Reid's Dome Beds are extensive across the entire permit but the area had not been explored for coal seam gas prior to State Gas' ownership. In late 2018 State Gas drilled the first coal seam gas well in the region (Nyanda-4) into the Reid's Dome Beds and established the potential for a significant coal seam gas project in PL 231. The extension of the coal measures into the northern and central areas of the permit was confirmed in late 2019 by the Company's drilling of Aldinga East-1A (12 km north) and Serocold-1 (6 km to the north of Nyanda-4).

State Gas is also the 100% holder Authority to Prospect 2062 ("Rolleston-West"), a 1,414 km2 permit (eight times larger than PL 231) that is contiguous with the Reid's Dome Gas Project. Rolleston-West contains highly prospective targets for both coal seam gas (CSG) and known conventional gas within the permit area. It is not restricted by domestic gas reservation requirements.

The contiguous areas (Reid's Dome and Rolleston-West), under sole ownership by State Gas, enable integration of activities and a unified super-gasfield development, providing economies of scale, efficient operations, and optionality in marketing.

State Gas is implementing its strategic plan to bring gas to market from Reid's Dome and Rolleston-West to meet near term forecast shortfalls in the east coast domestic gas market. The strategy involves progressing a phased appraisal program in parallel with permitting for an export pipeline and development facilities to facilitate the fastest possible delivery of gas to market. State Gas' current focus has been to confirm the producibility of the gas through production testing of the wells.
Matthew Caruana Galizia remembers the day his mother died with startling accuracy: their last shared meal, a small lunch, the jangling of her keys as she locked the heavy front door behind her, and the way the dogs barked after hearing her car explode just down the road from their family home.

"It was like being in a war zone," he told CNN's Christiane Amanpour in an interview that aired Monday. "I followed the smoke and that's when I saw this big ball of fire. That was the car, completely engulfed in flames, you couldn't even see the body."

Maltese Journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed as she left her house six months ago, in October 2017, when a bomb affixed to her car was detonated. In her last blog post, published the day she died, she wrote: "There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate."

Just after Caruana Galizia's killing, Malta's Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told Amanpour there would be "no impunity" in the search for the those behind the slaying.

Three men have since been arraigned for detonating the car bomb and are awaiting trial, but Caruana Galizia's sons, Matthew and Paul, told Amanpour that six months later their family is still searching for the masterminds behind their mother's death.

Paul Caruana Galizia called them "just three common criminals" who were unknown to their mother.

"They're literally the people who placed the bomb. Of course what we're interested in is the people who had motive to kill her, the people who our mother investigated."

"It's hard to see this coming from anywhere outside Malta's political system," Paul Caruana Galizia said.

Responding to these comments, Malta's Prime Minister condemned the assassination and told CNN "no Prime Minister would want a journalist to be murdered under any circumstances," and that an investigation is ongoing.

"In the course of her work she made many enemies, whether in organized crime, business, government or among the general public," Muscat said in the statement. "Allegations of organized threats or harassment against Daphne Caruana Galizia or her family are wholly false. My family and I were at the center of Daphne Caruana Galizia's politically motivated attacks, but we did not respond to her provocations."

The family left Malta just after their mother's funeral, fearing for their own security.

"The authorities simply aren't a credible deterrent to crime anymore," Paul Caruana Galizia said. "They couldn't stop this happening to our mother, in fact they were some of her chief harassers. So, I mean the question is how can we feel safe?"

Muscat's government now faces pressure not just from Caruana Galizia's family but also the European Union, where politicians are demanding Maltese police aggressively pursue people who would have wanted to silence the journalist.

Caruana Galizia's reporting exposed corruption in the highest reaches of Malta's society and politics. With her death, many of those ongoing investigations were left unfinished.

Eighteen media organizations across 15 countries have joined to finish her reporting in "The Daphne Project." Reuters, Le Monde, and The New York Times are all taking part. The effort has been coordinated by the Paris-based nonprofit Forbidden Stories, an organization that aims to finish the work left behind by slain, imprisoned, or otherwise incapacitated journalists.

Caruana Galizia's family hope The Daphne Project can preserve her legacy and change the perception of her within their country.

"They had an image of her as a witch, someone who was subhuman or nonhuman, they were made to hate her," Matthew Caruana Galizia told Amanpour.

"So, now that they're seeing a human being they just don't know what to do. I think The Daphne Project has succeeded in that objective at least, and also because the journalists are taking up her investigations, that feels like a taste of justice."
The 5th Annual Nor Cal Jazz Festival returns this week with a performance by Master Pianist Grant Levin, playing the Chico Women's Club newly restored Steinway Piano. Accompanying Levin will be local Master Musicians Greg D'Augelli on bass, flute and sax and lew Langworthy on drums.

The performance on Friday April 27th takes place at the Women's Club, 592 East 3rd Street. It's part of the Ebony and Ivory series, a benefit to help the club finish paying for the Steinway renovation. The show starts at 6:30 p.m. doors open at 6 p.m. There will be free hors d'oeuvres served, with beer and wine available for sale. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door. They are available at Chico Paper Company or online here.

At 7 p.m. on Thursday May 3rd Accordianis Rob Reich and Clarinetist Ben Goldberg, both of San Francisco, will perform original, Parisian inspired music in a benefit for the Museum of Northern California Art (MONCA) . The performance will take place inside the museum, which is located at 900 the Esplanade in Chico. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. for premium ticket holders and at 7 p.m. for general and student ticket holders.

Only 56 seated tickets will be sold and the concert is expected to be a sell out. Tickets are $25 premium, $20 general admission and $5 for students. Tickets are available here.

The Festival will wrap up with a concert on Saturday, July 28th at the beautiful Lee Fong Park in Weaverville. The line-up of musicians has yet to be announced. Doors open at 4 p.m., the show will start at 4:30 p.m. The park is located at 100 Bremer Street in Weaverville.

The Festival is brought to you as part of the "True North Tour", a collaboration between arts councils in Butte, Tehama, Glenn, Shasta, Trinity and Modoc Counties. Click here for a link to the Nor Cal Jazz Festival website.
The Shasta County Sheriff's Office is looking for the individual or individuals responsible for the theft of thousands of dollars in firefighting equipment from the French Gulch fire station.

Cal Fire public information officer Cheryl Buliavac says one or more thieves stole around $40,000 of life-saving equipment from the French Gulch fire station.

Often times in rural areas, volunteer fire companies are the first units at scene, Buliavac said. So it has a tremendous impact to have that many dollars in firefighting tools and equipment stolen.

And for the small community of French Gulch, it's a big loss.

Without them, the people wouldn't be too secure in their homes, resident Robert Stoughton said. Because by the time Cal Fire came up, you know, what a half hour drive, the house would be gone by then probably.

Stoughton lives right across the street from the fire station and was disappointed to learn the news.

So that's really sad, that in a small community that they would do that, he said.

According to a Facebook post from one volunteer, the incident occurred sometime between early morning Friday and early morning Saturday.

Some of the equipment stolen includes a brand new red Honda generator with light attached, jaws of life equipment, three Toshiba computers, a defibrillator and many more tools.

Many of those tools are essential in helping save lives when it comes to collisions.

If there's a wreck or something, they don't just do fire, Stoughton said. They do rescue and things like that.

But this isn't the first time thieves have targeted small town fire companies.

Last month, Cal Fire law enforcement officers arrested five in connection with a burglary in both the Shasta Trinity unit and the Tehama Glenn unit fire stations, Buliavac said.

She said many of the items stolen from those fire stations we recovered.

So we're very hopeful that will be the same outcome, Buliavac said.

Sheriff's investigators are asking anyone with information to reach out to them.

They also ask the public to be on the lookout for fire equipment for sale on marketplace sites like Craigslist, LetGo, and Facebook.

Related: Arrests Made in Connection to Cal Fire Station Burglary
TPR sought details of the companys finances in order to understand the funding position of some of the brewerys pension schemes.

The company failed to comply with a notice issued under section 72 of the Pensions Act 2004 on 12 January 2018, requiring the information and documents to be provided by 26 January 2018.

The company and Humphrey Smith have been summonsed to appear at Brighton Magistrates Court on Tuesday, 15 May 2018. They will each face a charge of neglecting or refusing to provide information and documents, without a reasonable excuse, when required to do so under section 72 of the Pensions Act 2004, contrary to section 77(1) of that Act. Humphrey Smith is charged on the basis that the offence by the company was committed with his consent or connivance or by his neglect.
The survey of 140 pensions professionals, including trustees, pensions managers and finance staff with pensions responsibilities, took place on a recent Aon webinar focused on the DWP White Paper and TPR annual funding statement. Lynda Whitney, partner at Aon, said: The responses to the survey on our webinar gave a clear indication that the pensions industry hopes that changes proposed in the White Paper will provide better protection to schemes in the medium- and long-term. Even so, many of the powers can only come into force with legislation, so it will take up to three years to get to this position. Funding Code

Supporting this overall view, 44% of respondents said that they wanted the new Funding Code to be either a bit or a lot more prescriptive, whereas only 14% wanted it be a bit less or a lot less prescriptive. Lynda Whitney, said: We expect to see a consultation on a new Funding Code from TPR in 2018. However, only 7% of respondents said they wanted a revised Funding Code to be a lot more prescriptive, indicating a conclusive rejection of a Minimum Funding Requirement II. I believe that trustees are looking for a little more prescription along with clearer guidelines, ranges and examples - but still retaining the ability to reflect scheme and company specific circumstances. They want more certainty about when they will get support from TPR if they reject an employers funding proposal. Annual Funding Statement

In the short-term, respondents said that they believed that this years Annual Funding Statement by TPR would not have significant impact. The majority (57%) of respondents said that the pension schemes share  compared to other stakeholders  would remain unchanged. 42% were hopeful that a pension scheme could get a larger share in a 2018 valuation, but 41% thought they would only get a slightly larger share. Lynda Whitney said: Although there is hope in the longer term that the DWP White Paper will provide a significant shift for DB pension scheme security, there is still some scepticism about this years Annual Funding Statement and the suspicion that it will only offer slight improvements
'The days when health officials could issue advice, based on the very best medical and scientific data, and expect populations to comply, may be fading.' Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General, Report to the 126th Executive Board, 2010.

Age of Autism publishes the abstract of the recent paper by Oller et al reviewing the evidence that the WHO spiked tetanus vaccines in Kenya with a birth control drug it developed, HCG. Predictably the controversy was laid at the door of "anti-vaxxers" but it is apparent that this has nothing to do with original context: the Catholic church is not "anti-vaccine" and it seems highly implausible that the testing laboratory signed its own death warrant by detecting something which was not there. The problem would seem to lie with the untrustworthy behavior of the World Health Organization, its not so hidden agendas, the Gates Foundation and the Kenyan government.

HCG Found in WHO Tetanus Vaccine in Kenya Raises Concern in the Developing World

John W. Oller, Christopher A Shaw, Lucija Tomljenovic, Stephen K. Karanja, Wahome Ngare, Felicia M. Clement, Jamie Ryan Pillette

ABSTRACT

In 1993, WHO announced a birth-control vaccine for family planning. Published research shows that by 1976 WHO researchers had conjugated tetanus toxoid (TT) with human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) producing a birth-control vaccine. Conjugating TT with hCG causes pregnancy hormones to be attacked by the immune system. Expected results are abortions in females already pregnant and/or infertility in recipients not yet impregnated. Repeated inoculations prolong infertility. Currently WHO researchers are working on more potent anti-fertility vaccines using recombinant DNA. WHO publications show a long-range purpose to reduce population growth in unstable less developed countries. By November 1993 Catholic publications appeared saying an abortifacient vaccine was being used as a tetanus prophylactic. In November 2014, the Catholic Church asserted that such a program was underway in Kenya. Three independent Nairobi accredited biochemistry laboratories tested samples from vials of the WHO tetanus vaccine being used in March 2014 and found hCG where none should be present. In October 2014, 6 additional vials were obtained by Catholic doctors and were tested in 6 accredited laboratories. Again, hCG was found in half the samples. Subsequently, Nairobis AgriQ Quest laboratory, in two sets of analyses, again found hCG in the same vaccine vials that tested positive earlier but found no hCG in 52 samples alleged by the WHO to be vials of the vaccine used in the Kenya campaign 40 with the same identifying batch numbers as the vials that tested positive for hCG. Given that hCG was found in at least half the WHO vaccine samples known by the doctors involved in administering the vaccines to have been used in Kenya, our opinion is that the Kenya anti-tetanus campaign was reasonably called into question by the Kenya Catholic Doctors Association as a front for population growth reduction.
















On Monday, 23 April 2018, in the afternoon, a van ran down dozens of pedestrians on Torontos bustling Yonge Street, killing 10 and injuring 15. Toronto Police say Alek Minassian, 25, was arrested at the scene after van plowed into pedestrians on busy Yonge St. Minister of Public Safety, Ralph Goodale said that this is not something that is connected to national security.



"I saw the van exactly on the sidewalk," said Kasra Ebrahimi , a student who was a few blocks south of Yonge Street and Finch Avenue, near Byng Avenue, at the time of the attack.



"It hits people, it looks like movies. I saw people go flying  people were screaming and yelling," he said.



However based upon an ever widening pattern of senseless killings and mayhem in our world today, if Dr Michael Salla's "Typology of Extraterrestrials" has any truth, it appears that manipulative aliens were at work in Toronto through an alleged process of "mind-shifting".



Mind-shifting can be regarded as an episodic alien abduction event where an alien from a different time space dimension substitutes the human mind for the alien one leaving the human body in tact. This enables aliens to create havoc when under the cover of a human body.



Such technology which has often been improperly labelled as "shape-shifting" is allegedly being orchestrated by artificial intelligence (AI). Such AI which allegedly masquerade in human bodies because they want humans to blame each other for mayhem so that we as humans will look toward greater degrees of national security infrastructure controlled by the same havoc-instigating AIs to be regarded as vital to "public security".



The giveaway to these alleged mid-shifting events are reported zombie-like or bulging eyes of the possessed who at times can't even remember the mayhem they caused, or remembered it but didn't feel they had "full control".



If the alien decides it likes their "new body" witnesses can expect to see transformations in the alien abductee personality which can even be seen the in handwriting of the possessed.



The key to appreciating the apparent conscience which is causing mayhem in the word today as revealed in Dr Salla's "Typology of Extraterrestrials" is to "Know Thyself". If you would never run down pedestrians; get a gun for a mass shooting or bomb unarmed civilians in foreign lands it is because you're human. You have empathy for others and seek to respect life.



The aliens that masquerade as humans don't have empathy and regard for others and want us as humans to view ourselves through the chaos they seek to instigate in the name of our human species. The more that we as humans disassociate human actions from such mayhem is the less than the aliens will view such alleged False Flag mayhem as supporting their AI-controlled totalitarian global society.
Serbias Armed Forces have received four Mikoyan MiG-29 (NATO reporting name: Fulcrum) fighter jets from Belarus, Serbian Defense Minister Aleksandar Vulin said in an interview with the Politika newspaper.

A Serbian Air Force MiG-29 fighter jet

(Credit: Serbian Ministry of Defense)

"Under an agreement reached by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus has delivered the planes to us and we are very grateful for this," Vulin said.According to him, six MiG-29 fighters delivered by Russia and the four planes of the same type supplied by Belarus will allow the Serbian Air Force to form a squadron of 14 planes in the imminent future, which will give air supremacy to Belgrade in the region.



The Serbian defense minister said that he had met with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu during a visit to Moscow in April to discuss the delivery of four Mil Mi-35 (Hind) combat and four Mi-17 (Hip) transport helicopters, T-72 tanks, BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles and air defense systems.



Russia delivered six MiG-29 fighter jets to Serbia in October 2017. The planes will be upgraded in three stages and the work will cost from 180 million euros ($220 million) to 230 million euros ($281 million).In addition to the MiG-29 planes, Serbia will receive 30 T-72 tanks and 30 BRDM-2 armored reconnaissance vehicles from Russia for free as part of military and technical assistance.



Besides, talks are in progress to discuss the purchase of Russian-made Buk-M1 (SA-11 Gadfly) and Buk-M2 (SA-17 Grizzly) air defense missile systems and Tunguska (SA-19 Grison) antiaircraft missile/gun systems.Earlier, Belarus announced its intention to hand over eight MiG-29 planes and two battalion sets of Buk air defense missile systems to Serbia in 2018, suggesting that Belgrade pay for their repair and upgrade.

 Copyright 2018 TASS. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Gov. Kay Ivey and a state delegation is leaving for Japan today to meet with executives from automakers Toyota, Mazda and Honda.

Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle, who is facing off against Ivey for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, will also be part of discussions with Mazda and Toyota figures, as the area continues preparations for the $1.6 billion jointe manufacturing plant.

Ivey and Battle will be flying separately, as Ivey will also have talks with Honda, which is currently in the midst of an $85 million expansion of its Talladega County plant.

In a statement, Ivey said the purpose of the trip was to strengthen ties with the automakers calling Alabama home.

"The auto industry has been a key driver of economic growth in Alabama for two decades, and we want to make sure we're positioned to see that growth accelerate in coming years," Ivey said.

In addition, the group will meet U.S. Ambassador to Japan Bill Hagerty at the U.S. embassy in Tokyo. The meeting will deal with the Japanese business climate and current trade developments affecting both countries.

Alabama Commerce Secretary Greg Canfield said the Mazda-Toyota talks will deal with getting the supply chain in place ahead of the Huntsville plant's expected opening in 2021.

Along with Ivey, Battle and Canfield, Tennessee Valley Authority CEO Bill Johnson, Chip Cherry, president and CEO of the Huntsville/Madison Chamber of Commerce, Steve Pelham, Governor Ivey's chief of staff, and Hollie Pegg, assistant director of business development at the Alabama Department of Commerce, will take part.

"When it comes down to recruiting industry and working together to recruit industry, we're all on the same team," Battle said last week of the trip.

Mazda and Toyota announced their intention to build a joint manufacturing plant in Huntsville in January. While Alabama has a long-standing relationship with Toyota through its existing engine plant in Huntsville, Mazda has no manufacturing presence in the U.S.

"We can use our extensive experience in assisting automakers expand their footprint to help the company build out a productive and efficient operation in Alabama," Canfield said.

Ivey, Canfield, Pelham and Pegg will be involved in the Honda talks, which are aimed at reinforcing Alabama's relationship with the automaker and discussing "how the state can support the facility's new leadership and future growth plans."

"Honda is a very important member of the Alabama automotive manufacturing family, and we're committed to working closely with this great company as it pursues new levels of success at its Talladega County operation," Canfield said.
Velocity Accelerator's Demo Day

The seven startups who brought their business plans to Velocity Accelerator's Demo Day tonight exhibited passion and planning with their pitches before a crowd at Iron City. A program of Innovation Depot, the startups' founders and teams spent the last 13 weeks training, honing their business dreams down to six-minute presentations for the public.

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Rouses opening

A sneak peek inside the new Rouses Market opening Wednesday in West Mobile suggests there is no such thing as the calm before the storm. On Monday, every aisle bustled with staff and vendors stocking products, interspersed with workers still putting the final touches on fixtures and decor. "We've got a lot of work to do," said Donny Rouse, the third-generation CEO of the independent, family owned chain.

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Looking for a scrap

A scrap metal processor has filed a lawsuit claiming the Birmingham City Council denied its license to operate for "purely political reasons." Jordan Industrial Services filed an emergency petition for writ of mandamus in Jefferson County Circuit Court earlier this month to compel the members of the city council to "perform their legal obligation" to issue a scrap metal processor's license to Jordan.

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Milo's Tea expanding

Milo's Tea Company is looking to fill 30 new positions, as it adds a third shift to the revamped Bessemer plant it opened last year. The company will also be hosting a job fair this Saturday at its 15.5 acre headquarters. CEO Patricia Wallwork said the expansion comes because of the company's rapid growth.

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Googlenomics

Alabama won't have to search to find the benefits of having Google as a corporate citizen. That's the verdict of a new economic study commissioned by the company out from Oxford Economics, which found that the search engine titan's data centers power about $1.3 billion in direct economic activity. And the additional impact is deep and wide.

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Aviation company hires

Southern Sky Aviation, a full-service aviation company, has announced its opening at the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport. The company, which was founded by Bill Gunnells, previously the chief executive officer and founder of prescription drug card benefits company RxBenefits, has more than 67,000 square feet of space in two fully refurbished hangars on the East and West ramps of the Birmingham airport.

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Not enough doughnuts

will be the anchor in a 4,700-square-foot retail center under construction at the southwest corner of Spring Hill Avenue and Mobile Infirmary Boulevard in Mobile, according to

Pratt Thomas

of

Merrill P. Thomas Company

.

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Hannity responses

Fox News host is responding to reports he owns companies that have purchased tens of million in foreclosed homes and properties owned by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. "It is ironic that I am being attacked for investing my personal money in communities that badly need such investment and in which, I am sure, those attacking me have not invested their money," Hannity said.

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Resuming production

Wolverine Tube, which resumed production operations at its plant in Morgan County in November, expects to exceed hiring projections this year, the Decatur Daily reports. The plant manufactures aluminum components instead of the copper tubing produced before it closed in 20
She "bonded over beers and boobs" with Brooke Shields. She and Robert De Niro once cleaned up a child's vomit together. She introduced butter to a breastfeeding Jessica Biel, putting it on everything the actress ate, and even in her coffee.

But Connie Simpson, who grew up in Mobile and still calls it home, isn't impressed with celebrity. "Their profession chose them, just like mine chose me," she says. "Hell, we're all human."

Nanny Connie's job, she says, is "to give them all the space to mess up and make things better." She instills confidence in parents, whether well-known or not, to rely on themselves to do what's best for their babies.

Connie started out working with well-to-do moms in Mobile and across the bay in Fairhope. From there, word spread about her amazing way with babies - and with their parents. Soon, she became "the" nanny to call when celebrities needed help with their newborns.

Many of her stories are recounted in her new book, "The Nanny Connie Way: Secrets to Mastering the First Four Months of Parenthood." In a loving, no-nonsense and funny voice, Connie's message is that parents already have everything they need to be successful.

"For a good 20 years, all my clients were telling me I needed to bottle myself, or write a book," she says.

She did both. In a first for the publishing industry, readers can actually see and hear Connie via augmented reality through the Nanny Connie app. Throughout the book, there are places where readers can aim a smartphone or tablet and, with a click, Connie appears to pop out, giving additional information.

"I can update the information, so the book is forever giving," she says. At the end of the book, readers can upload their own videos, adding to those some of her celebrity clients have already contributed.

Her motto is "Just be the parent." "You're the parent," she says. "You've got all the answers. It's just about having confidence. Not all parents have it right, but we learn from the mistakes we make."

In real life, when she sees a mother struggling with a newborn, she always gives her praise. Likewise, in her book, she tells her readers, "You got this!" Even if they can't afford to call her on the day their baby is born, as so many of her wealthy families do, readers can glean much of Connie's wisdom by reading her book.

'It was destiny'

As she recounts in the introduction to her book, Connie grew up hearing stories about her father's great-grandmother, Grandma Hannah, a slave in Africa who gave birth to "an unknown number" of babies before coming to America and having 12 more children. She became a midwife in the Deer Park, Ala., community.

"I had no earthly idea I'd become her later in life," Connie says.

She used to accompany her mother, Aliece, a nurse for Dr. Benjamin Gunn, on his house calls in the 1960s and recalls sitting in the living room while her mom and the doctor attended to patients.

"I couldn't run from this," she says. "It was destiny. Nurturing and nursing were learned from both sides of my family."

After graduating from McGill-Toolen Catholic High School, where she played volleyball on the Dirty Dozen team, she attended Mississippi University for Women, Mobile College and Southern University in Baton Rouge. At 24, she found herself a single mom to her only child, her daughter Courtney.

"If I could have her, I could take care of her," she says. "I had a huge village, but she was mine. She went everywhere with me."

And so Connie worked a variety of jobs: substitute teacher, cafeteria worker, Delchamps baker and caterer, among others. She was "living paycheck to paycheck, and wondering when there would be another one," when she decided to follow in the steps of her cousin Ileaner and become a baby nurse who would stay with a family for a couple of weeks after a baby's birth.

But she realized the need for educating parents was "huge," and eventually she found herself "passed from one sorority sister to another." She did much more than take the best possible care of their babies. "It snowballed to the point that if you had me, you knew there was a learning curve," she says. "I was the person who tried to help your situation get better."

Before she knew it, Connie was able to become more selective about her nanny jobs. She has worked nonstop ever since, through word of mouth. "It's been 30 years since I've done a resume," she says. Like a real-life Mary Poppins, she keeps her suitcase packed and ready to go, staying with new parents for up to two weeks after the baby is born. She has helped some 275 families over the years.

A life-changing experience

As an Alabama mom who first benefitted from Connie's expertise when her first daughter was born in 1997, Amy Greer Thompson of Fairhope is a proud member of "the sisterhood of Nanny Connie." "There's a kindred sense of having had Connie," she says. "We've all shared this amazing woman in our lives."

And they've all "cried tears as she walked out the door," she says.

Having Connie there for her first two out of three babies was "life-changing." (By the time her third child was born, Connie was frequently working for celebrities, so Amy's son was "bumped" by Jessica Alba, who delivered first.) Connie's arrival was a godsend, as she brought "her tips, her wisdoms, her voice and her laugh," she says. "She is well versed in what's new, but also what makes sense."

Amy is among the parents quoted in "The Nanny Connie Way," which is also filled with tidbits from celebrity clients. One of Connie's moms, Emily Blunt, who is starring in "Mary Poppins Returns," which will be released Christmas Day, told Connie that she helped her develop the character.

Connie appeals to famous parents because "she's got loads and loads of Southern sensibility that I think is attractive to them," Amy says. "There's something about the Southern tradition of child-rearing. We all nurture each other through play dates and preschool - it's how we connect as mothers. That's a gap Connie fills with a great big dose of normalcy."

Connie likes to think she's building a solid foundation for every family whose lives she touches. And now her book can serve as a foundation for new parents who can't afford to have a nanny take care of the baby in the middle of the night to let them sleep.

"Most people don't do much encouraging," observes Connie, whose book is loaded with encouragement for overwhelmed moms and dads. "I want to save the world as much as I can through our children."
Greg Koontz likes flying upside down. And sideways. And in spirals. And he wants to teach you to do it, too.

Koontz not only performs in airshows, he runs an aerobatic flying school from his bed-and-breakfast in Ashville, Alabama. It's the job he dreamed of since he saw his first airshow in Alabama in 1961, when he was 7 years old.

"I got my start in the business with Col. Moser's Flying Circus, a traveling airshow troop," Koontz said. Now, he not only performs a variety of stunts in the air, but while landing - he does a stunt by landing on the "World's Smallest Runway," which is the back of a moving pickup truck.

"I learned the 'world's smallest' airshow stunt from Col. Moser in 1974," Koontz said. "It is an old airshow stunt performed by many others before me."

The veteran pilot, who was born in Winston-Salem, N.C., also paid his dues on "ordinary" runways. "I had a 36-year career as a professional pilot - as a flight instructor, then a charter pilot, and the final 26 years as a corporate pilot for a big company in Birmingham," he said. He quit in 2002 to fulfill his dream of being a full-time aerobatic pilot.

Since then, he has completed more than 1,400 accident-free performances at more than 300 airshows.

He offers a unique experience for his students: Stay in his Sky Country Lodge while learning the tricks of the airshow trade.

His website says: "Our lodge is the aerobatic pilot's best kept secret! Available for our flight students in a bed and breakfast setting, with private rooms on our own grass runway. Fly in remote airspace far from airport traffic - our own FAA approved aerobatic box is right over the runway! You're invited to mix serious aerobatic instruction with the peace and quiet of our country setting."

In addition to his full airshow season, Koontz sells aerobatic planes as a dealer for American Champion. He is known worldwide for his knowledge and flying skills in Decathlon planes made by American Champion.

His honors include the Southeast Region FAA Flight Instructor of the Year Award and the 2014 Bill Barber Award for Showmanship. Koontz said he is scheduled to be inducted into the Alabama Aviation Hall of Fame in January 2019. For information on the flying school and Sky Country Lodge, call 205-616-8176 or email greg@gkairshows.com.
Nearly three years after Jefferson County considered covering or removing two murals that many considered offensive, a new mural that depicts the diversity of the county in the 21st Century was unveiled in the courthouse lobby.

The new "Justice is Blind" mural, created by Alabama artist Ronald McDowell, joins two controversial murals that show black people picking cotton and performing other manual labor. Those murals were commissioned in the early 1930s.

McDowell's piece, which was painted offsite and installed in the courthouse, is a modern compilation of symbols that represent Jefferson County and the justice system. It includes a black and white Lady Justice and bald eagles. These figures hover over black and white judges. The mural also includes an American flag, the Jefferson County logo, exterior of the courthouse and Linn Park.

The county paid McDowell, an art professor at Tuskegee University, $50,000 to create the mural. McDowell created the "Miss Nina" statue that was dedicated in Linn Park in 2015. He also created a statue honoring civil rights foot soldiers at Kelly Ingram Park.

The new mural was the culmination of the work of a 17-member citizen committee - which includes proponents and opponents of the courthouse's Jim Crow-era murals - that was formed in October 2015.

An unveiling celebration was held in the lobby of the Jefferson County Courthouse on Tuesday morning. The event included remarks from commissioners, ministers, the Birmingham mayor and others who took part in developing the concept for the mural.

"I think it is beautiful. I think it is gorgeous," said Jefferson County Commissioner Sandra Little Brown who spearheaded the effort. "It reflects where Jefferson County is today. In past times, in the Old and the New South, there were no black judges, there were no black commissioners .... We are reflecting where we are today."

The two long-standing murals are 17 1/2-by-8-feet and were painted by Chicago artist John Warner Norton. They depict the agrarian Old South and the industrial new South. Norton made the paintings in 1931-32, which were commissioned by Chicago architectural firm Holabird & Root. That's the firm that designed the Jefferson County Courthouse and also Chicago's Soldier Field.

"The murals reflect a different time and a different place in our history," Commissioner Joe Knight said in his opening remarks. "They were created in the Jim Crow era where the reasoning was such that it is no longer prevalent or acceptable in our society today."

The call to remove the courthouse murals came after a mass shooting at a black Charleston, S.C. church in 2015. The shooter Dylann Roof was a self-described white supremacist. There was a nationwide call, at that time, to remove images deemed offensive and racist.

On Aug. 15, 2017, then-Birmingham Mayor William Bell went on to order a symbol of the city's Confederate heritage covered.

The Confederate monument at Linn Park covered with a plywood barrier until a legal way to remove it can be researched. He said the plywood was installed to protect the monument from being vandalized or destroyed.

The next day Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall filed a lawsuit against the city saying the covering violated state law prohibiting the removal of historic monuments.

A hearing on the matter was held in Jefferson County Circuit Court on April 13. A judge had yet to rule.

The Rev. Hezekiah Jackson, president of the Metro Birmingham branch of the NAACP, previously said the artwork depicted in the murals sends the wrong message to people who come to the courthouse seeking justice.

On Tuesday, Jackson, who took part in the mural committee, said his mind wasn't changed about the murals.

"I decided that the deliberative process had worked and that we could compromise, and this new mural was the compromise," he said.

He said the new mural "depicts justice where we are now."
A male juvenile was shot in the leg in the parking lot next to the North Birmingham Branch Library after meeting to buy an iPhone, according to Birmingham Police.

Police have one person in custody.

Lt. Chris Hays said the victim and subject met at the parking lot by the library to purchase an iPhone. At some point, the subject shot the juvenile in the leg. Hays did not say what led to the shooting.

The juvenile was taken to UAB Hospital. Hays said his injuries did not appear to be life-threatening.

The shooting is still under investigation.
Authorities have released the name of a man found dead on an east Birmingham roadway over the weekend.

The Jefferson County Coroner's Office identified the victim as John Coe Kelley. He was 31 and lived on the city's Southside.

A passerby made the discovery about 10:43 a.m. Saturday in the 7800 block of Georgia Road. Chief Deputy Coroner Bill Yates said Kelley was found partially in the road under the Oporto-Madrid Boulevard bridge.

Kelley did have injuries, but Yates said it's still unclear how those injuries were sustained. It's possible he fell from the bridge. It did not appear he had been struck by a vehicle. There was no obvious sign of foul play, but it hasn't been ruled out.
A tip to state investigators led to the arrest of a well-known Birmingham jazz musician, authorities said Tuesday.

Ray Reach, 69, was taken into custody Monday by the U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force. Lt. Brooke Walker, ALEA's commander of the Alabama Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the Alabama State Bureau of Investigation's Special Victims Unit, said the investigation into Reach was launched after the agency received information that he was suspected of being in possession child pornography.

Walker said the victims depicted in the images in Reach's possession were of males under the age of 17. Because of the ongoing investigation, she said she can't disclose the location of where and how they were located and seized but said they were on electronic devices.

The evidence was presented to a Jefferson County grand jury which led to Reach being indicted on four counts of possession of child pornography.

Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal Cliff LaBarge said Reach was taken into custody without incident about 2 p.m Monday in the parking lot of the Homewood Senior Center. He was booked into the Jefferson County Jail at 2:40 p.m. Monday and released about 7:30 p.m. after posting $15,000 bond.

Reached at his Hoover home on Tuesday, Reach said he was meeting with an attorney later in the day and declined comment until a later date.

Reach is a Birmingham native and a staple in the jazz community. According to his online bio and social media, he is a former music instructor at Birmingham Southern College and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He lists his current occupation as director of student jazz programs at the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.

A keyboardist, vocalist and guitarist, Reach was recognized last year by AL.com as one of 30 Alabamians who changed jazz history.
In the wake of the Waffle House arrest in Saraland Sunday morning in which three white cops were shown aggressively arresting a black women, local law enforcement have justified their actions during a near 20 minute press conference late Monday afternoon.

Investigators from Saraland Police Department presented video evidence and witness testimony from the scene, which included limited camera angles from inside the restaurant but did not show the suspect being wrestled to the floor. A viral video circulating on social media shows Chikesia Clemons being placed on the floor in what many on social media have said is an overly aggressive arrest. Her breasts were exposed as three officers attempted to contain her.

Detective Collette Little, Saraland's Public Information Officer, first played the initial phone call that was made by a Waffle House employee to 911 moments after Clemons and two others entered the establishment. The caller, who identified herself as Ally, said that three people had entered the establishment with alcohol and were acting "drunk and disorderly." They had been asked to leave, said Ally.

Det. Little presented three videos showing different camera angles in the Waffle House. Upon inspection by AL.com, there are four cameras at the Waffle House at 1204 Industrial Parkway location, although it's not known in what direction the additional camera was pointing at the time and if it was relevant to the investigation. The videos did not contain audio and did not show the final arrest.

The first video played by Saraland police showed the three people entering the premises and sitting in a booth directly across from the front entrance.

"The situation then escalated between the patrons at that table and the employees," said Det. Little. "At this point the employee has asked the patrons to leave the establishment, which the first female and gentleman does." The first female was identified as Canita Adams. After talking with a Waffle House employee, Clemons also left.

After leaving briefly, both women returned.

According to Detective Mims, who was also part of the press conference and would not give his first name, Clemons and Adams began shouting abuse at the Waffle House employees. Witnesses, who included six employees and one customer, told police that the two women were loud and used profanities toward employees.

"Words were used toward the employees such f*ck, b*tch, calling women whores," said Det. Mims. "They were told to cool down and stop using the profanities."

Clemons and Adams then told the Waffle House employees "I'll come over this counter and beat your f**king ass, bitch I'm gonna have your job, you ain't gonna be here tomorrow," according to witness statements read by Det. Mims.

A second and third camera angle showed views from behind the Waffle House counter and one from above the door looking into the restaurant. Police officers are shown coming in one after another.

In the viral video, which shows the full arrest of Clemons, an officer can be heard saying he would break her arm. Det. Little said that it was common that the force used to arrest a person could cause an injury. "The statement was made as cause and effect statement rather than a threat."

Det. Mims confirmed that a review undertaken by members of the police department, who had viewed video and witness testimony, concluded that no further action would be taken against the three arresting officers. Det. Mims also denied that the incident was racist or could be seen as police brutality, based on witness testimony. "It was based solely on the fact that they were asked to take their beverages out and not consume them on the premises, per Waffle House's policy."

Det. Mims also said that officer safety was the reason there was more than one officer present during the arrest. He said it was for the safety of the officer, bystanders and the person being arrested. Saraland police department refusd to name the officers saying that their personal safety outweighed the public interest. Police would not speculate on rumors that some of the officers had recieved death threats.

Another witness said that one of the two women said they could come back to the store and "shoot this place up if I need to," according to Det. Mims.

Two witnesses were African-American and four were female, according to Det. Mims, who said that all witnesses accounts confirmed that the three people entering the Waffle House appeared intoxicated and smelled of alcohol.

Other witnesses claimed that the arresting police officers tried to calm Clemons down and asked her multiple times to comply with their instructions. "She refused to comply," said Det. Mims.



The police department said it attempted to reach out to Clemons and Adams to get their side of the story, but neither could be reached. Clemons was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Adams and a yet-to-be-identified male were not charged.

A still image of Clemons being sick in a bucket at the police station was shown at the press conference.

During a brief Q&A at the end of the press conference, Det. Mims said that Waffle a House employee and Clemons clashed over a policy that charges $0.50 for customers that wish to use plastic utensils to dine-in. According to Det. Mims, Waffle House employees provided the utensils free of charge.
Although he dismissed the criminal case against fired jail warden Leon Bradley, Morgan County Circuit Judge Glenn Thompson has declined to hold contempt hearings against the sheriff and her deputies.

During a hearing that began Friday and culminated this morning, Bradley's lawyers sought to prove that Sheriff Ana Franklin and three of her employees lied to get warrants and have the warden arrested. Bradley was charged a misdemeanor, tampering with government documents, at the culmination of an investigation into whether he was leaking information to a local blogger. Today, Bradley said he walked away an "exonerated" man.

"I am extremely thankful for the truth coming out," Bradley told AL.com after the hearing.

A central question of the hearing was whether Franklin and her office illegally obtained evidence to get Thompson to issue search warrants during an investigation into Bradley and local blogger Glenda Lockhart. Thompson signed warrants in October 2016 for Franklin and her deputies to search Bradley's home and Lockhart's office.

Lockhart authors the Morgan County Whistleblower, a blog that's been critical of the sheriff and her office for years. Lockhart hasn't been charged with a crime. The judge today ordered that law enforcement return to Lockhart and Bradley any items that were seized during the 2016 searches.

"I think everything went well today, and justice will prevail," said Lockhart as she left the courthouse.

Bradley's lawyers, Robert Tuten and Nick Heatherly, have said they believe Franklin and her deputies were untruthful when they requested the search warrants. The lawyers have alleged Franklin and the deputies didn't tell the judge about paying an informant to install a surveillance software on Lockhart's computer.

"Law enforcement shouldn't cross the line and shouldn't mislead a judge," said Tuten after today's hearing. He said it took longer than expected, but he's glad Bradley has been exonerated. Asked if he's disappointed the judge denied a motion to hold contempt hearings, Tuten said, "That's not really our job to worry about that."

Lockhart's grandson, Daniel, was the informant who worked with the sheriff's office. He was called to testify today. Daniel Lockhart testified about the sheriff paying him $500 to gather information about his grandmother. Daniel Lockhart went into his grandmother's business after hours and installed a surveillance software, known as a keylogger, on his grandmother's computer, he testified. He claims he spied on his grandmother at the request of Franklin and deputies Blake Robinson and Robert "Bones" Wilson. Daniel Lockhart also claims another sheriff's employee, Justin Powell, provided the keylogger and showed his how to install it on his grandmother's computers.

During testimony last week, Franklin vehemently denied knowing anything about the keylogger software. She claims she didn't find out about the keylogger until a recent federal court hearing at which there was testimony about the device. That testimony came during a hearing in a civil lawsuit that Glenda Lockhart has filed against the sheriff's office. The lawsuit accuses the sheriff and her deputies of illegally gathering evidence by sending Daniel to burglarize his grandmother's Falkville business, Straightline Drywall and Acoustical.

Because of Bradley's former position as the warden, the Morgan County District Attorney's Office recused from prosecuting the case. The Alabama Attorney General's Office took over.

The sheriff also said she didn't want the situation to appear like a conflict of interest, so she brought in an outside law enforcement agency to bring charges against the warden.

Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin sent Investigator Stephen McGlathery to probe the case for Morgan County. Using evidence gathered by Franklin's crew, McGlathery got a warrant for the fired warden's arrest.

On Friday, McGlathery -- one of 11 total witnesses to take the stand --testified that Franklin and her deputies "lied" and provided "piecemeal" evidence.

"I am most thankful for the court and the good law enforcement officers who did the right thing and had the courage to tell the truth," Bradley said after today's hearing. "Some of those guys were put in an awkward position. But they proved they're folks who will stand up and tell the truth."

The hearing was set after Bradley's lawyers filed motions for dismissal of the charge and for the evidence gathered by the search warrants to be thrown out. The AG's office agreed to dismiss the charge, but Bradley's lawyers said they wanted the judge to hear testimony about whether the sheriff's office mishandled the case.

The judge said today he wouldn't hold contempt hearings against Franklin, Robinson, Wilson or Powell. "I'm leaving that up to other people," he said. The judge didn't specify to whom he is leaving the possibility for contempt charges, though Morgan County District Attorney Scott Anderson and Assistant Attorney General Matt Hart were in the courtroom. Prosecutors have said they can't comment on the case.

Updated at 12:26 p.m.


Anyone whose childhood began in or after the early 1970s probably knows at least one or two "Schoolhouse Rock!" songs, the ones that taught children multiplication tables, civics lessons and basic grammar. In fact, reading that sentence probably has you humming one right now, maybe "Conjunction Junction" or "Electricity, Electricity," and it now will be stuck in your head all day.

Sorry about that.

But even "Schoolhouse Rock!" devotees might not know of Bob Dorough, the accomplished musician and composer behind most of those tunes. Dorough died Monday at his home in Mount Bethel, Pennsylvania.

His 94 years of life were packed with a Forrest Gump-esque career that brought him in contact with several historical icons and eventually launched him into writing educational earworms for ABC in between experimental jazz records.

His life began in Arkansas and he was mostly raised in Texas, but his life eventually brought him through Paris, New York and Los Angeles. He played between sets for Lenny Bruce. He was the musical director for Sugar Ray Robinson, when the boxer - considered one of the sport's all-time bests - decided to give music a go. He played with Charlie Parker and Miles Davis. He worked with beat poet Allen Ginsberg on an album of poems by Ginsberg and William Blake set to music.

He was a successful if under-heard jazz musician. But his commercial break came in 1971, when he was first asked to "set the multiplication tables to music."

David McCall, a New York advertising executive, had noticed his young son remembered all the lyrics of pop songs - but not his multiplication tables. Mixing the two was a fresh idea, and after trying out a few jingle writers, McCall settled on Dorough to pen the first song: "Three is a Magic Number," which teaches a little bit of everything about the number three, incorporating geometry, reproduction, multiplication and time.

The song, along with the many more that Dorough and other musicians wrote, was set to animation for "Schoohouse Rock!" a show that originally aired on ABC from 1973 to 1985. Sometimes, the musicians would perform their own tunes. Sometimes, guests were called in to sing them.

Dorough proved exceedingly adept at composing these educational ditties. His songs included such hits as "Conjunction Junction," a mediation on the usage of "and," "or" and "but"; "The Shot Heard Round the World," which traces the beginning of the American Revolution; and "Electricity, Electricity," a catchy lesson about various sources of power. (He did not write the famous "I'm Just a Bill," which is by Dave Frishberg.)

Tension sometimes existed between his musical instincts and his "Schoolhouse Rock!" work, as evidenced by the strikingly somber tune about the number 8, called "Figure 8." The music beautifully but sorrowfully plods along, juxtaposing strangely with mundane lyrics such as "If you skate, you would be great/ If you could make a figure eight," making a listener - writer's note: at least this listener - wonder why he's suddenly teary-eyed about the multiplication tables of the number 8.

During the writing process for the song, he sat at the piano in his home and played it again an again. His wife "kept hearing me and said, 'What is that melody?' And I said, 'Oh, that's a new song about eight.' And she told me, 'Oh no, that's too good to be a Schoolhouse Rock song!' " as Dorough told Porkchops & Applesauce.

So he tried to keep it for himself.

"I started trying to write a different song, which combined four, six, and eight, but they didn't buy it," he continued. "They said they wanted one for each number. So I said, 'Well, I'll give you this 'eight' song; I don't know if you'll like it or not.' And they flipped."

"It is kind of a sad song, isn't it?" he added.

The songs were immensely popular. "Schoolhouse Rock!" has been revived twice for television and has twice been staged as a musical theater adaptation. It was nominated for eight Emmy Awards, winning half of them.

Rap trio De La Soul even sampled Dorough's "Three is a Magic Number," for its 1990 Billboard-charting single "The Magic Number."

Despite the popularity of songs such as "Conjunction Junction," an elder generation better knew Dorough as a highbrow jazz musician and composer.

Author and critic Gary Giddins - who wrote that "many people over the past 50 years have heard Bob Dorough without knowing it" - summed this dichotomy up perfectly in the Village Voice in 2000:

"I was having a high old time listening to Bob Dorough's new record, 'Too Much Coffee Man' (Blue Note), which may be his best, when my assistant Elora walked in and exclaimed with a slight interrogatory, "Schoolhouse Rock!?" She had never heard of Dorough, but she recognized the voice. I had never heard of 'Schoolhouse Rock,' so she brought in her four-disc Rhino set and played her favorites, including a masterpiece, 'My Hero, Zero,' noting, 'You will not find anyone of my generation who does not know the words to "Electricity Electricity" and "Conjunction Junction.'""

The exposure that "Schoolhouse Rock!" brought to Dorough allowed him to continue focusing on his passion: jazz. In 1995, he signed with Blue Note Records, a distinguished New York jazz label that's produced records by John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk and Art Blakey. Seven years later, the State Department and Kennedy Center chose him as an "ambassador of jazz and blues."

Still, he was mostly known for those songs that still educate legions of children today. And he didn't seem to mind.

"I attempted to write songs that would entertain anyone, from ages 2 to 92," he once said, pointing out that later in life, the kids grow up "and now they go to bars and drink! And they discover me again, playing at bars!"
A 5-year-old boy who was reportedly abducted from a bus stop near his apartment complex in Sylacauga has been found safe in Lee County, Mississippi, according to Sylacauga police.

Police said earlier today that Malachi Quintanilla was taken from a bus stop near his apartment complex and may be headed to New Orleans.

Police said he was taken by a white female when he got off the bus near Autumn Trace Apartments, where he lives, police said.

Police do not believe the abduction was a random act.

The custodial parents told police the woman accused of taking the boy may be related to the boy's biological father, who lives in New Orleans. Police believe the woman was taking the child to New Orleans.

Police will be releasing a formal statement later.

The U.S. Marshal's Service and the FBI assisted police in the investigation.
Alabama last elected a Democrat as governor 20 years ago. Former Gov. Robert Bentley received nearly twice the votes as Democrat Parker Griffith in the most recent gubernatorial contest four years ago.

The Cook Political Report labels Alabama's governor's race as "solid Republican." The same label comes from the Larry J. Sabato's Crystal Ball, produced at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

"Barring some major developments in this race, it's difficult to see a path for a Democrat to win," said Geoffrey Skelley, associate editor with the Crystal Ball.

Said Waymon Burke, a political science professor at Calhoun Community College: "It's definitely an uphill battle."

Democrats, ahead of the Reckon by AL.com debate Tuesday in Birmingham, heard these same declarations last year ahead of the special U.S. Senate race between Democrat Doug Jones and Republican Roy Moore.

They are hoping for a similar outcome. Jones defeated the scandal-plagued Moore to become first Democrat to win a U.S. Senate race in Alabama since 1992.

"Certainly, the Senate race was a very unusual race just because of when it happened and the circumstances surrounding it were very unusual as well ... Roy Moore and the idiosyncrasies, to use a polite term, about his candidacy," said Zac McCrary, a Democratic pollster for Anzalone Liszt Research in Montgomery. "But at a minimum, there is a prototype on how Democrats can be successful in statewide elections. It's a prototype that didn't exist a few years ago and there were legitimate questions on whether Democrats could win statewide."

Momentum opportunity

Democrats vying for governor will state their case during a debate that kicks off at 7 p.m. at the Lyric Fine Arts Theatre. It will be broadcast live on the Reckon by AL.com Facebook page. Six candidates are scheduled to participate: Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox, former Alabama State Supreme Court Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb, former state Rep. James Fields Jr. of Cullman, marriage equality activist Chris Countryman, Montgomery resident Doug "New Blue" Smith, and Dothan minister Anthony White.

Of those, Maddox and Cobb are viewed as the top two favorites to win the Democratic nomination on June 5. Both have raised at or near $500,000. Cobb, according to the latest campaign finance figures with the Alabama Secretary of State's Office, has $220,737 cash on hand, while Maddox has $219,781.

Running third is Fields, who served in the Alabama House from 2008-2010. He's raised over $16,000, though he only has around $3,600 cash on hand.

For now, political observers view the Democratic contest as a two-person battle. The debate could offer a prime opportunity for one of the two contenders to emerge with an advantage.

"The debate affords both Cobb and Maddox an opportunity to gain momentum," said Jess Brown, a retired political science professor from Athens State University and a longtime observer of state politics. "(It's about) which candidate will dominate post-debate coverage because they furnished the press with red meat, rather than milquetoast."

The Democrats, by and large, share similar stances on major political issues. They all mostly support a statewide lottery to help fund education. They all also support an expansion of Medicaid and the legalization of medical marijuana.

Sue Bell Cobb (file photo)

But Cobb, during an April 11 debate, criticized Maddox for what she said was a lack of him supporting a minimum wage increase for Tuscaloosa. Maddox said Cobb had distorted his record, and that supporting a minimum wage increase to $10.10 an hour is unlawful and could've led to expensive lawsuits against Tuscaloosa.

Burke said he believes the candidates will continue to take "assertive" positions on issues, but McCrary said that Cobb and Maddox need to continue telling their personal stories to voters.

"They are still in that introductory phase," he said. "The average voter is now probably only starting to focus on this race."

Christian Smith, president of the Bay Area Young Democrats, said the debate offers an opportunity for both candidates erase unfavorable early impressions.

"There are a lot of people who like Walt, but feel he's stiff," said Smith. "With Sue Bell Cobb, I can't reconcile her leaving the Supreme Court (in 2011) and supporting Jeff Sessions. I think she has to touch on that and talk about it again if she expects anyone to change their mind on those issues."

Cobb endorsed Sessions' nomination as U.S. attorney general in early 2017.

McCrary said he believes Maddox and Cobb are both stronger candidates than Jones at this point in the race. He said that unlike Jones ahead of last year's Senate campaign, Maddox and Cobb have previous electoral victories.

For Jess Brown, the key for the Democrats is to communicate a populist message that resonates regarding the economy, while maintaining a conservative-leaning stance on most social issues.

"They must not utter a word that alienates African-American voters or appears unsympathetic to the feminist agenda," said Brown. "They must set a high bar on ethics and characterize (current Alabama Gov.) Kay Ivey as a consummate Goat Hill insider. This mix is difficult to do, but necessary to be viable in a runoff and to attract independent voters during the General Election campaign."

GOP advantage

But are the Republican advantages too much to overcome? Ivey has more than $2 million in campaign funds at her disposal, and her GOP rivals - Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle, Birmingham evangelist Scott Dawson and Alabama State Sen. Bill Hightower of Mobile - each have raised more money than Maddox or Cobb.

"While Democrats are likely to have a relatively favorable national electoral environment this November, they need more than that to have a shot at winning the (Alabama) governorship," said Skelley.

Ivey, who has declined invitations to debate her GOP rivals, has been considered the favorite to win the Republican nomination. As Skelley notes, she seemingly has strong favorables: Morning Consult found her with the third-highest approval rating among the country's 50 governors.

"If Gov. Ivey were scandal-ridden and unpopular, that could create the conditions where a Democratic win might be feasible," said Skelley. "But as it stands, Ivey appears to be quite popular."

He added, "Even if she actually loses the Republican primary, the GOP might still be OK. It seems like Tommy Battle would be the most likely GOP challenger to defeat Ivey, and he's raised plenty of money and is mayor of Huntsville, one of the state's principal cities."

Angi Stalnaker, a Republican campaign strategist based in Montgomery, said the intrigue in the Democratic contest occurs after a winner is decided, and if Ivey comes out ahead in the Republican race.

"You will see two different possibilities - Sue Bell Cobb and Kay Ivey would be an interesting race to watch with two women both with government experience going after each other," said Stalnaker. "With Maddox, you are looking at generational and stylistic differences."

She, like others, believe it's a "challenge" for the Democrat to win this year's governor's race. But she said it's "more possible" for a Democratic win in 2018 than it was in 2014 or 2010.

"So far, it's been a really boring governor's race. There is just nothing holding the people of Alabama's attention about this race."," she said, anticipating more intrigue around mid-May when campaigns decide whether to shift tactics and attack the perceived front runners.

Burke said that for Democrats hoping for a win, a late-entry by Moore as an independent candidate would be the best possible scenario. There is no indication that Moore is entertaining a run.

"I guess some are hoping Roy Moore jumps into this thing," he said. "They are needing another Roy Moore."
Sue Bell Cobb, Walt Maddox, James Fields or any other Democratic gubernatorial primary contender are not in a position to pull a Kay Ivey.

The three top-tier candidates neither have the power of incumbency nor the statewide name recognition enjoyed by Alabama's sitting Republican governor to afford skipping out on tonight's Democratic debate presented by Reckon by AL.com and ABC 33/40 at the historic Lyric Theatre in downtown Birmingham.

Ivey was a no-show at last week's Republican debate. She also did not appear at a debate earlier this month with WVTM.

"Normally, the person in the lead, there's an old saying: You as a candidate should never gather a crowd for others to kick you in the behind," said Glen Browder, a former Democratic congressman and professor emeritus of American democracy at Jacksonville State University. "I think all of the Democrats have something to gain by participating."

There has been no public polling in the race, making it unclear who is ahead at this point or who has the highest name recognition.

Cobb and Fields are the only candidates in the race with previous runs for statewide office; Cobb was elected chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in 2006, while Fields was the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor in 2014, when he was trounced by Ivey . Meanwhile, Maddox is looking to raise his statewide profile beyond Tuscaloosa, where he's served as mayor for four terms.

Zac McCrary, a Montgomery-based Democratic pollster with Anzalone Liszt Grove Research, said tonight's debate provides "very valuable bandwidth" for the candidates.

"I suspect they are participating, because unlike the Kay Ivey dynamic on the Republican side ... this is a case where both Maddox and Cobb probably should be eager to tell their story" he said. "Both are trying to establish themselves on the statewide political scene. Both are trying to establish themselves as potential governors."

Besides selling themselves to Democratic voters, the candidates will also be looking to portray themselves as viable candidates to labor unions and African-American and women's groups who will be making endorsements in the race, Browder said.

"The debates are critical for those [groups] on the Democratic side," he said. The candidates "have to demonstrate their credibility, they've got to demonstrate their appeal to the constituents of the Democratic Party and show they've got a serious shot at winning the nomination and winning the race in the fall."

As for debate strategy, McCrary said the safe play would be for all the candidates to refrain from attacking each other, especially with little policy differences between them.

"This is a Democratic primary where most candidates, they generally agree on most of the big issues and none of them are household names yet," he said. "None of them have universal name identification. My instinct is that it is better for both candidates to talk about themselves and their campaigns and not take jabs -- whether they are subtle or otherwise -- at their opponents.

The Reckon/ABC 33/40 debate, which will also be livestreamed on Facebook and gets underway at 7 p.m., gives the candidates the opportunity to connect with tens to hundreds of thousands of Alabama voters, compared the the roughly 50 voters they might press the flesh with on an average day of campaigning.

"This is probably the largest audience that either candidate will have during the campaign, and it certainly behooves them to make the most of it," McCrary said.
Gov. Kay Ivey on Tuesday maintained she didn't violate her promise to keep lobbyists out of state government when she voted for Eric Mackey as the new state superintendent of education

Republican gubernatorial challenger Tommy Battle said he disagreed with Ivey's decision to support Mackey because he is a registered lobbyist.

Mackey, who was hired in a 5-4 by the state school board last Friday, is registered with the state Ethics Commission as a lobbyist in his role as executive director of School Superintendents of Alabama. Such a registration is required, according to a statement from Ivey's office.

Ivey last year issued an executive order banning lobbyists from the executive branch of state government. The state department of education is a part of the executive branch.

Ivey also includes on her campaign website that she "banned lobbyists from appointments in the executive branch" on a page listing her accomplishments as governor.

Ivey press secretary Daniel Sparkman said in a statement Tuesday to AL.com that Mackey's hiring by the state school board is not a gubernatorial appointment.

At the school board meeting when the board voted to hire Mackey in the 5-4 ballot vote, Ivey voted for Mackey.

"Dr. Mackey is the most qualified candidate to lead the State Department of Education in a new direction, which will focus on student achievement at high levels," Sparkman said in the email statement. "His selection by the state Board of Education, through an independent competitive process, is not a gubernatorial appointment as referenced in Executive Order 706.

"Dr. Mackey's previous position with School Superintendents of Alabama required him to register as a lobbyist, it also provided him with experience working closely with legislators, a vital part of the state superintendent's job. Also, his appointment is not effective until a contract is executed and once that happens, he will no longer be a registered lobbyist. Gov. Ivey remains committed to the highest ethical standards and she expects nothing less from the newly selected state superintendent."

Battle's campaign issued a statement Tuesday taking issue with Ivey's support of Mackey. The press release described Battle as "deeply troubled by Kay Ivey's selection for Alabama state superintendent."

"For the people to trust our leadership, you simply have to do what you promise," Battle said in the press release.

Mackey last year also contributed to a political action committee that contributed to Ivey's gubernatorial campaign.

According to state campaign finance disclosures, Mackey contributed $4,000 on Aug. 24, 2017 to AL GROUP PAC. Five days later, on Aug. 29, 2017, the PAC contributed $2,000 to Ivey's campaign.

Mackey was hired to replace Michael Sentance, who was hired in August 2016 and resigned in September 2017. Mackey was hired from among three finalists who took part in interviews with the state school board.
Chikesia Clemons and Canita Adams were allegedly drunk when they arrived to a Waffle House in Saraland around 2:30 a.m. Sunday. They threatened employees and warned that they could return with guns, police said Monday.

Around the same time, a 29-year-old Illinois man with a history of mental health issues shot and killed four people and injured four others inside a Nashville, Tennessee Waffle House.

The two incidents differ vastly - the Nashville incident ended in tragedy, while the Alabama encounter raised questions about how white police officers handled an arrest of a black woman.

But the two Waffle House incidents, occurring within a half-hour of each other, shared one trait: They are a reminder of the potential dangers that exist at late-service eateries and venues.

"It's a serious problem and it's grown," said John R. Roberts of J.R. Roberts Security Strategies, a North Carolina-based security and forensics expert.

Some 146 worker deaths at limited-service (fast-food) restaurants were reported from 2014-2016, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. Of those, 58 were listed as homicides, or 40 percent.

The number of fast-food restaurant homicides rose from 14 in 2014 to 23 in 2016, a 64 percent hike.

The numbers do represent a significant drop from 2007, when the BLS reported 35 homicides.

James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University, said there are fewer occurrences of overall crime at fast-food restaurants than years ago. The most common crime, he said, are "grab and run robberies," occurring at late-night fast-food restaurants and convenience stores.

"A lot of it depends on location and the crime level of an area and in terms of being near a highway," said Fox. "That has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantage being it's easier to access for travelers, the disadvantage is it's an easy getaway for robbers."

Efforts have been made in recent years to make the "environment" surrounding fast-food restaurants safer. Measures include offering drive-through-only services during the late or early-morning hours, bulletproof drive-through windows, security cameras or requiring stores to carry less cash on site.

Fox said good lighting and keeping windows uncovered also have gone a long way toward reducing cime at fast-food restaurants.

But he said requiring the industry -- which experienced $288 billion in sales in 2015 -- to have security officers on site at all times is "not in proportion to risk."

"The low-key security is the best approach especially since these restaurants want to remain inviting to the public," Fox said.

Erin Kearns, a criminal justice professor at the University of Alabama, said in theTennessee tragedy, no amount of environmental design could have prevented Reinking from shooting inside the eatery. The accused killer, Travis Reinking, had a history of troubled behavior including a 2017 arrest by the U.S. Secret Service for trespassing into a secured area near the White House.

"What happened in Nashville, it begs the question on how to prevent these things from happening," said Kearns. "It seems like nothing would have deterred him in that moment."

She said any consideration that the weekend's two high-profile Waffle House incidents means that fast-food eateries are becoming more dangerous is untrue.

"Most 24-hour establishments do not experience criminal activity in any given day, month, week or year," Kearns said. "This is not a dangerous thing."

Still, Waffle House - which does not have drive-through restaurants at its more than 2,100 outposts, mostly located in the South - has experienced some high-profile violence this year:

On New Year's Day, a security guard open fire on a Columbia, Missouri, Waffle House, killing a 30-year-old man.

A 23-year-old man was shot and killed at around 3 a.m. on Jan. 15 at an Orlando, Florida, Waffle House.

A Waffle House spokesman did not respond to AL.com for comment about the restaurant's security measures.

The company has stepped up security before at its eateries located in high-crime neighborhoods. In 2013, a Waffle House in downtown Atlanta began charging customers an extra 20 percent -- turning a $5 meal into a $6 check -- to pay for extra security.

Roberts, the North Carolina security expert, said the late-night hours and closeness to an interstate are "low-hanging fruit" for criminal activity.

In Saraland, where the 24-hour Waffle House is near Interstate 65, officers are "always vigilant" during the night hours at venues which are opened at all hours, said police spokeswoman Collette Little.

Three police officers are facing criticism for how they handle the Clemons' arrest. A viral video circulating on social media shows Clemons being placed on the floor in what many on social media have said is an overly aggressive arrest. Her breasts were exposed as three officers attempted to contain her.

The video has prompted outrage on social media, but Saraland police and Mayor Howard Rubenstein are defending the actions of their officers.
First lady Melania Trump set social media abuzz on Tuesday with the white wide-brimmed chapeau she donned to greet French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte.

The daring fashion choice even caught the eye of Alabama's most famous horse - or at least its parody Twitter account.

The first lady's hat, designed by Herve Pierre, drew widespread praise.

Why isn't Vogue calling her right now and BEGGING to do a full blown fashion spread? #stunning #FLOTUS pic.twitter.com/Z3HqzQ1bCu  Hannah Bleau (@hannahbleau_) April 24, 2018

LIKE BEYONCE'S? People are going crazy over First Lady Melania Trump's hat today. What did you think? https://t.co/LLIMFoKV0O pic.twitter.com/TFMSsHNyOs  WPEC CBS12 News (@CBS12) April 24, 2018

It also spawned the creation of its own Twitter account, @Melania's hat and the account gives us an Alabama connection. In a pinned tweet, the "hat" said it was looking forward to escaping on Roy Moore's horse, referencing the failed Alabama Senate candidate who famously rode his horse "Sassy" to vote.

Melania and I look forward to escaping on @RoyMooresHorse  Melanias Hat (@MelaniasHat) April 24, 2018

@RoyMooresHorse, which has been silent since Moore lost to Democrat Doug Jones in December, hasn't responded on Twitter to the invite.
Florida authorities are asking for help locating a man who has been missing since Monday and may be in Alabama, according to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.

ALEA issued a missing senior alert for Eduardo Rodriguez Sr. Tuesday afternoon. Officials with the Auburndale, Florida Police Department said he was last seen in Auburndale, Florida on Monday. Police believe he may be in Alabama.

Rodriguez may be suffering from a condition that "may impair his judgement," ALEA officials said.

He may be driving a 2007 Silver Toyota Camry, four door with Florida tag number DLBI89. He is a 79-year-old Hispanic male with brown eyes and black hair. He is 5-feet 8-inches tall and weighs about 150 pounds.

Anyone with information on Rodriguez's location should call Auburndale police at 863-965-5555 or call 911.
The battle between supporters of the National Rifle Association and outdoor company YETI is heating up.

Supporters of the gun rights group have shared videos of them destroying YETI coolers, the Washington Post reported. The actions come after the NRA sent an email to supporters alleging Texas-based YETI cuts its ties with the group.

"Suddenly, without prior notice, YETI has declined to do business with The NRA Foundation saying they no longer wish to be an NRA vendor, and refused to say why. They will only say they will no longer sell products to The NRA Foundation. That certainly isn't sportsmanlike. In fact, YETI should be ashamed," the email said.

"When we notified the NRA Foundation and the other organizations of this change, YETI explained we were offering them an alternative customization program broadly available to consumers and organizations, including the NRA Foundation.

"These facts directly contradict the inaccurate statement the NRA-ILA distributed," YETI added.

That hasn't stopped the online backlash, however.

A video with the title "YETI Cooler Challenge" shows armed people blasting their coolers.

Outrage is also spilling over onto YETI's Facebook page.

"Companies getting into politics and the alienating 50 percent of their customer base. But Yeti put the icing on the cake alienating 75 percent plus of its customer base," one commenter said.

Groups such as Enterprise, Hertz, Alamo, MetLife, Delta Airlines and United Airlines have cut ties with the firearms group in recent weeks in the wake of the deadly Feb. 14 shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida.
A sneak peek inside the new Rouses Market opening Wednesday in West Mobile suggests there is no such thing as the calm before the storm.

On Monday, every aisle bustled with staff and vendors stocking products, interspersed with workers still putting the final touches on fixtures and decor. "We've got a lot of work to do," said Donny Rouse, the third-generation CEO of the independent, family owned chain.

Yet neither Rouse nor any of the army of people inside seemed to be in a panic. The work was getting done, and amid all the unfinished business it was easy to see some of the features that will make the store a local flagship for the chain.

Based in Louisiana, Rouses entered the Mobile market in 2013 and has been a growing presence in the region ever since. It started by taking over three former Belle Foods stores Mobile, one in Spanish Fort and one in Gulf Shores after that chain filed for bankruptcy. When a Gander Mountain closed in 2017 at the west Mobile crossroads of Airport Boulevard and Schillinger Road, Rouses announced it was moving in.

More recently, as the parent company of Winn Dixie filed for bankruptcy, Rouses opted to take over one of its stores in Orange Beach. (At about the same time, it also announced it was launching grocery delivery service at its Alabama stores.)

The west Mobile store will bring the chain's number of locations to 55. It'll be Rouses' fourth in Mobile and its sixth in Alabama. But it'll also be something new, Rouse said.

Rouse said that all the chain's other Alabama stores were converted from other grocery brands on a relatively quick timetable. Since this location wasn't already a grocery store, Rouses was able to build its own layout. "This is the same store we're building other places," he said.

Features new to the area include a classroom kitchen where the store will offer everything from live cooking demonstrations to tasting events such as one on craft beer and cheese pairing set for Friday.

The new store will be the first Mobile-area Rouses to feature a Mongolian grill as part of its ready-to-go meal offerings. (Other fast options include hot bar, salad bar, sushi and more.)

The pet section is practically a store-within-a-store, Rouse said. Other highlights include a huge beer and wine section complete with refrigerated beer cave, a mix-and-match option for Keurig-style coffee pods and a cigar section.

Rouse said the location and features, particularly the classroom, have created some excitement.

"I have people all over the area talking to me ... just talking about this store," he said.

He's proud of Rouses' reputation for quality meat and seafood, and for specialty items that reflect its Louisiana roots. But he said there's no intention to make the store exclusive.

"This is just such a busy area. There are so many people," he said. "In this store we have high-end lines. We have prime beef and dry-aged beef. But when you look at our grocery section, we have cheap prices down our grocery aisles. So we really have something for everyone. We want everyone to come in."

The store opens at 8 a.m. Wednesday, April 25, at 7765 Airport Blvd. No. 609. Starting at 7 a.m., free bags will be handed out to the first 100 customers. The day also will feature specialty demonstrations, samples and sales. More information on the store can be found at www.rouses.com.

Recent news from the grocery industries shows a range of developments, with some chains enjoying strong growth and others struggling. Rouse said it takes a lot to stay on the right side of things.

"You've got to be different," he said. "You've got to be intense."
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Mike Pompeo, President Donald Trump's choice for secretary of state, avoided a rare rebuke Monday as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee narrowly recommended him, but the vote served as a warning shot to the White House as nominees to lead the CIA and Veterans Affairs are hitting stiff resistance.

Pompeo, who's now CIA director, received the panel's approval only after Trump's last-minute overtures to Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. Pompeo's nomination now goes to the full Senate, where votes are tallying in his favor and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he looks forward to voting to confirm him later this week.

Trump has been quick to fire his top cabinet secretaries, but Senate Democrats are not so fast to confirm replacements. A grilling is expected Wednesday of Ronny Jackson, the White House physician nominated to head the VA, and Pompeo's potential replacement at the CIA, Gina Haspel, is also facing scrutiny.

It's also a reminder of how tough it could be to replace Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Trump has publicly mused about firing Rosenstein, who is overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

"Hard to believe," Trump tweeted Monday about what he called "obstruction." ''The Dems will not approve hundreds of good people... They are maxing out the time on approval process for all, never happened before. Need more Republicans!"

Republicans hold just a slim Senate majority, 50-49, with the prolonged absence of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

Pompeo's bid to become the nation's top diplomat was in the hands of a few senators, but received a boost Monday when two Democrats, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana, announced their support.

Pressure is mounting on senators from all sides. White House allies are unloading ad campaigns against Democrats from Trump-won states, but progressive groups are pounding senators' offices in opposition. As soon as Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., announced her support for Pompeo, one group called on her to switch.

Ahead of the Foreign Relations Committee's vote, chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said of the full Senate, "It does appear Mike Pompeo has the votes to be secretary of state."

Supporters point to Pompeo's resume as a West Point and Harvard Law School graduate who has the president's confidence, particularly on North Korea. Opponents are focusing on his hawkish foreign policy views and negative comments about gay marriage and Muslims.

Paul's earlier objections to Pompeo, along with overwhelming opposition from Democrats, had set the secretary of state nominee on track to be the first since 1925, when the committee started keeping records, not to receive a favorable recommendation.

But Trump and Paul talked repeatedly, including a chat just moments before the vote.

Having received assurances from President Trump and Director Pompeo that he agrees with the President on these important issues, I have decided to support his nomination to be our next Secretary of State.  Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) April 23, 2018

"I have changed my mind," Paul said, explaining he received reassurances that Pompeo agrees with the president that the Iraq war was a "mistake" and that it is time for U.S. troops to leave Afghanistan. Paul's office said he "got a win" -- the promise that Pompeo sides with Trump on those issues -- out of the situation, but declined to provide details.

"I want Trump to be Trump," Paul said.

Asked about Paul's change of heart, Trump said, "He's a good man."

Senators are anxious to have Pompeo in place before international meetings scheduled for later this week and ahead of North Korea talks.

Republicans blamed partisan politics for opposition, saying Pompeo is just as qualified as past secretaries of state nominees Hillary Clinton or John Kerry, both of whom received overwhelming support.

"A majority of Democrats continue their pointless obstruction to score cheap political points with their base as a willful attempt to undermine American diplomacy," said White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

But Democrats resisted easy confirmation of the nation's top diplomat, and support peeled.

Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., who had been among more than a dozen Democrats who supported Pompeo for CIA director, announced her no vote Monday.

"I am concerned that Mr. Pompeo has not demonstrated an understanding that the Secretary of State has an obligation to the American people to stand up for our core values," she said.

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., who was among the last Democrats on the foreign relations panel to announce his no vote, said he is concerned that Pompeo "will embolden, rather than moderate or restrain" Trump's "most belligerent and dangerous instincts."

In a late setback Monday, the panel was short one Republican vote needed for a favorable recommendation because Sen. Johnny Isakson was delivering a eulogy in his home state of Georgia. Rather than postpone voting until his return very late Monday, Coons agreed to allowed his vote to be recorded as "present" so the committee could finish its work.

By LISA MASCARO, AP Congressional Correspondent
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has decided against recusing himself from the investigation into President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, but will consider stepping back from specific questions tied to the probe, according to a person familiar with the matter.

By contrast, Sessions recused himself from the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election that's now led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, a decision that angered Trump and left Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in charge of the inquiry.

Sessions, who was a top adviser to Trump's presidential campaign, announced in March 2017 that he had decided he should steer clear of "any matters arising from the campaigns" for president. Trump has called Sessions weak for doing so and said he never would have named him as attorney general had he known the recusal would follow.

By staying involved in the Cohen probe, Sessions is entitled to briefings on the status of the investigation, which is being conducted by the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Southern District of New York. That could put Sessions in the position of being asked by Trump, who strongly condemned the FBI raid on his longtime lawyer, to divulge information about the Cohen investigation.

Sessions could also weigh in on specific decisions by prosecutors, including whether to pursue subpoenas and indictments. The attorney general may be asked about his role in the Cohen investigation when he testifies before congressional panels on Wednesday and Thursday.

The investigation into Cohen's finances and past work was opened based in part on a referral from Mueller.

The Justice Department declined to comment specifically about decisions on recusal in the Cohen investigation, saying only that Sessions follows appropriate procedures.

"The attorney general considers his potential recusal on a matter-by-matter basis as may be needed," the department said in a statement. "To the extent a matter comes to the attention of his office that may warrant consideration of recusal, the attorney general would review the issue and consult with the appropriate Department ethics experts."

But Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, has recused himself from the Cohen probe, according to a U.S. official. It's unclear what triggered his recusal.

Rosenstein, as the No. 2 official at the Justice Department, is responsible for coordinating and resolving any conflicts between the Mueller probe and the Cohen investigation.

In a sign of how senior Justice Department officials can become involved in investigative matters, Rosenstein approved an FBI raid earlier this month on Cohen's home, office and hotel room that seized a trove of information.

Trump denounced the raid as "an attack on what we all stand for" and repeated that it was a "terrible mistake" for Sessions to recuse himself from the Mueller probe.

The absence of a full recusal from the Cohen investigation means that Sessions can weigh in on certain matters related to the investigation that reach Justice Department headquarters, said Stanley Twardy, a former U.S. attorney for Connecticut who's now a white-collar criminal defense lawyer at the law firm Day Pitney.

There are no hard rules governing when Sessions would need to step aside, and decisions will depend on the specific issues at hand, Twardy said. "It's a question of what Sessions has decided to do," Twardy said.

However, there are multiple layers protecting the integrity of the Cohen investigation, Twardy said. For example, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York is fiercely independent and comprised of career prosecutors Trump can't fire. The Cohen probe is being overseen by Robert Khuzami, Berman's deputy and a former Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement director.

The FBI is also involved in the investigation, and there's a grand jury that can make independent decisions -- all of which help insulate the probe from any political interference, Twardy said.
They kissed, chastely. They thrust their shoulders back for a 21-gun salute. And, yes, they shook hands - and even, at one point, held outstretched hands for a brief jaunt amid the columns.

President Donald Trump's review of the troops to celebrate the arrival of French President Emmanuel Macron's arrival at the White House Tuesday was keeping with tradition, though the president - a self-proclaimed law-and-order leader with a professed weakness for military parades - couldn't help but wear the Cheshire cat look of man who got to gaze upon his military might by simply stepping onto his back portico.

Tuesday morning's breeziness on the White House South Lawn, however, belied tougher private discussions to come - on everything from the Iran nuclear deal to how to handle the aftermath of their recent joint strike in Syria.

But for at least an hour, Trump was able to offer Macron a slimmed-down version of last July's Bastille Day parade in Paris - an event Trump enjoyed so much that he ordered up his own military procession this coming Veterans Day.

After "Hail to the Chief," as well as both countries' national anthems, Trump and Macron stepped down off their podium to walk the line of the crisp troops - rarely directly facing them, but angling their heads slightly to take in the military tableau.

Both Trump's wife, Melania, and Macron's wife, Brigitte, also attended the ceremony, as silent - if arresting - partners. The first lady, in particular, cast a striking silhouette against the overcast sky - clad in a sleek, solidly white Michael Kors suit and white hat, which seemed to channel Olivia Pope, the heroine of ABC's political drama "Scandal."

At one point, a marching band clad in revolutionary gear - black tri cornered hats and red blazers - glided across the lawn, woodwinds in the front and percussion in the rear.

Though both leaders addressed the crowd, and one another, during the ceremony, the conversation turned tougher during a brief gathering after in the Oval Office, during which Trump was asked if he would be willing to stay in the Iran nuclear deal - something Macron is hoping to persuade him to do.

"We'll see," Trump said, before calling it "a terrible deal," "insane" and "ridiculous."

Still, in a possible olive branch, Trump declared, "It should never have been made. But we will be talking about it."

In literature announcing the arrival ceremony, the White House - in perhaps either an effort to emphasize United States' long relationship with France or a bit of a historical blunder - proclaimed the proud U.S. tradition of a military arrival ceremony dates back to the 17th century - at least approximately 76 years before the United States became a country.
Five years after ground was broken for Mobile's Airbus assembly line and two years after the first jet built there took flight, the city and county seem close to fulfilling the last big piece of the promises that brought it to Alabama in the first place.

On Tuesday morning, the Mobile County Commission approved its $125,000 share of dredging work off Arlington Point. A short while later passage of a similar measure ponying up the city's share was interrupted by procedural confusion during a City Council meeting. While that discussion was heated at times, it seemed to involve no opposition to the measure itself, and the upshot was that the council may vote to approve it at next week's meeting.

Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson suggested Tuesday that the benefits go beyond satisfying an old promise to Airbus. Re-establishing a dock at Arlington point also stands to be an asset for future development of the Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley, he said.

At the March meeting of the Mobile Airport Authority, MAA Executive Director Elliot Maisel explained that part of the development agreement between Airbus and local governments had been the re-establishment of an old dock at Arlington Point, south of downtown Mobile and the state docks.

Airbus doesn't built jets from scratch at Brookley: It assembles them from major components -- wings, fuselage sections and tail -- shipped in from Europe. That's a process so specialized and complex that it was featured on the Science Channel show "Mega Shippers."

Since the Final Assembly Line opened, those components have come in via a container terminal at the Port of Mobile, then have been trucked to Brookley. But the Mobile Airport Authority has been working to rehabilitate what Maisel called "a broken-down little dock" at Arlington Point and the road needed to tie it to Airbus.

It also needed to dredge a channel to the dock, and that was a little tricky: There was a question of how to distribute the cost between the parties, and a potential question of liability if the dredging stirred up old contamination. Ultimately, according to Maisel and others, contamination turned out not to be a problem.

County Attorney Jay Ross said the agreement finalized in March by the Airport Authority called for the city and county each to put up $125,000, with Airbus to pay if the cost of the dredging ran higher than $250,000.

"It's an agreement goes back to July 2012, when we were agreeing to embrace Airbus as a component in our community, working with public dollars," Mobile City Councilwoman Bess Rich said during Tuesday's discussion. "Talking about dredging was like the last thing on the list if I'm not mistaken."

The general consensus seemed to be clear enough that this was an economic development promise the city was obligated to honor. And the council seemed to be pedaling smoothly toward approval until a stick jammed through its front spokes sent it flying over its own handlebars.

Councilman John Williams, who tends to be the council's sharpest observer of proper procedure, first questioned whether circumstances justified the somewhat unusual move of approving the measure immediately, rather than holding it over for a week as it normally would do for such an item. That morphed into tangle of questions over whether the measure had been properly advertised to the public, whether the council needed to hold a formal public comment session on it and whether the need to do so prevented immediate action.

The primary participants were Williams, council attorney Wanda Cochran and city attorney Ricardo Woods. At one point Williams suggested blame for the confusion stemmed from a foul-up by those who'd put the item on the agenda. It was sponsored by Stimpson and submitted by Woods, who took issue. The exchange starts shortly after the 1-hour mark in the video of the meeting.

Williams: "I think that simply, those who sponsored this failed to, uh --

Woods: "That's not accurate. That is not accurate."

Williams, forcefully: "Mr. Ricardo Woods, I am not talking to you right now."

Woods: "I'm talking to you, sir."

Williams, over Woods' continued assertion: "I don't care, it is time for you to get back in order. I won't have it."

After Council Vice President Levon Manzie called for decorum, some clarity eventually emerged. Cochran, Woods and City Clerk Lisa Lambert agreed that adequate notice had been given, that the meeting didn't have to feature a formal public comment period, and the council could vote immediately if it so choose.

However, Williams withheld unanimous consent, meaning normal procedure would apply: The measure would be held over for a week and come up for a vote at the council's next gathering.

Aside from the procedural mayhem, reception to the project itself seemed positive. Williams himself said that "certainly we need to do the dredging we've agreed to do, and we need to have a contract." Earlier, at the council's preliminary work session, economic development officials and Stimpson had spoken enthusiastically about its benefits as the Airbus plant sees a potential increase in production from its current four planes a month.

David Rodgers, the new vice president for economic development at the Mobile Area of Commerce, said that having a functional water terminal at Brookley would be a big deal. Jetliner components would still come into the port via large ships, but instead of being trucked to Brookley they'd be transferred to barges and floated there.

"The impact of this really for us is it gives us now a barge dock facility at Brookley," Rodgers said. "Which for our recruitment efforts for manufacturing for over there, for other aerospace manufacturers, is going to be huge for us. ... Yes, this is from the original agreement but this is definitely a step for progress for us."

Councilman C.J. Small responded that what Rodgers was describing was "some good stuff."

"I'll also add that as Airbus goes from Rate 4 to Rate 6, possibly Rate 8, this will be a huge benefit for them to be able to do that, to increase their productivity," said Stimpson.

Airbus has previously said that the possible increase in production could lead to significant hiring, raising its workforce from about 400 to about 600.
Quin Hillyer

By Quin Hillyer, a Mobile-based Contributing Editor for National Review Online. His new novel, Mad Jones, Heretic, is available now at Amazon.com.

Don't believe the dire predictions about the "cliffs of corruption" supposedly evident in Alabama's "worst bill of the 2018 legislative session."

By the time HB 317, the controversial bill exempting "economic development professionals" from registering as lobbyists, was signed into law by Gov. Kay Ivey, it had been amended into a temporary, reasonable attempt to fix a real problem.

Nonetheless, to read most of the media coverage, and to listen to some claims in gubernatorial debates, this new law is designed to give "fat cats a pathway around the ethics law." But that's sheer hysteria.

Here's the truth.

There are indeed people known as "economic development professionals" who work for companies deciding where to locate new outlets or build new factories. They come from out of state, and they bring jobs.

They visit with local officials to examine the benefits and drawbacks of moving into Alabama. They visit other states and do the same. Sure, they might ask for tax abatements or other "incentives" for their companies, but it's part of a broader package of plusses and minuses - and rather than them being the ones with hat in hand to Alabama, our state is competing against other states, hat in hand, for the developers' approval.

The goal on the developers' side is profits; on our side, it's jobs. And, to be clear, the developers are not "lobbying" in the commonly understood sense of the term.

Unlike most states, Alabama features ethics laws that require these outsiders to register as "lobbyists." The burdens of such registration are significant, and a deterrent to even considering Alabama.

In the December 2015 edition of the trade journal IPT Insider (Institute of Professionals in Taxation) Insider, located in Atlanta, a Michigan insurer for construction projects named Gregory Burkart wrote that Alabama's strict law makes it unpleasant for companies even to talk to Alabama officials.

"Within 90 days of registering, a new lobbyist has to take a training course provided by the State Ethics Commission," he wrote, and complained that the lobbyist/economic developer and his employer must "file quarterly reports" and are subject to other counterproductive restrictions.

From Atlanta, economic developer Jay Garner wrote to the Ivey administration to explain that the required training session is time consuming and hampers the necessary ability of the developer to "react quickly to the dynamics of the process."

In other words, Alabama wants them to do us a favor by bringing jobs here, but hurts their ability to do so. Hence, HB 317, which originally offered broad exemptions to such economic development personnel.

Perhaps too broad. The original bill raised hackles because it could have enabled legislators to claim to be such professionals and hire themselves out, looking for favors. Concerns about the bill were valid.

What the bill's critics failed to credit, however, is that it was substantially amended, much for the better, before it passed.

As passed, the law prohibits legislators and public employees from working as economic development professionals while in their offices and two years afterwards. It disallows traditional lobbyists from reclassifying themselves as "economic development professionals" to escape ethics rules. It retains the prohibition against legislators receiving any "thing of value" (including being "wined and dined") from such developers. And - this is crucial - it applies only until next April 1.

Read that again: The new exemptions for economic developers will sunset in just one year. This is now a temporary measure to ensure Alabama doesn't chase away jobs in the next year - until a newly created public commission on ethics reform can make its report.

That commission is the key. While the commission's design is imperfect, its work will be done in public, and its membership will include a representative of the Alabama Press Association, which is hardly likely to approve ethics changes that hide corruption from view.

In sum, this new law regarding economic developers is narrow, is time-limited, and is in response to a legitimate concern. Its temporary exemptions will be subject to a much broader review of all the state's ethics laws, and will be revisited next year as part of that broader review.

This isn't an invitation to corruption; it's a single-year legislative patch, in the name of economic sanity.
The City of Gainesville joined 10 other Florida cities in a lawsuit challenging portions of the state statute restricting local regulation of guns.

The City Commission unanimously approved a motion Thursday to sign the citys name onto the lawsuit. Commissioners Harvey Ward, Helen Warren, David Arreola, Adrian Hayes-Santos and Mayor Lauren Poe also signed on as individual plaintiffs. The lawsuit, against Gov. Rick Scott and other state officials, challenges the personal penalties the state statute imposes on local officials who attempt to regulate firearms and the citys inability to regulate firearms on city-owned property.

Currently, local government officials who enact legislation to regulate firearms can be subject to a $5,000 fine and removal from office, according to a Florida statute. The 11 cities are arguing the personal penalties are unconstitutional.

The state of Florida and Rick Scott have continued to pass preemption laws restricting local communities from being able to protect their residents, Hayes-Santos said.

Hayes-Santos chose to sign on as an individual plaintiff because he feels the states preemption law prevents local governments from being able to do their jobs.

Elected officials should be able to pass laws without fear of being removed from office, he said.

Typically, private property owners are allowed to regulate firearms on their own property, but this authority doesnt extend legally to cities under Floridas preemption law. This lawsuit will challenge this portion of the law as unconstitutional.

City Commissioner Charles Goston chose not to sign onto the lawsuit as an individual because he said he wants to demand immediate action at a rally in Tallahassee next Thursday.

I would not want to sit back and wait and see what the results of what the lawsuit are going to be when we as individuals, were going to be the lawsuit, and theyre going to have to tell us something, Goston said in the meeting.

Susan Bottcher, a former city commissioner, praised the Commission for joining the lawsuit. Bottcher said she believed the law was unconstitutional when she was a commissioner but was told she wouldnt be successful if she tried to fight it.

I am both glad and also saddened that it took all of the horrific events and shootings over the last seven years for us to get to this point, she said.

Contact Jessica Giles at jgiles@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter at @jessica_giles_.

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In this Jan. 19, 2016 file photo, handguns are displayed at the Smith & Wesson booth at the Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show in Las Vegas.
When Gainesville Police Officer Josh Meurers partner arrived to the city from Germany in February, they didnt bond right away. But after a month of training and playing fetch together, Meurer and Ranger are inseparable.

The police department introduced Ace and Ranger its two newest K-9 Unit members  to the Gainesville community Monday morning in a press conference at its headquarters, located at 545 NW Eighth Ave.

Ace and Ranger, two 18-month-old German shepherd/Belgian Malinois mixes, sniffed their way around the departments Hall of Heroes room to greet roughly 20 residents and police officers in attendance. Ranger smiled with his tongue flopping out of his mouth while Ace posed calmly for photos.

The K-9s panted and whimpered loudly as Lt. Jeff Blundell thanked the donors who raised money for the department to purchase the dogs, which cost about $8,000 each, and presented plaques commemorating their donations. Nancy Perry, 72, and her goddaughter 10-year-old Kaiya Varner, donated the money to purchase Ace. Steven A. Bagen & Associates, a Gainesville law firm, donated the rest for Ranger.

The GPD K-9 Unit has a total of seven dogs and is looking to add two more dogs by November, Blundell said.

Ace and Ranger are dual-purpose K-9s, which means theyre trained to patrol the streets with their handler and sniff out narcotics.

As mixed breeds, Ace and Ranger have the best of both worlds: the small frame of a Belgian Malinois and nose of a German shepherd.

The dogs undergo a three-month initial training to learn obedience and commands, Blundell said. Gainesville police K-9 handlers begin living with their new partners a week before training to bond.

Meurer and Ranger have two more months of training before they are certified by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Meurer said.

Meurer said he thought flying from Germany to Gainesville was a culture shock for Ranger. When he first moved in, Ranger didnt notice the screen door in his home and tried to run through it. After bouncing off the screen, the pup shook it off and tried again, Meurer said.

Meurer said he didnt expect Ranger to become such a big part of his life, but now the two are inseparable.

When I leave a room, hell follow me, he said. When I take a shower, hell wait outside the door until Im done.

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Ace loves to be the center of attention. Although he stays off the furniture at home, he jumped on top of tables to greet everyone speaking with his handler Officer Edward Ratliff at the press conference.

Ace moved into Ratliffs home Dec. 13 and completed his training two weeks ago. Ratliff said he bonded with Ace by going on walks together, playing ball and feeding him peanut butter.

Hes the coolest dog in the neighborhood, Ratliff said.

Contact Amanda Rosa at arosa@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter at @AmandaNicRosa.

Edward Ratliff, 32, Gainesville Police Department Police officer pets Ace, 26-month old German Shepherd and Belgian Malinois mix, who is one of the newest additions to the K-9 special unit.
Posted on: April 24, 2018 3:56 PM

Este articulo tambien esta disponible en espanol

This article is also available in Spanish

Bishop Julio Murray has been setting out his hopes and vision after he was elected the new Primate of the province of Central America (IARCA). He was unanimously chosen during the provinces Sixth synod which was held in San Jose, Costa Rica. The province includes five dioceses: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Panama.

Bishop Julio is currently the bishop of Panama  a role he will continue to fulfil  as well as interim bishop of Costa Rica. He succeeds Archbishop Sturdie Downs, who stepped down earlier this year. His installation service is expected to take place in Panama in August.

In an interview with the Anglican Communion News Service, Bishop Julio spoke of his surprise and delight at being chosen for the role and said he thanked God for the opportunity to serve as the provinces chief pastor. Looking ahead, he pledged to continue what he called kingdom business across the province.

It is important to continue to empower young people, women, men as disciples of the gospel of Jesus Christ, he said. We have been a people of hope and we are not going to stop ... because the kingdom business is here to stay. And we want to be prepared, as disciples, to make our contribution as disciples of Jesus Christ.

We are a vibrant church. We are a small church but we are well respected (in society). We have been called several times to be part of conflict resolution  so we are taken seriously. And we are an inclusive church - we want to be a church that walks with those who have historically been excluded. We want to work with people who are usually excluded from the table where decisions are made  so that they can have a voice.

Bishop Julio said Anglicans across the province had made a significant contribution in areas such as education, human rights, migration and in working with farmers and with indigenous groups. He said he was committed to seeing such work continue.

One of the most important resources that any church has is the people. People in the Episcopal Church in Central America see themselves as church that offers others the opportunity to experience God  the God of transformation.

Our countries have been countries of hope for the longest time. The hope and the resilience of the people is what has been carrying us through. Thats where our optimism comes from  our hope in the Risen One. We know who holds our future.

Bishop Julio said he was keen to widen the range of voices in roles of influence.

I hope to work intentionally with more women and more young people. They are very important for the ministry of the church in Central America so we will make it our business to have them represented on the team.

And he stressed his desire to build up new leaders.

There is a need for education (within the church). We need to prepare the leadership of the church  the bishops; lay people; deacons. We need to look at how we empower the leadership to do the work here and not just look to England or the US.

This was one of the themes of the Synod, which included a workshop on Intentional Discipleship co-ordinated by the Mission department of the Anglican Communion.

The Synod took place against a backdrop of violence on the streets in one diocese  Nicaragua. Several people have been killed in the protests which are against changes to the social security system. Bishop Julio said the Church wanted to stand in solidarity with the people of Nicaragua and to offer help.

Anglicanos un pueblo de esperanza y aqui para quedarse, dice el nuevo Primado de America Central

This article is also available in English

Este articulo tambien esta disponible en ingles

Obispo Julio Murray ha estado exponiendo sus esperanzas y vision despues de que fue elegido el nuevo Primado de la Provincia de Centroamerica (IARCA). Fue elegido por unanimidad durante el Sexto Sinodo de la Provincia, que se celebro en San Jose, Costa Rica. La Provincia incluye cinco diocesis: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua y Panama.

El obispo Julio es actualmente el obispo de Panama, un rol que continuara desempenando, asi como el obispo interino de Costa Rica. Sucede al Arzobispo Sturdie Downs, que renuncio a principios de este ano. Se espera que su servicio de instalacion tenga lugar en Panama en agosto.

En una entrevista con el Servicio de Noticias de la Comunion Anglicana (ACNS), el obispo Julio hablo de su sorpresa y deleite al ser elegido para el papel y dijo que agradecio a Dios por la oportunidad de servir como el pastor principal de la Provincia. Mirando hacia el futuro, se comprometio a continuar lo que llamo el negocio del reino en toda la Provincia.

Es importante continuar empoderando a la gente joven, mujeres y hombres como discipulos del evangelio de Jesucristo, dijo. Hemos sido personas de esperanza y no vamos a parar... porque el negocio del reino llego para quedarse. Y queremos estar preparadas/os, como discipulas/os, para hacer nuestra contribucion como discipulas/os de Jesucristo.

Somos una iglesia vibrante. Somos una iglesia pequena pero somos respetados (en la sociedad). Hemos sido llamados varias veces para ser parte de la resolucion de conflictos, por lo que nos toman en serio. Y somos una iglesia inclusiva: queremos ser una iglesia que camina con aquellas personas que historicamente han sido excluidas. Queremos trabajar con personas que generalmente estan excluidas de la mesa donde se toman las decisiones, para que puedan tener voz.

El obispo Julio dijo que las/os anglicanas/os en toda la provincia habian hecho una contribucion significativa en areas como educacion, derechos humanos, migracion y en el trabajo con agricultores y con grupos indigenas. Dijo que estaba comprometido a que ese trabajo continuara.

Uno de los recursos mas importantes que tiene cualquier iglesia es la gente. La gente en la Iglesia Episcopal en America Central se ve a si misma como una iglesia que ofrece a otros la oportunidad de experimentar a Dios: el Dios de la transformacion.

Nuestros paises han sido paises de esperanza por mas tiempo. La esperanza y la resistencia de la gente es lo que nos ha llevado a traves de nosotros. De alli viene nuestro optimismo: nuestra esperanza en el Resucitado. Sabemos quien tiene nuestro futuro.

El obispo Julio dijo que estaba interesado en ampliar el rango de voces en roles de influencia.

Espero trabajar intencionalmente con mas mujeres y mas jovenes. Son muy importantes para el ministerio de la iglesia en America Central, por lo que haremos que nuestro negocio sea representarlos en el equipo.

Y enfatizo su deseo de formar nuevos lideres.

Hay una necesidad de educacion (dentro de la iglesia). Necesitamos preparar el liderazgo de la iglesia: los obispos; laicos; diaconos. Tenemos que ver como empoderamos al liderazgo para hacer el trabajo aqui y no solo mirar hacia Inglaterra o los EE. UU.

Este fue uno de los temas del Sinodo, que incluyo un taller sobre Discipulado intencional coordinado por el departamento de Mision de la Comunion Anglicana.

El Sinodo tuvo lugar en un contexto de violencia en las calles de una diocesis: Nicaragua. Varias personas han muerto en las protestas que estan en contra de los cambios en el sistema de seguridad social. El Obispo Julio dijo que la Iglesia queria solidarizarse con el pueblo de Nicaragua y ofrecer ayuda.
(ANSA) - Rome, April 23 - Italy on Monday gave Italian citizenship to terminally ill British toddler Alfie Evans so that he can hopefully be "immediately" moved to Italy from Liverpool, where doctors are set to pull the plug on him, the foreign ministry said. "Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano and Interior Minister Marco Minniti have granted citizenship to little Alfie," the ministry said.

"In this way the Italian government hopes that being an Italian citizen will enable the immediate transfer of the child to Italy".

Alfie is still fighting and has now become Italian, his father Tom said Monday. Tom Evans said outside the Liverpool hospital "my son belongs to Italy, I'm here and I'm staying here, I'll keep fighting like Alfie is continuing to fight." Speaking to people protesting against a British supreme court ruling to pull the plug, Evans said "I'll keep fighting for him" and said he was in touch with the Italian ambassador.

"I love Alfie, I love Kate (his mother) and I won't give up," he said.

Tom said that he and his wife were waiting for Alfano to call British opposite number Boris Johnson. "Alfie has been granted Italian citizenship, we are waiting for the Italian foreign minister to call Boris Johnson," said Evans. "Alfie belongs to Italy". Alfano and Johnson are at the Group of Seven foreign ministers' meeting in Toronto Monday.

Anthony Hayden, the British appeals court judge who recently authorised the hospital to pull the plug on Alfie, has decided to have an "urgent" phone conversation this evening with the Italian lawyers helping the family in their bid to keep the terminally ill toddler on life support, sources close to Tom and Kate Evans said Monday after Italy granted the child Italian citizenship.

It would be up to Alfie's parents to decide his fate if he were moved to Italy, deputy head of the national bioethics board (CNB), Maria Pia Garavaglia, told ANSA Monday. "In Italy, with the living will, we have an explicit law on end of life issues and, as far as minors are concerned, the holders of the right to choose are the parents," she said. "It is clear that with the acquisition of Italian citizenship Italian law will be applied, so it will be the parents that will decide," she said.

The procedures to pull the plug on Alfie were briefly suspended Monday afternoon.

Mariella Enoc, head of the Vatican's Bambino Gesu Hospital in Rome, said she had gone Monday to the Liverpool hospitalin order to bring Pope Francis's "closeness" to his parents. Meanwhile pro-life demonstrators tried to get into the Alder Hey Hospital but were blocked by police, as tension mounted on Monday. Hundreds of supporters of the parents gathered outside the hospital. "I spoke to the parents, I brought them the closeness of Pope Francis, but also of the many parents who find themselves in their situation," Enoc told ANSA, stressing that she had not been received by hoppital management.

"The parents are not resigned, they are doing their utmost to slow the start of the procedure (of pulling the plug), but nothing more can be done," Enoc said.

Alfie's parents on Friday made a fresh appeal to the European Court of Human Rights after Britain's Supreme Court rejected a plea to prevent doctors pulling the plug on him.

But on Monday the ECHR rejected that appeal, finding in favour of the British judges. Last Monday Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano urged his British counterpart, Boris Johnson, to allow Alfie, who is suffering from an undiagnosed degenerative disease, to be transferred to medical facilities in Rome.

Alfie's family is in a legal battle with Alder Hey, a children's hospital that says it is best to withdraw ventilation as his condition cannot be treated and has destroyed much of his brain.

The boy's parents want to take him to Rome's Bambino Gesu' children's hospital, which is owned by the Vatican.

Alfano asked for the parents' request to be granted to take the boy to the hospital in the Italian capital, "medical facilities of a very high level that accept him in on the base of an agreement".

He noted, however, that "Alfie is a British citizen and Italy respects the decisions made in the framework of British national jurisdiction" and that "the British national healthcare system and medical standards are among the highest in the world".

The Rome hospital has reportedly given the same prognosis but would be willing to perform a tracheotomy.


(ANSA) - Rome, April 24 - A tug-of-war continued Tuesday between Britain and Italy over Alfie Evans, a terminally ill British toddler who has been made an Italian citizen in a bid to beat British court orders to let him die.

As Alfie survived being taken off life support and his parents practised mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, negotiations continued on bringing the child to Rome but the UK insisted it had jurisdiction, well-informed sources said.

Amid the new developments, British High Court appeals judge Anthiny Hayden, who signed the ruling pulling the plug on Alfie, set a fresh hearing for this afternoon. The hearing has been called in Manchester at 15:30 local time (16:30 Italian time), his spokesman said. Lawyers from all parties including the family and Liverpool's Alder Hey Hospital have been summoned, sources said.

Italy said it was ready to fly in a respirator for Alfie in a bid to beat court orders to pull the plug, Vatican-owned Rome's Bambino Gesu Hospital chief Mariella Enoc said. The hospital said "Alfie now has a respirator. The Bambino Gesu team is ready to leave on a plane provided by (Defence) Minister (Roberta) Pinotti." "I spoke a short while ago with Thomas, Alfie's father. At this time Alfie has an oxygen mask but we need to transport him". She added "a short time ago I spoke with Ambassador (Raffaele) Trombetta to whom I said that our team has been alerted and is ready to leave in a few minutes".

Contacts between Italian representatives and British political, health and judicial authorities have been continuing since last night but for now the UK authorities say the child's British citizenship must take precedence over his newly granted Italian one in deciding jurisdiction, Italian sources said Tuesday.

Vatican diplomacy is at work to get Alfie to Italy for treatment, sources said Tuesday.

Hopes are growing after the child survived being taken off life support, the sources said.

The Bambino Gesu Hospital has everything ready to welcome Alfie, they said.

They noted that the chances of bringing the child to Italy have risen since he was made an Italian citizen, although the UK is still insisting it has jurisdiction.

Liverpool's Alder Hey Hospital meanwhile said it would not be issuing any bulletins on Alfie's condition out of respect for the privacy of the child and his family.

It said that Alfie had been put back on oxygen but not reattached to a life-support machine.

Alfie is still alive almost twelve hours after his breathing tube was removed, sources close to his family said Tuesday. Alfie, who is now an Italian citizen, was taken off the respirator at 22:30 British time Monday (23:30 Italian).

His parents Tom Evans and Kate James gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation all night after he was taken off life support, the sources said.

Diplomatic contacts are ongoing with the aim of putting Alfue back on life support, sources said.

Alfie is still breathing but will need "help" to continue to do so "in a couple of hours", his father Tom told the media Tuesday. This was not what doctors had expected, he said outside a Liverpool hospital.

"They said he was suffering but instead he is not suffering even without the respirator," said Tom Evans.

He added that Alfie had not had water or food for six hours but was then hydrated by medics.

Alfie's mother Kate James is sleeping with him, Tom Evans said. Alfie was later put back on oxygen and water, his mother Kate James said. She added: "It doesn't matter what happens, he has already shown that the doctors are wrong". Kate James said "it is surprising".

Alfie's family is in a legal battle with Alder Hey, which has been granted the right to withdraw ventilation as his condition cannot be treated and has destroyed much of his brain.


New Sorrentino film 'Loro' on power of Berlusconi First volume of two-film series, 'Loro 2' coming on May 10

(ANSAmed) - Rome, April 24 - The new Paolo Sorrentino film 'Loro', the first of a two-film series depicting the life of former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi, hits Italian theatres on Thursday with a 500-screen release by Universal, sources said Tuesday.



The second of the two films is set to debut in Italian cinemas on May 10, just after the start of the Cannes Film Festival, with no word yet on whether the film will be part of the official selection line-up there, although it is one of the most keenly awaited films this spring.



In the film, "loro", which is Italian for "them", stands for all the well-known Berlusconi tropes: beauty pageants, cocaine, women in various states of undress, ambitious girls willing to do anything to get ahead, former government ministers wheeling and dealing, all of which and all of whom swirl around the man at the centre of power, played in the film by a masterly Toni Servillo.



The film, set around 2008, portrays the image of a slovenly Italy "at the end of an empire", sources said after a preview screening.



In a particularly symbolic scene, a sheep is shown in front of a TV watching quiz shows and advertising messages, enchanted, until the giant TV suddenly turns off and the sheep falls to the ground.



This first volume is almost entirely dedicated to a brilliant performance by Riccardo Scamarcio, in the role of one Sergio Morra, who could be a stand-in for real-life Berlusconi escort-pimp Gianpaolo Tarantini.



In Sorrentino's director's notes, he pointed out that Berlusconi is "much more" than just one thing, and quoted Hemingway's "Nobody ever lives their life all the way up except bullfighters".



"Paraphrasing, perhaps the image that most epitomises Silvio Berlusconi that one can have is this: he's a bullfighter", said Sorrentino.



The Naples-born director, 47, is perhaps best-known for the La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty), which won the Oscar for best foreign-language film in 2014.



He is also known for Il Divo, about Giulio Andreotti, and the Consequences of Love, both starring Servillo.



Youth (2015) was Sorrentino's second English-language film, and featured Michael Caine as a retired orchestra conductor.



It competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.




Migrant departures on the rise, 1,400 rescued, 11 dead Including 'bring friend' offer. 4 Italians stopped in France

(ANSAmed) - ROME, APRIL 24 - Mass migrant departures from Africa are picking up again after a slight respite, with about 1,400 migrants rescued from the Strait of Sicily in recent days, and 11 bodies recovered on Sunday.



Meanwhile, French police stopped four Italians during an anti-fascist demonstration on Sunday that began in Italy near the border with France and ended in the area of Briancon on the French side.



Interior Ministry figures, which are not updated with the latest arrivals, show that 7,814 migrants have arrived in Italy thus far in 2018, a 79% drop compared to the same period in 2017, when 36,871 migrants had arrived.



April marked the 10th consecutive month of a decrease in arrivals.



Arrivals showed a marked increase in recent days, however, with the majority coming from Libya.



In terms of search and rescue in the Mediterranean, the Italian Navy and Coast Guard are active as well as the Libyan Navy and Coast Guard, the EU mission EUNAVFOR Med, and NGOs.



On Sunday, the Libyan Navy rescued 263 migrants in two operations off the coasts of Zliten and Sabratha, the latter of which included the recovery of 11 bodies.



On Monday morning there was a shipwreck off the coast of Libya, where 63 people were rescued by the Libyan Coast Guard and the NGO Proactiva Open Arms.



Also on Monday morning, the ship Aquarius - which is being rented by the NGO SOS Mediterranee in partnership with Doctors Without Borders - arrived at the Italian port of Trapani with 537 migrants aboard, including 85 women, 125 children and three newborns.



On Sunday in Pozzallo (Ragusa), 79 Tunisians arrived on a wooden boat, and authorities stopped the driver, allegedly a smuggler.



An investigation revealed that smugglers had "promised" the crossing with an offer of "bring a friend and travel for free".



Meanwhile, authorities are trying to calm tensions following Sunday's march organised by the movement 'Briser les frontieres' (Break the Borders), aimed at "freeing the borders from fascists", held at the Italy-France border in the Alps.



The march was organised after far-right militants of the Generation Identitaire movement erected plastic netting along the border stretching hundreds of metres to prevent the passage of undocumented foreigners.



Among the Italians stopped by French police (three men and one woman), there was an anarchist from Cagliari and an anarchist with ties to the far-left militant Askatasuna centre in Turin.



Political commentary soon followed, with League leader Matteo Salvini weighing in.



"Every once in a while, a journalist tells me 'the Austrians are bad, they control their borders and expel illegals'. They're not bad, it's we who have the government of complicit cretins, because we should be doing the exact same thing," Salvini said.



Edoardo Patriarca of the Democratic Party (PD) said Europe "has already known iron curtains and walls".



"Is Salvini targeting migration because he wants to flirt with that part of the 5-Star Movement that spoke, wrongly, about the NGOs providing taxis at sea?" Patriarca said, referring to a comment allegedly made by anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Luigi Di Maio, which Di Maio denied.



Ylenja Lucaselli of the rightwing Brothers of Italy party called for "attention to the rise in arrivals", which she said "represents, in any case, a danger for security and our country's social cohesion".(ANSAmed).




Syrian govt airstrikes in Idlib, 10 dead Medical and civil protection sources report

(ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, APRIL 24 - At least 10 civilians, including children, were killed in Syrian government airstrikes in northwest Syria in an area outside of government control in the province of Idlib, according to medical and civil protection sources.



The sources said the 10 victims were killed in airstrikes using barrel bombs on Maarrat Harma, south of Idlib city.



News from that area of Syria cannot be independently verified on the ground.(ANSAmed).




STRASBOURG - The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has decided to monitor the investigation into the assassination of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.



It will prepare a report "ensuring that the whole truth emerges" and that those who carried out the murder, as well as those who commissioned it, are brought to justice.



The Assembly's decision came after 114 of its members signed a motion highlighting "three Maltese men have been charged for the role they had as executors of the murder (but) those who commissioned the murder are still unpunished".



On Monday, Galizia's sons were at the Council of Europe to demand justice for their mother.



PACE President Michele Nicoletti, in an opening address to the Assembly's spring plenary session in Strasbourg, referred to them. "They knew that we do not have superpowers to solve the mystery of their mother's death. Nevertheless, they asked for our support; for our solidarity with the victims - not with the perpetrators - and for our commitment to use all instruments at our disposal to help them." "I believe that if we want to restore the confidence of new generations in democratic institutions, we owe them this commitment," Nicoletti said.(ANSAmed).


Aviation Africa 2018 opened its two-day summit and exhibition with strong growth predictions for the African Aviation Market.

The Aviation Africa Summit and Exhibition took place - 17-18 April 2018 in Cairo, Egypt - having opened to 980 attendees from 56 countries where the key message from the Summits first day was the strong growth predictions for the African aviation market.

The event opened just a few months after the African Union launched the Single African Air Traffic Market (SAATM), which 23 countries have subscribed to so far. The SAATM is de-regulated airspace, which has been set up to open up African skies, potentially increasing the aviation market in Africa and reducing air transportation costs by 25%.

Boeings long-term market outlook forecasts that air traffic for the continents commercial airlines will grow 5.9 percent annually between 2017 and 2036, and that African carriers will need 1,220 new airplanes to meet this growth.

Safwat Musallam, chairman, Egyptair Holding Company gave the welcome keynote address from the hosts and focused on how the group is looking to new horizons for the future.

The event featured an exhibition hall of 118 global aerospace companies including Gold Sponsors: Airbus, Boeing & GE Aviation and Silver Sponsors:AerCap, Bombardier, DAE Capital & Rolls-Royce.

Exhibitors found the networking at the show the key to their participation, Simon Knechtli, executive director aerospace, Willis Towers Watson said: In being committed to Egyptian aviation, the Aviation Africa 2018 is a great opportunity for us to meet our network.

The attendees reached a new record total for the event of 980. The delegates and visitors to the event span 56 countries and include 386 personnel from 42 airlines and 50 speakers from across Africa and internationally.

Aviation Africa 2018 was held under the auspices of the Ministry of Aviation, Republic of Egypt, with Egyptair as host airline and aerospace group.

The Aviation Africa event took place at the Intercontinental City Stars on April 17-18 2018. It held a business-to-business exhibition offering networking opportunities for airlines, government representatives, manufacturers and service providers.

Further information can be found at www.aviationafrica.aero
PODCAST 38: How one African airline is preparing for return of tourism

PODCAST 39: Optimism as Africa and Middle East sees positive growth for 2021

PODCAST 37: How Qatar rode the storm and Dassaults new Falcon

PODCAST 35: Change abounds at IATA and new cargo boost while ATM has a new approach

PODCAST 34 : Why India is vital to Middle East aviation recovery
The People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) is upgrading its fleet of heavy armored vehicles, Russian and Vietnamese defense sources say.



Vietnamese T-90 (Picture source: Youtube)

Hanoi is receiving Russian T-90S main battle tanks (MBTs). "The deliveries of the T-90S/SK MBTs to Vietnam have already started. The contract is to be completed before the end of 2019," a source from Russian defense industry says. According to the annual report of the Uralvagonzavod (UVZ) research-and-manufacturing corporation for 2016, No.704 customer (Vietnam) is to receive 64 T-90S/SK tanks. Therefore, Hanoi takes the delivery of both the baseline and the command (T-90SK) modifications of the T-90S.

At the same time, PAVN updates a number of legacy T-54/55 tanks to the T-54M3 standard. "The Vietnamese military has launched a program to upgrade its fleet of T-54/55 tanks," a source from Vietnamese defense industry says. He adds that "several dozen" tanks will be modified. "The modernization of the whole fleet of T-54/55 MBTs is unlikely due to financial constraints," he says.

According to the source, the T-54M3 tank has been fitted with additional Super Blazer explosive reactive armor that protects the tank's frontal arc and sides. The vehicle has retained the organic D-10T2S 100 mm rifled gun of the baseline T-54/55. The T-54M3 has also received a new sighting system with infrared channel and a meteorological sensor. The tank's armament suite has been reinforced by a 60 mm mortar installed in the left part of the turret. The organic DShKM 12.7 mm heavy anti-aircraft machinegun has been retained also. All the new components of the T-54M3 tank are supplied by Israel's Rafael company.

"PAVN has launched several programs aimed at the modernization of Cold war-era systems. The T-54B tanks, the BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket systems and the P-18 radars will be upgraded in the first instance," the Vietnamese source said. According to him, the T-54Bs, not T-55 or Chinese-made Type 59 tanks, will be rebuilt into the T-54M3s.

The Vietnamese military has been beefing up the combat potential of its sea and air components in recent years. However, the land service of PAVN, Vietnam People's Ground Forces (VPGF) saw almost no upgrade. In 2015, Hanoi refurbished ASU-85 85 mm self-propelled anti-tank guns (SPATG) and issued them to the 168th Artillery Brigade of VPGF.

The acquisition of T-90S and modernization of the T-54B will shore the combat potential of Vietnamese ground troops. However, the firepower of the T-54M3 lags behind that of most modern tanks.

Vietnam's armor fleet comprises the T-54/55, T-62, Type 59 (a Chinese copy of the T-54), and even WWII-age T-34-85 tanks. Thus, Hanoi urgently needs to bring it to a modern standard.
The tariffs are aimed primarily at China for flooding the global market with cheap steel and aluminum.

President Donald Trump's escalating dispute with China over trade and technology is threatening jobs and profits in working-class communities where his "America First" agenda hit home. (Photo: AP)

Washington: President Donald Trump's escalating dispute with China over trade and technology is threatening jobs and profits in working-class communities where his "America First" agenda hit home.

The Commerce Department has received more than 2,400 applications from companies seeking waivers from the administration's tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, which may result in duty payments of millions of dollars for larger businesses.

The department has begun posting the requests online for public comment; several of the applications released so far suggest deep misgivings with Trump's protectionist strategy, especially in areas where he won strong support during the 2016 election.

The tariffs are aimed primarily at China for flooding the global market with cheap steel and aluminum. But they've also led to confusion and uncertainty, according to Associated Press interviews and a review of records.

In Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin, for example, businesses operating in the furniture, energy and food sectors have outlined the financial difficulties they'd face if they're not excused from the steel tariff.

In Okmulgee, Oklahoma, dozens of jobs hang in the balance as office furniture giant Steelcase waits to hear back from the Commerce Department.

A Steelcase subsidiary, PolyVision, operates a plant in Okmulgee that uses a special type of steel from Japan to manufacture a durable glass-like surface for whiteboards and architectural purposes.

PolyVision "cannot and will not be able to procure" from U.S. companies the cold-rolled steel it requires "in a sufficient and reasonably available amount or of a satisfactory quality," Steelcase said.

Trump won most of the votes cast for president in Okmulgee County. Without a waiver, Steelcase warned, the "economic viability of PolyVision (and) the small town of Okmulgee" would be jeopardized. The waiver request also indicates that a USD 15 million plant expansion may be at risk.

Steelcase and PolyVision are on the verge of making the investment, which would create new construction and manufacturing jobs, according to the request.

Roger Ballenger, Okmulgee's city manager, said he and other local officials are "very concerned about the situation with PolyVision."

The tariffs - 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on imported aluminum - are designed to protect and rebuild the US companies that manufacture the metals.

The U.S. temporarily exempted several major trading partners, including the European Union, Mexico and Canada. China, which was left on the target list, retaliated by imposing tariffs on USD 3 billion in US products, including apples, pork and ginseng.

Trump responded by adding more protectionist measures as punishment for Chinese theft of U.S. intellectual property. And Beijing punched back by proposing tariffs on $50 billion in U.S. products including small aircraft and soybeans - a direct threat to rural areas that were key to Trump's victory.

John Hritz, CEO of JSW Steel USA in Baytown, Texas, said his company is in lockstep with Trump's approach. "We're in favor of growing the steel industry in this country," Hritz said.

JSW Steel, owned by Indian conglomerate JSW Group, is embarking on a USD 500 million overhaul of the plant that it says will create hundreds of jobs.

The growth would be welcomed in Baytown, where unemployment is 9.8 percent, more than double the national rate. Baytown is located partly in Harris County, which Democrat Hillary Clinton won, and partly in Chambers County, which Trump handily won.

The future is much murkier for another Baytown steel business, Borusan Mannesmann Pipe. Without a waiver, Borusan may face tariffs of USD 25 million to $30 million annually if it imports steel tubing and casing from its parent company in Turkey, according to information the company provided to the AP.

Borusan said the Baytown production line would no longer be competitive and "jobs would be threatened" if it cannot import 135,000 metric tons of steel annually over the next two years. The pipes Borusan produces are used primarily as casing for oil and natural gas wells.

But if Commerce says yes, Borusan will be able to unlock a USD 25 million investment in the Baytown facility as it seeks to become a "100 percent domestic supplier," according to the waiver request.

An additional USD 50 million expansion in pipe fabrication capacity would follow, the company said, leading to as many as 170 new jobs.

Seneca Foods Corporation, the nation's largest vegetable canner, said in its waiver application that it's unclear, at best, if US suppliers have the ability or willingness to expand their production in the long term to meet the company's annual demand for tinplated steel.

But "clearly they cannot meet demand in the short term," Seneca told Commerce officials. That means Seneca has to buy a portion of what it needs from overseas.

A person with knowledge of Seneca's situation said the company would face a USD 2.25 million duty if the Commerce Department doesn't approve its waiver request for 11,000 metric tons of tinplate it already agreed to purchase from China.

The material is to be delivered this year and next, according to the waiver request. The person was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

Seneca said it employs more than 400 people at can-making facilities in Wisconsin and Idaho and near its headquarters in New York's Wayne County, where Trump bested Clinton.

The company doesn't warn layoffs are imminent if the waiver isn't approved. Instead, the tariffs would likely come out of Seneca's bottom line, the person said.
Agriculture credit is growing every year and reached Rs 10 lakh crore last fiscal.

Agriculture credit is growing every year and reached Rs 10 lakh crore last fiscal, the government said on Tuesday.

New Delhi: Agriculture credit is growing every year and reached Rs 10 lakh crore last fiscal, the government said on Tuesday while stressing upon the need to increase the flow to small farmers as well as providing loan access to tenant cultivators.

The agriculture ministry will soon bring a proposal before the Cabinet for improving lending to small and marginal farmers based on the recommendations of the Sarangi committee.

"Agriculture credit flow is going up every year. We have achieved the disbursal target of Rs 10 lakh crore in 2017-18 fiscal. The target for the current financial year has been enhanced to Rs 11 lakh crore," said Ashish Kumar Bhutani, joint secretary in Ministry of Agriculture.

On the sidelines of a conference, organised by industry body Ficci, he said disbursing agriculture credit is not a challenge but the challenge is to give it to right farmers. Bhutani said Rs 6.8 lakh crore was short-term crop loans out of Rs 10 lakh crore credit disbursed last fiscal. In the short-term crop loans, he said 50 per cent amount was provided to small and marginal farmers.

He said the ministry has sought data from banks for better targeting of agriculture credit. To provide credit access to lessee cultivators, he said government think tank Niti Aayog is working to find a suitable mechanism.

In his budget speech for 2018-19, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that NITI Aayog, in consultation with state governments, would evolve a suitable mechanism to enable access of lessee cultivators to credit without compromising the rights of the land owners.

"Presently, lessee cultivators are not able to avail crop loans. Consequently, a significant proportion of arable land remains fallow and tenant cultivators are forced to secure credit from usurious money lenders," he had said.

Addressing the conference, Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WRDA) Chairman B B Pattanaik announced that negotiable warehousing receipts would be now issued electronically, helping farmers to get easy bank finance against their stocks.

NABARD Deputy MD R Amalorpavanathan spoke about the need of integrated financing to farmers. He also pointed out that farmers are in distress because their margins have squeezed on account of rising input cost and low realisation.
Taxmen sent notices to multiple banks.

Banks which have been sent notices include SBI, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank. (Representational image)

New Delhi: Banks may soon be forced to stop all free services to customers. This comes amidst reports that tax authorities have sent notices to leading banks to cough up taxes for last five years for free services provided to customers who maintain minimum account balance.

Most banks waive off charges for services for customers who maintain minimum balance in their accounts. These include ATM transactions beyond a certain number, refund of fuel surcharge, issue of cheque books and debit cards, among others.

According to reports, the Directorate General of Goods and Services Tax Intelligence has sent notices to banks to pay tax on these free services provided to customers for the last five years, which includes the pre-GST era when service charges were implemented.

Banks which have been sent notices include SBI, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank. Other banks too are expected to be served with notices in the coming days.

The DGGST is calculating tax on these free services on the basis of charges which banks have recovered from customers who do not maintain a minimum prescribed balance.

While the government is said to be calculating tax liability on banks to be `6,000 crore, bankers estimate that the tax dues could be much higher.

Banks will find it difficult to recover charges from customers retrospectively. But they may be forced to charge taxes in the future on free ATM transactions and other services, which will put a burden on bank customers.

Banks are likely to challenge the notice and take up the issue with the finance ministry.

The SBI had to cut charges it had levied on non-maintenance of minimum charges on saving accounts recently due to public anger.

The matter has already assumed political dimensions. Your bank could soon charge you for ATM transactions, cheques and cards. Why??? Hint: Modi Govt? Taxes. Enjoy people. More #AchheDin are coming!," tweeted Congress leader Salman Soz.
The ED is the empowered agency to enforce the new ordinance.

The case of Modi and Choksi will be processed under the new ordinance, once CBI and ED file their respective charge sheets against them, they said.

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is set to confiscate assets worth over Rs 15,000 crore as part of its first action against absconders such as liquor baron Vijay Mallya and diamantaire Nirav Modi under the Fugitive Economic Offenders ordinance.

Officials said the agency has begun the work to bring together the existing cases of high-value fugitives and bank loan defaulters and it will soon approach various anti-money laundering courts to get orders issued against them under the ordinance.

They said the money laundering cases against Vijay Mallya, who is now based in London, Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choski, Winsome Diamond company promoter Jatin Mehta and others are expected to be picked up first for action.

The ED is the empowered agency to enforce the new ordinance.

Under the ordinance, the officials said, all assets of such an absconder, both in India and abroad, which have or have not been attached by the ED under the PMLA, will be confiscated immediately.

The case of Modi and Choksi will be processed under the new ordinance, once CBI and ED file their respective charge sheets against them, they said.

While Rs 9,890 crore worth of assets have been attached by the ED in the Mallya case, properties worth Rs 7,664 have been attached in the Nirav Modi-Mehul Choksi case.

In the first go, they said, it is estimated that over Rs 15,000 crore worth of assets could be confiscated by the ED under the provisions of the ordinance, aimed at those who flee the country after defaulting on multi-crore bank loans and similar instances of fraud.

The other such cases will be taken up gradually, they added. Under the PMLA, the ED could only confiscate the assets once the trial in a case finishes which usually takes a long time, they said.

President Ram Nath Kovind, last Sunday, had given assent to promulgation of Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance, 2018, giving authorities powers to attach and confiscate the proceeds of crime and properties of economic offenders.

It is aimed at deterring economic offenders from evading the process of law by remaining outside the jurisdiction of Indian courts.

The Centre brought the ordinance as there have been instances of economic offenders fleeing the jurisdiction of Indian courts, anticipating the commencement, or during the pendency, of criminal proceedings, the government said.

The rationale behind the law, the government said, was the absence of such offenders from Indian courts which hampers investigation and wastes court time and undermines the rule of law.

The existing civil and criminal provisions in law are not entirely adequate to deal with the severity of the problem, it said.
The Union Cabinet may take up the proposed ordinance during its meeting scheduled for April 25.

The proposed ordinance is likely to provide that freedom to the board member, sources in the know said.

New Delhi: In a significant move aimed at relaxing criteria for management control of companies facing liquidation proceedings in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), the government is likely to bring in an ordinance to further amend the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Act 2017.

The Union Cabinet may take up the proposed ordinance during its meeting scheduled for April 25.

There a likelihood that the ordinance could also have some provisions related to concerns of lakhs of homebuyers who have been victims of unfinished projects with realtors claiming bankruptcy, sources said.

According to highly placed sources, the ordinance is likely to provide flexibility to the board member of a corporate entity which is facing NCLT proceedings, to bid for it even though the member may be a majority shareholder or owner of another entity.

As of now an owner of a company who is on the board of the management of an entity which is facing insolvency proceedings, is not allowed to bid for that entity.

The proposed ordinance is likely to provide that freedom to the board member, sources in the know said.

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Act 2017 came into existence when the bill seeking amendments in the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code was passed by Parliament in January this year.

It prohibits certain persons from submitting a resolution plan in case of defaults. These include wilful defaulters, promoters or management of the company if it has an outstanding non-performing debt for over a year, and disqualified directors, among others. Further the amended code bars the sale of property of a defaulter to such

persons during liquidation.

Now the proposed ordinance which is likely to come before Cabinet on Wednesday is seeking further amendment in the Act, to provide greater leeway to board members in a company facing liquidation, to bid for it.
The actor was accused of poking fun at the Valmiki community while shooting a reality show in December 2017.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday stayed criminal proceedings against actor Salman Khan for his alleged controversial statement made against the Valmiki community.

A three-judge bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud said as an interim measure the criminal proceedings and enquiries initiated on the basis of FIRs lodged against the petitioner (Khan) in various states shall remain stayed. The petition also wanted a direction that all state police be instructed that no FIRs or complaints shall be registered against him pertaining to this case.

The actor was accused of poking fun at the Valmiki community while shooting a reality show in December 2017.
A case of abetment of suicide has been registered against 9 people and two of them have been arrested.

Dalits visiting the War Memorial at Bhima-Koregaon for commemorating the bicentenary of an 1818 victory of the East India Company over the Peshwa's forces came under attack on January 1, 2018. (Photo: File)

Pune: A 19-year-old Dalit woman, whose house was burnt down during the violence at Bhima-Koregaon in Pune district earlier this year, was found dead, with Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh leader Prakash Ambedkar on Monday claiming it appeared to be a "murder".

A senior police officer said that a case of abetment of suicide was registered against nine people, and two of them have been arrested.

The body of Pooja Sakat was found in a well near her house in Bhima-Koregaon area on Sunday morning. The day before, her family had registered a complaint that she was missing, a police officer had said earlier on Monday.

Her family alleged that some persons, whom she had named as accused in her statement to the police after her house was torched on January 1, were threatening and pressurising her to withdraw her statement, which drove her to suicide.

The police registered a case of abetment of suicide under IPC section 306 and offences under the Scheduled Castes And Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

There were no injury marks on her body, the police officer said. No suicide note was recovered, and further probe was underway, he added.

Pune Rural Superintendent of Police Suvez Haq told news agency PTI there was a property dispute between the victim's family and some of the accused persons, and police were probing all angles.

A case has been registered against nine people and two of them have been arrested, he said.

Speaking to reporters in Nagpur, Prakash Ambedkar, the grandson of Dr BR Ambedkar, said it seemed to be a case of murder.

"The firsthand report that I have got indicates that she was murdered. The autopsy report is awaited. All the people who have been named in the family's complaint should be arrested immediately," he said.

The police were reluctant to register the offence initially, he alleged, while rubbishing the theory that the death was related to the property dispute.

Dalits visiting the War Memorial at Bhima-Koregaon for commemorating the bicentenary of an 1818 victory of the East India Company over the Peshwa's forces came under attack on January 1, 2018. One person was killed and property worth crores of rupees was damaged.

Sakat family's house was burnt on January 2, and they are living in a rented house since then.

Dalit groups commemorate the 1818 battle as the East India Company's army consisted of Mahars, a Dalit community, who defeated the upper-caste Peshwa's forces. However, some Hindutva organisations had opposed the commemoration this time.

Following the incidents of January 1, Ambedkar had given a call for state-wide shut-down on January 3, which too witnessed violence in Mumbai and elsewhere in Maharashtra.
The court cautioned state poll panel that the high court may even stall the poll process if the directive was not followed.

The court cautioned state poll panel that the high court may even stall the poll process if the directive was not followed. (Representational Image)

Kolkata: In a rare instance on the use of social networking platforms in the elections, the Calcutta High Court has directed the West Bengal State Election Commission (WBSEC) to accept the nominations of 11 candidates contesting the Panchayat polls at Bhangar in South 24 Parganas through popular messenger service: WhatsApp.

While passing the order, Justice Subrata Talukdar cautioned the state poll panel that the high court may even stall the poll process if the directive was not followed. According to the judge, the 11 candidates should be allowed to fight the polls.

The high court's ruling came after CPI-ML Red Star leader Sharmishtha Chowdhury filed a petition complaining of facing resistance to file nominations even on Monday which was the extended day for filing nominations.

She claimed that 11 candidates could not file their nominations for the polls of Polerhat gram panchayat II in Bhangar which witnessed massive unrest over the construction of a power grid in wake of allegations of forcible land acquisition in 2017.

Chowdhury added that nine of the candidates later sent their nominations through WhatsApp to the block development officer to keep it as a 'record.'

The judge ordered the WBSEC to look into Chowdhury's complaint.

On Tuesday, the state poll panel submitted a report to the judge.

Chowdhury said, "The high court directed the WBSEC to accept the nominations of those 11 candidates through WhatsApp apart from making it sure that their names should feature in the candidates' list. It also asked the state poll panel to submit a report on April 30."

Hailing the high court's order state Congress president Adhir Chowdhury said, "The high court tried to protect the democratic rights of the people of West Bengal in its orders so far. Nothing can be more positive than this ruling in which the judge ordered for the acceptance of the nominations by willing candidates in Bhangar. The judges want the people should get opportunity to participate in the elections contrary to the Trinamool Congress and the state police which have created a reign of terror."

Welcoming the ruling state BJP president Dilip Ghosh said, "It is a very good news. After this order I assume that at least 50,000 more nominations can be filed by WhatsApp and mail altogether."
IAF carried out Gagan Shakti exercise -- the biggest military drill in three decades -- with a focus on borders with China and Pakistan.

The purpose of the military exercise was to prepare for a real-time war situation or natural calamities like an earthquake. (Photo: DC)

New Delhi: The Indian Air Force effectively achieved relocation and re-balancing of its assets from one sector to another during a recently concluded mega exercise, Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa said on Monday, hinting at its preparedness to deal with a two-front war.

The IAF carried out Gagan Shakti exercise -- the biggest such drill in three decades -- from April 8 to April 20 with a focus on borders with China and Pakistan.

"We achieved things beyond our stated objectives," Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa said in an interview.

He said all assets of the Indian Air Force were deployed during the 13-day long exercise and that a total of 11,000 sorties were carried out by aircraft and choppers of the force.



"The overall objective of Gagan Shakti was fully achieved," Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa said.

The first phase of the exercise focused on northern borders and the second phase was aimed at checking preparedness in case of a war-like situation along the borders with Pakistan.

Explaining the significance, a senior IAF official said the objective of the rebalancing and relocation was to quickly flatten the enemy in one front and redeploy the assets in another sector within 48 hours - in a possible two-front war scenario.

The exercise also focused on the flexible use of airspace, joint maritime air operations with the Indian Navy, joint operations with the Indian Army, simulated combat search and rescue for effective extraction of downed air crew behind enemy lines among others.

The combat drill was carried out at a time China was showing increasing assertiveness along the borders with India and in strategically critical sea lanes in the region.
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Siddaramaiah is set to contest from two constituencies  his home turf, Chamundeshwari, and Badami in Bagalkot district.

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. (Photo: File)

Hubli: As the polling date for the state of Karnataka nears, Chief Minister Siddharmaiah expressed faith in his voters on Tuesday.

The CM stated that he is least bothered as to who will contest against him in the upcoming state assembly election.

Speaking at Hubli airport, Siddharamaiah said, " I am least bothered who will contest against me there. I have faith in voters. North Karnataka people wanted me to contest from here, so I am contesting."

Siddaramaiah will contest from two constituencies  his home turf, Chamundeshwari, and Badami, a home away from home in Bagalkot district  evidently to prevent the BJP from securing a foothold south of the Vindhyas. He will file nomination papers for the Badami seat later in the day.

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.

(With inputs from ANI)
Amarjit Singh, a resident of Amritsar, had arrived in Pakistan along with 1,700 Sikh pilgrims to celebrate Baisakhi festival on April 12.

Lahore: A 24-year-old Indian man, who had gone missing in Pakistan during Baisakhi festival celebrations, was found from his "Facebook friend's" residence in Sheikhupura, about 50 km from Lahore, an official of the Evacuee Trust Property Board said on Monday.

Amarjit Singh, a resident of Amritsar, had arrived in Pakistan along with other 1,700 Sikh pilgrims to celebrate Baisakhi festival on April 12. But his disappearance was only noticed when the entourage, he came along with, embarked upon the return journey to India.

Confirming that Singh had been traced, spokesperson of the Evacuee Trust Property Board or ETPB Amir Hashmi said that he will be handed over to the Indian authorities on Tuesday.

"Amarjit Singh has been found and will be sent back to India on Tuesday. Singh on his arrival to Nankana Sahib had left the group to meet his Facebook friend - Amir Razzak - in Sheikhupura (some 30km from Nankana Sahib).

"In fact the family of Razzak contacted the board and told about Singh's stay at his residence. On Monday, both Singh and Razzak visited the ETPB office in Lahore and told it that he (Singh) had not gone missing," Hashmi said.

He said Singh told the board that he thought that he had a one month visa and he would return the country after spending a couple of weeks with his friend here.

The ETPB takes passports from the visiting pilgrims and returns them on their departure to their homeland.

A source told PTI that Pakistani intelligence agencies have questioned Singh for several hours.

"After it was established that he had not deliberately disappeared and had no links with the Indian intelligence agency, Singh was handed over to the ETPB to be deported to India," he said.

According to investigation by the ETPB, Singh separated himself on April 16 from the visiting Sikh group members on a visit to Gurdwara Janamestan in Nankana Sahib (some 80km from Lahore).

The ETB came to know about his disappearance when Singh did not turn up on April 21 along with other visiting Indian Sikhs at the Wagah railway station to leave for India.

Singh and others had a valid Pakistani visa till April 21.

Singh's disappearance came at the heels of another visiting Indian pilgrim Kiran Bala, who married a Pakistani man Mohammad Azam, a resident of Lahore, and applied for Pakistani citizenship.
There were 1,918 multiple entries and 5,537 dead voters in the voters list during the by-election in Kolaras in Shivpuri district.

If the collector and the district electoral officer had continuously reviewed the voters list, especially before the by-polls, then such a large number of dead voters would have not been included. (Representational Image)

Bhopal: Over 5,500 dead voters and 1,900 multiple entries have been found in the voters list of Madhya Pradesh's Kolaras assembly constituency, where by-elections were held on February 24, Madhya Pradesh's chief election officer wrote in a letter to the Election Commission.

In the letter, sent earlier this month, state chief electoral officer Saleena Singh blamed the district collector and district electoral officer for the lapse, saying "There were 1,918 multiple entries and 5,537 dead voters in the voters list during the by-election in Kolaras in Shivpuri district."

It means booth level officers and the electoral registration officer did not pay attention towards it and even the district electoral officer did not monitor properly, the letter stated.

Singh said if the collector and the district electoral officer had continuously reviewed the voters list, especially before the by-polls, then such a large number of dead voters would have not been included.

There has to be a review of the voters list by the collector and district electoral officer, which appears to have not been done, the letter stated. A copy of the letter was received in reply to an RTI application filed by anti-corruption activist Ajay Dubey.

"There are complaints of alleged irregularities in voters list of the state. We will approach the Election Commission for speedy action on the issue to ensure fair elections," Dubey said, demanding action from the poll body against the Shivpuri collector.

Congress' Mahendra Yadav won from Kolaras constituency in the by-election, result of which were declared on February 28.

Yadav got 82,515 votes, while BJP's Devendra Jain got 74,432 votes.

In March, the state chief electoral office had written to the collector of Shivpuri, Tarun Rathi to give his clarification over the issue of alleged irregularities in the voters list.

The Election Commission of India had sought response from the collector and the district electoral officer.

The Congress had in February this year complained to the Election Commission of alleged discrepancies in the voters list in Madhya Pradesh.

Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat said recently that there were discrepancies in the electoral rolls in Madhya Pradesh and that they will be rectified before the year-end assemble polls in the state.

"Certainly, there are lapses (in revision of the rolls). After a probe, ineligible names will be removed from the list and new names will be added so that before the coming assembly polls, a correct voter list is prepared," he had told reporters in Indore on April 9.
Letters signed by these farmers and their kin, have been sent to the President, the PM and the chief minister of Gujarat.

The land these farmers cultivate is being forcibly snatched by the state government and Gujarat Power Corporation Limited. (Representational Image)

Ahmedabad: Over 5,000 people in Gujarat's Bhavnagar district, battling against the acquisition of land by a state power utility, have written letters to authorities seeking permission to die, a farmers' body leader claimed on Tuesday.

"A total of 5,259 people, comprising farmers and their family members from 12 affected villages, have sought "icchha mrityu" (right to die) as the land they cultivate is being forcibly snatched by the state government and Gujarat Power Corporation Limited or GPCL," claimed Narendrasinh Gohil, a local farmer and a member of Gujarat Khedut Samaj, an organisation fighting for farmers' rights.

He claimed that the letters, signed by these farmers and their kin, have been sent to the President of India, the prime minister and the chief minister of Gujarat.

Harshad Patel, Collector, Bhavnagar, said that the farmers had dropped these letters, in which they have demanded permission for "icchha mrityu", at the registry branch of the collectorate.

The registry branch receives and dispatches all the letters of the collectorate.

In the letter, the farmers accused the state government, and GPCL, of using police force to get them to vacate the land which the farmers claimed was being tilled by them for several years now.

The farmers alleged that GPCL was trying to possess the land more than 20 years after the power firm had acquired it, adding that such a move was against the law.

"As per the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, a company cannot take possession of a land which it had acquired more than five years ago. To possess such a land, it will have to initiate the process of acquisition afresh," Gohil said.

"On two occasions, the police have fired teargas on a peaceful gathering of farmers. We are being threatened and bullied by the government," Mr Gohil alleged.

He added that the district administration has imposed section 144 of the CrPC, a provision prohibiting any assembly of persons the authorities term unlawful, in the 12 villages since over a month now.

"GPCL and Gujarat government want to usurp our land, despite the land legally belonging to the farmers. What shall we do in such a situation? If we do not have cultivable land, we shall be as good as dead," the letter claimed.

The farmers, in their letter, said that the "forcible acquisition" of land was making them feel like "terrorists" and, therefore, they would like to be killed by bullets fired by Army personnel.

"We wish for this because we have been made to feel like terrorists by the authority. So my last wish is to be killed at the hands of the Army," the farmers said in the letters.
Congress disagrees; BJP says Opp. party has always been communal.

New Delhi/Lucknow: The Congress Muslim face and former external affairs minister Salman Khurshid embarrassed his party on Tuesday by claiming that his partys hands were stained with the blood of Muslims. And when his party distanced itself from the remarks, saying it completely disagreed with unfounded statements that help the cause of the party in power, Mr Khurshid tied himself up in knots trying to defend himself.

Mr Khurshids controversial comment came during an event at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) when he was asked a question about the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, and sectarian acts like the opening of the gates of Babri Masjid, placing of idols, its demolition and the violence following the demolition in 1992 under the Congress government. I am a part of Congress. So let me accept that we have the blood of Muslims on our hands. I am telling you this; we are ready to show the blood on our hands so that you understand that you too must not get blood on your hands, Mr Khurshid said, purportedly telling the gathering to learn from past mistakes so that history is not repeated.

Expanding on his point that if minorities are assaulted, then the hands of the attackers get stained, he said, If you attack them, you are the ones who would get stains on your hands. Learn something from our history and dont create such situation for yourself, where if you come back to AMU after 10 years you will find one like you asking the question.

Even as the Congress tried to distance itself from his remarks, saying, All leaders must remember that such unfounded statements only help the cause of those in power today who seek to divide the society on caste and communal line to retain and attain power at any cost, the former foreign minister said his response was meant to defend the Congress.

It was someone who accused us and if someone accuses us, must I not reply? he said, and then asserted, What I said I will continue to say. I made the statement as a human being.

The political damage, however, has been done.

Latching on to Mr Khurshids statement, the BJP hit out at the Congress. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Union minister for minority affairs, alleged that the Congress wears the mask of secularism but its character has always been communal.

The Congress is a history-sheeter as far as communal riots are concerned. It has practised politics of divide and rule while using castes and communities to sow division in society. It created social tensions for votes.

It continues with this tradition, he further added.

Later, speaking to reporters, Mr Khurshid attacked the media saying that the truth is of no use to the media.

Mr Khurshid also tweeted his anger: Media saddens. They question right to speak the truth. They distort reply to isolated question by imputing confession instead of reporting despite allegations would you deny our duty to protect you from harm? Sensation-alism for profit?

According to an agency report, at the AMU event a former student had asked Mr Khurshid, The first amendment (in Constitution) was in 1948. Then, there was Presiden-tial order in 1950. After that Hasanpura, Maliana, Muzaffa-rnagar and there is a long list of riots under the Congress regime. Then there was the opening of the gates of Babri Masjid, placing idols inside and then the demolition of Babri Masjid while Congress was in power... Congress has Muslims blood on its hands.
However, security sources said that even after that they have been surviving inside the deep forest areas.

Stating that the Army has also engaged tracker dogs to track the insurgents, security sources said that more than 1,000 security personnel have been deployed in the area. (Representational image)

Guwahati: The Army has launched a massive counter-insurgency operation, engaging helicopters and deploying over 1,000 security personnel, to nab two top National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB-S) militants in western Assam districts adjoining the International Border with Bhutan.

Informing that the operation was launched following a specific input about the presence of two dreaded hardcore NDFB(S) militants  G Bidai and Batha  in Manas Tiger Reserve, security sources said the Army has been chasing the two rebels for more than a year, but in most of the operations they managed to escape.

Pointing out that a group of NDFB(S) militant was shuttling between India and Bhutan forest areas for the last one year, security sources said that helicopters were pressed into services to track them by air, but the Army is yet to spot them.

Earlier, security forces had snapped all the supply to the militants by busting the hideouts and arresting the sympathisers who were supplying ration and other essential to the militants. However, security sources said that even after that they have been surviving inside the deep forest areas.

Stating that the Army has also engaged tracker dogs to track the insurgents, security sources said that more than 1,000 security personnel have been deployed in the area.
India is interested in acquiring the lethal S-400 missile systems from Russia.

India is expected to tell the United States that any restrictions on India buying the weapon systems it needs from Russia will "affect" the capacity of India to cooperate with the US. (File photo/Representational)

New Delhi: India is worried that any US sanctions on Russian military exports will impact Indian interests. New Delhi will therefore try to convince Washington that India is acquiring defence supplies from several countries including the US, that India will not act against fundamental US interests but that acquisition of certain military platforms from Russia is essential for the country. India is interested in acquiring the lethal S-400 missile systems from Russia. India is expected to tell the United States that any restrictions on India buying the weapon systems it needs from Russia will "affect" the capacity of India to cooperate with the US. New Delhi's interests converge with that of Washington in crucial areas such as Afghanistan and the Indo-Pacific region. New Delhi is expected to assure Washington that it will not act against fundamental American interests.

India will ask the United States to look at the trend of Indian defence purchases in the past 10 years which will prove that India has diversified the acquisition of arms and has bought them from countries that include the United States. Washington will also be told that some of the weapon systems that India wants to acquire from Russia are crucial in ensuring Indian defence preparedness.
Methadone is the oldest and most effective of the three approved medications used to treat opioid addiction.

One in three older Americans with Medicare drug coverage is prescribed opioid painkillers, but for those who develop a dangerous addiction there is one treatment Medicare won't cover: methadone.

Methadone is the oldest, and experts say, the most effective of the three approved medications used to treat opioid addiction. It eases cravings without an intense high, allowing patients to work with counselors to rebuild their lives. Federal money is flowing to states to open new methadone clinics through the 21st Century Cures Act, but despite the nation's deepening opioid crisis, the Medicare drug program for the elderly covers methadone only when prescribed for pain.

Joseph Purvis, a former heroin and prescription painkiller user, said he went into a depressive tailspin because he initially feared he might have to stop methadone treatment when he went on Medicare at 65. "I was terrified that I might have to leave the program. There's no way I wanted to go back to addiction on the streets," said Purvis, 66, of Gaithersburg, Maryland.

Methadone doesn't meet the requirement of Medicare's Part D drug program because it can't be dispensed in a retail pharmacy.

Instead, in the highly regulated methadone system, patients first are assessed by a doctor, then show up daily at federally certified methadone clinics to take their doses of the pink liquid. Or, like Purvis in Maryland, they prove through repeated urine screens that they have earned the right to weekly take-home doses. In Congress, a Senate panel looking for ways to counter the opioid epidemic is considering allowing Medicare to cover methadone treatment. Legislation has been introduced in the House, and a White House commission on the opioid epidemic also recommended the change.

The epidemic is "affecting all populations, including our seniors," said Rep. George Holding, R-North Carolina, a sponsor of the House bill. "Medicare beneficiaries have among the highest and fastest growing rate of opioid use disorder, but they don't currently have coverage for the most effective treatment." An estimated 300,000 Medicare patients have been diagnosed with opioid addiction, and health officials estimate nearly 90,000 are at high risk for opioid misuse or overdose.

Buprenorphine, a more expensive and slightly less regulated treatment drug, is covered by Medicare but few doctors who accept new Medicare patients have obtained federal waivers to prescribe it. A recent study of Medicare claims found prescriptions for buprenorphine for only 81,000 patients. More evidence that the crisis affects seniors: Opioid overdoses killed 1,354 Americans ages 65 and older in 2016, about 3 percent of the 42,000 opioid overdoses that year.

Medicare's policy means clinics often scramble to keep older patients in treatment if they've had commercial insurance that covered their care before turning 65, said counselor Angela Caldwell of Montgomery Recovery Services in Rockville, Maryland. A national organization for methadone clinics says the clinics now have 25,000 Medicare beneficiaries who are either paying out of pocket (about $80 per week) or getting care through state-run Medicaid or block grant programs.

Mark Parrino, president of the American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence, thinks more people would seek methadone treatment if Medicare covered it. Many older patients rely on surprisingly high doses of opioids for pain relief, which can turn into addiction, said Dr. Anna Lembke, an addiction specialist at Stanford University School of Medicine.

One of her addiction patients, a woman in her mid-70s, was referred to her because her daily dose of opioids had climbed over the years to many times more potent than that of a typical heroin user, Lembke said. "She's had a gradual development of tolerance over many decades and now is on an astronomical dose," Lembke said. "If you took any random person and gave them (that much) they would die."

Lembke said she normally wouldn't consider methadone for this patient because of the stigma associated with the clinics. But Medicare coverage might make them more acceptable, Lembke said, and her patient "might actually do better with methadone."

In Maryland, Purvis remained on methadone treatment because his income is low enough that he qualifies for the state-federal Medicaid insurance coverage for the poor and disabled. Medicaid covers methadone treatment in Maryland and about 35 other states. Purvis, who used heroin for more than a decade in his youth, later took opioids prescribed by specialists for back pain. After his pain doctor's office was shut down for overprescribing, he started methadone treatment. "Some people think of methadone as a crutch for addiction but it's not," Purvis said. "It's a tool that allows people to live a somewhat normal life."
Princess Charlotte became the first female royal to retain her claim to the throne, despite the royal baby being a boy.

The Succession to the Crown Act 2013 means that a female royals claim to the throne is no longer diminished by the arrival of a younger brother. (Photo: AP)

Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge gave birth to her third child on April 23. And the new royal babys arrival is especially significant for his elder sister Princess Charlotte.

The two-year-old made history when her brother entered the world, thanks to the Succession to the Crown Act of 2013.

Princess Charlotte became the first female royal to retain her claim to the throne, despite the royal baby being a boy.

Before the Succession to the Crown Act 2013 a son would leap over an older daughter in the line of succession.

Therefore Princess Anne, despite being the Queen's second child, was in the line of succession beneath her younger brothers Andrew and Edward.

Princess Charlotte is the first royal not ruled out by gender.

The Succession to the Crown Act 2013 means that a female royals claim to the throne is no longer diminished by the arrival of a younger brother.

According to the Act,  In determining the succession to the Crown, the gender of a person born after 28 October 2011 does not give that person, or that persons descendants, precedence over any other person (whenever born).

Previously, the 1701 succession act stated that brothers would always come before their sisters when it came to who was first in line to the throne.
The announcement was Senas attempt to disassociate itself from an unpopular decision on the Nanar project.

Mumbai: In a dramatic turn of events, state industries minister Subhash Desai on Monday announced the cancellation of the land acquisition notification his department issued for the Indo-Saudi Nanar refinery project.

The minister made the announcement during a public meeting that his leader and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray addressed in Sagav village of Rajapur near Nanar, even though the minister does not have the power to annul the notice of May 18 last year.

The announcement was Senas attempt to disassociate itself from an unpopular decision on the Nanar project and it soon became evident when chief minister Devendra Fadnavis came out with a public clarification that the government has taken no decision to cancel the land acquisition.

The local residents opposition to the mega-refinery project has snowballed into a major political issue in the state with the Congress, MNS and Shiv Sena opposing it.

Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan had signed the deal with Saudi Arabian company Aramco for setting up the refinery complex which triggered the agitations by the residents.

While slamming Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mr Fadnavis over the Nanar issue, Mr Thackeray said, We trusted Mr Fadnavis, who had given the assurance of canceling the project if the residents opposed it. But he did not keep his word and he does not have much influence in the Union government. He alleged that Gujarati people having the surnames Modi, Shah and others purchased lands in the Konkan at cheap rates. How they came to know about the project? This is a land scam and now the project is going ahead fortheir benefit.

Mr Thackeray has said the Shiv Sena would not allow the Nanar project and the Jaitapur atomic energy project in the Konkan and asked the government to shift them to Gujarat or Vidarbha.
The police had to call off search operation owing to heavy rains on Sunday.

Guns recoverd from the Naxals killed in an encounter at Broriya forest area in Bhamragad taluka of Gadchiroli district on Sunday night. (Photo: PTI)

Mumbai: In a fresh encounter by Gadchiroli polices specialised c at Kapewancha area, six more naxals were killed on Monday. Those killed included a divisional committee member, Nandu, in what was the third big hit over the past two days. During a search operation, following the first encounter early on Sunday, 15 more bodies of dead naxals were found in Indravati river, taking the total to 37.

The police had to call off search operation owing to heavy rains on Sunday. The 15 bodies were found on Tuesday floating in the river. This marks the end of Perilial dalam of the Maoists, which were most active groups in the recent past. The last dalam that was wiped out by security forces was Sironcha dalam.

Out of the 16 bodies in the first encounter (nine male and seven female), 12 have been identified including two dalam commanders Sainath Bulesh Madiattram (34), and Vijendran Ranake, alias Srinyu. The forces had seized two AK47, two SLRs, one .303 bore, five 8mm, six 12 bore firearms from the spot.

Due to heavy rain and paucity of manpower, search was stopped and parties were returned back. When the search was started again in the Indravati river where 15 corpses (seven male and eight female) were found in the water, said a senior IPS officer from the state police headquarters.

The forces have seized One Insas and .303 weapons each with pittus along with detonators and propaganda literature in the river.

The Gadchiroli police and C-60 commandos are conducting further search for more bodies and material.

In a separate intelligence-based operation in Kapewancha area of Rajaram Khandla post, exchange of fire resulted in killing of six more naxals (two men and four women). Those killed includes another divisional committee (DVC) member, Nandu, added the senior IPS officer.
Dump regular garbage, defeating the dumpsters purpose.

The large bins installed at major public places to collect banned plastic items are being used by people to dump regular garbage.

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporations (BMC) appeal to citizens to shun plastic seems to be falling on deaf ears. The large bins installed at major public places to collect banned plastic items are being used by people to dump regular garbage.

For the implementation of plastic ban, the BMC has identified 25 major public places across the city, where collection bins have been installed. The civic body had appealed citizens to deposit banned plastic items from their houses into the bins. Instead these bins are seen overflowing with garbage other than plastic defeating civic bodys main purpose of collecting banned plastic from citizens.

The bin installed in the Lal Bahadur Shastri Market near the Matunga railway station is always filled with vegetable waste, wooden and paper boxes. This despite the fact that the BMC has a board installed on the same road warning that the bin is to be used only for depositing plastic waste and if anything else found dumped into it, penal action would be taken.

Civic activist Nikhil Desai from Matunga said, The bin is seen overflowing with all other types of waste except plastic. It shows BMC will have to work harder to enlighten the people about the necessity of the plastic ban.

The situation was no different at Fashion Street, where the collection bin was found filled with flowers, old clothes and other waste.

Civic officials said that the BMC is planning to start a helpline for the convenience of people. People can ask the BMC to collect plastic waste by dialling the helpline number. We are planning to assign separate vehicles for each 24 administrative wards to collect banned plastic by visiting housing societies, a senior civic official said.

Tackling the menace

On March 23, the state government had issued a notification, imposing a ban on manufacture, use, sale, distribution and storage of all plastic materials such as one-time-use bags, spoons, plates, PET and PETE bottles, and thermocol items.

As per the notification, any person found in possession of plastic material can be prosecuted under Section 9 of the Maharashtra Non-Biodegradable Garbage (Control) Act, 2006.

Under Section 9, a person faces fine up to `5,000 for first time offence and imprisonment of three months for subsequent offences.

The Bombay high court last week declined to stay the Maharashtra governments decision to ban plastic materials.
Subhash Desai held a meeting of all Shiv Sena ministers on Tuesday on the Nanar refinery controversy.

MUMBAI: A day after a heated exchange between the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the Nanar project, the Sena mellowed down on Tuesday.

The Sena ministers submitted a letter to chief minister Devendra Fadanvis demanding the withdrawal of the land acquisition notification for the project.

The Sena on Monday declared the cancellation of land acquisition for the Indo-Saudi project. However, the chief minister did not make the desired promise to the Shiv Sena and said that the decision will be taken in the interest of the local people. The chief minister refused to withdraw the notification.

Industries minister and Shiv Sena leader Subhash Desai held a meeting of all Shiv Sena ministers on Tuesday on the Nanar refinery controversy. The Shiv Sena prepared the letter demanding the de-notification of landin theproject area.

The tension between the alliance partners was at its peak after Mr Desai announced the withdrawal of the land acquisition notification. However, Mr Fadnavis remained firm and said that a single minister cannot take the decision.

In the reply, Mr Desai said that as the industries minister he has right to denotify the land. I can de-notify the land as per the Maharashtra Industrial Development Act, section 1(3). If I have a right to notify then I also have a right to de-notify the land. We have given a letter in this regard to the chief minister today and the process of de-notification will begin, Desai said.

Mr Desai refused to comment on the issue of how a single minister could overrule the decision taken by a high-power committee. The decision on notifying 6,000 hectares of land was taken by the high power committee. The chief minister clearly said on Monday that a single minister has no power to change the decision.

After meeting with the Sena delegation, the chief minister said that a decision will be taken in the interest of the locals. The Sena ministers have given me the letter to de-notify the land. The sentiments of the locals will be considered and a decision will be taken in the interest of the people, he told the media.

Mr Desai on Monday made the announcement of cancelling the notification during a public meeting that Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray addressed in Sagav village of Rajapur near Nanar.

The announcement was Senas attempt to disassociate itself from an unpopular decision on the Nanar project and it soon became evident when Mr Fadnavis came out with a clarification that the government has taken no decision to cancel the land acquisition.
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a petition, which sought deletion of a scene from SLB's film 'Padmaavat'.

Deepika Padukone in a still from 'Padmaavat'.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a petition, which sought deletion of a scene from Sanjay Leela Bhansali's film 'Padmaavat'.

The plea, filed by Swami Agnivesh, stated the last scene of the controversial film as promotion of 'Sati' tradition.

The film, which was released on January 25, has run into trouble time and again, as members of several Rajput factions have accused director of the film, Sanjay Leela Bhansali of distorting history.

Starring Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor in the lead roles, the film is based on the 16th century Sufi poet Mohammad Jayasi's poem Padmavat.
Awarded by Queen, on advice of PM Theresa May, The Queen's Awards for Enterprise are UK's most prestigious awards for business performance.

This is the first and only time that a vitamin company has received the award for innovation on two occasions. (Facebook Screengrab/ Vitabiotics)

London: Vitabiotics, UK's number leading vitamin company, has been honoured with The Queen's Award for Enterprise in Innovation for its Perfectil beauty Vitamin range.

Awarded by The Queen, on the advice of the Prime Minister Theresa May, The Queen's Awards for Enterprise are the UK's highest and most prestigious awards for business performance.

The announcement came on April 21, 2018 - Queen Elizabeth II's 92nd birthday.

This is the first and only time that a vitamin company has received the award for innovation on two occasions. It marks the fourth Queen's Award that Vitabiotics has received, including The Queen's Award for Enterprise in Innovation for its Pregnacare V itamin research in 2013.

Vitabiotics' Perfectil is UK's number one nutritional supplement for skin, hair, and nails. It represents multiple innovations in the field of cosmetic science and nutrition, underpinned by a portfolio of granted and filed patents, as well as being the first choice of beauty experts and celebrities including Nicole Scherzinger.

A groundbreaking Perfectil clinical trial showed for the first time that supplementation can help to protect against the ageing effects of harsh winter weather on the skin.

Commenting on the new Queen's Award, Vitabiotics President Dr Kartar Lalvani OBE said, "Vitabiotics is immensely honoured to once again receive the Queen's Award for Innovation, in recognition of our unique and highly successful Perfectil research and innovation. This accolade is a testament to Vitabiotics and I would like to thank all of our dedicated staff, customers, suppliers and research partners for their continued support."

Vitabiotics' CEO Tej Lalvani said, "Over the last 45 years, Vitabiotics has consistently been at the cutting edge of nutritional thinking, translating emerging science into effective products, and has established a greater range of new original clinical research, as background support to its formulations, than any other vitamin company. We are all incredibly proud to have once again received this most prestigious award."
Many activists have pointed out that it is not the severity of the punishment, but the certainty of it that is the real deterrent.

India raged again. This time over the rape, allegedly by a BJP MLA, and the death of the victims father in police custody in Unnao; and the horrific incident of rape and murder of an eight-year-old child in Kathua. While the entire nation was protesting, the nauseating news about the rape and murder of an eight-month-old baby came from Indore. What outraged people even more was that perhaps for the first time in the history of any civilised country, there were protests in support of the rape accused. In Kathua, the Hindu Ekta Manch organised rallies in support of the accused, attended and addressed by local BJP leaders, trying to give the rape and murder of a child communal overtones. Lawyers from the district bar even physically tried to prevent the police from filing the chargesheet. In Unnao, a protest march was organised in support of the accused, who is a sitting BJP MLA. In the wake of the nationwide protests, the Narendra Modi government promulgated a hasty ordinance prescribing minimum 20 years of imprisonment for raping a girl below 16 that could include the death penalty for raping girls below 12 years.

In December 2012, after the horrific Nirbhaya incident in New Delhi shook the conscience of the nation and issues of rape and sexual violence against women came into the forefront of public discourse, one had hoped that there would perhaps be a decline in such crimes. After Nirbhaya, the criminal law under the Indian Penal Code was amended to widen the definition of rape, and it recognised several acts of sexual violence and harassment like stalking and voyeurism as offences and provided for stringent punishment. However, this not only failed to bring down sexual violence against women, but in the past three years India has seen an epidemic of rapes and murders spreading across Delhi, Mumbai, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, among other areas. Amid much protests by child rights activists, the Juvenile Justice Act that allows children between 16 to 18 years to be tried as adults in cases of heinous crimes like rape and murder was passed by Parliament in 2015 and became enforceable from January 15, 2016. As per the data provided by the Union minister of state for home in the Lok Sabha in August 2017, there was a 23 per cent rise in rapes carried out allegedly by juveniles in 2016 compared to the previous year. Delhi itself witnessed 155 rapes reportedly committed by minors in 2016.

Many activists have pointed out that it is not the severity of the punishment, but the certainty of it that is the real deterrent. The conviction rate in rape cases in India continues to remain abysmally low, with just 24 per cent in cases of adults and 20 per cent under the POCSO Act. Even in a highly publicised case like Nirbhaya, the trial and subsequent appeals went on for several years. The decision on the review petition on the death sentence is still pending in the Supreme Court. While the underlying principle of modern jurisprudence in any civilised society is that it is better to let the guilty go free rather than punish an innocent person, and the judiciary is even more cautious in cases that could attract the death penalty, it could also be argued that justice delayed is justice denied. The new ordinance provides a timeframe of two months for completing trials and six months to dispose of all appeals. This is highly unrealistic keeping in mind the overburdened judiciary. There are at least 6,000 judicial posts lying vacant in the lower courts, with nearly 2.61 crore pending cases. As of February 2018, the all-India vacancy in lower courts was 26 per cent of sanctioned strength, 36 per cent in high courts and 19 per cent in the Supreme Court. Till December 2017, the number of pending cases in the Supreme Court was around 55,000 of which 32 per cent cases were pending for more than five years. On an average, there are around 1.65 lakh pending cases in each high court. In the current situation, its beyond anyones imagination how the government could create the infrastructure needed to dispose of cases within the timeframe mandated by the ordinance.

However, that is not the only problem. The real problem with this hastily-drafted ordinance is that it doesnt have the interests of the child victim at its heart. According to latest NCRB report, 95 per cent of rapes happen by people known to the victim. This is even truer in cases of childrens rape. It mostly happens within families, by relatives or friends of the family. Already theres massive under-reporting of child rape. With the death penalty, theres a genuine fear there will be even less reporting as in most cases the culprit is a family member or is known to the family. This also enhances the risk of murder after rape to silence the victim permanently. While public outrage is completely justified, enacting laws cannot be a hasty or emotional process done as a damage control measure. Its subsequent effects and nuanced implications must be meticulously understood. But in typical Narendra Modi style, the government has undertaken the serious act of enacting laws more for gimmicks rather than as long-term solutions. Be it demonetisation, juvenile justice or criminalising triple talaq, the implications are completely ignored in order to grab media headlines.

While laws are effective tools for bringing about desired changes in social behaviour, using punishment as a deterrent isnt enough. The entire discourse post-Nirbhaya has been to make laws more stringent; but without effective implementation, any law is useless. Also, punishments are meted out once the crime has occurred. But no death sentence can bring back Nirbhaya or the little girl in Kathua. It is perhaps far more important to look into measures to prevent rape than to punish it. No action is being taken for positive reinforcement of role models through gender sensitisation and other methods. The consent classes in Nairobi changed gender perception among the youth and purportedly brought down rape and sexual harassment by 51 per cent. Its high time that the government realises that it cant just wash its hands off by enacting yet another law.
The Congress won two seats in the Modi sweep  Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul  with fewer than 8 per cent votes in their kitty.

Mayawati is an Indian politician but she has a great message for Pakistan. Why? She has an excellent idea for all troubled democracies, not the least her very own India. She leads one of Indias most economically-exploited and socially-abused communities of the erstwhile outcastes, the dalits.

With her base in the most populous Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati wields enough influence with her community to tip the balance in a close race elsewhere. She got zero seats, for the first time, in the 2014 Parliamentary elections despite her solid 20 per cent votes.

The Congress won two seats in the Modi sweep  Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul  with fewer than 8 per cent votes in their kitty. The Modi sweep showed how the upper castes were ranged against Mayawati to the extent that a party with less than half her electoral net worth ended ahead of her in the head count.

Being a dalit requires Mayawati to be of a scrupulously scientific temper unlike most Indian parties. Her Buddhism of necessity has to be a fountain of reason and scientific temper. What is the strategic selflessness that Mayawati has displayed which can be of interest to liberals and democrats in India and Pakistan? In this sense Mayawati is closer to the old Dravida parties of southern India ie avowedly rational. In her fight for social justice for the lowest in the caste heap she has embraced Muslims, Sikhs and Christians generously.

Mayawatis message to everyone who could benefit from it goes beyond her agreeable appeal. Her message can be, in fact, a winning political strategy. Lets call the message strategic selflessness. Given her Buddhist faith, Mayawati may even see in it the only viable route to salvation.

The trouble for ordinary men, women and children comes from the far Right, be it in Pakistan or in India, in Europe or the United States. A liberal polity allows for all ideas, including narrow ideas, to circulate freely in the belief that such ideas would wane before the magic of egalitarian democracy. The threat Mayawati faces is an Indian variant of European fascism, which never allows a liberal thought to escape its hateful vigil.

So, what is the strategic selflessness that Mayawati has displayed, which can be of interest to liberals and democrats in India and Pakistan? She first identified the mortal threat to her people and their politics. She determined it came from the advent of Prime Minister Narendra Modis divide-and-rule politics of hate. She calculated that if she didnt act, her own people would discard their dalit identity to shore up Hindutva.

Using a crucial by-election to test the ground, Mayawati committed her Bahujan Samaj Partys 20 per cent solidly transferable votes to the campaign of her erstwhile arch foe the Samajwadi Partys kitty of 23 per cent votes. The result of the BSP-SP alliance triggered a tame defeat for Modis party in Phulpur and Gorakhpur LS seats in UP.

Lets transport that idea to Pakistan and then to the rest of India. There is a fear stalking Pakistan that a combination of Right-wing religious parties would quell all hopes of Jinnahs inclusive and open society. A combination of religious and revanchist parties of Pakistan are plotting to waylay and bury the modernist dream forever. But there is Mayawatis wisdom to guide Pakistan out of its despair.

Why cant Pakistanis join hands against a common fatal threat, and stay there as an invincible, open-minded people? If the PPP could assure the Sharifs, for example, that their best interests would be protected by a confluence of new thought, led by all willing parties, based on the Quaids tenets for Pakistan, they should easily be able to go through the storm.

For that everyone must shun the dream of becoming PM, and be willing to win the hearts of betrayed people with selflessness. They can then invite Mayawati to inaugurate their new government.

There is an existential threat of religious and ethnic fratricide if the opinionated Right wing consolidates further in either country.

The Indian conundrum is more intractable. Sample the fraught chessboard. Sitaram Yechury, the re-elected chief of the CPI (M) wants to unite the Opposition to defeat the Modi government in 2019. Rahul Gandhi too wants the Opposition to unite to defeat the BJP. The Congress and the CPI(M) are bitter foes in Kerala.

For reasons of history, Congress and the CPI(M) have an axe to grind with Mamata Banerjee, the most convincing anti-Modi chief minister of West Bengal. Can they come together selflessly, though not cynically as Nitish Kumar had joined hands with Lalu Yadav in Bihar only to desert him midstream? Will Congress join hands with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. How much ground will Kejriwal yield on his anti-corruption plank to link up with Mayawati and Lalus realpolitik? Mayawati has shown a preference for sanity over suicide. Now it is for the rest to decide their route to salvation.

By arrangement with Dawn
A personal finance expert claims that the social media company is allowing the publication of scam ads featuring his name.

Martin Lewis, who founded the MoneySavingExpert website, says his name has appeared on more than 50 advertisements in the last year, many of them get-rich-quick scams to con people.

A personal finance expert launched a lawsuit against Facebook in Britain on Monday, claiming the social media company is allowing the publication of scam ads featuring his name.

Martin Lewis, who founded the MoneySavingExpert website, says his name has appeared on more than 50 advertisements in the last year, many of them get-rich-quick scams to con people.

Its affecting my reputation, but more importantly it is affecting real people who are handing over money in good faith while the scammers are raking in the cash, Lewis said.

Lewiss lawyer was lodging papers for defamation Monday at Britains High Court in a bid to make the social media company change its procedures. Attorney Mark Lewis said his client was seeking substantial damages, so Facebook cant simply see paying out damages as just the cost of business and carry on regardless.

It needs to be shown that the price of causing misery is very high, said Lewis, who is the claimants cousin. Martin Lewis said he would donate any money he was awarded to charity. Facebook said it already took action against fake ads.

We do not allow adverts which are misleading or false on Facebook and have explained to Martin Lewis that he should report any adverts that infringe his rights and they will be removed, the company said.
Criminal groups in Mexico often kidnap, torture, dismember, dissolve victims in acid and remains are dumped in clandestine graves.

Relatives and friends of three missing students from the University of Audiovisual Media take part in a demonstration April 19 in Guadalajara demanding that their loved ones be returned alive. On Monday, authorities said the three had been killed, probably by a drug cartel. (Photo: AFP)

Mexico City: Three missing Mexican students were killed last month in the western state of Jalisco and their bodies dissolved in acid after criminals confused them with members of a rival gang, authorities said Monday.

The three film students were last seen in the municipality of Tonala after their car broke down and they were later kidnapped by at least six people, who tortured and killed them, according to Jalisco state prosecutors.

Subsequently their bodies were dissolved in acid so that no trace of them remained, the state prosecutors office said.

State prosecutor Raul Sanchez said that two people had been arrested so far in the investigation.

Another official told Reuters, on condition of anonymity since he was not authorized to speak to the media, that investigators are analyzing more human remains found on the premises of the building where the young men were dissolved.

Prosecutors said the youths were confused with members of another gang by gunmen from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), which has become the most powerful in Mexico, according to US authorities.

Criminal groups in Mexico often kidnap, torture, dismember and even dissolve their victims in acid and many of the remains are dumped in clandestine graves.

In 2014, 43 student teachers disappeared in the southern state of Guerrero and the government said they were kidnapped by police who handed them over to a criminal group that killed them and burned their bodies.

International observers objected to the governments investigation and the case shook the administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto, who has seen his popularity decline sharply amid corruption allegations and a spike in violence.

More than 25,000 people were murdered in 2017 in Mexico. Homicides hit their highest level in records going back 20 years.
Bhai Amrik Singh, chairman of UK's Sikh Federation, said gaffe 'demonstrates remarkable level of ignorance from someone in his position.'

The mistake is particularly sensitive given suspicions about the extent of British involvement in India's deadly 1984 raid on the temple to evict Sikh separatists. (Photo: PTI)

London: The top civil servant in Britain's Foreign Office has apologized for calling one of India's holiest Sikh temples a mosque.

At QBP in Chandigarh @SinghLions presented @DHCAndrewAyre with picture of HM The Queen at Golden Mosque in Amritsar in 1997, a permanent memento for Deputy High Commissions wall @UKinIndia pic.twitter.com/GFkBT0GcRU  Sir Simon McDonald (@SMcDonaldFCO) April 23, 2018

Simon McDonald referred to the Golden Temple in Amritsar as the "Golden Mosque" in a tweet. On Tuesday he tweeted: "I was wrong: I am sorry. I should of course have said the Golden Temple or, better, Sri Harmandir Sahib."

I was wrong: I am sorry. I should of course have said the Golden Temple or, better, Sri Harmandir Sahib. https://t.co/4rJ4mwOdCJ  Sir Simon McDonald (@SMcDonaldFCO) April 24, 2018

Bhai Amrik Singh, chairman of Britain's Sikh Federation, said the gaffe "demonstrates a remarkable level of ignorance from someone in his position."

The mistake is particularly sensitive given suspicions about the extent of British involvement in India's deadly 1984 raid on the temple to evict Sikh separatists.

In 2014 Britain acknowledged that a UK military officer advised the Indian army before the raid, though it said his advice was ignored.
At the funeral home, two detectives held the mans hands up to the phones fingerprint sensor but could not unlock it.

Largo: Florida authorities went to a funeral home and used a dead mans finger to try to unlock his cellphone as part of their investigation.

Thirty-year-old Linus Phillip was killed by a Largo police officer last month after authorities say he tried to drive away before an officer could search him.

At the funeral home, two detectives held the mans hands up to the phones fingerprint sensor but could not unlock it.

Phillips fiancee Victoria Armstrong says she felt violated and disrespected.

Legal experts mostly agree that what the detectives did was legal, but they question whether it was appropriate.

Charles Rose, a professor at Stetson University College of Law, tells the Tampa Bay Times that dead people cant assert their Fourth Amendment protections because you cant own property when youre dead. But those rights could apply to whoever inherits the property.
For Catholicos of Cilicia Aram I, the harm caused by the tragedy must be repaired on the basis laws and conventions. This can start with the return of thousands of "churches, monasteries, schools and centres, cultural and spiritual objects. Turkey instead continues its threats. Armenians in Lebanon remember whilst those in Turkey live in silence and fear. Many Islamised Armenians are returning to their old faith. The genocide was the product of a racist plan by the Young Turks.

Beirut (AsiaNews)  The "legitimate request" of the Armenian people is not only for "the acknowledgement of the genocide" but also reparations for "the harm sustained, on the basis of international conventions and the Declaration of Human Rights, writes Aram I, Catholicos of Cilicia of the Armenian Apostolic Church, in an article in L'Orient-Le Jour, a Lebanese French-language daily, on Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.

"As a spiritual leader, he says, I ask Turkey why thousands [Armenian] churches, monasteries, schools and centres, cultural and spiritual objects are still illegally held by the authorities [. . .] and why the Constitutional Court has not even examined the appeal that was presented."

The words of the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church come as remembrance activities got underway among Armenian communities in the world marking 103 years since the start of the genocide, an event that Turkey still refuses to acknowledge, banning demonstrations on its territory and threatening diplomatic and trade retaliation against governments that recognise it and support its cause.

On the night between 23 and 24 April 1915, Ottoman authorities began rounding up Armenian intellectuals, writers and thinkers, marking the start of the genocide. In a few years, more than a million Armenians were detained, forced on long marches, dying from hunger, fatigue and beatings.

On the centennial in 2015, Pope Francis spoke using harsh words, saying that the Armenian genocide was "the first genocide of the 20th century". Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan protested at the pontiffs words, going so far as to threaten him and calling his remarks absurd.

For Catholicos Aram I, the restitution of Armenian places of worship and property by Ankara could be the first step in a real act of reparation, because it is no longer sufficient to acknowledge the genocide.

"Whenever a country utters a word in favour of the Armenian genocide or puts up a sculpture that represents it, Turkey utters threats," he laments. In fact, "in Turkish civil society this black page of its history is already being called by its own name: genocide", a crime "against a people" that "cannot be forgotten" and it is the task of the Turkish government "to review its negationist policy" that cannot "last forever". The recognition, he adds, must follow "the restitution of churches and monasteries" in accordance with "international law".

Finally, Aram I thanks "our Arab brothers and sisters, Christians and Muslims, who have accepted our orphans and survivors". The Armenian genocide, he notes, "had no religious basis" and " coexistence among nations, religions and cultures in this world characterised by pluralism and interdependence is a necessity".

Today Armenians of the Diaspora are scattered in 36 countries. One of the largest is in Lebanon, with more 140,000 people, as well as a large number of schools and institutions. Last, thousands of Lebanese- Armenians took part in a memorial march that started in Bourj Hammoud and ended in Antelias, the northern suburbs of the capital, where the residence of the Catholicos of Cilicia is located.

The leaders of Lebanons three main Armenian parties  Tachnag, Hentchag and Ramgava  came out in favour of the initiative. In their speeches at the end of the march, party leaders called on Turkey to acknowledge its historical and cultural responsibility.

Today, national identity remains strong among the Armenians living in Lebanon, as 73-year-old Kasbi Kassabian points out. In his view, if we forget, we will disappear. Anger, however, will never go away, and must be passed on from generation to generation" as he is already doing with his three-year-old granddaughter.

For Armenians living in Turkey, the situation is very different. Most of them are concentrated in Diyarbakir, Turkish Kurdistan, in the south-east, where the Turkish government has cracked down on local Kurdish leaders. At the beginning of the 20th century, half of the population was Armenian; now, it less than 20 per cent. Fearing Turkish reprisals, no one is going to get together to remember "the great catastrophe".

Armenian leaders in Diyarbakir, who asked their names be withheld, note that the Kurds have embarked on a process of revision and have started to consider the request for forgiveness "not a favour, but a duty". However, Turkish negationism is still there and weighs heavily on the future of Turkeys Kurdish population, which has increasingly turned inward in the past three years, even more so since the failed military coup against Erdogan in July 2016.

An interesting fact is that many of the descendants of the Armenians who were taken in or enslaved by the Kurds, and Islamised, are now rediscovering their ethnic and religious origins, and returning to the Christian faith.

As Catholicos Aram I notes, it should be stressed that the "the Armenian genocide was not motivated by religion. For centuries the Armenian people lived with Islam in peace and mutual respect in Armenia and Cilicia. As subjects of the Ottoman-Turkish empire, they were the victims of a racist Pan-Turanist project pursued by the Young Turks.
by Wang Zhicheng

Two brothers who allegedly helped Guo falsify 30 documents have been arrested. They allegedly made video-taped confession. Chongqing police accuse Guo of paying off US lawmakers to get their support for his asylum application.

Beijing (AsiaNews)  Chinese police have accused billionaire Guo Wengui of enlisting two men to forge more than 30 government and Communist Party documents to bolster his asylum application in the United States.

Guo, 51, left mainland China in 2013 after he was accused of corruption in association with former deputy minister of state security Ma Jian.

Fearing for his life, Guo has applied for political asylum in the United States. He has also threatened to release documents that show corruption among top party leaders, including anti-graft chief Wang Qishan and his family. Wang is a personal friend of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

According to yesterdays People's Daily, Guo allegedly hired two brothers, Chen Zhiyu and Chen Zhiheng, to falsify documents that claim that China sent dozens of spies to the United States and that Beijing was helping Pyongyang develop the nuclear programme.

Chen Zhiheng is a Canadian citizen and his brother Chen Zhiyu lives for most of the year in Canada. However, the two were arrested separately last February in Hunan and Guangdong.

Chongqing police said that in a videotaped confession, the brothers admitted that Guo paid them up US$ 4,000 a month.

Beijing has long sought to discredit Guo, accusing him of bribery, fraud, money laundering, kidnapping and rape.

Yesterday, Chongqing police also accused him paying US lawmakers to back his asylum application.
by Kamran Chaudhry

Mashal Khan was killed on 13 April 2017 on suspicion of insulting the prophet Muhammad. His is a test case. For one activist, Swift justice is for politicians and bureaucrats; Khan belonged to a poor family.

Lahore (AsiaNews)  Catholic and Muslim activists are demanding justice for Mashal Khan, the journalism student who was lynched for allegedly posting blasphemous material on Facebook.

Activists met on the first anniversary of Khans death, 13 April, in front of the Lahore Press Club to demand a speedy sentencing for those involved in the lynching.

Meanwhile, the Peshawar High Court accepted on 17 April to hear an appeal against the sentence by the Anti-Terrorism Court which acquitted 26 of the 57 defendants involved in the case.

Khan was killed on 13 April 2017 by fellow university students at the Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, solely on suspicion of having posted offensive comments about the Prophet Muhammad.

The images of his violent beating and the brutalisation of his lifeless body by more than hundred people spread quickly on social media.

Last June, an investigation ordered by Pakistans Supreme Court found that the student had never said anything offensive against Islam.

According to activists, Khan's death is a test case. "His family had reservations from the very beginning. His two sisters couldn't continue their education because of security concerns," said Saeeda Deep, founder of the Institute of Peace and Secular Studies, speaking to AsiaNews.

"State authorities are not paying attention to his case. Swift justice is for politicians and bureaucrats; Khan belonged to a poor family. Road protests are our only hope," she lamented.

Many of the 300 or so protestors who gathered in front of Lahore Press Club to mark Khan's first death anniversary carried signs that said We are Mashal. Ya Allah Ya Rasool, Mashal Khan is innocent," shouted a very emotional youth at the beat of a drum.

Ziaullah Hamdard, a former lecturer at the same university Khan attended, called on the government to help the victim's family.

"I have felt uneasy since witnessing his death, said Hamdard, who is now an activist. The government announced that it was going to name a university after him but we are still waiting".

More importantly, "The prevailing insanity in our society must end. Religion is being used as a weapon. We are heading towards a civil war, he noted.

Clerics were the first to issue fatwas (religious edicts), now the students are doing same. Those who stand up for their rights are labelled as traitors and spies," he added.
The number of animals has increased from 80 to 92 in the past two years after being in constant decline, from 200 in 1997 to 80 in 2015. The turnaround is due to river patrol teams and the removal of illegal gillnets. However, the recovery is threatened by poaching and major infrastructure projects.

Phnom Penh (AsiaNews/Agencies)  The population of Cambodias critically endangered river dolphin is growing for the first time in decades, Cambodian authorities and conservationists said on Monday, hailing a major turnaround for the freshwater species.

The Irrawaddy dolphins (pictured), known for their bulging foreheads and short beaks, once swam through much of the Mekong River but in recent decades have been limited to a 190 km stretch from central Cambodia to its northern border with Laos.

The population has been in steady decline since the first census was taken in 1997, dropping from 200 that year to 80 in 2015 due to habitat loss and destructive fishing practices.

But new births  including three calves in 2018  and a decline in deaths appear to have put the species on the path to recovery, with their numbers rising from 80 to 92 in the past two years, this according to a survey by Cambodian authorities and the global conservation group WWF, which called the rebound a historic increase.

The group attributed the turnaround to the work of river patrol teams and the removal of illegal gillnets  vertical mesh fishing nets that are left in the water for long periods and can trap and drown dolphins.

Tourist boat operators were also hailed as a secret ingredient for their help in reporting poaching and illegal gillnets to authorities.

But conservationists and government officials warn that significant threats remain, including other illegal fishing practices involving grenades, electronic gear and poisonous bait.

Major infrastructure projects, such as dams in Laos, also endanger the animals fragile recovery.

Eng Cheasan, director of Cambodias fisheries administration, hailed the dolphins as a national treasure and said the government was committed to eliminating all threats to the survival of this species.

Cambodia is home to the largest population of Irrawaddy dolphins, which can also be found in rivers and lakes in Myanmar, Indonesia, India and Thailand.
by Melani Manel Perera

Islanders were forced out in 1992 and left behind properties, later taken over by the Navy. A thanksgiving Mass was performed in the Church of the Holy Rosary in Mulankaveli, followed by a procession to the lagoon.

Iranaitheevu (AsiaNews)  After 25 years as displaced people, several Tamil Catholic families were able to return to Iranaitheevu Island, northern Sri Lanka. Due to the war, they left the island in 1992.

Since then, the 200 families living in different places and now reached the number of 400, including 95 headed by women, never stopped asking that they be allowed to go back to the life they led before the civil war.

Yesterday, the Tamil families were able to set foot again on the island, but they still have to wait for an authorisation to regain possession of the land they once owned.

Before their arrival, the refugees celebrated the Mass in Mulankaveli's Holy Rosary Church.

After the service, they walked for a kilometre and a half to the lagoon, chanting slogans in Tamil: "Give us back our lands. Do not tell us to go away. What is ours is ours."

The former residents reached the island on about forty boats provided by the fishermen. In the church they prayed for a long time to the Virgin Mary, weeping and thanking her for her intercession.

Then they settled down next to the place of worship, waiting for the authorities to grant them permission to resettle in their old properties.

Sinhalese activist Ruki Fernando notes that the Tamils never lost hope of going back to the island. Over the years, they have led a series of protests in Iranaimathaanagar, Poonakari, Kilinochchi, and even Colombo.

"The leader of the community, he said, travelled to Geneva for the 37th session of the Human Rights Council to highlight their never-ending fight and seek the support of the international community".

"What people want is simple, he explained. They want to have unlimited access to Iranaitheevu, to settle permanently, and revive their traditional activities, like fishing and agriculture, which guaranteed them a livelihood before they were displaced."

"They are not asking for the Navy to leave the area. They just want that the land taken by the military be returned. They also want to prevent the abuse and exploitation of the island's resources by people who access it illegally."
The UN Secretary-General condemns the April 22 attack in the northern province of Hajjah. The Houthi Shiite rebels accuse the Saudi Arabian coalition. Guterres promises a "prompt, effective and transparent" investigation. The political leader Houthi Saleh al-Sammad was murdered.

Sana'a (AsiaNews / Agencies) - UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has strongly condemned the air raid that struck those invited to a wedding in Yemen, killing dozens of civilians, including several children. Gutierrez has called for the official opening of an investigation into the attack, which according to the Shiite Houthi rebels, was carried out by the Saudi Arabian-led coalition.

The air raid took place in the late evening of 22 April in the northern province of Hajjah, controlled by Shiite militias near Iran.

Commenting on the attack, the UN Secretary General "strongly condemns the airstrikes on the wedding party in Hajjah" and on a "vehicle of civilians in Taez, where at least 50 people, including children, have been killed and dozens injured".

Antonio Guterres "strongly condemns the airstrikes on a wedding party in Hajjah and on civilian vehicles in Taez, where at least 50 civilians, including children, were reportedly killed and scores of others injured," said a U.N. statement. The U.N. chief "reminds all parties of their obligations under international humanitarian law concerning the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure during armed conflicts." He called for "a prompt, effective and transparent investigation" of the air strikes which were carried out as the United Nations is seeking to re-launch political talks to end the war in Yemen.

Since January 2015, the Arab country has been the scene of a brutal conflict opposing the Sunni-led government of former President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, supported by Riyadh, to Houthi Shia rebels, close to Iran and Hezbollah.

In March of the same year, a Saudi-led coalition began air strikes against the rebels, which the United Nations slammed for causing civilian casualties, including children.

The apostolic vicar, Mgr Paul Hinder, has repeatedly spoken out against the ongoing disaster. Christians too have become embroiled in the conflict as well, like in the attack against the Missionaries of Charity in Aden.

Today the Houthi occupy about 30 per cent of the country, especially in the north, where most of the population is concentrated.

In the pro-Saudi, government-controlled south, a new battle line has emerged with the arrival on the scene of pro-United Arab Emirate separatists, further complicating the situation.

Yemen, which was united as country in 1990, appears to be increasingly at risk of implosion, caught in the crossfire of a battle for regional supremacy.

In a context of wars and divisions, Riyadh has also imposed a blockade last November in response to Houthi rocket attacks. In turn, this has exacerbated the food and emergency medicine.

Yesterday, the leaders of the Houthi rebels confirmed the death of their political leader, Saleh al-Sammad, who was killed in an air raid. The Shiite militias speak of their leader's martyrdom and assure revenge for his murder.

The air strike dates back to April 19 and hit the province of Hodeida, in the west of the country. Saleh al-Sammad is the most important Houthi leader killed since the beginning of the conflict. The Saudis had put a million dollar bounty on his head. His place in the political council was taken by Mehdi Hussein Al-Machat, who declared that "this crime will not go unpunished".
The announcement of the resignation on the eve of the memorial day of the Armenian genocide. Soldiers are also among the demonstrators. Opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan freed, proposes new elections.

Erevan (AsiaNews / Agencies) - After only a week as prime minister and 10 years as president, Serge Sargsyan resigned yesterday afternoon, forced by the protests that have blocked the center of the capital for 11 days.

The demonstrations called for Sargsyans removal from power, after a disputed constitutional reform passed to his advantage. People also accuse him of corruption and ineptitude for not having improved the country's situation of poverty. According to observers, decision in favour of a resignation came after demonstrators were also joined by hundreds of soldiers.

As the news spread, the square broke out into cheers, dancing, drinking, opening bottles of sparkling wine and dancing on the fountains of Republic Square (see photo), near the seat of government.

Shortly before the announcement of Sargsyans resignation, opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan, arrested a few days earlier, was released.

In a statement published online, Sargsyan said he wanted to "fulfill" the demands of the protest movement and that "Nikol Pashinyan was right and I was wrong. I leave the office of head of the nation, of prime minister ".

In the expectation of a new premier and a new government, power has been entrusted to Karen Karapetyan, from Sargsyans Republican Party. Today Pashinyan will meet Karapetyan to suggest him to hold new elections. "I hope - he said - that the high spheres of the Republican Party unambiguously recognize the popular, velvet and non-violent revolution".

The resignation of Sargsyan took place on the eve of the Day commemorating the Armenian genocide by the Ottoman Empire in 1915. President Armen Sarkissian, asking for a truce today, commented: "On this day no Armenian must oppose another" .

Spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow "is very carefully observing " what is happening in Armenia, and that Russia will not intervene: it is "an exclusively internal affair".
Photo via Ed Brown/Wikimedia.

Delaware leads the country in issuing the most tickets for texting while driving from the time a state's cellphone law went into effect through 2016, according to a new report.

Delaware enacted a handheld and texting ban in 2011 and has since reported 13,061 total citations statewide through 2016, representing the best enforcement of a cellphone ban nationwide.

New York, which also issued its texting ban in 2011, came in second with 11,996 citations. Other states that ranked among the top five in issuing tickets include the District of Columbia (10,952), New Jersey (7,215), and Hawaii (4,828).

The report, "The Real Cost of Distracted Driving in Your State," was complied by Safewise. The report draws on and analyzes data from the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration (NHSTA) and the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) to determine the costs of distracted driving in the US.

Three of the top ten deadliest states for car crashes  Louisiana, Wyoming, and Mississippi  have the worst enforcement of distracted driving laws, with less than 100 tickets issued collectively over the three to ten years since their bans were passed.

Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina rank as the top three states for car crash fatalities, yet none of them have passed a statewide law banning handheld cellphone use. Conversely, Washington D.C., New York, and Rhode Island have the least amount of motor vehicle fatalities, and all have laws banning handheld cellphones while driving.

The report also explores penalties for distracted driving. While the national median fine is $100, Missouri's is the lowest at just $21.

Alaska and Utah are the only states with texting bans that include jail time as a penalty for the first offense. They also have the highest fines at $10,000 and $750, respectively.

New York, Virginia, and Nebraska will add three or more points to an offender's license for texting and driving, which means insurance rates could also spike for those issued a ticket.

Read the full report here.
Photo courtesy of Electrify America.

Electrify America has invested $500 million toward installing electric vehicle chargers at more than 100 retail, convenience, and refueling locations in an effort to improve convenience for EV drivers.

The company has partnered with several companies to establish the new locations for its ultra-fast electric vehicle charges, including Target Corp.; Brixmor Property Group; Kimco Realty Corporation; Sheetz, Caseys General Stores; DDR Corporation; and Global Partners LPs Alltown, according to Electrify America.

The ultra-fast EV chargers are being installed across the U.S., with plans to finalize by June 2019, the company said. The company also recently announced that it will install the fast chargers at more than 100 Walmart locations across 34 states.

The chargers are part of the companys investment in electric vehicle charging infrastructure, education and access in the U.S, the company said in a release. The company plans to complete four investment cycles over the next decade, resulting in a total investment of $2 billion; this $500 million investment is part of the first cycle.

Electrify America ultimately aims to deploy more than 2,000 DC fast chargers at roughly 484 stations. The companys charging systems have a range in power from 50kW up to 350kW for its highway stations, the company said. Also, an L2 AC charger will also be offered at a majority of metro DC fast charging stations to accommodate plug-in hybrids and non-DC-charge capable EVs.

Brixmor Property Groups Chicopee Marketplace, in Chicopee, MA, will also be the first location to install an Electrify America charging system with a certified cooled-cable 350kW charger in the United States, the company said in a release. The company announced in December 2017 that it is installing more than 2,800 Level 2 EV charging stations by June 2019 in 17 of the biggest metropolitan areas in the United States.
Warrington North MP Helen Jones. Photo via Chris McAndrew/Wikimedia

Warrington North (U.K.) member of parliment (MP) Helen Jones visited the Westbrook regional headquarters of Enterprise, which included a tour of the facilities and a meet and greet with staff members, Warrington Worldwide reports.

"It is vitally important that we do all we can to attract companies like Enterprise to Warrington North in order to provide good jobs for local residents," Jones told the news outlet. We also discussed the importance of ensuring that our young people are properly equipped with the skills they need to succeed in the workplace once they leave education."

The Westbrook Enterprise was recently named one of the Top 50 employers for women.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

A Bosnian man was arrested in Northern Italy after police discovered ammunition and multiple firearms hidden in his rental car, reports the Tampa Bay Times.

Police stopped the car near the Italian border with Croatia and Austria, finding weapons in a bag, under the back seat, and in the spare wheel well in the trunk.

They believe the vehicle, which had Swiss license plates, was headed to Barcelona.
Bakersfield, CA (93308)

Today

Mostly cloudy skies. Expect widespread areas of smoke and haze, reducing visibility at times. High near 90F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Considerable clouds early. Some decrease in clouds late. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable.
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ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP)  Ethiopia's new prime minister is making a rare outreach to opposition parties, calling on them to prepare for "peaceful dialogue and negotiations" in an effort to broaden the political space.

Abiy Ahmed spoke Thursday evening as he hosted opposition figures, civic group members and religious leaders in the capital, Addis Ababa. Among the guests were some opposition figures recently released from detention, including Bekele Gerba and Merara Gudina.

"I urge you to serve as alternative idea generators for our country," the state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate quoted the prime minister as saying.

The outspoken new leader assumed power early this month amid widespread hopes that he would bring an end to months of the most severe anti-government protests in a quarter-century. Hundreds of people were killed in the demonstrations that began in late 2015. Ethiopia is still under a state of emergency but the level of violence has dropped since Abiy took office.

On Wednesday, the prime minister visited the restive town of Ambo in the Oromia region. The 42-year-old, the first Oromo politician to become prime minister since the ruling party came to power in 1991, was met by cheerful crowds who danced and displayed his portrait.

In a speech during his visit, he highlighted the importance of resolving differences through dialogue.

The months of unrest disrupted business, education and transport in Africa's second most populous country and one of the continent's fastest-growing economies.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
TORONTO (AP)  The Latest on the incident in which a van plowed down a Toronto sidewalk, killing and injuring several people (all times local):

4:30 p.m.

A Toronto police official says that women make up most of the victims of the deadly van attack but it's not yet known if they were deliberately targeted.

Toronto Police Services Det. Sgt. Graham Gibson says the 10 people killed and 14 injured were "predominantly" women. But he say he has no indication yet that suspect Alek Minassian was directing his rented van into women as he plowed into pedestrians in a north Toronto neighborhood on Monday.

The issue arose because of what police called a "cryptic" Facebook message posted by Minassian just before the incident that suggested he was part of an online community angry over their inability to form relationships with women.

Authorities have declined to disclose a possible motive in the attack.

Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders says "all the lanes are open with this investigation."

___

3:55 p.m.

Jordan's state-run Petra news agency says one of that country's citizens was among the 10 people killed when a van ran over pedestrians on a sidewalk.

The agency reported Tuesday that the Jordanian embassy in Ottawa is in contact with the family of Munair Najjar, who was in Toronto visiting family.

The embassy is helping arrange the transfer of Najjarr's body to Jordan. No other information about Najjar was released.

The attack in Toronto Monday also left 15 people injured.

___

3:25 p.m.

A Toronto police official says the man accused of driving a rental van into a crowd of pedestrians in Toronto posted a "cryptic" Facebook message minutes before the attack.

Toronto Police Services Det. Sgt. Graham Gibson says he is prohibited from discussing a possible motive because suspect Alek Minassian has been charged in the case.

Minassian on his now-deleted Facebook account saluted a community college student who killed six people and wounded 13 in shooting and stabbing attacks near the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 2014.

He called the Carlifornia killer Elliot Rodger "the Supreme Gentleman," The Facebook post declared: "The Incel Rebellion has already begun! We will overthrow all the Chads and Stacys!"

The 22-year-old Rodger had used the term "incel"  for involuntarily celibate  in online posts raging at women for rejecting him romantically. Like-minded people in internet forums sometimes use "Chad" and "Stacy" as dismissive slang for men and women with more robust sex lives.

Monday's Facebook post mentions that "Private (Recruit) Minassian" is speaking, and Facebook confirmed that the post was on an account that belonged to the suspect.

The social networking site took down his account after the attack.

___

2:10 p.m.

A South Korean news agency says two Korean nationals were among 10 people killed when a van mounted a sidewalk and rammed into pedestrians in Toronto.

The Yonhap News Agency is citing government officials as saying that one other Korean national was seriously injured in the incident that took place Monday afternoon.

One of the people who died in the van attack has been identified as 20-year-old Anne Marie D'Amico, who worked at a U.S.-based investment firm.

Twenty-five-year-old Alek Minassian has been charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder and 13 counts of attempted murder.

___

This entry has been corrected to delete reference to three South Koreans being unaccounted for.

___

1:20 p.m.

A government spokeswoman says the man accused in a van attack that left 10 people dead in Toronto was briefly a member of the Canadian Armed Forces last year.

National Defense spokeswoman Jessica Lamirande says Alek Minassian was a member of the forces from Aug. 23 until Oct. 25, 2017.

She says: "He did not complete his recruit training and requested to be voluntarily released from the CAF after 16 days of recruit training."

The 25-year-old man from Richmond Hill, Ontario, was charged on Tuesday with 10 counts of first-degree murder and 13 counts of attempted murder.

Minassian had attended Thornlea Secondary School in Richmond Hill, graduating in 2011, according to school officials, who declined to provide further details.

A LinkedIn page with Minassian's name and photograph lists him as a student at Seneca College from 2011 to this year.

___

12:50 p.m.

Toronto City Councilor Cesar Palacio has identified one of the victims of Monday's van incident as Anne Marie D'Amico, whose parents live in his ward.

He says D'Amico also was a friend of his daughter, and he remembers her as "a brilliant young girl" who was very active and interested in improving society. He spoke with her parents on Tuesday.

D'Amico worked at the investment management firm Invesco. Invesco Canada President Peter Intraligi issued a statement confirming the death of an employee and saying "our thoughts and prayers continue to be with all those impacted by this tragic event."

D'Amico volunteered at a Canada-based international humanitarian charity called Live Different. She helped build houses in the northern Dominican Republic in 2015 and 2017, according to Dave Hamilton, the charity's manager of school partnerships.

Her remembered her as "super-positive, always smiling, a funny person, always up for a challenge, and really wanted to help people out."

D'Amico's Facebook page says she attended Ryerson University in Toronto. The school said it could not confirm that, but President and Vice-Chancellor Mohamed Lachemi issued a statement offering "deepest sympathies to all of those affected by the terrible incident."

___

11:05 a.m.

The president of Toronto's police union says an officer's behavior in arresting a suspect in Monday's deadly van attack was "one shining moment" in an otherwise horrific day.

Mike McCormack of the Toronto Police Association said Tuesday "We're extremely proud of him," and adds, "He may have prevented additional deaths."

Videos circulating on social media show the officer confronting the suspect even as he points a dark object toward the officer.

The officer refuses to shoot and repeatedly yells for the man to get down.

The suspect warns he has a gun in his pocket.

And he can be heard saying: "Shoot me in the head."

From a high-rise window, another video appears to show the suspect walking backward with his arms raised as the officer moves toward him.

The suspect eventually goes to the ground and street-level footage shows the officer kneeling over him as he lies on the pavement.

___

10:25 a.m.

A judge in Canada has ordered the 25-year-old man suspected of plowing a van into pedestrians in north Toronto detained on 10 counts of first-degree murder and 13 of attempted murder.

Suspect Alek Minassian learned of the charges in a brief initial hearing before a judge in Toronto on Tuesday.

Minassian wore a white jail jumpsuit and had his hands handcuffed. He showed little emotion.

He was asked to say his name and if he understood an order not to have any contact with anyone injured in Monday's crash scene on a busy sidewalk.

He did not enter a plea to the charges and was ordered to return to court on May 10.

___

9:25 a.m.

The president of Invesco Canada says one of the financial company's employees was among those killed in when a van plowed into pedestrians in Toronto.

Peter Intraligi says the company's "thoughts and prayers" were with "all those impacted by this tragic event."

The company had earlier issued a statement saying two of its employees were affected.

A new statement from Intraligi says "I can now confirm that unfortunately one of our employees has succumbed to her injuries." He added: "Out of respect for her and her family, we will not be providing any further comments."

Police are trying to determine why a driver plowed a rented van along a crowded sidewalk in Toronto, killing 10 people and injuring 15 in what many said seemed a deliberate attack.

___

8:55 a.m.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says authorities see no national security element in the seeming attack on pedestrians in Canada's largest city.

Trudeau says the incident "hasn't changed the overall threat level in Canada," though it occurred as Cabinet ministers from the G7 nations are meeting in Toronto.

Trudeau says Canada will do whatever it can to keep its citizens safe, while staying true to its values.

Speaking at a news conference Tuesday, he said, "We cannot as Canadians choose to live in fear every single day as we go about our daily business."

Police are trying to determine why a driver plowed a rented van along a crowded sidewalk in Toronto, killing 10 people and injuring 15 in what many said seemed a deliberate attack.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
PASCO COUNTY, Fla.  U.S. Marshalls arrested Daniel Santos, 22, in Miami Thursday for his alleged involvement in what Pasco detectives called a multi-million dollar fraud ring.

Pasco man accused of being involved in large fraud ring

Daniel Santos, 22, arrested in Miami last week

Detectives say he stole debit, credit cards

Multiple hundreds  hundreds and hundreds of victims, said Det. Spencer Hubbell with the Pasco County Sheriffs Office.

Hubbell said hes dealt with multiple cases involving Santos since joining the Economic Crimes Unit in 2016, but the first documented case involving Santos in Pasco dates back to March 2015. That was a minor fraud charge, but detectives said his crimes have evolved since then.

Hes admitted to me previously about his fraud, and he gloats about it on social media, where he holds stacks of cash, firearms, and hes not scared to show you the lifestyle that hes living using other peoples hard-earned money, Hubbell said.

According to Hubbell, Santos would steal debit and credit cards through burglaries, buying stolen numbers, or taking new cards from mailboxes. Hed then allegedly cash fraudulent checks into the accounts and withdraw as much money as he could before the bad checks bounced.

By that time, it was too late for that account holder, and thousands of dollars had already been withdrawn in cash, Hubbell said. The detective estimates Santos would withdraw as much as $5,000-$10,000 a day.

He was arrested 55 times in Pasco County on fraud and other charges, including trying to run down a Dade City police officer with a vehicle and lewd and lascivious sexual battery on a victim under 16. According to the Pasco County sheriffs office, Santos would simply bond out.

He was bragging that he was going to walk out before he had his first appearance because he had emergency bond money, Hubbell said.

It was Santoss recent posts to social media that led Hubbell and Det. Darren Hill to where he was in Miami and alert the U.S. Marshalls and Miami Dade County Police. Hubbell said Santos was found in a high-rise condominium with a known member of the Blood gang. Its believed 10-15 people were involved in the fraud operation.

Daniel was very well aware of what he was doing, and he was teaching the scheme to other members of his believed gang organization, Hubbell said.

Hubbell said Santos has 48 warrants in Pasco County and the FBI is working to indict him on federal fraud charges.

As for his hundreds of victims, Hubbell said they were reimbursed by their banks, making the financial institutions the victims in this case.

Santos is being held in Miami on no bond.

I think this time is going to be the time when hes going to have to sit for a long time and think about, reevaluate his life and the consequences should be coming, Hubbell said.
Oklahoma U.S. Rep. Jim Bridenstine will be sworn in Monday to become the next administrator of NASA.

Marco Rubo says NASA needs 'space professional' in charge

Bill Nelson shares Rubo's stance

Jim Bridenstine says he has worked with Congress to achieve goals

RELATED: NASA gets a new boss: Senate confirms Rep. Jim Bridenstine as administrator

The U.S. Senate confirmed Bridenstine last week in a 50 to 49 vote.

Both of Florida's senators have expressed reservations about Bridenstine leading NASA.

"I was not enthused by the nomination, nothing personal against Mr. Bridenstine," said U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) last week. "I felt that NASA as an organization that needs to be led by a space professional."

"That's what this senator wants, a space professional, not a politician," said U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Florida) last week.

For his part, during his confirmation hearing last November, Bridenstine says his work in Congress could help NASA.

"One of the benefits I could bring to the agency is that I have worked in these halls with many members of Congress on both sides of the aisle to accomplish very strategic, objective goals for our country," Bridenstine said.

Rubio eventually decided to give in and voted to confirm Bridenstine because he did not want the agency to go without a leader.

NASA has been without a permanent administrator for more than a year.

Nelson opposed the nomination to the end, concerned not only about Bridenstine's background, but also his views on climate change.

"His record of behavior in the Congress is as divisive as any in Washington," said Nelson.

Bridenstine is sworn in at a critical time for NASA. Human spaceflight missions from Florida's Space Coast are expected to resume within the next year.

He will also be in charge of carrying out President Donald Trump's vision for returning humans to the moon before eventual missions to Mars.

"We must develop a consensus agenda, driven by science and based on national interest," Bridenstine said at his confirmation hearing in November.

Vice President Mike Pence will swear in Bridenstine at NASA Headquarters in Washington on Monday.

Then Bridenstine will speak via satellite to three of his new employees, astronauts who are currently living and working at the International Space Station.
A Q&A with Aviva Chomsky

Los Angeles May Day March. Photo credit: David Bacon

Little more than a year into his administration, the egregious myths and misinformed claims Donald Trump has voiced about immigrants and immigration persist and promote aggressive anti-immigrant policies. This calls for Aviva Chomskys revised and updated myth-busting book They Take Our Jobs!: And 20 Other Myths About Immigration. Crucial for our politically fraught times, this expanded edition contains fresh material addressing whats been happening in immigration policy for the last ten years. It also helps us understand the underlying assumptions behind the myths. Beacon Broadside editor Christian Coleman caught up with Chomsky to chat with her about it.

Christian Coleman: Why did you feel it was important to do a revised edition of They Take Our Jobs!?

Aviva Chomsky: Its been over ten years since the first edition came out. Of course, many new things have happened over the course of those ten years, but at the same time, I feel like the debate is in some ways still stuck in some of the same misunderstandings and myths. Sometimes I hear people repeating the myths I wrote about: Immigrants take American jobs! Immigrants dont pay taxes! They should come here the right way! And I think, Wow, why didnt they read my book?

In addition to the fact that so many of the same myths are still circulating, Id say that the tenor of the immigration debate has, if anything, gotten worse in the past decade. I think President Trump has pushed the boundaries of the kinds of aggressive and racist speech that can be considered mainstream or acceptable. I mean, if the President says that immigrants are criminals, he brings that language or those ideas into the mainstream. Trump also pushes some of the myths himself, either explicitly or implicitly. Even if he is sometimes vague about the details, he certainly suggests that immigrants are a drain on the economy, and that they take Americans jobs.

So I wanted to bring the book up to date both by filling in some of the changing trends, policies, and activism over the past ten years, and also addressing the ways that the myths have been mobilized in the current political context.

CC: What are some changes (or a big change) in immigration policy that have taken place since the initial publication of the book?

AC: During the Obama presidency, we saw two apparently contradictory trends. On one hand, immigration enforcement went way up. Obama was termed the deporter-in-chief because he raised deportations to levels never seen before. On the other hand, Obama made some important concessions to certain categories of immigrants. His implementation of prosecutorial discretion during his second term allowed many immigrants with long-term ties to the country to avoid deportation. ICE agents carried out this discretion at an individual level, and then Obama made it official with DACA, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, in 2012. DACA granted a temporary legal status to hundreds of thousands of youth who met its parameters: between the ages of fifteen and thirty, brought to the US by their parents before the age of fifteen, high school graduates, in school, or serving in the military. Although apparently contradictory, these two sets of policies were actually two sides of the same coin. Obama tried to neatly divide immigrants into what he termed felons versus families. He promoted the supposed innocence of some immigrants by emphasizing the criminality of others. This criminalization of immigrants is built on a long history and especially on the ways the Clinton administration changed laws to turn a lot more immigrants into felons. It also continued to build the foundation for what were seeing now under Trump.

As we know, criminalization, and the carceral state, are deeply racialized in the United States. Id say Trump has taken long-standing beliefs and policies and mobilized racism in two somewhat new directions. First, he is more blunt about ideas that Democrats tried to be more polite about. The Clintons and Barack Obama never used language like shithole countriesbut their policies towards, say, Haiti and Honduras were just as malicious. Second, Trump is more resolutely anti-immigrant in all respects than any recent president. In general, US leaders have tried to manage immigration to fill labor needs, and have celebrated the countrys immigrant heritage. Even as they criminalized and deported many immigrants, they lauded immigrants whom they defined as deserving. Trump, in contrast, just doesnt like immigrants at all (except maybe if they are from Norway). He is working to shift millions of immigrants who currently hold legal status (like DACA and TPS) into illegal status and deportation, and seeks to dramatically reduce legal immigration. Trump is simply taking the coercive stance that his predecessors applied to those they defined as criminal immigrants and expanding to cover almost all immigrants.

CC: Is there one myth or perhaps a few that you see more prevalent now than before?

AC: Id say there are two: one, that immigrants are criminals, and two, that immigrants come here to take advantage of the United States. In a way, these are connectedby turning immigrants into bad hombres, Trump helps to erase history and the disasters that US policy has helped to create in the countries that immigrants are currently fleeing, especially in Central America.

CC: What would you like readers to take away from the book during our current administration?

AC: So many people have said to me, How do I convince people who think immigrants take jobs/are dangerous threats/are ruining the economy/etc.? In the book, I try to address the most common anti-immigrant arguments in concise and fact-based ways. The book also asks readers to read and think critically about how we come to take certain ideas for granted. The most pernicious myths are those that we dont even recognize as controversialthey are imbedded in our worldview. I think my book asks readers to challenge not just specific claims about immigrants, but deeper ideas about society, economy, and this country.

About Aviva Chomsky

Aviva Chomsky is a professor of history and the coordinator of Latin American Studies at Salem State University. The author of several books, Chomsky has been active in Latin American solidarity and immigrants rights movements for over thirty years. She lives in Salem, Massachusetts.
Religion is the Belief - Humanity is the Foundation

It's a beautiful thing when individuals can come together as brothers and sisters despite their differences. Religion is a very controversial subject and many groups will not offer help to others based on their conflicting religious beliefs. However, there are some non-governmental organizations that are inspired by the human soul and devote their lives to helping others no matter what.

These NGO's understand that faith is spiritual and doesn't make a person good or bad - it's just their belief. We are all on the journey of life together and it's amazing that people are willing to reach out and make a difference. Here are some inspirational NGO's that are embodying the spirit of life.
For Immediate Release, April 24, 2018



Contact: Stephanie Kurose, (202) 849-8395, skurose@biologicaldiversity.org Senate GOP Aims to Weaken Protections for Whales, Other Marine Mammals WASHINGTON Senate Republicans will hold a hearing on Wednesday designed to undermine key environmental laws that protect imperiled marine mammals like the North Atlantic right whale. Sen. Sullivan (R-Alaska), chairman of the Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard, will use this opportunity to advocate for loosening federal protections under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and Endangered Species Act. The American people oppose the Republican war on our oceans and wildlife, said Stephanie Kurose, endangered species policy specialist at the Center for Biological Diversity. This disturbing proposal comes as Trump tries to open all our oceans to a vast expansion of dirty oil drilling. Sen. Sullivan and other Republicans want to strip away the last safeguards that whales and dolphins have against these reckless activities. The Marine Mammal Protection Act and Endangered Species Act are the two most critical laws protecting imperiled marine mammals against threats from oil and gas drilling, harmful exploration methods like seismic blasting, and hunting and exploitation. Attempts to gut either law would have devastating consequences for marine life. Right whales, for example, are a highly endangered species already threatened by seismic testing, ship collisions and entanglement in fishing gear. Without protections, these whales could be devastated by expanded offshore drilling. Instead of bowing down to Big Oil and other special interests, Congress should be increasing protection for these vulnerable animals, said Kurose. Any efforts to weaken these proven environmental safeguards should be strongly opposed by coastal communities and members of Congress. Background

The Marine Mammal Protection Act was passed in 1972 under President Nixon with strong bipartisan support. The law protects individual marine mammals as well as their populations, and it applies to all people and vessels in U.S. waters. Not one marine mammal found in U.S. waters has gone extinct in the 45 years since the Act became law, even as human activities in the ocean have dramatically increased.
For Immediate Release, April 24, 2018 Contact: Collette Adkins, (651) 955-3821, cadkins@biologicaldiversity.org Report: North Carolina's Endangered Red Wolves Down to 40, Could Be Extinct in Eight Years WASHINGTON There are just 40 endangered red wolves left in the wild in North Carolina and the population could go extinct within eight years, according to a new five-year status review and species status assessment released today by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The agency says the wolves must remain protected under the Endangered Species Act and more help is needed to ensure their survival. Time is running out for red wolves. We need to move fast if were going to keep them from disappearing forever, said Collette Adkins, a biologist and senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. For starters, we need immediate measures in place to stop people from killing them. Todays status review documents an increase in human-caused red-wolf deaths by causes such as gunshot, poisoning and suspected illegal activity. Conservation groups, including the Center, have called upon the Service to revise the current red-wolf regulations to reduce red-wolf shooting deaths. Another threat to red wolves is hybridization with coyotes. In the documents released today, the Service found that hybridization can be effectively addressed through a placeholder program where sterilized coyotes are released so they can hold territories until red wolves can replace them. Red wolves face the very real possibility of vanishing from the wild if they dont get the help they need, said Adkins. Its good the Service is acknowledging that we need more breeding pairs and new reintroduction sites to spur red-wolf recovery. The Service is continuing to work to identify additional sites for red-wolf introduction, according to the documents released. Conservation groups have pushed for a new recovery plan that identifies additional reintroduction sites. The agency pledged to update the plan this year, in response to a December petition filed by the Center and several other seven animal-protection and conservation organizations. By late summer the Service expects to release for public comment an environmental assessment and new proposed rule with alternatives covering future management of the wolves. Nearly all the public comments submitted to the agency this past summer support recovering the wild population in the southeastern United States.



Background

The red wolf is one of the worlds most endangered species and can now only be found in the wild in North Carolina. The newly released documents explain that red wolves once roamed a larger portion of the United States than previously thought: from the southeastern United States westward to the Edwards Plateau in Texas, north to the lower Midwest (i.e., southeastern Missouri, southern Illinois) and east into southern Pennsylvania and extreme southeastern New York. The best available science demonstrates that red wolves are still recoverable. A 2014 report written by the Wildlife Management Institute concluded that recovery would require reintroduction of two additional wild populations and an investment of additional resources to build local support for red-wolf recovery. Yet the Service has proposed confining red-wolf recovery to federal public lands, shrinking the animals recovery area from five counties in North Carolina to just one bombing range and one wildlife refuge in a single county.


A new wave is sweeping across Africa. Elections on the continent are increasingly yielding younger leadership than ever before. From presidents to ministers and governors, senators to members of parliament, Africa's young people are demanding a seat at the political table.

African youth participate at an international youth forum at the UN headquarters in New York. Photo: Africa Renewal/Shu Zhang

A young voice

Disrupting the status quo

The youth are using their large numbers to vote in younger leaders or leaders they feel will be sympathetic to their plight.In Uganda, Proscovia Oromait was only 19 in 2012 when she became the worlds youngest MP, representing Usuk County in the Katakwi District. What I said when I was younger was that in years to come, I will become the president. Its just been my dream to become a leader of Uganda. And here I am, the youngest MP. And Im so proud of what I am, Oromait told the UKsnewspaper in an interview.In South Africa, Lindiwe Mazibuko, 37, was elected leader of the opposition in parliament in 2011, representing the Democratic Alliance. She became the first black woman to hold that position. There is no prosperity for our continent without a vibrant, diverse and truly competitive politics, founded upon excellence, transparency and commitment to the public good, Mazibuko said in a TEDxEuston talk in January 2016.There are more young leaders coming up in parliaments in Nigeria, Ghana, Cote dIvoire, Kenya, South Africa, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Cameroon, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda and others. And the August 2018 presidential election could give Zimbabwes political leadership a youthful makeover.Forty-year-old Nelson Chamisa, the new leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, is angling to be Zimbabwes new leader. Were Chamisa to win, he would be one of Africas youngest democratically elected presidents.Sixty percent of Zimbabwes 5.3-million registered voters in the watershed elections are under 40, according to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. It is a show of commitment by the youth to deciding a new course of governance after the leadership of Robert Mugabe.Mugabe, 94, was Africas oldest leader until he resigned as president in November last year, having ruled for 37 years.In a recent interview with the German radio station Deutsche Welle, Chamisa said, It is young people who are the movers and shakers. We want to also see that in politics. We want our continent to be painted young. We want our continent to have a young voice.In a 2015 article for CNN, David E. Kiwuwa, an associate professor of international studies at Princeton University in the US, notes that the average age of the ten oldest leaders [in Africa] is 78.5 compared to 52 for the worlds ten most-developed economies.On average, according to Kiwuwa, only between 15% and 21% of [these African countries] citizens were born when these presidents took the reins.Some Africans argue that with age and longevity in office comes wisdom, foresight and experience, Kiwuwa writes. He further posits that, given opportunities in politics and other sectors, Africas youth can transform the continent. He regrets that the long tenures of older politicians continue to stifle the emergence of credible youthful successors.Innocent Batsani Ncube, a 39-year-old Zimbabwean political scholar, echoes Kiwuwas sentiments, stressing that youth rarely get the attention of Africas political leaders, who do not believe young people can lead.Older political elites believe they have all the solutions to development challenges, Ncube told. An example is the approach that those in leadership use to solve young peoples job problems. Their solutions mostly suit the elites, rather than the young people. There is limited consultation in ideation between the youth and the older leaders.Youth need a seat on the transformation train because of their energy and passion, argues Kuseni Dlamini in a paper published in 2013 by Ernst & Young, a UK-based professional services firm.The single most important factor for continental growth is the energy and passion of young Africans who have a palpable sense of positive energy and optimism, adds Dlamini, who is the chair of Times Media Group of South Africa and head of Massmart, a retailer affiliated with Walmart in the US.They [youth] are young entrepreneurs, innovators, scientists, academics, engineers, professionals. They do not want aid or charity. They want to unleash their full potential, said Dlamini, who was named Young Global Leader in 2008 by the World Economic Forum, a recognition accorded higher-performing leaders who mentor other youth.Africas population will be 1.6-billion by 2030, according to the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, and the rapidly growing youth population will constitute 42% of that number. The youth will need opportunities to participate in politics, jobs and overall inclusion in development.The African Development Bank (AfDB) says that one-third of Africas 420-million youths (those ages 1535) are unemployed, another third are vulnerably employed and only one in six young people is gainfully employed.While 10- to 12-million youths enter the workforce each year [in Africa], only 3.1-million jobs are created, leaving vast numbers of youth unemployed. The consequences of youth unemployment in Africa are pervasive and severe: unemployment translates to poorer living conditions, fuels migration out of Africa, and contributes to conflict on the continent itself, notes the AfDB.The AfDB adds that the desired long-term outcome is expanded economic opportunity for both male and female African youth, which leads to improvements in other aspects of their lives.The bank therefore aims to create 25-million jobs through its Jobs for Youth in Africa Strategy (20162025) and spur economic growth by empowering the youth to realise their full potential.African youth are demanding a seat at the political table, but the agribusiness sector, which could be worth $1tn by 2030, according to the World Bank, is the low-hanging fruit.The African Agribusiness Incubator Network (AAIN), a business development company based in Accra, Ghana, wants youth to innovate and lead the continents economic transformation.Ralph von Kaufmann, an agribusiness mentor and consultant with AAIN, says that agribusiness presents opportunities for youths and women, but there is a need to create the right policies that facilitate their participation.Nthabiseng Kgobokoe, a young livestock and horticulture farmer in South Africa, toldthat the first step must be to include the youth in policymaking. Education alone cannot address all our issues; there is a need to create conducive political and economic conditions for us to be successful young entrepreneurs.Kaobokoe said young entrepreneurs across Africa face similar challenges, including a lack of access to financing and other resources, red tape and inadequate policies to foster inclusive growth.Policymakers forget that youth are the backbone of any socioeconomic and political development, stresses Kgobokoe.Talented young people must step forward and be part of decision making, says Mazibuko. We [in Africa] are emerging from that stereotype of a dark continent, the hopeless continent.... We must run for office, we must work in the civil service and we must disrupt the political status quo.
I am not always convinced that a brand which makes arbitrary funny gags as "content" - which is light on, or even missing, a marketing message - is doing the right thing. A brand exists to sell its product or service, not to entertain.

Screengrabs from the ad.

Having said that, though, the most memorable ads are the ones which not only make you smile or laugh, but which also have a strong link to the brand.So I am a bit torn about the latest ad for King Price insurance, which was put up on their Facebook page and, thanks to assiduous marketing and social media plugging, has gone viral. I am conflicted because it is indeed funny  and very South African  but there is no obvious link to an insurance product.King Price maintains that the link is that, in the ad, something major gets lost in translation, much as insurance companies and their customers often dont communicate clearly enough.That lost in translation joke apparently is an adaptation of a joke told by the father of Bennie Fourie. Fourie junior styles himself as a writer/actor/film-maker and he has set up a production/company/agency with the like-minded and experienced Bouwer Bosch. Their company, Freckle, came up with the concept and made it a production reality.What we see is an ordinary day on the . A worker is toting a bale of hay around when he hears seductive music coming from one of the barns.He peeps around the door and is shocked to see the boer almost making love to a very old, and very battered, tractor. Its all swoons and gyrations and pouting of lips. (In that sense, it reminds me very much of Boet from the old Castrol Can of the Best ads from back in the day.)When the boer realises he is being watched, he ruefully explains (in Afrikaans) that he has been having some problems in the love department and that thein thehad recommended that he do something sexy to attract her and that gets lost in translation to end up as do something sexy to a tractorIts a bit corny, but you cant help but smile. And we certainly need things to cheer us up in this current South African reality. Its difficult to think badly about someone, or something, which has made you smile.An organisation branded Arrive Alive would surely not be careless or cavalier when it comes to road safety thats what you would think, anyway.Yet, it has just made itself guilty of the same unthinking, and reckless social media sharing, which has got many into trouble. More than that, though, it is guilty of posting something potentially dangerous.This piece of fake news tweeted by Arrive Alive came from roadsafety.co.za.It posed the legitimate question about what you would do if you discovered you were running out of fuel on the highway.But  and this is a huge but  the material used in answer to that question was a heap of rubbish, which appears to have originated in America and then been put into an amateurish graphic in the Philippines. I am not kiddingThere are plenty are Americanisms  references to gas, miles, mph (miles per hour, if you can remember that far back or were not around in the 1970s, when South Africa switched to the Metric system)  as well as mixed-up tenses (a common Americanism) but also just plain bad writing.Example: If this unfortunately happens to you, have a presence of mind.Then there is also a silly reference to being able to download an app, which will enable you to have fuel delivered. In South Africa?But the worst, and most dangerous, piece of this idiocy is the recommendation that, as soon as you see you are about to run out of fuel, Get into the right lane immediatelyThats fine in the US, where they drive on the right and the right-hand lane is the slow lane. In this country, it is the opposite. Getting into the fast lane and slowing down to save fuel, will almost certainly help you Arrive Not Alive.This is a warning to all those people responsible for a brands social media: get your facts right. Just because someone else posted it, doesnt mean its either correct or appropriate.An Onion to roadsafety.co.za, as well as to Arrive Alive. Remove this rubbish as soon as possible from the information superhighway.Something like this does get people talking and, when it goes viral, then a brand gets to far more places. So thats clever marketing. An Orchid for King Price and for Freckle.
The Warc Awards released the shortlist for the Effective Social Strategy category - a search for marketing initiatives that link social strategy to business success.

Jury chair, Elizabeth Windram, JetBlue Airways.

Crossing The Line  Fleggaard  UncleGrey  Denmark

#Hungereply  Snickers  Mars  BBDO Japan  Japan

Finding the Female Gaze in Fart Jokes  Gas-X  GSK  Weber Shandwick NY  United States

Office Souvenirs  JetBlue  MullenLowe US  United States

Little Tickets  JetBlue  MullenLowe US  MullenLowe Group  United States

#InMyFamilyWeSay  Hepar  Nestle Waters  Marcel  France

Condom or Denim?  Durex Jeans  Reckitt Benckiser  Havas Worldwide India  India

Time With Mum  Road Safety Commission  303 MullenLowe  Australia

Nudging people out of compassion fatigue and into action  Unicef  Bohemia Group  Australia

Full-heart support during Gaokao  McDonald's  BBDO China  China

Ole Ole Hour!  KFC  QSR Stores Sdn Bhd  Ensemble Worldwide, UM Malaysia  Malaysia

Like my addiction  Addict'Aide  BETC  France

Justice Bao and The Missing Travel Insurance  Singapore Tourism Board  TBWA\Singapore  Singapore

Play Everything  PlayStation  Sony Interactive Entertainment Singapore  TBWA\Singapore  Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand

Positive  Pampers  Procter & Gamble  Leo Burnett Vietnam, Saatchi & Saatchi Vietnam, MSL Group Vietnam  Vietnam

It's not cricket, it's the ashes  BT Sport  BT  AMVBBDO  United Kingdom

GeoStories: How Instagram turned millennials onto geology  Geological Survey of Canada History Committee  McMillan  Canada

 Geological Survey of Canada History Committee  McMillan  Canada For the sake of M&M's, do not watch Game of Thrones !  M&M's  Mars  ALMAP BBDO  Brazil

!  M&M's  Mars  ALMAP BBDO  Brazil Not another Tide ad. But probably, the dullest content in history for the least active kids in history  Omo  Unilever  FP7/DXB  Middle East

Futbot  Beko  Arcelik  FP7/McCann Istanbul  Turkey

A jury panel of 15 industry experts from both agency and client-side chaired by Elizabeth Windram, director, brand and advertising, JetBlue Airways, has shortlisted campaigns covering a broad range of brands and categories from around the world  Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Middle East, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam.The shortlisted entries are:To see the shortlisted case studies in the Effective Social Strategy category, please click here The annual Warc Awards is a global search for next-generation marketing effectiveness. The final shortlist, Effective Content Strategy, will be announced next week. The shortlisted case studies in the Effective Innovation and Effective Use of Brand Purpose categories are available here
Matthew Buckland on reigniting Burn Media

Matthew Buckland is one of the SA digital media's industry's best-known players, having taken home the 'best individual contribution to digital' award at the 2017 Bookmark Awards - with no entries in the category this year. Here, Buckland explains his latest role change at Creative Spark, what it means for Burn Media going forward, and the biggest digital media trends he's anticipating from 2018.

Matthew Buckland.



A lot can happen in a decade  even more so if youre part of the fast-paced digital media industry. Matthew Buckland, former managing director and founder of Creative Spark, is testament to this. In almost ten years, hes watched Creative Spark grow beyond his wildest dreams.



I caught up with him for a quick chat about his challenges and highlights so far, why its time to refocus on the Burn Media platforms, as well as what hes looking forward to from the next chapter of his career



Explain the context of your current position at Creative Spark and the decision to step down as chief executive: digital at M&C Saatchi Abel. Explain the context of your current position at Creative Spark and the decision to step down as chief executive: digital at M&C Saatchi Abel. A lot can happen in a decade  even more so if youre part of the fast-paced digital media industry. Matthew Buckland, former managing director and founder of Creative Spark, is testament to this. In almost ten years, hes watched Creative Spark grow beyond his wildest dreams.I caught up with him for a quick chat about his challenges and highlights so far, why its time to refocus on the Burn Media platforms, as well as what hes looking forward to from the next chapter of his career

What does this mean for Burn Media going forward  staff and content-wise across the platforms? What does this mean for Burn Media going forward  staff and content-wise across the platforms?

Creative Spark Cape Town in 2015, Buckland far back right.

Share a few of your biggest highlights and challenges in running Creative Spark over the years. Share a few of your biggest highlights and challenges in running Creative Spark over the years.

How's that for growth? The Creative Spark Cape Town and Joburg team, in 2016. Buckland far back right again.

Pretty much the only constant in our company for the last eight years has been change. Thats digital for you!

Thats for sure! Let us in on future plans for your own career, as well as the Burn Media sites. Thats for sure! Let us in on future plans for your own career, as well as the Burn Media sites.

Lets end with a taste of the future: What are the biggest digital publishing trends youre most looking forward to from 2018? Lets end with a taste of the future: What are the biggest digital publishing trends youre most looking forward to from 2018?

Online publishing is not a happy place at the moment and is still searching for its revenue model, despite unprecedented demand and audiences.

Leigh Andrews' articles About Leigh Andrews Leigh Andrews AKA the



Leigh Andrews AKA the #MilkshakeQueen , is former Editor-in-Chief: Marketing & Media at Bizcommunity.com, with a passion for issues of diversity, inclusion and equality, and of course, gourmet food and drinks! She can be reached on Twitter at @Leigh_Andrews

I have been at Creative Spark for almost a decade and seen the company grow from one employee to more than 70. I felt I needed a change personally and with the arrival of Tanja Lategan as managing director, I felt the company was in excellent hands for the future.It really is more of a role change for me as I will continue to consult to the agency and assist with key clients where needed. Tanja is an excellent advocate of our agencys integrity and innovative culture  and is the right person to lead the agency forward. Tanja has a formidable management team both in Cape Town and Johannesburg that are passionate about our clients and contributing further to their success.As the agency grew exponentially, Burn Media, our publishing arm and smaller part of our business, got less and less attention. This restructure will allow us to re-invigorate and re-focus on Burn Media to allow it to reach its full potential.We are particularly excited about our two leading brands, Memeburn.com and Ventureburn.com, which are documenting the technology and startup revolution on the continent.Highlights have included opening our Joburg office three years ago, becoming part of the world-wide M&C Saatchi Group two years ago, and bringing in one of the groups largest clients last year.We have had some major client wins over the past three years, which has contributed to the agencys growth and seniorisation in staff. A big highlight has been watching staff, some of whom have been here right from the beginning, develop with the agency in the past decade.Its also been great to see the agency attract heavy hitters in both our Joburg and Cape Town offices.Its been a challenge dealing with rapid growth and digital platform change, which requires constant process evolution in your company.Apart from consulting to Creative Spark, I plan to focus my energies on the revitalisation and growth of Burn Media. Burn Media has a solid core team in place, which we plan to expand in the coming years.Ive also been asked to consult to a multinational Prague- and New York-based media fund called the MDIF , helping the media clients it has invested in around the world with their commercial strategies.I think there is a quality crisis on the internet, both in content and in advertising.From an advertising point of view, the rise in programmatic/automated advertising has caused questions amongst advertisers as to where their ads are being served.From a content point of view, there is more content out there than ever before, because it is so much easier than ever before for anyone to publish: Its the fake news era.It may be a case of wishful thinking on my behalf, but I suspect we may just see a, and that is to content players on the internet that have established themselves as quality brands with high trust from their users.Users and advertisers will want to be part of this to ensure a quality experience. Also expect more: the paywall subscription model is not suitable for all media, but you may see more publishers requiring registration, as afor free usage, to allow for more personalised, targeted content and advertising delivery.There will also be continued diversification away from some media businesses original core into other media formats and revenue streams, and into multiple content formats, platforms and non-media activities, like events.
This company article has been removed.
Prism success for Ogilvy South Africa

Ogilvy South Africa was among the top performing agencies at the 2018 Prism Awards winning five awards.

The agency took home two silver and three bronze awards. Ogilvy South Africas Influence and Public Relations National Managing Director, Joanna Oosthuizen, said the awards were the result of an integrated and holistic approach to public relations with a dynamic newsroom, content and data and analytics at the heart of everything that we do."



Ogilvys winning campaigns were:



Best Campaign with Social Media as Support: The KFC SoundBite (Silver) real-time music platform was promoted using a carefully constructed influencer strategy which created a social media movement for local music with 254 million impressions and over 2 million video views.



Social Media as the Primary Method of Communication: KFC Black Fried Day (Silver) - using social listening, BlackFriday shoppers were rewarded with a KFC voucher. Over one day, more than 40 videos, GIFs and static responses for Twitter fans were personalised and the campaign generated 10 million potential impressions and 288,000 engagements.



Media Relations: Woolworths Myndplay (Bronze) media launch achieved remarkable impact and media coverage by being the first such event in Africa to use Myndplay, a fascinating cutting-edge technology that reads the mind and generates a drawing reflecting the minds activity.



Business to Business: Audis Corporate Communications (Bronze) campaign established trust and an identity for Audi Masterbrand  a brand that traditionally only engaged in motoring media. The PR efforts resulted in R30m in coverage and 42 billion impressions generated.



Consumer PR for an Existing Product: The Gumtree Pre-Owned Car Awards (Bronze) were launched in a way that generated exceptional media coverage worth over R2m in AVE and social media reach of over 7 million. Gumtree saw a 75% growth year-on-year in organic vehicle searches on the site during the campaign period.




The Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry has negotiated a special deal with Renegade Films to put promotional videos within the reach of even the smallest businesses.

 StockSnap via Pixabay

More effective ways of marketing

New businesses have to explain themselves and show what they can do and the best way to do that is with a professional video and then use YouTube and websites to spread the message, said Janine Myburgh, president of the Chamber.Using YouTube costs nothing but the problem is that unless the video meets professional standards, it is likely to underwhelm your potential customers and it may even be a turn-off. Unfortunately, professional videos can be expensive.Myburgh said the Chamber had set out to solve this problem and was now able to offer its members a huge discount of R15,000 for a three-minute video, bringing the cost down to just R6,500. This included a professional script, voice over and a day of filming.So much is changing and the new technologies create opportunities for new products, services and businesses, but marketing is expensive, especially for small firms. At the Chamber, we saw the need to help our members get started or grow their existing businesses so we looked for a better, more effective ways of marketing.There is an old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. We believe a moving picture, in this case, a three-minute video, could be worth a thousand customers, Myburgh said.Click here to see the promotion.
For Andre van Kets, co-founder, Discover Africa Group this project was an exciting experience that took all participants on an adventure of nation building, putting South Africa on the global map.Speaking at this years World Travel Market Africa, Van Kets let attendees in on how the company stumbled on this project, how they managed to raise funds for it and how they rallied the tourism industry together, talking about the challenges that they faced and some of the stories from the trail encompassing the exciting things that happened and the benefits to the industry as whole, as well as how small business owners in South Africa (or anywhere) can use the Google Street View ecosystem at a really low cost.Researching 360 cameras in 2015, Van Kets came across a Google Trekker image of the Grand Canyon taken in 2012/2013:"I think Grand Canyon was one of the first locations Google mapped out in the way we just did South Africa and while I was searching around, I discovered this page on the web which said: If you like, we will lend you our camera. You go out there and map your neck of the woods. I filled out the form, adding all my details."A month later, Van Kets heard from Google. After checking out who he is, and what Discover Africa Group does, they sent the cameras with an agreement, online training on how to put everything together and information on how to get a hold of them should Discover Africa run into any glitches on connecting the device.The camera, as Van Kets explained, is a heavy device which takes photos of every step of a trail, saved to a hard drive, which is then sent out to Googles head office. There it is added to their Maps and Street View data, which then, in turn, becomes available for everyone to see across the world."It was pretty fun just stumbling onto this. What we did was we started hiking around Cape Town, invited friends, families and guys in the office. Every time we hiked we came across someone that said, Woah, what is this thing? Not long after that we had 20 to 30 people all wanting to carry this camera and be a part of the project."Soon after, Van Kets and his team began setting up meetings with SanParks, Cape Town Tourism and South African Tourism. "It wasnt a hard sell. To be honest, if you say youre doing something with Google for tourism, everyone is willing to listen. SanParks immediately came to the party, bringing all of its members on board  providing access to parks, a roof over our heads and rangers to help us on trails."As persistence was paying off, Van Kets continued his efforts to grow the project by coming into agreement with South African Tourism, managing to share the costs with them, sourcing a core team of six made up of videographers, two trackers and guys that were using the Google cameras as well as two admin coordinators that were planning ahead. With six youngsters and three vehicles, they travelled 50,000kms all around the country in eight months, overcoming a few obstacles along the way."We were in the Low Veld and bushveld, we found volunteers everywhere we went. We captured the wetlands, the local rangers and local guides assisting us. In Sun City, lifeguards carried the trekker for us. Our team was just bringing the technology around, explaining how to use it, training the guys up and they were sort of making this project their own."Van Kets explained that there were a lot of these moments shared, which made it really special. To him this was more than just putting South Africa on the map, it was a nation-building project with a common cause and left everyone forgetting about the bad, political driven news and illustrating that there is some good news happening in South Africa."It was a great PR story for South Africa with over 250 digital stories, 20 magazines or newspapers, two dozen radio interviews  it got the word out, with three TV spots and hundreds and thousands of views on social media."This was a positive marketing drive for South Africa as a product for the people said Van Kets. "As operators, as travel agents, we can now use this technology to showcase to our clients what they can expect when they are on a trail or whichever area theyre going to. These are moments that we can now use to sell our products to the world."Van Kets concluded by saying that no matter what sort of tourism entity you are, there are two ways in which you can leverage Google's technology for your business. "You can create images for your tourism business using a 360 camera and upload them to Google maps where anyone can discover them. The other thing is to register your business through Google Business - these are integrating solutions and are completely free. You are missing out if you do not do this."
Local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) stand to benefit from Google implementing "mobile-first indexing". What this means, simply, is that since March this year Google's search algorithms have shifted to using the mobile version of a website's content.

 Alexander Kirch via 123RF

South Africa in the 1990s going from no significant history of mobile phones straight to state-of-the-art digital cellphones, without ever having to bother with analogue cellular, was one of the worlds best examples of leapfrogging in recent telecoms history.

Says Mike Laws, managing director of mobile marketing consultancy, Imaginatrix: Small businesses that were never able to spend vast sums on a complex website replete with tens of pages and dozens of bells and whistles can now simply leapfrog the corporate competition with a concise mobile-only web presence.According to him, leapfrogging, in the marketing sense, refers to going straight from zero to hero, without any of the usual evolutionary steps or stages in between.Googles plan to change the way its search index operates based on the companys recognition that most of the world now searches the web using mobile devices, and not desktops, means SMEs can invest in a scaled-down, three or four page, mobile-friendly website and actually be ranked better by Google than a 100-year old corporation that spent millions on its web presence.In December 2017, Google said it had begun to transition a handful of sites to mobile-first indexing. According to the company at the time: Mobile-first indexing means Google will use the mobile version of a web page for indexing and ranking, to better help our  primarily mobile  users find what theyre looking for. In March 2018, the move to mobile gathered significant steam.The search engine giant has previously explained that it will have one index for search results, not a mobile-first index thats separate from its main index. In other words, it will start to look to the mobile web pages to index the web, not the desktop version.This is huge, says Laws. "Both SMEs and large enterprises need to immediately appoint a mobile-first task team to get their online presence in order or risk being relegated to the bottom of the pile.Imaginatrix is advising clients to slash their written web content to the bare minimum, for example, so that its easy to read on mobile devices like tablets and cellphones. This will mean mobile web surfers are not lost as they shut down and exit content-heavy pages that appear overwhelming.Google has moved faster than anyone expected to implement its mobile-friendly policies but this means plenty opportunities for SMEs and other nimble firms able to quickly get their mobile-first house in order, concludes Laws.




BEIJING (PTI): The meetings of the defence and foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), being attended by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, began in Beijing on Tuesday.



The two meetings are being held around the same time.



Sitharaman, who arrived in Beijing on Monday night, attended the defence ministers' meeting and Swaraj took part in the foreign ministers' meeting.



The two meetings are being held as part of the preparations for the SCO summit to be held in the Chinese city of Qingdao in June.



Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to attend the summit.



These are the first top ministerial-level meetings of the SCO after the admission of India and Pakistan as members in the group last year.



A host of issues including regional security and terrorism are expected to be discussed at the meetings and prepare agenda for the SCO summit.



The SCO, headquartered in Beijing, was founded in 2001.



Comprising China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, India and Pakistan, the SCO aims at military cooperation between the member states and involves intelligence sharing, counter-terrorism operations in Central Asia and joint work against cyber terrorism.
NEWTOWN BOROUGH >> More than 100 people booked through the quiet neighborhood streets of Newtown Borough Saturday morning as onlookers cheered them on during the 14th Annual Race for Reading. After being cancelled last year due to the global pandemic, the Newtown Library Companys 5K Race returned to the streets of Newtown with a record field, from kids to seniors...
Buffalos health disparities are the focus of community-wide conference hosted by UB

Community activists, scholars, clergy and members of the public will gather April 28 at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences to discuss Buffalo's health disparities. (Photo: Douglas Levere, University at Buffalo)

In our community, black folks are sicker and dont live as long as whites. This is 100 percent preventable and fixable. 

BUFFALO, N.Y.  If youre an African-American living in the 14204, 14206, 14211, 14212 or 14215 zip code, you are almost three times as likely to die prematurely as a white person living in a different zip code in Buffalo.

That fact is one of many reasons behind a conference being held later this month called Igniting Hope: Building a Just Community with a Culture of Health and Equity.

Free and open to the public, the conference will be held from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 28, at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo, 955 Main St. More information is here.

To live up to our motto of a City of Good Neighbors, we must all work together to create a community where race is no longer a defining factor in a persons health and life expectancy, said conference organizer, the Rev. George F. Nicholas, pastor of Lincoln Memorial United Methodist Church-Buffalo and a member of the African American Health Disparities Task Force and the Greater Buffalo Racial Equity Roundtable.

This conference is the first step of a call-to-action to eliminate health disparities, he continued. I am excited that UB is partnering with the community to take on this challenge.

UB is committed to working to address and ultimately reverse the consequences of the health disparities that Buffalos African-American community has lived with for too long, said Michael Cain, MD, vice president for health sciences and dean of the Jacobs School.

Consuelo Wilkins, MD, executive director of the Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance in Tennessee and an expert in improving community health through community-engaged research, is the keynote speaker. Stephen Thomas, MD, of the University of Maryland Center for Health Equity and one of the nations leading scholars on eliminating racial and ethnic health disparities, will join the group by Skype.

Charles F. Zukoski, UB provost and executive vice president for academic affairs will make opening remarks.

After discussion of the causes of disparities, breakout sessions will focus on actions to take in the areas of housing, health care, education, personal security and economic/employment.

The conference is the result of a collaboration between UB, the African American Health Disparities Task Force, Millennium Collaborative Care, Erie County Medical Center, Population Health Collaborative and Greater Buffalo United Churches. It is designed to attract activists, scholars, students, clergy and members of the public to come together to figure out how to address  and ultimately reverse -- these disparities.

Documenting disparities

The event follows several years of intense research by the task force led by Willie Underwood III, MD, associate professor at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Institute; Nicholas and others aimed at quantifying the extent of health disparities in Buffalos African-American community.

In 2015, the task force issued a report revealing dramatic discrepancies between the outcomes of blacks and whites in Erie County. For example, infant mortality among blacks is almost three times the rate of whites, asthma hospitalizations for black children is more than four times the rate of whites and the percent of premature deaths in people younger than 75 was nearly double for blacks than whites.

In addition, national data show that black women are less likely to get breast cancer than white women but are more likely to die from it.

These unjust indications show you something is systemically wrong, said Nicholas. This is a crisis; this is not episodic. We are in a continued, ongoing health crisis.

UBs role

Its significant that we are having the conference at UB, he said. Its incumbent on the university to say, we are providing leadership and resources. It makes it real. Without it, it just becomes a PR (public relations) exercise.

And while faculty, administrators and students throughout the university have been involved in numerous efforts focused on some aspect of health disparities, efforts often arent well-coordinated.

Last spring, Alan Lesse, MD, senior associate dean for curriculum at the Jacobs School who has been involved in educating students about health disparities and the social determinants of health, convened a meeting at UB to bring faculty from all the disciplines together to discuss how to address disparities.

It just blossomed from there, he said. Now, the African American Health Disparities Task Force has representatives from throughout the university, including UBs Jacobs School School of Nursing, School of Management, Graduate School of Education, School of Law, School of Architecture and Planning, School of Public Health and Health Professions, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and the Clinical Translational Science Institute.

Nicholas stressed that the conference is designed as a call-to-action, to attract individuals who are working to reverse disparities or who would like to be involved. And it isnt just people involved with health professions who should attend.

We are trying to change the conversation, said Nicholas. We are trying to develop a movement at this conference to change the narrative to present the data to a larger population.

In our community, black folks are sicker and dont live as long as whites. This is 100 percent preventable and fixable.
the view

Wind energys swift growth, explained

By JOHN HALL

Assistant professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Reprinted from The Conversation

The wind industry is growing quickly around the world, especially in China and the U.S., where the total amount of electricity generated by wind turbines nearly doubled between 2011 and 2017.

All told, about 25 percent of global electricity now comes from renewable sources like hydropower, wind and solar energy.

As a wind energy researcher, I realize it will be hard for the industry to keep up this pace. Yet ample evidence supports widespread predictions that the volume of wind energy will continue to grow quickly  here and abroad, on land and offshore  for reasons that most electricity consumers can support.

Wind turbines, which convert moving air into electrical power, currently produce 6.3 percent of the electricity the U.S. consumes. Texas leads the nation overall in terms of the amount of power it gets from wind. Iowa gets a higher share of its electricity from wind turbines than any other state  37 percent.

The U.S. still lags other nations, particularly those in Europe, with offshore wind production. But even on that front, the U.S. has seen growth. The nations first commercial offshore wind farm, located off the coast of Rhode Island, began operating in 2016. New York state plans to build a much larger offshore farm. And California may soon establish floating offshore wind farms.

Wind is abundant, ubiquitous and free, but sometimes it dies down. Consequently, the energy from wind turbines cant provide power around the clock.

Recent improvements in energy storage technology and turbine efficiency, however, are lowering costs and may potentially reduce the downside of winds intermittent nature.

Today, wind power faces another challenge: politics. The Trump administration is sending mixed signals regarding the industry. It exited the Paris climate deal yet supports wind power growth as part of its American energy dominance policy.

Meanwhile, market forces coupled with widespread concerns over climate change, continue to propel the wind industry. So is the enthusiasm from tech giants, such as Apple and Google, which are proactively seeking to rely on wind energy, rather than fossil fuels.

And this wind rush is creating jobs in manufacturing, services and science. With total generating capacity projected to increase from about 89 gigawatts to more than 400 gigawatts over the next 30 years, the Energy Department says the industry may eventually employ 600,000 American workers.
Dear Reader,

Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

We, however, have a request.



As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.



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Digital Editor
About 90 per cent of child rape cases were pending trial in India in 2016, no more than 28 per cent of such cases ended in conviction, and there is a 20-year backlog in bringing cases to trial, the latest available national crime data show.

These data indicate the government move to prioritise a change to legislation that allows courts to grant the death penalty will not bring quicker or better justice because there is no plan to address conviction failures and court delays. No more than 28 per cent of child rapes registered end in convictions, and there is a 20-year backlog of ...
The meetings of the defence and foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), being attended by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, began here on Tuesday.

The two meetings are being held around the same time.

Sitharaman who arrived here last night attended the defence ministers' meeting and Swaraj took part in the foreign ministers' meeting.

The two meetings were being held as part of the preparations for the to be held in the Chinese city of Qingdao in June.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to attend it.

These are the first top ministerial-level meetings of the SCO after the admission of India and Pakistan as members last year.

A host of issues including the regional security and terrorism were expected to be discussed at the meetings and prepare agenda for the

The SCO, headquartered in Beijing, was founded in 2001.

Comprising China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, India and Pakistan, the SCO aims at military cooperation between the member states and involves intelligence sharing, counter-terrorism operations in Central Asia and joint work against cyber terrorism.
The Trump administration is planning to propose to end giving work permits to the spouses of H1-B visa holders to work legally in the US, a top federal agency official has told lawmakers, a move that could have a devastating impact on tens of thousands of Indians. A formal communication is expected to be made later this summer, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Francis Cissna said in a letter to Senator Chuck Grassley. "Our plans include proposing regulatory changes to ...

Dear Reader,

Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

We, however, have a request.



As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.



Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard.



Digital Editor
French President Emmanuel Macron arrived at the White House for the start of his state visit expected to focus on the fate of the Iran nuclear deal and transatlantic trade ties.

US President Donald Trump and his wife Melania greeted Macron and his wife Brigitte on the steps of the White House Sunday.

The two couples were scheduled to dine at Mount Vernon, the estate of the first US president George Washington. The bulk of their meetings are due to take place on Monday.



Of all Europe's leader Macron has been the most successful in building a relationship with Trump over the last year, winning him over in part with a lavish visit to Paris in July.
At least ten people were killed and 16 injured after a van plowed into pedestrians in Toronto's northern suburbs on Monday, police said.

The white van jumped a curb and plowed into pedestrians. The driver fled briefly but was soon arrested, according to the police, Xinhua reported.

Police cordoned off several city blacks and Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) has sent an alert, saying that there is no subway service between Sheppard and Finch Stations due to a Toronto Police investigation at Sheppard Station, street level.

Police didn't immediately identify the driver, and said it was not clear whether the crash was accidental or the driver had a motive. Later, the suspect is identified as Alex Minassian, a 25-year-old from the Toronto suburb of Richmond.

Canada's Minister of Public Safety Ralph Goodale told a press conference that Toronto police are conducting a probe.

"The investigation is at a stage where no further information can be confirmed at this point.

The police are conducting obviously their thorough investigation to determine what happened and why it happened, the motivations involved."

At least seven people were rushed to nearby Sunnybrook Health Services Centre's trauma center, the hospital said on Twitter, adding that the emergency department has been locked down as an added precaution.

The incident took place about 29 km from the city centre, where foreign ministers from the G7 countries were meeting to discuss world issues.

After the tragedy, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in Ottawa, "we're just learning about the situation in Toronto. Our hearts go out to anyone affected."
The United States will continue its "maximum pressure" campaign against North Korea, the White House has said, ruling out any possibility of lifting of sanctions till Pyongyang takes "concrete action" to denuclearise.

"Certainly, the goal is denuclearisation of the peninsula. And we're going to continue the maximum pressure campaign that has been ongoing to North Korea until we see concrete actions taken toward complete and total denuclearisation," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters at her daily news conference on Monday.

US President Donald Trump has accepted an invitation of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for a summit meeting. The meeting is expected to be held later this summer. At least five non-US venues are being looked at for the summit.

Trump's pick to be the next secretary of state, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, was in Pyongyang three weeks ago to hold high level preparatory talks with the North Korean leaders.

Defence Secretary Jim Mattis, in an interaction with reporters at the Pentagon, exuded confidence that the summit meeting would yield results.

"Right now, I think there is a lot of reasons for optimism that the negotiations will be fruitful and we'll see," he said.

Sanders said North Korean leaders had agreed to denuclearise.

"Certainly in a number of conversations, including the comments I'd refer you back to. Also South Korea President Moon, who has said that North Korea has expressed a will for complete denuclearisation. That's the focus of any conversation and negotiation that the United States will have with North Korea," she added.

The Trump administration wants action from Pyongyang. Sanders said the US wouldn't make the mistake of past administrations in taking the North Koreans "simply at their word."



"We've seen some steps in the right direction, but we have a long way to go. We also have seen a major change in what has taken place in the past, by having our allies and partners in the region step up and do much more than they have in the past," she said.

China has taken a more active role in putting pressure on North Korea, Sanders said, adding that they could certainly do more.

"We hope they will, and will continue working with us. That's all at the direction and because of the relationship that the president has built with President Xi of China," she said.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday paid a surprise visit to the wheat purchase center in Sultanpur.

The Chief Minister also checked all the records and enquired about all the transactions to the farmers. He also ordered the officials to arrange everything that is required at the centre.

He also paid a visit to the emergency ward and met all the patients.

"The state government aims to reach out over 50,000 villages under 'Gram Swarajya Yojna'," said Adityanath.

When questioned about the Karnataka Polls, he said, "I believe that BJP will win in Karnataka and Congress will never be able to fight again in elections."

Meanwhile, during his visit, the Chief Minister was shown black flags by Samajwadi Party workers. They were later detained by the police.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Amway India on Tuesday announced the roll out of its UPI based payments option for 7,00,000+ partners.

Driving various innovative and digital payments options for its partners, Amway has initiated multiple initiatives to drive Digital and Cashless India agenda with over 90 percent of its entirely done with digital payment options like digital wallets and now UPI.

For its' continuous innovation and various solutions across company has won various local and global accolades.

Recently, the company was awarded with Highly Commended Winner of the Best Solution in India category at the Adam Smith Awards Asia, held in Singapore. This was the 5th Adam Smith Award won by Amway India in the last 4th years. Running for the 10th consecutive year, the Adam Smith Awards Asia are the ultimate industry benchmark for achievement in corporate treasury.

"Amway India has a philosophy to innovate in order to improve productivity and efficiency across all areas of business including treasury. 95 percent of sales transactions being processed electronically is a testimony of our efforts in this direction. We are delighted to be offering this very exciting service tool to all our business partners," said associate vice president and treasury head, Amway India, Bikash Mukherjee.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Leading platform to rent branded and serviced homes CoLive on Tuesday announced development of a new cutting-edge technology, Facial Recognition Access Management Engine (FRAME) to provide advanced property management solution.

FRAME, which consists of Door Access Control Engine mechanism and BlackBox key management mechanism, will enable tenants residing at a CoLive property, or other authorised personnel, to gain access to the property only if his/her face matches the system data using IOT & AI.

During the first phase of its launch, the FRAME feature would be operational at 20 select prime properties managed by CoLive before rolling out to all its properties. Tenants can simply register themselves in the system by clicking a selfie through the CoLive app, following which they can gain access to the property without having to swipe a key card anymore. With FRAME, there is also no need for a security guard at the property.

The FRAME system tracks visitors, tenants, and staff when they leave and enter the premises, and stops anyone that it does not recognise from entering the property. This way, the tenants do not require duplicate keys, and visitors will only be able to enter the building if the tenants allow them in.

FRAME allows us to remotely manage our property access and key management system. We have filed for a patent for this technology and are confident that our tech-driven access solution will help us run this real estate-hospitality business far more efficiently," said founder and CEO - CoLive, Suresh Rangarajan.

CoLive is currently operating in Bangalore, Chennai, Vellore, Coimbatore, Thanjavur, and Ahmedabad. Over the next three years, the company aims to expand its presence to top metros and 25 university towns and scale up its inventory to include a total of 1 million beds.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Highlighting the commencement of the air freight corridor between Kabul, Kandahar, New Delhi and Mumbai, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday said the connectivity with Shanghai Cooperation countries is India's priority.

Addressing the on-going Shanghai Cooperation ministerial meeting, Swaraj said, "We want connectivity to pave the way for cooperation and trust between our societies."

She further highlighted India's contribution in the development of International trade corridors including the International North-South Transport Corridor, Chabahar Port Development, Ashgabat Agreement, India-Myanmar-Thailand Highway Project, and Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal (BBIN) Initiative.

Reiterating India's priority as inclusivity, transparency and sustainability, the External Affairs Minister said that such "Initiatives would further strengthen the entire spectrum of multi-modal networks in the SCO space."

Sushma Swaraj further said that economic globalisation should be more open, inclusive, equitable and balanced for mutual benefits while rejecting the idea of protectionism in international trade and handle the formation of trade barriers.

She called upon to diversify cooperation in the fields of innovation and digital economy, science and technology, energy, agriculture, and food security.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The death toll in the incident of Toronto truck collision has risen to ten as the number of people injured is reported to be 15.

Further, the accused driver, identified as Alek Minassian (25) a resident of Richmond Hill, Ontario has been taken into custody, as reported by the CNN.

As per Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders, the incident appears to be a deliberate act by the truck driver.

"It's very clear just from a general perspective to say that the actions definitely look deliberate", Saunders told CNN.

Driver Minassian was arrested, less than 30 minutes after police received a 911 call, Sauders said.

The police had received calls around 1:27 p.m. (local time) that a vehicle was driving on Yonge Street, and was striking pedestrians.

Ten of the injured people were transported to Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre while two were declared as brought dead.

Earlier on Tuesday, Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed his condolences on the death of the victims.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday rejected the criticism of the opposition parties that the decision to reject the impeachment motion against the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra was taken in a haste.

Naidu, who in his capacity as Rajya Sabha Chairman rejected the motion on Monday, said the decision was taken after over a month of due diligence and in strict conformity with the provisions of the Constitution and the Judges Inquiry Act of 1968.

Naidu rejected the impeachment motion saying that it lacked substantial facts to hold CJI Misra guilty of misbehaviour.

On April 20, the opposition parties led by Congress moved the impeachment motion in the Rajya Sabha, seeking the removal of CJI Misra under Article 217 read with article 124 (4) of the Constitution of India.

The motion was signed by 64 sitting members of the House.

In the impeachment motion, the opposition cited four acts of misbehaviour, including his handling of Prasad Education Trust case.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Futuristic as it sounds; smart homes are a growing trend. There are a number of smart appliances already available in India that can help you set up your smart home. It enables all the devices in your home to be connected to the Internet so that you can communicate with them and issue commands.

Technology has developed so much so that anyone can afford to automate their houses, customized to individual needs and, more importantly, individual budgets. In India, following the boom in the realty sector new home buyers are opting to add automated elements to their property.

Here are some gadgets that can become ideal smart home devices:

Controller hubs- This is the first item you will need to set up a smart home. A controller hub essentially connects to all your smart devices and lets you control them remotely using your smartphone. Some devices such as the Philips Hue lights come with their own controller hub but these are only for a single product.

Security cameras - Getting security cameras no longer means having a CCTV set-up professionally installed in your home. There are a lot of options available for smart security for a very basic camera, check out the Wireless IP cameras from YI that cost Rs 999 each. You just need to plug them in a power source and connect them to your Wi-Fi network.

Robotic vacuum cleaners-In order to make floor cleaning easy, effortless and hassle free, iRobot Roomba 695 is an affordable smart home appliance that comes with Wi-fi connectivity. The robotic vacuum cleaner is available in Indian market at Rs. 32,900. The product comes in a low profile, disc shaped design, in deep blue color with a touch of green below the handles. The patented 3-Stage Cleaning System of Roomba 695 is specially engineered to loosen, lift, and suction everything from small particles to large debris from carpets and hard floors. Roomba's 695 Dirt Detect technology recognize and focus on high-traffic areas where dirt collects more. Just by pressing its 'CLEAN' button, Roomba 695 starts on its vacuuming job, without the need for any programming. Roomba 695 connects with the iRobot Home App and can schedule the cleaning from anywhere through the app which comes with various features. Using a full suite of smart sensors, the Roomba robot vacuum makes more than 60 decisions per second to adapt to your home and thoroughly clean your floors. It comes with in-built cliff detect sensors, avoid stairs and other drop-offs. Roomba 695 comes with Dual-Mode Virtual Wall Barrier for more control over where your robot cleans.

Smart air purifiers - Honeywell Air Touch S8 - The Air Touch S8 is capable of covering an area of 450 sq. ft. Although it supports app control, the buggy implementation of the app is a letdown. It's better to control the air purifier from the device itself until there's a software patch. Leave aside the app, the Air Touch S8 works out to be a decent air purifier to own. The air quality of the room is displayed using different colored LEDs. The patented HiSiv filter is said to remove odors and toxic gases from the room. It also includes a pre-filter and an HEPA (high-efficiency particulate arrestance) filter in its purification system.

Smart speakers - If speaker does anything more than play your music, then it can be labeled as a 'smart speaker'. Smart speakers are now wireless speakers that come with voice control. Using the artificial intelligence on these devices you can ask them to do anything from playing a song to setting a timer for your cake or even dim the lights if your house already equipped with smart bulbs. The Echo Dot, the successor to the original Amazon Echo, has carried forward most of the features while also reducing the price. The audio output of this device might actually be a tad bit better. The Echo Dot runs of Alexa, the Amazon artificial intelligence (AI). Alexa has been integrated with skills that are unique to India, which unlike what most other smart products have been able to do.

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In wake of the violence that gripped West Bengal, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Bairia district, Surendra Singh on Tuesday said the inaction of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee would soon lead to a situation similar to that of Jammu and Kashmir and the Hindus would be wiped out of the state.

"Mamata Banerjee is playing the role of Surpanakha. People are getting killed on streets and she being the chief minister is not doing anything about it, such leader is not a good one. Hindus are unsafe in Bengal. If nothing is done about it, Bengal will face situation like that in Jammu and Kashmir. Hindus will be ousted from Bengal just like it happened in Jammu and Kashmir." Singh told reporters here.

While likening the Chief Minister with mythical demoness Surpanakha, Singh said that the Congress party was playing the role of demon king, Ravana.

Singh further alleged torture of Hindus by terrorists entering the TMC-ruled state from adjoining Bangladesh.

"Fortunately we have a leader like Modi Ji and we will oust all foreign elements from Bengal," he added.

A clash broke out between supporters of Trinamool Congress (TMC) and BJP, during filing of nominations for panchayat elections in Birbhum district, on Monday, which claimed one BJP worker's life. Clashes were reported from other parts of the state as well.

Singh is not new to controversial statements. Recently, speaking in defence of BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar who was accused of raping a girl in Unnao, Singh said that no one could rape a mother of three children.

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Up to 43 child labourers who were rescued from Hyderabad were sent back to Bihar on Tuesday.

"Today we have sent 43 child labourers back to Bihar through Danapur Express from Secunderabad Railway Station," said Hyderabad Child Protection Officer Imtiaz.

"We have sent them along with police, child protection unit, and women and child welfare department," he added.

In the recent past, a total of 43 child labourers who were sent from Bihar were rescued here.

While 19 of them were rescued from a bangle manufacturing firm, 17 were rescued from Secunderabad Railway Station while they were on their way from Bihar

As per the official, the children will be brought to a common residence, from where officials will send them to their respective homes.

(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.)
India is unlikely to participate in the 20th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit, scheduled to be held in Islamabad this year, repeating its strongest diplomatic move of boycotting the summit two years ago.

According to the sources, talks and terrorism cannot go along.

Pakistan is reportedly aggressively seeking support from smaller South Asian nations to host the SAARC Summit in Islamabad this year. Sri Lanka and Nepal have already backed Islamabad.

In 2016, in the wake of militant attacks, particularly the Pathankot and the Uri attack, India boycotted the 19th SAARC Summit which was to be hosted by Pakistan. Subsequently, all the SAARC members had boycotted the summit.

The eight-member bloc includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, the Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The SAARC Summit is held in different South Asian Nations, every 12-18 months.

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16 security officers were killed in two separate incidents of terror attacks in Afghanistan's western Badghis province.

Taliban insurgents attacked a check post in Qala-i-Naw city earlier on Monday which led to the death of nine soldiers, as reported by the Tolo news.

In another incident, seven policemen were killed in another Taliban attack on a police check post in Qads district.

None of the local officials have commented upon the attacks.

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A defence delegation of Kazakhstan, led by Vice-Minister Timur Shaymergenov, took part in the recently held "DEFEXPO-2018" in Chennai and held meetings with representatives of Indian defence companies and officials of Indian Ministry of Defence.

The visiting delegation, as per a Embassy of Kazakhstan release, was informed and acquainted with modern models of arms and military equipment on show at the exhibition.

Meetings were held with Zen Technologies Ltd., Bharat Electronics Ltd., Larsen &Toubro Defence, Brahmos, Kalyani, Tata, Mahindra and MKU.

Issues of participation of these companies as exhibitors in the forthcoming "KADEX-2018" in Astana were also discussed.

The Kazakh delegation also met Chief of Army Staff General Bipin Rawat at a reception hosted by the event organisers. He separately noted the progress in the implementation of cooperation between India and Kazakhstan within the peacekeeping framework.

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un visited the Chinese embassy at Pyongyang to express his condolences for the people killed in a bus accident at North Korea on Monday.

32 Chinese tourists were killed and two injured after a bus traveling from Kaesong to Pyongyang fell from a bridge in North Korea, as reported by CNN.

Further four North Korean citizens were also killed in the accident.

A team of rescue vehicles and doctors were rushed to the location to bring the situation under control.

Kim Jong-Un also met the injured at the hospital and sympathised with the families of the deceased.

Chinese President Xi Jinping assured of all the possible efforts to be taken to save the lives of two Chinese tourists who were injured in the accident.

China's state-run news agency Xinhua said President Xi asked the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the embassy in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on Monday to use "all necessary means."

Earlier on Monday China's embassy official in North Korea also visited the location to take stock of the situation.

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Former Chinese ambassador Professor Phunchok Stobdan said Indian economic offender Nirav Modi, reportedly hiding in Hong Kong, is not likely to be discussed in the upcoming bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

While talking to ANI, Stobdan said, " I think it's a diplomatic master stroke and will lead to paradigm shift in Indo-China relationships."

Discussions would to be open-ended with no set agendas, he added.

Hong Kong's Department of Justice (DoJ) on Monday refused to share information on absconding jewellery designer and Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam accused Nirav Modi, who is confirmed to be in the Hong Kong by Indian authorities.

While answering a question-- if issues like China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will be discussed in the meeting-- Stobdan blatantly said, "Issues like Masood Azhar, trade imbalance and border issues are technical issues and can be handled by diplomats and officials."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's informal meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to be held in Wuhan city of central China on April 27 and 28. This informal discussion is going to take place for the first time after 1954.

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No joint statement or communique will be issued after Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold informal talks, with Chinese President Xi Jinping on April 27-28 in Wuhan city, ahead of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in June.

This is the first time in the history of China that its leader is engaging in an informal talk format.

According to the sources, the informal talks will be broad-based and over arching and no specific issues will be discussed.

The idea is to open strategic communication channel at highest level.

On Sunday, China's foreign minister Wang Yi, while addressing a joint press conference along with External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj, made the announcement in Beijing.

Yi also said China will make sure the informal summit between the two leaders will prove as a milestone in the relations of the two countries.

"We will make sure that the informal summit (between PM Modi and Chinese President Jinping on April 27-28) will be a complete success and a milestone in China-India relations," said Wang.

The informal summit is being seen as a move by the two countries to get their ties back on track following the Doklam stand-off last year, wherein troops from the two nations were engaged in an eyeball-to-eyeball standoff near Sikkim border between June to August.

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Following the removal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act from parts of the North-East, Convener of the North-East Democratic Alliance Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Tuesday that there was a public demand for it.

"It is a welcome step. There was a demand in general from the people of North-East to withdraw AFSPA in a phased manner from various parts of North-East," Sarma, who is also the Assam finance minister, told ANI.

On Monday, the AFSPA was withdrawn from Meghalaya and area limits of eight out of 16 police stations in Arunachal Pradesh.

"With the cooperation of the people, the government of India will withdraw AFSPA from other parts of North Eastern region also, but that should be done after proper assessment of law and order situation," Sarma said.

The AFSPA, which grants special powers to the Indian Armed Forces in 'disturbed areas', has been in force in Nagaland, Manipur, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh (only in 16 police stations) and Jammu and Kashmir for several decades, and since the early 1990s in Assam.

Tripura government revoked the Act in the state in 2015.

According to The Disturbed Areas (Special Courts) Act, 1976 once declared 'disturbed', the area has to maintain status quo for a minimum of three months.

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One Army jawan has been injured in an encounter with terrorists in Lam village of Tral in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district on Tuesday.

Several gunshots were heard earlier in the day in Lam village.

Following the gunshots security forces have been deployed at the spot.

Further details awaited.

This encounter comes a day after Pakistan Army violated ceasefire along the Line of Control at Krishna Ghati sector of Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district.

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Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Tuesday arrived in Russia on an official visit and touted the military to military cooperation.

General Bajwa, who was presented guard of honour by the Russian authorities, met Commander Russian Federation Ground Forces Colonel General Oleg Salyukov at Kremlin Palace, according to a statement issued by Pakistan's Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

The ISPR is the media wing of the Pakistan Armed Forces.

The statement added that the Russian Ground Forces Commander said that Pakistan is a geo-strategically important country and Russia is keen to expand its existing bilateral military to military cooperation.

General Bajwa thanked Russian Ground Forces Commander and said that Pakistan reciprocates desire of enhanced bilateral military engagements.

On a related note, Moscow struck a defense cooperation agreement with Islamabad. The 2014 agreement was finalised, when Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited Pakistan. It was the first visit by a Russian defense minister to Pakistan since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The agreement provides for exchange of information on politico-military issues; cooperation for promoting international security; intensification of counter-terrorism and arms control activities among many, according to a report published in Dawn.

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The relationship between India and Pakistan will always remain wilted till there is a complete halt to cross-border terrorism, says a report published by a Europe-based think tank.

According to the European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS) report, a key reason for the trust deficit that exists between New Delhi and Islamabad is "the sheer incompatibility between both nuclear powers."

The EFSAS report clearly acknowledges that both countries have their problems, but Pakistan in particular possesses a nature that is in perpetual conflict with India's.

"The deep-rooted anti-India stand and inflexible hostility has been complemented by a continuous undermining of democratic institutions by the (Pakistan) Army, which makes it difficult to know, whom to talk to in Pakistan when one is embarking on a path of normalising relations," says the EFSAS report .

It further says that the army's "preoccupations with a large-scale Pashtun social movement for fundamental human rights in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, volatility in Balochistan, political and ethnic divisions in Sindh and Punjab, a rights movement in Gilgit Baltistan and the never ending civil-military tensions in local Pakistani politics", prevent a possible scenario for talks with India.

The international community clearly acknowledges and repeats ad nauseum that the epicenter of power in Pakistan wrests with General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi, and that whenever gestures aimed at normalisation of talks between Pakistan and India are initiated, they are inevitably followed by or "marred by" violence.

We only have to recall incidents like the Kargil War of 1999, the terror strike on the Indian Parliament in 2001, the terror strikes across Mumbai in 2008, the terrorist strikes on the Pathankot Air Force base and in Uri, Jammu and Kashmir in 2016, to realize that each of these were preceded by gestures of a desire for peace and talks by the civilian leaderships of both countries, only for the Pakistan Army to scuttle them to create a scenario that was in its favour. This has been the case for more than seven decades.

"India's decades-old policy of strategic restraint changed after consecutive attacks on its soil and carried a message to Pakistan; "This far and no further".

The other key factor that needs to be taken note of is that of China's "tacit support to the Pakistan Army", says the EFSAS report.

It clearly reiterates that Beijing will take every measure possible to safeguard its 'One Belt, One Road' (OBOR) initiative and give the Pakistan Army a lead role in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects, as it does not want its huge investments or its long-term geo-political ambitions facing any sort of risk.

Beijing's controversial decision to use its veto to stop the UN from declaring Jaish-e-Muhammed leader Mazood Azhar from being declared a global terrorist and the Pakistan Army's actions to mainstream Hafiz Saeed into the country's political process, is proof that chances of a bilateral dialogue are remote.

"It is of the utmost importance that talks, dialogue and diplomacy should be preceded and succeeded by efforts of tranquility which ensure that rapprochement endeavors do not go in vain. The first confidence building measure should be that the Pakistan Army halts its two-faced counter terrorism strategy. the country has emerged as the epicenter of global terror, thereby risking a permanent state of instability in the region of South Asia and a possible nuclear confrontation with its neighbor, India.

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Pakistan places American Diplomat Colonel Joseph Emanuel hall, who ran down three persons in near Islamabad earlier this month on 'black list' and thus he cannot leave the country.

The Pakistani Government has informed the Islamabad High Court (IHC) that the diplomat does not stand a trial in Pakistan owning to the diplomatic immunity.

Pakistan's Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Raja Khalid has informed the IHC that placing the diplomat's name on the Exit Control List (ECL) is a very lengthy process. As of now, he can neither be arrested nor can he be tried, reported the Dawn.

Khalid even underscored that the American military attache has diplomatic immunity as per the Vienna Convention, adding, he can be tried if only his immunity is withdrawn, according to the report.

Earlier this month Colonel Joseph Emanuel Hall, Defence and Air attache at the US Embassy in Pakistan ran down three persons in Daman-e-Koh, north of Islamabad, ratcheting up the ongoing visa/diplomatic rift between the two countries.

He was reportedly sloshed while driving the white Land Cruiser that hit three motorcyclists at a traffic signal.

One of the riders was dead, while the other two were critically wounded, who were taken to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS).

The diplomatic tiff between the United States (US) and Pakistan is brewing up like coffee, gradual-yet-strong and perhaps tad bitter.

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On the occasion of Panchayati Raj Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Madhya Pradesh's Mandla district to launch the Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan at Ram Nagar on Tuesday.

The scheme will focus on training, building infrastructure and stepping up initiatives for e-governance under the e-Panchayat Mission Mode Project.

Prime Minister Modi will also address Panchayati Raj from Mandla.

The Prime Minister will first inaugurate Aadi Mahotsava, a three-day program on the conservation of ancient Tribal culture and heritage at Ramnagar. Later, he will unveil a road map for overall development of tribals during the next five years. Also, the Prime Minister will dedicate the local government Directory to the nation.

Prime Minister Modi will felicitate village Sarpanches which have achieved 100 percent smokeless kitchens, 100 percent vaccination under Mission Indradhanush and 100 percent electrification under Saubhagya Scheme.

He will also unveil a plaque to mark the laying of foundation stone of an LPG bottling plant of Indian Oil Corporation at Maneri. The Prime Minister will also interact with the District Collectors of the aspirational districts from Madhya Pradesh.

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Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Bhupendra Singh on Tuesday blamed pornographic websites for rising number of child rape and molestation in India.

Singh further noted that his government is considering banning porn in Madhya Pradesh.

"We think the reason for rising number of child rape and molestation cases are porn. We are contemplating banning porn in Madhya Pradesh, will approach Centre in the matter," Singh told ANI.

According to media reports, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Madhya Pradesh has blocked 25 porn sites.

Singh's statement comes after the horrific rape and murder of an infant baby girl in Indore on April 19. The infant was recovered from the basement of a building.

Reportedly, the police have identified the accused as Sunil Bheel, 21, claiming that he was seen in CCTV footage, around 4.45 am on Friday, carrying the infant on his shoulder.

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Many wishes have come pouring in for Kate Middleton and Prince William, since they announced the birth of their new son on April 23. Politicians and celebrities alike, welcomed the newest member of the royal family in adorable posts.

Former United States first lady Michelle Obama led the congratulatory messages for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. She shared a heartfelt message for Prince William and Kate Middleton's third child, and expressed her wish to meet the little baby soon at a "Kensington Palace pajama party".

"Barack and I are thrilled to congratulate The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on their newest arrival! We hope to meet him soon for a Kensington Palace pajama party. I'll wear my robe!," the former first lady wrote on Twitter along with a picture of Barack Obama, Prince William, and Prince George.

Her tweet is a reference to the time she visited the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge along with the then United States President Barack Obama, and Prince George wore a fancy bathrobe for the occasion.

Apart from Michelle Obama, there were several others who sent out their regards to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, along with his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, congratulated Prince William and Kate.

"Canada welcomes a baby boy to the Royal Family! Sophie and I send our congratulations to William and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and to George and Charlotte on the new arrival," he wrote on Twitter.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Theresa May also sent her warmest congratulations to the royal couple.

"My warmest congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the birth of their baby boy. I wish them great happiness for the future," she wrote on Twitter.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, sent his regards on behalf of Londoners.

"On behalf of Londoners, I want to send our warmest congratulations to the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge on the birth of their baby boy," he wrote.

Earlier on Monday, Prince William and Kate Middleton appeared on the steps of the Lindo Wing at St. Mary's Hospital to introduce their new baby boy to the

Wearing a red dress with a white collar, Middleton looked in good health after giving birth to her as yet un-named prince, who is fifth in line to the throne.

She paid a tribute to her late mother-in-law, Princess Diana, with the choice of her outfit.

When Princess Diana presented Prince Harry to the public, back in 1984, she too wore a red outfit with a white Peter Pan collar.

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External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday arrived in Mongolia's capital city Ulaanbaatar, after wrapping -up her China visit.

Swaraj was received by Deputy Foreign Minister of Mongolia B Battsetseg.

This is the first visit of an Indian External Affairs Minister (EAM) to Mongolia in 42 years.

During Swaraj's visit to Mongolia, she will hold bilateral talks with her Mongolian counterpart Damdin Tsogtbaatar.

The minister will co-chair the 6th round of India-Mongolia Joint Consultative Committee (IMJCC) meeting with Tsogtbaatar, covering a range of issues including, inter alia, political, strategic, economic, educational and cultural ties. The last meeting of IMJCC was held in New Delhi in 2016.

According to the reports, Swaraj will also deliver the keynote address at the Kushok Bakula Birth Centenary Celebrations in Ulaanbaatar.

Earlier in the day, Sushma Swaraj attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Foreign Ministers' meeting in Beijing.

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External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday called for a peace process in war-ridden Afghanistan while criticising the United Nations Security Council for its inability to handle the contemporary security challenges.

Swaraj reiterated the need for bringing reforms in the UNSC to be able to respond to the ever-evolving security challenges in the while focusing on the security challenges faced in the war-ridden areas including Afghanistan.

"Since 2008, the international community has carefully nurtured the ongoing Inter-Governmental Negotiations at the UN to take our discussions on UNSC reforms forward. An overwhelming majority of members have expressed their desire to see these negotiations continue on the basis of a text." Swaraj said.

She said that reforms in the United Nations will be incomplete without reforms in the UNSC, adding that the latter needs to be representative of the contemporary realities.

"This to my mind is the most urgent task before us on this important UN agenda," she added.

Earlier Swaraj urged the UNSC to take action against such states which encourage, support and finance terrorism.

Sushma Swaraj is on a two-nation visit to China and Mongolia.

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External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will attend a preparatory meeting on Tuesday related to the upcoming summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

Sitharaman will attend the SCO defence ministers' meeting, whereas Swaraj will take part in foreign ministers' meeting.

The annual summit of the SCO, in which India and Pakistan became full members last year, will take place in the Chinese city of Qingdao in June.

Swaraj, who flew to China on April 21, is already in Beijing on a four-day visit to finalise the agenda for the summit of the eight-member political, economic and security bloc.

Meanwhile, Sitharaman arrived in China late evening on April 23.

The two are expected to hold discussions on trade and terrorism in the respective meetings.

On a related note, the Ministry of External Affairs had earlier confirmed that there would be no bilateral meeting between Sushma Swaraj, Nirmala Sitharaman, and their Pakistani counterparts on the sidelines of the SCO.

The SCO, which is headquartered in Beijing, was founded in 2001.

It comprises of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, India and Pakistan, and aims at military cooperation between the member states.

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United States President Donald Trump on Monday urged North Korea to get rid of their nuclear weapons completely, in what he meant a "complete denuclearisation" of the Korean Peninsula.

Asked by a reporter about the meaning of denuclearisation during the joint press conference between Trump and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, the former said, "It means they get rid of their nukes. Very simple. They get rid of their nukes, and nobody else would say it. It would be easy to make a simple deal and claim victory. I don't want to do that. I want them to get rid of their nukes," CNN reported.

Before the conference, Trump called North Korean leader Kim Jong-un "very open and very honourable."

Asked to defend his comments, the US President said, "I started a process and when I did everyone thought I was doing it absolutely wrong. A lot is happening and I hope it's going to be very positive for North Korea and South Korea and Japan."

He added that the US is grateful to France for its "key partnership of maximum pressure on the North Korean regime," CBC News reported.

Criticising the previous administrations on not handling the North Korean crisis, Trump asserted, "We will not repeat the past mistakes of past administrations."

Ahead of a planned meeting with Trump, Kim on Saturday announced that the country would suspend its nuclear and missile tests and shut down a nuclear test site.

"From April 21, North Korea will stop nuclear tests and launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles," Yonhap News Agency quoted the Korean Central News Agency as saying.

"The North will shut down a nuclear test site in the country's northern side to guarantee transparency in suspending nuclear tests," the statement from North Korea added.

On the same day, Trump welcomed the move by North Korea, calling it a "big progress" for the country and the

"North Korea has agreed to suspend all nuclear tests and close up a major test site. This is very good news for North Korea and the - big progress! Look forward to our summit," the US President wrote on Twitter.

On a related note, Kim is set to hold an inter-Korean summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in this Friday at the border village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ). This would the first time in 11 years that the summit would be held.

The topic of denuclearisation is likely to be discussed during the inter-Korean summit.

A meeting between Trump and Kim will possibly happen in May or early June this year.

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Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], April 24 (ANI): The wars of the world are fought with drones, but elections are increasingly about tweet wars and Facebook likes and Whatsapp forwards, fought as about rallies and road shows.

In the 2018 Karnataka assembly elections, opinion polls seem to indicate that it will be a tri-cornered contest, with each side expressing confidence about pulling in sizeable numbers, but just not enough to go on their own.

Congress spokespersons have already blamed the BJP for manipulating poll surveys and influencing media through money power.

In this Spartan war room of the Congress party located in a posh neighbourhood in Bengaluru, volunteers, panelists and party men from Delhi and Karnataka walk in and out with missives and messages.

Momentum hasn't yet picked up for the election, as sitting Chief Minister Siddaramiah was too busy filing his own papers from Karnataka's Badami constituency today.

Madhu Yakshi, Secretary and spokesperson of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) and in charge of Karnataka state, said the war room is just about getting into effect, but adds that for the past few months Rahul Gandhi's message to them has been 'Sangathan Ko Mazboot Karo', and that has had an effect, as volunteers have come in from many parts of the state to be part of the campaign.

The Congress party is quite convinced that they are going to ensure Siddaramaiah's return to power. There is a certain amount of euphoria in the Congress camp in Bengaluru that it isn't just their party that is seeing infighting, the BJP unit in the state is as fragmented as they are.

Siddaramaiah is like William Wallace, going out fighting, leading from the front, while his foot soldiers are falling in line simply because if they don't, they are sunk. He has many detractors in the senior echelons of the state unit of the party, but Sakshi says they all acknowledge that Siddaramiah has ground support that is unmatchable.

In the social media unit, the young guns are quite kicked about Siddaramaiah's sharp and witty tweets.

"We are getting hundreds of retweets, chirps one of the social media office bearers."

The Congress social media unit is quite small, just about 50 volunteers, mainly comprising of journalism and political science students working on graphics, tweets and Facebook posts.

The team is headed by Srivatsa with Bhushan and Kashyap Nandan. It is very small compared to the one run by the BJP. They let me in and allowed me to take pictures and were quite transparent in giving me details about their strategy and game plan. A humble lot, they said their main work is taken up in countering what they call fake news put out by BJP handles.

At a training session for spokespersons of the Congress party in Bengaluru, Randeep Surjewala has one main point of advice. Focus on the message. "Machli Kii Aankh Pey Nazar Rakho", he tells the dozens of spokespersons who have gathered at the party headquarters in Bengaluru.

People who have been recruited for jobs assigned are still unsure about what is expected of them. Some are focussing on their respective communities and targetting messages to them; others are making graphics for Facebook posts that they aren't sure will see the light of day. By this weekend, things are expected to gather momentum.

Ticket distribution is always a cathartic process which leads to anger, frustration and campism. This is happening in the Congress party as much as it is happening in the BJP. Many joined the campaign hoping their district-level satraps will get a ticket to contest, but when that didn't happen, they have left the team, or are sitting idly wondering whether to switch loyalties, or just leave.

In comparison, the BJP has spread its media units in several buildings. Neither Prakash Javadekar, Karnataka in-charge, nor the other party bigwigs stay in the capital for more than a couple of days. They move from constituency to television studios to Delhi, assuring the media that they are confident that a "Congress Mukta" (Congress Free) Karnataka is a matter of weeks now.

I wasn't allowed into their social media room. I guess my reputation as a serial blocker on Twitter has preceded me. But I am assured it isn't just me, no reporters are allowed in. Fair enough. If it is psy-war, it would be more effective if it is off the media glare.

In the TV monitoring room, there are 67 monitors streaming all Kannada channels and just one channel. There are 45 volunteers who monitor the channels and post information on Whatsapp groups. The social media core team consists of 40 people.

Balaji Sreenivas, an IT professional in the team, says that 98 percent of their social media work is in Kannada. There are over 5000 volunteers spread across the state who work on the BJP messaging. They have been doing this since August 2017.

Sreenivas claims that they have penetration into 23,000 Whatsapp groups that they either control or have got their messaging across to on a constant basis. About 200 workshops have been conducted for these 'volunteers' during the last ten months.

The social media team of the BJP Karnataka unit feels that they will be able to tap into voters of 224 constituencies, which include urban, semi-urban and even some rural areas. Thanks to JIO network penetration, Sreenivas says now rural areas are also within their ambit.

What are the themes of the BJP unit? It is to show that Siddaramiah represents malgovernance, apathy and negativity towards Hindus. Towards this end, they attack the Congress campaign on a constant basis.

Both sides exude confidence, but the subtle difference is that the BJP works on a mission mode, the Congress still believes that intention and ideology matter more than anything else.

It is impossible today not to be a consumer of the social media messaging of both sides, unless, you are not on Facebook, not on Twitter, not on Whatsapp and don't watch TV.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) President, Mayawati, on Tuesday, alleged that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath's visit to a Dalit house, where he also had dinner, was nothing more than an election gambit.

"Everyone knows how the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) feels about Dalits. When they go to have food at a Dalit's house, it is the ministers' own food & utensils which are used. In reality, they don't even feel like being in the shadow of a Dalit. Earlier Congress used to do this, now it is the BJP," said Mayawati.

"They do not care about the Dalit and backward classes but when elections come, they go for photo-ops and drama. Congress and BJP have proven to be two sides of the same coin. People won't be befooled, they know the truth," added the BSP supremo.

Yogi, on Monday, had visited the house of a Dalit family and had dinner with them at Kandhaipur Madhupur village in Pratapgarh district.

Under the scheme 'Gram Swarajya Yojna,' where the state government aims to reach out over 50,000 village panchayats in Uttar Pradesh, the Chief Minister was also seen holding a chaupal (meeting) with the family and the locals at the village, while reviewing various development projects.

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Key barometers were hovering in a narrow range with decent gains in early afternoon trade. At 12:21 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 103.29 points or 0.30% at 34,554.06. The Nifty 50 index was up 9.15 points or 0.09% at 10,593.85.

Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.18%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.26%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On BSE, 1,271 shares rose and 1,144 shares fell. A total of 134 shares were unchanged.

Drug major Dr Reddy's Laboratories was up 1.70%. The company announced during trading hours today, 24 April 2018, that its API Mirfield plant in United Kingdom received an Establishment Inspection Report (EIR) from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA), indicating closure of the audit.

Gati jumped 16.90% after the company scheduled a board meeting on 26 April 2018 to consider exploring the possibility of inducting a new financial/strategic partner to augment the future growth of the company. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 23 April 2018.

Cement shares were mixed. UltraTech Cement (up 0.20%) and ACC (up 0.09%), edged higher. Ambuja Cements was down 0.32%.

Grasim Industries was down 0.33%. Grasim has exposure to cement sector through its holding in UltraTech Cement. -

Telecom shares declined. Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (down 1.24%), Idea Cellular (down 1.12%) and Reliance Communications (down 1%), edged lower. MTNL was up 0.74%.

Telecom major Bharti Airtel was down 0.78%. The company will announce Q4 results today, 24 April 2018.

Telecom tower infrastructure provider Bharti Infratel lost 1.75% after net profit rose 3.05% to Rs 334.80 crore on 5.78% rise in total income to Rs 1718.20 crore in Q4 March 2018 over Q4 March 2017. The result was announced after market hours yesterday, 23 April 2018.

Bharti Infratel said that due to loss of 22,134 co-locations during the year on account of five operators ceasing to continue either on account of shutting down operations or merging with others, the financial results for the Q4 March 2018 showed lower growth rates on a Y-o-Y basis.

Consolidated revenues rose 4% to Rs 3662 crore in Q4 March 2018 over Q4 March 2017. Consolidated EBITDA rose 1% to Rs 1606 crore. Consolidated EBIT rose 2% to Rs 1020 crore.

The company's board of directors recommended dividend of Rs 14 per equity share for the year ended 31 March 2018.

Akhil Gupta, Chairman, Bharti Infratel said that the year gone by saw unprecedented consolidation in the Indian telecom industry with five operators ceasing to exist either on account of mergers or outright shut down of operations.

Overseas, Asian shares were mixed with a decline in tech shares and rising US bond yields weighing on investor sentiment. Stocks ended on a mixed note as investors grappled with rising bond yields and a mixed bag of earnings reports. The closely watched yield on the 10-year Treasury note climbed, settling just below the psychologically important 3% level.

The Chicago Fed national activity index for March declined to 0.10 from 0.98 in February.

Preliminary readings of the manufacturing and services purchasing managers' indexes for April showed that IHS Markit flash manufacturing PMI rose to 56.5 in April from 55.6, while the flash reading for services showed a climb to 54.4 in April from 54.

Meanwhile, existing-home sales in the US increased 1.1% in March from the previous month to a seasonally annual rate of 5.60 million.

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The need of the hour is to create new and unique themes to shape inbound tourism by providing niche experiences and luxury tourism to international tourists. Additionally new forms of niche tourism like Medical and Wellness; MICE travel; religious and spiritual tourism should also be encouraged. This has been recommended in the FICCI -Yes Bank Report on India Inbound Tourism: Decoding Strategies for Next Stage of Growth which was released by the Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Ms. Vasundhara Raje on Sunday.

The report further recommends laying emphasis on creating a comprehensive ecosystem highlighting the need for involvement of State Governments in policy making.

The knowledge paper cites examples of State Governments like those of Rajasthan, West Bengal, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, among others. These States have taken numerous initiatives like developing new forms of tourism, creating new tourism marketing campaigns, sustainable use of existing resources and much more.

The paper also lists various recommendations to strengthen inbound tourism in India. Destination infrastructure, connectivity and technology are the key pillars that will drive the next stage of growth in the tourism sector. The knowledge also outlines the need for incentivizing private players to invest in various tourism projects and placing the tourism sector under the Service Exports from India Scheme (SEIS).

Furthermore, identifying and permitting eco-friendly activities along the waterfronts; standardized format for collection and publishing of tourism data; supporting the emergence of Indian startups and identifying the State-owned tourism units which can be operated on suitable PPP models has also been suggested.

The report categorically states that while crossing the 10 million foreign tourist arrivals is a momentous occasion for the tourism industry, it is important to acknowledge the fact that this is just the tip of the iceberg. While the initial growth surge has been fast, continuing this momentum will require a greater degree of policy dynamism as well as heightened synergy between multiple layers of the industry.

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The security forces have recovered at least 15 more bodies of Maoists from the Indravati River here early on Tuesday, taking the toll in the gunfight in the past 48 hours to 37, official sources said.

A fresh gun-fight on Monday night left at least six Maoists dead, barely 36 hours after Sunday's encounter which had resulted in the killing of 16 rebels.

The bodies, which were bloated and had started to decompose, were found floating in the river which flows along the Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh border.

These 15 Maoists are said to be from among those who managed to escape into the forests during Sunday's encounter. They must have succumbed to their injuries, an official, who declined to be identified, told IANS.

The second encounter took place in Rajaram Kahnhila village in Jimlagatta with commandos of the C-60 force taking on the rebels.

A high-ranking commander of the Aheri Dalam, identified as Nandu, is among those killed.

Officials said that the Sironcha and Perimeli dalams have been totally wiped out in the two-day long operations.

Jimlagatta is 60 km from the scene of Sunday's ambush in which 16 Maoists were killed, including three of their high-ranking commanders and seven women.

Maharashtra's Additional Director-General of Police (L&O) Bipin Bihari said that so far the C-60 commando forces have eliminated three Maoist dalam commanders.

In the separate encounters on Sunday and Monday, a total of 19 women and 18 male Maoists have been gunned down, but the toll is expected to rise.

Till now, the police have recovered a sophisticated cache of arms, including two AK-47s, two INSAS, three SLRs, three .303s, one 58-mm gun, eight 12 bore rifles, a musket, pittus and detonators, besides Naxal literature from these operations, Bihari added.

Search and combing operations continue, though interrupted by heavy rain and bad weather, in the entire Gadchiroli district.

The district is among the worst affected by the Maoist insurgency. It has been virtually sealed off by the security forces, as they stalked in the jungles, villages, hills and valleys to snuff out the Reds in their deep hideouts.

Other Maoist-affected states -- Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana -- are on a state of high alert ever since the state security forces here launched their biggest anti-Maoist operations in around four decades.

--IANS

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At least five policemen were killed and seven injured in a suicide attack in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta on Tuesday, a statement from the army's Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.

According to the army statement, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden vest near a police van on the airport road in Quetta, the provincial capital of southwest Balochistan province, killing five policemen on the spot while injuring seven

The statement added that two suicide bombers were also killed by security forces in a separate suicide attack when they were trying to target a check post of Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force in the county, at Mian Ghundi near western bypass area in the city.

No causality of Frontier Corps personnel was reported in the check post attack, said the ISPR.

However, local media reported earlier that two suicide bombers attacked the Mian Ghundi camp located at the outskirts of the city and killed two security personnel. According to Geo News, at least eight were also injured in the check post attack.

No group or individual has claimed responsible for the attacks yet.
Unicef announced on Tuesday that 500,000 Afghan children have been affected by a drought in the country.

Out of the country's 34 provinces, 10 were worst hit where 20 to 30 per cent water sources are reportedly dry, threatening the lives of about 1 million people, Xinhua news agency quoted Unicef as saying in a statement.

An additional 2 million people could feel its effects over the coming months.

"These areas have pre-existing high rates of malnutrition. Without adequate nutritious food and safe water for drinking, as well as for hygiene and sanitation, children's health will only worsen," the statement said.

The impact of the drought couldn't have come at a worse time, as cases of severe acute malnutrition, or seasonal malnutrition, are on the rise by about 25 per cent.

Some 1.6 million children and 443,000 pregnant and lactating women suffer from malnutrition across Afghanistan, according to the statement.

"The priority is to prevent the situation from deteriorating, by responding to the needs of children and families in the worst affected areas," said Adele Khodr, Unicef's Afghanistan Representative.

The Unicef estimate that emergency nutrition assistance is needed for 92,000 Afghan children and 8,500 pregnant and lactating women.

Between July and December 2018, some 121,000 acutely malnourished children under five and 33,000 pregnant and lactating women could need life-saving nutrition services.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A survey conducted in 17 slums of Delhi has revealed that over a majority - 62.6 per cent - of the elderly people were not receiving pension and other old age benefits.

The survey was conducted by Institute for Human Development supported by Mahia Pragati Manch and CFAR with 3,004 households across three districts of Delhi - North East, East and Shahdara.

Of the total of 14, 339 surveyed, 444 were persons with disabilities and 2,199 respondents were elderly persons.

Of the total elderly respondents, only 37.3 per cent were getting old age pension and the remaining 62.6 per cent not receiving it or other old age benefits.

As many as 36.4 per cent (1,094) were female headed households (FHHH) and of them, 79 per cent were widows, 2 per cent had been abandoned and 3 per cent were single women.

Of the total of 860 widows, 269 (31 per cent) were not getting a widow pension.

Of the 444 persons with disability, there were 64 children between the age group of 6 to 17 with disabilities, 24 had never been enrolled in schools.

Of the 444 persons with disabilities, 268 had disability certificate and were getting pensions, while 176 did not have disability certificate and were not able to access any schemes.

The survey questioned people's exclusion from social entitlements like education as well.

Of the 3,914 school going children, 61 per cent (2,395) were attending government schools and 1,086 children or 28 per cent (1,086) were found to be dropouts.

Of the drop-outs, 36.3 (395) were not interested, 11.1 per cent (121) had failed, 11.6 per cent (126) were not attending schools to take care of siblings and family, 5.2 per cent (57) because they were often ill, and 2.3 per cent (25) due to lack of proper facilities.

--IANS

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The low per capita income of Assam is a concern and structural reforms are needed to improve the state's health, education and economic indicators, the Union Finance Ministry said on Tuesday.

"It is a matter of concern that per capita income of Assam is significantly lower than all India average which itself is lower than other emerging markets," the ministry said a day before the three-day visit of 15th Finance Commission to the state begins.

The per capita income of Assam is Rs 67,620, much lower than the all India average of Rs 1,03,870, said the Ministry statement, adding that the Commission recognizes the special characteristics of Assam, which, "notwithstanding acceleration in growth momentum", will have to make enormous development strides to catch up with national averages particularly with respect to per capita income.

Despite its recent strides in growth and socio-economic development, the state has a lot to catch up on health, educational and economic outcomes, it said, adding that half of the population depends on agriculture with limited urbanisation and industrialisation, both infant and maternal mortality rate (IMR and MMR) are much higher than the national average and life expectancy and literacy rate are lower than the national average.

"Demographic diversities give rise to myriad socio-cultural conditions and contingencies offering developmental challenges of various forms. Notwithstanding recent growth spurt, endemic structural issues need to be addressed in a time bound manner," the statement said.

The Finance Commission led by Chairman N.K. Singh will assess the state of the finances of Assam, its socio-economic challenges and understand the efforts of the state government to tackle these, the ministry said.

The Commission will meet leaders of various political parties, representatives of autonomous councils, trade and industry, urban local bodies and panchayati raj institutions.

"Commission, therefore, would seek to explore opportunity of what structural, administrative and other changes are necessary by way of augmenting resources of state and also its proper utilization," it said.

--IANS

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European IT services provider Atos on Tuesday expanded its partnership with German manufacturing conglomerate Siemens to include delivery of the "MindSphere" On-premise services.

"MindSphere" is the the Cloud-based, open IoT (Internet of Things) operating system from Siemens.

New Siemens "MindSphere" On-premise will allow customers to deploy digital-driven business applications in a secure, managed On-premise infrastructure.

"Atos is excited to help its customers take advantage of its Cloud and provide to 'MindSphere', the open, Cloud-based IoT operating system of Siemens, the ability to transform their digital-driven businesses at global scale, in close proximity to their data location," said Gilles Grapinet, Atos Senior Executive Vice President.

With the MindSphere On-premise solution, which will be available for operational deployment in September, customers will be able to securely deploy and manage their own MindSphere business-driven applications on site.

By offering On-premise services, Atos will manage all aspects of Cloud infrastructure and delivery, scaling up as business needs change and ensuring performance, security and clarity of reporting at all times.

--IANS

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A 12-year-old Australian boy travelled alone to Indonesia's Bali after he had a row with his parents when they cancelled a holiday to the tourist island, BBC news reported on Tuesday.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) said they will review the circumstances of the case to make sure similar incidents do not happen again.

The police were alerted of the boy's presence in Bali on March 17. He was taken into protective custody before being reunited with his parents.

The boy, from Sydney, booked flights and accommodation online using his parents' credit card. He flew to Bali presenting only his passport and school ID.

He had used a self-service check-in terminal in Sydney to board a flight to Perth and then a connection to Bali.

He said he had checked into his hotel room in Bali by telling staff that he was waiting for his sister to arrive.

The boy said he was questioned once by airline officials in Perth, reports the BBC.

"They just asked for my student ID and passport to prove that I am over 12 and that I am in secondary school," he said. "It was great because I wanted to go on an adventure."

The boy's mother said she was left "shocked".

All airlines have procedures that allow minors travel on their own, but requirements vary between carriers.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday disposed off the petitions filed by BJP, Congress and PDS)complaining about the West Bengal Panchayat poll nomination process but asked the State Election Commission to discuss the issue of security arrangements during the election with all the important stakeholders.

A single bench of Justice Subrata Talukdar disposed off the Bharatiya Janata Party's appeal to further extend the nomination process over the alleged violence by the state's ruling Trinamool Congress on the extended day for filing of nomination papers on Monday and said the court would not interfere in the election process.

He also disposed off the Congress' petition that claimed the notification issued by the SEC for filling of fresh nomination was incomplete and faulty.

The judge however asked the SEC to consult not just the state government but all important stakeholders including the opposition parties regarding the security arrangements during the coming rural polls and submit a detailed report regarding the arrangement before the High Court's Division Bench.

However, he left it to SEC's discretion to take the final call about the possible security measures to ensure free and fair election process.

The court also instructed the SEC to accept the nominations of nine prospective candidates of Jami, Jibika, Paribesh O Bastutantra Raksha Committee (Committee to Save Land, Livelihood, Environment and Ecosystem) in South 24 Parganas district's Bhangar, which were submitted to the retuning officers through Whatsapp.

The nine members of the local body that has been spearheading the land agitation in the region were allegedly stopped from filing nominations by the state ruling party. Justice Talukdar pointed out that their nomination cannot be rejected by SEC on technical grounds.

SEC said, according to the High Court's previous order, it had already discussed the provisions of extended nomination day with all the state political parties and fixed the day for filing fresh nominations and clarified that it does not intend to hold any further discussions with the parties regarding the polling dates.

It also said it was addressing the security concerns raised by opposition parties as and when the complaints come.

Trinamool counsel Kalyan Banerjee noted that consultation with all political parties regarding the polling dates was not a feasible option as someone or the other might have objections on any date fixed by the SEC. He also pointed out that primacy about the election process rests completely with the SEC.

The state opposition parties on Monday moved the Calcutta High Court accusing the Trinamool of unleashing unprecedented terror on their party activists on the extended nomination day for the rural polls on Monday.

The Calcutta High Court had on Friday ordered the SEC to make a fresh announcement extending the deadline for filing of nominations for the coming panchayat polls and finalise a new election schedule.

--IANS

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The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will interrogate two former Left Front ministers in Tripura in connection with a case of the Kolkata-based Rose Valley chit fund scam, an official said here on Tuesday.

"The CBI has informed the Tripura Assembly Speaker about their intention to interrogate former Left Front ministers Badal Chowdhury and Bijita Nath within this week," the assembly official added.

Chowdhury, a former Finance and PWD Minister and Nath, former Minister of Social Welfare Department, separately told IANS that they have received CBI notices about the questioning in connection with cases related to the Rose Valley chit fund scam.

Both the former ministers, currently legislators, said that they would appear before the CBI officials to reply to their queries.

The CBI in June 2017 questioned Nath and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) central Committee member Gautam Das in connection with the cases of the Rose Valley chit fund scam.

CPI-M central committee member and party's state secretary Bijan Dhar said that it was widely known that the CBI has been used by the ruling parties at the Centre.

"No CPI-M leaders and former Left Front ministers were involved with any chit fund organisations," Dhar told the media adding that if CBI wants any information from the party leaders they would share, there is no problem in it."

The Bharatiya Janata Party, the Congress and the Trinamool Congress separately charged the previous Left Front government with promoting illegal chit fund organisations and unauthorised Non-Banking Financial Organisations (NBFCs) in Tripura.

The erstwhile Left Front government in Tripura had enacted a law in 2000 to deal with the illegal NBFCs and chit fund organisations and since 2016 began confiscating all movable and immovable properties of the Rose Valley chit fund organisation in the state.

The chit fund organisation -- Rose Valley -- is now under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate and the CBI, and its sole proprietor and Chairman Gautam Kundu was arrested in Kolkata in 2015.

The Tripura High Court had in 2015 asked the state government to set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe unlawful NBFCs and chit fund organisations.

In May 2013, the earlier Left government had referred 37 cases related to chit fund companies and NBFCs to the CBI. The central probe agency, however, took up only five cases.

BJP Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb has also asked the central government to widen the CBI probe into all the chit fund related activities.

--IANS

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Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday termed the Congress' decision to move Supreme Court against the rejection of impeachment motion against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra as "suicidal".

He said Parliament was supreme in its own jurisdiction.

"For the Congress Party to carry forward its mistake of subjecting legislative processes to judicial review would be a blunder. The Parliament is supreme in its own jurisdiction. Its process cannot be subjected to judicial review," he said in a Facebook post titled "Why the Malafide Impeachment Motion was bound to fail?".

His remarks came a day after Congress said it would challenge in the Supreme Court Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu's order rejecting the notice of impeachment.

Jaitley said in parliamentary practice several types of motions and resolutions are proposed under the Rules of Business. The Chairman or Speaker of the either Houses of Parliament have the sole discretion whether to admit the motion or to decline to do so. The power to admit or to decline a motion is part of the legislative process of Parliament. A motion under Article 124(4) is no different from any other motion where Chair has a discretion to admit it or decline to do so.

He said that there is a conventional view that the exercise of the discretion by the Chair of either House is not justiciable in the court of law.

"This view gains support from the observations made in the majority opinion of Justice J.S. Verma in the 1992 case (Sarojini Ramaswami vs. UOI) where the court held: "On initiation of the process in the prescribed manner, the Speaker/Chairman is to decide whether the accusations require investigations. If he chooses not to act on the accusations made in the form of a motion by a minimum number of Members of Parliament, the matter ends there".

Jaitley, himself a lawyer, said a very large number of eminent lawyers are now MPs. Most political parties have given nominations to some of them since their value, both in court and Parliamentary debates, is significant.

"The incidental impact of this has been a growing tendency of lawyer members to drag intra court disputes into the parliamentary process. The misconceived motion for the impeachment of the Chief Justice of India is just one example of this," he said.

Explaining why the impeachment motion was misconceived, he said such a motion was intended to be filed in the rarest of rare cases. These cases would include those where a "gross misconduct" has been indulged in by a delinquent judge during his tenure as a judge. There has to be strong and hard evidence to substantiate this. Hearsay and rumours are not a substitute for evidence.

"The present impeachment motion has been filed on untenable grounds. It has been filed for collateral purpose to intimidate the Chief Justice of India and other judges of the highest judiciary," he said.

He said the Congress Party is capable of dragging the judges into an unsavoury controversy and make them controversial, should their judicial opinion not appear favourable in the cases in which the Party has an interest.

"To any political analyst it was clear that the impeachment motion would never get support of two-third majority in both Houses of Parliament. The Congress Party knew this. Its object was not the passage of the Motion but intimidation of India's judiciary," he said.

Jaitley said the impeachment motion was also poorly drafted.

"Any inquiry set up subsequent to a possible admission of a motion cannot be a fishing and roving inquiry. The inquiry does not have to search for better evidence or a better set of facts.

"The motion must contain a definitive case which makes out a case 'beyond reasonable doubt' that the judge is guilty of 'proved misbehaviour'," he said.

--IANS

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Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan on Tuesday met visiting Pakistani Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif here, vowing to promote bilateral ties to a new high.

Wang said building a community with a shared future for humanity confirms to the trend of the times and Pakistan is China's all-weather strategic cooperative partner, Xinhua news agency reported.

China-Pakistan relations should take the lead in building a community with a shared future for humanity, Wang said, adding that Beijing will continue to regard Islamabad as a priority in its neighbouring diplomacy.

Asif said Pakistan was glad to see China's historic achievements under the leadership of President Xi Jinping. "Pakistan stands ready to deepen bilateral cooperation in various fields and firmly supports China on issues concerning its core interests," he said.

--IANS

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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said Congress' decision to bring an impeachment motion against Chief Justice Dipak Misra was incorrect and clarified that her party did not support the move.

"The Congress' decision to submit an impeachment motion against the Chief Justice was not correct. They wanted us to support it. But Trinamool Congress did not support it," Banerjee said during an interview to News18 Bangla.

"I told Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi not to go for impeachment," Banerjee added.

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday rejected the impeachment motion filed by 64 MPs belonging to seven parties led by the Congress against the CJI on the ground that there was lack of "credible and verifiable" information on charges of "misbehaviour", which, he said, undermined judiciary's independence.

However, Congress leader and former Law Minister Kapil Sibal, termed Naidu's decision as illegal and unconstitutional and said the order will be challenged in the Supreme Court.

--IANS

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US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump have not extended invitations to Democrats from Congress to attend their first state dinner, a media report said.

This year, the guest list for the state dinner slated for Tuesday was whittled to around 120 people, down from highs of 350 or so people who attended previous bipartisan and media-filled dinners featuring celebrities and pop icons like Beyonce, The New York Times reported on Monday.

The Washington National Opera will perform this year at the dinner, the White House said.

Typically the leadership of the opposing party is invited to state dinners, but the Trumps threw out that tradition as they also shunned journalists, who in previous administrations received a handful of invitations.

According to a White House official, the list was so small that after the must-invite American government officials and the large French delegation including President Emmanuel Macron, there was room for Trump to personally invite only four people.

However, one Democrat made it to the list -- John Bel Edwards, the governor of Louisiana, the official said.

Keeping with tradition, not all cabinet members are expected to attend, although Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and his wife, Louise Linton, made the cut.

The full guest list is expected to be released on Tuesday, right before the start of the dinner.

There will be subtle hints at bipartisanship in the decor: Along with 1,200 Obama-inspired cherry blossom branches to decorate the Cross Hall, Melania Trump will use china from the Clinton White House, reports The New York Times.

Melania Trump chose white sweet peas and white lilacs for the tables in the State Dining Room, and it was her idea to host Macron and his wife, Brigitte, for a private dinner on Monday evening at Mount Vernon, according to East Wing aide Rickie Niceta.

Mount Vernon was home to America's first president, George Washington, who hosted the Marquis de Lafayette there years after the two fought as allies in the Revolutionary War.

--IANS

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Marking a fresh leap in vehicular communication among three neighbouring nations, two buses on trial run from Dhaka crossed over into India at Phulbari on way to Kathmandu on Tuesday.

A tumultuous welcome followed, as West Bengal government officials and commoners presented bouquets and 'khadas' to the 45 passengers - all but two of them bureaucrats and diplomats from the three nations - at the India-Bangladesh border.

Twenty five officials from Bangladesh, a dozen from India, six others representing Nepal, as also two Asian Development Bank executives, are making the 1,104 km journey that started from Dhaka on Monday.

On Wednesday morning, the bus will resume its journey from the north Bengal secretariat Uttar Kanya and reach Kathmandu on Thursday.

Phulbari was all decked up on the historic occasion. Shops and roads were decorated, and people stood on both sides of the roads to greet the guests. Conch shells were blown, petals showered and garlands exchanged.

The bus service follows from the Bangladesh Bhutan India and Nepal (BBIN) Motor Vehicle Agreement (MVA) inked on June 15, 2015 at the BBIN transport ministers meeting in Thimpu, Bhutan.

Though Bhutan is yet to ratify the agreement, India, Nepal and Bangladesh has already given the green nod.

The officials travelling by the buses would finalise the minutest details about the services.

Calling the initiative historic, Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation Chairman Farid Ahmed Bhuniya said acethis service will strengthen the relations among the three countries.

The biggest benefit of the service is that tourists can make trips to all three countries with a single visa.

The fares, places for the night halt of the commuters, the location of the visa centres would be decided at talks between the officials of the three countries on Friday at Kathmandu.

--IANS

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The Enforcement Directorate has frozen properties worth Rs 48 crore of Chennai-based Kanishk Gold Pvt Ltd and others in connection with its ongoing probe in a multi-crore bank fraud, officials said on Tuesday.

The agency has frozen land, buildings, plant and machinery available at the factory in Pukkathurai village in Tamil Nadu under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The ED initiated investigations of the case on the basis of he March 21 FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Kanishk Gold Private Ltd and others.

The firm, which is engaged in the business of manufacturing gold jewellery, is accused of defrauding a consortium of 14 banks, with State Bank of India as a lead bank, by obtaining Rs 824 crore loans for the business purposes.

It is alleged that credit facilities were taken with securities such as raw materials, semi finished goods, finished goods, stores, spares, showing huge stocks, however it was later realized that stock statements were fudged with the help of charted accountants.

"On inspection by the banks in May 2017, it was found that no stocks were there and effectively all the operations came to a standstill," an ED statement said.

The agency said that forensic audit was conducted to identify fraudulent statements of financial reports, diversion of bank funds, siphoning of funds and asset stripping during the period from 2009 to 2017.

"But, the audit found that there was misrepresentation and falsification of records, diversion of funds and disposal of the stocks by the company which led to the total loss caused to the banks due to the fraud works worth Rs 824 crore outstanding as on December 31, 2017," the ED statement said.

During investigations, ED found that falsification of records was admitted and it was stated that the stock gap between the actual and reported to banks has risen to 3,000 kgs of gold by 2017.

--IANS

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The Economic Offences Wing of Madhya Pradesh has raided the premises of a Co-operative Bank Manager and seized properties worth several crores.

The EOW Deputy Supreintendent of Police, Rajwardhan Maheshwari said that complaints against Narsinghpur District Co-operative Bank Manager Basant Kumar Patel had been received alleging that he owned properties much beyond his income.

Maheshwari and her team raided Patel's ancestral home and other premises.

The EOW raided several agricultural lands in seven places and recovered three kg of silver and 250 gms of gold jewellery. Two houses, a plot of land and several passbooks of different banks were also seized, Maheshwari said.

Additionally, vehicles including a Bolero, a Duster and a motorcycle were seized. A luxurious house, and Rs 35,000 in cash, were also found.

The EOW found that Patel had invested in several schemes, which would be probed. Maheshwari said bank lockers of Patel were being sealed.

The EOW raids were carried out throughout the day on Monday.

--IANS

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Former US President George H.W. Bush is in intensive care after contracting an infection, a day after a funeral was held for his wife, Barbara Bush, the media reported.

Bush, 93, was admitted to the Houston Methodist Hospital on Sunday morning after contracting the infection that spread to his blood, CNN quoted family spokesman Jim McGrath as saying in a statement late Monday.

"He is responding to treatments and appears to be recovering. We will issue additional updates as events warrant," said McGrath.

According to a source close to the former Republican President, Bush was admitted to the hospital with an infection that led to sepsis, which can be life-threatening.

He was in critical condition, the source said.

The source added that Bush's blood pressure kept dropping and a couple of times there was serious concern about whether he was going to come through, but that he had been stabilized.

But with Bush's age, his health and with this infection, this is very serious, the source told CNN.

Bush revealed several years ago that he suffers from a form of Parkinson's disease, which has left him unable to walk, so he gets around either in a wheelchair or a scooter.

The former President's hospitalisation is especially upsetting for his family because it follows so closely on the death of his wife of 73 years last April 17.

The family had been worried about how he would deal with her death and such an emotional week, according to the source.

--IANS

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Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh ordered the expeditious implementation of key infrastructure projects in Lakshadweep, and the Andaman and Nicobar islands to ensure maximum benefits to the local populace.

The Minister's order came during the third meeting of Island Development Agency (IDA) at his North Block office here.

The Home Minister was particularly focussed on improving air, road and web connectivity, providing good quality drinking water and power supply to residents of the islands, a Home Ministry statement said.

He reviewed concept development plans and detailed master plans for holistic development of nine islands, four in Andaman and Nicobar (Smith, Ross, Long and Avis) and five in Lakshadweep (Minicoy, Bangaram, Thinnakara, Cheriyam and Suheli).

The Minister was told that final site suitability reports have been prepared, carrying capacity determined and environmental zoning carried out to ensure sustainable development for these Islands.

Additional islands, 12 in Andaman and Nicobar (North Passage, Cinque, Inglis, Viper, Neil, Ramnagar Beach, Karmatang Beach, Dhaninallah Beach, Kalipur Beach, Rutland, North Bay and Great Nicobar-B Quarry) and five in Lakshadweep (Kalpeni, Kadmat, Agatti, Chetlat and Bitra) have been identified by NITI Aayog in consultation with the Union Territory administrations for planning of suitable projects aimed at creation of more jobs for the Islanders.

"Community-based tourism would be promoted benefiting the Islanders," the statement said.

The meeting was told that key projects such as creation of jetties, roll-on and roll-off ships, bridges on Andaman trunk road, upgradation of Diglipur Airport, construction of Minicoy Airport, modernization of existing jetty at Kavarati, augmentation of satellite bandwidth from 1.118 Gbps to 2.118 Gbps in Andaman and Nicobar, augmentation of helicopter services for Islanders and tourists are being accorded priority

With better communication services, Information Technology based and other Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises would be promoted in the islands, Rajnath was told.

The Minister got to know that 18 projects, both in Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshadweep, have been identified for implementation, out of which seven projects are ready for launch.

"Three such projects in Andaman and Nicobar (one each in Long, Smith and Ayes Island) and three in Lakshadweep (one each in Suheli, Minicoy and Kadamat) are ready to be launched.

"After implementation of these projects, investment of about Rs 650 crore is expected from the private sector. Preference would be given to the local people for employment," the statement said citing the findings of the meeting.

The meeting participants were told that an investors' conference would be held in May 2018.

Rajnath Singh expressed satisfaction at the progress made since its last meeting held on November 8, 2017 when directions were given to identify additional Islands for sustainable development and also accord priority to key infrastructure projects.

--IANS

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Two detectives in Florida reportedly visited a funeral home to unlock the deceased man's smartphone by using his fingerprint, a move which has been claimed as disrespectful and a violation of rights, the media reported.

Linus F. Phillip, 30, was shot and killed on March 23 at a Wawa gas station in Florida, after police said he tried to drive away when an officer was about to search him, the Tampa Bay Times reported late on Monday.

Investigators arrived at Sylvan Abbey Funeral Home in Clearwater within 72 hours of the death, to take the deceased's fingerprints. However, the attempt was unsuccessful.

Lt. Randall Chaney said it was done to access and preserve data on the phone to aid in the investigation into Phillip's death and a separate inquiry into drugs that involved him.

Chaney said detectives didn't think they would need a warrant because there is no expectation of privacy after death and this was affirmed by several other legal experts. However, Phillip's family said it was unethical.

"I just felt so disrespected and violated," Victoria Armstrong, Phillip's fiance, was quoted as saying.

"While the deceased person doesn't have a vested interest in the remains of their body, the family sure does, so it really doesn't pass the smell test," Charles Rose, Professor at the Stetson University College of Law, was quoted by the newspaper.

"There's a ghoulish component to it that's troubling to most people," Rose added.

While it is not clear what type of smartphone is at issue, Apple is the most widely-adopted phone that features fingerprint-unlocking technology.

Other companies including models from Google's Pixel and Samsung's Galaxy lines also offer similar biometric security.

--IANS

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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will fly in some 40 "star campaigners" to poll-bound Karnataka including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a host of Union Ministers and senior leaders to campaign for the party's success in the ensuing May 12 assembly elections.

The visiting key campaigners were named in a letter written by the state unit BJP general secretary and party's Lok Sabha lawmaker from Karnataka Shobha Karandlaje to the state Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar.

Besides Modi and BJP national President Amit Shah, Union Ministers Sushma Swaraj (External Affairs), Smriti Irani (Information and Broadcasting), Nirmala Sitharaman (Defence), Ravi Shankar Prasad (Law and Justice), Piyush Goyal (Railways) and party's Lok Sabha MP and veteran actress Hema Malini will soon be in the southern state.

"The Prime Minister is expected to visit the state tentatively from May 1 and is expected to hold at least 10-12 rallies across the state before the election," BJP state spokesman S. Shantharam told IANS here.

Modi is expected to visit each of the state's four regions -- coastal, north, central and south -- besides Bengaluru and Mysuru, addressing two-to-three rallies a day till May 10.

The exact dates of the BJP leaders' visits to the state were yet to be finalised, the spokesperson added.

Some of the other campaigners include party's women's wing national in-charge D. Purandareswari, former Union Minister for External Affairs S.M. Krishna, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan among others.

The party's chief ministerial candidate B.S. Yeddyurappa, Union Ministers from the state Ananth Kumar (Chemicals and Fertilisers), Prakash Javadekar (Human Resource Development) and Anantkumar Hegde (Skill Development) will also be taking part in the campaigning activities.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, also one of the party's campaigners, on Monday visited the state's coastal districts of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath has visited the state at least four times so far, to address rallies in Hubballi, Bengaluru, Davanagere and Mangaluru.

On April 21, MP Chief Minister Chouhan visited the state's Chitradurga district, about 250km north from here, to campaign along with the BJP Lok Sabha lawmaker B. Sreeramulu, who is contesting the assembly elections from Molakamuru (reserved) seat in the district.

Polling will be held in a single phase on May 12 for 224 assembly seats, including 36 reserved for the Scheduled Castes and 15 for the Scheduled Tribes. Votes will be counted on May 15.

Tuesday is the last date for filing nominations. Scrutiny will be done on April 25 and the last date for withdrawal of candidature is April 27.

--IANS

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Fortis Healthcare (FHL) on Tuesday said that it has received two "improved" offers from IHH Healthcare Berhad and KKR-backed Radiant Life Care.

According to a late night BSE filing on Tuesday, the company said that its board has received a binding offer from Radiant to buy the healthcare major's Mulund Hospital, without due diligence and "as a going concern at an enterprise value of Rs 1,200 crore".

"This transaction would provide an immediate liquidity of Rs 680 crore for FHL (including proceeds from FHL's 30.04 per cent stake in RHT, as we believe that RHT would divest Fortis Mulund assets at the appraisal value of Rs 683 crore...)," Radiant's revised offer said.

"This offer presents immediate and guaranteed liquidity to FHL without any equity dilution of FHL's shareholders."

Besides its binding offer, the KKR-backed firm has also made an independent non-binding proposal.

Earlier in the day, the healthcare major said that it has received an "improved offer" from IHH Healthcare Berhad to directly invest in the company.

Accordingly, IHH made a binding offer, without the due diligence condition for an immediate investment of Rs 650 crore into the company "... by way of a preferential issue and allotment of equity shares at a price of Rs 160 per share for which IHH would be given the right to appoint two directors on board," IHH Healthcare Berhad's Managing Director and Group CEO Tan See Leng said in a letter to the Fortis board.

After the acceptance of its binding offer, IHH has asked for an immediate access to carry out legal and financial due diligence of the company. The non-binding aspect of the overall proposal is to invest Rs 3,350 crore with due diligence and other conditions.

The new offers were made a day after the company said that Hero Enterprise Investment Office and the Burman Family Office have extended the validity of their "improved binding offer" till May 4, 2018.

On April 19, Sunil Kant Munjal of Hero Enterprise as well as Anand Burman and Mohit Burman of the Burman family approached the Board of Fortis Healthcare with a binding offer to invest Rs 1,500 crore directly in the company.

In addition to Hero Enterprise Investment Office and the Burman Family Office's proposal, Fortis Healthcare has received "an unsolicited non-binding" EoI from Fosun Health Holdings for a possible due diligence.

On the hindsight, the company had on March 27 announced its plans to demerge its hospitals business (Fortis Hospitals) into Manipal Hospital Enterprises Private Ltd (Manipal Hospitals).

The plan envisages the sale of the company's 20 per cent stake in SRL Ltd to Manipal Hospitals.

However, on last Thursday, Fortis Healthcare decided to constitute an "expert advisory committee" to evaluate all binding proposals for fund infusion. The panel is led by Deepak Kapoor, Former Chairman and CEO of Price Waterhouse Coopers, India and has been "requested to provide a report of its recommendation to the Board, by April 26, 2018".

The company has named Renuka Ramnath and Lalit Bhasin as members of an "expert advisory committee". Ramnath is a former MD and CEO of ICICI Venture and Bhasin, President, Society of Indian Law Firms and Managing Partner, Bhasin & Co.

The panel is likely to meet by April 25 to decide on the merger or buy offers.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
From now onwards, bamboo will be treated as a grass and not a tree, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday.

Addressing a gathering of tribals in Mandla town of Madhya Pradesh to mark the National Panchayati Raj Day, Modi said since tribals had to face punitive action for felling bamboo, the government had decided to categorise it as a grass.

"Due to insufficient availability of bamboo, the country imports it. But if farmers grow bamboo on the fence of their fields, it could well be another source of earning which can help change their life for the better," he said.

The Prime Minister started his speech welcoming the people in Gondi language spoken by Gond tribals. "There is no paucity of funds for development work today... What is needed is ensure the right use of these funds."

Speaking on the occasion, Union Minister of Panchayati Raj and Rural Development Narendra Singh Tomar said Modi was keen on village development, and that being the reason, the allocation under the head had been quadrupled.

"By 2022, a New India will emerge under the leadership of Narendra Modi," he said.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan promised that electricity would be made available to every village of the state by October, adding: "Rs 2 lakh crore will be spent towards the welfare of tribal population of Madhya Pradesh," Chouhan added.

--IANS

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Nepali peacekeepers have been accused of touching "inappropriately" a teenager in South Sudan and not of rape, according to the UN mission there.

Four teenaged girls were caught entering the UN base in Aweil on April 13 through a fence and "it was alleged that one of the teenaged girls had been touched inappropriately by a member of the Nepalese contingent in exchange for money", a statement by the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said Tuesday.

It clarified, "There was no allegation made of rape."

"Any act of sexual abuse is horrendous, one involving a child is, I think, especially heinous," Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday.

"UNMISS, as you know, like all of us have zero tolerance and no excuse and no second chance approach to sexual exploitation or abuse," he added.

A Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Immediate Response Team (IRT) was sent to Aweil to gather information and preserve evidence for an investigation by Nepal, the UNMISS statement said.

Nepal is appointing a team of National Investigation Officers to conduct the investigation, the statement added.

Nepal had 2,092 people serving with the UNMISS, of them 1,698 were military personnel, 35 of them women, according to the UN statistics for March.

In 2016, there were three cases involving transactional sex - exchanging sex for favours, materials or services - or sexual assault against Nepalis with UNMISS, according to UN reports.

Last year, one case of attempted sexual assault was substantiated against a Nepali with the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and the person was demoted as a punishmen, the UN reported.

In February, 46 members of a police contingent from Ghana were ordered withdrawn after allegations of sexual exploitation was reported against them in South Sudan.

Guterres has emphasised the zero tolerance policy for sexual abuse and appointed a victims rights advocate last year.

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)

--IANS

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Actress Anushka Sharma says experimenting with roles has been a mainstay in her career from the start.

Anushka spoke to the media here on Monday on the sidelines of an event organised by Standard Chartered Bank, where she was announced its brand ambassador.

In a promotional campaign for her latest endorsement, Anushka plays the triple role of a daughter, mother and grandmother.

On the experience, Anushka said: "I have always tried to experiment with my roles right from the beginning.

"This year, I am doing films in which all my characters are very different from one another in terms of physical and emotional appearance. So, when you get to do that in an advertisement, you feel great.

"Playing a triple role was something which I had never done before, so I was very excited. It takes a lot of time while doing prosthetic make-up, but the end result was great. So, I was all up for it."

Anushka's upcoming Bollywood projects include "Zero" and the biopic on Sanjay Dutt.

"I am really happy that this year, I am doing different kind of films and both films are going to release very soon. As far as the Dutt biopic is concerned, that's one film that the audience will be very excited about and will be happy while watching it.

"I recently saw a teaser of it and I really liked it. I am doing a cameo in it. Nevertheless, I am really looking forward to watching the film."

The actress-producer also shared her thoughts on the ordinance to introduce death penalty for rapists of children, after the nationwide uproar on Kathua and Unnao rape cases.

"I was deeply hurt and affected by the incident. Even now, when I think or talk about it, I feel disgusted and extremely emotional. I feel the most severe punishment has to be meted out to the people involved.

"The most severe punishment should be served to those who spoil something as innocent as a child because it's the worst thing that a human being can do."

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
HMD Global, the licencee of the Nokia brand for phones, is aspiring to be top three players in the smartphone space globally and the company's India operation has already become profitable, an official said here on Tuesday.

The Finland-based company is focusing on ramping up smartphone ranges along with feature phones and also working on design and software aspects as a part of its strategies to achieve the goal.

"We are aspiring to be top three smart phone players globally and in India as well. As a part of strategy, the company has been focusing on design and software aspects along with quality. We are building the range in the smart and feature phones," HMD Global Business Head (North and East) Amit Goyal said here.

In India, its six models of Nokia smartphones are already available and two more will be available shortly along with five feature phones, he said.

"We have sold about 70 million phones globally in the last year or so. India is the significant contributor to this global sales and the country is already among the top three countries in terms of company's business. India's operation is already profitable," he said but declined to share the sales numbers.

According to Goyal, the company would launch more products in the next few months and deepen its distributors' network.

"We will also continue on focusing feature phones as these account for 50 per cent of the India market," he said.

Since its inception in December 2016, the company has already operations in 80 countries and its products are available in about 170 countries.

Nokia phones are manufactured at the Foxconn plant near Chennai.

--IANS

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Actor Inaamulhaq, known for films like "Filmistaan" and "Airlift", says he is excited as his first lead role in the forthcoming movie titled "Nakkash" has found space in the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.

Its first look will be unveiled at the India pavilion at Marche du Film at the fest on May 14.

"I am still trying to seize the fact that I'm going be a part of world's most renowned film festival where wonderful movies are screened every year. I am fortunate enough for being able to join such an amazing platform where great work is recognised. I am humbled and grateful to everybody's contribution for making all my dreams come true," Inaamulhaq said in a statement.

On playing the lead, Inaamulhaq said: "For common people in India, there is no concept of 'lead'. They simply say 'hero' of the film and that 'hero' is defined by certain qualities like body muscle, six-pack abs. I don't think that qualifies me.

"So, I always waited for the film where script is the 'hero' and I am the protagonist. It is every actor's dream to play the protagonist. My dream finally came true."

The film is directed by Zaigham Imam, who had earlier directed "Dozakh - In search of Heaven" and "Alif" which were showcased at many festivals worldwide.

--IANS

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Income Tax officials on Tuesday raided offices and homes of 11 government contractors in Bengaluru and Mysuru in poll-bound Karnataka for alleged tax evasion, a senior official said.

"Raids were conducted by officials of the I-T Investigation Wing on one contractor in Bengaluru and 10 in Mysuru. They work on state government's projects through tendering," Income Tax Department Joint Commissioner G. Ramesh said in a statement here.

Denying reports in a section of the media, including news channels, Ramesh said that the office or residence of Public Works Department Minister M.C. Mahadevappa was not searched in Bengaluru or Mysuru.

"No Minister's premises was raided as reported by some media channels," he clarified.

Election to the 224-member Assembly will be held on May 12, with vote count on May 15.

The officials seized Rs 4.13 crore and 4.52 kg gold jewellery valued at Rs 1.32 crore during the raids across the southern state in the last three weeks.

"Of the Rs 4.13 crore seized, Bengaluru accounts for seizure of Rs 2.47 crore and Ballari Rs 55 lakh," Ramesh said in a statement on April 21.

The mine-rich Ballari town is 330 km from Bengaluru.

The Income Tax Department had stepped up surveillance and in view of the elections.

In one of the raids, officials seized Rs 55 lakh from a person. In another case, household articles valued at Rs 9.51 crore intended for distribution were found stored in a warehouse near Mysuru.

--IANS

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Fortis Healthcare on Tuesday said that it has received an "improved offer" from IHH Healthcare Berhad to directly invest in the company.

According to a BSE filing, the binding offer, without the due diligence condition from IHH, entails an immediate investment of Rs 650 crore into the company "... by way of a preferential issue and allotment of equity shares at a price of Rs 160 per share for which IHH would be given the right to appoint two directors on board", IHH Healthcare Berhad'S Managing Director and Group CEO Tan See Leng said in a letter to the Fortis board.

However, IHH has asked for immediate access to carry out legal and finanacial due diligence of the company after its binding proposal is accepted. The non-binding aspect of the overall proposal is to invest Rs 3,350 crore with due diligence and other conditions.

The development comes a day after the company said that Hero Enterprise Investment Office and the Burman Family Office have extended the validity of their "improved binding offer" till May 4, 2018.

On April 19, Sunil Kant Munjal of Hero Enterprise as well as Anand Burman and Mohit Burman of the Burman family approached the Board of Fortis Healthcare with a binding offer to invest Rs 1,500 crore directly in the company.

Last week, Fortis Healthcare disclosed that it has received "an unsolicited non-binding expression of interest (EoI)" from KKR-backed Radiant Life Care with "a proposal for making investment and or re-structuring the company subject to certain conditions as mentioned in the offer letter".

As per an earlier BSE filing, Radiant Life Care has made an offer to buy a 26 per cent stake in the company at a price of Rs 126 per share, excluding the SRL Diagnostics' business.

Besides Radiant, Fortis Healthcare has received "an unsolicited non-binding" EoI from Fosun Health Holdings for a possible due diligence.

Fosun Health Holdings has made an offer of a "primary infusion at a price up to Rs 156 per share, subject to due diligence to be completed within three weeks, up to a total investment of $350 million" including a preliminary investment of up to Rs 100 crore.

However, Fortis Healthcare on March 27 had announced plans to demerge its hospitals business (Fortis Hospitals) into Manipal Hospital Enterprises Private Ltd (Manipal Hospitals).

The plan envisages the sale of the company's 20 per cent stake in SRL Ltd to Manipal Hospitals.

On last Thursday, Fortis Healthcare decided to constitute an "expert advisory committee" to evaluate all binding proposals for fund infusion. The panel is led by Deepak Kapoor, Former Chairman and CEO of Price Waterhouse Coopers, India and has been "requested to provide a report of its recommendation to the Board, by April 26, 2018".

The company has named Renuka Ramnath and Lalit Bhasin as members of an "expert advisory committee". Ramnath is a former MD and CEO of ICICI Venture and Bhasin, President, Society of Indian Law Firms and Managing Partner, Bhasin & Co.

The panel is likely to meet by April 25 to decide on the merger or buy offers.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India on Tuesday stayed clear of the joint communique by the member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Summit (SCO) supporting China's One Belt, One Road (OBOR) project.

This comes ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's crucial informal meet on Friday-Saturday.

India was not mentioned in the paragraph of the joint communique by the SCO member countries expressing support for Beijing's Belt and Road initiative.

"The foreign ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan reiterated their support for the 'Belt and Road Initiative' proposed by China.

"All parties support the use of the potential of the countries, international organizations and multilateral institutions in the region to establish a broad, open, mutually beneficial and equal partnership in the SCO region," the statement issued by the SCO foreign ministers said.

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which connects China's Kashgar in Xinjiang with Gwadar port in Pakistan's Balochistan, is a key artery of the OBOR project and is progressing at a fast pace.

India firmly opposes the over $50 billion economic corridor of the Belt and Road project which cuts through the Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. New Delhi lays claim to the region.

(Gaurav Sharma can be contacted at gaurav.s@ians.in)

--IANS

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Tech major Infosys has donated Rs 2.50 crore to the Neurosurgery Department of the state-run Medical College hospital, here.

The money was used to install a brand new neurosurgery dedicated operating microscope, replacing a two decade old one.

Speaking to IANS, P. Anil, Head of Department Neurosurgery, said that Infosys answered to a request he had made in 2017.

"I took a chance and I wrote to Infosys if they can come to our help. It was an year back. Soon they responded and after they undertook a brief study of our activities, they decided to help us," he added.

"In between there were some issues with regards to GST but finally the equipment has been installed. We have already put it to use in the first case, a few days back," said Anil.

Anil said the new piece of device has come as a huge boon to the patients who mostly come from poor background.

The Thiruvananthapuram Medical College hospital has the most crowded casualty department with accident cases coming for expert and quick treatment.

Speaking to IANS, Sunil Jose, a top official attached to the Infosys unit here, said their company always has set aside money as part of the corporate social responsibility programme.

"Our studies found out that the department provides yeomen services to accident victims and most of the patients came from the low and middle income category.

"In this microscope project, we started working on it as soon as we got the proposal from the Neurosurgery Department. We felt that they are doing a good job and sanctioned it," said Jose.

Incidentally this is not the first time that Infosys have helped the hospital. They had built a sky walk connecting the major building after finding out that patients were being moved in stretchers through the road.

--IANS

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Mumbai Indians rode on a disciplined effort on the field to restrict Sunrisers Hyderabad to a paltry 118 in an Indian Premier League (IPL) match at the Wankhede Stadium here on Tuesday.

Confusions in the middle marred the tourists even as Mumbai kept their dominance throughout and did not allow the Sunrisers to bounce back at any stage of the innings. This was interestingly the lowest total in this IPL.

Put in to bat, the Sunrisers failed to recover from the dreadful start, of being reduced to 46/4 inside the powerplay, with Shikhar Dhawan (5), Wriddhiman Saha (0), Manish Pandey (16) and Shakib Al Hasan (2) all back in the hut inside the first six overs.

Skipper Kane Williamson raged a lone battle with a fighting 21-ball 29, laced with five hits to the fence before veteran Baroda batsman Yusuf Pathan (29 off 33 balls; 4x2, 6x1) took on the mantle, despite losing his partners at regular intervals.

Dhawan, who returned to the playing XI after missing the previous game against Chennai Super Kings (CSK), looked uncomfortable after being hit on his thigh and was bowled by Mitchell McClenaghan the very next ball.

One ball later, Saha perished for nought after being caught behind by Ishan Kishan off McClenaghan.

With the team struggling at 20/2, Manish joined Williamson for a brief 24-run third wicket stand before Hardik ended Manish's stay with a wide delivery, comfortably caught by skipper Rohit Sharma at cover.

Mumbai could not have asked for a better start, with Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib falling prey to a confusion, and Suryakumar Yadav's direct throw at the stumps was enough to reduce the visitors to 46/4.

Pathan then joined Williamson, who looked fluent with his strokes but lost concentration on the very first ball after the strategic time-out to be caught behind by Kishan off Hardik Pandya.

With Williamson back in the dug-out, Mohammed Nabi (14) joined Pathan for a brief 23-run sixth-wicket stand before leg-spinner Mayank Markande's googly clipped the top of middle and leg of the Afghanistan all-rounder.

Pacer Jasprit Bumrah then came back to jolt the visitors with the wicket of the other Afghan Rashid Khan (6) caught behind before Markande knocked off the off-stump of Basil Thampi (3) to reduce the Sunrisers to 106/8.

Sunrisers fell prey to yet another confusion in the middle, this time losing the wicket of tailender Siddharth Kaul (2), comfortably run out by Hardik.

With Sandeep Sharma (0 not out) in company, Pathan's ploy of playing the waiting game only resulted in a monstrous six off Mustafizur Rahman, but the Bangladeshi came back in style to pack back the right-hander the next ball, and restrict Sunrisers for a meagre 118.

Brief Scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad 118 (Kane Williamson 29, Yusuf Pathan 29; Mayank Markande 2/15, Hardik Pandya 2/20) vs Mumbai Indians.

--IANS

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Protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) of seed companies is necessary owing to huge expenditure made in research and development (R&D), a senior US official said on Tuesday.

US Department of Agriculture's Chief Economist Robert Johansson however refused to make a direct comment when asked about his reaction to the recent ruling of the Delhi High Court that Monsanto could not own patent over genetically modified cotton seeds in India, but said all countries should protect IPR.

"R&D is important expenditure. Government can provide that. Also, private sector can provide that. Both can lead to show production gains in agriculture and that is true for United States as well other countries. Our belief come up with a system that allows companies to invest in R&D and protect those Intellectual Property Rights," he told reporters after his talk here.

On the cancellation of Monsanto's patent by the court, Johansson said: "The ruling has come out. I do not think we had chance to go into the rationale. So I cannot comment. There may be various Indian constitutional laws, reasons by which the court came up with the ruling."

He said huge amount of money, time and efforts were required to produce to new seed varieties. And IPR allowed companies "to get returns on that by selling the seed varieties and recovering their research development cost".

India exported agricultural commodities worth $5 billion in 2017 while the export to India was $2 billion the same year, said USDA Counselor for Agriculture Affairs Jeanne Baily in the same event.

She also said the Indian exports to US in first two months of 2018 had increased by 26 per cent in terms of value while US exports to India have shown decline of 12 per cent.

--IANS

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Rome, April 24 (IANS/AKI) With support from the UN, Italy has flown 15 tonnes of medical supplies and drugs to Niger to treat the country's main infectious diseases, Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano said on Tuesday.

"We have provided aid to the population of Niger, which consists of health care and medicines that are due to reach Niamey aboard an Italian airforce plane," he said.

The airlift followed a request from Niger's authorities and the medical kits - which contain items that are hard to find in the impoverished country - will help the local population, Alfano said.

The aid flight took off from the UN Humanitarian Assistance (UNHRD) base in the southern Italian port city of Brindisi, which is managed by the World Food Programme, the Foreign Ministry said.

The vital medical kits will be distributed by defence and health ministry personnel to local institutions in Niger in agreement with local authorities, it added.

--IANS/AKI

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US Vice President Mike Pence has sworn in Jim Bridenstine as the 13th NASA Administrator, the space agency said in a statement.

For his new role at NASA, Bridenstine who was the Republican Representative from Oklahoma, resigned from the House of Representatives on Monday. He is the first politician to be named as the NASA administrator.

"NASA represents the best of the United States of America. We lead, we discover, we pioneer, and we inspire. I look forward to our journey together," Bridenstine said late Monday.

Bridenstine was given the oath of office by Pence at the NASA Headquarters in Washington.

"It is a great privilege for me to be here today, to be able to usher in on behalf of the President of the United States what we believe is a new chapter of renewed American leadership in space with the swearing-in of the newest Administrator of NASA, Jim Bridenstine," said Pence.

"Under Space Policy Directive 1, we will send American astronauts back to the Moon, and after that we will establish the capacity, with international and commercial partners, to send Americans to Mars. And NASA will lead the way."

As part of the swearing-in ceremony, Pence and Bridenstine also spoke live with NASA astronauts Scott Tingle, Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold, who currently are aboard the International Space Station.

"The appropriations bill that is now law renews focus on human spaceflight activities and expands our commercial and international partnerships. It also continues our pursuit of cutting-edge science and aeronautics breakthroughs," Bridenstine told senior agency leadership at headquarters and NASA's centres via video teleconference.

Bridenstine's lack of professional space experience and technical education prompted criticism from Democrats.

He was confirmed on a party-line 50-49 vote by the US Senate on April 19 to serve as the NASA administrator, more than seven and a half months after the administration nominated him to the position.

A former Navy pilot, Bridenstine majored in economics, psychology and business at Rice University and holds an MBA from Cornell University.

During his Navy career, he accumulated 1,900 hours flying time and 333 carrier landings flying E-2C Hawkeye turboprops and, later, F-18 Hornets before leaving active duty to serve as executive director of the Tulsa Air and Space Museum and Planetarium.

He was elected to represent Oklahoma's first congressional district in 2012, serving on the House Armed Services Committee and the Science, Space and Technology Committee.

--IANS

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Senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid on Monday stepped into a controversy by saying that there is "blood on the hands of the Congress", a remark later dubbed as "unfounded" by his party.

Khurshid's remarks came at an event in Aligarh Muslim University while responding to a question on the loss of Muslim lives in communal incidents and about the Babri Masjid-Ram temple dispute in Ayodhya.

The Congress slammed the remarks as "unfounded" and said these can only help the Bharatiya Janata Party.

"This is a political question but I will answer it. I am a part of the Congress, so let me accept it that we have blood on our hands. This is the reason you are telling us that if someone attacks you, then we should not come forward to protect you," Khurshid, a former Union Miniter, told the questioner.

"We will show you the blood stains so that you understand that these stains are on on us which should not come to you...." he said, asking the student to learn from history and not to get into a situation that after 10 years, he does not find anyone in the AMU to ask such question.

The student, who posed the question, referred to communal conflagrations, including those in Hashimpura and Muzaffarnagar. He said that the opening of the Babri Masjid structure's gates, placing of Lord Ram's idol inside and the structure's demolition took place when the Congress was in power at the Centre.

"The Congress has Muslims' blood on its hands. With what words will you wash them off," the student asked.

Congress Spokesperson P.L. Punia told the media at a briefing that the party "disagrees with the statement of Salman Khurshid in toto".

"Everyone must know that both before and after independence, the Congress is the only party which has worked towards building an egalitarian society by carrying all sections of people together, including the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the poor as also religious and ethnic minorities," he said.

"As these intrinsic foundational values are under attack today from the Narendra Modi government, all leaders must remember that such unfounded statements only help the cause of those in power, who seek to divide society on caste and communal lines to retain and attain power at any cost," Punia added.

Salman Khurshid has stoked contorversies in the past also. During Uttar Pradesh Assembly election in 2012, in which his wife was also in the fray, he had talked of nine per cent sub-quota for backward Muslims.

--IANS

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Television performer Kym Johnson and Croatian-Canadian businessman and TV personality Robert Herjavec have welcomed twins.

The couple welcomed the twins on Monday, reported people.com.

Johnson announced in an Instagram photo that showed Herjavec carrying the twins in his arms.

"I never thought my heart could feel so full. We're so in love with our little angels. Born at 7.44am and 7.45am 4/23/18," the "Dancing with the Stars" pro, 41, wrote in the caption.

The couple did not reveal their "little angels'" names.

The "Shark Tank" star, 55, is already a father of three children from a previous marriage.

--IANS

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Chinese electronic major Lenovo on Tuesday launched two new fitness trackers -- HX03F Spectra and HX03 Cardio -- in India.

HX03F Spectra and HX03 cardio are priced at Rs 2,299 and Rs 1,999, respectively. HX03 Cardio is now available while HX03F Spectra can be purchased on Flipkart on May 3.

"Lenovo HX03 Cardio and HX03F Spectra smart bands are Lenovo's another effort in fitness genre. It combines modern innovation and technology with Lenovo's trusted legacy of rendering smart devices," Sebastian Peng, Head of Lenovo MBG Ecosystem, told reporters here.

Lenovo said that the company targets to acquire 20 per cent market by 2018.

"We have great expectation from the Indian market where the share of wearable devices is projected to gain significantly in the coming years," Peng added.

Equipped with the OLED/TFT display, the devices assist a range of activities, including a dynamic heart rate monitor, movement monitoring and sleep monitoring.

With soft and light-weight wrist straps, these smart bands can automatically check user's heart rate every 15 minutes with 24-hour real-time heart rate monitoring.

Once synchronized with a smartphone, these bands provide phone calls, emails, text messages and other social media apps notification updates.

--IANS

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The anti-smuggling wing of Manipur's Customs Directorate on Monday arrested a man along with 30 gold bars, an official said.

The arrested smuggler has been identified as Mohammad Yashim of Sangai Yumpham Mayai Leikai in Thoubal district.

Assistant Commissioner of the Customs Directorate R.K. Dorendrajit told reporters the accused had been handed over to the police along with the gold bars for necessary action.

Dorendrajit said: "We got intelligence inputs that an international smuggler is likely to transport god bars smuggled from Myanmar to some other parts of the country. We laid traps along the two national highways the smuggler and his associates could use."

The suspect walked into the trap on Monday at 9.30 a.m at Khurai Lamlong market in Imphal East district. He was likely to travel along NH 2 that passes through Nagaland and Assam.

According to the official, the value of 30 gold bars weighing five kg is estimated at Rs 1.5 crore in the local market.

Dorendrajit said that the variety of gold originating from Myanmar was in great demand in some states.

In the recent past, several smugglers were nabbed at the Imphal international airport who had stuffed gold bars in their rectums.

--IANS

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An Indian Sikh pilgrim, who was reported to have gone missing in Pakistan during Baisakhi festival celebrations, was found staying in his Facebook friend's house in Sheikhupura city, the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) has said.

Amarjeet Singh, 23, from Amritsar, arrived in Pakistan on April 12 to attend the festival but failed to show up for his scheduled return along with other Sikh pilgrims on April 21.

Geo News cited sources as saying that from Nankana Sahib, Singh went to meet his Facebook friend Amir Razzak, a resident of Sheikhupura, and was staying with him for the past three days.

Singh told Razzak that he had a three-month Pakistani visa, Geo News cited the sources as saying.

Following media reports about Singh having gone missing, Razzak contacted the ETPB after which officials took the Indian man into protective custody.

Singh was expected to be handed over to the Indian authorities on Tuesday.

His disappearance came at the heels of another visiting Indian pilgrim Kiran Bala, who married Pakistani national Mohammad Azam and applied for Pakistani citizenship.

She went to Pakistan on a pilgrimage on April 12 and reportedly went missing on April 16. But later, she reportedly embraced Islam and married Azam.

Around 1,700 Indian pilgrims had gone to Pakistan to visit Sikh shrines, including Panja Sahib Gurdwara near Lahore and Nankana Sahib -- the birth place of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev, on the occasion of Baisakhi on April 13.

--IANS

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday called for a social movement for protecting girls in the wake of increasing rapes reported from different parts of the country and said families have to teach their sons to become responsible.

Addressing a gathering here to mark the National Panchayati Raj Day, he also said that museums will be set up in states where tribals have played a role in the freedom struggle and called for a resolve for transformation of villages in the next four years.

He launched the Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan, unveiled a road map for overall development of tribals during the next five years and laid the foundation stone of an LPG bottling plant of Indian Oil Corporation at Maneri in this Madhya Pradesh district.

With almost a year left for the next Lok Sabha polls, the programme in this predominantly tribal district is seen as an effort by the BJP-led government to reach out to rural masses. Madhya Pradesh will face assembly polls later this year.

In his nearly 45-minute speech, Modi suggested steps to boost farmers income, improve soil health and boost ground water recharge. He laid stress on the use of technology, including mobile phones, to bring transparency and efficiency in implementing welfare initiatives.

Citing the ordinance brought by his government last week that provides for death sentence to those convicted of raping a child below 12 years of age and life term to those raping a child below 16, he also mentioned the applause that Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan received when he mentioned of the ordinance during his speech.

The Prime Minister called for steps to give more respect to the daughters in the families.

"The government in Delhi listens to your heart. We should learn to give respect to daughters in the family, we should increase the importance of daughters in the family and start teaching sons about responsibility. It will never be difficult to protect daughters if we start teaching sons about responsibility.

"The one who acts devilishly will face the gallows. We have to build a social movement and we can all together bring out the country from this problem," he said.

Modi's remarks came in the wake of nationwide outrage over the rape and murder of a minor in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district and other similar incidents including a case in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh where the main accused is a BJP MLA.

He also said that some of the real heroes of the freedom struggle have not got the attention they deserved, and he did not know "what problem came".

Referring to the sacrifice by leaders from the tribal community in the struggle for freedom, specially after 1857, he said they fought many big fights for the country's honour.

Modi said apart from Birsa Munda and Rani Avantibai, sacrifices have been made by a lot of people.

"It is my dream that in every state where tribals have fought for freedom struggle, a modern museum will be made," he said.

Modi also said that the Panchayati Raj Day was an important opportunity to fulfill the dreams of Mahatma Gandhi.

"By 2022, we should transform our villages in accordance with the dream of Mahatma Gandhi. I want to make you persons of strong resolve."

He suggested bee-keeping and planting bamboo on edges of fields as steps which can boost income of farmers. Bamboo has been classified as "grass" by the government to enable its better commercial use, he added.

Modi said the concern these days was not about lack of funds and the given tasks should be carried out honestly and with transparency.

"Not a single child should stay illiterate. If a life is transformed due to a pradhan, India moves in the right direction," he said, adding he was talking of small things as these bring about a change.

Urging villagers to take care of the health of soil in their fields, he said that large use of chemical fertilisers can cause damage and suggested bringing down use of urea.

Referring to the MGNREGA, he suggested that focus can be on water conservation works in April, May and June and said if every drop of rain water is conserved, it will bring down expenses.

"We have to take forward Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, Jai Vigyan," he said.

--IANS

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday arrived in Madhya Pradesh's Mandla district to address the Panchayat bodies and the indigenous communities.

Earlier he tweeted: "National Panchayati Raj Day is an occasion to celebrate the efforts of all those who are a part of our vibrant Panchayati Raj institutions.

"These institutions foster a spirit of democracy and further the development aspirations of our citizens."

Modi will be inaugurating a National Panchayati Raj Day programme in Ramnagar; address a rally on Adivasi Diwas, and unveil a road map for the overall development of tribals in five years, a release from the Prime Minister's Office in Delhi said.

Ramnagar, situated on the banks of River Narmada, has been decorated in a grand manner.

In keeping with the government's commitment towards a clean, healthy and electrified India, Modi will felicitate village heads with 100 per cent smokeless kitchens, 100 per cent vaccination under Mission Indradhanush and total electrification under the Saubhagya Scheme.

The Prime Minister will also lay the foundation stone of an LPG bottling plant of the Indian Oil Corporation at Maneri and launch a local government directory.

He will also interact with District Collectors of certain districts of the state.

According to officials, the Prime Minister started from Delhi around 9.50 a.m. and reached Jabalpur's Dumna Airport from where he took a helicopter and reach Mandla.

He will leave for New Delhi at 2.55 p.m.

--IANS

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Pakistan's political parties, except Jamaat-e-Islami, were resolved for better relations with India, former Union Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar has said, noting that mindset in the neighbouring country had changed post Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's rule.

Aiyar, who took part in a discussion on book "Born to be Hanged", Syeda Hameed's biography of the deposed and executed Pakistani leader, on Monday evening, described Bhutto as "vengeful, a deeply flawed personality and committed only to his personal advancement".

He also called for steps towards better relations with Pakistan.

"Each party other than Jamaat-e-Islami, pledges itself to better relations with India ... post-Bhutto Pakistan's mentality has changed and they want to be friends with us ... We are battling Bhutto's Pakistan instead of making friends with (current) Pakistan," he said.

Hameed said that as a student of literature, she always thought of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as the protagonist of a Greek tragedy. "Parallels abound in the stories of Zulfikar of Larkana and Oedipus of Thebes. Both men larger than life are victims despite epitomising qualities which are antithesis of victimhood -- self-confidence, masterfulness and intensity. As the Greeks would say they were cursed by the Gods," said the social activist and educationist.

She said she had crucial access to important materials for the book from her uncle across the border, Mubashir Hassan, who was Finance Minister in Bhutto's government and one of the founders of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

Noted peace activist and documentary-filmmaker Tapan Bose said Syeda Hameed had authored an interesting analysis of a very complicated personality of the subcontinent who started with certain commitments but later "power corrupted him absolutely".

"Bhutto was an enigma who had threatened to wage a 1,000-year war against India. He was a patriot, influenced by Karl Marx, a progressive thinker working for a modern, democratic Pakistan with great schools and universities and also a deeply Islamic person," said Bose.

Aiyar, who disagreed with Bhutto's assesment in the book, said a joint Pakistan (including erstwhile East Pakistan) would have always given, in a true democratic election, a majority to the Bengalis because their population was bigger and completely different in their political views to what was happening in the distant West Pakistan.

"It was clear that he (Bhutto) could become Prime Minister only of a truncated Pakistan, he could never be the Prime Minister of a joint Pakistan and he allowed this truncating to take place," said Aiyar, who served as India's first Consul-General in Karachi from 1978 to 1982.

"So, at the end of the day, somebody who hated India and Hindus as much as he did, what has been the outcome? ... They (Pakistanis) are no longer anti-Hindu or anti-India. They don't even allow an anti-Indian platform to appear on any political party's agenda during the elections," he said.

--IANS

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A person absconding after committing a murder over a parking dispute has been arrested, police said on Tuesday.

Vishal of Badarpur fatally stabbed Ashok after a fight between two neighbours, Anil and Nitin, on April 18, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Bisham Singh said.

Nitin's brother Mithun and his nephew Vishal had gone to Gautam Puri in Shahadra area to meet their relatives when Ashok was attacked by the accused.

Ashok was rushed to the Apollo hospital where he was pronounced dead. Anil also received multiple injuries on his head.

In 2016, Vishal was jailed for three months after his arrest under the Arms Acts and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. After his realease, he was working at an MCD parking in south Delhi.

--IANS

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Under attack over his decision on rejecting the impeachment motion against the Chief Justice of India, Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday said the decision came after over a month of due diligence and was not done in haste.

The decision was also in strict conformity with the provisions of the Constitution and the Judges Inquiry Act of 1968, he told a delegation of ten lawyers of Supreme Court who met him to compliment him on the order, sources said.

On Monday, the Chairman rejected the notice of the motion signed by 64 MPs seeking impeachment of Chief Justice Dipak Mishra on five charges of misbehaviour. He found the allegations were unverifiable and could not be acted upon.

Congress leader and former Law Minister Kapil Sibal, one of the signatories to the notice, on Monday attacked Naidu's decision as "illegal, wrong and unconstitutional", and "taken in haste".

He also said that the MPs will challenge the order in the Supreme Court.

The lawyers said that the Chairman's decision in time has saved the dignity of the office of Chief Justice Of India and the apex court.

"I don't think it warrants compliments as I only did what was expected of me and in the manner the Chairman of Rajya Sabha was expected to conduct in such matters. Some Hon'ble Members of the House had a point of view and the right to express it while I had a responsibility cast on me. I have done my job and am satisfied with it," Naidu said.

In an apparent reference to the criticism that he had taken the decision in a haste within three days of the impeachment notice given to him, the Chairman referred to the media reports for over a month about moving a notice against the Chief Justice of India and said: "I have since been working on the provisions, procedures and precedents in the matter given the serious nature of the proposal and its implications and the imperative need for a timely decision."

The lawyers said that this was not the first case of such a notice being rejected by a Presiding Officer. They referred to a similar notice against Supreme Court Judge J.C.Shah rejected by the then Lok Sabha Speaker G.S. Dhillon and Justice Shah later becoming the Chief Justice of India. They also recalled that a notice for removal of Justice P.D. Dinakaran was admitted within three days.

The Chairman said that Section 3 of the The Judges Inquiry Act clearly required the Chairman of Rajya Sabha to look for prima facie in the matter for either admitting the notice or refusing to do so. A clear responsibility was cast on the Chairman in this regard and it would not be correct to interpret the role of Chairman as that of a mere post office. The chairman is required to act as a constitutional functionary which is a substantial responsibility.

The relevant sections says: "The Chairman may, after consulting such persons, if any, as he thinks fit and after considering such materials, if any, as may be available to him, either admit the motion or refuse to admit the same".

Naidu referred to adverse consequences of constitutional functionaries not acting in time as in the case of defections in some states, resulting in subversion of the spirit of the laws.

He said Chief Justice of India is the highest judicial functionary of the country and any issue in public domain concerning him requires to be resolved at the earliest following prescribed procedures so as to prevent the atmosphere from being further vitiated. Issues raised in the notice mostly pertained to the functioning of the Supreme Court and they have to be resolved internally, he said, adding that any other means of seeking to address them amounts to interference in the independence of judiciary.

During the discussion, some lawyers referred to earlier media reports urging the Chairman not to sit over inordinately whenever the Notice was given and some now saying the decision was hasty.

Naidu responded, saying: "Freedom of expression allows that but ultimately truth prevails. I have done the just thing in the best possible manner expected of me."

--IANS

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Nepali peacekeepers have been accused of the "especially heinous" crime of raping a child in South Sudan, according to the UN.

Nepal has been asked to conduct a full investigation with a team from UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services (IOS) into the alleged rape of a child by its peacekeepers, Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday.

"Any act of sexual abuse is horrendous, one involving a child is, I think, especially heinous," Dujarric said.

He said that the UN Mission in South Sudan (Unmiss) had received the allegation of "sex abuse involving unidentified members of the Nepalese contingent".

Nepal has been asked to conduct the probe within an "expedited time-frame of 90 days" and its response to the request was expected by Wednesday, he added.

The date of the alleged incident that took place in 2018 or its circumstances were not made public.

Nepal had 2,092 people serving with the Unmiss, of them 1,698 were military personnel including 35 women, according to the UN statistics for March.

In 2016, there were three cases against Nepalis with Unmiss involving transactional sex or sexual assault, according to UN reports. (Transactional sex is exchanging sex for favours, materials or services.)

Last year, one case of attempted sexual assault was substantiated against a Nepali with the UN Mission in Liberia (Unmil) and the person was demoted as punishment by Nepal, the UN reported.

In February, 46 members of a police contingent from Ghana were withdrawn after allegations of sexual exploitation was reported against them in South Sudan.

Guterres has emphasised the zero tolerance policy for sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers and UN staff and appointed a victims rights advocate in 2017.

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)

--IANS

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Union Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu on Tuesday said that soon a new industrial policy will be introduced and would encourage establishment of industry in rural areas.

Addressing a gathering in Lohsingani village here on the occasion of Panchayati Raj Divas celebrated under the village Swaraj campaign, he said that on Monday, a meeting was held with the Chief Ministers from different regions in which they were asked to suggest a new policy.

He said that the efforts of the Central and State Governments to improve the quality of life of people should be linked to small industries, for which a big convention was organized in Delhi on Monday where the new policy was discussed and finalized with the suggestions of all and will be implemented soon after getting the Cabinet's approval.

Through this industrial policy, the emphasis is on promoting industries in the village, connecting with self-help groups and co-operative institutes to the small scale industries and connecting it with the global supply chain, he said.

--IANS

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The Odisha government on Tuesday announced summer vacation in schools from Wednesday in view of the blistering heat wave conditions across the state.

The state government, which had announced summer vacation from May 1, on Tuesday, advanced the holidays as the temperature is hovering over 40 degree Celsius in several places in the state.

"All schools of the state will remain closed from April 25 in view of heat wave condition in some parts of the state," said a release from Chief Minister's Office.

School and Mass Minister Badrinarayan Patra said while schools will remain closed, the headmasters will remain present in the schools to issue certificates and do other official works.

Several parts of the state are witnessing heat wave condition since the last couple of days while the local met department has warned that the condition will prevail in coming days.

Seven places in Odisha on Tuesday recorded over 40 degree Celsius while western Odisha town of Sundargarh recorded 42 degree Celsius.

--IANS

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Riding on online advertisement growth, Google's parent company Alphabet posted a net income of $9.4 billion in the first quarter this year -- a 73 per cent jump from $5.4 billion in the same period last year.

Advertising revenue soared 24 per cent to $26.6 billion while the total revenue was $31.1 billion.

"Our ongoing strong revenue growth reflects our momentum globally, up 26 per cent versus the first quarter of 2017 and 23 per cent on a constant currency basis to $31.1 billion," Ruth Porat, CFO of Alphabet and Google, said in a statement late on Monday.

"We have a clear set of exciting opportunities ahead, and our strong growth enables us to invest in them with confidence," Porat added.

In Q1 2018, Nest joined forces with Google's hardware team.

In a call with analysts, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that Nest sold more devices in 2017 than during the past two years combined.

However, what role "Nest," the smart home-device maker, along with an investment in Uber played in its gains are still a little tricky to tell, CNET reported.

Nest is part of Google's consumer devices division, run by hardware chief Rick Osterloh, who also oversees the "Pixel phone" and "Google Home speaker" devices.

According to CNN Money, Pichai downplayed the potential impact of the upcoming EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by saying that most of its ad business is from search ads, which requires "very limited information" from users.

--IANS

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A group of Pakistani investors arrived in Sri Lanka on Tuesday to explore investment opportunities in the island nation in the fields of health, housing, tourism, science and technology.

The Pakistani delegation met President Maithripala Sirisena in Colombo, during which special emphasis was also given to building highways and oil exploration, reports Xinhua news agency.

The investors also expressed their interest in constructing a state-of-the-art hospital in Sri Lanka to perform heart surgeries and to build two tourism zones as well as to construct a low-cost new housing scheme.

Sri Lanka and Pakistan recently agreed to redouble trade promotion efforts to reach the target of $1 billion in trade by the end of 2018.

Pakistan is the second largest trading partner of Sri Lanka in the SAARC region.

The value of total trade between the two countries has increased from $158 million in 2005 to $423.06 million in 2017.

--IANS

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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday warned his US counterpart Donald Trump that abandoning a nuclear deal that the Tehran government signed with world powers in 2015 would lead to "serious consequences".

Speaking live on television, Rouhani said his government had kept its end of the deal and warned Trump not to tear up the agreement, which had also been signed by Russia, China, Germany, the UK and France.

"I am telling those in the White House that if they do not live up to their commitments, the Iranian government will react firmly," Rouhani said.

"If anyone betrays the deal, they should know that they would face severe consequences," he added.

Trump has said that unless the US' European allies put right what he has described as "terrible flaws" in the deal by May 12, his government would re-establish economic sanctions on Iran, dealing the pact a major blow, Xinhua news agency reported.

Rouhani stressed that Iran was complying with the deal, as has been confirmed a dozen times by the International Atomic Energy Agency, whose Director General Yukiya Amano said in March that a possible failure of the agreement would be a great loss.

French President Emmanuel Macron was in Washington in an attempt to try and persuade Trump not to walk away from the accord.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday he had agreed with his Chinese counterpart that Moscow and Beijing would try to block any US attempt to wreck the nuclear deal.

Iran has said it would ramp up its nuclear programme if the deal collapses.

--IANS

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The South Korean government on Tuesday finalised preparations for the upcoming historic summit between President Moon Jae-in and North Korea's Kim Jong-un.

South Korean authorities held a complete rehearsal of the meeting at the joint security area on the border, the venue for the summit to be held on Friday, the presidential office said in a statement.

The Blue House also released the dinner menu to be served during the meeting, which includes a symbolic collection of dishes from both countries.

The leaders will eat Baked John Dory -- a dish made from flat sea fish -- a tribute to the port city of Busan where Moon grew up; along with the Swiss rosti, a potato dish from Switzerland, where Kim is said to have lived as a student.

Another dish on the menu will be Pyongyang-style cold noodles, prepared by a famous North Korean chef who will come from Pyongyang to cook the meal.

A South Korean official provided details finalised by North and South Korea for the summit, which run into minutiae such as the exact time of the first handshake between the two leaders.

Kim's line of passage to the Peace House, where he will reportedly arrive after crossing the border on foot, has also been agreed upon by the two sides.

The official added that almost all preparations were complete for the summit and it might not be necessary to hold a final high-level dialogue, which had been announced earlier.

--IANS

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Karnataka's Congress Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday filed his nomination from Badami segment in Bagalkot district against BJP's tribal leader B. Sreeramulu for the May 12 Assembly elections.

Both Siddaramaiah and Sreeramulu have also filed their nominations from Chamundeshwari in Mysuru and Molakamuru (ST) in Chitradurga district on April 20 and 21 respectively.

Siddaramaiah, 69, is the only candidate of the ruling Congress to contest two seats, in the state's south and north.

High drama prevailed in the historic town of Badami as Siddaramaiah, sporting a yellow turban, drove to the election office ahead of a huge procession, and witnessed by hundreds of people from across the backward district.

State party leaders S.R. Patil and C.M. Ibrahim were present on the occasion.

Tuesday was the last date for filing of nominations for the 224 seats. Scrutiny will be on Wednesday and the last date for withdrawals is April 27.

Sreeramulu was the first to file his papers before the district's Returning Officer, in the presence of BJP's chief ministerial candidate B.S. Yeddyurappa, party's state incharge Prakash Javadekar and party leaders Jagadish Shettar and Muralidhar Rao.

Sreeramulu, 47, is a Lok Sabha member from Ballari (Reserved-Scheduled Tribe) in the state's northwest.

Siddaramaiah is betting high on the support of his Kuruba (shepard) community with about 46,000 voters in the Assembly segment. Sreeramulu is counting on about 36,000 Valmiki (hunters) voters, as well as Lingayats who number about 55,000.

Siddaramaiah told reporters later that he was not bothered about his rivals.

"I am least bothered about who will contest against me here (Badami) -- whether it is Sreeramulu or Yeddyurappa. I have faith in the voters, they will not leave me," said an unfazed Siddaramaiah.

The BJP, however, claimed that Siddaramaiah was contesting from Badami also as he feared defeat in Chamundeshwari where Janatal Dal-Secular (JD-S) sitting legislator G. T. Deve Gowda is again in the fray.

--IANS

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Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced here on Tuesday the biggest Cabinet reshuffle affecting nearly all his 16 ministries in an effort to let the fourth-generation ministers shoulder more responsibilities.

The regrouping of the cabinet will come into force on May 1. Two thirds of the ministries will be headed by younger ministers except for transport, health, defence, home affairs and law, Xinhua news agency reported.

Of the three men who have the potential to succeed Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Chan Chun Sing will chair the Ministry of Trade and Industry while Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat will be staying on in his existing role but will take over responsibility in National Research Foundation matters as well.

In the Education Ministry, 48-year-old Ong Ye Kung, who is in charge of higher education and skills, will now be ascended to take charge of the whole ministry. He will relinquish his appointment as Second Minister for Defence.

Three ministers who will be retiring were Minister for Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang,64; Minister for Manpower Lim Swee Say, 63, and Minister for Communications and Information Yaacob Ibrahim, 62.

They will be taken over respectively by current labour chief Chan Chun Sing, 48; Second Manpower Minister Josephine Teo, 49, and Minister for Trade and Industry S. Iswaran, 55.

Lee Hsien Loong said on his Facebook post that the younger ministers will progressively take over more responsibility for governing Singapore.

--IANS

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A meeting of the Sentence Review Board (SRB) of the Tihar Central Jail here was postponed on Tuesday in the absence of permission from Delhi Home Minister Satyendar Jain, who was to chair it to decide on a proposal to release Jassica Lall murder convict Manu Sharma.

"The SRB meeting scheduled for Tuesday was postponed. The date for the next SRB meeting will be decided by the Home Department in consultation with Minister Satyendar Jain. When SRB meetings are postponed due to some reasons, these are generally held in the next 15 days. May 9 may be the next date on which Manu Sharma's case could be decided," a jail official, requesting anonymity, told IANS.

The SRB is a statutory body with Delhi Home Minister, Law Secretary and Home Secretary among its seven to eight members.

The members review the jail and police reports and the social welfare reports of 40-50 prisoners to take a final decision on the proposals for their release. Their report is forwarded to Delhi Lieutenant Governor for a final decision.

"The L-G reserves the right to turn down the SRB report," the official said.

Last month, Sabrina Lall, elder sister of Jassica Lall, had written to the prison Welfare Officer that her family wants to lead a normal life and has no objection if Manu Sharma is released from the Tihar jail.

Manu Sharma, son of former Union Minister Venod Sharma, was sentenced to life for killing Jessica Lall in 1999. The trial court had acquitted him, but the High Court reversed the verdict and convicted him whereas the Supreme Court upheld the life sentence in April 2010.

--IANS

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Solar solutions provider SunSource Energy said on Tuesday that it is on course to set up a 2.5MW solar rooftop plant at Delhi's Jamia Millia Islamia University, by the end of June 2018.

In a statement, the Noida-based SunSource said the plant would help the university save around Rs 1 crore in energy costs per year.

"Jamia Millia recently signed an MoU with SunSource (which in turn was approved by the Solar Energy Corporation of India) to execute the project on a turnkey basis for the next quarter of a century under the Renewable Energy Service Company model (RESCO).

"Electricity would be supplied at Rs 3.39 per unit for a period of 25 years," it said.

The installation of solar panels on over 50 rooftops of various buildings like central library, colleges and departments of Jamia and the hostels had already started, it added.

Commenting on the developnment, university Vice-Chancellor Talat Ahmed said in a statement: "Jamia Millia University's current project is an attempt to run the university on renewable energy and will position it as a leader among central universities in the use of renewable energy. The solar plant would also greatly benefit students pursuing BTech and BVoc degrees at Jamia Millia."

The university "will incur no cost on the setup and maintenance as it will be taken care of by SunSource Energy, with the support from the SECI".

"With the installation of the 2.5MW plant, the university is expected to save over Rs 1 crore annually apart from significantly contributing to the environment," said SunSource COO and Co-founder Kushagra Nandan.

SunSource has executed some prestigious solar rooftop projects here including at the India Habitat Centre and Vasant Valley School, and is currently involved in over 200MW of solar projects in India and internationally and targets to reach 1.5 GW (gigawatt) capacity by 2025, the statement said.

The firm expects to reach an annual turnover of over Rs 600 crore by 2020.

--IANS

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Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj arrived here from China on Tuesday in what is her first visit to Mongolia.

"First visit of an Indian External Affairs Minister to Mongolia in 42 years!" Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.

"Reconnecting with our shared Buddhist heritage, EAM @SushmaSwaraj warmly received by Deputy Foreign Minister of Mongolia, B. Battsetseg on her arrival in sunny Ulaanbaatar," Kumar said.

During her visit, Sushma Swaraj will co-chair the sixth round of India-Mongolia Joint Consultative Committee (IMJCC) meeting with Mongolian Foreign Minister Damdin Tsogtbaatar, covering a range of issues, including political, strategic, economic, educational and cultural ties. The last meeting of IMJCC was held in New Delhi in 2016.

The Indian minister will also deliver the keynote address at the Kushok Bakula birth centenary celebrations in Ulaanbaatar commemorating the birth anniversary of Late Venerable Kushok Bakula Rinpoche, a highly revered Buddhist leader and monk from Ladakh, India, and a former Ambassador of India to Mongolia.

Rinpoche, as the longest-serving Indian Ambassador to Mongolia, made seminal contribution to promotion of India-Mongolia ties, the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement.

Earlier on Tuesday, Sushma Swaraj attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Foreign Ministers' meeting in Beijing.

--IANS

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Bihar opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav on Tuesday slammed NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant's statement blaming the state for India's backwardness, saying the remark has exposed the mindset of "babus" in the Modi-led government.

"Bihar and Bihari's pay equal taxes, contribute equally or more in governance and nation building. Bihar gave 33 MPs to NDA, seven Union Ministers from Bihar, both State and Centre governments are of same party and alliance. But still these Babus say Bihar is backward..." the former Deputy Chief Minister tweeted.

Tejashwi Yadav, who is the younger son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, said that if Bihar was backward especially on social indicators as claimed by then NITI Aayog, then Prime Minister Narendra Modi should grant a special category status to the state for its development.

"Modi has failed to grant special category status or special packages promised by him. Four years have passed, but nothing has happened so far, except 'jumlas' (hollow words)," he said.

Tejaswi Yadav said the people of Bihar had been betrayed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government.

While delivering the first Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan Memorial Lecture in Jamia Millia Islamia University, Kant said on Monday: "Eastern part of India particularly states like Bihar, UP, Chattisgarh, MP, and Rajasthan are keeping India backward especially on social indicators. While we have improved on ease of doing business, we have remained backward on human development index."

Kant further said that India was still 131 out of 188 countries in the Human Development Index (HDI).

--IANS

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The 10th edition of The Great Indian Travel Bazaar (GITB) concluded here on Tuesday, during the course of which almost 11,000 meetings were held over two day between buyers and sellers, officials said.

State Additional Chief Secretary (Tourism) Subodh Agarwal said that GITB -- inaugurated on Sunday evening by Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje -- had received a very positive response this year as well.

"Such events on the global scale help bring Rajasthan on the world tourism map. The pre-structured meetings were customised to meet individual needs of respective buyers. The show saw a large number of first-timers who benefitted from various business interactions under one roof," an official release said.

Talking of digitised tourism marketing campaign, Agarwal said that Rajasthan had fully transformed its marketing strategy with an aggressive campaign and incorporated new elements like award-winning logo, vibrant website, exquisite presence across all social media handles.

FICCI's Consultant-Tourism Rahul Chakravarty said that 280 foreign buyers from 55 countries held intensive one-on-one meetings with 270 Indian sellers over two days.

In all, 10,936 pre-scheduled B2B meetings were held. Also, nine participating States and Rajasthan displayed their tourism prowess through interactions as well as promotional literature and visual films.

The GITB was organised by the Rajasthan Tourism Department, Ministry of Tourism, and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and supported Hotel and Restaurant Association of Rajasthan, Indian Heritage Hotels Association and Rajasthan Association of Tour Operators.

--IANS

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US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin would be travelling to China next week to discuss trade issues.

Trump made the remarks at the White House following a meeting with visiting French President Emmanuel Macron, according to the White House pool report, Xinhua reported.

"I think we've got a very good chance of making a deal," Trump said.

Trump's remarks came after Mnuchin said Saturday that he was considering a trip to Beijing to discuss trade issues with his Chinese counterparts.

"I am not going to make any comment on the timing, nor do I have anything confirmed, but a trip is under consideration," Mnuchin told reporters.

China has received information regarding Mnuchin's possible trip to China and China welcomes this information, China's Ministry of Commerce said on Sunday.

The Trump administration has recently threatened to impose tariffs on up to 150 billion U.S. dollars of Chinese imports, while China has vowed to retaliate against US exports if the Trump administration moves forward with the tariffs.

Unilateralism and trade protectionism will inevitably harm others without benefiting oneself as the global economy is deeply integrated, China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said last week.

Citing a report from the Brookings Institution, Hua said a US-China trade war would result in a loss of more than 2.1 million jobs in 2,700 US counties.

--IANS

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Two men involved in the murder of realtor Moti Goel have been arrested, police said on Tuesday.

The men arrested by GB Nagar police were identified as Amit of Sunpura under Ecotech III area of Greater Noida and Rahul of Prem Nagar in Dankaur.

Police seized a .30 bore pistol, the murder weapon, from Amit along with a cartridge, and a .32 bore pistol with two cartridges from Rahul. A motorcycle used in the crime was also seized.

Realtor Goel was shot dead around 5 p.m. on April 16 in Hindon Vihar locality under Sector-49 police station of Noida.

Goel was facing about a dozen criminal cases and had even been jailed for land deals which went wrong, police said. Goel had remained lodged in Dasna jail for over a decade. He was out on bail when he was killed.

Police said following a tip-off that the suspects wanted in the killing will pass through Sarfabad to receive money from Harendra Pradhan, who had given them the contract to kill Goel, police intensified checking in the area.

Around 11 pm on Monday, police hailed two persons riding a motorcycle to stop but they fired at them and fled. They were chased and arrested at Barola.

The accused confessed to their crime and allegedly revealed that Harendra Pradhan of Kansari village in GB Nagar area had offered Rs 5 lakh each to them to kill Goel. He also provided them with pistols and promised to give the money once the task was completed.

Police claimed that the two suspects said Harendra Pradhan identified Goel on the day they murdered him by firing six shots at him.

"We will arrest Harendra Pradhan soon," said police officer Prabhat Dixit, who is attached to the GB Nagar Senior Superintendent of Police.

--IANS

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Pakistan's Interior Ministry on Tuesday placed US diplomat Colonel Joseph Emmanuel Hall on the "blacklist" for killing a motorcyclist in a road accident here, prohibiting the US defence and air attache from leaving the country.

Hall was driving a Land Cruiser and jumped a red signal on April 7 near Islamabad's Daman-e-Koh Chowk, hitting a motorcycle carrying two men. The riders suffered injuries and later one of them -- Atiq Baig -- died.

The ministry's announcement came during a hearing at Islamabad High Court on a petition filed by the father of deceased, the Express Tribune reported.

Representing the government, Deputy Attorney General Raja Khalid Mehmood informed the court that the Interior Ministry had placed the US official's name in the "blacklist" instead of putting him in the Exit Control List (ECL) as it was a long process.

Mehmood said the "blacklist", which served the same purpose, was a simpler process where the Interior Secretary was the competent authority to take the decisive step.

Speaking to the daily, Mehmood said if required the US envoy's name will be added to the ECL as well.

He said since the Vienna Convention granted diplomatic immunity to the US envoy, authorities in Pakistan could not arrest, detain or prosecute him. But he could be investigated.

Mehmood added that if the US decides to take up the case, Hall could stand trial and/or court martial in his home country. However, if the diplomatic immunity is recalled by the US, the envoy can be prosecuted in Pakistan.

--IANS

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The US Trade & Development Agency (USTDA), in partnership with Maharashtra government, launched a three-day workshop to train over 100 local procurement officials on "value-based public procurement practices", an official said here on Tuesday.

The workshop entitled "Global Procurement Initiative: Understanding Best Value" (GPI) will have experts from the George Washington University's Government Procurement Law Programme and GPI energy and transportation specialists.

It will focus on international best practices in value-based procurement, sessions on public private partnerships and in-depth life-cycle cost analysis training.

This workshop would culminate in a MoU between the state government and USTDA, under which the latter will continue to support Maharashtra's efforts to improve its public procurement practices and become a regional leader.

"These (workshop and MoU) will support the state's already extensive efforts to integrate best-value determinations into public tenders, foster fair and transparent international competition and promote long-term professionalization of the procurement workforce," said USTDA's Director, Global Programmes, Andrea Lupo.

"I am confident that this partnership with USTDA will help us to implement the revised procurement law and develop best procurement practices for achieving the best value for state consistent with international standards," said Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on the occasion.

State Public Works Department Minister Chandrakant Patil said the partnership is an opportunity to collaborate on procurement capacity building across the state, especially in public works and energy, to ensure the state received the best value for public funds through fair and open competition.

US Consul-General in Mumbai Edgard Kagan, in his opening remarks, said this partnership reflects the close cooperation with Maharashtra and another key avenue of collaboration between the US and India, with a beneficial impact across the region.

The USTDA and Maharashtra launched the partnership talks last year and a delegation from this state went on a study tour to the US.

They received in-depth training from the George Washington University, met professors at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and gained insights on different models in best value procurement at the US federal, state and local levels.

--IANS

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The attorney general of US' Illinois state has filed a lawsuit against a transportation company for discrimination and harassment against customers, including Chinese students.

"Suburban Express and (its owner) Dennis Toeppen engaged in illegal discrimination and harassment against college students and their families," attorney general Lisa Madigan said in a statement on Monday.

"I am asking the court to take immediate action to prevent further harm to people who have been targeted by Suburban Express and its owner, and my lawsuit seeks to shut this company down for good," she said.

Suburban Express is a company that provides bus services to students at six universities in the American Midwest, primarily to and from the Chicago area.

According to Madigan's complaint, Toeppen engaged in discrimination against customers, including a December 2017 mass-marketing email to customers that touted bus rides with, "Passengers like you. You won't feel like you're in China when you're on our buses".

The attorney general launched an investigation following the December mass email and decided to sue the company.

Madigan also accused Suburban Express of encouraging its employees to avoid certain students who do not speak English.

Toeppen even publicly shamed or embarrassed customers who posted negative online reviews or mistakenly tried to use the wrong bus ticket.

He also published full credit card numbers, bank account numbers and other personal information of the customers he targeted.

--IANS

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A US Senate panel has narrowly endorse Mike Pompeo as the new Secretary of State after President Donald Trump and a Republican Senator intervened at the last minute, the media reported.

Pompeo had seemed unlikely to secure a majority of the panel's support. But Senator Rand Paul, who had pledged to oppose him, tweeted moments before the vote on Monday that Trump had talked with him and changed his mind, reports The Washington Post.

"Having received assurances from President Trump and Director Pompeo that he agrees with the President on these important issues, I have decided to support his nomination to be our next Secretary of State," Paul said.

Paul's key concern had been that Pompeo, currently director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), would not support Trump's pledge to pull troops out of Afghanistan.

The Kentucky Senator also had called on Pompeo "to support President Trump's belief that the Iraq war was a mistake".

Trump praised the Senator after his change of heart on Pompeo, saying Paul "never let me down" and that "he's a good man".

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee's voted 11 to 10 along party lines to endorse Pompeo.

Last year, 14 Democrats voted to confirm Pompeo as CIA director, but several have already stated that they will not back him to serve as Secretary of State.

On Monday, White House officials again urged Senate Democrats to support Pompeo's nomination, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders saying that the administration hoped "that some members will change their minds", The Washington Post reported.

Democrats have raised several objections to Pompeo's nomination, arguing that his previous statements favouring the use of force over diplomatic options, his record of controversial quips about American Muslims and same-sex marriage, and concerns that he would not challenge Trump on matters of foreign policy made him unfit to serve as Secretary of State.

Senate leaders are expected to put the nomination to a floor vote later this week.

The Senate has historically given deference to Presidents to choose their top diplomat, reports The New York Times.

President Barack Obama twice reached into the chamber's ranks to choose a Secretary of State, elevating first Hillary Clinton then John F. Kerry for the role. Both received 94 votes to confirm their nominations, with opposition from only a handful of their Senate colleagues.

Pompeo's predecessor Rex Tillerson was confirmed 56 to 43 by the Senate in February 2017.

He was approved by the Foreign Relations Committee by an 11-to-10 vote along party lines.

Trump fired Tillerson, a former oil executive, in March in favour of Pompeo.

--IANS

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US Attorney General Jeff Sessions has ordered to assign prosecutors and judges to immediately deal with cases of undocumented immigrants arriving in the country in the migratory caravan.

"I have directed our US Attorneys at the border to take whatever immediate action to ensure that we have sufficient prosecutors available. I have also directed that we commit any additional necessary immigration judges to adjudicate any cases that may arise from this caravan," Sessions said on Monday.

The judges and prosecutors will be in charge of processing the detentions and expulsions of the immigrants, a process that can normally take years, during which immigrants are usually authorized to work in the US, reports Efe news.

Sessions also warned "there is no right to demand entry without justification" and "those who lie or commit fraud will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law".

Also on Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen announced that the government wass taking a series of measures to ensure that all immigration cases are resolved in the courts as soon as possible.

Nielsen announced sending the US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) officials to handle the asylum cases and attorneys of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is in charge of detaining undocumented immigrants.

US media reported the arrival of 50 members in a caravan of Central American immigrants in California last week, who travelled through Mexico for weeks.

The caravan initially comprised 1,500 people and, as it moved ahead, the US President Donald Trump ordered deployment of the National Guard, a reserve corps of the Armed Forces that currently has some 900 members in the border area, according to official data.

--IANS

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Ten persons have been killed and 15 injured after a man ploughed a rental van through pedestrians on a city sidewalk here in Canada.

The incident occurred around 1.30 p.m. on Monday when the van driver mounted the sidewalk of city's famous Yonge Street and ploughed over people enjoying the first sunny day of spring.

He sped over a two-kilometre stretch till his van hit a bus shelter. The entire stretch presented a ghastly scene as bodies lay scattered on it.

The van driver has been identified as 25-year-old Alek Minassian from the city outskirts Richmond Hill.

During the chase, when a lone police officer pointing a gun at the driver asked him to surrender, the suspect told him that he had a gun.

As the police officer shouted: "Get down, get down or you will be shot," the suspect said: "Kill me." However, he soon surrendered.

Police cordoned off several city blocks and Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) sent an alert, saying that there is no subway service between Sheppard and Finch Stations.

This is the worst incident of mass killing in the city's history. In a press conference later, Canadian Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale ruled out any terror links.

The Minister said the incident does "not appear to be connected to any national security concerns".

Toronto Police chief Mark Saunders though said he was not ruling out anything at the stage. He said the killer was not known to the city police.

"There's nothing on our files. There's nothing that we have on him right now. It (the accident) looks intentional and as a result 10 people are now not with us," said Saunders.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said: "Our thoughts are with all those affected by the terrible incident at Yonge and Finch in Toronto. Thank you to the first responders working at the scene - we're monitoring the situation closely."

Jagmeet Singh, leader of the opposition, New Democratic Party, said: "Tragic news coming out of Toronto - my thoughts are with all those affected by the horrific events..."

The incident took place about 29 km from the city centre, where Foreign Ministers from the G7 countries were meeting to discuss world issues.

After Europe and the US, it is the first such incident in Canada.

Canada survived a major terror attack in 2006 when 18 people linked to Al Qaeda were arrested for plotting to kill the Prime Minister, blow up parliament and take MPs hostage.

(Gurmukh Singh can be contacted at gurmukh100@gmail.com)

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Ten persons have been killed and 15 injured after a man ploughed a rental van through pedestrians on a city sidewalk here. The driver was arrested after a tense standoff with police.

The incident occurred around 1.30 p.m. on Monday when the van driver mounted the sidewalk of city's famous Yonge Street and ploughed over people enjoying the first sunny day of spring.

He sped over a two-kilometre stretch till his van hit a bus shelter. The entire stretch presented a ghastly scene as bodies, debris and items of clothing lay scattered on it.

The van driver has been identified as 25-year-old Alek Minassian from the city outskirts' Richmond Hill. Toronto Police chief Mark Saunders though said he was not ruling out anything at the stage. He said the killer was not known to the city police.

"There's nothing on our files. There's nothing that we have on him right now. It (the accident) looks intentional and as a result 10 people are now not with us," said Saunders. Police said that the incident appeared deliberate but no motive was clear.

During the chase, when a lone police officer pointing a gun at the driver asked him to surrender, the suspect told him that he had a gun.

As the police officer shouted: "Get down, get down or you will be shot," the suspect said: "Kill me." However, he soon surrendered. He was due in court.

This is the worst incident of mass killing in the city's history. In a press conference later, Canadian Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale ruled out any terror links. The incident does "not appear to be connected to any national security concerns", he said.

Canadian broadcaster CBC cited government officials as saying Minassian was not associated with any known terror groups.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the incident a "senseless attack and a horrific tragedy". Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, Trudeau praised the police officers involved, who he said "faced danger without a moment of hesitation".

Minassian had previously attended a school for students with special needs in north Toronto, former classmates said.

Jagmeet Singh of the New Democratic Party, the Leader of Opposition, said: "Tragic news coming out of Toronto - my thoughts are with all those affected by the horrific events..."

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker mourned the victims, saying: "I send my deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims, as well as to Prime Minister Trudeau and to all Canadians."

The incident took place about 29 km from the city centre, where Foreign Ministers from the G7 countries were meeting to discuss world issues.

After Europe and the US, this is the first such incident in Canada.

Canada survived a major terror attack in 2006 when 18 people linked to Al Qaeda were arrested for plotting to kill the Prime Minister, blow up parliament and take MPs hostage.

(Gurmukh Singh can be contacted at gurmukh100@gmail.com)

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Ahead of a trial court's verdict in rape case against self-styled godman Asaram, the Union Home Ministry on Tuesday issued an advisory to Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana to step up security in order to prevent any untoward incident, an official said.

The ministry also is in touch with the states concerned and Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba has spoken to top level administrative and police officials over the issue.

Apprehending a threat to law and order from followers of Asaram, security has been stepped up and prohibitory orders issued in Rajasthan's Jodhpur where a trial court deliver its verdict against him in a rape case on Wednesday.

As per the directions of the Rajasthan High Court, the trial court will announce its verdict in the case in Jodhpur Central Jail premises.

Final arguments in the case had been completed by the special court for SC/ST cases on April 7 and the court had kept the order reserved to be pronounced on April 25.

Asaram was arrested on the complaint filed by a teenage girl from Uttar Pradesh's Shahajahanpur.

The victim, who was studying at Asaram's ashram at Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh, had alleged that the godman had called her to his ashram in Manai area near Jodhpur and raped her on the night of August 15, 2013.

Asaram was arrested from Indore and brought to Jodhpur on September 1, 2013. He is under judicial custody since September 2, 2013.

A chargesheet against Asaram and four other co-accused namely Shiva, Shilpi, Sharad and Prakash had been filed by police on November 6, 2013, under various sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, Juvenile Justice Act and Indian Penal Code.

The trial of the case had begun in the district and session court on March 19, 2017, which had been shifted to the special court for SC/ST cases on December 16, 2016.

--IANS

rak/vd

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Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi may arrive at consensus on some very important issues at their informal two-day summit this week in China's central city of Wuhan, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou said on Tuesday.

Kong, while talking to the Indian and Chinese journalists, said that "this would be an unprecedented summit (April 27-28) between the Chinese and Indian leaders".

He said both Xi and Modi need to become "bosom friends" and have heart-to heart conversation.

(Gaurav Sharma can be contacted at sharmagaurav71@gmail.com)

--IANS

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Xiaomi has once again topped the Indian smartphone market, with two global market research firms on Tuesday reporting an over 31 per cent market share for the Chinese smartphone maker -- a whopping 155 per cent annual shipment growth -- in the first quarter of 2018.

According to Hong Kong-based Counterpoint Research, Xiaomi led the Indian smartphone market with 31.1 per cent market share while Singapore-based Canalys said the company shipped over nine million units, giving it a market share of just over 31 per cent -- the highest ever for a vendor since Q1 2014 when Samsung had a 33 per cent share.

Samsung, with a 26.2 per cent share, was second, followed by Vivo at 5.8 per cent share in the smartphone segment, said Counterpoint.

Canalys, however, said Samsung with 25 per cent market share shipped just under 7.5 million smartphones -- growing by 24 per cent on last year. Oppo took third place with 2.8 million shipments, and Vivo fourth with 2.1 million shipments.

"Xiaomi is becoming a force to be reckoned with in India. Xiaomi's smartphones are now available in more places and in larger quantities. All in all, Xiaomi's product and channel strategies are working," said Canalys Research Analyst Ishan Dutt.

Xiaomi was the leader with 25 per cent market share in Q4 of 2017.

Xiaomi's recently launched Redmi 5, Redmi 5A and Redmi Note 5 have seen runaway success, with the Redmi 5A reaching record sales of 3.5 million in the first quarter.

In comparison, Samsung's best-selling device, the "J7 Nxt", shipped 1.5 million units, said Canalys.

This is the first time that the top five smartphone brands accounted for more than 70 per cent market share in a single quarter.

"Xiaomi and Samsung alone captured 58 per cent of the total smartphone market. Xiaomi's Redmi Note 5 and 5 Pro were the most popular models for the Chinese brand, whereas Samsung Galaxy J7 NXT and J2 (2017) drove volumes for the Korean vendor," said Anshika Jain, Research Analyst at Counterpoint.

Honor (Huawei) entered top five smartphone brands for the first time. Honor (146 per cent), Xiaomi (134 per cent) and OnePlus (112 per cent) were the fastest growing smartphone brands.

"India remains a huge investment for any smartphone brand. For smaller vendors, such as Gionee and Lenovo, the pressure on profitability has forced them to relook at their Indian strategies," said Canalys Research Manager Rushabh Doshi.

Lenovo's smartphone shipments were just short of a million units, falling by more than 60 per cent year on year while Gionee shipped an all-time low of 150,000 units with shipments down 90 per cent year on year.

"Q1 2018 started off with some brands sitting on inventory post the festive season in Q4 2017, which continued throughout the quarter as industry moves to a Full View display portfolio," noted Karn Chauhan, Research Analyst at Counterpoint.

Overall, the smartphone market in India grew at 8 per cent to 29.5 million units for the quarter.

The performance of Chinese brands remained strong, accounting for 57 per cent of the total smartphone market in Q1 2018, up from 53 per cent during Q1 2017.

In the feature phone segment, Reliance Jio topped with a massive 35.8 per cent share in the first quarter.

"The demand for JioPhone continued through Q1 2018 as Reliance Jio's feature phone market share raced from 0 per cent last year to 36 per cent in Q1 2018. This demand was catalysed by the introduction of a cheaper data plan," said Tarun Pathak, Associate Director at Counterpoint.

China based Transsion Group (the holding group of Tecno, Itel and Infinix) has become the fifth largest player with four per cent market share in Q1 2018 (combined for all three brands).

--IANS

na/vm

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Xiaomi continued to lead the Indian smartphone market with 31.1 per cent market share while Reliance Jio topped the feature phone market with a massive 35.8 per cent share in the first quarter of 2018, a new report has said.

Xiaomi was the leader with 25 per cent market share in Q4 of 2017.

According to Counterpoint's "Market Monitor" service, Samsung with 26.2 per cent share was second, followed by Vivo at 5.8 per cent share in the smartphone segment.

Driven by the feature phone segment which doubled owing to strong shipments of Reliance JioPhone, India's overall mobile phone shipments grew 48 per cent (YoY) in Q1 2018.

Honor (Huawei) entered top five smartphone brands for the first time. Honor (146 per cent), Xiaomi (134 per cent) and OnePlus (112 per cent) were the fastest growing smartphone brands.

"Q1 2018 started off with some brands sitting on inventory post the festive season in Q4 2017, which continued throughout the quarter as industry moves to a Full View display portfolio," Karn Chauhan, Research Analyst, said in a statement.

Furthermore, the quarter was also marked with less than normal smartphone launches as very few brands refreshed their portfolio, except for Xiaomi and Samsung which benefitted from the new launches.

"However, we expect the demand to start picking up from early Q2 2018 onwards, driven by faster replacement rate of existing 2G and 3G smartphone users upgrading to 4G mobile phones," Chauhan added.

This is the first time that the top five smartphone brands accounted for more than 70 per cent market share in a single quarter.

"Xiaomi and Samsung alone captured 58 per cent of the total smartphone market. Xiaomi's Redmi Note 5 and 5 Pro were the most popular models for the Chinese brand, whereas Samsung Galaxy J7 NXT and J2 (2017) drove volumes for the Korean vendor," said Anshika Jain, Research Analyst.

The performance of Chinese brands remained strong, accounting for 57 per cent of the total smartphone market in Q1 2018, up from 53 per cent during Q1 2017.

"The demand for JioPhone continued through Q1 2018 as Reliance Jio's feature phone market share raced from 0 per cent last year to 36 per cent in Q1 2018. This demand was catalysed by the introduction of a cheaper data plan," said Tarun Pathak, Associate Director.

China based Transsion Group (the holding group of Tecno, Itel and Infinix) has become the fifth largest player with four per cent market share in Q1 2018 (combined for all three brands).

The race for the fifth position is quite close between Lava, Micromax, Honor, Nokia (HMD) and Lenovo (+Moto) brands.

Itel is the third largest player in the feature phone segment with 17 per cent growth (YoY).

--IANS

na/in

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If you offend me by saying something nasty about my religion, I will kill you. If you offend me by saying something nasty about my religion, I will engage you in a debate. Some faithful offer you the first option. Hindus offer you the second option, even the most rabid of them.

Or used to. This prevents the critiquing of some religions while encouraging an overdose of the analysis of Hinduism. But not everyone who shows off his knowledge of Hinduism understands the spirit of its core philosophy, which rejects the notion of any belief ...
A court here today acquitted three close associates of slain sandalwood smuggler Veerappan, in connection with an ivory smuggling case, in 2000.

It also said charges against three others including Veerappan stand abated, in view of their death.

Sathyamangalam Magistrate K Kumarasivam acquitted all three, saying there was no proper evidence against the accused.

Veerappan and two other accused died during the trial of the case.

According to the prosecution, on January 27, 2000, a team of Special Task Force personnel while conducting a search operation in Guthiyalathur forest found some people moving in the area with tusks.

The officials then arrested three people, Rajendran, Jawahar and Shanmugam, all close associates of Veerappan and seized 12 well grown tusks from them.

A case was registered against six persons including Veerappan, in this connection.

However, the police could not arrest Veerappan, Chandran and Govindaraj.

The accused were produced in the court amid tight security arrangements.

Veerappan, who ruled over forest areas in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala for more than two decades, was killed in an encounter with the STF personnel of Tamil Nadu police, in 2004.

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At least five policemen were killed and 15 others injured today in three separate suicide attacks targetting security personnel in Pakistan's restive south-western Balochistan province, police said.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Pakistan Army's media arm, said that in the first attack at Mian Gundu two suicide bombers struck a Frontier Corps (FC) check post on the outskirts of the provincial capital Quetta.

"The FC soldiers reacted swiftly as a result of which the two suicide bombers were killed in the firing," the ISPR said.

Eight security personnel and one bystander were injured in the attack.

"It was a targeted attack on the security forces carried out by militants but due to the swift reaction of the FC soldiers there were no casualties," Aslam Tareen, the Director-General of Civil Defence, told the media.

He said while one suicide bomber was killed immediately the other was able to detonate himself before being gunned down.

The ISPR said a third suicide bomber targeted a police van on Airport Road area of Quetta, killing five policemen and wounding seven others.

The dead and injured were shifted to a local hospital as security forces cordoned off the area and launched search for the militants.

Nobody took responsibility of the attacks but the Taliban militants and Baloch nationalists often target security forces in the area.

In recent weeks, the militants have also stepped up attacks on the members of the minority Christian and Shia Hazara Muslim communities in Quetta.

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At least eight policemen were killed and 23 others injured today in three separate suicide attacks within an hour targeting security personnel in Pakistan's restive south-western Balochistan province.

One suicide bomber detonated his explosives near a police truck on Airport Road in the provincial capital Quetta, killing at least eight security personnel and injuring 15 others, rescue and security officials were quoted as saying by the Express Tribune.

"It is a suicide attack," Balochistan police chief Moazzam Jah Ansari said.

Half an hour earlier, two suicide bombers struck a Frontier Corps (FC) check post on the outskirts of Quetta.

"The FC soldiers reacted swiftly as a result of which the two suicide bombers were killed in the firing," said the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Pakistan Army's media arm.

Eight security personnel were injured in the attack.

"It was a targeted attack on the security forces carried out by militants but due to the swift reaction of the FC soldiers there were no casualties," Aslam Tareen, the Director-General of Civil Defence, told the media.

He said while one suicide bomber was killed immediately the other was able to detonate himself before being gunned down.

The dead and injured were shifted to a local hospital as security forces cordoned off the area and launched search for the militants.

According to Civil Hospital spokesperson Wasim Baig, 15 injured were brought to the hospital and being treated by doctors.

Nobody took responsibility of the attacks but the Taliban militants and Baloch nationalists often target security forces in the area.

In recent weeks, the militants have also stepped up attacks on the members of the minority Christian and Shia Hazara Muslim communities in Quetta.

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After keeping the ruling Congress on tenterhooks for several days, film star-turned-politician M H Ambareesh today said he would not contest the May 12 assembly election, citing health reasons.

"I cannot, I cannot do justice to my responsibilities...I have done my duty all these years...as I'm getting aged, my strength and interest have become weak," Ambareesh told reporters here.

The Congress announced Ambareesh's candidature from Mandya seat in the first list of candidates on April 15, but he had not filed his nomination and remained incommunicado.

He conveyed his decision not to contest to the party leaders through his associate just hours before the deadline for filing of nominations ends today, party sources said.

Following Ambareeh's decision not to contest the polls, the Congress has issued its B-form (required to be filed by a political party mentioning name of its approved candidate) to P Ravikumar Ganiga for the constituency.

Popularly known as the "rebel star", Ambareesh is a Vokkaliga leader and wields considerable clout in the Mandya region, where the community has a large presence.

Noting he had undergone treatment four years ago in Singapore, he said, "It will be difficult. People would have kept faith on us...I will not be able to do things. When I know I can't it is good to remain silent."



The Congress sources said that the B-form was issued to Ambareesh at his residence, as he did not collect it from the party office.

Ambareesh is said to be miffed with the party and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah as he was dropped from the ministry in 2016 during a major rejig of the cabinet.

The veteran actor was Housing Minister then.

He said, "Siddaramaiah had removed me (from the cabinet). If I was not capable then, will I be made ministeragain? They won't. I will have to sit as an MLA because the peopleof Mandya will obviously vote and send me to assembly, becauseof their love towards me."



Asked whether he was still upset with the party and the chief minister for being dropped, he said, "I'm only saying I know my capability. What is being upset about it? Ambareesh is never upset.

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Film stars such as Radhika Apte and Usha Jadhav have spoken out in a new documentary over their concerns about sexual harassment in the Indian film industry and fears that victims are too scared to come forward.

In a BBC World report to be aired over this weekend, Apte and Jadhav are among those who have opened up about the culture of silence in Bollywood, mainly because its stars are so revered.

"Some people are regarded as gods. They are so powerful that people just don't think that my voice is going to matter, or people think that if I speak, probably my career is going to get ruined," Apte tells BBC's Rajini Vaidyanathan in "Bollywood's Dark Secret".

Asked what she thought about the #metoo campaign against harassment in Hollywood, the "Pad Man" star added: "The way the women, and the men of course, came together and decided that as a team we are not going to let this happen, I wish that could happen here."



Vaidyanathan has also spoken to actresses who have faced unwanted advances as well as stars who believe a dark secret lies behind Bollywood's glamour. Marathi award-winning actress Jadhav reveals that it is common for powerful men in the industry to demand sexual favours. Describing one conversation, she says that she was told she would need to give something in return for the opportunity she had been given.

I said something as in 'what? I don't have money'. He said no, no, no, no it's not about money, it's about that you need to sleep with, maybe it can be a producer, maybe it can be a director, it can be both too, she said.

The documentary also interviews a 25-year-old aspiring actress who left her small village to chase her Bollywood dream, but says she was molested on a number of occasions, including the first time she met a casting agent.

"He started telling me that for an actress you should be happy to have sex as and when possible and embrace your sexuality," she is quoted as saying in the documentary.

"He touched me wherever he wanted, he kissed me wherever he wanted and I was shocked. He put his hand inside my clothes so I asked him to stop and he said: Do you know what, if you really want to work in this industry I don't think you've got the right attitude," she added.

The documentary will be aired around the world on Saturday and Sunday.

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Observing that its orders to clean up the national capital were "not getting the attention it deserves", the Delhi High Court today passed a slew of directions to the Centre, the AAP government and the three municipal corporations to ensure that the issue of solid waste management is addressed on a "war footing".

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said it does not want to keep watching videos, filed by a court-appointed local commissioner, on the lack of garbage disposal and waste management in Delhi and directed the Centre to place on record any proposal it may have to clean up the city as well as solid waste management.

The Centre was also asked to look into the issue raised by the Delhi government that municipal bodies of each state receive funds amounting to Rs 488 for each person in their jurisdiction every year from the central government while the national capital has been getting only Rs 325 crore since 1991.

"Delhi needs help. Is the national capital not your (Centre) responsibility? Why is Delhi not entitled to the amount of Rs 488 per head like the other states are getting," the court asked.

Taking note of one dengue death and several other cases of vector borne diseases in the national capital, the court said if this is what Delhi looks like now what will the authorities "achieve" next year.

"We need some action plan. The corporations are in a hopeless position. There is complete unwillingness to do anything. They have no staff, no money and no land," the court said.

It issued directions to the corporations to start enforcing its rules which provide for enhanced fines for littering, saying that is also a good source of revenue for the civic bodies.

The court said Singapore was clean as there is stringent punishment for littering and asked the civic bodies to pick any one colony as a pilot project and ensure total cleanliness by carrying out periodic inspections and levying challans so that people change their habits.

"Only thing people understand is punishments. You have to enforce your penal provisions. Identify a colony and get the residents into the habit of not littering and then carry out random inspections and challaning," the bench said.

It further suggested having big billboards and hoardings everywhere, including market areas, displaying the fines for littering, as well as sanitary inspectors remaining on the ground in eight hour shifts to penalise those found throwing garbage on the streets and sidewalks.

"We are not prepared to sit month after month and watch garbage," the court said and directed the corporations to file a action taken report, in connection with the directions, by the next date of hearing on May 22.

While issuing the direction the court said that rains were around the corner and if cleanliness was not ensured then diseases like cholera and gastroenteritis would spread in the city.

The bench asked the Delhi government also to come with any ideas or plans to clean up the city instead of fighting with the corporations over funds.

The court on the last date had warned the authorities of stringent penal action if anyone dies or gets infected by vector-borne diseases such as dengue and chikungunya. It said if immediate action is not taken by the Centre, the Delhi government or the civic bodies, it will be forced to take strict action against all of them.

The court was hearing two PILs filed by advocates Arpit Bhargava and Gauri Grover seeking directions to the authorities to take steps to prevent the spread of vector-borne diseases in the national capital.

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Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today gave in-principle approval for renaming the Phagwara city's 'Gol Chowk' as 'Samvidhan (Constitution) Chowk'.

The chief minister, who met a delegation of Dalit Samaj, including the families of the victims of the violence, was apprised that the Phagwara Municipal Corporation had already moved a resolution for renaming the chowk, an official release said.

"There is nothing wrong in naming the roundabout as Samvidhan Chowk, as our Constitution does not belong to any particular caste or creed and we all Indians are proud of it", he said while directing the local administration to follow proper procedure for renaming the chowk.

He also directed the district administration to ensure the best possible medical treatment for the victims of the April 13 Phagwara clashes.

The clashes had erupted in Phagwara on April 13 between Dalit outfit and Hindu right-wing groups.

The incident had taken place when members of a group led by Dalit workers allegedly installed a board carrying a picture of Dalit icon B R Ambedkar at Gol Chowk on the National Highway-1. They also tried to rename it Samvidhan Chowk.

However, members of another group objected to it and that led to a clash between both the groups. Four persons were injured in the incident.

Meanwhile, responding to the request of the family members of Yashwant Bobby, who sustained serious bullet injuries, the chief minister said that it was the duty of his government to ensure best possible treatment for him.

He directed the district administration to seek a second opinion on his condition from doctors at PGI and then shift him, if needed, to the best hospital in Delhi or Chandigarh.

He assured Bobby's family members that the government would bear the entire expenditure of his treatment.

The chief minister also directed the DGP, Suresh Arora, to assess if stringent provisions of SC/ST Prevention of the Atrocities Act can be invoked against the perpetrators of the April 13 violence.

When some delegation members pointed at the "biased" role of certain police personnel during the violence, the chief minister directed the DGP to inquire into the same and take necessary action.

Appreciating the 'restraint' shown by the Dalit community, the chief minister said harmony and brotherhood amongst people of different castes and religions was the basis of our social fabric and it needed to be further strengthened.

On their demand of cancellation of FIRs registered by police against Dalit youths, the chief minister directed the IGP, Jalandhar Range, to examine all such cases and submit a report to the DGP.

During the meeting, the Singh was also apprised by the DGP of the prevailing law and order situation in the city. He said more than 3,500 policemen have been deployed in and around Phagwara to prevent any untoward incident.

The affected families, under the banner of Dalit Brotherhood Action Committee, also submitted a memorandum of their demands to the chief minister and assured of their continued support in restoring normalcy and calmness in Phagwara.

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A book of short stories, signed by Russian author Anton Chekhov and bound in original gilt-lettered navy blue cloth, is expected to fetch USD 20,000 at an auction in the US.

The book, Povesti i Razskazy (Stories and Tales), was given by Chekhov to a friend and inspiration Semen Ilich Bychkov, according to US-based RR Auction.

Bychkov was a waiter at the Grand Hotel in Moscow where Chekhov stayed. The online auction will end on May 9.

Inscribed in ink, the message on the first free end page reads, "To Semen Ilich Bychkov, from the author, Anton Chekhov. 25 March 1897. In nice memory."



The character Nikolai Chikildeev in the highly regarded 1897 short story Peasants' was apparently based on Bychkov, the auction house said in a statement.

The two became so close that Chekhov acted as godfather to Bychkov's daughter.

She recalled that her father worshipped Chekhov, and that he helped the playwright's sister publish his letters and organized numerous events dedicated to Chekhov, according to RR Auction.

I'd been a factory worker, a yard man, worked in a puppet theatre, in pantomime and done everything. Of all the people staying at the hotel only Anton Chekhov spoke to me simply, man-to-man, without pride, with none of that looking down on you, Bychkov recalls in a book Anton Chekhov: A Life' written by Donald Rayfield.

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India did not consider any military intervention in Maldives during political turmoil there as any such move would have had "long-term implications" and contrary to the Indian stand for a rules-based international order, sources said today.

Following imposition of Emergency in Maldives on February 5 by the Abdulla Yameen government, there were calls from Maldivian opposition leaders for India's military intervention in that country.

Sources said here that exercising such an option would have been contradictory to India's persistent call for respecting rules-based international order.

Over the last few years, India has been pitching for a rules-based order, particularly with respect to China's aggressive military posturing in the disputed South China Sea.

There would have been long-term consequences if India had intervened militarily in Maldives, sources said.

"We have been talking about the need for following a rules-based international order and if India itself does not follow it, then how the international community would have looked at us," said a source.

Sources said though India had not taken any action against Maldives bilaterally following imposition of the Emergency, it was among the nations which expressed concerns about the developments there.

Sources admitted that India-Maldives ties were not in "best of health", but added that New Delhi has an interest in political stability in that country.

Ties between India and Maldives nosedived after Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen declared Emergency on February 5 following an order by the country's Supreme Court to release a group of opposition leaders, who had been convicted in widely criticised trials. The emergency was lifted 45 days later.

Asked about opposition in Seychelles against a pact that country had signed with India to build a military base there, sources said it was the island nation which wanted the project to move ahead.

The military base on Assumption Island was to be set up by India.

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Asserting that the world has now realised that there are "no good terrorists", India today said that arguments of political convenience to provide an alibi for terrorist organisations are no longer tolerable, in an apparent reference to Pakistan which is blamed for providing safe havens to terror groups attacking its neighbours.

Speaking at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Defence Ministers' meeting here, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman raised issues such as cross-border terrorism, extremism, cyber security and narcotics trafficking.

"These issues require solutions based on cooperative frameworks that involve all countries and stakeholders," she said.

Raising the issue of cross-border terrorism in presence of Pakistan Defence Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan, Sitharaman said any support to terrorism are no longer tolerable.

"Arguments of political convenience to provide an alibi for terrorist organisations that support terrorism through material support or otherwise are no longer tolerable. Indeed, as the world has now realised, there are no good terrorists," she said.

India and Afghanistan blame Pakistan for providing safe havens to terror groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, the Taliban and the Haqqani Network.

The Haqqani network has carried out a number of kidnapping and attacks against US interests in Afghanistan. The group is also blamed for several deadly attacks against Indian interests in Afghanistan, including the 2008 bombing of the Indian mission in Kabul that killed 58 people.

"We must adopt an uncompromising approach towards the persisting threat of terrorism in Afghanistan. India is committed to assist Afghanistan in regaining stability, including cooperation in building capabilities of Afghan security forces," she said.

Sitharaman, who is on her maiden visit to China after becoming defence minister, also said that new centres of influence have developed, especially in Asia, leading to geo-strategic rivalries.

"As SCO members, we can work towards greater coordination and move towards peace and stability," she said at the SCO Defence Ministers' meeting.

"A young and dynamic India, with an economy growing at 7-8 per cent per year, joins the SCO, seeking to usher in a new phase of cooperation. I invite everyone to work actively with India towards a partnership of peace and shared prosperity," the defence minister said.

The SCO, headquartered in Beijing, was founded in 2001.

Comprising China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, India and Pakistan, the SCO aims at military cooperation between the member states and involves intelligence sharing, counter-terrorism operations in Central Asia and joint work against cyber terrorism.

India and Pakistan were admitted last year into the organisation in which China plays an influential role.

Sitharaman said India will participate strongly in SCO's Peace Mission joint military exercises being held in Russia later this year.

"We believe that cooperation in SCO framework will help further strengthen India's bilateral defence ties in the region," she added.

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The Army has launched a massive hunt engaging helicopters and deploying over 1000 security personnel to catch two senior NDFB(S) militant leaders in Chirang district and the Manas Reserve Forest, defence sources said.

Based on specific input about the presence of dreaded NDFB(S) militants G Bidai and Batha, who have several police cases against them, Army units from Kokrajhar and Chirang districts in association with SSB jointly launched the massive operation in Chirang district and the Manas Reserve Forest along the Indo-Bhutan border since Sunday, the sources said last evening.

Stating that the Army also engaged tracker dogs to trace out the insurgents, the sources said more than 1000 security personnel had been deployed in the area for carrying out extensive search operations and cordoned off the area.

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The Centre's decision to withdraw AFSPA from parts of Arunachal Pradesh has evoked divergent views from political parties in the state, with the ruling BJP being cautious and the Congress demanding the total withdrawal of the "draconian law".

State Congress president Takam Sanjoy said the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, which empowers security forces to conduct operations and arrest individuals without prior notice, is "not relevant" in a peaceful state like Arunachal Pradesh.

"When the Centre can lift the Act from Meghalaya, why not in Arunachal Pradesh? There are no records of terrorist activities in the state over the past several years. There are other laws to deal with such activities and AFSPA would only jeopardise public peace," he claimed.

The Home Ministry has "arbitrarily extended" the provisions of the Act at a time when the Naga rebel groups are engaged in peace talks, he alleged.

The Centre withdrew AFSPA from the entire state of Meghalaya and parts of Arunachal Pradesh, with effect from March 31, a home ministry official informed yesterday.

In Arunachal Pradesh, areas under the controversial Act have been reduced from 16 police stations areas, bordering Assam, to eight police stations, besides Tirap, Changlang and Longding districts.

The ruling BJP is of the opinion that the Centre should study the ground situation in the state and, if permissible, should repeal the Act to ensure peace in the region.

State BJP president Tapir Gao said: "The presence of anti-national elements in the northeast cannot be denied. It is a central subject and if the Union government deems fit to revoke the Act, then it will be for the greater good."



The chief of Peoples' Party of Arunachal, Kahfa Bengia, feels the eight police stations areas need not come under AFSPA as there were no reports of militant activities from these regions in a very long time.

"The Home Ministry should make sure its decisions do not affect the people of the state," Bengia asserted.

Hawa Bagang, president of All Arunachal Pradesh Students Union, asserted that AFSPA helps in curbing anti-social activities by insurgent groups of neighbouring states.

"The Army should properly verify the details before booking anybody under the Act," Bagang added.

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The special anti-terror court that acquitted five accused in the Mecca Masjid blast case held that the confessional statement of Hindu preacher Swami Aseemanand to the police, which he retracted later, was not voluntary.

The NIA court also maintained that a person cannot be considered "communal or anti-social" only because of links to the RSS, which is not a banned organisation.

The court also dismissed the prosecution's claim that Aseemanand had confessed to his guilt to two inmates of a prison here, saying the CBI, which initially probed the case had not provided any documentary evidence to back its charge.

A powerful blast, triggered by remote control, had ripped through the over four centuries-old mosque here during an assembly of devotees on May 18, 2007 when they had gathered for Friday prayers, killing nine people and wounding 58.

Special Judge K Ravinder Reddy in his April 16 order said the confessional statement of Aseemanand was "hit by section 26 of the Indian Evidence Act and the same is not a voluntary one which was recorded during the course of police custody".

The Special Public Prosecutor for NIA, the country's premier agency that probes terror cases, had submitted that Aseemanand gave the confessional statement in December, 2010, and retracted it four months later.

Rejecting the prosecution charge that Aseemanand had confessed his guilt to two inmates - Maqbool Bin Ali alias Chawaish and Shaik Abdul Khaleem in the Chanchalguda prison, the court said there was no record to show that the duo was in the prison at the time when Aseemanand was lodged there.

"Except the oral testimony of PW (prosecution witness) 104 and PW 105, there is no other record to show that they haven been in Chanchalguda jail when Aseemanand was lodged there," the court said.

The order said Additional SP of CBI Raja Balaji, one of the investigating officers, "has not collected any documentary evidence and produced before this court" showing that the two wintesses had been in Chanchalguda jail along with Aseemanand.

The CBI official did not examine the jail superintendent and record his statement that Khaleem and Chawaish were in the prison when Aseemanad was there, it said.

In the order, the judge also observed that working for Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) does not make a person communal and anti-social.

He made the observation while referring to Devender Gupta, one of the accused, who was an RSS pracharak from Bihar.

The court said the evidence produced by the prosecution did not prove beyond reasonable doubt that Gupta, being an RSS volunteer, nurtured communal hatred.

"There were no records to show what were the communal hatred speeches of Devender Gupta being delivered at Jamtara (Jharkhand). The oral evidence given by a prosecution witness does not support the charge," he added.

"The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is not a proscribed organisation. If any person works in it, it does not give any scope that he is a communal and anti-social," the judge observed.

The court had acquitted all the five accused, who faced trial, holding that the prosecution failed to prove "even a single" allegation against them.

Besides Aseemanand and Gupta, other acquited are Lokesh Sharma, Bharat Rateshwar and Rajender Chowdary.

There were 10 accused in the case. Two accused -- Sandeep V Dange and Ramchandra Kalsangra -- are absconding, while Sunil Joshi was murdered. Investigation is continuing against two others.

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Australian police were today investigating how a 12-year-old boy managed to fly alone to the Indonesian island of Bali and spend four days at a resort using his parents' credit card.

The boy ran away from his Sydney home after a row with his mother, flying first to the Western Australian city of Perth on budget airline Jetstar and then on to Bali, according to commercial broadcaster Channel Nine.

"He just doesn't like the word 'no', and that's what I got, a kid in Indonesia," his mother, Emma, told Channel Nine in a programme that aired late Monday.

"It's too easy, it's way too easy. There's a problem in our system," she said, calling for tighter controls on air travel by young people.

The family had previously visited Bali on holiday and Emma said her son had already tried to book flights there on his own but had been knocked back by airlines because he did not have a letter from her.

"We screamed, we begged for help (from Australian authorities) for weeks on end," Emma added.

"When the first attempt to Indonesia took place, we were told his passport was going to be flagged." The boy, who "wanted to go on an adventure", said he was told by airline staff this time that he did not need permission from his parents to board the flights.

He spent four days in Bali, where he said he checked into a hotel, hired a scooter and drank beer before a friend alerted his mother to a geotagged video of himself playing in a swimming pool.

The holiday cost his parents Aus$8,000 (US$6,100), according to Channel Nine.

The Australian Federal Police said they were first notified that the boy might try to leave the country on March 8, before being told he might be in Bali on March 17.

The boy was found by Indonesian police the following day.

His parents then flew to Bali to take him home.

The federal police said an alert to prevent international travel had not been placed on the boy, and it did not have the power to cancel or request the cancellation of a passport if there were no suspicions of crimes committed.

"The AFP will work with partner agencies to review the circumstances of this matter and current operating procedures, to ensure this type of incident does not occur again," an AFP spokeswoman said in a statement.

Jetstar told Channel Nine the airline had since changed its procedures to prevent children over 12 from travelling without parental permission.

In general, Australian airlines do not allow children younger than five to travel alone.

Children between five and 11 must be booked on an unaccompanied minor ticket while those from 12-15 are required to have a permission slip from their parent or guardian.

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Bangladesh and Nepal have launched a trial bus service between their capitals through India as two buses carrying delegates of the three nations left Dhaka for Kathmandu.

"The trial run aimed to establish communication with Nepal by road," said Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) chairman Fariduddin Ahmed who led the delegation of 25 Bangladeshis, 12 Indians, six Nepalese and one Asian Development Bank (ADB) official that left yesterday.

Officials familiar with the process said the delegation would reach Kathmandu on April 26 passing through India's Siliguri district and scrutinise in detail all aspects of the journey on the 1,200-kilometre route.

A protocol is expected to be signed on the basis of the delegation's report for launching a regular and direct bus service between Dhaka and Kathmandu, Bangladesh's road transport and highways division secretary Nazrul Islam said, adding This marks a good beginning of sub-regional connectivity.

The proposed commercial bus service comes under the purview of BBIN (Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal) Motor Vehicles Agreement, which the four countries signed in June 2015 to enable movement of passenger and cargo vehicles.

Operators say the proposed route will cut short the journey by more than 100 kms, while straightening the way.

Currently, passengers use the Lalmonirhat-Burimari-Changrabandha-Siliguri route to go to Kathmandu.

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Two buses carrying delegates of the three nations as a part of a trial bus service that Bangladesh and Nepal have launched between their capitals through India reached Phulbari from Dhaka today.

A delegation comprised 25 Bangladeshis, 12 Indians, six Nepalese and one official of Asian Development Bank (ADB), officials said.

The buses left Dhaka for Kathmandu yesterday and reached Siliguri, in India, around 4.15pm today, officials said.

"The delegation will leave for Nepal tomorrow," the Chairman of North Bengal State Transport Corporation (NBSTC) Subol Roy, said after receiving the delegation.

The aim of the trial run is to establish communication with Nepal by road, Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) chairman Fariduddin Ahmed who led the delegation said.

This will boost tourism, help tourists and businessmen



associated with the tourism industry. It will also help people who come to West Bengal for medical tourism, he said after entering India.

"A protocol is expected to be signed on the basis of the delegation's report for launching a regular and direct bus service between Dhaka and Kathmandu," Bangladesh's road transport and highways division secretary Nazrul Islam said, adding "This marks a good beginning of sub-regional connectivity".

The proposed commercial bus service comes under the purview of BBIN (Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal) Motor Vehicles Agreement, which the four countries signed in June 2015 to enable movement of passenger and cargo vehicles.

Operators say the proposed route will cut short the journey by more than 100 km, while straightening the way.

Currently, passengers use the Lalmonirhat-Burimari-Changrabandha-Siliguri route to go to Kathmandu.

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"The Current War", starring Benedict Cumberbatch was one of the films that suffered the most due to the Harvey Weinstein scandal, but the actor is "fine" as it will help the film get rid of the "toxicity" of the disgraced producer.

The film, which focuses on the rivalry between legendary scientists Thomas Edison (Cumberbatch) and George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon), has been shelved with no new release date in sight.

"If it takes us not releasing our film for a couple of years just to be rid of that toxicity, I'm fine with that... (He wants to) To step back and be as far removed from that influence as possible, both as filmmaker and as human being," Cumberbatch told The Telegraph.

The actor previously worked with Weinstein on the 2014 film, "The Imitation Game," which received eight nods at the 87th Academy Awards, including Best actor for Cumberbatch.

The actor described Weinstein as "lascivious".

"I wouldn't want to be married to him Gaudy in his tastes, for all his often-brilliant film-making ability," he said.

But the actor made it clear that he knew nothing about Weinsein's alleged sexual transgressions.

"But did I know that was going on? A systematic abuse of women, happening through bribery, coercion, trying to gain empathy, to physical force and threats, physical and to career? No. No.

"That was the true shock. That this has just literally happened. And it's been covered up by an entire body of people through lawsuits and gagging and money hundreds of thousands of dollars paid to silence victims and survivors," he said.

"The Current War", directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, also featured Nicholas Hoult, Katherine Waterston, Tom Holland and Tuppence Middleton. The film received buzz as an early Oscar contender after it premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last year.

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In an unconventional way, nine candidates



filed their nominations through WhatsApp for the West Bengal panchayat elections, the Calcutta High Court was informed today.

State Election Commission secretary Nilanjan Shandilya told the court that the nominations sent through WhatsApp were accepted.

The court had on Tuesday directed the commission to make arrangements for the filing of the nominations of 11 candidates of the Polerhat II gram panchayat at Bhangar in South 24 Parganas district after they claimed that they were being prevented from reaching the office designated for the purpose by armed hooligans.

Nine of the 11 candidates filed their nominations using WhatsApp, petitioner Sharmistha Chowdhury today told the court of Justice Subrata Talukdar.

The candidates had sent photos of their filled up nomination papers to the authorities concerned through WhatsApp as they were manhandled and their papers were snatched at the Alipore Survey Building where they had been directed to go by the commission to file their nominations, she claimed.

Chowdhury also claimed that as the fees for the nominations, filing of which ended yesterday, could not be paid as the original papers were snatched and that the nominations could be treated as invalid during scrutiny on this ground.

Justice Talukdar then directed the SEC secretary to treat the nominations of the nine candidates as valid and said that no fuzziness would be accepted by the court over technicalities.

Shandilya gave an undertaking before the court that the nominations would be treated as valid and the candidates' names would appear in the ballot papers.

Justice Talukdar had directed the commission to file a compliance report today in respect of the court's direction. The court had said that the commission will lie in contempt if its order is not executed.

The SEC had extended the nomination process by a day for yesterday at the direction of Justice Talukdar.

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Joining the Nanar refinery issue, Maharashtra Congress unit president Ashok Chavan today said the ruling BJP and the Shiv Sena are trying to "fool" people by speaking in divergent voices over the execution of the project.

Chavan said the recent spat between Industries Minister Subhash Desai of Shiv Sena and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis over the project was nothing but a "grand tamasha" which is a "laughable spectacle".

The Sena has been staunchly opposing the project, saying it is being imposed on the local people by the government against their wishes.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led party is of the view that the project would severely damage the ecology of the region.

In an apparent bid to win over the people from the Konkan region, the stronghold of the party, Desai yesterday announced that the notification for acquiring land for the refinery project stood cancelled. Hours later, the chief minister, however, contradicted Desai, saying the order has not been cancelled.

"Both the BJP and the Shiv Sena are fooling people of Maharashtra by making contradictory statements on the Nanar project," Chavan said addressing a press conference here.

Referring to Fadnavis' statement in which he had said that Desai had no right to withdraw the notification, Chavan said, "the chief minister has publicly insulted the industries minister. Is a high-powered committee superior to the Cabinet minister who is the chairman of MIDC (Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation)?"



Fadnavis had said that the announcement made by Desai to cancel the notification was the personal view of the minister.

"The notification (to acquire land) can be cancelled only by a high-powered committee. The government has not yet cancelled the notification," Fadnavis had said.

Chavan said a minister's statement cannot be his personal view since he/she is a representative of a government.

"Fadnavis had publicly insulted Desai. Desai should have quit if he had any self respect and the Sena should have pulled out of the government. However, the Sena can compromise to any extent to stick to power. There is no point even in demanding his (Desai's) resignation," the former chief minister said.

The Centre had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between State-owned IOCL, BPCL and HPCL, and Saudi Aramco to jointly develop and build the proposed integrated refinery and petrochemical complex in Ratnagiri district. The project is expected to cost around Rs 3 lakh crore.

Chavan said the Congress would support the people who are opposing the refinery project.

"Development cannot happen by uprooting the local people. Not even five per cent of the total residents of 17 villages in Rajapur and Devgad talukas"(in Ratnagiri district) are willing to give their land"to the government for the project," Chavan said.

He said the area sought to be acquired by the state government for the project"is covered by mango, cashew, and bamboo plantations. "Besides, many people are currently living on the land sought to be acquired for the project," he said.

Chavan said a delegation of the leaders of Maharashtra Congress that met local people in Nanar recently, is likely to call on party president Rahul Gandhi on the issue.

Meanwhile, Chavan demanded the state government withdraw the drought cess and other surcharges levied on petrol and diesel, whose prices have gone through the roof.

"I have written to Fadnavis on this. There is no drought now in Maharashtra. Petrol and diesel should be brought under the ambit of the GST so as to bring down their prices," he said.

Chavan said fuel prices are the highest in Maharashtra.

"Neighbouring Karnataka charges Rs 9 less on petrol and Rs 3.50 paise less on diesel," he said.

When asked about the upcoming elections for six legislative council seats in Maharashtra, Chavan said the party might finalise its stand on an alliance with the NCP on April 28 in Delhi.

"I have held preliminary talks with the NCP for seat-sharing. There are some differences over some seats. We are waiting" to hear from the NCP before we take a final decision," Chavan said.

In a separate press conference, Mumbai Congress unit chief Sanjay Nirupam took a dig at the Maharashtra government over the contradictory statements made by Desai and Fadnavis.

"The way one Cabinet minister announces the cancellation of the project in Nanar and the way chief minister contradicts him...this shows that the BJP and Sena are not running a government but a circus," he said.

Nirupam said the government's focus should be to help the project-affected persons and not on political oneupmanship.

The Congress leader said around 60 per cent of land in Nanar had been bought by "rich people from Mumbai and other cities" even before the project was formally announced, "which smacks of a huge scam".

"Even before the project was announced officially, businessmen and industrialists close to the BJP and Shiv Sena leaders started purchasing land from gullible farmers. These people will now make money by selling the land at higher rates," he claimed.

Nirupam, a former Shiv Sainik, said the acquisition of land for the proposed refinery amounts to violation of the Land Acquisition Act, as the area is covered by mango and cashew orchards.

He said the state government didn't conduct a social impact assessment before announcing the Nanar project.

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Amid growing opposition to Nanar refinery, proposed to be set up in coastal Maharashtra, a BJP MLA has requested Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis that the project be shifted to Vidarbha region for the "viability" reasons.

Deshmukh, who represents Katol seat in Vidarbha region, has written a letter to the chief minister seeking shifting of the project.

Deshmukh also claimed that Union Heavy Industries Minister and Shiv Sena leader Anant Geete has "assured" a delegation that the project would be shifted to Vidarbha.

Addressing a press conference here today, Deshmukh mentioned a number of "advantages" for the government if the project is shifted to the east Maharashtra region.

"Shifting the project to Vidarbha is a viable option. The shifting will cut down the cost for the government as well as consumers," the MLA said.

The Centre had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between State-owned IOCL, BPCL and HPCL, and Saudi Aramco to jointly develop and build the proposed integrated refinery and petrochemical complex in Ratnagiri district. The project is expected to cost around Rs 3 lakh crore.

The project has run into rough weather, as local people as well as parties like the Shiv Sena, a constituent of the BJP-led state government, and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) have opposed it staunchly.

Deshmukh suggested that the crude oil generated from the project could be transported by laying pipelines along the proposed Nagpur-Mumbai super highway. "This would save the infrastructure cost," he said.

Taking a dig at the BJP government, Deshmukh said the wait for the people of Vidarbha to get large projects still continues.

"The people of Vidarbha"had expected"that large projects announced in the Magnetic Maharashtra summit"in the past would come to the region. Unfortunately, no"major MoUs were signed for Vidarbha," the MLA said.

Deshmukh said he and the office-bearers of the Vidarbha"Economic Development"Council (VEDC) called on Geete in Delhi.

"He (the minister) assured us that"the Ratnagiri" refinery"would be shifted to Vidarbha," Deshmukh said.

He said the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) has identified"15,000 acres of land near" Nagpur district which already has facilities like water, electricity, and ready-to-use"infrastructure.

"Nagpur"and surrounding areas are"more secure"for setting up petroleum reserves. Moreover, distribution of petroleum products in five states"is more feasible from Nagpur, given its (central) location," he said.

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The ruling JD(U) and the opposition RJD today engaged in a blame game over NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant's assertion that eastern India, particularly states like Bihar, UP and Chattisgarh, were responsible for the country's backwardness.

Terming Kant's statement as "unfortunate" and "irresponsible", Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav took a dig at chief minister Nitish Kumar for maintaining silence over the matter.

"Bihar CM Nitish Kumar should condemn Kant's statement. He should tell people that Niti Aayog is lying to them... Why can't he muster courage to speak against the statement, which not only lowers the morale of the people but belittles the state's contribution to the nation's development?" he said.

Kant, while speaking at the Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi yesterday, said eastern India, particularly states like Bihar, UP, Chhattisgarh, is keeping India backward, especially on the social indicators.

"There is NDA government both at Centre and in the state and even after 13 year of JD(U)-NDA sushashan (good governance), and Babus (officers) are saying that Bihar is a backward state," Yadav, the former Bihar deputy CM, quipped.

"Biharis pay taxes, just like people in other parts of the country. The state gave 33 MPs to the NDA and seven Union ministers," he said.

The ruling JD(U), however, said "unbalanced development" was the reason behind the country's sluggish growth rate



The equitable growth of all states can lead to the overall development of the nation, JD(U) MLC and spokesman Niraj Kumar said.

In a veiled reference to the erstwhile Congress government at the Centre, Kumar asked people to think carefully about "who was to be blamed for India's lopsided development" so far.

The Bihar Legislature had unanimously passed a resolution for according special category status to the state and remove inequality.

"Despite being enlisted in backward states, Bihar's growth rate in the construction sector has been better than the national average growth in past 12 years... The state cannot be held responsible for not achieving a desired goal on the human development index. It has to deal with natural calamities like floods because of rivers that originate in other states," he said.

The secretary of Patna-based Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI), Shaibal Gupta, said Amitabh Kant should be sacked for his "reckless" statement.

"Kant has no sense of history or understanding about the hindi heartland... We must know that Bihar and UP were subjected to adversarial treatment by the British for their persevered attempts to fuel national freedom movements," Gupta said.

"We would appeal to the Prime Minister to sack him. It does not augur well that an important lieutenant of the government is making a statement with undertones of discrimination at a time when the nation needs empathy and integration more than ever," he said.

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Emphasising the need for prompt and timely completion of investigations, the Bombay High Court today suggested setting up of a special unit in the police to probe serious crimes like murder and offences related to women.

Timely investigation into serious offences like murder, rape and other cases pertaining to women or minors is the need of the hour, a division bench of Justices N H Patil and G S Kulkarni said.

The court was hearing a case of rape and kidnapping of a 13-year-old girl. The girl's father had filed a petition seeking permission to terminate her 26-week pregnancy.

The court had, earlier this month, permitted the girl to terminate her pregnancy but had sought to know from the police the status of the investigation in the case.

Government counsel Abhinandan Vagyani today told the court that the FIR was registered in the case last July when the girl was kidnapped. In March, the girl and the accused person were traced to Uttar Pradesh and brought to Mumbai.

"While initially, only a charge of kidnapping was levelled against the accused, rape and other relevant charges under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) were added later," he said.

The court expressed its dissatisfaction with the fact that the FIR was lodged last July and for eight months the police did nothing.

"The police should not take such cases casually. When the law and courts and judges take such cases seriously why is the police taking it lightly. Probe in such cases, which involves minors or women, should be done on a priority basis," the court said.

"It is time the police is divided into two units. One for law and order and one special unit only for probing serious crimes like murder, rape and other women related offences. Police, nowadays, have no time to probe cases as they are most of the times put on bandobast duty or on special duty during religious festivals," Justice Patil said.

The court asked Vagyani to take up the issue with the state home department secretary for consideration. It also said the government should conduct special workshops for the police on how to handle such cases.

The bench added that senior police officers should keep a constant check on the status of each and every case in their jurisdiction.

"Zero pendency should be the aim in such cases. Senior officers above the rank of deputy commissioners of police should continuously monitor the status of cases till charge sheet is filed," the court said.

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The SAD today hit out at the Congress government in the state saying not giving any MLA belonging to backward classes ministerial berth during the recent expansion of the state cabinet is a "betrayal" with them.

Former minister and the head of the Shiromani Akali Dal's backward classes wing, Hira Singh Gabria, in a statement said the Amarinder Singh government had promised that the community would get proper representation in the state cabinet.

"But it betrayed the backward classes of the state when the exercise of cabinet expansion was carried out recently with induction of nine new ministers," he alleged.

The backward classes have 36 per cent vote share in the state, Gabria said, adding, "Currently there are 11 MLAs representing the BC community in the Congress. But no one was given any ministerial berth. They all feel cheated and some of them have shown their displeasure by resigning from all posts of the party."



Lambasting the Congress government for "reneging from all its promises" made to the people of the state, he alleged that the ruling party has stopped all welfare schemes started by the SAD-BJP government for the backward classes.

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The Central Board of Secondary will conduct a re-test of Class 12 economics paper tomorrow, nearly a month after it was leaked triggering widespread outrage and confusion among students across India.

After reports of the leak surfaced on March 28, the CBSE announced it will re-conduct the examination on April 25.

Then, there were also reports of the CBSE's Class 10 mathematics paper being leaked, but the board decided against a re-test of the Class 10 paper, saying the examination was "largely an internal segment" of school system.

"The candidates will appear (for the exam) from the same allotted centres using the same admit card," a board official said today.

For conducting the re-test of the economics paper, the board had said "Class 12 exams are a gateway to higher and various professional competitive exams which have limited seats... Therefore, giving undue advantage to a handful of beneficiaries of the alleged leak of the economics paper would not be in larger interest of the students."



Earlier this month, the CBSE had said it found no impact of the Class 10 mathematics paper leak after an assessment.

The reports of leak of the CBSE papers had caused disappointment among students across the country last month.

In Delhi, students held protests, accusing the CBSE of negligence and demanded immediate action against the guilty.

Investigators made arrests in several parts of the country in connection with the case, including in Jharkhand and Himachal Pradesh.

They claimed to have arrested the main conspirators behind the leak from Una town in Himachal Pradesh. The three people were staffers at a school in the town.

The Class 12 economics paper was leaked on March 23 - three days before the scheduled date, according to Delhi Police.

The leak was exposed after an envelop containing four images of the hand-written economics paper was delivered to the CBSE Headquarters in Delhi on the evening of the scheduled date of examination - March 26.

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The Congress today accused the Modi government of "systematically annihilating" the Panchayati Raj system by starving the country's local governing bodies of funds and making them "beggars" before respective state governments.

On the 25th anniversary of the Panchayati Raj Day, the Congress accused the Centre of renaming the 'Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Sashaktikaran Abhiyan' as the 'Rashtriya Grameen Swaraj Abhiyan', launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Madhya Pradesh today.

It also asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stop invoking "fake jumlas" (catchphrases) in the name of Mahatma Gandhi, considered a champion of Panchayati Raj.

Referring to Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant's remark that Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh kept the country backward, Congress spokesperson PL Punia said the official could have instead come up with a blue print telling how the states could be empowered through the rural local bodies.

Speaking to reporters here, he lauded Rajiv Gandhi for constitutionally institutionalising Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in the country.

"On this occasion (silver jubilee of Panchayat Raj Day), even as the prime minister goes on to give his now characteristic, misleading and propagandist speech about the 'abhiyan', the Congress would like to bring to the notice of the people that during its last four years the Modi government has systematically annihilated the entire Panchayati Raj System in the country by starving the panchayats of funds and making them beggars before respective state governments," Punia told reporters.

He alleged that the Centre discontinued its sponsored schemes like the Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF) and "decapacitated" schemes such as the MGNREGA and others, "ensuring" the PRIs had no funds and effectively nothing to implement under their jurisdiction, unlike what used to happen during the UPA's rule.

"As if this was not enough, the government, for all practical purposes, shut down the Ministry of Panchayati Raj by draining it of any substantive budgetary allocations," Punia charged.

"On this day, in the name of the Mahatma Gandhi, the Congress would like to request the prime minister to stop invoking the Mahatma's name in his fake jumlas and stop fooling the people of this country by renaming schemes, in this instance the Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Sashaktikaran Abhiyan to Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan," he said.

Punia also accused the BJP-led state governments of creating roadblocks and interfering in the functioning of the civic bodies led by the Congress there and termed it "unfortunate".

On Kant's remark about the backward states, the Congress spokesperson noted the states are ruled by the BJP or it is sharing power with other parties there.

"Kant should have had come out with a blueprint what strategy he has to correct things there it should also be answered if the states were backward, what actions the state governments there took," Punia said.

To a question about surveys in the run up to Karnataka Assembly polls suggesting the Congress is falling short of majority there, he said, "Several people are coming out with motivate surveys to seek political mileage. The Congress is going to form government with two third majority in Karnataka."



Punia also said the Congress will hold 'Jan Aakrosh' rally here on April 29 to highlight the "plight" of farmers, the youth, women, the issue of price rise, the "dilution" of SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act and other anti-people policies of the BJP-led Central government.

The prime minister today launched a scheme in Madhya Pradesh that seeks to strengthen the country's Panchayati Raj system and address critical gaps that hinder its success.

The central government scheme aims at making rural local bodies self-sustainable, financially stable and more efficient. It seeks to address critical gaps that hinder the success of Panchayats by enhancing their capacities and effectiveness, and promote devolution of powers and responsibilities.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
P Ayyakkannu, spearheading a movement for the need to interlink Southern rivers and also fighting for farmers' cause, today said he hoped that the Centre would constitute the Cauvery Management Board at least after the May 12 Karnataka Assembly elections.

If this did not happen, farmers would resume their agitation by going to Delhi, he told reporters here.

It was evident that the Centre was betraying Tamil Nadu in view of the polls there, Ayyakkannu alleged.

Ayyakkannu, along with a few farmers, submitted a memorandum to the Collector.

Farmers were opposed to the sales of GM seeds and were carrying out a 100-day campaign against this, he said.

District farmers wanted to implement the Anamalai-Nallaru project immediately since a lot of water from these water bodies was going waste to Kerala, he asid.

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The Centre has given in-principle approval to the proposed Greenfield Airport near Jewar in Gautambuddh Nagar during a steering committee meeting held in New Delhi.

The approval to this effect was given at the meeting yesterday attended by principal secretary (civil aviation) SP Goyal and other senior officials, Special Secretary, Civil Aviation, Suryapal Gangwar said today.

The detailed project report and techno-economic feasibility report for the project has been prepared by Price Waterhouse Coopers.

As per the report, acquisition of 1,441 hectare land in eight villages is proposed for the airport which will be built on PPP mode.

The work for the project will be taken up in four phases at an approximate cost of Rs 15,754 crores, he said.

The airport will have two runways with a capacity to handle 70 million passengers annually and cargo handling capacity of 3 million metric tonnes per year.

Preliminary work on the project had started in April 2017 and it is because of the coordination between the Centre and the state that in-principle approval has been accorded within one year time, he said.

On July 6, 2017, the steering committee had given site clearance to the project , he said.

The Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority has already been made the nodal agency for this project.

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The Centre's decision to withdraw AFSPA from Meghalaya and parts of Arunachal Pradesh has evoked mixed response from the political parties of the two states.

In Arunachal Pradesh, the ruling BJP maintained a cautious stance on the issue, while the Congress sought total withdrawal of the "draconian law" from the state.

The areas of the state that come under the controversial Act have been reduced from 16 police stations, bordering Assam, to eight police stations, besides Tirap, Changlang and Longding districts.

State Congress president Takam Sanjoy said the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, which empowers security forces to conduct operations and arrest individuals without prior notice, is "not relevant" in a peaceful state like Arunachal Pradesh.

"When the Centre can lift the Act from (entire) Meghalaya, why not in Arunachal Pradesh? There are no records of terrorist activities in the state over the past several years. There are other laws to deal with such activities and AFSPA would only jeopardise public peace," he claimed.

Sanjoy alleged that the Home Ministry has "arbitrarily extended" the provisions of the Act at a time when Naga rebel groups are engaged in peace talks.

The ruling BJP, however, said the Centre should "study the ground situation" in the state and, if permissible, should repeal the Act to ensure peace in the region.

The AFSPA was necessitated in 16 police station areas, bordering Assam, and three districts of the state, bordering Myanmar, because a few insurgents had tried to take refuge in Arunachal Pradesh, Chief Minister Pema Khandu told PTI.

The constant efforts of security forces and comprehensive plans of the Union Home Ministry, and the state police has drastically improved the law and order situation in the last couple of years, he said.

State BJP president Tapir Gao said, if the Union government deems fit to revoke the Act, then it will be for the "greater good".

Kahfa Bengia, the chief of People's Party of Arunachal, said the eight police stations areas need not come under AFSPA as there were no reports of militant activities from these regions in a very long time.

"The Home Ministry should make sure its decisions do not affect the people of the state," Bengia asserted.

In Meghalaya, the Union government's move was unanimously welcomed by political parties, students' organisations and church leaders.

James K Sangma, the state's home minister, said he was grateful to the Union government for considering Meghalaya's request to revoke the Act from the state.

"We are thankful to the Centre for responding to Meghalaya government's request for denotification of AFSPA in the Garo Hills areas, adjoining Assam," Sangma told PTI.

Militancy has been "by and large contained" in the state and this was made possible by the Meghalaya police, he said.

Lauding the Centre's move, the Congress credited the erstwhile Mukul Sangma-led government for it.

"Imposition of AFSPA has lots of demerits in a state like Meghalaya as it has often been seen that language barrier led to atrocities here. This was the reason why former chief minister Mukul Sangma did not allow the Army to take up operations in the Garo Hills," Congress spokesperson Zenith Sangma said.

Mukul Sangma focused on raising Special Force-10, the state's own anti-insurgency force, to bring peace in the state, he said.

The Meghalaya chapter of North East Students Organisation (NESO), on the other hand, demanded the revocation of the "controversial law" from the other states of the region as well.

"The NESO welcomes the decision of Ministry of Home Affairs to revoke AFSPA from Meghalaya. In fact, we want the Act to be removed from all northeastern states where it is in force at the moment," its chairman Samuel B Jyrwa told PTI.

Jyrwa alleged that AFSPA has failed miserably in containing militant activities and has only led to human rights violations by the armed forces.

Echoing similar sentiments, former church leader P B M Basaiawmoit said the people of northeast can rejoice together once the Act is repealed from other states in the region.

"People will be happy if the draconian law is totally removed from India's statute books. No one will be considered as the enemy of the State," he said.

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The Centre today strongly supported a legal provision that a death row convict would only be hanged to death and told the Supreme Court that other modes of execution like lethal injections and firing were not less painful.

The response of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) was filed after the apex court had termed the Constitution as a "compassionate" and "organic" guiding book and asked it to consider changing the law so that a convict, facing death penalty, dies "in peace and not in pain".

"Execution, as contemplated under section 354(5) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, is not barbaric, inhuman and cruel as well as in compliance with safeguard no. 9 of the resolutions adopted by the ECOSOC," the affidavit filed before a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said.

The safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty approved by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) resolution of 1984 says "Where capital punishment occurs, it shall be carried out so as to inflict the minimum possible suffering."



The counter-affidavit, filed by the joint secretary of the MHA, said that death by hanging was "quick, simple" and free from anything that would "unnecessarily sharpen the poignancy of the prisoner".

"Lethal injection, which is believed to be painless, has also been contested on the ground that it may lead to uncomfortable death wherein the convict is unable to express his/her discomfort because of paralysis by the paralytic agent injected.

"It is believed by many that lethal injection, as is practised currently, is designed to create only an appearance of serenity and painless death," the MHA said, adding that such injections, if made available, can be misused.

It also ruled out the option of execution by a firing squad saying it was not "fail-safe" and can be extremely painful if shooters miss the heart by accident or by intention.

The affidavit was filed in response to a PIL, filed by lawyer Rishi Malhotra, which referred to the 187th Report of the Law Commission advocating removal of the present mode of execution from the statute.

The Centre said the procedure by which a death sentence has to be executed was dependent upon a variety of factors such as the economic feasibility, availability of "skilled and trained personnel, equipment and resources" and the rate of botched up executions.

It also said there was not much material to establish that the alternate execution method of lethal injection would bring quick and painless death.

The Centre, in its reply, pointed out various botched-up lethal executions in the USA and said "the procedure followed for execution by electrocution or lethal injection or firing squad could be just as inhuman or barbaric to another person."



Referring to the suggestions in the 187th Report of the Law Comission, the Centre said if the convict is heard on his choice of mode of execution, it would be "highly impractical" and lead to further delay in cases.

It also said that since the matter falls under the Concurrent List, the views of the state governments were also sought and most of them pointed to lack of infrastructure and technological requirements for lethal injection.

"The government of Uttarakhand rightly pointed out that the new chemical of lethal injection, if known to public, can be misused," it said.

On October 6, the apex court sought the Centre's response on the plea and said it also included the right of a condemned prisoner to have a dignified mode of execution so that death becomes less painful.

The plea said the Law Commission report had noted a significant increase in the number of countries where hanging has been abolished and substituted by electrocution, shooting or lethal injection as methods of execution.

The lawyer had also referred to various apex court judgements in which the practise of hanging a death row convict has been assailed.

The plea said "dying with dignity is part of right to life" and the present practice of executing a death row convict by hanging involves "prolonged pain and suffering". The present procedure can be replaced with intravenous lethal injection, shooting, electrocution or gas chamber in which death is just a matter of minutes, it said.

The PIL sought quashing of section 354(5) of the Criminal Procedure Code, which states that when a person is sentenced to death, the sentence shall direct that he be hanged by the neck till he is dead.

It said execution was not only "barbaric, inhuman and cruel", but also against the resolutions adopted by the UNECOSOC.

The plea also said that execution should be as quick and as simple as possible and free from anything that unnecessarily sharpened the poignancy of the prisoner's apprehension.

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In another gruesome rape of a minor girl, a Class 11 student was allegedly raped by three persons, including a classmate and a relative, in a moving car in Noida last week, police said.

Police swung into action after an FIR was lodged yesterday and arrested one of the accused today. The two other accused are on the run.

The case follows a string of incidents of rape of minor girls in several parts of the country that triggered a nationwide outrage, prompting the government to bring in an ordinance for stricter punishment for such crimes.

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Global beverages major Coca Cola Company today reported double-digit volume growth in India and China in the first quarter of 2018.

The company, which reported 3 per cent growth in total unit case volume during the period with growth across all category clusters and geographic operating groups, said in the Asia-Pacific region, India and China outpaced more developed markets, including Japan and Australia.

Coca Cola said, in its unit case volume growth of 5 per cent, the region for the quarter was driven by strong performance in China and India, partially offset by a low single-digit decline in Southeast Asia.

It further said, driven by favourable product mix -- as sparkling soft drinks volume grew in double digits in China and India -- its operating income growth outpaced revenue growth for the quarter for the Asia-Pacific region.

Coca Cola said its overall net revenues declined 16 per cent to USD 7.6 billion for the quarter, impacted by a 26 per cent headwind from refranchising of bottling territories.

The company also said trademark Coca-Cola was the largest contributor, with a clear acceleration in all brands under the trademark.

The Coca-Cola Company president and CEO James Quincey said, "We're encouraged with our first quarter performance as we continue our evolution as a consumer-centric, total beverage company.

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Rajasthan Congress chief Sachin Pilot today accused the state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of centralising powers, saying that it has rapidly authorised Jaipur for taking all the decisions.

"The BJP's policy has left sarpanch, pradhan and MLAs and ministers helpless due to centralisation of powers. Democracy is strength of this country and it is in danger, as the government is busy in political gains, instead serving the people who voted them to power," Pilot said at an event here on National Panchayati Raj Day.

The state Congress chief said it was former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's aim to strengthen Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) for inclusive growth of rural areas.

"Congress created history by strengthening PRIs, whereas BJP is centralising powers. Jaipur has become the power centre," Pilot said.

The former Union minister stressed that in order to ensure continuous development of rural areas, state governments should not weaken PRIs.

Governments and political parties must be diligent to empower the panchayats and give new dimensions to the past achievements, he added.

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The Congress stands a very good chance of winning the Karnataka Assembly polls, and the high-command will take a call on the next chief minister, senior party leader Mallikarjun Kharge said today, indicating incumbent Siddaramaiah may not be the automatic choice.

He said the Congress high-command will choose the chief minister in consultation with the newly elected MLAs, if the party is voted to power for a second term running.

The Congress has consistently maintained it is contesting the polls under the leadership of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah but refrained from declaring him its candidate for the top job.

Kharge's remarks indicated that the leadership question in the Congress was far from settled.

When asked if the party's central leadership has decided on who would be the next chief minister, Kharge said "unnecessary controversy" should not be created in the run-up to the elections.

"CM (Siddaramaiah) is already there. He is leading (the Congress campaign) and he is the captain. As long as he leads, he is the captain.

"And the party, whenever it wants, can change anybody because the high-command is the ultimate authority. In consultation with local (newly elected) MLAs, they (the high-command) will take decision (on who will be the chief minister)," Kharge told PTI.

Kharge, leader of the Congress party in the Lok Sabha, said since the BJP and the JDS were facing problems, they had declared their chief ministerial nominees, he said, without elaborating.

The BJP has declared its state unit chief B S Yeddyurappa and JDS H D Kumaraswamy as their chief ministerial faces. Both have been the state's chief minister.

Talking about the Congress's electoral prospects, Kharge said, "We have got very good chances to win the elections and I hope that we will get majority."



He also claimed that neither the Congress nor the chief minister is facing "anti-incumbency".

Kharge defended Siddaramaiah for filing nominations from two constituencies -- Chamundeshwari and Badami.

Noting that Kumaraswamy is also contesting from two seats, he asked, "Have Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda not done so?"



"People of the area (Badami and north Karnataka) want Siddaramaiah to contest from Badami. He has got a lot of clout in that area also.

"People (opposition parties) are creating a sort of atmosphere that there is no hope (for Siddaramaiah in Chamundeshwari) and that's why he is contesting (from Badami). It's not like that," Kharge added.

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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said today that the Congress was wrong in giving an impeachment notice against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra.

The Trinamoool Congress did not support the impeachment move, she said.

"The Congress was wrong to give impeachment notice against the CJI. The Congress wanted us to support it. But we did not," she told " 18 Bangla" channel.

"I told Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi not to go for impeachment," Banerjee said, adding that her party did not want to interfere in the judiciary.

Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu yesterday rejected the notice by seven opposition parties, led by the Congress, to impeach the Chief Justice of India on five grounds of "misbehaviour", saying the allegations were neither "tenable nor admissible".

Naidu's order, which came within two days of the notice being sumitted to him, was slammed as "hasty, illegal and illinformed" by the Congress.

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Alleging lapses in the police investigation into the 'custodial death' of a 26-year-old man near here, the victim's family has moved the Kerala High Court seeking a CBI probe into the incident.

""" Akhila, wife of S R Sreejith, who died after allegedly being tortured in police custody, on April 9, told reporters here that a petition has been filed in the High Court seeking CBI investigation in the case.

She has also sought Rs 1 crore compensation for the 'custodial death' of her husband to her and other dependents of the joint family within a time frame fixed by the Court.

In her petition, Akhila stated that she apprehends that the inquiry conducted by police against the officials from their department would not yield expected results. """ It is fair and proper to handover the investigation to the CBI, she said.

The role of other influential officers including the district police chief (rural) and circle inspector of the area should also be investigated, she said in the complaint.

Four police personnel, including Varapuzha Sub Inspector Deepak, have been arrested so far in connection with the case.

Currently, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Crime Branch IG S Sreejith is probing the case.

Meanwhile, an identification parade of arrested policemen was held in the sub jail, Kakkanad, near here today.

Akhila said she identified the accused who took him into custody from their home.

Leader of Opposition in the Kerala Assembly also demanded a CBI probe into the case.

He alleged the intervention of local CPI(M) leadership in the investigation in the case.

""" The CPI(M) district secretary P Rajeev rejected Chennithala's allegations and said the party never interfered in the police investigation.

Concluding his 24-hour hunger strike here demanding CBI probe into the incident, Chennithala alleged that there was Police raj in the state under the CPI(M) rule.

Sreejith, who was taken into custody in connection with the death of a person early this month, had died in a private hospital.

His relatives alleged that he died due to torture.

Others who were arrested along with Sreejith in connection with the death of the person also alleged custodial torture.

Police have rejected the allegation saying Sreejith was suspected to have suffered injuries during a clash allegedly before he was taken into custody.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) is probing the incidents leading to Sreejith's death.

Aluva (Rural) SP AV George was transferred to Thrissur Police Academy.

Besides, four police personnel, including Varapuzha Sub Inspector Deepak, have been arrested so far in connection with the case.

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Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) Chairman RS Sharma today said "data monopolies" are developing in the country and there is a need to bring in a set of regulations to ensure that consumer data remains safe and protected.

Sharma said, India has created a number of platforms which generate huge amount of data and cited examples like GST and UPI.

"I think with all the activities going around that, we are becoming data rich. And therefore, we need to have policies which will ensure that ownership, privacy and security of that data," he told reporters after the first meeting of a think-tank here on the framework for national policy on e-commerce.

He further said: "I also expressed this issue that data monopolies are developing. There are giant data players and there is a need to ensure some kind of regulation, some over arching principles are adhered to".

Other company representatives, present at the meeting, echoed similar views.

Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma said his company had suggested that consumer data should be hosted within the country.

"My suggestion was we should have an obligation of localisation of servers," he said.

Some players also raised concerns around the need to implement provisions of Press Note 3 in a more stricter manner.

"Press Note 3 articulates that no discounting is allowed and that no inventory ownership directly or indirectly is allowed by e-commerce marketplaces. However, there is a lot of concern about whether it is being effectively implemented. And if not, what can be done," said Snapdeal co-founder Kunal Bahl.

The commerce and industry ministry notifies FDI policies through press notes. Press Note 3, which was released in 2016, enlists guidelines for foreign direct investment in e-commerce sector.

Another representative present at the meeting, who did not wish to be identified, said there is a unanimous view that any regulation brought in should punish those at fault rather than making business operations difficult for players across the board.

The meeting saw participation from senior officers of various ministries and departments, representatives from industry bodies, e-commerce companies, telecommunication and IT firms, RBI and independent experts.

The think-tank provides a platform for an inclusive and fact-based dialogue leading to recommendations for informed policy making so that the country is adequately prepared to take advantage of the opportunities and meet the challenges that would arise from the next wave of advancements in digital economy.

Issues that were discussed include aspects of e-commerce, digital economy, physical and digital infrastructure, regulatory regime, taxation policy, data flows, server localisation, intellectual property rights protection, FDI, and trade-related aspects.

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Days after permitting entry of Non-Hindus to the 'oottupura' (temple dining hall) attached to the famous Guruvayur Sree Krishna Temple, temple authorities today decided to keep it on hold, apparently following opposition.

According to temple sources, the temple tantri (Head Priest) and a section of devotees had raised objections to the managing committee's decision of April 18 following which it was decided to keep the matter on hold.

The committee, which met here today, also decided not to implement its decision to lift restrictions on dress code imposed at the dining hall.

The committee had on April 18 allowed devotees to wear shirts, pants and footwear at the oottupura.

The sources said since the 'devaprashanam' (astrological examination to know the divine will) was due to be held in another six months, the committee felt that this matter also would be taken up.

This was a matter which required the consensus of all"and the temple authorities did not want to have any controversy over the matter, the sources said.

The tantri had given a letter to the managing committee stating that the 'Prasada Oottu', the delicious temple feast, has to be conducted in the same manner as it was being done earlier.

The decision had received support from various quarters and objections from certain sections, sources said.

In a major decision, the management of the temple, where non-Hindus are barred from offering worship, had opened the portals of its oottupura to everyone, cutting across religion.

Hundreds of devotees from and outside the state have prasada oottu every day at the oottupura of the centuries-old shrine.

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Facing criticism over his decision to reject an impeachment bid against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu today told a group of lawyers that his call was "timely and not a hasty one" and came after over a month of due diligence.

Freedom of expression allows that but ultimately truth prevails. I have done the just thing in the best possible manner expected of me, a source quoted Naidu as saying on his decision having been termed by some as "hasty".

Naidu said his decision was in strict conformity with the provisions of the Constitution and the Judges (Inquiry) Act of 1968.

"I have done my job and am satisfied with it... It (decision) was timely and not a hasty one, Naidu told the group of 10 Supreme Court lawyers who met him to compliment him over the decision.

Naidu, however, told the lawyers that his decision did not warrant any compliment as he only did what was expected of him and in the manner the Chairman of Rajya Sabha was expected to conduct in such matters.

Naidu yesterday rejected a notice by seven opposition parties, led by the Congress, to impeach the Chief Justice of India on five grounds of "misbehaviour", saying the allegations were neither "tenable nor admissible".

His order, which came within two days of the notice being sumitted to him, was slammed as "hasty, illegal and illinformed" by the Congress.

During their meeting with Naidu, lawyers also mentioned that in the past a similar notice against Supreme Court Judge J C Shah was rejected by the then Lok Sabha Speaker G S Dhillon and Justice Shah later became the CJI. And a notice for removal of Justice P D Dinakaran was admitted within three days.

Speaking to the lawyers, Naidu is believed to have said that he has been working on "provisions, procedures and precedents in the matter" for over a month following media reports about a possible impeachment bid.

"Some members of the House had a point of view and the right to express it while I had a responsibility cast on me. I have done my job and am satisfied with it," Naidu said.

He further said the Section 3 of the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968 requires that the Rajya Sabha Chairman should look for prima facie charges in the matter for either admitting the notice or refusing to do so.

"A clear responsibility was cast on the Chairman in this regard and it would not be correct to interpret the role of Chairman as that of mere post office. The Chairman is required to act as a constitutional functionary which is a substantial responsibility, Naid told the lawyers.

Sources further said Naidu emphasised that the constitutional functionaries should act in time as otherwise there could be adverse consequences.

Stating that the Chief Justice of India is the highest judicial functionary of the country and "any issue in public domain concerning him requires to be resolved at the earliest following prescribed procedures so as to prevent the atmosphere from being further vitiated", the sources said quoting Naidu, on the condition of anonymity.

Talking about the issues raised in the notice, Naidu said they mostly pertained to the functioning of the Supreme Court and "they have to be resolved internally."



"Any other means of seeking to address them amounts to interference in the independence of judiciary," he said.

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The Delhi Police said today it is on high alert ahead of a trial court's verdict in Jodhpur tomorrow in the alleged rape of a teenager by self-styled godman Asaram, who faces a minimum 10-year prison term if convicted.

A senior police official said the department is keeping a close watch on Delhi's boundaries and inside the city areas, where Asaram's supporters might gather after the judgement.

"We are in touch with police forces from neighbouring states to avert any untoward incident. Senior officers from districts and SHOs of police stations concerned have been directed to keep a watch in their respective areas," he added.

According to Rajasthan High Court's directions, the trial court will deliver its verdict inside Jodhpur Central Jail, where Asaram has been lodged for more than four years.

The godman is accused of raping a teenage girl from Shahajahanpur in Uttar Pradesh, who studied at his "ashram" in Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh. He has denied the charges.

The victim has alleged that Asaram called her to his ashram in Manai area near Jodhpur and raped her on the night of August 15, 2013.

The Union Home Ministry has sent an advisory to Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana governments to tighten security as large-scale violence had rocked Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh after a special court in Mohali convicted Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh last year.

Asaram was arrested in Indore and brought to Jodhpur on September 1, 2013. He is under judicial custody since September 2, 2013.

The chargesheet against Asaram and four other co-accused - Shiva, Shilpi, Sharad and Prakash - was filed by police on November 6, 2013 under various sections of POSCO Act, Juvenile Justice Act and IPC. If convicted, Asaram could be jailed for a minimum of 10 years or awarded a maximum life term, according to prosecution lawyers.

Asaram also faces a rape charge in Gujarat's Surat city, in which the Supreme Court earlier this month gave five weeks time to the prosecution to complete the trial.

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Delhi and West Bengal were among a few states that did not participate in a national consultation organised by the Health Ministry to seek feedback on the draft guidelines to implement the ambitious Ayushman Bharat scheme, according to an official statement today.

The Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Mission seeks to provide a cover of Rs 5 lakh per family per year to 10 crore poor and vulnerable families across India.

According to the statement, the ministry has prepared a detailed timeline to ensure the scheme is rolled out anytime after July.

The national consultation was attended by the CEOs of state health agencies, and state nodal officers. Most states attended the consultation, except for a few such as Delhi and West Bengal, according to the statement.

The secretary, Health Ministry, briefed the states on the contours of the mission and encouraged them to participate.

The states were divided into three sub-groups to ensure detailed discussions and seek in-depth inputs on the draft guidelines.

These included guidelines on beneficiary identification process, empanelment of hospitals, portability of benefits, model tender document and modalities of premium release.

Each sub-group presented the summary of the proposed changes they had suggested during the discussion.

Based on the feedback received from states, the ministry will release a model request for proposal and operational guidelines by the second week of May.

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An Iranian student, who was admitted to a dental college near here without the mandatory NEET qualification and subsequently removed from the institution, got an interim relief with the management handing over Rs 5.5 lakh paid towards tuition fee, in the Madras High Court today.

When the vacate stay petition by Naseer Hamidavi Zegheiri came up before Justice PN Prakash, the counsel representing the college produced a demand draft for Rs 5.5 lakh before the judge, who in turn, handed it to the student, who was present in the court with his counsel.

In his brief order, the judge said as undertaken, the college has given the demand draft for Rs 5.50 lakh to Naseer Hamidavi Degheiri and it has been handed over to him.

The judge then posted the matter to April 26.

The matter relates to a police complaint lodged by Degheiri against the management of Asan Memorial Dental College for removing him without paying him back Rs 25 lakh taken for admission, despite knowing that NEET was compuslory for admission to medical courses.

Degheiri submitted that he had completed his Pre-University diploma in Iran in 2002, which was equivalent to the Higher Secondary in India.

As he was interested in pursuing BDS he had enquired about admissions in Tamil Nadu through his friend, he said.

Subsequently, he had paid Rs 5 lakh, and provisionally got admitted to the course and flew down to India on a student visa.

On payment of the remaining Rs 20 lakh, he started attending the classes, the petitioner said.

While doing so, he was served with a letter sent by Dr MGR Medical University, which stated that the institution was instructed to discharge all foreign national candidates admitted to BDS course without NEET qualification and there was reference to a Supreme Court order, he claimed.

When enquired about it, the management had directed him to ignore the letter and continue his studies in the college, he added.

Later, he was removed from the college which did not repay the amount, he claimed.

Therefore, based on a complaint with Kancheerpuam police, an FIR was registered against the college.

Seeking to quash the FIR, the management of the college had moved the high court and obtained an interim stay.

Aggrieved over the stay granted to the college, the student sought revocation of the stay order.

During the hearing, the judge said he has suo motu impleaded the Union External Affairs Ministry as a party to the case.

The Iranian Embassy was ready to come and take up the issue, the judge added.

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DominoArctic Monkeys have announced a fall North American tour behind their forthcoming new album, Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino. The jaunt begins October 9 in Dallas and wraps up October 25 in Vancouver. Tickets go on sale this Friday, April 27 at 10 a.m. local time via ArcticMonkeys.com.

Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, the long-awaited follow-up to 2013's AM, will be released on May 11. In an interview with Billboard, frontman Alex Turner says the new material is more piano-based than the guitar-heavy sounds of past Arctic Monkeys albums.

"Sitting at the piano took me immediately to a different place," Turner explains. "There are chords that came out, my fingers were falling different places, and the sounds were giving me ideas. That I was the guy sitting at the piano also gave me ideas."

Prior to the fall dates, Arctic Monkeys will play a run of North American dates this spring and summer starting May 2 in San Diego.

Here are Arctic Monkeys' fall tour dates:

10/9 -- Dallas, TX, South Side Ballroom

10/10 -- Oklahoma City, OK, The Criterion

10/12 -- Houston, TX, Revention Music Center

10/16 -- Los Angeles, CA, Hollywood Bowl

10/19 -- Santa Barbara, CA, Santa Barbara Bowl

10/20 -- San Francisco, CA, Bill Graham Civic Auditorium

10/23 -- Seattle, WA, WaMu Theater

10/24 -- Portland, OR, Veterans Memorial Coliseum

10/25 -- Vancouver, BC, Pacific Coliseum

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
In Turkey, Remembrance of 1915 Mass Killings of Armenians Amid Genocide Debate

(VOA) -- In Turkey, commemorations are being held to mark the mass killings of Armenians during World War I by Ottoman Turks. The killings, recognized as genocide by much of the international community, remains contentious, with Ankara strenuously claiming the deaths were the result of a civil war in which Turks also perished. Turkish-Armenian groups, along with nongovernmental organizations mainly in Turkey's largest city, Istanbul, are organizing a series of events to remember the deaths.

On Tuesday, public ceremonies are planned outside some of the homes of 270 Armenian intellectuals, religious and civic leaders arrested in Istanbul on April 24, 1915. The detentions marked the start of the mass deportations and killings of Armenians across Turkey. As many as one-and-a-half million people were killed as the Ottoman Empire disintegrated, according to a version of events accepted by many historians. Until Turkey's ruling AK Party came to power in 2002, public discussion challenging the state's official version of events was forbidden. "There has been some tolerance by the state, they were not participating themselves, but they were allowing the commemorations, publications of books, articles and the gatherings and so on," said political scientist Cengiz Aktar. "But this progress has come to a halt, because of the very restrictive environment of free speech," Aktar added, referring to the current emergency rule, introduced after a failed 2016 coup. Analysts say campaigners for the recognition of the killings as a genocide are focusing their attention on U.S. President Donald Trump. "The only thing that might happen is Trump may pronounce the 'G' [genocide] word; we will see. It may happen; there are some indications Trump may pronounce it," said Aktar. "The American administration, the Senate, House of Representatives, are getting more and more nervous with Turkey; the president may come with the 'G' word tomorrow." On April 24, U.S. presidents deliver a speech to mark the mass killings of Armenians. Last year Trump, like his recent predecessors, sidestepped using the word genocide, instead, using the Armenian phrase, "Meds Yeghern," meaning great calamity. This month, more than 100 members of the U.S. Congress wrote to Trump, calling on the president to recognize the mass killings as genocide. U.S., Turkish relations Turkey has angered the U.S. recently over several issues, including Syria, the imprisonment of U.S. citizens and local employees of diplomatic missions, and Ankara's deepening ties with Moscow. "Compared to years past, Turkey's ability to influence Congress [against using the word genocide] has been vastly diminished, that is certainly true," said analyst Sinan Ulgen, a visiting scholar of Brussels-based Carnegie Europe. Ulgen suggests Ankara will be banking on Trump's sensitivity toward Turkey. "There is a sizable constituency on the part of the executive, including President Trump, who believes in and understands the value of Turkey," he said. "So, there are certainly efforts that want to re-establish a sense of balance and direction to the bilateral relationship." If Trump were to use the word genocide, observers suggest Erdogan will seize on the occasion to whip up nationalist sentiment and anti-Americanism as Turkey prepares for presidential and general elections in June. Ankara, however, is likely to be more concerned by any move by Congress to legislate the recognition of an Armenian genocide. "The Congress resolution is much more binding than a presidential statement," said political scientist Aktar. "Ankara will be more concerned and irritated, and up until now Congress never passed a resolution. But with the anti-Turkish feelings, it may pass; there is something rumored to be in the pipeline, but not now." Growing recognition In recent years, growing numbers of countries have recognized the Armenian mass killings as a genocide. Given the growing tide of recognition, experts suggest Ankara's reaction has become more restrained. "The Dutch parliament recently passed an [Armenian genocide] resolution; all we saw were a couple of strong words and nothing else," said international relations expert Soli Ozel of Istanbul's Kadir Has University. "Turkey's government has decided that it is better to keep calm rather than raise hell every single time something important or unimportant happens. It may very well be the same as with the Americans; but, the American acceptance of a genocide is significantly more important than any other country," Ozel added. If Congress recognized the Armenian killings as genocide, experts suggest the move could open the door to numerous legal cases against Turkey by relatives of those killed. Genocide does not have a legal statute of limitations. Even though Ankara lost many of its allies in Washington, it may still retain some support. "The Turkish side tried to keep relations with the Jewish or pro-Israeli lobbies pretty good," Ozel said. "Every time the president [Erdogan] visited the United States, he made sure that he met with the Jewish organizations, so maybe they are on board, and if they are on board, you have a fighting chance."
A Surat-based diamond trader, along with his family, would embrace monkhood tomorrow at a ceremony to be held in the Sabarmati area here, trustees of a Jain religious body said today.

Sanjay Shah (53), his wife Nitaben (49), along with their daughter Pooja (26) and son Darshil (24), would become Jain monks and nuns at the ceremony tomorrow, to be held under the aegis of the Jain Shwetambar Murtipujak Sangh, its trustees said.

"Sanjay Shah, who was into diamond trading in Surat, along with his entire family would take 'diksha' (consecration) tomorrow. While Shah's son is pursuing Chartered Accountancy, his daughter Pooja is a B Com gold medallist," said Nilay Savla, who is associated with the Sangh.

Elsewhere in Surat, a non-resident Indian woman, who worked at a multinational company after completing her Master of Science in Chemistry, would also take 'diksha' at a ceremony, one of her relatives said.

"Heta Shah (30) will become a Jain nun at a function tomorrow in Surat. She realised that this is the true path to a happy life after interacting with Jain monks in 2010," her relative, Rupesh Shah, said.

Shah said that the 30-year-old returned to Surat in 2014 and, having studied the Jain religion extensively, decided to take 'diksha'.

Earlier this week, a 24-year-old Chartered Accountant, belonging to a Mumbai-based Jain family, had embraced monkhood at a ceremony in Gandhinagar on April 20 after renouncing his family business which was reportedly over Rs 100 crore.

A day earlier, 12-year-old Bhavya Shah, son of a Surat-based diamond merchant, had become a Jain monk.

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Differences should not lead to disputes in relations between India and China, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told her Chinese counterpart General Wei Fenghe in the backdrop of the strain in ties between the two countries after the Dokalam standoff.

Sitharaman's remarks came as she met Wei during which both sides reviewed defence ties between the two countries.

This is Sitharaman's maiden visit to China post Dokalam.

During the meeting, she congratulated Wei for his appointment as the defence minister last month.

You have been assigned a major responsibility," she said.

This is my first visit to China after becoming defence minister. We view India-China relations as an important relationship in our foreign policy," she told Wei, regarded a close confidant of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

As two large developing countries engaged in their national modernisation, India-China relations transcend bilateral dimensions and will have bearings on regional and global context, she said.

"We are guided in our relations with China by the consensus reached between our leaders that at the time of global uncertainty, India-China relations could be a factor of stability and that we must not allow our differences to become disputes," she said.

Welcoming Sitharaman, Wei said that China attaches great importance to her visit here.

Sitharaman is in China to attend the Defence Ministers meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

"Your attendance at the meeting in China will further deepen our military relations and enhance the development of security cooperation of the SCO," Wei said.

This is the first meeting attended by India and Pakistan after they were admitted into the SCO last year.

The SCO, in which China plays an influential role, is comprised of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan.

During the summit, she said the SCO must adopt an uncompromising approach towards the persisting threat of terrorism in Afghanistan, as it is essential to advance peace and prosperity in the region.

She also said that India will participate in the SCO's Peace Mission joint military exercises being held in Russia later this year.

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Differences should not lead to disputes in relations between India and China, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said today as she met her Chinese counterpart General Wei Fenghe in the backdrop of the strain in ties between the two countries after the Dokalam standoff.

Sitharaman, who arrived here yesterday, attended the SCO defence ministers' meeting today.

During her meeting with Fenghe, Sitharaman said that differences should not lead to disputes in relations between India and China, officials said.

In August last year, India and China ended their 73-day standoff between their troops in Dokalam. The standoff had strained ties considerably between the two countries.

The annual summit of the SCO, in which India is the latest entrant along with Pakistan, will take place in the Chinese city of Qingdao in June.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to attend it.

The SCO, headquartered in Beijing, was founded in 2001.

Comprising China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, India and Pakistan, the SCO aims at military cooperation between the member states and involves intelligence sharing, counter-terrorism operations in Central Asia and joint work against cyber terrorism.

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Even the dead have dignity. They cannot be "named or shamed."



This was the observation of the Supreme Court today as it dealt with the issue of disclosure of identity of rape victims, including the eight-year-old girl who was raped and brutally murdered recently in Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir.

It said that even in cases where the rape victims were alive and were either minors or of unsound mind, their identities should not be revealed as they have the right to privacy and they cannot live under such a "stigma" throughout their life.

"Think of the dignity of dead also. It (media reporting) can be done without naming or shaming them. The dead also have dignity," a bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said while hearing the matter in which senior lawyer Indira Jaising raked up the issue of section 228-A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which deals with disclosure of identity of victims of sexual offences.

The bench, which agreed to examine the aspect related to section 228-A of the IPC, also questioned as to how the identity of a minor rape victim could be disclosed even after getting consent from her parents.

"Why should this happen, that the identity of a minor victim be disclosed just because her parents have given consent," the bench asked, adding, "Even if a person is of unsound mind, she has a right to privacy. A minor will become major. Why should this stigma be there for life".

Jaising, who is assisting the court as an amicus curiae, said it was necessary for the apex court to clarify section 228-A of the IPC.

She said there cannot be a "blanket ban" on the media from reporting such incidents and the apex court would have to balance freedom of press and the rights of the victim.

During the hearing, the bench observed that the issue required clarification. It asked that even in cases where the victim had died, "why should there be disclosure of name".

Jaising, without directly referring to the Kathua incident, said in a recent case, the victim had died which had led to demand for justice not only in India but also globally.

The bench said it would examine the issue related to section 228-A of the IPC, after which the Centre's counsel sought time to seek instructions. The court then listed the matter for hearing on May 8.

The top court was hearing the petitions filed after the brutal gangrape-and-murder case in Delhi on December 16, 2012 raising concerns over safety and security of women.

Last week, the Delhi High Court had directed 12 media houses to pay a compensation of Rs 10 lakh each for revealing the identity of the Kathua rape victim. These media houses had apologised in the high court for revealing the details of the victim.

While Section 23 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act lays down the procedure for media to report cases of sexual offences against child victims, section 228-A of the IPC deals with disclosure of identity of victims of such offences. The penal law provides for jail term of up to two years along with a fine.

The eight-year-old girl from a minority nomadic community had disappeared from near her home in a village near Kathua in Jammu region on January 10. Her body was found in the same area a week later.

The state police's Crime Branch, which probed the case, has filed the main charge sheet against seven persons and a separate charge sheet against a juvenile in a court in Kathua district. The charge sheet revealed chilling details about how the girl was allegedly kidnapped, drugged and raped inside a place of worship before being killed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Dokalam standoff happened due to "lack of mutual trust" between India and China, and they need to work together to create favourable conditions and gradually settle the boundary issue, a top Chinese diplomat said today, ahead of this week's informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Indian and Chinese troops had been locked in a stand-off for over two months last year in the Dokalam area near Sikkim before "disengaging" on August 28. The area of the standoff is also claimed by Bhutan.

"The boundary incident that happened (at Dokalam) last year someway reflected lack of mutual trust between the two countries," Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou told the media when asked about the Dokalam standoff.

Asked whether the Dokalam standoff and the boundary issue will figure in the talks between Prime Minister Modi and President Xi, Kong said the two leaders decided to hold informal summit "because both the countries attach great importance to each other in external strategy, not because of the boundary question that still remained unresolved, that we need to talk about it during the informal summit".

India-China boundary dispute spans to 3,488-km along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Both sides have held 20 rounds of talks between the Special Representatives to resolve it.

"Of course, the boundary question is important. Both sides need to work together to create favourable conditions and gradually settle it. Proper settlement of boundary question will help deepen cooperation and deepen mutual understanding and trust between the two countries," Kong said.

He said both China and India needs to even make greater efforts to deepen their mutual trust.

"At the informal summit, the two leaders will have heart-to-heart discussions on the issues of overarching, long-term and strategic importance to bilateral relations. In terms of some specific differences or sensitive issues, the two sides will stay in touch with each other through relevant channels. In the process of deepening mutual trust, they will gradually find a way to try to settle them," he said.

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Dr Reddy's Laboratories today said it has received an establishment inspection report (EIR) from the US health regulator after audit of its UK facility.

"With regard to the audit of our API Mirfield plant, United Kingdom, we would now like to inform you that we have received an establishment inspection report (EIR) from the USFDA, for the above-referred facility, indicating closure of the audit," Dr Reddy's said in a regulatory filing.

The USFDA issues an EIR to the establishment that is the subject of an FDA or FDA-contracted inspection when the agency decides to close the inspection.

In September last year, the US health regulator had made three observations after inspecting Dr Reddy's Laboratories' API Mirfield plant, United Kingdom.

Shares of Dr Reddy's Laboratories were trading at Rs 2,170.35 apiece on BSE, up 1.71 per cent from previous close.

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The first look and teaser of Sanjay Dutt's much-awaited biopic is finally out and the Rajkumar Hirani-directed movie, featuring Ranbir Kapoor in the lead role, is titled "Sanju".

The first poster of the film was launched earlier today featuring Ranbir in the five iconic looks of Dutt from different phases of his life, starting from "Rocky" and going on to the time he was released from Yerwada Central Jail in 2016, after serving a five-year sentence in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts case.

The teaser begins with Ranbir breaking the fourth wall, as he introduces his story to the audience and takes them across different stages of his life both on and off-screen.

Even though, Dutt's life has been full of ups and downs, Hirani has tried to leave his 'feel good' signature on the biopic of one of Bollywood's most controversial and loved stars.

The title of the film is reflective of the director's understanding of capturing even the most miniscule details of the actor's life as his mother Nargis Dutt used to fondly address him "Sanju", which became a popular nickname for him besides 'Baba'.

In the teaser, Ranbir manages to look the part and carry Dutt's characteristic gait.

Hirani has maintained that the film will not glorify his frequent-collaborator's life.

The video clip supports his claims as Ranbir talks about Dutt's drug addiction, run-ins with law including a faint mention of AK-56, which led to his arrest.

Also starring Dia Mirza, Sonam Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Manisha Koirala, Paresh Rawal and Vicky Kaushal among others, the film releases on June 29.

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The Enforcement Directorate has arrested a city-based man for allegedly running a trade-based money laundering racket estimated to be over Rs 2,200 crore, officials said today.

Mohammed Farooq (39) was arrested by the agency yesterday here under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they said.

The money laundering case pertains to an instance where 13 firms, including one identified as Stelkon Infratel Pvt Ltd,remitted about Rs 2,252 crore funds to overseas destinations during 2015-16 by submitting non-existent and forged import documents to the banks.

It said the actual bills of entry were only for Rs 24.64 crore.

The ED said its probe found that these 13 firms had fake addresses and dummy persons as directors and Farooq used to "control" them indirectly and was the "kingpin" of this trade-based money laundering business.

Farooq, they said, was allegedly operating about 135 bank accounts in various banks in Mumbai to send the funds abroad through hawala, which is an illegal process of sending funds overseas by skirting the regular banking channels.

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In a big-ticket real estate deal, Essar group has sold prime commercial property Equinox Business Parks at Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) in Mumbai to global investment firm Brookfield for Rs 2,400 crore.

Essar today said it has completed the sale of Equinox Business Parks to Brookfield Asset Management for an enterprise value of Rs 2,400 crore.

This 10-acre business park comprises four towers, with a leasable office space of about 1.25 million sq ft.

"We have been able to conclude a marquee deal with a quality investor, Brookfield, who has an enviable track record of highly strategic and well-considered acquisitions.

"This is among the largest transactions in India's commercial real estate sector, and demonstrates the value we have been able to create in our Equinox investment," said Anshuman Ruia, Essar.

Some of the companies that occupy space in the business park are Tata Communications, Experian, Crompton Greaves and Lafarge, Essar said in a statement.

The group would utilise the entire sale proceeds to repay loans. It is reducing debt by monetising non-core assets.

"We are excited to bring Brookfield's placemaking capabilities to Mumbai's main business district. We will invest significant capital, introduce more F&B and modern amenities, and establish Equinox as a high-quality office destination," said Ankur Gupta, Brookfield's Real Estate Head (India).

Essar group had announced in 2016 that it would sell the property to Bengaluru-based realty firm RMZ Corp, but the deal could not be concluded.

Unlike the housing sector, the commercial real estate, especially the office segment, is performing fairly well and has been attracting huge investment from domestic and foreign investors.

Recently, realty major DLF's promoters concluded the sale of their 40 per cent stake in rental arm DLF Cyber City for nearly Rs 12,000 crore.

In September 2015, Godrej Properties had sold 4.35 lakh sq ft area in Godrej BKC project to Abbott for Rs 1,480 crore in one of the largest office space deals.

Brookfield has significant presence in Indian real estate market. It had bought six IT-SEZ projects from Unitech group in 2014 for around Rs 2,000 crore.

Global private equity major Blackstone and Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC also own many commercial properties in the country.

Essar is a global investor, controlling a number of world-class assets diversified across the core sectors of metals & mining, energy, infrastructure (comprising ports and EPC businesses) and services (shipping, IT and retail businesses).

The group invests long-term capital into the portfolio companies, which had an aggregate revenues of about USD 15 billion in 2017-18 and employ over 8,000 people.

Brookfield Asset Management Inc is a leading global alternative asset manager with approximately USD 285 billion in assets under management.

The company has more than a 100-year history of owning and operating assets with a focus on property, renewable power, infrastructure and private equity.

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Tripura Speaker Rebati Mohan Das today said the CBI has informed him that it would quiz former ministers and CPI(M) MLAs Badal Choudhury, and Bijita Nath in connection with the multi-crore Rose Valley chit fund scam in the state.

Choudhury was the finance minister and Nath the social welfare minister in the previous Manik Sarkar government in the state.

In the run up to the Assembly polls, the BJP-Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) alliance had announced to hand over the investigation into the Rose Valley scam to CBI immediately after coming to power in the state in March this year.

"I received the letter yesterday from CBI Superintendent of Police Sudip Roy saying that the investigation agency will grill the two former ministers and requested me to inform them about it. I have already informed both of them," Das told PTI.

CBI sleuths will grill Nath tomorrow at her residence at Bagbasa in North Tripura district and Chowdhury at the MLA hostel here on Thursday, official sources said.

Nath and CPI(M) central committee member Goutam Das were grilled in connection with the scam in June last year.

Choudhury, who was in charge of the finance portfolio from 2004 to 2008, said that he has received a communication on the CBI quizzing.

"They (CBI) will speak to me at the MLA hostel here on Thursday. I am open to questions," he said.

According to sources, the probe agency has also sought to know details of Choudhury's private secretary, Sekhar Dutta, who served with him when he was the minister. Choudhury had been a minister for six terms since 1978 in the first Left Front government.

Nath said she is "prepared" to face questioning by the CBI.

Tripura Congress vice-president Tapas De welcomed the CBI probe and said the party had held a series of agitations demanding investigation by the central agency into the Rose Valley chit fund scam.

"Many CPI(M) leaders and ministers were involved (in the scam). Over 14 lakh people lost their money to Rose Valley. We are happy that CBI has agreed (to conduct the probe) at last," he said.

BJP spokesperson Mrinal Kanti Deb said, "We welcome it. People will get justice now."



Assets of Rose Valley in 20 locations across Tripura were attached by the state government in 2016.

Thirty-seven cases related to chit fund companies were forwarded to the central investigating agency in 2013 by the Tripura government but the CBI is investigating only five of them.

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Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath held a "chaupal" and dined at a Dalit's house in Pratapgarh last night, in an effort to reach out to Dalits ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The chief minister took part in the "chaupal" (village meeting) in Kandhaipur Madhupur village and gave a patient hearing to problems of locals, saying benefits of various government schemes should reach every eligible individual.

Directing officials to take steps for immediate redressal of problems faced by common people, he asked them to earnestly carry out their work as government will not tolerate any laxity in this regard.

Giving an account of the various works being undertaken by both the Centre and state government, the chief minister interacted with locals to check the ground reality of schemes under the "Gram Swaraj Abhiyan".

He later had dinner at Dayaram Saroj's house sitting cross legged on the ground along with locals.

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Traditionally high-status Americans voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election as they felt that their status in the US and the world was threatened by growing racial diversity, a study has found.

It was so far believed that the white working class, having faced job losses and stagnant wages under former US President Barack Obama, voted with their pocketbooks when they chose Trump, researchers from University of Pennsylvania in the US said.

However, the study published in the journal PNAS supports the idea that many Trump voters are feeling left behind, but not for reasons related to personal financial problems or economic anxiety about the future.

"Political uprisings are often about downtrodden groups rising up to assert their right to better treatment and more equal life conditions relative to high-status groups," said Professor Diana C Mutz from University of Pennsylvania.

"The 2016 election, in contrast, was an effort by members of already dominant groups to assure their continued dominance and by those in an already powerful and wealthy country to assure its continued dominance," Mutz said.

Based on survey data from a nationally representative panel of the same 1,200 American voters polled in both 2012 and 2016, researchers found that traditionally high-status Americans, namely whites, feel their status in America and the world is threatened by America's growing racial diversity and a perceived loss of US global dominance.

Under threat by these engines of change, America's socially dominant groups increased their support in 2016 for the candidate who most emphasised reestablishing status hierarchies of the past.

Researchers followed voters over a four-year period to assess their changing views of trade, the threat posed by China, their sense of group threat, and perceptions of their own personal finances, as well as experiences of unemployment and the economic conditions in their local communities.

As in previous elections, most voters in 2016 simply supported the candidate of the same party that they voted for in 2012.

However, the key to understanding the 2016 outcome lies in what changed from 2012 to 2016 that predicted changing vote choice, researchers said.

Trump's rhetoric during the 2016 election capitalised on the fears of Americans who currently enjoy dominant status in society, most notably those who were white, Christian, male, or some combination of the three, they said.

Many of those Americans, Mutz found, switched from voting for the Democrat in 2012 to the Republican in 2016.

Particularly those who found societal changes threatening voted for Trump in an effort to maintain their perceived social dominance in the country and the world.

The status threat experienced by many Americans was not only about their place in American society.

In contrast to the conventional wisdom in political science that international affairs don't matter to how people vote, researchers found that Americans feel increasingly threatened by the interdependence of the US with other countries.

Their sense that America is no longer the dominant superpower it once was influenced their vote in 2016.

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A court here today convicted five people and sentenced them to life imprisonment for abducting and murdering a 22-year-old woman, a lawyer said.

Additional District Sessions Judge Rajesh Bhardwaj also imposed a fine of Rs 8,500 each on the convicts after holding them guilty, he said.

According to government lawyer Yogesh Sharma, the woman was abducted and strangulated. Her body was found dumped in sugarcane fields in a village in Budhana Police Station area in June 2014.

The police registered a case against five people in this connection, he said.

In another case, the court convicted three people for murdering a 25-year-old man and sentenced them to life imprisonment.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 6,000 each on the accused.

According to the prosecution, the man was stabbed to death after he opposed the eve teasing of his cousin.

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Following are PTI's expected/top



stories from the eastern region at 4.30pm.

STORIES IN THE PIPELINE:



Kolkata: Panchayat case in Calcutta High Court.

STORIES ON THE WIRE:



CES1



MG-POLL-MARAK



Want to fulfill husband's aspirations for Williamnagar: Marak



Tura: Krinilla Marak, the wife of deceased NCP leader Jonathone N Sangma, has stepped into her husband's shoes and filed nominations recently for the April 27 election to Williamnagar assembly constituency.

CES2



AS-NDFB(S)- OPERATION



Army launches hunt for dreaded NDFB(S) leaders



Kokrajhar (Assam): The Army has launched a massive hunt engaging helicopters and deploying over 1000 security personnel to catch two senior NDFB(S) militant leaders in Chirang district and the Manas Reserve Forest, defence sources said.

CES3



OD-CHILD MARRIAGE



Child marriage foiled in Ganjam district



Berhampur (Odisha): An attempt to marry off a 16-year-old orphan girl by her guardian has been foiled by child rights activists and government officials in Ganjam district, the police said today.

CES4



OD-ASSEMBLY



Odisha House adjourned twice amid ruckus by Opp members



Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Assembly was today adjourned twice over various demands and allegations by the members of the opposition Congress and the BJP.

ERG1



MN-POWER



Assam Rifles provides electricity to interior Manipur village



Imphal: At least 26 houses of Sehlon village in the isolated exterior areas of Chandel district of Manipur bordering Myanmar have been provided with electricity for the first time since Independence, an Assam Rifles statement said.

ERG2



WB-SENIORS-MATCH



Second shot at love for senior citizens of Kolkata



Kolkata: Age is no bar for finding love, as was evident at a companionship meet in the city, where eleven senior citizens came together in search of a new lease of life.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A notorious criminal, wanted for carrying out daring heists in India and Nepal, and four of his associates were arrested here following an encounter with the Special Task Force (STF) of the Uttar Pradesh Police, officials said today.

Avinash Chandra Tripathi carried a reward of Rs 50,000 on information leading to his arrest, officials said today.

The gangster and his aides were cornered by a STF team near Jubilee College about 11.30 pm yesterday and arrested after a shoot out, they said.

Giving details, they claimed Avinash Chandra Tripathi escaped from police custody in 2014 in Lucknow and was involved in a case of Rs 1 crore loot in Maharashtra the same year, a Rs 60 lakh loot from a jeweller in Vadodara in Gujarat in 2015 and a two kg gold loot in Ghangadi in Nepal last year.

Others arrested were identified as - Shamsher Singh, Santosh Kumar, Rahul Tripathi and Vishal Tripathi, they said.

A pistol, a number of cartridges, two diamonds and a gold necklace and a SUV were recovered from their possession, the STF officials claimed.

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A super-sized mosquito with a wingspan of 11.15 centimetres has been found in China's Sichuan province, entomologists said today.

According to Zhao Li, curator of the Insect Museum of West China, the mosquito belongs to the world's largest mosquito species Holorusia mikado.

It was found in August last year during a field trip to Mount Qingcheng in Chengdu, capital of south-west China's Sichuan province, Xinhua agency reported.

First found in Japan, the Holorusia mikado species normally have a wing span of about eight centimetres, researchers said.

"These mosquitoes look horrendous, but do not feed on blood. The adults have a lifespan of only a few days and mainly feed on nectar," Li said.

There are thousands of types of mosquitoes in the world, however, barely 100 species feed on blood and may be a problem for humans, he said.

In the western parts of Sichuan, Holorusia mikado, also known as the crane fly, are mainly found in the Chengdu plain and in mountainous areas below 2,200 metres.

"They are weak fliers because of their big bodies. When they fly, it is more like hopping. More often than not, they are found in areas with dense vegetation," Li said.

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A 13-year-old girl is in a critical condition after she was allegedly raped and beaten by a 16-year-old juvenile in Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur Dehat district, the police said today.

The accused, a neighbour, allegedly committed the crime in the presence of his sister in Shivli town on Sunday, said Ratan Kant Pandey, Kanpur Dehat deputy inspector general (DIG).

The juvenile, along with his father and mother, also allegedly beat up the girl, leaving her seriously injured. They threatened her of dire consequences if she dared to speak up, before letting her go home, Pandey said.

The girl was admitted to a district hospital, from where she was shifted to Lala Lajpat Rai Hospital here. Her condition is said to be critical, the DIG said.

The victim, however, narrated the incident to her family, who reported it to Shivli police station yesterday, the officer said.

An FIR was registered under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the juvenile has been detained and his father and mother arrested today, he said.

It has been decided to slap relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, he added.

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A 22-year-old man was today arrested for allegedly raping a minor girl in February in Zuarinagar, about 40 kilometres from here, police said.

Verna police officials said that Nurjul Islam was arrested for raping a 14-year-old in February after the victim's mother filed a complaint today.

"The girl's mother filed a complaint today stating that the victim got pregnant after being raped by the accused. A case has been registered against him under relevant sections of the IPC, the Goa Children's Act and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO). Investigations are underway," the official said.

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Gold bars worth over Rs 2.59 crore were recovered from a Jet Airways flight at the international airport here today.

Acting on a specific input, the Air Intelligence Unit of Customs searched a Jet Airways flight, which had arrived from Dubai, an official said.

"During the course of rummaging, the AIU officials recovered six gold bars, each weighing one kilogram each, with foreign marking, and six gold pieces, each weighing 2,990 grams," the Customs official said.

He informed that the collective worth of the gold seized was Rs 2,59,04,146.

"The unclaimed gold bars were covered with black adhesive tape and were hidden below the cushion of two seats," the official said.

The official informed that the gold had been seized under provisions of the Customs Act due to the "reasonable belief" that it was being smuggled into the country.

Further investigation into the matter was underway, he added.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said the promulgation of an ordinance on rape demonstrated his government's determination to act on the issue, but stressed that people had to respect their daughters and make their sons more responsible for an atmosphere of safety.

Modi also pitched for a social movement to ensure the safety of women and girls while addressing a rally here.

"Shivraj ji (Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan) just referred to the capital punishment provided in the ordinance for rape against minors and I could see that it (the remark) received cheers from everyone present here," he said.

"There is a government in Delhi which listens to your voice and takes decisions. So, the Centre has made a provision for capital punishment to the monstrous intent," he said while referring to the recent ordinance.

The Union Cabinet on April 21 approved the ordinance under which the death penalty could be awarded to those convicted of raping girls below 12 years of age, amid a nation-wide outrage over cases of sexual assault and murder of minors in Kathua and Surat and the rape of a teenager in Unnao.

Modi, however, called upon the people to create an atmosphere for the safety of daughters.

"Families will have to enhance the honour and respect of daughters. Families should also make their sons more responsible," he said, while addressing the National Panchayati Raj Sammelan at Ramnagar in the tribal-dominated Mandla district.

"In this way, the safety of daughters would not be a difficult task. We have to launch a social movement in this direction," he said.

He also talked about the welfare of tribals and farmers and asked the elected representatives of Panchayats to educate villagers to become self-dependent in farming.

The prime minister also urged the panchayat representatives to spend NREGA funds during the months of April, May and June only on works related to water conservation.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said sons have to be made more responsible for a safe environment for daughters and asserted that the promulgation of an ordinance on rape showed the Centre acted on people's outrage on sexual crimes against minors.

Days after the government approved the ordinance allowing courts to award the death penalty to those convicted of raping girls below the age of 12 years, Modi also called for a social movement to ensure the safety of girls.

"Shivraj ji (Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan) just referred to the capital punishment provided in the ordinance for rape against minors and I could see that it (the remark) received cheers from everyone present here," Modi said while addressing a rally here.

"There is a government in Delhi which listens to your voice and takes decisions. So, the Centre has made a provision for capital punishment to the monstrous intent," he said.

The Union Cabinet had on April 21 okayed the ordinance amid a nation-wide uproar over the rape and murder of minors in Kathua and Surat and the rape of a teenager in Unnao.

"Those who commit such ghastly crimes will hang," the prime minister said.

Modi, while addressing the National Panchayati Raj Sammelan at Ramnagar in Madhya Pradesh's Mandla district, also pitched for creating an atmosphere for daughters' safety within the family.

"Families will have to enhance the honour and respect of daughters. Families should also make their sons more responsible.

"In this way, the safety of daughters would not be a difficult task. We have to launch a social movement in this direction," Modi said.

He also mentioned measures taken by the government for the welfare of tribals and farmers and asked the elected representatives of panchayats to ensure that these steps were implemented.

"Earlier, bamboo was considered a tree and it was hard for the villagers to use bamboo (wood). Now the government has categorised it as grass. Farmers can grow bamboo on the boundaries of their farmland and have an additional income," Modi said.

The country imports bamboos worth Rs 12,000-15,000 crores every year, he said.

The prime minister also urged panchayat representatives to spend NREGA funds during the summer months of April, May and June only on works related to water conservation.

"We should work for saving rain water. Panchayats should spend NREGA funds on water conservation during April, May and June. Every drop of rain should be conserved. This would not only save our money but also save villages from water shortages and help in agriculture," he said.

In his speech at the rally in the tribal-dominated district, Modi also referred to the role of members of tribal communities and others in India's freedom struggle, and said it was unfortunate that only the contribution of a few families was mentioned in its history.

"To highlight the contribution of those people who have played a major role in the freedom struggle since 1857, a museum will be set up in every state to remember those who sacrificed their lives for the country's independence so that new generations will come to know about their sacrifice," he said.

On the occasion of National Panchayati Raj Day, Modi also urged people in rural areas to focus on "Jan Dhan, Van Dhan and Gou Dhan" (human wealth, forest resources and the bounty of cows) to develop villages as envisaged by the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi.

"By 2022, when the country celebrates the 75th anniversary of its independence, we should strive to make villages as envisioned by Mahatma Gandhi. It can be done by using villages' manpower for developing villages, Van Dhan by collecting neem seeds for coating urea and Gou Dhan by using cow dung for producing electricity, bio-gas and manure for becoming self-reliant," Modi said.

He also called upon them to opt for bamboo farming and honey cultivation to raise their earnings.

During his visit here, the prime minister also laid the foundation stone for an LPG bottling plant at Maneri in the district.

The Rs 120-crore plant will supply LPG cylinders to all neighboring districts including Balaghat, Singrauli, Rewa, Shahdol and Jabalpur.

He called upon the public representatives to ensure that people in their respective panchayats were fully covered under the Jan-Dhan programme and the Prime Minister's Insurance Scheme which only needed a premium of 90 paise.

Even the poor, who could be smoking a beedi which cost more than that every day, could afford 90 paise, he said.

Modi also handed over a cheque of Rs 2 lakh to a woman who lost her husband as a beneficiary of the insurance scheme.

"There is no problem of a budget. But there is a problem of priorities and transparent implementation of the developmental schemes. Public representatives can play a major role in it," he added.

Earlier, Modi launched a scheme that seeks to strengthen the country's Panchayati Raj system and address the critical gaps that hinder its success.

The Central government's Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan aims at making rural local bodies self-sustaining, financially stable and more efficient.

Modi also unveiled a roadmap for the development of tribal areas of Madhya Pradesh over the next five years. Under the plan, Rs 2 lakh crore will be spent for the development of areas under tribal panchayats.

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A sessions court here today remanded Amreli Superintendent of Police (SP) Jagdish Patel, arrested for his alleged role in extorting bitcoins and cash from a builder, in police custody till May 1.

Patel was arrested by the Gujarat CID-Crime yesterday after he was questioned throughout the day at the department's office in Gandhinagar.

The court of sessions judge N C Rawal today allowed police remand of Jagdish Patel till May 1, even as the CID, which is investigating the case, had sought a 14-day remand saying his role in the case of kidnapping, extortion, and illegal detention of a realtor from Surat, Shailesh Bhatt, was revealed by policemen arrested in the case.

The CID said that Inspector Anant Patel, arrested earlier in the case, had said that the SP had given him Rs 40 lakh to distribute among other policemen, also arrested in the case, for legal expenses.

On April 8, the CID-Crime had registered a case against Anant Patel and others for allegedly kidnapping Bhatt and extorting bitcoins, a popular crypto-currency, and demanding Rs 32 crore from him.

Bhatt had also alleged that Anant Patel kidnapped him and extorted bitcoins at the behest of the Amreli SP.

Police had earlier said they were verifying Bhatt's claim of digitally transferring 200 bitcoins to Anant Patel.

The exchange rate of one bitcoin is over Rs 5 lakh at present, according to websites which track the prices of crypto-currencies.

Bitcoin is a type of digital money that is issued and normally controlled by its developers and used and accepted among the members of the virtual community.

The Centre has said it does not recognise bitcoin or any other crypto-currency as legal tender in India.

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The Haryana Police has arrested two persons, who had allegedly duped people on the pretext of doubling their money in five years, police said today.

The accused, identified as Inder Singh, a resident of Lavan Majra village, and Jagu Ram, branch manager, a resident of Bhakli village, a spokesperson of the police department said here.

He said that the police has registered a case against 10 persons, including two brothers, who are the operators of the firm.

The spokesperson said that Singh and his brother Agnivesh had opened a company in the Brass Market, Rewari namely Navjyoti BRF Private Limited in 2010.

"The company promised people to double their money in five years. As many as 30 agents were hired to bring customers. Large number of people from Rewari and Mahendragarh had invested about Rs 8 to 10 crore in the company. After completion of the time period, the investors demanded their double amount, but the company started making excuses," he said in an official release.

Even the office in the Brass Market was shut down by the owners. When the dispute increased, the owners gave assurance to return money in March.

After not getting their money even in April, the investors made a complaint to the superintendent of police, Rewari, he said.

Following the complaint, the police started investigation and arrested two accused, who were produced in the court today.

Singh has been sent to four-day remand and Jagu Ram has been sent to a day's police remand, he added.

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To spread awareness among teenagers about sexual abuse, Delhi High Court Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal conducted a sensitisation programme for the students of a well-known school on the law and punishment for sexual offences here today.

Justice Mittal, who is also the executive chairperson of the Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DSLSA), accompanied the students of Modern School, Barakhamba Road, to a nearby police station and LNJP Hospital, where they were told about 'One Stop Centres' which provide facilities such as medical assistance and counselling to victims of sexual offences and abuse.

A statement issued by the office of the Registrar General of the Delhi High Court said the objective of the programme was to make children aware of the forms of sexual violence and to empower them to take remedial action if any such incident takes place with them or if they come to know about it.

At the same time, the students were cautioned that if they commit any such act, they could be held responsible for their action under the law.

The statement also said that at the Barakhamba Road police station, the students were educated about its working and they were made aware about how



complaints are lodged as well as the manner in which the rights of the victims and accused are protected by the police.

A similar sensitisation programme is scheduled to be held on April 26 for Air Force Bal Bharti School and on April 27 for Mothers' International School, it said.

The sensitisation programme is part of a module being prepared on educating students in the age group of 14-18 years about sexual violence.

The statement said that the module aims at creating awareness about cyber crimes and the digital world as children these days have easy access to digital media and may be susceptible to digital crimes.

It includes discussion on issues such as law and punishment for bullying, eve-teasing, and stalking, dating violence, peer abuse and elopement cases, as well as redressal mechanism like helplines and legal aid.

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The Delhi High Court today directed the Delhi government to immediately provide necessary facilities, including water, tents and food, to the slum dwellers of Mansarovar Park in east Delhi where a massive fire broke out yesterday in which a six-year-old girl died.

The court asked the authorities -- AAP government, Delhi Police, Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board, National Disaster Management Authority and Delhi Development Authority -- to examine the situation immediately where 300 shanties were burnt.

When the court was informed that some NGO is providing water to the affected persons at the spot, a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and C Hari Shankar asked the authorities to ensure that some containers or bottles are also made available to them.

"Authorities shall immediately examine the situation and ensure that facilities which are needed, including tents, be immediately provided to the residents of the slum," the bench said and listed the matter for further hearing on May 12.

The court also sought response of the Delhi government and other authorities on a plea by social activist Sunil Kumar Aledia seeking direction to provide water, food, medical facility, toilet, tent, clothes and utensils to the slum dwellers at the fire site.

The plea, filed through advocate Kamlesh Kumar Mishra, also said that the authorities be directed to organise voter ID and Aadhaar registration camps as the victims have lost their documents in the fire.

The plea also sought monetary compensation from the central government for the victims as they have lost personal belongings and their shelters.

As many as 300 shanties were gutted in the blaze that broke out at 1 pm yesterday. Fifteen firetenders were rushed to the spot near a railway line in Shahdara area and the fire was doused by 3.45 pm, the fire department officials had said.

The body of the girl was found after the fire was doused. The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained.

The petition claimed that several livestock such as goats, hens and dogs were also burnt and many people have received burn and other types of injuries.

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The Bombay High Court today told the joint commissioner of the city traffic police to suggest remedial measures to ease traffic in market areas like Crawford Market, Bhuleshwar and Zaveri Bazaar in south Mumbai.

A division bench of Justices N H Patil and G S Kulkarni also suggested to the traffic police to restrict access of vehicles in these areas during the day.

The bench was hearing a public interest litigation filed by a city resident, Rakesh Shukla, raising concerns over traffic congestion in south Mumbai.

"Areas like Crawford Market, Bhuleshwar and other bylanes in south Mumbai witness heavy congestion the whole day. There is no place to walk. If tomorrow there is any untoward incident like a fire, building collapse or accident it would create havoc," the court said.

"What the traffic police can do is restrict vehicular access to these places... at least during market hours. Let there be no parking also. Let the place be only for people to walk," it said.

The court also suggested to the police to consider the feasibility of having a multi-level parking facility or an underground one at a few places in south Mumbai.

The bench directed the joint commissioner of police, traffic department to hold meetings with experts and other stakeholders and come up with remedial measures.

It also said that if the department cannot deploy a traffic constable at each and every road or bylane, then it could rope in private agencies.

"You (traffic police) can give such private agencies training and they can man a road," the court said.

The bench posted the petition for further hearing on June 11.

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Private sector bank HDFC today opened its 100th branch in Bihar at Patna with an aim to expand banking services in the state.

The new branch, which is located on Fraser Road in Patna, was inaugurated by Navin Puri, Country Head, Retail Branch Banking, HDFC Bank.

"Our extensive 100 branch network in Bihar reiterates our commitment to take formal banking services to every corner of the state. Our objective is to empower more people in the state by offering them our full range of banking services including digital initiatives," Puri said in a release.

The new branch was inaugurated in the presence of Sandeep Kumar, Branch Banking Head- Bihar and Jharkhand and other senior officials of the bank, it said.

At present HDFC bank has 100 branches and 273 ATMs in the state, it said and added that the bank's journey in Bihar began in 2002 by opening its first branch at Exhibition road in the state capital.

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The district unit of Hindu Jagran Manch today demanded cancellation of auction of cows to be held on Thursday by the Deendayal Upadhyay Veterinary and Animal Sciences University here, even as the vice chancellor of the varsity clarified that the institute makes sure that farmers get the animals.

"A memorandum was submitted to the district magistrate demanding cancellation of the auction of cows by the Deendayal Upadhyay Veterinary University," state president of Hindu Jagran Manch Ghanshyam Lodhi said, adding it is against the order of the Governor who is the chancellor of the university.

He suggested that the cows can be transferred to government daily farms.

Prof K M L Pathak, the vice chancellor of the university, however said, "During auction of the cows, we ensure that it is given to farmers in order to enhance their income. Final auction is not given green signal in favour of people engaged in cow slaughter business, even if their bid is higher."



"Also an affidavit is taken from the farmer that he would not sell the cow," the vice chancellor said.

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Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur today said Union Minister Nitin Gadkari had approved a proposal of the Himachal Pradesh government to increase allotments under a central fund to improve roads in the hill state.

The Central Road Fund (CRF) for the state has been increased from Rs 210 cr to Rs 300 cr, the chief minister said in a press release issued here after his meeting with Gadkari in New Delhi.

"The Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways has given his approval to the proposal," he said.

The chief minister has also urged the Union Minister to set up a special fund under the CRF for improvement of black spots and construction of crash barriers on roads in Himachal Pradesh, according to the release.

In view of the topography of hill states and occurrence of accidents, Thakur said he had suggested that a concrete policy be made on road maintenance and safety.

"The Union Minister has approved the suggestion in principle," he said.

The chief minister also discussed and reviewed important issues of the state, which are pending with the ministry, the release read.

Senior officers of the Road Transport and Highways Ministry were also present in the meeting.

"Union Minister Nitin Gadkari asked the officers to complete the formalities for construction of new highways approved for the state.

"He also directed the authorities to ensure that in view of the tourist season, repair and construction work on national highways be undertaken in such a way that there no inconvenience is faced by tourists coming to the state, Thakur said.

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The Indian Air Force tested its capability in dealing with a possible scenario of nuclear and biological warfare during a 13-day-long mega military exercise whose aim was to sharpen its war waging capability in the wake of fast evolving regional security situation.

Official sources said the focus of the Gagan Shakti exercise from April 8 to 20 was to check the viability of IAF's operational plans to deal with any kind of challenge including nuclear warfare and a possible situation of a two-front war with China and Pakistan.

A major focus of the exercise was to check combat capability of the indigenously developed Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas and their performance was satisfactory, IAF sources said.

They said eight Tejas were deployed during the exercise and some of these had reported minor technical issues, adding each of the six Tejas had flown six sorties daily like any other platforms including Sukhoi, Mirage 2000 and MiG 29 jets.

The sources said aim of the exercise was to test IAF's combat readiness in a real time scenario, adding it had never carried out an exercise of this scale earlier.

A key focus of the exercise was to check IAF's readiness to deal with a biological, chemical and nuclear war and we were satisfied with our capability to deal with such situations, they said.

They also said all types of aerial weapons, including standoff and precision weapons were deployed to validate their use in the air operations matrix.

As part of the massive drill, the IAF deployed its entire assets for the pan-India exercise with fighter jets, equipped with strategic weapons like Brahmos and Harpoon anti ship missiles, carrying out deep penetration strikes to revalidate its strategic reach.

During the exercise, the sources said over 11,000 sorties were flown which included nearly 9,000 sorties by fighter aircraft.

The combat drill was carried out at a time when China was increasing its assertiveness along the borders with India and while Pakistan has been continuing its skirmishes along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.

The exercise covered all terrains including desert, high altitude areas like Ladakh and maritime sphere.

During combat drills near Sino-India border, the IAF significantly focused on inter valley transfer of troops considering various possible situations of conflict and taking a lesson from the Doklam standoff.

Ensuring serviceability of fighter aircraft and various missile systems were a priority area and the IAF succeeded in its endeavour, officials said.

The serviceability of surface-to-air missiles were around 97 per cent while serviceability of fighter jets were close to 80 per cent, they said.

Serviceability refers to availability of an aircraft or a weapon system for deployment. The IAF has been struggling to maintain high serviceability levels of its platforms due to difficulty in getting required spares.

Similarly, the IAF could ensure high levels of dispatch reliability which refers to ability to make the serviceable flying platforms airborne as and when required, the officials said.

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As Congress geared up to approach the Supreme Court against rejection of its notice to impeach CJI Dipak Misra, Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee today criticised the impeachment bid as "wrong" and said she had cautioned Sonia and Rahul Gandhi against the move.

Senior BJP leader and union minister Arun Jaitley said it would be "suicidal" for the Congress to challenge the decision by Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu, who defended his stand saying it was "timely and not hasty" as proper due diligence was done.

While West Bengal Chief Minister Banerjee said her party did not support the impeachment move as it did not want to interfere in the judiciary, Jaitley said Parliament is supreme in its own jurisdiction and its process cannot be subjected to a judicial review.

"We will move the Supreme Court against the rejection of our notice, but it will take some time," senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal said to a question on when his party will approach the apex court.

The Congress had yesterday lashed out at Naidu for rejecting the impeachment notice filed by seven opposition parties, including it, and had said it would move the court to challenge what it called was an illegal order.

In Kolkata, Banerjee said the Congress wanted support of her party on the impeachment move but she did not approve of it.

"The Congress was wrong to give impeachment notice against the CJI. The Congress wanted us to support it. But we did not," she told " 18 Bangla" channel.

"I told Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi not to go for impeachment," Banerjee said.

In the national capital, Jaitley wrote his second Facebook post within a week on the issue of impeachment, saying it would be "a suicidal future move" by Congress to challenge Naidu's decision.

Jaitley said the Chairman of Rajya Sabha or Speaker of Lok Sabha has the sole discretion whether to admit the motion or to decline to do so.

"The power to admit or to decline a motion is part of the legislative process of Parliament," he said.

Jaitley, himself is a renowned lawyer, said that a very large number of eminent lawyers are now Members of Parliament and most political parties have given nominations to some of them since their value, both in court and Parliamentary debates, is significant.

"The incidental impact of this has been a growing tendency of lawyer Members to drag intra court disputes into the parliamentary process. The misconceived motion for the impeachment of the Chief Justice of India is just one example of this," said, Jaitley, who is also Leader of the Rajya Sabha.

Jaitley said it was clear that the impeachment motion would never get support of two-third majority in both Houses of Parliament and the Congress Party also knew this.

"Its object was not the passage of the motion but intimidation of India's judiciary," the Finance Minister said.

Meanwhile, Naidu told a group of lawyers that he has "done the just thing in the best possible manner" expected of him on the impeachment issue, according to sources.

His order, which came within two days of the impeachment notice being sumitted to him, was slammed as "hasty, illegal and ill-informed" by the Congress.

Naidu said his decision was in strict conformity with the provisions of the Constitution and the Judges (Inquiry) Act of 1968.

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Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today that the rejected Congress-led impeachment motion against CJI was filed on untenable grounds to intimidate the Chief Justice of India and other judges of the highest judiciary.

Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu yesterday rejected the impeachment notice given by opposition parties led by the Congress against CJI Dipak Misra, saying it lacked substantial merit and the allegations were neither "tenable nor admissible".

In a Facebook post, Jaitley said an impeachment motion has to be filed in the rarest of rare cases where a "gross misconduct" has been indulged in by a delinquent judge during his tenure.

There has to be strong and hard evidence to substantiate this, he said, adding that hearsay and rumours are not a substitute for evidence.

"The present impeachment motion has been filed on untenable grounds. It has been filed for collateral purpose to intimidate the Chief Justice of India and other judges of the highest judiciary," said, Jaitley who is also the leader of the Rajya Sabha.

In the post, 'Why the Malafide Impeachment Motion was bound to fail?', he said the Congress party is capable of dragging the judges into an unsavoury controversy and make them controversial "should their judicial opinion not appear favourable in the cases in which the Party has an interest".

"To any political analyst it was clear that the impeachment motion would never get support of two-third majority in both Houses of Parliament. The Congress Party knew this. Its object was not the passage of the Motion but intimidation of India's judiciary," Jaitley said.

Referring to the indication given by the Congress that it would now challenge the order of the Rajya Sabha Chairman in the Supreme Court, the senior BJP leader said Parliament is supreme in its own jurisdiction and its process cannot be subjected to judicial review.

Jaitley noted that a very large number of eminent lawyers are now Members of Parliament and most political parties have given nominations to some of them since their value, both in court and Parliamentary debates, is significant.

"The incidental impact of this has been a growing tendency of lawyer Members to drag intra court disputes into the parliamentary process.

"The misconceived motion for the impeachment of the Chief Justice of India is just one example of this," said Jaitley, who himself is an eminent lawyer.

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India today underlined the need for a stable, secure and peaceful Afghanistan for the security and prosperity of the region.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, addressing separate meetings of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) here in the Chinese capital, asked the member states to strongly support the Afghanistan government's efforts for inclusive peace and reconciliation process and adopt an uncompromising approach towards the persisting threat of terrorism in that country.

In her address to the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers meeting, Swaraj said that peace in the war-torn Afghanistan could be achieved through political dialogue and reconciliation in an atmosphere free from terror and violence, within the framework of Afghan Constitution.

About 90 people, including security personnel and civilians, have died and 200 injured in a spate of terror attacks in the last three days in Afghanistan.

"I believe that peace and development in Afghanistan contributes to security and prosperity of the member states and the region as a whole. This can only be achieved through political dialogue and reconciliation in an atmosphere free from terror and violence, within the framework of Afghan Constitution," Swaraj said.

She asked the member states to "strongly support" the Afghanistan government's active effort "to implement Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-controlled, inclusive peace and reconciliation process".

"India actively supports the activation of the SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group, the Moscow Consultation Format and other mechanisms of dialogue and cooperation for restoration of peace and development in Afghanistan," Swaraj said at the meet, which was also attended by Pakistan Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif.

India and Afghanistan blame Pakistan for providing safe havens to terror groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, the Taliban and the Haqqani Network.

The Haqqani network has carried out a number of kidnapping and attacks against US interests in Afghanistan. The group is also blamed for several deadly attacks against Indian interests in Afghanistan, including the 2008 bombing of the Indian mission in Kabul that killed 58 people.

Addressing the SCO Council of Defence Ministers' meeting here, Sitharaman raised issues of cross-border terrorism, extremism, cyber security and narcotics trafficking, saying international terrorism is today the most serious threat to the peaceful societies.

Stressing that terrorism threatens to derail developmental aspirations and create sustained instability, both within countries and across national borders, she asked the member states to work towards the goal of a "stable, secure and peaceful Afghanistan".

Sitharaman strongly condemned the recent terror attack in Kabul, and said, "the SCO must adopt an uncompromising approach towards the persisting threat of terrorism in Afghanistan, as it is essential to advance peace and prosperity in the region".

"India is committed to doing all it can to assist Afghanistan in its quest to regain stability and reconstruct its economy and polity. This includes cooperation in building capacities and capabilities of the Afghan national security forces," the Defence Minister said.

In doing so, she said, India will continue to be guided by the requirements of the government of Afghanistan and the shared objectives of the international community.

Sitharaman, who is on her maiden visit to China after becoming defence minister, also called upon the member countries to closely coordinate and adopt a policy of zero tolerance towards terrorism.

The SCO, headquartered in Beijing, was founded in 2001.

Comprising China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, India and Pakistan, the SCO aims at military cooperation between the member states and involves intelligence sharing, counter-terrorism operations in Central Asia and joint work against cyber terrorism.

India and Pakistan were admitted last year into the organisation in which China plays an influential role.

India, she stressed, will continue to engage strongly with the SCO-Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure based in Tashkent in this regard.

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India did not endorse China's controversial Belt and Road Initiative at the just concluded Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Foreign Ministers' meeting while the rest of the eight-member bloc backed the pet project of President Xi Jinping.

"The foreign ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan reiterated their support for the 'Belt and Road Initiative' proposed by China," said a joint statement issued by SCO Foreign Ministers at the end of their one-day meeting here today.

India's name was conspicuously missing from the list of countries which endorsed the BRI in which China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a part.

"The parties support the use of the potential of countries, international organisations and multilateral institutions in the region to establish a broad, open and mutually beneficial partnership in the SCO region," the statement said.

India and Pakistan were admitted into the organisation in which China and Russia are influential members.

The meeting was convened to approve the agenda for the SCO summit to be held in Chinese city of Qingdao in June. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to attend the Summit.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj attended the SCO Foreign Ministers' meeting today.

Indian officials have not reacted to the joint statement which was released in Chinese and Russian languages.

India has been vocal in expressing its opposition to CPEC which traverses through the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). The USD 50 billion CPEC is a flagship project of the BRI, a pet initiative of President Xi.

India had boycotted the Belt and Road Forum (BRF) organised by China last year in Beijing to register its opposition to the project.

China is spending vast sums of money in different parts of the world building connectivity projects under BRI, which critics say is aimed at furthering its global influence.

The BRI is expected to figure in the informal summit between Modi and Xi at Wuhan on April 27-28.

The SCO Foreign Ministers also pointed out that the government and people of Afghanistan have made efforts to achieve national reconciliation, build a peaceful, stable, unified and prosperous country, eliminate terrorism, extremism and drug crimes.

It called on the international community to strengthen cooperation under the guidance of the United Nations to promote political solution in Afghanistan. The political settlement of the issue will create conditions for the sustainable development of the economy and the well-being of the people in Afghanistan, it said.

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India should focus on products and services with maximum export potential while signing free trade agreements (FTAs) with trading partners, a research note by NITI Aayog member V K Saraswat has said.

It said that before getting into a trade deal, India should review and assess its existing FTAs in terms of benefits to various stakeholders like industry and consumers, trade complementarities and changing trade patterns in the past decade.

Under FTAs, countries cut or eliminate duties on most number of goods traded between them besides liberalising norms to promote services trade and investments.

India has so far implemented several such agreements including with Singapore, Japan, South Korea and Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). It is also negotiating similar pacts with nations including Chile, Australia, New Zealand and European Union.

"The over-arching conclusion of this report is that FTAs have to be signed keeping two things in mind, mutually reciprocal terms and focusing on products and services with maximum export potential," it said.

The note also recommended negotiating bilateral FTAs with countries where trade complementarities and margin of preference is high.

It added that proper safety and quality standards should be set to avoid dumping of lower quality hazardous goods into the domestic market.

Besides, circumvention of rules of origin should be strictly dealt with by the authorities.

Citing an example, it said: "In case of India- Sri Lanka FTA, Sri lanka had started exporting copper to India by under invoicing of imported scrap in order to show higher value addition for qualifying for preferential rates under the FTA. Thus, Rules of Origin (ROO) norms can easily be circumvented by simple accounting manipulation to flood Indian markets".

The note on free trade agreements and their costs were prepared by Saraswat along with Mumbai-based economist Prachi Priya and Aniruddha Ghosh.

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An Indian businessman today won USD 1 million in a Duty Free draw at Dubai International Airport.

Prabin Thomas, who hails from Kerala businessman and runs a networking business that sells IT products, won the prize with ticket number 0471, Khaleej Times reported.

Though a regular buyer of local lottery tickets in India, Thomas has never won anything before, until he decided to try his luck with the Millennium Millionaire promotion and purchased his first ticket online.

"I will expand my networking business and probably start a small software company," he said after winning the prize.

Another Indian based in Dubai won a motorbike in the same draw.

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Indian-Chinese-origin lawmaker Indranee Rajah has been promoted as a Cabinet minister in Singapore in a reshuffle by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong today.

The reshuffle aims to give the younger generation of politicians exposure in government affairs.

Rajah, the daughter of senior police officer A T Rajah and an ethnic Chinese mother of Anglican faith, is the third woman to be made a full minister in the Cabinet.

The other two are Culture Minister Grace Fu and Manpower Minister Josephine Teo.

Rajah, 55, will be a minister in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), as well as second minister for finance and education.

The new appointments announced today are effective from May 1.

S Iswaran, a veteran in handling India-Singapore bilateral ties, will be appointed minister for communications and information.

Indian-origin Iswaran will continue in the ministry of trade and industry but will be redesignated as minister-in-charge of trade relations.

Janil Puthucheary, also an Indian-origin Malaysian but naturalised Singaporean, will be appointed senior minister of state (SMS) in the transport ministry.

Parliamentary Secretary Amrin Amin, 40, will also be promoted and continue in the ministries of health and home affairs.

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A leader of the Houthis in Yemen has denounced the Baha'i faith, further intensifying the ongoing persecution of the community in that country, an organisation representing the Baha'is community in India has said.

Abdel-Malek al-Houthi, the leader of the Houthis (an Islamic religious political armed movement) in Yemen, gave a speech recently to rally Yemenis against foreign powers and ideologies, it claimed.

Not only is the content of al-Houthi's speech deeply concerning, but also its context and some of its immediate consequences, said Bani Dugal, principal representative of the Baha'i international community to the United Nations.

Dugal said al-Houthi's has influence over a large number of armed followers and his latest speech is a call for mass atrocities against a religious minority which is genocidal in intent, according to a statement issued by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of India.

There are about two million followers of Baha'i faith in India.

In order to avoid disastrous consequences for thousands of Yemeni Baha'is, the international community must condemn these latest actions by al-Houthi in the strongest terms, to demand an end to the spread of vitriolic, false rhetoric, and incitement to hatred against the Baha'is, and to call for the immediate release of all Baha'is imprisoned in Yemen, she said.

Human rights organisations and leaders around the world have condemned the actions of Houthi authorities.

It is absolutely unfair to persecute innocent people without trial and adopting a judicial process. My sincere and strong appeal to all heads of countries to come forward and join hands to stop atrocities being done on innocent Baha'i community in Yemen," said Hasan Kamal Abidi, a prominent Shia of Lucknow.

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In a veiled attack on Pakistan, India today asserted that arguments of "political convenience" to provide an alibi for terrorist organisations are no longer tolerable and the international community should identify states that provide "sanctuary" to terror groups.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, addressing separate meetings of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) here in the Chinese capital, underlined India's strong opposition to cross-border terrorism and the urgent need to build a strong security architecture to combat the threat posed by it.

In her address at the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers' meeting, also attended by Pakistan Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif, Swaraj raised the issue of global terrorism.

There are a number of challenges that are being faced by the world today, foremost being the threat of global terrorism and the imminent need to build a strong security architecture to combat it, she said.

"Terrorism is an enemy of the basic human rights: of life, peace and prosperity," Swaraj said.

The criminal terrorist militias are not impeded by borders as they seek to destroy the architecture of international stability and build walls of fear in societies that believe in pluralism, she said.

"We strongly believe that our fight against terrorism should not only seek to eliminate terrorists but should also identify and take strong measures against States that encourage, support and finance terrorism and provide sanctuary to terrorists and terror groups," Swaraj said without mentioning any country.

Addressing the SCO Defence Ministers' meeting, Sitharaman raised the issue of cross-border terrorism and said the world has now realised that there are no good terrorists.

"Arguments of political convenience to provide an alibi for terrorist organisations that support terrorism through material support or otherwise are no longer tolerable. Indeed, as the world has now realised, there are no good terrorists," she said in the presence of Pakistan Defence Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan.

India and Afghanistan blame Pakistan for providing safe havens to terror groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, the Taliban and the Haqqani Network.

The Haqqani network has carried out a number of kidnapping and attacks against US interests in Afghanistan. The group is also blamed for several deadly attacks against Indian interests in Afghanistan, including the 2008 bombing of the Indian mission in Kabul that killed 58 people.

"We must adopt an uncompromising approach towards the persisting threat of terrorism in Afghanistan. India is committed to assist Afghanistan in regaining stability, including cooperation in building capabilities of Afghan security forces," the defence minister said.

Swaraj said maiming and killing innocent lives indiscriminately, constitutes the most blatant violation of human rights.

"We have to work together to wipe-out this scourge from the face of the earth. In order to realise this objective, we must unite across our differences, strengthen our resolve and script an effective strategy against terror. We welcome the clarity shown by the SCO on terrorism from its inception.

"We should also urgently resolve to establish Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism that India proposed more than two decades ago in the United Nations. We are determined to consistently strengthen cooperation within the SCO framework for comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security," Swaraj told the SCO foreign ministers.

The SCO, headquartered in Beijing, was founded in 2001.

Comprising China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, India and Pakistan, the SCO aims at military cooperation between the member states and involves intelligence sharing, counter-terrorism operations in Central Asia and joint work against cyber terrorism.

India and Pakistan were admitted last year into the organisation in which China plays an influential role.

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Cambridge Analytica (CA), the data consultancy firm at the heart of a fake investigation in the UK, today said that all its activities around the world, including in India, will be investigated and reported on.

A spokesperson for the company said that while CA was focussed purely on the US market, its global arm SCL Elections handled other regions.

"All the national issues and national associations are part and parcel of the independent investigation. Rest assured, India, Kenya, Nigeria, all the other countries that SCL has been working in historically, will be investigated and reported on as part of the independent investigation," he told reporters during a press conference here today.

The press conference came soon after an academic associated with the company, Aleksandr Kogan, gave his evidence to the UK Parliament's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport ( DCMS) Committee on its ongoing investigation into fake

Kogan's company, Global Science Research (GSR), developed a Facebook app that reportedly collected data from people who signed up to use the app as well as information from their Facebook friends, without the explicit approval of all involved.

He accused CA's now-suspended CEO Alexander Nix of "total fabrication" when it came to denying the links between Cambridge Analytica and GSR's data.

DCMS Committee chair Damian Collins said that Nix had told the committee in February that CA never received data from Kogan's company GSR, which did not have "much credibility any more given his own testimony today.

Last month, Christopher Wylie, a former employee of CA turned whistleblower, had told MPs during his evidence before the committee that the company had worked "extensively" in India and named the Congress as one of its clients.

In a post on Twitter later, the 28-year-old also named the Janata Dal (United) as a client during the 2010 Bihar elections and revealed some caste surveys carried out in Uttar Pradesh by SCL India the parent company of CA.

"I've been getting a lot of requests from Indian journalists, so here are some of SCL's past projects in India. To the most frequently asked question yes SCL/CA works in India and has offices there. This is what modern colonialism looks like," Wylie had tweeted.

His message included documents which indicate that SCL India boasted a database of "over 600 districts and 7 lakh villages, which is constantly being updated". Its reach in India is said to include a head office in Ghaziabad, with nine regional offices in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Cuttack, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kolkata, Patna and Pune.

"I don't remember a national project but I know regionally. India's so big that one state can be as big as Britain. But they do have offices there, they do have staff there," he had said, offering to provide more "documentation" to the committee on CA's India links.

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It is an era of "professional protestors" who like to protest outside Parliament or the President or the Prime Minister's house to make their voices heard, the Centre today told the Supreme Court, stressing that holistic steps are necessary to ensure peace and harmony.

The Centre was justifying the imposition of prohibitory orders under section 144 of CrPC in Central Delhi which houses most of the government buildings and VIP residences, after a PIL opposed continuous imposition of prohibitory orders, saying it obstructed the fundamental right to protest.

A bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan, which is hearing a plea filed by an NGO challenging the ban of all assemblies and protests in Central and the New Delhi area, was told by the Centre that there were some instances in the past, when during the protests, law and order situation has arisen.

"We are in an era where there are some professional protestors who like to protest outside the apex court, Parliament, President's house or Prime Minister's house. They don't like any other alternative place for protests. Many a times, during the protests there is a serious law and order situation. As a government, we need to take holistic steps," Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, said.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the NGO Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sanghatan, said there cannot be continuous imposition of prohibitory orders under section 144 of CrPC in entire Central Delhi, which is an emergency provision to be used at the time of apprehension of violence or law and order problems.

He objected to the ASG's comment "professional protestors" and said the government cannot ask people to go to Ramlila Maidan or Narela in west Delhi to protest, which is their fundamental right.

"The government in its affidavit justifies continuous imposition of prohibitory orders in entire Central Delhi, which is a huge area. There are various Supreme Court verdicts which recognises people's right to protest as a fundamental right. The protests are always near the place where government is seated," Bhushan said.

Mehta intervened and said he did not mean that all protestors are "professional protestors" but some of them are certainly are.

He said it is understandable of the government imposing prohibitory orders if there is a specific intelligence input or apprehension of protests by a group turning violent and creating serious breach of peace and harmony.

"We have no problem with the government imposing section 144 of CrPC, if there is specific intelligence of violence. The government has virtually declared the entire central Delhi as a prohibited area for holding any public meeting, dharna or peaceful protest by people who want their voices to be heard," Bhushan said.

Mehta, sarcastically, commented that it was high time that the apex court should "elevate the fundamental right to protest to right to livelihood."



The Centre in its affidavit has justified imposition of prohibitory orders citing over a dozen incidents of the past during which protests have turned violent and the police had to use tear gas and water cannon to control the mob.

The bench posted the matter for further hearing for April 27.

The apex court had earlier said it needed to take a holistic view of protecting the fundamental rights of citizens to protest, as well as protection of environment and rights of commuters, while earmarking space for agitations in Delhi. It had asked the Centre to file a comprehensive response in the matter.

On December 4 last year, the apex court had said proper guidelines should be framed on the issue of right to protest so as to ensure a balance between the fundamental right of the citizens to protest and maintenance of law and order.

The plea of the NGO had said continuous imposition of prohibitory orders was an "arbitrary and unreasonable restriction" on the fundamental rights of citizens to hold peaceful protest. The petition, has sought directions to formulate guidelines for holding public meetings, dharnas, peaceful demonstrations in parts of New Delhi.

"As per sub-section 4 of Section 144 CrPC, an order can be issued for a maximum period of two months. Therefore, the Delhi Police has adopted the tactic of issuing the same order repeatedly," the plea said.

It also sought to quash several orders passed by police from January to October last year by which the entire Central or New Delhi areas were declared prohibited areas.

The National Green Tribunal had on October 5 last year banned all protests at Jantar Mantar near Connaught Place on the ground that it created nuisance for the local residents and violated environment protection statutes.

The plea before the apex court has said that "with the NGT order banning protests at Jantar Mantar, it is evident that distancing a protest site from where it is most visible to the government and concerned authorities, will have the effect of diluting the impact that the protest seeks to gain.

"Besides the cost of using Ramlila Maidan for protests is Rs 50,000 per day which would make protests at the site practically impossible for the common citizens," it said.

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A 26-year-old Italian-Pakistani woman was killed allegedly by her family members to protect their "honour" in Pakistan's Punjab province, according to a media report today.

Sana Cheema was killed by her father, brother, and uncle for resisting their proposal to marry a relative, Geo reported.

According to police, the woman's family had initially termed the death as an "accident" and buried the body in West Mangowal area of Gujrat district of the province.

However, reports on social media suggesting that Cheema was murdered prompted the local police to investigate the matter.

During the probe it emerged that the girl's father, Ghulam Mustafa, wanted to marry her off to his relatives, while she wanted to get married in Italy.

The father then took on board his son, Adnan Mustafa, and brother, Mazhar Iqbal, and hatched a plan to kill her, according to the report.

The police have registered a case against the absconding trio.

In 2016, the death of 28-year-old British national Samia Shahid and the shocking murder of social media star Qandeel Baloch by her brother had turned the spotlight on the so-called honour killings in Pakistan, sparking a fresh push to close loopholes allowing the killers to walk free.

According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, as many as 50 honour killing cases have been recorded in the country till April 1 this year, while 460 such killings came to light in 2017.

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The Jammu and Kashmir Cabinet, that met here today under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, approved establishment of the State Knowledge Initiative Platform (SKIP), an official spokesperson said.

The SKIP aims to implement the recommendations of the knowledge initiative group as to serve as for generating knowledge-based policies and a clearing house for new ideas and to serve as permanent think-tank on all matters leading to education, knowledge and skills, he said.

The SKIP shall comprise a governing council, headed by the chief minister as Patron, advisor to chief minister as chairman, Minister for Education as Co Chairman and all other members of the working group for operationalisation of a knowledge initiate, the spokesperson added.

Administrative Secretary, Higher Education Department shall be the ex-officio secretary general of the council, he added.

The SKIP shall carry out its activities through its secretariat which shall comp



rise suitable personnel, initially drawn on deputation from the state government/autonomous bodies/universities, the spokesperson said.

The Cabinet observed that the role of the SKIP will be to advise the government on implementation of recommendations of the knowledge initiative group, implementation of the vision documents, preparation and implementation of policies, guidelines and schemes with multiple objectives, among others.

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The Delhi High Court today recalled its order taking on record an affidavit of the NDA government saying Jamia Millia Islamia was not a minority institution, and striking off the response of the erstwhile UPA government supporting its minority status.

The high court recalled its March 13 order saying it had "erronously" not noted that there were other parties in the matter who could have been affected by the proceedings.

It allowed the plea of the university Vice Chancellor, its Registrar and the teachers' association that the present government has not established any ground for replacement of the existing affidavit of August 29, 2011.

They said that neither were they served a copy of the Centre's recent application to take on record the fresh affidavit, nor were they heard before the disposal of the plea.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said there was merit in the submission and added "we have erronously not noted that there were other respondents, who could have been affected by the outcome of the proceedings".

The court said it was trite that all the affected parties were required to be heard before passing an order and recalled its March 13 order.

On March 13, the court had accepted the prayer made by the Centre's counsel and permitted them to file a fresh counter affidavit which was submitted on March 5. It had also said that the 2011 affidavit supporting the minority status, shall stand struck off from the record.

Reversing the previous government's stand, the Centre had filed the revised affidavit in the high court opposing the order of the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI) declaring Jamia Millia as a religious minority institution.

The HRD ministry, under then minister Kapil Sibal of the UPA-II government, had on August 29, 2011, submitted an affidavit in the court stating that the government respects the declaration made by NCMEI.

The fresh affidavit, filed by the BJP-led government last month, cited the Supreme Court's decision in the Azeez Basha Vs Union of India case of 1968 to justify the change in stand.

It stated that the first affidavit did not take note of the Azeez Basha case, in which the apex court had said that a university incorporated under an Act of Parliament cannot claim the status of a minority institution.

In any event, in the present case, the Board of Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) is elected and need not necessarily consist of majority belonging to Muslim religion. The question of it being a minority institution therefore does not arise, the affidavit, filed by deputy secretary of Department of Higher Education under the HRD ministry, had said.

Treating a central university as a minority education institution is repugnant to law besides undermining its status and is against the basic tenet of a central university.

"By no stretch of imagination, Article 30(1) could be read to mean that even if an educational institution has been established by a Central Act, still the minority has the right to administer it, the affidavit had said.

It had said that the earlier stand of the government that it respected the NCMEI's decision that JMI was a minority institution may be treated as withdrawn, considering its repugnancy vis-a-vis the facts and Supreme Court ruling in Azeez Basha's case and "treating it as an incorrect understanding of the government about the legal position that JMI is a minority institution".

The latest affidavit had concluded that JMI is not a 'minority institution' having been set up by an Act of Parliament and funded by central government and also that it was not set up by a minority sect.

The high court had in March 2011 sought the Centre's response on a petition seeking quashing of the order of the NCMEI conferring minority status to JMI.

Petitioner Vijay Kumar Sharma had argued that the commission's order was "contrary to law and violative of provisions of the Jamia Milia Islamia Act".

The February 22, 2011 order of NCMEI empowered the university to do away with all existing quota policies for the SC/ST and OBC candidates and reserve 50 per cent of the seats for Muslim students in all its programmes.

The petition had said,"the Commission order will mean, a large number of students belonging to non-Muslim community will be deprived of their right to seek admission in the university. Such a reservation cannot be allowed in a central university managed and funded by the state.

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The construction work for the proposed airport at Jewar, the second one in the national capital region, will start by year-end, Uttar Pradesh government said today.

The state government has received in-principle approval from the Centre for the project and expects the airport to have a capacity to handle 60 lakh passengers annually by 2022-23.

"After the green signal from the central government, the construction work for the much awaited second International airport in Delhi NCR region will commence by the end of 2018," Uttar Pradesh Civil Aviation Department said in a release.

The airport at Jewar would help in easing the traffic at the Delhi international aerodrome.

"Many sectors will benefit with the development of this airport and it will be really beneficial for the people of western Uttar Pradesh who have to travel more than 250 km for Delhi or Lucknow airports," Uttar Pradesh Civil Aviation Minister Nand Gopal Gupta said in the release.

Citing a report about the airport project prepared by consultancy PwC, the release said 88 per cent of the traffic there would be domestic.

Jewar Airport would be able to handle 10 million passengers annually by 2029-30 and 100 million by 2050.

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The proposed international airport at Jewar in Greater Noida, which got the final nod yesterday, is expected to handle over 10 crore passengers by 2050, PwC, the agency which prepared the techno-economic feasibility report for the airport, has projected.

It said 88 per cent of Jewar airport traffic would be domestic and 15 per cent international, adding that adjoining districts of Uttar Pradesh such as Agra and Gautam Budh Nagar would be the main contributors to the fliers volume to the airport.

It's likely that the passengers can take flights from the airport to international destinations such as London, Abh Dhabi, Doha, Dubai, Katmandu and Bangkok apart from flying to key domestic destinations, the report said.

"By 2050, Jewar Airport can serve 37 domestic and 31 international destinations," it said.

In its report, PwC has said it is expected to handle 60 lakh passengers by 2022-23, when the first phase of the project is slated to be ready and one crore passengers annually by 2029-30.

"And by 2050, the airport may look towards serving 100 million passengers a year," it added.

PWC was hired by the government to prepare the detailed project report, besides examining its techno-economic feasibility.

With the final approval from the Centre coming through, the UP Civil Aviation Department is now working on the bid process for construction of the greenfield airport, amid indications that the bids could be called in August.

Many sectors will benefit with the development of this airport and it will be really beneficial for the people of western UP who have to travel more than 250 km for Delhi or Lucknow Airports," UP's Civil Aviation Minister Nand Gopal Gupta said.

The strategic location of the Jewar airport will also help in decongesting the increasing air traffic and passenger rush at the IGI airport, he added.

Around 5,000 hectares of land has been identified for the project and the first phase of acquisition of land measuring 1,327 hectares for construction of terminal buildings and runways is expected to be initiated soon.

The airport would ease the pressure at the IGI airport in New Delhi, the seventh busiest in Asia, which at present handles over 60 million passengers annually.

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The Jammu and Kashmir Crime Branch will soon approach a local court in Kathua against a defence lawyer who is allegedly circulating twisted facts in the case of the gangrape and murder of an eight-year-old girl to vitiate the atmosphere, officials said here.

The police has taken cognisance of a CD in which a witness is seen as saying that he had been coerced by the Crime Branch to give a statement against Vishal Sharma, one of those alleged to have raped the child, officials said.

Sharma is the son of Sanji Ram, alleged to be the main conspirator in the case that has outraged the nation.

The CD, which has gone viral on social media, was passed off by the lawyer as a statement that the witness had given in front of the magistrate, the officials said.

However, initial investigations showed that it was prepared outside the court premises by the lawyer to mislead the public and create disaffection towards the government, they said.

This is definitely an attempt to browbeat the witnesses in the case and we have to immediately step in keeping in mind the sensitivities attached with the case, an official said.

According to investigations, the girl from a minority nomadic community was allegedly kidnapped at the behest of Sanji Ram, who wanted to scare away the Gujjar and Bakherwals communities which would migrate to the village, about 90 km from here, in



winter.

She was allegedly held in captivity in a small village temple in Kathua district for a week in January this year during which she was kept sedated and sexually assaulted before being bludgeoned to death.

On January 23, the government handed over the case to the Crime Branch of the state police, which formed a Special Investigation Team and arrested eight persons.

Ram was allegedly joined by special police officers Deepak Khajuria and Surender Verma, friend Parvesh Kumar alias Mannu, Ram's nephew, a juvenile, and his son.

The chargesheet also named investigating officers, Head Constable Tilak Raj and Sub-Inspector Anand Dutta, who allegedly took Rs 4 lakh from Ram and destroyed crucial evidence.

The Crime Branch filed two separate chargesheets -- a separate chargesheet was filed for the juvenile -- before the chief judicial magistrate in Kathua on April 9 and 10 despite protests by local lawyers, who demanded that the case be handed over to the CBI for a fair probe.

The accused pleaded not guilty on the opening day of the trial in the principal district and sessions court on April 16. The court posted the next hearing in the case for April 28.

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Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan today slammed the State Human Rights Commission Acting Chairperson P Mohana Das for seeking a CBI probe into the alleged custodial death of a 26-year-old youth in Kochi.

Rejecting the demand for a CBI probe, Vijayan said let the Human Rights Commission chairman do his duty only.

The Chief Minister was responding to questions on the CBI probe into the alleged custodial death of S R Sreejith at a press meet here.

Many of Das' statements were unbecoming of the position he holds, Vijayan said, adding it seems the statements were part of his political stand.

He was appointed as acting chairperson of KSHRC by the previous Congress-led UDF rule.

Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala had yesterday observed a 24-hour hunger strike seeking a CBI inquiry into the death of S R Sreejith, who had died of alleged torture in police custody on April 9.

Sreejith, who was taken into custody in connection with the death of a person early this month, had died in a private hospital.

His relatives alleged that he died due to torture, but the police have rejected the allegation saying Sreejith was suspected to have suffered injuries during a clash before he was taken into custody.

Stating that the state government took stern action against the police personnel involved in the incident, Vijayan said the instances of allegations of third degree torture by police in Kerala was not new.

But in this case, the government took immediate action against the persons responsible for it.

Vijayan also said four police personnel including an inspector has been arrested and a murder case registered against them.

Terming Sreejith's death as "unfortunate," Vijayan said it should not have happened in Kerala.

A Special Investigation Team was probing the incident and action would be taken if anymore people were found guilty, he noted.

The Chief Minister also rejected the charges that he had refused to meet the family members of Lithuanian tourist Liga Skromene, whose decomposed body was recovered from near Kovalam.

"They (family members) have not contacted the CM's office and sought an appointment. I would have readily met them. What is preventing me from meeting them?" Vijayan said referring to reports in social media that he refused to meet Liga's relatives.

The CPI(M) leader also pointed out that the police also took necessary steps to trace the missing women by setting up a special investigation team.

Liga's sister Ilze and her husband Andrews had yesterday demanded a high level probe into the circumstances leading to her death.

The body of Liga was found near Kovalam in Thiruvallam on April 21 from a bushy desolate area near a mangrove forest on the banks of Karmana river near here.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
President Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of state Mike Pompeo today narrowly won a key Congressional panel nod after a leading Republican senator supported him at the last minute, paving the way for the CIA director to become America's top diplomat.

The nomination of 54-year-old Pompeo now heads to the Senate for a vote on his confirmation.

Pompeo, if confirmed by the Senate, would replace Rex Tillerson as the Secretary of State. Tillerson was fired by Trump last month.

During a tense Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting, Pompeo was voted 11-9. In addition to all the Republican Senators, Senator Chris Coons was the only Democratic Senator to have voted in support of Pompeo.

The White House welcomed the passage of the nomination.

"With Secretary of State-designate Mike Pompeo's favorable report from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the American people are one step closer to having their top diplomat in place at a critical time in our history," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.

"Under President Donald J. Trump's leadership, the United States is on a path toward a safer, more prosperous future. Secretary-designate Pompeo is an integral part of the President's vision going forward. We look forward to the full Senate confirming him in the coming days, Sanders said.

Coons displayed a "statesmanship that I'm not accustomed to seeing in the Senate," said Senator Bob Corker, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Earlier in the day, Republican Senator Rand Paul, who had earlier announced to oppose Pompeo, said that he has now changed his mind and would support the nomination.

"Having received assurances from President Trump and Director Pompeo that he agrees with the President on these important issues, I have decided to support his nomination to be our next Secretary of State," Paul said.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio welcomed the development.

"CIA Director Mike Pompeo has the full confidence of the President, an outstanding record of service to our country, and is more than qualified to serve as Secretary of State. As Director Pompeo's nomination now moves to the Senate Floor, I strongly urge my colleagues to put country over party and confirm him without further delay," he said.

Senator Johnny Isakson, a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, who voted by proxy said that Pompeo is prepared to lead the State Department.

"Employees at the CIA have given Mike Pompeo high marks for his performance, his support for the workforce and advocacy for their mission. The State Department needs that same energy, fire and purposeful direction today, at a time when our country faces numerous threats and challenges that demand strong diplomacy," he said.

"Pompeo has already stepped into a leadership role in delicate negotiations on North Korea and I expect him to remain committed to leveraging our unique assets and employing US diplomatic leadership as much as possible to achieve our goals. I believe Mike Pompeo is prepared to lead," Isakson said.

On the Senate Floor, Senator John Cornyn said that defeating a Secretary of State nominee would be extraordinary, historically speaking, and it would send a terrible message to American friends and allies around the world.

"Every Secretary of State nominee since 1925 has been reported out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee favourably. For the ones who flip-flopped in the matter of a year on Mike Pompeo as a human being, as a public servant, and as somebody well-trained and well-prepared to be the nation's top diplomat, I just simply don't understand how they can reconcile those two polar opposite positions," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
President Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of state Mike Pompeo today narrowly won approval from a key Congressional panel after a leading Republican supported him at the last minute, paving the way for the CIA director to become America's top diplomat.

The nomination of 54-year-old Pompeo now heads to the Senate for a vote on his confirmation.

Pompeo, if confirmed by the Senate, would replace Rex Tillerson as the Secretary of State. Tillerson was fired by Trump last month.

During a tense Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting, Pompeo was voted 11-9. In addition to all the Republican Senators, Senator Chris Coons was the only Democratic Senator to have voted in support of Pompeo.

Coons displayed a "statesmanship that I'm not accustomed to seeing in the Senate," said Senator Bob Corker, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Earlier in the day, Republican Senator Rand Paul, who had earlier announced to oppose Pompeo, said that he has now changed his mind and would support the nomination.

"Having received assurances from President Trump and Director Pompeo that he agrees with the President on these important issues, I have decided to support his nomination to be our next Secretary of State," Paul said.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio welcomed the development.

"CIA Director Mike Pompeo has the full confidence of the President, an outstanding record of service to our country, and is more than qualified to serve as Secretary of State. As Director Pompeo's nomination now moves to the Senate Floor, I strongly urge my colleagues to put country over party and confirm him without further delay," he said.

Senator Johnny Isakson, a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, who voted by proxy said that Pompeo is prepared to lead the State Department.

"Employees at the CIA have given Mike Pompeo high marks for his performance, his support for the workforce and advocacy for their mission. The State Department needs that same energy, fire and purposeful direction today, at a time when our country faces numerous threats and challenges that demand strong diplomacy," he said.

"Pompeo has already stepped into a leadership role in delicate negotiations on North Korea and I expect him to remain committed to leveraging our unique assets and employing US diplomatic leadership as much as possible to achieve our goals. I believe Mike Pompeo is prepared to lead," Isakson said.

On the Senate Floor, Senator John Cornyn said that defeating a Secretary of State nominee would be extraordinary, historically speaking, and it would send a terrible message to American friends and allies around the world.

"Every Secretary of State nominee since 1925 has been reported out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee favourably. For the ones who flip-flopped in the matter of a year on Mike Pompeo as a human being, as a public servant, and as somebody well-trained and well-prepared to be the nation's top diplomat, I just simply don't understand how they can reconcile those two polar opposite positions," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The BJP today described senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid's statement that his party had stains of blood on its hands as an "acknowledgement" of its history of "engineering communal riots", and said it continued to practise the same of creating division and tensions to get votes.

Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the Congress always wore mask of secularism but practised communalism and added that people wanted it to "accept" truth and come clean after Khurshid made his "individual confession".

Citing a number of major riots, including in Bhiwandi, Bhagalpur and Malegaon, which occurred when the Congress was in power, Naqvi told PTI that more than 50,000 such violent incidents had happened under its governments in which thousands of innocent people were killed. He also made a reference to the anti-Sikh riots of 1984.

"The Congress is a history-sheeter as far as communal riots are concerned. It has practised of divide and rule while using castes and communities to sow division in society. It created social tensions for votes. It continues with this tradition," he said.

The opposition party wore mask of secularism but its character has always been communal, he alleged.

Acknowledging that communal riots and other sectarian violence did take place during Congress rule, former Union minister Khurshid has said the party's hands are stained with blood.

Khurshid made the remark at the Aligarh Muslim University on Sunday in response to a student accusing the Congress of having Muslim blood on its hands and asking how the party proposed to wash it off.

"It is a political question. There is blood on our hands. I am also a part of the Congress so let me say it, we have blood on our hands, said Khurshid, triggering a row.

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BJP national spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain today termed Congress leader Salman Khurshid's statement, that "there is blood on our hands" as a



"kaboolnama" of the Congress.

"Salman Khurshid's statement that 'Congress has blood of Muslims on its hands' is basically a kaboolnama (confession) of the Congress Party," said Hussain, speaking to reporters here.

He further alleged that "most riots in India" happened under the Congress rule, adding that the party's "divide and rule" politics had been exposed time and again.

"Rahul Gandhi and the Congress should apologise to the nation," Hussain said.

He added the Congress was "strategically involved" in all the major riots that had taken place in the country.

"The stains of these riots will not be washed away easily," Hussain said.

Khurshid had made the statement on Sunday while replying to a query from a Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) student about how the Congress will wash off the blood stains of Muslims on its hands.

Khurshid had said, "It is a political question. There is blood on our hands. I am also a part of the Congress so let me say it, we have blood on our hands. Is this why you are trying to tell us that if someone attacks you, we must not come forward to protect you?"



"I am telling you. We are ready to show the blood on our hands so that you realise that you too must not get blood on your hands. If you attack them, you are the ones who would get stains on your hands," he said at an AMU event on Sunday.

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A Labour government would launch an independent inquiry into Britain's military role in the Indian army's 1984 raid on the Golden Temple in Amritsar, a media report quoted Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as saying.

Corbyn promised that an investigation into Operation Blue Star would be in the party's next manifesto, The Guardian reported.

Sikh groups have repeatedly called for a fresh inquiry into an apparent decision by former prime minister Margaret Thatcher's government to send an Special Air Service officer to New Delhi to advise the Indian government on the operation, it said.

In 2014, UK government documents declassified under the 30-year rule to make such material public had revealed that British military advice was given to Indian forces prior to Operation Blue Star.

The then British Prime Minister David Cameron had ordered a review into this discovery, which led to a statement in Parliament declaring that Britain's role had been purely "advisory" and the Special Air Service (SAS) advice had "limited impact".

Corbyn, speaking at a Sikh Federation event in Watford, said: "You can be very sure that, whenever the election comes, it will be in the next manifesto ... it's a commitment that's going to be there and we will honour that commitment".

Last year, Corbyn also wrote to Prime Minister Theresa May, calling for an independent inquiry and his party has since included the issue as an election pledge in its manifesto for the June 2017 General Election.

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Japanese firm LIXIL today said it has set up a new entity LIXIL Windows Systems after acquiring 100 per cent stake in DLF's arm Star Alubuild and will cater to building materials market in India.

It had acquired a controlling 100 per cent stake in Star Alubuild India in March 2016 and shifted the business from 'building facades' to 'windows'.

LIXIL is a global enterprise with over 70,000 employees in more than 150 countries worldwide. It has expanded internationally by acquiring some of the most trusted brands including GROHE and American Standard.

In a statement, LIXIL said it has "set up a new entity, LIXIL Windows Systems Pvt Ltd, after it had acquired 100 percent stake in DLF subsidiary Star Alubuild, a curtain wall builder for commercial properties in India."



LIXIL Windows System plans to service both retail and projects segments of the building materials market in India.

LIXIL will manufacture products for retail business locally in their Manesar factory. This facility will cater to the market for premium homes and villas in India which require customised products and short delivery time frames. The projects business segment will import products from its Tostem Thai Co Ltd (TTC) facility in Thailand.

Bijoy Mohan, CEO LIXIL Asia Pacific said, "Asia is the key growth engine for LIXIL globally. As Asia fuels the residential demand in the world and the burgeoning middle class becomes a catalyst in the housing sector; India and its people that aspire for better homes- become a key focus of our growth journey."



With this acquisition, he said LIXIL aims to bring its international expertise in making windows to the Indian market.

"We are committed to India and will continue to make strategic investments to further consolidate our position in this fast-growing market," he added.

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A Goa court hearing the death case of Danielle MacLaughlin, a British woman whose body was found in Canacona taluka last year, today asked the media not to publish detailed depositions and names of the witnesses in the matter.

"For the reporters who are present in the court, no name of the witness or detailed content of the deposition should be mentioned at this stage from the court proceedings," district and sessions judge Sayonara Telles Lad said in an open court.

The 28-year-old British national of Irish origin who was holidaying in Goa was found dead at an isolated stretch between Agonda and Canacona beaches in South Goa on March 14, 2017.

A Canacona resident Vikat Bhagat (23), who was last seen with the victim and who the police claimed had previous cases against him, was arrested on the charges of murder, rape, theft and destruction of evidence.

The second witness in the case was today examined by the prosecution before the judge.

Assistant public prosecutor V J Costa, who represented the state police, examined the second witness.

The second witness was present when the panchanama of the spot where the woman's body was found was conducted by Canacona police.

According to the police charge sheet, Bhagat had tried to force himself on the woman at an isolated place between the Canacona and Agonda beaches.

When she resisted, he hit her on the head with a beer bottle, raped and then strangulated her. The accused then smashed the victim's face with a stone to destroy the evidence, the charge sheet further said.

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The Maharashtra government is conducting a campaign for street vendors in Mumbai, in which, they are being trained in preparing food in a hygienic manner with the help of an NGO, a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) official said today.

"As part of the campaign, our team is imparting training to the street vendors on healthy cooking of edible items," said Shailesh Adhav, Joint Commissioner, FDA.

On March 27, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis launched a mobile van, donated by a corporate, and new vehicles of the FDA at Vidhan Bhavan here.

The programme was initiated by the National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI), an NGO working for the cause of hawkers in the country.

"We keep educating the street vendors on how to make their products more healthy and hygienic by inviting them at our workshops. But this time, we thought to reach them by going door to door and it has yield very positive response. Our officials are explaining them various procedures like using less oil while cooking, cleaner water, checking the purity of the raw materials," Adhav said.

At the end of two-hour-long training session, we give the vendors a certificate as well a kit containing an apron, gloves and caps.

Senior manager, NASVI, Arvind Shukla said the training is all about preparing and selling quality food.

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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today said she has plans to meet industrialists in Shanghai during her visit to China soon.

Stating that she has received a communication from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in this regard, Mamata said she would try to attract investments in the manufacturing sector.

"I will make this visit on national interest since China wanted me to visit the country. I have received a communication from the Ministry of External Affairs. I will also try to meet industrialists in Shanghai," she told " 18 Bangla".

The chief minister is likely to visit China in June, state secretariat sources said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also scheduled to visit China on June 9-10 for Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit.

Incidentally, a large business contingent from China had participated in this year's Bengal Global Business Summit, which received a huge proposal for investments.

Secretariat sources said that during the proposed visit, the chief minister may be accompanied by state Finance Minister Amit Mitra and a host of industrialists from West Bengal.

Besides, manufacturing sector, there could be business dialogues over healthcare, tourism and IT, they said.

The chief minister also said that she would be visiting Chicago to celebrate 125th year of Swami Vivekananda's speech at world parliament of religion, on Ramakrishna Mission's invitation.

"I have a plan to visit Chicago to attend 125th year of Swami Vivekananda's speech at world parliament of religion on Rama Krishna Mission's invitation," Banerjee said.

"During the visit to the US, I along with my delegation will visit the Silicon Valley. We are planning to set up a similar type of facility here over 100-acre of land," Banerjee said.

Sources at the chief minister's office said that Banerjee may visit Chicago in September.

"We have also improved in infrastructure and as a part of it, three major ports are coming up at Sagar, Kulpi and Tajpur. A major coal block in the state will also help grow industry here," she said.

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A man was arrested today with 71-kg opium, worth nearly Rs 1.5 crore in the domestic market, in Rajasthan's Chhitorgarh district, police said.

A resident of Neemuch district in Madhya Pradesh, Sunil Nagda alias Chauthmal was arrested when he was travelling a car from Neemuch to Jodhpur, Nimbaheda police station SHO Darshan Singh said.

He said that the seized opium is worth Rs 1.5 crore in the domestic market.

A case has been registered against the accused under relevant sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and further investigation into the matter was on, he added.

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A man today shot dead his younger brother allegedly over a land dispute in Sultanpur village, police said.

Senior superintendent of police Vaibhav Krishna told that Pradeep Kumar (28) was shot dead by his elder brother Kuldeep.

Both the brothers had an altercation on the issue and Kuldeep fired upon him, following which he died on the spot and Kuldeep fled, he said.

On receiving information from locals, police officials rushed to the spot and took the body in its custody. The body has been sent for autopsy, he said.

Police have launched a manhunt to nab Kuldeep, the SSP added.

This is the second case which took place in 24 hours in the Murad nagar area.

Last night, four unidentified persons reached the residence of realtor Sunder Tyagi and took him to the place where he used sell plots on the pretext of purchasing a land of 200 meters and allegedly fired upon him.

He was admitted to a private hospital in Ghaziabad, where he succumbed to his injuries. The matter was a result of enmity over land dispute.

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Medical tourism especially in a country like India has been bringing its own sets of infection into the United States, a top health official has told lawmakers here.

"We have a problem in India. We have been getting infections, particularly carbapenem-resistant enterobacteria, ACA and others, through people who go there, for example, on medical tourism and then come back to our hospitals. We now have problems with things that have originated elsewhere," Dr Anthony S Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told lawmakers during a Congressional hearing last week.

He was responding to a question on Biodefense and Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases held by the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies.

"So we feel we have the responsibility to help them over there. Anytime you have a resistant microbe that emerges in another country, inevitably it will come to the United States," Fauci added.

Dr Fauci, however, did not elaborate further on the nature and quantity of infections coming from India.

"Anti-microbial resistance is an integral part of what we call biodefence against emerging infections, because we do consider an antibiotic-resistant bacteria as an emerging infectious disease," he said.

Congresswoman Rosa Delauro, ranking member of the subcommittee, said there was a wide spectrum of threats facing the US.

"We need enough laboratory capacity to analyse large volumes of samples and determine what pathogens are involved. We need effective plans, supplies and personnel to efficiently distribute and dispense vaccines and treatments," the lawmaker said.

"We need the surge capacity in hospitals and other facilities to take care of large numbers of seriously ill patients. All this work needs to be done through partnership among federal agencies like the CDC, the state and the local health departments, and the medical and first responder communities," she said.

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The hour-long meeting of the State Election Commission (SEC) with the officials of the West Bengal panchayat department today to decide on fresh dates for the rural polls in the state remained inconclusive, official sources said.

Another meeting on the issue is likely to be held tomorrow, they said.

The panchayat polls were earlier scheduled to be held on May 1, 3 and 5. However, after the Calcutta High Court order, the SEC had announced April 23 as the extended date for filing of nominations for the three-tier rural election.

Scrutiny of the nominations received on the day will be held tomorrow and the last date for withdrawal of candidature is April 28, the state election commission had said.

A senior official said, "Most likely, tomorrow again there will be a meeting and after that, a decision might be taken in this regard. Nothing is finalised as of now."



The West Bengal Panchayat Act, 2003 provides that there has to be at least 21 days' gap between the last date for nomination and the date for the polls.

The official also said the aspect of security arrangements also needed to be looked into before announcing the fresh dates for the panchayat polls.

A senior SEC official said a meeting will be held with the police administration to look into the security arrangements for the rural poll.

When asked whether any meeting will be conducted with all the political parties before the announcement of the poll dates, the official said such chances are less as the SEC has already held elaborate meetings with them last week.

The state Congress leadership staged a protest rally outside the SEC office during the day for its alleged failure to conduct the nomination process in a free and fair manner.

Several Congress activists were detained by the police after they tried to break the police barricade outside the state election commission office.

The state BJP unit took out a procession in the city to protest against the violence during the filing of nomination for the three-tier panchayat polls.

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The hour-long meeting of the State Election Commission (SEC) with the officials of the West Bengal panchayat department held today to the decide on the fresh dates for the rural polls in the state remained inconclusive, official sources said.

The meeting will be again held tomorrow, they said.

The panchayat polls were earlier scheduled to be held on May 1, 3 and 5. However, after the Calcutta High Court order, the SEC had announced April 23 as the extended date for filing of nominations for the three-tier rural election.

Scrutiny of the nominations received on the day will be held on April 25 and the last date for withdrawal of candidature is April 28, the SEC had said.

A senior official said, "Tomorrow again there will be a meeting and after that dates might be announced."



According to sources, the meeting is likely to be held tomorrow after 12 noon.

The state Congress leadership staged a protest rally outside the SEC office during the day for its alleged failure to conduct the nomination process in a free and fair manner.

Several Congress activists were detained by the police after they tried to break the police barricade outside the state election commission office.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Centre's decision to repeal AFSPA from Meghalaya was today unanimously welcomed by political parties, students' organisations and church leaders of the state.

Meghalaya home minister James K Sangma said he was grateful to the Union government for considering the state's request of revoking the The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act from the state.

"We are thankful to the Centre for responding to the Meghalaya government's request for denotification of AFSPA in the Garo Hills areas, adjoining Assam," he told PTI, adding militancy has been "by and large contained" in the state and this was made possible by the Meghalaya police.

A home ministry official had yesterday said the Centre has revoked AFSPA, which empowers security forces to conduct operations and arrest individuals without prior notice, from the entire state of Meghalaya and parts of Arunachal Pradesh, with effect from March 31.

Lauding the Centre's move, the Congress credited the erstwhile Mukul Sangma-led government for it.

"The imposition of AFSPA had lots of demerits in a state like Meghalaya, as it has often been seen that language barrier led to atrocities here. This was the reason why former chief minister Mukul Sangma did not allow the Army to take up operations in the Garo Hills," Congress spokesperson Zenith Sangma said.

He said Mukul Sangma focused on raising Special Force-10, the state's own anti insurgency force, to bring peace in the state.

Meghalaya is the first state to have its own anti-insurgency force, the Congress spokesperson said.

The North East Students Organisation (NESO) demanded revocation of the "controversial law" from the other states of the region.

"The NESO welcomes the decision of Ministry of Home Affairs to revoke AFSPA from Meghalaya. In fact, we want the Act to be removed from all northeastern states where it is in force at the moment," its chairman Samuel B Jyrwa told PTI.

The Act has only given undue authority to the armed forces to "torture and kill people at will", he said.

"AFSPA failed miserably in containing militant activities. It has only led to human rights violations by the armed forces," Jyrwa alleged, adding even after 27 years of imposition of the Act in Meghalaya, it did not have any positive impact on the law and order situation.

Echoing similar sentiments, former church leader P B M Basaiawmoit said the people of North East can rejoice together once the Act is repealed from other states in the region.

"People will be happy if the draconian law is totally removed from India's statute books. No one will be considered as the enemy of the state," he said.

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A 27-year-old man, suspected to be a member of an international drug cartel, was arrested and 1 kg of heroin worth Rs 4 crore was seized from him, police said today.

The Special Cell was working on obtaining information about an international narcotic drug cartel that has been active in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab, and Haryana, etc.

It was learnt that the members of this cartel were involved in the supply of high grade heroin in NCR, UP, Punjab here. The heroin was smuggled from Afghanistan and Pakistan, police said.

On April 23, it was learnt that one Gurveer Singh, a resident of Ludhiana, Punjab would come near Mukarba Chowk on the outer Ring Road.

A team was formed and a trap was laid and he was nabbed while he was in his car and one kg of heroin was seized from him, police said.

Singh revealed the details of his associates, including the source of supply. It was found that he used to get the supply of heroin from persons of Nigerian origin residing in Uttam Nagar, they said.

On April 23, he had received heroin from a person of African origin. He also disclosed that these persons used to get supply of heroin directly from their counterparts in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The couriers from Afghanistan and Pakistan used to bring heroin in their stomach by inhaling capsules of heroin, P S Kushwah, deputy commissioner of police (Special Cell), said.

These couriers used to hand over the heroin to these persons of African origin in Delhi, which was being further supplied to drug dealers in Delhi, UP, Punjab and Haryana.

Singh has studied up to Class 12 and after that he went to London, where he worked at a toy shop for two years.

After returning from London, he came in contact with one Yaduvinder Singh, who is a drugs supplier of Ropar, Punjab.

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Members of sealing committees do not know the ground realities and should be sympathetic towards people from the rural areas who come to urban spaces for economic opportunities, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said today.

The housing and urban affairs minister said that the case of these people should be considered sympathetically.

"Sealing committee and many others, who work in air-conditioned offices and do not know the ground realities, don't understand that people from rural areas are coming to urban spaces for economic opportunities," Puri said at an event here.

Stating that by 2030, 600 million Indians would be living in urban spaces, he pitched for redevelopment of cities to accommodate the people.

The sealing drive by the BJP-run municipal corporations in Delhi was initiated in December last year on the direction of the apex court-appointed monitoring panel.

Commercial premises, including shops and restaurants, were sealed for failing to deposit conversion charges according to provisions in the Delhi Master Plan 2021.

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Taking note of illegal hoardings, Punjab minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu has asked the Ludhiana mayor to remove all such hoardings, installed to greet him on his induction as a cabinet minister.

Ashu asked the mayor to issue directions to the officials to remove all illegal hoardings, an official release said today.

The minister said it has come to his notice that his supporters have installed hoardings to greet him. Although, he respected the feelings of his supporters, but adherence to law could not be ignored, the release said.

Ashu also appealed to his supporters and party workers to avoid installing hoardings to greet him, it added.

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A five-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a minor boy in Sambalpur district, while in Mayurbhanj two men were arrested on the charge of raping a 50-year-old tribal woman, the police said today.

The minor boy has been apprehended on the basis of a complaint lodged by the girl's family and an investigation has been initiated, a police officer said.

While the minor girl was allegedly raped yesterday, the elderly woman was reportedly raped on Sunday, the police said.

In another incident, the headmaster of a government upper primary school in Puri district was arrested today on charge of sexually assaulting three minor girls on the pretext of "leg massage", the police said.

The girls, two of whom are class 5 students and one a class 4 student, narrated the entire episode before their family members, and accused the teacher of using vulgar words and making obscene gestures, the police said, adding the headmaster has, however, has denied the allegations.

Meanwhile, the state government today assured the Assembly that stringent actions are being taken against the culprits in such cases.

As per the direction of Speaker Pradip Kumar Amat, state Parliamentary Affairs Minister B K Arukha today made a statement in the Assembly on the rape cases in the state.

He spoke on behalf of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

"Providing security to women, children and other vulnerable groups is the state's priority. It is a matter of concern for the state that minor girls are being raped. The police have been asked to take stringent action against the culprits," Arukha said.

The minister said after two minor girls were raped in Cuttack district on April 21, police arrested the accused within 12 hours.

The accused persons in Balasore and Kendrapara districts have also been arrested, the minister said, adding an person accused of being involved in the rape of a minor girl at Thuamul Rampur in Kalahandi district has also been held.

The police have been directed to undertake quick investigation and incidents of rape of minors are being treated as 'Red Flag' cases, Arukha said.

He also informed the House that the state government has appointed 192 assistant public prosecutors to speed up to the justice delivery system.

"The conviction rate in rape cases has increased to 18.90 per cent in 2017 due to proper monitoring of cases," the minister said.

The minister's statement, however, failed to satisfy the opposition members.

"The state government should take some concrete steps which will stop rapes, particularly of minor girls. We are not satisfied with the minister's reply," BJP MLA Prafulla Majhi told reporters.

BJP MLA Radharani Panda said, "We are disappointed with the minister's statement. The government should take stringent measures to curb sexual assault on women and girls.

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A 10-year-old girl was taken from her home in East Delhi's Ghazipur to a madrassa in Ghaziabad and raped there by a juvenile, the police said today.

The incident triggered protests in the area with locals demanding that the madrassa cleric be arrested for his alleged involvement in the matter. Police said that he was being questioned.

The police were informed on April 21 by the girl's father that his daughter had gone missing after she went to the market. Police registered a case and during investigation, found a CCTV footage in which the accused was seen taking the girl along with him, they added.

The police traced the juvenile to a madrassa where he studied and apprehended him. The girl was recovered from there, the police said.

The girl's statement was recorded in front of a magistrate yesterday. The accused was sent to a juvenile justice home.

The girl's family was earlier staying in Ghaziabad before moving to Ghazipur and was known to the family of the accused juvenile.

The police are questioning the cleric if he was aware that the girl had been kept there and about his involvement in the matter.

Residents protested in Ghazipur today demanding action against the cleric.

"We have assured them that fair investigation is being conducted on merits and no one will be spared if he is involved in the crime. Owing to inter-state ramifications of the case and for thorough in-depth investigation, the case is being transferred to the Crime Branch," said Ravindra Yadav, Joint Commissioner of Police (Eastern Range).

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A 14-year-old girl was allegedly raped by her stepfather for the past two years in south east Delhi's Jaitpur area, police said today.

The 38-year-old accused, a painter by profession, was arrested, they added.

On April 20, the police were informed that a girl was raped by her step-father for the past two years, they added.

The girl was sick and her mother had brought her to a government dispensary for treatment. The dispensary informed the Delhi Child Protection Unit (DCPU) for further action, police said.

Subsequently, a case was registered and the accused was arrested on April 22. He was allegedly sexually abusing the girl and was threatening her to not reveal about the incident to anyone.

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A minor girl was allegedly raped by a 40-year-old man in Ramgarh district, police said today.

The incident happened under the jurisdiction of Kuju police station yesterday, the police said.

The victim's father lodged a complaint alleging that the accused raped his 5-year-old daughter when she was alone at home, a police officer said.

The victim's neighbours caught the accused after they heard her screams, thrashed him and handed him over to the police, he said.

The girl was sent to a government hospital in Ramgarh for medical examination, the Superintendent of Police (SP) of Ramgarh district, A Vijayalakshmi, said.

"We have lodged an FIR under the POCSO Act at Kuju police station on the basis of a written complaint by victim's father," the SP said.

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A 24-year-old Indian Sikh man, who had gone missing in Pakistan during Baisakhi festival celebrations and was subsequently found from the residence of his "Facebook friend", was today handed over to Indian authorities at the Wagah border.

"After getting special approval from the interior ministry the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) today handed over Amarjit Singh to the Border Security Force (BSF) at the Wagah Border," ETPB spokesman Amir Hashmi told PTI. He said Singh crossed into India on foot.

Amarjit Singh, a resident of Amritsar, had arrived in Pakistan along with other 1,700 Sikh pilgrims to celebrate Baisakhi festival on April 12. But his disappearance was only noticed when the entourage he came along with embarked upon the return journey to India on April 21. Yesterday he was found from his Facebook friend Amir Razzak' house in Sheikhupura, about 50 kms from Lahore, where he had gone to see him.

According to the ETPB, Singh on his arrival to Nankana Sahib had left the group to meet Razzak.

"The family of Razzak contacted the board yesterday and told them about his (Singh's) stay at his residence. Both Singh and Razzak visited the ETPB office in Lahore and said that he (Singh) had not gone missing , Hashmi said.

Hashmi said Singh told the board that he thought that he had a one-month visa and he would return to his country after spending a couple of weeks with his friend here. The ETPB takes passports from the visiting pilgrims and returns them on their departure to their homeland.

A source told PTI that Pakistani intelligence agencies quizzed Singh for "several hours" regarding his absence.

"After it was established that he had not deliberately disappeared and had no links with any Indian intelligence agency, Singh was handed over to the ETPB to be deported to India," he said.

According to an investigation by the ETPB, Singh separated himself on April 16 from the visiting Sikh group members on a visit to Gurdwara Janamesthan in Nankana Sahib (80 kms from Lahore).

The ETPB came to know about his disappearance when Singh did not turn up on April 21 along with other visiting Indian Sikhs at the Wagah railway station to leave for India. Singh and the others had valid Pakistani visas till April 21.

Singh's disappearance came after another visiting Indian pilgrim Kiran Bala who married a Pakistani man Mohammad Azam, a resident of Lahore, and applied for Pakistani citizenship. She had arrived in Lahore on April 12 to attend the Baisakhi festival.

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A 24-year-old Indian Sikh, who had gone missing in Pakistan during Baisakhi festival celebrations, was found from his Facebook friend's home in Punjab province's Sheikhupura city and efforts are on to send him back to India, an official has said.

Amarjit Singh, a resident of Amritsar, had arrived in Pakistan along with other 1,700 Sikh pilgrims to celebrate Baisakhi festival on April 12. But his disappearance was only noticed when the Indian pilgrim group prepared to return to India.

He will be sent back to India via the Wagah border today, the Express Tribune reported.

Confirming that Singh had been traced, spokesperson of the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) Amir Hashmi said that Singh will be handed over to the Indian authorities.

"Amarjit Singh has been found and will be sent back to India today. Singh on his arrival to Nankana Sahib had left the group to meet his Facebook friend - Amir Razzak - in Sheikhupura (some 30km from Nankana Sahib).

"In fact the family of Razzak contacted the board and told it about his (Singh) stay at his residence. Both Singh and Razzak visited the ETPB office in Lahore and told it that he (Singh) had not gone missing," Hashmi told PTI.

He said, Singh told the board that he thought that he had a one month visa and he would return the country after spending a couple of weeks with his friend here.

The ETPB collects passports from the visiting pilgrims and returns them on their departure to their homeland.

A source told PTI that Pakistani intelligence agencies have quizzed Singh for 'several hours' after he went 'missing'.

"After it was established that he had not deliberately disappeared and had no links with the Indian intelligence agency, Singh was handed over to the ETPB to be deported to India," he said.

According to investigation by the ETPB, Singh separated himself on April 16 from the visiting Sikh group members on a visit to Gurdwara Janamestan in Nankana Sahib (some 80km from Lahore).

The ETB came to know about his disappearance when Singh did not turn up on April 21 along with other visiting Indian Sikhs at the Wagah railway station to leave for India.

Singh and others had a valid Pakistani visa till April 21.

Singh's disappearance came at the heels of another visiting Indian pilgrim Kiran Bala, who married a Pakistani man Mohammad Azam, a resident of Lahore, and applied for Pakistani citizenship.

She had arrived Lahore on April 12 to attend the Baisakhi festival. She has applied for Pakistan citizenship and extension to her visa.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to address about 20 rallies in Karnataka to boost the BJP's campaign in a state where his party is locked in a keen fight with the Congress.

Party sources said Modi, BJP's biggest crowd-puller, is likely to kick off a series of rallies in the southern state from May 1.

Though he had address public meetings in the state earlier, he has not hit the campaign trail since the Election Commission announced the assembly election schedule on March 27. The election is scheduled for May 12 and the counting of votes will take place on May 15.

The BJP sources said a final programme of Modi's election tour is still being finalised and he is expected to address anywhere between 15-20 rallies.

The saffron party is making all-out efforts to oust the Siddaramaiah dispensation from power in the only big state where the Congress governs.

Opinion polls have so far forecast a close fight between the two parties and the BJP believes that Modi's whirlwind campaign in the final days before the polls can tilt the scale in its favour.

Its president Amit Shah has been frequenting the state for months, holding rallies, meeting religious heads, addressing community events and toning up organisational machinery in the run-up to the election.

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The Wuhan summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping could be as significant as the one between former premier Rajiv Gandhi and then leader of China Deng Xiaoping in 1988, the official Chinese media commented today.

Xi and Modi will hold an "informal summit" in central China's Wuhan city from April 27 to 28 to improve bilateral relations and discuss global issues of mutual concern.

Both the leaders will try to work out a new paradigm for the bilateral ties bogged down with a host of disputes and differences.

"The meeting can be as significant as the one in 1988 when Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and then Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi met, and will set the course for bilateral ties," an op-ed in Global Times said.

Another official newspaper, the China Daily, said it remains to be seen whether the Modi-Xi summit "will live up to its billing as an unprecedented meeting" like the 1988 meeting between Rajiv and Deng.

"This (Rajiv-Deng summit) was when the two countries agreed to put their quarrels behind them. However, this has proved harder to do than say.

"Yet clearly both Beijing and New Delhi hope for something substantial from the upcoming two-day meeting, since the announcement was made on Sunday after talks between State Councilor Wang Yi and visiting Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj," the China Daily said.

In its editorial 'Xi-Modi meeting to show diplomatic wisdom of China, India', the Global Times said "Indian leaders attach importance to reciprocity in diplomacy. After visiting China in 2015, Modi attended the Ninth BRICS Summit in Xiamen last year and will attend the summit of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Qingdao in June".

He is visiting China before June to meet Xi. This unusual move highlights how much the two sides value this meeting, it said.

The tabloid which is attached to the ruling Communist Party of China's official publications and known for its anti-India rhetoric said: "within China, hostility toward India is being replaced by hopes for friendly ties. The two countries need more communication to enhance mutual trust and eliminate the possibility of another border crisis".

"Asian powers and emerging countries, both China and India share many common interests in international affairs. They both have to strive for the right to develop and face Western pressure on issues like trade and intellectual property rights. There is large room for economic cooperation.

"Many conflicts between China and India broke out due to a lack of trust or at Western instigation, like the border disputes and so-called dragon-elephant competition," it said.

The US and Japan began underscoring Indo-Pacific strategy last year in an explicit attempt to rope in India against China. But the strategy hasn't brought India any strategic benefit except to trigger vigilance between New Delhi and Beijing, it said.

China and India cooled down soon after the Dokalam standoff, which indicates the solid foundation for ties. The West wanted China and India to confront each other, but it didn't work out that way, it said.

China and India have a more robust economic development than other emerging countries and are both independent. Any attempt to manipulate the way they deal with each other will likely fail, it said.

The cooperation of two countries, home to about 40 per cent of the global population, is highly significant for the whole world, it said.

The China Daily editorial said "there is good reason for optimism" for Modi-Xi summit.

The previous meeting between Xi and Modi in Xiamen last September and it produced an end to the tense border standoff (Dokalam) that had been souring relations for months, it said.

"That incident was a reminder to the two proud neighbours that they must manage their border issues, or they will continue to trouble them.

"While third parties may profit from a deteriorating China-India relationship, the two countries themselves will not. They should be vigilant of others seeking to benefit at the expense of their friendly relations and recalibrate their relationship so it serves more constructive purposes," it added.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping will not sign any agreements or issue a joint statement at the Wuhan summit this week but they will try to build mutual trust and reach important consensus to resolve the outstanding issues, a top Chinese official said today.

Prime Minister Modi will travel to China on April 27 for an informal summit with President Xi in the central China's Wuhan city.

"Both sides have agreed not to sign an agreement or release any joint document but reach important consensus to resolve outstanding issues," Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou told the media here on the two-day summit.

This informal summit is the first of its kind and there is no precedent in each other's country, he said, explaining why both the leaders opted to hold the summit.

"At the informal summit, the two leaders will have heart-to-heart discussions on overarching issues and try to build mutual trust and consensus to resolve outstanding differences," Kong said.

Asked whether the Dokalam issue and the boundary dispute will figure in the talks, Kong said Dokalam happened because of lack of trust.

"The two countries need to create conditions and trust between them to resolve the boundary issue," he added.

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The Madras High Court today dismissed a petition by former Union minister P Chidambaram wife Nalini Chidambaram, challenging ED's summons to her to appear as a witness in its money laundering probe in the Saradha chit fund scam case.

Justice S M Subramaniam rejected Nalini's contention that women cannot be called for investigation out of their place of residence under CrPC Sec 160, saying such exemptions are not mandatory and are subject to facts and circumstances of a case.

"This court is of the opinion that based on gender, exemption cannot be sought for in a routine manner," he said in a 145-page order on Nalini's petition and that of the Enforcement Directorate seeking to vacate a stay granted by the court earlier.

Also holding that such an exemption was not provided under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the judge directed the ED to issue fresh summons fixing a date for the investigation and proceed with it in accordance with law.

The ED had issued the summons on September 7, 2016 asking Nalini, a senior lawyer, to appear in its Kolkata office as a witness in the Saradha chit fund scam.

She was allegedly paid a legal fee of Rs 1 crore by the Saradha group for her appearances in court and the Company Law Board over a television channel purchase deal.

The high court had on September 21, 2016 stayed the summons passing interim orders on the petition by Nalini.

During the hearings, Nalini had contended that the summons was "purely politically motivated to damage her reputation."



Pointing out that receiving fee by a counsel for representing an accused was not an offence, she had said every lawyer who appears for a suspect in criminal cases charges professional fee.

Opposing her arguments, ED had submitted that Manoranjana Sinh, an accused in the case, had given a statement claiming that Rs 1 crore was given to Nalini towards professional fee.

To verify the claim, the petitioner had been summoned, it had said adding the agency believed that the fee was paid out of public money, funds collected from public as chits.

In his order, Justice Subramaniam said undoubtedly, CrpC section 160 provided an exemption to women, but in normal circumstances every such exemption can never be construed as an absolute prohibition.

"The exemptions are not mandatory and subject to the facts and circumstances of the case," he said.

The judge said the language used in CrpC 160 proviso is that "no women shall be required" to attend investigation at any place other than their residence. "Thus, it is not as if there is a total and absolute exemption of the appearance before the Investigating Officer," he said.

Adopting the principles of constructive interpretation, this court "is of an opinion that not required means only in certain circumstances and not always, he further said.

In case where a woman was sick and unable to move, then the investigating officer shall not direct her to travel for a long distance for giving evidence or statement. In such cases alone, CrPc 160 proviso can be invoked, the order said.

In the present case, the petitioner is a senior advocate, actively practising before the Supreme Court, as well as before various high courts across the country, the judge said.

"Such being the voluntary statement of the petitioner, this court has no reason to believe that such an exemption to be extended to the writ petitioner for the purpose of her non-participation in the investigation process by appearing in person," he added.

The judge made it clear that the nature of offences under PMLA is distinct and the course and the methods of probe to be adopted may be slightly different from that of regular offences.

"...intelligent way of investigating may be required for the purpose of culling out the truth in respect of offences of money laundering under the provisions of PMLA," he said.

"No such exemption is provided under PMLA for such persons or women. Therefore the application of CrPc, more particularly section 160, cannot be mandatory in respect of the offences prescribed under PMLA," he said.

The provisions of PMLA will have overriding effect on the general provisions provided under CrPc, he said.

Keeping in mind the specialised nature of the offences and the investigation required, a specific provision in section 50 of PMLA had been made, he said adding the attendance of a person, if necessary, can be secured.

Rejecting Nalini's contention that ED officials were incompetent to issue the summons, Justice Subramaniam referred to section 50(2) of PMLA and said officials from the range of Director till the Assistant Director of ED have the power to summon any person whose attendance was considered necessary.

In fact the authorities were empowered to summon any person for the purpose of conducting investigation, he said.

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The CRPF has decided to replace about 12,000 of its aged troops with young and freshly inducted recruits to bring agility and renewed strength in its anti-Naxal operations in the LWE-hit areas of Chhattisgarh.

The paramilitary, designated as the lead force against Left Wing Extremism (LWE) in the country, has recently recruited and trained about 20,000 fresh troops and has now planned to deploy the 'young blood' in these strenuous operations that require personnel to be out in jungles for days together, in harsh climatic conditions.

The first-time measure, a senior official told PTI, is part of the forces' strategy to bring renewed vigour in its operations by posting young and motivated personnel and having the least amount of causalities and injuries on its side.

"About 12,000 freshly trained young recruits, in the age group of 18-21 years, will be deployed in Chhattisgarh soon by replacing their older colleagues who are in the age-group of 45-50 years." the official said.

The aim of the exercise is to keep the combat profile of the force young, he said, adding the move has been approved by CRPF Director General (DG) R R Bhatnagar.

An analysis of casualities in the force, both fatal and non-fatal, in the past encounters reflect that a number of aged troops were victims.

"There can be no doubt that a young age profile for a fighting force will result in better successes. The older age profile of troopers will be taken out from this LWE affected region and deployed in other locations where the battle is not that tough and demanding," the official said.

Another official deployed in the anti-Naxal operations grid of the force said while this first lot of young troops will go to Chhattisgarh, especially the south Bastar region that comprises districts of Sukma and Dantewada, the next batches could be sent to other states affected by LWE violence like Jharkhand and Odisha.

"Some of these young personnel would also be sent to the Kashmir valley which is an another important theatre of operations for the CRPF," the second official said.

The about 12,000 new personnel will be deployed in such a fashion, across various units of the CRPF in Chhattisgarh, that the overall profile of the battalion remains experienced and conversant with the area they are operating in and at the same time fighting fit, the officials said.

The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has about 31 battalions deployed in the central Indian state for these operations including special teams of its jungle warfare squad-- CoBRA.

Each battalion has over 1,000 personnel.

Last year, the CRPF lost 37 men in two Naxal ambushes in the state while 9 men were killed this year when the Maoists blew off their mine protected vehicle (MPV) in Sukma district last month.

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Union Minister Harsh Vardhan today emphasised the importance of land as a resource and the need to harness and protect it in a manner that does not adversely affect its health.

He also stressed on the critical need to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) by 2030.

Under LDN, the amount and quality of land resources, necessary to support ecosystem functions and services and enhance food security, remains stable or increases within specified temporal and spatial scales and ecosystems.

The minister was speaking after inaugurating a four-day Asia-Pacific Regional Workshop of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

"Emphasising the importance of land as a resource and the need to protect and harness its resources in a manner that does not adversely affect its health, The minister underlined the critical need to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality by 2030," an official statement said.

Harsh Vardhan urged the delegates to transform the workshop into a milestone in combating land degradation, desertification and drought.

In the global context, he said nearly 24 billion tonnes of fertile soil and 27,000 bio-species are lost every year, while nearly 30 per cent of the world's population lives in dry areas, he said, asserting, "eight out of 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites are in drylands".

Lauding the success stories from other nations, he mentioned Sahel Integrated Lowland ecosystem Management in Burkina Faso, and the capacity and management support for combating land degradation in dryland ecosystems in China.

In the Indian context, he highlighted the sustainable land, water and bio-diversity conservation and management for improved livelihoods in Uttarakhand.

He also referred to government schemes, including the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, the National Food Security Mission and the Soil Health Card Scheme.

Deputy Executive Secretary, UNCCD, P K Monga said the main objective of such workshops is to enable countries to participate effectively in the UNCCD reporting process.

UN Resident Coordinator Yuri Afanasiev stressed land degradation is the "single most" crucial issue facing the world.

"The good news, certainly for India, is that this problem is combatable and secondly, land degradation, together with issues like energy efficiency are the lowest cost, no-regret measures for the countries to adopt," Afanasiev said.

The four-day workshop will witness the participation of representatives from nearly 40 Asia-Pacific nations and also train delegates from 12 land degradation-prone states in India.

Desertification was addressed for the first time in 1977 in the United Nations Conference on Desertification. This was followed by the adoption of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Paris on 17th June 1994.

The Convention entered into force in December 1996.

India became a signatory to the Convention on October 14, 1994 and ratified it on December 17, 1996.

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The Nepal-India inter-governmental sub-committee meeting of their joint secretaries kicked off here today to discuss issues relating to trade, commerce and transit between the two countries.

The entire gamut of trade and transit will be discussed during the two-day meeting, according to sources in Nepal's ministry of commerce and supplies.

The meeting will also discuss enhancing cooperation between the two countries to control unauthorised border trade, said an official participating in the meeting.

Nepal will also ask India, among other things, to provide access to Indian seas through waterways, said an official.

The Nepalese delegation is led by Joint Secretary, Commerce and Industries, Ravi Sainju while the Indian side is led by Joint Secretary B S Bhalla.

The objective of the meeting is to further strengthen trade and transit relations between the two countries, the Indian Embassy here said.

Nepal and India need to form a joint study team to conduct a feasibility study for operating water transport for Nepal via Indian seas, said Madhav Belbase, Joint Secretary at Water and Energy Commission of Nepal.

During Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli's state visit to India on April 6-8, the two sides had issued a joint statement on connectivity through inland waterways, opening the door for Nepal to access the ocean through India.

The meeting will be followed by the inter-governmental committee (IGC) meeting between commerce secretaries of the two countries.

It will set the agenda for the two-day meeting of commerce secretaries scheduled for April 26-27 in Kathmandu.

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Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today inaugurated 'Sitamarhi Mahotasav' and laid foundation stones for various schemes worth Rs 48.53 crore for enhancing tourism facilities at Punauradham, the birth place of goddess Sita.

Kumar, who offered prayers at Janki Prakatya Asthali Shaktipeeth, inaugurated a newly constructed "Janki Baal Udyaan" at Dumra in Sitamarhi town built a cost of Rs 1.28 crore, an official release said.

Addressing the public meeting Kumar said that "Every steps are being taken by the government for the development of Punaura Dham, Haleshwar Asthan, Panth Paakar and Sitamarhi...Tourism department has been given the task to develop these places within two years of time. But I would like to see the work finishes at the earliest."



Kumar exhorted people to take a pledge to get rid of social evils like child marriage, dowry etc.

Enumerating prominent schemes in detail taken by his government for women's empowerment since he took over the reins in November 2005, Kumar said his government introduced 50 per cent reservation in panchayati raj institutions and urban local bodies besides bi-cycle scheme for girl students.

Now his government, which enforced prohibition in the state two years ago, is moving towards de-addiction, the CM said adding that state government has initiated sustained campaign for abolition of social evils like child marriage, dowry etc.

Talking about his ambitious scheme "Mukhya Mantri Kanya Utthan Yojana", he said that under the scheme a girl would be given incentives right from the time of their births till the completion of graduation which would cost the government Rs 54,100 every girl child.

The scheme is intended to improve sex-ratio, bring down female foeticide, prevent child marriage and help motivate girls to pursue studies, Kumar said adding that fruits of development will not reach to every individual untill social evils are wiped out from the society.

Others who spoke at the public meeting included Padma Vibhushan Jagat Guru Rambhadracharya jee Maharaj, Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi, road construction minister Nand Kishore Yadav, tourism minister Pramod Kumar, Rajya Sabha MP Prabhat Jha, Sitamarhi MP Ram Kumar Sharma and legislator Sunil Kumar Kushwaha.

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The National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) today signed two agreements for information technology innovation in mining operation management and carrying out research for water purification in mining areas in Chhattisgarh with CHiPS and NIT.

The memorandums of understanding (MOUs) were signed with the Chhattisgarh Infotech Promotion Society (CHiPS) and the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Raipur, during the two-day national seminar, jointly organised by the NMDC and the Federation of India Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FICCI), to mark the diamond jubilee year of the state-owned company.

Union Minister of State for Steel Vishnudeo Sai inaugurated the symposium titled "Responsible mining in new paradigm and growth and investment opportunity for mining and steel in mineral rich states" here at a hotel.

The agreement with the NIT was signed between Rajan Kumar, Head, Research and Development Centre of NMDC, and Dr S Sanyal, Dean (Research), NIT Raipur.

As per this MoU, the NIT and NMDC will collaborate in establishing a research laboratory including pilot testing facility for "Feasibility Studies on Removal of Contaminants from Surface and Ground Water of Bailadila Iron Ore Mine Project and Peripherals (in Chhattisgarh"s Dantewada district)".

The other MoU was signed by PK Satpathy, Director (Production) NMDC, and Alex Paul Menon, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), CHIPS, Raipur.

The agreement is for information technology (IT) and electronic systems-driven automation which will work in digitising NMDC offices.

NMDC and CHiPS, along with other stake-holders, will be establishing a Center of Excellence for Innovations in mining, to develop low-cost, indigenous automation solutions.

Speaking on the occasion, Union minister Sai said that mines and steel industry played a vital role in the rapid economic development of the nation.

"The production of steel has been satisfactory in the country. It has contributed over 2 per cent in the country's GDP and hence played an important role in the growth of the nation," Sai said, adding that the government has been focusing on priority on under-construction projects.

In the last financial year, NMDC registered best ever production by producing 35.6 mt iron ore which accounts for 25 per cent of""the country's total domestic production of iron ore, he said.

Earlier, Chairman-cum-Managing Director Baijendra Kumar said that NMDC has always believed in sustainable mining and, therefore, it has always followed the tradition of eco-friendly mining.

He said NMDC has been setting up a steel plant in Nagarnar area of Bastar at a cost of Rs 20,000 crore, which is likely to be commissioned by this year end.

The NMDC, the country's largest iron-ore producer and exporter, had a major mining operation in the Kirnadul-Bacheli Complex in Dantewada district of the state.

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Facing criticism over "slow" lifting of wheat from mandis, Punjab Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu today said the department will ensure timely procurement of each and every grain of the crop.

He assured that no farmer would suffer due to late procurement and lifting of wheat crop.

Newly-appointed minister Ashu held a review meeting with the officers of his department here today.

While addressing the officers, Ashu, an MLA from Ludhiana West, said that it is Chief Minister Amarinder Singh's commitment with the farmers to ensure timely procurement and lifting of wheat crop.

He urged the officers to ensure that no farmer suffers due to any delay in procurement and lifting.

The minister directed them that they should perform their duty with utmost devotion and honesty so that smooth procurement and lifting of wheat crop can take place in Punjab.

He said Punjab being an agrarian state, the farmers are the backbone of state's economy and the department should ensure that they should not suffer in the mandis.

Yesterday, opposition party, the Akali Dal (SAD), lashed out at the state government for "turning a blind eye to the suffering" of farmers, claiming that the entire procurement process had become "paralysed due to mismanagement" and demanded immediate lifting of wheat from markets.

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Nokia which had slipped from the heights of mobile handset business in the country, has become profitable again in just over a year of relaunch of its phones, a top company official said here today.

"We are already profitable in India," Amit Goyal, the global business head( north & east) of HMD GLobal, which is the global licensee of Nokia brand, said here today at the launch of three handsets in the east.

However, he did not elaborate and did not divulge the number of handsets the Fiinland-based company shipped to India, where the distribution of Nokia phones is handled by the company's affiliate entity TNS Mobile India.

HMD Global is the global licensee of Nokia brand for a 10-year period.

Goyal said globally 70 million units were sold in 2017 and feature phones accounted for a major share of it. The company will continue to focus on this segment as 50 per cent of the domestic market is ruled by it.

Nokia has five feature phones and eight smartphone models which have been either launched or announced. More models will follow to strengthen its foothold in India, one of the top three markets globally.

"We want to be present in all the segments of the phone market. The future rollouts will also cater to diverse segments," he said adding Nokia aspires to be one of the top three handset brands in India and globally but did not give any timeframe.

He said it was an exciting journey to create an infrastructure of 550 distributors that serves about a lakh retail points in such a short time.

The company is yet to firm up any exclusive Nokia store strategy.

The new Nokia 6, Nokia 7 Plus and Nokia 8 Sirocco were launched today.

Only Nokia 8 Sirocco is not made in India, Goyal said.

He said the company would follow one price strategy for both online and offline.

"We will sell online through own company site and tie-ups with major e-tailers," Goyal added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
North Korea must get rid of its nukes, President said on Tuesday and expressed hope that the US would be able to deal in a very open and honourable fashion with the reclusive nation over the issue.

Trump's remarks came during a joint news conference with the French President Emanuel Macron at the White House.

Trump said his administration had made no concession to North Korea.

A lot of concessions have already been made. We have made no concessions, despite some of the media saying that I've made concessions. I haven't even discussed a concession. Other than the fact that meeting is a great thing, Trump told reporters.

Trump said he believed in complete denuclearization.

"It means they get rid of their nukes. Very simple, they get rid of their nukes and nobody else would say it. It'd be very easy for me to make a simple deal and claim victory, I don't want to do that. I want them to get rid of their nukes," he said in response to a question.

Trump has agreed to meet the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The venue of the meeting has not been decided yet, but it would not be in the United States.

I hope that we will be able to deal in a very open and honorable fashion with North Korea. I started a process, and when I did everybody thought I was doing it absolutely wrong, he said.

The United States, he said, put the strongest sanctions on a country that it ever has had. China supported the US effort, he said, as he praised Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The two leaders also hinted about a new deal with Iran that includes a solution to the Syrian crisis, as the two leaders to contain Iran in the region and prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Trump in fact warned Iran of grave consequences if it threatened the United States.

France and the United States, Trump said agree that Iran cannot be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon, and that regime must end its support of terrorism. No matter where you go in the Middle East, you see the fingerprints of Iran behind problems, he alleged.

He also said countries in the Middle East, who have a lot of money, need to pay for the security that America provides to them.

Countries that are in the area, some of which are immensely wealthy, would not be there except for the United States and to a lesser extent France. But they wouldn't be there except for the United States, they wouldn't last a week, Trump said.

We are protecting them. They have to now step up and pay for what's happening. Because I don't think France or the United States should be liable for the tremendous cost. The United States is embarrassingly into the Middle East as of a few months ago, he said in response to a question.

The US has spent USD 7 trillion for the war in the middle east.

And when we want to build our infrastructure, everybody says that we want to be careful with our money. When we want to fix a highway or we want to build schools and lots of other things, tunnels, bridges, they say oh, let's be careful with our money, he said.
Telecom major Vodafone today told the Delhi High Court that it was not obligated to provide interconnectivity to Reliance Jio when it started operations in September 2016, as initially it was providing only test services.

The submission by Vodafone was made before Justice Rajiv Shakdher during the hearing of the company's plea challenging telecom regulator TRAI's recommendation to the Centre to impose Rs 1,050 crore penalty on it for not giving interconnectivity to Jio.

Vodafone also moved an application seeking to place on record some documents it had obtained through the Right to Information Act as well as seeking from TRAI details of the test services run by Jio in the initial months after its launch.

The court, thereafter, issued notice to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and sought its response by September 5 on Vodafone's application.

It also issued notice on Reliance Jio's application to be made a party in the case.

Meanwhile, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) told the court that it has heard all the service providers and would take a decision in three to four months on TRAI's recommendation.

During the brief arguments, TRAI said that since a similar plea against the penalty recommendation has been moved by Idea Cellular before a larger bench, this matter too should be heard by the same bench.

TRAI has recommended imposition of a fine of Rs 50 crore for each of the 21 circles of Vodafone, except in Jammu and Kashmir, which totals Rs 1,050 crore. TRAI had made similar recommendations against Airtel and Idea.

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The Supreme Court today said "nothing would materialise" if the money from the Nirbhaya fund is not properly spent on women's welfare.

"We have been spending time for the benefit of women and children. Unless the fund is spent, we can go on talking about it, but nothing will materialise," a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta observed and added, "there are so many things which we have to do for the welfare of women and children".

The apex court sought details of the funds allocated to the states by the Centre under the scheme, announced by the Centre in 2013 after the December 16, 2012 gang-rape and murder case in Delhi to support initiatives on women's safety across the country.

It said there was no lack of funds under the scheme but the issue was of its proper utilisation. Huge amount of funds were available but its "ineffective channelisation" should be taken care of, it stressed.

Senior lawyer Indira Jaising, who is assisting the court as an amicus curiae in the matter, raised the issue of low conviction rate in India in cases of sexual assaults and said one of the reasons for this was that the authorities were unable to support the victims throughout the trial of these cases.

She said some interim compensation should be paid to the victims of sexual assault without waiting for the outcome of the case, as the purpose of the victim compensation scheme was to rehabilitate her and support her during the trial also.

Regarding the victim compensation scheme, Jaising said the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) has proposed a comprehensive scheme on victim compensation for across the country.

She also stressed the need for proper security arrangements in public transport system while referring to the December 16, 2012 incident that had happened in a moving bus here.

The bench referred to a 'one stop centre' in Hyderabad where every service, including counselling facility and medical facility, were available for victims of sexual assaults.

It said it would take up the issue of victim compensation scheme on May 8 while the matter pertaining to utilisation of the Nirbhaya fund would be heard in July.

Earlier, the Centre had told the apex court that it was finding it difficult to get the cooperation of states on the issue relating to disbursal of compensation to the victims of sexual assault under the Nirbhaya scheme.

Several petitions were filed in the Supreme Court after the December 16, 2012 incident in Delhi raising concerns over the safety and security of women. All the petitions were tagged by the apex court and several directions have been issued from time to time in this regard.

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The National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday announced the launch of its e-Gsec platform which will allow retail investors to invest in government securities and hold them in existing demat accounts.

"We have launched "e-Gsec" platform for facilitating the non-competitive bidding in Government of India Dated Securities (G-Sec) and Treasury Bills (T-Bills). This will allow retail investors to invest in government securities and hold them in existing demat accounts," a release said here.

The government issues securities in order to borrow money from the market. Securities are offered to investors through auctions which is competitive and on-competitive. The large investors, such as, banks, primary dealers, financial institutions, mutual funds, insurance companies, etc generally participate in the competitive auctions by placing bids directly on the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The Union budget 2016-17 had announced that RBI will facilitate retail participation in the primary through stock exchanges.

The RBI conducts auction for G-Sec and T-Bills on a weekly basis where 5 per cent of the notified amount is allotted for eligible investors under the scheme for non-competitive bidding facility.

Today's launch of NSE's e-Gsec platform provides investors an opportunity to participate in the G-Sec auction of April 26 and the subsequent weekly auctions of G-Secs and T-Bills, the release said.

According to Vikram Limaye, managing director and chief executive officer, NSE, non-competitive bidding through exchanges is an efficient mechanism for delivering government securities to retail clients.

"Promoting retail participation in government securities benefits both the issuer and the investor. For the government it provides a diversified investor base and for retail investors an ability to diversify their investment portfolio to an asset class providing capital protection and decent returns," he said.

Limaye added that NSE will continue to offer simple retail products leveraging on its robust technology and retail distribution capabilities.

Investments in government securities are one of the safer investment options available to retail investors. These risk-free instruments provide portfolio diversification and are available for longer investment durations.

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Over 5,000 people in Gujarat's Bhavnagar district, battling against the acquisition of land by a state power utility, have written letters to authorities seeking permission to die, a farmers' body leader today claimed.

"A total of 5,259 people, comprising farmers and their family members from 12 affected villages, have sought "icchha mrityu (right to die) as the land they cultivate is being forcibly snatched by the state government and Gujarat Power Corporation Limited (GPCL)," claimed Narendrasinh Gohil, a local farmer and a member of Gujarat Khedut Samaj, an organisation fighting for farmers' rights.

He claimed that the letters, signed by these farmers and their kin, have been sent to the President of India, the Prime Minister and the chief minister of Gujarat.

Harshad Patel, Collector, Bhavnagar, said that the farmers had dropped these letters, in which they have demanded permission for "icchha mrityu", at the registry branch of the collectorate.

The registry branch receives and dispatches all the letters of the collectorate.

In the letter, the farmers accused the state government, and GPCL, of using police force to get them to vacate the land which the farmers claimed was being tilled by them for several years now.

The farmers alleged that GPCL was trying to possess the land more than 20 years after the power firm had acquired it, adding that such a move was against the law.

"As per the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, a company cannot take possession of a land which it had acquired more than five years ago. To possess such a land, it will have to initiate the process of acquisition afresh," Gohil said.

"On two occasions, the police have fired teargas on a peaceful gathering of farmers. We are being threatened and bullied by the government," Gohil alleged.

He added that the district administration has imposed section 144 of the CrPC, a provision prohibiting any assembly of persons the authorities term unlawful, in the 12 villages since over a month now.

"GPCL and Gujarat government want to usurp our land, despite the land legally belonging to the farmers. What shall we do in such a situation? If we do not have cultivable land, we shall be as good as dead," the letter claimed.

The farmers, in their letter, said that the "forcible acquisition" of land was making them feel like "terrorists" and, therefore, they would like to be killed by bullets fired by Army personnel.

"We wish for this because we have been made to feel like terrorists by the authority. So my last wish is to be killed at the hands of the Army," the farmers said in the letters.

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Over 5,500 dead voters and 1,900 multiple entries were found in the voters list of Madhya Pradesh's Kolaras assembly constituency, where bye-polls were held on February 24, according to a letter from the state's CEO to the Election Commission (EC).

In the letter, sent earlier this month to the EC, state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Saleena Singh blamed the district collector and district electoral officer for the lapse.

There were 1,918 multiple entries and 5,537 dead voters in the voters list during the bye-election in Kolaras in Shivpuri district, she said.

It means booth level officers and the electoral registration officer (ERO) did not pay attention towards it and the district electoral officer (DEO) as well as they did not do proper monitoring, according to the letter.

Singh said if the collector and the DEO had continuously reviewed the voters list, especially before the bye-polls, then such a large number of dead voters would have not been included.

There has to be a review of the voters list by the collector and the DEO, which appears to have not been done, said the letter, a copy of which was received in reply to an RTI application filed by anti-corruption activist Ajay Dubey.

"There are complaints of alleged irregularities in voters list of the state. We will approach the EC for speedy action on the issue to ensure fair elections," Dubey said, demanding action from the poll body against the Shivpuri collector.

Congress' Mahendra Yadav won from Kolaras constituency in the bye-elections, result of which were declared on February 28.

Yadav polled 82,515 votes and BJP's Devendra Jain got 74,432 ballots.

In March, the state Chief Electoral Office had written to Collector, Shivpuri, Tarun Rathi to give his clarification over the issue of alleged irregularities in the voters list.

The Election Commission of India had sought response from the collector and the DEO.

The Congress had in February this year complained to the EC of alleged discrepancies in the voters list in Madhya Pradesh.

Chief Election Commissioner O P Rawat had recently in Indore said there were discrepancies in the electoral rolls in Madhya Pradesh and that they will be rectified before the year-end assemble polls in the state.

"Certainly, there are lapses (in revision of the rolls). After a probe, ineligible names will be removed from the list and new names will be added so that before the coming assembly polls, a correct voter list is prepared," he had told reporters on April 9.

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Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa today met with Russian Army Commander-in-Chief Colonel General Oleg Salyukov and discussed security and defence related issues.

Colonel General Salyukov said Pakistan is a geo-strategically important country and Russia is keen to expand its existing bilateral military-to-military cooperation, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Pakistan Army's media arm, said in a statement.

Gen Bajwa, who is in Russia on an official visit, thanked him and said that Pakistan "reciprocates desire of enhanced bilateral military engagements", the statement said.

The Russian commander acknowledged achievements of Pakistan Army in fight against terrorism and contributions for regional peace and stability, the ISPR said.

Gen Bajwa said that Russia has recently played a positive role to help resolve complex situations in the region. He also said that Pakistan will continue to play its part to keep conflicts away from the region and seek approaches which bring regional convergences into play rather that the divergences.

Earlier, Gen Bajwa was accorded a guard-of-honour upon his arrival at the Kremlin Palace where he met the Russian commander.

His visit came a day after a high-level inter-ministerial delegation, led by National Security Advisor Lt-Gen (retd) Nasser Khan Janjua, visited Moscow on April 22-23 and held talks on defence related issues.

Pakistan's ties with Russia have moved past the bitter Cold War hostilities in recent years and the chill in the relations between Pakistan and the US, especially after President Donald Trump warned Islamabad for providing safe havens to terrorists, has further pushed the country towards Russia and China.

In 2016, Russia held its first-ever military exercises with Pakistan and also started selling weapons to Islamabad.

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Pakistan has extended for six more months the visa of an Indian woman, who had embraced Islam after marrying a local man during her visit to Pakistan to attend the Baisakhi festival, according to a media report today.

Kiran Bala, who after converting to Islam has taken the name Amna Bibi, had applied for a Pakistani citizenship and extension to her visa.

Bala, who hailed from Punjab's Hoshiarpur district, had arrived in Lahore by a special train on April 12 to attend Baisakhi festival celebrations.

During her visit, she embraced Islam and married a resident of Hingerwal, Lahore, on April 16 at a ceremony held at an Islamic seminary here.

She had moved the Lahore High Court on April 21 as her visa was expiring. The high court extended her visa by 30-days and also directed the Pakistan's interior ministry to decide whether she was eligible for the six-month extension as per her application.

Approval for the visa extension of the woman was granted yesterday, the Express Tribune reported.

Confirming the extension of her visa for next six months, her Pakistani husband Muhammad Azam said "I will receive the passport and other documents."



The interior ministry, acting on the orders of the Lahore high court, had summoned Bala and her husband to Islamabad.

The couple appeared before the officer concerned yesterday but there was a delay as she was not carrying her passport, which was with the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB). Her passport was needed for verification of the first visa. The ETPB keeps the travel documents of visiting Indian pilgrims.

The ETPB later gave Bala's passport to the immigration authorities after which her visa was verified, following which, the approval for an extension of the visa for six more months was granted, the report said.

"I am hopeful of getting the Pakistani nationality too," she was quoted as saying in the report.

According to the present laws in India and Pakistan, nationality is granted by both the countries after seven years, the report said.

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Pakistan authorities today handed over an Indian national who had gone to Pakistan on pilgrimage but was missing from his group when it returned on Saturday, officials said.

The Sikh 'jatha' had come home on April 21 after a 10-day pilgrimage but 24-year-old Amarjit Singh, a resident of village Niranjanpura in Amrtisar district, was not part of it.

Pakistan authorities later found him at the home of his "Facebook friend" Amir Razak in Sheikhupura, 50 km from Lahore, and handed him over to their Indian counterparts.

He told officials that he had gone to stay with Razak on April 16, telling his hosts that he held a visa for over a month's stay in Pakistan.

When his friend asked him to show his passport, Amarjit Singh told him that it was deposited with the Pakistani authorities, according to the pilgrim's account to Indian officials on his return.

Singh recalled that his host's family got jittery when Pakistani and Indian television channels reported on April 21 about his sudden disappearance from a gurdwara.

Indian authorities had also reported him missing after they came to know that he was not among the pilgrims who had returned.

The host family reported the matter to police, and officials from the Evacuee Trust Property Board of Pakistan took Singh to Lahore yesterday.

When asked how he had reached Razak's house, he told officials that he managed to dodge Pakistani security.

The Sikh pilgrims had gone to Pakistan to celebrate Baisakhi festival.

Amarjit Singh's passport, like that of other pilgrims, was deposited with the officials of the Evacuee Trust Property Board, who reportedly informed top officials when he failed to collect it within the stipulated time.

The Pakistani police had launched a manhunt in Nankana Sahib where a number of Sikh families live, reports said.

Kiran Bala, another member of the same group, had also not come back with the jatha, after reportedly converting to Islam and marrying a Pakistani man.

Singh had earlier reportedly worked in Malaysia was living with his family in Punjab for the last couple of months.

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Pakistan has put a senior US diplomat on the "black list" to prevent him from leaving the country over his involvement in a fatal road accident that killed a motorcyclist here, a court was told today.

US defence and air attache Colonel Joseph Emmanuel Hall was driving a Land Cruiser that jumped a red light in capital Islamabad to hit a motorbike last month, killing one of the riders and injuring the other.

The victim's family filed a petition with the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to stop the accused from fleeing the country under the guise of diplomatic immunity.

Deputy Attorney General Raja Khalid Mehmood told the court during hearing that the interior ministry had placed his name in the "black list" so that he could not leave Pakistan.

Earlier, the court had asked the government to explain why his name was not placed on the Exit Control List (ECL) that bars an individual from leaving the country.

Mehmmod informed the court that placing someone on the ECL was a lengthy process and instead the interior secretary was allowed to stop anyone from leaving Pakistan for by placing his name on the 'black list'.

He said both the ECL and black list serve the same purpose.

He also said that the accused cannot be arrested or tried due to immunity he enjoyed under the Vienna Convention. But the suspect could be investigated.

The issue of Col Hall has added to the tension between Pakistan and the US who are trying to resolve differences over America's policy for the region and Afghanistan.

A top US State Department official visited Pakistan yesterday during which Islamabad demanded waiver of the diplomatic immunity to Hall, so that he could be prosecuted.

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Parliament is not immune to the casting couch, Congress leader Renuka Chowdhury today said, describing the practice as the "bitter truth" not just of the film industry but of all work spaces.

The former Member of Parliament also attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging that he had "snatched" her dignity when he said during a debate in the Rajya Sabha that she reminded him of a character in the Ramayana serial aired on television.

"It's the bitter truth. It is not just in the film industry. This happens everywhere in work spaces. Don't imagine that Parliament is immune (to it) or some other work space is immune," she stressed.

Across the world, Chowdhury said, women were speaking up against harassment.

"It's time India stood up and said 'me too'," the former Rajya Sabha member said, pointing out that top actresses in Hollywood had done so.

"If you look at the western world today, established top actresses took so long to come out and say 'me too'," she told a television channel earlier today, in reference to Bollywood choreographer Saroj Khan's remarks defended the casting couch culture, under which people are forced to grant sexual facours in exchange for rewards such as roles or assignments.

Later, at a press conference at her residence here, Chowdhury elaborated on the issue.

"Casting couch means privileges of women are taken away and used for personal benefit or in lieu of other compensations," she said.

At the press meet, she also accused Modi of having "snatched" her dignity.

"Narendra Modi had snatched my dignity when he said I remind him of Surpanakha. Okay, I am Surpanakha and I do not want to become Sita," she said, and accused Union Minister Kiren Rijiju of circulating videos targeting her over her laughter in the Rajya Sabha.

Modi had not referred to demoness Surpanakha by name during the debate in February after Chowdhury had burst out into a loud guffaw.

"Sabhapati ji, I request you not to say anything to Renuka ji. After the Ramayan serial, we got the privilege of hearing this kind of laughter only today," Modi had said.

Chowdhury went on to explain that the casting couch menace was not as prevalent in politics as it was in some other areas.

"Politics is the most transparent system. There are no secrets in politics. A redressal cell in politics is inherent as we have seniors, women colleagues and support systems."



Chowdhury also spoke about the government's recent ordinance allowing the death penalty for those convicted of raping girls below the age of 12 years, and asked if it was "okay to rape girls of other ages".

"Okay, the ordinance is a good move, but how many rapists get convicted? Those who commit rapes hire big advocates and spend lakhs of rupees. What about those girls from economically weaker sections? There are cases when rapists get bail and threaten the victims. What law will you implement to protect them," she asked, urging women to break their silence on violence against them.

Pitching for a "you too" movement, Chowdhury said, "There must be a 'you too' campaign so that any woman can say - I am naming you because you are responsible and you too are an offender."



The MeToo campaign, which calls out sexual offenders, began in Hollywood late last year and triggered a global movement against sexual abuse.

Khan, the choreographer of songs such as "Ek Do Teen" and "Choli Ke Peechhay", had justified the exchange of sexual favours for work in the film industry, saying it was not a new phenomenon and the film industry "at least" provided jobs and did not abandon women after raping them.

The choreographer also put the onus on women and said everyone, including people in the government, indulged in the practice.

"I have already said I am sorry. But you don't know the question that was asked... And now there's so much ruckus," Khan told PTI over the phone today as a video of her interaction with the media did the rounds of television networks and social media.

Asked about Chowdhury's remark during a press conference at the All India Congress Committee headquarters here, party spokesperson PL Punia said, "I have no information about it.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while asking him to take charge, had said that Maharashtra's image had become that of a "state of brokers", Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said today.

Fadnavis added that PM Modi had told him at the time that "we need to change it".

Fadnavis was speaking at the launch of a book by Pune-based journalist Ashish Chandorkar.

The book, titled "Man of Mission Maharashtra" was launched by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and is a compilation of success stories of the Fadnavis government since it came to power in November 2014.

"The book carries my photograph on the cover but it is not just my work alone. The success stories are a result of team work," Fadnavis told the gathering.

Speaking on the occasion, Gadkari said that caste came to the forefront every time parties were unable to counter the success of a particular leader.

"There is a time when you cannot counter the success of a leader and then caste comes to the forefront. Something like this is happening with Fadnavis," Gadkari said.

Gadkari, speaking on the occasion, said that the inefficiency of earlier governments had resulted in non-utilisation of water resources worth Rs 1.5 lakh crore.

"After Fadnavis took over, the government is rapidly completing projects which will greatly help people of the state. There was a time when the issue of water tankers used to be discussed in the Assembly. Now several villages are tanker-free," he claimed.

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Lebanese police officials say an operative with Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group was killed when a bomb he was holding went off in his home in the country's south.

The officials say it isn't clear what the operative, identified as Bilal Hassan, was doing with the bomb and now it got onto his home.

Initial reports were conflicting. Lebanon's private Al-Jadeed TV says Hassan was actually holding a grenade cartridge for a rocket-propelled-grenade launcher.

The state-run National Agency said a "strange object" exploded in his house on the edge of the southern port-city of Sidon.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

They said Hezbollah members inspected Hassan's house after the blast and were later followed by policemen who opened an investigation in the case.

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Delhi minister Imran Hussain today told a city court that the police was not properly investigating his complaint about being mobbed and assaulted by some officials a day after the alleged attack on chief secretary Anshu Prakash.

The Delhi Environment Minister, through his counsel, submitted before Metropolitan Magistrate Abhilash Malhotra that despite being given the names of his attackers, the police has not taken any action on his complaint.

"Counsel for applicant submits that investigation is not conducted properly. He submits that the complainant in the FIR clearly mentioned the names of the persons who attacked him but no action has been taken by the police so far," the magistrate noted in his order.

The police, meanwhile, submitted its status report on the investigation so far and informed that the hard disk containing the CCTV footage of the alleged incident has been sent to the forensic lab for examination.

It also said the process of identifying the culprits was still going on and appropriate action would be taken thereafter.

The court, after hearing the two sides, put up the matter for further proceedings on May 19.

Hussain had lodged a complaint claiming that a day after the alleged assault on Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash on February 19, he was mobbed by some Delhi government officials, who raised slogans and prevented him from taking the elevator to his 6th floor office at the Delhi Secretariat.

The court had earlier expressed satisfaction over the ongoing probe in the case with the police assuring it that efforts were on to identify the culprits. It had directed the police to preserve all CCTV footage relevant to the alleged assault and ensure a fair investigation.

The court had said the CCTV footage prima-facie showed that the minister was surrounded by a "herd of people and thereafter criminal force was used against him as well as his staff".

After viewing the CCTV footage submitted by the minister, the court had said it was clear that he was restrained in the lift, a huge crowd was present and criminal force was used. It had also directed the police to examine Hussain to ascertain the names of persons who had allegedly attacked him.

The police had earlier informed the court that notices have been issued to 14 people to join investigation in the matter. Hussain had, however, alleged that the investigation was being conducted at a snail's pace.

The minister, in his complaint, had said he was restrained from going to his office and his mobile phone was snatched during the incident.

The Delhi Government Employees Association had refuted the allegation and claimed that Hussain had arrived at the secretariat on February 20 when sloganeering was going on against the alleged assault on the chief secretary, but nobody manhandled him.

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Police have so far not been able to ascertain the motive behind the killing of a 67-year-old woman in south Delhi's Hauz Khas, police said today.

The woman's body was found yesterday at her residence with head injuries.

However, police was yet to ascertain whether she was killed by someone known to her or by someone else, they said.

Police are also yet to ascertain the motive behind the killing.

The house was found ransacked but the family members have not reported about the loss of valuables which indicates that the house might have been ransacked to create the impression of a robbery, police said.

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Amid a nationwide outrage over incidents of rape of minor girls, Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Bhupendra Singh has said that pornography is one of the major causes behind the rise in sexual crimes against children.

Singh said the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh would write to the Centre for enacting a strict law banning porn sites.

"Our studies show that porn movies are one of the major reasons behind spurt in sexual crimes involving children. We wanted to ban such movies (websites serving pornographic content).

"The state is going to request the Centre to ban porn websites by enacting a stringent law. This is an international issue. We can deal with such crimes with strictness and awareness," the minister told reporters here yesterday.

The minister said that the state government had blocked 25 porn sites, which he said was "not enough".

He hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the tough law prescribing stringent punishment, including death penalty, for rapists of girls below 12 years of age.

President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday promulgated an ordinance to this effect.

The minister referred to a Madhya Pradesh law prescribing death penalty to rapists of girls aged 12 and below to underline the state government's resolve to crack down on crimes against children.

Recently, a six-month-old girl was allegedly raped and killed in Indore by a 21-year-old man.

The incidents such as the alleged rape and killing of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir and alleged rape of a teenage girl by an MLA in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao had triggered protests across the country.

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KKR-backed Radiant Life Care today made a revised bid for Fortis Healthcare Ltd (FHL) with a binding offer to acquire its Mulund hospital for an enterprise value of Rs 1,200 crore.

This is the second revised offer received by Fortis today after Malaysian major IHH Healthcare made a binding offer to infuse Rs 650 crore immediately in the Indian firm as part of an overall proposal to invest Rs 4,000 crore.

The company has received a binding offer from Radiant Life Care, FHL said in a regulatory filing.

"In order to provide immediate liquidity to FHL, we would like to make a binding offer to purchase Fortis Mulund hospital without due diligence and as a going concern at an enterprise value of Rs 1,200 crore as the first step," Radiant said in its revised offer to FHL.

The transaction would provide an immediate liquidity of Rs 680 crore to FHL, Radiant said.

The KKR-backed firm had earlier offered to acquire at least 26 per cent stake in FHL at Rs 126 per share, excluding its diagnostic business SRL.

The company also proposed a demerger of hospitals business of FHL into a new company, excluding FHL's stake in SRL.

The revised offers have come two days ahead of a meeting of Fortis Healthcare Ltd (FHL) board to consider recommendation by an expert advisory panel formed to finalise evaluation process of only binding offers.

Manipal-TPG combine and Munjals and Burmans were the only two groups that had made binding offers out of total of five suitors in race.

Chinese firm Fosun Health Holdings and KKR-backed Radiant Life Care had also made non-binding expression of interests in FHL.

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The Delhi High Court said today that with the AAP government "pushing for" regularising illegal constructions and the civic bodies allowing such buildings to remain in place by charging a compounding fee, it would result in creating a "time bomb".

"The municipal corporations may be compounding, but you (Delhi government) are pushing for regularising illegal constructions. By regularising all these illegalities, what you will get is a time bomb," the high court said.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar also said that there appeared to be a "nexus" between the Delhi government and the corporations with regard to securing the illegal constructions.

The observations came during hearing on a batch of PILs seeking prevention of bonded labour, especially of children, and the implementation of schemes meant for rehabilitation of victims of this practice.

Most of the bonded labourers were employed in illegal factories in the national capital.

Referring to a recent fire in one such factory, which was illegally operating from a residential area, the court said that the deaths in the incident were tantamount to murder and called for serious action from the authorities.

It also said that had the authorities been doing their statutory duty, Delhi would not be what it is and such illegal factories would not be set up.

Meanwhile, Delhi Police counsel Rahul Mehra told the court that in the past five years, 192 FIRs were lodged with regard to bonded labour in which 72 are pending trial, in 105 cases investigation is going on and 15 matter have been decided.

The PILs have claimed non-enforcement of the Bonded Labour Rehabilitation Scheme 2016 as no compensation had been released till date to the victims who were rescued last year.

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Shares of Reliance Naval and Engineering cracked over 13 per cent today after auditors of the Anil Ambani-led firm raised doubts about the company's ability to "continue as a going concern".

The stock slumped 13.33 per cent to end at Rs 23.40 on BSE. Intra-day, it tumbled 18.14 per cent to Rs 22.10 -- its 52-week low.

The company's market valuation also came down by Rs 265.04 crore to Rs 1,725.96 crore.

Selling was also seen in other Reliance group stocks, with Reliance Communications tumbling 10.47 per cent, Reliance Power 4.18 per cent, Reliance Infrastructure 1.89 per cent and Reliance Capital 1.34 per cent.

In its notes to the company's 2017-18 earnings statement, auditors Pathak H.D. & Associates listed cash losses, erosion of network, loans being called back by secured lenders, current liabilities being substantially higher than assets and winding up petitions being filed by few operating creditors to raise its doubts.

"These conditions indicate the existence of a material uncertainty that may cast significant doubt on the company's ability to continue as going concern," the auditor said in the note.

The company yesterday reported widening of its net loss to Rs 408.68 crore in January-March quarter of 2017-18 fiscal year from Rs 139.92 crore net loss in the same period of previous financial year. For the full year 2017-18, it posted a net loss of Rs 956.09 crore as compared to a loss of Rs 523.43 crore in the previous year.

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Oscar-winning actor Sam Rockwell is in negotiations to star alongside Scarlett Johansson in Taika Waititi's "Jojo Rabbit".

The story revolves around Jojo, a young boy who longs to be part of the Hitler Youth and whose imaginary friend is Adolf Hitler. He discovers a Jewish girl living in his attic and, after initially trying to find ways to get rid of her, begins to see her as human.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Johansson is playing Jojo's mother, a woman who is secretly working for the resistance. Waititi is playing the imaginary Hitler.

If things workout, Rockwell will play a Nazi captain who runs a Hitler Youth camp.

Waititi has penned the script and will produce alongside Carthew Neal and Chelsea Winstanley. The film is set to go on floors soon.

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The Supreme Court today declined any interim relief to a government doctors' association and said the Tamil Nadu government will have to grant admission in post-graduate medical courses to in-servce doctors as per amended regulations of the Medical Council of India.

Tamil Nadu Medical Officers Association and others have assailed two amended provisions of MCI's Post Graduate Medical Regulations, which provide the criteria for granting quota or incentive marks to government doctors, either serving or have served in rural or remote areas, in admissions to PG courses.

It was submitted that instead of granting incentive marks to government doctors, serving in remote and difficult rural areas, in PG admissions, the state government should be allowed to continue with its own quota policy.

"We are unable to accede to the request," a five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said.

The bench, also comprising Justices A K Sikri, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, said the counselling process for admissions in PG courses would go on as per the MCI regulations and its final verdict will decide the fate of admisisons.

Earlier, the court had reserved its interim order on a batch of petitions challenging the MCI's regulations dealing with reservation to in-service candidates in admission to the PG medical courses in respect of 50 per cent seats allocated to states.

The doctors' association of Tamil Nadu had assailed Regulation 9(IV), which says the reservation of seats in medical colleges for respective categories in PG courses shall be as per applicable laws of the states and UTs and an all-India and state-wise merit list of the eligible candidates shall be prepared on the basis of marks obtained by them in National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET).

The regulation provided that doctors in government service may be given weightage as an incentive of up to 10 per cent of the marks obtained for each year of service in "remote and/or difficult areas or rural areas upto maximum of 30 per cent" of the marks obtained in NEET.

Regulation VIII, however, provides for 50 per cent reservation in seats in PG Diploma courses for government doctors.

The doctors association had alleged that though 50 per cent quota for in-service doctors are allowed in diploma courses, the system of grant of incentive marks is adopted for granting admissions in PG courses.

They alleged that the power of "the coordination and determination of standards in institutions for higher education" falls in the Union List and the fact that "medical education" comes under Concurrent List implies that states are not denuded of powers to legislate on the manner and method for admissions to PG medical courses.

Senior advocate Arvind Datar, representing Tamil Nadu doctors's body, had referred to judgements and constitutional schemes and said that a state was empowered to devise mechanism to allocate 50 per cent of its seats to candidates.

Senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for MCI, had said the state cannot be allowed to "lower" the standard of selection of candidates by flouting the MCI regulations. He had sought to distinguish between the PG diploma courses and the PG courses and submitted that there was no need to pass any interim order.

Additional Solicitor General Aman Lekhi, representing the Centre, had said the issue fell under "exclusive domain" of the Union and the state cannot legislate on it.

Few days ago, a three judge bench headed by Justice Kurian Joseph had referred to a constitution bench the pleas, challenging the MCI regulations.

NEET conducts examination for admissions in Medical PG courses and 50 per cent seats are filled by the Centre and 50 per cent seats are filled by the states which may give incentive marks up to 30 per cent to government doctors who are serving in rural and remote areas.

Tamil Nadu and some states are seeking autonomy to decide the manner in which they would fill up their 50 per cent seats by devising norms on quota and challenge the MCI regulations to that effect.

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A security force personnel was today injured in an encounter with militants in a forest area of Pulwama district in Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.

Security forces launched an anti-militancy operation in Laam forest of Tral area in Pulwama district following information about presence of militants there, a police official said.

He said a gun battle broke out between militants and the security forces when the ultras opened fire.

A security force personnel has been injured while the operation is still in progress, the official said.

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Former Rajya Sabha MP Sharad Yadav today announced he would support the ruling Congress in poll-bound Karnataka, saying he was doing so to defeat BJP.

Yadav, a rebel JD(U) leader, said the faction represented by him has influence on a few seats in the state, but his faction has decided to not put up candidates in the May 12 assembly polls after the Congress expressed reluctance to part with any seat for it.

"The Congress could not accommodate our party and our workers agreed that in order to defeat BJP we should not compel it for parting with seats, and instead we should work for it in the elections," he said in a statement.

Yadav claimed Congress has an edge over BJP in the state.

The deadline for entering the fray for the polls ended today.

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Police today claimed to have busted a cigarette-theft racket with the arrest of nine persons and recovery of stolen cigarettes worth around Rs 46 lakh.

The racket was unearthed on the night of April 8 when a police team came across a truck standing in a suspicious manner at Uttar Shiv in Thane district and found that the cartons of cigarettes that it was carrying were stolen, an officer said.

"Shil Daighar police found the truck parked in a suspicious manner at Uttar Shiv. During the search, they found that the vehicle was carrying 186 cartons of cigarettes worth Rs 15.50 lakh that were actually meant to be exported to Saudi Arabia," ACP (Crime) N T Kadam of the Crime Branch said.

Four persons, including the truck driver Mohammad Ismail Shah, were arrested. During their interrogation, they revealed the names and involvement of some other accused.

"They told the police that the ITC-manufactured cigarettes were stolen from a container, which was being carried from Ranjangaon MIDC to JNPT for shipment. The driver of the container, who is part of the racket, stopped the vehicle at Chowk Phata in Raigad district, where the accused took out total 550 cartons of cigarettes," police said.

"Without breaking the seal, the accused removed the rivets of the boxes in which the cartons were kept. After taking out the cartons, they once again fixed the rivets as they were before the theft," Kadam said.

Based on the information given by the arrested accused, the police conducted a raid at a godown at Bapgaon Bhiwandi in the district and seized the remaining 364 cartons worth Rs 30.33 lakh. The total worth of the seized cigarettes is worth Rs 45.83 lakh, he said.

A complaint has been filed in this connection under IPC 407 (criminal breach of trust by carrier).

The other eight accused in the case were identified as Vijay Yadav (35), Alok Agrawal (38), Akhil Ahmed Kalfu Khan (28), Shidhari Yadav (50), Ramashankar Sharma (30), Pravin Kumar Singh (36), Bilal Ahmed Mohammad Jabbar Ahmed (28) and Mohammad Jalaluddin Mohammad Nadam Khan (35), Kadam said.

Further investigation into the case is on.

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Police today detained scores of students who were indulging in stone pelting to disrupt law and order in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir, and later handed them over to their parents after counselling.

"A group of students of Government Degree College (Boys) in Khanabal, Anantnag, instead of joining their classes disturbed the peace and forced other students out of the classrooms. Thereafter, they began pelting stones and bricks towards the Dak Bungalow, District Police Office and main road from the college campus," a police spokesman said.

The students also smashed several civilian vehicles plying on the main road, windowpanes of Dak Bungalow and District Police Office buildings, the spokesman said.

Responding to the situation, police tried to chase away the students who attacked the policemen with bricks and stones, injuring several policemen, he said.

"After hectic efforts, the situation was brought under control and the students indulging in violence were detained," he added.

The spokesman said during questioning, it came to light that most of the students were misguided.

"Keeping in view their studies and their career, police called their parents, college principal and faculty members and held a counselling session with them," he said.

During the counselling session, the students were made aware of their responsibilities, character building, studies and future, he said, adding they were briefed about the means to channelise their talent in the best possible way so that they could become productive citizens of the society.

"Subsequently, all the students were released and handed over to their parents. Parents were separately requested to look into the situation at family level and advise their children not to indulge in violence and concentrate on studies," he added.

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Elephants offering joy rides to tourists at the iconic Amber Fort here have been found to be suffering from blindness and tuberculosis and are often forced to carry loads heavier than 200 kg, an examination of over 100 elephants at the spot has found.

As per the examination conducted by the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) during December 2017 to March 2018 at Hathi Gaon, 19 captive elephants of the 102 elephants were observed to be blind, either unilaterally or bilaterally, rendering them unfit for any work. 10 elephants were found suffering from tuberculosis and 28 were found to be above 50 years of age.

Elephants were found to be under severe psychological distress. The tusks of 47 elephants appeared to have been cut. The elephants were seen carrying loads heavier than 200 kg, the report said.

Elephant rides are a major tourist attraction at Amber Fort.

There were 132 privately owned captive elephants in Rajasthan in January 2015, 110 in 2016 and 102 in 2017, it said.

As per the report, out of the 102 elephants, matters related to legal compliance of keeping and using 53 elephants are pending before the magistrate court in Jaipur and hence the matter is subjudice.

48 elephants seem to have been issued illegitimate ownership certificates by the Rajasthan Forest Department (RFD) as they mention 'source of purchase' and 'present market value' of the elephant. Both these citations indicate commercial value of an elephant, which is prohibited under the law, the report said.

Based on the compilation of observations and its interpretations as per important legal provisions, guidelines of Ministry of Environment and Forest and parameters set by AWBI in its application form, the report said none of the 102 elephants qualifies all the criteria set for registration with the AWBI under PARR, 2001.

"No elephant can be registered for offering rides at Amer Fort due to load restrictions mandated by the MoEF guidelines and other provisions of the law," it said.

The report also recommended an inquiry into the current practice of cutting tusks without taking necessary permission from the forest department and into why there are two elephant calves in private custody in Jaipur, in rampant violation of wildlife protection laws.

Additionally, the accurate number of captive elephant population in Rajasthan also needs to be ascertained, it said.

Animal rights activists have demanded a complete ban on atrocities on animals.

"Shocking report of blind and TB-infected elephants has come to fore after examination. The elephants are forced to carry backbreaking loads day in and day out. The rides must stop," PETA India Lead Public Policy Officer Nikunj Sharma said



He said PETA India is asking authorities to intervene and protect these suffering elephants.

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External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today arrived in Mongolia, becoming the first



Indian foreign minister to visit the resouce-rich country in 42 years.

Swaraj was received by Deputy Foreign Minister of Mongolia B Battsetseg at the airport.

She is scheduled to hold bilateral talks to further strengthen political, strategic, economic, educational and cultural ties in the predominantly Buddhist nation.

"First visit of an Indian External Affairs Minister to Mongolia in 42 years! Reconnecting with our shared Buddhist heritage, Swaraj warmly received by Deputy Foreign Minister of Mongolia, B Battsetseg on her arrival in sunny Ulaanbaatar," tweeted Raveesh Kumar, official Spokesperson at the Ministry of External Affairs.

Swaraj, who is on a two-day visit to Mongolia, will co-chair the 6th round of India-Mongolia Joint Consultative Committee meeting with Foreign Minister D Tsogtbaatar.

Swaraj is the first external affairs minister in 42 years to visit Mongolia.

India and Mongolia have close cooperation in trade and economy, science, health, agriculture, culture, education, communication and tourism. The two countries are also working closely to ensure security and curbing international crimes and terrorism. The total trade between the two countries amounted to USD 25.6 million in 2016.

During her visit, Swaraj is also scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the Kushok Bakula Birth Centenary Celebrations in Ulaanbaatar commemorating the birth anniversary of Late Venerable Kushok Bakula Rinpoche, a highly revered Buddhist leader and monk from Ladakh and a former Ambassador of India to Mongolia.

Bakula Rinpoche, the longest serving Indian Ambassador to Mongolia, made seminal contribution to promotion of India-Mongolia ties.

Swaraj earlier visited China where she participated in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting and on Sunday held wide-ranging bilateral talks with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.

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A top US State Department official visited Pakistan to review the progress made by Islamabad on regional security and stability and met Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua and other senior officials, but the meeting ended without any breakthrough, according to a media report here today.

The US Department of State's Senior Bureau Official for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Ambassador Alice Wells visited Islamabad for meetings with Foreign Secretary (Tehmina) Janjua and other senior officials, a statement, issued late yesterday, by the US Embassy here said.

"In her meetings, she discussed the status of the United States' South Asia strategy and efforts to make progress on regional security and stability," it added.

Wells was on a day-long trip to Islamabad to continue her talks in the wake of President Donald Trump's new South Asia and Afghanistan policy, in particular Pakistan's commitment in the war against terrorism.

Pakistan's Foreign Office (FO) spokeperson, Mohammad Faisal only shared a picture of Janjua receiving Wells on the micro-blogging site 'twitter', but did not share any details of the meeting.

The two sides failed to make any headway, instead some new issues cropped up during the meeting which may further complicate the already strained US-Pak ties, the report said.

The another round of Pakistan-US talks aimed at getting Islamabad to fulfil Washington's expectations, envisioned in its South Asia and Afghanistan policy, ended without any breakthrough, the Dawn reported.

Quoting a diplomatic source, it said that the agenda of both sides at the meeting at the FO were same as before, with the addition of two new issues - the restrictions on Pakistani diplomats that would come into effect from May 1 and a traffic accident involving US defence attach Col Joseph Hall, who had earlier this month jumped a red light her and hit a motorcyclist, who later died.

Pakistan has demanded waiver of the diplomatic immunity to Hall, so that he could be prosecuted.

"There was no forward movement. But at the same time we must acknowledge that both sides continue to remain engaged in search of the elusive common ground," the source said.

The US' Afghan strategy has soured the ties between the two countries after they openly traded barbs over deteriorating situation in Afghanistan.

The US has been demanding Islamabad to use its influence to bring Taliban to negotiating table and but the latter said that it has only limited control of rebels who now have areas in Afghanistan to live and operate without any foreign assistance.

This was ambassador Wells' second trip in less than a month after her last visit to Islamabad between March 28 and April 3.

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Tension gripped the Badaut police station area near here following reports of recovery of bovine animals' body parts this morning.

A police team was rushed to the eastern Yamunanagar area after reports that some pieces of flesh were lying there, ASP Baghpat Ashish Srivastav said.

He said samples of the flesh have been sent for examination to the veterinary department.

The police are yet to receive any complaint in this regard but the samples have been sent to ascertain the charge that they were of a cow, he said adding the culprits would be identified and nabbed soon.

The locals, meanwhile, staged a protest against the incident and raised slogans against the police.

Senior police and administrative officials, however, pacified the protestors promising to arrest the culprtis at the earliest.

BJP leader and chairman of Badaut municipality Amit Rana alleged that the police have failed to check illegal slaughtering of cows and other bovine aninals.

"If the police fail to arrest the culprits within two days, as promised, we will resort to traffic jam on Delhi-Saharanpur expressway," Rana said.

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Thailand today volunteered to host the hotly-anticipated summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as speculation swirls about the venue.

"Thailand is ready to facilitate and host the talks," Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai told reporters, though he stressed that the kingdom has not been contacted about the possibility.

The US embassy declined to comment.

Kim is set to meet South Korea's president Moon Jae-in on Friday, an event seen as a major stepping stone towards the summit with Trump.

Earlier this month Trump said five locations were under consideration for a summit "probably in early June", which he hopes will result in a denuclearisation deal with North Korea.

But he did not specify where, leaving observers to speculate on anywhere from Mongolia to Scandinavia and Singapore.

Thailand is a historic US ally which also has diplomatic relations with North Korea.

The Thai junta number two Prawit Wongsuwon is currently in the US where he has met Defense Secretary James Mattis and senior Homeland Security officials, according to the Thai defence ministry.

Over the weekend Pyongyang announced a moratorium on nuclear tests and intercontinental ballistic missile launches.

Analysts are divided over the headline-grabbing offer, with many noting it is reversible and did not signal any intention of actual nuclear disarmament.

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The Allahabad High Court has sought the state government's stand on a plea challenging the denial of permission by Sambhal district magistrate to build Puja Garbhgrih' (sanctum sanctorum) of a village temple in the district.

A bench of justices Krishna Murari and Ashok Kumar also sought the Sambhal DM's reply to the petition challenging his order that denied permission to build the sanctum sanctorum of the temple of deity Kalki at Achora Kambo village in the district.

The bench issued the directions on a petition by Acharya Pramod Krishnam challenging the DM's order, which had refused to grant permission to build the Kalki Dham' temple on October 30, 2017 on the ground that a temple with same name existed merely 20 kms away.

The petitioner added the permission to build the temple was denied also on the ground that there was a mosque at distance of 144 meter from the land.

Acharya Krishnam claimed in his petition that he has been organising the Kalki mahotsav for over last ten years with due permission of district administration and a huge constructions has already been erected on the land belonging to him.

Accordingly, the DM's refusal to permit construction of Puja Garbhgrih' is arbitrary, discriminatory and against the fundamental rights of the petitioner.

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Philip D'Antoni, who won an Oscar for his work on "The French Connection", has died. He was 89.

D'Antoni died April 15 of complications from kidney failure at his home in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, his son-in-law Mark Rathaus told The Hollywood Reporter.

D'Antoni was best known for the 1971 "The French Connection," which won three Golden Globes and five Oscars, including best picture. Gene Hackman won for best actor and William Friedkin for director and the film also won best adapted screenplay and film editing. Three years earlier, he had produced the Steve McQueen action film "Bullitt," the movie won an Oscar for film editing.

Born on February 19, 1929, in the Bronx, D'Antoni attended Fordham University and served in the US Army during the occupation of Japan in World War II.

He started his show business career in television, co-producing the specials "Elizabeth Taylor in London", "Sophia Loren in Rome" and "Melina Mercouri's Greece" in 1963, '64 and '65, respectively.

After his three big films, D'Antoni produced just three little-known telefilms "Strike Force", "Shark Kill" and "The Rubber Gun Squad" from 1975-77.

D'Antoni is survived by his wife, five children, and nine grandchildren.

Friedkin took to Twitter to mourn his "French Connection" partner.

"Phil D'Antoni. My friend and the great producer Of The French Connection has died. May he rest in peace," he wrote.

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Three Mexican film students who went missing five weeks ago were kidnapped, tortured, killed and likely dissolved in acid, investigators have said, a gruesome end to a case that triggered vehement protests.

The students -- Salomon Aceves Gastelum, 25; Daniel Diaz, 20; and Marco Avalos, 20 -- went missing on March 19 as they returned from shooting a film project outside Guadalajara, Mexico's second city, where they attended the University of Audiovisual Media.

Witnesses said they were intercepted by a group of six to eight men who forced them into another car and fled.

The case drew outraged protests from their fellow students, backed by Mexican film luminaries such as Oscar-winning directors Guillermo del Toro and Alfonso Cuaron.

There are currently more than 33,000 people missing in Mexico, a number that has exploded along with the murder rate as the country struggles to rein in brutal violence linked to drug trafficking.

Missing persons cases often go unsolved, in a country where more than 90 per cent of violent crimes are never punished.

The most notable example is the disappearance and feared massacre in 2014 of 43 students who were studying to be teachers in the southern state of Guerrero.

Chief investigator Lizette Torres said the film students' kidnappers are believed to belong to the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel, a powerful crime syndicate based in the western state where they studied.

"There is no indication that (the students) themselves had any link with any cartel," she told journalists.

Investigators believe one of the students had a relative involved in a rival cartel and that they may have been murdered in a revenge killing, she said.

The confirmation of their death came after investigators seized three barrels filled with acid from a house in the city of



Tonala, where the students had been filming.

DNA tests will be carried out to determine whether the students' bodies were dissolved in the acid, Torres said.

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A meeting of Tihar Jail's sentence review board scheduled for today to decide on the release of some prisoners, including model Jessica Lall murder convict Manu Sharma, has been postponed.

An official, who is a member of the sentence review board, said the meeting had to be postponed as Delhi Home Minister Satyendar Jain did not give his consent.

A Delhi government spokesperson claimed that there was no such meeting scheduled for today as the minister had not given his consent in the first place.

The sentence review board is a statory body which has a judge, Delhi home minister, law secretary and home secretary among members.

The board was to consider Manu Sharma's release. Last month, Jessica Lall's sister Sabrina Lall wrote a letter to Tihar Jail authorities, saying that she had no objection to his release.

A government source, however, said, "The letter of a private individual has no legal sanctity."



Manu Sharma, the son of former Union Minister Venod Sharma, was sentenced to life imprisonment by the high court in December 2006 for killing Jessica Lall in 1999. The trial court had acquitted him, but the Delhi High Court reversed the verdict and the Supreme Court upheld the life sentence in April 2010.

Jessica Lall, who was tending a bar at the Tamarind Court restaurant owned by socialite Bina Ramani at the Qutub Colonnade in South Delhi's Mehrauli area on April 30, 1999, was gunned down by Sharma after she refused to serve him alcohol.

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Toronto's police chief says a 10th person has died after a rented van plowed into pedestrians along a sidewalk in Toronto. Fifteen people are reported in the hospital.

Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders also has released the name of the purported driver detained after yesterday's incident.

The suspect is identified as Alex Minassian, a 25-year-old from the Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill.

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New Zealand is eyeing double digit growth in footfalls from India in 2018-19, which will help it achieve the target of 1 lakh visitors before the deadline of 2023.

"In 2017-18, ending February, we hosted 62,000 travellers from India, which was 16.05 per cent growth over the previous year. So looking at the trend this year, which began in March, we expect the growth to be in double digit as well," Tourism New Zealand regional manager, South and South-East Asia, Steven Dixon told PTI here.

In 2016-17, 53,424 Indians tourists visited New Zealand.

"Increasing awareness through different promotional programmes and tying up with travel agents, who have promoted New Zealand as a preferred destination has helped us in achieving this growth," he added.

Dixon said, the New Zealand government has set a target of 1,00,000 visitors from India by 2023, and if the growth continues at the current rate it will be achieved earlier.

New Zealand, he said, is mainly targeting independent professionals in India between the age group of 25-54 years.

"We are looking at a wider target audience and reach them through digital and social media as people in India are among the highest users of these platforms," he added.

New Zealand, he said, is promoting adventure, honeymoon, culture and cuisines in India.

India, he said, is among the top 10 source market ranking 8-9.

Australia is the top source market of New Zealand followed by China, the US, UK, Germany and Japan, he added.

"Indians on an average spend 13 days in New Zealand contributing quite substantially to the economy of the country," he added.

Meanwhile, Tourism New Zealand and Immigration New Zealand have launched an extension of the Tourism Industry Partnership (TIP) Programme to facilitate faster processing of visitor visa applications for Indian leisure travellers.

For this, Immigration New Zealand and Tourism New Zealand and signed a memorandum of understanding with key travel agents.

"This new visa process will make it even easier for Indian travellers to experience New Zealand. This agreement will ensure that New Zealand welcomes even higher calibre visitors," Dixon added.

Four key travel agents were Thomas Cook (India), SOTC Travel, Cox and Kings and Kulin Kumar Holidays who will be responsible for bringing high value visitors to New Zealand.

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Travel channel on Tuesday said it is entering the UK mainstream market through Freeview platform that will enhance its global reach to over 91 million TV homes, from 75 million at present.

The company will launch the channel in the UK on April 30, reaching close to 16 million TV Freeview homes there.

"We are launching in the UK as a mainstream service, which is a first for an Indian company," and Media Worldwide chief executive officer and co-founder Prashant Chothani told PTI.

"This is the first market in the world where we are going standard-definition (SD) because this is the first time we are testing an advertiser-funded market as we are launching on Freeview," he added.

Chothani further said they would be launching a high-definition (HD) service on a different platform in the next six months and a 4K service further down on a different platform.

"In the UK, we are strategically putting different resolutions on different platforms depending on audience acceptability, commercial viability and potential to reach as many British citizens as we can. We are in talks with all the platforms (pay view) and in the next six to eight months, we should be available everywhere," he added.

Once the HD service is rolled out in the UK, it will add another 15-18 million homes there, according to Chothani.

has a presence in over 35 countries across the world and plans to be in 50 countries by the year-end. It has over 1,000 hours of content, all produced by the company.

On the company's India plans, Chothani said it will be launching its 4K service once the infrastructure and distribution ability comes into place.

It would also look at expanding the language feeds to Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi and others, from Hindi, Tamil and Bengali at present, he informed.
: Triumph Motorcycles India, subsidiary of British iconic motorcycle brand Triumph, today said the government should provide incentives to companies having assembly operations in the country.

The company currently has an assembly unit (Completely Knocked Down facility) at Manesar, Haryana with 95 per cent of the motorcycles assembled there.

"Make in India campaign is a very good initiative. That helped us to do CKD. Unfortunately, government recently introduced five per cent additional taxes on CKD and parts," Triumph Motorcycles India Managing Director Vimal Sumbly told reporters here.

Sumbly and senior company officials were here to unveil new generation classic cruiser 1200cc Bonneville Speedmaster priced at Rs 11.11 lakh (ex-showroom Chennai).

Seeking positive approach towards companies who take up assembling in the country, he said "...When you assemble, you put plant, you recurit manpower. And then when you look at volume, you look at manufacturing.

"I think, government should give incentives to people who are doing CKD in India", he said.

On sourcing of auto-components for its products in the country, he said "for that first we need to have that (industry) size. The luxury motorcycle industry is still small."



"The luxury motorcycle (in India size) is now 10,000 units (a year). We are hoping by 2022 it will double the size to 20,000", he said.

Replying to a question, he said his company had signed an agreement with Bajaj Auto to make an affordable premium motorcycle through the partnership, but "nothing has been finalised.."



On the sales contributed from Southern region, he said, "Sales from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Kuala Lumpur constitute almost 30 per cent for the company"To a query about the company's plans to enter Tier II-III cities, he said, Triumph Motorcycle plans to have 25 outlets by 2020 and 50 per cent of them will be from such locations.

"Today, we have 15 outlets. 16th, we will be opening in Mangaluru this week. We will have another nine (by 2020). 50 per cent of them will be in Tier-II locations", he said.

Triumph Motorcycles retails, Street Triple, Tiger 800, Street Twin, Thunderbird, RocketIII in India priced from Rs 7.05 lakh to Rs 23 lakh (ex-showroom Chennai).

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged Canadians not to live in fear today after a man mowed down pedestrians with a van in a "senseless attack" in Toronto, killing 10 and injuring 15 others.

"We must not start living in fear and uncertainty every day as we go about our daily lives," the prime minister told a conference in Ottawa.

"Canadians across the country are shocked and saddened by this senseless attack." However, he added: "We must remain a country that is open and free and comfortable with its values, and we will continue to do that."



Officials will "reflect on the changing situations in which we are in, and do everything we can to keep Canadians safe," Trudeau said.

Alek Minassian, 25, "deliberately" drove a rented van onto sidewalks along Toronto's busy Yonge Street Monday afternoon. Over a stretch of nearly one kilometer (0.6 mile), he struck dozens of people, leaving 10 dead.

The prime minister pointed out, as his Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale had done the day before, that "there's no connection to national security," effectively ruling out any terrorist attack.

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The Trump administration is working on proposals to streamline the H-1B visa procedure, the most sought after by Indian IT professionals, to focus on attracting the best and the brightest foreign talents, according to a top federal agency official.

The proposed regulation also aims to intensify efforts to crackdown on H-1B visa fraud, said Francis Cissna, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director in a letter to Senator Chuck Grassley.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China



The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is working on two proposed regulations to improve the H-1B programme. The first regulation proposes to establish an electronic registration programme for petitions subject to numerical limitations for the H-1B non-immigrant classification.

"This rule is intended to allow USCIS to more efficiently manage the intake and lottery process for these H-1B petitions," said Cissna.

The later is dated April 4, the content of which was first reported yesterday by Axios website.

"The second regulation will propose to revise the definition of specialty occupation, so as to increase focus on obtaining the best and the brightest foreign nationals via the H-1B programme and to revise the definition of employment and employer-employee relationship to better protect US workers and wages," Cissna said.

In addition, Department of Homeland Security will propose additional requirements designed to ensure employers pay appropriate wages to H-1B visa holders, it said.

The USCIS is also drafting a proposed rule to remove the International Entrepreneur Rule (IER), as announced in the regulatory agenda. Due to the court order which invalidated the IER delay rule, the International Entrepreneur Final Rule is currently in effect.

"We have not approved any parole requests under the International Entrepreneur Final Rule at this time," it said.

Briefing the Senator on its efforts to prevent fraud in H-1B, Cissna said USCIS now has a dedicated email addresses to make it easier for the public to report suspected fraud and abuse in the H-1B and H-2B programmes.

Other steps that the USCIS has previously announced include establishing a more targeted approach in our H-1B employer site visit programme.

"We initiated these targeted site visits to help us determine, among other things, whether H-1B-dependent employers are actually paying their workers the statutorily required salary to qualify for an exemption from recruitment attestation requirements," it said.

The USCIS is also expanding its administrative site visit programme to include L-1B petitions.

"We are initially focusing on employers petitioning for L-1B specialised knowledge workers who will primarily work offsite at another company or organization's location to ensure that they are complying with the requirements from the L-1 Visa Reform Act of 2004. These requirements were meant to help prevent United States workers from being displaced by foreign workers," the USCIS said.

Cissna said it also published a policy memorandum that instructs officers to apply the same level of scrutiny to both initial petitions and extension requests for non-immigrant visa categories. The guidance applies to all non-immigrant classifications filed using Form r-129, Petition for a Non-immigrant Worker.

The previous policy instructed officers to give deference to the findings of a previously approved petition, as long as the key elements were unchanged and there was no evidence of a material error or fraud related to the prior determination.

"The updated policy guidance rescinds the previous policy. Under the law, the burden of proof in establishing eligibility for the visa petition extension is on the petitioner, regardless of whether users previously approved a petition," it said.

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US President Donald Trump today praised North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un, calling him a "very honorable" person, and expressed hope that they would hold a meeting very soon".

The praise for the North Korean leader is a dramatic shift for the US, which has long criticised the Kim family dynasty for brutality and deceit. Trump himself last year derided Kim as Little Rocket Man



and threatened North Korea with an overwhelming military strike, promising fire and fury and vowing to destroy North Korea if provoked.

For his part, Kim mocked Trump as a mentally deranged US dotard, and Pyongyang has also threatened to strike American soil.

"We have been told directly that they would like to have the meeting as soon as possible. We think that's a great thing for the world," Trump told reporters in a joint media appearance with the French President Emanuel Macron.

He (Kim Jong-un) really has been very open and I think very honorable from everything we're seeing. Now a lot of promises have been made by North Korea over the years but they have never been in this position," Trump said.

Trump said that he was willing to walk away from talks that are not fruitful.

"Unlike past administrations, I will leave the table. But I think we have the chance to do something very special," said the US President.

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French President Emmanuel Macron and his American counterpart Donald Trump called jointly today for a new nuclear deal with Iran, after the US leader denounced the three-year-old accord as "insane."



"I can say that we have had very frank discussions on that, just the two of us," Macron told a joint press conference with Trump at his side.

"We, therefore, wish from now on to work on a new deal with Iran." Trump's European allies have repeatedly tried to persuade him not to walk away from the 2015 deal, which gave Iran massive sanctions relief and the guarantee of a civilian nuclear program in return for curbs on programs that could be used to develop an atomic weapon.

It did not tackle western complaints about Iran's ballistic missile programs or support for militant groups across the Middle East.

Trump faces a May 12 deadline to decide on its fate and is demanding changes that many in European capitals believe would represent a legal breach.

"I think we will have a great shot at doing a much bigger, maybe, deal," said Trump, stressing that any new deal would have to be built on "solid foundations."



"This is a deal with decayed foundations. It's a bad deal, it's a bad structure. It's falling down," the US leader said.

"We're going to see what happens on the 12th." When asked to clarify if he meant he was pushing for a new accord, or an add-on agreement, Macron said: "I'm not saying that we move from one agreement to another."



The French president said a new deal would have to include three additional elements: Tehran's ballistic missile program, its influence across the Middle East, and what happens after 2025 -- when under the current accord Iran would be able to progressively restart part of its nuclear program.

He called the initial 2015 deal only the "first pillar" of an eventual wider deal.

For months, American and European officials have been working behind the scenes to try to find a compromise over Trump's demands to change the agreement.

Officials have toyed with the idea of a separate joint declaration: promising to tackle non-nuclear issues, while searching for a tougher successor accord.

Iran, meanwhile, has warned it will ramp up enrichment activities if Trump walks away from the accord, prompting Trump to issue a blunt warning.

"They're not going to be restarting anything. If they restart it, they're going to have big problems, bigger than they ever had before. And you can mark it down," the US president said.

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US President Donald Trump has dined with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron along with their spouses at the historic Mount Vernon on the eve of the Trump administration's First State Dinner at the White House.

Mount Vernon on the banks of the Potomac River in Virginia is the estate of first US president George Washington.

Trump's first year went without receiving a foreign leader on a state visit. The Trump administration's First State Dinner at the White House will take place tomorrow.

"We had a great dinner," Trump told reporters as the foursome left after spending a few hours at Mt Vernon.

The dinner was closed for the press, but the two leaders along with their spouses posed for pictures.

Trump and First Lady Melania Trump along with Macron and Brigitte Macron toured the mansion. They were also spotted at the back Veranda overlooking the Potomac River.

The four spent a few minutes before the start of the dinner looking at paintings with their greeters. They then went upstairs to continue their visit.

Before leaving for Mt Vernon, the two leaders planted a sapling on the White House lawns. The sapling, a gift from Macron, was a European Sessile Oak measuring approximately 4.5 feet tall with an estimated age between 5-10 years.

The tree comes from Belleau Woods, and is a historic landmark of the US engagement in the First World War.

Over 9,000 American marines died in the Belleau Wood battle in June 1918 and the forest is a memorial site and important symbol of the sacrifice the United States made to ensure peace and stability in Europe.

"France is a very special country... It's a great honour," Trump told reporters to a shouted question.

Earlier in the day, Macron and Brigitte arrived at Andrews air force base. Being the State guest, they are staying at the Blair House.

This was the sixth time when the two Presidents met, with the most notable meeting being Trump's trip to Paris for the Bastille Day parade in July last year.

Since Macron came to power, the two leaders have had around 20 phone calls together, French officials said.

In September 2017, Trump and Macron met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City.

In July 2017, Trump spent two days visiting with Macron to commemorate Bastille Day and the entry of the United States into World War I.

And in May 2017, Trump hosted Macron at the official residence of the US Ambassador to Belgium for a meeting before the NATO summit.

"This visit will celebrate the long and enduring friendship between France and the US. Discussions will include economic, diplomatic and global issues," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters at her daily conference.

In a statement, the White House said Trump is continuing the legacy of French-American cooperation that stretches back to America's independence and working with Macron to build the already strong ties between the United States and France.

Noting that Trump has made clear that the bond between the US and France is unbreakable, the White House said "the relationship between the two countries dates back to the days of the American Revolution, when thousands of French soldiers fought alongside American troops and provided crucial support in our fight for freedom and liberty".

According to the White House, the US has worked closely with France to combat terror around the world and, most recently, confront Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad's heinous chemical weapons attack.

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President Donald Trump's escalating dispute with China over trade and technology is threatening jobs and profits in working-class communities where his "America First" agenda hit home.

The Commerce Department has received more than 2,400 applications from companies seeking waivers from the administration's tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, which may result in duty payments of millions of dollars for larger businesses.

The department has begun posting the requests online for public comment; several of the applications released so far suggest deep misgivings with Trump's protectionist strategy, especially in areas where he won strong support during the 2016 election.

The tariffs are aimed primarily at China for flooding the global market with cheap steel and aluminum. But they've also led to confusion and uncertainty, according to Associated Press interviews and a review of records. In Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin, for example, businesses operating in the furniture, energy and food sectors have outlined the financial difficulties they'd face if they're not excused from the steel tariff.

In Okmulgee, Oklahoma, dozens of jobs hang in the balance as office furniture giant Steelcase waits to hear back from the Commerce Department.

A Steelcase subsidiary, PolyVision, operates a plant in Okmulgee that uses a special type of steel from Japan to manufacture a durable glass-like surface for whiteboards and architectural purposes. PolyVision "cannot and will not be able to procure" from US companies the cold-rolled steel it requires "in a sufficient and reasonably available amount or of a satisfactory quality," Steelcase said.

Trump won most of the votes cast for president in Okmulgee County. Without a waiver, Steelcase warned, the "economic viability of PolyVision (and) the small town of Okmulgee" would be jeopardized.

The waiver request also indicates that a USD 15 million plant expansion may be at risk. Steelcase and PolyVision are on the verge of making the investment, which would create new construction and manufacturing jobs, according to the request.

Roger Ballenger, Okmulgee's city manager, said he and other local officials are "very concerned about the situation with PolyVision." The tariffs 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on imported aluminum are designed to protect and rebuild the U.S. companies that manufacture the metals. The U.S. temporarily exempted several major trading partners, including the European Union, Mexico and Canada.

China, which was left on the target list, retaliated by imposing tariffs on USD 3 billion in US products, including apples, pork and ginseng.

Trump responded by adding more protectionist measures as punishment for Chinese theft of US intellectual property. And Beijing punched back by proposing tariffs on $50 billion in U.S. products including small aircraft and soybeans a direct threat to rural areas that were key to Trump's victory.

Economists Joseph Francois and Laura Baughman estimated last month that the tariffs would increase employment in the U.S. steel and aluminum industries by more than 26,000 jobs but also lead to the loss of 495,000 other jobs throughout the rest of the American economy.

John Hritz, CEO of JSW Steel USA in Baytown, Texas, said his company is in lockstep with Trump's approach.

"We're in favor of growing the steel industry in this country," Hritz said. JSW Steel, owned by Indian conglomerate JSW Group, is embarking on a USD 500 million overhaul of the plant that it says will create hundreds of jobs.

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US President Donald Trump today appeared to dial back a promise to withdraw US troops from Syria immediately, saying it was important to not allow Iranian influence to grow in the country.

Stating that troops would be coming home soon, Trump nonetheless said that the United States wanted to "leave a strong and lasting footprint " in the country.

"We don't want to give Iran open season to the Mediterranean," Trump told a joint press conference with his visiting French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.

"We're going to be coming home relatively soon. We finished at least almost our work with respect to ISIS in Syria, ISIS in Iraq, and we have done a job that nobody has been able to do."



"But with that being said, I do want to come home, but I want to come home also with having accomplished what we have to accomplish.

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Two minor girls were allegedly sexually assaulted in Assam's Sonitpur and Dhubri districts today following which a Home Guard and a school teacher were arrested, police said.

In the first incident, the Home Guard allegedly attempted to sexually assault his colleague's minor daughter at their training centre in Parua under the jurisdiction of Tezpur police station in Sonitpur district, Additional Superintendent of Police Numal Mahanta.

The incident happened at the girl's residence around 7.30 am today. The accused, a 59-year-old man attempted to molest her, Mahanta said.

The girl's family members lodged a complaint with the Tezpur police station and the police accused the arrested under the POCSO Act, the additional superintendent of police said.

The accused has been sent to judicial custody after he was produced at Tezpur court, Mahanta said.

In another incident, a school teacher was arrested for allegedly molesting a minor girl in Dhubri district today, police said.

The incident happened when the eight-year-old girl, a student of class IV, along with 12 of her classmates, had gone to take tuition at a private school teacher's house this morning, said district Additional Superintendent of Police Gunundra Nath Deka.

After the tuition class was over, the 32-year-old teacher asked the victim to stay back and molested her, Deka said.

The little girl somehow managed to free herself and went home, Deka said.

Her parents raised an alarm after she informed them about the incident, the police officer said.

Local people then went to the teacher's place, beat him up before handing him over to the police, the officer said.

The girl's parents lodged an FIR against the teacher at Bilasipara police station.

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Two security force personnel and a militant were today killed in an encounter in a forest area of Pulwama district in Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.

Security forces launched an anti-militancy operation in Laam forest of Tral area in Pulwama district following information about presence of militants there, a police official said.

He said a gunbattle broke out between militants and security forces when the ultras opened fire.

In the fierce exchange of fire, an Army soldier and a policeman sustained injuries. They were evacuated to hospitals here but succumbed to injuries, the official said.

The slain security force personnel have been identified as Sepoy Ajay and Constable Lateed Gujri.

A militant was also killed in the gunbattle, the official said adding search operation was still going on in the forest area.

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The UN has received an allegation of sexual abuse against unidentified members of the Nepalese contingent and called for a full investigation into the mater.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujjaric was responding to a question on allegations of child rape by a Nepali peacekeeper in South Sudan.

He said any act of sexual abuse is "horrendous", in particular "one involving a child is especially heinous".

"The UN has informed, obviously, Nepal of the allegation. We've requested a full investigation be conducted by the troop-contributing country within the expedited timeframe of 90 days, jointly with a team of...from OIOS [Office of Internal Oversight Services]," he said.

Dujarric said Nepal's response on whether it will investigate the matter is expected by April 25. He reiterated that UNMISS, as well as the UN, has a zero-tolerance policy for sexual abuse and no excuse or second chance approach to child sexual exploitation and abuse.

"The Mission reiterates that such acts should be properly investigated, and where applicable, criminal prosecution be pursued under the law of the contributing country," Dujjaric said.

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The UN Security Council is "increasingly unable" or "sometimes unwilling" to respond to the current security challenges with tragic consequences, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said today as she pushed for the reform of the world body's powerful organ.

Swaraj, during her address at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers meeting here, raised the issue of global terrorism and protectionism.

India along with Brazil, Germany and Japan has been seeking expansion of the permanent and non-permanent seats of the UNSC to make the powerful UN body more representative and reflective of the changing global order.

Continuing to push for the reform and expansion of the UNSC, she said: "it is clear to many of us that the Security Council is increasingly unable, or sometimes unwilling, to respond to the security challenges of our times, with tragic consequences.

"We must not lose sight of the fact that reforms of the UN will be incomplete, without reforms in the Security Council to make it more representative of contemporary realities".

"Since 2008, the international community has carefully nurtured the ongoing Inter Governmental Negotiations at the UN to take our discussions on UNSC reforms forward," she said.

An overwhelming majority of members have expressed their desire to see these negotiations continue on the basis of a text, Swaraj said.

China, which is part of the veto-wielding permanent five members along with the US, Russia, France and the UK, has not openly supported India's bid for a permanent seat in the reformed UNSC, and instead called for a "package solution" accommodating "concerns and interests" of all parties.

The meeting was also attended by foreign ministers Wang Yi of China, Khawaja Muhammad Asif of Pakistan, Kairat Abdrakhmanov of Kazakhstan, Abdyldaev Erlan Bekeshovich of Kyrgyzstan, Sergey Lavrov of Russia, Sirodjidin Muhridinovich Aslov of Tajikistan, Abdulaziz Khafizovich Kamilov of Uzbekistan, and Secretary General of the SCO Rashid Alimov among others.

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Uttar Pradesh government today decided to give up to 80 per cent subsidy on seeds for Bundelkhand region under a special package.

A decision in this regard was taken at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath here this evening.

"Earlier, the subsidy was 50 per cent, which has now been increased up to 80 per cent", state Agriculture Minister Surya Pratap Shahi told reporters.

The Cabinet also decided to change pattern of UP Public Service Commission examination and now the interview will be of 100 marks instead of 200 marks. The entire examination will be of 1600 marks including 1500 marks for written papers instead of 1700 marks, government spokesman and cabinet minister Sidharth Nath Singh said.

Medical Science will also be included as an option subject in the examinations, he added.

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American firms are seeing a window of opportunity to invest in Uttar Pradesh, the head of a top US business advocacy group said today, underlining that a change in India's most populous state would mean a change in the entire country.

Mukesh Aghi, the president of the US India Strategic and Partnership Forum (USISPF), said he has taken several American delegations to UP in the last one year and held meetings with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who, he noted, is eager to embark on a massive developmental effort in the state.

"A lot of American companies are showing interest in UP," Aghi told PTI in an interview, adding, "If you change UP, you change India."



The USISPF is facilitating a leadership delegation from UP between April 30 and May 4. The delegation will be led by the state's Health Minister Sidharth Nath Singh, who also heads a 'US investment cell' created to attract American investment.

The cell has identified health, skill development, infrastructure as priority areas of investment, he said.

Other members of the delegation include the Industries Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey and Special Advisor to the chief minister Amit Kumar Singh.

He said the delegation would have intensive interaction with leaders of the Silicon Valley in San Francisco and is also scheduled to travel to Washington DC and New York City.

The other areas of interest for the delegation are digital economy, tourism, food, agriculture and defence.

"The whole objective is to understand, how do we sell UP as a state. I think, a lot of companies are interested in UP and these guys are focused on that," Aghi said.

Referring to a recent announcement for a defence corridor in UP by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said the delegation is also planning to visit a number of companies to explore what can be done in the state from the defence perspective.

"I feel that the attitude and support of the central government towards UP is promising and hopefully after this trip will bring Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also to the US," he said.

No date for Adityanath's trip has been decided as yet.

Noting that the biggest challenge that UP has is job creation, he added that law and order situations has improved dramatically.

"What we are seeing is bureaucrats' more interest in stepping up and supporting us from actually bringing companies in," he said.

"UP has challenges. I'm not saying it doesn't. But anybody who comes in early, will get a bit of market share," Aghi said, adding that the climate of investment in UP has changed.

"Is it still there at world class level? I would say no. But where we were a year ago and where we are now, there is a dramatic shift," he said.

The USISPF had recently organised a summit in the state capital of Lucknow, with 26 American companies in attendance.

"He is quite supportive from that perspective. I think where we have to see a shift is more middle level bureaucracy. That culture shift has to take place otherwise all indication from the minister-level down to senior workers is very, very positive," he said.

Since its formation last year, the USISPF has been focusing majorly on state to state relationship.

In recent months, it has hosted high-level delegations from Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, among others.

"We believe that we got to work at state level. States seems to have more power to take certain decisions. We can see more competition coming through. We are working with at least a dozen states quite aggressively," Aghi said.

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The Senate has confirmed President Donald Trump's pick to lead the National Security Agency and the US Cyber Command.

On a voice vote, the Senate yesterday approved Paul Nakasone for one of the nation's top intelligence posts. They also approved his military promotion to general.

Nakasone, a longtime member of the cryptologic community, has a strong background in cyber issues. He is replacing the current director, Mike Rogers, who is retiring.

During his confirmation hearing, Nakasone said China, Russia and other nations that launch cyberattacks against the United States aren't worried about retribution and see no reason to change their behaviour.

"They don't fear us," he said at the hearing, adding that the US must impose costs on those adversaries to make them stop.

Nakasone previously commanded the US Army Cyber Command and held military intelligence positions in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Republic of Korea.

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The discontent within the Congress unit in Punjab over the recent state cabinet expansion reached the party high command in New Delhi with Dalit leader and MLA Raj Kumar Verka expressing "anguish" over Scheduled Caste members not being given adequate representation.

"It is an internal matter of the party and we are not against the party and we are also not upset with party. But the reality is that Valmiki and Majhabi Sikhs are somewhere feeling left out. I apprised Congress president Rahul Gandhi of the sentiments of the community," Verka said.

The matter is under consideration of the party high command and a way will be found out, he added.

Verka, who is an MLA from Amritsar (West), had raised the matter with the Congress chief in a meeting at the Talkatora Stadium in the national capital yesterday.

"This matter relates to a particular section of the society...Chief Minister Amarinder Singh is seriously considering this matter and we trust the party," said Verka.

However, Chief Minister Singh while replying to a question on representation to Dalit/OBC community in the cabinet, said today that not all the 77 ruling party MLAs could be made ministers. He, however, added that those left out would be suitably accommodated, as promised by him.

Nine new ministers were sworn in on last Saturday.

Verka was not the only leader who raised the matter of Dalits being left out in the cabinet expansion.

Earlier, Surjit Singh Dhiman, MLA from Amargarh in Sangrur district, Nathu Ram, legislator from Balluana in Fazilka and Sangat Singh Gilzian, MLA from Urmur seat in Hoshiarpur, had resigned from their party positions over the issue.

Punjab Congress had tried these leaders to mollify these leaders.

Congress government was also planning to appoint some MLAs as chairman of various boards and Corporations in order to placate them, sources said.

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Data analytics major SAS Institute chief Jim Goodnight has blamed "very very loose rules and regulations" at Facebook for the breach of personal data of millions of users.

Amid a global furore over breach of personal data of tens of millions of Facebook users, including in India, Goodnight said although all technology companies have obligation to protect personal information they have collected on their consumers, most of them are careless about it.

A pioneer in data analytics, the North Carolina-based SAS Institute has annual revenue of over USD 3.2 billion.

"I think Facebook just had very, very loose rules and regulations about what they would permit and what they don't, because that is how they are making money.

"... in short, technology companies have been very loose with the data they have collected on individuals," Goodnight, who is the company's co-founder and chief executive, told PTI in an interview here.

He was speaking on the sidelines of the SAS Global Forum here, which was held from April 8-11.

At SAS, he said they always make sure that all any personalised data is completely encrypted so that none can break in.

However, he said he is against any government interference or regulations. "I would hate to see the European Union's general data privacy protection-type regulations imposed in the US because I don't like any kind of regulations. I hope it does not get us to wrestle like in Europe," the septuagenarian said.

About India's biometric identification system Aadhaar, Goodnight said the country would have to ensure that individual's data is not breached and cited the example of the US where there is a lot of regulation to protect data related to social security numbers.

Regarding SAS India business, he said the Indian arm continues to grow. "We have done very well in India so far. Banks are getting bigger, companies are getting bigger and it is still a growing market for us".

He also said the company would continue to increase its R&D staff at Pune. SAS has offices in New Delhi, Pune, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

Defending artificial intelligence, amidst concerns that the technology might impact jobs, Goodnight said, "I think people skilled at or familiar with AI will be preferred over others. So hiring will continue to happen but of those with better tech capabilities".

Goodnight also predicted that when it comes to mobility, the future would be in self-driving cars.

"We will see more development in the area of self-driving cars. Within 10 years every car will be self-driven. I hope there will be official requirement that there has to be some specific number of self-driving cars.

"After all we all would be safer than we are now. With distracted humans driving, I think, I would rather prefer a computer that is not distracted while driving. There is still some glitches to work out but they are making a lot of progress," the SAS chief concluded.

At the forum, the company had announced creation of a new division to fight frauds and cybercrimes globally, using artificial intelligence and advanced analytics.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Following are the highlights from the Western Region at 2115 HRS.

BOM 19 PM-LD RAPE ORDINANCE



(Eds: Updating with additional quotes)



By Lemuel LallMandla (MP): Prime Minister Narendra Modi says sons have to be made more responsible for a safe environment for daughters and asserts that the promulgation of an ordinance on rape showed the Centre acted on people's outrage on sexual crimes against minors.

BOM 18 MH-LD NAXALS



(Eds: adding inputs about identification of bodies)



Gadchiroli: In a massive blow to Maoists, 37 hardcore Naxals killed since Sunday in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district.

BOM 16 MP-MODI-LD ABHIYAN



By Lemuel Lall



(Eds: Updates with quotes, details)



Mandla (MP): Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggests funds provided under the MGNREGA scheme be used on water conservation work for three summer months to curb water shortages in villages and boost farm activities.

BOM 9 MH-NANAR-CM



Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis says Industries Minister Subhash Desai had submitted a letter seeking denotification of the land earmarked for a refinery complex in Nanar in Ratnagiri district, over 350 kilometres from here.

LGB 2 GA-COURT-BRITISH WOMAN-MEDIA



Panaji: A Goa court hearing the death case of Danielle MacLaughlin, a British woman whose body was found in Canacona taluka last year, asks the media not to publish detailed depositions and names of the witnesses in the matter.

BES 12 CG-NAXALS-ARREST



Raipur: Fifteen Naxals held from Sukma and Narayanpur districts of Chhattisgarh.

BES 8 MH-RAPES



Aurangabad: Two minor girls allegedly raped in separate incidents in Parbhani and Hingoli districts in Marathwada region of Maharashtra.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Bombay High Court today asked the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) whether it required no permission of the state or the local authorities to undertake any digging or soil testing for the proposed metro lines in the city.

A bench of justices A S Oka and R I Chagla also sought to know whether MMRDA had secured the requisite permission, if any, from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation for testing soil for the Mumbai metro 2B line.

The bench sought the information while hearing a petition filed by the Juhu Vile Parle Development cooperative housing society, the Gulmohar area society welfare group, and the Balabhai Nanavati Hospital in the city opposing the proposed alignment of the metro 2 B line.

The petitioners, through their counsel Venkatesh Dhond, have sought that the proposed elevated route of the said metro line linking the western and eastern suburbs of the city to be made underground.

While urging the court to direct authorities to build the said metro line underground, they told the court today that even while the matter was pending before the court, the MMRDA had begun soil testing along the roads in the said stretch without the requisite permissions.

The MMRDA's counsel, Kiran Bagalia, however, told the high court that no permissions were required for soil testing.

At this the bench asked if the MMRDA believed it had the powers to begin digging or execute any work on any public road belonging to the BMC without seeking any prior permission.

"Tell us if the law requires you to take permissions for soil testing. Because if the law requires permission, you must obtain permission. Or, are you saying that the MMRDA has the power to go and start digging any public road without prior permission from the local authorities?" the bench asked.

The bench has directed the MMRDA to give it the requisite information on an affidavit by May 2 this year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Expressing disappointment over the US government's proposals to tighten H1-B visa norms, Union Minister Suresh Prabhu today said he would take up the matter with the Trump administration.

"We are very disappointed by some of the actions by the US administration," the commerce and industry minister told reporters here.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

Prabhu said under the visas issued to the technology service providers, there is evidence that Indians have contributed significantly to the growth of the US economy.

Indian companies' investment into the US has created new jobs in America, he said, adding that if spouses of the Indian IT professionals are competent and qualified, they will only add value to the economy there and not snatch jobs of local people.

The Trump administration is planning to end giving work permits to the spouses of H1-B visa holders to work legally in the US, a move that could have a devastating impact on tens of thousands of Indians.

"This is a very disappointing development. We have already taken up the issue with the US. We hope to take it forward by other negotiations," Prabhu added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The first statue of a woman in London's Parliament Square was unveiled on Tuesday to celebrate the 100th anniversary of women winning the right to vote in Britain.

The statue of women's rights campaigner Millicent Fawcett will stand alongside those of 11 men, including Britain's wartime leader Winston Churchill, Indian independence icon Mahatma Gandhi and anti-apartheid figurehead Nelson Mandela.

Prime Minister Theresa May -- Britain's second female premier after Margaret Thatcher -- led the unveiling ceremony. Were it not for Fawcett, "I would not be here today as prime minister, no female MPs would have taken their seats in parliament, none of us would have the rights we now enjoy," May said.

"The struggle to achieve votes for women was long and arduous," and Fawcett "devoted her life to the cause".

May said Fawcett faced decades of fierce opposition as she campaigned on women's rights throughout Britain and the wider world.

"It is right and proper that, today, she takes her place at the heart of our democracy," May said, whilst warning that the fight for equality was "far from won".

The statue marks February's centenary of the Representation of the People Act, which extended the vote to around eight million women aged over 30.

It was not until 1928 that British women gained the same voting rights as men, but the 1918 act was a major step that put the kingdom ahead of some contemporaries such as France.

The campaign for a statue of a woman opposite the British parliament started with an online petition two years ago by feminist campaigner Caroline Criado Perez.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said: "Finally, Parliament Square is no longer a male-only zone for statues."



The statue was created by British artist Gillian Wearing, who won the 1997 Turner Prize for visual arts. She is the first woman to produce a statue for Parliament Square.

The monument shows Fawcett holding a placard reading "Courage Calls To Courage Everywhere", in tribute to a speech she gave upon the death of Suffragette Emily Wilding Davidson at the 1913 Epsom Derby horse race.

Fawcett herself was a Suffragist, part of a moderate movement that predated the more militant Suffragettes.

She is best known for her campaigns to improve women's opportunities in higher education and was a co-founder of the women-only Newnham College at Cambridge University.

She was also president of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies between 1897 and 1901.

Fawcett died in 1929 aged 82.

The 11 pre-existing statues in the square are of former British prime ministers Churchill, David Lloyd George, Viscount Palmerston, the Earl of Derby, Benjamin Disraeli, Robert Peel and George Canning; South Africa's PM Jan Smuts and president Mandela; US president Abraham Lincoln, and Gandhi.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The "fugitive" son of former Bangladesh prime minister Khaleda Zia, Tarique Rahman has "temporarily" sought political asylum in the UK, his Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) said today, triggering a political uproar in the country.

Refuting junior foreign minister Shahriar Alam's claim that the BNP acting chief has abandoned his Bangladeshi citizenship, party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said "he has temporarily sought asylum in London".

Alam had yesterday alleged that Rahman, 53, along with his wife and daughter, has handed over the passports to the British Home Office four years ago, and the surrendered travel documents were with the Bangladesh authorities at the country's mission in London.

"He (Rahman) has temporarily sought political asylum like political leaders and anti-government eminent persons of other countries, Alamgir told a reporters at a media briefing here.

The BNP secretary general also said that statements by the government and the ruling Awami League "clearly indicate that Rahman's life is at stake in Bangladesh, (and) under these circumstances, he has temporarily sought political asylum."



"In line with the normal procedure, he (Rahman) submitted the passport to the UK Home Office. As per its law, the country has given him travel permission after taking his passport," he said.

The junior minister had shared with media purported photocopies of the UK Home Office letter, addressed to the Bangladesh mission that read "Please find enclosed a passport for your retention", and the BNP leader's passport.

"Tarique could have submitted his passport to Bangladesh High Commission in London for renewal or extension of validity. But, he submitted it to British Home Office... what does it mean? As a political person, I think it's a refusal of nationality," Alam had said.

The minister had called the press conference at his residence hours after Rahman served him with a legal notice, two days after Alam had claimed at a community reception in London that the acting BNP chief has abandoned his citizenship.

The notice demanded "proof" of Alam's comments or his "unconditional apology". Rahman also sent similar notice to editors of two Bangladeshi newspapers, demanding unconditional apology for publishing the junior minister's remarks.

Alam had also posted the copy of the British Home Office letter regarding Rahman's passport transfer on his Facebook profile. In his latest comments, today he wrote "My Facebook went through torture the whole night. Hacking. Post disappeared. You can understand who has invested in it."



Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, at community reception at London earlier this week, had said that "fugitive convict" Rahman must face justice for the crimes he had committed, while her government was in talks with UK authorities for his extradition.

Rahman jailed during the military-backed interim government. He was allowed to go to London for medical treatment on a Supreme Court order in 2007. He living in London since then.

He was convicted and sentenced to seven years in jail in 2016 by a high court in a money laundering case and also slapped a fine of Taka 200 million.

He has also been declared absconder by a trial court in a case related to deadly grenade attack on a rally by the then opposition and now ruling Awami League at Bangabandhu Avenue on August 21, 2004, which left 24 people dead and more than 300 others injured. He is also wanted in a number of criminal and graft cases, and also declared him as "fugitive".

Bangladesh had sought his extradition, but British authorities have so far declined to make any public statement on the issue calling it a "personal matter of an individual".

He became BNP's senior vice president in February, and its acting chairperson after a court sentenced his mother and party chairperson Khaleda Zia to five-year in jail in a corruption case.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Lenovo Group Ltd is looking to make smart wearables in India and raise its share of the local market by three-fold, in a plan that will help boost Prime Minister Narendra Modi's scheme to promote the country an electronics manufacturing hub. The company is targeting to corner by this year a 20 per cent share of India's market for wearables, such as smartwatches and fitness bands, Sebastian Peng, head of accessories at Lenovo Mobile Business Group, told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday. Since the firm started selling its wearables in India last year, the company has ...
By Joyce LeeSEOUL (Reuters) - SK Hynix Inc became Asia's second major semiconductor maker this earnings season to warn of slower growth in smartphone chip sales, but said this would be offset somewhat by robust demand for server and other high-end chips.Increasing signs of a maturing global smartphone market have fuelled expectations that last year's boom in chip demand is moderating and so will earnings growth.The South Korean chipmaker met market expectations with a 77 percent jump in first-quarter operating profit to 4.4 trillion won ($4 billion). That was just short of last quarter's ...
It might be the most dynamic region in the world but the Asia Pacific isnt meeting its economic potential, and some of that has to do with gender equality, according to the McKinsey Global Institute.

Targeted policies to achieve more womens equality in Asia-Pacific economies could add $4.5 trillion to the regions combined annual gross domestic product by 2025, or 12 percent better than if the status quo were maintained, MGI, the business and economics research arm of McKinsey & Co, said in a report Tuesday.

Women can help  and are helping  to power this engine, making vital contributions to sustaining and enhancing Asias growth and lifting more people out of poverty, the reports authors wrote. Yet gaps remain large in many countries in the region on gender equality both in work and in society.

The researchers estimate that 58 per cent of that potential growth would be from raising womens labour-force participation rate, a quarter from putting more women to work in higher-productivity sectors and 17 percent from boosting womens work hours.

MGI judged 18 economies in the region for gender equality in work and in society. On the work metrics, the Philippines was lauded for progress, followed by New Zealand and Singapore. India and Pakistan were judged furthest from gender parity in work.

While there are fewer than four women globally in leadership roles to every 10 men, the ratio is only one in four in the Asia-Pacific region, according to the report. On societal metrics, South and Southeast Asia offers a lot of potential for gender parity in digital and financial inclusion, while physical security and autonomy are considered greater worries.
Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is once again caught on the wrong foot, and this time for one of its recent circulars that made public names of over 2,000 entities, which have defaulted on its dues. Some of the companies named in the list have raised objections with the finance ministry, stating that the list was erroneous, said sources aware of the development.

The regulator had pulled out the circular dated 2 April within hours without any explanation. But, the uncertainty and confusion among market players, triggered by the list, ...
LOGAN  A 48-year-old daycare operator, accused of child abuse, is headed to trial. Craig and Brenda Petith run Brendas Day Care in North Logan.

Both defendants appeared in 1st District Court Tuesday morning in preparation for a three-day jury trial in June. Craig is charged with one count of misdemeanor child abuse while Brenda is charged with two counts.

The defendants, who both have hired their own attorneys, asked the court for their cases to be tried separately. State attorney Barbara Lachmar said she would go along with the request, citing that she had no legal argument to object it.

Judge Brian Cannell said he would allow the separation and scheduled Craigs one-day jury trial to continue to proceed June 6. Brendas trial was set for July 26 and 27.

Police began investigating the couple in December 2016, after receiving a child abuse neglect report from the Division of Child and Family Services. The report alleged multiple incidents of child abuse at Brendas Day Care.

Investigators later uncovered evidence that supported the allegation. The Petiths were arrested later that month and booked into the Cache County Jail. Both are currently out of jail after posting bail.

will@cvradio.com
The U.S. flag is presented to open the Utah Republican 2018 nominating convention Saturday, April 21, 2018, in West Valley City, Utah. Mitt Romney is facing nearly a dozen Republican contenders in Utah on Saturday as he works to secure the state GOP nomination for a Senate seat without a primary. (AP Photo/George Frey)

LOGAN  The annual Utah State Republican Convention was described briefly by State Senator Lyle Hillyard, who described the event as long. In fact, Hillyard said he is hopeful that those in charge decide to make it a shorter event next time.

He was excited, however, about the fact that former presidential candidate Mitt Romney emerged as a candidate for a US Senate seat for Utah.

I strongly support Mitt Romney, Hillyard said. I got really well acquainted with him during the Olympics. I was majority leader of the Senate, so I worked very closely with him. I saw him, in my view, as very insightful, a great leader. The thing I like about him is he was consistent in private meetings as he was in public. That is one thing I look forward to in politicians, to make sure they speak the same way everywhere.

Romney faces state lawmaker Mike Kennedy in the primary election. Kennedy received 51 percent of the vote to Romneys 49 percent.
LOGAN  A judge has sentenced Dayton Chavez to jail. The 19-year-old Paradise man was convicted of coercing a teenage boy into a sexual relationship last summer.

Chavez appeared in 1st District Court Monday morning. He previously pleaded guilty to two counts of dealing in materials harmful to a minor, a third-degree felony. He told the court he had messed up and wanted to take responsibility for what he had done.

Defense attorney Mike McGinnis asked the court for leniency, describing how his client will no longer be able to enter the military because of his arrest. He said Chavez wanted to pay for what he had done, but putting him in jail for an extended period would not do any good.

State attorney Jacob Gordon disagreed that Chavez was remorseful. He noted how the defendant was still blaming the victim for what had happened, saying the teenage boy had a crush on him.

Judge Thomas Willmore ordered Chavez to serve 120-days in jail and then be placed on probation for up to five-years. He also ordered him to registers as a sex offender and have no contact with minors.

will@cvradio.com
Agbor Balla in Mauritania W. Musa

The President of the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa,Barrister Agbo Felix Nkongho, was In Nouakchott, Mauritania for the 62nd Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights and 36th African Human Rights Book Fair where he spoke to Human Rights defenders and Civil Society organizations from around the globe, highlighting the Anglophone crisis, ongoing armed conflict, humanitarian crisis and need for an urgent solution.

This was an opportunity to call on all Human Rights defenders who fought for his release from prison, to join the campaign for the freedom of Mancho Bibixy, Terence Penn Khan, Tsi Conrad and thousands of Anglophones detained in various prisons and facing military trials in Cameroon since the start of the crisis.

He also urged all human Rights defenders to speak out and hold the government of Cameroon accountable over the incommunicado detention of Ayuk Tabe Julius and others extradited from Nigeria. They ought to have access to their lawyers and families, he said.

His visit to Mauritania comes at the time when the verdict of the case pitting the State and Mancho Bibixy will be delivered this Tuesday at the Yaounde Military Court.

His case was adjourned to Tuesday after Defense Counsel pleaded for time to prepare the case better.

Mancho Bibixy risked being sentenced alongside Penn Terence, who was given 12 years, Njinoh Titus and Fung Calemba were both sentenced to 12 years and 10 years respectively.

Mr Mancho played an important role which marked the turning point in the Anlglophone crisis. His coffin revolution staged on Novemner 21, 2016 led to an escalation of the crisis when Police used live bullets and water Cannons to disperse the population who were marching on streets, denouncing poor road networks, limited water supply and other social amenties.
Bibixy Mancho et co-accuses Me Agbor Nkongho

The Yaounde military court has on Tuesday April 24, 2018 sentenced six Anglophone detainees to at least 11 years jail terms each. The verdict was given at about 1:30 PM by the President of the Court, as the detainees sat with confidence in on the benches as if to say whatever comes out speaks of destiny which must be fulfilled.

Consequently Lobte Jacob was given 11 years jail term, Baying Eugene and Numfor Godlove both had 12 years, Tayo Livite, Wirba Bruno and Nyuyforan Eugene were both handed 13 years imprisonment sentence. They are to jointly pay a fine of FCFA 893, 280, each paying FCFA 148,280 or get additional 9 months jail term; they have 10 days to appeal against the verdict.

The case pitting Mancho Bibixy, the coffin revolutionist and the State was suspended to allow the defense team to be complete. The case later resumed with Barrister Emmanuel Simh and Claude Assira joined the defense team.

Mancho Bibixy was heard saying that they are not bothered with the jail sentences, however they are ready to be the Mandelas of their generation.

He told bystanders that We are enjoying the sentences. Let them continue like that.

He added, If I am given 15 years in prison, I will be very sad. I expect nothing less than 40 years.

Though in high spirit, former Equinoxe Television reporter, Awah Thomas Junior looked pale as he kept coughing throughout the proceedings.

Close to 10 lawyers constituting members of the defense counsel, were still on the case of Mancho Bibixy at the time of this report, which unarguably could lead to another adjournment.
| BY Ricki Green |

Last Thursday evening post production studio Cutting Edge hosted the first CEX charity art auction, raising much needed funds to help young Aussies with high care needs.

The CEX art challenge involved the transformation of humble bowling pins into works of art. Members of Brisbanes advertising community heeded the call, lending their creativity and donating unique pieces. Contributions came from Cutting Edge, as well as freelance artists, and Brisbane agencies, BCM, ClemengerBBDO, Y&R ANZ, and PublisicQ.

Says Zenon Kohler, creative director, Cutting Edge: Every artist created something unique. The contributors were advertising creatives who have different backgrounds and disciplines. We had creative directors, animators, VFX artists and copywriters and it was fascinating to see how highly individual the result were.

The bowling pin is a peculiarly shaped cultural icon that is steeped in nostalgia. It was a unique canvas that attracted a crowd of more than 150 art enthusiasts on auction night.

Says Mel Morrison, CCO of Youngcare: Highly creative pieces, a great cause, and an impressive result. This was not just a lot of fun, but a great platform for Youngcare to share our story, and the money raised makes a real impact.

Individual pieces of art sold for as much as $2,200, with a grand total of $15,000 raised.

Says Kylee Ratz, general manager, Cutting Edge: This art challenge was all in the name of charity, and we raised vital funds for Youngcare, an important organisation who give young Aussies with high care needs the choice to live in age-appropriate housing.

Youngcare helps provide in-home support and purpose built homes that help offer age-appropriate housing for young Australians who would otherwise have to live in aged care facilities.

Says Matthew Lawson, owner/director, Cutting Edge and founding member of Youngcare: This is a very real issue facing our community. With more than 6,000 young people living in residential aged care, with little choice over basic daily activities like using the bathroom, showering and choosing when and what to eat, it was very heartwarming to see people unite behind this cause.
| BY Kim Shaw |

Elders Insurance, one of Australias largest regional and rural insurance providers, has launched a major new integrated brand campaign. The work has been developed by The Core Agency following their appointment to the account in January this year.

The integrated campaign includes TV executions, press, digital, social, in-branch collateral and website integration.

With over 100 years of experience, Elders Insurance has agents that live and work in their local communities. Its products include business insurance, farm insurance, personal insurance, plus fleet and commercial motor insurance.

The Our way never gets old campaign leverages the brands strong reputation as a reliable and customer-focused insurance provider. The campaign will help drive brand awareness amongst the target audience and work in parallel with the business plans to expand its current footprint of over 150 locations into metropolitan areas.

Says Christian Finucane, founder & creative partner at The Core Agency: Many brands like to think they are customer-centric, but Elders Insurance is the real deal. The more we learned about the trusted relationships their agents have with their customers, the more we knew we should build the campaign around them. Every one of their agents is a brand ambassador.

Says Bettina Pidcock, chief customer officer at QBE Insurance Group: Elders Insurance is a brand with a long legacy of providing local knowledge, hands-on personal support to clients and a commitment to local communities. By utilising our own people and including humour in the campaign, we hope to share why great customer service never goes out of fashion.

Elders Insurance is amongst a growing list of clients at The Core Agency including QBE Insurance, Sydney Airport, Key Pharmaceuticals, NSW Government, Spotcap, Pet Circle, RSVP and The Fred Hollows Foundation.

This latest campaign comes after The Core Agency announced last month it was launching a new brand campaign for Pet Circle, Australias largest online pet supplies company.

Agency: The Core Agency

Founders & Creative Partners: Christian Finucane & Jon Skinner

Director of Strategy: Simon Rich

Senior Art Director: Simone Parravicini

Senior Copywriter: Dave Glen / Kevin Macnamara

Senior Account Director: Rebecca Scott

Senior Account Manager: Joseph Rosslind

Senior Producer: Bill Doig

Producer: Apple Stuart

Film Company: Eight

Director: Eddy Bell

Executive Producer: Lib Kelly

Director of Photography: James Brown

Editor: Ben Zemanek / Looper Films

Post Production: White Chocolate

Audio Post & Music: Smith & Western

Client: Elders Insurance / QBE Group

Chief Customer Officer: Bettina Pidcock

Head of B2B Marketing & Strategic Sales: John Kilkenny
| BY Ricki Green |

The Marketing Academy has today announced that Terry Savage has been appointed as its first global chairman to guide the Academy through ambitious expansion plans when he leaves his current role as the chairman of Cannes Lions in June.

In addition to steering the Academys international development Savage, who will be based in Sydney, will convene a global council of high profile industry figures to assist in raising awareness of the Academys mission around the world. Phil Rumbol, partner at Mullen Lowe, will continue to chair the board of trustees in the UK.

Says The Marketing Academy founder Sherilyn Shackell: For the last 8 years we have been uniting companies, CEOs and CMOs across the entire industry to share their wisdom and expertise with the next generation of leaders. With over 400 Alumni of our programs we remain totally committed to inspiring and developing exceptional talent. Terry brings a wealth of experience and knowledge at a global level and I am beyond excited that he has agreed to support us in the next step of our growth.

Says Savage, who leaves Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity in June following a 33 year association: I have long believed that for our industry to thrive we need to invest in our talent at the highest level. Through the quality of its mentors and the exceptional leadership development it delivers The Marketing Academy has already earned an enviable reputation as a growth enabler for our talent and therefore our future. Im looking forward to uniting the community around the world to collectively benefit from the Academys work.

Sponsored by organisations such as Microsoft, McKinsey, Facebook, BT, Commonwealth Bank, News Corp, ITV, Virgin Atlantic, Accenture, PHD and PwC, The Marketing Academy is regarded as the only company of its kind in the world. A not for profit organisation it delivers world class marketing leadership programmes to executives in marketing, media, communications and advertising. Their coveted flagship programs; The Scholarship for emerging leaders and The Fellowship exclusively for CMOs, are highly selective and totally free to the selected participants.
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About 38,000 people have braved a chilly, but clear Canberra morning to commemorate Anzac Day, 103 years after troops from Australia and New Zealand landed at Gallipoli during World War I. Retired Colonel Susan Neuhaus delivered the dawn service address at the Australian War Memorial, highlighting the contribution of women to the armed forces by remembering 22 nurses who were ordered into the sea and executed by Japanese troops during World War II. "When their ship, the Vyner Brooke, was torpedoed in the Banka Strait, they swam through the night to the shore," Colonel Neuhaus said. "There, on Monday, the 16th of February 1942, shortly after 10am, they were lined up along the beach, still in their uniforms, a red cross emblazoned into their left sleeve and at bayonet point they were ordered into the sea. "They were under no illusion as to their fate. "In those last moments before the machine guns opened fire, Matron Irene Drummond turned to her nurses with words of comfort and of courage and her words speak for a nation: 'Chins up, girls. I'm proud of you, and I love you all'." It was 7 degrees as Colonel Neuhaus delivered her address, saying that while the Gallipoli landings are fading further into the past, the significance of the sacrifice made by those veterans, and all who have followed them, will never diminish. "Like most Australians today, I have no faded photographs of men or women in uniform on my mantelpiece and don't know of any family members who served on the beaches of Gallipoli, on the muddy fields of the Somme or indeed the jungles of south-east Asia," she said. "And yet, like all of us, I benefit from what they have done." Pre-service ceremonies began at 4.30am on Wednesday, with representatives of each of Australia's armed services reading excerpts from the letters and diaries by war veterans. Among the first to arrive was Canberra man Neil Anstey, who served for more than 40 years in the Australian Army. Mr Anstey, whose service included tours in East Timor and Sinai, said Anzac Day was always an emotional occasion. "It means a lot because we're remembering those who have gone before us," he said. "It's great to see more young kids getting involved and wanting to know what it's all about." Mr Anstey will be part of the lead contingent in the march down Anzac Parade later on Wednesday morning, along with about 800 others representing the army apprentices. Another of those is Geoff Wilson, who enlisted as an army apprentice in 1977 and went on to become a member of the Royal Military College Band. He travelled from Wagga Wagga for the dawn service, and to attend an army apprentices reunion that marks 70 years since the first school for apprentices opened. "We owe the guys before us a lot, in terms of our lifestyle in Australia," Mr Wilson said. "My career path didn't take me [to conflict zones], but you get to know all these guys who went overseas, and there's a lot of mateship there." The 2018 crowd matched that of last year, when rain hit the dawn service, and again fell well short of the almost 130,000 who attended to mark the centenary of Anzac Day in 2015. Australian War Memorial director Dr Brendan Nelson said Anzac Day had endured through "existential questions" about its relevance in the past, and would always have a place in Australia no matter how many people attended the dawn service. "What's much more important than physical attendance at any of these ceremonies is what is appearing in people's hearts, and the extent to which people are prepared to stop, reflect and think about what Anzac Day is and what it means," he said. "Anzac Day asks of every one of us, 'What does it mean to be Australian?' and it also answers it. In the end, what we need most is one another, and whatever we do with our lives, we need to do something that is in service of other Australians and other human beings."

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news, act-politics

Stratospheric rates rises are the exception, not the rule, ACT Treasury says, with new modelling showing thousands of Canberra households even saw a decrease in their bill. Controversial changes to the way rates are calculated for apartments, units, townhouses and dual occupancies have attracted the ire of thousands of owner-occupiers and landlords - including a former territory treasurer - and even prompted an ACT Legislative Assembly inquiry. But new figures from Treasury show while more than 41,000 properties experienced an increase to rates because of the change in methodology, nearly 4300 saw no change or even saw their rates fall. Fifty-seven properties recorded a rates decrease of between 10 and 15 per cent, 1169 saw falls of between 5 and 10 per cent while 3064 had their bill either remain the same, or decrease by up to 5 per cent. The bulk of multi-unit dwellings in the ACT recorded rates rises of between 25 and 30 per cent (7815). Nearly 35,000 properties had their rates bill rise between 0 and 30 per cent. More than 5700 had a rates rise of between 30 and 35 per cent, 813 had an increase of 35 and 40 per cent, while 73 had an increase of between 40 and 45 per cent. Only six properties experienced an increase of between 50 and 55 per cent, while 106 properties recorded rates rises of more than 55 per cent. And while more than 12,000 properties were pushed from the lowest rating bracket to the second lowest rating bracket last year, more than 90 per cent of unit owners still fall into the lowest two rating categories. Just 0.78 per cent of units are now in the highest rating bracket, up from 0.38 per cent the previous year. More have shifted into the second, third and fourth brackets, with 1.87 per cent of units now in the second highest bracket (up from 0.85 per cent), 6.68 per cent in the third highest bracket (up from 2.92 per cent), and 49.05 per cent in the second lowest bracket (up from 24.75 per cent). Before last year's budget, rates were calculated after a property's unimproved value had been divided between the number of apartments of units on site, meaning 70 per cent of apartments fell into the lowest tax bracket. Now the rates are calculated on the entire land value, then divided between the number of units, pushing more units into a higher tier. Even former treasurer Ted Quinlan said the new formula was a "blunt axe" that meant owners within larger complexes were unfairly pushed into the highest rating brackets. Barton apartment owner Jack Evans wrote to the inquiry saying while a freestanding house with an average unimproved value of $150,000 - the base tier for valuation-based charge - would have a charge of $440, this rose to $528.60 for a dual occupancy, $807.89 a unit per unit in a complex of 10 and $897. 25 in a complex of 200. However an ACT government spokesman said this analysis was flawed, as the vast majority of units continued to have far lower assessed unimproved values than freestanding houses and townhouses and thus paid lower rates even after the methodology change. "There are around 40,000 units in the ACT, and only about 300 have average unimproved values of $600,000 or above, which demonstrates that the examples proposed are unrepresentative of the vast majority of units," he said. However the spokesman said the government was carefully monitoring the impact of the change in methodology on low-income households. "The government understands that there are some low-income households in Canberra who do not currently qualify for any concession support, and are feeling pressure in their household budgets because of low wage growth and the rising cost of essentials like electricity brought about by uncertainty in the national market," he said. "We are exploring ways to ensure these Canberrans do not get left behind as our city continues to grow and develop."

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news, latest-news

Psychiatrists fear patients will withhold information vital to their care because their full psychiatric histories can be subpoenaed and aired in tribunal hearings. Canberra-based psychiatrist Dr Ingrid Butterfield said two of her patients' records had been subpoenaed by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, at the request of the National Disability Insurance Agency, in the past month. The cases before the tribunal relate to the patients' disputes with the agency, which assesses eligibility for care under the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Dr Butterfield said her patients had been shocked to discover deeply personal information they had told her in confidence would be disclosed to others as part of the tribunal process. "If it was me, it would make me reconsider applying for a care package with the NDIA," she said. "Because the notes that are being subpoenaed are their entire files, it can include things that [patients] disclosed years before the NDIA even existed. "They disclosed those things not knowing their histories could be subpoenaed for this purpose. It's appalling." Asked if she thought patients would compromise their care by holding back during their sessions to avoid their personal information being shared more widely, Dr Butterfield replied: "Yes, that's certainly a possibility." Chairman of the Australian Medical Association Psychiatrists Group, Professor Steve Kisely, said he shared those concerns. He said independent assessments were a much better way of resolving patients' disputes with the National Disability Insurance Agency, because the National Disability Insurance Scheme was supposed to be focused on a person's functional capacity, rather than their psychiatric history. "There's actually no reason they should be wanting psychiatric records," Professor Kisely said. "My concern is that it seems like a fishing trip. To use an analogy, while they're trawling for tuna, they're catching dolphins and porpoises and all sorts of things they don't need that are in those files. "I think psychiatrists are right to be concerned that patients will self-censor because they're worried about sensitive information being released. It's bad for patient care." Psychologists are also worried, with the Australian Psychological Society reporting a big spike in the number of its members seeking advice on how to deal with patients' records being subpoenaed. The society's executive manager of professional practice, Dr Louise Roufeil, said it had become a major issue in the last four years. "It's a big concern for our members that people are holding back information," Dr Roufeil said. "There are certainly other ways to get information, like reports that don't include patients' full histories. "It's [happening] across the board. Records are being subpoenaed for a range of purposes, not just for the NDIS, and we're concerned about who's looking at these records and trying to interpret them without the proper training." A National Disability Insurance Agency spokesperson said it was routine for the agency to issue a summons for documents, which were usually medical records, in tribunal cases where it was the respondent. The spokesperson said patients' reports and details were considered "protected information", meaning no one could access, use or disclose the information for purposes not outlined in the NDIS Act. Parties to a summons could challenge the release of documents by lodging an objection with the tribunal, the spokesperson said. ACT Law Society chief executive Dianne O'Hara said there were generally no reasons to set a properly issued subpoena aside, even when the records in question contained private information. Ms O'Hara said a number of protections were in place to ensure information was handled sensitively, with lawyers obliged to treat personal information confidentially and comply with several privacy provisions.

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news, latest-news

Naomi Taylor feels like she's won every lottery possible. Her two-year-old son William was diagnosed with the cruel, degenerative disease type two spinal muscular atrophy in June last year. He has since lost the ability to walk and crawl and, without treatment, would eventually lose the ability to breath, swallow and talk. The only effective treatment, Nusinersen (brand name Spinraza), has been millions of dollars out of reach as it is not listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Ms Taylor and partner Ben McLennan have been forced to watch their son deteriorate every day, despite knowing a treatment was available that could slow his symptoms. Late last year, the drug was knocked back by Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) - which advises the government on what drugs to place on the PBS - over concerns of its cost-effectiveness. But the family's heartache turned into unexpected elation on Friday when they found out PBAC had recommended the drug be listed on the PBS at its most recent meeting. William will be eligible to access the drug from May when the company makes it available on compassionate grounds until the government places it on the PBS. Health Minister Greg Hunt has previously guaranteed that if the PBAC recommends it, the government will list the drug. In a surprise decision, PBAC decided to recommend the drug for listing on the PBS for type one, two and three (a) patients, despite the fact that drug company Biogen had only made submissions for access for type one patients. We were just elated, it felt like we had won all the lotteries and all the Powerballs, Ms Taylor said. An absolute dream come true, I was in tears. All we want for our son ultimately is for him to have a good quality of life and independence. "We know we have a big journey ahead of us now." Children with type one SMA - the most serious form of the disease - have had access to the drug on compassionate grounds since last year with many seeing astounding results. But for type two patients - whose life expectancy ranges from childhood to early adulthood depending on severity - there was no way to access the drug without paying. Spinal Muscular Atrophy Incorporation chief executive officer Julie Cini said this meant some type one children were surpassing the milestones of type two diagnosed children. "This announcement by the PBAC, is a phenomenal outcome, especially as Biogen was asked toresubmit to the March meeting for SMA Type 1 only," she said. "When SMA Australia representatives were invited to the stakeholder meeting in January we highlighted the unmet need for urgent cases outside Type 1 and we asked the PBAC to consider those families as well. "We would like to acknowledge the PBAC for inviting our community to the meeting and for listening to our voices that day on behalf of the whole community." But the drug will remain out of reach for SMA patients over the age of 18. "SMA Australia realise this part of our community will be devastated," Ms Cini said. "Due to the infancy of the drug, and lack of robust clinical data, the PBAC was unable to assess the extent of the meaningful benefit the drug may have on the adult population." Ms Taylor said the family would continue to spread awareness of SMA and advocate for the drug to be made available to over 18s.

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news, latest-news

The Australian Bureau of Statistics used people's mobile phones in order to track their location hour by hour for a study on population movement. The agency has defended the study because it did not track people in real time, with a spokesman saying "the ABS has not tracked or conducted surveillance on any Australian". The study used mobile phone data from two weeks in April 2016, with suburbs across the ACT and surrounding areas in NSW targeted to show the ways populations move throughout the day and at different times in the week. First reported by freelance journalist Asher Wolf, the study has been made public through presentations given by demographer Andrew Howe at conferences in Adelaide and Redcliffe, Queensland last year. Slides for the presentations claim that mobile device user data that was aggregated and anonymised is the solution to a data gap in showing temporary population estimates. The ABS presentation said it had a "trial engagement with a telco company," but did not specify which company this was. Telstra has since confirmed that it was the company involved. Privacy advocates have slammed the study and how the ABS had dealt with the data. Chair of Digital Rights Watch Tim Norton said the study was "irresponsible" by the ABS in light of controversy over the 2016 census. "They're under a dark cloud of lacking consent in the way they engage with people's personal data so to do this study and then try and hide it, which is what it looks like, I think is incredibly irresponsible," he said. Chair of the Australian Privacy Foundation David Vaile has compared the ABS' attitude around people's data to that of Facebook. "It's a very contemptuous and patronising but also Facebook-like attitude to their right to keep things quiet or to not reveal the full extent of what they're doing," he said. The ABS spokesman said individuals could not be identified from the data. "The ABS received aggregate level telecommunications data from a telecommunications company to inform estimates of temporary populations. No individual information was provided to the ABS. Only aggregated counts of mobile telephone transactions were supplied in broad geographical areas," the ABS spokesman said. The ABS said the information was obtained under the authority of the Census and Statistics Act, and that it is also bound by the Privacy Act. It said that it was not required to undertake a privacy impact assessment, because no personal data was used. "Under this legislation, the ABS is bound to maintain the secrecy of information collected and protect people's confidentiality," the spokesman said. The study was part of "ongoing efforts to use existing available data, rather than obtaining it directly from the population". "This is accepted, common practice in many overseas countries." The study was undertaken in the months leading up to the 2016 census, where the ABS was criticised for its plan to retain respondents' names and addresses for four years instead of the 18 months used in previous years. The period in the study was before mandatory data retention laws came into effect, but the ABS is one of the government agencies that can request metadata from telecommunications companies. Telstra has also defended its role in the study. "Telstra is firmly committed to the protection and security of our customers personal information, which is outlined publicly in Telstras Privacy Statement, and we comply with all relevant privacy legislation," a spokesman said. "We do not share any information which identifies, or could reasonably identify, a customer with third parties unless we have the appropriate informed consent or are required to by law." "For the ABS project Telstra supplied anonymised and aggregated data insights under the authority of the Census and Statistics Act 1905. No individual customer information was provided," the spokesman said. The data provided by the company allowed the ABS to make hourly population estimates, showing how the population grew in the ACT during business hours, and dropped in surrounding areas of NSW at the same time. It also showed that the number of people in the Belconnen Town Centre rose to around 10,000 each weekday, almost double the area's estimated resident population. The data projected hourly population estimates in Bruce at the time of a Raiders v Tigers NRL match, including a breakdown of females and males. It also showed the number of people in the area at the time of the Groovin the Moo music festival. The data was also able to project how many people attended AFL matches at the MCG on particular dates, as well as the population in beach towns on the NSW south coast over a long weekend. "The pilot was conducted in the Australian Capital Region (the ACT and surrounds). Many of the people who use the services and infrastructure in Canberra do not reside in the ACT, yet Commonwealth funding is allocated to states and territories based on its usual resident population, not its service population," the ABS spokesman told Fairfax Media. This information could be used to make population-based funding decisions in areas with fly-in, fly-out populations, the spokesman said.

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Photo: Castanet file photo

Papa John's Pizza and the Sunshine Foundation of Canada will again team up to help assist kids in the Okanagan living with severe physical disabilities and life-threatening illnesses.

The fourth annual Papa John's Dreams for Kids Day takes place Wednesday.

One hundred per cent of proceeds from the day at participating Papa John's Pizza stores in Kelowna and West Kelowna will be donated to the foundation.

"We're excited to be hosting our Dreams for Kids day for the fourth year," said Geoff Linquist, owner of the Kelowna Papa John's location.

"We're grateful for all the community support we've received the past three years and hope this year is even bigger and better. Funds raised help make dreams come true for kids, and we are so proud to be able to make a difference in the lives of children."

Monies raised help support the Sunshine DreamLift, which send kids on a one-day whirlwind adventure to Disneyland. The next trip is scheduled for 2019.

"The dedication and support we receive from the whole Papa John's team in Kelowna and West Kelowna is absolutely outstanding," said Nancy Sutherland CEO of the Sunshine Foundation of Canada.

"The day provides an opportunity for Sunshine volunteers in the Kelowna region to get involved with their community alongside Papa John's staff, volunteers, Sunshine dream recipients, and of course the much-loved Sunshine Bear mascot."

Dreams for Kids Day raised more than $42,000 last year. Over the first three years, $130,000 has been raised.
Photo: File photo

About 10,000 people are expected to hit the Kelowna Yacht Club docks this weekend for its annual boat show.

Friday and Saturday, more than 50 exhibitors will set up on the docks, showing off the latest products in the boating and watersports world for the 23rd year in a row.

Additonally, more than 150 new and used boats will be on sale at the two-day event, along with several dock repair companies, in light of last year's flooding.

The 2018 boat show is one of many events that the Kelowna Yacht Club hosts in partnership with the boating and local community, said Thom Killingsworth, executive director of the yacht club.

Entry to the show is by donation, with proceeds going to support the KYC youth sailing program, while exhibitors' registration fees go towards maintaining the public safe-mooring buoys on Okanagan Lake.

The boat show will run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday.
Photo: Contributed

I was wondering, does the ICBC interviewer ask questions regarding how an individual's life has been affected by the accident?

And in particular, not just physical injuries, pain etc. but mentally (anxiety, lowered mood, trauma, anxiety/hypervigilance while driving or as passenger), etc.?

That question was posed to me by a psychological counsellor who wanted to learn more about the examination for discovery process so as to help prepare her patients.

Prepare her patients for an examination for discovery? Thats the lawyers job! On reflection, though, of course, her patients would reach out to her about an event with the ominous label of examination for discovery

Bright lights? Scowling, angry inquisition? Water boarding?

But truly, theres nothing objectively stressful about the event. You are just required to be honest and forthright responding to questions about a subject matter about which you have supreme expertise: you!

But thats easy for me to say. Having supervised hundreds of them, theyre about as familiar to me as the back of my hand.

Every new experience, clouded by uncertainty, has an element of stress. Ive written previous columns removing various cobwebs of uncertainty, but none squarely addressing this counsellors question.

My response to her started with:

Oh, my goodness, yes, the interviewer (lawyer representing ICBC) asks everything about how the crash victims life has been affected.

Because thats what your claim is all about. Our civil justice system currently requires bad drivers (through their liability insurance coverage with ICBC) to be accountable for those impacts.

I say currently because our provincial government is poised to change that by capping a key part of that accountability at $5,500.

That accountability piece is called pain and suffering, words that conjure up an image of the hero in The Princess Bride, strapped down to Count Rugens life sucking machine.

The machine, having levels from 1 through 50, was designed to create as much pain as possible, the number setting indicating how many years would be sucked from the victims life span!

The reality, in most chronic cases, is a constant, nagging stiffness, soreness or achiness that will flare up to levels of sharper and sharper pain when the injured areas are aggravated.

Life sucking? I think most people dealing with constant, nagging discomfort would agree that its draining.

You have less energy at the end of your work day. Social and other activities are more difficult and less enjoyable. Its no surprise that mood might spiral downwards.

ICBC must fairly compensate you for those mood impacts as well.

How can ICBC fairly assess compensation those crash related symptoms, and how they have and might continue to impact on your income and expenses, unless they ask you about them?

Those of us in the business call it a discovery. It is ICBCs opportunity, through their lawyer, to learn about or discover all about those issues.

The questions will not be just about how things are currently, though. They need to know everything that might assist with figuring out how things would have been different had the crash not occurred.

Here is an idea of some very broad subject matters of discovery you can expect to be asked about:

What happened in the crash or collision, even if there is no issue about fault. The collision dynamics might be relevant to your injuries;

How you were in the months and years before the crash. This is critically important to help sort out how you likely would have continued to be had the crash not occurred;

Any medical care or therapies you might have accessed in the months and years before the crash, and whatever you might have reported to those care givers;

The onset and progression of any symptoms you think might have been caused by the crash;

Any medical care or therapies you might have accessed since the crash, and whatever you might have reported to those care givers;

Your education and work history and work patterns before the crash, which is important to help sort out what your career path likely would have been had the crash not occurred;

Your work and work patterns after the crash, and the reasons for any changes;

What activities you enjoyed and participated in during the months and years leading up to the crash, how that might have changed after the crash, and why;

Your participation in household and yard chores in the months and years leading up to the crash, how that might have changed after the crash, and why;

Any other injuries or events in your life that might have had an impact on your physical or psychological health, whether before or since the crash; and

Friends, acquaintances, work colleagues and supervisors and family members who might or might not have witnessed changes after the crash.

Yes, that is a lot of material to cover! And dont take this list to be an exhaustive one. There are all sorts of tributaries the discovery can take.

It will be important to your credibility that you do some work to refresh your memory. But unlike a school examination, you will not be required to memorize anything.

Nor will you be required to argue your case. The discovery is a time for providing factual answers, to the best of your honesty and recollection, not argument.
Photo: NSDA Architects Conceptual drawings.

Kelowna city council has given initial approval for a rezoning and OCP amendment for a development on the former BC Tree Fruits property on Clement Avenue.

The development would see the construction of two six-storey mixed-use buildings on the southeast portion of the property along Clement Avenue and Richter Street.

Together, they would house 148 rental units, including 60 one-bedroom, 87 two-bedroom and one three-bedroom.

While staff did support the project, planner Adam Cseke says that support did not come without some concerns.

Those concerns surrounded how to adequately integrate the residential and commercial components within the larger north end industrial area without undermining its viability.

"Maintaining adequate supply of centrally located industrial land is an important objective in the OCP and the long-term success of the city," said Cseke, adding the applicant inquired about including residential on a lot further east.

"Staff was not willing to support on the balance of the site, any residential for rezoning to send a clear message to the surrounding industrial area that there should be no further bleeding of residential into the industrial area."

There are also concerns about a large, at-grade parking facility on the north end of the site.

Cseke says the magnitude and size is a concern, which will have to be resolved at the development permit stage.

"This is a key location," said Coun. Mohini Singh.

"I'm looking for the wow factor in the final product. Just having buildings with a few trees and a coffee shop just doesn't cut it. I'm just looking for something really spectacular."

Previously, in 2012 and 2013, there were three proposals for the property. A brewery on the eastern portion, public market in the centre with residential along the western part.

Both the brewery and public market have since fallen by the wayside.
Photo: Contributed

Category 3 open fires are now prohibited within the Cariboo Fire Centre and the Tsilhqot'in (Xeni Gwet'in) Declared Title Area.

The new prohibition, intended to help prevent human-caused wildfires, includes:

Any fire larger than two metres high by three metres wide

Three or more concurrently burning piles no larger than two metres high by three metres wide

One or more burning windrows

Burning of stubble or grass over an area greater than 0.2 hectares.

The prohibition went into effect Monday, and will remain in place until Sept. 29, or the public is otherwise notified.

The ban does not include campfires which are no larger than a half-metre high by a half-metre wide, or Category 2 fires.

Those include:

The burning of material in one pile not exceeding two metres in height and three metres in width

The burning of material concurrently burning in two piles, each not exceeding two metres in height by three metres in width

The burning of stubble or grass over an area that does not exceed 0.2 hectares.

The ban applies to all BC Parks, Crown land and private land which fall outside the boundaries of a local government with forest fire prevention bylaws in place and is services by a fire department.

Contravention of the ban could result in a $1.150 fine.
Alanna Kelly

Sunshine and scorching temperatures is a welcome sight to many living in the Okanagan Valley, but officials at the River Forecast Centre are saying it will cause high flows of water.

Unseasonable high temperatures have sprung up across the valley with the warmest day falling on Thursday with a forecast of 25 C. Average temperatures for this time of year in the Okanagan Valley is between 17 C and 18 C.

David Campbell, head of the River Forecast Centre said this will cause the freshet to really start.

Three, four, five days of that kind of temperature and well start to see much more accelerated snow melt, said Campbell.

Rapid snow melt does have potential to cause high flow conditions and problematic conditions in smaller tributary systems throughout the Southern Interior.

Areas in the Okanagan, particularly in the South Okanagan where things have been challenged in the last week or so, we expect those areas to be exacerbated with this melt, he said.

He added tributaries up and down the Okanagan will be challenged.

Flooding has already been a problem in the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen this spring, where an evacuation order for 12 properties north of Oliver was issued on Saturday.

The regional district warned that the flooding posed an immediate danger to "life safety" and another 17 addresses were put on evacuation alert, told they must be ready to leave on a moment's notice.

The Osoyoos Indian Band also had several homes evacuated on Friday, due to concerns about a potential landslide, but residents were allowed to return Saturday.

Last week, the provincial government approved financial assistance for those impacted by overland flooding or landslides.

Melting snow and soggy ground makes this a particularly dangerous time of year to be around rivers and streams and people should take caution when they're near waterways, Campbell said.

"We get a lot of ground saturation. The banks of rivers are very unstable," he said. "Whether there's a flood warning out or not, they can be very hazardous this time of year."

Snowpack has increased by upwards of 15 per cent since April 1, and the melt has been delayed by two to three weeks.

We have seen ongoing snow accumulation across the province particularly in areas we have already seen very high snowpacks, said Campbell.

According to Campbell, the real concern this week will be smaller river systems through the Southern Interior as a result of warm weather.

There is potential for some rain at the end of this cycle so that could put additional pressures, he said.

 with files from The Canadian Press
Photo: The Canadian Press Defense witness Roslyn Yarbrough arrives to testify in actor and comedian Bill Cosby's his sexual assault retrial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa., Monday, April 23, 2018.

The jury that will start deliberating Bill Cosby's fate on Tuesday has heard the comedian described over the past two weeks both as a "serial rapist" and a con artist's victim.

They have seen a parade of accusers testify that the man once revered as "America's Dad" had a secret life of drugging and violating women. And they have heard from a witness who says his chief accuser talked about framing a high-profile person to score a big payday.

Now, seven men and five women who have been kept in a suburban Philadelphia hotel, away from family, friends and daily routines, will get to have their say in the first big celebrity trial of the #MeToo era.

"You now have all of the evidence," Judge Steven O'Neill told them after Cosby's side rested on Monday without calling the 80-year-old comedian to the stand. "Try to relax, so that you're on your game tomorrow."

Jurors could be in for a marathon.

Before going off to deliberate, they will hear both sides rehash the case in lengthy closing arguments, and they will get O'Neill's instructions in the law.

Cosby is charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault  all stemming from Toronto native Andrea Constand's allegations that he knocked her out with three pills he called "your friends" and molested her at his suburban Philadelphia mansion in January 2004.

Each count carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.

Cosby has said he gave Constand 1 1/2 tablets of the over-the-counter cold and allergy medicine Benadryl to help her relax before what he called a consensual sexual encounter.

The jury in Cosby's first trial weighed the evidence for five days without reaching a verdict.

This time, both sides have given the retrial jury much more to consider.

Prosecutors were able to call five additional accusers who testified that Cosby also drugged and violated them  including one woman who asked him through her tears, "You remember, don't you, Mr. Cosby?"

Cosby's new defence team, led by Michael Jackson lawyer Tom Mesereau, countered with a far more robust effort at stoking doubts about Constand's credibility and raising questions about whether Cosby's arrest was even legal.

The defence's star witness was a former colleague of Constand who says Constand spoke of levelling false sexual assault accusations against a high-profile person for the purpose of filing a civil suit. Constand got a civil settlement of nearly $3.4 million from Cosby.

Both juries also heard from Cosby himself  not on the witness stand, but via an explosive deposition he gave in 2005 and 2006 as part of Constand's civil suit against him. In it, Cosby acknowledged he gave the sedative quaaludes to women before sex in the 1970s.

Cosby's lawyers devoted the last two days of their case to travel records they say prove he could not have been at his suburban Philadelphia home in January 2004. They argue that any encounter there with Constand would have happened earlier, outside the statute of limitations.

Cosby's private jet records and travel itineraries produced by Cosby's lawyers do not show any flights in or out of the Philadelphia area in January 2004, but they have large gaps  a total of 17 days that month in which Cosby was not travelling, performing or taping TV appearances.
Photo: The Canadian Press The State Dining Room at the White House is set for the first State Dinner that President Donald Trump will host as president with French President Emmanuel Macron in Washington, Monday, April 23, 2018.

A sit-down between President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron followed by a joint news conference highlight the business portion of the French leader's second day in Washington.

The pageantry of Macron's official state visit, the first of the Trump presidency, comes Tuesday night with a lavish state dinner at the White House. About 150 guests are expected to dine on rack of lamb and nectarine tart and enjoy an after-dinner performance by the Washington National Opera.

Monday night was more relaxed, featuring a helicopter tour of Washington landmarks and a trip to the Potomac River home of George Washington with their wives for dinner. The presidents and their spouses hopped on a helicopter bound for Mount Vernon, Washington's historic riverside home, for a private dinner one night before the leaders sit down for talks on a weighty agenda including security, trade and the Iran nuclear deal.

"This is a great honour and I think a very important state visit given the moment of our current environment," Macron said Monday after his plane landed at a U.S. military base near Washington.

Macron's pomp-filled three-day state visit to Washington underscores the importance that both sides attach to the relationship: Macron, who calls Trump often, has emerged as something of a "Trump whisperer" at a time when the American president's relationships with other European leaders are more strained. Trump, who attaches great importance to the optics of pageantry and ceremony, chose to honour Macron with the first state visit of his administration as he woos the French president.

For all their camaraderie, Macron and Trump disagree on some fundamental issues, including the multinational nuclear deal, which is aimed at restricting Iran's development of nuclear weapons. Trump, skeptical of the pact's effectiveness, has been eager to pull out as a May 12 deadline nears. Macron says he is not satisfied with the situation in Iran and thinks the agreement is imperfect, but he has argued for the U.S. sticking with the deal on the grounds that there is not yet a "Plan B."

In a break with tradition, Trump has invited no congressional Democrats or journalists, said a White House official who was not authorized to discuss the arrangements publicly. But some Democrats did make the cut, including Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, whose office confirmed his attendance.
Photo: CTV

A Texas man has been sentenced to 50 years in prison for stealing $1.2 million worth of fajitas over nine years.

Fifty-three-year-old Gilberto Escamilla was sentenced Friday after pleading guilty to theft by a public servant. The Brownsville Herald reports he told the court the fajita scheme spun out of control.

Escamilla had been intercepting fajitas that he ordered through the Cameron County juvenile centre where he worked and delivering them to his own customers.

His scam was uncovered when he missed work for a medical appointment and an 800-pound (360-kilogram) fajita delivery arrived at the centre, which doesn't serve fajitas.

Escamilla was fired in August and arrested after authorities checked vendor invoices and obtained a search warrant that uncovered county-funded fajitas in his refrigerator.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Turkish officials say dozens were injured after an earthquake in southeastern Turkey.

The earthquake struck Samsat village in the province of Adiyaman early Tuesday at 3.34 a.m. local time. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a magnitude of 5.2 at 10 kilometres deep.

Turkey's health minister said of those injured, 35 were still receiving treatment, according to official Anadolu news agency. The regional governor said the injuries were caused as people fled their homes in panic.

Anadolu quoted victim Zeynep Berk whose house collapsed on her and four others. Neighbors rescued the family and attempts to recover their 150 animals continue.

The quake was felt in neighbouring provinces. Turkey's Kandilli Earthquake Monitoring Center recorded at least 13 aftershocks.
Photo: The Canadian Press The Honorable Artillery Company fire a 62 gun royal salute at the Tower of London, to celebrate the birth of Britain's Prince William and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge's third child, in London, Tuesday, April 24, 2018.

Prince Charles said Tuesday it is a "great joy" to be a grandfather once again with the birth of a third child for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

The duchess gave birth to the 8-pound, 7-ounce (3.8 kilogram) boy Monday morning at St. Mary's Hospital in London. The new prince is a younger brother to 4-year-old Prince George and Princess Charlotte, who turns 3 next week.

Charles said in a statement that "it is a great joy to have another grandchild, the only trouble is I don't know how I am going to keep up with them."

As the new family of five spent time at home at Kensington Palace, the birth was marked Tuesday by bell ringing at Westminster Abbey and gun salutes in Hyde Park and at the Tower of London.

The new baby is a sixth great-grandchild for Queen Elizabeth II and is fifth in line to the throne after Charles, father Prince William and his two older siblings.

William and Kate have not yet disclosed the name of the infant prince. Bookmakers say Arthur is the favourite in betting, followed by James and Albert.
Photo: CTV

A dramatic ball gown, or a classic, simple silhouette? Sleeves, or bare shoulders?

With less than a month to go until she marries Prince Harry at Windsor Castle on May 19, Meghan Markle most likely has already chosen her wedding dress  though what it looks like is expected to remain a top secret until the last minute.

THE SKY'S THE LIMIT

Royal brides don't generally pick ready-made dresses off the rail. Instead, Markle is likely to have commissioned an exclusive designer dress tailored to her shape and tastes  and chances are it will be handmade in Britain.

A luxury couture dress like that typically takes months of painstaking preparation and a small army of fitters and seamstresses, and can easily cost hundreds of thousands of pounds.

It all adds up: Silks are very expensive, as are British labour costs. A top-quality bespoke dress typically starts with a consultation to explore what styles fit the bride, followed by precise measurements and several initial fittings done in a mock-up fabric, according to leading London bridal designer Phillipa Lepley.

Then comes the labour-intensive part: When seamstresses work on the embroidery artwork and lace. More fittings follow to decide details such as where exactly the neckline sits and how many layers of petticoats are needed.

___

3-D PETALS OR CLEAN AND SIMPLE?

Romantic, soft and whimsical styles with 3-D details like petals are popular with many brides right now, experts say. But traditional shapes like a ball gown or a column silhouette never go out of style, and many who have watched Markle's style have a hunch she might go for something unfussy and streamlined.

Lepley said that she hoped Markle would choose "something not too over-designed." She showed off one of her luxury duchess satin gowns with no embellishments, with just a striking picture collar framing the bride's face. "This would be amazing," she said.

Susan Courter, who runs WhatMeghanWore.net, a popular website identifying Markle's choice of apparel in each public appearance, agreed.

___

THE ROYAL EFFECT

There's no denying the huge effect royal weddings have on what brides everywhere want to wear.

Princess Diana's 1981 wedding gown, with its puff sleeves, romantic ruffles and dramatic train, defined the 1980s fairytale bridal look. More recently, when Kate Middleton married Prince William in 2011, the long-sleeved lace gown she chose sparked a trend for more covered-up, traditional bridal dresses that lasted for years.

Markle has already set herself apart from traditional royal style, ditching classic frocks for trousers on several royal engagements. If she picks something similarly bold for her wedding, it's sure to make a fashion statement, Burstein said.

And as an established actress known for her love of fashion, Markle's wedding style will appeal to a broad audience  likely surpassing the "Kate effect," Courter said.
Photo: The Canadian Press President Donald Trump talks prior to his meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 24, 2018.

Weighing withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, President Donald Trump declared on Tuesday that if the Iranians "restart their nuclear program, they will have bigger problems than they've ever had before."

Trump issued his warning alongside French President Emmanuel Macron in the Oval Office, where the two allies were to discuss the multinational nuclear accord, the war in Syria and other issues during a day of meetings at the White House.

"You can mark it down, if they restart their nuclear program, they will have bigger problems than they've ever had before," Trump repeated.

One of Macron's main objectives during his three-day visit to Washington is to persuade Trump to stay in the deal. Trump remains publicly undecided but reminded his French counterpart of what he sees as flaws in the agreement, which he called a "terrible deal" that fails to address ballistic missiles or Iran's activities in Yemen or Syria.

Macron told reporters that he and Trump would look at the Iran deal "in a wider regional context," taking into account the situation in Syria. "We have a common objective, we want to make sure there's no escalation and no nuclear proliferation in the region. We now need to find the right path forward," Macron said.
Photo: TSB

The investigation report into a fatal 2016 plane crash just outside Kelowna that left four people dead will be revealed on Thursday.

The Cessna 500 Citation owned by Norjet Inc. took off at 9:32 p.m. from Kelowna International Airport on Oct. 13, 2016.

At 10:07 p.m., Surrey Air Traffic Control Centre alerted Kelowna RCMP about losing contact with the plane.

The flight was travelling to Calgary, but struck terrain just 11 kilometres north of the airport, east of Wood Lake. No emergency or distress calls were made, and no emergency locator transmitter signal was received.

Pilot Jim Kruk, ex-Alberta premier Jim Prentice, Sheldon Reid, and Ken Gellatly all died in the crash. The jet was destroyed on impact.

The Cessna Citation 500 is a turbofan-powered, small-sized business jet. There was not a cockpit voice recorder or flight data recorder on board.

The team will be reviewing any electronic components on the aircraft from which they can retrieve data to help understand the flight profile, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada said during its investigation, which was made more challenging due to the absence of a black box.

A news conference will be held to reveal the TSB's report from the crash at 9 a.m. (PST) in Calgary.

The investigator-in-charge is Beverley Harvey, who has 30 years of civil aviation experience and was also a pilot with a commuter airline.

Castanet will be providing multi-platform coverage of the conference.
Photo: CTV

Fire engulfed a barn and car in Pitt Meadows early Tuesday.

Firefighters managed to stop the flames from spreading to a nearby home despite having to contend with downed power lines and a passing freight train briefly blocking access at a rail crossing.

The blaze broke out just before 3 a.m. on Kennedy Road.

"We had to fight it from a distance until we were sure hydro had the power out," Fire Chief Don Jolley told CTV.

There were no animals in the barn, and the home's residents were all safe.

The cause of the blaze has yet to be confirmed.

"There's some evidence to suggest it may have been electrical," Jolley said.

 with files from CTV Vancouver
Photo: Oliver Daily News Sportsmens Bowl Road north of Oliver on Saturday, April 21, 2018.

Flooding in the Park Rill Creek watershed has ravaged properties north of Oliver, and on Wednesday residents can hear from officials about protective work that is being done.

Staff with the Regional District Okanagan Similkameen's Emergency Operations Centre, as well as officials from the province and other organizations are hosting an information session on Wednesday night.

The meeting will take place at the Oliver Community Centre beginning at 6:30 p.m.

The RDOS said residents can expect updates on the protection plan for the Park Rill Creek watershed, as well as information on support agencies such as Emergency Social Services and Disaster Financial Assistance.

All members of the public are invited to attend.

Twelve properties are currently under an evacuation order in the Sportsmens Bowl Road area of rural Oliver. The order was initiated on Saturday for 33 properties, but was rescinded for most of those later in the day.

Residents have been advised by the RDOS to be vigilant about potential evacuations as the spring freshet begins.
Alanna Kelly

Warm weather mixed with snowmelt at higher elevations will cause Okanagan Lake to rise this week.

That melt is delayed by a week this year, due to cooler conditions so far this spring.

Shaun Reimer, section head of Public Safety and Protection for the Thompson Okanagan region, says that's not a bad thing.

The later the onset of freshet, the better it is to create storage in the lake, he said. (But) it becomes more problematic for tributaries because we dont want the mid- and high-elevation snowmelt to occur at once.

He said it's better to have lower- and mid-elevation snow melt first.

Late in May and June (is preferable) for the higher elevation for the snow to come down, he said.

Currently, Okanagan Lake is 106 centimetres below full pool, which is 61 cm lower today than it was this time last year.

We are currently discharging about a centimetre and half of water on the lake per day, so that based on the April to July forecast of the amount of water expected to come in, it should be managable.

That doesn't take into account wet weather in the valley bottom or if the water comes down very quickly, like last year. That can become very problematic, he said.

At the upper end of the valley's lake system, Reimer says Kalamalka Lake will be able to absorb that kind of melt without issue.

Right now, we are actually 24 to 25 cm lower for that lake level than we were for the same day last year, he said.

The outflow through Vernon creek is flowing at maximum capacity.

There are some issues with that outflow in that we have had the dam gates wide open since early January, and unfortunately the outflow does not rise until the lake level rises, said Reimer.

He says the lake will come up quite quickly, and outflows will have to come up as well to between four and six cubic metres per second.

Weather across the Okanagan is expected to be warm and sunny this week, followed by rain on Saturday.
Photo: Surveillance image

Kelowna RCMP have collared their suspect in Monday's downtown bank robbery.

Police flooded the downtown about 12:15 p.m. after the Bernard Avenue Bank of Nova Scotia was held up.

After reviewing the bank's video surveillance footage captured of the robbery, investigators were able to positively identify their suspect as a 31-year-old Kelowna man, says Cpl. Jesse ODonaghey.

Shortly after 1 a.m. this morning, police responding to a disturbance call on the 600 block of Lequime Road recognized their suspect at the scene and arrested him without incident.

The man remains in custody and is expected to appear in court later today.
Anna Amelia K. Mayers, 90, entered fully into the presence of the Lord on Friday, September 10, 2021. While she will be missed by many, we are thankful she is reunited in heaven with...
Canciller @NestorPopolizio | El Peru como actual presidente del Consejo de Seguridad #ONU ha convocado una sesion informativa de alto nivel sobre el rol del Consejo en la promocion de la paz sostenible, y ha facilitado una nueva resolucion identica a la que adoptara #AGNU pic.twitter.com/GqjWdJWyPJ
16:23 | Lima, Apr. 24.

"I think there are two clear factors (which increased poverty in 2017). The main one is the abrupt slowdown (caused) by the big fiscal adjustment and other measures taken at the end of 2016," the economist expressed.





The National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI) revealed monetary poverty affected 21.7% (6.906 million) of the Inca country's population in 2017. Previously, said rate stood at 20.7%.





"For the first time in 17 years, formal employment was reduced in Peru. Then it was foreseeable that something like this would happen, although it is regrettable," he stated.





Coastal El Nino





According to Segura, Coastal El Nino phenomenon was the other element which had an impact on poverty increase. Said weather event was characterized by heavy rains, landslides, and floods, which destroyed infrastructure and crops, leaving many citizens homeless.





"In this sense, we must be vigilant because if a person lost his/her house and does not have a job, he/she will remain in poverty in 2018. That's why we must see the effectiveness of the reconstruction efforts," he said.





Likewise, Segura projected economic growth will accelerate this year, and it should help prevent poverty from expanding




The Newton Firm, P.C. announced that one of its attorneys, Chris Newton, has been trained as a Tennessee Rule 31 civil mediator.

Mr. Newton represents local and regional businesses as well as individuals seeking disability and other insurance benefits.

Prior to forming The Newton Firm, P.C., Mr. Newton worked as an assistant vice president and senior counsel for a Fortune 500 disability insurance company. In that capacity, he was involved in all aspects of disability and other insurance disputes, including hundreds of mediations, settlement conferences and other forms of alternative dispute resolution.

In addition, he is a certified public accountant. Mr. Newton now heads the Alternative Dispute Resolution practice area within the firm and is available as a mediator for business, disability and other disputes. More information about Mr. Newton, and The Newton Firm, P.C., can be found by calling 423 498-3591.
Praxair, Inc. announced it has signed a long-term agreement to supply industrial gases to Samsung Electro-Mechanics (SEM), one of the worlds largest MLCC (Multi-Layer Ceramic Capacitors) manufacturers.

Praxair has been supplying nitrogen to SEMs manufacturing facility in the Noksan Industrial Complex in Busan since 2001. The new air separation plant, which will be built, owned and operated by Praxair, will supply an additional 425 tons per day of nitrogen to support SEMs world-class MLCC manufacturing expansion. The new plant will start up in 2019, further increasing Praxairs density in the southeast region of South Korea.

"Praxair has been reliably supplying Samsungs facility in Noksan for over 17 years. We are proud to strengthen this longstanding relationship with SEM and look forward to supporting their ongoing growth and expansion," said B.S. Sung, president of Praxair Korea.
Sartorius looks back on a successful first quarter 2018. "Both divisions started off the year strongly in line with our expectations and further increased their revenues in the first quarter of 2018 in all regions. On the currency side, however, we faced some headwinds, especially due to the weakness of the U.S. dollar against the euro, which dampened our profit growth. Order intake developed at an encouragingly strong level for both divisions so we look optimistically to the months ahead and confirm our full-year forecast," said CEO Dr. Joachim Kreuzburg.

Business development of the Sartorius Group

In the first quarter of 2018, Sartorius increased its sales revenue by 11.4% (reported: 6.3%) in constant currencies to 364.9 million euros, with acquisitions contributing around 4.5 percentage points to this growth. Order intake for the same period rose 12.4%.

Regionally, Asia|Pacific recorded the strongest growth, with sales up 18.2% to 89.0 million euros. In the Americas, sales revenue also grew significantly at a rate of 13.8% to 116.6 million euros. In the EMEA region, Sartorius generated revenue of 159.3 million euros, 6.3% more than in the comparable year-earlier period. (All growth rates for the regions and order intake in constant currencies.)

Despite unfavorable currency effects, underlying EBITDA increased by 4.7% compared against a strong prior-year base and reached 88.6 million euros. The underlying EBITDA margin was diluted by around 0.5 percentage points due to currency effects and reached 24.3% at the end of the first quarter of 2018 relative to 24.7% for the first three months of 2017. Relevant net profit for the Group grew by 8.0% from 34.4 million euros to 37.2 million euros. Earnings per ordinary share totaled 0.54 euros (Q1 2017: 0.50 euros) and earnings per preference share 0.55 euros (Q1 2017: 0.51 euros).

The Group's key financial indicators continued to remain at robust levels. At the end of the reporting period, the company's equity ratio was 35.4%, and its ratio of net debt to underlying EBITDA stood at 2.5 (Dec. 31, 2017: 35.1% and 2.5, resp.). The capex ratio in the first three months of 2018 was 10.3%, as expected, due to the expansion of the Group's worldwide infrastructure.

Business development of the divisions

The Bioprocess Solutions Division, which offers a wide array of innovative technologies for the manufacture of biopharmaceuticals, recorded first-quarter sales growth of 10.0% in constant currencies to 263.4 million euros (reported: 4.9%). Demand for single-use technologies was especially strong in the reporting period. Consolidation of Umetrics acquired in the previous year contributed around 1.5 percentage points of non-organic growth in the first three months of 2018. Order intake rose by 9.1% in constant currencies.

Underlying EBITDA of the Bioprocess Solutions Division rose somewhat underproportionately relative to sales, by 2.9% to 70.3 million euros. Impacted by currency effects, the Group's corresponding margin was 26.7% relative to 27.2% in the previous period.

The Lab Products & Services Division, which offers products and technologies for laboratories primarily in the pharma sector and in life science research, recorded a significant gain in revenue, up 15.3% in constant currencies (reported: 10.3%) to 101.4 million euros. The acquisition of Essen BioScience contributed non-organic growth of around 11 percentage points. In order intake, the division saw strong growth of 22.7% in constant currencies.

Underlying earnings for Lab Products & Services rose 12.6% to 18.3 million euros. Despite negative currency impacts, the division's earnings margin increased from 17.7% to 18.0%, especially driven by volume and product mix effects.

Forecast for the full year confirmed

Based on the company's performance in the first quarter of 2018, management confirmed its sales and earnings forecast for the full year: Group sales revenue is projected to increase by about 9% to 12% and its underlying EBITDA margin by about 0.5 percentage points compared with the year-earlier figure of 25.1%.

For the Bioprocess Solutions Division, management continues to expect that sales will grow about 8% to 11%. This figure includes non-organic growth of approximately 0.5 percentage points contributed to sales. The division's underlying EBITDA margin is projected to increase from 28.0% to around 28.5%.

Based on its unchanged forecast for the Lab Products & Services Division, Sartorius also continues to anticipate that sales will expand approximately 12% to 15%. This projection includes more than 2.5 percentage points of non-organic growth contributed by Essen BioScience consolidated as of the end of March 2017. The division's underlying EBITDA margin is expected to increase by around one percentage point to more than 19.0%.

All forecasts are based on constant currencies. Due to the latest foreign exchange developments, the results reported in actual currencies may differ. We will explain the particular effects during the course of 2018.
Guest Commentary Audio Article This is a short history of the Morgan family farm before the possible development of the remaining 49 acres east of Chesterton. Jesse and Jane Morgan arrived in Northwest Indiana in 1833 after traveling through Ohio, northern Indiana, stopping off in LaPorte County for a...

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...




Vizcarra explained the proposals will be drawn up by Prime Minister Cesar Villanueva on May 2 as he sets out his administration's guidelines and requests Congress' confidence vote.





The remarks were made as the President supervised the entry into service of Las Torres Bridge in Lima Metropolitan Area's Lurigancho-Chosica district.





"We need a change in the rules because if they remain as they are now, we won't be able to place emphasis on reconstruction ," the statesman expressed.

"We must attend reconstruction more rapidly, and we also need a regulatory change for that," he added.





Joined by Transport Minister Edmer Trujillo and Authority for Reconstruction with Changes Chief Edgar Quispe, the Head of State highlighted the importance of working closely with Congress to pursue a growth-oriented agenda in the Inca country.





As he remarked, the works specified a long time ago cannot be postponed due to "problems in the regulations."





"That's why we are in the field getting information, listening to the population, to start working and meeting their needs," Vizcarra told reporters.





(END) MVF/CVC/RMB/MVB

The Government of Peru will propose several legislative reforms to speed up the reconstruction process in regions hit by " Coastal El Nino " climate phenomenon more than a year ago, President Martin Vizcarra announced Tuesday.Published: 4/24/2018
Currently, people who have their posts taken down receive a generic message that says that they have violated Facebook's community standards. After Tuesday's announcement, people will be told whether their posts violated guidelines on nudity, hate speech, and graphic violence. A Facebook executive said the teams were working on building more tools. "We do want to provide more details and information for why content has been removed," said Ellen Silver, Facebook's vice president of community operations. "We have more work to do there and we are committed to making those improvements."
"Safety is really important, whether you're going in for stitches in the (emergency room) or going in for open heart surgery," Mobley said. "We're not saying avoid this hospital (with a low grade), but we do think it's important that people are aware there is a record of safety problems in that hospital so they can be extra alert and pay attention."
"He said that this working like a maniac is for the birds and life is too short," said Dr. Steven Bujewski, 58, another former Scout who became a lifelong friend. "He lived his life the way he wanted to live it and not by the way that society would expect him to live it."
"I know this has been a long and at times frustrating process for you; and we still are not yet at the finish line," Kern said. "While today's filing helps clarify some things, we don't yet have clarity on everything and in fact, there are still many issues we cannot discuss with Sinclair or these other buyers."
The "cafe" part of the name is clear, but the "grocery" part needs to be seen to be believed. For a start, this popular Southport spot has a preservationist on staff. Imagine that? Preserving the best of the markets when fruits and vegetables are at their peak, so you can have them all year, is one of the delights here. Whether you need from-scratch soup, bottled sauces, fresh, delicious granola or jams, the shelves that go right down the center of the shop are filled with beautiful jars and boxes that are hard to resist. I sent a gift basket of the offerings to friends who still rave.
While we heard the rumors months ago and were excited by the possibilities, this is not so much an international menu as an "international incident" menu. The Mozza salad alone could be considered a hostile act. The mushy pasta, simulated balsamic, flavorless cheese and scant greens are at once overpowered by the chicken and neutralized by the flabby breadstick.
NEW YORK  An actress best known for playing a young Superman's friend has been granted bail while fighting charges that she helped recruit women into a cult-like group.
Strange uses the Eye and its time-reversing power to trap the evil Dormammu in a time loop. He ends the loop after Dormammu agrees to banish himself, Kaelicius and his Zealots from Earth. He then returns the Eye of Agamotto to Kamar-Taj. A furious Karl Mordo leaves the Masters of the Mystic Arts after finding out the Ancient One misused magic, and he sets out to strip rogue sorcerers of their powers.
Among the angriest was Barr's ex-husband, comedian Tom Arnold, who tweeted at Owens: "Good luck glomming onto @kanyewest His family already told him you were a phony & fraud. A former democratic bad actress doing video bits to get on TV anyway she can. Enjoy it now. You're so inauthentic even your white power fans are going to get bored with you." In another, more vulgar tweet that has since been deleted, Arnold likened Owens's appeal to conservatives to a sexual act.
Earlier this month, in a major victory for Mill, prosecutors said they agreed with his lawyers that he should get a new trial because of questions raised about the arresting officer. The now-retired officer was among a list of police officers the prosecutor's office has sought to keep off the witness stand in cases across the city because of credibility questions.
"I grew up in a working-class environment in Southern California and I try to write books that take place in similar environments and I just feel like now more than ever those are the stories I want to tell and it's exciting that those are the stories that people are wanting to find," de la Pena said in a phone interview. "This is an opportunity for other people to sort of use (the book) as a skeleton and infuse their talent  it's the talent of the songwriters and composers and the actors, that's what I was most struck by."
Sometimes the political posturing gets a little obvious, as with the nameless proletariats of the hotel staff adding choral discontent in "Some Have, Some Have Not." Yet there is also a bit of "Gosford Park" here. The European aristocracy is dying out after the Great War. It's the go-getters with eyes toward America who will probably make it out alive. Chief among these is Leryn Turlington's Flaemmchen, a stenographer/sometime-escort with dreams of Hollywood stardom. Turlington takes what could be an off-the-shelf, kewpie-doll-with-a-heart-of-ice role and shows us the girlish romantic yearnings that haven't quite been squashed by living in a miserable flat where, when things break, they can't be replaced.
I'm not complaining. "The Hellfire Club" is most enjoyable when it's most groan-worthy. There's a particularly ludicrous scene in which political opponents confront each other with competing dossiers of compromising photos. The gun-toting thugs chuckle like Batman villains. In Charlie's most valiant scene, he picks up his wife and the horse she rode in on! And did I mention that Charlie has an unusually acute sense of smell? Possibly the least sexy superpower ever. Throughout the novel, he identifies people's perfumes and colognes as if it's some kind of nasal parlor trick. By the end of "The Hellfire Club," you can be sure he'll sniff out a rat.
Susan Oleari, event chair and BMO Wealth Management regional president, reflected on the Joffrey's 2007 search for an artistic director following the retirement of co-founder Gerald Arpino. "For the first time in the organization's history, the Joffrey wouldn't be led by a founder, so a search committee had to find someone who shared a respect and understanding of the past and who also had an incredible vision for the future. They found that magical balance of traits in Ashley," she said.
"Magic then happened," said Behen, who has been at the school, which received a $300,000 grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, for two decades. "It was playful and joyful, and that just speaks to the power of the arts to connect people, to bring them together."
"The prison is a perfect control - they all ate the same things at the same time, and they ate romaine," said Bill Marler, a food safety lawyer who says he has been involved in every major and minor E. coli outbreak in the last 15 years. "The chances that eight prisoners from Nome not being linked to the illnesses in the lower 48 is zero, given that they are a genetic match to the outbreak strain of E. coli," Marler said. Marler said he is representing 28 individuals who have become sick, several of them children hospitalized with severe kidney failure. Seven or eight of his clients haven't been interviewed by state health officials, he said, and thus are unlikely to be included in the official count of the extent of the outbreak.
Don't miss the twice-daily presentation (11 a.m. and 3 p.m.) by divers in the 750,000-gallon Open Ocean tank, full of sharks of many kinds, giant stingrays and hundreds of other fish. Are you a certified diver? Sign up for Shark Dive Maui and take a 40-minute dip in the tank yourself (starting at $199).



Maui Ocean Center, 192 Ma'alaea Road; 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily, $19.95-$29.95; mauioceancenter.com.



Storm-fueled blowhole



With rain clouds often come stormy seas, just the thing to fuel high spouts on the Nakalele Blowhole.



The blowhole is located off the narrow and winding road "over the top" along the northern cliffs of West Maui, which on a map looks like the head attached to the torso comprising the rest of the island.



Coming from the resort zone of West Maui, this once-feared far end of Highway 30 has seen new pavement and considerable safety improvements in recent years. It's still no place to drive without both hands on the wheel, but you'll do fine as long as everybody obeys the 25 mph limit. (Beyond Milepost 41, where the road becomes Highway 340, be prepared for challenging one-lane roadway.)



The blowhole is in a place where ocean waves marching in from the north have undercut a lava shelf and carved a tire-sized hole so that surf can spout up like a Yellowstone geyser. Check tide tables and go at high tide for the best chance for a good show. (It can be inactive in calm weather.)



Drive past Honolua Bay until Milepost 38.5, at a large pullout. You can stroll down a gentle hill to view the blowhole from high above with a sensational wide vista of blueberry sea and emerald cliffs or clamber 15 minutes down a steep and rocky hillside to get a closer look (not for the faint of heart or weak of ankle, and watch your footing in wet weather). Heed the poignant, hand-painted sign: "Stay clear of blowhole, you can be sucked in and killed, it's NOT a water park."



"Woo!" comes a high-pitched cry from onlookers when a gusher spouts 50 feet in the air. Then "woo!' goes the blowhole, in a bass pitch, as air is sucked back in.



Lava rock downwind of the blowhole is pockmarked like injera, that bubbly Ethiopian flatbread, from years of corrosive saltwater spray, making for a mysterious and unearthly landscape.



History by candlelight



Look beyond Lahaina's T-shirt shops and ABC stores to discover some of the fascinating story behind this 19th-century whaling port that was once the seat of Hawaiian royalty.



A good place to start is the admission-by-donation Lahaina Heritage Museum, in the Old Lahaina Courthouse, on the water side of the historic banyan tree (Hawaii's oldest and America's largest). Here you can shudder at wickedly pointed old whaling harpoons and get a quick grounding in the area's history. In the gift shop pick up a $2 Lahaina Historic Trail map, including 65 sites scattered across town along three different walking "trails," from 30 minutes to an hour each.
A recent survey by 360 Chicago, shows that Chicagoans earned a grade of B when it came to knowing their local landmarks and where they fall on an aerial map. According to a 360 Chicago spokesperson, the impetus for the survey was to "see how familiar residents in major cities across the U.S are with their hometowns, but also determine which cities have the type of stand-out landmarks that even outsiders can pick out on a map."
Miller, an assistant clinical professor of law in the Federal Criminal Justice Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School, was "excited about the possibility of serving on a jury" when she was summoned last fall because her work as an attorney offers "a unique perspective on the importance of juries," according to the complaint filed with the state human rights office. As the breastfeeding mother of an 11-week-old, she had also done her homework to make sure she could pump milk when she reported for jury service Oct. 2.
But Fritzshall said she continues to do it, "so that when I am no longer here, when we the survivors are no longer here, our stories are going to live and our stories are going to go on."
A corrections officer was checking in on Kir Moorman, 29, and he escaped after one hand had been cuffed, according to a corrections department spokeswoman. Moorman was located and arrested Tuesday night in Glenview, according to an IDOC spokeswoman.
In interviews, Comey has described Trump as obsessed with his own reputation  including allegations involving Russian prostitutes  and unconcerned with countering attacks from Russia. He also repeated his book's description of Trump as "untethered" to truthfulness and its statement that Trump's White House style reminded him of the mob.
Carballo resumed the massage until Lee allegedly started moaning and groaning when she massaged his quadriceps. She stopped the massage and washed her hands in the bathroom. The massage was supposed to last two hours, but she reached an agreement with Anderson to end it early and charge for only one hour, which he paid her for, according to the complaint.
J.B. said she was in a West Loop restaurant with a friend in July 2009 when she saw Winner. He invited the women to his apartment to use the restroom, and J.B. admitted she accepted "a small amount" of cocaine from him. When her friend left, J.B. said Winner "dead-bolted" the door and took her cellphone. She testified that he became so angry and frustrated that she "didn't recognize his face"
Finner Bryant, 37, was pronounced dead at 4:46 a.m. Monday at Stroger Hospital after he was shot in the head about 8 p.m. Sunday in the 1300 block of North Kildare Avenue, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. Bryant, who records show previously lived in the 4600 block of South Leamington Avenue, most recently lived in Morrow, Ga., south of Atlanta, according to the medical examiner's office.
This pattern of big-picture pre-election policy speeches follows one he set in fall 2014, when he laid out a plan for five policy speeches four months before the mayoral election. That October preview was a salvo in his bid for a second term after spending months deflecting from politics by saying, "there will be a campaign season." Talking about big-picture issues allows him to try to rise above the daily political scrum and use the bully pulpit of his office to speak to voters rather than sparring with his opponents.
Prosecutors in the western state of Jalisco said late Monday the three were abducted by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel because they were filming a school project at a house used by the rival Nueva Plaza gang. The students were using the residence on the outskirts of the city of Guadalajara because it belonged to one of their aunts.
"The best studies follow individuals over time, so that you can control all the factors except for the ones you're measuring," said McCarthy, who now directs the Center for Climate, Health and the Global Environment at Harvard's public health school. "But it means following people's personal history, their medical history. And nobody would want somebody to expose all of their private information."
Investigators said they believe that victims on the third floor were left more vulnerable because the smoke generated by the shots fired on the first floor had set off the building's fire alarm. The people on the third floor probably did not hear the shots and reacted as they were trained to do during a fire drill. They started to evacuate from their classrooms, leaving many of them in the hallways or unable to hide effectively in the classrooms, Gualtieri said.
He joined the Army the end of World War II. During the long career that ensued, his assignments included leading the Army Airborne Rangers and making parachute landings in the Korean War, leading Special Forces in combat from nearly the start to the end of the U.S. involvement in Vietnam, and earning honors that included three Distinguished Service Medals, two Silver Stars, the Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, seven Bronze Stars with Valor and two Purple Hearts.
As the United States prepares for historic discussions between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the Trump administration and its international partners have a lot of work ahead of them. A successful summit, if it can be achieved, will be only the start of a long and complicated process. Eliminating the nuclear threat and achieving stability and security on the Korean Peninsula will require unconventional thinking and steps that are much broader than denuclearization. Just as we should prepare for the summit to go wrong, we should also prepare for it to "go right."
But on other positions important to conservatives  smaller government and pension reform  he has been a reliable vote for Democrats. He voted against every pension reform bill that came to the Senate floor, including a bill eliminating pensions for lawmakers. He stood with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and voted to override Rauner's veto  the only GOP member to do so  on a bill empowering the union at the bargaining table.
Examples of genocide would include what the Ottoman regime did to the Armenians during World War I, what the Nazis did to the Jews in World War II, or what the Hutu leadership did primarily to the Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994. It would not include the deaths of Native Americans due to infectious diseases carried by Europeans in the 16th century, even though the numbers of Native Americans killed exceeded the number of Jews murdered by the Nazis.
Is this some sort of ploy on the part of the Chinese and North Koreans? To what end? On the face of it, there just may be a real chance here. Let's hope that if this is the case, Trump doesn't toss it away by causing the North Koreans to lose face by bloviating about how he humbled the North Koreans, whatever.
The South Side is blessed with many transit lines, but too many people, including, apparently, your editorial board, look only at the CTA. What about the Metra lines? The Electric and Rock Island districts and others run right through what you call an area with a "dearth of transportation," taking people to jobs downtown and beyond.
He says that like it's a bad thing. No one should be shocked that either party wants to keep its base fired up, and the DNC's current needs are dire. Unlike the party's state organizations and various candidates who are experiencing a windfall of support, the national DNC has fallen way behind its Republican counterpart in fundraising.
Brown: "Yes. Yes. There are various ways that you can utilize technology. And I will be rolling those plans out in the near future.  I'm going to look at various ways that other cities  in the United States as well as abroad  how they have raised revenue. Some of them have raised revenue in various ways, and so I want to bring new and sustainable revenues to Chicago."
The committee has now been rekindled by parent representatives at each of the district's nine schools, Kusiciel said. ACE It 25 leaders said they hope to host their first event, which will be open to all families, at a bowling alley later this school year.
Berrios appeared in court on July 10, 2012, without a lawyer to represent him. He never returned to court, and on Dec. 21, 2012, the judge filed a default judgment against Berrios, according to the release. As part of the judgment order, Berrios was further prohibited from being together with any other member of the gang.
"Yeah I want the seat, absolutely," he said. "I know I can continue doing good work, I know I can continue serving the people in my district and I love doing it. It's just the way everything went down in the election, the way my opponent ran against me, because the opposition party was involved in this, there's just too many variables going against it."
But the partners and sponsors for the Earth Day event this year included the Barrington 220 Education Foundation, Barrington High School, PepsiCo R&D, Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, as well as the Village of Barrington and the Village of Barrington Hills, organizers said.
When it came time for college, Gruca enrolled at Central Michigan University as a psychology major, but soon realized that his heart was elsewhere. "I transferred to Grand Valley State University, outside of Grand Rapids, as a music major," he said. "I knew I wanted to do something in music, and I loved guitar, but I had an interest in choral conducting, and I liked theory. I let those four years soak in and at the end it was still guitar that won the day."
Following the library board's vote, Village President Karen Darch said the funding for the road project, which would have relied mostly on federal and state dollars, is in danger of being lost since village officials either had to "use it or lose it."
3214 N. Southport Ave., No. 3N, Chicago: $1,299,000 | Listed: Aug. 18, 2021



This three-bedroom home has two full bathrooms, one half-bath, and crown molding. The kitchen has hardwood flooring, fresh tile backsplash, a pantry, an island and space for a table. An open concept living and dining room on the main level features wainscoting and a fireplace. A separate family room and a breakfast nook are also on the main level, and an upper-level living room can be converted into a fourth bedroom. This home has five private outdoor areas, including a composite rooftop deck, a front porch, an enclosed brick space thats turf and tile, and two rear decks. A wet bar with a wine refrigerator, a storage room, and garage parking complete this home.



Agent: Tommy Choi, Keller Williams, 773-851-5840



*Some listing photos are virtually staged, meaning they have been digitally altered to represent different furnishing or decorating options.



To feature your luxury listing of $800,000 or more in Chicago Tribunes Dream Homes, send listing information and high-res photos to ctc-realestate@chicagotribune.com.



Join our Chicago Dream Homes Facebook group for more luxury listings and real estate news.
The Orland Park location will partner with All God's People, a local ministry serving the homeless of Chicago, to donate surplus food from the restaurant to feed those in need. City Barbeque also plans to host weekly fundraisers and has partnered with a different local charity every day of their opening week in Orland Park. Each organization will receive 25 percent of the sales when a guest mentions the organization upon placing an order.
"I certainly want to be able to keep the traditions they have because they are very important to the group, but I also want to take them to different places," Greene said. "Different places musically  and literally be able to take them to different places."
The band needs to sell 2,250 tickets to cover its costs, and if all goes well, band director Bert Johnson said they could see a profit between $100,000 and $120,000 if all 5,000 tickets are sold. Profits will be gleaned from the sale of tickets, food and beverages.
The June 2 event will celebrate the band's acclaimed 1972 album, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken." The band will perform songs from the album and McEuen will tell stories about the recording, Haberichter said. Tickets are $65 and availability is limited.
"It was clear that we needed to change the way we administered the question," Valente said. "We moved it from the application process to the matriculation process. We use that information  after (students) have been admitted  in the advising and support process. As a result of conversations, we expanded services to students who declare they have a criminal background. We have career services staff trained on how to support students and advise them on such things as the best way to prepare their resumes, he said.
Prosecutors said the man's injuries were so severe that part of his intestines were exposed as he stumbled to a nearby business and lost consciousness before paramedics arrived. The man was taken to the hospital in critical condition following the alleged stabbing, authorities said.
"You have to keep in mind that when there is snow on the ground and the trees and scrubs are not displaying foliage  you can more readily see them," Sweeney wrote. "I do not believe that we have an increased population based on information received to date."
The board is not required to vote on the recommendations, but directed the administration to move forward, Riggle said. The board will have to vote on the contract and hiring of the district administrator and it will be presented with projects from the task force that it will vote on, he said.
Cokefair said a box alarm was called because there were no hydrants and the size of the fire when they arrived on the scene. Firefighters from Spring Grove, Fox Lake, Round Lake area, Grayslake, Newport Township and Lake Villa assisted at the scene, while Waukegan, Great Lakes, Lake Zurich and Bristol, Wis., covered Antioch's stations, he said.
A Gurnee police incident report added that a male victim, described as 5-feet-5 and weighing 150 pounds, was brought to view the suspects and he "identified all the subjects as being present during the battery." According to the report, the victim singled out Battle as having "punched him repeatedly," and he said the group was "circled up around him and on top of him at times."
"You know what, you are absolutely correct," Bush said. "It is something you cannot control. This has nothing to do with you personally. It has nothing to do with the staff. It has nothing to do with the board of directors, the volunteers, none of that.
"Education is not just about learning the material, but why the subject is important, why it matters personally and to develop a passion for learning. Those are the moments I strive to create as a student and will strive to create as student trustee," Timperley said in the release.
Voise said the district will add two additional school psychologists at each of the two high schools. The remaining equivalent of 1.2 full-time workers will be used to meet the increased service demands of students who require individual learning plans, she said.
"Abraham Lincoln certainly was known as a good storyteller, and he had a great sense of humor consistently throughout his life whether as a teenager in southern Indiana, a young man in New Salem and all the way through his time as president," Wheeler said. "People certainly could remark on him as a storyteller and that he was hilarious to be around."
What the octogenarian no longer wanted was to be tied down by the business side of things. "I've been trying to sell for a while (over) the past year," Motta said. "I am still going to work here. I want to be able to talk to people."
In 1915, the crime perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire against the Armenians was the first genocide of 20th century. The Armenians worldwide commemorate 103rd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

April 24, 2018, 09:15 Armenians worldwide commemorate 103rd anniversary of Armenian Genocide

STEPANAKERT, APRIL 24, ARTSAKHPRESS-ARMENPRESS: On April 24, the countrys high-ranking officials and guests in Armenia will visit the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial to pay tribute to the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims.

What is the Armenian Genocide?

The extermination of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during the World War I is called the Armenian Genocide.

Those massacres were perpetrated by the government of Young Turks in various regions of the Ottoman Empire.

The first international response to the violence resulted in a joint statement by France, Russia and the Great Britain in May 24 1915, where the Turkish atrocities against the Armenians were defined as a crime against humanity and civilization. According to them, Turkish government was responsible for the implementation of the crime.

Why was the Genocide perpetrated?

When WWI erupted, the government of the Young Turks adopted the policy of Pan-Turkism, hoping to save the remains of the weakened Ottoman Empire. The plan was to create an enormous Ottoman Empire that would spread to China, include all the Turkish speaking nations of the Caucasus and Middle Asia, intending also to turkify all the ethnic minorities of the empire. The Armenian population became the main obstacle standing in the way of the realization of this policy.

The Young Turks used WWI as a suitable opportunity for the implementation of the Armenian genocide, although it was planned in 1911-1912.

How many people were killed in the Armenian Genocide?

There were an estimated two million Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire before the WWI. Approximately one and a half million Armenians were killed from 1915-1923. The remaining part was either islamized or exiled, or found shelters in different parts of the world.

The mechanism of implementation of the Genocide

A genocide is the organized extermination of a nation aiming to put an end to their collective existence. Thus, the implementation of the genocide requires oriented programming and an internal mechanism, which makes genocide a state crime, as only a state possesses all the resources that can be used to carry out this policy.

The first phase of the Armenian Genocide was the extermination of the Armenian population started on April 24, 1915 with the arrest of several hundred Armenian intellectuals and representatives of national elite (mainly in the capital of the Ottoman Empire, Constantinople) and their subsequent elimination. Hereinafter, Armenians worldwide started to commemorate the Armenian genocide on April 24.

The second phase was the conscription of about 60,000 Armenian men into the Ottoman army, their disarmament and murder by their Turkish fellow soldiers.

The third phase of the genocide is characterized with the exile of the massacres of women, children, and elderly people to the desert of Syria. Hundreds of thousands of people were murdered by Turkish soldiers, police officers, Kurdish bandits during the deportation. The others died of epidemic diseases. Thousands of women and children were subjected to violence. Tens of thousands were forcibly islamized.

The last phase is the universal and absolute denial of the Turkish government of the mass deportations and genocide carried out against Armenians in their homeland. Despite the ongoing process of international condemnation of the Armenian Genocide, Turkey fights against recognition by all means, including distortion of history, means of propaganda, lobbying activities and other measures.

On December 9, 1948 the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, according to which, genocide is defined as an international crime and the signing states are obliged to prevent, as well as punish the perpetrators of the genocide.

International recognition

The Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman government has been documented, recognized and acknowledged by eyewitness reports, laws, resolutions and the decisions of numerous states and international organizations.

There are numerous documents considering the massacres of the Armenian people as a pre-planned and thoroughly implemented act of genocide. Organizations like the Council of Europe, the European Parliament, a number of UN Committees, the World Council of Churches, MERCOSUR parliament and others acknowledged the Armenian Genocide.

Many countries have recognized the Armenian Genocide: Uruguay is the first country that acknowledged the Genocide in 1965. The following countries have condemned and recognized the massacre of Armenians as a genocide based on international law: France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Greece, Slovakia, Cyprus, Lebanon, Uruguay, Argentina (2 laws, 5 resolutions), Venezuela, Paraguay, Chile, Bolivia, Canada, Vatican, Austria, Luxembourg, Germany, Australias state of New South Wales, 48 US states.
The Oakton-Waukegan TIF would sit at the intersection of Waukegan Road and Oakton Street, according to a separate report presented at the same meeting. That TIF district would stretch east to the village's public library and west to the extension of Nora Avenue. It would also include commercial property at the intersection.
"I think, in the last month and a half, there have been a great deal of inquiries from residents and even local officials asking why we haven't looked at consolidation of our schools in Norridge and Harwood Heights," said Radisavljevic, speaking during the board comments section of the April 17 meeting. "I think we owe it to our community to explore the idea out there  what are the pros and cons  to see whether it makes sense or doesn't make sense."
Dennis Downes, 66, said the sculpture is based on an actual trail marker tree that once stood in Lake County and was photographed and documented in the 1800s. Downes has created smaller sculptures of the trail marker tree that were purchased for private collections, but this is the largest and first publicly available sculpture of the tree, he said.
"She went to Aruba for a conference on how to counsel and treat people of color. That's the guise she went on," said Sparks-Wade. "However, a girlfriend of hers was having a 50th birthday celebration and half the machine in Gary went there Taxpayers reimbursed her nearly $2,400 for the trip."
The work in question, according to a release from Dunes Action, a grassroots group that's fought the sale of alcohol at the pavilion and the construction of an adjacent banquet center along the beach, involves the partial destruction of a plaza west of the pavilion for the construction of a comfort station with showers and bathrooms, as well as the construction of an elevator shaft that protrudes through the pavilion roof.
While Brazier was inside trying on clothes, the 3-year-old found Brazier's loaded handgun between a center armrest and the front passenger seat of the car and fired through the back of the driver's seat, where the mother, who was seven weeks pregnant, was sitting, according to a probable cause affidavit.
"Northwest Indiana is an important part of the Diocese -- alive and vibrant -- and the Metropolis of Chicago is one of the most active and proactive, with many judges, civil servants and activists," he said during a reception in his honor after the service. "(The people here) don't want to be forgotten as part of the immediate family, and we will make sure they're included in the Metropolis."
Rogers argued that Torres was not home when Giro was supposed to go to the bachelorette party and in the days after because his family was "babysitting him" as he tried to get drugs out of his system.
"It was a trial run. We wanted to see if students would respond to it before doing something bigger for next time and it looks like they have," said April Gabbert, director of student life for the campus.
Daniel Labuda, 39, was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison and ordered to pay $48,000 in restitution after being charged with receipt of child pornography, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Hundreds of Armenians have organized a candlelight vigil outside the Greek Parliament on the 103rd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

April 24, 2018, 17:39 Armenian Genocide commemorated in Greece

STEPANAKERT, APRIL 24, ARTSAKHPRESS-ARMENPRESS:The event participants burned the flags with photos of Talaat Pasha, the organizer of the Genocide, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The youth were holding posters Unity, fight, victory outside the Greek Parliament. They were also holding a poster depicting Artsakhs flag which was titled This is our land, this is Armenia.

The Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman government has been documented, recognized and acknowledged by eyewitness reports, laws, resolutions and the decisions of numerous states and international organizations.
"Everyone who reads this play or sees this play is so moved by it," she said. "It's so unique in its honesty. Everyone took to it right away. B.J. and I had a long coffee and I said, 'There's not another human being in the city of Chicago right now who is going to direct this play the way I'm going to direct it. It's in my bones and in my blood and you've got to give me this shot.' And to his credit, he did."
New Trier got roughly 25 percent, or $139,368, of the more than $557,000 in total that Carson's paid in property taxes for the 2016 tax year, Johnson said. Carson's equalized assessed value that year was roughly $7.35 million, Johnson said. The district's total equalized assessed value is $4.46 billion, he said; Carson's EAV, and its portion of the district's total tax revenue is only 0.13 percent.
The investigation, dubbed "Operation Broken Roe," centered on drug sales in the city's Little Village and West Garfield Park neighborhoods, and resulted in the seizure of distribution quantities of heroin, fentanyl, MDMA pills also known as ecstacy, and cocaine, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.
Zero is the name of the game for Centennial goalkeeper
Huangqiao Township, once famed for its sesame cake, is now home to more than 230 violin companies, giving it a claim to the title "violin capital of China."

Twelve-year-old Li Kunyu in Huangqiao in east China's Jiangsu Province does not want to take over his parents' variety store or learn to make sesame cakes from his grandparents. He dreams of being a violinist instead.

He has been playing the violin for five years. Last year, when the local community held a Spring Festival gala, he performed the Chinese folk song "Jasmine Flower."

"There were over 300 people in the audience, including my parents. My mum held me tight and said she was so proud of me," he said.

Like Li, most of the students in the town of 200,000 can play the violin.

In the first and second grades at Huangqiao Primary School, a compulsory violin course is taught, and older primary students are free to choose whether to continue the course.

"The violin is our toy. We are all eager to play it well because every family here owns a violin, and they are even able to make this musical instrument," said Li.

According to Wang Xiaoyun, the town chief, over 30,000 employees produce around 700,000 string instruments here every year, including the violin, viola and cello, accounting for about 30 percent of all violins made worldwide.

She said that the annual output value of Huangqiao violins has reached 2.4 billion yuan (about 380 million U.S. dollars).

But why has the violin, more commonly associated with European music, taken root in a rural town in China?

In the 1960s, violin factories began to appear in cities like Beijing and Shanghai. Several Huangqiao natives who had made violins in Shanghai returned home and opened a small workshop.

Li Shu, 66, was an apprentice there at that time. In 1971, Li crafted Huangqiao's first violin.

Li is now the chairman of Fengling Musical Instruments Co., the largest violin manufacturer in the town.

Currently, his company exports violins to more than 80 countries, including the United States, Germany, and Italy, with the annual export sales reaching 20 million U.S. dollars.

"It's no easy thing to have Chinese-made 'Western musical instruments' enter the overseas market," Li said.

In early 1995, an American musical instrument company was preparing to participate in an expo. It needed 95 sample instruments produced within two months. Li seized the opportunity.

Normally, the task would have taken three months to finish. Li and his fellow craftsmen had to work overtime, and spent 53 days producing the high-quality samples.

"This cooperation won the American company's heart. By the end of that year, half of Fengling's products were sold to the U.S. market through the American company," he said.

Li adopts different marketing strategies to meet the needs of different markets. Western Europe, for example, demands high-quality instruments, while the Asian market seeks affordable violins.

At present, Fengling can produce nearly 120 kinds of violins, with prices ranging from hundreds of yuan to more than 100,000 yuan.

However, in Li's eyes, it is technological progress that has made violins in the town more competitive.

To make quality violins, the wood must be dried for more than 50 years, reducing water, sugar, and resin. Fengling invented a microbiological technology that can remove large amounts of impurities, shortening the drying time by over 20 years, Li said.

The violin industry has not just created jobs for Huangqiao residents, but enriched their lives outside of work as well.

After establishing a cultural and art center in cooperation with a local opera troupe, Fengling has trained more than 6,000 workers to play the violin, piano, guitar and other instruments.

Meanwhile, musical instruments have been promoted in five primary schools in Huangqiao.

Wang explained that local students not only learn about their hometown industry but also develop musical hobbies and help integrate Chinese and Western musical cultures.

Huangqiao plans to invest about 5 billion yuan in the construction of a musical theme town, covering an area of 3.8 square kilometers.

"Huangqiao will be a wonderland of violins, where people not only make instruments, but also enjoy the music," she said.
The News South Wales State Library, Australia's oldest library, is making efforts to promote reading and literacy throughout the community, library officials told Xinhua recently.

A wide range of activities took place on Monday at the library to mark the World Book Day.

Held on the anniversary of William Shakespeare's death, the World Book Day is an opportunity for lovers of literature to promote reading, publishing and copyright.

"With collections of more than 6 million items including books in foreign languages, in particular Chinese, a lot of them are available to read on site, but we also lend them through our public library network," manager of research and discovery Maggie Patton told Xinhua.

"We also have some much older manuscripts and rare books in Chinese as well."

Dating back to 1826, the library located in the center of Sydney showed off some of its rarest and most iconic works of literature to the public on Monday, including Shakespeare's four folios, a first edition of Jane Austen's Emma and various editions of Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote.

Apart from holding some of the greatest works of literature, Patton said the state library is often flooded by students looking for non-fiction as well.

"We have lots of students coming in looking for books on business, economics and commerce," she said.

In order to cater for this younger market and make the most of the extraordinary collection, the library has been trying hard to keep up with the digital trends.

"We have our traditional services, where we expect people to come in and have a look at the material here, but we also have a huge online service through our website and we subscribe to numerous electronic journals and electronic books," Patton said.

"We also have a massive digitization program, where we're digitalizing some of the materials so it can be viewed online from anywhere in the world."

The library is also working to promote reading and literacy throughout the community.

One of the roles of the state facility is to help fund a public network of 300 libraries across New South Wales.

"Onsite in the library we have a fantastic learning services team and they do a lot of programs for young people, from kindergarten through to high school graduation," Patton said.

"They do reading, they do author talks, there are lots of activities through reading here in the library."

The good news is the effort seems to be paying off.

"I like to pop in here if I can once a week, just to have a walk and have a look around," visitor to the historic library Paul Traynor told Xinhua.

"I really like the fact that the library here has some exhibitions that aren't strictly to do with literature necessarily, it could be artwork and photography, but how they relate back to the literature which inform those things or were written about those things."




Turkish and Chinese kindergartners on Monday marked Turkey's National Sovereignty and Children's Day together in Istanbul.

The celebrations started with a parade of 570 children in colorful costumes on the Istiklal Avenue in the district of Beyoglu. The children, including 20 Chinese kindergartners from Chengdu in southwestern China invited as special guests, marched to the neighboring Taksim Square.

Ahmet Misbah Demircan, chief of the Beyoglu, accompanied the children in the parade.

The kids staged several dances and performances reflecting local cultures of Turkey and China as well as several popular children shows, and the performances by Chengdu Children Dance Group attracted the interest of their Turkish peers and families.

"This year Chinese children joined us, and we are very happy to see them here," said Iskender Calayir, a Turkish kid participating in the show.

Calayir found his Chinese mates "very friendly and warm" and they got on well with each other, while another Turkish kid named Ege Cam said they were having so much fun together.

Demircan noted that hosting foreign guests at home for the Children's Day celebrations is a deep-rooted tradition in Turkey.

"This year we have our Chinese guests with us and we are saying to them 'you are very welcome,'" he said.

On April 23, 1920, the Turkish parliament was founded and the day was dedicated to children seen as the nation's future by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish Republic.




by Santosh Digal

Under the Parish Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), volunteers will act as independent observers. Barangay elected officials implement and monitor locally all government programmes.

Manila (AsiaNews)  Parishes in the Philippines 86 Catholic dioceses have begun recruiting Catholic volunteers for upcoming local elections.

On 14 May, residents in more than 42,000 Barangay (wards)  the countrys smallest administrative division  will elect their own Punong Barangay (chairperson), Sangguniang Barangay (council) and Sangguniang Kabataan (youth assembly) ).

Under the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), a faith-based watchdog, volunteers will act as independent observers to ensure free and fair elections.

"There are always possibilities to rig elections or manipulate by the political elite, the wealthy and the influential in the country, be it local or national, said Roberto Reys, a parishioner of Holy Family in Kamias, diocese of Cubao, speaking to AsiaNews.

As free citizens of the country, Filipinos need to promote and foster free and fair elections. With the collaboration of PPCRV, which is a national parish-based political but non-partisan lay movement that works assiduously for clean, honest, accurate, meaningful, and peaceful elections, we are committed to helping the forthcoming elections to be good," Reys added.

In recent days, in various dioceses, bishops have urged Catholics to vote for honest, committed and responsible candidates dedicated to the common good.

The heads and members of village and youth councils are tasked with implementing and monitoring all government programmes for the public at the local level.
Like many war victims, Iranian-born Maltese artist Lida Sherafatmand is still living in the shadow of war, but has found a way to self-salvation through painting flowers as a hopeful message for peace.

"I think if more spaces are given to things which are gentle and soft, there will be less space available for violent things, for harmful things," Sherafatmand told Xinhua about the ideas behind her war-related art.

Sherafamand was two years old during the Iranian revolution and age three when the Iran-Iraq war started in 1980.

"We had to flee our city, first to another city in Iran and eventually we had to leave the country," she said. "It has left quite a big impact on me as a person, in my worldview and also the development of my art."

When she was 14, her family became the first to be granted refugee status in Malta. Now she calls herself an "adopted daughter of Malta."

Despite the difficulties she has undergone, Sherafamand has made a conscious effort to create art that has a positive message.

"I had to sort out all these questions and then I had to sort out also what brings people to such a state where they just kill each other."

Sherafamand studied international relations and politics in university, and then went on to try to help resolve conflict using painting as a medium.

In 2010, Sherafamand formed her artistic style which she called "florescencism": a large number of multiplying flowers flowing in a direction, with ancient symbols of warmth and beauty to create a sense of abundance, growth and peace.

"They are very beautiful and are recognized as beautiful by people in different countries. I express our internal emotions and experiences through these flowers," Sherafamand explains.

"Also, from a medical point of view, almost every flower has a therapeutic function that makes people relaxed and calm, and I hope that the flowers I draw will eliminate anger and make people give up violence," she added.

"Florescencism" was gradually acknowledged by the art world and earned Sherafatmand a series of international awards including the United Nations "Artist for Peace" prize.

Recently, Sherafatmand has completed a painting to contest war called the "Florinal" which is based on Marcel Duchamp's fountain.

"We already know war is ugly," she said, but rather than regurgitate this sentiment Sherafatmand has chosen to focus on more productive alternatives.

"I am trying to create that feeling of the alternative because very often we want peace, but we don't have a vision of what it might look like. I am trying to think about how that peaceful warm caring atmosphere could feel like."

In addition to allowing people to imagine a better world, Sherafatmand has found that painting has helped her deal with conflict at an early age and it continues to do so until now.

"It has allowed me to experience the peace I could not get in my outside environment."




The leading ridesharing platform Didi Chuxing announced on Monday that it will launch new service in Mexico, firming up its stretch globally and expanding its battleground with Uber.

The company said it has officially entered the Mexican market with the Apr.23 launch of Didi Express in Toluca, the capital of the state of Mexico and a business and cultural center about 60 kilometers west of Mexico City.

Didi Mexico will introduce key product innovations in Latin America, including a real-time SOS system, dynamic safety monitoring, multi-person itinerary sharing, round-the-clock user support, and a multivariable driver rating system, the company said.

Driver recruitment in Toluca started in early April. The company hopes to roll out its service to other major cities across Mexico later this year.

The Mexico launch is the latest step for Didi to expand its presence in Latin America since buying out Brazil's biggest ride-hailing business, 99, for a reported US$1 billion in January, intensifying its rivalry with Uber.

Mexico is currently one of Uber's most profitable markets. The U.S. firm entered the country in 2013, and now operates in over 40 cities there.

Data shows that Latin America is the world's third-largest ride-hailing market, behind the U.S. and China.

Besides the Chinese mainland and Latin America, Didi has also expanded its services to Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan, and formed investment and technology partnerships with seven international ridesharing leaders, including Grab, Lyft, Ola, Uber, 99, Taxify and Careem, the company said.
In an attempt to boost China's oyster industry up to a level of global competitiveness, the first China (Rushan) International Oyster Forum was held from April 21-23 in Rushan, Shandong province in eastern China.

The three-day event gathered more than 200 experts and entrepreneurs from home and abroad, including marine life scholars from Australia, Britain, France, South Korea and the United States.

Focusing on the sustainable development and food security of the oyster industry, the forum provided open seminars for academic discussions and technology consultation.

At the opening ceremony, Mayor of Rushan Gong Bengao said the local government is determined to build the county-level city into a leading oyster technology research and development center through the forum and with the joint efforts of international experts, entrepreneurs and local people.

Rushan is within a one-hour drive from the coastal cities of Qingdao, Weihai and Yantai in Shandong province. With 199 kilometers of coast, the city produces oysters of high quality and therefore is dubbed as one of the best areas for oyster production in China, said the mayor. With an annual output of 300,000 tons of oysters from more than 5,000 hectares of oyster farms, the city's products sell well at home and abroad.

The China (Rushan) Institute of Oyster Technology was also inaugurated at the forum's opening ceremony.
You are here: China

China has seen a good start to its high-quality development, the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee said Monday.

The Chinese economy has maintained its steady growth momentum in the first quarter of this year, as major economic indicators pointed to stronger domestic demand and good coordination between the growth of the industrial and service sectors, according to a statement released after a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

The meeting, presided over by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, studied the current economic situation and economic work.

China's GDP expanded 6.8 percent year on year in the first three months of 2018, unchanged from the growth rate in the previous quarter, official data showed last week.

Economic restructuring has played a bigger role in supporting growth as good progress was made in developing new industries and upgrading traditional sectors, the statement said.

The economy still faces pronounced underlying structural challenges despite the upside cyclical turn for growth, the statement pointed out.

The central government should speed up the release of indicators, policies, standards, statistical system, and performance evaluation methods as guidance for local governments and departments to follow in promoting high-quality development.

Local governments are also encouraged to explore ways that fit their local conditions to pursue high-quality development.

Efforts should be enhanced to win the "three tough battles," namely controlling risks, reducing poverty, and tackling pollution, the statement said.

The government will stick to a proactive fiscal policy and prudent and neutral monetary policy. Market-based measures will be taken to reduce overcapacity and support will be offered to new sectors and new business models.

The meeting also urged bolder reform and opening-up efforts and timely implementation of major opening-up policies.

The development of the country's financial and real estate markets should be watched closely to guard against potential risks, the statement said.
You are here: China

China's newest unmanned submersible, Qianlong 3, completed a journey of 156.8 kilometers during its second test dive in the South China Sea recently, setting a national record for the longest voyage by an underwater craft, a scientist said on Monday.

Qianlong 3 began its trip by plunging some 3,850 meters on Saturday. After about 43 hours, on Sunday evening, it finished its journey and was retrieved by crew members aboard the Chinese research vessel Dayang Yihao, Xu Yijun, the craft's deputy chief engineer, told Xinhua News Agency.

The goal was for it to go for at least 30 hours at 2 knots and cover a distance of 60 nautical miles, or 111 km.

"The end test result was great," Xu said.

Qianlong 3's advantages over its predecessorslower energy use and greater propulsion powerare responsible for the excellent results, he added.

Qianlong 3, which is capable of reaching a depth of 4,500 meters, completed its maiden dive in the South China Sea on Friday. The first dive lasted around nine hours and reached a depth of about 3,900 meters.

Liu Jian, the submersible's chief designer, told Xinhua that the new vehicle will further strengthen China's technological capabilities in deepsea research and development, especially in more complex studies of seabed environments for scientific or mining purposes.

Qianlong 3 features designs similar to a clownfish, down to its signature orange and white stripes, big eyes and wavy tail. The submersible is 3.5 meters long, 1.5 meters high and weighs 1.5 metric tons.

The craft is equipped with high-definition cameras and sensors, sonar systems for obstacle evasion, fully rotatable rudders and additional propellers for faster turning.

Unlike its predecessor, Qianlong 2which has some similar design features and made its maiden dive in 2014the new submersible is quieter, faster, uses less energy and has more domestically made components, Xu said. As a result, it can collect more data.

Qianlong 2 can operate for 30 hours underwater, but the upgraded submersible has significantly longer endurance, Xu said.

The Qianlong series of underwater vehicles was developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Shenyang Institute of Automation.
Beijing police captured 19 people and seized about 720,000 yuan ($114,166) in counterfeit bank notes during raids on a suspected fake taxi operation, authorities said on Monday.

The alleged ringleaders, identified only as Guo and Zhou, were taken into custody in Yanqing district, while 16 others were detained in Chaoyang, Haidian, Daxing and Tongzhou districts.

According to police, the group operated 16 fake taxis and repeatedly duped passengers with counterfeit bills. All of the suspects were detained on March 11.

The fake money was seized during a raid on a property in Yanqing and has since been passed on to the central bank, the Beijing Public Security Bureau said. All 16 vehicles will be destroyed by the capitals Transport Commission, it added.

"Passengers should be careful when taking a taxi and call the police if they find anything abnormal about the car," the bureau said, suggesting that passengers should make a note of the cars number plate and drivers information.
Flu vaccinations should be provided free in China to promote immunizations and help protect the public against the virus, a World Health Organization expert said recently.

"Only about 2 percent of people in China receive flu vaccinations, and a major reason is that the vaccines are not free," said Zuo Shuyan, a vaccine researcher at the WHO's China office in Beijing. "We hope the government will include flu vaccines in its national immunization program so that more people are covered by the service."

Unlike Category 1 vaccines - vaccines provided free to the public, such as those for measles, polio and hepatitis B - flu vaccines in China are in Category 2, which means they are optional, and people must pay for them.

However, in a few places in China - including Beijing and Shanghai - local governments provide free flu shots to certain groups of people, such as those 60 or older, as well as primary and middle school students.

China was hit by a severe flu epidemic over the past winter, with 56 reported deaths on the Chinese mainland in January, according to the National Health Commission. Public health experts have said receiving flu vaccines is the best way to prevent illness.

Vaccines that can be effective against four major strains of the flu virus are under development by Chinese companies and may be available on the domestic market later this year, according to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Vaccines currently in use on the Chinese mainland are effective against three strains.

In 2016, the WHO recommended that China include five vaccines in Category 1, including pneumococcal, rotavirus and flu vaccines, as these are recommended by the WHO for mandatory use in all countries.

Wang Huaqing, chief expert in the immunization program of Chinese CDC, said additional Category 2 vaccines may be provided free by the government in the future, but more feasibility studies and cross-departmental coordination are needed for decision-making.

Since 1978, when China undertook a national immunization program, incidences of many infectious diseases have been greatly reduced, he said, with some diseases fully eradicated.

For example, smallpox was wiped out in China in 1960 as a result of a door-to-door vaccination program that covered the entire population, Wang said - 20 years ahead of the eradication of the disease worldwide.
A fire, allegedly set on purpose in a KTV bar, killed 18 people and injured another five early Tuesday in Qingyuan city, South China's Guangdong province, local police said.

Liu Chunlu, 32, who lives near the karaoke TV lounge in Qingyuan, was suspected of starting the fire, and Liu suffered burn injuries on his hips in the blaze, according to local police.

The police have announced a reward of 200,000 yuan ($31,682) for clues about the man, according to the official Weibo account of Qingyuan police.

The fire was reported at around 0:30 am in the bar on Chayuan Road of Yingde city under Qingyuan, and was put out at 0:55, said a statement issued by the public security bureau of Qingyuan city.
Xi Yanchun:







Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Welcome to this press conference. April 26 is annual World Intellectual Property Day. Since you are all very interested in the issues pertaining to this field, today we are delighted to invite Mr. Shen Changyu, commissioner of the State Intellectual Property Office, to brief you on the development of China's intellectual property rights in 2017. He will also answer some of your questions.





Also present at the press conference today is Mr. Yu Cike, spokesperson of the National Copyright Administration.





At this time, Mr. Shen will give you a brief introduction.





Shen Changyu:





Thank you, Ms. Xi. Good morning, friends from the press. Let me begin by thanking the SCIO and friends from the press for your care and support for IPR-related work. Now I would like to brief you on China's IPR development in 2017.





The CPC Central Committee and the State Council made a series of important plans on IPR-related work in 2017. In his report to the 19th CPC National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that China will "foster a culture of innovation, and strengthen the creation, protection and application of intellectual property." At the first meeting of the Leading Group for Deepening Overall Reform of the 19th CPC Central Committee, Xi stressed that protecting IPRs is equivalent to protecting innovation. Local governments and related departments earnestly studied and implemented Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress. They made steady efforts toward turning China into a country with strong IPRs, achieving major progress in a number of respects.





First, IPR creation has been improved in both quantity and quality. The number of patent applications over the year rose to about 1.38 million, an increase of 14.2 percent since the previous year, ranking first in the world for seven consecutive years. The number of international patent applications under PCT was 51,000, up 12.5 percent year over year, leaping to second worldwide. The number of patents per 10,000 people reached 9.8. The number of applications for trademark registration was about 5.75 million, up 55.72 percent year over year, ranking first in the world for 16 consecutive years. The number of trademarks registered in total reached 14.92 million. The number of applications for the Madrid International Registration of Marks from Chinese applicants was 4,810, ranking third in the world. The number of works and computer software copyright registered reached about 2 million and 745,400 respectively, up 25.15 percent and 82.79 percent. The number of applications for rights for new agricultural and forestry plant varieties reached 3,842 and 623 respectively. The number of products protected by geographical indications has steadily increased.





Second, China has made steady progress in enhancing its legal system for protection of intellectual property rights. The revision to the Law Against Unfair Competition was adopted at the 30th session of the NPC Standing Committee in 2017. We have seen substantive progress in revising and formulating the Patent Law, Regulations on Patent Commissioning and Regulations on Administration of Human Genetic Resources. We actively promoted the formulation and revision of Copyright Law, Regulations on the Protection of Olympic Symbols, Regulations on National Defense Patents, Regulations on the Protection of New Varieties of Plants and Regulations on Access to and Benefit-sharing of Biological Genetic Resources. We will step up our efforts to introduce the Guidelines on Anti-Monopoly Law Enforcement in the Field of Intellectual Property Rights. We will deepen research on the system for intellectual property rights protection of innovation achievements in new areas and business forms.





Third, the protection of intellectual property rights was more stringent. Administrative organs handled 67,000 cases related to patents, an increase of 36.3 percent year-on-year. They also handled 30,100 cases related to trademark, with a total worth of 333 million yuan. The copyright department investigated and dealt with more than 3,100 cases related to copyright infringement and piracy, and confiscated 6.05 million pirated products. Customs seized 19,200 batches of import or export goods that infringed on intellectual property rights. The cases involved 40.95 million goods with a total worth of 182 million yuan. Courts all over the country accepted 213,500 civil, administrative and criminal cases of first instance related to intellectual property rights. Of them, 203,000 cases were concluded. The number of cases accepted and concluded increased 40.37 percent and 38.38 percent respectively year-on-year. The procuratorial organs approved the arrest of 4,272 people involved in 2,510 intellectual property crimes. They also prosecuted 7,157 people involved in 3,880 lawsuits. The public security agencies solved 17,000 criminal cases concerning intellectual property right infringement and the production and sales of fake or inferior goods, with a total worth of 6.46 billion yuan. They also gave particular supervision over the handling of 44 major intellectual property rights infringement cases. A series of special law enforcement actions were taken. In an investigation on the public satisfaction with intellectual property rights protection, the public scored 76.69 for related works. Fourteen intellectual property rights protection centers were established. A nationwide network was established to provide legal aid concerning intellectual property rights protection and to accept tips and complaints of intellectual property rights infringement. Attempted steps have been taken to explore the establishment of a mechanism to coordinate the protection of the trademark rights of Chinese corporations overseas. The building of a long-term mechanism to promote the use of genuine software programs is in full swing. A campaign was launched to check the use of genuine software programs in 389 institutions in 16 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government.





Fourth, the efficiency of utilizing intellectual property rights (IPRs) has been markedly improved. We have been improving the supporting mechanism for the transfer and commercialization of scientific and technological achievements, speeding up the implementation of the National Fund for Technology Transfer and Commercialization, and promoting the construction of demonstration zones for the transfer and commercialization of national scientific and technological achievements. The national public service platform for the operation of IPRs took shape as the pilot commercialization centers in Xi'an and Zhuhai were established and put into operation. Operation funds for IPRs in key industries have been launched in succession, and the total fund raised has exceeded 4.2 billion yuan (US$665.13 million). Trademark and brand innovation and entrepreneurship bases were built to promote regional brand building based on industrial clusters. Copyright transaction centers and copyright trade bases were actively nurtured, and 10 national copyright transaction centers have been set up nationwide. The amount of patent pledge financing reached 72 billion yuan (US$11.4 billion), an increase of 65 percent year-on-year; the amount of trademark and copyright pledge financing reached 36.9 billion yuan (US$5.84 billion) and 5.98 billion yuan (US$947.2 million) respectively. The amount of patent insurance was 9.99 billion yuan (US$1.58 billion), an increase of 170.6 percent year-on-year. The total amount of import and export of IPR royalties exceeded US$30 billion.





Fifth is about deepening the reform in key areas of intellectual property rights. We have improved the policy of tax deductions for research and development expenses, sped up the reform on the distribution of intellectual property rights and strengthened the management and classification evaluation system for intellectual property rights in the implementation of national science and technology projects.





The one-stop service involving rapid patent examination, determination and protection as well as a new model of patent pledge financing have been included in the promotion list to support innovation and reform solutions by the State Council. We have continued to promote the reform on streamlining administration, reduced or canceled patent expanses totaling 5.8 billion yuan, and reduced the submission of various kinds of materials by about 2.7 million copies.





We have deepened the reform on facilitating trademark registration and established 105 windows for handling local trademarks as well as 49 centers for handling applications for the registration of pledge of exclusive rights to use a trademark. We have continued to promote the strict system for trademark examination, and accordingly the cycle of trademark registration has been shortened from nine months to eight months.





We have strengthened the supervision of authentication institutions for overseas copyrights and handled the re-registration of six authentication institutions for foreign copyrights. We have continued to improve national copyright demonstration work and selected 35 demonstration units and five demonstration parks (bases).





Sixth, we have deepened international cooperation and the exchange of intellectual property rights. We signed an agreement with the World Intellectual Property Organization to strengthen "Belt and Road" intellectual property cooperation and signed a memorandum of understanding for judicial exchange and cooperation. Cambodia has become the first country to recognize the results of China's patent authorization within its own borders.





We have included relevant content on strengthening intellectual property cooperation into the BRICS Leaders Xiamen Declaration, continued to boost international cooperation in the field of trademarks, and promoted the Madrid System on international trademark registration. We have hosted the 2017 Worldwide Symposium on Geographical Indications, made substantive progress in the negotiations for agreement on geographical indications between China and the EU, and signed a memorandum on the negotiations for agreement on cooperation and protection regarding geographical indications. We have promoted an early entry into force of the Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances, and 19 countries have ratified or joined the treaty.





The above is the development of China's intellectual property rights in 2017. Thank you.
Last week's speech by President Xi Jinping, as head of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, provides a clear blueprint to China's cyberspace leadership. At the same moment, U.S. President Donald Trump and his band of zero-sum brothers is inadvertently advancing China's position through their "America First" madness.

In his recent speech, Xi emphasized that China will strive for breakthroughs in core information technologies, and he said that to do so, more resources will go into relevant research, industrial development, and innovative policies supportive of these goals.

Xi also stated that the development of cybersecurity and informatization should be aimed at contributing to the continuing modernization of China's economy, stressing that efforts must be toward high-quality development including new models of industrialization, urbanization and agricultural modernization.

He underscored the importance as well of developing the digital economy, of promoting deep integration of the internet, big data and artificial intelligence with the real economy, and of upgrading the manufacturing, agriculture, and service sectors to be smarter, more digitalized and internet-powered.

In essence, President Xi's recent remarks built upon a very similar speech of almost exactly two years previous. As a former speech writer for the Carter White House, I can attest that this was one of the best, clearest and most inspiring speeches I have ever encountered.

In his 2016 speech, Xi gave a cogent socio-economic history of the world and China's place within it. Starting with the agricultural revolution, moving through the industrial revolution and into our modern-day information revolution, he traced how China, once a global economic power, "lost a historical opportunity to progress together with the world." He tied China's current drive for cyberspace leadership to nothing less than the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

Realizing the Chinese Dream, he also said, means making technological breakthroughs in a trio of core technologies: basic technology, asymmetric or "trump card" technology and advanced, or disruptive, technology.

These were not mere pie-in-the-sky wishes, but are being aggressively implemented. Under Xi's leadership, China has now been the world leader in applications for invention patents for seven consecutive years. To cite a few examples, China is leading the world in high-speed rail, e-commerce, mobile payments, and the sharing economy. In manned spaceflight, deep-water exploration, quantum communications, large aircraft development, and more, the country has had further major successes. All of these depend on the mastery of cyberspace at increasing levels of sophistication.

Some major initiatives will further support the mission. Made in China 2025, for example, is a national project to make the country self-sufficient in manufacturing with homegrown solutions by 2025; meanwhile, AI 2030 has the goal of making China the leader in artificial intelligence by 2030.

Moreover, since these initiatives will take all the brain power China can muster, the country has recently implemented a new long-stay fast-track visa for foreign "high-end talent" and their families. The policy is designed to supplement the scientific and entrepreneurial talent of Chinese students, especially those who study in foreign universities and return to China equipped with critical thinking skills and practical experience in their chosen fields.

Together, these add up to the plans for global leadership that Xi outlined in his two speeches. Ironically, Trump is aiding them as he busily cuts domestic funding for similar research in order to further enrich America's most wealthy. He and his advisers are unaware that those who master industrialization and AI will have won. It will be "Game over."

Trump's strategy is to try to cut China off from American technology. But why? Because he is all about "win-lose" where Xi is all about "win-win." Last week's decision to cut off Chinese telecom manufacturer ZTE from U.S. mobile chipsets for seven years, is a perfect example. While there is no denying that ZTE did not have clean hands in this matter, there were other punishments available. But this shortsighted move will backfire as China is forced to develop and control its own technology.

As if predicting Trump's anti-globalization movement two years ago, Xi said then that "internet core technology is the greatest vital gate,' and the fact that core technology is controlled by others is our greatest hidden danger." As a result of the ZTE decision, urgent deliberations are ongoing in China; Reuters reports that senior Chinese officials have been meeting to speed up production of domestically designed and manufactured chipsets as China is fast-tracked to begin to introduce 5G technology in the near future.

The author is a research fellow for the think tank Center for China and Globalization, senior adviser to Tsinghua University and former director and vice president of ABC Television in New York.

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
by Paul N. Hung

The parish is in an area affected by the 2016 environmental catastrophe caused by a plant owned by the Formosa Plastics Group. In Ky Thinh, where 85 per cent of the residents earn a living from farming, the land is contaminated. Two years after the disaster, many villagers are still struggling to find work and support their families. The pastor noted several cases of illness due to water contamination.

Hanoi (AsiaNews)  The Parish of Du Yen, in the northern diocese of Vinh, has an ambitious plan to build a water tank to collect and conserve drinking water for 10,000 people, Catholics and non-Catholics.

The large diocese covers some of the poorest provinces: Nghe An, Quang Binh and Ha Tinh. Living conditions are harsh, and the per capita income is $US$ 420 per year.

Some 32.16 per cent of the 1.3 million residents live below the poverty line, 87.9 per cent in rural areas. Every community in the diocese is engaged in pastoral outreach to help the poor and marginalised.

Located in the municipality of Ky Thinh (Ky Anh district), the Parish of Du Yen serves the territory hit hardest by the environmental catastrophe caused by a plant owned by Taiwan-based Formosa Plastics Group in 2016.

Water contaminated by toxic waste has left coastal fishermen out of work and polluted farmland. In Ky Thinh, 85 per cent of the local population of 10,000 (including 3,500 Catholics) is involved in agriculture.

Two years after the disaster, many people in the village are still struggling to find work and support their families. The lack of drinking water has made their situation worse.

" Ky Anh district is the epicentre of the disaster caused by Formosa. It is the worst place, said Fr Peter Nguyen Van Tam, vicar of Du Yen. For this reason, I want to build a clean water reservoir in the municipality of Ky Thinh, for local Catholics and non-Catholics."

"At present, the air and water of the whole district are fouled, he added. The Quyen River is now owned by the Formosa. They let wastewater pour into the river before it reaches the sea. Here they also built a thermal energy plant to power the Formosa plant. Everything is polluted."

Fr Nguyen Van Tam is very concerned about the future of the local population, most of whom are being forced to emigrate. Although he has been the local pastor for only three months, he has already visited 600 families, finding several cases of diseases due to water contamination.

Speaking about his plan, Fr Peter said: "We would like to take water from the mountain, which is a few kilometers from the parish. We will build a reservoir of clean water for 10,000 people to use, drink and cook with clean water to avoid diseases."

Last week, the bishop of the diocese of Vinh, Mgr Paul Nguyen Thai Hop, approved the project. Now Fr Peter hopes to get support from Vietnamese Catholics and non-Catholics to go ahead.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping said Monday that China is willing to deepen pragmatic cooperation with other Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member countries in defense and security so as to contribute to long-term regional stability and prosperity.

Xi made the remarks at a group meeting with defense ministers from Russia, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and the Kyrgyz Republic chief of the general staff of armed forces.

Senior SCO officials and Indian ambassador to China attended the meeting. The defense minister of Belarus was also present as a specially invited guest.

The meeting of the SCO defense ministers is scheduled for Tuesday.

Xi hailed contributions made by SCO member countries in safeguarding regional security and stability, ranging from improving meeting mechanism among defense ministries and military leaders to conducting joint military exercises.

Xi stressed that security is the cornerstone for development. "We must take safeguarding regional security and stability as the SCO's work priority as always."

China is willing to work together with other SCO member countries to adhere to the organization charter and consensus reached by heads of state, the president said.

On the basis of mutual trust and benefit and discussing issues as equals, China will also jointly draw blueprints for defense and security cooperation and continuously innovate the cooperation model so as to create a better system for such cooperation and improve the organization's capability in shielding against threats, Xi said.

China will unwaveringly stay on the path of peaceful development, continue its efforts to safeguard world peace, contribute to global development, uphold international order, and work with other countries to promote the building of a community with a shared future for humanity, Xi said.

On behalf of SCO defense ministers, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said they admired China's achievements in development and national defense building.

The minister said that they believed the SCO will play an important role in safeguarding the strategic interests of various countries and regional and world peace and stability.

Other officials including Chinese State Councilor and Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe also attended the group meeting.

The SCO summit will be held in the coastal city of Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province in June.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping said Monday that he is looking forward to meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in June and jointly planning China-Russia ties in a new era.

Xi made the remarks when meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Xi said he is looking forward to President Putin's China visit in June and his attendance at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in the eastern Chinese coastal city of Qingdao.

He said he hopes to boost friendship with President Putin, jointly plan China-Russia ties in a new era, and discuss the future development of the SCO together with the leaders of other SCO member countries.

Calling a high-level bilateral relationship "precious wealth of both countries," Xi said the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination has maintained positive development momentum.

China and Russia need to continue to give play to the guiding role of high-level exchanges in the development of bilateral ties, fully implement the consensus reached by the two heads of state, and synergize the Belt and Road Initiative and the Eurasia Economic Union, Xi said.

He also called on the two sides to enhance mutual support in international affairs, jointly uphold international law and universally recognized norms of international relations, and strengthen cooperation within the SCO, BRICS, G20 and other frameworks so as to build a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for humanity.

"I believe that with the efforts of both sides, China-Russia ties will make new achievements," said Xi.

Lavrov said President Putin looks forward to visiting China and attending the SCO Qingdao summit.

Russia has attached great importance to the comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination with China and stands ready to further strengthen bilateral cooperation, he said.

Both Russia and China respect international law and the UN Charter, said Lavrov, adding that his country agrees that the two nations need to further enhance coordination within multilateral frameworks.
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Senior officials have discussed cooperation at the 14th meeting of the China-Japan Intergovernmental Consultation Mechanism on Cultural Exchange on Monday.

It was the first meeting of the intergovernmental consultation mechanism after a nine-year hiatus.

Representatives of the related ministries and agencies and cultural institutions of the two countries held frank discussions on the current situation and problems of cultural exchanges and cooperation between China and Japan during the meeting.

The two sides fully affirmed the supporting functions of the intergovernmental consultation mechanism for promoting the development of bilateral cultural relationship and decided to hold the consultations alternately in the two countries on a regular basis.

They also decided to promote institutionalized people-to-people exchanges at various levels in the next 10 years, discuss setting up information sharing mechanism and platform and conduct extensive cultural industry cooperation and Olympic cultural cooperation.

The Chinese side also invited Japanese cultural institutions and enterprises to take part in international exhibitions in China, such as the first China International Import Expo to be held in Shaghai in November.

Xie Jinying, director general of the bureau for external cultural relations in China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and Manabu Miyagawa, the Japanese Foreign Ministry's director general for cultural affairs, co-hosted the meeting.




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China funded United Nations projects have helped the displaced people in Pakistan's tribal areas and southwestern Balochistan province, UN officials said on Monday.

Thousands of people had been displaced in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) due to terrorism and floods in Balochistan.

With generous funding from China, and in partnership with the FATA Secretariat and the government of Balochistan, the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) project, of 4 million U.S. dollars, has benefitted 80,269 people and 8,100 temporarily displaced families Kurram, South Waziristan, North Waziristan, Khyber and Orakzai tribal agencies, a UNDP statement said after a joint closing ceremony held here.

In Balochistan's Naseerabad, Jafferabad and Sohbatpur districts -- which were worst affected by the 2010 floods -- new furniture and education kits were provided to 19,000 school children in 423 schools, said the press release.

China also contributed 1 million U.S. dollars to enable the World Food Programme (WFP) food assistance for 158,000 people in several districts, include both those who are returning to FATA and those who are still displaced, said the press release.

China Aid is helping marginalized communities to manage shocks and build a foundation for the future, the press release said, adding these initiatives build upon the Chinese government's continued commitment and contribution to the international emergency response efforts under the framework of the China South-South Cooperation Fund.

Acting Country Representative of the WFP Katrien Ghoos said that "China is an increasingly significant global player and a vital donor to WFP operations. WFP is pleased to partner with our new donor in Pakistan in support of our efforts to achieve food and nutrition security," according to the press release.
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Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi Monday held talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

Wang called on both countries to prepare well for the next stage of high-level exchanges in line with the consensus reached by the two presidents, forge ahead with cooperation in various areas, and enhance coordination within multilateral frameworks so as to inject new impetus into China-Russia relations.

China and Russia need to enhance coordination whether it is out of the needs of maintaining their own interests or to safeguard world peace and stability, said Wang.

It is not a temporary means nor it will be affected by external factors that the two countries enhance strategic coordination, he said.

It is a strategic choice rooted in the fundamental interests of both peoples as well as an inevitable historical result that complies with the trend of times and the global trend of peace and development, he said.

China attaches great importance to mature and stable strategic relations with high-level mutual trust with Russia, Wang said.

Lavrov said it has always been Russia's priority to develop the Russia-China comprehensive partnership of strategic coordination.

Russia will work with China to make sure that the two presidents have successful meetings and the bilateral ties make new progress, he said.

On the Korean Peninsula issue, Wang said the announcement by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) that it will stop nuclear tests and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launches is a very important step towards a political solution to the denuclearization of the peninsula and is conducive to easing regional tensions.

Wang said China hopes that the leaders' meetings between the DPRK and the Republic of Korea (ROK), and between the DPRK and the United States will be successful so that the correct path will be opened for lasting peace on the peninsula.

He said China and Russia, sharing similar views on the Korean Peninsula issue, need to further enhance coordination and communication under the new circumstances in order to make their contribution to the political settlement of the issue.
China Aviation Daily | Apr. 24, 2018

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) highlighted three key priorities for the ground handling industry to support the growing demand for air travel: harmonizing global standards to improve safety, improving collaboration between stakeholders, and developing talent.

"Effective ground operations are an essential part of the airline industry's efforts to meet the forecast growth in demand for air connectivity. In preparing for the future we need to focus on consistently implementing global standards, enhanced collaboration, and accelerating modernized processes," said Nick Careen, IATA's Vice President, Airport, Passenger, Cargo and Security, speaking at the 31st IATA Ground Handling Conference in Doha, Qatar.

Global standards

IATA called for the ground handling industry to accelerate the global adoption of the IATA Ground Operations Manual (IGOM) to ensure a level of operational consistency and safety across the industry worldwide. "Aviation grows safer when global standards are consistently applied. IGOM is the global standard and worldwide implementation is our target," said Careen.

IATA also called on governments to recognize the IATA Safety Audit for Ground Operations (ISAGO)--based on IGOM standards--in their regulatory frameworks.

"We are asking governments to universally recognize ISAGO as an acceptable means of compliance for operators' oversight of outsourced services in ground operations. This will foster harmonization across the industry, reduce redundant audits, improve safety, and enhance operational efficiency," said Careen.

As of April 2018, the number of ground service providers (GSPs) in the ISAGO Registry surpassed 230, with almost 450 registered stations in over 300 airports worldwide. ISAGO is recognized by several airport authorities, such as Amsterdam Schiphol, London Heathrow, Seattle Tacoma, Miami, Hong Kong, and Singapore, and the civil aviation authorities of Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Netherlands, and many others.

Improving Collaboration

IATA urged even greater collaboration across stakeholder groups to improve safety and operational efficiency. Following on such successful collaborative efforts as ISAGO and the IATA Ground Damage Database, the IATA Ground Operations Group (GOG) was established as a collaborative forum for airlines and ground handlers to work together. The aim of the GOG is to provide strategic direction on the development and implementation of ground handling standards and technology with a focus on improving safety and efficiency.

"We have high expectations for the GOG. Its three-year plan to address safety and efficiency issues will lead to much-needed improvements in such critical areas of operations as training, the development of ground support equipment, and load control. But the industry will only realize the full benefits that the GOG can bring if it has the support of all stakeholders in the ground handling industry," said Careen.

The development of a new SAE Aviation Standard for aircraft fuselage alignment markings is another example of successful industry collaboration. This will help reduce aircraft damage during servicing by having standardized alignment markings on the aircraft fuselage.

"Most airlines have individual alignment markings to help ground support equipment (GSE) dock with the aircraft. With standardized markings, ground staff know exactly what to expect and GSE auto docking technology can be developed," said Careen.

Ramp of the Future

IATA has launched a Ramp of the Future (RoF) initiative.

This will bring together key stakeholders to accelerate the modernization of processes aligned with a common vision for the future of ground operations. Key partners involved in RoF include members of the GOG and the Airport Services Association (ASA).

"Passenger numbers are growing. Airport infrastructure is nearing capacity. Opportunities for greenfield sites or new-build terminals are limited. New, smarter, more effective ways to operate, harnessing the power of new technology, need to be found. But we will only be successful if we are working towards achieving a common vision. RoF gives ground handling stakeholders the opportunity to influence their future," said Careen.

The RoF project is part of the New Experience in Travel and Technologies (NEXTT) initiative being run in collaboration with Airports Council International (ACI) to develop a common vision to enhance the on-ground transport experience, guide industry investments, and help governments improve the regulatory framework.

Modernizing training for ground handling is another key element.

"High employee turnover is a challenge when you need to deploy a fully skilled workforce in critical ramp functions. New training technologies have an important role to play. This includes innovative virtual reality tools," said Careen, highlighting the success of IATA's RampVR (TM) offering, the first virtual reality training tool for ground operations.

IGHC was attended by senior Qatari government officials and aviation industry leaders including H.E. The Minister for Transport and Communication, Jassim Saif Al Sulaiti and H.E. Mr. Akbar Al Baker, Group Chief Executive of Qatar. The event was sponsored by QAS (Qatar Aviation Services) and the host airline was Qatar Airways. "We thank QAS and Qatar Airways for their support of IGHC. These key industry events are important for the development of aviation," said Careen.

Contributed by IATA




by Shafique Khokhar

Asthma Yaqood was 25 and worked as a beautician. She rejected Rizwan Gujjar's marriage proposal, who also wanted her to convert to Islam. In recent months, there have been five acid attacks against members of minorities.

Sialkot (AsiaNews)  A 25-year-old Christian woman, Asma Yaqoob, died in Lahore after she was attacked and disfigured with acid.

Her only fault was to have spurned a 30-year-old Muslim man named Rizwan Gujjar. From Sialkot, the young woman succumbed yesterday to her injuries, after two weeks of agony.

"Minority women face double discrimination, or if you like, various layers of prejudice, said Aila Gill, coordinator of the National Commission for Justice and Peace, speaking to AsiaNews.

The government should take immediate notice of all these growing incidents of intolerance against minorities. Forced conversion of religious minorities should be criminalised and the Acid Control and Acid Crime Prevention Act should be enforced to prevent these crimes against women.

Asma had been employed as a beautician for two years and was proud of her job. Her brother Nabeel, 23, works as a banner printer at Panaflex where he became a close friend of Rizwan, a Muslim.

In the past few months Rizwan became a regular visitor at the Yacoob house, and befriended Asma, and eventually fell in love with her.

About three months ago he asked her to marry him and convert to Islam, but she refused both requests.

In order to avoid problems for her brother, she did not tell her family. But after the refusal, the young Muslim becomes aggressive and violent towards her. She tried to avoid him and ignore him whenever he visited the family.

On 10 April, Rizwan's anger and frustration boiled over. He went to Pak Pura town where Asma had gone to work on the hair of a number of women who were preparing for a wedding.

Claiming to be her brother, Rizwan got Asma to come out to of the house where he attacked her, dousing her with acid and setting her on fire, before running away.

Asmas screams attracted the relatives of the future bride, who rushed her to the nearest hospital. She was later transferred to the burn unit of the Mayo Hospital in Lahore. But the doctors could not save the young woman, who had burns over 90 per cent body.

Ms Gill noted that the aggression suffered by the young woman "is the fifth episode of its kind against the minorities of Pakistan in recent months. We are witnessing a worrying increase in violence and incidents of intolerance and extremism in our country. It's so strange that a woman cannot say 'no' to a marriage proposal."
by Vladimir Rozanskij

Patriarchate of Constantinople under pressure to declare the autocephaly of all the Orthodox in Ukraine. A committee studies historical and theological aspects. Overt influence of political independence from Moscow, not only from the religious point of view. Hilarion: There are no negotiations.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - Discussions have been multiplying for days on the attempt by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to force the hand of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, to completely detach the Orthodox Church still linked to the Russian Patriarchate from Moscow and form a single autocephalous Ukrainian jurisdiction, in which all the souls of local orthodoxy converge.

In recent days, some members of the Kiev parliament, the Rada, have spoken of an imminent agreement with the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and the president himself intervened before the deputies stating that the Ukrainian autocephaly "reflects not only the position of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, but also that of the same members of the Synod ... The doors are also open to the bishops of the other Churches, who wish to subscribe or at least evaluate the possibility of officially addressing an appeal to His Beatitude to obtain the tomos of autocephaly ".

According to a statement issued on April 17 by Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeev), the leaders of the Moscow Patriarchate "have no element to confirm or refute the existence of a negotiation between the President of Ukraine and the Patriarch of Constantinople".

The fact remains that during his official visit to Turkey on 9 April, Poroshenko met in person with Patriarch Bartholomew (Archontonis), who addressed an Easter greeting to all the Ukrainian people and thanked the President for his peace-making efforts. The same exchange of good wishes had happened the previous week with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who during a visit with Erdogan, made a phone call to the patriarch. In that case, Putin had reported the wishes of the Moscow Patriarch Kirill (Gundjaev) "in favor of the unity of the whole Orthodox world".

On April 14 Kirill had then phoned Bartholomew, as part of the telephone consultations between all the leaders of the Christian Churches for peace in Syria, after the launch of the American missiles.

In the press conference held at the monastery of St. Daniel, Hilarion reiterated that "For us, as for the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the priority remains the defence of the universal unity of Orthodoxy, which is the only absolute value for all our local Churches. Patriarch Bartholomew has repeatedly reiterated that he considers his blessed metropolitan Onufrij, head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church [in communion with Moscow], the only canonically recognized head of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine ".

Even the proposals for the pacification of Patriarch Philaret (Denisenko), the leader of the other Ukrainian Church that separated from Moscow in 1992, were not considered by the Russian Patriarchate truly worthy of consideration, as Hilarion recalled: "We have continued for over a quarter of a century to pray for the overcoming of the schism in Ukraine, so that those responsible for it return to the bosom of the true Orthodox Church. We appreciated the letter sent to us by the former Metropolitan Philaret (Denisenko) last December, with the invitation to start a dialogue, and we even formed a special commission, but for now we do not see a real desire on the Ukrainian side to participate to this work".

A commission is also reportedly at work in the patriarchate of Constantinople, according to the Speaker of the Ukrainian Rada Andrej Parubij, but to evaluate the possibility of granting the tomos of Ukrainian autonomy.

Last April 20, the leader of parliament spoke about this initiative on UNN television, recalling that for almost a year Ukrainian politicians have insisted on this possibility: "Since last June the Rada has been calling on the Ecumenical Patriarchate, to move the question from the standstill . The patriarchal commission has the task of studying the history of the Ukrainian Church, of the loss of its autonomy in 1686, when autocephaly was stolen through corruption ".

President Poroshenko added that the division of the Ukrainian Church from Moscow would be "an indispensable attribute for an independent state", and the formation of a single national Orthodox Church would be "a triumph of Orthodoxy" and an act of "restoration of the deep historical truth: from the imperial city of the Second Rome the light of the Christian faith has poured on our blessed land ... Only later have we shared it with the lands beyond the forests, where the ancient princes of Kiev recklessly founded the city of Moscow ".

Beyond the historical disputes that have always divided the two peoples of the plains between the Dnieper and the Volga, the strong interference of politics in ecclesiastical events is evident. Russian President Putin, just re-elected, wants to reiterate his dominant role as protector of the Church, while his Ukrainian antagonist Poroshenko is attempting to historically and theologically motivate his second term in 2019, or perhaps already this year.
Last year, the Sudanese-Australian engineer and then-ABC commentator apologised after she was accused of disrespecting Australian soldiers for writing, LEST. WE. FORGET. (Manus, Nauru, Syria, Palestine ) on her Facebook page on Anzac Day.

Last Friday Ms Abdel-Magied shared a tweet from Sally Rugg, a former GetUp! campaign director and incoming Change.org national director, that read: What if thousands of us all tweeted lest we forget (Manus) next week on April 25th

MELBOURNE - Nearly a year after her Anzac Day post led to her receiving death threats, Muslim activist Yassmin Abdel-Magied has risked further outrage by endorsing another Anzac Day tweet about asylum seekers.

In the since-deleted tweet, Ms Abdel-Magied intended to highlight the troubling plight of refugees in detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru, as well as victims of ongoing wars in Syria and Palestine.

It was brought to my attention that my last post was disrespectful, and for that, I apologise unreservedly, she said at the time.

On Thursday, Ms Rugg followed up her original tweet by writing: Anyone who thinks this tweet is about refugees and ANZAC Day is missing the point.

She then shared an Australian article about Ms Abdel-Magieds endorsement with the words: This has been a truly extraordinary experiment.

Both women were immediately inundated with angry tweets accusing them of disrespect and disgraceful behaviour.

Twitter user Brad Dunn made an appeal to Ms Rugg to withdraw her comments, tweeting: As a veteran can I please ask you to consider not doing that on Anzac Day. Any other day but not the 25th. The veterans and families that supported your community for equality would truly appreciate it.

But many were in support of Ms Rugg and Ms Abdel-Magied, suggesting they get the phrase trending on 25 April and sharing the words of author Richard Flanagan, who wrote about Ms Abdel-Magieds original tweet in The Guardian [see above].

I read this [Ms Abdel-Magieds original Anzac tweet] as a plea for compassion drawing on the memory of a national trauma, Mr Flanagan wrote.

Most refugees on Manus Island and Nauru are fleeing war, Syria has half a million dead and more than 11 million people exiled internally and externally because of war, and Palestinians, whatever position one takes, suffer greatly from ongoing conflict.

And yet as the attacks on Abdel-Magied showed, some were seeking to transform Anzac Day into a stalking horse for racism, misogyny and anti-Islamic sentiment. For hate, intolerance and bigotry. For all those very forces that create war.

Ms Ruggs tweet follows news this week that 50 refugees living on both Manus Island and Nauru have been approved to resettle in the United States.

They are expected to leave in the coming weeks and will join roughly 230 others who have already relocated to the US.
Historians generally credit Yamamoto, an innovative proponent of air power, with the idea of attacking the US Pacific fleet and convincing Japanese military leaders that his plan could work.

As long as he lived, the Japanese navy was a threat, said Donald A Davis, a Colorado-based writer who told the story of Operation Vengeance in a 2005 book. He was feared in the Pacific.

Yamamoto had spent several years in the US earlier in his military career, studying at Harvard University and admiring Americas industrial might. In the aftermath of Pearl Harbour, he was quite possibly the most hated man in America.

Three members of a New York-based WWII research organisation and a Japanese aviation expert recently visited the crash site on Bougainville last Wednesday, the 75th anniversary of Admiral Isoroku Yamamotos death.

ALBANY, NY  A group from the United States and Japan is trekking to a remote Pacific island jungle to document what is considered one of the most important wreck sites of World War II: where American fighters shot down a Japanese bomber carrying the mastermind of the Pearl Harbour attack.

The 7 December 1941 sneak attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbour on Hawaiis Oahu Island killed more than 2,400 people, sunk or damaged 18 ships, destroyed 300 warplanes and drew the US into the war.

Getting Yamamoto became very much a mission of its own.

Artist's impression of Yamamoto's Betty bomber being shot down over Bougainville

The big break for the U.S. came on 13 April 1943 when Navy code breakers discovered that Yamamoto planned to tour bases in areas of the Solomon Islands still held by Japanese forces. The admirals tour was scheduled for 18 April  just five days away.

US military officials quickly approved an air mission to intercept the admirals plane and shoot it down. The task fell to a squadron of Army Air Forces P-38 Lightnings based on Guadalcanal, in the Solomons.

After the pilots closely reviewed Yamamotos flight plan, 16 P-38s flew 640 km west and spotted two enemy bombers over Bougainville.

While some of the P-38s engaged Yamamotos fighter escort, other American planes attacked the two bombers. One slammed into the jungle, while the other crashed off shore. Yamamoto, 59, was among 11 men who died in the plane that crashed on land.

Yamamotos death was yet another blow to the Japanese after the tide of the Pacific war turned with the American victory at Midway and the taking of Guadalcanal.

Japanese troops recovered Yamamotos body, cremated it and sent his ashes back to Japan, where the admiral was given a state funeral.

6 April 1944 - US & New Zealand aircraft taxi to a runway on Bougainville (AP)

But Japan didnt officially announce Yamamotos death until weeks later, saying he died aboard a warplane while directing general strategy on the front line, according to an Associated Press story on the announcement in Tokyo.

The US military had wanted to keep his death a secret lest the Japanese learn their code had been broken.

But one of the American pilots on the mission had spilled the beans almost immediately, telling everyone upon landing that he had shot down Yamamotos plane. (Decades later, historians determined another pilot had fired the fatal burst).

As the worst-kept secret in the Pacific spread among American troops, AP correspondent J Norman Lodge confirmed details of the mission even before the Japanese announcement, but US military censors withheld his story.

The Pentagon didnt officially release details of the mission until 11 September 1945, nine days after Japan surrendered.

The wreckage of the Yamamotos Mitsubishi G4M Betty bomber remains in the jungle. Most of the plane was destroyed on impact but a large section of the tail survives. Over the decades, parts of the plane were removed and placed in museums.

Justin Taylan, founder of New York-based Pacific Wrecks who has been compiling data on WWII airplane crashes for more than 20 years, said the purpose of visiting the Yamamoto site was to document the wreckage and perform digital preservation of what remains for posterity.

The group commemorated the anniversary at the site with a Shinto religious ceremony conducted by Japanese WWII aircraft expert Yoji Sakaida.

Yamamoto remains a revered figure in Japan, where a museum was established in his honour in his hometown of Nagaoka. Artifacts on display include the left wing from Yamamotos aircraft.
BRUSSELS - A Belgian court on Monday found Salah Abdeslam, the last surviving suspect in the Paris attacks, guilty of terrorism-related attempted murder over a shootout with police in Brussels days before his capture in 2016, and sentenced him to 20 years in jail.

In its judgment, the court in the Belgian capital said "there can be no doubt" about extremist Salah Abdeslam and his co-defendant Sofiane Ayari's involvement in extremism.

Prosecutors had asked for 20-year jail terms for both.

Neither 28-year-old Abdeslam - who is being held in jail in France pending a separate trial over the 2015 Paris attacks in which 130 people died - nor Ayari, 24, were in court for the verdict.

Four police officers were wounded in the gunbattle after police acting on a tip-off over the Paris attacks raided a flat in the Forest area of Brussels on March 15, 2016.

Abdeslam, a Belgian-born French national, was arrested three days later in the largely immigrant Molenbeek area of the Belgian capital, near his family home.

On March 22, suicide bombers from a cell linked to the Paris attacks killed 32 people and wounded hundreds more at Brussels airport and a metro station in the Belgian capital.

The judgment on Monday said that 34 shots in total were fired during the shootout.

Belgian police mounted tight security around the imposing Palace of Justice building in Brussels for the verdict.

Abdeslam has spent most of the last two years in jail in France.

He was transported to the court from France for the first day of the trial amid tight security including a helicopter escort, while Tunisian national Ayari, 24, is in jail in Belgium.

On the first day of the trial, Abdeslam accused the court of being biased against Muslims and refused to attend the rest of the proceedings.

Investigators said Abdeslam's arrest spurred the Brussels bombers to bring forward the 2016 attacks, which had originally been planned for a later date, as they feared they could be captured.

Prosecutors have said that DNA links Abdeslam to the apartment in the Forest district of Brussels where the shooting took place, but not to the weapons that were used.

One of the injured police officers was still suffering from aftereffects including brain lesions, epileptic fits and vision and balance problems.

An organization representing victims of the Brussels attacks and their families has asked for symbolic damages of one euro from the trial.

The Belgian trial is a prelude to a bigger one that Abdeslam will face in France at a later date over the Paris attacks of Nov 13, 2015, which were claimed by the Islamic State group.

Afp - Ap

(China Daily 04/24/2018 page12)
Cuba witnessed a historic transition of power on Thursday with outgoing president Raul Castro handing over presidency to the first vice-president, Miguel Diaz-Canel. Cuba has got its first leader born after the Cuban Revolution in 1959.

In his inauguration speech, Diaz-Canel, 58, said he would follow the course of social and economic reform set at the 6th and 7th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba. He also said Cuba would stick to its independent diplomacy policy, and not accept any conditions imposed by another country.

Nevertheless, Diaz-Canel is expected to bring freshness to Cuban politics and economy, as he promised to promote group leadership, increase people's participation in politics, and make more flexible economic policies.
Stolen Buddha statues return home through painting exhibition ( chinadaily.com.cn ) Updated: 2018-04-24

Some 78 paintings of Buddha statues stolen from Tianlongshan Grottoes are currently on display in Taiyuan, capital of north China's Shanxi province.

Construction began on Tianlongshan Grottoes, notable for its Buddhist statues, during the Northern Wei Dynasty (534-550). The site includes 25 caves built during five Chinese dynasties.

However, many valuable statues were stolen and smuggled overseas during wars or illegally sold in 1920s.

Using colored pencils or Chinese ink, Zhang Jinfeng, a 46-year-old painter, is trying to revive the lost glory of the Tianlongshan Grottoes through painting.

Zhang was born in a village near the grottoes, and as a child was told how beautiful the grottoes had been.

"I often visited the caves. Once, when I was about to leave, a ray of sunshine came into the cave, lighting up a broken Buddha statue. It was beautiful although damaged," he said. "I was moved and thought I should do something."

Over the past seven years, Zhang has drawn pictures of stolen Buddha statues based on photographs and videos he found online or in books, or from pictures taken by friends who visited the statues in overseas museums.

"The images in his paintings look like the real Buddha statues," said Wang Ding, curator of Taiyuan Museum of Art. Wang saw the paintings during a rural inspection and decided to help Zhang organize an exhibition.

"I hope to use my own methods to arouse public awareness of cultural relic protection," Zhang said.

China Cultural Relics Academy has estimated that over 10 million relics have been smuggled out of China since 1840 during wars or due to illegal sales.




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While the original Sydney Morning Herald story acknowledged that there had as yet been no formal proposals, that qualification vanished in The Diplomats report that China had formally approached Vanuatu about a permanent military base.

The US$87 million wharf was funded by a loan from Chinas EXIM bank to allow cruise ships to dock on the island. But some US and Australian intelligence analysts fear that it could provide port facilities for Chinese warships less than 2,000 kilometres from Australias east coast.

WELLINGTON, NZ - A Fairfax news report that preliminary discussions were held between the Chinese and Vanuatu governments about the establishment of a naval base at a Beijing-funded wharf in Luganville is causing quite a stir in Australia.

Clearly the Chinese are serious about establishing a military base in the Pacific, claimed Malcolm Davis from the Department of Defence-funded Australian Strategic Policy Institute, speculating my guess is theres a Trojan horse operation here that eventually will set up a large facility that is very modern and very well-equipped.

Even Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull expressed grave concern about the risk of a Chinese naval facility in the Oceania region.

Yet the story has been repeatedly denied by Vanuatus prime minister Charlot Salwai and foreign minister Ralph Regenvanu, who both insist that no-one in the Vanuatu government has ever talked to Beijing about a Chinese military base.

Both recall the Cold War hysteria surrounding Soviet fishing deals with Kiribati and Vanuatu in the 1980s, when reports claimed that Moscows fishing trawlers were concealing elaborate antennae arrays and underwater acoustic monitoring devices.

In a 1988 article entitled, The USSR and its Proxies in a Volatile South Pacific, Monash Universitys Colin Rubenstein speculated that these incursions might be only a prelude to the establishment of safe, deep sanctuary for Soviet nuclear-armed submarines enabling them to loiter safely in a very well protected position and be capable of attacking almost any target in the area of the Pacific Rim.

In 1985, then Australian prime minister Malcolm Fraser insisted that the Soviets are going to get a base in the Pacific with absolute certainty. This proved to be nonsense.

So what was the origin of the Luganville story, and does China really want a base in the Pacific Islands?

The original Fairfax story cited unnamed sources but described them as senior security officials and said that discussions about the threat had occurred at the highest levels in Canberra and Washington.

The harbour master at the Luganville wharf said that US marines and coastguards had visited the wharf in February and remarked: Wow, this can accommodate a US aircraft carrier.

Others are less impressed. Local Australian tourism operators reported in January 2018 that the wharf is badly constructed with weak and poorly positioned bollards and that the volume of traffic at the port had recently declined.

If seeking a Pacific naval base, why would Beijing choose the Luganville wharf rather than better equipped port facilities in Papua New Guinea, Tonga or Fiji?

The Fairfax news stories claimed that the 360-metre long Luganville wharf is the longest in the South Pacific. But Fijis Kings Wharf at Suva measures 492 metres and is far more sophisticated. The four berths of Papua New Guineas Lae Port extend 575 metres and those at Port Moresby 642 metres.

Tongas deep water Neiafu harbour may be smaller but it was once a much sought-after prize in the 1900s colonial carve up of the Pacific as a coaling station for oceangoing steamships. Tonga is also facing serious debt distress and around two thirds of what it owes is earmarked for China.

Australian security analysts fear Chinas use of debt-trap diplomacy in the Pacific on the model of Sri Lanka, where the price of debt relief was the surrender of a strategic port.

Yet in the case of Sri Lankas Hambantota port  handed to China on a 99-year lease in December 2017  the site straddles Chinas sea routes to the Middle East and Europe. This is also true of Chinas only established extra-territorial naval base in Djibouti.

The Pacific Islands fit less easily into Chinas geopolitical architecture.

So far Chinas maritime aspirations have focussed on its close coastal waters, the South China Sea and trade routes through Southeast Asia to the Middle East and Europe.

Beijings naval prowess amounts to little beyond the so-called second island chain  a phrase that featured prominently in Chinese Cold War naval manuals and which conveys Chinese fears of encirclement by US territories and allies.

The first island chain skirts Taiwan and the South China Sea. Further outwards, a second chain stretches from Japan to Guam (a US territory) and Palau (a country freely associated with the United States).

In the more distant blue-water Pacific, the Chinese navy sails only sporadically via low-profile port visits mostly to closely allied nations such as Fiji or Tonga.

In response to the furore about the Luganville wharf, Vanuatus new broom reformist foreign minister Regenvanu pointed to his countrys traditionally non-aligned stance, while prime minister Salwai said he would fiercely oppose any attempt to build a military base in the country.

They both might have added that back in the 1980s, Vanuatu  like many other Pacific island states  did rather well out of obtaining foreign assistance by playing on the rivalries of the Cold War era. They may now be in a good position to do so again.

Jon Fraenkel is a professor of comparative politics at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand
A guitar's serene melody fills the room at the Young Nak Celebration Church campus in South Los Angeles. A group of mostly Korean Americans sway to the rhythm of the music, their eyes closed and arms extended, their palms facing the ceiling as they worship God through the music. On Friday nights, Young Nak Celebration Church hosts series-based bible studies for their singles ministry called The Vine.



The Vine is aimed at adults who are over 30 and not married. It was founded by YNCC to provide community and fellowship for a demographic that felt displaced within the church. Like many Korean-American churches, YNCC had a ministry for young-adults and one for families, but people who fell in between didn't feel represented.

"It's a group that is an in-between. We call it 'the misfits.' We're not recently out of college and young-adult but we're not exactly married with children," Susan Cho, one of the leaders at The Vine said.

In South Korea, increasing numbers of people in their late 20s and early 30s are choosing to stay single. According to Statistics Korea, the number of middle-aged single-person households last year was up nearly 400 percent from 1995, making this the age group that has increased the fastest in the last two decades.

However, despite growing trends of singlehood, South Koreans still feel socially pressured to get married. According to a survey by Duo, a leading match making company, about two thirds of the Korean population felt pressured by their parents, and this stress only escalates during holidays such as Lunar New Year, which occurred in February. At YNCC, older singles find comfort in The Vine, which provides them a community of people who are in the same boat.

The Vine is a group of close to 70 members; although predominantly Korean American, they welcome any ethnicity. They host a variety of activities in addition to their weekly Friday night gatherings; with church retreats, Thanksgiving dinners, and trips to the Dodger games, The Vine has attracted people from other Korean churches around Los Angeles.

In fact, Cho isn't a member of YNCC, she goes to Hana Church in Buena Park, but she's part of The Vine because she enjoys being among other Christians going through some of the same issues she is, and her church doesn't have a ministry like this one.

"Young Nak already has a college/young adult ministry, so we figured there was a need for [a ministry] for professionals who are older," Cho said, "I guess it could apply to any age group, but we focus on gearing [our topics] to how they affect our particular age group differently."

Pastor Eugene Lee, the lead clergy at The Vine, said that the top three topics singles deal with are aging parents, work-related stress and loneliness. Although they have a lot more independence, being single means they don't have anyone to help them carry the load of an aging parent; and as they shift their focus away from marriage and place it on their career, work-related stress becomes more severe.

Jenny Pak, an associate professor of psychology at Fuller Theological Seminary, said another stressor for unmarried adults is the tension between themselves and older generations who still hold on to aspects of neo Confucianism.

"In the more traditional society, there was less of an acceptance or option for people to stay single," Pak said, "so among the older generation, this is something foreign and they have a hard time accepting it."

Peter Ma, a graduate student at the Talbot School of Theology and a participant at The Vine, felt pressure to marry, but says it decreased as he grew older.

"When I was in my 30s, there was a lot of pressure to both get married and do well in my career, but the older you get, the more people lay off the pressure; they just get tired of pushing," Ma said.

Members of The Vine say that they trust that God has a plan for them, including a reason to keep them unmarried. Lee said that biblically, there is nothing wrong with singlehood, and the church should neither force people to marry nor try to set up couples.

Lee stressed that YNCC had no intention of creating a matchmaking group. Instead, it created The Vine to give singles a sense of belonging, and if they ended up meeting a partner, that would only be a happy byproduct. However, he didn't know of any couples that had met through the ministry.

"The only thing [the church] can do is let them know how much God loves them and help them see where God can play a role in their future," he said, "For us at The Vine, what we like to encourage is to let people know that it's okay to be single, it's okay not to be married."
RCL Benziger Announces Exclusive United States Sales and Distribution Agreement with Veritas for Credo RCL Benziger Announces Exclusive United States Sales and Distribution Agreement with Veritas for Credo



Contact:



CINCINNATI, Ohio, April 24, 2018 /



The Credo series is a comprehensive presentation of the Catholic faith for high school students. In the series, students are called upon to live as people of faith through prayer, reflection, and meditation. The spiral format includes a strong social justice theme that moves "from life to faith to life," moving them from information to formation to transformation. The Credo series also speaks to the multicultural nature of the high school population and contains both print and digital components.



Catholic Publisher, RCL Benziger, is well known for its religious education programs for Catholic schools and parishes, making the company an ideal distribution partner with Veritas and the Credo series. The partnership will enable both organizations to meet the growing customer demand for more comprehensive solutions for Catholic high schools.



"We are excited to partner with RCL Benziger to expand our reach in the United States market," said Aidan Chester CEO, Veritas. "The series is already being used in schools across the country but this agreement will give Credo the on the ground presence needed to significantly increase the number of schools using the series. By joining forces with one of the most respected U.S. Catholic publishing houses, we are confident that many more schools across the U.S. will get to see the Credo series including the innovative interactive website that accompanies the series with additional resources for teachers, students, and their families."



"With the addition of Credo to our current product line, we can provide even more catechetical resources for Catholics of all ages from early childhood through adulthood," said Charley Cook, Vice President of RCL Benziger and Kendall Hunt Publishing. "Like RCL Benziger, Veritas is known for excellence in publishing and strictly following the catechetical guidelines of the Catholic Church, making them an ideal distribution partner. We are proud to add Credo to the many great resources we currently offer to the Catholic schools we serve and are confident that we can expand distribution of this valuable resource."



ABOUT RCL BENZIGER

RCL Benziger is one of the oldest publishers of Catholic educational materials and faith formation resources in the United States. Known for its digital product offerings and bilingual resources, RCL Benziger is a major provider of religious education programs for Catholic schools and parishes. The RCL Benziger family of products supports catechists, educators, students, families, and individuals. In 2016, Dubuque, Iowa-based Kendall Hunt Publishing Company acquired RCL Benziger, joining two leaders in the K-12 publishing industry. Family owned and operated, Kendall Hunt was previously part of William C. Brown that published religious education materials for the Catholic faith, starting with The Archdiocese of Chicago in the early 1970s, before expanding throughout the United States in the 1980s under the name Brown ROA. Visit



ABOUT VERITAS

Veritas is Ireland's leading religious publisher and retailer. They publish more than 40 books each year in the areas of theology, scripture, prayer, spirituality, parenting, counselling, children's issues, social commentary, and liturgical resource. They also publish religious education texts for primary and post-primary schools, which are used throughout Ireland, as well as the widely acclaimed Credo series in the U.S. In addition to a strong publishing profile, they are also Ireland's foremost religious retailer, with stores nationwide in Dublin, Cork, Derry, Ennis, Letterkenny, Monaghan, Naas, Newry, and Sligo. For more information visit



Share Tweet Contact: RCL Benziger's Director of Marketing, 877-275-4725CINCINNATI, Ohio, April 24, 2018 / Christian Newswire / -- Effective April 24, 2018, RCL Benziger, a Kendall Hunt company, announced today that it has established a strategic partnership with Veritas of Ireland to become the exclusive United States distributor of the Catholic high school series, Credo. Under the terms of this agreement, RCL Benziger will hold the exclusive rights to market, sell, and distribute the acclaimed series throughout the United States.The Credo series is a comprehensive presentation of the Catholic faith for high school students. In the series, students are called upon to live as people of faith through prayer, reflection, and meditation. The spiral format includes a strong social justice theme that moves "from life to faith to life," moving them from information to formation to transformation. The Credo series also speaks to the multicultural nature of the high school population and contains both print and digital components.Catholic Publisher, RCL Benziger, is well known for its religious education programs for Catholic schools and parishes, making the company an ideal distribution partner with Veritas and the Credo series. The partnership will enable both organizations to meet the growing customer demand for more comprehensive solutions for Catholic high schools."We are excited to partner with RCL Benziger to expand our reach in the United States market," said Aidan Chester CEO, Veritas. "The series is already being used in schools across the country but this agreement will give Credo the on the ground presence needed to significantly increase the number of schools using the series. By joining forces with one of the most respected U.S. Catholic publishing houses, we are confident that many more schools across the U.S. will get to see the Credo series including the innovative interactive website that accompanies the series with additional resources for teachers, students, and their families.""With the addition of Credo to our current product line, we can provide even more catechetical resources for Catholics of all ages from early childhood through adulthood," said Charley Cook, Vice President of RCL Benziger and Kendall Hunt Publishing. "Like RCL Benziger, Veritas is known for excellence in publishing and strictly following the catechetical guidelines of the Catholic Church, making them an ideal distribution partner. We are proud to add Credo to the many great resources we currently offer to the Catholic schools we serve and are confident that we can expand distribution of this valuable resource."ABOUT RCL BENZIGERRCL Benziger is one of the oldest publishers of Catholic educational materials and faith formation resources in the United States. Known for its digital product offerings and bilingual resources, RCL Benziger is a major provider of religious education programs for Catholic schools and parishes. The RCL Benziger family of products supports catechists, educators, students, families, and individuals. In 2016, Dubuque, Iowa-based Kendall Hunt Publishing Company acquired RCL Benziger, joining two leaders in the K-12 publishing industry. Family owned and operated, Kendall Hunt was previously part of William C. Brown that published religious education materials for the Catholic faith, starting with The Archdiocese of Chicago in the early 1970s, before expanding throughout the United States in the 1980s under the name Brown ROA. Visit www.RCLBenziger.com to learn more.ABOUT VERITASVeritas is Ireland's leading religious publisher and retailer. They publish more than 40 books each year in the areas of theology, scripture, prayer, spirituality, parenting, counselling, children's issues, social commentary, and liturgical resource. They also publish religious education texts for primary and post-primary schools, which are used throughout Ireland, as well as the widely acclaimed Credo series in the U.S. In addition to a strong publishing profile, they are also Ireland's foremost religious retailer, with stores nationwide in Dublin, Cork, Derry, Ennis, Letterkenny, Monaghan, Naas, Newry, and Sligo. For more information visit www.veritas.ie
Announcing the 2018 Winning Titles of the Christian Indie Awards

Contact: Sarah Bolme, Christian Small Publishers Association, 704-277-7194



CHARLOTTE, N.C., April 24, 2018 /Christian Newswire/ -- Christian Small Publishers Association (CSPA) is pleased to announce the winning titles for the 2018 Christian Indie Awards. The Christian Indie Awards honor books produced by small publishers and independent authors each year for outstanding contribution to Christian life.



Book lovers and retailers selling Christian products voted on the nominated titles in each of thirteen categories. "Independent publishers and small presses often publish unique books with story themes or topics that touch readers in new and profound ways," says Sarah Bolme, the Director of Christian Small Publishers Association, the sponsor of the award. "The Christian Indie Awards brings these books recognition."



The winners in each of the thirteen categories are:

Fiction:

Waiting for Butterflies, Karen Sargent, Walrus Publishing, 978-1940442204



Historical Fiction:

Solve by Christmas, Amber Schamel, Vision Writer Publications, 978-0999176726



Romance:

An Improper Proposal, Davalynn Spencer, 978-0998951201



Christian Living:

Pizza With Jesus (No Black Olives), P.J. Frick, Lighthouse Christian Publishing, 978-1546901709



Bible Study / Theology:

The Supremacy of Christ, Dr. William McCarrell and Rev. Richard McCarrell, Grace Acres Press, 978-1602650428



Devotional:

Delight Thyself Also In The Lord, Delight Thyself Design Ministries, Delight In Him Publications, 978-0999517505



Biography / Memoir:

Go West: 10 Principles that Guided My Cowboy Journey, Jeremy Sparks, Elevate Publishing,

978-0996465595



Relationships / Family:

Helicopter Mom, Bethany L. Douglas, 978-0983928867



Children's (age 4 to 8):

Made for a Purpose, Kristie Wilde, Wilde Art Press, 978-0997482805



Children's (age 8 to 12):

The Kool Kids & The Land Of The Giants, James Tate, author, Jay Reed, illustrator, Beyond W8 Loss, LLC, 978-0999131503



Young Adult (age 12+):

Huntress (Life After Book 1), Julie Hall, 978-0998986708



Gift Book:

Fear Not: You are in Partnership with God To Manage His Creation, Jose Bonilla, 978-1544144870



Christian Education:

Leading by Example: A Parental Guide To Teaching and Modeling Christian Faith At Home, Rev. Dr. Tim Tooten, Sr., 978-1545605318

The winning titles can be viewed at www.christianaward.com/2018winnners.



The Christian Indie Awards is sponsored by Christian Small Publishers Association (CSPA). A total of 189 titles were nominated for the award categories.



About Christian Small Publishers Association (CSPA):

CSPA represents and promotes small publishers and independent authors in the Christian marketplace. CSPA represents a membership of over 170 publishers and independent authors producing materials for the Christian Marketplace. CSPA is a supplier member of CBA. For more information about Christian Small Publishers Association visit www.christianpublishers.net.


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She continued, "Grassroots energy drives our campaign and I believe that channeling that energy into real conversations with voters will pave a pathway to victory in November."

Balter, a visiting assistant teaching professor and doctoral candidate at Syracuse University, is the designated Democratic candidate in the 24th district race. She won the support of the four county committees in February.

Until a few weeks ago, it appeared Balter wouldn't face a serious challenge for the Democratic nomination. And then Perez Williams, who was the Democratic candidate for Syracuse mayor last year, surprised local party officials by launching her campaign and circulating petitions. In nine days, her campaign  with the help of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee  collected more than 3,200 signatures.

To qualify for the primary ballot, candidates needed to collect and submit 1,250 valid signatures.

Dwire's objections to the petitions focused on technical issues, such as signers listing the incorrect town or city where their residence is located or canvassers not being registered Democrats.

Perez Williams is confident her petitions will survive the challenge.
An upstate county executive and a former top aide to ex-Gov. George Pataki have been selected to screen potential running mates for Republican gubernatorial hopeful Marc Molinaro.

Molinaro named Monroe County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo and former Secretary to the Governor John Cahill co-chairs of his lieutenant governor screening committee, his campaign announced Monday night.

Dinolfo, a Republican, was elected Monroe County executive in 2015. She previously served as county clerk from 2004 until being elected county executive.

"There is no shortage of qualified individuals who have already expressed interest in joining the ticket and I am honored to co-chair this committee on behalf of Marc's campaign," Dinolfo said in a statement.

Cahill was Pataki's top aide and is a former state Department of Environmental Conservation commissioner. He was the Republican candidate for state attorney general in 2014.

Molinaro has asked the lieutenant governor screening panel to "think outside the box" as it considers candidates to be his running mate.
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Termen extins: Terre des hommes Moldova este in cautarea unui /unei consultant/e sau a unei echipe de consultanti, care va elabora un program de instruire inovativ, pentru adolescenti (14 - 18 ani) in domeniul antreprenoriatului
AKRON, Ohio -- GAR Foundation announced it will grant $1,252,500 in funding to community organizations in Summit County this quarter.

The foundation released the list of recipients at its quarterly meeting in April.

Nonprofit organizations receiving grants, including ConxusNEO, ArtsNow, ACCESS, Inc., the Akron Art Museum and others, align with GAR Foundation's strategic efforts.

The full list of grant recipients is below.

ACCESS, Inc. will receive $140,000 for operations in 2018 and 2019.

Akron Art Museum will receive $100,000 for operations.

ArtsNow will receive $125,000 for operations specifically related to advancing arts and culture assets, such as its SummitLive365 website.

Boys & Girls Clubs of the Western Reserve will receive $85,000 for operations specifically supporting its out-of-school time programs.

Community Legal Aid will receive $30,000 for operations.

ConxusNEO will receive $125,000 for operations specifically related to improving connections between workers seeking employment and companies recruiting workers.

Crossroads Writers Conference will receive $12,500 for conference support.

Cuyahoga Valley Countryside Conservancy will receive $20,000 for farmers' market food access expansion.

Emmanuel Christian Academy will receive $35,000 for STEAM Academy.

Family & Community Services will receive $60,000 for the Mobile Meals program.

First Glance Student Center will receive $20,000 for operations.

GroundWorks Dance Theatre will receive $30,000 for operations and a challenge to increase donors to its annual campaign.

Leadership Akron will receive $55,000 for operations.

LINKS Family & Community Services will receive $25,000 for After School Academy.

Musical Arts Association will receive $65,000 for the 2018 Blossom Music Festival.

Neos Dance Theatre will receive $10,000 for operations.

None Too Fragile will receive $15,000 for the 2018 Off-Broadway Series.

Open Tone Music will receive $25,000 for Open Tone Music Academy.

Philanthropy Ohio will receive $5,000 for operations.

Project Learn of Summit County will receive $50,000 for operations.

Rebuilding Together Northeast Ohio will receive $20,000 for operations.

Shelter Care will receive $10,000 for Safe Landing.

South Street Ministries will receive $30,000 for operations.

Stan Hywet will receive $30,000 for a challenge grant for its 2018 Annual Fund.

Students with a Goal will receive $10,000 for operations.

Summit County Fatherhood Initiative will receive $10,000 for operations.

Summit Food Coalition will receive $25,000 for operations.

Urban Vision will receive $25,000 for the Set on Success program.

Victim Assistance Program will receive $30,000, for operations.

Western Reserve Historical Society will receive $30,000 for Hale Farm operations.

Visit GARFoundation.org for more information about the foundation's grant funding.

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BRECKSVILLE, Ohio -- The Brecksville-Broadview Heights school board has asked the district's Parent School Organizations -- volunteer groups that help with school activities and coordinate communication among parents, teachers and staff -- to stop and remove offensive and potentially defamatory comments on PSO Facebook pages.

Board President Kathleen Mack, in an April 23 letter to PSO Council President Philip Shipman, said the comments -- at least some coming from parents -- have appeared on Facebook pages of PSOs from Chippewa, Highland Drive and Hilton elementary schools, as well as from Brecksville-Broadview Heights High and Middle schools.

"The board understands that communication between parents, administration, teachers and staff can and should include constructive criticism, but certain Facebook posts have been nothing more than personal attacks against specific district employees," Mack wrote. "The board condemns such ad hominem attacks."

Mack said social-media attacks fail to enhance the PSOs' mission of promoting school events and activities, fostering positive communication and supporting pupils.

"In fact, such attacks tend either to stifle communications in general or cause communications to denigrate into name-calling or worse," Mack wrote. "The board's considered opinion is that such posts hinder positive change in the district."

Shipman, the PSO council president, did not return emails for comment.

On Monday night, Mack said board member Fred Pedersen will take the letter, which the PSOs have already received, to the next PSO meeting and solicit feedback. The topic will then come up in May when presidents of individual PSOs give reports to the board.

"Then we can possibly move forward in June, creating a shared vision for what we hope is promoting social media responsibility with everybody in our community," Mack said Monday night.

The stir over negative Facebook posts isn't the first controversial issue the board has faced this year. In February, parents packed a board meeting to express concerns over school security, and at least two parents complained about ongoing bullying at Central Middle School.

In March, two pupils found a loaded gun magazine or clip in the high school parking lot. The ammunition had been accidentally dropped there by a teacher. The district said the teacher, although possessing a permit to carry a concealed weapon, did not bring a gun onto school property.

Legal liability

PSO Facebook pages are open only to parents and guardians of children attending the Brecksville-Broadview Heights district, and, on at least some pages, teachers and staff members. The Chippewa PSO Facebook page says its purpose is to share information with families about school, PSO, district and community events.

The Chippewa PSO Facebook page says it has no content restrictions for its members, but reserves the right to remove posts judged out of context or irrelevant.

"Please keep our FB page clean from slander so that we are not forced to turn off member postings access," the Chippewa PSO Facebook page says.

In her April 23 letter to Shipman, Mack said the district has benefited from its relationships with PSOs and plans to continue those relationships. However, she said any comments posted on PSO Facebook pages reflect on the district, even though PSOs are separate from the schools.

Mack acknowledged that the board has no authority to regulate speech on PSO Facebook pages, but because the pages carry the district's name and logo, the schools have an interest in what is posted there. She asked the PSOs to regulate their own Facebook speech and remove posts that are out of line -- and even pre-approve posts.

Mack warned that posters can be held liable in court for defamatory or obscene posts. She said federal law prohibits defamed persons from suing the company that hosts a social media platform, but the poster and PSO can be held liable. She also feared that the board might be dragged into a lawsuit, even though the board and PSO are separate entities.

"The board's express concern is a direct result of the board's appreciation for all the good work the PSOs do," Mack said. "The last thing that the board or any PSO member wants is that these positive accomplishments become overshadowed by name-calling and slurs."

Feeling unheard

Mack, in emails to cleveland.com, said the negative PSO Facebook comments are not restricted to one particular issue. When asked, she didn't say when the board started noticing PSO members attacking district workers on Facebook.

Mack said the board is trying proactively to set an expectation of civility and responsibility on social media.

"We had a speaker come to the schools (earlier this year) and address parents about social media and personal responsibility," Mack said. "We hope that our parent groups will see that the social media expectations we have for our students are the same for our parents."

Mack didn't say how prevalent the Facebook attacks have been.

"I would say it happens when people feel unheard," Mack said. "The BOE wants everyone to have a voice and receive feedback. The BOE believes this is best done through face-to-face, one-on-one conversations, phone calls or emails."

Mack said parents can always contact board members with concerns "if parents have followed the proper channels in place to have concerns addressed, and they do not feel a resolution has been attained."
BRECKSVILLE, Ohio -- The city has chosen a Cleveland construction firm to install a new water main under Brecksville Road between Parkview Drive and Miller Road.

Fabrizi Trucking & Paving Co. Inc. will earn $537,155 for the work, scheduled for this summer. The start date hasn't been determined, but Fabrizi must finish the project by July 31 under its contract with the city, unless weather causes delays.

City Council approved the contract earlier this month. The Cleveland Division of Water will reimburse the city for the entire cost of the project.

City Engineer Gerald Wise said the existing water main, made of cast iron, was installed in the 1960s. The new ductile iron pipe will meet current Cleveland water division standards.

"The (existing water main) breaks several times a year, the highest break rate in Brecksville," Wise told cleveland.com in an email.

It's not a new problem. The city asked the water division to replace the main in 2015. At the time, Wise said the Brecksville Road water main between Parkview and Miller was ranked in the top tier of break frequency, as tracked by the water division.

Four other companies submitted bids for the project. The companies were Terrace Construction Co. Inc. in Cleveland, which bid $577,650; Rudzik Excavating in Struthers, which bid $634,534; Karvo Cos. in Stow, which bid $695,652; and S.E.T. Inc. in Lowellville, which bid $780,654. The engineer's estimate was $785,000.

Wise said the project will include replacing the water-pressure regulator and adding fire hydrants so that hydrants are placed every 300 feet, meeting current design standards.

"Current fire hydrant spacing is about every 600 feet to 700 feet, which isn't uncommon for an older main," Wise said.

Wise said traffic will be maintained in both directions during construction. The project will not affect the southbound lanes, but one of the two northbound through lanes will likely be closed.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- FirstEnergy today provided investors a rosy glimpse of the future, reporting that it earned $1.2 billion, or $2.54 per share, during the first three months of this year, about five times what it reported during the first three months of 2017.

The difference -- an accounting gain -- is due to the decision of FirstEnergy's power plant subsidiary FirstEnergy Solutions to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from its creditors on March 31, the last day of the first quarter.

A second hearing in the FES bankruptcy case has been scheduled for later this week, but FirstEnergy today telegraphed a sort of prediction on that as well, announcing that two groups of key creditors in the case have agreed "in principle" to "fully release FirstEnergy and related parties from all claims."

The creditors involved in the agreement also agreed to work to persuade remaining key creditors as well as the "Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors" in the case join the settlement by June 15.

Charles Jones, CEO of FirstEnergy, told analysts during a live morning teleconference to discuss the financial results that the bankruptcy filing lifted $1.2 billion in charges from the balance sheet of FirstEnergy.

That teleconference is available as a recording on the investor pages of the company's website.

The tentative agreement, which must still be approved by the FirstEnergy board of directors and FES, commits FirstEnergy to providing assistance to FES and to the FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. during the bankruptcy restructuring, according to a statement FirstEnergy released immediately after announcing its quarterly financial results.

The agreement also "affirms FirstEnergy's previously announced guarantees and assurances of certain FES employee-related obligations, which include unfunded pension obligations and other employee benefits."

But most important to FirstEnergy's shareholders and future investors, the agreement with creditors, if approved by the bankruptcy court, "is intended to fully release FirstEnergy and related parties from all claims."

The bankruptcy could end with FES selling or closing its power plants, which the company has said cannot compete well with new gas turbines burning cheap shale gas nor with wind farms still receiving a federal production tax credit.

FirstEnergy has tried since 2014 to secure major new sources of funds for its old power plants because of their competitive disadvantages.

Jones has campaigned for nearly two years, first trying to persuade the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to approve special charges,, then trying to persuade state lawmakers to credit the contribution the nuclear plants make to clean air because they don't emit CO2, and later trying to convince federal policy makers that the big power plants provide stability to the nation's high-voltage grid. None of the efforts were successful.

The company has also made it clear for the last 18 months that it wants out of competitive markets and to become, one way or another, a fully regulated company.

On Mar. 28, FirstEnergy Solutions, which legally owns the plants, announced that it would close its two remaining Ohio River coal power plants and its three nuclear power plants -- Davis-Besse near Toledo, Perry near Cleveland and Beaver Valley near Pittsburgh -- within three years.

On Mar. 29, FES asked the U.S. Department of Energy to declare an emergency and order grid managers to develop a way to allow the owners of nuclear and coal plants to receive above market prices for the electricity they generate because the large old power plants store fuel on site and provide stability to the grid.

Still, letting go of the company's power plants and their employees appears to weigh heavily on Jones.

"We recognize that these recent events, including FES' announcement that it intends to sell or deactivate [the nuclear plants] have been challenging for our employees. They are also difficult for the communities surrounding these plants that have worked hard to help preserve...," Jones told analysts.

"We understand the importance of these plants to the regional economy, and recognize that more than 5 million of our utility customers are still exposed to the uncertainty of the competitive markets. Therefore, I personally will continue to advocate for regulatory or legislative solutions.

"I continue to believe we are doing long-term damage to our nation's infrastructure," Jones said of the closing of old coal and nuclear power plants.
Construction vehicles, farm equipment and other machinery with slow moving vehicle emblems would be allowed to operate at slightly higher speeds under legislation proposed by two New York state lawmakers.

The bill sponsored by state Sen. Pam Helming and Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner would increase the speed slow moving vehicles with the appropriate signage can operate from 25 mph to 35 mph.

A slow moving vehicle emblem is a triangular fluorescent orange sign usually attached to the rear of construction vehicles, horse-drawn buggies, tractors or other farm equipment.

Under existing state law, farm vehicles operating at more than 25 mph aren't required to display the slow moving vehicle emblem.

According to the bill's justification, the sponsors introduced the measure to allow state regulations to keep pace with improvements in farm equipment technology. More tractors and other machinery can travel at speeds of 35 mph or more.

Iowa has already changed its speed for slow moving vehicles to 35 mph.

The increased speeds wouldn't alter the requirement to display the slow moving vehicle emblem. The bill would continue to mandate that the emblem is displayed on farm machinery and other slow moving vehicles.
Let the pastrami slicing begin. Larder, a chef-driven delicatessen with Eastern European leanings opens today at 1455 West 29th St., sharing the same 1845 Ohio City Firehouse building with Rising Star Coffee.

Jeremy Umansky and his wife Allie La Valle, both graduates of Culinary Institute of America, and their partner Kenny Scott, are at the helm. Both Umansky and Scott worked at Jonathon Sawyer's Trentina restaurant where Umansky made a name for himself as a forager and fermenter.

In a private tasting on Monday, the trio served these highlights, all made in-house:

Lean, thick-cut pastrami with fork tenderness. Right now in the rotation, they also make a "ham" styled lamb and a rustic bologna. All three had classic flavors but none of the highly-salted or chemical aftertaste of commercial versions.

Kettle-styled chips sprinkled with their toasted yeast seasoning and served with creamy, foraged wild onion and garlic dip.

Red cabbage sauerkraut, or turnip kraut with caraway.

Breads incorporating spent grains from beer-making, including a dense rye with caraway.

Matzo Ball Soup with gentle sage-like flavors.

A dark-chocolate brownie so fudgy you could spread it on bread.

Architecturally, the owners retained the building's fire poles and towering arched doorways once used by Clydesdale fire-wagon horses. Oak cabinetry from a former Cleveland elementary school lines one wall, another has Scott family firefighting memorabilia from Newton Falls.

Larder will be open 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday. The deli plans future pop-up dinners, private parties, and classes in foraging, fermenting and baking. They can be reached at https://www.facebook.com/larderdb and 216- 912-8203.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A grand jury indicted two men in the disappearance and death of a Cleveland Heights mother.

Yaphet Bradley is accused of fatally shooting and stabbing Miriam Johnson, the 31-year-old mother of his four children, and Calvin Young is accused of helping Bradley hide Johnson's body in a trash can at a vacant Cleveland house.

A grand jury on Monday handed up an indictment charging Bradley with aggravated murder, aggravated burglary, kidnapping, domestic violence, tampering with evidence and gross abuse of a corpse. Young was charged in the same indictment with aggravated burglary, offenses against a human corpse and tampering with evidence.

Both men have been in custody since early April and are set for a Thursday arraignment in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.

Johnson's body was found March 25, about three weeks after her mother reported her missing to police.

Bradley has a history of domestic violence cases against Johnson, prosecutors say, and Johnson's mother told police that her daughter had recently received her income tax check and that Bradley often would "come around" when her daughter had money, according to a police report.

Investigators determined that Bradley attacked and killed Johnson at her apartment around Feb. 26, and enlisted Young to help to get rid of her body, according to police and court records.

Young told police that he and Bradley bought a 64-gallon garbage can, Bradley stuffed her body into the garbage can, and the two men rented a U-Haul and drove the can to an abandoned home on Chamberlain Avenue in Cleveland's Fairfax neighborhood and left it behind, according to court records.

Police arrested Young on March 28. The U.S. Marshals arrested Bradley two days later outside a CVS pharmacy in Shaker Square, where he rammed a task force officer's cruiser while trying to escape, the marshals said.

"It is very sad that four children are without a mother due to these barbaric actions," Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley said in an emailed statement. "We will fight for Miriam on behalf of her family."

To comment on this story, please visit Tuesday's crime and courts comments page.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cuyahoga County's budget is a little fatter now that $7.3 million in unclaimed cash have been transferred into the general fund.

The money is generally from checks issued by the county, but returned as undeliverable mail. In some cases, the checks were received but not cashed. Other funds are from unused deposits.

State law allows counties to transfer money that has not been claimed for five years to the general fund, but the county discovered some money in funds dating to 2005, said spokeswoman Mary Louise Madigan.

Budget officials expected to transfer $4.5 million but discovered a total of $7.3 million in unclaimed funds. It is expected that several million will be used to cover shortfalls in sales tax revenue.

Madigan could not explain why the money had not been transferred earlier.

"This is due diligence," she said. "We're supposed to do this transfer and use the funds for the public good. Finding dollars is something everyone likes."

According to a summary given to County Council, the administration of County Executive Armond Budish noted that the transfer "does not release the County of its liability to pay should a claim be made, but the expectation is that after so long the claims will be minimal."

Following are the unclaimed cash totals by year:

2005: $263,445.26

2006: $273,972.10

2007: $306,288.56

2008: $347,481.84

2009: $287,808.39

2010: $527,546.61

2011: $1,171,819.42

2012: $1,361,863,42

Total: $4,540,225.56

In addition, $2,813,226.99 in unclaimed funds were transferred primarily from the Sheriff's Department, and the county's Probate Court, Prosecutor's Office and Clerk of Courts.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cuyahoga County's Department of Consumer Affairs can now investigate and enforce consumer laws under legislation approved Tuesday by County Council.

The legislation created a new section in the county's code that gives the county the power to enforce consumer-protection laws as well as weights-and-measures laws, including those in the Ohio Revised Code and Ohio Administrative Code.

In the past, investigators with the department could attempt to mediate a resolution to a complaint against a business, but were unable to pursue legal action. Instead, they had to refer cases to an appropriate agency.

The legislation was amended Tuesday to indicate that the county executive, through the department's director, would investigate complaints and the county would file any legal actions. That would provide more direct accountability, officials said.

After much discussion, council rejected an amendment, proposed by council member Jack Schron and supported by the Greater Cleveland Automobile Dealers Association, to have all complaints about new cars initially be handled through the Ohio Attorney General's Office through its Automotive Consumer Action Program, a third-party dispute resolution program for new motor vehicle dealers, sponsored by the Ohio Automobile Dealers Association.

See the legislation below or click here if on a mobile device.

Under the legislation, the county, through the director, may:

Investigate a violation or a complaint.

Attempt dispute resolution, including mediation with the parties.

Refer a complaint or a violation to the county prosecutor, Ohio attorney general, Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or other appropriate agencies with jurisdiction over the complaint.

Enforce violations through civil actions.

"We can right wrongs and halt unfair practices," Sheryl Harris, the department's director, recently told a council committee. "When warranted, we can order restitution for consumers, which is what consumers are hoping when they come to us."

Summit County's Department of Consumer Affairs has enforcement powers. Summit County is the only other charter county in the state. The City of Cleveland's Office of Fair Housing & Consumer Affairs also has enforcement authority written into its ordinance.

Cuyahoga County's ordinance is modeled on the state's Consumer Sales Practices Act. County Council established the Department of Consumer Affairs in 2012.

In other business, council:

1. Approved a new employee travel policy that 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.

2. Introduced a resolution to establish a community development grant program. The resolution formalizes a 2016 council vote to create the Community Development Supplemental Grant program and distribute $1 million a year in casino tax revenue to community programs. The program, which provided awards of up toe $50,000, was supposed to last two years but has been so successful that council wants to continue it.

3. Introduced a resolution to buy a home adjacent to the Cuyahoga County Airport and provide relocation expenses.

The legislation would allow the county to pay $128,000 for a home at 430 Richmond Road in Richmond Heights and $80,000 for relocation costs.

The legislation said the property is in a protective area on the airport's master plan approved by the Federal Aviation Administration in 2010.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Voter turnout in Cuyahoga County for the May 8 primary is projected to be about 26 percent, a slight decline from earlier projections, Board of Elections Director Pat McDonald said Tuesday.

"Vote by mail got off to a strong start but is starting to slow down," he said in a news release. "This election now looks a lot like the 2014 gubernatorial primary fifteen days prior to the election."

There are 213 candidates running for 71 offices and judicial seats with 37 contested races. Both major parties are holding contested primary races for governor and the Republicans have a contested primary race for the U.S. Senate.

The ballot also includes a statewide issue that would change the method Ohio lawmakers use to determine boundaries of congressional districts. And nearly 1,000 Democrats are running for county Central Committee seats.

McDonald expects that at least 229,000 people will vote with 77,000 ballots cast by mail and by people voting early at the board.

More than 70,000 people have requested vote-by-mail ballots and more than 700 have voted early at the board. The vote-by-mail numbers are similar to those of the May 2014 election. However, the number of early voters is almost double compared to the same time period in 2014, the board reported.

About 67 percent of the ballot requests are Democratic, similar to four years ago, the board said.

There has been an upswing in the number of Republicans who are requesting ballots from 17 percent when early voting began April 10 to 28 percent on Tuesday, the board said.

For more information and to request a ballot application visit: 443vote.com, or call 216-443-VOTE (8683). They are also available at all public libraries.

Following are the voting hours at all boards of elections:

Weekdays through Friday: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Weekdays: April 30 - May 4: 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Saturday: May 5: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Sunday: May 6: 1 to 5 p.m.

Monday, May 7: 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Passed over to be President Trump's running mate and Secretary of State, Rudy Giuliani is now Trump's new Mr. Fix-it as Michael Cohen faces an expected federal indictment.

Giuliani walked on to Trump's legal team promising to bring a quick end to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.

"I'm doing it because I hope we can negotiate an end to this for the good of the country and because I have high regard for the president and for Robert Mueller," said Giuliani. "I don't think it's going to take more than a week or two to get a resolution, Giuliani told the New York Post.

Rudy's promise of a quick resolution has at the very least brought levity to the intensifying investigation. Giuliani's boast reportedly brought laughs from Mueller's team of investigators.

A lawyer following the case told Fox Business, "If Rudy comes to Mueller trying to negotiate anything short of presidential guilty plea, he will likely be met by deaf ears." It was a sentiment echoed by other former veteran federal prosecutors familiar with Mueller and lawyers on his team.

Giuliani is just the latest in the line of Trump attorney's who have predicted a quick conclusion to the investigation. Both Trump's personal attorneys and White House lawyers had previously told Trump the investigation would be over by last Thanksgiving.

If it was really realistic that Rudy could end the investigation is a few weeks, Trump also would not have just hired criminal defense lawyers Marty and Jane Raskin. The Florida based husband-and-wife legal team are former Department of Defense attorneys. In their private practice they specialize in defending white-collar clients and public officials who have been indicted or are under investigation. They promote their specialty in defending against search warrants and protecting attorney client privilege.

With the Cohen raid, and other investigation targets still cooperating, the Mueller investigation is more likely to expand, rather than concluded soon.

Giuliani is expected to be the lead public voice of Trump's defense, but he's already failed to usurp Trump in that role. Not long after Giuliani said he would bring the investigation to a close, Trump was opening his mouth and further incriminating himself. The president publicly let it be known that Michael Cohen would not flip on him. By making the statement, Trump was acknowledging Cohen actually may have damaging information on Trump that would be of interest to federal prosecutors.
SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio -- The last parcel at Oakwood Commons will soon be developed, and a closed restaurant at the shopping center could see new life.

These are just a couple of the business happenings taking place in South Euclid as spring arrives.

Economic Development Director Michael Love said Valvoline Instant Oil Change will build on a 5,000-square-foot piece of property at the five-year-old shopping center Oakwood Commons.

"They're building on the north end (of Oakwood Commons), along Warrensville Center Road," Love said. "That's the last remaining parcel there."

Love further said that Seasons Kosher Market is gearing for a mid- to late-summer opening at Oakwood Commons, near Mo's Southwest Grill. There has been a bit of delay in opening the kosher supermarket, which was expected to begin doing business last fall.

The South Euclid location will be Season's eighth in the country and first in the Midwest. It also has stores in such places as Queens, N.Y., Lakewood, N.J., Scarsdale, N.Y., and Baltimore.

When asked about the closed Steak 'n Shake restaurant at Oakwood Commons, Love said that the franchise is working with First Interstate Properties, the shopping center's developers, to find another possible tenant.

"That's good news," Love said. "The restaurant could re-open and they could wrap up the (prior owners') legal issues."

Those who went through the Steak 'n Shake drive-thru Dec. 22, and weeks after, were met with this sign. The store unexpectedly closed after just 10 months in business.

Love said that the two partners who opened the Steak 'n' Shake in February, 2017, were involved in a disagreement between themselves and with their lender. The store closed without warning Dec. 22 after being in business just 10 months. Love and others found on that day a sign in the drive-thru window telling of the closing.

The restaurant could open under another name or, Love said, Steak 'n Shake's owners could decide to operate it as a franchise store.

In other business news, Love said that the long delay in the start of construction of Planet Fitness has ended, as construction has begun.

"Planet Fitness should be completed before the end of 2018," Love said.

It was announced in December, 2016, that Planet Fitness would build a two-story, 20,000-square-foot building at Cedar Center North behind the center's Bob Evans Restaurant. Planet Fitness bought the 1.8-acre piece of property from the city for $1 million.

It is to be the first building Planet Fitness builds locally specifically for its own use. It is expected to become Planet Fitness's Greater Cleveland flagship location. It has 13 locations in Greater Cleveland, stretching from Mentor to the east, Brunswick to the south, and to the west, North Olmsted.

At the time the deal was announced, it was expected, but not confirmed, that Planet Fitness would be built and in operation in South Euclid by late 2017.

More business news

-- Love said that McDonald's Restaurant, 4500 Mayfield Road, is nearing completion of its renovation.

"It's a full-building renovation," Love said. "They've gutted the inside and they're building a new lobby. It will be somewhat unique because there will be more colors in our store's lobby (than in others)."

The restaurant's owners have removed a seldom-used driveway that had crossed in front of the building. It's being replaced with landscaping and a walkway that will connect it with the Mayfield Road sidewalk.

During the renovation, the drive-thru has remained open, although it will close soon for about three days so that work can be completed. Walk-in business, Love said, had been curtailed for about two weeks.

-- Three landscaping businesses have moved into formerly vacant buildings in the Monticello Boulevard-South Green Road industrial area.

Blossom Earthworks & Design has moved into 442 S. Green Road, while Brown Landscaping is now the occupant of 445 S. Green Road. Meanwhile, Lawn Lad Inc. is now doing business at 441 S. Green Road.

Love said all three businesses do residential landscaping work, while Blossom and Lawn Lad also perform landscaping work at large commercial properties.

-- One South Euclid, the city's non-profit community development corporation, has awarded for the first time storefront renovation grants.

In all, 10 businesses applied to get a share of the $30,000 awarded.

The bar-eatery Black Forest, 4368 Mayfield Road, was awarded $17,000. It will use the money to create a patio featuring new doors and windows that will open the business up to the sidewalk.

Just Cats Pet Hospital, 4128 Mayfield Road, received $10,000. It will use the money to install a new facade and an outdoor mural on the building's side.

The owners of the 4431 Building, home to Hillcrest Academy of Martial Arts, 4431 Mayfield Road, received $3,000. The building will be re-painted and get new awnings.

"The winners were chosen on the basis of being the most transformational projects that could be finished with the money available," Love said. "The hope is that (the awards program) will continue in 2019 with more money available."
MEDINA, Ohio -- The Medina City School District has a 5.2-mill substitute levy on the May 8 ballot. It is a permanent levy that would replace the current five-year 5.9-mill operating levy that expires in December.

Kids First Medina, a local parent-run organization, held an event on Medina's square this past weekend to raise awareness about the levy. School board members, City Council members, educators, students and parents all came out to show their support.

Terese Rawlins and Lauri Walburn, Kids First co chairs, organized the rally and have planned more events in the days leading up to the election.

Kathy Posener, also a Kids First member, shared that "this is not a new tax, which means that you, as a homeowner, would be paying the same amount that you've been paying for the last five years."

"Additionally, there is going to be a bond issue that will be falling off of your tax bill on Dec. 31, as well, so you will see a slight decrease to your tax bill," Posener said.

This is a point that has been emphasized and reiterated throughout the course of the levy campaign.

"It's not very often that a school district is able to reach out to the community and say 'right now, we don't need more money, and we're gonna do more,' and that's exactly what we're doing," said Superintendent Aaron Sable.

Sable said the levy would allow the district to maintain current programs and add others. For example, the high school would be able to reinstate its French curriculum, which was cut several years ago.

Sable said more than 100 students have signed up to take French.

The levy would also help fund the new districtwide all-day kindergarten program, which will be offered free to all families. All-day kindergarten was one of the most-requested items in the district's latest master plan, according to community surveys.

"Our schools are your schools," Sable said. "They're truly the entire community's schools, so we will continue to get feedback from the community to decide the direction of our schools and ensure that our students are successful."

City Council members Bill Lamb, Paul Rose and Denny Simpson also came to the rally to speak in support of the levy.

Simpson said good school systems are one of the main factors that draw people to a community. It is a top concern for people looking to move to a new city, he said, making the levy beneficial to Medina.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A pair of robbers chased down and fired guns at a man early Tuesday as they robbed him near Fat Cats restaurant in Tremont, police say.

The 30-year-old victim was not hurt in the incident that happened about 12:10 a.m. near the intersection of Thurman Avenue and West 10th Street.

One robber used a semi-automatic rifle, and the other robber used a 9mm handgun, a Cleveland police report says.

The victim lives in an apartment building adjacent to Fat Cats, which is also owned by the restaurant's owner, Ricardo Sandoval. Sandoval said his tenant was headed home from a night of work when the two robbers ran up to him near the intersection.

The robbers wore black bandanas over their faces and sounded as if they were disguising their voices so that they would sound older, the report says.

The pair flashed their guns and ordered the victim to the ground, the report says. When the man didn't immediately comply, one gunman shot a bullet near his feet, the report says. The man got on the ground and the pair fired another shot near his head, the report says.

The robbers demanded that the man hand over his belongings. They stole his iPhone, $140 in cash and credit cards before running to a car and driving away, the report says.

Sandoval combed through his property's surveillance footage, which showed what he believed to be a dark 2002-2004 Nissan Altima driving through the area immediately before the robbers ran up on the victim. Police have not said if they believe the car was an Altima.

Investigators found two bullet casings at the scene -- a 9mm and a 22LR, the reports says. Police haven't announced any arrests in the case.

"These people don't value life," Sandoval said. "You want to be part of a solution for what's happening (in this area), or you just let it happen and it gets overrun...It won't get overrun with me down here. End of story."

Sandoval, who has done business in that corner of Tremont for two decades, shared the video in hopes that it would help lead to the robbers' arrest.

"I know we'll catch these people, rest assured," Sandoval said. "They will do time, and when it does go to trial, we will look for the longest sentence possible."

To comment on this story, visit Tuesday's crime and courts comments page.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - The top judge in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court has issued an order to join the more than 40 lawsuits filed against University Hospitals' fertility clinic into a single case.

Judge John Russo, the court's administrative and presiding judge, issued the opinion "to allow for a convenient administration of the cases in promoting judicial economy and to afford justice to the parties," he wrote.

Russo noted that all of the more than 40 lawsuits filed to date by more than 70 named plaintiffs are "substantially the same."

Consolidation will allow all of the plaintiffs consistent adjudication with one judge, "while also independently maintaining the protection of their rights as each case will still retain its own unique identity under the law," Russo wrote.

UH's lawyers had sought consolidation since the lawsuits began following the events of March 3-4, when a temperature fluctuation in a fertility center storage tank destroyed as many as 4,000 eggs and embryos belonging to 950 patients.

UH argued that all of the cases were based on the same series of events and involved common questions of law alleging negligence and breach of contract.

Consolidating the cases, UH said, would allow the opposing parties to streamline discovery and remove the need for multiple depositions of the same witnesses; conserve resources and reduce expenses; allow the litigation to proceed along a single, unified path; and avoid the risk of inconsistent adjudications.

For now, all of the cases will be consolidated onto the docket of Judge Stuart Friedman, although it is undecided whether he will keep the cases because he was planning to retire at the end of the year. Friedman has offered to continue to preside over the UH cases and work past his retirement date.

The consolidation does not answer the question of whether the cases qualify for class action status. The majority of plaintiffs' lawyers have expressed their intention to pursue a class action, although several of the lawyers say they will seek individual litigation separate from a class.

For instance, Michelle and Bryan Roman of Solon have filed motions defending their plans to pursue individual claims "to avoid being lumped in with unnamed class members or being compelled to litigate class certification."

Russo's consolidation order included an exception for a case brought by Wendy and Rick Penniman of Broadview Heights, because theirs is an action for declaratory judgment and does not involve the similar questions of fact and law presented in the other cases.

A declaratory judgment is a ruling by a court that determines the rights of parties without ordering anything be done or awarding damages.

Bruce Taubman, the Pennimans' lawyer, filed a separate lawsuit with a different judge asking the court to determine whether their embryos were human lives.

The Pennimans maintain that UH treated their embryos as chattel, or property, and has only offered to reimburse them for the production of the embryos, not for the loss of a potential son or daughter.

The Pennimans "view the embryos as patients of UH who should have been protected as such," their lawsuit says.

"The Pennimans contend that life begins at conception, meaning the embryos have the legal status of a person," according to the lawsuit.

Although the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a fetus is not a person, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in the 1985 case Werling vs. Sandy that a viable fetus is a person, and that a fetus begins at conception.

Judge Deena Calabrese has not yet scheduled a hearing on the issue.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is assisting Herkimer County officials with a request to establish a memorial honoring Gregory Jarvis, an upstate New York native who was one of seven astronauts killed in the space shuttle Challenger disaster 32 years ago.

Local officials and Central Valley school district students support the creation of a public memorial honoring Jarvis. The planning is in its early stages, but organizers hope to include artifacts from his life in Herkimer County and his work as a NASA astronaut. The artifacts, Schumer, D-N.Y., said, could include equipment, mission photos and copies of awards.

"Mr. Jarvis was a hero close to the hearts of many in this community, and his instrumental role in advancing the scientific and space exploration efforts of NASA should be permanently enshrined right here in Herkimer County," Schumer said in a statement.

Herkimer County Legislator John Brezkinski added, "This is the best gift we could have asked for. We're thrilled with Senator Schumer's support of Herkimer County youth in their request to acquire artificats from NASA for the memorial of Astronaut Greg Jarvis."
AKON, Ohio -- A South Carolina man was sentenced to 25 years in prison Tuesday for sex crimes he committed in Akron decades ago, prosecutors said.

John Kruger, 51.

Summit County Common Pleas Court Judge Jill Lanzinger sentenced John Kruger, 51, of Walterboro, South Carolina in the sexual assault of three minors in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Summit County Prosecutor's Office said.

The abuse took place over five years, officials said.

Kruger drugged and assaulted the minors between 13 and 16 years old. He pleaded guilty to several counts of sexual battery and unlawful sexual conduct in January, prosecutors said.

Kruger must register as a sex offender once he's released from jail for the remainder of his life, authorities said.

To comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments section.
STREETSBORO, Ohio -- A 13-year-old boy expressed a desire to harm himself and went to a medical center for an evaluation four days before he is accused of fatally shooting his younger brother, according to police reports.

The boy's stepmother went to the Streetsboro Police Department Thursday to report that he was being unruly. The 13-year-old boy was later taken to a behavioral health center for an evaluation, according to a police report.

The police report does not offer any details of the evaluation, but the boy was arrested late Monday and charged in the fatal shooting of his 11-year-old brother. Investigators called the shooting "premeditated" and said the older boy has been charged with the juvenile equivalent of aggravated murder.

Cleveland.com is not identifying the 11-year-old boy because doing so would indirectly identify his 13-year-old brother. Cleveland.com does not identify juvenile suspects unless they are charged as adults.

The 13-year-old boy is in custody at the Portage County Juvenile Detention Center, police said.

A family friend was babysitting the boys at their home on Alden Drive when the shooting occurred. Officers arrived and found the 11-year-old boy with a gunshot wound, police said.

The younger boy died after paramedics took him to University Hospitals Portage Medical Center in Ravenna, police said.

The 13-year-old boy stole a handgun from his grandfather's home, police said. Investigators did not offer a motive for the shooting.

The Streetsboro Police Department on Tuesday released several police reports for calls to the Alden Drive home.

In one March 17, 2017 incident, Portage County Sheriff's Office deputies found the 13-year-old boy near Twin Lake. The boy told the deputies that he did not know how he got to the lake.

The boys' father was also charged with violating a protection order when he showed up at the Alden Drive home on March 26, 2015, a report says.

The protection order was granted in 2012 but the father had since received full custody of his children. Investigators determined there was not enough evidence to remove the children, the report says.

The 11-year-old boy was a fifth grade student at the Streetsboro City Schools, the district said in a brief statement. The district is providing counseling to students on Tuesday.

Last night we lost one of our 5th graders in a tragic incident. Grief counselors will be available at Henry Defer Intermediate and the Middle School. State testing at those buildings is cancelled for today.  Streetsboro Schools (@StreetsboroSD) April 24, 2018

To comment on this story, visit Tuesday's crime and courts comments page.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A man accused of carjacking another man at gunpoint in Ohio City and who is the suspect in another arrested Saturday after a short chase with Cleveland police.

Zyshonne Austin Harris, 18, is charged with aggravated robbery. He is being held in the Cuyahoga County Jail on $200,000 bond after his first court appearance on Monday.

A supervisor about 11:30 p.m. Saturday approved officers to chase after two armed carjackers who sped from police after being tracked to Kerruish Park, according to police reports.

The driver sped from officers and eventually crashed into a parked car, police said. No one was injured. Austin-Harris and the driver ran from the car, police said. Austin-Harris was arrested while the driver managed to escape.

The robbery happened about a half-hour earlier in the 2000 block of Freeman Street, east of Columbus Road.

A 35-year-old Parma man and a 36-year-old friend told police they parked in front of a friend's house. The two robbers ran up to them as they got out of the 35-year-old man's car, police reports say.

Both robbers had their hoods pulled up over their heads, police reports say.

The 35-year-old man told police he instinctively grabbed one of the robber's wrists until he realized the man had a gun in his hand. He let go, the robber pointed the gun at him and demanded his keys and cellphone, according to police reports.

The man gave up the keys to his 2017 Toyota Yaris iA and his iPhone. The 36-year-old man didn't have his cellphone so he gave the robbers the keys to his 2015 Chevy Cruze, police reports say.

Officers tracked the 35-year-old man's phone using the Find My iPhone app, according to police reports. Officers watched as the phone stopped moving at Kerruish Park, about an 11-mile drive, according to police reports.

Officers spotted the car stolen Toyota with two men inside at the park, police reports say. They backed out of their parking spot and started to drive away when they noticed the police cars, according to police reports.

The officers' supervisor approved the chase that spanned about three miles until the car crashed on East 154th Street and Kinsman Avenue, police reports say.

Officers noted that the 35-year-old man's stolen iPhone was in Austin-Harris' pocket after they arrested him.

The chase came days after city officials and the police union questioned the city's chase policy and how it is carried out by supervisors in the wake of officers taking gunfire on two separate incidents in one week.

Officers were not authorized to chase one of the shooters and never attempted to chase a second car that fired several shots at police officers investigating a shooting.

Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams last week defended the pursuit policy, which allows for officers to chase suspects in violent crimes if they are approved by supervisors. Williams later told officers and supervisors that they are allowed to authorize chases under certain circumstances. The chase policy was updated in the wake of the 2012 chase that ended in the death of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams.

Investigators also noted that Austin-Harris and the other man fit the description of the suspects in a similar carjacking on April 5 outside the same home on Freeman Avenue in Ohio City, the report says.

In that case, three armed men carjacked a 68-year-old man while he was repairing his 2005 Chevy Cobalt, according to police reports.

The man told police that he was trying to repair a faulty wire in car that was parked in the street. The three men walked up to him, pointed guns at him and demanded his cash and keys, according to police reports.

The man handed over the keys, and the three men sped off in his car on West 20th Street, then on Abby Avenue, according to police reports.

Austin-Harris also faces charges that accuse him of bringing a gun to Life Skills Academy in Cleveland. In that case, police officers on March 15 were investigating a call for shots fired in the area around the school, court records say.

A security officer at Life Skills found a gun in Austin-Harris' pockets, court records say. He was charged with carrying a concealed weapon, bringing a gun onto school grounds and possessing a weapon with a felony record.

Austin-Harris a prior convictions in Cuyahoga Count Juvenile Court for gross sexual imposition against an 8-year-old, according to court records.

To comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments section.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland police added two new homicide detectives to the beleaguered unit, a day after a cleveland.com obtained study that criticized the staffing levels of the unit.

Sex crimes detectives Christina Cottom and Morris Vowell are now assigned to the homicide, according to Cleveland police spokeswoman Sgt. Jennifer Ciaccia.

The move came Friday, a day after the city released a 2016 report compiled by the Police Executive Research Forum that detailed a host of problems within the homicide unit, including staffing issues that the group said contributed to a decrease in the number of homicides solved.

The addition of Vowell and Cottom gives the unit 16 detectives and supervisors, still well below the 23 investigators and supervisors that the department is budgeted for in 2018 following a 2016 income tax increase approved by voters. Four other officers were transferred into the sex crimes unit, Ciaccia said. The sex crimes unit now has 16 detectives and is below their budgeted amount of 23.

The Police Executive Research Foundation report, finalized in December 2016, but not released to cleveland.com for some 14 months after its initial request, aims to help the homicide unit which saw its rate for solving cases plummet along with the roster of homicide detectives investigating the cases. The report repeatedly notes that Cleveland's homicide detectives are exceptional, but do not have the resources needed to solve more cases.

Homicide staffing is most urgent issue facing the unit, the report said. The homicide unit had 19 detectives in 2009 and solved 77 percent of its cases. That dropped to 13 detectives and a 52 percent solve-rate by 2015, according to the report.

Mayor Frank Jackson, facing re-election in 2017, called the homicide solve-rate in Cleveland "unacceptable" and promised more resources.

The report also touched on dozens of other issues, including training, supervision, the way detectives are promoted into the homicide unit.

Both Vowell, who was hired in 1991, and Cottom, who was hired in 1989, were transferred to the homicide unit based on seniority. The police union contract called for one homicide detective to be promoted to the unit based on seniority and one picked by Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams.

Under a new contract agreed to in principle but not yet finalized, Williams would have two picks to the union's preferred way of promoting officers based on seniority. The PERF study criticized both methods, noting that there is no specific criteria that takes into account an officers ability to handle serious and complex cases before they are transferred to the unit.

Ciaccia said she was unsure if and when Williams would make his selection.

The city has not provided clearance rates for the 2016 and 2017 despite repeated requests from cleveland.com. The city had 133 homicides in 2016 and another 130 in 2017.

Jackson in September 2017 asked the FBI to help investigate homicides in the city after the homicide unit solved less than half of their cases in the first eight months of that year.

The study attributed at least some of the homicide unit's troubles to not just the low number of detectives but how they're staffed.

Because they have so few detectives, the homicide unit is only staffed between 8 a.m. and midnight. A two-detective team is then on-call overnight for a month at a time. The report found the majority of the homicides happen during the overnight shift.

Those detectives then keep those cases, which means some detective teams get a slew of cases quickly, which hinders their ability to fully investigate homicides quickly, the report says.

In one month, a two-detective team was assigned nine cases and another got five in one week. The research foundation said that detectives should average between four and six cases each year in order to conduct full investigation into each.

To comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments section.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Each race has a definite frontrunner. But it's at least possible that the underdog candidates in the Republican primaries for Ohio governor and U.S. Senate could pull off an upset win.

It's this glimmer of possibility that's led Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor and a Super PAC run by her allies to spend, in the past several weeks, at least $1 million on TV ads attacking Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, her much better-known opponent in the Republican primary for governor.

Similarly, Cleveland businessman Mike Gibbons has hit the TV and radio airwaves to a lesser degree in recent weeks as he tries to close the gap with U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci in the Republican Senate primary. The winner will take on Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown in November.

It still seems like a safe bet that DeWine and Renacci will win their nominations, thanks to their textbook advantages in campaign money and endorsements from key Ohio Republicans. Public polling has shown DeWine with a commanding lead, and Renacci leads the Republican pack.

But reading between the lines, it also shows potential for the unexpected.

A major reason is that voter turnout is expected to be relatively low -- this theoretically could make it easier for campaigns to mobilize support with less money. Polling also has suggested that Republican voters are angry, which could hurt more established politicians like DeWine and Renacci.

There's also the ultimate upset -- President Donald Trump's unlikely 2016 victory, which still looms large in the minds of Ohio Republican politicos. The fact that DeWine and Renacci have reciprocated with their own ads attacking their leading challengers reinforces the notion that they're at least taking them seriously.

"Conventional wisdom suggests the more establishment candidates will have an advantage," said John Green, a longtime University of Akron political scientist. "But we live in a very volatile time. It's very possible the underdogs will do a lot better than anticipated."

The governor's race

Republican gubernatorial candidates Mary Taylor and Mike DeWine talk to the editorial board of cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer during their endorsement interview on Thursday, April 5, 2018 in the offices of cleveland.com.

Taylor's campaign for governor was on life support -- she trailed DeWine by 40 points in one poll. Then in January, she decided to loan herself $3 million, and hired Axiom Strategies, the nationally prominent Republican consulting firm that ran U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz's 2016 presidential campaign.

Taylor had tried to position herself as the race's conservative candidate, taking advantage of DeWine's occasionally moderate voting history over his 40-plus years as an elected official. But since her campaign's infusion of money, Taylor has taken that message on a wider scale, thanks to a negative statewide ad campaign from her and her allies that attacks DeWine's record. Polling suggests some of her attacks have landed, and she's managed to narrow the race.

On March 21, a pro-Taylor Super PAC began running ads attacking DeWine's support as a U.S. Senator in 2006 for two bills -- one that would have renewed a federal assault weapons ban, and another for a bipartisan immigration-reform bill that would have created a path to legal residency for some illegal immigrants.

Taylor on March 29 piled on with her own ads, which doubled down on the same attacks in ads that began running in the Cincinnati area before going statewide. Some of the ads tied DeWine to his Democratic then-colleagues in the U.S. Senate, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and emphasized his 2010 "F" rating from the National Rifle Association.

And on Tuesday, Taylor launched another statewide ad called "One Number," which revolves around the hundreds of times DeWine voted with Clinton in the U.S. Senate.

DeWine has responded with his own anti-Taylor ads, spending more than $2 million on two different statewide advertising campaigns that attack her as "phony" and unreliable in advancing conservative causes, including highlighting her unclear past position on Medicaid expansion. He also ran another positive ad, emphasizing DeWine's relationship with his longtime wife, Fran, and he dispatched lawyers, citing inaccuracies, to attempt to remove one of Taylor's ads from the air. A new group with unclear backers, Ohioans for Responsible Spending, has launched a website and printed mail hammering Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Taylor for increasing "big government spending" and pushing "Obama's Medicaid Expansion on hardworking Ohioans."

Polling shows the race has narrowed. One March 16 poll from SurveyUSA, taken before the ad blitz, showed Taylor losing by 32 points. An April 12 poll by Fallon Research, working for the 1984 Society, a political group led by Republican lobbyist Neil Clark, showed Taylor trailing by 18 points.

One Ohio Republican consultant said he saw a private, independent poll last week showing Taylor trailing by "low double-digits." The Taylor campaign says its internal polling is closer than that.

"I definitely think it's closer than what other polls have shown," said the Republican consultant, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "I think her ads hit really, really, really hard. But ultimately, I think DeWine wins because... he has a lot of built-in support, and I think there's going to be enough folks who just don't believe or prefer not to believe what Mary's saying."

Taylor campaign officials say DeWine's campaign playbook is outdated, and argue DeWine's decision to target Taylor with millions in negative ads show they fear that she's closing the gap.

"The DeWine campaign is medieval in messaging and primitive in execution and resembles a 'Flintstones' reboot," Jeff Roe, Taylor's top campaign consultant, said in an email. " You almost expect to see DC DeWine pedaling their campaign vehicle around Cap Square with his feet while his team pounds out messages on a stone tablet... A 40-point lead to a single-digit lead two weeks out tells you the end is near for the DC DeWine liberal legacy."

DeWine remains in the best position to win, said Ryan Stubenrauch, a DeWine campaign spokesman.

"Our opponent spent her time name-calling and distorting the truth about Mike DeWine while refusing to say anything about her own record," Stubenrauch said. "When she took those false attacks to the next level on TV, we responded with greater force showing Ohio Republicans that Mike DeWine is a rock-solid conservative and the lieutenant governor is a phony."

The U.S. Senate race

U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci

Although there hasn't been as much money spent in the Republican Senate primary, the race seems much more unsettled.

That's best illustrated by the April 12 poll by Fallon Research. The poll found U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci leading the field with 21 percent, and none of the other candidates breaking double digits.

But it also found that nearly two-thirds of Republican voters didn't know for whom they'd vote. The Ohio Republican consultant said he thinks that shows the GOP Senate primary is "up in the air."

Mike Gibbons

"It's totally up for grabs, generally speaking," said Chris Schrimpf, a campaign spokesman for Mike Gibbons, a businessman and first-time candidate who polled at 7 percent. "A Republican voter this year would rather have an outsider who's never held office before than a sitting congressman. They're tired of people from Washington, D.C."

Although he's been running statewide for the better part of a year, Renacci still isn't that well-known outside of Northeast Ohio. The $4.5 million he's raised for his campaign -- $4 million of which he loaned himself -- should help him establish stronger name identification, but the potential still is there for another candidate to step in.

Gibbons' ads are set to air on conservative talk radio and on Fox News, Schrimpf said.

Melissa Ackison, who placed third in the poll with 3 percent, has been waging an under-the-radar campaign, working the conservative activist scene. Ackison recently launched her own TV and radio ads, although due to her campaign's lack of fundraising, their run will be extremely limited. Similar to Gibbons' approach, Ackison's ads will air on Fox News and Christian radio, said her campaign manager, Peggy Guzzo.

"I was very strategic in placing ads for the largest reach of Republican primary voters," Guzzo said in an email.

In an email, Brittany Martinez, a Renacci campaign spokeswoman, referenced a June 2017 interview with the Associated Press in which Gibbons said he personally opposes abortion but isn't dogmatic on social issues. He later clarified that he would vote to defund Planned Parenthood and to appoint U.S. Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade.

The Renacci campaign this week began running radio ads and printed mail pieces hammering Gibbons on this point.

"Conservative outsiders absolutely can win big races -- Jim Renacci is proof of that because he's done it," Martinez said. "But liberal outsiders pretending to be Republicans, like 'ideologically flexible' Mike Gibbons, who isn't even sure where he stands on issues likes abortion, absolutely cannot."
BALTIMORE - Here is the preview for the series between the Cubs and Indians that begins Tuesday night.

Where: Progressive Field, Tuesday through Wednesday.

TV/radio: SportsTime Ohio will carry the series. ESPN will do Tuesday's game. WTAM/1100 and WMMS/FM 100.7 will carry Tuesday's game. WMMS/FM 100.7 will carry Wednesday's game.

Pitching matchups: RHP Tyler Chatwood (0-3, 4.60) vs. RHP Josh Tomlin (0-2, 8.00) Tuesday at 6:10 p.m. and LHP Jon Lester (2-0, 3.10) vs. RHP Trevor Bauer (1-2, 2.67) Wednesday at 7:10 p.m.

Series: The Cubs and Indians are 9-9 in regular season play.

Tuesday: Tomlin has never faced the Cubs in the regular season. Anthony Rizzo is 2-for-4 against Tomlin.

Chatwood is 0-1 with 3.21 ERA in three games against the Tribe. Yonder Alonso is 2-for-4 with one homer and four RBI against Chatwood.

Wednesday: Bauer is 1-0 with seven scoreless innings in his only regular season start against the Cubs. Kris Bryant is hitting .429 (3-for-7) with one homer against him.

Lester is 7-1 with a 3.03 ERA in 15 starts against the Indians. Rajai Davis is hitting .303 (15-for-53) with one homer and six RBI against him.

Team updates: This will be the first time the Indians and Cubs have played, outside of spring training, since the 2016 World Series. The Indians have won eight of their last 11 games and are coming off a 4-2 trip to Puerto Rico and Baltimore. The Cubs are 5-5 in their last 10.

Disabled list: Cubs - RHP Eddie Butler (right groin), LHP Drew Smyly (left elbow) and 2B Ben Zobrist (back) are on the disabled list. 3B Bryant (hit in head with pitch on Sunday) is day to day. Indians - OF Lonnie Chisenhall (right calf), INF Giovanny Urshela (right hamstring), LHP Ryan Merritt (left shoulder), RHP Danny Salazar (right shoulder) and RHP Cody Anderson (right elbow) are on the disabled list.

Next: Seattle visits for a four-game series starting Thursday.
The principal of the Skaneateles Central School District's elementary schools has resigned.

Christopher Casler-Goncalves had been the head of State Street Intermediate School and Waterman Primary School since September. District Superintendent Ken Slentz said Casler-Goncalves sent in a resignation letter April 13, effective immediately. The district board of education approved the resignation at an April 17 meeting, Slentz said.

Longtime district employee Patrick Brown is the new interim principal of the elementary schools. He has served as the district's kindergarten to 12-grade reading and humanities coordinator, a role the district's website still lists him as having in addition to being the interim elementary principal.

Casler-Goncalves was formerly the leader of curriculum development for the San Diego French-American School in California, which offers dual language immersion programs, before taking the Skaneateles position. He was present at the Skaneateles district's April 10 board of education meeting.
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP)  It's "total insanity" that a man who killed eight children and two women in a New York City home 34 years ago was freed from prison recently because of a loophole in state law, two Republican lawmakers said Tuesday while introducing legislation aimed at halting such conditional releases.

Christopher Thomas, 68, was released from a maximum-security prison in upstate New York in early January. In 1985, he was convicted of first-degree manslaughter for the Brooklyn mass shooting that became known as the Palm Sunday Massacre.

After his 1985 trial, some jurors said they convicted him of manslaughter, not murder, because his heavy cocaine use was a factor in the crimes. Prosecutors said Thomas was a drug dealer with a cocaine habit when he entered the home on April 15, 1984, and shot eight children, ages 4 to 14, and two women, ages 18 and 24.

At his sentencing, Thomas was received 10 consecutive prison terms of 25 years for a total of 250 years. The current state law caps that sentence at 50 years. Because he was convicted of first-degree manslaughter and not murder, Thomas was eligible for release after serving 33 years, with time off for good behavior.
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Three years later, the 56-year-old certified professional accountant has not improved her sewing, but developed a line of clothing for children who must wear medical equipment.

As her classmates in Fanshawe Colleges fashion design program celebrated their graduation with the annual Unbound fashion show April 21, Scotts creations were on display nearby.

I always had a love of sewing and I wanted to get back to doing something for myself, said Scott.

So, I went into the program because it had everything I needed. Unlike the younger students trying to build a career, I already had a career and I was just more interested in developing technical skills. I dont have the same drive as them to be on the leading edge of fashion.

Last summer, just before Scott was to start work on her final year that requires students develop a fashion line, a London family reached out to the college asking if they would research and develop a line of clothing for children who wear medical devices  such as IV lines, ostomy pouches, or feeding tubes  that not only looks good but is functional and gives caregivers ease of access to the devices.

These devices all present real problems when youre clothing a child, said Scott.

But how do you design something that wont lead to infections, or doesnt expose the childs body and is secure? These are some of the challenges we dont have to think about when were getting dressed.

In her research, Scott touched base with Toronto designer Izzy Camilleri, who designed a line of inclusive clothing for people in wheelchairs. Camilleri may be best known for designing the late Gord Downies costumes for his farewell tour with the Tragically Hip in 2016 after he was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.

She has been such a tremendous inspiration to me, said Scott. The quality of her work is what I aspire to. She has lovely designs that are really well thought through.

Among the innovative designs Scott implemented were the use of magnetic buttons, Velcro shoulders and sides, and the use of materials that are waterproof or wick away moisture.

Scott developed five dresses for girls between the ages of two and six, but acknowledges more research is needed for older children.

I wanted to show whats possible and inspire other designers, said Scott. A few changes can lead to inclusive clothing without turning your entire (fashion) line upside down. Its important because the parents and caregivers of these children and the children cope with more before breakfast than most people do in a month.Read more at:http://www.marieprom.co.uk | http://www.marieprom.co.uk/formal-dresses-uk
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Failure analysis is the technique of analyzing the causes of component failure in equipment. It is used by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) during the manufacturing process and also during the service and maintenance of devices. The failure analysis can be performed by both, as well as chemical chemical methodology. It is an engineering technique for "why and how" analysis of the equipment failure.

Get a free sample of this research report: https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/failure-analysis-equipment/report-sample

Based on product type, the global failure analysis equipment market is divided into transmission electron microscope, scanning electron microscope, dual beam system and focused ion beam system. Based on end users of failure analysis equipment, the market is divided as semiconductors manufacturing, bio medical and life sciences, fiber optics, nanotechnology and nanomaterials, metallurgy and polymers. And on the basis of technology, the failure analysis market is segmented as focused ion beam, secondary ion mass spectroscopy, broad ion milling, reactive ion etching, chemical mechanical planarization and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy.

The failure analysis market is driven by various factors including, increasing demand for failure analysis equipment from wireless communication and electronics manufacturing industries as the predominant driver. The ever decreasing size and complicated circuit design requirement of semiconductor and embedded system has led to wide acceptance of failure analysis equipment during the development process of integrated circuits (ICs). Moreover, the demand from other manufacturing industries such as oil and gases and mining is boosting the market of failure analysis equipment.

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The speculation regarding the efficiency of the failure is considered as one of the major challenges for the industry. Moreover, the high price of the failure is mainly due to the reduction in the adoption of these, especially by the cost sensitive small and medium scale industries in the Asia-Pacific region.

Asia-Pacific is the largest market for failure analysis due to the high concentration of semiconductor industries in countries such as Taiwan, China, Japan, South Korea and India. It is then followed by North America and Europe. The growth is still highest in Asia-Pacific is expected to double digit growth in this region during the forecasted period.

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Some of the major competitors in the global failure analysis market are A & D Co. Ltd, Carl Zeiss, FEI Company, Hitachi High-Technologies, JEOL Ltd. and Axcelis Technologies Inc.
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Gov. Cuomo has a lot of bad habits ignoring New Yorks unbearable taxes, governing with historic levels of secrecy and chasing headlines at the expense of residents are but a few however, treating convicted felons better than hard-working, law-abiding citizens may be the most offensive. His most recent stunt, unilaterally deciding parolees should have the right to vote, fits a disturbing pattern of prioritizing hardened criminals and exhibiting a gross lack of judgement.

The governor has done his best to facilitate a pro-criminal mentality in New York State. He has made public pushes for free college tuition and new computer tablets for inmates. The State Parole Board, the majority of whose members are appointed by Cuomo, recently voted to allow a cop-killer walk free. In 2016, he inexplicably commuted the sentence of domestic terrorist Judith Clark, despite her role in a heist that left three dead.

On Wednesday, Cuomo announced an Executive Order to restore the voting rights of parolees. His desperate attempt to pander to his liberals is transparent, and quite frankly, irresponsible. Executive Orders have no place being used as partisan weapons. Sadly, thats exactly what Andrew Cuomo is using them for as he faces a formidable primary challenger in Cynthia Nixon and growing pressure from left-wing voters.

THE PROCESS IS THE PROBLEM
It has become difficult to remember when this nation, as a result of the leadership of Donald Trump, has not been in crisis of one sort or another. We are currently besieged with threats economically and militarily, from possible trade wars with China to posturing and threats with North Korea, Syria and Russia. We are beset by the constitutional crisis that remains with our presidents failing to divest himself of his businesses, obstructing justice and undermining the institutions of our nation. We are daily harassed by the presidents rants on Twitter, resulting in further polarization, destabilization of our day-to-day interactions with our fellow citizens and less security for our society.

Happily, our government, through the Constitution, is set up to provide checks and balances and limit the scope of damage that the president can inflict.

Unhappily, the entity that should be providing those checks and balances, our Congress, has done little to assert itself in our defense.
Australia:

Pacific pariah

The increasing influence in the Pacific of China, India and Indonesia has come after a long history of Australia treating its Pacific island neighbours with arrogance and contempt. In contemporary terms, it includes the ongoing commitment to coal exports at a time when Pacific governments are seeking reduced use of fossil fuels: the island nations are experiencing firsthand the profoundly destructive nature of climate change.

Also, the costly, unresolved and cruelly punitive treatment of asylum seekers, warehoused on Manus Island and Nauru; cuts to Radio Australia services, including the closure of its shortwave broadcasting; the shutting down of AusAID as an independent, statutory organisation; the gutting of the overseas aid program, slashed to the lowest ratio of national income ever recorded.

Australias annual allocation for its international contribution towards climate change has remained at the same level since 2009 while our Pacific neighbours are trying to adapt to adverse climate impacts; any wonder they are looking beyond the ANZUS members for support.

The fact that China is building good-neighbour relations with the Pacific island nations appears to have surprised the Turnbull government who, in their arrogance, have not only cut the aid budget but are dictating to the recipients how they must spend their stripped-back allocation. At the same time Australia has increased its military budget to unprecedented levels and continues pouring resources into predatory wars in support of its big power masters.

Hypocrisy looms large with PM Turnbulls squawking about alleged Chinese bases amid unfounded claims that Chinese funding for Pacific infrastructure projects has a military trade off: Australia has foreign bases around the country, including the ultra-secret Pine Gap spy facility used for planning invasions and occupations in violation of international law, as well as the growing foreign military forces  US and Japan  in Australias north.

Racism

Australia has positioned itself as a deputy sheriff in the Pacific, imposing the dictates of the US in the region. Although circumstances and issues have changed in Australia since Federation in 1901, the main strategic considerations have remained substantially the same, irrespective of whether Liberal or Labor is in government.

In the early 1900s, the British Empire reigned supreme around the world. Britain administered vast colonial possessions  India, Malaya, concessions in China, South Africa, Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon) and many other territories. Other European colonial powers also held a share  the French in Indo-China and the South Pacific, the Dutch in Indonesia (then called the Dutch East Indies), the Portuguese in Africa, Macau (part of China) and, of course, East Timor. (See Timor-Leste  Some justice, more needed.)

Australian governments looked to Britain for protection in what was portrayed as a potentially hostile Asia. The objective of the British and Australian rulers was to maintain Australia as a white, Anglo-Saxon imperialist base in the Asia-Pacific region. This objective was clearly stated when in 1901, Senator Staniford, in parliamentary debates on the White Australia policy, said: Speaking from the imperial point of view, nothing could tend to solidify and strengthen the Empire so much as that we should build up in these southern lands a British race.

Africa-Asia

In 2005 the heads of state of 104 Asian and African leaders met in Jakarta for an Asian-African Summit to reinvigorate the Spirit of Bandung which was enshrined in the Final Communique of the 1955 Asian-African Conference, marking the 50th anniversary of the 1955 meeting of Asia-African countries in Bandung, Indonesia. The Summit meeting  a landmark gathering  of the leaders of the two continents decided to create a New Asian-African Strategic Partnership.

A declaration adopted by the meeting said: We reiterate our conviction that the Spirit of Bandung, the core principles of which are solidarity, friendship and co-operation, continues to be a solid, relevant and effective foundation for fostering better relations among Asian and African countries and resolving global issues of common concern.

The declaration said that since the 1955 Conference, Asian and African countries have attained significant political advances.

We have successfully combated the scourge of colonialism and consistently fought racism. In particular, the abolition of apartheid represents a milestone in Asian-African co-operation and we reaffirm our continued determination to eradicate racism and all forms of discrimination.

(Today, we have the Australian government pleading the case for settlement of white South African farmers, who derived their privilege from the imposition of the vicious policies of apartheid, a system successive conservative Australian governments supported.)

The declaration continued: As a result of our efforts over the last 50 years, we are all independent, sovereign and equal nations striving for the promotion of human rights, democracy, and the rule of law.

However, having made these political gains, we are concerned that we have not yet attained commensurate progress in the social and economic spheres. We recognise the need to continuously strengthen the process of nation and state-building, as well as social integration.

The Summit reiterated a commitment to the principle of self-determination set forth in the Final Communique of the 1955 Bandung Conference and in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.

In particular, we express our abhorrence that, 50 years since the 1955 Bandung Conference, the Palestinian people remain deprived of their right to independence. The conference called for the creation of a viable and sovereign Palestinian state, in accordance with relevant United Nations resolutions.

We recognise that the current global situation and the prevailing conditions in Asia and Africa necessitate the need to actively pursue a common view and collective action to ensure the equitable sharing of the benefits of globalisation, said the declaration.

The declaration highlighted that poverty and under-development, gender mainstreaming, communicable diseases, environmental degradation, natural disasters, drought and desertification, digital divide, inequitable market access, and foreign debt, remain as issues of common concern which call for our closer co-operation and collective action. These struggles still apply in 2018.

We envision an Asian-African region at peace with itself and with the world at large working together as a concert of nations in harmony, non-exclusive, bonded in dynamic partnership and conscious of our historical ties and cultural heritage.

We visualise an affluent Asian-African region characterised by equitable growth, sustainable development as well as a common determination to enhance the quality of life and well-being of our people. We further envisage a caring Asian-African society where the people live in stability, prosperity, dignity and free from the fear of violence, oppression and injustice.

Principles

The strategic partnership provided a momentum in achieving peace, prosperity and progress, based on the following principles and ideals:

Recognition of diversity, including different social and economic systems, a commitment to open dialogue, based on mutual respect and benefit, non-exclusive cooperation, equal partnership, common ownership and vision, a shared conviction to address common challenges, the promotion of a just, democratic, transparent, accountable and harmonious society, the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right to development.

Practical co-operation between the two continents in areas such as trade, industry, investment, finance, tourism, information and communication technology, energy, health, transportation, agriculture, water resources and fisheries is to be promoted.

The Asia-African states are to address issues such as armed conflict, weapons of mass destruction, transnational organised crime and terrorism, which are fundamental to ensuring peace, stability, and security.

Determination to prevent conflict and resolve disputes by peaceful means.

It is instructive to note that the governments of Australia and New Zealand did not attend the Summit. The Pacific Island nations did.
Editorial

Racism and empire

In a pamphlet called Immigration and the White Australia Policy, R Dixon, assistant secretary of the Australian Communist Party (as it was called at the time), wrote: From the standpoint of British imperialism, it was of decisive importance that Australia should be built up and strengthened as a bastion of Empire, as a white outpost of British imperialism in the Pacific.

The White Australia policy had nothing to do with defending the jobs or living standards of Australian workers although it was always justified on those grounds. This false assertion has been resurrected by ultra-nationalists within the Liberal Party and fascist groups such as One Nation. It was also justified on cultural grounds. The fact is that then, as now, employers attempted to reduce the wages and jobs of workers at every opportunity.

The first White Australia legislation was specifically directed against Chinese. This was thought to be too offensive and was then changed to Asiatics. This too was thought to be too offensive by Britain which, at the time, was administering a number of Asian colonies. The legislation was then changed to provide for a dictation test in a foreign language as the device to keep out those who for racial reasons were considered to be undesirable.

After the Russian Revolution of 1917 the element of class struggle against socialism became a major consideration in the foreign policies of all western governments. The destruction of socialism in the Soviet Union and action to prevent socialist revolutions from occurring elsewhere in the world became the top agenda item.

So, when in the period immediately prior to World War II, Robert Menzies travelled to Nazi Germany and came back praising Hitler and also supported the policies of the Japanese militarists in their aggression against China and the Soviet Union in the East, it was because of these anti-socialist policies. Menzies fully supported the appeasement policies of the British government before World War II.

Menzies went so far in his appeasement policies that he was prepared to give away the northern part of Australia (the Brisbane Line) to the Japanese when they were sweeping south in the early stages of the war in the Pacific. Fortunately, Menzies was thrown out as Prime Minister at this time.

Relations must be based on equality, mutual benefit, non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries and acceptance of the right of all countries to adopt their chosen social system.

This will require a substantial shift away from the underpinnings of the foreign policy pursued by successive Australian governments. If, however, this change is not implemented soon, Australia will have an increasingly rocky road in its relations with many of its Asia-Pacific neighbours.

China has emerged as Australias main trading partner with trade between Australia and China overtaking that with Japan and the United States.

The US alliance, on the other hand, ties Australia to huge increases in the involvement of the Australia militarily at the behest of the US in any part of the world.

Closer relations with China mean very large and profitable trade deals and political relations based on peace, friendship and mutual cooperation and mutual respect for the independence, sovereignty, equality, territorial integrity and national identity of all nations.

These are principles that Australia signed up to when it reluctantly signed the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia early this century. If Australia were to adopt such an approach it would mean the pursuit by Australia of an independent foreign policy that is for the peaceful solution of any problems that might arise.

This approach is not acceptable to Coalition or Labor governments. They are still rooted in the past in which Australia has seen itself as the inevitable allies of the European and north American imperialist countries. They are still carrying the white mans burden in Asia and the legacy of the White Australia policy. But this approach is no longer valid and will become more and more out of date and unworkable in the years ahead.

Chinas influence for peace and development (and that of Russia too), will continue to grow while that of the US will wane and Australia will have to decide which relationship is in the best interests of the Australian people.
Deniers climate policy diktat

Last week the Council of Australian governments (COAG) failed to agree on the best means of meeting the nations demand for electrical energy. Its a crucially important national issue. The 2015 Paris climate change agreement commits signatory nations to preventing a two-degree global temperature rise this century in order to avoid a climate change tipping point which would result in catastrophic environmental changes for the planet.

To achieve this we must reduce the emission of carbon-bearing greenhouse gases, which trap the suns heat within the atmosphere and the ocean. As a signatory, Australia is committed to reducing our carbon emissions by at least 26 percent (compared to our 2005 emission levels) by 2030.

Carbon dioxide is emitted from transport and heavy industry, but the biggest contribution comes from energy generation. The best way to reduce carbon emissions is to derive our electrical power from renewable energy generators, which produce virtually no carbon emissions, and to couple the generators with energy storage facilities for periods when available solar and wind power is inadequate to meet demand.

Because of the Paris agreement the federal government has a key interest in carbon emissions. But energy generation is the responsibility of state governments, so a decision on energy generation has to have the unanimous agreement of the federal, state and Territories (ACT and NT) governments.

The Turnbull government wanted the states and the Territories to accept the national energy guarantee (NEG) policy, which has the stated aim of ensuring that Australias electrical energy is reliable, relatively cheap and meets Australias commitment to the Paris agreement.

However, the governments of the Labor states and the ACT rejected the proposal, deferring a decision on adoption of the policy until August.

The current policy would have locked in a low carbon emissions reduction target, abolished incentives for the development of renewable energy generation, extended the operating life of the old coal-fired power stations and retarded the development of renewable energy. Its doubtful whether the emission target could be upgraded later under the policy.

Underlying motives

The Turnbull government pays lip service to reducing carbon emissions, but its primary objective is to stay in power.

To avoid an inner-party split over energy generation, the government must satisfy the self-styled Monash Forum, the newly-formed group of backbench coalition members who support the coal industry at all costs and might cross the floor in Parliament if their demands are not met.

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, a notorious climate change denier, committed Australia to the Paris climate agreement with great reluctance in 2015, but he now leads the Monash Forum.

Private investors are no longer interested in coal. The Monash Forum has therefore dumped conservative orthodoxy, maintaining that if the owners of old or disused coal-fired power stations wont sell them to other firms willing to continue operating them, the government must compulsorily acquire and run them prior to building at least one new high-efficiency coal-fired plant.

The Paris agreement seeks to reduce global emissions as quickly as possible. Falling renewable energy prices are making it easier for states to reduce their overall emission level, justifying a further reduction in emissions as part of the NEG target.

Moreover, the capacity of new renewable energy projects already exceeds the NEGs renewable energy emission reduction target, and rooftop solar panels are being installed 50 percent faster than anticipated by the NEG model.

However, to appease the Monash Forum, the Turnbull government has decreed that under the NEG policy it will not claim any emission reduction level above the 26-28 percent target currently stipulated under the Paris agreement, even if we have actually exceeded it. Particularly deep reductions by some states will simply go towards the national target, rather than being added to it.

If Australia looks like reaching its target before 2030 because of the strong environmental policies of progressive jurisdictions like the ACT, other jurisdictions will almost certainly stop trying to reduce their emissions.

The current policy would thereby rob governments of the incentive to make the maximum effort to reduce the national energy carbon emission level. However, energy minister Josh Frydenberg is refusing to renegotiate the national energy target or redesign the NEG.

The policy will also reduce the likelihood of Australia meeting its overall Paris agreement target of 26-28 percent emission reductions, because that relates to the whole economy. If the energy sector reduces its emissions by only 26-28 percent, transport and heavy industry will also have to achieve the same reduction by 2030, an extremely difficult objective.

Autumn turns to summer

Climate change is already here and very dangerous. Australias hot season now begins in spring and extends well into autumn. New record high temperatures are set every few years.

The Bureau of Meteorology predicts that the current hot spell will last into May, followed by a relatively warm winter, paradoxically with heavy frosts. The CSIRO says this will damage wheat, canola and barley crops.

Bushfires now occur in spring and autumn, threatening rural areas and the suburbs of major cities. Large areas of the landmass have been in drought for more than 18 months. Cattle are being hand-fed and there have been significant losses in livestock. Some 50 percent of the Great Barrier Reef is dead or dying because of rising water temperatures and thirty percent will probably never recover.

Overseas, snow is melting in Alaska 60 times faster than 150 years ago. The flow of the Gulf Stream, which moderates temperatures in Western Europe, has decreased by 15 percent over 70 years. If the permafrost melts in northern Scandinavia and Russia, methane emission effects will be horrific, and its beginning to thaw already.

Every country is responsible for reducing its per capita emission level. But Australias responsibility is particularly heavy because its one of the biggest producers of coal and gas, and the combustion of coal accounts for the planets largest volume of carbon emissions.

Harnessing Australias abundant solar, wind and geothermal energy sources would stimulate the economy. We could lead the world in renewable energy technology, but the governments energy policies are retarding the transition from carbon-emitting fossil fuels to renewable energy sources.

The federal coalition is also splintering over the issue of energy generation. The cabinet favours the Snowy 2 pumped hydro plan, which involves pumping dam water up to a higher level so it can be released to generate hydro power during high demand periods.

However, if that scheme uses normal energy from the national electricity grid to pump the water, as is highly likely, the facility wont reduce emissions at all; it will simply reinforce the carbon status quo.

The Monash Forum claims to have the support of 30 coalition MPs. The high-efficiency coal-fired stations which the group wants constructed can reduce the current level of carbon emissions, but by nowhere near as much as renewable energy plants can. Moreover, theyre expensive to operate, and energy prices would soar if this technology was adopted.

Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison favours gas-fired power generation, which results in relatively low rates of carbon dioxide emissions. But methane is a far more dangerous greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, and the extraction process inevitably results in the accidental emission of methane, particularly during coal seam gas mining, which is also notorious for contaminating groundwater.

Conservative MP Andrew Hastie supports the development of a nuclear power industry. Nuclear power generation produces little greenhouse gas emissions, but mining, transporting and processing uranium ore certainly do. There have been catastrophic failures of nuclear plants in Chernobyl and Fukushima, and nuclear waste has to be stored for thousands of years. Nuclear plants also consume huge quantities of fresh water, (a very limited resource in Australia), and melt-downs may occur during earthquakes or tsunamis.

What unites the coalitions fossil fuel factions is that none appears the least bit concerned about climate change and they all ignore renewable energys great potential for economic and scientific development.

Abbott recently stated: ... electricity is ... an absolute essential service ... it is up to the government to ... keep that essential service going.

Energy should certeainly be nationalised, but controlled by a left-progressive government, with a view to reducing carbon emissions to zero as rapidly as possible, rather than preserving the coal industrys dominance in energy generation.

But the nationwide sale of energy infrastructure and the political priorities of conservative governments have prevented a swift, orderly transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. And if the current NEG policy is accepted, the use of coal, gas and petroleum will be perpetuated.

Protagonists of fossil fuels ignore the terrible future for the environment and humanity if we continue to use these minerals for energy generation. But fossil fuels are not the only things that must be dumped to save the planet. Australias coalition federal government also has to go.

And the Australian people may question whether their best interests are served by a chaotic political-economic system based on insatiable greed and savage, profit-obsessed competition between duplicitous, irresponsible factions of mega-capital.
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Chinese automaker Chongqing Changan Automobile (Changan Auto) plans to build four independent brands and promote 21 BEVs (battery electric vehicle) and 12 HEVs (hybrid electric vehicles) in total by 2025, the company released its new strategies on April 23.

Apart from the existing Changan Passenger Vehicle (PV), the company will still promote an all-new mid-to-high-end brand. Besides, the automaker officially renamed Changan commercial vehicle unit as Oushang Cars and its light vehicle unit as Kaicheng Cars which is positioned as a smart logistics CV brand working on improving the urban logistics efficiency.

In new energy vehicle (NEV) area, the automaker will comprehensively implement the Mission Shangri-La. The company plans to complete 3 major NEV platforms by 2020 and launch a total of 21 BEVs and 12 HEVs by 2025, covering whole series from small-sized vehicle to high-performance coupe.

In the second half of this year, Changan Auto will release an intelligentization strategy dubbed Beidou Tianshu (in Chinese) to build an intelligent vehicle platform that is bolstered by technologies of intelligent driving, connectivity and intelligent interaction. In addition, the automaker is ambitious to realize autonomous driving under certain conditions by 2020 and mass produce L4 autonomous vehicles in 2025.

With regards to the marketing channels, Changan Auto will build a sound big data operation system and draw up various operating strategies to meet consumers' different demands. Meanwhile, the company will strengthen the R&D of OTA (over-the-air) remote maintenance technologies and accelerate the platform integration so as to shorten production cycle and expedite product iteration.

Changan Auto will strive to deliver a total of 4 million vehicles in 2020, accounting for 12.7% of total annual sales in China. Among that, the deliveries of Changan Auto's China-branded vehicles are set to reach 2.46 million units, targeting the sales champion nationwide and the top 12 seller worldwide and NEV sales will reach 350 thousand units. Moreover, the automaker aims to obtain 15.7% market shares in China with 6 million vehicles delivered in 2025.
Resist the US drive to war

The United States latest National Defence Strategy, released in the last three months (January 2018), signals an historic shift in how the USA justifies its endless wars. It also shows how the US state is handling the growing crisis of US imperialism.

Gone is the so-called war against terrorism that has served as a rationale for US militarism over nearly two decades. In future, the primary focus of US national security will be great power competition with revisionist powers (Russia and China) and dealing with rogue states (Iran and North Korea).

The USAs ruling class interests see these powers growing economic and military strength as threatening USs pre-eminent military power in the world. As emerging powers, they challenge the New World Order as unilaterally declared by the United States after the collapse of the Soviet Union. They raise a very real prospect of revising the USAs self-ordained status as the worlds first, last and only truly global empire (Brzezinski 1996).

Its ruling interests understand that the USAs ability to project state power through military domination is the basis of its security and prosperity and global access to markets. It is key to the US holding in place its partners and allies who, under its tutelage, can get to share in the benefits of its hegemony.

The National Defence Strategy demands a massive increase in military expenditure and modernisation of US nuclear warfare capability to wage a winnable nuclear war. It effectively outlines a plan for war with Russia and China, or short of that the ability to impose regimes upon them that comply with US interests. This is seen as the way to shore up its otherwise declining economic pre-eminence.

The missile attack on Syria on April 14 was not to punish the Syrian government for allegedly using chemicals in its war against the US-proxy forces it has fought over the last seven years. This was merely a trigger, a false flag these proxy forces provided to enable an action the USA and its French and British sidekicks had already planned.

This action was aimed at Russia.

The failure so far of the USAs criminal war for regime change in Syria has resulted, not in a restructure of the region to suit American imperial interests, but in strengthening Russias role as a viable counter to US hegemony. It has also strengthened Iranian interests in the region, when one of the key aims of the war was to strengthen the hand of USs regional lieutenants, Israel and Saudi Arabia, over their competitors.

The United States, through its proxies, already holds the resource rich eastern half of Syria. This allows it to reward its cronies and to also maintain pressure for regime change; at the same time it has achieved a de facto dismemberment of Syria. For Syrian forces to retake this territory, without Russian and US forces coming into direct conflict with each other is highly unlikely.

The United States and its old imperial allies undertook the April 14 action in a way that on this occasion avoided uncontrollable escalation. But it has asserted the imperial interests ongoing intention to remain in the Middle East. It signals a ratcheting up of the pressure on Russia (and by extension China), not only in the Middle East but as part of a global strategy of confrontation and intimidation.

Already the US establishment is calling for more from its president.

The path to nuclear war

The aggressive military posture  a constant in US global policy  combined with the relentless draining away of its post-Cold War ascendency means the world is entering the most critical phase of the US-declared New World Order.

Already the project for a new American century is being eclipsed. The building blocks of a new world economy are emerging: witness the shift away from the US dollar as a universal currency and the emergence of communist Chinas Belt Road Initiative (BRI), which aims to create an international partnership to build intercontinental fast rail transport systems, transcontinental sustainable energy grids and to develop the concept of ecological civilisation.

The United States, whose most powerful industries have served to enforce its global military domination and are preoccupied with shoring up the receding fossil fuel based economy, has already lost the race in developing the technologies and industry base for a more sustainable, civilian based economy. It will largely be a follower, not a leader in an emerging, more sustainable and equitable world economy.

This can only make the military option more attractive for the US ruling class and make the physical destruction (or capture  regime change, colour revolution) of its rivals look more necessary.

These are the options of a system in crisis and the course of US development under its current hegemony of interests  namely, wars abroad and austerity at home. Its victims, not only the millions abroad whose societies have been destroyed by US militarism, but also the billions whose existences would be snuffed out by nuclear war.

It also makes victims of its own citizens, whose civil infrastructure is crumbling, whose society is becoming more unequal and living standards are declining and who suffer imprisonment and violence on a scale most other advanced societies could not tolerate.

Australias role in the US progression towards worldwide conflict is a most pathetic one. Australian governments have committed Australian forces to the support of imperial ventures since its earliest days as a set of British colonies.

Australia is an unswerving ally of the United States: It joins most US wars and has been up to its neck in war crimes throughout the Middle east and elsewhere.

It joins in provocative military patrols and exercises with the US navy off the coasts of China and North Korea.

It hosts US military and intelligence bases, most notably Pine Gap, through which United States carries out global surveillance and provides the logistics by which the U.S. prosecutes its global wars.

Most prophetically the present government aspires to become one of the worlds top 10 arms exports, selling to other partners that come under US hegemony. It has already been selling arms to Saudi Arabia to help its dirty war against the Yemeni people.

The Australian people must not let ourselves be part of this! We must make our governments understand we dont accept Australias participation or consent in these mad US schemes. We need to demand that:
Anti-imperialist unity

At the time when US President Trump was announcing plans to withdraw from Syria allegations emerged once again accusing the Syrian government of President Bashar al Assad of using chemical weapons against his own people, this time resulting in punishment airstrikes carried out by Israel against a Syrian military base in Homs.

Wreckage after an airstrike of the Scientific Studies and Research Centre (SSRC) compound in the Barzeh district, north of Damascus, Syria.

Like the previous accusations last year in April and back in August 2013, the Syrian government derives no conceivable tactical benefit in using chemical weapons, and in any case Syrias chemical weapons (which the United States claimed to have totally destroyed) were only ever conceived of as strategic weapons to gain leverage against Israel which has nuclear weapons that are far deadlier by an order of magnitude.

Like the previous accusations (such as the lies about weapons of mass destruction behind the invasion of Iraq in 2003) we are being asked to rely solely on evidence provided to us from areas under the armed control of the forces fighting the government, to essentially take their word for it even though we have good reason to believe that the anti-Assad forces too have chemical munitions capabilities.

In February US Secretary of Defence James Mattis even admitted they had no evidence that the Syrian government had ever used chemical weapons, so why believe current accusations if the witness is demonstrably unreliable? The first time the UN was called into Syria was to investigate the use of chemical gas against Syrian government soldiers, leading the UN representative Carla Del Ponte to conclude that only opponents of the regime have used Sarin gas.

The forces for peace have always rallied behind the noble cause of nuclear disarmament. However, the reality is that such causes, i.e. for the prohibition of deadly weapons, have been used as a means to strip post-colonial countries like Syria, Iraq, and Libya, of their strategic deterrent, leaving them naked in the face of imperialist hostility, and leaving Israel unchallenged in their quest to pour concrete into the foundations of their European colonial settler regime established on stolen Arab Palestinian land.

What cannot be denied is that the objective behind the Western inspired and instigated Syrian conflict is the overthrow of the Syrian government, with the Syrian state and its allies like Iran, Russia, and Hezbollah resisting these attempts. Never in this entire conflict (2011-present) has anyone who claims to espouse progressive politics convincingly made the case that the forces attempting to overthrow the Syrian government would represent any kind of progressive or democratic advance of any kind.

Yes, in the first year of the conflict (2011) there were democratic demands being shouted at the government, but what the media never tells anyone is that the government addressed those demands, and within the space of a year, changed the constitution (February 2012) thereby ending the Baath partys legally enshrined dictatorship over executive and legislative bodies. While making major concessions to the Syrians wanting reform, the government has predictably resisted the forces attempting to take over the country militarily.

In times like these, Maos declaration on the eve of the Japanese invasion of China in 1937 provides the most accurate historical analogy for understanding the Syrian war. Mao said in order to unite with the Guomindang government of China at that time which had been transformed into a party of the comprador capitalist class of China, but which nonetheless had an interest in national self-defence against Japan:

When imperialism launches a war of aggression against such a country [like Syria or Yemen], all its various classes, except for some traitors, can temporarily unite in a national war against imperialism. At such a time, the contradiction between imperialism and the country concerned becomes the principal contradiction, while all the contradictions ... within the country are temporarily relegated to a secondary and subordinate position.

The great victory of the Soviet Union and China against the fascist axis, however, not only smashed the most violent attempt at colonisation in history, but it exhausted the other colonising powers like Britain, France and the Netherlands, bringing to life a vast sea of independent post-colonial nations with a powerful ally in the Soviet Union and greater socialist bloc who would give them the means of defending their independence.

In 2007 a retired former high-ranking US General named Wesley Clark went public in a speech published by Fora TV. According to Clark, in 1991 after the first gulf war Paul Wolfowitz told him, but one thing we did learn is that we can use our military in the region  in the Middle East  and the Soviets wont stop us. And weve got about 5 or 10 years to clean up those old Soviet regimes, Syria, Iran, Iraq  before the next great superpower comes on to challenge us.

While the Russian economy was being raided by capitalist piracy in the 1990s, Russia retreated from the world stage, which unsurprisingly coincided with the dismantling of Yugoslavia by NATO, and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, which laid the groundwork for the eventual covert wars against Libya and Syria, and the genocidal war waged by Saudi Arabia against Yemen which Australia supports by selling weapons to Saudi Arabia.

In other words, the period of inter-imperialist conflict ended, eventually giving way to the present period, often referred to as an era of neo-colonialism, in which the United States plays the leading role in sabotaging the development of post-colonial countries like Syria that choose to pursue mutually beneficial relations with other rising powers.

The Anglo-American alliance is a dying empire, one which is currently lashing out at Syria for refusing the diktats of a predatory three-part alliance between NATO, the GCC (the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states: The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait and Yemen) and Israel. Every escalation against Syria is an escalation against nuclear armed Russia, and every Israeli air-raid against Syria raises the possibility of a wider war with Iran.
Global Briefs

Bangladesh: On April 10 unions commemorated the fifth anniversary of the Rana Plaza fire disaster, one of the worst industrial accidents in Bangladesh. Global trade unions and labour rights organisations called on all companies to take responsibility for workers making their products by signing the renewed Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety. The 2018 Transition Accord takes over the work of the current Accord in May and ensures factory safety is improved. Bangladesh is the second largest exporter of clothing in the world employing 4 million people, roughly 80 percent of whom are women, working in over 4,000 factories. Abysmal working conditions and low wages are a recurrent theme with garment factory workers whose attempts to set up unions encounter resistance across the region, many losing their job or facing suspension by managements that fear union intervention.

Myanmar: On April 9 the Myanmar Fisheries Federation held discussions with relevant departments and organisations to ensure more protection for fishery workers abroad. The government is hopeful that enactment of a marine fisheries law will better protect citizens who are working in foreign fisheries, especially in Thailand, from exploitation by employers. A total of 41,125 Myanmar fishermen are working in Thailand, another 45,400 are employed in fishery-related industries, and 58,741 in marine product factories. Workers in the Thai fishing industry are working in notoriously unsafe conditions, forced to work long hours and at risk of human trafficking.

Japan: In April workers appear headed for their biggest wage increase in two decades as companies led by the logistics and retail sectors compete for a slice of the countrys ever-shrinking workforce. Businesses have lifted wages by an average of 2.41% This raise, made up of base pay and automatic, seniority-based pay, topped last years average increase by 0.35 percentage point, the first such growth in three years. In value terms, monthly pay rose by an average of AU$90 also the highest since 1998. However, despite this, wages continue to fall in real terms due to rising food and oil prices. The government has urged a 3 percent raise from companies to boost pay for the past five years. Many companies are switching away from a seniority-based wage structure and raising starting salaries. Competition for workers is particularly fierce in the technology sector, with graduates migrating overseas to work.

India: In April, in response to a legal action by the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers Associations, the Supreme Court of India ordered the governments of Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala to make repayments of long standing wages owed to tea workers within 60 days. The debt has been unresolved since tea plantation owners began abandoning the estates over 15 years ago without paying any wages, retirement or any other benefits to over 300,000 workers and their families, leading to widespread poverty in the community.
Culture & Life

Who stands to gain?

When investigating a serious crime such as attempted murder, it is customary to seek answers to the question Who would benefit from the death of this person? In other words, identify the motive.

Theresa May meeting with Vladimir Putin in China, 2016.

In the case of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, the person who stands to benefit most from the effects of the nerve agent they have allegedly been given, would seem to be British PM Theresa May. Even though neither of the Skripals died, May has nevertheless already used the case to ramp up the Cold War, to significantly dent Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyns lead in the polls and to distract the British public from her fumbled attempts to thwart the Brexit negotiations.

Theresa May was struggling to re-establish her image as leader after an embarrassing performance (marred by equally embarrassing technical snafus) at the Tory Party Conference. Jeremy Corbyn was way out in front. She needed a miracle. And then, ever so fortuitously, a Russian double agent who had not been active for years was poisoned  allegedly  with what Theresas police triumphantly declared to have been a Soviet-era nerve agent.

The case has also enabled the Trump Administration in the US to mend fences with its NATO partners in a well-orchestrated show of solidarity. Chinese newsagency Xinhua noted that since Trump took office, his America First policy was frequently at odds with his European partners. He called NATO obsolete, opposed the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), withdrew from the Paris Agreement on climate change, threatened to scrap the Iranian nuclear deal and announced moving the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

In recent years, there has been increasing complaints and dissatisfaction with the USA in Europe. German social-democratic politician Rolf Mutzenich said in his article End of Transatlanticism? that Trump is not an accident of American history, but the result of years of arrogance and the self-righteous hubris of Western journalists interviewing Russians in the street in Moscow met with bemused disbelief: why would Russias intelligence services want to create an international incident that had no benefits for the Kremlin in order to knock off a retired agent of no significance to anyone and his daughter, a Russian citizen who was visiting her father in London at the time? Only Britain, not Russia, stood to gain from this affair. And has Russias Intelligence Community nothing more up-to-date to use than a Soviet-era chemical agent? Surely not?

For her part, Theresa May leapt at the chance to impersonate Margaret Thatcher during the Falklands War: she expelled a score or so of Russian diplomats and she abused Corbyn implying that his election as PM  were it to happen  would see Britain overrun with Russian assassins. All nonsense of course, but she had nothing else and she was desperate. Besides, right-wingers like Theresa May have only contempt for ordinary people and believe you can tell em anything  and get away with it.

A diplomatic blitz among Britains NATO allies saw over 20 countries leap to show solidarity with Britain by also expelling Russian diplomats (the USA expelled over 60). Helped by a very co-operative tabloid media, this story has been blown up from a classic tabloid beat-up into a full-blown international incident. Israel rushed in to condemn Russias attempted murder. Donald Trump was a little more guarded  he wants to know what the hell its all about, but then hell stand solidly with his British ally. Yulia Skripal is a Russian citizen.

But Britain has refused to co-operate with Russia in investigating the Skripals alleged poisoning with a nerve agent. Britain has refused to share details of the case or provide any evidence to Moscow. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said the UKs refusal to share information with Russia is a blatant violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which states that the country suspected of being the place of origin of a toxic agent is to be contacted first. But since the main purpose of this incident for the UK is propaganda, it would not suit the British government to actually let Russia get involved at this stage, would it?

Meanwhile, the Kremlin says President Putin is extremely concerned over the UKs destructive, provocative stance in the Skripal case. Confronted by the UKs intransigence, Russia has had to open its own investigation into Yulias poisoning (she is a Russian citizen, after all). The Russian Investigative Committee will also look into the suspected murder in London of ex-Aeroflot official and businessman Nikolay Glushkov.

Glushkov, a former business partner of deceased Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky, had been living in the British capital since being granted political asylum in 2010. Last year, he was sentenced to eight years in absentia in Russia for major theft from Russian carrier Aeroflot. Sergey Lavrov noted that Britain had failed to inform Russia of Glushkovs death, despite being obliged to do so.

The probe will be carried out in accordance with the requirements of Russian legislation and international law, the Investigative Committee said, adding that its ready for collaborative work with the British side on both cases.

Referring to British claims of Russian involvement in the poisoning of the Skripals, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov expressed the view that sooner or later the British side would have to present some kind of comprehensible evidence.

Dont hold your breath Dmitry.
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- BAIC Motor launched its all-new brand strategy named new driving enjoyment ecosystem on April 23. Meanwhile, the company signed cooperation agreements with Tencent, Peking University, J.D.Power, Modernsky and BAIC Mobility as its first batch of eco-partners.

Xu Heyi, chairman of BAIC Group, said that the new strategy is different from traditional auto business modes. Currently, there are three representative business modes, conventional automakers, mobility solution providers and car-sharing service providers. Unlike all of them, BAIC Motor, positioned itself as a mobility experience operator, is a new business mode pioneer. The new ecosystem the company aims to build will include various strategic resources like hiking clubs, region-based tourism communities as well as homestay platforms. Besides, spokesmen and media resources will also be employed for the new ecosystem building.

In addition, BAIC Motor showcased three mass-produced models at the strategy launching ceremony, including the new-generation BAIC Senova X55, BJ40 PLUS and BJ80 EVERST, which are all expected to go on sale this year and unveiled the all-new concept model OFFSPACE SUIT as well.

Positioned as a luxury crossover, the OFFSPACE SUIT concept model is equipped with various human-machine interaction systems and L4 autonomous driving system.

The new Senova X55 features a round air conditioner outlet and adopts a large-sized floating liquid crystal display for its console. Besides, the new model will be powered by a BAIC self-developed 1.5L turbocharged engine.

Compared with the existing model, the BJ40 PLUS not only has been redesigned in exterior, but also adopts an all-new layout inside. The new model will be powered by a 2.0L or 2.3L turbocharged engine. Both BJ40 PLUS and BJ80 EVEREST will hit the market in May this year.
Some 25 years after the racist murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence, his family and friends came together to celebrate his life and legacy inside the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields yesterday afternoon

If good ever came from evil, then it could be felt inside the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields yesterday afternoon. Some 25 years after the racist murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence, his family and friends came together to celebrate his life and legacy, alongside political leaders and Prince Harry, who was accompanied by his bride-to-be Meghan Markle.

There was sadness and reflection, of course. But also laughter, applause and expressions of hope for a better future. Stephens family will now seek to draw a line under a quarter of a century of heartbreak, anger and frustration knowing that his name will be immortalised in a national memorial day.

It is but a new start. The present dangers to inner city youth from a knife crime epidemic did not go unremarked upon during the service.

I must take a deep breath, is how Stephens mother Doreen, Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon, began her address to the 800 guests  as if summoning up energy for one last effort of her tremendous will.

She recalled the milestones of her campaign for justice.

Along the way she did not spare criticism of the Metropolitan Police, whose initial investigation into the murder of her 18-year-old son in Eltham, south-east London, on April 22, 1993, failed in part because of institutional racism, the Macpherson report later decided.

Stephens family will now seek to draw a line under a quarter of a century of heartbreak, anger and frustration knowing that his name will be immortalised in a national memorial day (pictured: Jeremy Corbyn, Neville and Doreen Lawrence, and Theresa May)

I must take a deep breath, is how Stephens mother Doreen, Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon, began her address to the 800 guests  as if summoning up energy for one last effort of her tremendous will. She recalled the milestones of her campaign for justice (pictured: meeting Prince Harry and Meghan Markle)

It made for uncomfortable listening for the current Met Commissioner Cressida Dick, present inside the church. So too was retired Detective Chief Inspector Clive Driscoll, whose lead role in securing the belated convictions of two of Stephens killers in 2012 was acknowledged by Lady Lawrence in her address.

The Prime Minister Theresa May read a passage from Scriptures, while Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn chose a passage from Nelson Mandelas autobiography Long Walk to Freedom. Mr Mandela had met the Lawrence family when he visited London shortly after Stephens death.

Prince Harry and his fiancee were met with whoops and cheers by the watching crowd as they arrived at the church, and were greeted outside by Lady Lawrence and Stephens brother Stuart.

At the memorial service, the Prince read a letter of support on behalf of his father the Prince of Wales, who delivered the annual Stephen Lawrence memorial lecture in 2000.

He said: I remember vividly the profound shock that I felt at this senseless murder, a feeling shared by so many people across the country. I remember too just how deeply moved I was by the determination of Stephens family to build something positive from the tragedy they endured and to ensure Stephens story did not end with despair, but continued with hope.

The Prince added: A quarter of a century later, we can only imagine the man who Stephen would have become, and just how his extraordinary potential might have been fulfilled.

At the memorial service, the Prince read a letter of support on behalf of his father the Prince of Wales, who delivered the annual Stephen Lawrence memorial lecture in 2000

Stephens father Neville, who last week announced that he has decided to forgive his sons killers, sat beside actor and comedian Sir Lenny Henry  and two rows behind his ex-wife Doreen.

Sir Lenny asked for the Windrush generation of immigrants to be given a round of applause, which duly came  an awkward moment for the politicians present who have squabbled over blame for their shabby treatment by immigration officials. Stephens parents are both of that Windrush generation.

The comedian also interviewed three young beneficiaries of the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust, including Victoria Ibitoye, who received a scholarship as part of the Trusts partnership with the Daily Mail and City University. She is now a working journalist. In her programme notes Lady Lawrence said: I wish for Stephens name not to be defined by his murder, but by the mark he has left on this country and the wider world and for the role model he was and continued to be for many young people today.

The school children who were present in the church yesterday were not born when Stephen was alive.

But his legacy is a matter of looking out for their futures. There is much work to be done and only two of the suspected killers have been brought to justice for the crime.

David Norris and Gary Dobson are serving life sentences. The three other men whom the Mail also accused of being Stephens murderers in a famous 1997 front page are Jamie Acourt, now 41, his brother Neil, 42, and Luke Knight, 41.

Neil Acourt is currently serving a six-year sentence for drugs offences.

Sir Lenny asked for the Windrush generation of immigrants to be given a round of applause, which duly came  an awkward moment for the politicians present who have squabbled over blame for their shabby treatment by immigration officials

Jamie Acourt has been living in Spain and is on the run from police in connection with cannabis smuggling.

Knight still lives in Eltham and works as a roofer. Scotland Yard has admitted it has no new lines of inquiry in the investigation into Stephens murder.

The force said that unless detectives receive new information the investigation is unlikely to progress further. But as Sir Lenny said after the service yesterday: There is no finish line to racism. It is an ongoing problem we have to solve, something we have to keep on fighting.

Waiting outside the church meanwhile, without invitations to the service but wishing to show solidarity with the Lawrence family, were four black women of Neville and Doreens generation.

One, a grandmother also called Doreen, had travelled to Trafalgar Square from North London with her friends to support her namesake.

We are here because in Stephen we lost someone who had the potential to do much good, she said.

Its been so hard for that family. And the truth is nothing much has changed since Stephen died.

That is the challenge for the country. The establishing of a Stephen Lawrence Memorial Day must be more than lip service to a young life taken.
There are many reasons couples go to therapy for help.

For some, it could be a desperate attempt to salvage their relationship, rekindle their love or prevent their spouse from straying - while in other cases, it could be too little, too late.

Here, Sydney psychologist Gemille Cribb revealed the most common reason couples in long-term relationships turn to therapy.

Sydney psychologist Gemille Cribb revealed the most common reason couples in long-term relationships turn to therapy (stock image)

To break down the wall of silence, Ms Cribb explained couples were hashing out their issues in counselling due to a lack of communication.

She said couples who avoid talking about their issues or feelings could lead to deeper rooted issues forming in their relationship.

'Communication problems will often result in arguments, or feelings of disconnection and loss of love,' Ms Cribb told My Domaine.

'Not being open and only communicating on a superficial or practical level can also contribute to people having affairs, and to an individuals' experience of anxiety, stress, and depression.'

She suggested taking a moment to improve your quality of conversations by recognising the negative behaviour in your relationship.

'The solution is to develop a good understanding of habitual poor communication habits,' she explained.

Reflecting on a research by John and Julia Gottman, Ms Cribb said couples need to identify the four main factors in their conflict patterns: criticism, contempt, stonewalling, and defensiveness.

By understanding these four bad behaviour, that will counteract the negativity - and could help overcome your rocky relationship.

'To drive away destructive communication and conflict patterns, you must replace them with healthy, productive ones,' the research said.

There are many reasons couples turn to therapy for help such as trying to salvage their relationship, rekindle their love or prevent their spouse from straying

Sydney sexologist Dr Nikki Goldstein (pictured) said communication is the foundation of all relationships

Previously speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Sydney sexologist Dr Nikki Goldstein said communication is the foundation of all relationships.

'Always address the issues - don't sweep your problems under the carpet. Always understand all relationships are not made to be perfect,' she said.

'Look at what works best for us in our relationship. Are you having a healthy sex life? If you're not having enough sex, address what's going on in the bedroom. Not enough sex is actually an issue for some people.

'If you see that as a problem in your relationship, talk about it. Asking your partner why they're not having sex could hold the answer to your problems.'

Dr Goldstein suggested couples should find a way to seek help if they both want their marriage to work out.

'If you're fighting all the time, and you recognise your relationship isn't working, use that evidence to work on your issues,' she said.

With marriage counselling, Dr Goldstein said couples should be seeking professional help earlier in their relationship before it's too late.

'People should be doing counselling earlier,' she said.

'One of the problems for couples is they seek counselling too late. Always seek counselling before you get to the point your partner is having an affair.

'Never feel ashamed for asking for help. This day and age, relationships are a lot harder to have and we're not all taught to know how to be in one.'
The royal baby might only be a day old, but a Chinese horoscope expert claims it is already possible to tell what kind of prince he will grow up to be.

The key is in his 'birth chart' - an ancient Chinese practice that uses the year, month, day and hour of birth to determine a child's personality, strengths and weaknesses.

In the case of the royal baby, the the chart is strikingly similar to that of his late grandmother Princess Diana - pointing to a high likelihood that he will inherit some of her key character traits.

Bright future: The royal baby (pictured with Kate) might only be a day old, but a Chinese horoscope expert claims it is already possible to tell what kind of prince he will grow up to be

Guiding force: Princess Diana's sense of optimism and easy-going nature will be inherited by her newborn grandson. Pictured, the princess with sons William and Harry in 1992

The analysis was carried out by Kay Tom, a Leicester-based master in feng shui and Chinese horoscopes at the Energy Specialist. When the Duchess of Cambridge was pregnant, Ms Tom used a chart of conception to correctly predict the baby's gender.

Speaking exclusively to FEMAIL, Ms Tom said the baby will inherit Diana's 'joyfulness' and sense of 'optimism'.

'They will see the fun side of the journey and always be ready to embrace the moment.'

The prince will also possess the easy going nature that made Diana so popular.

Striking similarities: Kay Tom, a Leicester-based master in feng shui and Chinese horoscopes, compared the birth charts for the royal baby (top) and his grandmother Princess Diana

She added: '[The energy in the chart] gives the pair an ability to identify to all walks of life and to walk with both kings and paupers the same.'

How does a Chinese birth chart work? A birth chart draws on information taken from a book called the 10,000-year calendar, which is based on the cycles of the moon. From readings taken at the year, month, day and hour of birth, experts are able to determine the natural elements at play in the exact moment a child enters the world. According to Ms Tom, this birth chart can then be read to provide an exact blueprint of a childs energetic DNA, his strengths and his weaknesses as well as insights into his character. The analysis of a birth chart is based on the five elements elements - earth, wind, air, water and fire - that in turn is based on the cycle of nature. Advertisement

Thirdly, the prince will share the sense of duty held by his grandmother and other members of his family.

Sharing further insight, the expert continued: 'That said, duty will be his priority with a particular support for his brother, Prince George, his father, Prince William as well as to the family heritage...

'Looking at the Princes life path, he will warm with enthusiasm to school life and his studies.

'The period of age 34/43 is a very significant time for him when he is likely to meet and marry his partner.'

She added: 'This boy will also be a diplomat with empathy for his fellow man.'

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge welcomed their third child at the Lindo Wing at of St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London, at 11.01am yesterday.

Ms Tom explained the fact that the baby was born on St George's Day also holds significance.

Family of five! The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge welcomed a son yesterday, pictured

Delightful: Prince George, four, and Princess Charlotte, two, arrived to meet their brother

Heading home: William and Kate returned to Kensington Palace at around 6pm yesterday

'The motto of St George was Stand Tall, Stand Proud so there could be no finer welcome to our new Royal,' she said.

'This will be an energy the child understands hence fitting in with comfort to his life of Royal duties.

'Not everyone is happy to represent the family firm, but this child will have no problem in conforming to the protocols of his station.'
Fairy bread is an iconic Australian treat relished by young children at birthday parties for generations.

But one Los Angeles-based cafe has decided to reinvent the bread using a slice of sourdough, mascarpone cheese, melted butter and the much-loved Hundreds and Thousands.

Brisbane-based Elyse Goyen launched Roo Coffee in Silver Lake just eight weeks ago, and the n 'instagrammable' interior and brightly coloured menu hitting a high note with the locals.

Fairy bread is an iconic Australian snack food relished by young children at birthday parties for decades

'We felt that the Australian cafe culture would thrive in a place like LA - where the sun is always shining and the attitude is always laid back,' the 28-year-old told FEMAIL.

Their $5 fairy bread initially had some American patrons confused, but a little explanation of the sweet treat has helped make it an international household name.

'The feedback has been amazing so far and it's so fun to watch people's reactions when you put it down in front of them - it's pretty much the same reaction a kid would have to the original!' She said.

'We felt that the Australian cafe culture would thrive in a place like LA - where the sun is always shining and the attitude is always laid back,' the 28-year-old told FEMAIL (Elyse pictured)

Their $5 fairy bread initially had some American patrons confused, but a little explanation of the sweet treat has helped make it an international household name

'Majority of our American customers don't know what it is, so it has been pretty entertaining explaining our favourite nostalgic party treat. It's fun to do something light hearted, plus its not just for kids.'

The cafe, including the name, has been heavily influenced by Elyse's hometown roots - with staff even wearing shirts that read 'with hearts and hands' - an ode to our national anthem.

'We injected a lot of our own personality into the design and were inspired by our Australian childhoods in the 80's and 90's. From the retro fluted glass in nanna's kitchen in the Brisbane suburbs, a pair of old Levi 550's for our denim blue terrazzo counter and the pinky sunsets we all enjoyed on the beach at Burleigh Heads each summer,' she explained.

The cafe, including the name, has been heavily influenced by Elyse's hometown roots - with staff even wearing shirts that read 'with hearts and hands' - an ode to our national anthem

And given its prime real estate near Sunset Boulevard the cafe has had some visitors from Hollywood's elite to

And given its prime real estate near Sunset Boulevard the cafe has had some visitors from Hollywood's elite to.

'Of course, this is LA after all! Silver Lake is a creative hub with plenty of talented actors, actresses, musicians and producers,' she said.

Aside from the luxury fairy bread, Roo also offers an Iced Vovo smoothie, french croissants with toppings, fig bread and bircher muesli.

Aside from the luxury fairy bread, Roo also offers an Iced Vovo smoothie, french croissants with toppings, fig bread and bircher muesli

Nearly everything - bar the smashed avocado - is under $10, making it a hit for your sugar cravings, but not a hit to your back pocket.

And they have plenty of plans in the works.

'Myself and one of my business partners just came back to Australia and were so inspired by some of the items at our favourite local cafes. You'll see mushroom toast and a fresh smashed pea dish added to our menu before summer hits LA,' Elyse said.
Asking your partner for their hand in marriage is a huge step in any relationship.

But one Englishman pulled out all the stops for his engagement by flying his girlfriend Down Under to propose to her in front of Steve Irwin's iconic Australia Zoo.

George Briley, 22, from London, got down on one knee to ask the love of his life Kate Fraser, 21, to marry him in true Australian style by surprising her with an opal ring - and she said 'yes'.

'I chose opal as it's Kate's birthstone and also her favourite gemstone,' George told Daily Mail Australia.

'Australian opals are so beautiful and I wasn't going to leave Australia without finding her a beautiful opal.

'Proposal or not. Once I found the ring. There was no chance I was leaving Australia without giving her a proposal.'

George Briley, 22, from the UK, pulled out all the stops for his engagement by flying his girlfriend Kate Fraser, 21, Down Under to propose to her in front of Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo

in true Australian style, the man proposed to his girlfriend with an opal engagement ring because it's her favourite stone

The couple - who have been together for more than four years - were holidaying in Australia for 12 nights in December last year when George popped the question.

'We were in Australia for her birthday and it was a Christmas present from myself to Kate, to celebrate being 21,' he said.

The loved-up duo quietly got engaged in front of the giant Steve Irwin signage after spending the day at the Queensland zoo.

'Kate was amazed, she never thought I'd propose because I was never the biggest fan of marriage, even since being a little kid,' he said.

'I suppose as I was raised by a single mum and everyone around me at school had both their parents to support them. But being with Kate made me realise I do want to make a commitment in this way as it's about Kate and I, and no one else.

'So for her, the proposal was a total shock. She didn't believe that it was real and I think even now, we are amazed it is happening but we're so happy.

'For me, it was pure relief, I was getting so worried about asking and what to say, what she'd say... once it settled in I was in amazement too.

'I'm lucky enough to literally be marrying my best friend.'

The couple - who have been together for more than four years - were holidaying in Australia for 12 nights in December last year when George popped the question

Speaking fondly about his now-fiancee, George said there were many things he loved about Kate.

'I love so much about her, from how she looks, to the way she makes me feel, I could achieve anything in life and to see the person she's already started to become in our time together,' he said.

'But what I love most about her is her passion for animals and animal welfare. It's one of the reasons we love Australia, it's mega diversity.

'Also it's why I proposed at Australia zoo. She would love to work in a career that has a positive impact on the animals of the world, whether that be looking after them, designing suitable enclosures for them or being a vet, she loves animals so much she can't actually pick what she should do to help them.'

George said he didn't choose a diamond engagement ring because his girlfriend's favourite stone was opal.

'It's by far her favourite stone and she doesn't care much at all for diamonds, so wouldn't want to get her something she wouldn't adore,' he explained.

'I actually got this from a jewellery maker directly. I found it easiest to do a lot of googling, but then I'm a tourist and I didn't have much chance to run away to jewellery stores. I had to fit it in between her naps and never be too far away.'

The loved-up duo quietly got engaged in front of the giant Steve Irwin signage (pictured with his son Robert Irwin speaking outside the zoo) after spending the day at the Queensland zoo

George wanted to surprise his girlfriend with a zoo proposal because of her love for animals

The couple are hoping to move to Australia to fulfil a new life here.

'Hopefully the next time I fly to Australia there will be no return flights,' he said.

'My great Auntie Ivy lives in Australia and we've always had this strong intangible bond where whenever I'd do projects at school I'd get my nan to send them to her.

'I've always dreamed of Australia as this magical land. I love the natural environment, animals and atmosphere so much.

'It felt so much like home to me, it's where me and Kate want to live and work and we are working towards that.

'I think it's the sense of comfort and love I have for Australia that makes me love it so much. It's just an amazing place. The weather isn't bad either.'

He also wanted to thank everyone who helped with the proposal.

'Just want to give a big hug to all my family in Australia, hopefully my Auntie Ivy and her family see this,' he said.

'And thank you to Australia zoo for providing the perfect spot for me to propose - under the big Steve Irwin sign... In the empty car park.'
Coffee made from mushrooms might sound stomach-churning to many but for those with their finger on the superfood pulse, it is a sought-after brew.

Of late there has been a trend towards more 'interesting' coffees - last year the turmeric latte ruled, the year before it was matcha.

Just to be clear, the lattes aren't made from ordinary mushrooms. One Sydney cafe serving the drinks makes theirs from a mix of reishi, maitake, and shiitake.

Mushroom lattes are made from a powdered mushroom mix which has been blended with milk

In most instances, mushroom coffee is generally a blend of regular ground coffee mixed with a powdered fungus.

The taste is said to be 'earthy' and coffees tend to be made with milk (or some variant) and may have a sweetener added.

While the trend is yet to become mainstream, a Finnish company, Four Sigmatic, has been blazing a fungi-flavoured coffee trail since 2012.

The company's specially formulated products are created from 'medicinal' mushroom species including chaga, lions mane, reishi, and cordyceps.

It's claimed mushroom coffee comes with a host of health benefits as well as offering a natural energy boost.

The mushroom caffeine trend is still in its early stages but it could soon become a staple in cafes with more of a wellness focus

Four Sigmatics states on its website: 'Chaga mushrooms promote a balanced immune system which might lower inflammation and improve your ability to fight infections, bacteria, colds, and viruses.

Other varieties promise similar effects: cordyceps helps energy levels; lions mane supports focus, creativity, memory, concentration, and brain health.

There's also a mushroom coffee to help you sleep. Apparently reishi when sipped at the end of the day promises a restful slumber.

It's claimed the coffees have a host of health benefits including as well as offering a natural energy boost

While there doesn't appear to any scientific data to support whether or not mushroom coffee can deliver all it says it can, there is research, published in the Journal of Nutrition, which shows mushrooms can offer overall health benefits:

'Preliminary evidence suggests that mushrooms may support healthy immune and inflammatory responses through interaction with the gut microbiota, enhancing the development of adaptive immunity, and improved immune cell functionality.'

Although this wellness trend has yet to take off, its one we will be watching with keen interest.
A financially struggling mum has been touched by the kindness of a stranger after the engagement ring she was selling was bought by a kind stranger and then promptly returned to her.

New Zealand-based Angelique Bankhart had fallen on hard times and made the hard decision to part with the ring.

Along with a photo showing the three-stone ring, the post was captioned: 'My beautiful engagement ring is up for grabs, trying to make ends meet.'

The ad was seen by wedding celebrant Chloe Boerema who bought it - and then promptly gave it back to her.

New Zealand-based Angelique Bankhart had listed her engagement ring (pictured) online because she was having difficulty making ends meet

Wedding celebrant Chloe Boerema (pictured) bought the ring - and then promptly gave it back

Speaking to FEMAIL, Ms Boerema said Ms Bankhart's post 'broke her heart' and that she got in touch with her straight away in an attempt to help.

'I posted a comment with an offer almost immediately and I told her I was happy to purchase it but as long as she kept it!'

Ms Boerema said as a person who works with couples on a daily basis, she understood just how much sentimental value jewellery like this had.

'When I saw the ad, my heart sunk as I know an engagement ring isn't just a piece of jewellery.

'I know how many beautiful memories and emotions are associated with it.'

Ms Boerema (pictured centre) said as a person who works with couples on a daily basis, she understood just how much sentimental value jewellery like this had

Ms Bankhart told the New Zealand Herald her decision to sell was incredibly fraught and that she struggled to check her messages as she didn't want to see the ring go.

'I hadn't even looked - I didn't want to see if anyone wanted it,' she said.

'I could really tell she didn't want to part with her gorgeous ring,' the wedding celebrant said

According to the publication, Ms Bankhart had pawned several other items earlier to cover her rent payments and recover from a number of children's birthdays in a single month.

Ms Boerema said after her message was seen by Ms Bankhart she withdrew her listing.

'I was so touched with how thankful she was; I could really tell she didn't want to part with her gorgeous ring,' the wedding celebrant told FEMAIL.

Ms Bankhart said the decision to sell her ring was enough to make her lose heart - but Ms Boerema's kind actions had restored her faith in people.

The two have become close since the encounter and in a few months, Ms Boerema may step in and act as Ms Bankhart's wedding celebrant.
Michelle Obama revealed she hopes to meet the royal baby 'soon' as she sent her congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

The former First Lady shared a sweet Instagram post marking the arrival of baby Cambridge following his birth yesterday.

The 54-year-old joked she wanted to be introduced to the prince at a 'Kensington Palace pajama party', adding: 'I'll wear my robe!'

Pyjama party! Barack and Michelle Obama met Prince George at Kensington Palace in 2016. Mrs Obama shared this photo of the meeting alongside a post congratulating the Cambridges

Congratulations: Mrs Obama, 54, said she 'hopes to meet' baby Cambridge 'soon' in the post

Close: The Obamas enjoy a friendly relationship with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, right, and Prince Harry, left. The five pose outside Kensington Palace in 2016

The caption accompanied a sweet photo of when she and President Obama, 56, met Prince George at the royal residence in 2016.

The toddler prince wore his white dressing gown, pyjama bottoms and slippers for the meeting.

In the image, President and Mrs Obama are seen crouching down with Prince William to shake Prince George's hand.

The couple also presented the young prince with a beautiful wooden rocking horse during the visit.

Casual meeting: The Obamas, the Cambridges and Prince Harry at Kensington Palace in 2016

The Obamas enjoy a close relationship with the Cambridges and Prince Harry, with whom they have collaborated on a number of philanthropic and charitable causes.

In a surprise move, both President and Mrs Obama were left off the guest list for the royal wedding of Harry and Meghan Markle next month.

The situation has left royal watchers wondering whether the Obamas, who are close to the prince, may have done the decent thing and stepped aside so as not to ruffle the feathers of Mr Trump.

Family of five! The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge welcomed a son yesterday, pictured

Delightful: Prince George, four, and Princess Charlotte, two, arrived to meet their brother

Heading home: William and Kate returned to Kensington Palace at around 6pm yesterday

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge left the Lindo Wing, at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, with their newborn son at around 6pm on Monday night.

The prince's name has yet to be revealed but bookmakers' odds suggest he could be called James.

Royal supporters were treated to a rare sighting of Prince George, four, and Princess Charlotte, two, when Prince William, 35, brought his two eldest children to meet their younger brother.

While Kate, 36, is expected to attend the royal wedding of Prince Harry, 33, and Meghan Markle, 36, next month, she will then take time away from the spotlight to focus on spending time with her three young children, aides have confirmed.
Mothers have admitted they 'feel sorry' for the Duchess of Cambridge following the criticism over her Lindo Wing appearance after the birth of her third child.

Women have been sharing snaps of how they looked hours after giving birth - in contrast to the photographs of perfectly coiffed Kate, 36, on Monday.

It comes after criticism of the mother-of-three, with some women saying Kates impeccable appearance is unrealistic and puts ridiculous pressure on new mothers to look perfect.

However, Loose Women presenter Saira Khan has defended the royal, saying that she was just 'doing her job' and that people should 'stop having a go at her.'

Speaking on the ITV programme, the presenter said: 'I cannot believe that people are having a go because she made an effort. She looked fantastic. You know what, good for her.

'I think we need to stop beating women up. She's out there pleasing the crowd which is her job.'

Fellow panellist Coleen Nolan agreed, saying that Kate 'can't win', with Christine Lampard admitting that she didn't want to see the Duchess 'looking rough'.

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Mothers have admitted they 'feel sorry' for the Duchess of Cambridge following the criticism over her Lindo Wing appearance after the birth of her third child

Loose Women presenter Saira Khan (pictured after giving birth) has defended the royal, saying that she was just 'doing her job' and that people should 'stop having a go at her'

Apprentice star Jessica Cunningham, pictured shortly after giving birth to daughter Hatti, said she felt sorry for the Duchess of Cambridge

Apprentice star Jessica Cunningham has also revealed that she 'felt sorry' for the Duchess of Cambridge following the birth of her third child.

The mother-of-three told FEMAIL: 'I thought she looked absolutely fantastic, but for her to come out looking like that  I felt really sorry for her.

'When youve just given birth your bodys just gone through a huge shock. Youre incredibly sore, and physically youre not feeling your best.

'I cant think of anything worse than putting on heels and tights and having my picture taken right after birth.

'She and Prince William didn't have a long time to enjoy the baby. She was back on duty, and thats quite sad.'

Meanwhile, other mothers have been sharing snaps of how they looked hours after giving birth, including this sweet snap

One mother commented that she hoped women 'could just be happy' for Kate, rather than finding fault with her appearance

Another shared a picture of herself with her newborn to show the realities of giving birth

One mother shared this snap of herself with her newborn after having an emergency C-section

Although Jessica - who is currently expecting her fourth child - says she doesn't feel pressured by Kate's immaculate appearance, she explained that she can understand why other mothers do.

She said: 'It is completely unrealistic. She portrays this superwoman image.

'After giving birth, I want to be sat in bed and eating toast, feeding and having one-on-one time with my baby. I dont think I left the house in three days.'

The Duchess of Cambridge appeared on the steps of the Lindo Wing at St Marys Hospital in Paddington looking radiant on Monday, less than seven hours after giving birth to her third child.

In a red Jenny Packham dress and with her hair perfectly styled, she posed for three minutes with her 8lb 7oz new arrival.

Katy Hill sparked a debate after writing a blog post about the pressure put on new mums

Former Blue Peter presenter Katy Hill, 47, shared a very candid snap of what she looked like after giving birth to encourage new mothers not to put pressure on themselves

Her incredible appearance has sparked a debate, after TV and radio presenter Katy Hill wrote a blog post about the expectations on new mothers.

Miss Hill, 47, said that Kate, by summoning her hairdresser and stylist to the Lindo Wing, had missed out on precious time alone with her new son.

Writing on her blog, the former Blue Peter presenter said that after giving birth to her two children she entered a euphoric haze the duchess would not have allowed herself to enjoy.

Kate was basically robbed of the intimate magic of those first few precious hours, she said.

Her haze would have been filled with blow-dries and make-up and tights and heels and a flurry of business to get her camera ready, to live up to protocol, tradition and expectation as the worlds press awaited.

Miss Hill, who has daughters Kaya Sky, 12, and Akira, ten, said of the births: On neither occasion can I remember feeling put together  or needing to.

The reality for most: Susie Verrill posted this candid snapchat of herself in hospital

Blissfully exhausted: One woman tweeted this picture to BBC Woman's Hour

Another mother shared a picture of herself seven hours after birth, in comparison to Kate's 'perfect' appearance - joking 'I'm the one on the right, in case you're wondering'

Sharing a picture of herself in hospital after giving birth, one woman joked 'the comparison is uncanny'

Dozens of women took to Twitter admitting that they felt sorry for the Duchess of Cambridge

Kates fans didnt expect her to look perfect so soon after childbirth, she said.

I wanted to shout, Nooooo Kate. I dont expect to see a woman hours after giving birth wearing tights and heels and earrings.

I realise, as a duchess, she cant do what I did and shuffle out in a baggy cotton sundress and flip flops. But neither do we expect a new mum to be that put together. Had she worn something more casual, youd have heard a cacophony of collective cheers from women around the globe.

Hundreds of women also expressed their concern for Kate on social media, claiming she was forced to perform in a ridiculous circus.

Kate posed for three minutes with her 8lb 7oz new arrival in a red Jenny Packham dress and with her hair perfectly styled

The Loose Women presenters also shared their own post-birth pictures. Stacey Solmon looked pale and tired after giving birth to her son

Ann Diamond also looked a little pale but happy in her post (right)

That's what's a real new mum looks like! Linda Robson also shared a candid post-partum snap

Nadia Sawalha shared this candid snap that was a far cry from Kate Middleton's polished appearance

Many admitted they 'felt sorry' for the Duchess of Cambridge, with one mother going as far to suggest that it was 'abuse' to make her stand outside in heels hours after giving birth.

Jane Garvey, host of Radio 4s Womans Hour, asked listeners to send in pictures of themselves after giving birth, adding that she had looked like a sack of spuds and did not get her figure back for ten years.

One woman commented: I looked like a jaundiced deflated barrage balloon. Im still blaming my tummy size on my baby  hes 16.

Another, alongside a photograph of herself in a hospital bed, said: This is me, 18 hours after giving birth. Massive postpartum haemorrhage, several units of blood and emergency surgery, and I still look like death warmed up. Note pale skin, swelling and general exhaustion.

Susie Verrill, who has two children with Olympic athlete Greg Rutherford, posted a picture of herself in hospital bed with one of them, captioned: Me, 14 hours after giving birth. I would not have been up for standing on stairs.

One mother shared this sweet selfie of her and her newborn 12 hours after giving birth

Another mother said she didn't get out of bed for 15 hours after giving birth, 'let alone put high heels on'

But she added that women should not be mean about Kate for being unrealistic, adding: Thatll be because shes a princess.

Its her reality. Dont think Liz would want her in bummy joggers.

Miss Hill also called for mothers to stop worrying about how they looked and to instead enjoy every second with their children.

In 2013, she posted a photograph of her post-baby body. Showing her in a white vest with her stomach sticking out. It garnered support from thousands of women.

Fans supported her blog comments yesterday, with one writing online: I was in hospital for nearly 24 hours, I left it wearing a pyjama top, hoodie and leggings.

'I felt sorry for her wearing a dress and heels, it is a shame, she should enjoy the first few hours.

This mother shared a picture of herself with blood on her shirt after giving birth to her son

One woman commented that she looked like 'death warmed up' in this shot, after suffering a 'massive post partum hemorrhage'

Another mother shared this snap of her and her wife, pictured just two hours after the birth of their baby son

Meanwhile, one mother shared this snap showing her with her children shortly after giving birth to her second child

Another mother added: I totally agree my thoughts werent that her dress was a nod to Diana, or how amazing she looked, they were that that poor woman was being robbed of those first precious hours because she felt pressured to look a certain way for the worlds media.

The star of Loose Women have also shared their very honest post-birth snaps to prove that most real mothers look nothing like the impeccably polished Kate within hours of giving birth.

The presenters decided to 'give a little bit of a reality check' by sharing their own post-partum snaps, which displayed a much more bleary eyed and messy haired reality.

Responding to comments that Kate looked 'amazing', Nadia Sawalha said: 'Was it amazing?

'I thought "that poor woman". She wants nothing more than a big sanitary towel and a rubber ring- to be lying around doing nothing.

'And someone has to come and make her up and do her hair and make every other mother whose just had a baby feel like "ugh".

'I felt for her. She's still a woman that's just had a baby.'

The Duchess wore a bespoke red Jenny Packham dress with a white lace collar and diamond and pearl earrings borrowed from the Queen

Another shared this cute snap of her cuddling up to her newborn while in hospital

Another woman shared this cute family snap after her husband delivered their baby daughter at home

One mother shared a snap of her with her newborn in hospital seven hours after giving birth

Mummy blogger Sophie Lilley, who goes by the moniker Tired 'N Tested, shared this funny snap of herself as a parody following the birth of the Duchess of Cambridge's third child
Matt Dawson and his wife have opened up about the trauma of their son's near fatal meningitis battle.

Sami, who was two at the time, was rushed to hospital and put in an induced coma after being diagnosed with meningitis C in 2016.

Speaking on ITV's Lorraine, retired rugby player Matt, 45, and his wife Carolin revealed how they were told by medics to say goodbye to their son, as there was a real risk he would not survive.

Carolin, 32, who is also mum to the couple's son Alex, five, says she coped with the prospect of losing her son by 'zoning out', and refusing to accept that he would not be coming home.

The couple are now working to raise awareness of meningitis symptoms among parents, after admitting they didn't know their son's fever coupled with cold hands and feet were warning signs.

Matt Dawson and his wife Carolin appeared on Lorraine today to talk about their son Sami's battle with meningitis

Sami, now four, had woken up groggy in February 2016 and started to vomit, which the couple initially put down to a stomach bug.

He was feverish but had colds hands and feet, which they at the time didn't understand was one of the most common symptoms of the condition.

They called a doctor who suggested they take Sami to A&E if they were concerned, and the stunned couple later learned their little boy had been struck by meningitis.

Asked how quickly the seriousness of Sami's condition was made clear, Carolin said: 'Straight away I think. 10 minutes after we went into hospital, [there were] loads of doctors around us. I sort of zoned out of life a little bit, I was just in shock. I didn't understand at all what was happening.

'They taped SamI's eyes and said ''he's in a coma now''. I couldn't believe it. Everything happened so quick.'

Sami, now four, had woken up in February 2016 feeling groggy and started to vomit, which the couple put down to a stomach bug

Sami (pictured with his brother Alex) was rushed to hospital, where doctors discovered he had all the classic signs of meningitis C

She continued: 'The way I coped was [by] zoning that possibility out of it. I was told that he might not come home, but I think it didn't cross my mind.'

Sami had all the classic symptoms of meningitis C, including a rash, spots in his mouth, a fever and cold hands and feet.

The couple said they hadn't even known the symptoms of meningitis, so didn't think there was something seriously wrong with Sami.

Matt said: 'That's the slightly embarrassing bit on behalf of Carolin and I really, we didn't know what the signs were  we didn't know that if Sami had had cold hands and feet, even though he was really feverish, that's a little bit weird.

'I just remember thinking at the time, that's a little bit strange.'

He was put in an induced coma that he stayed in for six days, and his parents were told he might not live

The couple admitted they 'zoned out' and tried to ignore the possibility that their son might die

After doctors discovered the symptoms he was sedated and given antibiotics before being put in the coma.

He was then moved to Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, where he spent six days in a coma.

The couple said timing had a huge part to play in their ordeal, and that things could have turned out differently, recalling many 'Sliding Doors moments' while getting him to the hospital.

Carolin said: 'I had two home births, I never go to hospital. There was a point when we saw the tiniest of spots on his tummy, when I panicked. It was a proper panic.

Sami is now fully recovered, though he has a few scars on his wrists and ankles from the rash

'We were still very lucky. The decision was made like that [clicks her fingers] The traffic looked better one way than the other to the hospital so we were lucky in that way.'

Sami has been left with a few scars on his wrists and ankles from the rash he had, but is now back to his old self.

The couple are now trying to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of the condition, so other parents can spot it sooner than they did.

Matt said: 'In my mind now, the awareness that we're trying to get out there  if you understand those signs and pick them up  do something about it immediately.'
A mother has been left heartbroken after her neighbors threatened to have her evicted over her autistic daughters 'outbursts' in a cruel letter.

The missive, signed by residents of a condominium in Bal Harbour, Florida, threatens legal action to remove the family from their apartment if they did not leave on their own accord.

In the letter, which was left on the family's front door and is dated April 17, an anonymous sender wrote: 'Please be advisedthe 300 residents of this building will not compromise their quality of life any longer.

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Missive: A mother in Bal Harbour, Florida, has been left heartbroken after her neighbors threatened to have her evicted over her autistic daughters 'outbursts' in a cruel letter

'You have a daughter with major issues. Your daughter cannot be socialized with others.

'Her lack of impulse control, her screaming and outburstsare not acceptable to the residents in this building.

'We have sought legal counsel.

'The choice is yours. Either you move out of the building on your own volition, or the residents of this building will take action and you will be forced to move.'

The anonymous note then slams the parents for letting their daughter use the building's swimming pool, adding: 'People cannot and do not wish to swim in the pool during the four hours she stands and screams in the poolincessantly, every afternoon and night.'

Family: Batsheva (pictured), 16, has severe autism. 'She's an angel,' her mother said. 'She doesn't understand hate, or lying, or pretending. She's pure'

Residents: The family has lived in the Bal Harbour building (pictured) for two years

Parent: Leah Solomon (right), the teen's mother, called the person behind the letter 'heartless'

Whoever wrote the letter described the girl, 16-year-old Batsheva, as 'large framed [sic] and hefty'.

'She jumps up and down and disturbs all of the neighboring residents beginning at 5:30 AM every day,' that person added before renewing their threats towards Batsheva's parents.

'YOU DISREGARD and DISRESPECT all of the other residents in this building; therefore, we will do EVERYTHING to take action.

'The right thing to do would be to take your daughter to a facility that can accommodate disabled people like herself, where you would not be infringing upon the quality of life of otherswho worked hard their whole livesto live and enjoy the peace and quiet of this condo building.'

The shocking note ends with the sender telling Batsheva's family: 'We are not responsible for your daughter's diagnosis.

'And you have no right to burden us with her diagnosis.

'We urge you to do the right thing and find another living situation as soon as possible.'

Speaking out: 'It breaks my heart because my daughter cannot defend herself,' the mother (pictured) said

As for the signature, it indicates 'the Plaza of Bal Harbour Residents', referring to a condo building close to Miami.

The letter appeared on social media after another mother, who said her child goes to the same school as Batsheva, shared it publicly and voiced her outrage.

Batsheva has severe autism and has the same IQ as a four-year-old, her family told NBC Miami. It was her father who found the note on the family's apartment door.

'Whoever wrote this letter is heartless,' Batsheva's mother, Leah Solomon, told the network. 'It's not a human being, it's an animal. Because my daughter, she is special. She's an angel. She doesn't understand hate, or lying, or pretending. She's pure.'

The building's manager has condemned the letter, calling it 'disturbing', and saying it wasn't sent by her office nor the condominium's board.

Building officials now believe they have identified the tenant who wrote the letter, and told NBC Miami it wasn't written by anyone in an official capacity, including any of the condo's owners.

Batsheva's family, meanwhile, said the missive left them feeling strongly unwelcome in their own building, where they have lived for two years.

'It makes me angry,' Solomon told NBC Miami of the letter. 'It breaks my heart because my daughter cannot defend herself.'

The Solomons have hired a lawyer and hope to move to a different home in the future.
Prince Harry and Meghan are set to have a joint stag and hen do just days before the wedding, according to sources.

The couple are said to be planning a 'private dinner followed by games' in May, as well as having a rehearsal dinner prior to the big day at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.

A source said that Meghan, 36, 'wants to wait until her friends are in the UK before having her hen party.'

This would mean that close friends including Jessica Mulroney, who is based in Toronto, will be able to attend.

Prince Harry and Meghan are believe to be planning a joint stag and hen do just days before their wedding in May

Speaking to OK! magazine, the source said: 'Meghan wants to wait until her friends are in the UK for the wedding before having her hen party. She wants a joint party with Harry and his friends.

'It won't be anything too wild, they're planning a private dinner followed by games'.

It was previously reported that Meghan had enjoyed a low-key hen-do at Soho Farmhouse with close pals.

The 6,000-a-night members' club holds fond memories for Meghan as she has previously stayed there with Millie Mackintosh, as well as visiting twice with fiance Harry during their whirlwind romance.

A source said that Meghan, 36, wants to wait until her friends, including Jessica Mulroney (pictured), are in the UK before having her hen party

The early hen do in March was believed to have been organised by Meghan's friend Markus Anderson, a consultant at Soho House Group.

A source told E! at the time: 'Markus Anderson has helped throw the shower for Meghan and a small group of mostly her London friends.

'It's just a relaxing day of good food and pampering."

Two key people that were missing from the gathering were the bride's mother Doria, as well as the Duchess of Cambridge, who was heavily pregnant at the time.

Meghan is said to have enjoyed a low-key hen do at Soho Farmhouse with close pals in March

There have been suggestions Prince Andrew has offered his 13m chalet in the Swiss ski resort of Verbier (pictured) for Harry's own stag do

Other members of Meghan's high-profile girl gang including Serena Williams, actress Priyanka Chopra, Suits co-star Abigail Spencer and fashion designer Misha Nonoo, also did not attend.

However, Meghan's pals who live abroad are expected to attend the actress's joint hen and stag do next month.

It was previously reported that Prince Andrew had offered his 13million chalet in the Swiss ski resort of Verbier to Harry and his friends for his stag do.

Harry's close friend Tom Inskip and Prince William are believed to be in charge of planning the stag party.
A photographer has turned excitement for the latest Avengers installment into an inspiring photo series that transformed bullied children into real-life versions of the popular film franchise's famous superheroes - and it even featured Justin Bieber's younger brother who wanted to get involved in the meaningful project.

Josh Rossi, 33, of Salt Lake City, Utah, spent three months uniting bullied children for the action-packed snaps, which show the adorable children dressed up as their favorite characters which included, Spiderman, Black Panther, Iron Man and the Hulk.

Other pictures show brave Jackson Bezzant who has been bullied for the facial deformities he was born with as Captain America defying an evil dark force and Justin Bieber's younger brother Jaxon as Thor.

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Anti-bullying: Josh Rossi, 33, of Salt Lake City, Utah, took photos of bullied children transformed into real-life versions of the popular film franchise's famous superheroes

Inspiring: The photo series even featured Justin Bieber's little brother, Jaxon, who dressed as Thor (left) and Sydney (right) who last year, struggled with depression

Being different: Jackson Sommer, dressed as Dr Strange and has been bullied because he's missing 35 per cent of his brain

The idea for the meaningful photo shoot came after Josh saw a trailer for Avengers: Infinity War, which is scheduled to come out April 27.

He said: 'After recently seeing the trailer for the new Avenger's movie, my wife Roxana and I were inspired to bring bullied kids together to provide a platform where their voices could be heard.'

'In the movie, the bully of the universe, Thanos, comes to take over the world, but the Avengers unite to destroy him.'

'Each Avenger has unique differences and strengths ranging from green and purple skin to being able to stop time. Without each superhero's strength and power, their efforts to defeat Thanos will be unsuccessful.'

Made of iron: Grant Southam dressed an Tony Stark, otherwise known as Iron Man from the film franchise

Meaningful photos: Miles (left), who is dressed a Hawkeye from the Avengers movies has been bullied for having ADHD and Jaron (right) has been bullied for his ethnicity

Hard to make friends: Benjamin, six, who dressed as Falcon from the Avengers franchise, has autism, which makes it hard to make and keep friends

Being himself: Cole (left), who is dressed as Vision from the Marvel Comics, has been bullied because he is gender fluid. Dorothy dressed as Black Widow to take a stand against bullying

He added: 'Similar to bullying, as we unite against it we can stop it.'

In an emotional video, the children and their parents shared their heart wrenching stories of bullying before being transformed into the fearless heroes to become 'The Avengers of Bullying'.

'Going into this project, my wife Roxana and I didn't know the heartbreaking details of each kid's story,' Josh said.

'We didn't know that 12-year-old Jackson Sommers (Dr. Strange) had 35 per cent of his brain missing and that kids pushed him down and spit on him at school because he walked and talked differently than they did.'

Unique: Josh dressed as Star Lord from Guardians of the Galaxy. He has been bullied for having different interest from other kids

Brave: Leila dressed as Maria Hill from the Marvel Comics. She has struggled with depression and anxiety and been bullied for going to a therapist

Cruel kids: Braiden dressed as the Hulk and was bullied for his size and not being able to run as fast as other kids. Mia (right) dressed as Scarlet Witch from the Marvel Comics

Berated: Benson dressed as Spiderman and has been called names and targeted by classmates

'We didn't know that Sydney Gerardis (Gamora) was secretly contemplating her suicide when her close friends told her they'd throw a party if she died.

'We definitely didn't know the cruel words that were said to Grant Southam (Ironman) when he would walk past kids at school every day and they would yell, "The retard is here!" while beating their chests.'

After seeing and hearing about the kids' stories, Josh knew he had to help the children take a stand against bullying.

He said: 'We knew that if we could provide a platform where each kid could make a powerful statement against abuse, it would help unite others against it.'

'Once word spread about the project we were surprised to gain support from Jaxon Bieber. Jaxon wanted to make a stand against bullying in a powerful way so he and his dad, Jeremy, flew out to be part of the project.'

Strong: Morsi dressed as Black Panther and has been bullied for not being able to speak English. Jackson dressed as Captain America and has been bullied for his facial deformities

Passion: Josh (pictured) started in film and advertising but he quickly realized that his passion was in creating epic scenes using photography

Coming soon: The idea for the meaningful photo shoot came after Josh saw a trailer for Avengers: Infinity War, which is scheduled to come out April 27

Brothers: Justin and Jaxon Bieber struck a pose at the 2016 Grammy Awards in February 2016

'We split up the photo shoot into three days because of the size of the group. The majority of the kids live in Utah but are from six different continents.'

The costumes were designed and created by Julie Whiteley over three months.

Josh's interests started in film and advertising but he quickly realized that his passion was in creating epic scenes using photography, which he has done before for terminally ill children and his daughter.

Last February, Josh helped transform his three-year-old daughter, Nellee, into Belle from Beauty in the Beast as part of a stunning photo series inspired by the Disney film.

And in December, he photographed children suffering from life-threatening illnesses and disabilities who were transformed into their inner superheroes such as Wonder Woman, Superman and Batman.
Ivanka Trump went for a nautical theme as she headed to the extravagant State Arrival ceremony hosted for the French president and his wife at the White House on Tuesday.

The first daughter, 36, was seen leaving her house in Washington, D.C. a little after 8, wearing a $1,990 Oscar de la Renta navy dress with three-quarter sleeves and a quirky, white rope attachment around the neckline.

She paired it with white earrings, which were left to take center stage as Ivanka wore her hair in a half updo and kept the rest of her accessories minimal, finishing off her outfit only with a pair of black stilettos.

Event: Ivanka Trump went for a nautical theme as she attended the State Arrival ceremony hosted for the French president and his wife at the White House on Tuesday

Duo: The first daughter, 36, and her husband Jared Kushner, 37, were seen together at the event on the South Lawn of the White House

Crowd: President Trump's daughter and son-in-law mingled with the crowd, with guests including Cabinet secretaries, members of Congress, military families, and students

Couple: The pair, both of whom are White House advisers, were on duty for the ceremony

Simple: Jared stuck to his classics in a dark suit, white shirt, and gray tie for the event

The parents of three only had eyes for each other as they walked in the portico

Having fun: The president's son-in-law appeared in high spirits after he and Ivanka arrived to the ceremony

Outfit: Ivanka (pictured on the South Lawn of the White House) wore a navy dress with three-quarter sleeves and a quirky, white rope attachment around the neckline

Mingling: She was later photographed awaiting the arrival of the French first couple

Enjoying herself: The White House adviser seemed pleased to be among the day's attendees

Happening: Ivanka was there as Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron arrived at the White House around 9 am for the ceremony, during which they were welcomed by a military band

She tried to stay on pavement in her black patent stilettos

Ivanka smiled as she walked from her house to the parked Secret Service vehicle waiting for her, a little less than an hour before the decadent ceremony was due to kick off.

She was later photographed on the South Lawn, awaiting the arrival of the French first couple among other attendees.

Her husband and fellow White House adviser Jared Kushner, 37, was seen at her side, dressed in a classic dark suit paired with a white shirt and a gray tie.

Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron arrived at the White House around 9 am for the decadent welcome ceremony, where they were welcomed by a military band.

The Macrons thus became the first guests of Trump's tenure to be honored with such decadence.

President Trump then addressed the crowd, followed by his French counterpart who celebrated the 'friendship' between France and the U.S.

Event: Earlier on Tuesday, Ivanka was photographed heading to the State Arrival ceremony hosted for the French president and his wife at the White House

On the go: The first daughter was seen leaving her house in the upscale neighborhood of Kalorama in Washington, D.C. a little after 8

Accessories: She paired her dress with white earrings, which were left to take center stage as Ivanka wore her hair in a half updo

Schedule: The first daughter walked from her house to the parked Secret Service vehicle waiting for her, a little less than an hour before the extravagant ceremony was due to kick off

Details: Ivanka kept the rest of her accessories minimal, finishing off her outfit only with a pair of black stilettos

In high spirits: She flashed a bright smile as she made her way towards her vehicle

Warm: Ivanka made the most of D.C.'s spring temperatures and opted not to wear a jacket

Look: She went for her trademark smokey eye and nude lip for the formal ceremony

On Monday evening, the American and French first ladies put on a stylish display at the White House before heading to a private dinner at Mount Vernon.

Melania, 47, gave a nod to some of the biggest designers from her guest's home nation, wearing a $2,790 Givenchy tuxedo cape, Christian Louboutin heels, and a Christian Dior purse, which she paired with a Dolce & Gabbana dress.

Meanwhile, Brigitte, 65, stuck with her favorite design house, donning a custom Louis Vuitton ensemble featuring a pale yellow coat worn over a matching dress.

Like Melania, she also sported black patent leather stilettos.

Brigitte and her husband received a warm greeting outside the West Wing of the White House, kicking off the first state visit since President Trump took office.

Although Melania and Brigitte wore dramatically different outfits, their looks were actually quite complementary.

Brigitte's yellow coat featured a black ribbon tie and black buttons that matched Melania's all-black ensemble, which was cinched with a Ralph Lauren belt.

While the French first lady carried a Louis Vuitton cylinder-shaped evening bag with a top handle, her U.S. counterpart opted for a sleek black Dior crocodiles-skin clutch.

Looking sleek: On Monday, Melania, 47, looked chic in a $2,790 Givenchy tuxedo cape worn over a Dolce & Gabbana dress. She and Brigitte Macron are pictured on the South Lawn

Night and day: Brigitte's cheerful dress featured black buttons and a black ribbon belt that complemented Melania's all-black look

Center of attention: The French first lady and her husband held hands as they stood between President Trump and his wife

The Macrons traveled to D.C. with a sapling European Sessile Oak that is approximately 4.5 feet tall and between five to 10 years old. The tree comes from Belleau Woods, a historic landmark tied to the United States' entry into World War I.

More than 9, 000 American marines died in the Belleau Wood battle in June 1918, and the forest has become a memorial site that symbolizes the sacrifices the U.S. made to ensure peace in Europe.

Together, the two couples planted the tree on the South Lawn of the White House before departing the White House on Marine One for a tour of historic monuments in Washington.

Possibly taking a cue from the Macrons, who were photographed holding hands upon their arrival, the Trump also had their hands clasped together while walking across the lawn.

The scenic helicopter ride ended at Mount Vernon, the home of America's first president, George Washington, where the couples had dinner.

According to the White House, nearly 500 members of the military from five branches were scheduled to be on the South Lawn for a 'Review of the Troops' during the Macrons' arrival on Tuesday morning.

Rubbing off on them? Possibly taking a cue from the Macrons, the Trump also had their hands clasped together while walking across the lawn

Gift: The Macrons traveled to Washington, D.C. with a European Sessile Oak, which the couples planted on the South Lawn

Guests invited to attend the ceremony included Cabinet secretaries, members of Congress, military families, and students from the Maya Angelou French Immersion School in Temple Hills, Maryland.

While she may have had to share the style spotlight with Melania on Monday evening, Brigitte was front and center as she and her husband arrived in D.C. earlier in the day.

France's first lady was wearing a double-breasted pink cashmere coat featuring black buttons by Louis Vuitton and skinny black pants when she and France's 40-year-old president landed at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

Brigitte wore her spring-inspired coat over a classic white button-down shirt featuring a mock-neck collar.

Her voluminous blonde hair was worn loose around her shoulders, and she held a structured $3,700 Louis Vuitton handbag in her right hand.

She topped off her chic ensemble with a pair of classic black patent leather pumps.

While she opted for eye-catching pink, her husband looked dapper in a navy suit and tie paired with black wingtip dress shoes.

The French president held his wife's hand as they walked off Cotam 001, the French Air Force One, and they continued to hold hands while they posed for pictures.

Their public display of affection serves as a juxtaposition to Melania and Trump's awkward history with hand holding.

Epitome of chic: On Monday, France's first lady wore the coat over a classic button-down shirt and skinny black pants featuring zippers at the ankles

The first lady famously swatted her husband's hand away when he reached for hers upon their arrival in Israel last May.

In February, social media users were convinced that Melania refused her husband's hand yet again ahead of a trip to Ohio amid allegations that he had an affair with porn star Stormy Daniels.

When disembarking Air Force One, Melania usually holds on the railing as the president walks alongside her. Brigitte, however, relied completely on her husband to help her keep her balance when they arrived in the U.S. on Monday.

She and her husband were presented with flowers when they arrived at Joint Based Andrews, and Brigitte kissed the girl a student at a localbilingual English-French schoolon the cheek.

After posing for numerous photos, Brigitte threw on a pair of sunglasses while watching her husband address the news media.

Following the grand ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House on Tuesday, the French president will have formal talks with President Trump, 71, who has developed an unlikely friendship with the fellow political novice.

The Trumps spent two days in Paris last July and were the Macrons' guests of honor at the annual Bastille Day parade, on the French national holiday.

Presidents Macron and Trump will hold bilateral talks on Tuesday morning and appear side-by-side at a joint news conference after. A state dinner is to follow inside the State Dining Room, which can seat up to 140 guests.
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While their husbands discuss world affairs and politics this week, Melania Trump and Brigitte Macron are doing all the talking with their outfits  and both seem to be putting forward a spotless, pristine image.

Melania, 47, and Brigitte, 65, both wore all-white on Tuesday morning to stand alongside their husbands at the State Arrival Ceremony at the White House, before heading off together to visit the National Gallery of Art.

The women looked perfectly coordinated in matching white suits, Brigitte's a more classic Chanel-style boucle dress and jacket and Melania's more modern $2,195 skirt suit by Michael Kors.

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Matching first ladies: Brigitte Macron and Melania Trump matched in their all-white ensembles on Tuesday morning

Pomp and circumstance: The two women accompanied their husbands to an arrival ceremony at the White House

Differences: White Brigitte, 65, looked prim in a boucle dress and matching jacket, Melania, 47, went the more modern route in a Michael Kors suit with an asymmetrical jacket

Shield: Melania also donned a dramatic white hat with a wide brim

On point: The two stood somewhat stiffly side-by-side at the event

Clasping: Both couples held hands at points of the ceremony

Twins: Melania and Brigitte made for a chic matching set

The girls: The ladies stood by their husbands but also walked off together

The foursome barely cracked smiles as they posed for photos in front of the press at the White House, though each first lady was impeccably dressed.

Brigitte donned a white above-the-knee dress with black accents at the pockets, as well as a white suit jacket with black piping and chain detailing. She accessorized with black pumps.

Meanwhile, Melania came dressed in white too, picking a knee-length white pencil skirt and matching jacket, which was cinched at the west with a large belt, and featured a raised hemline at the back, which helped to show off her slim figure to full effect.

Interestingly, Melania chose not to opt for a French designer, instead paying tribute to a homegrown fashion designer, Michael Kors, the man behind her chic skirt suit.

She topped the look off with gray pumps and a bold, wide-brimmed white hat by Herve Pierre  which made for some quite tricky moments later during the event, when her husband leaned in for a kiss and found the brim to get in the way.

Grim: The foursome barely cracked smiles while posing for pictures

Game: Melania let a half smile slip while holding hands with her husband

She added a pair of gray pointy-toe heels to her pencil skirt and belted jacket

Cues: Each found their spot to stand of the opening of the ceremony

Daytime: Melania wore a dark smoky eye for the occasion

No gray about it: The two couples made a bold black-and-white picture

Muah! On stage, President Macron kissed his wife's hand lovingly

Gentleman: He also offered Melania a kiss on the hand as Trump pulled a face nearby

Uh oh: Melania's hat made it tricky for her husband to kiss her on the cheek, as he followed in the French tradition of giving a peck on both sides of the face

In place: The women stood carefully on their assigned spots as their husbands addressed the crowds

Waiting patiently: Donald and Melania stood outside the White House to greet their guests

Macron managed to figure out the cheek-kiss with Melania's though, and also offered both Melania and his wife kisses on the hand while on stage.

Poll Whose all-white ensemble is best? Brigitte Macron Melania Trump Whose all-white ensemble is best? Brigitte Macron 345 votes

Melania Trump 1261 votes Now share your opinion





Later, the crew looked a tad happier as they waved to the crow from a balcony above.

A clean monochrome look seemed to be the unofficial uniform of the morning, with even Ivanka Trump sticking to the simple palette.

Sitting in the audience, the first daughter could be seen in a calf-length navy dress with white piping and a droopy pussy bow at the neck, as well as matching white earrings.

According to the White House, nearly 500 members of the military from five branches were on the South Lawn for a 'Review of the Troops' when the Macrons arrived.

Second stop: The two first ladies also visited the National Gallery of Art

VIP: Part of the museum opened late so they could have it to themselves

Paintings: They visited a new exhibition of Cezannes work

Guides: Mary Morton, curator and head of the department of French paintings, and Franklin Kelly, Senior Curator of American and British Painting National Gallery of Art, escorted them

Art lovers: The women appeared to enjoy themselves during the museum stop

The Cezanne exhibit opened last month, perfect timing for the visit

On the walls: Sixty of Cezannes works are on display

Guests invited to attend the ceremony included Cabinet secretaries, members of Congress, military families, and students from the Maya Angelou French Immersion School in Temple Hills, Maryland.

The warm welcome comes after the US President and first lady visited France last July. The couple attended the Bastille Day military parade in Paris, toured Napoleon's tomb, and enjoyed dinner in the Eiffel Tower.

After the ceremony, the women parted ways with their husband to take a guided tour of the National Gallery of Art.

They were escorted personally by Mary Morton, who has been curator and head of the department of French paintings at the National Gallery of Art since 2009, as well as Franklin Kelly, the Senior Curator of American and British Painting National Gallery of Art.

The women smiled and talked as they admired paintings in the museum, part of which opened an hour and a half late to the public so the first ladies could enjoy it.

Happy as can be: The pair seemed to be enjoying each other's company as they toured the National Gallery

Getting close: Melania and Brigitte took in the beautiful surroundings as they strolled around the artistic building

Surprise! Both women appeared a bit taken aback as the cameras continued to flash

Expert opinion: The National Gallery's Franklin Kelly (right) continued to serve as their guide throughout the tour

Information: The gallery curator appeared to be sharing plenty of detail about the space with both of the women

They were there specifically to see the new exhibition of Cezannes portraits at the museum. The exhibition opened last month and has 60 of Cezannes works.

On Monday evening, Brigitte and Melania put on yet another stylish display before heading to a private dinner at Mount Vernon.

Melania gave a nod to some of the biggest designers from her guest's home nation, wearing a $2,790 Givenchy tuxedo cape, Christian Louboutin heels, and a Christian Dior purse. She paired them with a dress by Italian designer Dolce & Gabbana.

Brigitte stuck with her favorite design house, donning a custom Louis Vuitton ensemble featuring a pale yellow coat worn over a matching dress. Like Melania, she sported black patent leather stilettos.

Brigitte and her husband, French President Emmanuel Macron, received a warm greeting outside the West Wing of the White House on Monday kicking off the first state visit since President Donald Trump took office.

Although Melania and Brigitte wore dramatically different outfits, their looks were actually quite complementary.

Awkward: Earlier on at the White House ceremony, Melania's hats caused an issue for her husband as he tried to show her some affection

Got this: Macron appears to have more experience kissing women in hats and had an easier time not getting bopped by the brim

Bonjour! The crew looked much happier  or, at least three of them did  while waving from a balcony

Hey there! They smiled as they greeted those who came out to watch

Waves: Three of the four gave toothy smiles for those assembled

Day out: Melania seemed to be quite enjoying herself

Quickie: The couple welcomed President Macron and his wife, who will be in DC for three days for a state visit

Straight: They stood solemnly outside during the large military welcome

Got the memo: It seems that Ivanka Trump also dressed up for the occasion, wearing a navy nautical-inspired number

Navy and white: She was seen in the audience wearing a navy dress with a droopy white bow and matching white earrings

Fashion show: The first daughter is pictured leaving her home on Tuesday morning

Brigitte's yellow coat featured a black ribbon tie and black buttons that matched Melania's all-black ensemble, which was cinched with a Ralph Lauren belt.

While the French first lady carried a Louis Vuitton cylinder-shaped evening bag with a top handle, the U.S. first lady opted for a sleek black Dior crocodile-skin clutch.

The Macrons traveled to Washington, D.C. with a sapling European Sessile Oak that is approximately 4.5 feet tall and between 5-10 years old. The tree comes from Belleau Woods, an historic landmark tied to the United States' entry into World War I.

Over 9,000 American marines died in the Belleau Wood battle in June 1918, and the forest has become a memorial site that symbolizes the sacrifices the U.S. made to ensure peace in Europe.

Together, the two couples planted the tree on the South Lawn of the White House before departing on Marine One for a tour of historic monuments in Washington.

Fashionistas: Melania and Brigitte Macron put on a stylish display at the White House on Monday evening

In step: Melani wore a $2,790 Givenchy tuxedo cape over a Dolce & Gabbana dress

Night and day: Brigitte's cheerful dress featured black buttons and a black ribbon belt that complemented Melania's all-black look

Center of attention: Brigitte and Macron held hands as they stood between Trump and his wife

Possibly taking a cue from the Macrons, who were photographed holding hands upon their arrival, the Trump also had their hands clasped together while walking across the lawn.

The Macrons traveled to the United States to be guests at the Trumps' first state dinner of the administration.

For her arrival at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Monday, France's first lady picked a double-breasted pink cashmere coat by Louis Vuitton, which she paired with cigarette pants.

Brigitte wore her spring-inspired coat over a classic white button-down shirt featuring a mock-neck collar.

Her voluminous blonde hair was worn loose around her shoulders, and she held a structured $3,700 Louis Vuitton bag in her right hand. She topped off her chic ensemble with a pair of classic black patent leather pumps.

Rubbing off on them? Possibly taking a cue from the Macrons, the Trumps also had their hands clasped together while walking across the lawn

Gift: The Macrons traveled to Washington, D.C. with a European Sessile Oak, which the couples planted on the South Lawn

Symbolic: The tree comes from Belleau Woods, an historic landmark tied to the United States' entry into World War I

Dinner time: The two presidents chatted while they made their way to the house

Great minds: Melania and Brigitte both went to fix their hair at the same time

French style: Brigitte donned a double-breasted pink coat by Louis Vuitton for her trip to Washington, D.C. on Monday

Close as can be: Brigitte and her husband held hands while posing for photos together upon their arrival

Support system: Macron helped his wife keep her balance by holding her hand as they walked down the steps of the aircraft

Macron held his wife's hand as they walked off Cotam 001, the French Air Force One, and they continued to hold hands while they posed for pictures.

The French couple's public display of affection serves as a juxtaposition to Melania and Trump's awkward history with hand holding.

The first lady famously swatted her husband's hand away when he reached for hers upon their arrival in Israel last May.

In February, social media users were convinced that Melania refused her husband's hand yet again ahead of a trip to Ohio amid allegations that he had an affair with porn star Stormy Daniels.

When disembarking Air Force One, Melania tends to hold on the railing as the president walks alongside her.

Brigitte, however, relied completely on her husband to help her keep her balance when they arrived in the U.S. on Monday.
Meghan's mother Doria Ragland has been spotted enjoying a hike with her dogs in LA, as she prepares to see her daughter tie the knot in less than a month.

The yoga instructor, 61, stepped out in a tank top and patterned purple leggings as she went for the long walk near her California home.

The mother-of-one finished off her casual ensemble with shades and Converse trainers, along with a blue belt bag.

She looked relaxed as she enjoyed the day out in the sunshine with her two pooches.

Meghan's mother Doria Ragland enjoyed a long hike with her dogs in LA, just weeks before her daughter's wedding

Doria, 61, looked relaxed as she stepped out in a tank top and purple patterned leggings

Doria is no doubt looking forward to seeing her daughter, 36, marry fiance Prince Harry, 33, at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, next month.

Meghan is believed to have flown back to LA to spend time at home with mother Doria over the Easter weekend.

According to Good Morning America royal correspondent Omid Scobie, the mother and daughter spent time discussing wedding plans.

Scobie said Meghan arrived 'equipped with sketches from the wedding and of the wedding dress itself, so she could really give her mom some insight on how the big day will look'.

Meghan and Prince Harry will tie the knot at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, on May 19

Doria is expected to arrive in London 'well before' her daughter ties the knot 'so she can be part of all the fun and festivities and see that dress'.

Meghan mother's appearance comes after her father Thomas Markle was seen working out in his adopted home town of Rosarito, Mexico, last week.

Thomas, 73, split from Meghan's mother when the former actress was just six, but is said to 'dote' on his youngest daughter.

It still remains unclear whether Thomas will walk Meghan down the aisle at St George's Chapel.

Doria is expected to arrive in London 'well before' Meghan ties the knot so she can join her in the wedding preparations

The yoga instructor finished her casual ensemble with Converse trainers and a blue belt bag

Meghan's mother was seen walking her two pooches as she enjoyed the Californian sunshine

However, Thomas's other children have hit out at the royal bride-to-be for not inviting them to the big day.

Meghan's half-sister Samantha Grant has said the former Suits actress should have invited several family members 'out of respect'.

Meanwhile, Meghan's half-brother Thomas Markle Jnr said Prince Harry's fiancee is 'not genuine' and has 'torn [his] family apart'.

Doria is no doubt looking forward to watching her only daughter tie the knot in May

The yoga instructor is likely to be making preparations herself ahead of the royal wedding

Meghan appears to have inherited her love of dogs from her mother, who was seen walking her two pooches
From her immaculately coiffed hair to her bespoke Jenny Packham dress, the Duchess Of Cambridge left no detail to chance as she left The Lindo Wing yesterday - and even incorporated a sweet tribute to the Queen.

The new mother accessorised her red shift dress with a pair of diamond and pearl drop earrings belonging to Her Majesty as she made her first appearance with her newborn prince.

Both Kate and the Queen have chosen the earrings before to wear on particularly special occasions.

The Queen sported the earrings for a service of thanksgiving and carriage procession during her Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012.

And Kate chose them for a day of engagements in The Netherlands in 2016, her first official solo overseas visit without Prince William.

The Duchess of Cambridge accessorised her red shift dress with a pair of diamond and pearl drop earrings belonging to Her Majesty as she left The Lindo Wing yesterday

Her Majesty pictured wearing the same diamond and pearl earrings during her Diamond Jubilee celebration

The Duchess wore the same earrings on a visit to The Hague where she twinned with Vermeer's famous painting

The accessories took centre stage when the royal paused in front of Vermeer's famous painting The Girl With The Pearl Earring at the Mauritshuis gallery in The Hague.

As well as her nod to the Queen, Kate yesterday seemed to make a subtle but sweet tribute to her late mother-in-law Princess Diana.

Her red Jenny Packham dress was very similar to the similar outfit the princess wore when she left the same hospital after giving birth to Prince Harry in 1984.

The new mother wore a long red coat by Jan van Velden, with a white blouse trimmed with a scarlet ribbon showing underneath.

Doting mother Kate couldn't keep her eyes off the new arrival (left). Proud Princess Diana leaving hospital with Prince Harry in 1984 (right)

A maternity style icon is born! Kate she wore a polka dot Jenny Packham crepe de chine dress to welcome Prince George to the world in July 2013 (left). She donned a summery yellow smock dress by the same designer for Charlotte's birth in 2015 (right)

It was a hat trick for designer Jenny Packham yesterday, getting the nod of the third time to design Kate's 'going home' outfit after giving birth.

The new mother, 36, stunned in a red knee-length shift dress with a pretty white lace collar - a choice with a more chic edge that its two prettily patterned predecessors.

Kate wore a blue polka dot Jenny Packham crepe de chine dress to welcome Prince George to the world in July 2013.

She donned a summery yellow smock dress by the same designer for Charlotte's birth in 2015.
Monday marked an important moment in the history of the Royal Family.

Not just because it was the day the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge welcomed a new addition to their family, but also because it was the day we finally saw the kind of woman the girl once disparagingly dismissed as Waity Katie has become.

And, wow, what a woman. Just five hours after giving birth, when most of us would be shuffling around in slippers trying to remember our own name, Kate was coiffed and ready for her close-up, introducing her new baby to the world on the hospital steps, not an eyelash out of place. She made delivering 8lb 7oz of strapping baby boy look about as taxing as a bikini wax. Possibly less so.

Prince William and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge pose for a photo with their newborn baby son

Even the staunchest republican could not deny that she has style. In fact, style, determination  and something more unexpected, too. Character traits only those who know her best appreciate, and that belie her ever-smiling, seemingly compliant girl-next-door image.

What weve learned this week is that Kate  like her mother, Carole  has a core of steel, an unwavering focus and a burning ambition that may yet surprise all of us. Its not just that she understands the importance of her role as royal consort and takes it incredibly seriously, fulfilling her duty with diligence and grace.

Nor is it the fact that she has succeeded in keeping her own identity despite the inevitable tensions of her role, remaining respectful of royal convention while at the same time gently, but firmly, ploughing her own furrow.

Mirror image: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge yesterday on the steps on the Lindo Wing and Princess Diana (1961 - 1997) and Prince Charles leaving St Mary's Hospital, London with their new-born son Prince Harry

Nor even is it the way she provides unwavering support to her husband, enabling him to flourish both as a Prince and a father without crowding him out or competing for the limelight.

No, the truly remarkable thing about Kate is the way she has quietly, with steady focus, manoeuvred herself into the unassailable position of royal matriarch, the fulcrum around which the next generation of young royals revolves and in whose hands the future of the monarchy ultimately rests.

Lets face it, she didnt need to have a third child. In fact, given the serious health problems she faces during the early stages of every pregnancy  suffering from crippling morning sickness that confines her to bed  one might have thought her slightly nuts to want to go through it all again.

But Kate clearly isnt a woman to let trivial matters like agonising illness get in her way.

Even  or perhaps that should be especially  if it means establishing the grip of the younger generation on Palace power.

Thanks to Kate, Prince Andrew is now so far down the pecking order in the succession to the throne he no longer has to ask the sovereigns permission to marry. One more baby and the Queens youngest, Prince Edward, will be out of the top ten altogether.

The Duchess of Cambridge leaves the Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital with her newborn baby son accompanied by Prince William

It would be easy to dismiss this as mere coincidence. But since William made that documentary about his late mother last year, commemorating 20 years since Dianas untimely death, its become increasingly clear that Princes William and Harry  along with Kate and Meghan  want to be the royal modernisers their mother hoped, but never had the chance, to be.

William remains meticulously respectful of his fathers position, of course, but he also comes across as frustrated, impatient. That is why he has cast his charity work and wider ambitions as part and parcel of keeping his mothers legacy alive.

But there is also something else  something perhaps less visible, yet more visceral  at work here too: his desire to vindicate her. As his loyal, perceptive wife, Kate must feel this keenly. Which perhaps goes some way towards explaining her sartorial choice for the photocall on Monday.

Kate waves to the sky as she stands holding her newborn baby

The red dress with its Peter Pan collar was almost identical to the outfit worn by Princess Diana in 1984 after she gave birth to Harry.

Of course, Diana herself was no stranger to a bit of sartorial signalling (remember the famous revenge dress?), but this was remarkable in its boldness and the associations it sparked.

It also spoke volumes not only about how Kate sees herself in relation to her royal status, but also about her relationship with William himself.

Put it this way, if Sigmund Freud were alive today, he would have his work cut out unravelling that particular Oedipal tangle. Williams wife, perfectly mirroring his late mother. Move along now, nothing to see here. Except, of course, the ghost of a woman who, more than 20 years after her death, is finally levelling the score via her heirs.

Kate is central to that mission. Without her strength and loyalty, William might not have the confidence or conviction to be as assertive as he increasingly is.

And now that Meghan Markle is about to join the clan, the royal tectonic plates will shift still further. After she and Harry walk down the aisle next month and settle into Kensington Palace, this vibrant, youthful new royal power base will be firmly established.

In fact, its already happening: the royal baby was due on Friday but failed to show up until Monday, thus eclipsing ITVs documentary about Camilla, in which the Duchess of Cornwall came across as she really is  a genuinely warm, funny, kind woman who has, in many ways, been the salvation of Prince Charles.

This ought to have been a golden opportunity to consolidate themselves in the affections of the nation. Instead, Monday turned into the Kate show.

And this is only the beginning. Soon Kensington Palace will be oozing Hollywood glamour and, one assumes, teeming with yet more photogenic baby royals. And Kate will be at the heart of it all. Consort, confidante, counsellor  and Queen Bee.

There was a time when Kates only ambition seemed to be to marry a prince. But over the years it has become clear that she desires so much more. Quite what that means for the future of the monarchy remains to be seen.

Either way, congratulations and hats off to her. It just goes to show: never underestimate a Middleton woman.

STOP STIGMATISING CAESAREAN BIRTH

Kate makes it look easy, but for many women a natural birth is impossible. Which is why the news that one-in-four hospitals are denying expectant mothers elective Caesareans is deeply worrying.

There are many reasons why women ask for Caesareans, from psychological trauma following a difficult previous birth to concerns about the size of their baby. Yet still society  and sections of midwifery  seeks to stigmatise them as lazy and cowardly and force them to undergo a process that may cause lasting physical and mental damage.

When womens rights have never been championed more loudly, it beggars belief that some mothers are treated this way. But that is what you get if you fail to subscribe to the fashionable view that Caesareans are unnatural and costly. The former may be true  though no one would apply the principle to fixing a broken limb.

The latter is a myth: according to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the medium-term cost of a planned Caesarean is less than 100 more than for a vaginal delivery.

With childbirth, there is no right or wrong way, just what works best for the individual. Medical staff should respect that  and allow women the right to choose.

Delighted to see a woman finally joining the ranks of great men in Parliament Square. But while the Mayor of London trumpets his involvement in the new statue of suffragist Millicent Fawcett, might he spare a thought for the two young girls who were stabbed just around the corner from me in West London on Monday night  two more to add to the grim toll of knife crime gripping the capital under his watch.

Less virtue signalling and self-promotion, Mr Khan, and more action please.

Amber Rudd was pilloried last week for suggesting that civil service incompetence may have had some bearing on the Windrush issue.

Rightly so: a minister bears responsibility no matter what the circumstances of the mistake. But it may be worth noting that a chap called Sir Simon McDonald posted a picture on Twitter in which he described the Golden Temple in Amritsar  one of the most revered spiritual sites of Sikhism  as a mosque.

Sir Simon is Permanent Secretary at the Foreign Office  and its most senior civil servant. If thats the level of cultural insensitivity at the top, imagine the rest...
A couple has recounted the shock of learning that their beautiful baby boy is blind after he was born without any eyes.

Nicole Martinez, 25, and her fiance Kalani Prior, 34, from Albuquerque, New Mexico, were heartbroken to discover that their son Jackson did not have a left eye socket during their 32-week scan.

But it wasn't until he was born that doctors realized the 7lb 12 oz newborn's right eye had also failed to develop as it should - leaving him completely blind.

Heartbreaking: Little Jackson (pictured) was born on April 9 without any eyes

Shocking news: Nicole Martinez, 25, and her fiance Kalani Prior, 34, from Albuquerque, New Mexico, discovered their son did not have a left eye socket during their 32-week scan

HOW MANY BABIES ARE BORN WITHOUT EYES? WHAT IS THE CONDITION? Around one in 5,300 babies are born in the US without eyes every year. Up to one in 11 blind children in the UK have the disorder. The condition, known as anophthalmia, can affect one or both eyes. How is it caused? Anophthalmia develops during pregnancy and usually has no known cause. Some babies develop the condition due to changes to their genes or chromosomes. Taking the controversial anti-nausea drug thalidomide during pregnancy has also been linked to the condition. How is it treated? No treatments are available that can create new eyes for sufferers. Surgery may be required to ensure proper growth of the bones that shape the eye sockets. Unlike anophthalmia, sufferers of the condition microphthalmia have eyes that did not develop properly and are therefore unusually small. This can lead to blindness or restricted vision. Treatment for microphthalmia may involve surgery to correct vision. Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Advertisement

Jackson was born with Anophthalmia, a medical term for the absence of one or both eyes, and microphthalmia, a developmental disorder where one or both eyes are abnormally small and have anatomic malformations.

Both can be caused by genetic mutations and abnormal chromosomes.

'I knew during that scan that something was wrong,' Nicole said of learning her son did not have a left eye socket. 'The doctor began to speak to me about Jackson's orbis and I had no idea what he was talking about.'

'I finally asked him, "But what does that mean," and he told me that he didn't think Jackson had a left eye socket or an eye.

'It was a really, really sad thing. You go to those appointments and expect them to be happy and to get news like that is difficult,' the full-time mom recalled.

Defects: Jackson was born with Anophthalmia, a term for the absence of an eye, and microphthalmia, a developmental disorder where the eye is abnormally small

Concern: Kalani said he 'could see in the nurse's eyes that there was something wrong' after Jackson was born via C-section

'I was by myself, and just didn't know how I was going to tell Kalani. I didn't know how to give him that news.'

After Jackson was born via C-section, Kalani said he 'could see in the nurse's eyes that there was something wrong' while the newborn was getting cleaned up.

'The nurse, she felt his right eye and even though he had a socket there, she didn't think he had an eye,' he recalled. 'It was one of the hardest things I've ever done to go back to that table and tell Nicole that news.

'All along we thought he would have one good eye, that he would still be able to read, that he would still be able to see the world,' he said.

'So having a different reality placed in front of us was really hard to cope with.'

Mistaken: Although the parents knew that Jackson was missing a left eye socket, they thought he would still have one functioning eye

Suffering: 'Having a different reality placed in front of us was really hard to cope with,' Kalani admitted

Possible cause: Both Anophthalmia and microphthalmia can be caused by genetic mutations and abnormal chromosomes

In addition to the eye defects, Jackson was born with an enlarged valve in his heart and was rushed to the NICU as soon as he was delivered on April 9.

Although Jackson's heart condition resolved itself, doctors at Albuquerque Presbyterian Hospital hope tests will shed some light on why his eyes did not develop in the womb.

'The doctors think it could be that he's missing certain chromosomes so he will be having genetic testing over the next couple of months,' Kalani explained.

Now the couple is focused on adjusting to life with a blind baby after they introducing Jackson to his big brothers Michael, 12, and Mason, 14 months, last weekend.

Looking for answers: Jackson will be having genetic testing over the next couple of months to see if he is missing certain chromosomes

Stressful time: Jackson was also born with an enlarged valve in his heart and was rushed to the NICU as soon as he was delivered. However, the heart condition resolved itself

Looking to the future: The couple is now focused on adjusting to life with a blind baby, and they have already been in touch with Albuquerque's School for the Blind

Although they said it was difficult to explain Jackson's condition to their eldest son, the youngster has been a huge help to his parents.

'Michael is such a supportive child and he treats Jackson just the same as his other brother,' Nicole said.

'He had a lot of questions, some of them we don't have the answer to yet, but he was really excited for us to bring Jackson home last week.'

The parents have already been in touch with Albuquerque's School for the Blind to prepare for Jackson's future, and they hope to commence testing to establish if the tot has a genetic condition.

'I'm a big planner,' Kalani said. 'I've already arranged to meet with the School for the Blind in Albequeque, it's important to us to be as prepared as possible.

Family of five: The parents introduced Jackson to his big brothers Michael, 12, and Mason, 14 months, last weekend

Doting brother: 'Michael is such a supportive child and he treats Jackson (R) just the same as his other brother (L),' Nicole said

New normal: Nicole said she and Kalani want to take every step they can to make sure Jackson ahs the best life possible

They also have an appointment to meet with doctors to see if Jackson is a candidate for prosthetic eyes, which would help his facial structures develop normally.

'I'm a big believer in staying positive, and since he was born, we have made an effort to stay as optimistic and positive as we can,' Kalani said.

Nicole admitted that she has been struggling with her emotions, but she is also determined to stay positive.

When Kalani told me Jackson didnt have his eyes, I just felt really sad for him. I'm so joyful to have a beautiful new baby, but it's emotional. I go back and forth a lot,' she explained.

'But you know what, he won't know any different as a baby, and we just want to take every step we can to make sure he has the best life possible and be as positive as we can for him.'
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Since it was founded in 1925, Corona has painted the image to its consumers of a beverage, perfect for drinking outside on a beach, with your toes in the sand and of course, a lime wedge not too far away.

The description for the beer even says: 'Born outside in the sun, with the beach as our homeland, every Corona is an invitation to come outside and unwind.'

So in honor of Earth Day on April 22, the Mexican-based company put its money where its mouth is, and forced its customers to bring its philosophy to life by removing all products from stores and markets, and selling them only via outdoor vendors for the day.

Outside only: For Earth Day, Corona removed its products from stores and sold them outside so people could reconnect with nature. Photo taken in Bogota, Colombia

Born in the sun: The description for the beer said it's 'born outside in the sun, with the beach as our homeland, every Corona is an invitation to come outside'. Photo taken in Guatemala

Reminder: The campaign served as a reminder for people to step outside and enjoy the simple pleasures that nature has to offer. Photo taken in the Dominican Republic

Corona worked with advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam on the campaign, which served as a reminder for people to step outside and enjoy the simple pleasures that nature has to offer.

Corona believes that the outside is where people disconnect from their daily routines and reconnect with nature.

However, the Corona also knows that less and less people are going outdoors as unfortunately, people spend on average 90 per cent of their lives inside, according to the beer brand.

So this past Earth Day, Corona interrupted the routines of those living in Brazil, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Colombia and the Dominican Republic and removed its products from supermarkets and convenience store shelves and sold them exclusively outdoors to remind people of the ten per cent spent outdoors.

Disconnect: Corona believes that the outside is where people disconnect from their daily routines and reconnect with nature. Photo taken in Florianopolis, Brazil

Less and less: People spend on average 90 per cent of their lives inside, according to the beer brand. Photo taken in Bogota, Colombia

Select cities: The event was held in in Brazil, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Colombia and the Dominican Republic, Photo taken in Guatemala City, Guatemala

Hugo Ramirez, manager of imported brands of brewing company, Ambev Central America, said: 'We want people to become aware of the amount of time they spend inside, we want people to go outside and reconnect with nature.'

'For this, Corona will sell their products but only outside. It is time to disconnect from the everyday and reconnect with the outdoors and the land.'

Images show what the shelves looked like in the stores without any Corona bottles along with signs glued to convenience store refrigerators prompting people to go outside if they wanted to purchase a beer.

Corona even had outside lounge pop-ups and a built-in supermarket terrace in some of the cities where it held the campaign such as Guatemala and Colombia.

No Corona: Images show what the shelves looked like in the stores without any Corona bottles. Photo taken in Guatemala City, Guatemala

Outside living: Corona even had outside lounge pop-ups and a built-in supermarket terrace in some of the cities where it held the campaign such as Guatemala and Colombia (pictured)

Sit back and relax: The company said that it wants people to become aware of the amount of time they spend inside

This isn't the first time, Corona has created a campaign in the hopes of getting people to sit back and enjoy their daily routine.

Last September, the company offered citizens of Mexico City, Mexico, the unique opportunity to escape their stressful surroundings without ever venturing outside the city limits - thanks to a unique virtual reality experience set up in the heart of their hometown.

People were handed a VR headset and quickly transported to all manner of different natural paradises, from the deepest, darkest jungles of the Amazon, to beautiful sunlit beaches.

And, thanks to the unique set design created by Corona, it wasn't just a case of seeing to believe; wind machines and other tactile aspects of the experience meant that participants quite literally felt as though they were being immersed in their incredible surroundings.

Before and after: Images pictured above in Guatemala City, Guatemala, show what the shelves looked like before and after Corona was removed

The land: An employee for the company, Hugo Ramirez, said the campaign was so people could reconnect with the outdoors and the land'. Photo taken in Guatemala City, Guatemala

Boat and beer: An image of the Corona supermarket terrace in Bogota, Colombia

The experience was set up in an attempt to encourage city residents to make more of an effort to step outside their concrete jungles and embrace the natural world around them.

The brand said: 'Corona believes outside is where our best side shines through, but getting outside to experience nature isnt as easy as it should be with over half of the worlds population currently living in urban areas.'

'Corona is on a mission to encourage people around the world to reconnect with nature and the outdoors because we spend on average 90 per cent of our time inside.'
Some months ago, my daughter, 43, woke up with a very rapid heartbeat and felt as if someone was sitting on her chest. She was diagnosed with an abnormally fast heart rate, supraventricular tachycardia and was given an ablation procedure, but it didnt work. She was then prescribed verapamil.

Terrified it would make her feel unwell, shes decided not to take it and instead uses various techniques when the episodes occur, which do usually reduce their severity. My daughter wonders if her vagus nerve is involved and if so, should she be referred to a neurologist? Could these frequent episodes weaken her heart.

Jo Dobson, Newbury.

A father asked if his daughter's heart could permanently be weakened because of frequent episodes of a rapid heart rate

The situation and the inability to find an effective treatment must be causing great anxiety for you and your daughter. Let me first reassure you that the episodes will not weaken her heart.

Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) is a condition where the heart beats far faster than normal for periods lasting anything from seconds to hours. These episodes often start and stop suddenly and are caused by faulty electrical signals that make the atria, the upper chambers of the heart, contract too rapidly; during an SVT episode the heart can beat at 150 to 250 times per minute compared with a normal 60 to 100.

Why I'm worried about... Hay fever sufferers. At this time of year, almost all conversations are interrupted by sneezing. Ah, people say apologetically, I should really take my hay fever pills. They wait until the blossoms are in bloom and the sun is shining before they start taking antihistamines, but by then its too late. For maximum benefit, you need to take them before the pollen is released. So if you are one of the many millions in this country who suffer from hay fever, then I implore you, next year, mark your calendar with a reminder for early March: Start taking antihistamines. Advertisement

This causes a sense of lightheadedness and may also lead to trouble breathing or tightness in the chest. These symptoms occur because when the heart beats very fast it doesnt have time to fill in between each beat, reducing the amount of oxygenated blood that is being pumped around the body.

The condition is diagnosed using an electrocardiogram (ECG), a recording of the electrical activity of the heart. Your daughter is correct in thinking the vagus nerve could play a role  it runs from the brain to the abdomen with a branch going to the heart, and stimulating the nerve will often stop the abnormal rhythm.

This is done using a technique known as the Valsalva manoeuvre  holding the nose tightly closed and trying to exhale hard out of it  or by dipping the face into cold water for a second or two. However, vagal stimulation is effective only in about one case in three.

When it comes to heart rhythm, treatment is the province of a cardiac electrophysiologist, who specialises in the electrical activity of the heart, rather than a neurologist, whose responsibility is the nervous system.

He asks: 'My daughter wonders if her vagus nerve is involved and if so, should she be referred to a neurologist?'

The usual treatment is beta blockers, which in your longer letter you say your daughter was prescribed but stopped taking, with her GPs agreement, as they made her feel unwell. Another option, during an acute attack, is an injection of adenosine, which blocks faulty signals in the heart.

Verapamil, a type of drug known as a calcium channel blocker, could also be a treatment for other patients, but you say your daughter is worried about taking this.

It helps to slow the heart rate and works differently from beta blockers, so may avoid the effects your daughter experienced. It is given either intravenously, for an acute attack, or by mouth, to try to prevent attacks.

Food for thought Another week, another idea about how to tackle the childhood obesity crisis. This week its The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health which has suggested, among other things, that fast food shops should be banned from opening within 400m of a school. Its a worthy but futile gesture. Even if the chip shop isnt on a schools doorstep, there may well be one around the corner from a childs home. The real issue is educating our children about healthy choices  if we dont do that, you can have as many fruit and veg stalls outside schools as you want, but children will just walk on by. Advertisement

In some cases, patients are also offered the ablation procedure you mention. This is where catheters are threaded through veins up to the heart, enabling doctors to examine and test areas that might be responsible for the abnormal rhythms. Once identified, these can be ablated or destroyed, which does provide a permanent cure.

In your daughters case, the specialist was unable to trigger an episode and could not identify the abnormal regions, so ablation was not possible. While I understand the reluctance of your daughter to take medication, verapamil may prevent or reduce the episodes until her next appointment.

It may well have been prescribed as an interim measure, as I suspect another attempt at ablation may be on the cards given that your daughter is otherwise healthy.

Risk factors for SVT include smoking and obesity, but these are not an issue in her case.

After having a cancerous growth removed surgically from my colon and five sessions of oxaliplatin and capecitabine chemotherapy, I have been left with prickly fingers and feet.

At times, my feet are also very hot. This has made walking difficult. I finished chemotherapy three months ago and my doctor tells me that it may or may not go away. What is your view?

John Cockle, Wendover, Bucks.

Oxaliplatin has a big place in the treatment of colon cancer as studies show it instigates a chemical reaction inside cancer cells which leads to cell death. Long-term studies have also confirmed that it provides a significant increase in the five-year survival rates.

But, like all chemotherapy, it can be toxic to healthy cells, including nerve cells. After an infusion, oxaliplatin often causes discomfort in the throat and sensitivity and tingling when touching cold items.

A man had a cancerous growth removed from his colon but has been left with prickly fingers and feet (FILE photo)

Around 80 per cent of patients experience this, but it resolves usually two or three days after each chemotherapy session.

However, in the weeks or even months after the treatment has finished, patients can also experience tingling and numbness in the feet and legs and hands and arms.

This is because oxaliplatin enters the dorsal root ganglion, the bundle of nerves just outside the spinal cord, and binds to the DNA in nerve cells, causing them to die. It takes time for this damage to be repaired.

In the meantime, the damaged nerve tissue sends abnormal signals, causing the tingling and heat you describe.

The symptoms start to improve about three months after the final course of chemotherapy, though in some patients it initially continues to worsen before later resolving  the symptoms in the upper limbs normally start to fade before those in the feet.

In my view.....Doctors need to talk more

The need to communicate well with patients is something thats drummed into doctors and nurses from the start. Yet when it comes to talking to each other, the medical profession seems to have lost its way, and its having a deleterious effect on patient care.

When I was a junior hospital doctor in the Seventies, it was not unusual to see a GP on the ward round when we discussed their patient.

They would talk about the care of the patient with the consultants, who they often knew personally  indeed, they would write referral letters directly to hospital colleagues whom they knew, trusted and respected. This easy communication ensured better, prompt and appropriate care. But with the arrival of the internal market, promoted by Ken Clarke during his tenure as Minister of State for Health, the referral process was hijacked by management.

This slowed down treatment and contributed to longer waiting lists. Rather than call a hospital colleague for advice, GPs had to refer the patient via a letter.

So I read with astonishment about a scheme being spearheaded by a GP practice in Belfast, where direct relationships are being set up with local consultants whom the GPs can call for advice and discussion of referrals  airing problems that may or may not need specialist involvement, for instance, or to clarify investigation arrangements.

The practice introduced the scheme because the GPs realised patient care was suffering through a lack of good and easy communication with hospital colleagues. It has resulted in the speeding up of patient treatment. My astonishment was directed at the fact they are calling this new.

I do not accept that the growth of the population and greater pressures on time means more practices cannot revert to this approach. It is a system that didnt only work  it worked well.
Ten days ago, along with the rest of Britain, I awoke to my radio telling me that more than five glasses of wine a week could knock years off your life and drinking is as harmful as smoking  shock horror stories widely repeated in many of the days newspapers.

These had been generated by a study from the University of Cambridge, published in The Lancet, one of Britains most prestigious medical journals. It was a substantial piece of research, surveying the health of 600,000 people.

Within hours, I was assailed by a fusillade of tweets and emails from readers of my book, The Good News About Booze. Not such good news now, eh Tony? they chided me.

Ten days ago, a study claimed that more than five glasses of wine a week could knock years off your life

Obviously, I had to see what the fuss was about  and I can now confidently report that the scare stories have got it completely wrong.

From the moment I read the first lines of the Lancet studys press release, I smelt a very large rat. They were a flat contradiction of nearly half-a-century of medical research, which overwhelmingly demonstrates that, within limits, drinking is good for your health, and your heart particularly.

Many hours of work later, I managed to piece together the Lancet studys raw medical data  very unusually, it had not been included in the main paper, but was buried in the middle of a voluminous appendix and in the form of a graph, which could easily have fooled anyone unfamiliar with the subject.

What hit me between the eyes was that, contrary to the primary claim in the press release, the studys findings were wholly in line with nearly half-a-century of alcohol research.

The person who started it all off was Professor Sir Richard Doll, acknowledged ever since as the father of epidemiology (the study of the health of human populations).

His renown stems largely from his pioneering discoveries of the health risks of tobacco.

Tony Edwards, a top scientist writer, read the report but says that he can now confidently confirm that it was wrong

However, in stark contrast, what the medical authorities have always kept very quiet about is Professor Dolls almost simultaneous discovery of what he called the inverse health risks (i.e. health benefits) of alcohol.

For example, in a study he began in the early Eighties on 600,000 Americans, he found that drinkers were much healthier than non-drinkers, with a roughly 25 per cent reduction in mortality rates  heart disease deaths in particular.

By the time Professor Doll died, in 2005, hundreds of scientists worldwide had replicated his pioneering work, finding that the most beneficial intake of alcohol is what they called moderate  put simply, not enough to make you drunk.

Surveying the research data he had spawned, Professor Doll concluded there was enough evidence to show that the alcohol/good health connection is causal  i.e. alcohol has genuine benefits, just like medicine.

Yet, in a BBC studio on the morning of the Lancet paper press storm, Robin Piper, the head of Alcohol Research UK, airily dismissed work such as Professor Dolls.

Although Robin Pipers organisation has a very official-sounding name, it is, in fact, a consortium of alcohol charities, some with roots in the Temperance movement of the last century. Referring to 40-year-old studies, he assured viewers that: Weve moved on.

But have we? A mere three years ago, the journal Circulation published a study of three-and-a-half million middle-aged women, directly comparing the health risks of smoking and drinking.

While smokers were found to more than double their mortality risk, moderate drinkers had a 24 per cent decrease. The international research team recommended health advice to women should focus on encouraging . . . moderate drinking.

Again, only last year in Britain, scientists at the University of Cambridge published a study on two million of us, tallying our drinking habits with our health records. Broadly speaking, their data showed that everyone else was worse off health-wise than moderate drinkers, with both teetotallers and heavy drinkers having around a 30 per cent extra risk of heart disease, strokes and premature death.

Now, 30 per cent may not sound much, but if the pharmaceutical industry could come up with a drug offering those same health benefits, you can be sure the NHS would be signing very large annual cheques for the stuff. However, the real take-home message from the two recent mega-studies is this: the scary headlines ten days ago that alcohol is so across-the-board harmful are wrong. Moderate drinking is good for you.

In fact, the top science writer has claimed the opposite. He said that a few drinks a week are actually good for you

But what does moderate actually mean?

Well, the researchers behind the two million Britons study defined it as the amounts specified by the UKs 1995 Alcohol Guidelines.

These had recommended an upper limit of 32 grams (roughly a third of a bottle of wine) a day for men, and 24 grams for women. Amazingly, therefore, the real-world findings from the two million Britons study showed that the 1995 figures werent an upper safe limit, but actually, an optimal intake for peoples health!

And yet, the study that caused the recent media stir had a diametrically opposite take-home message. Big puzzle. How can two large-scale research studies  from the same university, looking at the same issue  arrive at such opposite conclusions?

It wasnt as if their raw data were significantly different. For the record, these are my (inevitably rough) calculations from the key graph buried in the huge, 48-page appendix. The data showed that, compared to non-drinkers, people drinking between 18 and 28 grams of alcohol a day had a 40 per cent reduction in all cardiovascular events (in other words, symptoms of  or deaths from  anything connected with heart disease).

And yet, the opening statement of the studys press release was this: (Our) findings challenge the widely held belief that moderate drinking is beneficial to cardiovascular health.

Im not the only one concerned about the direction in which this is all heading.

Commenting on the Lancet study, Dr Andrew Waterhouse, a research scientist at the University of California, says: This is one of a growing number of studies that seem to be doing their level best to obscure their own data showing that drinking alcohol might have health benefits.

Sharper in his criticism is Dr Harvey Finkel, emeritus professor of clinical medicine at Boston University Medical Center in the U.S. He says: Considering the disconnects between the data and the conclusions, about which the media are not equipped to understand, this paper should not have been published.

I did try to contact the lead author of the paper, Dr Angela Wood, who has a PhD in biostatistics and lectures to students on the subject.

She said she was happy to answer my questions. I emailed them to her almost a week ago, but have heard nothing back.

The mystery is this: why has a prestigious universitys research gone so startlingly awry?

All I can tell you is that the primary message of the studys press release that alcohols heart health benefits are a myth is precisely the message anti-alcohol groups such as Alcohol Research UK want to deliver to Government.

Of course, no one denies that alcohol is a toxin  for example, its a powerful bacteria-zapper in hospitals. However, partly because we naturally produce alcohol in our gut during food digestion, Mother Nature has given most of the human race a bunch of enzymes to detoxify it.

These enzymes generally do a very good job, but theyre not miracle-workers: excessive alcohol intake can overwhelm them, forcing the body to consume precious antioxidants to protect itself. Thats why binge-drinking or being an alcoholic is so dangerous.

Theres no debate that overdoing the drink is bad news for health. Where the battle lines are drawn is between the strident anti-alcohol brigade and the often self-effacing academics who follow Professor Dolls example of dispassionate scientific enquiry.

These researchers repeated findings that drinking within sensible limits is good for your health must stick in the craw of Britains powerful quasi-Prohibitionists.
A woman who thought she was expecting her first child was devastated to discover her longed for 'baby' was actually cancer.

Megan, 23, was diagnosed with a molar pregnancy after experiencing heavy vaginal bleeding at 10-and-a-half weeks.

Despite having the tumour in her womb removed, Megan's cancer returned, forcing her to endure eight weeks of grueling chemotherapy.

After many weeks of treatment, Megan, from Belfast, was finally given the all clear last week and hopes to one day be a mother.

The former hairdresser said: 'Losing our baby was devastating, but now we are looking forward to trying again and starting a family.'

Molar pregnancies occur when a lump of abnormal cells develop in the womb rather than a foetus. They can become cancerous if the growth is not removed.

Around one in 590 pregnancies in the UK are molar.

Megan, who thought she was expecting her first child, was devastated to discover her longed for 'baby' was actually cancer (pictured earlier this month after being given the all clear)

Twenty-three year old Megan (pictured with her husband Jake, 23) was diagnosed with a molar pregnancy after experiencing heavy vaginal bleeding at 10-and-a-half weeks

At just eight weeks, a midwife commented on Megan's unusually swollen 'pregnancy bump'

An ultrasound scan revealed a cluster of tumours (circled) in Megan's womb

'We were so happy to be having a baby'

When Megan, who now lives near Alicante, Spain, discovered she was pregnant just before Christmas last year, she was overjoyed.

She said: 'My period was five days late when I was back in Belfast visiting family and I had a feeling I might be pregnant.

'We'd been trying for three months, so when I did the test back in Spain with [my 23-year-old husband] Jake it was the best feeling in the world.

'He cried his eyes out and I was in total shock. We were so happy to be having a baby.'

As well as an unusually large 'bump', Megan experienced severe morning sickness

Megan was rushed to hospital after experiencing severe vaginal bleeding at 10 weeks

After undergoing a scan, Megan was devastated to learn she was not actually pregnant

WHAT IS A MOLAR PREGNANCY? A molar pregnancy occurs when a lump of abnormal cells grows in the womb instead of a healthy foetus. A 'complete mole' is when there is no foetus, while a 'partial' occurs when a foetus starts to form but cannot develop into a baby. Around one in 590 pregnancies in the UK, and one in 1,000 in the US, are molar. Many women have no symptoms and are unaware they are having molar pregnancies until routine ultrasound scans. Some may experience: Vaginal bleeding or dark discharge

Severe morning sickness

An unusually swollen abdomen Treatment often involves removing the abnormal cells via suction. Medication may also be necessary. Treatment may also be required to remove any leftover abnormal cells, which can turn cancerous. Molar pregnancies do not affect women's chances of conceiving in the future. Source: NHS Choices Advertisement

Rushed to hospital with severe bleeding

Yet their joy was short lived when Megan was struck down with extreme nausea and, just eights into her pregnancy, her 'baby bump' was so swollen that a midwife commented on its unusual size.

When she began to experience heavy vaginal bleeding, Jake rushed Megan to their nearest hospital, where she was given a transvaginal ultrasound scan.

Megan said: 'The moment they turned the scan screen away from me, I knew something was seriously wrong.

'The nurse sent for the doctor and he came in and told me my baby wasn't there anymore.

'I was totally devastated and had no idea what had happened. All I knew was that we'd lost our baby.'

Megan required immediate treatment to have the tumour in her womb removed

She then had to undergo eight weeks of chemotherapy when the growth returned shortly after

After enduring weeks of grueling treatment, Megan was finally given the all clear last week

'What I had thought was a baby was actually a tumour'

Megan was told she had in fact had a molar pregnancy and needed to return to the hospital the next day to have the 'baby' removed.

She said: 'To go from thinking we were having a baby to finding out it was cancer, requiring immediate treatment, was devastating.

'Scared, I rang my mum afterwards, crying my eyes out, saying it could be cancer.

'I could not believe that what I had thought was a baby was actually a tumour, growing inside me.'

Due to the risk of the molar pregnancy tissue continuing to grow, Megan's hormone levels were monitored post-surgery, to ensure they stayed low.

Megan said: 'Doctors said that, if the levels of pregnancy hormones started increasing or didn't drop to normal, then it could be a sign that I needed treatment, like chemotherapy.

'At a check-up, they said my levels had risen, so I had an ultrasound scan at Hospital Quiron Torrevieja, in Alicante, a private hospital, to be seen quicker and a growth was spotted.

'Hearing the news, I just broke down. I was petrified about what was inside me. Doctors believed it was cancerous and wanted to start me on chemotherapy right away.

'Looking at the scan on the screen, I could see the tumour.

'It was like a cluster of grapes and doctors believed a small amount had continued to grow after the first tumour was removed.'

The couple (pictured earlier this month) hope to start a family together soon

Although devastated by their loss, Megan said being given the all clear was 'amazing news'

The couple (pictured last New Year's Day) can start trying for a family again in six months

Megan says the couple are ready to be parents (pictured at Disneyland Paris)

Hopes to start a family

Megan started chemotherapy on February 20 this year, which involved a cycle of eight days of treatment, followed by six days off.

Speaking of being given the all clear, Megan said: 'It was such amazing news.

'Now I need to go back for a check-up in three months and three months after that we can start to try again.

'I always knew I wanted to start a family and once we were married we had it all planned out.

'We own our own home and, with my husband running my parents' business, we were settled and ready to move to the next stage of becoming parents.'
A controversial epilepsy drug that has been prescribed to hundreds of thousands of women has been banned, health officials announced today.

Sodium valproate, which raises the risk of serious developmental disorders in unborn children by up to 40 per cent, can no longer be taken by women of a childbearing age.

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which is behind the extreme move, put it in place to 'protect public health'.

Women of a childbearing age will only be able to take sodium valproate if they have a 'pregnancy prevention programme' (PPP) in place.

This comes after two consultant neurologists said just last week that sodium valproate may be the only effective therapy for some expectant mothers, adding that untreated epilepsy poses a serious risk to both women and their unborn children.

Sodium valproate previously came under fire when MailOnline reported three mothers blame the medication for leaving their children with autism, learning difficulties and incontinence after doctors failed to warn them of its risks during pregnancy.

Around 20,000 children in the UK have been affected by the drug, according to campaigners. Sanofi's Epilim is typically a go-to brand in the UK and Ireland.

NICE data reveals the drug raises the risk of malformations, such as cleft palates or lips, by 11 per cent, if it is taken during pregnancy.

A controversial epilepsy drug will be banned among women of a childbearing age unless they have a 'pregnancy prevention programme' in place, health officials announced today (stock)

NEUROLOGISTS SUPPORT VALPROATE'S USE IN PREGNANCY Sodium valproate should not be banned during pregnancy, researchers argued in April 2018. According to the consultant neurologists Heather Angus-Leppan and Rebecca Liu, from the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, the controversial medication sodium valproate may be the only effective treatment for certain patients. They add untreated epilepsy can seriously harm both pregnant women and their unborn children. Previous research suggests seizures increase in expectant mothers, particularly in their third trimesters. Writing in the BMJ, Dr Angus-Leppan and Dr Liu said banning valproate 'imposes less effective treatment for some female patients than for other people with a similar life-threatening or serious condition, without their consent.' Earlier this year, the European Medicines Association recommended sodium valproate should only be prescribed to women of a childbearing age if they agree to use contraception, which Dr Angus-Leppan and Dr Liu wrote 'could be considered an infringement of patient autonomy and liberty'. They warn that women who are taking sodium valproate without medical supervision are at particular risk of giving birth to babies with birth defects, adding scaremongering 'may result in women stopping their treatment without support'. Dr Angus-Leppan and Dr Liu add further research is required to find a sodium valproate alternative. Yet, in the meantime, women should be given specific information about the medication's benefits and risks to help them make informed drug-taking decisions alongside their doctors. Advertisement

What do the new rules mean?

The new measures require women of a childbearing age with epilepsy have their treatment reviewed by a specialist at least once a year.

Female patients will be required to sign a form acknowledging the risks of their treatment.

Meanwhile, the MHRA said that all women and girls who are prescribed sodium valproate should contact their GP to arrange a treatment review, while stressing that they should not stop taking the drug without medical advice.

The new measures also mean the medication's packaging size will be reduced to encourage prescriptions on a month-by-month basis.

All valproate labeling will also have a picture warning against its use in pregnancy.

What might the pregnancy prevention programme involve?

Although unclear for sodium valproate, the PPP for the eczema drug Toctino prevents women from taking the medication while they are expecting.

Such women must immediately contact their doctor if they have unprotected sex or miss a period.

At least two negative pregnancy tests four weeks apart are required before women are prescribed Toctino.

For women at risk of becoming pregnant, assessments are carried out every month.

Doctors are also required to confirm in writing that women understand the high risks of birth defects if they take Toctino during pregnancy.

'Patient safety is our highest priority'

Valproate in pregnancy has come under intense scrutiny recently, with the European Medicines Agency holding a public hearing into medicines containing the drug.

The medication also forms part of a government review into how the NHS responds to concerns over treatments.

Dr June Raine, director of the MHRA's vigilance and risk management of medicines division 'Patient safety is our highest priority.

'We are committed to making sure women and girls are aware of the very real risks of taking valproate during pregnancy.

'However, we also know it is vitally important women don't stop taking valproate without first discussing it with their doctor.

'I would like to particularly thank the families involved in the Valproate Stakeholder Network who have shared their experiences and expertise with us.

'Their support will help keep future generations of children safe.'

Health Minister Lord O'Shaughnessy added: 'Our priority is always patients' safety, so I welcome this decision to take strong actions to protect women and children.

'The focus will now be on explaining these changes to GPs and clinicians so they in turn can advise patients.'

Mother-of-two spent years blaming herself after both of her children battle severe learning difficulties, which she believes is due to the 'poison' drug Samantha Luton-Hughes claims both of her children (pictured with daughter Phoebe, five) suffer severe learning difficulties due to her taking valproate A mother-of-two has battled depression and spent years blaming herself as she believes both of her children suffer severe learning difficulties due to her taking sodium valproate during her pregnancies. Samantha Luton-Hughes, 41, from Worcestershire, claims she was given no information from her doctor on the medications risk of serious disabilities during either of her pregnancies, resulting in her children Logan, six, and Phoebe, five, enduring ADHD, heart murmurs and hernias. Unsure of her childrens future, Ms Luton-Hughes, a self-employed beauty therapist, is fuming at the drug regulators who reportedly knew of sodium valproate's risks for decades. She said: I have gone through hell. As a mother I blamed myself for taking the medication.' Despite the havoc sodium valproate has wrecked on Ms Luton-Hughes life, she is still forced to take the medication to control her epilepsy. She said: Every single day I feel like Im taking poison but if I know if I dont take it I will have a seizure and I cant run that risk. Advertisement

NICE data reveals sodium valproate raises the risk of babies suffering serious developmental disorders by up to 40 per cent and malformations, such as cleft palates, by 11 per cent (stock)

HOW MANY CHILDREN SUFFER? Out of around 35,000 women aged 14-to-45 taking sodium valproate between 2010 and 2012, at least 1,125 were pregnant. If 450 babies are born every year to mothers taking the drug, up to 45 could have a physical disability and up to 180 may suffer from learning difficulties. Between 1993 and 2008, there was a 20 per cent reduction in the number of women aged 15-to-55 who were taking sodium valproate due to new treatments being available. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency says sodium valproate should not be given to women of a childbearing age or during pregnancy unless alternative treatments are ineffective or not tolerated. Yet, in 2016, around 450 babies were born to mothers taking the drug during pregnancy. Source: Epilepsy Society Advertisement

Pregnant women will be more aware of the risks

Commenting on the news, Clare Pelham, chief executive of the Epilepsy Society charity, said: 'The most important change today is that every woman and girl of childbearing age who has been prescribed sodium valproate will be able to see her doctor every year to discuss the risks of this drug to an unborn baby.

'She will leave the discussion with an important written reminder of the risks if sodium valproate is taken during pregnancy.

'This means that she will be able to make informed choices about whether to plan a pregnancy and her future medical treatment.

'It has taken many years to achieve these simple, straightforward and inexpensive healthcare improvements that will prevent babies being born with avoidable disabilities.

She said: 'All credit to the brave women who have campaigned for decades.

'And to Jeremy Hunt for acting on that campaign and insisting the NHS must now learn from its failure to listen and act sooner in response to the concerns raised over many years and during many governments.'

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists recommends exposure to sodium valproate and other anti-epileptic drugs should be minimised by changing the medication prior to conception, as recommended by an epilepsy specialist after a careful evaluation of the potential risks and benefits.

TIMELINE OF EVENTS FIGHTING TO STOP THE PROBLEM In 2014 The European Medicines Agency agreed to strengthen warnings and restrictions on sodium valproate's use in women and girls. The Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA) advised healthcare professionals not to prescribe the drug to females unless other treatments are ineffective or poorly tolerated. On February 8 2016, the MHRA launched a toolkit to help healthcare professionals talk to women with epilepsy about sodium valproate's risks during pregnancy. Prominent written warnings were also added to the drug's packaging in 2016. On April 6 2017, NHS Improvement and the MHRA sent a Patient Safety Alert through the central NHS system to further highlight sodium valproate's risks during pregnancy. A public hearing was held in London on 26 September last year by the European Medicines Agency's Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee where EU citizens spoke of their experiences of the medication. Advertisement

Why is sodium valproate controversial?

In September last year, campaigners presented evidence to a hearing of the European Medicines Agency in London, revealing that drug regulators knew of the drug's problems as far back as 1973 but did not add warnings to its packaging until 2015.

Last January it emerged a professor from the University of Liverpool is studying a boy affected by sodium valproate syndrome to determine if he developed the condition as a result of his grandmother taking the drug during pregnancy.

FACS Aware, which campaigns for sufferers of foetal anti-convulsant syndromes, is fighting for increased support for sufferers and better awareness among healthcare professionals.

Michael Szumera, head of communications at Sanofi, previously told MailOnline: 'Valproate has at all times been supplied by Sanofi in the UK with a warning of the risk of malformations in babies born to mothers with epilepsy who take the product during pregnancy.

'The product information for valproate (including the addition of warnings on the package labelling) has at all times been approved by the regulatory authorities as properly reflecting current scientific and medical knowledge before being put into circulation.

'Sanofi has systematically reminded patients via the information document that they should consult their prescribing physician in case of pregnancy or desire for pregnancy so that their physician can act accordingly.'
A 26-year-old woman decided to have her right leg amputated after a fracture she suffered walking down a street wouldn't heal.

Victoria Snell suffered the injury while strolling back from the cinema - but has since been in and out of hospital for the last six years.

She underwent a total of four operations, having several bone grafts and metal plates installed, however nothing seemed to work.

Facing a fifth operation to have a cage fitted around her leg, Miss Snell decided enough was enough - and asked the doctors to chop her leg off.

The customer services worker revealed how her friends threw an amputation party for her, where they played 'ping the leg on Vicky'.

Victoria Snell suffered the injury while strolling back from the cinema - but has since been in and out of hospital for the last six years (pictured after her amputation)

She underwent a total of four operations, having several bone grafts and metal plates installed, however nothing seemed to work (pictured before the operation)

WHEN DO THE NHS CARRY OUT AMPUTATIONS? Around 2.6 people per 1,000 have an amputation each year in England, according to official figures. They are often needed for patients who have had serious trauma to their limbs, such as a crush or blast wound. However, diabetics are also at risk of needing an amputation because the condition can lead to complications such as nerve damage and poor circulation that can trigger ulcers that worsen quickly. Other reasons that patients may need an amputation include severe infections in the limbs, gangrene, deformities or when there is limited movement or function. Prosthetic limbs aren't suitable for every amputee, the NHS states. They are only given to patients who are able to complete an extensive course of physio and rehab. Advertisement

Miss Snell, originally from Plymouth, Devon, but now living in Manchester, said: 'In the end it was a horrible decision but an easy one.

'I knew my leg wasnt getting me anywhere and I knew with prosthetics I could have a better life than my actual leg could give me.'

When she fractured her leg

Miss Snell was 20 at the time of the break, which was later found to have been a stress fracture.

She said she didnt fall, trip or in any way suffer an impact - but her leg just snapped as she walked.

Miss Snell said: 'I thought I had sprained my ankle, Im a bit clumsy, I walk into stuff a lot.

'I had been to the cinema in Plymouth and every ten steps it was getting more and more painful. Eventually I heard it snap very audibly.

'My friend who was with me did too, she said, "what was that?" I said, "I think it was my leg".'

Miss Snell was rushed to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth where she was patched up and had her leg coated in plaster.

Facing a fifth operation to have a cage fitted around her leg, Miss Snell decided enough was enough - and asked the doctors to chop her leg off (X-ray shows the metal plates in her leg)

The customer services worker revealed how her friends threw an amputation party for her, where they played 'ping the leg on Vicky' (pictured after her amputation)

Miss Snell, from Plymouth, Devon, said: 'In the end it was a horrible decision but an easy one' (pictured wearing a brace to help speed up her healing before it was removed)

WHAT WAS THE TIMELINE OF HER EVENTS? 2011: Miss Snell fractured her right leg January 2013: Miss Snell has a bone graft and metal plate installed. Doctors notice her right leg is an inch shorter than her left June 2015: She was given a taylor spatial frame - designed to speed up the healing of fractures - but again the leg didn't recover October 2016: Miss Snell was given another bone graft and had more metal plates installed - but they eventually gave way on April 1 last year June 2017: Miss Snell was back on the slab as doctors righted the last surgery, but again the leg refused to heal December 2017: Miss Snell said she had the operation in December last year and her friends then threw an amputation party for her. Advertisement

She said: 'I was in hospital for about a week. They did a bunch of tests because your average 20-year-old doesnt break a leg walking down the street.

'Thankfully they all came back okay, its just my bones are a bit rubbish.'

Her first operation

It was another two years before she would be on the operating table, in January 2013.

First, she had a bone graft and a metal plate installed but the pain continued.

Her doctors then checked her over and realised her right leg was about an inch shorter than the other.

In June 2015, Miss Snell was given a taylor spatial frame - designed to speed up the healing of fractures - but again the leg didn't recover.

She added: 'I kind of got used to going there all the time.

'By the time we got to the third surgery I knew what to expect, I knew I had to take time off work, I knew what was happening.

She said she didnt fall, trip or in any way suffer an impact - but her leg just snapped as she walked (pictured in hospital)

Miss Snell said: 'I thought I had sprained my ankle, Im a bit clumsy, I walk into stuff a lot' (pictured, her right leg being an inch shorter than the other)

Miss Snell was rushed to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth where she was patched up and had her leg coated in plaster (pictured, the scars on her legs after numerous operations)

It was another two years before she would be on the operating table, in January 2013. First, she had a bone graft and a metal plate installed but the pain continued (her amputated leg)

Her doctors then checked her over and realised her right leg was about an inch shorter than the other (pictured after her operation)

In June 2015, Miss Snell was given a taylor spatial frame (pictured) - designed to speed up the healing of fractures - but again the leg didn't recover

'I accepted it was something I was going to have to go through for a couple of years.'

She was given another bone graft the next October and had more metal plates installed - but they eventually gave way on April 1 last year.

Then, on June 22, Miss Snell was back on the slab as doctors righted the last surgery, but again the leg refused to heal.

'Netflix was my hobby'

She continued: 'I dont think I lived like your average 20-something.

'I didnt go out and when people asked me what I did for a hobby I asked if Netflix counted as a hobby - I think it kinda does.

'I hadnt been able to walk without pain for years, for the last three years I couldnt walk unsupported.'

Miss Snell was 20 at the time of the break, which was later found to have been a stress fracture (pictured learning to walk with her prosthetic leg)

She was given another bone graft the next October and had more metal plates installed - but they eventually gave way on April 1 last year (pictured with a leg cake, made by friend Derek Anderson at a 'let's get Vicky legless' amputation party)

Then, on June 22, Miss Snell was back on the slab as doctors righted the last surgery, but again the leg refused to heal (pictured learning to walk again with her prosthetic leg)

Miss Snell said she had the operation in December last year and her friends then threw an amputation party for her (pictured with the plaster cover of her amputated leg)

Facing a fifth operation, to have another leg cage fitted, Miss Snell decided enough was enough and the leg had to go.

She added: 'Ive had my prosthetic on for a couple of months and Im getting around. I havent used my wheel chair in like seven months.

'Its liberating, empowering, its giving me my life back. I was back at work after eight weeks.'

Amputation party

Miss Snell said she had the operation in December last year and her friends then threw an amputation party for her.

She added: 'Its official title was "lets get Vicky legless".

'It was a really good night, it was just a house party with a leg cake really. We had lots of drink and there was lots of food. We played pin the leg on Vicky.'

She added: 'Ive had my prosthetic on for a couple of months and Im getting around. I havent used my wheel chair in like seven months' (pictured learning to walk again)
Scientists have sparked controversy after creating a pin-prick test that can determine the gender of a baby after just eight weeks.

Concerns have been raised the test could trigger a rise in sex-selective abortions, especially in countries such as India and China where families desire boys over girls for cultural reasons.

A recently published government report in India found that the country has 63 million fewer woman then it should because families are choosing to abort their female babies.

The situation is much the same in China, where men outnumber women by 34 million - significantly more than the entire population of Australia.

Experts claim the controversial one-child policy, which lasted from the 1970s until 2015, helped to create the imbalance as families sought to have a son.

It is feared the new pin-prick test could fuel a 'genocide' of female babies in India and China as parents are given more time than previously to make a decision on whether to abort their babies.

Concerned scientists warn the test could trigger a rise in abortions, especially in countries such as India, where families desire boys

Experts also fear the test - which is similar to a version set to be rolled out on the NHS this year - could also fuel terminations in the UK, where the abortion time limit is 24 weeks.

Parents-to-be are currently offered the chance to find out the sex of their child at their 20-week scan in the UK. But it is not 100 per cent accurate.

Some critics have also expressed concerns such tests could lead to a rise in sex-selection tourism. However, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service today condemned such fears as 'unfounded'.

The pin-prick test has been created by Brazilian researchers who set out to improve the existing non-invasive prenatal test (NIPT), which already spots Down's syndrome and two other genetic conditions.

The updated test, created by a team at Sabin Laboratory in Brasilia - the capital of Brazil - have updated the NIPT to make it able to spot the sex of a foetus with just a drop of blood.

In experiments on 101 pregnant women, the team led by Dr Gustavo Barra found the test was completely accurate from eight weeks gestation.

Some private firms in the UK already charge women keen to discover the gender of their baby hundreds of pounds to take the test during the first trimester.

'May encourage sex selection'

Hugh Whittall, director of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, today told MailOnline: 'Many pregnant women and couples find out the sex of their foetus simply so they can prepare for a baby of one sex or the other, or because they are curious.

'However, revealing the sex of the foetus at such an early stage of pregnancy increases the risk of terminations on the basis of sex taking place.

'There is limited evidence about the extent to which sex selective terminations are taking place in the UK, but there is a real possibility that permitting very early tests for sex may encourage sex selection, both among UK residents and through "sex selection tourism".

'Given that there are few benefits to most pregnant women of finding out the sex of the fetus in the first few weeks of pregnancy, we believe that test providers should not be allowed to give out this kind of information.'

Dr Andrew McLennan, a gynaecologist at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, told NewScientist that it could lead to more sex-selective abortions.

HOW DOES THE NON-INVASIVE PRENATAL TEST WORK? At the moment parents-to-be are offered the chance to find out the sex of their child at their 20-week scan. But it is not 100 per cent accurate. However, medical advances led to the creation of NIPT, which can spot the gender between nine and 13 weeks, and major genetic conditions. The test is only approved by the NHS to spot children in the womb with Down's syndrome, Edwards syndrome and Pataus syndrome. Many doctors say the test reduces the risk of miscarriages linked to the invasive amniocentesis test - previously the only way of accurately diagnosing Downs. But private firms can charge women up to 400 to discover the gender of their baby in the first trimester - well before the abortion cut-off, using the same NIPTs. The test works by searching the mother's blood for Y chromosome DNA, which only males carry. Women have two X chromosomes. Advertisement

When can women find out the sex of their baby?

At the moment parents-to-be are offered the chance to find out the sex of their child at their 20-week scan in the UK. But it is not 100 per cent accurate.

However, medical advances led to the creation of NIPT, which can spot the gender between nine and 13 weeks, and major genetic conditions.

When will the test be rolled out on the NHS?

The test, which is to be offered to thousands of women considered to have a higher genetic risk of giving birth to children with three major conditions, are only approved by the NHS to spot children in the womb with Down's syndrome, Edwards syndrome and Pataus syndrome. Chiefs said the tests would be implemented this year, but it is unclear what month they will be adopted.

Many doctors say the test reduces the risk of miscarriages linked to the invasive amniocentesis test - previously the only way of accurately diagnosing Downs.

But private firms can charge women up to 400 to discover the gender of their baby in the first trimester - well before the abortion cut-off, using the same NIPTs.

The Nuffield Council on Bioethics previously called for this to be banned, amid fears it was driving an 'arms race' in the search for designer babies.

'Easier' to get an abortion at 10 weeks

Professor Tom Shakespeare, professor of disability research at the University of East Anglia, also warned the sex test could trigger a rise in abortions.

He said last March that very few women will agree to an abortion at 20 weeks - but admitted getting a termination is 'much easier' for them at 10 weeks.

What's different about the new NIPT?

Dr Barra's updated NIPT works in the same way as the old one, by searching the mother's blood for Y chromosome DNA, which only males carry. Women have two X chromosomes.

This means that if the test spots a Y chromosome in the pregnant woman, their child must be a boy. If none are detected, the foetus is a girl, NewScientist reports.

The current version of the NIPT requires around 20ml of blood, collected from the expectant mother's arm using a needle and syringe.

The new test revolutionises that method and brings it in line with blood tests for diabetes. These samples contain roughly 0.2ml.

Dr Barra, who believes women will have access to the test 'very soon', said the new method is better for women who are scared of needles.

However, they fear the test - which is a version of an existing one set to be rolled out on the NHS this year - could also fuel terminations in the UK

It involves wiping each woman's fingertip with a dilute amount of bleach to get rid of any DNA that could contaminate the sample.

The results of the study into the new NIPTs, which involved four other researchers, were published in the scientific journal Prenatal Diagnosis.

Has anyone welcomed the new test?

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service has welcomed the results of the new test, ahead of the roll-out of NIPTs across the NHS later this year.

A spokesperson said: 'We welcome technological developments that enable women to find out information that is important to them about their own pregnancy.

'Sex selective abortion is not an issue in this country, and we believe any concerns that this would increase terminations on that basis are unfounded.'

Professor Julian Savulescu, director of Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics at Oxford University, said the new test would be 'progress' for the UK.

However, he warned 'the situation is different in India and China', where in some places there are six males to five females.

Dr Jayne Spink, chief executive of Genetic Alliance, said: 'NIPT is a safe, non-invasive technique that brings no risk of miscarriage and can provide accurate information earlier in pregnancy than is possible with established invasive techniques.

'It is, in the view of Genetic Alliance UK, a leap forward in the quality of information provided to women about genetic conditions that may affect their pregnancy.'
A seven-year-old boy is one of the youngest patients in Britain to undergo a multi-transplant operation to replace five organs.

Jay Crouch received two new kidneys, a liver, a small intestine and a pancreas from a single donor in a mammoth 10-hour operation.

The youngster, who suffers from anemia, small bowel syndrome and chronic renal failure, was forced to eat through a tube before the procedure finally allowed him to taste and swallow.

Following a four week stay, Jay was discharged from Birmingham Children's Hospital, where he was the first child in 20 years to undergo the complex procedure, last Monday and is recovering at home.

Jay's mother Katie Freestone, 28, from Market Harborough, Leicestershire, said: 'It's quite incredible really because we didn't expect it to all go so well. He's a little superhuman'.

Jay Crouch (pictured with his mother Katie Freestone, 28) is one of the youngest patients in Britain to undergo a multi-transplant operation to replace five organs from a single donor

After a grueling four weeks in hospital, Jay has been allowed home to recover with his family

WHAT IS SMALL BOWEL SYNDROME? Small bowel syndrome is a group of problems relating to poor nutrient absorption. It typically occurs in people who have at least half of their small intestine removed, small intestine damage or poor movement in their intestines. Sufferers cannot absorb sufficient water, vitamins or calories from their food. Some people are born with an abnormally short intestine or with part of their bowel missing. Small bowel syndrome can also occur if people develop a flesh-eating bacterial infection and need to have part of their intestines removed. The main symptom is diarrhoea. Sufferers may also experience bloating, cramping, vomiting and fatigue. Short bowel syndrome can lead to malnutrition, kidney stones and ulcers on the lining of the stomach. Treatment focuses on ensuring patients have adequate nutrition, as well as medication and surgery to increase vitamin absorption. Source: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Advertisement

'You can say thank you but that really doesn't cover it'

When Jay was just six weeks old his small intestine became twisted, causing extensive damage to his major organs.

Speaking of her son's surgery, Ms Freestone said: 'It's quite incredible really because we didn't expect it to all go so well.

'We knew how amazing he is and we thought he would do well but initially we were told he would be in for a much longer period, a few months, but it's actually only been just over four weeks, so everybody's pretty amazed at how he's done.

'I knew he would do great, he's a little superhuman, I knew he would do well.'

Jay's donor was a similar age to him. The donor's various organs were being removed while others were transplanted into Jay.

Ms Freestone said: 'My first thought when I got the phone call to say the organs were available, it was initially of sadness for the family who have lost someone at this time.

'You can't really express your gratitude enough towards them, there aren't any words you can say.

'You can say thank you but that really doesn't cover it.

'Without the organs Jay wouldn't have survived so it's that important.

'There's nothing I could say to express my gratitude.'

Transplant surgeon Khalid Sharif (pictured) carried out the multi-implant procedure at the same time as the donor's organs were being removed. The donor was a similar age to Jay

Celebrated with a slice of toast

Jay celebrated being able to eat food for the first time with a slice of buttered toast.

He said: 'I had some anaesthetic at first, when we first arrived, to get the whole stuff (tubes) into my body.'

Surgeons removed Jay's liver, while the kidneys, pancreas, liver and intestine were being removed from the donor.

The new set of organs were attached to Jay's aorta, which is the body's largest artery, in his stomach. This gave Jay a bloody supply, while blood went back to his heart via the vein coming out of his liver.

The donor's small intestine was then attached to Jay's bowel. The youngster now has four kidneys and two pancreases.

Transplant surgeon Khalid Sharif said: 'There are two connections from the vessels points of view, which is one artery giving the blood to all five organs and one vein taking the blood out of it.

'There are two points to join the intestine and two points to join the juice from the new kidneys to the bladder.

'If you have to join all these tasks separately there will be two joins per each organ separately, which makes a lot of joins.

'You need to see all the organs linking up together.

'If one is not doing it, that's really heartbreaking, because you do not know what is going on.'
Mental fatigue wears older adults out more than physical fatigue, according to a new study.

Two-thirds of Americans over 65 struggle with at least one basic physical function according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Taking walks has been shown to reduce risks of top causes of premature death in older adults - including heart disease and falls.

With age, bones and muscles become weaker, leading to fatigue, but new research from Clarkson University suggests that mental labor may be even more exhausting.

Mentally taxing tasks sapped older people of more energy than did physical activities, the new research revealed

Exercising both the mind and the body are undeniable keys to longevity for people over 65.

However, walking is both beneficial and dangerous to the health of older people.

Even short strolls have been shown to help older people maintain bone density and mass, prevent arthritis, and keep their blood pressure down.

Walking is also an activity that is easy on the knees, but good for the heart and for keeping off excess weight that raises risks of dying prematurely of any cause.

On the other hand, being up and about means an older person can fall, as about a third of adults over 65 do each year in the US.

Many of those falls are fatal, and, even if someone survives that fall, they are subsequently at a two-fold higher risk of death.

So, already, to walk or not to walk is a bit of a conundrum for an older person trying to preserve their health and well being.

Meanwhile, keeping up with cognitive challenges is meant to be protective against the effects of Alzheimer's and dementia, which is the sixth leading cause of death in the US.

But new research indicates that perhaps brain games should be played after a daily walk.

Researchers at Clarkson University in New York had people of an average age of 75 take a walk after doing something mentally taxing and after doing another physically taxing task (a previous walk).

When the subjects took a second walk after a break, their gaits stayed the same, indicating that they did not not feel fatigued by their earlier activity.

But for those that were challenged with math problems and visual matching games on a computer, the second walk proved much more tiring.

Though they performed normally in the first 30 seconds of their strolls, after that their pace and strides started to falter far more, indicating that the cognitive tasks had tired them out.

The participants had described their states of mind using 'a list of mood components such as tense, worn out, energetic, confused [and] lively,' explained Abigail Avolio, first author of the study.

Those who did the mental task reported feeling that they had less energy and focus and struggled to keep up a smooth gait as well.

This may seem counter-intuitive, but science offers some explanations of why our brain can drain us so much.

Our brain accounts for only two percent of our overall body weight, but it uses 20 percent of our energy.

Additionally, neurons are greedy. They consume glucose from our food, plus absorb additional glucose from the surrounding blood vessels.

This extra energy-sapping means that the brain may drive our metabolisms to work harder than our bodies do.

It may also be that the brain is simply having to push more energy to more places when we undertake mental tasks that typically engage more parts of the brain simultaneously, leading to greater fatigue.
The many obese women who develop painful ovarian cysts can improve their health by soaking in a hot tub, surprising new research has found.

While losing weight would be the biggest game-changer, researchers found a dip in a jacuzzi is an effective short-term measure to prevent related heart woes.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), which affects one in 10 women under 45 and is more common in obese women, can take a toll on the heart, increasing risks of diabetes and dangerous inflammation.

However, a small study by the University of Oregon suggests hot water baths can act as an antidote to that inflammation.

Researchers found a dip in a jacuzzi is an effective short-term measure to prevent heart woes from ovarian cysts common in the obese

Lead author of the study Brett Romano Ely, who is presenting the research for the first time today at the 2018 Experimental Biology meeting in San Diego, explains that his work builds on the burgeoning field of research into heat therapy, and its myriad of benefits, even for severe health issues.

It is the first study to examine impacts in women with PCOS and the first to look at changes in fat tissue before and after heat therapy.

'Our findings are exciting because repeated heat exposure appears to reverse some of the inflammation in fat that may be causing metabolic health impairment in this population,' said Ely, a doctoral candidate in the department of human physiology at the University of Oregon.

'Along with this reduction in inflammation, we observed improvements in functional outcomes related to insulin resistance.

'This means that regular hot tub use could potentially be used as a therapy in populations with an elevated risk of developing metabolic diseases like type 2 diabetes.'

To investigate, Ely monitored six obese women with PCOS for two months.

During that time, they each went for one-hour sessions in a hot tub up to four times a week.

Researchers analyzed samples of fat tissue taken at the beginning and end of the study and also tested insulin sensitivity in four of the women.

At the end of two months, the women showed reductions in fasting glucose during an oral glucose tolerance test (indicating a reduced risk of developing diabetes), reduced blood pressure and heart rate (indicating a reduced risk of heart disease) and other improvements in measures of heart health and metabolism.

Surprisingly, some participants reported having regular menstrual cycles during the study, suggesting that heat could help mitigate some of the underlying physiological processes involved in PCOS.

Researchers speculate that sitting in a hot tub can yield some of the same benefits as aerobic exercise because both activities raise body temperature.

This triggers an increase in the flow of blood to the skin as a cooling mechanism.

'We see blood flow patterns in subjects in the hot tub that look like what we see in subjects during aerobic exercise, so this change in blood flow may have a similar benefit to exercise on blood vessel health,' Ely said.

In addition, heat exposure causes the body to increase proteins known as heat shock proteins, which are involved in reducing inflammation, repairing damaged insulin receptors and improving blood vessel structure and function.

The researchers found levels of some heat shock proteins were increased in fat tissue after the heat therapy, indicating that these proteins could play a role in the reduced inflammation and improved insulin sensitivity they observed in the women.

While the researchers saw some improvements after the first month of regular hot tub use, most improvements took the full two months to become apparent.
A new app designed by scientists lets cannabis users check how high they are.

Researchers developed a prototype called Am I Stoned which helps cannabis users understand how the drug is affecting them through a series of tasks.

The researchers examined the usefulness of computer and iPhone tasks in assessing cannabis-impairment in a controlled laboratory environment.

They asked 24 healthy participants, who did not use cannabis daily, to take a pill containing either a placebo or up to 15 milligrams of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the ingredient in cannabis that makes people high.

The app Am I Stoned helps cannabis users understand how the drug is affecting them through a series of tasks

Neither the participants nor the researchers knew who received the placebo and who received THC, but the study showed that users were generally aware of their impairment.

In the study, experts successfully detected impairments from THC using three of the four computer tasks and one iPhone task.

Harriet de Wit, professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of Chicago, lead the research for the app, which aims to improve drug safety.

Dr de Wit said: 'One of our long-term goals is for the app to improve the safety of cannabis use by making individual users more aware of their impairment.

'By gathering data from users in the field, the app will also contribute to the overall scientific knowledge in terms of how cannabis affects users.'

The tasks involved tapping icons on the phone for 20 seconds, a simple memory coordination game and testing reaction time.

The tasks involved tapping icons on the phone for 20 seconds, a simple memory coordination game and testing reaction time

The team found that, on average, 'stoned' people were slower than the control group, but more testing needs to be undertaken to provide conclusive results.

Elisa Pabon, a doctoral student at the University of Chicago, will present the results at the 2018 Experimental Biology meeting in San Diego.

She said: 'The effects of THC on performance may be subtle, so we need highly sensitive tasks to detect impairments.

'It is likely that the computer tasks, which took 15 to 20 minutes to complete, were more sensitive to THC impairment because they provided more opportunity to detect a drug effect.'

According to researchers, the app is not currently intended to predict a person's ability to drive or engage in activities that may cause harm at this stage.

However, they do plan on using initial findings to launch a more precise app for cannabis users to assess their ability outside of a lab.

This would require a person to complete the tasks when sober to provide a personalized baseline of information - to compare with their 'high' performance.

Researchers plan to use their findings to maximize the sensitivity of the app-based tasks, making the app more useful in everyday settings.
Britain's economic backbone could be broken with thousands of jobs put at risk if politicians continue to 'demonise' diesel, car makers have warned.

Policies at national and local level which seek to drive diesel vehicles off the road will backfire because more than nine out of 10 of the five million commercial vehicles on which the nation depends for deliveries and transport run on diesel, they said.

The boss of Ford in Britain joined with motor industry trade body, the SMMT, today to urge politicians to take a more 'reasoned' view of the diesel issue because there is currently 'no viable alternative'.

Diesel dependence: Car makers have warned minister that Britain's economy is reliant on diesel commercial and public service vehicles (such as rubbish trucks) and there is 'no viable alternative' to the fuel type at the moment

Ministers and local councils were advised to drop their anti-diesel invective and understand the central role the much-maligned fuel plays in keeping Britain moving.

Ford of Britain chairman and managing director Andy Barratt told This is Money and MailOnline: 'Diesel is the most efficient fuel to use for long distance deliveries on motorways. Almost all commercial vehicles rely on it.

'There won't be a viable large scale alternative for many years to come.'

Ford's Dagenham factory in Essex builds 800,000 diesel engines a year, employing 3,500 of the firm's total 14,000 workforce.

'A lot of jobs are riding on diesel, ' he said.

Speaking at the Commercial Vehicle Show, in Birmingham, where Ford was showing a new green plug-in electric hybrid Transit van, of which 20 will be trialled in London, Mr Barratt stressed diesel was central to the nation's prosperity.

He said: 'There's no viable alternative. Diesel is vital for bigger vans carrying big loads.

'If you have electric vans, a lot of load space is taken up with batteries. So you need more vans and that creates more congestion.'

Mr Barratt joined the motor industry representatives who released a report blasting the ongoing diesel onslaught as counterproductive, saying the latest low emission Euro 6 models are cleaner and more fuel efficient, while delivering lower levels of CO2 emissions than petrol equivalents.

'There's very clear confusion,' the Ford boss told us.

'So people with older vans are keeping them rather than buying the newer cleaner diesels with Euro 6 engines'.

Ford of Britain chairman and managing director Andy Barratt was talking to This is Money and MailOnline at the Commercial Vehicle Show, in Birmingham, where the car maker was showcasing the Transit hybrid (left) and new Fiesta Van (right)

Andy Barratt photographed next to the new Ford Transit Custom Sport at the Commercial Vehicle Show

The dependence of Britons on commercial vehicles and their drivers was revealed in new research showing nearly nine in 10 consumers would be worse off without them.

Some 88 per cent of the 2,007 British consumers responding to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders' poll said reduced or restricted services from vans and lorries would significantly affect their quality of life in a negative manner.

Utility and delivery vans and trucks together move three times more goods than water and rail combined  contributing some 27.5 billion to the UK economy, the report estimated.

If you have electric vans, a lot of load space is taken up with batteries. So you need more vans and that creates more congestion Andy Barratt, Ford of Britain chairman

Indeed, nearly half (46 per cent) acknowledge they have benefited from such services in some way in the last 24 hours  from rubbish collection, to online shopping, supermarket deliveries, sending and receiving post, booking a taxi, or sending flowers to a loved one.

Rod McKenzie, policy director of the Road Haulage Association, whose 8,000 members have 250,000 trucks attacked by what he called punitive taxes and charges, said: The demonisation of diesel has to end. It will cost the country dear if it does not.

'Some 98 per cent of deliveries in the UK are by truck. And 80 per cent are smaller and medium sized businesses  the backbone of the British economy.

He said many firms operating on tight margins of as little as 60 per week could not afford to buy a brand new Euro 6 diesel truck so faced 100 a day charges to go into Londons Ultra low emissions zone.

These punitive taxes and charges are crippling business. We need support and a scrappage scheme to help people upgrade their trucks,' he added.

Car makers warn that a continued demonisation of diesel could break the back of the economy

The research found the 16% of Britons have a van deliver their post every day while 14% have had shopping brought to their front door by a commercial vehicle in the last 24 hours

The significant role played by Britains five million goods and service vehicles in driving society and Britains economy was highlighted by motor industry chiefs on the opening day of the UKs biggest commercial vehicle show.

Around 21,000 people are expected to attend the Commercial Vehicle Show at the National Exhibition Centre, in Birmingham, which runs from 24 April for four days with 460 companies exhibiting.

Britons using commercial vehicles? 96% of commercial vehicles registered in the UK are powered by diesel engines

of commercial vehicles registered in the UK are powered by diesel engines 16% of us receiving post to our door on a daily basis

of us receiving post to our door on a daily basis 14% of Britons have online shopping delivered every day from companies such as Amazon and eBay

of Britons have online shopping delivered every day from companies such as Amazon and eBay 79% said they benefit from the services from commercial vehicles at least once a week

said they benefit from the services from commercial vehicles at least once a week 57% have their rubbish collected by a diesel-powered vehicle once a week

have their rubbish collected by a diesel-powered vehicle once a week 8% said theyd had groceries delivered to their home within the last week

said theyd had groceries delivered to their home within the last week 9% have ordered or received flowers by van within the last two months

have ordered or received flowers by van within the last two months 13% have had a visit from a builder, plumber other other white van trades person within the last six months

The report noted: Commercial vehicles play an essential part in our daily lives  and in driving our economy.

From the 1.8 million sole traders who depend on their vans for their livelihood to the 17,228 ambulances that carry some five million people to Accident and Emergency each year, Britains commercial vehicles are responsible for keeping the country running.

Commercial vehicles were described in the report as a Cinderella service' whose role in society is often overlooked.

Yet 84 per cent of respondents recognised the importance of them, it says.

Less frequent rubbish collection was seen as having the most significant impact, with nearly seven in 10 (67 per cent) stating this would negatively affect them.

Nearly four in 10 (38 per cent) said that less frequent bus services would impact their life, and almost a third (32 per cent) said the same about the idea of increased time to receive online deliveries.

With the boom in online shopping, the report noted: The UK is now the EUs biggest online retail sector, with consumers here buying some 67.3 billion worth of goods and services online in 2017.

Online sales are forecast to have made up 17.6 per cent of all retail sales last year.

'Commercial vehicles transport some 1.9 billion tonnes of goods across the UK every year  including medicines, clothing and groceries.

In a poll of 2,007 British consumers, 8% said they have their groceries delivered to their door by a commercial vehicle once a week

The SMMT said continued demonisation of diesel could have an impact on delivery vehicles, taxis, buses, HGVs and the emergency services

SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes added: There are five million commercial vehicles on Britains roads and they play a vital role in powering our essential services.

Britains commercial vehicles are the backbone of our economy.

'Manufacturers invest heavily in technology. The latest commercial vehicles on our roads today are the cleanest, safest and most advanced in history.

For the sector to grow and continue to drive investment and jobs, government must maintain the right economic conditions, and help promote fleet renewal through the right policies and incentives.
Hand car wash businesses are to be investigated over concerns workers are being abused and enslaved, with unregulated sites appearing up and down the country.

A committee of lawmakers said today that the probe will examine how many of Britain's estimated 20,000 hand car washes have exploited or trafficked workers.

Thousands of workers in Britain's car washes are believed to be slaves - primarily men lured from Eastern Europe then trapped in debt bondage, forced to work in unsafe conditions, stripped of documents and subjected to threats, abuse and violence.

Car wash clampdown: The Government will investigate hand car wash business due to growing fears of a slavery epidemic

Police estimate that tens of thousands of people in Britain are victims of modern slavery.

The country's anti-slavery agency and chief sounded concerns last year that hand car washes in the UK were becoming a hotbed for illegal forced labour.

Offering to clean your car for as little as 5, hand car washes significantly undercut automated services and are becoming a common sight.

Speaking on Tuesday, Mary Creagh, chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, said: 'We are concerned about the cost to the public purse of tackling criminality (at hand car washes), including trafficking, tax evasion and enforcement of minimum wage law.

'(Our inquiry) will ask the government how it is meeting its commitments under the UN Sustainable Development Goals to reduce human exploitation.'

She also said an investigation will also look into the environmental impact of hand car washes.

Britain is regarded as an international leader in the fight against modern slavery, having passed a landmark law in 2015 just months before the United Nations adopted a global development goal of ending forced labour and slavery by 2030.

While forced labour is known to be rife among Britain's building sites, nail bars, factories and farms, car washes are the latest sector where law makers fear slavery is growing with unregulated businesses sprouting up nationwide.

Police are ramping up investigations but say the crime is tough to crack with thousands of car washes believed to be flouting laws, most victims too scared to speak out and cash-squeezed Britons hunting for ever cheaper services.

There are believed to be around 20,000 hand car wash sites up and down the country, with around 5% of these observing regulatory requirements

Dawn Frazer, of the Car Wash Advisory Service said last year that only 1,000 hand car-wash businesses observe any regulatory requirements and that many staff are paid below the minimum wage, usually cash in hand.

'They do not know what their rights are,' she says.

'Very often you will find out in some way or another that they are a victim; these are the types of jobs they can actually get. There is an awful lot of organised crime -trafficking and abuse of staff.'

Car washes accounted for the most forced labour cases referred to Britain's modern slavery helpline last year, according to charity Unseen.

They make up around a quarter of 700 cases that were reported in 2017.

'There has been a rise in awareness - more members of the public are taking note and taking action,' Justine Currell, executive director of Unseen, which runs the hotline, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

'Consumers can bring about change.'
Pensioners stuck with interest-only mortgages and homeowners looking to help children or grandchildren on the property ladder could be offered a new wave of home loans.

Lenders are gearing up to offer retirement interest-only mortgages after the financial watchdog delivered on a promise to relax strict lending rules.

These mortgages would help those unable to clear interest-only debts, needing to take out mortgages to move in retirement, or even wanting to pass on an early inheritance.

Unlike most existing equity release products, such mortgages would prevent debts from rolling up and eating into a property's value by allowing borrowers to pay off interest.

A change to lending rules man that it should now be possible to use the sale of your home as the way you plan to repay interest-only

The launch of such mortgages on a widespread scale would radically shake up lending in retirement, enabling people to more easily borrow against their property's value. However, it is also likely to trigger concern over a fresh bout of mortgage debt.

Post Office has just unveiled the market's first retirement interest-only mortgage, suitable for borrowers taking a new mortgage, but not those looking to remortgage an existing interest-only loan.

Meanwhile, Family Building Society is the first lender to confirm plans to launch an interest-only mortgage for those needing to remortgage in retirement, with the lender expecting to be ready around September this year.

Early indications suggest that it could offer two options to borrowers looking to remortgage an existing interest-only loan: a long-term variable rate, allowing flexible repayments, and a combination of fixed rates spanning three years, five years and potentially longer terms.

Rival lender One Savings Bank has also confirmed it is keen to offer the loans at some point in the future, with sales and marketing director John Eastgate saying the lender is in 'early stage discussions' about product design and funding options.

He said: 'The recent change to regulation is genuinely to be welcomed and opens up opportunities both to help those needing to remortgage existing interest-only mortgages and older borrowers looking to free up some of their wealth to pass on to the next generation.

I can see interest-only in retirement helping expand the Bank of Mum and Dad and Granny and Grandad John Eastgate, One Savings Bank

'I can see interest-only in retirement helping expand the Bank of Mum and Dad and Granny and Grandad, especially where they have a lot of equity in their homes and a desire to help kids and grandchildren onto the property ladder before they die and an inheritance is passed on.'

This is Money understands several other smaller lenders are also engaging in discussions ahead of plans to launch the deals in early 2019.

Lending into retirement on interest-only mortgages disappeared from the market several years ago after European mortgage rules made it virtually impossible for lenders to offer them.

But there is a sizeable chunk of people retiring with mortgage debt outstanding. Late last year the Britain's financial watchdog published research revealing that there are currently 1.67 million full interest-only and part capital repayment mortgage accounts outstanding in the UK.

They represent 17.6 per cent of all outstanding mortgage accounts and over the next few years increasing numbers will require repayment.

Furthermore, the FCA found that 70 per cent of all interest-only and part capital repayment mortgages are held by customers aged over 45.

And the proportion of 45 to 54-year-old mortgage holders with an interestonly residential mortgage is higher than for all UK adults at 15 per cent compared with 11 per cent.

According to the FCA's own data, those aged 65 and over with a mortgage are also significantly overrepresented when it comes to interestonly mortgages. They make up one in nine of all interestonly mortgage holders, whereas overall they are just 3 per cent of the mortgageholding population.

It's understood that the number of people who have no idea how they'll be able to repay these mortgages could run into the hundreds of thousands, with many of them older and financially vulnerable.

Young families looking to get on or move up the housing ladder could get a leg up from their parents or grandparents using a new breed of retirement interest-only mortgages

What's changed on mortgages in retirement?

In September last year the Financial Conduct Authority put the European rules under review, admitting they had created a barrier for thousands of credit-worthy retired In borrowers.

In order to qualify for an interest-only mortgage, borrowers had to be able to show they have a credible capital repayment strategy, such as savings, investments, another property or enough equity in their home to fund downsizing.

Selling their home to repay the mortgage when they died or moved into full-time care was ruled out.

This meant that even when retired borrowers were comfortably meeting their interest payments each month, they couldn't extend their mortgage term if they were ultimately relying on the sale of their home to repay the debt.

Some people are really struggling when they come to the end of their existing term and find their lender won't extend the term, instead demanding that they sell up to repay the capital Keith Barber, Family BS

Following its review, the FCA relaxed these rules at the end of March this year, meaning this repayment method can now be accepted by lenders.

Keith Barber, of Family Building Society, said: 'There is patently a need for retirement interest-only mortgages to come back into the market - especially for those who need to remortgage an existing loan.

'Some people are really struggling when they come to the end of their existing term and find their lender won't extend the term, instead demanding that they sell up to repay the capital.

'While the finer details of our retirement interest-only mortgages are still being considered, we are confident that we'll be able to offer these borrowers a flexible option that works for them and helps them in their retirements.'

What is already on offer?

Borrowers hoping to renew an existing interest-only mortgage in retirement will have to hold on for a few more months, until Family BS launches its products.

However, Post Office has launched a mortgage aimed specifically at helping retired borrowers who want to take an interest-only mortgage rather than do equity release.

The lender said the launch of the deal - known as Retirement Link - was not in response to the recent rule change by the lender, which could be why it's only available to borrowers taking a new loan out. You'll also have to repay the loan by a set age, meaning using sale of the property on death or moving to full-time care a isn't an option as a repayment strategy.

To apply, you must own your home outright and have no mortgage.

There are two options available - a five-year fix up to 50 per cent loan-to-value at 3.18 per cent for those looking to switch to capital repayment deal.

And a five-year fix up to 30 per cent LTV, also at 3.18 per cent for those looking to stay on interest-only.

Both deals have a maximum loan amount of 500,000, are fee-free and come with a cashback offer of 750 to pay for legal fees.

To qualify for the repayment deal, you'll have to be over the age of 55 and able to show that you can repay by the age of 90 and for the interest-only version, that you'll repay by the age of 80.

Owen Woodley, chief executive of financial services at Post Office, said: 'One of our key objectives was to provide a viable alternative to equity release. These deals allow customers to access equity in their unencumbered homes via a mortgage that is paid from their pension income.

'This gives customers the opportunity to live the life they want, for example undertaking home renovations, gifting a deposit to a child or grandchild or taking the holiday of a lifetime.

Looking for a better mortgage? This is Money's partner London & Country now offers a range of ways to apply for a new mortgage. Use their new online mortgage finder to get the best deal. Or you can still speak to an adviser over the phone. Not sure what you need to borrow? Enter a few simple details to see what you could get.

'The mortgage can either be taken as a capital repayment or interest-only so unlike most equity release loans their debt will not increase over time which, for some, could be real benefit.'

When applying for a retirement link product the borrower doesnt need to see an equity release adviser, although they will need to see a financial adviser.

Andrew Montlake, of mortgage broker Coreco, said: 'It is good to see a mainstream lender and a trusted brand providing exactly the type of product that is needed for those older borrowers who are able to continue servicing a mortgage and who do not want, or are unable, to sell their existing property and move on.

'Extending the age limits to 90 on a repayment basis and 80 on an interest-only basis gives borrowers in this sector a real option to a potentially more expensive equity release loan that will eat into their equity.'

For more on the difference between taking an ordinary interest-only mortgage in retirement or whether you might be better with a lifetime mortgage or equity release. Read our full guide here.
The Queen speaks at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting last week

Commonwealth countries are eager to trade more with Britain and are not concerned by Brexit, a City official has revealed.

Catherine McGuinness, policy chairman at the City of London Corporation, said she spoke to scores of industry and political leaders at the Commonwealth Business Forum in the capital last week and was asked just once about Britains exit from the European Union.

She added Brexit has led to more focus on building trade links with our historic partners in the 53-state organisation, and she believes they are keen to embrace stronger ties.

Were obsessed with Brexit in this country and the rest of the world wants to get on with life, she said.

She said the corporation  which champions London around the world  is keen to forge closer relationships with Commonwealth countries as well as China and the rest of Asia: Brexit is irrelevant to it  its work we would be doing anyway.
More than 1,500 United States Marines have slipped quietly into Darwin for their latest Australian deployment and are about to make a lot of noise.

Elements of the 2018 Marine Rotational Force - Darwin (MRF-D) began arriving in the Top End without publicity earlier this month as the wet season in the Northern Territory ended.

This year the force will include 1,587 Marines, eight MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, an artillery battery of six M777 howitzers and a number of fearsome UH-1Y Venom helicopters.

Most of the troops have come from bases in Okinawa and California. All of them noticed the heat and humidity.

United States Marines step off a flight to join the Marine Rotational Force - Darwin this month

A US Marine handles a juvenile crocodile during a welcome briefing at Robertson Barracks

Recently arrived Marines have been warned about 4m to 5m crocodiles around Darwin

Members of the latest US Marine rotation in Darwin have, as always, come ready to fight

This year hundreds of Marines from MRF-D will be sent to north and central Queensland for up to four months as part of their deployment.

As always, they have come ready to fight.

The seventh and largest rotation will be the first to perform as a special Marine Air-Ground Task Force, Colonel James Schnelle, commanding officer of MRF-D said.

The Marines were excited to be in Australia and had already met some locals, including a juvenile crocodile.

'The warm welcome of both the [Australian Defence Force] and local population has been phenomenal,' Colonel Schnelle said. 'It's been an exciting time to get about and meet several members of the community.'

'For the Marines to be able to see a young crocodile and hear the stories about the 4.7 to 5.3m ones out in the bay here helps their understanding and respect you've got to have for those types of animals.

Five flights filled with 1,587 Marines slipped into Darwin this month without any publicity

A Bell UH-1Y Venom helicopter attached to the US Marines takes off from the USS San Diego

US Marines collect their kit bags and proceed to Customs after arriving at Darwin RAAF base

Ground staff help unload military gear for some of the 1,587 Marines to have arrived in Darwin

'We'll continue to drive that home as we start to get out into the outback.'

The arrival of the US troops comes as tensions remain high on the Korean peninsula and China continues to assert itself in the South China Sea.

Captain Bryan Parker of the Royal Australian Navy's Northern Command welcomed the Marines.

'The Australian and American relationship is the strongest defence relationship that we have,' Captain Parker said.

'It's extremely important for us to work together to understand each others techniques, tactics and procedures so we can better perform.'

The Minister for Defence, Marise Payne, last month welcomed the increased Marine rotation, which began as part of the United States 'pivot' towards Asia.

The seventh rotation of US Marines through Darwin will be the largest since the posting began

Marines were shown a juvenile crocodile to help them understand and respect local wildlife

The Marines have come from bases in Okinawa and California; all noticed the humidity

'These initiatives strengthen the ability of Australia and the US to work together, and with regional partners, in the interests of regional stability and security,' Senator Payne said.

The MRF-D was announced by then US president Barack Obama and then Australian prime minister Julia Gillard in 2011.

The first rotation of 200 arrived in 2012 and has been increasing in size and complexity, improving the capability and cooperation of Australian and US forces.

'During major exercises the rotation will include additional equipment and assets such as AH-1W Super Cobra helicopters, UH-1Y Venom helicopters, F/A-18 Hornet aircraft and MC-130 Hercules aircraft,' Senator Payne said.

The increase in personnel and equipment would enable a broader range of training activities with the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and troops from other regional nations.

US Marines will conduct exercises with Australia and troops from other regional powers

An Australian Defence Force member directs US Marines after their recent arrival in Darwin

Five charter flights brought more than 1,500 US Marines to Darwin RAAF base this month

'During the six-month training period, the US Marines are expected to participate in 15 training activities alongside the ADF,' Senator Payne said.

'Other regional nations, including Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and many more will also participate in or observe some of these training activities.'

'Australia and the US have a longstanding history of working together to promote peace, security and stability across the globe.

'Australia welcomes opportunities to work with the United States to foster greater cooperation with our regional partners.'

The ADF would also conduct air training exercises with US Air Force personnel and regional nations under the 'enhanced air cooperation initiative'.

'Enhanced air cooperation activities complement and support training with the US Marines, as it increases the ability of Australia and the US to deploy into the region,' Senator Payne said.

Korean People's Army soldiers march at a Pyongyang memorial to former North Korean leaders

Eight of these MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft will be in Australia for the latest Marine rotation

Some of the US Marines who have flown into Darwin will be deployed to north Queensland

'The US military plays a vital role in underwriting security and stability across the Indo-Pacific, and the force posture initiatives will be an essential component in preserving stability and security over the coming decades.'

Most of the Marines will be based at Robertson Barracks, about 20km from the Darwin central business district.

Two MFR-D companies are set to leave Darwin for Queensland to take part in training and exercises for up to four months.

About 200 Marines will be based in Townsville, with another company exercising in Shoalwater Bay, according to the Townsville Bulletin.

A Department of Defence spokesman told the newspaper that elements of MFR-D would participate in a series of exercises with the Australian Army's 3rd and 7th Brigades.

Those brigades were 'operating at a higher state of preparedness in 2018.'

Last August three Marines were killed when their MV-22 Osprey crashed off the Queensland coast near Rockhampton.

The Marines, who time their rotations to avoid the northern Australia's wet season when operations are severely limited, are expected to be in Darwin until October.
Homicide detectives are investigating the deaths of three people, including two young children, whose bodies were found early Sunday morning inside a central California home.

It's still unclear how the three died, but there are no suspects outstanding, according to Heather Graves, spokeswoman for the Modesto Police Department.

Neighbor Angel Barragan, who lives across the street, told KCRA his mother-in-law heard screaming before police arrived at the home just after 1am.

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Three people were found dead in this Modesto, California home early Sunday morning

Local authorities wouldn't release the identities of the victims of say how they died

'Any details surrounding what transpired beforehand are not going to be released at this time,' Graves said.

Investigators are treating the case as an 'isolated incident,' she said.

One neighbor told CBS Sacramento that cops 'had one guy cuffed' at the scene.

The two children who were killed were four- and six-year-old boys. ABC 10 reported that the third victim is a woman

The bodies, including those of two boys, ages four and six, were discovered in a neighborhood on the south side of the city of about 200,000 residents.

Graves did not immediately have any information on the third deceased person, but ABC 10 said that the adult victim was a woman.

Officials have not released the identities of the victims or their relationship to each other.

Neighbors say a family - a couple and two kids - moved into the rental house in January, and no one interviewed said they knew them well.

'They're out there every weekend, cooking tacos,' Randa Thiv, whose parents live next door to the home, said. 'They are the same age as my kids.'

Neighbors have left stuffed animals and flowers outside of the home as a makeshift memorial to the victims.
Donald Trump's former communications director Jason Miller is facing accusations of physical and sexual abuse by his former campaign adviser lover, who says he demanded she abort the baby they conceived while his wife was also pregnant, DailyMailTV reveals.

CNN contributor Miller, a one-time Trump official, is facing the allegations in an increasingly ugly child custody feud with his former lover and fellow Trump campaign adviser A.J. Delgado.

Delgado accuses him of misogyny, says he texted her to say Kellyanne Conway had 'shriveled up fun bags' and claims he told her the moon landing was faked.

She says he physically and sexually abused her but has not provided further details of how, when or where, and declined to expand on the claim in a DailyMailTV interview.

Miller, 42, and Delgado, 40, have been locked for months in a court battle over their eight-month old son.

Miller adamantly disputes the abuse allegations made by Delgado and has requested a court-ordered mental evaluation of the mother of his child, according to records.

In a statement to DailyMailTV he called the claims 'a pattern of harassment' which were trying to end his loving relationship with his son and 'ruin me professionally'.

'Ms. Delgado is continuing to use the media, as well as social media, as a tool to spread false and salacious accusations for leverage in pending litigation between us,' he said.

Former Trump campaign adviser A.J. Delgado has accused Trump's ex-communications director Jason Miller of sexual and physical abuse in a child custody battle over the former lovers' eight-month-old son. Delgado says this picture was one of the first taken with her son - and it was when Miller asked for a paternity test shortly after his birth

Miller is a former Trump communications director and a CNN contributor, putting across a pro-Trump view. He held meetings in the White House on Monday.

Delgado, second from right with Miller (center) and others at a Trump social event, says Miller misled her during their October 2016 relationship by claiming he was getting divorced from his wife

Miller is married and has two daughters with his wife Kelly Miller, who gave birth to their second girl around the same time his son was born.

Delgado, one of Trump's key female Hispanic campaign advocates, says Miller misled her during their October 2016 relationship by claiming he was getting divorced from his wife.

In reality, however, Miller's wife was six months pregnant at the time and they were not separated.

'FALSE AND SALACIOUS': WHAT JASON MILLER TOLD DAILYMAILTV ABOUT HIS EX'S CLAIMS 'For the past year and a half my wife and I have remained silent as Ms. Delgado has engaged in a continuing pattern of harassment in an effort to drive a wedge between me and our son, break up my family and ruin me professionally. 'To be clear, Ms. Delgado is continuing to use the media, as well as social media, as a tool to spread false and salacious accusations for leverage in pending litigation between us. 'The most recent charges she has contrived are serious, yet she has never filed an independent action with any court or law enforcement authority, nor has she ever made these fabricated allegations in any of her previous media interviews. 'It is clear that her misconduct and campaign of harassment will not stop absent court intervention, and I have retained additional counsel to pursue my remedies in court this week.' Advertisement

After Delgado's pregnancy was revealed in December 2016, the scandal ended Miller's appointment as Trump's White House communications director days after it was announced and well before the Trump inauguration.

Miller has since bounced back and is now managing director of Teneo - the 'CEO advisory firm' run by longtime Bill Clinton aide Doug Band - and is a paid commentator on CNN where he is now one of the president's most outspoken advocates. He was a visitor to the White House on Monday.

But behind the scenes, Miller and Delgado have been battling in court over their son's future  with Delgado now telling DailyMailTV that she believes Miller is trying to take full custody of their son.

'I don't see how it's morally correct especially someone who's in the party of family values, how this is good for our son, or how it's morally appropriate for somebody to drag a first time mother, a single mother, through a litigation that has gone on ten months and counting,' she told DailyMailTV.

She added: 'I think [Miller] has a great deal of resentment against me based on me not concealing the pregnancy and going forward with the pregnancy.'

In court documents obtained by DailyMailTV, Delgado claims that Miller was 'sexually abusive' and 'physically abusive' toward her on at least one occasion.

'On at least one occasion, [Miller] was sexually abusive toward [Delgado]. On at least one occasion, [Miller] was physically abusive toward [Delgado],' said the March 23 Motion filed by Delgado, which asks the court to consider a mental health evaluation for Miller.

The documents provide no further details on the alleged abuse, and Delgado declined to discuss them.

Delgado also claims in documents that Miller 'seems to have a demonstrably misogynistic attitude on women'.

He once texted Delgado that former Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway has 'shriveled up fun bags' that needed to remain 'covered', she claimed in the documents.

In a court filing from Delgado and Miller's custody battle, Delgado accuses Miller of being misogynistic and said he exhibited 'paranoid behavior'

In texts from after Delgado revealed she was pregnant, Miller said he tried contacting her several times. He said he hated being apart and 'desperately' needed to speak with Delgado

In another message, Miller said he missed Delgado and wanted to be with her, despite telling her her to have an abortion, according to court documents. He denies that claim

Exchanged: Emails filed in court show how Delgado reached out to Miller's wife Kelly and how she responded

She and Miller are both asking for the other to undergo psychiatric evaluations by the court, as part of a dispute that has become increasingly acrimonious since the 2016 election.

Miller's court filings say that gado 'alarmingly and falsely claims that she was sexually and physically abused by the father [Miller].'

The record notes that Delgado had previously told a reporter for The Atlantic that she and Miller had a 'really nice, sweet relationship' and makes no mention of any abuse.

He also expressed concerns about Delgado's alleged 'lack of stability' and 'obsessive behaviour' toward Miller's wife and two other children.

The document also claims that a former boyfriend of Delgado's was forced to obtain a five-year injunction against Delgado for cyber-stalking him in 2012.

'[I]t seems [Delgado] is not able to control herself and this time the danger is to a very young child,' said the document.

In her court filings, Delgado makes numerous accusations against Miller, including that he drinks excessively, believed Steve Bannon was trying to sabotage his career, and once told her that he thought the moon landing was faked - something he said he had learned while working for Ted Cruz.

Miller is married to Kelly Miller (pictured), who gave birth to their second daughter around the same time his son was born

'He also claimed Steve Bannon was trying to deny him the White House role he deserved, and other paranoid complaints,' wrote Delgado.

'When [Delgado] asked how he could possibly believe [the moon landing was fake], he said he learned it from spending time with Ted Cruz's team, noting something about the Houston connection,' said the document.

When he worked for Cruz he had called Trump 'sleazy Donald', she alleged, despite his later high-profile advocacy for the candidate and now for the president.

Delgado said Miller 'threatens [Delgado] with frivolous lawsuits, including that, if she dares to criticize him on social media and if he loses any job, he will sue her for tortious interference.'

Meanwhile, Miller has claimed Delgado is 'obsessed' with his appearances on CNN and has 'attacked' and yelled at him.

He has unsuccessfully petitioned the court to stop her from discussing personal aspects of the case on social media.

Delgado said she is at a disadvantage in court because she has fewer financial resources than Miller, and this has forced her to confront the reality of 'white male privilege'.

According to court records, Miller earns $614,000 a year for his work for Teneo and CNN, and Delgado earns $120,000 a year for non-profit legal work.

'It really does feel like the Handmaid's Tale,' Delgado told DailyMailTV, referring to the dystopian novel and television adaptation about a lower-class woman who is forced to act as a surrogate for a wealthy family. '[The system] treats women, especially single mothers, like mules.

'As a conservative we hear the term 'white male privilege' and we kind of roll our eyes at it,' she added. 'I don't. I see it all the time in this case.'

Loving relationship: Jason Miller said in a statement to DailyMailTV that Delgado was trying 'effort to drive a wedge between me and our son, break up my family and ruin me professionally'

In another text message, Delgado claims in court documents that Miller said that Kellyanne Conway had 'shriveled up fun bags'

She is also sensitive to the stereotypes of 'scorned women' that she says are prevalent in the family court system: 'The automatic perception of the mother is that the mother is angry and bitter because she's single, and vengeful.'

Delgado and Miller started seeing each other in October 2016, after Miller hired her as an adviser on the Trump campaign.

Delgado, a Harvard-educated attorney who first endorsed Trump in October 2015, was one of Trump's most prominent TV surrogates on Hispanic and women's issues.

Miller and Delgado began an under-the-radar relationship while working out of Trump Tower in New York: grabbing drinks at nearby bars; watching movies at Miller's apartment; ducking out of the office early together. They called each other 'babe' on texts and sent each other hearts and kissy face emojis.

Delgado said Miller claimed he was separated from his wife, and she had 'zero reason to think' he was insincere. One weekend he told her he was meeting with a divorce accountant, she said.

'He would go into great detail,' said Delgado. 'When I asked him one time why haven't you guys filed [for divorce] yet, he said the reason is because we're waiting until after the election, I don't want to draw negative attention during the campaign. That made total sense.'

She said that she didn't suspect anything until the night of November 21, 2016, when she told him that she was pregnant - and the baby was his.

It was then that Miller confessed his wife was also seven months pregnant, according to Delgado.

'All of a sudden I thought wait a minute you're divorcing your wife who's currently pregnant? I mean, I know that happens, but it's highly unlikely,' she said. 'That's when I began to question the narrative he had fed me.'

Delgado said Miller was 'surprisingly calm' when she told him the baby news, but by the next morning he had a 'very different reaction'  and asked if she would consider an abortion.

'He said it outright, a clear request: is there any way you would consider terminating itit wasn't even an argument, the minute he said those words no further words were exchanged. I was not going to suffer that kind of request, sitting there,' she said. Miller has denied that he asked her to abort their baby.

Delgado said she left Miller's apartment, collected her belongings from her hotel room, and got on the next plane to Miami where she had been living part time with her mother.

Miller is now working in a consulting position at political firm Teneo - run by longtime Bill Clinton aide Doug Band (pictured)

Over the next week, Miller sent Delgado over a dozen texts and phone messages that went unanswered.

'A.J.  I am sorry for what I pulled you into but I won't apologize for how I feel about you. I'm crazy about you and hate being apart. I understand if you don't want to talk to me, just know that I desperately want to talk to you,' he texted her on November 22, 2016.

'I miss you so much, babe. I wish you'd take my call. Even if just to tell me to get lost, it's killing me,' he wrote the next day. 'I know I messed up. I wish I was with you. You're so beautiful it drives me crazy.'

'And for the record, I'm still crazy about you and miss you terribly. I'll call in a bit even if just to hear the sad auto phone number voice recording,' he said.

At the same time, Miller worried about what Delgado's pregnancy would mean for his career and his family.

According to Delgado's court filings, he sent out text messages fretting that would be 'unemployable' if the news came out.

One month later, at least some of his fears proved correct. Shortly after the Trump transition team announced Miller would be appointed White House communications director, Delgado made her own announcement on Twitter: 'Congratulations to the baby-daddy on being named WH Comms Director!' she wrote.

Delgado deleted the tweet shortly after, but it was widely disseminated by political observers. Miller turned down the White House role, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family.

Delgado, pictured above with Rudy Giuliani, was considered one of Trump's key female Hispanic campaign advocates

Delgado and Miller started seeing each other in October 2016, after Miller hired her as an adviser on the Trump campaign - where she met prominent elgado is pictured above left with Ben Carson and right with Sean Spicer

Delgado said she posted the message a few days after Miller had asked her again to get an abortion. According to Delgado, that was the last time the two ever spoke over the phone.

'Part of the reason that I posted those tweets is because I felt if I put this out there he'll know there is no hope of my terminating it because it will be already out there,' she said. 'So he'll stop pressuring me, and he'll know that's not an option.'

By the time Delgado made her Twitter announcement, Miller's wife Kelly was already aware of the pregnancy.

Delgado had sent Kelly Miller a one-line email on December 17, 2016, asking her to 'Please call me when you have a moment tonight.'

The outreach attempt did not go over well. 'You are a fucking s**t. Don't ever reach out to me again,' wrote Kelly Miller, who was also seven months pregnant at the time.

A few hours later, Kelly Miller followed up: 'Just so we are clearI have talked to my husband, I know about the supposed pregnancy. We have decided we are going to work on our marriage and raise our family. This actually might make us stronger.'

'Thing is[it] never works out for the person in your position,' she added.

Meanwhile, an email between the feuding former lovers showed that Delgado was keenly aware of the political narrative surrounding her pregnancy and the damage it could cause for Miller.

She wrote to Miller in January 2017: 'The world already knows that you told a trusting girl you were separated, and got her pregnant - but it gets worse: you then didn't even help ensure the health and well-being of the child you created. I don't think I've even heard of any man doing that.' She told Miller to not bother responding.

Delgado, a Harvard-educated attorney who first endorsed Trump in October 2015, was a frequent TV surrogate for the then candidate speaking on Hispanic and women's issues

Since leaving Trump's campaign, Delgado has earned $120,000 a year for non-profit legal work

Miller had completely cut off communication with Delgado at this point. She said he did not contact her until a few weeks before their son was born, and this was done through his lawyers.

According to Delgado, Miller's meetings with their son have been governed by careful legal agreements that tell her where to stand, how to hand over the baby, and in some cases asking that Delgado remain in a separate room throughout the exchange.

She said Miller has also brought his own security to the sessions. When they do have to communicate, they do it through a special child custody app called 'Our Family Wizard'.

'He refuses to pick up Will in the driveway of the house, when he does see him. For months we had to do the exchanges in the middle of a supermarket lobby (which was, at least, better than the suggestion of a police-department lobby),' said Delgado.

Delgado previously had her own lawyer, but now acts as her own counsel. She said she can no longer afford an attorney because of her legal bills, estimating that she owes around $100,000.

Miller's court documents say that she has refused him court-ordered time with his son, with whom he has a loving relationship. That included not letting Miller spend time with his son in the week before Easter, which he said in court documents Delgado declined to allow because she is a practicing Catholic.

She also declined to let him see his son on Fridays in Lent for the same reasons.

The baby boy has spent time with Miller's other children.

Delgado said she is speaking up now because she wants to shed light on the family court system, which she feels is stacked against single mothers and favors wealthy fathers.

Delgado said she feels Miller and his wife want to be a part of her son's life now, but were never there before the child was born.

'Where were you all when I had to take buses by myself and sit there by myself with a huge belly in the waiting room and have no one asking me, certainly not the father or his family asking, if there was anything I needed or how I was doing or even if our son was alive,' she said.

'To any women who read this who got to go to a sonogram and who got to at least have someone sitting there with them in the waiting room, or they got to text the father a photo afterward and say 'hey look at our child'. Consider yourself lucky. It's a very ugly thing to go through that alone,' she added.
Steve Wilkos will have DUI charge erased if he completes alcohol education program

TV talk show host and Jerry Springer protege Steve Wilkos will have a DUI charge erased from his record if he completes Connecticut's alcohol education program.

Wilkos, 53, was granted admission into the yearlong Alcohol Education Program on Monday during a hearing in Stamford Superior Court.

Police said Wilkos crashed his Lexus SUV in Darien, Connecticut, in January and his blood-alcohol level was 0.29 per cent, more than three times the legal limit for driving.

Wilkos will have to complete a 15-week educational or treatment program and take part in a panel with victims of drunken driving.

Last month, Wilkos reportedly asked the for leniency in his case during his first court appearance since the accident.

He said he had a 'complete lapse in judgment' when he drove drunk.

At the time he claimed that he was suffering from depression. His lawyer says he has dealt with the issue very seriously.

Police said Wilkos crashed his Lexus SUV (pictured) in Darien, Connecticut, in January and his blood-alcohol level was 0.29 per cent, more than three times the legal limit for driving

Wilkos, who was the security director on The Jerry Springer Show, flipped his car after he struck several poles and a tree.

His car ended up on the passenger side of the vehicle and the windshield had to be removed for Wilkos to be pulled out.

Wilkos said at the time that he never drinks or does drugs but lost control of his car while he was reaching for his glasses.

In February, he was charged with driving under the influence.

If Wilkos successfully completes the educational program, the charges against him would be dismissed.

Wilkos left The Jerry Springer Show in 2007, the same year he started hosting his own program: The Steve Wilkos Show.
Rodney Hyden, riding the wave of success of his Florida construction business, was living the ultimate American dream before the 2007 Recession hit. He and his family had it all: a Harley, a boat, a BMW, jet skis, a 3,600-square-foot house in a prestigious neighborhood with an inground pool and a three-car garage.

But then the work dried up. Gone were all the toys, as Rodney puts it, and the Hyden lifestyle became untenable; he was more than $1million in debt. He packed up his wife and daughter and moved to Archer, a more rural area 30 minutes southwest of their old base in Gainesville, and set up home in a double wide trailer on Watermelon Pond. The community in Archer is insular and eccentric, the type of place where strangers are spotted immediately and watched suspiciously from afar; its full of a unique cast of characters, Rodneys wife, Jamie, says diplomatically.

It was in Archer that Rodney first met a well-known, forest-dwelling local hippie, Julian, famed in the area for his habit of walking everywhere barefoot  and sharing a story of buried treasure that seemed too fantastic to be real. He found $2million in cocaine while wandering the beach when he lived in Culebra, Puerto Rico, Julian claimed. He didnt know what to do with it and was afraid of turning it in to authorities. So Julian buried it near his trailer, where he left it when he moved back to the mainland US.

Julian was sitting on a gold mine; were talking about 32 kilograms of cocaine  X marks the spot, treasure, treasure, treasure, says Rodney, speaking in new documentary White Tide: The Legend of Culebra, which premiered over the weekend at the Tribeca Film Festival.

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Rodney Hyden happily agreed to participate in new documentary White Tide: The Legend of Culebra, chronicling his bumbling plot to find a rumored $2million buried treasure of cocaine on an island in Puerto Rico

Rodney heard the legend from a local hippie named Julian in his town of Archer, Florida, who claimed to have found the cocaine on a beach in Culebra, Puerto Rico before burying it near his trailer and leaving it there when he moved back to the mainland US

Rodney's wife, Jamie, left, and daughter, Emily, had no idea that he was on a treasure hunt for buried cocaine and dealing with underworld characters to help him sell the contraband

He knows right where he buried it. I liked to picture it in my mind, visualizing where he buried it, sneaking back in there and getting it, but it was a fantasy. It was just a story.

Until it wasnt.

Rodney, spurred on by his desire to reclaim his wealth and goaded by some shady associates, decided to hunt for the treasure himself. It was a fantastic adventure, and it got him in big trouble  but he can still laugh about it (as can the authorities who got wind of the plot).

Director Theo Love says that, as he was making the film and talking to key players: Every interview started off just with laughter, because they were like, Yeah, this story is crazy  even the people who were a part of it were like, Yeah, we cant believe this whole thing happened the way it did.

He came across the case through a google search and almost immediately decided to make a documentary about it.

Its one thing to read about the story, but I was like, okay, this cant all be real, Love tells DailyMail.com. Surely some part of this is exaggerated.

So he flew from Los Angeles to Florida to find out. He and his partner drove to Archer and turned onto a dirt road, where they spotted a man with long grey hair walking barefoot in the woods; they figured it was Julian, the very man whose story sparked the wilder-than-fiction treasure hunt, and they were right.

Literally the whole process of making this movie was kind of stumbling into it  and let me tell you, the whole environment out there is even crazier than its portrayed in the documentary,' he says of the town of Archer, where residents enjoy sitting around the campfire, trying to one-up each other's stories and, often, smoking marijuana. 'We almost had to take it back, because it started to seem so unbelievable. Were like, people wont really realize that this is a documentary.

Rodney was arrested in 2012 and charged with intent to distribute cocaine; he was a first-time offender

Rodney was eager to take part, and he played himself in recreated scenes showing how the caper unfolded. The kind-hearted contractor picks up strays, says his daughter, Emily  who describes in the film how her father often tried to help people down on their luck or struggling with vices such as drugs.

One of those was a man called Andy, who gives a rambling interview in the film disguised behind dark sunglasses and a cowboy hat. Rodney spent time with Andy and gave him odd jobs  not trusting him to do real contracting work for fear hed hurt himself or someone else; Andy eventually introduced him to a criminal named Danny, or Dee (who also appears in the film, hiding his face behind a skull bandana.)

Dee, having heard the Culebra story, told Rodney of his drug dealing and underworld connections, insisting he could help the businessman move the cocaine if he could find it. He also introduced Rodney to a pilot, Carlos, who claimed he could get the drugs into the US.

He ran a big operation. Kingpin, thats the word, kingpin, Rodney says of Carlos. Id never been face to face with a real  bigtime smuggler who owned his own plane.

I walked into the bar and looked over to my left and saw Carlos; he looked exactly like something youd see on TV. He was that image, if not better. He was a pretty well-dressed fella, with pressed slacks and alligator shoes and a belt to match. He had on some kind of silky print shirt; you just didnt want to rub up against him because it looked like his clothes were perfect.

Carlos kind of reminded me a little of Tony Montana with his body language and his accent.

He was impressed and decided this was exactly the kind of character who could turn his dream into reality, so Rodney consulted Julian for the exact location of the cocaine  then he and Andy flew to Culebra in Puerto Rico to track it down. It was a disastrous trip, with Andy sick the whole time (he claims food poisoning, while Rodney insists it was drug withdrawal) and Rodney unable to find the buried cocaine.

Julians trailer was gone, and that wasnt the only obstacle.

I had another big problem; I had nothing to dig with, Rodney says in the film. No shovel, no nothing. I thought they were readily available anywhere  well, not in Culebra. Theres no Walmart in Culebra.

Rodney made two unsuccessful trips to Culebra to find the cocaine, accompanied by his friend Andy, who he had employed for odd jobs, described by Rodney's daughter as one of the 'strays' her father liked to pick up and help

Before the recession, Rodney's business had lucrative contracts and his family lived a life of luxury - owning 'toys' such as a Harley motorcycle, jet skis and a 3,600-square-foot house with an inground pool and three-car garage in an upmarket neighborhood of Gainesville

So Rodney and Andy, who later apologized for his sickness and promised it wouldnt happen again, flew back to Florida. But it wasnt long before they made a second attempt at the treasure hunt; Rodney told his wife he was going on a business trip and they returned to Julians old trailer site to investigate, this time with a shovel. They were unsuccessful again, and Rodney was further spooked when drug sniffing dogs and customs officers were waiting for their small plane when it landed in San Juan.

He vowed that the pipedream was over and stopped answering calls from Dee and Carlos.

When I got back, I was done. It was over. It was a totally failed mission, Rodney says. I had had it up to here with this whole story. I stopped answering my phone for a long time at that point. I wanted to be done with Carlos, I wanted to be done with Danny.

Carlos persisted, however (he was being a nag, Rodney says) and offered a new proposition. He said that, if they met again and Rodney handed over the treasure map, he and his associates would retrieve the treasure themselves and bring it back to Florida, still giving Rodney his share.

I said, Look man, good deal, I dont have to do anything, Rodney says  in a move deemed amateur hour by Andy in the film.

Andy says: Being the naive person he was that day, that was set up for a robbery. Like, who are we? Two white dudes in the middle of Florida with all this coke? Whats gonna keep these bigtime motherf****rs with a plane from just taking the coke?

Rodney had some misgivings, too, and began to worry that Carlos would play him  but his dread turned to delight when Carlos sent him a photo of what he claimed was the recovered cocaine.

Now, its real, he says. What am I going to do with the money? How is Julian going to look when Im handing him stacks of $100 bills? Whats Julian going to think? I didnt sleep, man. I didnt sleep all night. I would lay down and close my eyes and just picture big packs of cocaine.

Authorities caught wind of Rodney's plot - through his shady associate - and arrested him when he put the cocaine in his vehicle

True to his word, Carlos also contacted him upon his return. They agreed to meet, and Carlos handed over the keys to his car, telling Rodney to walk across the parking lot and open the trunk. There was the cocaine, and an overjoyed Rodney picked it up and walked it over to his own vehicle.

When he put it in his car, however, the cops descended. The jig was up, and Rodney was arrested  because, unbeknownst to him, he had been betrayed. Theres a huge surprise twist as to just how that played out  and a jaw-dropping revelation of how authorities were involved.

The ride to jail didnt bother me; spending the night in jail didnt bother me; being stupid didnt bother me, says Rodney. No, it was a matter of my family  what are they going to do without me, because Im going to prison?

His family had no inkling that any of this had been going on. Jamie Hyden could not have been more shocked when her phone rang and she answered an unknown number.

It asked me, was I Jamie Hyden? she says. They proceeded to tell me that my husband had been incarcerated by Homeland Security. What do you mean?

She cries as she remembers the phone call and the ensuing legal nightmare, making it clear the toll the treasure hunt took on the family.

But Special Agent Ryan McEnany of Homeland Security still can barely stifle laughs when he talks about the case.

Rodney was like the fish that had never been caught before, because he wasnt really a fish, he says. Rodney was a unicorn  just some thing that was out there that no ones every going to see again. If it werent for our involvement, he would have just been sitting with  well, probably robbed.

The agent isnt wrong. Dee minces no words when he talks about his motives in the plot.

If it didnt happen like it did, I was gonna take it from Rodney  so his odds were stacked against him, he says. He wouldve never got it  never. Truthfully, I wouldve buried him to get that. Anybody from the street would.

Rodney  perhaps luckily  was instead charged with intent to distribute cocaine, a charge that carried a mandatory minimum sentence of ten years. A jury found him guilty, but then Judge Timothy Corrigan stepped in.

After Rodney's second unsuccessful trip to Culebra, pictured, he vowed to give up on the plan - but was convinced to hand over the map to an underworld associate, who promised to dig up the drugs himself, bring them back to the US and still give the Florida man a share

Rodney poses with director Theo Love, who says the film 'really just felt like a playful treasure hunt. All of the interviews, even when we got to the law enforcement side, everybody would just laugh

The film premiered over the weekend at Tribeca Film Festival, and Love says they are looking for a distributor, adding they're 'hoping that this can be a documentary that reaches a very wide, broad audience. We made it to be kind of a blockbuster of a documentary. Theres car chase scenes in this, theres airplanes, theres drug dealers  theres a lot of big movie magic

This case reminded me of a combination of Walter Mitty meeting Breaking Bad, he says in the film, explaining that a safety valve exists for defendants such as Rodney which states if youre a first time offender, which he was, and you have no previous criminal history, which he didnt, and you meet a number of other sentencing factors, the minimum mandatory is waived.

He adds: A long period of incarceration just didnt make any sense in this case  and so, once I had made that decision, then why not use the advantages that Mr Hydon did have?

Judge Corrigan sentenced him to 60 days in jail and five years of probation, in addition to mandating that he work 20 hours a week for Habitat for Humanity for five years, putting to use his construction skills.

Rodney, the eternal optimist, has relished the community service.

Look, its the stupidest thing Ive ever done in my life; Im not proud of it, he says of his quest for buried cocaine. How I didnt see it, how I didnt realize what was going on  but out of all the bad and the ignorance and the stupidity on my part, there has been some good from this story. Ive helped a lot of families.

Its such a good feeling to build their home for them and then hand them the keys at the end; you both hug each other and start crying. Its emotional. I love it; its made a better person out of me.

Director Love, for one, says the documentary was the easiest film Ive ever made.

Theres just a playfulness to it, where nobody took anything seriously, he says. Were talking a major drug crime; $2million is a major deal. But not once did anybody ever talk about it as if it was a bad thing to do. I dont think that thats a comment on their morality  its not like they were these bad people. Theyre just really playful people.

The whole time, it was never a sense of the stakes of this was a bad thing to do. It was a dumb thing to do  everybody acknowledges that it was dumb; there was never any sense of right or wrong in this story. It really just felt like a playful treasure hunt. All of the interviews, even when we got to the law enforcement side, everybody would just laugh.

He adds: The pitch was a no-brainer; I said like three lines of the story before people were throwing money at me and saying: Go do it! Go make it tomorrow! We made it in about a year  we are currently looking for a distributor. This is a documentary that doesnt have that built-in audience, because its not an issue film at all. So were hoping that this can be a documentary that reaches a very wide, broad audience.

We made it to be kind of a blockbuster of a documentary. Theres car chase scenes in this, theres airplanes, theres drug dealers  theres a lot of big movie magic.
A teenage son and two of his friends have been arrested for murdering the boy's mother by drugging, stabbing and strangling her in her bed.

Police found 47-year-old Kimberly Mironovas dead on Sunday morning in her Litchfield, Maine home. Investigators said she had been strangled and stabbed to death.

Court documents did not reveal who called the police or when.

Later Sunday, Mironovas' 15-year-old son Lukas Mironovas and two of his friends were taken into custody for her murder.

Kimberly Mironovas, 47, was found dead in her Litchfield, Maine home on Sunday morning

The trio allegedly hatched a plan on Saturday to murder Mironovas by crushing prescription pills and mixing them with her wine, according to a juvenile petition released on Monday as the three teens appeared in court.

When the crushed medication failed to mix thoroughly with the drink, the petition states the teens allegedly decided to strangle and stab Mironovas.

The Bangor Daily News reports that sometime after midnight on Sunday Lukas Mironovas and his 15-year-old friend William Smith went into the victim's bedroom and strangled her.

Lukas Mironovas then allegedly stabbed his mother in the neck, the petition states.

The boys allegedly wore gloves during the killing and Lukas Mironovas had on a mask.

Court documents did not provide a motive for the crime or how the teens knew each other.

Lukas Mironovas and Smith were both charged with intentional or knowing murder and conspiracy to commit murder. The 13-year-old, identified in court documents as Thomas Severance, is charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

Kevin Sullivan, an attorney for Severance, said his client was bewildered.

'He was in a house where someone died and he's completely distraught because of it,' he said.

Sage Lockhart, who attended cosmetology school with the victim, told the Kennebec Journal that Lukas Mironovas was angry and had been expelled from school.

Court documents state that Mironovas' 15-year-old son Lukas Mironovas allegedly strangled and stabbed his mother in her bedroom with the help of his two friends, aged 15 and 13

She said the teen was resentful that his mother moved them from Ashland, Massachusetts to Litchfield. Mironovas bought the home where she was killed in September.

'He was out of control and had a lot of anger issues,' she said.

Anthony Coco, president of Aveda Institute Maine, where Mironovas was halfway through a cosmetology program, told the outlet that he had heard Mironovas was having issues with her son.

'I originally met with her in the summer. She was looking to make a career change,' he said, adding: 'We don't know too much personally about the students.'

Despite Mironovas' alleged troubles with her son, Coco said she was 'really happy' and had modeled in one of the school's fashion shows two weeks ago.

'She was doing what she wanted to do,' he said.

State prosecutors could seek to try the boys as adults, where murder carries a minimum sentence of 25 years. In the juvenile system, the teens could be detained only until they reach the age of 21.

'There is no way he should ever be treated in the criminal justice system as an adult,' said Walt McKee, a lawyer for Smith.

McKee said he was requesting a competency evaluation.
One case where an Anorexia sufferer starved to death took three years to solve

Last year it received 31,444 complains and dealt with only 8,119 of them in total

Families are left distressed and traumatised because the NHS watchdog is taking up to three and a half years to deal with complaints, MPs warned.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman is the final port of call for people unhappy with their treatment at the hands of the NHS.

But it emerged last night that it takes an average of 234 days for the understaffed watchdog to investigate complaints - delays which even its boss describe as 'simply unacceptable'.

One case - that of anorexia sufferer Averil Hart who 'starved to death' under NHS care in 2012 - took the PHSO three and a half years to deal with.

MPs on the public administration select committee found that PHSO was snowed under. Last year it received 31,444 complaints but he only investigated 8,119 of them.

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The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman received 31,444 last year but could only deal with 8,119 of them

Tory MP Bernard Jenkin is chair of a select committee campaigning to address the lack of service for disgruntled patients

Its report also raised concerns that the Ombudsman may not be dealing with complaints properly because they were unconsciously biased towards the views of NHS medical staff.

Bernard Jenkin, the chairman of the committee, said: 'As a committee we have heard from families left distressed and traumatised by making a complaint to the NHS and the PHSO.

'Too many people still have to complain to the Ombudsman because public services don't deal with their complaint properly in the first place.

'The Ombudsman and his staff do a difficult job. The government can help them by introducing the reforms it has already promised.

'Ministers told our committee two years ago that improving NHS complaints was 'unfinished business'. It is now time for action, and for the government to introduce the long-awaited legislation they have already published.'

The MPs called on ministers to take action to improve the NHS complaints system and ensure that the ombudsman starts to properly investigate cases of historic.

The PHSO, which has a staff of more than 400 people, is the final tier of complaint for people unhappy with their experience of the NHS in England and government departments.

Last year it received 31,444 new complaints, 88 per cent about the NHS.

The committee called on the PHSO to improve how it supports often very distressed complainants, and to get better at showing how its investigations help improve NHS services for future patients.

The PHSO had to pay out 26,000 in compensation after its own mistakes caused harm to patients

The report concluded: 'We remain concerned at the length of time that PHSO investigations take to complete, not least because of the added distress this can cause to complainant.

'We are also clear that increasing the speed of investigations should not come at the cost of compromising their quality, and we therefore accept that delivering significant improvements may take some time.

'We not that, although the PHSO has said an average of 200 days is unacceptable, it has not defined what it thinks would be an acceptable benchmark.'

The ombudsman's failings became most apparent with the case of Averil Hart who 'starved to death' in December 2012 while under NHS care.

The final PHSO report, which found the student had been failed by every NHS body she came into contact with, did not come out until December 2017 - three and a half years after the original complaint had gone in.

Rob Berhrens, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, told MPs the 'resourcing of the investigation' lacked continuity.

And Amanda Campbell, the ombudsman's chief executive, stated that an average of over 200 days was 'simply unacceptable'.

The MPs said they had been told by complainants that they believed the PHSO was more willing to listen to the views of NHS organisations and medical staff than their views.

Ms Campbell said all PHSO staff undertake 'unconscious bias' training, but accepted that sometimes staff 'did not get it right' in communicating with complainants.

The report also revealed the PHSO had to pay out 26,000 in compensation after its own mistakes caused harm to patients.
An Australian tourist is the latest to boast about the bizarre trend of snorting cocaine off the grave of a notorious drug kingpin in Colombia.

The Adelaide man shared a photo of himself appearing to sniff a few lines of the white powder off Pablo Escobar's tomb stone,The Sun reported.

In the photo the man appeared to snort one of the three white lines off the drug kingpin's black head stone.

The Adelaide man shared a photo of himself appearing to snort cocaine off Pablo Escobar's tomb stone, which his girlfriend reportedly had printed on a canvas (pictured)

It comes after two American tourists recently filmed themselves snorting cocaine off Pablo Escobars grave in Itagui, Colombia (pictured)

The man's girlfriend reportedly got the photo printed onto a canvas, which they shared on Instagram, receiving hundreds of likes.

Hundreds of people responded to the 'amazing' post, saying they weren't 'the same lines as Pablos', the publication reported.

The new trend has also seen other tourists snorting the drug and sharing the 'victory' photos to social media.

Two American tourists recently filmed themselves snorting cocaine off the infamous drug kingpin's grave.

The video shows two lines of cocaine on Escobars grave as one man wearing a Dallas Cowboys Hat gets into position.

He then takes a rolled up bill and begins to snort the first line on the tombstone of the notorious cartel boss, who is buried in Itagui, Colombia.

His friend then takes his place, finishing the second line as someone cheers in the background.

It seems the video may have been inspired by a British tourist, who filmed himself doing the exact same thing less than a week ago.

In the video the British man can be seen tipping the contents of a bag of white powder on to the tombstone and rolling up a bank note.

The tattooed man, believed to be in his thirties, then bends down to snort the substance.

He then looks up grinning to say 'I'm Gordon Ramsay mate' in an apparent reference to the celebrity chef's 2017 documentary about cocaine.

The man posted the video on Facebook but later took his page down.

Drug baron Escobar was shot dead by police at the age of 44 in 1993, bringing to an end his ruthless control of the Medellin Cartel.

At one point he controlled more than 80 percent of the cocaine shipped to the US.

This earned him the rank of one of Forbes Magazine's ten wealthiest people in the world with an estimated $30billion fortune.

The man in the Dallas Cowboys hat uses a rolled up bill to snort the cocaine, before his friend takes his place and does the same as someone cheers in the background

It seems the video may have been inspired by a British tourist, who filmed himself doing the exact same thing less than a week ago

The tattooed man, believed to be in his 30s, then bends down to snort the substance (pictured)

In recent years, there have been reports of guided cocaine tours in the area to the notorious criminal's grave.

But rapper Wiz Khalifa came under fire last year after he shared photographs of himself lighting up a joint next to Escobar's tombstone.

He also posted another picture that showed he had left a fresh joint on the drug lord's grave, alongside fresh flowers.

Medellin Mayor Federico Gutierrez called the rapper a 'scoundrel' and commenters tore him apart for his 'disrespect' as they equated Escobar to a dictator and terrorist.
One of America's most prolific serial killers wanted for 12 murders and 45 rapes may have fled to Australia, a retired US policeman has claimed.

The so-called Golden State Killer terrorised California in the 1970s and 1980s but has never been identified.

In 2016, the FBI renewed their bid to find him, offering a $50,000 reward and releasing a poster featuring three mocked-up faces that matched victims' descriptions of the killer.

A retired Los Angles detective, David Gates, replied to the appeal, saying one of the faces resembled a suspect he was chasing for burglaries in the mid-1980s.

The burglar had fled to Australia where he was killed in a car crash, he said.

One of America's most prolific serial killers wanted for 12 murders and 45 rapes may have fled to Australia, a retired US policeman has claimed. The criminal is also believed to have carried out dozens of burglaries (pictured is the scene of one of his burglaries in the 1980s)

In 2016 the FBI renewed their bid to find him, offering a $50,000 reward and releasing a poster featuring three mocked-up faces that matched victims' descriptions of the killer

Mr Gates told The Australian: 'It sounded like an individual I knew about, who had emigrated to Australia.'

'I had a partner at the time and it was his case and I was assisting him on it. He doesn't remember it at all but I just remember this guy and I can even picture the wanted poster we had on him at the time.

'He looked like a little fair-haired college kid but he was just a nasty piece of work.'

The Golden State Killer, now in his 60s, was once linked to a serial rapist nicknamed Mr Cruel who attacked girls as young as 11 in Melbourne in the 1980s and 1990s.

Mr Cruel, who has never been identified, used to break into homes armed with guns and knives, tie up his victims' parents and assault their daughters, often taking breaks for meals.

He forced his victims to wash afterwards so his DNA could not be discovered.

Despite the similarities between the two criminals, Victoria Police who investigated found no link.

Sgt. Paul Belli of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department homicide bureau, discusses the Golden State Killer case at a news conference in 2016

Authorities are seen in a evidence room related to the Golden State Killer at the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department homicide bureau

A statement read: 'Victoria Police is aware of the matter regarding the Golden State Killer in the US.

'This was reviewed in relation to the outstanding Mr Cruel investigations in Victoria and any connection has been ruled out.'

The Golden State Killer was linked through DNA and other evidence to more than 175 crimes between 1976 and 1986.



Pictured are two ski masks that are in evidence with the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department

A list of law enforcement agencies who have investigated crimes that they believe were carried out by the Golden State Killer

Investigators believe the rapes, and dozens of burglaries often used to case neighborhoods, escalated in 1978 when the killer fatally shot US Air Force Sgt. Brian Maggiore and his wife Katie (pictured) as they walked their dog

This photo shows evidence found at the scene were the couple were killed in 1978

Fingerprints, pictured, are among the evidence in the massive cold case

The killer was dubbed the East Area Rapist after his start in Northern California, the Original Night Stalker after a series of Southern California slayings, the Diamond Knot Killer for using the elaborate knot to bind two of his victims, and most recently the Golden State Killer.

He started in 1976 and 1977 by terrorizing suburban bedroom communities east of Sacramento and as far south as Stockton and Modesto in the Central Valley.

Notorious: Mr Cruel's reign of terror Mr Cruel attacked girls as young as 11 in Melbourne in the 1980s and 1990s. The paedophile has never been identified. August 22, 1987, Lower Plenty: He broke into house in the night, locked the parents in a wardrobe and attacked their 11-year-old daughter December 27, 1988, Ringwood: He broke into a house, tied up the parents and abducted their 10-year-old daughter, releasing her at a school 18 hours later July 3, 1990, Canterbury: He broke into house and abducted a 13-year-old. He drove her to another house where he kept her for 50 hours before release. April 13, 1991 Templestowe: He broke into a house and abducted Karmein Chan, 13. Her body was found a year later. Advertisement

The masked rapist, armed with a gun, would break into homes while single women or couples were sleeping. He would tie up the man and pile dishes on his back. He would then rape the woman while threatening to kill them if the dishes tumbled.

Investigators believe the rapes, and dozens of burglaries often used to case neighborhoods, escalated in 1978 when he fatally shot US Air Force Sgt. Brian Maggiore and his wife Katie as they walked their dog.

They believe he soon moved on to commit several rapes in the San Francisco Bay Area before heading to Southern California.

It wasn't until 2001 that new DNA testing linked him to at least six Southern California homicides between 1979 and 1986. In each case, the killer broke into a house at night and raped the female victim first.

Investigators believe he also committed another four unsolved Southern California homicides because of similarities in evidence or his methods.

The Southern California killer had been called the Original Night Stalker, to distinguish him from the Night Stalker, Richard Ramirez, who died of cancer in 2013 before he could be executed for committing 13 mutilation murders in 1984 and 1985.

The elaborate diamond knot was used to tie up a Ventura couple before they were beaten to death with a fireplace log in 1980. That killer was later also discovered to be the same man that authorities in recent years have taken to calling the Golden State Killer to reflect his crimes across California.

This photo, according to the FBI, shows evidence from where the East Area Rapist attacked someone

The unsolved crimes prompted lawmakers to consider changing state law in 2002 to let jailers use force to take DNA samples from inmates. Investigators wanted to take a sample from Paul 'Cornfed' Schneider to see if he was the Original Night Stalker.

Schneider gained notoriety that year as the adopted son of two San Francisco attorneys convicted in a high-profile dog-mauling case who were raising Schneider's dogs while he was in custody. But there was no DNA match between Schneider and the Southern California slayings.

The crimes also helped spur a 2004 ballot initiative expanding California's law requiring felons to provide DNA samples for a state database.
Mick White, from the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, said working as a train driver for 30 years left him with severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

A train driver of 30 years left haunted by three fatalities and more than 20 near-misses, has revealed the lasting impact the tragedies have had on his life.

Mick White, from the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, said working as a train driver left him with severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Speaking for the first time about the trauma, Mr White said he felt the bodies of all three jumpers underneath his feet as they were crushed by the train.

As he was leaving Blacktown station, Mr White said he watched as a man jumped out from underneath the bridge and onto the train tracks ahead.

'He just smiled at me and made eye contact and then I hit him,' he told SBS' Insight program.

Mr White said he still remembered every detail of the man's face. I felt like I had done something wrong you feel like a criminal,' he said.

The New South Wales man said it was impossible to stop a train suddenly.

With a full load of passengers and travelling about 80km/h, Mr White said a train needed at least 500 metres before it could come to a complete stop.

Driving a train into Toongabbie station in Sydney's west, Mr White said he saw a man lying on the tracks a mere 50 metres in front of him

A few years after the tragedy at Blacktown, Mr White experienced his second horror.

Driving a train into Toongabbie station in Sydney's west, Mr White said he saw a man lying on the tracks a mere 50 metres in front of him.

Despite immediately applying the emergency brakes, Mr White said the man stood little chance.

'I hit him  I felt everything and felt his body go up underneath my feet and thumping along as the train went over him. You could hear everything, and then the train came to a standstill,' he said.

Mr White said he felt overwhelming anger before sadness swept over him, for the man and his family.

The now retired train driver said the third incident affected him the most profoundly.

'I hit him  I felt everything and felt his body go up underneath my feet and thumping along as the train went over him. You could hear everything, and then the train came to a standstill,' he said

Another man took his life in front of Mr White's train in Penrith, western Sydney in 2007.

He said that third fatality changed his life and triggered his PTSD.

After each suicide, Mr White said he was breath tested and questioned by the police, as a formality.

Mr White said it never got any easier, and each time left him feeling like a criminal.

Mick White will tell his story on SBS' Insight program.

Mick White's story came after a severely autistic boy was hit by a train when he ran away from his carer late on Sunday night.

Alex Raichman was at a carer's facility on Oatley Avenue in south Sydney at 7.15pm when he went missing, sparking a large scale police search.

The 11-year-old, whose parents had reportedly left him in care while away on holiday, was found dead at Oatley train station close to two hours later.

Alex, who was non-verbal, is believed to have run onto train lines about 9.30pm.

A report will be prepared for the coroner.
An alleged teenage thief boasted online about sitting in the stolen four-wheel-drive car that was believed to have hit and killed a newlywed couple on their way home Saturday.

The 15-year-old girl shared a video to her Instagram account, showing her riding in the luxury Lexus while rap music blared through the speakers, Herald Sun reported.

She uploaded the hair-raising footage just two days before herself and Eric Victorsen were allegedly involved in the crash that took the lives of Matt Goland, 38, and wife Bita Zaeim, 32.

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A teenage thief boasted online about sitting in the stolen four-wheel-drive car that was believed to have hit and killed Matt Goland (left), 38, and wife Bita Zaeim (right), 32

The incident unfolded in the early hours of the morning in Wantirna South, east of Melbourne, with 19-year-old Victorsen and the 15-year-old arrested from a Belgrave home about 1.15pm.

They were both taken to reveive treatment in hospital, where they stayed under police guard.

A woman who had her vehicle stolen Thursday claimed the video was definitely shot inside her car, which she was able to recognise through its distinct features.

'That is 100 per cent my car. I cannot believe it,' Monna Mostafa told the publication Monday.

Eric Victorsen (pictured) is accused of being behind the wheel of the stolen car. He was charged with two counts of culpable driving and one count of theft of motor vehicle

Police alleged Victorsen, who was also due to appear in court on drug and theft related charges soon, was behind the wheel at the time of the collision.

He was charged with two counts of culpable driving and car theft, while his co-accused appeared in court Monday charged with two counts of culpable driving (accessory after the fact) and one count of theft.

Ms Mostafa said she used another car to pursue her stolen $170,000 Lexus when it was stolen from her property Thursday, but ceased when it 'became too dangerous'.

She accused the driver, who was believed to have an intellectual disability, of running two red lights and travelling at dangerously high speeds.

Police alleged a grey Lexus four-wheel-drive travelling south along Stud Road in Wantirna South collided with an eastbound black Holden Commodore (pictured)

Images have emerged from the recent wedding of Matt Goland, 38, and Bita Zaeim, 32 - a young couple who were tragically killed in a hit-and-run on Saturday morning

'I woke to the tragic news on Saturday morning that two people lost their lives. It is just devastating,' she said.

Mr Goland and Ms Zaeim had been married just 12 months when they were struck as they drove to their home in The Basin in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Police confirmed the stolen vehicle was tailed briefly about 9.30am Friday but was eventually lost in traffic, with a helicopter unable to be dispatched because of fog.

'We were happy to engage. We saw it for a very short time. We were unable to get to it because of traffic. We lost sight of the vehicle before we were in a position to intercept,' Deputy Commissioner Doug Fryer said.

Mr Goland (right) and Ms Zaeim (left) had been married just 12 months when they were struck as they drove to their home in The Basin

Matt Goland, 38, died at the scene and Bita Zaeim, 32, was rushed to hospital but died a short time later

The couple enjoyed their dream wedding in Bali last year, with photos showing the loved-up pair holding each other throughout the joyous occasion.

The couple were just minutes from their east Melbourne home on Saturday morning when the stole Lexus crashed into them in their Holden Commodore.

Victorsen faced the Melbourne Magistrates' Court Sunday, while the Belgrave girl fronted Children's Court Monday.

Acting Superintendent Stuart McGregor told reporters the 'abhorrent' events seemed to be 'a bit of a game' for the teenagers.

'There's nothing fun about this, this is not a game, this is real life, this is where people have died and this is where people will be going to jail,' he told reporters.

The teenagers (pictured left) allegedly fled the scene following the fatal crash as CCTV footage showed witnesses running to the scene to offer assistance

Mr Goland's parents visited the site of the hit and run which claimed their son and daughter in law's lives

Locals have also visited the scene of the hit and run to pay their respects to the victims

Major Collision Investigation Unit detectives pictured investigating circumstances surrounding the crash

Matt Goland and Bita Zaeim (pictured) lived in The Basin and had only been married for 12 months

'Everyone in the community just cannot understand how someone can think it's right to travel at speed - horrendous speeds - through a red light and then when you know you've done so much damage to another car, to another person, to two people, to think of themselves and just flee.'

One of the dead couple's parents visited the Wantirna South crash site Saturday morning.

'I've seen some pretty terrible incidents, this is probably up there. I've been able to explain how the collision occurred but I can't tell her why. This behaviour is just abhorrent,' Sup McGregor said.

'Dealing with them and talking to them and seeing that state of shock, you never want to see that.'

The occupants of the Lexus (pictured) ran westbound on Stud Road after the crash

The male passenger in the Holden died at the scene and his wife passed away in hospital

The road toll now stands at 64 for 2018, compared to 78 for the same time last year.

Acting Superintendent Stuart McGregor said the memory of informing the next of kin about the fatalities would haunt him for the rest of his life.

'I've had to stand at the intersection with the parents of one of the deceased, I've been able to explain how it has occurred but not why,' he said.

'The image of mum and dad of the male passenger will probably stay with me for the rest of my life.'

Major Collision Investigation Unit detectives are investigating circumstances surrounding the crash.
Controversial comedian Catherine Deveny has claimed war veterans didn't serve Australia and were 'ignorant and uneducated'.

In a social media post on the eve of Anzac Day, the stand-up comedian and former television joke writer from Melbourne suggested diggers didn't deserve to be saluted for their sacrifice on the frontline.

'Why do people in the armed forces use the word "serve" to describe their work despite it being no more dangerous or prone to upheaval than many other jobs?,' she tweeted on Tuesday morning.

Controversial comedian Catherine Deveny has claimed war veterans in battle didn't serve Australia

In a disrespectful post on the eve of Anzac Day, the stand-up comedian and former television joke writer from Melbourne suggested diggers didn't deserve to be saluted for their sacrifice

'It's just a job and work. Throw the term "serve" in the bin.

'It's part of the fetishisation of war and violence.'

The 50-year-old comedian, who was sacked as a Fairfax Media columnist in 2010 for wishing Bindi Irwin - then aged 11 - would 'get laid', was panned on Twitter for her remarks.

But rather than apologise, she doubled down and suggested other jobs were as equally dangerous as being a soldier in war, even though many diggers were conscripted into battle during the Second World War and Vietnam.

'Firefighters, paramedics, police, doctors, social workers, nurses, window cleaners, miners, arborists, labours, farmers, construction workers, people who work with those suffering severe mental illness, prison officers, roofers, teachers (in American schools), loggers, fishermen,' she said.

She went further and suggested soldiers were 'sucked in with the glamour of war and racism under the guise of patriotism'.

'They were uneducated and ignorant. Most were up for an adventure and identity. That's why they went. For their own self-serving reasons,' she said.

They called her out for trivialising the plight of war veterans, who suffered from post traumatic stress, including the Battle of the Somme in 1916 that saw one million men killed or injured. A soldier is pictured during the Battle of the Somme

Australia's involvement in the First World War, at the Battle of the Somme in France (pictured), demonstrated the young nation's commitment to global security

Several people reacted to the tweet by pointing to Australian troops who had been tortured as prisoners of war after being captured by the Japanese in 1942, and forced to do hard labour on the Thai-Burma railway.

They also took her to task for trivialising the plight of war veterans, who had suffered from post traumatic stress and lost limbs in major battles, including the Battle of the Somme in France during 1916 that saw one million men killed or injured.

'It takes a lot of effort to concoct something as asinine as that statement,' Mick Snowden wrote.

'I can only assume you're desperate for some form of notoriety. Poor form.'

In an era when veterans of the Vietnam and more recent Iraq and Afghanistan wars have committed suicide and are continuing to suffer mental health problems, one man described her comments as 'truly disgusting'.

As veterans of the Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars have committed suicide and continue to suffer mental health problems, one man described her comments as 'truly disgusting'

This man suggested Catherine Deveny was seeking attention on the eve of Anzac Day

Several men pointed out how Australians had been prisoners of war, after being captured by the Japanese in 1942, and forced to do hard labour with torture on the Thai-Burma railway

'To the proud members serving, many of them don't just get up and go to "work",' he said. 'It is their every waking breath.'

Australia has been involved in a series of major overseas conflicts since the Boer War at the turn of the twentieth century.

It was Australia's involvement in the First World War, at Gallipoli in Turkey and the Battle of the Somme in France, and later in the Second World War fighting in the Pacific and in Europe, that are best remembered on Anzac Day.

The comedian, who was sacked as a Fairfax columnist in 2010 for wishing Bindi Irwin (pictured with boyfriend Chandler Powell) then aged 11 would 'get laid', was panned on Twitter

Rather than apologise, she doubled down and suggested other jobs were as equally dangerous as being a soldier in war
Newly released bodycam video shows a white police officer shooting an armed black burglary suspect in the back during a foot pursuit.

Officer Jeremy Durocher remains on administrative leave in the October 29 shooting in Portsmouth, Virginia, which left 18-year-old suspect Deontrace Ward injured and facing charges.

Ward, who is charged with six felonies, including armed statutory burglary, assault of a police officer and possession of a firearm by a felon, claims the newly released bodycam video shows that the shooting wasn't justified.

'I feel he shot for no reason', said Ward, who was arrested in possession of a .45 Springfield handgun and stolen jewelry, in an interview with the Virginian-Pilot, which first released the video.

The incident unfolded around noon on a Sunday, when Portsmouth cops responded to a call of a burglary in progress on the 1100 block of Tatem Avenue, a tree-lined street of single-family homes.

Deontrace Ward, who was arrested in possession of a .45 Springfield handgun and stolen jewelry, is charged with six felonies but claims the shooting was not justified

The suspect's grey pants can be seen in the video as he sprints across the yard, but his upper body can't be seen clearly enough to tell whether he was holding the gun

Officer Durocher orders the suspect to get on the ground and then fires twice, before the suspect vaults over a red fence

Officer Durocher, a rookie who had been sworn in just six months earlier, takes up a position in the backyard of the house.

Within seconds, he hears a noise around the corner of the house and draws his weapon.

Durocher rounds the corner of the house and sees figure in a black hoodie and grey pants sprinting. The video isn't clear enough to show whether the suspect had a gun raised, as Durocher says he did.

'Hey, get on the ground!' shouts Durocher before firing two shots.

The suspect jumps a red wooden fence, and Durocher whirls to run in the direction the suspect appears to be fleeing.

'He has a gun, he has a gun!' Durocher shouts to the other officers in the area.

Durocher rounds the end of the fence and spots the suspect running away. He fires twice more and the suspect falls to the ground.

Durocher rounds the end of the fence and spots the suspect running away. He fires twice more and the suspect falls to the ground next to a child's wagon

'Stay down!' Durocher yells repeatedly as he approaches. At the same time, a group of other officers come around the house on the opposite side of the suspect

The incident lasted just nine seconds from Durocher sighting the suspect to the final shot. For five of those seconds, the suspect was out of his view behind the fence.

'Stay down!' Durocher yells repeatedly as he approaches. At the same time, a group of other officers come around the house on the opposite side of the suspect, surrounding him.

'I can't breathe,' moans the suspect, later identified as Ward.

'If you can talk you can breathe,' an officer responds as they handcuff him.

Durocher tells the other officers that Ward pointed a gun at him, and they demand to know where the gun is as they pat him down.

The handgun was recovered inside Ward's right pants leg, near his ankle. Ward claims he never pulled the gun.

Durocher appears clearly shaken and repeatedly insists that he saw a gun, as other officers urge him to take slow breaths and stay calm once Ward is in handcuffs.

A bulge can be seen in Ward's right pants leg near his ankle, where cops found a handgun

Officer Angelina Baaklini (left) is seen handcuffing Ward. Eight days later, she would be shot and injured by a 15-year-old runaway she was trying to assist

The video ends when a supervisor (pictured) arrives on the scene and warns Durocher to stop talking about the shooting, before his bodycam is cut off

Minutes later, a supervisor arrives on the scene and cuts Durocher off as he tries to describe the incident. The supervisor appears to cut off her body camera and Durocher's camera then cuts off as well.

Durocher has been on administrative leave while the Virgina State Police investigated the shooting. Prosecutors say they are reviewing the findings to determine whether the shooting was lawful and justified.

The officer's attorney, Nicholas Renninger, told the Pilot that the shooting was 'absolutely justified, without reservation.'

'The suspect was armed, had burglarized a home and was clearly a danger and a threat in that regard,' Renninger said.

Ward was injured in the back and arm, and is set to stand trial on May 1. His family hopes that the newly released video will draw attention to his case, amid an atmosphere of scrutiny over police shootings of black suspects.

Ward's criminal record includes a felony theft conviction in September 2016, when he was 17.

Eight days after the shooting, the cop who handcuffed him, Officer Angelina Baaklini, was trying to assist a 15-year-old runaway when the boy shot and injured her.
Businesses are facing a crack down on foreign languages being used in signs.

Strathfield Council, in Sydney's inner west, is considering a move that could see foreign language take up no more than 30 per cent of the space on the shopfront sign.

This is despite the area having a high migrant population, with the top three ancestries being Chinese, Indian and Korean as of 2016.

Strathfield council (pictured) is now considering a move to reduce the level of foreign languages on business, wanting foreign language to be no more that 30 per cent of the sign

In a statement Strathfield Council said: 'This is an inclusive policy that recognises English and the linguistic diversity that exist in Strathfield' (pictured: The Boulevard, stock image)

One woman, who has worked at her brother's grocery store in Strathfield for more than four years, was concerned about the move.

Nikki Chen told SBS News: 'We have Chinese and English, both on the sign ... So I don't think we need to change it.'

In a statement the council said the signage policy 'aims to improve the visual amenities of our town' and will apply to all shops.

At least 50 per cent of shop windows must be free of signage and foreign language may occupy no more than 30 per cent of the total signage area.

New South Wales Business Chamber spokesperson Damian Kelly said the chamber is happy to support the move as long as it doesn't place excessive regulations and costs on business owners.

The issue isn't finalised with community feedback still being accepted.

The area has a high migrant population, with the top three ancestries being Chinese, Indian and Korean as of 2016 (pictured: The Boulevard, stock image)
Anti-gun control student, who survived the Parkland shooting, has been questioned by school security for visiting a gun range with his father.

Kyle Kashuv went to the gun range to learn to fire a gun for the first time on Friday.

He posted photos and videos of himself holding the AR-15 as he was instructed how to shoot the weapon.

'It was great learning about our inalienable right of #2A and how to properly use a gun,' Kashuv tweeted, referring to the Second Amendment.

Anti-gun control student, Kyle Kashuv (pictured), who survived the Parkland shooting, has been questioned by school security for visiting a gun range with his father

Kashuv (left) went to the gun range to learn to fire a gun for the first time on Friday. He posted photos (right) and videos of himself holding the AR-15 as he was instructed how to shoot the weapon

'It was great learning about our inalienable right of #2A and how to properly use a gun,' Kashuv tweeted, referring to the Second Amendment

'This was my first time ever touching a gun and it made me appreciate the #Constitution even more. My instructor was very informative; I learnt a lot. #2A is important and we need 2 preserve 2A,' he added.

Kashuv believed his visit to the gun range was harmless, but students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School did not.

When he arrived to school on Monday he was called out for his actions and instructed to see the school's armed resource officer.

According to the Daily Wire, Kashuv was informed by his principal that other students had been upset by his posts, but that he hadn't done anything wrong.

Kashuv then claimed that he was treated like a 'criminal' while meeting with the security officer.

He said a second security officer was also present in the meeting. 'Both began questioning me intensely. First, they began berating my tweet, although neither of them had read it; then they began aggressively asking questions about who I went to the range with, whose gun we used, about my father, etc,' Kashuv claimed.

According to Kashuv, a third officer from the Broward County Sheriff's Office later walked in and interrogated him all over again.

'At that point, I asked whether I could record the interview. They said no. I asked if I had done anything wrong. Again, they answered no. I asked why I was there. One said, "Don't get snappy with me, do you not remember what happened here a few months ago?"'

Kashuv said he was 'treated like a criminal for no reason other than having gone to the gun range and posted on social media about it'.

Last month, Kashuv criticized Parkland student David Hogg, one of the leading voices in the Never Again movement who spoke at the March for Our Lives rally in Washington, DC.

Last month, Kashuv criticized Parkland student David Hogg, one of the leading voices in the Never Again movement who spoke at the March for Our Lives rally in Washington, DC. Kashuv (right) said Hogg's (left) statements were 'egregious and inflammatory'

Kashuv has become somewhat of a hero among conservatives on Twitter for speaking up for the Second Amendment. He's pictured with President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump

'You can hear the people in power shaking,' Hogg said during the rally to loud applause.

'We're going to make sure the best people get in our elections to run not as politicians, but as Americans.

'Because this - this - is not cutting it,' he said, pointing at the white-domed Capitol.

'We can and we will change the world!'

But Kashuv said Hogg's statements were 'egregious and inflammatory'.

'Guns aren't the issue. It's everything surrounding acquiring a weapon,' Kashuv said.

'I talked to so many marchers and they don't have a clear-cut solution. And it pains me not to see the government being held accountable for their failures. I don't see anyone blaming Sheriff Scott Israel for failing to do what he was supposed to do.'

Following the incident on Monday, he was immediately backed up by several of them, including conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro

Kashuv thanked his supporters on Monday for being there for him throughout his journey

Kashuv said the protest organizers failed to criticize government failures leading up to the shooting.

'I don't see anyone looking at the FBI and saying, 'How come two reports weren't followed through?' I don't see anyone going, '78 reports to the Broward Sheriff's office and nothing is done.'... How come we don't hear speakers talking about this subject?'

Kashuv has become somewhat of a hero among conservatives on Twitter for speaking up for the Second Amendment.





Following the incident on Monday, he was immediately backed up by several of them, including conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro.








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The interim leader of the secretive Nxivm cult who was arrested by the FBI last week and arraigned on federal charges is now looking to make a deal.

Allison Mack filed an application for an Order of Excludable Delay on Friday requesting that trial against her not commence until after May 3, stating that her legal team and attorneys for the Eastern District of New York were in plea negotiations.

She the informed the court that there is a 'reasonable likelihood' the negotiations 'will result in a disposition of this case without trial.'

This application was filed shortly after she entered a plea of not guilty to the three charges she is facing in the case.

It seems unlikely that Nxivm founder Keith Raniere will be able striking any deals with the US attorney's office, who successfully petitioned to have Raniere held without bail in a letter to the court stating that the cult leader had sexual relationships with two minor females, aged 15 and 12, in the past.

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Allison Mack, the interim leader of the secretive Nxivm cult who was arrested by the FBI last week and arraigned on federal charges, is now looking to make a deal with prosecutors

The allegations against Raniere and Mack were outlined in the Complaint and Affidavit in Support of Arrest Warrant that was filed back on February 14.

Special Agent Michael Lever with the FBI had been investigating Raniere and speaking with former cult members, including two women known as Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2.

Lever states that Raniere came up with the idea for Nxivm's sex slave progra, known as DOS, during the summer of 2015.

A woman by the name of CC-1, who was revealed to be Mack in subsequent filings, was his first 'slave,' and provided 'colateral' which guaranteed she would remain faithful to him by providing Raniere with damning material.

It seems unlikely that Nxivm founder Keith Raniere (above) will be able striking any deals with the US attorney's office, who successfully petitioned to have Raniere held without bail

'CC-1s email was titled "vow 3" and included an attached letter. The letter pledged CC-1s "full and complete life" to 14 RANIERE,' reads the complaint.

'In the letter, CC-1 used the terms "slave" and "master" to refer to herself and RANIERE. Moreover, the letter identified "collateral" to "cement" the vow made by CC-1.

'This collateral was described as: (1) a letter regarding CC-1 'smother and father that would "destroy their character"; (2) a contract that transferred custody of any children birthed by CC-1 to RANIERE if CC-1 broke her commitment to RANIERE; (3) a contract that transferred ownership of CC-1 's home if the commitment to RANIERE was broken; and (4) a letter addressed to social services alleging abuse to CC-1 's nephews.'

It is not clear if any of the claims made in those letters were true.

Soon, CC-1 was recruiting slaves of her own and filling out the pyramid that Raniere had hoped to create, selecting Jane Doe 1 as one of these women.

The allegations against Raniere and Mack were outlined in the Complaint and Affidavit in Support of Arrest Warrant that was filed back on February 14.

Jane Doe 1 stated that her first meeting with Raniere ended with the leader questioning her devotion, but soon things took a bizarre turn.

'The next night CC-1 again received a text message from RANIERE, woke Jane Doe 1 in the middle of the night and assigned her to meet RANIERE and tell him she would do anything he asked her to do. Jane Doe 1 did as she was assigned, and RANIERE led her to a house across the street,' reads the complaint.

'RANIERE directed her to remove all her clothes and made comments about her naked body. RANIERE then blindfolded Jane Doe 1, led her into a car and drove her around in a manner that made Jane Doe 1 believe RANIERE was trying to prevent her from knowing where they were going.

'RANIERE led, Jane Doe 1, still blindfolded, through some trees, into what she believed was a shack, and tied her to a table.

'Another person in the room, who Jane Doe 1 did not previously know was present, began performing oral sex on Jane Doe 1 as RANIERE circled the table making comments.

'Jane Doe 1 did not want to participate in this sexual activity, but believed it was 17 part of her commitment to DOS and that if she broke her commitment to DOS her collateral could be released.'

Jane Doe 1 said that she then began to frequently have sex with Raniere while also frequently posing nude for CC-1, who on one occasion sent 'close-up pictures of [her slaves'] vaginas' to Raniere.

This was not the only task Jane Doe 1 had to undertake, as she was also responsible for reading, reviewing and editing Raniere's writings and texts.

Allegations of Raniere's alarming and illegal sexual predilections are also outlined in a letter sent by US Attorney Richard P Donoghue to Judge Steven M Gold back in March.

'According to confidential sources, the defendant had repeated sexual encounters with multiple teenage girls in the mid-to-late 1980s and early 1990s,' reads the letter.

'In one instance, the defendant met a fifteen-year-old girl while he was in his 20s and had repeated sexual contact with her. In another instance, the defendant met a twelve-year-old girl whose mother worked for the defendant and began tutoring her.'

The letter goes on to say: 'Shortly thereafter, the defendant began having regular sexual intercourse with her, including at his home where he lived with multiple adult sexual partners.'

Raniere is also said to have voiced his belief that the age of consent should be lowered to when a parent believes their child is capable to sexual activity.

It has now been three days since Mack was arrested and arraigned on federal charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit forced labor.

Those are the same charges thatRaniere, 53, is being charged with, and both are facing a possible sentence of life behind bars.

Raniere could be spared from serving any time though, with a former publicist for Nxivm telling DailyMail.com that Oxenberg has said she is willing to take the fall for Raniere if it will keep him out of prison.

Frank Parlato, who has been covering Nxivm extensively on Art Voice, said that the female members of the cult have devised a plan they hope will save Raniere.

First, all female members are prepared to deny that they were ever forced or coerced into performing sex acts in an attempt to discredit the allegations made by the two former members whose grand jury testimony resulted in the indictments of Mack and Raniere.

If that does not work, member India Oxenberg, Mack and Mack's wife Nicki Clyne are prepared to testify that they alone were responsible for coercing members into having sex claims Parlato.

'Mack, Oxenberg and Clyne have made a pact to go to prison, saying privately they are ready to walk into prison tomorrow if Raniere could be free today,' reports Parlato.

Parlato tells DailyMail.com that Mack's arrest had been in the works ever since Raniere's extradition from Mexico to the United States back in March.

He posted video of Raniere's arrest at the time, which showed Mack in a state of disbelief as officials dragged away the self-proclaimed Svengali.

The grand jury indictment states that Mack did 'benefit ... financially and by receiving a thing of value, from participation in a venture ... knowing that means of force, threats of force, fraud and coercion, and a combination of such means, would be used to cause such persons to engage in one or more commercial sex acts.'

The first of the women to testify in front of the grand jury, Jane Doe 1, also said that Mack 'did knowingly and intentionally conspire to provide and obtain the labor and services of a person .... by means of serious harm and threats.'

Mack has yet to comment but has reportedly retained a lawyer.

'As alleged in the indictment, Allison Mack recruited women to join what was purported to be a female mentorship group that was, in fact, created and led by Keith Raniere,' United States Attorney Richard Donoghue said in a statement on Friday.

'The victims were then exploited, both sexually and for their labor, to the defendants benefit. This Office and our law enforcement partners are committed to prosecuting predators who victimize others through sex trafficking and forced labor.'

Mack had been serving as leader of the cult for the past three weeks DailyMail.com previously revealed, a role she assumed after Raniere was arrested by authorities in Mexico last month.

Both her initials and those of Raniere's were branded on the pelvic area of women who joined the organization.

The group has a large base in Albany, but a number of its most high-profile members decamped to Mexico earlier this year.

Raniere is listed as a co-defendant in the indictment against Mack, which was formally filed on Thursday afternoon.
A Peruvian judge has ordered two arrests after the lynching of a Canadian man who was killed over claims he had murdered a respected elderly shaman in a remote Amazonian village.

Sebastian Woodroffe, 41, had been accused of murdering the indigenous medicine woman, Olivia Arevalo, in the Peruvian region of Ucayali and was killed in revenge by a 'mob'.

A shocking mobile phone recording of the lynching, which was posted on Facebook, showed two men dragging Woodroffe by a noose around his neck as others looked on. His body was later found buried nearby.

Prosecutors have identified the two men and are working to determine who else took part in the lynching, according to the judicial ruling that ordered their arrests.

A Peruvian judge has ordered two arrests after the lynching of Canadian Sebastian Woodroffe who was killed over claims he had murdered a respected elderly shaman in a remote Amazonian village

A graphic video reveals a man believed to be Woodroffe brutally dragged through mud by a rope around his neck as villagers look on

Sebastian Woodroffe, 41, had been accused by villagers of murdering respected elderly shaman Olivia Arevalo (pictured) in the Peruvian region of Ucayali and was killed in revenge by a 'mob'

But less is known about the slaying of Olivia Arevalo, 81, a revered shaman of the Shipibo-Conibo tribe who was shot dead near her home on Thursday.

Ricardo Jimenez, the head of a group of prosecutors in Ucayali, said no one witnessed Arevalo's shooting, the murder weapon has not been found and a test for gunshot residue on Woodroffe's body will likely take 15 to 20 days.

Woodroffe had been Arevalo's patient and her family believes he killed her because she refused to conduct a ritual in which the hallucinogenic Amazonian plant brew ayahuasca is used for healing and spiritual growth, said Jimenez.

But authorities are exploring several hypotheses related to Arevalo's murder, including one in which another foreigner might have killed her over an unpaid debt, Jimenez said.

Arevalo's slaying prompted outrage as it followed the unsolved killings of other indigenous people in the Amazon region who had faced threats for trying to protect their land.

Policing is scant over much of the Peruvian Andes and Amazon and villagers in far-flung provinces often punish accused criminals according to local customs.

A graphic image on Facebook reveals Arevalo's body after she was fatally shot twice

The double murder took place in the Ucayali region of northeast Peru in the Amazon forest

Woodroffe moved to Ucayali after raising funds to help him learn more about plant medicine in Peru to become an addictions counselor, according to the crowdfunding website Indiegogo.com, in which he listed his plan to spend C$6,800 ($5,294) at a Shipibo healing center.

Ayahuasca has long been used by tribes in spiritual rituals and has fueled a surge in Amazonian tourism in the past decade as its reputation for helping overcome addiction and trauma and providing spiritual insights has grown abroad.

Neither Woodroffe's nor Arevalo's family could be reached for comment.

Canada's foreign affairs department said it was in touch with Peruvian officials. 'We are aware of this case and actively seeking further information,' Global Affairs Canada said in a statement.
There were more than 100,000 divorces in England and Wales in 2016 alone

Scores of newly-divorced couples may still be married because of a series of blunders by officials.

Those affected were granted legal break-ups too quickly, a senior judge said yesterday.

In some cases, couples submitted divorce petitions before they had been married a year  the minimum period. In others, officials approved divorces before the applicants had spent enough time apart.

Individuals who have remarried are at risk of having committed bigamy  an offence punishable with seven years in prison.

The mistakes appear to have been made at the 11 divorce centres set up in England and Wales since 2015. All petitions for divorce  the documents which begin the legal process  must be submitted to one of the centres. They are staffed by legal advisers under the supervision of judges.

Sir James Munby, the most senior divorce judge, has ordered courts to apologise for the devastating impact the errors will have on those who thought they had formally separated.

Wrongfully divorced couples have brought their cases to the attention of the High Court in London (pictured)

The news of the mishandling of divorces was issued in a technical briefing to the courts.

It contained no information on how many people will be affected  numbers could range from a handful to thousands. Sir James, who is president of the family division of the High Court, said: Very recently a number of cases have been brought to my attention where decrees nisi and absolute have been granted notwithstanding that the petition had been issued within one year of the marriage.

He said that in such cases the divorce would be null and void and that he had called in the Queens Proctor  a government lawyer employed to deal with family law cases  to tell the courts to strike divorces out.

Sir James said: Judges will wish to be alert to the potentially devastating impact on litigants of being informed that there is a problem with their decree. Especially (and this is unlikely to be known to the court when the first communication is made) a litigant who believes they have been validly divorced has remarried or is due very shortly to remarry.

Communications should accordingly be expressed in appropriately sympathetic and apologetic language.

Andrew Newbury, of Hall Brown Family Law, said the problem in some cases might simply be that of men and women filing for divorce on the first anniversary of their marriage instead of waiting one more day as the rules require.

Sir James Munby, the most senior divorce judge, has ordered courts to apologise for the devastating impact of the errors

He added: Under the current rules, the position would be very severe and divorces would become null and void.

Sir James is proposing a solution to fast track those cases which have perhaps inadvertently breached proper procedures. It is worth pointing out, though, that because of the sheer volume of workload being handled by family courts, resolution may not necessarily be as quick as either he or the couples involved would like.

Margaret Heathcote of Resolution, a body which represents family law firms, said: With the closure of many courts and fewer resources for the family justice system more broadly, it is inevitable that there will be an impact in one form or another.

The fact that the president has had to issue this guidance suggests there are basic mistakes being made that simply shouldnt happen.

Harry Benson, of the Marriage Foundation think-tank, said officials should be on top of the law because couples were unlikely to know what the legal process entailed. He added: Whether there are tens or hundreds or thousands of couples who remain married despite thinking they are divorced, the situation is absurd.

Couples who havent waited the full two or five years can conclude things by switching to the sham of immediate fault-based divorce. But what about those who have remarried? Since they cannot enter polygamy, their new marriage is null and void.

There were more than 100,000 divorces in England and Wales in 2016.

Have you been affected? Email divorce@dailymail.co.uk

Q&A Who is responsible? Officials at some of the 11 divorce centres set up in 2015 have approved legal break-ups in breaches of the rules. What did they get wrong? No divorce can go through if the initial application is handed in less than a year after the couple married. And couples who have been separated cannot divorce unless they have spent sufficient time apart  two years if both are agreed on divorce, five years if not. An unknown number of divorces have been approved by legal advisers where these conditions have not been met. What should you do if you are affected? If you failed to wait a full year, apply again when this time is up. Those who have failed to see out their two- or five-year separation periods in full can opt to apply for a fault-based petition instead. This means either the husband or wife must be accused of adultery or unreasonable behaviour. The 550 petition fee will be waived for applicants second time round. What happens if you have remarried? Their new marriage is invalid. They will also have broken the law against bigamy. Prosecutions are highly unlikely however. Has this happened before? The last attempt to introduce fault-free divorce, by John Majors Tory government in 1996, proved unworkable and his divorce laws were repealed. It was the high number of bogus divorces that helped lead to the creation of the new divorce centres. In 2014 it was found that 180 petitions had been made from a single false address. Advertisement




Showers and possible thunderstorms are forecast for Anzac Day in Sydney and Melbourne as thousands take to the streets for dawn services to remember Australia's fallen soldiers.

Melbournians will need to bring their umbrella to Anzac Day events on Wednesday morning, but crowds in Sydney may dodge the rainfall until late morning, Jacob Cronje, senior meteorologist for Weatherzone, told Daily Mail Australia.

'We are expecting for Sydney tomorrow at least partly cloudy skies and showers developing late morning into early afternoon,' Mr Cronje said.

'There's also the chance of a thunderstorm in the west but it won't affect dawn service.'

Thousands of people taking to the streets in Sydney and Melbourne on Wednesday for Anzac Day events should brace for rain and possible thunderstorms

Melbournians will need to bring their umbrella to dawn service, but crowds in Sydney may dodge the rainfall until late morning

Sydney's temperatures will reach 24C on Wednesday and Thursday before dropping to 21C throughout the weekend as the city receives more rainfall.

Dawn Services will be 'a bit wetter' for Melbourne, which will see up to 2mm of rain in the morning with a maximum temperature of 21C.

Weather conditions for the rest of the country will be prime for Anzac Day events.

Canberra will be sunny with a high of 27C.

Adelaide will have partly cloudy skies and will reach 23C.

Hobart will be cloudy and 21C and Perth will enjoy sunny skies with a high of 24C.

Darwin will sit at a sweltering 34C and Brisbane will reach 27C and may see some rainfall in the morning.

Dawn Services will be 'a bit wetter' for Melbourne, which will see up to 2mm of rain in the morning with a maximum temperature of 21C

Temperatures in Sydney will reach 24C on Wednesday and Thursday before dropping to 21C throughout the weekend as the city receives more rainfall

Sydney should expect to see some rainfall again on Friday

There is a 70 per cent chance of showers in Sydney on Saturday and a 50 per cent chance on Sunday

Sydney should expect to see some rainfall again on Friday, followed by a 70 per cent chance of showers on Saturday and a 50 per cent chance on Sunday.

Winds will reach between 20 to 30km/h on both days.

The dawn service in Sydney will begin at 4.30am at the Cenotaph on Martin Place and the Anzac Day March will begin at 9am.

The start point for the March is the intersection of Elizabeth Street and Martin Place.

People are urged to avoid driving and instead use the additional public transport services with extensive road closures in place from 2.30am to 4pm.

Free public transport is also being offered to veterans and their families.
A western Sydney man who allegedly punched his housemate over an argument involving a bowl of noodles has been charged with assault.

The housemates got in a heated disagreement over the noodles in the early hours of the morning in their home at Bankstown, in Sydney's inner west.

A 36-year-old man allegedly accused his 35-year-old housemate of knocking over his bowl of noodles in their sharehouse kitchen.

A western Sydney man who allegedly punched his housemate over an argument involving a bowl of noodles has been charged with assault (stock image)

At around 4.45am on Wednesday, April 18, the man allegedly argued with his younger housemate before punching him over the noodle incident, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Police have charged the 36-year-old man with assault causing grievous bodily harm.

He was granted bail and is scheduled to appear at Bankstown Local Court on May 3.
History isnt always a reliable guide to the future  and in some ways the modern Royal Family bears little resemblance to those of the past. But, alas, being born third child to a monarch or future monarch has rarely meant a trouble-free life, as these examples illustrate...

1. HUSBAND ONLY MARRIED THE PRINCESS FOR A BET

Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood

Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood

George Vs third child, Princess Mary, was born in 1897, before the law of primogeniture was changed, so there was never a chance she would ascend the throne. Her two older brothers were Edward VIII and George VI (our Queens father) and, as a consequence, she was treated very differently from the start.

Indeed, it was said by a courtier of her ice-queen mother, Mary: Her Majesty hates the whole business of childbirth, from the act which inspires it to the deed itself, and the product of the act and deed.

As the only girl among five higher-profile brothers, even though two of them were younger than her, Mary was consigned to the role of royal adornment.

Life at home in York Cottage, Sandringham, was cramped and slightly spooky  one room was preserved as a shrine to Prince Albert Victor, her fathers elder brother, who would have become king if he hadnt died at the age of 28.

It was not a nice place to grow up, nor was hers a happy childhood.

While her brothers wanted to marry swiftly to escape their bullying father, Princess Mary clung to spinsterhood. This was partly because her mother wanted her at home, and partly because it was difficult to find the right kind of man to marry a kings daughter.

However, at the age of 24 she married the 6th Earl of Harewood, aged 39, who was said to have proposed marriage to her only for a bet.

She died of a heart attack while out walking in 1965, aged 67.

2. SHIPWRECKED OFF THE AFRICAN COAST

Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife

Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife

Born in 1867, Princess Louise, third child of the gluttonous, priapic Edward VII, was granted the title of Princess Royal. She, too, grew up at Sandringham  in the main house, not the cottage  and when the time came for husband-hunting she chose an obscure Scottish aristocrat, the Earl of Fife.

Fife was 40 to her 22 when they married, and Queen Victoria balked at the idea of someone of so lowly a rank being married to her grand-daughter  so she promptly made him a duke.

But Louises was not a happy life. Her first child was stillborn. And at the age of 34, while sailing with her family to Egypt, she was shipwrecked off the coast of Morocco. Though all aboard were rescued, her husband died soon afterwards from pleurisy.

She returned home to find that her daughter Alexandra wanted to marry her mothers first cousin, Prince Arthur of Connaught.

After being a widow for more than half her life, she died aged 63 after suffering a gastric haemorrhage  an unhappy end to a troubled life.

3. DAUGHTERS KILLED BY THE BOLSHEVIKS

Alice, Princess of the United Kingdom, Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine

Alice, Princess of the United Kingdom, Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine

Princess Alice, the third child of Queen Victoria, had no jollier a time of it when she was born in 1843.

At the age of 17 she had to nurse her dying father, Prince Albert, then spent the next year consoling her grief-stricken mother.

Alice escaped to marry a German princeling, Louis of Hesse, but two of her daughters met awful deaths. Both Alexandra, who had married Tsar Nicholas II and became an empress, and Elisabeth, who had married Grand Duke Sergei of Russia, were murdered in 1918 by the Bolsheviks after the Russian Revolution of the previous year.

Sophia, Baroness De LIsle and Dudley

4. OFFSPRING OF THE KING AND AN ACTRESS

Sophia, Baroness De LIsle and Dudley

Sophia, daughter of William IV born in 1795, never carried the title of Princess because she was illegitimate. The king lived for many years with the Anglo-Irish actress Mrs Jordan, who bore him ten children after having already given birth to four others by other men.

Eventually abandoned by the king when he wanted a legitimate heir, Mrs Jordan died in poverty when her daughter was 19. Sophia died in childbirth at the age of just 36.

5. SAD SAILOR SON OF A MAD KING

William IV

William IV

William IV himself was a third child (of the mad George III). Born in 1765, he was arguably the biggest buffoon to sit on the throne.

He was nicknamed Sailor Bill, having served in the Royal Navy and later been given the job of Lord High Admiral by George Canning, the prime minister, in 1827. He ascended the throne three years later, as his two deceased brothers failed to leave a legitimate heir. Crowned at the age of 64, he remains the oldest person to inherit the throne.

Even though he later married Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen in the hope of producing a legitimate heir, their only offspring were two daughters.

6. THEN THERES AIR MILES ANDY...

Prince Andrew, Duke of York

Until yesterday, Prince Andrew was the most recent third royal baby. His birth in 1960 came as something of a surprise, considering Anne had arrived ten years earlier and many believed the Queen had decided to have no more children.

Prince Andrew, Duke of York

A 21-gun salute in Hyde Park and at the Tower of London celebrated the moment when, on February 19, Prince Andrew Albert Christian Edward was born.

From second in line to the throne, he has gradually drifted out in the royal pecking order to the position he holds today: seventh in line to the throne.

After tasting glory as a helicopter co-pilot in the Falklands conflict, his life has been dogged by divorce, a scandal over his close friendship with the U.S. billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and the overuse of perks that led him to be nicknamed Air Miles Andy.

7. AND TRAGIC DI, LOST AND UNHAPPY

Diana, Princess of Wales

Diana, Princess of Wales

There is one more third baby to mention: Princess Diana.

Although she was born the daughter of an earl, Diana was wife to and mother of future kings, and left the greatest legacy of them all. But behind the magic lay tragedy  a child of a broken home, disappointed in love, gone too soon.

THIS unhappy history is most unlikely to repeat itself in the next generation, though. William and Kate, who have zealously devoted themselves to parenthood, will have made provision in their minds for their third childs future.
Eighteen people have been killed and five injured in a fire at a karaoke bar in China.

Emergency services were called to the fire in Qingyuan City, Guangdong at 12.30am local time on Tuesday.

Fire, health and police departments sent rescuers to the site. The fire was put out at 12.55am.

Police said the fire was caused by arson and that authorities were stepping up investigations.

Police were called to the fire in Qingyuan City (pictured), Guangdong at 12.30am local time on Tuesday

Deadly fires are common in China, where safety regulations are widely flouted and enforcement is often lax.

A blaze that killed 38 people at a nursing home in 2015 sparked soul-searching about safety standards in China.

Courts jailed 21 people, including firefighters and government staff, over the fire last year.

In the days following the accident, Chinas top safety watchdog said the facility had poorly-designed fire exits, while safety checks, fire and electricity management, and the emergency response system were all found lacking.

More than two dozen people were killed in two fires in Beijings migrant neighbourhoods late last year.

The first blaze, which killed 19 people in November, prompted authorities to begin tearing down unsafe buildings in the capital, driving residents out in the middle of winter.
A 12-year-old boy who ran away to Bali has told how he bought himself his first beer on the beach, saying: 'I had a sip and it was disgusting.'

The boy named Drew left his Sydney home after a heated argument with his mother in early March.

He pretended he was going to school but took her credit card and got on a Jetstar flight to Denpasar via Perth.

A 12-year-old boy by the name of Drew (pictured at the airport) managed to run away to Denpasar, Bali after having a heated argument with his mum

Drew bought himself his first beer on the beach, saying: 'I had a sip and it was disgusting.' Pictured: Sanur beach in Denpasar, Bali

While his frantic mother and police searched for him in Sydney, Drew was enjoying four days in the tourist town's three-star All Seasons Hotel, where he had stayed with his parents before.

He lounged by the pool, rented a motorbike and even treated himself to his first beer on the beach.

Speaking to radio hosts Ryan Fitzgerald and Michael Wipfli on their 'Fitzy and Wippa' Nova show on Tuesday, he said he had no problem buying the beer despite his age.

'I only had a sip out of it and it was disgusting - but it was just the fact that I could get it,' he said.

The youngster explained that his mother cancelled her credit card when she found out he was missing - but he was able to fund his trip by taking out cardless cash which he had wired to his bank account.

He flew to Denpasar via Perth - where airport personnel asked for his passport and student ID, to confirm that he was in secondary school, before allowing him to board

The boy spent four days in Denpasar. He rented a motorcycle, lounging on the beach and, at one point, buying himself a beer (stock image of Denpasar)

Drew said the hotel let him check in after he convinced staff his sister was coming to join him soon.

His distraught mother is furious with police who she said told her 'there's no way he can get out of the country.'

She said her parenting skills have been criticised but that really the fault lies with authorities who failed to stop a 12-year-old leaving the country alone.

Drew first booked a flight with Qantas but was not allowed to board without proof of parental permission.

'I went to the airport, and the crew wouldn't let me on... cause I didn't have documents from mum or dad,' he told A Current Affair.

It was only once Drew went to Jetstar that he managed to book his international ticket and make it through the airport unchecked.

This despite the Australian Federal Police's assurances that he was on their radar and wouldn't be allowed to leave.

After being stopped with two other airlines, Drew eventually found success when he booked his international flight through Jetstar

'When the first attempt to Indonesia took place, we were told his passport was going to be flagged,' said his mother, Emma, while his nan was being assured that 'It just wouldn't happen: he wouldn't get past any of the airport personnel to get overseas.'

The discount flights took Drew to Perth first, where he then transferred into the international departures lounge and was indeed checked by airport personnel.

'They just asked for my student ID and passport,' he said. 'To prove that I'm in a secondary school.'

And with that, Drew found himself on a flight to Denpasar.

Upon arriving in Denpasar, Drew booked himself into the All Seasons Hotel, where he had stayed with his family on previous vacations

Drew ignored the numerous texts and calls from his worried parents back home.

It was when he posted a video of himself backflipping into the hotel pool that the jig was well and truly up.

His mum discovered his location after calling his friends and instantly informed the AFP, who got in touch with the local chief police commissioner.

'I just went to the beach and then by the time I got back the consulate was there' said Drew.

'[So] I said I was going to go get my stuff from the room and then I locked myself in the room.'

Police were forced to unscrew the windows of the hotel to finally catch the elusive teen - and his parents were instructed to sit tight while their son was brought home to them.

His mother (pictured) eventually discovered Drew's location and contacted the authorities to have him retrieved

But Drew hadn't broken any Indonesian laws, and no one had the right to arrest him or escort him to the airport for deportation.

'The AFP said we only had 24 hours otherwise they'll let him go, cause legally in Indonesian law he has done nothing wrong,' said Emma.

'We were a mess - you've got a child who's in Indonesia by himself, who's as savvy as him riding motorbikes, organising his own little life over there.'

When the consulate arrived at Drew's hotel he locked himself in his room - forcing them to unscrew the windows and get him

Emma and Drew's father rushed to Indonesia to retrieve him, also flying to Bali via Perth - where they were stonewalled by airport personnel for not having a return ticket.

'That's when my former partner said: 'Well how did my 12-year-old son get on a flight without being questioned, and you're questioning us as adults?'' said Emma.

They eventually managed to board their flight, making it to Denpasar and retrieving their rogue child.

But Drew's parents are furious that their son was able to make it overseas so easily in the first place.

'He was never flagged - they never done their job. If they'd done their job this wouldn't have happened,' said his mother.

'So easily fooling Australian police, customs, everyone. What about those other kids that have gone underage? What about child trafficking?

'We still are in shock, we sit here just thinking how did this happen considering we screamed, we begged for help.'
An ancient sexually transmitted virus that causes leukaemia, disability and has links to HIV is on the rise in Australia, health experts have warned.

The T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is a sexually transmitted blood-borne virus and is a cousin of the deadly autoimmune disease HIV.

The virus, which can also be passed from mother to child, can lead to inflammation of the skin, eyes and lungs, and develop into life-threatening diseases like cancer.

Ancient sexually transmitted virus that causes leukaemia, disability and has links to HIV is on the rise in Indigenous communities (Ali Curung pictured), health experts have warned

Researcher Joel Liddle said the sexually transmitted disease was extremely serious.

'You're also at risk of developing things like leukaemia, so blood cancer, and becoming disabled through spinal cord injuries,' he said.

Mr Liddle said leukaemia caused by the virus was in some cases 'rapidly fatal'.

The disease, which has been found in Japan, South America and Africa, is on the rise in Australia, with Aboriginal communities most at risk.

The disease, which has been found in Japan, South America and Africa, is on the rise in Australia, with Aboriginal communities (Milingimbi pictured) most at risk

Researcher Joel Liddle (pictured) said the sexually transmitted disease was extremely serious

The Baker Institute for Heart and Diabetes in Alice Springs predicted about 45 per cent of Aboriginal adults in central Australia lived with HTLV-1, ABC News reported.

Infectious diseases expert Dr Lloyd Einsiedel said the disease was now spreading into other areas across Australia including Adelaide and Perth.

For people with 'a lot of the virus' in their blood, Dr Einsiedel said it was 'the most potent carcinogenic virus that we know of'.

Dr Einsiedel said infected people's risk of disease differed depending on how much of the virus was found in their blood.

Infectious diseases expert Dr Lloyd Einsiedel said the disease was now spreading into other areas across Australia including Adelaide and Perth

Despite the severity of the disease, and its prominence in Australia's indigenous communities (Hidden Valley, Alice Springs pictured), Dr Einsiedel said HTLV-1 had been neglected

Despite the severity of the disease, and its prominence in Australia's indigenous communities, Dr Einsiedel said HTLV-1 had been neglected.

'We're a long way behind,' he said.

Dr Liddle agreed saying: 'In remote Australia, it's so out of sight out of mind with a lot of things, health is just one of those things'.

Indigenous Health Minister Ken Wyatt's spokesman said the Federal Government had dedicated $6.1 million to the Central Australia Academic Health Science Centre.

The spokesman told the ABC the centre was using the money to study and address the rising threat of HRLV-1.
A woman was found not guilty of assault after being charged for biting and choking a young waiter at a restaurant during a dispute over a serving of fish.

Chunping Quan was found not guilty in the Adelaide Magistrates Court today after claiming she had acted in self-defence.

The prosecutors could not prove beyond reasonable doubt that Quan hadn't acted in self-defence The Advertiser reported.

Quan admitted to the court that she bit and choked a teenage waiter at the Nice Fish Chinese Restaurant in central Adelaide after a dispute over the cost of a piece of fish she had ordered for $48.

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Adelaide resident Chunping Quan (pictured) was found not guilty of assault after being charged for biting and choking a young waiter at a restaurant after a dispute over a piece of fish

Quan claimed that she had only received 'half a piece of fish' and therefore refused to pay full price, instead she paid $26.50 for the fish and a $2.50 fee for services.

The court heard that after Quan left the restaurant, a manager asked waiter Fan Chi Kong, 19, to follow her and get her to pay the remainder of the bill.

Mr Kong confronted Quan on the street and the altercation quickly turned physical and Quan said she was merely acting in self-defence.

Fan Chi Kong (pictured) told the court he had tried to get Quan to stop by asking her first, before grabbing her arm

She claimed that Mr Kong took hold of her and refused to let go, she said she asked him multiple times to let go of her arm.

When he refused she started to bite and choke him in an attempt to get free.

'Also, I was quite angry because I asked him to release me several times and he didn't,' she said.

Mr Kong told the court he had tried to get Quan to stop by asking her first, before grabbing her arm.

Quan bit and choked Mr Kong in an attempt to get him to release his grip and said she did so in self defence

'I asked them not to go any further ... and they ignored that so I grabbed the hand of one of them,' he said.

'While I was trying to stop her, she started biting me on my arm and pinching me so I had to grab the purse and try to squat down on the floor.'

A recording of Quan's call to 000 was also played for the court, the audio captured Quan complaining about only getting half a fish and therefore she would not pay the full price.

The operator asked Quan if she would be willing to pay the full price before informing her it wasn't a police matter.
A massage therapist has claimed in a lawsuit that 95-year-old Stan Lee rubbed his bare genitals on her foot during a session.

Maria Carballo filed the $50,000 civil suit on Monday in Chicago, claiming the incident took place during two sessions in April 2017 at the McCormick Place Hyatt Recency hotel.

Carballo also filed a criminal complaint against Stanley Lieber, Lee's real name, in Chicago last month, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Lee, through his attorney, has denied the allegations and vowed to fight the lawsuit.

Stan Lee is seen at C2E2 in Chicago in April of 2017. A massage therapist claims he behaved inappropriately during a session while on the trip, which Lee denies

The allegations stem from Lee's visit to Chicago for C2E2, an annual comic book expo.

Carballo's complaint says she was working as an independent contractor for Therapy Professionals, which sent her on the assignment to Lee's hotel room.

Lee's convicted felon former assistant, Mac 'Max' Anderson, arranged the massage, according to the complaint, which also names him as a defendant.

Carballo says that Lee was on his stomach for the first massage when she noticed he was fondling himself.

Then he began moaning and groaning when she massaged his thighs, the complaint states, at which point she cut the massage short and agreed to be paid for one hour instead of two.

Carballo said she told her employer she was uncomfortable and didn't want to return for a second session the following day, but was told he was a 'VIP' and agreed to go back for fear of losing her job.

Lee is seen with his former assistant, the convicted felon Max Anderson (right), who allegedly arranged the massage. Lee fired Anderson in February

The second massage began around 10pm, and Lee again began moaning when she massaged his thighs, Carballo said. The massage therapist called off the session.

Naked, the nonagenarian hopped up from the massage table enraged, demanding the session continue, claims Carballo.

She reluctantly agreed but began using her feet instead of her hands for the massage, to keep more distance from Lee. That's when, she claims, he grabbed her foot and rubbed it against his penis and scrotum.

Carballo says she rushed out after Lee paid her $240 cash, and that Anderson approached her in the hallway outside to thank her and give her a cash tip.

Lee fired Anderson in February, amid claims the assistant was involved in a plot to drive a wedge between Stan and his sole heir, his daughter JC Lee. Anderson could not be reached for comment on the suit.

Carballo's suit says that she feared speaking out about the incident because of Lee's wealth and prominence, but was inspired by the #MeToo movement.

Lee is the former chairman of Marvel Comics, and the co-creator of many famous superheros including Spider-Man, the Hulk, Doctor Strange, the Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Black Panther and the X-Men.

Jonathan Freund, an attorney for Lee, told the Tribune that the suit is a 'shakedown' targeting his client due to his wealth.

'The guy is 95, I don't think he would do that,' Freund said.
With Anzac Day falling in the middle of the working week, Australians face some interruption to their normal plans for groceries or alcohol.

While beers at breakfast will be pouring at RSL venues from 6am after the dawn service, it will be hours before general stores open for the day.

Millions are expected to flock to local venues across the country before the day breaks to commemorate Anzac Day (stock image) with the majority of stores closed until after midday

SUPERMARKETS

Groceries will not be available from the supermarket giants such as Woolworths, Coles or Aldi on Wednesday before lunch time.

However, independent retailers are exempt from the extreme trading restrictions meaning many bakeries and convenience stores are allowed to trade all day.

WOOLWORTHS

Many Woolworths stores will open from 1pm in NSW and Victoria, ACT, NT and Tasmania.

However, the majority of stores will be closed in Queensland, SA and WA.

Groceries will not be available from the supermarket giants such as Woolworths (left), Coles (right) or Aldi on Wednesday before lunch time

The majority of stores will open after 1pm, with most stores in Queensland closed for the day

COLES

The majority of Coles stores will open from 1pm in NSW, ACT, Victoria, NT and at 12.30pm in Tasmania.

All stores in Queensland will be closed for the day as will most SA and WA stores.

ALDI

Most Aldi stores will be open from 1pm in Victoria and 1.15pm in the ACT and NSW, except for the Leichhardt store which will remain closed.

All Aldi stores in Queensland and WA will be closed along with SA stores where a few supermarkets will open from midday.

LIQUOR

Dan Murphy's and BWS stores across the nation will open at 1pm, so those hoping to start their celebrations any earlier may want to hit the shops Tuesday.

For those who intend to begin celebrating early, the RSL is your best bet, with many clubs selling breakfast and alcohol after the dawn service.

Many pubs around the country will start trading from midday, though pubs in Queensland are able to sell alcohol from 10am, as long as it's with a meal.

Some RSL's will be permitted to sell alcohol to their members and guests from 6am, while other venues in Queensland can begin serving alcohol from 10am, as long as it's with a meal

For those not after a beer with breakfast, some cafes will be open in areas for a caffeine fix

FOOD

Most fast food outlets and cafes are exempt from the trading restrictions on Anzac Day in Victoria, NSW, SA and Tasmania.

While most shops in metropolitan Queensland are closed, food and grocery stores are exempt from the restrictions.

In the ACT and NT, there are no trading restrictions but many businesses opt to stay closed as a sign of respect.

Westfield shopping centres will open after 1pm in most cities across country on Wednesday

RETAIL AND ENTERTAINMENT

Petrol stations, convenience stores and pharmacies around the nation will be open on Wednesday.

In NSW, Queensland and Victoria, any business is able to open after 1pm however Tasmania's trading restrictions are lifted at 12.30pm.

Shoppers will have to manage their time well in SA as shops in the CBD and tourist precincts are only able to trade between 12pm and 5pm.

Westfield will open after 1pm in NSW and Victoria, and will be closed all day in Western Australia, Queensland and South Australia.

Petrol stations, convenience stores and pharmacies will be open on Anzac Day (stock image)

In the Northern Territory and the ACT, there are no trading restrictions, so shops can trade as usual if they choose to.

For those wanting to catch an afternoon movie, Event Cinemas will trade as normal across the country with the exception of Queensland, which will open from 1pm.

Hoyts will trade as normal in NSW, SA, WA and ACT while Victoria and Queensland venues will open from 1pm and 1.30pm on Wednesday.
New photos from inside a Thai hotel room after it was raided by police Saturday night during a wild swingers party have revealed a ghostly scene.

Men can be seen sitting slouched in chairs with large white towels draped over their heads, covering their faces and modesty.

The large get together was interrupted at Pattaya's Tulip Hotel about 11.30pm after local police were tipped off about guests paying 1,500 baht ($62) to take part in an orgy.

Men can be seen sitting slouched in chairs with large white towels draped over their heads (pictured) following the police raid on Pattaya's Tulip Hotel about 11.30pm Saturday

Dramatic video showed police bursting into the room as sweating middle-aged men rushed to cover themselves and their female partners up.

Australian men were believed to be among a crowd of Americans, Canadians, Brits, Germans, Russians, Malaysians and Chinese party-goers.

The hotel operator, Xeng-chai Yang, 53, from China, faces a maximum fine of more than $750,000 for breaching the Hotels Act of 2004, Bangkok Post reported.

He could also spend up to a year behind bars, and be given a once-off fine $834 and be ordered to pay $417 for every day of his hotel's illegal operation.

The hotel has been open for about five years, accruing a total fine of 18 million baht - AU$750,000.

Images from the raid in Pattaya, often referred to as the sex capital of the world, show the middle-aged Brits sweating heavily and rushing to cover themselves up

Mr Xeng-chai was also charged with hosting an obscene activity, and three hotel employees were charged with assisting in the offence.

A Filipino orgy attendee tested positive for drug use, while another foreigner was found to have overstayed their visa.

None of the individuals pictured were accused of committing any wrongdoing, with all of them questioned and released following the raid.

Condoms, lubricants and sex toys found scattered on the floor were collected as evidence.

Naris Niwapantawong, District Sheriff in the Banglamung area of Pattaya, revealed the hotel was 'hosting parties for those who prefer sex that involve exchanging partners'.

Dramatic footage shows the moment police raided an illegal orgy at a hotel in Thailand catching sweating middle aged British men with young Thai women

'To attend the event, participants had to register through a website. There was a rule that party members must be male and female couples. The cost per night was 1,500 baht per person.

Sheriff Niwapantawong said 28 people - 14 women and 14 men - from many different countries 'exchanged partners with each other'.

He added: 'We received a complaint about the Tulip Hotel. We were told they organised sex parties at the weekends.

'My staff co-ordinated with police, immigration and the military to strike quickly and accurately.

'We carried out the operation while they were having sex and we shut them down.'

Police burst in on the illegal sex party (pictured) Saturday night after getting a tip off guests had paid 1,500 baht ($62) to take part in an orgy

The Tulip Hotel in South Pattaya has 30 rooms over four different floors. It is split into several zones, with the one floor dedicated as the 'play zone'.

Officers said that 'almost all of the participants' were in the play zone when the building was raided.

There were also three hotel staff, who were tasked with serving hot tea to the guests, cleaning up the rooms and joining in with the sex games.

'Police investigated the claims first and gathered evidence and a warrant before striking the premises.

It took place at the Tulip Hotel in Pattaya, often referred to as the sex capital of the world

Video from a local news report captured the moment 28 people were rounded up Saturday

'The men were found to be from many countries including Australia, America, the United Kingdom, Germany and Malaysia. Many guests had visited previously.

'A prosecutor is now developing the case against the hotel owner.'

Pattaya on the east coast of the Gulf of Thailand has become known as the sex capital of the world since American servicemen began visiting in the 1960s during 'rest and relaxation' time from duties in Vietnam.

A bustling night life scene grew and the area is now home to thousands of bars, strip clubs and massage parlours.
One-month-old boy, Sage Cooper, was last seen in Tampa with parents from Illinois. He has since been found as is in care of the state

A one-month-old infant from Florida who was reported missing on Monday was found just hours later some 300 miles away.

Little Sage Cooper was reported to be unharmed and Gadsden County sheriff's deputies took his father David Cooper, 32, into custody on outstanding arrest warrants. The baby's mother, Kaitlynn Lovel, 25, may also face charges.

The search began earlier in the day after the Florida Department of Law Enforcement issued a missing child alert for Sage.

The baby was born March 16 and had last been seen Friday at a home on Oak Pride Court in Tampa, where he lived with Lovel.

Lovel and Cooper had recently fled to Florida from Illinois after already losing custody of their two other children.

According to TBO, investigators think that the parents absconded with the baby after learning that a Hillsborough County judge signed a court order on April 21 to immediately place the baby into state custody.

David Cooper, 32, is in custody and mother Kaitlynn Lovel, 25, may face charges

Deputy Vontez Jackson relied upon old fashioned good police work to find the fugitive and kidnapped infant. He is seen with the baby boy after being rescued from a Florida motel

Hillsborough deputies then began to search for the family last week after a call from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, sheriff's spokesman Danny Alvarez said.

Ultimately it was Deputy Vontez Jackson who relied upon old fashioned good police work to find the fugitives and kidnapped infant.

He went to several businesses, door-to-door in neighborhoods and to hotels and motels until he spotted the vehicle associated with the parents of the kidnapped child.

His diligence and perseverance paid off as he apprehended the parents who both face charges.

Both Lovel and Cooper faced 'significant charges of child abuse' in Illinois that led to their two children being taken away from them.

An Illinois court placed the couple under strict orders prohibiting interactions with their children or each other.

Cooper was arrested. He is wanted in Illinois on unrelated charges the Sheriff's Office said

Mother Kaitlynn Lovel, 25, may also face charges but right now all three of her kids are in care. She is pictured here before officers took her child into the care of the state

'Both parents have had their children removed from them, so that should tell you something right up front that they're having another child together when they weren't even supposed to be in contact with each other is very telling,' says Hillsborough Sheriff's Office spokesperson Danny Alvarez.

Cooper is also wanted in Illinois on multiple unrelated charges, the Sheriff's Office said.

Illinois authorities say theyhave two active warrants for Cooper's arrest, one on a narcotics-related charge and the other on a charge of failure to appear in court for an ongoing domestic violence case.
A cafe owner who allegedly bragged about owning a $70,000 Mercedes and going on overseas holidays allegedly funded his lavish lifestyle by dealing drugs.

Brendan Baker, who runs Remedy on Canberra's Kingston Foreshore, was one of five men arrested over the weekend for their alleged involvement in a drug trafficking operation in the nation's capital.

Police told the ACT Magistrates Court on Monday that the 26-year-old's 'large-scale purchases of vehicles, property and business are incompatible' with his legitimate income, according to the Canberra Times.

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Brendan Baker (pictured), who runs Remedy on Canberra's Kingston Foreshore, was one of five men arrested over the weekend for their alleged involvement in a drug trafficking operation in the nation's capital

The execution of 15 search warrants in Canberra over the weekend led to the arrest of Mr Baker and five others, including Jason Conomos, 37, and his son, Corey Conomos, 18 (pictured is cash seized during the raids)

Mr Baker has been charged with importing and trafficking a commercial quantity of drugs and money laundering. He was refused bail during the hearing.

The execution of 15 search warrants in Canberra over the weekend led to the arrest of Mr Baker and five others, including Jason Conomos, 37, and his son, Corey Conomos, 18.

Jason Conomos denied his involvement and pleaded not guilty. He was released on bail. Corey Conomos did not apply for bail.

Alleged Nomads bikie Own Turnbull, 25, was also arrested and charged with multiple counts of drug trafficking. He did not apply for bail.

A concrete business director, Brett Thoms, 34, was charged and released on bail.

A sixth man was arrested in Sydney and will face court after he's extradited from Sydney on Tuesday, according to the Canberra Times.

More than $100,000 in cash, six vehicles including a Harley Davidson motorcycle, and quantities of cocaine, MDMA, marijuana and anabolic steroids were seized by police during the raids.

Mr Baker has been charged with importing and trafficking a commercial quantity of drugs and money laundering. He was refused bail during the hearing

Alleged Nomads bikie Own Turnbull, 25, was also arrested and charged with multiple counts of drug trafficking. He did not apply for bail

More than $100,000 in cash, six vehicles including a Harley Davidson motorcycle (pictured), and quantities of cocaine, MDMA, marijuana and anabolic steroids were seized by police during the raids

Officers also located a gun, ammunition and 'residential properties, bank accounts and jewellery with a combined estimated value of $1.5 million.'

Documents submitted to the court by police allege Mr Baker sold large amounts of marijuana to a man named Civilian Participant to sell on to dealers, including allegedly Corey Conomos, according to the Canberra Times.

CP allegedly gave Mr Baker $2million for the drugs over a period of time, prompting the 26-year-old to buy a money counting machine, the documents said.

Mr Baker is accused of selling MDMA in late 2016 and allegedly told CP he imported methylone from a man in China on behalf of someone else.

According to the documents, after the Chinese man blew himself up in the garage, Mr Baker allegedly complained to CP that it was difficult to find a 'consistent' person.

Mr Baker is also accused of importing more than three kilograms of 'bath salts' and was allegedly growing marijuana plants at his property, the court heard.
Travis Reinking is seen in surveillance video from the BMW dealership on Tuesday

Police have revealed that they suspect the accused Waffle House killer evaded a brief police chase in a stolen BMW just days before the deadly attack.

Travis Reinking, 29, was arrested by Nashville police just after 1pm on Monday after a day-long manhunt over the shooting rampage that killed four people in a Waffle House early on Sunday.

Now police in nearby Brentwood, Tennessee reveal that they think Reinking was the same man who stole a $63,000 2018 BMW X6 from a dealership on Tuesday.

Reinking posed as a customer, stole a vehicle key fob from a salesperson and drove away from the dealership at around 5.40pm, according to police.

Within minutes, Brentwood Police Officers spotted the stolen vehicle traveling eastbound on Concord Road near Wilson Pike and tried to pull it over.

Police chased the stolen 2018 BMW X6 for about two miles, but broke off the pursuit amid fears that the chase through rush hour traffic was putting the public at risk, tracking the car by GPS

Travis Reinking, 29, was captured on Monday after he allegedly murdered four people at a Waffle House in Antioch, Tennessee on Sunday. He is pictured here following his arrest

Dashcam video shows the stolen X6 fleeing down the two-lane road at between 40 and 50 miles per hour, as cars pull off to the side to avoid crashing.

After about two miles, police made the determination that continuing the pursuit in rush hour traffic was too dangerous, and broke off the chase.

'The pursuit was terminated near Edmondson Pike, in accordance with Brentwood Police policy and since the stolen vehicle was equipped with a GPS tracking device,' the department said in a statement.

Later the same day, the stolen BMW was recovered in the parking lot of the apartment complex where Reinking lives, at 5000 Mountain Springs Drive in Antioch. The car was sent to be processed for prints.

However, cops say they had nothing that directly led them to suspect Reinking until after they shooting on Sunday, when they discovered the stolen key fob in his apartment.

In a statement, Brentwood police defended the decision to break off pursuit, saying they had no way of knowing what would unfold at the Waffle House on Sunday.

Reinking allegedly killed two people outside of the Waffle House at 3.25am on Sunday before storming the restaurant

The AR-15 (left) used in the Waffle House shooting was among Reinking's (right) four weapons that the FBI confiscated in October following an incident at the White House

Victims (left to right): Killed in the shooting were restaurant worker Taurean C. Sanderlin, 29; customer Joe R. Perez, 20; Deebony Groves, 21; and Akilah Dasilva, 23

Hero diner James Shaw Jr managed to grab the rifle and toss it over a counter after the gunman opened fire. Shaw shows off his injured hand after he grabbed the gun barrel

Reinking has a history of bizarre behavior and has claimed in the past that he was being stalked and harassed by pop star Taylor Swift.

He had at least five prior run-ins with police in Illinois before he moved to Nashville, and one in Washington DC in 2017 when he tried to scale a fence near the White House.

It was after the DC incident that the FBI coordinated with Illinois State Police and Tazewell County to revoke Reinking's gun license.

He had a carry permit in Illinois and willingly gave up the four weapons he legally owned.

Tazewell County Sheriff Robert Huston said deputies returned the guns to Reinking's father Jeffery on the promise that he would 'keep the weapons secure and out of the possession of Travis'.

Reinking's father has since confessed to returning the guns back to his son.

His family says his delusions date as far back as 2014.

Police gather on a road along a wooded area where Reinking was captured on Monday

Reinking appears by video for his arraignment on murder charges on Monday

He was apprehended on Monday in the woods behind his apartment complex, which had been the focus of extensive searched for the past 36 hours.

More than 100 Nashville police officers went door-to-door during the search, where they were joined by dozens of agents with the FBI, the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and troopers with Tennessee Highway Patrol.

After Reinking was placed in cuffs, detectives cut off a black backpack strapped to his back.

Inside was a semiautomatic .45-caliber handgun, ammunition, a holster, and a flashlight.

Police say that Reinking killed four when he stormed into a Waffle House on Sunday wearing only a jacket and firing a Bushmaster AR-15, which a hero bystander grabbed and disarmed him.

Reinking is being held in lieu of a $2million bond, and is due in court Wednesday.
The estranged husband of former Massachusetts Senate President Stan Rosenberg has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault.

Bryon Hefner, 30, was released on personal recognizance Tuesday after appearing in Suffolk Superior Court to face charges of sexual assault, distributing nude photos without consent and criminal lewdness.

He was also ordered to stay away from the alleged victims and the Massachusetts State House. His trial was scheduled for March 2019.

Bryon Hefner, the estranged husband of former Massachusetts Senate President Stan Rosenberg, is escorted out of court after his arraignment at Suffolk Superior Court, Tuesday

Rosenberg (right) was forced to stand down as president of Massachusetts' state Senate amid the allegations of sexual misconduct against estranged husband, Bryon Hefner (left)

Several men claim Hefner sexually assaulted or harassed them, including three men who said Hefner grabbed their genitals in Boston.

Investigators say they have uncovered a 'disturbing pattern of conduct' by Hefnor, 'that was not only inappropriate but criminal.'

The men, who have not been named, said they did not report the alleged incidents partly because they did not want to alienate the powerful Senate leader.

Rosenberg, who has not been accused of wrongdoing, was forced to step down from the Senate after the allegations emerged last year.

Hefner sits in court waiting for his arraignment at Suffolk Superior Court, Tuesday

Hefner leaves court after his arraignment at Suffolk Superior Court, Tuesday, where he was charged with sexual assault, distributing nude photos without consent and criminal lewdness

Hefner, 30, was released on personal recognizance Tuesday and was also ordered to stay away from the alleged victims and the Massachusetts State House. His trial was scheduled for March 2019

Prosecutors say Hefner sexually assaulted one of his victims on three separate occasions, once in a home in June 2015, once in a restaurant in April 2016, and a final time that same month in a vehicle.

He is also accused of assaulting another man in 2014 and exposing his genitals to that same person in June 2016.

A third victim was sexually assaulted in August 2016, prosecutors say.

Hefner is also accused of obtaining 'nude and partially-nude photos of another victim without the victim's knowledge' which he then shared with four other people.

The 30-year-old was indicted after The Boston Globe reported that four men claimed Hefner had sexually assaulted and harassed them.

Rosenberg was forced to step down from the Senate after the claims emerged against his husband. (Pictured making the announcement to the press in December)

Two of those men were cited in the indictment.

MassLive also reported a separate incident, where Hefner allegedly sexted someone who works in Massachusetts politics with a photo of a penis last December.

Hefner, 30, and Rosenberg, 68, met when Hefner was working at a summer job in Rosenberg's office. The Globe reported that the pair bonded over the fact that they each lived in foster care as children.

The pair became a couple in 2008 and Rosenberg has credited his partner with helping him come out as a gay man.

They got married eight years later in September 2016.

But after the allegations emerged, the couple split up and Rosenberg was forced to stand down. He has since been replaced as leader of the Senate.

Rosenberg told the media he was 'heart broken'.

The former Senate leader said last year that Hefner was planning to seek treatment for alcohol dependency.
Members of the Nxivm 'sex cult' led by Smallville actress Allison Mack reportedly held wild parties on billionaire Richard Branson's private Caribbean island at least twice.

According to The Sun, several members, including co-founder Nancy Salzman, visited Branson's Necker Island for two seminars in 2007 and 2010.

Former Nxivm publicist Frank Parlato told the newspaper: 'I was told the reason they staged the seminars on Necker was they hoped to recruit Branson into the organization.'

Parlato said that the businessman 'would have been the biggest score they ever had'.

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Nxivm 'sex cult' members reportedly held wild parties on billionaire Richard Branson's private Caribbean island at least twice. The Sun obtained photos that showed Branson and Sara Bronfman (pictured) together. The photos were reportedly taken on Necker Island in 2010

According to The Sun, several members, including co-founder Nancy Salzman (right) and Allison Mack (left) visited Branson's Necker Island for two seminars in 2007 and 2010

One of the visits was reportedly paid for by billionaire heiress and Nxivm follower Sara Bronfman, whose late father, businessman Edgar Bronfman Sr, knew Branson, according to the Sun.

Sara's sister, Clare, is also one of Nxivm's longtime followers. Clare recently took over as leader for the 'sex cult' after actress Allison Mack and leader, Keith Raniere were arraigned on sex trafficking charges.

According to the Sun, Raniere did not visit the island during the alleged visits. Raniere was arrested on the sex trafficking charges in Mexico in March.

The Sun obtained photos that showed Branson, Sara and Mack together. The photos were reportedly taken on Necker Island in 2010.

Parlato claims that Salzman 'said she did the teaching by day. But she said he [Branson] became increasingly restless and hosted really crazy parties that started earlier and earlier'.

Branson told the newspaper that he was not aware of any seminars. He claims he has never heard of Raniere and never met him.

One of the visits was reportedly paid for by billionaire heiress and Nxivm follower Sara Bronfman, whose late father, businessman Edgar Bronfman Sr, knew Branson. Sara is pictured, (right) with her sister, Clare (left), who is currently running Nxivm

Former Nxivm publicist Frank Parlato claimed: 'I was told the reason they staged the seminars on Necker (pictured) was they hoped to recruit Branson into the organization.' Parlato said that the businessman 'would have been the biggest score they ever had'

Nxivm founder Keith Raniere (pictured) reportedly did not visit the island during the alleged visits. Raniere was arrested on the sex trafficking charges in Mexico in March

A Virgin Management spokesman said that 'there is absolutely no association between Sir Richard and the Nxivm group or its leader'.

It seems unlikely that Raniere will be able to strike any deals with the US attorney's office, who successfully petitioned to have him held without bail in a letter to the court stating that the cult leader had sexual relationships with two minor females, aged 15 and 12, in the past.

The allegations against Raniere and Mack were outlined in a Complaint and Affidavit in Support of Arrest Warrant that was filed back on February 14.

Special Agent Michael Lever with the FBI had been investigating Raniere and speaking with former cult members, including two women known as Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2.

Lever states that Raniere came up with the idea for Nxivm's sex slave program, known as DOS, during the summer of 2015.

A woman by the name of CC-1, who was revealed to be Mack in subsequent filings, was his first 'slave,' and provided 'collateral' which guaranteed she would remain faithful to him by providing Raniere with damning material.

Mack was reportedly Raniere's number two for years and implemented a strict diet for the 'sex slaves'

'CC-1's email was titled "vow 3" and included an attached letter. The letter pledged CC-1's "full and complete life" to 14 RANIERE,' reads the complaint.

'In the letter, CC-1 used the terms "slave" and "master" to refer to herself and RANIERE. Moreover, the letter identified "collateral" to "cement" the vow made by CC-1.

'This collateral was described as: (1) a letter regarding CC-1's mother and father that would "destroy their character"; (2) a contract that transferred custody of any children birthed by CC-1 to RANIERE if CC-1 broke her commitment to RANIERE; (3) a contract that transferred ownership of CC-1's home if the commitment to RANIERE was broken; and (4) a letter addressed to social services alleging abuse to CC-1's nephews.'

It is not clear if any of the claims made in those letters were true.

Soon, CC-1 was recruiting slaves of her own and filling out the pyramid that Raniere had hoped to create, selecting Jane Doe 1 as one of these women.

Allegations of Raniere's alarming and illegal sexual predilections are also outlined in a letter sent by US Attorney Richard P Donoghue to Judge Steven M Gold back in March.

The allegations against Raniere and Mack were outlined in the Complaint and Affidavit in Support of Arrest Warrant that was filed back on February 14

'According to confidential sources, the defendant had repeated sexual encounters with multiple teenage girls in the mid-to-late 1980s and early 1990s,' reads the letter.

'In one instance, the defendant met a fifteen-year-old girl while he was in his 20s and had repeated sexual contact with her. In another instance, the defendant met a twelve-year-old girl whose mother worked for the defendant and began tutoring her.'

The letter goes on to say: 'Shortly thereafter, the defendant began having regular sexual intercourse with her, including at his home where he lived with multiple adult sexual partners.'

Raniere is also said to have voiced his belief that the age of consent should be lowered to when a parent believes their child is capable to sexual activity.

Mack was arrested and arraigned on federal charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit forced labor.

Those are the same charges thatRaniere, 53, is being charged with, and both are facing a possible sentence of life behind bars.

The group has a large base in Albany, but a number of its most high-profile members decamped to Mexico earlier this year.
Chicago White Sox reliever Danny Farquhar suffered a brain hemorrhage on Friday but he is said to be 'progressing well' after surgery

Danny Farquhar, the Chicago White Sox relief pitcher who collapsed in the dugout Friday in Chicago, is making progress in his recovery from multiple brain surgeries.

The White Sox issued a statement Monday confirming Farquhar is communicating with family and doctors and has use of all of his extremities.

'Danny remains in critical but neurologically stable condition in the ICU unit at Rush,' the statement said. 'Farquhar's wife, Lexie, and family members are present at the hospital as he continues to receive treatment and close monitoring by the neurosurgical team. He is expected to remain in the neurosurgical ICU at Rush for the next few weeks.'

Farquhar was transferred to the 60-day disabled list by the White Sox on Monday.

'He's a fighter, and he's in the fight of his life right now,' White Sox vice president Kenny Williams told USA Today earlier Monday.

The uniform of critically-injured Chicago White Sox relief pitcher Danny Farquhar hangs in the bullpen during the third inning against the Houston Astros on Sunday

Teammates including designated hitter Matt Davidson (above) inscribed Farquhar's initials and number above the bill of their caps for Saturday's home game against the Astros

Williams said Farquhar, who suffered a brain hemorrhage Friday, required a second surgery 'cracking his skull open and putting a clamp on it' to reduce brain swelling.

Farquhar, 31, passed out in the dugout during the sixth inning of Friday night's game against the Houston Astros. Overnight testing revealed that a ruptured aneurysm caused the brain bleed.

Farquhar, 1-1 in eight appearances this season, faced four batters and threw 15 pitches to get the final two outs in the top of the sixth before he passed out after the inning. He was attended to by White Sox personnel and emergency medical technicians.

The team said Farquhar was conscious when he was taken from Guaranteed Rate Field to the Rush University Medical Center.

Farquhar signed with the White Sox on July 24, 2017. He has played for three other teams over seven big league seasons. He has a 10-15 record and 3.93 ERA in 253 regular-season games.

Farquhar is seen pitching against the Kansas City Royals on March 31. He collapsed in the Chicago dugout on Friday shortly after throwing 15 pitches in the sixth inning

Farquhar was selected by Toronto in the 10th round of the 2008 draft and made his major league debut with the Blue Jays in 2011. The right-hander is 10-15 with a 3.93 ERA in 253 career relief appearances with Toronto, Seattle, Tampa Bay and Chicago.

On Friday, Farquhar, 1-1 in eight appearances this season, faced four batters and threw 15 pitches to get the final two outs in the top of the sixth before he passed out.

Farquhar was helped by team medical personnel and on-site EMTs. He regained consciousness before he was taken to a hospital by ambulance.

The White Sox announced Saturday that additional testing revealed the brain hemorrhage was caused by a ruptured aneurysm.

The team has fared poorly in its homestand against the Astros since Faquhar's collapse. The World Series champions completed a three-game sweep in which they outscored Chicago 27-2.
An Australian Defence Force job advertisement for combat soldiers requires men to put in twice the minimum effort of women.

The $61,400 a year position for a frontline Army infantry soldier stated that males would need to commit four years as part of an initial period of service.

However, women would only be required to dedicate two years.

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An Australian Defence Force job advertisement for combat soldiers requires men to put in twice the minimum effort of women

The $61,400 a year position for a frontline Army infantry soldier stated that males would need be commit four years as part of an initial period of service. However, women would only be required to dedicate two years.

Iraq war veteran Bernard Gaynor, who is a member of the Australian Conservatives political party, said the Australian Defence Force was 'discriminating against men' for ideological purposes.

'This discrimination is occurring ironically at the direction of the Australian Human Rights Commission,' he told Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday.

Australian Defence Association executive director Neil James, who served in Iraq, was baffled as to why men would have to serve double the minimum period.

'It sounds unusual,' he said.

'It could be a mistake. I can't understand why they'd be different.'

Mr James supported women being allowed to be deployed in combat, when the rules were changed in 2013, and said it would take time for the proportion of frontline women in the Army to match that of the Navy and the Air Force.

'There's an historical hangover in increasing your percentages but if you start later, then obviously you'll lag behind,' he said.

The percentage of women in the Air Force stands at 20 per cent compared with 19 per cent in the Navy, which first allowed women to serve on ships in 1983.

Women's participation in the Army is at 12 per cent.

An infantry soldier based in the New South Wales Hunter Valley told an Army Facebook page women were allowed to pass less stringent physical tests than men.

'With speed and aggression being the key, a female or male soldier who cannot move shoot and communicate with the section becomes a liability and degrades our ability to kill the enemy,' he said.

The Australian Defence Force's job advertisement said the Army was searching for a combat soldier capable of being able to 'seek out and close with the enemy, to kill or capture him, to seize and hold ground, repel attack, by day or by night, regardless of season weather or terrain'.

Under the rules of the minimum period of service, men can leave at any time after doing four years of their initial minimum period of service, compared with two for women, provided they didn't owe any return of service obligation.

The had a salary package of $61,368 after completion of initial employment training.

Daily Mail Australia contacted the Australian Defence Force for comment on Monday afternoon but was yet to receive a response almost 24 hours later.
A police officer killed his baby with a punch so hard his liver was 'pulped' and other organs ruptured.

Senior Constable Colin David Randall, from Queensland, committed the 'extreme act of violence' on his 10-week-old son the first time he was left alone with him.

He lashed out due to frustration at having an application to relocate with his job knocked back, the Brisbane Supreme Court heard Tuesday.

The then 37-year-old was obsessed with moving to Hervey Bay, but had recently had his transfer request denied.

Senior Constable Colin David Randall (pictured) killed his baby (right) with a punch so hard his liver was 'pulped' and other organs ruptured, a court was told

On the morning he killed his son, Randall's wife had gone to the shops. Randall stayed at home and put the boy in a swing.

The court heard he leant down and punched the boy once, leaving the baby with severe internal injuries, from which he never recovered.

'The child went into cardiac arrest because of the trauma,' crown prosecutor Phil McCarthy said.

He was taken to hospital and for two-and-a-half hours unsuccessful attempts were made to resuscitate him.

Randall had for three and a half years maintained the injuries were caused by CPR he had incorrectly performed, despite being familiar with the technique.

'It beggars belief in circumstances where he was a trained instructor (in CPR),' Mr McCarthy said.

The two-month-old boy suffered severe head injuries which led to his death

He kept up the same lie for years and told his former wife, medical staff and investigators he had been vacuuming and left the boy in his swing. To keep up the ruse, he claimed the boy was limp and unresponsive when he found him.

But when he last week pleaded guilty to his son's manslaughter, he confessed to hitting the boy.

'It's just an horrendous attack on a 10-week-old baby,' Justice Peter Davis said.

Mr McCarthy told the court Randall should be given a sentence comparable to Heidi Strbak.

Strbak was last year handed a nine-year jail sentence for the manslaughter of her four-year-old son Tyrell Cobb, but she'll be eligible for parole in four years, in October 2021.

Randall initially called 000, however, after an 18 month investigation he was charged with the baby's murder

Strbak is appealing her sentence, however, it's yet to be heard.

In January this year, Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath defended the Queensland government's decision not to appeal for a tougher jail term for Strbak.

Ms D'Ath said the decision was based on advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions, who reviewed the sentence.

But Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington accused the government of failing to listen to community outrage over the sentence.

Randall's sentence hearing continues.
A 61-year-old man has been charged with killing his pet dog with an axe.

The dog, a two-and-a-half-year-old Labrador border collie cross, was allegedly attacked by the man on Saturday and died as a result of its injuries.

The man from Nulsen, a suburb of Esperance, about 700km south east of Perth, has been charged with animal cruelty.

A 61-year-old Western Australian man has been charged with killing his pet dog, a two-and-a-half-year-old Labrador border collie cross, with an axe (stock image)

The dog was allegedly attacked by the man with an axe and died as a result of its injuries, detectives from Esperance police will allege (stock image)

The violent incident was reported to have happened some time between 1pm-11pm on Saturday.

'If this story is accurate, you could not imagine the fear and terror that this dog may have experienced,' RSPCA WA chief executive David van Ooran told the ABC.

Mr van Ooran said there were a number of animal cruelty related matters in the Esperance region he was aware of and the RSPCA needed more funding to improve its presence in community.

The man is due to appear before the Esperance Magistrate's Court on May 15.
The father of the missing Virginia toddler who was found dead in a suitcase in New Jersey earlier this month has been arrested in Puerto Rico.

Two-year-old Te'Myah Plummer was last seen by her family in August 2017. Her body was discovered in a suitcase near the PATH tracks in Jersey City two weeks ago.

Her father, Travis Lamont Plummer, 37, was located in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on April 19, according to NBC.

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Police say a body found in a suitcase in New Jersey nearly two weeks ago is of two-year-old Te'Myah Plummer from Virginia

The baby's remains were found near PATH train tracks in Jersey City by a Port Authority employee on April 11

He was arrested and is awaiting extradition proceedings back to New Jersey, where he's facing a charge of desecrating human remains.

It's still not clear how the toddler died but the Hudson County prosecutor's office said Monday they believe she died outside of New Jersey.

The baby's remains were found near PATH train tracks in Jersey City by a Port Authority employee on April 11 while he was conducting a routine inspection of train tracks.

Te'Myah's body was found inside a bright pink suitcase that was seen in the middle of the scene. Authorities believe she had been dead for several days

She was reportedly carefully placed inside the suitcase and fully dressed. There were no clear signs of trauma and the cause of death remains under investigation

Shots from above the scene show the difficult-to-access location where the discovery was made, as it is near a pedestrian walkway but in a fenced off area.

Te'Myah's body was found inside a bright pink suitcase that was seen in the middle of the scene. Authorities believe she had been dead for several days.

She was reportedly carefully placed inside the suitcase and fully dressed.

There were no clear signs of trauma and the cause of death remains under investigation.

Richmond police said on March 2 that Te'Myah and Travis went missing and asked for help in finding her, but they did not believe they were in any danger, as reported by WRIC.

Police in Richmond sent a news release about the missing child at the time, saying, 'We would like to hear from whomever may be caring for Te'Myah Plummer, probably a family member. We need to confirm she is safe.'

Authorities initially believed that Plummer and his daughter had 'relocated to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, area or perhaps Jersey City, New Jersey'.
Natasha Schofield (pictured) jumped overboard near New Caledonia on Thursday while holidaying on a cruise ship with her husband and three children

The family of the mother-of-three who threw herself from the balcony of a P&O cruise ship and plunged to her death have paid tribute to the much-loved woman.

Natasha Schofield, 47, jumped to her death while on a family holiday near New Caledonia on April 12.

On a fundraising site to raise money for mental health awareness, Mrs Schofield's family wrote a simple message.

'You will always be with us x,' her husband and children posted.

The Brisbane based nurse left her family, friends and colleagues shattered, but some have chosen to remember the good instead of focusing on the tragedy.

'Tash you were a special person who made me laugh,' one friend posted to the same fundraising site.

'I will never forget you Tash. You're a beautiful soul and I'm so sad you're gone so soon,' said another.

'We will miss your kindness, thoughtfulness, cleverness, wit and light always.'

'We will never forget the beautiful cuddles you gave Poppy on her first days into the world at the Mater & not to mention your kindness warmth and wonderful humour!,' said another.

Mrs Schofield was a veteran nurse who dedicated her life to caring for others.

'She will be greatly missed by many people. She was a lovely woman and a caring, dedicated nurse,' a colleague said

'We will miss your kindness, thoughtfulness, cleverness, wit and light always,' one friend wrote of Mrs Schofield

Colleagues of Natasha Schofield, 47, paid tribute to the hardworking woman, who they said was dedicated to her profession.

'She will be greatly missed by many people. She was a lovely woman and a caring, dedicated nurse,' a colleague said.

Her three children, aged between 12 and 16, did not witnesses their mother's death, police said.

And as people still question the mother's motive for death and her recent 'life changing visit' to a hypnotherapist for help others are mourning a friend.

'It is a great loss, there are no words to express how her family must be feeling.'

Mrs Schofield was seemingly proud of her most recent healthcare role as an infection control nurse - even promoting safe practices over Facebook - commenting on her friends' posts

Mrs Schofield was seemingly proud of her most recent healthcare role as an infection control nurse - even promoting safe practices over Facebook - commenting on her friends' posts.

Family friend Damon Smith said 'hurting her family is the last thing she would have wanted'.

Mrs Schofield left behind two teenage daughters and a teenage son as well as her husband, who tried to catch her as she flew overboard at 4pm on Thursday afternoon.

The cruise was the 'holiday of a lifetime' for the family who have also recently travelled to Europe.

Mrs Schofield posted this five-star review on a hypnotherapist's page just weeks before her ill-fated holiday

Mrs Schofield posted a five-star review on the hypnotherapy page on February 23 claiming the service had changed her life - giving her thoughts clarity and making her calmer.

'Your sessions and audio recording have been life-changing for me. I am calmer, I have clarity in my thoughts and I am finding mindfulness so easy now,' she wrote.

'To anyone who is thinking of making an appointment, do it, she is amazing and could just be the answer you are looking for.'

The hypnotherapist who saw Mrs Schofield in those sessions told Daily Mail Australia she could not comment on the matter as she is bound by confidentiality.

The 47-year-old (pictured) is presumed dead after jumping over the edge of the P&O ship as her husband tried desperately to catch her by the legs after the 'obviously devoted and loving couple' had dinner together

Her husband tried to grab her leg - but she couldn't be saved.

Speaking out this week, Mrs Schofield's close friend, Mr Smith, said 'Tash would never intentionally hurt her husband or children, her family or friends'.

'Everything that has happened on that boat is the complete opposite to what she would ever want,' Mr Smith said.

'She must have arrived in a very dark and desperate place in her mind, very very quickly.'

Mr Smith said he heard from Mrs Schofield's husband that her behaviour began to change in the 24 hours leading up to her suicide.

'[Her husband] said she didn't seem herself for just over a day but she assured him she was fine,' he said.

Mr Smith said the death of his close friend was life-altering.

A terrifying photo appears to show Ms Schofield moments before she is swallowed up by the ocean. After receiving advice from marine experts, the ship called off the search for the Brisbane woman on Friday morning

'She has been there for me in various ways, starting from crashing my wedding party to caring for my children a thousand times. I trust her with my life. That generous girl I know only strives to help others and make life happier - she has made me a better person,' he said.

Rescue crews were unable to find Mrs Schofield's body after she propelled herself overboard from the upper deck of the P&O owned Pacific Dawn on Thursday.

Queensland Police have since confirmed Mrs Schofield took her own life.

Queensland Police Inspector Rob Graham told reporters on Sunday Natasha Schofield's fall was 'no accident', and described it as a 'tragic act'.

'Her husband was standing right next to her when she went over,' Mr Graham said.

'Her husband tried to grab on to her leg... but she fell.'

Ms Schofield, 47, was travelling with her husband and three children, two daughters and a son aged 12-16 when she jumped.

Mr Graham said they did not believe the woman's children were in the area when she plunged 30m into the ocean from the top deck of the ship.

Passengers disembarked the Pacific Dawn in Brisbane on Sunday morning (pictured)

CCTV footage showed Ms Schofield walking with her husband along the deck before the tragic act took place.

A spokesman for P&O told SBS the clips showed 'an obviously devoted and loving couple'.

The heartbreaking incident unfolded 300km west of New Caledonia on Thursday, leaving distraught passengers with a grueling two day trip back to Brisbane.

Passengers were seen disembarking the vessel on Sunday morning at the Port of Brisbane.

A crew member saw the woman jump off the Pacific Dawn when it was 300km west of Pacific island New Caledonia. Pictured: A blue arrow shows where the boat turned around

Many appeared tired, with forlorn looks on their faces after the dramatic end to their trip.

The Pacific Dawn cruise stopped just before dusk on Thursday, as a desperate search began in the area where the woman had jumped.

About 8am on Friday, as huge swell surrounded the boat and the search was called off on the advice of marine experts.

Many appeared tired and distraught as they stepped back on to dry land following the tragic end to their holiday

Queensland police have opened an investigation into how Ms Schofield plunged to her death (crew members onboard at time of search)

The ship's captain had told all passengers a search crew was 'unable to locate our guest' on Friday

'It is with a very heavy heart that I need to let you know that we have been unable to locate our guest,' the ship's captain told his passengers.

'We are still in the area of the incident, and the weather conditions with the swell three to four metres high, as you can see outside... the strong wind made our search extremely challenging.

'As a result we have now made the extremely difficult decision to continue our journey towards Brisbane.'

Initial reports had suggested a mammoth wave swept the mother of the ship when it hit the deck, but a P&O spokesman later denied the claim.

At least 308 people have gone overboard from cruise ships since 2000.

Lifeline: 13 11 14

Beyondblue: 1300 22 4636

Nearby vessels assisted in the search but none were close enough to find the mother-of-three. Pictured: A map showing where the boat (red) stopped on the route it took
Disgraced businessman Salim Mehajer has been found guilty of intimidating his ex-wife Aysha Learmonth.

The 31-year-old was convicted in Burwood Local Court on Tuesday, despite the court earlier hearing claims Mehajer and Ms Learmonth had 'dry sex' in his home last year.

Mehajer pleaded not guilty to breaching an AVO taken out against him last year, but barristers for Ms Learmonth told the court he had messaged his ex 400 times over Instagram after they split.

Salim Mehajer (left) has been found guilty of intimidating his estranged wife Aysha Learmonth (right) after sending her 400 Instagram messages following their break up

Mehajer faced a hearing at Burwood Local Court after pleading not guilty to breaching his AVO by messaging Ms Learmonth on Instagram in November 2017

Desite the AVO, Mr Ghanem (pictured) claimed he had seen Ms Learmonth at the former Auburn mayor's home twice last year

The Instagram messages were allegedly sent by Mehajer in March 2016 - the same year the court order banning him from contacting her was implemented.

Mehajer denied contacting, suggesting she could have used his phone to send the messages to herself during a sleepover at his house.

He claimed she still occasionally stayed at his home during that period.

Mohammed Ghanem, a friend of Mehajer, told the court he had seen Ms Learmonth at the former Auburn mayor's home twice last year.

He said he saw the pair being intimate through the home's front glass door.

'They were making love...it was dry sex...I seen [sic] his tongue and her tongue in her mouth. She was enjoying it,' Mr Ghanem said.

Mr Ghanem denied making up the incident when asked by police prosecutor Stephen Dayeian, who said he 'rejected everything' that Mr Ghanem said.

During the hearing, Mehajer claimed the former couple had contact with each other during 'about seven' events at his home.

He accused her of being 'flirtatious' and of initiating contact with him by email and social media, according to News.com.au.

Barristers for Ms Learmonth told the court Mehajer (pictured) allegedly messaged his ex 400 times after they split up in March 2016

Mr Ghanem (pictured) denied making up the incident when pushed by Police prosecutor Stephen Dayeian, who said he 'rejected everything' that Mr Ghanem said

Geoffrey Foster, the former Auburn mayor's lawyer, accused Ms Learmonth of sending an email to Mehajer in July last year, which he claimed was followed up by a face-to-face meeting at a cafe in Parramatta.

'[The meeting] was on her request. She needed something from me. At the time I was led to believe she wanted to see me,' Mehajer told the court, according to the publication.

'[Her behaviour towards me was] perhaps flirtatious; Showing a bit of connection to me...no sign of being distant. It was a bit awkward but it was still loving.'

Mehajer couldn't produce a receipt for the alleged meeting at a cafe and said there were no photos of Ms Learmonth at his home during his alleged events.
Passengers travelling through Auckland International Airport are experiencing huge queues after a passenger with a large knife passed through security.

The airport went into lock down on Tuesday afternoon while the knife-wielding woman was searched for by Aviation Security.

The traveller is believed to have made her way through into an international terminal after passing through the security screening, Newshub reported.

A knife-wielding passenger bypassed Auckland Airport security in New Zealand causing huge delays for travellers (pictured)

Hundreds of passengers (pictured) experienced huge delays after the airport was put on lock down while security officers searched for the woman

The woman was reportedly later found with the large knife still in her bag.

It is understood flights have been delayed as a result of the incident.

A man, who wished to be only identified as Bill, told Daily Mail Australia passengers were first told delays were caused by a 'system glitch' just after 6pm local time.

He said that he was now standing in a 'massive queue' and that the departure lounge was flooded with awaiting travellers.

No passengers were allowed through security while security officers hunted for the woman.

Bill said there was a heavy police presence at the airport 30 minutes after the initial announcement.

Daily Mail Australia has approached New Zealand Customs Service for comment.

More to come.
Shocking vision has emerged of a motorist threatening a cyclist with an axe.

The apparent road rage attack occurred east of Adelaide on Tuesday as stunned motorists watched on in disbelief.

In a video, obtained by 7 News, a man is seen confronting a cyclist wearing lycra and a helmet.

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Shocking vision has emerged of a motorist threatening a cyclist with an axe

The man hits the bike, which is leaning against a pole, before setting on the cyclist.

The cyclist puts his hands up and slowly backs away from the axe wielding man.

The man eventually turns around and walks away.

Police said the incident occurred at the intersection of Magill Road and Glynburn Road just before midday.

The video had been forwarded to police for further investigation.

No one was injured in the incident.
A British woman allegedly held as a sex slave in Italy and raped repeatedly by three men managed to escape after calling her family for help, police say.

The woman, from the north of England, originally met Mamadou Jallow, a migrant from Burkina Faso, on Facebook and travelled with him to Rosarno, south-west Italy.

But when she arrived, she was allegedly held her against her will, raped repeatedly and had her mobile phone taken away. Two more men, from Mali, also abused her at the house, it has been claimed.

The woman, 39, was only able to escape when she managed to get access to her phone and made a secret call to her family for help. Eventually she escaped through a window and made her way to safety with the help of police.

A British woman allegedly held as a sex slave in Italy and raped repeatedly by three men managed to escape after calling her family for help. The woman, from the north of England, originally met one of the men, Mamadou Jallow (pictured), a migrant from Burkina Faso, on Facebook and travelled with him to Rosarno, south-west Italy

The woman met Jallow, 37, through Facebook and travelled to Germany to live with him.

But she claimed that he was forced to flee the country after knifing a rival during a drugs dispute and they ended up in Italy, local media reports.

When they arrived, it is claimed that Jallow emptied her bank account and forced her into a room at an isolated house and subjected her to sex attacks.

After two weeks, she was able to get access to her confiscated phone and made a desperate call to her family.

Jallow is accused of holding the British woman captive and raping her at an isolated house in southern Italy. He was arrested shortly after she escaped

They had already contacted Interpol having not heard from her for several months.

Police traced her mobile to the house, called her and convinced her to flee - giving her directions to follow

Jallow was arrested a short time later and accused of kidnapping, enslavement, aggravated and continued sexual violence and theft.

Two other suspects were also arrested.

A police spokesman said the woman was in a 'terrible state'. She is recovering from her ordeal in hospital.
Taxi drivers are offering free rides to veterans travelling to ANZAC Day dawn services.

Taxi company 13CABS spokesman Mick Hawkins announced the free rides for veterans living in Bendigo, about 150km north west of Melbourne, as their way of saying thank you.

'We want to thank people for their service and support them on such an important day, so our service to them is not about cost,' he told the Bendigo Advertiser.

Taxi company 13CABS spokesman Mick Hawkins announced the free rides for veterans living in Bendigo travelling to the Dawn Services

The company joins Bendigo Taxis, which has offered free rides to veterans attending Dawn Services for years.

Bendigo Taxis manager Colin Wells said it was a service the company would gladly offer for years to come.

Daily Mail Australia contacted 13CABS to find out if they were extending the offer nation-wide.

A representative for the company said that she was not aware of the free rides being a national policy, however, drivers in different regions work for themselves so it may be worthwhile to enquire when you book.
A notorious rapist and murderer has claimed he is being 'teased' by his inmates despite having raped a fellow prisoner in the past.

Mark Richard Lawrence, who is being chemically castrated to stop his sexual urges, claims he has been picked on behind bars, The Courier Mail reported.

The 56-year-old previously raped an inmate and sexually assaulted another by pulling their pants down.

Mark Richard Lawrence (pictured) has claimed he is being 'teased' by his inmates despite having raped a fellow prisoner in the past

Lawrence was sentenced to 15 years prison for the rape and murder of 29-year-old Julie Ann Muirhead in 1983 at Brisbane, Queensland.

However, the criminal was convicted of raping another prisoner in 1999, where he was ordered to stay in jail 'indefinitely' under the Dangerous Prisoner Act.

The notorious rapist also has convictions of assaulting children in the 1970s.

Dr Andrew Aboud told Brisbane Supreme Court Lawrence would have to manage his 'pyschosocial stressors' instead of avoid them completely, the publication reported.

'He goes away and he thinks a lot (about) what he might need to do - he tends towards obsessively ruminating,' he said.

Another medical expert told the court the 56-year-old's urges were 'dormant' and could easily erupt again.

The criminal previously told court he was 'happy' to take testosterone-lowering medication if it made 'everyone safe'.

The matter has been adjourned to a future date which has not yet been decided.
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has expressed his 'bitter sorrow' after dozens of Chinese tourists were killed when a bus they were travelling in plunged off a bridge.

A total of 32 Chinese tourists and four North Koreans died in the accident south of Pyongyang on Sunday night.

In a rare admission of negative news from North Korea, its state media said Kim met personally with the Chinese ambassador in Pyongyang and later visited survivors in hospital.

The Rodong Sinmun newspaper, the mouthpiece of the ruling party, carried a front-page on Kim's actions, including pictures of him in a doctor's white coat, holding the two survivors' hands as they lay in their hospital beds.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has expressed his 'bitter sorrow' after dozens of Chinese tourists were killed when a bus they were travelling in plunged off a bridge. Pictures

Kim Jong-un (left) met personally with Li Jinjun (second from right), the Chinese ambassador in Pyongyang, and later visited survivors in hospital

Although such a move might be unsurprising in other countries, it is an unusual portrayal of Kim, who is usually shown presiding over formal meetings or visiting work or army units.

Kim 'said that the unexpected accident brought bitter sorrow to his heart and that he couldn't control his grief at the thought of the bereaved families who lost their blood relatives,' KCNA reported.

The North Korean leader said his people 'take the tragic accident as their own misfortune', it added.

The fulsomeness of Kim's comments reflects the importance of China - and its tourists - to his country and economy.

Beijing is Pyongyang's sole major ally, providing an important economic and political buffer against international opprobrium.

Their relationship was forged in the blood of the Korean War, and while it has soured more recently, with China increasingly exasperated by the North's nuclear antics and enforcing UN Security Council sanctions against it, there has been an improvement in recent weeks.

The Rodong Sinmun newspaper, the mouthpiece of the ruling party, carried a front-page on Kim's actions, including pictures of him in a doctor's white coat, holding the two survivors' hands as they lay in their hospital beds

Last month, Kim embarked on his first overseas trip since inheriting power in 2011 to finally pay his respects to Chinese President Xi Jinping, and was warmly welcomed in Beijing.

China is by far the biggest source of tourists for the North, with direct flights and a long land border connecting the neighbour, and tens of thousands are believed to visit every year, many crossing via train through the Chinese border city of Dandong.

For some, North Korea provides a window into what Communist China may have looked like decades ago.

In contrast Western visitors to the North once averaged around 5,000 a year, but numbers have been hit recently by a US travel ban - Americans accounted for around 20 percent of the market - and official warnings from other countries.

Xinhua news agency reported that the bus had fallen from a bridge in North Hwanghae province.

China's state broadcaster showed images of a large overturned vehicle, with light rain falling on rescue vehicles at night and doctors attending to a patient.

KCNA said the crash was 'an unexpected traffic accident that claimed heavy casualties among Chinese tourists'. It gave no breakdown on the numbers killed or injured.

The Chinese foreign ministry said Tuesday a group of officials and five medical experts had arrived in Pyongyang to assist the North in treating the injured and dealing with the aftermath.

They also visited a temporary morgue for the dead to check their identities and express condolences, it said.

North Hwanghae province lies south of Pyongyang and stretches to the border with South Korea. It includes the city of Kaesong, an ancient Korean capital with historical sites and, until recently, a manufacturing complex operated with the South.

The tour group was travelling by bus from Kaesong to Pyongyang when the accident happened, according to the independent Seoul-based website NK News, which cited an unnamed source.

North Korean roads are largely poor and potholed, and in many areas they are dirt rather than tarmac. Vehicles are sometimes forced to ford rivers or take detours when bridges are unpassable.

But the route from Pyongyang to Kaesong is one of the best in the country.

It runs north-south from the Chinese border to the Demilitarized Zone on the border with South Korea but has little traffic, like all North Korean highways.

Tank traps have been installed along the road in many locations - sets of high concrete columns on either side of the road that can easily be blown up to create an obstruction for invading armoured vehicles.
The devastated sister of a musician believed to have drowned in Indonesian waters has penned a heartfelt tribute to her 'free spirit' brother.

The body of Jae Haydon was believed to have been found by lifeguards on Monday night, moments after his broken surf board washed up near Uluwatu, Bali.

Authorities said the victim was surfing around 7.30am when he was struck by a strong wave that broke his surfboard.

Mr Haydon's heartbroken sister Heidi took to social media on Tuesday, expressing her grief after the body's discovery.

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The devastated sister of Jae Haydon (pictured), believed to have drowned in Indonesian waters, has paid tribute to her 'free spirit' brother

The body of Mr Haydon was believed to have been found by lifeguards on Monday night, moments after his broken surf board (pictured) washed up near Uluwatu, Bali

Mr Haydon's heartbroken sister Heidi (pictured) took to social media on Tuesday, expressing her grief after the body's discovery

'To our free spirit Jae, who roamed the world and lived the life we all dreamed of, who brought incredible joy to loads of people in this world, lost his life in Uluwatu, Bali today,' she posted.

'We love you Jae with all our hearts and will miss you terribly every day and know you'll spend your time swingin' life away.

'We cannot thank the efforts his beautiful friends went to to keep me in the loop, travel around Bali on the search and just keep the hope alive. You've shown us just how loved he was (even though we already knew).'

Tributes for Mr Haydon, believed to be aged in his 30s, flowed from friends and other family members on Tuesday, The Courier Mail reported.

'So gutted to find out that the missing surfer was you, but you lived one of the best lives imaginable brother,' Brooke Wood posted.

Tributes for Mr Haydon, believed to be aged in his 30s, flowed on Tuesday, including this tribute (pictured) from Heidi

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has confirmed it's investigating Mr Haydon's (pictured) suspected drowning and is providing support to the family involved

Authorities in Indonesia said three locals also went missing on the same day as Mr Haydon (pictured)

Friends and family had been pleading for information about Mr Haydon's well-being throughout the day

Friend Jenna McCarney wrote: 'You legend, you fit more into your short life than most fit into 80 years.'

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has confirmed it's investigating the suspected drowning and is providing support to the family involved.

Authorities in Indonesia said three locals also went missing on the same day as Mr Haydon, but they believed the body to be that of the musician from Woonona, 70kms south of Sydney.

The chief of the National Search and Rescue Agency, Ketut Gede Ardana, told the Daily Telegraph he understood Mr Haydon had been hit by a wave.

The body was found around 12 hours after Mr Haydon's surf board was found split in two pieces.

Friends and family had been pleading for information about Mr Haydon's well-being throughout the day.

Earlier, his sister Heidi told Daily Mail Australia they were in contact with the DFAT.

Lifeguards discovered the body in the water near Padang Padang beach, in the island's south (pictured is the Uluwatu beach)

Friends remained hopeful on Monday evening that their friend was still safe after fears grew

'We've contacted DFAT and they've launched an investigation,' Ms Haydon said.

'Someone said the person had managed to swim safely to the beach, but there's no confirmation yet.

'He's been there since last Tuesday and we're just praying he's OK.'

The surfing conditions in the area are said to be good and one surfer described the incident as 'extreme bad luck' in good surfing conditions.

After the board featuring the words 'for Jae' washed up near Uluwatu, on the island's south, concerned locals took to social media to claim the surfer had 'drowned'.
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An elephant was starved to death by its owner in Cambodia - who refused to feed him for a month as a punishment for 'bad behaviour.'

The 35-year-old elephant, named Beong Kok, sparked outrage when he ran away and rampaged through a village, damaging houses in Sen Monorom last month.

His furious owner caught him two days later, on March 28, and refused to feed him - believing that weakening the elephant would stop the unpredictable behaviour.

An elephant was starved to death by its owner in Cambodia - who refused to feed him for a month as a punishment for 'bad behaviour'

Beong Kok became increasingly frail - finally collapsing on a muddy road on Saturday after losing the strength to stand on his own feet

But Beong Kok became increasingly frail - finally collapsing on a muddy road after losing the strength to stand on his own feet.

Wildlife workers found him on Saturday at 9.45am but were unable to save him. He died later that night.

Khun Diyon, a worker from a local elephant conservation organisation who tended to Beong Kok, said the elephant hadn't injured anyone during his rampage.

'Weakened by starvation, the elephant had no strength to rise and stand on its own despite making several attempts to rise up,' he said.

Wildlife workers found him on Saturday at 9.45am but were unable to save him. The elephant died later that night

Beong Kok is pictured after he escaped last month and rampaged through a village before being caught two days later

Khun Diyon, a worker from a local elephant conservation organisation who tended to Beong Kok, said the elephant hadn't injured anyone during his rampage

'The elephant died late in the evening after he fainted in the morning, following many days of fainting.'

He added that Beong Kok had been shot with tranquiliser guns after the rampage last month.

The owner believed that withholding food 'would weaken him' and prevent aggression.

'Expert officials could not save him because this elephant had no power and no food to eat. We are sorry to lose the elephant,' Khun Diyon added.

Local government workers are now investigating the death after tracking down the owner.
David Davis has played down the prospects of a quick deal with the EU on the Northern Ireland border amid signs of deadlock.

Despite warnings from Brussels that a breakthrough is needed by a crucial June summit, the Brexit Secretary again insisted he is targeting October.

The comments, on his first visit to the Irish border, came as his EU counterpart Michel Barnier said it was up to Britiain to come up with a solution.

'We have done our share of the work,' he said.

But a leaked Brussels memo has revealed that its own 'backstop' proposal for preventing a hard border is flawed and could undermine the single market.

Visiting the Northern Ireland border for the first time last night, Mr Davis was shown an autism centre and a former customs post between counties Armagh and Monaghan

Mr Davis said he was determined to get a deal with the EU on the post-Brexit Northern Ireland border by October

The fate of the border between the Republic and Northern Ireland has emerged as the biggest sticking point in the Brexit talks.

The line will be the UK's only land link with the EU once any transition period is over.

Theresa May has repeatedly ruled out staying in a customs union with the EU - pointing out that it would prevent Britain striking deals with other countries.

But critics say that could be the only way to maintain a free flow of goods and people on the island of Ireland, which was guaranteed in the Good Friday Agreement that brought an end to the Troubles.

Remain-supporting MPs and peers have seized on the row as they fight to water down Brexit.

The government suffered a big defeat in the House of Lords this week over the customs union issue.

Mr Barnier stepped up the pressure in a speech in Germany last night, warning that Britain's position on quitting the single market and customs union means it is 'closing doors'

There will be an important test of whether she can hold the line later this week when MPs stage a non-binding debate and vote - with crunch amendments to the Brexit and Trade Bills due to come to the Commons next month.

Visiting the Northern Ireland border for the first time last night, Mr Davis was shown a former customs post between counties Armagh and Monaghan.

He tweeted: 'As we leave the EU it's essential both the UK and EU do what it takes to keep the border, which I saw this morning, free from physical infrastructure.

'We are determined to get this agreed by October.'

Mr Barnier stepped up the pressure in a speech in Germany last night, warning that Britain's position on quitting the single market and customs union means it is 'closing doors'.

'The European Council has made clear that, if the UK's red lines were to evolve, the Union would be prepared to reconsider its offer,' he said.

'We are flexible, never dogmatic. We are open for business.

'But of course any change from the UK must respect our principles, the principles we have built with the UK over 45 years.'

Mr Barnier said it was up to the Government to come up with its vision for the future that either finalised or changed the UK's red lines.

'It is now up to the UK to come up with its vision for the future, which should confirm the UK's red lines or adapt them,' he said.

EU admits its own Northern Ireland border plans are flawed The EU has admitted that its own proposals for the Northern Ireland border are flawed. Brussels has demand a 'backstop' protocol in the withdrawal treaty that would create a 'common regulatory area' between the north and south covering customs, agriculture, VAT, energy and product standards. The arrangement would be implemented unless the UK comes up with any other workable solution. But a confidential memo obtained by The Times shows that the European Commission fears the plan could undermine the single market. It suggests Northern Ireland could become a back door into the EU as there will be no border checks to prevent goods and services coming in. 'A solution for the Irish border does not solve problems related to necessary alignment with the whole EU acquis (law),' the diplomatic note said. 'Many goods have a considerable services component and a level playing field is not covered by alignment with relevant EU rules as foreseen in the backstop.' Advertisement

'Once we have more clarity from the UK, we will prepare a political declaration on the framework for the future relationship to accompany the withdrawal agreement in the autumn.'

Speaking on a local election campaign visit yesterday, Mrs May insisted that would not change course.

She said arrangements which are as 'frictionless as possible' with the EU and the ability to strike trade deals around the world were both achievable under the proposals set out by the Government.

On a visit to a firm in the West Midlands, she told the BBC: 'Coming out of the customs union means that we will be free to have those deals, deals that suit the UK.

'But I also recognise the importance to businesses like this of being able to have as frictionless a border as possible into the European Union.'

Downing Street insisted the Government's position had not changed since Mrs May delivered her Mansion House speech in March.

Those plans included two options, either a 'customs partnership' effectively collecting duties for Brussels for goods arriving in the UK but intended for EU markets or a 'highly streamlined' arrangement making use of technology and regulatory co-operation.

But Mrs May is set to face calls from leading Brexiteers Boris Johnson, David Davis and Liam Fox to abandon her preferred form of customs deal.

A showdown is expected to come at a meeting of the Cabinet Brexit committee tomorrow when the trio will tell the PM that the 'customs partnership' would be unworkable.

Theresa May, pictured at a memorial for Stephen Lawrence yesterday, has insisted Britain will leave the EU single market and will not be in a customs union with the bloc

What are the options for the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic after Brexit? Theresa May and Jean-Claude Juncker agreed the outline of a divorce deal in December Theresa May and the EU effectively fudged the Irish border issue in the Brexit divorce deal before Christmas. But the commitments to leave the EU customs union, keep a soft border, and avoid divisions within the UK were always going to need reconciling at some stage. Currently 110million journeys take place across the border every year. All sides in the negotiations insist they want to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, but their ideas for how the issues should be solved are very different. If they fail to strike a deal it could mean a hard border on the island - which could potentially put the Good Friday Agreement at risk. The agreement - struck in 1998 after years of tense negotiations and a series of failed ceasefires - brought to an end decades of the Troubles. More than 3,500 people died in the 'low level war' that saw British Army checkpoints manning the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland. Both London and Dublin fear reinstalling a hard border - whether by checkpoints or other means - would raise tensions and provoke a renewal of extremism or even violence if people and goods were not able to freely cross. The DUP - which opposed the Good Friday Agreement - is determined to maintain Northern Ireland inside the UK at all costs, while also insisting it wants an open border. The UK blueprint: The PM has made clear her favoured outcome for Brexit is a deep free trade deal with the EU. The UK side iniset out two options for how the border could look. One would see a highly streamlined customs arrangement, using a combination of technology and goodwill to minimise the checks on trade. There would be no entry or exit declarations for goods at the border, while 'advanced' IT and trusted trader schemes would remove the need for vehicles to be stopped. Boris Johnson has suggested that a slightly 'harder' border might be acceptable, as long as it was invisible and did not inhibit flow of people and goods. However, critics say that cameras to read number plates would constitute physical infrastructure and be unacceptable. The second option has been described as a customs partnership, which would see the UK collect tariffs on behalf of the EU - along with its own tariffs for goods heading into the wider British market. However, this option has been causing deep disquiet among Brexiteers who regard it as experimental. They fear it could become indistinguishable from actual membership of the customs union, and might collapse. Brussels has dismissed both options as 'Narnia' - insisting no-one has shown how they can work with the UK outside an EU customs union. The EU blueprint: The divorce deal set out a 'fallback' option under which the UK would maintain 'full alignment' with enough rules of the customs union and single market to prevent a hard border and protect the Good Friday Agreement. The inclusion of this clause, at the demand of Ireland, almost wrecked the deal until Mrs May added a commitment that there would also be full alignment between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. But the EU has now translated this option into a legal text - and hardened it further to make clear Northern Ireland would be fully within the EU customs union. Mrs May says no Prime Minister could ever agree to such terms, as they would undermine the constitutional integrity of the UK. A hard border: Neither side wants a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. But they appear to be locked in a cyclical dispute, with each adamant the other's solutions are impossible to accept. If there is no deal and the UK and EU reverts to basic World Trade Organisation (WTO) relationship, theoretically there would need to be physical border posts with customs checks on vehicles and goods. That could prove catastrophic for the Good Friday Agreement, with fears terrorists would resurface and the cycle of violence escalate. Many Brexiteers have suggested Britain could simply refuse to erect a hard border - and dare the EU to put up their own fences. Advertisement
Kate Middleton and Prince William revealed their newborn son to the world yesterday as they carried the little prince out of hospital and home to Kensington Palace.

William said of the name of the baby, who is now fifth in line to the throne: Youll find out soon!'

The anticipation could be put to rest today if the royal couple announce his name, while Kate's family are expected at Kensington Palace this afternoon to get a glimpse of the newborn prince.

MailOnline brings you the latest updates:

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Iran's president has warned Donald Trump of 'severe consequences' if the United States withdraws from the nuclear deal signed with Tehran.

On Tuesday, President Hassan Rouhani warned the US president to remain in the nuclear deal Tehran signed with world powers in 2015 as other signatories stepped up efforts to save the agreement.

'I am telling those in the White House that if they do not live up to their commitments, the Iranian government will react firmly,' Rouhani said in a speech broadcast live on state television.

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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (pictured) warned Donald Trump to remain in the nuclear deal Tehran signed with world powers in 2015 or face 'severe consequences'

'If anyone betrays the deal, they should know that they would face severe consequences,' he told a cheering crowd of thousands gathered in the city of Tabriz.

'Iran is prepared for all possible situations,' he added.

Trump has said that unless European allies fix what he has called 'terrible flaws' in the deal by May 12, he will restore U.S. economic sanctions on Iran, which would be a severe blow to the pact.

The other powers that signed the deal - Russia, China, Germany, Britain and France - have all said they want to preserve the agreement that curbed Iran's nuclear programme in return for lifting most sanctions.

French President Emmanuel Macron (pictured second left, with Trump) is in Washington, trying to convince Trump not to tear up the accord

French President Emmanuel Macron is in Washington, trying to convince Trump not to tear up the accord.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday he had agreed with his Chinese counterpart that Moscow and Beijing would try to block any US attempt to sabotage the nuclear deal.

Iran has warned that it will ramp up its nuclear programme if the deal collapses.
A mummified body found in Iran could be the father of the last shah who modernised the country in the 1930s by letting women walk uncovered in public.

Speculation is mounting that Reza Shah Pahlavi's remains have been unearthed after a gauze-wrapped body was found during construction work at a Shiite shrine near the site of a former royal mausoleum in Tehran.

Pictures of the body, as well as construction workers posing with it have been widely shared on social media in Iran. Hassan Khalilabadi, the head of Tehran city council's cultural heritage and tourism committee, said it is 'possible' the mummy is Reza Shah.

The founder of the Pahlavi dynasty pushed to modernise Iran with his 1936 decree banning women from wearing long, flowing black robes known as chadors. But he was later deposed and died in exile during the Second World War.

His son, Mohammad Reza Shah, became Iran's last shah before the 1979 Islamic Revolution installed the country's Shiite-dominated theocracy.

A mummified body (left) found in Iran could be Reza Shah Pahlavi, the father of the last shah who modernised the country in the 1930s by letting women walk uncovered in public. Reza Shah Pahlavi is pictured (right) as he was buried in 1944

Images of the body, as well as construction workers posing with it (pictured) have been widely shared on social media in Iran

His grandson, the US-based exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, warned Iran on Twitter 'not to hide anything'.

The recent find and the speculation it triggered puts new hurdles in the way of the Islamic Republic's efforts to fully erase the country's dynastic past, which includes the destruction of the autocrat's tomb immediately after the 1979 revolution.

Yet, as disaffection and economic problems grow ahead of the Islamic Revolution's 40th anniversary, mystique around Iran's age of monarchies persists even with its own history of abuses.

Construction workers discovered the mummified remains at the Shiite shrine of Abdul Azim, whose minarets once rose behind Reza Shah's own mausoleum.

A digger pulling away dirt and debris uncovered the body, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency. Authorities say they will need to conduct DNA tests to confirm whose body it is.

Reza Shah's own rise gave birth to modern Iran itself, then still called Persia until he ordered foreign diplomats to cease using the name.

A mummified body found in Iran could be Reza Shah Pahlavi (pictured), the father of the last shah

He came to power in 1925, ruling as an absolute autocrat who used taxes and the country's burgeoning oil revenues to rapidly modernise the nation.

His decisions echo today, particularly his 1936 decree banning women from wearing long, flowing black robes known as chadors.

He ordered men to wear Western clothes and bring their wives to public functions with their hair uncovered, borrowing from the secularisation of Turkey's first President Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, a contemporary.

The ban became a source of humiliation for some pious Muslim women in the country. Shiite clerics, angry over his secular beliefs, purges and mass arrests of opponents, held grudges that would stir up the coming revolution.

Controversies over the chador and hijab persist in Iran today.

Iran's strong trade ties with Germany, Reza Shah's push for neutrality amid the coming of the Second World War and Western fears over its oil supplies falling to the Nazis ultimately sparked a Russian-British invasion of the country in 1941.

Reza Shah abdicated in favour of his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, at the insistence of the occupying British forces.

Reza Shah ended up in South Africa, dying there in 1944. His body was taken to Cairo, mummified and held for years before returning to Iran. A grand mausoleum near Tehran held his body for years, which then-US president Richard Nixon visited in 1972.

After 1979, however, Islamists viewed the mausoleum as an affront.

Speculation is mounting that Reza Shah Pahlavi's remains have been unearthed after a gauze-wrapped body was found during construction work at a Shiite shrine near the site of a former royal mausoleum in Tehran. He is pictured (right) in 1941

His son, Mohammad Reza Shah, became Iran's last shah before the 1979 Islamic Revolution installed the country's Shiite-dominated theocracy. Pictured: A photo of exiled Muslim leader Ayatollah Khomeini at an anti-Shah demonstration in 1978

Iranian cleric Ayatollah Sadegh Khalkhali, who ordered the executions of hundreds after the revolution, led a mob of supporters who used sledgehammers and other tools to demolish the mausoleum.

Khalkhali later would write in his memoirs that he believed the shah's family took Reza Shah's body when they fled the country. The shah's family, however, maintained the body remained in Iran. His son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was buried in Cairo after dying of cancer in 1980.

Today, Iran's youth remain fascinated by the time before the revolution.

Television period pieces have focused on the Pahlavi dynasty, including the recent state TV series The Enigma Of The Shah, the most expensive series ever produced to air in the country.
PC Michelle Denne used the police database to look into her ex husband and her boyfriend's ex-wife, as well as her three children

A policewoman who used the force's computers to dig out details on her boyfriend's ex-wife and children has been slapped with a community service order.

PC Michelle Denne, 44, illegally accessed the police database in order to obtain information relating to the woman and her three children  as well as her own ex-husband.

Magistrates heard how Denne also looked into a neighbour who had parked on her driveway, despite having more than 20 years' experience in the job and knowing the consequences.

The mother-of-three from Stafford was finally caught after an investigation by Staffordshire Police's anti-corruption unit found the six breaches which dated back to 2009.

On Monday she was sentenced to a community service order for six months, including 10 days of community rehabilitation work.

Denne was also ordered to pay 185 court costs and an 85 victim surcharge.

The Cannock Police Station based officer was suspended from duty and is now subject to internal misconduct proceedings.

Earlier this month she pleaded guilty to six offences under the Computer Misuse Act at Birmingham Magistrates Court.

Sam Watts, prosecuting, said: 'By way of background to the offences, the defendant had started a relationship with a Mr Fincher

'She had a strained relationship with his ex-wife, Mrs Fincher, and on occasion she accessed data in relation to her, her family and her three children.'

Denne also looked up information about a sex offender who lived on her street on December 12, 2010.

She later began looking into her partner's ex, named in court as Mrs Fincher.

On June 28, 2015, she got hold of data on someone who had parked on her driveway, and weeks later - on September 6 2015 - she looked into her ex-husband.

During the last offence, on March 17 last year, she tried to illegally get hold of more information on the Fincher family.

Colin Banham, defending, said his client had not extensively used the computers and had only done so to 'protect her children.'

PC Denne admitted using police database to look into her ex, her boyfriend's ex and a number of neighbours on six occasions from 2009 until 2017

He added: 'Upon interview, the defendant admitted her part in these offences in full.

'This is not an extensive use of computer systems at random.

'This is very much someone who, on rare occasions, accessed data in order to secure her own personal life and to protect her children.

'She did not profit in any way from these breaches, and did not distribute information to third parties.

'She is a single mother, who is going through a lengthy divorce. She has had a number of personal setbacks.'

After the case, Deputy Chief Constable, Nick Baker, of Staffordshire Police, said: 'Every day we are required to handle sensitive data and adhere to the proper use of systems without exception.

'Anyone who falls below these standards will be held to account and, as is the case with PC Denne, brought before the courts.'
Australia was no different to welcome Prince George and Princess Charlotte

Royal babies have had a vast array of gifts presented to them to mark their birth

Royal babies have had a vast array of gifts presented to them and as countries welcome Britain's new prince, it will be no different for the latest royal arrival.

From blankets to bilbies, the royal children have been blessed with some weird and wonderful gifts from countries all over the world, including Australia.

The Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William left hospital in west London on Monday with their newborn son, the couple's third child.

The Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William left hospital in west London on Monday with their newborn son

In 2014 Prince George was taken to Taronga Zoo and given a bilby toy to officially open the enclosure named after him

The new prince, who is fifth in line to the throne to become king, is set to receive presents from countries as part of a long tradition welcoming a new royal baby.

Prince William joked with crowds gathered outside the Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital his new son's arrival made it 'thrice the worry now'.

He said the public would 'know soon enough' about the name they decide for the new prince.

In the past, presents handed over to new princes and princesses from Down Under have been typically Australian.

Royal babies have had a vast array of gifts presented to them after their birth including a baby crocodile who hatched on the same day Kate announced she was pregnant with Prince George

Princess Charlotte received several gifts from 64 countries when she was born in 2015

A cot blanket made out of merino wool from Tasmania and embroidered by women from Canberra was given to the princess

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd sent Prince George a bilby fluffy toy to mark Sydney's Taronga Zoo announcement it would be naming a new enclosure after the prince on his birth in 2013.

The young prince was also given a baby crocodile who hatched on the same day , his mother, Kate, announced she was pregnant with her first child.

Princess Charlotte received several gifts from 64 countries when she was born including a cot blanket made out of merino wool from Tasmania.

The blanket was embroided with wattle, the floral emblem of Australia, and a donation given to the Healesville Sanctuary in Victoria

The blanket was embroided with wattle, the floral emblem of Australia, by embroiderers from the ACT.

The Australian government also donated $10,000 to the Healesville Sanctuary in Victoria - as it also did on the birth of her brother, George.

The sanctuary specialises in conservation for rare and endangered possums.

In 2014 when the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited Australia with Prince George for the first time, he was presented with a possum coat and some other strange gifts.

They included a car sticker, surfboard, skateboard and a toothbrush.

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd sent Prince George a bilby fluffy toy to mark Sydney's Taronga Zoo announcement it would be naming a new enclosure after the prince on his birth in 2013 (pictured)

The young Prince George visits the bilby enclosure at Taronga Zoo in Sydney named after him in 2014

Gifts presented to the Royal family are not officially the family's possessions (pictured is a bilby, a toy version was one of the gifts presented to Prince George)

But members of the public have been advised not to send in 'unsolicited gifts' as they cannot be accepted by the Royal Household.

Gifts presented to the Royal family are not officially the family's possessions.

They become part of the Royal Collection which are held by the Queen for her heirs and as items for the Crown.
A senior Iranian official said on Tuesday that Tehran might quit a treaty designed to stop the spread of nuclear weapons if U.S. President Donald Trump scraps the nuclear accord Iran signed with world powers in 2015.

Trump has said that unless European allies fix what he has called 'terrible flaws' in the accord by May 12, he will restore U.S. economic sanctions on Iran, which would be a severe blow to the pact.

The other powers that signed it  Russia, China, Germany, Britain and France  have all said they want to preserve the agreement that curbed Iran's nuclear programme in return for the lifting of most international sanctions.

In a news conference broadcast on state television, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, said the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran was ready for some 'surprising actions' if the nuclear deal was scrapped.

Answering a question about the possibility of Tehran withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Shamkhani said: 'This is one of three options that we are considering.'

The objective of the NPT, which took effect in 1970, is to halt the spread of nuclear weapons-making capability, guarantee the right of all members to develop nuclear energy for peaceful ends. The original five nuclear weapons powers  the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France  would also phase out their arsenals.

Iran has been a non-nuclear-weapon state party to the NPT since 1970.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani also warned Trump on Tuesday to stay in the nuclear deal or face 'severe consequences'

'I am telling those in the White House that if they do not live up to their commitments...the Iranian government will firmly react,' Rouhani said in a speech.

'If anyone betrays the deal, they should know that they would face severe consequences,' he told a cheering crowd of thousands gathered in the city of Tabriz. 'Iran is prepared for all possible situations,' he added.

Iran has said it will ramp up its nuclear programme if the deal collapses.

French President Emmanuel Macron is in Washington, trying to convince Trump not to tear up the accord.

In a U.N. non-proliferation conference in Geneva, Russia and China submitted a draft statement expressing 'unwavering 'support' for the Iran nuclear accord and said they hoped it would receive broad backing

The Russian Foreign Ministry's Director General for Non-Proliferation and Arms Control, Vladimir Yermakov, told the meeting that the deal, known as the JCPOA, was fragile and any attempt to amend it would affect the global non-proliferation regime.
The leaders of the British Jewish community have branded a meeting with Jeremy Corbyn a 'missed opportunity' to deal with anti-Semitism in the Labour party.

Mr Corbyn was praised by leaders of the British Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council for his 'change in tone' following talks in Parliament.

However they condemned his failure to take the necessary action to stamp out anti-Semitism within the Labour party.

Leaders, Jonathan Goldstein and Jonathan Arkush said that Mr Corbyn's proposals fell below the minimum that they expected.

Members of the Board of Deputies (left to right) Gillian Merron, Jonathan Arkush, Jonathan Goldstein, and Simon Johnson

Heads of the Jewish Community speak to the media following a meeting with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn after weeks of criticism of his party's handling of anti-Semitism allegations

They said: 'We are disappointed that Mr Corbyn's proposals fell short of the minimum level of action which our letter suggested.

'In particular, they did not agree in the meeting with our proposals that there should be a fixed timetable to deal with antisemitism cases; that they should expedite the long-standing cases involving Ken Livingstone and Jackie Walker; that no MP should share a platform with somebody expelled or suspended for antisemitism; that they adopt the full International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism with all its examples and clauses; that there should be transparent oversight of their disciplinary process.'

The pair warned Mr Corbyn that 'letter and words will never be enough' and told him: 'We welcome the fact that Mr Corbyn's words have changed but it is action by which the Jewish community will judge him and the Labour Party.

The Jewish community issue a statement following their meeting in parliament with Mr Corbyn

They claimed that the meeting with Mr Corbyn was a 'missed opportunity' to stamp out anti-Semitism within the Labour party

'Our sole objective from this meeting was to build trust with Mr Corbyn, but this will not be possible until and unless he and the party turn their many strong words against antisemitism into equally strong actions in order to bring about a deep cultural change in his supporters' attitude to Jews.'

In his own statement, Mr Corbyn said it had been a 'positive and constructive meeting' and reiterated his commitment to 'rooting out anti-Semitism from Labour.

He warned his own supporters the claims were not 'smears' and vowed not to fail the Jewish community.

In his own statement, Mr Corbyn said it had been a 'positive and constructive meeting'

But he laid no new measures to tackle the problem, adding: 'I have charged our new General Secretary Jennie Formby with improving our disciplinary procedures as her top priority to ensure all complaints are dealt with swiftly and fairly. We are grateful for the input from Jewish community groups, who we will continue to listen to carefully.

'We will lay out the further steps we are taking in the coming weeks. We will continue to engage and work with Jewish community organisations to deal with this issue.

'Our party will not fail our Jewish brothers and sisters.'

Mr Corbyn warned his own supporters the claims were not 'smears' and vowed not to fail the Jewish community

However, Mr Arkush and Mr Goldstein said that after 'two years of inactivity' by the Labour leadership, such statements were no longer enough.

They said the proposals they had put forward - which included a fixed timetable for dealing with outstanding case of anti-Semitism, , expediting long-standing case like that of Ken Livingstone, and the 'transparent oversight' of the party's disciplinary process - was the 'minimum level of action' they expected.

'Words in letters and newspaper articles will never be enough. We welcome the fact that Mr Corbyn's words have changed but it is action by which the Jewish community will judge him and the Labour Party,' they said.

'Thousands of British Jews did not demonstrate outside Parliament just for a few lawyers and another newspaper article; they demanded action and so do we.

'We will hold the Labour Party to account for any future failures and continue to represent the interests of British Jews with clarity and resolve. We also commit to do our utmost to work with all those within Labour who want to help make it a safe and equal space for all of its members.'

This comes after Mr Corbyn said sorry to the Jewish community for Labour's anti-Semitism problem today as he prepared for the showdown talks with community leaders.

The Labour leader admitted there is a 'clear' problem inside his party and apologised for the 'hurt and distress' caused by the failure to tackle it.

For the first time Mr Corbyn took aim at pro-Palestinian groups for blaming Jews for the actions of the Israeli government.

Mr Corbyn's new intervention comes after he was urged by a Holocaust survivor to 'show his leadership' and root out the 'vile evil' of anti-Semitism.

Before tonight's meeting, Susan Pollack, 87, a survivor of Auschwitz, said 'kind words are not enough' and Mr Corbyn must show he is a real leader.

Jonathan Goldstein (left), from the Jewish Leadership Council, and Jonathan Arkush (right), from the Board of Deputies, arrived at Parliament tonight for show down talks

Jeremy Corbyn (pictured in Parliament Square today) has faced widespread criticism for effectively turning a blind eye to the abuse spouted by his supporters in his name

Mr Corbyn hoped that today's meeting would have stamped out any ongoing bitterness.

Ms Pollack, 87, a survivor of Auschwitz, told the BBC today Mr Corbyn's 'kind words are not enough' and demanded he show he is a real leader.

Describing her message to the Labour leader, Ms Pollack said: 'My message is clear to say - act. Do something.'

She added: 'Kind words are not enough. Apologies accomplishes nothing, you have got to act and act as a leader and give an example - that in Britain or anywhere in the world anti-Semitism is a vile, evil kind of behaviour.

'He has to act and show his leadership and I think that's the only way he will have respect.'

Ms Pollack was sent to Auschwitz and was later forced on the infamous death march to Bergen-Belsen.

She was liberated by British troops in April 1945 but had lost all her family in the horrors of the Holocaust.

Jewish groups called an extraordinary protest on Parliament Square earlier this month to warn Mr Corbyn 'enough is enough'.

In the aftermath of the meeting, Mr Corbyn sought face to face talks with mainstream community leaders.

And ahead of the meeting, Mr Corbyn wrote in the Standard: 'We have not done enough fully to get to grips with the problem, and for that the Jewish community and our own Jewish members deserve an apology.

'My party and I are sorry for the hurt and distress caused.'

He admitted the party's internal checks have 'been simply not fully fit for purpose' and 'we did not look closely enough at ourselves'

Susan Pollack (pictured), a survivor of Auschwitz, said 'kind words are not enough' and Mr Corbyn must show he is a real leader and root out the 'vile evil' of anti-Semitism

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

Labour has been dogged by accusations of anti-Semitism ever since Mr Corbyn became leader in 2015.

Jewish MPs have told how they have received hate mail, death and rape threats after daring to speak out against the abuse.

Jewish MPs Luciana Berger and Ruth Smeeth read out examples of the shocking barbs they have received from activists in a debate in Parliament last week.

MPs on all sides broke with convention to give the pair standing ovations in the Commons. Some MPs were reduced to tears by their harrowing stories.

Fellow backbencher John Mann revealed his wife had been sent a dead bird through the post, and that she had been threatened with rape.

Party veteran Margaret Hodge said she 'didn't feel at home' and felt a 'bit of fear' about anti-Semitism in the party she has been a member for more than 50 years.

Shadow communities secretary Andrew Gwynne today admitted the party has a problem with anti-Semitism.

He told the programme: 'We have got an issue in the Labour Party ... We have got to acknowledge that that problem exists and, for some, that is a challenge.

'For me, the Labour Party was created to fight injustice, to fight against prejudice, to fight against hatred, and that we are where we are really hurts me, so we have got to act.'

He added: 'We have to rebuild confidence in the Jewish community.

'There are lots of Jewish people that share Labour's values for social justice, that want a progressive government based on fairness, and that they currently don't find a home in the Labour Party, I think, is troubling.

'I think it's my job as shadow communities secretary to try and rebuild some of that trust and it's Jeremy's job as the leader of the Labour Party to try and rebuild some of that trust.'

Jewish leaders took the unprecedented step of calling a demonstration outside Parliament last month to protest at Mr Corbyn's lack of action on the issue.

The 'enough is enough' protest saw hundreds descend onto Parliament Square to demand tougher action to tackle the abuse.
Taiwan will practice thwarting a Chinese 'invasion' in annual live fire drills in June, simulating surprise coastal assaults to reflect increased military threats from Beijing, officials said Tuesday.

The military drill will also include civilians, with privately owned drones enlisted to help conduct surveillance and mark targets, while private telecom companies will aid in communication.

This comes after China held live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait - the narrow waterway separating the Chinese mainland from Taiwan - last week, following several naval manoeuvres in the area.

Fake invasion: The Taiwanese Military's live fire drill in June will also include civilians, with privately owned drones enlisted to help conduct surveillance and mark targets, officials said

Chinese officials said their drills were to safeguard Beijing's territorial sovereignty, a major priority for President Xi Jinping.

Although Taiwan is a self-ruling democracy, it has never formally declared independence from the mainland and Beijing still sees it as a renegade province to be brought back into the fold, by force if necessary.

Cross-strait relations have steadily deteriorated since 2016 when President Tsai Ing-wen took office, largely because she refuses to accept that Taiwan is part of 'one China', and because Beijing is deeply suspicious of her traditionally pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party.

Taiwan's five-day drill, codenamed 'Han Kuang', which means 'Han Glory', will start from June 4.

'Simply put, the main goal of the drill is to make any Chinese communist military mission to invade Taiwan fail,' defence ministry spokesman Chen Chung-chi told reporters.

Long fight: Aged anti-landing barricades are positioned on a beach facing China on the Taiwanese island of Kinmen in the Taiwan Strait

Close quarters: China held live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait last week, an exercise interpreted as a show of force and a message to self-governed Taiwan which China claims as its territory

'It simulates this year's situation and we are taking into consideration China's air and naval movements in the region,' he added.

This year's drill will enlist the coastguard and National Airborne Service Corps, which handles rescue flights, for the first time for 'comprehensive defence', Chen said.

Civilian drones will also participate in the drill for the first time to conduct surveillance and mark targets, while civilian telecom service providers will assist in maintaining communication and control, the ministry said.

'It's not just soldiers' duties to protect the country. Everyone has the responsibility since our defence budget is limited,' Chen said.

Taipei dismissed China's military exercises in the Taiwan Strait last week as 'routine' after expected large-scale naval manoeuvres failed to materialise and called it the 'cheapest way of verbal intimidation and sabre-rattling'.

Chinese state media reported Tuesday that a flotilla of Chinese naval vessels held a 'live combat drill' in the East China Sea, the latest show of force in disputed waters that have riled neighbours.

Earlier this month Chinese president Xi inspected the convoy as it conducted exercises in the disputed South China Sea.

The flotilla then held two separate drills last week in waters on either side of Taiwan, infuriating the government in Taipei.
A student who threw a 21st birthday party billed as Indian glamour meets Colonial chic at an exclusive Belgravia club has been accused of cultural insensitivity.

Jack Prosser has come under fire after inviting friends to a Raj-themed bash, where guests were pictured wearing traditional Indian dress.

Fellow Bristol University students joined Mr Prosser at One Belgravia in central London, a private venue which costs 7,500 a night to hire.

The party was billed on Facebook as 'a luxurious yet debauched throwback to the glory days of the early 20th century, where Britain and India lived side by side'.

Jack Prosser has come under fire after inviting friends to a Raj-themed bash, where guests were pictured wearing traditional Indian dress

Fellow Bristol University students joined Mr Prosser at One Belgravia in central London, a private venue which costs 7,500 a night to hire

The party was billed on Facebook as 'a luxurious yet debauched throwback to the glory days of the early 20th century, where Britain and India lived side by side'

An invitation, calling the event a Night At The Maharajah's Palace, then quoted Mr Prosser's father describing the night as 'Indian Glamour meets Colonial Chic'.

The two sentences were then taken down from the Facebook post within 24 hours, with the party going ahead on April 14.

Bristol University's Black and Minority Ethnic Committee slammed the event as 'blatant disrespect', The Tab reported.

In a statement to the student newspaper, the group said: 'We are deeply deeply saddened and disappointed in this student's actions.

'Considering the long and painful history of colonisation and how its legacy still impacts the lives of many individuals to this day, putting on this event is seen as a blatant disrespect.

'We are here to support students affected by this event.'

Mr Prosser told The Tab that although 'Indian Glamour' was the theme of the bash, it was not his intention to include 'colonial connotations'.
Theresa May today faced claims she is ducking a potentially explosive Cabinet clash over the future trade relations with the EU.

Brexit Secretary David Davis, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Trade Secretary Liam Fox are concerned that proposals for a so-called 'customs partnership' could compromise the commitment to a clean break from Brussels.

A powerful Cabinet sub-committee had been expected to discuss the crucial issue tomorrow - but will now focus on security ties.

The apparent delay comes with Brexiteers on high alert for concessions to Remainers, who say Britain must stay in a customs union with the EU to protect business and prevent a hard border in Northern Ireland.

Significant numbers of Tory MPs have signed up to an amendment to the Trade Bill that would demand the ties are maintained.

A vote is expected next month and defeat could force Mrs May's hand.

But the premier, who gathered her Cabinet for its regular meeting this morning, has insisted that she will not back down. Any attempt to shift the policy could spark an move by Brexiteers to oust her.

One Cabinet source told MailOnline that a 'lot of decisions need taking' about the future shape of trade relations. 'We have a lot of positions at the moment,' they said. 'Some are more workable than others.'

Brexit Secretary David Davis, pictured arriving for Cabinet today, is concerned about proposals for a so-called 'customs partnership' with the EU

Boris Johnson, left in Downing Street today, and Liam Fox are both believed to harbour fears about a fudge on the customs union

Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey arrived through the gates at No10 today ahead of the Cabinet meeting

Theresa May (pictured in Downing Street today) faces a Brexiteer backlash amid fears she could fudge her red line on leaving the customs union

The increasingly bitter clashes between Tory factions on Brexit have left Mrs May carrying out a precarious balancing act.

One set of MPs claim joining any form of customs deal with the EU will undermine Brexit by frustrating Britain's ability to strike trade deals elsewhere.

But others say a continuing customs relationship is the only way of resolving the stalemate with Brussels over the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

EU negotiator Michel Barnier upped the pressure in a speech last night by condemning the lack of 'clarity' from the government on the issue - saying it was up to Britain to come up with a solution.

Meanwhile, Mr Davis, making his first visit to the Irish border, played down hopes of a resolution before a crunch EU summit in June - making clear he was targeting October.

A Cabinet meeting this morning is not believed to have touched on the problem at all. There are suggestions the Brexit sub-committee could try to address it next week - although nothing seems to be fixed.

Mrs May faces a series of challenges in Parliament over the customs union. She was heavily defeated in the Lords last week and Remain-backing MPs are staging a symbolic vote on Thursday.

But at the same time the Prime Minister is under intense pressure to abandon the half-way house proposal first made by the UK last year.

The so-called 'customs partnership' would require the UK to collect EU tariffs on goods entering the country and pass them on to Brussels. If the UK set lower tariffs then firms would get a rebate.

Prominent Eurosceptic Jacob Rees-Mogg described the idea as a 'really daft proposal' which is 'not workable'.

Former Brexit minister David Jones said the 'immensely complicated, and untried, arrangement is guaranteed to end up in chaotic failure'  a turn of events he said could lead to us staying in the customs union.

He said: 'The result would be: "Bang goes our independent trade policy and with it our independence. In effect, bang goes Brexit".'

Home Secretary Amber Rudd (left) and Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom were at the Cabinet meeting in Downing Street today - although the main discussions on Brexit are set to happen at a sub-committee tomorrow

Visiting the Northern Ireland border for the first time last night, Mr Davis was shown an autism centre and a former customs post between counties Armagh and Monaghan

Prominent Eurosceptic Jacob Rees-Mogg described the idea of a 'customs partnership' as a 'really daft proposal' which is 'not workable'

Iain Duncan Smith said the proposal could lead to the UK remaining in the customs union by the back door as it was likely to 'collapse'.

The former Tory leader said the policy appeared to be driven by Whitehall mandarins, adding: 'People are really concerned that we seem to be losing direction. We need to regain political focus.'

David Davis has played down the prospects of a quick deal with the EU on the Northern Ireland border amid signs of deadlock.

EU admits its own Northern Ireland border plans are flawed The EU has admitted that its own proposals for the Northern Ireland border are flawed. Brussels has demand a 'backstop' protocol in the withdrawal treaty that would create a 'common regulatory area' between the north and south covering customs, agriculture, VAT, energy and product standards. The arrangement would be implemented unless the UK comes up with any other workable solution. But a confidential memo obtained by The Times shows that the European Commission fears the plan could undermine the single market. It suggests Northern Ireland could become a back door into the EU as there will be no border checks to prevent goods and services coming in. 'A solution for the Irish border does not solve problems related to necessary alignment with the whole EU acquis (law),' the diplomatic note said. 'Many goods have a considerable services component and a level playing field is not covered by alignment with relevant EU rules as foreseen in the backstop.' Advertisement

Despite warnings from Brussels that a breakthrough is needed by a crucial June summit, the Brexit Secretary again insisted he is targeting October.

The comments, on his first visit to the Irish border, came as his EU counterpart Michel Barnier said it was up to Britiain to come up with a solution.

'We have done our share of the work,' he said.

But a leaked Brussels memo has revealed that its own 'backstop' proposal for preventing a hard border is flawed and could undermine the single market.

Visiting the Northern Ireland border for the first time last night, Mr Davis was shown a former customs post between counties Armagh and Monaghan.

He tweeted: 'As we leave the EU it's essential both the UK and EU do what it takes to keep the border, which I saw this morning, free from physical infrastructure.

'We are determined to get this agreed by October.'

Mr Barnier stepped up the pressure in a speech in Germany last night, warning that Britain's position on quitting the single market and customs union means it is 'closing doors'.

'The European Council has made clear that, if the UK's red lines were to evolve, the Union would be prepared to reconsider its offer,' he said.

'We are flexible, never dogmatic. We are open for business.

'But of course any change from the UK must respect our principles, the principles we have built with the UK over 45 years.'

Mr Barnier said it was up to the Government to come up with its vision for the future that either finalised or changed the UK's red lines.

'It is now up to the UK to come up with its vision for the future, which should confirm the UK's red lines or adapt them,' he said.

'Once we have more clarity from the UK, we will prepare a political declaration on the framework for the future relationship to accompany the withdrawal agreement in the autumn.'

What are the options for the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic after Brexit? Theresa May and Jean-Claude Juncker agreed the outline of a divorce deal in December Theresa May and the EU effectively fudged the Irish border issue in the Brexit divorce deal before Christmas. But the commitments to leave the EU customs union, keep a soft border, and avoid divisions within the UK were always going to need reconciling at some stage. Currently 110million journeys take place across the border every year. All sides in the negotiations insist they want to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, but their ideas for how the issues should be solved are very different. If they fail to strike a deal it could mean a hard border on the island - which could potentially put the Good Friday Agreement at risk. The agreement - struck in 1998 after years of tense negotiations and a series of failed ceasefires - brought to an end decades of the Troubles. More than 3,500 people died in the 'low level war' that saw British Army checkpoints manning the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland. Both London and Dublin fear reinstalling a hard border - whether by checkpoints or other means - would raise tensions and provoke a renewal of extremism or even violence if people and goods were not able to freely cross. The DUP - which opposed the Good Friday Agreement - is determined to maintain Northern Ireland inside the UK at all costs, while also insisting it wants an open border. The UK blueprint: The PM has made clear her favoured outcome for Brexit is a deep free trade deal with the EU. The UK side iniset out two options for how the border could look. One would see a highly streamlined customs arrangement, using a combination of technology and goodwill to minimise the checks on trade. There would be no entry or exit declarations for goods at the border, while 'advanced' IT and trusted trader schemes would remove the need for vehicles to be stopped. Boris Johnson has suggested that a slightly 'harder' border might be acceptable, as long as it was invisible and did not inhibit flow of people and goods. However, critics say that cameras to read number plates would constitute physical infrastructure and be unacceptable. The second option has been described as a customs partnership, which would see the UK collect tariffs on behalf of the EU - along with its own tariffs for goods heading into the wider British market. However, this option has been causing deep disquiet among Brexiteers who regard it as experimental. They fear it could become indistinguishable from actual membership of the customs union, and might collapse. Brussels has dismissed both options as 'Narnia' - insisting no-one has shown how they can work with the UK outside an EU customs union. The EU blueprint: The divorce deal set out a 'fallback' option under which the UK would maintain 'full alignment' with enough rules of the customs union and single market to prevent a hard border and protect the Good Friday Agreement. The inclusion of this clause, at the demand of Ireland, almost wrecked the deal until Mrs May added a commitment that there would also be full alignment between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. But the EU has now translated this option into a legal text - and hardened it further to make clear Northern Ireland would be fully within the EU customs union. Mrs May says no Prime Minister could ever agree to such terms, as they would undermine the constitutional integrity of the UK. A hard border: Neither side wants a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. But they appear to be locked in a cyclical dispute, with each adamant the other's solutions are impossible to accept. If there is no deal and the UK and EU reverts to basic World Trade Organisation (WTO) relationship, theoretically there would need to be physical border posts with customs checks on vehicles and goods. That could prove catastrophic for the Good Friday Agreement, with fears terrorists would resurface and the cycle of violence escalate. Many Brexiteers have suggested Britain could simply refuse to erect a hard border - and dare the EU to put up their own fences. Advertisement
A Melbourne mother is searching for answers after her son broke his leg while at daycare.

10-month-old Liam fractured his femur after spending the day at a Central Melbourne daycare centre.

Investigations led by police and the daycare centre haven't been able to pin-point how or when he broke one of the strongest bones in his body.

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Ten-month-old Liam fractured his femur after spending the day at a Central Melbourne daycare centre

The investigation has since been called off but his desperate mother is still anxious for answers.

His mother Denise Kelly told Ten News that something was evidently wrong with her son when he came back from a day at the childcare centre.

She said: 'He was continuously crying, the carer was saying "Liam hasn't been himself today,"'

The mother was told her son would only crawl short distances back and forth.

His mother Denise Kelly is desperate for answers after the traumatic ordeal with her son and is now too anxious to leave him with other people

The Coburg mother is at her wits end after Police as well as Health and Human services were called in to investigate the case

Now the Coburg mother is at her wits end after Police as well as Health and Human services were called in to investigate the case.

'I know the have to follow their protocol, but still it was quite traumatic,' she said.

The specialist nurse is now too anxious to leave her son alone with other people after the horrifying ordeal.

The daycare centre denies any wrongdoing and nothing was found during the investigation.

The management company for the child care centre released in a statement that they hold children's safety and well being central to its work.

'An independent investigation was completed by the police and the Department of Education and Training'.
A lawyer suing Woolworths for $1.3 million after allegedly slipping on an onion shallot has been banned for contacting insurers.

Olga Day, a mother and lawyer from Ipswich, claims she was injured as a result of the incident in 2014.

However, her claim hit a blockage when she was accused in court of trying to 'intimidate' and 'harass' staff at insurance firm Zurich, the Queensland Times reports.

lawyer suing Woolworths for $1.3 million after allegedly slipping on an onion shallot has been banned for contacting insurers

The woman - who is qualified in Russia and has nearly finished her law degree and worked for a law firm - allegedly threatened staff at Zurich, according to Retail Australia and CPM Australia, a court has heard.

The Brisbane Supreme Court heard Mrs Day and her husband allegedly threatened to contact the media and accused two lawyers of 'corrupt conduct'.

The court heard she allegedly accused Zurich directors of 'misusing shareholders funds'.

The lawyer has reportedly sued the Immigration Minister, her former migration agent, Centrelink, two former employers and the Queensland University of Technology.

Olga Day, a mother and lawyer from Ipswich, claims she was injured as a result of the incident in 2014

She arrived in Australia from Russia in 1997 and was formerly known as Olga Day Olga Dranichnikov.

Justice Douglas agreed to ban Mrs Day from directly contacting the Zurich company and now must go through the company's lawyers.

'If there are legitimate complaints to be made about the solicitors'conduct or Zurich's conduct, then there are other possible avenues open to Mrs Day,' the Justice told the court.
Prince Charles today told of his 'great joy' as he and the Middletons prepare to meet the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's newborn son.

The Prince of Wales will likely be among the visitors to Kensington Palace to meet the fifth-in-line to the throne along with Kate's parents Carole and Michael Middleton.

Pippa Middleton was among the first visitors today, and was seen leaving at about 1pm after meeting her new royal nephew at the palace for two hours.

She smiled broadly for photographers through the window of her car, wearing a baby pink coat, pink turtleneck and brown tortoiseshell sunglasses.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge pose with their newborn son yesterday outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London

Prince William joked yesterday, holding up three fingers, that he had 'thrice the worry now'

Pippa herself is expecting her first child, with she and her 42-year-old financier husband James Matthews due to become parents in the autumn.

Charles said: 'We are both so pleased at the news. It is a great joy to have another grandchild, the only trouble is I don't know how I am going to keep up with them.'

The Prince of Wales will visit his grandson after returning from Anzac Day centenary commemorations of the Battle of Villers-Bretonneux in France on April 25, 1918.

Prince William and his wife spent their first night as a family of five at their home in West London after their new baby son was born at about 11am yesterday.

Kensington Palace said the name would be announced in 'due course' but the favourite at the bookies is currently Arthur, followed by James, Philip and Albert.

More than 100,000 bets have now been put on the baby name, with James the most popular in terms of individual wagers placed with bookmaker Ladbrokes.

Pippa Middleton was among the first visitors today, and was seen leaving at about 1pm after meeting her new royal nephew at Kensington Palace for two hours

The 34-year-old smiled broadly for photographers through the window of her car today

More than 100,000 bets have now been put on the baby name, with James the most popular in terms of individual wagers placed with one bookmaker

Big bets placed with the company yesterday included 11,000 for the baby to be a boy at 10/11, as well as 2,000 on Philip and 1,000 on both James and Albert.

Today, while the public continue to try to guess the name, the Army will fire gun salutes at Hyde Park and the Tower of London at 2pm in honour of the new arrival.

The baby prince's great-grandmother the Queen, 92, is still at Windsor Castle for Easter Court, with the Duke of Edinburgh who is recovering after a hip operation.

Prince George and Princess Charlotte, who visited their new sibling at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London, yesterday, are likely to be at school and nursery.

William and Kate have retreated to the sanctuary of Kensington Palace after introducing their third child to the world on the steps of the Lindo Wing at St Mary's.

Prince Charles, pictured at the Queen's Birthday Party at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday, today told of his 'great joy' at the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge 's newborn son

The Duke and Duchess thanked the hospital for their care and the public for their wishes

During his first photocall, the baby, who was wrapped in a white lace shawl with a matching bonnet, could be seen moving his fingers as he was cradled by Kate

The London Eye is illuminated in red, white and blue yesterday to show support for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge after they welcomed their new baby son into the world

The name of the 8lb 7oz baby prince of Cambridge has yet to be unveiled. Royals traditionally keep the public guessing before revealing their choice.

William and Kate will want to share the name with the Queen and the rest of their family before making it public - but it is likely to be revealed by the end of tomorrow.

A confident Charlotte, who turns three on May 2, turned to wave at photographers outside the hospital as she led the way up the steps holding William's hand.

Four-year-old George, in his school uniform from Thomas's Battersea, appeared more wary of the huge crowds of media.

During his first photocall, the baby, who was wrapped in a white lace shawl with a matching bonnet, could be seen moving his fingers as he was cradled by Kate.

Prince George and Princess Charlotte visited their new sibling at St Mary's Hospital yessterday

A confident Charlotte turned to wave at photographers outside the hospital as she led the way

Smiling broadly, the Duchess was dressed in a vibrant red Jenny Packham dress with a white lace collar, reminiscent of William's late mother Diana, Princess of Wales.

Latest betting odds on the new royal baby Arthur 2/1 James 4/1 Albert 5/1 Philip 6/1 Alexander 12/1 Henry 12/1 Edward 16/1 Frederick 14/1 Thomas 16/1 Alfred 20/1 Jack 20/1 Louis 20/1 Michael 20/1 Charles 25/1 William 25/1 33/1 bar (odds from Ladbrokes) Advertisement

She wore red and white outside the Lindo Wing after Prince Harry was born in 1984.

As William and Kate headed home after appearing in front of the cameras with their seven-hour-old son, the Duke said they were 'very happy' and 'very delighted'.

He joked, holding up three fingers, that he had 'thrice the worry now', adding: 'We didn't keep you waiting too long this time.'

Quizzed on whether they had decided on a name, the Duke added: 'You'll find out soon enough.' The Duke and Duchess thanked the hospital for their care and the public for their wishes.

Kensington Palace said: 'Their Royal Highnesses would like to thank all staff at the hospital for the care and treatment they have received. They would also like to thank everyone for their warm wishes.'

The words 'It's a boy' flashed in lights around the top of London's BT Tower yesterday, while the London Eye was illuminated in red, white and blue yesterday to show support for the family.

By welcoming a baby prince, William and Kate are following the birth pattern of the Queen and Philip's children - a son, a daughter and then another son.

The Queen and the Duke had Prince Charles, then Princess Anne, then Prince Andrew after a ten-year gap, with a fourth child, Prince Edward, born four years later.
A party-loving property tycoon who lives with his estranged wife and his Polish girlfriend could lose his lavish London home in a legal dispute following the Icelandic banking crisis.

Robert Tchenguiz lives with his 27-year-old girlfriend Julia Dybowska on the fourth floor of their beautiful home near Hyde Park, while his wife Heather Bird and their children live downstairs.

But the 20million townhouse, which once featured in ITV drama Mr Selfridge, could now be handed over to receivers acting for Icelandic bank Kaupthing following a court case in Guernsey.

Robert Tchenguiz lives with both his wife Heather Bird (left) and his girlfriend Julia Dybowska (right) in the same house near London's Hyde Park

Mr Tchenguiz, pictured with Ms Dybowska, a model who has 350,000 Instagram followers

But he could be about to lose the house in a legal dispute after the Icelandic banking crash

The Iranian-born, American educated, Tchenguiz brothers, Robert and Vincent, became two of the West End's biggest landlords in the 1980s.

At their peak, they had a portfolio of more than 600 buildings said to have been worth 4.5billion, although much of their capital was borrowed.

Robert Tchenguiz - who was once in a relationship with model Caprice - enjoyed lavish parties, once decking out his home as Louis XIV's Versailles, complete with staff in liveried costumes and wigs and a nine-piece musical ensemble.

But his fortune was badly hit by the Icelandic banking crisis, in which he is said to have lost more than 1.5billion.

His wife Ms Bird split from him around 10 years ago, saying she could no longer tolerate his party lifestyle.

But, without the money to move out, Ms Bird remains at the couple's home, where she has previously said she sees Ms Dybowska taking Instagram pictures in the lift.

Ms Bird previously spoke of the difficulties of having Ms Dybowska (pictured) living upstairs

It was suggested this year that Ms Dybowska and Mr Tchenguiz may be planning to marry

Earlier this year, Ms Bird told the Mail on Sunday: 'It's a difficult situation to be in, but I don't really have any choice,' she says. 'Robert and his girlfriend are up on the 4th floor and I am downstairs with the kids.

'It's heartbreaking to have to share the family home with his girlfriend  particularly one who is undeniably sexy. She's the model type, the sort who Instagrams a lot.'

The property could now however be seized by Grant Thornton, who are attempting to recoup money lent out by Kaupthing before the crash.

Kaupthing Bank collapsed during the financial crisis of 2008, and had allowed Mr Tchenguiz to borrow 1.6billion from them before it went to the wall.

In 2014, liquidators successfully gained an order from the Royal Court of Guernsey allowing them to take assets from him, including his house.

But the fallout from that ruling was put on hold pending another judgement which was given yesterday.

Ms Tchenguiz (pictured with TOWIE star Chloe Sims, left) was once known for his lavish parties

The Tchenguiz brothers Robert (left) and Vincent made millions from property deals in London's West End in the 1980s

Judges in Guernsey yesterday ruled in a long-running legal battle and their ruling means Kaupthing could now sell the property.

A spokesman for Grant Thornton said: 'We welcome the Privy Council ruling that allows us to enforce a judgment of in excess of 140m against assets held in the Tchenguiz Discretionary Trust.

'This is a welcome outcome for the creditors of the trust, including Kaupthing.'

Mr Tchenguiz told The Times he is planning to appeal the judgement in the European Court of Human Rights.

Investec Trust Guernsey said: 'Investec Trust Guernsey Limited ('ITG') has faced numerous claims over eight years from successor trustees of the Tchenguiz Discretionary Trust. We have always maintained that the claims are baseless and successive courts have rejected them.

We wish to make it clear that, in its former role as trustee of the Tchenguiz Discretionary Trust between 2007 and 2010, ITG fulfilled its duties professionally and with integrity. We have nevertheless been forced to commit substantial resources over many years to defending ourselves.

Lauren Ekon, General Counsel for the Investec Group, commented: 'We welcome today's unequivocal judgment by the Privy Council, which has rejected all the claims by the Tchenguiz Discretionary Trust's trustees and has found in ITG's favour on all issues.'
Police have grave concerns for the safety of a five-week-old baby girl, after her mother and her partner disappeared in Adelaide this week.

Tamara Minard, 25, her 5-week-old baby Charlotte Jade, and partner Neil Wilby, 37, were last seen at Meadows around 1 pm on Monday.

Police have serious concerns for the child's well-being but have not specifically revealed why.

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Tamara Minard, 25, and her partner Neil Wilby, 37, have gone missing in Adelaide

Charlotte Jade is only five weeks old and has disappeared with the couple

Neil's daughter Caitlin has made a public plea for the couple to return home.

'I'm very concerned about Charlotte and I would like it if she was brought home safe, so everyone knows where she is,' Caitlin told 7News.

'I think its very silly that he's done what he's done and that he should just come forward because there is no need to make it anymore,' Caitlin said about her father.

'It's just disappointing because we used to be so close and now it's all his girlfriends before me.'

There was a possible sighting reported at Morfed Vale where a couple were seen fighting and at Seaford,

Wilby is known to officers and is due in court next week on assault charges. He was arrested in 2016 after he was accused of a violent home invasion in which a pregnant woman was tasered.

Neil's daughter Caitlin has mad an emotional plea for the couple to return home with baby Charlotte

Police have serious concerns about the child's well-being but won't specify why

Wilby is known to officers and is due in court next week on assault charges. Here he is pictured being arrested in 2016

Police believe they may be in the Adelaide Hills or southern suburbs and are potentially driving a red 2003 Ford Falcon sedan with the number plate S651ADJ.

According to Facebook the couple have been in a relationship ship since April 19.

Police are asking for anyone who sees the couple to call 000 immediately.
Robert Kennedy intervened to stop a letter a Liberal MP wrote to his gay lover in San Francisco being made public to save the British establishment from another sex scandal, a secret memo has revealed.

Jeremy Thorpe, an up and coming Liberal MP who later became party leader, wrote a to his American gay lover Bruno in 1961 - when homosexuality was still illegal.

In it he told of his longing to see his lover again, enclosed a photograph of himself and urged Bruno to write back.

The letter fell into the hands of Robert Kennedy - the US attorney general and brother of the President JFK - in 1963.

At the time Britain was in the grip of the Profumo affair - a sex scandal which was rocking the political establishment.

War Secretary John Profumo was revealed to be having an affair with 19 year-old model Christine Keeler.

Mr Profumo initially denied the claims in a statement to the Commons, but later admitted the truth and resigned - dealing the Macmillan Government a major blow.

Mr Kennedy tried to suppress the letter in a bid to save the nation from another damaging scandal.

An FBI memo, obtained along with the letter by the BBC via a Freedom of Information request, states: 'The Attorney General said he learned of this letter during a visit to New York last week.

Jeremy Thorpe (pictured in 1977) an up and coming Liberal MP who later became party leader, wrote a secret letter to his American lover Bruno in 1961 - when homosexuality was still illegal

In the letter Jeremy Thorpe wrote of his longing to see his gay lover Bruno again - and urged him to write back

'The letter makes reference to a possible homosexual relationship between [redacted] and Jeremy Thorpe.

'The letter was written by Thorpe and bore a return address of the House of Commons, London.

'The Attorney General stated that he wanted to inform [redacted] of this matter on a personal basis 'as the British can't afford another disclosure of this kind'.'

Robert Kennedy (pictured) intervened to stop revelations a leading Liberal MP was gay in order to save the British establishment from another sex scandal, a secret memo has revealed

In the letter, which had a return address of the House of Commons, Mr Thorpe talked of his longing to see his lover again.

He wrote: 'It was an unkind stroke of fate that we should only have met at the very end of my stay in San Francisco I don't know how you feel, but although we only met so briefly, I miss you desperately.'

He said: 'How I adored San Francisco the one city where a gay person can let down his defences and feel free and unhunted.'

After offering to use his contacts to help Bruno find a job, he said: 'Somehow we must meet again, either I must get on to San Francisco on some mission, which the British or American taxpayer will pay for!! - or one summer we must get you to Europe for a really good holiday.'

He asked Bruno to write to him at his home or at the House of Commons, but warned that 'the latter should be marked personal!'

Mr Thorpe also asked for a photograph of his lover - and enclosed one of himself, explaining: 'I have a spare passport one which I send along.

'I'm afraid it's a bit smudged at the back. But it will remind you of my front!' He signed off by saying: 'I can't tell you how happy I am to have met you.

'Yours most affectionately, Jeremy.'

Christine Keeler (pictured right with her friend and fellow high class prostitute Mandy Rice-Davies) had an affair with John Profumo. She was also sleeping with Captain Yevgeny Ivanov the Soviet naval attache - raising fears that the sex scandal may have undermined Britain's national security

John Profumo (pictured in 1971) resigned as an MP and dealt the Macmillan government a hammer blow the PM never recovered from after the scandal was made public

Less than 20 years later Mr Thorpe found his political career in tatters after his sexuality was finally revealed in a shocking trial at the Old Bailey.

In 1979 Mr Thorpe was accused of conspiracy to murder his former male lover in what was dubbed 'the trial of the century'.

Norman Josiffe, also known as Norman Scott, said he and Mr Thorpe had a gay affair in the early 1960s.

Mr Thorpe managed to keep a lid on the claims for about a decade but they exploded into the limelight in 1979 when Mr Scott accused the Liberal MP of conspiring to murder him.

Attempts to frighten Mr Scott or buy his silence had failed and in 1975 his dog was shot in a possible murder attempt.

As the claims were made public Mr Thorpe was forced to quit as Liberal leader and embroiled in the court case ' dubbed the 'trial of the century'.

Mr Thorpe was acquitted but the scandal left his political reputation in tatters.
A convicted conman who claimed to be Adolf Hitler's son has been accused of terrorising his neighbours in a series of petty disputes.

Michael John O'Hara lives in a housing commission block in Yeerongpilly, Brisbane, and his neighbours say they are scared living near him.

'He once did claim to be the son of Hitler and he certainly acts like the Gestapo,' neighbour Shirley Ryan told A Current Affair.

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A convicted conman who claimed to be Adolf Hitler's son has been accused of terrorising his neighbours in a series of petty disputes

Michael John O'Hara lives in a housing commission block in Yeerongpilly, Brisbane, and his neighbours say they are scared living near him

She says O'Hara took her to court over a car parking disagreement - which she claims never happened.

'Is he just completely unbalanced or is he just cold and calculating? I don't know,' Ms Ryan said.

O'Hara moved in to the complex not long after being released from jail in 2014.

Eunice Pacey also found herself summoned to court over claims she scratched O'Hara's Holden car.

He told her he saw her hit his car from his balcony - an allegation she says is baseless and 'absolutely ridiculous'.

Karen, another neighbour, said O'Hara accused her of throwing black paint on his car.

Eunice Pacey (left) and Shirley Ryan (right) say they are scared of living near O'Hara

She hit back, saying the marks were actually bat feces.

All three women say they are 'frightened' of O'Hara who they claim makes up his allegations seemingly at random.

'He's supposed to be Hitler's son, you can't believe anything he says,' Ms Pacey said.

A Queensland Housing spokesperson said they were aware of a 'long-standing dispute' at the block and are 'working with them to resolve the issue'.

'At this particular property, no tenants are allocated a reserved parking spot.'
This is the incredible man who has a mind-bending ability to speak and sing backwards, stunning passersby with his amazing skill.

John Sevier Austin, from North Carolina, took to the streets to show off his talent, recording himself saying a phrase backwards, then playing it in rewind to hear the words normally.

One passerby exclaimed: 'How does your brain work?!' after John performed his trick during the fascinating video.

Growing up, he always knew he was different and struggled to relate to those around him, but it wasn't until recently that he found out he had Asperger's syndrome.

Justin Sevier Austin is able to talk and sing backwards, and credits this skill to having Asperger's syndrome

Finding refuge among the cruel taunts and comments by listening to his music in reverse, a young John - after accidentally misusing his record player once - taught himself to sing Bert Kaempfert's 'Strangers in the Night' backwards in its entirety.

Moving onto tackle difficult sayings and phrases such as 'Antidisestablishmentarianism', he showcased his incredible skill to the people of North Carolina, along with 'The Wizard of Odd TV', leaving each and every one stunned.

Crediting the source of his brilliance to Asperger's syndrome - a form of autism - after only having been diagnosed with the condition a year ago, John has urged other people on the spectrum to celebrate their 'uniquely gifted minds'.

John, a full-time video editor, who is completely fluent in the art of backwards talking, said: 'People are amazed when I tell them I can talk backwards - then completely blown away when I do it.

'When you talk backwards you have to really work on enunciating the vowels, cloves and consonants just right.

Talented John advised other people with Autism: 'Don't let anyone tell you that you're stupid or that you can't do something'

John said: 'People are amazed when I tell them I can talk backwards - then completely blown away when I do it'

'My brain is able to do all these functions all at once and this is what blows people's minds - in fact it even blows mine.

'Growing up as a child I learnt to talk backwards after accidentally playing one of my records backwards.

'I discovered some songs sounded good that way and so I decided to learn to sing along.

'[Growing up] I was always different. People would treat me poorly and I could never figure out why.

'Until last year I never realised I was on the spectrum, but when they told me everything just lined up - especially my perspective on the past.

Passersby were stunned when John performed his trick for them on the street, playing his recording backwards to prove he had in face spoken in reverse

'When you see someone who seems strange or different when you're a kid, you just make fun of them.

'For somebody that's on the spectrum, don't let anyone tell you that you're stupid or that you can't do something.

'Talking backwards has allowed me to just go out and be myself - amazing people with how gifted my brain is.

'That's what the spectrum us like, we can do extraordinary things so don't let people bring you down.

'Embrace being different, find out what your gift is and then go out and blow people away.'
A gay barrister claims a 'homophobic gang' forced her out after she revealed a QC took 75 from chambers funds to pay for private treatment when his daughter got a splinter in her finger, an employment tribunal heard.

And when fellow barrister Karen Gillard leaked the story about Anthony Metzer, QC, to website Legal Cheek she was sacked, the hearing was told.

Miss Gillard, deputy treasurer at Goldsmith Chambers, told the tribunal how Mr Metzer would employ family members and their friends and pay them more than other interns.

She said that the group was even known as 'Metzer's interns' - and also claims a homophobic 'gang' at the chambers colluded to accuse her of harassment to police.

'The victimisation and bullying have been all the more vicious to me because I am an openly gay woman', she told the tribunal yesterday.

But the chambers say she was sacked after complaints of bullying and intimidating behaviour to staff.

Karen Gillard, deputy treasurer at Goldsmith Chambers, told the tribunal how Anthony Metzer QC would employ family members and their friends. Treasurer of the chambers Adam Gersch (right) called the police after her dismissal, saying she had harassed him

One lawyer resigned and others started to look for work elsewhere after her sacking, the tribunal was told.

And the treasurer of the chambers Adam Gersch even called the police after her dismissal, saying she had harassed him by sending colleagues emails accusing him of fraud and financial impropriety, the hearing was told.

Miss Gillard, 44, claims she was sacked by the chambers because of public interest disclosures to website Legal Cheek.

The openly gay woman is also claiming unfair dismissal, sex discrimination and discrimination by way of sexual orientation.

Miss Gillard was called to the bar in 2004 before leaving to become a councillor, getting to be leader of the Lib Dem group on Plymouth City Council before going back to law.

She told the tribunal staff were fuming after finding out he used 75 of chamber's funds to get his daughter medical treatment for a splinter she sustained while interning at the chambers.

She said the 'Metzer interns' - the QC's daughters and their friends - were being employed at the chambers and paid more than other pupils at 250 per week.

Mr Metzer represented the Grillo sisters, personal aides to Nigella Lawson who had accused them of ripping her off.

Miss Gillard, who is openly gay, also claims that she was forced out because of her sexuality

Miss Gillard said: 'By February 2016, it was time I told Anthony Metzer QC to start really investing in the staff.

'The year before we had two of his children and one of his children' friends.

'Goldsmiths Chambers had had Anya's younger sister Rebecca for a week in January 2016.

'She was moving some boxes in the basement and got a splinter. Anthony Metzer QC took her up to a medical business on Fleet Street and had the splinter removed.'

She added: 'Ashley Perkins who dealt with payments as Chambers administrator was so angry when she found out about the 75 bill.

'I quote 'If he had walked a little 'facking' further he could have made it to facking Boots and bought a pair of 'facking' tweezers for 2'.

'What had been really good with Anya, Freya and Rupert in the Clerks room was now appearing to turn into paid holiday jobs for Anthony Metzer's chosen family members.'

She claimed she also challenged Mr Metzer over his 'misuse' of a client fund of Argent law firm which continued to exist after it merged with Goldsmith in May 2014.

She was suspended and members of the chamber's management committee accused her of 'bribery' at a meeting in December 2016, the tribunal heard.

She said: '[It] was one of the most violated experiences I have ever encountered.

'What had first started as a witch hunt now turned into a kangaroo court. Anthony Metzer QC, Anton Van Dellen, Adam Gersch and others had fists full of proxy votes.'

On her suspension two months earlier she said: 'When a previous white heterosexual male, senior clerk called Michael Martin, was suspended for misuse of chambers funds in April 2015... he was paid his full salary through the whole of his suspension and investigation, which was conducted internally, until his termination.

'I, on the other hand was given no notice, no severance and was prevented from accessing the building and my email.'

Dr Anton Van Dellen, Chamber Secretary admitted a group of barristers at the chambers appeared like a 'gang' by discussing reporting Miss Gillard to police in February 2017.

She had told the tribunal Mr Metzer QC had sent an email to the group 'which says she will not enjoy a visit from a police officer'.

Miss Gillard, whose parents were convicted of a double murder in 1983, added: 'That sounds very spiteful isn't it, Dr Van Dellen knowing my family background?'

The tribunal heard Miss Gillard suffered 'night terrors' after she visited a police station over the claims which Mr Gersch had provided 'no evidence' for. Nothing came of his claims.

She said: 'I was bullied and intimidated by individuals within chambers, sometimes including the Head of Chambers Anthony Metzer QC, and sometimes at his behest.

'This victimisation took place because I made protected disclosures having tried every other way to attempts to improve Goldsmith Chambers where bad practice existed.

'Anthony Metzer QC, Dingle Clark, Anton Van Dellen and Adam Gersch undertook this process, aided by some others, in order that I would be marginalised and discredited. This would then make any of my disclosures less significant and credible.

'Whilst I had offered to resign and go 'quietly', sadly the Respondents have humiliated and hounded me.

'In the early days I dealt with comments regarding my appearance including wearing birkenstocks in a jocular way.

'The victimisation and bullying have been all the more vicious to me because I am an openly gay woman.'
A desperate resident has kept a detailed account of how street drinkers are causing a 'menace' to their area.

The fed-up local handed over the log spanning a month that details incidents they witnessed on Beverley Road in Hull in June and July of last year.

The diary describes people urinating on the street, dodgy deals being made in alleyways and walls that are covered in human faeces.

The road contains five mini-market off-licences which operate within 100 metres of each other, and the diary was submitted as evidence by Humberside Police in the force's objection to the granting of a new licence for a sixth store.

Scroll down for full diary of street drinker incidents

A Hull resident has kept a detailed account of how street drinkers are causing a 'menace' to their area. The local handed over the log detailing incidents they witnessed on Beverley Road over a month's time

The road contains five mini-market off-licences that operate with 100 metres of each other. The diary was submitted as evidence by Humberside Police in the force's objection to the granting of a new licence for a sixth store

The fed-up local handed over the log spanning a month detailing incidents they witnessed on Beverley Road in Hull in June and July of last year

However, despite the log, city councillors still voted unanimously to approve the application for the sixth store.

The evidence diary comes just a week after a gang of rowdy street drinkers were seen on the same road, swigging red wine and fighting with each other.

Although the street drinking gangs are separate and not known to each other, the issue of drunks causing misery appears to stretch the length of Beverley Road.

Another street, Spring Bank, is also a hot-spot for gangs of drunks, who have previously been described as a 'menace' by worried residents.

The owner of the new Beverley Road off-licence shop says police should do more about street drinkers.

Humberside Police community beat manager PC Stephen Morley admitted just one dispersal notice had been issued by the force over a 12-month period in the area under special powers introduced in 2016 to combat street drinking and antisocial behaviour.

Humberside Police community beat manager PC Stephen Morley admitted just one dispersal notice had been issued by the force over a 12-month period in the area under special powers introduced in 2016 to combat street drinking and antisocial behaviour

The diary describes people urinating on the street, dodgy deals being made in alleyways and walls that are covered in human faeces

In a statement, PC Morley said the problems were almost exclusively being caused by eastern European males as the area was used as a daily pick-up and drop-off point for factory workers

That followed an incident when a man was arrested at 9.30am for being drunk and disorderly nearby a garage, where he urinated in full view of a woman customer who was filling her vehicle with fuel.

In a statement, PC Morley said the problems were almost exclusively being caused by eastern European males as the area was used as a daily pick-up and drop-off point for factory workers.

He added: 'Local residents have been complaining to the police for several years now about the anti-social behaviour by mainly males who are congregating on Beverley Road and in the [alleyways], drinking alcohol, defecating, leaving litter and empty alcohol containers.'

In granting the licence for the new Zodiak Local store, the shop will only be allowed a minimum of four cans or bottles of beer in a single transaction.

All sales will also be restricted to alcohol with a volume strength of 6.5 per cent or below.
Liam Flaherty hit and killed 19-year-old Ayesha Rahman in a street in Stockport when he was driving with cocaine in his system

A driver who had cocaine in his system ran over a teenager lying in the road when he mistook her for a discarded bag.

Liam Flaherty hit 19-year-old Ayesha Rahman in a street in Stockport after swerving too late to avoid her.

He admitted causing death by careless driving and avoided a jail term in Britain. He is however already serving a prison term in Spain for drugs offences.

Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court heard Ms Rahman had left friends after a night out in the city and was seen walking down the middle of a road before the collision.

Prosecutor Charlotte Crangle said: 'We can't say what caused her to be in the middle of the road.

'People at the scene, including the defendant, said he had clipped her and tried to avoid her.

'[Her mother] was able to see her in hospital and be with her daughter when she passed away.'

Flaherty, 35, was within the speed limit and stopped at the scene, but was found to have a small amount of cocaine in his system.

He was given a suspended sentence this week but will be returned to Spain, where he is serving a term of five years and one month handed to him for drugs offences last year.

The fatal crash happened on this stretch of the Gatley Road near Stockport in 2015

Ayesha, who suffered serious head and chest injuries in the crash in 2015, was described as 'clever, arty and beautiful' by friends.

The court heard Flaherty, of Knutsford, told police he had taken cocaine the day before the collision.

Flaherty's lawyer Stuart Duke said he did not realise what he saw in the road was a person.

He said: 'No one will know how she came to be lying in the road on that fateful evening. The defendant says not a day goes by without him thinking about Ayesha.

'He expresses remorse and regret, he accepts if he had paid more attention he wouldn't be standing here today.

'He apologises, no sentence will take away the events of that night.'

Judge Maurice Greene agreed to suspend the sentence, saying: 'The facts themselves are highly unusual as she was already in the road and you had little time to react.'
This may look like the heart of Holland but incredibly these are Britain's last remaining bulbfields.

The Norfolk landscape is a kaleidoscope of colours after the tulips burst into life after the recent heatwave.

But sadly the beautiful flowers at family-run Belmont Nurseries, East Winch near King's Lynn, will all be chopped off this week.

Janet and Peter Ward have been growing tulips for 20 years and supply more than 25 million stems to supermarkets each year.

They hire four fields in Norfolk, which have slightly sandy soil, and rotate them on an annual basis.

Peter Ward, who has worked in horticulture since he was 17, began the business 16 years ago and felt he could grow tulips as well as the Dutch.

They now grow 37 different varieties and introduce new ones each year.
A female powerlifter says she slugged a man in the face after he grabbed her bottom on the street and scoffed that she 'probably liked it'.

Leanna Carr, from Colorado, said she was walking in Dublin last week when the man came up from behind and groped her in broad daylight.

The 26-year-old said he 'laughed hysterically' when she spun around in shock and said 'you're an American, you probably liked it'.

Leanne Carr, 26, says she slugged a man in the face after he grabbed her bottom on the street and scoffed that she 'probably liked it'

Ms Carr shared photos of her bruised knuckles on social media from where she hit the sexual harasser hard on the cheekbone

'Apparently travelling solo has made me a better person because my first reaction was to punch him in the face,' she said of her response.

Ms Carr shared photos of her bruised knuckles on social media from where she hit the sexual harasser hard on the cheekbone.

Despite sporting an enviable figure and rippling muscles, the 139lb athlete said she hadn't punched someone before and was 'never a violent person'.

After delivering the stunning blow, the fitness model angrily yelled 'don't ever touch a girl like that again, I could get you arrested'.

Ms Carr said the man 'laughed hysterically' when she spun around in shock and said 'you're an American, you probably liked it'

Despite sporting an enviable figure and rippling muscles, the 139lb athlete said she hadn't punched someone before and was 'never a violent person'

The man became angry at this outburst and Ms Carr feared he may punch her back, but an older couple intervened and shooed him away.

Ms Carr was on her second day of a three-week solo trip across Europe and initially felt guilty for punching the man.

'My first reaction was a little guilt, wondering if I had done the right thing in the situation,' she told the Irish Independent.

'I don't think violence is always the answer, and I did get lucky that the altercation didn't end up badly for me.'

After delivering the stunning blow, the fitness model angrily yelled 'don't ever touch a girl like that again, I could get you arrested'

Ms Carr was on her second day of a three-week solo trip across Europe and initially felt guilty for punching the man

She said she had more confidence to stand up for herself on a busy street and probably would have reacted differently if she was alone with him in a dark alley.

Ms Carr said she was shaken and wanted to go back to the U.S. but friendlier Irish people made her trip a memorable one.

'Traveling solo throughout Europe has been one of the most amazing and empowering experiences of my life,' she wrote a few days later.
A 56-year-old man posing as an Uber driver has been charged with rape and sexual battery after allegedly raping a university student in his car just hours after groping another.

Early on Friday morning, Emmerson Redd, 56, picked up a 25-year-old student of the University of Georgia.

The young woman got in the car believing it was her Uber, but determined partway through the ride her driver was a fraud and demanded to be let out, Online Athens reported.

The driver raped her before finally allowing the woman to leave, police say.

Emmerson Redd, 56, has been charged with rape and sexual battery after allegedly raping one female university student and groping another after the women got into his car thinking it was their Uber

Officers took to Facebook in the hope of finding witnesses or further information, and a 21-year-old woman who believed she had the same driver came forward.

The woman was picked up outside the Uptown Lounge on East Washington Street in Athens, and also believed she was in the Uber she had ordered.

Partway through the ride, she became concerned the driver did not have a GPS or other common markings of a ride share car.

She took photos on her phone of the driver, and when he allegedly leaned over to grab her crotch, she demanded to be let out.

The woman, who was also a student at the university, approached police with her photographs of the man after seeing their post online.

The first woman to be picked up was outside the Uptown Lounge on East Washington Street in Athens (pictured) and took photographs of the man after realising he was not her booked driver

After hours of inspection, police determined the car was a Chrysler Pacifica minivan.

The driver's photograph was sent out to all members of the precinct, and a female officer said she had asked the man to move his illegally parked car earlier on Friday night.

In the very early hours of Saturday morning, officer Latisha Gunn, who had met Redd the night before, saw his minivan again and pulled him over.

Redd agreed to speak with detectives, who charged him with rape and sexual battery for his interactions with the two women.

Commanding officer of the Athens-Clarke County police Sex Crimes Unit, Lieutenant Derek Scott, told Athens Online Redd's profile suggested he was a predator who could have targeted more women.

The 56-year-old is being held in the Clarke County Jail.
Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you, as the Chinese saying goes.

An unruly tourist has been punished by instant karma after trying to push a monkey into a pond at a Chinese temple.

The animal quickly turned around and attacked him, scratching his hand and face.

The tourist tries to push a monkey into a pond for a laugh, but the animal starts to chase him

The unnamed man was visiting the Xitian Temple in Dehua County in East China's Fujian Province yesterday, according to Chinese news outlet Bjnews.

He tried to push one of the resident monkeys, reportedly a rhesus macaque, into a pond for a laugh

Footage taken by another visitor shows the man creeping up on the unsuspecting animal, which is perched on a metal railing next to the body of water.

The tourist shared a photo of his bloodied hand and face after being attached by the monkeys

The man suddenly shoves the monkey, which cries as it falls over the railing.

But a second later the primate leaps back up again at shocking speed.

The monkey then chases the man as other visitors laugh.

The video shows him running into the temple where he believed the monkey would not give chase - but it does.

The monkey's clan mate rushes to its rescue and enters the building to attack the man.

A temple employee told Bjnews that the monkeys scratched the tourist, but there were other people inside the room, and they helped drive the monkeys away.

The tourist later shared a photo of his bloodied hand and face.
A boom in Chinese demand for elephant skin is fuelling 'non-stop' killing of the animals in Myanmar and is a bigger threat to Asian herds than the ivory trade, activists have warned.

Shocking photos have emerged showing piles of grey hide and carcasses of skinned elephants left to rot by cruel poachers in Myanmar's forests.

The biggest market for the products is in China, where the tough skin is ground up and used to treat stomach or human skin ailments, or sold as jewellery in the form of blood-red beads and pendants.

Conservationists from Britain's Elephant Family, say the items are increasingly advertised and sold on the internet and warned the industry is posing a threat to Asia's wild herds even greater than the ivory trade.

A boom in Chinese demand for elephant skin is fuelling 'non-stop' killing of the animals in Myanmar and is a bigger threat to Asian herds than the ivory trade, activists have warned. Shocking photos have emerged showing piles of grey hide and carcasses of skinned elephants left to rot by cruel poachers in Myanmar's forests

The biggest market for the products is in China, where the tough skin is ground up and used to treat stomach or human skin ailments, or sold as jewellery in the form of blood-red beads and pendants

A trader in Xishuangbanna, China, weighs a piece of Asian elephant skin in August 2016. This 420.3g piece would cost about $335

It says the threat is currently greatest in Myanmar, but warns that the Asian elephant could become extinct in half the areas where it ranges if the problem escalates.

The threat exceeds that from the ivory trade because poachers are targeting any elephant, not just those with tusks, the group claimed in a new study called 'Skinned: The growing appetite for Asian Elephants'.

Unlike poaching for ivory, the skin trade does not discriminate between genders and ages in elephants, making them far more vulnerable.

'This means that no elephant is safe,' said the group's acting conservation director Belinda Stewart-Cox. 'Myanmar is losing too many elephants too fast.'

Elephant Family monitored multiple internet forums and interacted with traders - without making purchases - to learn more about the supply chain.

Out of eleven online sellers who said they knew the product origin, nine cited Myanmar and two Laos.

Last year 59 elephant carcasses were found in the wild, a jump from four in 2010, according to government statistics cited by the report

Elephant skin beads are pictured for sale in Xishuangbanna in China's Yunnan province in August, 2016

Pictures released by the activist group show elephant skin in the process of being carved into beads

The blood vessels and hair follicles can be seen in these pieces of elephant skin sold as pendants by online traders

One China-based trader who claims to have 'invented' elephant skin beads said she gets the material from a Myanmar border town, calling the sourcing 'long-term and nonstop,' the report said.

Some 2,000 wild elephants are thought to be left in Myanmar, the second largest population in the region after Thailand.

But a combination of weak oversight and lawless border regions outside central government control has made Myanmar a key hub in the global wildlife trafficking trade.

One China-based trader who claims to have 'invented' elephant skin beads said she gets the material from a Myanmar border town, calling the sourcing 'long-term and nonstop,' the report said

Some 2,000 wild elephants are thought to be left in Myanmar, the second largest population in the region after Thailand

Last year 59 elephant carcasses were found in the wild, a jump from four in 2010, according to government statistics cited by the report.

While the NGO said it was hard to prove with certainty whether the rise in skin product sales was directly linked to the rise in poaching, the parallel surge leaves few other explanations.

The researchers also documented the sale of elephant skin powder through China-based traditional medicine and pharmaceutical platforms, though it remains unclear whether African or Asian elephants were used in the goods.
The grief-stricken children of a man who was found stabbed to death have paid tribute to their father.

John Windle, 44, was discovered dead at his home in Macleay Island in Queensland on Monday.

Police launched a murder investigation and charged his partner with murder after she was taken into custody.

The grief-stricken children of John Windle (pictured) who was found stabbed to death have paid tribute to their father

Mr Windle, 44, was discovered dead at his home in Macleay Island in Queensland on Monday

Renee Blockey appeared in court on Tuesday accused of killing Mr Windle - her partner of six months

Renee Blockey appeared in court on Tuesday accused of killing Mr Windle - her partner of six months - and has been remanded in custody until June, Nine News reported.

The father-of-three's family and children spoke from outside Cleveland Magistrates Court.

His daughter, Tiarne, made a tear-filled tribute saying: 'Nobody deserves this and to go through this he will be missed by everybody and his family.'

Family members said he was a light-hearted character and was always 'mucking around' with his son and making people laugh.

Family members said he was a light-hearted character and was always 'mucking around' with his son and making people laugh

Cassandra Abbott spoke of the family's devastation appealing for help to cover funeral costs in Sydney so her mum can attend

'It's their dad, it's just not fair. It's hard to believe he's gone and we're never going to see him again,' his sister Cassandra Abbott said.

She has also set up a fundraising page appealing for help to cover funeral costs in Sydney so her sick mother does not have to travel to Queensland.

Ms Abbott wrote on the GoFundMe page the family had lost her sister less than a year ago.

She said: 'We want to bring him to Sydney to be buried. Our mum isn't well and if we have to travel up there from Sydney for his funeral it will kill her.

The father-of-three's family and children spoke from outside Cleveland Magistrates Court on Tuesday

Witnesses said they heard two people arguing in the street before Mr Windle's body was found at around midday

'She says to us all the time she should have went before her kids she has now lost two. We want to ease her pain and bring him back home to Sydney.'

Witnesses said they heard two people arguing in the street before Mr Windle's body was found at around midday.

A Queensland Police spokesman said: 'It will be alleged shortly after 12pm officers were called to an address on High Central Road with reports of a man being stabbed.

Mr Windle's daughter, Tiarne, made a tear-filled tribute saying: 'Nobody deserves this, he will be missed by everybody.'

'When officers arrived a 41-year-old Macleay Island man was located deceased inside the residence,' police said

'When officers arrived a 41-year-old Macleay Island man was located deceased inside the residence.

'A woman was taken into custody and a crime scene declared.

'A 41-year-old Macleay Island woman has since been charged with murder.'

Anyone with information can contact Policelink on 131 444 or provide information using the online form 24hrs per day.

You can report information about crime anonymously to Crime Stoppers, a registered charity and community volunteer organisation, by calling 1800 333 000 or via crimestoppersqld.com.au 24hrs per day.
A celebrity 'financial guru' gave a client deeply flawed advice that would have cost her half a million dollars, before slamming her as aggressive and nitpicking after she complained.

Fair Work commissioner Donna McKenna rejected the 'risible' advice of planner Sam Henderson, who then dismissed her complaints as a 'storm in a teacup', the banking royal commission heard on Tuesday.

The royal commission heard Ms McKenna would have lost $500,000 'just like that' if she followed Mr Henderson's advice to roll her public sector superannuation fund into a self-managed fund that would be managed by his firm Henderson Maxwell.

The banking royal commission heard on Tuesday that Australian 'finance guru' Sam Henderson (right) gave a client deeply flawed advice that would have cost her half a million dollars

Fair Work commissioner Donna McKenna (pictured) rejected the 'risible' advice of planner Mr Henderson, who then dismissed her complaints as a 'storm in a teacup', the royal commission heard

A Henderson Maxwell employee then impersonated McKenna - using details she gave to the firm - while calling her super funds, the royal commission heard.

Ms McKenna complained to the professional body for financial planners before Mr Henderson labelled her as hostile and aggressive.

He also asked the Financial Planning Association (FPA) to keep the complaint confidential and not to share his response, as the lawyer would find being labelled 'nitpicking' inflammatory.

Senior counsel assisting the commission Rowena Orr QC asked: 'Mr Henderson, is it really nitpicking for Ms McKenna to make a complaint after receiving advice that if implemented would have cost her half a million dollars?'

Mr Henderson replied no.

The commission also heard that a Henderson Maxwell financial services guide claimed Mr Henderson had a masters in commerce, which he agreed was inaccurate.

Mr Henderson also said he was unaware one of his employees impersonated Ms McKenna in a series of phone calls, which were played to the royal commission on Tuesday.

The royal commission heard Ms McKenna would have lost $500,000 'just like that' if she followed Mr Henderson's (pictured) advice

Ms McKenna complained to the professional body for financial planners before Mr Henderson (right) labelled her as hostile and aggressive

'I was quite disappointed and actually apologise for the behaviour of my staff member,' he said.

'It was inexcusable. I was horrified.'

The commission heard Ms McKenna would have lost half a million dollars as she would have forfeited her rights to that entire deferred lump sum benefit if she accessed her superannuation before the earliest retirement age of 58.

Mr Henderson blamed the problems with the advice on an error in the research conducted by a paraplanner.

The commission heard Mr Henderson had wanted the FPA to keep Ms McKenna's March 2017 complaint confidential given his media presence and potential financial loss as a result of any publicity.

But the chair of its independent conduct review commission wanted tougher sanctions including a one-year ban on media appearances.

The complaint and disciplinary process has not been finalised.

The commission also heard that a Henderson Maxwell financial services guide claimed Mr Henderson (pictured) had a masters in commerce, which he agreed was inaccurate

The commission heard Mr Henderson (pictured) had wanted the FPA to keep Ms McKenna's March 2017 complaint confidential given his media presence and potential financial loss as a result of any publicity

Mr Henderson, described on his website as a financial guru, has hosted a Sky News Business program and regularly appears on Network Ten's The Project and the Nine Network's Today show.

The Henderson Maxwell CEO also writes general financial advice articles for a number of Fairfax publications including the Australian Financial Review and Money Magazine.

The royal commission earlier heard an ANZ financial adviser used clients' money to buy a property in the name of a company of which he was the sole director and allegedly took money from their accounts.

A number of customers of the sacked adviser of ANZ planning subsidiary millennium3 complained about unauthorised withdrawals or transfers from self-managed super funds and investments in the unit trust set up to buy the marina property.

The commission heard ANZ has notified West Australian police of allegations by three of Mr A's customers that he withdrew funds totalling $234,590 without their authority in 2011 and 2012.
A woman infected with severe Malaria while volunteering in Cambodia believes she is lucky to be alive after having just '20 per cent' chance of surviving.

Byron Bay woman Shelley Hill spent five days in a coma and suffered organ shut down after she contracted the disease while helping sick and abused elephants in Mondulkiri Province.

She will need her toes and fingers amputated, and she told Nine News she is considering legal action after a doctor told her she would not need medication against the disease.

Shelley Hill, pictured, infected with severe Malaria while volunteering in Cambodia, believes she is lucky to be alive

Ms Hill was bitten by a mosquito after the doctor allegedly told her she didn't need the antimalarial treatment because it was the 'dry season'.

And she told the network she is lucky to be alive as she didn't think she was going to make it.

'I think my friends were told that I had 20 percent chance of survival so they didn't think I was going to make it,' she said.

'I'm pretty lucky. If I had got the symptoms overseas I certainly wouldn't be here today.'

Ms Hill was bitten by a mosquito after the doctor allegedly told her she didn't need the antimalarial treatment because it was the 'dry season'.

The 46-year-old began feeling ill soon after she returned home, before a blood test confirmed the deadly diagnosis on February 20

The 46-year-old began feeling ill soon after she returned home, before a blood test confirmed the deadly diagnosis on February 20.

Ms Hill was quickly taken to The Tweed Hospital but was soon in the fight of her life as her organs began shutting down.

She fell into a coma and remained in a critical, unstable condition for five days.

Ms Hill (pictured) was quickly taken to The Tweed Hospital but was soon in the fight of her life as her organs began shutting down.

The disease - which affects red blood cells - caused Ms Hill irreversible necrosis to her extremities as a result of poor blood circulation, and probable permanent kidney failure.

A Go Fund Me page set up by her best friend Mel Wilson, has now raised nearly $57,000 towards her medical costs.

Ms Wilson, in an interview with Daily Mail Australia in March, said her best friend is facing a recovery that will 'last a lifetime'.

'We just found out the prognosis has got much worse - she's looking at the loss of all toes, plus both hands [and] probably permanent kidney failure requiring daily dialysis,' Ms Wilson said.

A Go Fund Me page set up by her best friend Mel Wilson, has now raised nearly $57,000 towards her medical costs

'They said her recovery will take a lifetime. She will never run again which is her greatest passion.'

She also explained how her friend of 25 years thought she had been asleep for a few hours when she woke up from almost a week-long coma.

'Initially she had no idea of the gravity of the situation but a doctor just sat down and gave it to her straight,' Ms Wilson said.

'The doctor told her she came as close to death as possible.'

Ms Hill told Nine News she now hopes others will learn from her experience, and ensure they 'research' the areas they plan to travel, especially when there are forests and jungles.

'I would encourage people to take the malaria medications regardless of whether its a low risk or a high risk season,' she told the network.

Ms Hill (centre) said her best friend is facing a recovery that will 'last a lifetime'.
A nursing mother is suing for discrimination after being told she should use the men's restroom to express breast milk when she reported for jury duty at a Chicago court.

Attorney Judith Miller says a clerk told her October 2 that there was no a lactation room in Chicago's Daley Center. Miller had given birth 11 weeks earlier and was still nursing her infant son.

'I'd been on the other side of the jury box, I argued in front of a jury, but I've actually never been on a jury, so I was hoping to serve,' Miller said to ABC 7.

Attorney Judith Miller says a clerk told her October 2 that there was no a lactation room in Chicago's Daley Center

Miller claims that she looked up if there was a lactation center online but was shocked when she was told conflicting information.

'When I got to the head of the line, the clerk I spoke with about this had never heard of the lactation room. His first response was to excuse me, and when I didn't want to be excused he offered me, of all things, the men's room,' she added.

She says the clerk said the power outlet in the women's restroom was broken, but that she could use the men's to pump instead.

She says the clerk said the power outlet in the women's restroom was broken, but that she could use the men's to pump instead

Miller had given birth 11 weeks earlier and was still nursing her infant son

Miller left the courthouse and didn't serve. After writing about her experience, she was contacted by the ACLU who helped her file a discrimination complaint.

Listed as the defendants were three different governmental entities and the Daley Center.

'Illinois law says public officials in places of public accommodation cannot discriminate against somebody just for nursing or expressing milk,' said Amy Meek, ACLU attorney.

The lawyer, along with the ACLU, launched a discrimination lawsuit and named three different governmental entities and the Daley Center

'Illinois law says public officials in places of public accommodation cannot discriminate against somebody just for nursing or expressing milk,' said Amy Meek, ACLU attorney

Miller added: 'The Idea that a nursing mother would be excluded from that important civic duty because of being a nursing mother is outrageous.'

Miller and the American Civil Liberties Union have filed a lawsuit alleging discrimination by Chicago and Cook County under the Illinois Human Rights Act.

Cook County officials say the clerk was misinformed and that all city and county courts have private spaces available for nursing mothers.
China is testing fighter jets equipped with 'invisibility cloaks' that make would make them impossible to detect on radar.

Researchers involved with the project say the technology will rapidly boost the combat power of the non-stealth military jets, the South China Morning Post reports.

However, critics say the technology is difficult to mass produce and are limited to a small range of radar bandwidths.

It involves the use of a 'metamaterial' that can change the way radio waves bounce off the surface to limit the echo on a radar in order to make aircraft harder to detect.

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China is testing fighter jets equipped with 'invisibility cloaks' that make would make them impossible to detect on radar. Pictured, a J-15 fighter jet

Researchers involved with the project say the technology will rapidly boost the combat power of the non-stealth military jets

The metamaterial was developed by a team at the State Key Laboratory of Millimetre Waves in Southeast University in Nanjing, according to the Post.

A researcher said it was being tested on aircraft at the military aircraft production base in Shenyang in the Liaoning province.

Although it wasn't revealed which aircraft the metamaterial was being tested on, the Shenyang Aircraft Corporation builds fighter jets including the J-11 and the J-15.

It comes after the Chinese state broadcaster revealed China has built an assembly line to mass produce cutting-edge 'super materials' that can perform the previously impossible.

WHAT ARE METAMATERIALS? Metamaterials are a new class of surfaces which have been engineered on the nanoscale, as small as a billionth of a metre wide. The materials used to construct them are arranged in certain patterns or shapes, designed to perform specific tasks. Most are created on computers and 3D-printed as plastic blocks or slabs, although metals and other materials can also be used. One such task is to bend electromagnetic radiation around an object. The first examples only worked with long-wavelength radiation, such as microwaves, while others altered the path of near-infrared radiation. Some can bend sound waves to focus them for medical purposes or to create speakers which direct sound to a specific spot. Some scientists have claimed there is nothing stopping them from scaling their inventions up to hide objects from visible light. So far, however, this has proved more of a challenge. When light is shone upon an object it is either reflected or absorbed, dictating how it appears to a human eye. Using metamaterials, the interaction of particles with light can be changed so that the object appears invisible, or as something completely different. Advertisement

So far, the assembly line located in a lab in Shenzhen has manufactured different types of materials, including one that renders objects invisible, China Central Television Station reported in a documentary released last month.

Although the station didn't explain what the invisibility cloak 'metamaterial' would be used for, according to Chinese news portal Sina, it is likely to be used on the country's warplanes, particularly the J-20.

What the broadcaster referred to as 'super materials' are generally known as metamaterials - a new class of finely-engineered surfaces that could have properties unachievable with conventional materials.

Some metamaterials can bend infrared radiation such as visible light, which means they could be used to create invisibility cloaks.

And according to the Chinese Central Television Station, the Chinese scientists have managed to make such invisibility materials in bulk.

China's J-20 has been compared to America's F-22 Raptor in terms of combat capabilities

CHINA'S J-20 Top speed: 1,305 mph Range: 2,113 mi Length: 67 Wingspan: 42 0 Weight: 43,000 lbs Engine Type: Xian WS-15 turbofan engines Cost: $110m Manufacturer: Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group Advertisement

AMERICA'S F-22 Top speed: 1,498 mph Range: 1,839 mi Length: 62 Wingspan: 44 0 Weight: 43,430 lbs Engine type: Pratt & Whitney F119 Cost: $130m Manufacturers: Boeing Defense, Space & Security, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Advertisement

The report took the viewers inside the mysterious lab where Jin Xi, a doctor of Materials Science, and his team were busy feeding pieces of material from one machine to another.

Each piece, 80cm long and 60cm wide, is said to be the plated with bronze and would be used as the base material for the Chinese 'super material'.

A layer of special film, which could show some 20,000 patterns once exposed to light, will be added to this base material.

The patterns, as tiny as 0.2 square millimetres, are said to contain thousands of micro-structures invisible to the human eye.

These micro-structures are used to control the properties of metamaterials.

The report didn't mention what type of 'super material' the workers were making, but it claimed that Chinese scientists have developed metamaterials to help develop the country's aviation industry.

The programme, aired on China Central Television Station, shows workers making the base material (pictured) for different metamaterials, which the Chinese call 'super materials'

A report from Sina, one of China's largest news portals, claimed on March 11 that the lab in question is the State Key Laboratory of Metamaterial Electromagnetic Modulation Technology in Shenzhen, a state-funded lab established in 2011.

The Sina report also suggested that the metamaterials would be used for military purposes.

It also indicated that the invisibility material is likely to be used on J-20 fighter jets because the jet's chief engineer Yang Wei is also a member on the laboratory's academic board.

China's latest J-20 stealth fighter jets were commissioned into military service last year and are operated by the Chinese Air Force.

China's fourth-generation fighter jet, the J-20 made its maiden flight in 2011.

According to a 2017 report from China Central Television Station, the J-20 is capable of carrying multiple types of air-to-air missiles.

It's said to be powered by a made-in-China engine and has similar combat capabilities to those of America's F-22 Raptor.
Ozan Melin, 42, denies three charges of grievous bodily harm against middle-aged women in Bristol

A 'bogus' cosmetic surgeon left three middle-aged women in agony with their faces swollen beyond recognition after injecting them with 'fake' Botox, a court has heard.

Ozan Melin, 42, is accused using an 'extremely dangerous' substance on the trio which made their faces swell until they were barely able to see.

Melin of Uxbridge, Middlesex, is now on trial at Bournemouth Crown Court in Dorset, where he denies three charges of causing grievous bodily harm between 2011 and 2013.

Former client, Marcelle King was hospitalised, put on a drip and given steroids while Jozette Sheppard could not eat, speak or smile for about six months and has been left with a permanent dimple on her face, the jury was told.

Another alleged victim, Carol Kingscott, was left with her face swollen 'out of recognition' after treatment in Bristol.

The court heard Melin lied to the women about being medically qualified and told one he had been trained in the US.

Mrs King went to the police after receiving her 400 treatment.

Prosecutor Simon Jones said the 62-year-old arranged the 'Botox' through a beauty salon in July 2013.

After ten days she had seen no change apart from bruising and made a second appointment. It was after this she suffered an extreme reaction that saw her taken to A&E, it is alleged.

Mr Jones said Mrs King had questioned the large size of the needles Melin used but was told they were better than smaller ones.

Melin also said he did not dilute the solution because it worked quicker, the court heard.

Mr Jones said: 'Marcelle King made a complaint to the police following a reaction she had to what she believed was botox injections given to her by the defendant Ozan Melin, a man who had purported to be medically qualified.

'She suffered grievous bodily harm following these injections, which amounted to an unlawful and malicious assault.

'Ozan Melin is not a doctor nor is he medically qualified.

'The prosecution say this procedure simply should never have been undertaken in the first place.

'Had she known Mr Melin was not medically qualified she would simply not have allowed this to have taken place.'

Ozan Melin at Bournemouth Crown Court. The 42-year-old faces three charges of grievous bodily harm against three women

Mrs Kingscott, 57, and Mrs Sheppard, 46, later came forward with similar allegations over their treatment in Bristol in 2011.

On those occasions Melin told both women he had undergone medical training in the Turkish army, the court was told.

A forensic plastic surgeon who looked at the case told the court he concluded none of the three women 'ever received botox or any form of botulinum-type therapeutic injections'.

Mr Jones added: 'The prosecution case is that this involved the reckless use of an unknown and extremely dangerous substance.

'We have three customers who have all sustained really serious harm.

'The infliction of that harm was by this man, Ozan Melin, a man who knew he was not medically qualified to administer these procedures and was clearly reckless as to the severe consequences that resulted from them.

'It is the prosecution case that Jozette Sheppard would never have allowed Mr Melin to do this had she known that he was not medically qualified. He told her a lie.

'He told Ms Kingscott that he was educated in the US and had undergone medical training as a doctor in the Turkish army. She had no reason to suspect what was a significant lie by Ozan Melin.'

Melin has pleaded not guilty to three offences of inflicting grievous bodily harm against Marcelle King, Jozette Sheppard and Carol Kingscott.

The trial continues.
A fire burned dangerously close to multi-million mansions in Sydney's north on Tuesday.

The flames were seen raging within metres of the properties in North Curl Curl, in Sydney's Northern Beaches.

Large clouds of thick billowing smoke could be seen close to the properties and the sea in the beachside suburb.

A fire burned dangerously close to multi-million mansions (pictured) in Sydney's north on Tuesday

Large clouds of thick billowing smoke (pictured) could be seen close to the properties in the beachside suburb.

A terrified resident told 7 News it was 'real bad' as he coughed while speaking to a reporter about the fire.

The footage showed several multi-story homes standing firm as the flames ripped through the area.

A firefighter could be seen inside one backyard with a hose to prepare for the worst possible scenario.

The fire was a 'hazard reduction burn', which firefighters told Nine News was designed to protect the homes.

The footage showed several multi-story homes standing firm as the flames ripped through the northern beaches suburb close to backyards

Properties in North Curl Curl, 19 km from Sydney's CBD, have an average value of 2.4 million according to the latest property data

'Obviously it comes up near their homes and we have fire crews right behind those homes,' he said.

'That is actually part of it, to get rid of that fuel close to the homes and actually give themselves a barrier between the bush area and the houses.'

Properties in North Curl Curl, 19 km from Sydney's CBD, have an average value of 2.4 million according to the latest property data.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted NSW Fire and Rescue for comment.

A firefighter (pictured) could be seen inside one backyard with a hose to prepare for the worst possible scenario.
A former bodyguard of mass killer Osama bin Laden is being supported to live free in Germany at a cost to taxpayers of over 1,000 per month.

Although classified as dangerous and forced to report to police every day, authorities claim Sami A. cannot be sent back to his Tunisian homeland because the risk of torture would be too high.

He has already had his asylum application rejected by Germany and handed a deportation order.

Authorities claim Sami A. (pictured) cannot be sent back to his Tunisian homeland because the risk of torture would be too high

But the 42-year-old, who traveled to Afghanistan in the late 1990s to become a bodyguard for the architect of the 9/11 attacks, continues to stay in Germany after a court ruled he could face torture if deported.

The state of North Rhine-Westphalia admitted it pays 1167,84 euros a month to him, his wife and their four children aged between four and 11.

The admission in the regional parliament came after a question was posed by the the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

News of the financial support he receives caused an instant storm.

Eckhardt Rehberg of Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling CDU, Who is the party's budget chief, said: 'The German asylum law is being shamelessly exploited here.

'We must finance a terrorist with tax money because we must not deport him? I have no understanding of these court rulings.'

Aami A. traveled to Afghanistan in the late 1990s to become Osama bin Laden's (pictured) bodyguard

Since no other country has shown willingness to take in the Tunisian, it now seems he will remain in Germany indefinitely - even though security services still consider Sami A. to be a dangerous and central member of the Islamist scene in the country and have had him under observation since at least 2006.

'That such a man is allowed to stay in Germany is a punch in the face to all anti-terror investigators,' a security source told local media.

'He protected the most wanted man in the world and we treat him with kid gloves.'

The ban on deportations to Tunisia was lifted two years ago.

But officials still feel that such a close ally of bin Laden would run the risk of imprisonment, torture and death.

Sami A. came to Germany as a student in 1997 before opting to become a jihadist and traveling to Afghanistan where he trained in a terror camp before becoming a bodyguard to bin Laden.

The Supreme Court blocked his deportation despite judges in Munster branding him 'an acute and considerable danger for public security'.
An Alzheimer's patient who ploughed $45,000 into a life insurance policy with his bank has been told his policy is being cancelled because he is too old.

Jim Blackburn, who also has Parkinson's, is now in a fierce battle with AMP after the bank said it would end the policy.

He now faces losing all the money he and his wife, Nancy, have saved for 10 years to look make sure she is looked after financially after her husband dies.

Alzheimer's patient Jim Blackburn and his wife Nancy say they are in a fierce battle with AMP after the bank said it would end his policy

He now faces losing all the $45,000 he has put into the pot because the bank says he is too old for his current policy

The couple from New South Wales had their payments into the life insurance pot rejected earlier this year with the bank saying it was because he is retired, they told Tuesday's A Current Affair.

But it has been an uphill struggle to get a new policy since Mr Blackburn's recent diagnoses.

Mr Blackburn's son, Scott, said: 'He originally took it to look after mum in case anything happened but the rug has been pulled from under his feet.'

'They took our money I feel under false pretenses,' Mrs Blackburn said. 'After all these years of paying them they want to wipe it.'

Former soldier Nigel Burnett, who served in Vietnam, says he is another 'small person' being rorted

Leanne Olson says she is trapped in a life insurance policy and will lose everything if she cancels it after the bank upped its commission rates

AMP chief executive Craig Meller quit last week in the wake of a series of revelations against the bank were unearthed during the Royal Commission in banking practices.

One AMP financial planner was found to be running a property business alongside convincing clients to use the company to buy investment properties.

Former soldier Nigel Burnett, who served in Vietnam, says he is another 'small person' being rorted by his bank.

The veteran was previously a customer with Commonwealth Bank but left after their reduced his pension to just $5.

AMP chief executive Craig Meller quit last week in the wake of a series of revelations against the bank at the Royal Commission hearings

Mr Burnett, who still suffers the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), said the pension he receives after working in Britain was capped by the exchange fees set by the bank.

He claims the bank kept upping the fees leaving him with the minuscule amount arriving in his account.

The army veteran, who has now switched to ANZ as it does not charge fees for his pension, said: 'You can't do anything with banks, they rule the roost.'

Leanne Olson says she is trapped in a life insurance policy and will lose everything if she cancels it because the bank has increased its commission fees.

The final report from the Royal Commission into the Australian banking sector is expected to be published next February

Serious concerns about several banks across Australia - including NAB, ANZ, Commonwealth and AMP - have been raised

The Melbourne disability pensioner, who used to work for Commonwealth, said she felt like she 'had been taken for a ride' after they refused to do anything about it.

Rates on her $15,000 policy have soared from 0.9 per cent to 2.2 per cent per $1,000.

Executives from AMP have admitted to charging clients for advice they never received and repeatedly lying to the corporate watchdog.

The Commonwealth remains in the spotlight along with ANZ (pictured), AMP and Westpac practices

The Commonwealth remains in the spotlight at the commission after it heard the bank had been taking fees from accounts belonging to people it knew to be dead.

Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull was forced to admit last week the findings were long overdue as he said it was wrong to have opposed it.

The final report from the Royal Commission is expected to be published next February.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt isn't out of the woods yet.

White House officials are privately advising congressional Republicans to tone down their support for the embattled Cabinet member as a parade of scandals threatens to put him on the wrong end of President Trump's terse firing routine.

Congress seems to have taken the hint: Republicans on Tuesday postponed Jackson's confirmation hearing, which was to take place a day later.

Bloomberg Politics reported that South Dakota Republican Sen. John Thune, a high-ranking lawmaker whose conservatism matches Pruitt's, pushed any decision to the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.

It's the 'presidents decision to make,' Thune said, referring to whether Pruitt can continue to be effective in the face of continued questions about his ethics and judgment.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt could find himself out of a job soon; White House officials are telling Republicans in Congress to tone down their public support for him

At least four Republican lawmakers have called on Pruitt to resign, and President Trump's patience could soon wear thin

'They have to resolve this and get those questions answered,' he said. 'I dont think theyre probably going away.'

Trump has told senior aides that he likes Pruitt's aggressive posture on razing some of Barack Obama's more far-reaching environmental regulations, giving the Oklahoman some wiggle room.

But the drip, drip, drip of revelations about his conduct in office continues.

This week it emerged that Pruitt had an official meeting with a longtime Washington lobbyist whose wife extended him a $50-per-night sweetheart condo rental deal in D.C.

Both Pruitt and Steven Hart, the lobbyist, had denied Hart had conducted any recent business with the EPA.

Congressional Democrats said Monday that they had obtained internal EPA records laying out another headache for the agency's chief.

The EPA paid $3,000 in March 2017 for a 'sweep' of Pruitt's office to hunt for listening devices. The contractor, Edwin Steinmetz, also works for Nino Perrotta, who is in charge of Pruitt's 20-member security team.

Trump has praised Pruitt for helping to dissolve Obama-era regulations

The sweep came up empty. Democrats question whether Perrotta improperly steered the contract to his business associate. They also say the work was conducted with shoddy methods and didn't meet U.S. government standards.

Pruitt is scheduled to appear on Thursday before two separate congressional committees in hearings that are usually formalities about his agency's budget  but which now promise to be full of fireworks.

If Pruitt should find himself out of a job, his deputy  a former coal lobbyist  would take over.

The Senate confirmed Andrew Wheeler just 11 days ago.

The Associated Press reports that there are at least a half-dozen formal investigations now targeting Pruitt and even more informal inquiries, including requests by Republican lawmakers seeking documents and information.

'We're reviewing some of those allegations,' White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters in a briefing Monday. She added that while Pruitt has done a good job of implementing Trump's policies, "the other things are certainly something that we're monitoring.'

Four Republicans in Congress have now publicly called on Pruitt to resign.

Pruitt got a sweetheart rent deal from a lobbyist, flew first class for months at taxpayer expense and spent $43,000 on a secure, soundproof booth in his office

One is South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy, who chairs the House Oversight committee.

This month Gowdy mocked Pruitt's infamous habit of flying in first class  which the EPA has defended, citing security threats.

'The notion that Ive got to fly first class because I dont want people to be mean to me?' Gowdy marveled on 'Fox News Sunday' a week ago.

'You need to go into another line of work if you dont want people to be mean to you  like maybe a monk, where you dont come in contact with anyone.'

Trump publicly defended Pruitt two weeks ago in a tweet, saying he 'is doing a great job!'

That was before a host of probes became public and Pruitt lowered his public profile amid an uncomfortable media blitz.
One of the 10 people who were mowed down and killed by a van in Toronto on Monday has been identified as an investment analyst working for a US-based firm.

Anne Marie D'Amico, 20, was the first casualty of the van attack to be identified, after the notification of her next of kin.

D'Amico was employed by the American investment management company Invesco, which also has offices on Yonge Street in Toronto, not far from where police say Alek Minassian, 25, deliberately plowed into pedestrians with a white rental van, killing 10 and leaving 14 others injured.

A South Korean news agency reported Tuesday that two Korean nationals are among the dead, and three others are still unaccounted for.

The Yonhap News Agency is citing government officials as saying another Korean national was seriously injured in the incident.

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First victim: Anne Marie D'Amico (center) has been identified as one of the 10 people who were run over and killed by a van in Toronto on Monday

Police say Alek Minassian, 25 (left), used a rental van to plow into pedestrians on a busy Toronto street, killing 10 people and injuring 14 others. D'Amico (right) was among the slain

Meanwhile, the Jordanian Embassy confirmed to CBC News that one of their citizens was among the fatalities.

Invesco Canada President Peter Intraligi confirmed D'Amico's passing on Tuesday but declined to comment further out of the respect for her family.

D'Amico's colleague Jon Tam told CBC she was warm and caring, was involved in volunteer work and enjoyed travel in her free time.

'I'll definitely be missing seeing that smile around the office,' he said.

Toronto City Councilor Cesar Palacio said DAmico was a friend of his daughter, and he remembers her as 'a brilliant young girl' who was very active and interested in improving society. He spoke with her parents on Tuesday.

According to a 2016 Corporate Social Responsibility Report issued by Invesco Canada, D'Amico's title at the time was business performance management analyst.

The report indicated that she took part in a humanitarian project in the Dominican Republic, as part of which a group of Invesco workers helped build a new house for a local family.

D'Amico volunteered at a Canada-based international humanitarian charity called Live Different. Dave Hamilton, the charitys manager of school partnerships, remembered her as 'super-positive, always smiling, a funny person, always up for a challenge, and really wanted to help people out.'

The front end damage of the van that the driver used to hit several pedestrians in Toronto, Ontario, on Monday, killing 10

Police officers stand by a covered body in Toronto after the deadly van attack Monday

'What I didnt expect was to have such a deep connection to the family and see first-hand how much this new home truly means to them,' D'Amico was quoted as saying about her experience.

A white Ryder van was heading south on busy Yonge Street at around 1.30pm and the streets were crowded with people enjoying an unseasonably warm day when the vehicle jumped onto the sidewalk and proceeded to mow down pedestrians along a mile-long stretch, without making any effort to stop.

The driver, a resident of the Richmond Hill section of Toronto, was quickly captured in a tense but brief confrontation with officers.

'The incident definitely looked deliberate,' Police Chief Mark Saunders told reporters at a late-night news conference.

Minassian had not been known to police previously. An online social media profile described him as a college student.

Officials would not comment on a possible motive except to play down a possible connection to terrorism, but social media posts attributed to Minassian painted him as a sexually frustrated involuntarily celibate who admired Santa Barbara shooter Elliot Rodger.

In one post, Minassian referred to the rebellion of 'incels' - a term used to refer to men who have been made 'involuntarily celibate' because women will not have sex with them.

In 2014, Rodger, who was also involuntarily celibate, gunned down six people at the University of California Santa Barbara before killing himself.
Two victims of a Sydney serial rapist have bravely attended court hoping to confront the man who raped them more than two decades ago as he faces fresh charges of sexual assault.

Juanita and Angela attended court on Tuesday and pushed through their trauma to face the man who raped them in the 1990s.

Graham James Kay is facing fresh charges he grabbed a 16-year-old girl and attempted to kiss her at western Sydney supermarket a month after he had an electronic anklet removed.

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Juanita (right) and Angela (left) attended court on Tuesday preparing to face the man who raped them in the 1990s

The 66-year-old has denied the allegations he assaulted the teenager at the Rosehill Woolworths.

On Sunday the convicted predator was back in custody after he was believed to breach his strict supervision orders.

The convicted rapist has been accused of failing to give a 'truthful answer' to his supervising officers.

Kay was handed these strict supervisions and was deemed a serious risk of further violent sexual offences.

Graham James Kay didn't show at Parramatta Local Court despite facing fresh charges he grabbed a 16-year-old girl and attempted to kiss her at western Sydney supermarket

It is alleged the convicted rapist let people stay at his Parramatta home without prior approval and failed to disclose an intimate relationship with a prostitute.

The predator terrorised Sydney's north shore with a series of rapes in the 1990s.

Kay spent 18 years in jail for eight sexual assaults that occurred between 1995 and 1996.

The two victims of the Sydney serial rapist hoped to confront their attacker in court as he is hit with new allegations of assault

His victims were aged from 16 to 39 and took place between December 1995 and December 1996.

After grabbing them from behind and holding a knife to their necks he played out his 'premeditated and planned' attacks.

He was stopped in 1997 after a police operation caught him driving looking for men and women in inner-Sydney suburbs.

Juanita: 'I was very surprised. I don't understand why they do that with a serial sex offender. It's really confusing,'

He faced a maximum jail sentence of 20 years and served 18 of them.

Juanita and Angela said they were 'surprised' and 'angry' when they found he had been released on bail.

'I was very surprised. I don't understand why they do that with a serial sex offender. It's really confusing,' Juanita told Nine News.

The 66-year-old spent 18 years in jail for six sexual assaults that occurred between 1995 and 1996 but was released in 2015

Kay did not attend Parramatta Local Court but lawyers representing him said their client pleaded not guilty to assault and intimidation.

'It's sickening and I'm angry. My heart is going thump, thump, thump, thump. My stomach is churning,' Angela said.

After complying with his strict parole conditions, Corrective Services officers in New South Wales have to remove his electronic ankle bracelet on March 17, 2018.

His lawyers indicated he would apply for bail when he returns to court on May 8.
Jay Hyrons is selling her late husband's war medals for some 60,000

She was only four when her hero father was killed in the Battle of Goose Green in the Falklands.

Paratrooper Gary Bingley was shot as he stormed an Argentine machine gun nest in an act of bravery described as instrumental in defeating the enemy.

Zoe McKay was too young to understand when her mother Jayne proudly showed her his Military Medal after collecting it from the Queen at Buckingham Palace. Now mother and daughter are at war over the sale of the medals, which are due to go under the hammer at London auction house Spink and Son today.

Last night heartbroken Zoe McKay  who is estranged from her mother  made a final plea to keep the medals in the family.

She is desperately trying to raise 70,000 to buy them herself after her mother, now called Jay Hyrons, 60, decided to part with them to fund her battle with ill health. Her daughter said: My dad gave his life and the medals should remain part of his family.

Apart from the picture in the press when the medals were given, I have never even been allowed to see them since. The relationship with my mum is complex. I have not seen her since I was 14.

Zoe McKay has now set up a GoFundMe page to raise money to buy her father's army medals

LCpl Bingley, from Muswell Hill, north London, joined the army aged 17 and did several tours in Northern Ireland before his Falklands call up

LCpl Bingley's medal group consists of his Military Medal, Northern Ireland Medal, South Atlantic 1982 Medal and General Service Medal

From left: The Military Medal, The GSM (General Service Medal, with Northern Ireland clasp), and the South Atlantic Medal

LANCE CORPORAL GARY 'GAZ' BINGLEY AND THE BATTLE OF GOOSE GREEN LCpl Bingley, from Muswell Hill, north London, joined the army aged 17 and did several tours in Northern Ireland before his Falklands call up. The Goose Green offensive was crucial as it took place the same week Argentine bombers had destroyed four Royal Navy ships and badly damaged five others. LCpl Bingley was in D Company of the 2nd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, which was halted at Coronation Ridge during the battle. LCpl Bingley and Private Barry Grayling darted out from under cover to charge the enemy machine gun nest which was holding up the advance. Both were hit some 10 yards from the machine gun post, but shot two of the enemy before collapsing. LCpl Grayling, who was shot in the hip, survived, but LCpl Bingley died instantly and was recovered by medic Lance Corporal Martin Bentley. LCpl Bentley later said: 'Gaz was the first of our dead to be recovered. 'They had been making a frontal charge on an Argie machine-gun post. 'Grayling was hit at close range in his water bottle - it exploded shattering his hip. As Grayling collapsed, still firing, they silenced the Argie machine gunner. 'But as fate would have it the last few rounds squeezed off by the Argie gunner ripped through Gaz Bingley's head, killing him instantly. 'As daylight approached, we started to search for those of 'D' Coy still missing. Padre Cooper called me over, he had found Gaz Bingley. 'Gaz had been shot through the head. I helped Padre carry Gaz back to the RAP (away from the front line) in a poncho. 'I will never forget that short walk, his head kept banging against my knee - it was a moving moment for everyone.' Another comrade said afterwards: 'Gaz set the tone for how we fought our war. Advertisement

I dont want to turn this into a slagging match and lose my dignity. I did try to contact her when I heard about the sale. I asked her to delay and give the family a chance to buy them.

Mrs McKay, a mother of two now living in Brisbane, Australia, added: My dad was my hero and a hero of the United Kingdom. This year he would have been 60.

I have missed him my whole life, and am deeply saddened that despite our differences my mum did not offer the family the chance to buy them first.

Her father, a lance-corporal in D Company of the 2nd battalion, Parachute Regiment, died aged 24 on May 28, 1982, the same day as his commanding officer, Colonel Herbert H Jones, who was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his part in the ferocious battle. After collecting the medal, his grieving widow said of her daughter: When shes older, Ill be able to tell her all about her hero daddy and give her his medals. Gary thought the world of her. Its so sad he wont see her grow up.

Yesterday L/Cpl Bingleys younger brother, Steve, 48, of Hythe, Kent  himself a former soldier  said: Small things like medals become a symbol to those that are left behind that these brave deeds are remembered, appreciated and are not in vain. Garys widow stated that the medals would be passed to Zoe. This was always expected. However, Zoe and her mother became distant, as Zoe was a real handful, and was taken on board by her aunt.

My brothers medals were awarded by law to his next of kin, Garys wife. However, she lost contact with our family after Garys death.

We bear no hatred or bad will towards Jay, but find it difficult to understand why we were not given the chance to retain the medals within our family. As well as the Military Medal, the lot includes L/Cpl Bingleys Northern Ireland Medal, South Atlantic 1982 Medal and General Service Medal.

Last night Miss Hyrons said: If [the Mail] wants to know anything about me and the respect I have for my husband, just Google my name. In an online blog, she has written of how she has reconnected with the Paras and started raising money for military charities.

LCpl Bingley with his daughter, who is trying to raise some 70,000 to buy his medals

Jay Hyrons last week announced she would be selling his medals to 'allow his story to be told to a wider audience'

Lance Corporal Gary Bingley (left) with his best man on his wedding day in 1977

LCpl Bingley (third left, front) with 2 Para comrades en-route to the Falklands on M.V. Norland

LCpl Gary Bingley (left) on the MV Norland approaching the Falklands in 1982
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Sgt Gordon Olley (pictured) survived a fuel with the legendary Mandred von Richtoften - the Red Baron - as a novice pilot in the First World War

The extraordinary story of how a hero pilot became the first to fly one million air miles having survived a wartime dog fight with the Red Baron has come to light.

Sergeant Gordon Olley came out of a duel with the legendary Manfred von Richthoften as a novice pilot in the First World War.

He went on claim 10 enemy 'kills' and his exploits led to him being awarded the prestigious Military Medal.

After the war he was one of the 'founding fathers' of the glamorous early age of commercial flying with pioneering British long-distance travel airline Imperial Airways.

Sgt Olley personally flew the great and good on private charters including King Albert of Belgium, the Prince of Wales (later King George VI) and Hollywood actor Douglas Fairbanks using only crude equipment and primitive navigation facilities.

He carried on taking to the skies until the early 1950s when he finally hung up his flying googles aged 60.

His remarkable career has emerged now after his gallantry and campaign medals were put up for sale alongside fascinating photos which chart his civil aviation career.

One photo shows him stood alongside the celebrated English aviator Amy Johnson CBE who was the first female pilot to fly alone from Britain to Australia.

Another documents hordes of people gathered at an airfield in Edinburgh to cheer his arrival after he beat the 'Flying Scotsman' in a race from London.

The collection, which has been consigned for auction with London auctioneer Spink & Son, is tipped to sell for 15,000.

Marcus Budgen, specialist at Spink & Son, said: 'Sgt Olley went into battle with the Red Baron then was one of the founding fathers of civil aviation.

A photo of Sgt Gordon Olley tood alongside the celebrated English aviator Amy Johnson CBE who was the first female pilot to fly alone from Britain to Australia. Pictured right: Legendary Manfred von Richthoften, the Red Baron

'It was the glamorous age of flight where only the very wealthy could afford it - typically royals and celebrities.

'He was the first man to do one million miles as a pilot, which is quite some feat.

'It is a great story.'

Sgt Olley was born in Harleston, Norfolk, in 1893 and moved to Bristol aged eight.

At the outbreak of the war, he was a motor salesman at Selfridges, the famous London department store.

His remarkable career has emerged now after his gallantry and campaign medals were put up for sale. Pictured left to right: Military medal, 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and the Victory Medal awarded to Sgt Olley

The collection, which has been consigned for auction with London auctioneer Spink & Son, is tipped to sell for 15,000. Pictured: Sgt Olley's flying badge

Sgt Olley's flying licence is also up for auction and the lot is expected to sell for up to 15,000

He enlisted in Queen Victoria's Rifles in August 1914 but was transferred to the Royal Flying Corps after thumping his sergeant with a rifle.

In the RFC, Sgt Olley was initially used as a despatch rider, but he soon asked to learn to fly.

After completing his training, he entered aerial combat with No 1 Squadron in May 1917.

Just one month later, Sgt Olley took part in a fierce combat over Becelaere, near Ypres in Belgium, on June 26, 1917, where he crossed paths with Manfred von Richthoften.

Sgt Olley, in a Nieuport monoplane, was providing an escort to a pair of Sopwiths in a Nieuport when they were attacked by a legion of six Jasta 11 with the Red Baron in their midst.

Left to right: Fredrick Minchin, Walter Cockney-Rodgers and Sgt Gordon Olley, the three founding fathers of Imperial Airways

Showing no fear, he took out one of von Richthofen's comrades in convincing style, before undertaking a tricky landing back at base with most of his undercarriage shot away.

His fellow pilot, Lieutenant C Street, was not so lucky and was shot down and killed, becoming the Red Baron's 30th victim.

Sgt Olley later recounted: 'I remember, after this fierce scrap up in the air, I had to make the best landing I could with most of my under-carriage shot away.

'Somehow or other I managed to get the machine down without its turning over and then it slid along the ground for some distance, the wings finally collapsing and folding down all round me.'

Sgt Olley is pictured far right alongside wealthy passengers. Sgt Olley personally flew the great and good on private charters including King Albert of Belgium, the Prince of Wales (later King George VI) and Hollywood actor Douglas Fairbanks

In 1919, Sgt Olley left the air force and joined plane builder Handley-Page Transport Ltd, flying on the first continental air services.

During his first flight to Paris in a converted Handley-Page he carried out 17 forced-landings before ending up in a field.

On another outing to Belgium he did an emergency landing in the grounds of a monastery where he and his passengers 'were received hospitably' and spent the night in the monks' living quarters.

Sgt Olley was one of the founder pilots of Imperial Airways when it launched in 1924 and was in the cockpit for the 'Silver Wing service' from Croydon to Paris.

By September 1925, he had flown the English Channel 1,500 times and by early 1927 he had carried his 10,000th passenger.

On June 15, 1928, Sgt Olley took part in a famous London to Edinburgh race between a plane and the 'Flying Scotsman' locomotive.

Sgt Olley, in an Armstrong-Whitworth airliner, won by 15 minutes, landing to great fanfare in the Scottish capital.

On June 15, 1928, Sgt Olley took part in a famous London to Edinburgh race between a plane and the 'Flying Scotsman' locomotive

In 1931 he was acclaimed as 'the first pilot to fly a million miles', as he had done so much special-charter work overseas.

On one occasion, he flew 3,200miles from Cairo to London to allow Viscount Glenapp to be at his stricken father, the Earl of Inchcape's bedside.

To reach the viscount, he stopped off in Italy, Malta and on the north coast of Africa.

He founded his own charter airline, 'Olley Air Services Limited', in 1934 and stayed in the business until 1953.

Sgt Olley died, aged 65, in 1958.

Sgt Olley, in an Armstrong-Whitworth airliner, won by 15 minutes, landing to great fanfare in the Scottish capital

In 1931 he was acclaimed as 'the first pilot to fly a million miles', as he had done so much special-charter work overseas. Pictured: Spectators celebrate Sgt Olley's victory

Reflecting on his career, Sgt Olley wrote: 'It is a romance, all this, such as the world had never known before - a romance of speed, of human ingenuity, of immense technical achievement; a romance also of tremendous courage and personal skill.

'We have seen this great movement of the air go forward irresistibly.

'Nothing has been able to stop it. And today it has a future before it which will bring benefits and advantages to the entire world.'

His medal group, which has belonged to a private collector for the past 25 years, consists of the Military Medal; 1914-15 Star; British War and Victory Medals.

The auction takes place tomorrow (Weds).
A unique school in India where children are taught to write with both the left and right hands - some taking notes in two languages at the same time - is facing closure.

The Veena Vadini School in Budhela, Singrauli district of Madha Pradesh, has become famous for its policy to teach its students to become ambidextrous - an ability which only comes naturally to about one per cent of the global population.

Incredible video footage shows some of the 300 pupils in action, writing with both their left and right hand, often at the same time and in different languages.

Incredible: A student at the Veena Vadini School takes notes in two languages at the same time

The founder of Veena Vadini School, Virangat Prasad Sharma, claims his students are twice as fast as others thanks to their ability.

Mr Sharma explains: 'When a new student comes, I let them settle in for two to three days and after that I ask them to write.

'For 15 minutes, I observe them and then urge them to use both the hands. In some days, they usually get adept at writing with both hands. And now, our students can write different subjects simultaneously with each hand.'

'If regular students write a paper in three hours, these students can finish it in maximum one hour or one and a half hours.'

Apart from teaching the general curriculum, the school encourages its students to learn different languages, and a majority of the students are able to read and write English, Hindi, Urdu and Sanskrit.

Two hands: The school in Budhela, Singrauli district of Madha Pradesh, teaches its students to be ambidextrous - to use both the left and the right hand

Inspiring: The school has some 300 pupils and specialises in teaching languages

Man on a mission: Virangat Prasad Sharma, the founder of Veena Vadini School, was inspired by India's first President Dr Rajendra Prasad, who was ambidextrous

However, despite the success of their students, the school is facing being shut down.

The administration at the school has been unable to pay staff for the past six months, who are now threatening to quit en-masse.

'We are having financial problems.' added Mr Sharma, who has launched an online fundraising campaign.

'If we can make arrangements to pay the teachers then I am sure the school can produce some very bright individuals.

'If the school shuts down, these bright kids would have to go back the state-run schools where they won't learn a thing. Their talent and intelligence will go to waste. So please help me save their future.'

Gifted: A majority of the students are able to read and write English, Hindi, Urdu and Sanskrit

At risk: The administration at the school has been unable to pay staff for the past six months, and teachers are now threatening to quit, which would force the school to close

Mr Sharma has started an online fundraiser to save the school from the imminent shutdown

India's first President Dr Rajendra Prasad was ambidextrous and this inspired Mr Sharma, an ex-army man, to train the students in his school to achieve the same skills.

The school was established in the year 1999 and scholars from South Korea and the UK have visited the school to do a research on ambidexterity.

'Government schools are not good,' said concerned parent Kumari Kewalpati Viswakarma.

'They barely make efforts to teach students. The kids like to learn at Veena Vadini school.

'They can write with both hands, but they can also write math tables. This is why we chose this school for our children.'

Her daughter Anita Vishwakarma rejects the idea of going back to the state-run school.

'I told my mother that I won't study in a government school, they don't teach properly, and after that I came to this school to study,' she said. 'Now, I can write properly with both hands.'
Britain will still have to pay the 37billion Brexit divorce bill even if the country does not strike a trade deal with the EU, the chief of the Government's spending watchdog today said.

Sir Amyas Morse, controller of the National Audit Office, said the withdrawal agreement would become legally binding as soon as it became law.

His remarks are a blow for Theresa May who has said she will not pay Brussels the money if it denies Britain a post Brexit trade deal.

But Sir Amyas told the Commons Treasury select committee that most of the money is tied to the two-year transition period - so will still have to be paid even if no future deal is struck

Sir Amyas Morse, controller of the National Audit Office, controller of the National Audit Office (pictured in Parliament today) said the UK will still have to pay the Brexit bill under the terms of our withdrawal agreement with the EU

The remarks are a blow for Theresa May (pictured outside No10 today) who has said she will not pay Brussels the money if it denies Britain a post Brexit trade deal

Committee chairwoman Nicky Morgan asked: 'The Prime Minster told the House in relation to the financial settlement "that if we do not agree the future partnership then the offer is off the table".

WHY BRITAIN WILL BE PAYING THE BREXIT BILL UNTIL 2064? Britain will still be paying the Brexit divorce bill until 2064, new analysis of the deal revealed in March. The Office for Budget Responsibility said most of the 37billion would be paid over the next five years before a long commitment on costs such as pensions. Britain is better off each year from 2020-21, the analysis says, with an extra 5.7billion available to spend from 2022-23. Some of the money has already been committed in promises to re-join EU agencies and match farming subsidies. At the Spring Statement, Treasury sources said Britain had negotiated the right to bring payments to an end earlier with a lump sum payment but that it would only do so if it was in the national interest. Brexiteer Nigel Evans told MailOnline the money would be better paid as a single lump sum and part of the wider exit deal. He said: 'UK taxpayers can pay the obligations for the feather bedded pensions for Lord Mandelson and his mates but that can be sorted by actuaries as part of the overall exit package.' But in April the national Audit Office warned the final Brexit bill could be billions of pounds higher. Advertisement

'Is it your understanding that the payment on the financial settlement is conditional on an agreement on the future partnership?'

Sir Amyas replied: 'No, that's not my understanding.

'My understanding is as follows - that in the Autumn leading up to a significant vote there will be a draft of the Withdrawal Treaty and ta the same time there will be what I will call a statement of intent for how the rest of the relationship intended to work

'As I understand this the treaty is approved, and the idea is the statement of intention is meant to assist in approving that treaty, but the treaty would pass into law in time for is to leave the EU and then would become legally binding.

'And therefore the payments would fall for us to pay no matter what under international law.

'The reason why that would be is the payments are primarily in respect of continuing membership for the extension period - they don't relate directly to whatever the future relationship may be.'

His comments are a major blow to Mrs May, who has repeatedly said she will not hand over the massive Brexit divorce bill if no future trade deal is struck.

And Brexit Secretary David Davis ha made the same warning.

Britain and the EU have agreed a transition deal and are in the midst of the next round of discussions on a future deal.

Both sides fear there will not be enough time to thrash out all of the details of a trade deal and get these all sign up to by the time Britain formally exits the Brussels club on March 29 next year.

The PM wants Brussels to sign up to a political statement of intent which spells out what the future trade deal will look like.

This will be published alongside the Withdrawal agreement which will lay out Britain's exit - and the divorce bill the country has to pay - in law.

But Sir Amyas (pictured in Parliament today) told the Commons Treasury select committee that most of the money is tied to the two-year transition period - so will still have to be paid even if no future deal is struck

Mrs May has repeatedly stressed that 'nothing is agreed until everything is agreed' and that the divorce bill will be withheld if the EU snubs Britain's plans for a trade deal.

However, Sir Amyas' comments suggest that Britain will still have to pay the big bill even if the trade talks later hit the skids.

This would likely infuriate voters who backed Brexit as they wanted the UK to take back control of how the country's money is spent.

Sir Amyas' appearance before the committee comes a week after an NAO report found that the Brexit divorce bill could be billions more than the official Treasury estimates.

Philip Hammonds Treasury has estimated that the UK will have to pay Brussels between 35billion and 39billion to facilitate Brexit.

But the National Audit Office warned that the true figure could be significantly higher thanks to other financial commitments not enumerated by the Treasury.

They said the UK will probably still have to pay 3billion towards the EUs overseas aid budget after we have left.
Set on mannequins ready for public display later this week, there is almost a ghostly quality to these outfits once worn by the late Princess Diana.

Devoid of her beauty, smile and charisma, they are a reminder not just of three pivotal moments her life, but also of the loss that many still feel at her tragic passing.

The three iconic outfits  featured here exclusively by MailOnline - have been personally loaned by her sons, William and Harry, for an exhibition at Kensington Palace on Diana's legendary sense of style and her fashion legacy, which launched last year to mark the 20th anniversary of her death.

Diana visited war-torn Angola just weeks before her death in 1997 as a guest of the International Red Cross to see for herself the effects of landmines and meet some of their victims.

She famously walked through a minefield to highlight the work of the Halo Trust, a charity working to remove them  but also into a diplomatic storm after she was accused of wading into an issue that was 'too political'. Her visit focused international attention onto a relatively unknown humanitarian crisis

Among them is the sleeveless blue shirt and Armani chinos that Diana wore to launch her global campaign against landmines on a visit to Angola shortly before she died in a Paris car crash in 1997.

It was an outfit, completed with a Halo branded flak vest, that she hoped would change public perception of her forever.

Gone was the designer clothes horse of old, replaced by a serious middle-aged woman renowned for her humanitarian efforts.

Surprisingly, not just because she sold many of her most famous outfits for charity at auction, but also because she frequently secretly off-loaded bin bag-loads of unwanted clothes to charity shops in the Kensington area, it is understood that William and Harry have several pieces of clothing belonging to their mother still in their possession.

This silk 'going away' dress with a fichu collar (similar to a very long scarf or neckerchief hung round the neck, crossed in front) and bolero jacket was memorably worn by Diana as she board the train at Waterloo for her honeymoon in July 1981. It was subsequently worn by the princess for an overseas tour of Australia in 1982 and a visit to Grimbsy in 1983. It was designed by David Sassoon, one of her favourite designers of the early 1980s, and epitomises the virginal 'Shy Di' look of the young Diana

Also among them is the pretty pink Bellville Sassoon suit she wore to board the train for her honeymoon in 1981, the other a stunning purple Versace evening dress worn to a Chicago fundraising gala in aid of cancer charities in 1996.

The outfits are an interesting contrast, one encapsulating the girlish 'Shy Di' of the early years of her marriage, the other a sexy, glamorous and confident post-divorce princess.

The three ensembles are among eight new outfits to go on show at Diana's former home from April 26th in an exhibition organised by Historic Royal Palaces, the charity response for the upkeep of several royal residences.

The others are a sumptuous green silk Victor Edelstein evening gown worn for an official portrait by Terence Donovan  which goes on public display for the first time  and striking floor length gown by Yuki, designed for the Prince and Princess of Wales's visit to Japan.

This stunning silk Atelier Versace silk evening dress is a perfect example of the strong, confident woman Diana became after her divorce from Prince Charles. Throughout the mid 1990s, she developed a friendship with Versace and inspired him to create a chic new look for her, which in turn influenced both the catwalk and High Street. This dress was worn to a fundraising dinner at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago in June 1996

There is also a tartan day dress by Caroline Charles, worn to the 1982 Braemar Games in the Scottish Highlands. This important example of Diana's early wardrobe has recently been acquired by Historic Royal Palaces, and joins the charity's Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection, a treasure trove of over 10,000 items of royal and court dress.

There are also two outfits by her favourite couturier, Catherine Walker: a light blue silk day dress first worn on an official tour to New Zealand in 1983 with her husband and a baby Prince William, and a striking black and red evening gown worn to a Pavarotti charity concert in 1995.

Diana loved fashion and while she sometimes baulked at being seen as a clothes horse, she did frequently used her wardrobe to focus media attention on the causes she cared so passionately about or to send out a message about what was going on in her life.

It comes after the red outfit Kate wore she emerged with the royal baby yesterday was compared to the coat which Diana wore when she walked out with Prince Harry in 1984

Eleri Lynn, exhibition curator at Historic Royal Palaces, said: 'Diana, Princess of Wales was one of the most photographed women in the world, and it's no coincidence that so many of her outfits are now among the most easily recognisable in fashion history. Through Diana: Her Fashion Story we explore the evolution of a young woman who had to first learn the rules of royal and diplomatic dressing, then master the art of creating her own signature style.

'Following the exhibition's incredible success in 2017, we're delighted that this year visitors to Kensington Palace will have the chance to see yet more of the Princess's show-stopping wardrobe for themselves.'

The revamped display, featuring eight new outfits  including these three on loan from the Royal Household - reopens to the public this Thursday April 26.

For further details on Diana: Her Fashion Story and how to get tickets, click here.
A 24-year-old Queensland man has been sentenced to nine months in jail after he randomly attacked a man walking with his wife and dog on Hervey Bay's esplanade.

Earlier this week Bruce Isaiah Walker, 24, pleaded guilty of assault occasioning bodily harm in Hervey Bay District Court.

The court heard how Walker, dealing with grief surrounding missing his father's funeral, threatened the 33-year-old victim with a broken beer bottle as the man exclaimed, 'no, no, no, I'm not the one you're looking for.'

Earlier this week Bruce Isaiah Walker (pictured) pleaded guilty of assault occasioning bodily harm in Hervey Bay District Court

Walker did not say anything to the victim but punched him once in the jaw and once in the back of the head, before running into the ocean.

When police apprehended him later that night he had a blood alcohol reading of .196, almost four times the legal limit.

At the time the offence occurred Walker was on parole for lighting a fire at a school so that he and the group he was with could rob a nearby shop undetected.

In sentencing Judge Greg Koppenol said Walker 'had a bucket of alcohol and went berserk.'

'It was gratuitous street violence on a man simply walking his dog with his wife.'

Walker is able to be released on parole June 22.

He randomly attacked a man walking with his wife and dog on Hervey Bay's esplanade (pictured) before running into the ocean

At the time the offence occurred Walker (pictured) was on parole for lighting a fire at a school so that he and the group he was with could rob a nearby shop undetected




CNN host Jake Tapper went on Ellen Tuesday and revealed he had a 'rather large' crush on her when she was first starting out in the 1980s.

During the first few minutes of her show, the light banter quickly turned to Tapper's adoration of the daytime talk show host.

He revealed: 'I have to say I've known of you since the late 1980s.' He added: I was a big fan of a little show called Open House.'

And then, Tapper, 49, awkwardly revealed to the gay icon: 'I have to confess that I had a rather large crush on you at the time.'

CNN's Jake Tapper appeared on Ellen on Tuesday and revealed he had a huge crush on her back in the 1980s, years before she came out to the world as a lesbian in 1997

The host cracked 'Oh... sorry. Sorry to disappoint.'

Ellen DeGeneres, 60, announced to the world that she is a lesbian back in 1997 in an interview with Time magazine.

Tapper said there were no hard feelings, responding 'I made my peace with it some time ago.'

Tapper, who was on the talk show promoting his book 'The Hellfire Club,' also touched on his 20 plus years in broadcast television and President Donald Trump.

Ellen promoted him, asking: 'So what is happening? Have you ever seen anything like what is happening right now?'

Tapper deadpanned: 'No. It 's crazy.' To which Ellen added: 'And scary.'

However, while Tapper agreed with Ellen's sentiments, he expounded: 'I do have a lot of faith in American institutions, in checks and balances, and the free press still thrives and we get to say what we want to say.'

'Its very odd. We have never had a president talk and act this way. We've never had a direct line from the id of a president's brain out to the world via Twitter,' he said explained.

Tapper is referring to the Freudian use of the Latin word 'id' which translates to 'it'. The id, according to Freud, lacks logic, reason, or even organization, it can contain conflicting impulses. The id is primitive in nature and wants to be satisfied immediately.

Ellen pictured with wife Portia de Rossi in February, they have been married almost 10 years

Tapper is pictured with his wife, Jennifer Brown. They have been married for 12 years

Being from the CNN family - the president's favorite news outlet punching bag - Ellen asked: 'Does it bother you he attacks CNN, calling it fake news.'

He responded: 'It bothers me when he attacks the media over and over and over again. And he seems he uses the term fake news almost exclusively about news that is true that I don't like.

'But it bothers me more when he goes after the disabled or goes after someone with a drug or alcohol problem, like he did a few days ago, it's indecent.'

Tapper, who has been married to Jennifer Brown for 12 years, also briefly dated Monica Lewinsky, just before news of her affair with a then President Bill Clinton broke in 1998.
James Comey has sold 600,000 copies of his hotly anticipated memoir A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership in its first week.

The former FBI director has outsold Hillary Clinton's What Happened at a ratio of 3:1 already.

Comey signed a $2million deal for the memoir with Flatiron after being fired by President Trump in 2017.

Details of the contract, specifically how much more he will earn if sales skyrocket, remain unclear.

Since before the book was available on April 17, he has been promoting it enthusiastically on television stations across the country.

James Comey's memori, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership, has sold 600,000 copies since it was published on April 17

Clinton's book sold 300,000 in its first week after being published last September.

It went back to print three times in its first week, putting 800,000 in circulation.

By contrast, Comey's memoir has been printed 1 million times.

Comey has also outsold Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff which sold around 300,000 in its first week

He has also outsold Michael Wolf's explosive Fire And Fury which

He has however drawn criticism for the timing of its publication given the ongoing probe into Russian interference in the election.

Earlier this week, Senator Susan Collins said he was 'cashing in' on the timing and potentially jeopardizing the result of the Special Counsel investigation as a result.

'I cannot imagine why an FBI director would seek to essentially cash in on a book when the investigation is very much alive,' she said.

President Trump has also slammed the book and cited an ongoing investigation by the Department of Justice's internal watchdog into whether Comey leaked classified information by sharing details of memos he took from meetings with the president.

Comey has always maintained that he did not leak any classified information.
A four-year-old Florida girl is finally home after she nearly died from swallowing pool water earlier this week.

Elianna Grace, of Sarasota, was left fighting for her life in the hospital after she caught an infection from the pool chemicals.

Now her family is overjoyed that their little girl has returned home and is on her way to a full recovery.

Elianna's mother Lacey Grace revealed that she is now taking antibiotics but gets sleepy easily and is still struggling to eat.

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Elianna Grace, four, is back at her Sarasota, Florida home after she nearly died from swallowing water from a pool (pictured behind her) earlier this week

Elianna was fighting for her life in the hospital for days after she caught an infection from the pool chemicals

But Elianna is also enjoying the new toys she was gifted while in the hospital, Grace told WTSP.

Elianna was hospitalized last Wednesday, just four days after she played in her grandparent's pool with a pool noodle.

'By 100% freak accident, Elianna put her mouth to blow out at the same time someone blew in the other end, causing the water to shoot directly down her throat,' Grace wrote on Facebook.

Elianna immediately threw up the water and seemed fine 30 minutes afterward and continued playing.

Elianna's mother Lacey Grace revealed that she is now taking antibiotics but gets sleepy easily and is still struggling to eat

But Elianna is also enjoying the new toys she was gifted while in the hospital and is on the road to making a full recovery

He mother says she was also okay the following day, but then developed a fever on Monday.

'Kids get fevers, this is normal. I didn't think much. Tuesday she slept most of the day but still overall looked fine. Sent her to school Wednesday and got a call in the afternoon that her fever was back,' her mother wrote on Facebook.

Lacey said she then rushed her daughter to an urgent care center where the doctor told her to get Elianna to the nearest emergency room as soon as possible.

'Her heart rate was crazy high, her oxygen was low, and her skin was turning purple which suggested chemical infection,' according to Lacey.

When they arrived at the ER, Elianna underwent an X-ray that showed inflammation and infection caused from pool chemicals.

Elianna (right) was hospitalized last Wednesday just four days after she played in her grandparent's pool with a 'pool noodle', according to her mother, Lacey Grace

Grace (pictured with her family) said she then rushed her daughter to an urgent care center where the doctor urged her to take Elianna to the emergency room

Two hours later, Elianna was transferred to a larger hospital where she was diagnosed with aspiration pneumonia.

As Elianna was getting sicker, Grace recalled an article she had read a year prior about a four-year-old Texas boy who died from 'dry drowning'.

The boy, named Francisco 'Frankie' Delgado Jr, had inhaled water while swimming that built up around his lungs and heart.

'He passed away after seven days and she was on day four so it was just, I don't know what would've happened if we waited,' Grace said.

'There were two doctors that told me that, you know, thank god you brought her in because her oxygen levels were dropping in the hospital.'

Grace is now encouraging other parents to beware of pool water and to get help immediately if their child swallows any

'She looked, she was sleeping, she looked like an angel. She didn't look like she was struggling whatsoever.'

Grace said she considers Frankie to be her guardian angel, guiding her on how to take care of Elianna.

The mom is now encouraging other parents to beware of pool water and to get help immediately if their child swallows any.

'If you think something is off, I encourage you to get them checked out,' she said.

'Best case, they're gonna say, "Your kid's okay, something that'll pass". And, worst case, they're gonna say, "You need to get to the nearest ER immediately"'.

The family has since set up a GoFundMe account to raise money for Elianna's medical expenses which has raised more than $2,000.
Two doctors have been jailed after a mother died in agony when an anaesthetic failed during a boob job operation in Russia.

Ekaterina 'Katya' Klementieva, 25, had wanted to 'surprise' her husband by increasing her 34B bust and unknown to him had secretly saved 2,150 to cover the surgery, a court in Magnitogorsk was told.

But the mother-of-one suffered excruciating pain during the operation - leading to a cardiac arrest. The victim was unable to alert the doctor to the appalling agony she felt.

But following a relentless campaign by Katya's mother, surgeon Viktor Markov and anaesthetist Yevgeny Yashin have been jailed for two years each, convicted of providing services that led to death.

Two doctors have been jailed after Ekaterina 'Katya' Klementieva (pictured) died in agony when an anaesthetic failed during a boob job operation in Russia

Klementieva, 25, had wanted to 'surprise' her husband by increasing her 34B bust and unknown to him had secretly saved 2,150 to cover the surgery

Following a relentless campaign by Katya's mother, surgeon Viktor Markov (pictured) and anaesthetist Yevgeny Yashin have been jailed for two years each, convicted of providing services that led to death

The victim was unable to alert the doctor to the appalling agony she felt at the clinic (pictured)

They were also banned from carrying out any medical operations for three years.

Tatyana Verzilova, 59, the victim's mother, said: 'It was already a victory for me when the criminal case was opened and reached the court.

'I had hoped that they would be given three years, as the prosecutor called for.'

She said: 'The experts found that my daughter could feel everything.

'But she couldn't say a word when she was having her surgery.'

After her death, no criminal case was opened by the Russian authorities, and it took a campaign by the bereaved mother to secure justice.

In 2015, the clinic was ordered to pay 22,000 to Katya's widower Maxim, her son Stas, then eight, and Tatyana.

But the distraught mother pursued the battle further ensuring that criminal charges were paid against the doctor.

The mother-of-one (left, and right with husband Maxim) died suffering excruciating pain during the operation by a Russian clinic - which led to a cardiac arrest. The victim was unable to alert the doctor to the appalling agony she felt

In love: Katya and Maxim, who have one son Stas, were childhood sweethearts. They married when she was 18 and he was 20

Plastic surgeon Viktor Markov told the court in the city of Magnitogorsk that the procedure to put implant into one breast was successful.

An emergency occurred as she was given an anaesthetic for the second implant.

'When we injected it for the second time, there were problems,' he admitted.

An independent review found that Katya died from 'pain shock and hyperventilation' triggered by the operation and failure of the anaesthetic.

On the day of the surgery she asked husband Maxim to drop her off at the clinic,- telling him she was having a minor procedure - 'a woman's thing' - and he shouldn't worry.

Her widower said that if he had known she was planning breast surgery, he would have stopped her.

'I play that scene over and over again,' he said.

'I should have got out of the car and asked her exactly what this was about,' he said.

After her death, no criminal case was opened by the Russian authorities, and it took a campaign by the bereaved mother to secure justice

On the day of the surgery she asked husband Maxim to drop her off at the clinic,- telling him she was having a minor procedure - 'a woman's thing' - and he shouldn't worry

An independent review found that Katya (pictured) died from 'pain shock and hyperventilation' triggered by the operation and failure of the anaesthetic

'If I had the slightest inkling she was having a boob job, I'd have stopped her.

'I wouldn't have let her leave home.

'She had the most perfect breasts, and body, and why did she need this....?

'I curse myself for not stopping her.'

He had imagined she was having tiny polyps removed from her face.

'I had no idea you could do a boob job overnight, so I didn't think it was anything major,' he said.

He told how Dr Markov called him to say his wife - his teenage sweetheart - had been rushed to hospital from the plastic surgery clinic because 'her heart suddenly stopped during the breast implant operation'.

He said: 'I felt like I'd been hit with a mallet. What breast operation? I couldn't take it in there and then but I knew I had to get to the hospital right now.'

He arrived too late to see her alive.

The plastic surgeon told him: 'I've never seen this before, and I'm so sorry. We did everything to revive her.'

Nightmare: Katya was left in agony during the surgery, but was unable to tell the doctors performing the operation

Maxim said: 'She was stunning - and I never put pressure on her to have treatments.

'Believe me, I never even hinted at anything being wrong about her body - and least of all her breasts. They were beautiful.

'This is why for me the shock is even worse than it might be. And she, too, never said: "Oh, I want bigger breasts". Never once.'

But he assumed she wanted to 'surprise' him.

He guessed: 'Maybe she thought this is what all men want, but I swear I didn't and now my beautiful perfect wife, who loved life so much, is in a coffin under the ground.'

He is now raising their son, Stas, now 11.

After their teenage romance, the couple had married when she was 18 and he was 20, but he found it impossible to comprehend why she went for the surgery.

She had not told her closest girlfriends either, he said.

'I really can't understand what was behind her decision to "improve" her body.

'I try to guess and fail. It wasn't worth it. I wish so much Katya could know how much it was not worth it.

'If I'd have known, I'd have locked the doors and hidden the keys to stop her.

'I just hope that by telling our tragic story I can prevent at least one other happy family from going through the pain and loss we've suffered.

'Please think of Katya - and us - if you're planning such an operation.'
A Florida high school student who held a 'racist' sign asking a girl to prom has been ridiculed on social media.

Noah Crowley from Riverview High School in Sarasota wrote on a large white placard: 'If I was black I'd be picking cotton, but I'm white so I'm picking u 4 prom?'

The 18-year-old's so called 'prom-proposal' was posted to Snapchat by his date along with two heart emojis. The picture sparked outrage and quickly went viral.

Noah Crowley, 18, holding the 'racist' sign in a picture taken by his prom date and posted to Snapchat

'We have to do better than this. This is why racism is still a thing,' one person wrote on Twitter.

'The fact no one told him this was wrong during the entire process of making it, INCLUDING the girl who said yes is a big issue and this makes me sick,' said another.

The picture even prompted the boy's headteacher to write a letter to parents.

Kathy Wilks, acting principal at Riverview, said the 'very concerning situation' caused by the post, which 'was racial in nature', is being investigated by the school.

Since the boy's post went viral, an apology believed to be written by him has also emerged.

'I want to sincerely apologise if I have offended anyone with the picture going around. That was not my intention,' it read.

'Anyone who knows me... knows that that's not how we truly feel. It was a completely joke and it went too far.

'After reading the texts and Snapchat's, I truly see how I have offended people and I'm sorry.'

The picture quickly went viral online and attracted ridicule from outraged commenters

Riverview High School in Sarasota, Florida, are investigating the 'very concerning situation'

A similar prom-posal received equal outrage in South Florida last year.

Three girls at Monarch High School in Coconut Creek held a sign reading 'You may be picking cotton, but we're picking you to go to prom with us'.

Two of the students holding the sign were suspended.

Riverview's school district said in a statement published by WCNC that the boy's message is being investigated.

It added that the district 'is working with local and national civic leaders, including the NAACP, to develop a roundtable forum to discuss the issue of race  not just at Riverview, but district-wide.'
Simon Monteiro, dubbed the 'playboy rapist', is behind bars after breaching parole

Simon Monteiro, known as the 'Playboy rapist' has stormed out of a video parole hearing saying he would rather complete his sentence.

According to SMH, his barrister told the State Parole Authority that he wanted a three month delay on the hearing so his client could be assessed by the Corrective Services Personality Behaviour Disorders Service.

After being told he would have to apply for the parole again after the three month review Monteiro said, 'Scratch that, I'll see you in two years,' before storming out of the video link room.

Simon Monteiro went back behind bars after breaching his parole conditions, less than two months after his release from prison in February.

The 50-year-old was taken back into custody after an arrest warrant was executed.

Monteiro, a former model, served nearly nine years in jail for the rape of his former girlfriend in Sydney's eastern suburbs.

He was subject to strict supervision conditions when he was released on February 4, including electronic monitoring, psychological counselling and drug and alcohol testing.

The 50-year-old was also banned from entering several eastern suburbs areas, including Randwick, Waverley and Woollahra.

Though Monteiro failed to comply with his parole conditions, 'he did not commit an offence,' a statement from State Parole Authority said.

Monteiro was reportedly uncooperative with conditions that had been set upon him and had disrespected the justice system, Minister for Corrections David Elliott told the Daily Telegraph .

'The offender has chosen to disrespect the justice system by breaching his parole orders,' Mr Elliott said.

The 50-year-old was taken back into custody after an arrest warrant was executed on Thursday afternoon, the State Parole Authority has said

Monteiro, a former model, served nearly nine years in jail for the rape of his former girlfriend in Sydney's eastern suburbs

Monteiro served almost nine years of an 11-year sentence.

Monteiro's release in February came after he was rejected for parole twice in 2015 and again in 2016.

Corrective Services NSW launched a last-minute bid to revoke January's decision to grant the serial offender parole, with commissioner Peter Severin arguing that Monteiro 'would be unable to adapt to normal lawful community life'.




Donald Trump on Tuesday snapped at a reporter who asked him whether he's considering a presidential pardon for his embattled personal attorney Michael Cohen.

'Stupid question!' the president said.

Trump was fielding questions from a contingent of journalists after he greeted French President Emanuel Macron in the Oval Office.

A day earlier, the White House seemed unwilling to rule out a future pardon for Cohen, who is facing a criminal probe over hush-money payments to women who claim to have bedded the president.

Associated Press Washington Bureau Chief Julie Pace countered on CNN that the query about Cohen was 'not a stupid question ... [it's] a very legitimate question for journalists to be asking about at this point.'

Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters Monday that 'it's hard to close the door on something that hasn't taken place.'

Donald Trump, in the Oval Office with French President Emanuel Macron (left), snapped at a reporter who asked him whether he's considering a pardon for his personal attorney Michael Cohen : 'Stupid question!'

Cohen (left) is under investigation for campaign finance violations and bank fraud related to payoffs made to women who claim to have slept with Trump (right), who has the power to pardon anyone in the nation

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters Monday that she couldn't 'close the door' on the idea of a presidential pardon for Cohen

That could mean merely that pardons are generally not awarded preemptively  only after convictions.

But the turn of phrase left political reporters unsure what she meant, especially since it was the second time Sanders was asked the question in the space of just a few hours.

She told journalists Monday morning on the North Lawn of the White House: 'I don't think that we are going to talk about hypotheticals that don't exist right now.'

Sanders expanded that idea during her afternoon briefing, describing a future pardon decision as impacting a hypothetical situation ... that may or may not ever happen.'

She referred future questions to Cohen's and Trump's lawyers.

Monday morning on CNN's 'New Day' program, White House legislative director Marc Short tangled with host Chris Cuomo about why President Trump hasn't personally and publicly exonerated his longtime legal eagle.

White House legislative director Marc Short (right) told CNN host Chris Cuomo on Monday that if Trump preemptively pardoned Cohen, 'there'd be quite an outcry from your network'

Sanders refused earlier on Monday to talk about a hypothetical pardon but fueled the media's speculation

'I would imagine if he did that there'd be quite an outcry from your network,' Short said.

'There's no need. There's no need for that at this point.'

Trump attacked a New York Times reporter on Saturday for writing that his lawyers are bracing for Cohen to turn against him by cooperating with the FBI.

'Most people will flip if the Government lets them out of trouble, even if it means lying or making up stories,' the president tweeted. 'Sorry, I don't see Michael doing that despite the horrible Witch Hunt and the dishonest media!'

In a string of tweets on Saturday morning, Trump defended Cohen and said he doesn't believe he'll cooperate with federal investigators or 'flip' on him

Earlier, he took aim at New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, who reported Friday that it was a 'strong possibility' Cohen would cooperate to save his own skin.

Trump called Haberman 'third rate' on Saturday, and declared Cohen is 'a fine person with a wonderful family.'

'Michael is a businessman for his own account/lawyer who I have always liked & respected,' he continued.
Business Secretary Greg Clark has waved through the sale of one Britain's oldest engineering firms to a controversial investment group.

Mr Clark dismissed claims of a 'predatory' takeover as he confirmed the government will not intervene in the sale of GKN to Melrose Industries.

Explaining the decision against blocking the sale on national security grounds, Mr Clark told MPs of the numerous assurances given by Melrose as part of the 8.1billion takeover deal.

Greg Clark dismissed claims of a 'predatory' takeover as he told MPs the government will not intervene in the sale of GKN to Melrose Industries

Melrose has succeeded in its 8billion takeover of the 259-year-old engineering firm

He said: 'The MoD has completed its detailed analysis and has agreed with Melrose a series of undertakings specifically to ensure that the Government is informed in advance of any plans to divest a business, a component of the business or assets which engage in activities that the Ministry of Defence considers to have national security implications.'

Mr Clark said the Government had been given 'suitable protections' from any subsequent sale of the business and had been given assurances over the continuation of contractual obligations 'to protect intellectual property and classified information'.

He added: 'Melrose have also agreed to meet with me and my officials every six months to provide updates on their ownership of GKN.

'On the basis of the commitments given relating to national security, the Ministry of Defence concluded that statutory intervention is not required.'

Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey told ministers the assurances were 'not sufficient to guarantee security of the long-term prospects' of the company or the workforce.

She said: 'Melrose are reportedly short-termist in their outlook which undermines the long-term thinking required in defence projects.

'What we needed today from the secretary was not just a waving through of the deal, we needed action both in terms of obtaining concrete assurances from Melrose on the future of GKN and its workforce, but also clear plans to reform and widen our takeover regime to protect British businesses.

'I fear the short-term predators already smell their next victim and it's not just Melrose, it's Britain's industrial future.'

Mr Clark hit back telling Ms Long-Bailey she had 'prejudiced her position' by advancing the takeover should be blocked from the outset and had 'given away the ability to have influence'.

Explaining the decision against blocking the sale on national security grounds, Mr Clark told MPs of the numerous assurances given by Melrose as part of the 8.1billion takeover deal

The Business Secretary added: 'This is the responsible way to proceed and she would do the employees and stakeholders of GKN a service if she would engage more forensically in future.'

Melrose won its takeover battle to buy GKN in March after securing the backing of the engineering giant's shareholders.

A total of 52.43% investor votes were cast in favour of the deal, just above the 50% plus 1 share threshold.

Its victory brought to a close a bitter battle that has raged since January, with unions and MPs warning of job cuts and asset stripping.

GKN dates back to the 1900s and was instrumental in wartime manufacturing.

The firm became a target following profit warnings in October and November after problems at its US aerospace division sent shares tumbling.

GKN is headquartered in Redditch and has its biggest factory in Filton near Bristol, where it employs 1,454 workers.

Other plants in the UK include Cowes, Birmingham, Luton, Telford, Kings Norton, Portsmouth, Uxbridge, Leek and Oxford.
Russia's new nuclear drone submarine could be capable of causing 300ft-high tsunamis, able to wipe out coastal cities, experts say.

The existence of the drone, believed to be the Status-6 system - also known as 'Putin's doomsday machine' - was confirmed by the Russian President himself in his annual state-of-the-nation speech in Moscow last month.

Experts say a 50 megaton underwater nuclear bomb would be able to create tsunami waves reaching more than 320ft - the 'Status-6' is allegedly able to carry a 100 megaton warhead.

Destroyer: Russia's new nuclear carrying drone submarine - Status-6 - would be able to create devastating tsunamis if dropping warheads underwater, according to experts

The Status-6 is reported to have a range of up to 6,200 miles with top speeds of 56 knots, and an ability to carry nuclear warheads within range of the US.

In his speech on March 1, Putin said the high-speed underwater drone also has an 'intercontinental' range and is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead that could target both aircraft carriers and coastal facilities.

He said its operational depth and high speed would make it immune to enemy intercept, adding: 'It's just fantastic!'

Physicist and nuclear-weapons researcher Rex Richardson told Business Insider that an underwater warhead dropped by the drone could destroy coastal cities.

Dangerous: A video showed during President Putin's speech last month showed a nuclear warhead being launched from the drone submarine carrier

Putin's arsenal: The new nuclear weapons announced by Putin in March, including the underwater drone carrier, seen bottom centre, believed to be named Status-6

'A well-placed nuclear weapon of yield in the range 20 megatons to 50 megatons near a seacoast could certainly couple enough energy to equal the 2011 tsunami [In Japan which killed nearly 16,000 people], and perhaps much more.

'Taking advantage of the rising-sea-floor amplification effect, tsunami waves reaching 100 meters [328 feet] in height are possible.'

Mr Richardson added that such an underwater nuclear bomb dropped off the coast of the United States would be able to cause catastrophic damage to cities such as Los Angeles or San Diego through radioactive fallout rains.

Vlad's new bag of toys: Putin claims that Status-6's operational depth and high speed would make it immune to enemy intercept

The 'Status-6' was one of several new nuclear weapons which President Putin announced as having undergone tests in recent months.

In the state-of-the-nation speech, Putin said the arsenal include a nuclear-powered cruise missile, a new hypersonic missile and showed video footage the launch of a new heavy intercontinental ballistic missile on big screens.

During his speech, Putin said the creation of the new weapons has made NATO's U.S.-led missile defense 'useless,' and means an effective end to what he described as Western efforts to stymie Russia's development.

Speaking of the new arsenal, Putin said that the nuclear-powered cruise missile tested last fall has an unlimited range and high speed and maneuverability allowing it to pierce any missile defense.
Travel agent Cathryn Craven, 50, is claiming 700,000 compensation after the fatal crash

A divorcing wife whose estranged husband was killed by a speeding car is claiming 700,000 compensation - insisting he 'clearly loved her' and they would have got back together.

Travel agent Cathryn Craven, 50, left construction boss Jayson Craven, taking their younger children with her, after learning that he was having an affair in 2014, the High Court in London was told.

But he was hit and 'killed instantly' while crossing a dual carriageway in Coventry before the split could be finalised.

Motorist Terry Davies was jailed for four years at Coventry Crown Court in 2015, having been convicted of causing Mr Craven's death by dangerous driving.

Mrs Craven, a mother-of-three, is now bringing a 700,000 claim against the driver from Coventry, claiming she was her 48-year-old husband's 'dependant' despite their impending divorce.

She claims that she still 'loved him deeply' and that they probably would have got their marriage back on track had he not been killed.

The High Court heard that Mr Craven was killed while crossing the Fletchhamstead Highway in Coventry in June 2014 after an alcohol-fuelled night out.

Motorist Terry Davies (left) was jailed for four years in 2015, having been convicted of causing construction boss Jayson Craven's (right) death by dangerous driving

He was hit by Davies's Audi Quatro at 86mph, on a stretch of the road with a 40mph limit, said Mrs Craven's barrister Marcus Grant.

He told Judge Jeremy Freedman that tensions between the couple 'drove a wedge' between them, and Mr Craven 'began to look for physical affection elsewhere and began an affair' in early 2014.

'On discovering this, Mrs Craven left the family home taking the younger children with her' and filed for divorce shortly afterwards, Mr Grant added.

A decree nisi was pronounced seven weeks after Mr Craven was killed, the application having been lodged whilst he still lived.

Mr Grant, however, argued that the couple would have saved their marriage and that Mrs Craven remained dependent on her husband.

Her 'desire to be divorced from him would have been lessened to the point of extinction' once she had released how badly off financially she would be without him, the barrister added.

Mr Craven was killed while crossing the Fletchhamstead Highway in Coventry in June 2014

Mr Craven, for his part, was 'saying before his death about his own desire to save the marriage,' said Mr Grant.

In the witness box, Mrs Craven said that her husband had been 'trying to reconcile the marriage' when he died. 'He clearly loved me,' she told Judge Freedman.

She said: 'We had been through a lot of emotions. There had been sadness. He had been angry. He had been quiet and very loving. He sent me flowers at Christmas.'

Lawyers for Davies are denying the couple would have got back together or that Mrs Craven should be compensated as her husband's dependant.

They say Mr Craven had cancelled the direct debit mortgage payments on the couple's 475,000 five-bedroom detached home in Coventry, shortly before he was killed. The hearing continues.
A jealous wife shot and killed her husband's lover in an ambush, then turned the gun on herself, after she found out about their affair.

Cops found the bodies of Villanova University Assistant Vice President Meredith Chapman, 33, and Jennair Gerardot, 48, at a home in Radnor Township .

According to neighbors, Meredith, who was married to former Newark City Councilman Luke Chapman for nearly a decade, had just moved in a week ago at the start of her new job.

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A former candidate for the Delaware State Senate was shot dead by her lover's jealous wife, Jennair Gerardot (left), who then took her own life as part of what police have described as a carefully planned and calculated murder-suicide. Mark Gerardot is seen right

Love triangle: Police say Jennair Gerardot, 48, shot and killed her husband Mark's (pictured together, left), 33-year-old mistress Meredith Chapman (right) and then herself

The bodies of Meredith and Jennair were found inside this home in Randor Township, Pennsylvania, on Monday night

Police say both women suffered fatal gunshot wounds but there is no danger to the community

Police in Radnor Township revealed on Tuesday that Meredith was having an affair with Jennair's husband, Mark, who had served as creative director at University of Delaware and was Meredith's subordinate.

Mark and Meredith were supposed to meet up for dinner on Monday night, but the woman never made it to the restaurant.

While he was waiting for his girlfriend to arrive, Mark began receiving disturbing text messages from his wife, which led him to Meredith's home, according to police.

Officers who responded to Meredith's home were met by Mark, who warned them that his wife might be inside the residence.

Philly.com reported earlier that Jennair suspected that her husband was cheating on her with Meredith, so she decided to take revenge on her by ambushing her.

The woman had broken into the three-story brick house on Lowry Lane while Meredith was away, picked up the shards of glass to cover her tracks and waited for the victim to return.

When Meredith opened the door, police say Jennair opened fire, killing her, and then committed suicide.

Office romance: Police say Mark Gerardot (pictured with wife Jennair) at one time served as Meredith's subordinate

Hell hath no fury...: Jennair Gerardot (left and right) somehow learned of the affair and allegedly plotted to kill Meredith

Married bliss: Meredith is pictured as a bride with her groom Luke on their wedding day in 2009

When police responded to the scene, they found the bodies of both women on the first floor of the residence, which was splattered with blood. The suspected murder weapon was found under Jennair's body in the kitchen.

Radnor Township Police Superintendent William Colarulo shared additional details concerning the deadly plot, including how the jealous wife took a train from Delaware to Pennsylvania wearing a wig to hide her identity, and how she cleaned up the shattered glass from the window she used as her entry point so that her victim would not be tipped off that someone had broken in.

Meredith had served as the director of digital communications and an adjunct professor at her alma mater, University of Delaware, until earlier this month, when she took a new job as assistant vice president as Villanova University, reported DelawareOnline.com

The house where the murder-suicide took place on Monday is located near the Villanova campus.

Meredith, nee Sullivan, married Luke Chapman in 2009 and the couple lived in Fairfield Crest, Delaware, with their dog Indy. As recently as March 30, she posted a message on her Facebook page referencing her husband's political career.

Meredith had served as the director of digital communications and an adjunct professor at her alma mater, University of Delaware, until earlier this month

Meredith, pictured left with former Vice President Joe Biden and right with her former boss, ex-Rep Mike Castle, ran an unsuccessful campaign for State Senate District 8 in 2016

Happy couple: Meredith married Delaware politician Luke Chapman (right) in 2009

Meredith had just taken a new job as assistant vice president of Villanova University

Earlier this year, Meredith's husband announced he would not be seeking re-election for a fourth term on the Newark City Council.

In 2016, Meredith ran an unsuccessful campaign to unseat incumbent State Senator Dave Sokota in Delawares District 8.

She ended up losing the election to the veteran Democrat from Newark by 5 percentage points.

Before trying her hand at politics, Meredith worked as a reporter for the Philadelphia-based PBS affiliate WHYY-TV and was later hired as a communication manager for then-Congressman Mike Caste, a Republican.

Upon learning the news of Merediths passing, Castle described his former aide as industrious and capable.

Im terribly saddened. She was a very good person and one of the last people I would have thought could have something like this happen, he said. Its a terrible shame.

Meredith, a native of Pennsylvania, graduated from the University of Delaware with a Bachelor's degree in communication and a Masters degree in education.

Police in Radnor Township said there is no danger to the community, reported 6abc.com.
An ex-Marine who plotted a bomb and gun attack on tourists at San Francisco's Pier 39 on Christmas Day will plead guilty to a federal case, court documents show.

Everitt Aaron Jameson, from Modesto, will enter a guilty plea on June 4, the documents say, without making it clear what he will be pleading guilty to.

Jameson, a tow-truck driver, had pleaded not guilty to charges of attempting to aid a terrorist organization and distributing bomb-making information in January.

Each charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in jail.

Everitt Aaron Jameson, 26, from Modesto, California, was arrested last month for an alleged terror plot. He is pictured above in a recent Facebook profile picture

Everitt Aaron Jameson intended to use pipe bombs to funnel people into an area of the popular Pier 39 tourist destination in order to shoot them, the indictment alleges

Jameson's federal defenders did not immediately return telephone and email messages.

The FBI arrested Jameson on December 22 after he allegedly talked about his plans to undercover agents, including one he thought was associated with ISIS.

The indictment and a previously released FBI affidavit say he described to agents how to build pipe bombs, described where he intended to assemble the bombs, asked for remote timers, and described how he intended to use the bombs 'to funnel people into an area in order to shoot them.'

Assistant federal defender Charles Lee said he hadn't been presented with the evidence and that his office would investigate the possibility of an entrapment defense.

Lee said the FBI found no bomb-making materials when they searched his home, and that two rifles and a handgun were legally owned by a relative and were locked in a gun case where Jameson couldn't get them.

He said the federal charges are built only on statements his client posted on his Facebook page. Lee added that his client told the FBI undercover employee: 'I also don't think I can do this after all. I've reconsidered.'

Jameson, 26, graduated from Marines training in 2009 but was later discharged for failing to tell them he had asthma. He describes himself as a 'slave of Allah' on social media

Jameson was discharged from the Marine Corps after little more than four months in 2009 for failing to disclose a history of asthma.

The FBI affidavit said he asked for a fully automatic assault rifle and noted that he earned a sharpshooter qualification.

That is a basic marksmanship qualification and Jameson was never trained as a sniper during the brief time he spent at Camp Pendleton, California, said Marine spokeswoman Yvonne Carlock.

Jameson is set for a court hearing Friday in federal court in Fresno.

Federal Magistrate Judge Erica Grosjean last week ordered him detained without bail in part because he has no substantial known financial resources.

She also found that Jameson has a history relating to drug abuse and appears to have a mental condition that may affect whether he would show up for future hearings.

Police found a manifesto at his home which denounced Trump for recently declaring Jerusalem Israel's capital and they also discovered three handguns and four fireworks.

For months, Jameson had been speaking to an undercover FBI agent who he thought was a high-ranking member of a terror group.

FBI agents say he revealed his plot to unleash terror on San Francisco's Pier 39 (above) to an undercover agent where he would cram people into a confined space before shooting at them

Agents started looking into him after one of their sources flagged his Facebook profile to them. The source said they noticed him 'liking' posts in support of ISIS and terror attacks against the US.

Between October and late December, Jameson exchanged messages with the source and with a second undercover FBI agent who he thought were both high ranking members of terror groups.

Among their messages was his offer to use a truck from the tow truck company where he worked to further the 'cause'.

Jameson, 26, graduated from the marines in 2009 and was later discharged for not telling them he had latent asthma

He also asked them for materials included a PVC pipe, ammunition, powder, nails and an assault rifle, they said.

Jameson's plan was to set off explosives at the pier to 'funnel' crowds to a certain area where he could then hurt them further by presumably shooting them, according to the documents.

Jameson, who refers to himself as a 'slave of Allah' online, said Jerusalem was Palestine's capital instead.

In his correspondence with the agents, he called himself a 'revert' meaning he had returned to Islam after not believing.

On December 16, he allegedly met with an undercover FBI agent and proposed a bomb attack on the tourist destination.

He said he was familiar with the site and sent the undercover agents maps and the photographs of it, they said.

In his manifesto, he allegedly described being inspired by the October 31 New York City attack of Sayfullo Saipov who killed eight people by mowing them down on cycle path in a rented Home Depot truck.

He is alleged to have told them: 'I was a soldier in the Kuffar army before I reverted. I have been trained in combat and things of war. In Sha Allah anything of that nature, as well as funding. Anything for Allah.'

Later, he told the agent 'they needed something along the lines of New York or San Bernardino'.

Jameson continued to speak to him over text message but, on December 18, backed out of the plot, they said.

'I also don't think I can do this after all. I've reconsidered,' he allegedly said.

The FBI searched his home on December 20 and found inside a 'last will' and a statement.

The statement read: 'I Abdallah adu Everitt ibn Gordon have committed these acts upon the Kuffar, in the name of Dar al Islam, Allahu Akbar! You all have brought this upon yourselves.

'There is no innocent Kuffar! Each and every Kuffar in this Nationalistic, Godless society has a hand in this.

'You've allowed Donald J. Trump to give away Al Quds to the Jews. Both You and he are wrong, it belongs to the Muslemeen. We have penetrated and infiltrated your disgusting country. These acts will continue until the Lions of Islam overtake you.

'Turn to Allah, make tawbah and fight with us, the soldiers who fight in the day and night. Allah SWT is most forgiving, I am not. Long live Isil, Long Live Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

'Abdallah abu Everitt ibn Gordon al-Amriki.'

During the search of his home, he allegedly admitted to supporting ISIS and said he would have been happy for an attack to be carried out.




Former Northern Territory police commissioner John McRoberts angrily rebuked fellow senior officers after his lover was arrested and paraded before the media, a court has heard.

The former police chief also allegedly undermined his own detectives by blocking a search warrant on the woman's business in 2014 which was unheard of, a senior NT Police commander said.

The revelations were made on day two of McRoberts' Supreme Court trial in Darwin on a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Former Northern Territory police commissioner John McRoberts is accused of perverting the course of justice

He is accused of 'vetoing' a request to conduct a search warrant on the Winnellie Travel Agency, owned by Xana Kamitsis with whom he was having an affair, and one of various travel agents found to be rorting a government concession scheme.

However, the raid ultimately went ahead and the married Kamitsis, who was the chairwoman of Crime Stoppers NT, was eventually jailed.

McRoberts was unimpressed, Commander James O'Brien told the court.

'Mr McRoberts seemed to be quite irritated about the way that investigation had unfolded over the week, culminating with the arrest of what McRoberts felt at the time was a humiliation of Miss Kamitsis by being photographed in handcuffs and put into the back of a police van,' he said.

McRoberts is alleged to have tried to block an investigation into fraudulent real estate agents in the Territory in 2014 because he was having an affair with one of the suspects, Xana Kamitsis

'He raised his voice. He was abrupt. He didn't really say a lot other than he was quite upset with the way she had been treated.

'That's the first I've ever heard of it, a commissioner making a decision in relation to a search warrant in the cases I'm familiar with in 23 years.'

Mr O'Brien was told by senior detective Lee Morgan that McRoberts had vetoed the search warrant.

A group of senior police discussed whether McRoberts had conflict of interest in the Kamitsis investigation.

Northern Territory Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw (left) arrives in court in Darwin in October to give evidence against his predecessor

McRoberts denies any wrongdoing and has pleaded not guilty.

Defence lawyer Tony Elliot said the assertions were hearsay, unproven and not first-hand.

'What is important is what McRoberts did in relation to the search warrant, not what someone says he did.'

Prosecutor Michael McHugh SC has told the court McRoberts tried to 'frustrate and deflect' the fraud squad's investigation, pushing for civil rather than criminal action and telling senior police, bureaucrats and politicians the inquiry was not worth it.

He also did not tell police he was involved sexually with Kamitsis.

A number of travel agents were caught dishonestly invoicing the NT government for flight discounts for pensioners and pocketing the cash.
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Melania Trump appeared to wriggle her fingers away from her husband's on Tuesday as he tried gingerly to grasp her hand during an awkward photocall with the loved-up French President and First Lady.

The foursome were having their photograph taken on the South Lawn after a welcome ceremony to mark President Emmanuel Macron's visit to Washington, the first state visit of Trump's presidency.

The two presidents stood next to each other with their wives on either side and all four posed formally for the moment, with their hands by their sides.

Here it comes: President Trump extends his pinky finger towards his wife's hand as they have their photograph taken with French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigette

Closing in: As Trump's hand grazed against his wife's, she appeared to draw breath and looked startled

Gotcha: After a few seconds of wriggling, Trump took a firm grip of his wife's fingers. The Macrons started lacing their fingers in one another afterwards

After a few brief seconds, Trump's little finger subtly crept towards his wife's.

Her expression changed drastically as she appeared to draw breath.

She resisted his hand and, while their exact movements were unclear, appeared to wriggle away before he took a strong hold of her fingers.

With Melania firmly in his grip, President Trump mouthed an exaggerated 'thank you' then began walking past the press which had gathered to take their photographs.

Earlier, she volunteered her hand for President Macron to kiss it after he gave a brief speech commemorating his visit.

Bonjour: French President Emmanuel Macron kisses Melania's hand during an arrival ceremony on the South Lawn on Tuesday

Mon amour: As Macron tenderly kissed his wife's hand, the Trumps looked at each other with less affection

Melania was happy to give her husband a kiss to welcome him to the stage to speak at the ceremony. It is the first state visit they have hosted

She had greeted her husband with a kiss on the cheek.

It is not the first time Melania has been shy of her husband's affection.

During an official visit to Israel earlier this year, she swatted Trump's hand away as he tried to hold it while they walked across the tarmac after touching down in Air Force One.

On other occasions she has shunned his advances while walking down the aircraft's steps and as they made their way towards Marine One.

By contrast, she is hands-on during meetings with the public and is particularly touchy-feely with children.

In recent weeks, the first lady has had to endure fevered speculation about the president's alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels.

She is at the heart of an ongoing investigation into Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen who gave her $130,000 to keep quiet days before the 2016 election.

Daniels claims to have had sex with Trump in 2006, a year after he married Melania and just a few months after she gave birth to their only child together, Barron.

Trump denies her claim that they had sex and kept in touch afterwards.

Stormy is not the only person to have claimed to have slept with Trump during his marriage. Former playmate Karen McDougal said they had an affair around the same time.

Swat: In February, Melania swatted her husband's hand away in Tel Aviv, Israel, as they walked along the tarmac at the airport

No thanks: In May, as they arrived in Rome, Melania fixed her hair instead of taking her husband's hand when he extended it
This is the hilarious moment a British schoolboy was mugged of his lunch on holiday - when a hungry iguana snatched his burger.

Nine-year-old Max Mannion was relaxing with his family on a beach in Akumal, Mexico when the 2ft-long critter leaped onto his sunbed and grabbed the snack.

The brazen lizard then sprinted away across the sand with the burger bun in its jaws.

In the video, the cheeky reptile can be spotted dashing off to enjoy its free lunch.

Max's mother Lindsey, 43, filmed the bizarre incident while the family were on holiday in the Riviera Maya resort during the Easter holidays.

The accounts manager, from Derby, said: 'There was eight of us in total, four kids and four adults.

'We were all screaming on the sunbeds. The hotel is set in the rainforest in the middle of nowhere.

Nine-year-old Max Mannion's lunch was stolen at the hands of a hungry iguana

Max's mother Lindsey, 43, filmed the bizarre incident while the family were on holiday in the Riviera Maya resort during the Easter holidays

Four children and four adults were on the holiday in Akumal, Mexico (l-r: Max Mannion, 9; Nancy Mannion, 5, Chloe Kirkley, 11, Adam Kirkley, 8)

She explained that there were plenty of the reptiles about: 'There was signs everywhere saying 'do not feed the animals' because it destroys the ecosystem, but they just nick the food.

'There were loads of iguanas roaming the beach.

'Their bins all have the lids on and they came out from nowhere, knocked the top of the bin off and they were in the bin nicking hot dogs and stuff. It was the funniest thing.'

She explained that there were plenty of the reptiles about: 'There was signs everywhere saying 'do not feed the animals' because it destroys the ecosystem, but they just nick the food'

Lindsey went on to say, 'My little girl Nancy was screaming, "mummy!"

'He looked at Nancy - that's why she was screaming - but she didn't have any food.'

She added that her son adores eating, but was left defenseless when the hungry iguana appeared.

The footage was captured while the family enjoyed a two-week holiday at the Grand Sirenis hotel on March 28.
A 13-year-old boy is locked up at a juvenile detention center after 'purposely' shooting and killing his 11-year-old younger brother.

Streetsboro, Ohio police officers were called to a home on Alden Drive Monday night just after 9:30pm, by a woman who said one of the boys she was babysitting had been shot.

'Hes 11 years old and I dont know where his brother went. I heard a pop and theres blood in his chest,' the woman said in the 911 call.

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A 13-year-old boy intentionally shot and killed his 11-year-old brother at their home in Streetsboro, Ohio Monday night, cops say

When paramedics arrived on the scene, they found 11-year-old Caleb Lishing suffering from a gunshot wound to the back of his neck, and immediately rushed the boy to hospital where he died.

Police say the boy's older brother, Elijah, is responsible for the shooting, which they said 'appears to be a premeditated' act.

Elijah allegedly got the handgun used in the fatal shooting from his grandfather's house, where it was kept locked up.

When cops arrived on the scene, the 13-year-old boy fled, but they were able to chase him down and take him into custody.

Elijah is currently being held in the Portage County Juvenile Detention Center on suspicion of aggravated murder.

The victim has been identified as Caleb Lishing, 11. His brother Elijah, 13, is in police custody on suspicion of aggravated murder. Their home is pictured above

Portage County Prosecutor Victor Vigluicci said Elijah is scheduled to make his first court appearance in Portage County Juvenile Court at 1.30pm on Wednesday.

Police have not released a motive for the crime.

However, it has since been revealed that Elijah's stepmother brought him to police last Thursday for 'being unruly'.

Officers spoke to Elijah, who made comments about wanting to harm himself, so they took him to Coleman Professional Services for evaluation.

The center specializes in helping children and teens with depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts, according to its website.

A third sibling reportedly lives at the thome but was not there at the time of the shooting.

Records show a Martin Lishing owns the home.

Streetsboro City Schools officials said the victim was a fifth grader and that grief counselors would be available at Henry Defer Intermediate and Middle School. State testing at those schools was also canceled for Tuesday.

'We ask that you keep the family in your thoughts during this difficult time,' Streetsboro police said in a statement on Monday.

Lt Patricia Wain spoke about the shooting on Tuesday.

'It doesn't happen here. It's traumatizing. A lot of our officers here have kids that age so to have to walk into that and see that and take that call, it's very difficult,' said Wain.

Wain said the department would not be releasing body cam and dash cam footage of the response at this time.

Meanwhile, the family's history run-ins with law enforcement has been revealed by WOIO.

In March 2017, cops found the suspect, then 12, in Twin Lakes, about five miles from his home. He told officers that he had no idea how he got there.

Last May, police were also called to investigate a public indecency incident involving a child from the Lishing family and another student.

The report does not include the name of the child. School personnel said they believed a crime had been committed on the bus between the two students, according to the report. Police reviewed footage of the incident and the parents of both children were informed. The report goes on to say that the district 'took immediate action on their end to prevent any further incidents'.

Cops were called to the Lishing home back in March 2015 as well, when Portage County Jobs and Family Services asked officers to speak with a man and his children about an allegation of abuse.

After running a search of Mr Lishing through their system, they discovered that he had an active protection order stemming from a 2012 domestic violence case involving his ex-wife.

Mr Lishing said that the order was old and he had since won full custody of his kids. Nonetheless, he was taken into custody for violating the order until cops could verify that it was out of date. Eventually Mr Lishing was released and the case dismissed.

Cops investigated the abuse claims but didn't find enough evidence to press charges or take the children out of the home.
Jacob Rees-Mogg warned today that Britain would have a 'racist' immigration policy if it continued to give preference to EU nationals over citizens from other countries after Brexit.

The senior Tory said it would be unfair to create a new system that was biased in favour of 'by and large white' European nations.

Mr Rees-Mogg, the ringleader of the Tory European Research Group that is lobbying for a hard Brexit, also blasted Government proposals for a customs partnership with the EU 'completely cretinous'.

The incendiary attacks on Theresa May's administration came at an Open Europe event in Parliament today.

Jacob Rees-Mogg (file image) warned today that Britain would have a 'racist' immigration policy if it continued to give preference to EU nationals over the Commonwealth after Brexit

The incendiary attacks on Theresa May's (pictured in Parliament Square today) administration came at an Open Europe event in Parliament today

Mr Rees-Mogg said: 'As a member of the European Union there may be a case to be made that we should give preferential treatment to people from the EU.

'But once we're outside the European Union we are then basically, if we give them preference, running a racist immigration policy.'

He added that people from the rest of Europe are 'by and large white' and ministers 'should think of that carefully'.

'If we are to decide that we should have a policy that discriminates against the Caribbean, because they're not in the European Union, to take people from inside people from the EU, which we have left; now I think that is an extremely dubious policy to run and I think it would be wrong and indefensible'.

The head of the Tory party's powerful pro-Brexit European Research Group was similarly withering on the Government's suggestion of a 'customs partnership', blasting the idea as 'completely cretinous'.

The arrangement, which would see Britain collect import tariffs on behalf of Brussels, has been proposed as a potential option by Theresa May in a bid to prevent customs checks at the Irish border.

'It's completely cretinous, the silliest thing I could possibly think of - it's a betrayal of good sense,' he added.

The senior Tory said it would be unfair if Amber Rudd's (pictured today in Downing Street) Home Office was to create a new system that was biased in favour of 'by and large white' European nations

'I cannot understand why the Government is faffing around with this system.'

Mrs May faces a series of challenges in Parliament over the customs union. She was heavily defeated in the Lords last week and Remain-backing MPs are staging a symbolic vote on Thursday.

But at the same time the Prime Minister is under intense pressure to abandon the half-way house proposal first made by the UK last year.

The so-called 'customs partnership' would require the UK to collect EU tariffs on goods entering the country and pass them on to Brussels. If the UK set lower tariffs then firms would get a rebate.
Trevor Montague - best known for his A to Z books of facts and appearing on a string of TV quiz shows - appeared in court to deny blackmail against the printing company. He is pictured outside Cardiff Crown Court today

A best-selling author and TV quiz show regular was today banned from contacting a printing company for ten years after being accused of blackmail.

Trevor Montague - best known for his A to Z books of facts and appearing on a string of TV quiz shows - appeared in court to deny blackmail against the printing company.

But he was cleared after the prosecution dropped the case when he agreed to a ten-year restraining order.

Montague, 63, was in tears as he walked free from Cardiff Crown Court before the trial over a money dispute with printers involved with one of his books.

He wrote fact books the A to Z of Almost Everything, followed by the A to Z of Sport, A to Z of Britain And Ireland and A to Z of British (and Irish) Popular Culture. He claims to have sold more than three millions copies.

He is also a well-known game show contestant - appearing in Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, Mastermind, Krypton Factor and Fifteen-to-One.

Prosecutor Gareth James said that he would offer no evidence and the alleged victims wanted to 'put the matter behind them.'

He said: 'It's an expressed view that they just wish to put this matter behind them.

'The defendant will agree to be made the subject of such an order. I would offer no evidence.'

Montague was then given the restraining order at Cardiff Crown Court, preventing him from contacting the two complainants for ten years.

Judge Thomas Crowther QC said: 'It does seem to me that on the face of this case there was certainly reason for people to be upset.

Montague, 63, was in tears as he walked free from Cardiff Crown Court before the trial over a money dispute with printers involved with one of his books

He first appeared on Fifteen To One in 1990 and was eliminated early on, and caused a stir by returning to the programme two years later under false name Steve Romano while disguising his appearance

'I am making a restraining order in this case.

'You must abide by it's terms. You must not contact them or go to any place where they live or work.

'Any breach of that would be a criminal offence in the next ten years.'

Montague then left the dock in tears and said: 'Can I just thank you all very much.'

Montague, also founded the British Quiz Association.

He first appeared on Fifteen To One in 1990 and was eliminated early on, and caused a stir by returning to the programme two years later under false name Steve Romano while disguising his appearance.

Also an author, he has written 'The A to Z of Almost Everything', 'The A to Z Of Sport', and 'The A to Z of British & Irish Popular Culture'.

He wrote fact books the A to Z of Almost Everything, followed by the A to Z of Sport, A to Z of Britain And Ireland and A to Z of British (and Irish) Popular Culture. He is pictured right outside Cardiff Crown Court

He is also a well-known game show contestant - appearing in Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, Mastermind, Krypton Factor and Fifteen-to-One

Also an author, he has written 'The A to Z of Almost Everything', 'The A to Z Of Sport', and 'The A to Z of British & Irish Popular Culture'. Montague is pictured when he appeared on Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

But he was sued after appearing on Fifteen-to-One twice - under two different names.

Montague disguised himself by slicking his hair back and wearing gold earrings as he called himself Steve Romana.

But Montague was rumbled by an eagle-eyed viewer and was successfully sued by host and producer William G Stewart - and forced to return his prize of a 3,000 vase.

Montague, of Crawley, West Sussex, founded the British Quiz Association in 2001.

He was quizzed by police after he was accused of blackmail against the company of printers.

Before the case, Montague described the charges against him as an 'absolute joke'. He said: 'I'm robbed by the Bonnie and Clyde of the print world and yet I am in the dock. What a world we live in.'
Damian Lewis has completely transformed to portray former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford in his next film, 'Run This Town'.

On set in Toronto on Monday, the usually svelte British actor was utterly unrecognizable as he walked around in a fat suit and a thick layer of make-up and prosthetics.

Lewis, the star of Showtime's Billions who broke out in America as Nick Brody on Homeland, was perhaps an unlikely choice to take on the crack-smoking mayor, since the obese Ford was about 150 pounds heavier than him.

Actor Damian Lewis was spotted in heavy make-up and prosthetics to play Rob Ford in his latest film, 'Run This Town'

The 190-pound British actor is wearing a fat suit to portray the obese former Toronto mayor

In an interview with Kit Magazine earlier this month, Lewis (left) said he was being fitted for a prosthetic so he could bulk up his physique to play Ford (right)

In an interview with Kit Magazine earlier this month, 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'.

According to its IMBD description, 'Run This Town' is currently being produced in Toronto and follows 'the inner workings of a city seen through the eyes of the interns and assistants that run it'.

 Slide me  Lewis is pictured on the left in March 2017, and on the right in costume as Rob Ford

 Slide me  Rob Ford pictured on the left in March 2014, compared to Lewis on set on Monday, right

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 to handle their boss and keep the story from getting out.

The Hollywood Reporter confirmed 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.

Lewis even sported Rob's signature platinum blonde coif. He sipped water as he walked around set

In several images from set, Lewis is seen wearing a Ford campaign shirt reading 'Ford Nation'

It unclear when the film, 'Run This Town,' will be released

Despite calls for him to resign, Ford refused to step down and even ran for reelection in 2014. However, he dropped out of the race just a month before the vote when he was diagnosed with cancer.

He died two years later from lipsarcoma, a rare form of cancer that arises in fat cells in deep soft tissue, at age 46.

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.'
A 19-year-old Ohio cheerleader who has been accused of killing her newborn baby daughter and burying the body is being taken off house arrest pending her trial.

Brooke Skylar Richardson has pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated murder, child endangerment, tampering with evidence, and gross abuse of a corpse.

Richardson allegedly killed her baby in May 2017 before burning the body and burying it in her backyard just days after her senior prom.

On Monday a Warren County Judge ruled that Richardson could now leave her house in Carlisle from the hours of 7am to 9pm each day.

Brooke Skylar Richardson, 19, (pictured at a pretrial hearing in April) has been taken off house arrest pending her trial. Richardson is accused of killing her newborn baby daughter before burying and burning the body

On Monday a Warren County Judge ruled that Richardson could now leave her house in Carlisle, Ohio from the hours of 7am to 9pm each day

Along with the curfew, she will be monitored with a GPS and receive random drug tests and unannounced home visits.

Richardson's defense team filed the motion to have her taken off house arrest, which prosecutors had opposed.

The teen's trial was scheduled to begin earlier this month, but has been delayed due to a dispute over whether certain medical records should be allowed as evidence.

Richardson's attorneys want to stop prosecutors from presenting testimony from an OB/GYN practice's medical staff, citing physician-patient privilege.

Prosecutors are arguing that the privilege doesn't apply in this case.

Richardson's trial will remain delayed while an appeals court weighs the issue.

The charred remains of the teen's child were found buried at her home on July 14 after police received a tip from a concerned OB/GYN who said she may have delivered a stillborn baby.

After unearthing the remains, experts concluded that the baby had been born alive in May and was killed before it was buried.

Richardson (pictured in August 2017) has pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated murder, child endangerment, tampering with evidence,and gross abuse of a corpse

County Prosecutor David Fornshell said Richardson and her family had been worried about community reaction to her out-of-wedlock pregnancy

Prosecutors blamed Richardson for the death and said she and her parents were concerned with 'appearances', despite the fact that half the town knew she was pregnant.

County Prosecutor David Fornshell said Richardson and her family had been worried about community reaction to her out-of-wedlock pregnancy.

'Skylar and her family, particularly her mother, were pretty obsessed with external appearances and how things appeared to the outside world,' Fornshell said.

'You have a situation where, you know, she's a cute high school, recent high school graduate - she was a cheerleader described (as) a good girl by her attorney as you heard after the arraignment.'

'And I think that kind of perception is one that Skylar wanted to perpetuate and her mother wanted to perpetuate.'

Authorities said that while they know who the father of the dead infant is, they will not share his identity.

After unearthing the remains, experts concluded that Richardson's baby had been born alive in May and was killed before it was buried

The teen's trial was scheduled to begin earlier this month, but has been delayed due to a dispute over whether certain medical records should be allowed as evidence. She is pictured left in her mugshot and right after being indicted in July 2017

Police found the baby's remains in the backyard of the teenager's home in Carlisle, Ohio, (pictured) in July 2017

After police discovered the baby's remains in July, officers took weeks processing evidence before bringing charges against Richardson.

Richardson's lawyer previously said she was a 'good girl' who was 'good with children' and volunteered at the YMCA,according to Fox19.

'She didn't drink. She wasn't a partier or a smoker. By all measures a very good girl who helped children,' he also told Dayton Daily News.

The teenager graduated high school shortly before her arrest and was due to attend the University of Cincinnati in the fall of 2017.
On Tuesday, President Trump brushed dandruff off French President Emmanuel Macron's suit, in a show of their cozy relationship.

'We have a very special relationship, in fact I'll get that little piece of dandruff off,' Trump said Tuesday as the two leaders were seated in the Oval Office. 'We have to make him perfect  he is perfect.'

It's been quite le bromance between the two leaders since the Macrons arrived at the West Wing Monday afternoon.

President Trump (right) brushed dandruff off the suit of French President Emmanuel Macron (left) at the White House Tuesday in a display of affection

'We have a very special relationship, in fact I'll get that little piece of dandruff off,' President Trump (right) said Tuesday as he brushed off French President Emmanuel Macron's (left) suit

'We have to make him perfect  he is perfect,' President Trump (right) said as he brushed dandruff off the suit of French President Emmanuel Macron (left) in the Oval Office on Tuesday

Several minutes before the display of affection in the Oval Office, President Trump (left) led the French president (right) around by the hand

President Trump (left) and French President Emmanuel Macron (right) grab hands outside the Oval Office on Tuesday after a welcoming ceremony for the French

President Trump (left) leads French President Emmanuel Macron (right) by the hand into the Oval Office at the White House on Tuesday

The two leaders grabbed hands again as French President Emmanuel Macron (left) and President Trump (right) sat down for talks in the Oval Office on Tuesday

Earlier Tuesday, at a welcoming ceremony on the South Lawn at the White House, President Trump (right) hugged his French counterpart (left)

French President Emmanuel Macron (left) gives President Trump a pat on the torso, while President Trump (right) gives the French leader a pat on the back

President Trump (right) grabs French President Emmanuel Macron (left) by the elbow at the conclusion of the official arrival ceremony at the White House on Tuesday

French President Emmanuel Macron (center right) guides President Trump (center left) toward Marine One, with Brigitte Macron (right) and Melania Trump (left) walking at their sides, after a tree planting on the South Lawn Monday evening

President Emmanuel Macron pulled in President Trump for a hug and then gave him an air kiss to his left cheek.

There were double kisses between the two first ladies and also between President Trump and Brigitte Macron.

The two couples spent their first night in Washington planting a tree on the South Lawn  a gift from the French  and then taking Marine One on a helicopter ride over Washington and then to President Washington's Mount Vernon estate located down the Potomac River in Virginia.

All throughout there were shows of affection between the presidents and the first ladies.

On Tuesday, the Macrons were back at the White House for an official welcoming ceremony.

The two leaders hugged and air kissed as they began the ceremony on the South Lawn.

'He's going to be a great president of France,' Trump said as the two leaders walked to the Oval Office after the ceremony. 'Only a prediction.'

Trump had grasped Macron's hand during the walk, in yet another show of friendship with the French leader, who had invited the Trumps during the American president's first six months in office to France to take in the annual Bastille Day parade.

Of course the leaders don't see eye-to-eye on many issues, as they continue to discuss whether the U.S. will stay in the Iran nuclear deal, and stay involved in the conflict in Syria.

During the trip Macron has also brought up climate change and bettering the environment.

Trump announced the U.S. would cease its participation in the Paris climate agreement last June.

Bringing a number of those items up during a joint press conference Tuesday afternoon, Macron talked about the 'sincere friendship' between the two leaders.

Trump followed that up by giving him an elongated handshake.

'I like him a lot,' Trump said.
When former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer poses for pictures with Melania Trump on Wednesday, neither will take questions from reporters  and one of them will be a giant fake phony.

It's Melania.

The first lady's likeness will be unveiled at Madame Tussauds New York, the famed wax museum, and Spicer will be there to emcee the grand unveiling.

A wax museum in Madrid, Spain was the first to open an exhibit featuring both Trumps, cutting the ribbon on July 20, 2017.

Sean Spicer has made few public appearances since he left the Trump administration last July, but will appear at a wax museum on Wednesday to unveil a Melania Trump statue

Madam Tussauds in Times Square already has a Donald Trump waxworks like this one at its London location

The Wax Museum in Madrid, Spain added America's first couple to its exhibits in July 2017

The real FLOTUS: Melania Trump in the flesh  not wax  posed with Spicer in this undated photograph he provided to DailyMail.com

Spicer has made few public appearances since leaving the Trump administration, a state of affairs that could evaporate over the summer.

His book 'The Briefing,' about his six months behind the scenes in the West Wing, is due in stores in late July.

The museum already has wax statues of President Donald Trump at both its Washington and New York locations.

The Trumps will be posed together in a mock Oval Office for paying customers to see.

On Wednesday Spicer will participate in 'a special Q&A about his time in the White House and experience with the FLOTUS [first lady],' according to a press release.

The same advisory from the wax museum includes a prominent caveat, in bright red type: 'This event will not permit questions from media.'

It's unclear whether Madame Tussauds will display Mrs. Trump's somber side or in a smile like the one she radiated Tuesday with the French first couple, Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron

The wax museum has locations on four continents, including one in New York

A spokeswoman for the museum did not respond to a question on Tuesday about who will be posing questions to the former Trump spokesman during an event scheduled to last all of 15 minutes.

But the museum did say that it plans to set up a new Twitter account  representing the faux Melania  and invite visitors to tweet on 'her' behalf.

'Mrs. Trump has been an outstanding First Lady and this is fun way of allowing visitors to the exhibit [to] interact,' Spicer told DailyMail.com on Tuesday.

Side-by-side photos taken of Spicer and the waxy Mrs. Trump on Wednesday will be rarities. Mrs. Trump interacts with West Wing staff far less than the president does.

A search of images available from the Associated Press, Getty Images, Reuters, AFP and Google Images turned up no images of them together.

Spicer provided one to DailyMail.com.

He was at the White House on Tuesday to watch a pomp-laden South Lawn welcoming ceremony held to honor French President Emmanuel Macron.
Child welfare records released on Monday reveal that officials in Oregon and Minnesota investigated a lesbian couple for complaints they were neglecting and abusing their six adopted children years before they would intentionally drove off a cliff in California killing themselves and the kids.

More than 40 pages of reports documenting abuse and neglect in Oregon and Minnesota were obtained by Oregon Live on Monday.

The records reveal that officials in the state began investigating Jennifer and Sarah Hart, both 38, in July 2013 while the kids were ages 8 to 15.

The case was closed just five months later in December, despite reports that the children were severely malnourished and being neglected by the couple.

More than 40 pages of reports documenting abuse and neglect by Jennifer and Sarah Hart against their six adopted children were released on Monday. Jennifer posted this photo on Facebook in February 2013, five months before they were investigated for withholding food from their kids. Pictured (left to right): Jeremiah, then eight; Ciera, then seven; and Devonte, then 10

The report reveals that five of the six kids were so small their heights and weights were not listed on growth charts for children their age

Officials in Oregon opened an investigation into the family in July 2013 but closed the case five months later in December. Hannah, Ciera, Jeremiah, Devonte, Markis and Abigail (from left to right) are pictured in a June 2013 photo with an unidentified person at a celebration in Astoria

Jennifer Hart posted this photo on Facebook in 2006, at the time she and Sarah Hart adopted Hannah, then four years old and her biological siblings Markis, then eight and Abigail, then two years old. Jennifer was reported for telling a family friend that Hannah was morbidly obese at the time she was adopted, although the girl was the normal weight for a child her age

Records reveal that five of the six children were so small in 2013 that their heights and weights were not listed on growth charts for children their age, according to the outlet.

The doctor who measured the children reported no causes for concern because she did not have access to records showing their previous sizes.

The doctor's statement weighed heavily in the Department of Human Services' decision to ultimately close the case citing there was no conclusive evidence of neglect or abuse.

The records also reveal that Jennifer and Sarah were regularly accused of withholding food from their six children. Four years after the couple adopted Abigail Hart, a welfare worker in Minnesota noted that the then-six-year-old girl was the size of a two-year-old.

Records from that state also show that Abigail's school contacted child protective services when the girl was seen rummaging through garbage for food. The school eventually stopped calling Jennifer and Sarah about the kids digging for food so they would not be punished by the couple.

The Minnesota case worker wrote that all six children denied they were being abused by their adoptive parents and gave nearly identical accounts claiming Jennifer and Sarah disciplined them by making them meditate for five minutes.

The case worker also noted that Devonte Hart was the only child who showed any sign of emotion during the interview.

Jennifer and Sarah (center with their children) had several complaints against them that they were withholding food from the kids

Markis is pictured above in a photo Jennifer Hart posted on Facebook in 2006 shortly after he was adopted

One woman who reported the couple to officials in Oregon said Jennifer Hart would not let the kids eat breakfast because she thought they had ate an entire pizza without her permission. Jennifer and Sarah are pictured center with four of their six kids

One woman who knew the family contacted authorities, records reveal, to report that when she questioned Jennifer about the lack of food the children received Jennifer said that Hannah Hart was morbidly obese when she was adopted in 2006 and was 'now so much better'.

A Facebook photo of Hannah with her two biological siblings Markis Hart and Abigail Hart, who were all adopted by the couple, showed the then-four-year-old girl as a normal-sized child for that age.

According to the Oregon Live, records reveal that when the complaint was made Hannah was noted to be 'very small' and her front teeth were missing.

Another family friend also contacted authorities reporting that when the family had stayed with her, the children were only allowed to eat a tiny piece of pizza. When Jennifer realized the following morning that the entire pizza was gone she became enraged and took all the children into a bathroom.

When the family emerged, the woman said Jennifer announced that the kids would not be eating breakfast because no one would fess up to eating the pizza. She also made the kids lie on a bed wearing sleeping masks and their arms at their sides for four or five hours.

The woman told authorities that the kids seemed lethargic and would not answer a question without looking at Jennifer first.

Two other women also contacted case workers in Oregon saying that Hannah and Markis, the oldest of the children, were the targets of Jennifer's abuse.

One of the women said Markis was punished on his July 1 birthday so no one could wish him a 'Happy birthday'. Jennifer also told the woman that Markis had tried to kill her and Devonte Hart had to save her.

A Minnesota official who investigated the family noted in a report that Jennifer and Sarah knew how to blame apparent red flags on the children.

Another family friend reported to authorities that Markis (back right) was a target of Jennifer's abuse and was punished on one of his birthdays so no one could say 'happy birthday' to him

Investigators determined that Jennifer intentionally drove her family off a cliff in Northern California last month, days after a social worker visited their Washington State home for complaints of abuse

When Oregon welfare workers interviewed the two women about the complaints they said the kids came to them with food and medical issues. Jennifer said the kids were thriving at their house and said many of the complaints were because people did not understand her family's 'alternative lifestyle', Oregon Live reports.

According to the outlet, the names of the welfare workers and doctor who worked on the 2013 case have been blacked out in the reports. Officials in Oregon told the newspaper that case workers have since received better training to do a better job at making decisions about the safety of children.

Investigators have determined that Jennifer was drunk when she drove the family's SUV off cliff in Mendocino County, more than 160 miles north of San Francisco, last month, days after a social worker visited the family at their Woodland, Washington home for a complaint that the kids were being neglected.

The body of 12-year-old Ciera Hart, the youngest of the children, was found off the coast of Northern California earlier this month.

The bodies of Jennifer and Sarah, along with three of the children - Markis Hart, 19; Jeremiah Hart, 14; Abigail Hart, 14; - were found on March 26.

Authorities are still searching for the two remaining missing children - Devonte Hart, 15, and Hannah Hart, 16.
Nearly 60 illegal immigrants were found cramped inside the back of a tractor-trailer on Friday at the US border in Texas.

A picture released by US Customs and Border Protection shows 59 men and women cramped into the truck, trying to cover their faces after a canine officer alerted authorities to contraband inside the large truck.

Members of the group were from Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil, Honduras and Peru, and the driver and front passenger were both United States citizens.

59 illegal immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil, Honduras and Peru were found inside a tractor trailer trying to cross through the US border (pictured)

Border Patrol agents arrested the driver and passenger and seized the truck.

Laredo Sector Assistant Chief Patrol Agent Gabriel Acosta said people smugglers were running a business and not trying to help those wishing to cross the border.

'These criminal organizations view these individuals as mere commodities without regard for their safety,' he said.

'The blatant disregard for human life will not be tolerated. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to disrupt and dismantle these organizations and prosecute those responsible.'

Homeland Security is continuing to investigate the border crossing attempt.

Border patrol authorities said people smugglers had a 'blatant disregard for human life' and the two US citizens at the front of the truck have been arrested

Drivers are usually paid a fee per person to smuggle illegal immigrants across the border, but face lengthy prison sentences if they are caught.

On the same day the group of 59 were discovered in the trailer, James Mathew Bradley Jr. was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.

The 61-year-old was arrested in a Walmart parking lot near San Antonio, Texas, after authorities found 39 people in the back of his truck.

Of those 39, eight were dead, and two would die later in hospital.

The group traveled on a 101 degree day in July, and the refrigeration in the truck was broken.

There was no water given to the would-be-immigrants and many of them were hospitalized for heat issues.
Mark Meechan arrives at Airdrie Sherriff Court with girlfriend Suzanne Kelly

A man who was fined for filming his pet dog giving Nazi salutes has started a GoFundMe page in a bid to challenge his conviction.

Mark Meechan was sentenced after a landmark ruling found him guilty of posting a video which was 'grossly offensive'.

In a video posted today, entitled 'The Price of Freedom is 800', the 30-year-old, who has called the video a 'joke', said he would refuse the punishment.

'I am no criminal, I have committed no crime, I have done nothing wrong, therefore I should not be punished,' he said.

The GoFundMe page is aiming to raise 100,000 for Meechan's legal bills. In the first few hours of the page being live he had already raised almost 60,000.

Meechan said he was appealing the verdict because his conviction 'will be used as an example to convict other people over the things they say and the jokes they make'.

Airdrie Sheriff Court was told he taught his girlfriend's pug to react to the words 'gas the Jews' and filmed it for his YouTube channel last year.

In a video posted today Meechan said he would refuse to pay the 800 fine he had received

The GoFundMe page had raised thousands of pounds within hours of being launched

The pug, named Buddha, was also seen raising a paw to fascist chant 'Sieg Heil' during the footage called 'M8 Yur Dug's a Nazi'.

The stunt provoked outrage after being posted on YouTube where it has more than three million views.

Meechan was given six months to pay the fine, as he was sentenced by Sheriff Derek O'Carroll at Airdrie Sheriff Court yesterday.

Meechan, of Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, denied any wrongdoing, insisting he had made the video to annoy his girlfriend Suzanne Kelly, 29.

But he was found guilty under the Communications Act of posting a video which was grossly offensive because it was 'anti-Semitic and racist' and aggravated by religious prejudice.

Speaking outside court, where he was cheered by around 100 supporters including far right activist Tommy Robinson, Meechan said: 'I'm not going to pay the fine because we are going to appeal.

Meechan gestures to supporters outside of court shortly after leaving his hearing this morning

The pug, named Buddha, was also seen raising a paw to fascist chant 'Sieg Heil' during the footage called 'M8 Yur Dug's a Nazi'

The stunt provoked outrage after being posted on YouTube where it has more than three million views

'This sets a very dangerous precedent because the court is deciding what people can say.'

Last month, Ricky Gervais took to Twitter to throw his support behind Meechan after he was found guilty.

Gervais took a strong stance against the verdict, tweeting: 'A man has been convicted in a UK court of making a joke that was deemed ''grossly offensive''.

'If you don't believe in a person's right to say things that you might find ''grossly offensive'', then you don't believe in Freedom of Speech.

'I f***ing hate religion. I've criticised and ridiculed it for 40 years.

'Yet if my government tried to ban it or criminalise it, I would march alongside those poor fools and fight hard for their right to believe any f***ing stupid nonsense they chose.'

Ross Brown, defending, said: 'This court made Mark Meechan a criminal. Up until this point he was a man who had no involvement with the law.

The self-proclaimed comic was charged under the Communications Act and the offence is punishable by up to two months in prison. Pictured: The pug featured in Meechan's video

'He considered himself a liberal man. To be branded a criminal is a punishment.

'The difficulty it seems is that he was someone who enjoyed shock humour, both giving receiving it, and went about his life under the impression that he lived in a jurisdiction which gave him the right to fully express himself.

'This was not the perception Police Scotland had on receiving a notice that the video had been posted online.'

He added: 'Mark Meechan does not want to go to jail but is prepared to do so so he remains true to his belief that freedom of expression is at the very core of our democracy.'

Prosecutors had earlier asked for Meechan to be convicted and branded the video 'an odious criminal act that was dressed up to look like a joke.'

The depute fiscal added: 'He is a highly intelligent and articulate individual, we are not dealing with some callow youth who is inexperienced with what is going on in the world.

'The Crown contention is that the inclusion of the dog is an attempt to muddy the waters around him making, producing and posting the video.

Tommy Robinson mingles with supporters at Airdrie Sherriff Court, where Meechan was sentenced yesterday

Sheriff O'Carroll had earlier told the court he did not believe Meechan had made the video only to annoy his girlfriend and ruled it was anti-Semitic

'He says that he knows the context of the video but in a criminal court in Scotland he does not decide the context of anything, the court decides the context.'

In the video the dog is seen perking up when it hears the statements and appears to lift its paw to the 'Sieg Heil' command in the video and is also filmed watching a rally led by Hitler at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.

Sheriff O'Carroll had earlier told the court he did not believe Meechan had made the video only to annoy his girlfriend and ruled it was anti-Semitic.

Fining Meechan, he said: 'You deliberately chose the Holocaust as the theme of the video.

'I also found it proved that the video contained anti-Semitic, and racist material, in that it explicitly and exclusively referred to Jews, the Holocaust and the role of the Nazis in the death of six million Jews in a grossly offensive manner. You knew or must have known that.

'The social work report on you is important. It is very favourable to you and, leaving aside the circumstances of this offence, shows you to have led a generally pro-social life thus far.

'It also shows that you have learned a certain amount from your experiences and that you are of low risk of reoffending.

'In these circumstances, I rule out a custodial sentence and therefore any alternative to a custodial sentence. You have a certain amount of income and other resources according to the reports. I now fine you the sum of 800.'

Meechan, of Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, denied any wrongdoing insisting he had made the video to annoy his girlfriend Suzanne Kelly, 29 (left)

Meechan's defence agent Ross Brown said his client was a 'tolerant and liberal' man.

He said: 'His difficulty, it seems, was that he was someone who enjoyed shock humour, both giving and receiving it, and went about his life under the impression that he lived in a jurisdiction which permitted its citizens the right to freely express themselves.'

He said his client was concerned about the impact his conviction may have on comedians such as John Cleese, Frankie Boyle and Ricky Gervais if they were to come to Scotland due to the material referenced in some of their acts.

Speaking outside court after sentencing, Meechan said: 'I'm going to appeal against it. He says it doesn't set a precedent, it does set a precedent, a really, really dangerous precedent has been set for people to say things, their context to be completely ignored and then they can be convicted for it.

'You don't get to decide the context of what you said, other people don't get to, the court gets to, that's dangerous.'

The 30-year-old said of the video: 'It's the juxtaposition of having an adorable animal react to something vulgar, that was the entire point of the joke.'
Police are investigating an incident where three women were shoved onto the pavement by a bouncer outside a busy nightspot in Belfast.

One of the women was said to have been kicking the bouncer before he grabbed her and shoved her onto the footpath, stunning onlookers.

When the woman's two friends intervened, they were also knocked to the ground.

The video of the incident was circulated widely on Facebook and shows the women in a nasty violent brawl with the doormen.

It is not clear how the altercation started but in the longer footage circulating on facebook, the three women can be seen repeatedly attacking the bouncers after being shoved and even at some points slapped by the men who were on the door of the nightspot.

At one point one of the bouncers grabs the woman in yellow and shoves her so hard that she lands with force on the pavement. We then see the woman's two friends try to retaliate but he effortlessly pushes them to the ground.

They could be heard in the footage yelling 'You're a f****** bully', as they fell to the ground.

The shocking brawl took place outside a busy Belfast nightspot. A video circulated on Facebook of bouncers on the door of Kelly's Cellar bar in a violent brawl with three women

Onlookers try to pull the women away from the door as they repeatedly try to retaliate.

The footage was taken by a horrified spectator who watched the scene unfold outside outside Kelly's Cellar bar in Belfast city centre.

A video was posted online shortly after a shocked onlooker who filmed the vicious brawl.

A police spokesman said officers were called shortly before 10pm on Saturday evening after reports of three women being involved in an row with bouncers outside the establishment.

At one point, the lady in yellow is knocked to the ground by the bouncer after she allegedly started kicking him. Her friends try to retaliate but they are also shoved to the ground

The three women were arrested on suspicion of assault and other public disorder offences.

Police said the women were released on police bail pending further investigation.

Kelly's Cellar bar is a busy nightspot in the heart of Belfast City Centre. It has been reported that the cast members of Game of Thrones, including Kit Harrington and Emelia Fox have visited after filming.

It is not clear how the fight started but the violent footage shows the three women repeatedly attacking bouncers after being shoved and even at some points slapped by the men

Most bouncers are trained to resolve tense situations through verbal communication instead of physical force, according to Legal Match.

They are not allowed to push or physically throw a person out of the establishment.

Mail Online has contacted Kelly's Cellars bar for comment.
Dozens of undocumented immigrants in New Jersey were rounded up in a joint effort by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO).

Approximately 60 immigrants were detained during a five-day period that ended on April 20, ICE said on Monday.

Specifically, the agency claimed to target those that were found to have had a criminal record and had entered the country illegally, NBC New York reports.

Approximately 60 immigrants were detained during a five day period that ended on April 20 [file photo]

Bergen, Burlington, Camden, Cumberland, Essex, Hudson, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Somerset and Union counties were all impated by the raids.

Those found to be 'convicted criminals' came out to approximately 80 percent of those detained.

Bergen, Burlington, Camden, Cumberland, Essex, Hudson, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Somerset and Union counties were all impated by the raids

Authorities also found that 20 detainees had already been deported or had orders of being deported.

ICE claims that those arrested had serious offenses and convictions that ranged from child abuse to sex crimes.

'The success of this operation is a direct result of the full commitment of the dedicated men and women of ICE,' John Tsoukaris, director of ERO in Newark, said in a statement.

'We will continue to devote the full efforts of our agency to protecting citizens and enforcing federal immigration law despite challenges being pursued by politically motivated individuals.'

The immigrants arrested hailed from the Ukraine, Italy, China, Columbia, Cuba, Guatemala, Peru, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador Mexico, Ecuador and Jamaica.
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Families, including young children, and veterans have gathered across Australia to pay their respects to soldiers who fought and died for their country on Anzac Day.

Dawn services have begun in the county's capital cities, marking 103 years since the Gallipoli landings, Australia's first major conflict of World War One, and honouring armed forces past and present for their service.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, Acting Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek, NSW Governor David Hurley were among the thousands gathered for the service in Sydney on Wednesday morning.

Scroll down for a video

Members of the Albert Battery shoot a volley of fire at Anzac Day dawn service on Wednesday in Currumbin, Queensland

Anzac Day dawn services have begun in the county's capital cities, marking 103 years since the Gallipoli landings (pictured are children at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne)

Anzac day is a national holiday in Australia, marked by a dawn service held during the time of the original Gallipoli landing and commemorated with ceremonies and parades throughout the day

A member of the Australian Air Force salutes during dawn service in Sydney (pictured)

Bugler CPL Aaron Madden is seen during Anzac Day commemorations in Brisbane

Crowds are seen ahead of the dawn service at the National War Memorial in Canberra

Sydney's Anzac Day dawn service was held at the Cenotaph.

Later on Wednesday, female veterans will lead the march in Sydney for the first time to mark 103 years since Anzac troops landed on the Gallipoli peninsula in 1915.

In the cold and darkness crowds have flocked to the National War Memorial in Canberra for a dawn service commemorating the Anzacs and those who followed.

Up to 50,000 people are expected for the service.

People attend the dawn service marking Anzac Day in Gallipoli

A girl can be seen waiting for the sunrise in Gallipoli on Wednesday

Armed forces past and present are being commemorated around the country for their service (pictured is the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne)

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, Acting Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek, NSW Governor David Hurley were among the thousands gathered for the service in Sydney on Wednesday morning (pictured is the dawn service in Sydney)

Later on Wednesday, female veterans will lead the march in Sydney for the first time to mark 103 years since Anzac troops landed on the Gallipoli peninsula in 1915

Australian TV veteran, most recently known for his stint on I'm A Celebrity, Jay Laga'aia, proudly sang the Australian and New Zealand National anthems to a 10,000-strong audience at Dee Why Beach

Former opposition leader Kim Beazley will deliver the formal commemorative address while one of Australia's last Rats of Tobruk, 97-year-old Bob Semple, will also speak.

Hundreds of former Australian Army Apprentices are among the crowds - they'll mark the 70th anniversary of their formation by leading the march later in the morning.

Jeff Ward, a transport officer who served for more than 20 years, is among them with his wife Cathy, who served as a nurse.

'There's 800 of us, more than 800 now. It's out of control,' Mr Ward said.

It's expected to be the largest contingent leading a march in several years.

Benjamin Sime reads letters and diaries of Australians who experienced war firsthand during the dawn service at the National War Memorial in Canberra

People lay wreaths during the dawn service in Sydney on Wednesday morning

Massive crowds began gathering in Sydney around 5am for the dawn service and following march

Thousands of people have started gathering in drizzling rain in Brisbane's CBD for the dawn service (pictured)

A framed photograph tribute sits on the cenotaph during the Anzac Day Dawn service in Sydney

Members of the Mudgeeraba light horse troop take part in the dawn service in Currumbin

Thousands of people have started gathering in drizzling rain in Brisbane's CBD for the dawn service.

Armed with umbrellas and coffees, the crowds are filling Anzac Square and the surrounding overpasses to honour those who have fought and died at war.

Debbie Radford, from Brisbane, says it's an important tradition to remember the sacrifices made by many Australians, including her great uncle, who fought in World War II.

'We started attending the dawn services a number of years ago with our children and we were fortunate enough to go to Gallipoli in 2015 to go to the dawn service there. It was amazing what those young men went through,' she told AAP.

'I think it's part of our history, I think it's something we need to keep telling our children and our grandchildren - it's who we are, it's part of us.'

A young member of the Mudgeeraba light horse troop takes part in the dawn service in Currumbin

The words Lest We Forget are projected onto a building during the Anzac Day Dawn service at Martin Place in Sydney

Eight year-old Henry Case and his grandfather Michael Case attend Anzac Day commemorations in Brisbane

Members of the armed forces are seen during Anzac Day commemorations in Brisbane

A soldier stands guard at the cenotaph during Anzac Day commemorations in Brisbane

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian speaks with with 95 year old Wal Scott - Smith, who retires after being Custodian of the Cenotaph for the past 78 years, after the Anzac Day Dawn service

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian (centre) and Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop carry floral tributes to the Cenotaph

The final campaigns of World War I will be the focus of this year's commemorations.

It's the centenary of the last battles which led to the Armistice being declared in November 1918.

At the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, excerpts from letters and diaries of WWI soldiers were read ahead of the dawn service.

Acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack was in attendance. Malcolm Turnbull will take part in the centenary of the Battle of Villers-Bretonneux dawn service in France.

The Villers-Bretonneux event will mark the day 100 years ago when the Australian 13th and 15th brigades successfully retook the village from German forces in a surprise night attack.

'In 2018 we mark the centenary of the end of the First World War, the war to end all wars,' Mr Turnbull said.

Mr Turnbull called it one of Australia's most remarkable military feats, that 'turned the tide of that terrible war'.

Crowds gather during the Dawn Service at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne

Other overseas events are planned for Turkey, Belgium, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia (pictured is the Sydney service)

Acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack attended the dawn service in Canberra. Malcolm Turnbull will take part in the centenary of the Battle of Villers-Bretonneux dawn service in France (pictured is a family in Canberra)

Members of the Albert Battery stand guard in Currumbin (pictured)

Prince Charles is expected to deliver a reading at the dawn service at Villers-Bretonneux after both Mr Turnbull and French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe deliver their commemorative addresses.

Villers-Bretonneux will be home to the Sir John Monash Centre, a $100 million facility which pays tribute to the thousands of Australians who lost their lives on the Western Front.

In Australia, the national march will be led this year by the Army Apprentices and the last post ceremony at the Australian War Memorial will focus on the story of WWI officer, Lieutenant Ralph Elsmere Claridge, from the 50th Australian Infantry Battalion.

Adelaide-born Claridge died on April 25, 1918, in France aged 25.

The Villers-Bretonneux event will mark the day 100 years ago when the Australian 13th and 15th brigades successfully retook the village from German forces in a surprise night attack (pictured is the Canberra service)

Crowds take part in the ANZAC dawn service at Currumbin on Wednesday

Australians are commemorating 103 years since the Australian and New Zealand Army Corp (ANZAC) landed on the shores of Gallipoli

A burial at sea is seen as part of the Anzac day dawn service at Elephant Rock in Currumbin

He is remembered at the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial.

Other overseas events are planned for Turkey, Belgium, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia.

This year also marks the 75th anniversary of the hospital ship Centaur being torpedoed and sunk by a Japanese submarine off the Queensland coast as she sailed from Sydney to Port Moresby.

Just 64 of the 332 passengers and crew on board survived the attack.

In Perth, a group of Maori and Aboriginal dancers combined the traditional Haka and corroboree at Anzac Day commemorations, following the dawn service.

Anzac Day is a day to celebrate the Australian spirit, not to glorify war, one of Australia's senior defence officers has told the dawn service in Sydney.

Air Commander Australia, Air Vice Marshall Steven Roberton, delivered the address lauding the original Anzacs, members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps at Gallipoli on April 25, 1915.

A woman is seen visiting the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux on Tuesday

This year also marks the 75th anniversary of the hospital ship Centaur being torpedoed and sunk by a Japanese submarine off the Queensland coast as she sailed from Sydney to Port Moresby

Veterans are seen bearing their medals at the dawn service in Melbourne

A heavy cloud can be seen hanging over crowds in Melbourne as services began

'They changed that simple acronym of their Army Corps into a word that stands for unity and mateship, courage and determination,' he said.

He said the legacy of Anzac day needed to be continued, more than 100 years since the tragic landing.

'Anzac day is not about glorifying war, but about celebrating the Australian spirit, which we share with the New Zealand counterparts,' he said.

'Anzac signifies strength and quality of character, attitude and action that transcends time.

'The challenge for us here this morning is to ensure that the spirit of Anzac is passed on to our children and, in so doing, honour the fallen and their sacrifice.'

He acknowledged Anzac Day caused pain for many.

'For some, it is a day of grief and tragedy, of immeasurable loss and deep mourning for loved ones and mates lost
One woman got more thrill than she bargained for when she fell into the water after almost immediately grabbing onto a zip-line.

The woman, who was vacationing in Tulum, Mexico, had barely moved from the platform when she fell with a huge splash into the pool below.

A nearby vacationer filmed the video, which first shows the woman tugging onto the bar as a man helps set her up for the ride.

One woman got more thrill than she bargained for when she fell into the water after almost immediately grabbing onto a zip-line

She then takes a few steps to the edge of the platform, looking at the pool far below.

After a nod from the man the woman jumps off the platform, ready for her ride to begin.

But just as soon as it starts, it very quickly ends.

After a nod from the man the woman jumps off the platform, ready for her ride to begin. But just as soon as it started, it was quickly over and she fell into the pool with a splash

The woman accidentally lets go of the bar and, suddenly, becomes airborne.

She falls into the water with a resounding splash in front of the crowded pool.

Everyone around her bursts into laughter, including the man filming the video.

The womans friends continue to laugh and point at her as she climbs up the stairs in defeat.
Paris Valeta Bregazzi, 30, was jailed for ten months after admitting assault and criminal damage at the Old Bailey

A transgender woman who was spared jail after shoving an off-duty policeman onto a Tube line is back behind bars at a male prison for attacking another officer.

Paris Valeta Bregazzi, 30, was let off with a suspended sentence for barging off-duty PC Sam Chegwin onto the tracks at Hanger Lane station in west London while drunk on Prosecco.

The decision by the judge, Mr Recorder Jeremy Dein QC was referred to the Attorney General as unduly lenient but he decided not to take any action.

But last month Bregazzi kneed another police officer in the chest while being arrested for throwing a brick at a parked car.

Five days later she sprayed perfume at a security officer at Waterloo station and hurled her dinner all over her police cell.

Bregazzi has spent the last month at HMP Thameside and was hauled back to the Old Bailey for breaching the suspended prison sentence.

Judge Rebecca Poulet QC decided to activate the six month prison term with an extra four months for the two new assaults, making a total sentence of ten months.

She said the previous judge had been compassionate because of Bregazzis personal problems.

Unfortunately two week later you again behaved aggressively.

I must impose a custodial sentence. I impose this sentence in an effort to protect the public from you.

I take into account that you have led a very difficult and troubled life.

You have undertaken gender realignment which has involved surgery and you have been diagnosed with a histrionic personality disorder back in 2013.

You are treated with anti-psychotic medication and you have been calm and receptive throughout these proceedings today.

In my view you must now be punished for the unlawful act at the railway station and having breached that order within so short a time.

Bregazzi has previous convictions for more than 60 offences including assault, harassment and shoplifting designer frocks dating back to 2007, as well as attacks on staff and commuters at Highgate Station, East Finchley Station and Kings Cross Station.

At 5.15am on July 17 last year she was heard angrily shouting at another passenger at Hanger Lane: You are just a black African slave, you are a n*****.

When PC Chegwin told her to calm down and pushed her in the chest to keep her away from him, Bregazzi, who had recently had breast implants, dumped the officer down into the tracks.

PC Chegwins head landed two inches from the live rail line but he scrambled back onto the platform and arrested Bregazzi, who told officers she had downed four bottles of Italian bubbly and taken drugs during a wild night out.

Bregazzi had initially received a suspended jail sentence for pushing PC Sam Chegwin onto tube tracks at Hangar Lane Underground Station after a judge heard she had suffered a history of mental health issues

A train passed through minutes later and the officer was extremely fortunate to not have been killed, the court heard.

Bregazzi, who had also had cosmetic surgery worth 10,000, was detained in a male prison before pleading guilty in November last year to one count of doing an unlawful act on a railway with intent to endanger a person.

She was initially released on bail only to return to prison for breaching the conditions.

On February 20 she was given a six-month sentence suspended for two years after the judge heard she had a history of mental health difficulties.

Bregazzi has struggled to deal with her parents disowning her and feels there is absolutely no hope of a reconciliation after she came out aged 19, the court was told.

Mr Recorder Dein had told her: I take the view that Mr Chegwin pushed you genuinely believing that it was necessary in order to fend off the risk of violence unfolding and to minimise any possible danger to the public and I dont criticise his decision in any way.

You reacted spontaneously, you had significant surgery on the part of the body with which he made contact although he didnt know that.

The Old Bailey heard that Bregazzi 'had a problem dealing with people in uniforms'

The court heard Bregazzi would be taken to HMP Belmarsh following her sentencing

Despite hiccups you have come a considerable way to addressing your difficulties.

The judge said that Bregazzi must learn to control herself better in future.

Just two weeks later on March 3 she was seen arguing with two elderly women at a bus stop on her way to a probation appointment in Stockwell, south London.

Bregazzi hurled two plastic wheelie bins into the street before throwing a brick at a car, causing up to 400 worth of damage to the windscreen.

She then stormed down Stockwell Road, forcing a bus to swerve out of the way, and visited the probation office before heading towards Brixton.

After she was arrested she kneed PC Florina Rus when the officer bent down to search her pockets.

On March 10 Bregazzi was at Waterloo station when she sprayed security officer Rashpal Mudahar with Lady Million perfume without any provocation.

Asked why she did it, Bregazzi said: She shouldnt have said I smelled, the stupid bitch.

She continued to screamed abuse when police arrived and crystal meth was found in her bra.

At the police station Bregazzi left officers with a 200 cleaning bill by throwing her meal over the cell.

Bregazzi admitted two counts of criminal damage, one of common assault and one of assaulting a police officer.

Her barrister James Kelly told the court she seems to have a problem with people in uniform'.

She is in emotional pain all the time. Eventually she will need to get the help she needs to overcome that.

Mr Kelly said Bregazzi would be taken to HMP Belmarsh, a male prison, following sentence.

Bregazzi from Islington, north London, was sentenced two four weeks concurrent for the criminal damage and two months consecutive on each assault charge, in addition to the activation of the original six months for pushing the officer onto the tracks.
Michigan police used 13 semi-trucks to prevent a man from jumping to his death early Tuesday morning.

The incredible moment was captured on camera and shows more than a dozen trucks parked side-by-side underneath an overpass on Intestate 696.

Michigan State Police closed the highway at Coolidge in both directions around 1am on Tuesday after receiving a call about a man standing on the overpass threatening to commit suicide.

Police in Michigan used 13 semi-trucks to prevent a man from jumping to his death from a highway overpass Tuesday morning

Officer had the trucks park side-by-side underneath the overpass to shorten the distance of the fall if the man were to have jumped

Police closed Interstate 696 at Coolidge in both directions around 1am following reports of a man threatening suicide. The highway was re-opened around 4am

Authorities closed the eastbound lanes but decided to let semi-trucks through after coming up with an unusual plan to keep the unnamed man from jumping.

The westbound lanes were also closed as more trucks were allowed to pass through.

Police then directed the trucks to line underneath the overpass. In total, 13 semi-trucks were parked underneath the overpass to shorten the distance of the fall if the man were to have jumped, Fox 2 reports.

The Michigan State Police, Huntington Woods and Oak Park Police all worked together to keep the man from jumping. According to the outlet, it took officers and negotiators several hours before the man walked off the bridge.

He was then taken by Huntington Woods police to Beaumont hospital for evaluation.

The highway was opened back up to travelers around 4am, three hours after police received the call about the suicidal man.

13 semi-trucks were the only vehicles allowed to pass during the incident on Tuesday morning. Officers then had the trucks form a line underneath the overpass

It took negotiators several hours to talk the man out of jumping. He was eventually taken to Beaumont hospital for evaluation

The Michigan State Police Department tweeted out a photo of the semi-superheros, writing: 'This photo does show the work troopers and local officers do to save the public. But also in that photo is a man struggling with the decision to take his own life. Please remember help is available through the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.'

Police are reminded people considering suicide to reach out to a loved one or call 911.

'There are so many people that can help you make the choice to get help and live! It is our hope to never see another photo like this again.'
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The interim leader of the secretive Nxivm cult who was arrested by the FBI last week and arraigned on federal charges is out of prison.

Allison Mack was released on $5 million bond and ordered to cut off all contact with members of the Nxivm cult as a condition.

The Smallville actress was seen walking out of Brooklyn Federal Court with her legal team, then made her way through a scrum of waiting photographers and reporters.

It is unclear if this includes Nicki Clyne, who is Mack's wife and still a member of the cult.

Her communications via mobile phone and online will be limited to just her attorneys and she will be placed under house arrest at her mother's California home.

She will also be forced to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet, which she is being fitted with before she walks free from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

Allison Mack was released on $5 million bond and ordered to cut off all contact with members of the Nxivm cult as a condition

The Smallville actress was surrounded by her legal team as she made her way through a scrum of cameramen

Mack will be under house arrest at her mother Melinda's (above) home in California until her sex trafficking trial

Mack grabs onto two of her lawyers' arms after leaving Brooklyn Federal Court on Monday

Mack is not believed to have made eye contact with her mother during the court appearance. Prosecutors have described her as a 'slave master'

Her communications via mobile phone and online will be limited to just her attorneys and she will be placed under house arrest at her mother's California home

She will also be forced to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet, which she is being fitted with before she walks free from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn

Melinda Mack looks straight ahead and avoid reporters question's after her daughter's court hearing

Mack was able to secure the bond thanks to her mother Melinsa putting up her house as collateral along with a retirement account in addition to Mack's New York home in Clifton Park

Mack filed an application for an Order of Excludable Delay on Friday requesting that trial against her not commence until after May 3, stating that her legal team and attorneys for the Eastern District of New York were in plea negotiations

Mack and her mother are pictured together. They will now be living together ahead of the high-profile court case

Collateral: She will be under house arrest and have to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet, with her mother and father both agreeing to sign off on her release (The Masck's home in California which was used as collateral)

Put it up: Mack also put up her home in Clifton Park (above) as collateral, where she lives in an area near other Nxivm members

Mack was able to secure the bond thanks to her mother Melinsa putting up her house as collateral along with a retirement account in addition to Mack's New York home in Clifton Park.

Movers were seen at that property on Monday carrying out Mack's belongings.

Melinda was in court to support her daughter on Tuesday, and will soon be taking her home to Los Alamitos where she will be monitored by officials from the Central District of California.

It was also Melinda who signed off on the bond, with a condition being that the money not be provided by any member of the cult.

Mack's father John will also have to sign the release documents as well by May 4 as a partial owner of the home put up as collateral.

Mack filed an application for an Order of Excludable Delay on Friday requesting that trial against her not commence until after May 3, stating that her legal team and attorneys for the Eastern District of New York were in plea negotiations.

She then informed the court that there is a 'reasonable likelihood' the negotiations 'will result in a disposition of this case without trial.'

This application was filed shortly after she entered a plea of not guilty to the three charges she is facing in the case.

It seems unlikely that Nxivm founder Keith Raniere will be able striking any deals with the US attorney's office, who successfully petitioned to have Raniere held without bail in a letter to the court stating that the cult leader had sexual relationships with two minor females, aged 15 and 12, in the past

The allegations against Raniere and Mack were outlined in the Complaint and Affidavit in Support of Arrest Warrant that was filed back on February 14.

Special Agent Michael Lever with the FBI had been investigating Raniere and speaking with former cult members, including two women known as Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2.

Lever states that Raniere came up with the idea for Nxivm's sex slave progra, known as DOS, during the summer of 2015.

A woman by the name of CC-1, who was revealed to be Mack in subsequent filings, was his first 'slave,' and provided 'colateral' which guaranteed she would remain faithful to him by providing Raniere with damning material.

'CC-1s email was titled "vow 3" and included an attached letter. The letter pledged CC-1s "full and complete life" to 14 RANIERE,' reads the complaint.

'In the letter, CC-1 used the terms "slave" and "master" to refer to herself and RANIERE. Moreover, the letter identified "collateral" to "cement" the vow made by CC-1.

'This collateral was described as: (1) a letter regarding CC-1 'smother and father that would "destroy their character"; (2) a contract that transferred custody of any children birthed by CC-1 to RANIERE if CC-1 broke her commitment to RANIERE; (3) a contract that transferred ownership of CC-1 's home if the commitment to RANIERE was broken; and (4) a letter addressed to social services alleging abuse to CC-1 's nephews.'

It is not clear if any of the claims made in those letters were true.

Soon, CC-1 was recruiting slaves of her own and filling out the pyramid that Raniere had hoped to create, selecting Jane Doe 1 as one of these women.

It seems unlikely that Nxivm founder Keith Raniere (above) will be able striking any deals with the US attorney's office, who successfully petitioned to have Raniere held without bail

The allegations against Raniere and Mack were outlined in the Complaint and Affidavit in Support of Arrest Warrant that was filed back on February 14.

Jane Doe 1 stated that her first meeting with Raniere ended with the leader questioning her devotion, but soon things took a bizarre turn.

'The next night CC-1 again received a text message from RANIERE, woke Jane Doe 1 in the middle of the night and assigned her to meet RANIERE and tell him she would do anything he asked her to do. Jane Doe 1 did as she was assigned, and RANIERE led her to a house across the street,' reads the complaint.

'RANIERE directed her to remove all her clothes and made comments about her naked body. RANIERE then blindfolded Jane Doe 1, led her into a car and drove her around in a manner that made Jane Doe 1 believe RANIERE was trying to prevent her from knowing where they were going.

'RANIERE led, Jane Doe 1, still blindfolded, through some trees, into what she believed was a shack, and tied her to a table.

'Another person in the room, who Jane Doe 1 did not previously know was present, began performing oral sex on Jane Doe 1 as RANIERE circled the table making comments.

'Jane Doe 1 did not want to participate in this sexual activity, but believed it was part of her commitment to DOS and that if she broke her commitment to DOS her collateral could be released.'

Jane Doe 1 said that she then began to frequently have sex with Raniere while also frequently posing nude for CC-1, who on one occasion sent 'close-up pictures of [her slaves'] vaginas' to Raniere.

This was not the only task Jane Doe 1 had to undertake, as she was also responsible for reading, reviewing and editing Raniere's writings and texts.

Allegations of Raniere's alarming and illegal sexual predilections are also outlined in a letter sent by US Attorney Richard P Donoghue to Judge Steven M Gold back in March.

'According to confidential sources, the defendant had repeated sexual encounters with multiple teenage girls in the mid-to-late 1980s and early 1990s,' reads the letter.

'In one instance, the defendant met a fifteen-year-old girl while he was in his 20s and had repeated sexual contact with her. In another instance, the defendant met a twelve-year-old girl whose mother worked for the defendant and began tutoring her.'

The letter goes on to say: 'Shortly thereafter, the defendant began having regular sexual intercourse with her, including at his home where he lived with multiple adult sexual partners.'

Raniere is also said to have voiced his belief that the age of consent should be lowered to when a parent believes their child is capable of performing sexual activity.

It has now been four days since Mack was arrested and arraigned on federal charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit forced labor.

Those are the same charges thatRaniere, 53, is being charged with, and both are facing a possible sentence of life behind bars.

Raniere could be spared from serving any time though, with a former publicist for Nxivm telling DailyMail.com that member India Oxenberg has said she is willing to take the fall for Raniere if it will keep him out of prison.

Frank Parlato, who has been covering Nxivm extensively on Art Voice, said that the female members of the cult have devised a plan they hope will save Raniere.

First, all female members are prepared to deny that they were ever forced or coerced into performing sex acts in an attempt to discredit the allegations made by the two former members whose grand jury testimony resulted in the indictments of Mack and Raniere.

If that does not work, Oxenberg is prepared to testify that they alone were responsible for coercing members into having sex claims Parlato.

'Mack, Oxenberg and Clyne have made a pact to go to prison, saying privately they are ready to walk into prison tomorrow if Raniere could be free today,' reports Parlato.

That has likely changed in light of Mack's release.

Parlato tells DailyMail.com that Mack's arrest had been in the works ever since Raniere's extradition from Mexico to the United States back in March.

He posted video of Raniere's arrest at the time, which showed Mack in a state of disbelief as officials dragged away the self-proclaimed Svengali.

The grand jury indictment states that Mack did 'benefit ... financially and by receiving a thing of value, from participation in a venture ... knowing that means of force, threats of force, fraud and coercion, and a combination of such means, would be used to cause such persons to engage in one or more commercial sex acts.'

The first of the women to testify in front of the grand jury, Jane Doe 1, also said that Mack 'did knowingly and intentionally conspire to provide and obtain the labor and services of a person .... by means of serious harm and threats.'

'As alleged in the indictment, Allison Mack recruited women to join what was purported to be a female mentorship group that was, in fact, created and led by Keith Raniere,' United States Attorney Richard Donoghue said in a statement on Friday.

'The victims were then exploited, both sexually and for their labor, to the defendants benefit. This Office and our law enforcement partners are committed to prosecuting predators who victimize others through sex trafficking and forced labor.'

Mack had been serving as leader of the cult for the past month DailyMail.com previously revealed, a role she assumed after Raniere was arrested by authorities in Mexico.

Both her initials and those of Raniere's were branded on the pelvic area of women who joined the organization.

The group had a large base in Albany, but a number of its most high-profile members decamped to Mexico earlier this year.

They are now in Broooklyn.

Raniere is listed as a co-defendant in the indictment against Mack, which was formally filed on Thursday afternoon.
Ohio substitute teacher Darci Lake, 23, has pleaded guilty to having sexual contact with two male students aged 14 and 16

A former Ohio substitute teacher has pleaded guilty to having sexual relationships with two male students aged 14 and 16.

Darci L Lake, 23, pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual conduct with a minor and four counts of gross sexual imposition. All are fourth-degree felonies.

Lake faces up to 18 months in prison for each charge if convicted.

The former teacher was arrested in December 2017 on allegations of having a sexual relationship with two underage Maysville Local Schools students in Zanesville.

Muskingum County Sheriff's Office initially received a report of a possible sexual relationship between Lake and the 16-year-old student.

Lake then admitted she and the underage student had sexual contact twice in her home, twice in his home, and once in his car, according to the Zanesville Times Recorder.

The relationship took place from February to November 2017, during which time the student turned 17.

Authorities then discovered that Lake also had a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old student during the same time frame.

Lake admitted she and the 16-year-old student had sexual contact twice in her home, twice in his home, and once in his car. She gave the 14-year-old oral sex for five months

Police said she performed oral sex on the 14-year-old, who turned 15 during the course of the relationship, from March to August 2017.

Lake was hired to work at the Maysville Local Schools through the Renhill Group, which hires out substitute teachers to school districts across Ohio.

The former teacher has since lost her contract with the Maysville Local Schools and has been terminated from the Renhill Group.

Renhill Group president Barrie Howell said Lake passed all state-required background checks before she was hired.

Prosecutors plan to recommend that Lake be sentenced to prison.

Lake posted $200,000 bond following her December 2017 arrest. Her sentencing has not yet been scheduled.
Shocking CCTV footage shows a cat miraculously survive after being thrown nine stories by it's owner.

The horrifying video was recorded in the car park of a block of flats in the city of Lietsk, western Russia and shows the black cat drop onto a parked car bonnet with such force that he dents it.

The cat bounces off the bonnet and into a somersault by the , spinning through the air before landing on its feet on the ground.

Amazingly, we see the animal get up and run off past a flight of stairs with a slight limp.

The video was shared online after the car's owner, Aleksandr Tor, saw a dent on his vehicle's bonnet.

Tor contacted the police to file a complaint and they are currently investigating the incident.

The horrifying video was recorded in the car park of a block of flats in the city of Lietsk, western Russia and shows the black cat drop onto a parked car bonnet

The cat bounces off the bonnet and into a somersault by the , spinning through the air before landing on its feet on the ground

Local media said that the cat was deliberately thrown from the ninth-floor-window by it's drunk owner.

According to reports, falling from super-high heights have a greater chance of than low- rise falls.

Experts believe that they can spread their limbs to reduce the impact of the fall.

From the moment they're in the air to the instant after they hit the ground, cats' bodies are built to survive high falls, scientists say.

No arrests have yet been made but Tor said that he hoped the cat's owner is sentenced in court for the horrific act of animal cruelty.
Ohio guidance counselor Rebecca Sparrow, 39, has been accused of having sex with a 17-year-old student

An Ohio high school guidance counselor has been accused of having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old student.

Rebecca Sparrow, 39, pleaded not guilty to sexual battery, which is a third-degree felony, in Summit County Court on April 20.

Sparrow, of Cuyahoga Falls, could face up to five years in prison if convicted.

The guidance counselor was secretly indicted by a Summit County grand jury earlier this month.

She allegedly had sex with the 17-year-old student, who has since graduated, in 2016, according to News5Cleveland.

Sparrow has been on paid leave from Cuyahoga Falls High School since January 9.

A letter from the district in Sparrow's personnel file states that she engaged in conduct 'unbecoming a teacher during the 2015-2016 school year'.

Sparrow pleaded not guilty to sexual battery, a third-degree felony, in the Summit County Court of Common Pleas on April 20. She could face up to five years in prison if convicted

It also states that she 'revealed confidential student information to a third party without consent to do so', according to the Canton Repository.

Sparrow was hired by the district in 2006 and first worked in special education at Bolich Middle School.

She became a guidance counselor at the high school in 2015.

Sparrow was released on her own recognizance. She is not allowed to have contact with the alleged victim.
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that North Korean tyrant 'has been very open and I think very honorable' in the lead-up to nuclear talks.

In an Oval Office meeting with the French president, Trump praised Kim, who he could meet with as soon as next month, for holding up his end of an arrangement to freeze nuclear testing while a complete end to the program is negotiated.

At a news conference later in the day, a reporter pointed out that Kim is an oppressive dictator accused of starving his people and killing members of his own family.

'I hope that we will be able to deal in a very open and honorable fashion with North Korea,' Trump replied. 'A lot is happening. And I think it's going to be very positive.'

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that North Korean tyrant 'has been very open and I think very honorable' in the lead-up to nuclear talks

Trump was primarily meeting with Emmanuel Macron today to talk about Iran and Syria. The United States' trade relationship with the European Union was also up for discussion.

Speaking of trade, Trump segued from talks with South Korea to the dispute with Kim's regime.

'We are going to be having a meeting with Kim Jong-un, and that will be very soon. We have been told directly that they would like to have the meeting as soon as possible,' he said. 'And we think that's a great thing for the world. That's a great thing for North Korea and South Korea and Japan and France and everybody.'

Last week Trump lifted the lid on a secret visit his CIA director, Mike Pompeo, made to North Korea to see Kim.

He said Tuesday that the the U.S. government had to this point had 'very good discussions' with North Korea since it began engaging in direct talks.

'Kim Jong-un, he really has been very open and I think very honorable from everything we're seeing,' he said of the man he used to taunt with the nickname 'Little Rocket Man' and the size of his nuclear button.

Trump said 'a lot of promises have been made by North Korea over the years,' however he has reason to believe that Kim, a 33-year-old dictator who took over from is father in 2011, is serious about wanting to make a deal.

'We have been very, very tough on maximum pressure. We have been very tough on, as you know, trade. We've been very, very tough at the border. Sanctions have been the toughest we've ever imposed on any country,' he said. 'And we think it will be a great thing for North Korea and it will be a great thing for the world. So we'll see where that all goes.'

Trump reiterated that he would 'leave the table' if the discussions with Kim are not productive -- a threat he first made during a summit with Japan's prime minister in Florida last week.

'Maybe it will be wonderful and maybe it won't. And if it's not going to be fair and reasonable and good, I will, unlike past administrations, I will leave the table,' he stated. 'But I think we have a chance of doing something very special with respect to North Korea. Good for them, good for us, good for everybody.'

Trump was primarily meeting with Emmanuel Macron today to talk about Iran and Syria. He brought up North Korea during an Oval Office meeting, raising eyebrows and bringing about a request for clarification at a joint news conference a few hours later

At the Tuesday afternoon presser, Trump lamented the fact that he was having to build talks from the floor up with North Korea at all when he has other matters like the United States' massive trade imbalance with China to deal with on top of it.

'With that being said, I think we're doing very well. Meetings are being set up. And I want to see denuclearization of North Korea,' he said. 'A lot of concessions have already been made. We have made no concessions, despite some of the media saying that I've made concessions.'

The only concession Trump said he is making is holding a meeting with Kim in the first place.

'And I'm sure that a lot of other people would have liked to have had the position we're having,' he stated.
Two British lawyer twins facing jail in Dubai say they are completely innocent of accusations they drunkenly assaulted a cop and 'cursed Arab women'.

Alena and Sasha Parker, 37, could face up to three years in jail in the strict Gulf state if they are convicted.

The twins, from London, both work at a Dubai law firm, and are glamourous fixtures on the social scene there.

The sisters today told MailOnline they had only made one court appearance so far and their defence had not been presented to judges.

They added: 'Since we trust the UAE judicial system and (are) sure about our innocence, we are confident that the Justice will be served.

'Unfortunately, since the matter is pending before the Dubai Courts we are unable to comment further at this stage.'

Photographs posted online show them partying during nights out and posing in bikinis in the sunshine.

On August 4 last year, they were arrested for 'roguish behaviour' on a night out, Dubai Misdemeanours Court heard on Monday. Alena Parker, an associate at Al Safar & Partners, and her sister, the law firm's case manager, had been found drunk in the Al Barsha district, it was claimed.

Twins Alena and Sasha Parker, 37, could face up to three years in jail in the strict Gulf state if they are convicted for 'drunkenly assaulting' a policewoman

The twins, from London , both work at a Dubai law firm, and are glamourous fixtures on the social scene there

The twins are pictured in front of Dubai's iconic Burj Al Arab hotel in another social media picture

'A police patrol dispatched to the location found the two intoxicated British [legal] advocates were behaving outrageously,' according to police records.

Alena Parker had apparently injured her hand and was 'being treated in an ambulance car by paramedics, while the other sister was standing outside the ambulance and shouting', said the records.

But when the sisters 'refused to cooperate with the policeman', he called for a female colleague to guard them while he fetched handcuffs.

The policewoman told prosecutors: 'They surprisingly attacked me, and I don't know why.

'They assaulted me and pushed me down on the floor I fell down and injured my head and elbow.

The pair from London post about their glamorous lifestyle abroad in Dubai on social media

Alena Parker, an associate at Al Safar & Partners, and her sister, the law firm's case manager, had been found drunk in the Al Barsha district, it was claimed

'A police patrol dispatched to the location found the two intoxicated British advocates were behaving outrageously,' according to police records

'While they were being taken for an alcohol test, they cursed me and cursed Arab women. One of them also scratched my hand with her nails.'

Three policemen and a lieutenant also gave evidence, which it is claimed corroborated the policewoman's statement.

The sisters pleaded not guilty to charges of 'insulting, resisting arrest by and physically assaulting a policewoman' at the hearing before judge Urfan Omar.

They have been released on bail until a full hearing of the court.

Yesterday they were unavailable for comment but a spokesman at their law firm said they denied all the accusations.

The twins, from London, both work at a Dubai law firm, and are glamourous fixtures on the social scene there

The policewoman told prosecutors: 'They surprisingly attacked me, and I don't know why. They assaulted me and pushed me down on the floor I fell down and injured my head and elbow'

While they were being taken for an alcohol test, the pair are said to have cursed the officer and Arab women

Alena Parker, who has lived in the Gulf state and worked at the firm since 2007, studied law at the University of London and University of Westminster between 2002 and 2007, her CV shows

The sisters pleaded not guilty to charges of 'insulting, resisting arrest by and physically assaulting a policewoman'

Alena Parker, who has lived in the Gulf state and worked at the firm since 2007, studied law at the University of London and University of Westminster between 2002 and 2007, her CV shows.

She specialises in commercial and property disputes.

Sasha Parker has posted dozens of pictures on social media showing the identical sisters at pool parties, posing with fast cars and enjoying the sunshine.

The Foreign Office today confirmed that they were assisting the twins.

A spokesman said: 'We are supporting two British women who were arrested in Dubai in 2017, and are in contact with the UAE authorities.'

The sisters would not be the first to have run into trouble with Dubai's strict morality laws.

Expats have frequently been arrested on drunkenness charges in the Arab state, where alcohol is banned in all but licensed premises.

Alena and Sasha Parker, 37, pose in their pink bikinis while enjoying the Dubai sunshine

The pair would not be the first to have run into trouble with Dubai's strict morality laws as expats have frequently been arrested on drunkenness charges

Rooftop parties are seen to be frequented by Alena and Sasha Parker in their social media accounts

In 2016, a 25-year-old married Briton told authorities there she had been raped, which led to her being arrested on charges of extramarital sex and thrown in jail for several days before the case was dropped.

The same year, a British man was fined 50,000 and jailed after using WhatsApp to insult a woman, who then lodged a complaint with the police.

And last year, Jamie Harron, 27, from Stirling, Scotland, was given three months in prison for accidentally touching another man's hip, but within days the case was dropped and he was freed.
More than 1billion was wiped off the value of Britains biggest bookmakers yesterday following indications that ministers will slash the maximum stake on crack cocaine gambling machines by 98 per cent.

Shares in gambling firms tumbled after the Daily Mail revealed yesterday that the maximum stake on controversial fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs) is set to be cut from 100 to just 2.

William Hills shares fell by almost 13 per cent, wiping 370million off the firms value. Shares in GVC, which owns Ladbrokes-Coral, and in Paddy Power Betfair also slid. In total, the value of the three firms fell by more than 1billion.

Whitehall sources said Chancellor Philip Hammond had accepted the case for taking dramatic action against FOBTs, which currently allow gamblers to stake 100 every 20 seconds.

Shares in GVC, which owns Ladbrokes-Coral as well as many other firms fell by over 1billion in total after the news

The maximum stake for fixed odds betting machines is rumoured to be falling by 98 per cent from 100 to 2

Mr Hammond is still in talks with Culture Secretary Matt Hancock and Number 10 about how to fill the 400million hole in the public finances that would be produced by cutting the stake to 2. Sources said this was likely to result in higher taxes on other forms of gambling.

The action goes far beyond the advice from the Gambling Commission, which suggested maximum stakes could be as high as 30. Officials have considered a variety of lower alternatives, including 20, 10 and 5. But Mr Hancock has been pushing for the most radical option of slashing the maximum bet to just 2.

Bookmakers, which make an average of more than 50,000 a year from each machine, were lobbying for the stake to stay at at least 20.

The Campaign for Fairer Gambling urged ministers to press ahead with the crackdown, saying: The evidence shows a low maximum stake to be the most effective way to prevent addiction.

The Treasury declined to comment on speculation. But a spokesman said the department was fully supportive of Mr Hancocks work to ensure the UKs gambling regime continues to balance the needs of vulnerable people, consumers who gamble responsibly and those who work in this sector.
Hafiz Abbasi, pictured, lost his job at a Manchester mosque after he was accused of sexually assaulting a woman

An imam has spoken of his relief after an appeal court quashed his conviction for molesting a woman.

Hafiz Abbasi, 33, says he 'suffered for two years' after being accused of sexual assault in 2016.

He was arrested, charged and was found guilty of two counts of sexual assault following a trial at Manchester and Salford Magistrates' Court in September last year.

He was handed a 12-month community order and later sacked by his mosque in Whalley Range, Manchester, over the allegations.

But Mr Abbasi always maintained his innocence and appealed against the conviction.

A judge, Mr Recorder Lowe, sitting with two magistrates at Manchester Crown Court, has overturned the convictions after hearing evidence from Mr Abbasi, the woman who made the allegations, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and three defence witnesses.

After the convictions were quashed, Pakistan-born Mr Abbasi, a married man of Whalley Range, told the Manchester Evening News: 'I have suffered for two years. I stayed in this country to fight my case.

'I believed I would get justice. Now I'm happy. I'm not guilty. I'm innocent.'

He said he didn't know why the allegations were made against him and described them as 'propaganda'.

Mr Abbasi was dismissed from his post at Minhaj-ul-Qur'an Central Mosque in Whalley Range following the conviction, although he hopes to get his job back.

Mr Abbasi was initially convicted at Salford Magistrates' court last September, although this was later overturned on appeal at Manchester Crown Court

Mr Abbasi's legal team said he had been wrongly accused of molesting a woman and now looks forward to returning to work after his conviction was overturned

Mr Abbasi hopes following the overturning of his conviction he will be able to go back to his job at the Mimjag-Ul-Qur Central Mosque in Manchester, pictured

He said: 'Maybe they will call me. Maybe not.'

He said he was studying for a PhD in philosophy from Cairo University and added: 'My goal is peace, tolerance and love for the whole of mankind and the whole world especially between the religions.'

His lawyer Nadeem Ullah, of Abbey solicitors, said: 'We are pleased to confirm that Hafiz Haroon Abbasi, a renowned imam, has had his conviction overturned on appeal to Manchester Crown Court which was heard on March 23, 2018.

'Mr Abbasi had been wrongfully accused of molesting a woman, twice, during a trial at Manchester and Salford Magistrates' Court.

'As a consequence of the wrongful conviction, the respected imam was removed from his employment at Mimjag-Ul-Qur Central Mosque. He is now relieved at the fact that his conviction has been overturned and he has maintained his innocence throughout the proceedings. He expects to be re-instated shortly.'

During his original trial, Mr Abbasi was accused of touching the woman's buttocks in 2016.
A two-year-old boy is fighting for his life after being hit by a car in Rainham, east London.

The youngster and two pedestrians were struck by the vehicle on South End Road at around 3.24pm on Tuesday.

Two women, aged 32 and 25, were taken to hospital with injuries that are not thought to be life-threatening, the Metropolitan Police said.

Police made clear that they did not believe it to be a terrorist-related incident.

A two-year-old boy is fighting for his life after being hit by a car in Rainham, east London

The driver of the car, a dark blue Mercedes A180, was arrested at the scene on suspicion of drug driving.

He was taken to an east London police station where he remains in custody.

Detectives from the Serious Collision Investigation Unit (SCIU) appealed for witnesses, or anyone with dash-cam footage, to come forward.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: 'Immediately following the collision members of the public assisted in detaining a suspect.

'Police are particularly keen to hear from those people.'
Hundreds of Amazon workers blew whistles and banged drums on Tuesday as they protested against working conditions in Germany where the megagroup's founder Jeff Bezos was receiving a prize.

Chanting and holding banners reading 'Make Bezos pay', about 450 workers gathered in front of the German publishing group Axel Springer in Berlin where the Amazon boss was to receive an award at a glitzy ceremony attended by politicians and celebrities.

The prize, given by the publisher of German's mass-selling daily Bild, rewards innovation in business, but the choice of Bezos was met with anger among unions and some politicians.

Hundreds of angry Amazon workers blew whistles and banged drums on Tuesday as they protested in Berlin against working conditions in Germany

About 450 workers gathered in front of the German publishing group Axel Springer in Berlin where Amazon boss Jeff Bezos (pictured above at the ceremony) was to receive an award

'We have a worldwide problem, a boss who wants to impose American working conditions on the world,' said Frank Bsirske, head of the Verdi union representing Amazon workers.

'It's like going back to the 19th century.'

Andreas Nahles, head of the Social Democrats that are in coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel, said Bezos 'didn't deserve any prize', pointing to working conditions at Amazon sites in Germany.

Verdi has organized frequent strikes at Amazon in Germany since May 2013 to press demands for the retailer to raise pay for warehouse workers in accordance with collective bargaining agreements in Germany's mail order and retail industry.

Organisers of Tuesday's rally said Amazon workers came from as far afield as Poland and Italy to voice their displeasure.

The French CFDT union said the gathering 'denounced illegal practices and disastrous working conditions' in the company.

Amazon warehouse workers, including some holding an effigy of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos (left), protest outside the Axel Springer building on Tuesday

The Amazon workers blew whistles and banged drums on Tuesday as they protested their working conditions

About 450 workers gathered outside a publishing company where founder Jeff Bezos was set to receive an innovation in business award

The angry warehouse workers were chanting and holding banners reading 'Make Bezos pay'

It said there had been 'several undeclared workplace accidents' and accused Amazon of monitoring the computer records of employees.

Bezos - the richest man in the world, according to Forbes magazine - was quoted by the German DPA news agency as saying he was 'very proud of our working conditions' in response to the gathering.

In March, Spanish Amazon staff held their first work stoppage to protest new working guidelines.

Amazon boasts more than 560,000 employees, and reported a profit last year of slightly more than $3 billion.

The company has previously said that its salaries are at the higher end of the logistics sector range and employees enjoy attractive benefits.

Amazon has repeatedly rejected Verdi's demands, saying it believes warehouse staff should be paid in line with competitors in the logistics sector, not as retail staff.

An Amazon spokesman said on Tuesday: 'Amazon provides a safe and positive workplace for thousands of people across Germany with competitive pay and benefits from day one.'

Amazon workers and activists protest ahead of the annual Axel Springer award ceremony in Berlin on Tuesday where Bezos was receiving a business innovation award

The unions have organized frequent strikes at Amazon in Germany since May 2013 to press demands for the retailer to raise pay for warehouse workers

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos attended the glitzy award ceremony with his wife MacKenzie Bezos

German musician Marius Mueller-Westernhagen and his wife Lindiwe Suttle were among the celebrities invited to see Bezos get his award
Busy doctors and nurses at a top Australian hospital are being told how to open doors by health and safety bureaucrats.

A memo has been circulated at the new $2.3billion Royal Adelaide Hospital to tell staff how to safely open the 'heavy' doors.

It states: 'Staff are reminded to take care when opening doors at the RAH.

'To help reduce the risk of discomfort when opening doors, consider: Using a lunge position, using two hands to open the door where possible, using your legs and body weight to open the door rather than your arms.'

The note from the Central Adelaide Health Service also features pictures showing correct and incorrect examples of how to open doors

The note from the Central Adelaide Health Service also features pictures showing correct and incorrect examples of how to open doors, The Advertiser reported.

The hospital has been criticised over the scheme branded a bureaucratic waste of time and money.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted the Central Adelaide Health Service for comment.

This is not the first time the hospital has hit the headlines for the wrong reasons.

In February some surgeries were disrupted by a power outage caused by a software failure.

The outage caused a generator to fail for up to 20 minutes affecting two operations.

No patients were adversely affected and the software responsible for the failure was examined.

A memo has been circulated at the new Royal Adelaide Hospital (pictured) - which cost $2.3billion to build - to tell staff how to safely open the 'heavy' doors.

Earlier this month, a teenager claimed he found a mouse dropping in his meal while he was in the hospital.

Trae Gauci, who was in hospital for a leg injury said he found the 'mouse poo' in his soup earlier this week.

'I seen (sic) a black thing floating so I pulled that out on the lid ... me and mum both thought it looked like mouse poos,' he said.

A hospital spokesman said they regularly conducted pest inspections with the most recent inspection on Monday where they found no trace of rodents.
Waffle House hero James Shaw has told Tennessee lawmakers he faced 'the true test of a man' when he wrestled an AR-15 off a crazed and naked gunman during Sunday's mass shooting.

Speaking on the floor of the state's House of Representatives on Tuesday, James Shaw Jr, 29, insisted he acted to save his own life when he rushed gunman Travis Reinking, before grabbing his weapon and pushing him out of the door.

'I never thought I'd be in a room with all the eyes on me, but you know, I'm very grateful to be here,' Shaw told House members, who passed a resolution praising him for saving numerous lives.

Speaking on the floor of the state's House of Representatives on Tuesday, James Shaw Jr, 29, insisted he acted to save his own life when he rushed gunman Travis Reinking

Brennan McMurray, who was dining with Shaw, his best friend, at the restaurant, also spoke on the floor of the House.

He told representatives that Shaw 'sometimes doesn't listen to me', before turning to his friend and adding, 'and this, by far, is the best time you haven't listened to me'.

The resolution passed by the house read: 'No matter his motivations, Mr. Shaw is indeed a hero; his actions on that fateful morning are unfathomable to most, indescribable by even the chief of police, and very poignant to the citizens of Nashville, who are deeply grateful for his brave actions in the face of extreme adversity that saved many lives.'

Shaw, the father of a four-year-old girl, initially hid in the toilet but Reinking shot through the door, grazing his forearm, and the father-of-one decided it was time to fight back.

'I acted in a blink of a second. When he reloaded his clip, which felt like 30 minutes. I looked at him, and he wasn't looking at me. He just had the barrel down. It was like, 'Do it now. Go now.' I just took off,' he told the New York Times.

'I hit him with the door and the gun was kind of jammed up. I grabbed it from him and I threw it over the counter top.'

'I never thought I'd be in a room with all the eyes on me, but you know, I'm very grateful to be here,' Shaw told House members. He is pictured waving to legislators with the hand he injured during the attack

A member of the Tennessee House of Representatives pats Shaw on the back as the house passed a resolution calling him a 'hero'

Shaw then chased the killer out of the diner while the fleeing man hurled abuse at him for intervening. 'I just wanted to live, and he was, like, astonished, that I wanted to live,' he recalled.

Shaw said he has since gone to see some of the shooting victims in the hospital and they all remembered him from the day. He apologized to the people whose loved ones died in the attack.

On Monday, Shaw attended a memorial service at Mount Zion Church, three miles from the Waffle House in Nashville where the shooting took place.

Shaw was grazed by a bullet and got second degree burns on his hand from where he grabbed the gun barrel and wrestled the rifle from the gunman

He joined more than a hundred mourners for four minutes of silence to remember the four victims: Joe Perez, 20; Akilah Dasilva, 23; Taurean C. Sanderlin, 29; and Deebony Groves, 21.

At a press conference that same day, Shaw insisted he was 'just a regular guy', adding: 'It feels selfish. I was just trying to get myself out. I saw the opportunity and pretty much took it.

'I'd rather you regard me as James, you know, just a regular person. Because I feel like everybody can do pretty much what I did.'

The Tennessee State Senate also honored Shaw on Tuesday.

Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall said Tuesday that Reinking has been 'compliant' and 'cooperative' since he was transferred to the jail late Monday after he was captured near the apartment where he lived.

Reinking is wearing a vest known informally as a 'suicide smock' and will remain under close observation at a maximum-security facility in Nashville.

Also on Tuesday, General Sessions Judge Michael Mondelli revoked the suspect's $2 million bond after an outcry from the local community.

Technically, Reinking could have walked out of jail if his family had posted 10 percent or $200,000 with a bonding company - although this would have almost certainly led to the bond immediately being increased to prevent this.

Reinking, suspected of killing four people in a late-night shooting at a Waffle House restaurant, is escorted into the Hill Detention Center in Nashville on Monday

A worker vacuums up shattered glass outside the Waffle House restaurant in Nashville where the shooting happened on Sunday

Reinking is charged with four counts of criminal homicide. Police say he opened fire outside the restaurant with an AR-15 rifle and then stormed the restaurant, wearing only a green jacket. Four other people were wounded in the shooting.

Reinking escaped on foot from the restaurant and shed his only item of clothing.

By the time he was captured in the woods nearby, police had searched his apartment, and found the key fob to a stolen BMW they had recovered in the parking lot days earlier. The BMW theft had not initially been tied to Reinking.

Nashville Police Department Lt. Carlos Lara told reporters Reinking was arrested Monday after detectives were tipped to the suspect's presence by some construction workers.

He carried a black backpack with a silver semi-automatic weapon and .45-caliber ammunition.

The arrest ended a 24-hour manhunt involving more than 160 law enforcement officers, but it left troubling unanswered questions about official responses to months of bizarre behavior before the restaurant attack, including encounters with police in Illinois and Colorado and an arrest at the White House that raised red flags.

Deebony Groves, 21, and Akilah Dasilva, 23, were also killed when the gunman stormed in and opened fire with an assault rifle

Restaurant worker Taurean C. Sanderlin, 29, and 20-year-old customer Joe R. Perez were among the four shot dead by a gunman at a Nashville Waffle House on Sunday

Police in Colorado say the co-owner of a business where Reinking worked described him as appearing paranoid and delusional at times.

A co-worker told a detective the man was infatuated with Taylor Swift and claimed to be a sovereign citizen who is not subject to any government laws.

Back in Illinois last June, Reinking barged into a community swimming pool and jumped in wearing only underwear and a pink woman's coat.

That same day, an employee at his family's business, J&J Cranes, said he emerged from an apartment above the office wearing a pink dress, clutching a rifle and yelling profanities.

That same month, Reinking was arrested by the U.S. Secret Service after he entered a restricted area near the White House and refused to leave, saying he wanted to meet President Donald Trump.

The suspect told Washington, D.C., police he was a sovereign citizen and had a right to inspect the grounds, according to an incident report.

On Monday, Shaw attended a memorial service at Mount Zion Church, three miles from the Waffle House in Nashville where the shooting took place

Reinking was not armed at the time, but at the FBI's request, Illinois police revoked his state firearms card.

Four guns, including the AR-15 used in the shootings, were transferred to his father, a procedure allowed under Illinois law.

Tazewell County Sheriff Robert Huston said Jeffrey Reinking pledged he would 'keep the weapons secure and out of the possession of Travis.'

Don Aaron, a Nashville Police spokesman, said Reinking's father 'has now acknowledged giving them back' to his son.

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives special Agent Marcus Watson said Monday that his father's action is 'potentially a violation of federal law.'
The three men who police believe kidnapped two teenage girls in Oklahoma in 1999 before raping and killing them often 'bragged' about the murders, witnesses said.

More than a dozen people interviewed by police provided chilling and disturbing details about the days and months following the abduction of Ashley Freeman and her friend Lauria Bible.

The two girls, both 16, vanished from a Welch, Oklahoma home on December 30, 1999 after Freeman's parents were murdered.

Multiple unnamed witnesses told investigators that the suspects - Ronnie Dean Busick, Warren Welch and David Pennington - boasted about Polaroid images they took of the teens bound and gagged with duct tape.

Cold case solved: Ronnie Busick, 66 (pictured left) has been charged with murder in the 1999 abduction and slaying of Ashley Freeman and Lauria Bible, both aged 16 (right)

Ashley Freeman (center) was kidnapped from her home and killed after her parents Danny and Kathy Freeman were murdered in December 1999

Warren Welch (left) and David Pennington (right) are also accused of murdering Danny and Kathy and kidnapping and murdering Ashley Freeman and Lauria Bible. Both men died during the investigation

The three men would often show people the photos and freely talked about the missing girls, according to an affidavit obtained by Oklahoma News 4.

Many of the people interviewed either lived with or dated the accused men.

All of the witnesses said at some point they had been shown a photo of the girls bound and gagged lying on a bed. They said they were threatened by the men if they went to the police.

One witness, identified as TW, told investigators that Welch and Pennington were allegedly known to cook methamphetamine together.

TW, who lived with Welch in the months following the kidnapping, said she had heard the men imply that Freeman's parents, Danny and Kathy, had been murdered because of a bad drug deal.

The woman said Danny and Kathy allegedly owed Welch and Pennington money. She also told investigators, according to the affidavit, that she found a briefcase belonging to Welch with images of the teens bound and gagged, lying on a bed she recognized to be his.

In some of the Polaroids, Welch was lying on the bed next to the girls, she said. TW said when she confronted Welch about the images he told her that if she went to police she would 'end up in a pit in Picher (Oklahoma) lying next to the girls'.

A friend of TW, identified in the documents as CM, told investigators TW showed her the Polaroid and the girls looked 'emaciated'. CM said Welch also threatened to throw her and her children in the pit if she went to authorities.

A third witness, a woman identified as LE, told investigators that Pennington talked about Freeman and Bible all the time. LE's son mimicked his mother's account telling authorities that Welch showed him the photos of the teens bound and gagged and told him they killed the girls by strangling them.

Investigators at the scene of the mobile home fire in December 1999, where Ashley's parents, Kathy and Danny Freeman, were found shot to death

One witness told police that the accused men implied that Danny and Kathy Freeman (pictured) allegedly owned them money over a drug deal

Courtesy of FOX 23

Other witnesses said Pennington and Welch were overheard one time saying that Bible and Freeman would still be alive if they 'wouldn't have taken off running'.

Police also interviewed another witness, identified as RH. He told investigators that Busick told him that the girls had been 'tied up in a trailer house in Picher where they were raped and tortured'.

Busick also told RH that Welch was the one who shot Danny and Kathy, and Busick and Pennington stayed behind to set the home on fire to try and cover up slayings.

None of the people interviewed could tell police where the photos were today.

Busick was arrested last Sunday and remains in custody in Newton, Kansas.

Authorities charged the 66-year-old with four counts of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping and one count of first-degree arson for the deaths of Danny and Kathy Freeman and the kidnapping of their daughter Ashley Freeman and her friend Lauria Bible.

Officials say Freeman (left) and Bible (right) were raped by Busick and his two accomplices, who then strangled the two 16-year-olds and disposed of their bodies

Busick is being held in a Kansas jail. He is now the sole surviving suspect in the case

Ashley Freeman and Bible are presumed dead, although authorities have never found their bodies.

Busick is the only suspect still alive. Welch, 61, died in 2007 and and Pennington passed away in 2015 at the age of 56.

According to a probable cause affidavit cited by Tulsa World, following their abduction, Bible and Freeman were taken to Welch's mobile home in Picher, where the three suspects allegedly took turns raping them.

Within 'a matter of days,' the document stated, Pennigton and Welch strangled the teenagers to death.

The first big break in the case came in December 2017, when Craig County Sheriff Heath Winfrey found a cache of notes relating to the missing girls when he was moving into his new office.

The documents have led investigators to people familiar with the murders of Kathy and Danny Freeman, and others who have come forward about the case.

Lauria's mother, Lorene, spoke at a press conference announcing the charges against Busick and appealed for the public's help in locating the final resting place of her daughter and Ashley Freeman.

'I need a place where I can go and say, "that's where my daughter is,"' she said, according to NewsOn6.
A former Tennessee school bus driver who was on his phone when he crashed and killed six children apologized to the mourning families before a judge sentenced him to four years in prison.

'I just want to apologize for taking the lights out of your lives and how it has impacted everybody,' Johnthony Walker said through tears ahead of his sentencing Tuesday.

The 25-year-old was sentenced to fours years in prison for criminally negligent homicide after an emotional morning of testimony.

Diamound Brown, who lost her six-year-old son D'Myunn, said she needed to hear it.

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Former Tennessee school bus driver, Johnthony Walker (pictured), who was on his phone when he crashed and killed six kids apologized to their families before a judge sentenced him to four years in prison

Diamound Brown (left in court Tuesday), who lost her six-year-old son D'Myunn, said she needed to hear it, while Jasmine Mateen (right, as she's escorted from court Tuesday), who lost her six-year-old daughter Zyaira in the crash, was not satisfied with the decision

'I have longed for those words. I have been waiting on them to just come out of his mouth purely and I got that today,' Brown (pictured, wiping tears away) said

But Misti Nash (pictured), who lost her nine-year-old daughter Zoie, said she forgives Walker. 'I remember seeing your face the day of the bus crash and I seen how you looked and I seen how hysterical you was and I seen the emotion,' Nash said as she addressed Walker in court

'I have longed for those words. I have been waiting on them to just come out of his mouth purely and I got that today,' Brown told WRCB.

Judge Don Poole ruled Walker shouldn't be sentenced to diversion because the crash involving 37 elementary school students was so horrific, but he couldn't give him a longer prison term because of his strong work history and no criminal background.

The decision divided victims' relatives at the hearing. Some said it wasn't enough time while others said they were satisfied with the punishment.

Jasmine Mateen, who lost her six-year-old daughter Zyaira in the crash, was not satisfied with the decision.

'Four years isn't enough. He killed six lives. Six innocent babies,' she said in court, according to WRCB.

Mateen said her other two children who survived the crash are still dealing with life-altering injuries.

Misti Nash, who lost her nine-year-old daughter Zoie, said she forgives Walker.

'I remember seeing your face the day of the bus crash and I seen how you looked and I seen how hysterical you was and I seen the emotion,' Nash said as she addressed Walker in court ahead of the sentencing.

Walker, 25, was driving 37 school children on November 21, 2017, when he flipped and crashed the bus into a tree. He is pictured testifying last month

Prosecutors said Walker was going more than 20 miles over the speed limit and using his phone when he crashed the bus

Walker claimed he was not using his cell phone. But evidence showed a four minute phone call that Walker made before the 911 call right after the crash

Walker was driving the children between the ages of six and 10 from Woodmere Elementary School when he wrecked on a winding Chattanooga road.

The wreck claimed the lives of D'Myunn Brown, six; Zyaira Mateen, six; Zyanna Harris, 10; Keonte Wilson, eight; Cor'Dayja Jones, nine, and Zoie Nash, nine.

Walker was convicted last month on six counts of criminally negligent homicide.

During trial, prosecutors argued that Walker from Chattanooga, Tennessee, was driving at least 20 miles over the speed limit and was using his cell phone.

Walker was charged with vehicular homicide, reckless endangerment, reckless driving and using his cell phone.

On November 21, 2017, Walker was driving a bus full of children from Woodmore Elementary School in Tennessee when the bus flipped.

Prosecutor Crystle Carrion said Walker was doing 50mph on a narrow, winding Chattanooga road when the bus ran off the pavement, hit a pole, and then flipped into a walnut tree.

'It all could have been avoided if Johnthony Walker would have just slowed down and gone the speed limit and stayed off his phone,' Carrion said in opening statements.

Walker was found guilty of 34 charges, including six for vehicular homicide because of the children who died in the crash.

Last month, Walker denied that he was on the phone and claimed he was only traveling at 35mph around the curve.

The wreck claimed the lives of Keonte Wilson, eight (left), and Zyanna Harris, 10 (right)

D'Myunn Brown, six (left), and Cor'Dayja Jones, nine (right), were among the deceased kids

Zoie Nash, nine (left), and Zyaira Mateen, six (right), lost their lives in the wreck

Prosecutors said during a pre-trial hearing last year that Walker received a call at 3.17pm that lasted almost four minutes.

The first 911 call about the crash came in at 3.20pm.

But witness Takeisha Nixon said from the stand on Tuesday that she was not on the phone with the driver when the crash happened, arguing that their conversation was much shorter than four minutes, contrary to the prosecution's version of events.

Nixon, who worked with Walker at his second job, told the court she called Walker on November 21 and asked if he was driving.

He said, 'Yes.' She told him, 'Drive carefully,' and hung up.

Walker was allowed to leave the court on Tuesday and to remain out on bond for 30 days, which is the time he has left to file an appeal.

The National Transportation Safety Board will hold a hearing in Washington in May looking into the bus crash.

Last month, Walker (pictured in court in February) denied that he was on the phone and claimed he was only traveling at 35mph around the curve
Controversial comedian Catherine Deveny has labelled Anzac Day as 'bogan Halloween' just hours after taking to Twitter to claim war veterans didn't serve Australia and were 'ignorant and uneducated'.

In a social media post on Tuesday, the stand-up comedian and former television joke writer from Melbourne suggested diggers didn't deserve to be saluted for their sacrifice on the frontline.

'Why do people in the armed forces use the word 'serve' to describe their work despite it being no more dangerous or prone to upheaval than many other jobs?,' she tweeted in the morning.

Controversial Australian comedian Catherine Deveny (pictured) has labelled Anzac Day as 'bogan Halloween' just hours after taking to Twitter to claim war veterans were 'ignorant and uneducated'

On Tuesday, the stand-up comedian and former television joke writer from Melbourne suggested diggers didn't deserve to be saluted for their sacrifice

The 50-year-old comedian was panned on Twitter for her remarks and claimed some people had threatened her with violence and sexual assault

'It's just a job and work. Throw the term 'serve' in the bin.

'It's part of the fetishisation of war and violence.'

The 50-year-old comedian, who was sacked as a Fairfax Media columnist in 2010 for wishing Bindi Irwin - then aged 11 - would 'get laid', was panned on Twitter for her remarks and claimed some people had threatened her with violence and sexual assault.

'Show Some Respect = Shut The F*** Up Or I'll Threaten To Rape You #AnzacDay' she wrote on Twitter after her initial remarks.

Throughout the day, Ms Deveny took to Twitter to slam Anzac Day, suggesting other jobs were as equally dangerous as being a soldier in war, even though many diggers were conscripted into battle during the First and Second World Wars and Vietnam.

'Firefighters, paramedics, police, doctors, social workers, nurses, window cleaners, miners, arborists, labours, farmers, construction workers, people who work with those suffering severe mental illness, prison officers, roofers, teachers (in American schools), loggers, fishermen,' she said.

Ms Deveny began her online rant on Monday night in a Facebook post declaring: 'ANZAC Day is f***ing disgusting and should have gone in the bin decades ago'

Ms Deveny began her online rant on Monday night in a Facebook post declaring: 'ANZAC Day is f***ing disgusting and should have gone in the bin decades ago'

Throughout the day on Tuesday, Ms Deveny took to Twitter to slam Anzac Day

She went further and said soldiers were 'sucked in with the glamour of war and racism under the guise of patriotism'.

'They were uneducated and ignorant. Most were up for an adventure and identity. That's why they went. For their own self-serving reasons,' she said.

In a second tweet on Tuesday, the comedian wrote: 'One of the thing that ANZAC day brings up is the hilarious notion that Australians have fought for our right to free speech. Australians do not have the right to free speech. Australians who have worked in the violence industry have fought wars to suck up to the US and British.'

'ANZAC Day. It's Bogan Halloween,' she said in a third and final tweet in the evening.

Ms Deveny began her online rant on Monday night in a Facebook post declaring: 'ANZAC Day is f***ing disgusting and should have gone in the bin decades ago.'

'As it gets closer my head feels tighter and tighter and I feel more and more nauseous. I blame the collective cognitive dissonance seeping in. I abhor ANZAC Day and can't wait til it's over.'

'I am so delighted to hear the chorus increasing every year saying 'Anzac Day is bulls***. It's a Trojan Horse for racism, sexism, toxic masculinity, violence, homophobia and discrimination.'

They called her out for trivialising the plight of war veterans, who suffered from post traumatic stress, including the Battle of the Somme in 1916 that saw one million men killed or injured. A soldier is pictured during the Battle of the Somme

Australia's involvement in the First World War, at the Battle of the Somme in France (pictured), demonstrated the young nation's commitment to global security

Several people reacted to the tweet by pointing to Australian troops who had been tortured as prisoners of war after being captured by the Japanese in 1942, and forced to do hard labour on the Thai-Burma railway.

They also took her to task for trivialising the plight of war veterans, who had suffered from post traumatic stress and lost limbs in major battles, including the Battle of the Somme in France during 1916 that saw one million men killed or injured.

'It takes a lot of effort to concoct something as asinine as that statement,' Mick Snowden wrote.

'I can only assume you're desperate for some form of notoriety. Poor form.'

In an era when veterans of the Vietnam and more recent Iraq and Afghanistan wars have committed suicide and are continuing to suffer mental health problems, one man described her comments as 'truly disgusting'.

As veterans of the Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars have committed suicide and continue to suffer mental health problems, one man described her comments as 'truly disgusting'

This man suggested Catherine Deveny was seeking attention on the eve of Anzac Day

Several men pointed out how Australians had been prisoners of war, after being captured by the Japanese in 1942, and forced to do hard labour with torture on the Thai-Burma railway

'To the proud members serving, many of them don't just get up and go to 'work',' he said. 'It is their every waking breath.'

Australia has been involved in a series of major overseas conflicts since the Boer War at the turn of the twentieth century.

It was Australia's involvement in the First World War, at Gallipoli in Turkey and the Battle of the Somme in France, and later in the Second World War fighting in the Pacific and in Europe, that are best remembered on Anzac Day.

The comedian, who was sacked as a Fairfax columnist in 2010 for wishing Bindi Irwin (pictured with boyfriend Chandler Powell) then aged 11 would 'get laid', was panned on Twitter

Rather than apologise, she doubled down and suggested other jobs were as equally dangerous as being a soldier in war
A British man has been arrested in Peru after police allegedly found 4.5million worth of cocaine in his suitcase.

Sean Woods, from Liverpool, is refusing to speak to lawyers because he reportedly fears reprisal from South American drug cartels, it is reported.

The 24-year-old could face up to 25 years in prison if he were found guilty of smuggling drugs, the Mirror reports.

Pictures released by Peruvian police show him in handcuffs after police reportedly held him in a shopping mall, where they allegedly found a suitcase full of drugs.

Sean Woods, from Liverpool, is refusing to speak to lawyers because he reportedly fears South American drug cartels

Police officers found 31 brick-type packages containing cocaine hydrochloride inside a suitcase, Peru's Ministerio Publico alleged in a Facebook post last month

Refusing to co-operate, he apparently said: 'I don't know what's in it. He said to meet here at 1 o clock, I don't know phones. I just wait here.'

Police officers found 31 brick-type packages containing cocaine hydrochloride inside a suitcase, Peru's Ministerio Publico alleged in a Facebook post last month.

In the Facebook post, investigators described Mr Woods as being 'caught red-handed', as they said each of the 31 packages, found in his blue suitcase, were marked with the letter R.

The Peruvian authorities claimed at the time that Mr Woods was set to secretly transport the 'illicit' packages as part of a drug-mule arrangement.

In 2013, Michaella McCollum and Melissa Reid were caught trying to smuggle 24lb (11kg) of cocaine worth 1.5million out of Peru.

The pair were jailed for six years and eight months after admitting the crime but were freed in 2016 after striking a deal with Peruvian authorities.
The United States Coast Guard on Tuesday brought ashore 13 tons of illicit drugs worth nearly $1billion that it says were captured in the waters off of Mexico, South and Central America.

The crew from the US Coast Guard Cutter Legare unloaded 12 tons of cocaine and one ton of marijuana in Port Everglades, Florida.

The Coast Guard says that the contraband was seized in a total of 17 operations involving the arrest of drug smugglers.

The Legare confiscated more than 4,500 pounds of cocaine on its own while the Cutter Reliance seized 2,600 pounds of marijuana in one bust alone, according to the Coast Guard.

The United States Coast Guard on Tuesday brought ashore 13 tons of illicit drugs worth nearly $1billion that it says were captured in the waters off of Mexico, South and Central America

The crew from the US Coast Guard Cutter Legare unloaded 12 tons of cocaine and one ton of marijuana in Port Everglades, Florida

The Legare confiscated more than 4,500 pounds of cocaine on its own while the Cutter Reliance seized 2,600 pounds of marijuana in one bust alone, according to the Coast Guard

The Canadian Navy also helped the Coast Guard in some of the seizures. While the drugs seized have a wholesale value of $390million, their street value reaches the vicinity of $1billion, according to the Miami Herald

The Canadian Navy also helped the Coast Guard in some of the seizures.

While the drugs seized have a wholesale value of $390million, their street value reaches the vicinity of $1billion, according to the Miami Herald.

What these numbers represent is an increased commitment by the US and international partners to combat transnational criminal networks and promote stability in the Central American region, along the US southern border, and in the southern maritime approaches to the US, Commander Jonathan Carter, commanding officer of the Legare, said in a statement.

Todays offload sends them a message that our network of partners and allies remains resolute in our commitment to stem the flow of illicit trafficking that breeds instability.

Last month, the Coast Guard offloaded 36,000 pounds of cocaine into a California pier

The cocaine was seized in naval operations conducted by American vessels in the Pacific Ocean

Last month, the Coast Guard offloaded 36,000 pounds of cocaine into a California pier, Military.com reported.

The cocaine was seized in naval operations conducted by American vessels in the Pacific Ocean.

The drugs, estimated to be worth around $500 million, were taken during 17 different seizures by five Coast Guard vessels during February and March, according to officials.

The Coast Guard stated the drug seizure operation is part of a Western Hemisphere Strategy implemented in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean, believed to be known drug-transit zones.

Despite the Coast Guards best efforts, the illegal narcotics trade continues to flourish.

Drugs like cocaine generate an estimated tens of billions of dollars a year for exporters.

The top producers of cocaine are Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia.

Americas growing demand for heroin also means billions of dollars for traffickers in Mexico - the largest supplier of the narcotic for the US market.
A petition asking the Queen to intervene and help save brain-damaged Alfie Evans has gathered more than 166,000 signatures in just over two days.

The petition, which has surpassed its target of 150,000 names, asks the Queen to step in after a High Court judge ruled doctors could turn off Alfie's life-support.

The child's parents, Liverpudlians Tom Evans and Kate James, had asked for a delay.

Supporters shared this photo of mother Kate James cradling her son at Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool, where doctors have withdrawn life support

But this was refused by the judge and doctors turned off Alfie's systems 24-hours ago

This evening Alfie's father told reporters outside the hospital that his mother 'was giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to keep him alive' after his lips began to turn blue.

The petition, started by Kayleigh Price on Change.org, begins: 'We the undersigned humbly petition Your Majesty for protection of life and liberty of your 23-month-old subject Alfie Evans.'

The petition had gathered an astonishing 112,000 names at the time of writing

An intervention by the Queen would mark an extraordinary turn in the tale - but would likely trigger a constitutional crisis

It continues, making a number of claims about the treatment of the child.

'The judges in Your Majesty's Court have given orders: to kill Alfie on an appointed hour at Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool by withdrawing his life support.

'For the day and hour of that killing to be kept secret from the public to avoid any protest or hindrance; For Alfie to be detained in Alder Hey until his death  any attempt to release him to be resisted by force, and punished by imprisonment.'

The petition also attacks the judges who have ruled on Alfie's case including from the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal and the European Court of Human Rights.

Tom Evans, Alfie's father, pictured speaking to supporters outside the Liverpool hospital today

It claims rulings handed down by the courts have not been 'authorized by any law ever passed in a democratic Parliament', adding 'judges pretend to exercise Your Majesty's ancient autocratic jurisdiction over the life and death of your subjects'.

One signee commented underneath the petition: 'I'm signing this because this is murder.'

Another added their name to the growing list, writing: 'Alfie needs the right to live'.

Kayleigh Price previously launched a petition demanding doctors at Alder Hey released the terminally-ill toddler to a hospital of his parents' choice which was signed by nearly 400,000 people.

Her connection to the family is unclear.
Talking to a human financial adviser at your local bank may be a thing of the past.

A bank in China has launched the world's first personless branch run entirely by technology.

Customers are greeted by humanoids who answers inquiries via voice recognition.

These banking humanoids are able to do most things a human assistant could, including opening accounts, transferring money and making investments.

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A bank in China claims to be the world's first person-less branch where customers are greeted by humanoids (pictured) who are able to manage everything

State-owned Beijing-based China Construction Bank (CCB) says its unmanned Shanghai branch will make banking more convenient and efficient.

As well as talking robots, clients can explore the bank's latest home rental offerings using virtual reality headsets.

According to the bank, it can handle 90 per cent of the demands of normal high street banks.

The bank has opened an automated branch equipped with face-scanning software, a virtual reality room and talking robots

The Shanghai branch opened its robot-controlled branch in Huangpu district and has been dubbed China's first 'unmanned bank'

Real humans are on hand to offer assistance if the robots are unable to deal with a request.

Clients can use private rooms for remote chats with managers via video links.

The bank claims this is increasing its appeal to tech-savvy customers and also trimming staff costs, writes South China Morning Post.

The bank is attracting throngs of curious observers with its cutting-edge equipment.

The site (pictured) is equipped with smart automated robots capable of opening accounts, transferring money and making investments. Real humans are on hand to offer assistance if the robots are unable to deal with a request

According to the bank, it can handle 90 per cent of the demands of normal high street banks. The bank is attracting throngs of curious observers with its cutting-edge equipment

WILL YOUR JOB BE TAKEN BY A ROBOT? PHYSICAL JOBS ARE AT THE GREATEST RISK Physical jobs in predictable environments, including machine-operators and fast-food workers, are the most likely to be replaced by robots. Management consultancy firm McKinsey, based in New York, focused on the amount of jobs that would be lost to automation, and what professions were most at risk. The report said collecting and processing data are two other categories of activities that increasingly can be done better and faster with machines. This could displace large amounts of labour - for instance, in mortgages, paralegal work, accounting, and back-office transaction processing. Conversely, jobs in unpredictable environments are least are risk. The report added: 'Occupations such as gardeners, plumbers, or providers of child- and eldercare - will also generally see less automation by 2030, because they are technically difficult to automate and often command relatively lower wages, which makes automation a less attractive business proposition.' Advertisement

However, analysts are sceptical, saying it's a gimmick that does little to automate banking beyond the usual ATM and online banking services.

China's traditional banks are under pressure from internet competitors and mobile payment applications that enable users to pay for goods using smartphones.

CCB claims to have already installed 1,600 smart machines at its 360 branches in Beijing where it is based.

Figures from China Banking Association data suggest that in 2017 Chinese banks revamped 5 per cent of all their branches to make them 'smarter'.

Nearly 114,000 'smart' machines that offer services beyond cash deposits and withdrawals have also been opened over the past year.

He Fei, a senior researcher at Bank of Communications in Shanghai said the unstaffed bank will be a good test to see what people think of automated banking.

'There will be ample room for improvement, through daily operation,' he said.

'Unstaffed services can solve repeated and standard demands from mass clients.

'But human bankers are still needed to offer professional advice, to serve the complicated and personalised demands, for instance by wealthy clients,' he said.
Aliens living on distant planets may be trapped there by gravity, according to new research.

Scientists looked into how difficult it would be to launch a rocket from a super-Earth - huge worlds up to ten times the size of our own.

A large number appear to fall within the 'Goldilocks zone' of their star, a region in which the planet's surface temperature is 'just right' to support alien life.

Researchers calculated that the gravitational pull of a super-Earth means it would be almost impossible to launch a spacecraft from the huge planets.

To fire the equivalent of an Apollo moon mission into orbit, a rocket would need a mass of around 440,000 tons (400,000 metric tons) - equivalent to Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza - due to fuel requirements, research found.

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Aliens on distant planets may be trapped there by gravity, according to new research. Scientists looked into how difficult it would be to launch a rocket from a super-Earth - huge worlds up to ten times the size of our own. Pictured is the Super-Earth Kepler 69-C

This means that alien civilisations on super-Earths would need to use rockets that don't rely on chemical fuel to get into space, researchers said.

'Many rocky exoplanets are heavier and larger than the Earth, and have higher surface gravity,' study author Michael Hippke, an independent researcher affiliated with the Sonneberg Observatory in Germany, told Space.com.

'This makes space-flight on these worlds very challenging, because the required fuel mass for a given payload is an exponential function of planetary surface gravity.

'On more-massive planets, spaceflight would be exponentially more expensive.

'Such civilisations would not have satellite TV, a moon mission or a Hubble Space Telescope.'

The gravitational pull of the Earth can be defeated with huge rockets that produce incredible amounts of thrust.

Two separate papers investigated if it would be possible to even create a rocket powerful enough to overcome this huge pull of distant 'super-Earths'.

Many of these exoplanets lie in regions around distant stars where it may be possible to maintain liquid water and an atmosphere, both believed to be essential for life.

This Super-Earth, called 55 Cancri e, is nearly twice the size of our home planet. The gravity here would be far larger than on Earth. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

In his paper, Mr Hippke investigated how difficult it would be to launch a rocket on a hypothetical super-Earth that was 70 per cent wider than our planet and 10 times more massive.

As it happens, they are roughly the same dimensions and the alien planet Kepler-20b, which is about 950 light-years from Earth.

On this 'planet', he found that the escape velocity needed would be 2.4 times greater than on Earth.

The escape velocity on Earth is around 25,000 mph (40,000 km/h).

WHAT IS THE GOLDILOCKS ZONE? The habitable zone is the range of orbits around a star in which a planet can support liquid water. This habitable zone is also known as the Goldilocks zone, taken from the childrens fairy tale. The temperature from the star needs to be 'just right' so that liquid water can exist on the surface. The boundaries of the habitable zone are critical. If a planet is too close to its star, it will experience a runaway greenhouse gas effect, like Venus. But if it's too far, any water will freeze, as is seen on Mars. Since the concept was first presented in 1953, many stars have been shown to have a Goldilocks area, and some of them have one or several planets in this zone, like 'Kepler-186f', discovered in 2014. Advertisement

'Civilisations from super-Earths are much less likely to explore the stars,' Mr Hippke said.

'Instead, they would be to some extent arrested on their home planet and, for example, make more use of lasers or radio telescopes for interstellar communication instead of sending probes or spaceships.'

To counteract the huge gravity, the proposed extraterrestrials may decide to use mountain tops as a launch base.

The issue with this idea is that the huge gravity will severely limit the height that mountains can grow to.

Researchers calculated that the gravitational pull of a super-Earth means it would be almost impossible to launch a spacecraft from the huge planets. Pictured is the planet 55 cancri e, which has a mass about 8.63 times that of Earth

Although the gravitational pull makes leaving the planet difficult, the extra attraction may provide benefits for nurturing and protecting life.

It would pull down gases and produce 'a thicker atmosphere, and thus better shielding for life on the surface against harmful cosmic rays,' according to the paper.

Whilst this is all theoretical, it doesn't mean that aliens would not be capable of space exploration, they would just likely devise very different methods than humans have.

With chemical propulsion unlikely to provide enough thrust, the alien equivalent of Nasa may utilise nuclear-powered spacecraft.

In a second paper, Dr Abraham Loeb from Harvard University published similar findings.

Kepler 22b is a super-Earth located 600 light-years away. As with all super-Earths, the huge gravity makes leaving the planet difficult but the extra gravity may provide benefits for nurturing and protecting life

He explained how nuclear-powered spaceflight might be achieved by by aliens on a large, rocky planet in order to overcome its strong gravitational pull.

Dr Loeb said: 'An advanced extraterrestrial civilisation could use other propulsion methods, such as nuclear engines or lightsails which are not constrained by the same limitations as chemical propulsion and can reach speeds as high as a tenth of the speed of light.

'Our civilisation is currently developing these alternative propulsion technologies but these efforts are still at their infancy.'


New EU data privacy regulations could make Facebook and Google even more powerful, according to some internet experts.

The laws require tech companies to ask for users' consent for their data, but are likely to strengthen Google and Facebook's dominance over smaller internet firms.

That's because cautious consumers are less likely to trust unfamiliar newcomers with their private information than recognised brands, researchers have claimed.

The changes could also put off start-ups that lack the resources to comply with the regulations from competing with larger companies, they said.

Together these factors may end up ballooning the monpolies that are already enjoyed by Silicon Valley giants like Facebook and Google.

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New EU data privacy regulations could make Facebook and Google even more powerful, according to some internet experts. The laws require tech companies to ask for users' consent for their data, but are likely to strengthen Google and Facebook's dominance (stock image)

'Regulations help incumbents,' Professor Avi Goldfarb, a marketing expert at the University of Toronto in Canada who has studied the effect of privacy regulations on competition, told the New York Times.

Research conducted by Mr Goldfarb in 2013 concluded that privacy regulation could be anti-competitive.

This is because getting permissions from users for their data was typically much more expensive for younger companies than for well-established firms.

The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will enter force on May 25 and aims to strengthen and unify data protection for EU citizens.

This means cracking down on how companies like Google and Facebook use and sell the data they collect on their users.

Facebook and Google have recently come under scrunity for the way they handle their users' data.

The EU rules could put off start-ups that lack resources to comply with the regulations from competing with larger companies. Together these factors may end up ballooning the monpoly that is already enjoyed by Silicon Valley giants like Facebook and Google (stock image)

WHAT IS THE EU'S GENERAL DATA PROTECTION REGULATION? The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a data protection law that entered into force on May 25, 2018. It aims to strengthen and unify data protection for all individuals within the European Union (EU). This means cracking down on how companies like Google and Facebook use and sell the data they collect on their users. The law will mark the biggest overhaul of personal data privacy rules since the birth of the internet. Under GDPR, companies are required to report data breaches within 72 hours, as well as to allow customers to export their data and delete it. The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a new data protection law that entered into force on May 25 Part of the expanded rights of data subjects outlined by the GDPR is the right for data subjects to obtain from the data controller confirmation as to whether or not personal data concerning them is being processed, where and for what purpose. Further, the controller must provide a copy of the personal data, free of charge, in an electronic format. This change is a dramatic shift to data transparency and empowerment of data subjects. Under the right to be forgotten, also known as Data Erasure, are entitled to have the data controller erase their personal data, cease further dissemination of the data, and potentially have third parties halt processing of the data. The conditions for erasure include the data no longer being relevant to original purposes for processing, or a data subject withdrawing their consent. This right requires controllers to compare the subjects' rights to 'the public interest in the availability of the data' when considering such requests. Advertisement

In March it was revealed that Facebook had allowed the political research firm Cambridge Analytica to syphen the data of nearly 87 million of its users, many without their permission. This prompted a US Senate hearing with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (pictured)

In March it was revealed that Facebook had allowed the political research firm Cambridge Analytica to syphen the data of nearly 87 million of its users, many without their permission.

Google has grappled with question over its video-sharing website YouTube as lawmakers raise concerns that the search giants data-collection system is as vigorous as Facebook's.

The EU's GDPR rules will restrict how internet firms collect, store and use EU citizens' personal data, and will require these companies to explain how they use this information in plain, simple language.

Tech giants can no longer employ convoluted user agreements that are often ignored as a way to gain access to people's personal information.

WHAT CHANGES IS FACEBOOK MAKING TO COMPLY WITH THE EU'S GENERAL DATA PROTECTION REGULATION? The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will enter into force on May 25, 2018 and offer greater privacy protection online. New terms of service at Facebook are designed to ensure the Menlo Park, California, firm complies with the forthcoming EU rules, with European residents seeing the measures first. Facebook is hoping to exclude 1.5 billion of its worldwide users from the new GDPR laws, arguing that only EU citizens should fall under its purview. Almost 1.9 billion non-EU international users, outside of the US and Canada, would be protected by the stricter law under current rules. Members in Africa, Asia, Australia and Latin America would be excluded from the GDPR's protections if the move goes ahead. Under the new policy, Facebook users will be asked to review and make choices about ads they receive, including whether they want Facebook to use data from third parties. Facebook will begin to ask users if they want to opt in or out of its facial recognition feature, which is making a return under GDPR. They will also be asked to review and choose what to share about sensitive personal data. This will include their political and religious beliefs, as well as relationship status information on their profiles. Facebook is also taking steps to comply with rules that limit advertising and public viewing of data for teens. This will mean no use of facial recognition for anyone under age 18 and limitations on who can see certain information teens have shared. To comply with GDPR, Facebook will also limit what it shows to users between the ages of 13 and 15 unless they get permission from a parent. Advertisement

But according to Nicolas Colin, co-founder and director at the Family, a French start-up accelerator, this could strengthen Google and Facebook's monopolies.

'People tend to give that permission to companies they trust,' he told the New York Times.

'Stricter rules strengthen companies because they have that key asset that is trust.'

One internet privacy expert suggests Facebook may be using the Cambridge Analytica data scandal for its own profit.

The EU's GDPR rules will restrict how internet firms like Facebook collect, store and use EU citizens' personal data, and will require these companies to explain how they use this information in plain, simple language

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

Dr Bernie Hogan, a researcher at the University of Oxford, said Facebook is using the fallout as an excuse to cut its ties with third-party app developers.

This allows the company to 'reign in' more services under the Facebook umbrella, opening the door to new lucrative industries that could see the company rival big platforms like Tinder.

Dr Hogan, a Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, told MailOnline: 'Facebook are champions of invasive data collection. Collecting more data than they should has been a part of their corporate mission for years.

Dr Bernie Hogan, a researcher at the University of Oxford, said Facebook is using the fallout of the Cambridge Analytica scandal as an excuse to cut its ties with third-party app developers. Pictured is CEO Mark Zuckerberg

'This is not changing, nor have they said it is. They have said they are restricting the sharing of this data.

'If anything they are profitably using this scandal as an excuse to clamp down on sharing with third parties and reign in more under Facebook's umbrella.

'Tinder using Facebook likes will be gone, but who knows, Facebook dating might appear instead.'
If you've ever wondered exactly what sorts of things Facebook would like you not to do on its service, you're in luck.

For the first time, the firm is publishing guidelines to what does and doesn't belong on its site - 27 pages worth of them, in fact.

The list spells out in detail exactly the kind of offences that could see you banned from the social network - or even arrested.

It includes making credible violent threats or revelling in sexual violence as well as promoting terrorism and the poaching of endangered species.

Facebook will also give users the right to appeal its decision to remove photos, videos or written posts deemed to violate its community standards.

If your content has been removed you will be notified and given the option to request an additional review.

This will lead to a moderator taking a look, typically within 24 hours, and if a mistake has been made Facebook says it will notify you and restore your material.

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Facebook has, for the first time, published guidelines to what does and doesn't belong on its service - 27 pages worth of them, in fact. This post shows an example of material that could have been incorrectly removed and can now be appealed under its new rules

Facebook, based in Menlo Park, California, already outlawed most of these actions on its previous 'community standards' page which sketched out the company's standards in broad strokes.

The updated community standards will mirror the rules the firm's 7,600 moderators use to review questionable posts.

These guidelines help them decide if the material should be pulled off Facebook and whether they need to call in the authorities.

While the standards themselves aren't changing, the details in the new document reveal some interesting tidbits.

Photos of breasts are OK in some cases - such as breastfeeding or in a painting - but not in others.

The document details what counts as sexual exploitation of adults or minors, but leaves room to ban more forms of abuse, should it arise.

Since Facebook doesn't allow serial murders on its service, its new standards even define the term.

Anyone who has committed two or more murders over 'multiple incidents or locations' qualifies.

But you're not banned if you've only committed a single homicide. It could have been self-defense, after all.

Reading through the guidelines gives you an idea of how difficult the jobs of Facebook moderators must be.

Facebook, based in Menlo Park, California, already outlawed most of these actions on its previous 'community standards' page which sketched out the company's standards in broad strokes

These are people who have to read and watch objectionable material of every stripe and then make hard calls - deciding, for instance, if a video promotes eating disorders or merely seeks to help people.

Or what crosses the line from joke to harassment, from theoretical musing to direct threats, and so on.

Moderators work in 40 languages and Facebook's goal is to respond to reports of questionable content within 24 hours, but the company says it doesn't impose quotas or time limits on the reviewers.

The company has made some high-profile mistakes over the years.

WHAT IS FACEBOOK'S NEW APPEALS PROCESS? Facebook has introduced a new right to appeal content that has been removed, as part of an overhaul to it's community standards. As well as publishing a 27 page guide to its the kind of offences that could see you banned from the social network - or even arrested - the firm will now let users request a review of its moderation decisions. Under current and previous laws, users had little influence over their content once it had been reported. Under the new plans, Facebook is widening its appeal process to let users formally request that a human moderator take another look at a decision about reported content. Users of content that has been removed for violating Facebook's policies around hate speech, nudity, sexual activity, and violence will have the opportunity to ask for a review. This level of request had previously only been available when Facebook had removed an entire page or profile. It is expected that this will later be increased to allow people to appeal cases where content is reported but not removed. Notifications sent regarding removed posts will include buttons that can be clicked to trigger appeals. The reviews that have been requested will then be conducted by human moderators, not a computer programme or AI tool. Facebook is targeting a 24 hour turnaround and it will notify users if the removed content is restored on the site. Facebook is bringing on-board 7,500 content reviewers are part of a 15,000-person team dedicated to safety and security. The team is expected to grow to 20,000 people by the end of this year. Advertisement

Human rights groups say Facebook has mounted an inadequate response to hate speech and the incitement of violence against Muslim minorities in Myanmar, for example.

In 2016, Facebook was also forced to backtrack after removing an iconic 1972 photo featuring a screaming, naked girl running from a napalm attack in Vietnam.

The company initially insisted it couldn't create an exception for that particular photograph of a nude child, but soon reversed itself, saying the photo had 'global importance.'

Facebook's head of product policy and counterterrorism, said the detailed public guidelines have been a long time in the works.

Facebook's head of product policy and counterterrorism, said the detailed public guidelines have been a long time in the works and aren't related to recent privacy travails that forced CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify for ten hours before Congress

'I have been at this job five years and I wanted to do this that whole time,' Monica Bickert said.

Ms Bickert said Facebook's recent privacy travails, which forced CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify for ten hours before Congress, didn't prompt their release now.

The policy is an evolving document, and Ms Bickert said updates go out to the social network's content reviewers every week.

Facebook the new rules will give people clarity if posts or videos they report aren't taken down.

Ms Bickert said that one challenge is having the same document guide vastly different 'community standards' around the world.

What passes as acceptable nudity in Norway may not pass in Uganda or the U.S.

There are more universal grey areas, too.

WHAT HAS FACEBOOK DONE TO TACKLE FAKE NEWS? In 2016, following the shock November 2016 US election results, Mark Zuckerberg claimed: 'Of all the content on Facebook, more than 99 per cent of what people see is authentic'. He also cautioned that the company should not rush into fact-checking. But Zuckerberg soon came under fire after it emerged fake news had helped sway the election results. In response, the company rolled out a 'Disputed' flagging system that it announced in a December 2016 post. The system meant users were responsible for flagging items that they believed were fake, rather than the company. In April 2017, Facebook suggested the system had been a success. It said that 'overall false news has decreased on Facebook' - but did not provide any proof. 'It's hard for us to measure because we can't read everything that gets posted', it said. But it soon emerged that Facebook was not providing the full story. In July 2017, Oxford researchers found that 'computational propaganda is one of the most powerful tools against democracy,' and Facebook was playing a major role in spreading fake news. In response, Facebook said it would ban pages that post hoax stories from being allowed to advertise in August 2017. In September, Facebook finally admitted during congressional questioning that a Russian propaganda mill had placed adverts on Facebook to sway voters around the 2016 campaign. In December 2017, Facebook admitted that its flagging system for fake news was a failure. Since then, it has used third-party fact-checkers to identify hoaxes, and then given such stories less prominence in the Facebook News Feed when people share links to them. In January, Zuckerberg said Facebook would prioritise 'trustworthy' news by using member surveys to identify high-quality outlets. Facebook has now quietly begun 'fact-checking' photos and videos to reduce fake news stories. However, the details of how it is doing this remain unclear. Advertisement

For instance, what exactly counts as political protest? How can you know that the person in a photo agreed to have it posted on Facebook?

That latter question is the main reason for Facebook's nudity ban, Ms Bickert said, since it's 'hard to determine consent and age.'

Even if the person agreed to be taped or photographed, for example, they may not have agreed to have their naked image posted on social media.

Facebook uses a combination of human reviewers and artificial intelligence to weed out content that violates its policies.

Its AI tools aren't close to the point where they could pinpoint subtle differences in context and history, however, - not to mention shadings such as humour and satire - that would let them make judgements as accurate as those of humans.

And of course, humans make plenty of mistakes themselves.

Facebook's new right to appeal moderator decisions will be welcome news to anyone who has had posts they believe don't violate house rules suddenly disappear.

'This is part of an effort to be more clear about where we draw the line on content,' Facebook public policy manager in charge of content Siobhan Cummiskey told AFP.

'And for the first time we're giving you the right to appeal our decisions on individual posts so you can ask for a second opinion when you think we've made a mistake.'

The move to involve Facebook users more on standards for removing content comes as the social network fends off criticism on an array of fronts, including handling of people's data, spreading 'fake news,' and whether politics has tinted content removal decisions.

Facebook said it will also give users the right to appeal decisions if the social network decides to remove photos, videos or written posts deemed to violate community standards as 'part of an effort to be more clear about where we draw the line on content'

Facebook already lets people appeal removal of profiles or pages.

The appeal process to be built up during the year ahead will extend that right to individual posts, according to Ms Cummiskey.

The new appeal process will first focus on posts remove on the basis of nudity, sex, hate speech or graphic violence.

Notifications sent regarding removed posts will include buttons that can be clicked to trigger appeals, which will be done by a member of the Facebook team.

While software is used to help find content violating standards at the social network, humans will handle appeals and the goal is to have reviews done within a day.

'We believe giving people a voice in the process is another essential component of building a fair system,' Ms Bickert added.

'For the first time, we are publishing the internal implementation guidelines that our content reviewers use to make decisions about what's allowed on Facebook.'

Facebook's content reviewers are part of a 15,000-person team at the firm that is devoted to safety and security, according to Ms Cummiskey, who said the team is expected to grow to 20,000 people by the end of this year.

'It's quite a tricky and complex thing drawing lines around what people can and cannot share on Facebook, which is why we consult experts,' Ms Cummiskey, whose background includes work as a human rights attorney, added.
All humans view colour in the same way, but how that information is processed and understood can vary for different people.

Scientists have found that a person's perception of colour changes based on several different factors such as culture, language and environment.

Dr Aina Casaponsa and Dr Panos Athanasopoulos from Lancaster University explain in an article for The Conversation how different languages can alter how we see the world.

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The human eye can physically perceive millions of colours. But we don't all recognise these colours in the same way. Ccolour perception is less about seeing what is actually out there and more about how our brain interprets colours to create something meaningful (stock)

The human eye can physically perceive millions of colours. But we don't all recognise these colours in the same way.

Some people can't see differences in colours  so called colour blindness  due to a defect or absence of the cells in the retina that are sensitive to high levels of light: the cones.

But the distribution and density of these cells also varies across people with 'normal vision' causing us all to experience the same colour in slightly different ways.

Besides our individual biological make up, colour perception is less about seeing what is actually out there and more about how our brain interprets colours to create something meaningful.

The perception of colour mainly occurs inside our heads and so is subjective  and prone to personal experience.

Take for instance people with synaesthesia, who are able to experience the perception of colour with letters and numbers.

Synaesthesia is often described as a joining of the senses  where a person can see sounds or hear colours.

But the colours they hear also differ from case to case.

Another example is the classic Alderson's checker-shadow illusion.

Here, although two marked squares are exactly the same colour, our brains don't perceive them this way.

Here, in the classic Alderson's checker-shadow illusion (pictured), although two marked squares are exactly the same colour, our brains don't perceive them this way

The culture of colour

Since the day we were born we have learnt to categorise objects, colours, emotions, and pretty much everything meaningful using language.

And although our eyes can perceive thousands of colours, the way we communicate about colour  and the way we use colour in our everyday lives  means we have to carve this huge variety up into identifiable, meaningful categories.

Painters and fashion experts, for example, use colour terminology to refer to and discriminate hues and shades that to all intents and purposes may all be described with one term by a non expert.

Different languages and cultural groups also carve up the colour spectrum differently.

Some languages like Dani, spoken in Papua New Guinea, and Bassa, spoken in Liberia and Sierra Leone, only have two terms, dark and light.

Dark roughly translates as cool in those languages, and light as warm.

So colours like black, blue, and green are glossed as cool colours, while lighter colours like white, red, orange and yellow are glossed as warm colours.

The Warlpiri people living in Australia's Northern Territory don't even have a term for the word 'colour'.

For these and other such cultural groups, what we would call 'colour' is described by a rich vocabulary referring to texture, physical sensation and functional purpose.

Cultures as diverse as the Berinmo in the lush rainforests of Papua New Guinea (pictured) o not have separate terms for 'green' and 'blue' but use one term to describe both colours, a sort of 'grue'

Five key colours

Remarkably, most of the world's languages have five basic colour terms. Cultures as diverse as the Himba in the Namibian plains and the Berinmo in the lush rainforests of Papua New Guinea employ such five term systems.

As well as dark, light, and red, these languages typically have a term for yellow, and a term that denotes both blue and green.

That is, these languages do not have separate terms for 'green' and 'blue' but use one term to describe both colours, a sort of 'grue'.

Historically, Welsh had a 'grue' term, namely glas, as did Japanese and Chinese.

Nowadays, in all these languages, the original grue term has been restricted to blue, and a separate green term is used.

This is either developed from within the language  as is the case for Japanese  or through lexical borrowing, as is the case for Welsh.

Russian, Greek, Turkish and many other languages also have two separate terms for blue  one referring exclusively to darker shades, and one referring to lighter shades.

ANIMALS SEE USING COMPLEX STRUCTURES IN THEIR EYES Animals, including humans, have a variety of complex structures in their eyes which allow them to see. The pupil contracts to limit how much light is allowed in, much like a camera lens. Most animals have both cones and rods in their eyes, which are called photoreceptors and are found in the retina. Cones allow people to see colour and rods are sensitive to low-light levels which allows for a grey scale between black and white. Humans, and many other animals, have three types of cones which each absorbs different wavelength of lights. With short, medium and long wavelength cones, the range of cones allows for a range of vision which incorporates the visible light spectrum. This includes colours between red and blue - wavelengths ranging between 390 an 700 nm. Other species, including many birds, have four cones instead of three in a mutation known as tertrachromacy. This allows for animals to see light of an unusually short wavelength, which is normally considered to be UV light. These photoreceptors are triggered by light and then this produces an electrical signal as they change shape. Electrical signals are then carried to the brain via the optic nerve. Signals from both optic nerves are then brought together by the brain at a point called the optic chiasm where the brain compares the two images. This is what gives animals an understanding of depth and how far away objects are in their field of vision. Advertisement

Language and colour

The way we perceive colours can also change during our lifetime.

Greek speakers who have two fundamental colour terms to describe light and dark blue  'ghalazio' and 'ble'  are more prone to see these two colours as more similar after living for long periods of time in the UK  where these two colours are described in English by the same fundamental colour term: blue.

This is because after long term everyday exposure to an English speaking environment, the brain of native Greek speakers starts interpreting the colours 'ghalazio' and 'ble' as part of the same colour category.

But this isn't just something that happens with colour, in fact different languages can influence our perceptions in all areas of life.

And in our lab at Lancaster University we are investigating how the use of and exposure to different languages changes the way we perceive everyday objects.

Ultimately, this happens because learning a new language is like giving our brain the ability to interpret the world differently  including the way we see and process colours.
Amazon now offers free delivery straight to the boot of your unattended car.

The company announced today that it has begun delivering packages in 37 US cities to Prime members who own newer General Motors or Volvo vehicles.

Packages will be placed in the trunks of cars parked in publicly accessible areas like a customer's home or workplace, and then secured.

The service, called Amazon Key In-Car, is available in cities including San Francisco, Seattle, Atlanta, Nashville, Milwaukee, Salt Lake City and Washington, D.C.

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Amazon has begun delivering packages in 37 US cities to Prime members who own newer General Motors or Volvo vehicles (pictured). Packages will be placed in the trunks of cars parked in publicly accessible areas like a customer's home or workplace, and then secured

Deliveries are available to Prime members with 2015 year or newer Chevrolet, Buick, GMC or Cadillac vehicles with GM's OnStar connected-car service, and those with a 2015 or newer Volvo vehicle with an active Volvo On Call account.

The company has not yet revealed if it will offer the service to UK customers.

The system taps into your car's built-in unlock feature without ever giving the delivery person a pass code or other permanent access to the vehicle.

'Everything is securely encrypted between the two services,' said Rohit Shrivastava, Amazon Key's general manager.

Shrivastava also said that Amazon cannot see or track the customer's car.

Instead, the customer gives Amazon an address where the car will be parked and publicly accessible, along with the make, model, colour and license plate number to help the delivery person find the right vehicle.

As part of its announcement, Amazon released a video showing trial customers using the new in-car system (pictured). The service, called Amazon Key In-Car, is available in cities including San Francisco, Seattle, Atlanta, Nashville, Milwaukee, Salt Lake City and Washington, D.C

HOW DOES AMAZON'S NEW IN-CAR DELIVERY SYSTEM WORK? Amazon is now offering customers a delivery service that drops packages into the trunk of your car. Deliveries are left in cars parked in publicly accessible areas like a customer's workplace or home. The service is only available to Prime members in select US cities who own newer General Motors or Volvo vehicles. Customers using the service give Amazon an address where their vehicle is parked. They also provide the car's colour, make, model and license plate number to make it easier to find. An Amazon delivery person then taps into the car's built-in unlock features to open the boot and place a package inside. They shut the trunk and lock the trunk once the package has been delivered. Throughout the process, Amazon sends customers reminders to keep them updated before, during and after the delivery has been completed. Advertisement

Customers also get several reminders on their phones before, during and after the packages are delivered.

To access the new feature, Amazon Prime customers need to download the Amazon Key app.

From there, they can link their connected car and start their Amazon orders. No additional hardware or devices are needed.

To access the new feature, Amazon Prime customers need to download the Amazon Key app. From there, they can link their connected car and start their Amazon orders. Pictured is one of the service's trial users accessing a delivery in her trunk

Deliveries are left in cars parked in publicly accessible areas like a customer's workplace or home. Packages can be placed in the trunk or the back seat (pictured left and right) of vehicles

The in-car delivery service is part of Amazon's drive to leave packages where they cannot be easily stolen.

It builds on an effort Amazon launched last fall called Amazon Key.

That system uses a $220 (160) combination of an internet-connected door lock and camera to allow Amazon delivery drivers to place packages inside the homes of Prime members.

HOW DOES AMAZON KEY WORK? Amazon Prime members can pay $249.99 (190) and up for a cloud-controlled camera and lock that the company offers to install. Delivery associates are told to ring a doorbell or knock when they arrive at someone's house. If no one greets them, they press 'unlock' in a mobile app, and Amazon checks its systems in an instant to make sure the right associate and package are present. As part of the Key service, subscribers of Amazon Prime, the firm's free, two-day shipping program, can also take advantage of in-home delivery The camera then streams video to the customer who remotely can watch the in-home delivery take place. The associate cannot proceed with other trips until the home is again locked. It is unclear if such protections will persuade customers that the service is safe to use. Advertisement

By contrast, the in-car delivery service is free for Prime members.

The in-home delivery option put Amazon in direct competition with so-called smart home security companies such as Alphabet Inc's Nest Labs and presaged Amazon's $1 billion (700 million) acquisition of internet-connected doorbell maker Ring.

But the new in-car delivery service may have broader reach because it works with many compatible cars from Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac and Volvo.

Amazon says it plans to deliver to more makes and models in the future.

The service builds on an effort Amazon launched last fall called Amazon Key (pictured). That system uses a 160 ($220) combination of an internet-connected door lock and camera to allow Amazon delivery drivers to place packages inside the homes of Prime members

In a statement, GM said there are at least 7 million owners of compatible GM models.

Amazon has not disclosed how many customers have tried its Amazon Key in-home service.

In-car delivery also gives Amazon an in-between option for customers who might want a more secure delivery location than the front porch but do not want delivery people inside their homes.
Online streaming services such Spotify and Apple Music have become the music industry's single biggest revenue source, overtaking physical sales and digital downloads for the first time, a global industry body said on Tuesday.

The rapid growth in streaming music services in recent years has led to a recovery in the fortunes of the global recorded music industry, which enjoyed its third year of positive revenue growth, according to a report by industry trade group IFPI.

By 2014, music sales had fallen by 40 percent to $14.3 billion in the 15 years since 1999, when the rise of music file-sharing service Napster ravaged sales of CDs and the development of download services like Apple iTunes failed to offset declines.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on the morning that the music streaming service Spotify begins trading shares at the NYSE on April 3, 2018 in New York City.

Last year, subscription-based streaming revenue accounted for 38 percent of all recorded music, up from 29 percent the year before, IFPI said.

Figures released in IFPIs Global Music Report 2018 show total revenues for 2017 were $17.3 billion, with an increase of 8.1 percent from the previous year.

Industry leaders say that the rise of music streaming is enabling the market to reach new regions of the world, while helping weaning a generation of music fans away from free or pirated music.

'We estimate that only half the worlds population lives in a thriving music environment and we want to bring the streaming revolution to all of it,' Stu Bergen, from Warner Music Group, told reporters in London.

Latin America and China saw the biggest market growth, with a rise in overall music revenue of 17.7 percent and 35.3 percent respectively.

Despite the healthy figures, revenues for 2017 are still only 68.4 percent of the markets peak in 1999.

IFPI - The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry - says governments should do more to tackle the 'value gap' between the value created by some digital platforms such as Google's YouTube for their use of music and what they pay those creating and investing in it.

'Things are looking good but theres a structural fault in the system.

'Until we fix it, it will always be a struggle,' said IFPI Chief Executive Frances Moore.
When it comes to quality, street food can be a lottery  it could be amazing, it could be a one-way ticket to dysentery.

But tasty fodder is guaranteed at the venues featured in a new hot list of Europe's best street food stalls, with the best declared as Mexican-themed Hija de Sanchez in Copenhagen.

The fact that it serves top quality fodder comes as no surprise though  because the chef behind it, Rosio Sanchez, used to work at Copenhagen's two-Michelin-starred Noma.

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The chef behind Mexican-themed Hija de Sanchez in Copenhagen is Rosio Sanchez, who used to work at Copenhagen's two-Michelin-starred Noma

The accolade of being Europe's best street food stall has been bestowed on her venture by easyJet Traveller magazine, which deployed 73 food experts to 'nibble their way around the food markets of Europe, on a mission to sniff out the finest street food the continent has to offer'.

The panel included international bloggers, industry insiders and food writers - and none other than Noma head chef Rene Redzepi.

'Mexican dining is about colour, diversity, sharing. It's hard to find good Mexican in Europe,' ex-Noma pastry chef Sanchez told easyJet Traveller after learning that Mexican-American Sanchez had won, predicting punters would return 'like ants' when her stall reopens this spring.

Hija de Sanchez, which launched in 2015, opens between May and October and can be found at the Torvehallerne market next to the Nrreport Station.

A sister outlet opened in April 2016 and is located in Copenhagen's meatpacking district.

They specialise in tacos, with ingredients including braised pork belly, beef tongue and two-month aged cow's cheese.

Close behind at number two, Sea Me at the Time Out Market in Lisbon 'rocks nautical Japanese/Portuguese fusion', and was lavishly praised by The Gourmand's Ananda Pellerin, according to easyJet Traveller.

In third placed is Paris's Alain Miam Miam, which 'doles out gooey grilled buckwheat galettes loaded with organic veg'.

In fourth place is 'AmsterDAM Good Cookies', which is 'making waves with the world's best stroopwaffles'.

Tasty: Aleppo Bahebek is an 'inspired' Oslo-based shawarma joint staffed entirely by Syrian refugees

EasyJet Traveller magazine deployed 73 food experts to 'nibble their way around the food markets of Europe, on a mission to sniff out the finest street food the continent has to offer'

This company serves its stroopwaffles from a red fire truck that drives around the Netherlands (and sometimes other parts of Europe). It's in Kleve in Germany right now. For updates on its location visit AmsterDAM Good Cookies' Facebook page.

Fifth place goes to Mordi e Vai in Rome, where traditional Italian staples like simmered brisket sandwiches and tongue and tripe are the order of the day, according to the judges.

Six is the 'fresh but filthy, so-crazy-it-works kimchi/poutine mashup' at Bone. BERLIN.

Taking seventh is Aleppo Bahebek, an 'inspired' Oslo-based shawarma joint staffed entirely by Syrian refugees.

In at number eight is Langos Mashogy in Karavan market in Budapest, which 'blends the hipster and traditional' with its 'full, flavoursome Langos Burger'.

Ninth place goes to the Korvar Kiosk, a backstreet Stockholm hotdog stand run by larger-than-life local celeb Gunter.

And last but not least, in at number ten is London's multi-site bao bun institution Yum Bun.
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Step on board the Norwegian Bliss and you might be forgiven for thinking that you'd made a wrong turn and entered a theme park.

But no, it's actually a ship and is packed with some fairly extreme features, such as a two-level Go-Kart track where guests can reach speeds of 30mph and multi-level water slides. Plus a laser tag attraction.

Norwegian Bliss was delivered to Norwegian Cruise Line last week and left Southampton on Saturday for its maiden voyage to New York.

Step on board the Norwegian Bliss and you might be forgiven for thinking that you'd made a wrong turn and entered a theme park

The ship is packed with some fairly extreme features, such as a two-level Go-Kart track where guests can reach speeds of 30mph and multi-level water slides. Plus a laser tag attraction

Wheel-y great fun: This incredible aerial image shows the sheer scale of the Go-Kart track

Norwegian Cruise Line took delivery of the 168,028 tonne vessel from German ship builder Meyer Werft. The ship is pictured in Southampton before setting off across the Atlantic

The outlandish track will be the largest competitive race track at sea and a first for any North America-based cruise ship.

The two-level electric car race track sits at the top of deck 19 on the 20-deck vessel and will offer amazing views as guests seek the fastest time.

The ship's water park boasts two multi-story water slides, with one extending over the edge of the ship and looping down to the deck below.

Norwegian Bliss is the largest ever ship built for Norwegian Cruise Line - although it is still smaller than the world's largest liner, Royal Caribbean's Symphony of the Seas.

An image that reveals how one of the water slides hangs right over the side of the ship

A guest zooms along one of the water slides. From June, Norwegian Bliss will spend her summer cruising seven-day voyages to Alaska, and the autumn season cruising to the Mexican Riviera from Los Angeles

The two-level electric car race track sits at the top of deck 19 on the 20-deck vessel and will offer amazing views as guests seek the fastest time

Norwegian Bliss is due to arrive in New York on May 3 for an inaugural US-tour stopping off in Miami and Los Angeles

The Go-Kart track has clearly been designed to test the mettle of the ship's guests

A guest punches the air in delight as he hurtles around the enormous track

It stretches 1,082-feet-long and can carry over 4,000 passengers when at double occupancy.

Norwegian Cruise Line took delivery of the 168,028 tonne vessel from German ship builder Meyer Werft during a ceremony in Bremerhaven last week to mark the end of an 18-month construction period.

Andy Stuart, the president and chief executive officer of Norwegian, said at the time: 'Norwegian Bliss is one of our most highly-anticipated ships to date, and today marks another exciting milestone for the newest and most innovative ship of our young and modern fleet.

Two guests prepare to shoot during a game of laser tag on board the Norwegian Bliss

One of the deluxe suites on board the ship, which is one of the world's biggest cruise liners

The ship has been designed to relax guests as well as keep them thoroughly entertained

The observation lounge, where guests can gaze upon the ocean waves while sipping a beverage

The interior of the Norwegian Bliss features dramatic interior design - and slot machines

Guests can relax on loungers on the deck and stare at the horizon - or take in a show as they let their blood pressure drop

The bedrooms have a definite five-star hotel feel about them, as this image shows

The water park is bright and colourful and a great place to keep the whole family entertained

Sun loungers and cabanas surround one of the swimming pools, which sits in an atrium-style space

Sweet! The Norwegian Bliss has got it licked when it comes to tasty food offerings

In the winter of 2018, she will sail the Caribbean from Miami, and in the 2019 autumn/winter season she will cruise from New York City to Florida, the Bahamas and Caribbean

Andy Stuart, the president and chief executive officer of Norwegian, said: 'Norwegian Bliss is one of our most highly-anticipated ships to date, and today marks another exciting milestone for the newest and most innovative ship of our young and modern fleet'

'The Meyer Werft team, along with our operations teams, ship officers and crew members, has done an incredible job bringing Norwegian Bliss to life and we cannot wait for guests to experience all she has to offer.'

Norwegian Bliss is due to arrive in New York on May 3 for an inaugural US-tour stopping off in Miami and Los Angeles.

A grand christening ceremony will take place in her home port of Seattle on May 30 before she calls into Victoria in British Columbia before embarking on her first seven-day voyage to Alaska.

From June, Norwegian Bliss will spend her summer cruising seven-day voyages to Alaska, and the autumn season cruising to the Mexican Riviera from Los Angeles.

In the winter of 2018, she will sail the Caribbean from Miami, and in the 2019 autumn/winter season she will cruise from New York City to Florida, the Bahamas and Caribbean.
A Scottish travel agent has been mocked after it used a picture of azure-blue waters lapping a secluded cove on the Costa Brava - to advertise a 365 caravan holiday in Blackpool.

The hilarious advert for the Lancashire seaside resort was spotted outside an unnamed travel agent shop in Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire.

It was discovered and snapped by Heather Reid, who quickly posted her picture of it to Twitter, claiming the travel agents were 'at it'.

The ad that was spotted in a travel agent window in Clydebank showing pictures of the Costa Brava for a Blackpool caravan promotion

Miss Reid, from Glasgow, captioned the image saying: 'Is that pic supposed to be Blackpool? And I'm a Cheryl Cole lookalike as well then.'

The top half of the ad features an image of an idyllic setting with a beautiful blue lagoon and a golden beach on the Spanish coast.

Another image shows a harbour at night with houses perched on a hill making an eye-catching reflection on the water.

Underneath, the package on offer is outlined as: 'Blackpool, Marton Mere. Deluxe two bedroom caravan. Self catering. Four nights. June 18 2018. Includes one day access to pleasure beach. 365 total based on a family of four.'

The image of a beautiful blue lagoon and a golden beach on the Spanish coast is a far cry from Blackpool

Heather Reid, who discovered the hilarious advert, quickly posted it to Twitter claiming the travel agents were 'at it'

Following Ms Reid's post, others joined in.

Paul Colvin joked: 'Is that no the loch at the back of Drumchapel?'

Another quipped: 'If you zoom in you can see a wee bit of Blackpool rock on the beach.'

Emma Childsx added: 'No way that's f****** Blackpool.'

Other people were also quick to poke fun at the advert on Twitter

One Twitter user joked he could see a 'wee bit' of Blackpool rock on the golden Spanish beach

Emma Childsx couldn't believe the ad either and laughed saying 'No way that's f***ing Blackpool'

And another user added: 'Looks great wish I could go to Blackpool and work on my tan, would be fishing off that wee boat with a box of beer and my top off.'

None of the travel agents in Clydebank contacted admitted to being aware of the advert being in place in their shop.

A spokeswoman at the Thomas Cook store said of the crafty photo placement: 'That doesn't sound like ours.

Blackpool is the UK's favourite beach resort, with 18 million visitors annually coming to visit the tower, aquarium, beaches, Illuminations, waterpark and zoo

'We are limited to what we can put in windows, we're allowed to put photos on but that's obviously false information.'

Blackpool is the UK's favourite beach resort, with 18 million visitors annually coming to visit the tower, aquarium, beaches, Illuminations, waterpark and zoo.

But earlier this month, it was one of seven coastal towns to feature in a list of places in England and Wales with the highest rates of heroin deaths. These have been linked to poverty and cheap accommodation being available in the town.
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Snowboarding at the pace of a light jog can be a nervy experience  so many will find the speed one British daredevil reached on a snowboard almost incomprehensible.

Jamie Barrow has just broken the Guinness World Record for the fastest speed on a towed snowboard after being pulled by a Maserati Levante SUV to 94mph (151.57kph).

The record breaking feat took place on the frozen lake of St Moritz in Switzerland  and Jamie revealed that he wasn't scared.

Jamie Barrow has just broken the Guinness World Record for the fastest speed on a towed snowboard after being pulled by a Maserati Levante SUV to 94mph (151.57kph). He's pictured here on his record-breaking run

The record breaking feat took place on the frozen lake of St Moritz in Switzerland  and Jamie revealed that he wasn't scared

When MailOnline Travel asked him if he was worried about 'catching an edge' and taking a tumble, he said: 'No I wasn't scared as I have been at that speed a lot and am very comfortable. I just want to go faster now, next step 200kph!

'The only worry I had was if something went wrong with the car or the ice on the lake cracks a bit as it could make the car go out of control so I would have to deal with that. Luckily the car performed amazingly.'

Barrow previously broke the same record in February 2016, when he was clocked at a speed of 99.87kph (62mph) while being towed behind a car across the same frozen lake in St Moritz.

Barrow previously broke the same record in February 2016, when he was clocked at a speed of 99.87kph (62mph) while being towed behind a car across the same frozen lake in St Moritz

Despite breaking the record in 2016, Barrow was always confident that an even greater speed was possible, due to the track in 2016 being slightly shorter than originally planned and the soft snow not allowing the grip needed.

This time he returned to the lake with the powerful Maserati Levante SUV, a much faster car than the one used in his last record attempt, fitted with Pirelli Scorpion Winter tyres.

The special studded tyres have 474 studs per tyre and are four mm long for the best grip possible on the frozen lake.

With the record attempt taking place on a frozen lake, safety and preparation were a major factor when planning the project. The track was closed, fenced off and piste-bashers groomed the snow especially for the Guinness World Record attempt.

On the morning of Monday 19th February, the very first out run was recorded at 151.57kph. Due to the Guinness World Record stipulations, a return run back was recorded at 147.72 kph. The two runs were then averaged to give the final Guinness World Record speed of 149.65 kph (92.98mph)

About his newly set Guinness World Record, Jamie said: 'I'm absolutely delighted to have broken my own record. I always knew there was much more speed possible with the right conditions and crucially the right car to tow me'

Strict criteria had to be met for the record to meet Guinness World Record guidelines.

These included completing a timed run in both directions with specialist recording equipment, set at 100m by a Guinness World Records official.

With 400m needed either side so that the Maserati Levante could accelerate and slow down safely on the snow, a total run of approximately 900m was prepared.

On the morning of Monday 19th February, the very first run was recorded at 151.57kph. Due to the Guinness World Record stipulations, a return run back was recorded at 147.72 kph. The two runs were then averaged to give the final Guinness World Record speed of 149.65 kph (92.98mph).

Jacob Nyborg, Head of Marketing for Maserati S.p.A, commented: 'What a fantastic effort from Jamie to break the World Record. As soon as we spoke to him about this attempt, we knew it was something we had to be involved with'

About his newly set Guinness World Record, Jamie said: 'I'm absolutely delighted to have broken my own record. I always knew there was much more speed possible with the right conditions and crucially the right car to tow me. The Maserati Levante made light work of the icy and snowy conditions, giving us the grip to really hit top speed.

'The adrenalin rush is always amazing when you hit those speeds  I'm just happy I was able to hold my nerve, keep the snowboard in line and ultimately smash the World Record.'

Jacob Nyborg, Head of Marketing for Maserati S.p.A, commented: 'What a fantastic effort from Jamie to break the World Record. As soon as we spoke to him about this attempt, we knew it was something we had to be involved with. The new Maserati Levante SUV has performance at its heart, so this was the perfect way to show its off-road capabilities, while helping Jamie break a new Guinness World Record.

'We are excited to see what the future holds for Jamie and hope we can help him reach even greater speeds in the future  what an incredible athlete.'
Palma on the holiday island of Majorca is set to prevent property owners from renting out their apartments to holidaymakers in a bid to crackdown on 'mass tourism'.

The island's capital will be the first in Spain to bring in the ban, which will come into force from July.

The mayor of Palma says that the new legislation has been implemented following complaints that rents have been rising too steeply.

Palma on the holiday island of Majorca is set to prevent property owners from renting out their apartments to holidaymakers

This is being blamed on short holiday lets that travellers are booking through accommodation websites and apps.

There have also been concerns that Palma and other parts of Majorca are having to accommodate too many tourists.

Mayor of Palma, Antoni Noguera, told Spanish newspaper El Pais: 'Palma is a determined and courageous city.

'We agreed on this [ban] based on the general interest [of the city] and we believe it will set the trend for other cities when they see that finding a balance is key.'

However, Noguera says that houses will be excluded from the ban, unless they are in protected areas, near airports or in industrial areas.

But some have criticised the ban, saying it will have a deterimental effect on homeowners who rent out their flats to make extra cash.

A spokesperson for Aibnb told MailOnline Travel: 'This is a decision against local families who share their homes to make ends meet and help them be able to stay in their homes.

'Airbnb strongly believes that rules should help spread tourism benefits to local families and their communities - not keep them in the hands of a wealthy few.

'Airbnb wants to continue to work together with the Palma City Hall and the Govern Balear on progressive home sharing rules that allow regular people to share their spaces and make the Balearic Islands stronger.'

The ban comes just months after it was announced that Majorca, as well as Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera, are to ban home owners from renting out 'space in flats on websites such as Homeaway and Airbnb without a licence'

The ban comes just months after it was announced that Majorca, as well as Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera, are to ban home owners from renting out 'space in flats on websites such as Homeaway and Airbnb without a licence'.

People face fines up to 400,000 euros (360,000) if they do not first obtain a licence.

The rental sites could also be fined if they are found to be carrying adverts from unlicensed clients.

Currently there is a 'regulated' offer of about 436,000 beds in Majorca  but the local government will limit the amount of tourist beds allowed.

When apartments or hotels close over the next few years - an estimated 120,000 places - the offer will be reduced.

Meanwhile holidaymakers visiting Majorca also face a crackdown on 'drunken tourism' with a ban on late-night lock-ins, two-for-one drinks offers and happy hours.

The local council in Palma has started a series of meetings with residents and hoteliers before the summer season begins to make sure the resort is not blighted by unruly behaviour and drinking on the streets.

Like other resorts on Majorca and Ibiza, Palma had already signalled its intention to take a 'zero tolerance' approach but has decided to step this up even further with higher fines.
The pen is mightier than the sword and the adage is no more true than in the world of TV soaps.

Now it can be revealed that writers for long-running Neighbours drama are preparing to kill off a character - who left the show 30 years ago.

In the soap, 'sour' Nell Mangel, played by the actress Vivean Gray, is related to Jane Harris (Annie Jones), also known as 'Plain Jane Superbrain'.

Busy-body: Writers for long-running Neighbours drama are preparing to kill off the character of Mrs Mengel - played by actress Vivean Gray - who left the show 30 years ago

Mrs Mangel left in 1988 but has since kept in touch 'via letters' sent to Ramsay Street.

According to Radio Times, Jane's character Annie will reveal on an upcoming episode that her grandmother Nell has died.

The sudden loss will see Jane return to the UK and 'riddled with guilt' that Mrs Mangel died while she was in Australia.

Plain Jane Superbrain: Jane Harris is Annie Jones on the soap, which helped launch the career of Guy Pearce (pictured), who played Mike Young

Step back in time: Mrs Mengel got herself in all sorts of strife - including off-screen, after she was the subject of harassment by Neighbours fans

Bullied Bishop: Actor Ian Smith, who played Harold Bishop on the soap for more than 20 years, was bullied by over-zealous fans

Vivean Gray, who had roles on other iconic Australian TV dramas including The Sullivans and Prisoner, passed away in 2016 at the age of 92.

The British-born actress played a loathsome busy-body so well that she topped opinion polls in the UK as the nastiest TV villain of all time.

Gray was forced to flee Australia due to harassment from Neighbours fans who failed to distinguish her on-screen character from the actress in real life.

They should be so lucky: The marriage of Charlene Mitchell (Kylie Minogue) and Scott Robinson (Jason Donovan) was one of the biggest moments in Australian TV history

Golden age: Annie starred in the soap alongside Neighbours 'graduate' Craig McLachlan, who played Henry Ramsay

According to Digital Spy, actor Ian Smith - who played Harold Bishop on the soap for more than 20 years - told Star magazine: 'That dear woman was driven out of her home by the troublesome youths with weak brains who couldn't distinguish between the character that she played and her as a person.'

Smith said he also suffered from bullying by over-zealous fans: 'I was bullied. Young males are the cause of all problems. They are such gutless wonders. They never do it on their own, they are always in a group.

'They haven't got two brain cells to rub together and they will never amount to anything. And I feel sorry for the women who have to try and pick a life partner out of that bunch!'
In a scene laden with 'mans' and 'dudes' and 'buds' and 'brothers', Proudlock and Jamie decide that Alik needs structure in his life.

But before they have so much as drafted a pre-breakfast yoga routine for the poor boy, they spy Harry and Melissa macking off across the park.

Jamie is fuming about this because Harry 'creeps him out' and he doesn't appreciate his park-side kissing.

Sneaky: Liv and Harry devise a secret non-couples holiday behind Digby and Melissa's backs and they are FUMING

This probably isn't helped that since Jamie introduced his latest girlfriend in rather a grandiose manner, she's not shown up again for filming.

Alik and Proudlock nip off for a coffee while Jamie heads off to stalk Melissa in the undergrowth with his telescopic lens.

In the coffee shop, Louise is perched at the counter, tapping away on her laptop because she has got a book coming out.

To be honest, as this was filmed only a few weeks ago and the book is already available for pre-order on Amazon, it's likely she is not actually writing content for it and instead replying to a frustrated email from her editor about the complexities of her ab blasting routine. Not all of us have time in the mornings, Louise.

Alik's dog bounds in and runs at Louise as if he is the child in a messy divorce, being handed back to the mother after a supervised visitation with the dad.

Liv is having champagne with her sexually-tongued mother, Katie [Hi there Kevin, by the way].

Chatting: Liv is having champagne with her sexually-tongued mother, Katie. Liv explains that everyone in Chelsea thinks she has become dull

Still feeling the love? Digby comes home for a wild night of salmon and Doctor Foster. But Liv - on her quest to not fall into a pit of despair - isn't having any of it

Liv explains that everyone in Chelsea thinks she has become dull and that she and Digby have already plateauxed into mundane normalcy.

Katie makes her feel worse by laughing in her face, telling her she's losing her identity and that if she's not feeling 'ecstatically happy' then she's on a path to eternal misery and doom.

She goes home to take a skip down memory lane by flicking through old photos of her and Harry. She has dark hair in them while Harry looks precisely the same as he does now.

Digby comes home for a wild night of salmon and Doctor Foster. But Liv - on her quest to not fall into a pit of despair - isn't having any of it and heads off to join Sam and Louise for a complaint-fuelled glass of pinot blush.

This week's B Story sees Francis unearthing his leotard and rediscovering his love for ballet. He's putting on a recital and insists that he won't be taking part in it.

Posture: This week's B Story sees Francis(L) unearthing his leotard and rediscovering his love for ballet. He's putting on a recital and insists that he won't be taking part in it

Putting in practice: But within moments Francis has decided he will be the star and Sophie is inspecting him for signs of a camel toe.

But within moments he has decided he will be the star and Sophie is inspecting him for signs of a camel toe.

Fred goes to watch him training with a lycra-clad professional who gives them both an eyeful when he starts strategically stretching in a solitary corner of the room in minuscule shorts.

Melissa has decided to take Jamie for a ride, after he starts turning up at her office unannounced in order to irk Harry.

She goes to dinner with him and tells him that she 'wakes up and thinks of him' and that she keeps having a recurring dream about him, in mentoring-themed scenarios.

Surprise: Melissa has decided to take Jamie for a ride, after he starts turning up at her office unannounced in order to irk Harry

Trickster: She goes to dinner with him and tells him that she 'wakes up and thinks of him' and that she keeps having a recurring dream about him, in mentoring-themed scenarios

At the recital, Alik is watching the performance as if he were watching a box of scorpions with a loose lid on it, while Sophie is in awe of the male dancer's front facing plie.

There's tension in the air because Francis hasn't turned up and Liv and Harry are terrified about telling Digby and Melissa about a secret holiday they're planning to Sri Lanka which spouses aren't allowed to be involved in.

Also, the candles scattered everywhere are at dangerous risk of setting fire to someone's tutu.

Francis is nowhere to be seen, because he threw his back out doing a Grand Jete. Fine, we've all been there. The holiday discussions don't get explained so easily however...

The truth comes out: Harry tells Melissa that she's not invited, which has her seething because she's invited him to both the alps and Mallorcan hills recently

Shocked: 'Can't you take her to a f**king spa for the day? Why do you have to take her to f**king Sri Lanka,' she asks him, referring to Liv. Um, because this is Made In Chelsea Melissa!

Harry tells Melissa that she's not invited, which has her seething because she's invited him to both the alps and Mallorcan hills recently.

'Can't you take her to a f**king spa for the day? Why do you have to take her to f**king Sri Lanka,' she asks him, referring to Liv. Um, because this is Made In Chelsea Melissa!

Across the room, Liv is broaching the same subject with Digby. She tells him she 'happily loves spending all her time' with him but that she wants to get the hell out of the country.

This ends in tears which will surely be made so much better by the fact that Harry is meanwhile backtracking and telling Melissa she can come after all. Oh, Hazza.

Hurt: Across the room, Liv is broaching the same subject with Digby. She tells him she 'happily loves spending all her time' with him but that she wants to get the hell out of the country
Jeffrey Dean Morgan traded in his barbed wire bat for a chocolate cake over the weekend.

The Walking Dead star took to Instagram to share a shot from his 52nd birthday celebration Sunday, posing with his two children Augustus Morgan, eight, and newborn girl George Victoria Morgan, nine weeks, at a restaurant.

'A damn fine day,' tweeted the actor, who plays the bat-wielding bad guy Negan on the AMC hit. 'Thanks to everyone for all the birthday wishes! Means the world. Xojd.'

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Good times: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, 52, posed with his two children, son Augustus Morgan, eight, and newborn girl George Victoria Morgan, nine weeks, as he celebrated his 52nd birthday over the weekend

The Seattle native, who on February 16 welcomed the baby girl with wife Hilarie Burton, sported a grey beard and black sunglasses with a black cap that read 'Ride,' with a silhouette of the shape of Tennessee on it.

Morgan and the One Tree Hill actress, 35, have been together since 2009 and wed in 2014. The pair revealed they were expecting another child last fall at the Emmys in Los Angeles, where Burton's baby bump was on display as they walked the red carpet.

Burton, who appeared on the TV series Lethal Weapon, took to social media with a pair of posts in which she lauded her spouse for his admirable traits.

She tweeted: 'You're a brilliant father. A damn hard worker. A devoted friend. And a total smokin hot babe. On your birthday, there just aren't enough words to say what you mean to me and the kids.

And many more: Jeffrey's wife Hilarie Burton showed his lighter side in a series of family shots

'Prepare to get smothered with kisses today! We love ya, Daddy. Happy Birthday @JDMorgan!!!'

In an Instagram post in which she showed a shirtless Morgan, Burton wrote, 'It may be your birthday @jeffreydeanmorgan , but here's a gift for everyone else! What. A. Stud. You age like fine wine darlin. We love you more and more with each passing year.'

Morgan recently revealed to People that he was hands-on involved with the births of both of his children.

Relaxed: The TV villain was seen in a casual shot posted by Burton

'We didnt use doctors, we used a midwife, so I delivered both of my kids,' Morgan told the publication. 'The first time I didnt know, I was shocked that I was part of it.

'I thought I was going to hold the leg, tell her to hopefully breathe and I wasnt ready when I took my position.'

Morgan said that 'was a little bit more prepared' helping Burton give birth to his newborn daughter 'and got in and got her out immediately.

'As soon as her head breached I reached in there, grabbed her by the cheeks and got her out. Hilarie was over it, so it was awesome. I got to deliver both my kids, for real, it was cool.'

Morgan recently played Harvey Russell in the sci-fi film Rampage alongside Dwayne Johnson, Will Yun Lee, Malin Akerman and Joe Manganiello.
She had the late Donna Summer for a guest on her talk show nearly 20 years ago.

And this Monday, Rosie O'Donnell walked the opening night red carpet for Summer: The Donner Summer Musical at New York's Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.

Rosie, 56, showed off her gray mane as she opted for the opposite of Broadway razzle-dazzle, flinging a wrinkled grey checked coat over a rumpled white caftan and trousers.

Broadway baby: This Monday, Rosie O'Donnell walked the opening night red carpet for Summer: The Donner Summer Musical at New York's Lunt-Fontanne Theatre

She added a touch of chic with wine-colored boots, caking her face in makeup and wearing her grey hair down around a pair of glinting earrings.

Rosie, who has five children and a brace of ex-wives, was known as the 'Queen of Nice' during the six-season run of The Rosie O'Donnell Show.

During a 1999 episode, Rosie and Donna Summer performed No More Tears (Enough Is Enough), an iconic 1979 disco smash Donna originally sang with Barbra Streisand.

Long Island Rosie, whose then operatic figure was a far cry from her trimmed-down frame these days, also incidentally had Barbra on the daytime show in 1997 and 1999.

The life of the party: Rosie, 56, opted for the opposite of Broadway razzle-dazzle, flinging a wrinkled grey checked coat over a rumpled white caftan and trousers

During Donna's interview with Rosie, the Queen of Disco recounted her own theater background - specifically, her part in the iconic hippie musical Hair.

'I auditioned for Hair in America, and then I went to Europe with Hair in 19-...,' said Donna, garbling out the next two digits and smiling.

Rosie brought up the fact that the cast performs naked at the end of Hair - but Donna strenuously denied that she went onstage in the duff, before eventually confessing with a sheepish giggle: 'I never told my parents.'

Glitter and be gay: She added a touch of chic with wine-colored boots, caking her face in makeup and wearing her grey hair down around a pair of glinting earrings

Who's that woman: Rosie, who has five children and a brace of ex-wives, was known as the 'Queen of Nice' during the six-season run of The Rosie O'Donnell Show

The European production of Hair Donna performed in was in Munich, and her first-ever single was Wassermann, a German translation of the musical's song Aquarius.

While chatting with Rosie in 1999, Donna also reminisced about No More Tears, saying: 'Contrary to public belief, Barbra and I had a great time together.'

She dished: 'Actually, one day we were recording, and it was a day after I had done eight shows in LA, at the [Universal] Amphitheatre, and I was exhausted.'

Memory: Rosie had late Donna Summer for a guest on her eponymous daytime talk show nearly 20 years ago, and the two of them dished theater

Explained she: 'We had parties all night. It was just a big, long process. And the next day I came in, and I was holding the high note, and I passed out during the high note and fell on the floor, and Barbra just kept holding her note.'

Donna, who despite not being a smoker died of lung cancer at 63 in 2012, said: 'And - this is true - and after the note was over, she goes: "Donna, you okay?"'

Rosie has racked up some Broadway bona fides herself, having played Betty Rizzo in a 1994 production of Grease and been one of Randy Graff's replacements as Golde in a mid-aughts revival of Fiddler On The Roof, per Playbill.

The way we were: During the episode, Rosie and Donna Summer performed No More Tears (Enough Is Enough), an iconic 1979 disco smash Donna originally sang with Barbra Streisand

The three-time Tony Awards hostess was supposed to feature in an Off-Broadway production of David Rabe's Good For Otto this year, but she withdrew for health reasons, leaving Rhea Perlman of Cheers fame to take her place, Playbill reported.

Summer: The Donna Summer Musical retails a lot of the Queen Of Disco's old numbers like Love To Love You Baby and She Works Hard For The Money.

With a book by Des McAnuff, Colman Domingo and Robert Cary, the jukebox musical began life at the La Jolla Playhouse last year before its arrival on Broadway, where it began previews at the Lunt-Fontanne on March 28.
Jane Fonda enjoyed a little spa pampering on Monday in Beverly Hills.

The legendary actress, who's 80, popped into a salon to get her nails done.

She wore an eye-catching ensemble of sunshine yellow flared slacks with a floral-themed blouse and wide green belt.

Spring style: Jane Fonda wore an eye-catching ensemble of sunshine yellow flared slacks with a floral-themed blouse and wide green belt for a trip to the nail salon on Monday

The Grace And Frankie star wore sandals that matched her blouse and sported sunglasses.

Her highlighted blonde hair looked as if it had been freshly coiffed and she carried a large tote with the words 'Hysterical Female' written on the side.

Fonda was spotted reading a newspaper and chatting away on her cell phone as technicians worked on her manicure.

Pamper session: The legendary actress, who's 80, popped into a salon in Beverly Hills to get her nails done

Looking great: Her highlighted blonde hair looked as if it had been freshly coiffed and she was made up with rouge and red lip color

Multitasker: Fonda read a newspaper an chatted on her cell phone as technicians worked on her manicure

Still on screen: The Gracie And Frankie star kept her sunglasses on while inside the salon. She's set to re-team with Lily Tomlin for a fifth season of the Netflix comedy

Fonda will re-team with Lily Tomlin for a fifth season of the Netflix comedy Grace And Frankie, slated to debut on the streaming service in 2019.

She will also be seen on the big screen in the movie Book Club, with Diane Keaton and Candice Bergen, opening in theatres on May 18.

Meanwhile, People reported earlier this month that the Barbarella beauty will be honored with the Female EMA Lifetime Achievement Award at the inaugural Environmental Media Association Honors Benefit Gala on June 9 in Los Angeles.

The event, to be hosted by Ellen Page, will acknowledge 'globally recognized trailblazers and icons for their tireless work protecting the planet.'

Every inch a star: The veteran actress will also be seen on the big screen in the movie Book Club, with Diane Keaton and Candice Bergen, opening in theatres on May 18
Kate Oates has quit her role as Coronation Street boss amid criticism about her controversial plot choices, and record numbers of Ofcom complaints.

The 38-year-old said she was 'forever grateful' for the job as she stepped down after two years on Tuesday, with Emmerdale's Iain McLeod taking over the reigns.

Kate is responsible for such storylines as David Platt's male rape ordeal, Pat Phelan's murderous spree and Bethany Platt's sex trafficking, all of which have earned ITV a barrage of official complaints from viewers.

Resigning: Coronation Street boss Kate Oates (left) has left her role following a barrage of complaints about the dark plot twists she has spearheaded

Confirming the news, Kate told The Sun: 'I'll be forever grateful for this opportunity and all it has given me, but I'm also excited to try something new.'

On Monday, ITV told MailOnline: 'Iain MacLeod had been appointed as the new Producer of Coronation Street, following Kate Oates' decision to leave the soap and move into drama series production.

'Kate is moving to work with ITV Studios owned label Tall Story Pictures, where she will produce the forthcoming second series of Bancroft, starring Sarah Parish.

Controversial: One of the most talked about plotlines of the last six months, has been the male rape plot involving David (right, played by Jack P. Shepherd) and perpetrator Josh (Ryan Clayton)

Hard to watch: In uncomfortable scenes, Bethany Platt (right, played by Lucy Fallon) was also groomed for sex by boyfriend Nathan Curtis (Christopher Harper) and his friends

'ITV also announced that former ITV Drama Commissioner Jane Hudson has been appointed Emmerdale's Executive Producer responsible for the future editorial and creative direction of the award-winning soap.

'Assistant Producer Kate Brooks becomes Producer alongside current Series Script Producer Laura Shaw who also becomes a Producer.

'Kate and Laura will produce blocks of episodes on a rotational basis and take responsibility for the day to day running of the programme. The Emmerdale appointments will take effect from the beginning of June, to coincide with Iain taking the helm at Coronation Street.

Moving on: Former Emmerdale producer Kate will move onto violent detective drama Bancroft (pictured is Sarah Parish as Elizabeth Bancroft)

'Kate and Iain leave their respective soaps in strong form, as each is up +5% year-on-year for volume, on both consolidated and overnights ratings. In 2018 to date, Emmerdale has increased its average audience in the consolidated ratings, pulling ahead to become the UK's second most popular soap.

A source told The Sun: 'There's a feeling of jumping before she [Kate] was pushed. But she is staying within the ITV family.

'The storylines she worked on, while rating successes, were very divisive among viewers and the cast and crew. Everyone is looking forward to seeing what the future on the soap looks like now.'

Coronation Street star Sally Dynevor, who plays Sally Webster, also commented on Kate's departure during an appearance on Tuesday's episode of Lorraine.

She said: 'We've got a new boss. It's always sad to see someone go. Kate has done very well and we wish her the best.

'Emmerdale' producer Iain MacLeod will depart the Dales in June to replace Kate, and Sally cannot wait to see what he has in store for 'Corrie'.

She added: 'We're looking forward to working with Iain MacLeod in June. It's all changes, as usual on 'Corrie'. It's all very exciting.'

Life goes on: Suited and booted Jack P Shepherd - right, (David Platt) was pictured on his lunch break as he filmed court scenes

Grubs up! Tina O'Brien, (Sarah Platt) could be seen picking up lunch on a break from filming

Kate hinted at a departure last month when she told metro.co.uk : 'I am only ever keeping the seat warm, as is every producer.

'I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved  from tackling some seriously important storylines to opening up a brand new set and making a smooth transition to six episodes.'

Despite climbing viewing figures for the 58-year-old soap, complaints have overshadowed Kate's success.

Pals: Tina and Samia Longchambon caught up with one another between takes

Mum's the word! Helen Worth (Gail Platt) was pictured on set as her character supports David

It's all going on: Mikey North, who plays Gary Windass will see his character come up against David in court following a fight

David Platt's male rape storyline - portrayed by actor Jack P. Shepherd - sparked 200 complaints to media watchdog OfCom in recent months.

Dark scenes saw David led to the bedroom by the character Josh (Ryan Clayton) after being drugged.

In the aftermath, the soap mainstay has struggled to cope and is falling into deeper trouble with violence, the law and one night stands.

Backing her up: Kate appeared on This Morning last month to talk about the soap's dark new tone, defending the storylines for tackling taboo issues

The OfCom complaints followed outrage from fans surrounding Pat Phelan's violent murder of mechanic Luke Britton in January. This alone sparked 541 complaints, of which the soap has now been cleared.

In the explosive scenes, after turning a gun towards Luke (Dean Fagan), Pat (Conor McIntyre) trapped the character in his car before it was engulfed in an explosion.

Soap chief Kate made a dramatic impact on the soap soon after taking over as producer in August 2016, setting the stage for Bethany Platt's grooming ordeal which left fans shell-shocked with the uncomfortable scenes.

Violent: Pat Phelan's murderous rampage has also left viewers shell-shocked but the long-running storyline is expected to descend into yet more dramatic violence after he returns from the dead

Explosive: Many have tried to end Pat's reign of terror, yet things keep getting darker for the soap's well-loved characters

Kate spoke on This Morning in March to defend her choice of dark plots, amid calls for her to resign.

She said: 'I think it's because it's a male rape it's in a different category. It's a double standard against male.'

Adding that the plot is formulated to focus on male mental health, and spark the difficult conversations among families, she admitted: 'It's not about shocking visual, we're pre-watershed and we make our decisions very carefully.'

Harrowing: Fans of the ITV soap were in tears as David was drugged and raped by the villainous Josh, leading to 200 complaints to media watchdog OfCom

Grooming: Not long after her arrival, Kate was responsible for the controversial plotlines involving Bethany

Complaints: Levels of complaints have reached a record high, just a year after the soap featured a sex ring and gang rape plot

Soap actor Shayne Ward has since defended her, saying it was inevitable that not all stories were going to be well received when you're not 'playing it safe'.

Speaking at the National Film Awards, the 33-year-old - who is poised to leave his role as Aidan Connor later this year - praised 'brilliant' Kate.

'The positives outweigh the negatives because the response to the latest rape storyline with David Platt has been incredible. She's doing a great thing for the soap,' he told The Sun.

Shayne quit his role on Coronation Street in December after three years in the role, but his exit has been kept tightly under wraps by bosses.

ITV Studios Creative Director for Coronation Street and Emmerdale, John Whiston, said:

'There's a lot to praise here! Kate Oates has transformed Coronation Street during her tenure. This has been reflected both in the huge critical acclaim the show has been getting and in the ratings.

'We are now used to opening the overnights and seeing Coronation Street has delivered its highest ratings for many years, a herculean achievement in this box set era. Kate has done this whilst putting on screen some groundbreaking and socially important stories such as the Bethany grooming story and David's rape story.

'It is a testament to her brilliant editorial touch that these stories, though difficult, have been both credible and engaging. Meanwhile, Kate has unleashed on us one of the finest villains in soap history with Pat Phelan and his dastardly deeds.

'And the show has continued day in day out to provide the viewer with top notch Corrie humour from Liz to Moira, from Steve to Tracy, from Sally to Tim. Doing all this while taking the show from five episodes to six episodes a week is a phenomenal achievement by Kate and something of which those who work on the show and those who watch it are hugely appreciative.'

On Iain MacLeod's time at Emmerdale, John commented:

'Meanwhile, over the Pennines, Emmerdale has been going through its own golden period under Iain MacLeod's aegis. It too has built its audience volume and share.

'And it has delivered some truly memorable storylines. Ashley's dementia was notable not just for the strength of the story, but for the way it was told with some soap defining drama, such as the episode all seen through Ashley's point of view.

'Equally hard hitting, though in a different way, was the multi car pile up on Hotten bypass. Emmerdale has a reputation for delivering big stunts and this one was the biggest and most spectacular, as well as the most intricately plotted and it came from the perfect soap brain of the supremely talented Iain MacLeod.

'It is no wonder Emmerdale has won pretty much a clean sweep of the awards in the last year, a run interrupted only by Coronation Street's RTS Award.'
Many have joked about Kanye West running for president over the years.

But the superstar sparked serious speculation he was actually planning a run for office when he shared a curious Twitter post on Monday.

The Late Registration rapper, 40, posted - and then quickly deleted - posters with his face and the words '#Kayne2014,' causing some to think he was actually announcing a campaign.

West for office! Kanye West sparked rumors about a potential presidential run yet again on Monday, as he posted and then quickly deleted posters reading '#Kanye2024.' Above the star is seen in 2016

Though the post was quickly deleted, that didn't stop people from speculating about the rapper running for president.

The poster showed a stony-faced Kanye staring directly at the camera.

Above the rapper's head hovered the slogan 'Keep America Great,' which President Trump announced would be his 2020 campaign slogan in March.

He added a thinking face emoji along with his photo of five posters pinned up in what looked like a public shopping area.

Thinking on it... The husband of Kanye West added a thinking face emoji along with his photo of five posters pinned up in what looked like a public shopping area

Popping up everywhere: Evidence suggested the posters weren't officially associated with Yem, as online observers reported seeing the posters in major cities like NYC, LA, and Chicago, hinting they were probably works of art or satire

While many fans hoped the poster was of Kanye's making, evidence seems to suggest otherwise.

Online observers reported seeing the posters in major cities like NYC, LA, and Chicago, hinting the pieces were probably works of art or satire.

Others wondered if the posters were part of backlash against some of West's previous tweets because of the inclusion of the new Trump slogan.

West recently came under fire for tweets 'admiring' controversial conservative YouTuber Candace Owens, who is known for proudly bashing Black Lives Matter while singing praises of President Donald Trump.

Ready to run? Many fans hoped the poster was of Kanye's making, using the hashtag to voice support for the idea

Controversial tweet: West recently came under fire for tweets 'admiring' conservative YouTuber Candace Owens, who is known for proudly bashing Black Lives Matter and singing praises of President Donald Trump

'I love the way Candace Owens thinks,' the husband of Kim Kardashian said on Saturday morning.

Many remember when West controversially met up with then President-elect Donald Trump at his NYC Trump Tower back in December 2016, which Kanye said he 'wanted to meet with Trump today to discuss multicultural issues.'

Before the duo's meeting, West expressed his approval for Trump on stage at a California, telling San Jose audiences: 'I told yall I didnt vote, right? But if I wouldve voted, I wouldve voted for Trump.'

'We live in a racist country. That is a fact. This world is racist, OK? Lets stop being distracted to focus on that as much.'
Jennifer Morrison pulled out all the stops for an appearance at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York on Monday.

The Once Upon A Time star, 39, was promoting the television pilot Fabled that she has directed.

And she commanded attention in an eye-popping polka dot strapless jumpsuit with flared pants.

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Stylish: Jennifer Morrison pulled out all the stops for an appearance at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York on Monday, stepping out in a polka dot strapless jumpsuit with flared pants

The stylish number featured a knotted bandeau-style bodice and there was a fancy asymmetrical flounce at the waist.

The actress added pointed toe black heels and accessorized with drop earrings.

Jennifer wore her honey blonde hair back from her face and penciled in arched brows.

Her eyes were rimmed with black kohl and mascara, her cheeks were dusted with rosy blush and her lips were colored red.

Dared to bare: The stylish number featured a knotted bandeau-style bodice that flaunted a little cleavage and there was a fancy asymmetrical flounce at the waist

Moved behind the camera: The Once Upon A Time star, 39, who added pointed toe black heels and drop earrings, was promoting the television pilot Fabled that she has directed

Zosia Mamet, who stars in Fabled, was also on hand, walking the red carpet with her husband Evan Jonigkeit.

The 30-year-old actress wore a tailored two-piece suit with her long blonde hair loose around her shoulders.

Her actor spouse, 34, was more causally attired pairing a black tailored jacket and white shirt with faded blue jeans.

Joining them was actor Norbert Leo Butz, 51, who is also in the Fabled cast.

Fabled is a drama that re-imagines classic fairy tales through the perspective of its female characters, whose overlapping stories take place in the same small town, according to the festival website.

Date night: Zosia Mamet and her husband Evan Jonigkeit walked the red carpet with Mamet, 30, looking smart in a tailored two-piece suit

In the spotlight: The couple star together in Fabled and also serve as executive producers

Big night: The trio were joined on the red carpet for a photo call by actor Norbert Leo Butz, 51, who is also in the Fabled cast

Another pilot featured at the film festival event was Oversharing, a comedy co-created by Jane Seymour's daughter Katie Flynn.

The former Bond girl, 67, showed up to support Katie, 36, whose father is Seymour's third husband David Flynn.

The two opted for black ensembles with Seymour pairing a semi-sheer top and leggings with a leather biker jacket and knee-high boots, while her eldest child chose a short-sleeved loose-fitting ankle-length dress and scuffed gray boots.

Support: Another pilot featured at the film festival event was Oversharing , a comedy co-created by Jane Seymour's daughter Katie Flynn, pictured with her famous mom
Bindi Irwin and Chandler Powell have been inseparable since meeting at Australia Zoo back in November 2013.

And the 19-year-old conservationist, who is often vocal about her feelings for the 21-year-old wakeboarder, couldn't resist singing her boyfriend's praises during a recent interview with Access.

Appearing on the show with her 53-year-old mother Terri and younger brother Robert, 14, Bindi commended her 'wonderful' beau and his can-do attitude.

Young love: Bindi Irwin (right) gushes over her boyfriend Chandler Powell, while appearing on Access with her brother Robert (left) and mother Terri (middle)

Im so lucky that he loves wildlife and adventure. Hes just up for anything,' Bindi gushed.

Proving that they are never too far apart from one another, the former Dancing With The Stars winner confessed that Chandler had in fact escorted her to the interview and was waiting backstage.

She also wasn't shy about admitting that she has found 'The One' in Chandler.

The daughter of late Australian icon Steve Irwin continued: 'He's my one. I'm very lucky.'

Sweet: Bindi confessed that her beau Chandler (left) is 'the one'

Bindi continued: 'Im very lucky to be able to have someone whos so positive and kind. Chandlers amazing, hes eternally optimistic and thats fantastic.

'Hes just endlessly kind so Im very, very blessed. We all are, to have him as part of our little team.'

The wildlife activist's feelings were echoed by her brother Robert, who admitted he put Robert to the test early on but was 'impressed' with how the American youngster got stuck into life at the zoo.

In training! Robert, 14, put Chandler to the test with the Australia Zoo wildlife

Robert revealed: I was really impressed with Chandler. I did almost, like, the training with Chandler to see how hed react to all the animals at Australia Zoo.

The teenager continued: 'He was all in, boots and all, in there with gators and crocodiles and snakes. I was definitely impressed, hes definitely part of the crew. Hes got his khaki on.

Meanwhile fans recently urged the pair to walk down the aisle, after the duo packed on the PDA at Chandler's brother Cameron's wedding.

Better together: Bindi first met Chandler when she gave him a tour of Australia Zoo back in 2013

Sharing a sweet snap on Instagram, Bindi wrote: 'My love was best man at his brother's wedding a few weeks ago. Chandler was incredible. Handsome, attentive and so thoughtful.'

She continued: 'You shine every day but especially during this special moment in time. I'm always amazed by your strength and kindness.'

'Get married already!' one follower said. Another wondered: 'So when is the big day?'

However Australia Zoo representatives have been quick to deny any engagement or wedding plans for the pair.
She's the Married At First Sight star heading off on a national speaking tour this month to promote her third book, This Goddess Means Business.

And ahead of her speaking engagements Tracey Jewel has told Today Extra how she finds empowerment through 'owning' the truth.

Tracey's advice come as she postpones her move to Melbourne following her PTSD diagnosis, after watching herself be 'cheated' on by husband Dean Wells.

'It starts with owning your truth': MAFS star Tracey Jewel reveals how she finds empowerment ... as the author reveals PTSD diagnosis after 'watching herself be cheated on by Dean Wells'

Speaking to Today Extra hosts David Campbell and Erin Molan, Tracey advised women searching for empowerment to look inwards.

'I think it starts with owning your truth,' Tracey explained.

'Especially for me going on a reality show and writing my books, and doing my marketing consultancy work, I think when you own who you are, that's really your brand and that's the best starting point.

'It's just learning who you are and owning that everyday.'

'It's just learning who you are and owning that everyday': Tracey advised women searching for empowerment to look inwards

'As the show started to air I just couldn't cope': Watching her 'ex-husband' Dean cheat on her during the social experiment was a 'catalyst' for her 'mental breakdown', she claimed

On Monday, Tracey told NW Magazine how her plans to move to Melbourne with new beau Sean Thomsen were on hold so she could look after her mental health.

Watching her 'ex-husband' Dean cheat on her during the social experiment was a 'catalyst' for her 'mental breakdown', she claimed.

'As the show started to air I just couldn't cope. I found a psychiatrist in Perth and she told me I had PTSD,' Tracey revealed.

'Sean is very supportive and we're aiming to move there towards Christmas if things have improved': The author said she has been instructed 'not to make any drastic changes' and, as a result, has postponed moving to Melbourne

Tracey said she had become 'very introverted' since the show and 'doesn't leave the house as much' anymore.

Due to these issues, she said she has been instructed 'not to make any drastic changes' and, as a result, has postponed moving to Melbourne.

'Sean is very supportive and we're aiming to move there towards Christmas if things have improved,' Tracey explained.

Mental health struggle: Tracey said she had become 'very introverted' since the show and 'doesn't leave the house as much' anymore




Yolanda Hadid stole the spotlight at her daughter Gigi's birthday party on Monday.

The former Real Housewife Of Beverly Hills, 54, dazzled in a gold metallic gown much like the one her 23-year-old daughter wore to the New York City fete.

And Yolanda's ex and the father of Gigi, Mohamed Hadid, 69, made an appearance amidst recent 'date rape' allegations from model Miranda 'Vee' Vasquez.

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Thief! Yolanda Hadid stole the spotlight at her daughter Gigi's birthday party on Monday

Work it: The former Real Housewife Of Beverly Hills, 54, dazzled in a gold metallic gown much like the one her 23-year-old daughter wore to the New York City fete

Daring to impress, Yolanda sparkled in the sensational couture that boasted an alligator skin design.

Her gorgeous gams were thrust on center stage as the shimmering gown cut just above the knee.

Complimenting her natural good looks, the former supermodel went with a neutral makeup palette.

Stunner: Daring to impress, Yolanda sparkled in the sensational couture that boasted an alligator skin design

Leggy: Gigi's gorgeous gams took center stage in the couture number as she was joined by sister Bella

Poll Who was the better golden girl? Gigi Hadid, 23 Yolanda Hadid, 54 Who was the better golden girl? Gigi Hadid, 23 1063 votes

Yolanda Hadid, 54 727 votes Now share your opinion





Her trademark platinum tresses were slicked back in a high fashion ponytail allowing her youthful beauty to shine.

Attempting to step out of her mother's shadow, Gigi commanded attention in a sleeveless gold metallic gown that featured circle designs.

Both lovely ladies turned heads at the celebration as they personified sophistication and glamour all at once.

Meanwhile, Mohamed sported a black ensemble featuring leather loafers and a retro set of shades.

He seemed to be in high spirits despite model Miranda 'Vee' Vasquez's shocking claims against Mohamed and Guess co-founder Paul Marciano.

Earlier this year, Vasquez, 23, publicly accused Hadid of date rape at an apartment in Los Angeles and claimed Marciano sexually harassed her at 'Guess headquarters.'

Hair story: She kept her trademark golden tresses long and loose as they cascaded over her petite shoulders allowing her youthful face to shine

Turning heads: Both lovely ladies turned heads at the celebration as they personified sophistication and glamour all at once

But Hadid filed court papers fighting back against the model - branding her a 'pathological liar' who plotted to extort him.

In the lawsuit filed in LA, Hadid, father of supermodels Bella and Gigi Hadid, claims Vasquez helped extort him out of a large sum of money following a consensual 40-minute hook up with the model.

The papers added that the encounter was 'purely consensual and pleasurable' to Vasquez, that she was 'very complimentary' towards Hadid afterwards and thought he was a 'gentlemen'. The pair never saw one another again.

Scandal: Yolanda's ex and the father of Gigi, Mohamed Hadid, 69, made an appearance amidst recent 'date rape' allegations from model Miranda 'Vee' Vasquez

Speaking out: The model took to Instagram earlier this year to accuse Hadid of 'date raping' her and alleged that Guess designer Paul Marciano sexually harassed her

But according to a new video, which DailyMail.com learned was filmed by a showbusiness 'fixer', Vasquez is seen on camera saying she has no claim, 'nothing', against them.

In the footage shot on a cell phone in June last year, Vasquez is heard saying: 'No, they're really nice,' when asked if she was harmed by any of the two men.

The video casts further doubt on Vasquez's claims of rape and sexual misconduct against the two high profile businessmen.




Ita Buttrose has quit Studio 10 after four-and-a-half years as a panelist on the morning program.

The 76-year-old officially announced her departure from the show in a statement on Tuesday evening, claiming she is ready to spend more time with her grandchildren and focus on her writing.

The shock news comes less than a month after Jessica Rowe left the program, and amid controversy over Ita's 'Brussels sprout' incident with co-star Denise Drysdale.

Shock claim: Ita Buttrose has announced her departure form Studio 10 after three-and-a-half years on the panel

Ita has appeared on Studio 10 since its inception in 2013, with TV Tonight reporting that she will make her last appearance on the panel this Wednesday.

The full statement from the media icon - who was 2013's Australian of the Year - read: 'I have had a long involvement with Network Ten, stretching back many years.

'I've had five great years on Studio 10, but it is time for me to move on and focus on other parts of my life, including spending more time with my grandchildren and writing.'

Surprise departures: The report comes less than a month after Jessica abruptly departed Studio 10 and rumours of tension between panel members

Channel Ten's Chief Content Officer, Beverley McGarvey, also released a statement saying: 'We are very sad to see Ita leave Studio 10. She has been with the show since day one and has been a wonderful member of the team.

'Ita is a true legend of the Australian media and a great colleague. Everyone at Studio 10 and Network Ten, as well as her many fans, will miss her but we fully understand and support her decision to step away from the show.

'She is, of course, welcome to come home to Studio 10 at any time.'

Original cast member: Ita has appeared on Studio 10 since its inception in 2013

TV Tonight claims Ita will be replaced by comedian Denise Scott, who will appear every second week alternating with Drysdale.

News of Ita's departure comes less than a month after Jessica left Studio 10 amid rumours of tension between panel members.

Tensions flared last November when Drysdale 'hurled' a Brussels sprout at Ita while filming a Christmas segment, The Daily Telegraph claimed at the time.

Ita later acknowledged the incident, telling the Kyle and Jackie O Show in February it was simply 'shenanigans on the set' but she didn't 'want to talk about it any longer'.

Drysdale also apologised for the incident, telling the Herald Sun: 'I rang Ita for Christmas; we talk, we all get along. I did the wrong thing, it was totally my fault, I am sorry it happened.'

Ita's replacement? The website claims Ita will be replaced by comedian Denise Scott (pictured right)

Allegations of tension: Tensions reportedly flared last November when Drysdale 'hurled' a Brussels sprout at Ita while filming a Christmas segment, The Daily Telegraph claimed at the time

Studio 10's executive producer Rob McKnight left the show soon after the Brussels sprouts incident and is now challenging his sacking in court. Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting the events are related.

In a previous statement to Daily Mail Australia, Network Ten strongly denied claims there was tension between Ita and Drysdale, labelling the allegations 'offensive'.

'Ita and Denise are consummate professionals and these unsubstantiated allegations are offensive,' a spokesperson said.

'Ita and Denise have the highest respect for one another and thoroughly enjoy working as part of the Studio 10 family together. To suggest otherwise is nonsense and deliberately mischievous.'

'Ita and Denise are consummate professionals and these unsubstantiated allegations are offensive': Network Ten strongly denied claims there was tension between Ita and Drysdale, labelling the allegations 'offensive'

Was she snubbed? Private Sydney alleged Ita wouldn't be covering Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's wedding in favour of 10 showbiz reporter Angela Bishop

Last week, Private Sydney alleged Ita had been 'snubbed' from covering Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's wedding in favour of 10 showbiz reporter Angela Bishop.

Ita has previously covered the nuptials of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer, Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson and Prince William and Kate Middleton.

Discussing the alleged move, Ita told the Sydney Morning Herald she 'doesn't have a clue' why she isn't going but 'c'est la vie'.
She's not usually one to talk about current events.

But Kim Kardashian chimed in to express her support for the people of Armenia Monday after their prime minister was forced from office following 11 days of protest.

Sharing a photo from her 2015 trip to the nation, the Armenian/American reality starlet, 37, wrote: 'It's so inspiring to see all Armenians united in peaceful protests making a difference.'

Not your typical pundit: Kim Kardashian chimed in to express her support for the people of Armenia Monday, sharing a picture from her 2015 trip to the country

The flashback photo had Kim looking at her finest, clad in a tight creme turtleneck and matching slacks, while holding hands with a petite elderly lady with a bright smile.

Kardashian's caption began: 'It's so inspiring to see all Armenians united in peaceful protests making a difference.

'It's a historic day for Armenia,' continued the mother-of-three.

Kim explained how the strong little woman represented the Armenian spirit to her, saying: 'I used this image of me in Armenia because this woman touched my heart and to me she represents the heart of so many strong Armenians!'

'Inspiring': Kardashian's caption began: 'It's so inspiring to see all Armenians united in peaceful protests making a difference.' Above the star is seen during her 2015 trip to the country

Power to the people! Armenia's prime minister Serzh Sargsyan resigned on Monday after citizens protested the politician and a change in the government that let him continue leading the country after exhausting his 10-year term limit as president

Armenia's prime minister Serzh Sargsyan resigned on Monday after citizens protested the politician and a change in the government that let him continue leading the country after exhausting his 10-year term limit as president.

While promoting her new makeup line with longtime artist Mario Dedivanovic, who is also of Armenian heritage, the wife of Kanye West told Refinery29 their roots.

'We both feel like our heritage holds such a deep meaning to [us]. We talk about it all the time,' Kardashian said.

And last year, the star spoke about her heritage in an interview with the LA Times, explaining: 'Growing up in Beverly Hills, we never knew any other Armenians.'

Proud of her roots! Last year while speaking to the LA Times, Kim (above with sister Khloe during their trip to Armenia in 2015) explained how 'proud' she was to tell people she was Armenian growing up

'So every time people would ask me, "What nationality are you? Where do you come from?" I would be so proud.

'My dad taught us "Family is everything. Always know your heritage,"' Kim said of her dad, the late Robert Kardashian.

And family certainly means a lot to the raven haired beauty.

On Monday she shared a darling family photo of she and husband Kanye with eldest daughter North, son Saint, and newborn Chicago, which was captioned: 'Party of 5!'
She has a long history of posing topless.

And Emily Ratajkowski kept the tradition alive as she modeled a pair of red 'Jelly Hoop' earrings in a sizzling new photo-shoot for the jewelry line Alison Lou.

The 26-year-old modeling sensation stood with her left side to the camera, folding her arms over her bosom and aiming a pout at the shutterbug.

At it again: Emily Ratajkowski posed topless as she modeled a pair of red 'Jelly Hoop' earrings in a sizzling new photo-shoot for the jewelry line Alison Lou

In another snapshot, Emily flashed a bit of leg in a busty and sheer powder pink coat, putting on an exhausted-looking supermodel stare.

She not only tried on several different-colored pairs of hoops, but also lifted an Alison Lou case up to her surprised-looking face and showed it off.

Emily's torso was almost entirely visible when she posed in a see-through pink and brown button up top, which was apparently made of some sort of plastic.

Tres chic, darling: In another snapshot, Emily flashed a bit of leg in a busty and sheer powder pink coat, putting on an exhausted-looking supermodel stare

When you got it: Emily's torso was almost entirely visible when she posed in a see-through pink and brown button up top, which was apparently made of some sort of plastic

According to the brand's website, the earrings come in three sizes - small, for $125, medium, for $145, and large, for a grand total of $165.

The complete set, plus what appears to be the Alison Lou case that Mrs. Sebastian Bear McClard held up during the photo-shoot, is also available for $395.

Emily made a splash with her surprise courthouse marriage to Sebastian in New York City in February, wearing a $200 suit from Zara for the occasion.

Stages: According to the brand's website , the earrings come in three sizes - small, for $125, medium (pictured), for $145, and large, for a grand total of $165

The couple posed up a storm together on March 4 at Vanity Fair Oscar Party, hosted in Los Angeles by the magazine's new editor-in-chief Radhika Jones.

The next week the couple traveled to Amangiri, a resort in the Utah desert that can cost up to $8,800 per night for a suite.

Though they only became a couple weeks before the wedding, a source told Us Weekly that 'Emily has known Sebastian for years.'

Put 'em together: The complete set, plus what appears to be the Alison Lou case that Mrs. Sebastian Bear McClard held up during the photo-shoot, is also available for $395

The insider said of the Gone Girl actress and the independent film producer: 'They were all in a friend group.He wasnt a stranger.'

Emily's forthcoming movie releases include the thriller Welcome Home co-starring Aaron Paul and the comedy I Feel Pretty with Amy Schumer and Michelle Williams.

Meanwhile, Sebastian's recent producing credits include Good Time, a thriller starring Robert Pattinson that competed for the Palme D'Or at Cannes last May.
She's a former Miss Universe.

And Olivia Culpo, 25, proved she's still a world class beauty on Monday as she attended Gigi Hadid's birthday bash while braless underneath her jacket.

The event was also attended by Joan Smalls, 29, and Hailey Baldwin, 21, who arrived sporting a diamond band on her ring finger, leading to speculation the model might be engaged to boyfriend Shawn Mendes.

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Still got it: Olivia Culpo, 25, proved she's still a world class beauty on Monday as she attended Gigi Hadid's birthday bash while braless underneath her jacket

Culpo set pulses racing in the revealing ensemble, in which she showed plenty of cleavage underneath her blue, beaded jacket.

The beauty queen wore matching pants, with cut out sections running up the front, giving glimpses of the Rhode Island native's gorgeous gams.

Olivia wore her brunette tresses untied and with a side part.

She's got front: Culpo set pulses racing in the revealing ensemble, in which she showed plenty of cleavage underneath her blue, beaded jacket

Legs for days: The beauty queen wore matching pants, with cut out sections running up the front, giving glimpses of the Rhode Island native's gorgeous gams

Meanwhile model friends Hailey Baldwin and Joan Smalls arrived at the same time for the star-studded birthday celebrations.

The daughter of actor Stephen Baldwin and niece of Alec wore a black leather jacket over a minuscule gold dress from Oh Polly.

But the most noticeable item of the blonde beauty's attire was a gold band on her ring finger.

The TV personality is rumored to be dating Canadian crooner Shawn Mendes.

Eye-catching: Hailey Baldwin put on a leggy display in a shimmering gold Oh Polly dress which teased a peek of her cleavage

Peep show: The model arrived with Joan Smalls to the star-studded birthday celebrations

Eye-catching: She added a boost to her leggy frame with barely-there heels, while Joan put on a racy display in lace-up knee high boots and a fishnet jumpsuit

Daring: The Puerto Rico model towered over Hailey in her sultry ensemble which revealed her underwear

Ring a ding: The most noticeable item of the blonde beauty's attire was a gold band on her ring finger

Her beau? The TV personality [L] is rumored to be dating Canadian crooner Shawn Mendes

Party time! The pair appeared to have had a good night as they left the venue holding hands

Puerto Rican beauty Joan Smalls dared to impress in a sheer fishnet body stocking that gave an unfettered view of the stunner's black panties.

Smalls' only concession to modesty was a red blazer she wore over the revealing garments.

The top earning model completed the look with thigh high black boots.

Sheer madness: Alana Foster also made a head-turning cameo at the event
Dancing With the Stars pro Kym Johnson has delivered her twins.

The 41-year-old Australian posted a snap to her Instagram Monday night showing husband Robert Herjavec with two bundles of joy in his arms.

'I never thought my heart could feel so full,' she wrote alongside the black and white photo. 'We're so in love with our little angels. Born at 7.44am and 7.45am 4/23/18.'

The couple welcomed a boy and a girl.

They're here: Kym Johnson shared this black and white snap to her Instagram Monday night showing husband Robert Herjavec holding their newborn twins

The dancer married the Canadian businessman in 2016 after they fell in love while partnering on the ABC reality competition in 2015.

Kym recently told People that she's more excited than nervous about giving birth to her first children.

'Theyre getting pretty big now. I feel them moving around a lot. Theyre fighting for room!' she said in an interview with the magazine.

'Im so excited to see Robert with the babies,' she added. 'Hes already talking to them and singing songs at night so Im sure theyll recognize his voice. We cant wait. Its such an amazing blessing.'

Robert already has three children - two daughters and a son - from his first marriage to Diane Plese.

Proud new parents: The boy and girl are the first children for the Australian Dancing With The Stars pro who fell in love with Shark Tank star Robert on the ABC show in 2015

Expectant mom: Kym has been sharing her pregnancy journey with fans via social media and stayed active up until the birth. She's pictured walking her dog in LA earlier this month

The couple were able to start a family after turning to IVF.

'Ive always wanted to be a mom and I wasnt sure it was going to happen. It really is a miracle,' she told People just weeks before her birth.

'Its such an amazing blessing,' she added.
Bindi Irwin has paid a touching tribute to actor Russell Crowe as her father is set to receive one of Hollywood's highest honours, more than a decade after his death.

On Tuesday, Bindi, 19, took to Instagram to thank the Hollywood star for helping her late father to receive a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.

In the lengthy Instagram post Bindi revealed the A-List actor wrote a letter of recommendation- which may have sealed the deal.

'You've been there since the beginning and will always feel like family:' Bindi Irwin, daughter of Crocodile Hunter, Steve, paid tribute to Russell Crowe in a moving Instagram post on Tuesday

Long time friends: Russell was close friends with the Irwin family both before and after Steve's death (pictured here with Jay Leno in 2003)

'Sending hugs and tremendous gratitude': Bindi paid tribute to the actor after he wrote a letter of recommendation for her father to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

'As we get ready to unveil Dad's Star (sic) on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, sending hugs and tremendous gratitude to @russellcrowe,' she wrote in the post.

'Your letter of support helped make this all possible. You've been there since the beginning and will always feel like family.'

Steve Irwin was just 44 when he was killed after being pierced in the heart by a stingray barb while filming off the coast of Port Douglas in Far North Queensland.

Touching tribute: Bindi dedicate an Instagram post to long-time family friend Russell Crowe

'Your letter of support helped make this all possible': Russell is here pictured with Steve's wife Terri in 2007, one year after his death

Weeks later, long-time friend Russell Crowe introduced Irwin's public memorial service at Australia Zoo which was broadcast around the world.

Since his untimely passing, the Irwin's have continued to spread the message their husband and father was so passionate about - they are still heavily involved at the zoo and advocate for wildlife causes around the globe.

Twelve years on, thanks to financial backing from Visit Sunshine Coast and Russell's letter of recommendation, the Crocodile Hunter has been honoured yet again.

'Russell Crowe wrote a letter of recommendation that Steve should get this acknowledgment, so it's just been terrific,' Terri told Seven News after the announcement.

Echoing his mother's statement, Steve's only son Robert, 14, said the award was a a cause for celebration one which would fittingly involve animals.

'We're actually going to be bringing some really fun animal guests with us, so we've got some awesome Australian animals that will be with us at the star. It's going to be a huge celebration,' he said.
She's moving on from her split from husband Kevin Clifton.

And Karen Clifton was throwing her support behind fellow Strictly Come Dancing star Giovanni Pernice on Monday night, attending the hunk's dance show, Born to Win.

The newly-single professional dancer, 35, showed off her flair for fashion in a red ruffled dress as she arrived at The Lyric Theatre in London.

Red hot: Karen Clifton was throwing her support behind fellow Strictly Come Dancing star Giovanni Pernice on Monday night, attending the hunk's dance show, Born to Win

Karen turned heads in the flamenco-dancer number, which featured a dramatic ruffled skirt and spaghetti straps.

She styled her blonde bob in a sleek style and kept her make-up simple and natural.

The glamorous ballroom pro worked her angles on the red carpet, showing off her toned figure.

Looking good: Karen turned heads in the flamenco-dancer number, which featured a dramatic ruffled skirt and spaghetti straps

In great shape: The glamorous ballroom pro worked her angles on the red carpet, showing off her toned figure

Hugging it out: Karen gave her pal Giovanni a warm hug following his performance

Karen accessorised with a thin chain necklace, gold strappy heels and her wedding ring - which hasn't left her finger in spite of her decision to separate from fellow dancer Kevin.

The pair announced their amicable break-up in March following months of speculation, and have since insisted their bond is 'stronger' now that they're just friends.

In a new interview with HELLO!, the pair said it was important to be honest that not everything is a 'perfect fairytale' as they prepare to work together again.

Strictly reunion: She joined forces with former pro Kristina Rihanoff and Ore Oduba

Double trouble: Kristina (right), was pictured arriving earlier in the evening with Fubar radio host, Lizzie Cundy (left)

'Things don't have to fall apart,' Karen told the magazine. 'Throughout the years we have had a good friendship, and that is a great base.'

'It was important to be honest about everything. I think there is a lot of pressure on people to be perfect all the time, and so there is this fairytale image of everything, but at the end of the day we are just like other people.'

'We never want to pretend to our fans or to anybody or to ourselves,' Kevin added

Split: Karen and Kevin announced their amicable break-up in March following months of speculation, and have since insisted their bond is 'stronger' now that they're just friends
Jessica Gomes is known for her impeccable sense of style.

And the 32-year-old stunner even managed to make a t-shirt and jeans the epitome of chic as she stepped out in West Hollywood on Monday.

The Australian beauty was seen hitting the lock on her white Jeep Wrangler before popping into luxury beauty retailer Violet Grey.

Effortlessly chic! Stylish Jessica Gomes managed to make a simple shirt and jeans look the epitome of chic as she stepped out in West Hollywood on Monday

Jessica looked effortlessly stylish dressed in a white T-shirt teamed with a pair of light washed denim jeans.

The model amplified her ensemble by accessorising with a pair of beige espadrilles, over-sized sunglasses and a black Chanel tote.

Flashing a grin to the cameras as she made her way across the road, the stunner's brunette locks blew in the breeze.

On the move: The Australian beauty was seen hitting the lock on her white Jeep Wrangler before popping into luxury beauty retailer Violet Grey

It comes a week after she reunited with her friend Nicole Trunfio in Los Angeles, joining forces for a photo shoot.

Taking to her Instagram Stories, Jessica, 33, uploaded a boomerang with Nicole, 32, in which the duo posed and danced around in sun dresses on set.

Jessica referred to Nicole as her 'Bestie Westie' and tagged the brands they were both wearing.

Double trouble: Jessica Gomes united with her 'Bestie Westie' Nicole Trunfio in Los Angeles for a joint photo shoot as pair posed in daring summer dresses

Jessica wore a deeply plunging green dress completed with puffy sleeves and a jazzy pattern.

Nicole wore a crisp white frock showcasing her incredible post-baby body.

She and husband, American musician Gary Clark Jr, welcomed their second child, Gia, back in January.

The pair already share three-year-old son, Zion.
They've been happily married since 2003, and are often seen on red carpets across the globe together as they support each other's work.

And Jennifer Connelly, 47, was seen proudly standing by her man, as she joined her husband Paul Bettany, 46, at the premiere of his highly anticipated movie Avengers: Infinity War in Los Angeles on Monday evening.

The couple were seen lovingly linking arms as they made their way down the customised purple carpet leading to Hollywood's El Capitan Theatre for the big unveiling of the star-studded Disney and Marvel project.

Night out: Paul Bettanny was joined by his wife Jennifer Connelly as he attended the premiere of his highly-anticipated movie Avengers: Infinity War in Los Angeles on Monday

Oscar-winning actress Jennifer stepped out in typically glamorous style for the event, wearing a layered buttercream yellow flamenco-inspired blouse, which she teamed with a black leather skirt featuring an embellished waistline.

Standing tall in a pair of monochrome heels, given a sparkly touch with golden bows, she wore her signature raven locks in a lustrous blowout with a side parting.

The mother-of-two highlighted her natural beauty with a rich palette of makeup that included deep pink lipstick and a smokey eyeshadow, while she accessorised with a pair of glittering rings and drop earrings.

In love: They lovingly held hands as they made their way down the customised purple carpet

Not to be outdone, London-born Paul cut a dapper figure in a fitted grey suit, which he teamed with a crisp white shirt and blue tie.

Further smartening up his look with a pair of black leather Oxford lace-ups, the actor shielded his eyes behind a pair of brown tinted sunglasses for his big night out.

The couple posed for selfies with fans before making their way into the venue for the screening of the movie, which features an exhaustive list of stars, including Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans and Benedict Cumberbatch.

Gwyneth Paltrow, Elizabeth Olsen, Zoe Saldana, Don Cheadle, Idris Elba, Benicio del Toro, Karen Gillan, Vin Diesel, Angela Bassett, Josh Brolin, Chadwick Boseman, Jon Favreau and Tom Holland are also among the castmemers in the superhero flick.

Glam: Oscar-winning actress Jennifer stepped out in typically glamorous style for the event, wearing a layered buttercream yellow flamenco-inspired blouse and a black leather skirt

Paul portrays the all-powerful Vision in the film - set to go on worldwide release on Friday - and recently admitted that getting into character was no easy feat, as it took two-and-a-half hours in the makeup chair to recreate the android.

Earlier this month, he also admitted that it took two attempts at popping the big question before his wife Jennifer finally said yes.

The actor recalled the tale during an interview on ITV's Lorraine, as he also admitted diary clashes stopped him from playing Prince Phillip in Netflix's critically-acclaimed period drama The Crown.

Chatting to stand-in host Christine Lampard he said: 'I proposed to Jennifer twice  it happened over the phone and then it happened in Los Angeles.'

Dapper gent: Not to be outdone, London-born Paul cut a dapper figure in a fitted grey suit, which he teamed with a crisp white shirt and blue tie

Paul had previously said he took the plunge and proposed to 'childhood crush' Jennifer in 2001 despite not knowing her very well, telling Larry King in 2015 he declared his love two days after the September 11 attacks.

But despite a bumpy proposal, the couple have now been married for 15 years and have two children.

Paul also divulged the reason why he missed out on playing older Prince Phillip in The Crown, with the role instead going to Game Of Thrones star Tobias Menzies.

Revealing why he did not take over the role from Matt Smith, the London-born actor said: 'It was discussed, we just couldnt come to terms with dates.'
Sarah Jessica Parker has denied ever uttering an unkind, unsupportive, or unfriendly word' towards Sex And The City co-star Kim Cattrall as their feud rumbles on.

Her words, in which she denied there was ever a 'catfight' between them, seem a little odd after Kim branded her a 'cruel hypocrite' and indicating there WAS a row.

However, Sarah Jessica, 53, says she wants to 'redefine' her feud with Kim, 61, rather than reignite it.

Feud: Sarah Jessica Parker claims she has 'never uttered an unfriendly word' to SATC co-star Kim Cattrall after she branded her 'cruel'... (so who is telling the truth?)

She told Vulture: 'Id just like to remind everybody that there is no catfight. I have never uttered an unkind, unsupportive, unfriendly word, so I would love to redefine it.

'Ive always held Kims work in high regard and always appreciative of her contributions.

'If she chooses not to do the third movie, theres not a lot I can do to change her mind and we must respect it. Thats the only thing Ive ever said about it, you know?'

She said: 'Ive always held Kims work in high regard and always appreciative of her contributions'

And whilst Sarah and her co-stars Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon are disappointed about not making another Sex In The City movie, she has 'moved on'.

She added: 'The three of us have shared our disappointment that were not making that movie, not just on our behalf but our crew, but also just the people that have been vocal about wanting to see it.

'But we still live in a free country where people get to make choices, and sometimes the answer is "no," and the only way to respond for me is to respect that. But, no, there is no catfight, there never has been a catfight.

'Ive never fought with someone publicly in my life, nor would I. And I spent time with all of the women on the set.

'People need to recall that it wasnt just two women on the set fighting, because that just never happened. We are enormously proud of what we got to do...

She told Vulture : 'Id just like to remind everybody that there is no catfight. I have never uttered an unkind, unsupportive, unfriendly word, so I would love to redefine it'

'We spent 10, 12 years of our life doing something that I really loved and I feel privileged to be part of and I dont want this to eclipse it or change its experience for that audience that was so good to us for so long.'

Back in February, after years of speculation about on-set warring, Sarah Jessica's former co-star Kim lashed out at her branding her a 'cruel hypocrite'.

But in a new interview with People, presumably given before Parker was criticised by Cattrall onInstagram and published this week, the mother-of-three insists there was no fight between the two actresses.

Parker, 52, reflected on the fall-out after the third Sex And The City movie was shelved last year as she told the magazine: 'It's really funny because I never talked about it, except [to say] that some of us were disappointed.

'She needed to say what she needed to say, and that is her privilege.' Parker said of Cattrall as she reflected on SATC 3 getting shelved last year

'But I never responded to the conversation Kim had with Piers Morgan, where she said things that were really hurtful about me.'

She continued: 'I couldn't imagine anyone else playing that part. So there was no fight; it was completely fabricated, because I actually never responded. And I won't, because she needed to say what she needed to say, and that is her privilege.'

Dailymail.com reported in September that Cattrall, 61, was the reason Sex And The City 3 had been 'torpedoed' due to her 'diva demands', while the rest of the cast; Parker, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis had all signed on eager to move on with production.

'It's over we're not doing it, I'm disappointed,' Parker said days later.

'We had this beautiful, funny, heartbreaking, joyful, very relatable script and story. It's not just disappointing that we dont get to tell the story and have that experience, but more so for that audience that has been so vocal in wanting another movie.'

'So there was no fight; it was completely fabricated, because I actually never responded' Parker told People. She is pictured out in New York last week

The next month Cattrall sat down with Piers Morgan and revealed she had a 'toxic relationship' with the other stars and said Parker 'could have been nicer' about the situation.

She told him: 'This is really where I take to task the people from Sex And The City and specifically Sarah Jessica Parker, is that I think she could have been nicer. I really think she could have been nicer. I don't know what her issue is.

'The thing that still bothers me is this feeling of being in some way made to be the baddie. I never asked for any money, I never asked for any projects, to be thought of as some kind of diva is absolutely ridiculous.'

In recent days however it seems the feud between the duo has reached a point of no return as Cattrall lifted the lid on just how strained the relationship is between the two women.

Taking to Instagram Cattrall shocked fans by calling out Parker directly, calling her 'cruel' and a 'hypocrite'.

'She could have been nicer': Cattrall told Piers Morgan in October that she had a toxic relationship with her SATC co-stars

'I don't need your love or support at this tragic time @sarahjessicaparker' the British-born actress posted on Sunday.

With the post Cattrall pasted a link to a New York Post article titled 'Inside the mean-girls culture that destroyed 'Sex and the City''

It came following the sudden death of Cattrall's brother Christopher on February 4 and after her former HBO colleagues had expressed their condolences.

In the scathing post the grieving actress accused SJP of 'exploiting' her family tragedy to 'restore her nice girl persona'.

'Your continuous reaching out is a painful reminder of how cruel you really were then and now.' Cattrall wrote in the caption.

Let me make this VERY clear (If I havent already) You are not my family. You are not my friend. So Im writing to tell you one last time to stop exploiting our tragedy in order to restore your nice girl persona.

Something to say: The English-born star criticised Sarah Jessica Parker following the painful death of her brother

The 61-year-old actress is grieving the loss of her younger brother Chris - whose body was found February 4

Four days earlier Parker wrote a message in the comments section of Kim's heartbreaking statement on her brother's death.

'Dearest Kim,' she wrote. 'My love and condolences to you and yours and Godspeed to your beloved brother. Xx'

It's being reported that Parker and Cattrall were 'at odds' since the beginning of season two of the Emmy-winning series.

'They hated each other' a source told UsWeekly.

And when Cattrall read Parker's Instagram comment last week, the 'bad memories came flooding back' with an insider saying 'It just struck a nerve'.
She is an international supermodel, rising film star and fashion icon.

And Cara Delevingne put on an animated display as she stepped out in Brooklyn, New York City alongside Hollywood actress Amber Heard to attend Gigi Hadid's star-studded birthday party on Monday.

Drawing on her years of modelling experience, the blonde beauty, 25, playfully hid her face behind a large black fan, striking some unusual poses as she waved the ornament around.

Creative:Cara Delevingne put on an animated display as she stepped out in Brooklyn, New York City alongside Hollywood actress Amber Heard to attend Gigi Hadid 's star-studded birthday party on Monday

Dressed to impress for the A-list night, Cara flashed her toned abs and slender waist in a lacy black crop-top which she paired with a fitted black blazer.

Showing off her lean legs, she slipped into a pair of matching cigarette trousers and added further height to her statuesque frame with edgy black biker boots.

The Vogue coverstar's platinum crop was styled in a tousled side-parting while her pretty features were enhanced with bold brows and smoky eye make-up.

Keeping her accessories simple and sparkling, she sported a clutch of silver rings.

Strike a pose:Drawing on her years of modelling experience, the blonde beauty, 25, playfully hid her face behind a large black fan, striking some unusual poses as she waved the ornament around

Toned: Dressed to impress for the A-list night, Cara flashed her toned abs and slender waist in a lacy black crop-top which she paired with a fitted black blazer

Amber, who celebrated her 32nd birthday on Sunday, put on a very racy display in a black blazer with nothing underneath, with the actress holding onto her lapels to avoid a wardrobe malfunction.

She slipped on black skinny jeans which hugged her toned legs and added height with black stiletto heels.

The Rum Diary star donned a selection of glittering gold chains and a trendy black Panama hat.

Edgy: Showing off her lean legs, she slipped into a pair of matching cigarette trousers and added further height to her statuesque frame with edgy black biker boots

Pals: Cara kept her visage covered as she walked alongside a hunky pal

Chic: The Vogue coverstar's platinum crop was styled in a tousled side-parting while her pretty features were enhanced with bold brows and smoky eye make-up

Pals: Amber shares the screen with Cara in the upcoming crime drama London Fields

Girls night: The showbiz gal pals looked ready to party as they walked inside

Her make-up look featured soft, smoky eyes and a slick of scarlet lipstick.

Amber shares the screen with Cara in the upcoming crime drama London Fields.

Cara is currently at the centre of romance rumours with model Paris Jackson, 20.

The daughter of late pop icon Michael Jackson was pictured passionately kissing her back in March, while out with her godfather Macaulay Culkin and his girlfriend Brenda Song.

It had previously been reported the pair had 'split' a week after that night - although they could simply just have had a passionate friendship.

Paris hasn't given too much away with her latest social media posts but it's clear that the duo are still on good terms.

The unlikely pair first caught attention when they were spotted leaving a nightclub in Dalston together via the fire escape.

The outing came three months after Cara's breakup from St Vincent, while Paris split from boyfriend Michael Snoddy in February last year.
They have got everyone talking about whether they are engaged.

And Vanessa Paradis and Samuel Benchetrit stayed coy about the rumours at the Colcoa French Film Festival Opening night in West Hollywood on Monday.

The actress, 45, and her rumoured fiance, 44, looked cosier than ever as they cuddled up to one another at the Directors Guild of America.

Happy together: Vanessa Paradis and Samuel Benchetrit looked cosy at Colcoa, in West Hollywood, California on Monday amid engagement speculation

Pretty in purple, Vanessa gave onlookers a good look at her astonishing stems thanks to her little dress with its pleated hemline.

Samuel went for an altogether more casual look as he opted to pull off double denim with his jacket and jeans.

The couple's outing comes amid speculation in the French-speaking media that the pair are secretly engaged.

Pretty in purple: Vanessa gave onlookers a good look at her astonishing stems thanks to her little dress with its pleated hemline

Vanessa and Samuel  who have been an item since 2016  have yet to address the reports suggesting they are going to be getting married.

According to VSD, Vanessa and Samuel are set to marry on the ile de Re this summer in front of close friends and family.

Vanessa was in a 14-relationship with Johnny Depp, with whom she raises children Lily-Rose and Jack, and she has never been married before.

Double denim: Samuel went for an altogether more casual look as he opted to pull off double denim with his jacket and jeans

Together: The couple's outing comes amid speculation in the French-speaking media that the pair are secretly engaged

She previously said she had no interest in tying the knot in a 2011 interview, before she met Samuel.

The star explained: 'It's romantic and the party part is fun, but it's a bit like the idea of a soulmate: I can't picture it for me.

'I know so many married people who tear each other apart. Ceremonies don't matter to me, love is all I need.'

Going strong: Vanessa and Samuel  who have been an item since 2016  have yet to address the reports suggesting they are going to be getting married

Vanessa never wed long-term partner Depp, who she parted ways from in 2012.

The Hollywood actor discussed their split with Rolling Stone magazine at the time, explaining: 'Relationships are very difficult. Especially in the racket that I'm in because you're constantly away or they're away and so it's hard. It wasn't easy on her.

'It wasn't easy on me. It wasn't easy on the kids. So, yeah. The trajectory of that relationship - you play it out until it goes, one thing leads to another. '

Samuel, a director and screenwriter, was previously married to late actress Marie Trintignant, with whom he shared son Jules, 19. He also has daughter Saul, 10, from his relationship with ex Anna Mouglalis.
Her career has been going from strength to strength after she relocated from Britain to Hollywood to star as the Irish nanny in Sex And The City 2.

And Alice Eve wowed as she stepped out at the premiere of her latest film Untogether at Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on Monday.

The talented actress, 36, showed off a style transformation as she debuted fiery auburn locks and a blunt fringe, a marked change from the bouncy blonde hairstyle for which she is known.

Transformation: Alice Eve wowed as she stepped out at the premiere of her latest film Untogether at Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on Monday

The beauty, who plays Irene in the film, flashed her ample cleavage in a striking fuschia pink gown with a daring cut-out section across the bust.

The gown featured a high-neck and cinched waist which showed off the star's toned figure before flowing into an elegant full skirt.

The Men In Black 3 star added height to her look with a pair of elegant black stiletto heels.

Changing it up: The talented actress, 36, showed off a style transformation as she debuted fiery auburn locks and a blunt fringe, a marked change from the bouncy blonde hairstyle (R in April 2017) for which she is known

Ample assets: The beauty, who plays Irene in the film, flashed her ample cleavage in a striking fuschia pink gown with a daring cut-out section across the bust

Style transformation: The vibrant and daring gown was a dramatic change from the star's usual wardrobe choices (R in April 2017)

Think pink: The gown featured a high-neck and cinched waist which showed off the star's toned figure before flowing into an elegant full skirt

Her pretty features were enhanced with a smoky shadow, fluttery lashes, peachy blush and a slick of fuschia lipstick.

The film follows the affair between former teen prodigy and heroin addict turned aspriring writer Andrea (Jemima Kirke) and Nick (Jamie Dornan) a womanising writer who has found success with his war-time memoir.

Andrea's younger sister (Tara (Lola Kirke) sees her relationship with older beau Martin (Ben Mendolsohn) rocked when she is drawn to an rabbi named David (Billy Crystal) who is even older than Martin.

Glamour: The Men In Black 3 star added height to her look with a pair of elegant black stiletto heels

Leading ladies: Alice joined (L-R) Elena Ghenoiu, Jemima Kirke, Lola Kirke, writer/director Emma Forrest, and Chloe Catherine Kim at the screening

Main role: Girls actress Jemima,32, wowed in a satin black bustier dress which revealed her toned frame, paired with black and gold stilettos

Vibrant: Her younger sister Lola dazzled in a floral multicoloured top paired with a blue, white, rose and terracotta striped skirt

Work it: Her platinum locks were styled in loose waves and her make-up look featured fluttery lashes and a swipe of red lipstick

Alice was joined at the premiere by her co-stars, sisters Jemima and Lola Kirke, Billy Crystal, Elena Ghenoiu and Chloe Catherine Kim.

Girls actress Jemima,32, wowed in a satin black bustier dress which revealed her toned frame, paired with black and gold stilettos.

Her platinum locks were styled in loose waves and her make-up look featured fluttery lashes and a swipe of red lipstick.

Her younger sister Lola dazzled in a floral multicoloured top paired with a blue, white, rose and terracotta striped skirt.

For the fans: Jemima posed for a selfie with an avid fan at the screening

Legend: Billy Crystal, 70, who plays rabbi David in the film, posed with wife Janice

Icon: The star rocked a navy jumper, black jeans and a leather jacket

The blonde beauty's tresses were styled in corkscrew curls and her make-up look featured feline flicks of liner and scarlet lipstick.

British born actress Alice relocated to Los Angeles in 2010, when she landed the role of Irish nanny Erin in Sex and The City 2.

She has since been seen in high profile films Men In Black 3 and Star Trek: Into Darkness.

Stunning: Elena Ghenoiu (L) and Chloe Catherine Kim (R) looked sensational at the premiere

Handsome: Scott Caan, 41, who plays Ellis in the film, cut a cool figure as he arrived

In 2014, Alice married financier Alex Cowper-Smith, her high school sweetheart whom she met while attending Westminster School in London.

The couple met at school but rekindled their flame as a couple in 2014, before finally tying the knot in a small ceremony on New Year's Eve in 2014. They divorced in 2017.

The blonde was previously in a long-term relationship with poet Adam O'Riordan, who she met while reading English at Oxford University.
Katherine Jenkins has announced the birth of her second child, a baby boy, with husband of three years Andrew Levitas.

The Welsh mezzo-soprano, 37, took to Instagram on Tuesday morning to share a sweet picture of her new family-of-four holding hands.

The musician and her artist husband, 40, are already parents to daughter Aaliyah Reign, two.

Captioning the snap, she wrote: 'Andrew, Aaliyah and I are proud to announce the arrival of our gorgeous son Xander Robert Selwyn Levitas.'

Arrival: Katherine Jenkins announced the birth of son Xander Robert Selwyn Levitas with this sweet Instagram post on Tuesday... and says his middle name is in tribute to her late father

The news of the singer's first son came hot on the heels of the excitement over the as-yet-unnamed royal baby, born to Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on Monday morning.

Katherine went on to tell her social media followers newborn baby Xander's middle names were a poignant tribute to both she and her husband's late fathers.

She added: 'His middle names honour our late fathers who live on in our little Defender of Men (Meaning of Xander).

'Our family, our home and are hearts could not be more full of love & we are incredibly grateful for the gift of being parents to these beautiful children. Cwtches to you all xxx.'

Katherine's father, Selwyn, passed away after a battle with lung cancer when she was just 15 years old and she often speaks about him fondly in interviews.

Love: The Katherine and Andrew love story goes back to October 2013 when they first started seeing each other - pictured in 2016

She told The Mirror back in 2012: 'I got pulled out of class by my auntie who said "your dads gone into a coma". It happened so quickly.

'The following day, he passed away and Im just glad I got the chance to say goodbye.'

Andrew's late father, Robert, also died after a battle with cancer when he was a teenager.

His directorial debut, Lullaby, was a movie tribute to his father's story of life and death.

The New York artist, painter, sculptor, filmmaker, writer, producer, photographer, and actor told LA Times: 'He was an incredibly courageous guy.

Bumping along: Katherine Jenkins was last pictured heading to the BBC studios while pregnant in February

'We learned so much about being a strong and compassionate person and to put others first and accept your lot in life.

'But there came a point where his father knew he would never be free of the disease. He was in pain and worn out.

'He decided enough is enough. He gathered his family to tell them he was pulling the plug on the machines and medications that were keeping him alive.

'I think in an incredibly beautiful and scary way, he gave up his own death for us. He may have chosen to have gone peacefully off and have people cry over him.

'But he used it as an opportunity to push buttons and for us to reconnect to each other. Rather than making it about him, he made it about us.'

There for one another: Katherine and Andrew both lost their fathers to cancer when they were teenagers and have named their new son after the men that they loved so much

Katherine was last pictured at the BBC studios, in London in February when she was pregnant.

The songstress concealed her blossoming baby bump as she pulled her lilac chic coat around her body to keep warm in the icy temperatures.

Katherine and Andrew's love story goes back to October 2013 when they first started seeing each other, before the couple announced their engagement in April 2014.

The pair were married in a romantic ceremony at Hampton Court Palace, in London in September 2014.

The couple welcomed their first child Aaliyah Reign in September 2015.

Katherine and Andrew announced they were expecting their second child in November 2017 via her Instagram page.

She wrote: 'Andrew and I are overjoyed that our family will be growing in 2018 with the addition of our second child - a baby brother for our little superhero Aaliyah!!!' (sic)

Shortly before announcing her pregnancy, Katherine had confessed to Hello! magazine that she would love to welcome a second child into their family unit.

She told the publication: 'It's all about timing, but I would really love to have a second child and for Aaliyah to have a sibling, to have a friend in the world.

'Life is not always what you expect it to be and when you find somebody that you fall in love with, it's amazing what you're willing to change,' she said.

'If I'm talking to a girlfriend who's just met someone and they're not exactly how she'd thought, I remind her, "I thought I'd get married in my local church to somebody from home".'

Speaking to Hello! about parenthood, she added: 'Everybody says, Your life will never be the same, but I didnt expect to feel so chilled and relaxed about life.

'My husband and I love being parents and Aaliyah makes us so happy. Shes fun, kind and affectionate  and a mummys girl.

All about the family: The married lovers welcomed their first child Aaliyah Reign (pictured) in September 2015

'Having a daughter makes you worry about everything. The world is a scary place. I worry about a lot of the things she will encounter in life.'

Katherine has openly discussed how her life has changed since she became a parent, but said it's important for her to set a good example to Aaliyah as a working mother.

Speaking to the Daily Express, she said: 'Its made me feel a lot calmer and more patient, as well as a lot more understanding of situations. I really think its been a good thing for me.

'Were both equally enjoying the co-parenting; were besotted with Aaliyah. Andrew and I both really wanted children and we love it.

'It definitely makes me know the things I want to do and its easier to say no to the things I dont want.

'Im still inspired to go to work, and part of that is that one day I want Aaliyah to be able to come and see me and understand what I do.

'Its really important she sees that both her father and I are passionate about what we do and work hard  I need to set an example to her.'
He's the Married At First Sight star who has been enjoying his time in the limelight since splitting from his former flame Tracey Jewel.

And the 39-year-old was all smiles as he stepped out with busty brunette model Courtney Brittle at the Avengers: Infinity War premiere on Tuesday night.

The former reality TV star wrapped his arm around Courtney, who was dressed to impressed in a cleavage-baring black frock.

Busting out! MAFS star Dean Well posed with busty model Courtney Brittle on the red carpet of Avengers: Infinity War premiere on Tuesday

Dean was dressed to impress in a brown jacket with a black T-shirt underneath.

The Genetically-blessed lothario was a picture of happiness as he beamed at onlookers.

Meanwhile fellow MAFS alum, Sarah Roza cut a stylish silhouette in a dark ensemble consisting of a black dress and a fitted trench coat.

She teamed her outfit with a pair of foxy knee-high high heeled boots.

Chic: The former reality TV star wrapped his arm around Courtney, who was dressed to impressed in a cleavage-baring black frock

All smiles: The Genetically-blessed lothario was a picture of happiness as he beamed at onlookers

Foxy lady: She teamed her dark ensemble with a pair of foxy knee-high high heeled boots

MAFS co-stars: Later on the red carpet Sarah was spotted cuddling up to Jo McPharlin's 'ex-husband' Sean Donnelly

Later, Sarah was spotted cuddling up to Jo McPharlin's 'ex-husband' Sean Donnelly.

Former MAFS star Ryan Gallagher made an appearance at the Avengers: Infinity War premiere.

He revealed his extensive arm ink by rocking a three-quarter sleeve shirt.

Sleeve tattoos: MAFS star Ryan Gallagher revealed his extensive arm ink by rocking a three-quarter sleeve shirt

Bachelor In Paradise star Elora Murger looked every inch a Tahitian beauty as she sported a blue midriff-baring ensemble.

The brunette beauty donned a sexy cut-out shoulder top and a tight-fitting navy skirt.

Elora wasn't the only reality TV star to stun on the red carpet.

Leah Costa was pictured in a white ensemble consisting of a pair of jeans and a woven jumper.

Hot! Bachelor In Paradise star Elora Murger looked every inch a Tahitian beauty as she sported a blue midriff-baring ensemble

Where's Leah's man? The Bachelor In Paradise stunner, who is rumoured to be engaged to a mystery celebrity, posed on the red carpet solo

The Bachelor In Paradise stunner, who is rumoured to be engaged to a mystery celebrity, posed on the red carpet solo.

Yet another Bachelor In Paradise star made an appearance at the premiere- Luke McLeod.

The reality TV hunk turned up the charm as he happily posed with an excited young fan.

Avengers: Infinity War premiere: The reality TV hunk turned up the charm as he happily posed with his nephew

The Bachelor In Paradise fanfare continued as Davey Lloyd was snapped posing alongside his doting dad.

Style seemingly runs in the family as the father-son-duo were pictured in fashionable ensembles.

Like father, like son? Style seemingly runs in the family as the father-son-duo were pictured in fashionable ensembles

Davey added a touch of monochrome magic to his outfit as he teamed a black shirt with a pair of white jeans.

His father cut a slick silhouette in a fitted grey suit sealed with a oversized Infinity Gauntlet glove.

Boys night out! Whereas his father cut a slick silhouette in a fitted grey suit sealed with a oversized Infinity Gauntlet glove

Technicolor-chic! Kerri-Anne Kennerley added a touch of pizzazz to the red carpet as she donned a high-octane outfit

Kerri-Anne Kennerley added a touch of pizzazz to the red carpet as she donned a high-octane outfit.

The Australian icon donned a highlighter yellow top and a multi-coloured skirt.

Home And Away heartthrob Orpheus pledger momentarily ditched Summer Bay for the red carpet.

The hunky soap star flaunted his muscular form in a tight fitting grey shirt and pair of black jeans.

Home And Away star: The hunky soap star flaunted his muscular form in a tight fitting grey shirt and pair of black jeans

Meanwhile his Home And Away co-star Olivia Deeble put on a playful show for photographers.

She was pictured winking in a quirky ensemble consisting of a thigh-skimming little black dress and an over-sized denim jacket.

Later the blonde TV star was spotted poking her tongue out at onlookers.

Wink-wink: Home And Away co-star Olivia Deeble winked at onlookers in a quirky ensemble consisting of a thigh-skimming little black dress and an over-sized denim jacket

Cheeky! Later the blonde TV star was spotted sticking her tongue out at onlookers

Home And Away's Ada Nicodemou, 40, joined her cast-mates at the movie premiere.

The 40-year-old flaunted her dashing decolletage in a stylish black jumpsuit.

Meanwhile Australian model, Jordan Simek sizzled on the red carpet in a slinky scarlet number.

Brunette bombshell: The 40-year-old flaunted her dashing decolletage in a stylish black jumpsuit
Hes busy promoting the latest Marvel film, Avengers: Infinity War, in which he plays the mischievous trickster Loki, and it seems Tom Hiddleston fans are worried about the character.

Many are theorising that Tom Hiddlestons anti-hero, who first made an appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2011s Thor, will meet his end in the latest Avengers film, after Josh Brolins Thanos comes to Earth.

However, whatever happens in Avengers: Infinity War, Taylor Swifts ex looks to be busy.

Tom Hiddleston rose to international prominence as Loki in Kenneth Branagh's 2011 film, Thor

Hes already signed up to film the second season of the BBC series, The Night Manager, opposite Olivia Colman and Hugh Laurie, and will feature in the Infinity War sequel, Avengers 4 - although, who knows in what capacity.

Here is all you need to know about Tom Hiddleston, including his net worth, movies and roles such as Loki in Avengers.

Who is Tom Hiddleston?

Thomas William Hiddleston was born on February 9, 1981 in Westminster, London. His mother is an arts administrator and his father is a physical chemist.

Hiddleston attended the Dragon School, followed by Eton, Pembroke College, Cambridge, and RADA. After RADA, the actor was spotted by an LA casting agent at the Donmar Warehouse.

It was at Eton that Hiddleston discovered his passion for acting: I did a production of Journeys End, an RC Sherriff play about World War I, at the Edinburgh Festival. I was 18 and it was the first time that people I knew and loved and respected came up to me after the show and said, You know, you could really do this if you wanted to,  he said back in 2012.

'Acting takes such a level of confidence and self-belief and as a teenager I didnt have that much self-esteem. What teenager does? It was when they started saying I could do it that I really committed to it as a possibility.

His first film role was Joanna Hoggs debut feature, Unrelated and soon after leading roles in stage productions of The Changeling and Cymbeline followed. At the Donmar he featured as Cassio in Othello in the production that included Ewan McGregor and Chiwetel Ejiofor.

In 2011, Hiddleston broke into Hollywood with a bang, as the now much beloved anti-hero in Kenneth Branaghs Marvel film, Thor. Branagh knew Hiddleston from his time on the TV series Wallander and from the stage production of Chekhovs Ivanov.

Ken has had a life-changing effect. He was able to say to the executives, Trust me on this, you can cast Tom and he will deliver. It was massive and its completely changed the course of what is available to me to do. Ken gave me my break.

After Thor, Hiddleston appeared in Woody Allens Midnight In Paris, playing the role of F. Scott Fitzgerald and starred in Steven Spielbergs adaptation of Michael Morpurgos novel, War Horse.

The following year, Hiddleston reprised his role as Loki in Joss Whedons The Avengers and in 2013 played the character again in the Thor sequel, Thor: The Dark World.

He then played a vampire in Jim Jarmuschs Only Lovers Left Alive. At the end of the year, Hiddleston starred in the Donmar production of Coriolanus.

In 2015, Hiddleston appeared in Ben Wheatleys adaptation of High-Rise, a novel by JG Ballard and played the musician Hank Williams in I Saw the Light.

More recently, Hiddleston appeared in Kong: Skull Island, Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Infinity War. He also starred alongside Hugh Laurie and Olivia Colman in the 2016 series, The Night Manager.

Outside of acting, Tom Hiddleston is perhaps most famous for his three-month relationship with Taylor Swift. The pair dated between June and September 2016 and were the subject of much interest, particularly after Hiddleston was seen wearing a small tank top that said I love T.S.

In an interview with GQ Magazine, the Thor actor explained the context behind the shirt: 'The truth is, it was the Fourth of July and a public holiday and we were playing a game and I slipped and hurt my back.

'And I wanted to protect the graze from the sun and said, 'Does anyone have a T-shirt?' And one of her friends said, 'I've got this.'' The friend pulled out the 'I heart T.S.' tank top that Taylor's squad all own.

Hiddleston also dismisses peoples suspicions that the relationship was a publicity stunt, saying: 'Of course it was real.'

The pair broke up in September 2016, with some sources saying it was Swift's decision - after she grew uncomfortable with the increasing publicity - while Hiddleston's camp said that it was he who 'grew tired of her'.

What is Tom Hiddlestons net worth?

Tom Hiddlestons net worth is estimated to be $20 million (14.3m), according to Celebrity Net Worth.

While most of his net worth is made up of salaries from films such as Thor, The Avengers and Kong: Skull Island, Hiddleston also earns money from endorsements.

In 2014, he starred in the Good to be Bad campaign for Jaguar cars, which aired during the 2014 Super Bowl.

Tom Hiddleston's net worth, while in no way insubstantial, doesn't come close to some other Avengers stars such as Robert Downey Jr. Hiddleston's wealth is also similar to that of co-star Zoe Saldana's but trumps fellow Avengers star Tom Holland.
Ed Sheeran and Stormzy lead the nominations at the forthcoming 63rd Ivor Novello Awards with two each.

Sheeran dominates the PRS For Music Most Performed Work category with Shape Of You - which he co-wrote with Steve Mac and Johnny McDaid - and Castle on the Hill, both from his recording-breaking LP Divide, in contention.

Speaking to MailOnline as nominations were announced on Tuesday morning, host Paul Gambaccini admitted Sheeran's success is comparable to some of Britain's greatest songwriters, but he still has some way to go before his music matches the very best.

Scroll down for full list of nominations

Well done: Ed Sheeran has received two nominations at the forthcoming 63rd Ivor Novello Awards

'He is now up there in terms of stardom. Hes not up there yet in terms of product because whereas The Beatles had two albums a year he has one album every three years,' he said. 'But hes had a popularity similar to Elton John with multiple hits from the same album and appeal to a broad group, and he loves it. He loves it.

'And the live shows sell out. Its appropriate because Elton is a friend and a mentor to him. Hes been wise to either ingratiating himself to or naturally appealing to the American black population. Elton did that, he has done that.'

He added: 'That just shows that he has wide tastes, wide interests. But it also means that he has a broader range of support than many artists who are limited to genre. I know even he himself was surprised with Galway Girl, but Shape of You appealed to a broad range of people.'

Main man: Stormzy is up for Best Contemporary Song for Dont Cry For Me featuring Raleigh Ritchie and the coveted Album Award for the already multiple award-winning record Gang Signs & Prayer

Meanwhile Stormzy, who will also be headlining this years Wireless Festival, is up for Best Contemporary Song for Dont Cry For Me featuring Raleigh Ritchie and the coveted Album Award for the already multiple award-winning record Gang Signs & Prayer.

And Gambaccini believes the rise of urban acts such as the London based grime star reflects a growing appreciation for urban music in the United Kingdom.

'There were black British artists in previous years who were not thought of as being black, like Stormzy or Skepta are,' he told MailOnline. 'I cite for example Billy Ocean. Multiple number ones in America and yet he has songwriting credits on all his big hits.

In contention: Elsewhere Indie rockers Everything Everything's Cant Do is up for Best Song Musically and Lyrically and their album A Fever Dream is shortlisted for the Album Award prize

IVOR NOVELLO AWARDS 2018: THE NOMINATIONS BEST SONG MUSICALLY AND LYRICALLY Cant Do - Everything Everything Magnificent (She Says) - Elbow (No One Knows Me) Like the Piano - Sampha BEST CONTEMPORARY SONG Cola - Elderbrook and CamelPhat Dont Cry For Me - Stormzy ft. Raleigh Ritchie Question Time - Dave PRS FOR MUSIC MOST PERFORMED WORK Castle on the Hill - Ed Sheeran Human - Rag n Bone Man Shape of You - Ed Sheeran BEST TELEVISION SOUNDTRACK Babs SS-GB The Miniaturist ALBUM AWARD A Fever Dream - Everything Everything Gang Signs & Prayer - Stormzy Moonshine Freeze - This is the Kit BEST ORIGINAL FILM SCORE IT Jackie Paddington 2 BEST ORIGINAL VIDEO GAME SCORE Hellblade: Senuas Sacrifice Composed by David Garcia Diaz and Andy LaPlegua Horizon Zero Dawn Composed by Joris de Man, Joe Henson and Alexis Smith Life is Strange: Before the Storm Composed by Igor Haefeli and Elena Tonra

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Hitting all the right notes: Everything Everything and Stormzy will compete with Kate Stables' Moonshine Freeze for the Album Award

'Sade is the artists with the longest string of top ten albums. Every album shes ever put out has reached the top ten in America. I mean she may have long intervals, but these are people who have had enormous success without being thought of as urban.

'But now, because the artists are coming from the grime area they are thought of as urban artists. I find this fascinating because it means that Britain as a nation is more willing to accept blackness as an ingredient of music.

'There were artists who happened to be black and now there are artists whose blackness is part of the raison d'etre of their music.'

He's only human, after all: Other nominees include Rag'n' Bone Man, whose hit song Human will battle it out with Sheeran's two songs for Most Performed Work

Elsewhere Indie rockers Everything Everything's Cant Do is up for Best Song Musically and Lyrically and their album A Fever Dream is shortlisted for the Album Award prize.

Commenting on the news, the rock group - comprised of Jonathan Higgs, Jeremy Pritchard, Michael Spearman and Alex Robertshaw - wrote on Twitter: 'Honoured to have been nominated for two @TheIvors Novello awards this year - Best Album for A Fever Dream, and Best Song Musically and Lyrically for Cant Do. (sic)'

Everything Everything and Stormzy will compete with Kate Stables' Moonshine Freeze for the Album Award.

Other nominees include Rag'n' Bone Man, whose hit song Human will battle it out with Sheeran's two songs for Most Performed Work.

Compere: The winners will be announced at a star-studded ceremony at London's Grosvenor House on May 31, which will be hosted by Paul Gambaccini, who spoke to MailOnline as the nominations were announced on Tuesday morning

Rapper Dave will go up against his peer Stormzy with his song Question Time in the running for Best Contemporary Song.

And Elbow's Magnificent (She Says) and Sampha's (No One Knows Me) Like the Piano are up for Best Song Musically and Lyrically alongside Everything Everything.

Sponsors BASCA will also present a series of awards on the night in recognition of a contribution to British music, including; the Ivor Novello Award for International Achievement, the Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Song Collection, PRS for Music Outstanding Contribution to British Music, PRS for Music Special International Award, the Ivor Novello Award for Songwriter of the Year and The Ivors Inspiration Award.

The winners will be announced at a star-studded ceremony at London's Grosvenor House on May 31, which will be hosted by Paul Gambaccini.
It was recently revealed she had embarked on a new relationship with property developer David Grievson, three years after her divorce from David Walliams.

And Lara Stone looked smitten she she stepped out with her new businessman beau, heading to the Chiltern Firehouse together on Monday night.

The Dutch supermodel, 34, couldn't keep the smile off her face as she went hand-in-hand with her new man following a low-key date.

Hand-in-hand: Lara Stone looked smitten she she stepped out with her new businessman beau David Grievson, heading to the Chiltern Firehouse together on Monday night

Lara was dressed down for the occasion, letting her natural beauty shine through with barely-there make-up.

She kept her svelte physique under wraps in an oversized black top and a pair of smart trousers.

The star pulled her look together with some simple, sombre accessories, including a leather satchel and a pair of black heels.

Romantic outing: The Dutch supermodel, 34, couldn't keep the smile off her face as she left the venue with her new man following a low-key date

David was dressed to impress in a navy jacket and grey jeans, topping off the attire with brown suede shoes.

Lara met London based Grievson through friends in January and was then seen with the London-based businessman at Chanels Paris Fashion Week presentation in March.

A source told The Sun: Lara and David are really in love, their relationship has moved faster than expected but they seem completely besotted.'

New couple: Lara went public with her new man at the Chanel Paris Fashion Week show in March, three years after her divorce from David Walliams

The couple have since enjoyed a romantic holiday in Sri Lanka, from where Lara has kept Instagram followers updated on her movements with a string of social media snaps.

In one shot the couple are seen embracing in front of a sacred temple during a trip to Polonnaruwa in the country's North Central Province.

Commenting on the shot which she captioned with a single love heart, she wrote: 'He keeps forcing me up mountains!'

Old times: The Dutch supermodel divorced former husband Walliams in 2015

Bearded Grievson also commented on the snap, adding the playful hashtag: '#unknownbeardycuddlecushion.'

Another shot finds Lara posing in a black T-shirt and cut-off denim shorts while standing in front of a bridge while visiting Ella in Sri Lanka's Uva Province.

Lara has previously been linked with Australian model Jordan Barrett and actor Andrew Gray, but her new romance with Grievson is thought to be her first serious relationship since splitting with Walliams.

The former couple, who married in 2010 and are parents to four-year old son Alfred, were granted a decree nisi by Judge Heather MacGregor at London's Central Family Court in a hearing lasting less than 60 seconds in September 2015.

Say cheese: Lara and Grievson are currently enjoying a romantic holiday in Sri Lanka, from where she has kept Instagram followers updated on her movements with a string of social media snaps

Close: In one shot the couple are seen embracing in front of a sacred temple during a trip to Polonnaruwa in the country's North Central Province

Comic Walliams had cited Lara's 'unreasonable behaviour' for the 'quickie divorce', with their case being put through alongside 20 other couples.

Their relationship began after Lara's now-beaten battle with alcoholism following a stint in rehab in 2009.

Lara told Dutch Vogue she was 'very nervous' on their first date but soon knew they shared a 'very mean sense of humour'.

She told the publication: 'Id forgotten to thank him for dinner so I sent him a text. You know what he wrote back? "Whos this?"

'I was shocked. I really thought hed forgotten already. I only realised later he was joking. We have so much fun. Im quite lucky.'
Her 'ex-husband' Telv Williams recently went public with his new romance.

But Married At First Sight's Sarah Roza hasn't been letting the sad news get her down.

On Tuesday, the busty beauty was the picture of happiness as she stepped onto the red carpet at the Avengers: Infinity War premiere in Melbourne.

Telv who? Married At First Sight's Sarah Roza was a picture of happiness as she stepped onto the red carpet at the Avengers: Infinity War premiere in Melbourne on Tuesday

Stunning Sarah turned heads as she flaunted her newly slimmed-down frame while posing against a media wall.

Recently revealing that she's lost 8kg since her time on Married At First Sight, the beauty therapist opted for a tight black dress that emphasised her sensational figure.

She added a knee-length grey coat and a pair of sexy suede boots to stave off Melbourne's chilly autumnal weather.

Stunner! Recently revealing that she's lost 8kg since her time on Married At First Sight, the beauty therapist opted for a tight black dress that emphasised her sensational figure

Sarah parted her recently-lightened locks to one side, and left them cascading down past her shoulders.

In typical style, the cosmetics-enthusiast was made-up to perfection, sporting perfectly applied blush, mascara and a light pink lipstick.

While on the red carpet, the stunner was spotted catching up with Married At First Sight co-star Sean Donnelly, who was partnered with Jo Mcpharlin on the show.

No heartbreak here! The beauty therapist turned reality star was all smiles as she posed on the red carpet for the premiere, showing off a hint of cleavage

Striking a pose! At one point, the TV bride posed alongside her Married At First Sight co-star Sean Donnelly

Sarah's outing to the film premiere comes just over a week after her ex Telv confirmed his new relationship with blonde beauty Maddie Carolan.

The pair made their first public appearance at a Bondi Sands event in Melbourne, where they cuddled up together for the cameras.

The FIFO worker told OK! magazine: 'Yes, Maddie and I are in a relationship'

Perfect: Sarah parted her recently-lightened locks to one side, and left them cascading down past her shoulders

Stylish! Sarah added a knee-length grey coat and a pair of sexy suede boots to stave off Melbourne's chilly autumnal weather.

'It's very early days, though,' said the father-of-two. 'So we are both just going with the flow and just getting to know each other.

'And enjoying each other's company.'

Daily Mail Australia first broke news of Telv's new romance last month

New romance: Sarah's outing to the film premiere comes just over a week after her ex Telv confirmed his new relationship with blonde beauty Maddie Carolan (pictured)
Her life has changed immeasurably over the past several months, quitting her long run as a Victoria's Secret Angel and ending her 10-year engagement to Jamie Mazur.

And Alessandra Ambrosio, who celebrated her 37th birthday earlier this month, showed that she's settling into her new life when she stepped out in head-turning style as she met friends for a sushi meal in Beverly Hills on Monday night.

While the Brazilian beauty shrouded her supermodel frame in an oversized black hoodie for her trip to popular eatery Matsuhisa, she showed off the legs that helped make her famous in 3x1 denim shorts and black knee-high boots.

Fine dining: Alessandra Ambrosio was spotted meeting her friends for dinner at Matsuhisa in Beverly Hills, California, on Monday night

Alessandra opted to wear her hoodie up as she made her way into the restaurant, obscuring her chestnut brown wavy locks, some of which spilled onto her shoulders.

Accessorising with a small black leather handbag, she highlighted her natural beauty with a minimal application of makeup that included a smudge of deep pink lipstick.

Her low-key dating came three days after she shared a selection of scintillating sunbathing snapshots on her Instagram account.

Leggy: While the Brazilian beauty shrouded her frame in an oversized hoodie, she showed off the legs that helped make her famous in 3x1 denim shorts and black knee-high boots

The brunette beauty displayed her envy-inducing figure in a crop top and zebra print underwear as she lounged around in the sun.

With the logo-clad top cropped perfectly to show off her flat stomach, Alessandra looked to be loving life as she relaxed with a Corona lager on a sun-lounger.

She opted for a glamorous coat of make-up and a pair of black shades as she struck a sexy pose while showcasing her flawlessly bronzed physique.

Ambrosio has been spending her time in Los Angeles recently, after clipping her Victoria's Secret Angel wings at the end of 2017.

It's over: Last month, she announced that her 10-year engagement to Jamie Mazur had ended

We are family: The exes, who first began dating in 2005, have two children together - daughter Anja, nine, and son Noah, five. Pictured in November 2017

It's been a time of change in the model's life as last month as she ended her 10-year engagement to Jamie Mazur.

'They [have] been trying to keep their split on the down low,' an insider recently told Us Weekly. 'But Alessandra has been out and about ready to mingle and hasn't been taking Jamie to anything.'

Alessandra and RE/DONE founder Mazur were first engaged back in 2008, and despite their decade long engagement, the couple did not seem to be in any hurry to get married.

Sizzling: The supermodel highlighted her envy-inducing figure in a crop top and zebra print underwear as she lounged around in the sun, sharing a snap on Instagram on Friday

Racy: With the logo-clad top cropped perfectly to show off her flat stomach, Alessandra looked to be loving life as she relaxed with a Corona on a sun-lounger

'If I have been engaged to him for eight years, then it's not my priority,' she told the publication previously.

'I have a lot of things going on, and I haven't got married because I'm so busy. I'll think about that when I have time off.'

The two had been dating since 2005, and have two children together - daughter Anja, nine, and son Noah, five.
Much like the Avengers, Mark Ruffalos net worth has assembled more with each film he appears in.

Avengers: Infinity War, which Ruffalo costars in, just premiered on April 23 in Los Angeles and is slated to hit theaters very soon. The movie is undoubtedly one of the most highly-anticipated films of 2018 and features an ensemble cast of two of the most popular superhero film franchises coming together for an unforgettable crossover event.

But just who is Mark Ruffalo? Heres all you need to know about who he is, his age, net worth, how hes made his money, filmography and appearance in the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War movie.

Mark Ruffalo is set to costar in the upcoming superhero blockbuster Avengers: Infinity War

Who is Mark Ruffalo?

Mark Ruffalo is an actor, filmmaker and activist best-known for his role as the Hulk in the Marvel Comics superhero film franchise.

Ruffalo was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin on November 22, 1967.

He grew up in Wisconsin and later in Virginia Beach, Virginia before attending the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in Los Angeles, California. After making his TV acting debut in 1989, he appeared in a number of smaller roles in various films in the 1990s before landing his acclaimed breakout role in the 2000 film You Can Count on Me.

This success led to further roles in movies like 2007s Zodiac and 2010s Shutter Island before being cast as the Hulk in the Marvel Comics film franchise starting with 2012s Marvels The Avengers. His newest film Avengers: Infinity War just premiered in Los Angeles and will soon be released worldwide.

In addition to his successful acting career, Ruffalo has also been known as an outspoken political activist, endorsing Jeremy Corbyn in the UK and vocally supporting the expansion of clean energy in the United States. Over the course of his film career, Ruffalo has been honored with a number of prestigious award wins and nominations, including for the Emmy Awards, SAG Awards, Critics Choice Awards, BAFTA Awards and many others.

How old is Mark Ruffalo?

Mark Ruffalo is 50 years old.

He was born on November 22, 1967.

What is Mark Ruffalos net worth?

Mark Ruffalos net worth is estimated to be about $30 million (21.5 million), according to Celebrity Net Worth.

How does Mark Ruffalo make his money?

Ruffalos net worth is largely the result of his successful acting career.

He made his acting debut in 1989 in CBS Summer Playhouse and truly broke out in the 2000 film You Can Count on Me, which received great critical acclaim. His success later led to appearances in movies like 2004s Collateral, 2007s Zodiac and 2009s Where the Wild Things Are.

Since then, Ruffalo has taken on his best-known role as the Hulk, making appearances in blockbuster films like 2012s Marvels The Avengers, 2015s Avengers: Age of Ultron and 2017s Thor: Ragnarok. His highly-anticipated next film Avengers: Infinity War is set to premiere on April 26, 2018 in the United Kingdom and on April 27, 2018 in the United States.

Who is Mark Ruffalos wife?

Mark Ruffalos wife is Sunrise Coigney.

The couple has been married since 2000 and has three children together: Keen, Bella Noche and Odette. They currently reside in New York City.

Mark Ruffalo movies

Ruffalo is well-known for his role as the superhuman Hulk in blockbuster films like Marvels The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Thor: Ragnarok. He will also appear as the Hulk in the upcoming superhero movie Avengers: Infinity War.

His filmography, however, goes back much further. He made his TV acting debut in 1989 on CBS Summer Playhouse and later appeared in a number of movies in the 1990s, including Mirror, Mirror II: Raven Dance in 1994, Mirror, Mirror III: The Voyeur in 1995 and The Dentist in 1996.

His breakout role came in 2000s You Can Count on Me, which led to later roles in movies like 2004s Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, 2006s All the Kings Men and 2007s Zodiac before taking on his iconic Hulk role in the Marvel Comics superhero film franchise.

Let's gooooooo!! #InfinityWar A post shared by Mark Ruffalo (@markruffalo) on Feb 6, 2018 at 10:34am PST

Mark Ruffalo in Avengers: Infinity War

Ruffalo is once again set to reprise his role as the Hulk in the much-anticipated upcoming superhero movie Avengers: Infinity War. The movie, which features an ensemble cast of superhero stars that includes Robert Downey Jr., Zoe Saldana, Tom Holland, Tom Hiddleston and many others, will see the Avengers unite with the Guardians of the Galaxy to stop the evil Thanos before time runs out.

The film recently premiered on April 23, 2018 in Los Angeles. Its slated to be released on April 25 in Australia and New Zealand, April 26 in the United Kingdom and on April 27 in the United States, Canada and most other countries around the world.
He is a fitting choice for the hunky God of Thunder Thor.

And Chris Hemsworth gushed over his The Avengers co-stars when he attended the star-studded world premiere of the movie, in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

Giving an inside look at the event, the camera panned the whole star-studded Avengers cast before the 34-year-old actor turned the lens on himself on stage.

'Best team in the universe': Chris Hemsworth gushed over The Avengers co-stars as he attended the star-studded premiere, in Los Angeles on Tuesday

'Best team in the universe,' The Avengers star penned on the social media post, which accompanied the brief clip.

A whole host of the Avengers stars appeared in the clip including Mark Ruffalo (Hulk), Elizabeth Olsen (Wanda) and Karen Gillan (Nebula).

And Tom Hiddleston (Loki) looked animated when Chris turned the camera on him during the glitzy cast's time on stage on the evening.

Top team! A whole host of the Avengers stars appeared in the clip including Mark Ruffalo, Elizabeth Olsen and Karen Gillan

Avengers: Infinity War charts the battle of The Avengers who team up with their superhero allies against the powerful Thanos.

Chris played the God of Thunder Thor in the third installment of The Avengers film franchise which has now hit cinemas.

The Australian actor was suave in a lightly checkered three-piece suit, complete with a golden pocket watch.

Party time! 'Best team in the universe,' The Avengers star penned on the social media post, which accompanied the brief clip

In recent months, The Avengers co-writer Zak Penn discussed casting Chris as the hammer-wielding hero.

'I remember Chris Hemsworth walking through the Marvel offices, and being: "Oh my god, that guy is Thor,"' he told The Hollywood Reporter.

Zak added: 'Originally I was trying to reduce how much Thor was in the movie. Once it was clear that, no, this is going to work and they were excited about it, then I did not [reduce Thor in the script]. I stopped doing that.'
She rarely looks anything short of super stylish.

And Tuesday was business as usual for Jennifer Aniston, who wowed in classic frayed jeans and a chic beige coat that fell to her ankles.

The actress, 49, looked her usual bright and cheery self as she left Nello restaurant in New York City with a huge smile on her face.

Let's do lunch! Jennifer Aniston looked incredible as she stepped out of Nello restaurant in New York City on Tuesday

Hair partially scraped away from her complexion while allowing the rest to cascade down freely, the newly single star looked the picture of comfortable style for the day.

She teamed her lightweight coat with a cool grey sweater and a leather cross body bag that she had slung across her torso.

Jennifer also rocked a pair of leather designer heels, sunglasses, and a pair of gold hoop earrings to glam up her cool yet comfortable look.

Bringing out her natural beauty, Jennifer opted to top up her radiant complexion with a hue of light pink blusher and a darker shade of lip stick.

Stepping out in style! Aniston kept it chic and comfortable in a pair of black leather designer heels

Hello sunshine! The actress, 49, looked her usual bright and cheery self as she left Nello restaurant in New York City with a huge smile on her face

Jennifer looked to be enjoying a moment to herself, after narrowly avoiding ex Justin Theroux at a party thrown by Jimmy Kimmel.

Both stars were in attendance at a party their mutual friends Jimmy and Molly McNearney threw at their Hollywood Hills home celebrating the first birthday of their one-year-old son Billy, but Justin, 46, split before the Friends star spent nearly two hours at the bash.

Insiders told DailyMail.com that the A-list actress 'did look a bit nervous' when she got there at about 12:15 p.m., with The Leftovers actor leaving at the same time after he was there for about 40 minutes. The source said of Jennifer, who left the party for Billy at about 2 p.m.: 'It was obvious that he was alerted to her arrival.'

Meanwhile: Jennifer looked to be enjoying a moment to herself, after a rather eventful weekend at Jimmy Kimmel's house, where she narrowly avoided her ex Justin Theroux at a party

Best tressed: The former Friends actress swept a portion of her strands away from her complexion while allowing the rest to cascade freely

Jennifer and Justin - who announced their split in February after more than two years of marriage - are good friends of comic late night host Kimmel and McNearney.

At the time of Jennifer and Justin's break up, it was reported the actress' dislike of New York City' may have played a role in her split.

On Thursday the couple confirmed they separated after seven-and-a-half years together, and preferences for which coast to settle down together 'doomed their marriage' according to Page Six.

The LA-based actress, 49, tried to move into her 46-year-old husband's Greenwich Village pad, but 'couldn't deal with the pokey apartment' reported the source.
The release of Ocean's 8 is less than two months away, but it seems the cast is still working away as the the flick rolls towards its big screen premiere.

Sandra Bullock, 53, and a variety of her co-stars were in Los Angeles Monday shooting what looked to be a graduation scene.

The Late Late Show host James Corden, 39, who also appears in the female-driven heist comedy, was also on hand for filming.

Casting off: Sandra Bullock, 53, and a variety of her co-stars were in Los Angeles Monday shooting what looked to be a graduation scene

Sarah Paulson, 43; Anne Hathaway, 35; Mindy Kaling, 38; Cate Blanchett, 48; and Awkwafina, 29, joined Bullock and Corden on set for their cap casting ceremony.

The Blind Side actress' hair fell in long dark waves down either side of her face, as she wore a dark top.

Pulling a navy blazer with green trim over a black polo, the Peter Rabbit voice star added a pair of jeans for a laidback yet classy look.

Get together: Sarah Paulson, Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, Cate Blanchett, and Awkwafina joined Bullock and Corden on set for their cap casting ceremony

The always fashionable Blanchett seemed to be cut straight out of Milan as she donned a two-toned combo featuring a half-green, half-white button down top, along with red and white pants.

Laughing her way throughout the shoot, Paulson radiated in a grey suit jacket with a pink backpack slung over her shoulders.

Awkwafina added to the group's business casual appearance, throwing a sky blue jacket beneath her long dark locks.

Hats off: The Late Late Show host James Corden, who also appears in the female-driven heist comedy, was also on hand for filming

Anne Hathaway added a few inches to her slender frame with a pair of chunk heels that she wore along with her all-black ensemble.

Joining the a pink backpack club, Mindy Kaling wore a pink dress as she chatted away with her fellow cast members.

It may have been a hot day in L.A, but group of stars seemed to be having a swell time together throughout filming.

Rihanna, Helena Bonham Carter, nor Richard Armitage were seen on set.

In addition to its famous cast of crooks, the film's IMDB also promises appearances from Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, Katie Holmes, and Hailey Baldwin.

Gala gorgeous: The always fashionable Blanchett seemed to be cut straight out of Milan as she donned a two-toned combo featuring a half-green, half-white button down top, along with red and white pants

In the upcoming Ocean's Trilogy spin-off, which itself is based of a Rat Pack movie, Bullock leads a crew of woman in an attempt to pull of the heist of the century.

Matt Damon is also set to appear as his character Linus from the original Ocean's trilogy.

The Ocean's trilogy - running from 2001 to 2007 - starred George Clooney, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts, and grossed an impressive $1.1 billion worldwide.

Ocean's 8 arrives in US theaters on June 8 and in the UK on June 22.
His company 28 By Sam Wood has recently been accused of copying a recipe from another fitness program.

But Sam Wood does not appear to be dwelling on the controversy.

Taking to Instagram on Tuesday, the 2015 Bachelor star instead promoted a recent home visit from the Today show.

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Moving on! The Bachelor's Sam Wood promoted a family appearance on the Today show on Tuesday after he was accused of 'copying a recipe from a rival fitness program'

Making no reference to the negative headlines, the caption read: 'TODAY popped in to our house to visit (us) this morning. Little Willow soooo cute.'

On Tuesday, Sam and his fiancee Snezana invited Channel Nine cameras into their home for an interview about their domestic life.

In the interview, there was no mention of claims made by the Sunday Telegraph that 28 By Sam Wood had been accused of copying a recipe from Steph Claire Smith and Laura Henshaw's program Keep It Cleaner.

The Sunday Telegraph obtained emails from 28 By Sam Wood that revealed it has published similar recipes to those created by Steph Claire Smith and Laura Henshaw's for Keep It Cleaner

The newspaper obtained emails from 28 By Sam Wood that revealed it has published similar recipes to those created for the Keep It Cleaner program.

In leaked emails, one of Sam's staff members allegedly described how she 'went in and downloaded all their good recipes'.

A shocked Steph Claire Smith said she felt betrayed by Sam, someone she considered a close friend.

Clarification: Sam admitted he and his staff seek ideas from other high-profile fitness professionals such as Michelle Bridges and Joe Wicks

She told the Sunday Telegraph: 'We didn't want to believe it but after seeing the imagery and method and recipes themselves, it's blatantly obvious.

'We have never been on his website to look at his recipes.'

28 By Sam Wood costs $49 a month for subscribers.

It has 140,000 Instagram followers and 275,395 Facebook fans compared to Keep It Cleaner's 165,000 Instagram followers and 12,220 Facebook fans.

Entrepreneurs: Instagram fitness stars Steph Claire Smith and Laura Henshaw (pictured) are the women behind the Keep It Cleaner program

Launched in 2016, Keep It Cleaner's online program costs $19.50 a month for subscribers.

One of the recipes on both sites is choc nut cups, which first appeared on Keep It Cleaner's blog in 2016.

Sam claimed it was a recipe requested by many of his members.

Can you spot the difference? One of the recipes on both 28 By Sam Wood and Keep It Cleaner is choc nut cups

'Our almond butter nut cups are part of our overall program and were created by our nutritionist and chef,' he told the publication.

Sam admitted he and his staff seek ideas from other high-profile fitness professionals such as Michelle Bridges and Joe Wicks.

'It's a competitive industry so naturally we watch our competition, as they watch us,' he said.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Sam Wood for comment.
She's one of the world's most in-demand models.

And on Tuesday, New Zealand native Georgia Fowler, 25,proved exactly why when she put on an eye-popping display in a white swimsuit.

Taking to Instagram, the brunette beauty wasn't shy when she shared a snap of herself relaxing in the cleavage-baring bathers.

White delight! Victoria's Secret model Georgia Fowler, 25, flaunted her incredible figure in a snug-fitting one piece on Tuesday

In the snap, the Victoria's Secret model offered the camera a sultry look while she sunned herself in a cane chair.

Georgia held a piece of watermelon in her hand, and her chest was on full display in the daring swimsuit, which featured at racy cut out at the bust.

Appearing very relaxed, the stunner captioned the snap: 'Whats your fave?' adding a fruit emoji.

Bikini babe! Victoria's Secret star Georgia Fowler showcased her slender physique in a barely-there two piece on the beach in New Zealand back in December

This isn't the first time the glamorous brunette has flaunted her incredible figure, as she uploaded a number of racy bikini shots during a December trip home to New Zealand.

During her stay, the beauty shared a series of snaps posing up a storm in a skimpy white dotted bikini by label Matteau Swim.

Clearly content with being back in her native country, she captioned the gallery post: 'Happy at home.'

Georgia accessorised her look with a pair of perspex sunglasses and a copper toned ribbon holding up her luscious brunette locks.

The beauty shot to international fame after walking the runway for Victoria's Secret back in 2016.

And the past year has been a whirlwind of success for the brunette who can count campaigns with Clazedonia, Balmain and Fendi as part of her growing portfolio.
She lives a very different lifestyle today compared to the mid '90s, when she was a glamorous model and fiancee of billionaire James Packer.

And Tziporah Malkah (formally known as Kate Fischer) has decided to expose a social media troll who claimed she had 'let herself go' in recent years.

Taking to Instagram in the early hours of Wednesday morning, the 44-year-old care worker posted a screenshot of an abusive comment she received.

'Now I understand why James Packer left you': Tziporah Malkah (formally known as Kate Fischer) has exposed a social media troll who claimed she had 'let herself go' in recent years

Tziporah wrote in the caption: 'Here's a charmer for all you ladies (and probably gents too). You can catch up with all his pearls of wisdom in the comments under the pic of me holding the peacock cup. What a Prince!'

Tziporah was referring to a selfie she had posted to Instagram last week that attracted some negative attention.

The troll had commented below the snap: 'I was shocked when I recently read the news that you changed your name and let yourself go. If you have a good thing going don't wreck it.'

'You have a bad attitude and a foul mouth': A selfie Tziporah had posted to Instagram late last week (pictured) attracted some negative attention

Escalating argument: Tziporah defended herself after an Instagram troll began criticising her for 'changing her name and letting herself go' following her split with billionaire James Packer

Speaking up: Tziporah insisted 'telling a woman she has let herself go is not a compliment'. She later posted the troll's response to Instagram to highlight the abuse she faces on social media

Tziporah was quick to respond, writing: 'You're an ignorant f**k.'

The troll replied: 'No wonder you are where you because you have a bad attitude and a foul mouth. I don't know what your problem is, I was just passing you a compliment and being friendly. Trying to give some encouragement.'

Tziporah commented back: 'Telling a woman she has let herself go is not a compliment. Nor is it encouraging. And now you blame my circumstances on my turning the tables and telling you what I think of you. Wow. You're a double ignorant f**k-f**k.'

Personal attack: The social media troll had criticised Tziporah for her legal dramas. Pictured: Tziporah leaving the Magistrates Court in Melbourne in December last year

The troll then responded: 'Drunken Kate, really? Now I understand why James Packer left you. I'm a very smart person and I have an excellent memory and intelligence so if I were you I'd shut my mouth, since you wish to be nasty then best to look at yourself first.

'The only ignorant hag here is you. What idiot would throw away half a million dollars in jewellery in the ocean? What ignorant f**k would lose a three million dollar apartment in Bondi in the late '90s? Today's prices actually cost 10 million a unit. What idiot would lose cash in the bank from a settlement? What idiot would hand over two million dollars to a conman and inevitably lose it all?

'Most of all what dumb f**k selfish scumbag would go biting their partner, and then get a DUI for drink driving with no regard for the safety of the public - you could have killed an innocent person you scumbag.

Different path: Tziporah lives a very different lifestyle today compared to the mid '90s, when she was a glamorous model and fiancee of billionaire James Packer

'Furthermore, you thought it was so funny you took selfies outside the courthouse - ignorance is too good a word for you. Only scumbags like you who care for nothing and no one but themselves. Good luck with the rehab don't forget the breathalyzer.'

Afterwards, Tziporah posted the screenshot of the troll's response to highlight the abuse she faces on social media.

Fans were quick to support Tziporah, with one writing: 'That's awful! I'm sorry to read that. Ignore him.'

Other comments included, ' I'm going to be sick! Ignore this fool!' and 'What an idiot. Laughable behavior.'
Ed Westwick's girlfriend Jessica Serfaty has shared an affectionate snap with her boyfriend amid claims he raped multiple women.

The model, 27, took to Instagram on Monday to upload a picture of the pair kissing as she revealed she was missing the 30-year-old Gossip Girl actor.

Addressing her 620,000 followers, Jessica wrote: 'New York just aint the same without..'

Standing by him: Ed Westwick's girlfriend Jessica Serfaty shared an affectionate snap with her boyfriend on Monday amid claims he raped multiple women

In the affectionate shot, the pair could be seen kissing after enjoying a dinner date in the city, yet it is not known when the snap was originally taken.

The shot received a mixed reaction from her followers, with some praising the image whilst others were shocked at the upload given the claims of sexual assault and rape that are currently facing her boyfriend.

The actor and the former America's Next Top model contestant went public with their romance in May 2017, and she has stood by him amid the allegations - that Ed previously claimed in a tweet were not true.

Smitten: The actor and the former America's Next Top model contestant went public with their romance in May 2017, and she has stood by him amid the allegations

Los Angeles district attorney confirmed last week that prosecutors are considering bringing charges against Ed in two cases.

The prosecutors office said on Friday that the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has handed over a second file on the British actor, 30.

The former Gossip Girl star was forced to deny a public allegation of rape as multiple women accused him of sexual assault in the Me Too movement ignited by Harvey Weinsteins downfall.

Most recently, fashion stylist Haley Camille Freedman, 23, made an official complaint against Ed to the LAPD regarding an alleged attack in 2014.

The stylist and former art director of magazine Kat & Bare claims Ed repeatedly raped her and held her captive for two days at his Hollywood mansion.

Haley is the fourth woman to accuse the star of rape and abuse.

Accused: Los Angeles district attorney confirmed last week that prosecutors are considering bringing charges against Ed (pictured with girlfriend Jessica) in two cases

In a court filing earlier this month, Haley said she is suing her ex-partners at fashion firm Kat & Bare for breach of contract and fraud - and accused them of cutting her out of the business after she decided to go public with her encounter with Ed.

In the 129-page lawsuit, the screen heartthrob - best known for playing womanizing bad boy Chuck Bass on Gossip Girl - is described by her lawyers as 'monstrous', a 'serial rapist', and 'abusive, crazed alcoholic'.

Ed is yet to comment on Haley's allegations, but he issued a statement protesting his innocence last year after actresses Aurelie Wynn and Rachel Eck also shared their stories online.

'I have never forced myself in any manner, on any woman,' he said at the time. 'I certainly have never committed rape I am co-operating with the authorities so that they can clear my name as soon as possible.'

In a move echoing the removal of Kevin Spacey from All The Money In The World, the BBC recently scrubbed Ed from its adaptation of Agatha Christies Ordeal By Innocence.

Actor Christian Cooke replaced Ed, originally from Stevenage, Hertfordshire, in re-shoots for the series which also starred Bill Nighy and Anna Chancellor.
Working as a busker on the streets of London as a teenager, Paul Bettany probably never even had a vision of himself as a movie star someday.

But nowadays hes just that, slated to play the Marvel superhero Vision in the upcoming blockbuster Avengers: Infinity War alongside other Hollywood stars like Robert Downey Jr., Tom Hiddleston, Tom Holland, Zoe Saldana and many others.

Bettany himself is slated to have a blockbuster year in his own right, as he also plays a role in the upcoming movie Solo: A Star Wars Story set to be released at the end of next month.

But just who exactly is Paul Bettany? How have his roles in the Marvel Cinematic Universe impacted his net worth? Heres all you need to know about who he is, his age, how hes made his money, family, movies and role in the upcoming superhero movie Avengers: Infinity War.

Paul Bettany, left, will reprise his role as Vision in the upcoming film Avengers: Infinity War

Who is Paul Bettany?

Paul Bettany is an actor best-known for his roles in the popular Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Bettany was born in London on May 27, 1971.

He grew up in a theatrical family but left both school and his home at age 16 to work as a street performer in the city, earning money as a busker playing guitar. After finding more stable employment, he enrolled at Drama Centre London to study acting.

He soon found success in the West End theater scene and made his TV debut in 1994, later making his film debut in 1997 in Bent. A series of critically-acclaimed performances in the early 2000s in films like A Beautiful Mind starring Russell Crowe, he soon moved into larger budget productions like Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World and The Da Vinci Code.

#IStandWithPP A post shared by Paul Bettany (@paulbettany) on Jan 30, 2018 at 6:44am PST

Bettany again found success as the voice of J.A.R.V.I.S. in the Marvel film universe starting with the 2008 blockbuster Iron Man. He later performed voiceover work in other hit films like Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3 and The Avengers and later appeared as the Marvel superhero Vision in the 2015 film Avengers: Age of Ultron, reprising the role in 2016s Captain American Civil War and the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War.

Since launching his acting career, Bettany has been honored with numerous wins and nominations for a number of prestigious accolades, including the BAFTA Awards and the SAG Awards.

How old is Paul Bettany?

Paul Bettany is 46 years old.

He was born on May 27, 1971.

What is Paul Bettanys net worth?

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Paul Bettanys net worth is believed to be about $20 million (14.3 million).

Back again. A post shared by Paul Bettany (@paulbettany) on Mar 20, 2016 at 2:29pm PDT

How does Paul Bettany make his money?

Bettany derives his net worth from his longtime acting career.

After getting his start in Londons famed West End theater scene, Bettany moved into TV and later film acting, making his silver screen debut in the 1997 drama Bent. Since then, hes gone on to appear in a number of acclaimed movies, just a few of which include A Beautiful Mind, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, The Da Vinci Code and The Iron Man and Avengers film franchises. His latest film Avengers: Infinity War is slated to debut on April 27, 2018 in the United States and elsewhere around the world soon.

Who is Paul Bettanys wife?

Paul Bettanys wife is actress Jennifer Connelly.

The couple were married on January 1, 2003 after meeting while filming A Beautiful Mind. They have two children together and currently reside in New York City.

Paul Bettany movies

Over the course of his career, Bettany has assembled an impressive filmography that includes everything from independent film dramas to the superhero blockbusters hes become known for in recent years.

After performing in West End theater shows, Bettany made his TV debut in 1994 on the television series Wycliffe before making his film debut in the 1997 movie Bent. He soon broke out in the early 2000s after a series of acclaimed performances in movies like 2000s Gangster No. 1 and 2001s A Beautiful Mind.

These successes soon led to roles in popular Hollywood films like 2003s Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World and 2006s The Da Vinci Code. Bettany was soon cast as a member of the popular Marvel Comics film universe, doing voice over work as J.A.R.V.I.S. in the Iron Man and Avengers film series before also performing as Vision in 2015s Avengers: Age of Ultron and 2016s Captain America: Civil War.

Bettanys also set to play Vision in the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War superhero blockbuster film and will also appear in Solo: A Star Wars Story set to premiere on May 24 in the UK and May 25 in the United States. He also will again appear as Vision in a currently-untitled Avengers film slated to be released on May 3, 2019.

Paul Bettany in Avengers: Infinity Wars

Bettany will soon reprise his role as Vision in the massively-anticipated superhero movie Avengers: Infinity War. The film, which recently premiered on April 23 in Los Angeles, California, features an all-star ensemble cast that includes stars like Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Chadwick Boseman and many others, will see the Avengers superheroes join forces with the Guardians of the Galaxy in order to stop the diabolical Thanos and his scheme for universal domination.

The film is slated to be released in Australia and New Zealand on April 25, the United Kingdom on April 26 and the United States, Canada and many other major film markets worldwide on April 27.
She's the English rose known for her portrayal of Demelza on the hit BBC show Poldark.

And Eleanor Tomlinson returned to her period drama roots on the set of the latest small screen adaption of War Of The Worlds on a sandy Merseyside beach on Tuesday.

Despite the cold weather, the 25-year-old actress cracked a smile with the rest of the cast and crew as she bundled up on the chilly location in a warming purple dressing gown.

Keeping warm: Poldark's Eleanor Tomlinson wrapped up in a Victorian dress as she filmed scenes on a Mersyside beach for BBC miniseries War Of The Worlds on Tuesday

Underneath the furry gown, Eleanor donned a traditional Victorian design, with a khaki fitted blazer and floor-length skirt cascading to the sand.

The White Queen star swept her wild copper tresses up into a soft bun with tendrils framing her face.

Eleanor braved the blustery winds to make it to shore, with her fellow cast-mates following behind, also clad in an array of different Victorian era costumes.

On set: Crew members wheeled a Victorian fishing boat out from the choppy sea waters

Who was HG Wells? Author Herbert George Wells was born in Bromley in 1866 to parents who were shopkeepers in Kent. His first novel was The Time Machine, but his most famous work was The War of the Worlds. It was seen as a revolutionary vision into the future. He died in 1946 and suffering from diabetes set up The Diabetic Association which later became Diabetes UK in the years before his death. Advertisement

The beach was littered with period-style suitcases before a team of crew members wheeled a fishing boat out from the choppy sea waters.

Sherlock star Rupert Graves stopped to chat to a fellow crew member, still dressed up in his Victorian finery, including a black waistcoat and pocket watch chain.

Eleanor will share the screen with Life Of Pi star Rafe Spall, Robert Carlyle and Rupert in the historic science fiction three-part miniseries based on the best-selling novel by iconic author H.G. Wells.

The book, which was published more than 120 years ago, tells the story of a catastrophic alien invasion.

Whilst previous big screen adaptations have been set in the US, this version will stay true to the original book and unfold in London and Surrey - where marauding Martians are attacking humans.

The tentacled aliens use sophisticated fighting machines known as tripods and chemical weapons dubbed Black Smoke to lay waste to as many people as possible, in order that they can suck their blood.

Intense drama: Sherlock star Rupert Graves (L) stopped to chat to a fellow crew member, still dressed up in his Victorian finery, including a black waistcoat and pocket watch chain

The novel has been adapted by Peter Harness, the screenwriter behind Wallander and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, and is set to be broadcast later this year.

Damien Timmer, head of Mammoth Screen - the production company which will make the show  said that his adaptation will remain faithful to the original.

This huge title - the original alien invasion story  has been loosely adapted and riffed on countless times, but no one has ever attempted to follow Wells and locate the story in Dorking at the turn of the last century.

We hope Peters adaptation will be the definitive adaptation of one of the great classic novels.'

Victorian style: An actress showed off her period costume, which featured a billowing purple overcoat and floor length tan skirt

Mr Harness said: Im feeling phenomenally lucky to be writing The War of the Worlds, and blowing up gigantic swathes of the Home Counties at the dawn of the twentieth century.

The War Of The Worlds has been dramatised numerous times over the years  but it has almost always been set in America.

One of the most famous versions was the 1953 film starring Gene Barry, which placed the action in California

On their way: Braving the chilly temperatures and blustery winds, the actors poured on the sandy set with their Victorian suitcases

In the late Eighties, Paramount made a series for American and Canadian television imagining what would have happened there after the novel finished.

And, more recently, in 2005, the HG Wells book was turned into a major Hollywood blockbuster directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Tom Cruise as an American father trying to save his family.

A classic sci-fi novel The War of the Worlds is a science fiction novel by HG Wells, which was first published in 1897 as a serialisation in Pearson's Magazine in the UK and Cosmopolitan in the US. A year later it was published in book form and tells the tale of two brothers as England is invaded by Martians. It was an instant hit and has been adapted numerous times. The most famous of which was Orson Welles' 1938 radio broadcast, which went out as a news bulletin and caused widespread panic. Jeff Wayne launched his musical interpretation of the story in 1978 and Tom Cruise starred in a Steven Spielberg-directed movie in 2005. Advertisement

According to insiders, British broadcasters have wanted to do a faithful retelling of HG Wells book for some time.

However, it was difficult to get the rights from Paramount  and it was considered too expensive to make. Recent advances in technology mean that it is now much cheaper.

Piers Wenger, the BBCs new drama boss, said: Up until now, TV has not been able to achieve the same production values as film, and that is no longer the case. We think this is a way of exploring period drama in a really new, and surprising way.

He added that The War of the Worlds was one of a number of new series that will make the BBCs output feel more British  so that in five years time it feels like a celebration of British authorship, identity and life in all its most diverse forms.

I want a strong streak of Britishness to run through the centre of everything we do. It gives us distinctiveness in a crowded landscape and a strong identity internationally.

'I think its the individuality, chutzpah, determined vision and tireless curiosity at the heart of Britains creative community which has played a huge part in turning drama from the UK into such a valuable cultural export, he said.

All aboard: Eleanor pushed through the rough weather to make it to shore, with her fellow cast-mates following behind, also clad in an array of different Victoria era costumes
Danniella Westbrook reportedly spent Monday night in a Spanish jail after she was arrested at Malaga airport attempting to board a flight back to the UK.

The 44-year-old actress was arrested over an outstanding warrant the police had in relation to an alleged driving offence in Spain last year, The Sun claims.

Following a night in prison, the former EastEnders star took to Twitter with tales of more woe as she claimed she had been 'robbed' and was 'heartbroken' by further news.

Jailed: Danniella Westbrook reportedly spent Monday night in a Spanish jail after she was arrested at Malaga airport attempting to board a flight back to the UK

She tweeted on Monday: 'been robbed in gran can flown to Marbella and now had news that's broken my heart.... tomorrows gonna be a better day ... cos Monday's for sure suck .... good night god bless everyone xxxx'

As she was consoled by friend Sinitta, Danniella replied that it had been 'the worst 4 days of my life'.

Danniella - who was said to be taken to Malaga police station at 11:50pm and appeared in court at 11:45am Tuesday -has reportedly been given bail by the court, but must return to Malaga in October to answer the charge against her.

Holidaying: The 44-year-old actress was arrested over an outstanding warrant the police had in relation to an alleged driving offence in Spain last year, The Sun claims

A source told The Sun Online: 'Danniella was stopped by customs last night and then arrested. She was in shock and was really scared when she was led out of the airport in handcuffs.

'Danniella hated every second of being in that cell alone  it was awful for her.

'She'll be coming back to the UK next week now and is holed up with her friends now who're taking care of her.'

MailOnline has contacted Danniella's representatives for comment.

Bailed: Danniella - who was said to be taken to Malaga police station at 11:50pm and appeared in court at 11:45am Tuesday - has reportedly been given bail by the court

Danniella's latest woes come just days after she was arrested for witness intimidation.

The former soap star's was pictured leaving Hertfordshire police station wearing a standard police tracksuit on Wednesday.

A police spokesperson told MailOnline: 'A 44-year-old woman, who was arrested by Hertfordshire Constabulary at a location in Essex at 2.05pm on Tuesday, April 10 in relation to allegations of malicious communications and witness intimidation, was released on bail yesterday (Wednesday, April 11) until May 6 pending further investigation.'

Heartbroken: Following a night in prison, the former EastEnders star took to Twitter with tales of more woe as she claimed she had been 'robbed' and was 'heartbroken' by further news

It was confirmed that the troubled star was wanted for questioning by police over claims of 'intimidation and malicious communication' after reportedly taking 10,000 from a former friend.

Now magazine previously claimed the actress was rendered homeless after being unable to afford a rental property on her own.

'Danniella's been forced out of her home. She was staying with a friend, but the rental home came to an end and now she can't afford to rent by herself,' a source told the publication.

'She's told friends she's totally broke and is now back on benefits. If she is to get a place, she'll have to get housing benefits.'
She's no stranger to showing off her sensational figure all over her social media.

And Millie Mackintosh made the most of her tropical getaway as she tantalized her 1.3m Instagram followers with a sizzling bikini shot from Marbella on Tuesday.

The former Made In Chelsea star, 28, turned up the heat in an electric pink bardot bikini top with a flirty lace-up detail on the cleavage ahead of her runway show with high-end swimwear brand Virginia Macari.

Head turning: Millie Mackintosh sizzled in a flirty pink bardot bikini as she soaked up the sun on a tropical Marbella getaway on Tuesday

Millie's washboard abs were on full display in the skimpy number, with matching high-rise bikini bottoms to elongate her impeccable pins.

Going barefoot in the palm-tree paradise, the reality starlet worked her best angles by placing her hand on her hip on tip-toes as she pouted away from the camera.

Millie tied back her glossy blonde locks into a low ponytail as she shielded her eyes from the glorious sunshine in a pair of chic tortoiseshell shades.

The fashionista's only touch of shimmer came with gold hoop earrings and her engagement sparkler from fiance Hugo Taylor.

Wardrobe change: Millie's sun-drenched trip called for another eye-catching ensemble, this time nailing summer chic in an ab-baring green floral crop top and matching mini-skirt

Nude make-up allowed Millie's natural beauty to shine through as she lapped up the tropical surroundings.

Continuing to showcase her enviable getaway, the TV queen also posted the quintessential holiday snap to her Instagram Stories - with a first person view of her svelte legs overlooking the glistening blue waters.

Millie's sun-drenched trip called for another eye-catching ensemble, this time nailing summer chic in an ab-baring green floral crop top and matching mini-skirt.

Stunning views: The TV queen also posted the quintessential holiday snap - with a first person view of her svelte legs overlooking the glistening blue waters

Catwalk queen: Millie was in Marbella to appear in swimwear brand Virginia Macari's catwalk presentation, which was styled by Courtney Smith, at the city's Puente Romano Hotel, with the reality star modelling a selection of stunning new looks on the runway

Stopping to pose beside some decorative flowers and a stylish white archway, Millie flipped her glossy tresses as she rocked her stylish two-piece with strappy wedge sandals.

Millie is still bouncing back from the devastating collapse of her eponymous fashion brand, which left her owing a reported 550,000.

The style maven's fashion brand went bust owing more than half a million pounds because of the 'challenging financial climate'.

Finding the positive: Millie is still bouncing back from the devastating collapse of her eponymous fashion brand, which left her owing a reported 550,000

She launched her label Cammac four years ago exclusively on the fashion website ASOS and it instantly became a hit thanks to her large social media following.

On the bright side, Hugo and Millie have a wedding to plan and are already believed to have set a date.

With bridesmaids Caggie Dunlop, Rosie Fortescue and Zara Martin reportedly in place, preparations are going full-steam ahead.

The couple got engaged during a romantic trip to Greece in August last year.
A former girlfriend of Avicii has paid a heartfelt tribute to the superstar DJ after he passed away on Friday.

Racquel Bettencourt dated Avicii, who's real name was Tim Bergling, for a year before parting ways in 2014, and took to Instagram to share her devastation over the tragic news, telling him 'I know how hard you struggled'.

The Canadian model thanked the Swedish artist for 'showing her what true love feels like' as she posted a sweet collection of photos of their relationship.

Heartbroken: Avicii's former girlfriend Racquel Bettencourt thanks the DJ for 'showing her true love' in a heartbreaking tribute following his death

'My heart is broken' an emotional Raquel wrote. 'Tim, It Feels like it was just yesterday when we were inseparable. We talked and laughed till sunrise. It was us against the world. Memories to last a lifetime.

'Through all of our ups and downs I wanted nothing more than to make sure you were healthy and happy and be there for you every step of the way. Give you life, something to look forward to, but the universe had different plans for us.'

The Hey Brother hit had previously been plagued with health issues in the past and had even retired from touring.

Tragic passing: The Hey Brother hit had previously been plagued with health issues in the past and had even retired from touring

Paying tribute: She explained their lost love in a lengthy post

He had been battling with acute pancreatitis - which is a potentially life-threatening inflammation of the pancreas - due in part to excessive drinking, and had his gallbladder and appendix removed in 2014.

Racquel - who reportedly shared a home in LA with the Levels hit maker - recognised the struggles that Avicii had been through, and said she 'tried everything [she] could' while he was battling his ailments.

The model continued: 'I know how hard you struggled and tried. I tried everything I could. Thank you for showing me and teaching me what true love feels like.

'Taking me along with you through your journey. The bond, and connection we shared was so pure and real, I dont think it ever really truly broke. It has always been and will always be in my heart forever.

In a particularly heartbreaking moment, Racquel admitted that the DJ was 'the biggest part of my life' and confessed 'I never stopped having love for you'.

Racquel added: 'It was far too soon for you, so gifted and so special. You were the biggest part of my life and played a huge role, I will forever cherish those moments. I just want you to know that I never stopped having love for you.

'My heart is broken': Racquel penned: It Feels like it was just yesterday when we were inseparable. We talked and laughed till sunrise. It was us against the world'

Struggles: Racquel recognised the struggles that Avicii had been through, and said she 'tried everything I could' while he was battling his ailments.

'I find comfort knowing that Tim's music touched the lives of billions, and that his spirit and memory will live on in all of our hearts forever.

'My condolences to his amazing family through this hard time, my heart is with them. Thank you to all my family and friends for the kind loving messages, and support.

'Rest In Peace beautiful Angel. I will never forget you. Love Raqattack'

The fashion blogger's highly emotional tribute comes after the DJ's family thanked his fans for their 'loving' support following his shocking death.

'Never stopped loving you': In a particularly heartbreaking moment, Racquel admitted that the DJ was 'the biggest part of my life' and confessed 'I never stopped having love for you'

Fun loving: 'Rest In Peace beautiful Angel. I will never forget you. Love Raqattack' the model concluded on the collection of sweet photos

The electronic musician passed away in Muscat, Oman, on April 20 while on holiday, sparking an outpouring of grief among his admirers and fellow artists.

In their statement, his family thanked his peers and fans for honouring the Swedish musician in the way they had and asked that their privacy be respected in the midst of this difficult time.

They wrote: 'We would like to thank you for the support and the loving words about our son and brother. We are so grateful for everyone who loved Tim's music and have precious memories of his songs.

'Thank you for all the initiatives taken to honor Tim, with public gatherings, church bells ringing out his music ... and moments of silence around the world.

Close: The fashion blogger's highly emotional tribute comes after the DJ's family thanked his fans for their 'loving' support following his shocking death

'Always be in my heart': The model continued: 'Taking me along with you through your journey. The bond, and connection we shared was so pure and real'

They statement finished: 'We are grateful for the privacy during this difficult time. Our wish is that it continues that way.'

Aviciis cause of death is still yet to be revealed, but police confirmed over the weekend that autopsies had led to the conclusion that 'there is no criminal suspicion in the death'.

It has been reported that his friends feared that alcoholism would kill him and those nearest to him were becoming increasingly worried about him in the months leading up to his death, according to TMZ.

In the wake of his sudden death. Avicii has stormed the Spotify charts as fans remember his greatest hits.
Her spring collection for New York & Company was just released.

And on Tuesday, Eva Mendes was spotted cutting a chic figure as she ran errands in Los Angeles.

The 44-year-old actress paired denim bottoms with a chocolate covered cardigan, a black blouse and lace up boots.

Stylish beauty: Eva Mendes was spotted cutting a chic figure as she ran errands in Los Angeles on Tuesday

The mother of two chose loose-fitting medium wash jeans, which had distressed hems.

Eva hit the pavement in trendy black boots featuring red laces.

The movie star chose an oversized chocolate colored cover up with large pocket detailing.

Eva, who sported a black top, carried a burgundy handbag in one hand.

Flawless: The 44-year-old actress paired denim bottoms with a chocolate covered cardigan, a black blouse and lace up boots

Eva finished off her chic ensemble with a colorful headscarf and vintage inspired sunglasses.

The beauty has two children with her longtime partner Ryan Gosling: daughters Esmeralda, three, and Amada, who turns two on April 29.

Eva and Ryan met on the set of their 2011 movie The Place Beyond The Pines.

They were seen house hunting in LA last week; the family of four checked out an $8 million mansion featuring six bedrooms.

Good looking duo: The beauty has two children with her longtime partner Ryan Gosling: daughters Esmeralda, three, and Amada, who turns two on April 29

Eva not only has a successful acting career, she's also been designing collections for New York & Company for the past five years.

Her collaboration with the company started in 2013 - when she was a brand ambassador and also a design consultant.

Today she does about 11 collections a year and has Eva Mendes shops-in-shop, according to Women's Wear Daily.

She told WWD in a recent interview about doing designing and being a mom: 'I'm raising my two little girls. I'm trying to figure out that balance like most working moms.'

When asked about working with New York & Company: 'This is super corny, but this doesn't really feel like work.'
Their family of two doubled in size overnight.

And Dancing With the Stars pro Kym Johnson made sure to give her newborn twins the perfect names just hours after delivering a boy and a girl on Monday night.

The 41-year-old dancer's husband Robert Herjavec took to Instagram to reveal Haven Mae and Hudson Robert to fans and followers.

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Beautiful: Dancing With the Stars pro Kym Johnson made sure to give her newborn twins the perfect names just hours after delivering a boy and a girl on Monday night

'Welcome to the world Hudson Robert Herjavec & Haven Mae Herjavec - its great out here,' he captioned the black-and-white image. 'May you always know love, peace, and grace in your lives. May your dreams have no bounds and your spirit be strong.'

The Australian-born beauty posted a snap to her Instagram account on Monday night showing her husband with two bundles of joy in his arms.

'I never thought my heart could feel so full,' she wrote alongside the black and white photo. 'We're so in love with our little angels. Born at 7.44am and 7.45am 4/23/18.'

The couple welcomed a boy and a girl.

They're here: Kym Johnson shared this black and white snap to her Instagram Monday night showing husband Robert Herjavec holding their newborn twins

The dancer married the Canadian businessman in 2016 after they fell in love while partnering on the ABC reality competition in 2015.

Kym recently told People that she's more excited than nervous about giving birth to her first children.

'Theyre getting pretty big now. I feel them moving around a lot. Theyre fighting for room!' she said in an interview with the magazine.

Proud new parents: The boy and girl are the first children for the Australian Dancing With The Stars pro who fell in love with Shark Tank star Robert on the ABC show in 2015

Expectant mom: Kym has been sharing her pregnancy journey with fans via social media and stayed active up until the birth. She's pictured walking her dog in LA earlier this month

'Im so excited to see Robert with the babies,' she added. 'Hes already talking to them and singing songs at night so Im sure theyll recognize his voice. We cant wait. Its such an amazing blessing.'

Robert already has three children - two daughters and a son - from his first marriage to Diane Plese.

The couple were able to start a family after turning to IVF.

'Ive always wanted to be a mom and I wasnt sure it was going to happen. It really is a miracle,' she told People just weeks before her birth. 'Its such an amazing blessing,' she added.
Claire Foy has admitted that she was left 'embarrassed' after learning that she was paid less than her co-star Matt Smith on two seasons of Netflix's The Crown.

Following the outrage over the gender pay gap, Foy revealed that she has now had her 'eyes opened' and plans to do more to ensure there is no sexism in the industry.

Speaking at the CinemaCon 2018 Gala Opening Night Event at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on Monday, the British actress, 34, spoke candidly about what she had learnt from the scandal.

Candid: Speaking at the CinemaCon 2018 Gala Opening Night Event at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on Monday, Claire Foy admitted that she was left 'embarrassed' after learning that she was paid less than her co-star Matt Smith on two seasons of Netflix's The Crown

She explained: 'It definitely opened my eyes to a lot. And I certainly won't be naive about those things. It's really opened my eyes about what I am allowed to have an opinion about, and what I'm allowed to stand up for myself about.

'And I think that's really changed my approach to myself and other women in this industry. It's been only a positive thing  even though, embarrassing.'

Foy starred as Queen Elizabeth in Netflix series The Crown alongside Smith as Prince Philip for two seasons, with Olivia Colman and Tobias Menzies set to take over their roles this years as the series skips forward in time for season three.

Producers of the show have now pledged that there will be no gender pay parity for the new cast, claiming that Smith was only paid more for the first seasons as he was a bigger name than Foy at the time of casting.

Unfair: Foy starred as Queen Elizabeth II in the acclaimed series and had more screen time that Smith. The news of the gender pay gap caused outrage last month

Smith weighed in on the debate last week, as he revealed that the show's producers have now 'made amends' for the gender pay gap.

'Claire is one of my best friends, and I believe that we should be paid equally and fairly and there should be equality for all,' Smith told The Hollywood Reporter.

'I support her completely, and I'm pleased that it was resolved and they made amends for it because that what's needed to happen.'

Speaking out: Foy explained 'I certainly won't be naive about those things. It's really opened my eyes about what I am allowed to have an opinion about, and what I'm allowed to stand up for myself about'

Honest: Foy admitted 'And I think that's really changed my approach to myself and other women in this industry. It's been only a positive thing  even though, embarrassing'

The former Doctor Who star spoke to the publication at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York where he was attending the world premiere of his new film Mapplethorpe.

He didn't clarify what he meant by saying that Netflix and Sony Pictures Television Studios had 'made amends' to Foy.

Smith said he supports gender pay equality, not just in showbusiness but in all walks of life.

'Going forward, I think we should all bear in mind that we need to strive to make this better and a more even playing field for everyone involved  but not just in our industry, in all industries,' he said.

Adding to it: Matt Smith weighed in on the debate last week, as he revealed that the show's producers have now 'made amends' for the gender pay gap

'Claire is one of my best friends,' Smith told THR.com. 'I support her completely and I'm pleased it was resolved and they made amends for it because that what's needed to happen'

After news broke that, despite playing the lead role of Elizabeth II in The Crown, Foy, 34, did not earn the same or more than Smith, 35, who played Prince Philip, the production team behind the series issued a public apology to the actress.

The full statement, released to Variety on March 13, read: 'We want to apologize to both Claire Foy and to Matt Smith, brilliant actors and friends, who have found themselves at the centre of a media storm this week through no fault of their own.'

'Claire and Matt are incredibly gifted actors who, along with the wider cast on The Crown have worked tirelessly to bring our characters to life with compassion and integrity.'

The statement concluded: 'As the producers of The Crown, we at Left Bank Pictures are responsible for budgets and salaries; the actors are not aware of who gets what, and cannot be held personally responsible for the pay of their colleagues.'

Sorry: After news broke that Foy, 33, did not earn the same or more than Smith, 35, who played Prince Philip, the production team behind the series issued a public apology to the actress

Suzanne Mackie and Andy Harries made the shocking pay revelation when they were asked about the stars' salaries during a panel discussion about the series at the INTV Conference in Jerusalem.

They admitted that Smith did make more due to his Doctor Who fame. He starred in the popular BBC series from 2010 to 2014.

Mackie and Harris did not explain why Foy, who had significantly more screen time in the biopic, continued to earn less than Smith in the second season, after she eclipsed his fame with her award-winning performance.

Foy gained critical acclaim for her portrayal of the monarch, earning a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actor's Guild Award for best actress following the first season as well as receiving nominations at the BAFTA and Primetime Emmy Awards.
They are known for filming last-minute scenes to reference topical issues.

And EastEnders left fans laughing with a hastily-filmed scene on Tuesday which saw Linda Carter gush about the new royal baby.

The scene saw Linda bore mother-in-law Shirley with her views on the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's third child, which was welcomed into the world on Monday morning.

Scroll down for video

Thrilled: EastEnders made a last-minute nod to the royal baby on Tuesday as Linda Carter gushed about the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's new arrival

The 30-second scene saw Linda (Kellie Bright) chatting with Shirley (Linda Henry) about whether the new royal baby was the right weight, while also paying tribute to the little one's late grandmother Princess Diana.

She said: '8lb 7oz, that really is a healthy weight, isnt it? If hes got his daddys smile and mummys hair hell be perfect!

'Makes me wanna cry! Diana, a grandma again, all that joy shes missing out on.'

Sadly the royal baby was far from joyous news for Shirley, who moaned: 'Linda why are you talking to me about this, I dont care?'

Delighted: Prince Williams and Kate Middleton announced the arrival of their third child, a boy, two hours after his birth on Monday morning, but are yet to reveal the name

'I don't care!' Meanwhile Shirley Carter told Linda she wasn't interested in any news about the royal baby

Demanding son Mick (Danny Dyer) take her place, Linda continued her chat about the yet-to-be-named baby Cambridge as the brief scene ended.

Fans took to Twitter after the humorous scene to praise producers for keeping on top of current issues, while others joked that Shirley's reaction perfectly summed up the hard-as-nails character.

One wrote: 'As if I didnt love Shirley enough already, her complete contempt for the whole #royalbaby thing makes her my new favourite character.'

Another added: 'Wait, so theyre already talking about the #royalbaby? Lol. The writers are doing the most to be relevant/up-to-date!'

Hilarious: Fans of the BBC soap rushed to Twitter to praise producers for being on top of current issues, while others joked about Shirley's typical reaction to the news

This isn't the first time EastEnders has slotted in an emergency scene to represent the latest in royal news, as Kathy Beale excitedly gave Shakil Kazemi a drink on the house as she beamed with excitement in November after hearing of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's engagement.

Prince William and Kate Middleton announced the birth of their third child on Monday two hours after the tot was born, but are yet to reveal the name.

Kate was spotted leaving the Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital in Paddington on Monday evening just hours after giving birth, as the couple returned to their home in Kensington Palace.


Gabriella Swaby was a trained beautician in suburban Melbourne but now she is designing 3D-printed safety equipment for global electronics giant Siemens.

The 27-year-old Swinburne student met Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in Berlin, where the global design team is examining her design to potentially roll out around the world.

"I have a pretty diverse background, so I came into this course with no knowledge of anything," Ms Swaby said on Monday.

An Australian government program connecting Swinburne with Siemens gave Ms Swaby the chance to work with the German company as part of her studies.

When a "critical product oversight" needed rapid alteration, Ms Swaby designed, refined and 3D printed a safety cover to meet all Australian safety regulations.

Her new design is now installed on multiple demonstration kits used in training sessions all over Australia.

Siemens' global 3D printing team is now reviewing Mr Swaby's design and she has been offered a job.

"The guy that has offered me the position actually used to be a German apprentice. He said the way the German infrastructure goes, had I come from the previous position I had, I probably wouldn't have been able to get in to that, because of my vocational training," she said.

"This kind of gives you that scope that if you present yourself correctly, you show them you're driven and willing to learn, then having those connections gives you the opportunity."
NSW residents attending Anzac Day commemorations have been assured there are no specific threats to events, as they prepare to gather in their thousands to pay their respects to those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

NSW Veterans Affairs Minister David Elliott and NSW Police Acting Assistant Commissioner Tony Cooke say police will be out in force to ensure events across the state run safely and without disruption.

Mr Cooke says the overnight incident in Toronto, in which nine people were killed when a van ploughed into them, was a "salient reminder" of what can occur, but insisted there was no specific threat to NSW on Anzac Day.
There are fears the body a man washed up on a Bali beach following a surfing accident is that of NSW musician Jae Haydon.

Mr Haydon, believed to aged in his 30s and from Woonona near Wollongong, was reportedly surfing at Padang Padang Beach, one of Bali's most famous surf spots, about 7.30am on Monday when he was knocked off his board by a wave.

Friends became alarmed after a broken surfboard identical to Mr Haydon's, later washed up at the nearby Uluwatu beach.

Indonesian authorities confirmed that Badung lifeguards found a body floating in the water on Monday night, News Corp Australia reported.

Family and friends have flooded social media with posts expressing their shock and sadness.

"To our free spirit Jae, who roamed the world and lived the life we all dreamed of, who brought incredible joy to loads of people in this world, lost his life in Uluwatu, Bali today," Mr Haydon's sister Heidz Haydon posted online.

"So gutted to find out that the missing surfer was you, but you lived one of the best lives imaginable brother," Brooke Wood posted on Facebook on Tuesday.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has been contacted for comment.
The ship that sparked calls for a ban of live exports to the Middle East during their summer months has been cleared by a regulator to leave Fremantle port after completing ventilation improvements.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority imposed the condition on Emanuel Exports' Awassi Express after footage of 2400 sheep dying in filth and struggling to breathe in extreme heat was broadcast.

AMSA said on Tuesday an automatic watering system had also been installed to ensure water was provided to all pens during the voyage without manual intervention.

"The vessel is expected to load livestock later this week, subject to approval from the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources," AMSA said in a statement.
Western Australia's livestock industry has locked horns with the state's agriculture minister, accusing her of "whipping up" the furore over sheep exports.

There have been calls for an end to the trade since footage of 2400 sheep dying in filth and struggling to breathe in extreme heat on board Emanuel Exports' Awassi Express was broadcast earlier this month.

WA Agriculture Minister Alannah MacTiernan is trying to use the full extent of state animal welfare laws to enforce standards on livestock ships.

She also wants a ban on live exports to the Middle East during their summer or, at the very least, for vessels to be air conditioned.

But Pastoralists and Graziers Association president Tony Seabrook says she has an avowed policy to abolish the industry and is "whipping up" the furore.

"It would be so much more helpful if she'd just step up quietly to work with us, to work our way through this, rather than just emotively spouting forth in the press," Mr Seabrook told 6PR radio on Tuesday.

Ms MacTiernan said she wasn't the problem.

"The problem is the live exporters and the federal government who have not put in place adequate standards or enforced the standards."

Mr Seabrook said it was "absolute rubbish" conditions in the entire industry had been likened to the Awassi Express, which had "phenomenally low" deaths on board in the months after the ill-fated August trip.

"Something went wrong on that journey but this death ship nonsense ... is emotive and has no part to play with where we're going."

On Monday, Ms MacTiernan accused WAFarmers and Livestock Shipping Services of making false statements about the vessel Maysora, which recently left Fremantle despite concerns held by state inspectors.

It met all government regulations and standards but the inspectors - who had to secure a warrant to get on board - saw cramped conditions, empty water troughs and other troughs contaminated with faeces.
An Adelaide woman who licked the bloodied knife she used to drunkenly stab a man to death will spend at least 20 years in jail.

Leanne Prak was last year found guilty of the murder of 65-year-old Michael McEvoy at his unit at suburban Holden Hill in 2016.

In the South Australian Supreme Court on Tuesday, Justice David Peek said Prak had been drinking wine before she started arguing with Mr McEvoy over whether her ex-partner should be allowed into his home.

She fatally stabbed Mr McEvoy in the chest before licking the knife and telling him "now you know what I'm capable of".

Prak stabbed him a further seven times in the back as he lay dying, before making three phone calls and texting a friend "SOS he dead".

In sentencing, Justice Peek accepted the murder was not premeditated and Prak's judgment was impaired at the time.

"I accept that the killing would not have occurred but for the intoxication, but of course this can be no excuse for murder," he said.

In sentencing Prak to life with a 20-year non-parole period, the judge said he had "some hesitation" in setting the minimum sentence.
Pine trees grown from Gallipoli seeds could be chopped down to make way for a new Perth high school, the state opposition has warned.

The McGowan government has been urged to protect the Aleppo pines at Kitchener Park in Subiaco, which were part of a seed exchange where Australian native trees were planted among the graves of fallen soldiers in Gallipoli.

Liberal MP Bill Marmion says plans for the high school reveal several of the trees will be destroyed to make way for a student drop-off point.
More than 100 court-ordered ban notices weren't passed on to Queensland's nightclub scanner systems due to a technical glitch, police say.

The Queensland Police Service on Tuesday issued a statement saying it had now resolved the issues, which affected the transfer of data between December 9 and February 16.

The technical issues are believed to be responsible for New Zealand teenager Caleb Maraku not being placed on any banned lists after he was handed a year of probation and ordered to pay $365 in compensation for an assault in November 2017.
Twenty minutes into Newcastle's 8-2 thrashing of Central Coast, their striker snapped a personal goal drought stretching back to the start of November.

Roy O'Donovan had enjoyed a prolific start to this A-League season with seven goals in his first five games.

But then there were no more and the frustration began.

Injury and suspension - and then inconsistency - hampered the 32-year-old's campaign, just as it had so many individuals involved in the Jets' success.

But when O'Donovan bagged that brace a fortnight ago against his former club in Gosford, the Irishman felt certain it was a sign he'd turned a corner just in time to spearhead the attack in Friday night's home semi-final against Melbourne City.

The blown-out scoreline also told him his team was mirroring his own progress by overcoming a mini-slump featuring three uncharacteristic losses.

"The Mariners were unlucky we were pumped and had a point to prove. It'll be the same this week," O'Donovan said.

"Usually these things come in blocks of good games and performances.

"Definitely the Mariners was a turning point I felt. We've really kicked on, we've got over our flat spot everybody has in a season, even the Barcelonas and Man Citys of this world.

"We're ready to go for the finals now and thankfully it's all come to fruition."

In the same way that it's been eight years since the Jets appeared in an A-League final, O'Donovan hasn't experienced a knockout match since winning the 2014 Singapore League Cup with Brunei DPMM, a year after his Northampton Town were defeated by Bradford City in England's League Two play-off at Wembley.

"All I know is my big-game experience, and that of some of our other players like (Nikolai) Topor-Stanley and (Nigel) Boogaard, will come in handy for us this week because we need as much experience on the pitch as possible," he said.

"Nobody wants to go out in the semi-final, so sometimes the semi-final is more important than the final.

"You really have to put on a performance because you want to be there at the showpiece game at the end."

The Jets are well on track to drawing a bumper home crowd at McDonald Jones Stadium, with about 13,000 members booked in over the weekend and 3000 tickets sold over the first two hours of public sales on Tuesday.
A man is fighting for life after being found on a footpath with serious head injuries in a town on the banks of the Murray River in South Australia.

Strangers found the 45-year-old man collapsed on David Street in Mannum about 7am on Monday before he underwent surgery and is now in a critical condition.

Police believe he had been drinking at a friend's house nearby when he left on a scooter in the early hours, which was parked next to him on the footpath.
Three people have been arrested for possessing illicit drug GHB after police found more than 30 litres across several properties in Adelaide's west.

Police found about 3.5 litres of GHB, also called fantasy, in several plastic bottles on April 10 at a Taperoo address with investigations leading police to another address in the same suburb where up to 30 litres of GHB and another substance were found.

Two men, aged 29 and 35, and a 32-year-old woman have been arrested and charged with possessing a large commercial quantity of a controlled drug for sale.

The 29-year-old faced court on Tuesday and was refused bail with the other two to appear in Port Adelaide Magistrates Court next month.
Malcolm Turnbull has met with NATO to discuss the security situation in Russia, North Korea and a potential new commitment in the Middle East.

He met NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels on Tuesday and the pair also talked about strengthening the rules-based international order in the face of authoritarian governments.

Mr Stoltenberg said NATO and Australia had been allies in the Middle East, especially providing security in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"At our summit in July, we expect to launch a new training mission in Iraq," Mr Stoltenberg said in a statement.

"This could be another area where NATO and Australia could join forces."

The prime minister said Australia has been one of the largest non-NATO contributors to the war in Afghanistan.

"We must never again let that country become a haven for terrorists," Mr Turnbull said.

He said the pair discussed the response to the poisoning attack on a former Russian agent in the United Kingdom.

Australia expelled two Russian spies from its Canberra embassy.

"Australia is the only country outside the EU and NATO to take this action," Mr Turnbull said.

The pair talked about the importance of NATO in countering rising authoritarianism.

"More than at any time since the end of the Cold War, NATO is central to that task of maintaining the security and compliance to rule of law that is the foundation of our freedom," Mr Turnbull said.

He said sanctions must be maintained against North Korea until it abandons its nuclear weapons program.

Mr Turnbull also said Australia this week joined the NATO co-operative cyber defence centre of excellence in Estonia.
Anzac Day services and marches across Queensland are expected to draw large crowds as those honouring the fallen join relatives with a more personal connection to the day of remembrance.

The Brisbane march is expected to attract between 40,000 and 60,000 people, as well as 20,000 people for the dawn service at Anzac Square.

Ahead of the service, a new memorial plaque was unveiled on Tuesday at the Brisbane's Anzac Memorial Crypt, honouring the 52nd Battalion 100 years after the WWI Battle of Villers-Bretonneux in France.

The family of one of the Queensland soldiers who fought and died in that battle, Private Joseph Payne, will honour his memory on Wednesday, with the Redcliffe RSL Sub-Branch ceremony dedicated to him.

Meanwhile, the dawn service at Currumbin on the Gold Coast, always one of the largest in the state outside of Brisbane, will hear the sound of a genuine World War II bugle carried by John Bruce McEachran, played in the light of dawn by his grandson Adam Turner.

This year also marks the 75th anniversary of the hospital ship Centaur being torpedoed and sunk by a Japanese submarine off the Queensland coast as she sailed from Sydney to Port Moresby.

Just 64 of the 332 passengers and crew on board survived the attack.

Police have confirmed they've boosted their numbers for Anzac Day events in Brisbane this year, but insist rather than the threat of terror, it's simply to respond to the rising number of people who want to attend.

Brisbane will mark Anzac Day with a dawn service at Anzac Square from 4.28am and the march from 10am along Adelaide Street.

In Currumbin, the Elephant Rock dawn service will start at 4.30am and the march 10.30am.

Up north, Townsville residents will surround the town's Cenotaph from 5.30am followed with the march 8.30am.

In far north Queensland, Cairns' dawn service will start at 5.30am and the march at 9.30am.
Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove has called on all Australians to mark a "day of respect" this Anzac Day.

The former defence force chief said in his Anzac Day message while it had different meanings for Australians, the day was above all "about remembering and paying our respects".

"On this day of respect, we remember the toll conflict takes on those who serve and the sacrifices made by so many country towns, so many families, so many loved ones," he said.

"We will always be there to support those from across this land, from across generations who stand in harm's way for our nation. Their deeds inspire us and are part of us--we are together as one."

The final campaigns of World War I will be the focus of this year's commemorations.

It's the centenary of the last battles which led to the Armistice being declared in November 1918.

At the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, excerpts from letters and diaries of WWI soldiers will be read ahead of the dawn service.

Acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack will be in attendance, while Malcolm Turnbull takes part in the centenary of the Battle of Villers-Bretonneux dawn service in France.

The Villers-Bretonneux event will mark the day 100 years ago when the Australian 13th and 15th brigades successfully retook the village from German forces in a surprise night attack.

"In 2018 we mark the centenary of the end of the First World War, the war to end all wars," Mr Turnbull said.

Mr Turnbull called it one of Australia's most remarkable military feats, that "turned the tide of that terrible war".

Prince Charles is expected to deliver a reading at the dawn service at Villers-Bretonneux after both Mr Turnbull and French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe deliver their commemorative addresses.

Villers-Bretonneux will be home to the Sir John Monash Centre, a $100 million facility which pays tribute to the thousands of Australians who lost their lives on the Western Front.

In Australia, the national march will be led this year by the Army Apprentices and the last post ceremony at the Australian War Memorial will focus on the story of WWI officer, Lieutenant Ralph Elsmere Claridge, from the 50th Australian Infantry Battalion.

Adelaide-born Claridge died on April 25, 1918, in France aged 25.

He is remembered at the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial.

Other overseas events are planned for Turkey, Belgium, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia.

In Perth, a group of Maori and Aboriginal dancers will combine the traditional Haka and corroboree at Anzac Day commemorations, following the dawn service.

Female veterans and military personnel will lead marches in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.
Australia's answer to raising the profile of the nation's early involvement on the Western Front and international affairs is about to open its doors to the public in France.

The $100 million Sir John Monash Centre, at the Australian War Memorial just outside Villers-Bretonneux in northern France, is a glossy, high-tech multimedia centre three years in the making.

It is named after Lieutenant General Sir John Monash, who led the Australian forces to a succession of victories in the final months of 1918 and is now widely regarded as Australia's greatest ever military commander.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe have arrived at the centre amid tight security for the official launch.

Inside the museum spectators can don headphones to hear the stories of Australians who fought in France 100 years ago in their own words via diaries and letters.

It offers spectators an intimate and personal experience with the displays as they hear the soundtracks and see the images at their own pace.

The centre is to be the central hub of the existing Australian Remembrance Trail which links World War I sites of significance to Australia.

The museum will be open to all from Anzac Day, when more than 7000 people are registered to attend the dawn service in the town, a century after the Battle of Villers-Bretonneux.

The town was captured on April 24, 1918, by German soldiers who began pushing west towards Amiens.

It was liberated the next day after two Australian units - the 13th Brigade of the 4th Division and the 15th Brigade of the 5th division - were set the main task of retaking Villers- Bretonneux.

The victory wasn't achieved without significant casualties - 1464 dead and wounded - but it established the Australians as a premier fighting force on the Western Front.

The town itself is bedecked with Australian flags ahead of the opening of the centre and for the dawn service on Anzac Day, at which there will be a strong French presence.

Prince Charles is expected to deliver a reading at the dawn service at Villers-Bretonneux after both Mr Turnbull and Mr Philippe give their commemorative addresses.
John Monash was a lawyer, an engineer and a general who "revolutionised" warfare amid the horror of the Western Front.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull officially opened the Sir John Monash Centre in Villers-Bretonneux in France on Tuesday to honour the Australian war hero.

He praised Monash as an innovator and leader who looked after his troops and won critical battles.

"He pioneered aerial supply drops, and air reconnaissance in near-real time, and showed how to use the trench-busting power of armoured tanks," Mr Turnbull said in his speech at the centre's opening.

"In short, he revolutionised warfare on the Western Front."

In July 1918, Monash led Australian and American infantry in what was then the most sophisticated joint operation in history, involving air drops, artillery and a line of British tanks in the Battle of Hamel.

"He planned to take the village of Hamel in 90 minutes - but was famously three minutes late," Mr Turnbull said.

"That victory put the German army on the defensive right up until Armistice Day."

The prime minister said Britain's Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery later judged Monash to be "the best general on the Western Front in Europe".

"Montgomery said 'the war might have been won sooner, and certainly with fewer casualties' if Monash had been in command of the British armies too," he said.

"This is why we are naming this centre after Sir John Monash - but it is a memorial to all the Australians who served in this terrible war - from the private soldiers like my grandfather Fred Turnbull, to our greatest General.

"We need to know the appalling suffering of the Western Front."

The $100 million museum was funded by the federal government and aims to ensure the deaths of 46,000 diggers on the Western Front are not forgotten.
There isn't much Scott Jamieson hasn't seen in his decade in the A-League, but after ticking off a big first on the weekend, he hopes a maiden A-League title can follow.

The Melbourne City left-back was named captain for the first time in his professional career on Friday night, when City beat Brisbane Roar 2-0.

Jamieson said it was "an honour" to take the armband, and even better to get the win.

But the 29-year-old is aching for a team-wide honour that has eluded him for his professional career.

Jamieson has played in four finals through his career, losing each one.

At Adelaide, Jamieson was part of the team that came up short in the 2008 Asian Champions League final and the 2009 A-League decider.

With Perth Glory, he came up short in the 2014 FFA Cup final against his former employers United.

In 2016, he felt the pain of another lost A-League grand final - against the Reds once more - with Western Sydney.

And so it is you can understand his burning desire to put that right this season as City hunt for another

"I don't want to go throughout my career and say I didn't win anything," he told AAP.

"I've had four goes and I've fallen four times so winning this A-League title would be pretty bloody special."

In many ways, Jamieson epitomises the City way under Warren Joyce; quietly going about the business.

Jamieson has been one of the league's most consistent fullbacks, providing run and cover and the odd set piece, when required, of quality.

Like many other City players, he's also been around the block.

Having been a part of five different A-League set-ups - with a stint in Sweden - Jamieson said what set his City team above was its single-mindedness.

"This team is one of the most cut-throat I've been a part of," he said.

"It's hard to get across in words. This team is really just about being successful.

"There's good camaraderie around the team, this team is close - and don't take this the wrong way - but we're business-like.

"There are friendships but this team is about winning.

"We've got mutual respect and we want to win. And there's real belief that we can."
Just three months after denying Jack Cogger an early release from his NRL contract, Nathan Brown has tasked the budding halfback with saving Newcastle's finals aspirations.

With Mitchell Pearce out for up to four months after undergoing surgery on a torn pec, Cogger has been told to own the No.7 jersey and the side.

The loss of Pearce - who leads the Dally M race after seven rounds - is a hammer blow for the young Knights side and could prove the death knell for their top eight hopes.

During the pre-season, Brown knocked back Cogger's request for an early release to join Canterbury, who he has signed with for 2019.

At the time, the Bulldogs were desperate for a foil for Kieran Foran however Brown wanted the 20-year-old to remain, believing he would prove valuable during their campaign.

And he's been vindicated with Cogger to partner Connor Watson during Friday's clash with Manly and he appears set to play a key role in their season.

"The key is when you go into games, you have to have faith and confidence that you can do well," Brown said.

"I'd like to to think the players have confidence in Coggs and I'd like to think he's been training three years for this game.

"He's played the last couple of years when he wasn't ready.

"I said that to him at the start of the year, I believe he is ready to play first-grade now. His opportunity has come through some misfortune for the club and Mitchell.

"But Jack's been working for three years now and his time has come to be a bit more of a dominant player."

Brown admitted the loss of former Sydney Roosters Pearce was a massive roadblock as they seek a return to the finals after a four-year absence and three straight wooden spoons.

"Mitchell, in all honesty, has been one of the form players of the competition," Brown said.

"He's come into a young side and led us really well.

"He's doing a great job for us and a big part of our team. Mitchell can still be a big part of our team."
Tony Abbott says it would be disappointing if Australians who went to Europe didn't see the new Sir John Monash Centre to learn about a Great War hero.

He announced funding for the centre in 2015 when he was prime minister and his replacement Malcolm Turnbull invited him for the opening of it in France on Tuesday.

"All credit to the French for getting it done," Mr Abbott told reporters.

"I doubt whether we would have been able to do it so quickly in Australia given all the obstacles we put in our way of getting things built."

Mr Abbott said he expected tens of thousands of people yearly to make the trip to Villers-Bretonneux, but he hoped even more Australians visited.

"It would be disappointing for anyone to come to Europe and stay in Britain or in Europe for any length of time and not make the pilgrimage here," he said.

Monash was credited with inventing the tactics that helped turn the tide of the war, combining tanks, artillery, air support and infantry in new ways.

Mr Abbott said Australians remembered Gallipoli as a defeat, but needed to know about victories too.

"This was where we changed the course of world history," he said.

"Monash is now recognised as probably the best Allied general of the Great War."
Snow, ice and below-zero temperatures haven't dissuaded Australia's Antarctic expeditioners from paying their respects on Anzac Day.

The team of 26 held a dawn service at Casey research station on Wednesday morning.

It was led by expeditioner Rebecca Jeffcoat, who has been with the Royal Australian Navy for 28 years and served in the Middle East.

"I've been to many Anzac Day events over the years and today's service, held against a backdrop of icebergs in Newcomb Bay, is one I will never forget," she said.

The team, who are spending the winter at the research station, gathered under the flag-pole in -15C.

"Expeditioners took the opportunity to proudly share their family member's service experience; in the Boer War, lost at sea in World War II and in Afghanistan," Ms Jeffcoat said.

"As we dig in for a long winter, we can imagine some of the challenges our defence men and women face when deployed to far-off and often hostile places."

The service was followed by a gun-fire breakfast and games of two-up.

Australia's Antarctic program has long links with the Australian Defence Force since it was founded in 1947.
People who live within 500 metres of one or more fast food outlets are more likely to end up with heart disease, according to a new study.

Proximity to fast food outlets has been linked to the development of heart disease in a research paper published in the European Journal of Preventative Cardiology on Wednesday.

"We know from previous research that the type of food available to purchase where people live influences their food choices," said lead author Dr Maartje Poelman at Utrecht University, the Netherlands.

"Our study suggests that city dwellers living within one kilometre of fast food outlets eat more fast food, which increases their risk of coronary heart disease."

The number of fast food outlets has increased over the past several decades, selling food that is high in salt, saturated fat and calories.

With these types of foods associated with cardiovascular disease, researchers at the Global Geo Health Data Centre at Utrecht University examined whether individuals living close to a higher number of fast food outlets also had a higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

The study included more than 2,000,000 adults aged 35 years who had been living at the same address for at least 15 years.

Participants were followed for one year for the incidence of cardiovascular disease. The researchers counted the number of fast food outlets that could be reached by road within 500m, 1km, and 3km of each participant's home.

The findings showed individuals had an approximately 13 per cent greater risk of developing coronary heart disease in 2009 if they lived within 500m of two fast food outlets compared to none.

The incidence of coronary heart disease was roughly 17 per cent greater among those who lived within 1km of five or more fast food outlets compared to none.

Dr Poelman says its important public health policies start to reflect the influence of the food environment on health, supporting a recent suggestion by the Mayor of London to ban new 'hot food takeaways' around schools.

"We need to create healthier environments to prevent heart disease and banning fast food outlets, or regulating a maximum number, is one piece of the puzzle," said Dr Poelman.

"Other elements include improving the availability of fresh and healthy food to buy. We can stimulate people to buy healthy food if we create an environment where it is the default choice."
Melbourne's Monash Council has objected to plans to rename a federal seat its own name under a redraw of electoral boundaries, saying it will create confusion.

Liberal-held McMillan, in the western part of Victoria's Gippsland, will change to Monash after one of the foremost Allied military commanders of WWI, Sir John Monash, under a Victorian redistribution committee proposal.

But on Tuesday, Monash Council voted to object to the change, saying having an electorate called Monash in another part of the state will create a "recipe for confusion".
More than 100 years since that fateful landing at Gallipoli pass, Australians are being reminded of the importance of sharing the Anzac story with younger generations.

Tens of thousands rose early on Wednesday to attend dawn services - big and small - across the country, including many children.

This year marks the 103rd anniversary of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps landing at Gallipoli and the centenary of the Battle of Villers-Bretonneux.

"Anzac day is not about glorifying war, but about celebrating the Australian spirit," Air Vice-Marshal Steven Roberton told the large crowd at Sydney's Martin Place.

"Anzac signifies strength and quality of character, attitude and action that transcends time."

The challenge, he said, was to make sure the spirit of Anzac was passed on to Australia's children and to honour the fallen and their sacrifice.

Suzanne and Paul Smith, who for decades took their now-adult son Matthew to dawn services this year brought their five-year-old grandson Xavier for the first time.

Ms Smith, whose own father was a serviceman, agreed that it was important that future generations appreciate the sacrifices of those who came before them.

"They're growing up in a different world now, so it makes a big difference," she told AAP.

In drizzling rain in Brisbane's CBD, brothers Finn and Rhys McNeil, aged nine and seven, remembered their great, great uncle at Anzac Square.

Patrick Joseph Delacour went to France with the 41st battalion in WWI, aged 25, but never returned.

"We wanted to show respect to the soldiers, the men and women, the nurses that served in WWI and WWII to keep us safe," the boys' mother Tracey told AAP.

A beachside service was also held at Currumbin on the Gold Coast.

An estimated 38,000 people braved the cold in Canberra, as Colonel Susan Neuhaus reflected on a century of severed limbs and broken bodies.

The veteran surgeon, who returned from active service in Afghanistan, said she - like many Australians - had no faded photographs of men or women in uniform at home or relatives who served on the beaches of Gallipoli, muddy fields of Somme or the jungles of South East Asia.

"And yet like all of us I benefit from what they have done," she said as dawn broke over the Australian War Memorial.

Ian Smith, chair of the RSL SA's Anzac Day committee, told the thousands who gathered for Adelaide's early morning ceremony that women who served in the armed forces needed greater recognition.

Women were restricted to nursing roles prior to the WWII, when all three services introduced women's branches, he said.

"Women were fully integrated during the 1970s and 80s, and since then have continued to make their mark with a full range of responsibilities across all three services," he told the crowd.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is in France to attend the Anzac Day dawn service at the Australian War Memorial just outside Villiers-Bretonneux.

Both he and French Prime Minister Edouard Phillipe will give commemorative addresses, while Prince Charles will deliver a reading.
Defence service is in Guy Langford's blood.

Following in the footsteps of his father, who served twice in Vietnam, the fitter and armourer spent 31 years in the Army.

Wearing both his medals and replicas of his father's, Mr Langford attended his first dawn service at the Australian War Memorial on Wednesday.

His commemorations of the day didn't end when the sun rose - he's on a mission to find his father's slouch hat, on display somewhere inside the vast museum below the memorial.

Mr Langford is also one of more than 800 Australian Army Apprentices invited by the RSL to lead the march through Canberra to mark the 70th anniversary of the program's formation.

Karen Hanlon shed a tear at her first Canberra dawn service, where she reflected on the WWI experience of her great grandfather.

"He served in Gallipoli but he came back, so that was good. He got a medal of service and for bravery, so it's nice to look back on it," she said.

Ann Young travelled from Perth to attend her first dawn service with her daughter Natalie Norbury and granddaughter Matilda.

Inside the memorial they placed several poppies, including for Ms Young's great uncle, who died during the First World War.

"It was very good, very emotional," she said.
Derby County have stalled Norwich City's bid for automatic promotion to the English Premier League with a 3-1 home win on Tuesday.

The result also sent shockwaves to Tim Cahill's Millwall, who have been leapfrogged by Derby into six position - the last of the promotion-playoff places.

Cardiff manager Neil Warnock blamed "Sunday League" errors for the defeat, as his side conceded three times in the second half.

Derby won for only the third time in 14 games to return to the play-off places.

Camerone Jerome (69th, 90th) and Matej Vydra (82nd) scored for Derby after Callum Paterson had given Cardiff the lead in the 28th minute.

Warnock was angry.

"I thought it was a game we should have won. I'm disappointed in crucial decisions but that doesn't compensate for the disappointment of letting three Sunday League goals in.

"When you make elementary errors like we did for all three goals ... there's that many mistakes in one goal and the second one was a forward doing the wrong thing."

The Bluebirds remain a point ahead of third-placed Fulham with two matches remaining.

Derby manager Gary Rowett knew it was a big win in their battle with Millwall for sixth spot.

"It's massive," he said. "I said to the players beforehand that we're not going to get a second chance because if we didn't win it's out of our hands.

"It's a massive boost for us at the moment because having been on the run we've been on, it's incredibly deflating and difficult to put your finger on exactly what it is that can make you go from only losing a couple of games in 22 to only winning a couple in 13."

In the day's other match, Nottingham Forest beat Barnsley 3-0.
Ghulam Sakhi Allahdad, 38, stands under a poster bearing the image of his brother Wakil Hussain Allahdad, 32, one of the 57 victims of a suicide blast on a voter registration centre in Kabul, at Wakil's house in the city on April 23, 2018

Whenever suicide attackers struck his fellow Shiites in Kabul, Wakil Hussain Allahdad would drop what he was doing and rush to the scene to help rescue survivors and carry away the dead.

But on Sunday Allahdad himself became a victim, fatally wounded in the devastating blast outside a voter registration centre in the Afghan capital.

The suicide attack, claimed by the Islamic State group, killed at least 57 people and wounded more than 100, making it the deadliest assault in the war-weary city since a bomb-laden ambulance exploded in January.

Allahdad had been serving customers in his photography shop across the street when the bomber blew himself up in a crowd waiting to pick up their national identification certificates, Allahdad's older brother, Ghulam Sakhi Allahdad, told AFP on Monday.

The father of four had opened the shop recently in the hope of cashing in on a surge in demand for passport-sized photos, as people rushed to get the national IDs needed to register to vote in legislative elections scheduled for October.

Unconscious and bleeding profusely from his head and mouth, 32-year-old Allahdad was taken to Isteqlal hospital before being transferred to a trauma facility run by Italian NGO Emergency where he died.

People walk past a banner bearing the image of Wakil Hussain Allahdad, 32, one of the 57 victims of a suicide blast on a voter registration centre in Kabul, in the city on April 23, 2018

His two colleagues and several customers were also killed by the blast that caused carnage in the street, where pools of blood and body parts mixed with shattered glass and blood-stained photos. A female customer was wounded.

Allahdad, who was also a competitive wrestler, was well known in Kabul's Shiite community.

After witnessing the deaths of friends in an IS-claimed suicide bomb targeting Shiite ethnic Hazaras in July 2016, he made a pledge to assist victims of future attacks, his younger brother, Ahmad Hussain Allahdad, told AFP.

Since then IS militants, who belong to the Sunni branch of Islam, have repeatedly targeted Kabul's Shiites as they seek to stir up sectarian violence.

Each time they struck, Allahdad would race to help.

"He was always there for his people. Whenever there was a terrorist incident he would drop everything and rush to the scene," Ghulam Sakhi Allahdad said.

"He would save anyone regardless of who they were."

- 'An invincible hero' -

Huge posters paying tribute to Allahdad and other victims of Sunday's attack hung in the streets of the neighbourhood where the blast happened.

Relatives of Wakil Hussain Allahdad, 32, one of the 57 victims of a suicide attack on a voter registration centre in Kabul, hang up a banner bearing his picture outside his house in the Afghan capital on April 23, 2018

Ordinary Afghans touched by Allahdad's bravery flooded Facebook with messages of admiration for a man they described as a hero.

Allahdad "was a real hero and a courageous man", Mustafa Hasas wrote on Facebook where several photos of the burly, bearded man were being shared.

"He was a warrior. He was so brave. In almost every deadly incident he was there to help people."

Azim Hajizada wrote: "I can't believe he is not among us anymore. It is a disaster for our society. He was always there to stand behind his people like a mountain."

Among the photos circulating online was an AFP picture taken on October 11, 2016, of a grim-faced man carrying a bleeding girl wearing a blue shalwar kameez.

The brothers identified the man in the photo as Allahdad, who had gone to help victims after gunmen opened fire on Shiite pilgrims in Kabul.

"His death is unbelievable for me and for many people here," a man called Reza, who lives in the same neighbourhood, told AFP.

"He was a hero, an invincible hero, After... saving so many lives, so many victims, we never thought he would one day himself become a victim."
Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu said the claims against the judge led by the opposition Congress party were "neither tenable nor admissable

India's vice-president on Monday threw out an unprecedented bid to impeach the chief justice, rejecting accusations that the top judge in the world's largest democracy had abused his authority.

Politicians from India's two biggest parties have clashed over allegations against Chief Justice Dipak Misra, who is accused by opponents of a range of transgressions including illegally acquiring government land and corruption.

Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu said the claims against the judge led by the opposition Congress party were "neither tenable nor admissable", quashing the bid.

"I have come to the conclusion that this motion does not deserve to be admitted," said Naidu, who leads the upper house, in his ruling.

Opposition members last week moved the notice in the upper house to impeach Misra -- the first effort in India's history to depose a sitting chief justice.

It came after four judges in January publicly criticised Misra over the functioning of the top court, including distribution of sensitive cases and appointment of judges.

But the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has accused the opposition of mounting a "revenge petition" and playing dirty politics.

Misra has refused requests to defer a controversial case concerning the demolition of the Babri Masjid, a centuries old mosque that was demolished in 1992 by a Hindu nationalists mob who said it was built on the site of a Hindu temple.

The topic remains a flashpoint issue and could have a bearing on next year's general election, when Modi will be seeking a reelection.

Congress has vowed to appeal the decision by the vice-president, declaring it illegal.

It secured the support of 64 members of the upper house -- above the minimum 50 to move a motion -- but the vice-president has final say on such motions.

Naidu was a minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) until his appointment as vice-president last year.

Misra has not publicly commented on the controversy.

Last week a panel of judges led by Misra rejected a plea to investigate the high-profile death of a lower court judge in 2014.

That judge, B.H. Loya, was presiding over a murder charge levelled at a ruling BJP chief.
Central African Republic's President Faustin-Archange Touadera is calling for a rapid disarmament of armed groups

The Central African Republic's President Faustin-Archange Touadera told the United Nations on Monday he wants to "accelerate" the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of members of armed groups.

"I have instructed my government to work toward reducing the harm and threat of armed groups in the Central African Republic, by accelerating the implementation of the disarmament, reintegration and repatriation program," he said at a meeting concerning the peace process in his country.

Such an operation would require "necessary reforms of the security sector for the reconstitution of national defense forces and interior security forces," Touadera added.

His comments come as the FPRC -- the Popular Front for the Rebirth of Central Africa, one of the country's main armed groups -- threatened to march on Bangui.

The group said it wanted to act following a UN peacekeeper operation against militia in the volatile PK5 Muslim enclave of the capital.

Touadera urged "dialogue" as the preferred approach to combat the violence that has ravaged his country since 2013.

He stressed that "consolidation of peace... can only be achieved through the restoration of security throughout the territory, the fight against impunity, the restoration of state authority throughout the territory."

Morocco's UN envoy Omar Hilale, who initiated Monday's meeting, assured the Central African Republic of the UN's "support" and said he would soon travel to Bangui.

The country's authorities control only a small part of the national territory, with a number of armed groups fighting over control of diamonds, gold and livestock in one of the world's poorest countries.
The White Sox said Danny Farquhar (R) had use of his extremities, was able to respond to questions and commands, and could speak to doctors and family after emergency surgery to reduce swelling from a brain aneurysm

Chicago White Sox pitcher Danny Farquhar is "progressing well" after undergoing emergency surgery to reduce swelling from a brain aneurysm, his team said Monday.

The White Sox said Farquhar had use of his extremities, was able to respond to questions and commands, and could speak to doctors and family members.

His condition was "critical but neurologically stable," the statement said.

Farquhar, 31, passed out in the dugout during Friday's game between the White Sox and the Houston Astros.

He was treated at the scene by team doctors and ambulance personnel before being transported to Chicago's Rush University Hospital.

"We are just very happy that he's trending in the right direction," White Sox manager Rick Renteria told ESPN on Monday.

"To know that he's able to move and speak, to know that his family is there, he knows everybody cares for him.

"We are going in the right direction and very guardedly optimistic about the outcome."

Farquhar is 10-15 with a 3.93 ERA in 253 career relief appearances with Toronto, Seattle, Tampa Bay and Chicago.
Members of Pakistan's Pashtun minority are pushing back against alleged discrimination and military abuses

Pakistan's powerful military, long accused by outsiders of backing Islamist militant groups, is facing an unexpected challenge -- a charismatic young Pashtun man who won't keep quiet.

Fellow Pashtuns have rallied behind Manzoor Pashteen in a dramatic outpouring of frustration over accusations of discrimination and extrajudicial killings at the hands of men in uniform.

Hundreds of thousands of them have had to leave their homes near the border with Afghanistan in the last decade, fleeing fighting that erupted when the army began what the Pashtun Protection Movement (PTM) says was a selective clampdown on the militants that took refuge there after the 2001 US-led ousting of the Taliban.

Echoing accusations by Washington and Kabul, PTM activists say the military continues to allow these extremists a safe haven from which to launch attacks in Afghanistan, while targeting insurgents that have turned their guns on Pakistan.

"This policy... it's very dangerous for us," Pashteen, the movement's 26-year-old leader, told AFP during a recent interview.

The strategy, he says, has upended traditional Pashtun tribal society, as civilians are harassed, killed or abducted by security forces and insurgents in the ensuing crossfire.

Pashteen's movement poses a unique challenge to the military's narrative about its war on militants, says analyst Michael Semple, because it has given a voice to previously marginal accounts.

Manzoor Pashteen, 26, has become an outspoken critic of Pakistan's military

"It remains one of the weak points of the double game approach -- real people live there and see what you're doing," said Semple, a professor at Queens University Belfast.

"This movement is spilling the beans."

At a rally on Sunday in Lahore, Pakistan's second-largest city, thousands came to chant the PTM slogan: "The uniforms are behind the terrorists".

It was a remarkable scene, with such accusations against the security establishment viewed as a dangerous red line that few have dared to cross.

The Lahore rally was held in defiance of local authorities, who had denied the PTM formal permission to stage the protest and detained some of its supporters.

- 'Good Taliban' -

For years, Pakistan has been accused by the US and others of using militants such as the Afghan Taliban as proxies, allowing them safe haven in the tribal areas.

Pakistan has repeatedly denied claims it has given safe haven to militant groups

Islamabad has repeatedly denied the claims.

It says it has carried out multiple operations in the region, and taken steps to harden the porous border, while pointing to the thousands killed by militants as evidence of Pakistan's sacrifices.

"No army can support terrorists against whom they have fought so relentlessly," Major General Asif Ghafoor, the military spokesman, told AFP.

But the allegations persist. In January, the White House suspended security assistance to Pakistan over the issue.

Despite a dramatic improvement in security in recent years, the tribal districts remain largely out of bounds to foreigners and journalists, making claims difficult to verify.

The PTM's Pashteen says at least 40 of his family members and friends have been killed in the chaos unleashed by the war since 2001. Another 30 have been abducted, he claims. Fellow activists tell of similar losses.

"You can call someone 'Good Taliban' but he's not good for us... he's killed us," Pashteen explained, referring to a euphemism for alleged Pakistan-backed insurgents that fight in Afghanistan.

- Tipping point -

Pashtuns hold a complicated place in Pakistan, where they number roughly 30 million, accounting for 15 percent of the population.

Ordinary Pashtun civilians are often stereotyped and discriminated against as backward tribesmen in league with terrorists

Lauded for their martial abilities since Alexander the Great, both militants and the military have turned to them for decades to fight their wars.

Both the Afghan and the Pakistani Taliban, two separate militant entities, are dominated by Pashtuns.

As a result, ordinary Pashtun civilians are often stereotyped as backward tribesmen in league with terrorists, harassed in cities, hassled by landlords and denied hotel rooms.

"We have fought for our own country. Then why has this been done to us?" asked PTM supporter Sher Bahadar Afridi.

In the beginning, Pashteen's aims were humble.

When he and a small group of friends started on the "Pashtun Long March" to Islamabad in January, they carried a list of just 150 names allegedly abducted by security forces, hoping to present it to authorities.

The demand was not new -- rights activists have been demanding an end to enforced disappearances for years in Pakistan.

But the murder of a Pashtun social media star in an alleged extrajudicial killing by the police in January proved to be a tipping point, with thousands rallying behind Pashteen leading to the PTM's creation.

Many have rallied together after the murder of a Pashtun social media star in an alleged extrajudicial killing by the Pakistani police

"The biggest thing (the movement) achieved was removing that atmosphere of fear," explained analyst Rafiullah Kakar.

But their reception in the mainstream media has been muted.

A far-reaching media blackout has kept news and images of the rallies off TV screens nationwide.

Despite the pushback, PTM is demanding action -- including investigations into disappearances and extrajudicial killings and an end to what it says is undue harassment of Pashtuns at security checkpoints.

The military, meanwhile, has accused them of collusion with Pakistan's enemies.

"They are young and simple Pashtuns who are being exploited by inimical forces," said Ghafoor, the military spokesman.
US President Donald Trump's Republicans held a congressional seat in Arizona's special election

Donald Trump's Republicans won a closely watched congressional election Tuesday in Arizona, but by a single-digit margin in a district the president won easily in 2016, as Democrats made a strong showing ahead of mid-term elections.

Former state lawmaker Debbie Lesko, a Trump supporter, kept the House seat safely in Republican hands in a conservative leaning district that saw a spirited challenge from Democratic political novice Hiral Tipirneni, a cancer researcher and former emergency room physician.

US media called the race based on the Republican's lead in early voting, with Lesko ahead by a margin of 52.9 percent to 47.1 percent.

That margin was far leaner than the party breakdown of early voters, which was put at 48.3 percent Republican and 27.9 percent Democrat, suggesting Tipirneni overwhelmingly won independent or crossover voters.

Trump won the district by 21 points 18 months ago. But an energized Democratic grassroots movement -- fueled by the president's relatively poor approval rating and the general sense of chaos in the Trump administration -- has been able to make even the reddest regions of the country competitive.

The race is being seen as another national litmus test of Trump's popularity -- and Democratic strength -- ahead of November's mid-term elections when Democrats will seek to regain control of the House and Senate.

It follows a series of Democratic victories including a Senate contest in Alabama, various local and statewide races in Virginia and most recently a hotly contested House seat in southwestern Pennsylvania Trump country that have rattled Republicans and emboldened Democrats.

Lesko acknowledged on the day of the vote that her race was "a bellwether" for the midterm elections.

GOP groups reportedly poured about $1 million into the race to replace conservative congressman Trent Franks, who quit in December over a sex scandal.

The effort was aimed at putting the party back on an even keel after recent shock election losses, as well as the sudden announcement by US House Speaker Paul Ryan this month that he will not seek re-election.

Ryan insisted that Tuesday's Arizona victory "proves that Republicans have a positive record to run on this fall, and we need to spend the next seven months aggressively selling our message to the American people."
A Syrian government tank drives down a street in Al Hajar al Aswad, during a regime offensive targeting the Islamic State group in the southern districts of Damascus

The EU and UN on Tuesday begin a two-day conference to drum up fresh aid pledges for wartorn Syria and reinvigorate the faltering Geneva peace process as the conflict enters its eighth year.

Donor countries, aid organisations and UN agencies will gather in Brussels for the seventh annual conference on Syria's future as international inspectors probe a suspected gas attack in the town of Douma, highlighting the brutal nature of the war.

The meeting comes in the wake of strikes by the United States, France and Britain on Syrian military installations, carried out in response to the Douma incident which has been widely blamed on Damascus.

EU officials hope to beat the $6 billion (5.6 billion euros) pledged at last year's gathering, as a fierce offensive launched by President Bashar al-Assad, backed by key ally Russia, intensifies the crisis.

"We've seen the situation get dramatically worse since the beginning of the year. We've had inside Syria some 700,000 displaced during a period of four months," one senior EU official said.

Some 6.1 people are now internally displaced, more than five million Syrians have fled their country and 13 million people are in need of aid, according to the EU.

Protestors carry placards as they demonstrate against the UK's military involvement in Syria, outside the Houses of Parliament in central London

Top UN and EU officials will hold talks with aid groups working in Syria and neighbouring countries on Tuesday to get their views before government ministers arrive on Wednesday.

Save the Children International chief executive Helle Thorning-Schmidt urged donors to focus on education, saying a third of Syrian youngsters are out of school and a third of Syrian schools are unusable because of the war.

"We have let Syrian children down. This is the seventh year and they're still being let down," Thorning-Schmidt told AFP.

"2018 has been a very bloody year for Syrian children and one of the things they are missing out on enormously is education."

UN children's agency UNICEF said some 2.8 million Syrian children had missed out on education, warning that in parts of the country simply going to school "has at times become a matter of life and death".

- Pledges exceeded -

According to EU figures, the total given by the international community after last year's conference was $7.5 billion -- 25 percent more than pledged -- with Germany, the US and EU institutions leading the way.

Alongside the aid drive, the EU's diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini will hold talks with the UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, on Tuesday as part of efforts to restart peace talks.

Eight rounds of talks under UN auspices in Geneva have made little headway, with Assad's government paying little interest while Russia, Iran and Turkey launched a rival process in the Kazakh capital Astana last year.

Russia and Iran are Assad's key allies and their military intervention in Syria is widely seen as helping him stay in power and tipping the balance in the civil war.

Ankara has called for Assad's removal throughout the war, but has worked increasingly closely with Moscow and Tehran in recent months in seeking to find a solution to the conflict.

But the EU still insists the Geneva process is the best way to bring an end to the war.

"The only way to avoid that the Syrian crisis spirals into wider conflict is to put pressure on all parties including the Syrian regime to come to Geneva for meaningful discussions," Mogherini said last week.

EU foreign ministers last week said the conference should be used to "reinvigorate" the Geneva process, but it is not clear how effectively the gathering will be able to do this.

As with previous editions of the conference, neither the Syrian government nor opposition groups will be represented. It also remains unclear who, if anyone, will come for Russia, Turkey and Iran.
The abducted man, Trinh Xuan Thanh, 52, was spirited back to Hanoi, where he was sentenced to two life terms in prison on corruption charges

Germany will put on trial Tuesday the only suspect held over what it calls a brazen Cold War-style kidnapping by Vietnamese secret agents that has badly bruised bilateral ties.

The accused -- a Vietnamese-Czech man identified only as 47-year-old Long N.H. -- allegedly rented and drove the van used in last year's abduction of a fugitive Vietnamese state company official in a central Berlin park.

The kidnapped man, Trinh Xuan Thanh, 52, who was seeking asylum in Germany, was quickly spirited back to Hanoi, where he was sentenced this year to two life terms in prison on corruption charges.

Germany condemned the July 23, 2017, operation as a "scandalous violation" of its sovereignty and a "gross violation of international law".

It expelled two Vietnamese diplomats, summoned the ambassador several times and put on ice a strategic bilateral partnership.

Communist-ruled Vietnam has insisted that Thanh, the former head of PetroVietnam Construction, returned voluntarily to face embezzlement charges.

Vietnam, like China, has recently convicted scores of figures from its business and political elite as part of an anti-graft drive which observers say also serves to settle scores between hardline and reformist factions.

German prosecutors are investigating a high-ranking Vietnamese security official, General Duong Minh Hung, who allegedly commanded the abduction in Berlin before returning to Vietnam, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily reported last month.

Hung is suspected of holding more than 100 cellphone talks or text message exchanges with the agents from his temporary "command centre" inside a hotel, a few blocks from the Tiergarten park where the abduction took place.

Long N.H., the van's alleged driver who was arrested in the Czech Republic on August 12 and extradited to Germany on August 23, is the only suspect in German custody.

- Violent struggle -

Once among thousands of so-called guest workers in communist East Germany, he was later denied asylum and resettled in Prague, where he most recently ran a currency exchange business.

Prosecutors charge that he rented a Volkswagen Multivan T5 there and drove it to Berlin, where several armed men dragged Thanh and a female companion into the vehicle, which he allegedly returned to Prague the same day.

Thanh and his female companion were first taken to the Vietnamese embassy in Berlin before she was flown to Hanoi, while Thanh was abducted to Vietnam "by unknown means", prosecutors charge.

Long N.H., who had also allegedly rented a BMW X5 sedan that had been used for surveillance, is charged with working for a foreign intelligence service and aiding in an abduction, which each carry up to 10 years in prison.

News weekly Der Spiegel has reported that German investigators reconstructed the abduction using the van's GPS system, witness statements, footage from multiple security cameras on streets, petrol stations and inside hotels, and Thanh's smartphone, which was left at the scene.

Thanh, who was seeking asylum in Germany, was living in seclusion in Berlin with his wife and children

It said that the Vietnamese snatch team found Thanh -- who had been living in seclusion in Berlin with his wife and children since mid-2016 -- when his secret lover, Thi Minh P.D., flew in from Paris to meet him at a hotel and the two then took a walk in the Tiergarten park.

The report said that in the violent struggle Thanh hit back at his attackers and the woman lashed out so strongly that "eyewitnesses thought she had suffered an epileptic seizure".

The Sueddeutsche previously reported that in the abduction, "it seems that half the embassy was involved" -- with the mission used as a drop-off stop in the kidnapping, some people involved being accredited diplomatic staff, and the wife of the defence attache booking the flights home for the agents.

The article also said that investigators had found blood traces in the rented van, pointing to a struggle.

The Berlin court has scheduled 21 days of hearings until May 17.
A teacher instructs children at 'MG Space', a small-scale workshop in Shenzhen, southern China

Engineers, computer programmers and children tinker with self-made radio-controlled toy cars and robotic arms in China's southern city of Shenzhen, home to "makers" who belie the country's reputation as a hub for technology copycats.

The group works in a special space inside a high-rise in a city considered a nerve centre for the "maker movement" of tech whizzes who invent, design and make their own gadgets and devices from scratch.

China is trying to shed its notoriety as a hub for counterfeit goods, a battleground in an ongoing trade dispute with the United States, which is threatening to hit Chinese electronics and other high-end industry with steep tariffs for the "theft" of intellectual property.

The Shenzhen government has doled out $145 million in grants to lure thousands of Chinese and foreign entrepreneurs, and tens of millions more to fund "maker spaces" and activities to encourage innovation.

At the "MG Space", a wall is covered by shelves with meticulously labelled bins containing assorted pieces of wood and foam, circuit boards, wires, soldering kits, plastic parts and joiners for communal use.

"I'm designing a pulley system that can support a lot of weight," 11-year-old Li Zhonghan told AFP, without taking his eyes off a 3D modelling programme on his computer.

Once their blueprints are ready, the makers send their plans to a 3D printer and laser cutter to make their designs a reality.

Yue Lingyu, vice manager of "MG Space," which is privately funded, said it is important to give children and youth opportunities to collaborate on projects with professionals.

"The tutors here don't see the kids as their students -- they view each other as colleagues," she told AFP.

- Fighting 'copycat' culture -

"Makers" pride themselves on coming up with new ideas, and they expect fellow makers to give them due credit for inventions.

This is a departure from the so-called "shanzhai" culture in China, where counterfeiters produce increasingly high-quality replicas of everything from computers to handbags to famous paintings.

Eight years ago, two brothers in Shenzhen invented the "Apple Peel", a set of attachments that convert an iPod Touch into a fully functional iPhone that can make calls and send text messages.

China has slowly evolved from "shanzhai" to grey areas like Apple Peel and original technologies such as dockless shared bicycles.

Shenzhen went from being a manufacturing hub for mainly foreign firms to making mobile phones, drones and other gadgets for Chinese firms and start-ups.

The Shenzhen government has doled out $145 million in grants to lure thousands of Chinese and foreign entrepreneurs, and tens of millions more to fund 'maker spaces' and activities to encourage innovation

But a survey of US businesses by the American Chamber of Commerce shows IP infringement continues to be a top challenge for some in China, citing inadequate laws and difficulty prosecuting cases.

Intellectual property issues have vexed Chinese companies, too. New IP courts have been created to stop the thefts.

"In China, trends spring up and companies copy each other. Especially for cases where the ideas require a low level of technology, it's hard to say who came up with it first," said Wu Nan, founder of AllTechAsia, which tracks Chinese technology trends.

Matthew Murphy, managing partner at the Beijing-based MMLC firm, which specialises in IP, says there are too many obstacles to bringing cases to court.

"The laws are fine but many innovators look at how much trouble and cost may be involved in IP enforcement and they get concerned. The requirement of notarised/legalised Powers of Attorney and other documents adds a level of cost and slows things down a lot," he told AFP.

- Hacking the subsidy game -

Another problem is that the wealth of government subsidies available can lead to a concentration of start-ups in areas where there isn't enough demand, critics say.

Christopher Balding, economics professor at Peking University in Shenzhen, has observed entrepreneurs making decisions based on what subsidies are available regardless of whether the company actually intended to bring their proposed products to market.

'Makers' pride themselves on coming up with new ideas, and they expect fellow makers to give them due credit for inventions

"For example, the government decided that robots were a big thing and there was a lot of funding, so everyone began making robots. While there is significant new robot adoption in China, Beijing is investing vastly more than needed," Balding said.

Some say public funds for makers are not being wisely spent.

"Maker spaces get so much money from the government and they're competing with each other for members, but there are so many that some are completely empty," Wu said.

James Simpson, founder of the private "Steamhead" makers' education hub in Shenzhen, said there are enough maker spaces now and the priority should be to get people to use them.

"In China there is huge interest and an increasing number of resources to turn creative skills into a sustainable business, but not so many chances for people to have interactions to access new experiences and learn from others," he said.

But the satisfied parents and kids at MG Space are more optimistic about China's innovative skills.

"China has come a long way from rote learning in all the schools, especially here in Shenzhen where teachers really want to give kids practical skills," said Yang Hong, a mother of two.

"I like to make stuff," said her daughter, 8-year-old Yao Xirou. "I don't know the job I want yet, but I just want to have fun."
At least 1,130 people died in the 2013 Rana Plaza collapse, with more than 2,000 others injured

Hundreds of Bangladeshis staged protests and tearful tributes Tuesday on the fifth anniversary of one of the world's worst industrial disasters, when the Rana Plaza textile factory complex collapsed and killed at least 1,130 people.

Survivors and relatives of the dead placed wreaths at a concrete hammer and sickle memorial at the site of the building in the Dhaka suburb of Savar, while labour groups marked the anniversary by making new demands for justice.

Several people held photos of those unaccounted for since the collapse. About 3,500 workers were inside the complex making clothes for top western brands when tragedy struck.

More than 2,000 were injured in addition to the huge death toll.

But a murder trial in the case has been repeatedly delayed and no one has so far been convicted.

The body of Abdul Awwal's 25-year-old daughter has still never been found

Abdul Awwal, 58, visited the ruins in the Dhaka suburb of Savar to honour his 25-year-old daughter, Rozina Khatun. Her body has still not been found.

"She left an 11-month-old son. Her husband got married again, leaving the son to us. Even after DNA tests on the bodies, I still have no trace of my daughter's body," said a tearful Awwal, who comes from the northern rural district of Pabna.

"The boy does not have any memories of his mother. He doesn't even have a grave to mourn at."

Police said some 500 people held demonstrations and small marches on the highway in front of the ruins at the start of the day.

Others arrived as the day wore on, placing wreaths at the memorial and the unmarked graves of hundreds of workers whose mangled bodies were never identified.

Workers holding black flags placed wreaths and prayed silently at the graves.

- 'Living dead' survivors -

Union leaders and survivors have expressed anger at the slow pace of the trial of Sohel Rana, whose family owned the complex which collapsed after it was illegally extended.

"We demand justice, We want Rana to be hanged. We want other criminals to be hanged," workers chanted as they marched in front of the crater where the complex once stood. It has since become a pond covered with hyacinths.

The Rana Plaza collapse brought international condemnation and pressure to improve conditions in Bangladeshi factories

"The injured workers have become the living dead. We demand the quick trial of the culprits. Five years have gone and yet there is hardly any progress in the murder trial," said union leader Jolly Talukder.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told AFP the case had "been strangled in the lower court for ages".

Talukder, the union leader, also demanded the release of some $14.5 million which she said was donated to a government fund to help victims.

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association said the victims and their families had been compensated.

"The complaints about not getting sufficient compensation are absolutely wrong," association president Siddiqur Rahman told AFP.

Survivors are still haunted by the collapse which trapped more than 2,000 people, some for days.

Sufia Begum, 36, was rescued after nine hours from inside sandwiched floors. She suffered broken vertebrae and ribs and now wears a steel corset. She no longer believes that justice will be served, but still travelled 330 kilometres (205 miles) from her village to pay respects to dead colleagues.

Fatima Begum came to the site with her five-year-old granddaughter, who was born 21 days after her father died in the disaster.

"I want my grandchildren's future to be taken care of. We are ordinary people, we have been asking for the last five years," she told AFP.

Others survivors recalled bitterly how reluctant employees were forced to work on the day of the disaster despite cracks that appeared the day before in columns supporting the complex.

"It was cold-blooded murder," said one.

The collapse triggered international outrage. European and US clothing brands -- including Primark, Mango and Benetton -- were pressured to improve pay and conditions at Bangladeshi factories.

The sector employs some four million workers but wages start at $65 a month, among the world's lowest.

Groups which oversee safety upgrades say factories have improved since the tragedy. The 20 reported accidents in 2017 was the lowest number in recent years.

A group representing more than 100 European brands warned however that "major life-threatening safety concerns remain" among the country's 4,500 textile plants.

Several foreigners representing international textile brands visited the memorial to pay respects.
Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai has offered to host the Trump-Kim summit

Thailand on Tuesday volunteered to host the hotly-anticipated summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as speculation swirls about the venue.

"Thailand is ready to facilitate and host the talks," Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai told reporters, though he stressed that the kingdom has not been contacted about the possibility.

The US embassy declined to comment.

Kim is set to meet South Korea's president Moon Jae-in on Friday, an event seen as a major stepping stone towards the summit with Trump.

Earlier this month Trump said five locations were under consideration for a summit "probably in early June", which he hopes will result in a denuclearisation deal with North Korea.

But he did not specify where, leaving observers to speculate on anywhere from Mongolia to Scandinavia and Singapore.

Thailand is a historic US ally which also has diplomatic relations with North Korea.

The Thai junta number two Prawit Wongsuwon is currently in the US where he has met Defense Secretary James Mattis and senior Homeland Security officials, according to the Thai defence ministry.

Over the weekend Pyongyang announced a moratorium on nuclear tests and intercontinental ballistic missile launches.

Analysts are divided over the headline-grabbing offer, with many noting it is reversible and did not signal any intention of actual nuclear disarmament.
Setya Novanto had been accused of taking millions in kickbacks and bribes

Indonesia's former parliament speaker was given a 15-year prison term on Tuesday in one of the country's toughest sentences for graft, marking a victory in a continuing clampdown on widespread corruption.

Setya Novanto, once among the country's most influential politicians, had been accused of taking millions of dollars in kickbacks and bribes linked to the national roll-out of government ID cards.

"We have found defendant Setya Novanto, beyond reasonable doubt, guilty of violating anti-corruption law," presiding Judge Yanto told the packed Jakarta courtroom.

Novanto -- once praised by Donald Trump as one Indonesia's most powerful figures -- said he would need time to consider an appeal.

His months-long trial came after a string of manoeuvres -- including allegedly faking an injury in a car crash -- which critics say the 62-year-old used to dodge serious charges.

Prosecutors had demanded a 16-year sentence.

Judge Yanto, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, also fined Novanto 500 million rupiah ($36,000), far less than the $7.4 million prosecutors had wanted him to pay as restitution to the state.

Novanto, who had managed to sidestep corruption allegations in the past, was accused of playing a key role in embezzlement from the $440 million ID card project, with some $170 million disappearing from state coffers.

Several other politicians, government officials and businessmen have been charged in the scandal.

The scale of the graft shocked many Indonesians even in one of the world's most corrupt countries. Payoffs and bribes are rife at all levels of society and endemic in many state agencies, including the police force.

- Grappling with graft-

Indonesia ranked 96th out of 180 countries on Transparency International's corruption index last year, while it scored a lowly 37 on a scale of perceived public corruption with 100 seen as "very clean" and zero "highly corrupt".

The war on graft has come with a high price for some.

A top investigator for Indonesia's powerful Corruption Eradication Commission was partially blinded in a 2017 acid attack as he was heading the probe into the case involving Novanto and others. No one has yet been arrested.

The verdict comes several years after the former chief justice of Indonesia's constitutional court, Akil Mochtar, was jailed for life for accepting bribes to issue favourable decisions in local election disputes.

It was the country's heaviest-ever sentence for corruption.

Novanto, who dodged questioning by the anti-corruption agency for months, was arrested in hospital in November after he claimed to have been injured in a car crash.

The reported accident came shortly after a failed raid on his palatial estate.

Indonesia's graft buster subsequently charged Novanto's then-lawyer and doctor with obstructing justice over allegations they booked a hospital room for the supposedly injured politician before his purported car accident happened.

Novanto had been forced to quit as speaker in 2015 after he was caught on tape trying to extort a stake in the Indonesian unit of US mining giant Freeport-McMoRan in exchange for extending the company's right to operate in the archipelago.

He was later cleared and reappointed as speaker in 2016. He quit again last year after the most recent charges were laid.
Feral cats are among the reasons why some bird species in Australia are in danger of becoming extinct

Australia's extinction rate for mammals, already the highest in the world, could worsen unless efforts are made to protect the most endangered species over the next two decades, scientists said Tuesday.

Researchers from the government-funded Threatened Species Recovery Hub identified 10 Australian birds and seven mammals whose extinctions could mostly be prevented if governments and communities were made aware of the risks they faced.

"This would be an increase in Australia's exceptionally dire extinction rate, which -- for mammals -- is the highest in the world," said John Woinarski of Charles Darwin University.

"Over the last two hundred years at least 34 Australian mammal species and 29 birds have become extinct," added Woinarski, who co-led the research published in the scientific journal Pacific Conservation Biology this month.

"Identifying the species at greatest risk of extinction is a crucial first step in avoiding their extinctions," he said in a statement.

The most at-risk bird is the endangered King Island brown thornbill, found on an island off the island state of Tasmania.

It has little more than a five percent chance of surviving the next 20 years unless conservation efforts are stepped up, the researchers said.

Other birds that have a 50-50 or greater chance of becoming extinct include the orange-bellied parrot, western ground parrot, plains-wanderer, regent honeyeater and herald petrel.

Most are found on islands or in the more heavily developed regions of southern Australia.

In the case of mammals, the central rock-rat -- a small rodent that lives in the arid areas of central Australia -- has an estimated 65 percent chance of becoming extinct over the next two decades.

Second on the at-risk list is the northern hopping-mouse, another small rodent, at 48 percent.

Another rodent, the Carpentarian rock-rat, as well as the Christmas Island flying-fox bat, are also among the most in peril.

Many of the at-risk mammals are from northern Australia, which is already experiencing a "rapid and severe decline in mammals generally", said researcher Hayley Geyle from Charles Darwin University.

Woinarski said the two most-recent mammal extinctions were the Bramble Cay melomys and Christmas Island pipistrelle, which disappeared from Earth in the past decade.

A study released in 2014 said Australia's mammal extinction rate was the world's highest, with more than 10 percent of species wiped out since Europeans settled the country two centuries ago.

The main causes of species decline that have been identified include habitat loss, such as through land clearing and other development, and feral cats and foxes.
Peace House, venue for the summit and for a banquet heavy on symbolism

Symbolism will be the main course of a banquet at Friday's inter-Korean summit, Seoul revealed Tuesday, with a menu featuring Pyongyang's signature dish and food from the home towns of the South's leaders at previous meetings.

No detailed schedule has been released yet, but the dinner will be held after the summit in the same Peace House venue on the southern side of the border Demilitarized Zone.

Some of the food will come from the North. Moon suggested the North's signature dish of cold noodles and Pyongyang agreed to send a leading chef from Okryu-gwan, a famed restaurant in the capital city, to the venue, his office said Tuesday.

Cold noodles come served in a cool mild broth and garnished with pieces of meat and vegetables. The long buckwheat strands are usually cut with a pair of scissors to simplify the eating process.

The South has its own varieties but even its diners tend to favour the Pyongyang version.

Friday's menu also includes rosti -- a traditional Swiss potato fritter -- with a Korean twist to remind Kim of his childhood in Switzerland, it said.

Kim attended boarding school in the European country.

Other dishes feature seafood, meat and rice from the home towns of Moon and the Southern presidents who went to Pyongyang for the two previous summits, Kim Dae-jung in 2000 and Roh Moo-hyun in 2007.

"We prepared the welcoming dinner to honour the people who worked so hard for peace and unification of our people," Moon's office said.

Friday's summit is a result of a months-long diplomatic campaign orchestrated by Moon, a dovish leader who advocates dialogue to bring the isolated and nuclear-armed North to nuclear negotiations.

The Blue House has a tendency to make political points with its food choices. When US President Donald Trump visited last year, his meal included a prawn fished from the waters around Dokdo, disputed islands controlled by Seoul but claimed by fellow US ally Tokyo.
Tourists and residents walk past a security check at the Caticlan jetty to get to Boracay

Police with assault rifles patrolled entry points to Boracay island on Tuesday just days before a six-month shutdown and clean-up of one of the Philippines' top tourist attractions.

President Rodrigo Duterte had branded the renowned white-sand resort a "cesspool" fouled by dumped sewage and imposed the temporary ban on visitors that is due to take effect Thursday.

Authorities on Tuesday held a practice run of security measures, asking residents of the tiny island to present identification cards at the gateway port of Caticlan to be allowed entry.

In Boracay, police conducted exercises simulating clashes with protesters, terrorist attacks and a hostage incident even as they said there was no specific threat.

Tourists at the white sand beach of Boracay before its closure

"In any plan we need maximum contingency. We will have an assessment if we need to add or reduce our forces but we now have enough forces," local police official Jesus Cambay told AFP.

Once hailed as one of the world's top holiday destinations by travel magazines, Boracay is among Southeast Asian destinations reeling from decades of unchecked tourism and environmental degradation.

Officials have warned the island's drainage system is being used to send untreated sewage from hotels and restaurants into its turquoise waters.

Duterte has threatened to arrest people who try to block government efforts to rehabilitate the sewage system and demolish illegal structures.

With no sign in sight of resistance to the clean-up, some residents were surprised by the presence of more than 600 policemen.

"I think it's excessive. Why does Boracay have so many policemen?" tour promoter Jessie Ibon told AFP.

"It might scare the tourists, seeing soldiers with long firearms."

Workers said they did not mind security checks, adding they were more worried about their jobs.

The closure threatens the livelihood of 17,000 hotel, restaurant and other tourism workers, plus about 11,000 construction workers.

"There's no problem with presenting IDs. It's no hassle. But the income is the huge problem. Of the 100 percent income we used to get, it's now down to 15 percent," resort housekeeper Ernida Jimenez told AFP.

Tourists leave after vacationing on Boracay

The last remaining tourists went swimming despite the algae-tined waters near shore, which the government said was due to sewage being dumped into the waters.

"I heard that this beach is supposed to be the most amazing, the most beautiful beach in the world and then when it was all green, it was a bit disappointing," Swedish tourist Malin Palm, 19, told AFP.
Some 2,000 wild elephants are thought to be left in Myanmar

An emerging online market for elephant skin in China is threatening the survival of the creatures in neighbouring Myanmar as poaching intensifies to meet demand, conservationists warned Tuesday.

Myanmar has watched with alarm as the number of slain elephants found in the country's forests rises each year, with many blaming the trade in the mammal's hide.

The biggest market for the products is in China, where the tough skin is ground up and used to treat stomach or human skin ailments, or sold as jewellery in the form of blood-red beads and pendants.

The items are increasingly advertised and sold on the internet, according to the UK-based charity Elephant Family, which outlined the findings in a new study called "Skinned: The growing appetite for Asian Elephants".

Unlike poaching for ivory, the skin trade does not discriminate between genders and ages in elephants, making them far more vulnerable.

"This means that no elephant is safe," said the group's acting conservation director Belinda Stewart-Cox. "Myanmar is losing too many elephants too fast."

Elephant Family monitored multiple internet forums and interacted with traders -- without making purchases -- to learn more about the supply chain.

Out of eleven online sellers who said they knew the product origin, nine cited Myanmar and two Laos.

One China-based trader who claims to have "invented" elephant skin beads said she gets the material from a Myanmar border town, calling the sourcing "long-term and nonstop," the report said.

Some 2,000 wild elephants are thought to be left in Myanmar, the second largest population in the region after Thailand.

But a combination of weak oversight and lawless border regions outside central government control has made Myanmar a key hub in the global wildlife trafficking trade.

Last year 59 elephant carcasses were found in the wild, a jump from four in 2010, according to government statistics cited by the report.

While the NGO said it was hard to prove with certainty whether the rise in skin product sales was directly linked to the rise in poaching, the parallel surge leaves few other explanations.

The researchers also documented the sale of elephant skin powder through China-based traditional medicine and pharmaceutical platforms, though it remains unclear whether African or Asian elephants were used in the goods.
The UN's Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura warned a conference in Brussels that a fresh humanitarian disaster could be looming in the rebel-held region of Idlib in Syria

The UN's Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura on Tuesday urged the world to prevent a fresh humanitarian disaster in the rebel-held region of Idlib, as officials warned aid funding was running "desperately short".

Mistura told a major donor conference that Idlib, the likely next target of the Syrian regime's fightback, risked suffering the same fate as Aleppo, seized in a Russian-backed Syrian offensive in 2016, and Eastern Ghouta, retaken by the regime shortly after an alleged chemical attack in early April.

Donor countries, aid organisations and UN agencies are gathering in Brussels for the seventh annual conference on Syria's future, as forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad launched a new offensive against Islamic State jihadists entrenched in a southern district of Damascus.

"We were and are concerned on the humanitarian side by Idlib. Because Idlib is the big new challenge, 2.5 million people," Mistura told a press conference with EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini.

"We hope that this would be an occasion for making sure that Idlib does not become the new new Aleppo, the new Eastern Ghouta, because the dimensions are completely different."

The head of UN aid agency UNOCHA chief Mark Lowcock said the two-day gathering needed to raise some $8 billion in pledges for work inside Syria and with refugees in neighbouring countries, warning that some programmes may have to be cut back if funds are not forthcoming.

"We are quite desperately short of resources," he told reporters, saying UNOCHA managed to raise only half of the funds it needed in 2017 and urging Damascus and its main backer Russia to do more to help civilians suffering in the war.

- 'Can't meet urgent needs' -

'We have let Syrian children down,' says Save the Children chief executive, Helle Thorning-Schmidt

Some 6.1 people are now internally displaced, more than five million have fled Syria and 13 million including six million children are in need of aid, according to the UN. More than 700,000 people have been displaced since the start of this year alone.

"Within the resources we can plausibly expect to mobilise this year we cannot meet even all the urgent needs," Lowcock said.

UN and EU officials held talks with aid groups working in Syria and neighbouring countries on Tuesday to get their views before government ministers arrive on Wednesday.

Save the Children International chief executive, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, urged donors to focus on education, saying a third of Syrian youngsters are out of school and a third of Syrian schools are unusable because of the war.

"We have let Syrian children down. This is the seventh year and they're still being let down," Thorning-Schmidt told AFP.

UN children's agency UNICEF said some 2.8 million Syrian children had missed out on education, warning that in parts of the country simply going to school "has at times become a matter of life and death".

- 'Syria is not a chessboard' -

The EU also wants to use the conference to re-energise floundering UN-led peace talks in Geneva, which have made virtually no progress in eight rounds, with Assad's government paying little interest and Russia, Iran and Turkey launching a rival process in the Kazakh capital Astana last year.

Russia and Iran are Assad's key allies and their military intervention in Syria is widely seen as tipping the balance in the civil war.

Mogherini and de Mistura both called on Russia, Iran and Turkey -- the three powers involved in the so-called Astana process seeking peace in Syria -- to do more to reach a ceasefire.

Syria 'is not a chessboard, it's not a geopolitical game,' says the EU's diplomatic chief, Federica Mogherini

"The main message is that Syria is not a chessboard, it's not geopolitical game," Mogherini said.

The conference comes in the wake of strikes by the United States, France and Britain on Syrian military installations in response to the alleged chemical weapons incident in Douma which has been widely blamed on Damascus.

Mistura said a UN Security Council retreat in a secluded farmhouse in Sweden at the weekend, called in a bid to overcome its paralysis on Syria, had lowered the "temperature" but failed to find a political solution.

"After two weeks of terribly tense and rhetorically intense meetings, there was a need again to bring down the temperature," Mistura said.

"Has this avoided or completely resolved the division which exists in the Security Council on Syria, which is the biggest problem the UN has... no," he added.

"Has the atmosphere gone down and the understanding that there are common issues that can be faced together, yes," Mistura said.
US President Donald Trump walks with French President Emmanuel Macron in Mount Vernon, Virginia, on April 23, 2018, during a state visit by the French premier

A top Iranian official on Tuesday welcomed European powers' efforts to salvage a historic nuclear deal, but warned they should not simply hand over "a ransom" to US President Donald Trump.

Trump has threatened not to renew the 2015 accord, which curbed Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.

His threats have prompted pressure from European officials ahead of a May 12 deadline for his decision.

"We have welcomed the insistence of the European Union on keeping America in the JCPOA (nuclear deal)," said Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran's Supreme Council for National Security, in a televised press conference.

"But if this means degrading the Islamic republic of Iran or paying a ransom to Trump, the Europeans are making a strategic mistake," he said.

The European parties to the agreement -- Britain, France, Germany and the European Union -- have been trying to convince Trump to stick to the accord.

French President Emmanuel Macron is currently in Washington, hoping to address Trump's concerns and keep the US in the deal.

The White House has demanded tighter restrictions on Iran's regional behaviour and its nuclear and missile programmes.

But Iran says any talk of curbing its missile programme -- which is central to its defence systems -- is off limits.

"The Islamic republic of Iran will not allow any country, under any circumstances, to cross its red lines," said Shamkhani.
Bollore is one of France's most powerful businessmen, at the head of a tentacular empire with interests in everything from construction and logistics to media, advertising and agriculture

Billionaire French industrialist Vincent Bollore was charged Wednesday as part of a probe into allegations his company helped two African leaders win elections in return for lucrative contracts, after two days of questioning by police.

The 66-year-old head of the Bollore Group was taken into custody Tuesday in the Paris suburb of Nanterre after authorities launched an investigation into how its African logistics subsidiary secured contracts to run Lome port in Togo and Conakry port in Guinea.

Prosecutors are looking at whether Bollore Group's communications arm, Havas, undercharged Guinean President Alpha Conde and Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe for work on their campaigns as a sweetener for the contracts, Le Monde newspaper reported.

After questioning, Bollore and two senior executives -- group chief executive Gilles Alix, and the head of the international division of Havas, Jean-Philippe Dorent -- were presented to magistrates.

A spokesman confirmed that the tycoon had been charged as part of the investigation. A judicial source said he had been charged with bribing a foreign national, breach of trust and forgery and use of fake documents.

"Vincent Bollore, who remains presumed innocent, will finally now be able to access this file and respond to the allegations against him," the spokesman said in a statement.

African ports managed by Bollore

Bollore, one of France's most powerful businessmen, was allowed to leave court once the hearing finished.

He sits at the head of a tentacular empire with revenues of 18.3 billion euros ($22.4 billion) in 2017 and interests in everything from construction and logistics to media, advertising and agriculture.

The group is heavily invested in Africa, where it operates 10 container ports and has stakes in several others, as well as three railway concessions and interests in palm oil production.

The company has insisted that it won the port tenders on the basis of its expertise and more than two billion euros of investment in Africa over the past eight years.

"Attempting to link the attribution of a port concession with communication services" was "a great misunderstanding of this economic sector and economic activity in general," it said in a statement.

- Togo, Guinea campaigns -

Havas worked on the campaign that brought Alpha Conde to power in Guinea in 2010, as the country's first freely elected president.

The Bollore Group won a contract to operate the Autonomous Port of Conakry after Alpha Conde was elected president of Guinea

Months after taking office, Conde summarily terminated the contract of Conakry's port operator -- a subsidiary of French shipping company Necotrans -- and gave it to rival Bollore.

Opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo, who has lost two elections to Conde, told AFP that the decision had "surprised many."

"It is due to the ongoing inquiry in France that Guineans discover the true motive of this unjust and illegal move taken by Alpha Conde in the wake of his taking power," he said.

A French court in 2013 ordered the Bollore Group to pay Necotrans two million euros in compensation, but Bollore took over the company shortly afterwards.

Havas also worked on the communications strategy of Togo's Gnassingbe, who succeeded his father Gnassingbe Eyadema upon his death in 2005.

After Gnassingbe's re-election to a second term in 2010, the Bollore Group won the 35-year Lome port contract -- a decision also challenged by a rival.

The French investigation was triggered by a complaint from a former Bollore associate, Jacques Dupuydauby, who is appealing a Spanish jail sentence for misappropriation of company assets.

In 2016, police searched Bollore Group's headquarters in the Paris suburb of Puteaux.

The probe is one of several in recent years over the dealings of French groups in former African colonies.

- Paper for Bibles -

Others to have been investigated include oil company Elf Aquitaine, now part of Total, which the French state was accused of using to funnel millions in bribes to African leaders in the 1990s, and nuclear giant Areva, which is under scrutiny over a controversial uranium deal in Niger.

Bollore's empire began life in 1822 as a family-run manufacturer of paper for cigarettes and Bibles.

He revived its flagging fortunes after taking the helm in the early 1980s and embarked on a blitz of acquisitions, earning a reputation as a formidable businessman.

The group owns a majority stake in telecom conglomerate Vivendi, owner of the Canal+ Group which is headed by Vincent Bollore's son Yannick.
Palestinians inspect the West Bank house of a man suspected of the January 2018 murder of an Israeli rabbi, after it was demolished by Israeli forces on April 24, 2018

Israeli forces on early Tuesday demolished the West Bank house of a Palestinian accused of involvement in the killing of a settler in January, Israeli and Palestinian sources said.

Ahmed Qunba's home in Jenin in the northern West Bank was destroyed in a controlled explosion, Palestinian security sources said.

They added that demonstrators clashed with Israeli forces at the scene.

The Israeli army said in a statement that Qunba was part of the cell that shot dead Rabbi Raziel Shevah near Nablus in the northern West Bank.

Shevah was a resident of the wildcat Havat Gilad settlement near Nablus.

Three suspects in his killing were shot dead by the Israeli army, but Qunba was arrested in mid-January and faces multiple charges.

During the home demolition, clashes broke out and a policewoman was shot in the leg, Israeli police said in a statement.

Israel periodically demolishes the houses of Palestinians who have perpetrated deadly attacks against Israelis, saying such a policy acts as a deterrent.

Critics denounce demolitions as a form of collective punishment that makes families homeless and can provoke further violence.

The demolitions often spark clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces.

In 2005 Israel halted the policy, but in 2014 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that demolitions would resume after a wave of attacks.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte met with the Kuwaiti ambassador Saleh Ahmad Althwaikh over the issue of "maid rescues"

The Philippines' top diplomat apologised Tuesday after videos emerged of embassy staff helping Filipinos flee from allegedly abusive employers in Kuwait.

Kuwait had branded the rescues a violation of its sovereignty, adding fuel to a simmering diplomatic row between the two nations sparked by the murder of a Philippine maid.

The first of two clips, which spread on social media after being released by the Philippine foreign ministry last week, shows a woman running from a home and jumping into a waiting vehicle.

Another depicts a person sprinting from what looks like a construction site and then speeding off in a black sport utility vehicle.

"I apologise to my counterpart and we apologise to the Kuwaiti government, the Kuwaiti people and the leaders of Kuwait if they were offended by some actions taken by the Philippine embassy in Kuwait," Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano told reporters in Manila.

Three Filipinos who drove vans for the embassy in the operations were believed to be held by Kuwaiti authorities.

Cayetano added a formal apology letter was being sent to Kuwait, a day after Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte met with the Kuwaiti ambassador Saleh Ahmad Althwaikh over the issue.

Kuwait was furious after the videos emerged, saying the rescues were a violation of its sovereignty and "can harm relations between the two countries".

Cayetano said the Philippine embassy staff were responding to complaints of abuse from some of the 260,000 Filipinos working in Kuwait.

"This was all done in the spirit of emergency action to protect Filipinos," he said, stating that the embassy staff believed they were dealing with "life-or-death" situations.

Some 10 million Filipinos work abroad and the money they remit back is a lifeline of the Philippine economy.

This controversy follows the ban Duterte imposed in February on Filipino workers moving to Kuwait, after the discovery of the corpse of Filipina maid Joanna Demafelis in a freezer.

Duterte alleged that Arab employers routinely rape their Filipina workers, force them to work 21 hours a day and feed them scraps.

The two countries have since been trying to work out an agreement to protect the rights of Filipino workers in Kuwait, particularly the 170,000 who work as maids.

Cayetano said embassy workers had been carrying out "rescues" of abused Filipinos, adding that this was mostly done in cooperation with Kuwaiti police but in some cases staff acted alone due to urgency.

Cayetano said the two countries still hoped to complete the labour agreement by May. Duterte previously said he will visit Kuwait to witness the signing of the accord.
The family of Palestinian professor Fadi Mohammad al-Batsh, a member of Islamist militant group Hamas who was said to be a rocket-making expert, has accused Israel's Mossad spy agency of carrying out the killing. Israel has denied the claims.

Malaysian police have found the motorbike allegedly used in the drive-by shooting of a Palestinian scientist in Kuala Lumpur, the national police chief said Tuesday.

Fadi Mohammad al-Batsh, 35, was killed in a hail of bullets by two attackers Saturday as he walked to a mosque for dawn prayers.

The family of Batsh, a member of Islamist militant group Hamas who was said to be a rocket-making expert, has accused Israel's Mossad spy agency of carrying out the killing. Israel has denied the claims.

Kuala Lumpur police have launched a manhunt for the pair and have released photofits of the two suspects, who are light-skinned, bearded men.

National police chief Mohamad Fuzi Harun said that the motorbike allegedly used by the assailants had been found in the Setapak area of Kuala Lumpur.

"The motorcycle is in good condition," he told reporters, without giving further details

Police previously said they believed either a BMW or a Kawasaki was used in the attack.

Mossad is believed to have assassinated Palestinian militants and scientists in the past, but rarely confirms such operations.

Batsh's expertise in making weapons could have made him a target -- militants in Hamas-ruled Gaza regularly fire rockets at southern Israel, usually without causing casualties.

But Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman Sunday denied claims of the Jewish state's involvement, suggesting instead that it was a "settling of accounts" between factions of a terror group.

It was the second high-profile killing of a foreigner in Malaysia in just over a year.

In February 2017 assassins smeared the banned VX nerve agent on the face of Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korea's leader, at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, killing him within minutes.
Hisham Geneina, a former head of Egypt's anti-corruption agency, received a five-year jail sentence on Tuesday over news allegedly damaging to the army

An Egyptian military court Tuesday sentenced a former anti-corruption chief, Hisham Geneina, to five years in jail after he said a presidential candidate had secret documents allegedly damaging to the army, his lawyer said.

"The verdict is five years, and we're doing the appeal (procedure) now," lawyer Ali Taha said.

The military detained Geneina in February accusing him of "spreading news that harms the armed forces" following an interview he gave to Huffpost Arabi, the Arabic version of the US news site.

Taha said he was convicted on the same charge.

Geneina had been a top campaign aide to General Sami Anan, a former armed forces chief of staff whom the military also detained after he announced he would stand in last month's presidential election against Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who swept to victory for a second term.

Geneina had said Anan allegedly possessed documents on "political events and crises that Egyptian society has passed through" since the 2011 uprising which toppled veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak.

He said the documents were being held at a "secure" location abroad and could be released if Anan was harmed.

Moataz Wadnan, the journalist who conducted the interview, was also arrested.

Geneina, a qualified judge, was sacked by Sisi as head of the Central Auditing Authority in 2016 after he was accused of exaggerating the cost of corruption in Egypt.
Supporters of Yemen's Huthi rebels attend a rally to mark three years of war in the country, in the capital Sanaa on March 26, 2018

Yemen's Huthis suffered a major setback with the killing of their political chief in a Saudi-led air strike, analysts say, in a signal of Riyadh's determination to pursue its military campaign against the rebels.

Saleh al-Sammad, the head of the Iran-backed Huthis' main political body, died on Thursday in a strike in Yemen's western province of Hodeida.

He was the most senior Huthi official killed since a Saudi-led coalition launched its intervention against the Shiite insurgents in March 2015, after they seized control of large parts of Yemen including the capital Sanaa.

Analysts say that despite renewed efforts to find a negotiated solution to the conflict, the latest strike shows not just Riyadh's willingness to continue on the military path, but the coalition's increasing effectiveness.

"There is no other option at this stage," says Mustafa Alani, an analyst at the Gulf Research Centre. "The Huthis are not flexible on the political settlement and -- people are not noticing -- there is real progress on the ground for the coalition."

While not often in the spotlight, Sammad was no minor figure. As head of the Huthis' Supreme Political Council, he was in effect the president of the vast areas of Yemen under rebel control.

"This is certainly a key setback," says Adam Baron of the European Council on Foreign Relations. "With regards to targeting Huthi leaders, it represents the biggest hit for the coalition so far -- and suggests their intelligence capabilities are improving."

- Increasing pressure -

Sammad was killed along with six others in the strike, which the Huthis' overall leader, Abdulmalek al-Huthi, said "won't go unanswered".

Another Western expert, speaking on condition of anonymity, says Sammad was a "reasonable" person who had taken part in peace negotiations and that his death is "a setback for prospects for productive talks".

Alani says the hit was part of a trend of targeted strikes by the coalition, with at least 25 field commanders also recently killed.

"It is important," he says. "Those people always have a way to protect themselves and their movements are always top secret because they know they are being targeted. So it is an achievement."

Who's who in Yemen

Much international attention has focused on the coalition's air raids, which have been criticised for hitting civilians.

A strike on a wedding on Sunday that rebels blamed on the coalition killed at least 23 people.

But Alani says coalition forces -- who include Saudi and Emirati troops in support of pro-government fighters -- have also been making discreet progress on the ground.

"There are not big victories but they are slowly slowly moving towards four major cities in Yemen," he says, including Sanaa, Saada in the Huthis' northern heartland, the economic capital of Taez in the southwest and the Red Sea port city of Hodeida.

The Huthis in the meantime have intensified ballistic missile attacks into Saudi territory, including several intercepted attacks on Riyadh.

Alani says this is a sign of the increasing pressure on the rebels.

"They are now in a purely defensive position on the ground. They are just trying to maintain their control and there are problems. So the easiest way is to fire missiles... to answer to the pressure on the ground."

- Hope for peace talks? -

The coalition is backing forces loyal to President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi who was forced into exile by the Huthi advance. His hold on the country is tenuous and there have been suggestions Hadi could be forced out, but for now Riyadh and its allies seem content with their ally.

The Huthis suffered another setback last year with the collapse of their alliance with ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was gunned down in December following accusations he was ready to strike a deal with Saudi Arabia.

Huthi rebel leader Saleh al-Sammad, who has been killed in a Saudi-led strike in Yemen, speaks during a demonstration in the capital Sanaa on March 26, 2018

Yemen's civilians meanwhile continue to suffer through one of the world's most devastating conflicts. More than 10,000 people have died since the start of the Saudi-led intervention and tens of thousands have been wounded.

Widespread shortages of food and medicine -- in a country already among the poorest -- have caused what the United Nations has described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

A new UN peace envoy, Briton Martin Griffiths, vowed earlier this month to make a new push for peace, though all previous efforts at negotiations have failed miserably.

Alani said the latest developments on the ground could finally give some hope of progress.

"He might have more chance now than his predecessors. The Huthis are feeling now they are losing the military battle.... With increasing military pressure, they will be ready to compromise politically."
Felix Tshisekedi has compared President Joseph Kabila to former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko

DR Congo's opposition was on Tuesday set to hold an authorised mass rally for the first time in nearly two years to mark the 28th anniversary of multi-party politics in the country, as tensions grow over veteran President Joseph Kabila's refusal to quit despite the expiry of his mandate.

The government, in a major climbdown, has allowed the main opposition Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) party to hold the public event in Kinshasa. The last time it did so was in September 2016.

Elections for the Democratic Republic of Congo's head of state are due to take place on December 23 after two postponements that have stoked fears the sprawling, volatile state could spiral into war.

Kabila has been in power since 2001 and should have stepped down at the end of 2016 after he reached his two-term constitutional limit but a constitutional clause has allowed him to remain in office until his successor is elected.

In addition to a deepening political crisis, the DR Congo is struggling with armed conflict in its vast, lawless east, which is under the sway of multiple rebel groups.

UDPS leader Felix Tshisekedi, son of former premier Etienne Tshisekedi who died in Brussels in February last year, has compared Kabila to former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.

Mobutu wielded nearly absolute control in the sprawling central African country after taking power in 1965. After 1970 every citizen of Zaire, as he had renamed the country, was required to be a member of the ruling party, the Popular Movement for the Revolution.

On this day in 1990, he lifted a 20-year ban on opposition parties after growing pressure for social and political change.

Seven years later, he was ousted by Laurent-Desire Kabila, the father of the current president.

- Escalating tensions -

Tshisekedi on Tuesday will unveil the broad outlines of his party's electoral campaign, local media said.

Late last year he called for a campaign of civil disobedience but that has been severely hampered with opposition rallies banned since September 2016.

Earlier this year Tshisekedi backed three anti-regime marches called by the influential Catholic church.

Scores have been killed in a brutal government crackdown on the opposition

Escalating tension over Kabila's future has fed protests leading to a security crackdown that has claimed dozens of lives. Many have been killed near the headquarters of Tshisekedi's party.

Meanwhile, Lumuna Sando, a former spokesman for Mobutu and government heavyweight, said "nothing much has changed" since Mobutu lifted the ban on the opposition.

"There are similarities in the debate, the behaviour and the positions taken by Congolese politicians," he said.
Residents of Syria's besieged Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp queue for food aid on January 31, 2014, in a picture released by the United Nation's agency for Palestinians, UNRWA

Poverty and exile, siege and starvation, jihadist rule and government shelling -- few places have seen more suffering in Syria's seven year, atrocity-filled war than the Palestinian camp of Yarmuk.

A striking 2014 picture of tired, gaunt-looking residents massing among the ruins for a food distribution drew comparisons with a World War II ghetto and became a symbol of the Syrian conflict.

The gutted neighbourhood in southern Damascus, which is now the Islamic State group's last urban redoubt in Syria or Iraq, was once Syria's biggest Palestinian refugee camp, home to around 160,000 people.

Years of crippling siege and bombardment by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, whose presidential compound is visible from the camp, had already sent tens of thousands of them into a second exile.

Smoke billows during Syrian army air strikes seen from the Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp in southern Damascus on April 24, 2018

Yarmuk is one of the closest spots to central Damascus to have been controlled by IS.

After months of sporadic shelling as it concentrated its efforts on retaking the rebel stronghold of Eastern Ghouta, the resurgent regime launched a final offensive last week to retake Yarmuk.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, around 1,000 IS fighters remain in Yarmuk and the adjacent neighbourhoods of Hajar al-Aswad, Tadamun and Qadam.

Most of them are former members of Al-Qaeda's Syrian ex-affiliate Al-Nusra Front, but IS fighters also include Palestinian refugees who joined when the Islamists took over much of the camp in 2015.

Facing them are regime and allied forces who have turned their attention to jihadist-held pockets in southern Damascus after completing their recapture of Ghouta, an area east of the capital.

Smoke billows during Syrian army air strikes as seen from the Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp in southern Damascus on April 24, 2018

According to the Britain-based Observatory, the Syrian army is leading the battle, with Russian officers supervising and Palestinian militias contributing hundreds of foot soldiers.

The Observatory said dozens of fighters had already been killed in the fighting on both sides.

IS jihadists have posted several grisly pictures on their social media accounts purportedly showing regime or allied fighters they beheaded.

But the jihadists are unlikely to hold out much longer. Seven years of conflict that made Yarmuk one of the conflict's worst humanitarian and military flashpoints looks set to end in further death and destruction.

- Iconic picture -

Yarmuk camp was opened in 1957 with tents set up for Palestinian families forced to leave their homes by the establishment of Israel. These were soon replaced by permanent structures.

A Sukhoi Su-22 Syrian military jet releases bombs over southern Damascus in the area of Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp on April 24, 2018

The wider area of Yarmuk was also home to hundreds of thousands of Syrians.

In 2011, regime attempts to use the traditionally apolitical Palestinian refugee community to raise tensions with Israel and divert attention from the internal uprising in Syria backfired.

Syrian opposition groups came to see Yarmuk as a potential forward base in their campaign to unseat Assad. The fighting that ensued levelled the area and forced most residents to flee.

According to the United Nations' agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, most of the camp's 6,000 residents have been displaced by the recent fighting.

A Syrian government tank drives down a street in southern Damascus on April 23, 2018, during a regime offensive targeting the Islamic State group

The agency's spokesman Chris Gunness said he was "deeply concerned" about them and asked the belligerent parties to give the UN humanitarian access to the besieged neighbourhood.

Yarmuk, which was meant as haven for displaced Palestinians, had come to symbolise a humanitarian catastrophe that caused some of the worst displacement since World War II.

A picture taken during a UN food distribution in January 2014 gripped the world's imagination and drew attention to Yarmuk's plight.

The photo -- depicting thousands of haggard-looking civilians thronging the ruins of their neighbourhood as they waited for a food handout -- drew parallels with the Warsaw ghetto, even in the Israeli press.

Smoke and flames rise behind the minaret of a mosque in Yarmuk, a Palestinian refugee camp on the edge of Damascus, during overnight regime shelling on the southern district of the capital held by the Islamic State (IS) group on April 22, 2018

Gunness, the UNRWA spokesman, said that year: "The lexicon of man's inhumanity to man has a new word: Yarmuk."

Stories of children eating paper, families surviving on animal feed, and outbreaks of typhoid made Yarmuk a cause celebre, contributing to the global pressure on Assad.
The memorial in Villers-Bretonneux lists the names of more than 10,000 Australian soldiers killed in France and Belgium during World War I

The prime ministers of France and Australia urged their countries never to forget the horrors of World War I on Tuesday, as they opened a high-tech museum dedicated to the 295,000 Australians who volunteered on the Western Front.

A hundred years to the day since the key battle of Villers-Bretonneux in which Australian, British and French troops served alongside each other, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull paid tribute to his country's war dead.

"Both our countries lost the finest of their generation in this dreadful conflict," Turnbull told French premier Edouard Philippe as they opened the Sir John Monash Centre, a new museum in the Somme region of northern France that became synonymous with the wartime slaughter.

"We must remember all of this -- especially our nations' leaders -- reminding us why we always strive to resolve conflict."

Turnbull spoke after he and his wife Lucy laid flowers at the grave of her great-uncle, an army doctor who died in his brothers' arms aged 26.

The 63-million-euro ($76-million) museum, at the Australian National Memorial just outside Villers-Bretonneux, uses life-size videos of soldiers and a 360-degree cinema to showcase the role of Australian troops.

"Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson advised on the filming of scenes for its video displays, which were shot in Australia, France and New Zealand to bring the experience of trench warfare to life.

Its inauguration came as thousands of Australians flocked to the Somme ahead of a dawn ceremony at the memorial Wednesday to mark Anzac Day, Australia's national day of remembrance.

"You walk through the graveyards and see that they're 19, they're 20. It breaks your heart to see it," said Greg Henderson, a salesman from Brisbane.

He came to honour his great-grandfather Charles Joseph Mackie, who died at nearby Proyart.

Henderson will be among some 8,000 Australians marking the special centenary Anzac Day at the memorial, where Turnbull, Philippe and Britain's Prince Charles are set to give speeches.

- Far from home -

Australian Colonel Scott Clingan escorts French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe (right) and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (second right) and his wife Lucy through the military cemetery in Villers-Bretonneux

German troops seized Villers-Bretonneux on April 24, 1918, in a major westward push towards the end of the war.

But Australian and British troops, backed by French forces, launched a counter-offensive, stopping the German advance towards the strategic city of Amiens.

Over the course of the war, some 46,000 Australian troops died and more than 130,000 were injured -- huge losses for a nation whose population was only five million at the time.

Only one soldier's identified body was ever repatriated to Australia, where the country's war losses remain deeply ingrained in the national identity.

Philippe told the museum's opening ceremony that France had a duty to remember those who died on its soil so far from home.

"We have to tell their stories, and again and again show the young faces of these men who lost their youth in the mud of the trenches," he said.

"We will never forget their sacrifice."

The museum, which opened to the public earlier this month, is named after Australian general John Monash.

Visitors can enter a recreation of the trenches, view soldiers' diaries, photographs and letters and watch archive footage on hundreds of screens.
UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura warns that the rebel-held region of Idlib could be the next humanitarian disaster in Syria as Damascus tries to re-assert control

UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura on Tuesday urged the international community to prevent a fresh humanitarian disaster in the rebel-held region of Idlib, the likely next target of the regime's fightback.

Mistura told a donor meeting in Brussels that Idlib risked suffering the same fate as Aleppo, seized in a Russian-backed Syrian offensive in 2016, and Eastern Ghouta, retaken by the regime shortly after an alleged chemical attack in early April.

"We were and are concerned on the humanitarian side by Idlib. Because Idlib is the big new challenge, 2.5 million people," Mistura told a press conference with EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini.

"And you will not believe that all of them are terrorists of course. There are women, children, civilians, and this is looming up there," he added.

"So we hope that this would be an occasion for making sure that Idlib does not become the new new Aleppo, the new Eastern Ghouta, because the dimensions are completely different," Mistura added.

The EU and UN on Tuesday began a two-day push to drum up fresh aid pledges for war-torn Syria and reinvigorate the faltering Geneva peace process as the conflict enters its eighth year.

The meeting comes in the wake of strikes by the United States, France and Britain on Syrian military installations in response to the alleged chemical weapons incident in Douma which has been widely blamed on Damascus.

Mistura said a UN Security Council retreat in a secluded farmhouse in Sweden at the weeken called in a bid to overcome its paralysis on Syria had lowered the "temperature" but failed to find a political solution.

"After two weeks of terribly tense and rhetorically intense meetings, there was a need again to bring down the temperature," Mistura said.

"Has this avoided or completely resolved the division which exists in the Security Council on Syria, which is the biggest problem the UN has... no," he added.

"Has the atmosphere gone down and the understanding that there are common issues that can be faced together, yes,"

Mogherini and de Mistura both called on Russia, Iran and Turkey -- the three powers involved in the so-called Astana process seeking peace in Syria -- to do more to reach a ceasefire.

"The main message is that Syria is not a chessboard, it's not geopolitical game," former Italian foreign minister Mogherini told the news conference.

"I believe they (the three Astana process countries) have not only a responsibility but also an interest in making the ceasefire work."
The opposition accuses the government of trying to prevent their candidates from contesting a presidential election

Hundreds of opposition activists in Madagascar on Tuesday called for the president to step down on a fourth straight day of anti-government protests in which at least two people have died.

Seven months ahead of presidential and legislative elections, the opposition accuses the regime of trying to elbow them out of the race through new electoral laws they claim benefit the incumbent.

They allege that the new laws could bar some candidates from standing in the presidential election.

Crowds gathered at a square in front of the capital Antananarivo's town hall asking President Hery Rajaonarimampianina to quit.

"Today we officially demand the resignation of the government, starting with you the president," Hanitriniaina Razafimanantsoa, a leading protester said.

The crowd chanted back "Right now, right now, right now".

Two people were killed and at least 16 people wounded on the first day of the protests on Saturday, which the president denounced as an attempted coup.

Authorities had declared the Saturday protest illegal, but about 1,000 opposition activists defied the order and security forces used tear gas to break up the gathering.

The large Indian Ocean island, which has been beset by decades of political instability, is due to hold polls in late November or December.

Elected in 2013, Rajaonarimampianina has not yet announced whether he will stand for re-election.

But two former heads of state have already said they would contest: Marc Ravalomanana, who was president from 2002 to 2009, and Andry Rajoelina, who removed Ravalomanana during a coup.

Both were barred from running in 2013 and their parties have been involved in the demonstrations.
Smoke rises from buildings in Yarmuk, a Palestinian refugee camp on the edge of Damascus, during regime shelling targeting Islamic State (IS) group positions in the southern district of the Syrian capital

At least 18 pro-Syrian regime combatants have been killed in 24 hours of fighting in southern Damascus against the Islamic State group, a monitor said Tuesday.

That brought to at least 52 the number of pro-government fighters killed in nearly a week of military operations against Yarmuk and adjacent IS-held neighbourhoods, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

No confirmation of the casualties was available from Syrian officials, who do not usually disclose losses within army ranks.

The Britain-based Observatory said at least 35 jihadist fighters were also killed during the same period.

There are an estimated 1,000 IS fighters left inside the enclave in the capital's southern neighbourhoods, which include Yarmuk and the adjacent districts of Hajar al-Aswad and Qadam.

In Qadam on Tuesday, soldiers could be seen pushing a fresh advance, backed by Syrian government air strikes and artillery fire, during an organised press tour.

Columns of black smoke were snaking up from a monochrome sea of devastated buildings, an AFP correspondent said.

The salvos of shelling paused briefly, and the steady crack of machinegun fire took their place.

Barricades sealed off every street in Qadam, which was once a bustling stop on Syria's train line but whose carriages are now abandoned and left in ruins.

From their perch in Yarmuk -- which has a view of the presidential palace in Damascus -- jihadists have fired rockets on the capital's centre.

According to state news agency SANA, five civilians were killed Tuesday when a mortar shell crashed into a market area.

The Observatory said the fighting on the ground was fierce, as IS attempted a desperate defence of one of its very last bastions in the country.

After the crumbling of its so-called "caliphate" including its main urban bastions in Syria's north and east, IS is estimated to hold five percent of the country's territory.

IS entrenched itself in large parts of Yarmuk in 2015 and has managed to stay on since then.

The Syrian army's focus on Yarmuk, once the country's largest Palestinian refugee camp, comes as part of its campaign to secure the capital.

It recently retook the opposition enclave of Eastern Ghouta, then reached a string of deals last week for the transfer to northern Syria of rebels who had been allowed to remain in villages near Damascus as part of 2016 reconciliation agreements.

A successful operation in Yarmuk, which is anticipated, would seal the regime's reconquest of the capital, a major prize for a resurgent President Bashar al-Assad.

More than 350,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Assad broke out in 2011 and millions have been displaced.
The attacks hit the city of Quetta in the southwestern province of Balochistan, where police and troops have been fighting Islamist militants and separatist groups for more than a decade

At least six policemen were killed and 15 security personnel were wounded Tuesday when three suicide bombers blew themselves up in quick succession in southwest Pakistan, officials said.

The attacks hit the city of Quetta in the southwestern province of Balochistan, where police and troops have been fighting Islamist militants and separatist groups for more than a decade.

"The first suicide bomber blew himself up outside a paramilitary frontier corps checkpost in the outskirts of Quetta city after he was spotted by the guards," Ghulam Ali Baloch, home secretary of Balochistan told AFP.

"Just in the next moments, another bomber who was covering the first attacker exchanged fire with the security forces and later blew himself up."

Some eight paramilitary officials were wounded in this attack, he said.

Around half an hour later a third bomber drove his motorcycle into a police truck on a road leading to the airport, killing at least six policemen, Baloch added.

Moazam Jah Ansari, Quetta's police chief, confirmed the attacks and said the bombing of the police truck was so powerful that the vehicle overturned.

It was not clear whether the third bomber was wearing an explosive vest or if the bike was filled with explosives.

"Seven policemen were injured in this attack," he said, adding that the three blasts may have been coordinated.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Islamist militants and separatist groups have waged violence in mineral-rich Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, for more than a decade.

Balochistan is the largest of Pakistan's four provinces but its roughly seven million people have long argued they do not get a fair share of its vast gas and mineral wealth.
Between 2005 and 2015, Invenergy built 11 wind farms in Poland, investing 'hundreds of millions of dollars of equity capital to develop and construct the projects.'

A US renewable energy group Invenergy said on Tuesday it had begun international arbitration against Poland, claiming it stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars (euros) after the EU country reneged on its commitments to build wind farms.

Between 2005 and 2015, Invenergy built 11 wind farms in Poland, investing "hundreds of millions of dollars of equity capital to develop and construct the projects."

They had been agreed as part of strategy to slowly wean Poland off its heavy reliance on coal and increase the share of renewables in its energy mix.

But the current new government under the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party is more favourable to the coal industry and has put the brakes on the renewables drive.

Last year, it pushed through legislation limiting existing subsidies for wind farms and imposing tight restrictions on the construction of new ones.

Critics, including Invenergy, argue such measures make it virtually impossible for wind farms to turn a profit or for new ones to be built.

Invenergy accused Warsaw of initiating "a series of coordinated actions intended to terminate or avoid obligations under the Invenergy contracts and destabilize the broader renewable energy environment for investors."

It said its 11 eleven wind farms remain operational but were not profitable. And it was putting further wind farm projects in Poland on hold.

Invenergy said it was forced to turn to international arbitration after "multiple Polish state-controlled entities openly disregarded final and binding decisions by the Polish courts, including the Supreme Court" that have ruled in the company's favour.

Neither the prime minister's office nor the energy ministry were immediately available for comment.

Both the current right-wing government and previous administrations have based their energy policy on plentiful domestic coal and taken little action to invest in or promote renewables to mitigate heavy pollution.

Smog from coal has spiked to record levels nationwide in recent years, with experts estimating there are some 50,000 premature pollution-related deaths per year in the country of 38 million people.

Poland is set to host the UN's COP 24 international conference on climate change late this year.
US President Donald Trump faces a May 12 deadline to decide on the fate of the Iran accord

US President Donald Trump pilloried the Iran nuclear deal as "insane" Tuesday and threatened "problems" if Tehran restarts controversial programs, exposing a deep rift with European allies.

Hosting French President Emmanuel Macron in the Oval Office, Trump punctured a carefully choreographed display of trans-Atlantic camaraderie with an angry tirade against the three-year old nuclear accord.

The US leader groused that the agreement -- inked by the United States, Iran, Europe, Russia and China -- does nothing to tackle Tehran's ballistic missiles program or support for militant groups across the Middle East.

"People know my views on the Iran deal. It was a terrible deal. It should have never ever been made," Trump railed. "It's insane. It's ridiculous."

The agreement, still backed by Europe, gave Iran massive sanctions relief and the guarantee of a civilian nuclear program in return for curbs on programs that could be used to develop a nuke.

It did not tackle western complains about Iran's ballistic missile programs or support for militant groups across the Middle East.

Trump faces a May 12 deadline to decide on the fate of the accord and is demanding changes that European capitals believe would represent a legal breach.

Iran, meanwhile, has warned it will ramp up enrichment activities if Trump walks away from the accord, prompting Trump to issue a blunt warning.

"They're not going to be restarting anything. If they restart it, they're going to have big problems, bigger than they ever had before. And you can mark it down," he said.

Macron is visiting Washington, in part, to convince Trump not to walk away from the deal and scuttle years-worth of hard won diplomatic gains.

"The Iran deal is an important issue but we have to take a far broader picture which is security in the overall region," he said Tuesday at the White House.

"What we want to do is to contain Iran and its presence in the region."

For months American and European officials have been working behind the scenes to trying to find a compromise over Trump's demands to change the agreement.

Officials have toyed with the idea of a separate joint declaration: promising to tackle non-nuclear issues, while searching for a tougher successor agreement.

The challenge, they say, is to find a solution that allows the mercurial US president to claim a public victory, while keeping the deal intact.

More hawkish American officials accuse Europeans -- particularly Germany -- of putting business interests ahead of security, and of opposing a tougher stance against Iran to safeguard investments in the Islamic Republic.
Amedeo Clemente Modigliani's 'Nu couche (sur le cote gauche)' The painting will be offered as the highlight of Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale in New York on May 14

A painting of a nude by Amedeo Modigliani is expected to fetch $150 million, the highest ever pre-sale estimate for an artwork at auction, Sotheby's said Tuesday as the work was unveiled in Hong Kong.

Painted in 1917, "Nu couche (sur le cote gauche)" is one of only nine Modigliani nudes in private collectors' hands, making the sale exceptionally rare.

The 147-centimetre-wide (58-inch) oil painting is the largest of the Italian painter's works.

It depicts a nude woman lying on her left side and looking back at the audience, and is the only one of Modigliani's works to depict the entire naked female body on canvas.

"The piece of art is undeniably, tremendously erotic but in a way that depicts the sitter with a sexuality which is supremely confident and self-possessed," said Simon Shaw, Co-Head Worldwide of Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern Art Department.

The painting will be offered as the highlight of Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale in New York on May 14.

Sotheby's did not disclose the identity of the seller.

The previous highest pre-sale estimate for any artwork at auction was $140 million for Pablo Picasso's "Les femmes d'Alger (version O)" in 2015 at Christie's in New York.

Another of Modigliani's nudes was sold for $170.4 million in New York in 2015 to a Chinese collector.

The world record hammer price was broken in 2017 with the $450 million sale of Leonardo da Vinci's "Salvator Mundi". It had been estimated to sell for $100 million.

Wealthy Asian buyers have shown frenzied interest and deep pockets at art auctions in recent years, with sales of paintings, diamonds and ancient ceramics shattering world records.

"Many of the greatest works of western art from the 20th century have sold to Asian collectors in recent times, so we think unveiling the picture here is the right move," Shaw said at the Hong Kong unveiling.
Former US President George H.W. Bush leaves after the funeral of his wife First Lady Barbara Bush, followed by his daughter-in-law former First Lady Laura Bush and former President George W. Bush

Former US president George H.W. Bush was being treated for a blood infection on Tuesday after being admitted to a Texas hospital shortly after the funeral of his wife, Barbara.

President Donald Trump wished the 93-year-old former president a "very speedy recovery" as he welcomed French leader Emmanuel Macron to the White House.

Bush's office said he was "responding to treatments and appears to be recovering" after "contracting an infection that spread to his blood."

A family spokesman, Jim McGrath, told CNN that Bush was awake, alert and talking.

The 41st president was admitted to Houston Methodist Hospital on Sunday morning, the day after the memorial service in the Texas city of his wife of 73 years.

Barbara Bush died on April 17 at the age of 92.

George H.W. Bush, his wife, Barbara, and son George W. Bush with his wife, Laura, in 2002

George H.W. Bush attended the funeral along with three other former presidents, his son, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

Bush, who suffers from Parkinson's disease and is wheelchair-bound, has been hospitalized on several occasions in recent years, including for pneumonia.

A former congressman, US ambassador and CIA director, Bush served as vice president to Ronald Reagan for eight years after losing the 1980 Republican primary.

He was elected president in 1988, but served only one term, defeated by Democrat Clinton in 1992.

After retiring from public life, Bush joined Clinton to raise funds for victims of the 2004 Asian tsunami and the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

In February 2011, Obama awarded Bush the highest US civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom.
A senior British diplomat was forced to apologise after identifying the Golden Temple in Amritrar, one of the holiest place in Sikhism, as a mosque instead of a temple

A senior British diplomat was forced to apologise on Tuesday after identifying one of the holiest place in Sikhism as a mosque instead of a temple.

Simon McDonald, permanent under-secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, had tweeted on Monday referring to a picture of the "Golden Mosque" in Amritsar, northern India, being presented to the UK's deputy high commissioner in Chandigarh.

Realising his mistake, he wrote: "I was wrong: I am sorry. I should of course have said the Golden Temple or, better, Sri Harmandir Sahib".

Bhai Amrik Singh, chairman of the Sikh Federation, said: "This was a major gaffe by a top civil servant and totally unacceptable.

"It demonstrates a remarkable level of ignorance from someone in his position," he said.

The mistake is particularly sensitive because of suspicions of British involvement in the Indian army's deadly 1984 raid on the Golden Temple.

Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the main opposition Labour Party, on Tuesday said he would launch an independent inquiry into the British military's role if he becomes prime minister.

At least 400 people were killed in the Indian army's attack on the temple, which was aimed at flushing out armed separatists demanding an independent Sikh homeland.

The error follows criticism of Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson for risking offending Buddhists during a 2017 visit to the Shwedagon Pagoda, the religion's most sacred site in Myanmar's capital, Yangon.

Andrew Patrick, the UK ambassador to the country, was forced to tell Johnson to stop reciting the opening verse to Rudyard Kipling's "The Road to Mandalay", which chronicles a retired British serviceman's memories of colonial service.

"Not appropriate" he was caught on camera telling Britain's top diplomat.
Elephants ferry thousands of tourists a year to Jaipur's Amer Fort

Dozens of elephants used for tourist rides at one of India's most recognised forts are blind or suffering other ailments, a report said Tuesday, calling for the practice to end.

Nineteen elephants used to ferry visitors to Rajasthan's famous Amer Fort were blind or vision impaired while nine others had tuberculosis, found a report commissioned by the government's Animal Welfare Board of India.

Almost all the 102 elephants examined by government officials and the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) displayed some psychological distress or health troubles like bruised footpads.

Tens of thousands of tourists visit the Amer Fort, a medieval complex on a hilltop outside Jaipur, every year and many opt to enter its imposing gates on the back of an elephant.

But the government's animal welfare board, which sanctioned the study with PETA, said the captive elephants were unfit for safaris and such joy rides endangered both the elephants and tourists alike.

"Shocking reports of blind and TB-infected elephants forced to haul illegal, backbreaking loads day in and day out are exactly why these rides must stop," PETA India's Nikunj Sharma said in a statement.

The report said elephant handlers often overloaded the elephants beyond limits considered safe. The tusks were missing on 47 beasts, raising suspicion the ivory was sold on illegal markets, it said.

The elephants are owned privately but registered with the government.

More than 100 were listed with authorities in 2017 but many more are brought from outside Rajasthan, India's western desert state, to meet demand during peak tourist season.
During even the first century of its founding, America had produced the worlds largest capital driven economy. How was such a young country able to outrun many of its older competitors? Founding Father Alexander Hamilton is perhaps the primary figure to have kick-started Americas successful economic landscape.

In an article written for The Online Library of Law and Liberty, Samuel Gregg, Actons Director of Research, reviews Alexander Hamilton on Finance, Credit, and Debt, and gives readers a historical glimpse of the financial reforms bolstering the American economy.

His voluminous writings reflect a remarkable capacity to relate economic writingsranging from the apostle of free markets, Adam Smith, to Smiths fellow Scot and the 18th centurys champion of mercantilism, Sir James Steuartto ancient and modern political debates. From Hamiltons perspective, those charged with the responsibility of government couldnt pursue economic policy as if it could be determined in isolation from a nations political wellbeing or core beliefs. Nor, however, did Hamilton believe that governments should act as if the hard fiscal and financial truths of the moment could somehow be ignoredHamiltons financial innovations, it turns out, contributed to one of the most notable political successes of someone who despised him. They also helped realize a nation-states territorial goals in that rarest of ways, which is to say, relatively peacefully. For that all Americans, past, present, and future, owe Alexander Hamilton a great non-monetary debt.

Read Greggs full piece, Founding Financial Father.
A picture taken on October 21, 2017 shows a general view of heavily damaged buildings in Raqa, after a Kurdish-led force expelled the Islamic State group from the northern Syrian city

The UN is intentionally providing only barebones aid in the former Islamic State stronghold of Raqa in Syria to avoid attracting more civilians to the still highly dangerous city, an official said Tuesday.

"We don't want to start too vigorous programmes... because we don't want to make the impression that Raqa city is safe," said Jakob Kern, head of the World Food Programme's operations in Syria.

"Because it is not safe. Nobody should actually live there," he told journalists in Geneva.

His comments came after the UN earlier this month conducted its first humanitarian mission to Raqa since it was liberated from IS last October.

The city, which IS proclaimed part of its "caliphate" in 2014, remains littered with mines, said Kern, who himself visited Raqa a few weeks ago.

He said on average two people are killed each day by stepping on mines or other unexploded devices.

"You have a city that was completely destroyed... completely mined," he said, "and yet 100,000 people are living there."

The WFP is for now providing food aid to some 50,000 people in Raqa through local partners on the ground.

But Kern said the organisation would not be sending in its own staff for the time being.

"We decided that it is way too dangerous for us to work there," he said, stressing "we are not exposing our own staff to that type of risk."

Kern said that when he and other WFP staff entered Raqa they had had one security officer for two staff members to keep them safe.

Kern, who only has a month left heading WFP's Syria operations, also addressed the situation elsewhere in Syria.

In Deir Ezzor, where 100,000 people were besieged by IS for three years, he said WFP's high-altitude airdrops of food aid had helped "avert famine".

When a WFP team went in two months ago, "people were overwhelmingly saying the same thing: without that food, we would not have survived," he said.
"What's important to us is that the defensive weapons the Russians are giving Syria won't be used against us," Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman told the news website Ynet

Israel's Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Tuesday that his country would attack Russian S-300 air defence systems in Syria if they were used against Israeli targets.

His remarks came a day after the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported that Moscow could soon start to deliver S-300 systems to its ally Damascus, and cited a source as warning of "catastrophic" consequences if they were attacked.

"What's important to us is that the defensive weapons the Russians are giving Syria won't be used against us," Lieberman told the news website Ynet.

"If they're used against us, we'll act against them."

Russia and Syria signed an accord in 2010 for the S-300 system but the missiles have not been delivered because of Israeli pressure, according to Kommersant.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier this month that no decision had yet been taken on the S-300 missiles.

The Russians have deployed the S-300 around their own Tartus naval base on Syria's Mediterranean coast and the more advanced S-400 at their Hmeimim air base in western Syria.

"We have an open line; we really do have discourse" with the Russians, said Lieberman, noting that their systems had never been used against Israel.

"For several years we've been constantly in coordination and able to avoid friction with the Russians."

Israel and Syria are still technically at war, though the armistice line on the sector of the Golan Heights which the Jewish state seized from its Arab neighbour in 1967 was largely quiet for decades until the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011.

The Israeli side of the Golan has since seen regular spillover fire, and Israel has carried out dozens of air strikes on Syrian armed forces and their allies.

Israel says its strikes aim to stop advanced weapons deliveries to Hezbollah, a Lebanese armed group allied to the Syrian government and with which the Jewish state fought a devastating war in 2006.
Iran's president Hassan Rouhani gives a speech in the city of Tabriz in the northwestern East-Azerbaijan province on April 25, 2018, during an event commemorating the city as the 2018 capital of Islamic tourism

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani rejected any hopes of rewriting a nuclear deal with world powers Wednesday, while his French counterpart vowed to US lawmakers that everything would be done to stop Iran ever acquiring atomic weapons.

In their different ways, Europe, Iran and Russia are all seeking to convince US President Donald Trump not to abandon the landmark 2015 deal that curbed Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.

Trump has called the existing accord "insane" and "ridiculous", in part because its restrictions start to expire in 2025.

But addressing the US Congress at the end of his pomp-filled, three-day visit to Washington, French President Emmanuel Macron said: "Iran shall never possess any nuclear weapons. Not now. Not in five years. Not in 10 years. Never."

He has proposed an additional deal that extends Iran's nuclear restrictions while also curbing its ballistic missile programme and support for militias in the Middle East.

In Iran, Rouhani took a more aggressive tack, reiterating that the Islamic republic would not accept any changes to the deal.

"We have an agreement called the JCPOA," said Rouhani in a fiery speech, using its technical name.

"It will either last or not. If the JCPOA stays, it stays in full."

From Europe, a host of voices have urged Trump to build on the deal, rather than tear it up.

"There is one deal existing, it's working, it needs to be preserved," said EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini.

Moscow also reiterated its support, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling reporters: "We believe that no alternative exists so far" to the nuclear deal, and demanding that Iran be involved in any further discussions.

The next to press the point will be German Chancellor Angela Merkel when she visits Washington on Friday.

"The biggest priority is maintaining the existing nuclear accord. It was negotiated by seven countries and the EU and can't be renegotiated by one or other party," said German foreign spokesman Rainer Breul.

"President Macron... spoke of the need for supplementary agreements. The question is whether, and in what circumstances, Iran would be ready to enter into such a process," he added.

- 'A high-rise builder' -

The Iranian nuclear agreement

Rouhani's speech was particularly fiery, ridiculing Trump as "a trader, a businessman, a high-rise builder, how can he judge about global issues?

"You have no expertise in politics, nor in law, nor in international accords," he said.

Iran has the support of all other parties to the accord, who say it is working and Tehran has stuck to its commitments.

Macron, who has built a warm rapport with Trump, has positioned himself as an emissary for European officials seeking a compromise that allows the mercurial US president to claim a public victory, while keeping the deal intact.

US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron hold a joint press conference

But for now, even Macron had to admit he could not read whether Trump would simply walk away from the existing deal when the renewal deadline arrives on May 12.

True to his background in reality TV, Trump has kept everyone guessing.

"This is a deal with decayed foundations," he said. "We're going to see what happens on the 12th."

Iran has warned it will ramp up enrichment if Trump scraps the accord, prompting a blunt warning from the US leader.

"They're not going to be restarting anything. If they restart it, they're going to have big problems, bigger than they ever had before. And you can mark it down," Trump said.

The proposal that Macron put forward to his US counterpart involves preserving the existing agreement on the first of "four pillars" of a future deal.

The others would address the period after 2025, when certain clauses concerning nuclear activities will sunset; Tehran's highly controversial ballistic missile program; and its "destabilizing" role in the region.

"For me it's progress, it avoids falling into the complete unknown if the US decision is a hard exit," said Macron, who confirmed that the proposal was a strategy coordinated with European partners and not a unilateral one.

Some hawkish American officials argue that the Europeans, particularly Germany, oppose a tougher stance against Iran to safeguard their business interests there.

That is sharply rejected by European officials, who are increasingly frustrated at spending time handling Trump's complaints rather than focusing on the deepening crises of the Middle East.

The disagreement threatens to plunge transatlantic relations to their lowest point since the Iraq war, despite the lavish welcome Trump put on for Macron's state visit.

And meanwhile, Western countries have found themselves increasingly sidelined from issues such as the Syrian war -- underlined again on Wednesday when Iran, Russia and Turkey announced a new summit to discuss the conflict this Saturday in Moscow.

burs-er/dv/ceb
SDF members gather during a celebration at Al-Naim square in Raqa, Syria on October 19, 2017

Some of the US-backed Kurdish forces that had abandoned offensive operations against the Islamic State group in Syria have started returning to fight the jihadists, a US military official said Tuesday.

Kurdish members of the Syrian Democratic Forces -- made up of Kurds, Syrian Arabs and other groups -- had quit the Middle Euphrates River Valley in February after Turkey sent troops into Syria and launched an operation against the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia in its Afrin enclave.

Turkey drove the group from the city on March 18.

The sudden departure of SDF fighters resulted in a slow-down in missions against IS in two remaining jihadist pockets along the river.

"We are encouraged by the return of some Syrian Democratic Force partners to the Middle Euphrates River Valley," said Colonel Ryan Dillon, a spokesman for the US-led coalition fighting IS in Iraq and Syria.

"More combat power is returning to Euphrates River Valley to really turn it on to the ISIS elements," he added.

Dillon did not provide any details on the numbers of fighters returning.

The United States has since late 2014 led an international coalition to defeat IS in Syria and Iraq.

President Donald Trump recently threw America's commitment to Syria into doubt, especially after IS is defeated, when he said he wanted US forces out as soon as possible.
Gustav Soderstrom, Spotify Chief Research and Development Officer (R), shown with Spotify's Troy Carter, Head of Creator Services, said expanding the company's free service is part of the platform's growth strategy

Spotify on Tuesday announced a major expansion of its free service, hoping that a more option-rich platform will boost its ambitions to make music streaming even bigger worldwide.

Weeks after its successful listing on the New York Stock Exchange, the leading streaming company said it saw wide possibilities to grow and identified its free, advertising-backed offering as key to its strategy.

"We know that it's the only way that we are going to be able to achieve our goal of getting billions of fans on the platform and getting the entire music industry to the size that we think it should be," Gustav Soderstrom, the Swedish company's chief research and development officer, told a news conference in New York.

In the first significant redesign of its free tier since 2014, Spotify said that non-paying users will be able to select songs to play on up to 15 playlists -- roughly 40 hours of music per day.

Barbar Zafar, Spotify VP of Product Developement, at a Spotify annoucement in New York

Non-subscribers -- who earlier had to settle for a shuffle of tracks -- can create their own playlists or choose from existing compilations, as well as ones that are automatically generated to adapt to users' tastes.

Spotify said it has also engineered the new free service to take up 75 percent less mobile data to draw in users who have limits on their cellular packages.

It said that users in important emerging markets such as Brazil, Mexico and Vietnam relied most of the time on wi-fi to listen, indicating concerns over how much data the app eats up.

Spotify unveiled the revamp hours after the industry announced that global revenue from recorded music soared 8.1 percent in 2017 -- the fastest rate on record.

The third straight year of expansion is almost entirely attributable to Spotify and rival streaming companies such as Deezer, Tidal and the platforms of Apple and Amazon.

- Ample room for growth -

Spotify is by far the largest streaming company. But Soderstrom said that far more people could be listening in a world of more than seven billion people, roughly a quarter of whom carry smartphones.

Spotify says it had 71 million subscribers at the end of 2017 and another 90 million users of the free service

Spotify says it had 71 million subscribers at the end of 2017 and that another 90 million used the free service. It is often a gateway, with Soderstrom saying that 60 percent of Spotify's new subscribers last year migrated from the free tier.

The advertising-backed service -- known in the industry as "freemium" and shunned by most rivals -- was long controversial among artists and labels who said it amounted to giving away music for free.

But Soderstrom said that Spotify reached new licensing agreements with labels for the expanded freemium. Spotify says it has paid back more than eight billion euros ($9.8 billion) to rights-holders.

And while many artists grumble that they see little of the music industry's newfound wealth, the most vocal critics have been mollified. Pop superstar Taylor Swift, who once boycotted Spotify, recently tied up with the company to release a video.

Soderstrom likened Spotify's free service to an old-school radio station that popularizes hits and its subscriber-based platform to a CD vendor.

"Today Spotify is both the radio station and the record store. We both create demand for music streaming and we monetize it. Unlike radio, though, importantly, we actually share the advertising revenue with artists and labels," he said.
The Israeli government has scrapped its plan to forcibly deport African migrants, a move that had sparked protests

Israel announced on Tuesday it has abandoned controversial plans to expel African migrants who entered the Jewish state illegally, after failing to find a country willing to host them.

The plan had targeted some 42,000 migrants of Eritrean and Sudanese origin currently living in Israel and denied refugee status or asylum.

Government legal advisers informed the Supreme Court of the plan's cancellation after certain unspecified countries refused to host the migrants, a government source said.

"At this stage, the possibility of removal to a third country is no longer relevant," the advisers said in a statement.

Migrants and aid workers have said Israel was negotiating with Rwanda and Uganda to accept the deportees.

The deportation plan has attracted a wave of criticism, including from the UN refugee agency, Holocaust survivors, and parts of Israeli civil society.

The government originally announced a plan under which it would present migrants with $3,500 (2,800 euros) and the opportunity to leave on their own accord, or face indefinite imprisonment with eventual forced expulsion.

In early April, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to cancel the plan, saying a new agreement with the UN would allow 16,000 migrants to be transferred to "developed countries like Canada, Germany or Italy".

In exchange, Israel would give residency to an equal number of migrants.

But the premier cancelled the plan several hours later, after caving to pressure from his right-wing base.

Shortly after news of Tuesday's cancellation broke, Netanyahu tweeted that he had instructed Interior Minister Aryeh Deri "to immediately prepare for the reopening of the detention facilities to the infiltrators".

The prime minister was referring to the February closure of the Holot detention centre in southern Israel.

Some 200 migrants detained for refusing to leave Israel were released in mid-April following a Supreme Court ruling.

Israel's highest judicial authority had ordered their release because of the government's inability to conclude an agreement with third-party host countries.

Human rights groups have long condemned Israel for its immigration policy and treatment of Africans seeking asylum.

Most of the migrants arrived to Israel after 2007, mainly from the Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

Security along the once porous border has since been signficantly tightened.

Most of the migrants have settled in a number of poor neighbourhoods in the coastal city of Tel Aviv, the country's economic capital.

Amnesty International welcomed the cancellation, but expressed concern government's plan but voiced concern over the continued practise of "voluntary" expulsions.

"Israel is still conducting what it calls 'voluntary' deportations, though in reality there is nothing voluntary about them," the London-based rights watchdog said in a statement.

"Israel remains under the obligation not to transfer anyone to a country where they would be at real risk of serious human rights violations," it added.
US President Donald Trump R) and French President Emmanuel Macron hold a joint press conference at the White House

French President Emmanuel Macron and his American counterpart Donald Trump called jointly Tuesday for a new nuclear deal with Iran, after the US leader denounced the three-year-old accord as "insane."

"I can say that we have had very frank discussions on that, just the two of us," Macron told a joint press conference with Trump at his side.

"We, therefore, wish from now on to work on a new deal with Iran."

Trump's European allies have repeatedly tried to persuade him not to walk away from the 2015 deal, which gave Iran massive sanctions relief and the guarantee of a civilian nuclear program in return for curbs on programs that could be used to develop an atomic weapon.

It did not tackle western complaints about Iran's ballistic missile programs or support for militant groups across the Middle East.

Trump faces a May 12 deadline to decide on its fate and is demanding changes that many in European capitals believe would represent a legal breach.

"I think we will have a great shot at doing a much bigger, maybe, deal," said Trump, stressing that any new deal would have to be built on "solid foundations."

"This is a deal with decayed foundations. It's a bad deal, it's a bad structure. It's falling down," the US leader said. "We're going to see what happens on the 12th."

When asked to clarify if he meant he was pushing for a new accord, or an add-on agreement, Macron said: "I'm not saying that we move from one agreement to another."

The French president said a new deal would have to include three additional elements: Tehran's ballistic missile program, its influence across the Middle East, and what happens after 2025 -- when under the current accord Iran would be able to progressively restart part of its nuclear program.

He called the initial 2015 deal only the "first pillar" of an eventual wider deal.

For months, American and European officials have been working behind the scenes to try to find a compromise over Trump's demands to change the agreement.

Officials have toyed with the idea of a separate joint declaration: promising to tackle non-nuclear issues, while searching for a tougher successor accord.

Iran, meanwhile, has warned it will ramp up enrichment activities if Trump walks away from the accord, prompting Trump to issue a blunt warning.

"They're not going to be restarting anything. If they restart it, they're going to have big problems, bigger than they ever had before. And you can mark it down," the US president said.
President Donald Trump said the United States wanted to "leave a strong and lasting footprint" in Syria, at a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday appeared to dial back a promise to withdraw US troops from Syria immediately, saying it was important to not allow Iranian influence to grow in the country.

Stating that troops would be coming home soon, Trump nonetheless said that the United States wanted to "leave a strong and lasting footprint" in the country.

"We don't want to give Iran open season to the Mediterranean," Trump told a joint press conference with his visiting French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.

"We're going to be coming home relatively soon. We finished at least almost our work with respect to ISIS in Syria, ISIS in Iraq, and we have done a job that nobody has been able to do."

"But with that being said, I do want to come home, but I want to come home also with having accomplished what we have to accomplish."
Amazon employees gathered outside the headquarters of publisher Axel-Springer where Bezos was due to receive a prize

Hundreds of Amazon employers protested Tuesday against working conditions in Berlin, where the megagroup's founder Jeff Bezos was due to receive a prize.

"We have a worldwide problem, a boss who wants to impose American working conditions on the world," said Frank Bsirske, head of the Verdi union representing Amazon workers.

"It's like going back to the 19th century."

Chanting and holding banners reading "Make Bezos pay", workers gathered in front of the German publishing group Axel Springer, where the Amazon boss was to receive an award.

The prize, given by the publisher of German's mass-selling daily Bild, rewards innovation in business, and the choice of Bezos has been met with anger among unions and some politicians.

Andreas Nahles, head of the Social Democrats that are in coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel, said Bezos "didn't deserve any prize", pointing to working conditions at Amazon sites in Germany.

Organisers of Tuesday's rally said Amazon workers came from as far afield as Poland and Italy to voice their displeasure.

The French CFDT union said the gathering "denounced illegal practices and disastrous working conditions" in the company.

It said there had been "several undeclared workplace accidents" and accused Amazon of monitoring the computer records of employees.

Bezos -- the richest man in the world, according to Forbes magazine -- was quoted by the German DPA news agency as saying he was "very proud of our working conditions" in response to the gathering.

In March, Spanish Amazon staff held their first work stoppage to protest new working guidelines.

Organisers of Tuesday's rally said Amazon workers came from as far afield as Poland and Italy to voice their displeasure

Amazon boasts more than 560,000 employees, and reported a profit last year of slightly more than $3 billion (2.45 billion euros).

Amazon has previously said that its salaries are at the higher end of the logistics sector range and employees enjoy attractive benefits.
A woman holds up a portrait of jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi as she demonstrates with activists of the human rights group Amnesty International in front of the embassy of Saudi Arabia in Berlin, in January 2016

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed his "serious concern" over the continued jailing of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi to the kingdom's King Salman bin Abdulaziz, his office said Tuesday.

The 34-year-old prisoner, who ran a blog that promoted free speech and women's rights in Saudi Arabia, was arrested in 2012 and sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in jail for "insulting Islam" in a case that sparked an international outcry.

His wife Ensaf Haidar has been granted asylum by Canada, where she is raising their three children now aged 14, 13 and 10 as a single mother.

According to a readout of Trudeau's call with the Saudi king, the two "spoke about the importance of respecting human rights and freedom of speech, as well as democratic reforms in Saudi Arabia."

Trudeau "also raised consular issues, and expressed his ongoing, serious concern about the imprisonment of human rights activist Raif Badawi."

In January, Haidar had held out fresh hopes that her husband might receive a royal pardon, after European lawmaker Josef Weidenholzer returned from meetings with human rights groups in Riyadh a few months earlier.

But that did not materialize.

Badawi received the first 50 of his 1,000 lashes sentence in January 2015 but there have been no more, following criticism from the European Union, United States, Sweden, Canada, the United Nations and others.
A review of Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics Is Destroying American Democracy by Jonah J. Goldberg, Crown Forum, 2018, 442 pp., $28.

Suicide of the West is intended as a serious work, which it is indeed. But in my opinion it rests snugly on the shelf with Goldbergs two previous books, Liberal Fascism and Tyranny of Cliches. All three present serious topics in a thoughtful and well-researched manner, but his most recent is generally lacking Goldbergs signature rhetorical flourishes, pop culture references and jokey material.

Suicide of the West is super-serious, and self-consciously borrows its title from James Burnhams 1964 book, which was subtitled An Essay on the Meaning and Destiny of Liberalism, Since Burnham and Goldberg are both inextricably linked with the conservative National Review magazine, such intentional theft makes sense in light of social and political changes of the past five decades that have more or less proven Burnham correct. True conservatism has beaten a retreat while the liberal urge  described by Burnham as good intentions overruling common sense practices and laws  has co-opted many on the Right. Echoing Burnham, Goldberg depicts the indifference with which the intelligentsia treats our countrys shared cultural and political heritage. Such indifference has trickled down, percolated upward and permeated nearly every aspect of todays society  aided and abetted by the octopus of an ever-growing administrative state unbeholden to voters; Jacobin educators bent on politicizing students; identity politics; fractious social media; and a host of other social maladies.

Is it any wonder Goldbergs tone has become more somber? For Goldberg, the West has passed already the sweet spot of a democratic republic, although he doesnt precisely note when such a sweet spot actually occurred  however, it might safely be said he believes it was before the presidency of Woodrow Wilson. The 1920s promised a return to normalcy under presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, but this was but a brief remission before big government metastasized under the New Deal programs of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

According to Goldberg, our suicide-in-the-making manifests itself in the symptoms listed in the books subtitle. The method by which were committing cultural hara-kiri is a mixture of ignorance of, entitlement to and, most of all, ingratitude for what Goldberg terms the Miracle. The Miracle, of course, isnt just one or two isolated events that transpired since 1700, the author asserts, but a wide variety of cultural shifts, ideas and writings  and no small amount of unidentifiable butterfly effects that helped propel them.

Into this primordial soup was sprinkled Enlightenment thought and more than a smidgen of trial-and-error. By the time the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were drafted, it didnt seem necessary to thank God for the favors of liberty. Nor, for that matter, was it deemed important to credit John Locke, Montesquieu and a host of others. By the end of the 18th century, the truths they espoused were considered self-evident. It seemed we in the West had it all figured out  until the French Revolution, that is, wherein Swiss political theorist Jean-Jacques Rousseaus noble savages behaved far less than nobly and well beyond savage.

In fact, it is Rousseaus ideas that are depicted by Goldberg as the bete noire of the past 200-some years, which isnt terribly surprising as there exist few conservative thinkers who would disagree. Man is born free, and everywhere he lives in chains became the bumptious refrain of reformers and revolutionaries for whom egalitarian outcomes and other utopian schemes were the false promises masking power grabs. If not for Rousseau laying the groundwork, one wonders if the dialectical machinations of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel or the statism of Karl Marx and a host of others would have gained purchase.

For that matter, the foremost cultural movement immediately following Rousseau was Romanticism, which to this day continues to butt heads with conservative high-mindedness. Goldberg goes to great lengths to describe this cultural standoff as necessary if not completely desirable. Much good can be said regarding Romantic composers and poets, for example, including the staunchly anti-Locke poet and illustrator William Blake. Readers also may recall the ease and admiration thereof by which Russell Kirk included Samuel Taylor Coleridge in his pantheon of conservative thinkers that followed Edmund Burke. Goldberg notes the prominence of monsters in Romantic fiction and popular culture (Frankensteins creation and Godzilla, for example) as perfect subjects for a variety of allegorical purposes both conservative and liberal. As for contemporary pop music, much if not most of it fits under the rubric of Romanticism.

Leaving aside modernism and postmodernism for the sake of this discussion, our culture continues to swoon Romantic. Again, Goldberg doesnt perceive this an issue until Romanticism becomes the prevailing and predominant prism by which all our culture is created and judged. I tend to agree. Populism, nationalism, tribalism and identity politics all stem from a lower-case r romanticism, declares the author, which turns its back on the gains humanity experienced from the Miracle. Goldbergs coverage of the history behind the Miracle is well-tread ground, but a worthwhile endeavor when commenting on our current situation.

A Never-Trump conservative, Goldberg is able to defend his position without denigrating those who voted for our current president. Instead, he goes to great lengths to display his agreement with many of the goals he shares with Trump voters: small government and, by extension, less government intrusion in the daily lives of its citizens. These admirable and worthy goals were expressed by the Tea Party before status quo politicians and pundits labeled its members kooks, which eventually sidelined the movement. Unlike many of his conservative and classical liberal Never Trump fellows, Goldberg can even discern good emanating from the current administration despite his loathing of the presidents character.

Summoning his inner Talking Head, Goldberg ponders, well, how did we get here? On this, we very much agree  the perception that government is the desired answer to all of humanitys spiritual, emotional and material needs. This romantic concept spread like wildfire over the course of the past century despite ample empirical evidence of its negative repercussions. It doesnt take a village to raise a child, after all; it takes at least one parent and preferably two to nurture that child to maturity as an adult individual. That young woman who was the imagined subject of the Democratic campaign slideshow The Life of Julia was another chilling example of statist puffery or, to borrow a word from Goldberg: codswallop.

Concomitant with a reliance on government for cradle to grave sustenance, writes Goldberg, is our ingratitude for the Miracle; that it happened in the first place and was so effective at lifting so many lives from drudgery, poverty, illness and early death. That weve grown soft and forgetful for all things wrought by the Miracle is a point well-taken, as is Goldbergs assertion many of us now feel entitled to the bounties provided by our freedoms however relative those freedoms might seem to followers of Rousseau. Goldberg hesitates to credit God for this miracle, but God and religious faith both play large supporting roles in the story he relates. For as much as Enlightenment thinkers attempted to move God and religious faith from the equation of humanitys purpose, both are inherent to the truly Conservative Mind as enumerated by Russell Kirk in the first of his Ten Conservative Principles, beginning with:

First, the conservative believes that there exists an enduring moral order. That order is made for man, and man is made for it: human nature is a constant, and moral truths are permanent.

Goldberg book serves as proof he understands this whether hes familiar with any of Kirks writings or not.

Suicide of the West, for all its serious intent and ominous title, is a necessary read for todays intellectual drought. By refreshing readers knowledge of the origins of the Miracle and how it helped spread freedom, increased wealth and alleviated poverty and associated miseries over the course of the past two centuries, Goldberg irrigates the nearly parched roots of conservatism and its branches of small government, lightly regulated markets and virtuous living. One hopes hes not too late.
Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called for regional security talks

Iran invited Gulf countries Tuesday to open talks on regional security, telling the United Nations it was time to move away from "hegemonic illusions" that have fueled devastating wars.

Addressing a UN meeting on sustaining peace, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif proposed the creation of a "regional dialogue forum."

"We here invite our neighbors in this volatile waterway, which has seen too many wars, to join us in this endeavor," Zarif added.

The initiative came as US President Donald Trump met his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in Washington to discuss shared concerns about Iran's behavior in the region.

Trump is threatening to scrap the 2015 nuclear deal reached with Iran unless concerns about Tehran's missile program and military role in Syria, Yemen and Lebanon are addressed.

"All over, no matter where you go in the Middle East, you see fingerprints of Iran," Trump told a news conference with Macron in Washington.

In a UN General Assembly speech, Zarif said "advancing hegemonic illusions or attempting to achieve security at the expense of the insecurity of others" had caused conflict, in an apparent reference to arch-rival Saudi Arabia.

The foreign minister said it was crucial to "now shift to a new paradigm based on combining our forces... instead of any one of us seeking to be the strongest in our region."

He suggested creating new security networks to replace what he termed as "security blocs."

Iran is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, supports Hezbollah militias in Lebanon and backs Yemen's Huthi rebels, who are locked in a war with a Saudi-led coalition.

The United Nations is pushing for political talks to end the war in Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country that has been brought to its knees in the three-year conflict.

UN diplomats say Iran has signaled it is ready to put pressure on the Huthis to go to the negotiating table, in what some see as a sign that Tehran wants to confront US complaints about its behavior.

Zarif met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who has held recent meetings with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to press for an end to the war in Yemen.

On the sidelines of the UN meeting, Zarif also held talks with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas to discuss the fate of the Iran nuclear deal as Chancellor Angela Merkel prepares for her White House visit on Friday.
Former FBI Director James Comey's new book, "A Higher Loyalty," sold 600,000 copies in the first week of publication

Former FBI chief James Comey's book "A Higher Loyalty," which details his soured relationship with US President Donald Trump, sold 600,000 copies in its first week, publisher Flatiron Books told AFP on Tuesday.

The highly-anticipated book, released April 17, debuted at the top slot on Amazon's bestseller list, but by Tuesday had slipped to second place.

More than a million copies of "A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership" have been printed to date, Flatiron Books said through a spokesperson.

The book is available in print and digital formats.

Despite the blockbuster figures, fueled in part by his barrage of media interviews and a high-profile book tour, Comey's work is not even the bestselling political tell-all of 2018.

"Fire and Fury," the explosive tell-all by journalist Michael Wolff, which also focuses on Trump, had a stronger start in January, with over one million copies sold in its first week, according to his publisher.

So far, Wolff's controversial account of life in a chaotic White House has sold over two million copies, according to The New York Times.

The sales figures are welcome news for Macmillan Publishers, the parent company of Flatiron Books and Henry Holt and Company, which published "Fire and Fury."

In the book, Comey, 57, writes at length about his life as a federal prosecutor and senior Justice Department official, the cases he encountered during his career, and his thoughts on "ethical leadership."

But he also addresses his relationship with Trump, whom he portrays as dishonest and egocentric. He compares the president's methods -- particularly his demand for loyalty -- to those of a mafia boss.

The book, which was also in the top 20 in Britain, Germany and Australia on Tuesday, has infuriated Trump, who blasted its author as an "untruthful slimeball" on Twitter.
Rapper Meek Mill stepped on the court Tuesday to ring a Liberty Bell replica at the Philadelphia 76ers game against Miami Heat after he was released from prison.

The-30-year-old finally won freedom from prison for an unusually harsh sentence that triggered protests pointing to racial biases in US probation laws.

The smiling South Philly-born artist reportedly told players this evening that he felt 'great' as he hugged them and engaged in conversation while wearing a Joel Embiid jersey.

Mill, who was jailed in November over a case from his teenage years, was ordered out on bail by Pennsylvania's Supreme Court.

As he walked at least temporarily free, Mill thanked supporters who campaigned for him as well as the Philadelphia district attorney's office that sided with him.

'I understand that many people of color across the country don't have that luxury and I plan to use my platform to shine a light on those issues,' Mill wrote on Twitter.

'Id like to thank God, my family, and all my public advocates for their love, support and encouragement during this difficult time. While the past five months have been a nightmare, the prayers, visits, calls, letters and rallies have helped me stay positive.

'In the meantime, I plan to work closely with my legal team to overturn this unwarranted conviction and look forward to reuniting with my family and resuming my music career,' said Mill, whose last album 'Wins and Losses' reached number three on the US chart.

Rapper Meek Mill comes out to ring a Liberty Bell replica before the first half in Game 5 of a first-round NBA basketball playoff series between the Miami Heat and the Philadelphia 76ers, Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Philadelphia

Mill, left, stepped on the court with actor Kevin Hart, right, before the first half in Game 5

Mill is seen hugging Philadelphia 76ers players after he arrived to the Wells Fargo Center for the game against Miami Heat on Tuesday

The rapper (right) was all smiles after he won freedom from prison for an unusually harsh sentence

Mill arrives at the arena before the game between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Miami Heat in Game Five of Round One of the 2018 NBA Playoffs on April 24, 2018 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Mill, raised by a single mother after his father was killed, was thrown into jail over his arrest on drug and gun possession charges in 2008, well before the rapper born as Robert Rihmeek Williams achieved stardom.

At what had looked like a routine hearing, Philadelphia judge Genece Brinkley handed Mill a term of between two and four years for violating terms of parole, including scheduling shows that conflicted with the court schedule and entering a publicized scuffle in St. Louis.

Ordering Mill out on bail, the state's Supreme Court cited 'credibility issues' over a police officer who was a witness.

Mill has said he was badly beaten during the 2008 arrest and placed a bloody mugshot of himself as the cover of his 'DC4' mixtape.

Mill is seen flying on a helicopter with Philadelphia 76ers co-owner Michael Rubin (front left) and others

Mill is seen boarding the helicopter after being released from prison Tuesday afternoon

Mill has been ordered out on bail by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, overruling the judge

The rapper took to his Twitter page on Tuesday afternoon after he was released from prison

A general view of a rally protesting the imprisonment of Meek Mill outside the Philadelphia Criminal Justice Center during the rapper's status hearing on April 16, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

A sign in Philadelphia is hung that reads: 'Stand with Meek Mill.' Protesters argued the rapper received a 'harsh' sentence for his parole violation

The Supreme Court did not throw out the case but asked the local court to reach a resolution within 60 days. It also did not remove Brinkley but noted she 'may opt to remove herself from presiding over this matter.'

In addition to street rallies, Mill enjoyed the support of celebrities including hip-hop mogul Jay-Z, whose Roc Nation management signed Mill.

In an op-ed last year for The New York Times, Jay-Z said that Mill's case was 'just one example of how our criminal justice system entraps and harasses hundreds of thousands of black people every day.'

On Tuesday, Mill's supporters expressed their excitement about the news of his release.

Jay-Z said in a statement: 'Today, Meek Mill, a son of Philadelphia, is a free man. He was incarcerated unjustly and caught in a probation trap for years by a broken system.

'Now we can celebrate his release. We thank every individual that has supported and fought alongside Meek every step of the way.'

The New England Patriots wrote to their Twitter page: 'Justice for our friend. Finally free'

Mill attends his 'Wins And Losses' album signing at DTLR - Rhode Island Ave on July 26, 2017 in Washington, DC

The New England Patriots wrote to their official Twitter page: 'Justice for our friend. Finally free.'

The rapper was reportedly picked up from prison by Philadelphia 76ers co-owner Michael Rubin, who he was spotted hopping in a helicopter with.

NBA Insider for Yahoo Sports, Shams Charania said on Twitter: Meek Mill -- who received release from jail Tuesday -- has plans to attend 76ers-Heat Game 5 tonight in Philadelphia.'

Probation, which dates from English common law, was initially seen as a compassionate way for courts to grant freedom to people who pose little risk.

But a survey by The Marshall Project, a non-profit news organization that covers the US judicial system, found that at least 61,250 people -- and probably far more -- are in prison across the United States for minor parole violations like missing appointments, failing drug tests or staying out past curfew.
A Saharawi man holds up a Polisario Front flag in the Al-Mahbes area near Moroccan soldiers guarding the wall separating the Polisario controlled Western Sahara from Morocco on February 3, 2017

The United States postponed a vote scheduled on Wednesday at the UN Security Council on preparing talks on Western Sahara to allow for more time for negotiations, diplomats said.

A draft resolution presented by the United States last week would press Morocco and the Algerian-backed Polisario Front to set their sights on a return to the negotiating table to seek a settlement to the decades-old conflict.

Diplomats said Russia and Ethiopia had proposed amendments to the text after complaining that it lacked balance, indicating that Morocco's stance was given more prominence.

The US mission told council members on Tuesday that it "needs a bit more time to consider" the proposed changes and planned to circulate a new draft resolution, according to an email message seen by AFP.

The draft resolution is to renew for one year the mandate of the small UN mission monitoring a ceasefire in Western Sahara but it also lays the groundwork for a return to talks.

Morocco maintains that negotiations on a settlement should focus on its proposal for autonomy for Western Sahara and rejects the Polisario's insistence on an independence referendum.

The draft resolution "emphasizes the importance of the parties' commitment to advancing the political process in preparation for a fifth round of negotiations."

A fourth round of UN-brokered negotiations on a Western Sahara settlement was held in 2008.

The draft resolution sets no timetable for re-launching talks, but stressed "the need to make progress toward a realistic, practicable and enduring political solution to the question of Western Sahara."

Morocco and the Polisario fought for control of Western Sahara from 1975 to 1991, when a ceasefire was reached and the UN mission deployed to monitor the truce.

The Saharan Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), declared by the Polisario in 1976, is a full member of the African Union.

The mostly desert territory has rich fishing grounds off its coast and may have untapped offshore oil deposits.
UDPS opposition party leader Felix Tshisekedi gestures to supporters as he arrives to address a rally in Kinshasa on April 24, 2018, the first opposition rally authorized since September 2016

The first authorised mass rally by the Democratic Republic of Congo's opposition in nearly two years passed off peacefully on Tuesday, months ahead of a key presidential election in the vast, mineral-rich state.

Thousands of members and supporters of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) gathered in the capital Kinshasa to hear their leader, Felix Tshisekedi, outline some of his party's electoral aims.

In a major climbdown from the government, Tuesday's rally was given the go-ahead by authorities after several opposition protests in recent months were met by a deadly security crackdown.

"We applaud the police's restraint. They are going to have to learn to treat us like citizens and not like adversaries," Tshisekedi told the crowd.

The mood at the rally, in a UDPS stronghold district of the capital, was upbeat amid a discreet police presence.

Public demonstrations have been officially banned in the country since September 2016, when dozens of demonstrators were killed in Kinshasa after calling for the departure of President Joseph Kabila, whose second and final mandate ended in December 2016.

A new vote is due to take place on December 23 after two postponements that have stoked fears of renewed unrest.

Kabila should have stepped down at the end of 2016 but has remained in office under a provision allowing him to retain power until a successor is chosen.

In addition to a deepening political crisis, DR Congo is struggling with armed conflict in its vast, lawless east, which is under the sway of multiple rebel groups.

- 'A new beginning' -

The date of Tuesday's rally was significant as it came 28 years to the day that a multi-party system was first introduced when former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko lifted a ban on opposition parties.

But the country has never had a peaceful transfer of power. Recent banned opposition demonstrations have seen dozens killed, according to the UN, many near the headquarters of Tshisekedi's party.

The opposition leader Tuesday addressed a recently signed agreement with the government to repatriate the body of his late father, Etienne Tshisekedi, a historic opposition figure, who died in February 2017 in Brussels.

But he firmly denied rumours that he was in discussions with Kabila to be appointed prime minister.

"Apart from the discussions around the funeral, there are no other discussions," said Tshisekedi, who was chosen as the UDPS's presidential candidate in March.

"You chose me as a presidential candidate so why would I want to be prime minister?" he asked.

He also repeated his opposition to the proposed use of electronic voting machines during the December 23 vote.

UDPS Christian Mokonkole told AFP that Tuesday's rally represented "a new beginning for our leadership".

"If we have elections organised at the end of this year, we are supporting him (Tshisekedi) to win this election and to start our project to develop this country," Mokonkole added.

DR Congo -- home to the world's largest UN peacekeeping force -- has vast mineral wealth and natural resources but decades of chronic unrest has severely hampered development.

Meanwhile, Lumuna Sando, a former spokesman for Mobutu and government heavyweight, said "nothing much has changed" since Mobutu lifted the ban on the opposition.

"There are similarities in the debate, the behaviour and the positions taken by Congolese politicians," he said.
Four people were killed and two others wounded at the Waffle House restaurant in the city of Nashville, America's country music capital

The 29-year-old man who confronted and stopped a gunman during a rampage at a Tennessee restaurant was hailed Tuesday as a hero by the US state's legislature.

James Shaw Jr singlehandedly wrestled away the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle from the hands of Travis Reinking -- a fellow 29-year-old with a history of mental illness -- as he was allegedly reloading in the middle of a shooting rampage in the early morning hours Sunday.

Four people were killed and two others wounded at the Waffle House restaurant in the city of Nashville, America's country music capital.

But Shaw has been credited with saving many more lives. He suffered a graze wound from a bullet and burns on his right hand from grabbing the hot barrel of the gun.

He has already been called a hero by the survivors of the Sunday shooting and their family members, as well as by many in the media.

Shaw repeatedly has rejected the label, saying he acted for reasons of self-preservation.

"I'm not a hero. I'm just a regular person" he said Sunday amid tears. "I did that completely out of a selfish act. I was completely doing it just to save myself."

But the Tennessee legislature on Tuesday overruled him, passing a resolution to honor Shaw. Lawmakers also gave him two standing ovations.

"No matter his motivations, Mr. Shaw is indeed a hero; his actions on that fateful morning are unfathomable to most," the resolution said.

"Mr Shaw sprang into action and thus saved many lives."

Reinking is in jail facing four murder charges. An earlier $2 million bail was revoked Tuesday, and he awaits his first court appearance on Wednesday.
Any new deal would be an epic undertaking, and Iran has already signalled that any talk of curbing its missile program -- which is central to its defense systems -- is off limits

French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday proposed a "new deal" to address President Donald Trump's many concerns about the existing nuclear pact with Iran.

Here is a look at what may be in the works, and the challenges a new deal could entail.

- Macron's proposal -

In a press conference at the White House, Macron said the 2015 Iran nuclear deal did not go far enough, while crediting it for allowing the international community "some control" over Iran's nuclear activities.

Other areas still need addressing, he said, namely: Iran's nuclear activities after 2025 when so-called sunset clauses in the current deal kick in; Iran's ballistic missile activities; and a political means to limit Iran's activities in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon.

Iran is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, supports Hezbollah militias in Lebanon and backs Yemen's Huthi rebels, who are locked in a war with a Saudi-led coalition.

"It's not about tearing apart an agreement and having nothing, but it's about building something new that will cover all of our concerns," Macron said.

The French president said France and its allies want "sustainable stability," following months of Trump anger at the original Iran deal and threats to back out of it.

"I believe that the discussions we've had together make it possible to ... pave the way for a new agreement, an agreement on which we will work, and beyond our European partners, we would like to involve the regional powers, and of course, Russia and Turkey," he said.

Macron indicated his suggestion was for a separate accord that would run alongside the current deal.

"I'm not saying that we move from one agreement to another," he said.

The proposal appears to repackage a solution previously floated by the Europeans to meet Trump's demands, by taking a tougher line on Iranian missile activity and Tehran's regional influence, but without ripping up the existing nuclear deal.

- What's at stake -

With a hollowed-out State Department, even a transatlantic deal could prove an epic undertaking for the Trump administration, and Iran has already signalled that any talk of curbing its missile program is off limits.

Further, Trump has shown little appetite for international deal-making.

The existing nuclear deal was struck in 2015 after 21 months of grueling diplomacy.

In return for the lifting of punishing international sanctions, Iran froze its nuclear program, ending a 12-year standoff with the West, which worried it was developing a nuclear bomb.

Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany signed off on the deal that, among other things, requires Iran to slash the amount of uranium it can enrich.

- Trump's view -

Trump has continually lambasted the accord signed by his predecessor Barack Obama, calling it at one point the "worst deal ever."

On Tuesday, he described it as "insane," and in October he refused to certify that Iran was respecting its commitments on the pact -- though he stopped short of walking away altogether.

At least on first blush, the US leader appeared receptive to trying to reach some sort of grand bargain.

"I think we will have a great shot at doing a much bigger, maybe, deal," said Trump, stressing that any new accord would have to be built on "solid foundations."

"They should have made a deal that covered Yemen, that covered Syria, that covered other parts of the Middle East," said Trump.

The next decision deadline for Trump on the Iran deal is May 12.

"We're going to see what happens," he said.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Americans overwhelmingly believe teachers don't make enough money, and half say they'd support paying higher taxes to give educators a raise.

The findings of the new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research come amid recent teacher strikes and other protests over low pay, tough classroom conditions and the amount of money allocated to public schools in several Republican-led states.

Tens of thousands of Arizona teachers voted last week to strike after rejecting an offer of a 20-percent raise, because it didn't include a vow from state lawmakers not to further cut taxes before providing more money for the state's schools.

FILE - In this Friday, April 13, 2018 file photo, teachers from across Kentucky gather inside the state Capitol in Frankfort, Ky., during a rally for increased education funding. Americans overwhelmingly believe teachers don't make enough money, and half say they'd support paying higher taxes to give educators a raise. That's according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research that comes amid recent teacher strikes over low pay and the amount of money allocated to public schools in several Republican-led states. The poll found that parents and those without children are about as likely to think teachers are paid too little. (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston)

"To educate children and barely get a living is obnoxious," said Elaine Penman, a company manager in Tucson, Arizona, who added she and others went outside to cheer on protesting teachers who were marching by.

She's among the 50 percent of Americas who say they'd pay a higher tax bill if it meant more money for teachers.

"I'm a parent and I benefit directly from what teachers do," said Penman, who has two children in traditional public schools and one in a charter school.

In 2016-2017, the average salary for a public school teacher was $58,950, down slightly from the previous year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Overall, 78 percent of Americans said that's not enough. Just 15 percent think teachers are paid the right amount, while 6 percent think they're paid too much. In a 2010 AP-Stanford poll, 57 percent of Americans said they thought teachers are paid too little.

Americans in states with the lowest average teacher salaries - less than $50,000 a year - were slightly more likely to think teachers were paid too little and that the national average should be an important factor in determining salaries.

The AP-NORC poll found that parents and those without children are about equally likely to think teachers are paid too little. It's a sentiment that crosses party lines, too. Nearly 9 in 10 Democrats, 78 percent of independents and 66 percent of Republicans think teacher salaries are too low.

Slightly more than half of Americans - 52 percent - also approve of teachers leaving the classroom to strike in their search for higher pay, while 25 percent disapprove. Among those who say they've heard about the recent teacher protests, 80 percent say they approve of such tactics.

The recent run of teacher protests began in March in West Virginia, where teachers won a raise after going on strike. The strategy soon spread to Oklahoma, Kentucky, Colorado and Arizona, where educators joined together online and have held increasingly frequent protests during the past six weeks.

The poll found that 51 percent of Americans have been paying at least some attention to the protests. People living in states with the lowest teacher salaries were more likely to have heard about the protests than those in states with the highest teacher pay.

Americans believe state and local governments share responsibility with teachers and their unions for the disruptions caused by the strikes. Vernita Grimes, 68, of the District of Columbia, said teachers aren't making enough money for the work they do and she supports them having the right to strike, "even though I know kids are losing valuable teaching time."

But Caitlyn Scott, 27, of Kent, Ohio, said teachers are earning "about what they should," and she opposes strikes by teachers.

"I think they kind of committed to being there for the entire school year," she said.

Half of Americans would be willing to shoulder the cost of paying teachers more and providing more money to schools via higher taxes, with only 26 percent opposed. But while 69 percent of Democrats say yes to higher taxes for schools, only 38 percent of Republicans and 30 percent of independents say the same.

People living in urban areas are more likely than those in rural areas to support such a tax increase, 57 percent to 40 percent.

Stephen White, a high school teacher in Marysville, California, said raising taxes is "probably the only way" to pay for teacher raises. "Look at states that cut taxes and some districts had to go to four-day school weeks."

That had happened in Oklahoma, where teachers staged a nine-day walkout earlier this month to protest the level of classroom funding.

White said he used to be anti-union when he worked in the private sector, but changed his position when he became a teacher. He said salaries don't take into account all that teachers do, especially outside the normal school day.

"The private sector makes double what we do," he said. He acknowledged that strikes are disruptive. "We don't like that, but sometimes drastic times call for drastic measures."

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The AP-NORC poll of 1,140 adults was conducted April 11-16 using a sample drawn from NORC's probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.

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Online:

AP-NORC Center: http://www.apnorc.org/

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Follow Carole Feldman and Emily Swanson on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/CaroleFeldman and http://twitter.com/EL_Swan
ROME (AP) - Italy's president asked the populist 5-Star Movement on Monday to see if it can find a parliamentary majority with the Democratic Party, after weeks of consultations failed to yield a government following inconclusive March 4 elections.

President Sergio Mattarella asked the 5-Star president of the lower chamber of deputies, Roberto Fico, to explore a possible alliance with the Democrats and report back by Thursday. After meeting Monday with Mattarella, Fico said he would look to find issues that are of "interest to the country."

The Democrats were the big losers in the March 4 vote, suffering the worst-ever defeat by the left. A center-right coalition of the right-wing League, the center-right Forza Italia of Silvio Berlusconi and a smaller right-wing group were the top vote getters, with the 5-Stars coming in second place.

Lower House Speaker Roberto Fico addresses the media at the Quirinale Presidential Palace after talks with Italian President Sergio Mattarella, in Rome, Monday, April 23, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

But none of the three main blocs won enough to ensure a majority, resulting in a political impasse that Mattarella is eager to overcome.

Five-Star leader Luigi Di Maio had been trying to convince League leader Matteo Salvini to break with Berlusconi, but to date Salvini has stayed loyal. The League had been a junior partner in each of Berlusconi's three governments, but its strong showing March 4 - stronger than Forza Italia - has upset the balance in the traditionally Berlusconi-led coalition.

Di Maio has ruled out having Forza Italia in any 5-Star government.

That center-right alliance won a regional election Sunday in southern Molise, boosting its standing in national talks.

Lower House Speaker Roberto Fico arrives to address the media at the Quirinale Presidential Palace after talks with Italian President Sergio Mattarella, in Rome, Monday, April 23, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Lower House Speaker Roberto Fico arrives to address the media at the Quirinale Presidential Palace after talks with Italian President Sergio Mattarella, in Rome, Monday, April 23, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
JUBA, South Sudan (AP) - Everyone and everything is a target in South Sudan's civil war, as attacks against health facilities and aid workers increase, a new report says.

At least 50 medical institutions were attacked in 2016 and 2017, says the report released Monday by the New York-based Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict. In at least 750 incidents over the same period humanitarian access was denied by various armed groups, including government troops.

Both government and opposition forces have deliberately destroyed, burned, looted and occupied hospitals and clinics and detained, abducted and killed medical personnel and aid workers as a tactic of war, according to the report, based on more than 90 interviews and focusing on the Greater Upper Nile, Bahr el Ghazal and Equatoria regions.

In this photo taken Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2017, a community leader stands in what used to be one of the main medical centers, but is no longer operational after being looted and damaged when fighting came to the region in July 2016, in Lainya, South Sudan. Everyone and everything in the country is a target as attacks against health facilities and aid workers increase according to a new report released Monday, April 23, 2018 by the New York-based Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, with at least 50 medical institutions attacked in 2016 and 2017. (AP Photo/Sam Mednick)

"I have never seen anything like what I saw in South Sudan. Parties to the conflict are attacking health care and regularly denying humanitarian access in tandem. The result has been man-made public health crises such as cholera and famine and the most vulnerable, children, are the most impacted," Christine Monaghan, a research officer with the Watchlist, told The Associated Press.

She called it a "sharp rise" from previous years, putting South Sudan in the company of places like Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan. One study by Human Rights Watch documented 48 attacks on health services over a 17-year period, from 1997-2014. South Sudan's civil war began in December 2013.

The effects of the five-year conflict are far-reaching. The fighting has killed untold tens of thousands, displaced millions and plunged parts of the country into famine. The East African country's already fragile health care system has been devastated.

In one attack in July, six armed men broke into the Doctors Without Borders compound in the town of Pibor, threatening humanitarians, stealing phones and computers and injuring two staff members, the new report says.

By the end of last year at least 20 percent of South Sudan's 1,900 medical facilities had been shut down due to the fighting, leaving 70 percent of civilians without access to adequate health care, according to the United Nations.

Doctors across the country say people are dying as a result.

Armed men looted health facilities in Wau County "taking drugs, equipment, the generator, even the roof, the windows and the doors. Of course no services are being delivered," Dr. Edmund Sebit, senior medical officer at the teaching hospital in Wau city, told the AP during a visit last year.

Some people in the county were forced to walk for hours, even days, for care, some dying on the way, he said.

In the Equatoria town of Lainya in November the AP visited the primary medical center, now closed. Smashed glass, broken furniture, scattered papers and damaged equipment were strewn across the floor. Locals said "men in uniform" attacked the center when fighting spread to the region in 2016.

Both the government and the opposition have denied attacking medical facilities or using them as military bases.

"It's not SPLA's policy to attack or destroy social amenities," army spokesman Lul Ruai Koang told AP.

Opposition spokesman Lam Paul Gabriel said health facilities are always left for community use.

However, rights groups say the attacks and denial of humanitarian access have continued for years.

"Since this war started we have seen both sides attack health workers, clinics and hospitals in total disregard of the protections accorded to them under international humanitarian law," said Jehanne Henry, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch.
Given the rise of social media and our expansive interconnectedness from globalization, one would think that our social bonds would be stronger than ever. With such an abundance of ways to connect and engage, trade and exchange, how could it possibly be otherwise?

But amid the countless blessings of modernity, our expansion of freedom and prosperity has also been accompanied by new idols of individualism, leading many to pair our comforts and conveniences with a materialistic or hedonistic focus on the self.

The result, as Gaylen Byker describes it, is a liberal paradoxa hunger for meaning and values in an age of freedom and plenty. That widespread hunger comes from a wide variety of places, but one of the clearest can be seen in the deterioration of human relationships and community life across America.

America is increasingly a lonely nation, writes Michael Hendrix in National Review. Even with tremendous channels and opportunities for interaction, collaboration, and friendship, prosperity has afforded our independence from neighbors and networks.

Drawing from a range of data, Hendrix summarizes the situation as follows:

The proportion of American adults who say they are lonely has increased from 20 percent to 40 percent since the 1980s. Roughly 43 million adults over the age of 45 are estimated to suffer from chronic loneliness. The unmarried and the uncommitted to community report higher rates of loneliness, with the causality likely being a two-way street. Friend groups, where they exist, are smaller and narrower than in the past. When Americans do confide in someone else, they are more likely to look inward to kin rather than outward to community. Social networks are increasingly folding in on the nuclear family. Yet marriage and family formation are becoming less a rite of passage and more a mark of privilege. Around half of American adults are married, down from 72 percent in 1960, and their age of matrimony is increasingly past the age at which men and women begin to lose friends, which is roughly age 25. The stability of their unions  whether they stay together or have children  is increasingly a function of income. As family formation becomes a luxury amenity, isolation is more likely to be a province of the poor.

In the transition from agrarian life to the industrialized world to the the age of information, much has changed. American prosperity was once buoyed by the strength of certain institutionsreligious, civil, political, economic, and otherwise. Yet the religious and institutional vibrancy that Alexis de Tocqueville once hailed appears to be dwindling, making the space between the individual and the state increasingly thin.

Modern religious life, as with nearly every social institution in America today, is increasingly subsumed by an ethic of expressive individualism, writes Hendrix. And this autonomy is manifested and reinforced in myriad ways by modern American life  whether it be the three-quarters of Americans commuting alone in their cars or the personalized worlds of smartphones, social media, and video games.

But while it can be easy to focus on the surface-level features that help insulate our lives from others, we should be careful to note that the real roots of the problem are distinct from the material stuff. Our smartphones and social networks may not make the path to authentic community any easier (at least, at first), but they are not the source of our loneliness.

We should ask ourselves: Whats truly happening in our hearts and minds, before and beyond our tools and technologies? Whats truly needed to fruitfully inhabit our modern world with vigorous human relationships and authentic community?

When asking such questions, we shouldnt pretend that we have easy political or social solutions to these sorts of problems, which are fundamentally spiritual, social, and cultural. But we should also be aware of the types of attitudes, mindsets, and socio-political systems that either help or inhibit our efforts as we aim to cultivate those micro-level solutions.

As Hendrix points out, for conservatives and libertarians, it will require an imagination that weaves together the best of both our communitarian and market-oriented instincts:

Traditional conservatism stands athwart an unwinding social order. It sees man as a social animal  relationally oriented and networked to community. This sort of interdependence rightly orders our civil freedom toward sustaining virtue through the things we have in common: habits, traditions, and institutions. Rather than simply freeing us from the shackles of government or social constructs, this bonds us to faith, family, and community in such a way as to give meaning and purpose to our freedom. In turn, it is on these social networks, capital, and institutions that we build truly flourishing markets that work for the common good, particularly for the least of these. Restoring a more traditionalist, communitarian conservatism must begin by acknowledging the limits of policy. There is no bill in Congress that can ever satisfy the longings of the human heart for fellowship. Government cannot bind us together. Nevertheless, Americas diversity can be the source of its solutions for the 21st century. We can start by bringing political power closer to our communities and elevating our shared institutions. People who are empowered together are likelier to work together. Ideas should necessarily emanate upward from Americas towns, cities, and states rather than downward from Washington. An urban conservatism, for instance, would be well placed to tackle the barriers in housing, entrepreneurship, and governance that prevent Americans from becoming a part of our most prosperous communities.

Indeed, we can already see the fruits of this paradoxical dynamic in select regions across the country, from the oil pioneers in North Dakota to the communitarian startup culture of Salt Lake City, Utah.

As Hendrix concludes, Loneliness will not disappear at the stroke of a pen. Its time to re-plant the seeds that made us strong, constraining what we can from the top down, but focusing more heartily on freedom, virtue, and spiritual revival from the bottom up.

We are called to a higher freedom and higher engagement than the individualism and loneliness of our age. But its up to each of us to be the moral witnesses of that freedom and community in our families, churches, schools, businesses, and neighborhoods.

Image: JD Hancock / Lonely Traveler (CC BY 2.0)
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) - Hundreds of Catalans have left yellow roses at a central Barcelona square in support of jailed separatists they view as political prisoners in their campaign to break away from Spain.

It gives a political overtone to Monday's celebration of "Sant Jordi," the patron saint of the Catalan region, known in English as St. George. The festivity also coincides with World Book Day.

Legend has it that the saint killed a deadly dragon and a red rose appeared from its flesh. So Catalans give a book and a red rose as gifts to mark the day.

People place yellow roses on a memorial for jailed separatists, whom independence supporters consider to be political prisoners, as Catalans celebrate the day of their patron saint, Spain, Monday, April 23, 2018. One of the most important holidays in Catalan culture, the day of Sant Jordi or Saint George in English, coincides with World Book Day. To mark the date, lovers close friends and family traditionally gift each other with a red rose and a book. But many Catalans this year are using the holiday to make a political statement. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

But amid Catalonia's struggle for independence, many have chosen yellow roses instead, a color that symbolizes the secessionist movement.

People buy books at makeshift stands as Catalans celebrate the day of their patron saint in Barcelona, Spain, Monday, April 23, 2018. One of the most important holidays in Catalan culture, the day of Sant Jordi or Saint George in English, coincides with World Book Day. To mark the date, lovers close friends and family traditionally gift each other with a red rose and a book. But many Catalans this year are using the holiday to make a political statement. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

People crowd along the historic Las Ramblas promenade of Barcelona to buy books and roses at makeshift stands as Catalans celebrate the day of their patron saint, Spain, Monday, April 23, 2018. One of the most important holidays in Catalan culture, the day of Sant Jordi or Saint George in English, coincides with World Book Day. To mark the date, lovers close friends and family traditionally gift each other with a red rose and a book. But many Catalans this year are using the holiday to make a political statement. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
PITTSFORD, N.Y. (AP) - Officials in a western New York town are bidding a sad farewell to an iconic 200-year-old tree.

A public ceremony is planned Monday evening to commemorate the tree that towers over Copper Beech Park in the Rochester suburb of Pittsford. It's dying from a devastating fungus.

Town Supervisor Bill Smith tells WHEC that a lot of people think of the copper beech as a dear old friend. It's even used in the town's logo.

This 200-year-old tree in Copper Beech Park in Pittsford, New York, will be taken down due to a fungus. The fungus attacks the inside of the tree and town officials are afraid heavy branches may fall off. (Jamie Germano/Democrat & Chronicle via AP)

Before it's cut down, officials plan to photograph initials carved into its smooth bark by generations of young people.

But pieces of the tree will live on. Cuttings have sprouted into more than 100 saplings that will be planted around town -- but not in Copper Beech Park, where the soil is contaminated with the fungus.
BAYONNE, France (AP) - Basque civil society groups and international observers said that there will be an event next month in southern France that will be key to ending the Basque conflict.

Organizers had said that "important elements for the process of demobilization" of ETA would be announced at their news conference in Bayonne, but they refrained from mentioning the Basque separatist militant group on Monday.

Observer Raymond Kendall, former Interpol general secretary, said the May 4 meeting in the French town Cambo-les-Bains near the Spanish border will aim "to lay a new stone on the path of a just and lasting peace."

Anais Funosas of France, centre, spokeswoman of the Basque movement Bake Bidea delivers a speech during a press conference in Bayonne, southwestern France, to announce an international event to advance the resolution of the conflict in the Basque country on May 4 in Cambo les Bains, southwestern France. With her are Raymond Kendall, Honorary secretary general of Interpol, right, and Agus Hernan, member of Social Forum, left, Monday, April 23, 2018. (AP Photo/Bob Edme)

"We believe this event will be primordial in advancing the definitive peace process," Kendall said.

Basque media reported last week that ETA would announce that it was disbanding the first weekend in May.

That was followed by ETA taking the unprecedented step of apologizing for some- although not all- of the more than 800 killings it perpetrated over four decades as part of its struggle for independence for the Basque regions of Spain and France.

ETA, which the Spanish government considers a terrorist organization, gave up its armed campaign in 2011 and got rid of its arsenal one year ago. Its dissolution will mark the end of one of Europe's last violent nationalist conflicts.

Police put hundreds of ETA members behind bars before it stopped killing.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said earlier Monday that ETA's crimes wouldn't go unpunished just because they disband.

"ETA must disappear because that is the only option remaining after being defeated by the police," Rajoy told newspaper Ultima Hora Mallorca. "And in no case will their crimes disappear, nor the responsibility for having committed them."

Raymond Kendall, Honorary secretary general of Interpol, centre, delivers a speech during a press conference in Bayonne, southwestern France, to announce an international event to advance the resolution of the conflict in the Basque country on May 4 in Cambo les Bains, southwestern France. With him are Anais Funosas, spokeswoman of the Basque movement Bake Bideal, right, and Agus Hernan, member of Social Forum, left, Monday, April 23, 2018. (AP Photo/Bob Edme)

Raymond Kendall, Honorary secretary general of Interpol delivers a speech during a press conference in Bayonne, southwestern France, Monday, April 23, 2018, to announce an international event to advance the resolution of the conflict in the Basque country on May 4 in Cambo les Bains, southwestern France. Kendall is part of an international mediators team to find a solution for the conflict in the Basque Country between the Basque separatist organisation ETA (Basque Country and Freedom) and the Spanish and French governments. (AP Photo/Bob Edme)
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - A legislative hearing on a proposal in New York that would allow people with a terminal illness to request life-ending medication from their physician has attracted hundreds of people on both sides of the contentious issue.

The Assembly's Health Committee held the first of two days of hearings on the measure Monday in Albany. A second hearing is planned for May 3 in New York City.

The legislation would require two doctors to approve the use of life-ending medication. It has been proposed for years but has yet to receive a vote.

Supporters say the proposal is carefully crafted to prevent abuse, but opponents say they worry it could be misused.

Colorado, Washington, Vermont, California, Oregon, Montana and Washington D.C. allow people to seek a doctor's help in ending their life.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - A prominent human rights lawyer is demanding that Qatar compensate Dutch-based victims of an al-Qaida-linked Syrian extremist group, saying the Al Nusra group is financed by Qatar-based funding networks.

In a letter sent Monday to Qatar's ruling emir that was seen by The Associated Press, lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld accused the wealthy Gulf state of failing to take action against the group and said: "Qatar is therefore liable for the damages suffered by the victims."

Qatar denies funding extremist groups.

In her letter, Zegveld alleges that one of the victims was taken hostage by members of Al Nusra near Damascus in December 2012.

The man, whose identity was not released out of safety concerns, was repeatedly tortured, forced to watch the executions of two other hostages and subjected to a mock execution.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court wrestled Monday with a case brought by a former financial adviser known for his "Buckets of Money" strategy who is challenging the appointment of the administrative law judge who ruled against him.

The case involves the Securities and Exchange Commission's administrative law judges, who conduct hearings on alleged securities law violations and issue initial decisions. The federal government employs administrative law judges in more than 30 agencies, however, giving the case the potential to have a broader impact.

During arguments Monday, Justice Anthony Kennedy wanted to know "what effect, if any" the case would have on administrative law judges in other agencies. Attorney Mark Perry suggested that the court's decision could impact some 150 administrative law judges in 25 agencies.

The Supreme Court is seen in Washington, Friday, April 20, 2018. The Supreme Court this week will consider the latest version of President Donald Trump's travel ban against people coming from majority Muslim nations. It will be the high court's first deep dive into a Trump administration policy. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The question the justices are being asked to decide is whether the SEC's administrative law judges are SEC employees or instead "inferior officers" of the United States. The answer is important in determining who can appoint them to their positions.

The case before the Supreme Court involves former financial adviser Raymond J. Lucia, who as a radio show host, author and seminar leader promoted a retirement strategy he called "Buckets of Money." Lucia's strategy was that in retirement investors should first sell safer investments, giving riskier investments time to grow.

The SEC charged Lucia in 2012 with violating federal law and SEC rules, saying he used misleading slides in a free presentation to potential clients. One of the SEC's five administrative law judges conducted a nine-day hearing and ultimately found against Lucia, fining him and his company $300,000 and barring him from working as an investment adviser.

Lucia challenged the decision and argued that the administrative law judge who heard his case was improperly appointed. He says that because the SEC's administrative law judges exercise significant authority under federal law, they are inferior officers of the United States under the Constitution's Appointments Clause. Inferior officers have to be appointed either by the president, courts or heads of departments. Lucia says that means in his case that the administrative law judge should have been appointed by the commission itself, not chosen by the commission's chief administrative law judge.

Breaking with the Obama administration, the Trump administration is siding with Lucia. And last year, to ward off new legal challenges, the SEC ratified the appointment of its administrative law judges, a move it said resolved any concerns they weren't properly appointed.

Because the Trump administration is siding with Lucia, Supreme Court-appointed attorney Anton Metlitsky argued the opposite view on Monday. Metilsky said the SEC's administrative law judges don't count as inferior officers because they don't exercise significant authority, pointing out that every decision they make can be fully reviewed by the commission.

The case is 17-130 Lucia v. SEC.

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Follow Jessica Gresko on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jessicagresko
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The Latest on shooting at Tennessee restaurant that left four dead (all times local):

5:15 p.m.

Police in Colorado say the man suspected of killing four people at a Tennessee Waffle House restaurant complained in 2017 that pop star Taylor Swift was stalking him.

A worker vacuums up shattered glass outside a Waffle House restaurant Monday, April 23, 2018, in Nashville, Tenn. A suspect police have identified as Travis Reinking shot and killed at least four people at the restaurant Sunday. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

Salida Police Chief Terry Clark said the March 18, 2017, incident was the only contact his officers had with Travis Reinking. Clark said an officer met with Reinking but felt the complaint was obviously false.

Clark said investigators believe Reinking came to Salida for a job with a crane company and stayed about six months, leaving in either March or April of 2017. The mountain town of about 5,000 is a draw for white-water rafters and mountain bikers.

Clark also said the U.S. Secret Service contacted Salida police after Reinking was arrested last July for refusing to leave a restricted area near the White House.

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5 p.m.

Democratic Tennessee lawmakers want tighter gun laws after this weekend's deadly Waffle House shooting.

Senate Democratic Caucus Chairman Jeff Yarbro told news reporters Monday his amendment would make it illegal for someone to have or buy a gun if that person was ordered not to by a state or federal court in Tennessee or another state.

He says the proposal would outlaw loaning or giving that person a gun. And if a gun were confiscated, it would ban the gun's owner from returning it to the person from whom it was confiscated.

Yarbro says the change would make it illegal for someone who failed a background check to then buy from a private gun seller.

The proposal would require the Republican-led General Assembly's action in the final days of its annual legislative session. GOP leaders have largely resisted calls for more gun restrictions.

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2:45 p.m.

A federal official says the father of the man suspected of fatally shooting four at a Nashville Waffle House could face charges for returning guns that were taken from him after an incident last year at the White House.

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Special Agent Marcus Watson said at a news conference Monday that Jeffrey Reinking's act of returning the guns to his son is "potentially a violation of federal law."

Travis Reinking is accused of shooting four people to death early Sunday morning in Nashville. He was captured by authorities Monday afternoon.

Reinking's right to own guns was revoked by Illinois authorities after he was charged with "unlawful entry" at the White House last July. He was demanding a meeting with President Donald Trump.

Illinois authorities returned the guns to Reinking's father, who lives in Illinois. Authorities say the younger Reinking moved to Nashville last fall.

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2 p.m.

Police say the suspect in the shooting that killed four at a Waffle House in Nashville had a gun in a backpack when they arrested him.

Metropolitan Nashville Police Department Lt. Carlos Lara said at a news conference Monday that 29-year-old Travis Reinking had a loaded semi-automatic gun, .45-caliber ammunition, a flashlight and a holster in the backpack.

Lara says construction workers told officers a person matching the suspect's description walked through the area and into woods. He says that when confronted, the suspect lay down on the ground and officers cuffed him.

Four people were fatally shot early Sunday at a Waffle House. A patron wrestled the gun away, and the gunman fled.

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1:30 p.m.

Authorities say the suspect in a quadruple homicide at a Waffle House in Nashville has been arrested.

Metropolitan Nashville Police announced Monday on Twitter that 29-year-old Travis Reinking was taken into custody not far from his apartment. Photos posted by police in Nashville showed him clothed and in a police car.

Police and agents with the FBI, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and troopers with the Tennessee Highway Patrol had mounted a massive manhunt following the slayings early Sunday.

Police say Reinking was nearly naked and brandishing an assault-style rifle when he opened fire in the parking lot and then stormed the restaurant. Four people killed, four others were injured.

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1:10 p.m.

Authorities say they have arrested a man suspected of storming a Waffle House restaurant in Nashville and fatally shooting four people with an assault rifle.

Authorities announced that 29-year-old Travis Reinking, was taken into custody Monday.

Other details were not immediately available.

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11:55 a.m.

Police in Nashville, Tennessee, say the suspect in a quadruple homicide at a local Waffle House stole a BMW car several days earlier.

Metro Nashville Police spokesman Don Aaron told news reporters Monday that 29-year-old Travis Reinking stole the car on the preceding Tuesday from a BMW dealership in nearby Brentwood. Police chased it but opted to track the car via a GPS device. It was recovered the same day at Reinking's apartment complex- however, authorities did not know Reinking's identity at the time.

Aaron also said a report of shots fired Monday near a police staging area was not related to the search for Reinking, who remained at large. Police were searching a wide area, and expected soon to have Reinking's photo posted on billboards.

Aaron said Reinking has "exhibited mental instability," and may still have a handgun. He urged citizens to be vigilant.

Four people were fatally shot early Sunday at a Waffle House. A patron wrestled the gun away, and the gunman fled.

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10:55 a.m.

Gunshots have been reported near a church that police are using as a staging area in the hunt for a suspect in the shooting deaths of four people at a Waffle House in Tennessee.

Late Monday morning, The Tennessean reported multiple shots were fired near Burnette Chapel Church of Christ in Nashville. It was unclear whether the shots were connected to the search for the 29-year-old suspect.

Burnette Chapel, five miles from the Waffle House, was the scene of a mass shooting during a Sunday morning worship service last September in which one person was killed and six others wounded.

Police believe Travis Reinking may be armed with one of the guns seized from him last year after he tried to enter the White House to see President Donald Trump.

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1 a.m.

Police are warning residents of a Nashville neighborhood to watch out for a suspect in a Waffle House restaurant shooting that killed four people.

Authorities say more than 80 Nashville police officers continued to search for Travis Reinking early Monday.

Agents with the FBI, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and troopers with the Tennessee Highway Patrol were also assisting in the manhunt as disturbing reports about Reinking's past behavior came to light.

Officials with the Nashville public school system say schools will go into "lock-out" mode if Reinking isn't found in time for class Monday.

Police say Reinking was nearly naked and brandishing an assault-style rifle when he opened fire in the parking lot and then stormed the restaurant. Four people killed, four others were injured.

In this photo released by the Metro Nashville Police Department, Travis Reinking sits in a police car after being arrested in Nashville, Tenn., on Monday, April 23, 2018. Police said Reinking opened fire at a Waffle House early Sunday, killing at least four people. (Metro Nashville Police Department via AP)

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives personnel search a wooded area Monday, April 23, 2018, near the Church of Christ Burnette Chapel, scene of the 2017 Antioch church shooting, for the gunman who shot and killed several people early Sunday morning in a nearby Waffle House in Nashville, Tenn. (Shelley Mays/The Tennessean via AP)

A window is boarded up at the Waffle House which remains closed Monday, April 23, 2018, after several people were shot and killed by a gunman early Sunday morning in Nashville, Tenn. The suspect is still at large. (Shelley Mays/The Tennessean via AP)

Law enforcement search near J.F. Kennedy Middle School on Monday, April 23, 2018, for the gunman who shot and killed several people early Sunday morning in a nearby Waffle House in Nashville, Tenn. (Shelley Mays/The Tennessean via AP)

Part of a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives special response team work Monday, April 23, 2018, at the police command post across from the Waffle House where several people were shot and killed by a gunman early Sunday morning in Nashville, Tenn. The suspect is still at large. (Shelley Mays/The Tennessean via AP)

Law enforcement personnel gather Monday, April 23, 2018, at the police command post across from the Waffle House where several people were shot and killed by a gunman early Sunday morning in Nashville, Tenn. The suspect is still at large. (Shelley Mays/The Tennessean via AP)

A worker vacuums debris from shattered glass as another worker cleans windows inside a Waffle House restaurant Monday, April 23, 2018, in Nashville, Tenn. A suspect police have identified as Travis Reinking shot and killed at least four people at the Waffle House Sunday. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

A worker cleans windows in a Waffle House restaurant Monday, April 23, 2018, in Nashville, Tenn. A suspect police have identified as Travis Reinking shot and killed at least four people at the restaurant Sunday. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

Residents of the apartment complex where Waffle House shooting suspect Travis Reinking lived watch as police work near the wooded area where Reinking was captured Monday, April 23, 2018, in Nashville, Tenn. Reinking, the mentally unstable gunman suspected of opening fire at a Waffle House restaurant in the middle of the night, was arrested not far from his apartment Monday after hiding from police for more than a day following the attack that killed several people, authorities said. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

Police gather on a road next to construction equipment in a wooded area near where Waffle House shooting suspect Travis Reinking was captured, Monday, April 23, 2018, in Nashville, Tenn. Police say Reinking shot and killed at least four people at the nearby restaurant in Nashville the day before. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
WASHINGTON (AP) - A former staffer of a congressional delegate from the U.S. Virgin Islands has been sentenced in connection with the theft and circulation of nude videos and pictures of the delegate and her husband.

WTOP-FM reports Dorene Browne-Louis, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, was sentenced Monday in District Court in D.C. to two years of supervised probation and ordered to pay a fine after she and then-co-worker Juan McCullum pleaded guilty to federal cyber-related charges in January.

Documents say Browne-Louis was working in the office of Delegate Stacey Plaskett in 2016 when McCullum told her he'd taken the images off Plaskett's smartphone.

Documents say Browne-Louis helped in sending the images to political leaders in an effort to harm Plaskett's re-election campaign. Browne-Louis is accused of sending at least one of the images to a person who worked for a challenger.

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Information from: WTOP-FM, http://www.wtop.com
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - California prosecutors on Monday charged the brother of an unarmed black man who was recently shot to death by Sacramento police with misdemeanor assault and vandalism.

The charges, which also include making criminal threats and abusing a 911 line, stem from Stevante Clark's dispute with his landlords. The Sacramento County district attorney's office filed them as misdemeanors, which can bring less than a year in jail, instead of the more serious felonies sought by police.

Spokeswoman Ruanne Dozier said prosecutors invited Clark to apply for acceptance to a mental health court, where charges would be dismissed if he completed the program.

FILE--In this April 10, 2018, file photo, Stevante Clark, the brother of Stephon Clark, who was shot and killed by Sacramento police, speaks before a meeting of the Sacramento City Council in Sacramento, Calif. Clark was arrested on Thursday, April 19, 2018, and accused of making threats to commit a crime resulting in death or great bodily injury and telephoning 911 with the intent to annoy or harass. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, file)

Clark, 25, has been open about his mental health struggles since his brother, Stephon Clark, was killed, sparking a series of protests that shut down freeways and blocked access to Sacramento Kings basketball games.

Police fatally shot the 22-year-old in his grandparents' backyard last month when they say he approached them with a cellphone that they mistook for a gun.

The charges against Stevante Clark allege that he threatened a landlord with violence and did more than $400 in damage to their house and property, including defacing it with graffiti. They also allege that he assaulted a woman with a hammer.

Clark was released without bail Monday and expects to hire his own lawyer.
CINCINNATI (AP) - Cincinnati officials plan to make changes to improve operations at the city's emergency call center, which is under scrutiny after the failed response to a teen who was trapped in a vehicle and died after twice calling 911.

Mayor John Cranley, council members and other city officials were touring the center Monday. They say they plan to increase staffing and improve technology and working conditions there.

Cincinnati's 911 system has been plagued with problems and is facing renewed questions following the death of 16-year-old Kyle Plush.

In this Tuesday night, April 10, 2018 photo, a minivan is removed from the parking lot near the Seven Hills School campus in Cincinnati. Cincinnati authorities are investigating the death Tuesday of 16-year-old Kyle Plush, who was trapped inside the minivan. The Hamilton County coroner says Plush died of asphyxia due to "chest compression" and that it appears to be an accident. (Cara Owsley/The Cincinnati Enquirer via AP)

He died April 10 after becoming trapped in the back of a minivan in his school parking lot. Police couldn't locate him. His father found his body nearly six hours after the teen's first 911 call.

Cincinnati police say their investigation continues.
Once again, the Little Sisters of the Poor are having to go to court to defend their religious freedoms against government intrusion.

The Little Sisters is an international Roman Catholic Congregation of Religious Sisters that serves more than 13,000 elderly poor in 31 countries around the world. The first home opened in America in 1868, and now there are nearly 30 homes in the United States where the elderly and dying are cared for. A few years ago, the Obama administrations Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) attempted to force the Little Sisters and other groups groups into providing insurance coverage for contraceptives, sterilization, and abortifacients. The Little Sisters objected on the ground that the requirement violates their religious liberty as protected by the First Amendment and the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).

In early October, HHS issued a new rule that protects religious non-profits like the Little Sisters, ending their four-year legal ordeal. But shortly after, according to Becket Law, the state of Pennsylvania sued to take away the Little Sisters religious exemption. Represented by Becket, the Little Sisters went back to court to ensure that they can continue their vital ministry of caring for the elderly poor without violating their faith.

Today, the Little Sisters won the right to defend themselves against this new lawsuit by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro. The lawsuit, which would take away the nuns religious exemption from the HHS rule, would mean they once again face the dilemma of providing services like abortifacients in their health plan against their faith or pay millions in government fines. The Little Sisters asked a lower court to let them defend themselves against the lawsuit, but in December the court kept them out of the case after objections from AG Shapiro. Earlier today, an appeals court overruled that decision and said the Little Sisters should be allowed to defend their rights.

Women like the Little Sisters of the Poor do not need bureaucrats trying to push them around, said Lori Windham, senior counsel at Becket. The appeals court got it rightthe Little Sisters should be allowed their day in court to argue for their rights. It is shameful that Josh Shapiro tried to deprive the Sisters of their right to defend themselves.
ATLANTA (AP) - After telling the judge Monday morning that they were stuck and couldn't reach a verdict, jurors deliberated a few more hours before deciding that a well-connected Atlanta attorney intentionally shot his wife, causing her death.

Jurors found 75-year-old Claud "Tex" McIver guilty of felony murder and three other charges in the September 2016 death of his 64-year-old wife Diane. The white-haired defendant, wearing a dark suit and tie, showed little emotion as the verdict was read.

The murder conviction carries an automatic life prison sentence. It remains up to the judge whether he will have the possibility of parole. No immediate sentencing date was set, and McIver was led out of court in handcuffs.

Tex McIver is handcuffed and taken into custody after a jury found him guilty of murder and influencing witnesses on their fifth day of deliberations Monday, April 23, 2018 at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta. (Bob Andres/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)

With numerous twists and revelations over the past year and a half - and a trial that gave watchers a window into a privileged lifestyle - the case captured public attention in Atlanta.

Afterward, the district attorney praised the outcome.

"We would like to say to Diane, 'We hope that you were watching, and we hope that you felt that we stood for you and we stood for the things you represented,'" Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said.

That echoed a refrain by Clint Rucker, the lead prosecutor in the case, who repeatedly urged jurors in his closing argument to "Stand up for Diane."

Defense lawyers Bruce Harvey and Don Samuel did not immediately respond to an email seeking reaction.

No one has disputed that McIver shot his wife. Defense attorneys said at trial that McIver loved his wife dearly and Harvey called it "an accident in search of a motive." Prosecutors argued, however, that McIver intentionally killed his wife because he was in dire financial straits, his life was spinning out of control and that he depended on her financially and coveted her money.

Police initially charged McIver in December 2016 with a felony charge of involuntary manslaughter and a misdemeanor charge of reckless conduct. Prosecutors began investigating in January 2017 and quickly began to suspect it wasn't an accident, in part because the gun was in perfect working order and required a significant amount of pressure to fire when it wasn't cocked, Rucker said.

The jury heard from dozens of witnesses during about four weeks of testimony.

By late morning Monday, after roughly three and a half days of deliberations, the jury sent Fulton County Superior Chief Judge Robert McBurney a note saying they didn't see a path to agreement on four of the five charges. The judge sent them to lunch and then instructed them to keep deliberating.

After a few more hours, jurors found McIver not guilty of malice murder but guilty of felony murder. Felony murder means a killing happens during the commission of another felony, in this case aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. That means the jury found that he intentionally shot his wife, and that led to her death.

McIver also was found guilty of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and influencing witnesses. The influencing witnesses charge stems from McIver's having told the driver of the SUV and only witness to the shooting to tell police she wasn't present when the shot was fired.

The McIvers were affluent and well-connected. He was a partner at a prominent labor and employment law firm and served on the state election board. She was president of U.S. Enterprises Inc., the parent company of Corey Airport Services, where she had worked for 43 years.

Dani Jo Carter, a close friend of Diane McIver, was driving the couple's Ford Expedition the evening of Sept. 25, 2016, as the three returned from a weekend at the McIvers' horse farm about 75 miles (120 kilometers) east of Atlanta. Diane McIver was in the front passenger seat and Tex McIver was in the back seat behind his wife.

With traffic heavy on the interstate, Carter exited in downtown Atlanta. A short while later, McIver fired the gun once, striking his wife in the back. Carter drove to a hospital, where Diane McIver died.

Diane McIver's boss and mentor, Billy Corey, told reporters he began to believe within days of the shooting that it was no accident. He said justice was done.

"May Diane rest in peace," he said. "They stood up for Diane today."

Dani Jo Carter listens to the verdict Monday, April 23, 2018 as a jury finds Tex McIver guilty of murder and influencing witnesses on their fifth day of deliberations Monday, April 23, 2018 at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta. (Bob Andres/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)

After reading the verdict, Fulton County Chief Judge Robert McBurney hands it over for the jury foreman to read Monday, April 23, 2018 in Atlanta. The jury found Tex McIver guilty on four of five charges on their fifth day of deliberations at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta. (Bob Andres/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)

Tex McIver has a word with defense attorney Bruce Harvey as he is taken into custody after a jury found him guilty of murder and influencing witnesses on their fifth day of deliberations Monday, April 23, 2018 at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta. (Bob Andres/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)

Chief Assistant District Attorney Clint Rucker, right, is congratulated after a jury found Tex McIver guilty of murder and influencing witnesses on their fifth day of deliberations Monday, April 23, 2018 at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta. (Bob Andres/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)

Standing amidst his attorneys, including Amanda Clark Palmer, left, Tex McIver is handcuffed and taken into custody after a jury found him guilty of murder and influencing witnesses on their fifth day of deliberations Monday, April 23, 2018 at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta. (Bob Andres/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)

Chief Assistant District Attorney Clint Rucker is congratulated after a jury found Tex McIver guilty on four of five charges on their fifth day of deliberations Monday, April 23, 2018 at the Tex McIver murder trial at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta. Bob Andres bandres@ajc.com/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)

Claud "Tex" McIver, left, seated with defense attorney Don Samuel, shows little reaction to the first of several guilty verdicts at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta, Monday, April 23, 2018. The jury found McIver guilty of murder and influencing witnesses. The jury also found him guilty of possession of a gun during the commission of a felony and of aggravated assault. (Bob Andres /Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
PITTSBURGH (AP) - Former professional wrestling champion Bruno Sammartino has been laid to rest in Pennsylvania, where he was remembered as one of the sport's good guys.

Sammartino fled the Nazis from Italy as a child and built a career beating a string of bad guys in the 1960s and 1970s. He was the World Wide Wrestling Federation champion for more than 11 years over two title runs. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013.

Sammartino was buried on Monday outside Pittsburgh. Mourners, including WWE chairman Vince McMahon, remembered Sammartino's humility and work ethic, even as he ascended the wrestling ranks. The Rev. John Rushofsky called him "a man of honesty and integrity."

Pallbearers carry the casket of former professional wrestler Bruno Sammartino Monday, April 23, 2018, in Ross Township, Pa., a suburb just north of Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

Sammartino died last week after a two-month hospitalization. He was 82.

Pallbearers carry the casket former professional wrestler Bruno Sammartino Monday, April 23, 2018 in Ross Township, Pa., a suburb just north of Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

The hearse with the casket former professional wrestler Bruno Sammartino leaves his funeral service, Monday, April 23, 2018, in Ross Township, Pa., a suburb just north of Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)
TORONTO (AP) - A rented van plowed down a crowded Toronto sidewalk Monday, killing 10 people and injuring 15 before the driver fled and was quickly arrested in a confrontation with police, Canadian authorities said.

Witnesses said the driver was moving fast and appeared to be acting deliberately, but police officials would not comment on the cause or any possible motive.

Speaking at a news conference Monday night, Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders raised the initial death toll of nine to 10, saying another victim had died at a hospital. He said 15 others were hospitalized.

A body lies covered on the sidewalk in Toronto after a van mounted a sidewalk crashing into a number of pedestrians on Monday, April 23, 2018.A van apparently jumped a curb Monday in a busy intersection in Toronto and struck numerous people and fled the scene before it was found and the driver was taken into custody, Canadian police said. (Aaron Vincent Elkaim/The Canadian Press via AP)

Saunders identified the man detained after the incident as Alek Minassian, 25, a resident of the Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill. He said the suspect had not been known to police previously.

Asked if there was any evidence of a connection to international terrorism, the chief said only, "Based on what we have there's nothing that has it to compromise the national security at this time."

But a senior national government official said earlier that authorities had not turned over the investigation to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a sign that investigators believed it unlikely terrorism was the motive. The official agreed to reveal that information only if not quoted by name.

Authorities released few details in the case, saying the investigation was still underway, with witnesses being interviewed and surveillance video being examined.

"I can assure the public all our available resources have been brought in to investigate this tragic situation," Toronto Police Services Deputy Chief Peter Yuen said earlier.

The incident occurred as Cabinet ministers from the major industrial countries were gathered in Canada to discuss a range of international issues in the run-up to the G7 meeting near Quebec City in June. Canadian Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale called the incident a "horrific attack" and said the G7 foreign ministers extended their condolences.

The driver was heading south on busy Yonge Street around 1:30 p.m. and the streets were crowded with people enjoying an unseasonably warm day when the van jumped onto the sidewalk.

Ali Shaker, who was driving near the van at the time, told Canadian broadcast outlet CP24 that the driver appeared to be moving deliberately through the crowd at more than 30 mph.

"He just went on the sidewalk," a distraught Shaker said. "He just started hitting everybody, man. He hit every single person on the sidewalk. Anybody in his way he would hit."

Witness Peter Kang told CTV News that the driver did not seem to make any effort to stop.

"If it was an accident he would have stopped," Kang said. "But the person just went through the sidewalk. He could have stopped."

Video broadcast on several Canadian outlets showed police arresting the driver, dressed in dark clothes, after officers surrounded him and his rental Ryder van several blocks from where the incident occurred in the North York neighborhood of northern Toronto. He appeared to make some sort of gesture at the police with an object in his hand just before they ordered him to lie down on the ground and took him away.

Witness Phil Zullo told Canadian Press that he saw police arresting the suspect and people "strewn all over the road" where the incident occurred.

"I must have seen about five, six people being resuscitated by bystanders and by ambulance drivers," Zullo said. "It was awful. Brutal."

Police shut down the Yonge and Finch intersection following the incident and Toronto's transit agency said it had suspended service on the subway line running through the area.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed his sympathies for those involved. "Our hearts go out to everyone affected," Trudeau said in Ottawa. "We are going to have more to learn and more to say in the coming hours."

___

Associated Press writers Ben Fox in Miami and Rob Gillies in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, contributed to this report.

Police officers stand by a covered body in Toronto after a van mounted a sidewalk and crashed into a crowd of pedestrians on Monday, April 23, 2018. The van apparently jumped a curb Monday in a busy intersection in Toronto, struck the pedestrians and fled the scene before it was found and the driver was taken into custody, Canadian police said. (Aaron Vincent Elkaim/The Canadian Press via AP)

A injured person is put into the back of an ambulance in Toronto after a van mounted a sidewalk crashing into a crowd of pedestrians on Monday, April 23, 2018. The van apparently jumped a curb Monday in a busy intersection in Toronto and struck the pedestrians and fled the scene before it was found and the driver was taken into custody, Canadian police said. (Aaron Vincent Elkaim/The Canadian Press via AP)

A van with a damaged front-end sits idle on a sidewalk after the driver drove down a sidewalk crashing into a number of pedestrians in Toronto, Monday, April 23, 2018. The van apparently jumped a curb Monday in a busy intersection in Toronto and struck the pedestrians and fled the scene before it was found and the driver was taken into custody, Canadian police said. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

A police officer takes pictures of the scene as emergency services close Yonge Street in Toronto after a van mounted a sidewalk crashing into a crowd of pedestrians on Monday, April 23, 2018. The van apparently jumped a curb Monday in a busy intersection in Toronto and struck the pedestrians and fled the scene before it was found and the driver was taken into custody, Canadian police said. (Aaron Vincent Elkaim/The Canadian Press via AP)

A police officer stands over a covered body in Toronto after a van mounted a sidewalk crashing into pedestrians on Monday, April 23, 2018. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) - Iran's foreign minister said Monday that neither Iran nor Saudi Arabia can be the dominant power in the Middle East and what's needed most is for countries in the Persian Gulf region to talk to each other - not about each other.

Mohammad Javad Zarif said, "In an attempt to be the strongest in the region, to exclude one another from the region, we have managed to destroy the region."

He told the Council on Foreign Relations that there is "a dire need for change" and "Iran is ready for it because we are big enough, old enough, mature enough to appreciate this reality."

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif sits during a meeting at United Nations headquarters, Monday, April 23, 2018. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Zarif expressed hope that Iran's neighbors, with help from other governments, can also appreciate the fact that "none of us can become the new hegemon" in the region.

He called for a new "regional dialogue forum" that would include five Gulf Cooperation Council countries along with Iran, Iraq and Yemen. And he urged the others to embark with Tehran on a transformation of the Middle East.

Zarif's comments followed the annual Arab League summit on April 15 where Saudi Arabia used its position as host to push for a unified stance by the 22-nation bloc against Iran, blaming Tehran for instability and meddling in the region.

Saudi Arabia and Iran are locked in proxy conflicts in Syria and Yemen, and they also back opposing groups in Lebanon, Bahrain and Iraq.

Zarif told an audience of several hundred at the Council on Foreign Relations that "our neighbors, particularly Saudi Arabia, want to create an impression that we are an existential threat against them."

He said that was "one of the most important messages" of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's recent two-week tour of the United States.

The Trump administration signed off on the sale of more than $1.3 billion in artillery to Saudi Arabia during his visit. And, Zarif said, other neighbors are coming to the U.S. "to compete with one another in buying more weapons in order to attract support and help against the other neighbor who's also buying millions in the region."

But "security cannot be purchased," he said, saying it requires "understanding in the region."

"And something which is most important to realize, the era of hegemonic influence is long gone," Zarif said. "Neither Iran nor Saudi Arabia can be the hegemons of the region. That's a fact."

Zarif said Iran believes the region is suffering from "a dialogue deficit" and that's why it has suggested creating "a regional dialogue forum."

It should include Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates - and probably Yemen, the Iranian minister said.

He said there is already a basis for this in a U.N. Security Council resolution adopted in 1987 during the Iran-Iraq war that was never implemented. It called for the secretary-general to examine and consult with countries in the region on "measures to enhance the security and stability of the region."

Zarif said countries in the region need to stop talking about exclusion and enemies.

To join the forum, he said, they should agree on a number of principles: the inviolability of borders, respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, and non-intervention in each other's internal affairs.

In addition to the "dialogue deficit," Zarif said there is also "a confidence deficit."

He said the Persian Gulf countries not only need to start talking but to work on confidence-building measures.

Zarif suggested joint task forces on issues ranging from nuclear safety because "very soon" there will be a growing number of nuclear reactors on the Persian Gulf coast to tourism, cultural exchanges, women's empowerment and democratic processes.

"We need to have a strong region," he said, "not to be the strongest in the region."

Unless this transformation takes place, Zarif warned that no matter how many weapons the United States sells to countries in the region, "at the end of the day the cost for the United States will be much higher than the profits made by the weapons sold."

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, right, meets with Didier Reynders, Belgium's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, at United Nations headquarters, Monday, April 23, 2018. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
HOUSTON (AP) - The Latest on the hospitalization of former President George H.W. Bush (all times local):

8:20 p.m.

Bush family spokesman Jim McGrath says 93-year-old former President George H.W. Bush is eager to get well so he can get to his summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine.

This Saturday, April 21, 2018, photo provided by the Office of former U.S. President George H.W. Bush shows Bush's socks during the funeral service for his wife, Barbara Bush, in Houston. Barbara Bush was known for bringing awareness to AIDS patients and for her work promoting literacy, which her husband subtly honored Saturday by wearing socks printed with blue, red and yellow books. (Paul Morse/Courtesy of Office of George H.W. Bush via AP)

The 41st president is being treated at Houston Methodist Hospital for an infection that's spread to his blood. He was admitted Sunday, a day after his wife Barbara's funeral.

McGrath describes Bush as "the most goal-oriented person on this planet."

Their son, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, indicated during his eulogy Saturday that his father had been hospitalized recently at the same time Barbara Bush was being treated. Jeb Bush said, "I think Dad got sick on purpose so that he could be with her."

Those hospitalizations were not publicly disclosed at the time.

First lady Melania Trump, who attended the funeral, sent her best wishes to the former president.

Trump tweeted Monday evening: "Sending healing thoughts of strength, along with prayers, for President George HW Bush tonight."

___

7:45 p.m.

An expert in geriatric medicine says elderly people with Parkinson's disease are often at a higher risk of pneumonia and other infections because their swallowing process can be compromised.

Dr. David Reuben is a professor of geriatric medicine at UCLA medical school. He adds that "the stress of losing a loved one can weaken the immune system."

A family spokesman says former President George H.W. Bush was hospitalized in Houston with an infection a day after attending the funeral of his wife, Barbara. Spokesman Jim McGrath says the 93-year-old Bush is "responding to treatments and appears to be recovering."

Reuben says bacterial infections are treated with antibiotics. He says the prognosis for such a case would depend on a number of factors, including heart rate, blood pressure and oxygenation.

___

6 p.m.

A family spokesman says former President George H.W. Bush has been hospitalized in Houston with an infection, just after attending the funeral of his wife Barbara.

Jim McGrath says Bush is "responding to treatments and appears to be recovering." He says he was admitted to Houston Methodist Hospital Sunday morning after an infection spread to his blood.

Barbara Bush was laid to rest Saturday in a ceremony attended by her husband and former presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and their spouses, along with current first lady Melania Trump.

FILE - In this April 21, 2018, file photo, former presidents George W. Bush, left, and George H.W. Bush arrive at St. Martin's Episcopal Church for a funeral service for former first lady Barbara Bush in Houston. George H.W. Bush has been hospitalized in Houston with an infection, just after attending the funeral of his wife, Barbara, a spokesman said Monday, April 23. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)
BEIJING (AP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has met with China's ambassador and visited a hospital where Chinese tourists were being treated after a deadly bus crash.

The crash Sunday evening killed 32 Chinese and four North Koreans, and two Chinese were seriously injured. China's official Xinhua News Agency said late Monday that the tourist bus fell from a bridge in North Hwanghae province in southern North Korea.

Photos provided by the North Korean government on Tuesday showed Kim meeting with Ambassador Li Jinjun at the hospital and at the Chinese Embassy.

In this Monday, April 23, 2018, photo provided Tuesday, April 24, 2018, by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, left, meets China's ambassador to North Korea Li Jinjun, second from right, at the hospital where injured Chinese tourists are treated, in North Korea. A traffic accident in North Korea has killed 32 Chinese tourists and four North Koreans, Chinese officials said Monday. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

China's Foreign Ministry said a medical team and diplomats were sent to help. It described the North Korean casualties as "workers." All visitors to North Korea must be accompanied by minders.

Chinese tourists make up the vast majority of visitors to North Korea, where they often pay homage at sites related to China's participation in the 1950-53 Korean War.

China and North Korea share a lengthy border and a traditional friendship. China remains Pyongyang's largest trading partner, although commerce has dropped off by about 90 percent under United Nations sanctions.

Only about 5,000 Westerners visit the isolated, hard-line communist state each year. Americans have been banned from traveling to North Korea without special permission from the U.S. State Department since September amid concerns about the fate of those detained there in the past.

The cause of the crash wasn't mentioned. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV showed the mangled wreckage in the dark with rain falling and rescue vehicles on the scene.

North Korean roads are often bumpy and poorly maintained. There is usually no lighting other than headlights at night, even on major roads outside of the cities. Drivers tend to travel at whatever speed they feel is safe, making the roads even more dangerous, particularly when the weather is bad.

In this Monday, April 23, 2018, photo provided Tuesday, April 24, 2018, by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, left, meets China's ambassador to North Korea Li Jinjun, second from right, at the the Chinese Embassy following Sunday's traffic accident, in Pyongyang. A traffic accident in North Korea has killed 32 Chinese tourists and four North Koreans, Chinese officials said Monday. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

In this Sunday, April 22, 2018, image taken from video footage by China's CCTV via AP Video, a bus which carries Chinese and North Koreans is seen overturn after an accident in North Hwanghae province, south of Pyongyang, North Korea. A traffic accident in southern North Korea has killed dozens of Chinese tourists and some North Koreans, Chinese officials said Monday. (CCTV via AP Video)
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Lawyers for the family of an unarmed black man killed by police in a busy Southern California parking lot said Monday that an autopsy found he was shot 10 times and died from choking on his own blood as police delayed getting him medical help.

The autopsy concluded that 26-year-old Diante Yarber died of asphyxiation and that had he been given medical treatment, he would have had a chance at surviving his wounds, attorney S. Lee Merritt said at a news conference.

The autopsy was conducted by a private medical examiner at Merritt's request. An autopsy by San Bernardino County authorities has not been released and it's unclear whether it's been finished.

Lee Merritt, center, leads a news conference, Monday, April 23 2018, in San Bernardino, Calif., announcing a series of lawsuits against the Barstow Police Department regarding the shooting death of Diante "Butchie" Yarber. Family members and attorneys are disputing the official account of the fatal police shooting of Yarber, a 26-year-old black man, during a traffic stop earlier in the month in Barstow, Calif. (James Quigg/The Daily Press via AP)

Merritt, who is planning on filing a civil rights lawsuit in the case this week, said the private autopsy found that Yarber had wounds to his chest, back and arms and that he wasn't given medical treatment for "a great deal of time."

"The injuries are consistent with defensive wounds ... as he was shielding himself and trying to escape the onslaught of bullets," Merritt said.

Merritt did not respond to a message seeking a copy of the autopsy report.

Barstow police officers fatally shot Yarber on April 5 in a Walmart parking lot in the Mojave Desert city, about halfway between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

Police Chief Albert Ramirez Jr. released a statement Monday night that said Yarber was wanted for car theft after he jumped out of a stolen car last month and ran away.

On April 5, officers answering a report of a suspicious vehicle in the Walmart parking lot learned that the car was registered to Yarber, Ramirez said.

After an officer stopped the Mustang, the driver opened the door and the officer recognized Yarber, who then backed up the Mustang, hitting a patrol car, moved forward and backed again, almost hitting an officer and then striking an occupied police cruiser, Ramirez said.

Four officers then opened fire because they "feared for their safety and the safety of others," the chief's statement said.

All four had working body cameras and the footage was turned over to the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department but won't be made public until that investigation is complete, Ramirez said.

The officers' names were not released.

Merritt disputes the account of the shooting by police, saying Yarber's car was barely moving.

Grainy cellphone footage of the shooting shows officers fired their weapons at least a couple dozen times but doesn't capture the full incident.

There were three others in the car with Yarber, a father of three, when police tried to stop him. His girlfriend was shot in the leg and abdomen in the backseat, while Yarber's brother jumped out of the car and his cousin wasn't hit.

"These officers are opening fire into a car with other passengers and in a Walmart parking lot in broad daylight with people walking all over the place that could have also been struck," said Dale Galipo, an attorney representing Yarber's girlfriend and cousin. "It's obviously a totally excessive shooting."

Yarber's brother also told attorneys that he heard one officer shout a racial slur before the shooting.

Sharon Brunner, who represents Yarber's girlfriend, said she and the other lawyers involved have been unable to find another witness to corroborate that claim.

Nakia Little and Wess Yarber, siblings of Diante "Butchie" Yarber, grieve as their lawyers talk during a news conference, Monday, April 23 2018, in San Bernardino, Calif., announcing a series of lawsuits against the Barstow Police Department regarding the shooting death of Diante "Butchie" Yarber. (James Quigg/The Daily Press via AP)
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - A man who allegedly planned a Christmas Day bombing and shooting attack at San Francisco's Pier 39 is set to plead guilty in a federal case, though details weren't public Monday.

Court records show Everitt Aaron Jameson will enter a plea June 4 in federal court in Fresno.

It's unclear what he'll plead to because Lauren Horwood, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, said details of the plea agreement are not yet public.

The former Modesto tow-truck driver had pleaded not guilty in January to charges of attempting to aid a terrorist organization and distributing bomb-making information. Each carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

The FBI arrested Jameson on Dec. 22 after he talked to undercover agents, including one he thought was with the Islamic State group. The FBI says he told agents that he planned to use pipe bombs to channel victims into part of the popular tourist destination so he could shoot them.

Court documents say he told agents how to build pipe bombs and where he intended to assemble the bombs, and asked undercover agents for remote timers.

Jameson's federal defenders did not immediately return telephone and email messages.

Assistant federal defender Charles Lee previously said investigators found no bomb-making materials and his client had expressed second-thoughts. He said that two rifles and a handgun found during a search were legally owned by a relative and were locked in a gun case where Jameson couldn't to get them.

A federal magistrate earlier found that Jameson has a history relating to drug abuse and appears to have a mental health condition.
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexican authorities arrested a suspect in the killing of internationally recognized journalist Javier Valdez on Monday night, Interior Secretary Alfonso Navarrete Prida said.

Navarrete said via Twitter late in the evening that federal agents in a joint operation had just arrested the "presumed (person) responsible for the killing," but provided no details.

Valdez was gunned down in a street in Culiacan in the western state of Sinaloa on May 15, 2017.

He was known outside Mexico for his deeply nuanced books about the intersection of drug cartels, politicians and other segments of society. Inside Mexico, he was respected as a veteran journalist who generously shared his knowledge and kept readers informed with a regular column in Riodoce, a publication he helped found.

His killing led to a resounding outcry, but the killings of Mexican journalists have continued. At least 10 journalists, including Valdez, were killed in 2017.

Isamel Bojorquez, Riodoce's editor and a friend of Valdez, confirmed the news. He said the suspect was arrested in the border city of Tijuana and was a member of an organized crime group. He declined to say which one, but said it had to do with the war that the Sinaloa cartel is in.

Riodoce later reported that Ricardo Sanchez Perez del Pozo, the federal special prosecutor in charge of investigating crimes against journalists, said in an interview that the suspect was a 26-year-old known by the alias "Koala."

The news site reported that the motive of the killing was related to information Valdez had published weeks before his slaying. Sanchez told the site that the suspect was driving the car that intercepted Valdez. There were allegedly three attackers in the car.

The Sinaloa cartel has been battling within itself and with the Jalisco New Generation cartel for territory in western Mexico, especially since the 2016 capture of Sinaloa's former leader, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, and his subsequent extradition to the United States last year.

The vacuum left by Guzman was contested by his sons and Damaso Lopez, Guzman's right-hand man. Weeks before his murder, Valdez had interviewed Lopez, the outlet's first interview of a cartel capo.

"Chapo's sons found out that we had interviewed Damaso and they pressured Javier (Valdez) to not publish the story," Bojorquez wrote in a column after his friend's slaying. "But we refused the request."

The national security commissioner scheduled a news conference for Tuesday morning.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - In a story April 24 about the Waffle House shooting suspect, The Associated Press, relying on a statement from the suspect's former employer, erroneously reported that the FBI called them. Darlene Sustrich now says her crane company got the call from the Secret Service, not the FBI.

A corrected version of the story is below:

Man who disarmed Waffle House shooter hailed by lawmakers

A man who disarmed a gunman accused of killing four people at a Nashville Waffle House has received a standing ovation from Tennessee lawmakers

By SHEILA BURKE and JONATHAN MATTISE

Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The man who snatched an AR-15 rifle away from a gunman at a Nashville restaurant told Tennessee lawmakers Tuesday he faced "the true test of a man," drawing a standing ovation during his brief address.

As the House hailed him as a hero, James Shaw Jr. said he acted to save his own life early Sunday at a Waffle House, and saved others in the process.

"I never thought I'd be in a room with all the eyes on me, but you know, I'm very grateful to be here," Shaw told House members. The 29-year-old said he has since gone to see some of the shooting victims in the hospital and they all remembered him. He apologized to the people whose loved ones died in the attack.

The Senate also honored Shaw on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the co-owner of a Colorado crane company where Travis Reinking once worked says she urged the Secret Service to try to help Reinking after he was arrested at the White House last July.

Darlene Sustrich said: "We told them, 'Hang onto him if you can. Help him if you can.'"

Federal officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall said Tuesday that Reinking, 29, has been "compliant" and "cooperative" since he was transferred to the jail late Monday after he was captured near the apartment where he lived. Reinking is wearing a vest known informally as a "suicide smock" and will remain under close observation at a maximum-security facility in Nashville.

Also on Tuesday, a Nashville judge revoked the shooting suspect's bond.

Court records show that a judge struck Reinking's $2 million bond until a hearing can be held in May.

An attorney listed as Reinking's lawyer did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Reinking has been charged with four counts of criminal homicide. And a tweet from the Metro Nashville Police Department said he also faces four counts of attempted murder and one count of unlawful possession in the commission of a violent felony.

Police say he opened fire outside the Waffle House with an AR-15 rifle and then stormed the restaurant, wearing only a green jacket. Four other people were wounded in the shooting.

Reinking escaped on foot from the restaurant and shed his only item of clothing. By the time he was captured in the woods nearby, police had searched his apartment, and found the key fob to a stolen BMW they had recovered in the parking lot days earlier. The BMW theft had not initially been tied to Reinking.

Police seized multiple items from his apartment including: a Remington rifle with a magazine, cartridges for different calibers of guns, two rifle scopes and gun cleaning equipment. Police also found three books on patents in the apartment, along with a sketchbook, two iPhones and a number of pieces of computer equipment, court records show.

Nashville Police Department Lt. Carlos Lara told reporters Reinking was arrested Monday after detectives were tipped to the suspect's presence by some construction workers. He carried a black backpack with a silver semi-automatic weapon and .45-caliber ammunition.

The arrest ended a 24-hour manhunt involving more than 160 law enforcement officers, but it left troubling unanswered questions about official responses to months of bizarre behavior before the restaurant attack, including encounters with police in Illinois and Colorado and an arrest at the White House that raised red flags.

Darlene Sustrich, Reinking's former boss, described him as appearing paranoid and delusional at times. A former co-worker told a Salida, Colorado, police detective Reinking was infatuated with Taylor Swift and claimed to be a sovereign citizen.

Last July, Reinking was arrested by the U.S. Secret Service after he entered a restricted area near the White House and refused to leave, saying he wanted to meet President Donald Trump.

The suspect told Washington, D.C., police he was a sovereign citizen and had a right to inspect the grounds, according to an incident report.

Reinking was not armed at the time, but at the request of federal agents, Illinois police revoked his state firearms card. Four guns, including the AR-15 used in the shootings, were transferred to his father, a procedure allowed under Illinois law.

Tazewell County Sheriff Robert Huston said Jeffrey Reinking pledged he would "keep the weapons secure and out of the possession of Travis." Don Aaron, a Nashville Police spokesman, said Reinking's father "has now acknowledged giving them back" to his son.

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives special Agent Marcus Watson said Monday that his father's action is "potentially a violation of federal law."

Phone calls to a number listed for the father went unanswered.

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Associated Press writers John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia; Ed White in Detroit; Michael Kunzelman in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Kathleen Foody in Denver, Colorado; and Justin Pritchard in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
As this is being written, Alfie Evans is clinging to life, more than 18 hours after medical personnel disconnected life support and left the 23-month-old child to his fate.

For nine hours, Alfies been breathing, wrote his father, Tom Evans, this morning, following an unbroken succession of horrendous, scary, heartbreaking hours. The hospital removed Alfie from a ventilator at 9:17 p.m. last night, but after sustained independent breathing, hospital officials were forced morally to put him back on water and oxygen, according to Roger Kiska of Christian Concern, which is advocating for Alfie.

Alfies parents  Tom, who is 21, and Kate James, who is 20  find themselves trapped in a legal nightmare: The medical care their infant child needs to stand a chance of survival hinges on the approval of judges and government officials. So far, those officials have denied him the opportunity to take advantage of the treatment others in another nation are eager to provide.

Late Tuesday, the High Court ruled against the familys last-ditch appeal. Justice Anthony Hayden concluded, This represents the final chapter in the case of this extraordinary little boy.

When Alfie showed signs of developmental delays as a baby, doctors reportedly told his parents Alfie was lazy and a late developer. At seven months, he caught an infection that triggered seizures and ultimately put Alfie on life support at Liverpools Alder Hey Childrens Hospital. After a series of advances and reversals, doctors decided Alfie had an incurable, rare  and thus far unclassified  degenerative neurological condition. The hospital pronounced Alfie beyond recovery and decided that withdrawing all care would be, in the words of its legal representative, in his best interests.

Understandably, his parents wanted to pursue every avenue of treatment, but the hospitals barrister deemed any additional help unkind and inhumane. Tom and Kate fought their way through the UK and continental court system  being turned down by the high court, supreme court, and the European Court of Human Rights  before losing an appeal Monday night.

The young couple secured the support of Pope Francis, who opened the doors for Alfie to receive unspecified new forms of treatment at the Vaticans Bambino Gesu Hospital. Giannina Gaslini childrens hospital in Genoa also offered care free of charge. A military plane, equipped with oxygen and necessary medical supplies, still stands at the ready to whisk the child to Rome. There are no barriers to Alfies treatment outside the judiciary. Alfie has been granted Italian citizenship; the nations foreign and interior ministers have appealed for his transfer; and Italys ambassador to the UK threatened to charge Liverpool officials with the homicide of an Italian citizen.

The judges intransigence is morally unfathomable. Courts have sometimes intervened when parents deny their children medical treatment but, in this case, they have prevented parents from seeking care aimed, by definition, at saving a childs life. Even if the procedure fails, it may yield breakthroughs that researchers apply to future cases of this exceedingly rare condition.

One wonders how Europe arrived at the point that its courts seem willing to provoke an international incident in order to deny a child medical care.

At least three developments influenced this environment.

Citizens have endowed the government with the aura of omniscience. Judges, who presumably have limited medical expertise, have played the determining role in a dispute between two teams of medical experts: one which believes continuing treatment is immoral and another which disagrees. Yet if the issue were truly clear-cut, Italian medical providers would ostracize both hospitals and their staff for offering to torture a child.

This reputation for universal competence has allowed the government to arrogate to itself prerogatives properly belonging to parents. Indeed, this disturbing trend has been on display for decades across the West, urged on by apocryphal proverbs that child-rearing is an undertaking best suited for a whole village and nationally televised pronouncements that citizens have to break through the private idea that kids belong to their parents, or kids belong to their families, and recognize that kids belong to their communities. Cases such as Alfies and Charlie Gards should provoke skepticism that the State will extend warmer ties of affection to children than those naturally engendered by parenthood.

Further, government denial of medical treatment underscores the problems of any national health care system. An ethical health care market offers parents greater choice, improved services, and the freedom to select medical providers who share their moral commitments. But constricted prices and markets stifle innovation needed to cure, or even diagnose, rare conditions like Alfies. An artificial price structure and perverse economic incentives trigger an annual NHS winter crisis that has bled well into spring and threatens to drag on until August. Rationing encourages health care bribery and favors the powerful at the expense of the weak; no one believes that if, God forbid, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridges as-yet-unnamed newborn boy suffered from this condition, treatment would be denied.

We recognize these meta-problems converging to threaten the life of Alfie Evans, whom Western Civilization recognizes as the bearer of equally inestimable human dignity.

We, Alfies parents, have the right and responsibility to make decisions to save him and move him to a hospital who will honour those decisions. Give Alfie his rightful chance at life! his parents asked.

They deserve a legal system that respects the primacy of the family, judges who honor the value of life, and an innovative and independent medical system that empowers parents to leave no stone unturned in saving their precious children.

(Photo credit: Bork/Shutterstock.)
ATLANTA (AP) - After telling the judge Monday morning that they were stuck and couldn't reach a verdict, jurors deliberated a few more hours before deciding that a well-connected Atlanta attorney intentionally shot his wife, causing her death.

Jurors found 75-year-old Claud "Tex" McIver guilty of felony murder and three other charges in the September 2016 death of his 64-year-old wife Diane. The white-haired defendant, wearing a dark suit and tie, showed little emotion as the verdict was read.

The murder conviction carries an automatic life prison sentence. It remains up to the judge whether he will have the possibility of parole. No immediate sentencing date was set, and McIver was led out of court in handcuffs.

Tex McIver is handcuffed and taken into custody after a jury found him guilty of murder and influencing witnesses on their fifth day of deliberations Monday, April 23, 2018 at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta. (Bob Andres/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)

With numerous twists and revelations over the past year and a half - and a trial that gave watchers a window into a privileged lifestyle - the case captured public attention in Atlanta.

Afterward, the district attorney praised the outcome.

"We would like to say to Diane, 'We hope that you were watching, and we hope that you felt that we stood for you and we stood for the things you represented,'" Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said.

That echoed a refrain by Clint Rucker, the lead prosecutor in the case, who repeatedly urged jurors in his closing argument to "Stand up for Diane."

Defense lawyers Bruce Harvey and Don Samuel did not immediately respond to an email seeking reaction.

No one has disputed that McIver shot his wife. Defense attorneys said at trial that McIver loved his wife dearly and Harvey called it "an accident in search of a motive." Prosecutors argued, however, that McIver intentionally killed his wife because he was in dire financial straits, his life was spinning out of control and that he depended on her financially and coveted her money.

Police initially charged McIver in December 2016 with a felony charge of involuntary manslaughter and a misdemeanor charge of reckless conduct. Prosecutors began investigating in January 2017 and quickly began to suspect it wasn't an accident, in part because the gun was in perfect working order and required a significant amount of pressure to fire when it wasn't cocked, Rucker said.

The jury heard from dozens of witnesses during about four weeks of testimony.

By late morning Monday, after roughly three and a half days of deliberations, the jury sent Fulton County Superior Chief Judge Robert McBurney a note saying they didn't see a path to agreement on four of the five charges. The judge sent them to lunch and then instructed them to keep deliberating.

After a few more hours, jurors found McIver not guilty of malice murder but guilty of felony murder. Felony murder means a killing happens during the commission of another felony, in this case aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. That means the jury found that he intentionally shot his wife, and that led to her death.

McIver also was found guilty of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and influencing witnesses. The influencing witnesses charge stems from McIver's having told the driver of the SUV and only witness to the shooting to tell police she wasn't present when the shot was fired.

The McIvers were affluent and well-connected. He was a partner at a prominent labor and employment law firm and served on the state election board. She was president of U.S. Enterprises Inc., the parent company of Corey Airport Services, where she had worked for 43 years.

Dani Jo Carter, a close friend of Diane McIver, was driving the couple's Ford Expedition the evening of Sept. 25, 2016, as the three returned from a weekend at the McIvers' horse farm about 75 miles (120 kilometers) east of Atlanta. Diane McIver was in the front passenger seat and Tex McIver was in the back seat behind his wife.

With traffic heavy on the interstate, Carter exited in downtown Atlanta. A short while later, McIver fired the gun once, striking his wife in the back. Carter drove to a hospital, where Diane McIver died.

Diane McIver's boss and mentor, Billy Corey, told reporters he began to believe within days of the shooting that it was no accident. He said justice was done.

"May Diane rest in peace," he said. "They stood up for Diane today."

Tex McIver is handcuffed and taken into custody after a jury found him guilty of murder and influencing witnesses on their fifth day of deliberations Monday, April 23, 2018 at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta. (Bob Andres/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)

Dani Jo Carter listens to the verdict Monday, April 23, 2018 as a jury finds Tex McIver guilty of murder and influencing witnesses on their fifth day of deliberations Monday, April 23, 2018 at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta. (Bob Andres/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)

After reading the verdict, Fulton County Chief Judge Robert McBurney hands it over for the jury foreman to read Monday, April 23, 2018 in Atlanta. The jury found Tex McIver guilty on four of five charges on their fifth day of deliberations at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta. (Bob Andres/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)

Tex McIver has a word with defense attorney Bruce Harvey as he is taken into custody after a jury found him guilty of murder and influencing witnesses on their fifth day of deliberations Monday, April 23, 2018 at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta. (Bob Andres/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)

Chief Assistant District Attorney Clint Rucker, right, is congratulated after a jury found Tex McIver guilty of murder and influencing witnesses on their fifth day of deliberations Monday, April 23, 2018 at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta. (Bob Andres/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)

Standing amidst his attorneys, including Amanda Clark Palmer, left, Tex McIver is handcuffed and taken into custody after a jury found him guilty of murder and influencing witnesses on their fifth day of deliberations Monday, April 23, 2018 at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta. (Bob Andres/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)

Chief Assistant District Attorney Clint Rucker is congratulated after a jury found Tex McIver guilty on four of five charges on their fifth day of deliberations Monday, April 23, 2018 at the Tex McIver murder trial at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta. Bob Andres bandres@ajc.com/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
TORONTO (AP) - The latest on the van striking pedestrians in Toronto (all times local):

1:20 a.m.

Toronto police say the suspect in the van rampage that killed 10 people is scheduled to appear in court at 10 a.m. Tuesday.

A van with a damaged front-end sits idle on a sidewalk after the driver drove down a sidewalk crashing into a number of pedestrians in Toronto, Monday, April 23, 2018. The van apparently jumped a curb Monday in a busy intersection in Toronto and struck the pedestrians and fled the scene before it was found and the driver was taken into custody, Canadian police said. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

Police say information on the charges against Alek Minassian, a 25-year-old from the Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill, will be released at that time.

Minassian was quickly captured in a tense but brief confrontation with police officers a few blocks away from where his van jumped the sidewalk Monday.

In addition to the 10 killed, 15 others were injured in what many said seemed a deliberate attack.

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11:20 p.m.

The White House is offering its condolences to Canadians following the deadly rampage of a van down a Toronto sidewalk that killed 10 people and put 15 in the hospital.

Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says in a statement Monday night that the U.S. stands with the Canadian people "in the aftermath of today's tragic event in Toronto."

She adds: "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those affected, and we wish a full recovery to those injured. The United States Government pledges to provide any support Canada may need."

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9:25 p.m.

Toronto's police chief says an incident in which a rented van smashed into pedestrians appeared to have been deliberate.

Police Chief Mark Saunders made the comment at a news conference Monday night hours after the van killed 10 people and left 15 more hospitalized. The driver had fled but was surrounded by police and detained.

Saunders said, "The incident definitely looked deliberate."

The chief identified the suspect as Alek Minassian, a 25-year-old from the Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill.

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8:20 p.m.

Toronto's police chief says a 10th person has died after a rented van plowed into pedestrians along a sidewalk in Toronto. Fifteen people are reported in the hospital.

Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders also has released the name of the purported driver detained after Monday's incident.

The suspect is identified as Alek Minassian, a 25-year-old from the Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill.

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5 p.m.

A Toronto police official says nine people have been killed and 16 injured from a van that jumped onto a sidewalk and struck pedestrians in the north part of the city.

Deputy Police Chief Peter Yuen says the driver of the van is in custody but Yuen has not provided any possible cause or motive in Monday's incident. He says the investigation is continuing.

Yuen also has not given any details on the injuries.

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4:25 p.m.

Canada's minister of public safety says it's too soon to say whether the crash of a van into pedestrians in Toronto is a case of international terrorism.

Ralph Goodale tells reporters that police are still investigating to determine what happened and why in Monday's incident in northern Toronto in which a van struck a crowd of pedestrians.

He declines to confirm reports of the number of injured or whether there are any fatalities. Other authorities have said at least seven people were injured and a photo appears to show at least one person dead.

Goodale says Canada has not changed its terrorism alert level and he has no information that would suggest a need to do so.

A injured person is put into the back of an ambulance in Toronto after a van mounted a sidewalk crashing into a crowd of pedestrians on Monday, April 23, 2018. The van apparently jumped a curb Monday in a busy intersection in Toronto and struck the pedestrians and fled the scene before it was found and the driver was taken into custody, Canadian police said. (Aaron Vincent Elkaim/The Canadian Press via AP)

Police officers stand by a covered body in Toronto after a van mounted a sidewalk and crashed into a crowd of pedestrians on Monday, April 23, 2018. The van apparently jumped a curb Monday in a busy intersection in Toronto, struck the pedestrians and fled the scene before it was found and the driver was taken into custody, Canadian police said. (Aaron Vincent Elkaim/The Canadian Press via AP)

A body lies covered on the sidewalk in Toronto after a van mounted a sidewalk crashing into a number of pedestrians on Monday, April 23, 2018.A van apparently jumped a curb Monday in a busy intersection in Toronto and struck numerous people and fled the scene before it was found and the driver was taken into custody, Canadian police said. (Aaron Vincent Elkaim/The Canadian Press via AP)

A police officer takes pictures of the scene as emergency services close Yonge Street in Toronto after a van mounted a sidewalk crashing into a crowd of pedestrians on Monday, April 23, 2018. The van apparently jumped a curb Monday in a busy intersection in Toronto and struck the pedestrians and fled the scene before it was found and the driver was taken into custody, Canadian police said. (Aaron Vincent Elkaim/The Canadian Press via AP)

A police officer stands over a covered body in Toronto after a van mounted a sidewalk crashing into pedestrians on Monday, April 23, 2018. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)
BEIJING (AP) - China's defense minister said Tuesday that fighting the threat of terrorism is a top concern to be discussed by a Beijing-led group of Central Asian states at a meeting this week that highlights Chinese ambitions to dominate the Asian security agenda.

Wei Fenghe told fellow defense officials from the eight-member Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Beijing that the group stood as a force for peace.

Foreign ministers from the group were also meeting in Beijing on Tuesday and a heads of state summit is planned for June in the Chinese port of Qingdao.

Foreign ministers and officials of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) prepare for a group photo before a meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guest House in Beijing, China, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. From left: SCO Secretary-General Rashid Alimov, Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov, Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojidin Aslov, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Pakistan Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Erlan Abdyldaev, Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov, Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure Director Yevgeniy Sergeyevich Sysoyev. (Madoka Ikegami/Pool Photo via AP)

Chinese President Xi Jinping also plans to meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for an informal summit Friday and Saturday in the central city of Wuhan. Their two nations are rivals for Asian leadership and share a disputed and often tense Himalayan border.

The focus on terrorism reflects China's hopes to use the grouping to stamp out threats of cross-border support for low-level separatist insurgencies particularly in the predominantly Turkic-speaking region of Xinjiang.

Along with China and Russia, the SCO includes the Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan as well as close Chinese ally Pakistan and its arch-rival India.

Cooperation among member nation defense ministries "has made important contributions to maintain peace in the region and the world," Wei said.

Wei said the meeting would also discuss the South China Sea, where China has rapidly been consolidating its claim to virtually the entire strategic waterway through the construction of man-made island military bases.

China has encouraged Central Asian countries to play a bigger role in regional affairs as part of the SCO. Apart from stepping up security cooperation, China has funneled significant economic investment into Central Asia, a critical hub in President Xi Jinping's Belt-and-Road infrastructure initiative connecting the Eurasian continent.

Beijing has also sought a bigger role in Afghanistan's political future, pushing for settlement talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government.
BOSTON (AP) - A Massachusetts judge who engaged in sexual acts with a social worker in his chambers has damaged the public's faith in the judicial system and can no longer command the respect necessary to remain on the bench, the head of the state's Commission on Judicial Conduct said Tuesday.

Howard V. Neff III, executive director of the commission, told the Supreme Judicial Court that an indefinite suspension that would allow lawmakers to decide whether to remove Judge Thomas Estes from the bench is the only proper punishment for behavior Neff called "egregious."

"Unless this court sets a precedent that makes it absolutely clear that this type of conduct will not be tolerated ... there is little hope that public trust in the administration of public justice in Massachusetts will be restored," Neff said.

FILE - In this March 21, 2016, file photo, Judge Thomas Estes presides in Eastern Hampshire District Court in Belchertown, Mass. The Commission on Judicial Conduct is asking for Judge Estes to be suspended indefinitely without pay to give lawmakers time to decide whether to remove him from the bench for his relationship with Tammy Cagle, who worked in the special drug court where Estes sat. (Don Treeger/The Republican via AP, File)

Estes admits he had a sexual relationship with Tammy Cagle, who worked in the special drug court where he sat. But Estes denies allegations Cagle made in a federal lawsuit, including that he coerced her into performing oral sex on him and played a role in getting her removed from the drug court when she tried to end the relationship.

Estes, who's married and has two teenage boys, attended Tuesday's hearing but left the courthouse without speaking to reporters. The court did not immediately decide Estes' punishment.

Estes' lawyer, David Hoose, said that there's no indication the relationship ever caused Estes to favor Cagle or affect his decisions on the bench. Hoose said many judges across the country have had inappropriate sexual relationships, but few have lost their jobs for it.

"He is an exemplary judge who has sinned but has not sinned so severely that it should cost him his career," Hoose said.

But Justice Scott Kafker questioned how the court could restore Estes to his position, saying judges are held to the highest standards.

"Whenever a person in charge of the organization is having a sexual relationship with someone that reports to them that creates all kinds of problems, right?" Kafker asked.

If the Supreme Judicial Court indefinitely suspends Estes and refers the matter to lawmakers and the governor, it will be only the fourth time it has ever done so, Hoose said.

Lawmakers could then either impeach Estes or issue a "bill of address" calling for his removal. Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, who supports Estes' removal, and the Governor's Council would both have to sign off on a bill of address to strip Estes from the bench.

The last time a Massachusetts judge was removed through a bill of address was Judge Jerome Troy of the Dorchester District Court in 1973.

Leonard Kesten, an attorney for Cagle, said Estes has lost his right to be a judge. Cagle, who also attended the hearing, declined to speak to reporters.

Estes "was absolutely in charge of her job and in control of her future and used that power to take advantage of a vulnerable employee. And that you can't do." Kesten said. "We're certainly at a time in our country when people have recognized that. And it's time that women don't have to put up with this."

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Follow Alanna Durkin Richer at http://twitter.com/aedurkinricher . Read more of her work at http://bit.ly/2hIhzDb .
Bitcoin "miners" who use rows of computers whirring at the same time to produce virtual currencies began taking root along New York's northern border a couple of years ago to tap into some of the nation's cheapest hydroelectric power, offering an air of Silicon Valley sophistication to this often-snowy region.

But as the once-high-flying bitcoin market has waned, so too has the enthusiasm for bitcoin miners. Mining operations with stacks of servers suck up so much electricity that they are in some cases causing power rates to spike for ordinary customers. And some officials question whether it's all worth it for the relatively few jobs created.

"We don't want someone coming in, taking our resources, not creating the jobs they professed to create and then disappear," said Tim Currier, mayor of Massena, a village just south of the Canadian border, where bitcoin operator Coinmint recently announced plans to use the old aluminum plant site for a mining operation that would require 400 megawatts - roughly enough to power 300,000 homes at once.

In this March 24, 2018 photo, Ryan Brienza poses with the drives at his crypto-mine in Plattsburgh, N.Y. Cheap electricity and chilly air near New York's northern border is attracting energy-hungry businesses that "mine" bitcoins and other digital currencies with rows of computers. But the small number of mines operating so far have created few jobs even as they tap into limited supplies of cheap hydro-power. While the direct number of jobs associated with mines can be small, Brienza said they can bring revenue, investments and talent to the city while employing local contractors. (Griffin Kelly/Adirondack Daily Enterprise via AP)

In Plattsburgh, where two cryptocurrency operations have been blamed for spiking electricity rates, the prospect of more cryptocurrency miners plugging in spooked officials enough in March to enact an 18-month moratorium on new operations. The small border village of Rouses Point also is holding off on approving new server farms and Lake Placid is considering a moratorium.

For local officials, the power struggle has been a crash course in the esoteric bitcoin mining business in which miners earn bitcoins by making complex calculations that verify transactions on the digital currency's public ledger.

Since it often uses hundreds of computers that throw off tremendous heat and burn a lot of power, it has tended to gravitate towards cooler places with cheap electricity, such as geothermal-rich Iceland or along the Columbia River region of Washington state.

The stretch of New York near the Canadian border similarly fits the bill. Cheap hydropower from a dam spanning the St. Lawrence River is doled out by a state authority to local businesses that promise to create jobs. Additionally, some municipalities such as Massena and Plattsburgh receive cheap electricity from a separate hydropower project near Niagara Falls.

In Plattsburgh, electricity is so cheap most residents use it instead of oil or wood to heat their homes. The couple of commercial cryptocurrency mines here can get an industrial rate of about 3 cents per kilowatt hour - less than half the national average.

But Plattsburgh Mayor Colin Read said its largest operator, Coinmint, which has two plants employing 20 or fewer people, can consume about 10 percent of Plattsburgh's 104 megawatt cheap electricity quota. When the city exceeded its allocation like it did this winter, customers ended up paying $10 to $30 more a month for the extra electricity. For a major employer like Mold-Rite Plastics plant, it cost them at least $15,000 in February.

State regulators have since given municipal utilities the ability to charge higher rates to cryptocurrency miners. At least one bitcoin miner in Plattsburgh says he's working with the city on solutions to the power worries.

Ryan Brienza, founder and CEO of the hosting company Zafra, said those could include mining on behalf of the city for an hour a day or harnessing the heat from mining computers to warm up large spaces.

While the direct number of jobs associated with mines can be small, Brienza said they can bring revenue, investments and talent to the city while employing local contractors.

"It can start snowballing," Brienza said.

Coinmint's plans for a new plant in Massena, for example, come with a promise of 150 jobs. That's welcome in an area that in the past decade has suffered though the loss of aluminum-making jobs and the closure of a General Motors powertrain plant.

"J-O-Bs. Yup. What we need up here," said Steve O'Shaughnessy, Massena town supervisor.

Coinmint had asked for a cheap power allocation from the New York Power Authority for Massena for part of its energy needs, but that request was deferred.

The power authority has separately enacted its own moratorium on allocating hydropower to cryptocurrency operations - mirroring municipalities that have effectively pushed the "pause" button on a rush of miners coming in.

Coinmint representatives said this month they hope to begin the Massena operation in the second part of this year. The company stressed that mines can be a good fit for this job-hungry area.

"They're also going to get substantially more efficient over time," said Coinmint spokesman Kyle Carlton. "So to the extent that Plattsburgh or Massena or anybody else can get in on that and establish themselves on the ground floor, I think that's going to help those cities to be successful."
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) - The jury in Bill Cosby's sexual-assault retrial will begin deliberating Wednesday after a full day of blistering closing arguments in which the comedian was variously portrayed as a calculating predator who is finally being brought to justice, or the victim of a multimillion-dollar frame-up.

The judge sent the seven men and five women back to their hotel Tuesday evening after they indicated they were exhausted after listening to about 5 hours of arguments.

"I want you well rested. I think you have collectively made a wise decision," Judge Steven O'Neill said.

Bill Cosby, left, arrives with his wife, Camille, for his sexual assault trial, Tuesday, April 24, 2018, at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

The first big celebrity trial of the #MeToo era pits Cosby, the 80-year-old former TV star whose career and good-guy reputation were destroyed by a barrage of allegations involving drugs and sex, against a former Temple University women's basketball administrator who testified that he drugged her and sexually violated her at his suburban Philadelphia mansion 14 years ago.

Five other women got on the witness stand and testified the same thing had happened to them.

"The time for the defendant to escape justice is over. It's finally time for the defendant to dine on the banquet of his own consequences," prosecutor Stewart Ryan told jurors in a passionate closing argument that stretched more than three hours and was delivered by two prosecutors.

The defense urged jurors to acquit Cosby on charges he assaulted Constand, his chief accuser, saying they were based on "flimsy, silly, ridiculous evidence."

Cosby faces three counts of aggravated indecent assault, each carrying up to 10 years in prison. The jury at his first trial deliberated for more than 52 hours over six days last year without reaching a verdict.

Defense attorneys Tom Mesereau and Kathleen Bliss said in their closing argument that Constand consented to sexual activity, then leveled false accusations against the "Cosby Show" star so she could sue him and extract a big settlement.

Constand received nearly $3.4 million from Cosby over a decade ago - a settlement that Mesereau argued was "one of the biggest highway robberies of all time."

"You're dealing with a pathological liar, members of the jury," said Mesereau, who won an acquittal in Michael Jackson's 2005 child-molestation case. "You are."

Cosby's wife of 54 years looked on from the gallery as his lawyers pleaded with the jury to clear him, the first time she has attended the trial. Camille Cosby, 74, had stayed away as the prosecution built its case that her husband maintained a sordid double life, plying women with drugs and preying on them sexually.

Before the jury came in, she went to the defense table and put her arm around Cosby, who is legally blind. They embraced, smiled and chatted, and he gave her a peck on the cheek.

When it was the prosecution's turn to argue, Camille Cosby left the courtroom, and Constand entered.

Constand, 45, alleges Cosby knocked her out with three pills he called "your friends" and molested her in January 2004. Her account was bolstered by the testimony of five other women who took the stand and said Cosby had drugged and assaulted them, too - including one woman who asked him through her tears, "You remember, don't you, Mr. Cosby?"

The defense ripped into the other accusers Tuesday, saying they were motivated by the prospect of money and fame to fabricate their accounts.

After last year's hung jury, the defense team also mounted a far more aggressive effort to stoke doubts about Constand's credibility and raise questions about whether Cosby's arrest was even legal.

Their star witness was Marguerite Jackson, a former Temple University colleague of Constand's who testified that Constand spoke of framing a high-profile person for the purpose of filing a lawsuit.

Kristen Feden, another prosecutor, bristled at what she called the defense's "horrible character assassination" of Constand and the other women.

She called Cosby the true con artist - wresting that label from Cosby's lawyers, who had applied it to Constand throughout the two-week trial.

"Yes, you did hear about a con," Feden said, her voice rising as she moved toward Cosby and pointed at him. "The perpetrator of that con is this man, sitting right here."

The defense highlighted more than a dozen inconsistencies in what Constand has said over the years. Cosby's lawyers also painstakingly reviewed phone and travel records for Cosby and Constand, as well as a schedule for the Temple women's basketball team, saying they are proof the alleged assault couldn't have happened when she says it did. Prosecutors have noted that Cosby's travel records have large gaps in time.

In arguing over when Cosby's encounter with Constand took place, Cosby's lawyers sought to suggest that the comedian was charged after the 12-year statute of limitations for prosecuting him had run out.

Bliss argued that Cosby, once revered as America's Dad, was an innocent man caught up in the "emotion and anger" of the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct. Cosby was arrested years before #MeToo became a cultural force and took down famous men like Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer, Kevin Spacey and Sen. Al Franken.

Bliss also suggested that Constand and Cosby were having an affair, and that she was the aggressor, "cavorting around with a married man old enough to be her grandfather."

The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission. Constand has done so.

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This story has been corrected to show that jury deliberations in the first trial took place over six days, not five.

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Follow Mike Sisak at https://twitter.com/mikesisak .

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For more coverage visit https://www.apnews.com/tag/CosbyonTrial

Bill Cosby, left, arrives with his wife, Camille, for his sexual assault trial, Tuesday, April 24, 2018, at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Bill Cosby, left, arrives with his wife, Camille, for his sexual assault retrial, Tuesday, April 24, 2018, at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Bill Cosby, center, arrives with his wife, Camille, right, for his sexual assault trial, Tuesday, April 24, 2018, at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Bill Cosby, left, arrives with his wife, Camille, for his sexual assault trial, Tuesday, April 24, 2018, at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
TORONTO (AP) - The suspect in the deadly van attack in Toronto posted a chilling Facebook message just minutes before plowing into a crowded city sidewalk, authorities said Tuesday, raising the possibility that he may have nursed grudges against women - a possible echo of a 1989 massacre of 14 women that remains one of Canada's most traumatic acts of violence.

The 25-year-old suspect, Alek Minassian, was charged Tuesday with first degree murder in the deaths of 10 pedestrians he mowed down in the rented van he sent careening along the busy walkway. Fourteen others were injured.

Toronto Police Services Det. Sgt. Graham Gibson told a news conference most of those killed and injured were women, though he said investigators have not yet determined whether they were targeted for that reason and declined to discuss a possible motive.

Sean O'Keefe and his son Fionn, 16 months, bring flowers to a memorial on Yonge Street Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Toronto, the day after a driver drove a van down sidewalks, striking and killing numerous pedestrians in his path. (Galit Rodan/The Canadian Press via AP)

"All the lanes are open with this investigation," said Police Chief Mark Saunders.

Authorities have not yet released a list of victims. Those known to have been killed include a 30-year-old woman from Toronto, Anne Marie D'Amico, who was active in volunteer work, as well as a female student at Seneca College, which Minassian also attended. A Jordanian citizen and two South Koreans were also among those killed.

The gender issue arose because of what police called a "cryptic" Facebook message posted by Minassian just before the incident that suggested he was part of an online community angry over their inability to form relationships with women.

The now-deleted post saluted Elliot Rodger, a community college student who killed six people and wounded 13 in shooting and stabbing attacks near the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 2014.

Calling Rodger "the Supreme Gentleman," the Facebook post declared: "The Incel Rebellion has already begun! We will overthrow all the Chads and Stacys!"

Rodger had used the term "incel" - for involuntarily celibate - in online posts raging at women for rejecting him romantically. Like-minded people in internet forums sometimes use "Chad" and "Stacy" as dismissive slang for men and women with more robust sex lives.

The anti-women sentiment recalled the 1989 massacre at the Ecole Polytechnique, an engineering college in Montreal, when 25-year-old Marc Lepine entered a classroom, separated the men from the women, told the men to leave and opened fire, killing 14 women before killing himself. In a suicide note, he blamed feminists for ruining his life.

Since then, there have been sporadic mass shootings in Canada, but none with a higher death toll - reinforcing the view among many Canadians that their country is less violent than the United States.

"Canadians don't know who they are, but they know who they are not - they're not Americans," said Nelson Wiseman, a political science professor at the University of Toronto. "They perceive that Canada, relative to the U.S., is a peaceable kingdom."

"This isn't to say everything's hunky dory in Canada," Wiseman added. "But we don't have this constant string of mass shootings that keep happening, and then nothing changes."

Wendy Cukier, a professor of justice studies at Toronto's Ryerson University and president of Canada's Coalition for Gun Control, said Canada may avoid some types of violence because its social programs are stronger than those in many U.S. states and it has less income inequality. But the main difference, she contends, is tighter gun regulations in Canada.

"If you take guns out of the mix, Canada and the U.S. are identical," she said, citing statistics indicating the two countries have similar rates of non-firearm homicides.

Although police say Monday's rampage does not appear linked to international terrorism, the use of a vehicle to kill mirrored tactics used by terrorists in France, Germany, Spain, New York City and elsewhere.

Since 2014, there have been at least two terror-related cases in Canada of vehicles being used as weapons - they caused several injuries and one death. But overall, Canada has been spared high-casualty terror attacks; its most striking incidents of violence over the past 50 years have varied widely in nature.

In 2014 a Muslim-Canadian gunman killed a member of the honor guard at Ottawa's national war memorial, then stormed Parliament, where he was shot dead by a sergeant-at arms. Last year, a French-Canadian man shot dead six Muslim men during evening prayers at a mosque in Quebec City. Back in 1972, 37 people died in a Montreal cafe deliberately set on fire by three men who had been refused entry.

In Toronto, Canadian rapper Maestro Fresh Wes returned Tuesday to the scene of the rampage, pausing by a newly erected memorial. Wes, who lives nearby, was strolling down Yonge Street, heading to his barber to get a haircut when he saw a body bag on the ground.

"Yesterday was the most beautiful day of the year and then look what happened," he said. "Toronto is a safe city but things could happen anywhere. When these things happen, you have to reflect."

Also revisiting the site was Saman Tabasinejad, a New Democrat Party politician who was canvassing in the area when the attack occurred.

"I saw shattered glass everywhere, a fire hydrant knocked over and then five body bags," she said. "People were holding others and I saw solidarity all over, people trying to help others."

"When something like this happens, you think people are going to run away from the tragedy but people didn't, they ran towards it to try to help others," she added. "It shows that something like this could happen at the hands of one person, but so many more stand against it and show their humanity."

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Crary reported from New York. Associated Press writer Ben Fox in Miami contributed to this report.

In this courtroom sketch, Duty counsel Georgia Koulis, from left, Alek Minassian, Justice of the Peace Stephen Waisberg, and Crown prosecutor Joe Callaghan appear in court in Toronto on Tuesday, April 24, 2018. Alek Minassian, who plowed a van into a crowded Toronto sidewalk, was ordered held Tuesday on 10 counts of murder and 13 of attempted murder. (Alexandra Newbould/The Canadian Press via AP)

Vahe Minassian, father of Alek Minassian, is surrounded by members of the media as he leaves court with a police escort in Toronto on Tuesday, April 24, 2018. Alek Minassian, who plowed a van into a crowded Toronto sidewalk Monday was ordered held Tuesday on 10 counts of murder 13 of attempted murder. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press via AP)

Flowers and signs fill a memorial along Yonge Street Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Toronto, the day after a driver drove a van down sidewalks, striking and killing numerous pedestrians in his path. (Galit Rodan/The Canadian Press via AP)

Workers collect debris along Yonge Street the day after a driver drove a van down sidewalks, striking pedestrians in his path in Toronto, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. (Galit Rodan/The Canadian Press via AP)

Vahe Minassian, father of Alek Minassian, leaves court with a police escort in Toronto on Tuesday, April 24, 2018. Alek Minassian, who plowed a van into a crowded Toronto sidewalk Monday was ordered held Tuesday on 10 counts of murder 13 of attempted murder. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press via AP)

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau talks about yesterday's incident involving pedestrians being struck by a van in Toronto, in the Foyer of the House of Commons on Parliament Hill on Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Ottawa, Ontario. "We cannot as Canadians choose to live in fear every single day as we go about our daily business," Trudeau said. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)

Bouquets of flowers are placed at a makeshift memorial to the victims as a woman writes her condolences after a van mounted a sidewalk crashing into pedestrians in Toronto on Monday, April 23, 2018. The rented van jumped onto the crowded sidewalk Monday, killing and injuring people before the driver fled and was quickly arrested in a confrontation with police, Canadian authorities said. (Aaron Vincent Elkaim/The Canadian Press via AP)

A worker pressure sprays water where one of the victims was killed along Yonge Street the day after a driver drove a van down sidewalks, striking pedestrians in his path in Toronto, Tuesday, April 24, 2018 (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

A police officer steps out of the Toronto area home of Alek Minassian in Richmond Hill, Ont., on Tuesday, April 24, 2018. Minassian, accused of driving a van into pedestrians along a stretch of a busy Toronto street, has been charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder and 13 counts of attempted murder. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press via AP)

Police cars remain parked outside of of the Toronto area home of Alek Minassian in Richmond Hill, Ont., on Tuesday, April 24, 2018. Minassian, accused of driving a van into pedestrians along a stretch of a busy Toronto street, has been charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder and 13 counts of attempted murder. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press via AP)
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - As citizens of a small and isolated nation, New Zealanders often seek validation from abroad. By that measure, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern returned triumphant this week from a trip to Europe.

Ardern met with the leaders of Germany and France and got support for a free trade agreement. She was applauded in Paris when she explained that in seeking a greener future, New Zealand had stopped issuing new permits for offshore oil and gas exploration. And she was named in Time magazine as one of the world's 100 most influential people.

For many New Zealanders, an image defined the trip: Ardern wearing an indigenous Maori cloak and smiling as she and her partner Clarke Gayford arrived at Britain's Buckingham Palace.

FILE - In this April 19, 2018 file photo, New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her partner Clarke Gayford arrive in the East Gallery at Buckingham Palace in London as Queen Elizabeth II hosts a dinner during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). As citizens of a small and isolated nation, New Zealanders often seek validation from abroad. By that measure, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern returned triumphant this week from a trip to Europe. (Daniel Leal-Olivas/Pool via AP, File)

But back home, Ardern faces political pressures.

Some people have criticized her oil and gas policy, including New Plymouth Mayor Neil Holdom who said it was a "kick in the guts" for people living in the oil-rich Taranaki region.

A recent opinion poll indicated support for Ardern's liberal Labour Party had slipped behind the conservative opposition National Party.

Asked Tuesday if she was worried she might be more popular abroad than at home, Ardern said it was of "no value or benefit" for her to be popular in places like the U.K.

"I need to focus on domestic issues and domestic politics and making sure I satisfy New Zealand voters," she said. "The rest is immaterial."

Ardern said one of her primary goals on her Europe trip was getting French President Emmanuel Macron to back the idea of a free-trade deal between the European Union and New Zealand.

Trade expert Stephen Jacobi said it was a significant diplomatic win for Ardern to get support from Macron ahead of an EU meeting next month to consider a mandate for such a deal.

"I think getting such a strong, unequivocal statement from the president was important," Jacobi said.

He said any deal is likely to take at least another two years to complete.

In an address last week to the Paris Institute of Political Studies, Ardern described how 10 years ago she was booed in a public meeting when she urged action on global warming, but that sentiments had changed: "My generation will be shaped by climate change," she said.

In Time magazine, Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook and author of "Lean In," wrote that 37-year-old Ardern, who is pregnant, was changing the political game.

"In a world that too often tells women to stay small, keep quiet - and that we can't have both motherhood and a career - Jacinda Ardern proves how wrong and outdated those notions of womanhood are," Sandberg wrote.

Ardern has no more overseas trips planned ahead of her June due date. She intends to have deputy Winston Peters fill in for six weeks after she gives birth before returning to work.

FILE - In this April 16, 2018 file photo, New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, left, is welcomed by French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris. As citizens of a small and isolated nation, New Zealanders often seek validation from abroad. By that measure, Prime Minister Ardern returned triumphant this week from a trip to Europe. She met with the leaders of Germany and France and got support for a free trade agreement. She was applauded in Paris when she explained that in seeking a greener future, New Zealand had stopped issuing new permits for offshore oil and gas exploration. And she was named in Time magazine as one of the world's 100 most influential people. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)

FILE - In this April 18, 2018 file photo, Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May, left, meets New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at 10 Downing Street during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in London. As citizens of a small and isolated nation, New Zealanders often seek validation from abroad. By that measure, Prime Minister Ardern returned triumphant this week from a trip to Europe. She met with the leaders of Germany and France and got support for a free trade agreement. She was applauded in Paris when she explained that in seeking a greener future, New Zealand had stopped issuing new permits for offshore oil and gas exploration. And she was named in Time magazine as one of the world's 100 most influential people. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein,File)

FILE - In this April 19, 2018 file photo, Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern, left, is greeted by Britain's Queen Elizabeth II during a private audience at Buckingham Palace in London. As citizens of a small and isolated nation, New Zealanders often seek validation from abroad. By that measure, Prime Minister Ardern returned triumphant this week from a trip to Europe. She met with the leaders of Germany and France and got support for a free trade agreement. She was applauded in Paris when she explained that in seeking a greener future, New Zealand had stopped issuing new permits for offshore oil and gas exploration. And she was named in Time magazine as one of the world's 100 most influential people. (Dominic Lipinski/Pool via AP, File)

FILE - In this April 20, 2018 file photo, New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, left, talks to the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as they arrive for the the second day of the Commonwealth Heads of Government 2018 for a behind closed doors meeting in Windsor, England. As citizens of a small and isolated nation, New Zealanders often seek validation from abroad. By that measure, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern returned triumphant this week from a trip to Europe. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein,File)

FILE - In this April 17, 2018 file photo, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, left, are pictured behind blossoms as they attend a military welcome ceremony in Berlin, Germany. As citizens of a small and isolated nation, New Zealanders often seek validation from abroad. By that measure, Prime Minister Ardern returned triumphant this week from a trip to Europe. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn,File)
HOUSTON (AP) - Former President George H.W. Bush was "responding and recovering" to treatment at a Houston hospital on Tuesday for an infection that had spread to his blood, according to a family spokesman.

Bush has been hospitalized since Sunday, a day after attending the funeral of his wife, Barbara, who died last week at age 92. The couple was married 73 years, longer than any other U.S. presidential couple.

In a brief post on Twitter, family spokesman Jim McGrath said he could "happily" echo his report from Monday that the 93-year-old former president was "responding to treatments and appears to be recovering."

Former Presidents George W. Bush, left, and George H.W. Bush arrive at St. Martin's Episcopal Church for a funeral service for former first lady Barbara Bush, Saturday, April 21, 2018, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip )

George H.W. Bush had used a wheelchair and an electric scooter for mobility since developing a form of Parkinson's disease, and he has needed hospital treatment several times in recent years for respiratory problems and other infections.

McGrath wouldn't elaborate Tuesday on the specifics of Bush's condition, saying only that he would issue updates "when we have something to update." Late Monday, McGrath described Bush as eager to get well so he could get to his summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine.

"He's the most goal-oriented person on this planet," McGrath said. "I wouldn't bet against him."

A year ago this month, the nation's 41st president spent two weeks in the hospital for treatment of pneumonia and chronic bronchitis, a constant irritation of the lining of tubes that carry air to one's lungs. His doctors said chronic bronchitis is a condition more prevalent with age and can aggravate the symptoms of pneumonia. Bush was also hospitalized, for 16 days, in January 2017 for pneumonia. During that hospital stay, which included time in intensive care, doctors inserted a breathing tube and connected him to a ventilator.

He was hospitalized in 2015 in Maine after falling at home and breaking a bone in his neck. In December 2014, he was hospitalized for about a week for shortness of breath, and he spent Christmas 2012 in intensive care for a bronchitis-related cough and other issues.

People in their 90s with Parkinson's disease are often at higher risk of pneumonia and other infections because their swallowing process can be compromised, said Dr. David Reuben, a professor of geriatric medicine at the UCLA medical school in Los Angeles.

"And the stress of losing a loved one can weaken the immune system," he said.

Bacterial infections are treated with antibiotics, he said, while viral infections require other treatments. Infections that spread to the blood usually are not viral, however, he said.

The prognosis for such a case would depend on several factors, including heart rate, blood pressure and oxygenation, Reuben said.

"The more of these parameters are abnormal, the more serious the case is," he said.

George H. W. Bush served as president from 1989 to 1993. Born on June 12, 1924, in Milton, Massachusetts, Bush also served as a Texas congressman, CIA director and Ronald Reagan's vice president.

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Associated Press reporter Terry Wallace contributed to this story from Dallas.

This Saturday, April 21, 2018, photo provided by the Office of former U.S. President George H.W. Bush, shows Bush, front center, and past presidents and first ladies Laura Bush, from left, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama and current first lady Melania Trump in a group photo at the funeral service for former first lady Barbara Bush, in Houston. Barbara Bush died Tuesday, April 17. She was 92. (Paul Morse/Courtesy of Office of George H.W. Bush via AP)

This Saturday, April 21, 2018, photo provided by the Office of former U.S. President George H.W. Bush shows Bush's socks during the funeral service for his wife, Barbara Bush, in Houston. Barbara Bush was known for bringing awareness to AIDS patients and for her work promoting literacy, which her husband subtly honored Saturday by wearing socks printed with blue, red and yellow books. (Paul Morse/Courtesy of Office of George H.W. Bush via AP)

FILE - In this Oct. 12, 1987, file photo, Vice President George H.W. Bush and his wife Barbara, with their son George W. Bush, far left, wave to supporters who turned out in Houston, to hear him announce he was a candidate for the Republican nomination for president of the United States. George H.W. Bush has been hospitalized in Houston with an infection, just after attending the funeral of his wife, Barbara, a spokesman said Monday, April 23, 2018. (AP Photo/Ed Kolenovsky, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) - Mike Pompeo, President Donald Trump's choice for secretary of state, avoided a rare rebuke Monday as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee narrowly recommended him, but the vote served as a warning shot to the White House as nominees to lead the CIA and Veterans Affairs are hitting stiff resistance.

Pompeo, who's now CIA director, received the panel's approval only after Trump's last-minute overtures to Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. Pompeo's nomination now goes to the full Senate, where votes are tallying in his favor and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he looks forward to voting to confirm him later this week.

Trump has been quick to fire his top cabinet secretaries, but Senate Democrats are not so fast to confirm replacements. A grilling is expected Wednesday of Ronny Jackson, the White House physician nominated to head the VA, and Pompeo's potential replacement at the CIA, Gina Haspel, is also facing scrutiny.

From left, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., the ranking member, and Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., confer before the vote on President Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, who has faced considerable opposition before the panel, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, April 23, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

It's also a reminder of how tough it could be to replace Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Trump has publicly mused about firing Rosenstein, who is overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

"Hard to believe," Trump tweeted Monday about what he called "obstruction." ''The Dems will not approve hundreds of good people... They are maxing out the time on approval process for all, never happened before. Need more Republicans!"

Republicans hold just a slim Senate majority, 50-49, with the prolonged absence of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

Pompeo's bid to become the nation's top diplomat was in the hands of a few senators, but received a boost Monday when two Democrats, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana, announced their support.

Pressure is mounting on senators from all sides. White House allies are unloading ad campaigns against Democrats from Trump-won states, but progressive groups are pounding senators' offices in opposition. As soon as Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., announced her support for Pompeo, one group called on her to switch.

Ahead of the Foreign Relations Committee's vote, chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said of the full Senate, "It does appear Mike Pompeo has the votes to be secretary of state."

Supporters point to Pompeo's resume as a West Point and Harvard Law School graduate who has the president's confidence, particularly on North Korea. Opponents are focusing on his hawkish foreign policy views and negative comments about gay marriage and Muslims.

Paul's earlier objections to Pompeo, along with overwhelming opposition from Democrats, had set the secretary of state nominee on track to be the first since 1925, when the committee started keeping records, not to receive a favorable recommendation.

But Trump and Paul talked repeatedly, including a chat just moments before the vote.

"I have changed my mind," Paul said, explaining he received reassurances that Pompeo agrees with the president that the Iraq war was a "mistake" and that it is time for U.S. troops to leave Afghanistan. Paul's office said he "got a win" - the promise that Pompeo sides with Trump on those issues - out of the situation, but declined to provide details.

"I want Trump to be Trump," Paul said.

Asked about Paul's change of heart, Trump said, "He's a good man."

Senators are anxious to have Pompeo in place before international meetings scheduled for later this week and ahead of North Korea talks.

Republicans blamed partisan politics for opposition, saying Pompeo is just as qualified as past secretaries of state nominees Hillary Clinton or John Kerry, both of whom received overwhelming support.

"A majority of Democrats continue their pointless obstruction to score cheap political points with their base as a willful attempt to undermine American diplomacy," said White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

But Democrats resisted easy confirmation of the nation's top diplomat, and support peeled.

Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., who had been among more than a dozen Democrats who supported Pompeo for CIA director, announced her no vote Monday.

"I am concerned that Mr. Pompeo has not demonstrated an understanding that the Secretary of State has an obligation to the American people to stand up for our core values," she said.

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., who was among the last Democrats on the foreign relations panel to announce his no vote, said he is concerned that Pompeo "will embolden, rather than moderate or restrain" Trump's "most belligerent and dangerous instincts."

In a late setback Monday, the panel was short one Republican vote needed for a favorable recommendation because Sen. Johnny Isakson was delivering a eulogy in his home state of Georgia. Rather than postpone voting until his return very late Monday, Coons agreed to allowed his vote to be recorded as "present" so the committee could finish its work.

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Follow Mascaro on Twitter at https://twitter.com/LisaMascaro

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., center left, reaches to shake hands with Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., seated lower left, to end a dramatic vote for President Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, who has faced considerable opposition before the panel, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, April 23, 2018. When the Republicans on the panel were missing a "yes" vote by Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., who was late returning to Washington after giving a eulogy for a friend, Sen. Coons, a Democrat, offered to vote "present" to get the Pompeo nomination to the floor favorably even though he opposed it. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., the sole Republican who had earlier opposed President Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, tells the Senate Foreign Relations Committee he is changing his vote to yes, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, April 23, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
David S. Dockery, highly regarded as one of the outstanding leaders and a senior statesman in the world of Christian higher education, will deliver the commencement address at University of Mobile on May 5.

Approximately 235 graduates will receive diplomas during an outdoor ceremony beginning at 10 a.m. on the Lackey Great Commission Lawn on the university campus. The ceremony will be live-streamed at umobile.edu/graduation.

A native of Alabama, Dr. Dockery was unanimously elected on Feb. 28, 2014 as the 15th president of Trinity International University, and is now serving in his 23rd year as a university president.

Dockery served as president of Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, for nearly two decades prior to leading Trinity. He saw Union through a period of unprecedented growth and through recovery from an EF-4 tornado strike that ranks among the largest natural disasters in the history of higher education.

Earlier this year, the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities honored Dockery with the John R. Dellenback Global Leadership Award, among the highest recognitions for a Christian educator.

Dockery also is a prolific author who has written or edited 30 books and contributed to 60 other volumes. He is highly sought after as a speaker, with appearances on more than 65 college campuses around the world.

He holds degrees from the University of Alabama-Birmingham (B.S.), Grace Theological Seminary (M.Div.), Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (M.Div.), Texas Christian University (M.A.), and the University of Texas system (Ph.D.).

Dr. Timothy L. Smith, president of University of Mobile, previously served on the administration at Union University during Dockery's tenure. Under Smith's leadership as dean and professor of the School of Nursing at Union, the program grew over nine years to become the largest faith-based nursing school in the nation.

More information about graduation is online at umobile.edu/graduation.



About University of Mobile

University of Mobile is a Christ-centered liberal arts and sciences institution with a vision of higher education for a higher purpose, founded to honor God by equipping students for their future professions through rigorous academic preparation and spiritual transformation. Core values are: Christ-Centered, Academically-Focused, Student-Devoted and Distinctively-Driven. The university offers on-campus and online bachelor's and master's degree programs in over 40 areas of study. Founded in 1961, University of Mobile is affiliated with the Alabama Baptist State Convention and is located 10 miles north of Mobile, Alabama on a campus of over 880 acres.

For more information about University of Mobile, visit the website at www.umobile.edu or call Enrollment Services at 1.800.WIN.RAMS or 251.442.2222.
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump's escalating dispute with China over trade and technology is threatening jobs and profits in working-class communities where his "America First" agenda hit home.

The Commerce Department has received more than 2,400 applications from companies seeking waivers from the administration's tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, which may result in duty payments of millions of dollars for larger businesses. The department has begun posting the requests online for public comment; several of the applications released so far suggest deep misgivings with Trump's protectionist strategy, especially in areas where he won strong support during the 2016 election.

The tariffs are aimed primarily at China for flooding the global market with cheap steel and aluminum. But they've also led to confusion and uncertainty, according to Associated Press interviews and a review of records. In Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin, for example, businesses operating in the furniture, energy and food sectors have outlined the financial difficulties they'd face if they're not excused from the steel tariff.

Jose Mata grinds a steel pipe at the Borusan Mannesmann plant in Baytown, Texas, Monday, April 23, 2018. President Donald Trump's escalating dispute with China over trade and technology is threatening jobs and profits in working-class communities where his "America First" agenda hit home. Without a waiver, Borusan Mannesmann Pipe may face tariffs of $25 million to $30 million annually if it imports steel tubing and casing from its parent company in Turkey, according to information the company provided to The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Loren Elliott)

In Okmulgee, Oklahoma, dozens of jobs hang in the balance as office furniture giant Steelcase waits to hear back from the Commerce Department.

A Steelcase subsidiary, PolyVision, operates a plant in Okmulgee that uses a special type of steel from Japan to manufacture a durable glass-like surface for whiteboards and architectural purposes. PolyVision "cannot and will not be able to procure" from U.S. companies the cold-rolled steel it requires "in a sufficient and reasonably available amount or of a satisfactory quality," Steelcase said.

Trump won most of the votes cast for president in Okmulgee County. Without a waiver, Steelcase warned, the "economic viability of PolyVision (and) the small town of Okmulgee" would be jeopardized.

The waiver request also indicates that a $15 million plant expansion may be at risk. Steelcase and PolyVision are on the verge of making the investment, which would create new construction and manufacturing jobs, according to the request.

Roger Ballenger, Okmulgee's city manager, said he and other local officials are "very concerned about the situation with PolyVision."

The tariffs - 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on imported aluminum - are designed to protect and rebuild the U.S. companies that manufacture the metals. The U.S. temporarily exempted several major trading partners, including the European Union, Mexico and Canada.

China, which was left on the target list, retaliated by imposing tariffs on $3 billion in U.S. products, including apples, pork and ginseng.

Trump responded by adding more protectionist measures as punishment for Chinese theft of U.S. intellectual property. And Beijing punched back by proposing tariffs on $50 billion in U.S. products including small aircraft and soybeans - a direct threat to rural areas that were key to Trump's victory.

Economists Joseph Francois and Laura Baughman estimated last month that the tariffs would increase employment in the U.S. steel and aluminum industries by more than 26,000 jobs but also lead to the loss of 495,000 other jobs throughout the rest of the American economy.

John Hritz, CEO of JSW Steel USA in Baytown, Texas, said his company is in lockstep with Trump's approach. "We're in favor of growing the steel industry in this country," Hritz said. JSW Steel, owned by Indian conglomerate JSW Group, is embarking on a $500 million overhaul of the plant that it says will create hundreds of jobs.

The growth would be welcomed in Baytown, where unemployment is 9.8 percent, more than double the national rate. Baytown is located partly in Harris County, which Democrat Hillary Clinton won, and partly in Chambers County, which Trump handily won.

The future is much murkier for another Baytown steel business, Borusan Mannesmann Pipe. Without a waiver, Borusan may face tariffs of $25 million to $30 million annually if it imports steel tubing and casing from its parent company in Turkey, according to information the company provided to the AP.

Borusan said the Baytown production line would no longer be competitive and "jobs would be threatened" if it cannot import 135,000 metric tons of steel annually over the next two years. The pipes Borusan produces are used primarily as casing for oil and natural gas wells.

But if Commerce says yes, Borusan will be able to unlock a $25 million investment in the Baytown facility as it seeks to become a "100 percent domestic supplier," according to the waiver request. An additional $50 million expansion in pipe fabrication capacity would follow, the company said, leading to as many as 170 new jobs.

Seneca Foods Corporation, the nation's largest vegetable canner, said in its waiver application that it's unclear, at best, if U.S. suppliers have the ability or willingness to expand their production in the long term to meet the company's annual demand for tinplated steel.

But "clearly they cannot meet demand in the short term," Seneca told Commerce officials. That means Seneca has to buy a portion of what it needs from overseas.

A person with knowledge of Seneca's situation said the company would face a $2.25 million duty if the Commerce Department doesn't approve its waiver request for 11,000 metric tons of tinplate it already agreed to purchase from China. The material is to be delivered this year and next, according to the waiver request. The person was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

Seneca said it employs more than 400 people at can-making facilities in Wisconsin and Idaho and near its headquarters in New York's Wayne County, where Trump bested Clinton. The company doesn't warn layoffs are imminent if the waiver isn't approved. Instead, the tariffs would likely come out of Seneca's bottom line, the person said.

___

Contact Richard Lardner on Twitter at http://twitter.com/rplardner

Zach Davis straps down a steel coil at the Borusan Mannesmann steel pipe plant in Baytown, Texas, Monday, April 23, 2018. President Donald Trump's escalating dispute with China over trade and technology is threatening jobs and profits in working-class communities where his "America First" agenda hit home. Without a waiver, Borusan Mannesmann Pipe may face tariffs of $25 million to $30 million annually if it imports steel tubing and casing from its parent company in Turkey, according to information the company provided to The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Loren Elliott)

This photo shows machinery used to uncoil steel in preparation for creating pipes at the Borusan Mannesmann steel pipe plant in Baytown, Texas, Monday, April 23, 2018. President Donald Trump's escalating dispute with China over trade and technology is threatening jobs and profits in working-class communities where his "America First" agenda hit home. Without a waiver, Borusan Mannesmann Pipe may face tariffs of $25 million to $30 million annually if it imports steel tubing and casing from its parent company in Turkey, according to information the company provided to The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Loren Elliott)

Taurice Jones inspects steel pipes as part of quality control at the Borusan Mannesmann plant in Baytown, Texas, Monday, April 23, 2018. President Donald Trump's escalating dispute with China over trade and technology is threatening jobs and profits in working-class communities where his "America First" agenda hit home. Without a waiver, Borusan Mannesmann Pipe may face tariffs of $25 million to $30 million annually if it imports steel tubing and casing from its parent company in Turkey, according to information the company provided to The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Loren Elliott)

Steel coils are pictured at the Borusan Mannesmann steel pipe plant in Baytown, Texas, Monday, April 23, 2018. President Donald Trump's escalating dispute with China over trade and technology is threatening jobs and profits in working-class communities where his "America First" agenda hit home. Borusan said the Baytown production line would no longer be competitive and "jobs would be threatened" if it cannot import 135,000 metric tons of steel annually over the next two years. The pipes Borusan produces are used primarily as casing for oil and natural gas wells. (AP Photo/Loren Elliott)

William Hampton walks between steel pipes at the Borusan Mannesmann plant in Baytown, Texas, Monday, April 23, 2018. President Donald Trump's escalating dispute with China over trade and technology is threatening jobs and profits in working-class communities where his "America First" agenda hit home. Borusan said the Baytown production line would no longer be competitive and "jobs would be threatened" if it cannot import 135,000 metric tons of steel annually over the next two years. The pipes Borusan produces are used primarily as casing for oil and natural gas wells. (AP Photo/Loren Elliott)

Ranulfo Flores operates machinery at the Borusan Mannesmann steel pipe plant in Baytown, Texas, Monday, April 23, 2018. President Donald Trump's escalating dispute with China over trade and technology is threatening jobs and profits in working-class communities where his "America First" agenda hit home. Without a waiver, Borusan Mannesmann Pipe may face tariffs of $25 million to $30 million annually if it imports steel tubing and casing from its parent company in Turkey, according to information the company provided to The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Loren Elliott)
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - A new wave of Taliban attacks across Afghanistan killed at least 11 Afghan soldiers and policemen on Tuesday, officials said, the latest in a particularly deadly week of assaults by militants.

At least five soldiers were killed when their checkpoint was attacked by the Taliban in western Farah province, according to Mohammad Naser Mehri, the provincial governor's spokesman.

Two soldiers were wounded in that attack, in the Bala Buluk district. Mehri said six Taliban fighters were killed and three others were wounded in the battle, which lasted several hours.

Men carry the coffin of a relative who died in Sunday's suicide attack at a voter registration center, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, April 23, 2018. Taliban attacks in western Afghanistan killed 14 soldiers and policemen on Monday as residents in the capital, Kabul, prepared for the funerals of those killed in the horrific bombing by the Islamic State group on a voter registration center that left at least 57 dead the previous day. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

"Reinforcements have arrived and right now, the situation is under control," he added.

Earlier on Tuesday, insurgents killed at least four members of the local police force and wounded seven in eastern Ghazni province.

The Taliban there targeted the local police security post in the province's district of Jaghatu, said Arif Noori, spokesman for the provincial governor. He also said the gunbattle lasted several hours and that the Taliban used artillery and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for both the Farah and the Ghazni attacks in messages to the media. He said the Taliban took two Afghan soldiers captive in the Farah attack but there was no immediate confirmation from the Afghan military on that.

Later Tuesday, two policemen were killed and six soldiers were captured in attacks on their checkpoints in western Badghis province, said Mohammad Naser Nazari, a member of the provincial council.

He blamed the Taliban and said insurgents there stormed several police and military checkpoints in Qadis district before reinforcements arrived and the situation was brought under control.

It has been a particularly deadly week in Afghanistan.

The Health Ministry in Kabul on Tuesday raised the death toll from a horrific suicide bombing by the Islamic State group earlier this week to 60, after three more of the wounded had died in hospital.

The ministry also said the number of wounded from Sunday's attack, which targeted a voter registration center in Kabul, was now at 130 after all the data had been collected, including from private hospitals where the casualties were also taken after state hospitals became overwhelmed in the immediate aftermath of the bombing.

Also, on Monday, Taliban attacks in western Afghanistan killed 18 soldiers and policemen.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Members of the cast of TV's "Homeland" call it "spy camp." It's when they travel to Washington to pick the brains of top U.S. intelligence officials.

And it's where Hollywood meets real-world intelligence and both sides realize that not everything is as it seems. The two worlds blur and it's hard to tell where today's national security and political events stop and the fictional drama begins.

"I guess the challenge of the show is that it is constantly adapting to what's happening in real-time," said actress Claire Danes, who plays Carrie Mathison, a former CIA operative turned senior national security adviser who suffers from a bipolar disorder.

FILE - In this Jan. 15, 2009, file photo, then-CIA Director Michael Hayden gestures during a news conference at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. The cast of TV's "Homeland" call it "spy camp." It's when they travel to Washington to pick the brains of top U.S. intelligence officials. Members of the cast and crew of "Homeland" appeared April 23, 2018, at the National Press Club to talk about espionage in pop culture. Several hundred people attended the event, which was sponsored by the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy and International Security at George Mason University.(AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez, File)

Danes and other members of the cast and crew of "Homeland" appeared Monday night at the National Press Club to talk about espionage in popular culture. Several hundred people attended the event, which was sponsored by the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy and International Security at George Mason University. Its namesake, the former CIA director and National Security Agency director, served as moderator.

In the Showtime series, Russians manipulate the news. In real life, Moscow meddled in the presidential election. In the show, the president axes employees. In real life, President Donald Trump shuffles his Cabinet and threatens to fire folks.

Early in its seven-season run, the show portrayed a U.S. serviceman who was held captive by al-Qaida, released and then turned against his country and planned an attack on U.S. soil. Militant-inspired attacks have been carried out in U.S. cities in recent years.

Actor Mandy Patinkin, who plays Saul Berenson, a career official at the CIA who becomes national security adviser to the president, remembered one spy camp where they had a video conference with Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who leaked documents revealing extensive government surveillance. The experience was a letdown, Patinkin said.

"We were all on pins and needles," Patinkin said. "It was the least interesting person who ever came through the door. I'm all for the truth. A lie is a cancer to my soul. But that guy was just proselytizing his manifesto."

Patinkin said that during the video conference, the cast kept passing notes to each other under the table, urging one another to try to get Snowden to talk about something personal. Patinkin said he looks to spy camp for information about what makes intelligence officers human so he can replicate their private soul-searching on camera.

"I'm looking for their heartbeat," he said. "How they deal with terror in their own lives. Who do they talk to when they are frightened?"

Spies in popular culture are not new. British author Rudyard Kipling wrote one of the first spy novels, "Kim," at the turn of the 20th century, Vince Houghton, historian at the International Spy Museum in Washington, said in an interview earlier Monday. A lot of fiction about espionage was written during World War I and even more was published during World War II and the Cold War. British agent James Bond has appeared in published fiction since 1953 and on movie screens in more than two dozen films since 1962.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, the spy genre exploded and today there are multiple television dramas, feeding a seemingly insatiable demand for all things related to spying.

With the number of intelligence stories in the news, there are an abundance of plot lines. WikiLeaks. Intelligence leaks. Insider threats. Cyber warfare. Black sites. Russia accused of poisoning ex-double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter with a nerve agent.

"I don't think we can compete with the reality," said Lesli Link Glatter, executive producer and director of "Homeland," who meets regularly with intelligence professionals. "I don't want to say it's fact-based. It's a story."

She admitted the show sometimes doesn't mirror reality. CIA operatives, for instance, operate abroad, not in the United States as they have done on the show. The staff, however, regularly confers with intelligence pros.

Laurence Pfeiffer, who had a three-decade career in intelligence and directs the Hayden Center, said he watches the show with his wife, who also worked in intelligence. "We say, 'Well, that would never happen.' Or, 'Oh my god, we'd get shot if we did that.'"

At the International Spy Museum, Houghton said Hollywood has a responsibility to portray the spy world as honestly as it can because few people get a look at the real one cloaked in secrecy.

"No one takes Bond seriously, right? People realize that the suave secret agent jumping out of a perfectly good airplane with a cocktail in one hand and a stupidly named blonde in the other is not reality," he said.

Houghton spent two years writing a weekly column for The Wall Street Journal, highlighting what in "Homeland" was authentic and what probably would never have happened in the real world.

"'Homeland' comes across as being closer to reality so people get really wrong ideas about the intelligence world by watching shows like that," he said.
DHAMRAI, Bangladesh (AP) - A few hundred workers, activists and relatives of victims of a 2013 garment factory collapse in Bangladesh that killed 1,134 people and left thousands injured held a rally Tuesday as the country marked the fifth anniversary of the disaster.

Protesters placed flowers at a makeshift monument near the abandoned factory site, just outside the capital Dhaka, and urged that the owner of the collapsed building, imprisoned on murder charges, be given the death penalty.

The Rana Plaza factory building was expanded illegally, with extra floors stacked one on top of another. An engineer had declared it unsafe, and the thousands of people who worked inside, stitching garments for clothing brands from around the world, knew it was trouble.

A Bangladeshi man holds a portrait of his son who was a victim of the Rana Plaza garment factory collapse, on the fifth anniversary of the accident in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. The tragedy killed 1,134 people, many of them young women supporting extended families, and injured more than 2,500. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)

"That factory was very risky," said Khadiza Begum, who was working there the day the complex collapsed. "It had weak pillars. It had narrow stairwells. It had no fire exits."

"We saw cracks in the building before it collapsed on us," she said.

The tragedy killed 1,134 people, many of them young women supporting extended families, and injured more than 2,500. It focused international attention on Bangladesh's role as the world's second-largest garment producer, and led the government and manufacturing associations to promise big improvements.

Many of the world's top clothing brands said they would stop contracting with factories if they failed to improve safety for their workers. European and U.S. brands set up programs meant to improve safety.

Five years later, the situation is complicated, according to a recent study conducted by the Center for Business and Human Rights at New York University's Stern School of Business.

"We have found tremendous improvement in the larger factories" involved in the safety programs, Paul Barrett, deputy director of the center, said in an email. "But two other categories - factories overseen by the government and subcontracting facilities not overseen by anyone - remain at risk."

The center's survey of conditions at Bangladesh's textile factories found that workers at about 3,000 of the country's 7,000 factories are still exposed to life-threatening risks, ranging from a lack of fire safety equipment to serious structural flaws. The dangerous factories, often small, sometimes subcontract work from larger factories that deal with foreign brands.

Such factories rarely allow access for journalists, though the best-equipped ones are eager to show off their workplaces.

S.M. Khaled is the managing director of the Snowtex Outerwear Ltd. Factory, a $42 million complex built after the 2013 disaster in the industrial suburb of Dhamrai, outside the capital Dhaka.

"The collapse of Rana Plaza was a wake-up call for us - for the industry and for the buyers," he said as he walked through the factory. "Look at my factory. Look around. I have done my best to keep it safe for the workers."

"We have invested a lot to keep my factories safe and compliant," he said.

Snowtex, which does business with some of the world's top brands, has about 8,000 workers in its five story factory, each floor spread over 52,000 square feet. It's just a few kilometers (miles) from where Rana Plaza stood.

The factory has wide stairwells, emergency exits, fire safety equipment, sprinklers and first-aid equipment on hand. Workers have been trained in fire safety and rescue techniques and the factory runs regular fire drills.

All that is a relief to Begum, who was trapped for hours after the Rana Plaza collapse. She was so shaken by the experience she didn't work for two years.

"I took a job at a garment factory, but after one or two days there I had the feeling that the floor was shaking, or the building would fall down. I was afraid, and after one or two days I couldn't work anymore," she said.

Eventually, her family desperate for money, she got a job at Snowtex.

"It's very different here," she said, sitting in front of a sewing machine. "This building is good and strong."

Textile exports are a huge business for Bangladesh, bringing in $28 billion annually, mostly from Europe and the United States.

Many of the improvements after the Rana Plaza collapse were brought on with pressure from the foreign safety initiatives: the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, organized by European brands, and the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker safety, which was backed by North American retailers. Under the programs, some 2,300 factories have been inspected and many have upgraded their safety standards.

Industry insiders guardedly admit that subcontracting remains a problem, since larger businesses sometimes contract some work out to smaller, less-safe factories. They insist those deals are being phased out.

Khaled said the established factories know they are being monitored by the international brands, and don't want to get in trouble by subcontracting.

"This is no longer a major concern like it was before," he said, adding that many smaller factories only produce clothes for local markets.

But Barrett disagrees.

"Subcontractors do exist and play an important role in the industry," he said in an email. "Denial has consequences."

Worker safety should not depend on where the clothing is being worn, Roy Ramesh Chandra, president of Bangladesh's United Federation of Garment Workers, said in an interview.

"Authorities need to address all the factories - whether it is producing for export" or for Bangladeshis.

A Bangladeshi woman holds a portrait of a relative who was a victim of the Rana Plaza factory collapse, at the site of the accident on the fifth anniversary in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. The tragedy killed 1,134 people, many of them young women supporting extended families, and injured more than 2,500. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)

relatives of victims gather at the site of the Rana Plaza garment factory collapse on the fifth anniversary of the accident in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. The tragedy killed 1,134 people, many of them young women supporting extended families, and injured more than 2,500. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)

Bangladeshis offer flowers to a monument erected in memory of victims of a garment factory collapse as they gather at the site on the fifth anniversary of the accident in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. The tragedy killed 1,134 people, many of them young women supporting extended families, and injured more than 2,500. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)

Bangladeshis offer flowers to a monument erected in memory of victims of a garment factory collapse as they gather at the site on the fifth anniversary of the accident in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. The tragedy killed 1,134 people, many of them young women supporting extended families, and injured more than 2,500. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)

In this April 20, 2018 photo, Sharmin Akhter hugs her mother Moyna Begum, who worked on the 7th floor of the Rana Plaza garment factory that collapsed five years ago, at their home in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh. A new survey says that five years after the Rana Plaza garment factory building collapse in Bangladesh killed 1,134 people and left thousands injured some things have changed for the better for the workers who toiled in the country's huge garment industry but much remains to be done. The survey by the Center for Business and Human Rights at New York University's Stern School of Business found that the largest factories generally have complied with new safety standards set by foreign clothing brands since the 2013 accident. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)

In this April 20, 2018 photo, Bangladeshi garment worker Nilufa Begum, 38, who worked on the 7th floor of the Rana Plaza garment factory that collapsed, sits inside her home in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh. A new survey says that five years after the garment factory building collapse in Bangladesh killed 1,134 people and left thousands injured some things have changed for the better for the workers who toiled in the country's huge garment industry but much remains to be done. The survey by the Center for Business and Human Rights at New York University's Stern School of Business found that the largest factories generally have complied with new safety standards set by foreign clothing brands since the 2013 accident. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)

In this April 20, 2018 photo, Bangladeshi garment worker Nilufa Begum, 38, who worked on the 7th floor of the Rana Plaza garment factory that collapsed, sits at her home in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh. A new survey says that five years after the garment factory building collapse in Bangladesh killed 1,134 people and left thousands injured some things have changed for the better for the workers who toiled in the country's huge garment industry but much remains to be done. The survey by the Center for Business and Human Rights at New York University's Stern School of Business found that the largest factories generally have complied with new safety standards set by foreign clothing brands since the 2013 accident. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)

A relative of a victim cries at the site of the Rana Plaza garment factory collapse on the fifth anniversary of the accident in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. The tragedy killed 1,134 people, many of them young women supporting extended families, and injured more than 2,500. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)

A relative of a victim cries at the site of the Rana Plaza garment factory collapse on the fifth anniversary of the accident in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. The tragedy killed 1,134 people, many of them young women supporting extended families, and injured more than 2,500. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)

A Bangladeshi woman cries holding a portrait of her daughter who was a victim of the Rana Plaza garment factory collapse, on the fifth anniversary of the accident in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. The tragedy killed 1,134 people, many of them young women supporting extended families, and injured more than 2,500. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)
GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) - Republican Debbie Lesko has won the special election in Arizona's 8th Congressional District, keeping the U.S. House seat in GOP control.

The former state senator on Tuesday defeated Hiral Tipirneni, a former emergency room physician. Tipernini had hoped to replicate surprising Democratic wins in Pennsylvania, Alabama and other states in a year where opposition to President Donald Trump's policies have boosted the party's chances in Republican strongholds.

Lesko replaces former Rep. Trent Franks, a Republican who resigned in December amid sexual misconduct allegations.

FILE - In this Jan. 27, 2018, file photo, former Arizona state Sen. Debbie Lesko speaks with a constituent during the meeting of the state committee of the Arizona Republican Party in Phoenix. Lesko is running against Hiral Tipirneni in a special election, Tuesday, April 24, to fill the U.S. House seat vacated by Republican Rep. Trent Franks. (AP Photo/Matt York, File)

The district sprawls across western Phoenix suburbs, covering some of the most conservative areas of the red state, including the retirement community of Sun City.

National Republican groups spent big to back Lesko, pouring in more than $500,000 in the suburban Phoenix district for television and mail ads and phone calls to voters. National Democratic groups hadn't committed money to the race, a sign they didn't believe the seat was in play. Still, the influential Cook Political Report moved the race from solid Republican to likely Republican the week before the election.

In the Feb. 27 primary, two out of every three ballots were cast for a Republican.

The seat became open when Franks stepped down after acknowledging that he had discussed surrogacy with two female staffers. A former aide told The Associated Press that he pressed her to carry his child as a surrogate and offered her $5 million.

Tipirneni was seen as a fresh Democratic face with relatively moderate views that could get support in the district. Making a push for older voters, she had said Lesko would vote to go after entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicaid to pay for tax cuts that mainly benefit the wealthy. She's pushed a plan to allow some people to buy into Medicare.

Lesko slammed Tipirneni as being out of touch with voters who oppose government-run health care. She called the Democrat too liberal for the area, and pointed to Tipirneni's opposition to a wall on the Mexican border.

Several Republican voters who spoke with AP said they backed Lesko primarily because she supported President Donald Trump's border security plans.

David Hunt, a 64-year-old retired construction and warehouse worker from Glendale, said he cast his vote Tuesday for Lesko because he believed that immigrants in the country illegally are creating unfair competition for jobs for recent high school students in Arizona.

"She's the best candidate to deal with the porous border," Hunt said.

His views were echoed by Larry Bettis, a retiree from Glendale.

"Immigration - the fence," Bettis said. "That's all I really care about."

Democrats said they wanted to send a message to Trump and supported Democratic health care plans.

"I don't like the president and felt it was time to take a stand," said Nikole Allen, a 45-year-old medical assistant from New York now living in Glendale. "It's time for us to vote the Republicans out."

Lance Ostrander, a registered Democrat who works for Maricopa County and lives in Peoria, said he'd be happy if Tipirneni wins.

"We'd really like a change," he said. "Trump had a lot of good ideas at first but a lot of people feel like they were hoodwinked.

FILE - In this April 6, 2017, file photo, Arizona state Sen. Debbie Lesko speaks in the Senate chambers in Phoenix. The sprawling suburbs west of Phoenix may put a brake on Democratic optimism following surprising special election wins in places like Alabama, Pennsylvania and other GOP strongholds. (AP Photo/Bob Christie, File)

In this April 10, 2018, photo, Democratic candidate for the Arizona 8th Congressional District special election Dr. Hiral Tipirneni, center, talks with supporters at a local restaurant in Sun City, Ariz. Tipirneni is running against former Arizona Republican state Sen. Debbie Lesko in a special election to fill the seat vacated by Republican Rep. Trent Franks. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

FILE - In this April 10, 2018, file photo, Democratic candidate for the Arizona 8th Congressional District special election, Dr. Hiral Tipirneni, left, talks with a supporter at a local restaurant in Sun City, Ariz. Tipirneni is running against former Arizona Republican state Sen. Debbie Lesko in a special election, Tuesday, April 24, to fill the seat vacated by Republican Rep. Trent Franks. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)

In this Tuesday, April 10, 2018, photo, Democratic candidate for the Arizona 8th Congressional District special election Dr. Hiral Tipirneni talks with supporters at a local restaurant in Sun City, Ariz. Tipirneni is running against former Arizona Republican state Sen. Debbie Lesko in a special election to fill the seat vacated by Republican Rep. Trent Franks. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

A sign points to a polling station, Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Peoria, Ariz. Republican candidate Debbie Lesko and Democratic candidate Hiral Tipirneni are running in a special election for the open U.S. House seat vacated by U.S. Rep. Trent Franks, R-Arizona, in the state's congressional 8th District. (AP Photo/Matt York)

A voter leaves a polling station Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Peoria, Ariz. Republican candidate Debbie Lesko and Democratic candidate Hiral Tipirneni are running in a special election for the open U.S. House seat vacated by U.S. Rep. Trent Franks, R-Arizona, in the state's congressional 8th District. (AP Photo/Matt York)

A supporter of Democratic candidate Dr. Hiral Tipirneni waits for election results with other supporters as Tipirneni runs against Republican Debbie Lesko to fill the CD8 seat vacated by Republican Rep. Trent Franks in a special election Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Voters arrive and depart a polling station as Democratic candidate Dr. Hiral Tipirneni and Republican Debbie Lesko look to fill the CD8 seat vacated by Republican Rep. Trent Franks in a special election, Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
WASHINGTON (AP) - His nomination in peril, Veterans Affairs nominee Ronny Jackson fought Tuesday to convince lawmakers of his leadership abilities as more details of accusations against him emerged, ranging from repeated drunkenness to a toxic work environment as he served as a top White House doctor.

President Donald Trump sent mixed signals about his choice to lead the sprawling veterans' agency, suggesting during a White House news conference that Jackson may want to withdraw because of unfair scrutiny. But the president privately urged his nominee to keep fighting to win Senate confirmation, and Jackson showed few signs of backing down.

A watchdog report requested in 2012 and reviewed by The Associated Press found that Jackson and a rival physician exhibited "unprofessional behaviors" as they engaged in a power struggle over the White House medical unit. The six-page report by the Navy's Medical Inspector General found a lack of trust in the leadership and low morale among staff members, who described the working environment as "being caught between parents going through a bitter divorce."

Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, President Donald Trump's choice to be secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, leaves a Senate office building after meeting individually with some members of the committee that would vet him for the post, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

"There is a severe and pervasive lack of trust in the leadership that has deteriorated to the point that staff walk on 'eggshells,'" the assessment found.

The inspector general report reviewed by The AP included no references to improper prescribing of drugs or the use of alcohol, separate allegations revealed by a Senate committee.

Jackson declined to answer reporters' questions about those allegations and gave no indication he would withdraw. The White House disputed that he had improperly administered medication, saying the medical unit passed regular audits by the Controlled Substance Inventory Board.

The audit appeared to contradict public statements from Jackson, who denied the existence of any inspector general report detailing troubling behavior.

After the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee abruptly postponed his confirmation hearing, which had been set for Wednesday, Jackson visited lawmakers to assure them he was fit to lead the VA.

"I'm looking forward to getting it rescheduled and answering everybody's questions," he said in video captured by MSNBC, referring to his hearing.

During a White House news conference, Trump insisted he would stand behind Jackson, calling the White House doctor "one of the finest people that I have met." But he questioned why Jackson would want to put himself through the confirmation fight, which he characterized as unfair.

"I wouldn't do it," Trump said in the East Room, standing next to French President Emmanuel Macron.

"What does he need it for? What do you need this for? To be abused by a bunch of politicians that aren't thinking nicely about our country?" Trump asked.

Trump said Jackson, who has been a White House physician since 2006, would make a decision soon. Jackson met privately with Trump Tuesday afternoon in the Oval Office and the president urged him to keep fighting to win confirmation, according to a White House official briefed on the meeting. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions, said Jackson denied the allegations.

Digging in, the White House released handwritten reports from Trump and former President Barack Obama praising Jackson's leadership and medical care, and recommending him for promotion.

Obama wrote in one report, "Promote to Rear Admiral now." Trump wrote last year that Jackson is "A GREAT DOCTOR + LEADER - '2 STAR MATERIAL.'"

A doomed VA nomination would be a political blow to the White House, which has faced criticism for sloppy vetting of Cabinet nominees and tough confirmation battles in a Senate where Republicans hold a slim 51-49 majority.

Prior to Jackson's nomination, Trump had told aides and outside advisers that he was fond of Jackson personally and was said to be particularly impressed with Jackson's performance at the White House press room podium in January, when he offered a glowing report on the president's physical and mental well-being.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the American people were the losers in a shaky nomination effort. The Trump Cabinet, he said, "is turning into a sad game of musical chairs."

Trump tapped Jackson last month after firing former Obama administration official David Shulkin following an ethics scandal and mounting rebellion within the agency. But Jackson has faced numerous questions from Republican and Democratic lawmakers, as well as veterans groups, about whether he has the experience to manage the massive department of 360,000 employees serving 9 million veterans.

Allegations began surfacing late last week involving Jackson's workplace practices, including claims of inappropriate behavior and over-prescribing prescription drugs, according to two aides granted anonymity to discuss the situation. The complaints the White House heard include that he oversaw a poor work environment and that he had drunk alcohol on the job, according to an administration official who demanded anonymity to speak on a sensitive personnel matter.

The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee said it would postpone indefinitely Jackson's hearing to give it more time to sort through the allegations.

Detailing the allegations to NPR, Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, the committee's top Democrat, said more than 20 current and retired military personnel had made complaints to the committee about Jackson. They included claims that Jackson was "repeatedly drunk" while on travel with Obama and that on overseas trips he excessively handed out prescription drugs to help travelers sleep and wake up.

Tester later told CNN that Jackson was known inside the White House as "the candy man," because he would hand out prescription drugs "like candy."

Jackson is also accused of creating a "toxic work environment," Tester said on NPR.

"He is the physician for the president, and in the previous administration we were told the stories he was repeatedly drunk while on duty, where his main job was to take care of the most powerful man in the world. That's not acceptable," Tester said.

Asked if Jackson's nomination is still viable, the committee chairman, Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., responded, "We'll see."

The two lawmakers sent a letter to Trump on Tuesday requesting additional information about Jackson. It demands any communication between the Pentagon and the White House for the last 12 years regarding "allegations or incidents" involving him.

The 2012 assessment reviewed by the AP suggested the White House consider replacing Jackson or Dr. Jeffrey Kuhlman - or both. Kuhlman was the physician to Obama at the time, and had previously held the role occupied by Jackson: director of the White House medical unit.

According to the report, Jackson admitted he had failed to shield the White House medical unit from the leadership drama. He is quoted saying he was willing to do what was necessary to straighten out the command, even if it "meant finding a new position in Navy Medicine."

The report stated that the "vast majority" of those interviewed said Kuhlman had "irrevocably damaged his ability to effectively lead." It added that "many also believe that CAPT Jackson has exhibited poor leadership," but attributed those failures to the relationship with Kuhlman.

The report quoted unnamed members of the White House medical unit who, while participating in a focus group, used phrases like "Worst command ever," ''No one trusts anyone" and "The leaders are child-like." Jackson was named physician to the President in 2013, after Kuhlman left the unit entirely.

Still, a follow-up assessment was done in 2013, and found that the climate in the office had improved a great deal, according to an official familiar with the report. At that point, Jackson was still in the office, but Kuhlman had left.

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Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro, Catherine Lucey, Lolita Baldor, Alan Fram and Matthew Daly contributed to this report.

Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, center, President Donald Trump's choice to be secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, walks down a stairwell to avoid reporters and cameras as he leaves a Senate office building after meeting individually with some members of the committee that would vet him for the post, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

FILE - In this Jan. 16, 2018, file photo, White House physician Dr. Ronny Jackson speaks to reporters during the daily press briefing in the Brady press briefing room at the White House, in Washington. Now it's Washington's turn to examine Jackson. The doctor to Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and now Donald Trump is an Iraq War veteran nominated to head the Department of Veterans Affairs. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
PHOENIX (AP) - Prosecutors are evaluating whether to pursue a retrial for a U.S. Border Patrol agent on manslaughter charges after an Arizona jury deadlocked on the lesser counts.

A mistrial was declared Monday in the case of Agent Lonnie Swartz after Tucson jurors acquitted him of a second-degree murder charge in the 2012 shooting death of a teenager from Mexico.

The decision means prosecutors could seek another trial for Swartz on the manslaughter charges in the death of Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, who was fatally shot as he threw rocks at authorities during a drug smuggling attempt.

FILE - In this March 21, 2018, file photo, Border Patrol agent Lonnie Swartz, left, makes his way to the U.S. District Court building in downtown Tucson, Ariz., where opening arguments were scheduled to begin in his murder trial. A mistrial was declared Monday, April 23, in the case of Swartz after an Arizona jury acquitted him of a second-degree murder charge in the killing of a teen from Mexico but deadlocked on lesser counts of manslaughter. (Ron Medvescek/Arizona Daily Star via AP, File)

The jury deliberated about 18 hours over five days in what human rights attorneys say was the first prosecution of a Border Patrol agent in a fatal shooting across the border.

Swartz fired 16 shots late on Oct. 10, 2012, through a 20-foot (6-meter) fence that sits on an embankment above Mexico's Calle Internacional, a Nogales street lined with homes and small businesses.

Prosecutors acknowledged during the monthlong trial that Elena Rodriguez was lobbing rocks across the border during a drug smuggling attempt. But they say he did not deserve to die.

Defense attorneys countered that Swartz was justified in using lethal force against rock-throwers and shot from the U.S. side of the border in self-defense.

Defense attorneys Sean Chapman and Jim Calle didn't return a phone call seeking comment on the jury's decision.

Art Del Cueto, head of the Tucson union for Border Patrol officers, said: "I believe that justice was properly served. The jurors took their time, and we're pretty happy with it."

Prosecutor Elizabeth Strange said her office respects the jury's decision.

The Border Patrol came under close scrutiny during the Obama administration for allegations involving excessive use of force. Customs and Border Protection, its parent agency, reported 55 incidents in which employees used firearms from Oct. 1, 2011, to Sept. 30, 2012. The number of incidents fell to 17 for the same period five years later.

Swartz initially was charged with second-degree murder in the shooting of Elena Rodriguez in Nogales, Mexico.

Collins told the jury in his instructions that they could consider a lesser charge of voluntary or involuntary manslaughter if they had trouble reaching a verdict on the more serious charge.

During closing arguments, Assistant U.S. Attorney Wallace Heath Kleindienst said Swartz "was fed up with being rocked" after being targeted in at least six other attacks.

"He was angry with those people who had been throwing rocks against the fence," Kleindienst said. "It was not about eliminating a threat, because there was no threat," he said. "It was about eliminating a human being."

Defense attorney Sean Chapman argued there was "not a scintilla of evidence" that Swartz was angry or fed up.

He said Swartz shot because he was trying to protect himself and his fellow agents during a drug operation.

"From his first day in the Border Patrol, it had been ingrained in him that rocks were dangerous," Chapman said.

The trial played out as President Donald Trump called for National Guard troops to be sent to the Mexican border to free Border Patrol agents to concentrate on stopping drugs and people from illegally entering the United States.

Trump has made his crackdown on illegal immigration and building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border a cornerstone of his presidency.
NEW DELHI (AP) - At least 37 Maoist rebels were killed in two gunbattles between troops and insurgents in western India over the last three days, police said Tuesday.

Prashant Diwate, a police officer in Maharashtra state's Gadchiroli area, said six rebels were killed overnight, and troops also recovered about 15 bodies of rebels killed in an earlier gunbattle on Sunday.

Police initially found 16 bodies from that clash but many bodies were washed away into a nearby stream and were found floating in the water on Tuesday, he said.

Diwate said police and paramilitary soldiers have been searching the area for several days.

The Maoist rebels, who claim inspiration from Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, have been fighting India's government for more than four decades, demanding land and jobs for tenant farmers and the poor. The rebels have thousands of fighters and are active in several parts of India.

They routinely attack government troops and officials and have been called India's greatest internal security threat.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Fresh-faced Democrats are packing U.S. House races nationwide, inspired to run in the Trump era with hopes of seizing long-held Republican seats in a much-anticipated "blue wave."

But in California, Democrats will find out in June if all that enthusiasm has a downside.

With an open primary that sends the two highest vote-getters to the November general election regardless of affiliation, party leaders fret the crowded fields in several races could splinter the vote enough to lock Democrats out. That fear is most acute in three Southern California districts that are top party targets with multiple Republicans and Democrats running.

This January 2018 photo provided by the Gil Cisneros for Congress campaign shows Gil Cisneros in Santa Ana, Calif. He is one of a number of Democrats running for California'a 39th Congressional District seat. (Angel De Leon/Cisneros for Congress via AP)

Failing to field a candidate in a California race could have national implications. The party needs to flip at least 24 Republican seats, and the cluster of California districts could prove a critical piece of the puzzle.

The party's national campaign arm joined the fray last week, committing resources to Navy veteran Gil Cisneros in the 39th District, where Republican Rep. Ed Royce is retiring. By putting Cisneros on the "Red to Blue" list, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is signaling to donors that he is the most viable candidate among the six Democrats seeking the seat against seven Republicans.

Meanwhile, incumbent Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, faces four party challengers and six Democrats in the 48th District. Four Democrats and eight Republicans are running to replace Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, who is retiring in the 49th District.

"This is a free for all. This is the Wild West," Jessica Hayes, chair of the San Diego County Democratic Party, said of the 49th District race.

The three districts are among the seven in California targeted by Democrats where voters chose Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential contest but sent Republicans back to Congress. In three other targeted districts, at least four Democrats are running.

Washington state also has a top-two primary system, but Democrats don't fear a shut-out there because no Republican incumbents face serious intra-party challengers. For example, in the 8th District east of Seattle, a handful of Democrats are squaring off against one Republican to replace a retiring GOP incumbent.

The scenario is different in California, where multiple Republicans are running. Although Republicans also have large fields, a few of the candidates in each race are well-known to voters, whereas the Democratic competitors are mostly political novices. In Rohrabacher's district, for example, fellow Republican Scott Baugh is considered one of the most credible challengers because he's served as an assemblyman and chairman of the Orange County GOP.

Democratic strategist Katie Merrill runs a super political action committee aimed at flipping the California seats. It conducted polls in March showing possible shutouts, a scenario she called "an unintended consequence of increased Democratic enthusiasm."

Annie Wright, who became interested in local politics last year and launched a local Orange County Democratic club, said activists are increasingly asking candidates to justify why they are still in the race at debates and town halls. But most ordinary voters don't know who is running, making it hard to predict what will happen, she said.

"We don't have a very good picture right now of who people would vote for," she said.

Some Democrats have dropped out; Michael Kotick exited the Rohrabacher race in early April, urging Democrats to back Harley Rouda and warning the packed field would only help Rohrabacher.

The California Democratic Party endorsed neuroscientist Hans Keirstead in that race. But activists couldn't settle on a candidate in the Issa and Royce districts, nor in the contest against Rep. Jeff Denham in the Central Valley. He also faces a Republican challenger.

Some Democrats and strategists contend shutout fears are overblown. The top-two primary system began in 2012 and has produced a one-party general in a U.S. House race just once, when Democrats failed to secure a spot in a 2012 contest. In statewide races, a Republican failed to advance a candidate to the 2016 U.S. Senate general election contest, setting up a contest between Democrats Kamala Harris and Loretta Sanchez.

Garry South, an adviser to former Democratic Gov. Gray Davis who advocated for the creation of a top-two primary, downplayed concerns.

"If I had to go into an election cycle with a huge amount of enthusiasm in my base which has produced perhaps a surfeit of candidates, I'll take that risk," he said.

Former Democratic U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer also runs a political action committee targeting Republicans. She does not plan to weigh in on the primaries and said it's not the party's place to tell eager candidates to step aside. But she urged voters to think carefully when casting their ballots.

"The beauty of the free election is that everybody can decide to run," she said. But "if you're worried this could happen in your district, then think long and hard before you throw away your vote for somebody who might only get 2 or 3 percent."

FILE - This Feb. 24, 2018, file photo shows Democratic congressional candidate Doug Applegate at the California Democratic State Convention in San Diego. Applegate is a candidate for California's 49th Congressional District seat. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy, File)

FILE - This Feb. 24, 2018, file photo shows Democratic congressional candidate Mike Levin at the California Democratic State Convention in San Diego. Levin is a candidate for California's 49th district. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy, File)

This undated photo provided by the Sara Jacobs for Congress campaign shows Sara Jacobs. She is one of a number of Democrats running for California's 49th Congressional District seat. (Sara Jacobs for Congress via AP)

This undated photo provided by the Omar Siddiqui for Congress campaign shows Omar Siddiqui. He is one of a number of Democrats running for Congress in California's 48th district. (Wallis Photo LLC/Omar Siddiqui for Congress via AP)

This undated photo provided by the Doug Applegate For Congress campaign shows Doug Applegate. He is one of a number of Democrats running for California's 49th Congressional District seat. (Joe Dusel/Courtesy of Applegate for Congress via AP)

This undated photo provided by the Mike Levin For Congress campaign shows Mike Levin. He is one of a number of Democrats running for California's 49th Congressional District seat. (Levin for Congress via AP)

This undated photo provided by the Dr. Mai Khanh Tran for Congress campaign shows Dr. Mai Khanh Tran. She is one of a number of Democrats running for California's 39th Congressional District seat. (Tran for Congress via AP)

This undated photo provided by the Sam Jammal for Congress campaign shows Sam Jammal. He is one of a number of Democrats running for California's 39th Congressional District seat. (Jammal for Congress via AP)

This undated photo provided by the Harley Rouda for Congress campaign shows Harley Rouda. He is one of a number of Democrats running for California's 49th Congressional District seat. (Rouda for Congress via AP)

This August 2017 photo provided by the Andy Thorburn for Congress campaign shows Andy Thorburn. He is one of a number of Democrats running for California's 39th Congressional District seat. (Thorburn for Congress via AP)

This undated photo provided by the Paul Kerr for Congress campaign shows Paul Kerr. He is one of a number of Democrats running for California's 49th Congressional District seat. (Kerr for Congress via AP)

This undated photo provided by the Herbert Lee for Congress campaign shows Dr. Herbert Lee. He is one of a number of Democrats running for California's 39th Congressional District seat. (Lee for Congress via AP)

This undated photo provided by the Rachel Payne for Congress campaign shows Rachel Payne. She is one of a number of Democrats running for California's 48th Congressional District seat. (Payne for Congress via AP)
One in three older Americans with Medicare drug coverage is prescribed opioid painkillers, but for those who develop a dangerous addiction there is one treatment Medicare won't cover: methadone.

Methadone is the oldest, and experts say, the most effective of the three approved medications used to treat opioid addiction. It eases cravings without an intense high, allowing patients to work with counselors to rebuild their lives.

Federal money is flowing to states to open new methadone clinics through the 21st Century Cures Act, but despite the nation's deepening opioid crisis, the Medicare drug program for the elderly covers methadone only when prescribed for pain.

FILE - In this March 7, 2017, file photo, the CEO of a methadone clinic holds a 35 mg liquid dose of methadone in Rossville, Ga. The drug is the oldest and most effective of approved medications used to treat opioid addiction, but Medicare doesn't cover it. (AP Photo/Kevin D. Liles, File)

Joseph Purvis, a former heroin and prescription painkiller user, said he went into a depressive tailspin because he initially feared he might have to stop methadone treatment when he went on Medicare at 65.

"I was terrified that I might have to leave the program. There's no way I wanted to go back to addiction on the streets," said Purvis, 66, of Gaithersburg, Maryland.

Methadone doesn't meet the requirement of Medicare's Part D drug program because it can't be dispensed in a retail pharmacy.

Instead, in the highly regulated methadone system, patients first are assessed by a doctor, then show up daily at federally certified methadone clinics to take their doses of the pink liquid. Or, like Purvis in Maryland, they prove through repeated urine screens that they have earned the right to weekly take-home doses.

In Congress, legislation has been introduced in the House and Senate, and a White House commission on the opioid epidemic also recommended the change.

The epidemic is "affecting all populations, including our seniors," said Rep. George Holding, R-North Carolina, a sponsor of the House bill. "Medicare beneficiaries have among the highest and fastest growing rate of opioid use disorder, but they don't currently have coverage for the most effective treatment."

An estimated 300,000 Medicare patients have been diagnosed with opioid addiction, and health officials estimate nearly 90,000 are at high risk for opioid misuse or overdose.

Buprenorphine, a more expensive and slightly less regulated treatment drug, is covered by Medicare but few doctors who accept new Medicare patients have obtained federal waivers to prescribe it. A recent study of Medicare claims found prescriptions for buprenorphine for only 81,000 patients.

More evidence that the crisis affects seniors: Opioid overdoses killed 1,354 Americans ages 65 and older in 2016, about 3 percent of the 42,000 opioid overdoses that year.

Medicare's policy means clinics often scramble to keep older patients in treatment if they've had commercial insurance that covered their care before turning 65, said counselor Angela Caldwell of Montgomery Recovery Services in Rockville, Maryland.

A national organization for methadone clinics says the clinics now have 25,000 Medicare beneficiaries who are either paying out of pocket (about $80 per week) or getting care through state-run Medicaid or block grant programs.

Mark Parrino, president of the American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence, thinks more people would seek methadone treatment if Medicare covered it.

Many older patients rely on surprisingly high doses of opioids for pain relief, which can turn into addiction, said Dr. Anna Lembke, an addiction specialist at Stanford University School of Medicine.

One of her addiction patients, a woman in her mid-70s, was referred to her because her daily dose of opioids had climbed over the years to many times more potent than that of a typical heroin user, Lembke said.

"She's had a gradual development of tolerance over many decades and now is on an astronomical dose," Lembke said. "If you took any random person and gave them (that much) they would die."

Lembke said she normally wouldn't consider methadone for this patient because of the stigma associated with the clinics. But Medicare coverage might make them more acceptable, Lembke said, and her patient "might actually do better with methadone."

In Maryland, Purvis remained on methadone treatment because his income is low enough that he qualifies for the state-federal Medicaid insurance coverage for the poor and disabled. Medicaid covers methadone treatment in Maryland and about 35 other states.

Purvis, who used heroin for more than a decade in his youth, later took opioids prescribed by specialists for back pain. After his pain doctor's office was shut down for overprescribing, he started methadone treatment.

"Some people think of methadone as a crutch for addiction but it's not," Purvis said. "It's a tool that allows people to live a somewhat normal life."

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AP writer Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar in Washington contributed to this report.

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Follow AP Medical Writer Carla K. Johnson on Twitter: @CarlaKJohnson

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The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Earlier Los Angeles Times corrections of the identical error were:





"Gerald A. Larue: In the Sept. 22 LATExtra section, the obituary of USC religious scholar Gerald A. Larue referred to archaeological digs in Palestine. The digs occurred in Israel and the West Bank." (Sept. 22, 2014)

"Carter speech: An article in Friday's California section included a subhead saying former President Carter urged students to travel to Palestine. The area referred to is the Palestinian territories." (May 5, 2007)

"Istanbul Biennial -- An article in the Dec. 11 Calendar section about an international art exhibition included Palestine in a list of nations from which artists had contributed works. It should have said the Palestinian territories." (Dec. 23, 2005)

"Bail bonds investigationAn article in the California section Sunday about the arrest of American Liberty Bail Bonds owner Adnan 'Dan' Yousef and members of his family reported that they had ties to Palestine. The reference should have been to the Palestinians territories." (Sept. 29, 2004)

"Palestinian filmArticles about Palm Springs International Film Festival that ran in Calendar on Dec. 20 and Jan. 8 referred to the movie 'Divine Intervention' as coming from Palestine. They should have said the Palestinian territories." (Jan. 13, 2004)
BERLIN (AP) - A closely watched survey showed a bigger-than-expected drop in German business confidence amid worries about international trade tensions, but Tuesday's report doesn't necessarily signal any serious problems for Europe's biggest economy.

The Ifo institute said its barometer of managers' sentiment in Germany declined to 102.1 points for April from 103.3 last month. Economists had expected a more modest dip to 102.8.

Ifo found that managers' view of both their current situation and the outlook for the next six months has darkened.

Germany, one of the world's biggest exporters, is concerned about the implications of trade disputes between the U.S., China and others. The European Union is seeking a continued exemption from new tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump on steel and aluminum imports.

On top of those concerns, data on German factory orders and trade for the first two months of this year have been disappointing.

However, Carsten Brzeski, an economist at ING-DiBa in Frankfurt, argued that talk of a slowdown is premature. He pointed to one-time effects such as harsh winter weather and high levels of sick leave due to a flu outbreak.

"Fundamentals are actually pointing to solid growth in the coming months, albeit less dynamic than last year," he said in a research note. "Inventories seem to have bottomed out and trade tensions, though mainly noise not facts up to now, have somewhat dented last year's optimism."

The Ifo index has been expanded starting this month to include the service sector as well as its longtime mainstays - manufacturing, trade and construction. It is now based on monthly responses from some 9,000 companies.

Tuesday's was the fifth consecutive monthly drop in the index, according to figures adjusted to reflect the inclusion of services.
ISTANBUL (AP) - Turkish officials say dozens were slightly injured after an earthquake in southeastern Turkey.

The earthquake struck Samsat village in the province of Adiyaman early Tuesday at 3.34 a.m. local time (0034 GMT). The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a magnitude of 5.2 at 10 kilometers deep.

Turkey's health minister said of those injured, 35 were still receiving treatment, according to official Anadolu news agency. The regional governor said the injuries were caused as people fled their homes in panic.

Emergency services search the rubble of houses destroyed overnight by an earthquake, in Samsat, southeastern Turkey, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. Turkish officials say dozens were slightly injured after an earthquake in southeastern Turkey. The earthquake struck Samsat village in the province of Adiyaman early Tuesday at 3.34 a.m. local time (0034 GMT). The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a magnitude of 5.2 at 10 kilometers deep. (Mahir Alan/Depo Photos via AP)

Anadolu quoted victim Zeynep Berk whose house collapsed on her and four others. Neighbors rescued the family and attempts to recover their 150 animals continue.

The quake was felt in neighboring provinces. Turkey's Kandilli Earthquake Monitoring Center recorded at least 13 aftershocks.
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - Syrian government forces and their allies unleashed airstrikes and intense shelling in a new operation Tuesday targeting underground tunnels used by the Islamic State group in the capital, Damascus, state TV said.

The TV said the aim of the operation is to destroy dug-out trenches and tunnels in the Hajar al-Aswad neighborhood and the nearby Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk that is also mostly controlled by IS.

A group of journalists taken to the adjacent neighborhood of Qadam on Tuesday witnessed intense shelling and airstrikes on IS positons in the camp and Hajar al-Aswad. Cracks of gunfire from street battles could be heard from the heavily damaged area.

Smoke rises after Syrian government airstrikes and shelling hit in Hajar al-Aswad neighborhood held by Islamic State militants, southern Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. Syrian state TV is reporting that government forces have launched a new operation targeting underground tunnels used by the Islamic State group in the capital, Damascus. (AP Photo)

The area in southern Damascus is the last part of the capital not controlled by President Bashar Assad's forces. Other insurgents in the area, including an al-Qaida-linked group, have said they would relocate to rebel-held regions in northern Syria.

"The operation will continue until its goal is achieved," a Syrian military officer told reporters in Qadam, speaking on condition of anonymity under regulations.

He added the army is also working on separating IS-held areas in Hajar al-Aswad and Yarmouk from the nearby rebel-held suburbs of Beit Sahem, Babila and Yalda.

Tuesday's fighting focused on the Joura area in Hajar al-Aswad from where thick black and grey smoke rose up into the sky.

The head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said in a statement that it is deeply concerned for the fate of thousands of civilians, including Palestinian refugees, after days of fighting in Yarmouk.

UNRWA's commissioner-general, Pierre Krahenbuhl, added that the agency estimate there were about 6,000 Palestinian refugees in Yarmouk and about 6,000 in the surrounding areas, before the latest round of fighting began on Thursday.

"The humanitarian situation has long been very harsh and is rapidly deteriorating further, with supplies of food and medicine running low," Krahenbuhl said. "There is no running water and very little electricity. Health care options are limited and there are no doctors remaining in the area."

He said UNRWA is in a state of preparedness to open temporary shelters and provide relief and humanitarian assistance to Palestinian refugees within available resources.

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Mroue reported from Beirut.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korean President Moon Jae-in plans to raise the issue of Japanese citizens who were abducted decades ago by North Korea in his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this week.

Moon told Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in a telephone conversation that resolving the issue would contribute to peace in Northeast Asia, Moon spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said Tuesday.

Moon is to meet Kim on Friday at the border village of Panmunjom in a rare summit between the Koreas. The rivals remain technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Protesters stage a rally opposing the planned summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un near the U.S.embassy in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. The two leaders will meet on Friday in the Koreas' third-ever summit talks since their 1945 division. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Seoul says the summit will focus on North Korea's nuclear disarmament. Seoul has also brokered a meeting between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump which is expected in May or June.

Japan says North Korea abducted at least 17 Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s to train its agents in Japanese language and culture to spy on South Korea.

North Korea has acknowledged abducting 13 Japanese in the 1970s. It allowed five of them to visit Japan in 2002 and they stayed. North Korea says eight others have died, but their families say the North's statement cannot be trusted.

Trump said he promised Abe during a meeting in Washington last week that he would work hard for the return of Japanese abducted by North Korea.

During their telephone conversation, Abe asked Moon whether there was any likelihood of declaring an official end to the Korea War in his talks with Kim, according to Moon's spokesman. Moon replied that ending the war would require the consent of at least three parties - the Koreas and the United States - and that he would work closely with Washington and Tokyo to create favorable conditions for such an agreement, the spokesman said.

While Trump has given his "blessing" for the Koreas to discuss an end to the war, there can be no real solution without the involvement of Washington and other parties that fought in the war because South Korea wasn't a direct signatory to the armistice that stopped the fighting.

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This story has been corrected to show that comments were on Tuesday, not Wednesday.
LONDON (AP) - The top civil servant in Britain's Foreign Office has apologized for calling one of India's holiest Sikh temples a mosque.

Simon McDonald referred to the Golden Temple in Amritsar as the "Golden Mosque" in a tweet. On Tuesday he tweeted: "I was wrong: I am sorry. I should of course have said the Golden Temple or, better, Sri Harmandir Sahib."

Bhai Amrik Singh, chairman of Britain's Sikh Federation, said the gaffe "demonstrates a remarkable level of ignorance from someone in his position."

The mistake is particularly sensitive given suspicions about the extent of British involvement in India's deadly 1984 raid on the temple to evict Sikh separatists.

In 2014 Britain acknowledged that a U.K. military officer advised the Indian army before the raid, though it said his advice was ignored.
JERUSALEM (AP) - A hard-line Israeli lawmaker is sarcastically thanking Twitter for briefly freezing his account following a post he wrote about wishing a teen Palestinian protester had been shot.

Bezalel Smotrich of the Jewish Home party says Tuesday that Twitter had given greater prominence to his stance that the 17-year-old was a "terrorist."

Smotrich says Twitter's "bullying" unmasked the liberals who "support free speech for all as long as you think just like them."

Smotrich says he was cut off for about 12 hours after his post about Ahed Tamimi, who is serving an eight-month prison term for slapping and kicking Israeli soldiers outside her West Bank home.

Smotrich wrote that instead of arresting her, the soldiers should have shot her in the knee to put her in "home arrest for life."
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - - Aug 10: Kim Wall goes on submarine trip with Peter Madsen. They are the only two people on the sub. It is the last time Wall is seen alive.

- Aug. 11: Major search for submarine after Wall's Danish boyfriend alerted authorities that the sub had not returned. Madsen is saved from sinking submarine south of Copenhagen. Wall is nowhere to be found. Madsen is arrested and claims Wall disembarked from the submarine to a Copenhagen island several hours into their trip.

- Aug. 12: Madsen appears before a pre-trial custody hearing on preliminary charges of manslaughter while police investigate. In Denmark, preliminary charges are a step short of formal charges.

FILE - This is a Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017, file photo of police technicians board Peter Madsen's submarine UC3 Nautilus on a pier in Copenhagen harbour, Denmark. One of the most talked-about and macabre court cases in recent Danish history is set to conclude Wednesday, April 25, 2018 when the verdict is handed down on whether Peter Madsen tortured and murdered a Swedish journalist during a private submarine trip. (Jacob Ehrbahn/Ritzau Scanpix, File via AP)

- Aug. 13: The submarine is raised and brought onshore in northern Copenhagen.

- Aug 21: The dismembered torso of Wall is found at sea off Copenhagen.

- Aug. 25: Madsen also faces preliminary charges of indecent handling of a corpse.

- Aug. 23: Copenhagen police says DNA test confirms it is Wall's torso.

- Sept. 5. During a four-hour pre-trial custody hearing, Madsen claims Wall died accidentally when she hit by a 70-kilogram (155-pound) hatch on the UC3 Nautilus submarine, after which he "buried" her at sea. He later changes that claim when Wall's head is found with no skull fractures.

- Oct. 4: Police say 15 stabs found on Wall's torso, and videos of women being tortured, decapitated and killed are found on Madsen's computer. They are not produced by Madsen but considered real (so-called snuff videos).

- Oct. 7: Police announce head, two legs and clothes found in plastic bags a day earlier. Dental records help in the identification of Wall.

- Nov. 22: Left arm is found by divers in the sea south of Copenhagen. Belongs to Wall.

- Nov. 29: Right arm is found by divers in the sea south of the Danish capital. Belongs to Wall.

- Jan. 12: Police stop searching for cell phones of Wall and Madsen believed to have been thrown at sea.

- Jan. 16: Madsen is charged with murder, dismemberment and indecent handling of a corpse, among other things.

- March. 8: Trial against Madsen starts at the Copenhagen City Court where he faces a judge and two jurors.

- April 25: Last trial day. Verdict to be announced.

FILE - In this Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2017 file photo police search a waterway for body remains related to the ongoing Kim Wall murder investigation at the west coast of Amager close to Copenhagen, Denmark. One of the most talked-about and macabre court cases in recent Danish history is set to conclude Wednesday, April 25, 2018 when the verdict is handed down on whether Peter Madsen tortured and murdered a Swedish journalist during a private submarine trip. (Jens Dresling/Ritzau Scanpix via AP, File)
OCEAN SPRINGS, Mississippi -- Apparently, burglarizing a business is exhausting.

Sunday morning, Ocean Springs police received a call from The Hideaway, a restaurant/bar in downtown Ocean Springs, reporting that someone had broken into the business overnight by breaking a window and climbing in.

When investigators reviewed the surveillance video, they discovered that the suspect helped himself to some liquor and beer -- and then took a nap before fleeing the business.

Further investigation led police to an apartment at 3230 Cumberland Rd. in Ocean Springs to speak with a potential suspect named Aaron Terrell Smith. When Smith answered the door, investigators immediately realized Smith had the same tattoos in the same locations as the suspect seen in the surveillance video.

The 26-year-old Smith was taken into custody, charged with commercial burglary, and later gave a full confession at the Ocean Springs Police Department. He remains in the Ocean Springs Municipal Jail under a $30,000 bond.
BANGKOK (AP) - Thailand is willing and able to host a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, but no plans have been made to do so, the country's foreign minister said Tuesday.

Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai was responding to questions from reporters who noted that Bangkok was one of several possible venues mentioned for such a summit, which Trump said could take place in early June to discuss North Korea's denuclearization. It would be the first-ever meeting between the leaders of the two countries.

Don said Thailand was able to help with such a meeting and had hosted talks between the two countries before, including one set of talks in 2000 that had led to improved relations.

FILE - In this Aug. 8, 2017, file photo, Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai poses for a photo during a meeting then-U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson at Foreign Ministry in Bangkok, Thailand. Don said on Tuesday, April 24, 2018, his country is willing and able to host a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, but said no plans have been made to do so. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit, File)

He said speculation that Thailand might be the host came strictly from news reports. "The fact is we haven't discussed anything," he said.

Thailand has one of the largest U.S. embassies in the region and also has fairly friendly relations with both the U.S. and North Korea. Speculation about other possible venues for the summit includes Singapore, Geneva, Helsinki, Stockholm and Oslo.

Trump last week said that although he's looking ahead optimistically to a historic meeting with Kim, he could still pull out if he feels it's "not going to be fruitful."

Asked if Thailand could act as a mediator between the two countries, the Thai foreign minister said there was no need to mediate because the U.S. and North Korea were already talking to each other.

"I wouldn't want to take it that far because they are already talking," he said. "There's no issue for us to mediate."

"They are dealing with it themselves. And it has been effective, as we are seeing. We can only hope that everything continues to improve," Don said.
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) - Romania's most powerful politician is heading to court for the final hearing in a corruption case, days after the U.S. State Department said graft remains widespread at every level of government in the European Union member.

Liviu Dragnea, chairman of the Social Democratic Party, dismisses the charges of official misconduct as "mere statements, gossip and rumors" ahead of Wednesday's hearing.

Prosecutors say Dragnea intervened to keep two women on the payroll of a family welfare agency, even though they were employed by the party.

FILE- In this Thursday, June 15, 2017, file photo, the chairman of the Social Democratic Party Liviu Dragnea wipes his eye during a press conference in Bucharest, Romania. Romania's most powerful politician heads for the final hearing in a corruption case on Wednesday, April 25, 2018, days after the U.S. State Department said corrupt practices remain widespread at every level of government in the European Union member. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File)

In recent months, the left-wing government has embarked on a contentious judicial overhaul, prompting protests and criticism from the EU.

Critics say the proposals, including restricting public statements about corruption probes, would make prosecutions harder.

FILE- In this Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2017, file photo, an anti-government protester holds a poster depicting the leader of the ruling Social Democratic party Liviu Dragnea in Bucharest, Romania. Romania's most powerful politician heads for the final hearing in a corruption case on Wednesday, April 25, 2018, days after the U.S. State Department said corrupt practices remain widespread at every level of government in the European Union member. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File)

FILE- In this Wednesday, June 21, 2017, file photo, the head of the Ruling Social Democratic Party, Liviu Dragnea wipes his eyes at the Romanian parliament in Bucharest, Romania. Romania's most powerful politician heads for the final hearing in a corruption case on Wednesday, April 25, 2018, days after the U.S. State Department said corrupt practices remain widespread at every level of government in the European Union member. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File)
CINCINNATI (AP) - Police say at least 12 children have been hospitalized, one in critical condition, after a school bus crashed during a multi-vehicle accident.

Police say two toddlers were hospitalized in serious condition after the car they were riding in was struck Monday afternoon by a car whose 23-year-old driver lost control after passing another vehicle. Police say the car the children were in then struck the school bus, causing it to spin into another car. The driver of the children's car was hospitalized in serious condition.

Some 20 students on a bus serving Pleasant Hill Academy were treated at Cincinnati Children's hospital. A 12-year-old girl was critically injured and the bus driver was hospitalized in fair condition.

A family walks away from the scene after a school bus was involved in a multi-vehicle crash Monday, April 23, 2018, in Cincinnati. (Cameron Knight/The Cincinnati Enquirer via AP)

Police blame excessive speed and say charges are pending against the passing driver.
LONDON (AP) - Cambridge Analytica unleashed its counterattack against claims that it misused data from millions of Facebook accounts, saying Tuesday it is the victim of misunderstandings and inaccurate reporting that portrays the company as the evil villain in a James Bond movie.

Clarence Mitchell, a high-profile publicist recently hired to represent the company, held Cambridge Analytica's first news conference since allegations surfaced that the Facebook data helped Donald Trump win the 2016 presidential election. Christopher Wylie, a former employee of Cambridge Analytica's parent, also claims that the company has links to the successful campaign to take Britain out of the European Union.

"The company has been portrayed in some quarters as almost some Bond villain," Mitchell said. "Cambridge Analytica is no Bond villain."

Cambridge Analytica spokesperson Clarence Mitchell speaks during a press conference in London, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. The press conference was held Tuesday afternoon to follow Cambridge University academic Aleksandr Kogan speaking at a hearing held by Britain's Parliament media committee. Kogan's company, Global Science Research, developed a Facebook app that vacuumed up information from users as well as additional data from their Facebook friends. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Cambridge Analytica didn't use any of the Facebook data in the work it did for Trump's campaign and it never did any work on the Brexit campaign, Mitchell said. Furthermore, he said, the data was collected by another company that was contractually obligated to follow data protection rules and the information was deleted as soon as Facebook raised concerns.

Mitchell insists the company has not broken any laws, but acknowledged it had commissioned an independent investigation is being conducted. He insisted that the company had been victimized by "wild speculation based on misinformation, misunderstanding, or in some cases, frankly, an overtly political position."

The comments come weeks after the scandal engulfed both the consultancy and Facebook, which has been embroiled in scandal since revelations that Cambridge Analytica misused personal information from as many as 87 million Facebook accounts. Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before the U.S. congressional committees and at one point the company lost some $50 billion in value for its shareholders.

Details on the scandal continued to trickle out. On Tuesday, a Cambridge University academic said the suspended CEO of Cambridge Analytica lied to British lawmakers investigating fake news.

Academic Aleksandr Kogan's company, Global Science Research, developed a Facebook app that vacuumed up data from people who signed up to use the app as well as information from their Facebook friends, even if those friends hadn't agreed to share their data.

Cambridge Analytica allegedly used the data to profile U.S. voters and target them with ads during the 2016 election to help elect Donald Trump. It denies the charge.

Kogan appeared before the House of Commons' media committee Tuesday and was asked whether Cambridge Analytica's suspended CEO, Alexander Nix, told the truth when he testified that none of the company's data came from Global Science Research.

"That's a fabrication," Kogan told committee Chairman Damian Collins. Nix could not immediately be reached for comment.

Kogan also cast doubt on many of Wylie's allegations, which have triggered a global debate about internet privacy protections. Wylie repeated his claims in a series of media interviews as well as an appearance before the committee.

Wylie worked for SCL Group Ltd. in 2013 and 2014.

"Mr. Wylie has invented many things," Kogan said, calling him "duplicitous."

No matter what, though, Kogan insisted in his testimony that the data would not be that useful to election consultants. The idea was seized upon by Mitchell, who also denied that the company had worked on the effort to have Britain leave the EU.

Mitchell said that the idea that political consultancies can use data alone to sway votes is "frankly insulting to the electorates. Data science in modern campaigning helps those campaigns, but it is still and always will be the candidates who win the races."

Cambridge Analytica spokesperson Clarence Mitchell speaks during a press conference in London, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. The press conference was held Tuesday afternoon to follow Cambridge University academic Aleksandr Kogan speaking at a hearing held by Britain's Parliament media committee. Kogan's company, Global Science Research, developed a Facebook app that vacuumed up information from users as well as additional data from their Facebook friends. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Cambridge Analytica spokesperson Clarence Mitchell speaks during a press conference in London, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. The press conference was held Tuesday afternoon to follow Cambridge University academic Aleksandr Kogan speaking at a hearing held by Britain's Parliament media committee. Kogan's company, Global Science Research, developed a Facebook app that vacuumed up information from users as well as additional data from their Facebook friends. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Cambridge Analytica spokesperson Clarence Mitchell speaks during a press conference in London, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. The press conference was held Tuesday afternoon to follow Cambridge University academic Aleksandr Kogan speaking at a hearing held by Britain's Parliament media committee. Kogan's company, Global Science Research, developed a Facebook app that vacuumed up information from users as well as additional data from their Facebook friends. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
BEIRUT (AP) - The Latest on the Syria conflict (all times local):

10 p.m.

An activist group documenting war crimes in Syria has published a database of suspected chemical attacks there since 2012.

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, left, and UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura participate in a media conference after a meeting on 'Supporting the future of Syria and the region at the Egmont Palace in Brussels on Tuesday, April 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo, Pool)

The Syrian Archive, which works with human rights groups such as Amnesty International, has been collecting videos, images and other data from chemical weapons attacks for four years.

The group said Tuesday it has verified 861 videos from 193 sources covering some 212 attacks in Syria. Much of the material was collected from social media.

Hadi al-Khatib, the group's co-founder, told an audience in Berlin the activists want to ensure the material isn't lost and that it can be used to prosecute those responsible for the crimes.

President Bashar Assad's government has denied widespread allegations of using chemical weapons against its own people, most recently in the town of Douma, near Damascus.

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4:15 p.m.

Syrian state TV says members of the Islamic State group have shelled a government-held area in southern Damascus killing at least four people.

Tuesday's shelling came as government forces intensified their offensive against IS fighters holed up in an area south of the capital including a Palestinian refugee camp.

The TV said IS fighters in the neighborhood Hajar al-Asward fired a shell on the nearby government-held neighborhood of Nahr Aisha killing four people and wounding 15.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the shelling of Nahr Aisha killed five and wounded 17.

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3:45 p.m.

A U.N. official says international efforts to rebuild Syria once the civil war is over should center on agriculture to jumpstart the economy and quickly improve the livelihoods of the people.

The senior official in the Food and Agriculture Organization said that in case of a return to peace the impact of providing funds for farming would yield almost immediate results.

FAO's Deputy Director General Daniel Gustafson said in an interview with The Associated Press ahead of an international Syria donors conference that "if you invest in that, you are going to get a quick return."

Even after seven years of war, farming still accounts for about a quarter of Syria's Gross Domestic Product.

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3:30 p.m.

U.N. Syria envoy Staffan De Mistura is warning that the northern rebel-held province of Idlib could become the conflict-ravaged country's newest humanitarian crisis area, as international donors gather in Brussels to drum up emergency support.

De Mistura said Tuesday that "Idlib is the big new challenge - 2.5 million people."

He told reporters that "there are women, children, civilians, and this is looming up there."

De Mistura hopes the two-day donor conference "will be an occasion for also making sure that Idlib doesn't become the new Aleppo, the new eastern Ghouta, because the dimensions are completely different."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 177,000 people have fled combat in eastern Ghouta since February. The rest - including about 12,000 fighters - relocated to Idlib.

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12:45 p.m.

Syrian state TV is reporting that government forces have launched a new operation targeting underground tunnels used by the Islamic State group in the capital, Damascus.

The TV says the aim of the operation is to destroy dug-out trenches and tunnels in the Hajar al-Aswad neighborhood and the nearby Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk that is also mostly controlled by IS.

A group of journalists taken on Tuesday to the adjacent neighborhood of Qadam witnessed intense shelling and airstrikes on IS positons in the camp and Hajar al-Aswad.

The area in southern Damascus is the last part of the capital not controlled by President Bashar Assad's forces. Other insurgents in the area, including an al-Qaida-linked group, have said they would relocate to rebel-held regions in northern Syria.

UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura speaks to the media after a conference on 'Supporting the future of Syria and the region at the Egmont Palace in Brussels on Tuesday, April 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo, Pool)

UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura speaks to the media after a conference on 'Supporting the future of Syria and the region at the Egmont Palace in Brussels on Tuesday, April 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo, Pool)

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini speaks to the media after a conference on 'Supporting the future of Syria and the region at the Egmont Palace in Brussels on Tuesday, April 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo, Pool)
MOUNT BETHEL, Pa. (AP) - A musician whose songs helped teach children on ABC's "Schoolhouse Rock" has died.

His son, Chris, says 94-year-old Bob Dorough died of natural causes Monday at his home in Mount Bethel, Pennsylvania.

According to his biography, the jazz musician "set the multiplication tables to music" as musical director for the educational cartoon series between 1973 and 1985. It was revived from 1993 to 1999.

He also wrote the song "Devil May Care," which jazz great Miles Davis recorded as an instrumental version.

Dorough was born in Arkansas and raised in Texas. He headed to New York City after graduating from the University of North Texas in 1949. He eventually settled in Pennsylvania.

A funeral is tentatively scheduled for Monday in Mount Bethel.
BERLIN (AP) - Lawyers for the main defendant in a high-profile neo-Nazi murder trial in Germany have begun their closing arguments - five years after proceedings opened.

Beate Zschaepe, the only known survivor of the far-right National Socialist Underground group, is accused of taking part in 10 killings, two bomb attacks and several bank robberies.

The 43-year-old's lawyers told the Munich regional court Tuesday that their client didn't have an equal role in the killings committed by two deceased members of the group.

In this Tuesday, March 13, 2018 photo terror suspect Beate Zschaepe, center, arrives in a court room between her lawyers Hermann Borchert, left, and Mathias Grasel, right, in Munich, Germany. The lawyers for the main defendant in a high-profile neo-Nazi murder trial have begun their closing arguments, five years after proceedings opened. Beate Zschaepe, the only known survivor of the far-right National Socialist Underground group, is accused of taking part 10 killings, two bomb attacks and several bank robberies. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, Pool)

Prosecutors want life imprisonment for Zschaepe and lesser sentences for four defendants accused of helping the group. They, and lawyers representing some of the victims, finished their closing arguments in February.

The trial, which was drawn out by regular delaying motions by the defendants, is expected to conclude within weeks.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - Voters in Greenland are going to the polls in a parliamentary election that has featured discussion on what the sparsely populated Arctic island needs to do to become independent from Denmark.

Residents of the semi-independent Danish territory harbor hopes of independence, but know the economy, which depends mainly on fisheries, needs to improve.

Another debated issue in the election for the 31-seat parliament is upgrading three airports to allow international flights land in Greenland and therefore increase tourism.

Prime Minister Kim Kielsen's center-left Siumut party said during the campaign that English, not Danish, should be taught as a second language in schools to allow the island's 56,000 inhabitants become more international.

Recent polls have Kielsen's party neck-and-neck with the left-leaning Inuit Ataqatigiit. They are likely to form a governing coalition.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on Ronny Jackson, President Donald Trump's pick to be secretary of Veterans Affairs (all times local):

7:05 p.m.

A White House official says President Donald Trump is urging his nominee for Veterans Affairs secretary, Dr. Ronny Jackson, to keep fighting to win confirmation.

Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, center, President Donald Trump's choice to be secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, walks down a stairwell to avoid reporters and cameras as he leaves a Senate office building after meeting individually with some members of the committee that would vet him for the post, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The Oval Office meeting comes as Jackson's nomination has been imperiled by allegations of inappropriate workplace behavior.

The official says Jackson is denying the allegations. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions.

The White House is defending Jackson, pointing to his record of service as physician to Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

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6:35 p.m.

The White House is defending embattled Veterans Affairs nominee Ronny Jackson, pointing to his record of service as physician to Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

The White House is releasing hand-written reports from the two presidents praising Jackson's leadership and medical care, and recommending him for promotion.

Obama wrote in one report, "Promote to Rear Admiral now." Trump wrote last year that Jackson is "A GREAT DOCTOR + LEADER - '2 STAR MATERIAL.'"

The White House is also disputing allegations that Jackson improperly administered medication, saying the White House Medical Unit passed regular audits by the Controlled Substance Inventory Board.

The White House is also releasing a 2013 assessment from a Navy Medical Inspector General highlighting leadership improvements under Jackson's tenure as the director of the unit.

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5:45 p.m.

A top Senate Democrat says allegations against President Donald Trump's pick to lead Veterans Affairs involve him being "repeatedly drunk" when he was a White House physician.

Sen. Jon Tester of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee is reviewing the allegations against Ronny Jackson, a White House doctor since 2006.

He tells NPR the committee was told that Jackson was "repeatedly drunk" while on travel with former President Barack Obama and that on overseas trips Jackson improperly handed out prescription drugs to help travelers sleep and wake up. Jackson is also accused of creating a "toxic work environment."

Tester says if that's true, such behavior while caring for "the most powerful man in the world" is "not acceptable."

Tester says more than 20 current and retired military personnel made complaints.

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5:20 p.m.

President Donald Trump's pick to be Veterans Affairs secretary is giving no indication he will withdraw amid allegations of inappropriate workplace behavior.

Ronny Jackson, Trump's White House doctor, says he was "disappointed" that Wednesday's confirmation hearing had been postponed.

He spoke to reporters before meeting Tuesday afternoon with Republican Sen. Jerry Moran, a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.

In video captured by MSNBC, Jackson says he looks forward to "answering everybody's questions" when the hearing is rescheduled. Jackson denies there were any watchdog reports detailing allegations against him.

A watchdog report ordered in 2012 by Jackson and reviewed by The Associated Press found that he and a rival physician exhibited "unprofessional behaviors" as they engaged in a power struggle over the White House medical unit.

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5:10 p.m.

The White House Medical Unit in 2012 - led by current Veterans Affairs nominee Ronny Jackson - was described by one staffer as the "worst command ever."

An inspector general report from the time says most of the blame for the situation fell on Dr. Jeffrey Kuhlman, the physician to President Barack Obama.

But according to the report, Jackson admitted he had failed to shield the White House Medical Unit from the leadership drama between himself and the rival Navy Captain.

Jackson is quoted saying he was willing to do what was necessary to straighten out the command, even if it "meant finding a new position in Navy Medicine."

Jackson was given Kuhlman's post, in addition to running the medical unit, in 2013.

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4:30 p.m.

A 2012 watchdog report ordered up by Veterans Affairs nominee Dr. Ronny Jackson found that both he and a rival physician exhibited "unprofessional behaviors" as they engaged in a power struggle over the White House medical unit.

The report suggested the White House consider replacing Jackson or Dr. Jeffrey Kuhlman -or both. Kuhlman was the physician to President Barack Obama at the time.

The six-page report was reviewed Tuesday by The Associated Press. The report by the Navy's Medical Inspector General found a lack of trust in the leadership and low morale among staff members.

The report says staff members described the working environment as "being caught between parents going through a bitter divorce."

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1:35 p.m.

President Donald Trump says his nominee to lead Veterans Affairs, Dr. Ronny Jackson, will soon be "making a decision" about his future amid questions about the White House doctor and Navy rear admiral.

Trump says in a joint news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron that he will "stand behind" his VA nominee but it's "totally his decision" on whether he should try to win confirmation in the Senate.

Jackson's nomination was put on hold indefinitely after allegations surfaced regarding inappropriate behavior on the job and over-prescribing prescription drugs.

Trump is criticizing members of Congress who questioned Jackson's lack of experience. He called Jackson one of the finest people he's ever met.

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10:55 a.m.

The leaders of a Senate panel say the confirmation hearing for Ronny Jackson, President Donald Trump's pick to be Veterans Affairs secretary, is being postponed indefinitely.

Sen. Johnny Isakson, the Republican chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, and Sen. Jon Tester, the top Democrat, cite "serious allegations" recently made against Jackson.

They say it is their duty to "thoroughly and carefully vet" his nomination. His hearing had been set for Wednesday.

The two lawmakers sent a letter to Trump Tuesday requesting additional information about Jackson, who has served as a White House physician since 2006. It seeks any communication between the Pentagon and the White House regarding "allegations or incidents" involving him.

Trump selected Jackson to head the VA last month after firing former Obama administration official David Shulkin.

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10:15 a.m.

A Senate committee says it has delayed Wednesday's confirmation hearing for Ronny Jackson, President Donald Trump's pick to be secretary of Veterans Affairs.

Spokeswoman Amanda Maddox cites questions from lawmakers over allegations made about Jackson's past behavior.

The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee was scheduled to hold Jackson's hearing on Wednesday.

Trump selected Jackson to head the VA last month after firing former Obama administration official David Shulkin following an ethics scandal and mounting rebellion within the agency. But Jackson has since faced numerous questions from Republican and Democratic lawmakers about whether he has the experience to manage the massive department of 360,000 employees serving 9 million veterans.

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9:20 a.m.

The White House is standing behind Ronny Jackson, President Donald Trump's choice to be Veterans Affairs secretary amid growing questions about his qualifications.

Spokesman Hogan Gidley is praising Jackson, who is Trump's White House doctor and a Navy rear admiral, for serving as a physician to three U.S. presidents, both Republican and Democrat. He says Jackson has a record of "strong decisive leadership" and is "exactly what's needed at the VA."

Senators have been discussing plans to delay Jackson's confirmation hearing, saying more time may be needed to review whether Jackson can manage a massive agency of 360,000 employees serving 9 million veterans.

The hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.

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1:46 a.m.

Senators are discussing plans to delay the confirmation hearing for President Donald Trump's pick to be Veteran Affairs secretary over growing questions about the nominee's ability to manage the government's second-largest department.

The hearing for Ronny Jackson, Trump's White House doctor, is scheduled for Wednesday.

Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal says some Republicans have told him that they think the hearing should be postponed, which he says deserves consideration.

Blumenthal says he thinks there may well be a need for more time, in fairness to Jackson, so that he and the administration have an opportunity to answer these questions fully and fairly.

Blumenthal declined to discuss why more time might be needed.

White House and VA officials are also discussing a delay with key allies outside the administration.

FILE - In this Jan. 16, 2018, file photo, White House physician Dr. Ronny Jackson speaks to reporters during the daily press briefing in the Brady press briefing room at the White House, in Washington. Now it's Washington's turn to examine Jackson. The doctor to Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and now Donald Trump is an Iraq War veteran nominated to head the Department of Veterans Affairs. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, President Donald Trump's choice to be secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, leaves a Senate office building after meeting individually with some members of the committee that would vet him for the post, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

In this April 16, 2018, photo, U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, M.D., sits with Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., chairman of the Veteran's Affairs Committee, before their meeting on Capitol Hilin Washington. Jackson is President Donald Trump's nominee to be the next Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Now it's Washington's turn to examine Jackson. The doctor to Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and now Donald Trump is an Iraq War veteran nominated to head the Department of Veterans Affairs. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

FILE - In this April 2, 2018, file photo, White House physician and nominee for Veterans Affairs Secretary Dr. Ronny Jackson arrives at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington. Now it's Washington's turn to examine Jackson. The doctor to Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and now Donald Trump is an Iraq War veteran nominated to head the Department of Veterans Affairs. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
PORTLAND, Oregon -- Some 7,500 people flocked to Portland Marine Terminal 2 in Portland, Ore., Saturday for the commissioning ceremony of the USS Portland (LPD 27) -- the 11th San Antonio-class ship built by Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula.

Among the speaker's during the event was Ingalls president Brian Cuccias, who said "ships like Portland provide the tools our sailors and Marines need in both military and humanitarian operations, protecting the homeland, and in service around the globe.

"Thousands of dedicated shipbuilders -- riggers, fitters, welders, machinists, designers, planners and many others -- poured tens of thousands of hours transforming raw materials and equipment into the ship our Navy is commissioning today," Cuccias continued.

"Our shipbuilders are indeed a national asset who support defense of our nation and freedom across the globe. Our national heroes, the men and women who will sail this great ship into harm's way, deserve nothing less than America's best."

Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick M. Shanahan delivered the keynote address, while Bonnie Amos, wife of former Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James F. Amos, served as ship's sponsor.

Amos gave the order to "man our ship and bring her to life."

Ingalls has two more San Antonio-class ships on the way. The Fort Lauderdale (LPD 28) is currently under construction and a contract for construction of LPD 29 was awarded to the Pascagoula shipyard earlier this year. LPD's are amphibious transport dock ships.

LPD 27 is the second ship named in honor of Oregon's largest city and the third to carry the name Portland. The first was the heavy cruiser USS Portland (CA 33), commissioned in 1933 and named for Portland, Maine. CA 33 saw extensive action during World War II, including campaigns in Guadalcanal, Leyte Gulf, Corregidor and Okinawa.

The other ship named Portland was a dock landing ship (LSD 37) which was named for both Portlands in Oregon and Maine. Commissioned in 1970, she served for 33 years and participated in a number of important operations.
STREETSBORO, Ohio (AP) - Authorities say a 13-year-old boy has fatally shot his 11-year-old brother in suburban Cleveland, and police are describing the shooting as an apparent "premeditated act."

Streetsboro police say officers were called to a home around 9:30 p.m. Monday. The 11-year-old died at a hospital.

Police say the 13-year-old has been charged with aggravated murder in Portage County Juvenile Court. Police say the gun used in the slaying was stolen from his grandfather's home.

Police have not said what prompted the teen to shoot his brother.

Streetsboro is roughly 30 miles (48 kilometers) southeast of downtown Cleveland.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on the White House visit of French President Emmanuel Macron (all times local):

12:16 p.m.

A pair of designers is responsible for Melania Trump's white skirt suit and matching hat.

First lady Melania Trump tours the National Gallery of Art, with Brigitte Macron, Tuesday April 24, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

The first lady's office says Michael Kors designed the two-piece suit that Mrs. Trump wore for Tuesday's White House arrival ceremony for President Emmanuel Macron of France and his wife, Brigitte.

Mrs. Trump also wore the suit on an outing to the National Gallery of Art in Washington with Mrs. Macron.

The first lady topped her outfit with a broad-brimmed white hat designed by Herve Pierre. Pierre designed the first lady's inaugural ball gown.

The white hat quickly became the talk of the town, as well as on Twitter. Mrs. Trump typically doesn't wear hats.

Still to come is Tuesday night's piece de resistance: the first lady's state dinner gown.

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10:40 a.m.

President Donald Trump is warning that if Iran restarts its nuclear program it "will have bigger problems than they have ever had before."

Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron will be discussing the Iran nuclear deal Tuesday during their meetings at the White House.

Macron wants Trump to maintain the deal. Trump is undecided but has called it "a terrible deal."

Though Trump has warmly welcomed Macron to Washington, the two have disagreements to sort through, including Trump's decision to leave the multinational Paris climate change agreement.

While with Macron, Trump refused to answer a reporter's question as to whether he is considering a pardon for his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, whose office was raided by the FBI. Trump called it "a stupid question."

Cohen has not been charged.

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9:54 a.m.

French President Emmanuel Macron is highlighting the close ties between his nation and the United States during his visit to the White House.

Macron, standing alongside President Donald Trump Tuesday, said "America represents endless possibilities for my country."

He also told Trump that "France shares with your country an ideal of freedom and peace."

Macron touted how the French fought alongside George Washington during the American Revolution, which laid the blueprint for cooperation between the nations.

The French president, who enjoys a closer relationship with Trump than many of his European peers, said that France works alongside the U.S. on challenges like terrorism, North Korea and Iran.

He is expected to lobby Trump to maintain the Iran nuclear deal and reconsider the decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement.

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9:30 a.m.

President Donald Trump is sending prayers to the Bush family and wishing former President George H.W. Bush a "speedy recovery."

Trump is recognizing the former president as he greets French President Emmanuel Macron on the South Lawn of the White House.

Bush has been hospitalized in Houston with an infection, just days after attending the funeral of his wife, Barbara Bush.

Trump is also sending the nation's sympathies to the Canadian people following the "horrendous tragedy" in Toronto.

A driver plowed a rented van along a crowded sidewalk in Toronto, killing 10 people and injuring 15 others. Trump says the nation's hearts are with the grieving families in Canada.

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9:25 a.m.

President Donald Trump says the "wonderful friendship" he has developed with French President Emmanuel Macron is a testament to two nations' enduring alliance.

Trump is thanking Macron for his "steadfast partnership" in responding to the recent chemical attack in Syria.

The president is speaking at an arrival ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House.

Trump and Macron are meeting Tuesday on a number of issues, including the future of the Iran nuclear deal and the crisis in Syria.

The two leaders are holding a joint news conference later in the morning and then Macron will be honored with Trump's first state dinner.

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9 a.m.

President Donald Trump is welcoming French President Emmanuel Macron to the White House in a formal arrival ceremony.

The president and first lady are greeting Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron, on rolled-out red carpet on the South Lawn.

The arrival is heavy on pomp, with nearly 500 U.S. service-members from all five military branches participating in the ceremonial welcome, which includes a "Review of the Troops."

Vice President Mike Pence and several members of Trump's Cabinet, lawmakers, and military families are in attendance. The audience includes students from the Maya Angelou French Immersion School in Temple Hills, Maryland.

The two leaders are spending the morning in meetings and then will hold a joint news conference. On Tuesday night, Macron will be feted at Trump's first state dinner.

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12:50 a.m.

A sit-down between President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron followed by a joint news conference highlight the business portion of the French leader's second day in Washington.

The pageantry of Macron's official state visit, the first of the Trump presidency, comes Tuesday night with a lavish state dinner at the White House. About 150 guests are expected to dine on rack of lamb and nectarine tart and enjoy an after-dinner performance by the Washington National Opera.

Monday night was more relaxed, featuring a helicopter tour of Washington landmarks and a trip to the Potomac River home of George Washington for dinner.

Pomp and ceremony aside, Trump and Macron disagree on some fundamental issues. A prime dividing point is the multinational Iran nuclear deal, which Trump wants to abandon.

President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron stand together at the beginning of the State Arrival Ceremony at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump, arrive for the State Arrival Ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Brigitte Macron, left, wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, smiles at first lady Melania Trump as they tour the National Gallery of Art, Tuesday April 24, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

First lady Melania Trump, left, and Brigitte Macron, wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, tour the National Gallery of Art, Tuesday April 24, 2018, in Washington. At right is Frank Kelly, with the museum. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrive to greet French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron during a State Arrival Ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - School officials in Rhode Island say a teenager has been arrested for shooting the window of an elementary school bus with a pellet gun.

WPRO-AM reports that the shooting happened Monday afternoon in North Kingstown.

Superintendent Philip Auger says no one was injured, but some children were hit with safety glass from the broken window.

Auger emailed parents Monday night to say the person responsible was arrested.

He says the bus was bringing students home from Fishing Cove Elementary School.

After the shooting, the bus driver pulled away, checked on the students and called police. Students were taken home on another bus.

Auger says the school department is cooperating with police.

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Information from: WPRO-AM, http://www.630wpro.com/
PHOENIX (AP) - The Latest on Tuesday's special election for an Arizona congressional seat (all times local):

7 p.m.

Polls are now closed in the Arizona special election that will determine who fills out the term of former Republican Rep. Trent Franks.

FILE - In this April 10, 2018, file photo, Democratic candidate for the Arizona 8th Congressional District special election, Dr. Hiral Tipirneni, left, talks with a supporter at a local restaurant in Sun City, Ariz. Tipirneni is running against former Arizona Republican state Sen. Debbie Lesko in a special election, Tuesday, April 24, to fill the seat vacated by Republican Rep. Trent Franks. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)

The first results of the race for U.S. House pitting Republican Debbie Lesko and Democrat Hiral Tipirneni are expected to be released shortly after 8 p.m. local time.

Tipirneni is an emergency room physician and a cancer research advocate, while Lesko served in the state Senate until recently, representing parts of Arizona's 8th Congressional District since 2009.

Franks resigned in December amid sexual misconduct allegations.

Tipirneni is trying to pull off an upset, but Republicans have a sizable lead in both voter registration and in early ballots already cast in the special election.

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1:30 p.m.

Voter turnout for Tuesday's special election in Phoenix's western suburbs appears higher than during the February primary.

Officials say the election going fairly smoothly, with only a few problems reported.

Maricopa County Recorder's Office spokeswoman C. Murphy Hebert (ay'bear) says ballot printers needed repairs at two of the 8th Congressional District's 55 polling locations, affecting 20 voters.

Spokesmen for Republican Debbie Lesko and Democrat Hiral Tipirneni say they don't know of any serious voting problems.

As of just before noon Tuesday, over 7,600 voters had cast ballots, compared with nearly 8,500 voting at polling places during the entire day of the Feb. 27 special primary election to replace Republican Trent Franks.

With the number of early ballots, that points toward the number of total votes cast in the special general election approaching 188,000, compared with 116,732 in February.

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6:56 a.m.

Polls are open in the Phoenix area for Tuesday's special election to fill a vacant U.S. House seat in which Republican Debbie Lesko and Democrat Hiral Tipirneni are running to replace former Congressman Trent Franks.

Tipirneni is an emergency room physician and a cancer research advocate, while Lesko served in the state Senate until recently, representing parts of Arizona's 8th Congressional District since 2009.

Franks is a Republican who resigned in December amid sexual misconduct allegations.

Tipirneni is trying to pull off an upset, but Republicans have a sizable lead in both voter registration in the district and in early ballots already cast in the special election.

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11 p.m.

A Democratic newcomer is trying to pull off an upset victory for an open U.S. House seat in Arizona that has been held by Republicans since the early 1980s.

Hiral Tipirneni is an emergency room physician and a cancer research advocate, but many observers see her odds as slim against former state Sen. Debbie Lesko.

They face off in Tuesday's special election to replace former Rep. Trent Franks in Arizona's 8th District, who resigned in December amid sexual harassment allegations.

Lesko, a Republican, has represented parts of the district since 2009.

She has an extremely strong base of support in a district Franks had locked up since 2003.

FILE - In this Jan. 27, 2018, file photo, former Arizona state Sen. Debbie Lesko speaks with a constituent during the meeting of the state committee of the Arizona Republican Party in Phoenix. Lesko is running against Hiral Tipirneni in a special election, Tuesday, April 24, to fill the U.S. House seat vacated by Republican Rep. Trent Franks. (AP Photo/Matt York, File)

In this Tuesday, April 10, 2018, photo, Democratic candidate for the Arizona 8th Congressional District special election Dr. Hiral Tipirneni talks with supporters at a local restaurant in Sun City, Ariz. Tipirneni is running against former Arizona Republican state Sen. Debbie Lesko in a special election to fill the seat vacated by Republican Rep. Trent Franks. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

In this April 10, 2018, photo, Democratic candidate for the Arizona 8th Congressional District special election Dr. Hiral Tipirneni, center, talks with supporters at a local restaurant in Sun City, Ariz. Tipirneni is running against former Arizona Republican state Sen. Debbie Lesko in a special election to fill the seat vacated by Republican Rep. Trent Franks. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
VATICAN CITY (AP) - The key whistleblower in Chile's clerical sex abuse scandal has arrived in Rome for his audience with Pope Francis and said Tuesday he will urge the pope to get rid of the "toxic" bishops and cardinals who have defamed and discredited abuse survivors around the world.

In an interview in St. Peter's Square, Juan Carlos Cruz said he was honored Francis wants to apologize in person for having himself discredited victims during a January trip to Chile. Comments Francis made while defending a bishop now at the heart of Chile's scandal was one of the worst blunders of his papacy, calling into question his commitment to fighting abuse and cover-ups.

While Francis has blamed others for misinforming him, Cruz said he wants to hear the pope's explanation for having seemingly been unaware that abuse victims, and not anti-church political activists, had for years publicly accused Bishop Juan Barros of witnessing and ignoring their abuse.

Juan Carlos Cruz, center, walks past St.Peter's Basilica as he arrives for an interview with The Associated Press, in Rome, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. Cruz, who is the key whistleblower in Chile's clerical sex abuse scandal, has arrived in Rome for his audience with Pope Francis and says he will urge Francis to get rid of the "toxic" bishops and cardinals who have defamed and discredited him and other abuse survivors around the world. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

"He's not a pope from Ukraine. He's from Buenos Aires, which is an hour, 40 (minute) flight" from Chile, Cruz told The Associated Press. "So it's really difficult to understand that this was an unknown. But I want to hear him. I want to talk to him. I want to listen to what he has to say."

Cruz and two other abuse survivors, Jimmy Hamilton and Jose Andres Murillo, have several days of private and group meetings with Francis lined up starting Friday. They will be Francis' guests at the Vatican's Santa Marta hotel, where he lives.

Francis invited the three to Rome after enraging Chileans by saying during his January visit that the men's accusations against Barros were "calumny" and demanding proof.

Francis seemed completely unaware that the men - victims of Barros' mentor, the Rev. Fernando Karadima - had placed Barros at the scene of their abuse, and that their testimony had been deemed trustworthy enough for the Vatican to use it to sentence Karadima to a lifetime of penance and prayer. Francis had previously accused "leftists" for mounting the opposition to Barros.

In response to the uproar his comments caused in Chile, Francis dispatched the Vatican's top sex abuse investigator to look into the accusations against Barros. After receiving the investigator's report, Francis issued a letter of apology to the victims and invited them to Rome.

The pope also gave a stern warning to Chile's bishops, who have a history of discrediting victims, imposing minimal sentences on abusers or covering up for them entirely.

In the letter, Francis admitted he made "serious errors in judgment and perception" about the Barros case, but he blamed a lack of "truthful and balanced information" for his missteps.

Many Chileans have pointed the finger at the retired archbishop of Santiago, Cardinal Javier Errazuriz, who was Barros' superior for many years and is a top adviser of Francis.

In emails, Errazuriz referred to Cruz as a "liar" and a "serpent" out to destroy the Chilean Church. Barros, Hamilton and Murillo sued the archdiocese for having covered up Karadima's abuse; their case is on appeal.

Cruz has urged Francis to remove "toxic" leaders like Errazuriz, who also is in Rome this week attending one of Francis' regular meetings with his nine key cardinal advisers.

"I believe he (Francis) is a good man and I believe he wants to do the right thing," Cruz said. "Unfortunately he has listened to toxic people that surround him and that has to stop. ... They need to go. He needs to hold them accountable."

Juan Carlos Cruz, backdropped by St.Peter's Basilica, poses for photos during interview with The Associated Press, in Rome, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. Cruz, who is the key whistleblower in Chile's clerical sex abuse scandal, has arrived in Rome for his audience with Pope Francis and says he will urge Francis to get rid of the "toxic" bishops and cardinals who have defamed and discredited him and other abuse survivors around the world. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) - Police in El Salvador have arrested the domestic partner of a journalist killed over the weekend.

National Police director Howard Cotto said Tuesday that Mario Huezo Portillo has been arrested for killing journalist Karla Lisseth Turcios.

Prosecutor Max Munoz says cameras traced Huezo Portillo when he went to dump the woman's body.

Turcios worked for El Economista, part of La Prensa Grafica media group in the gang-plagued Central American nation.

Huezo Portillo initially told police that he and their son left her resting at home around 12:30 p.m. Saturday. He said when they returned, Turcios had disappeared and did not answer her cellphone or respond to messages.

The 33-year-old journalist's body was found hours later on a highway northeast of the Salvadoran capital, San Salvador.

Police said was strangled.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are seeking a subpoena for documents concerning the Trump administration's decision to add a citizenship question in the 2020 Census.

Democrats have voiced concerns immigrants will dodge the survey, diluting political representation and reducing federal dollars for some communities.

Democrats seek documents in which some Census Bureau employees raised concerns prior to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross' decision. The department has briefed lawmakers on the decision and promised some records, but the Democrats say the response is inadequate.

The Democrats are asking Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, the committee's chairman, to issue a subpoena or bring the matter before the entire committee if he declines to issue it himself. They say the information is needed before a May committee hearing.
QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) - Suicide bombers struck a police vehicle and a security checkpoint in separate attacks Tuesday in the Pakistani city of Quetta, killing six police and wounding eight paramilitary troops, officials said.

A suicide bomber on a motorcycle rammed into a police vehicle on an airport road, killing the six police and wounding seven others, said Abdur Razzaq Cheema, the Quetta police chief.

Separately, a military statement said two suicide bombers targeted a checkpoint outside a Frontier Corps base in the Mian Ghundi area.

A Pakistani police officer walks past a police vehicle targeted by a suicide bomber in Quetta, Pakistan, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. Pakistan's military says suicide bombers blew themselves up near a police vehicle and a security checkpoint in separate incidents in the southwestern city of Quetta, killing many police officers and wounding eight paramilitary troops. (AP Photo/Arshad Butt)

Cheema and the military said the paramilitary fighters killed both suicide bombers. But Mohammad Aslam, another police officer, said eight troops were hospitalized, indicating that one or both attackers detonated his explosives vest.

Hizbul Ahrar, an offshoot of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed both attacks. Islamic extremists regularly target security forces and minority Shiites in Quetta and the surrounding province.

"We are in a warlike situation," Cheema said at the scene of the attack on the police vehicle. "Security forces are on alert and we have to win this war."
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court says foreign businesses cannot be sued in U.S. courts by foreign victims of human rights abuses and extremist attacks.

The justices voted 5-4 on Tuesday in favor of Arab Bank, which is based in Jordan. The bank was sued by Israeli victims of attacks in the West Bank and Gaza who claim that it helped finance the attacks.

The victims had tried to use the 18th-century Alien Tort Statute to hold the bank accountable for its role.

The decision continues the court's paring back of a three-decade-old strategy by human rights lawyers to use civil suits to pursue individuals who may be responsible for torture and other atrocities, as well as companies with operations in countries with poor records in the area of human rights.
WASHINGTON (AP) - House Democrats, frustrated by what they see as GOP inaction and with an eye on midterm elections, on Tuesday held the first of what they hope to be several interviews with witnesses who have not been interrogated in the Republican-led Russia investigations.

Democrats on the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees interviewed former Cambridge Analytica employee Christopher Wylie, who revealed that a data-mining firm affiliated with President Donald Trump's campaign gathered millions of Facebook profiles to influence elections.

Wylie's visit is part of a Democratic attempt to keep congressional focus on Russian meddling in the 2016 election and on whether Trump's campaign was involved. Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee plan to meet with Wylie on Wednesday. Republicans were invited to both meetings but declined to attend.

Christopher Wylie, the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower, departs after meeting with House Judiciary Democrats, on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, April 24, 2018 in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

It was unclear if there were any new revelations in Tuesday's meeting, which lasted less than three hours and was attended by a handful of lawmakers. The Democrats said they would like to hold additional interviews, but it was unclear if any were scheduled.

At least one House Democrat who attended signaled a larger strategy was at play.

"The Republicans aren't always going to be in the majority," said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, a member of the Oversight panel, after he left the interview with Wylie. "So I think we have to do our due diligence, we have to lay the groundwork for what we would actually want to do if we take back the House and we are operating in the majority in the committee."

The GOP-led House Intelligence Committee shut down its Russian meddling probe last month, concluding after dozens of interviews that they didn't see any evidence of collusion or coordination between Trump's campaign and Russia. Democrats were furious, arguing that Republicans hadn't subpoenaed many witnesses they considered essential. The Republican chairmen of the Judiciary and Oversight panels declined to investigate the election meddling at all, saying they would instead leave that to special counsel Robert Mueller.

Still, Republicans on all three committees are investigating the Justice Department, looking into whether employees conspired against Trump in beginning its Russia investigation and whether the department's employees were biased in its investigation of Trump's 2016 opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton.

In a joint statement after the Wylie interview, Democrats on the Judiciary and Oversight committees said he raised serious questions about security.

"We must do more to learn how foreign actors collect and weaponize our data against us, and what impact social media has on our democratic processes," the lawmakers said in a joint statement.

Wylie worked for the U.K.-based Cambridge Analytica from 2013 to 2015. In several interviews last month, he said the firm sought information on Facebook to build psychological profiles on a large portion of the U.S. electorate. He said the company was able to amass the database quickly with the help of an academic, Aleksander Kogan, who developed a Facebook app called "This is Your Digital Life" that appeared to be a personality test. Wylie has said he fears that data may have been turned over to Russians who aimed to interfere with the U.S. election.

Cambridge Analytica was backed by the conservative billionaire Robert Mercer, a hedge-fund manager who supported the Trump campaign. The firm's vice president at one point was Steve Bannon, who later became Trump's campaign chairman and White House adviser.

Leaving the interview, Wylie declined to say what was discussed but said he hopes that Congress can investigate Cambridge Analytica and whether the firm's "actions were compliant with American law."

"I hope so," he said. "That's why I came."
Global trade imbalances cause trade tensions, Yu said. President Trump has been complaining about trade deficits for decades. President Xi has talked about Chinas willingness to deal and thats very good news. His remarks kicked off the days first panel at Andersons 2018 Wilbur K. Woo Greater China Business Conference . Yus panel included moderator Seamus Jiang, managing director and co-leader for China-U.S. cross-border deals at PwC, and Feng An, founder and executive director of the Innovation Center for Energy and Transportation at U.S.-China Cleantech Center.

With daily headlines regarding U.S.-Sino trade relations as a backdrop, UCLA Anderson Forecast economist William Yu remains skeptical that the two nations will engage in a full-blown trade war, despite the public posturing of U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The panelists indicated that trade agreements between the two countries will not come easily. The $375 billion U.S. trade deficit with China represents fully half of the U.S. overall deficit, as the United States imports everything from high-tech cell phones, computers and telecommunications equipment to apparel, cookware and other household goods, while the country exports goods ranging from civilian aircraft to medical equipment to cars and car parts. The impact of a trade war doesnt affect every sector equally, An said. Its not just about high tech. The impact will be mixed.

Yu noted that Chinese investments in the U.S. have decreased from $45 billion in 2016 to just $29 billion in 2017. In addition, he said, Chinese acquisitions of U.S. companies with cyber and national security considerations are difficult while Chinese debt-based foreign domestic investment is discouraged by the Chinese government, though long-term green field investment  the type of foreign direct investment in which a parent company builds its operations from the ground up  would be welcomed by the Americans.

Despite the complexity and tensions, Yu remains sanguine. President Xi and President Trump will decide if there will be a trade war or not. Trade compromises seem likely.

Organized by the Center for Global Management with Andersons Greater China Business Association and UCLA Chinese Student and Scholar Association, the annual Wilbur K. Woo Greater China Business Conference brings together successful U.S. and Chinese leaders, investors and influencers from a variety of industries and sectors to discuss the importance of innovation, collaboration and new technology, as well as diversification and localization.

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BRUSSELS (AP) - International efforts to rebuild Syria once the civil war is over should center on agriculture to kick start the economy and quickly improve the livelihoods of the people, a high-level United Nations official said Tuesday.

In an interview with The Associated Press ahead of an international Syria donors conference, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization's Deputy Director General Daniel Gustafson said that in case of a return to peace the impact of funding farming would yield almost immediate results.

"If you invest in that, you are going to get a quick return," he said.

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, left, and UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura participate in a media conference after a meeting on 'Supporting the future of Syria and the region at the Egmont Palace in Brussels on Tuesday, April 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo, Pool)

Despite seven years of warfare through much of the Middle Eastern nation which also blighted farmland and destroyed facilities, farming still accounts for about a quarter of Syria's gross domestic product.

UN figures show that some $16 billion in production has been lost because of the war and it will take about as much to get the recovery of farming going again. At the two-day Syria conference opening Tuesday, donors from across the globe hope to commit several billion in assistance to alleviate the pressing needs of Syrians. Over $5 billion was committed last year.

Farming in Syria goes back many thousands of years and the nation was long a breadbasket for the area. When the war started almost half the population was still employed in farming.

And despite the horrific war that ravaged orchards and fields, cut the availability of seeds and fertilizers and sent many millions fleeing, half the output survives to this day.

"The resilience of the agriculture sector is an astonishing story. You still have half the production of wheat of what you had before the war" - two million tons, instead of 4 million before the war, Gustafson said.

Still, some 6.5 million people are in urgent need of immediate assistance because they face a lack of food, said Gustafson.

While most of the attention goes to shocking events like bombings or even gas attacks, war in the countryside often has a more creeping effect.

"It is this continuous deterioration of their livelihoods. You cannot get seeds, you cannot sell stuff, you cannot trade, you cannot get spare parts," Gustafson said. "The whole thing just kind of grinds down."

He said that fortunately, the situation can also pick up again soon once the conditions are right, once the right seeds come in again and people and goods are again free to move around the country.

Front row from left, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid Christos Stylianides and European Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy Johannes Hahn attend a conference 'Supporting the future of Syria and the region' at the EU Charlemagne building in Brussels on Tuesday, April 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
PANTIN, France (AP) - French train mechanic Jonathan Seigneur says President Emmanuel Macron has it all wrong.

Seigneur fixes trains for a modest salary that he accepted in exchange for job security, a tradeoff made by workers across the world's fifth-biggest economy. And now he is on strike, along with thousands of others at national railway SNCF, to protest Macron's changes to the rail sector - and protect the French way of life.

Macron, a former investment banker who is currently visiting the U.S., argues that worker protections stifle growth and innovation, and that the French lifestyle is no longer tenable in the 21st century global economy.

Train worker Jonathan Seigneur poses during a picket line, in Pantin, north of Paris, Monday, April 23, 2018. Seigneur fixes trains for a modest salary that he accepted in exchange for job security. And now he is on strike along with thousands of other workers at national railway SNCF, to protest Macron's reforms to the rail sector and to protect the idea of public service _ and the French way of life. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Seigneur, a 35-year-old father of two, says job security encourages people to spend money and helps France weather global recessions better than other leading economies.

"If job security is a privilege then I'd like for all the French to have this privilege," he said. "Soon it will be a privilege just to have a job. Or to eat at each meal."

Seigneur is fighting what many French workers see as an encroaching American-style system, where people are laid off without warning and "you take your pickup and the wife and kids, and go somewhere else."

"I don't believe the French want this kind of society," he says.

It's a timely criticism - coming just as Macron is being feted by U.S. President Donald Trump on a state visit to Washington.

Seigneur, with the powerful hard-left union CGT, talked to The Associated Press at different protest sites around Paris - starting from a blockade he set up in the Paris suburb of Pantin to try to save a threatened depot.

Later he donned a red union hat and stormed the SNCF freight headquarters in the suburb of Clichy with other union activists. They waved flags as they entered the building and mounted the roof, where they lit flares and sang songs, fists in the air.

Some two-thirds of French high-speed trains were cancelled Tuesday as workers held their 10th day of train strikes so far this month. Unions plan rolling train strikes through the end of June, and other sectors are also holding scattered walkouts as discontent mounts against Macron's changes to the French economy.

The SNCF reform aims to abolish a special status for train workers - known as cheminots - that effectively guarantees jobs for life. The reform would only apply to future hires, but Seigneur fears it would be the beginning of the unraveling of France's "notion of public service."

"We don't earn much but we do something for people," he said, notably providing extensive and affordable train service that "allows the little grandmother in the countryside to be able to see her grandchildren in Paris."

After 15 years at SNCF, he says his base gross salary is 1,600 euros a month. Base salaries are augmented with extra pay for difficult hours or seniority, all subject to income taxes and France's high payroll charges. He rides trains for free, and like all French workers has relatively generous vacation.

Seigneur rejects arguments that the strikers are clinging to unfair privileges, or are holding passengers hostage. While the strike has left many commuters and tourists fuming, France is proud of its railways and many riders think SNCF plays a special role.

The European Union is requiring its members to open up state-run rail networks to competition, and Macron's reform is in part meant to prepare SNCF for that challenge.

Seigneur is ready to carry the strike into the July-August school vacations if needed, and says it's important to stand up to Macron.

"It's like we didn't elect a president but a king, and we're going to show him that even if he's a king ... we won't give in. We are as stubborn as him," he said.

Still, Seigneur fears the reform will go ahead anyway.

And if it does?

Despite his attachment to the railways, he said he would quit SNCF and look for another job. Then he laughed and added, "Maybe as an Uber driver."

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Nicolas Garriga contributed to this report.

Train worker Jonathan Seigneur poses during a picket line, in Pantin, north of Paris, Monday, April 23, 2018. Seigneur fixes trains for a modest salary that he accepted in exchange for job security. And now he is on strike along with thousands of other workers at national railway SNCF, to protest Macron's reforms to the rail sector and to protect the idea of public service _ and the French way of life. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
A rented van that drove along a crowded sidewalk in Toronto, killing 10 people and injuring 15, is apparently the latest example of a driver using a vehicle as a weapon in recent years. Some of the attacks were orchestrated by extremist groups, others by unstable individuals with unclear motives. Radical groups have urged supporters to use any weapons at hand, including cars, a tactic that presents a major challenge for security forces around the world.

Here's a look at some other attacks:

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A van with a damaged front-end sits idle on a sidewalk after the driver drove down a sidewalk crashing into a number of pedestrians in Toronto, Monday, April 23, 2018. The van apparently jumped a curb Monday in a busy intersection in Toronto and struck the pedestrians and fled the scene before it was found and the driver was taken into custody, Canadian police said. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

Oct. 31, 2017

A Halloween attack on a bike path in New York City killed eight and injured 11 others. Authorities say Sayfullo Saipov of Paterson, New Jersey, was inspired by the Islamic State group when he mowed people down in rented truck near the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan.

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Aug. 17, 2017

A rented van veered into Barcelona's crowded Las Ramblas promenade, swerving along the walkway and killing 13 people. Armed with an ax, knives and false explosives belts, attackers then drove a second vehicle to the boardwalk in the resort town of Cambrils early the next day, fatally injuring one person. Five of those attackers were shot to death. Authorities said a cell of at least nine extremists plotted to combine vehicles and explosives in a direct hit on tourists. Islamic State claimed the group as its own.

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Aug. 12, 2017

A car slammed into a crowd protesting a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing 32-year-old legal assistant Heather Heyer. The driver of the car, James Alex Fields Jr., described as an admirer of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, was photographed with white nationalist demonstrators before the deadly crash. Fields is charged with murder and other offenses. Two Virginia state troopers also died in the crash of their helicopter, which was monitoring the rally.

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June 19, 2017

A van attack on a crowd of Muslim worshippers near two north London mosques killed a 51-year-old Bangladeshi immigrant and injured nine other people. The worshippers were spilling out of the mosques following Ramadan prayers. British authorities charged Darren Osborne, an unemployed man from Wales, with murder and attempted murder. Police characterized the incident as a terrorist attack directed at Muslims.

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April 7, 2017

A man drove a stolen beer truck into a crowd of afternoon shoppers outside the upmarket Ahlens store in Stockholm, killing four and injuring 15 others. An Uzbek man, Rakhmat Akilov, was later arrested and pleaded guilty to a terrorist crime for ramming the truck into the crowd.

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March 22, 2017

A man identified by police as Khalid Masood ran his rented SUV into pedestrians on London's Westminster Bridge. Four people were killed. Masood was eventually shot and killed by police, but not before stabbing a police officer to death on the grounds of Parliament. Police say Masood was inspired by extremist ideology, but that there's no evidence he had direct links to the Islamic State group or al-Qaida.

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Jan. 20 , 2017

A man with a history of mental health and drug abuse issues drove into a street crowded with pedestrians in Melbourne, Australia's second-largest city, killing at least four people, including a child, and injuring around 15 others. The 26-year-old man was arrested, and police said the incident had no links to terrorism.

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Jan. 8, 2017

A Palestinian truck driver rammed his vehicle into a crowd of Israeli soldiers at a popular Jerusalem tourist spot, killing four people and wounding 17 in the deadliest single attack of more than a year of Israeli-Palestinian violence. It was the latest in a string of stabbings, shootings and vehicle ramming attacks in a wave of violence that erupted in the fall of 2015.

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Dec. 19, 2016

A young Tunisian rammed a truck into a crowded Berlin Christmas market, killing 12 and injuring dozens in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group. It was the first mass casualty attack by Islamic extremists carried out on German soil. Attacker Anis Amri, who had been denied asylum in Germany, was later killed by police in Italy after an international manhunt.

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Nov. 28, 2016

Eighteen-year-old Somali-born Abdul Razak Ali Artan drove a car into a crowd of students at Ohio State University. Artan then attacked bystanders with a knife before he was shot and killed by OSU police officer Alan Horujko. Thirteen people were injured in the attack.

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July 14, 2016

A Tunisian residing in France plowed a refrigerator truck through a crowd celebrating Bastille Day on the Mediterranean beachfront in Nice, killing 86. Attacker Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, who claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group, was killed by police. Cities around the world beefed up measures to prevent vehicle attacks in response.

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December 2014

A motorist injured 13 pedestrians in the French city of Dijon. A day later, a man ran over pedestrians at a Christmas market in Nantes in western France, killing one and injuring nine. Both suspects, who survived, had histories of mental illness.

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Oct. 20, 2014

A 25-year-old man drove his car into Canadian Air Force members near Montreal, killing one and injuring another. Authorities said the driver was a convert to Islam and had been flagged for jihadist ambitions. He was later shot dead by police.
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump on Tuesday said Kim Jong Un wants a historic, high-stakes meeting as soon as possible and suggested the North Korean dictator has been "very open" and "very honorable," a sharply different assessment of a leader he once denounced as "Little Rocket Man."

The United States and North Korea have been negotiating a summit between Trump and Kim to be held in May or June to broker a deal on Pyongyang's nuclear program. Trump, who has struck a decidedly optimistic tone on the situation in recent days, said Tuesday that the United States and North Korea were having "good discussions."

"We have been told directly that they would like to have the meeting as soon as possible. We think that's a great thing for the world," Trump said at the White House alongside French President Emmanuel Macron. "Kim Jong Un, he really has been very open and I think very honorable from everything we're seeing."

President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron during their meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Trump cautioned that North Korea had not followed through on previous promises, but credited tough steps from his administration - including sanctions and organizing pressure from international allies - for having forced Pyongyang to hold talks. And he again suggested that he would "leave the table" if the negotiations were not productive or if North Korea was not operating in good faith.

"We'll see where that all goes," the president said. "Maybe it will be wonderful or maybe it won't."

Trump's comments came days after a flurry of moves from North Korea that the White House was anxious to promote as signs that its coercion campaign was working. On Saturday, North Korea announced it will close its nuclear testing facility and suspend nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests - a move welcomed by Trump as "big progress."

However, the North stopped short of suggesting it will give up its nuclear weapons - as Trump suggested in a weekend tweet - or scale back its production of missiles and their related components. When pressed Tuesday on what he meant by the goal of "denuclearization," Trump said, "It means they get rid of their nukes. Very simple."

"It would be easy for me to make a simple deal and declare victory. I don't want to do that," the president said.

This week, U.S.-allied South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Kim will hold a summit in the Demilitarized Zone between the Koreas that could lay the ground for Trump's planned meeting with the North Korean dictator. The leaders of the U.S. and North Korea have never met during six decades of hostility since the Korean War.

The exact date and location of the possible summit has not been determined.

As diplomacy gathered pace, White House officials and congressional aides said the Trump administration was considering nominating Adm. Harry Harris, the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, as ambassador to South Korea. That key position has been vacant since Trump took office 15 months ago.

It would entail a shuffle in the administration's plans for key diplomatic assignments. Harris has already been nominated to be ambassador to Australia. His Senate confirmation hearing for the Australia position had been due to take place Tuesday but was postponed.

One of the congressional aides said both the State Department and governments in both Australia and South Korea were informed that the administration is looking at a switch of postings for Harris, although nothing has been made official yet. The aide and other officials requested anonymity to discuss the plans as they were not authorized to discuss them.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who is Trump's choice for secretary of state, told his own confirmation hearing this month that the vacancy in Seoul needed "immediate attention." The man earlier tipped for the post, Korea expert Victor Cha, was passed over in January. He later voiced concern the administration was considering military action against North Korea.

Harris has spent nearly 40 years in uniform and has a reputation as a straight talker. In testimony last month before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Harris said that the U.S. could not be "overly optimistic" about outcomes for the planned Trump-Kim summit. "We have to go into this, eyes wide open," he told lawmakers.

Last year, the U.S. spearheaded through the U.N. Security Council the toughest international sanctions yet against North Korea in response to three long-range missile launches and its most powerful nuclear test explosion yet. The Trump administration supplemented those restrictions with unilateral U.S. sanctions against firms that had conducted illicit trade with the North.

This year, Kim has pivoted from confrontation to diplomacy and, according to South Korea and China, has expressed a commitment to denuclearization. There is still uncertainty about what he seeks in return.

Trump's praise for Kim on Tuesday stood in stark contrast to his previous bellicose rhetoric toward the North Korean leader. Beyond dubbing him "Little Rocket Man" from the rostrum of the United Nations last fall, Trump has threatened to deliver "fire and fury" upon North Korea and taunted Kim on Twitter that his own nuclear "button" was larger than the one in Pyongyang.

Later Tuesday, Trump sidestepped a question as to why he would use the word "honorable" to describe Kim, who has been accused of starving his own people, executing his political opponents and ordering the killing of a member of his own family.

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Associated Press writers Zeke Miller, Ken Thomas and Matthew Lee contributed to this report.
BEIRUT (AP) - Three years ago, Ahmad Mohsin was forced to relocate his campsite in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley after soldiers raided the community of Syrian refugees where he lived and smashed their belongings. The message was clear, he said: they were not wanted.

On Tuesday, Mohsin, 39, was preparing to break down his camp again, after an order came from the security services to move once more.

Even as donor nations raise money for Syria's neighbors to host refugees of the country's civil war, a leading international rights group and the U.N.'s refugee agency say Lebanese authorities are evicting refugees from towns and camps in the country on questionable legal grounds.

This Monday, April 23, 2018 photo, Syrian refugee children play outside their family tents at a Syrian refugee camp in the town of Bar Elias, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. A leading international rights group and the U.N.'s refugee agency say Lebanese authorities have been evicting Syrian refugees from towns and camps in Lebanon without any legal basis. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Mohsin, from Syria's third largest city Homs, said on the second order to move he went to a local official to ask for help.

"He said, go back to Syria," said Mohsin. Neither the local official nor the military could be reached for comment.

Human Rights Watch said it documented evictions in 13 towns and villages putting more than 3,600 Syrians on the streets since 2016. It said the Lebanese Army uprooted another 7,500 refugees near a military base around Christmas 2017.

Meanwhile, the country's General Security apparatus, which handles border security, arranged for 500 refugees in the Shebaa farms area to return to their villages in western Syria, one week ago. The U.N. did not participate in the operation, saying it did not believe Syria was safe enough for returnees. (The refugees said on Lebanese media they were returning voluntarily.)

In Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley, the Army can designate areas as military zones and close them off to campsites. Their boundaries are rarely clear and appear to shift without notice.

Mohsin said he was informed by military intelligence that his campsite sits on a "military corridor." The camp is approximately 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the Riyaq air base linked to the Christmas evictions.

In 2015, soldiers raided the camp in its old location looking for Mohsin, the camp's foreman, and announced they wanted the tents moved immediately. Afraid, Mohsin denied his own identity.

"The soldiers went through the homes, beating down the doors, breaking things," he said. "Then he started saying things to us, things I don't know how to repeat now, things that really bothered us."

They moved to their present site, just a few hundred meters (yards) away, and along the same dirt road now deemed off-limits.

A local business owner who is developing a private park along the same road said he was aware the area was designated as a 'military zone' but said he didn't expect any restrictions on his venture.

Omar Elmais said he hoped to pave the road and light it along the way to his park, which he said would include a pond and an entertainment area.

Ibrahim Samaha, the owner of the land where Mohsin's community keeps camp, said he received the necessary permits to let the Syrians move to another spot of land away from the road. He also confirmed that the military had uprooted the community in 2015.

According to the U.N.'s refugee agency, UNHCR, 1,300 Syrian families were evicted from their camps and homes in the Bekaa Valley in 2017. It said close to sixty percent of the evictions were ordered by the military intelligence. Another 30 percent were ordered by local officials.

Ziad El Sayegh, an adviser to the Lebanese minister of refugee affairs, said new campgrounds were found for the refugees evicted from around Riyaq air base.

"In fact the army undertook to protect these refugees, like it protects the Lebanese people," he told The Associated Press.

There are nearly a million Syrian refugees living in Lebanon, according to the U.N., and an estimated 70 percent of them live in poverty.

Though President Bashar Assad in neighboring Syria appears to have put down the revolt against him, the U.N. and rights groups say the country is still not safe for refugee return.

The country has suffered catastrophic damage, and many men say they are afraid they will be arrested when they return, on charges of fleeing military conscription.

Meanwhile, Lebanese politicians say their country has been strained under the weight of the refugees, who together with a Palestinian refugee population of 175,000, make up roughly one fifth of the country's population - the highest portion in the world.

And with national elections less than two weeks away, politicians are making the refugees into a ballot box issue.

Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, who leads President Michel Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement party and is the president's son-in-law, said in January it was time for refugees to return home.

It is a common refrain among the country's Christian politicians, who are playing on fears in Lebanon that the overwhelmingly Muslim Syrian refugee population is a threat to Lebanon's national identity.

Meanwhile, local officials in Lebanon are throwing Syrians out of their towns in a violation of their rights as refugees and residents, said Human Rights Watch.

The rights group said it was a worrying trend, at the time of an international donors' summit in Belgium to support Lebanon and other countries neighboring Syria.

Local officials in several municipalities ordered Syrians out en masse, posting eviction notices on their doors, and sometimes sending the police to physically intimidate the refugees if they did not comply, said Human Rights Watch.

The evictions did not appear to have the formal support of the national government, nor any legal basis. Human Rights Watch called on national authorities to step in and stop the evictions.

Syrians face numerous barriers to employment, education and housing in Lebanon, with many forced to live under the radar because Lebanon ordered the U.N.'s refugee commission to halt refugee registrations in 2015.

"Right now, Syrian refugees do not have the guarantee that they are safe in their homes," said Bassam Khawaja, a Lebanon researcher for Human Rights Watch.

This Monday, April 23, 2018 photo, Syrian refugee children lying in their family tent at a Syrian refugee camp in the town of Bar Elias, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. A leading international rights group and the U.N.'s refugee agency say Lebanese authorities have been evicting Syrian refugees from towns and camps in Lebanon without any legal basis. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

This Monday, April 23, 2018 photo, a disabled Syrian refugee boy wheels his wheelchair in a refugee camp in the town of Bar Elias, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. A leading international rights group and the U.N.'s refugee agency say Lebanese authorities have been evicting Syrian refugees from towns and camps in Lebanon without any legal basis. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

This Monday, April 23, 2018 photo, Syrian refugee women harvest broad beans at a field in the town of Bar Elias, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. A leading international rights group and the U.N.'s refugee agency say Lebanese authorities have been evicting Syrian refugees from towns and camps in Lebanon without any legal basis. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

This Monday, April 23, 2018 photo, a Syrian refugee woman harvests broad beans at a field in the town of Bar Elias, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. A leading international rights group and the U.N.'s refugee agency say Lebanese authorities have been evicting Syrian refugees from towns and camps in Lebanon without any legal basis. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

This Monday, April 23, 2018 photo, Ahmad Mohsin, a Syrian refugee, speaks in an interview with the Associated Press at a Syrian refugee camp in the town of Bar Elias, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. A leading international rights group and the U.N.'s refugee agency say Lebanese authorities have been evicting Syrian refugees from towns and camps in Lebanon without any legal basis. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

This Monday, April 23, 2018 photo, Syrian refugee children stand next to their family tents at a Syrian refugee camp in the town of Bar Elias, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. A leading international rights group and the U.N.'s refugee agency say Lebanese authorities have been evicting Syrian refugees from towns and camps in Lebanon without any legal basis. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

This Monday, April 23, 2018 photo, Syrian refugee children play outside their family tents at a Syrian refugee camp in the town of Bar Elias, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. A leading international rights group and the U.N.'s refugee agency say Lebanese authorities have been evicting Syrian refugees from towns and camps in Lebanon without any legal basis. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court appears divided over Texas' appeal to preserve congressional and legislative districts that a lower court struck down as racially discriminatory.

The justices heard arguments Tuesday in the latest round of court action over Texas electoral districts that began in 2011.

At issue are two congressional districts and statehouse districts in four counties.

The liberal justices seemed favorable to minority voters and civil rights groups that challenged the districts. The court's conservatives appeared to lean toward the state. Justice Anthony Kennedy said nothing to indicate where his potentially decisive vote would fall.

The justices last year kept the challenged districts in place, even after the lower court ruling. Texas held primary elections in those districts in March.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Melania Trump and Brigitte Macron bid a brief adieu to the White House on Tuesday for a visit with the works of Paul Cezanne at the National Gallery of Art.

The first ladies of the United States and France toured an exhibit of about 60 portraits by the French post-Impressionist painter.

They paused near a portrait of Cezanne's father reading a newspaper in a chair. Mary Morton, the museum's curator of French paintings, explained that the painter had a difficult relationship with his father, who was a banker and wanted his son to become a lawyer.

First lady Melania Trump, left, and Brigitte Macron, wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, pause for a photograph together as they tour the National Gallery of Art, Tuesday April 24, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

The first ladies each wore white suits and stilettos. Mrs. Trump added a wide-brimmed white hat to her ensemble.

At least in front of the cameras, Mrs. Macron did much of the chatting with the curators. Cezanne is one of France's most celebrated artists. He is known for capturing a moment in time in his works and is regarded as a major influence on other painters, such as Pablo Picasso.

"Merci," Mrs. Macron said, as she and Mrs. Trump rounded a fountain in an interior courtyard. Asked later whether she was enjoying her time in Washington, she nodded and said in English, "Thank you."

It was the second day of French President Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron's visit to Washington. Later Tuesday, the Trumps are hosting the couple at the administration's first state dinner.

Brigitte Macron, left, wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, smiles at first lady Melania Trump as they tour the National Gallery of Art, Tuesday April 24, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Maverick presidential candidate Jaime Rodriguez was greeted with derision when he said Mexico should cut the hands off officials who steal.

But in a country wracked by vigilante movements and drug-gang violence, the proposal has quickly had a grisly echo.

The candidate known as "El Bronco" made the proposal in a presidential debate this week. The sign-language translation showing the interpreter making a slashing motion was widely shared on social media in Mexico.

Independent presidential candidate Jaime Rodriguez, known as "El Bronco," arrives for the first of three debates among Mexico's presidential candidates in Mexico City, Sunday, April 22, 2018. Mexico will hold general elections on July 1. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Authorities in the southern state of Guerrero said late Monday a hacked-up body was found in the resort city of Acapulco next to hand-lettered signs, one of which referred to Rodriguez's proposal.

It read: "El Bronco said, cut the hands off the scum that steals," and was signed "yours, the Grave Diggers."
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) - Ice cream and slices of a Hannah Montana-themed birthday cake were being served at a 9-year-old girl's party outside a Fort Worth apartment when a man dressed in black got out of a car, grabbed a laser-sighted semi-automatic rifle from the trunk and opened fire.

About 20 people - more than a dozen of them children - scurried to get inside the home. Six were hit. Two of them were killed: Annette Stevenson, 48, and her 5-year-old granddaughter, Queshawn Stevenson.

A former Fort Worth street gang member, Erick Daniel Davila, 31, is scheduled to be executed Wednesday for the slayings 10 years ago.

This undated photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows Erick Davila. Attorneys for the Texas death row inmate want the U.S. Supreme Court to halt his scheduled execution this week for the shooting deaths of a 5-year-old girl and her grandmother during a birthday party 10 years ago outside a Fort Worth apartment. The former Fort Worth street gang member is set for lethal injection Wednesday, April 25, 2018. (Texas Department of Criminal Justice via AP)

He'd be the fifth inmate executed in Texas this year and ninth nationally.

Davila's attorneys asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt his lethal injection, arguing it was improper for Davila's trial judge, Sharen Wilson, now the Tarrant County district attorney, to request an execution date. They also questioned the role of a lawyer working with Wilson on capital appeals cases who previously represented Davila in an earlier appeal.

"It clearly shocks the consciences and offends the basic notion of fair play," lawyer Seth Kretzer told the justices in a filing.

The appeal also contends prosecutors withheld information that Davila was high on drugs at the time of the shootings. His attorneys argued that could have influenced jurors to decide on a lesser penalty, and they questioned whether the way Texas juries decide death sentences is constitutionally proper.

State attorneys said Wilson never represented Davila and state law and court rulings allow her office to represent the state's interests in the case. Prosecutors also argued Wilson prohibits assistants from participating in cases where they were defense lawyers and that courts have upheld the state's capital sentencing procedure.

They also said evidence showed Davila's trial attorneys were provided notes from police investigators. Katherine Hayes, an assistant Texas attorney general, told the high court that evidence did not show Davila was on drugs at the time and that the shooting "was the result of intentional deliberate action."

Defense lawyers at Davila's trial tried to show he didn't intend to kill multiple people, a criterion for the capital murder charge. They argue he only intended to kill Jerry Stevenson, whose daughter and mother were shot to death. Authorities said Jerry Stevenson belonged to a rival gang, which he denied, but whose members Davila blamed for shooting him in 2005.

Queshawn Stevenson's sister, then 11, testified she saw a man April 6, 2008, inside the dark car holding a gun with "a red dot" on it and pointed it at her family's residence. Then she saw him standing next door and shoot at the porch as screaming people "stacked up on top of each other" trying to funnel through the front door and seek safety inside.

Davila was caught the next day after a brief police chase. He told police in one of several statements he wanted to do a "shoot em up," according to court documents.

Davila previously was in prison for a 2004 burglary in Tarrant County and was released after about a year.

Known on the streets as "Truman" and wearing a "Truman Street Bloods" tattoo on his chest, Davila was accused but not tried for another fatal shooting days before the birthday party slayings. While awaiting trial for capital murder, evidence showed he attacked Tarrant County jailers and maintenance workers during an escape attempt.

Davila's mother testified he was the result of her being raped at age 13 by a friend of her alcoholic father. At the time of his trial, testimony showed Davila's father was in prison for a murder conviction.

Charges against the getaway driver, Garfield Thompson II, were dropped after he pleaded guilty in unrelated cases. He's serving 20 years in prison.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - In a story April 24 about the Waffle House shooting suspect, The Associated Press, relying on a statement from the suspect's former employer, erroneously reported that the FBI called them. Darlene Sustrich now says her crane company got the call from the Secret Service, not the FBI.

A corrected version of the story is below:

5:35 p.m.

A co-owner of a Colorado crane company says she urged federal officials to keep Travis Reinking in custody after he was arrested at the White House last July.

Reinking is now charged with killing four people at a Nashville Waffle House on Sunday.

Darlene and Ken Sustrich, co-owners of Rocky Mountain Crane Service in Salida, Colorado, said Reinking worked there for six months and struck them as smart and polite.

But Darlene Sustrich said Reinking began showing signs of paranoia in his last few days at the crane service. That's when a call came from the Secret Service, saying Reinking was refusing to leave a restricted area at the White House, demanding to speak with President Donald Trump.

She said: "We told them, 'Hang onto him if you can. Help him if you can.'"
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos may have approved Every Student Succeeds Act plans for 37 states, but two of the biggestFlorida and Californiaare still waiting for the feds blessing.

DeVos has singled out school-choice-friendly Florida as a model for the rest of the country . But the department had a number of concerns about the states initial ESSA plan. Florida resubmitted a revised version to the feds on Friday.

The Sunshine States original plan tried to stick as close as possible to the A through F grading system that Florida had in place under its No Child Left Behind Act waiver.

That meant Florida didnt want to rate schools on how well they help English-language learners achieve proficiencyan ESSA must. And the state wanted to continue to use a combined super subgroup that considers the lowest-performing 25 percent of students in a school (no matter what their race, income, or disability status) rather then look at results for English learners, students in special education, and racial minorities separately. That flew in the face of ESSAs requirement to take subgroup performance into account in identifying struggling schools.

To address these issues, the state has come up with a federal index that will be separate from its A-F school grading system. That index will take English-language proficiency into account, and will be usedin addition to the school grading systemto flag struggling schools. And Florida has also added language to its plan saying it will consider individual subgroup performance, not just overall school grades, in identifying schools for targeted support under the law.

That might meet the letter of ESSA. But its not easy to wrap your head around, said Anne Hyslop, a former Obama administration official who reviewed Floridas plan for Bellwether Education Partners and the Collaborative for Student Success.

They chose the more complicated route because they didnt want to mess with the A to F system, she said.

Whats more, ESSA requires states to identify languages other than English that are present to significant extent in the student population and to make every effort to create native language exams for new arrivals. Florida, though, has a state law that makes English the states official language. The state initially declined to name any other popular language, despite its sizable Spanish-speaking population

Floridas revised plan does define which languages are present to a significant extent under ESSA. Only one meets the proposed definition: Spanish. That means the Sunshine State may end up meeting the letter of the law. But it is unclear if Florida will actually end up creating tests in Spanish, Hyslop said. The state could say that it made every effort to offer such tests, but was hamstrung by its state law.

Its a symbolic thing. Substantively, will Florida do anything different with regard to native-language assessments? Probably not, she said.

The Sunshine State is also asking for a waiver. It wants to expand a provision of ESSA that allows states to permit 8th grade students taking Algebra 1 to take high school tests, rather than an exam at their own grade level. Florida wants to extend that flexibility to all kids who take Algebra 1 and other advanced math courses, as well as advanced science, even if they are in, say, the 6th grade.

Floridas revised plan also touted its progress on the most recent version of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the nations report card. Overall, the report, which came out earlier this month, generally showed little progress in reading and math, and persistent achievement gaps between low-income and minority students and their peers . 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.)

Meanwhile, California earlier this month submitted a revised ESSA plan that meets the federal demand to flag schools in the bottom 5 percent of performers in the state. That requirement--an ESSA must--doesnt jibe well with Californias own school rating system, which relies on a color-based dashboard that uses specific criteria to identify the lowest-performing schools and districts.

Whats more, Californias own accountability system focuses on school districts, whereas ESSA requires states to identify individual schools as low-performing. California also intervenes in districts that are performing below a certain level. The state doesnt seek to identify a particular percentage of schools as struggling. And some members of the California state members were uncomfortable with the federal approach.

Ultimately though, to meet the federal requirement, California opted to flag as low-performing those schools that were doing either very poorly or poorly on half or more of the indicators measured by the dashboard, according to David Sapp, the deputy policy director and assistant legal counsel for the California State Board of Education. That may end up capturing 6 or 8 percent of schools, he said, as opposed to just 5 percent. But it is closer in line with the states own system, Sapp said.

California also tweaked its plan to measure a school or districts improvement or decline over time in a way that was more consistent with ESSA. And the state made changes to the way 11th grade tests figure into school ratings, also at the feds behest. And the state also revamped its definition of English-language proficiency to better match the federal requirements. But California is seeking a waiver to go back to its own definition, which takes into account whether English-language learners have been reclassified as proficient in English.

Want to learn more about the Every Student Succeeds Act? Heres some useful information:

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The Latest on the appeals of two former allies of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie who were convicted in the George Washington Bridge lane-closing case (all times local):

Noon

Two former allies of former Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie convicted in the George Washington Bridge lane-closing case say their actions didn't violate federal law.

FILE - This combination of March 29, 2017, file photos shows Bridget Kelly, left, and Bill Baroni leaving federal court after sentencing in Newark, N.J. Attorneys for Kelly and Baroni are scheduled to argue in court, Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Philadelphia, to try and convince a federal appeals court their clients' convictions in the George Washington Bridge lane-closing case should be reversed. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)

Attorneys for Bill Baroni and Bridget Kelly argued in federal appeals court on Tuesday that their 2016 convictions should be thrown out because the government misapplied the law when it charged them.

They were convicted in 2016 on fraud, conspiracy and civil rights counts for causing traffic jams to punish a New Jersey mayor who wouldn't endorse Christie for re-election.

Baroni faces 24 months in prison, and Kelly faces 18 months.

Their attorneys argued Tuesday that the indictment against them was flawed because there is no recognized right to intrastate travel and because the lane realignment didn't benefit them personally.

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12:05 a.m.

Two former allies of former Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will try and convince a federal appeals court their convictions in the George Washington Bridge lane-closing case should be reversed.

Attorneys for Bill Baroni and Bridget Kelly are scheduled to argue in court on Tuesday in Philadelphia.

They were convicted in 2016 of carrying out a plot to cause massive traffic jams at the bridge connecting New Jersey and New York to punish a mayor who wouldn't endorse Christie for re-election in 2013.

The plot's architect was former Port Authority of New York and New Jersey official David Wildstein, a high school acquaintance of Christie's. He pleaded guilty and testified against Baroni and Kelly.

Christie wasn't charged, but the scandal torpedoed his presidential aspirations in the 2016 Republican primary.
BOSTON (AP) - The estranged husband of former Massachusetts Senate President Stan Rosenberg looks forward to defending himself in court after pleading not guilty Tuesday to charges that he sexually assaulted or harassed several men, according to his lawyer.

Bryon Hefner, 30, was released on personal recognizance after making his first court appearance since being indicted by a grand jury last month.

He was ordered to stay away from the alleged victims and from the Statehouse, where Rosenberg has been a lawmaker for more than 30 years and served as the Senate leader for almost three years before stepping aside in December amid the allegations against Hefner.

Bryon Hefner, the estranged husband of former Massachusetts Senate President Stan Rosenberg, leaves court after his arraignment at Suffolk Superior Court, Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Boston. Hefner made his first court appearance since being indicted on sexual assault and other charges. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Hefner answered not guilty to 10 counts of sexual assault, distributing nude photos without consent and criminal lewdness.

His lawyer, Tracy Miner, distributed a brief statement saying Hefner would defend himself in court, "where accusers cannot remain anonymous and must face cross-examination."

"Unfortunately, (Hefner) has already been pilloried in the press for political purposes, having never had a trial," wrote Miner, who referred to her client in the statement as "Mr. Hefner Rosenberg."

Rosenberg, a 68-year-old Amherst Democrat, confirmed reports earlier this year that he and Hefner had separated and that his estranged husband had entered treatment for alcohol dependence.

The Senate Ethics Committee hired an independent investigator to determine if Rosenberg - who has not been accused of wrongdoing - violated any Senate rules in connection with the allegations against Hefner. The probe is ongoing. Rosenberg has said he was not aware of the allegations against his husband until they became public, and that Hefner had no influence over the affairs of the Senate.

In court Tuesday, assistant attorney general Jennifer Snook said Hefner targeted both young and older men and that the alleged assaults occurred "in both public and private settings."

One man alleged Hefner grabbed his genitals without permission on three separate occasions in 2015 and 2016, Snook said, including one time in a car on the way to a political event.

Another man claimed Hefner took nude pictures of him in a hotel room and distributed those pictures to others, without consent in either instance, according to the prosecutor.

In announcing the indictments, Suffolk District Attorney Dan Conley said the investigation had "revealed a disturbing pattern of conduct that was not only inappropriate but criminal."

Conley, who investigated the case along with state Attorney General Maura Healey, said the fact that many of the parties in the case work in politics and government made it especially difficult for alleged victims to come forward.

A tentative March 2019 trial date was set for Hefner.

___

This version has been corrected to show arraignment was Tuesday in first sentence.

Bryon Hefner, the estranged husband of former Massachusetts Senate President Stan Rosenberg, walks into court for his arraignment at Suffolk Superior Court, Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Boston. Hefner is making his first court appearance since being indicted on sexual assault and other charges. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Bryon Hefner, the estranged husband of former Massachusetts Senate President Stan Rosenberg, walks into court for his arraignment at Suffolk Superior Court, Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Boston. Hefner is making his first court appearance since being indicted on sexual assault and other charges. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Bryon Hefner, the estranged husband of former Massachusetts Senate President Stan Rosenberg, waits for his arraignment at Suffolk Superior Court, Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Boston. Hefner is making his first court appearance since being indicted on sexual assault and other charges. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Bryon Hefner, the estranged husband of former Massachusetts Senate President Stan Rosenberg, is escorted out of court after his arraignment at Suffolk Superior Court, Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Boston. Hefner made his first court appearance since being indicted on sexual assault and other charges. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Bryon Hefner, right, the estranged husband of former Massachusetts Senate President Stan Rosenberg, leaves court after his arraignment at Suffolk Superior Court, Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Boston. Hefner made his first court appearance since being indicted on sexual assault and other charges. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
JERUSALEM (AP) - The Israeli government has acknowledged it cannot expel African migrants against their will and has canceled all pending deportation orders.

In a statement to the Supreme Court on Tuesday, the state says: "It is not possible to implement expulsions to a third country without (migrants') consent."

Some 35,000 African migrants, mostly from Sudan and Eritrea, are in Israel. The government wants most of them to leave, but has not been able to find a way to expel them lawfully.

Last month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reached a deal with the U.N. to resettle half of the migrants in Western nations and absorb the rest. But hours later, he called it off, caving in to nationalist critics who said it wasn't enough.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - An appeals court has upheld the conviction of a former Virginia police officer who was sentenced to 2 years in prison for fatally shooting an unarmed black teenager suspected of shoplifting.

The Court of Appeals of Virginia on Tuesday unanimously affirmed the voluntary manslaughter conviction of Stephen Rankin in the 2015 shooting of William Chapman II.

Prosecutors alleged that Rankin - a white police officer in Portsmouth - killed the 18-year-old Chapman "willfully, deliberately and with premeditation" outside a Walmart.

Most witnesses said Chapman had his hands up, although some said he was combative.

Rankin was fired from his job after being indicted. After he was sentenced in 2016, Rankin said he was deeply sorry and never meant to hurt anyone.
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Two film industry leaders told theater owners Tuesday that are optimistic about the movie and theatrical exhibition business despite concerns about declining attendance and competition from streaming services.

New MPPA chief Charles Rivkin and John Fithian, the president and CEO of the National Association of Theater Owners, delivered a state of the industry speech at CinemaCon, saying the strength of the movies being released will dictate box-office sales.

"Our business rises or falls on the movies in our cinemas," Fithian said.

John Fithian, president and CEO of the National Association of Theatre Owners, discusses diversity in current films at CinemaCon 2018, the official convention of the National Association of Theatre Owners, at Caesars Palace on Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Las Vegas. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

CinemaCon is an annual gathering of theater owners and exhibitors, during which they get a look upcoming films from major Hollywood studios and a preview of some of the latest and greatest in theatrical technologies and even concession options.

Rivkin, who recently took over the position at the MPAA from Christopher Dodd, said that 263 million people went to the movies at least once in North America in 2017 - more than three quarters of the North American population. He noted that while the box office was slightly down from the record in 2016, it was on par with the 2015 record. He says he believes the market will always move between record-high or near record years.

He also stressed that he would continue to fight to protect intellectual property with anti-piracy efforts. Film and television account for $16.5 billion in exports, he said, and that the industry supports 2.1 million jobs and $139 billion in wages every year.

Rivkin was previously the president and CEO of The Jim Henson Company and also served as the U.S. Ambassador to France and as Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs.

"Let's always deliver on the promise of our creative industry: high quality stories that speak to the hopes and dreams of our audience, and will continue to do so for generations to come," Rivkin said.

Fithian also applauded filmmakers and distributors for "taking significant steps to achieve more diversity and positive representation on the big screen," which he says their consumers are "demanding."

"We are optimistic that 2017 and 2018 will one day be viewed as a turning point on this front," Fithian said.

Fithian also spoke to some of the major fears of the movie business and said that younger audiences are still passionate moviegoers. According to comScore, moviegoers ages 18-44 constituted 63% of the total box office in 2017_up from 61% in 2016. Fithian said that disruption, whether it's streaming or shortened periods where films are show exclusively in theaters, will not kill the theatrical business.

He wondered if "Black Panther," ''Get Out" or "Wonder Woman" would have been cultural landmarks had they gone straight to streaming.

"I have worked with (theater owners) for 26 years. I can't begin to tell you how often reporters have asked me if the movie theater industry is dying. Every downturn in admissions is a sign of secular decline, every innovation or improvement is intended to 'save' the movie theater business," he said. "There has been a lot of hype about the next 'disruption,'" he said, listing off advancements ranging from VHS to the advent of films releasing in theaters and home services the same day. "Yet we never die but remain a strong business in the face of disruption everywhere else in the entertainment landscape."

___

Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr

Charles Rivkin, chairman and CEO of the MPAA, addresses the audience at CinemaCon 2018, the official convention of the National Association of Theatre Owners, at Caesars Palace on Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Las Vegas. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

John Fithian, president and CEO of the National Association of Theatre Owners, addresses the audience at CinemaCon 2018, the official convention of the National Association of Theatre Owners, at Caesars Palace on Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Las Vegas. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

Charles Rivkin, chairman and CEO of the MPAA, addresses the audience at CinemaCon 2018, the official convention of the National Association of Theatre Owners, at Caesars Palace on Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Las Vegas. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Three vanished film students whose case had become emblematic of Mexico's 30,000 missing people were killed after being caught unaware in the midst of a drug gang turf battle, officials say.

Prosecutors in the western state of Jalisco said late Monday the three were abducted by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel because they were filming a school project at a house used by the rival Nueva Plaza gang. The students were using the residence on the outskirts of the city of Guadalajara because it belonged to one of their aunts.

"Without knowing it, the students were in a very dangerous place which was being watched by hit men from the New Generation cartel," the prosecutor's office said. The aunt was implicated in a human trafficking case involving prostitution at massage parlors in the city of Guadalajara.

A student holds up a sign to protest the murder of three film students who have become emblematic of Mexico's missing, in Mexico City, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. Prosecutors said the three were abducted by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel because they were filming a school project at a house used by the rival Nueva Plaza gang. The students were using the residence because it belonged to one of their aunts. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

The students' fate horrified Mexico: Prosecutors said they were killed and their bodies dissolved in acid.

"Words can't describe the dimension of this madness," Oscar-winning Mexican director Guillermo del Toro wrote on Twitter. "Three students are killed and dissolved in acid. The 'why' is unthinkable, the 'how' is terrifying."

The killing appeared to be a case of mistaken identity.

Prosecutors said the New Generation cartel lookouts who were watching the house mistook the students for rival gang members and abducted them on a road after they left the house.

Prosecutors said the gang took the students to a safe house and interrogated them. The gang beat one student so badly he died, leading them to kill the other two, officials said. They then took them to another house, where prosecutors found jugs and tubs of sulfuric acid.

Traces of blood and the DNA of two of the students were found at the houses.

Two suspects have been arrested and several others are being sought. Officials close to the investigation said one of the suspects arrested is a local rapper who has some following on social media.

Investigators also found fake detectives' credentials at the houses, and prosecutors said the killers apparently posed as detectives when they pulled the students over.

One gang leader had already been arrested at the aunt's house in 2015 and police had received reports of armed men hanging out at the property in 2017.

"The effects of crime and violence against any person is bad enough, but it is worse when it is a case of young people who have a future, who are studying, who are working for Mexico," said Luis Gonzalez Perez, president of the country's National Human Rights Commission.

Condolences for the victims' families also came in from the country's film institute and candidates in the July 1 presidential elections.

Students march with a sign that says in Spanish "It's not three. It's all of us." to protest the murder of three film students who have become emblematic of Mexico's missing, in Mexico City, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. Prosecutors said the three were abducted by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel because they were filming a school project at a house used by the rival Nueva Plaza gang. The students were using the residence because it belonged to one of their aunts. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Students protest the murder of three film students who have become emblematic of Mexico's missing, in Mexico City, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. Prosecutors said the three were abducted by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel because they were filming a school project at a house used by the rival Nueva Plaza gang. The students were using the residence because it belonged to one of their aunts. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - Paleontologists from Bulgaria and Macedonia are excavating the fossilized remains of a prehistoric elephant believed to pre-date the mammoth, after its bones were discovered accidentally by a man working in a field.

Scientists at the Natural Science Museum of Macedonia and the Natural History Museum of Sofia said Tuesday they began excavating the skeleton in Dolni Disan in central Macedonia last Friday. They estimated the animal would have weighed about 10 tons and have been about 50 years old at the time of its death, roughly 8 million years ago during the Miocene epoch.

Biljana Garevska of the Natural Science Museum in Skopje said the fossil was of one of the elephant's ancestors which roamed the region at a time when it was covered by African-like savannah.

A member of a paleontologist team applies a liquid to protect a fossilized skeleton of extinct species of elephant, excavated at Dolni Disan, near Negotino, in central Macedonia, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. Paleontologists from Bulgaria and Macedonia are excavating the fossilized remains of a prehistoric elephant believed to pre-date the mammoth, after its bones were found accidentally by a man working in a field. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)

Children look at a fossilized skeleton of extinct species of elephant, excavated at Dolni Disan, near Negotino, in central Macedonia, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. Paleontologists from Bulgaria and Macedonia are excavating the fossilized remains of a prehistoric elephant believed to pre-date the mammoth, after its bones were found accidentally by a man working in a field. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)

A member of a paleontologist team looks at a fossilized skeleton of an extinct species of elephant, excavated at Dolni Disan, near Negotino, in central Macedonia, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. Paleontologists from Bulgaria and Macedonia are excavating the fossilized remains of a prehistoric elephant believed to pre-date the mammoth, after its bones were found accidentally by a man working in a field. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)

A member of a paleontologist team works on a fossilized skeleton of an extinct species of elephant, excavated at Dolni Disan, near Negotino, in central Macedonia, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. Paleontologists from Bulgaria and Macedonia are excavating the fossilized remains of a prehistoric elephant believed to pre-date the mammoth, after its bones were found accidentally by a man working in a field. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) - An ex-Tennessee school bus driver who was at the wheel in a wreck that killed six children has been sentenced to four years in prison for criminally negligent homicide.

Media reported that a Chattanooga judge sentenced Johnthony Walker on Tuesday after an emotional morning of testimony, during which Walker apologized.

Judge Don Poole ruled Walker shouldn't be sentenced to diversion because the crash involving 37 elementary school students was so horrific, but he couldn't give him a longer prison term because of his strong work history and no criminal background.

The decision divided victims' relatives at the hearing. Some said it wasn't enough time while others said they were satisfied with the punishment.

Walker was driving the children from Woodmere Elementary School when he wrecked on a winding Chattanooga road.
NEW YORK (AP) - Melania, or more specifically Melania's hat, what were you saying?

The media and the Twitterverse had a big time Tuesday with the first lady's I-spy chapeau, a wide-brim number designed by Herve Pierre that would have been perfect had the sun been out in Washington.

It was a grand topper for Mrs. Trump's bright white Michael Kors suit and some said it stole the show during the South Lawn military pageantry welcoming French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, during their first official state visit.

First lady Melania Trump waits with President Donald Trump to greet French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron during a State Arrival Ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Others on the social media sidelines were merely perplexed.

Was the hat more Joan Collins' Alexis Carrington Colby on "Dynasty" or Kerry Washington's Olivia Pope on "Scandal?" Was the grim-faced first lady in theoretical need of help as some asked on Inauguration Day?

Mrs. Trump kept her hat in place as the group moved indoors and also at the National Gallery of Art for a Cezanne break with Mrs. Macron, who wore a creamier shade of white, but no hat.

"Melania's hat for president," one tweeter declared. Others shared the sentiment.

Another chimed in: "Getting some serious Beyonce Formation vibes from Melania's hat this morning." Bey wore a version in black in the video for that hit.

Others on social media stuck to matters of etiquette, like the Twitter account of I'm Every Woman: "Melania's hat might be OK for the races, a runway or even Church, not to wear when greeting visitors when you want to express a warm welcome. You want people to see your eyes and face and not impose an obstacle to the two cheek kiss, a French greeting."

One thing was certain. Mrs. Trump was seriously committed to her hat.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a Utah Muslim leader who said he was wrongly placed on a government watch list and temporarily blocked from leaving Kenya with his family last summer.

The lengthy screening process undergone by Yussuf Abdi on flights since the trip is inconvenient but not unconstitutional, U.S. District Judge Dee Benson wrote in the decision Monday.

While the right to travel is protected by the Constitution, "the Supreme Court has not recognized a right to convenient or unimpeded travel," Benson wrote.

FILE - In this June 18, 2017, file photo, Imam Yussuf Abdi, center, is welcomed home by friends after arriving at Salt Lake City International Airport. A judge, on Monday, April 23, 2018, has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Abdi, a Utah Muslim leader whose lawyers said he was wrongly placed on a government no-fly list and temporarily blocked from leaving Kenya with his family last year. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

Lawyers for Abdi, an imam and U.S. citizen, said the screening is more than an inconvenience. They haven't decided if they'll appeal the ruling.

"As Yussuf Abdi's experience makes clear, being on a terrorist watch list can separate citizens from their families," attorney Gadeir Abbas said Tuesday.

The lawsuit helped bring Abdi home from Kenya last year, and air travel has been easier for him since the case was filed, Abbas said.

The suit was filed after Abdi went to Kenya to bring back his wife and five children, who had received visa approval to join him in the U.S.

Abdi was initially blocked from boarding the plane back to the U.S. but was eventually allowed to return two days later, after his lawyers went to court and the U.S. attorney's office in Utah intervened on his behalf.

Since then, he's taken three trips, including a religious pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, and been subjected to long security checks that indicate he's on a government list of people identified for extra scrutiny, according to court documents.

The lawsuit alleged Abdi was added to a watch list in 2014 that let him fly but required extra security measures. He asked to be removed, arguing he had no criminal record and no reason to be on the list.

Abdi has lived in Utah for six years and is the imam of Salt Lake City's Madina Masjid Islamic Center.

FILE - In this June 18, 2017, file photo, Imam Yussuf Abdi, center back to camera, is welcomed home by friends after arriving at Salt Lake City International Airport. A judge, on Monday, April 23, 2018, has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Abdi, a Utah Muslim leader whose lawyers said he was wrongly placed on a government no-fly list and temporarily blocked from leaving Kenya with his family last year. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
20KAs of Tuesday, Meek Mill is a free man, after being sentenced to two to four years for probation violations.

Philadelphia 76ers co-owner Michael Rubin announced the surprising news on Instagram Tuesday, writing, @meekmill is FREE!!! Just left visiting Meek with @kevinhart4real and I'm on the way back to pick him up as we speak! #MeekisFree #GoSixers."

Hart also co-signed Rubin's statement on Instagram that same day, writing, "Meek Mill is Frrrreeeeee....I just left from seeing him in jail with @michaelgrubin and we were just told that he is being released. Woooooooow.....Stand Up Philadelphia!!!!!"

Meek also released a written statement on Facebook, in which he thanked Rubin and his Roc Nation team, including JAY-Z.

He says, "I'd like to thank God, my family, my friends, my attorneys, my team at Roc Nation including Jay Z...my good friend Michael Rubin, my fans, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and all my public advocates for their love, support and encouragement during this difficult time."

Meek continues, "While the past five months have been a nightmare, the prayers, visits, calls, letter and rallies have helped me stay positive."

"To the Philadelphia District Attorney's office, I'm grateful for your commitment to justice -- not only for my case, but for others that have been wrongfully jailed due to police misconduct."

"Although I'm blessed to have the resources to fight this unjust situation, I understand that many people of color across the country don't have that luxury and I plan to use my platform to shine a light on those issues," he concluded.

"In the meantime, I plan to work closely with my legal team to overturn this unwarranted conviction and look forward to reuniting with my family and resuming my music career."

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If you remember being introduced to Highlights for Children magazine as a young person at your doctors or dentists office, it turns out that there was some calculation to that.

The new documentary 44 Pages charmingly tells the story of the iconic, 72-year-old magazine for children ages 6 to 12.

Highlights was founded in 1946 by two lifelong child-development experts, Gary C. Myers and Caroline C. Myers, a husband-and-wife team who were, respectively, a child psychologist and an educator. They worked for a publication called Childrens Activities for several years before deciding to start their own magazine.

The earliest issues had one of the magazines signature featuresthe Hidden Pictures puzzle. Within two years, the most famous characters arrivedGoofus and Gallant, the young boys who consistently do the wrong thing and the right thing, respectively. For some reason, the characters sported elves ears at first.

Other features followed, and door-to-door sales quickly grew the circulation. But business troubles within about four years almost led to the shutdown of the magazine. Then the Myers eldest son, also named Gary like his father, hit upon an idea that put Highlights back in the black: Sell subscriptions to doctors and dentists, where generations would be exposed to the magazine in the waiting room. (The younger Myers and two other magazine staff members tragically died in a plane crash in 1960 while on company business.)

44 Pages , a 90-minute documentary directed by Tony Shaff, has been making the film festival circuit since last year and has its national digital release on Tuesday.

The film, whose title refers to the steady length each month, focuses on the magazines quaint editorial offices in tiny Honesdale, Pa., in a pre-Civil War mansion that has served that function since the 1960s. The filmmakers are hanging around at a time when the small Highlights staff is planning the 70th anniversary issue, in June 2016.

Editor Judy Burke started at the magazine as an intern, and she says I know that my 9-year-old self would be excited that I work at Highlights.

We see Editor-in-Chief Christine French Cully meeting with the editorial staff, talking about young peoples growing interest in electronic devices and apps.

Can we think of a Goofus and Gallant that might reflect that growing trend? she asks.

Cully tells the filmmakers that children have been seeing faster physical growth in recent decades, but their social-emotional development still needs careful nurturing.

Highlights offers a publication that is devoid of almost anything that could be considered controversial or edgy. Its pages each month are full of bright, colorful articles, puzzles, poems, young peoples letters and other features.

Cully explains that Highlights is not the place to explain things such as terrorism or gun violence to children. Even frightening things, natural things like hurricanes and tornadoes, we dont talk about those in Highlights, she says.

Another says that young readers are often submitting artwork for the readers pages of dinosaurs eating each other. That, too, is deemed unsuitable for Highlights.

The magazine also steers clear of politics, though one editor says that some young readers have written in to ask when the magazines pages might reflect their same-sex parents. (In a postscript, the documentary notes that families led by same-sex parents were acknowledged in a 2017 issue of the magazine. It doesnt go into criticism the magazine received from the conservative group One Million Moms.)

Art Director Patrick Greenish Jr., who has evidently just recently come on at the time of the filming, talks about how he cleaned up the look of the magazine, with a more consistent use of fonts and colors. We also see him dealing with freelance artists, including a self-described hipster Brooklyn cartoonist.

That cartoonist, Neil Numberman, tells the filmmakers that Highlights is especially sensitive about any objects appearing too close to a subjects crotch in any drawing. Thats the funniest feedback I ever got, he says.

The Honesdale editorial offices, which local schoolchildren visit on field trips, seems to keep Highlights anchored in a wholesome environment. Editors sometimes visit nearby schools to field test certain features with the target audience.

The filmmakers also visit the more traditional corporate offices in Columbus, Ohio, of Highlights for Children Inc. , where back-office functions of the privately held company are conducted, such as circulation. (The magazine accepts no advertising.)

That office building seems pretty big for the quaint little childrens magazine being worked on every month by the earnest editors in Pennsylvania. The documentary only touches on just how big an enterprise the publisher has become, with a curriculum arm (Zaner-Bloser), a professional development publishing arm for teachers (Stenhouse Publishers), and other publishing imprints.

We meet Publisher Kent S. Johnson in the Columbus offices, who talks about the challenges a print publication faces when more children cant keep their hands off their own or their parents digital devices.

Were losing kids a little bit younger than we used to, he says in the film. Even his 12-year-old son has questioned whether there will be print magazines by the time he becomes an adult.

The documentary visits the hip San Francisco web development company that is working with Highlights on a digital app version of the magazine.

Cully, the editor in chief, tells the filmmakers that she feels a great responsibility at the helm of a magazine with such a long history and special niche. Childhood, she points out, is a short, sweet season.

44 Pages perhaps could have benefited from an outside voice to discuss the state of childrens magazine publishing or the changes wrought by digital devices. (Besides an executive with the San Francisco digital concern that is working with Highlights, the only other outside voice in the film is a librarian at Ohio State, where the magazines archives were donated some time ago and are now used widely by researchers.)

But the documentary is clearly a labor of love about an enduring, and endearing, American institution.
ATHENS, Greece (AP) - A Greek prosecutor has ordered an investigation into allegations of financial mismanagement in the local branch of UNICEF.

UNICEF said last week it was "terminating its arrangements" with its national committee in Greece "due to concerns arising out of a recent independent audit."

UNICEF said in a statement it has concluded that "the necessary reforms" in the Greek committee won't be achieved. It offered no further details.

An Athens prosecutor ordered the probe Tuesday following claims by the head of UNICEF's Greek committee that an audit of the local branch's finances revealed alleged mismanagement.

UNICEF has said it will continue its work with children in Greece through its regional office for Europe and central Asia, in collaboration with the Greek government and civil society partners.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Ongoing drought and wildfires have cattle ranchers in at least five Southwestern U.S. states scrambling for hay or pastureland, while others are selling off some of their herds.

Extreme drought conditions have contributed to wildfires in Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico, delaying the growth of or destroying grass and wheat used to feed cattle in spring.

Rancher Darrel Shepherd of Custer, Oklahoma, says finding hay in northwest Oklahoma is nearly impossible and two wildfires that burned about 545 square miles (1412 sq. kilometers) have destroyed pastures.

Cattle are herded into a sale arena at the Oklahoma National Stockyards in Oklahoma City, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. Ranchers in the Southwest are already running short on food for their cattle as range conditions have deteriorated and warm-season grasses have yet to start growing due to drought. Some ranchers are searching for available pastures and others are considering downsizing their herds. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Federal agriculture officials in New Mexico say ranchers may not have feed to maintain their herd sizes and that some are already trimming their herds, while farmers along the Rio Grande are bracing for less water to irrigate their crops

___

Associated Press writer Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque contributed to this report.

Cattle are herded into a sale arena at the Oklahoma National Stockyards in Oklahoma City, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. Ranchers in the Southwest are already running short on food for their cattle as range conditions have deteriorated and warm-season grasses have yet to start growing due to drought. Some ranchers are searching for available pastures and others are considering downsizing their herds. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
TORONTO (AP) - A look at the Alek Minassian, who has been charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder and 13 of attempted murder for driving a van into a crowded sidewalk in Toronto on Monday:

A YOUNG MAN FROM SUBURBAN TORONTO, AND A STUNNED FAMILY:

Minassian, 25, lives with his family in the Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill, on a street of sizeable, well-tended brick homes. Police say he had no criminal record before Monday.

In this courtroom sketch, Duty counsel Georgia Koulis, from left, Alek Minassian, Justice of the Peace Stephen Waisberg, and Crown prosecutor Joe Callaghan appear in court in Toronto on Tuesday, April 24, 2018. Alek Minassian, who plowed a van into a crowded Toronto sidewalk, was ordered held Tuesday on 10 counts of murder and 13 of attempted murder. (Alexandra Newbould/The Canadian Press via AP)

His father, Vahe Minassian, wept and seemed stunned as he watched as his son, showing little emotion, make a brief court appearance Tuesday and be ordered held without bail.

When his father was asked later whether he had any message for the families of the people killed and injured, he said quietly: "I'm sorry."

A "SOCIALLY AWKWARD" STUDENT :

Minassian attended Seneca College, according to his LinkedIn profile; a spokeswoman for the Toronto-area school didn't immediately respond to an inquiry about him Tuesday. Another student, Joseph Pham, told The Toronto Star that Minassian was in a computer programming class with him just last week.

Pham described Minassian as a "socially awkward" student who kept to himself: "He didn't really talk to anyone."

Before college, Minassian attended Thornlea Secondary School in Richmond Hill, graduating in 2011. The school declined to discuss him Tuesday, citing privacy laws.

A STINT IN THE MILITARY:

Minassian joined the Canadian Armed Forces last year, but his stay was brief.

The Department of National Defence says he was a member of the military from Aug. 23 to Oct. 25, but didn't complete his recruit training. He asked to be voluntarily released after 16 days, the department said.

A BITTERNESS TOWARD WOMEN?

Shortly before Monday's attack on a crowded downtown Toronto street, a chilling post appeared on Minassian's now-deleted Facebook account saluting Elliot Rodger, a community college student who killed six people and wounded 13 in shooting and stabbing attacks near the University of California, Santa Barbara, before apparently shooting himself to death in 2014.

Calling Rodger "the Supreme Gentleman," the Facebook post declared: "The Incel Rebellion has already begun! We will overthrow all the Chads and Stacys!"

The 22-year-old Rodger had used the term "incel" - for involuntarily celibate - in online posts raging at women for rejecting him romantically. Like-minded people in internet forums sometimes use "Chad" and "Stacy" as dismissive slang for men and women with more robust sex lives.

Monday's Facebook post mentions that "Private (Recruit) Minassian" is speaking, and Facebook confirmed that the post was on an account that belonged to the suspect. The social networking site took down his account after the attack, saying in a statement Tuesday, "There is absolutely no place on our platform for people who commit such horrendous acts."

Vahe Minassian, father of Alek Minassian, is surrounded by members of the media as he leaves court with a police escort in Toronto on Tuesday, April 24, 2018. Alek Minassian, who plowed a van into a crowded Toronto sidewalk Monday was ordered held Tuesday on 10 counts of murder 13 of attempted murder. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) - Daniel Rendon-Herrera, the alleged leader of a homicidal drug ring that imported tons of cocaine from Colombia into the U.S., was charged with leading a continuing criminal enterprise, authorities said.

Colombia's most wanted drug lord, also known as "Don Mario," pleaded not guilty in Brooklyn federal court Tuesday after being captured in a jungle raid nine years ago and extradited to the U.S. on April 23.

"Don Mario is one of the most significant drug traffickers of our time, recognized for moving multi-ton shipments of cocaine to the United States at a moment's notice," said New York Police Commissioner James O'Neill.

This undated photo provided by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) shows Daniel Rendon-Herrera, an alleged drug-ring leader also known as "Don Mario," who was extradited from Colombia to the United States on April 23, 2018. He pleaded not guilty in Brooklyn on Tuesday April 24 to leading a continuing criminal enterprise. (US Drug Enforcement Administration via AP)

Rendon-Herrera's attorney said she's "looking forward to representing him."

"We are looking at disposing of the cases in one way or another," Johanna Zapp said, adding that her client also was charged in the Southern District.

Rendon-Herrera's organization sent U.S.-bound shipments of cocaine from Colombia through Central America between about June 2003 and December 2014 and employed hit men who carried out acts of violence across North and South America, authorities said.

"Don Mario was the most feared narco-terrorist in Colombia," Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge James Hunt said in a statement.

Colombia's far-right militias, known as the United Self-Defense forces of Colombia, initially formed in the 1980s to counter kidnapping and extortion by rebels but evolved into regional mafias that committed more than 10,000 murders.

The militias built lucrative cocaine trafficking operations and stole millions of acres of land, often in collusion with local political, business and military leaders, prosecutors said.

Rendon-Herrera and his brother controlled an area of river-laced jungle near the Panama border that has long been a major corridor for drug and arms traffickers.

The brothers were among the last paramilitary leaders to demobilize under a 2003 peace deal that promised fighters reduced sentences and protection from extradition to the United States if they confessed to all their crimes.

While his brother and other paramilitaries agreed to await justice in jail, Rendon-Herrera fled back to the jungle and rearmed, according to police.
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - A Maine high school student who fled his native Zambia says the experience of participating in a national spoken poetry competition was "heaven" even though he didn't advance.

Deering High School junior Allan Monga had to go to court to become one of 53 participants Tuesday in the national Poetry Out Loud competition in Washington, D.C.

U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, who championed his cause, said the asylum seeker learned about "persisting through challenges to chase your dreams."

In this April 12, 2018 photo, Allan Monga, 19, a high school student who fled his native Zambia, recites a poem during a news conference in Portland, Maine. A judge on Friday, April 20, 2018, ruled that Monga can compete in a government-funded national poetry contest. Judge John Woodcock overturned the National Endowment for the Arts' rejection on the grounds that the student doesn't meet U.S. citizenship rules. (Troy R. Bennett/The Bangor Daily News via AP)

A federal judge allowed the 19-year-old Monga to participate in the competition hosted by the National Endowment for the Arts. The NEA originally prohibited Monga from competing because he hasn't been granted legal asylum.

Monga told the Portland Press Herald that, "Just being here and experiencing this was like heaven."
You hear it whenever someone gets sick or dies soon after losing a spouse: Was it because of a broken heart?

Stress might not be to blame for former President George H.W. Bush's hospitalization a day after his wife's funeral, but it does the body no favors, and one partner's health clearly affects the other's.

A sudden shock can trigger a heart attack or something like it called broken heart syndrome. Some studies also have found that people are more likely to die soon after losing a longtime spouse.

But often the timing is mere coincidence, and 'broken heart' speculation just fuels a neat narrative when the problem is unsurprising in an older person with underlying health issues.

President George H.W. Bush was hospitalized with a blood infection last night, days after the funeral of his wife of 73 years Barbara Bush (pictured together at an awards ceremony in 2017)

In any case, the death of a loved one is a dangerous time for the surviving spouse, said Dr. Nieca Goldberg, a cardiologist at NYU Langone Medical Center and an American Heart Association spokeswoman.

'It's really important to have a lot of other support around you,' she said.

'When people are depressed after something like this happens, they may not be eating, they may ignore symptoms and want to be stoic. They're certainly stressing and may not be getting enough rest. All of these things can set the stage for life-threatening conditions.'

Bush, who will turn 94 in June, has been hospitalized since Sunday with sepsis, an infection that spread to his bloodstream, probably from bacteria. It's a serious condition at any age, but he is said to be responding to treatments and recovering.

Stress weakens the immune system and can make infections harder to fend off, said several doctors not involved in his care. But Bush needs a wheelchair because of a form of Parkinson's disease and has been hospitalized before for pneumonia and other infections.

It's possible he ignored early signs of infection during the flurry of preparations for Barbara Bush's funeral, said James Giordano, a Georgetown University neurologist and expert on stress's effects on the body.

'It could be something as simple as that; inattention led to an escalation of signs and symptoms,' he said. 'He's old, there's no good way to put it,' so medical problems and risks are magnified by stress.

Stress has three stages, Giordano said: alarm, when the body releases 'fight or flight' chemicals that can do damage; a resistance stage, like 'calling out all the troops' to deal with the stress; and then fatigue or a letdown stage, when some of the body's defenses may crash from the strain.

Even if a partner's death is anticipated - as Barbara Bush's was after she decided to focus on comfort care - 'facing and going through the reality of the event' is stressful, he said.

Stress and a broken heart sometimes may get too much blame, though, when people are grieving.

Country music star Johnny Cash died four months after his wife, June Carter Cash, did in 2003. She was 73 and died of complications following heart valve surgery. He was 71 when he died of problems related to diabetes and had a neurological disease for years before that.

'Broken heart' was widely speculated when Debbie Reynolds died a day after her actress-daughter, Carrie Fisher, did in 2016.

An autopsy later showed that Reynolds, 84, died of a blood vessel that ruptured and caused bleeding in her brain - a kind of stroke. She also had high blood pressure and other serious medical problems for several years before that.
Thousands of Armenian-Americans took to the streets of Los Angeles on Tuesday to commemorate the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians under the Ottoman Empire a century ago.

The demonstrations came hours after Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan resigned following 10 days of large anti-government protests in that country.

Marchers in Los Angeles demanded that the 1.5million deaths starting in 1915 be recognized by Turkey as genocide.

Although Armenians and many historians consider it to be genocide, Turkey - successor of the Ottoman Empire - contends those who died were victims of civil war and unrest.

Los Angeles demonstrators waved Armenian and American flags and carried signs that read '1915 never again' and 'Turkish denial must end.'

Thousands attend a march in Hollywood, Calif., on Tuesday, April 24, 2018, to commemorate the 103rd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide

The demonstrations came hours after Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan resigned following 10 days of large anti-government protests in that country

The demonstrators waved the Armenian and American flags and carried signs

Demonstrators protest outside the Turkish Consulate during a march and rally commemorating the 103rd anniversary of the Armenian genocide

People attend a ceremony marking the 103rd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide

Mayor Eric Garcetti is speaking at the BANC of CALIFORNIA Stadium ribbon ceremony, the new home of the LA Football Club in Expo Park in Los Angeles on April 18, 2018

Marie Keshishian, an 18-year-old student at Glendale College, said all four of her great-great grandparents were killed in the genocide and that she was marching in their honor.

'I'm out here today to march for justice, to march for recognition, to march for the people - my ancestors, my great-great grandparents who lost their lives ... to hopefully get more people to recognize and accept that there was a genocide,' Keshishian said.

Andrew Antaramian, a 32-year-old Pasadena attorney, said he joins in the marches every year to honor his ancestors, who fled Armenia and escaped death.

'It's important to always commemorate what our ancestors have gone through because if this is not going to occur again, we have to remind the world what our people went through,' he said.

Armenian Genocide: Hanging on tripods. Systematic killing of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I, 1915 - 1923. Also known as Armenian Holocaust

Armenian Orphans are being deported in 1915, at time of Armenian Genocide

Henry Morgenthau included this photograph in his 1918 book Ambassador Morgenthau's Story with the following caption: 'Scenes like this were common all over the Armenian provinces in the spring and summer months of 1915'

Mayor Eric Garcetti marched alongside demonstrators, saying in a speech that the genocide was 'a human tragedy.'

'To be a part of the human family we must accept our tragedies,' Garcetti said. 'And all of us will say, 'Never again.''

City Attorney Mike Feuer told demonstrators that 'today here in Los Angeles, we are all Armenians.'

'Look around,' he said as the crowd cheered. 'You are the answer to Hitler.'

Kim Kardashian West, one of the most famous Armenian-Americans in the U.S., tweeted an old photo of herself in Armenia and praised global demonstrations calling for the genocide to be recognized.

'It's so inspiring to see all Armenians united in peaceful protests making a difference,' she said. 'It's a historic day for Armenia.'

Armenian-Americans march in protest through the Little Armenia neighborhood of Hollywood, California on April 24, 2018

Thousands attend a march in Hollywood, Calif., on Tuesday, April 24, 2018, to commemorate the 103rd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide
TRUMANN, Ark. (AP) - Police assembled outside a northeast Arkansas Walmart where a man was later killed after an employee texted her mother saying she expected problems with her ex-husband, who she assumed would be armed.

Trumann Police Chief Chad Henson told the Jonesboro Sun that officers saw Faith Morgan, 21, leaving the store in Trumann Sunday evening with her ex-husband, Gabriel Urrabazo, who had a gun.

Henson said Urrabazo, 22, stepped behind Morgan and held a gun to her head while he negotiated with police.

"They tried and tried to get him to drop the weapon, and they noticed another male coming into the scene," Henson said.

Police said Urrabazo killed Robert Highfill, 35, who tried to save Morgan.

"From the video I have seen, Mr. Highfill tried to bear hug the suspect," Henson said. "The suspect could see him coming as well."

Henson said officers tried to stop Highfill from getting involved, but that "he was committed." He cautioned anyone else from doing the same.

"I fully believe his actions did save Faith and he should be commended. I don't know if (Urrabazo) would have let her go without him doing what he did," Henson said. "But my advice is to never get involved."

Urrabazo surrendered after an hourlong standoff with police. He faces a preliminary charge of first-degree murder, said Henson.

"Just a terrible situation that is unusual for Trumann and we wish this didn't happen," Hansen said.

Trumann is a small town about 120 miles (195 kilometers) northeast of Little Rock.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - Several unions in Puerto Rico and other groups on Tuesday sued the federal control board overseeing the U.S. territory's finances and demanded that it be declared unconstitutional.

The filing came just days after the board approved seven different fiscal plans that will serve as economic blueprints for Puerto Rico's government and public agencies in upcoming years. The plans contain new austerity measures the island's government has refused to implement, including a 10 percent cut to a public pensions system facing nearly $50 billion in liabilities.

The lawsuit filed in federal court also names the U.S. government and Puerto Rico's governor as defendants. It asks that the fiscal plans approved last week be suspended along with debt renegotiations until the island's public debt is audited.

"That level of debt is incomprehensible," attorney Rene Pinto Lugo, who is also a bondholder, told reporters. "How are we going to lead and rebuild (Puerto Rico) if we don't even know what happened with the $70 billion? The first step is to determine what happened."

He noted that Puerto Rico's government has not published audited financial statements since fiscal year 2014.

In addition, the lawsuit seeks to have the control board and local government temporarily barred from selling the island's power company as announced earlier this year. The suit also contends that two of the board's seven members should be removed because of an alleged conflict of interest.

Board spokesman Jose Luis Cedeno declined comment.

The board was created by Congress nearly two years ago in part to oversee the restructuring of a portion of Puerto Rico's public debt as part of a bankruptcy-like process. Puerto Rico is mired in an 11-year recession and is struggling to recover from Hurricane Maria, which hit as a Category 4 storm on Sept. 20 and caused more than an estimated $100 billion in damage.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Rapper Meek Mill walked out of prison Tuesday after Pennsylvania's highest court ordered him freed while he appeals decade-old gun and drug convictions.

Following a five-month campaign by his supporters to get him out, the state Supreme Court directed a Philadelphia judge who had jailed him to immediately issue an order releasing him on unsecured bail.

Mill was sentenced in November to two to four years in prison for probation violations.

Rapper Meek Mill, right, leaves the State Correctional Institution in Chester, Pa., Tuesday, April 24, 2018. The rapper walked out of prison Tuesday after Pennsylvania's highest court ordered him freed while he appeals decade-old gun and drug convictions. Following a five-month campaign by his supporters to get him out, the state Supreme Court directed a Philadelphia judge who had jailed him to immediately issue an order releasing him on unsecured bail. (David Swanson /The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)

He was taken from the prison by helicopter to Philadelphia, where he rang the ceremonial bell at the start of Game 5 of the Philadelphia 76ers-Miami Heat playoff series.

"Welcome home Meek Mill," said the game announcer to the rapper, who was sitting courtside next to actor Kevin Hart and Sixers co-owner Michael Rubin.

Before the game, Mill visited privately with the Sixers in their locker room.

A team of lawyers and public relations consultants had waged an all-out battle to get him freed, leveling fierce criticism at the judge as a stream of high-powered figures and celebrities visited him in jail outside Philadelphia just hours before the Supreme Court ruling.

Mill issued a statement saying the past months had been "a nightmare," and thanked his many supporters and visitors, who included Rubin, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, and Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney.

"Although I'm blessed to have the resources to fight this unjust situation, I understand that many people of color across the country don't have that luxury and I plan to use my platform to shine a light on those issues," Mill said.

He said he would now focus his attention on getting his convictions overturned, and that he looks forward to resuming his music career.

Earlier this month, in a major victory for Mill, prosecutors said they agreed with his lawyers that he should get a new trial because of questions raised about the arresting officer. The now-retired officer was among a list of police officers the prosecutor's office has sought to keep off the witness stand in cases across the city because of credibility questions.

A spokesman for District Attorney Larry Krasner said late Tuesday that the Supreme Court's decision on Meek Mill's release was consistent with the position taken by their office.

Mill's attorney, Joe Tacopina, thanked the high court.

"Meek was unjustly convicted and should not have spent a single day in jail," Tacopina said.

In an opinion earlier this month, Judge Genece Brinkley, who sent Mill to prison for the probation violations, strongly defended herself against accusations by the defense she was waging a vendetta against the rapper. She said the court "has impartially and without prejudice presided over numerous proceedings in this matter since 2008."

The Supreme Court denied a defense request to move the case to another judge, but said the presiding judge could opt to remove herself.

___

This story has been corrected to say Mill rang the ceremonial bell at the start of Game 5 of the Philadelphia 76ers-Miami Heat playoff series, not the start of the playoff series.

Rapper Meek Mill, center, prepares to board a helicopter after being released from the State Correctional Institution in Chester, Pa., Tuesday, April 24, 2018. The rapper walked out of prison Tuesday after Pennsylvania's highest court ordered him freed while he appeals decade-old gun and drug convictions. Following a five-month campaign by his supporters to get him out, the state Supreme Court directed a Philadelphia judge who had jailed him to immediately issue an order releasing him on unsecured bail.(David Swanson /The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)

CORRECTS TO MEEK MILL NOT MEEK MILLS Rapper Meek Mill comes out to ring a Liberty Bell replica before the first half in Game 5 of a first-round NBA basketball playoff series between the Miami Heat and the Philadelphia 76ers, Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)

CORRECTS TO MEEK MILL NOT MEEK MILLS Rapper Meek Mill, left, comes out to ring a Liberty Bell replica with actor Kevin Hart, right, before the first half in Game 5 of a first-round NBA basketball playoff series between the Miami Heat and the Philadelphia 76ers, Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)

Rapper Meek Mills comes out to ring a Liberty Bell replica before the first half in Game 5 of a first-round NBA basketball playoff series between the Miami Heat and the Philadelphia 76ers, Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)
Editors Note: Today, Dr. Jennifer Williams, co-founder of TeachSDGs , education strategist, and professor of education, examines ways educators can take action on the global goals through Sustainable Development Goal 17 (SDG17): Partnerships for the Goals. Join her on Twitter for #Globaledchat this Thursday, April 26 at 8pm US Eastern time, to more deeply discuss SDG17 and how to achieve it.

Your efforts to work collaboratively as educators are a good start. Though if we are going to reach these global goals, we must find ways to move beyond working in collaboration alone and instead join together in solidarity. These powerful words spoken by then-United Nations Ambassador of Grenada, Ambassador Dessima Williams, have stayed with me for well over a year. Said with hands together, fingers interlaced and firmly locked, I believe this word solidarity continues to echo for all of us that were in that meeting that day.

Standing outside on the steps that had earlier led us into the United Nations building, with flags of the world now moving in unison as the cold New York City January wind blew past, and after tasked in our meeting by Ambassador Williams and a team of UN delegates to find ways to use education to help realize the Sustainable Development Goals, I remember looking at my colleaguesfellow teachers who also knew we needed to do something, anything, we just were not sure whatand, saying Well, how about we start with a hashtag? And, at that moment, #TeachSDGs began.

Charged with advancing the work of the UN in relation to education through advocacy and outreach, we quickly recognized that our group of four educators all from North America, though steadfast and determined, was far from representative of a world that knew many definitions of teacher, school, and system. To meet a universal call to action that ensured no one would be left behind, we needed more voices. So, with no more than a hashtag and a little determination, we set out to find others who were ready to mobilize and get to work in our grassroots efforts to help reach these 17 goals that hold a promise of transforming our world.

Sustainable Development Goal 17: Partnership for the Goals, though last in line numerically in a sequence of goals that we as a world are committed to reaching by the year 2030, is one that is viewed by many as a connector goal binding the 16 before it. SDG17 , represented in dark navy blue with five white circles that overlap and converge at many points, prioritizes coordination, cooperation, and global partnership. Though many outside of education are quick to associate only SDG4: Quality Education with teachers, educators today are faced with the need to engage with all the goals as our classrooms of students know poverty and hunger, inequality and injustice. As teachers, we take action for the climate and for clean water, and we seek well-being and peace for our students and for all citizens of our world. We, by design as a profession, are focused on all the goals. As I see it, Global Goal 17, much like the job of a teacher that looks out for all students in a classroom, is the essential caretaker.

Connecting Points: Strengthening Worldwide Partnerships



Sustainable Development Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals



Target 17.9: Enhance SDGs capacity in developing countries. Target 17.17: Encourage effective partnerships.



The complexity of the global goals requires sound infrastructure and unified vision. Inspired by SDG17, we as the cofounders of #TeachSDGs developed a plan to prioritize process and coherence in our efforts to bring global educators together in conversation and cooperation to transform the world. Too, as we believed it was critical to be aware of our privilege and perspective, we worked to move beyond our networks and empower the voices of others. Four soon grew to 17, which then, through a process of pledge-taking, expanded to over 1,200 global educators. Lines on a symbolic map that connected #TeachSDGs would now cross oceans, continents, and borders and pass through beautiful lands with names such as Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Costa Rica, Romania, Abu Dhabi, Bangkok, Paris, Akungba Akoko, Ghana, Iran, San Diego, Islamabad, Sri Lanka, Buenos Aires, Brussels, and many, many, many other world locations.

Distributed Leadership: Removing Hierarchy to Prioritize Solidarity



Sustainable Development Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals



Target 17.5: Invest in least developed countries.



Target 17.14: Enhance policy coherence for sustainable development.



Target 17.16: Enhance the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development.

Sustainable Development Goal 17 calls on us to strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnerships for sustainable development. For us, when formulating our efforts and our processes, we could not envision that a system built on a hierarchy of power could effectively allow for transmission of ideas or sharing of knowledge and expertise. Just as the global goals belong to each and every citizen of the world, we believed that #TeachSDGs belonged to all educators. For facilitation of any type of progress, the approach needed to be integrated, equitable, and accessible. To flatten leadership, we knew we wanted to move to a model of leadership by committee, and we were set to keep #TeachSDGs a movement that was for and always by teachers.

Onward: Seeking Out New Ways of Communicating & Innovating



Sustainable Development Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals



Target 17.6: Knowledge sharing and cooperation for access to science, technology, and innovation. Target 17.18: Enhance availability of reliable data.



Today, we are organized by committee with a focus on responding to the call to action to meet the Sustainable Development Goals through (1) global projects, (2) resources and publications, (3) world events, (4) advocacy and outreach, (5) communications, and (6) partnership. With 104 ambassadors leading the way, we recognize that for our world to succeed in hitting the targets by 2030, we must have sufficient means to access and implement the goals. The goals invite and encourage us to reconsider the ways we communicate and share information. For us, use of collaborative forms of technology has been the accelerator to scale out messages, ideas, and announcements. We have engaged in technologies with free tools such as Twitter, Skype , Voxer , WhatsApp , Empatico , and Flipgrid . Weve brought global educators together in Twitter chats , in global games with Kahoot!, and in global student learning experiences with Worlds Largest Lesson . Technologies connect us and allow us to make data-driven decisions based on people-centered strategies.

Each day, educators take the pledge to teach the SDGs at www.teachSDGs.org , and we are working to provide the needed resources to our ambassadors and others that aim to get the message out to those that may not have access to technology or reliable information. Bit by bit, it is through partnership and in solidarity that we move forward. We invite you to join us as a partner in the movement to #TeachSDGs by trying one or more of these ideas framed according to direction provided by Sustainable Development Goal 17:



Be supportive: Find a cause that is aligned to both the SDGs and your own work. Contribute time or public support of NGOs or B Corps and tag in #TeachSDGs on social media.



Be empathetic: Consider ways to keep people and the planet at the center of all that you do. Invest in relationships and invite people that are representative of diverse perspectives or experiences to conversations and projects.



Be inventive: Use available resources to obtain new knowledge, curate and share ideas, and amplify messages of social good and sustainability. Check out SDGs courses and resource collections in the Teach the Global Goals Participate Portal and add your response to this Flipgrid prompt as shared by Sir Ken Robinson.



Be passionate: Take action and stay informed. Follow @TeachSDGs on Twitter and get updates on all things global goals with the SDGs in Action app .



Be cooperative: Print out the global goals poster (available in the six official languages of the UN: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish) and share them with local community members. Find small ways to join forces and partner with others to take steps to reaching these ambitious goals as part of a united and cooperative world. Following in words shared with us by Ambassador Dessima Williams, Let us not waste the opportunity. Take hold and jump in!

You can connect with Jennifer , #TeachSDGs , Heather , and the Center for Global Education on Twitter.

UN SDG #17 image used with permission of the UN Department of Public Information .

Quote image created on Pablo .

Photo taken by and used with permission of Amy Rosenstein, TeachSDGs Co-Founder & Classroom Teacher, NY.
TRENTON, Fla. (AP) - Two Florida sheriff's deputies who were gunned down at a Chinese restaurant last week have been laid to rest.

Alachua County Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Brett Rhodenizer says funeral services concluded Tuesday afternoon for Gilchrist County Sheriff's Sgt. Noel Ramirez and Deputy Taylor Lindsey at Bronson Cemetery.

A viewing had been held earlier at Bell Middle/High School in Trenton. A final call for both deputies by their badge numbers was broadcast over the dispatch radio channel.

Authorities say 58-year-old John Hubert Highnote shot Ramirez and Lindsey on Thursday at the Ace China restaurant in Trenton. He then went to his car and killed himself.

Sheriff Bobby Schultz blamed the deaths on hatred toward law enforcement. State Attorney Bill Cervone added "we may never have an answer."

Trenton is in northern Florida, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) west of Gainesville.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Suspects in the 1999 shooting deaths of an Oklahoma couple and the abduction of their 16-year-old daughter and her friend "bragged" about photographing the girls while they were bound, according to a court affidavit that outlines accusations against the only suspect who's still alive.

The affidavit cites an interview with an unnamed witness who said Ronnie Dean Busick "started running his mouth" about his involvement in the slayings and kidnappings, and that the girls "were kept alive for several days" while tied up, raped and tortured in a mobile home in northeastern Oklahoma.

Busick, 66, was charged Monday with four counts of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping and one count of first-degree arson in the killing of Danny and Kathy Freeman of Craig County, and the disappearance of teenagers Lauria Bible and Ashley Freeman.

Jay and Lorene Bible, parents of Laurie Bible, speak at the press conference announcing the arrest has been made in the 1999 case. Authorities in Oklahoma say 66-year-old Ronnie Dean Busick has been charged with the 1999 deaths of a couple and the abduction of two teenage girls who remain missing. (Gary Crow/Tulsa World via AP)

Busick, who is currently jailed without bond in Kansas' Harvey County, was interviewed by investigators at least three times last year but denies having any direct knowledge about the case and claims he does not know where the girls are.

Busick was scheduled to be released Sunday after serving a 60-day sentence for violating probation in a 2013 felony marijuana possession case, said Jason Lane, the county's chief deputy attorney.

Instead, law enforcement from Oklahoma arrived Sunday to interview Busick and served a warrant, said Melissa Flavin, a spokeswoman for the Harvey County Sheriff's Office.

William Brown, Busick's attorney in the probation violation case, did not immediately return a phone message from seeking comment. Lane said Busick doesn't have an attorney in the Oklahoma case.

Authorities said the Freemans were shot to death on Dec. 30, 1999, in their mobile home in Welch, Oklahoma, about 70 miles (112.65 kilometers) northeast of Tulsa. The home was then set on fire to cover up the slayings. Two other suspects, identified by authorities as Warren Philip Welch II and David A. Pennington, died while the case was under investigation, authorities said.

Witnesses interviewed by investigators said Busick told them the girls were duct-taped to chairs and that a "bunch" of photographs were taken of them. Other witnesses recalled seeing photos of the girls "lying on a bed, facing each other, with their hands tied and their mouths gagged," the affidavit said.

Authorities believe the teenagers were eventually killed and might be buried in a pit near Picher, Oklahoma, a former mining boomtown that has largely been deserted because of pollution.

Lauria Bible's mother, Lorene Bible, said she believes "somebody knows where these girls are."

"We're not finished. I will not stop until we bring the girls home," Lorene Bible said. "I need a place where I can go and say that's where my daughter is."

The affidavit said Busick and the other suspects were linked to the case last year after authorities recovered a crate containing reports and files about the original investigator from the office of a former sheriff. Some documents were recovered from a private investigator who had also worked on the case, but investigative materials produced by a different private investigator were destroyed, the affidavit said.

Busick had multiple Kansas drug convictions, and he was imprisoned off-and-on in the state starting in the 1980s, Kansas Department of Corrections records show.

___

AP writer Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Kansas contributed to this report.

In this photo provided by the Harvey County Kansas Sheriff's Office, Ronnie Busick is pictured in a booking photo in Newton, Kansas. Craig County, Oklahoma District Attorney Matt Ballard has said Busick is charged with four counts of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping and one count of first-degree arson in the 1999 deaths of a couple in Welch, Okla., and the abduction of two teenage girls who remain missing. (Harvey County Kansas Sheriff's Office via AP)

Craig County Sheriff Heath Winfrey speaks at the press conference about the Bible Freeman case in Vinita, Okla. Authorities in Oklahoma say 66-year-old Ronnie Dean Busick has been charged with the 1999 deaths of a couple and the abduction of Lauria Bible and Ashley Freeman, who remain missing. (Gary Crow/Tulsa World via AP)

Jay Bible, right, gets a hug Monday, April 23, 2018 at the press conference announcing an arrest has been made in the 1999 case. Authorities in Oklahoma say 66-year-old Ronnie Dean Busick has been charged with the 1999 deaths of a couple and the abduction of Lauria Bible and Ashley Freeman, who remain missing. (Gary Crow/Tulsa World via AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate on Tuesday confirmed President Donald Trump's pick to lead the National Security Agency and the U.S. Cyber Command.

On a voice vote, the Senate approved Paul Nakasone for one of the nation's top intelligence posts. They also approved his military promotion to general.

Nakasone, a longtime member of the cryptologic community, has a strong background in cyber issues. He is replacing the current director, Mike Rogers, who is retiring.

During his confirmation hearing, Nakasone said China, Russia and other nations that launch cyberattacks against the United States aren't worried about retribution and see no reason to change their behavior.

"They don't fear us," he said at the hearing, adding that the U.S. must impose costs on those adversaries to make them stop.

Nakasone previously commanded the U.S. Army Cyber Command and held military intelligence positions in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Republic of Korea.
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) - The Latest on Bill Cosby's sexual assault retrial (all times local):

5:30 p.m.

A prosecutor is attacking Bill Cosby's star defense witness.

Bill Cosby, left, arrives with his wife, Camille, for his sexual assault retrial, Tuesday, April 24, 2018, at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Prosecutor Stewart Ryan said in his closing argument Tuesday that Marguerite Jackson's testimony was "fictional."

Jackson is a Temple University academic adviser who testified that Cosby's chief accuser, Andrea Constand, once spoke of falsely accusing a high-profile person of sexual assault so she could file a lawsuit.

Ryan called it a "fictional conversation."

He also rejected the defense explanation that Cosby paid nearly $3.4 million to settle Constand's civil lawsuit in 2006 because it was a nuisance and he feared bad publicity.

Cosby is charged with drugging and assaulting Constand at his home outside Philadelphia. He says their sexual encounter was consensual. His lawyers say Constand framed him so she could file suit.

The Associated Press doesn't typically identify people who say they're victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission. Constand has done so.

___

3:30 p.m.

A prosecutor at Bill Cosby's sexual assault retrial says he used his good-guy image as America's Dad to gain unsuspecting women's trust before knocking them out with powerful drugs and violating them.

Prosecutor Kristen Feden delivered closing arguments Tuesday, saying Cosby is "nothing like the image that he played on TV."

She says Cosby led a secret life that ran counter to the wholesome image he projected as Dr. Cliff Huxtable on his top-rated 1980s sitcom.

Cosby is charged with drugging and sexually assaulting a woman at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. He says the encounter was consensual. His lawyers have called his chief accuser a con artist who falsely accused Cosby in hopes of a big payday.

Feden says Cosby is the true con artist.

The jury is expected to begin deliberating later Tuesday.

The Associated Press doesn't typically identify people who say they're victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission. Constand has done so.

___

12:10 p.m.

Bill Cosby's lawyers are urging a jury to acquit the 80-year-old comedian of sexual assault charges they say are based on "flimsy, silly, ridiculous evidence."

The defense at Cosby's retrial gave its closing argument Tuesday. His lawyers slammed chief accuser Andrea Constand as a "pathological liar." They highlighted more than a dozen inconsistencies in what Constand has said over the years about her relationship with Cosby and her allegations that he drugged and molested her at his suburban Philadelphia home.

Cosby's wife of 54 years was in the courtroom for his lawyers' arguments.

Prosecutors will deliver their closing argument next. The jury is expected to get the case later Tuesday.

Cosby says his encounter with Constand was consensual. A jury deadlocked on the charges last year, setting the stage for a retrial.

The Associated Press doesn't typically identify people who say they're victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission. Constand has done so.

___

9:50 a.m.

Bill Cosby's spokesman says the comedian's wife will be in the courtroom for the defense closing argument.

Cosby arrived for the 12th day of his sexual assault retrial Tuesday morning accompanied for the first time by Camille, his wife of 54 years.

Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt says he didn't want Camille and other family members there for the rest of the trial.

Wyatt says she's in court to support defense lawyers Tom Mesereau and Kathleen Bliss as they deliver their closing argument, just as she was there to support her husband's lawyer during closing arguments at last year's trial. That jury deadlocked on the charges.

Cosby is charged with drugging and molesting a woman in 2004. He says it was consensual.

___

8:45 a.m.

Bill Cosby has arrived for the 12th day of his sexual assault retrial, accompanied for the first time by his wife of 54 years.

The 80-year-old and his wife, Camille, didn't talk to reporters as they entered the suburban Philadelphia courthouse, where closing arguments and deliberations are expected Tuesday.

The comedian is charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault.

The charges stem from Andrea Constand's allegations that he drugged and molested her at his suburban Philadelphia mansion in January 2004.

Cosby's lawyers devoted part of their case to travel records they say prove he couldn't have been there when she says the alleged assault happened.

They argue that any encounter there with Constand would have happened earlier, outside the statute of limitations.

The Associated Press doesn't typically identify people who say they're victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, which Constand has done.

___

12:10 a.m.

Bill Cosby's sexual assault retrial will soon be in the hands of a jury.

Closing arguments and deliberations are set for Tuesday. The defense rested Monday after Cosby said he wouldn't testify.

The comedian is charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault.

The charges stem from Andrea Constand's allegations that he drugged and molested her at his suburban Philadelphia mansion in January 2004.

Cosby's lawyers devoted part of their case to travel records they say prove he couldn't have been there when she says the alleged assault happened.

They argue that any encounter there with Constand would have happened earlier, outside the statute of limitations.

The Associated Press doesn't typically identify people who say they're victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, which Constand has done.

Bill Cosby, center, arrives with his wife, Camille, right, for his sexual assault trial, Tuesday, April 24, 2018, at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Bill Cosby arrives with his wife, Camille, right, for his sexual assault trial, Tuesday, April 24, 2018, at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Bill Cosby, center, arrives with his wife, Camille, right, for his sexual assault trial, Tuesday, April 24, 2018, at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
WASHINGTON (AP) - So much for an abrupt U.S. pullout from Syria.

One month ago President Donald Trump surprised many, including some in his own administration, by announcing, "We'll be coming out of Syria, like, very soon. Let the other people take care of it now." He insisted that the time had come for the U.S. military to shift its focus away from Syria.

But on Tuesday, it was clear that something or someone had changed Trump's mind.

President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The president said at a White House news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron at his side that before the U.S. withdraws from Syria, "we want to leave a strong and lasting footprint." This long-term approach, he added, was "a very big part" of his conversation with Macron, who told reporters that he and Trump now agree that the Syria problem involves more than Trump's priority of ridding the country of Islamic State extremists.

The two leaders indicated that they see Syria as part of a broader problem of instability in the Middle East, which includes Iran's role in Syria and Iraq.

That kind of strategic thinking bears little resemblance to Trump's words in late March when he said it was time to leave Syria to others.

"We got to get back to our country, where we belong, where we want to be," he said March 29. His comments raised questions about U.S. intentions, including its commitment to the Syrian Kurds who have been the main U.S. proxy in fighting IS in Syria and who face an uncertain future.

Since then, Trump has taken a markedly different course, including bombing three suspected chemical weapons sites in western Syria on April 13. In announcing that action, Trump said he was committed, along with France and Britain, to using "all instruments of our national power - military, economic and diplomatic" - to deter Syria from again using chemical weapons. And he said the U.S. would "sustain" this effort for as long as it takes.

Two days later, Macron said France had persuaded Trump to stay in Syria and launch the airstrikes. "Ten days ago, President Trump wanted to withdraw from Syria. We convinced him to remain," the French president said.

In responding to Macron's comments, the White House stressed that Trump's plans had not changed and he still wanted U.S. forces to "come home as quickly as possible."

On Tuesday Trump seemed to step even further away from his March remarks. After saying he would "love to get out" of Syria, and claiming the U.S. had "done a big favor" for Iraq and other countries in Syria's neighborhood by hammering IS, Trump said he and Macron discussed the downside of leaving.

"Emmanuel and myself have discussed the fact that we don't want to give Iran open season to the Mediterranean, especially since we really control it," Trump said. His comment echoed a concern shared by others, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, that withdrawing from Syria now, while Syria's political crisis is unresolved, would cede ground to Iran and enable its ambition to establish an overland pathway to the Mediterranean through Iraq and Syria. Trump stuck to his view that Arab nations should do more to prevent Iran from "profiting off" the U.S. success against IS.

Even after Trump's talk last month of a quick exit, Mattis stuck to his approach, arguing that U.S. strategic goals had not changed. He told a congressional hearing on April 12 that the Trump administration remained committed to finding a political solution to Syria's seven-year-old civil war.

"Our strategy remains the same as a year ago," he said. "It is to drive this to a U.N.-brokered peace, but, at the same time, keep our foot on the neck of ISIS until we suffocate it."

On Tuesday, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition fighting IS in Iraq and Syria, Col. Ryan Dillon, told reporters at the Pentagon that the United States is not slowing down in Syria. In fact, he said, the number of U.S. airstrikes against remaining pockets of IS fighters in eastern Syria had increased in the past week.
After 10 years of lean, threadbare, Lilliputian tales, Marvel Studios has, thank heavens, finally decided to go big.

The scale of "Avengers: Infinity War," of course, isn't a departure for Marvel. It's an apotheosis. But is it possible to supersize what is already colossal? "Infinity War," which brings together more than 30 significant characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and enough spandex to clothe a small nation, is a little like launching an invasion after the war was already won. Despite assured dominance, Marvel has gone nuclear.

"Infinity" is an interesting word for the Marvel machine, which sets much of its development pipeline a decade in advance. Never-ending is indeed how the superhero era of blockbusterdom sometimes feels, both to its fans and its critics. Even Steven Spielberg, who once said superheroes will eventually go the way of the western, recently signed on to produce a DC Comics film.

This image released by Marvel Studios shows, front row from left, Danai Gurira, Chadwick Boseman, Chris Evans, Scarlet Johansson and Sebastian Stan in a scene from "Avengers: Infinity War," premiering on April 27. (Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios via AP)

But the title refers to the six "infinity stones" scattered around the universe, each conveying a power of sorcery, like the time-warping one held by Doctor Strange. They are dearly sought by Thanos, the indestructible Titan warlord, who rules over much of space but would like all of it. With all the McGuffins - er, stones - he can, with the snap of his fingers, wipe away half of the universe's beings: a rapture to cull an overgrown herd, he envisions.

And it's, in part, the lure of finality that has made "Infinity War," directed by Anthony and Joe Russo (veterans of two "Captain America" movies), one of the year's most salivated-over movies. The preamble has been one long tease - we have seen fleeting glimpses of Thanos (Josh Brolin) since Barack Obama's first term - leading up to a battle royal that could mean the demise of some of Marvel's most famous faces.

It can be hard to know who or what to root for. Arguably the best quality - and most vital asset - of the Marvel canon is its star-making (or at least star-expanding) power. On the one hand, Chris Pratt's performance as Star-Lord in "The Guardians of the Galaxy" has been terrific and turned him into a household name. On the other hand, we've hardly seen Robert Downey Jr. outside of the Iron Man suit in the last decade. It took 18 months to shoot both parts of "Infinity War" back-to-back (the sequel is due out next summer), putting a stranglehold on some of our best movie stars, like Chris Hemsworth and Anthony Mackie. Faint cries can be heard on the street of: "Let our Ruffalo go!"

And it's really the simple pleasure of seeing so many good actors together that makes "Infinity War" - an "Ocean's Eleven" in hyper drive - work. The screenplay, by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, spreads the heroes around in improvised groups that create some funny dynamics. The Guardians, who inject most of the life to "Infinity War," swoon for Hemsworth's one-eyed Thor. "He's like a pirate had a baby with an angel," says Dave Bautista's Drax. Many don't know each other, or the parameters of their shared "cinematic universe." ''There's an Ant-Man AND a Spider-Man?" remarks Mark Ruffalo's Bruce Banner, a.k.a. the Hulk.

The level playing field is a chance to rebalance the Marvel pecking order, most recently upended by Chadwick Boseman and "Black Panther." Neither Chris Evans' Captain "Cap" America nor Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow, for example, make much of an impact on "Infinity War." But Zoe Saldana, as the green-skinned Gamora, strides to the fore, as does Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch. "Infinity War" rarely, surprisingly feels as overstuffed as such a superhero smorgasbord ought to, a testament to the filmmakers' adept plate-spinning skills.

That may be because "Infinity War" doesn't really belong to the superheroes. This is Brolin's film. Already an actor who can appear chiseled from granite, his Thanos is an imposing boulder of a villain, with weary eyes and lined creases running down his massive chin. He and his adoptive daughter, Gamora, are the only characters with much of a story in "Infinity War." He's the immovable object around which the gaggle of superheroes orbits.

There may be some hint of overpopulation anxiety in Thanos' ambition and in the Russos' frighteningly overcrowded film. Its saviors repeatedly contemplate sacrifice. Previous "Avengers" chapters and the Russos' "Captain America: Civil War" expended some effort considering the Avengers' place in society and whether they should be controlled by the state. But this movie, a sensory onslaught, has little room for political subtext.

Still, I doubt such gestures of allegory are anyone's favorite part of the Marvel movies. Most come for the action, the quips and the characters, and I suspect "Infinity War" will deliver for most - particularly thanks to the Guardians. In such a bruisingly long showdown, the action sequences - never the strongpoint of the Russos, who cut their teeth on comic ensemble like "Arrested Development" and "Community" - grow monotonous, and the interludes amid the rubble more infrequent. But if "Infinity War" is a lavish reunion tour propelled by star power, the Russos are sure to plays the hits.

The movie's ending - just one of the spoilers that divulging here would bring Thanos' fist down upon me - will be the major talking point. But for me, its power only lasts as long as a commercial break with an easy-to-see-through "to be continued." Who lives and who dies? It's hard to fret too much with an eternity of sequels and spinoffs lined up.

"Avengers: Infinity War," a Walt Disney Co. release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for "intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action throughout, language and some crude references." Running time: 149 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.

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MPAA Definition of PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

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Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP

This image released by Marvel Studios shows, from left, Benedict Cumberbatch, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo and Benedict Wong in a scene from "Avengers: Infinity War." (Marvel Studios via AP)

This image released by Marvel Studios shows, from left, Tom Holland, Robert Downey Jr., Dave Bautista, Chris Pratt and Pom Klementieff in a scene from "Avengers: Infinity War." (Marvel Studios via AP)

This image released by Disney shows Josh Brolin as Thanos in a scene from Marvel Studios' "Avengers: Infinity War." (Marvel Studios via AP)

This image released by Disney shows Chadwick Boseman, center, in a scene from Marvel Studios' "Avengers: Infinity War." (Marvel Studios via AP)

This image released by Disney shows Chris Evans in a scene from Marvel Studios' "Avengers: Infinity War." (Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios via AP)

This image released by Disney shows Elizabeth Olsen in a scene from Marvel Studios' "Avengers: Infinity War." (Marvel Studios via AP)

This image released by Marvel Studios shows Tom Holland as Spider-Man in a scene from "Avengers: Infinity War." (Marvel Studios via AP)

This image released by Marvel Studios shows Chris Hemsworth as Thor. with characters Rocket, voiced by Bradley Cooper, seated center, and Groot, voiced by Vin Diesel, in a scene from "Avengers: Infinity War." (Marvel Studios via AP)

This image released by Disney shows Josh Brolin as Thanos in a scene from Marvel Studios' "Avengers: Infinity War." (Marvel Studios via AP)
SALINAS, Calif. (AP) - A jury in Northern California convicted a 20-year-old man of torturing, starving and beating two children whose bodies were found in a storage unit.

The jury on Monday found Gonzalo Curiel guilty in the 2015 killings of a 7-year-old boy and his 3-year-old sister. They also convicted him of torturing their older sister in their Salinas apartment, KSBW-TV reported.

Curiel's former girlfriend and the children's relative, Tami Huntsman, 42, pleaded guilty in February to two counts of murder. Huntsman had agreed to care for the three children after their mother was killed in a car accident and their father - who is related to Huntsman - was sent to prison.

FILE - In this Dec. 15, 2015, file photo, a commercial storage unit facility is shown where two children were found dead in Redding, Calif. A jury in Northern California found a 20-year-old man guilty in the torture, starving and beating of two children whose bodies were found in the storage unit. A jury on Monday, April 23, 2018, found Gustavo Curiel guilty in the 2015 killings of 7-year-old Shaun Tara and his 3-year-old sister, Delylah Tara. The jury also found him guilty of torturing their older sister in their Salinas apartment. Curiel's former girlfriend and the children's aunt, Tami Huntsman, pleaded guilty in February to two counts of murder. (Andreas Fuhrmann /The Record Searchlight via AP, File)

An officer found the oldest child, then 9, with bruises and a broken collarbone in the backseat of a locked SUV in December 2015. Officials later located the tiny bodies of her siblings in plastic containers inside a storage unit in Redding, about 300 miles (483 kilometers) north of Salinas.

The child told investigators that Huntsman and Curiel killed her younger siblings on Thanksgiving after she was caught stealing a bagel. The girl, now 12, was the primary witness in Curiel's trial.

She told jurors she and her siblings were stripped naked, sprayed down with cold water, beaten with a shower head, and locked in a tiny bathroom for extended periods of time as punishment.

Curiel was a "sadistic" person who "enjoyed controlling and hurting children," Monterey County Assistant District Attorney Steve Somers said.

Curiel was a minor when the killings occurred. He was tried as an adult, but prosecutors were not able to seek the death penalty under California law. He and Huntsman were scheduled to be sentenced next week.

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This story has been corrected to show Gonzalo Curiel's first name was misstated as Gustavo.

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Information from: KSBW-TV.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on the first state dinner of the Trump administration (all times local):

9:25 p.m.

President Donald Trump and President Emmanuel Macron of France have toasted to continued warm relations between their countries.

President Donald Trump, left, and French President Emmanuel Macron, right, share a toast during the State Dinner at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Macron was honored Tuesday at the first state dinner of the Trump administration.

In his toast, Trump asked that their "friendship grow even deeper" and that their "kinship grow even stronger."

Relations between the U.S. and France date to the American Revolution, nearly 250 years ago.

Macron, who spoke in French, thanked Trump for making him the first world leader honored with a state visit.

Macron also toasted to what he characterized as the "unbreakable friendship" between France and the United States.

___

9 p.m.

President Donald Trump has thanked his wife, Melania, for pulling together the first state dinner of his administration.

In a toast before Tuesday's dinner honoring France, Trump described his wife as "America's absolutely incredible first lady."

He thanked her for her efforts on the dinner and said she had created an evening that everyone will always "cherish and remember."

The dinner for 123 guests and a main course of lamb marked Mrs. Trump's highest-profile hostess gig to date as first lady.

___

8:35 p.m.

The first state dinner of President Donald Trump's administration had 123 guests in attendance.

That's according to the official roster of names released by the White House after the last few guests arrived Tuesday night. The guest list included a number of Cabinet officials, Trump administration staffers, elected officials and some business leaders. Two Olympic gold medalists also made the list.

The tally does not include Trump, first lady Melania Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron or his wife, Brigitte.

The size of the crowd that accepted invitations to Trump's first state dinner makes it one of the more intimate events of its kind in some time.

Former President Barack Obama had more than 330 guests at his first state dinner, which honored India.

___

7:50 p.m.

Melania Trump has chosen Chanel for the White House state dinner honoring the French president.

The first lady wore a full-length silver gown Tuesday night as she emerged from the White House to greet the French president and his wife. The White House said it was a black Chantilly lace Chanel haute couture gown, hand-painted with silver and embroidered with crystal and sequins.

French first lady Brigitte Macron wore a cream full-length gown by Louis Vuitton with long sleeves and gold details.

President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron both wore black tuxedos.

___

7:25 p.m.

President Donald Trump has welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron to the administration's first state dinner.

Macron and his wife, Brigitte, arrived at the White House as a light rain fell Tuesday evening.

Trump and his wife, Melania, exchanged hugs and air kisses with the Macrons before going inside the White House for the festivities. About 130 guests have been invited.

Macron opened a three-day state visit to the U.S. on Monday.

The French leader is scheduled to deliver an address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday.

___

6:40 p.m.

Guests are arriving for the White House state dinner honoring the French president.

It's the first state dinner of President Donald Trump's administration.

Among those who have already arrived are Vice President Mike Pence, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Apple CEO Tim Cook and two Winter Olympians who flashed medals on their way into the pre-dinner reception Tuesday.

The 94-year-old Kissinger caused a little scare when he stumbled while walking past the media.

Several Cabinet secretaries have also arrived, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who is awaiting Senate confirmation to become Trump's new secretary of state.

___

6:30 p.m.

The White House has some extra help in the kitchen for the state dinner honoring the president of France.

Former National Security Council spokesman Michael Anton is lending his skills to the occasion Tuesday night.

Anton is known for being particularly talented in the kitchen. In fact, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders cited his "amazing chef" skills in a statement earlier this month on his departure. The White House is serving rack of lamb for the main course.

Anton resigned from the White House just before new national security adviser John Bolton came on board.

He is now a writer and lecturer at Hillsdale College.

___

5:30 p.m.

Melania Trump is embracing her moment in the spotlight for the French president's state visit.

She traded in her usual dark sunglasses for a white wide-brimmed hat that quickly became a trending topic on social media. She has thrown herself into planning the state dinner for President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte. All eyes will be on the former model again Tuesday when she steps out in a designer gown to greet the Macrons as they arrive for dinner.

Seeing the gown is typically the highlight of a state dinner. But for once, it may pale in comparison to the hat.

The hat bobbed up and down across the bottom of TV screens as the first lady took her seat for the president's news conference with Macron.

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump prepare to greet French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron as they arrive for a State Dinner at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Marillyn Hewson, the CEO of Lockheed Martin, and James Hewson arrives for a State Dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron and President Donald Trump at the White House, Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon

President Donald Trump accompanied by first lady Melania Trump pose for a photo after greeting French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron as they arrive for a State Dinner at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

President Donald Trump accompanied by first lady Melania Trump pose for a photo after greeting French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron as they arrive for a State Dinner at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

President Donald Trump accompanied by first lady Melania Trump greet French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron as they arrive for a State Dinner at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

The State Dining Room at the White House is set for the first State Dinner that President Donald Trump will host as president with French President Emmanuel Macron in Washington, Monday, April 23, 2018. The State Dinner will be held on April 24. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump arrive for a State Dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron and President Donald Trump at the White House, Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Karen Pence and Vice President Mike Pence arrive for a State Dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron and President Donald Trump at the White House, Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Jerry Hall and Rupert Murdoch arrive for a State Dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron and President Donald Trump at the White House, Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The State Dining Room at the White House is set for the first State Dinner that President Donald Trump will host as president with French President Emmanuel Macron in Washington, Monday, April 23, 2018. The State Dinner will be held on April 24. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

First lady Melania Trump waits with President Donald Trump to greet French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron during a State Arrival Ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron stand on stage during a State Arrival Ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

French President Emmanuel Macron kisses the hand of first lady Melania Trump during a State Arrival Ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
NEW YORK (AP) - Sinclair Broadcast Group will sell nine TV stations to Standard Media Group for $441.7 million as part of its plan to meet regulatory approval for its pending $3.9 billion acquisition of Tribune Media.

The sale of the stations is contingent on the Tribune deal closing. Sinclair said it expects that deal to close by the end of the second quarter.

The moves come after Sinclair received widespread attention after news reports earlier in April showed dozens of Sinclair news anchors reading an identical script expressing concern about "one-sided news stories plaguing the country." At the time, President Donald Trump tweeted his support of the network.

The stations include one each in Oklahoma, Michigan, North Carolina, Virginia and Iowa and four in Pennsylvania.

Sinclair owns 193 stations across the country.
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - In a story April 24 about pecan growers, The Associated Press reported erroneously that the pecan is North America's only native nut. The black walnut and acorn are also native to the continent.

A corrected version of the story is below:

US pecan growers seek to break out of the pie shell

The humble pecan is being rebranded as more than just pie

By EMILY SCHMALL

Associated Press

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - The humble pecan is being rebranded as more than just pie.

Pecan growers and suppliers are hoping to sell U.S. consumers on the virtues of North America's only major native tree nut as a hedge against a potential trade war with China, the pecan's largest export market.

The pecan industry is also trying to crack the fast-growing snack-food industry.

The retail value for packaged nuts, seeds and trail mix in the U.S. alone was $5.7 billion in 2012, and is forecast to rise to $7.5 billion by 2022, according to market researcher Euromonitor.

The Fort Worth, Texas-based American Pecan Council, formed in the wake of a new federal marketing order that allows the industry to band together and assess fees for research and promotion, is a half-century in the making, said Jim Anthony, 80, the owner of a 1,400-acre pecan farm near Granbury, Texas.

Anthony said that regional rivalries and turf wars across the 15-state pecan belt - stretching from the Carolinas to California - made such a union impossible until recently, when demand for pecans exploded in Asian markets.

Until 2007, most U.S. pecans were consumed domestically, according to Daniel Zedan, president of Nature's Finest Foods, a marketing group. By 2009, China was buying about a third of the U.S. crop.

The pecan is the only major tree nut indigenous to North America, growers say. Sixteenth-century Spanish explore Cabeza de Vaca wrote about tasting the nut during his encounters with Native American tribes in South Texas. The name is French explorers' phonetic spelling of the native word "pakan," meaning hard-shelled nut.

Facing growing competition from pecan producers in South Africa, Mexico and Australia, U.S. producers are also riding the wave of the Trump Administration's policies to promote American-made goods.

Most American kids grow up with peanut butter but peanuts probably originated in South America. Almonds are native to Asia and pistachios to the Middle East. The pecan council is funding academic research to show that their nuts are just as nutritious.

The council on Wednesday will debut a new logo: "American Pecans: The Original Supernut."

Rodney Myers, who manages operations at Anthony's pecan farm, credits the pecan's growing cachet in China and elsewhere in Asia with its association to rustic Americana - "the oilfield, cowboys, the Wild West - they associate all these things with the North American nut," he said.

China earlier this month released a list of American products that could face tariffs in retaliation for proposed U.S. tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods. Fresh and dried nuts - including the pecan - could be slapped with a 15-percent tariff, according to the list. To counter that risk, the pecan council is using some of the $8 million in production-based assessments it's collected since the marketing order was passed to promote the versatility of the tree nut beyond pecan pie at Thanksgiving.

While Chinese demand pushed up prices it also drove away American consumers. By January 2013, prices had dropped 50 percent from their peak in 2011, according to Zedan.

U.S. growers and processers were finally able in 2016 to pass a marketing order to better control pecan production and prices.

Authorized by the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937, federal marketing orders help producers and handlers standardize packaging, impose quality control and fund research, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees 28 other fruit, vegetable and specialty marketing orders, in addition to the pecan order.

Critics charge that the orders interfere with the price signals of a free, unfettered private market.

"What you've created instead is a government-sanctioned cartel," said Daren Bakst, an agricultural policy researcher at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

Before the almond industry passed its own federal marketing order in 1950, fewer almonds than pecans were sold, according to pecan council chair Mike Adams, who cultivates 600 acres of pecan trees near Caldwell, Texas. Now, while almonds appear in everything from cereal to milk substitutes, Adams calls the pecan "the forgotten nut."

"We're so excited to have an identity, to break out of the pie shell," said Molly Willis, a member of the council who owns an 80-acre pecan farm in Albany, Georgia, a supplement to her husband's family's peanut-processing business.
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NEW YORK (AP) - To the Trump administration, the recovered missile fragments were incontrovertible proof that Iran was illicitly arming Yemen's Houthi rebels. Yet Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif brushed it off Tuesday as little more than cheese puffs.

During a visit to New York, the Iranian diplomat accused U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley of displaying fabricated evidence that missiles lobbed by the Houthis at civilian areas in Saudi Arabia originated in Iran. Though Tehran supports the Shiite rebel group, it firmly denies giving them missiles. But Haley has invited journalists and U.N. Security Council diplomats to inspect missile parts recovered after strikes on Saudi Arabia, bearing what U.S. military officials said were Iranian markings and characteristics.

Zarif, in an Associated Press interview, said that one such logo was from the Standard Institute of Iran, which he said regulates consumer goods - not weapons.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is interviewed by The Associated Press, in New York, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. Zarif is warning the Trump administration that pulling out from the Iran nuclear deal would undermine talks with North Korea by proving that America reneges on its promises. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

"It's a sign of quality," Zarif said. "When people want to buy it, they look at whether it's been tested by the Standard Institute of Iran that your cheese puffs are good, your cheese puffs will not give you a stomach ache."

He laughed and added, "I mean, nobody will put the logo of the Standard Institute of Iran on a piece of missile."

Zarif also pointed to a truck-size section of a missile that the U.S. said was recovered in Saudi Arabia and was transferred to a military base near Washington, where it was on display behind Haley for a photo-op. Zarif noted that the missile had been supposedly shot down in mid-air.

"I'm not saying Ambassador Haley is fabricating, but somebody is fabricating the evidence she is showing," Zarif said.

Some of the fragments Haley presented, if authentic, would seem to implicate Iran's military industry more directly, including some with the logo of Shahid Bakeri Industrial Group, an Iranian defense entity under U.S. sanctions. Haley said others had clear "Iranian missile fingerprints," such as short-range ballistic missiles that lacked large stabilizers - a feature she said only Iran's Qiam missiles have.

"Just imagine if this missile had been launched at Dulles Airport or JFK, or the airports in Paris, London or Berlin," Haley told reporters late last year. "That's what we're talking about here."

Tehran's denials aside, there's broad agreement among the United Nations, Western countries and the Persian Gulf's Arab leaders that Iran has armed the Houthis with ballistic missiles, even though U.N. Security Council resolutions prohibit it. With U.S. support, a Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen's civil war has been bombing the Houthis, who control the capital Sanaa and much of northern Yemen.

Yet Iran's opponents have struggled to provide foolproof evidence to back up their claims, creating an opening for Iran to deny. After Haley's presentations at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, some national security experts raised questions, even drawing parallels to Secretary of State Colin Powell's 2003 speech to the U.N. making the case for the Iraq War.

The fragments Haley presented were turned over to the U.S. by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates - two of Iran's fiercest critics - and U.S. military officials had trouble tracing the fragments' chain of custody. Nor could they say when the weapons were transferred to the Houthis or in some cases precisely when they were launched.

FILE - In this Dec. 14, 2017, file photo, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley walks past recovered remains of an Iranian rocket during a press briefing at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington. To the Trump administration, the recovered missile fragments were incontrovertible proof that Iran was illicitly arming Yemen's Houthi rebels. Yet Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif brushed it off April 24, 2018, as little more than cheese puffs. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Lin-Manuel Miranda, "Game of Thrones" and a key figure in the #MeToo movement are among the winners of this year's Webby Awards.

Miranda won the Webby for public service and social activism for his work raising money for charities assisting Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

Susan Fowler, the former Uber employee whose harassment revelations helped lead to the ouster of the company's CEO and bolstered the #MeToo movement, was named Webbys person of the year.

FILE - In this March 4, 2018, file photo, Lin-Manuel Miranda arrives at the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Miranda won the Webby for public service and social activism for his work raising money for charities including Puerto Rico relief. The Webby Awards, which honor internet excellence, were announced Tuesday, April 24, and will be presented May 14 at a New York ceremony hosted by comedian Amber Ruffin. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

The awards, which honor internet excellence, were announced Tuesday and will be presented May 14 at a New York ceremony hosted by comedian Amber Ruffin.

Winners from music include Jay-Z, Katy Perry and Lada Gaga.

"Game of Thrones" won for best overall online presence, and the video game phenomenon Fortnite won for best multiplayer competitive game.
KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP) - A prosecutor says a Michigan motorist accused of running down nine bicyclists, killing five of them, was driving well above the speed limit and didn't apply his brakes until striking the first victim.

Kalamazoo County Assistant Prosecutor Michael Kanaby told jurors in his opening statement Tuesday that witnesses will testify they saw 52-year-old Charles Pickett of Battle Creek driving erratically before the 2016 crash.

Pickett is charged with 14 counts, including five each of second-degree murder and operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of drugs causing death. He faces up to life in prison if convicted.

Charles Pickett Jr. sits in court as his murder trial begins in Kalamazoo County Circuit Court Tuesday, April 24, 2018 in Kalamazoo, Mich. Police allege Pickett, now 52, of Battle Creek, had a cocktail of drugs in his system when he crashed his pickup truck into nine bicyclists, killing five, on June 7, 2016. Pickett faces five counts of second-degree murder and five counts of operating while under the influence causing death and four counts of operating while intoxicated causing serious injury for the injuries caused to bicyclists (Mark Bugnaski/Kalamazoo Gazette-MLive Media Group via AP)

The Kalamazoo Gazette reports defense attorney Keith Turpel said the evidence isn't enough to convict Pickett of murder. He said prosecutors must prove other elements, including Pickett's state of mind.

___

Information from: Kalamazoo Gazette, http://www.mlive.com/kalamazoo

Sheila Jeske of Richland, left, one of the bicyclists injured in the crash, listens as the murder trial for Charles Pickett Jr. begins in Kalamazoo County Circuit Court Tuesday, April 24, 2018 in Kalamazoo, Mich. Police allege Pickett, now 52, of Battle Creek, had a cocktail of drugs in his system when he crashed his pickup truck into nine bicyclists, killing five, on June 7, 2016. Pickett faces five counts of second-degree murder and five counts of operating while under the influence causing death and four counts of operating while intoxicated causing serious injury for the injuries caused to bicyclists. (Mark Bugnaski/Kalamazoo Gazette-MLive Media Group via AP)

Sheila Jeske of Richland, left, one of the bicyclists injured in the crash, listens as the murder trial for Charles Pickett Jr. begins in Kalamazoo County Circuit Court Tuesday, April 24, 2018 in Kalamazoo, Mich. Police allege Pickett, now 52, of Battle Creek, had a cocktail of drugs in his system when he crashed his pickup truck into nine bicyclists, killing five, on June 7, 2016. Pickett faces five counts of second-degree murder and five counts of operating while under the influence causing death and four counts of operating while intoxicated causing serious injury for the injuries caused to bicyclists. (Mark Bugnaski/Kalamazoo Gazette-MLive Media Group via AP)

Charles Pickett Jr., second right, is lead in to Kalamazoo County Circuit Court Tuesday, April 24, 2018 in Kalamazoo, Mich. Police allege Pickett, now 52, of Battle Creek, had a cocktail of drugs in his system when he crashed his pickup truck into nine bicyclists, killing five, on June 7, 2016. Pickett faces five counts of second-degree murder and five counts of operating while under the influence causing death and four counts of operating while intoxicated causing serious injury for the injuries caused to bicyclists (Mark Bugnaski/Kalamazoo Gazette-MLive Media Group via AP)

Kalamazoo County Assistant Prosecutor Michael Kanaby stands in court as the murder trial for Charles Pickett Jr. begins in Kalamazoo County Circuit Court Tuesday, April 24, 2018 in Kalamazoo, Mich. Police allege Pickett, now 52, of Battle Creek, had a cocktail of drugs in his system when he crashed his pickup truck into nine bicyclists, killing five, on June 7, 2016. Pickett faces five counts of second-degree murder and five counts of operating while under the influence causing death and four counts of operating while intoxicated causing serious injury for the injuries caused to bicyclists (Mark Bugnaski/Kalamazoo Gazette-MLive Media Group via AP)
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have welcomed a baby son.

The new prince arrived at 11.01am, weighing 8lb 7oz, Kensington Palace announced.

Kensington Palace said: Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge was safely delivered of a son at 1101hrs.

The baby weighs 8lb 7oz. The Duke of Cambridge was present for the birth.

Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge was safely delivered of a son at 1101hrs.



The baby weighs 8lbs 7oz.



The Duke of Cambridge was present for the birth.



Her Royal Highness and her child are both doing well.  The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) April 23, 2018

The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Harry and members of both families have been informed and are delighted with the news.

Her Royal Highness and her child are both doing well.

The duchess was taken to the private Lindo Wing at St Marys Hospital in Paddington, London, before 6am on Monday in the early stages of labour, with the Duke of Cambridge at her side.

The Duchess of Cambridge at St Georges Chapel on Easter Sunday - her last public appearance (Tolga Akmen/PA)

The baby is fifth in line to the throne, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburghs sixth great-grandchild and a younger sibling of Prince George and Princess Charlotte.

The babys sex was a surprise to William and Kate, who chose not to find out what they were having.

At the exclusive Lindo Wing, the duchesss labour was overseen by consultant obstetrician Guy Thorpe-Beeston, who is the surgeon-gynaecologist to the household, and consultant gynaecologist Alan Farthing, the Queens surgeon-gynaecologist  part of the trusted team who delivered George and Charlotte.

The Lindo Wing of St Marys Hospital, where the Cambridges third child was born (PA)

A team of top medics was also on stand-by in case of an emergency.

The duchess will be expected to head home to the sanctuary of Kensington Palace in a few hours, just as she did with Charlotte in 2015  but not before introducing the new royal baby to the world on the steps of the Lindo Wing.

George and Charlotte might even visit the hospital to see their mother and baby sibling, just as George did when his younger sister was born three years ago.

The scene at the Lindo Wing #Royalbaby pic.twitter.com/npl22WaoNW  PA Royal Reporters (@PARoyal) April 23, 2018

The new royal baby has been born on patriotic St Georges Day which celebrates the patron saint of England, and arrived just two days after the Queens 92nd birthday.

The baby also shares a birthday with Lady Gabriella Windsor, daughter of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent.

Lady Gabriella was also born in the Lindo Wing on April 23 in 1981, and is celebrating turning 37.

The babys title is His Royal Highness and he is a Prince of Cambridge.
Facebook has reiterated that it does not sell data from its users to advertisers.

In a blog post by Rob Goldman, the social networks vice president for ads, the company laid out what it called the basic mechanics of Facebook advertising.

Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg denied the company sold user data to advertisers, during an appearance before the US Congress earlier this month, where he faced questions on the Cambridge Analytica scandal and how the company used personal data.

The company said the new blog post was in response to an increasing number of questions from users on Facebooks data privacy and advertising business.

To build a product that connects people across continents and cultures, we need to make sure everyone can afford it, Mr Goldman said.

Advertising lets us keep Facebook free. But we arent blind to the challenges this model poses. It requires a steadfast commitment to privacy.

So our promise is this: we do not tell advertisers who you are or sell your information to anyone. That has always been true. We think relevant advertising and privacy arent in conflict, and were committed to doing both well.

Mr Goldmans blog post said Facebook uses information shared by users  such as basic profile information and page likes  to show them relevant adverts, but does not identify users in this process.

We provide advertisers with reports about the kinds of people seeing their ads and how their ads are performing, but we dont share information that personally identifies you, he said.

You can always see the interests assigned to you in your ad preferences, and if you want, remove them.

(Facebook)

The social network also said that when advertisers bring them information to reach users on the site, it does not share identifying data with the advertiser.

The blog post added that other websites and apps that use Facebook tools  such as a share or like button  can ask the company to show adverts to users who have used their service, but Facebook users can turn this feature off.

Mr Goldman also denied suggestions that because users do not pay for Facebook, they themselves are the product.

Our product is social media  the ability to connect with the people that matter to you, wherever they are in the world, he said.

Its the same with a free search engine, website or newspaper. The core product is reading the news or finding information  and the ads exist to fund that experience.

He added that Facebook would not allow users to opt out of seeing adverts because ads are what keep Facebook free.

The blog post comes after MoneySavingExpert founder Martin Lewis announced he is filing a defamation lawsuit against the social network over claims that it published scam adverts from criminals using his name.

It also comes before an appearance before MPs on Thursday by Facebook chief technology officer Mike Schroepfer, who will face questions from a House of Commons select committee over the companys business practices and privacy policies.
Prince George and Princess Charlotte have been introduced to their new baby brother for the first time.

The youngsters were taken to the Lindo Wing at St Marys Hospital in Paddington, London, to meet the newborn Prince of Cambridge by their father the Duke of Cambridge.

Princess Charlotte and Prince George arrive with the Duke of Cambridge to meet their new baby brother #RoyalBaby pic.twitter.com/Lo8lGornqr  PA Royal Reporters (@PARoyal) April 23, 2018

The Duchess of Cambridge, who gave birth to the 8lb 7oz baby boy at 11.01am on patriotic St Georges Day, was believed to be waiting in her private suite for her eldest children.

William, who was at Kates side for the birth, left shortly after 4pm to collect four-year-old George and Charlotte, who turns three on May 2, from Kensington Palace.

George, who has spent the day at school and was dressed in his school uniform, appeared a little shy as he arrived, but Charlotte waved at the cameras twice, turning to do so and smiling as she walked up the steps.

Kensington Palace said the babys name would be announced in due course, but Arthur is already the favourite with punters, according to the bookies.

The new prince is fifth in line to the throne, and the Queen and the Duke of Edinburghs sixth great-grandchild.

Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge was safely delivered of a son at 1101hrs.



The baby weighs 8lbs 7oz.



The Duke of Cambridge was present for the birth.



Her Royal Highness and her child are both doing well.  The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) April 23, 2018

The duchess was driven to the exclusive Lindo Wing before 6am on Monday in the early stages of labour, ready for the birth of their third child.

Kensington Palace announced the babys arrival in a statement shortly after 1pm and said the Queen, the royals and Kates family were thrilled at the news.

The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Harry and members of both families have been informed and are delighted with the news, the palace said.

A formal notice of the birth was placed in the forecourt of Buckingham Palace on an ornate golden stand , and a celebratory over-sized Union Flag was raised from the roof of the Queens London home.

Prime Minister Theresa May led the messages of support for William and Kate, saying: My warmest congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the birth of their baby boy.

I wish them great happiness for the future.

A large Union Flag has been raised over Buckingham Palace and a State Standard over Windsor Castle to mark the birth of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's third child. pic.twitter.com/hcYYluf2fF  The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) April 23, 2018

The arrival of a baby boy was a surprise for the duke and duchess, who chose not to find out what they were having.

A huge media presence gathered outside the private Lindo Wing in anticipation of the birth, the same unit where George and Charlotte were born, as were William and Prince Harry.
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An astronaut has captured a rare cloud-free photograph of the Scottish Highlands from the International Space Station.

The image, which was taken in February on a Nikon D5 digital camera, shows the breathtaking Scottish landscape in all its rugged beauty.

The rare photo shows the snow-capped mountains north of Glen Mor, a 62-mile (100km) valley running from Inverness to Fort William at the head of Loch Linnhe.

According to Nasa cloudy skies 'are common for the region and typically prevent landscape photography from space, especially during the winter months'.

Scroll down for video

An astronaut has captured a rare cloud-free photograph of the Scottish Highlands from the International Space Station. The image, taken in February on a Nikon D5 digital camera, shows the breathtaking Scottish landscape in all its rugged beauty

Also known as the 'Great Valley' or 'Great Glen,' Glen Mor is believed to house some of the oldest rocks in Europe.

The fault zone surrounded by many elongated lakes  one of which is Loch Ness, famous for the illusive Loch Ness monster.

The landscape was shaped by geological forces some hundreds of millions of years ago.

The rocky landscape of the Scottish Highlands also shows signs of reshaping by flowing glaciers during the most recent Ice Ages  from around 2.5 million years ago.

The photo shows the snow-capped mountains north of Glen Mor, a 62-mile valley running from Inverness to Fort William at the head of Loch Linnhe. The landscape was shaped by geological forces some hundreds of millions of years ago

In 2016, US astronaut Jeff Williams managed to take photo of Scotland without clouds. 'We had a great view of Scotland todayvery rare to not be covered with clouds', he tweeted

In the early 2000s, locals built a pathway through the area - the Great Glen Way - for walkers and cyclists.

The incredible cloud-free image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast. Lens artefacts have also been removed.

In 2016, US astronaut Jeff Williams managed to take a similarly rare photo of Scotland without clouds.

We had a great view of Scotland todayvery rare to not be covered with clouds. pic.twitter.com/R31MXg2I1U  Jeff Williams (@Astro_Jeff) August 16, 2016

At the end of last year Nasa released another image of the Scottish highlands caked in snow with lots of cloud cover, which is the view astronauts are more used to seeing

The image (pictured) was taken from Nasa's Terra Satellite Earth Observing System which is the size of a minibus. For almost 18 years the Terra satellite and its five sensors have collected data about Earth and its complex systems

'We had a great view of Scotland todayvery rare to not be covered with clouds', he tweeted.

At the end of last year Nasa released another image of the Scottish highlands caked in snow with lots of cloud cover, which is the view astronauts are more used to seeing.

The 2017 image was taken from Nasa's Terra Satellite Earth Observing System which is the size of a minibus.

For almost 18 years the Terra satellite and its five sensors have collected data about Earth and its complex systems.
Westworld actress Thandie Newton has shared a look at her character in Stars Wars spin-off Solo.

The actress stars as Val in the prequel about a young Han Solo, which will also feature Alden Ehrenreich, Emilia Clarke, Woody Harrelson and Donald Glover.

She shared a poster featuring her character in what appears to be a leather flight suit with a white fur scarf around her neck and captioned it: Well now THATs going on my office wall (if I had an office) WERRRRRRK!!!!!!!!

Thandie Newton (Ian West/PA)

Ehrenreich, best known for his role in Hail, Caesar!, will star as the title character, a role made famous by Harrison Ford.

Get ready to punch it this May and watch the BRAND NEW trailer for SOLO: A Star Wars Story here! pic.twitter.com/7613falQPB  Star Wars UK (@StarWarsUK) April 9, 2018

The UK s official Star Wars account also shared posters of him, Chewbacca and Glover in costume as Lando Calrissian, as well as shots of Harrelson and Clarke.

Were putting together a crew. Check out these new SOLO character posters! pic.twitter.com/NFOZ6mMhyz  Star Wars UK (@StarWarsUK) April 23, 2018

SOLO: A Star Wars Story  out May 24th. Get ready. pic.twitter.com/6WagdvWVBq  Star Wars UK (@StarWarsUK) April 23, 2018

The film has been directed by Ron Howard after Lucasfilm parted ways with the movies original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller.

Solo: A Stars Wars Story will be released in UK cinemas on May 24.
The BBC did the right thing by revealing that detectives were investigating Sir Cliff Richard and searching his home following a child sex assault allegation, an editor has told a High Court judge.

Gary Smith told Mr Justice Mann that journalists had a responsibility to report such stories.

He said public interest reporting often involved revealing things a famous name would prefer the public did not hear.

Mr Smith, who was UK news editor for BBC News at the time of the search and is now the corporations head of news and current affairs in Scotland, outlined his thoughts on Monday during the latest stage of a High Court trial in London.

Gary Smith was UK news editor for BBC News at the time of the search (Kirsty OConnor/PA)

Sir Cliff, 77, has sued the BBC over coverage of the South Yorkshire Police search in August 2014 and wants damages at the top end of the scale.

He says the coverage, which involved the use of a helicopter, was a very serious invasion of his privacy.

The BBC disputes his claims.

Bosses say coverage of the search of the apartment in Sunningdale, Berkshire, was accurate and in good faith.

The BBC was confident we knew who the individual under investigation was, Mr Smith told the judge.

From an editorial point of view, those making the decision (myself included) were satisfied as to the accuracy of the BBCs intelligence and that it was the right thing to do to name Sir Cliff Richard in our reporting  that is to say that it was in the public interest for the BBC as a media organisation to inform the public of the investigation.

It was our responsibility as journalists to report upon such stories because of the considerable debate going on about whether there had been failings by the authorities in allowing certain public figures to have access to young people and what the authorities and indeed media organisations (including the BBC) knew about certain individuals.

South Yorkshire Polices investigation into Sir Cliff Richard was part of a sequence of ongoing significant public interest stories about police investigations into public figures for sexual abuse.

Mr Smith said the BBC had reported investigations into a number of high-profile figures, including entertainer Rolf Harris, publicist Max Clifford, presenter Paul Gambaccini and comedian Jimmy Tarbuck.

He said those reports had not attracted legal complaints over breach of privacy.

Mr Tarbuck and Mr Gambaccini had been investigated and arrested but not charged, he said, while Harris and Clifford were convicted of sexual offences.

Sir Cliff Richard would have been the biggest household name to be under investigation, he said.

I say this in the sense that he was and is a high-profile public figure whose public status went beyond his success as an entertainer.

He was known for his charitable work and was part of the establishment in many ways.
Former president George HW Bush has been taken to hospital in Houston with an infection, just after attending the funeral of his wife Barbara, a spokesman said.

Jim McGrath said on Twitter that the 93-year-old Bush is responding to treatments and appears to be recovering. He was admitted on Sunday morning to Houston Methodist Hospital after an infection spread to his blood, Mr McGrath said.

Barbara Bush was laid to rest Saturday in a ceremony attended by her husband and former presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, George W Bush and their wives, along with current first lady Melania Trump.

The elder Bush uses a wheelchair and an electric scooter for mobility after developing a form of Parkinsons disease, and he has needed hospital treatment several times in recent years for respiratory problems.

George HW Bush at the funeral of his wife Barbara Bush (Jack Gruber /USA Today via AP)

A year ago this month, Mr Bush spent two weeks in the hospital for treatment of pneumonia and chronic bronchitis, a constant irritation of the lining of tubes that carry air to ones lungs.

Mr Bushs doctors said chronic bronchitis is a condition more prevalent with age and can aggravate the symptoms of pneumonia.

Bush was in hospital for 16 days in January 2017 for pneumonia. During that hospital stay, which included time in intensive care, doctors inserted a breathing tube and connected him to a ventilator.

He also was taken to hospital in 2015 in Maine after falling at home and breaking a bone in his neck, and in December 2014 for about a week for shortness of breath. He spent Christmas 2012 in intensive care for a bronchitis-related cough and other issues.

George Herbert Walker Bush served as president from 1989 to 1993. Born June 12 1924, in Milton, Massachusetts, Mr Bush also served as a congressman, CIA director and Ronald Reagans vice president.
Denver Broncos: ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (April 23, 2018) - Outside linebacker Shaquil Barrett signed his restricted free agent tender Monday to remain with the Broncos for the 2018 season.

The Broncos placed a second-round tender on Barrett on March 13, which guaranteed the Broncos would not have been left without compensation if another team signed him.

If another team had extended an offer to Barrett and the Broncos' chose not to match, Denver would have received a second-round pick.

Barrett, a former undrafted free agent from Colorado State, has been a key reserve player for the Broncos.

He started nine games in Shane Ray 's absence in 2017 and totaled two forced fumbles and four sacks.

Exclusive rights free agent Jerrol Garcia-Williams also signed the tender the Broncos extended to him on Monday.
Mike Pompeo, US president Donald Trumps choice for secretary of state, has avoided a rare rebuke as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee narrowly recommended him.

But the vote served as a warning shot to the White House as nominees to lead the CIA and Veterans Affairs (VA) are hitting stiff resistance.

Mr Pompeo, who is now CIA director, received the panels approval only after Mr Trumps last-minute overtures to Senator Rand Paul.

Mike Pompeo is Donald Trumps choice for secretary of state (Alex Brandon/AP)

Mr Pompeos nomination now goes to the full Senate, where votes are tallying in his favour and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he looks forward to voting to confirm him later this week.

Mr Trump has been quick to fire his top cabinet secretaries, but Senate Democrats are not so fast to confirm replacements. A grilling is expected on Wednesday of Ronny Jackson, the White House physician nominated to head the VA, and Mr Pompeos potential replacement at the CIA, Gina Haspel, is also facing scrutiny.

Hard to believe, Mr Trump tweeted Monday about the obstruction. The Dems will not approve hundreds of good people They are maxing out the time on approval process for all, never happened before. Need more Republicans!

Republicans hold just a slim Senate majority, 50-49, with the prolonged absence of Senator John McCain.

Mr Pompeos bid to become the nations top diplomat was in the hands of a few senators, but received a boost Monday when two Democrats, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Senator Joe Donnelly of Indiana, announced their support.

Pressure is mounting on senators from all sides. White House allies are unloading ad campaigns against Democrats from Trump-won states, but progressive groups are pounding senators offices in opposition. As soon as Senator Heidi Heitkamp announced her support for Mr Pompeo, one group called on her to switch.

Ahead of the Foreign Relations Committees vote, chairman Bob Corker said of the full Senate, It does appear Mike Pompeo has the votes to be secretary of state.

Supporters point to Mr Pompeos resume as a West Point and Harvard Law School graduate who has the presidents confidence, particularly on North Korea. Opponents are focusing on his hawkish foreign policy views and negative comments about gay marriage and Muslims.

Mike Pompeos CIA successes come from proven experience. He has been a U.S. Cavalry officer, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, an entrepreneur, and graduated first in his class at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. https://t.co/cIOr4j6tZr  The White House 45 Archived (@WhiteHouse45) April 23, 2018

Mr Pauls earlier objections to Mr Pompeo, along with overwhelming opposition from Democrats, had set the secretary of state nominee on track to be the first since 1925, when the committee started keeping records, not to receive a favourable recommendation.

But Mr Trump and Mr Paul talked repeatedly, including a chat just moments before the vote.

I have changed my mind, Mr Paul said, explaining he received reassurances that Mr Pompeo agrees with the president that the Iraq war was a mistake and that it is time for US troops to leave Afghanistan.

Mr Pauls office said he got a win  the promise that Mr Pompeo sides with Mr Trump on those issues  out of the situation, but declined to provide details.

I want Trump to be Trump, Mr Paul said.

Asked about Mr Pauls change of heart, Mr Trump said, Hes a good man.

Senators are anxious to have Mr Pompeo in place before international meetings scheduled for later this week and ahead of North Korea talks.

Republicans blamed partisan politics for opposition, saying Mr Pompeo is just as qualified as past secretaries of state nominees Hillary Clinton or John Kerry, both of whom received overwhelming support.

A majority of Democrats continue their pointless obstruction to score cheap political points with their base as a wilful attempt to undermine American diplomacy, said White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

But Democrats resisted easy confirmation of the nations top diplomat, and support peeled.

Senator Maggie Hassan, who had been among more than a dozen Democrats who supported Mr Pompeo for CIA director, announced her no vote on Monday.

I am concerned that Mr Pompeo has not demonstrated an understanding that the Secretary of State has an obligation to the American people to stand up for our core values, she said.

Senator Chris Coons, who was among the last Democrats on the foreign relations panel to announce his no vote, said he is concerned that Mr Pompeo will embolden, rather than moderate or restrain Mr Trumps most belligerent and dangerous instincts.

In a late setback on Monday, the panel was short one Republican vote needed for a favourable recommendation because Senator Johnny Isakson was delivering a eulogy in his home state of Georgia.

Rather than postpone voting until his return very late on Monday, Mr Coons agreed to allowed his vote to be recorded as present so the committee could finish its work.
Labour members must acknowledge the party has an issue with anti-Semitism, a shadow cabinet minister said as Jeremy Corbyn prepared to meet Jewish community leaders.

The 5pm showdown comes after protests, criticism from Labour MPs and international condemnation over the way the Opposition leader has dealt with hostility to Jews.

After weeks of turmoil over the party leaders handling of the issue, shadow communities secretary Andrew Gwynne said Mr Corbyn must work to rebuild trust with the Jewish community.

Organisations representing Jewish communities will call on Mr Corbyn to use his personal authority to drive through changes to wipe out the problem in the party.

Letter from the Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council to Jeremy Corbyn

The Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) said there must be action not words when they accepted his invitation to meet.

Labour Jewish MPs spoke out about anti-Semitism in the party during a debate in Parliament and warned enough is enough.

Holocaust survivor Susan Pollack called for Mr Corbyn to show leadership in tackling anti-Semitism.

He has to act and he has to show his leadership, and then I think thats the only way we will have respect, she told BBC Radio 4s Today.

Asked if Mr Corbyn had shown leadership on the issue, Mr Gwynne sidestepped the question, saying: I think what we have now got to do  and we have got an issue in the Labour Party  we have got to acknowledge that that problem exists and, for some, that is a challenge.

For me, the Labour Party was created to fight injustice, to fight against prejudice, to fight against hatred, and that we are where we are really hurts me, so we have got to act.

As Jews across our country start to prepare for #Passover, I would like to wish everyone in the Jewish community a Chag Sameach. pic.twitter.com/vUmxnJHWGw  Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) March 30, 2018

He told Today that Labour had to rebuild confidence in the Jewish community adding: I think its my job as shadow communities secretary to try and rebuild some of that trust, and its Jeremys job as the leader of the Labour Party to try and rebuild some of that trust.

Mr Gwynne acknowledged that the partys disciplinary process had taken far, far too long in deciding cases such as former London mayor Ken Livingstone.

Jenny Manson, co-chair of the Corbyn-supporting Jewish Voice for Labour, said none of us in my group have ever experienced any anti-Semitism in the Labour Party and warned against a witch hunt.

She said: It is a misery and a tragedy that Margaret Hodge and other Labour MPs have received nasty anti-Semitic comments, I suspect most of these have been on social media and I suspect that no-one has actually worked hard to find out exactly who this nasty stuff is coming from.

The Board of Deputies, made up of almost 300 deputies directly elected by synagogues and community organisations, and the JLC, a charity supporting the Jewish community, took the unusual step of protesting outside Parliament in March before delivering an open letter to a meeting of Labour MPs and peers about their concerns.

JLC and @BoardofDeputies statement on Labour Party roundtable pic.twitter.com/6BQynjYdY4  Jewish Leadership Council (@JLC_uk) April 17, 2018

The Labour leader has said he is happy to meet the two bodies without any preconditions and pledged to hear their concerns about tackling anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.

In a letter accepting his invitation, the organisations thanked Mr Corbyn for his commitment to addressing the anguish caused by anti-Semitic incidents.

However, they said recent events had not been reassuring for Jewish people in Britain and told him he must root anti-Semitism out of his party.

They later refused to attend a roundtable meeting Labour had proposed to hold on Wednesday with a wider group of Jewish organisations that reportedly included Jewish Voice for Labour, a recently-established group that has downplayed the issue.

The Labour leader has admitted the party needs to do better in the fight against abuse and has issued an apology for the pain and hurt caused by anti-Semitism.
The Foreign Offices top official has apologised after calling one of the most revered Sikh temples a mosque.

Sir Simon McDonald said I was wrong after inadvertently referring to the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India, as the Golden Mosque.

His blunder came as Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn promised he would launch an independent inquiry into Britains military role in the Indian armys 1984 raid on the Golden Temple if he became prime minister.

The Golden Temple of Amritsar (Chris Ison/PA)

I was wrong: I am sorry. I should of course have said the Golden Temple or, better, Sri Harmandir Sahib. https://t.co/4rJ4mwOdCJ  Simon McDonald (@SimonMcDonaldUK) April 24, 2018

Sir Simons embarrassing gaffe was made on Twitter, where the Foreign Office permanent secretary referred to a picture of the Golden Mosque being presented to the UKs deputy high commissioner.

After realising the error, he said: I was wrong: I am sorry. I should of course have said the Golden Temple or, better, Sri Harmandir Sahib.

Bhai Amrik Singh, chairman of the Sikh Federation, said: This was a major gaffe by a top civil servant and totally unacceptable.

It demonstrates a remarkable level of ignorance from someone in his position.

He added: In our view, a public apology and admitting the mistake is not enough.

What we need is a commitment from the UK Government and senior civil servants to root out such ignorance and discrimination or we will continue to face hate, abuse and threats of violence.

Good youve admitted you were wrong & apologised within 24 hours as requested. Head of @foreignoffice shouldnt have made fundamental mistake & upset so many Sikhs & non-Sikhs about Sri Harmandir Sahib. @HeadUKCivServ used term in 2014 cover up for @David_Cameron @WilliamJHague  Sikh Federation UK (@SikhFedUK) April 24, 2018

The mistake is particularly sensitive given the suspicions about the extent of UK involvement in the 1984 raid.

Labour leader Mr Corbyns pledge to carry out a probe into the assault, which is said to have left thousands of people dead, will be included in the partys next manifesto.

Speaking at a Sikh Federation event in Watford, Mr Corbyn said: You can be very sure that, whenever the election comes, it will be in the next manifesto  its a commitment thats going to be there and we will honour that commitment.

A 2014 investigation by David Camerons Cabinet secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood, said a British officers advice to Indian authorities about how to resolve a stand-off with Sikh dissidents was ignored by army chiefs who ordered the offensive.

Mr Cameron said there was absolutely no evidence of UK government involvement in the raid on the Golden Temple complex.

The finding was met with disappointment by British Sikh groups and the Sikh Federation said Sir Jeremys review was limited in scope.
Millicent Fawcett was a leading suffragist and instrumental in securing votes for women in 1918.

Born in the seaside town of Aldeburgh, Suffolk, in 1847, she was sent to a London boarding school and took an interest in womens suffrage aged 19 after hearing a speech by radical MP John Stuart Mill.

Her sister, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, faced an almighty struggle to become the first female doctor in the UK and this fight spurred on Fawcett in her campaign for female equality.

She married Henry Fawcett, a politician and professor of political economy at Cambridge, in 1867 and made her first speech on womens suffrage in 1868.

Anyone else got goosebumps? So excited for this special day. Join us at Parliament Sq., 11am (arrive early for a good spot) to see this historic moment. Then become a Fawcett member. There never was a better time! https://t.co/gnde8Lim7Z @MayorofLondon #CourageCalls @CCriadoPerez pic.twitter.com/WkXiow6iWH  Fawcett Society (@fawcettsociety) April 24, 2018

She became a well-known activist and speaker before becoming president of the National Union of Womens Suffrage Societies in 1897. This group joined together lots of suffrage factions, including Emmeline Pankhursts suffragette movement.

Fawcett was an advocate for peaceful protest, using non-violent demonstrations and petitions to MPs. She believed that by demonstrating that women were intelligent, law-abiding citizens then they would be seen to be responsible enough to participate fully in politics.

In 1913, Emily Davison threw herself under King George Vs horse at Epsom in a bid to draw attention to the plight of women in the UK. Shortly afterwards, Fawcett made a speech in which the line courage calls to courage everywhere was said.

The phrase is on the banner which Fawcett is holding on the bronze statue in Parliament Square.

Tate Britain staff look at Annie Swynnertons portrait of suffragist Millicent Fawcett (Philip Toscano/PA)

In 1918, the Representation of the People act was passed, granting voting rights to some women in the UK. To qualify, you had to be over 30 years old and hold 5 of property, or have a husband who did.

In 1928, voting rights were extended to all women over 21, in line with men, and an 81-year-old Fawcett watched on in the public gallery in the House of Commons as the bill was passed.

She died one year later.

Today, the Fawcett Society, named in her honour, continues to fight for gender equality and in February this year Fawcett won a BBC Radio 4 poll for the most influential women of the past 100 years.
A self-proclaimed royalist town crier who stood on the steps of the hospital where the Duchess of Cambridge was giving birth has had the internet treatment  hes become a meme.

Tony Appleton, whose position is unofficial and not connected to the royals, loudly told the crowd outside the Lindo Wing at St Marys Hospital that Kate Middleton and Prince William were having a son  shortly after the sex was announced.

This image is meme-able. pic.twitter.com/X0ZDxKS9kx  Katelyn Burns (@transscribe) April 23, 2018

Naturally, Tonys bellowing was indeed meme-able.

Tony Appleton told the crowd that Kate Middleton and Prince William were having a son (Kirsty Wigglesworth/PA)

Heres nine things hes been shouting about, according to Twitter.

1. Friends best kept secrets

Me 10 seconds after the friend who swore me to secrecy leaves the room. pic.twitter.com/8fizDYhkUp  Justin Myers (@theguyliner) April 23, 2018

2. The anguish of treading on Lego

Rare shot of town crier stepping on a Lego. pic.twitter.com/B2XoiXEgK5  Alan Ferrier (@alanferrier) April 23, 2018

3. Alan Partridge references

4. Keeping it down

MAY I REMIND YOU THIS IS A LIBRARY? pic.twitter.com/9PUPjkOvJ2  Craig Deeley  (@craiguito) April 23, 2018

5. Not paying for specialist movies, honest

AND FINALLY, I WOULD LKE TO REMIND THE PUBLIC THAT I NEVER WATCHED THOSE FILMS DESPITE THE 900 BILL FROM VIRGIN MEDIA pic.twitter.com/6iAybgfBY6  Alistair Coleman (@alistaircoleman) April 23, 2018

6. Just mentioning the name of a film

7. Teaching pointers

8. Movie preferences

TANGLED WAS BETTER THAN FROZEN pic.twitter.com/cM1baeBG0H  Neil Slorance (@neilslorance) April 23, 2018

9. References to other memes

I LOVE THIS WOMAN AND HER CURVY BODY. AS A TEENAGER, I WAS OFTEN TEASED BY MY FRIENDS FOR MY ATTRACTION TO GIRLS ON THE THICKER SIDE pic.twitter.com/6h9yxxocDa  Mollie Goodfellow (@hansmollman) April 23, 2018

Preach Tony the town crier. Preach.
The discovery in Iran of a mummified body near the site of a former royal mausoleum has raised speculation it could be the remains of the late Reza Shah Pahlavi, founder of the Pahlavi dynasty.

Hassan Khalilabadi, the head of Tehran city councils cultural heritage and tourism committee, said it is possible the mummy is Reza Shah.

The body was discovered during construction work at a Shiite shrine in Tehran, Mr Khalilabadi told the state-run IRNA news agency.

Reza Shah Pahlavi handing his second son, Ali Reza, a commission as officer in Tehran (AP)

Reza Shah pushed to modernise Iran before being deposed and dying in exile during the Second World War.

His son, Mohammad Reza Shah, became Irans last shah before the 1979 Islamic Revolution installed the countrys Shiite-dominated theocracy.

His grandson, the US-based exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, warned Iran on Twitter not to hide anything.

The recent find and the speculation it triggered puts new hurdles in the way of the Islamic Republics efforts to fully erase the countrys dynastic past, which includes the destruction of the autocrats tomb immediately after the 1979 revolution.

Yet, as disaffection and economic problems grow ahead of the Islamic Revolutions 40th anniversary, mystique around Irans age of monarchies persists even with its own history of abuses.

Construction workers discovered the mummified remains at the Shiite shrine of Abdul Azim, whose minarets once rose behind Reza Shahs own mausoleum. A digger pulling away dirt and debris uncovered the body, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.

Pictures of the body, as well as construction workers posing with it, quickly hit social media in Iran.

Authorities say they will need to conduct DNA tests to confirm whose body it is.

Reza Shahs own rise gave birth to modern Iran itself, then still called Persia until he ordered foreign diplomats to cease using the name.

He came to power in 1925, ruling as an absolute autocrat who used taxes and the countrys burgeoning oil revenues to rapidly modernise the nation.

His decisions echo today, particularly his 1936 decree banning women from wearing long, flowing black robes known as chadors.

He ordered men to wear Western clothes and bring their wives to public functions with their hair uncovered, borrowing from the secularisation of Turkeys first President Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, a contemporary.

The ban became a source of humiliation for some pious Muslim women in the country. Shiite clerics, angry over his secular beliefs, purges and mass arrests of opponents, held grudges that would stir up the coming revolution.

Controversies over the chador and hijab persist in Iran today.

Irans strong trade ties with Germany, Reza Shahs push for neutrality amid the coming of the Second World War and Western fears over its oil supplies falling to the Nazis ultimately sparked a Russian-British invasion of the country in 1941.

Reza Shah abdicated in favour of his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, at the insistence of the occupying British forces.

Reza Shah ended up in South Africa, dying there in 1944. His body was taken to Cairo, mummified and held for years before returning to Iran. A grand mausoleum near Tehran held his body for years, which then-US president Richard Nixon visited in 1972.

After 1979, however, Islamists viewed the mausoleum as an affront.

Iranian cleric Ayatollah Sadegh Khalkhali, who ordered the executions of hundreds after the revolution, led a mob of supporters who used sledgehammers and other tools to demolish the mausoleum.

Khalkhali later would write in his memoirs that he believed the shahs family took Reza Shahs body when they fled the country. The shahs family, however, maintained the body remained in Iran. His son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was buried in Cairo after dying of cancer in 1980.

Today, Irans youth remain fascinated by the time before the revolution.

Television period pieces have focused on the Pahlavi dynasty, including the recent state TV series The Enigma Of The Shah, the most expensive series ever produced to air in the country.
The official commemorative souvenirs marking the birth of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridges baby son have gone on sale.

Featuring a lion cub and unicorn inspired by the Royal Arms, the Royal Collection china is decorated with gold ribbons, silver pompoms and a coronet-inspired pattern.

The china plate commemorating the birth of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridges third child (Royal Collection Trust/Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2018/PA)

The pieces bear the words Welcome to our new royal baby, and display William and Kates coronet.

The duke and duchesss baby son  their third child  arrived on Monday, weighing 8lb 7oz, and the prince of Cambridge made his public debut on the steps of the Lindo Wing, wrapped in a white blanket.

Proud parents William and Kate and their newborn son (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

The official range includes a pillbox costing 35, a tankard for 39 and a plate priced at 49.

The Royal Collection tankard, priced at 39 (Royal Collection Trust/Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2018/PA)

Picture

Each item in the range is gilded with 22-carat gold and made in Stoke-on-Trent using traditional methods.

There is also a pram-shaped woven decoration, made with glistening threads, delicate pearl detail, and embroidered on the back with Royal Baby 2018, for 14.95.

The royal baby souvenir embroidered pram decoration (Royal Collection Trust/Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2018/PA)

The official commemorative range is available at Royal Collection Trust shops and online at www.royalcollection.org.uk/shop
Rising Chinese demand for products made from elephant skin is driving poaching and posing an even greater threat to Asias wild herds than the ivory trade, according to a report by a British-based conservation group.

The group Elephant Family said the threat is currently greatest in Burma, but warned that the Asian elephant could become extinct in half of the areas where it now ranges in the region if the problem escalates.

It said the threat exceeds that from the ivory trade because poachers are targeting any elephant, not just those with tusks, and threatens elephants that are scattered in poorly protected areas.

A new report warns of the risk to Asian elephants (Peter Byrne/PA)

Asian elephants are being killed illegally for their skin. What are the criminals using the skin for?  Elephant Family (@elephantfamily) April 22, 2018

Both - Asian elephant skin is being dried and ground into powder for medicines or added to elephant fat to make a cream for skin conditions. The subcutaneous layer, rich in capillaries, is fashioned into beads. Find out more tomorrow when we launch our new investigative report. https://t.co/X2DDVeP8AN  Elephant Family (@elephantfamily) April 23, 2018

The reports authors said their research shows that the elephants skin is ground into powder and sold in China as a cure for stomach ailments, as well as being fashioned into beads for necklaces, bracelets and pendants.

The products are sold in physical markets and increasingly over the internet.

Belinda Stewart-Cox, Elephant Familys director of conservation, said from the time the group started monitoring in 2014, there has been a major ramping up of the advertising, the promotional pitches and the apparent sales.

She said it seems as if there are marketers and profiteers behind this looking to ratchet up what has, I think, long been a very, very minor incidental or local market trade of no great scale, or no scale that was threatening, anyway.

Researchers identified 50 individual Chinese traders selling through social media forums. They said labels are printed in Chinese, prices are quoted in Chinese currency and sales online are conducted in Mandarin.

The report  Skinned: The Growing Appetite For Asian Elephants  also said that Chinas State Forestry Administration has apparently licensed some products that contain elephant skin.

At a time when China has shown a commitment to ending its domestic trade in elephant ivory, it would be troubling and perverse to find that, at the same time, it is creating a new, legal demand for elephant skin products, it said.

Ms Stewart-Cox said her organisation has reached out to Chinese officials and has worked closely with Burma officials to address the issue.

It is our intention to facilitate collaboration if possible, she said. I think we should pull together on this, there is no time, Burma is losing too many elephants, too fast.

Next week we will be reaching out to our @twitter #family for your help to spread awareness for #Asian #elephants. One RT could help protect these amazing animals.  https://t.co/eGdEfL4bYn pic.twitter.com/RWnZWs08DA  Elephant Family (@elephantfamily) April 18, 2018

Elephant Family puts the current size of Burmas wild population at approximately 2,000.

Quoting figures from Burmas Forest Department, the group said that wild elephant deaths there have risen significantly in recent years, from 26 in 2013 to at least 61 in 2016, most of them due to poaching.

The ivory trade doesnt threaten the Asian elephant as severely as it threatens the African elephant because only male Asian elephants have tusks and quite a lot of those do not have tusks anyway, or little tusks; we dont get the really big tusks as much anymore, Ms Stewart-Cox said.

This trade is targeting males, females, juveniles and are indiscriminate, and that means that no elephant is safe.
Jeremy Corbyn said he would tell Jewish community leaders he has an absolute determination to ensure there is no anti-Semitism in Labour.

The partys leader will have talks with the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) on Tuesday afternoon after weeks of criticism of Labours handling of anti-Semitism allegations.

Mr Corbyns comments came after a senior shadow cabinet minister said Labour members must acknowledge the party has an issue with anti-Semitism.

NEW Jeremy Corbyn tells me what he's going to say to Jewish groups at their crunch meeting later today. pic.twitter.com/tWWPFLXLJP  Carl Dinnen (@carldinnen) April 24, 2018

The 5pm showdown between Mr Corbyn and the Jewish community leaders comes after protests and criticism from Labour MPs and international condemnation over the way he has dealt with hostility to Jews.

Asked what his message would be, Mr Corbyn told ITV News: We are going to have a good discussion, a good discussion about their concerns and about my absolute determination to ensure there is no anti-Semitism anywhere, in any party in Britain, including my own.

Writing in the Evening Standard, Mr Corbyn apologised for the pain caused by the problem.

We have not done enough fully to get to grips with the problem, and for that the Jewish community and our own Jewish members deserve an apology, he said.

My party and I are sorry for the hurt and distress caused.

He acknowledged party process had been simply not fully fit for purpose and we did not look closely enough at ourselves.

Organisations representing Jewish communities will call on Mr Corbyn to use his personal authority to drive through changes to wipe out the problem in the party.

Letter from the Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council to Jeremy Corbyn

The Board of Deputies of British Jews and the (JLC) said there must be action not words when they accepted his invitation to meet.

Labour Jewish MPs spoke out about anti-Semitism in the party during a debate in Parliament and warned enough is enough.

Holocaust survivor Susan Pollack called for Mr Corbyn to show leadership in tackling anti-Semitism.

He has to act and he has to show his leadership, and then I think thats the only way we will have respect, she told BBC Radio 4s Today.

'Anti-Semitism is a vile, evil kind of behaviour that doesn't necessarily stop with the Jews but reaches many others' - Holocaust survivor Susan Pollack from @HolocaustUK says @JeremyCorbyn needs to act #r4today pic.twitter.com/TaJx16w9td  BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) April 24, 2018

Asked if Mr Corbyn had shown leadership on the issue, shadow communities secretary Andrew Gwynne sidestepped the question, saying: I think what we have now got to do  and we have got an issue in the Labour Party  we have got to acknowledge that that problem exists and, for some, that is a challenge.

For me, the Labour Party was created to fight injustice, to fight against prejudice, to fight against hatred, and that we are where we are really hurts me, so we have got to act.

He told Today that Labour had to rebuild confidence in the Jewish community adding: I think its my job as shadow communities secretary to try and rebuild some of that trust, and its Jeremys job as the leader of the Labour Party to try and rebuild some of that trust.

Mr Gwynne acknowledged the partys disciplinary process had taken far, far too long in deciding cases such as former London mayor Ken Livingstone.

Jenny Manson, co-chair of the Corbyn-supporting Jewish Voice for Labour, said none of us in my group have ever experienced any anti-Semitism in the Labour Party and warned against a witch hunt.

She said: It is a misery and a tragedy that Margaret Hodge and other Labour MPs have received nasty anti-Semitic comments, I suspect most of these have been on social media and I suspect that no-one has actually worked hard to find out exactly who this nasty stuff is coming from.

The Board of Deputies, made up of almost 300 deputies directly elected by synagogues and community organisations, and the JLC, a charity supporting the Jewish community, took the unusual step of protesting outside Parliament in March before delivering an open letter to a meeting of Labour MPs and peers about their concerns.

JLC and @BoardofDeputies statement on Labour Party roundtable pic.twitter.com/6BQynjYdY4  Jewish Leadership Council (@JLC_uk) April 17, 2018

The Labour leader has said he is happy to meet the two bodies without any preconditions and pledged to hear their concerns about tackling anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.

In a letter accepting his invitation, the organisations thanked Mr Corbyn for his commitment to addressing the anguish caused by anti-Semitic incidents.

However, they said recent events had not been reassuring for Jewish people in Britain and told him he must root anti-Semitism out of his party.

They later refused to attend a roundtable meeting Labour had proposed to hold on Wednesday with a wider group of Jewish organisations that reportedly included Jewish Voice for Labour, a recently-established group that has downplayed the issue.

The Labour leader has admitted the party needs to do better in the fight against abuse and has issued an apology for the pain and hurt caused by anti-Semitism.
The owner of Hamleys has entered into discussions to acquire a stake in troubled department store House of Fraser, it can be revealed.

C Banner International Holdings, which bought Hamleys in 2015, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Nanjing Xinjiekou department store, a company affiliated with House of Frasers owner Sanpower.

The Chinese firms signed the pact in Hong Kong on Tuesday with an official announcement due later in the day, sources told the Press Association.

The owner of Hamleys has taken an interest in House of Fraser (PA)

The agreement signifies that C Banner and Nanjing have entered into talks about a sale of a stake in House of Fraser, although discussions are still at an early stage.

Shanghai-listed Nanjing owns an 89% stake in House of Fraser, and is a subsidiary of Sanpower, a Chinese conglomerate chaired by billionaire Yuan Yafei.

Nanjing is also in discussions with tourism company Wuji Wenhua over selling a 51% stake in the British department store.

The talks with Wuji Wenhua were first announced in March, but Sanpower did not rule out selling a part of its House of Fraser holdings to a third party.

The potential sale of a stake in House of Fraser has raised questions about Mr Yafeis commitment to the troubled retailer.

However, Mr Yafei has said he is committed to House of Fraser as it puts together a turnaround strategy.

It is unclear at this stage how a combination of two of the best known names in British retail would play out, but the move comes at a delicate time for House of Fraser.

The British department store has now enlisted advisers at KPMG to look at a possible restructuring that could involve store closures.

KPMG is exploring a number of options for House of Fraser, including a Company Voluntary Agreement (CVA), a type of insolvency procedure that would allow the retailer to close stores and cut rents on other outlets.

Several household names have pursued CVAs so far this year in a bid to save costs, including New Look and Byron.
The Brexit department has apologised after David Davis made a surprise visit to the Irish border.

The Brexit Secretary spent two hours near the border in Northern Ireland on Monday, but the trip drew criticism from Sinn Fein because the areas local MP was not informed.

Mickey Brady, MP for Newry and Armagh, accused Mr Davis of avoiding a meeting with him because he is afraid to face the truth about Brexit.

David Davis visited the Northern Ireland border (Ian Forsyth/PA)

Out of courtesy and protocol he should have informed you as the local MP. Shows his contempt to locally elected representatives who know more about the impacts of Brexit than he will ever know. https://t.co/2Emie6oe1A  Paul Maskey (@PaulMaskeyMP) April 23, 2018

A spokeswoman for the Governments Department for Exiting the European Union said of the lack of notification: This was an administrative oversight for which we are happy to apologise.

The DUP were not given notice of the trip either but the spokeswoman said the Northern Ireland Office had been informed ahead of the visit.

Mr Bradys party colleague, West Belfast MP Paul Maskey, said Mr Davis had shown contempt for local politicians and not followed protocol in arranging the visit.

He tweeted: Out of courtesy and protocol he should have informed you (Mickey Brady) as the local MP.

Shows his contempt to locally elected representatives who know more about the impacts of Brexit than he will ever know.

The trip, made almost two years after the EU referendum, was little more than a box-ticking exercise, the SDLPs Claire Hanna said.

The South Belfast MLA, who is the partys spokeswoman on Brexit, said Mr Davis should have been open to addressing local concerns during the visit.

She said: Maybe the minister is troubled that we might actually have asked him if he learned anything and how he plans to stop a hard border here when his Government continues to dig its heels in on the customs union.

Today I started what promises to be a busy week in Northern Ireland. As we leave the EU it's essential both the UK and EU do what it takes to keep the border, which I saw this morning, free from physical infrastructure. We are determined to get this agreed by October. pic.twitter.com/W4zSuRSGRG  David Davis (@DavidDavisMP) April 23, 2018

This visit was nothing more than a box-ticking exercise. The border shouldnt have just been an afterthought months down the line but should have been a priority for the Brexit Minister.

Following the short trip, during which Mr Davis was escorted by former senior police officer and Cooperation Ireland chief executive Peter Sheridan, he reiterated the Governments determination to avoid a hard border on the island.

Mr Davis tweeted: As we leave the EU its essential both the UK and EU do what it takes to keep the border, which I saw this morning, free from physical infrastructure.

We are determined to get this agreed by October.

As part of the trip Mr Davis visited an autism centre in Middletown in Co Armagh as well as a nearby food processing company.

He also saw a former customs post between counties Armagh and Monaghan.
A man has been arrested in connection with the death of a Glasgow woman who disappeared two months ago, police said.

Julie Reilly, 47, from Shieldhall Road in Govan, was reported missing on February 15 after failing to turn up to several appointments.

Police confirmed her death on Monday and said they were treating her disappearance as murder.

Julie Reilly was reported missing on February 15 (Police Scotland/PA)

Inquiries are continuing into her death but Police Scotland said an arrest had been made.

A spokesman said: Police Scotland can confirm that a 41-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the death of Julie Reilly, who was reported missing on Thursday February 15.

Enquiries are ongoing.
A Modigliani nude has a 150 million dollar (107 million) price tag  the highest estimate ever placed on a work of art at auction.

Nu Couche (Sur Le Cote Gauche) is said by Sothebys to be the greatest painting from Modiglianis series of once-controversial nudes.

Completed in 1917, it was also the largest painting of his career.

Modiglianis Nu Couche (Sur Le Cote gauche) (Sothebys)

The record for a work actually sold at auction still stands with Leonardo da Vincis Salvator Mundi, which went under the hammer for 450 million US dollars (then 341 million) in 2017.

But the Modigliani painting breaks the 140 million dollars record for an estimate, previously held by Picassos Les Femmes dAlger (Version O), from 2015.

Simon Shaw, co-head worldwide of Sothebys impressionist and modern art department, said: This painting reimagines the nude for the modern era.

Modigliani depicted his models as confident and self-possessed in their sexuality.

Nu Couche is an incredibly sensual image, with the sitters gaze meeting the viewers head-on in truly mesmerising fashion.

While situating itself within a classical canon of nude painting, the work is radically innovative in style.

He said of Modiglianis paintings: Together these pictures signal a watershed in perhaps the greatest tradition in art  there is the nude before Modigliani, and there is the nude after Modigliani.

The painting featured at Tate Moderns recent show on the Italian-born artist, who scandalised society with his paintings depicting body hair.

It will lead Sothebys Evening Sale of Impressionist and Modern Art in New York on May 14.
Fewer Scots are happy with the care they get from their family doctor, a major new survey suggests.

More than 130,000 people were questioned as part of the Health and Care Experience Survey  with just over four fifths (83%) of those who took part rating their GP practice positively.

That is down from 85% two years ago, and compares to a satisfaction level of 90% in 2009-10  the first year the research was carried out.

The number of Scots who are happy with GP care has dropped to 83% (Anthony Devlin/PA)

One in 20 (5%) of those surveyed ranked the care provided by their GP practice as poor or very poor  up from 2% eight years ago.

The 2017-18 survey also found 87% of people found it easy to contact their GP practice, while more than nine out 10 (93%) were able to get an appointment within two days.

Patients are feeling the impact of the GP crisis.



The government must published the primary care workforce plan.



Shona Robison has relied on the goodwill of local practice staff to keep services going for far too long.https://t.co/pcQjQiqQkx pic.twitter.com/BJHkQTLlyu  Scottish Lib Dems (@scotlibdems) April 24, 2018

Over two thirds of people (67%) rated the arrangements for getting to see a doctor positively, down from 70% in 2015-16 and 81% in 2009-10.

Fewer people reported being able to book appointments three working days or more in advance  with the proportion of patients able to do this falling from 77% in 2015-16 to 68% in 2017-18.

This is significantly below the 90% standard set by the Scottish Government and NHS boards as part of local delivery plans.

The report said: Often an individuals first and only contact with the NHS is through their GP practice.

It is vital therefore that every member of the public has ready and appropriate access to their local primary medical services to ensure better outcomes and experiences for patients.

Conservative health spokesman Miles Briggs said the research showed the Scottish Government needed to increase funding for family doctors.

The MSP said: This survey reveals just how crucial a role GPs play in the whole health service. Without them, the entire system would collapse.

The SNP government should use this positive survey as a jolt to the system.

It needs to increase the proportion of health funding they get, and make sure theyre equipped for the future challenges weve all been warned about.

Liberal Democrat health spokesman Alex Cole-Hamilton warned that patients were feeling the impact of a GP crisis.

He said: We know a quarter of practices have vacancies, up from just 9% five years ago. GPs are working up to 90 hours in a typical week and under the SNP the number of GPs taking early retirement has trebled.

That is why we urgently need to see the primary care workforce plan that is months late, despite doctors repeatedly warning that they are busier than ever.

We also need to see a mental health practitioner in every local surgery, taking some of the pressure off GPs and ending the scandal of year-long waits for treatment.

New stats show a rise in the number of people offered an urgent appointment at their GP practice within 48 hours, from 91% to 93%, with all health boards meeting the minimum standard: https://t.co/AcCvy10Eak  Scot Gov Health (@scotgovhealth) April 24, 2018

Health Secretary Shona Robison said: In the last year there has been a welcome rise in the number of people offered an urgent appointment at their GP practice within 48 hours, from 91% to 93%, with all health boards meeting the minimum standard of 90%.

The overall rating of care remains high and the new GP contract, backed by investment of 110 million this year, will ensure GPs can spend even more time with patients when they really need to see them.

There will also be new investment in the wider multi-disciplinary teams to support GPs and improve patient care.
The parents of a 23-month-old boy who has been at the centre of a life-support treatment battle are to again ask a High Court judge to let the youngster travel to an Italian hospital, a campaign group helping the couple says.

Mr Justice Hayden is scheduled to oversee another hearing in Alfie Evans case, in the Family Division of the High Court in Manchester, in the next few hours.

A spokeswoman for the Christian Legal Centre, which is assisting Tom Evans and Kate James, said the judge would be asked to allow medical experts in Italy to examine Alfie.

She said medics at Alder Hey Childrens Hospital in Liverpool had stopped providing ventilation support to Alfie shortly after 9pm on Monday.

But she said Alfie continued to breathe independently.

Alfie has survived much longer than the doctors predicted, lending support to the request from Alfies parents for Alfie to be seen by medical experts in Italy, she said.

An air ambulance is now waiting outside Alder Hey Hospital ready to take Alfie to hospital in Italy.

She said a barrister representing Alfies parents, who are both in their 20s and from Liverpool, would argue that it could not be in Alfies best interests to be left to die in Alder Hey.

The spokeswoman added: He will argue that Alfie should be allowed to travel to Italy where doctors are ready to care for him.

Alfie Evans (Alfies Army/Facebook)

Alfies parents have lost two rounds of court fights.Judges have heard that Alfie, born on May 9 2016, is in a semi-vegetative state and has a degenerative neurological condition doctors have not definitively diagnosed.

Specialists say his brain has been eroded.

In February, Mr Justice Hayden had ruled that doctors at Alder Hey could stop treating Alfie against the wishes of his parents following hearings in the Family Division of the High Court in London and Liverpool.

Specialists at Alder Hey said life-support treatment should stop and Mr Justice Hayden said he accepted medical evidence which showed that further treatment was futile.

He said flying Alfie to a foreign hospital would be wrong and pointless.

Court of Appeal judges upheld his decisions. Supreme Court justices and European Court of Human Rights judges refused to intervene.

The couple then argued Alfie was being wrongly detained at Alder Hey.

Mr Justice Hayden dismissed that application. Appeal judges upheld Mr Justice Haydens decision.

On Friday, Supreme Court justices said they would not intervene. On Monday, EHCR judges also refused to intervene.
Business Secretary Greg Clark has waved through the sale of one Britains oldest engineering firms to a controversial investment group.

Mr Clarke dismissed claims of a predatory takeover as he confirmed the sale of GKN to Melrose Industries in the House of Commons.

Labour had called for the sale to be blocked on national security grounds, as the company provides many Ministry of Defence contracts, but this was rejected.

Explaining the decision Mr Clark told MPs of the numerous assurances given by Melrose as part of the 8.1 billion takeover deal.

Greg Clark said statutory intervention is not required (Victoria Jones/PA)

He said: The MoD has completed its detailed analysis and has agreed with Melrose a series of undertakings specifically to ensure that the Government is informed in advance of any plans to divest a business, a component of the business or assets which engage in activities that the Ministry of Defence considers to have national security implications.

Mr Clark said the Government had been given suitable protections from any subsequent sale of the business and had been given assurances over the continuation of contractual obligations to protect intellectual property and classified information.

He added: Melrose have also agreed to meet with me and my officials every six months to provide updates on their ownership of GKN.

On the basis of the commitments given relating to national security, the Ministry of Defence concluded that statutory intervention is not required.

Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey told ministers the assurances were not sufficient to guarantee security of the long-term prospects of the company or the workforce.

She said: Melrose are reportedly short-termist in their outlook which undermines the long-term thinking required in defence projects.

What we needed today from the secretary was not just a waving through of the deal, we needed action both in terms of obtaining concrete assurances from Melrose on the future of GKN and its workforce, but also clear plans to reform and widen our takeover regime to protect British businesses.

I fear the short-term predators already smell their next victim and its not just Melrose, its Britains industrial future.

Mr Clark hit back telling Ms Long-Bailey she had prejudiced her position by advancing the takeover should be blocked from the outset and had given away the ability to have influence.

The Business Secretary added: This is the responsible way to proceed and she would do the employees and stakeholders of GKN a service if she would engage more forensically in future.

Melrose won its takeover battle to buy GKN in March after securing the backing of the engineering giants shareholders.

A total of 52.43% investor votes were cast in favour of the deal, just above the 50% plus 1 share threshold.

Its victory brought to a close a bitter battle that has raged since January, with unions and MPs warning of job cuts and asset stripping.

GKN dates back to the 1900s and was instrumental in wartime manufacturing.

The firm became a target following profit warnings in October and November after problems at its US aerospace division sent shares tumbling.

GKN is headquartered in Redditch and has its biggest factory in Filton near Bristol, where it employs 1,454 workers.

Other plants in the UK include Cowes, Birmingham, Luton, Telford, Kings Norton, Portsmouth, Uxbridge, Leek and Oxford.
A transgender beautician has been locked up for attacking a constable weeks after she avoided jail for pushing an off-duty police officer onto the Tube track.

On February 20, Paris Bregazzi, 30, was handed a six-month jail term suspended for two years over an incident at Hanger Lane Station in Ealing, west London.

But she landed in the dock again for kneeing a constable in the chest and spraying perfume at a security guard at Waterloo Station.

Old Bailey Judge Rebecca Poulet QC noted Bregazzi had been treated compassionately over the Tube incident in light of her considerable personal problems.

Paris Bregazzi (left) will serve her sentence in a mens prison (Emily Pennink/PA)

But she jailed her for 10 months for the protection of the public.

Last July, Bregazzi had drunk four bottles of Prosecco and was arguing with a friend on the platform of Hanger Lane Station in Ealing, west London when Pc Sam Chegwin intervened.

Pc Chegwin pushed her in the chest in a defensive manner, ignorant of the fact she had recently had extensive breast surgery.

Bregazzi reacted by shoving him with force, sending him toppling onto the track, just inches from the line with a fast train seven minutes away.

Sentencing on February 20, Recorder Jeremy Dein QC told her it was lucky Pc Chegwin was not seriously hurt.

Paris Bregazzi had had breast surgery before the incident (Emily Pennink/PA)

He said: The fact is he could have been killed by falling and hitting his head, electrocuted or hit by an on-coming train but mercifully he maintained his consciousness and composure and managed to clamber back onto the platform.

The suspended sentence was referred to the Attorney General, who decided against any further action having read transcripts of the case.

On March 5, Bregazzi was seen on Stockwell Road, south London, acting aggressively to two elderly ladies at a bus stop and throwing wheelie bins in the street.

She lobbed a brick into the road, smashing the window of a parked Ford Fiesta, before walking in front of a bus, which swerved to avoid her, the court heard.

She went on to knee arresting officer Pc Florina Russ in the chest before being restrained by colleagues.

In interview, she explained she was not in a good mood.

Paris Bregazzi will be moved to HMP Belmarsh (Lindsey Parnaby/PA)

Bregazzi was on bail when she sprayed Lady Million perfume by Paco Rabanne at security officer Rashpal Mudahar at Waterloo Station on March 10.

She went on to cause 200 damage to a cell at Brixton police station by throwing food at the walls, covering them in tomato ketchup.

Crystal meth was found stuffed inside her bra, but she was not charged over it, the court heard.

Bregazzi admitted assault and criminal damage and was brought from custody at Thameside mens jail to be sentenced.

The defendant, who wore a leopard print dress, was also dealt with for breaching her suspended sentence.

Mitigating, James Kelly described her as a very damaged individual who is in emotional pain and has a problem with people in uniform.

He said transitioning from one sex to another was difficult enough without having to deal with others attitudes.

He told the court that Bregazzi was due to be transferred to Belmarsh prison from Thameside.

Bregazzi has 64 previous convictions and has been diagnosed with a histrionic personality disorder.

Judge Poulet activated the suspended sentence and added four more months in prison for the assaults.

The defendant was also given eight weeks for criminal damage to run concurrently.
The Scottish Government has rejected a deal aimed at ending a long-running Brexit dispute between Westminster and the devolved administrations  despite politicians in Wales giving it the go ahead.

Welsh Finance Secretary Mark Drakeford said changes had been put forward to the UK Governments EU Withdrawal Bill which would protect devolution.

Like their counterparts in Scotland, ministers in Wales had previously insisted the Bill was a power grab.

The Scottish Government is now alone in opposing the EU Withdrawal Bill after a deal was done between Westminster and the Welsh Government (Jane Barlow/PA)

Now the UK Government is to make a number of changes, including introducing a sunset clause limiting how long devolved powers returning from Brussels will remain in London after Britain leaves the European Union.

But Scottish Brexit Minister Mike Russell said the amendments, due to be published on Wednesday, could still see Holyroods powers restricted for up to seven years.

The bottom line on #EUWithdrawalBill at this stage is this - @ScotParl powers on vital matters could be restricted for up to seven years without our consent. @scotgov will not recommend consent to that - but we have put forward solutions that would form the basis of a deal.  Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) April 24, 2018

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has made clear her opposition to this in a letter to the Prime Minister.

This is not something I can recommend to the Scottish Parliament for approval, the SNP leader told Theresa May.

Mr Russell stressed the Scottish Government still wanted to reach a deal with the UK Government over the EU Withdrawal bill, but was clear ministers could not agree at any price, and certainly not at the price of undermining this Parliament and the essential work it does for all the people of Scotland.

In a statement to Holyrood he said: The key sticking point remains, as it always has been, clause 11 and the insistence of the UK Government on its right to take control of devolved powers.

Devolved powers returning from Brussels in the wake of Brexit would go first to the UK Government, so common frameworks can be established, but even with the sunset clause in place, Mr Russell claimed Westminster would have a free hand to pass legislation directly affecting matters such as fishing or the environment in Scotland for up to seven years, while Holyroods hands would be tied.

He said: It would be an outrage if the UK Government decided to use what the people of Scotland did not vote for  Brexit  to undermine what we did vote for  devolution.

The UK Government has no mandate to undermine the powers of the Scottish Parliament.

And, therefore, the Scottish Government will do everything we can to protect the devolution settlement people voted for so overwhelmingly more than 20 years ago.

A spokeswoman for Theresa May said the UK Government had put a considerable offer on the table that would see the vast majority of devolved powers automatically flow from the EU to Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh.

The spokeswoman added: Its disappointing that the Scottish Government have not yet felt able to agree with our amendment but we remain focused on engaging constructively with them to provide the certainty needed and make sure all parts of the UK are ready for our departure from the EU.

She continued: Tomorrow is the deadline for making changes to Clause 11 of the bill, so we need to table the amendment.

These talks have been going on for a considerable period of time. They have been constructive and we intend to carry on talking.

Delighted that agreement has been reached between UK and Welsh Govts on legislating for Brexit compatibly with devolution. Unsurprised that the wretched SNP would rather manufacture further grievance than get on board with the deal. A good day for the UK; a bad day for the SNP.  Adam Tomkins (@ProfTomkins) April 24, 2018

Mr Russell dismissed suggestions the Scottish Government had been about to sign up to the deal, but had been vetoed by Ms Sturgeon.

Scottish Conservative constitution spokesman Adam Tomkins accused the First Minister of having put her narrow nationalist agenda before the good of the country.

He said: The Welsh Government has signed up to this deal. Yet Nicola Sturgeon, alone, refuses because she prefers to pick a fight with the rest of the UK in order to keep her obsession with a second independence referendum alive.

She began using Brexit to push for that referendum on the morning after the vote, and she hasnt stopped trying since.

Scottish Labour Brexit spokesman Neil Findlay said: Reports that a deal was on the table, only to be vetoed by Nicola Sturgeon, would be a betrayal of the Scottish Parliaments good faith.

The fact the Government of Wales has reached an agreement but the Scottish Government has not is a real concern.

It would be wrong for the SNP Government to play politics with devolution in order to further their goal of independence.
Former President George HW Bush is responding and recovering to treatment at a Houston hospital for an infection that had spread to his blood, according to a family spokesman.

Mr Bush has been in hospital since Sunday, a day after attending the funeral of his wife, Barbara, who died last week at age 92.

The couple was married 73 years, longer than any other US presidential couple.

In a brief post on Twitter, family spokesman Jim McGrath said he could happily echo his report from Monday that the 93-year-old former president was responding to treatments and appears to be recovering.

Mr Bush had used a wheelchair and an electric scooter for mobility since developing a form of Parkinsons disease, and he has needed hospital treatment several times in recent years for respiratory problems and other infections.

Mr McGrath would not elaborate on the specifics of Mr Bushs condition, saying only that he would issue updates when we have something to update.

A year ago this month, the nations 41st president spent two weeks in the hospital for treatment of pneumonia and chronic bronchitis, a constant irritation of the lining of tubes that carry air to ones lungs.

George HW Bush at the funeral of his wife Barbara Bush (Jack Gruber /USA Today via AP)

His doctors said chronic bronchitis is a condition more prevalent with age and can aggravate the symptoms of pneumonia.

Mr Bush was also hospitalised, for 16 days, in January 2017 for pneumonia. During that hospital stay, which included time in intensive care, doctors inserted a breathing tube and connected him to a ventilator.

He was hospitalised in 2015 in Maine after falling at home and breaking a bone in his neck. In December 2014, he was hospitalised for about a week for shortness of breath, and he spent Christmas 2012 in intensive care for a bronchitis-related cough and other issues.
Irans Foreign Minister has warned the Trump administration that pulling out from a nuclear deal would undermine talks with North Korea by proving that America reneges on its promises.

Mohammad Javad Zarif said that if President Donald Trump withdraws, Iran would most likely abandon the deal as well.

Mr Zarif said Iran would no longer be bound by the deals international obligations.

Irans Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (Richard Drew/AP)

President Macron is correct in saying there's no "Plan B" on JCPOA. It's either all or nothing. European leaders should encourage President Trump not just to stay in the nuclear deal, but more importantly to begin implementing his part of the bargain in good faith.  Javad Zarif (@JZarif) April 23, 2018

That would free up Iran to resume enrichment activity beyond the limits imposed by the 2015 nuclear accord.

In an interview, Mr Zarif said Iran would welcome reduced tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

But he said President Trump is showing that the US is not a trustworthy, reliable negotiating partner.

Mr Zarif added that makes the US a rather unlikely partner for any other global agreements.
Posted 4/23/18

The Alpha Tau Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma hosted Missouri Lt. Gov. Mike Parson and his wife, Teresa Parson, at its April 14 meeting.The Parsons, co-chairs of the JAG Missouri Program, presented 
A man has been arrested and charged over the death of a Glasgow woman who disappeared two months ago.

Julie Reilly, 47, from Shieldhall Road in Govan, was reported missing on February 15 after failing to turn up to several appointments.

Police Scotland confirmed her death on Monday and said they were treating her disappearance as murder.

Julie Reilly was reported missing on February 15 (Police Scotland/PA)

A 41-year-old man was arrested earlier on Tuesday and has now been charged. He is due to appear at court on Wednesday

A force spokesman said: Police Scotland can confirm that a 41-year-old man has been arrested and charged in connection with the death of Julie Reilly, who was reported missing on Thursday 15 February 2018.

The man is due to appear at Glasgow Sheriff Court on Wednesday. A report will be submitted to the Procurator Fiscal.
President Donald Trump has declared that if the Iranians restart their nuclear programme, they will have bigger problems than they have ever had before.

President Trump issued his warning alongside French President Emmanuel Macron in the Oval Office, where the two allies discussed the multinational nuclear agreement, the war in Syria and trade issues during a day of meetings at the White House.

President Trump was asked by reporters if he might be willing to stay in the Iran agreement on nuclear enrichment. He replied, People know my views on the Iran deal.  Its insane, its ridiculous. It should have never been made.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif warned the Trump administration that pulling out would undermine Americas talks with North Korea by proving the US reneges on its promises.

He said in an interview that if President Trump withdraws, Iran would most likely abandon the deal as well.

Speaking before President Trumps comments with Mr Macron, Mr Zarif added that Iran would no longer be bound by the deals international obligations.

That would free Iran to resume enrichment activity beyond the limits imposed by the 2015 accord.

President Macron is correct in saying there's no "Plan B" on JCPOA. It's either all or nothing. European leaders should encourage President Trump not just to stay in the nuclear deal, but more importantly to begin implementing his part of the bargain in good faith.  Javad Zarif (@JZarif) April 23, 2018

President Trump remains publicly undecided on the deal, saying on Tuesday no one knows what he will do at the deadline he set to determine Americas position.

But he reminded his French counterpart of what he sees as flaws in the agreement, which he said fails to address ballistic missiles or Irans activities in Yemen or Syria.

President Trump suggested he was open to doing something on the Iran agreement as long as it was done strongly.

He told Mr Macron, We could have at least an agreement among ourselves very quickly.

Irans Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (Richard Drew/AP)

But when he was asked by reporters what that agreement would be, President Trump said, Youll find out.

During the press conference, Mr Macron added that he and President Trump discussed pursuing a new agreement with Iran on the broader regional concerns, including Syria.

But it was not clear whether President Trump would be willing to keep the US in the current deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in the meantime.

US military and intelligence officials have urged the president not to pull out of the agreement, arguing it has halted Irans nuclear programme.
A tearful Sheridan Smith has said she considered giving up performing after the death of her father.

The actress was devastated by the loss of Colin Smith in 2016 and pulled out of an appearance at the Royal Variety Performance shortly afterwards.

Her parents  Colin and Marilyn  formed the Country and Western duo, The Daltons, and Smith and her brother Damian, who is part of the band The Torn, often performed with them on stage.

Sheridan Smith was performing at the Royal Albert Hall (Ian West/PA)

During a show at the Royal Albert Hall, which follows the release of self-titled album Sheridan, she told the audience: I did the album for my dad. There was a time, as everyone goes through, I kind of just lost it and I was totally going to give it all up.

Still can't believe I'm playing my dream venue the Royal Albert Hall on the 24/4/18  #tour pic.twitter.com/dHKjV7Pq9t  Sheridan Smith (@Sheridansmith1) November 21, 2017

And the reason I didnt is you guys. Ive met so many of you guys and youre the reason I get up. Youre so supportive.

Introducing a rendition of This Is Me from the film The Greatest Showman, she said: This next song I would like to dedicate to my daddy. If my dad was here he would be saying shake every single one of your hands, he was so proud.

Smith opened her show with a rendition of Crazy by Gnarls Barkley and concluded it with an encore of I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor.

Throughout the performance she also treated fans to renditions of 9 to 5 by Dolly Parton and Shirley Basseys Big Spender.
A prosecutor has attacked US star Bill Cosbys defense witness, claiming her testimony was fictional.

Stewart Ryan rounded on Marguerite Jackson, a Temple University academic adviser who testified that Cosbys chief accuser, Andrea Constand, once spoke of falsely accusing a high-profile person of sexual assault so she could file a lawsuit.

He called it a fictional conversation.

Bill Cosby arrives for his sexual assault trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown (AP)

Mr Ryan also rejected the defence explanation that the 80-year-old US star paid nearly 3.4 million dollars (2.4m) to settle Constands civil lawsuit in 2006 because it was a nuisance and he feared bad publicity.

Cosby is charged with drugging and assaulting Constand at his home outside Philadelphia. He says their sexual encounter was consensual. His lawyers say Constand framed him so she could file suit.

Prosecutors said the star used his good-guy image as Americas Dad to gain unsuspecting womens trust before knocking them out with powerful drugs and violating them.

Delivering closing arguments Kristen Feden said Cosby is nothing like the image that he played on TV.

She said Cosby led a secret life that ran counter to the wholesome image he projected as Dr Cliff Huxtable on his top-rated 1980s sitcom.

The stars wife of 54 years was in the courtroom for his lawyers arguments.

They urged a jury to acquit the star claiming the charges are based on flimsy, silly, ridiculous evidence.

They branded Constand a pathological liar and highlighted more than a dozen inconsistencies in what Constand has said over the years about her relationship with Cosby and her allegations that he drugged and molested her at his suburban Philadelphia home.

The jury is expected to get the case later Tuesday.
TOKYO, April 23 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei share average fell on Monday as index heavyweight stocks such as SoftBank and Terumo lost ground, offsetting gains in financials, which rallied after U.S. yields rose.

The Nikkei ended down 0.3 percent at 22,088.04 points.

Medical equipment maker Terumo Corp tumbled 3.9 percent and SoftBank shed 1.2 percent, collectively knocking nearly 30 points off the Nikkei.

Apple suppliers were sold after Morgan Stanley forecast weak demand for the tech giant's latest iPhones, a day after Taiwan Semiconductor raised fears of softer smartphone sales.

Murata Manufacturing declined 1.3 percent and TDK Corp dropped 2.0 percent.

Financial stocks, which invest in foreign bonds, outperformed following a rise in U.S. yields, with insurers T&D Holdings up 4.2 percent, Dai-ichi Life surging 4.0 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group 2.0 percent higher.

The broader Topix was flat at 1,750.79.

(Reporting by Ayai Tomisawa; Editing by Kim Coghill)
President Maithripala Sirisena has said that when appointing a Cabinet minister, the person selected must not only be acceptable locally but also internationally.

This had transpired when the BBC Sinhala channel interviewed the President during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in London.

The President said he had to consider the international atmosphere as well when he was asked about the views expressed in the country as to who should be appointed as Law and Order Minister.

"The one who is to be appointed to a ministerial portfolio should have local and international recognition," he said.
Johann at Everest Base Camp

Eager to make his country proud, the brave son of Sri Lanka, Johann Peries has commenced his second attempt to scale Mount Everest. In the latest update on his exciting journey as he is cheered on by fellow Sri Lankans, he is making steady progress, surmounting challenges of high altitude and extreme cold. There has been an overwhelming response to the Climb Everest with Johann campaign, which invites Sri Lankans to sponsor each step that Johann takes on the mountain for Rs.100 to participate in this exhilarating climb to the summit. An Everest expedition requires a large financial commitment and every step sponsored goes towards financing the expedition. Johann has dedicated this expedition to all Sri Lankans. The legendary mountain lures climbers of various nationalities to explore it and affords some of the most testing physical challenges on this earth.

In the latest news from the snow-clad Himalayas, Johann left Sri Lanka on 4th April for Kathmandu, where he spent a couple of days meeting up with and preparing with his team for the climb. After ensuring the necessary equipment was in place, the heavier equipment was sent by air onto Lukla where it will be transported by yaks to Everest Base Camp.

Initially he flew from Kathmandu into Lukla, 2,860m, one of the most challenging airports in the world. On 7th April, Johann commenced the arduous climb. The first stop for the night was Phakding before commencing a steep climb the next day to Namche Bazaar at 3,440m.

The ascent to Namche Bazaar was followed by a two-day stop consisting of a tough acclimatization climb, a rest and a recovery day. Acclimatization climbs are performed by climbing up to a higher altitude, staying there briefly, and then returning to a lower altitude to sleep. With altitude, the air becomes thinner - the saturation of oxygen declines and the body has to produce more red blood cells to manage the thinner air. This will be true for the rest of the climb.

Thereafter, Johann proceeded to Tengboche, 3,860m, where he visited the famous Tengboche monastery and temple. Here, he received a formal blessing for the remainder of the journey. Onwards to Pengboche, 3,895m, for another night, he encountered significant snowfall and extreme cold.

From Pengboche, he pressed on to Pheriche, at 4,371m. Here, they had another rest and acclimatization day to recover. After 4,000m, the effects of altitude are more significant, with climbers often experiencing various signs of altitude sickness including headaches and nausea.

After Pheriche, Johann proceeded to Lobuche to climb the famous Lobuche Peak. This is a particularly difficult acclimatization climb, up to an altitude of 6,119m. He is presently on that climb, a three-day climb during which communication is cut off. Climbing Mount Everest is an accomplishment that bestows a rare distinction - not only on the climber but also on the country he hails from.

Having been in training since December 2016, Johann is technically equipped to undertake this expedition. He is no stranger to this act of courage. Johann Peries and Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala were the first Sri Lankans to attempt to summit the peak of 8,848m above sea level in April 2016. Although Jayanthi became the first Sri Lankan to scale the summit of Mt Everest, Johann managed to reach a height of 8,400m, a mere 448m short of reaching the summit, before technical difficulties forced him to descend.

If you wish to be part of this expedition, log on to https://everest.ayubo.life
The Lakvijaya Coal Power Plant in Norochcholai has been a controversial establishment ever since its first unit was commissioned on March 2011. The Power Plant, which adds 900 Megawatts to the National Grid through three generators using coal, was constructed at a cost of US $ 1.3 billion. However in January 2018 it was reported that this establishment was operating sans an Environmental Protection Licence (EPL) and according to sources the expired licence wasnt renewed.

Adding to its list of discrepancies are various malfunctioning devices and careless operations including harmful emissions of fly-ash into the air and sea. As a result people in the surrounding areas suffer from skin diseases and conditions such as asthma. While the West is taking measures to move away from generating electricity using coal, Sri Lanka is being funded and equipped by foreign entities to generate electricity using coal power.Hence the Daily Mirror sheds light on how people in the area including fishermen are being affected by the careless discharge of fly ash and the irresponsible transactions initiated by the authorities.

We are working within the parameters of the CEA : Ministry

In his comments to the , Director-Development at the Ministry of Power and Energy Sulakshana Jayawardana said that the ESP has been repaired and Unit 1 is in its start-up process. Once completed, it will be functioning along with the other units. Units 2 and 3 are already functioning and are generating electricity. Its not a huge issue because the flame at the time of the incident and what you see now are quite different. Usually such breakdowns occur in any plant and we have to do frequent repairing and maintenance work to ensure that such incidents dont take place. We are also working within the parameters given to us by the Central Environment Authority and we are always trying to reduce emissions and pollution,said Jayawardana.

Repairs are still going on : NWPEA

Airing his views, Provincial Environmental Authority  North Western (NWPEA) Acting Director Saman Lenaduwa said that repairs are still being done and therefore they have shut down the institute. They havent told us when it would recommence. We have sent them a letter and have asked them to shut it down till repairs are complete. Their license too has expired and since theres a case in the Supreme Court they have to renew it, said Lenaduwa.

The Incident

Footage of fly ash being spewed into the sea was captured by fishermen and was released on social media. This proved how the power plant is not adhering to its environmental protection principles. The Daily Mirror learns that this incident has been taking place since February 22, 2018, but speculation is rife whether the releasing of fly ash began much earlier, in the month of January this year.

The Electrostatic Precipitator (ESP) being one of the power plants devices to reduce pollution, each device should remove 300 or more tonnes of dust per day. On the other hand, the Flue Gas Desulphurizer (FGD) is used to remove the sulphur dioxide which eventually contributes to acid rain and both these devices have been malfunctioning for quite a long time. When a malfunction occurs, the 300 tonnes of dust will be released to the sky.

Once the FGD starts malfunctioning, the fly ash will be released into the sea. When the power plant was informed they shut down only on April 12, 2018. On April 11, some fishermen had seen a massive quantum of ash and dirt coming out of the pipes and entering the sea.

It was also found that Unit 1 of the ESP was running below the optimum for nearly one month. It was also found that out of the 16 chambers in the ESP, five of them were malfunctioning by this time and this has been continuing for more than 45 days which is already a violation of the law.

It has been continuing for over 75 days and the fly ash makes everybody suffer. Fly ash has dust particles which are as minute as 2.5 micron particles and can penetrate into the cell membranes of humans as well as animals. It is also carcinogenic and could attack all systems in the body. It also has a higher concentration of heavy metals and this affects vegetation and populations of fish in the area.

Adding to the controversy is the fact that the Lakvijaya Coal Power Plant has also been running without a valid Environmental Protection Licence (EPL) since June last year. Even when one field is broken, the required conditions are not met and are a violation of legal requirements.

Solar and hydro power plants are less harmful alternatives : CENS

Speaking to the Daily Mirror Centre for Environment and Nature Studies (CENS) Director Ravindra Kariyawasam said that approximately 15 years ago, 30 coal power plants in Europe were categorized as Dirty Thirty.

This also affected America because they were the first to generate electricity from coal. Now they are experiencing the harmful effects of coal and China is in the process of getting rid of coal power plants. Several reports addressing the side effects of coal power plants were exposed. The main components in coal are fossils which have been degraded into the Earth that are now being dug up. Therefore coal includes heavy metals such as Cadmium, Mercury, Arsenic and Nitrate. Once coal is being piled up, these heavy metals also get deposited in the Earth and even get washed into the sea during a shower.

The ash could be spread along a distance of over 500 metres depending on the height of the wind passage. In Norochcholai the direction of ocean winds are towards Anamaduwa, Pallama, Thambuttegama, Thabbowa, Anuradhapura and other surrounding areas. Whenever coal is burnt these ash-induced winds are generated and will affect people in the area. As a result they suffer from skin problems and other complications.

The hot water released from burning coal is released into the sea and this affects marine life. There are five types of turtles in the area and this hot water is spread right throughout the country as there are no barriers to separate this hot water from sea water. It also contributes to global warming,explained Kariyawasam.

He further said that to generate 300 megawatts of electricity, the power plant emits over 6000 tonnes of sulphur dioxide annually. For a day they release around 200 tonnes of ash directly into the sea. Another observation is that if you add half a teaspoon of Mercury all organisms would be extinct. In July 2004 I remember thinking why we are in need of coal power plants when Europe is trying to get rid of them. But they do coal mining and have to create a market for coal and for this they identified Norochcholai and it will not stop there.

According to the National Physical Plan there will be two more coal power plants in Trincomalee and somewhere near Aluthgama. We have entered into an agreement with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to support businessmen and whoever who assumes power will take these projects forward. As alternatives there are solar power plants which people think are green concepts, but they are not as green as people think. This is because they have a battery which could be used for about 10 years and it dies.

This could cause a certain amount of damage, but comparatively, solar power plants cause less harm than others. Three weeks ago, a tile was introduced in Nepal with smaller solar panels. As a result the people generate electricity at home and what is in excess is sold to the Government and they generate an income. This concept is more eco-friendly than coal and nuclear power plants. More than 60% of companies need electricity and this requirement is fulfilled through these power plants. Sri Lanka receives sunlight in abundance and we could use this as an opportunity to generate solar power. We also have the ocean around us and we could use these waves to drive turbines and generate electricity.

But in this case the Ceylon Electricity Board would have less profits. These people claim that because these coal power plants have been designed according to older methods, there are more harmful side effects. When they started Norochcholai they said they would use a micro-method to generate electricity, but this doesnt stop the ash from spreading into the atmosphere, added Kariyawasam.

Fishermen and farmers opine

The fishermen and farmers in the area have been affected for the past 10 years as the sea has gotten polluted with the waste thats being spewed by the power plant. This has resulted in the reduction of fish and affected their businesses. At the onset of this incident the visited Kalpitiya and spoke to few fishermen, farmers and people in the area.

In a letter sent to the Norochcholai Coal Power Plant (see document on top), the North West PEA office has requested them to submit necessary proposals and documents to minimise pollution. Having failed in doing so, the NWPEA has requested the Plant to shut down necessary units and rectify the malfunctioning units immediately. However the Daily Mirror also learned that they have been continuing operations amidst such a backdrop, ignoring the requests from authorities.

Pics by Kithsiri De Mel
Managua (dpa) 23 April 2018 - Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega scrapped reforms to the social security system on Sunday following days of violent protests in which at least 10 people were killed.

I hope that we can enter a dialogue that will lead to peace, stability and security in our country, Ortega said in a televised speech.



Violence broke out on Wednesday, the day that a 5-per-cent tax on old age and disability pensions, as well as an increase in social security contributions of up to 22.5 per cent, were imposed.



Demonstrators in the capital Managua pummelled officers with rocks and erected barricades, while authorities responded by firing on them with pellet guns.



We have to restore order, said Ortega. We cannot allow chaos, criminality and looting to prevail.

Human rights organizations say that at least 26 people have been killed in the violence, while the government has put the death toll at 10. Earlier Sunday, the government confirmed that journalist Angel Eduardo Gahona was among the dead.
Law and Order Minister Ranjith Madduma Bandara today said that necessary action is already in place to bring in wanted, high profile individuals like Udayanga Weeratunga and Arjuna Mahendran back to the country, who have found refuge in foreign countries.

The minister said the International Police is assisting the local law enforcement bodies to bring these suspects to the country and have so far issued Red Warrants upon the latters requests.

He confirmed that Udayanga Weeratunga had been arrested in Dubai, and an initial process is underway to bring him back with the consent of the UAE authorities.

We have made a request to the UAE authorities to extradite him for investigation purposes. Also we are discussing with the Interpol and Singaporean authorities to find and apprehend Arjuna Mahendran."

The Minister addressing a special media briefing said, though there is a considerable delay in the police probes in the corruption cases of the previous regime, action would be taken to expedite the legal process under his guidance.

The Minister said that he has a responsibility to work in line with the vision of the Yahapalana government, when bringing the culprits of the large scale financial crimes to book and expedite the legal process.

The police are continuously conducting their investigations on these crimes, but we admit there is a considerable delay in bringing the culprits before the law, when it concerns special probing bodies like the Police Financial Crimes Investigations Division.

A number of files relating to completed investigations await legal action at the Attorney General's Department, which should be expedited through a special legal system.

We know there is a slow progress in the judicial system when finalizing these cases and that is why the present government intends to introduce a special judicial system to expedite these particular large-scale financial frauds, the Minister said.

Meanwhile, IGP Pujith Jayasundara said although Udayanga Weeratunga was arrested in Dubai, he should be brought back to the country to conduct relevant investigations, including recording statements from him.

However, Police Spokesman SP Ruwan Gunasekara said that it has been easier to negotiate with the Singaporean authorities than the Dubai officials, as the former co-ordinate with the Interpol. (Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana)
I refer to the article by Amrit Muthukumaru titled UNP politburo set up for internecine war between Sajith, Naveen? The article has a monotonous repetition of what has been written before by him.

In the above article, the writer does not seem to know or chose not to know that the politburo was appointed by a secret ballot of the UNP Working Committee and Parliamentary Committee. He says the grassroot members should have a say in the party. There are MPs who represent rural areas in these two committees. They represent, inter alia, farming, fishing, estate and rural industrial communities. Does Mr. Muthukumaru expect the farmer and fisherman to come to Sirikotha and offer advice? Their inputs are conveyed through the MPs. The working committee consists of members who represent teachers, academics, lawyers, professionals and so forth. Ranil Wickremesinghe had no hand in the composition of this politburo.

Mr. Muthukumaru was strangely silent during the days of the deadly white vans. He never wrote about PEPs, Greek Bond scams, Stock Market Pump & Dump manipulations, hedging deals, SriLankan Airlines run to the ground, piling up billions in debt and the former Presidents brother-in-law as chairman, running wild with his harem

Mr. Muthukumaru is an economist by profession, yet the Daily Mirror has thought it fit to grant him the opportunity to don the cloak of an expert on bonds, a Constitutional expert and now a political expert. What a jack of all trades!

He writes to the Central Bank Governor and demands to know what action had been taken regarding the Central Bank employees named in the Bond report. I am sure the Central Bank has carried out its own domestic inquiries and appropriate action would have been taken. The governor is not bound to reply to Mr. Muthukumarus letters on internal inquiries. He is a busy man unlike the inquirer.

He also appears to be on a witch-hunt against Politically Exposed Persons - PEPs. This is a term describing someone who has been entrusted with a prominent public function. He admits that the Central Bank has informed him that there was nothing to prevent a PEP from being a bank director.

But this activist is not prepared to accept the ruling. Instead he keeps on raving about a ministers son-in-law who is on the board of a bank.

He even wrote an article on what questions the AG should ask the Prime Minister when he gave evidence at the Bond Commission. What audacity! This is contempt of a Presidential Court. However, Mr. Muthukumaru is no stranger to courts. He wants the PM to apologise to the 6.2 million people who were duped by reneging on promises given during the presidential elections. Here again, Mr. Muthukumaru is used to apologising in court!

He then challenges the constitutionality of 19A. If not for 19A, the President would have run riot. Now Mr. Muthukumaru says it should be passed by a two-thirds majority in Parliament and he demands a referendum. 19A was challenged in the Supreme Court which made a few changes. It was then passed in Parliament by 215-0 with 9 abstentions. If this is not a two-thirds majority, I wonder what is!

Mr. Muthukumaru was strangely silent during the days of the deadly white vans. He never wrote about PEPs, Greek Bond scams, Stock Market Pump & Dump manipulations, hedging deals, SriLankan Airlines run to the ground, piling up billions in debt and the former Presidents brother-in-law as chairman, running wild with his harem; why was he quiet when SL squandered millions on abortive attempts to have the Commonwealth Games in Hambantota? He rants over the Yahapalanaya Government but it is this very same Yahapalanaya which permits him to write the way he does with no holds barred!

He seems to be in competition with another activist who together seems to have taken it upon themselves to direct the government on how its affairs should be run.

-Outsider-
REUTERS, 23rd APRIL, 2018- South Korea halted the propaganda broadcasts it blares across the border with North Korea on Monday, aiming to set a positive tone ahead of the first summit in a decade between their leaders as the U.S. president cautioned the nuclear crisis was far from resolved.



The gesture came after North Korea said on Saturday it would immediately suspend nuclear and missile tests, scrap its nuclear test site and instead pursue economic growth and peace, a declaration welcomed be world leaders.



North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is due to hold a summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-In at the border truce village of Panmunjom on Friday, and is expected to meet with President Donald Trump in late May or early June.



North Koreas decision to freeze its nuclear program is a significant decision for the complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said in a regular meeting at the Blue House on Monday.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi may not be the best democrat or one to assure a greater freedom to media. However a few days ago he came with a fine piece of advice to his MPs on deportment and reading that one cannot help, but wish the Sri Lankan President and Prime Minister too offer the same counsel to our parliamentarians.

We make mistakes and give masala (fodder) to media. The moment you see a camera you start speaking. Dont stand in front of the TV cameras and start preaching the country, PM Modi has reportedly said addressing the MPs from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Indian Prime Minister has advised his party people not to play great scientists and experts by giving their opinion on each and every thing whenever theres an issue.

Modis comments came in the wake of a rising number of crimes in the country. Some BJP MPs have commented that they didnt have any control over the trend given the countrys population and size.

Let the media do its job Modi had reportedly told his MPs commenting on media exposure of the incidents. He had insisted that the MPs should do their jobs and not the jobs of others.

Modis India has 1.32 billion people. Ours is a small nation with twenty one million citizens and almost double the number of Cabinet, State and deputy ministers. Still our Government is unable to control the rising crime rate and salvage the plunging economy.

Surely the citizens of this country are looking forward to the day President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe take a cue from the Indian PM and tell their Ministers and MPs Dont blame the Joint Opposition or the media for our own mistakes. People are tired of these excuses. Correct your mistakes instead of preaching the country with your own theories as if you are social scientists or experts on subjects. The most important thing perhaps is the two leaders convincing themselves of this reality. The citizens are tired of the habit of each and every Government member looking for scapegoats for the present sorry state of affairs in the country.

We are into the fourth month of the fourth year of the present regime and still the majority of Government ministers and MPs are unable to make a speech without blaming the previous regime. An impression has been created that this Government cannot do anything significant development wise as the previous Government has chained them to posts. When these sob stories were started in the first year of the Government the people tolerated them. In the second year they grew tired and impatient. In the third they got frustrated and in the fourth the voters sent the strongest message by engineering a comeback for Mahinda Rajapaksa with his Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP). Obviously more than the popularity of Rajapaksa it was the dwindling popularity of the Government over inefficiency and other factors that pushed people to yearn for a return of a Rajapakse era.

Other than inefficiency, the attitudes of some ministers too has become quite unacceptable. The latest in this list of ministers is Faiszer Musthapha the Minister of Provincial Councils and Local Government. While any civilized citizen would have endorsed the decision by the Coastal Conservation Departments to remove unauthorized constructions along the coastal belt in Mirissa by May 1, especially in the wake of the attack on Dutch tourists, Minister Musthapha is opposing the order. His argument is that the removal of unauthorized structures would hamper the livelihood of small entrepreneurs. If the livelihood of those who have put up unauthorized structures is a concern then crimes against tourists is a bigger concern for a country that is dependent heavily on tourism. Modi said that some of his MPs are trying to play the roles of social scientists and experts and theres certainly no dearth of them here in Sri Lanka as well.
A rented van plowed down a crowded Toronto sidewalk Monday, killing 10 people and injuring 15 before the driver fled and was quickly arrested in a confrontation with police, Canadian authorities said.

Toronto Police Chief Mark Suanders said the incident appeared to have been deliberate. Saunders made the comment at a news conference Monday night hours after the van killed 10 people and left 15 more hospitalized. The driver had fled but was surrounded by police and detained.

"The incident definitely looked deliberate," Saunders said.

Saunders identified the man detained after the incident as Alek Minassian, 25, a resident of the Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill.

Authorities released few details in the case, saying the investigation was still underway, with witnesses being interviewed and surveillance video being examined.

"I can assure the public all our available resources have been brought in to investigate this tragic situation," Toronto Police Services Deputy Chief Peter Yuen said earlier. (Chicago Tribune)
Industrial accident in Horana

Scribbles of Lal Pushpakumaras toddler were seen on the unplastered walls of his half-built two-storey house. The residence was being arranged for Pushpakumaras funeral at the time we visited. His wife Chandrika Damayanthi (39) is still struggling to come to terms with the shocking news. Pushpakumara (41), a carpenter by profession, was one of the five people who lost their lives in the toxic gas tragedy in Bellapitiya, Horana on

April 19.



Nobody from the factory came to help them. Villagers including my husband stepped in to rescue the two workers who were in trouble. I lost my husband. My four kids lost their beloved father, Chandrika lamented.



Pushpakumara and Chandrika were passing S & C Latex Limited on Kalawellawa Road, Bellapitiya, Horana around 1.20 pm on April 19 when they spotted two women screaming for help from passersby. By then, two workers attached to the latex factory had fallen into a chemical effluent treatment plant which contained liquid Ammonia (NH3), and suspected Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and Methane (CH4). Pushpakumara, who stopped his motorcycle, rushed to the scene to help those who were in trouble.



Chandrika was watching in anxiety from outside the latex factory when she heard about the death of her husband. People screamed that my husband who tried to rescue the workers also fell into the tank after being overcome by gas fumes. I couldnt believe it. He went to help others. He didnt even know anyone in the factory, Chandrika told the .

She is now bringing up four children alone. Chandrika fears that the latex factory, which was temporarily suspended by the Central Environmental Authority (CEA) following the multiple deaths, would be allowed to escape unscathed, and would reopen soon.



On the day of the accident, the factory had commenced operating after New Year holidays. W. Ariyapala (40), a worker had been fixing a valve in chemical effluent treatment plant when he fell in after being overcome by the toxic gas. Later, the factorys Lab Assistant twenty-three-year-old Waruna Chandrasekara, who had tried to rescue Ariyapala, also perished.



Within minutes four villagers descended into the tank to rescue others. Of the four, only one individual named Janaka Dinesh (26) managed to survive, while the three others Pushpakumara, Dileepa Kasun Lokupathirage (34) and Priyantha Kumara (43) had to breathe their last, despite channeling their time and energies to save a human life. More than 10 others were admitted to the Horana hospital after being overcome by toxic fumes.



Janaka Dinesh is a mechanic in a service centre located next to the latex factory. He recounted his experience during the toxic gas mishap.

The liquid in the tank was only knee-deep. I descended down the tank using a ladder and pulled one person out, but he died later. Along with me, there was another person (Lal Pushpakumara) who was trying to rescue workers. Suddenly, he too fell into the tank. His fall into the tank resulted in more fumes. In a wink of an eye, the surrounding turned blue. I remember taking a deep breath and trying to climb up the ladder. When I regained consciousness, I was in hospital, Janaka reminisced.

The deaths have brought the working conditions in factories across the country under the spotlight. However, this accident is not the first of its kind to happen at the S & C latex factory. But, the factory either ignored or was allowed to circumvent many of the safety procedures.



Safety concerns



The late Chandrasekaras grieving mother Renuka Damayanthi said that a female worker had fallen into the same chemical effluent tank several months ago. Chandrasekara had been able to save that womans life.



Following this accident, his parents had pleaded him to resign from the job due to safety concerns.



Both his parents are managers at private banks. Renuka said that at first she didnt want Chandrasekara to work at this local factory since they didnt have any financial difficulties. Chandrasekara, who was so passionate about Chemistry, had anyway continued working at the factory despite objections by his parents.

I looked after my son like the apple of my eye. I always taught him to show loyalty and be honest with his place of employment. He was so helpful to others. But, nobody from the factory even made a call following his death. So far, nobody from the factory has come to the funeral, she said. She demanded that such factories must establish safety measures which can be put to use during an emergency to prevent any unfortunate deaths of workers.



Not only Chandrasekaras mother Renuka and Lals wife Chandrika, but also relatives of the other three people are still grieving. Brother, son, husband or father  all losses are significant.

The fates of Dileepa Kasun Lokupathirages and Priyantha Kumaras are similar to that of Pushpakumara; all of them who invited trouble into their lives because they went to help others.





Request to cancel license



Meanwhile, Western Province Chief Minister Isura Devapriya made a visit to Lokupathirages funereal house and met his family members on April 20. While leaving the funeral house, he told the , that he had requested the CEA to close down the rubber factory and cancel its license.



The license of the relevant latex factory was once revoked by the CEA. However, the factory officials later managed to get the license re-validated. I informed the Chairman of Central Environmental Authority Chandrarathna Pallegama. He was not aware of this incident until I told him. I made a request to cancel the license, he said.



Immediately after this incident, the CEA took action to suspend the Environmental Protection License (EPL) of the S & C Latex Limited. Further, the Manager, identified as Ratnasiri Edirisinghe from Boralesgamuwa and the 42-year-old Senior Laboratory Controller from Dikhenapura were arrested and remanded till April 25, by the Horana Magistrate. They had been charged of negligence and the failure to take adequate safety precautions. Meanwhile, the Department of Labour had told the media that it had launched an investigation into the incident.



Tension prevailed outside the factory when the family members of deceased came to know about the accident. Kith and kin of the deceased staged a protest near the factory raising slogans against the management and Government demanding stringent action be taken against the errant latex factory which had failed to follow the safety measures.



According to the villagers, S & C Latex factory has not been following precautionary measures. It is mandatory that the management should provide workers with face masks while cleaning chemical tanks. Five innocent people died due to their negligence. The Government should take serious action against the management, demanded villagers.



The Bellapitiya area comes under the purview of Madurawala Pradeshiya Sabha (PS). These claims by the villagers were supported by Chairman of Madurawala PS, Pushpajith Samarawickrama.



As an industry, employee safety is the top priority of all operators. Many operators take steps exceeding what is required to ensure they are providing a safe working environment. This particular factory has a history of such wrongdoings, he told the .



In 2009, protests had been carried out by villagers led by PS Chairman Samarawickrama against the factory for releasing chemical waste into adjourning streams. As regulated in the Environmental Protection License, releasing of waste water into streams that provide water to paddy fields is illegal. A large number of paddy fields have been destroyed due to the chemical waste released from the latex factory. Drinking water in wells in Bellapitiya area had also been contaminated. Fish and a cow have died after drinking water from these contaminated streams.



Following the demonstrations, CEA on January 16, 2009 sent officials to inspect the operations of the factory under the guidance of the then Director General Pasan Gunasena.

Violation of rules and regulations



The field report compiled by the CEA officials had revealed that the operations of the factory were violating rules and regulations of the EPL. Therefore, on January 28, 2009, the CEA suspended the EPL 00065(R2)F of S & C Latex Limited.



However, the factory owner Sarath Wijerathne, who is a former Major of the Sri Lanka Army, submitted an appeal to the Secretary of Ministry of Environment and got the cancellation of the license removed. On the day the accident took place he has been at the factory. Villagers said they had seen him escaping using his vehicle without even looking into what had happened. Wijerathne was asked to be present at the police station to record a statement. But, he has not yet reported to the police.



Villagers, who protested against this factory, were threatened by Wijerathne. As he was a former Major of the Sri Lanka Army, people later dispersed, PS Chairman Samarawickrama said.



Subsequently, Wijerathne filed a case at Horana District Court in 2009 against Madurawala PS Chairman and five officials at the CEA. He held the six respondents responsible for causing a loss of Rs. 108 million to the factory during its closure. The case is still being heard. Another case was filed by Wijerathne against journalists who had covered the public protests and the written content, which he claims was against his factory. However, villagers claimed that despite nine years had lapsed, chemical waste is still released into streams on rainy days. PS Chairman Samarawickrama raised a question as to on which basis the CEA had decided to give back the EPL to the factory which had failed to rectify its faults.



He also alleged that the owner of the factory had close connections with Environment Ministry bigwigs and that is how he got his factorys license re-validated eventually.



Meanwhile, Senior Environmental Lawyer Jagath Gunawardane, speaking to the said that the unfortunate deaths of five people were repercussions of wrong decisions taken by the former officials of the Ministry of Environment in re-validating the EPL of the latex factory.



A former Secretary of the Environment Ministry had turned an administrative decision into a technical decision although he is technically not qualified to do so. In addition, it is an accepted principle in law that no fresh evidence can be submitted to an appeal. It has to go by the evidence that was available at the time of the initial decision. However in this particular case, a legal officer from the ministry had made a site inspection to the factory, said, Gunawardane.

He underscored that the legal officer is not the competent officer to handle the technical inspections and provide a report. Therefore, this is again a substantially wrong action on the part of the ministry at the time, he stated.



These kind of wrong decisions, based on incorrect activities and premises, make the authorities like the CEA to be tied down and unable to perform their duties. Although the relevant officials are no longer working at the ministry, these unfortunate deaths are repercussions of wrong decisions taken by them, he said. A team from the Government Analysts Department visited the factory last Saturday (April 21). Speaking to the , Government Analyst A.Welianga said a special laboratory analysis will be carried out by the department based on the liquid and air samples collected from the factory premises.



We are supposed to do a proper analysis. Until the analysis is completed, we cannot comment on the incident. Within the next two weeks, the analysis will be completed and the report will be handed over to the police, he said.



Meanwhile, another villager named Pushpakumara, a disabled soldier of the Sri Lanka Army, narrated another story regarding the land on which the S & C Latex Limited is located. Pushpakumara is residing in Ranawiru Gammanaya, Gowinna, six kilometers from the latex factory.

A female worker had fallen into the same chemical effluent tank several months ago. Chandrasekara had been able to save that womans life

The deaths have brought the working conditions in factories across the country under the spotlight

Villagers claimed that despite nine years had lapsed, chemical waste is still released into streams on rainy days

This land where the S & C latex factory stands is the property which was officially and originally passed by the Sri Lanka Army to build Ranawiru Gammanaya





Ranawiru Gammanaya



This land where the S & C latex factory stands is the property which was officially and originally passed by the Sri Lanka Army to build Ranawiru Gammanaya. The latex factory was supposed to be built on a bare land in Gowinna. That land in Gowinna is in a rocky area and obtaining water and electricity for the land was very difficult. Sarath Wijerathne, who was serving the Army by that time, somehow acquired this land for his factory. Ranawiru Gammanaya was later built on that difficult area in Gowinna. We had to face many difficulties in building a road to our houses. Those in the scheme are still having an issue with water. I think Wijerathne has had to suffer as a result of Dittadhamma Vedaniya Karmaya for what he had done to all disabled war heroes, he said.



However, when inquired by the Madurawala PS Chairman, regarding this claim of the land, he said he was not aware of it.

World Day for Safety and Health at Work is to fall this Saturday (April 28). It is high time for government institutions and non-government organizations established for occupational safety and health to focus on the loopholes in their procedures, United Federation of Labour President Linus Jayathilake, said. He said the purview of the Department of Labour does not cover the small scale factories, fishermen and farmers even though they also contribute to the national production.



Ammonia, the colourless gas, which has a very distinct pungent odour, is used in industrial practice to preserve latex because ammonia prevents the growth of bacteria in latex. The rubber industry is a unique example of complex exposure of human beings to chemicals. This exposure is even considered as carcinogenic for humans by the World Health Organizations International Agency for Research on Cancer.



In this S & C latex factory in Horana, the worker W. Ariyapala was apparently not wearing approved breathing apparatus when working inside the ammonia tank. Since Lab Assistant Chandrasekara also fell into the chemical effluent tank, it poses a serious question on the irresponsible manner in which operations had been carried out within the factory. Studies conducted in developed countries, have shown an increased risk of leukemia, lymphomas, and cancers of the bladder, lung, larynx, stomach, liver, and skin among rubber industry workers. It is alarming to know that the other workers of the same latex factory and labourers working in such unsafe rubber factories across the country are exposed to a high health risk, said Jayathilake.

He said that employers should conduct health check-ups for workers, twice a year.



He noted that a rescue act should only be performed by trained personnel using appropriate equipment and with the support of other rescuers. Only properly maintained and calibrated equipment should be used for these types of practices.



Only certified workers wearing approved breathing apparatus should be allowed to enter a confined space. Whether using approved breathing apparatus or when a worker has to enter a confined space, the person responsible for the workplace shall ensure that any person entering or remaining in that confined space is wearing approved breathing apparatus with a suitable safety harness connected to a lifeline. The person using the breathing apparatus should have received appropriate training in the use of that particular type of equipment, he said.



He said that it is the responsibility of the employer to make all workers familiarise with the emergency procedures and make them aware of the characteristics and hazards of the hazardous gases likely to be present in the operations.



In this particular case, it is found that none of these measures had been adhered. Workers were not informed and responsible authorities at the factory had not taken any precautionary and emergency methods. If they had been in the scene and informed the villagers who came to help about the risk of being exposed to the gas, at least these unfortunate deaths of three villagers could have been prevented, Jayathilake added.



Pix by Damith Wickaramasinghe
- T. S. Eliot

Thoughts After Lambeth

"The World is trying the experiment of attempting to form a civilized but non-Christian mentality. The experiment will fail; but we must be very patient in awaiting its collapse; meanwhile redeeming the time: so that the Faith may be preserved alive through the dark ages before us; to renew and rebuild civilization, and save the World from suicide."
Erlanger Health System is at a $1.3 million loss after the third quarter of the fiscal year, but officials said there was a significant non-recurring cost for training for the new EPIC electronic medical records system.

For the third quarter itself, there was a $4.4 million positive bottom line for total net income.

Britt Tabor, finance director, said the hospital is nearing the period where many of the bugs in the system will have been ironed out. He said Erlanger will then begin "to add the bells and whistles that were not installed initially."

Mr. Tabor said EPIC allows more than one hospital employee to work on a particular account at one time, while under the former Envision system there could be only one at a time.

He said the new system is kicking out bills that are not complete. Officials are going through to get those corrected.

Mr. Tabor said there initially were 15,000 work issues with EPIC, but those have been pared down to under 1,000.

The system includes 30 million lines of coding, it was stated.

Officials said hospital admissions "remain strong." The quarterly surgical inpatient volume was 6.1 percent greater than the prior year.

Inpatient heart surgeries were 180.5 percent greater than the prior year. It was noted that Erlanger formerly was at #3 in the local market for cardiac, but has put on a push with the opening of the Heart and Lung Institute.

Mr. Tabor said the heart procedures are among the most lucrative businesses for the facility.

Orthopedic inpatient surgeries were 9.7 percent greater than the prior year.

Neurosurgery inpatient surgeries were 4.6 percent down.
The International Business Council (IBC) of the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce announces the second annual IBC International Business Awards. These awards showcase the positive contributions international businesses make to the greater Chattanooga region.

Any Chattanooga area businesses engaged in international trade (either products or services, importing or exporting) are qualifying candidates for this award. Award recipients will be selected based on demonstrated community impact within the last 12 months. Honorees will receive official IBC recognition, a feature article in Business Trend, a one-year Premier Chamber membership upgrade, and an award for display.



Submit nominations and applications here. Applications and supplemental materials are due by Friday, May 18. Award recipients will be recognized at the IBC Annual Meeting on Tuesday, June 5.


Dales Heating & Air was named a recipient of the 2018 Presidents Award from Carrier. The award provides recognition for dealers in the heating, ventilating and air-conditioning industry. Dealers were honored at a ceremony held in Orlando, Fl.

One of Carriers highest honors for its dealers, the Presidents Award, is given to Carrier Factory Authorized Dealers who achieve excellence in product promotions and delivered superior customer satisfaction. Recipients of this award demonstrate operational excellence, business effectiveness and the delivery of cutting-edge technology to its customers, said officials.

Dales Heating & Air specializes in HVAC installation, repair, maintenance, and cleaning for residential homes in the Chattanooga area. In addition, Dales services comfort systems in Hixson, Collegedale, Cleveland, and Ooltewah.

The 2018 Carrier Presidents Award winners have demonstrated excellence in providing customers with outstanding service as ambassadors of our industry, said Chris Nelson, president, North America HVAC Systems & Service. The award further establishes these companies as leaders in their communities and serves as an example to all Carrier dealers of how HVAC businesses can thrive in any region.

To learn more about Dales Heating & Air and its heating and cooling products and services, call 509-8787 or visit www.justcalldales.com.
Basecamp, powered by EPB Fiber Optics, returns Tuesday, May 1. Basecamp is a free, monthly coworking day in Miller Plaza, 850 Market Street. Happening the first Tuesday of every month through October, Basecamp is designed to keep the Startup Week Chattanooga buzz going year round allowing entrepreneurs and downtown workers the opportunity to collide in Downtown Chattanoogas Innovation District.

Anyone can join starting at 10 a.m. for networking; morning coffee and pastries supplied by Milk and Honey Coffee Bar in Community Pie; charging and work stations; games like ping pong; high speed Wi-Fi; a Talk Shop Tuesday lunch event with Co.Lab; and an Innovation Happy Hour at a different spot every month in the Innovation District. All Basecamp events are free and open to the public.

While you can work any week day in Miller Plaza, Basecamp, powered by EPB Fiber Optics, provides a special opportunity to meet and collaborate with others in our Innovation District and enjoy lots of extra perks said Meagan Shinn, program director at River City Company. With games, coffee, large tables, lots of charging stations and programs throughout the day, Basecamp is your free day of coworking in Miller Plaza.

The Talk Shop Tuesday events bring the regions leading entrepreneurs to Basecamp with insightful stories and practical business knowledge. Mays lunch speaker is Jennifer Skjellum, director of Blockchain & Crypto Innovation at ThreatAdvice, discussing Beyond Cryptocurrency: A Quick Intro to the Blockchain".

New in 2018, Basecamp will feature a 2 O'Clock Pick Me Up Challenge. Overcoming the midday slump, this event will feature different Innovation District companies creative ideas to energize participants for the final stretch of his or her workday. In May, VaynerMedia and the Chattanooga Trivia League will host a Trivia Challenge. The winning trivia team will receive a gift card to Community Pie. At the end of the year, a vote will occur for the best 2 O'Clock Pick Me Up Challenge idea of 2018. The winning Innovation District company will receive a prize package including gift certificates from coffee shops, restaurants and more to share among team members.
Yahaira Cope, life enrichment director at Morning Pointe of Collegedale at Greenbriar Cove, has been spreading awareness about Alzheimer's disease and participating in fundraisers since she joined the assisted living community nearly two years ago.

Today, she wants to make an event bigger impact and has joined the Alzheimers Association Mid-South Chapters 2018 Walk to End Alzheimer's committee.

Mr. Cope attended the Alzheimers Association Region 8 Committee Training Summit in Nashville, and looks forward to forming new partnerships to help take the cause to new heights.

"I am fired up about finding a cure," said Ms. Cope "This condition has touched so many seniors and families who are dear to me, and so I want to help make a difference in their lives."
Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam and Education Commissioner Candice McQueen announced on Tuesday that Dr. Sharon Griffin will be the new Assistant Commissioner of School Turnaround and Chief of the Achievement School District, the state-led district that serves schools in the bottom five percent of academic achievement. In this new role, Dr. Griffin will also join the Tennessee Department of Educations senior leadership team and collaborate with the new Office of School Improvement as part of Tennessees comprehensive approach to school turnaround.

Dr. Griffin is currently the chief of schools for Shelby County Schools (SCS) and has been a teacher and leader in Memphis education for more than 25 years. During her time with SCS, she has led school improvement work through overseeing the districts iZone schools, which have seen gains in student achievement. She has received national recognition for this work, including when EdWeek named her as one of the countrys 2017 Leaders to Learn From.

The ASD is an important lever in turning around some of the states lowest performing schools, Governor Haslam said. Dr. Griffin has proven herself to be a strong leader, and I look forward to having her in this state-wide role.

Dr. Griffin will join the district in late May. She will continue to be based in Memphis, which is where most schools in the district are located, and advise the turnaround work that is happening statewide. In May, the governor and commissioner will join her in Memphis to officially welcome her to the Achievement School District community.

Dr. Sharon Griffin is a proven turnaround leader, one of the few in the country, and we are excited that she will now be able to bring her expertise to a statewide role that will benefit all of Tennessees turnaround efforts. She also deeply understands Memphis, where we have the majority of our Achievement School District schools and state Priority schools, Commissioner McQueen said. I am personally looking forward to working with her as we continue our efforts to ensure all students have a first-class education that sets them up for long-term success.

Currently, the Achievement School District is being led by Interim Superintendent Dr. Kathleen Airhart, a deputy commissioner who took on the role after the departure of Malika Anderson last fall. Dr. Griffin will be the third leader of the district, which began in 2011-12 and now serves 32 schools. The search for a new superintendent had a particular focus on identifying a leader who can build on the what the state has learned about school improvement; who is deeply committed to the Memphis community, in particular; and who understands the systemic challenges that students in our Priority schools often face  both in and out of the classroom  and will build supports that foster the development of the whole child.

In addition to Dr. Griffin, the department will soon add a leader to oversee the development and support of high-quality public charter schools, and this role will work closely with Dr. Griffin to support the portfolio of charter operators serving schools in the Achievement School District.

For more information about the Achievement School District or media inquiries about the district, please contact Robert White, executive director of external affairs, at Robert.White@tn-asd.org or visit the district's website at achievementschooldistrict.org.
St. Pauls Artist Series presents the period instrument ensemble, Sonare, performing The Glories of the French Baroque, featuring music from the 17th and 18th centuries. The concert takes place at St. Pauls Episcopal Church (305 W. Seventh at Pine Street) on Sunday at 4 p.m.

Tickets are $20; $10 for students and may be purchased in advance through the St. Pauls website. Tickets will also be sold at the door on the afternoon of the concert. For more information, visit: http://www.stpaulschatt.org/concert-season/.

Review for Sonare:

Based in North Texas, Sonare is comprised of James Andrewes and Marie-Elise McNee, Baroque violins, Eric Smith, viola da gamba, and Lenora McCroskey, organ and harpsichord. The group will be joined by Baroque flutist and Chattanooga native, Janelle Anderson West.

Keith Reas, director of Music at St. Pauls, said, "We are delighted to bring Sonare back to our series by popular demand. Their program of 17th and 18th century Italian music, which they performed here two years ago, was so well-received, weve asked them back with a program featuring French music. In addition, Chattanooga native Janelle Anderson West will be joining them on Baroque flute, which is a special treat.

In describing the program, violinist James Andrewes said, Although our program features the Glories of the French Baroque, in many ways, the music highlights the competing influences of both French and Italian musical styles. The French style is known for its sense of elegance, graceful melodies, dance rhythms, and detailed ornamentation while the Italian style has more emphasis on virtuosity and showmanship. The elegant French style is displayed in Francois Couperins Concerts Royaux. The dynamic Italian style is demonstrated in Leclaires Sonata for Two Violins, where the instruments engage in a virtuoso competition that almost sounds like a musical sword fight between two equals. Another work, a suite of dances by Telemann, deliberately draws on the best of both nations, in a mixed style that beautifully blends French elegance and Italian virtuosity. So, it's that contrast between music designed to touch the heart and music designed to amaze the ears that we are pleased to bring to the audience at St. Pauls on a Sunday afternoon.

"Baroque instruments are slightly different from their modern counterparts. Baroque violins use gut strings and a smaller bow, and the Baroque flute is made of wood, resulting in a more gentle and mellow sound. These solo instruments are supported by the deep warmth of the viola da gamba and plucked sound of the harpsichord.
"An Evening with Jo" will be presented by the Alexian Players at St. Timothy's Episcopal Church, on Mississippi Avenue, Signal Mountain, on Friday, May 18, at 7 p.m.

Based on the writings of acclaimed East Tennessee writer Jo Carson, this play brings to life the joys and tribulations of the people of Appalachia. Their voices are shared through a number of vignettes gathered by Jo as she listened to those with whom she lived and interacted. These conversations are taken from her award winning book "Stories I Ain't Told Nobody Yet".

Tickets are $10 and are available by advance purchase only from Mountain Arts Community Center by calling 886-1959. All ticket proceeds are for the benefit of the MACC. Additional tax-deductible gifts to MACC may be made at the performance by check payable to The Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga for MACC.
Dr. Tony Donen, principal of STEM School Chattanooga, has earned a STEM Excellence Award from the Tennessee STEM Innovation Network. Dr. Donen is the recipient of the STEM Innovator Award for 2018. TISN STEM Excellence Awards are four competitive awards that recognize outstanding teachers, leaders, and advocates in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education. TSIN will honor Dr. Donen and the other three award winners at the fourth annual Tennessee STEM Innovation Summit on Wednesday, May 9, in Nashville.

Dr. Donens STEM Innovator Award recognizes an individual who has demonstrated an outstanding contribution to the support of STEM education and outreach within a region. The winners are leaders who identify, support and promote innovative teaching practices. The award winner also serves as a catalyst for STEM integration across the state.

Dr. Donen is the founding principal of STEM School Chattanooga and is committed to helping improve STEM education throughout the country. Since the inception of STEM School Chattanooga, the school has become a national leader in STEM education and a model for innovative teaching practices and real-world student engagement, said officials.

America Achieves recognized the school as one of 30 worldwide denoted as a "World-Leading Learner School." Fab Foundation also recognized STEM School Chattanooga for prominence in digital fabrication STEM education.

Dr. Donen has led professional development throughout Tennessee as one of the lead principals for the Innovative Leaders Institute for school leadership teams and provides opportunities for teachers and leaders from across the country to visit STEM School Chattanoogas innovative campus.

STEM School Chattanooga is one of several exciting specialty school learning opportunities available to students in Hamilton County Schools, said Dr. Bryan Johnson, superintendent of Hamilton County Schools. Dr. Donen, his staff, and students are leaders in STEM education in our district and shining examples of how to make learning relevant for Future Ready Institutes coming to high schools in the district this fall.

STEM School Chattanooga, located in a technologically advanced facility on the campus of Chattanooga State Community College, is currently a grade 9-12 school in Hamilton County Schools. The schools educational approach involves students in projects and problem-solving experiences to explore solutions to real-world challenges. The schools focus is on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. First Robotics honored the school with the Engineering Inspiration Award. The school was also named a World-leading Learner by the Global Learning Network and was one of two schools in the country selected for the Fab Foundation Leadership Cohort.

The Tennessee STEM Innovation Network is a public-private partnership between the Tennessee Department of Education and Battelle Memorial Institute, emphasizing a kindergarten through jobs philosophy by promoting the teaching and learning of STEM education and integrating real-world and hands-on learning in K-12 schools across Tennessee. Visit: www.TSIN.org
2 March 2018 (The Costa Rican Times)  Ten tons of hammerhead shark fins have been in storage in Costa Rican warehouses since 1 March 2015, when the government issued a ban on the export of hammerhead shark fins as part of its Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) obligations. The fins were obtained and stored during the export ban and any attempt to export them is considered a violation of CITES. Thousands of individuals and 22 Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) from around the globe are petitioning the government to stop any export attempt.

In 2013, the Costa Rican government led an international campaign to list endangered hammerhead sharks under Appendix II of CITES, in an effort to limit international trade of shark products and improve hammerhead shark conservation in Costa Rica.

Cocos Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site off Costa Rica, is famous for its population of Scalloped hammerhead sharks. The island is visited by numerous tourists from around the globe each year, wanting to experience the islands premier shark diving and world-class Costa Rica liveaboard diving. Cocos Island is vulnerable to illegal shark fishing in and around its protected waters and the Scalloped hammerhead is listed as Endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. This hammerhead shark species, along with other hammerhead species, is in dire need of protection; both to secure the health of Costa Ricas ocean ecosystem and the thriving marine tourism industry.In March 1 of 2015, Costa Rica became one of the worlds few countries to ban the export of hammerhead shark fins. In spite of this bold and visionary step, the ban has had no positive impact on hammerhead shark conservation, stated Isabel Naranjo, the president of CREMA, a Costa Rican non-profit marine conservation organisation, in a letter to the President of Costa Rica dated 19 February 2018.Naranjo explains, the Costa Rican Fishery authority, INCOPESCA, has allowed fishing efforts upon hammerhead sharks to continue at their current unsustainable levels, resulting in a stockpile of over 10 tons of hammerhead shark fins (possibly even 20 tons) in the port city of Puntarenas, waiting for a future approval to export.The letter, written on behalf of 12,000 individuals and well-known global NGOs including WildAid, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, and Fins Attached, urges the government to stop any attempts to export hammerhead sharks by issuing a Presidential Decree to permanently ban the export of stockpiled fins. [more]
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KODIAK, Alaska (AP)  Legislation to fund the U.S. Coast Guard includes a rider that would protect a small Alaska island in exchange for opening up a plot of tideland on Kodiak Island for development.

The provision introduced by Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan would authorize the swap of the federally owned land in Womens Bay for Ayakulik Island, a nearly 11-acre patch off the southwestern coast of Kodiak Island, the Kodiak Daily Mirror reported Friday.





. . .
Leon Williams Contractors, a Maryville-based commercial design-build firm, has been hired to renovate the UTC main student cafeteria, Crossroads Dining Hall.

Everything, except the restrooms, in the roughly 13,000-square-foot dining hall will undergo a complete renovation. All the furniture, food stations and fixtures will be replaced, and new features will be added to the dining experience, including a Mongolian grill concept and a sushi machine.

Crossroads is the main dining hall on campus, so its important for our student-life experience to have a place where students enjoy eating, said Tyler Forrest, associate vice chancellor for budget and finance. This renovation will help us expand what Crossroads offers while also providing a pleasant setting for students and teachers alike.

Leon Williams Contractors, which has worked with UTC Dining on 13 previous projects, will begin work on Crossroads Dining Hall in May.

We are grateful to be asked to renovate this space, which we were asked to build in 2011, said Jimmy Hawkins, president of Leon Williams Contractors. Were blessed that UTC Dining believed in our work so much that they want us to undertake another project for this dining hall.

The company expects to complete the renovation in August, before the fall 2018 semester begins.

In addition to the new dining options and interior makeover, there will be a new kitchen exhaust system and well be adding more windows to bring more natural light into the dining room area, Mr. Hawkins said. Students who are attending UTC in fall 2018 will be able to dine at what will essentially be a completely new Crossroads Dining Hall.
Jaime Ponce, M.D. and CHI Memorial Metabolic and Bariatric Care will host free seminars in May on surgical weight loss options. The seminars will be held at CHI Memorial Metabolic and Bariatric Care, 7405 Shallowford Road, Suite 160.



"Obesity can be devastating to a persons health and self-esteem. These educational seminars are designed to help you better understand bariatric surgical and non-surgical options, and how it may benefit your health," officials said.

Topics include who is a good candidate for the procedure, what to expect during the recovery period and lifestyle changes needed to foster a successful outcome. Walk-ins are also welcome.





Attendees are asked to arrive at the seminar location 30 minutes early."CHI Memorial is accredited by the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program. This means people in the Chattanooga region have access to the some of the most effective weight loss surgery options along with a highly trained medical staff that supports individuals through their weight loss journey," officials said.CHI Memorial is recognized as an Optum/United Bariatric Surgery Centers of Excellence and Aetna Bariatric Surgery Institute of Quality program.
Sydney deep tech incubator, Cicada Innovations, has been named Top Incubator in the World by global peak industry association for entrepreneurship programs, the International Business Innovation Association (InBIA).

[Related: Now that more capital is available to deep tech startups, they need better access to makerspace: Cicada Innovations CEO]

Finalists were selected from over 2,200 InBIA member incubators, accelerators, and entrepreneurship centres from across the globe, with Cicada Innovations being the only Australian in the running.

Applicants were assessed across economic and social impact-based metrics, including the number of startup entrants and successful exits, jobs created, patents filed, new products and services launched, investment dollars received, value and impact of companies created and depth of collaboration.

In addition to being named the Top Incubator in the World at the InBIA Awards held in Dallas, Texas, Cicada innovations was also shortlisted in the categories of Top Technology Incubator in the World and Top Super Incubator in the World awards. Ahead of the event, the Redfern-based incubator also won InBIAs February 2018 Technology Incubator of the Month.

According to Petra Andren, CEO of Cicada Innovations, the incubator snared the top gong at the InBIA awards by proving a focus on the industries of the future, including taking an innovative, holistic, long-term, and program-driven approach to supporting and growing startups.

This award is strong validation of Cicadas unique program-driven business model, and our position as the home of deep technology in Australia, she told Dynamic Business. It is also serious acknowledgement of the amazing community of entrepreneurs and innovators we house within the incubator  they are truly world-leading!

We would like to thank our shareholder universities  USYD, ANU, UTS, UNSW. Their constant connection with and support of us allows us to gain access to some of Australias best capabilities, talent, and research. This constant flow of science-based innovation and research into the incubator is what allows us to consistently build and nurture businesses with the potential to truly change the world.

We will continue to push the envelope by launching ever-more-specialised accelerator programs in more industry sectors and we will use our shareholder universities to place talent into our companies when they are ready to scale. In this way, Cicada will continue to be a literal embodiment of the governments National Innovation and Science Agenda.

Andren said the primary point of difference at Cicada is its program-driven leadership in deep technologies that are solving some of the worlds greatest challenges, such as food security, climate change, and an aging population.

These innovative technologies need longer time to market, and greater access to domain expertise and STEM talent to scale, she said. This is where Cicadas shareholder universities and its ecosystem of industry partners and local and overseas investors come into play.

Being program-driven and taking a create, validate, and incubate approach allows us to provide longer-term support until our promising startups reach scale-up phase, which can take many years.

We create businesses by sourcing world-changing IP and qualified researchers and tech founders through commercialisation training programs, such as the Medical Device Commercialisation Training Program (MDTCP) for medtech.

We then validate their proof of concept by running businesses through specialised accelerator programs, testing early stage ideas for real-world applications, before considering them for long-term incubation. Our GrowLab accelerator program is an example of one such program that feeds directly into the Cicada incubator.

Once residing inside Cicada, we incubate these businesses through access to specialised infrastructure such as labs, hardware spaces, and cleanrooms. They also receive tailored business support services such as mentorship programs from alumni founder entrepreneurs and domain experts offering free assistance on such matters as legal or IP requirements, networking events, easy access to talent in the form of PhD placement programs, access to highly specialized capabilities from our University shareholders, and much more.

Cicada Innovations is the only incubator in Australia to be classified as a super hub by InBIA, which defines one as a hub that blends several models of entrepreneurial growth into a single location, supporting technology entrepreneurs with a wide range of critical services throughout their entrepreneurial journey until graduation.

Noting that Innovation is doing things differently and doing them better, Alan Kinkel, Australias Chief Scientist, described Cicada Innovations as an innovator amongst incubators. He explained, [Theyre] doing it differently through their programs to attract the best commercialisable ideas, and doing it better by using alumni and industry experts to provide business, legal and financial acumen to the founders to support their validated scientific ideas.
The pace of change is set to become even faster during 2018. Technology, globalisation and shifting workforce demographics are completely altering the way business is conducted.

According to business consulting firm McKinsey and Co[1], every occupation that exists today has the potential to be at least partially automated, and the firm estimates half of all current staff activities could eventually be done by machines. Meanwhile research firm Gartner[2] predicts artificial intelligence (AI) will be the most disruptive class of technologies for the next decade.

Its increasingly clear that traditional ways of operating wont continue to work in todays rapidly evolving business environment. However, many organisations are unsure of the best way to maximise their chances for success.

Adapting to Change in 2018

Some companies are much better than others when it comes to being agile and innovative. It usually comes down to finding the right mix of technologies and management approaches that best suit their particular requirements.

It is also essential to avoid constantly jumping from one technology trend to another. It can be easy to get distracted by the latest and greatest bright, shiny object that promises to hold all of the answers. However, taking a more pragmatic approach is more likely to deliver better long-term results.

A case in point is robotic process automation[3] thats predicted to be the next big technology trend. Here, the goal is not to have robots sitting at desks and replacing humans, but rather using automation to boost efficiency and remove manual processes wherever it makes sense to do so. Over time, all organisations will need to figure out where such automation makes sense (and where it doesnt) when it comes to their particular circumstances.

In this evolving environment, businesses will need to do three things in order to succeed in 2018:

Maintain a focus on execution: The most successful businesses are those with baked-in disciplines for, and a focus on, execution. These organisations understand its not enough to have a great strategy, it also has to be executed fully and effectively. The best-performing organisations are those that consistently achieve operational excellence, and a brilliant strategy means nothing without the ability to implement it. Respond faster to change: No one knows what the future holds, so its important to be agile and prepared to change as new challenges and opportunities arise. Trends will come and go, so its a matter of learning to see opportunities and then finding the best way to use them to deliver value to customers. Companies need to focus on building their capacity for change and ability to respond to those changes quickly and pragmatically to improve the odds of achieving significant dividends. Constantly challenge how things are done: To achieve optimum results in an era of constant change, nothing should be regarded as sacred. Every option must be on the table, and existing processes and approaches constantly examined to ensure that they are delivering as much value as possible. Those that are not, need to be removed and replaced. Having a simple set-and-forget attitude will no longer work. Its important for senior managers to encourage everyone within their organisation to flag opportunities for improvement that can become a part of ongoing operations. In this way, incremental changes will result in significant long-term results.

The vital role of effective BPM

As plans are made for the year ahead, business process management (BPM) fundamentals have never been more important. Properly executed, business processes enable an organisation to manage and fully leverage its capacity for change. These processes allow teams to structure the way in which they deal with various business operations while simultaneously maintaining an ability to constantly adapt to a changing marketplace.

The Greek philosopher Heraclitus[4] is credited with saying the one true constant in life is change. Some 2,500 years later, that proclamation seems truer than ever.

While its impossible to know what the future will bring, one certainty is that the pace of change will not slow. For this reason, its important to make 2018 a year that is more about opportunity than risk. By improving its ability to embrace change, an organisation will be well positioned to take advantage of whatever is just over the horizon.

About the author

Ivan Seselj is CEO of Promapp Solutions, an industry leading provider of cloud-based process management (BPM) software for creating and managing business processes online. Ivan previously wrote A solid case for process improvement: more than a vague promise of happier customers, Securing staff buy-in for process improvements, The leadership traits that inhibit innovation, Nine steps to build an agile business in 2017, See the world through your customers eyes and Will this be the year of risk or opportunity? for Dynamic Business.

[1] https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/where-machines-could-replace-humans-and-where-they-cant-yet

[2] https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/the-disruptive-power-of-artificial-intelligence/

[3] https://www.cmswire.com/digital-workplace/7-things-to-consider-before-you-invest-in-a-robotic-process-automation-rpa-system/

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraclitus
Incentivizing work by extending benefits for six months after a family begins employment to help reduce the fiscal cliff.

I would like to thank the Tennessee General Assembly and the Governor for helping us make needed improvements to our Families First program, said TDHS Commissioner Danielle W. Barnes. These changes will raise the allotments families depend on to todays cost of living along with promoting a new incentive to find employment and help create the thriving Tennessee we all want.

State Senator Kerry Roberts, R-Springfield, and Rep. Dan Howell, R-Georgetown, joined together to sponsor the legislation that also had the support of Governor Haslam.

Its a compassionate program that provides temporary assistance for families in difficult circumstances, but the assistance is based on the 1996 level of need, said Senator Roberts. Food and necessities are far more expensive today; increasing the assistance is the right thing to do.

Rep. Howell said the legislation was personal for him. The East Tennessee State Representatives family received government assistance when he was a child.

Had it not been for the public assistance my family received I probably wouldve been one of those statistics that dropped out of school and got a job in a factory or a cotton field, said Rep. Howell. I want them to have the same opportunity I had.

The legislation additionally provides TDHS with tools to reduce fraud, waste and abuse of both TANF and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as food stamps) benefits.

TDHS now has the authority to join a multi-state cooperative that identifies individuals who illegally receive benefits from more than one state. The legislation also enhances the states authority to investigate TANF and SNAP fraud and strengthens current practices to prevent multiple EBT card replacements.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) is a federal block grant administered in Tennessee through Families First. Families First helps more than 51,000 participants in Tennessee reach self-sufficiency by providing temporary support for transportation, child care assistance, education, job training, employment activities and other support services.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a federal program offering nutrition assistance to nearly a million eligible, low-income individuals in Tennessee.
President Xi Jinping has asked the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the embassy in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to immediately take "all necessary means" to handle a major road accident there involving Chinese tourists.

Chinese President Xi Jinping [File Photo: Xinhua]

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, called for "all-out" effort to rescue the injured and "handle ensuing issues of the deceased."

A tourist bus fell from a bridge in North Hwanghae Province at around 6 p.m. Sunday. The victims included 34 Chinese -- 32 dead and two seriously injured.

Premier Li Keqiang also gave rescue instructions.

Acting on their orders, the foreign ministry and the embassy have been in close contact with the DPRK to coordinate emergency response.

Xi said the recent frequent occurrence of accidents demanded closer attention to safety issues.

Many people will be traveling during the upcoming May Day holiday, he said, ordering local authorities and government departments in China to close safety loopholes, strengthen accident prevention and improve responses to better protect people and property.
The Chinese aircraft carrier formation, featuring the carrier Liaoning, has undertaken live combat drills in the East China Sea.

China's Liaoning aircraft carrier formation conducts exercises in the western Pacific on April 20, 2018. [Photo: China National Radio]

On Sunday, the formation took part in anti-aircraft and anti-submarine warfare training with an "opposing force."

According to training commanders, upon detecting "enemy" aircraft using radar systems, the flotilla's ships swiftly changed positions and raised guns for defense. J-15 planes took off to intercept "enemy" jets.

Meanwhile, anti-air missiles were fired from ships surrounding the carrier.

In the anti-submarine drills, the flotilla successfully detected and dodged an attack range from "enemy" submarines.

Monday marked the 69th anniversary of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy. More than 600 officers onboard the carrier Liaoning stood in formation on deck to celebrate the day by committing themselves to the cause of building a first-class navy.

Over the past ten days, the carrier formation has undertaken intensive live drills in at least three seas: the West Pacific, the South China Sea and the East China Sea.
China Tuesday published a report on the United States' human rights situation.

People scramble for shelter at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after apparent gun fire was heard on October 1, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. On the evening of October 1, 2017, almost 60 people were killed and more than 800 injured in a mass shooting in Las Vegas, the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. [Photo: VCG]

The report, titled "Human Rights Record of the United States in 2017," was released by the Information Office of the State Council, China's cabinet, in response to the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2017 issued by the U.S. State Department on April 20.

A chronology of human rights violations by the United States in 2017 was also released by the office Tuesday.

China's report said the United States posed once again as "the guardian of human rights" and a self-styled "human rights judge" while its own human rights record remained tarnished and showed continued deterioration.

The report accused the United States of serious infringement on citizens' civil rights, systematic racial discrimination, severe flaws in American-style democracy, widening rich-poor divide, and discrimination and assault against some specific groups such as women, children and people with disabilities, as well as its continued violations of human rights in other countries.

The report noted that on the evening of Oct. 1, 2017, almost 60 people were killed and more than 800 injured in a mass shooting in Las Vegas, the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

The report pointed out that American women face obvious discrimination as well as serious threats of sex harassment and infringement, while the poverty, health and safety problems for children in the United States were worrisome.

In October 2017, the scandal erupted concerning American film producer Harvey Weinstein who sexually harassed a number of female stars. The "#MeToo" campaign was initiated on social media platforms to encourage victims to protest against the widespread sex harassment and infringement, receiving active responses from more than 1 million people, according to the report.

It also quoted some reports of polls of American academics saying that the respondents believed that American democracy is "drowning in money."

Race relations in the United States continued to deteriorate in 2017, and racial discrimination exists in law enforcement and judicial organs, the report noted.

Black male offenders received sentences on average of 19.1 percent longer than those of "similarly situated" white male offenders, it said, citing a report of the U.S. Sentencing Commission released in November 2017.

The report also stressed that rich-poor divide expanded in the United States, with an increasing number of homeless people.

Official statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau showed more than 40 million American people were living in poverty. Nearly half of them, 18.5 million, were living in deep poverty.

According to the report, the U.S.-led military operations in other countries have caused heavy civilian casualties. The Guantanamo Bay detention camp continued to detain and torture foreigners. The United States also made cyber warfare tools, hacking and spying on foreign networks.

Military operations in Syria caused a large number of civilian casualties, the report said, citing media reports.

The U.S.-led coalition and U.S. Marines have reportedly bombed or shelled at least 12 schools, 15 mosques and 15 bridges as well as residential neighborhoods, hospitals, cultural relics and a refugee camp, according to www.motherjones.com.

The Muslim Times website reported on June 24, 2017 that the U.S. military had attacked Syrian government forces "at least four times in recent months," including a missile strike in April against a Syrian airfield. Myles Hoenig, an American political analyst, said the United States was violating the UN Charter by conducting a war of aggression against Syria.




The show notes for Episode 80 are at http://www.eclectablog.com/2018/04/episode-80-when-it-comes-to-enbridge-line-5-we-dont-even-know-the-worst-case-scenario-wsg-liz-kirkwood-from-for-love-of-water.html

For Love of Water (FLOW) on Twitter: @FlowForWater

Oil and Water Dont Mix on Twitter: OilWaterDntMix

For Love of Water (FLOW) website: FlowForWater.org

Oil and Water Dont Mix website: OilAndWaterDontMix.org

The Enbridge Line 5 page at FLOW in HERE.

Chris Savage at Eclectablog: After environmental catastrophe near-miss with Enbridges Line 5 pipeline under Lake Michigan, Gov. Snyder issues sternly-worded press release

The Line 5 crossing:





Image courtesy of For Love of Water (FLOW)

Liz Kirkwood at FLOW: Anatomy of A Spill in the Great Lakes

Line 5 Update Fact Sheet

Line 5 Alternatives Fact Sheet

Protecting the Heart of the Great Lakes from a Disastrous Oil Spill

ACTION: Endorse the decommission plan HERE.

The Good:

Associated Press: AP-NORC Poll: Amid strikes, Americans back teacher raises

The Bad:

Critically important Andy Slavitt thread starts here:

BREAKING: Health care is now under greater attack in 2018 than it was in 2017 from the Trump Administration. Please read and consider sharing. 1/  Andy Slavitt (@ASlavitt) April 23, 2018

Jonathan Oosting at The Detroit News: Michigan Senate OKs Medicaid work requirement

Kathleen Gray at the Detroit Free Press: Have Medicaid? New Michigan bill may force you to work

The Shrugly \_()_/:

David Wasserman at The Cook Political Report: Risk Factors for 2018 GOP House Incumbents

FLINT UPDATE

Ron Fonger at MLive.com: $6.1-million water reserve fund comes between Gov. Snyder, Flint mayor

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After eight years of an anti-science Bush administration, science got a bit of a boost with the election of Barack Obama. Political cartoonist Tom Toles from The Washington Post commemorated the event with this spot-on comic:

However, Republicans continued to push their anti-science ways, working to thwart the Obama administrations efforts to combat climate change at every turn. Again, Tom Toles was there to highlight this archaic, antiquated thinking in this 2012 comic:

And again in 2014:

Now that the leadership President Obama is just a fond tear in your eye memory, were all forced to watch as the Trump administration rolls back every Obama-era environmental rule they can. The ascension of Scott Pruitt, the man who sued the EPA 14 times during his tenure as Oklahoma Attorney General, was confirmation that dark times were in store for science in America.

Late last year, Pruitt moved forward with new rule that prevents any person who works for a college or university and who receives grant funding from the EPA from serving on three important federal science advisory boards:

Scientific Advisory Board, a panel of approximately 45 scientists, examines key scientific issues related to EPA regulations, and produces reports telling EPA what the current state of the science is.

The Board of Scientific Counselors, with an executive committee of about 20 people, works more intimately with agency scientists, advising the agencys Office of Research and Development on its research programs.

The Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee which provides technical guidance specifically related to air pollution standards, such as questions about the potential health effects of different pollution levels. [Descriptions courtesy of ScienceMag.org]

Here is what I wrote about this at the time:

The presumption here is that these scientists are somehow personally and financially benefiting from the grant funding. The reality, of course, is that the funding pays for salaries, supplies, equipment, and other expenses needed to do science, not to fatten the wallets of the scientists themselves. What this directive does NOT do is prevent industry scientists from continuing to serve on the advisory commissions, scientists who work for corporations that DO stand to directly benefit if the EPA loosens protections allowing them to pollute more or avoid other protections that reduce their corporate profits. Its not a far stretch to imagine corporate scientific advisers being highly incentivized to advise in ways that help their employers.

This isnt the fox guarding the hen house. This is the fox moving the chickens into the foxs den.

This week, were about to get another taste of what happens when you put shameless corporate grifters in charge. Scott Pruitt is about to issue a rule that does away with the EPAs use of significant and important science when setting policy and creating regulations:

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt is expected to propose a rule Tuesday that would establish new standards for what science could be used in writing agency regulations, according to individuals briefed on the plan. It is a sweeping change long sought by conservatives. The rule, which Pruitt has described in interviews with select media over the past month, would only allow EPA to consider studies for which the underlying data are made available publicly. Advocates describe this approach as an advance for transparency, but critics say it would effectively block the agency from relying on long-standing, landmark studies linking air pollution and pesticide exposure to harmful health effects.

This move encompasses efforts set forth in two pieces of legislation introduced by conservative Republicans in previous years: the HONEST Act (its not honest) and the Secret Science Reform Act.

In the end, what these new rules would accomplish is to force the EPA to ignore important and significant scientific studies if any of the data is held in confidence. Why shouldnt we want all science to be publicly available for all to scrutinize? Heres what Gretchen Goldman of the Union of Concerned Scientists wrote about this effort back in 2015:

Agencies such as the EPA dont make all this information publicly available for a number of very good reasons. Protecting individuals privacy is prime among them. For example, were all aware of the laws that protect the privacy of our medical records. The Secret Science bill appears to require the EPA to release such confidential personal health information about the participants in scientific studies if it wants to use health studies to make regulatory decisionsa direct violation of health privacy law. The bill also fails to protect intellectual property rights, another reason data often cannot be publicly released. Further, the bill would not compel companies and others to make their relevant data publicly available to the agency. The upshot is, if this bill became law, the EPA would not be able to use public health data protected by confidentiality agreements to enact science-based regulations. The result? The EPA would not be able to carry out its mission of protecting public health and the environment.

Nearly 1,000 scientists have signed a letter all but begging Pruitt not to move forward with the new rules. Unfortunately, its likely to have exactly zero impact.

All of this is happening at a time when President Trump is proposing slashing the EPAs budget by 23% and the Office of Science and Technologys budget by over 35%.

Its clear that science is once again being relegated to the basement prison cells Tom Toles depicted in his 2009 comic. Trump and his crew of crony capitalists are modern-day Neros fiddling (and enriching themselves) while the world slowly burns.

The ruling is likely to have a 30-day comment period. I will update this post when information on that becomes available.

[CC image by takver | Flickr]Pruit
Foreign Ministers of Shanghai Cooperation Organization countries have met in Beijing in preparation for the upcoming Qingdao Summit.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi says the June meeting is going to produce significant results.

SCO foreign ministers' have met for the first time since the organization expanded its ranks last year to include India and Pakistan as full members.

The goal of the sessions in Beijing has been to establish a political mandate for the Qingdao Summit.

Foreign ministers from the eight member-countries have exchanged views on common international concerns, reaching several agreements which have been included in the signing of 14 separate documents.

Wang Yi speaks at the SCO Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs Meeting in Beijing, on April 24, 2018. [Photo: fmprc.gov.cn]

Wang Yi says the documents are mostly draft versions of various agreements which will be submitted to the Qingdao Summit for further review before adoption.

"All parties have agreed to continue strengthening cooperation in law enforcement and security. We're also going to submit draft documents around fighting extremism, separatism, and terrorism to the Qingdao Summit for review. We've also scheduled a vice-ministerial meeting of the SCO Afghanistan Liaison Group in Beijing next month. It will help facilitate the process of political reconciliation, as well as the creation of a better environment for regional security."

The Qingdao Summit marks a return of the SCO annual meeting to China following the Beijing Summit in 2012.

Wang Yi says this year's meeting is going to gather numerous world leaders beyond the 8 SCO permanent members.

"The Qingdao Summit is like a reunion of the SCO family. In addition to the eight member states and four observer states, guests from invited countries, as well as heads of states from these countries and international organizations will gather to discuss development and cooperation strategies. They will review experiences and make plans for the future of the organization. The summit will definitely improve the influence of SCO in the international community and create a new starting point for the organization."

As part of Tuesday's sessions, Wang Yi has suggested the group should try to live up to the "Shanghai Spirit," which includes deepening security cooperation and promoting integrated development.

The June session in Qingdao will also be Pakistan and India's first official summit as full SCO members.




Malaysia should produce own animal feed, says country's minister



Malaysia has to continue to be self-sufficient by producing its own animal feed for the livestock sector, said Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek, minister of the country's Agriculture and Agrobased Industry (MoA), during the recent Livestock Asia 2018 event in Kuala Lumpur.

"Even when we are producing our own poultry, we are importing almost 100% of the feed. Apart from raising the producing capacity of corn, for example, we need to have other options such as using palm kernel cake as we produce our own palm trees," he added.



Such actions will help cut down around 30-40% of Malaysia's dependency on imported animal feed, Ahmad Shabery remarked.



According to the minister, poultry is one of the fastest growing segments of the domestic agricultural sector, contributing to 75% of the RM10 billion (US$2.6 billion) livestock industry in the country.



He also commented that Malaysia's self-sufficiency of poultry products is at 125%.



"The poultry segment is the fastest growing - followed by fishery products- which is almost reaching 100% of self-sufficiency; meat products is still low at around 20%, while dairy products are around 50%. There is still room for improvement in our industry," Ahmad Shabery said.



"We export only poultry products and eggs - around 20% from the 125% - and only to neighbouring countries, for example, Singapore. We should produce and export more as trade can strengthen our currency."



Ahmad Shabery opined that producing the country's own livestock products will provide sufficient food at an affordable price, apart from creating more job opportunities for people.



Although Malaysia is self-sufficient in poultry and eggs since the early 1980s, the industry is facing challenges such as the soaring global price of imported feed ingredients.



Other challenges include consumer concerns over the safety of poultry products, the threat of emerging diseases, as well as environmental and animal welfare issues associated with poultry production.



The poultry industry must re-orientate itself to meet the challenges of a market-driven world, Ahmad Shabery remarked.



He stated that these challenges need to be addressed to ensure that the poultry industry is sustainable and continues to contribute significantly to the national food security.



- The Malaysian Reserve






Nutriad promotes feed additive solutions in Asia



Nutriad was an active participant at the recent VICTAM Asia 2018, a trade show focused on feed processing, additives, ingredients and aqua feed in Asia.



The event, along with various conferences, took place in Bangkok, Thailand, allowing industry professionals and academics from across the region to participate and discuss the latest developments in the dynamic feed market.



BK Chew (pictured, right), APAC director of Nutriad, explained that it was the first time the company participated at VICTAM and highlighted the efficient setup as it could participate in three major conferences - Aqua Feed Horizon, FIAAP and GRAPAS - at the same time.



Dr. Glenn Alfred Ferriol (pictured, left), area manager for the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, presented on "Mycotoxin Management in Stored Grains" at GRAPAS, where he analysed the difference between controlling mould growth and managing the risk of mycotoxin contamination in grains. He emphasised that raw materials such as corn, are already contaminated with mycotoxins right at plantations and upon harvest, as was shown by the annual mycotoxin survey.



Depending on how long grains are stored silos, an appropriate anti-mold programme needs to be applied to control the mould growth, which in turn will help minimise the increase in the level of storage mycotoxins. The next step is to do a confirmatory testing using a more accurate method (GC/LC-MS/MS) in testing the finished feeds or end products. Nutriad's app, MYCOMAN, allows producers to determine and apply the right mycotoxin deactivators and dosage.



Nutriad offers an effective anti-mould product range (MOLD-NIL), mycotoxin deactivators (UNIKE, TOXY-NIL PLUS and TOXY-NIL), and services like raw material screening to help asses and address the risk of mycotoxin contamination.



Daniel Ramirez (pictured, right), business development manager of Digestive Performance, presented on gut health at FIAAP.

"Nutriad's ADIMIX product range exploit the proven health benefits of butyrate and provides a cost-effective option to improve animal performance. ADIMIX Precision enhances enteric development and intestinal health as well as nutrient absorption. It furthermore provides support for the control of Salmonella and Campylobacter infections," Ramirez explained.
The US-led military operations in other countries have caused heavy civilian casualties, according to the Human Rights Record of the United States in 2017 released by China on Tuesday.

A man gestures at U.S military vehicles driving in the town of Darbasiya next to the Turkish border, Syria April 28, 2017.[Photo: VCG]

Military operations in Syria caused a large number of civilian casualties, the report said, citing media reports.

The US-led coalition and Marines had reportedly bombed or shelled at least 12 schools, 15 mosques, 15 bridges as well as residential neighborhoods, hospitals, cultural relics and refugee camp, according to www.motherjones.com.

The Muslim Times website reported on June 24, 2017 that the US military had attacked Syrian government forces "at least four times in recent months" , including a missile strike in April against a Syrian airfield. Myles Hoenig, an American political analyst, said the United States was violating the UN Charter by conducting a war of aggression against Syria.

In a hearing of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, former Guantanamo detainee Djamel Ameziane prepared a written statement saying he was detained for 11 years, faced prolonged incommunicado detention, multiple forms of torture, and never received a judicial determination regarding the legality of his detention, the report quoted Al Jazeera website as saying.

Also, according to a report of The USA Today website, the U.N. and human rights organizations had criticized U.S. authorities for creating a "legal black hole" in Guantanamo allowing for the infinite detention of suspects without charge, and for holding many of the detainees for more than a decade.

The report released by China also said that the United States has made cyber warfare tools, citing WikiLeaks information that the U.S. National Security Agency operators had hacked into Pakistani mobile networks and had been spying on hundreds of IP addresses in the country.

The report was released by the Information Office of the State Council, China's cabinet, in response to the U.S. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2017.
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.
Dear @IlhanMN,



I hear you plan to go on a fact-finding tour of Israel. In fact, Israel is doing pretty well. Its, Somalia, your native country, that could truly use your formidable skills. Maybe you could use your frequent flyer miles and swing by.


By Yahoo , April 22, 2018





Paris (AFP) - French lawmakers were set to vote Sunday on a controversial immigration law that has exposed unprecedented divisions in President Emmanuel Macron's young centrist party.





At least one MP, Jean-Michel Clement, is planning to vote against the law -- at a cost of being kicked out of Macron's Republic On The Move (LREM) party -- while several others said they would abstain.

Read More:



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By LA Focus News Paper , April 21, 2018





President Trump's first public comments from Palm Beach, Florida, on Saturday were to attack New York Times' White House correspondent Maggie Haberman, apparently over her coverage of a criminal investigation of Mr. Trump's personal lawyer. They were the latest in his sustained attacks on the press in general, specific media outlets, and even specific reporters, as well as their sources and methods.

Read More:



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In celebration of Earth Day and Arbor Day, Kentucky Power is giving away thousands of low-growth tree saplings to customers on Saturday.

The saplings will be available on a first-come, first-served basis while supplies last beginning at 9 a.m. in Ashland, Hazard, Pikeville and Whitesburg. There is no charge to customers for the trees. Four varieties will be available: Grey Dogwood, Silky Dogwood, Hazelnut and Wild Plum. Supplies are limited, so customers should plan to pick up their saplings early. Customers may not reserve trees or place orders in advance.

"Low-growth trees are great for landscaping around homes," said Dusty Roll, Kentucky Power's region forestry supervisor. "These trees typically have nice shapes and will not grow so tall that they interfere with overhead utility lines or structures. Plus, planting trees is an excellent way to improve the environment, add beauty to the landscape and improve air quality."

In Ashland, Kentucky Power has teamed up with the City of Ashland and Ashland Community and Technical College to combine their annual tree giveaways at a central location this year. Additional varieties will be available, including some hardwoods. In addition, Kentucky Power foresters and school experts will provide education on planting the right tree in the right place to avoid interfering with overhead power lines.

"Ashland Community and Technical College is proud to be honored with a Tree Campus USA recognition for the third year in a row," said Paul Seasor, director of maintenance and operations at ACTC. "Part of how we earn that recognition is by service learning projects like the tree giveaway. Other ways we meet Tree Campus requirements are maintaining a tree advisory committee, a campus tree-care plan and dedicated annual expenditures for a campus tree program. We are thrilled to be partnering with Kentucky Power on this year's giveaway."
Erdogan: Opposition lawmakers will get apt response during polls

Turkish President Erdogan criticizes ruckus main opposition lawmakers created in parliament.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that Turkish voters will give an apt response to the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) during the June 24 elections.

ERDOGAN CRITICIZED CHP LAWMAKERS

Speaking at a reception held at the parliament, to mark National Sovereignty and Childrens Day and the 98th anniversary of the foundation of parliament, Erdogan criticized the ruckus created by CHP lawmakers.

"MY CITIZENS WILL GIVE A BEFITTING RESPONSE"

Earlier on Monday, the opposition lawmakers, including CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, banged their desks and chanted slogans against emergency rule, during Erdogan's speech. "On June 24, my nation, my citizens will give a befitting response to those who polluted the parliament. The solution is the ballot box," Erdogan said.

Recalling that earlier it was CHP which insisted on holding snap polls, Erdogan said, now they were creating disturbance. Referring to Kilicdaroglu, he said, "You only win your [party] congress; however, you always lose at the ballot box." The parliament on Friday passed a bill calling for early elections, with 386 lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties supporting the move.

In an April 2017 referendum, Turkish voters approved a bill switching Turkey from a parliamentary system to a presidential one. Under the changes, the number of lawmakers in parliament rises to 600 from 550, presidential and parliamentary elections are held every five years, and presidents can retain ties to their political party.

The post of the prime minister is also abolished. Erdogan also criticized the 15 deputies from CHP who jumped ship on Sunday to join the newly-formed Good (IYI) Party. "Your so-called 15 deputies are leaving your party, and they are joining the Good Party," said Erdogan, adding that these 15 deputies do not sit at the IYI Party's seats in the general assembly.

"This situation is similar to Gunes Motel incident," he said. In 1977, then-CHP leader Bulent Ecevit convinced 12 lawmakers from Justice Party (AP) to join him following a secret meeting in Gunes Motel in Istanbul. Ten of the 12 lawmakers then became part of Ecevit's cabinet.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's royal wedding is just weeks away, but several of the biggest details remain unknown. The latest news, however, suggests the blushing bride's all-important "something borrowed."

Something Borrowed From A Familiar Source

According to a leading royal expert, princess-to-be Markle may be looking to the life of a past royal for the big day. Katie Nicholl revealed that Markle's "something borrowed" could be coming from the jewelry box of none other than the late Princess Diana.

"Harry made sure Diana wasn't forgotten on the day of his engagement. Two of the diamonds in Meghan's ring is from Diana's personal collection. So I think there's every possibility that Meghan might wear a piece from Diana's jewelry collection on her wedding day," she explained.

The ring in question includes two diamonds from Diana's collection set either side of a stone from Botswana, which is a special location for the couple.

What To Choose

As for the piece Markle might choose, Nicholls suggested that it's possibly Princess Diana's Spencer Tiara. She advised that using it might be a nice way of including Prince Harry's late mother in his big day just like his brother William did when he gave then wife-to-be Kate Middleton her engagement ring.

However, other experts reckon that it's highly unlikely Markle would choose to borrow that particular piece.

"Meghan is marrying into the Windsor family, not the Spencer family, so if she borrows a tiara, I think it will reflect her new royal status," argued jewelry writer Ella Kay.

Maybe, the princess-in-waiting could choose something a bit more different, such as Princess Diana's South Sea pearl earrings perhaps, or even her diamond and sapphire suite from the Sultan Oman, which could also coincidentally tick the "something blue."

Keeping His Mother Close

Regardless of how they choose to do it, there's no question Princess Diana will be included in the May 19 nuptials somehow.

"For Prince Harry, one of the most important and influential people of his life - his mother - will of course not be there to participate in his special day. This would be very poignant, and a very personal thing between the young couple, and it would symbolically allow his mother to be part of this magical day," said former royal butler and commentator Grant Harrold.

Princess Diana died in a car crash in 1997. Both Prince William and Prince Harry have recently discussed the grief they felt about their mother's passing.
The public rejoiced when Kensington Palace announced Kate Middleton and Prince William's third baby was born. However, many noted that Meghan Markle's name was missing from the announcement.

Middleton gave birth to a baby boy during the early hours of April 23 and her husband, the Duke of Cambridge, was there to witness the arrival of the newest addition to their growing family.

Kensington Palace took to Twitter to give some info on the birth and to inform everyone that the Duchess of Cambridge and the baby are OK. It was followed by another tweet, enumerating those who have been informed of the birth.

"The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, The Prince of Wales, The Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Harry and members of both families have been informed and are delighted with the news," the tweet read.

Not On The List

Notice someone missing from the list? Yup, it's Markle, the soon-to-be wife of Prince Harry, who, obviously, was one of those informed. Eagle-eyed fans quickly noticed this and began speculating why the Hollywood actress was absent in the tweet.

However, fans shouldn't jump to conclusions too fast. Marlene Koenig, an expert to royalty matters, believed that the move wasn't an intentional disregard or snub of Markle. It was just simply because she is still not a royal.

Technically, she will be part of the royal family in less than a month. Markle and Prince Harry are set to tie the knot on May 19, meaning to say the former Suits actress has yet to officially become a royalty.

"Meghan is not a member of the royal family yet, so she is not a relative at this time. Meghan is Harry's fiancee, but is not yet Auntie Meghan," Koenig explained.

She further pointed out that had Middleton delivered the baby after the upcoming and highly anticipated exchange of vows between Markle and Prince Harry, the 36-year-old actress would have been included in the tweet.

Jabs In The Past?

That said, fans should just chill and take a seat, and just wait for the wedding that'll happen in just more than 20 days. It is worth noting, however, that Markle had continuously been plagued by nasty rumors that suggest she is not at all welcome into joining the royal family.

That was the case when Queen Elizabeth II gave her consent to her grandson, Prince Harry, and his fiancee, Markle. The declaration was compared with how Her Royal Highness seemed to have warmly addressed Middleton previously and how she lacked adjectives before the name of the actress on the declaration.
Stan Lee, one of the pillars of Marvel Comics, has found himself again in hot waters after a massage therapist accused him of sexual misconduct.

The 95-year-old is at the center of a lawsuit, along with his assistant Mac Anderson, filed by Maria Carballo. The massage therapist claimed that the inappropriate acts happened on April 21 to 23 last year at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago.

"For a long time, I was afraid to ask anyone to help me hold Mr. Lee accountable for how he treated me. He is rich and famous. I am not," Carballo said.

But what inspired her to come out was the women who bravely shared their harrowing experiences. Even so, Carballo admitted that she still feels "nervous and afraid," though it had died down a bit because of the people who are behind her.

Details

Carballo was hired during the weekend to massage the infamous comics creator at his hotel room. However, when the masseuse started to massage Lee, she noticed the faced-down man is touching himself. As she massaging his quadriceps, he started to moan.

Because of that, Carballo decided to finish the massage early and left the hotel unit. However, after her employer requested for her to do another massage session with Lee, who reportedly apologized, she went back the following day.

An hour when she came back and began the massage, Lee started to moan again. Upon learning of the act, Carballo immediately stopped the session and ordered the producer to get dressed so that she could leave the room. But it seemed that it didn't sit well with the client, as he stood up from the table completely naked and became mad at her.

Carballo stressed she continued the massage as she got scared that she would be fired. This time, she did a Shiatsu massage, which was when she used her feet rather than her hands, just to avoid getting close to Lee. However, the worse seemed to have happened.

Lee allegedly got her foot and started rubbing his private part with it. That was what drew the line and Carballo immediately ended the session. She got the $240 from him as payment and decided to leave. But before she could leave the premise, Anderson allegedly gave her a lump of cash, which she believed was because he knew of his boss's actions.

Lee, who has appeared in myriads of Marvel films as an extra, recently became a headliner after news broke out that he was abused physically, psychologically, and mentally by the people close to him, including his daughter, J.C.
Kourtney Kardashian is clearly a kid at heart. The mother-of-three went to Disneyland California on April 21 to celebrate her 39th birthday in style.

The Happiest Place On Earth

Kardashian, who turned 39 on April 18, took her man, Younes Bendjima, young children Penelope and Mason Disick, mother Kris Jenner along and Jenner's boyfriend Corey Gamble, for some fun in the sun.

The family paid a visit to the Disneyland Park in Anaheim on Saturday for a visit so cool even North West made a stylish appearance. They took a hilarious ride on Splash Mountain and their photos showed a terrified Kris and an elated Kourtney, whose hands were thrown up in the air.

They also hopped on the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad outdoor rollercoaster as well as the Soarin' Around the World simulator, a virtual-reality experience that offers visitors an awe-inspiring tour of the world. Kourtney shared some pics on her Instagram stories.

A Difficult Time

There was no sign of Kim Kardashian-West, Kendall or Kylie Jenner. Sister Khloe Kardashian is still in Cleveland following the birth of her daughter, True Thompson.

Khloe is currently dealing with cheating rumors against her baby daddy, Tristan Thompson. Videos emerged online shortly before True's birth, purporting to show Khloe's partner engaged in illicit activities with two women while she was pregnant. Khloe is reportedly trying to decide whether she's going to stay in Ohio or move back to California with her family. The extended clan was with Khloe until last week to support her.

Her Other Birthday Party

Kourtney first celebrated her birthday on April 19, at an intimate family dinner that doubled as an album listening party for brother-in-law Kanye West. At the event, Kardashian matriarch Kris Jenner gave a heartwarming toast about how wonderful of a mother she thinks Kourtney is.

"You taught me how to be a mom. You were there first, and I love you more than I say, and I love you more than life itself," she gushed.

The quiet, intimate family-only event soon turned into a listening party as West debuted his seven-song solo project, a joint album with Kid Cudi, and two additional records from Teyana Taylor and Pusha T. West acts as a producer on the last two projects, with the albums set to drop in June.

The rapper and wife Kardashian-West engaged in some saucy PDA at the party, where supermodel Kendall Jenner, Larsa Pippen, Stephanie Shepherd and other close friends of Kardashians were present.
Kanye West has made it clear hes Team Donald Trump. Fans have also made it clear they are not here for the rapper endorsing the controversial President.

Fans and critics of the rapper headed to Twitter to share their thoughts. One pointed out Wests support for Trump is definitely a different tune than when he called out former President George Bush.

We live in a world where Kanye thinks George W. Bush hates black people, but Donald J. Trump is an alright guy, wrote the fan.

Another called out West for not speaking up for police brutality against the African American community. The fan said West also says something when he wants his fans to purchase his merchandise.

Kanye was silent af for the entire time cops was murdering black men, women and children. LITERALLY silent in every way. He only speak when he want to sell you something. A true cornball trump supporter finesser. And i'm mad because imma listen to the music smhhh  Veteran Freshman (@yusufyuie) April 22, 2018

One added that West backed Trump as well as conservative commentator Candace Owens.

This woman is anti-black, anti-reform, conservative and anti-LGBT What else does he have to do Kanye stans??

Another stated that fans couldnt blame Wests marriage to Kim Kardashian West for his comments. They pointed out that Kardashian voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Presidential election.

No woman is responsible for [his] clownery, added the fan.

Another added that they were debating if they should support one of Wests artists, Teyana Taylor, who has a new project coming out soon.

trying to decide if i'm gonna avoid teyana's album (even though her last one was great) because of kanye's dumb trump supporting ass. pic.twitter.com/gWW8VOGhEp  king crissle (@crissles) April 23, 2018

One joked that West is responsible for Trumps Twitter account.

I have a conspiracy theory: KANYE WEST is actually running DONALD TRUMPS twitter account And vice-versa  R.A. the Rugged Man (@RAtheRuggedMan) April 22, 2018

Another compared West to his alleged arch nemesis, Taylor Swift, who often gets backlash as well.

Taylor Swift:  Did not actively engage w/2016 election  Sued a DJ who sexually assaulted her, donated money awarded  Vocally supports gun control Kanye:  Went to Trump Tower  RT'd the Dilbert guy / endorsed Candace Owens  "George Bush doesn't care about black people"  K.M. McFarland (@km_mcfarland) April 23, 2018

One tried to convince West to change his mind about Trump.

just admit that supporting Donald Trump is a terrible idea dude  Jules Suzdaltsev (@jules_su) April 22, 2018

Fans reactions to West come just after radio host Ebro Darden revealed a conversation he had with West over the weekend. Darden said that West told him I do love Donald Trump. He also confirmed that West still backs the President after he had sparked controversy with support for Trump back in 2016.

West also reportedly criticized former President Barack Obama during his conversation with Darden.

Dardens co-host, Rosenberg, also chimed in when Darden explained his conversation with West Monday. Rosenberg said fans shouldnt wait for West to apologize for his Trump supporter status anytime soon.

Interestingly enough, West also revealed to Darden that he was addicted to opioids. Wests comments come on the tail of him announcing a handful of new albums that he is producing, including his own, which are slated for release this summer.

West also rejoined Twitter recently after taking a major hiatus.

Be sure to keep up with Enstars for the latest news and updates on your favorite celebrities.
An exploration of the military, religious, territorial, and political factors that led to the failed Operation Gibraltar and thereon to the IndoPak war of 1965 is relevant to the ongoing violence in Kashmir, a manifestation of popular anger against perceived abuses in the Indian rule, and therein lies the possibility of further Gibraltar-like scenarios.

Operation Gibraltar, a covert Pakistan-backed guerrilla attack that aimed to draw on anti-Indian sentiment and foment a rebellion against the Indian government in Kashmir, was launched in August 1965 (Almeida 2015). The operation failed, but further fuelled the conflict over the Jammu and Kashmir region between its two claimants, India and Pakistan. The Kashmir issue has been both a key barrier to regional stability since the emergence of the two states in 1947 as well as a central factor in each nations conception and construction of its national identity.

In the course of their relatively short independent histories, the two countries have shared a nuclear arms race, near-daily skirmishes at the border, and three all-out wars for the control of Kashmir, which has remained a significant flashpoint on the international stage. This article offers an overview of the antecedents to Operation Gibraltar, including military factors, religious tensions, territorial issues, and the role of political leadership on both sides, all of which culminated in war and increased the perception, held by India and the international community at large, of Pakistan having ambitions in Kashmir.
French President Emmanuel Macron arrived yesterday (23 April) for the first state visit of the White House during Donald Trumps tenure. His three-day visit is a test of whether the personal bonhomie between the two leaders can bridge the profound policy divides on issues such as climate change and the Iranian nuclear deal. This visit is really important in our current context, with so many uncertainties, troubles and, at times, threats, Mr. Macron said after landing in Washington.

The personal chemistry that has developed since the two Presidents met at a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) conference last year has been a study of contrasts ever since. Analysts agree that the question is whether Emmanuel Macron will be able to use his personal connection with Donald Trump to try to overcome policy disagreements. The French President is one of the few Western leaders having an open dialogue with Donald Trump. They have regular phone conversations and when the White House needed allies to join the recent airstrikes in Syria, Paris readily answered the call.

Mr. Macron is hoping to make his visit an opportunity to guide Mr. Trump back towards multilateral cooperation and longstanding Western alliances. The US and France, he said on Monday, are the guarantors of contemporary multilateralism. One of his main goals is to convince Donald Trump to keep the US in the Iranian nuclear agreement after 14 May  Donald Trumps self-imposed deadline to make a decision. On climate, for example, Emmanuel Macron is believed to continue to try to mitigate global warming while facing the openly anti-climate skeptic American president. According to some analysts, this disagreement on climate at the state level is not a very huge issue since Paris relies heavily on nonprofit organizations and civil society to advance the climate cause.
An international team of inspectors entered the Syrian town of Douma, close to the capital of Damascus, to start investigations of a suspected chemical attacks that killed dozens and triggered Western airstrikes. The team had difficulties securing a permission from the Syrian government and Russian military forces to access the area. The inspectors managed to collect samples in a hope to determine whether chemical weapons were used. The samples are going to be sent to the weapons monitors laboratory in Rijswijk in the Netherlands and then dispatched for analysis to the designated labs.

The inspection could help determine whether chemical weapons were used, even though the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had agreed several years ago to give them up. The Syrian regime denied the use of chemical weapons while Russia and Iran were initially also in denial, with Moscow newly claiming that the attack did take place, though blaming Syrian rebels or anti-Russian agents. Western allies, the US and the EU, in turn blamed the Syrian government for the attack. The Syrian government and Russian forces are now in control of the area.

The fact-finding mission is managed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons that was set up in 2014 to investigate allegations of chemical weapons use in Syria. In their work, investigators do not assign blame for any attack but instead focus on gathering facts to make a case of responsibility. Observers suspect that the chemical attacks entailed chlorine and potentially also a nerve agent. Photographs showed victims foaming at the mouth. As part of a deal to avert a strike on the regime in 2013, Bashar al-Assad had agreed to give up its stockpiles, sign the Chemical Weapons Convention and allow in inspectors. Despite the agreement, chemical attacks have continued and include the use of weaponized chlorine gas.
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Hi all,



Stage -1(Happens in August 2017)





please help me out on this situation.share your ideas/thoughts/experience to solve this problem. this happens to one of my friend.scenario as follows



*his wife got student visa for 2 years.so he wants to go there for initial settlement of his wife and come back to sri lanka.his elder brother also Canadian citizen and he living with his family in Toronto Canada.



* then he applied for Canada visit visa and granted visa for 6 months.(single entry - applied from sri lanka)



*in the mean time he got another job offer just 1 day before visa got stamped.



* so after got the offer letter/appointment letter from the new company he gave resignation to current company.



* subsequently Canada high commission contacted him and ask to come for meeting with regard to visa fraud information.



* then Canada high commission informed him saying that your current company management informed us that you've given resignation so will cancelled you visit visa immediately.



* then he produce the offer/appointment letter of new company and explain the situation.but unfortunately they cancelled the visa and ask to re-apply for visit visa.



Stage -2 (About to start ASAP)



*hence his wife is still studying in Canada he wants to re-apply for a new visit visa ASAP.



* he has completed all the relevant document with the letter from current company saying that they will ready grant leave for the required period to him.



* suddenly he realize that there is mismatch with sign.



*that means the sign of appointment letter which he got at the beginning (the appointment letter is already submitted to Canadian high commission in the Stage -1) and the sign of recent letter he got from the company (saying that they will approve his leave for required period ) are two different signs.



* he got those two letters from his current working company and the person who signs 2 letters also same person (CEO).



* then he ask about the sign difference from the company and they says that earlier sign is misused by someone else then they change the signature of authorized person recently.



* now he is having doubt regarding the sign...will it be a problem when he re-apply the Canadian visit visa.hence to different sign of same person of a same company....



* do we have to continue with latest sign ???



* or when we re-applying, do we have to give some explanation about the sign difference???



* or continue with old sign ???



friends please share your thoughts/experience/ideas regarding this...



Thanks & Regards,
Wow, lots of posts while I was still pondering post #7... here's what I wrote:I'm going to try and sway you, Smeg, because I love this region."Most people will retire to where they are from."Is that true for you? It isn't for meI'm guessing it's not for the OP either, enquiring about the Limousin, apparently living in Hungary at the moment and originally from the USA..."Why does the Limousin have the cheapest property in France?"The property is cheap because unfortunatelyis scarce here. Young people move out, oldies move in. The cheapest properties are also either very remote or very dilapidated (or both). There is no obligation to take on such a project. There are lots of reasonably priced and reasonably situated properties in the Limousin too!"Why does it have a shortage of doctors and other medical professionals?"There is a shortage of doctors all over France, mainly in rural areas (but also in the banlieues).Lots of rural doctors are reaching retirement age and not many youngsters are attracted to the country. That said, I don't know of anyone here who doesn't have a (good) medecin traitant and the CHU in Limoges is excellent."Is it a sustainable place to retire to?"It's a very good place to retire to. All my needs are catered for within a 20 km radius. As I've already said, I have nothing negative to say about the region. However, Irecommend the Limousin to anyone there aren't any, not even for the locals (my neighbour had to retrain when he lost his job a few years ago)  but that's not the OP's case here.Have I convinced you? No?Never mind, we don't want too many people coming down here and spoiling the peace and quiet, do we
It can be difficult enough to find an English speaking doctor anywhere in France, but a native speaker may simply not be a possibility. Medical qualifications can be difficult to transfer within the EU, and are next to impossible to transfer from outside the EU.Your best option may be to try someone on the US Consulate's list of English speaking doctors: https://photos.state.gov/libraries/france/45994/pdf/nice-doctors.pdf but I note that the listing dates from 2011, which is getting a little old.The other suggestion I've seen is to ask at your local pharmacist about any English speaking doctors in the area. The pharmacists know all the doctors in the area and should be able to tell you who speaks English. But a "native English speaker" may be a bit much to ask for.Cheers,Bev
Pulse Australia chief executive Nick Goddard said Pakistan, which has emerged as Australias leading buyer of chickpeas since India implemented its tariffs late last year, was now imposing stricter phytosanitary requirements on Australian product.

It has not been communicated to us officially but on import permits we are seeing a requirement that the chickpeas be either declared ascochyta free or have an increased treatment with the fumigant methyl bromide, Mr Goddard said.

He said Australia had no declared ascochyta-free zones so all grain would have to be treated.

Mr Goddard said this would not be particularly difficult given the chickpeas were already being treated with the fumigant prior to export, but it would add additional costs in terms of the time required to treat the product and cost of additional methyl bromide.

It is not a massive blow but it is going to increase the cost of carry and mean more time for exporters to get their product across, Mr Goddard said.

He said in spite of not receiving official notification, the Australian Government was working on issuing phytosanitary certificates based on the new standards issued in the import permits.

Mr Goddard said the Australian industry was unclear about the rationale of the Pakistani decision, but he ruled out an attempt to bring prices down further.

Pakistan is short of chickpeas this year, which has worked well for Australian producers given the Indian situation, so they are not going to be trying to manipulate the situation to bring prices down and risk supply, Mr Goddard said.

It could be there has been an outbreak of ascochyta in Pakistan and officials are particularly worried about it - we are seeking clarity on that.

The next step for Australia, according to Mr Goddard, would be getting official notification of the change in requirements.

It is a little frustrating when you see these things just through the import permits, were hoping to get some official notice and work through it, but were fairly confident it is something we will manage to resolve quite comfortably, he said.

Moving into the winter sowing period, Mr Goddard said he expected pulse plantings to be down across the board.

The market signals are there loud and clear, especially in chickpeas and lentils, where growers had enjoyed a very strong run over the past few years, he said.

Well definitely see plantings of those higher value crops come back, which is probably not a bad thing agronomically, as growers were pushing the envelope pretty hard in trying to get as many chickpeas and lentils in as they could when prices were up.
THE battle to retain Moora Residential College, the Education Department-run boarding facility adjacent to the local Central Midlands Senior High School in the Wheatbelt town of Moora is gaining momentum.

Rather than diminish over time, the resolve of those fighting the closure and manning the #savemooracollege hashtag has firmed and continues to garner support.

And its no wonder, because this fight is about fairness.

A concept Western Australians understand and cherish.

We know it is important to provide access to education for all WA school children, and that parents in remote regions who are forced to send their children away, are already at a disadvantage.

Moora College, one of eight regional residential colleges, currently houses 26 students from as far afield as 80 Mile Beach, Marble Bar and Coorow.

There were 29 students enrolled at the beginning of this school year, but three withdrew due to uncertainty after Education Minister Sue Ellery announced that the facility would close at the end of 2018.

In a bitter irony, the college was due for a full revamp that was to have begun in March 2018.

In August 2016, then Education Minister Peter Collier and Regional Development Minister Terry Redman presented beaming parents and children with a cheque for $8.7 million for a full renovation of the college.

How that figure was arrived at is somewhat opaque, but the president of the Central Midlands Senior High School P&C Tracey Errington said.

The initial funding for refurbishment of all colleges was allocated under Royalties for Regions. As each one was completed the remaining funds were rolled over and allocated to the next in line. Moora was the last on the list, and we were allocated the balance left after Northam and Merredin were completed.

That is how the figure of $8.7m was arrived at.

The architect employed by the current government in May 2017 was given a budget of $8.7m.

That report was then costed to match the budget, but it was not what was required to upgrade.

We estimate around $500,000 will do the job, given that an assessment in 2012 put it at $160,000.

But there was no consultation.

The problem for Moora is, the politics are messy.

After the decision to reverse the School of the Air closures, Minister Ellery will not want to be seen to back down on Moora.

And you have to ask why Moora was left until last.

Some are philosophical and say that someone had to be last.

Others feel that because Moora is a safe conservative seat, it was not the beneficiary of the pork barrelling seen in marginal or swinging seats.

Nevertheless, had the minister engaged in community consultation in the weeks after the December 13, 2017, announcement, driven the two hours to Moora and looked at the building, spoken the community, and the students who told me how much they love their home away from home, she and the government may have saved themselves a world of pain.

There is no doubt that community leaders are willing to make a compromise.

They just want the facility to remain open.

There are some repairs that need to be carried out, but Ms Errington said that the most recent report showed that the building was structurally sound.

While it is a bit shabby in places, it is it liveable and very clean.

Of concern was an issue of fire safety, but that has been rectified at a cost of $59,000.

The community, including the Shire, the P&C and the Chamber of Commerce want an independent assessor to cost the necessary repairs.

To date this wish has not been granted.

There is an enormous amount of goodwill in the town, and proponents of the college are certain they could fix and update the building economically for a lot less than $8.7m.

They have said they are willing to fund those repairs, in effect putting their money where their mouth is.

So where is the harm?

Its the politics of it.

The perception that this will be seen as yet another backflip, used to punish the government.

There is a fear in Moora that without the 26 students attending CMSHS, funding will be diminished, depleting the schools resources and sending it on the inevitable path of a downgrade to a District High School.

Ms Errington said CMSHS will lose up to $350,000 at the end of 2018 if the college closes.

As MC at the first rally in Moora, I was struck by the politics of the closure.

And the fact that it seemed the mums, dads and children, the people most impacted by this decision, had been forgotten.

This is not a fight against Labor, although the notion that Labor ignores the bush because there arent any votes in it has gained traction.

City voters are not deaf to the plight of their fellow Western Australians just because they live in the country, as evidenced by the backlash to the proposed closure of School of the Air.

Theres no doubt the campaign is frustrating the government.

Every time Premier Mark McGowan has to talk about Moora, it sucks oxygen from his message.

Community leaders have travelled to Perth and met with Ministers Ellery and MacTiernan.

They also met with the Premier after the latest rally in Perth.

These meetings have failed to reach any resolution.

Moora Shire president Ken Seymour said any future meetings must be held in Moora.

Its disappointing that neither the Premier nor his minister have toured the building.

Meanwhile, those involved in the #Savemooracollege campaign say they are in it for the long haul.

Using the social media platforms of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and manned by seemingly indefatigable volunteers, fresh campaigns are underway their message is loud and clear - We will not go away.

And why should they?

This decision affects their town, the quality of their childrens education and their ability to attract families to the burgeoning food bowl.

For me, its about kids.

The children I met on that first trip to MC the rally.

Boys like Andy Penny and River Richards, who bravely stood up and told us all how much this college means to them.

Seeing these kids brave 38 degree heat after an arduous trip to Perth in an unconditioned bus to protest at a second rally, this time on parliament, only reaffirmed how important it is that we acknowledge and support these children and their worried, tired and stressed families.

They may be small, but watch this space, because Moora just may be The Mouse That Roared.
Canada has emerged as one of the cryptocurrency and blockchain centers of the world. Canadas dominance in blockchain innovation stems in part from Toronto being home to Vitalik Buterin, the inventor of Ethereum Blockchain, which is the globally most adopted platform that supports ether (ETH), the second highest cryptocurrency valued at $63 billion.

The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance counts 135 banks out of its 450 members that are trialing the new Ethereum Blockchain technology which launched in 2015.

Blockchain technology and digital taxation received considerable coordinated attention from global intergovernmental organizations, regulators, legislators and central banks who discussed their impact on financial stability and potential uses in tax evasion and money laundering during the G20 meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina on March 20.

The worlds economic leaders agreed that Ccryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, given its borderless and intangible nature, are fundamentally reshaping the global cross-border financial connectedness and its increasing ability to automate cognitive tasks. They committed to implementing Financial Action Task Forces anti-money laundering and terrorist financing standards as they apply to crypto-assets to mitigate concerns over security, consumer protection, and financial crime.

Accordingly, the Canadian government is once again looking at updating its laws around cryptocurrencies, money laundering, and terrorist financing.

The Canadian anti-money laundering legislation and counter-terrorist financing regime was amended in 2014 for persons dealing in cryptocurrencies as money services businesses subjecting those businesses to Canadas AML, without an effective date. When made effective, the amended legislation will require businesses dealing in cryptocurrencies to register with the Financial Transactions and Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) and implement an AML compliance regime. Banks will be prohibited from providing services to businesses not registered with FINTRAC.

On February 7, 2018, the Standing Committee on Finance released a consultation paper for comments that has far-reaching implications for compliance with Canadian AML requirements. The comment period on this paper ends on April 30, 2018. This consultation paper was intended to support the parliamentary review held on April 18, where one cryptocurrency expert expressed concern that excessive or inappropriate AML regulation requirements will stifle innovation in Canada. The Chief Scientist of Quebec, Remi Quirion, explained Public concern that cryptocurrencies are being used for illicit activities like tax evasion and money laundering are largely overblown.

However, the recent revelations about the so-called Vancouver Model of money laundering linking fentanyl, luxury Vancouver real estate, and casinos that allow players to make deposits and withdraw their winnings in cryptocurrencies, have alarmed Canadians.

On March 27 the provinces Attorney General David Eby appeared before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance where he explained that for the past ten years casinos in the province were linked with drug trafficking and money laundering because there were no adequate measures and policies in place to track, investigate, and prosecute groups and individuals taking part in such activities. AG Eby explained that drug traffickers utilized casinos and laundered the proceeds through wire transfers via banks which have been increasingly implementing blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies transferred by online exchanges and money service businesses.

On the same day of the G20 meeting and a week ahead of Ebys testimony about the Vancouver Model of money laundering, the U.S. government cracked down on cross-border cryptocrime by charging online cryptocurrency payment processor Payza.com and their Canadian founders from Montreal with running an unlicensed money services business.

One of the founders of the firm, Ferhan Patel, was arrested, while his brother and co-founder Firoz Patel remains at large.

The U.S. DOJ unveiled the charges alleging the Patels and Pazya.com operated an internet-based unlicensed money service business that processed more than $250 million in cryptocurrency transactions  in XRP, ETH and Dash  by opening bank accounts throughout the United States and elsewhere and laundered their illegal proceeds through those accounts. 

In addition to Payza.com, the Patels were founders and operators of AlertPay.com and Egopay.com online, two other cryptocurrency exchanges.

The defendants are accused of operating a money transmitting business that operated without the necessary state licenses and knowingly transmitting funds that were derived from illegal activity from in or about March 2012 until the present. The arrest and indictments in this case demonstrate that we will vigorously enforce laws meant to protect the American consumer, DOJ officials said.

 If convicted, each of the Patel brothers face a maximum sentence of more than 25 years.

It should be noted that cross-border cryptocurrency transactions are also subject to taxation both in the United States and in Canada, with multiple tax filing requirements.

The Canadian tax filing deadline for individuals is at the end of April and corporate tax returns are due six months after the fiscal year-end of a corporation.

Non-compliance with Canadian tax laws could subject U.S. taxpayers to U.S. federal wire fraud charges based on the U.S. Supreme Court case of Pasquantino v. U.S. (2005).

______

Selva Ozelli, Esq., CPA, pictured above, is an international tax attorney and CPA who frequently writes about tax, legal and accounting issues for Tax Notes, Bloomberg BNA, other publications and the OECD.
Martin Freeman stars alongside Natasha Wanganeen and David Gulpilil in what looks to be one of the most entertaining Netflix original movies to-date; Cargo. Following the story of an infected father whos slap bang in rural Australia after a violent pandemic outbreak, the film will tell the story of the desperate father whos seeking a new home for his infant child. In protecting her from the elements however, hell also begin to realise he has to do everything he can to protect her from his own ever-changing nature.

This month, a brilliant first look clip for the movie has been revealed, which you can now check out below:

Written by Yolanda Ramke, who also co-directs alongside Ben Howling, Cargo promises to be a zombie movie unlike any other weve seen before. In a world thats so bogged down with zombie franchises and properties, its going to have to do something special to ensure that it meets this goal.

We imagine human connection is something that will be central to Cargo and its success, and that Netflix subscribers will flock in their droves to check it out. Exactly how well it does remains to be seen, and as we know the company arent very open about the amount of people that watch their content unless its astronomical and record-breaking!

Whatever the case may be when Cargo drops, its something we cant wait to sit down and (hopefully!) enjoy.

Cargo comes to Netflix on Friday, May 18, 2018.

by Daniel Falconer for www.femalefirst.co.uk

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Ever since her spotlight-stealing performance on ITVs The X Factor, Lauren Murray has been a hit with those who love good music and incredible artists. Though she finished in fourth place overall, shes somebody whos not putting her dreams on hold, and is instead pushing ahead with her bid for success in the music industry. Now, with her whole career ahead of her, we decided to let Lauren reintroduce herself to our readers all over again! Here are 14 Things Shes Been Doing Since The X Factor!

Lauren Murray's debut single 'Boss Girl' is out now

The first thing I did was to finally get off my mums sofa! I wanted to buy a goldfish It didnt happen! I FINALLY had a holiday in Mexico! I had always wanted to go there! I joined the gym But only went twice! I WON the award for Best Reality TV Performance of the Year! Very happy with that! I become a Godmother to two beautiful little girls; Mimi and Jayda. I love them! Luckily, I havent broken any bones. I met some of the most amazing and inspiring people that have really kept me going and showed me so much love. My fans! I am also involved in a Christmas family crisis centre  this was my second year, and something I hope to continue to be a part of. I bought way too many pairs of trainers! I tried to take up guitar lessons, but it wasnt for me! I started eating tomatoes. Theyre quite juicy actually! I have a slight obsession with fries! My favourite saying is fries never tell lies! I released my first single Boss Girl, and its the best feeling in the world.

Singing since she was just eight-years-old, Lauren found her voice, but a family tragedy that saw her father suddenly pass away when she was 11 almost pushed her to giving up on her ambitions. She dropped out of school at the age of 13, losing all sense of enjoyment in life, as well as her confidence.

When she was 16 however, she decided to pick up a microphone once more and enrol in some singing lessons. Realising she was hooked, she went on to start gigging in pubs and clubs, honing in on her talents and finding her own personal style.

Cut to today, and Lauren has released her first single! Chatting about the song, she says: Boss Girl to me represents strong, independent and motivated women. Nothing worth having comes easy but its about having the fire, hunger and determination to carry on. Thats what I live by and what in my opinion Boss Girl stands for. I know Im not alone in this journey so I wanted a song that could connect with me and all the boss girls out there making moves and chasing their dreams.

Lauren Murrays debut single Boss Girl is available to stream and download now. Keep your eyes peeled for a documentary coming soon.

by Daniel Falconer for www.femalefirst.co.uk

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Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release

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Courtesy: Skineez Skincarewear

Skineez Skincarewear, a leading cosmotextile skincarewear company, has announced that its line of hydrating leggings, capris, socks, and fingerless gloves will be available at Walmart stores nationwide. The companys stylish, hydrating smart fabric is infused with natural elements like shea butter, retinol, and rose hip oil that help repair and restore skin.

Skineez is the only company to manufacture innovative, smart cosmotextile compression products that provide therapeutic and hydration benefits that are endorsed by medical professionals.

"Were thrilled to offer Skineez products to Walmart customers and our goal is to help improve their overall health and wellness," said Michelle Moran, CEO of Skineez Skincarewear. "As a company, were committed to providing high-quality, innovative, life-improving products and our wearable compression skincarewear helps men and women improve skin hydration and firmness while providing incredible comfort."

Skineez Skincarewear patented, FDA-approved leggings, capris, gloves and compression socks are perfect for professionals who spend long hours on their feet or are active on the job including; pilots, nurses, flight attendants, police officers, firefighters, emergency workers, military, transportation workers, athletes, fitness instructors, dancers, and more. The revolutionary wearable skincare clothing pulls double duty to improve skins texture and firmness while providing compression and comfort.

The company also recently began working with the US Military to provide hydrating compression socks to active soldiers and veterans. The socks restorative properties are helpful in treating damaged or injured skin and provide extreme comfort when worn.

Skineez garments are pre-treated with skin-healthy cosmetic nutrients and are clinically proven to deliver firmer, smoother and younger looking skin. In a Consumer Perception Survey after wearing for one hour, 88 per cent said that their skin felt soft and smoother; and after wearing for one week, 96 per cent said that the products were comfortable, and 85 per cent said that they would recommend this product, Skineez Skincarewear press release said. (RR)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - United Continental Holdings Inc.'s (UAL) Chief Executive Officer is giving up his bonus and its chairman is stepping aside. The airline said in a regulatory filing that its Chief Executive Officer Oscar Munoz asked the board not to award him the payout for 2017. Chairman Robert Milton, a former Air Canada CEO, will be replaced with another independent board chief. Laurence Simmons, a director who joined the oversight council in 2010, also plans to step down. The company noted that the size of the Board will be reduced from 16 directors to 14 directors. At the Annual Meeting, 12 directors are nominated for election by the holders of Common Stock and two directors will be elected by the holders of other classes of stock. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
SHENZHEN, China, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On 27 March, the HUAWEI P20 smartphone series made its grand debut at the Grand Palais in Paris. As the first Chinese smartphone to grace the hallowed halls of the Grand Palais, the HUAWEI P20 did not disappoint and instead delighted the audience with its host of innovative new technologies.

A Near Bezel-less Screen and Stunning Color Options

The HUAWEI P20 features a near bezel-less screen with double screen "ears" and a Home button with a built-in fingerprint sensor. The phone's body comes in a selection of stunning gradient colors - Black, Midnight Blue, Pink Gold, and Twilight.

Leica Triple Camera System

The HUAWEI P20 Pro comes equipped with a triple sensor Leica camera system with a super-wide aperture and industry-leading light sensitivity. The HUAWEI P20 Pro's triple camera system provides you with 3x optical zoom, 5x hybrid zoom, and AI-enhanced 10x digital zoom. DxOMark, a leading image quality benchmark website, gave the HUAWEI P20 Pro a record-breaking combined score of 109 points, calling it a new benchmark for smartphone cameras.

An Unforgettable User Experience

For enhanced battery life on a single charge, the standard HUAWEI P20 comes equipped with a high-capacity 3,400 mAh battery while the HUAWEI P20 Pro comes with a 4,000 mAh power supply. This is coupled with an AI-enhanced Kirin 970 processor which has excellent energy efficiency. The HUAWEI P20 series also supports the HUAWEI SuperCharge charging protocol, which allows the HUAWEI P20 to charge from 0% to 58% battery power in as short as 30 minutes.

On top of its impressive hardware spec list, the HUAWEI P20 also comes equipped with a selection of useful pre-installed apps such as the HUAWEI AppGallery app market. Besides providing you with a secure platform for downloading and installing a huge number of useful apps, AppGallery also offers you special app discounts, which change depending on where you are located in the world.

To access your special app deals, open AppGallery and go to ME - Gifts. Inside users will find a collection of useful apps specially selected for your region.

First, let's take a look at the amazing app deals that European users get to enjoy.

TIDAL

TIDAL is a music streaming app that provides users with the ability to stream over 400,000 songs and music videos in stunning HD quality. As an AppGallery user, users get to enjoy a free 90-day subscription to this amazing app. Coupled with the HUAWEI P20's Dolby Atmos and Dolby AC-4 sound system, TIDAL's incredible audiovisual quality will bring users right into their favorite songs and MVs.

Eatwith

Want to eat tasty home-cooked meals and sample local culinary culture? Eatwith helps users do just that and is a useful app for travelers and gastronomes alike. HUAWEI P20 and AppGallery users in Europe get an exclusive 10 euro discount for their first dining experience with this unique and exciting app.

Apus camera

APUS Camera is a feature-rich selfie app that comes with a variety of amazing filters, funny stickers, and beauty modes. Working with Portrait mode, it will definitely bring users a stunning photography experience. Taking advantage of the HUAWEI P20's 24-megapixel selfie camera and 40-megapixel rear camera, the APUS Camera app has an exclusive collection of special filters, PIP effects, and stickers just for HUAWEI P20 users.

Users in non-European regions do not need to fret over it, because AppGallery users in other regions also get their fair share of special app deals.

Easybook

Easybook is a convenient online platform for booking train tickets, car rentals, and ferry tickets in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand. The app gives users access to over 500 public transportation companies and over 10,000 bus routes. As a Huawei device user, users get a special 5% discount on bus fares. Easybook makes traveling in Southeast Asia an easier and more enjoyable experience.

Manga

The Manga app gives users access to a wide variety of classic and newly released manga novels from a variety of different genres. The HUAWEI P20's huge high-resolution bezel-less screen is perfect for reading a favorite manga or novel. Huawei users in the Asia-Pacific region get to enjoy a free 1-month subscription to this app.

How about users in the Middle East?

Jollychic

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Now that you know more about the HUAWEI P20, Huawei's brand new flagship smartphone, as well as the awesome app discounts that its users get to enjoy, what are you waiting for? Get your HUAWEI P20 today!

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Prize of 100,000 US Dollars!

SHENZHEN, China, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On 20 April 2018 (Beijing Time), "SF Airlines Global Competition for livery Design Schemes for its Boeing 747 Freighter" was officially kicked off. Its sponsor SF Airlines Co., Ltd. will grant a cash award of 100,000 US dollars to solicit creative ideas from creative and design talents around the world for brand new livery of its 747-400ER Freighter, expecting to improve its corporate image and brand influence.

SF Airlines Co., Ltd., organizer of the competition, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SF Holdings, China's well-known comprehensive logistics service provider. Headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, SF Airlines is committed to providing safe and efficient air freight services for SF Express. It operates over 40 freighters and its service network has been extended to nearly 50 cities and areas in and out of China.

By the end of 2017, SF Airlines had a successful auction on a well-known online auction platform in China for two Boeing 747-400ER freighters, marking a milestone in breakthrough of its fleet construction. "SF Airlines Global Competition for livery Design Schemes for its Boeing 747 Cargo freighters" is tailored for designing the livery of two big freighters. In 2018, the art works of creative talents will fly into the sky together with SF Airlines' Boeing 747 freighter, and SF services will also fly into the world along with SF's self-owned Boeing 747 freighter with brand new livery.

Web site of the Competition: http://pk.arting365.com/sfairlines

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Fujitsu Limited Public and Investor Relations Tel: +81-3-3215-5259 URL: www.fujitsu.com/global/news/contacts/

TOKYO, Apr 24, 2018 - (JCN Newswire) - Fujitsu announced that the array control system recently deployed for the Institute of Cosmic Ray Research (ICRR), University of Tokyo, to be used in the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), a gamma ray observatory capable of observations with a sensitivity aiming to be more than ten times greater than existing gamma ray telescopes, has now commenced operations. The CTA, an international joint research project of 33 countries, will conduct observations of cosmic gamma rays by looking at the Cherenkov light emitted when high-energy gamma rays from across the Universe collide with the earth's atmosphere. In addition to the discovery of a diverse variety of high-energy celestial objects, these observations will enable the CTA to perform research into the origins of cosmic rays and supermassive black holes, as well as search for dark matter. Fujitsu's array control system was installed next to a gamma ray telescope located at 2,200 meters in altitude within the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory--one of the world's five largest observatories--on the island of La Palma, in the Canary Islands, Spain. This system, comprised of Fujitsu servers and storage, will conduct a variety of operations in real time, including storing the raw gamma ray observation data, analyzing the amount of gamma rays, and simulating their arrival direction. With this, Fujitsu is supporting observations with the world's largest-scale gamma ray telescope, contributing to CTA's mission of discovering more than 1,000 diverse high-energy celestial objects, and of understanding the formation of the Universe.BackgroundThe CTA, launched in 2006 as an international joint research project, will conduct observations of gamma rays with a level of sensitivity aiming at ten times that of existing gamma ray telescopes. It will have an array of about 100 telescopes that see Cherenkov light, deployed over an area of 3 kilometers. Initially, with observation facilities for the northern hemisphere set up on La Palma, in the Canary Islands, Spain, and then after 2019, by subsequently setting up facilities in Chile for observations in the southern hemisphere to achieve panoramic observations, the CTA is set to become the world's largest-scale gamma ray observatory. Fujitsu has also previously provided control systems to research institutions and other organizations for massive radio telescopes, optical-infrared telescopes, and neutrino observation. Now, in deploying this array control system for the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo, which is handling telescope facilities for the northern hemisphere, Fujitsu is contributing to resolving previously unsolved mysteries of the Universe by providing stable, continuous operations in a harsh environment.System DetailsThe control system was installed inside a shipping container at an elevation of 2,200 meters. When something like a sudden celestial phenomenon is discovered during observations, which take place at night, analyses of the gamma rays and their characterization are conducted immediately using the control system. Those results can then be used to send alerts to other gamma ray telescope facilities, helping to optimize observation schedules. In addition, data collected and analyzed during overnight observations is transmitted to the data management center in Germany during the day. This system employs 64 Fujitsu Server PRIMERGY CX2550 M2 x86 servers, with a total of 2,048 cores, for the processing equipment for high-performance analysis and the telescope control server. Fujitsu Storage ETERNUS DX200 S4 is used to store the huge volumes of collected data, providing an effective capacity of three petabytes. In order to provide high-speed data access, the system uses EDR InfiniBandTM high-speed interconnects that enable 100-gigabit-per-second communications between the processing equipment and telescope control, and the high-capacity storage.Comment from Professor Masahiro Teshima, Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of TokyoWith the computing system provided by Fujitsu, we can collect and analyse huge amounts of data from CTA, which will achieve the world's best sensitivity as the instrument for high energies. CTA will expand the visible horizon of the Universe with high-energy gamma rays and deliver information on dynamical and explosive phenomena, on the high energy radiation from supermassive black holes, and the newly born black holes. It is also possible to explore the nature of dark matter which is a major component of the Universe, owing to 25% of its mass. CTA observes the high energy gamma rays at tera-electron-volt energies, which is comparable to the maximum reachable energy in particle collisions with the world largest accelerator LHC. CTA is expected to not only provide us with fundamental knowledge on high energy phenomena in the Universe but also a deep insight into the constitution of the Universe, dark matter, and ultimately on the nature of space and time.About Fujitsu LtdFujitsu is the leading Japanese information and communication technology (ICT) company, offering a full range of technology products, solutions, and services. Approximately 155,000 Fujitsu people support customers in more than 100 countries. We use our experience and the power of ICT to shape the future of society with our customers. Fujitsu Limited (TSE: 6702) reported consolidated revenues of 4.5 trillion yen (US$40 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2017. For more information, please see http://www.fujitsu.com.* Please see this press release, with images, at:http://www.fujitsu.com/global/about/resources/news/press-releases/Source: Fujitsu LtdContact:Copyright 2018 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved.
New Tableau Creator, Explorer, and Viewer offerings are tailored to user needs, empowering everyone from the sophisticated analyst to the casual business user with Tableau's end-to-end analytics capabilities.

SEATTLE, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Tableau Software (NYSE:DATA) today introduced new offerings that combine new and existing analytical capabilities into packages appropriate for everyone across an organization, regardless of skill level. With a new way to buy and scale Tableau's best-in-class analytics platform, organizations now can cost-effectively achieve a critical objective: enabling the data-driven enterprise by putting the data in the hands of everyone. Tableau Creator, Explorer, and Viewer subscriptions provide tailored combinations of sophisticated analytics and drop-dead simplicity. This allows every customer to create the appropriate mix of analytics capabilities to meet the specific needs of their entire organization. From consuming data and performing ad-hoc analysis from curated data sources, to preparing and developing advanced analysis, the new price offerings cover a wide breadth of powerful capabilities. They also include the newly released data preparation application Tableau Prep, new web authoring capabilities, and the renowned Tableau Desktop. Customers can choose to work on-premises or in the cloud.

Customers can choose to migrate their existing Tableau Server and Desktop installations to the new subscription offerings, available today in the Tableau 2018.1 release. Once migrated, administrators will be able to assign a specific option -- Creator, Explorer, or Viewer -- to each user in their organization, completing the transition process.

"With the unprecedented and accelerating growth of data that customers are experiencing, the need to see and understand data is more important than ever before. Professional analysts, teachers, doctors, project managers, marketers, sellers, developers, factory line workers, recruiters - everyone needs data to make better decisions. Organizations are facing the urgent need to empower their entire workforce to help drive more revenue, reduce costs, provide better service, increase productivity, discover the next scientific breakthrough and even save lives," said Adam Selipsky, CEO at Tableau. "Our new offerings will help entire organizations make analytics ubiquitous, enabling them to tailor the capabilities required for every employee."

High-Value Offerings for Everyone

Tableau's new tailored offerings are designed to deliver more value than ever before, leading with Tableau Creator, which gives full analytics capabilities to analysts and power users. For organizations looking to scale analytics, Tableau Explorer allows self-service analysis of governed data, and Tableau Viewer enables casual users to consume dashboards and visualizations created by others. Tableau's new offerings, available on-premises, in the public cloud or via SaaS, and make it easy to start and to scale. Combined, these offerings provide a complete end-to-end platform with no hidden costs.

Tableau Creator

Tableau Creator provides the full power of the Tableau platform. It helps people uncover insights faster by combining a suite of products for visual and direct data prep, powerful analytics on the web and desktop, and secure collaboration to support their end-to-end analytics workflow. It includes Tableau Desktop, and, at no additional charge, Tableau Prep, a new data preparation product designed to help customers get their data ready for analysis. It also includes a license for Tableau Server or Tableau Online, allowing people to publish and share their work.

Tableau Explorer

Tableau Explorer is perfect for governed self-service analytics. It enables people to create new dashboards based on governed data sources, collaborate with others, and stay on top of data with subscriptions and alerting. This offering enables people to explore trusted data, create their own tailored content, share and collaborate with data, and stay on top of key data points with data driven alerts, all within the convenience of their web browsers.

Tableau Viewer

Tableau Viewer makes it possible for organizations to extend the value of data and analytics across their entire workforce in a very cost-effective manner. It helps people within scaled deployments make data driven decisions based on trusted content by interacting with dashboards and visualizations created by others in a secure, easy-to-use platform. Customers will be able to view and filter dashboards, receive and manage subscriptions to dashboards, and receive data driven alerts, all via mobile and/or the web.

From the choice of SaaS, on-premises, public cloud or hybrid solutions, to enabling the individual analyst as well as the largest enterprise deployments, to a range of subscription choices, Tableau gives organizations the flexibility to buy what they need, when they need it. Likewise, Tableau's new tailored offerings allow people to leverage the power of analytics in a way that is flexible, easy to ramp up, and simple to scale. Entire organizations now have the flexibility to license the role appropriate to the capabilities each person needs at a price that makes sense for them. This reduces the upfront investment and makes it easier than ever to scale best-in-class business intelligence across the organization.

For more information on the new pricing structure, visit online at www.tableau.com/pricing

About Tableau Software

Tableau (NYSE: DATA) helps people see and understand data and explore with limitless visual analytics. Customers can build dashboards and perform ad hoc analyses in just a few clicks. They can share their work with anyone and make an impact on their business. From global enterprises to early-stage startups and small businesses, more than 70,000 customer accounts around the world use Tableau to turn data into actionable insights, and more than 300,000 people use Tableau Public to share public data in their blogs and websites. See how Tableau can help you by downloading the free trial at www.tableau.com/trial.

Tableau and Tableau Software are trademarks of Tableau Software, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. If any such uncertainties materialize or if any of the assumptions prove incorrect, the results of Tableau could differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements we make. All statements other than statements of historical fact could be deemed forward-looking, including any projections of product capabilities, performance, integration and security, or any statements of belief concerning new, planned, or upgraded product features and developments.. These and other important risk factors are included in documents filed with the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including Tableau's most recently filed Form 10-Q, and Annual Report on Form 10-K, and other reports and filings with the SEC and could cause actual results to vary from expectations. Tableau does 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.

Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases, presentations or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase our products and services should make the purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available.

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Q1 2018 revenues increased 23% year-on-year to EUR 839m

Organic growth close to 4% despite a strong comparative (7% organic growth in Q1 2017) and, as anticipated lower growth for Clinical Diagnostics

Adverse currency impact of 5%

Overall, Eurofins is on track towards its 2018 objectives to achieve EUR 3.7bn of revenues*

Regulatory News:

Eurofins (Paris:ERF):

Comment from the CEO, Dr. Gilles Martin: "The Group's good performance in the first quarter of 2018, despite the strong comparable organic growth of 7% in Q1 2017, allows us to remain positive that we should achieve our 2018 objective of generating EUR 3.7bn revenues*. Our on-going strategic investments including the development and deployment of the Group's latest generation proprietary IT systems, the recent acceleration in our laboratories start-up programme, the substantial enlargement of our major laboratory campuses, as well as the significant expansion of our technological portfolio and geographical footprint through strategic acquisitions, also reinforce our confidence of achieving our recently-upgraded mid-term objective of delivering EUR 4bn revenues* by 2019. This objective is based on achieving at least 5% organic growth and EUR 200m revenues acquired each year at mid-year."

EUR m Q1 2018 Q1 2017 % Growth of which

organic of which

FX Eurofins Group Revenues 839 685 23% ca. 4% -5%

Overall, beyond the impact as expected of lower growth in our Clinical Diagnostics activities, which however exhibit expanding profitability, two exceptionally large contracts with pharmaceutical companies accounted for in Q1 2017 and delays in the start of a large laboratory development contract with a government have negatively affected Q1 2018 organic growth. We believe these contract effects to be specific to Q1.

North America remains the largest region for Eurofins representing about 32% of total Group revenues in Q1 2018, followed by France with about 22% of total Group revenues, ahead of Germany which generated almost 12% of total Group revenues. Benelux, the UK Ireland, and the Nordic countries each contributed between 6% and 7% to Q1 2018 revenues.

Most of the Group's businesses continue to deliver robust growth across all geographies thanks to the Group's on-going investments and efforts to build a state-of-the-art network of laboratories aimed at achieving competitive advantage and sustainable growth. North America, Germany, Belgium the Netherlands, Central and Eastern Europe, as well as many new markets (Chile, China, Taiwan, Vietnam), delivered sustained organic growth in-line or above the Group's 5% objective. This robust performance was mostly driven by positive developments in Food testing, BioPharma product testing and Material Sciences in these geographies.

Despite strong performance across most business lines (with a strong performance for our Agrosciences and Environment businesses), organic growth in France was below the Group's average mostly because, as expected, testing revenues in Clinical Diagnostics Services stay almost constant. Organic growth in the UK Ireland was negative as a whole, impacted by the sites-reorganization of our BioPharma and Food testing activities following recent acquisitions. The Nordic European countries posted a mixed first quarter, under the Group average, with solid organic growth in Norway and Finland, but weaker growth in Denmark and Sweden in part due to a particularly harsh winter this year in Scandinavia.

*at constant 2017 currencies

For more information, please visit www.eurofins.com

Organic growth for a given period (Q1, Q2, Q3, Half Year, Nine Months or Full Year) non-IFRS measure calculating the growth in revenues during that period between 2 successive years for the same scope of businesses using the same exchange rates but excluding discontinued operations.

For the purpose of organic growth calculation for year Y, the relevant scope used is the scope of businesses that have been consolidated in the Group's income statement of the previous financial year (Y-1). Revenue contribution from companies acquired in the course of Y-1 but not consolidated for the full year are adjusted as if they had been consolidated as from 1st January Y-1. All revenues from businesses acquired since 1st January Y are excluded from the calculation.

Notes for the editor:

Eurofins a global leader in bio-analysis

Eurofins Scientific through its subsidiaries (hereinafter sometimes "Eurofins" or "the Group") believes it is the world leader in food, environment and pharmaceutical products testing and in agroscience CRO services. It is also one of the global independent market leaders in certain testing and laboratory services for genomics, discovery pharmacology, forensics, CDMO, advanced material sciences and for supporting clinical studies. In addition, Eurofins is one of the key emerging players in specialty clinical diagnostic testing in Europe and the USA. With over 35,000 staff in more than 400 laboratories across 44 countries, Eurofins offers a portfolio of over 150,000 analytical methods for evaluating the safety, identity, composition, authenticity, origin and purity of biological substances and products, as well as for innovative clinical diagnostic. The Group objective is to provide its customers with high-quality services, accurate results on time and expert advice by its highly qualified staff.

Eurofins is committed to pursuing its dynamic growth strategy by expanding both its technology portfolio and its geographic reach. Through R&D and acquisitions, the Group draws on the latest developments in the field of biotechnology and analytical chemistry to offer its clients unique analytical solutions and the most comprehensive range of testing methods.

As one of the most innovative and quality oriented international players in its industry, Eurofins is ideally positioned to support its clients' increasingly stringent quality and safety standards and the expanding demands of regulatory authorities around the world.

The shares of Eurofins Scientific are listed on the Euronext Paris Stock Exchange (ISIN FR0000038259, Reuters EUFI.PA, Bloomberg ERF FP).

Important disclaimer:

This press release contains forward-looking statements and estimates that involve risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements and estimates contained herein represent the judgment of Eurofins Scientific's management as of the date of this release. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees for future performance, and the forward-looking events discussed in this release may not occur. Eurofins Scientific disclaims any intent or obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements and estimates. All statements and estimates are made based on the information available to the Company's management as of the date of publication, but no guarantee can be made as to their validity.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180423006267/en/

Contacts:

Investor Relations

Eurofins Scientific

Phone: +32 2 766 1620

E-mail: ir@eurofins.com
Development of a gene therapy product for the treatment of patients with Fragile X syndrome

Implementation of the project through a unique partnership

First results anticipated in 2019

Regulatory News:

Lysogene (Paris:LYS) (FR0013233475 LYS), a leading biopharmaceutical company pioneering gene therapy technologies to treat central nervous system (CNS) diseases, announces the signing of a partnership agreement with Dr. Herve Moine, researcher in Prof. Jamel Chelly's team at the IGBMC Illkirch (CNRS, Inserm and Strasbourg University) and SATT Conectus. This partnership has been facilitated by the Fondation Maladies Rares, through its POC Club (Proof Of Concept) promoting research and knowledge management with academic and industrial actors in the field.

The agreement concerns the development of a gene therapy product for the treatment of patients with Fragile X syndrome. Fragile X syndrome affects approximately 1 birth in 4,000 to 5,000 boys and 1 birth in 8,000 girls, or about 110,000 patients in Europe. It is the most common inherited cause of intellectual disability as well as the most common cause of autism spectrum disorder. No treatment is currently available that has been shown to correct the neurological manifestations of the disease.

The partnership aims to develop a new therapeutic approach based on the pioneering work of Dr. Herve Moine. The Strasbourg team is using gene therapy to compensate for reduced DgkK, an innovative therapeutic target and potentially a key function in neuronal gene regulation, whose synthesis is regulated by Fragile X Mental Retardation Protein (FMRP), the missing protein responsible for Fragile X syndrome.

This partnership is expected to be implemented through an original co-design format. Driven by the SATT Conectus, this project brings together, in early-stage development, an innovative project driven by a researcher with the financial support of Conectus and an industrial partner with gene therapy development expertise. If the project is successful, Lysogene has a license option, guaranteeing priority access to the technology.

The first results of this project are anticipated in 2019.

"We are pleased by this agreement with prestigious partners in the field of Fragile X. This association, which should lead to an exclusive licensing agreement, is a recognition of Lysogene's know-how in the development of therapies for rare CNS diseases, "said Philippe Mendels-Flandre, Chief Operating Officer at Lysogene

"SATT Conectus is very motivated by this promising development. Our investment of over 390 k into this project (GETEX project), and the associated intellectual property, will allow us to validate the proposed gene therapy concept and ensure it addresses the unmet market needs. We are also happy to partner with Dr. Herve Moine and Lysogene, a key partner chosen, after a rigorous selection process, for their expertise in gene therapy development for central nervous system diseases", commented Nicolas Carboni, President of SATT Conectus.

"I am delighted by the Foundation's role, through the POC Club, in associating Lysogene, Dr. Herve Moine and Satt Conectus," says Christine Fetro, Head of Support for therapeutic proof of concept at the Fondation Maladies Rares. "Accelerating the development of drug candidates for rare diseases is one of the Foundation's core missions

"The involvement of the Fondation Maladies Rares, the expertise of Lysogene and the support of Conectus, will enable us to test a new therapeutic approach for Fragile X, based on the discovery of a fundamental disease mechanism. Our team is very proud of this partnership, which is a unique opportunity to see our academic work developed into a treatment, awaited by families" adds Dr. Herve Moine

Karen Aiach, CEO and Founder of Lysogene, says she is "I am delighted to see Lysogene develop a new program to serve patients with no current therapeutic alternatives

Next financial milestones:

Shareholders' meeting in June, 2018

Q2 2018 revenue and cash position expected on July 16, 2018 (after market close)

About Lysogene

Lysogene is a gene therapy company focused on the treatment of rare diseases of the central nervous system (CNS). The company has built a unique capability to enable a safe and effective delivery of gene therapies to the CNS to treat lysosomal diseases and other genetic disorders of the CNS. A pivotal clinical trial in MPS IIIA is expected to start in 2018, a phase 1-2 clinical trial in GM1 Gangliosidosis in 2019, while we are currently collaborating to define the clinical development path for the treatment of Fragile X syndrome. www.lysogene.com

Lysogene is listed on the Euronext regulated market in Paris (ISIN code: FR0013233475)

For more information, please visit www.lysogene.com.

About SATT* Conectus Alsace

In close connection with the major players in public research, SATT Conectus Alsace offers companies innovations from academic laboratories of excellence located in Alsace. It finances the most promising inventions up to 500 k , to enable them to reach a proof of concept, indicator of success. Large groups, SMEs and start-ups gain access to pioneering technologies, de-risked, and ready to be industrialized. Thanks to Conectus, manufacturers can also co-develop, with public researchers, these high potential innovative projects. Conectus also enables companies to identify cutting-edge academic skills to accelerate their own R D projects. Conectus manages and coordinates exchange and transaction between the company and the researcher, guaranteeing simplicity and speed. Since 2012, thanks to Alsacian academic excellence of international caliber, SATT Conectus has significantly accelerated the transfer of technologies which have had a direct economic benefit.

Since 2012: 141 active intellectual property titles 738 signed collaboration agreements 79 innovative projects funded 76 transfers completed 15 startups created  27M raised from investors (2017 figures).

Shareholders: CNRS, INSERM, ENGEES, INSA, UNIVERSITE DE STRASBOURG, UNIVERSITE DE HAUTE ALSACE, CAISSE DES DEPOTS

www.conectus.fr - http://conectlabs.conectus.fr/ - @ConectusAlsace

* Organisation for Accelerating Tech Transfer

About the Fondation Maladies Rares

The Fondation Maladies Rares is a scientific cooperation foundation, created in 2012 as part of the 2nd National Rare Diseases Plan, through the collabortation of 5 founding members: the AFM-Telethon, Alliance Maladies Rares, Inserm, Conference of the General Directors of University Hospitals and Conference of University Presidents. Its public interest mission is to accelerate rare diseases research with three strategic objectives: 1) to identify the cause of rare diseases and to aid diagnosis, 2) to help the development of new treatments and 3) to break the isolation of patients and their families.

To meet this mission, the foundation supports and finances research projects, provides advice and accompanies research teams in the field.

Results since 2012:

? 301 research projects financed in France

? 15 technology platforms partnering with call for projects

? over 170 researchers accompanied

? 88 therapeutic proof of concept closely followed

http://fondation-maladiesrares.org/

About the IGBMC

Founded in 1994 by Pierre Chambon and Dino Moras, the Institute of Genetics, Molecular and Cell Biology (IGBMC) is one of the leading biomedical research centers in Europe and the largest French research unit associating Inserm, the CNRS and the University of Strasbourg. IGBMC was recognized as a Laboratory of Excellence in 2011.

It brings together a scientific community of about 750 people from 42 different nationalities. The research activity of the IGBMC consists of 4 scientific departments divided into about 50 teams. The institute hosts a hundred doctoral students and masters each year, thanks to high-level training programs such as the PhD program and the IMCBio University School of Research. In addition, the IGBMC has 4 platforms and 9 advanced scientific services for internal use, which are also open to the outside scientific community, and benefits from the technological potential of the infrastructures: FRISBI, PHENOMIN, France Genomique, and INGESTEM.

The goal of the institute is to develop transdisciplinary research at the interface of biology, biochemistry, medicine and physics, but also to attract students from around the world with its offer of training at the highest level in the biomedical sciences field. Located at the Illkirch Innovation Park and on the university campus in the suburbs of Strasbourg, the IGBMC is positioned in an exceptional academic and industrial scientific environment that greatly favors collaborations and technology transfer.

The IGBMC is a pioneering institute for the study of Fragile X syndrome and contributed in the early 1990s, simultaneously with other institutes, to identify the gene responsible for this genetic defect.

http://www.igbmc.fr/

About the Genetics and pathophysiology of neurodevelopmental and epileptogenic diseases team at the IGBMC

The research team, led by Dr. Jamel Chelly, is based at the Institute of Genetics, Molecular and Cell Biology (IGBMC, CNRS UMR 7104 Inserm U 1258) in Illkirch. The team is studying the genetic bases and molecular mechanisms of several neurodevelopmental diseases. Recent work, supervised by Herve Moine, on Fragile X syndrome, has shown that the FMRP protein plays a role in neuronal communication and production of the enzyme diacylglycerol kinase (Dgkk). The restoration of a normal level of Dgkk by gene therapy offers new therapeutic perspectives that will be tested in this program.

About Fragile X syndrome

Fragile X syndrome is the most common inherited cause of intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorders. Patients may experience severe behavioral changes, including hyperactivity, impulsivity, anxiety, low language acquisition, and epileptic seizures. The syndrome is due to repeat mutations in the FMR1 gene that prevents FMRP production, a protein essential for inter-neuronal communication. There is no current treatment for this disease that affects 1 in 4,000 boys and 1 in 8,000 girls.

Forward looking statement

This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes its expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, all statements other than statements of historical fact included in this press release about future events are subject to (i) change without notice and (ii) factors beyond the Company's control. These statements may include, without limitation, any statements preceded by, followed by or including words such as "target," "believe," "expect," "aim," "intend," "may," "anticipate," "estimate," "plan," "project," "will," "can have," "likely," "should," "would," "could" and other words and terms of similar meaning or the negative thereof. Forward-looking statements are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties beyond the Company's control that could cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the expected results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future. This press release has been prepared in both French and English. In the event of any differences between the two texts, the French language version shall supersede.

1 IGBMC : Institute of Genetics, Molecular and Cell Biology - www.igbmc.fr

2 SATT Organisation for Accelerating Tech Transfer

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180423005589/en/

Contacts:

Lysogene

NewCap

Julie Coulot Emmanuel Huynh

+ 33 1 44 71 20 40

lysogene@newcap.eu

or

LifeSci Advisors

Chris Maggos, +41 79 367 6254

chris@lifesciadvisors.com
Funds will be used to accelerate the company's international development and complete the registrational Phase III clinical trial of its lead product EryDex

Sofinnova Partners, a leading European venture capital firm specialized in Life Sciences, announced today it has led EryDel's 26.5 M financing. The Italian biotech company, which specializes in drug delivery through red blood cells, will be using funds to boost its international development and to complete the ATTEST trial a registrational Phase III clinical trial currently enrolling in Europe, Asia, Australia and in the United States. Next to Sofinnova Partners, existing shareholder Genextra SpA and Innogest SGR also participated to the investment.

Based in Milan (Italy), EryDel develops an innovative red-blood-cell-based drug delivery device for the treatment of rare neurodegenerative diseases. Its proprietary technology relies upon the encapsulation of drugs into red cells taken from the patient's own blood which are then re-infused into the patient. The company is led by Luca Benatti, CEO, a serial entrepreneur who previously co-founded Newron Pharmaceuticals (NWRN). EryDel's lead product, EryDex, has received Orphan Drug designation both from the FDA and the EMA for the treatment of Ataxia Telangiectasia (AT), a rare autosomal recessive disorder for which there is currently no established therapy. Most AT patients die in the second decade of life. Next to AT, EryDel's technology is being developed in a wide range of additional applications.

Luca Benatti, CEO of EryDel, indicates: "We are thrilled to welcome Sofinnova Partners as our lead investor. Their unique international reach and recognized experience for building global leaders represent a huge asset at a time when EryDel is about to accelerate its growth plan."

Graziano Seghezzi, Managing Partner at Sofinnova Partners, adds: "We have known Luca Benatti for almost two decades and followed EryDel's development since the beginning. We believe the company is now poised for rapid growth and are happy to actively contribute to this exciting development."

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180423006134/en/

Contacts:

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LONDON, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

QinetiQ Group plc ("QinetiQ" or "the Group") announces that it has entered into an agreement to acquire E.I.S. Aircraft Operations ("Aircraft Operations" or "the Business"), currently part of E.I.S. Aircraft Group, for 70 million on a cash-free, debt-free basis.

Aircraft Operations is a leading provider of airborne training services based in Germany, delivering threat representation and operational readiness for military customers. It generated 20.1m revenue and 5.4m EBITDA in the year to 31 December 2017.

Aircraft Operations delivers airborne training services using a highly cost-effective fleet of 14 leased Pilatus PC-9 and PC-12 aircraft, flown by a team of 20 pilots.

The Business has well established relationships with its customers. It has been the exclusive provider of low-speed aerial training services to the German armed forces since 1999, and delivers aerial training services to the United States Air Force in Europe. It also modifies aircraft for special missions through the integration of sensors and digital systems used in Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance ("ISR").

Strategic rationale

Aircraft Operations has a strong track record and further growth potential Delivers airborne training services using Pilatus aircraft at a substantially reduced cost compared with jet-engine aircraft alternatives Complementary core activities; the business modifies special mission aircraft that are used to provide enhanced training services Sustainable and growing end markets driven by increasing demand for cost-effective training



Accelerates QinetiQ's international growth strategy Establishes a test and evaluation and engineering services capability in Germany Enhances access to the broader European defence market Aircraft Operations will also benefit from QinetiQ's wider access to international markets such as the Middle East



Strengthens QinetiQ's capability integration, threat representation and operational readiness offering to customers Enhances QinetiQ's live and synthetic training capabilities, supporting its focus on defence operational training Complements QinetiQ's test aircrew training and engineering services Supplements QinetiQ's acquisition of Meggitt Target Systems in 2016 to provide both manned and unmanned airborne test and training services



Financial highlights

Compound annual revenue growth of 17% over the past three financial years

Average EBITDA margin of more than 20% over the past three financial years

Strong cash flow generation

Expected to enhance QinetiQ's earnings per share in the current financial year

Returns exceed QinetiQ's cost of capital

Funded from QinetiQ's available cash resources

Steve Wadey, QinetiQ CEO, said:

"E.I.S Aircraft Operations is a high growth business which provides airborne training at a disruptively low price. This acquisition supports our strategy for international growth by providing access to the European defence market and enhancing our ability to deliver capability integration, threat representation and operational readiness for customers."

"We look forward to welcoming the Aircraft Operations team in Germany to QinetiQ and working with them to continue to grow the business both within their existing markets and beyond."

Transaction completion

The business currently forms a discrete business unit within the wider E.I.S Aircraft Group which is owned by EQT and focuses on aircraft interiors for the commercial aerospace market.

The transaction is subject to certain regulatory and legal approvals and is expected to close towards the end of the first half of QinetiQ's 2019 financial year.

Following completion, Aircraft Operations will continue to be led by its existing management team. It will form part of QinetiQ's International business unit and will be reported within QinetiQ's EMEA Services division.

This announcement contains inside information and the person responsible for making this announcement is Jon Messent, Company Secretary.

There will be a call for QinetiQ analysts and investors at 0730 hours UK time on 24April 2018.

Dial in details: +44(0)20-3003 2666 Password: QinetiQ

A playback of the call will be available shortly afterwards by dialling +44(0)844-584-0220 and entering PIN number 1703633#

Notes for Editors:

About QinetiQ:

QinetiQ is a leading science and engineering company operating primarily in the defence, security and aerospace markets. We work in partnership with our customers to solve real world problems through innovative solutions delivering operational and competitive advantage. Visit our website http://www.QinetiQ.com. Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter @QinetiQ. Visit our blog http://www.QinetiQ-blogs.com.

Stephens Europe acted as financial adviser to QinetiQ.

About Aircraft Operations:

Aircraft Operations is a leading aviation services business, delivering aerial training services and combat battle simulations through a fleet of Pilatus PC-9 and Pilatus PC-12 aircraft, facilitating military pilot readiness. Technical solutions include modification of special-mission aircraft as well as providing customised engineering services for a variety of military aircraft and aircraft components. The business employs approximately 60 people in Germany, including 20 pilots, and operates from two main strategic locations in Kiel and Monchengladbach. In the year to 31 December 2017, the business had gross assets of approximately 100.2million.

Disclaimer

This document contains certain forward-looking statements relating to the business, strategy, financial performance and results of the Company and/or the industry in which it operates. Actual results, levels of activity, performance, achievements and events are most likely to vary materially from those implied by the forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements concern future circumstances and results and other statements that are not historical facts, sometimes identified by the words 'believes',' expects', 'predicts', 'intends', 'projects', 'plans', 'estimates', 'aims', 'foresees', 'anticipates', 'targets', 'goals', 'due', 'could', 'may', 'should', 'potential', 'likely' and similar expressions, although these words are not the exclusive means of doing so. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements regarding the Company's future financial position, income growth, impairment charges, business strategy, projected levels of growth in the relevant markets, projected costs, estimates of capital expenditures, and plans and objectives for future operations. Forward-looking statements contained in this announcement regarding past trends or activities should not be taken as a representation that such trends or activities will continue in the future. Nothing in this document should be regarded as a profit forecast.

The forward-looking statements, including assumptions, opinions and views of the Company or cited from third party sources, contained in this announcement are solely opinions and forecasts which are uncertain and subject to risks. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that these expectations will prove to be correct. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. A number of factors could cause actual events to differ significantly and these are set out in the principal risks and uncertainties section of this document.

Most of these factors are difficult to predict accurately and are generally beyond the control of the Company. Any forward-looking statements made by, or on behalf of, the Company speak only as of the date they are made. Save as required by law, the Company will not publicly release the results of any revisions to any forward-looking statements in this document that may occur due to any change in the Directors' expectations or to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this document.


LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Petrofac Limited (POFCF.PK, POFCY.PK, PFC.L), an oil and gas industry service provider, Tuesday announced that Petrofac International (UAE) LLC has signed an agreement to sell the JSD6000 project to Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co Ltd or ZPMC.



The transaction comprises the sale of all JSD6000 related assets held by Petrofac, including the owner furnished equipment, for a gross consideration of $190 million and a 10% interest in a new special purpose vehicle set up to own the vessel once commissioned.



Petrofac will provide technical support for the construction of the vessel, which is expected to complete in 2022. Petrofac will not contribute to the cost of construction, commissioning or testing of the vessel.



The total consideration of $190 million is offset by a net amount of $23 million retained by Petrofac under the previous hull and marine contract with ZPMC. The remaining $167 million net cash consideration will be received in tranches.



The company will get $92 million within 20 business days; a further $70 million in stages as assets are physically transferred, which is expected to be over the period mid-2018 to early 2019; and, a final amount of $5 million upon commissioning of the vessel. The proceeds from the sale will be used to reduce gross debt.



Petrofac's Group Chief Executive Ayman Asfari said, 'This agreement materially completes our disposal of the project, in line with our stated intention to exit the deep-water market. It is a further positive step in the execution of our stated strategy to focus on our core strengths, deliver organic growth and reduce capital intensity.'



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SUMMIT (dpa-AFX) - Today's Daily Dose brings you news about Prothena pulling the plug on its AL amyloidosis drug candidate NEOD001; FDA panel thumbs up for lower dose of Baricitinib; imposition of FDA's partial hold on Epizyme's Tazemetostat program; FDA striking down Pfizer's Herceptin biosimilar, and delay in initiation of Kamada's phase III clinical study of Inhaled AAT for treatment of alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.



Read on.



Celgene Corp. (CELG) has extended its collaboration with Zymeworks Inc. (ZYME), which was signed in January 2015, for the research, development, and commercialization of bi-specific antibody therapeutics based on Zymeworks' proprietary Azymetric platform.



Under the expanded deal, Celgene has now exercised its right to increase the number of potential products it can develop and commercialize from eight to ten, and extended the research program term by two years.



Zymeworks will receive an expansion fee and is now eligible to receive up to US$164 million in development and commercial milestones for each of up to 10 products plus royalties on worldwide sales. In total, Zymeworks is now eligible to receive up to US$1.64 billion in future payments for the entire collaboration.



You can find more about ZYME in our Company Spotlight column.



ZYME closed Monday's trading at $12.14, up 1.34%.



An FDA panel has recommended approval of Baricitinib 2mg, but not 4mg, for the treatment of moderately-to-severely active rheumatoid arthritis for adult patients who have had an inadequate response or intolerance to methotrexate.



Baricitinib, a once-daily oral JAK inhibitor, is co-developed by Eli Lilly (LLY) and Incyte Corp. (INCY).



The FDA's final decision on Baricitinib is expected to be announced in June 2018.



Baricitinib 2-mg and 4-mg doses are approved in more than 40 countries, including the member states of the European Union and Japan.



INCY closed Monday's trading at $68.14, down 0.42%.



Enrollment of new patients in Epizyme Inc.'s (EPZM) U.S. clinical trials of Tazemetostat has been put on temporary hold.



Tazemetostat, a first-in-class EZH2 inhibitor, is currently being studied as a monotherapy in ongoing Phase 1 and 2 programs in certain molecularly defined solid tumors, including epithelioid sarcoma and other INI1-negative tumors; both follicular lymphoma (FL) and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) forms of NHL; mesothelioma; and combination studies in DLBCL and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).



The FDA initiated a partial hold following a safety report of a pediatric patient who developed a secondary lymphoma in the company's phase I pediatric study of Tazemetostat.



Doses explored in the pediatric study are higher than those in the phase II adult studies, according to the Company.



More than 750 patients have been treated with Tazemetostat to date, and this is the only case of secondary lymphoma that has been observed across the Tazemetostat clinical program, noted the Company.



EPZM closed Monday's trading at $15.30, down 3.47%. In after=hours, the stock was down 17.65% to $12.60.



Kamada Ltd. (KMDA) has decided to delay the initiation of its phase III clinical study of Inhaled AAT for treatment of alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD), originally scheduled in the second half of 2018, until it hears from the FDA again.



The delay comes in the wake of the FDA expressing continued concerns and questions related to the safety profile of Inhaled AAT.



In response to a proposed phase III study protocol for Inhaled AAT for treatment of AATD, which was submitted last July, the FDA had expressed concerns and questions regarding the safety and efficacy of Inhaled AAT for the treatment of AATD and the risk/benefit balance to patients.



In March 2018, following further discussions and based on additional feedback received from the FDA, Kamada submitted a revised pivotal Phase 3 protocol to the FDA, as well as additional information related to the FDA questions and concerns.



But this time too, the FDA is not satisfied, forcing the Company to delay the initiation of the phase III trial.



The Company is expecting to present its planned Phase 3 protocol in a Scientific Advice meeting with the European Medicines Agency in the third quarter of 2018, in order to obtain feedback and guidance in connection to the regulatory path for Inhaled AAT in Europe.



KMDA closed Monday's trading at $4.52, down 0.55%.



The FDA has turned down Pfizer Inc.'s (PFE) Biologics License Application for its proposed version of Herceptin biosimilar.



Herceptin is Roche's blockbuster drug indicated for the treatment of breast cancer.



Pfizer has been asked to provide additional technical information before its proposed Herceptin biosimilar could be approved. The additional requested information does not relate to safety or clinical data submitted in the application.



MYL-1401O, co-developed by Mylan and Biocon, approved last December, is the first Herceptin biosimilar to be greenlighted in the U.S.



In other news, the Company announced that the European Commission has approved MYLOTARG for the treatment of previously untreated, de novo, CD33-positive Acute Myeloid Leukemia in combination with chemotherapy. MYLOTARG received FDA approval in September 2017 for adults with newly diagnosed CD33-positive acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and adults and children 2 years and older with relapsed or refractory CD33-positive AML.



PFE closed Monday's trading at $36.80, up 0.46%.



Shares of Prothena Corp. plc (PRTA) slumped more than 68% on Monday, following disappointing news related to NEOD001, its investigational antibody that was being evaluated for the treatment of AL amyloidosis.



The Company announced that its phase IIb clinical study of NEOD001 vs. placebo in previously-treated patients with AL amyloidosis and persistent cardiac dysfunction, dubbed PRONTO, did not meet its primary or secondary endpoints.



But that's not all.



Prothena is also discontinuing its phase III clinical study of NEOD001 vs. placebo in treatment-naive patients with AL amyloidosis and cardiac dysfunction, dubbed VITAL, based on the recommendation of the independent data monitoring committee.



PRTA closed Monday's trading at $11.50, down 68.78%. In after-hours, the stock was up 0.87% to $11.60.



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TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - Whirlpool Corp (WHR) said it has entered into an agreement to sell its Embraco compressor business to Nidec Corp. (NJDCY.PK) for a cash purchase price of $1.08 billion, subject to customary working capital and indebtedness adjustments. The transaction is expected to close in early 2019. Whirlpool noted that the Embraco sale is consistent with the company's strategic focus on its consumer-facing business. The company also said it expects to execute share repurchases of about $1 billion in the form of a modified Dutch Auction tender offer. 'Since Embraco operates in the business-to-business space, this transaction enhances our strategic focus on investing in and growing our consumer-facing business. The planned tender offer further demonstrates our commitment to returning capital to shareholders, consistent with our balanced capital allocation strategy,' said Marc Bitzer, chief executive officer of Whirlpool. Whirlpool does not expect the transaction to have a material impact on its 2018 financial results. The Embraco business is currently reported as part of Whirlpool's Latin America segment. In fiscal year 2017, Embraco contributed about $1.3 billion to Whirlpool's net sales with margins approximating the segment average. Headquartered in Brazil, Embraco has been a Whirlpool majority-owned business unit since 1997. The business has a workforce of about 11,000 employees across eight global manufacturing facilities located in Brazil, Italy, China, Slovakia and Mexico. Embraco also maintains commercial offices in the United States and Russia. Whirlpool also said it intends to launch a 'modified Dutch Auction' tender offer for up to $1 billion of its common stock at an anticipated price per share not less than $150 and not greater than $170, subject to market conditions. The tender offer is expected to launch on April 26, 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.
LONDON, April 23, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Commercial finance vendor trumps 2018 International Trade category

HPD Software, a market leader of commercial finance software has won the International Trade category in the 2018 Queen's Award for Enterprise - in recognition of the company's outstanding overseas growth.

The Queen's Awards for Enterprise are the UK's most prestigious business awards. The International Trade category recognises outstanding growth in overseas earnings and year-on-year growth in overseas sales over a six-year period. Each year thousands of UK businesses enter this prestigious award programme.

HPD Software was selected on the basis of its international presence in over 50 markets globally and for its recent market expansion, notably in Lebanon, Democratic Republic of Congo, United Arab Emirates and Jordan. The increased growth, largely helped by a subscription based pricing model which makes HPD LendScape finance software affordable to smaller enterprise businesses. Another key contributor to the international expansion is the ability to localise the HPD LendScape platform features; language, currencies, taxation rules and working/non-working days can easily be adapted. HPD also stimulate business innovation by funding internal education programmes for banks who wish to develop new client offerings. In 2017, 22 students were educated in factoring, courtesy of a bursary HPD funded via Factor's Chain International.

Kevin Day, CEO at HPD Software, said: "We were very pleased to win The Queen's Award for International Trade in 1999, and I feel honoured and privileged to work with an exceptional team of people who have achieved this again - almost 20 years later."

"HPD's mission is to provide comprehensive and flexible software solutions for the global working capital finance industry. We are proud of our international reputation and this accolade will help to support our growth."

About HPD Software

With offices in the UK, USA and Australia, founded in 1982 HPD Software support banks and finance providers to develop and deliver working capital finance solutions. Global corporations and niche firms world wide trust HPD Software's invoice finance and data gathering solutions to help them manage over 50,000 clients.

http://www.hpdsoftware.com

About the Queen's Award

HM The Queen bestows the awards on the advice of the Prime Minister, who is assisted by an Advisory Committee that includes representatives of Government, industry and commerce, and the trade unions.
Investment from Downing FOUR VCT (Healthcare and General share classes) advised by BioScience Managers Limited

Funds used to progress development of Antibody Drug Conjugate (ADCs) technology

Downing FOUR VCT is targeting dividends of at least 4% p.a. (of net assets) from the fourth year onwards*

London-based investment management firm, Downing LLP, and BioScience Managers Limited, the international healthcare investment firm and advisers to the Downing FOUR VCT, today announce the completion of a new 1.14 million investment in Wales-based ADC Biotechnology Ltd.

ADC Biotechnology is creating innovative new technology, which aims to speed up, simplify and significantly lower the costs of the processes involved in the production of new antibody drug conjugates (ADCs). ADCs are antibodies that are attached to cancer-killing drugs using chemical 'linkers', allowing for targeted treatment of cancerous tissue.

The investment provided by Downing will be used by ADC Biotechnology to continue the development of its 'Lock-Release' product** and facilitate the company's expansion to the US with quality control labs, equipment and the creation of new manufacturing infrastructure.

Jeremy Curnock Cook, Managing Director at BioScience Managers, commented:

"The healthcare industry is growing globally, funded by an ageing population in Western countries and increasing affluence in emerging markets such as China and India. ADC Biotechnology is ideally positioned to serve customers operating in these markets by applying its proprietary expertise to develop the next generation of cancer therapeutics."

Richard Lewis, Investment Director, Downing said:

"VCTs can be an ideal way for investors to access small specialist companies. They provide a portfolio of companies that can yield strong returns. Importantly, VCTs can facilitate the development of technologies to a point where they are recognised by the major players, therefore providing the opportunity for both consolidation and exit."

**More about ADC Biotech's 'Lock-Release' technology

The use of ADCs is an exciting and fast-growing new approach in the oncology sector but they can also be complex, costly and sometimes unreliable. A major challenge in creating ADCs are 'aggregation events', which can lead to activity loss in the antibody, decrease in solubility - and therefore effectiveness of the ADC and increase the chances of provoking an immune response against the medicine during treatment.

ADC Biotechnology is developing 'Lock-Release' technology, a low-cost solution that counters aggregation events by speeding up the process of creating the ADC and reducing wastage. Using Lock-Release, the ADC antibody is 'locked' to the surface of a bead preventing aggregation from occurring during subsequent conjugation, purification and storage steps. The antibody can then be released from the bead when required during treatment using a simple additive.

-Ends-

Notes to Editor

About the Downing and BioScience Managers partnership

Downing LLP, the London-based investment management firm, has partnered with BioScience Managers, the international healthcare investment firm, to manage the Downing FOUR Venture Capital Trust (VCT) Healthcare Share Class, a 20 million fund which was launched in December 2016. This partnership brings together Downing's expertise as a generalist VCT manager, together with BioScience Managers' specialist expertise in healthcare investment. The combined investment strategy targets dividends of 4% p.a. (of net assets) from the fourth year onwards*, while seeking to minimise losses through careful selection of small specialist companies operating in key focus areas of the healthcare sector including those working in therapeutics, medical devices, diagnostics and digital health.

*Please note, this is a target only and is not guaranteed.

About Downing LLP

Downing LLP is an FCA authorised and regulated investment manager with over 30 years of experience and has raised funds from 35,000 investors. We help UK businesses grow by investing in them via our wide range of tax-efficient products. We are proud to have raised over 1.7 billion to invest into businesses across a range of sectors, from energy, care homes, health clubs, pubs, and children's nurseries to app-technology and e-commerce. We currently have approximately 1 billion of funds under management.

Find out more about us online at downing.co.uk.

About BioScience Managers

BioScience Managers is an international healthcare investment firm that finances and enables innovative science and technology with the potential to transform healthcare. Investments are made in both private and public companies, where its vision and strategic support enables it to deliver impressive investment returns. BioScience Managers operates from offices in Australia and the UK and from bases that span three regions Europe, North America and the Asia Pacific, from where it sources investment opportunities. It is part of the PhillipCapital Group, which has more than US $28 billion under management and whose network of offices in 16 countries around the world provides access to valuable local knowledge and business contacts.

Find out more online at biosciencemanagers.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180424005704/en/

Contacts:

For Downing LLP

the lang cat

Pamela Morris

+44 (0)131 202 6037

pamela@langcatfinancial.com

or

Downing LLP

Jean Birrell

+44 (0)7799 555353

jean.birrell@downing.co.uk

Follow us on twitter @downingllp

or

For BioScience Managers

Instinctif Partners

Sue Charles, Ashley Tapp

+44 (0)20 7457 2020

BioScienceManagers@instinctif.com

or

BioScience Managers

Victoria Durrans

Phone: +61 (3) 9618 8248

vcd@biosciencemanagers.com
Companies join forces in immune tolerance to tackle ADA (anti-drug antibodies)

Initial focus on next generation vector-based therapeutics

Boehringer Ingelheim is granted option to in-license several pre-clinical development candidates produced under the collaboration



HAMBURG / ACCESSWIRE / April 24, 2018 / Topas Therapeutics GmbH (Topas), a Hamburg, Germany-based private platform company leveraging the natural tolerance induction capabilities of the liver, today announced that it has signed a multi-year agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim to collaborate in the field of antigen-specific tolerance induction with an initial focus on virus-based delivery vectors that confer novel therapeutics to patients.

Virus-based therapeutics are emerging as a promising new approach to the treatment of cancer, with applications such as oncolytic viruses and also delivery vectors for cancer vaccines. However, as with any virus, the body may develop an unwanted immune reaction, prohibiting repeated administration of the viral therapeutic and possibly limiting its utility. In this collaboration, the Topas tolerizing nanoparticle technology will take aim at preventing this vector-neutralizing response.

Under the terms of the agreement, Topas will be responsible for the design, application and production of its proprietary tolerizing particles while Boehringer Ingelheim will contribute its antigen know-how and its pharmacology expertise to the collaboration in order to develop tolerance-generating adjuvant candidates. Boehringer Ingelheim has an option to license several pre-clinical development candidates produced under the collaboration for development and commercialization. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

Topas' technology platform induces antigen-specific immune tolerance by harnessing the liver's natural immunology capabilities. Peptide-loaded nanoparticles mimic bloodborne antigens, selectively target liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSECs), and generate antigen-specific regulatory T cells that suppress unwanted immune reactions.

Timm Jessen, CEO of Topas Therapeutics, said: "We are proud to be working with Boehringer Ingelheim to generate novel product candidates using our proprietary technology. This collaboration supports the value and broad applicability of our tolerance induction approach, now comprising the increasingly significant field of novel therapeutics and their precise delivery. The high level of interest we have seen in our technology, including this key collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim, supports the growing recognition of the importance of tolerance induction in drug development, and we believe will fuel Topas' future commercial potential."

About Topas Therapeutics

Topas Therapeutics GmbH is a private Hamburg, Germany-based biotechnology company focused on developing products to address areas of major unmet need, including autoimmune diseases, allergies and anti-drug antibodies. Topas' technology platform induces antigen-specific immune tolerance by harnessing the liver's natural immunology capabilities. The Company has two programs preparing to enter the clinic in 2019 including one for an orphan disease. Topas also has a research and option agreement with Eli Lilly and Company focused on immune tolerance and a co-development agreement with Evotec for a Type 1 diabetes program that is currently in pre-clinical testing. Topas' investors include: Epidarex Capital, Gimv, EMBL Ventures, Evotec and Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund.

For additional information, please visit: www.topas-therapeutics.com.

Contacts:

Media Relations Europe Topas Therapeutics GmbH MC Services AG Dr. Timm-H. Jessen Anne Hennecke CEO / Managing Director Phone +49 211 529 252 22 Falkenried 88 Email anne.hennecke@mc-services.eu 20251 Hamburg Media Relations U.S. Laurie Doyle Phone +1 339 832 0752 Email jessen@topas-therapeutics.com Email laurie.doyle@mc-services.eu Web www.topas-therapeutics.com Web www.mc-services.eu



SOURCE: Topas Therapeutics GmbH
HONG KONG, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Strengthening the Monaco leadership team with appointments of Chief Information Security Officer, Senior Vice President, Group Strategy and Senior Vice President, Head of Marketing

Monaco, the pioneering payments and cryptocurrency platform, today announced a series of new appointments to its senior management team, with Jason Lau as Chief Information Security Officer, Eric Anziani as Senior Vice President of Group Strategy, and Maggie Ng as Senior Vice President, Head of Marketing.

(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/569858/Monaco_Logo.jpg )

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/681361/Eric_Anziani.jpg )



(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/681362/Jason_Lau.jpg )



(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/681363/Maggie_Ng.jpg )



"The additions of Jason, Eric, and Maggie to our management team bring valuable expertise and skills that will help drive our vision of putting cryptocurrency in every wallet," said Kris Marszalek, Co-Founder and CEO of Monaco. "In the short time they've been with our team we have experienced great progress, and I know they'll be instrumental in advancing Monaco's innovative products and services."

Jason Lau, Chief Information Security Officer

Jason Lau joined Monaco as Chief Information Security Officer. Jason is a multiple award winning cybersecurity professional. A former regional Cybersecurity Advisor at Microsoft, Jason has over 16 years of experience holding executive roles advising international clients such as Credit Suisse, Falcon Private Bank, ETH Zurich, Swiss Air Force, and Social Security Administration. Jason sits on the Board of Directors of several think tanks and industry advisory groups promoting technological innovation, and is a cybersecurity guest speaker at universities throughout Asia. Jason has completed Executive Programs at both Stanford and Harvard, and holds a double degree, Bachelor of Engineering (Honors) and Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Western Australia. He also holds certifications including CISSP, CIPP/E, CGEIT, CRISC, CISA, CISM, CEH, CDNA, CSM, ITIL as well as a seat on ISACA's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Global Working Group.

"I'm honored to be serving as Monaco's Chief Information Security Officer," said Jason. "Ensuring Monaco's offerings are secure and safe for users across the globe is an integral part of our mission to advance widespread adoption of cryptocurrency."

Eric Anziani, Senior Vice President, Group Strategy



Eric Anziani joined Monaco as Senior Vice President, Group Strategy in February 2018 with 12 years of experience in strategy, partnerships and innovation in Financial Services, Retail and Technology. Prior to joining Monaco, Eric worked at leading global companies including Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, and PayPal in London, Paris, Singapore, and Tokyo. Most recently, Eric led the Strategy team at Global Fashion Group, the world's leading online fashion destination, and drove significant cross-regional strategic programs across its 24 markets with over 9000 employees. Eric completed his Master of Business Administration from INSEAD in 2012, and holds a Master of Science degree from the Ecole Superieure d'Electricite (Supelec).

"Expanding and deepening Monaco's strategic partnerships adds considerable value for our customers," said Eric. "I believe in Monaco's vision to drive cryptocurrency adoption globally and I look forward to contribute to the growing blockchain ecosystem."

Maggie Ng, Senior Vice President, Head of Marketing

Maggie Ng joined Monaco as Senior Vice President, Head of Marketing in February 2018 with a passion for driving new channels, as well as product and partnership innovation. Based in Hong Kong, Maggie possesses valuable skills from her previous positions as Head of Direct Marketing and Direct to Consumer for FWD Insurance and Director of Digital Media for Prudential Corporation. She holds a Master's Degree in Information Science from the Pratt Institute and a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics and Communication from Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

"I couldn't be more thrilled to join the Monaco team to plan, develop, and execute our marketing and advertising initiatives that elevate our brand," said Maggie. "Cryptocurrency is the future of finance and we are on the forefront of something great."

About Monaco

Monaco Technology GmbH with a vision of Cryptocurrency in Every Wallet is the pioneering payments and cryptocurrency platform. The Monaco Visa card and mobile app allow users to buy, exchange, and spend fiat and cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin and ether, at perfect interbank exchange rates.

Founded in June 2016, Monaco raised US$26.7 million through one of the most successful Token Sale events to date. The company is headquartered in Switzerland with offices in Hong Kong and Singapore.

For more information on Monaco, please visit http://www.mona.co. Monaco Visa cards can be reserved with the Monaco app available for download for iOS and Android users.
On April 20, 2018, SCREEN Semiconductor Solutions Co., Ltd. (SCREEN) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) in a ceremony commemorating the launch of the massively E-beam direct write lithography for 12 inch Si wafers (MEB12) program.

NTHU combined with international semiconductor equipment and software suppliers will establish the first massively electron beam direct writing (MEBDW) innovative semiconductor industry-university alliance to develop the state-of-the-art maskless lithography technology. The MEBDW lithography technology enables "on-chip security", making Taiwan the world's first development and pilot production for security chips with unique IDs, providing information security for the Internet, AI, electronic payment and automotive chips.

The MEB12 program participants include the world's only commercial MEBDW lithography equipment manufacturer, Mapper Lithography B.V., from the Netherlands and U.S. design software supplier Synopsys, Inc. SCREEN will support the MEB12 program with both DUO lithography coat/develop track and SU-3200 single wafer cleaning systems.

As one of the MEB12 project initiators, Professor Po-Wen Chiu of NTHU's Department of Electrical Engineering and chairman of the Center for Nanotechnology, Materials Science, and Microsystems, pointed out: "This project is a successful case to use Taiwan's strong penetration capability in the semiconductor manufacturing sector, to form an alliance with international semiconductor giants and build up the most advanced commercial 12 inch MEBDW lithography process line in the campus, making NTHU the world's first university to have this unique R&D capability."

"We are very pleased to be supporting NTHU in Taiwan as they pioneer the MEB12 alliance," noted Tadahiro Suhara, president of SCREEN Semiconductor Solutions. "This is a testament to the value our SCREEN equipment technology and resources bring to innovative IoT applications."

The MEB12 alliance will allow Taiwan and neighboring Asian semiconductor IC design and manufacturing companies to join the alliance with membership and jointly develop the innovative chips. According to Professor Chiu, "In addition to developing security chips, it can also be used as a maskless IC design verification platform which survives the start-up IC design companies by significantly reducing the soaring costs derived from the photomasks, and a low cost foundry service with high resolution and high graphic-flexibility for the niche applications."

About National Tsing Hua University (NTHU)

National Tsing Hua University was established in Beijing in 1911 as Tsing Hua Academy. In 1956, National Tsing Hua University was re-established at its present location in Hsinchu, Taiwan. Since its relocation, NTHU has developed into a comprehensive research university offering a full range of degree programs in science, technology, engineering, humanities, social sciences and management. NTHU consistently ranks as one of the premier universities in East Asia and is widely recognized as a leading incubator for future leaders. For more information on NTHU, please visit http://nthu-en.web.nthu.edu.tw.

About SCREEN Semiconductor Solutions Co., Ltd.

SCREEN Semiconductor Solutions has been established as a group company of SCREEN Holdings, inheriting the semiconductor equipment business from its predecessor, Dainippon Screen. SCREEN is a specialized manufacturer in various areas such as wafer cleaning equipment, lithography equipment and thermal anneals, and is one of the world's top 10 equipment suppliers to the semiconductor manufacturing industry. For more information, please visit http://www.screen.co.jp/eng/spe.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180424005735/en/

Contacts:

SCREEN Semiconductor Solutions Co., Ltd.

Charles Pieczulewski Hiroaki Sugimoto, +81-75-417-2527

speinfo@screen.co.jp
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 24, 2018) - I-Minerals lnc. (TSXV: IMA) (OTCQB: IMAHF) (FSE: 61M) (the "Company") announces its ULTRA HalloPure halloysite has been used for the production of prototypes of HEAL CARE, an innovative wound bandage. See the Company's press releases of February 9, 2016 Initial results for this life science product and January 18, 2017 for earlier development updates.

HEAL CARE has now progressed to prototype production under the management of Speed Care Mineral UG (haftungbeschr.) ("Speed Care"), a company situated in Neubrandenburg, Germany. As noted in the Company's prior press releases the HEAL CARE product is a halloysite impregnated gauze that demonstrates blood clotting action comparable, or in some instances, better than other products such as Z-Medica 's Combat Gauze product. HEAL CARE was developed with the support of several contract partners working in conjunction with Speed Care. The material components and production technology for HEAL CARE are protected by patent application. Results of the effectiveness of HEAL CARE have been documented through a series of extended in-vitro and animal test programs completed under the supervision of leading medical doctors. The excellent results to date have drawn the attention of four European medical companies that have expressed interest in the future distribution of HEAL CARE. The further development concept of Speed Care was awarded by the EU within the "Horizon 2020-Programm" with the "Seal of Excellence". In addition, on April 23, 2018 Speed Care Mineral was named the winner of the Health Care Competition 2018 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern county award for the concept and the high innovation potential.

"Halloysite is a truly unique mineral and for the high value life science applications such as HEAL CARE, our ULTRA Hallopure is the best halloysite product available for such applications." stated John Theobald, President and CEO. "We are pleased to have provided ULTRA Hallopure for the development of the innovative HEAL CARE product and as noted in our recent press release, we have started a bulk sample processing program that is forecast to make a further 3 tons of our HalloPure and ULTRA HalloPure products available for commercialization of HEAL CARE and other life science products. For applications such as life sciences, our combination of the size and geometry of the nanotube together with very low heavy metals levels and no cristobalite or alunite, our ULTRA HalloPure has no real competitors."

A. Lamar Long, CPG, is a qualified person ("QP") for I-Minerals Inc. and has reviewed and approved the contents of this release

About Speed Care Mineral UG (haftungsbeschr)

Speed Care is a developer and supplier of medical devices based in Neubrandenburg, Germany. Founders of the company have a long history of expertise in high purity mineral products, the development of innovative new textile fibers and have been instrumental in the financing and marketing of the medical devices. Speed Care along with HEAL CARE was recently invited to participate in European Union ("EU") competition "Horizon 2020" and was also invited to the EU Top 50 Millennial Start-Up Competition based on its EU - Evaluation Summary with "Seal of Excellence".

About I-Minerals Inc.

I-Minerals is developing multiple deposits of high purity, high value halloysite, quartz, potassium feldspar and kaolin at its strategically located Helmer-Bovill property in north central Idaho. A 2016 Feasibility Study on the Bovill Kaolin Deposit led by GBM Engineers LLC, who were responsible for overall project management and the process plant and infrastructure design, including OPEX and CAPEX calculated an After Tax NPV of US$249.8 million with a 25.8% After Tax IRR. Initial CAPEX was estimated at $108.3 million with a 3.7 year After Tax payback. Other engineering services were provided by HDR Engineering, Inc. (all environmental components; hydrology / hydrogeology; road design); Tetra Tech, Inc. (tailings storage facility design); Mine Development Associates (mine modelling; ore scheduling; mineral reserve estimation); and SRK Consulting (U.S.) Inc. (mineral resource estimation). The project has received mine and water permits from the State of Idaho.

I-Minerals Inc.

per: "John Theobald"

John Theobald,

President and CEO

This News Release includes certain "forward looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Without limitation, statements regarding potential mineralization and resources, exploration results, and future plans and objectives of the Company are forward looking statements that involve various risks. Actual results could differ materially from those projected as a result of the following factors, among others: changes in the world wide price of mineral market conditions, risks inherent in mineral exploration, risk associated with development, construction and mining operations, the uncertainty of future profitability and uncertainty of access to additional capital.

Contact:

I-Minerals Inc.

Barry Girling

877-303-6573 or 604-303-6573

Email: info@imineralsinc.com

Or visit our website at www.imineralsinc.com

Paul J.Searle, Investor Relations

877-303-6573 or 604-303-6573

Email: PSearle@imineralsinc.com

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS NEWS RELEASE.
Regulatory News:

Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. ("PSH" or the "Company")(LN:PSH) (NA:PSH) today held its Annual General Meeting of shareholders ("AGM") in St. Peter Port, Guernsey. At the AGM, PSH shareholders passed resolutions to: receive the annual report and the financial statements; re-elect the Company's four directors; elect two new directors, Bronwyn Curtis and Richard Wohanka, to the Company's board; re-appoint the Company's auditor; authorise the directors to determine the remuneration of the auditor; authorise the Company to buy back shares and launch a tender offer for up to an aggregate amount of $300 million of PSH's public shares; make certain amendments to the Articles of Incorporation of the Company to remove the existing ownership limit of 4.99% of the value of PSH's Public Shares and to permit certain conversions of Public Shares into Management Shares; and permit the disapplication of shareholders' pre-emption rights. All resolutions were passed on a poll.

The specifics of those resolutions can be can be found in the Notice of Annual General Meeting available on the Company's website, https://www.pershingsquareholdings.com/company-reports/noticesshareholders/.

The results of the proxy voting in respect of the public shares (the "Public Shares") are noted in the chart below. A vote withheld is not a vote in law and has not been counted in the votes for or against a resolution. All of the management shares (the "Management Shares") voted in favour of the resolutions and represented 9,011,694 votes. PS Independent Voting Company Limited ("VoteCo") voted its Special Voting Share in favour of the resolutions. The percentages in the chart aggregate the results of voting by the Public Shares, Management Shares and VoteCo, as applicable. Resolutions 4, 10 and 11 are Specified Matters for purposes of the UK Listing Rules, on which neither the Management Shares nor VoteCo are permitted to vote.

Resolution For Against Vote Withheld Resolution 1: Receive the annual report and the financial statements Ordinary Resolution of all Voting Shares 119,293,092

99.99% 27,730

0.01% 4,551,566 Resolution 2: To re-appoint the Company's auditor Ordinary Resolution of all Voting Shares 119,358,773

99.96% 138,694

0.04% 4,374,921 Resolution 3: To authorise the directors to determine the remuneration of the auditor Ordinary Resolution of all Voting Shares 109,926,591

98.17% 6,778,982

1.83% 7,166,815 Resolution 4: To re-elect Nicholas Botta as a Director Ordinary Resolution of the holders of Public

Shares 104,698,283

98.22 1,895,990

1.78% 17,278,115 Resolution 5: To re-elect Richard Battey as a Director Ordinary Resolution of all Voting Shares 103,859,832

97.83% 7,948,659

2.17% 12,063,897 Resolution 6: To re-elect William Scott as a Director Ordinary Resolution of all Voting Shares 116,614,225

99.35% 2,424,759

0.65% 4,833,404 Resolution 7: To re-elect Anne Farlow as a Director Ordinary Resolution of all Voting Shares 116,614,225

99.35% 2,424,759

0.65% 4,833,404 Resolution 8: To elect Bronwyn Curtis as a Director Ordinary Resolution of all Voting Shares 118,791,606

99.93% 247,378

0.07% 4,833,404 Resolution 9: To elect Richard Wohanka as a Director Ordinary Resolution of all Voting Shares 118,791,606

99.93% 247,378

0.07% 4,833,404 Resolution 10: Authorising the Company to buy back shares Special Resolution of the holders of Public

Shares 115,884,132

93.90% 7,527,872

6.10% 460,384 Resolution 11: Authorising the Company to launch a tender offer for up to an aggregate amount of $300

million of PSH's public shares Special Resolution of the holders of Public

Shares 123,727,217

99.98% 27,872

0.02% 117,299 Resolution 12: Amending the Articles of Incorporation to remove the ownership limit Special Resolution of all Voting Shares and an Ordinary Resolution of the holders of Public Shares Special Resolution of all Voting Shares 123,727,217

99.99% 27,872

0.01% 117,299 Ordinary Resolution of Public Shares 123,727,217

99.98% 27,872

0.02% 117,299 Resolution 13: Amending the Articles of Incorporation to permit certain conversions of Public Shares into

Management Shares Special Resolution of all Voting Shares and an Ordinary Resolution of the holders of Public Shares Special Resolution of all Voting Shares 118,249,709

99.71% 1,071,113

0.29% 4,551,566 Ordinary Resolution of Public Shares 118,249,709

99.10% 1,071,113

0.90% 4,551,566 Resolution 14: Permitting the disapplication of pre-emption rights Special Resolution of all Voting Shares 122,948,159

99.85% 576,243

0.15% 347,986

A copy of the resolutions passed at the AGM has been submitted to the National Storage Mechanism and will shortly be available for inspection at: www.morningstar.co.uk/NSM.

About Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd.

Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. (LN:PSH) (NA:PSH) is an investment holding company structured as a closed-end fund that makes concentrated investments principally in North American companies.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180424005764/en/

Contacts:

MEDIA:

Maitland

Seda Ambartsumian/Sam Turvey, +44 20 7379 5151

Media-pershingsquareholdings@maitland.co.uk
FELTON, California, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Global Drug Discovery Informatics Market is expected to show a tremendous growth over the forecast period owing to the technological advancements in the field of data mining and analytics regarding structured and unstructured data explosions, and drug development. In addition, the increasing usage of cloud-based services is projected to fuel the growth of this industry.

The continuous advancements in software for the endowment of data visualization, data processing and analysis and data aggregation for the adoption of more automated and integrated lab systems. Thereby, fueling the growth of drug discovery informatics market. Furthermore, the lack of informational technology applications that provides critical attributes of data evaluation and assisting in data aggregation so as to make real-time decisions is presumed to influence research in this sector.

The significant shift from conventional in-vitro drug development to computer aided drug designing as expensive failures of late drug development upsurges the use of in-silico models for early ADME/Toxicity screening is estimated to boost the growth of this sector. Moreover, the increasing disease burden due to growing incidence of chronic diseases such as infectious diseases, oncology, cardiovascular and diabetes is considered to be the major concerns for healthcare and government providers across the globe.

On the basis of workflow, the market is segmented into discovery informatics and development informatics. Discovery informatics is further classified into lead generation informatics and identification and validation informatics assay development informatics. While development informatics is further categorized into FHD preparation, lead optimization, Phase IB/2 informatics, and Phase IA.

Browse 139 page research report with TOC on "Global Drug Discovery Informatics Market" at:https://www.millioninsights.com/industry-reports/drug-discovery-informatics-market

Discovery informatics is estimated to hold the largest market share owing to the presence of a considerable number of in-silico databases and tools which support the process of lead identification and validation. On the other hand, development informatics is expected to witness a significant growth over the decade owing to the continuous progress in the sub-segments that include clinical trial data management software and services.

The market on the basis of mode of service provision is classified into in-house and outsourced informatics. In-house informatics is projected to dominate the market owing to the presence of a large number of information technology platforms among the key players in this region. Outsourced informatics is estimated to witness the fastest growth over the coming six years owing to the rising collaborations between key players and software service provider so as to gain access to in-silicon databases and tools for the therapeutic drug discovery.

On the basis of services, the market is segmented into sequence analysis platform, molecular modeling, docking, and clinical trial data management. The sequence analysis platform is expected to hold the largest market share owing to the high R&D investments for genomic sequencing which provides new avenues in lead identification. In addition, due to the cost effectiveness of sequencing, the adoption rate of it is increasing, thus, resulting in the growth of this market.

Geographically, the key regions identified in this industry include North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East and Africa. North America is estimated to dominate the market owing to the high research and development expenditures in information technology. The growing adoption of innovative objects discovery standards is another factor presumed to propel the growth of this industry. Moreover, the presence of enhanced technological framework is anticipated to boost the market growth.

Asia Pacific is expected to witness the fastest growth over the forecast period owing to the continuous technological advancements in developing countries such as Japan, and China so as to promote the introduction of new drug targets for the reduction of chronic diseases.The key players in this industry are Jubilant Biosys, Boehringer Ingelheim GmBh, Certara, Selvita, Charles River Laboratories, DiscoverX, ChemAxon, and Infosys. Other prominent players are GVK Biosciences, Covance, Albany Molecular Research Inc., Novo Informatics and Collaborative Drug Discovery Inc.

In April 2016, Certara, launched a SIVA (Simcyp in Vitro Analysis) toolkit 2.0 to assist drug development researchers with the analysis of complex in-vitro studies. In March 2016, DiscoverX, launched KILR assay platform for the use in cancer immunotherapy drug development.

Browse reports of similar category available with Million Insights:

Gene Expression Analysis Market

Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Market

Bone Grafts And Substitutes Market

Orthobiologics Market

Global Drug Discovery Informatics Outlook, by Workflow (Revenue, USD Million, 2012 - 2022)

 Discovery Informatics

 Identification & Validation Informatics Assay Development Informatics

 Lead Generation Informatics

 Development Informatics

 Lead Optimization

 FHD Preparation

 Phase IA Informatics

 Phase IB/2 Informatics

Global Drug Discovery Informatics Outlook, by Mode (Revenue, USD Million, 2012 - 2022)

 In-house Informatics

 Outsourced Informatics

Global Drug Discovery Informatics Outlook, by Services (Revenue, USD Million, 2012 - 2022)

 Sequence Analysis Platforms

 Molecular Modeling

 Docking

 Clinical Trial Data Management

 Others

Drug Discovery Informatics Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2012 - 2022)

 North America

 U.S.

 Canada

 Europe

 Germany

 UK

 Asia Pacific

 China

 Japan

 Latin America

 Brazil

 MEA

 South Africa

About Million Insights:

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Million Insights

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CAESAREA, Israel, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

New Sweetener Production Process Cuts Energy, Saves Water

Lampados International, Ltd. has completed a new plant expansion for the production of Liteez, a vegan, 3D meringue kiss sweetener for hot beverages. The new facility was designed according to eco-friendly principles to dramatically reduce energy and water use.

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/681360/Lampados_International_Liteez.jpg )

Lampados developed an entirely automatic, closed-system production process for Liteez that ensures product safety and purity according to the strictest certifications, with full control over every step, including packaging.

Production of meringue is typically highly sensitive to contamination, especially during the foaming stage. Many meringue manufacturers engage this stage manually which also is labor intensive. The new closed system by Lampados prevents contamination throughout every step, allowing maximum flexibility that enables increasing capacity by 22 times.

"When we set out to create a new sweetener, while we certainly strived for exceptional characteristics and functionality, we wanted to do so with responsibility," explains Noam Kaplan, CEO of Lampados. "Consumers - especially Millennials - expect manufacturers to be a part of the community and take care of the environment. Part of Lampados' mission is to make Liteez a better-for-you product in every aspect."

The new production process of the Liteez 3D sweetener allows water and energy savings due to:

1. A more controlled foaming system that allows for a reduction of water in the mixture by 9%. This reduction also saves energy in the drying process.

2. Heated pipes save 6% energy by getting the material from cold to drying temperature more rapidly.

3. Shifting to a continuous process, washing equipment and utensils only once in each production, while still ensuring maximum safety and purity. This saves a further 47% on water usage.

"As a family business, Lampados constantly turns back to its roots and core values," explains Kaplan. "We keep searching for innovation in flavor and functionality, but it also is important for us to conserve our precious resources. Water is one of the most valuable resource in Israel, so it is only responsible to reduce waste and at the same time produce our safe sweetener using only simple ingredients."

Lampados Ltd., a family-owned company, was founded in 1975. The company specializes in tabletop sweeteners and health products, such as sugar-free syrups. CEO Noam Kaplan joined the company in 2009. Following substantial technology development and investment in plant facilities, including new equipment and automatic packaging systems. The manufacturing site has BRC Grade A certification.

Company contact:

Lampados International Ltd.

Mr. Noam Kaplan

CEO

Tel: +972-4-6231515

E-mail: info@liteezsweeteners.com

Web: www.liteezsweeteners.com

Press contact:

NutriPR

Ms. Liat Simha

Tel: +972-9-9742893

E-mail: liat@nutripr.com

Twitter: @LiatSimha

Web: www.nutripr.com
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Masco Corp. (MAS) on Tuesday affirmed its earnings outlook for the full-year 2018 in the range of $2.36 to $2.51 per share, and adjusted earnings in the range of $2.48 to $2.63 per share. On average, 24 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to earn $2.57 per share for the year. Analysts' estimates usually exclude special items. The company also announced the completion of the acquisition of The L.D. Kichler Co. for about $550 million and returned about $183 million to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. For the first quarter, earnings increased to $0.47 per share from last year's $0.43 per share. Adjusted earnings were $0.45 per share, compared to $0.40 per share a year ago. Net sales increased 8 percent to $1.92 billion and increased 5 percent in local currency. 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.
NEW YORK CITY (dpa-AFX) - While reporting its first-quarter financial results today, Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) affirmed its financial outlook for fiscal 2018. The company continues to forecast consolidated revenues to grow at low-single-digit percentage rates on a reported basis. The company also affirmed its outlook for low single-digit percentage growth in adjusted earnings per share before the impact of tax reform and the revenue recognition standard. Verizon also maintained its forecast for 2018 capital spending in a range of $17.0 billion to $17.8 billion, including the commercial launch of 5G. The company noted that the expected savings from tax reform will generate a net $3.5 billion to $4 billion uplift to cash flow from operations in 2018. This is expected to yield a 55 to 65 cent increase in 2018 earnings per share, net of impacts from employee and Verizon Foundation initiatives. 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.
Chuck Schumer Marijuana Policy Is HugeThe holy grail of the international marijuana market is the United States. With literally millions of people eager to partake in legal marijuana, a loosening of federal regulation around cannabis would be a huge boon to pot stocks and send share prices soaring.That's why Senator Chuck Schumer's (D-NY) proposed marijuana legislation to remove the drug from the Controlled Substances Act is such a massive development for the marijuana industry.There's a lot to unpack here, but all of it is good news for pot stocks.First, Schumer is not the first senator to introduce legislation to remove marijuana from the Controlled.

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.
OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 04/24/18 -- Tetra Bio-Pharma Inc. ("Tetra" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: TBP) (OTCQB: TBPMF), announced today that the Company has signed a first binding term sheet for the marketing and distribution of PPP001 in Israel with Kamada Ltd., a leading pharmaceutical company. The signing of a Definitive Distribution Agreement is expected to follow shortly. PPP001 is being developed to be the first smokable cannabis product for advanced cancer pain available under prescription.

This first international market commercialization agreement represents a significant milestone and a validation of Tetra Bio-Pharma's business model with a leading Israel-based pharmaceutical company. Israel, like Canada, is considered one of the world leaders in the production and development of cannabinoid-based products. Kamada is a company with two FDA-approved products and an Israeli-based distribution segment that has demonstrated continued growth. Tetra Bio-Pharma intends to work closely with Kamada as PPP001 advances towards regulatory approval and commercial launch in Israel.

Under the terms of the anticipated final agreement, Kamada will be responsible for registering the product, as well as all marketing and distribution, in Israel. Tetra will be eligible to receive certain milestone payments and an undisclosed percentage of the sales of PPP001 generated by Kamada in Israel.

About PPP001

On April 4, 2018, Tetra Bio-Pharma officially started the Phase 3 trial for PPP001 indicated for terminal stage cancer patients with a goal to improving the quality of life of these patients as well as minimizing their pain. PPP001 is being developed to be the first smokable cannabis product for advanced cancer pain available under prescription.

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. Tetra Bio-Pharma is currently developing a pipeline of five cannabinoid-based products using different delivery systems such as smokable pellets, oral tablets, eye drops and topical ointments. 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.

Robert (Bob) Bechard

Vice President Finance and Business Development

bob@tetrabiopharma.com

M: +1 514 817-2514



For media information, please contact:

Daniel Granger

Daniel.granger@acjcommunication.com

ACJ Communication

O: +1 514 840 7990

M: +1 514 232 1556




Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 24, 2018) - Grande Portage Resources Ltd. (TSXV: GPG) ("Grande Portage" or "the Company") is pleased to announce receipt of its independent updated resource estimate for the Herbert Gold Project located in S.E. Alaska.

The updated NI43-101-compliant resource estimate, authored by DRW Geological Consultants Ltd., used the digital database derived from a total of 143 diamond drillholes totaling 22,090 m of core that includes the results from the 2017 expansion drill program. The 2017 program, which represents the first year of drilling at the Herbert Property since the 2012 drill season, was designed to expand upon the previously identified resources and to test extensions of mineralization in the Main, Deep Trench veins as well as new targets in the Goat vein.

Today's updated estimate contains an uncut Indicated Mineral Resource of 1,106,800 tonnes grading 7.25 grams per tonne gold (gpt) for 267,950 ounces of gold, largely in the three principal veins. The resource was calculated using a base case cut-off of 2.5 gpt. An Inferred Mineral Resource of 423,200 tonnes grading 6.04 gpt gold for 82,200 ounces of gold was also established using the 2.5 gpt cut-off. The continuity and consistency of gold mineralization identified by in-fill drilling suggest that exploration on these and other veins may produce similar results. The veins are all open to the east and west as well as to depth except the Main Vein which has been terminated to the west. Additional subparallel veins are considered likely to occur both north and south of the current area that has been drilled.

The Deep Trench vein contains the highest grade Indicated Mineral Resource discovered to date of 273,300 tonnes averaging 10.66 gpt (at a 2.5 gpt cut-off).

"The results of the resource estimate underscore the vast potential of our Herbert Project and highlights the deposit's quality and excellence for expansion. Our total drilling to date has reached less than 15% of the known property potential," says Ian Klassen, President and CEO of Grande Portage. "The continuity is excellent and mineralization is open at depth and along strike. The substantial increase in the Inferred Mineral Resource is largely due to fact that the eastern-most four intercepts on the Goat Vein all intersected higher than average grades including 28.92 gpt gold over 2m in 17L2 and 5.31 gpt gold over 7m in 17L4. Additional high-grade material was encountered in the Goat Vein to the east on surface {231 gpt gold across 1.22m (see NR Sept. 6, 2017)}, but was not used in this resource estimate."

Indicated Mineral Resource, uncut, ID2, All veins Cut-off Tonnes Grade Ounces gold 3.0 936,983 8.07 243,014 2.5 1,106,759 7.25 257,944 2.0 1,403,765 6.19 279,229 Inferred Mineral Resource, uncut, ID2, All veins Cut-off Tonnes Grade Ounces gold 3.0 333,586 6.93 74,360 2.5 423,177 6.04 82,206 2.0 468,745 5.67 85,473

Rotated tabular blocks were constrained to wireframes developed on each vein using geology and assays from one-metre composites. Veins were truncated both to surface and where necessary to the metasedimentary terrain to the west. ID2 estimation, with a 100m search ellipsoid utilizing a minimum of two and a maximum of nine composites, was utilized with blocks within 60m of a composite being classified as an Indicated Mineral Resource and between 60 and 100 m being classified as an Inferred Mineral Resource.

Dr. D.R. Webb, Ph.D., P.Geol., P.Eng is the QP within the meaning of NI 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the technical disclosure in this release. A full technical report will be filed with the relevant regulatory authorities within 45 days of this release.

About Grande Portage Resources Ltd.

Grande Portage Resources Ltd. is a Tier 2 publicly traded mineral exploration company principally focused on the Herbert Gold discovery situated approximately 25 km north of Juneau, Alaska. The Company holds a 100% interest in the Herbert property. The Herbert Gold property system is open to length and depth and is host to at least six main composite vein-fault structures that contain ribbon structure quartz-sulfide veins. The project lies prominently within the 160km long Juneau Gold Belt, which has produced nearly seven million ounces of gold.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

"Ian Klassen"

________________________________________

Ian Klassen, President

For further information please contact:

Mr. Ian Klassen

Phone: (604) 899-0106

Email: ian@grandeportage.com

Website: www.grandeportage.com

Statements about the Company's future expectations and all other statements in this press release other than historical facts are "forward looking statements". Such forward-looking statements are based on numerous assumptions, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, including risks inherent in mineral exploration and development, which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any projected future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICE PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED UNDER THE POLICIES OF THE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS NEWS RELEASE
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 24, 2018) - eXeBlock Technology Corporation (CSE: XBLK) ('eXeBlock' or the 'Company') will deliver its new decentralized application (DApp) capable of scaling to tens of thousands of transactions per second (TPS), providing a powerful new tool to the fundraising sector. eXeBlock will earn revenues on a per transaction fee basis.

Following a successful trial, 5050Labs (www.5050Labs.com) is set for a Q2 launch, the innovative product will be used to place the popular 50/50 fundraising concept onto a platform that runs on a public blockchain. It will enable eligible non-profit organizations to execute global fundraising campaigns in a provably fair, transparent and auditable manner.

A desktop version of the DApp will go live on the Peerplays blockchain next month, (May 2018) with support for other platforms to follow. A mobile version is scheduled for release before the end of Q2.

This will be followed by eXeBlock's Freedom Ledger, set to launch and integrate with 5050Labs by Q3 2018, which allows users to automatically convert debit and credit card payments to cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin.

Ian Klassen, President and CEO of eXeBlock Technology Corporation, commented:

"5050Labs is an innovative product that has the capability to scale internationally, and will empower non-profits to fundraise in ways never before possible. We also expect the technology eXeBlock has developed to have compelling use cases across several sectors, and we are exploring these possibilities."

DApps combine back-end code run on a blockchain with a front-end graphical user interface (GUI). Unlike traditional mobile applications, DApps have no central operator collecting users' data, and no central server that can be targeted by hackers. These features make DApps appealing for both users and service providers at a time when the public is increasingly concerned about online privacy issues.

eXeBlock's DApps will be further differentiated from other blockchain competitors by their scalability, allowing tens of thousands of TPS, compared to 5 - 15 TPS commonly seen on the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains.

The back-end code for 5050Labs was first released on TestNet in January 2018 with the intent of receiving user feedback from the developer community. The product represents over 6,600 hours of research and development time to date.

The launch of 5050Labs will be accompanied by an international marketing campaign targeting non-profits which is already underway and has seen eXeBlock publish a promotional whitepaper entitled Eight Ways Charities are Cashing in on Cryptocurrencies in Non-Profit Quarterly Online on April 12. Participants in 50/50Labs will launch, operate and be guided by their own regulatory jurisdictions.

The proprietary technology developed by eXeBlock for 5050Labs can also be modified to support other e-gaming applications. Until now, a lack of scalability has prevented the adoption of blockchain technology in the e-gaming and lottery markets. eXeBlock is open to working with public lottery operators and private developers in the future.

There are over 1.8 million registered non-profits and charities across Canada, the United States of America and the United Kingdom. The Blackbaud Index of Online Giving tracks US-based annual online donations of $3.1 billion as of February 2018.

About eXeBlock Technology Corporation

eXeBlock is a designer of custom, state-of-the-art blockchain based software applications that provide profitable, secure and efficient operating solutions to businesses and markets globally. eXeBlock is one of the first Canadian public companies focused on the development of disruptive decentralized applications using blockchain technology.

For More Information about the Company, please contact:

Ian Klassen

President & Chief Executive Officer

Email: ian@exeblock.com

Tel: 604-899-0106

Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

This press release contains forward-looking statements and information that are based on the beliefs of management and reflect the Company's current expectations. When used in this press release, the words 'estimate', 'project', 'belief', 'will', 'anticipate', 'intend', 'expect', 'plan', 'predict', 'may' or 'should' and the negative of these words or such variations or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements and information. The forward-looking statements and information in this press release includes information relating to the commercialization of the 50/50 Labs application, the ability to generate revenues from the 50/50 Labs application, the value of the PPY tokens (if any) and the implementation of eXeBlock's operating plans. Such statements and information reflect the current view of the Company with respect to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in those forward-looking statements and information. 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. 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. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements. There are a number of important risk factors that could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those indicated or implied by forward-looking statements and information. Such risk factors include, among others, the Company's limited operating history and expected continued operating losses; failure of the Company's business strategy; inherent risks of the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry; system failures and security risks; government regulation; need for additional financing requirements and access to capital; reliance on key and qualified personnel; dependence on third party relationships; insurance; competition; and intellectual property. Other factors include risks associated with the marketing and sale of securities; dilution; the potential for conflicts of interest among certain officers or directors; and the volatility of the Company's common share price and volume.

For a more detailed discussion of risk factors, refer to the Company's prospectus dated November 9, 2017 filed under the Company's profile on SEDAR www.sedar.com and on the CSE's website.

The Company cautions that the foregoing list of material risk factors is not exhaustive. When relying on the Company's forward-looking statements and information to make decisions, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing risk factors and other uncertainties and potential events. The Company has assumed a certain progression of its business objectives, which may not be realized. It has also assumed that the material factors referred to in the previous paragraph will not cause such forward-looking statements and information to differ materially from actual results or events. However, the list of these risk factors is not exhaustive and is subject to change and there can be no assurance that such assumptions will reflect the actual outcome of such items or factors.

THE FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS PRESS RELEASE REPRESENTS THE EXPECTATIONS OF THE COMPANY AS OF THE DATE OF THIS PRESS RELEASE AND, ACCORDINGLY, IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AFTER SUCH DATE. READERS SHOULD NOT PLACE UNDUE IMPORTANCE ON FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION AND SHOULD NOT RELY UPON THIS INFORMATION AS OF ANY OTHER DATE. WHILE THE COMPANY MAY ELECT TO, IT DOES NOT UNDERTAKE TO UPDATE THIS INFORMATION AT ANY PARTICULAR TIME EXCEPT AS REQUIRED IN ACCORDANCE WITH APPLICABLE LAWS.

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES.
Quarterly Dividend Payment Declared; 24th Consecutive Quarterly Dividend

Ottawa, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - April 24, 2018) - C-COM Satellite Systems Inc. (TSXV: CMI), a leading global provider of mobile auto-deploying satellite antenna systems, announced today financial results for the first quarter ended February 28, 2018.

The Company has generated revenues of $1,816,142 and a net after tax profit of $16,862 or 0 cents per share. This compared with revenues of $1,485,410 and a net after tax profit of $1,635 or 0 cents per share as reported in 2017, representing an increase of 22.3% and 931.3% respectively.

The working capital of the Company decreased by 2.1% to $19,280,977 at February 28, 2018 as compared to $19,688,134 at February 28, 2017.

Research and Development expenses increased to $371,701 in this quarter as compared to $144,791 at February 28, 2017, representing a 156.7% increase over the same period. These expenses were incurred in the development of a next generation phased array electronically steerable antenna technology, a project funded in part by NSERC and involving an eminent engineering faculty team at the University of Waterloo, a leading Canadian University.

The Company paid out $459,432 in dividends during the first quarter compared to $456,682 in the first quarter of 2017 representing a 0.6% increase. The Company has maintained its quarterly dividend payout while continuing to innovate and invest into the next generation of advanced antenna products.

C-COM also announced the payment of its eligible quarterly dividend in the amount of $0.0125 per common share payable on May 22, 2018 to all shareholders of record as of May 8, 2018. Based on the closing price of $1.13 per share on April 23, 2018, this dividend represents a yield of 4.42% on an annualized basis. This is the Company's 24th consecutive quarterly dividend and it's 28th consecutive profitable quarter.

"We are pleased with the increase in sales over the same period last year, which is an indicator of improved market conditions", said Leslie Klein, President & CEO of C-COM. "We are starting to see an economic turnaround, especially in the oil and gas sector which has been a significant user of our antenna systems. With oil prices stabilizing, we expect to see a continual increase of orders from this important market segment", Klein continued.

"In 2018 C-COM will be starting production of our new SATCOM-on-the-MOVE antenna, which is generating worldwide interest and will open new mobility markets and contribute incremental revenues for the Company. The antenna is presently undergoing road tests and satellite operator approvals. We have also added two new cost-effective, carbon fibre Manpack (backpack) antennas to our expanding list of products, which are now in production and expected to generate demand from Military, Emergency Responders and a number of other vertical markets", Klein continued.

About C-COM Satellite Systems Inc.

C-COM Satellite Systems Inc. is a leader in the development, manufacture and deployment of commercial grade mobile satellite-based technology for the delivery of two-way high-speed Internet, VoIP and Video services into vehicles. C-COM has developed several proprietary Mobile auto-deploying (iNetVu) antennas that deliver broadband over satellite into vehicles while stationary virtually anywhere where one can drive. The iNetVu Mobile antennas have also been adapted to be airline checkable and easily transportable. More than 7000 C-COM antennas have been deployed in 103 countries around the world in vertical markets such as Oil & Gas Exploration, Military Communications, Disaster Management, SNG, Emergency Communications, Cellular Backhaul, Telemedicine, Mobile Banking, and others. The Company's satellite-based products are known worldwide for their high quality, reliability and cost-effectiveness.

C-COM is also involved in the design and development of a new generation of Ka-band (communications on the move) antennas, which will deliver satellite broadband solutions into vehicles while in motion. More information is available at: www.c-comsat.com

iNetVu is a registered trademark of C-COM Satellite Systems Inc.

###

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements. These statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions. Forward-looking statements in this news release include statements about C-COM Satellite Systems Inc.'s expectation of increased orders from the oil and gas segment, the ability for the SATCOM-on-the-MOVE antenna to open new markets and contribute revenues, the expected demand for other products from various markets and the expectation as to the benefits and features that new products will deliver. A number of factors could cause actual events, performance or results to differ materially from the events, performance and results discussed in the forward-looking statements. New orders anticipated by C-COM Satellite Systems Inc. may not be received and current orders may be cancelled. New products and services released may not gain market acceptance or deliver the anticipated benefits to C-COM Satellite Systems Inc and its customers. Any of those events could have an effect on future performance and C-COM Satellite Systems Inc.'s ability to achieve the results mentioned above. Please refer to C-COM Satellite Systems Inc.'s latest management's discussion and analysis available at www.SEDAR.com for a more detailed description of the risk factors associated with the business of C-COM Satellite Systems Inc. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and C-COM Satellite Systems Inc. does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances.


BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - German business confidence deteriorated more-than-expected to a 13-month low in April on trade tensions, survey data from the Munich-based Ifo Institute showed Tuesday.



The business sentiment index fell to 102.1 from 103.3 a month ago. This was the lowest reading since March 2017, when the reading was 101.3. The score was forecast to drop moderately to 102.8.



The indicator for the current business situation as well as expectations deteriorated in April. The German economy is slowing down, Ifo President Clemens Fuest said.



The current situation index came in at a 10-month low of 105.7, down from 106.6 in March. The expected score was 106.5.



Likewise, the expectations index fell to 98.7 in April from 100 in the previous month. The reading was seen at 99.5. The score was the lowest since April 2016.



The business climate weakened across all sectors except construction, where it hit a record high. In manufacturing, business climate deteriorated for the third straight month.



In the service sector, business sentiment weakened due to far less optimistic business expectations. The business climate indicator fell in wholesale and retail trade.



April's disappointing Ifo survey added to signs that the German economy is slowing, but not as sharply as recent hard data imply, Jennifer McKeown, an economist at Capital Economics, said.



This is further cause for caution ahead of the European Central Bank's meeting this Thursday. The economist doubt that the bank will alter its dovish forward guidance, for now.



Carsten Brzeski, an economist at ING-DiBa said, even though last year's strong positive momentum has ebbed away somewhat, the German economy should not be on the eve of a structural downswing, neither is the Eurozone economy.



While some additional short-term disappointments cannot be excluded, the summer months should make up for them, Brzeski added.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Pebblebrook Hotel Trust (PEB) issued a letter to the Board of Trustees of LaSalle Hotel Properties (LHO) in which Pebblebrook provided a final merger proposal. The company said the non-binding proposal for 100% of LaSalle's outstanding common shares represented a implied price of $32.49 per LaSalle common share. The implied price of $32.49 per share is based on an increased fixed exchange ratio of 0.9085 Pebblebrook common share for each LaSalle common share, and is $2.49 per share, or 8.3%, above the implied price of Pebblebrook's original offer. Pebblebrook's revised proposal also provides LaSalle's common shareholders with the option to elect to receive cash up to a maximum of 20% in the aggregate. 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.
Premier Global Infrastructure Trust Plc - Result of AGM

PREMIER GLOBAL INFRASTRUCTURE TRUST PLC ("the Company")

AGM Resolutions



At the Annual General Meeting of the Company held on 24 April 2018 all the resolutions that were proposed were duly approved. The resolutions approved included resolutions which:

i) will allow the Directors to allot new shares up to an aggregate nominal amount of 18,008, representing approximately 10% of the issued Ordinary share capital of the Company.

ii) will allow the Directors to allot Ordinary shares for cash at a price which represents a discount to the net asset value of an Ordinary share in circumstances where Zero Dividend Preference shares are being issued at a premium such that the Net Asset Value of the Ordinary shares would be increased;

iii) will allow the disapplication of pre-emption rights on the allotment of new Ordinary shares;

iv) will allow the Company to make market purchases of up to 2,711,463 Ordinary shares;

A copy of the resolutions passed at the Annual General Meeting, other than the resolutions relating to the ordinary business of an annual general meeting, will shortly be submitted to the National Storage Mechanism located at http//www.hemscott.com/nsm.do.

A summary of the proxy votes received will shortly be available on the Investment Manager's website, www.premierfunds.co.uk



Contact:

Nigel Sidebottom, Premier Fund Managers Limited

01483 400465

24 April 2018
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 24, 2018) - Vatic Ventures Corp. (TSXV: VCV) (FSE: V8V) (OTC Pink: VTTCF) (the "Company" or "Vatic") is pleased to provide an update on its upcoming drilling program at its Saksrithai potash project. The contractor is Aztec Engineering Co. Ltd., an experienced and reputable drilling contractor who has extensive experience drilling for potash in Thailand. Drill preparation and mobilization to the first drill site is ongoing and drilling is planned to commence by May 1, 2018.

The drilling program will comprise up to 10 holes and will commence with an initial 3 holes which should take approximately one month from start of drilling, depending upon penetration rates. Based on information regarding the adjacent Dan Khun Thot project, Vatic expects to encounter the potash zone at depths of up to some 300 meters and the initial holes will be drilled to a planned depth of 350 meters.

To facilitate its ongoing exploration program, the Company's main geological contractor, Phudoi Geoscience Co. Ltd., will hire additional geologists and field assistants to supervise the programme of drilling and sampling.

About Saksrithai Development Co. Ltd: Saksrithai Development Co. Ltd. (Saksrithai) is a private Thai company which is the holder of two contiguous Special Prospecting Licences (SPLs) for potash exploration, issued in 2015.

The licenses encompass an area of 32 km2 in Nakhon Ratchasima province, northeast Thailand and are adjacent to the Thai Kali Company's Dan Khun Thot potash mine which is currently under construction. ASEAN Potash Chaiyaphum Plc's Bamnet Narong mine, also under construction, is located some 40 km from the Saksrithai project.

The Company holds an 80% shareholding in Saksrithai and Dr. Gerry Wright acts as Saksrithai's Managing Director.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS.

Nasim Tyab, Director.



FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Nasim Tyab

604-306-2886

info@vaticventures.com

ABOUT VATIC VENTURES CORP.

Vatic Ventures Corp (www.vaticventures.com) is a junior exploration company exploring and developing potash licenses in Thailand.

"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 information contained herein contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking statements relate to information that is based on assumptions of management, forecasts of future results, and estimates of amounts not yet determinable. Any statements that express predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance are not statements of historical fact and may be "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. Actual events or results could differ materially from the Company's expectations or projections.
LOS ANGELES, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

FN Media Group Presents USA News Group News Commentary

USA News Group - With cannabis legalization around the corner in Canada, coming in the months ahead, many of the brightest minds in the fields of horticulture and pharma are flocking to the sector to offer their hand at game-changing offerings for tomorrow's consumers, complete with novel delivery methods that were unthinkable in years past.

R&D is ramping up, as the sector prepares to employ more people than the US manufacturing sector by 2020. Likewise, consumers of cannabis products will have a plethora of offerings to choose from, both in the medical and recreational realms.

Among the leaders in cannabis product innovation are a group that includes AXIM Biotechnologies, Inc. (OTC: AXIM), Cannabis Science, Inc. (OTC: CBIS), The Hydropothecary Corporation (TSX-V: THCX) (OTC: HYYDF), Novartis AG (NYSE: NVS) and Lifestyle Delivery Systems Inc. (CSE: LDS ) (OTC: LDSYF).

Several companies in the space are branching out from just the one-dimensional role as growers, and are bolstering their offerings through extraction technology that leads to pharmaceuticals, specialty organic matter, and novel delivery methods.

Vancouver-based Lifestyle Delivery Systems is a prime example of a multi-faceted developer, focussed on specialized cultivation, as well as its proprietary CannaStripsTM product designed to deliver a controlled dosage within 90 seconds on a dissolving strip on the tongue, like a breath strip.

Since not all consumers new and experienced are going to desire the typical organic plant matter, including those who are uncomfortable with smoking it, the market is already welcoming everything from LDS's CannaStripsTM, to chewing gums, to mist sprays, to pills, to hospital-grade pharmaceuticals.

As the cannabis market evolves, developers such as AXIM Biotechnologies, Inc. (OTC: AXIM), The Hydropothecary Corporation (TSX.V: THCX) (OTC: HYYDF), GW Pharmaceuticals plc, Novartis AG (NYSE: NVS) and Lifestyle Delivery Systems Inc. (CSE: LDS ) (OTC: LDSYF) will benefit greatly from thinking outside the box.

SPECIAL DELIVERY CANNABINOIDS

While medicinal marijuana has been legal in Canada for years, the incoming legalization of cannabis for adult recreational use opens up the opportunities for all types of products.One novel method being presented by AXIM Biotechnologies is a cannabis chewing gum. Dubbed CanChew+ and MedChew, AXIM's products are set for international release, including a recent preliminary distribution deal to sell products in South Korea. With industrial hemp-derived CBD, CanChew is legal in all 50 states of the USA.

Alternative cannabinoid delivery has become a serious business for The Hydropothecary Corporation. Based out of Quebec, Hydropothecary sells everything from cannabis oil sublingual mists, to ready-to-consume activated marijuana powder in capsule form.

The concept of cannabinoids in pill form isn't new, but it's appealing from the medicinal side of the sector. Pharmaceutical developers GW Pharmaceuticals plc and Novartis AG (NYSE: NVS) are both taking a serious approach to cannabinoid delivery.

GW is heavily invested in a cannabis oil drug designed to treat epilepsy called "Epidiolex". The company is optimistic in the upcoming cannabis oil market, and its usefulness as a medicine. The NDA filing for Epidiolex was accepted in late December .

Whereas, Novartis is relatively new to the scene, as its involvement comes through its Canadian subsidiary of its generic pharmaceuticals and biosimilar wing, called Sandoz Canada. Recently Sandoz formed a strategic alliance with private medical cannabis supplier Tilray. The terms of the deal have not yet been determined, however it's likely that the deal will use Novartis's channels to deliver Tilray's cannabis capsules.

Sandoz spokesperson Isabelle Troitzky described the implication of the deal to in-Pharma Technologist, saying: "Once the alliance is in effect, initially, Tilray capsules and ingestible oil products will be offered for sale under doctor's authorization directly to patients in Canada via mail order, as this is the current process in Canada. Subject to future regulatory changes, Sandoz Canada will wholesale and distribute co-branded - Sandoz and Tilray - non-smokable/non-combustible medical cannabis products to Canadian hospitals and pharmacies."

Tilray's product doesn't currently have drug identification numbers (DINs), because they don't make any therapeutic claims on the lable. However, it's likely that Novartis's involvement will move the product closer to Health Canada approval.

Whether a big-pharma deal could come down the pipeline for a product such as the CannaStrips brand dissolving strips from Lifestyle Delivery Systems, or the gums, mists, or capsules of the others is yet to be seen. At the moment, it appears the perfect balance of dosage and efficacy is coming from Lifestyle Delivery Systems' CannaStripsTM.

CANNASTRIPS LEADING THE WAY

Since forming in 2010, Lifestyle Delivery Systems Inc (CSE: LDS) (OTC: LDSYF) has targeted cannabinoid innovation-Resulting a plethora of new products and cultivation methods.

Aggressive investment in research and development led to a breakthrough delivery method. When LDS came out with CannaStripsTM, it was the first to put forth a sub-lingual strip not unlike breath strips, that quickly dissolve under the tongue to deliver pure cannabis to the patient without the harmful effects of smoking the plant.

LDS CEO, Brad Eckenweiler, has said, "We strongly believe that the CannaStripsTM delivery system is so unique that with clinical trials from a recognized health organization to substantiate the efficacy of the technology it would have to be at the top of the list of preferred delivery solutions anywhere in the world."

The product is being ramped up for distribution in North America, the UK, and EU, having recently filed an enhanced provisional patent for the product in the latter two regions.

What's possibly most unique about CannaStrips is how the company addressed the problem of consistent edible cannabis dosing. LDS has successfully cracked a code to develop a product, guaranteed to deliver equal doses and distribution of the active ingredients-So much so, that 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.

LDS are specialty growers of cannabis plants at their $6 million facility in Adelanto, California. It's one of the few fully vertically integrated medical cannabis companies in California. The company has also become marketing and distributing its luxury brand of cannabis products called Reveur for the California market.

The new product line, Reveur (French for "dreamer"), is designed for the upscale luxury cannabis market using only fresh frozen organically grown cannabis strains processed at minus 50 degrees Celsius. Lifestyle Delivery Systems is an innovator in the field, with a serious goal towards developing better products for the emerging cannabis consumer market.

INNOVATIVE COMPARABLES IN THE MARKETS TODAY ALSO INCLUDE:

AXIM Biotechnologies, Inc. (OTC: 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.

Cannabis Science, Inc. (OTC: CBIS)

Cannabis Science, Inc., a U.S. company specializing in the development of cannabinoid-based medicines, and its partner, Cali RX, are pleased to announce the soft opening of the CBIS Cali RX. The CBIS Cali RX is located at 14006 Ventura Boulevard, Sherman Oaks, California 91423, and is the first of several locations that Cannabis Science will jointly open throughout California in the coming months and years. "Friday's 4/20 opening of the CBIS Cali RX location is a significant milestone for our Company," stated Mr. Raymond C. Dabney, Cannabis Science's President, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and Co-founder. "This is a beautiful, state-of-the-art, retail facility and connects Cannabis Science directly with all patients and doctors."



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.

Novartis AG (NYSE: NVS)

Novartis AG researches, develops, manufactures, and markets a range of healthcare products worldwide. The Sandoz segment provides active ingredients and finished dosage forms of pharmaceuticals in the areas of cardiovascular, central nervous system, dermatology, gastrointestinal and hormonal therapies, metabolism, oncology, ophthalmic, pain, and respiratory; active pharmaceutical ingredients and intermediates primarily antibiotics; protein or other biotechnology-based products, including biosimilars; and biotechnology manufacturing services. Novartis AG was founded in 1895 and is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland.

For a more in-depth look into Lifestyle Delivery Systems, Inc and to receive updates on the company you can view the in-depth report at USA News: http://usanewsgroup.com/2018/01/19/seeking-the-next-big-winners-in-the-thriving-us-pot-market/

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USA News Group

http://usanewsgroup.com

info@usanewsgroup.com

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SAINT HELIER (dpa-AFX) - Shire plc (SHPG, SHP.L) said its Board has received a revised proposal from Takeda regarding a possible offer for the company on 24 April 2018. Shire plc said the Board is considering its position. Previously, Shire received a fourth proposal on 20 April 2018 regarding a possible offer for the company. The Board of Shire received conditional proposals from Takeda regarding a possible offer for the company, on 29 March 2018 (the First Proposal), 11 April 2018 (the Second Proposal) and 13 April 2018 (the Third Proposal). Following the Board meeting on 14 April 2018, which rejected the Third Proposal, at the Board's request Shire's advisers entered into a dialogue with Takeda's advisers to discuss whether a further, more attractive, proposal may be forthcoming and to understand the basis on which such a proposal would be made. 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, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

A life changing silicone adhesive that prevents abdominal stomas from leaking, developed by a Buckinghamshire based company, has been awarded the prestigious Queen's Award for Enterprise, the UK's most prestigious business accolade.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/681488/Trio_Healthcare_Logo.jpg )



Privately-owned Trio Healthcare based in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, was presented the award under the Innovation category for its breakthrough patented silicone technology, which is improving the lives of ostomates around the world.

Abdominal stomas are surgically created intestinal openings which are a result of treating conditions such as colorectal and bladder cancer, Crohn's or colitis. The stoma outputs body waste such as faeces and urine which is then collected in an odour-proof bag. At one time or another, all ostomates will suffer from leakage, which has a dramatic impact on their social life and psychological wellbeing.

To combat this, Trio has developed a unique secure silicone adhesive that can be used around the stoma to provide an instant but secure adhesion to the skin. The company's R&D team have focused on using a non-hydrocolloid technology based on silicone polymers, which historically was viewed by the industry as 'not suitable for ostomy applications' due to its hydrophobic gel-like chemical structure.

By modifying the chemical make-up of the silicone gel, Trio has developed a secure but comfortable solution that allows the skin to breathe normally, whilst maintaining a secure connection. The patented formulation leaves no residue and its hydrophobic nature prevents absorption of any faeces or urine providing a complete barrier, which allows the skin to naturally heal underneath.

The development of the pioneering technology - which is manufactured in house -has enabled Trio to launch a revolutionary range of silicone-based accessory products in an industry dominated by hydrocolloid. These products are seen as a precursor to the natural next phase of ostomy products coming out of Trio's pipeline. The company is currently in the development phase of a new, innovative ostomy system to complete the range.

Lloyd Pearce, Managing Director from Trio, said: "We are delighted to win such a prestigious award for our contribution to ostomy care. Due to the stigma and embarrassment associated with body waste and bag leakage, a person's social life and well-being is dependent on the ostomy adhesive and bag's performance.

"Too many people around the world were suffering from leakage and irritated skin, so as a company we have made it our mission to provide an alternative solution. Our products offer reassurance and comfort, so the wearer can get on with their everyday lives without fear of sore skin."

The Queen's Awards are presented each year by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on her birthday, 21st April, on the advice of the Prime Minister, assisted by an advisory committee comprising representatives of Government, industry, commerce and the trade unions.

For more information visit: TrioOstomyCare.com

Media Contacts

For wider information and to arrange interviews, contact Jason Brannan of Medilink on +44(0)114-232-9292 or email connect@medilink.co.uk
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 24, 2018) - Centurion Minerals Ltd. (TSXV: CTN) ("Centurion", or the "Company") is pleased to announce that its operating partner ("Demetra Fertilizantes S.A. or DFSA") sold and shipped 140 tonnes of stockpiled powder and granular gypsum materials from the Ana Sofia property during the past 10 days. The Company further reports that DFSA has executed purchase orders with local and international distributors for a minimum of 2,800 tonnes of agri-gypsum material to be delivered within the next 30-45 days to both Paraguayan and Argentine customers. Stockpiled raw material is currently being fed into the crushing plant and excavation will recommence shortly to satisfy current purchase orders.

Substantial near-term demand for the Ana Sofia agri-gypsum is anticipated in the agricultural region of north central Argentina where over the previous 12 months unprecedented wet weather conditions limited field accessibility. In addition, soil salinity has become a major issue with the receding of surface waters and agri-gypsum can reduce this salinity and aid in rejuvenating these non-arable lands.

Trading Status

Subsequent to filing its 2017 audited financials and 2018 first quarter financial statements in mid-March, Centurion immediately applied to the BC Securities Commission ("BCSC") for a revocation of its Cease Trade Order ("CTO") and to the TSX Venture Exchange for reinstatement to trading of the Company's shares. Centurion has exchanged correspondence and documentation with the BCSC and believes it will receive a CTO revocation very shortly. The TSX Venture Exchange has indicated it will approve a reinstatement to trading upon receipt of the CTO revocation notice. As soon as Centurion is able to provide a definitive trading date, the Company will news release this information.

ABOUT CENTURION

Centurion Minerals Ltd. is a Canadian-based company with an international focus on the development of agri-mineral fertilizer projects. For additional information on the Ana Sofia project and applications of agri-gypsum, visit our website: www.centurionminerals.com

"David G. Tafel"

President and CEO

For Further Information Contact:

David Tafel

604-683-1991

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 contains forward looking statements concerning future operations of Centurion Minerals Ltd. (the "Company"). All forward-looking statements concerning the Company's future plans and operations, including management's assessment of the Company's project expectations or beliefs may be subject to certain assumptions, risks and uncertainties beyond the Company's control. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and that actual performance and exploration and financial results may differ materially from any estimates or projections. Such statements include, among others: possible variations in mineralization, grade or recovery rates; actual results of current exploration activities; actual results of reclamation activities; conclusions of future economic evaluations; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; failure of equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; accidents and other risks of the mining industry; delays and other risks related to construction activities and operations; timing and receipt of regulatory approvals of operations; the ability of the Company and other relevant parties to satisfy regulatory requirements; the availability of financing for proposed transactions, programs and working capital requirements on reasonable terms; the ability of third-party service providers to deliver services on reasonable terms and in a timely manner; market conditions and general business, economic, competitive, political and social conditions.

The Ana Sofia project has not been the subject of a feasibility study and as such there is no certainty that a potential mine will be realized or that the processing facility will be able to produce a commercially marketable product. There is a significant risk that any production from the project will not be profitable with these risks elevated by the absence of a compliant NI 43-101 feasibility study. A mine production decision that is not based on a feasibility study demonstrating economic and technical viability does not provide adequate disclosure of the increased uncertainty and specific risks of failure associated with such a production decision. The Company has undertaken market research and studies to try to mitigate these risks. The work carried out to date is of a preliminary nature to assist in the determination as to whether the mineral product is suitable for sale and if there are markets for the mineral product. General risks inherent in the Project include the reliance on available data and assumptions and judgments used in the interpretation of such data, the speculative and uncertain nature of exploration and development costs, capital requirements and the ability to obtain financing, volatility of global and local economic climates, share price volatility, estimated price volatility, changes in equity markets, exchange rate fluctuations and other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry. There can be no assurance that a forward-looking statement or information referenced herein will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements or information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. We undertake no obligation to reissue or update any forward-looking statements or information except as required by law.

The Ana Sofia mineral resource estimate is reported in accordance with the Canadian Securities Administrators National Instrument 43-101 and has been estimated using the CIM "Estimation of Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves Best Practice Guidelines" dated November 23rd, 2003 and CIM "Definition Standards for Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves" dated May 10th, 2014. Due to the relatively wide spacing of the historical quarries and the 2016 test pits, which varies between 40 m and 300 m, the Ana Sofia 2 resource described herein is categorized entirely as an inferred mineral resource. 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 define the inferred resources 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 will be converted into a mineral reserve in the future. The estimate of mineral resources may be materially affected by geology, environment, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-political, marketing or other relevant issues.


OTTAWA (dpa-AFX) - An administrative law judge has ruled that Minnesota regulators should approve Enbridge Inc.'s (ENB. ENB.TO) proposal to replace its aging Line 3 crude oil pipeline only if the company follows the existing route and not its preferred route.



Enbridge has applied to replace its Line 3 pipeline from Alberta with new pipe along its existing route. However, in Minnesota, the company's planned replacement route for the $7.5 billion project deviates from the existing route.



Environmental and tribal groups have opposed the preferred route as it would mean laying pipes across environmentally sensitive areas.



Line 3 is a 1,097 mile-long existing pipeline that was constructed in the 1960s and carries crude oil from Hardisty, Alberta, through North Dakota and Minnesota to Enbridge's Superior Station and Terminal Facility near Superior, Wisconsin. Enbridge says the replacement would restore its original capacity of 760,000 barrels per day or bpd.



The U.S. portion of the replacement program, known as the Line 3 Replacement Project, consists of replacing existing 34-inch pipe with new 36-inch pipe for 13 miles in North Dakota, 337 miles in Minnesota, and 14 miles in Wisconsin.



Minnesota administrative law judge Ann O'Reilly recommended on Monday that the state's Public Utilities Commission should ensure the pipes are replaced only along the existing route. The commission is expected to make its final decision in June.



'Enbridge is pleased that the Administrative Law Judge has listened to the extensive evidence that there's need for this safety-driven maintenance project. We will be taking time to review in more detail the recommendation that we use the existing right-of-way, and will have additional comments to follow,' Enbridge said in a statement.



In a recent decision in Nebraska, the state's public utilities commission approved TransCanada Corp.'s Keystone XL pipeline along only an alternative route.



Enbridge has said that its private investment - $2.6 billion of it in Minnesota -will create well-paying jobs, provide an economic boost for local communities during construction, and also result in local community investments as well as tax contributions for several years to come.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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(WebFG News) - Property investment company Palace Capital updated the market on activity in its property portfolio on Tuesday, for the period since the publication of its interim results on 4 December - a period its board described as "exciting times". The London-listed firm highlighted its move up to the main market of the London Stock Exchange, from AIM, on 28 March, as well as the acquisition of RT Warren Investments in October at below independent valuation, which was already "bearing ...

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.
Contributed revenue up +9.2%

Strong contribution of international activities

Regulatory News:

At March 31, 2018, Seche Environnement (Paris:SCHP) reported consolidated revenue of 140.9m, compared to 133.2m one year earlier.

Contributed revenue1 totaled 135.6m, compared to 124.2m at March 31, 2017, marking an increase of +9.2% over the period gross (and +9.5% at constant exchange rates

During the first quarter of 2018, growth was driven by a sharp increase in international activities (+54.7% gross), particularly within the scope acquired in 2017, while in France, Seche Environnement benefited from good performance in its industrial and municipal markets (+5.1% gross).

Over the period, growth in consolidated contributed revenue was boosted by the Non-Hazardous Waste (NHW) division, which benefited from good performance by all of its businesses, notably from its Decontamination activities (spot contracts).

The Hazardous Waste (HW) division confirmed the solidity of its treatment activities and of services, in particular internationally (market opportunities in industrial maintenance activities).

The favorable trends reflected by this positive performance lend credibility to Seche Environnement's growth forecasts for the current year.

Consolidated data in m

At March 31 2017 2018 Gross

change Change

(constant

exchange

rates) Hazardous Waste (HW) division 81.0 84.7 +4.5% + 5.0% Non-Hazardous Waste (NHW) division 43.2 50.9 +17.9% +18.0% Contributed revenue 124.2 135.6 +9.2% +9.5% Diversion compensation (NHW)

IFRIC 12 revenue (NHW) 5.2 3.8 3.8 1.5 Consolidated revenue (reported) 133.2 140.9 +5.8% +6.1%

At March 31, 2017, reported consolidated revenue at constant exchange rates was 132.8m reflecting a negative foreign exchange effect of 0.4m for the period.

Breakdown of revenue by geographical scope

With contributed revenue of 135.6m, up +9.2% gross (+9.5% at constant exchange rates), the increase in revenue as of the first quarter of 2018 reflects good performance industrial and local authority markets in France (particularly services -spot markets in Decontamination-) and a substantial contribution from international activities (especially site activities at Solarca).

Consolidated data in m

At March 31 2017 2018 Gross

change Change

(constant

exchange

rates) France 114.1 119.9 +5.1% +5.1% International 10.1 15.6 +54.7% +60.9% Contributed revenue 124.2 135.6 +9.2% +9.5%

Breakdown of revenue by activities

The first quarter of 2018 was characterized by a strong contribution from all activities, particularly in treatment (HW and NHW storage) and services (especially due to the favorable basis of comparison from the first half of 2017 at Solarca).

Recovery activities benefited from the expansion of materials recovery facilities (bromine, sorting centers) and energy recovery facilities (La Gabarre, Change), but the period saw a smaller contribution from Salaise (leaving the regulated market for energy sales in July 2017).

Consolidated data in m

At March 31 2017 2018 Gross

change Change

(constant

exchange

rates) Recovery 24.0 24.9 +3.9% +4.1% Treatment 62.2 66.4 +6.7% +7.1% Services 37.9 44.2 +16.6% +16.9% Contributed revenue 124.2 135.6 +9.2% +9.5%

Breakdown of revenue by division

First-quarter activity was driven by a strong growth dynamic in the NHW division, while the HW division experienced a satisfactory level in its main businesses and benefited from a substantial contribution by international activities.

The HW division recorded revenue of 84.7m, a gross increase of +4.5% (gross) from the first quarter of 2017 and up +5.0% at constant exchange rates.

In France, the revenue generated by the division amounted to 69.5m, which represents a -2.5% decrease from the first quarter of 2017.

Growth in the division was occasionally hampered by the reduced contribution of service activities (unfavorable basis of comparison in decontamination), while energy recovery activities are hampered by Salaise, who left the regulated market for energy sales in July 2017. Except these elements, the HW businesses benefited from good performance by processing businesses (particularly storage) and by material recovery (chemical purification, bromine regeneration, etc.).

Internationally, HW stood at 15.2m compared to 9.7m a year ago, for growth of +56.5% (gross change) and +62.7% at constant exchange rates.

International activity benefited from good performance by recovery activities in Spain (solvent regeneration) and most importantly, a sharp increase in the activities of companies acquired in 2017 in Latin America (storage) and in the rest of the world, from Solarca (industrial services) which enjoys a favorable comparison basis with the first quarter in 2017.

The NHW division posted contributed revenue of 50.9m, up 17.9% (gross) from the first quarter of 2017 (+18.0% at constant exchange rates).

This sharp increase reflects the solidity of the treatment activities (storage), good performance from recovery activities, particularly in energy, with the expansion of new facilities (La Gabarre, Change), and positive contributions from service activities (decontamination).

Internationally (SAN in Chile), the NHW division posted sales of 0.5m as of March 31, 2018, vs. 0.4m as for the first quarter of 2017.

Outlook for 2018 confirmed

This good start to the year solidifies Seche Environnement's objective of modest contributed revenue growth at constant scope2 for 2018

Definitions

Contributed revenue: reported revenue minus IFRIC 12 revenue and diversion compensation.

IFRIC 12 revenue: investments made for assets under concessions and booked as revenue in accordance with IFRIC 12.

Diversion compensation: compensation used, net of variable charges, to cover the additional costs incurred by Seche Environnement to ensure the continuity of public service during asbestos removal at the Strasbourg-Senerval incinerator.

Conference call

A conference call to describe the business activity for the first quarter of 2018 will be held (in French only) on April 24, 2018 at 6:00 p.m. Paris time.

To participate in the conference, please dial +33 170 710 159 Code: 59 43 57 61 #

Material to accompany the presentation will be available from 5:45 p.m. on the website of Seche Environnement:

https://www.seche-environnement.com/en/investisseurs/accueil

The conference recording will be available at +33 172 727 402 Code: 41 87 54 623

Calendar

Combined General Meeting of Shareholders April 27, 2018 Consolidated HY results at June 30, 2018 September 10, 2018 after market close

About Seche Environnement

Seche Environnement is one of France's leading players in the recovery and treatment of all types of waste, from both industry and local communities.

Seche Environnement is the leading independent operator in France. It is uniquely positioned as a specialist in highly complex waste, operating within regulated waste recovery and treatment markets with high barriers to entry.

Its facilities and expertise enable it to provide high value-added solutions to its industrial and public authority clients, targeting the challenges of the circular economy and sustainable development requirements, such as:

the material and energy recovery of hazardous and non-hazardous waste;

a comprehensive range of treatment solutions for solid, liquid and gaseous waste (thermal, physical-chemical and radiation treatment, etc.);

the storage of final hazardous and non-hazardous waste;

eco-services such as decontamination, decommissioning, asbestos removal and rehabilitation.

Leveraging its extensive expertise, Seche Environnement has successfully developed its environmental services business lines in waste management outsourcing markets for its clientele of large communities and major industrial companies both in France and abroad.

Seche Environnement has been listed on Eurolist by Euronext (Compartment B) since November 27, 1997.

It is eligible for equity savings funds dedicated to investing in SMEs and is listed in the CAC Mid&Small and Enternext PEA-PME 150 indexes.

Important notice

This press release may contain information of a provisional nature. This information represents either trends or targets at the date of the press release's publication and may not be considered as results forecasts or as any other type of performance indicators. This information is by nature subject to risks and uncertainties which are difficult to foresee and are usually beyond the Company's control, which may imply that expected results and developments differ significantly from announced trends and targets. These risks notably include those described in the Company's Registration Document, which is available on its website (www.groupe-seche.com). This information therefore does not reflect the Company's future performance, which may differ considerably, and no guarantee can be given as to the achievement of these forward-looking figures. The Company makes no commitment on the updating of this information. More detailed information on the Company can be obtained on its website (www.groupe-seche.com), in the Regulated Information section. This press release does not constitute an offer of shares or a solicitation in view of an offer of shares in any country, including the United States. Distribution of this press release may be subject to the laws and regulations in force in France or other countries. Persons in possession of this press release must be aware of these restrictions and observe them.

1 See "Definitions" section

2 Consolidation scope as at 12/31/2017

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180424005769/en/

Contacts:

Seche Environnement

Manuel Andersen, +33 (0)1 53 21 53 60

Head of Investor Relations

m.andersen@groupe-seche.com


BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - The European markets ended Tuesday's session with mixed results. After a positive start to the day, the market began to pare their early gains in the afternoon following the weak open on Wall Street.



Investors largely shrugged off today's weaker than expected German business confidence data, remaining largely fixed on a mixed batch of corporate financial results. Traders are also looking forward to Thursday's policy decision from the European Central Bank.



The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index weakened by 0.13 percent. The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks decreased 0.06 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, added 0.08 percent.



The DAX of Germany dropped 0.17 percent, but the CAC 40 of France rose 0.10 percent. The FTSE 100 of the U.K. gained 0.36 percent, but the SMI of Switzerland finished lower by 0.11 percent.



In Frankfurt, SAP rallied 3.14 percent after announcing upbeat first-quarter results and lifting its FY18 outlook.



In Paris, tire maker Michelin fell 1.56 percent after disappointing quarterly results.



In London, mining giant Anglo American decreased 1.58 percent after warning of a hit to profits due to infestations and repairs halting operations in Minas Rio.



William Hill plunged 12.70 percent. The Times reported that the UK government is set to impose a 2 maximum bet on gambling machines.



Shire increased 3.42 percent after it received a revised takeover offer from Japan's Takeda Pharmaceuticals.



Apple supplier AMS plunged 9.01 percent in Zurich after it warned of a slowdown in the second quarter, citing lower orders from one of its main customers.



Paints and chemicals maker AkzoNobel tumbled 2.31 percent in Amsterdam. The company warned of higher raw material costs and forex losses after reporting a 5 percent increase in first-quarter net income from total operations.



Banco Santander also lost 3.25 percent in Madrid after posting disappointing results from its U.K. business.



German business confidence deteriorated more-than-expected to a 13-month low in April on trade tensions, survey data from the Munich-based Ifo Institute showed Tuesday. The business sentiment index fell to 102.1 from 103.3 a month ago. This was the lowest reading since March 2017, when the reading was 101.3. The score was forecast to drop moderately to 102.8.



France's manufacturing confidence declined in April, survey data from the statistical office Insee showed Tuesday. The manufacturing sentiment index fell to 109 in April from 110 in March. The reading was expected to remain unchanged at 110. Nonetheless, the score was above its long-term average of 100.



The UK budget deficit decreased to its lowest March level since 2004, the Office for National Statistics said Tuesday. Public sector net borrowing, excluding public sector banks, decreased by GBP 0.8 billion to GBP 1.3 billion in March. This was the lowest March net borrowing since 2004.



New home sales in the U.S. jumped by much more than expected in the month of March, according to a report released by the Commerce Department on Tuesday.



The report said new home sales soared by 4.0 percent to an annual rate of 694,000 in March after surging up by 3.6 percent to a revised rate of 667,000 in February. Economists had expected new home sales to climb by 1.9 percent.



After reporting a pullback in U.S. consumer confidence in the previous month, the Conference Board released a report on Tuesday showing an unexpected rebound in consumer confidence in the month of April.



The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index rose to 128.7 in April from a revised 127.0 in March. Economists had expected the index to dip to 126.1 from the 127.7 originally reported for the previous month.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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MIAMI, FL / ACCESSWIRE / APRIL 24, 2018 / "It was immediately clear Premonition was onto something special," says Shawnna Hoffman, IBM Cognitive Legal co-leader. The two companies had been partnering on various projects in the legal space when Premonition co-founder Toby Unwin realized that advances that Premonition had made in fixing America's legal system were applicable to the field of medical records, and he now has a patent pending on the innovation.

While several companies are aiming to tackle healthcare records via blockchain technology, Unwin realized they would have difficulty succeeding in the marketplace due to the overwhelming complexity of interacting with thousands of incompatible, legacy healthcare data formats, as well as the lack of economic incentives for users to adopt. "He solved both problems in a completely unexpected way," explained Hoffman. "It was elegant and insightful."

Premonition and Integra Ledger teams after integration completion. - Miami, Florida

"We rapidly realized we were out of our depth in healthcare," explained Guy Kurlandski, Premonition's co-founder, and CEO. "We don't know where to start with areas like HIPPA compliance and having cracked the problems that have eluded the industry wasn't enough to get this over the finish line. It was time to turn to our friends at IBM." The Watson team immediately brought in Integra Ledger, their blockchain partner.

"Using an industry-governed, permissioned blockchain was an obvious choice for Premonition, given the need to interact with thousands of healthcare companies in a highly trusted way, preserving the privacy of patient records," explains David Fisher, Integra's CEO. "Toby had solved the main technical challenge facing healthcare blockchain ventures - the need to interface seamlessly with thousands of legacy data formats. He also saw how blockchain technology would enable Premonition to apply their market-disrupting innovation while absolutely respecting the requirement that healthcare information remains decentralized, private and secure. Blockchain's decentralization, security and encryption standards made it a natural solution. This could never have been done even a few years ago, or before the arrival of Premonition."

Integra sent a due diligence team to Premonition's Miami headquarters just two days after the initial presentation to audit the firm's auto-normalization AI. "Technically, this is one of the most impressive things we've ever seen. Premonition is years ahead of the rest of the industry," said David Berger, Integra's chief technology officer. The visit culminated in integrating the Premonition system with the Integra Ledger blockchain. "The process was very smooth and well thought out. Integra has great technology," explained Marcelo Triana, chief technology officer of Premonition.

The company envisages the new healthcare venture as a spin-off from Premonition's industry-leading legal platform, with IBM and Integra Ledger as key strategic partners. Premonition set records with it's oversubscribed and record-breaking $100 million seed valuation in 2015, and co-founders Kurlandski and Unwin believe the healthcare opportunity will be far greater than law. "We're talking about the biggest data problem, in the biggest industry, in the biggest economy. This deal is going to break some new records," Kurlandski commented, adding that the size of capital raise is not being publicly disclosed but is well into the nine figures and on track to be oversubscribed, consistent with Premonition's 2015 raise.

Contact:

Premonition LLC

Toby Unwin

Director

tu@premonition.ai

(407) 376-9585

SOURCE: Premonition LLC
CHEYENNE, WY / ACCESSWIRE / April 24, 2018 / 8 Figure Dream Lifestyle (8FDL), based in Cheyenne, Wyoming, is proud to announce that they will be hosting their new $10K+ A Month Every Month online event. It will take place from June 22 to June 25, 2018 in Denver, CO. This will be the 5th event that the company has held. People are encouraged to contact the 8 Figure Dream Lifestyle team through their website to save their seat.

Alex Dee from 8FDL says: "We had our first event in June 2016. At the time, we had just started and it was just us as founders, teaching a group of 21 attendees. The very next month, a half a dozen of our members experienced great results to the tune of $30K to $70K for July. So we knew we were on to something. By the time of our next event, we were only training on 50% of our content and our members who had been at the last event were doing the other 50%. That's when you know the system is working when you have your members teaching the process. On this 5th event, we'll be having our members teaching about 80% of the content after transitioning from their full-time jobs or businesses to making money online full time as well as the product owners."

Participants are encouraged to view their Facebook page for current and future updates. During the event, participants will learn about simple strategies and tactics on how to use automation and outsourcing to build an online business. The company will also be sharing their latest product launches from YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, and investments. These will be taught by their premier experts for each industry. The course is expected to be very intense and ends with a simple step by step plan of action so members can implement as soon as they have finished the course. Alex Dee continues: "It is a lot of fun as well as a lot of learning! We love the events and our members look forward to each one as they get a chance to learn while enjoying the exotic resorts and venues where we host."

People are encouraged to view information and photos from their past events as well.

Contact 8 Figure Dream Lifestyle:

1-800-775-0722

support@the8figuredreamlifestyle.com

1712 Pioneer Ave. Suite 5968A Cheyenne, Wyoming 82001

SOURCE: 8 Figure Dream Lifestyle
Washington D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - April 24, 2018) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that the entity formerly known as Yahoo! Inc. has agreed to pay a $35 million penalty to settle charges that it misled investors by failing to disclose one of the world's largest data breaches in which hackers stole personal data relating to hundreds of millions of user accounts.



According to the SEC's order, within days of the December 2014 intrusion, Yahoo's information security team learned that Russian hackers had stolen what the security team referred to internally as the company's "crown jewels": usernames, email addresses, phone numbers, birthdates, encrypted passwords, and security questions and answers for hundreds of millions of user accounts. Although information relating to the breach was reported to members of Yahoo's senior management and legal department, Yahoo failed to properly investigate the circumstances of the breach and to adequately consider whether the breach needed to be disclosed to investors. The fact of the breach was not disclosed to the investing public until more than two years later, when in 2016 Yahoo was in the process of closing the acquisition of its operating business by Verizon Communications, Inc.



"We do not second-guess good faith exercises of judgment about cyber-incident disclosure. But we have also cautioned that a company's response to such an event could be so lacking that an enforcement action would be warranted. This is clearly such a case," said Steven Peikin, Co-Director of the SEC Enforcement Division.



Jina Choi, Director of the SEC's San Francisco Regional Office, added, "Yahoo's failure to have controls and procedures in place to assess its cyber-disclosure obligations ended up leaving its investors totally in the dark about a massive data breach. Public companies should have controls and procedures in place to properly evaluate cyber incidents and disclose material information to investors."



The SEC's order finds that when Yahoo filed several quarterly and annual reports during the two-year period following the breach, the company failed to disclose the breach or its potential business impact and legal implications. Instead, the company's SEC filings stated that it faced only the risk of, and negative effects that might flow from, data breaches. In addition, the SEC's order found that Yahoo did not share information regarding the breach with its auditors or outside counsel in order to assess the company's disclosure obligations in its public filings. Finally, the SEC's order finds that Yahoo failed to maintain disclosure controls and procedures designed to ensure that reports from Yahoo's information security team concerning cyber breaches, or the risk of such breaches, were properly and timely assessed for potential disclosure.



Verizon acquired Yahoo's operating business in June 2017. Yahoo has since changed its name to Altaba Inc.



Yahoo neither admitted nor denied the findings in the SEC's order, which requires the company to cease and desist from further violations of Sections 17(a)(2) and 17(a)(3) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 13(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rules 12b-20, 13a-1, 13a-11, 13a-13, and 13a-15.



The SEC's investigation, which is continuing, has been conducted by Tracy S. Combs of the Cyber Unit and supervised by Jennifer J. Lee and Erin E. Schneider of the San Francisco office.



Earlier this year, the SEC adopted a statement and interpretive guidance to assist public companies in preparing disclosures about cybersecurity risks and incidents.
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Crude oil futures reversed course Tuesday, unable to extend 4-year highs as U.S. stocks were hammered. Oil, which has been rising on speculation of strong global demand, was dented today by profit taking and Iran's resistance to further supply cuts. WTI light sweet oil was down 80 cents at $67.86. Iran has reportedly nixed a formal extension of the cartel's supply quota plan with Russia, but Saudi Arabia and others will continue to limit production beyond this year, analysts say. Iran's oil minister Bijan Zanganeh, speaking yesterday to Iran's news service Shana, said that if oil prices continued to rise, there will be no need to extend the OPEC/non-OPEC production deal beyond the end of 2018. Last week, President Donald Trump blasted OPEC for trying to artificially boost prices. 'Looks like OPEC is at it again,' he wrote. 'With record amounts of Oil all over the place, including the fully loaded ships at sea, Oil prices are artificially Very High! No good and will not be accepted!' U.S. oil inventories data from the American Petroleum Institute and the Energy Information Administration is expected to drive trades tonight and tomorrow. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 24, 2018) - Lara Exploration Ltd. (TSXV: LRA) ("Lara" or "the Company"), is pleased to report results for a further two diamond drill holes completed in the first quarter of 2018 at the Planalto Copper Project, in the Carajas Province of northern Brazil. PDH-18-02 intercepted 210.90 metres ("m") from surface with an average grade of 0.39% copper and 50 parts per billion ("ppb") gold (0.42 % copper equivalent). Within this wider zone, there is an intercept of 114.58m (between 51.47m and 166.25m down hole) with an average grade of 0.55% copper and 68ppb gold (0.59 % copper equivalent). The second hole, PDH-18-01, which was collared approximately 200m to the south of PDH-18-02, intersected from the surface 51.1m at an average grade of 0.27 % Cu with a higher-grade core zone of oxide mineralization with 10m at 0.71% Cu between 4.2m and 14.2m down hole.

Miles Thompson, President and CEO of Lara commented: "We are pleased to be able to report another long intercept in copper mineralization and to confirm the historical drill data for this project. We are also very encouraged to have hit some more massive chalcopyrite in the hole we are drilling currently.

Drillhole UTM-N UTM-E From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Cu (%) Au (ppb) CuEq (%) 18-01

9294871 637063 0.00 51.10 51.10 0.27



including



4.20 14.20 10.00 0.71



18-02 9295001 636973 0.00 210.90 210.90 0.39 50 0.42 including



51.67 166.25 114.58 0.55 68 0.59 and



121.04 158.70 37.71 0.78 116 0.86 Copper equivalent values for by-product gold are calculated using a copper price of US$3.00/lb and a gold price of US$1,340/oz. No allowance is made for losses in a normal mining situation.

PDH-18-01 was collared approximately 200m to the southeast of PDH-18-02, drilled at an angle of 50 degrees at an azimuth of 040 degrees, to test a mafic saprolite exposure where surface channel sampling indicated an anomalous oxide copper zone of 45m at 0.24% Cu in the eastern part of the main copper-in-soil anomaly. The preliminary interpretation is that this hole intersected the near surface part of a zone of mineralization dipping at a low angle (25-35 degrees) to the southwest. Down the hole the mineralization is hosted by a partially weathered gabbro intrusive that is truncated at 51m by a thick granite-syenite intrusive body that persisted to 113m down the hole, at which point the hole was abandoned.

PDH-18-02 was drilled at an angle of 60 degrees at an azimuth of 270 degrees and was collared close to a previous historic drill hole (F73) and was designed as a twin for that historic hole. The company has not been able to locate the drill cores for F73 to verify the historic data so opted to drill the twin. PD-18-02 is located approximately 200m to the northeast of Lara hole 17-01, for which a wide zone of copper mineralization was reported previously (see Lara news release of 28-02-2018). For the down hole interval of 188.29m (4.85m to 193.14m) the weighted average grade is 0.42% Cu and this is in close agreement with the historic data which, had indicated a zone of mineralization of 188m at 0.4% Cu between 4m and 192m down hole. This gives the company confidence that it can use the historic data for the other historic drillhole, F74, at least in the interpretation to develop a geological model of the mineralized zone.

PDH-18-02 shows several intersections at better than 0.5% Cu in the upper part of the hole, with the best down hole intersection of 37.71m at 0.78% Cu and 116ppb Au, from 121.04m to 158.70m down hole. There is still insufficient drilling to interpret the attitudes of these higher-grade copper zones. The copper mineralization occurs as chalcopyrite, as disseminations and as vein filling in a stock-work-like fracture vein set, with the higher grades usually closely associated with zones, centimeters to meters-wide of strong K-feldspar-magnetite alteration that is flanked by wider zones of biotite and chlorite alteration in the gabbro and mafic meta-volcanic host rocks.

A further drill hole PDH-18-03, which is still in progress, was collared 250m to the west from PDH-18-02 on the same drill section, is designed as a scissor-hole to intercept the mineralized zone seen in PDH-18-02 from 80m to 150m down the dip to the west. Geological logging for this hole has identified narrow zones of massive chalcopyrite up to 0.84m wide in the drill cores within wide zones of disseminated and stock work vein style copper mineralization. This massive chalcopyrite is the first indication for the presence of possible feeder zones for the mineralizing fluids seen so far in the drilling. Assay results are expected to be available by middle May.

Sampling methodology, Chain of Custody, Quality Assurance and Quality Control

All rock channel and drill core sampling was carried out by or under the supervision of the Company Vice-President Exploration and the chain of custody of the samples and drill core from the project area to the company's sample preparation facility in Canaa dos Carajas was continuously monitored. Sample intervals for channel sampling varied between 2m and 4m and for drill core the sampling interval varied from a little less than 1m to a maximum of 1.5m being guided by the degree of copper mineralization and rock types.

Blank and certified reference materials were inserted approximately every 20th sample and the company routinely reanalyses laboratory pulps and crushed rejects for a number of samples from previous sample batches with each sample batch. The samples were delivered to SGS-Geosol in Parauapebas where they were crushed and pulverized. Sample pulps are dispatched to by SGS-Geosol to their own analytical laboratory at Vespasiano, near Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais State, Brazil. The pulps are subjected to Agua Regia digestion with copper and 36 other elements being determined by ICP. Gold was determined by fire assay fusion and an atomic absorption (AAS) finish on a 50-gram charge. Copper values above 1% Cu are determined by fusion with sodium peroxide with an ICP OES finish. SGS-Geosol routinely runs, and reports, results for a number of certified copper and gold standards and blank samples with each sample batch.

Check assays for copper and gold determinations are routinely carried out on a number of reject material samples from SGS-Geosol at a second commercial laboratory in Parauapebas.

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 and verified the technical information 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 exploring them in joint ventures funded by partners. The Company currently holds a diverse portfolio of prospects and deposits located mostly in Brazil and Peru. 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 +1 416 346-7660.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

-30-
Regulatory News:

In connection with AP Alternative Assets, L.P.'s ("AAA"; Euronext Amsterdam: AAA) equity investment in Athene Holding Ltd. ("Athene"; NYSE: ATH), AAA informs its investors that Athene announced today it will release its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2018 after the market close on May 3, 2018, and it will host a conference call and live webcast to discuss these results on May 4, 2018 at 9:00 am ET. In addition, Athene plans to post a presentation to its website prior to the market open on May 4, 2018 that will be discussed during the conference call. For additional details regarding the earnings release and conference call, please visit the investor relations section of Athene's website at ir.athene.com.

About AP Alternative Assets

AP Alternative Assets was established by Apollo Global Management, LLC and its subsidiaries ("Apollo") and is a closed-end limited partnership established under the laws of Guernsey. Apollo is a leading global alternative investment manager with 27 years of experience investing across the capital structure of leveraged companies. AAA is managed by Apollo Alternative Assets, L.P. For more information about AP Alternative Assets, please visit www.apolloalternativeassets.com.

This announcement does not constitute or form part of an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to purchase or subscribe for securities in the United States or in any other jurisdiction.

This press release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to future events and circumstances. Such statements are based on currently available operating, financial and competitive information and are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from the historical experience and expressed or implied expectations of AAA. Undue reliance should not be placed on such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made and AAA does not undertake to update its forward-looking statements unless required by law.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180424006649/en/

Contacts:

AP Alternative Assets, L.P.

Gary Stein (New York), +1-212-822-0467
VANCOUVER, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

(All amounts in US$ unless otherwise specified)

Capstone Mining Corp. ("Capstone" or the "Company") (TSX: CS) today announced its financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2018. Operating cash flow before changes in working capital[1] from all operations was $24.6 million or $0.06 per share, with net income from continuing operations of $10.3 million and adjusted net income from continuing operations of $10.6 million or $0.03 per share after adjusting for certain non-cash and non-recurring charges. Copper production from continuing operations totalled 15,706 tonnes (15,152 tonnes of payable copper) at a C1 cash cost[1] from continuing operations of $1.95 per payable pound produced.

"Capstone reported positive net income and cash flow in the first quarter of 2018, on contributions from both Pinto Valley and Cozamin," said Darren Pylot, President and CEO of Capstone. "We also announced the sale of our Minto Mine for $37.5 million of cash plus working capital."

"Additionally, we updated our 2018 guidance to reflect the decision to mine the San Rafael Zinc Zone, which is expected to significantly increase our by-product revenue at Cozamin" continued Mr. Pylot.

As of March 31, 2018, Minto is treated as a discontinued operation for financial reporting purposes. To comply with disclosure requirements, Capstone's results have been adjusted to exclude Minto's contribution in certain cases, and are referred to throughout this release as "continuing operations". Please refer to financial statements ended March 31, 2018 for further information.

Financial and Operational Overview

Q1 2018 Q1 2017 Revenue [(2)],[ (3)],[ (4)] ($ millions) 103.7 97.9 Copper produced by continuing operations (tonnes) 15,706 15,430 Payable copper produced by continuing operations (tonnes) 15,152 14,890 C1 cash cost per payable pound produced [(1)] ($/lb) 1.95 1.95 All-in sustaining cost per payable pound produced [(1)] ($/lb) 2.59 2.48 Net Income (loss) from continuing operations ($ millions) 10.3 (13.1) Net Income (loss) from continuing operations attributable to shareholders ($ millions) 10.5 (13.3) Net income (loss) from continuing operations attributable to shareholders per common share ($) 0.03 (0.03) Adjusted net income (loss) from continuing operations [(1)] ($ millions) 10.6 (7.7) Adjusted net income (loss) from continuing operations attributable to shareholders [(1)] ($ millions) 10.8 (7.8) Adjusted net income (loss) attributable to shareholders per common share [(1)] ($) 0.03 (0.02) Cash flow from operating activities [(4)] ($ millions) 32.8 22.0 Cash flow from operating activities per common share [(1)],[ (4)] ($) 0.08 0.06 Operating cash flow before changes in working capital [(1],[ (4)] ($ millions) 24.6 24.2 Operating cash flow before changes in working capital per common share [(1)],[ (4)] ($) 0.06 0.06 Long term debt (excluding financing fees) ($ millions) 274.9 308.9 Net debt [(1) ]($ millions) 160.1 199.5

[2] Q1 2018 includes a provisional pricing adjustment of $(2.3) million (2017 - $2.2 million) related to prior shipments, equivalent to $(0.07) per pound (2017 - $0.06 per pound) of copper sold during the quarter.

[3] Q1 2018 adjusted realized copper price does not include any realized derivative losses (2017 loss - $11.6 million) equivalent to nil per pound (2017 loss - $(0.29) per pound) related to copper derivative contracts exercised during the quarter.

[4 ]In accordance with IFRS 5, Minto's results are excluded from revenue in both the current and comparative period. Minto's results are included within cash flow amounts in both the current and comparative period.

Financial and Operational Highlights for the Quarter Ended March 31, 2018

Net income from continuing operations of $10.3 million . The net income was attributable to higher realized copper prices of $2.98 per pound compared to $2.73 per pound in 2017.

. The net income was attributable to higher realized copper prices of per pound compared to per pound in 2017. The absence of any commodity derivative losses as Capstone has been completely unhedged from the beginning of 2018.

Cash flow from operating activities of $32.8 million or $0.08 per common share.

or per common share. Working capital decreased by $5.4 million to $184.0 million at March 31, 2018 from $189.4 million at December 31, 2017 .

to at from at . Operating cash flow before changes in working capital [ 1] of $24.6 million or $0.06 per share was slightly higher due to higher operating cash flows at Cozamin, primarily due to higher copper prices, the absence of any negative forward commodity derivative contracts settlements in Q1 2018, mostly offset by lower operating cash flows at Minto .

of or per share was slightly higher due to higher operating cash flows at Cozamin, primarily due to higher copper prices, the absence of any negative forward commodity derivative contracts settlements in Q1 2018, mostly offset by lower operating cash flows at . Produced a total of 15,152 tonnes of payable copper from continuing operations at a C1 cash cost [ 1] of $1.95 per pound of payable copper produced.

of per pound of payable copper produced. Revenue of $103.7 million generated primarily from the sale of 15,962 tonnes of copper from continuing operations.

Production and Additional Highlights for the Quarter Ended March 31, 2018

Pinto Valley Mine:

Produced 11,421 tonnes of copper during Q1 2018 at a C1 cash cost [ 1] of $2.41 per pound of payable copper produced and all-in sustaining cost [ 1] of $2.96 per pound of payable copper produced.

of per pound of payable copper produced and all-in sustaining cost of per pound of payable copper produced. At Pinto Valley, production was lower than planned with throughput and recoveries at the low end of expectations due to unplanned downtime. Grade was in line with the mine plan for the quarter, with higher head grade and production expected over the remainder of the year.

Cozamin Mine:

Produced 4,285 tonnes of copper during Q1 2018 at a C1 cash cost [ 1] of $0.71 per pound of payable copper produced and all-in sustaining cost [ 1] of $1.43 per pound of payable copper produced.

of per pound of payable copper produced and all-in sustaining cost of per pound of payable copper produced. At Cozamin, production for the quarter was better than expected from higher grade.

Metallurgical test work was completed around the technical and economic recoverability of the existing zinc resource in the San Rafael zinc zone. This resulted in a revision to the mine plan, bringing in additional zinc resources, starting in July. It is expected that in 2018 this could double contained zinc production (an additional 7 million pounds) and lower C1 cash cost[1] by $0.25 per pound of payable copper produced and all-in sustaining cost[1] by $0.15 per payable pound produced. Additional zinc production of between 7 million and 12 million pounds per year and approximately 200,000 ounces of silver per year are anticipated, with associated increases to by-product credits over the next three years. Copper production remains unchanged as the added zinc processing will come from existing unutilized mill capacity.

Operating Outlook

Capstone's consolidated production and cost guidance from continuing operations remains unchanged for the full year.

Cozamin's cost guidance has been updated to reflect lower unit costs resulting from the additional zinc resources expected to be mined from the San Rafael deposit in 2018, lowering Cozamin's expected 2018 C1 cash cost[1] by approximately $0.25 and all-in sustaining cost[1] by approximately $0.15 per payable pound of copper produced. Cozamin's 2018 capital guidance has been increased by $3.0 million as a result of this change, primarily related to the additional required development to access the San Rafael zone. Cozamin's expected 2018 copper production remains unchanged.

Exploration cost guidance is unchanged. Consolidated capital guidance is $90.0 million with the addition of the $3.0 million development expenditure related to San Rafael zone at Cozamin.

Conference Call and Webcast Details

Capstone will hold a conference call and webcast on Wednesday, April 25, 2018 at 11:30 a.m. Eastern time (8:30 a.m. Pacific time) to discuss these results; call-in details and information on associated slides are provided below. This release is not suitable on a standalone basis for readers unfamiliar with Capstone and should be read in conjunction with Capstone's consolidated financial statements and management's discussion and analysis ("MD&A") for the quarter ended March 31, 2018, which are available on Capstone's website at http://capstonemining.com/investors/financial-reporting/default.aspx and on SEDAR, all of which have been reviewed and approved by Capstone's Board of Directors. An updated corporate presentation, including results to March 31, 2018 and Q1 webcast slides will also be available at http://capstonemining.com/investors/events-and-presentations/default.aspx.

Date: Wednesday, April 25, 2018 Time: 11:30 am Eastern Time (8:30 am Pacific Time) Dial in: North America: 1-888-390-0546, International: +416-764-8688 Webcast: http://event.on24.com/r.htm?e=1626391&s=1&k=ED9664FBED1580A051E48EE6D0B7D2E2 Replay: North America: 1-888-390-0541, International: +416-764-8677 Replay Passcode: 285507#

The conference call replay will be available until Wednesday, May 2, 2018. The conference call audio and transcript will be available on Capstone's website within 48 hours of the call at http://capstonemining.com/investors/events-and-presentations/default.aspx.

About Capstone Mining Corp.

Capstone Mining Corp. is a Canadian base metals mining company, focused on copper. We are committed to the responsible development of our assets and the environments in which we operate. Our three producing mines are the Pinto Valley copper mine located in Arizona, US, the Cozamin polymetallic mine in Zacatecas State, Mexico and the Minto copper mine in Yukon, Canada. In addition, Capstone has the large scale 70% owned copper-iron Santo Domingo development project in Region III, Chile, in partnership with Korea Resources Corporation as well as a portfolio of exploration properties. Capstone's strategy is to focus on the optimization of operations and assets in politically stable, mining-friendly regions, centred in the Americas. Our headquarters are in Vancouver, Canada and we are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). Further information is available at http://www.capstonemining.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This document may contain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this document and Capstone does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements, except as required under applicable securities legislation.

Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect our expectations or beliefs regarding future events. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the estimation of mineral resources and mineral reserves, the realization of mineral reserve estimates, the timing and amount of estimated future production, costs of production and capital expenditures, the success of our mining operations, environmental risks, unanticipated reclamation expenses and title disputes. In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", "believes" or variations of such words and phrases, or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved" or the negative of these terms or comparable terminology. In this document certain forward-looking statements are identified by words including "anticipate", "guidance", "plan" and "expected". By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, amongst others, risks related to inherent hazards associated with mining operations, future prices of copper and other metals, compliance with financial covenants, surety bonding, our ability to raise capital, Capstone's ability to acquire properties for growth, counterparty risks associated with sales of our metals, use of financial derivative instruments and associated counterparty risks, foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations, changes in general economic conditions, accuracy of mineral resource and mineral reserve estimates, operating in foreign jurisdictions with risk of changes to governmental regulation, compliance with governmental regulations, compliance with environmental laws and regulations, reliance on approvals, licences and permits from governmental authorities, impact of climatic conditions on our Pinto Valley, Cozamin and Minto operations, aboriginal title claims and rights to consultation and accommodation, land reclamation and mine closure obligations, uncertainties and risks related to the potential development of the Santo Domingo Project, uncertainties related to the proposed transaction for the sale of Minto Explorations Ltd., uncertainties related to the proposed transaction for the sale of Minto Explorations Ltd., increased operating and capital costs, challenges to title to our mineral properties, maintaining ongoing social license to operate, dependence on key management personnel, potential conflicts of interest involving our directors and officers, corruption and bribery, limitations inherent in our insurance coverage, labour relations, increasing energy prices, competition in the mining industry, risks associated with joint venture partners, our ability to integrate new acquisitions into our operations, cybersecurity threats, legal proceedings and other risks of the mining industry as well as those factors detailed from time to time in the Company's interim and annual financial statements and management's discussion and analysis of those statements, all of which are filed and available for review under the Company's profile on SEDAR at http://www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those described in our forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause our results, performance or achievements not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that our forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as our actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements.

National Instrument 43-101 Compliance

Unless otherwise indicated, Capstone has prepared the technical information in this news release ("Technical Information") based on information contained in the technical reports, news releases and MD&A's (collectively the "Disclosure Documents") available under Capstone Mining Corp.'s company profile on SEDAR at http://www.sedar.com. Each Disclosure Document was prepared by, or under the supervision of, a qualified person (a "Qualified Person") as defined in National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators ("NI 43-101"). Readers are encouraged to review the full text of the Disclosure Documents which qualifies the Technical Information. Readers are advised that mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The Disclosure Documents are each intended to be read as a whole, and sections should not be read or relied upon out of context. The Technical Information is subject to the assumptions and qualifications contained in the Disclosure Documents.

The technical information in this news release ("Technical Information") was prepared by, or under the supervision of, a qualified person (a "Qualified Person") as defined in National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators ("NI 43-101"). The disclosure of the Technical Information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Gregg Bush, P. Eng., Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Technical Information related to mineral exploration activities has been reviewed and approved by Brad Mercer, P. Geol., Senior Vice President, Exploration. Both are Qualified Persons under NI 43-101.

Alternative Performance Measures

The items marked with a "[1]" are alternative performance measures and readers should refer to Alternative Performance Measures in the Company's Consolidated Management's Discussion and Analysis for the quarter ended March 31, 2018 as filed on SEDAR and as available on the Company's website.

Cautionary Note to United States Investors

This news release contains disclosure that has been prepared in accordance with the requirements of Canadian securities laws, which differ from the requirements of US securities laws. Without limiting the foregoing, this news release may refer to technical reports that use the terms "indicated" and "inferred" resources. US investors are cautioned that, while such terms are recognized and required by Canadian securities laws, the SEC does not recognize them. Under US standards, mineralization may not be classified as a "reserve" unless the determination has been made that the mineralization could be economically and legally produced or extracted at the time the reserve determination is made. US investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of indicated resources will ever be converted into reserves. US investors should also understand that "inferred resources" have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence and as to whether they can be mined legally or economically. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of "inferred resources" will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Therefore, US investors are also cautioned not to assume that all or any part of inferred resources exist, or that they can be mined legally or economically. Accordingly, information concerning descriptions of mineralization and resources contained in this news release may not be comparable to information made public by US companies subject to the reporting and disclosure requirements of the SEC.

1. This is an alternative performance measure; please see "Alternative Performance Measures" at the end of this release. Certain prior period alternative performance measures have been restated to conform with current period classification.

Cindy Burnett, VP, Investor Relations and Communications, 604-637-8157, cburnett@capstonemining.com
iGenius, a Milan, Italy-based Artificial Intelligence company focused on software to simplify people and data relations, announced it raised $7m in angel funding during an 18 month period.

The company intends to use the funds to expand its R&D efforts to develop proprietary technology, grow the team with over 30 hires expected in Italy and Switzerland, and continue to grow the business.

Founded by Uljan Sharka, iGenius had developed and launched crystal, a data intelligence virtual advisor customizable for companies with any source of data, such as Marketing, CRM, Sales and IOT, to analyze, interpret and make it available via natural language.

It was built in collaboration with Facebook, Google and Twitter.

The company, which currently has a team of over 50 people distributed in 4 offices in Italy, USA, UK and Switzerland, serves over 20.000 brands in 20 countries in such sectors Media and Advertising, Healthcare, Energy, Sport, Finance and ICT.

FinSMEs

24/04/2018
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The European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation to assess the acquisition of Shazam by Apple under the EU Merger Regulation. The commission believes that the merger could reduce choice for users of music streaming services.

Back in February multiple countries, including Austria, France, Iceland, and Spain, requested European Commission to assess the acquisition to determine whether its allowed under a European Union merger law. The commission has now acted on the request with a deadline set to September 4th. Apple currently gets 1 million clicks per day through the Shazam app.

Since Shazam is still live, if Apple who has acquired the Shazam shuts down or only direct referrals to its own music service, Spotify could lose a significant amount of traffic. Additionally and most importantly, Apple could use the Shazams data to unfairly target its rivals users and encourage them to switch to Apple Music.

Apple confirmed the acquisition of music recognition app Shazam for $400 million back in December, and the transaction was notified to the Commission on 14 March 2018, and it now has 90 working days, until 4 September 2018 to come to a decision.

Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said:

The way people listen to music has changed significantly in recent years, with more and more Europeans using music streaming services. Our investigation aims to ensure that music fans will continue to enjoy attractive music streaming offers and wont face less choice as a result of this proposed merger.

Source
According to the latest market research from Counterpoint, Indias overall mobile phone shipments grew 48% YoY in Q1 2018. The feature phone segment almost doubled in Q1 2018 due to strong shipments of Reliance JioPhone, while the smartphone market remained flat compared to same time last year.

The major force behind the impressive growth in the feature phone is the JioPhone whose market share raced from 0% last year to 36% in Q1 2018. The companys aggressive promotion and low-cost tariff plan help to boost the sales. On the flip side, the Chinese smartphone makers remained strong in India. They accounted for a 57% of the total smartphone market in Q1 2018, up from 53% during Q1 2017. This is the highest ever contribution by Chinese players in the Indian smartphone market.

Xiaomi continued to lead the pack even in Q1 2018 with a record 31% market share followed by Samsung (26%), vivo (6%), OPPO (6%), and Honor (3%). Thanks to the Honor 7X and 9 Lite, Honor brand moved to 5th place replacing the Lenovo/Moto series. Honor, Xiaomi, OnePlus are among the fastest growing smartphone brands in Q1 2018.

As for the feature phone market, the Reliance Jio is at the top, followed by Samsung, Itel, Nokia, and others. Itel is the third largest player in the feature phone segment with 17% growth YoY in Q1 2018. The premium segment; Rs. 30,000 and above remained flat YoY during Q1 2018, Samsung captured the flagship segment thanks to its latest S-series flagships. While OnePlus retained in the second position.

Canalys report says that Xiaomi has shipped over 9 million units, in the quarter grabbing market share of just over 31%, the highest ever for a vendor since Q1 2014. Samsung shipped just under 7.5 million smartphones, growing by 24% on last year. OPPO took third place with 2.8 million shipments, and Vivo fourth with 2.1 million shipments. Overall, the smartphone market in India grew at 8% to 29.5 million units for the quarter. The top four vendors accounted for about 75% of all smartphone shipments to India, with Xiaomi and Samsung accounting for 56%.

Xiaomi Redmi 5A reached record sales of 3.5 million in the quarter. In comparison, Samsungs best-selling device, the J7 Nxt, shipped just 1.5 million units.

Commenting on the competitive landscape, Anshika Jain, Research Analyst said,

This is the first time that the top five smartphone brands accounted for more than 70% market share in a single quarter, which could accelerate exits and possibly consolidation. Xiaomi and Samsung alone captured 58% of the total smartphone market. Xiaomis performance is driven by rising product-pull in the offline market, building upon its strong presence in the online channel where it captured a record 57% share. Xiaomis Redmi Note 5 and 5 Pro were the most popular models for the Chinese brand, whereas Samsung Galaxy J7 NXT and J2 (2017) drove volumes for the Korean vendor.

Canalys Research Analyst Ishan Dutt, said:

Xiaomi is becoming a force to be reckoned with in India. Apart from being some of the best value devices on the market, Xiaomis smartphones are now available in more places and in larger quantities. All in all, Xiaomis product and channel strategies are working.

The report also said that TRANSSION has emerged as the fifth largest player in the mobile phone industry by capturing 4% market share in Q1, 2018. The company said that itel, since its launch in April 2016 has retained its leadership position in the feature phone category.

Regarding the achievement, Marco Ma, Chief Managing Director  TRANSSION India, said:

We are deeply delighted to have achieved this success within 2 years of our operations in India and emerged as one of Indias leading mobile phone players. India is a key priority market for TRANSSION. We are consistently working towards providing world class experience, and, customized mobile solutions to the Indian consumers. Having said that, we are glad to gain recognition as well as a strong endorsement from a credible industry body, Counterpoint. This further fuels our commitment towards Indian consumers.

Source 1, 2
Samsung SM-G8750 surfaced earlier this month, and the SM-G8850 with dual rear cameras got certified in China recently. The phones were believed to be S9 mini, now the same Twitter user who said that SM-G8750 will be called S9 mini, now says that it will be released as Galaxy S8 Lite in China. Even recent Bluetooth certification revealed Lite tag for the phone. Earlier Geekbench listing revealed Snapdragon 660, 4GB of RAM and Android 8.0 Oreo for the phone.

Confirm:

SM-G8750 will named Samsung GALAXY S8 Lite

SM-G8850 will name d Samsung GALAXY A8 Star   (@MMDDJ_) April 24, 2018

We already know the specifications of the SM-G8850, which is said to be released as Galaxy A8 Star.

Samsung Galaxy A8 Star (SM-G8850) rumored specifications

5.8-inch Quad HD+ (2960  1440 pixels) Super AMOLED Infinity display

Octa-Core Samsung Exynos 9 Series 9810 processor with Mali G72MP18 GPU

4GB / 6GB LPDDR4x RAM, expandable memory up to 400GB with microSD

Android 8.0 (Oreo)

Hybrid Dual SIM (nano + nano / microSD)

12MP primary rear camera, LED Flash, 12MP secondary rear camera

8MP auto focus front-facing camera with wide-angle lens

Water and dust resistant (IP68)

Dimensions: 147.7mm x 68.7mm x 8.4mm; Weight: 163g

4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac (2.4/5GHz), VHT80 MU-MIMO, Bluetooth 5 (LE up to 2Mbps), GPS with GLONASS, USB 3.1, NFC, MST

3000mAh battery with fast Charging

The Samsung Galaxy A8 Star is expected to come in Black and Blue colors. Both the phones are expected to go official in the next few weeks.

Source 1, 2 | Via
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Jeremy Meeks is the "hot felon" who was catapulted into the glamorous world of modelling thanks to his hunky mugshot.

But as he prepares to marry heiress Chloe Green, we can reveal the family of criminals and the murder-rapist father from Jeremy's humble past.

While Chloe's dad is the billionaire businessman behind Topshop, Jeremy's father, Ray, spent 33 years in prison for rape and murder, setting up an interesting clash of worlds at their forthcoming wedding.

Ray, who is 67 today, had a lengthy rap sheet and had served time in prison for armed robbery in Wichita, Kan., before he met and married Jeremys mom, Katherine Angier, in Tacoma, Wash., in 1983.

Jeremy was just a baby and his older brother, Emery, was almost 2 when road sweeper Ray was arrested for rape and murder in Tacoma in 1984.

Ray attempted to plea bargain his way to a shorter sentence by informing a pal for another murder. His testimony helped put his friend Benjamin Harris on death row.

But Harris eventually walked free after 12 years awaiting execution, in part because Ray refused to give evidence a second time.

Ray recently revealed he speaks to his model son, who has confirmed to him his plans to marry Chloe.

Ray, divorced by Katherine while he was in prison, also snitched on other criminal pals for jail benefits, according to court documents seen by The Sun.

After being sentenced to life, he was finally freed last September and was allowed to return to Wichita, where he grew up.

Incredibly, he did not have to register as a serious offender in Kansas because his crime had been committed before new regulations were instituted in 1997.

Asked about his new life outside prison, he said: Its all good and I am looking forward to seeing Jeremy again. Its been a while.

Hes a good-looking boy and I am proud of him. To me, he was famous when he was born. Hes beautiful and I love him.

Jeremy, who has a teardrop inked under his left eye and is covered in gang-affiliated tattoos, recently spoke about growing up without his dad.

My dad got a life sentence for murder when I was only nine months old, he said.

Things were hard moneywise and I was always searching for that father figure, that person to look up to and take me under their wing, so I ended up in the gang life.

His mother was a heroin addict, constantly in and out of jail.

In 1998, Katherine Angier was convicted of aggravated battery on a pregnant female and was twice convicted of using fake checks to buy stuff.

Kathy has been convicted of drunk-driving in Minnesota and St. Louis, Virginia, and in 1995 she was fined $250 for helping someone commit a criminal offense.

His siblings have also got records, including his 43-year-old sister Carmella DeJesus for thefts in 2002 and 2003.

Jeremy's older brother Emery Meeks, 39, was arrested for robbery in 2000 and has recorded offenses, including driving under the influence in 2006, hit and run and a $341 fine for giving booze to a minor in 2003.

This article originally appeared in The Sun.
ABC News star Joy Behar is a huge fan of the Bush family when its convenient, but she has referred to them as murderers and liars in the past, proving that The View co-host will say whatever it takes to slam President Trump.

Liberal media personalities always seems to love Republican and conservative presidents after they are long gone. They forget all the nasty things previously said, Media Research Center (MRC) associate editor Scott Whitlock wrote while highlighting Behars hypocrisy.

On Monday, Behar had nothing but nice things to say about the Bush dynasty on the heels of Barbara Bushs funeral. Behar said a now-viral photo of the Bushes, Obamas, Clintons and Melania Trump made her nostalgic for the pre-Trump version of America that she remembers fondly.

There were statesmen running the country instead of con men and thugs, Behar said of the previous administrations. Behar then doubled down by affirming that the Bush administrations were included in her compliment of presidents 41 through 44.

Whitlock and the MRC, a watchdog group focused on exposing liberal bias, noticed Behar's insincerity and decided to unearth some of her old comments about members of the Bush family.

Back in 2007, Behar wasnt so fond of President George W. Bush, whom she now claims to miss.

I don't know what its going to take for people to really wake up and understand that they are liars and they are murderers, she said on air of the Bush administration, according to a transcript published by the MRC.

I don't understand how you can still support this administration. After the Katrina incident, after the incompetence that took place there, after the incompetence and the lying about this war, Behar continued. "I don't understand it. I don't understand it, explain it to me, what is it that you still are backing them for? What?"

Behar, who was recently forced to apologize for mocking the Christian faith of Vice President Mike Pence, once compared Bushs prayers to a terrorist praying to Allah.

But remember, George Bush is the one who said that God told him to go into Iraq. The same as that terrorists say that Allah tells them. And what's the difference between them and Bush I'd like to know, Behar said in 2010, according to the MRC.

The MRC unearthed another 2008 segment in which Behar declared the entire Bush family shouldnt talk to Jewish people because George H.W. Bushs father, Prescott,  who died in 1972 -- once worked at a bank whose founder supported Hitlers early rise to power.

I dont like to speak ill of the dead, but in this case its fun, Behar said. He was a United States senator, Prescott Bush, OK, he was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany, OK? This is his grandfather. He has no business talking to Jewish people when hes got this right in his backyard, this guy.

On the same episode of The View, Behar also proclaimed about the 43rd president, This guy doesnt even know the difference between the words diplomacy and appeasement. Hes so stupid!

It certainly appears that the ABC News star has done a complete about-face when it comes to her thoughts on the Bush family. The change in narrative over the past decade raises the question: Was Behar being dishonest back then to appeal to her liberal audience, or is she being dishonest now in an effort to mock Trump?

The View did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
MSNBC star Joy Reid raised eyebrows on Monday when she claimed that hackers planted homophobic slurs on her old website to tarnish her name. While the story has gone largely uncovered by mainstream media, Reids critics have questioned her explanation.

Reid apologized last year when homophobic comments she made prior to landing a gig at MSNBC were unearthed by a Twitter user and reported by Mediaite. But on Monday, Mediaite reported that Reid blamed an unknown, external party for a newly uncovered batch of anti-gay comments that popped up on archived images of her old blog.

Mediaites Caleb Ecarma also explained Reids archives on the Wayback Machine, an Internet archiving service, mysteriously disappeared in December after her initial homophobic rhetoric was exposed. The service says Reid wanted the archives removed and her lawyer contacted the site last December.

The Wayback Machine posted a blog entry on Tuesday, denying that tampering or hacking of Reids site happened on the archived version. The company also says it denied a request from Reids attorney to remove her archives because her claim that the site included fraudulent content was not sufficient enough to verify claims of manipulation. However, someone figured out a way to remove the archives on Reids behalf by adding a robots.txt exclusion to her site, the company explained.

Reids claim regarding the point of manipulation is still unclear to us, The Wayback Machine wrote.

The Intercepts Glenn Greenwald pointed out that Reids claim is a bizarre story that liberal outlets are ignoring. He provided several verified comments written by Reid that square quite consistently with the newly discovered writing that she denies.

"Reids claim regarding the point of manipulation is still unclear to us."  The Wayback Machine

Mocking people on gender grounds, referring to men she suspects are gay as Miss, or implying they are trans for the sake of mockery, is a longtime Reid tactic, Greenwald wrote.

Greenwald said NBC sent out an undated document from a so-called independent security consultant. The document claimed Reid's blog was indeed compromised with fraudulent entries.

Webster University Cybersecurity Program Lead Paul Frazier told Fox News that Reids story is technically possible but could easily be verified.

To prove that they were not her remarks will require her to hire a certified cyber forensics expert who has the capability -- physically and legally -- to seize the file server hosting her blog and then run a series of forensics programs to determine what computer the posted comments were made from, Frazier explained. Not too difficult of a task as long as you have the training, the tools and the legal access to the server.

MSNBC did not immediately respond when asked if Reid will hire a cyber forensics expert.

Frazier said that until someone does this forensic look, people will simply have to take Reids word. Unfortunately for the MSNBC star, a lot of people seem to be skeptical of her story.

Columbia University computer science professor Steven Bellovin told Fox News that it's impossible to render any opinion on whether or not the claim is plausible or not without technical details that Reid has not provided.

She needs to provide proof beyond a statement that these slurs were fabricated and added without her permission or the questions will only continue to grow."  NewsBusters Managing Editor Curtis Houck

She needs to provide proof beyond a statement that these slurs were fabricated and added without her permission or the questions will only continue to grow, NewsBusters Managing Editor Curtis Houck told Fox News.

Greenwald followed up his story by tweeting that Reids claim that these newly discovered, horribly bigoted posts are fake needs to be verified.

Free Beacon reporter Alex Griswold doesnt buy Reids story, either, and took a series of jabs on Twitter.

Oddly, NBC seems to be insisting that the photographs circulating are photoshops, while Reid seems to be saying they were actually hosted on her site, but she was hacked, Greenwald wrote. Gotta keep the stories straight, guys!

BuzzFeeds Joe Bernstein tweeted, Reid should probably produce evidence from her Cybersecurity expert that hackers broke into the Wayback Machine to frame her as homophobic, as she claims.

This is a very strange story which gives me flashbacks to Anthony Weiner claiming hed been hacked, Hot Airs John Sexton wrote before asking a series of questions. Why didnt she realize the problem before she apologized last year? Why didnt she mention that she believed the site had been hacked until this new, unflattering material was revealed?

Its not only members of the media that have questioned Reids story, but a quick search of her name on Twitter reveals that regular folks are skeptical, too.

Unfortunate that people wont see this for the blatant lie it is, one user speculated while another wrote, No one believes she was hacked! So ridiculous!

Reid also told Mediaite that she has notified federal law enforcement officials of the breach, but MSNBC did not respond when asked which authorities were notified.

The Justice Department has a longstanding rule not to confirm or deny the existence of any investigations. When reached for comment, the Justice Department referred Fox News to the office of the Southern District of New York, which declined comment.

Greenwald has a theory on why most of Reids critics are from conservative-leaning news organizations, while mainstream outlets including CNN and The New York Times havent touched it.

The reason liberal news sites are ignoring the story is as self-evident as it is troubling: because Reids ideology is in accordance with theirs, and they therefore dont care if shes lying or telling the truth when denying authorship of these bigoted articles, nor do they care about the anti-LGBT bigotry itself, Greenwald wrote.

MSNBC did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The Daily Beast, where Reid is a contributor, did not immediately respond.
Jessica Chastain is sticking up for #TimesUp after Harvey Weinstein accuser Asia Argento said the movement excluded actresses who were not well known.

Argento, 42, an Italian actress and director, was one of the first women to accuse disgraced producer Weinstein of sexual assault. The actress has been outspoken against sexual misconduct in Hollywood following Weinsteins downfall last year. On Monday, Argento tweeted an article about Westworld star Thandie Newton saying she was excluded from the #TimesUp movement because she was not hot enough.

I wasnt hot enough. I wasnt mainstream enough and I wasnt going to be at the Oscars this year, even though I am having a renaissance in my career, Newton said.

KANYE WEST PROFESSES LOVE FOR TRUMP, CRITICIZES OBAMA

Argento tweeted the article saying, More proof, if any was needed that #TimesUp is an exclusive club [and extended feel-good PR opportunity] for Hollywood elites that shuns survivors.

I stand with you, Argento said in a following tweet.

Chastain commented on Argentos tweet saying she invited the actress to her house at the initiatives first meeting and felt so bad that others felt excluded from the movement.

I invited you to the first meeting at my house Nov 27th but unfortunately you were out of town. It wasnt called #TimesUp cuz we didnt have a name. It was just group of actresses coming together to see how we could support the brave women coming forward & create lasting change, Chastain tweeted.

I have felt so bad that some feel excluded. I was never asked to join anything, I just came forward to see how I could be of service. No one is unwelcome. The more women that come together, standing shoulder to shoulder, the stronger we are, she continued.

In a follow-up tweet, Chastain commended Argento for coming forward and speaking out against Weinstein.

I will always support you and what you did, she said.

Argento did not immediately reply to Chastains tweets. The movement has raised more than $20 million, Vulture reported.
Rapper Kanye West this weekend professed his "love" for President Trump and complained that he "couldnt get anything done" with former President Obama, according to a radio host who interviewed West.

The interview with Hot 97 host Ebro Darden came after West expressed his unexpected support for conservative activist and Black Lives Matter critic Candace Owens on Twitter.

"I love the way Candace Owens thinks," West tweeted Saturday. The post followed a lengthy string of pseudo-philisophical one-liners and platitudes, including "all you have to be is yourself" and "images are limitless and words aren't."

Owens, who is black, has been criticized for her support of President Trump and for her conservative political thoughts.

SINGER SHANIA TWAIN, AFTER BACKLASH, APOLOGIZES FOR SAYING SHE'D HAVE VOTED FOR TRUMP

West took on groupthink and identity politics the next day, adding, "[W]e have freedom of speech but not freedom of thought."

According to Darden, who recounted his conversation with the famed rapper on Monday's "Ebro in the Morning" broadcast, West said he liked Owens because shes challenging conventional black thought."

He also expressed love for Trump, Darden said, explaining that he had reached out to Obama for years and couldnt get anything done, but Trump gave me a meeting.

Obama famously called West a "jackass" during a taping of an interview, and reportedly doubled down on that epithet later.

"[West] said, 'I do love Donald Trump,'" Darden said.

The rapper reportedly told Darden his goal was to "deprogram" people, according to Vulture.

On Sunday, singer Shania Twain apologized for saying she would have voted for Trump in 2016 after a significant social media backlash.

KANYE WEST BOOED FOR SAYING HE WOULD HAVE VOTED FOR TRUMP

Fox News' Greg Gutfeld said West's comments are significant not because he endorsed any conservative views, but because he demonstrated a tolerance for hearing them.

"He challenged the mob," Gutfeld said. "Their goal is to stigmatize. Smears always shut down debate. ... There's nothing scarier to a leftist than a free thinker."

The Atlanta-born rapper has a history of provocative, unexpected statements.

"There's nothing scarier to a leftist than a free thinker."  Fox News host Greg Gutfeld

West famously said that "George Bush doesn't care about black people" in the wake of 2005's devastating Hurricane Katrina.

In 2016, West told a California crowd at a concert that he would have voted for Trump.

"I said something that was kind of politically correct. I told yall I didnt vote, right? What I didnt tell you  If I were to have voted I would have voted on Trump," West said.

"That dont mean that I dont think that Black Lives Matter, that I dont mean that I dont think I believe in womens rights  because that was the guy I wouldve voted for."

Despite not being well-received, the rapper continued to tell his fans to "stop talking about race so much."

West's history of independent-minded comments drew the attention of Infowars host Alex Jones this week, who tweeted Monday that he admired West and wants him to come on his show.
Rapper Meek Mill walked out of prison Tuesday after Pennsylvania's highest court ordered him freed while he appeals decade-old gun and drug convictions.

Following a five-month campaign by his supporters to get him out, the state Supreme Court directed a Philadelphia judge who had jailed him to immediately issue an order releasing him on unsecured bail.

Mill was sentenced in November to two to four years in prison for probation violations.

He was taken from the prison by helicopter to Philadelphia, where he rang the ceremonial bell at the start of Game 5 of the Philadelphia 76ers-Miami Heat playoff series.

"Welcome home Meek Mill," said the game announcer to the rapper, who was sitting courtside next to actor Kevin Hart and Sixers co-owner Michael Rubin.

Before the game, Mill visited privately with the Sixers in their locker room.

A team of lawyers and public relations consultants had waged an all-out battle to get him freed, leveling fierce criticism at the judge as a stream of high-powered figures and celebrities visited him in jail outside Philadelphia just hours before the Supreme Court ruling.

Mill issued a statement saying the past months had been "a nightmare," and thanked his many supporters and visitors, who included Rubin, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, and Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney.

"Although I'm blessed to have the resources to fight this unjust situation, I understand that many people of color across the country don't have that luxury and I plan to use my platform to shine a light on those issues," Mill said.

He said he would now focus his attention on getting his convictions overturned, and that he looks forward to resuming his music career.

Earlier this month, in a major victory for Mill, prosecutors said they agreed with his lawyers that he should get a new trial because of questions raised about the arresting officer. The now-retired officer was among a list of police officers the prosecutor's office has sought to keep off the witness stand in cases across the city because of credibility questions.

A spokesman for District Attorney Larry Krasner said late Tuesday that the Supreme Court's decision on Meek Mill's release was consistent with the position taken by their office.

Mill's attorney, Joe Tacopina, thanked the high court.

"Meek was unjustly convicted and should not have spent a single day in jail," Tacopina said.

In an opinion earlier this month, Judge Genece Brinkley, who sent Mill to prison for the probation violations, strongly defended herself against accusations by the defense she was waging a vendetta against the rapper. She said the court "has impartially and without prejudice presided over numerous proceedings in this matter since 2008."

The Supreme Court denied a defense request to move the case to another judge, but said the presiding judge could opt to remove herself.


Andrew Morton, the controversial British biographer behind the 1992 tell-all on Princess Diana, has his eyes set on a new subject: American actress and royal-to-be Meghan Markle.

The writer published a new book just a month before the Suits star marries Dianas youngest son Prince Harry in May titled Meghan: A Hollywood Princess, which aims to tell the life story of the 36-year-old, including the challenges she faced growing up biracial, her rise to stardom and the date that led to a royal engagement. The book also delves into what led up to Markle's first meeting with the queen, and Morton claims Prince Harry showed the monarch an edited compilation of the actress' time on "Suits"  sans any racy scenes from the USA show.

He showed it to the queen and Prince Philip, Morton told Fox News. Obviously not some of the love scenes between Meghan and Patrick J. Adams. Like the sex in the filing room and so on.

"I do find it amusing that those raunchy scenes Meghan appeared in on Suits and other movies are on the Internet, and yet shes scrubbed clean her blog, which includes essays on female equality She also got rid of her Instagram, which had some charming shots of her.

Morton previously stirred headlines when he penned the biography Diana: Her Life Story, which was based on the secretly-recorded conversations between the late princess and her friend, James Colthurst.

The biography became an instant best-seller, but the royal family was reportedly upset with the book that investigated their well-protected private lives.

For his new famous subject, Morton tracked down numerous sources close to the actress in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

I did a lot of work in Pasadena, just outside of Los Angeles, which is basically Meghan Markle central, Morton told Fox News. Its where people who participated in school plays with her live, drama teachers, old boyfriends, those associated with her first husband  its kind of interesting that people came out of the woodwork and said stories here and there."

And while the press has insisted Markle is attempting to emulate Diana, a tireless humanitarian who tragically died in 1997 at age 36 from a car accident, Morton insisted its far from an act.

What surprised me the most was how she, very early on, became an activist, he explained. At the age of 10, she was organizing protests against the Gulf War, for example. How she wrote to Procter & Gamble to complain about their sexist advertising and in doing so, they changed their advertising.

"She felt like she could make a change She was far more than an activist. This was somebody who was involved in demonstrations [at school] and writing messages of complaint to companies Meghan helped pursue petitions. I think all that unites the two women is the fact that both have a moral compass.

Morton also described how Markle would stand up for other young girls being bullied in school.

She would be the one who stepped in, he said. And people remembered that. Those who were bullied remembered that. It was Meghan who was there, stepped in and was a role model. People say she wants to be the new Diana, [but] she actually wants to be the new Meghan.

Still, Markle had dreams of becoming a star. And despite her growing success on television, it abruptly ended her first marriage to producer Trevor Engelson. The marriage lasted from 2011 to 2013.

In terms of her career, it was good with Suits," said Morton. But in terms of her relationship with Trevor, it was not good. She was living for a lot of the time in Toronto and he was in Los Angeles. So they started off their marriage on the wrong foot really. And certainly, friends have all said it came out of the blue they felt the divorce was very abrupt.

Morton said Markle mailed back her ring to Engelson once the marriage ended.

She obviously felt the relationship was over and there was no point in making a 10-hour journey just to see him [from the set], said Morton. Its one of those things where nobody really knows the true story, apart from the two people who were involved.

And just like Markles divorce was quick, so was her romance with Prince Harry. The couple was set up by a mutual friend in 2016.

I think its one of the surprising things, as far as Im concerned, said Morton.  She finds herself saying, Yes, please to Prince Harry when he asks her to accompany him on a safari. Its very unusual for her to jump into something so suddenly.

However, Morton noted Markle didnt seem to believe Prince Harry wasnt as famous as he is.

She obviously knew the broad brushstrokes, such as he was the son of Princess Diana So she was getting to know the man, as opposed to the icon, the symbol, the position, he explained. And I think thats what attracted them both to one another. And he didnt know much about her either. He had never seen Suits. He never heard her name as an actress. And thats what cleared the way for them.

Markle, who had learned from the mistakes of her first marriage, began to focus on the relationship more than her acting career.

Very soon after the relationship started, she began winding down, said Morton. She was telling her agent not to put her name down for any more events she was paid for to attend. Rather than amping up her profile, she was trying to wind down. And that was even before the whole thing became public The relationship was becoming more intense and more serious.

As for Prince Harry, he wanted to make sure Markle made an unforgettable impression on his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, who would need to sign off on the engagement before he could even propose.

Morton added Prince Harry was hands-on in prepping Markle for her meeting with the queen during afternoon tea. However, it was one surprising move that may have won his grandmother over quickly.

The royal family is very used to people being very nervous in their presence and coming out with the most nonsensical things, he said. I remember bishops had curtsied to the queen, rather than bow. All kinds of things go on. So Harry told Meghan to be yourself and be relaxed. And the fact that the corgis liked her was a plus in her favor.

"[The queen] gave her grandson permission to marry Meghan Markle, the first biracial, divorced, American actress She must have been impressed. If she hadnt been, she would have said no. And she has in the past.

However, Morton suspected that if Markle had met Harry a few years prior, there wouldnt have been a second date, let alone an engagement. He said Markle would have been turned off by the royals casual, youthful racism, which may have stemmed from his ongoing grief over losing his mother at age 12.

He was quoted in army videos for saying Pakis and ragheads, said Morton. He was not a very happy man. Not content and quite prejudiced. I think the army has made him grow up. And I think he had a bit of a long talk with himself about his life and going forward. And certainly, hes gone for therapy for the grief he felt over the tragic death of his mother.

"His grief was manifested in his anger [But] he started taking on more responsibilities in terms of the monarchy. He was inspired by the Invictus Games. Hes a new man. And thats why Meghan didnt walk on by."

Morton said that despite getting plenty of help from a doting Prince Harry, Markle is still bound to struggle in the palace as she gives up her thriving acting career and American home for a new life in England with a high-profile family. Still, he noted this will give Markle a chance to shine by returning to her roots.

She can pursue what she always wanted to pursue, which was childrens and womens issues, he said. And shes joining Prince Harry as the youth ambassador for the Commonwealth.

"She has worked with the state department, so she probably would have later become a diplomat We could have been talking about ambassador Markle, not Princess Markle.

Time will tell what the future has in store for the couple, but Morton does have one prediction: By this time next year, we will probably be talking about a pregnancy The clock is ticking. Shes going to be 37 in August Shes got a lot to give to the monarchy and she will help shape its future.
Princes heirs filed a wrongful death lawsuit Monday against Walgreens and the Illinois hospital that treated the musician after he suffered an opioid overdose a week before his 2016 death.

The suit filed in Cook County alleges a doctor and pharmacist at Trinity Medical Center in Moline failed to appropriately treat and investigate Princes April 15, 2016, overdose, and that he died as a direct and proximate cause of one or more  deviations from the standards of care.

The suit also accused Walgreens and pharmacists at two of its Minnesota branches of dispensing prescription medications not valid for a legitimate medical purpose.

KATE MIDDLETON, PRINCE WILLIAM LEAVE HOSPITAL AFTER WELCOMING BABY BOY

Prince was 57 when he was found alone and unresponsive in an elevator at his Paisley Park studio compound in suburban Minneapolis on April 21, 2016. An autopsy found he died of an accidental overdose of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times more powerful than heroin.

Authorities said it was likely Prince didn't know he was taking the dangerous drug, which was laced with counterfeit pills made to look like a generic version of the painkiller Vicodin. The source of those pills is unknown and no one has been charged in Prince's death.

A week before he died, Prince passed out on a flight home from an Atlanta concert and the private plane made an emergency stop in Moline. The musician had to be revived with two doses of Narcan, a drug that reverses effects of an opioid overdose.

At the medical center, Prince refused medical tests but was asked what drugs he took. Documents showed a pill he had with him, which was marked as Vicodin, was sent to the pharmacy for testing. A hospital pharmacist said it appeared to be Vicodin and returned it to Prince.

PRINCE THOUGHT HE WAS TAKING VICODIN, NOT FENTANYL; NO CHARGES FILED IN HIS DEATH

Prosecutors said last week that no chemical testing was done on the pill, but evidence suggested it was counterfeit and laced with fentanyl.

The lawsuit alleges the pharmacist and emergency room physician, Dr. Nicole Mancha, failed to timely diagnose and treat the overdose and failed to provide appropriate counseling.

The allegations against Walgreens stem from prescriptions that were dispensed to Prince, but written under the name of his bodyguard, Kirk Johnson. Authorities said Dr. Michael Todd Schulenberg admitted that he prescribed oxycodone to Prince under Johnson's name to protect Prince's privacy. Schulenberg disputes that, but paid $30,000 to settle allegations the drug was prescribed illegally.

Alexander Stein, a professor at Brooklyn Law School, told The New York Times the case would very difficult to win in most states, but Illinois is pro-patient.

Representatives for Walgreens and the hospitals parent company declined to comment on the suit. Princes heirs said they would comment on the case when the time is right.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Deryck Whibley is grateful he can hit the road again.

The Canadian rocker, who often sang about drinking and partying alongside his band Sum 41, collapsed in his kitchen in 2014 when his liver and kidneys failed after boozing the night before.

The then-34-year-old spent three days in an induced coma, followed by a month detoxing at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

But these days, the 38-year-old is in better spirits again. He and his bandmates are touring to celebrate the 15th anniversary of their hit album, titled Does This Look Infected?  and this time, hes enjoying life without hitting the bottle.

If anything I actually kind of enjoy it more now, which I wasnt really expecting, Whibley told People Magazine Tuesday. I was having such a great time when I was drinking and partying and I thought sobriety would be boring, but its really not.

Whibley also stressed that despite his rock n roll lifestyle, he isnt tempted to drink.

Everyones supportive, but at the same time they still drink and do their thing, which is fine because the last people I feel like drinking with is my band, he said. Ive done that. I could be on the tour bus and they can be drunk and doing their thing, and I can walk past them in the bus and listen to conversations and be like, Nope, I want none of that.

Whibley added, Theres nothing about that that makes me want to get in on this. Ive been there a million times at five in the morning sitting on the bus, sitting with these guys talking about nothing.

These days, Whibley said hes more interested in performing, writing new music for Sum 41s upcoming album, as well as spending time with his wife, model Ariana Cooper. The couple tied the knot in 2015.

Its still early but we plan on having new music as early as 2019, said Whibley. Even while Im on stage playing I can sort of map out ideas while Im performing other songs; I can sort of see how I would write something.

"Its weird, but when you get to a certain point on tour, you can write your grocery list while youre on stage, so I was actually kind of writing some ideas in my head while I was performing.

Still, Whibley is perfectly content performing songs from the same beloved album that made Sum 41 a sensation.

I feel like everything gets better  and not because of drinking or not drinking, he explained. As you get older and youve been around longer and its still working after this long, its just a different feeling than it was in the beginning.

"When youre so young and you have success, it goes by so fast that you dont quite have the capability to appreciate it. When you get older and you realize how difficult it is to maintain a career, you can feel a sense of accomplishment and pride.
"Smallville" star Tom Welling has proposed to his longtime girlfriend Jessica Rose Lee and is celebrating his engagement, while former co-star Allison Mack heads to court on sex trafficking charges linked to her time in the group NXIVM.

On Monday, Welling shared a FaceTime screenshot of himself and Lee with the caption, Love: from half way around the world."

The former "Smallville" hero is said to be in Queensland, Australia, while Lee is currently in Barcelona, Spain. In the several hashtags Welling used for the photo, one of the words he tagged was "fiance."

The couple has seemingly been engaged for a few months, but this is the first time Welling took to social media to share the news.

Back in February, Lee showed off her engagement ring finger in an Instagram post of the couple which read, To my perfect fiance- I love you to infinity and beyond. Thank you for all of your unwavering support and super-human love. I am so blessed to have you in my life.

The news of Welling's engagement comes as former co-star Allison Mack prepares to head to court for her involvement in an alleged sex cult.

Prosecutors said the 35-year-old worked as a slave master and "pimp" recruiting unsuspecting women to join NXIVM. She then required the women she recruited to engage in sexual activity with Keith Raniere, the cult's leader, who paid Mack in return.

After her arrest last week, the former "Smallville" actress pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking in federal court in Brooklyn on Friday, April 20.

A rep for Welling did not immediately return Fox News' request for comment regarding Mack's recent arrest.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Notorious YouTube star Jake Paul is reportedly being sued for $2.5 million after he was accused of trashing a property he rented in California.

The lawsuit, filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday, stated Paul and others rented the multi-million dollar single-family home located in an upscale neighborhood in 2016, The Wrap reported.

Paul and the others trashed the property while shooting their YouTube videos, the suit alleged. Paul, like his brother Logan, is known for pulling pranks and doing stunts in his videos. The YouTuber has more than 14 million subscribers to his channel.

The suit also stated many people went to the property after learning where Paul lived. The suit alleged Paul and the others caused extensive damage to the property.

PARIS JACKSON SLAMS RUMORS CLAIMING SHE IS ABOUT TO DIE

Defendants performed a number of dangerous and damaging stunts at the Subject Property including lighting fires in the backyard, filling the pool with cereal, draining the pool and lighting a fire in the pool, hosting parties at the roof, installing a trampoline on the roof, and making holes in the interior walls of the Subject Property, the suit stated.

Paul and others took it upon themselves to make repairs to the property because there was so much damage, the suit stated. Paul and others didnt receive permission to do any kind of remodeling, according to the suit.

The suit also stated the owners of the home were contacted by neighbors saying Paul had people in and out of the property all the time and fires were viewed from the backyard.

Pauls legal representative told TMZ that the plaintiffs were aware of the YouTubers antics.

Theres no allegation regarding the actual amount of damages other than the request for punitive damages, Pauls rep said. Thats because the damages were minimal compared to the amount theyre asking. They say they want punitive damages because they say they didnt know Jake would use the house for his pranks, but the original lease states its for Jakes personal use.

PRINCES HEIRS SUE WALGREENS, ILLINOIS HOSPITAL OVER MUSICIANS CARE DURING HIS FIRST OVERDOSE

The rep told the gossip site that it would be impossible for the property owners not to have known about the pranks because they raised the rent instead of asking them to leave.

Paul like his brother Logan have made headlines recently for their antics in front and behind the camera.

Jake Paul was captured on video saying the N-word, while Logan Paul received heavy criticism after he posted a video that showed a body of an apparent suicide victim in Japan.

Fox News' Madeline Farber contributed to this report.
Getting your hands on a lobster roll might be a bit trickier than usual as a shortage of the shellfish has caused prices to soar.

Due to a combination of international demand, bad weather in the Northeast and frozen fisheries in Canada, lobster prices have skyrocketed to as high as $15 a pound in the Northeast, nearly double the cost of last year, the Boston Globe reports. That price is even higher for the pre-shucked meat chefs buy for rolls, which is currently selling for around $40 per pound.

AIRLINE TO PAY TWO PEOPLE TO MOVE TO ICELAND AND TRAVEL THE WORLD

After surveying menu prices around Boston, the Globe found the cost of many lobster dishes to be outrageously high. A lobster roll, which typically sells for around $24 in the area, was going for as much as $49 at one restaurant. Another restaurateur claimed he was losing money on each lobster roll he sold.

The paper reports that lobster prices are seasonal, with March and April being the worst months in terms of pricing. This year has been especially bad as the windy wet weather that came along with several Noreasters resulted in fewer fisherman on the water. Additionally, federal law limits the number of boats allowed to enter Maines lobster fisheries, resulting in heavier reliance on Canadian fisheries, which have also been affected by winter weather, according to the Globe.

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Luckily, these high prices will likely decrease as the temperature rises. Beth Casoni, executive director of the Massachusetts Lobstermens Association, expects the cost to be around $6 a pound by summer, the Globe reports.
Pope Francis turned ice cream man on Monday when he honored his namesake St. Georges Day with a sweet treat for Romes needy citizens.

POPE FRANCIS PRAISES VERY GOOD BOURBON GIFTED TO HIM BY PRIEST

Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, paid for 3,000 ice creams to be handed out to the most needy and homeless of Rome, a statement from the Vatican said.

The Office of Papal Charities handed out the desserts in Pope Francis name to homeless shelters, soup kitchens and other facilities that service needy residents of Rome  most of which are run by Catholic charities.

Turns out the Pope could not have picked a better day for the charitable day as temperatures in Rome were unseasonably warm yesterday.

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The pontiff did not personally hand out the ice cream, but charity workers were photographed giving out wrapped ice cream cones, ice cream bars and packaged cups of vanilla and chocolate gelato, along with the usual hot meals served at the shelters.
This seasonal salad is sure to delight the palate and your family this Spring and Summer brought to us by Home Chef.

Cook Time:

Prep Time:10 min

Total Time:10 min

Servings: 2

Ingredients:

6 oz. Beef Steak Strips

2 tsp. Cajun Seasoning

5 oz. Baby Spinach

4 oz. Grape Tomatoes

3 fl. oz. Parmesan Peppercorn Dressing

1 oz. Crispy Fried Onions

Preparation:

Thoroughly rinse produce and pat dry

Combine steak strips with cajun seasoning

Place spinach, steak strips, and tomatoes in a bowl and toss with dressing. Garnish with crispy onions. Bon appetit!
A Florida girl is recuperating days after she "inhaled" pool water in an incident her mother has described as a "freak accident."

Elianna Grace, a 4-year-old from Sarasota, is now receiving oxygen therapy at Sarasota Memorial Hospital after ingesting pool water on April 14, according to a Facebook post by her mother, Lacey Grace.

Grace said Elianna was playing around with a pool noodle in her grandmother's pool, and as "many children do every day, she was blowing in one end and blowing water out the other," when another swimmer happened to blow water into the pool noodle at the same time she was blowing out.

This caused the pool water "to shoot directly down [Elianna's] throat," her mother wrote. The 4-year-old quickly threw up, but didn't show any odd symptoms  until two days later, when she developed a fever.

Initially, the mother said she didn't think much of it. "Kids get fevers, this is normal," Grace stated. But days later she took her child to an urgent care, where a doctor told her to get Elianna to an emergency room immediately.

The young girl was diagnosed with "aspiration pneumonia and is now on oxygen and relying on it to breathe," her mother wrote in the April 19 post.

The family is hoping that the antibiotic Elianna has taken will kick in so that "her lungs can find a way to get rid of the pool chemicals."

Lacey Grace is urging other parents to "immediately get help" if their children inhale pool water. According to a GoFundMe page the mother created, Elianna has since been released from the hospital and is being treated at home.
A bedridden 92-year-old World War II veteran had a dying wish fulfilled thanks to a Mississippi sorority  to dance with a beautiful woman.

Navy vet Paul Sonnier was the guest of the Phi Mu Sorority at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg at a party in his honor Monday, WDAM-TV reported.

"He'd always ask me if I wanted to go to Ropers, the local bar," the sororitys Jessica Moreau said. He says 'I'll teach you how to jitterbug and the waltz.'"

Moreau met Sonnier through SouthernCare Hospice Services, where she interns. During visits, he told her his final wish was to dance with a beautiful woman.

Sonnier "danced" to the music as he grasped hands with his hosts from his bed.

"It feels good to be with all these beautiful women," he told the station.

Family members said Sonnier was in the Navy during the Pearl Harbor attack and served during the war.

"What we appreciate the most is that our greatest generation member, my father, is happy that this younger generation appreciates everything that he did and sacrificed so they can sit here and have fun and have the freedoms that they have," his daughter Ida Sonnier said.
A routine trip to the dentist last year may have played a key role in saving an Oregon veterans life. Shawn Montgomery, who visited the Portland Community College Sylvania Dental Clinic last April, had a small discoloration on his face that concerned his dentist.

Dr. April Love suggested he see a dermatologist about the mark, which turned out to be stage 2 melanoma, Fox 12 reported. Montgomery, who is now cancer-free, wound up having an egg-sized growth removed from his face.

WOMAN HAS LEG AMPUTATED AFTER BREAK WOULDN'T HEAL

I was shocked, he told Fox 12. It really didnt hit me until the second procedure until they had to take a large chunk out of my face.

Montgomery told the news outlet that up until his diagnosis, he didnt really understand what melanoma was.

I thought they were just going to take a little snip out of there, he said.
Hours after the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge joyously welcomed their new son, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle made an appearance Monday at a more somber event in London, at which the former actress is now being slammed for her look.

At St. Martin-in-the-Fields church, the engaged pair stepped out hand in hand for the memorial service of Stephen Lawrence, an 18-year-old British black man murdered in a racially-charged attack 25 years ago, People reports.

The future royal sported a sleeveless, black, printed V-neck dress from Hugo Boss, cinched with a belt and paired with her signature bun, a clutch and nude pumps.

IVANKA TRUMP SPORTS $1,700 DRESS FROM FAVORED MEGHAN MARKLE DESIGNER

At the event, the couple spoke with Lawrences mother, and Prince Harry gave a speech on behalf of Prince Charles. British Prime Minister Theresa May was also in attendance, and sat next to Markle.

While Vogue notes that the duo's sheer presence at the Lawrence memorial could mark a watershed moment for the royal family, which has, traditionally, discouraged its members from publicly expressing their own political views, style critics nevertheless denounced Markle as being less than dressed for the occasion.

It's a memorial service for a murder victim. In a church. Is it too much to ask of Rachel to cover up with a jacket, wear stockings, sort out that messy hair for once and stop the holding hands! one commentator scolded her by the name of her "Suits" character, which is also Markle's given name.

'PREVENTATIVE BOTOX' RISING TREND AMONG MILLENNIALS

Someone needs a lesson in some decorum. Good grief, another said of the "inappropriate" outfit.

Others, meanwhile, were more forgiving.

Give her time, she is still learning. We know it should have been a suit or a dress with a collar and sleeves. She is a fashionista of the mod world, a supporter defended.

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All opinions aside, all eyes will unquestionably be on Markle as she ties the knot with her prince at St. Georges Chapel on May 19.
First lady Melania Trump is well accustomed to making headlines for her fashion choices, and Tuesdays all-white ensemble during President Donald Trumps first official state visit with France was no exception.

OFFICER GIVES FIREFIGHTER APOLOGY CAKE: 'SORRY I TASED YOU'

As the President and Melania welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, to the White House, all eyes were on Melanias striking accessory choice. The fashionable first lady made headlines for donning a wide-brimmed hat by French-American designer Herve Pierre, who also designed her inaugural gown. She paired the bold choice with a Michael Kors Collection belted blazer, suit skirt and Christian Louboutin heels.

The Internet didnt miss a beat commenting on FLOTUS headwear. People on Twitter made comparisons ranging from Beyonces hat in the Formation video to Olivia Popes infamous white hat on Scandal.

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Love it or hate it, Melanias hat certainly got people talking.
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Tuesday nights state dinner at the White House honoring French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, will be an opportunity to highlight the historic settings and artifacts that commemorate our heritage and celebrate the honored guests.

In every presidential administration, opportunities arise to use the iconic setting of the White House to highlight American values and impart a strong sense of personal style. These dinners are later memorialized in historical and personal accounts. Images from them may even become indelibly etched in our minds.

I know something about such occasions, because I was chief floral designer at the White House from 2009 to 2015. I was honored to help design decor and flowers for two visits by heads of state from France: the private dinner that President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama hosted for President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni, in 2010; and the state visit of President Francois Hollande in 2014.

For both events, the flowers were designed to carry out diplomatic, cultural and historical themes  with the goal of honoring France and the individual leaders, as well as to celebrate cherished American traditions and ideals.

Using flowers, symbolism, colors and historical pieces from the White House collection, my goal was to weave an integrated tapestry of inspired designs that told the story of the longstanding friendship between the U.S. and France

As the eyes of the world turn to see the meeting of two world leaders at the White House this week, here are the key things to look for in terms of floral and style diplomacy:

Our relationship with France dates back to the Revolutionary War, so this state dinner will likely include symbols that both commemorate our common bond and exemplify our shared democratic ideals.

Flowers and decor are not just simple decorative placements. They have the potential to take on a nuanced diplomatic role, conveying strategic messaging in support of the administrations policies and priorities that resonate in the White House setting and around the world.

When the French president and his wife arrived at the White House Monday, the exterior was awash in red, white and blue to greet the delegation. This was followed by the impressive pomp and circumstance of the state arrival ceremony on the South Lawn Tuesday morning.

In addition to this pageantry, its possible well see other signs and symbolism that bolster the narrative about the strength of our longstanding friendship, in both overt and subtle ways. The ceremonial planting Monday of an oak tree on the South Lawn of the White House  a symbolic gift to the Trumps from the French president and his wife  is being reciprocated by a comparable gesture from the president and first lady.

President Trump and Melania Trump are giving the Macrons a section of framed upholstery from one of the carved and gilded Blue Room chairs, designed in France and commissioned by President James Monroe.

But perhaps the greatest opportunity for making a symbolic statement will focus on the bonds of war. Because our relationship with France was solidified on the battlefields of the American Revolutionary War, along with World Wars I and II, commemorative memorial wreaths of symbolic flowers  a universal symbol of tribute that honors fallen heroes  can add a special, meaningful touch.

Some of the most beautiful and historic pieces in the White House collection have a French provenance  the 18th century gilt mirrored Monroe Plateau, the early 19th century marble-topped table in the Red Room by a French-American cabinetmaker, and the French Blue Room furniture acquired by President Monroe are just a few examples.

For their first state dinner President and Mrs. Trump are likely to showcase this prized White House collection that highlights Americas longstanding infatuation with French style and decorative arts.

Look for special vignettes and tributes displayed throughout the White House during the state visit. The antique objects are not only beautiful, but often come with wonderful stories that bring the inanimate objects to life.

In addition to highlighting the White House collection of French decorative arts, the first lady is paying tribute to former first ladies Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush by selecting their china for this inaugural state visit.

Additional decor includes the large urns of cherry blossoms lining the Great Hall. Cherry blossoms are not only the quintessential emblem of spring in Washington, but also in Paris, where they are currently in bloom in the Jardin de Tuilieries near the Elysses Palace, the home of the French first couple.

In the context of international diplomacy, kind personal gestures and genuine rapport among leaders carry great diplomatic weight, especially when conducted on the prominent White House stage. The Trumps and the Macrons are already off to a good start, having cemented their personal friendship last year when President Trump and the first lady visited France.

When the Macrons arrived at Joint Base Andrews Monday, Melania Trump launched the visit on a high symbolic note by arranging for an aide to present Brigitte Macron with a bouquet of purple irises, the national flower of France. President Macron noted this with obvious approval.

At Blair House, the official guest house for visiting dignitaries, the first lady likely sent a bouquet of flowers in the French style, featuring wildflowers inspired by the meadows surrounding the French couples hometown, along with a presidential welcome note penned in French.

Melania Trump, with her mastery of multiple languages, including French, is be able to converse with the Macrons in their native tongue, adding a unique touch of hospitality.

At the White House, especially during the private reception that is held in the residence before the state dinner, there will be additional opportunities to articulate special personal touches.

These personal touches range from decor that incorporates chocolate (a nod to Mrs. Macrons heritage coming from a family of chocolatiers) and vases decorated with sheet music (honoring President Macrons musical achievements as an award-winning pianist).

The sheet music showcases Claude Debussys Claire de Lune, Maurice Ravels Bolero, and the French national anthem. If the Trumps are lucky, perhaps President Macron will sit down to play these pieces on the grand piano in the Center Hall.

After the dinner, Mrs. Trump can add the piece de resistance finishing touch by presenting Mrs. Macron with a hand-held bouquet in the French style  a custom and practice I learned in France and introduced at the White House.

As former French first lady Carla Bruni departed the White House in 2010, Michelle Obama gave her a small white Chanel bouquet that was designed to honor her time as a Chanel model and French recording artist. This was a symbol of friendship adding a personal and memorable touch to a beautiful evening.

Tuesday nights state dinner, like most state visits, will not be remembered for scintillating toasts or serious policy breakthroughs. It will be remembered for the many meticulous details that convey symbolic meaning and metaphor and lay the groundwork for fruitful relationships and international diplomacy.

Flowers and decor are not just simple decorative placements. They have the potential to take on a nuanced diplomatic role, conveying strategic messaging in support of the administrations policies and priorities that resonate in the White House setting and around the world. This is the power  and potential  of floral and style diplomacy.
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Whether and how to regulate marijuana use has been in the news again recently. Currently, federal laws classify marijuana as a Schedule I (unhelpful and dangerous) drug. This means that physicians cannot prescribe marijuana for therapeutic or recreational purposes.

Since 1996, however, numerous states have revised their state criminal laws to permit marijuana to be sold and used for medical purposes. Some of these states (and the District of Columbia) even allow marijuana to be sold for recreational use by adults.

And Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., recently announced that he had reached a deal with President Trump to modify the federal criminal code regarding marijuana.

In addition, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y, said he will introduce legislation to leave it up to the states to decide whether to prohibit the distribution of marijuana.

Have the president and Gardner agreed that states should be free to let people use marijuana as the states see fit? Has Schumer correctly guessed which way the wind is blowing? That remains unclear.

Reports about the Trump-Gardner deal and Schumer proposal raise several additional questions:

? Will the federal government pursue an entirely new policy regarding marijuana regulation?

? If so, will that new direction leave decision-making entirely up to the states?

? If not, will the federal government still play a role?

? Will that change lead to a net social plus or minus?

The answer to each of those questions is the same: Maybe yes, maybe no. Thats because there is another possible option lying between absolute federal ban and complete state freedom.

Federal law has prohibited marijuana cultivation, processing and distribution since the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. That date is significant because the following year Congress passed the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act. The FDCA prohibited interstate commerce of adulterated food and drugs.

The FDCA also directed the commissioner of food and drugs to examine both products to make sure they were safe for interstate distribution.

In 1962, Congress also prohibited the distribution of new drugs unless the FDA commissioner first found them to be both safe and effective. Since then, Congress has consistently reiterated that the FDA should be responsible for making those decisions  not Congress, not the states, not the public.

Its an important matter. We do not decide by plebiscite which drugs should be sold to the public. America has resolved that experts should make that decision because the average person lacks the education, training and experience to answer the medical question of whether a particular drug is safe and effective.

Why should we treat marijuana differently?

For more than two decades, states have decided to reconsider their marijuana laws and permit people to use marijuana for medical or recreational purposes even though the distribution of marijuana is forbidden under federal law.

Three presidents  Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama  each failed to force Congress to decide whether federal law should also be re-examined.

President Trump may be willing to do what his three predecessors should have done. It is time for Congress to take up this subject once again.

Great nations, like great people, always must be willing to reconsider their laws in light of new developments. It makes sense for Congress to revisit this issue.

But that does not mean senators and representatives should act in a vacuum, without regard for the nations designated authority on food and drug safety. Nor should members of Congress simply act according to polling results.

We do not let the public decide which antibiotic, antiviral, antifungal, or chemotherapy drugs can be marketed. There is no reason to treat marijuana differently.

Congress has never let the FDA decide this issue, because federal law has treated marijuana as contraband since the year before the FDCA became law. Maybe we should treat marijuana in the same way that we treat any other new drug that someone argues should be used therapeutically.

No healthy democracy can afford to glibly disregard the opinions of experts on matters within their expertise. Since 1962, the United States has decided to trust the FDA with the responsibility to resolve any debate, either within or beyond the scientific community, over a drugs safety and efficacy. That decision is entitled to no less respect today than it was 50 years ago.

So maybe Congress will re-examine the treatment of marijuana under federal law and send the nation in a new direction. But maybe that new direction will be to leave the decision how to treat marijuana in the hands of the person we trust to make other, similar decisions: the commissioner of food and drugs.

And maybe that approach will be a net social plus. We certainly think so with respect to other drugs. Perhaps, its time to enlist the FDA commissioner to make a scientific judgment about this issue too.
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When Alexander Hamilton wrote of the judiciary, in Federalist 78, he called it the least dangerous branch. It lacks the executive power of the sword and Congress power of the purse. It has only the faculty of judgment, and must depend on the executive to enforce its judgments.

But what if the judges mistrust the executive, and announce that his orders be ignored? In that case the entire system of separation of powers might be undone, in matters purely political. The judiciary will have usurped the executive power and made little presidents of themselves. A frightening thought, and yet that is where we seem to be headed.

The threat began with the practice, begun over a year ago, of federal District Court judges announcing that Trumps travel bans were unconstitutional. It wasnt that presidents lack the authority to manage immigration policies. That wasnt in question. Rather, it was the authority of this president that was impugned. Trump was poison, and his directives were the fruit of a poisoned tree. He had shown himself to be biased against radical Islam, and as a consequence was deprived of any constitutional authority over immigration from Muslim countries. As the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals put it, Trumps tweets showed that he was tainted with animus toward Islam.

There have been a series of such decisions, from District judges cherry-picked as Trump haters. And they did more than impugn Trumps authority in their judicial District. They went beyond this to issue a countrywide injunction, a single judge ruling over the United States as a whole.

The issue is now before the Supreme Court. After initial judicial rebuffs, Trump is now on the third iteration of his travel ban. The Court will hear an appeal of a District Court decision in Hawaii, affirmed by the Ninth Circuit, that the ban revealed Trumps hostility to Muslims. For over a year, the president campaigned on the pledge, never retracted, that he would ban Muslims from entering the United States.

The Dems have run out of evidence of collusion, and merely want to keep the issue on life support. And the remedy? If the election was tainted, why not a do-over? Why not an injunction setting aside an election?

Had the presidents statements been taken in context, it would have been clear that Trump was addressing the problem of radical Islamic jihadists, and that he elsewhere went out of his way to condemn all racial and religious prejudices. But a politically minded judiciary wasnt interested in context. What they sought was political power, the power to nullify the decisions of a president they despise.

And why stop there? If everything Trump does is tainted with racial or religious bias, as the Democrats tell us, then its hard to see any limit to the scope of the judicial branchs power in the age of Donald Trump. If so, what seemed like an idiotic lawsuit by the Democratic Party against the Republicans, for collusion with the Russians in the 2016 election, might in fact be a very astute move. The Dems have run out of evidence of collusion, and merely want to keep the issue on life support. And the remedy? If the election was tainted, why not a do-over? Why not an injunction setting aside an election? For Heavens sake, think of the money wed save if we didnt need to have elections, but could rely on our betters on the bench to decide things for us.

In his book, The Least Dangerous Branch, Yale scholar Alexander Bickel saw the dangers of a runaway judicial power. He called it the counter-majoritarian difficulty. When judges usurp political power, its not simply a contest between two branches of the federal government. Its also a contest between democratic and non-democratic government, between rule by elected officials and rule by a priestly class of judges.

The fate of the latest Trump travel ban is now before the Supreme Court. One expects that theyll uphold it. The ban is well-tailored to protect Americans against terrorism, and resembles other bans from other presidents. Moreover, the Supreme Court might reasonably hesitate before provoking a constitutional crisis. For if we permit courts to intrude on political decisions, we invite presidents to second-guess judicial decisions. Weve seen this before, after all. Trump has been compared to Andrew Jackson, who said that Chief Justice John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it.
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President Trump again denounced the Iran nuclear deal Tuesday, calling it a terrible deal and adding: Its insane, its ridiculous. It should have never been made. This obviously has implications for whether the U.S. pulls out of the agreement with Iran  but also could kill any chance for substantive talks with North Korea on denuclearization before they even begin.

President Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron later called for a new nuclear deal with Iran during a joint news conference at the White House. President Trump has a May 12 deadline to decide if the U.S. should remain part of the current Iran deal.

What does an agreement with Iran have to do with an agreement with North Korea? If North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un sees that President Trump cant be trusted to keep a nuclear deal with Iran, Kim could reasonably conclude that Trump cant be trusted to honor a possible nuclear agreement with North Korea.

President Trump and Kim are planning to meet in late May or June. And Kim is scheduled to meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday.

The Iran deal is an agreement between Iran, the U.S., the European Union, and five other world powers that suspended tough international economic sanctions on Iran in return for restrictions on Irans nuclear program.

The deal was reached by the Obama administration and other nations in 2015 after many nations concluded that Iran was close to developing fissile material that could be used to build nuclear weapons.

At first blush, taking a hard line on Iran might seem like a good way to show the North Koreans that President Trump means business. But if Trump backs out of the nuclear agreement  without any evidence that Iran is cheating  that could easily lead Kim to believe Trump would do the same thing to North Korea.

Even under the best-case scenario, there is only the slimmest chance that Kim would be willing to negotiate away his prized nuclear program. Hes well aware that giving up a nuclear program  as Libya and Ukraine did  or failing to develop nuclear weapons, as was the case with Iraq, can leave a country more vulnerable to attack or even regime change.

As North Koreas state-controlled media exclaimed after one nuclear test: "The Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq and the Gaddafi regime in Libya could not escape the fate of destruction after being deprived of their foundations for nuclear development and giving up nuclear programs of their own accord."

Iran offers a powerful counter-example  for now. The promise of the historic agreement between Iran and the worlds major powers was that in exchange for giving up its nuclear ambitions, a rogue regime could re-engage with the international community, earn relief from crippling sanctions and boost its economy.

Iran had to take a leap of faith to accept that deal. It ended its plutonium program, curtailed its uranium enrichment program, and agreed to render key parts of nuclear cycle inoperable  all before it received any sanctions relief.

Iran acceded to unheard of intrusive inspections, including round-the-clock access to every nuclear site, continuous monitoring of its nuclear facilities via cameras and other means, and the ability for inspectors to gain access to undeclared sites, including military ones.

The Iranians agreed to do all this because they trusted the international community  and especially the United States  to uphold the other end of the bargain.

If now  after dismantling its nuclear program  Iran doesnt get the benefits it was promised, Americas word will no longer carry any weight. That will teach leaders like Kim to never make the same mistake Iran did and never make a deal with the United States.

Kim might still go through the theater of sitting down with President Trump, because the North Koreans crave the prestige and legitimacy such a meeting would convey. But Kim wont seriously consider giving up the protection his nuclear program provides for a deal President Trump could easily tear up whenever it suits him.

Even now, President Trumps belligerence towards Iran is weakening his negotiating hand with North Korea. In the unlikely scenario that Kim wants to negotiate seriously, the only deal President Trump could now reasonably hope for would be more limited and therefore less likely to succeed than the comprehensive deal with Iran.

This may sound counterintuitive, given how much criticism weve heard about the Iranian agreement. But President Trump may end up wishing he could get something even half as strict or sweeping as the deal President Obama negotiated with Iran.

Kim wont let himself be subjected to the uncertainty Iran is now facing  no future foreign government will.

So Kim seems certain to demand more assurances from President Trump and offer fewer concessions. In any negotiation where there is a total lack of trust, its common for governments pursue an incremental approach rather than trying for anything sweeping.

The idea is for both parties to take small steps to build confidence before attempting anything bigger. This is what the Clinton administration did with North Korea in 1994 when it signed the Agreed Framework, an incremental deal to freeze and dismantle two North Korean nuclear reactors.

The Agreed Framework ultimately failed. One of the lessons the Obama administration took away from that failure was the need to avoid half measures and pursue a more comprehensive agreement with Iran  one that covered the entire nuclear fuel cycle, not just a few reactors. President Trump likely wont have that option.

As a result, President Trumps threats to tear up the Iran deal are weakening his negotiation position with Kim before even sitting down at the table.

President Trump would do well to take the opposite approach and strengthen his hand by sending North Korea a message that these kinds of deals can in fact work. The only way to do that is to stay in the Iran nuclear agreement.
Former President George H.W. Bush was hospitalized on Sunday -- one day after the funeral for his wife, former first lady Barbara Bush -- after an infection he contracted spread to his blood, his spokesman said Monday.

"President Bush was admitted to Houston Methodist Hospital yesterday morning after contracting an infection that spread to his blood," spokesman Jim McGrath said in a statement. "He is responding to treatments and appears to be recovering. We will issue additional updates as events warrant."

The former first lady died on April 17 at the age of 92, shortly after her family announced she was in failing health and would decline further medical treatment in favor of "comfort care." There were no details of her specific health problems.

First lady Melania Trump tweeted Monday evening that she was "Sending healing thoughts of strength, along with prayers, for President George HW Bush tonight."

George H.W. Bush, 93, reportedly was broken-hearted over the loss of his beloved Barbara and was said to have held her hand all day. He was at her side when she died, his chief of staff said.

The former president was hospitalized last April for two weeks due to a "mild case of pneumonia." Earlier in 2017 he was hospitalized for 16 days, also to be treated for pneumonia. He was temporarily placed on a ventilator and was treated in the intensive care unit. His wife also was in the hospital around the same time to treat a case of bronchitis.

He also requiered medical care in 2015 in Maine after falling at home and breaking a bone in his neck, and in December 2014 for about a week for shortness of breath. He spent Christmas 2012 in intensive care for a bronchitis-related cough and other issues.

The 41st president uses a wheelchair and an electric scooter for mobility after developing a form of Parkinson's disease, and he has required hospital treatment multiple times in recent years for breathing problems.

Bush served as president from 1989 to 1993 and as vice president under Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1989. He also served as a congressman and as director of the CIA.

Fox News' Samuel Chamberlain and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Republican chairmen of the House Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee announced Monday that the Justice Department has agreed to provide them with documents related to the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server.

The deal was struck after Reps. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., met this month with the U.S. attorney, John Lausch, who has been selected to respond to Republican demands for documents.

"We look forward to reviewing the information to better understand the decisions made by the Department of Justice in 2016 and 2017," Goodlatte and Gowdy said in a joint statement. "Congress has a constitutional responsibility to preserve the integrity of our justice system by ensuring transparency and accountability of actions taken."

Goodlatte subpoenaed the Justice Department last month for records of the investigation, which ended in July 2016 without charges being filed against Clinton.

The congressmen met with Lausch two weeks ago about the documents.

Fox News' Chad Pergram and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Dr. Hiral Tipirneni had never run for public office before, but she believed her skills as a cancer research advocate and physician are just what she needs to take on Washington, D.C.

Tipirneni, a Democrat, was narrowly defeated by former state Sen. Debbie Lesko, a Republican, for an open seat in Arizonas 8th congressional district. The position has been vacant since December when GOP Rep. Trent Franks resigned amid a sexual misconduct scandal.

Tipirneni, who hasn't yet conceded the race, said she plans to run for the seat again in November. She said she wasn't shocked that she came in so close to Lesko, despite the big GOP advantage in the district, because people want a change.

"We weren't surprised, we're not surprised," she told The Associated Press. "And we're still waiting to see the rest of the votes."

Lesko beat Tipirneni by 5 percentage points, according to The New York Times' projection.

Read on for a look at five things to know about Tipirneni.

Tipirneni is a former emergency room physician

Tipirneni was inspired to go into medicine after suffering a childhood illness, according to her campaign website. She would eventually earn her medical degree from Northeast Ohio Medical University and serve as chief resident of the University of Michigans emergency medicine program.

After she moved to Arizona with her husband, who is also a doctor, Tipirneni worked in several local emergency departments, including: Banner Good Samaritan, Maricopa County Medical Center, Banner Thunderbird and Abrazo Arrowhead hospitals.

Shes dedicated to cancer research

Tipirneni lost both her mother and nephew to cancer, she told Fox News in an interview. And its because of those losses that she has dedicated her career to cancer research.

Tipirneni leads teams of clinicians, patient advocates and researchers in the fight to treat and cure breast cancer, prostate cancer and childhood leukemia, she said on her campaign website.

A lot of folks feel alienated. I would fight on their behalf and not fight about ideology.  Dr. Hiral Tipirneni

Its those skills that shes honed in on as a doctor and cancer research advocate  working together with a group of diverse people with different perspectives to help patients  that she wanted to take to Washington.

Tipirneni also serves on the board of directors of the Maricopa Health Foundation.

She doesnt care about partisan fighting

Tipirneni knows that the 8th congressional district is considered to be a conservative one  and President Trump did win it by 21 percent. But she said shes not interested in partisan bickering and wanted to work with other lawmakers to best represent the constituents.

One of the big reasons I decided to run is Im so frustrated by the lack of forward progress, divisiveness and standing solely on a partisan [ground], Tipirneni told Fox News.

Im looking to bring people together to the table to have a conversation, she continued. A lot of folks feel alienated. I would fight on their behalf and not fight about ideology.

Tipirneni came to the U.S. from India

When she was 3 years old, Tipirneni and her family came to the U.S. from India, according to her campaign. And despite the degrees her parents held, it was a challenge financially.

Her parents were seeking the American dream because they knew the United States was a place where, if you worked hard and lived by the rules of democracy, you could be successful no matter where you came from, her campaign website reads.

This experience also shapes her position on immigration. She said that while she believes the U.S. needs to secure its borders, it also must remain a land of opportunity for those who are willing to work for it.

Tipirneni called for a solution for DACA and comprehensive immigration reform. She said she is opposed to Trumps proposed border wall, as she believes the funds for it would be better spent towards securing our border in other ways.

This was her first political campaign

While Tipirneni has volunteered for other campaigns  including working phone banks, running voter registration drives and canvassing neighborhoods  this was the first time the doctor is running for public office herself.

The reason Im doing this is because I am a constituent as well in this district, and Ive spent many years frustrated, feeling that I dont have a voice in D.C., she said.
The Senate will likely vote to confirm Mike Pompeo as the nations top diplomat later this week.

But Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., appeared to earn that distinction for at least a few hours Monday night.

The fate over Pompeo hop-scotched between no fewer than five members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee late Monday as the panel tried to discharge the nomination to the floor.

The success of the nomination initially hinged on Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who long opposed Pompeo. Then it was up to Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who had been undecided.

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, next. He was running late.

It later toggled to Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., who was away in mourning at the funeral of a best friend in Georgia.

Finally, Pompeos future landed in the hands of Coons, who opposes the nominee for secretary of state. And by the end of the night, it was the Delaware Democrat who helped propel the nomination to the floor with a surprising, O. Henry twist.

Coons will oppose the Pompeo nomination on the floor later this week. But on Monday, Coons found a friend in need: Isakson.

Isakson supports Pompeos nomination and will vote yes. But the Georgia Republican delivered the eulogy at the funeral back home and couldnt make the 5 p.m. ET meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Pompeo. Senators on the panel were slated to vote Pompeos nomination out of committee and advance it to the floor. But the question was whether they would vote on the nomination favorably, unfavorably or without recommendation.

The panel is narrowly divided: 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats.

After lots of drama last week and Monday, it was clear Pompeo would likely secure just enough votes to score confirmation. But the question lingered about how the committee would send the nomination to the floor. The committee can grant a nominee a favorable vote, an unfavorable vote or grant no recommendation whatsoever.

It was first thought there was trouble with Paul. Paul announced his opposition to Pompeo a few weeks ago and even took a special meeting with the nominee late last week.

I think that it would be quite surprising to the voters of Kentucky to see Rand Paul vote for John Kerry for Secretary of State and yet against Mike Pompeo, Marc Short, the White House Director of Legislative Affairs, said.

It was also unclear where Flake may come down.

Never before had a nominee for secretary of state received anything but a glowing score from the committee. The last time the full Senate confirmed a cabinet-level nominee with an unfavorable committee recommendation came in 1945. Thats when the Senate confirmed former Vice President Henry Wallace as commerce secretary.

I want to thank Sen. Coons for displaying statesmanship. It shows that senators at the right time can do outstanding things.  Sen. Bob Corker

The Senate confirmed Clarence Thomas for the Supreme Court despite the judiciary committee giving the nominee no recommendation in 1991.

So it was thought Pompeo may secure anything but a favorable recommendation.

However, moments before the committee met, Paul flipped his vote to yes. Flake also ended his holdout and announced he was a yea. So, the committee appeared to be on track to give Pompeo the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval on an 11-10, party-line vote.

Not for long.

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the committees chair, indicated there were some logistical issues the panel had to work through.

When Corker gaveled the session to order, Portman, Isakson and Coons were absent. It was quickly confirmed that Portman and Coons ran into travel snafus but were en route. Isaksons office said the senator was speaking at the funeral and wouldnt hit DC until after 11 p.m. ET.

Portman arrived. But not Coons. His flight was canceled.

If I were to call the vote right now, we would vote (Pompeo) out right now, said Corker, knowing that with the presence of Portman and the support of Paul and Flake, the committee could vote in favor of the nominee 10-9. Let it be noted that I told Sen. Coons we would wait until he was here to have the vote.

Coons finally arrived. However, Isakson was still in Georgia. The vote to report Pompeo out of committee with a favorable recommendation would be 10-10.

A tie.

By rule, ties fail. But Corker forged ahead, declaring that Isakson, despite his absence was aye by proxy. So 11-10. Still, committee rules forbid proxy votes on behalf of absent senators if they impact the outcome of a roll call tally. So there was a conundrum.

Corker fretted about setting a new precedent, dispatching Pompeos nomination to the floor with anything short of a favorable rating. Corker then mulled delaying the vote until Isakson could arrive late Monday night.

Im willing to stay until whatever hour is necessary, said Sen. Bob Menendez, D-NJ, the top Democrat on the committee.

Bring the coffee, shot back Corker.

Still, the committee voted. And sure enough, the vote was 11-10. But in essence, deadlocked thanks to Isaksons proxy vote.

Coons proffered sending the nomination to the floor with no recommendation. Corker suggested a voice vote where the senators arent recorded and the loudest side prevails.

Corker then pondered if a Democrat could vote present. And Coons, despite his opposition to Pompeo, offered to switch his committee vote from no to present in an effort to advance the nomination to the floor  to offset the absence of his friend Johnny Isakson.

The committee voted again. This time the vote was 11-9 with Isakson voting yea by proxy and Coons voting present, not nay. Coons decision to switch to present made Isaksons yea vote count, despite his absence.

A present vote by Coons this time meant Isaksons proxy vote wasnt the deciding factor in the tally. In fact, the vote just as easily could have been 10-9 with Coons voting present, without Isaksons ballot. But Coons took one for the team. He took one for the committee. He took one for the Senate. He took one for the Trump Administration. And most significantly, he took one for his friend Johnny Isakson.

I want to thank Sen. Coons for displaying statesmanship, said Corker, choking back tears. It shows that senators at the right time can do outstanding things.

Coons said it would have been cruel to haul Isakson back to Washington just to vote sometime before the witching hour Monday night.

Johnny Isakson is one of my best friends, said Coons. Johnny had a difficult day. He delivered the eulogy today for his best friend.

Coons said when his father died, a Republican senator he didnt know well offered to pair his vote with Coons so he could attend the funeral. The practice of pairing votes is when two senators on opposite positions of an issue agree in tandem not to vote. The phenomenon offsets each others votes. The Coons-Isakson alliance on Pompeo wasnt a true paired vote. But the outcome was the same.

Several of my Democratic colleagues said its the right thing to do, observed Coons.

In a statement later, Coons said hed still vote against Pompeo on the floor.

It was not an abandonment of principles. It was simply a courtesy to a friend who would do the same for me. I think we need more of that in the Senate, and I think we need more of that in this country, said Coons.

Earlier in the day on Fox, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders upbraided Democrats for opposing Pompeo.

At some point, Democrats have to decide whether they love this country more than they hate this president, said Sanders.

A lot of Democrats dont think much of President Trump. Many dont support Mike Pompeo to be the next Secretary of State. But after this evenings vote, one things for sure: Chris Coons has love for his friends.
A former Texas education official asked a biracial teen accepted to an Ivy League school whether he was admitted based on merit or quota.

George Clayton, a Republican who held the District 12 seat from 2010 to 2012, replied Friday to Drake Johnsons tweet celebrating his acceptance to Harvard University with the bizarre question.

Congrats. Were you admitted on merit or quota? asked Clayton.

Johnson, who was also accepted to 10 other schools including Cornell and Brown, fired back at the former official, detailing his achievements.

Thank you! Valedictorian, ASB President, World Champion, good SAT, and a couple handfuls of other involvements, so I would think merit? Johnson wrote.

Claytons tweet sparked thousands of negative replies, criticizing the former education official for the question.

George Clayton, that was disgusting and moronic and evil, and you owe Mr. Johnson an apology, wrote one Twitter user.

Sad that someone who labels himself an educator would offer only spite, jealousy and envy to a talented college-bound student, wrote another.

Jeanie Johnson, the teens mother, told The Dallas Morning News that she read Claytons tweet as racist. "Why do you care, and why are you asking that particular question to a kid who is clearly of some type of mixed race?" she asked. "That is just so frustrating."

Clayton apologized to Johnson.

What I said in my remarks was totally wrong and hugely insensitive. My shame hangs heavy in my heart, he tweeted.

It was totally out of character for me to make such a hateful comment. I am, of course humbled by my words and sincerely sorry for them.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Three candidates make up the top tier in West Virginias Republican Senate nomination contest, according to a Fox News Poll released Tuesday.

Congressman Evan Jenkins garners 25 percent among West Virginia likely GOP Senate primary voters, while the states Attorney General Patrick Morrisey receives 21 percent and businessman Don Blankenship takes third with 16 percent. The edge Jenkins holds over Morrisey is within the polls margin of sampling error, and the same is true for Morriseys edge over Blankenship.

CLICK TO READ THE FULL POLL RESULTS.

No other candidate gets more than four percent support: Tom Willis (4 percent), Bo Copley (2 percent), and Jack Newbrough (1 percent).

The race appears fluid. In addition to the sizable group of undecideds (24 percent), another 41 percent of those currently backing a candidate say they could change their mind before the May 8 primary.

Fox News is hosting a West Virginia GOP Senate primary debate Tuesday, May 1 with co-moderators Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum at the Metropolitan Theatre in Morgantown, West Virginia from 6:30-7:30PM/ET.

The three candidates chosen to take the debate stage will be Jenkins, Morrisey, and Blankenship, Fox News announced late Tuesday.

The new poll, conducted April 18-22, was completed prior to a Monday evening debate hosted by The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.

These GOP primary voters say the opioid addiction crisis (20 percent) and the economy (19 percent) are the most important issues facing the country today, followed by immigration (16 percent) and health care (14 percent). Gun policy (6 percent), abortion (5 percent), energy and environmental issues (3 percent), and taxes (3 percent) are lower priorities.

Among the subgroup of just those who say they will definitely vote, Jenkins tops Morrisey by 25-23 percent, and Blankenship stays at 16 percent.

Jenkins tops Morrisey by three points among evangelical Christians (25-22 percent). Blankenship receives 16 percent.

Blankenship does a bit better among white men without a college degree. He garners 21 percent, which puts him one point above Morrisey (20 percent) and three points behind Jenkins (24 percent).

The Mountain State gave Donald Trump one of his biggest wins in the 2016 general election, capturing 69 percent of the vote vs. Hillary Clintons 27 percent. And he won the states GOP presidential primary with 77 percent support (May 2016).

They still like him. Fully 87 percent of GOP primary voters approve of Trumps job performance, including 67 percent who strongly approve.

For comparison, 35 percent approve of the man Republicans hope to unseat in November -- Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin.

The Fox News Poll is conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R). The poll was conducted April 18-22, 2018 by telephone (landline and cellphone) with live interviewers among 985 West Virginia likely Republican primary voters and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points. Republican and unaffiliated respondents were randomly selected from a statewide voter file of registered voters identified as likely to vote in the primary.
All eyes are on Justice Neil Gorsuch as a major constitutional challenge to one of President Trump's most controversial initiatives -- the so-called travel ban -- comes before the Supreme Court.

Trump's own nominee to the court could prove key with oral arguments scheduled for Wednesday.

At issue, in part, is whether the third and latest version of Trump's travel ban, affecting visitors from six majority Muslim nations, discriminates on the basis of nationality and religion. Given the high public interest, the court is modifying its usual policy and will release audio of the session soon after its conclusion.

The controversy pits an administration that considers the restrictions necessary for Americans' security against challengers who claim it is illegally aimed at Muslims -- and stems from Trump's campaign call for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims" entering the U.S.

The case will be the first significant legal test so far of the president's administration and could lead to a precedent-setting ruling on the limits of executive power, especially within the immigration context.

"This is a very difficult issue for the Supreme Court," said Thomas Dupree, a former top Bush Justice Department official. "In many ways, it's a political judgment -- who is allowed into this country -- and historically the court has been very reluctant to tread into areas where it could be viewed as making a political judgment that is properly confined to the executive."

The Gorsuch factor

Attention on Gorsuch is heightened after a surprise ruling last week. Trump's appointee to the high court has been a reliable conservative in his first year on the bench but last week ruled against the administration in a separate immigration case involving government efforts to deport foreigners convicted of serious crimes in the U.S.

Gorsuch in that dispute sided with the court's four more liberal members, the first time that has happened in his tenure on the job. He has given no indication how he would vote in the travel ban issue.

In this case, the justices have allowed the current restrictions -- known as travel ban 3.0 -- to be enforced at the Justice Department's request, at least until the case is fully litigated.

Federal appeals courts in Virginia and California in recent months had ruled against the administration. The San Francisco-based 9th Circuit court last December concluded Trump's proclamation, like the two previous executive orders, overstepped his powers to regulate the entry of aliens.

It "fails to provide a rationale explaining why permitting entry of nationals from the six designated countries under current protocols would be detrimental to the interests of the United States," wrote the appeals judges.

The White House, on the other hand, has framed the issue as a temporary move involving national security. A coalition of groups in opposition call the order blatant religious discrimination, since the six countries involved have mostly Muslim populations: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

How much power does the president have?

A major sticking point for the justices will be navigating how much discretion the president really has over immigration. Courts have historically been deferential in this area, and recent presidents from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama have used it to deny entry to certain refugees and diplomats, including nations such as Iran, Cuba and North Korea.

A 1952 federal law -- the Immigration and Nationality Act, passed in the midst of a Cold War fear over Communist influence -- historically gives the chief executive broad authority.

It reads in part: "Whenever the president finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may, may by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate."

The administration strongly denies this is a "Muslim ban," but federal judges across the country cited statements by then-presidential candidate Trump and his advisers, including a December 2015 campaign press release calling for such restrictions, citing "hatred" by "large segments of the Muslim population."

In its legal brief to the high court, the Justice Department downplayed the impact of remarks made by a candidate for high office.

"Impugning the official objective of a formal national security and foreign policy judgment of the president based on campaign trail statements is inappropriate and fraught with intractable difficulties," wrote the department's Solicitor General Noel Francisco.

Sixteen state leaders led by Texas are among a number of coalitions backing the Trump administration.

But Hawaii officials, who filed the appeal contesting all of the president's orders, say the president's policies continue to violate the Constitution's guarantee of religious freedom:

"Any reasonable observer who heard the President's campaign promises, read his thinly justified orders banning overwhelmingly Muslim populations, and observed his Administration's persistent statements linking the two, would view the order and each of its precursors as the fulfillment of the President's promise to prohibit Muslim immigration to the United States."

A number of civil rights, immigrant and Muslim advocates filed separate briefs opposing the government's policies. These challengers to the 3.0 order argue Trump has taken his enumerated powers to extremes by banning entire populations from multiple countries, an estimated 150 million people.

Legal experts say the high court will be juggling multiple issues.

"This ban does not make us safer," said Elizabeth Wydra, president of the progressive Constitutional Accountability Center. "In fact, it actually goes against our national security because it undermines key elements of our Constitution: the idea we don't discriminate on the basis of religion. There cannot be a religious test at the border. That's un-American, unconstitutional and unlawful."

But conservatives say the justices should have a limited role here.

"If you don't like the policy prescriptions of a president, you vote him out of office. It is not the judiciary's role to look behind the executive order," said Gayle Trotter, a Washington attorney and columnist. "He has the authority, particularly in this area where his powers are at the height under the Constitution."

Trump's first executive order was issued just a week after he took office, and was aimed at seven countries. It triggered chaos and protests across the U.S., as some travelers were stopped from boarding international flights and others detained at airports for hours. Trump modified the order after a federal appeals court refused to allow the ban to be enforced.

"This is not about religion-- this is about terror and keeping our country safe," said the president on Jan. 29, 2017.

The next version, unveiled weeks later, dropped Iraq from the list of covered countries and made it clear the 90-day ban covering Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen didn't apply to those travelers who already had valid visas. It also got rid of language that would give priority to religious minorities. Critics said the changes did not erase the legal problems with the ban.

When that second temporary travel ban expired in Sept. 24, it was replaced with Proclamation 9645 -- what the administration said was a country-by-country assessment of security and cooperation with the U.S.

The current case is Trump v. Hawaii (17-965). A ruling is expected by the end of June.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told a cheering crowd of thousands on Tuesday that if any country betrays the 2015 nuclear deal they would face severe consequences.

Rouhani did not go into specific details, but he told the crowd in Tabriz that the country is prepared for all possible situations, Reuters reported.

He made the comments while President Trump is meeting in Washington with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, who is working to convince him to stay in the pact.

The New York Times reported that Germanys Chancellor Angela Merkel will also work to convince Trump at a meeting later this week.

Wendy R. Sherman, the former top official at the State Department who negotiated the deal for then-President Obama, told the paper that Trump and Macron are likely having a very difficult conversation.

Im sure that Macron will say how important staying in the deal is to a strong trans-Atlantic relationship in all things, particularly security, she said.

The White House on Monday appeared to show little change in Trumps opinion on the deal.

He thinks its a bad dealthat certainly has not changed, Sarah Sanders said.
On paper, there is simply no question: Mike Pompeo is qualified to be secretary of State.

He was a member of Congress for a half-dozen years and has run the CIA for well over a year without any significant missteps.

In fact, 14 Senate Democratsincluding Chuck Schumer and Dianne Feinsteinvoted to confirm the Kansas lawmaker as the nation's top spymaster.

So the fact that his nomination as secretary of State is even in doubt pretty much boils down to politics. And that's why the Foreign Relations Committee narrowly approved the Pompeo nomination the Pompeo nomination yesterday on a party-line vote, made possible only because Rand Paul bowed to pressure from President Trump.



The Democrats don't really have a case against Pompeo, especially those who thought he'd be just fine as CIA director. It's their way of sticking it to Trump.

Does Pompeo have particularly extreme views? Has he shown he can't run a large organization? No. It's a way of striking a symbolic blow against the Trump foreign policy. This is nothing more than a proxy battle.

In fact, Pompeo appears to have deftly handled the secret assignment that most mirrors his potential promotion at Foggy Bottom: meeting with Kim Jong Un and laying the groundwork for a presidential summit on nuclear weapons.

Now I hasten to add that both sides on the Hill play plenty of politics with nominations. Merrick Garland was qualified for the Supreme Court, and Senate Republicans wouldn't even give him a hearing for a yearwith candidate Trump's support.

I would argue that Pompeo is more qualified than Rex Tillerson, who had no government experience and no feel for politics despite his long tenure as Exxon-Mobils CEO.

There is a long Washington tradition of allowing a president to pick his own senior Cabinet members, unless the person is blatantly unqualified or marred by ethical concerns. But Democrats can counter that Trump has shattered many Beltway traditions.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders has ratcheted up the rhetoric by declaring, "Look, at some point, Democrats have to decide whether they love this country more than they hate this president." White House officials point to Republican support for the nominations of Hillary Clinton and John Kerry.

Trump took to Twitter to blame the Democratic opposition on "obstructionists."

Even the anti-Trump New York Daily News, while taking some potshots, says in an editorial that Pompeo should be confirmed because he "has solid knowledge of the world, the discipline to oversee complex diplomacy and  a double-edged sword, we admit  the trust of a president who seems to believe in almost no one."

Pompeo would have lost the committee vote if Paul, who objected to Pompeo's support of the Iraq war, hadn't flipped at the last minute, using as cover the claim that he's now been assured that the nominee agrees with Trump's opposition to the conflict.



With John McCain sidelined, the Republicans have only a 50-49 edge in the chamber. Only three Democrats are backing Pompeo so far  Heidi Heitkamp, Joe Donnelly and Joe Manchin, all facing reelection in red states. So he will likely wind up being confirmed by a vote or two.

Pompeo would have been the first nominee for the State Department's top job to be rejected in committee since votes started to be recorded in 1925. The last nominee voted down for a top Cabinet job was John Tower, whose bid to run the Pentagon was derailed by allegations involving conflict of interest, alcohol and women.

Critics who complain about Trump's lone-ranger approach to foreign policy should want a competent manager running the State Department bureaucracy and channeling the expertise of career diplomats. But that, of course, is not what yesterdays vote was about.
A self-described "real Indian" who is running against Mass. Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren is suing after city officials demanded he take down his signs calling her a "fake Indian."

The upstart independent Senate challenger, Shiva Ayyadurai, on Sunday filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the demand from the city of Cambridge violates his constitutional free speech rights, according to The Washington Times.

Since March 17, Ayyadurai's campaign bus has sported two identical signs picturing himself and a rendition of Warren wearing Indian attire. Emblazoned next to the images are the words: "Only a REAL INDIAN Can Defeat the Fake Indian."

The bus has reportedly been stationed in a parking lot in front of an office building owned by Ayyadurai, who faces exceptionally long odds, for more than a month -- just a mile from Warren's home.

Earlier this month, the campaign received a notice from Cambridge building inspector Branden Vigneault that the signs lacked the appropriate "approvals and permits," according to local reports and the Ayyadurai campaign.

WATCH: CHEROKEE WOMAN BLASTS WARREN, ASKS HER TO STOP CLAIMING ANCESTRY

Vigneault threatened fines of $300 per day plus additional legal penalties if the signs remain in place, according to Ayyadurai.

"The problem with Warrens story is that none of the evidence supports it."  Cherokee genealogist Twila Barnes

We will not remove the slogan from our bus, Ayyadurai told The Washington Times. We will defend the First Amendment, and we will fight this egregious attack on the First Amendment, at any cost.

Ayyadurai's campaign reportedly thinks the building code doesn't apply to the signs because they're on a bus, not a structure.

Warren has long been accused of saying she is of Native American heritage to help in securing jobs, including one as a Harvard law professor.

President Trump has repeatedly called Warren, a Wall Street critic and potential White House rival, Pocahontas, a notable American Indian woman in colonial history, to highlight the controversy. Warren has said she ruled out challenging Trump in 2020.

WATCH: WARREN SAYS 'I'M NOT RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT,' RIPS CRITICS OF ANCESTRY

When asked in March whether shed agree to calls for genetic testing to resolve the heritage controversy, Warren launched into a family history, as purportedly told by her parents and grandparents, before saying, Its a part of who I am, and no ones ever going to take that away.

Experts have cast doubt on Warren's claim.

The problem with Warrens story is that none of the evidence supports it, Cherokee genealogist Twila Barnes wrote after researching Warren's family.

But observers have also accused Ayyadurai of puffery and distortion, as well. The attacks mostly center on his longstanding claim to be the inventor of e-mail.
President Trump gave Dr. Ronny Jackson a clean bill of health in March  to run the Department of Veterans Affairs.

But the White House physician has pulled himself from consideration for the job after controversies from his past came to light, Fox News has learned.

Jackson was accused of providing prescriptions without paperwork, often being drunk on the job and wrecking a government vehicle while intoxicated, according to a review of his colleagues by Democrats.

Johnson denied the allegations but said he is still withdrawing his name from consideration because the accusations "have become a distraction for this President and the important issue we must be addressing  how we give the best care to our nations heroes."

A Navy rear admiral, Jackson is the presidents personal physician who rose to prominence after he addressed the press from the White House briefing room in January to discuss Trumps health. While Jackson said the president needs to lose some weight, he said the physical exam he conducted showed overall that Trump was in good physical and mental health.

Trump fired Secretary David Shulkin on March 28, and Robert Wilkie was supposed to serve as interim secretary until Jackson's confirmation.

Read on for a look at three things to know about the physician.

He has a marine biology degree

From Texas, Jackson, 50, graduated from Texas A&M University in 1991 with a degree in marine biology, according to his Navy biography. He graduated from the University of Texas Medical Branch with his medical degree in 1995.

That same year, Jackson joined the Portsmouth Naval Medical Center  located just outside Chesapeake, Virginia  which kicked off his active duty military career. It was there that he finished an internship in transitional medicine.

Later, he would return to the naval center to complete his residency in emergency medicine, graduating at the top of his class in 2004.

Jackson is a veteran

Jackson was deployed to Iraq after he joined the 2nd Marines in 2005, according to his Navy biography.

He served as the emergency medicine physician in charge of resuscitative medicine for a forward deployed Surgical Shock Trauma Platoon.

Hes been a White House physician since Bush

While still in Iraq, Jackson was tapped as a White House physician in 2006. He has overseen the physicians for Camp David presidential retreats, led the White House Medical Unit and directed the executive health care for the Cabinet and senior staff members, according to his biography.

It was former President Barack Obama who selected Jackson to fill the position of physician to the president.

Fox News' John Roberts, Joseph Weber and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Senate has delayed its confirmation hearing for President Trump's pick for Veteran Affairs secretary amid growing questions about nominee Dr. Ronny Jacksons past conduct and ability to manage the agency.

The New York Times reported that he's accused of overseeing a hostile work environment as White House physician, drinking on the job and allowing the overprescription of drugs.

The postponement was confirmed to Fox News late Monday night by South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds, a Republican member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. The panel had been scheduled to hold the hearing Wednesday.

Rounds said committee Chairman Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., recently told him and other committee members that he wants to resolve some unsubstantiated allegations about Jackson, the official White House doctor and a Navy rear admiral.

He wants to do it right. We told him that if he wanted to delay the meeting, that was fine with us. We most certainly want to get ... the facts outs, Rounds told Fox News @ Night with Shannon Bream.

On Tuesday morning, Isakson and Montana Sen. John Tester, the top Democrat on the committee, issued a joint statement saying the hearing was postponed "in light of new information" presented to the committee.

"We take very seriously our constitutional duty to thoroughly and carefully vet each nominee sent to the Senate for confirmation," they said.

The senators have also sent a letter to Trump requesting all information regarding any improper conduct pertaining to Jacksons service in the White House Medical Unit and as physician to the president.

The White House is still standing by its pick.

Admiral Jackson has been on the front lines of deadly combat and saved the lives of many others in service to this country," Hogan Gidley, deputy White House press secretary, said Tuesday. "Hes served as the physician to three presidents -- Republican and Democrat -- and been praised by them all. Admiral Jacksons record of strong, decisive leadership is exactly whats needed at the VA to ensure our veterans receive the benefits they deserve.

Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat on the committee, said Monday: "Some Republican colleagues have told me that they think the hearing should be postponed, which certainly deserves consideration. I think there may well be a need for more time, in fairness to Admiral Jackson, so he and the administration have an opportunity to answer these questions fully and fairly."

However, Blumenthal declined to discuss why more time might be needed.

Trump selected Jackson last month to run the Department of Veterans Affairs after firing former Obama administration official David Shulkin, amid an ethics scandal and mounting rebellion within the agency, the federal governments second largest.

But Jackson has since faced numerous questions from Republican and Democratic lawmakers as well as veterans groups about whether he has the experience to manage the massive department of 360,000 employees serving 9 million veterans. The agency in recent years has faced challenging in trying to provide prompt adequate care for veterans.

Rounds, who has met personally in his Capitol Hill office with Jackson, has previously also said the doctors small staff at the White House will be an issue as he prepares to lead the VA.

"We've got 360,000 people there," he said. "Are they going to manage the secretary or is the secretary going to manage the VA? That's a good question to ask, and he needs to answer it. He needs to be the leader. A lot of folks want to be led and managed."

Rounds also said the committee still needs more paperwork from the White House on Jackson before the nomination can go forward.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The most liberal appeals court in America could soon be getting a Republican makeover if President Trump and Senate GOP leaders are able to fill seven open seats with conservative picks.

Standing in their way is a wall of Democrats hellbent on protecting the long-standing leftward lean of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The stakes are sky high because of the size, caseload and clout of the court. If Trump is successful in getting young, ideologically conservative nominees through the confirmation process, he could significantly alter the courts DNA for decades to come.

Adding seven conservatives to the court would very much affect its ideological balance, Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law, told Fox News. It would push the court much further to the right.

If Trump wants to take advantage of this opportunity, he'll have to act soon. So far, he's only made two nominations.

Based in San Francisco, the 9th Circuit covers nine western states, has 29 active judgeships and seven vacancies, with an eighth coming in August. Its current political split is 16-6.

The Ninth Circuit is out in left field and has been since a major expansion of the court allowed President Carter  and Senator Alan Cranston (D-Calif.)  to pack its left wing in the late 1970s, Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, said.

He told Fox News the court hasnt been balanced politically ever since.

During their time in the Oval Office, former President George W. Bush appointed six justices to the 9th Circuit, while former President Barack Obama appointed seven.

When Trump took over, there were four vacancies to fill. Today, that number has almost doubled.

Conservatives have tried for years to chip away at the 9th. There have been multiple  unsuccessful  bids in Congress to split up the sprawling court.

Critics have slammed the 9th for being too big, too liberal and too slow at resolving cases.

Theyve also mocked it mercilessly, calling it the Nutty 9th or the 9th Circus, in part because many of its rulings have been overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. This includes an infamous 2002 ruling that the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional because of its use of the phrase under God. The court over the years also has knocked down state bans on assisted suicide and ruled that no American has the constitutional right to own a gun.

Between 2010-2015, the Supreme Court reversed about 70 percent of the total cases before it -- the 9th Circuits reversal rate was higher at 79 percent, though the highest in the nation was the 6th Circuit, which covers Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee and Kentucky and clocked in at 87 percent.

During the courts 2016 term, however, the reversal rate for the 9th jumped to 88 percent. Still, most of the rulings that year were not reviewed by the high court, leaving them in place.

Thats why, some say, the liberal court needs a massive makeover and Trump might just be the president who gets it done.

To be sure, there is no love lost between Trump and the 9th Circuit.

He regularly rails against it, complains that it is broken and unfair and even called out unelected judges after his travel ban and sanctuary city policies were struck down.

But if Trump really wants to shake up the 9th, experts say he needs to prioritize it. The sooner the better because his success could hinge on the midterm elections.

It really depends on whether the Republicans keep the Senate in November, Chemerinsky told Fox News. If they do, I think ultimately Trump will get his picks through unless they are unqualified or very objectionable. But if the Democrats take the Senate in November, I think it will be very difficult for him to get anyone confirmed.

There are several Democrats who are committed to keeping the courts balance of power the same. One weapon in their arsenal is blue slips.

Created in 1917, the blue slip is not a formal rule but instead a courtesy extended by the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman that allows home-state senators to approve or reject appointees from their states.

Over its 100-year history, lawmakers from both parties have used blue slips as an effective way to obstruct a presidents judicial pick. Both parties, depending on who is in power at the time, have accused the other of abusing the process and putting party politics ahead of confirming qualified candidates.

When Obama took office in 2009, every single Republican senator signed a letter that said they would use blue slips to block any nominee to their state they did not personally approve.

Senate Democrats unilaterally changed the rules in 2013 to prevent 41 senators from blocking nominees after evaluating their credentials.

But now that Democrats are in the minority, they argue a single senator should be able to block nominees before the Senate Judiciary Committee can check out a candidates credentials. And Republicans are now denying their Democratic counterparts the same tactic they took full advantage of just a few years ago.

In February, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, came under fire for loosening the blue slip policy.

Grassley defended his decision, arguing that the policy isnt a hard-and-fast rule, though his immediate predecessor, Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, did honor blue slips and refused to move forward on a nomination without getting the consent of both home-state senators.

Its a very important part of the process but its not entirely definitive, Grassley told TIME magazine.

Dianne Feinstein, the senior senator for California and the top ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has called out the Iowa Republican for loosening the blue slip policy.

The lengths to which Republicans are going to jam extremely conservative and controversial nominees through the Senate is unprecedented, she has said. Whats happening is diminishing the Judiciary Committee and the Senate and undermining the independence of the federal judiciary.

She added, Republicans shouldnt have one blue slip policy for Democratic presidents and another for Republican presidents.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has favored using blue slips for district court nominees rather than appeals court nominees.

Its a compromise that could work, Elizabeth Slattery, a legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, said.

Customarily, home-state senators have played a larger role in the selection of district court nominees, she said. While appeals court judges are based in one state, they hear cases from all the states within their circuit. District court judges, on the other hand, hear only cases from the state where they sit. Thus, home-state senators opinions are more relevant for district court nominees.

Slattery says another option might involve scrapping the use of blue slips altogether but warns the decision could come back to bite the party in power down the line.
President Trump scolded ABC News star reporter Jonathan Karl for asking a stupid question about whether or not he would be open to pardoning Michael Cohen during Tuesdays photo spray with French President Emmanuel Macron.

The FBI raided the office and hotel room of Cohen, who is Trumps personal attorney, earlier this month. Karl, the Chief White House correspondent for ABC News, asked Trump if he would consider pardoning Cohen.

Stupid question, Trump responded while looking directly at Karl. Anybody else, please?

Karl seemed to take it in stride, as he tweeted details of the exchange.

Cohen's midtown Manhattan office and a Park Avenue hotel room were both searched after prosecutors reportedly received a referral from FBI Special Counsel Robert Mueller -- who is investigating alleged Russian collusion in the 2016 election. In addition, prosecutors reportedly are looking at whether Cohen committed bank fraud, along with possible improper campaign donations to the president.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has told President Trump he is not the target of the investigation into Cohen.

Trump was available to the media ahead of tonights first state dinner of the Trump administration, in which President Trump will host Macron. The two apparently have a pleasant relationship, and Trump even joked about wiping dandruff from the French presidents shoulder during the photo spray.

We have a very special relationship, in fact Ill get that little piece of dandruff offwe have to make him perfect; he is perfect, Trump said while playfully wiping Macrons suit collar.
President Trump said Tuesday that his embattled nominee for Veterans Affairs secretary will be making a decision soon about whether to continue to seek the position, saying he stands by Dr. Ronny Jackson no matter what but, If I were him  I wouldnt do it.

The president addressed the controversy over his VA pick in response to a question from Fox News John Roberts at Tuesdays press conference with visiting French President Emmanuel Macron.

Its totally his decision, but hell be making a decision, Trump said of Jackson.

While saying hell always stand behind him and it will be his choice, Trump made clear whether he thinks Jackson should drop out.

I really dont think personally he should [seek the position], Trump said. He suggested he did not want Jackson, who has served as a White House physician since 2006, to go through such an ugly and disgusting process and said he told him: What do you need it for?

The comments come after The New York Times and others reported that Jackson has been accused of overseeing a hostile work environment as White House physician, drinking on the job and allowing the overprescription of drugs.

Amid the allegations, Jackson's confirmation hearing originally set for Wednesday was postponed.

A White House official told Fox News that Jackson met with Trump Tuesday afternoon. The official said the two had a "good meeting," but did not elaborate.

The postponement was confirmed to Fox News late Monday night by South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds, a Republican member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. Rounds said committee Chairman Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., recently told him and other committee members that he wants to resolve some unsubstantiated allegations about Jackson, the official White House doctor and a Navy rear admiral.

He wants to do it right. We told him that if he wanted to delay the meeting, that was fine with us. We most certainly want to get ... the facts outs, Rounds told Fox News @ Night with Shannon Bream.

Jackson said Tuesday that he looked forward to rescheduling the hearing and answering everyones questions  giving no hint that he was considering withdrawing.

Trump cast the turbulence as a symptom of Democratic obstruction, noting Democrats unsuccessfully tried to hold up the secretary of state nomination of Mike Pompeo in committee a day earlier.

But the concerns with Jackson appear bipartisan.

On Tuesday morning, Isakson and Montana Sen. Jon Tester, the top Democrat on the committee, issued a joint statement saying the hearing was postponed "in light of new information" presented to the committee.

"We take very seriously our constitutional duty to thoroughly and carefully vet each nominee sent to the Senate for confirmation," they said.

The senators have also sent a letter to Trump requesting all information regarding any improper conduct pertaining to Jacksons service in the White House Medical Unit and as physician to the president.

The White House issued a statement earlier Tuesday standing by the pick.

Admiral Jackson has been on the front lines of deadly combat and saved the lives of many others in service to this country," Hogan Gidley, deputy White House press secretary, said Tuesday. "Hes served as the physician to three presidents -- Republican and Democrat -- and been praised by them all. Admiral Jacksons record of strong, decisive leadership is exactly whats needed at the VA to ensure our veterans receive the benefits they deserve.

Trump selected Jackson last month to run the Department of Veterans Affairs after firing former Obama administration official David Shulkin, amid an ethics scandal and mounting rebellion within the agency, the federal governments second largest.

But Jackson has since faced numerous questions from Republican and Democratic lawmakers as well as veterans groups about whether he has the experience to manage the massive department of 360,000 employees serving 9 million veterans. The agency in recent years has faced challenges in trying to provide prompt adequate care for veterans.

Rounds, who has met personally in his Capitol Hill office with Jackson, has previously also said the doctors small staff at the White House will be an issue as he prepares to lead the VA.

"We've got 360,000 people there," he said. "Are they going to manage the secretary or is the secretary going to manage the VA? That's a good question to ask, and he needs to answer it. He needs to be the leader. A lot of folks want to be led and managed."

Rounds also said the committee still needs more paperwork from the White House on Jackson before the nomination can go forward.

Fox News Joseph Weber, John Roberts and Jason Donner and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
President Trump warned Irans leaders Tuesday that if Iran threatens the U.S. they will pay a price like no country has ever paid.

He also stood by his criticism of the Obama-era nuclear pact as visiting French President Emmanuel Macron lobbied him to preserve it.

In a joint-press conference at the White House Tuesday afternoon, Trump doubled-down on comments he made earlier in the day, issuing a warning to Iran.

If Iran threatens us in any way, they will pay a price like no country has ever paid, Trump said, noting that when the Obama administration made the Iran deal in 2015, they should have made a deal that covered Yemen, Syria and other parts of the Middle East where Iran is involved.

Meanwhile, Macron said that he was unclear what Trump would decide in terms of the deal. He must announce a decision whether to re-certify on May 12.

[I hope] we can combine our common views and differences. [I have] always said we should not tear apart JCPOA and have nothing elsethat would not be a good solution, Macron said. Its not about tearing apart the agreement, but about building something new that will cover all concerns.

Earlier Tuesday, Trump held an Oval Office meeting with Macron where they discussed several important foreign policy issues  including the Iran Nuclear deal.

People know my view. It is a terrible deal that should have never been made, Trump said during the meeting. Iran seems to be behind everything where there is a problem. You look at whats happening, in anyvirtually any place in the Middle East, and Iran is behind it.

Trump delayed the decision to re-certify the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, which lifts economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for winding down their nuclear program. The president is expected to make a decision on the future of the Obama-era program on May 12.

Early Tuesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned the U.S. there would be grave consequences if the U.S. withdraws from the nuclear agreement between Tehran and world powers, noting that Iran would strongly resist any plans for the U.S. to withdraw.

But when asked what the U.S. strategy would be should Iran restart their nuclear program, Trump warned that it wont be so easy to restart.

If they restart their nuclear program, theyre going to have big problemsbigger than theyve ever had before, Trump said Tuesday.

Trump and first lady Melania Trump welcomed Macron and his wife to the White House Tuesday morning in their first formal state visit, ahead of a day of foreign policy discussions for the U.S. and France.

Macron, along with his wife Brigitte Macron, was greeted by the Trumps, Vice President Pence, Cabinet officials, lawmakers and nearly 500 U.S. service members from all five military branches.

"Melania and I were honored to visit your country last summer, and now are thrilled to host you and Brigitte here in America," Trump said at the White House upon Macron's arrival. "The wonderful friendship we've developed is a testament to an enduring friendship that binds our two nations."

Trump added that "it is truly fitting that we are holding our first official state visit with the leader of America's oldest ally, the proud nation of France."

Trump and Macron met in a more casual setting on Monday, featuring a helicopter tour of Washington and a visit to Mount Vernon. But Tuesday is slated for serious policy discussions, following French and British support as the U.S. launched airstrikes into Syria in the wake of a deadly chemical attack this month.

Your visit comes at a critical time for alliance, Trump said Tuesday on the White House lawn. The United States, France and the United Kingdom took decisive action in response to the Syrian regimes use of chemical weapons.

FRANCE'S MACRON SUGGESTS TRUMP CANNOT 'MAKE WAR' AGAINST EVERYBODY, EVERYTHING

Trump said he wanted to personally thank Macron, the French military and the people for their partnership. Trump also said "now is the time for strength."

"So let us be strong and united, let us honor our past and face our future with confidence and pride," Trump said. "And let the U.S. and France stand forever in solidarity for the noble causes of liberty and peace."

Macron gave remarks following the president's, which were delivered in French with an English translation.

"Thank you for honoring this visit, the first of your presidency, which bears witness to the strength that unites our two countries," Macron said, adding that America "represents endless possibilities" for France.

"It is together that we shall build a new form of prosperity for all peoples, free and fair trade, and the protection of all classes," Macron said, adding that "together we will be able to act effectively for our planet."

Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accord last year, but Macron noted he was "not just referring to climate."

"On this issue, we don't always agree, but in the end, such is the case in any family or friendship," Macron said. "It is together that we can resist the rise of aggressive nationalisms that divide our history and world. Together, we will build new strong multilateralism that defends democracy in the fate of ill winds."

Macron touted the relationship between the U.S. and France under the Trump administration as having "constantly grown more solid."

TRUMP'S FIRST STATE DINNER HELD IN HONOR OF FRENCH PRESIDENT MACRON: WHAT TO KNOW

Tuesday afternoon, Macron and Trump will hold a joint press conference, and will attend the first State Dinner Tuesday evening, hosted at the White House.

First lady Melania Trump was "involved in every detail of the planning" for the State dinner.

Fox News' Kristin Brown, Kaitlyn Schallhorn, Joseph Weber, Jenny Buckholtz and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The smell was overwhelming as Madagascar police and wildlife officials pulled up to a two-story home in Toliara earlier this month. But the inside of the house was even worse  it was there they found thousands of endangered tortoises crawling in every room of the house.

You cannot imagine. It was so awful, Soary Randrianjafizanaka, regional head of Madagascars environmental agency, told National Geographic or the "rancid" stench. They had tortoises in the bathroom, in the kitchen, everywhere in the house.

Officials counted a total of 10,068 poached radiated tortoises, a critically endangered tortoise that can grow up to 16 inches long and weigh up to 35 pounds as an adult, according to the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. The rare creatures are only found in the extreme southern and southwestern areas of Madagascar.

[Tortoises are] being harvested at what Id call an alarming, catastrophic rate."  Rick Hudson, president of the Turtle Survival Alliance

Wildlife experts believe the reptiles were intended to be part of a pet trade. Zoo Knoxville in Tennessee, which is helping with the rescue, said in a Facebook post that the tortoises were possibly being prepared to be shipped to Asia, "where the tortoises domed shell with a striking star pattern make them highly sought-after."

So far, three people have been arrested in connection with the smuggling, Madagascars environmental agency confirmed in a Facebook post on April 12. They did not reveal their identities.

"[They're being] interviewed to identify their accomplices," the group added.

Randrianjafizanaka believes this was a group effort and hopes an investigation into the recent incident will lead officials to "the big boss."

[Tortoises are] being harvested at what Id call an alarming, catastrophic rate, Rick Hudson, president of the Turtle Survival Alliance, told National Geographic.

"Within the next 20 years, as many as one-third of the worlds 300 species of tortoises and freshwater turtles may be gone due to poaching for the international black market," the organization explains on its website. "At least ten species are now extinct in the wild and exist only in captive breeding programs."

At least 180 tortoises were found dead at the scene, and at least 308 more have died of dehydration, malnutrition and illness since they were transported to local rescue centers, according to local government employee Dreef Atsimoandrefana. The reptiles will be kept in quarantine and captivity until they're deemed healthy.

This is an overwhelming situation the Turtle Survival Alliance is dealing with. Zoo Knoxville is committed to taking action against the illegal wildlife trade that is putting so many species on the verge of extinction. We will be actively involved in supporting the TSA for the duration of this crisis, Knoxville Zoo president and CEO Lisa New said in a statement online.
Page Content

The members of the European Committee of the Regions' (CoR) commission for economic policy (ECON) and the main EU territorial associations discussed the local and regional challenges of EU trade agreements as well as their transparency and democratic legitimacy with Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom. The debate took place within the framework of a structured dialogue where the Commissioner announced the invitation to the CoR to become an observer to the Advisory Group on EU trade agreements.

Evidence shows that the overall benefit of global trade on economic growth and employment are unevenly dispersed and that some local economies and communities lack the necessary resilience to face the ensuing economic and technological changes brought about by globalisation. This has led to a growing concern about the impact of international trade and globalisation among local and regional authorities (LRAs) with weaker economies.

"In order to ensure that the voices of LRAs are heard we need to raise our ambition of transparency and involvement of stakeholders. Territorial impact assessments must be mandatory, as they are crucial for a sound, transparent and efficiency-based EU trade policy. This would also help allay concerns, support local and regional authorities to take part in the discussion and ensure that they have a meaningful opportunity to better prepare for potential eventualities", said Michel Delebarre (FR/PES), chair of the CoR's ECON commission and member of Dunkirk Municipal Council.

On 14 September 2017, the Commission presented its proposals for a "progressive and ambitious trade agenda" on the basis on its " trade for all " strategy. The initiatives aim at increasing democratic legitimacy and transparency and include the creation of Advisory Group on EU trade agreements to which the European Commission will officially invite the CoR as an observer in the upcoming days.

"The world is interconnected in an unprecedented way. A car can be built with a German design, in a Mexican factory, with an American chassis and a Japanese transmission. These links cannot be undone easily, and undoing them will not solve anything. In fact, it would create more harm. Instead of hiding behind walls and borders, we need to make sure that globalisation happens the way we want it to. To do so really well, we need your help. The more engagement between local authorities and Member States, the better. This is how we can gather evidence on the positive and negative effects of EU trade policy on the ground", said Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmstrom.

CoR members welcomed the European Commission's step to publish all of its proposals for new negotiating mandates at the same time as they are sent to the Member States. However, local and regional representatives voiced concern that the involvement of relevant regional stakeholders should not be left to the national level alone.

The discussion took place in the framework of a structured dialogue* between the European Commission, the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) and European associations representing local and regional authorities. Present at the ECON meeting were the Assembly of European Regions (AER), the Conference of European Regional Legislative Assemblies (CALRE) and the Conference of European Regions with Legislative Power (REGLEG).

Background:

*Structured dialogues aim at ensuring that European associations representing local and regional authorities have regular discussions with the European Commission. Aim is to improve EU legislation by ensuring that the views of local and regional associations are taken on board before formal decision-making processes start, to ensure a better understanding of the EUs policy guidelines and to make the EU more transparent and meaningful to its citizens. The CoR hereby acts as an intermediary, organiser and facilitator due to its strong linkage with both sides. In 2016 the committee implemented a new model linking each dialogue with one of the CoR's commissions and holding it within its commission meetings.

Further information:

Contact:

Carmen Schmidle

Tel. +32 (0)2 282 2366
A notorious legal brothel in the U.S. says it has accepted bitcoin "in return for sexual services" for the first time ever, The Sun can reveal.

Sex worker Lana West, who works at Nevada's Moonlite Bunny Ranch, exchanged her "intimate" services for thousands of dollars worth of bitcoin.

Lana revealed that the saucy transaction took place at 6:45 pm on Thursday, April 5, just weeks after the Bunny Ranch said it planned to start accepting the virtual currency as payment.

"A wonderful and rather tech-savvy client came in offering to purchase my services with bitcoin," Lana explained.

"Dennis [the owner of Bunny Ranch] approved it, and we executed a transfer from the customer's bitcoin wallet to my own.

"I then paid cash from my personal stash to the office."

Part of the allure of bitcoin is its anonymity  which is why it's hugely popular with criminals.

Bitcoin transfers can be made without identifying who is sending the cash, which seems like the perfect solution to paying for sex services.

After all, few randy punters would want brothel charges showing up on their credit card statements.

"It was a mid-four-figure payment for an intimate girlfriend experience with me that lasted just over an hour," Lana told The Sun.

"My client walked out with a smile on his face  but little did he know we actually made history together."

The Bunny Ranch is one of seven brothels dotted across desert towns in Nevada that are owned by prolific sex baron Dennis Hof.

Nevada is the only U.S. state where prostitution is legal  and it's only allowed outside of Las Vegas.

Dennis' chain of sex dens includes the infamous Love Ranch brothel, where Khloe Kardasian's ex-husband Lamar Odom once overdosed.

But only the Moonlite branch allows bitcoin payments.

"We have some of the richest men in the world coming in and out of my brothels," Dennis explained.

"Our high-dollar clientele is accustomed to getting anything they want here, so when I started hearing requests from them to look into accepting bitcoin, I took those suggestions very seriously."

He said that bitcoin makes it much easier for clients to get their fix.

"We have guys carrying duffel bags full of cash right up to our cashier's window, and we've had to install a safe the size of Fort Knox to hold it all.

"Not that I mind good old fashioned cold cash, but bitcoin is making it so much more practical for those same clients to live out their sexual fantasies here at the Bunny Ranch without literally having to carry a lot of excess baggage."

The Moonlite Bunny Ranch is surprisingly progressive when it comes to embracing tech.

We were the first brothel to have a website, a large social media presence, a live video streaming program, a podcast, and we're even in the process of incorporating sex robots into our lineup of gorgeous women.

"I always see technological advances as an advantage to my business," explained Dennis.

It recently introduced a virtual reality sex service to help fulfill its randy patrons' kinkiest fantasies.

In early April, Dennis began kitting out his brothel's VIP bungalows with VR headsets.

These can be used by punters to mix real sex with a virtual romp featuring a porn star, or even an explicit Japanese animated character (an XXX genre known as Hentai).

Bunny Ranch sex worker Alice Little explained: While my client wears a headset and views VR hentai porn, I mimic the sensual actions of the animated character with my actual body creating an amazingly convincing sexual fantasy for my clients that yearn to get it on with an animated lover."

This story originally appeared in The Sun.
A monkey in Indonesia cannot own the copyright to a famous smiling selfie it took in 2011, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday.

The unanimous, three-judge panel upheld a lower court ruling that dismissed the lawsuit by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals against a photographer whose camera was used by a crested macaque to take the photos in 2011. U.S. copyright law does not allow lawsuits that seek to give animals the rights to photographs or other original work, the court said.

We conclude that this monkeyand all animals, since they are not humanlacks statutory standing under the Copyright Act, the ruling said.

The ruling marks the latest chapter in a long-running legal dispute over the images, which include a selfie of the smiling monkey that went viral.

JUDGE RULES MONKEY CANNOT OWN SELFIE PHOTOS COPYRIGHT

Naruto was a seven-year-old crested macaque that livedand may still livein a reserve on the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia, the court explained in its ruling. In 2011, a wildlife photographer, David Slater, left his camera unattended in the reserve. Naruto allegedly took several photographs of himself (the Monkey Selfies) with Slaters camera.

PETA's 2015 suit against Slater sought financial control of the photographs for the benefit of Naruto.

However, the appeals court ruling questioned PETAs assertion that the organization is a guardian or next friend of Naruto. We gravely doubt that PETA can validly assert next friend status to represent claims made for the monkey, it said, in its ruling. PETA has failed to allege any facts to establish the required significant relationship between a next friend and a real party in interest and (2) because an animal cannot be represented, under our laws, by a next friend.

The ruling added that PETA seems to employ Naruto as an unwitting pawn in its ideological goals.

LAWSUIT SETTLED OVER RIGHTS TO MONKEY'S SELFIE PHOTO

PETA said that, while the court reaffirmed that animals have the constitutional right to bring a case to federal court when they've been wronged, the opinion missed the point. Naruto the macaque undeniably took the photos, and denying him the right to sue under the U.S. Copyright Act emphasizes what PETA has argued all alongthat he is discriminated against simply because he's a nonhuman animal, said PETAs General Counsel Jeff Kerr, in a statement emailed to Fox News.

In 2016, a federal judge ruled that the macaque monkey cannot be declared the copyright owner of the photos. PETA then appealed that ruling to the 9th Circuit.

Slater and PETA announced in September they reached a settlement, under which Slater agreed to donate 25 percent of any future revenue from the images to charities dedicated to protecting crested macaques in Indonesia. Lawyers then asked the 9th Circuit to dismiss the case.

But the appeals court refused, saying a decision in this "developing area of the law" would help guide lower courts and considerable public resources had been spent on the case.

Mondays ruling will not affect the settlement, according to Kerr. The groundbreaking settlement in this case still stands, and 25 percent of the gross proceeds from the photos that Naruto took will go toward supporting him and his communityrepresenting the first time that an animal will obtain a direct financial benefit from something that he or she created, he said, in the statement emailed to Fox News. PETA will continue working until the last barrier falls and animals' fundamental rights are recognized under the law, including their rights as creators.

Fox News Bill Mears and the Associated Press contributed to this article.

Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers
The U.S. Air Force's secretive X-37B space plane has apparently been spotted by satellite watchers.

The craft's latest mystery mission, known as OTV-5 (short for Orbital Test Vehicle-5), began on Sept. 7, 2017, when the robotic spacecraft launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida.

The Air Force doesn't reveal much about OTV missions, keeping most details about the space plane's operations and orbit secret. And satellite trackers have had trouble finding the X-37B on its latest jaunt  until recently. [The X-37B Space Plane: 6 Surprising Facts]

Chance sighting

Skywatcher Cees Bassa from the Netherlands reported a chance sighting of a bright satellite of unknown identity, observed early on April 11. He estimated a circular orbit of about 54.5 degrees inclination and 220 miles (355 kilometers) altitude.

Bassa alerted the global satellite-observing network and others that this could be OTV-5.

Another satellite spotter  Russell Eberst in Edinburgh, Scotland  had reported seeing a satellite of similar brightness and orbit last October.

"I produced rough search elements that proved too rough to recover the object," said Ted Molczan, a Toronto-based satellite analyst. "I found, with very slight tweaks, the preliminary orbit that Cees had posted could be made to fit both his and Russell's observations," Molczan told Inside Outer Space.

Bassa noted that this object's orbit correlates well with the OTV-5. The orbit passes very close  within 2 degrees of longitude  from KSC at the time of liftoff. Meanwhile, another satellite tracker, Marco Langbroek, also in the Netherlands, noted that the U.S. Air Force had earlier announced that the OTV-5 would have the highest inclination of the series of missions to date.

"Looks like a pretty probable identification," Langbroek reported.

Molczan is more certain. "Cees recovered the object, which can now be identified beyond reasonable doubt as OTV-5," he said. "As Cees cautions, further tracking may reveal a bit more eccentric orbit, but the mean altitude is about 355 kilometers, and the inclination is close to 54.5 degrees.

"I estimate that the ground track nearly repeats at intervals of about 31 revolutions, or about two days," Molczan added. "Similar behavior has been seen during portions of all previous OTV missions. If it carries an imaging payload, then the orbit affords frequent revisit of targets, but it could serve some other operational purpose that I cannot guess."

Rapid space access

When OTV-5 will return to Earth is anybody's guess. The X-37B program completed its fourth mission on May 7, 2017, landing after 718 days in orbit and extending the program's total number of days spent in orbit to 2,085.

The Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office is running the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle program.

"The fifth OTV mission continues to advance the X-37B's performance and flexibility as a space technology demonstrator and host platform for experimental payloads," Air Force officials said in a prelaunch statement. "This mission carries small satellite ride shares and will demonstrate greater opportunities for rapid space access and on-orbit testing of emerging space technologies."

The current mission is hosting the Air Force Research Laboratory Advanced Structurally Embedded Thermal Spreader payload to test experimental electronics and oscillating heat pipe technologies in the long-duration space environment.

"The many firsts on this mission make the upcoming OTV launch a milestone for the program," Randy Walden, director of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, said in the statement. "It is our goal to continue advancing the X-37B OTV so it can more fully support the growing space community."

This version of the story published on Space.com.
This is a rush transcript from "Special Report with Bret Baier," April 23, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: The Iran deal was one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered. In the event we are not able to reach a solution working with Congress and our allies, then the agreement will be terminated.

FRENCH PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON: What is the worst-case scenario? Or your plan B? My point is to say don't leave now as long as you have not a better option for nuclear.

MOHAMMAD JAVAD ZARIF, IRANIAN FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTER: Obviously this would be a very bad precedent if the United States sends this message to the international community that the length or the duration of any agreement would depend on the duration of the presidency.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

BRET BAIER, ANCHOR: Talking about the Iran deal there, and that will be talk between President Trump and the French president, Macron, who arrived here in Washington today. Also arriving at the White House, came in at Joint Base Andrews with his wife there, and then arrived at the White House for talks with the president. They are currently, the two couples, together at Mount Vernon in the historic George Washington homestead, having a dinner tonight before the official state dinner tomorrow.

What about this in foreign policy news? Let's bring in our panel: Steve Hayes, editor in chief for The Weekly Standard; Dan Balz, national political correspondent at The Washington Post, and Charlie Hurt, opinion editor for The Washington Times.

Dan, it is a big visit. It's obviously the first state visit, official. And what do you think both sides are looking for out of this visit?

DAN BALZ, THE WASHINGTON POST: I think clearly President Macron has come on a mission to try to talk the president into staying in the Iran agreement. The Europeans are very much alarmed that the president could pull out of this. He has signaled he is likely too. May 12th is the deadline in which he has got to either recertify the agreement or decide to pull out of it. We know that the team that used to be around him kept him from doing that. We don't know where the new team is going to end up. But Macron is here to argue that they are trying to work out some arrangements and some agreements that will satisfy the president's concerns and keep him in it.

BAIER: And do you think that's possible, Steve?

STEVE HAYES, THE WEEKLY STANDARD: I think it's possible. Look, the Trump administration has been pushing a plan in bilateral discussions with Great Britain, Germany, and France, seeking to stay in the deal, calling for additional snap inspections of military sites, additional snapback sanctions, something that would have a bite with Iranian noncompliance in the deal. This has been under discussion for six weeks, maybe longer. The question is whether Germany will agree to it. France has been pushing. France and the United States are in a very similar position on this stuff. Great Britain is I think a little harder. Germany has really been difficult. I would imagine that President Trump and Macron will spend some time talking about how to get Germany aboard the plan even if Russia has already declared that they won't be part of anything other than the existing deal.

BAIER: Charlie?

CHARLES HURT, THE WASHINGTON TIMES: I think it's an interesting situation. Macron has, I think is working well with Donald Trump. He has figured out that if you listen carefully to what he says and ignore some of the unusual, the impolitic style of things that Donald Trump does, that you can get somewhere with him.

One of the things I admire about what Trump has done here is obviously he campaigned on the promise that he was going to tear this thing up on day one. He hasn't yet. He was prevented, talked out of doing it. But yet again, you're looking at a situation where Donald Trump has multiplied the moving parts, whether it's with tariffs, whether it's with the negotiations in North Korea. You have a lot of moving parts. And when you have a lot of moving parts there's a lot more ways of cutting the pie and getting deals that satisfy everybody at the table. And I imagine that is probably what they will be talking about tonight at Mount Vernon.

BAIER: About the Iran deal, now you, as Steve mentions, have a different group around him. John Bolton obviously opposed to the Iran nuclear deal. Pompeo is opposed to the Iran nuclear deal. I have pressed him on it numerous times. He said he finds zero beneficial. Now he is moving forward with this nomination. Speak about that, the fact that there was this political process right during this show. Chris Coons voted present, enables a favorable recommendation from the committee onto the floor where he will have the votes to get through.

BALZ: Yes, and he will be the next secretary of state, and he has the president's ear in a way that Secretary Tillerson never did. He has earned a relationship with the president through hours spent doing the daily briefing on doing other things. He has spent a considerable amount of time with the president. The president obviously trusts him.

I think one of the interesting things, there was a little equivocation in his confirmation hearings about the Iran deal which suggested he may not be quite where he was earlier on this. And so I think that it remains to be seen exactly how that will come out. But we know he and Bolton have been much more hostile to this agreement then the prior team.

BAIER: While we were talking, we got the video and for Mount Vernon of the French president and the president meeting there. They planted a tree that President Macron brought to the White House, and then they took a helicopter ride, Marine One, around the monuments in Washington. And then here they are arriving at Mount Vernon, and he's obviously giving a little instructional about Mount Vernon there to the French president. They will have dinner together, the two couples, before the big official dinner tomorrow night.

Steve, it is amazing to see the relationship that has developed since President Trump's visit to Paris.

HAYES: You remember the handshake and all of the scuttlebutt that surrounded that. Really interesting interview with Macron yesterday by Chris Wallace, making some news I think on a couple different fronts. I think Charlie is right, the French president has taken the time to listen to Donald Trump and to understand how to play the president, to appeal to the places where President Trump needs appealing in much the way some Republican lawmakers have done. And he I think keeps his criticism usually private, doesn't go around broadcasting it, he doesn't go around taking shots at President Trump.

He's got a difficult balance to strike. Donald Trump is not popular in France. He's not popular in western Europe generally. So he has got to be careful not to seem like he's being a toady to President Trump, but at the same time -- or boasting about his success in persuading him on Syria for instance. At the same time, appealing to the president.

BAIER: Let me play the soundbite from Macron on Syria talking to our own Chris Wallace in Paris.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MACRON: Will have to build the new Syria after the war. The day we will have finished this war against ISIS, if we leave, definitely and totally, even from a political point of view, we will leave the floor to the Iranian regime, Bashar al-Assad, and these guys. And they will prepare the new war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: So how much influence he has over Trump foreign policy?

HURT: I think that was a mistake for him to say that because you're talking about rebuilding Syria. You ought to get people running for the hills here. That's the way you do it. You talk about killing ISIS and destroying ISIS? That's a lot more appealing.

But I do think it sort of a nice moment to stop and reflect. You have the French president and American president at Mount Vernon today, and to think of the truly amazing things that have happened, whether it is Rochambeau and General Washington planning for the siege of Yorktown or the Marquis de Lafayette coming to visit Washington during the war, it's a pretty neat think about what's going on the banks of the Potomac right now.

BAIER: It really is.

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If you have a BFF and no big summer plans, an Icelandic airline is making a tempting offer. Per Business Insider, Wow Air will set up one lucky duo in a fully furnished apartment in downtown Reykjavik, which will serve as home base from June 1 to Aug. 15, with a $4,000 monthly stipend for each.

From there, winners will travel to four destinations in Iceland, as well as eight random Wow destinations (there are 38 to choose from) across Europe and North America, then blog and vlog about their experiences as a Wow Air "travel guide." As Thrillist notes, however, there are some "serious expectations" involved.

The winner(s) will need to churn out a constant flow of Instagram posts, videos, and other content detailing food, culture, and transportation tipsbasically compiling a "complete digital travel guide" for each destination.

The application on the Wow Air site is due May 14, and applicants should be prepared to start showing off their stuff now: Contenders need to upload a short video (two minutes max) detailing tips for their own hometown. The winners will be announced by May 18.

This article originally appeared on Newser.
Who among us hasnt believed that their face would look fantastic on the side of a plane?

A South African airline will plaster the faces of six winners on the side of their aircraft for a minimum of a week. Each winner will also receive two round-trip tickets to see their face in the sky.

Kulula airways has launched a contest to find six faces to stretch to almost 40 feet to adorn the sides of six Boeing 737s. In order to enter the contest, participants need to sign up for the airlines newsletter and upload their best plane face. The winner will be drawn based on the funniest, silliest and wackiest faces submitted, according to the airline.

After uploading their picture, entrants will be able to see a simulation video of what their face would look like on the side of a plane.

Theres a consolation prize for those who arent chosen: In addition to the six winning faces, Kulula will give five random entries a free round-trip ticket.

The low-cost airline flies to destinations in South Africa and cities in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, Mauritius, and Kenya.

Entries are open until April 30. Anyone over the age of 18 can enter.
Kyle Kashuv, a student at the Florida high school where 17 people were killed in a February mass shooting, has claimed that school security officers pulled him out of class and questioned him Monday after Kashuv tweeted about visiting a gun range with his father.

In a statement to The Daily Wire, Kashuv said he was called out of class at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and told to see the security resource officer whom he identified as Mr. Greenleaf." Multiple reports from around the time of the Feb. 14 shooting identify Kelvin Greenleaf as a civilian security monitor or a security specialist at the school.

According to Kashuv, a second officer joined Greenleaf and both men began "questioning me intensely.

First, they began berating my tweet, although neither of them had read it; then they began aggressively asking questions about who I went to the range with, whose gun we used, about my father, etc. They were incredibly condescending and rude, Kashuv said.

At that point, Kashuv claims, a Broward County sheriffs officer joined them, and began asking me the same questions again. Kashuv said the officers declined to let him record the interview, but told him he hadnt done anything wrong.

I asked why I was there, Kashuv said. One said, Dont get snappy with me, do you not remember what happened here a few months ago? The teen also said that officers referred to him as the pro-Second Amendment kid.

PARKLAND STUDENT KASKY BOWS OUT OF DEBATE WITH KASHUV

In a message to Fox News, Kashuv said that one of the officers told him, Kyle, you have such good grades, why would you do this?

Eventually, Kashuv said the officers let him go and told him theyd contact his parents. It was not immediately clear if Kashuvs parents had been contacted Monday evening.

On Tuesday, the Broward County Sheriff's Office confirmed to Fox News that Greenleaf asked school resource deputy Dean Seymour to sit in on his interview with Kashuv.

According to Seymour's report, "there were students concerned" about video Kashuv took of himself at the gun range. Kashuv told authorities he used a rifle belonging to a friend of his and "said he didn't threaten anyone."

Seymour added that he contacted Kashuv's mother, who told him she knew about the video and stated that her son is "a good kid and wouldn't hurt anyone."

Kashuv has drawn widespread attention for his pro-Second Amendment stance in the wake of the shooting at the Florida high school. By contrast, several of his peers who survived the shooting, such as David Hogg and Emma Gonzalez, have become the faces of a revitalized gun control movement.
The Latest on the conviction of three MS-13 members by a federal jury in Boston (all times local):

7:35 p.m.

An attorney for a MS-13 member is speaking out after his client was convicted of murder by a jury Monday. James Cipoletta, an attorney for 39-year-old Hector Enamorado, says his client maintains "he is not a member of the gang" and had nothing to do with a 2014 murder in Massachusetts.

Two other members of the gang have been convicted of racketeering and murder. Prosecutors say 27-year-old Noe Salvador Perez Vasquez and 27-year-old Luis Solis Vasquez were found guilty.

A 29-year-old male victim was shot to death in a Chelsea, Massachusetts apartment complex in 2014. According to trial testimony, Enamorado used Perez's gun to fatally shoot the man three times.

All three sentence hearings are scheduled for July. Attorneys for Perez Vasquez and Solis Vasquez were unavailable for comment.

6:45 p.m.

Three members of the notorious MS-13 gang have been convicted of racketeering and murder by a Boston federal jury.

U.S. Attorney Andrew E. Lelling says 27-year-old Noe Salvador Perez Vasquez, a Salvadoran national; 27-year-old Luis Solis Vasquez, a Salvadoran national; and 39-year-old Hector Enamorado , a Honduran national were found guilty Monday by a jury for racketeering and knowingly committing murder as a part of a racketeering conspiracy. They are the 41st, 42nd and 43rd defendants to be convicted in an indictment targeting the criminal activities of alleged associates and leaders of the criminal organization.

The murder charge is related to the killing of a 29-year-old male victim in a Chelsea apartment complex in 2014.

All three sentence hearings are scheduled for July. Attorneys for Perez Vasquez and Solis Vasquez were unavailable for comment.
Prosecutors filed misdemeanor charges of assault and vandalism against the brother of an unarmed black man who was killed by Sacramento officers last month.

Sacramento County prosecutors filed the counts Monday against Stevante Clark that could bring less than a year in jail if he is convicted.

Prosecutors are inviting him to participate in a mental health court as a way to have the charges dismissed.

Sacramento police had sought more serious felony charges stemming from a dispute between the 25-year-old Clark and his landlords.

He's been released and is seeking his own lawyer.

Prosecutors also charged Clark with criminal threats and abusing a 911 emergency line, both misdemeanors.

Clark is the brother of Stephon Clark, who was killed when police say he approached them with a cellphone they mistook for a gun.
A mistrial was declared Monday in the case of a U.S. Border Patrol agent after an Arizona jury acquitted him of a second-degree murder charge in the killing of a teen from Mexico but deadlocked on lesser counts of manslaughter.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Raner Collins means prosecutors could seek another trial for Agent Lonnie Swartz on the manslaughter charges in the 2012 death of Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, who was fatally shot as he threw rocks at authorities during a drug smuggling attempt. Prosecutors say they were evaluating whether to pursue a retrial.

Jurors had deliberated about 18 hours over five days in what human rights attorneys say was the first prosecution of a Border Patrol agent in a fatal shooting across the border.

Swartz fired 16 shots late on Oct. 10, 2012, through a 20-foot fence that sits on an embankment above Mexico's Calle Internacional, a Nogales street lined with homes and small businesses.

Prosecutors acknowledged during the monthlong trial that Elena Rodriguez was lobbing rocks across the border during a drug smuggling attempt. But they say he did not deserve to die.

Defense attorneys countered that Swartz was justified in using lethal force against rock-throwers and shot from the U.S. side of the border in self-defense.

Defense attorneys Sean Chapman and Jim Calle didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment late Monday afternoon.

Art Del Cueto, head of the Tucson union for Border Patrol officers, said: "I believe that justice was properly served. The jurors took their time, and we're pretty happy with it."

Prosecutor Elizabeth Strange said her office respects the jury's decision. "I am proud of our office's work in presenting this difficult case to the jury," Strange said.

The Border Patrol came under close scrutiny during the Obama administration for allegations involving excessive use of force. Customs and Border Protection, its parent agency, reported 55 incidents in which employees used firearms from Oct. 1, 2011, to Sept. 30, 2012. The number of incidents fell to 17 for the same period five years later.

Swartz initially was charged with second-degree murder in the shooting of Elena Rodriguez in Nogales, Mexico.

Collins told the jury in his instructions that they could consider a lesser charge of voluntary or involuntary manslaughter if they had trouble reaching a verdict on the more serious charge.

During closing arguments, Assistant U.S. Attorney Wallace Heath Kleindienst said Swartz "was fed up with being rocked" after being targeted in at least six other attacks.

"He was angry with those people who had been throwing rocks against the fence," Kleindienst said.

"It was not about eliminating a threat, because there was no threat," he said. "It was about eliminating a human being."

Defense attorney Sean Chapman argued there was "not a scintilla of evidence" that Swartz was angry or fed up.

He said Swartz shot because he was trying to protect himself and his fellow agents during a drug operation.

"From his first day in the Border Patrol, it had been ingrained in him that rocks were dangerous," Chapman said.

The trial played out as President Donald Trump called for National Guard troops to be sent to the Mexican border to free Border Patrol agents to concentrate on stopping drugs and people from illegally entering the United States.

Trump has made his crackdown on illegal immigration and building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border a cornerstone of his presidency.

The killing of Elena Rodriguez was felt deeply in the twin communities of Nogales, where about 20,000 people live on the Arizona side and about 300,000 in Mexico. The communities are linked by family members, trade and culture and have long been referred to locally as "Ambos Nogales" - "Both Nogales" in Spanish.

During the trial, jurors visited the border area at night to get a better idea of what Swartz was facing.

The agent, who has been on administrative leave pending the trial's outcome, testified that he remembered little of what happened.

The Border Patrol has not said if he was receiving his salary.

A parallel civil case filed by the teen's mother against Swartz seeking monetary damages is pending before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
A 15-year-old boy and his two friends have been accused of drugging his mother before strangling and stabbing her in her Maine home, court documents show.

The body of 47-year-old Kimberly Mironovas was found early Sunday morning in her Litchfield Home with stab wounds on her neck. Her 15-year-old son and his two friends from Ashland, Mass., were arrested.

Mironovas son and a 15-year-old friend were charged with intentional or knowing murder and conspiracy to commit murder. A 13-year-old was charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

A juvenile petition containing the chilling details was released on Monday as the three teens appears in court in Augusta.

The documents did not provide a motive for the killing but did indicate that the teenagers initially planned to murder Mironovas by crushing prescription pills and putting them in her wine.

After the crushed medication failed to dilute sufficiently in the liquid, [the teenagers] discussed causing Kimberlys death by other means: stabbing and strangling her, court documents show, according to the Kennebec Journal.

The womans son then allegedly armed himself with a knife and donned a mask and gloves and then entered her bedroom with his 15-year-old friend, records show.

The teens strangled Mironovas while her son stabbed her in the neck, court documents show.

Kevin Sullivan, an attorney for the 13-year-old, said his client was bewildered.

He was in a house where someone died and hes completely distraught because of it, he said.

Court documents indicated that the youngest suspect only participated in the planning, but did not take part in the killing.

Attorneys for the two other teens, including Mironovas son, declined to comment on the case.

Fox News does not identify juveniles unless they are charged as adults.

The Kennebec Journal reported that Mironovas had moved from Ashland, Mass. to Litchfield, Maine last year.

A friend told the newspaper that Mironovas was a very sweet, caring, understanding woman.

She was like the mom of the group and always had a smile on her face, said Sage Arlene Lockhart, who befriended Mironovas when the two attended Aveda Institute, a cosmetology school. She was outgoing, smart and did amazing at school.

Lockhart told the Associated Press that Mironovas had once told her that her son was resentful of their move to Maine and wanted to return to Massachusetts. She said her son was angry and had been expelled from school.

He was out of control and had a lot of anger issues, she added.

State prosecutors could seek to try the boys as adults, where murder carries a minimum sentence of 25 years. In the juvenile system, the teens could be detained only until they turn 21.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Border patrol agents at a checkpoint in Laredo, Texas on Friday discovered 59 illegal immigrants packed in the back of a tractor-trailer trying to enter the United States, officials announced Tuesday.

The immigrants were from Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil, Honduras and Peru.

The driver and a passenger, both U.S. citizens, were arrested, however, charges against them were not formally announced.

These criminal organizations view these individuals as mere commodities without regard for their safety. The blatant disregard for human life will not be tolerated, Laredo Sector Assistant Chief Patrol Agent Gabriel Acosta said in a statement.

Laredo is one of the largest trade and transportation ports along the U.S.-Mexico border where hundreds, if not thousands, of tractor-trailers move goods between the two countries.

Truck drivers, usually U.S. citizens, are paid a fee per person they smuggle across the border in their trailers.

Last July, 10 people died as they were smuggled through Texas. Thirty-nine immigrants were found packed into a semitrailer in the parking lot of a San Antonio Walmart.

The driver, 61-year-old James Matthew Bradley Jr., was sentenced to life in prison last Friday after pleading guilty to a county of transporting immigrants resulting in death, and a conspiracy count.
The deputies who were among the first to arrive to the scene of the Florida school massacre were found taking cover behind their cars and a nearby tree and had no idea where the gunman was, according to an official report released Tuesday.

The report from Coral Springs Officer Bryan Wilkins details how he arrived at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School within minutes of the active shooter alert -- only to find Broward County Sheriff's Officers hadn't entered the school, but were instead taking cover.

"I saw approximately four Broward County Sheriff's Office vehicles parked in the west bound lane with their personnel taking up exterior positions behind their vehicles," Wilkins wrote. "I drove up just west of the campus building 1200, exited my vehicle, grabbed my AR-15 rifle and donned on my tactical/medical gear. As I was advancing on foot through the chain-link fence, I was advised by an unknown BSO Deputy taking cover behind a tree, 'he is on the third floor.'"

Wilkins added he was joined by a Coral Springs detective and a Broward deputy to enter the building, where he saw the dead and wounded. The police officer's report was first revealed by the Miami Herald.

Seventeen people were killed in the Valentines Day shooting, during which alleged gunman Nicholas Cruz opened fire and then fled five minutes before officers went into the building.

In another police report released Tuesday, Coral Springs Officer Scott Myers wrote that police were originally told by dispatch that authorities were watching the gunman on surveillance video, who was "preparing to exit the East stairwell on the second floor."

"We were prepared to engage the shooter on the second floor," Myers wrote. "After several moments we were advised the CCTV was not live and that an unknown delay existed. We were later informed that the suspect was seen exiting the building via CCTV. Our team transitioned to a rescue team and we evacuated every classroom on the second floor."

In the wake of the shooting, the Broward County Sheriffs Office received heavy criticism for its handling of the situation, including the actions of Scot Peterson, the schools resource officer, who stood outside the building as the attack unfolded.

BROWARD SHERIFF ORDERED BY JUDGE TO RELEASE ADDITIONAL PARKLAND RESPONSE VIDEO, REPORT SAYS

The former deputy denied wrongdoing and retired from the office before an investigation was launched. The Broward County Sheriffs Office released footage of the shooting that showed Peterson spending most of the time during the shooting standing outside the school with his gun drawn.

The report released Tuesday indicates it wasn't just Peterson that couldn't find Cruz, as Wilkins noted in his report the other officers at the scene couldn't locate where the shooting took place.

Meanwhile, school safety issues are being revealed, too.

The Broward Sheriff's Office told the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission at its first meeting on Tuesday that teachers couldn't lock their classroom doors from the inside as they tried to lock down their students on Feb. 14. Instead, teachers had to open their doors and use a key to lock them from the outside.

The doors also had small windows, which allowed Cruz to fire into the locked classrooms.

PARKLAND SHOOTING HERO BLAMES SHERIFF AND SUPERINTENDENT FOR FAILING TO PREVENT MASSACRE

Broward sheriff's radios were also not on the same channel as Coral Springs police, the two primary agencies that responded, officials said Tuesday.

Attempts to merge the radio channels failed, which prevented the two departments from sharing information. Coral Springs and Broward are also on separate 911 systems and calls were coming into both, the commission heard.

Fox News' Kathleen Joyce, Elizabeth Zwirz and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
A jury in Northern California convicted a 20-year-old man of torturing, starving and beating two children whose bodies were found in a storage unit.

The jury on Monday found Gonzalo Curiel guilty in the 2015 killings of a 7-year-old boy and his 3-year-old sister. They also convicted him of torturing their older sister in their Salinas apartment, KSBW-TV reported.

Curiel's former girlfriend and the children's relative, Tami Huntsman, 42, pleaded guilty in February to two counts of murder. Huntsman had agreed to care for the three children after their mother was killed in a car accident and their father  who is related to Huntsman  was sent to prison.

An officer found the oldest child, then 9, with bruises and a broken collarbone in the backseat of a locked SUV in December 2015. Officials later located the tiny bodies of her siblings in plastic containers inside a storage unit in Redding, about 300 miles (483 kilometers) north of Salinas.

The child told investigators that Huntsman and Curiel killed her younger siblings on Thanksgiving after she was caught stealing a bagel. The girl, now 12, was the primary witness in Curiel's trial.

She told jurors she and her siblings were stripped naked, sprayed down with cold water, beaten with a shower head, and locked in a tiny bathroom for extended periods of time as punishment.

Curiel was a "sadistic" person who "enjoyed controlling and hurting children," Monterey County Assistant District Attorney Steve Somers said.

Curiel was a minor when the killings occurred. He was tried as an adult, but prosecutors were not able to seek the death penalty under California law. He and Huntsman were scheduled to be sentenced next week.

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This story has been corrected to show Gonzalo Curiel's first name was misstated as Gustavo.

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Information from: KSBW-TV.
A priest at a California Orthodox church is pleading for a burglar to return thousands of dollars worth of religious items that were swiped from the building during an early morning targeted event.

Los Angeles police said around ten crosses and other items were taken from the St. Nicholas Orthodox Church early Wednesday after a burglar broke in through a back door and ransacked drawers inside.

"While they can be replaced monetarily, the sentiment will be very, very hard to replace," Father Michael Prevas told FOX11 Los Angeles, adding that he was very saddened that it's come to the point that churches can be targeted.

Prevas said surveillance video shows a man parking a white truck in the churchs parking lot and that he had been in and out in about just slightly what seems like over one minute.

"It makes us a little more uneasy that it seemed to be such a targeted event," he added.
A man who allegedly diverted tubs worth of mail from UPS worldwide headquarters to his apartment in Chicago is now under investigation after cashing nearly $60,000 in business checks into his personal bank account, court documents say.

Dushaun Spruce, who has not been charged as of Tuesday, reportedly made the change-of-address request back in October to redirect mail from the shipping giants headquarters in Atlanta to 6750 N. Ashland Ave.

Um, I wont  dont answer that, Spruce told a FOX32 Chicago reporter when confronted his week and asked if he was behind the scheme.

Spruces postman told investigators the Chicago man had been getting so much mail, he had to place it in a mail tub outside his door.

I been having problems with my mail being delivered for months now, and I actually spoke with the mail person. He always acts like he doesn't know what's going on, Spruce told FOX32 Chicago.

Among the thousands of items Spruce received, according to court documents: letters to the CEO of UPS, numerous business checks and five corporate credit cards  although none of the cards were misused.

UPS was tipped off to the alleged scam in late January after Fifth Third Bank officials told postal inspectors that 10 checks made out to the company, totaling more than $58,000, were cashed into Spruces personal bank account, the Chicago Tribune reported. A court affidavit viewed by the newspaper said officials were able to match bank surveillance footage to Spruces drivers license photo.

A UPS spokesman told the Chicago Tribune that they were recently notified that mail intended for their Atlanta headquarters was redirected by an unauthorized change of address by a third party.

The affidavit said Spruce did not identify himself in the change-of-address form filed in October, but wrote down his initials and then crossed them out and replaced them with UPS.

In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Spruce said authorities carried out a search warrant at his apartment in January and took mail, checkbooks and banking information.

He was arrested in 2016 on charges of forgery and deceptive practices, but failed to appear in court, according to FOX32 Chicago.

A Facebook profile purportedly belonging to him lists numerous occupations and past jobs, ranging from a life insurance salesman to a dishwasher.

I might laugh and joke around with some people and sometimes do dumb things for fun but don't ever think i'm stupid, the profile says.
A Minnesota woman who led authorities on a weekslong manhunt after she allegedly killed her husband, then went to Florida and befriended  then killed  a woman who resembled her, is now facing charges in two states.

Lois Riess is in custody in Texas, awaiting transfer to Florida or Minnesota for trial. If the Florida charges against Riess are elevated to first-degree murder, she could face the death penalty.

Here are some details about how this case might unfold:

'COLD-BLOODED MURDERER'

Riess, 56, killed her husband, 54-year-old David Riess, in late March, then forged checks to steal $11,000 from his account, according to authorities. David Riess's body was found on March 23 at the couple's home in Blooming Prairie, Minnesota, with multiple gunshot wounds. Lois Riess was gone.

The search for Riess began and seemed to intensify after another woman, Pamela Hutchinson, 59, of Bradenton, Florida, was found dead in Fort Myers Beach on April 9. Authorities said at the time that Riess targeted Hutchinson because they looked alike, then killed her to assume her identity.

Lee County Undersheriff Carmine Marceno said Riess was armed and dangerous and her mode of operation was to befriend women who resembled her, then steal their identity. He called her a "cold-blooded murderer."

A national manhunt for Riess continued until she was arrested Thursday in the South Texas beach resort town of South Padre Island after someone recognized her at a restaurant.

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WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Riess is charged in Florida with one count each of second-degree murder, grand theft, grand theft of a motor vehicle and criminal use of personal identification information.

In Minnesota, Riess is charged with one count of felony theft. Authorities have said a second-degree murder charge is pending, but they are taking time to build the strongest possible case.

A judge in Brownsville, Texas, ruled that Riess could be extradited to either state for trial, and whomever picked her up first could take custody.

David Weinstein, a former federal and state prosecutor in Florida, said the Florida case seems to be farther along so it's likely that Riess will head there first. In addition, the second-degree murder charge filed by way of an arrest warrant in Florida is going to weigh heavier than the theft charge in Minnesota. Weinstein said authorities in both states have to discuss the next steps together.

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THE DEATH PENALTY

Florida is a death penalty state, while Minnesota is not. The death penalty is currently not a factor with the charges Riess faces, but that could change.

In order to seek the death penalty, Florida prosecutors must charge Riess with first-degree murder and that can only be done through a grand jury indictment. State Attorney's Office spokeswoman Samantha Syoen said the office doesn't discuss such matters.

Weinstein, who is not part of the case, said that from what he's seen about Riess's alleged plan to befriend Hutchinson, steal her identity and then escape, it seems authorities will move forward with a first-degree, premeditated, murder charge.

But that charge doesn't automatically mean prosecutors will seek the death penalty, or that it would be imposed if she's convicted.

Prosecutors have to evaluate aggravating and mitigating factors. Some aggravating factors for the death penalty include how a murder was planned and carried out, the manner of death, and whether the death was heinous, atrocious and cruel. Some mitigating factors that might weigh against the death penalty include the defendant's age or mental health, Weinstein said.

___

SOME WRINKLES

The death penalty issue could be a factor as authorities discuss where Riess should face trial first.

One aggravating factor for the death penalty is a prior crime of violence. So, Florida prosecutors could theoretically opt to let Minnesota try its case first, get a murder conviction, and then use that conviction to bolster their argument for the death penalty, Weinstein said.

Pete Mills, chairman of the Florida Public Defenders Association Death Penalty Steering Committee, said prosecutors in Minnesota also might feel that the death penalty shouldn't be an option, so they might seek to try Riess first for that reason. They also might seek to bring her to Minnesota first so they can seek justice for family members there.

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HISTORY OF THEFT AND GAMBLING

Riess has a history of stealing money and gambling, and authorities dubbed her "Losing Streak Lois" for her habit of frequenting casinos.

In 2012, Riess was appointed conservator and guardian for her disabled sister, who has the cognitive level of a 10-year-old, according to court records. In a September 2015 affidavit, a social worker said she received a report that Riess transferred funds from the guardianship account to Riess' own account, then spent some of the funds at a casino. Riess was never charged, but was directed to repay her sister more than $100,500, court records show. An attorney on the case said she has not.

During her time on the run, authorities said Riess gambled at casinos in Iowa and Louisiana, where she won a $1,500 jackpot on slot machines and used her own identification to claim the prize.

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Associated Press writer Jeff Baenen contributed to this report from Minneapolis.

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Follow Amy Forliti on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/amyforliti . More of her work at: https://apnews.com/search/amy%20forliti
A 14-year-old middle school student in Volusia County, Fla. was arrested March 1 after he reportedly said he was going to be the next school shooter. The same day, in the same county, a 14-year-old female high school student was arrested for tapping a school employee on the shoulder and saying bang, bang.

Two other Volusia County teen students were also arrested that day for joking in school that they had a weapon.

As education and law enforcement officials across the country try to figure out how to deal with school threats  particularly after the fatal shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, where 17 people were killed  this county in Central Florida is taking a zero-tolerance approach to keep its schools safe.

Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood makes no excuses for his tough and unforgiving stance on students who make threats or joke about school shootings. They will be arrested and their parents will pay for investigative and court costs.

You wouldnt walk into a crowded movie theatre and yell fire and you wouldnt walk onto an airplane and yell hijack! he said. So what gives you the right to stand up in the middle of a classroom and tell the teacher Im bringing my gun to school tomorrow to shoot you in the head?

The sheriff has arrested nearly 30 students since the Parkland shooting. The youngest defendant is 11 years old.

For us in law enforcement, we dont want to lose the momentum after Parkland. We lost it after Columbine and Sandy Hook, he said. There was this initial outrage and then everybody went back to their normal life.

To ensure the punishment is harsh enough, hes even making students families responsible for the over $1,000 it costs his office to investigate false threats.

This is an expensive proposition to parents and its a shame we have to do it, he said. But they need to play a role in the childs life and take responsibility.

I would like to see those kids get sentenced to spend a week with the families of the victims from Parkland and see the devastation that was caused to their life and see how funny it is when they come back."  Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood

All across the country, law enforcement officials are taking school threats seriously and meting out tough punishments. But some say Volusia is taking it to a whole new level  by taking a stringent approach that is incredibly unforgiving.

Charges range from misdemeanors to felonies, with some minors even being treated as adults under the law. After being arrested, a student is required to appear before a judge and social service workers for appropriate punishment, which is decided on a case-by-case basis.

Some of these kids are gang members who pose with firearms in their Facebook photos, so theyre obviously going to be put in a whole different category than a kid who is an exceptional learning student and may have had an emotional outburst, Chitwood said.

His strategy is being hailed by some who feel students need to be reminded that any threat, even if done in jest, will not be tolerated.

Within one month of the Parkland shooting, almost 1,500 threats were reported by students in schools across the country, and almost half of those were made over social media. Experts say those numbers are likely largely underreported because many schools handle threats internally out of fear going public would stain its reputation.

Chitwood said his office receives up to 90 reports of threats on any given day due to the increased awareness by schools and students to report suspicious behavior.

But others question Chitwoods approach, saying it criminalizes students and is not the answer to preventing another school shooting.

This is indeed very serious and we need to communicate that to students, said Ken Adams, a criminal justice professor at the University of Central Florida. But lets tone it down a bit and put it into perspective and figure out if there are ways to do this that dont necessarily have to involve law enforcement as the hammer.

Nancy Wait, Volusia Countys director of information services, said gone are the days that students would make a threat and schools dismiss it.

I dont think a lot of our students, especially in the middle school level, are mature enough to understand that what theyre doing is causing a major disruption, Wait said. Nine times out of 10 they tell you I was just kidding! But its just too late, we cannot have that kind of behavior in our schools any longer.

Wait says the schools also abide by a concern of harms, a sort of checklist to go through with a student to make sure they can get mental health counseling, if needed. The focus in Volusia County, she said, is not just on punishment.

We want to discipline and take appropriate action, Wait said. But we also want to help them deal with whatever might be causing them to act out.

Chitwood said that while some students are still waiting on a court date, some have already undergone intense probation, while others have been expelled from their schools and sent to out-of-state mental health facilities.

His strict punishments are even getting support from an unexpected group  some parents of the arrested students.

I strongly agree with the measures that are being taken, said one mother whose 14-year-old daughter was sentenced to 21 days in a juvenile detention center and two weeks of house arrest with a GPS ankle monitor for threatening to shoot school staff. I hate that it was my child but she had some thinking time.I want every child out there to know that if you make the wrong decision, it doesnt just hurt you, it hurts your parents.
Federal wildlife officials say the only wild population of endangered red wolves is unsustainable and could be wiped out within years.

The prediction comes in a five-year review of the status of the species released Tuesday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The report says only about 40 wolves remain in the wild in North Carolina, down from a peak of nearly 120 a decade ago. Another 230 wolves live in captivity.

The main purpose of the report was to evaluate the wolves' endangered status, which it says should be maintained. More detailed recommendations for conservation efforts will come in a separate document.

Environmentalists contend the decline is due to neglect by federal officials who have halted releases of captive-born wolves and other actions that bolstered the wild population.
The 25-year-old man accused of mowing down pedestrians in Toronto with a van, killing 10 people and injuring 15 more, reportedly warned of an Incel Rebellion on Facebook before the attack.

A spokesperson for the social media company confirmed suspect Alek Minassians post that praised mass killer Elliot Rodger to The Globe and Mail. Rodger was a 22-year-old man who killed six people in a 2014 vehicle and shooting rampage in California before killing himself. Rodger left behind a manifesto, in which he reportedly called himself an incel and decried women for not dating him.

The term incel means involuntarily celibate. It existed as a Reddit message board for some time until it was banned for encouraging violence, including rape against women.

What are incels?

While the group is supposed to be a support group for men who have not been intimate with a woman, some of the more popular posts on the subreddit were sinister in nature, including the ones titled: All women are sluts and Reasons why women are the embodiment of evil.

TORONTO VAN ATTACK SUSPECT PRAISED 'INCEL REBELLION' FOR SEXUALLY-FRUSTRATED MEN JUST BEFORE DEADLY RAMPAGE

A still-active incel message board describes members of the group as Involuntary Celibate, a person who, if you take the term literally, cant have sex despite wanting to. In practice, this goes beyond just sex and into the realm of having no possibility of finding a partner to get validation, love and acceptance from. Sex is mostly secundary [sic], though a minority of incels may disagree.

On this message board, some users celebrated that the Toronto attack suspect appears to be one of them while others questioned whether he is a real incel. Other posts on the message board defend now-disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein and decry breast cancer awareness.

The forums rules prohibit inciting violence, but some posts appear to advocate for rape for those who have not yet had sex and list step-by-step instructions for a full proof plan on how to do so.

Incels in the subreddit also advocated for rape or called the crime a made-up construct, according to The Guardian. The subreddit group had about 40,000 subscribers before it was shuttered.

Could women join?

While the Reddit group did not ban women from the message board, it reportedly encouraged females not to join it because their experiences are different, the group said.

Women are called femoids or female human organisms by incel members. Men who have sex with women are called chads, according to The Guardian.

How did it start?

In 2016, a woman identified as Alana told Elle magazine that she accidentally created what would become known as an incel group. The Toronto woman said she created a now-defunct website called Alanas Involuntary Celibacy Project in 1993 when she was in college and was curious about the fact she had never had sex.

I was trying to create a movement that was open to anybody and everybody, she told Elle. But her website was visited by mostly men who she said were prone to antagonistic, repetitive complaining.

Fox News Kathleen Joyce contributed to this report.
The newborn son of an Illinois couple who fled to Florida during the mothers pregnancy was found safe Monday after a missing child alert was issued, officials said.

One-month-old Sage Cooper was found unharmed and his parents, David Cooper, 32, and Kaitlynn Lovel, 25, were both detained, the Gadsen County Sheriffs Office said. Cooper was later arrested on outstanding warrants in Illinois, the sheriffs office said. Lovel may still face charges.

The search for the infant started after the Florida Department of Law Enforcement issued a missing child alert, the Tampa Bay Times reported. The baby was born in Tampa in March, but hadnt been seen since Friday, according to the newspaper.

Cooper and Lovel may have bolted the Tampa area with the baby after learning a Hillsborough County judge signed a court order last week to place the baby into state custody, sheriffs spokesman Danny Alvarez said. Hillsborough County sheriffs deputies launched their search for the pair last week after learning the couple had two other children taken from their custody, according to Alvarez.

The couple had come to Tampa during Lovels pregnancy, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

Cooper and Lovel faced significant charges of child abuse in Illinois that led authorities to take their custodial rights away, the newspaper reported.

Cooper was wanted in Illinois on unrelated charges, including a drug charge and a failure to appear in court over an ongoing domestic violence case, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

The family was discovered in Quincy, nearly 300 miles from where they were staying in Tampa. A tip led authorities to the motel where they had been saying, FOX13 News reported.

The infant was placed in the custody of the Department of Children and Families, the Gadsen County Sheriffs Office said.
The young mother of a 9-month-old boy died after she collided with a vehicle operated by an intoxicated man driving in the wrong direction on a Texas interstate Sunday, officials said.

The Dallas County Sheriff's Office told WFAA-TV that Guillermo Suarez, 31, was driving a SUV east in the westbound lanes of Interstate 20 in Duncanville when he sideswiped a vehicle, causing a chain-reaction crash and striking another head-on, sending it into an 18-wheeler truck.

In that vehicle was Amberly McCray, 23, of Grand Prairie, who was pronounced dead at the scene. Family members told WFAA she had a 9-month-old son.

Video taken by Roberto Salas before the crash shows Suarez driving the wrong way and avoiding cars before colliding with a vehicle. After the crash, multiple people can be seen trying to get into a wrecked car, while another person is seen lying on the ground.

Suarez's vehicle eventually ended up bursting into flames after coming to rest near the concrete divider.

MAN FACES TRIAL IN MICHIGAN CRASH THAT KILLED 5 BICYCLISTS

Suarez is charged with intoxication manslaughter with a vehicle and driving while intoxicated, according to the Dallas County Jail. He remains in custody as of Tuesday morning, according to the jail's website.

Court records obtained by the Dallas Morning News show that Suarez has a previous DWI conviction, and a lengthy criminal history in Dallas County.

The interstate was closed for several hours on Sunday as authorities investigated the crash, according to NBC5.
A controversial Ohio college professor who has been accused of being an ISIS sympathizer was suspended and banned from campus after he was slapped with federal charges.

Julio Pino, a Kent State University associate history professor known for his fiery anti-Israel rhetoric, became the focus of a 2016 FBI investigation after he was accused of using his position on campus to influence students to support the Islamic State, FOX 8 reported.

Pino, a pro-Palestinian Muslim convert, was charged on Monday with lying to the FBI, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office in the Northern District of Ohio.

A Kent State spokesperson told Fox News that Pino  who has worked at KSU since 1992 and specializes in Latin History and the Third World  was suspended and prohibited from entering the Kent State campus Monday after charges were filed in federal court.

The university continues to cooperate with the Department of Justice on this matter, and all inquiries about this case should be directed to that office, the statement read in part.

According to the criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Cleveland, Pino lied to an FBI special agent about communications he had with a Facebook friend, J.E., who was arrested for making threats against a judge involved in a child custody case.

In one of these conversations on Sept. 11, 2015, the two discussed killing hundreds of people if J.E.s parental rights were taken away.

J.E. wrote, hell, 10000s! See the thing Ive got on my side is God. That allows me certain rights. One of those rights is to strike down evil with furious vengeance!...People dont even know how crazy I am yet! Thats because no ones ever tried to take my [relative]. Theyre about to meet to [the] Moster theyve created.

Pino replied, devour them and J.E. said, thank you! I will!

Two months later, J.E. started posting threats against the family court judge. In January 2016, J.E. wrote, I f***ing love Julio Pino, even if he does eventually do something that most consider horrible, Ill still love him because I know him in a deeper way than most of you even could.

When questioned by FBI agents, Pino said he never heard of [J.E. or] maybe I heard of him through the news and later said, it is certainly possible that he could have heard of me and made up this conversation, invented it.

Pinos attorney, Warner Mendenhall, told Cleveland.com that the controversial professor planned to retire at the end of the semester but couldnt discuss the specifics due to ongoing plea negotiations.
The Latest on the White House visit of French President Emmanuel Macron (all times local):

1 p.m.

President Donald Trump is thanking French President Emmanuel Macron for his partnership on the recent missile strikes against chemical weapons in Syria and the fight against terrorism.

Trump says at a joint White House news conference that he will soon be meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. He says the U.S. won't "repeat the mistakes of past administrations" and will pressure the North Korean regime.

Macron is pointing to the need for the Iran nuclear deal. He says he wants to work on a new deal in the weeks and months ahead.

Macron says any new agreement would need to block any nuclear activity in Iran through 2025, cease any uranium activity and put an end to the country's ballistic missiles program.

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12:16 p.m.

A pair of designers is responsible for Melania Trump's white skirt suit and matching hat.

The first lady's office says Michael Kors designed the two-piece suit that Mrs. Trump wore for Tuesday's White House arrival ceremony for President Emmanuel Macron of France and his wife, Brigitte.

Mrs. Trump also wore the suit on an outing to the National Gallery of Art in Washington with Mrs. Macron.

The first lady topped her outfit with a broad-brimmed white hat designed by Herve Pierre. Pierre designed the first lady's inaugural ball gown.

The white hat quickly became the talk of the town, as well as on Twitter. Mrs. Trump typically doesn't wear hats.

Still to come is Tuesday night's piece de resistance: the first lady's state dinner gown.

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10:40 a.m.

President Donald Trump is warning that if Iran restarts its nuclear program it "will have bigger problems than they have ever had before."

Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron will be discussing the Iran nuclear deal Tuesday during their meetings at the White House.

Macron wants Trump to maintain the deal. Trump is undecided but has called it "a terrible deal."

Though Trump has warmly welcomed Macron to Washington, the two have disagreements to sort through, including Trump's decision to leave the multinational Paris climate change agreement.

While with Macron, Trump refused to answer a reporter's question as to whether he is considering a pardon for his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, whose office was raided by the FBI. Trump called it "a stupid question."

Cohen has not been charged.

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9:54 a.m.

French President Emmanuel Macron is highlighting the close ties between his nation and the United States during his visit to the White House.

Macron, standing alongside President Donald Trump Tuesday, said "America represents endless possibilities for my country."

He also told Trump that "France shares with your country an ideal of freedom and peace."

Macron touted how the French fought alongside George Washington during the American Revolution, which laid the blueprint for cooperation between the nations.

The French president, who enjoys a closer relationship with Trump than many of his European peers, said that France works alongside the U.S. on challenges like terrorism, North Korea and Iran.

He is expected to lobby Trump to maintain the Iran nuclear deal and reconsider the decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement.

___

9:30 a.m.

President Donald Trump is sending prayers to the Bush family and wishing former President George H.W. Bush a "speedy recovery."

Trump is recognizing the former president as he greets French President Emmanuel Macron on the South Lawn of the White House.

Bush has been hospitalized in Houston with an infection, just days after attending the funeral of his wife, Barbara Bush.

Trump is also sending the nation's sympathies to the Canadian people following the "horrendous tragedy" in Toronto.

A driver plowed a rented van along a crowded sidewalk in Toronto, killing 10 people and injuring 15 others. Trump says the nation's hearts are with the grieving families in Canada.

___

9:25 a.m.

President Donald Trump says the "wonderful friendship" he has developed with French President Emmanuel Macron is a testament to two nations' enduring alliance.

Trump is thanking Macron for his "steadfast partnership" in responding to the recent chemical attack in Syria.

The president is speaking at an arrival ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House.

Trump and Macron are meeting Tuesday on a number of issues, including the future of the Iran nuclear deal and the crisis in Syria.

The two leaders are holding a joint news conference later in the morning and then Macron will be honored with Trump's first state dinner.

___

9 a.m.

President Donald Trump is welcoming French President Emmanuel Macron to the White House in a formal arrival ceremony.

The president and first lady are greeting Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron, on rolled-out red carpet on the South Lawn.

The arrival is heavy on pomp, with nearly 500 U.S. service-members from all five military branches participating in the ceremonial welcome, which includes a "Review of the Troops."

Vice President Mike Pence and several members of Trump's Cabinet, lawmakers, and military families are in attendance. The audience includes students from the Maya Angelou French Immersion School in Temple Hills, Maryland.

The two leaders are spending the morning in meetings and then will hold a joint news conference. On Tuesday night, Macron will be feted at Trump's first state dinner.

___

12:50 a.m.

A sit-down between President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron followed by a joint news conference highlight the business portion of the French leader's second day in Washington.

The pageantry of Macron's official state visit, the first of the Trump presidency, comes Tuesday night with a lavish state dinner at the White House. About 150 guests are expected to dine on rack of lamb and nectarine tart and enjoy an after-dinner performance by the Washington National Opera.

Monday night was more relaxed, featuring a helicopter tour of Washington landmarks and a trip to the Potomac River home of George Washington for dinner.

Pomp and ceremony aside, Trump and Macron disagree on some fundamental issues. A prime dividing point is the multinational Iran nuclear deal, which Trump wants to abandon.
A Pennsylvania wife allegedly shot a woman she believed was having an affair with her husband in an ambush that ended in a murder-suicide, police said.

Radnor Township Police said Jennair Gerardot, 48, meticulously planned the grisly slaying Monday night that left 33-year-old Meredith Chapman dead, according to he Philadelphia Inquirer.

[Gerardot] went to great lengths to disguise herself, Police Superintendent William Colarulo said. She wore a wig, and took a train from Delaware to Radnor. She broke into the victims house, and cleaned up the glass so the victim didnt realize someone was in her home.

Police said Gerardot shot Chapman around 7 p.m. when she walked in the door. The jilted wife then turned the gun on herself.

The alleged assailants body was found near the kitchen, not far from Chapmans, news station WACU reported.

Read more from the New York Post.
A northern Michigan woman has been sentenced up to 22 years in prison for suffocating her infant daughter, her second criminal case in the death of a child.

The Petoskey News-Review reports 32-year-old Lisa Rae Bryan learned her punishment on Tuesday in Emmet County Circuit Court.

Bryan last month pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter. She was charged with second-degree murder in the 2016 death of her daughter, Isabella.

Bryan admitted that she was sleeping with Isabella close to her chest when the child died just weeks after birth.

In 2010, another infant died in Tulsa, Oklahoma, while Bryan was taking a bath with her. She served slightly more than a year in prison for second-degree manslaughter.

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Information from: Petoskey News-Review, http://www.petoskeynews.com
Some cities and counties are looking for a clean break -- from their designated state, that is. For years, some U.S. officials have fought to create the 51st state, providing a variety of reasons why they should gain independence.

Officials have drafted petitions, campaigned from county to county and created lengthy proposals to explain why their area should be considered a state. Most believe it would be economically beneficial for their particular area, others argue it could make a difference in local elections.

Article IV, section 3 of the Constitution allows for new states to be admitted into the union, though no new state can be formed within an old state without the consent of the state legislature as well as Congress.

That's not likely to happen any time soon.

"Generally speaking, it's very uncommon for a state to willingly vote to make itself smaller. (The last time that happened was in 1862 when West Virginia broke off from Virginia, and that involved some creative wartime interpretations of the Constitution.) And the U.S. Congress seems no more likely to vote for such statehood," the Pacific Standard Magazine explained in an online post in November 2013.

There havent been any new states formed by secession in modern U.S. history. But that doesn't mean people aren't still going to try. Here's a look at some state partition proposals in recent years.

New California

Two men launched a campaign on Jan. 15 to create the 51st state of the union, dubbed "New California." The movement proposes dividing rural California from the coastal cities, citing a list of 40 grievances against the state's government.

Unlike the failed 2016 campaign to split California into six states, this movement, founded by Robert Paul Preston and Tom Reed, seeks to consolidate rural California into its own economy.

"After years of over taxation, regulation, and mono party politics the State of California and many of its 58 counties have become ungovernable," the movement declares on its website.

It states that a consensus must be reached by the state legislatures of California as well as Congress. The process, according to New California hopefuls, could take up to 18 months.

As of April 24, the group claimed it has approval from 38 of the state's 58 counties needed to take it to the Legislature, CNBC reports.

"North Colorado"

Ten counties in Colorado started floating the idea of becoming their own state -- "North Colorado" -- in July 2013. And two more counties in Nebraska hoped to join them.

With a combined population of 350,000 people, North Colorado would have been the smallest state in the union if Congress agreed with lawmakers and declared the area an official state, according to the Pacific Standard Magazine.

Local officials said a new state was needed to better represent the interests of northern Colorado.

I say 80 percent of the oil and gas revenue in the state of Colorado is coming out of northeastern Colorado  Weld, Yuma County, and some of other counties, Weld County Commissioner Sean Conway told CBS Denver at the time. Seventy percent of the K-12 funding is coming off the state lands in Weld County alone. Im telling you we are economic drivers.

The proposal was placed on a November 2013 ballot, but was widely rejected by voters -- 58 percent to 42 percent.

Weld County voters said this is an option we shouldnt pursue and we wont pursue it, Conway said in response to the vote, according to the Denver Post. But we will continue to look at the problems of the urban and rural divide in this state.

"Baja Arizona"

A group of attorneys in Arizona's Pima County Democratic attempted to form their own state, called "Baja Arizona," back in February 2011. The movement was called "Start Our State" and represented the roughly 1 million residents in Pima County.

Paul Eckerstrom, who helped lead the effort, argued the state legislature had gone "too far to the right," according to the Arizona Daily Star. He specifically pointed to politics in Phoenix, adding that priorities outlined by politicians in the city weren't representative of the needs in Pima County.

"Every bill we've heard about here is either anti-abortion laws or anti-Mexican laws,' Eckerstrom told the local paper. "These are not laws that are geared toward solving the real problems that we have."

The legislature reportedly voted against the bill weeks later.

"Cook County"

On Nov. 22, 2011, Illinois Reps. Bill Mitchell and Adam Brown introduced a bill that would separate Cook County -- the second most populous county in the U.S. -- from the rest of the state.

Mitchell argued that voters' voices were being "drowned out by Chicago."

Downstate families are tired of Chicago dictating its views to the rest of us, Mitchell told NBC Chicago at the time. You only have to look at the election results from last years governors race to see the problem. Cook County carried Pat Quinn, while almost every Downstate county supported Bill Brady."

In January 2013, the bill came up during a chamber session in the Illinois House of Representatives but lawmakers adjourned it indefinitely.

Fox News' Steve Kurtz and Bradford Betz contributed to this report.
An Oklahoma woman, who was previously believed to be in "imminent danger" after she was allegedly kidnapped Monday after a domestic dispute, was reportedly found safe Tuesday.

Morgan Rower, 29, was located at a residence and was safe, Fox 25 News reported, citing Broken Arrow Police. Justin Korf, 36, who was suspected of kidnapping the woman, was reportedly not found.

Rower was believed to be missing after she engaged in a domestic dispute with Korf, police said earlier. Officers responded to a call reporting the alleged dispute Monday night at Rowers home and confirmed Korf interfered with a 911 call, Tulsa World reported.

MURDER CHARGES FILED IN 18-YEAR-OLD OKLAHOMA ABDUCTION CASE

A witness told police Korf took Rower in his white 1999 Dodge Durango and drove south. It was not immediately clear where Korf was traveling.

Police described Korf as a white man about 6 feet tall and 172 pounds. He has a lengthy arrest record including an aggravated assault conviction, a DUI and an assault with intent to commit a felony, News on 6 reported. Korf uses the aliases "Justin W. Kore" and "Justin W. Orf," the Department of Corrections website stated.

SHERIFF: POSSIBLE ARSON INVESTIGATED IN OKLAHOMA WILDFIRE

News on 6 reported Korf and Rower called the station and police on Tuesday saying they were fine and were willingly together, however, cops were still working to confirm Rower's location and safety prior to Tuesday's discovery.

Fox News' Elizabeth Zwirz contributed to this report.
A petition to fire the Fresno State professor who called the late Barbara Bush an amazing racist has attracted over 10,000 signatures as of Tuesday morning.

The appeal calls upon California State University, Fresno to terminate the employment of English professor Randa Jarrar for comments she made about Bush shortly after her death.

Immediate termination of Professor Randa Jarrar for racism and inflammatory comments regarding a former First Lady of the United States, Barbara Bush, the petition reads.

Jarrar has come under fire after calling Bush an amazing racist and said she was happy that the witch is dead, just hours after she died.

The professor, whos currently subject to an internal university investigation and on leave for the semester, also boasted that she cant be fired because shes a tenured professor.

I work as a tenured professor. I make 100K a year doing that. I will never be fired. I will always have people wanting to hear what I have to say, she wrote on Twitter.

Jarrar also drew the ire of people for posting a phone number for a crisis hotline at Arizona State University, falsely claiming thats her number. The hotline, normally receives just a few calls per week, was flooded with calls.

The controversy over the professors remarks prompted some donors to the university to consider pulling out financial support if Jarrar isnt removed from the position.

Ed Dunkel Jr., who made sizable financial contributions to Fresno State, said he will await the outcome of the controversy before deciding whether to close his checkbook.

I have a lot of friends that I've been talking to, and these are people who donate now and talking about holding back, and some are even questioning whether to send their kids to Fresno State," Dunkel told the Fresno Bee.

BUSH-BASHING PROFESSOR HAS FRESNO STATE SCRAMBLING TO KEEP ITS DONORS

But while Fresno State leadership has condemned Jarrar for her comments about Bush, she received backing from advocacy groups, saying her speech was protected under the First Amendment.

Jarrars tweets are unquestionably protected speech under the First Amendment and Fresno State has no power to censor, punish, or terminate Jarrar for them, Adam Steinbaugh, senior program officer for FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education), said in a statement to Fox News.

The embattled professor was also applauded at a literary festival she was forced to withdraw from amid the controversy.
The police chief of Ventura, Calif. admitted Monday his department erred by choosing not to send officers to investigate a call about a homeless man who, just hours later, randomly stabbed a restaurant patron to death as he was holding his 5-year-old daughter.

Instead of deploying officers to check out Jamal Jackson, 49, who was reported for disruptive behavior and yelling on the city promenade, authorities remotely monitored him for more than 20 minutes on pier security cameras.

Command center staff made that decision because officers were busy, Chief Ken Corney said.

"All of our patrol units were tied up on other calls," Corney said, noting that officials in the command center watching the cameras "didn't see any behavior that appeared to be concerning or significantly disruptive."

In video released by the Ventura Police Department, a man appearing to be Jackson is approached by a couple, who seem to ask Jackson to take a photograph of them. Jackson obliges.

But Corney said Monday that the decision to never send officers to check out the call was a mistake.

"Our practice is not to handle these calls by security cameras, it is to put boots on the ground," he said, according to The Los Angeles Times.

At a Monday night City Council meeting, residents were reportedly incensed.

"We have been devastated by the fires and we are now been run out by vagrants," one person said, according to The Los Angeles Times. And a woman who said she found a homeless person with an ax at her home said bluntly: " "I cannot answer my front door anymore."

Jackson is facing a first-degree murder charge in the death of 35-year-old Anthony Mele. He was being held in Ventura County jail on a $1.5 million bail.

Mele and his wife were eating dinner with their 5-year-old daughter Wednesday at Aloha Steakhouse in the seaside city of Ventura. The girl was sitting on her father's lap when prosecutors say Jackson walked up and stabbed Mele in the neck.

Prosecutor Richard Simon said customers and a restaurant employee followed Jackson out of the restaurant, even though he still had the knife. They kept track of him until Ventura police arrived and arrested him.

Mele was taken to a hospital and died Thursday after being taken off life support.

"It's horrible," Simon said. "You don't think you're going to be killed when you go out to dinner at a nice restaurant with your family and you didn't do anything."

"We have been devastated by the fires and we are now been run out by vagrants."  Resident at Ventura City Council meeting

Simon said the two men had not interacted before the attack.

"He was just sitting there with his daughter in his lap," Simon said. "You're not supposed to die that way."

Mele's Facebook page was filled with photos of his daughter and said he was a manager at an AT&T store.

If convicted, Jackson faces up to 55 years in prison.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A man posing as an Uber driver at the University of Georgia is accused of sexually assaulting women he picked up in his vehicle, authorities said.

A 21-year-old student got into the minivan of Emerson Redd, 53, outside a downtown Athens club early Friday thinking it was the Uber she had called, Athens-Clarke County police said. She got suspicious when she saw the vehicle was missing a GPS device, so she took pictures of the driver and demanded to be let out when he touched her inappropriately. The driver let her go.

About an hour later, police say, Redd picked up another university student and raped her. He has been charged with rape and sexual battery.

The first victim alerted officers after police posted a notice about the rape on Facebook, Athens-Clarke County police Capt. Jerry Saulters told news outlets. Police say they feared the suspect might attack others if not apprehended quickly.

"Our concern early on was he would strike again so we worked this case hard," Saulters told The Athens Banner-Herald . "We had detectives who worked this case for 24 to 30 hours straight."

Pictures taken by the students helped police break the case, they said.

Detectives spent hours scrutinizing the photos that showed portions of the interior of the suspect's vehicle before determining it was a Chrysler Pacifica minivan, Saulters said.

He said that it appeared the suspect might have chosen his victims by cruising downtown Athens looking for young women holding cellphones to their ears while appearing to be waiting on a ride.
Authorities say a 13-year-old boy has fatally shot his 11-year-old brother in suburban Cleveland, and police are describing the shooting as an apparent "premeditated act."

Streetsboro police say officers were called to a home around 9:30 p.m. Monday. The 11-year-old died at a hospital.

Police say the 13-year-old has been charged with aggravated murder in Portage County Juvenile Court. Police say the gun used in the slaying was stolen from his grandfather's home.

Police have not said what prompted the teen to shoot his brother.

Streetsboro is roughly 30 miles (48 kilometers) southeast of downtown Cleveland.
A woman broke into the Philadelphia-area home of another woman she believed was romantically involved with her husband and killed her before killing herself, authorities said.

Radnor Township police said the slaying of Meredith Chapman, 33, on Monday night was carefully planned by Jennair Gerardot, of Wilmington, Delaware.

"You had a man who was married who was having an affair with this other woman. The wife knew about it, and this was a calculated, planned attack," Police Superintendent William Colarulo said.

Geradot broke into the house, shot Chapman as soon as she walked in and then she shot herself, Colarulo said.

"There were emails and text messages indicating what she planned to do, and the detectives are still sorting that out," he said.

Officials believe Gerardot may have disguised herself and taken a train from Delaware, since a wig and other clothing not belonging to Chapman were found in a bag inside the house.

Chapman, a 2007 graduate of the University of Delaware, worked for the school in media relations and marketing and ran unsuccessfully for a state Senate seat in Delaware in 2016. She recently was hired as an assistant vice president at Villanova University.

Delaware Online reported that less than two hours before she was killed, Chapman said on her Instagram account that she "couldn't be more excited" about her new position.

"Just a week on the job and I'm already feeling the love from #NovaNation! #GoingNova #HigherEdMarketing#NewAdventures." she posted at 5:42 p.m.

Villanova University spokesman Jonathan Gust said the school was informed Monday night about her death.

"Our hearts are broken by the devastating loss of our new colleague," he said. "The thoughts and prayers of the entire university community are with her family, friends and colleagues during this extremely difficult time."

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This story has been corrected to change the dateline from Radnor to Wayne.
A Florida high school student stirred a backlash when he held up a sign with a racially offensive message to invite his girlfriend to the prom.

The Herald-Tribune reports the 18-year-old Riverview High School student's sign read: "If I was black, I'd be picking cotton, but I'm white, so I'm picking u 4 prom."

After a photo of the sign was posted on Snapchat and shared across social media, school officials say they're investigating.

Sarasota school district spokeswoman Tracey Beeker says administrators have spoken to the student and his parents.

In a robocall to Riverview parents, acting principal Kathy Wilks said the school does not "condone or support" the student's message.

An NAACP official encouraged school administrators to issue a district-wide response making it clear that the sign was inappropriate.
A new survey provided exclusively to The Associated Press shows that Mississippi inmates awaiting trial can spend months or even years in local jails.

The survey by the MacArthur Justice Center shows more than one-third of all of those jailed before trial had a stay of 90 or more consecutive days. More than 600 had been in jail longer than a year.

Federal and private studies show Mississippi has the sixth-longest pretrial stays in the nation. It also has one of the highest numbers of local jail inmates per capita.

Judges set high bails that inmates can't afford. Public defenders often ignore inmates until they are indicted, or even later. Inmates can wait months for indictment, because of infrequent meetings of local courts and delays processing evidence. Those who wait longest of all are inmates needing mental health diagnosis and treatment.
The suspected gunman was in custody Tuesday night, hours after two officers with the Dallas Police Department and a civilian were shot, police said.

The shootings took place around 4 p.m. near a Home Depot in Dallas off Forest Lane and Central Expressway, Fox 4 reported.

The police department said on Twitter that two officers were critically wounded, however the status of the civilian was unknown. All three were out of surgery late Tuesday, Dallas police Chief Rene Hall told Fox 4.

The civilian was a loss-prevention officer from the store, Hall said during a news conference.

The suspect was identified as Armando Juarez, 29, who was believed to have left the location in a white pickup truck, Hall said. He was apprehended after a five-hour man hunt involving a high speed chase, according to reports.

During a press conference, Hall said Juarez was arrested on multiple counts of aggravated assault on a police officer and wanted on a felony theft warrant.

The two officers who arrived at the scene were responding to a call from an off-duty officer working at the Home Depot who called for assistance for an arrest, Hall said. The two responding officers were reportedly shot shortly after arriving.

"We were just checking out people until we started hearing people like 'There's a shooting. They're shooting,'" witness Mercedes Goledo told Fox 4. "From there, they were just telling us to get out of the building. Get out the building. But then they found out that he had went outside."

"It sobers us to realize what officers walk into day in and day out and how quickly they can become victims," Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said during the news conference.

He added that law enforcement was fighting a "two front battle": at the hospital for the health of the injured officers and in the community searching for Juarez.

Rawlings said neither the names nor the conditions of the injured would be released.

Authorities asked for prayers for officers, their families, and the police department.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) said it was responding to the shooting scene.

Rawlings previously tweeted that his team was "closely monitoring the situation in northeast Dallas and praying for our officers and their families."

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
The father of the man cops believe gunned down four people at a Waffle House restaurant in Tennessee may also face charges for returning guns that were seized from his son last year after an incident at the White House, according to a federal official.

In a news conference Monday about the capture of Travis Reinking, 29, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Special Agent Marcus Watson said Jeffrey Reinking may have broken the law when he returned the weapons to his son.

It is possible. If you transfer weapons knowingly to a person that is prohibited, that could potentially be a violation of federal law," Watson said.

Last July, Reinking was arrested by the U.S. Secret Service after he crossed into a restricted area near the White House and refused to leave. Reinking said at the time he wanted to meet President Trump.

Reinking was not armed at the time, but at the FBIs request, Illinois state police revoked Reinkings state firearms card, authorities said.

The Tazewell County Sheriff's Office said in a news release on Monday the weapons were transferred to Jeffrey Reinking, who possessed a valid Firearm Owner's Identification Card and, by Illinois law, was able to legally possess them. The AR-15 used in the shootings Sunday was among the firearms seized.

"At no time were the weapons in the custody of the Tazewell County Sheriff's Office," the agency said.

WAFFLE HOUSE SHOOTER ARRESTED, AFTER COPS SAY HE STOLE BMW DAYS BEFORE DEADLY RAMPAGE

Under the Illinois' Firearm Owner's Identification Act, an individual whose FOID card is revoked must surrender his or her FOID card and complete a record for all firearms in their possession or control within 48 hours of receiving notice of the revocation to their local law enforcement agency.

The individual also must certify they have transferred all firearms they own or that are in their custody to another person with a valid FOID card, according to the sheriff's office.

"All weapons and ammo were released to Jeffrey Reinking [who] holds a valid FOID card," according to a police report from Aug. 24, 2017 obtained by Fox News. "Jeffrey was advised that he needed to keep the weapons secure and away from Travis. Jeffrey stated that he would comply." Authorities said the younger Reinking moved to Nashville last fall.

Metro Nashville Police Department spokesman Don Aaron said Monday that Reinking's father "has now acknowledged giving [the guns] back" to his son. It's not clear why or when he returned the weapons.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said that it did not appear that Reinking or his father violated any state firearms laws before the deadly shooting.

WAFFLE HOUSE SHOOTING VICTIMS INCLUDE BRILLIANT COLLEGE STUDENT, ASPRING RAPPER

"Given the information provided at this stage in the investigation about the weapons Reinking may have had in his possession, there is nothing in the record that would have given law enforcement officers an indication that possession of those weapons would be in violation of Tennessee law," the agency said in a statement Monday.

In Tennessee, the law bans anyone from obtaining a concealed carry permit if they have been "adjudicated as mental defective," but the 29-year-old never went through any judicial process after his run-ins with law enforcement, according to the Tennessean.

Reinking was formally charged late Monday with four counts of criminal homicide, according to court records. He was originally held on a $2 million bond, but that has since been revoked pending a court appearance on Wednesday.

Aaron said Reinking requested a lawyer and was taken to a hospital before being booked into custody.

Fox News' Shira Bush and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
HOUSTON (AP) _ Weingarten Realty Investors (WRI) on Tuesday reported a key measure of profitability in its first quarter. The results matched Wall Street expectations.

The Houston-based real estate investment trust said it had funds from operations of $74.7 million, or 57 cents per share, in the period.

The average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for funds from operations of 57 cents per share.

Funds from operations is a closely watched measure in the REIT industry. It takes net income and adds back items such as depreciation and amortization.

The company said it had net income of $146.8 million, or $1.13 per share.

The real estate investment trust posted revenue of $132.5 million in the period, surpassing Street forecasts. Six analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $131.1 million.

Weingarten Realty expects full-year funds from operations in the range of $2.29 to $2.35 per share.

The company's shares have dropped 20 percent since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Tuesday, shares hit $26.21, a fall of 24 percent in the last 12 months.

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This story was generated by Automated Insights using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on WRI at https://www.zacks.com/ap/WRI
Puerto Rico's Senate has ordered government agencies to explain why tens of thousands of people in rural areas remain without power or appropriate shelter as anger grows about the lack of basic services more than seven months after Hurricane Maria.

The agencies have five days to present a plan on how and when they will address the needs of rural towns.

The order comes as police in a small mountain town blocked power crews from leaving on Tuesday while residents demanded they stay to restore electricity service that many still lack.

The standoff ended after the power company promised it would keep crews in Las Piedras until service is fully restored. The crews were obeying company orders to head off to another town.
A former bodyguard of Usama bin Laden now living in Germany is getting about $1,400 a month in welfare payments and can't be deported to his native Tunisia because of fears he could be tortured there, German media reported Tuesday.

The 42-year-old man, identified only as "Sami A." because of media privacy laws, has been living freely in Germany since 1997 and has a wife and three children, German tabloid Bild reported.

The figure was released in response to inquiries from the Alternative for Germany party (AfD), which is staunchly opposed to immigration.

Sami. A is still considered to be dangerous and required to report to police every day, according to The Evening Standard. He was branded as an acute and considerable danger for public security," and had his asylum application rejected.

In an anti-terror trial in 2005, a witness testified that in 2000 Sami. A served for several months as one of Bin Laden's bodyguards in Afghanistan, the BBC reported.

In 2012, Spiegel Online reported that German authorities regarded him as a "dangerous preacher," who was responsible for radicalizing two men who were planning a bomb attack in the country.

INFAMOUS PAKISTANI CLERIC KEEPS 'MARTYR' BIN LADEN LIBRARY, VOWS WORLDWIDE SHARIA

He cannot be deported back to Tunisia, however, because the German government believes he could be tortured there.

"Suspected jihadists face the risk of torture in North Africa, according to the German government," according to the BBC. "So Tunisia and its Arab neighbors are not on the list of safe countries of origin to which migrants can be deported."

The AfD blasted the decision on Tuesday after the information was disclosed.

What fate awaits Sami A. in Tunisia is not the problem of German taxpayers, the AfD said in a statement. However, to protect and financially equip an Islamist, to feed hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, while for their own population less and less remains, but this fits the [Chancellor Angela] Merkel Germany of this time.

Bin Laden was the founder of Al Qaeda and mastermind of the 9/11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in the U.S. He was shot dead in a U.S. Navy SEAL raid in Pakistan in 2011.
The first of the 10 people mowed down Monday in Toronto by a crazed driver was identified on Tuesday morning as a young woman who worked in investment management and was standing near her office when the rampage began.

Alek Minassian, 25, the driver in the van attack, was charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder and 13 counts of attempted murder in a brief court appearance Tuesday.



Anne Marie DAmico was the first of the 10 victims killed in the attack, CBC reported. Described by her colleagues as a woman who was "full of life," D'Amico was an employee at Invesco, a U.S.-based investment management firm whose Canadian headquarters is on Yonge Street, near the scene of the assault.

Peter Intraligi, president of Invesco Canada, confirmed D'Amico's death.

"Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with all those impacted by this tragic event," Intraligi said. "I can now confirm that unfortunately one of our employees has succumbed to her injuries. Out of respect for her and her family, we will not be providing any further comments."

A company report from July 2017 stated a person with the same name as D'Amico was a performance management analyst who worked on a humanitarian project, Global News reported.

What I didnt expect was to have such a deep connection to the family and see first-hand how much this new home truly means to them, DAmico stated in the report.

"[She was] full of life, loved to travel, loved to help volunteer," Jon Tam, who worked with D'Amico, told CBC.

"She was a very warm, friendly presence in the office. Always smiling," he added. "I'll definitely be missing seeing that smile around the office."

Police have yet to release all the names of those who were killed or the 15 people who were injured.

Minassian intentionally plowed his vehicle into the crowd of pedestrians just before 1:30 p.m., leaving a trail of chaos, cops said. Minassian, who lives in the Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill, was taken into custody after a brief confrontation with officers a few blocks away from the initial crime scene.

"The incident definitely looked deliberate," Police Chief Mark Saunders told reporters at a late-night news conference.

Photos and videos from where the van jumped the sidewalk showed blood and bodies. Henry Yang, who witnessed the attack, told the Toronto Star he was in his car when he saw the van flying down the street and smashing into anything in its way.

He was driving southbound and most of the pedestrians were walking southbound, so they didnt see him coming, Yang recalled to the Toronto Star. I started honking my horn, making noises, trying to make a commotion, trying to make people aware that something was going on. I rolled down my windows and started yelling at people, I wanted them to get out of the way.

Saunders said Monday night authorities are still piecing together information. Police had initially said nine people were killed, but Saunders confirmed one more died at the hospital.

Authorities also have not ruled out terror as a possible motive in the van attack.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Italy's highest court has rejected a request by a German group to release its migrant rescue boat seized eight months ago by prosecutors investigating allegations that non-governmental organizations colluded with migrant smugglers.

The German group, Jugend Rettet, said Tuesday that it was devastated by the Cassation Court's ruling and that "we will fight for the right to rescue people in danger at sea."

Doctors Without Borders said the ruling "sends a working signal (that) Europe will continue to criminalize humanitarian organizations conducting search-and-rescue operations ... rather than strengthening capacities to save lives at sea."

Prosecutors told the court that the Iuventa was seized based on three episodes in which crew members had contact with migrant smugglers. The group's spokesman, Philipp Kulker, said in Berlin that the evidence had been fabricated.
Three Mexican film students were tortured, killed and had their bodies dissolved in acid last month by criminals who believed they were part of a rival gang, police said Monday.

Javier Solomon Aceves Gastelum, 25, Marco Garcia Francisco Avalos, 20, and Jesus Daniel Diaz, 20, vanished last month in Tonala while filming a project for school, the Washington Post reported. The three men attended the University of Audiovisual Media in Guadalajara.

The students were last seen in Tonala on March 19 after their vehicle broke down. The trio was kidnapped by at least six people, Jalisco state prosecutors said. Authorities said the students were forced into a vehicle by two armed men who appeared to be dressed as police officers.

REMNANTS OF MEXICO MIGRANT CARAVAN CLOSER TO US BORDER



Following the kidnapping, the three students were driven to a home used by Cartel Jalisco New Generation, a notorious gang, members of which tortured and killed the men before disposing of the bodies, Jalisco state prosecutors said.

The gang believed the three men were part of their rival cartel, Nueva Plaza, authorities said. The home where the three students had been filming belonged to one of their aunts and was used as a safe house for Nueva Plaza; it was under surveillance by Cartel Jalisco New Generation, prosecutors said.

Authorities said the three men had no connection to any criminal gang.

The bodies were dissolved in acid at a different location, where investigators discovered 46 barrels of sulfuric acid.

Subsequently their bodies were dissolved in acid so that no trace of them remained, officials said.

MISTRIAL DECLARED FOR BORDER PATROL AGENT ACCUSED OF KILLING MEXICAN TEEN

The Jalisco Attorney General's Office said two men have been arrested and there are arrest orders for four others in the case. Cartels in Mexico are known for dissolving their victims in acid to eliminate victims' remains.

Citizens held a vigil Monday night in Jalisco to remember the three students. Their disappearance prompted protests across the country and even gained attention from Academy Award-winning director Guillermo del Toro. The protesters were holding demonstrations focusing on the safety of students and the growing violence in the country.

Last year, more than 25,000 were murdered in Mexico and homicides peaked at their highest levels in 20 years.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Mexico's national security commissioner says respected journalist Javier Valdez was killed last year because of his work.

National Security Commissioner Renato Sales also said Tuesday at a brief news conference that the arrest of a suspect in Valdez's killing was achieved without force. The government announced late Monday that a Sinaloa cartel member known by the nickname "Koala" was arrested in Tijuana.

Weeks before his murder, Valdez interviewed Damaso Lopez, who had been Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's right-hand man leading the Sinaloa cartel. At the time, Lopez was battling Guzman's sons for control of the cartel.

Valdez's colleagues and journalism advocates called on the government Tuesday to continue pursuing the mastermind of the May 15, 2017, slaying in the western city of Culiacan.
A judge in Peru ordered the arrests of two men on Tuesday after a Canadian man was dragged by the neck and lynched by locals who blamed the 41-year-old for a revered shamans death.

Police are still investigating who else may have been involved in the death of Sebastian Woodroffe, the BBC reported. A video surfaced Thursday showing a bloodied man, believed to be Woodroffe, begging for mercy as two men dragged him by the neck between thatched-roofed homes in the indigenous community of Victoria Gracia. Several people were seen in the video watching the killing unfold.

Locals had blamed Woodroffe for the death of Olivia Arevalo, an 81-year-old plant healer found dead Thursday from two gunshot wounds. Her death sparked outrage among locals, who viewed the traditional healer as a community leader.

CANADIAN MAN DRAGGED BY THE NECK AND LYNCHED BY PERUVIAN MOB AFTER BEING ACCUSED OF SHAMAN'S DEATH

However, there werent any witnesses to Arevalos death and no murder weapon was found inside the shamans house, where she died, prosecutor Ricardo Jimanez told the BBC. Peruvian authorities said Woodroffe was Arevalos client.

The shamans family also had blamed the Canadian for Arevalos death, claiming Woodroffe was angry with the shaman after she refused to conduct a spiritual ceremony that involved ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic cocktail used to cure ailments but is taken by tourists for mind-altering experiences.

Another theory in the shamans murder suggested another foreigner may have killed Arevalo for an unpaid debt, the BBC reported.

Woodroffe, who was found Saturday hastily buried in a shallow grave, traveled to Peru in 2016 hoping to get an apprenticeship with a plant healer from the Shipibo tribe. He wanted to switch careers to become an addiction counselor using hallucinogenic medicine.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Authorities in southern China on Tuesday arrested the man they said set fire to a three-story building that killed 18 after apparently getting into an argument with others at a karaoke parlor.

Liu Chunlu, 32, was arrested in the county-level city of Yingde, officials said. Police had offered a $32,000 reward in the investigation.

Officials said the suspect had burns on his hips but did not provide a motive for the arson. China Central Television reported on the earlier argument.

The suspect blocked the entrance of the joint with his motorcycle and then ignited it, setting it ablaze, CCTV said. The parlor had only one passage for entering and exiting, the report said.

Police, fire, health and other departments sent rescuers to the site after receiving a call around half-past midnight about the fire, authorities said.

The fire was put out at 12:55 a.m. and the injured had been sent to the hospital, the bureau said on its official account on the microblog site, Sina Weibo.

China suffers frequent deadly fires and industrial accidents, often blamed on negligence.

Last year, police arrested a man suspected of setting fire to a two-story house in eastern China, killing 22 people. At that time, investigators discovered traces of gasoline at the scene of the pre-dawn fire in Jiangsu province and found all the doors of the house locked.

The Associated Press contributed to this report
A Toronto police officer was praised for his remarkable restraint as he arrested the suspected driver of a van that rammed into pedestrians Monday without firing a single shot.

Video footage showed the unidentified officer ordering the suspect, identified as 25-year-old Alek Minassian, to get down or Minassian would be shot. The suspect, accused of killing 10 and injuring 15 others in the assault, was heard in the video yelling at the officer to kill me and shoot me in the head, according to the Toronto Star.

Based on what was known at the time of the arrest, @TorontoPolice used what appears to be remarkable restraint in not firing at the suspect when the suspect pointed a weapon at them, Ari Goldkind, a Toronto-based lawyer, said in a tweet.

TORONTO VAN SUSPECT REPORTEDLY ATTENDED SPECIAL NEEDS PROGRAM, MADE UNUSUAL NOISES

Bob Reid, a Toronto broadcaster, said the officer deserves a medal.

The officer was shaken up after the incident, Toronto Police Association president Mike McCormack told The Star.

Hes shaken up by the whole thing, and shaken up by the magnitude. He said, You know, I was just doing my job, McCormack said. Hes been confronted by someone who is making like he has a weapon, threatening the officers life, trying to get the officer to shoot him, and he arrests that guy.

Police didnt rule out the possibility of terrorism after Minassian was arrested.

TORONTO VAN CRASH SUSPECT IDD AS POLICE WONT RULE OUT TERRORISM

"Based on witness accounts, its very clear the actions definitely looked deliberate," Toronto Police Service Chief Mark Saunders said, adding the suspect had not been known to police previously.

Minassian sped off after striking pedestrians, according to CBC. Witnesses said the driver was moving fast and appeared to be acting intentionally.

Fox News Matt Richardson and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Alek Minassian, the suspect who allegedly drove a van into a crowd of pedestrians in Toronto on Monday, reportedly attended a special needs program at his high school and would make meowing noises when he walked the halls.

The 25-year-old from Richmond Hill, which is north of Toronto, was identified by authorities as the driver in the rampage that left 10 dead and 15 hurt. The vehicle eventually mounted the curb on Yonge Street after traveling for about a mile. He was arrested roughly 26 minutes after police were first notified of the attack, The Star reported.

Shereen Chami, a former classmate at Thornlea Secondary School, told Reuters she remembered him walking the halls with his hands together and his head down, and making meowing noises.

"He wasn't a social person, but from what I remember he was absolutely harmless," she said.

Special needs in the Canadian education system encompasses multiple areas, including behavioral difficulties, as well as learning and physical disabilities, according to the report.

Ari Bluff, who also attended Thornlea Secondary School with Minassian, told CBC News he wasn't overly social, and would often be alone.

Minassian reportedly graduated from Thornlea in 2011, before attending Seneca College from 2011 to April 2018, Reuters reported, citing an Internet archived version of his Facebook page.

A cellphone video taken by a bystander shows a man dressed in black standing in front of the van, pointing an object at a police officer while yelling, kill me, before obeying orders to get down.

Minassian is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday at 10 a.m., with information on the charges against him set to be released at the same time, according to police.

Law enforcement sources have told the New York Post that investigators are examining Facebook posts allegedly made by Minassian.

The Incel Rebellion has already begun! a photo of a Facebook post allegedly written by Minassian read, according to the CBC. We will overthrow all the Chads and Stacys! All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger!

An Incel is a term used by some to mean involuntarily celibate, according to CBC, which said it could not "independently verify" the post was written by Minassian.

"We are working on verifying this facebook post to confirm if it was written by the Alek Minassian or by someone else trying to mislead the public," tweeted Catherine McDonald, the Global News journalist who unearthed the message.

Rodger, 22, killed six people and then committed suicide near the University of California at Santa Barbara in 2014 because he was sexually frustrated.

Investigators are scouring through surveillance video and witness accounts in an effort to piece together what led to Minassians decision to drive a Ryder rental van into a crowded Toronto city street on Monday.

Authorities have yet to disclose a possible motive, but Toronto Police Service Chief Mark Saunders told reporters in a Monday evening news conference its very clear the actions definitely looked deliberate," while underscoring nothing has been ruled out.

Investigators are expected to remain on the scene for several days.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The United Nations says a Nepalese peacekeeper in South Sudan has been accused of inappropriately touching a teenage girl in exchange for money.

The allegation in the town of Aweil comes two months after 46 Ghanaian peacekeepers were recalled when some members allegedly paid local women living in a protection camp in the town of Wau for sex.

A U.N. statement says an investigation into the latest allegation is underway.

Multiple U.N. peacekeeping missions have faced allegations of sexual abuse or exploitation in recent years, with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calling it a "global menace" that must end.

The U.N. has about 15,000 peacekeepers in South Sudan, whose civil war is well into a fifth year.
A Muslim woman wearing a long red scarf loosely covering her head was physically and verbally attacked by female officers from Irans morality police, sparking widespread debate across the Islamic Republic.

The video, which appeared online last week and has gone viral, showed that the womans hair was clearly visible underneath her scarf when she was surrounded by three morality policewomen wearing chadors. One of the officers grabbed the woman by her throat and pushed her to the ground, the video shows.

Why are you hitting me? You have been destroying us for 30 years, the woman is heard yelling in Farsi at one point.

IRANIAN WOMAN IN ICONIC VIDEO FEARED TO HAVE BEEN ARRESTED AFTER WAVING HIJAB ON A STICK

The unidentified woman ends up on the ground, weeping as another woman comforted her before officers grabbed her again.

Its unclear when or where the video was taken. Activists have suggested it was filmed in Tehran, though there are no hints of where it took place. None of the women in the video have been identified.

The viral video quickly drew outrage in Iran, where some women not only question the rule that they must wear the hijab on the street but also their faith in the theocratic Shiite-dominated nation.

"I think that it was very unnecessary the way that the police, or the morality police, handled the situation," said Hamraz, 27, an Austrian national born to Iranian parents who was on vacation in Tehran. "It was very unfortunate that it was caught on camera, but in a way it was good that everyone got to see how people are being treated  very unjust and very unfair."

MACY'S ATTACKED ONLINE AFTER ANNOUNCING MUSLIM-FRIENDLY CLOTHING LINE

Iran President Hassan Rouhani, a cleric who is considered a moderate within the countrys political system, weighed in on the incident, criticizing the morality police in a speech on Saturday.

Grabbing peoples collars to promote virtue will not work, he warned, referencing the police forces mandate of promoting virtue and preventing vice.

He added: You cannot do it by being aggressive.

Even before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the long, flowing black robes for women known as chadors and the headscarves, or hijabs, were both a political and religious symbol in Iran. They became political symbols in 1936, when Iran's pro-Western ruler Reza Shah Pahlavi banned the garments amid his efforts to rapidly modernize Iran. The ban became a source of humiliation for some pious Muslim women in the country.

The hijab and loose-fitting clothing later became mandatory for all women. And though some freedoms for women were curtailed in the years that followed, Iranian women are still allowed to drive, unlike in Saudi Arabia, and hold public office.

Women arrested for showing their hair in public in Iran can receive jail terms of two months or less and face fines equivalent to $25.

MUSLIM MODEL IN HIJAB MAKES HISTORY WITH FIRST ALLURE COVER

An investigation of the incident has been ordered after Masoumeh Ebtekar, a female vice president for womens affairs, condemned it.

Officials have said the policewoman seen in the video grabbing the young womans throat has been suspended pending the investigation.

Hard-liners, however, have dismissed the video as a foreign plot. The hard-line Kayhan daily on Sunday described the video as "strange and suspicious," noting foreign activists have promoted it. Previously, hard-liners pointed to a campaign challenging the hijab launched by a journalist at the Persian service of the Voice of America, which is funded by the U.S. government.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Europes largest dairy co-op, FrieslandCampina, has announced it will pay producers a premium for higher-quality milk with sustainable attributes.

The new Top Dairy line will reward higher animal welfare, biodiversity and lower greenhouse gas emissions with a price premium believed to be about 10 eurocents/litre (9p/litre).

See also: Free-range milk  separating fact from fiction

Discussions are under way over exactly what will qualify producers to sell into the new line, with products expected to hit shops in the first quarter of 2019.

Expansion for producers on the new tariff will be allowed proportionately, in line with the demand the new line of high-welfare products creates.

By accelerating our sustainability efforts, we set the bar higher for dairy in general, said Hein Schumacher, CEO of Royal FrieslandCampina.

Increasingly better nutrition for our consumers and a good living for our dairy farmers. This is what its all about, now and in the future, he added.

Frans Keurentjes, chairman of Zuivelcooperatie, the co-op that owns FrieslandCampina, said sustainable milk would pay off for the business producers.

Being one of the leading dairy co-operatives in the world, we ask our members to show strong commitment to meeting the demand for more sustainable and special milk flows.

He added, In addition to the higher payment for sustainability, we are aiming at well-balanced and market-driven growth. This will help us create a co-operative in which a next generation of farmers is guaranteed a future.

In April, the processors 18,645 European dairy farmers in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium were paid 29.29p/litre for milk with constituent contents of 4% butterfat and 3.3% protein.
NFU president Minette Batters accused the government of failing to take farming seriously as she urged farmers to respond to life-changing Defra plans to abolish direct payments.

Speaking at an NFU council meeting on Tuesday (24 April), Ms Batters called on more farmers to have their say in the governments consultation on its Command Paper Health and Harmony: the future for food, farming and the environment in a Green Brexit.

See also: How to be more self-reliant to meet Brexit challenges

Producers have until 8 May to respond to Defra proposals to replace direct payments with a system largely based on rewarding farmers who undertake environmental measures.

There arent anywhere near as many farmers actively engaged with this as I would like, Ms Batters told NFU council members at Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire.

Tough winter

It has been a really, really tough winter. Most people have got their heads down  they have got Brexit fatigue and they just feel it is beyond them.

Government plans to overhaul farm policy after the UK leaves the EU in 2019 were life-changing, said Ms Batters.

I do believe we are staring down the barrel of a national park, Minette Batters, NFU president

But the consultation was a period of negotiation with the government and society to raise the profile of the industry and ensure a viable, thriving and profitable farming sector.

Food supply, food security and food safety are not being taken seriously by government, Ms Batters told the meeting.

They do not register on the Richter scale.

Alluding to repeated pledges by Defra secretary Michael Gove to secure a green Brexit, Ms Batters added: I do believe we are staring down the barrel of a national park.

100% British

But UK agriculture had come a long way over the past 20 years and more retailers were championing British food, sourcing 100% British and supporting British farmers.

Every survey the NFU does, year-on-year more people want to buy British food  we are the number one supplier  and we want to stay the number one supplier.

We want to grow our market where possible, we want to be more ambitious on exports. But these at every level are not a given.

Mr Gove has described the Defra proposals as the start of a conversation, not a conclusion.

The government is expected to publish an Agriculture Bill formally laying out its post-Brexit plans for farming by the end of this year.
Five people were treated for injuries or health issues following an explosion and fire at Valero Energy Corp's Texas City refinery on Thursday, the company said in its first, brief public statements since the blast.
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Parkland after the Climate Conference : The Rheinaue is back in Bonns hands

BONN The Federal Ministry for the Environment has handed back the Rheinaue - the former site of the World Climate Conference COP 23 - to the city of Bonn in time for the start of the events season.

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After various preparations, the renaturalization of the flower meadow in the Rheinaue could begin several weeks ago. According to the city, 59,000 square metres of lawn were restored. To this end, the fences around the former event grounds were retained to allow the newly laid turf to grow safely and securely. On Monday there was a handover of the areas with representatives of the city of Bonn, the appointed horticultural company and the Federal Ministry for the Environment as organiser of the conference, as well as its general contractor.

We are happy to be able to make the Rheinaue available to citizens again in time for Rhine in Flames, said the Federal Environment Secretary Jochen Flasbarth. The works were made more difficult by the frost at the start of April and had to be halted. According to the city of Bonn, the area is now usable again, apart from a few outlying areas on which further work is needed in the coming days.
goober said: The dossier alleges that top Trump campaign officials met with Russian agents in Trump Tower.

Trump denied it.

But Trump Jr confirmed it....



The Dossier alleges that a Trump operative traveled to Hungary to meet with Russian agents, to discuss what Russia could do to help the Trump campaign.

Trump denied, but Michael Cohen was under surveillance when he made this trip.



There's two confirmed facts, originally denied by the Trump Crime Family.



There's more, I don't expect you to know anything about it,you have to insulate yourself from reality to maintain your world view... Click to expand...

Oh heck, Goober! Keep going. Tell the part about Carter Page holding secret meetings in Moscow with Igor Sechin, a Putin ally who is the head of Rosneft.Page vehemently denied that he met with Sechin. But in November, the House Intelligence Committee released a transcript of Pages congressional testimony revealing he had in fact met with other Rosneft officials, including Sechin's subordinate Andrey Baranov, during a trip to Moscow in 2016.AND tell the part about the Kremlin targeting educated youth and swing state voters during its cyber attacks in the 2016 campaign. This has been proven by congressional investigations into Russias misinformation campaigns during the election, which also showed the cyber attacks were broadly aimed at a variety of voters, with the intent to sow divisions on heated political topics.AND tell this: Trump maintains ties to rich businessmen from Azerbaijan and the business BRIBES. Agalarov and his pop singer son Emin have known Trump for years, and both men worked with Trump on the Miss Universe Pageant in Moscow in 2013.AND don't forget Cohen's tweet in January 2017: I have never been to Prague in my life. The dossier by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele alleged that Cohen met in Prague with Russians with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Darn passport! Investigators for Special Counsel Robert Mueller have evidence Cohen entered the Czech Republic through Germany in late summer 2016.But never fear....GUILIANI is here to save the day!
xspraise at 24-04-2018 09:09 AM (3 years ago) (m)

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has backed President Buhari's claim that a lot of Nigerian youths are lazy and do nothing but to wait on government to provide everything free for them.

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has backed President Buhari's claim that a lot of Nigerian youths are lazy and do nothing but to wait on government to provide everything free for them.

President Buhari made the controversial statement last week while speaking at the Commonwealth Business Forum in London. The comment has generated a lot of reactions with most Nigerians condemning the president for speaking ill of Nigerian youths in the presence of prospective investors.



MURIC however believes that what President Buhari said is the truth many Nigerian do not want to accept.



In a statement signed by its director, Professor Ishaq Akintola, the group said President Buharis characterization of Nigerian youths at an event in London last week is apt, precise and succinct.



Nigerians need to contextualize the presidents comment. We have seen many youths functioning as political thugs as the 2019 general elections approach. They have started vandalizing properties and disrupting political gatherings. Can anybody tell us that those political thugs are old men? What of the herdsmen who are terrorizing innocent farmers around the country? Are they not young people? Are they not lazy? Are the kidnappers who make life unbearable for innocent people not lazy? But are they not youths? Has anyone seen elderly people among Boko Haram insurgents and Niger Delta militants? What of the area boys syndrome and the al-majiri phenomenon? Are the Yahoo Yahoo boys not of the same age bracket? Are they not all lazy? What of the agberos or touts who have now spilled out of motor parks unto the streets and bus stops? What responsible work are they doing? Are they not youths? What do they contribute to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)? All they do is to stand at the bus stops to extort money from drivers of commercial vehicles. Are they not lazy? When will Nigerians admit this reality? Who pulled the wool over our faces?



Furthermore, the group said



Many of our youths are lazy but we dont want to admit it. Instead of commending this truthful leader, we started calling him names. Collective amnesia appears to have gripped Nigerians. We have forgotten that Buhari is not the only leader who described Nigerians and the youth in particular in this manner. Governor Dickson in a media chat on 17th May, 2016 was alleged to have said, "Bayelsans are so lazy, they want everything free, they don't want to work". The 25th September 2017 edition of a northern-based newspaper also reportedly quoted Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as saying, "Northerners are lazy" while General Babangida (rtd) allegedly opined during a BBC Hausa service interview of 16th April 2010, "The Nigerian youth is useless, cannot lead." Senator Shehu Sani added flavor to this in December 2017 when he reportedly said:t "Northerners are lazy and unproductive. During the launching of a book written by Chief Gani Fawehinmi in 1974, Chief Obafemi Awolowo complained that, The trouble with many of our youths is that they sleep too much; play too much, and indulge too much in idle chatter and gossip. If indeed the above were the views of a governor from the South-South, a leader from the South West, a former military president, an ex-vice president and a distinguished senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, all of whom are from the North, it stands to reason that Buhari has not said anything new. Neither is this pragmatic assessment of citizens by their leaders limited to Nigeria. During a town hall event overseas, ex-President Barrack Obama referred to Americans as lazy.



The group urged Nigerians to embrace a new political culture that promotes hard work and shun bettting or any means of getting rich quickly.



Islam abhors idleness and laziness. It appreciates the dignity of labor. The Glorious Quran implores every man to work hard, Tell them to work. (If they do) Allah, His Messenger and the believers (citizens) will appreciate their work (Quran 9:105). To round up, we invite Nigerian politicians to brace up for a new political culture of probity, accountability, and pragmatism. We call on the youths to abandon the counter-productive race for emergency wealth, to shun betting and to concentrate on education, training and hard work. We charge parents to inculcate core values of honesty, dignity, and diligence in their offspring. President Buhari made the controversial statement last week while speaking at the Commonwealth Business Forum in London. The comment has generated a lot of reactions with most Nigerians condemning the president for speaking ill of Nigerian youths in the presence of prospective investors.MURIC however believes that what President Buhari said is the truth many Nigerian do not want to accept.In a statement signed by its director, Professor Ishaq Akintola, the group said President Buharis characterization of Nigerian youths at an event in London last week is apt, precise and succinct.Nigerians need to contextualize the presidents comment. We have seen many youths functioning as political thugs as the 2019 general elections approach. They have started vandalizing properties and disrupting political gatherings. Can anybody tell us that those political thugs are old men? What of the herdsmen who are terrorizing innocent farmers around the country? Are they not young people? Are they not lazy? Are the kidnappers who make life unbearable for innocent people not lazy? But are they not youths? Has anyone seen elderly people among Boko Haram insurgents and Niger Delta militants? What of the area boys syndrome and the al-majiri phenomenon? Are the Yahoo Yahoo boys not of the same age bracket? Are they not all lazy? What of the agberos or touts who have now spilled out of motor parks unto the streets and bus stops? What responsible work are they doing? Are they not youths? What do they contribute to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)? All they do is to stand at the bus stops to extort money from drivers of commercial vehicles. Are they not lazy? When will Nigerians admit this reality? Who pulled the wool over our faces?Furthermore, the group saidMany of our youths are lazy but we dont want to admit it. Instead of commending this truthful leader, we started calling him names. Collective amnesia appears to have gripped Nigerians. We have forgotten that Buhari is not the only leader who described Nigerians and the youth in particular in this manner. Governor Dickson in a media chat on 17th May, 2016 was alleged to have said, "Bayelsans are so lazy, they want everything free, they don't want to work". The 25th September 2017 edition of a northern-based newspaper also reportedly quoted Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as saying, "Northerners are lazy" while General Babangida (rtd) allegedly opined during a BBC Hausa service interview of 16th April 2010, "The Nigerian youth is useless, cannot lead." Senator Shehu Sani added flavor to this in December 2017 when he reportedly said:t "Northerners are lazy and unproductive. During the launching of a book written by Chief Gani Fawehinmi in 1974, Chief Obafemi Awolowo complained that, The trouble with many of our youths is that they sleep too much; play too much, and indulge too much in idle chatter and gossip. If indeed the above were the views of a governor from the South-South, a leader from the South West, a former military president, an ex-vice president and a distinguished senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, all of whom are from the North, it stands to reason that Buhari has not said anything new. Neither is this pragmatic assessment of citizens by their leaders limited to Nigeria. During a town hall event overseas, ex-President Barrack Obama referred to Americans as lazy.The group urged Nigerians to embrace a new political culture that promotes hard work and shun bettting or any means of getting rich quickly.Islam abhors idleness and laziness. It appreciates the dignity of labor. The Glorious Quran implores every man to work hard, Tell them to work. (If they do) Allah, His Messenger and the believers (citizens) will appreciate their work (Quran 9:105). To round up, we invite Nigerian politicians to brace up for a new political culture of probity, accountability, and pragmatism. We call on the youths to abandon the counter-productive race for emergency wealth, to shun betting and to concentrate on education, training and hard work. We charge parents to inculcate core values of honesty, dignity, and diligence in their offspring.

Post Reply I am Victor, I write reportage on sport news and latest metro happenings in Nigeria. Posted: at 24-04-2018 09:09 AM (3 years ago) | Hero
clarajancita at 24-04-2018 09:52 AM (3 years ago) (f)

A woman was held as a sex slave for weeks in Italy before escaping through a window, police have said. The woman met Mamadou Jallow via Facebook and initially travelled to Germany to live with him. The British woman said after several months, he was forced to flee because he stabbed a rival during a drug dispute.

A woman was held as a sex slave for weeks in Italy before escaping through a window, police have said. The woman met Mamadou Jallow via Facebook and initially travelled to Germany to live with him. The British woman said after several months, he was forced to flee because he stabbed a rival during a drug dispute.

They travelled to Rosarno in the south-west of Italy where Jallow, a migrant from Burkino Faso, had a home.But she says the situation suddenly changed and Jallow held her against her will and repeatedly raped her. Jallow, 37, emptied her bank account and confiscated her mobile phone, it is alleged.



Two other men, from Mali, also came to the house to abuse her, it is claimed. After several weeks, the alleged victim, from the north of England, managed to get hold of her phone and call her family for help.



They had already contacted police after not hearing from the woman for several months. Police coordinated with the local force in Rosarno and they were able to direct the woman to safety after she climbed through a window.



Jallow and the two other suspects were arrested a short time later. A police spokesman in Rosarno told The Sun: The woman was in a terrible state.She was kept as a slave for two weeks and abused by three men. They travelled to Rosarno in the south-west of Italy where Jallow, a migrant from Burkino Faso, had a home.But she says the situation suddenly changed and Jallow held her against her will and repeatedly raped her. Jallow, 37, emptied her bank account and confiscated her mobile phone, it is alleged.Two other men, from Mali, also came to the house to abuse her, it is claimed. After several weeks, the alleged victim, from the north of England, managed to get hold of her phone and call her family for help.They had already contacted police after not hearing from the woman for several months. Police coordinated with the local force in Rosarno and they were able to direct the woman to safety after she climbed through a window.Jallow and the two other suspects were arrested a short time later. A police spokesman in Rosarno told The Sun: The woman was in a terrible state.She was kept as a slave for two weeks and abused by three men.

Post Reply I am a metro reporter on Gistmania, I have been publishing news materials for over 5 years Posted: at 24-04-2018 09:52 AM (3 years ago) | Hero
felicilin at 24-04-2018 11:22 AM (3 years ago) (f)

The Thai Tourist Police launched a manhunt for conspirators in a romance scam gang after they arrested a 32-year-old Nigerian who allegedly lured a Thai woman in Lampang province into wiring him nearly Bt100,000.

The Thai Tourist Police launched a manhunt for conspirators in a romance scam gang after they arrested a 32-year-old Nigerian who allegedly lured a Thai woman in Lampang province into wiring him nearly Bt100,000. Tourist Police Bureau deputy commissioner Pol Maj-General Surachet Hakparn said in a press conference yesterday that the suspect, Emery Henry Ogba, was a member of a gang believed to have a monthly income of Bt1 million from illicit operations.

Ogba was nabbed at a department store in Nonthaburi province on April 21, following an arrest warrant issued by a Lampang Court on March 29 on charges of fraud and overstaying his visa.

Police seized Bt42,700 in cash, some ATM cards and bank books, and four mobile phones.

Surachet said that one of the conspirators was a Thai woman.

On February 21, a 41-year-old woman filed complaints with police in Lampangs Koh Ka area that a man who identified himself as Mark Westwood, an American millionaire, befriended with her via Facebook conversations, he said.

The suspect used the Facebook photo of another man. After about two months, he said he wanted to send her ? a large sum of money and some other items, but he asked her to send him some money to pay tax. A Thai woman then called the woman and convinced her that she was a government official and that she should do what Westwood requested.

The victim wired him money twice, totalling about Bt97,000. The next time the so-called government office rang her trying to convince her to wire more money, the sound of a baby crying was heard during the telephone conversation.

That made the woman realise that she was being cheated, as a government office should not have a crying baby. Therefore, she alerted police, Surachet said.

Deeper investigations showed that the Nigerian was a member of a romance scam operating on Facebook. He variously identified himself as Thomas Anderson, Mike Dave, Bob Frank, Ivan Stogan, Luca Perozi or Chris Benson.

Claiming to be a millionaire, he befriended Thai women online and then cheated them out of their money.

Surachet said that victims of the Nigerian suspect included the woman in Lampang and three others in Nonthaburi.

They said the suspect sneaked into Thailand via Malaysia and had lived here illegally for more than eight years. He had in his possession three fake passports  two from Northern Ireland and one American.

Surachet said that the Thai woman who worked alongside the suspect opened bank accounts and helped generate about Bt1 million in monthly income for the gang.





Tourist Police Bureau deputy commissioner Pol Maj-General Surachet Hakparn said in a press conference yesterday that the suspect, Emery Henry Ogba, was a member of a gang believed to have a monthly income of Bt1 million from illicit operations.Ogba was nabbed at a department store in Nonthaburi province on April 21, following an arrest warrant issued by a Lampang Court on March 29 on charges of fraud and overstaying his visa.Police seized Bt42,700 in cash, some ATM cards and bank books, and four mobile phones.Surachet said that one of the conspirators was a Thai woman.he said.The suspect used the Facebook photo of another man. After about two months, he said he wanted to send her ? a large sum of money and some other items, but he asked her to send him some money to pay tax. A Thai woman then called the woman and convinced her that she was a government official and that she should do what Westwood requested.The victim wired him money twice, totalling about Bt97,000. The next time the so-called government office rang her trying to convince her to wire more money, the sound of a baby crying was heard during the telephone conversation.Surachet said.Deeper investigations showed that the Nigerian was a member of a romance scam operating on Facebook. He variously identified himself as Thomas Anderson, Mike Dave, Bob Frank, Ivan Stogan, Luca Perozi or Chris Benson.Claiming to be a millionaire, he befriended Thai women online and then cheated them out of their money.Surachet said that victims of the Nigerian suspect included the woman in Lampang and three others in Nonthaburi.They said the suspect sneaked into Thailand via Malaysia and had lived here illegally for more than eight years. He had in his possession three fake passports  two from Northern Ireland and one American.Surachet said that the Thai woman who worked alongside the suspect opened bank accounts and helped generate about Bt1 million in monthly income for the gang.

Post Reply Posted: at 24-04-2018 11:22 AM (3 years ago) | Hero
ICTluxembourg: All eyes on Artificial Intelligence

April 2018 by ICTluxembourg, in partnership with Digital Luxembourg

All year long, the members of ICTluxembourg, in partnership with Digital Luxembourg, will share their expertise on Artificial Intelligence and its impact on todays and tomorrows digital and hyper connected society. Through the regular publication of white papers based on existing case studies, the members of ICTluxembourg aim at generating interest of local and international players, at stimulating the emulation of good practices but also at raising awareness on the opportunities of this game-changing technology at the global and Luxembourg levels.

 Norebbo

As key enabler in the ongoing process of digital transformation, Artificial Intelligence is currently at the heart of numerous innovations. Obviously, all sectors of the economy will be impacted by the AI revolution. American research and advisory firm Gartner confirms that Artificial Intelligence is, at this stage of its development, dedicated to support people by enhancing their competences and skills rather than replacing them. AI will create 2.3 million jobs in 2020, while eliminating 1.8 million. It is also forecasted that, in 2018, Artificial Intelligence will lead to more than 160 billion EUR in new revenue.

The members of ICTluxembourg intend to share their knowledge and vision, to discuss the latest trends with the aim to show how AI will disrupt  and completely transform  their sector. In the white papers the ICTluxembourg members will try to give answers to many questions: "What are the main opportunities brought by the advent of AI? What does it mean for employees? How can new products, services and even business models be created through its use? "

Members from ABBL, ALFI, APSI, FTL, CCEL, FDI, FedilICT and OPAL will share their views and vision on the impact of Artificial Intelligence in their respective field of expertise. ICTluxembourg issued a "call for papers", allowing local experts to take an active part in their mission of stimulating every single player in the dynamic and innovative Luxembourg ICT-ecosystem. Located at the very heart of Europe, Luxembourg has proven its expertise in the Digital sector and has become a front runner when it comes to design high quality IT-infrastructures, provide secure cloud services and cyber-security solutions. Supported by the many initiatives of the governments Digital Luxembourg framework, the country is a recognized startup nation looking at an even brighter digital future.

Find below quotes from Digital Luxembourg and the members of ICTluxembourg: "Luxembourgs AI ecosystem shows us the potential that AI can bring to numerous parts of our lives. Already today, we see radically new possibilities in health, transport or even art. As Digital Luxembourg, we want to significantly boost the access toward those new possibilities and enable explainable AI services for the whole ecosystem, not just for AI experts" Anne-Catherine Ries, Digital Luxembourg "AI is one of the 5 hottest topics identified in the Luxembourg banking sector. We are proud to contribute to the first ICTluxembourg white paper and to the ICT ecosystem, taking the opportunity to share our views and vision which have been developed in the FinTech-ecosystem we support" Marc Hemmerling, ABBL "All the players active in the field of ICT have to contribute to the promotion of the country, in order to turn Luxembourg into a major digital hub in Europe" Gerard Hoffmann, FedilICT

"The field of telecommunications is facing a never-seen-before transformation. Artificial Intelligence will necessarily bring new opportunities in such a period of change" Jean-Francois Willame, OPAL

"Discussions and negotiations with institutions leading to regulatory changes are key for the evolution of our field. It is also important to keep in mind that technology and notably Artificial Intelligence will completely transform our sector, our services and our business models" Jean-Francois Terminaux, FTL

"The technological marriage of AI (Artificial Intelligence), Cloud Computing and HPC (High Performance Computing) will cause a fundamental paradigm shift. It will change the business landscape but also dramatically transform every aspect of our human lives. We will have a huge responsibility for future generations in shaping the world and its future" Yves Reding, CCEL

"Through this initiative and by spreading our expertise on specific topics, we aim at bridging the talent and skills gaps in Luxembourg in the field of technology and especially in Artificial Intelligence" Vincent Lekens, FDI

"After the big data revolution, the investment fund industry is currently being disrupted by Artificial Intelligence. Applications of big data analytics in the asset management industry are still at the relatively early stages compared to other industries  this is partly due to the fragmented nature of the data across the investment and distribution value chain. Luxembourg being the largest European Fund Industry, has to be a front-runner in the development  and use  of such new technologies" Francois Drazdik, ALFI

Publication of ICTluxembourg white papers on the impact of AI in the following sectors: Banking, Finance, Industry, Crafts, RegTech, Public, Media, Telecom, Infrastructure are planned.
Downtown Facility Enhances Access for Massachusettss Patients While Supporting Community through Funding and Partnerships

GREENFIELD, Mass., April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Patriot Care announced today that it will open Franklin Countys first medical marijuana dispensary to qualifying patients on Monday, April 30, 2018 at 12:00 p.m. ET. The facility will be located at 7 Legion Ave, Greenfield, MA, in the former American Legion Hall. This will be Patriot Cares third location serving the patients of Massachusetts, following the Lowell and Boston dispensaries, which both opened in 2016. Patriot Care is a subsidiary of Columbia Care LLC, the nations leading medical marijuana company, licensed to operate in 10 other highly regulated states, plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico.

It is a privilege to be the first dispensary permitted to open in Franklin County, said Nicholas Vita, chief executive officer of Columbia Care. Expanding access to this natural medicine will allow us to further our mission and help to improve the lives of thousands of new patients and their families. We are grateful and humbled by the support we have received from patients, our neighbors, the Town of Greenfield and the State of Massachusetts. Our organization is proud to provide access to all patients of Massachusetts, and we look forward to being a valuable member of Franklin County.

Consistent with the Companys vision and mission, Massachusetts dispensaries are designed with patient access, comfort and safety in mind. As with all Patriot Care facilities, the Greenfield dispensary will be staffed by a dedicated team trained to provide the highest level of professionalism, compassion, confidentiality, security and respect for patients and their conditions.

To access state-licensed facilities, patients must be deemed eligible by a certified physician and be registered with the State through the Department of Public Health. Registered patients may visit the dispensary 7 days a week from 11:00 a.m.  6:00 p.m. Patients are encouraged to visit Patriot Care online at www.patriotcare.org. For more information on Columbia Care, please visit www.col-care.com.

For more information on the Massachusetts Medical Use of Marijuana Program, including information on how to register, please visit www.mass.gov/medicalmarijuana.

About Patriot Care  Greenfield Dispensary

The Patriot Care Greenfield dispensary, located at 7 Legion Ave in the former American Legion Hall, will provide a variety of product formats and formulations, including cured leaf from numerous strains, infused edible products and concentrates. Patriot Care products begin with a bespoke, organic cultivation process that takes place in highly controlled micro-climates at the Companys production facility in Lowell. Manufacturing and refinement processes follow strict quality control guidelines to ensure product safety and consistency. All products undergo independent batch testing for a variety of measures to ensure the highest levels of purity. Patriot Care offers discounts to veterans, seniors, and those on SSDI, Medicaid, and Medicare.

Media Contact:

Josephine Belluardo, Ph.D.

LifeSci Public Relations

+1.646.751.4361

jo@lifescipublicrelations.com
NEW YORK, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global small wind (SW) market is expected to witness a CAGR of 12.5%, and is projected to reach USD 910 million by 2024 owing to an increase in awareness about renewable sources of energy, in order to minimize the carbon emissions globally. Small wind plays a major role as a part of diversified and distributed energy production. Moreover, government policy framework favoring renewable energy production is likely to fuel the demand.



Small wind market is expected to show an increase in the coming years due to the cost effectiveness of the wind energy and the technological innovations. The prices of the small wind are economic and vary due to the factors such as installation, space and many others. Due to lower cost of small wind, the consumers are shifting their focus towards green energy sources.

Off grid application segment is expected to account for the highest the market share in the coming years

Off grid application segment is expected to account for the largest market share of the market. The demand can be attributed to the conventional harnessing methods of energy for electrification. However, due to initiatives taken by the government to launch the grid, connectivity might drop a little. Manufacturers are largely contributing towards the growth of the market by investing. For instance, the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which is responsible for the expansion of the federal investment tax credit (ITC) for small wind turbines allowing customer to take some percentage of the total cost of the small wind system as a tax credit. This helped companies with capital to increase and meet the production, lower cost and even acquire competitors.

Small Wind Market  Regional insight

Asia-Pacific held the largest regional market share and the trend is likely to continue over the years to come. Nations across this region are adopting small wind plants to tackle the energy shortage problem, which will positively impact the growth in this region. High cost of electricity and adoption of green initiative by developed countries such as Canada, UK and the US is projected to spur the growth in this market during the forecast period.

The report segments small wind market on the basis of axis type, grid connection, application, and region. To view a summary of this report, go to the link provided below: https://www.energiasmarketresearch.com/global-small-wind-market-outlook/

Key findings from the report

The global small wind market is likely to reach USD 910 million by 2024 on account of increasing awareness towards renewable energy sources. Vertical axis wind turbines is expected to grow at a high CAGR rate owing to its innovative design and special features.



Off-grid setting of SW plants held the major market share in 2017 and is likely to exhibit the fastest CAGR over the forecast period.



Asia-Pacific held the largest share of the market and is expected to continue its dominance over the forecast period owing to rise in demand for controlling carbon emissions



Some of the key players operating in the market include City Windmills; Enervate Energy AG; Eocycle; Shanghai Ghrepower Green Energy Co., Ltd.; Kingspan Group; Superwind GmbH; Northern Power Systems; Zkenergy Technology Co., Ltd.; Xzeres Wind Corp; Kliux Energies among others.

By Axis Type

Horizontal Axis

Vertical Axis

By Grid Connection

On-Grid

Off-Grid

By Application

Domestic

Small-scale industries

Commercial

By Region

North America

Europe

Asia-Pacific

South America

Middle East and Africa

About Energias Market Research 

Energias Market Research launched with the objective to provide in-depth market analysis, business research solutions, and consultation that is tailored to our clients specific needs based on our impeccable research methodology.

With a wide range of expertise from various industrial sectors and more than 50 industries that include energy, chemical and materials, information communication technology, semiconductor industries, healthcare and daily consumer goods, etc. We strive to provide our clients with a one-stop solution for all research and consulting needs.

Our comprehensive industry-specific knowledge enables us in creating high quality global research outputs. This wide-range capability differentiates us from our competitors.

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FOCUS ON DEFENSE CAPABILITY DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTHEAST ASIA AND OCEANIA
A Pakistani Christian woman has died after she was set on fire by a Muslim man because she refused his marriage proposal.



According to reports, Asma Yaqoob, 25, from the Punjab city of Sialkot passed away Sunday as burns covered as much as 90 percent of her body following a mid-April attack that was believed to be carried out by a Muslim friend of the family named Rizwan Gujjar.



Her father, Yaqoob Masih, filed a report with local police, in which he recounted the horrific incident. Her father explained that his daughter was working at the house of Saeeduz Zaman in Mohalla Pakpura area of Sialkot when she was attacked.



"On April 17, my son Maqsood and I went to Zaman's house ... to meet Asma and to inquire after the health of Zaman's mother," Masih was quoted as writing in the police report. "We were sitting in a room when there was a knock on the front gate. Asma went out to see who had come when after some time we heard her screaming in pain. Zaman, Maqsood and I rushed outside to see what had happened and saw the accused Rizwan Gujjar fleeing from the scene while Asma was engulfed in flames."



Police sub-inspector Muhammad Riaz confirmed Gujjar's arrest and told Pakistan Today that Gujjar confessed to the crime.



"We have prepared the charge sheet and sent him to jail," Riaz told the outlet.



Gujja took a liking to Asma while working with her brother, Nabeel, and had asked the young woman to marry him about three months ago. After she declined, he became angry and covered her in flammable liquid before setting her on fire.



"Asma's family were persistent in getting her the best treatment they could find, and traveled hundreds of miles to a hospital equipped with a burn unit," BPCA officer Mehwish Bhatti said in a statement. "They did everything they could possibly do. This family will have a lot of trauma to work through and they are in shock. It is hard for anyone to see the life of a loved one so young and full of talent snuffed out."



Nasir Saeed, Director CLAAS (Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement - a group who support persecuted Christians in Pakistan), in the UK said this was just one example of how Christian women are treated in Pakistan, saying: "They are often harassed and intimidated at their workplace. They are often asked to convert to Islam and to marry Muslim colleagues."



"Such cases are becoming everyday matters and the police hardly make any advances, especially if the victim is Christian," the organization said. "Christian girls are looked upon as inferior and as a commodity, and have no respect in society."



The attack was condemned by the Chairman of the British Pakistani Christian Association, Wilson Chowdhry, who called on the country's politicians to do more to protect the Christian minority:



This depraved attack reveals the low worth of Christian girls in the mindset that has evolved amongst most Muslim men in Pakistan. Through a biased national curriculum and rogue Imams preaching a special place in heaven for those who rape and convert Christian girls, most of them deem minority women as war-booty.

Seeing young Asma in such pain is heart-wrenching for all of us in the West, but the authorities of Pakistan just seem to accept this as the culture of Pakistan. It is this warped belief that has to be reconstructed before we can start to fashion a new more egalitarian nation, however the desire will have to be one driven by the country's Government-sadly I have never experienced a more selfish bunch of politicians.



Pakistan ranks as the fifth-worst nation in the world when it comes to Christian persecution, according to Open Doors USA's 2018 World Watch List.


The marine environment is critical to Grenadas economy and closely linked to the islands income generating tourism sector. Grenadas tri-island ocean state is not just a hub of maritime activity, but also home to unique marine biodiversity
Texas voters went to the polls March 6 for the state's primaries. But they could find themselves voting in different districts for the next election, depending on the outcome of a case before the Supreme Court.The court will hear oral arguments Tuesday on a case in which Texas lawmakers are accused of drawing state legislative and congressional maps that discriminated against black and Latino voters.The issues in the case, Abbott v. Perez, date back to 2010. The decennial Census would have created additional districts where Latino candidates could have been viable options, but the state instead carved out districts safe for white candidates, the suit alleges. The state has been using maps that a lower court said intentionally discriminated against minority voters and were unconstitutional.The big question before the Supreme Court is, if the trial court found there were more districts that were flawed, should Texas have to fix those districts? says Nina Perales, vice president of litigation for the Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund.In Dallas County, Latino voters were packed into two districts, which boosted the number of white voters in an adjacent district. In Nueces County, districts were drawn to undermine Latino voting strength, according to a three-judge panel in San Antonio. In Tarrant County, lawmakers used race as the predominant factor in drawing a state house seat. In Bell County, Latino voters were split into two districts, which boosted the portion of white voters in the district, according to the federal court.The districts' irregular shapes and borders are suspect, the plaintiffs say.If you look at the shape of those districts, beyond the legal arguments they just dont pass the eye test," says Rafael Anchia, a Texas state representative and chairman of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, one of the plaintiffs in the case. Anchia was referring specifically to state House districts 103 and 104 in Dallas. "They are very dramatic in their zigging and zagging."The 1965 Voting Rights Act prohibits packing minorities into one district as a way of dampening their power in legislative bodies. The law also prohibits breaking up districts that give minorities the opportunity to elect favorable candidates.The Voting Rights Act also set up the practice of preclearance, a process in which jurisdictions with a history of discriminatory voting practices must gain federal approval to change voting practices or adopt new legislative maps. Texas is among nine states that must pre-clear such changes, along with counties and municipalities in six additional states.Since 1970, each Texas redistricting plan has come under federal scrutiny.The current cases origins began with a 2011 lawsuit filed against the state. State lawmakers redrew district maps following the 2010 census, but a federal panel deemed the those maps unconstitutional and them to be redrawn. Having missed the deadline for federal preclearance, the federal panel ordered a temporary map, which only addressed a few of the districts in question. In nine state legislative districts and two Congressional districts, the lines were drawn in such a way as to discriminate against minority voters, according to the lower court. What were considered temporary maps by the court were made permanent by Texas lawmakers in 2013.The maps were again challenged.The state of Texas would ultimately appeal the decision to the Supreme Court, a move the plaintiffs claim is premature. The lower court didnt issue an injunction, which would be the normal route for a case like this to move to the Supreme Court. However, attorneys for Texas say they appealed to the high court because the legal challenge at the lower court would prevent the state from using the maps in the 2018 elections.Several states attorneys general have filed amicus briefs on behalf of Texas. The attorneys general in Alabama, Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio, South Carolina and Wisconsin have argued that federal interference into drawing voter districts undermines a states right to sovereignty.States cannot efficiently hold free and fair elections where a district court can issue an order, cause states and voters to act in reliance on that order, and then simply change its mind on the eve of a deadline to redraw district maps for the 2018 elections. Such actions result in tremendous cost and have destabilizing consequences for the States. Moreover, the district courts arbitrary approach to the Texas Legislatures actions disregards the deference afforded States on this fundamental question of State sovereignty, wrote Louisiana state Attorney General Jeff Landry and state Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Murrill.The court could decide to send the decision back to the federal panel, or it could uphold the lower courts decision and force Texas to redraw the maps.While it's possible the Court could order new maps be put in place in time for the general election, the timing of the case makes it unlikely, according to the plaintiffs.
Governor's Program

The Governors Official Program is comprised of a wide range of constitutional and legal duties and ceremonial and community engagements. Each year, the Governor hosts thousands of visitors to Government House to take part in investiture and award ceremonies, Open Days, receptions and meetings, and travels widely throughout Queensland to support the activities of Patron groups. View a chronological record of the Governors daily program below.
Description

GIS - 24 April, 2018: The Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFOA) African Conference aiming to provide networking opportunities with peers, global employers and representatives from regulatory bodies in line to promoting e xchanges and knowledge-sharing, opened yesterday at Flic-en-Flac. The Minister of Financial Services and Good Governance, Mr D Sesungkur and other eminent personalities were present at the event.

In his address at the opening ceremony, Minister Sesungkur highlighted the prime responsibility of actuaries in setting new standards for risk management in the financial services sector. Regulatory reforms are currently in full swing and actuaries are called upon to assume greater responsibilities, he said.

Now that regulators have introduced requirements for insurers to establish a robust Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) framework that addresses all relevant and material risks, the Minister expressed satisfaction that the actuarial function is playing an increasingly hands-on role in shaping the ERM framework.

Moreover, the Minister recalled that regulators play a key role in ensuring that only insurers who have a good probability of standing by their promises are allowed to conduct business. On this score, he said that regulators jobs are becoming more complex as the market has become more intricate and the nature of risks has compounded.

In light of technological development, actuarial analysis is becoming increasingly dynamic with new sources of data made available through telematics, wearables and social media. Big data therefore, is reshaping traditional insurance business, he pointed out.

Minister Sesungkur added that the IFOA conference is a valuable springboard for various stakeholders from Mauritius and other African countries to engage in gaining Continuing Professional Development through professional skills session.

IFOA Africa Conference

The inaugural IFOA Africa Conference was hosted in Mauritius on 23 April 2018. The conference is also being hosted in Kenya and Nigeria on 25 and 27 April 2018 respectively.

IFOA came into being on 1 August 2010. It is the UK's only chartered professional body dedicated to educating, developing and regulating actuaries based both in the UK and internationally.
Description

GIS  24 April, 2018: Government has taken cognizance that the scheme of pupillage at the Attorney Generals Office which is currently applicable to public officers and employees of parastatal bodies, will be extended to prospective barristers and attorneys not from the public service. Government has taken cognizance that the scheme of pupillage at the Attorney Generals Office which is currently applicable to public officers and employees of parastatal bodies, will be extended to prospective barristers and attorneys not from the public service. Nominations

Hon Justice Asraf Ally Caunhye has been elected as Independent Expert to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights during the meeting of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) held on 16 April 2018 in New York. He will serve for four years on the Committee as from 1 January 2019.

Cabinet has approved the reconstitution of the Boards/Committee namely the Mauritius Renewable Energy Agency, with Mr Arjoon Suddhoo as Chairperson; the Energy Efficiency Management Committee, with Mr Kendall Tang as Chairperson; and the Statutory Bodies Family Protection Fund Board, with the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Local Government and Outer Islands as Chairperson.
If you own a service animal, ensure keeping your animals safety is part of your emergency preparedness plan.

If you utilize a cane, keep a spare at home, work, school, and with your emergency supplies.

Install a smoke or carbon monoxide alarm that utilizes flashing lights to notify you in the event of a fire or gas leak.

If you use a hearing aid, store extra batteries in your emergency safety kit. When not in use, store your hearing aid in an easily accessible location.

If applicable, keep a note in your emergency safety kit that says, I speak American Sign Language (ASL) and need an ASL interpreter to help you communicate with emergency personnel.

If you use a wheelchair and an earthquake strikes, lock the wheels, and cover your head.

Keep your emergency supply kit in a backpack attached to your walker, wheelchair, or scooter.

Keep gloves in your emergency kit to protect your hands in case you have to travel over dangerous debris.

Ensure pieces of furniture in your home do not pose barriers if you need to evacuate your home quickly.

A natural disaster is a terrifying event for anyone to experience. For elderly citizens, or those living with a disability, a natural disaster or local emergency can be that much more frightening and challenging to manage. For the visually impaired, navigating a flood environment can pose severe hazards. For those with an auditory impairment, tornado warning sirens may be ineffective. For those with mobility issues, safely evacuating a home after an earthquake may be impossible.Education and awareness remain the first essential steps for disabled citizens to stay safe during an emergency. Ryan Strait, Director of Public Safety at CivicPlus, advises public safety officers to take an active role in helping to educate all citizens on how to prepare for, and react safely in response to, a natural disaster, especially those 56 million Americans living with a disability.Strait urges communities to understand that citizens with special needs will require different levels of support from their local government, not only depending on their limitations but also depending on the disaster, that is taking place.Communities should regularly educate their citizens on how to create individual safety plans to accommodate loved ones with disabilities, said Strait. Every family in your community should put a proactive plan in place for how to safely obtain assistance evacuating their home in the event of an emergency. For those who care for the elderly or the disabled, special accommodations will need to be taken into consideration.Strait suggests that local governments encourage families of disabled citizens to start by becoming familiar with the types of natural disasters that are most common in your region.Your community may be at above-average risk for hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, blizzards, or mudslides, said Strait. Your local risk factors should be taken into consideration for each familys safety plan. Strait also encourages citizens to keep emergency supplies in stock, such as first aid materials, canned food, bottles of water, blankets, and batteries, along with at least a seven-day supply of all necessary medications.Strait explains that preparations go beyond the individual household level.It is the job of local governments to repeatedly remind citizens to prepare for the unexpected and to relentlessly encourage citizens to sign up to receive voicemail or text message alerts from your communitys emergency notification system, she said.Strait also suggests public safety officers routinely remind citizens to familiarize themselves with local emergency resources and keep an operable carbon monoxide detector and smoke alarm functioning in their home. Throughout the year, public safety officers should share reminders of these essential safety best practices via all available channels, including social media, your local government website, and at community events.Strait also suggests that local governments publish safety tips to their citizens that are tailored to the safety needs of citizens with the most common types of disabilities seen across the nation. What follows is a list of best practices Strait suggests local governments use as the foundation of safety instructions to protect disabled citizens in the event of a natural disaster.According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) , 3.4 million Americans aged 40 years and older are either blind or visually impaired. To be best prepared for an unexpected disaster, visually disabled citizens should also follow these emergency readiness tips:According to the Hearing Loss Association of America, approximately 20 percent of Americans report some degree of hearing loss. To be best prepared for an unexpected disaster, hearing disabled citizens should also follow these emergency readiness tips:According to the CDC, approximately 13 percent of Americans have a mobility disability, or experience serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs. To be best prepared for an unexpected disaster, citizens with a mobility impairment should also follow these emergency readiness tips:If a disaster strikes your community, your citizens will look to their local government leaders for the latest news, updates, alerts, and safety instructions, said Strait. Ensure you have an emergency notification system in place to communicate quickly and effectively with citizens and travelers when disaster strikes.Strait encourages public safety offices to choose a mass notification system that integrates with the Federal Emergency Management Agencys (FEMA) Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) to ensure the greatest reach of your message to residents and travelers.When a disaster strikes your community, you will want to leverage every possible channel to keep all citizens safe and informed, said Strait.CivicReady is the mass notification solution built specifically for local governments to communicate emergency alerts and routine information with citizens. CivicReady is a product of CivicPlus, THE integrated technology platform for local government. CivicPlus has more than 20 years of experience focused exclusively on local governmets. Over 55,000+ local government employees use CPs software solutions. Learn more about CivicReady at www.civicready.com and CivicPlus at www.civicplus.com
(TNS) - More than a week after floodwaters ravaged homes, businesses, hillsides and roads, there is still no idea of the cost of the damage  or even a guess of how many structures were destroyed or left uninhabitable.Assessment teams from Kauai County, the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency and Federal Emergency Management Agency continue to fan out to the hardest-hit areas of Koloa on the south side, Anahola toward the east and Hanalei, Wainiha and Haena on the north shore, said HI-EMA spokeswoman Arlina Agbayani.Before an application for financial help can be made to FEMA to begin the rebuilding process, Agbayani said, we still need to gather as much data as we can.  Its still unknown how many homes were damaged.What is known is that at least 120 people in the isolated communities of Wainiha and Haena  who remain cut off from the rest of the island because of more than a dozen landslides on Kuhio Highway  have been treated at a makeshift clinic at the Hanalei Colony Resort condominiums in Haena since Friday, said Dr. Janet Berreman, Kauai district health officer for the state Department of Health.But even that number may be underreported, Berreman said.Weve seen at least 120 people, but its probably higher, more like 150, she said.There are no specific numbers yet, Berreman said, but the most common treatments include lots of tetanus boosters, antibiotic prescriptions and care for people getting cuts, stepping on things, she said. There are lots of small lacerations, skin wounds, skin rashes from known contaminated floodwater. There are lots of coughs and colds.To those in Wainiha and Haena, Berreman said, If youve got a cut thats starting to get red or oozy, this isnt the time to tough it out. Its the time to clean it properly.Children have likely been playing in stormwater and mud left behind by the receding floodwater, but Im not aware of any outbreak of diarrhea, she said. But that is certainly one of the risks.Mold continues to grow in flooded homes and can exacerbate respiratory problems, Berreman said.Kauai County officials Monday were trying to figure out how to follow up on a pledge that Mayor Bernard Carvalho made Sunday to import badly needed fuel into Wainiha and Haena  and simultaneously remove garbage thats been piling up for more than a week.Carvalho told the more than 400 people who attended Sundays meeting at the Hanalei Colony Resort that each household would be receiving five gallons of fuel weekly.But transporting fuel is heavily regulated, and importing it by helicopter seems unlikely because of safety concerns, said Kauai County spokeswoman Sarah Blane.Helicopters could possibly sling load garbage out, she said.Our priority is getting waste out of there and getting fuel in, Blane said.The Kauai Emergency Management Agency said late Monday, Public Works officials successfully collected bagged trash from Wainiha and Haena residents Monday and that fuel is being distributed to residents in the isolated towns.The two communities had been receiving supplies from a volunteer flotilla of small boats, personal watercraft and a barge provided by the Robinson family of Niihau, which made two drops, Blane said.But with north shore surf reported at 6 feet Monday, the barge is at the mercy of the ocean conditions, Blane said.Residents of Wainiha and Haena told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser last week that the two communities have roughly 200 to 300 full-time residents, with dozens more vacation rentals.Blane said there are roughly 500 utility customers in the area, which would include vacation rentals.On Monday work crews and heavy machinery continued to clear both ends of Kuhio Highway between Hanalei and Wainiha of tons of mud and debris. Kauai police and Hawaii National Guard soldiers are now posted to prevent unauthorized people on the damaged highway, Agbayani said.People in all-terrain vehicles Sunday mistakenly thought they could navigate across the mud-covered highway and around crews and heavy equipment to get to Sundays community meeting, Blane said.A no-fly zone also has been imposed in the area over Haena and Wainiha, making the area inaccessible to private or commercial helicopters.Army Chinooks and Hawaii Army National Guard Black Hawks have returned to Oahu, but Kauai County does have the use of two little bird helicopters from its Fire Department for emergencies.2018 The Honolulu Star-AdvertiserVisit The Honolulu Star-Advertiser at www.staradvertiser.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Smart city techies will arrive in Cincinnati this week to learn about smart mobility and infrastructure projects taking hold across the greater Cincinnati-Kentucky-Indiana region.The second annual Smart Cincy Summit opens Thursday, April 26 in Cincinnati, and is set to attract about 250 state and local leaders, as well as industry types to the city. The day before, the Smart Cincy Community Day is set to attract about 200 attendees, say event organizers.Smart Cincy is committed to making sure the community drives the conversation. Thats why tickets arent hundreds of dollars to attend the summit. Thats why Community Day, as well as monthly roundtable events, are free, said Jamie Sordo, marketing manager for Venture Smarter , a smart cities strategic planning and technology firm based in Cincinnati, and one of the organizers behind the Smart Cincy Summit.Attendees to this years summit can expect to hear about Cincinnatis Fiber Ring project, a $9 million downtown project that will form the backbone for future smart city projects. Also, the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments (OKI) will discuss new transportation, mobility and infrastructure planning which also grows partnerships among Uber, the University of Cincinnati, Venture Smarter and other businesses and organizations in the region.For example, the summit will provide an update on the Cincinnati Smart Mobility Lab project, which was launched in January, and is a partnership among Uber, the city of Cincinnati, the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber of Commerce, and OKI. The lab will use Uber-generated and other data to study transit across the region.Using this technology will enable us to explore innovative options for integrating various modes of transit so we can truly understand and address gaps in service, improve ease of use, get people to jobs and truly connect the entire city, Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley said in a statement.Smart Cincy began in late 2016 as a grass-roots effort to better position the region to attract smart city projects. Smart Cincy represents a public-private partnership between governments, research institutions, neighborhood and grass-roots organizations and the business community.Now were facilitating partnerships between the city of Cincinnati and other municipalities across the region to leverage new technologies, resources and opportunities to address many of the problems faced by residents and visitors such as the digital divide, mobility, safety and environmental issues as well as energy, education and workforce development disparities, said Sordo.This years summit will also include leaders from the National Institute of Standards and Technology Global City Teams Challenge to lead afternoon planning workshops for regional officials, and will serve to kick off the 2018 Smart Infrastructure Challenge, where regional teams  possibly made up of government officials, planning organizations, universities or others  develop smart city projects. The teams have until May 31 to submit a letter of intent to compete for funding, project support and other resources. The Smart Infrastructure Challenge is being led by the Regional Smart Cities Initiative, an organization formed by Venture Smarter, with the overall goal of growing partnerships throughout the region.We want to leverage smart technologies, policies, and strategies to make our region a better place to live, work, and visit, said Zack Huhn, the co-founder of Venture Smarter who also acts as an adviser to the U.S. House of Representatives Smart Cities Caucus that launched just last month.We want to build communities, foster talent and solve pressing regional needs, from air quality and transportation access to digital divide issues and workforce development disparities, said Huhn in an email. These efforts cannot happen on their own, and they will not happen if we dont break down the silos across departments and agencies.
(TNS)  WEST BURLINGTON, IOWA  Much like the fight to bring electricity to rural America in the 20th century, working to give all in the United States broadband access likely will be a struggle of the 21st.Internet access is central to all aspects of school and business nowadays, affecting the way kids do homework, farmers plant their crops, hospitals provide care and companies deliver goods.U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, is working to bridge the gap between connected cities and rural communities stuck with outdated technology, if they have access to the technology at all."Those small towns are not going to survive economically without making sure they have the connectivity that they need because they're not going to get people to invest in those small towns," said Loebsack, speaking to a dozen local stakeholders Friday afternoon at Southeastern Community College in West Burlington.Loebsack represents 24 counties, including Des Moines County, in eastern and southeastern Iowa. He is a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in Congress who has consistently worked on the issue of rural connectivity since he was put on the committee three years ago.His legislation, the Rural Wireless Access Act, was signed into law this year by President Donald Trump as part of an omnibus spending bill that funds all aspects of the federal government.The bill directs the Federal Communications Commission to develop new maps of the nation's wireless coverage to help ensure the most underserved parts of the country are getting the broadband access they need."My own view, for what it's worth, is that people and communities in rural America should not be left out, and that's where the government I think has a role to play," the congressman said.Tim Fencl, general manager and CEO of Danville Mutual Telephone Co., agreed the private sector was likely to be the innovators and come up with technological solutions to rural connectivity issues, but argued the FCC must be the "enforcement" so service was provided everywhere, even when it's not cost effective."We have to take the same approach as a nation and say everybody deserves the right to be digitally connected," Fencl said.Loebsack agreed, saying Americans who were unable to participate in a digital world would be left behind economically."We should not have young people, who need the Internet to do their homework, have to rely upon going to a McDonald's or going to a library," Loebsack said. "They should be able to access the Internet at decent prices, good speeds, all the rest, from their home so that they don't have what the FCC commissioner calls 'the homework gap.'"
(TNS)  FALL RIVER, MASS.  The Fall River, Mass., Police Department and ShotSpotter, the $120,000-a-year gunshot detection system, have officially parted ways.The California-based company decided it could no longer offer its service to the city for free after police and administration officials balked at funding a system that they said worked less than 50 percent of the time and even missed all seven shots that were fired when a man was killed two months ago in downtown Fall River."The company had asked for the chance to bring it up to par where we needed it to be, but we saw little improvement with it in the past eight or nine months," said Fall River Police Chief Al Dupere.ShotSpotter shut the system off a few days ago following a meeting last week between a company representative, Dupere and Mayor Jasiel Correia, who criticized the company for "walking away" instead of keeping the system in place and working to improve it."I told them I was disappointed in ShotSpotter. I told them it's a shame for them to not at least use Fall River for publicity while they tried to make their product work as best they could," Correia said, adding that the system for now is not worth the investment."It's a costly system that isn't working to the effectiveness that we need it to work in order to justify the cost," Correia said.A ShotSpotter media representative was not immediately available for comment.Since last July, when Dupere first told ShotSpotter that he no longer planned to continue using its service, the company had kept the system live in Fall River, free of charge to the city, while trying to work out the shortcomings.Dupere said last summer that ShotSpotter had reported too many false alarms of gunfire while missing actual shots-fired incidents in Fall River. Dupere said then that he and other city officials decided the money would be better used to expand the police department's video surveillance system in the city.But ShotSpotter offered to improve the system and work with the city to secure grant funding, prompting local officials to re-embrace the technology."We are pleased with the response from ShotSpotter to our concerns," Dupere said this past December.Four months later, however, Dupere said ShotSpotter has not improved. He told the Herald News that the system has about a 50 percent accuracy rate; far below the 90 percent mark the city was promised when it signed with the company five years ago. Dupere said ShotSpotter also missed all seven shots in the Feb. 14 murder of Maurice Timberlake, who was gunned down at the corner of South Main and Morgan streets."Even if nobody had gotten hit, it still missed all the gunshots," Dupere said. "That's what we're paying them for."ShotSpotter also only detected only one of the three shots-fired calls earlier this week in the Flint and Niagara neighborhoods, officials said."We are not interested in paying $120,000 a year, which is police officers, which is cameras, which is vehicles, for something that works less than 50 percent of the time," Correia said.Dupere said last week's meeting with ShotSpotter was prompted by the city's decision not to include funding for ShotSpotter in the next fiscal year that begins on July 1.When local officials announced in October 2012 that Fall River would become the fifth city in Massachusetts to adopt ShotSpotter, the technology was hailed as an effective crime-fighting tool that would enable police officers to respond to shooting scenes quicker, interview witnesses sooner and arrest suspects that could otherwise get away.The system was advertised as being able to report the number of gunshots, the caliber of weapons used in a shooting, the direction of gunfire and even the shooter's movement, and to relay all that information almost in real-time to police dispatchers.While other communities have reported using it relatively well, the system in Fall River never operated smoothly. Dupere said the city was told that the system was capable "of doing things it just couldn't do."Dupere said ShotSpotter has left its sensors in place throughout Fall River in the event that future technological upgrades allows the company to make its system work in the city."I'm open to it, if in the future improvements are made," Dupere said. "But right now, it doesn't make sense. It's just not working for us."
(TNS)  SCRANTON, PA.  Scranton, Pa., city police may soon use a virtual reality simulator to better train for use-of-force situations.The city seeks a $150,000 state grant to buy a new virtual training system with 3-D, interactive scenarios displayed on large, immersive screens.As society changes, so too must police training, Police Chief Carl Graziano said.For example, schools in the past had just fire drills, but today may also have active-shooter drills, he said.For police, the traditional training methods of static classroom instruction followed by controlled-environment, shooting-range practice no longer suffice, according to the citys grant application.As frequency and severity of use-of-force encounters rise around the country, police now place even more emphasis on the quality of training, the application says. Methods are shifting from simple shoot/dont shoot scenarios at target ranges to virtual reality covering a full range of responsibilities officers face daily. Those may include incidents involving individuals with mental or behavioral health problems, according to the application.The simulator consists of five borderless flat screens positioned on five of the six sides of a hexagon, creating a 300-degree field of view to the user. Five digital cameras interface directly to the screen. The system can create hundreds of use-of-force scenarios that police may encounter in real life.Its about as close to reality as you can get without it being reality, Graziano said. It really tests the senses of the officers in a training atmosphere. You really believe youre in that situation.The funds would come from a Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency Justice Assistance Grant.On April 16, city council unanimously introduced  with President Pat Rogan, Tim Perry, Kyle Donahue, Bill Gaughan and Wayne Evans in favor  a resolution from Mayor Bill Courtright for the city to apply for the grant. Gaughan said the new system would be a great training tool.Police officers are engaged in situations that can be at times confusing  when to use force, when to not use force, Gaughan said. Weve seen across the country over the past few years some of these situations escalate. The Police Department is taking a really proactive approach to use this technology to train our officers.The resolution will come up for a second vote on adoption at councils meeting today at 6 p.m. at City Hall.The city would install the virtual reality equipment and software at the Police Department training divisions Serrenti Center in the Hill Section.The Police Department also would make the training system available to other area law enforcement agencies, and several have expressed interest in using it, the application says. Having citizens experience the virtual reality system also would give the public a greater appreciation of the challenges police face, Graziano said.The grant application includes letters of support from Lackawanna College Police Academy Director John Chilleri, Lackawanna County District Attorney Mark Powell and state Sen. John Blake, D-22, Archbald.The use of this technology will allow our citys police department to target prevention efforts and improve public safety in our community, Blake said in his letter.Powell said the training system will identify whether force applied was accurate and whether a trainees responses represented appropriate judgments.The trainee can then be exposed to additional training to further refine their decision-making and skills, Powell said in his letter.
Innovate Oklahoma

CISO as a Service

North Carolina Government Data Analytics Center

BALTIMORE  Afternoon sessions at the NASCIO Midyear conference took a closer look at some of the issues state CIOs focus on the most. Three half-hour "deep dives" ran the gamut from cybersecurity to data analytics to innovation, and attendees were encouraged to ask questions of presenters, ensuring everyone got as much out of the event as possible. These short but impactful sessions allowed for a free-flowing exchange of ideas and built on the networking and community-building activities earlier in the day While Oklahoma isnt usually thought of as a hot bed for govtech startups, state IT leadership there is working to change that.In a deep dive session Monday afternoon, Oklahoma Director of Technology Services Dustin Crossfield explained the states approach to fostering innovation, bringing together citizen needs, entreprenurial energy and government knowhow. Innovate Oklahoma is a partnership between the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST), Innovation to Enterprise (i2E) and the state Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES), and aims to transform how state government works while growing the regions high-tech sector.Crossfield described the process by which ideas go from idea to realization. First, a citizen creates a challenge submission on innovate.ok.gov . Technologists from the community then see those challenges and offer solutions in various stages of realization. Those citizens and tech experts then collaborate with OMES and other state agencies to turn ideas into real tools that the government can use to improve citizen services  plus a new startup is created.One company Crossfield pointed to as having moved through the Innovate Oklahoma process, from citizen idea to the final states before fruition, is Actovos, a DHS program that will use technology to help the Department of Human Services vastly expedite part of the foster system process, moving children into care in just 20 minutes, rather than up to one week.Crossfield has set an ambitious goal for these Innovate Oklahoma projects: He envisions a four-week turnaround from the time the deal for a solution closes to its initial rollout. He said they havent quite made that yet, but stressed the importance of pushing innovation with deadlines.And he hopes the program will help other states and jurisdictions as well. Entrepreneurs retain all of the intellectual property associated with their ideas, and Crossfield wants to promote their tech to other states, welcoming other states to engage with the companies and use their software.A jurisdictions size doesnt necessarily correlate to the size of its cybersecurity challenges. Just as many larger cities and states are lending their expertise to private businesses to get up to speed on the latest threats , Michigan is also assuming that role when it comes to local governments within its borders.At an afternoon session, Andy Brush, deputy director of the Office of Infrastructure Management and IT manager for Washtenaw County, was joined by Michigan Deputy Chief Security Officer Chris DeRusha as well as Michigan CIO David DeVries, to talk about Michigans innovative CISO-as-a-Service program Last year, the state started a pilot program, initially working with nine jurisdictions. At the time, officials expressed a desire to expand the offering statewide. Asked how best to engage with cities and counties to encourage participation, Brush suggested connecting with existing organizations: Find those naturally occurring groups and go to where those groups are, he said.A key element of the program is a common assessment that results in each jurisdiction having a baseline that allows them to prioritize their security strategy as well as track progress over time.For those looking to replicate the program in Michigan, presenters suggested a six-pronged strategy: Determine service requirements; explore funding options; identify participants; identify champions; establish governance and draft legal agreements.The biggest challenge in any cybersecurity-related endeavor, according to DeVries, is finding the staff to implement best practices needed to protect government assets. Where do you get the supply of talent to do these things? he asked, a problem faced in both the public and private sectors.The idea to start small, focus strategically was key to North Carolina CIO Eric Boyette s approach to using data analytics to realize efficiencies and cost savings in his state.The North Carolina Government Data Analytics Center (GDAC) is tasked with bringing together all data in the state and using it to make agencies throughout the state work better. Boyette outlined three key elements to getting such an endeavor off the ground: data governance, data standards and business processes.He particularly emphasized the business aspect of forming a data hub like GDAC, explaining that while IT leaders and staff may have some degree of business experience, theyre technologists at heart. State agencies know what they need and can drive their own business efforts. The role of GDAC staff is to provide the tech to make that happen.With a background in transportation, Boyette pointed to a number of transit-related use cases, including the creation of a Transportation Analytics Center. GDAC worked with the Department of Transportation (DOT) to analyze the agencys needs, then brought together and analyzed data that could address those needs. They also worked with business process experts who could identify holes in the plan that GDAC may have missed.When GDAC presented its findings, they showed that DOT had the financial ability to be proactive in their work, and enabled $267 million in savings for the department.The driving point behind much of what Boyette said was that tech and data can be used to create practical solutions to complex problems.So, he reiterated a key piece of advice: Start small, and focus strategically. Solutions from GDAC are oriented around a basic question: What are we trying to solve?
Creating the Direction and Voice for Content

Measurement and Benchmarking

DENVER  Social media has evolved from a luxury for government to an expected necessity, and that evolution has come with growing pains. The new conversation isnt so much whether an organization should have accounts  its pretty well established that it should  and has shifted toward strategy, management and developing a consistent voice.The issue of the larger strategy for the modern agency social media account was the focus of one morning session during the Government Social Media Conference in Denver, April 24.As presenter Bryan Bullock, communications manager for the city of Boulder, Colo., explained, establishing an overarching strategy is part and parcel of not only measuring any successes social undertakings see, but also developing a consistent and appropriate voice for the larger organization.Its really gotten to the point with local government, its no longer a matter of if we are going to use social media, but how, he told the room. So, one of the things we developed over the last couple of years is a social media strategy to guide our use.Bullock explained that a strategy should differ from a use policy in the sense that a policy outlines hard and fast rules, while the strategy should be focused on outlining the hows and whys of online engagement.A policy largely says, Dont do this, dont do that.' It doesnt usually say, 'Do this, do that, this is a best practice, Bullock said. Social media is no longer this thing just floating around out there that is new and exciting, it really is an integral component of the communications strategy and your customer service strategy.For example, a strategy could determine how often posts from departments are shared through main channels, or which topics need to reach certain subsections of the community. Bullock said information meant for the senior population would likely go missed if shared through Twitter, while a platform like NextDoor or Facebook would offer better engagement.At the end of the day, Bullock said whatever information is disseminated to the public, it should bolster the larger goal of encouraging citizens to engage offline as well as on  at public meetings, events, etc.This is the real reason we are on social media, is that we want people to come to our meetings, we want them to use our services, our events, news and information, he said. We know that message can be more effective, they might stick around, if we share something interesting, something light and playful and then mix in the city content.To get people to listen to important messages, you have to give them a reason to stick around, he continued.Depending on the complexity of the organization, consolidating accounts could help to drive traffic to a central point. While this approach may not be feasible for every government agency, consolidating online assets can help to reduce the appearance of a fragmented organizational voice and the mixed messages that come with that.Weve definitely found benefit from that. We have a city Twitter account that has about 82,000 followers, and whenever we get a request for a new Twitter account we say, Why do you want to share this with dozens of people when you could share it with tens of thousands of people? he said.The consolidated approach allows the city of Boulder to showcase a wider variety of content while presenting a single, trusted source of information for residents and followers.In Boulder, the process of developing social media as an effective communication tool has relied on consistently measuring what is being done. This helps to shape the future approach and adjust efforts to better fit the needs of the community.You can really fly by the seat of your pants with social media and say, Hey, we had a great post Tuesday, we reached X number of people and got a number of likes, but so what? What does that mean? he said. If you were to go to your director or someone in city leadership and say, Were really using social media well, we had some posts that got 40 likes  is that a lot, is that a little?Understanding historically where you have been and what you want to achieve is really critical, Bullock said.Setting benchmarks and outlining the expectations of posts helps to track the efficacy of the information being pushed out through these channels. If something is failing to connect to the intended audience, it is probably not worth repeating the same way.In a similar vein, Bullock warned that channels that forsake the two-way dialogue with constituents risk being like that person at a party that only talks about themselves. Eventually, people will lose interest without more direct engagement.Whatever strategy an organization outlines, it should include a mechanism for direct online interactions with the audience  an audience that expects a fairly immediate response.
Red Bull wants Daniel Ricciardo to make his decision about the future by August.

Big rumours are swirling that the Australian has signed a 'pre-agreement' to replace Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari next year.

Reportedly, Ricciardo now has until the end of June to negotiate with the Maranello team about the terms of a real contract from 2019.

"I don't want to sign anything too long because I don't know where the sport's going," he told The Times.

"I think two years I can definitely be comfortable with and then see it from there."

If Ricciardo doesn't reach a deal with Ferrari,, he has also been linked with Mercedes and a week ago he won in China with the team that groomed him, Red Bull.

Asked what the deadline is for Ricciardo to extend his stay at Red Bull, team boss Christian Horner answered: "There should be a decision by the summer break at the latest. We do not want to wait forever.

"We have other good options. Our priority is to continue working with Daniel, but if that doesn't work out, we'll look to those other options," he told Auto Motor und Sport.

When asked what alternatives Red Bull is considering, Horner said: "The most obvious is Carlos Sainz. He is under contract to us.

"And then we have a few young drivers."

(GMM)
Nearly two-thirds of the US plug-in vehicle (PEV) populationbattery-electric and plug-in hybrid light vehicleswere assembled in the United States, according to the US Department of Energy (DOE).





Source: DOE

Ten percent of US PEVs were assembled in Germany, with 9% each coming from Mexico and Japan. Each of the other countries represented less than 4% of the US PEV population.

Electric vehicle population was based on vehicle sales. Assembly country may be different than the country where some vehicle parts were manufactured.
KDDI, OYO and Toyota Motor will establish an information support system for the government and local administrations as a measure against disasters using technologies in IoT and big data analysis. The companies agreed to carry out demonstrations with the aim of commercializing this system by 2019.

This system will bring together KDDIs demographic movement data, OYOs various data from disaster monitoring sensors, probe data obtained through Toyotas connected cars, and publicized data, such as weather information, with the aim of creating all kinds of disaster prevention information.





This system will enable local administrations to, for example, ascertain where the passable roads are, and allow the monitoring of extensive infrastructure in real time and during disasters or normal times. It will boost the accuracy and speed of decision-making in issuing evacuation warnings, regulating traffic, etc., ensuring safety in the daily lives of local residents.

This system will enable vehicles and smartphones to be used as mobile IoT sensors to complement data gathered through fixed sensors set up by the government and local administrations.

Merging and analyzing the various kinds of big data gathered through these new mobile IoT sensors will allow the establishment of an extensive infrastructure monitoring system during disasters as well as normal times. This will boost the accuracy and speed of decision-making by the government and local administrations by enabling the discovery of signs prior to disasters, on-site confirmation, implementing of disaster prevention measures (traffic regulation, evacuation warnings, etc.), on-site safety confirmation, and the lifting of regulations and warnings.

The companies will begin demonstration experiments in 2018, and aim for practical application of the system by 2019.
Typically, to receive the ATHE certificate, you must complete three online courses and a five-day residential Summer Seminar in Health Care Ethics. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2019 and 2020 cohorts will receive two certificates: one upon the completion of the three online courses and another upon the completion of the courses plus Summer Seminar. The department verifies completion of the three-course series and satisfactory completion of all certificate requirements. You may take individual courses and/or the Summer Seminar if you wish. If you are a UW employee and your department will pay your fees with a UW budget number, you will receive a discount.

UPDATE: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a virtual offering in lieu of the in-person Summer Seminar CME course is being planned for 2021. Details will be posted when finalized. If you have already completed participation in a past Summer Seminar, you will have already earned that certificate, and you are not required to repeat it as part of ATHE.

Payment deadlines

September 21, 2021: course one payment ($4000 / UW discount: $3600)

December 30, 2021: course two payment ($4000 / UW discount: $3600)

March 20, 2022: course three payment ($4000 / UW discount: $3600)

We are not offering scholarships at this time.

Fees: Three Online Courses (12 Credits)

All fees are subject to change without prior notification. The amounts shown here represent, for planning purposes, estimates of fees for the ATHE certificate. Final costs are subject to change without notice and may differ from the amounts posted.

Payment Fee/Course Fee/Credit Hour Total for 3 Courses Payment Method UW Discount $3600 $900 $10,800 UW budget number 2021 Fee $4000 $1000 $12,000 Credit or check

**If you completed the in-person Summer Seminar in Healthcare Ethics between 2015-2019, you are eligible for a 2021 discount. Please indicate in your application materials if you have already completed Summer Seminar in Healthcare Ethics, and provide your certificate of completion.

University of Washington Continuing Medical Education

The University of Washington School of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Online Courses in ATHE Ethical Theory; Clinical & Organizational Ethics Consultation; and Consultation Methods: The University of Washington School of Medicine designates this other activity for a maximum of 18 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

*Summer Seminar: The University of Washington School of Medicine designates this other activity for a maximum of 30 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. UPDATE: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2019 and 2020 cohorts will receive two certificates: one upon the completion of the three online courses and another upon the completion of the courses plus Summer Seminar. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a 2-day virtual offering in lieu of the 5-day in-person course is being planned for 2021. If you have already completed participation in a past Summer Seminar, you will have already earned that certificate, and you are not required to repeat it as part of ATHE.

We understand that some students would like CME credits in addition to the certificate they receive after completion of the three online courses. Based on CME rules, however, a fraction of the hours spent in our courses qualify for CME credits. The amount of CME credit awarded is based on the amount of enduring material, in this case, hours of recorded lectures by faculty members for each course. You are welcome to claim the CME credits if you wish.

CME credits may be awarded upon request after successful completion of each online course:

ATHE: Ethical Theory  3 CME credit hours

ATHE: Clinical & Organizational Ethics Consultation 5 CME credit hours

ATHE: Consultation Methods  10 CME credit hours

The instructor will determine whether the student has successfully completed each course, evidenced by weekly written assignments.
Shaws injuries include a gunshot graze. Photo: James Shaw Jr.

James Shaw Jr. is the person responsible for disarming the Waffle House shooter early Sunday morning  bravery thats earned him the nickname Waffle House Hero, and Nashville police say he no doubt saved many lives. Since his own hospital release, Shaw has insisted that he was simply ensuring his own survival. Nevertheless, many people have asked, How can Shaw be rewarded for his heroic act?

Political reporter Yashar Ali decided last night that some money would be a good start.

Alright, I decided to start a @gofundme for James Shaw Jr, the Waffle House hero. I normally hate when people say this, but in this case, I think its important...please RT.



Link To Donate: https://t.co/BkUyA63VOQ https://t.co/pv3HzUzyi6  Yashar Ali  (@yashar) April 24, 2018

2. Part of the reason I decided to start this is James, after putting his life on the line, started a @gofundme for the victims. He really represents the best of America and I think we should help him too. So far over $6,000 has been donated. Thank you! https://t.co/BkUyA63VOQ  Yashar Ali  (@yashar) April 24, 2018

Ali, who is a New York contributor, explains that Shaw has a 4-year-old daughter, and thinks her college should be paid for. On the GoFundMe page, Ali writes that Shaw put his life on the line at Waffle House, and has shown a level of humility that has inspired many of us since then.

I normally dont get involved directly in these matters, but James grace has inspired me to start this page to give him the support I feel he deserves. According to news reports, James has a four-year-old daughter. Perhaps this money can be used for her college fund or some other education related expense. But Id be just as happy if James used some of this money to take his family on a nice vacation.

Alis tweet linking to the GoFundMe has been liked more than 10,000 times, and retweeted by public figures like Hillary Clinton. Not surprisingly, the page hit its $50,000 goal this morning.

Waffle House, meanwhile, has also been inspired to get into the spirit. The chain says its got its own thank-you up its sleeves:

Yes. We will be doing things for Mr. Shaw. Details have not be finalized yet!  Waffle House (@WaffleHouse) April 24, 2018

Great! Hes a hero and deserves to be recognized as one!  ginny allee (@Crazyginny) April 24, 2018

He is a great hero and there are no words to accurately express our appreciation.  Waffle House (@WaffleHouse) April 24, 2018

Alis GoFundMe for Shaw has now cruised comfortably past its goal, and the GoFundMe Shaw set up yesterday to support victims families only needs a couple thousand more dollars to hit $100,000.




Haiti - News : Zapping...





Japan : Call for scholarship

The Embassy of Japan announces the launch of the Japan Government Scholarship Screening Process for the 2019 academic year. Please find details on the Embassy website : www.ht.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_fr/00_000365.html . Deadline for applications 8th June 0218



PNH : 800 million wage arrears

During his tour Friday in Port-de-Paix, Michel-Ange Gedeon, the Director General of the National Police of Haiti (PNH) who received the grievances of the heads of the various departmental directorates, including the payment of salary arrears police pointed out "For the issue of salary arrears, the sum is huge. We are talking about 800 million gourdes."



Drinking water infrastructure works

In order to increase access to drinking water for the population, engineer Philippe Eliscar, Director of the Regional Office for Drinking Water and Sanitation (OREPA) South, launched the rehabilitation and extension of drinking water infrastructure in the communes of Port Salut, Roche-a-Bateau, Port-a-Piment, Les Anglais and Tiburon in the South Department. The rehabilitation of these infrastructures is financed by the World Bank.



Santo Domingo : Haiti at the International Book Fair

The Embassy of Haiti in the Dominican Republic invites you, on the occasion of the 21st edition of the International Book Fair, to browse the booth of Haiti at the Plaza de la Cultura, on Maximo Gomez, Santo Domingo, from April 19 to 30, 2018.



President in follow-up of building sites

On Friday, President Jovenel Moise visited some road construction sites in the Southeast. The Economic and Social Assistance Fund (FAES), in assistance to the population of Jacmel, took the opportunity to distribute about 1,500 food kits to the most vulnerable residents of Raymond Lesbains, Lavanneau and Peredo.



The US Embassy honored with the participation of the First Lady

The US Embassy in Haiti said it was "honored by the First Lady's participation in the celebration of the New Orleans Tricentennial and its meeting with our partners in the Louisiana National Guard. https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-24177-icihaiti-diaspora-the-first-lady-in-new-orleans.html



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Conservatives know the gig is up once the big blue wave sweeps dozens of Republicans out of Congress in November. Or is it? As we mentioned yesterday, there are forces on the right, trying-- trying hard-- to put together an effective governing coalition of mainstream conservatives -- from both parties-- to run the show in November with a corrupt conservative Speaker (former New Dem chieftain Joe Crowley) and a motley crew of DCCC candidates from the New Dem and Blue Dog coalitions from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party and whichever non-fascist Republicans are left. Perhaps you've noticed, for example, that Alabama Senator Doug Jones and Pennsylvania Blue Dog "Collin" Lamb (as Pelosi fondly calls him) have been voting with the GOP. No? Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Lets look at New York state for a recent example. Although New York is a blue state, with a statewide PVI of D+12 (tied with California, Maryland and Massachusetts) and although Hillary beat Trumpanzee 4,556,124 (59%) to 2,819,534 (36.5%) and although there are 103 Democrats in the state Assembly, enough conservative Democrats caucus with the Republicans in the state Senate to give the GOP control of that body. As the explained over the weekend the intense scrutiny for a seemingly obscure seat is the result of a fragile deal that was recently brokered in which a group of breakaway Democrats who had long shared power with Senate Republicans agreed to return to the Democratic fold. That collaboration had helped give Republicans control of the Senate, despite Democrats holding a numerical majority, until early April, when the so-called Independent Democratic Conference agreed to return to the mainstream fold. The deal gave the Democrats a chance to sweep the Legislature and governors office. There was just one hitch: two Senate seats that had previously been occupied by Democrats will be decided on Tuesday in special elections." That's tomorrow.

The Democratic shitheads from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party have kept governing power out of the hands of the Democrats-- with Cuomo's connivance-- for 7 years. A week ago the Democrats "welcomed" back 8 of the shitheads. Senate District 37 in eastern Westchester is the pivotal seat. It was Democrat George Lattimer's old seat when he beat a Trumpist for County Executive and it pits Assemblywoman Shelley Mayer (D) against Julie Killian (R), a former member of the Rye City Council. The 2 to 1 Democratic registration advantage favors Mayer. City&State New York took a solid shot at explaining tomorrow's 2 Seante special elections. "While New York state political observers are captivated by the drama over a deal between state Senate Minority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Independent Democratic Conference Leader Jeff Klein to reunify Democrats in the state Senate, control of the chamber may actually be determined by the outcome of a special election in Westchester.

The suburban Senate seat has been a swing district. Republican Bob Cohen lost narrowly to Democratic incumbent Suzi Oppenheimer in 2010 and to Latimer in 2012. Westchester County was previously led by Republican Rob Astorino, who launched an unsuccessful gubernatorial bid in 2014 and was defeated by Latimer in an upset victory in 2017.





Jeanne Zaino, a professor of political science at Iona College, said that the race between Mayer and Killian is closer than many observers had expected given the advantage Democrats have in enthusiasm. Zaino noted that one of Killians strategies has been to tie Mayer to the aura of corruption that permeates Albany. Mayer was chief counsel to state Senate Democrats from 2007 to 2011, during which time the Senate Democratic leaders were Malcolm Smith and John Sampson, who were later convicted of corruption in separate cases.





Killian is trying to pitch Mayer as the incumbent, if you will, and the insider, and painting herself more as the underdog and the outsider, Zaino said, noting that dissatisfaction with the political establishment was an important theme in the 2016 presidential election.





Michael Lawler, Killians campaign manager, said that corruption in Albany is an important electioni issue, and that voters want to ensure that one party doesn't have full control of the state.





You have a Democratic governor and a Democratic state Assembly, and so having a Republican majority in the state Senate to provide balance in state government is important, Lawler said. I think a lot of people want to ensure that one-party rule in New York state doesn't happen.





However, the desire to see a balanced government may be outmatched by the strong Democratic headwinds going into the 2018 midterms, both in New York and nationally. President Donald Trump is deeply unpopular in New York state, and recent races-- including in Westchester-- have seen a surge in Democratic enthusiasm.





Zaino said that when she did polling in the 2017 race between Latimer and Astorino, she found that 4 in 10 voters said that Trump would be a factor when making their decision about who to vote for in the county executive race. That dynamic was continuing to play out in the race between Mayer and Killian, she said, as Westchester residents often want to talk about national politics in conjunction with this race.





The interest in national politics has led to an unusual level of voter and activist engagement for a local special election. Doug Forand, a spokesman for Mayers campaign, said that the campaign was sending out 100 volunteers each weekend to canvass.





I've never seen the kind of volunteer effort that is coming through for this race, he said. Forand conceded that the campaign would have to work to ensure strong turnout, as voter participation is generally low in special elections. However, he remained optimistic that Democrats and independents would vote for Mayer because they're so upset about what's happening nationally.





But Lawler argued that voters would be more concerned with district-specific issues than with national politics when voting.





I think voters are very concerned about what's going on locally and in New York state, and those are the issues that we're focused on, and that Julie's been addressing every day since getting in the race, he said. The political climate is certainly against Republicans at the moment, but Julie is defying that.





Even as Democrats generally emphasize national politics, Mayer has campaigned on the districts specific issues-- including the opioid epidemic, taxes and gun control-- to woo local voters. Meanwhile, independent expenditure groups have poured money into the race, including charter school and education reform supporters backing Killian. Both candidates have peppered local media with ads.





While Trump has indirectly influenced the race, other major political players have gotten directly involved. Cuomo has endorsed and held a rally and a fundraiser on behalf of Mayer, and former Gov. George Pataki is supporting Killian. Since the race may determine party control in the state, big dollars and big names are flooding the district.





The IDC reunification deal might harm Mayer, as it would take away her argument to turn out Democratic voters that she must win for the IDC to return to the fold. But Democrats still need to hold her seat to gain the majority. Her campaign argues that, thanks to the IDC agreement, she can now point to a greater likelihood of actually being in the majority and having the power to get legislation passed.





People vote much more on the individual than they do based on the insider, macro political battles that are going on, Forand said. I think it's good for what Shelley would be able to achieve as a senator, and I think that's going to be great for her in November.





Lawler agreed that the reunification announcement will not have an effect on the races outcome. Ultimately, voters in this district are not going to be swayed by the machinations of the Albany power brokers, Lawler said. They're going to be swayed by who is best suited to address the issues and concerns of the community here.





Lawrence Levy, executive dean of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University, said that how suburban Westchester residents vote could even be an indicator of state or even national headwinds.





What happens in this district not only may determine control of state government, which is important enough, Levy said. The performance of these swing suburban voters could serve as a bellwether for the political direction of the entire country.
The Benevolent to hold mental health discussion at LWF

By Lisa Riley

Trade charity The Benevolent has joined forces with the London Wine Fair (LWF) to present a panel discussion on mental health at this years event.

During the panel discussion, which will take place on Wednesday, 23 May, The Benevolent chief executive, Chris Porter will announce the findings of a report, which has been commissioned to outline the current mental health difficulties experienced by members of the trade. It will look at the implications of these findings and the way forward to support those affected by mental health issues.

Porter said mental health is a crucial topic and that the charity is fully committed to stand up for those in need.

We have a panel where each of the contributors will bring with them a deep understanding of the UK drinks industry as well as providing expertise on mental health difficulties experienced in the industry, he said.

The charity launched its mental health campaign called #NotAlone in January to encourage the trade to create a stigma-free environment within the workplace.

Porter said it has been overwhelmed by the subsequent response with 80 industry personnel contacting them about the issue between January and March.

The panel, which will be chaired by Porter, also includes: Miles Beale, chief executive of the Wine & Spirit Trade Association; Christo Eliott Lockhart, sales manager at Hallgarten Druitt; Kat Hounsell, founder of Everyday People and a Mental Health First Aid Trainer; and freelance writer and UK director of 20h33, Mike Turner, who has written about the effects of working in the drinks industry on mental health.
WSTA signs deal to promote trade relations with China

By Michelle Perrett

The Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) is to sign an agreement with Chinese distiller Kweichow Moutai Co to increase trade relations between the two countries.

The agreement, which is to be signed in London later today (Tuesday, 24 April) by WSTA chief executive Miles Beale and Yuan Renguo - chairman of the Kweichow Moutai Group, forms part of a strategy for the UK trade association to strengthen its relationship with countries outside the EU in the wake of Brexit.

By working closely with the wine and spirit industry colleagues, across the globe, together we can better advise politicians on the benefits of free trade deals and how to avoid unnecessary barriers for the free flow of trade, said Beale.

The agreement of understanding with Moutai and the coming together with politicians from both countries showed the keenness to collaborate and build industry partnerships, he added.

Moutai industry bosses are to be accompanied at the signing by the governor of Guizhou province, Shen Yiqin, who is on a two-day visit to the UK promoting business links with the province and the UK.

According to the WSTA, Moutai has secured its position as the worlds top distiller by market value. In 2017, Moutai Group exported 17.5 tons of Moutai liquor to the UK, generating nearly 2.5 million in revenue.

Over the last few years China-UK friendship have continued to warm with the efforts of the leaders of both countries  welcoming a golden era of China-UK relations, said Renguo.
News  Headlines

HCM City to return 10 kilos of gold to local man
PUBS in the Henley area are serving a special beer brewed to commemorate the royal wedding.

Hooray Harry is a 4.1 per cent ale brewed at Brakspears Bell Street brewery and made with British and American hops.

Head brewer Malcolm Mayo said: We wanted to mark this special occasion with a beer that offers all the traditional British-ness of a royal wedding as well as giving a nod to Ms Markles American heritage. We think Hooray Harry combines these elements perfectly and, like its royal namesake, has plenty of character.

Were all looking forward to raising a glass of it to the happy couple on May 19. Were not aware of any other beers named specifically after the groom, so we have put aside a firkin for Prince Harry to enjoy at his stag do, or at the wedding itself and as Windsor is just down the road, were happy to drop it off.

The limited edition beer is being served at the Angel on the Bridge, the Bull on Bell Street, the Little Angel and the Row Barge in Henley as well the Maltsters Arms in Rotherfield Greys, the Bull at Wargrave, the Hare & Hounds in Sonning Common, the New Inn in Kidmore End and the Reformation in Gallowstree Common.

The Bull and and the Little Angel are also offering any couple called Meghan and Harry or Henry and Rachel getting married on the same day an overnight stay and dinner. John Thirlway, general manager of the Little Angel, said: The first five couples to contact us and bring in their marriage certificate to one of the pubs will receive a bottle of fizz.
The 20-episode Bloody bet thriller to be broadcast on Ucom's Armenia Premium TV channel

Statement by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group

UCOM offers affordable gadgets at bigger discount

Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan will pay a working visit to New York

Governments preventing publication of Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper during state of emergency

UCOM prolongs the unlimited internet offer for the level up 4700 and level up 5500 subscribers

Ucom employees received recognition for their services to the homeland

Karen Vardanyan has allocated 105 million AMD to rescue the Yerevan Botanical Garden.

"The Power of One Dram" to overcome childhood cancer

Generation A 13  your chance to be the change

President of the Artsakh Republic Arayik Harutyunyan met with Russian Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Igor Khovayev

"uDays" special offer at Ucom: discounts for all smartphones and accessories for 2 days only

For more than 3 hours, 50 or more Azerbaijani servicemen have blocked the interstate road

Call on the international community for an adequate response against azerbaijani aggresssion

Transformation and trust are important for success in modern banking. Artak Hanesyan

UCOMS LEVEL UP 1700 REGIONAL TARIFF PLAN USERS TO RECEIVE MORE THAN THOSE IN YEREVAN

Google Ad

Joint statement

Statement by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group

Covid-19: 163 new cases in Armenia

Armenia: Remarks by Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi at the press point with Acting Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan

The United States Welcomes Azerbaijans Release of Armenian Detainees and Armenias Actions to Facilitate Demining

The Coronavirus-Related Situation in Armenia

International aviation: Council greenlights signing of major agreements with four countries

With UCOMs level up tariff plans subscribers have unlimited access to Netflix, Duolingo and Zoom

Armenia: Statement by the Spokesperson on the early parliamentary elections

Armenias Parliamentary Elections PRESS STATEMENT

COVID19:77 new cases

Armenias early parliamentary elections were competitive and well run, but polarized and marred by aggressive rhetoric, international observers say

International election observers to Armenias early parliamentary elections held press conference
President of France Emmanuel Macron addresses message to President of Armenia Armen Sargsyan on April 24

President of France Emmanuel Macron addressed a message to President of Armenia Armen Sargsyan on April 24, the Armenian presidential Office said. The message says: Mr. President, We remember with you the April 24 of 1915 in Constantinople and the massacre of 600 Armenian intellectuals which indicates the beginning of the first genocide of the 20th century. We will never forget the murdered men, women and children who died on the way of exile from starvation, cold and agony. France, which condemned the Armenian massacres in the Ottoman Empire by the voices of Georges Clemenceau, Anatole France and Jean Jaures, hosted numerous survivors. Together with the Great Britain and Russia, France called that massacres on May 25, 1915 as a crime against humanity and civilization. In September 1915 the French navy, under fire, managed to save 4000 refugees of the Mount Musa. The memory of the Genocide and the meaning of its lessons refer to each of us. On the occasion of the 103rd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, I address my warmest and friendly thoughts to you and your people. Please, Mr. President, accept the assurances of my highest respect.
Today is 103th anniversary of Armenian Genocide

On April 24, Armenians and entire civilized world pay tribute to the memory of the victims of this monstrous crime against humanity, which killed more than one and a half million Armenians. Different actions are held in all the cities where Armenians live. The main event will be held in Tsitsernakaberd memorial complex in Yerevan, symbolizing both the loss of the victims and the revival of the nation. The massacres of Armenians started at the end of the 19th century. In 1892-1923, Hamidian Turkey and then the Young Turks mass deported and annihilated the Armenian population of Western Armenia, Cilicia and Ottoman Empire. Intelligence beheaded. On April 24 1915, 600 Armenian intellectuals were killed and exterminated in Constantinople, according to statistical data, the Armenian population of 66 cities and about 2500 villages were massacred in the Ottoman Empire, about 1.5 million people. 2350 churches and monasteries were robbed and destroyed. 1,500 schools were destroyed. In 1919-1920, the size of the damage caused to the Western Armenians by the Paris Peace Conference was 14 billion 598 million 510 thousand franks and 4 billion 532 million 472 thousand franks to the Eastern Armenians.
The 20-episode Bloody bet thriller to be broadcast on Ucom's Armenia Premium TV channel

Statement by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group

UCOM offers affordable gadgets at bigger discount

Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan will pay a working visit to New York

Google Ad

Governments preventing publication of Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper during state of emergency

UCOM prolongs the unlimited internet offer for the level up 4700 and level up 5500 subscribers

Ucom employees received recognition for their services to the homeland

Karen Vardanyan has allocated 105 million AMD to rescue the Yerevan Botanical Garden.

"The Power of One Dram" to overcome childhood cancer

Generation A 13  your chance to be the change

President of the Artsakh Republic Arayik Harutyunyan met with Russian Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Igor Khovayev

"uDays" special offer at Ucom: discounts for all smartphones and accessories for 2 days only

For more than 3 hours, 50 or more Azerbaijani servicemen have blocked the interstate road

Call on the international community for an adequate response against azerbaijani aggresssion

Transformation and trust are important for success in modern banking. Artak Hanesyan

UCOMS LEVEL UP 1700 REGIONAL TARIFF PLAN USERS TO RECEIVE MORE THAN THOSE IN YEREVAN

Google Ad

Joint statement

Statement by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group

Covid-19: 163 new cases in Armenia

Armenia: Remarks by Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi at the press point with Acting Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan

The United States Welcomes Azerbaijans Release of Armenian Detainees and Armenias Actions to Facilitate Demining

The Coronavirus-Related Situation in Armenia

International aviation: Council greenlights signing of major agreements with four countries

With UCOMs level up tariff plans subscribers have unlimited access to Netflix, Duolingo and Zoom

Armenia: Statement by the Spokesperson on the early parliamentary elections

Armenias Parliamentary Elections PRESS STATEMENT

COVID19:77 new cases

Armenias early parliamentary elections were competitive and well run, but polarized and marred by aggressive rhetoric, international observers say

International election observers to Armenias early parliamentary elections held press conference
Vardan Aramyan hopes tension to weaken (video)

Acting Minister of Finance Vardan Aramyan told journalists in Tsitsernakaberd Memorial that the events in the country were patriotic. "We were able to be very wise all around the world. The Ministry of Finance is always in the professional field. Any tension, of course, has an effect. During the past one and a half years, we have had development in the economy. It was the first step to provide investors with a positive attitude towards the Republic of Armenia." He expressed hope that tension will gradually weaken, there will be constructive discussions, there will be constructive agreements in different spheres because it was necessary for our economy.
In May 1968, more than 1,500 were surrounded by an advancing enemy at Kham Duc.

After Communist forces took a beating during their Tet Offensive that raged across South Vietnam in early 1968, the battered North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong regrouped in the spring to try again with another series of widespread assaults. The NVA and VC hit about 120 sites in the May Offensive, or Mini-Tet. Two of those targets were the U.S. Army Special Forces camp at Kham Duc and the nearby outpost of Ngok Tavak, in the highlands of northern South Vietnam. The Green Berets and their local allies at the bases were surrounded and badly outnumbered. Courage, obstinacy, treachery by allies and luckgood and badplayed a role in the effort to save American troops during the May 10-12 battles.

By early March 1968, the most intense battles of the Tet Offensive, which began on Jan. 31, had ended. Around the same time, however, intelligence indicated increased NVA activity in the area near Kham Duc, about 60 miles southwest of Da Nang and 10 miles from Laos. Kham Duc housed a Special Forces camp established in 1963 next to an airfield surrounded by jungle-covered high ground. The camp was also a base for the clandestine operations of elite American units, which conducted reconnaissance missions and commando-style actions to disrupt the flow of enemy troops and supplies down the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

After Tet, elements of 2nd NVA Division around Kham Duc were strengthened as troops traveled down the Ho Chi Minh Trail with equipment that included flamethrowers, tear gas and anti-aircraft weapons. Kham Duc, positioned between the trail and major U.S. installations from Da Nang to Chu Lai, was a natural targetand a seemingly easy one, given the surrounding jungle-covered high ground and absence of supporting artillery.

To beef up security at the camp, the 5th Special Forces Group in Da Nang sent the 12th Mobile Strike Force, or Mike Force, a company of about 260 local Vietnamese of Chinese descent led by a Special Forces team, to Kham Duc in early March. Mike Forces were better trained and equipped units of Civilian Irregular Defense Groups, militias set up to protect villages from Viet Cong attacks. More support would arrive in April when 125 engineers in A Company, 70th Engineer Battalion, 937th Engineer Group, were deployed to Kham Du. Their work included extending the runway, providing all-weather navigation capabilities, clearing underbrush that could hide the enemy and forming a perimeter defense.

In a March 31 address, President Lyndon B. Johnson called for peace talks. The NVA and VC hoped the May Offensive they were planning would wear down U.S. and South Vietnamese forces, further dampen support for the war and enhance their position at the Paris Peace Talks, scheduled to begin May 10. A film crew was going to record what the NVA believed would be the devastating defeat of American forces at Kham Duc and a propaganda boon ahead of the talks, according to a North Vietnamese cameraman in a 1995 interview with U.S. Defense Department researchers in Ho Chi Minh City.

American commanders were still uncertain about the 2nd NVA Divisions exact location. In mid-March, the 11th Mobile Strike Force of the 5th Special Forces Group was ordered to Ngok Tavak, an abandoned French fort 4 miles south of Kham Duc, to conduct recon patrols in the area. The Mike Force comprised 122 ethnic Chinese, three U.S. and three South Vietnamese Special Forces troops, three interpreters and three officers in an Australian team led by Capt. John White.

Throughout April, Whites patrols encountered and battled NVA units. In one firefight, CIDG soldiers left their Australian advisers to fend for themselves, raising doubts about the local forces reliability as an ally. On May 3, a captured North Vietnamese soldier confirmed that the 2nd NVA Division was preparing for an attackand had infiltrated the CIDG at Kham Duc.

White planned to evacuate the small garrison at Ngok Tavak, since his troops had clearly achieved their mission and found the NVA, which now also knew his location. But the captain got a surprise in early May when the 2nd Marine Divisions 13th Marine Regiment sent in an artillery platoon of 43 Marines and a Navy hospital corpsman from D Battery. On May 9, the Marines lugged a pair of 105 mm howitzers into position. The arrival of artillery to protect Kham Duc made Ngok Tavak the NVAs first target.

Friday, May 10

As the moon set at 3 a.m., the NVA unleashed a a a mortar barrage on Ngok Tavak. One CIDG unit that White kept outside the perimeter, because its allegiance was suspect, came to the entrance. Dont shoot, friendly, they called out, but then threw explosive-filled satchels, killing several Marines inside the garrison and knocking the howitzers out of commission. NVA flamethrowers surged forward and lit a vehicle on fire.

At 4:20 a.m., an AC-47 Spooky gunship arrived overhead and fired its three multi-barrel 7.62 mm machine guns on the attackers. NVA troops tried to use tear gas, but the wind blew it back onto their own positions. Half the attackers then shifted north to assault Kham Duc, leaving only a Viet Cong force to deal with Ngok Tavaks remaining defenders.

Marine helicopters from Kham Duc brought reinforcements, but rocket-propelled grenades hit two of them on the landing zone, rendering the helos and the landing zone unusable. White had 70 wounded that his men could not carry out on foot, so he called for a medevac helicopter. Maj. Pat Brady made multiple flights from Kham Duc to move the wounded.

Despite the precarious situation, 5th Special Forces headquarters ordered White to hold for reinforcements, but he knew that was impossible. The enemy had destroyed the landing zone and blocked the road to Kham Duc. Water and ammunition were running short.

To clear an escape route, White called for napalm strikes down the pathway of the main attack and then led his surviving troops83 CIDG, three Australian, five Special Forces and 14 Marinesalong the burning pathway. Marine helicopters picked up the escapees and landed them at Kham Duc by 6:30 p.m.

The attack on Ngok Tavak killed 16 Americans and wounded 23. The CIDG tally was 30 killed or wounded and 64 missing, including those who deserted.

Soon after the North Vietnamese attacks began, the 23rd Infantry Division (Americal) initiated Operation Golden Valley to reinforce Kham Duc. The U.S. Air Force provided C-130 transport planes to move men and equipment to the camp, often under mortar fire. The Air Force landed a combat control team acting as air traffic controllers to coordinate the increasing number of arrivals and departures. Maj. John Gallagher, a C-130 pilot, was in charge of the team, which consisted of Tech. Sgts. Norton Freedman and James Lundy and a liaison officer to coordinate the air operations with the infantry at Kham Duc.

Troops from Americals A Company, 1st Battalion, 46th Infantry Regiment, 198th Light Infantry Brigade landed by 10:50 a.m. and established defensive positions. Seven observation posts had previously been positioned around Kham Duc. Two were no longer in use. Squads from A Company went to observation posts 1, 2 and 5. CIDG forces occupied the remaining two.

By the end of the day, the Air Force had also flown in 571 men of the divisions 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, and 57 men of Battery A, 3rd Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, which came with two howitzers. The 2nd Battalion commander, Lt. Col. Robert Nelson, positioned troops along the perimeter and had engineers bulldoze trenches for artillery firing positions and the battalion command post. Three more howitzers would arrive the next day.

Saturday, May 11

At dawn, the troops went to work strengthening Kham Ducs defenses, and Nelson moved 2nd Lt. Frederick Ransbottoms E Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry, to observation posts 1, 2 and 5, relieving the squads of A Company, 1st Battalion, 46th Infantry.

Thirty B-52 bombers struck probable NVA positions around the camp, but the enemy mortar attacks continued. When the American artillery responded, the howitzers muzzle flashes revealed their position to the NVA, which then scored a direct hit on one of the howitzers, killing two and wounding 35.

Meanwhile, many of the top commanders in Vietnam worked on a strategy to deal with the attack. The discussions included Maj. Gen. Samuel W. Koster of the Americal Division, Lt. Gen. Robert E. Cushman of the 3rd

Marine Amphibious Force, Col. Jonathan F. Ladd of U.S. Special Forces and Gen. Creighton Abrams of Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. They sent Gen. William Westmoreland, the overall American commander in Vietnam, a recommendation, which he accepted, to relocate the camp because of its poor defensive position.

The evacuation would occur over three days, according to the plan. But it took nearly a day to communicate the decision to all the elements supporting Kham Duc. By the end of Saturday, more than 1,500 troops and 300 civilian dependents were in Kam Duc. The military units included U.S. Special Forces, ethnic Chinese CIDG militiamen, combat engineers, Air Force air traffic controllers, infantry and artillerymen.

Sunday May 12

Around 3 a.m. the NVA began new assaults on the observation posts. At OP 2, Ransbottom reported he was killing the North Vietnamese as fast as they were enteringbut then went silent. Nelson ordered everyone at the observation posts to pull back, but as the sun rose, all the observation posts had been overrun. Survivors at OP 2 withdrew toward the airstrip.

As the NVA advanced on OP 1, Spc. 4 Bill Wright, a radio telephone operator, grabbed an incapacitated Sgt. Orlando Vasquez and began dragging him back to the camp. He also established radio contact with the battalion executive officer, Maj. Don Buchwald, and directed airstrikes to cover their withdrawal. When he spotted a North Vietnamese company moving through the high sawgrass toward the camp, Wright directed napalm strikes that stopped the NVA troops.

From another bunker at OP 1, Spc. 4 Julius Long and Sgt. Joseph Simpson began their 350-meter scramble to the camp. Simpson was killed 100 meters from the bunker, and NVA troops blocked Longs path, forcing him out of sight to avoid discovery.

At a 4 a.m. briefing, Nelson announced that the three-day evacuation plan had been discarded and everybody was to be extracted that day. The priority order would be: engineers, CIDG families, Special Forces, artillerymen, infantry and CIDG troops. They would take out only handheld weapons and destroy all other equipment.

At 5:20 a.m., Air Force Capt. William Spier, a forward air controller in a O-2 Skymaster, directed F-4 Phantom II fighter-bombers to attack advancing NVA units. When an impenetrable ground fog blocked Spiers view, Special Forces troops adjusted the airstrikes based on the sound of the impacts. The fog lifted around 7:30 am, but Spier was running low on fuel and passed his airstrike control duties to Capt. Paul Judge.

A flight of CH-47 Chinook helicopters arrived to begin the evacuation. Capt. Joe Sturdevant was flying past OP 7 near the runways north end when the NVAs 12.7 mm guns opened up. The Chinook faltered and crashed, but the crew escaped. The other Chinooks flew to Chu Lai to take on additional gun crews before returning.

The burning wreckage of Sturdevants Chinook blocked the runway, and engineers began clearing it away. Because they had disassembled their bulldozer for the evacuation, the engineers tried to use a bucket loader. But its tires caught fire from burning helicopter fuel. They had to reassemble the bulldozer and brave mortar fire for an hour while clearing the airstrip.

Shortly after 8 a.m., NVA anti-aircraft guns placed on the overrun OP 1 shot down Air Force Maj. James Swains A-1E Skyraider attack plane, which was providing air support for the evacuation. He parachuted and landed outside the perimeter. A Huey piloted by Warrant Officer Ed Fitzsimmons picked up Swain while two other Hueys provided suppressing fire. Airstrikes on the enemy-held observation posts silenced the artillery fire, but only until the NVA replaced the killed crews.

The Air Force sent in a C-130 airborne command center, which worked with Nelson on the ground and forward air controllers in the sky to organize about 200 tactical airstrikes. The command center also coordinated the Air Force transports and the aerial refueling operations with a KC-135 tanker.

By 10 a.m., the engineers had almost cleared the runway when Lt. Col. Daryl Cole landed a C-130 full of supplies. In the confusion, he was unaware the mission had changed from reinforcement to emergency evacuation. Mortar fire damaged Coles wing fuel tanks and blew out a tire. But when the C-130 rolled to a stop, local CIDG families rushed aboard. Cole tried to take off but couldnt gain enough speed because of the cargo, passengers and blown tire. He aborted and shut down the engines. The families got off the plane.

During that time, the Air Force decided that it was completely unfeasible to carry out evacuations with C-130s, and passed the word to Gallagher, the pilot in charge of the combat control team. The team members got aboard Coles repaired aircraft. Mortar fire blew out the cockpit windows during takeoff, but the C-130 made it to Cam Ranh Bay.

At 11:15 a.m., Maj. Ray Shelton landed his C-123 transport plane and boarded 44 engineers and some civilians. He was rolling as I jumped on, recalled James Beer, a surveyor with the 70th Engineer Battalion. Taking off, Shelton reported ground fire from every quadrant.

Capt. Phillip Smotherman, a forward air controller in an O-2 Skymaster, had his wing shot off and crash-landed on the airstrip. He was now the only Air Force officer on the ground and appointed the air liaison officer. Lt. Col. Ray Carson, commander of Americals 14th Combat Aviation Battalion, circled overhead to coordinate the Armys aviation units. Medevac Hueys made many trips for the seriously wounded, and Chinooks continued the evacuation, but progress was slow. At 1 p.m., there was an order to resume C-130 flights to speed up the evacuations.

At Cam Ranh Bay, Air Force Maj. Jay Van Cleef had a load of supplies he was going to airdrop at Kham Duc because it was too dangerous to land. But instead he was ordered to return the combat control team to Kham Duc. Gallagher objected: There was no evacuation to control. Nonetheless, Van Cleef set off for Kham Duc with Gallagher, Lundy and Freedman onboard.

Two Huey gunships accompanying a medevac copter at Kham Duc were shot down at 1:50 p.m. but managed to land, one at the airfield. Minutes later, Warrant Officer Larry Kemps Chinook full of troops from A Company, 1st Battalion, 46th Infantry, was shot down as it was climbing out. Despite a hard landing from 400 feet and a fire, everyone escaped except Pvt. Richard Sands, killed by a 12.7 mm round. Kemp was able to start the shot-up helicopter and left Kham Duc.

C-130 flights resumed around 3 p.m. with an aircraft flown by Maj. Bernard Bucher. He took off with 150 civilians and Special Forces Capt. Warren Orr, but previously silenced anti-aircraft guns on OP 7 opened fire and downed Buchers plane. There were no survivors. Soon U.S. airstrikes again halted the enemy fire.

While approaching Kham Duc, C-130 pilot Lt. Col. William Boyd saw tracers hammering Buchers aircraft. He landed, a hundred troops quickly boarded, and he took off through mortar, rocket and small-arms fire. After the flight, Boyd counted more than 100 bullet holes in his plane and dubbed it the Lucky Duc.

Three other C-130s landed through mortar fire and evacuated a total of nearly 370 people. As Hueys and Chinooks completed their 41st mission, taking out an additional 900, ground troops set demolition charges on the remaining equipment and bunkers. Maj. James Wallaces C-130 evacuated the last personnel on the ground: the Americal command group, Special Forces members and Smotherman, the new air liaison officer.

Moments later, Van Cleef, following his earlier orders, returned to Kham Duc with the combat control team. Gallagher, Lundy and Freedman headed to the Special Forces bunkers, now aflame, then went to the Americal headquarters, already abandoned. With mortar fire creeping closer to the C-130, Van Cleef took off and reported that he had landed the combat control team. Now there were more men to evacuate.

Lt. Col. Alfred Jeanottes C-123 flew in to retrieve the team, whose exact location was not known. After the aircraft landed, the team moved toward it, but the crew didnt see the men. Jeanotte, taking heavy fire, flew out. During the climb one of his crew spotted the team and gave the location to the next C-123 in the stack, piloted by Lt. Col. Joe Jackson.

Jackson made a steep descent and landed under extremely difficult conditions. As the combat control team boarded, a 122 mm rocket, fired from the northern ridgeline, skidded down the runway toward the aircraft and stopped 30 feet short of the nose wheel. Jackson turned the C-123 and took off. His courage was later recognized with the Medal of Honor. The air evacuation on May 12 was complete, just as a rainstorm closed the runway to any further air traffic.

Additional B-52 strikes over the next three days severely punished the massed NVA forces.

Requiem The casualty count for the Americans at Kham Dcu was 27 killed, more than 100 wounded and one captured. Long, who had gotten out of OP 1 but had his route to the camp blocked by the NVA, evaded the enemy until he saw an American jeep on May 16. He approached the vehicle, only to discover it had been commandeered by NVA soldiers. Long spent three years in hellish prisoner of war camps around Kham Duc before being marched to Hanoi. He was released with other American POWs in March 1973, after the peace agreement ending the war. Also, on May 16, a Marine helicopter with gunship escorts rescued three wounded soldiers who had escaped from OP 2Sgt. Ed Sassenberger, Pvt. John Colonna and Spc. 4 William Foremanafter their pick us up sign was spotted at the eastern end of the airfield. Troops from the 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, and South Vietnamese units returned to Kham Duc in July and August 1970 and recovered some remains of the Americans killed in the observation posts. Returning from a search mission, one aircraft was shot down near its landing zone, killing all 26 on board and one on the ground. After the war, former Marine Lance Cpl. Tim Brown, who had been evacuated from Ngok Tavak on May 8 for medical reasons, worked with the Vietnamese for many years to search the site for remains. The American bodies were recovered in 2005 and interred in Arlington National Cemetery. In March 2006, the remains of Ransbottom and his radioman, Skip Skivington, were identified in their OP 2 bunker. The remains of Buchers C-130 crew and Orr, the Special Forces captain, were recovered in 2008 and interred at Arlington.

Roger Mulock was a first lieutenant in the headquarters of the 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, 196th Light Infantry Brigade, Americal Division, from April to September 1968. During the fighting at Kham Duc, Lt. Col. Robert Nelson ordered him to get a radio, go out and report on what you see.
How others saw America long ago in books now in the public domain.

In 19th century American popular fiction, writers either bring on the destruction of three-quarters of humanity, or things are so bad there has got to be a golden age in here somewhere. Either way, the future is rife with pneumatic tubes. Yesterdays tomorrow is so jaded you can fly to the moon with a Hindu priestand no one will believe you. One authors dreamlike utopia achieves the magnificent health of the women by perfectly adapting their jobs both as to kind and degree of labor to their sex. A dystopian counterpart predicts that disgruntled civilians wield the newest improved magazine rifles and air-sailors will fly shiny dirigibles into the battle to bring down the world. Religion devolves into a shocking creed in which the purposed end and aim of life is love. In a tale seen as possibly the first American sci-fi novel, society exists off-world. Considering the forms in which the future actually is arriving, this loony lunar trip might be the likeliest after all.

Looking Backward: From 2000 to 1887

By Edward Bellamy (1888)

Wealth in the hands of a few. Americans near starvation. Women of all classes dominated or suppressed. All this changes when an entranced insomniac goes to sleep underground and wakes up in Bellamys utopia. His living tomb discovered, Julian West of 1887 comes to in 2000 in the household of friendly physician Dr. Leete. Wests benefactor starts drawing distinctions between the 19th and 20th centuriesages of corporate tyranny versus solidarity of the race and the brotherhood of manwhile taking his dazed patients pulse.

The 1800s of labor strikes and excessive individualism, the doctor explains, have given way to public spirit, a new-New World with no jails and no military. People work until age 45 and never deprive themselves of any good thing, Leete says. The nation does not maim and slaughter its workmen by the thousands, as did the private capitalists and corporations of your day. Its come to this fortunate pass without revolution or even violence: Public opinion had become fully ripe for it, and the whole mass of people was behind it.

It refers to the national governments assumption of responsibility for all commerce. At last, strangely late in the worlds history, the obvious fact was perceived that no business is so essentially the public business as the industry and commerce on which the peoples livelihood depends, and that to entrust it to private persons to be managed for private profit is a folly similar in kind, though vastly greater in magnitude, to that of surrendering the functions of political government to kings and nobles to be conducted for their personal glorification.

The nation is the sole employer, with citizens each serving 24 mandatory years in the industrial army that has replaced a capitalist system which made the interests of every individual antagonistic to those of every other. The new order stabilizes the economy and brings about a universally comfortable state of affairs.

The streets are covered, and pneumatic transmitters are the latest in communications. Householders can listen in their dwelling to music performed by professional musicians. West falls in love with Leetes daughter Edith, who comes to sympathize with one of Wests earlier misfortunes: I suppose it was these difficulties in the way of commanding really good music which made you endure so much playing and singing in your homes by people who had only the rudiments of the art.

Women have careers, to an appropriate extent, in the feminine army of industry assigning seniority to wives and mothers, as they alone fully represent their sex. Romance has survived, with men and women meeting as perfect equals, suitors to each other for nothing but love. Women enjoy magnificent health, the doctor insists, and are a very happy race nowadays, as compared with what they ever were before And their power of giving happiness to men has been of course increased in proportion.

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***

A Voyage to the MoonWith Some Account of the Manners and Customs, Science and Philosophy of the People of Morosofia, and Other Lunarians

By George Tucker (1827)

Lenient captivity notwithstanding, an American castaway in Burma befriends a Brahmin priest from India cast out from his caste. The kindly hermit knows the secret to refining a rare metal with as great a tendency to fly off from the earth, as a piece of gold or lead has to approach it  and it is in the same degree attracted towards the moon. So that respected American businessman Joseph Atterley may educate his country regarding lunar societyIndia, still under British rule, having kept space flight a secrethe and the man from the subcontinent stage a sedate journey, dining on cold fowl and similar taste treats.

The moons origin as part of the Earth, in this very early specimen of American science fiction, explains how moongoers get back and forth across the heavens. In Atterleys 1820s America, the people are in the full enjoyment of all the arts of civilization, while they are unrestricted in their means of subsistence, a golden age of sorts yet sillier than the works of Bellamy and Donnelly. Voyage is half social commentary and half speculation, positing a moon as blue and green as the home worldyou can enjoy the fresh breeze off the mountainsthat looks silver from Earth. Moon people are not the brightest bulbs in the universe. As the Indian protagonist puts it to his companion, the inhabitants of the moon resembled those of the earth, in form, stature, features, and manners, and were evidently of the same species.  But the most curious part of this information was, that a large number of them were born without any intellectual vigour, and wandered about as so many automatons, under the care of the government, until they were illuminated with the mental ray from some earthly brains, by means of the mysterious influence which the moon is known to exercise on our planet. But in this case the inhabitant of the earth loses what the inhabitant of the moon gains. Instead of flowers, moon women decorate their coiffures with insects, some of them alive, so the perpetual buzzing and fl

uttering in their transparent cages, had a very animating effect.

On his visit to the moon, Atterley collects specimens from nature while cataloging lunarian advances, such as a digestor able to extract soup from horns and a fuel efficiency-enhancing smoke-retractor. He lays down with total accuracy the future reality of sleeping on air mattresses. Moon folks may ride zebras, but their world isnt totally absurd. On the dark side, astronomy is in a high state of improvement. No one on Earth believes Atterley. Appealing to mankinds sober and unprejudiced part, he demands at the start that readers decide whether what I have stated in the following pages, is not consonant with truth and nature, and whether they do not see there, faithfully reflected from the Moon, the errors of the learned on Earth, and the follies of the wise?

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***

Caesars Column: A Story of the Twentieth Century

By Ignatius Donnelly (1890)

In this view of the America to come, Gabriel Weltstein, a central African sheep farmer of Swiss descent, travels to New York City in 1988, hoping to outfox the middlemen of the great Wool Ring and sell his commodity directly to mills. That scheme hasnt worked out when hes whisked into the inner circle of a prodigiously armed global conspiracy to overthrow the status quo.

In the late 1800s, life in these United States as author Donnelly paints it is a dark and wretched failure for the great mass of mankind. He is writing as Edmund Boisgilbert, MD, but, given that before Donnelly was a novelist he was a populist member of Congress, theres reason to suspect that Boisgilbert is channeling Donnelly. He definitely is writing a counterpoint to the futurism of Edward Bellamy, whose Looking Backward gave this column its name.

Clarity of worldview and a font of impassioned yet misplaced oratorythats Gabriel, who chronicles his adventures in a metropolis powered by the Earths magnetism and lit by auroras. The narrative flows in letters to his brother in Uganda, including the story of Gabriels fateful run-in with a horse-drawn carriage, property of the local despot. Universally revered for his overall goodness, noble, just and honorable Gabriel in that moment meets a man who will become a close but flawed friend and a leader in the rebellion, meanwhile glimpsing his bride-to-be, the innocent Estella. The backdrop for this encounter is dissatisfaction, fueled by income disparity, that has the masses on the verge of revolt. The most utterly useless, destructive and damnable crop a country can grow ismillionaires, Gabriel insists. If a community were to send to India and import a lot of man-eating tigers, and turn them loose on the streets, to prey on men, women and children, they would not inflict a tithe of the misery that is caused by a like number of millionaires.

Public schooling has endowed the working class with some knowledge, but proles have become phantoms, or dead men, immune to reason. Millions, armed with the newest improved magazine rifles, are just waiting for the order to come down by pneumatic tube.

In Donnellys imagined America women are at risk of being grabbed and sold into harems. With the insurgency about to erupt, a presumptuous prince imperils Estellas maidenhood, but Gabriel whisks her from the palace and snaps up the bill of sale applying to his girl, who is soft and lovable, not harsh and angular in character like the hard and soulless women he encounters among the rich, whom he ranks as splendid animals. The hard women include followers of a secularized church whose creed shocks Gabriel. The purposed end and aim of life is Love, the sect declares. What a powerful impulse is this Love? It is nature-wide. The rushing together of the chemical elements; the attraction of suns and planetsall are Love.

When the war for the world does begin, Donnelly describes his idea of 1980s-era weaponry: shiny, fish-shaped airships, bowie knives, explosives mixed with bullets, and nearly invincible death bombs. Yes, there is a column, but not what you might be expecting.

Project Gutenberg offers the free e-book, or read in your browser.

Looking Backward is Amanda Millers online column on American History. Miller is a 20-year veteran journalist with a background in history and English.
France is a pretty country full of pretty little villages. But Oradour- sur-Glane is not pretty.

On June 10, 1944, the 2nd Waffen SS Panzer Division Das Reich, 1st Battalion, stormed this village in the Limousin region of southwestern France, sealed off every exit, and then systematically dragged every man, woman, and child to the village square for what they termed an identity check. They separated the men from the women and children, shooting anyone who resisted. Then they killed the women and children in the church by asphyxiating them with a smoke bomb. Those who did not die quickly enough were shot. In other buildings, they mowed down the men with machine guns. The Nazi troops trampled over the prostrate bodies, shooting at close range any who moved; then they burned the buildings and bodies. Oradour-sur Glane had been wiped out.

Wiped out, but not forgotten. Just a few months later, France was liberated, and when Gen. Charles de Gaulle visited the site he declared that Oradour-sur-Glane should be left as it was. The ruined village remains unreconstructed today, its burned buildings and rusted automobile remnants serving as a memorial to the victims.

Though Oradour-sur-Glane is well known among the French, not many tourists are aware of it. Youll find few American honeymooners there; nor will you see the typical youth hostel crowd. What I did see were busloads of French students, for whom a visit to Oradour is a rite of passage. Like them, I started my visit at the Centre de la Memoire, a museum featuring displays on the rise of Nazism and a short film. Most of the information is in French but some of it, including the film, is translated into English.

The museum is informative, but the destroyed village speaks for itself. A large sign reading SILENCE greets visitors at the entrance to the town. Even the nervous French students obey this command; we are too shocked by what we see to talk.

The streets of Oradour-sur-Glane are lined with building after burned-down building. There are roofless stone structures with broken-down walls, wires hanging limply from leaning telephone poles. Charred car remains, their metal frames twisted, tires burned off, and insides burned out, litter the ground.

As I walk up the first road, I think of Sturmbannfuhrer Adolf Diekmann, the 2nd Panzer Divisions battalion commander. In June 1944, his division had been rushing northward to repulse the D-Day landings, but their progress was hindered by constant attacks from the French Resistance. Frustrated by the delay, Field Marshal Hugo Sperrle issued orders allowing drastic reprisals against any French partisans caught attacking German forces. Diekmann might have thought that people from Oradour-sur-Glane were involved in the kidnapping of his close friend, Maj. Helmut Kampfe. Or maybe he had mistaken the village for Oradour-sur Vayre, a well-armed Resistance stronghold only twenty miles away. But then again, maybe innocent Oradour-sur-Glane was chosen for reprisal because its inhabitants would not put up a fight.

Some, like eight-year-old Roger Godfrin, did manage to turn and run. Godfrin climbed through a window in the back of the school, fled, and then played dead when a soldier shot at him, not uttering a sound even when the soldier kicked him. But as I pass one of Oradours three schoolhouses I think of the children who didnt escape. By the bakery is an oven and a sign reading, Here were found two burnt corpses. One of them was an infant.

Few objects survived the fires. As I walk by the houses, I notice that typically, the only reminder that a family once lived there is a cast-iron sewing machine. There are many burned and rusted sewing machines. A few old signs also managed to outlast the blazes; one advertises automobiles. Just down the road is the garage that was owned by Hubert Desourteaux, where some of the male villagers were taken before they died. Among the signs from long ago are con temporary ones, in French, that identify the burnt-out structures. The one at the garage reads, Here is a place of torment. A group of men were murdered and then burned by the Nazis. You should remember this.

Halfway through the village, I come to the church where the women and children were killed. There are bullet holes in the sign at the entrance, and the brass bell from the tower is now lying on the ground, melted from the heat of the fires.

How could anyone have done this? Even the SS, known for its ruthlessness, did not normally kill non-Jewish civilians indiscriminately in the west. When Sylvester Stadler, the commander of Diekmanns regiment, found out about the massacre, he recommended that Diekmann be court martialed. Gen. Heinz Lammerding, Das Reich division commander, concurred, but since experienced officers were urgently needed at the frontand since Resistance activity in the area had quieted down noticeably after the killingsthe matter was not pursued.

Justice was not done after the war either. Though the remaining members of the 1st Battalion were put on trial by the French for war crimes, many of the soldiers were from Alsace, a border region that had changed hands between France and Germany numerous times in the past. At the end of the Second World War, the French regained control of Alsace. In an effort to bond Alsatians back to France, the government granted amnesty from war crimes prosecution to any Frenchman who had fought for the Germans, and the 1st Battalion Alsatians were released from prison. A walk into Oradours cemetery reveals that the victims relatives, as a protest against the government, have deliberately not allowed the victims remains to be buried in the official crypt.

As I walk out of the ruined village, still silent, I think again of the six hundred forty-two people who were killed and then burned. Two hundred five were children.

Then I notice that one of the French boys in the still-silent group of school children ahead of me has vomited on the floor of the restroom. By seeing the actual ruins of war, perhaps he and his class mates, like me, have been affected more deeply than by seeing the typical statues and monuments. I know I will never forget what I saw at Oradour-sur-Glane.

Originally published in the July 2008 issue of World War II Magazine. To subscribe, click here.
The Labour Party will host the first in a series of roundtable discussions in Dublin today as part of a nationwide project to draft and publish a new Democratic Programme for Ireland.

The party intends to publish the document in January 2019, 100 years since then Labour Leader Tom Johnson presented the Democratic Programme to the first Dail.

It will feature a set of ideas, policies and principles to shape Irelands next century, with input from representatives of all sectors of Irish society.

That process begins this morning when representatives from housing, health, the arts, community and voluntary sectors, as well as Europe, climate change activists and people from the international development sector, will meet for a roundtable discussion at Buswells Hotel in Dublin.

Speaking last night, the Labour Partys national policy co-ordinator, Alex White, who is chairing tomorrows meeting, commented: The original Democratic Programme of 1919 w as a visionary document for the Ireland of the day, even if the country it envisaged was never fully realised. We think the time is right to reimagine it for Irelands second century.

Tomorrows meeting marks the first in a series of events across Ireland aimed at bringing people together from all sectors of society to look at what ideas, policies and principles we need in order to shape the Ireland of tomorrow."

He added: We are 100 years on from the foundation of our state and are also coming out of a difficult and damaging decade. Climate Change, Brexit and rapid technological advances are just some of the new challenges we face as a nation, while issues such as housing and health have also taken on new and challenging dimensions in the modern age.

Our day to day politics is marked by soundbites, quick-fix solutions and instant responses, but these challenges deserve deeper consideration.

We want to bring people together from all w alks of life that share the Labour partys commitment to a fairer Ireland and work with us to put together a new vision for the next 100 years.
Following in the footsteps of Radioheads Jonny Greenwood and Nine Inch Nails Trent Reznor, Blur guitarist Graham Coxon has turned his hand to soundtrack work  and as with his equally illustrious contemporaries, the results are suitably stunning.

Based on a somewhat obscure graphic novel by Charles Furman, The End Of The F***ing World is a dark comedy-drama, focusing on English teenage tearaways James (Alex Lawther) and Alyssa (Jessica Barden), whose escape from personal turmoil and drab suburbia ends up  as the title suggests  as an apocalyptic road odyssey.

The performances from Lawther  familiar from his memorable turn in the Black Mirror episode Shut Up And Dance, a nihilistic masterwork thats arguably shows best outing  and Barden are magnificent, while Coxons restlessly eclectic score beautifully complements the gripping and wickedly funny action.
As part of a of a series of headline shows in the UK and Ireland, Kurt Vile will play in Dublin this November.

The European run represents the group's first tour across the Atlantic in two years, with the band having last played in Dublin back in 2015.

Kurt Vile and the Violators will end their tour in Dublin on November 14. Tickets go on sale April 27.
Recession

Locus of Control screens as part of the Dublin Sci-Fi Film Festival on April 26. Sean Clancy will be attendance. To see the festivals full line up  follow the link here
Yep, rock 'n' roll is returning to Semple Stadium in September, albeit in a posher fashion than before!

The Trip To Tipp is back, but its gone all classical!

Yep, a bevy of the Irish acts that rocked Semple Stadium to within an inch of its life during the 1990s are partnering with the Irish Chamber Orchestra for a unique event on September 22.

Curated and hosted by Tom Dunne, the line-up includes Hothouse Flowers, An Emotional Fish, The 4 Of Us, The Frank & Walters who will, of course, be playing Young Offenders fave After All, and Toms mob Something Happens.

Tickets priced 49.50 go on sale on Friday April 27.

The Feiles and Italia 90 tend to merge in my head: a time of incredible optimism and fun, when it seemed Irish bands  almost all of whom could lay claim to at least one timeless classic - ruled the day, Dunne reflects. The Trip to Tipp was the Mecca for Irish bands, a celebration of Irish rock music that had never been seen before. This concert has been in the ether for some time now, and myself and the bands are really excited to be collaborating with the Irish Chamber Orchestra to put together a glorious in your face celebration of a special time in Irish music! Feile was special, it was iconic, it was our Woodstock and Feile Classical will be an even bigger, better, louder explosion of the best of those days and so much more.

Unlike those rough and ready rock n roll days of yore, its an all-seated affair with clean toilets, gourmet food tents, gin and prosecco offerings and, lord almighty, pints poured from a keg!
The Global banking giant Santander Group has reportedly begun a blockchain-based applications for cross-border payments and foreign exchange. According to reports by Coindesk and The Financial Times, a blockchain-based application for cross-border exchanges has launched via an app, named One Pay FX. The program is to be pushed into Santanders customers in Spain, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Poland so far. Since the app has been built on the distributed ledger technology which has been provided by the Ripple blockchain startup after two years of work, many investors do believe that Ripples recent good performance is likely to further increase soon. But will this increase be for good this time and will it hold value for all the people and organizations who believe in the tech?

XRP Token In a Recent Spike, Bullying the Competition



It has been a good month for cryptocurrencies and Ripple is one of the biggest gainers at this point. The fidget spinner signs token rose another 5,24% to the price of $0,921304 against the US dollar in a stunning week of good performance. And when we check the candle stick analysis on CryptoCompare, it immediately becomes evident that a bullish trend may be present, based on several mini-hammers resulting in the price beginning to form somewhat a hammer, since April the 24th, 2018.



And when we zoom out and see how the XRP token has performed the last 7 days, it becomes obvious that if the volume rises or stays on this level the price is less likely to drop anytime soon. The volume of XRP at the current price is just a bit above 1 billion, which is nothing when we compare it to the insane 8 409 200 000 USD in XRP invested when the price of the token reached $3,56, no matter how you look at it. But being on the rise, Ripple is not spiking which also hints that there is no artificial involvement in this crypto, suggesting that the main reason for that likely is increased investor interests as a result of the recent price increases of the token.

Will Ripples Project With Santander Result In New All Time High?

According to recent reports, the Santander group has announced that it expects to introduce the service, using Ripples distributed ledger in several countries for small businesses in the coming months to use. While this is good news, we should not forget that the performance of the company does not have anything to do with XRP. So an immediate effect will likely result in a short-term price gain. But if the project results in a successful implementation of the cross-border foreign exchange platform, the user interest and credibility of Ripple will surely rise a lot, resulting in a higher long-term investor interest. So we need to keep monitoring this project and its outcome and also other projects in which Ripple is involved in in order to see if they turn out to be success.

Furthermore, when we get back to Santander, the Spain-based banking organization has begun the project the distant 2016 and the partnership with Ripple has continued ever since, resulting in its venture arm called InnoVentures to invest millions in Ripples funding an year before that.

In addition to this Santander Group has also indicated in a presentation that their application has been based on the xCurrent platform, one of Ripples three main platforms, which is designed for cross-border payments. And the best part from the project is that according to reports, the app could manage almost half of the volume of the customers, which is a partial success.

So, for a brief conclusion, with over 200 financial institutions on the board, developing projects, like the Santanders foreign exchange platform, using Ripples ledger, it is surely a good idea to keep an eye on this developing San Francisco startup which has already went mainstream. But the fact does remain that humans often react in masses, so a good advice would be to refrain from the crowd, clear your mind and follow Ripples developments on their social media and other websites you can rely upon, and as an investor, never put in more funds than you can afford to lose.
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The account number and zip code are easily available on your most recent issue of the High Plains Journal or Midwest Ag Journal in the address fields as is shown here. Sometimes the account number has extra zero's in front of it, just ignore those.
Dont wait for the big dreams; WORK for the small victories.

I wanted to share a few thoughts I had while in Spain during CD Babys DIY Musician Conference EU.

These thoughts might be common sense, but I think theyre also easy to forget if we get stuck inside our own heads, the stresses of a musical life, or our artistic insecurities.

1. Your music is legitimate RIGHT NOW

Theres no single success metric out there that will suddenly make your entire music career easier, more glamorous, more legitimate. Theres no milestone at which point once youve reached it, youve arrived.

A manager, a prominent playlist placement, a record deal  none of those things make your musical pursuits any more serious or legitimate than they are right now. You will have just as many questions, tasks, and goals as you do right now.

Besides, success isnt a meritocracy of quality and talent (quality being subjective anyway). Dont waste your time on envy or thinking other peoples successes reflect poorly on your relative lack thereof. Celebrate the successes you have achieved, and realize your music might be every bit as worthy as an artist with a wider audience.

2. Dont wait; work!

Grand schemes usually make us lazy. Instead, set smaller goals, and actually achieve them.

For instance: reduce your advertising spend on Facebook through smarter targeting; finish that lyric video idea you had a year ago; book a couple extra gigs this month.

Those are achievable goals that can make a difference. Sitting on the couch dreaming will do you no good.

3. Be a part of a community

Being a part of a community of like-minded artists is great when you need logistical help: booking gigs together, getting advice or critical feedback, etc.

But your community is more valuable than that; being a part of a community is good for the spirit. Youll feel understood, encouraged, focused, and legit (which helps you remember the first two things above).
State Rep. John Barrett III has filed a number of amendments to the state budget he hopes to get included in the final version.

Barrett Enters His First State Budget Debate, Sets Eyes on RTAs

NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  State Rep. John Barrett III is looking to make a statement with a state budget amendment for regional transit.

Barrett said one penny on the sale tax ends up in the hands of the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority and the rest of the regional transit authorities are getting shortchanged. This year, the Berkshire Regional Transit Authority is considering hiking fares and reducing services as costs have increased but state support has remained level for the third consecutive year.

"The reason I put $8.4 million in my amendment is because I just want to drive it home that what I was requesting came to 1/10 of a penny," Barrett said.

Barrett said another representative had put in an amendment for an $8 million increase for the RTAs, which he'll support. But his efforts are to make a case for the public transit system in Berkshire County to be bolstered.

"Sixteen percent of the sales tax goes to the operation of the MBTA, which comes to statewide $1 billion a year. In Berkshire County, $31 million went out and at the same time, for the last three years, there wasn't any increase for the RTA here or any place else for that matter. We have no service on Sunday," Barrett said.

The House of Representatives is taking on the budget this week and with that, Barrett has put in a number of amendments for programs he'd like to see happen in his district.

With one of those amendments, the North Adams Democrat is also looking to help schools retain programming. The governor's and the House Ways and Means' budget calls for increases for Chapter 70 school aid. But those increases are based on per pupil.

While local schools will see increases this year, Barrett is hoping to carve out another niche funding for an area like Berkshire County where population trends are dropping.

"Most [towns] are at their max. Most of them don't have the ability to raise any more money, short of a Prop 2 1/2 [override]. A lot of programs are being cut and education is suffering in some of these communities," Barrett said.

He's asking for $8 million to help schools fund programs that are often cut from local budgets.

"The caveat I put on this is that communities could apply for this money if they meet certain criteria. You have to have declining population, which Berkshire County has had. Your average family income couldn't be more than 75 percent of the statewide average. And that the unemployment rate had to be at 1.5 percent above the state average. It was targeted at some of the poorer communities in the district."

But that, too, also is intended to make a statement. He said he'd like that amendment to help continue the conversation about changing the entire Chapter 70 formula, an effort that has been picking up steam among legislators recently.

Also related to schools, Barrett has filed an amendment to create a workforce training program with McCann Technical School. He said through that program, businesses will tell school officials exactly what jobs they need filling. McCann would then open a program teaching those skills to local unemployed people.

The state would fund 90 percent of the worker's salary -- the employer would pay the health care -- for six months during the program. The worker will alternate between spending two weeks at McCann learning the skills and then two weeks working for those six months.

"I've found this is what employers need. This saves the employer, the business, money, it also provides money for real on the job training," said Barrett.

Barrett said he's looking to have a program similar to that of BerkshireWorks, the state's employment and training program he ran for two years. He specifically mentioned training programs for such industries in information technology and manufacturing.

Another amendment Barrett is seeking is $150,000 for a feasibility study to upgrade the county's internet. He said seven towns stretching from north to south are on board with the effort to find out what it will take to keep up with emerging technologies.

"We have to continue to upgrade or we are going to be in the same place we were 25 years ago when it cost $3,000 a month to get a T1 line in," Barrett said.

That is a separate effort from the Massachusetts Broadband Institute's program to bring internet to all parts of the state. While there are corners of Massachusetts still without any high-speed internet, others have systems that could soon be antiquated.

"A lot of people are working in their homes now. You have to have high-speed internet. Small companies want to come here and they need that ability," Barrett said.

He doesn't think Spectrum, the local cable provider, will keep up with emerging technology in Western Massachusetts in the future.

"We don't have that much confidence that Spectrum has the ability. So there has to be some competition," Barrett said. "This would be an alternative than Spectrum."

Barrett's amendments are among some 1,400 total that had been filed to the proposed budget. Once the House and Senate come to terms with their budget versions, the two sides of the Legislature will negotiate a final version.

This will be the longtime North Adams mayor's first budget in the State House so he doesn't quite know yet how the debate will unfold. But he feels the House's Ways and Means budget overall is a good start to the process.
The airport will be shutdown for a couple months this spring to complete a $6.9 million paving project.

Pittsfield Airport to Have Runway Repaved; Solar Array Installed

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  The airport is expected to be shut down for 85 days this spring for the reconstruction of the main runway.

The City Council's Finance Subcommittee voted affirmatively on the borrowing to repave both of the airport's runways. The total project will cost $6.9 million, which is 95 percent paid for by the Federal Aviation Administration. The city's cost will be $349,735.

"We are required to authorize the entire project amount and that is reduced by any grants that come in to support the project," Director of Finance Matthew Kerwood said.

Airport Commission Chairman Tom Sakshaug said the airport will be completely shut down on April 30. The main runway will be paved. The smaller runway will be done right after and will be shut down for an additional 55 days.

Sakshaug said the Airport Commission had a number of possibilities but ultimately decided to do the paving all at once.

The project has been a long time coming. At one point it had been included in the massive airport extension project but got pulled from that scope. In fiscal 2016, the City Council approved $3.5 million for the paving. But, then prices were estimated to come in higher. In fiscal 2017, the City Council authorized another $2.6 million.

"It was clear that the original $3.5 [million] plus the $2.6 [million] were not enough," Kerwood said.

Kerwood said since then the engineering has been completed and the bids for construction came in at $6.9 million and the two authorizations were at $6.1 million. The subcommittee approved combining both of those authorizations and then increasing the total.

The finance director added that in the future, administrators will wait until having a final price with the FAA before asking for an authorization  thus avoiding revisiting the authorization multiple times.

Meanwhile, the airport is also set to host two solar arrays. With Oak Leaf Energy Partners, the committee agreed to a 30-year lease, 20 in the initial term and followed by two five-year extensions. The agreement would bring between of $3.1 million and $6.8 million to the airport in lease payments and $6.5 million to the city for tax payments.

Consultant Beth Greenblatt said the agreement is in place, but the actual total will depend on when the state approves the tax incentives. Greenblatt said the state's Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target program  which replaced the SREX tax incentives  is based more on timing that it is revenue. She said there are various blocks.

Once a block is filled up, the next block provides lower incentives. Greenblatt has agreements in place with Oak Leaf for three different blocks, depending on where it falls in the program.

"It is less of a technical issue but more of a timing issue to when the project qualifies under the smart program," Greenblatt said.

Assessor Paula King said, "We're not really estimating. We are just giving you the different scenarios ... these are hard numbers but it depends on what block we enter into."
Board of Selectman Chairman Donald Chabon drew Polito a picture explaining the Stockbridge Bowl project.

Stockbridge Officials Share Concerns With Lt. Gov. Polito



Chabon and Cardillo spent about an hour with Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito talking through issues. STOCKBRIDGE, Mass.  Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito vowed to work with town, state, and federal officials to find a way forward with the Stockbridge Bowl dredging project.

The $4 million project to restore the lake was stalled recently when an endangered snail was found to be located there and in only one other state lake.

Board of Selectman Chairman Donald Chabon said the lake is in dire need of restoration and the species wouldn't survive if the lake's overall ecosystem isn't improved.

"This is not preserving our species. This is just destroying our lakes. We're looking for a way to move forward with this. We are looking for a way to preserve this natural resource for the community. It is a watershed, it is lots of things to a lot of people. It would be a shame to let it go down the tubes for no valid reason," Chabon said.

The chairman said just over the border in New York, the Marstonia lustrica snail is not endangered. But the finding of it in Stockbridge has left the town struggling to get the lake project permitted. The state had issued grants for the work to be done but now the path forward is murky.

"My job is, as an executive leader of state government, is convene and to hold the system accountable. This was unanticipated when you applied for the grant and when it was processed. And now we have this to sort through and we will," Polito said.

While that may be the big issue facing Stockbridge immediately, Fire Chief Chuck Cardillo is looking for help with the volunteer fire and ambulance services. Chabon and Cardillo met with Polito on Tuesday to discuss issues facing the town.

"Our administration has been dedicated to making sure that we are giving rural communities the attention they deserve. They have unique challenges, smaller populations, limited resources, and not a lot of economic activity so it falls on the taxpayers," Polito said of her sit-down meeting with the town officials.

"I've been very intentional about visiting all 351 of the cities and towns so I can deliver to our administration what their needs and priorities are in every community no matter where it is located, no matter how big or small."

Volunteerism in the Fire Department has dropped significantly over the years, Cardillo said. The enrollment has dropped from 90 members down to just 22 over the years. That is leaving the town often at risk for disaster.

"Any house fire requires multiple towns," Cardillo said of mutual aid agreements.

When it comes to ambulance drivers, there is a bill that has been eyed to be a gamechanger for small towns. It would change the requirement of having two certified emergency medical technicians on every ambulance call and instead allow for a first responder to be the driver on a basic life support call. That bill would allow towns to answer more ambulance calls because of the lack of EMT volunteers available.

"As far as EMTs and paramedics go, there isn't a big pool of them," Cardillo said.

He said the training to become a paramedic is costly and often that leads to paying just $15 an hour.

"It costs a lot to become a paramedic and there isn't a lot of incentive," the fire chief said.

With an aging population and the opioid epidemic, call volumes continue to grow. But the cost for an ambulance ride is also around $1,200 and there has been about a 60 to 65 percent collection rate, pushing those uncollected bill costs onto the taxpayer.

Cardillo added that requirements around the fire chief's position are also demanding. He said a chief needs to take a 72-hour course just for administrative functions.

"It is not a bad thing overall ... it is a lot of strain on a volunteer chief. It pushes the towns to a full-time chief and some of these small towns it is not feasible. So maybe it can be a population cut out," Cardillo said.

Polito suggested sharing a chief, but Cardillo said because of the distance between towns, that would be difficult for a working chief. He said an administrative chief could work in that way, but it is still a complicated proposal to sort through.

The lieutenant governor added that the town is eligible for another Community Compact grant that could be used to examine the public safety issues. She added that another round of regionalization and efficiency grants will be available in July.

Chabon, however, said regionalization of services requires somewhat of a balancing act. While townspeople do support regionalization to some degree, residents want to keep strong oversight of local services. They made that clear last year over an initiative to share a town administrator with Lee and Lenox.

"The people of Stockbridge felt pretty strongly about maintaining the management authority. The sharing of functions, sharing of services, sharing equipment, sharing of school, but the sharing of services is different from the sharing of management. The people of Stockbridge spoke strongly that the management, they want to retain management," Chabon said.

"Stockbridge has a very strong identity and history. That's where sharing is certainly always on the table but the sharing of management is different."

Polito said that isn't news to her. She's heard that across the state. However, she does believe there are places where shared services can be a benefit.

"There is no question that in Massachusetts we have 351 municipalities and are very parochial about maintaining character and history," Polito said. "At the same time, there are opportunities to look beyond borders."

Cardillo also mentioned the cost of Narcan and Epipens. The Fire Department has to go through a multi-day process and a cost to be licensed. But yet, they are sold over the counter to residents.

"It kind of struck me funny that I can go in as a citizen and buy it over the counter but I can't legally get it as an EMT," he said.

Poltio took notes on all of the town officials' concerns and promised to follow up. But, she also left the meeting giving them a heads up on a few grant programs coming soon.

"We are putting into our capital plan additional funds for trails. You live in a part of the state that has enormous beauty and the trail systems are not only a benefit to the people who live here but the people who come here," Polito said.

Another program the administration is rolling out is $6 million worth of grants available now for cities and towns to address vulnerable infrastructure.

"We have a very powerful winter with four Nor' easters hitting the commonwealth. All parts of our commonwealth were impacted at various times during the winter. We know we need to be more prepared," Polito said.

She said the Municipal Vulnerability and Assessment Program is available now but the administration is looking for money for the construction aspect of those projects in the capital budget.

"Almost every community asks for money around IT to upgrade systems to better communicate with residents and for public health," Polito added, saying additional funds to address that is coming soon too.
The concrete barriers have been in place for four years.

North Adams to Push Back Barriers on Beaver Street

NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  The inconvenient Jersey barriers jutting out into a section of Beaver Street are being removed after four years.

The cement blocks had been put in place after a mudslide knocked sizable boulders into the road.

"The geologists from the state said they feel it's pretty stable now," Public Services Commissioner Timothy Lescarbeau told the Finance Committee last week. "We're going to have one row up on the curb but the center line will be shifted back."

Four years ago in April, a rainstorm had caused the collapse of the steep hillside just south of the Clarksburg town line. The road, Route 8, runs between the slope and the North Branch of the Hoosic River and is a heavily traveled connector highway to Vermont.

The highway was closed for nearly a week between Bluff Road and the city line while the crews cleaned up the rock and mud debris. The barriers were put in place to shift traffic away from the slope that was considered unstable.

The city had expected to take on the repairs to stabilize the hillside to prevent more debris from falling. The highway, Route 8, through that section falls within the city's scope of responsibility; had it occurred in a few yards away in Clarksburg, the state would have been responsible.

No significant deterioration has happened in the four years since the first slide. Lescarbeau said the barriers will be kept along the curb as a precaution, for now, to keep any falling rocks from tumbling into the road. The lane lines will be shifted back into their original positions.

The barriers have been intrusive because of the placement in the northbound lane but there have caused no incidents. It was not clear when the barriers would be moved.
State, Federal Officials to Showcase Housatonic River Projects

A file photo of the Housatonic River that has been undergoing restorations through the GE consent decree.

LENOX, Mass.  State and federal environmental officials will host an open house on May 1 to showcase restoration projects funded as a part of the first three rounds of the Massachusetts Housatonic River Watershed Restoration Program.

The open house will also include a discussion of the anticipated fourth and final round of funding for restoration projects to compensate for natural resources that were injured or lost as a result of the release of hazardous materials from the General Electric facility in Pittsfield into the Massachusetts portion of the Housatonic River watershed.

The Massachusetts Subcouncil of the Housatonic River Natural Resource Trustees will host the open house on Tuesday, May 1, at 5 p.m. at Lenox Town Hall, 6 Walker St.

The restoration program was funded through a $15 million natural resource damages (NRD) settlement as a part of the GE/Housatonic River Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration case. The settlement, originally filed as a consent decree in 2000, provided funding to compensate Massachusetts and Connecticut for natural resource damages caused by the release of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from GE's former facility in Pittsfield. PCB pollution affected aquatic wildlife and habitats, as well as waterfowl and predators that consume contaminated organisms.

In Round 1, approximately $4 million was awarded for 10 restoration projects addressing habitat connectivity, rare species recovery, habitat enhancement and protection, floodplain restoration, recreational access, and environmental literacy. In Round 2, more than $1 million was awarded to four projects addressing invasive species control, stream connectivity and floodplain habitat restoration, and educational programming. In Round 3 , $2.4 million was awarded for six land protection and habitat conservation projects, conserving of more than 650 acres of wetland, stream, riparian and upland habitat.

Approximately $1 million is available for the fourth and final round of funding for restoration projects in the Housatonic River watershed. It is anticipated that Round 4 will solicit project proposals in all four priority restoration categories: Aquatic Biological Resources and Habitat; Wildlife Resources and Habitat; Recreational Uses; and Environmental Education and Outreach. More information on the priority restoration categories, as described in the Restoration Project Selection Procedure, can be found here.

The Massachusetts SubCouncil is responsible for administering the commonwealth's portion of the settlement and is composed of trustees from the state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, represented by the state Department of Environmental Protection, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The VFW donated $10,000 toward the purchase of an ice cream truck.

VFW Post 448 Donates 10K To 'Operation Copsicle'



VFW Post 448 Commander Arnie Perras presented the check to Officer Darren Derby. PITTSFIELD, Mass.  The Police Department's efforts to purchase an ice cream truck took a significant step forward on Tuesday with a $10,000 donation from Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 448.

"This Copsicle operation the Police Department has established and trying to get funding for this truck is a very worthwhile cause. That's why the membership voted to contribute $10,000 toward this operation," VFW Commander Arnie Perras said.

"They're planning on going around to areas of the city where the youth may be at risk and build friendships."

Officer Darren Derby has headed an effort in the last few years to borrow an ice cream truck and deliver treats to area youth. Now he has set his sights on owning a truck for the Police Department to roll out on a regular basis.

"Sometimes just that two-second interaction, the handoff of an ice cream, really starts a conversation. It is not going to solve anything right away or by itself, but it takes many different efforts and this is only one of many we are going to implement," Derby said.

The effort, dubbed Operation Copsicle, is aimed to build positive relationships between the city's officers and its youth, particularly in areas with high numbers of at-risk youngsters.

Derby said it will cost about $50,000 to purchase a vehicle and retrofit it to become an ice cream truck. He is working with Haddad Motors on the acquisition and with B&G Restaurant Supply on the retrofit. The VFW's donation brings him up to $27,000.

"I have a couple more nonprofit donations in the next couple weeks that will substantially boost us," Derby said. "This is our largest donation. We'll hopefully be receiving another one at or below this amount soon."

Derby said he's added another item to the project: popcorn and a movie. He said the plans now include not only ice cream but a projector to screen movies on the side of the vehicle.

"We have lots of good things to do. The goal, and I haven't let that goal go yet, is July 1 when it would be up and running. Hopefully, in talks with the chief, we can maybe get it in the Fourth of July Parade as a special vehicle," Derby said.

The effort has now crossed the halfway point. The city opened a special account at MyCom Credit to accept donations, which can be dropped off there or at the Police Station. With July approaching, Perras hopes the VFW's donation will be followed by others.

"We're hoping this will initiate other contributions so they will reach their goal very quickly," Perras said.




iciHaiti - Security : Special units of the PNH dislodge fake soldiers





Following the successive warnings of the Ministry of Defense in early April https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-24063-haiti-notice-the-ministry-warns-and-threatens-the-fake-soldiers.html and of Prime Minister past week https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-24165-haiti-army-ineffective-threats-against-false-military.html to individuals pretending to be soldiers, the government has gone from words to deeds



This weekend, special units of the National Police of Haiti (PNH) carried out two operations, one in a base located in Delmas 60 and another located in Peligre (Dept. Center), to dislodge individuals pretending to be former soldiers.



Both operations took place without incident or resistance, 13 people were arrested (8 in Peligre and 5 in Delmas). Uniforms and badges identifying these soldiers, as belonging to the reserve forces of the army of Haiti were seized https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-24072-haiti-notice-the-demobilized-soldiers-are-part-of-the-reservists.html



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-24165-haiti-army-ineffective-threats-against-false-military.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-24063-haiti-notice-the-ministry-warns-and-threatens-the-fake-soldiers.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-24072-haiti-notice-the-demobilized-soldiers-are-part-of-the-reservists.html



TB/ iciHaiti




















Fiery Kites Threaten Holy Land

The Fellowship | April 24, 2018

Terrorists have found multiple ways to attack Israel  with rockets, through tunnels, even by sea. But now, The Times of Israel reports on a devious new terrorist trick  sending flaming kites from Gaza into southern Israel to destroy Israeli farmers wheat fields:

Local farmers in the Shaar Hanegev region called the fire brigade to extinguish the blaze on the Gaza border, which caused no injuries, but did extensive damage. Reports said that up to 100 dunams (25 acres) of wheat was destroyed.

A farmer who lives near the border told Ynet news site that, We are dealing with a new, destructive and dangerous phenomenon that it gaining momentum. Almost every day, we see the kites flying towards us.

The burning kites are part of a new tactic utilized by Gaza protesters against Israel, and are connected to the ongoing weekly March of Return demonstrations on the border encouraged by the Gaza strips rulers, Hamas. Islamist terror group Hamas seeks to destroy Israel, and its leaders say the ultimate goal of the protests is to erase the border and liberate Palestine

In an interview, one of several masked men from the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza told the TV station, These are our lands, and we have the right to return to them. We say to them, we will not let them sow our lands and enjoy them.

We will burn your fields, which you harvest to pay for the bullets that you use to shoot children and peaceful unarmed demonstrators

a different masked youth boasted that weve developed something that everybody is talking about. He then explained how the Molotov cocktails were made, attached to kites, and released.

Allah willing, it will light up and burn fields and houses, he said. It will get to a place where it will burn a large area
MADIGAN FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST SUBURBAN EXPRESS Attorney General Alleges Transportation Company Engaged in Discrimination, Harassment and Invaded Privacy of Student Customers Chicago  Attorney General Lisa Madigan today filed a lawsuit against a transportation company for discrimination and harassment against customers and their families. Madigan filed the lawsuit in federal court in the Northern District of Illinois against Champaign, Ill.-based Suburban Express Inc. and owner Dennis Toeppen, alleging that Toeppen and Suburban Express discriminated against customers on the basis of race, national origin and religion, harassed customers with public shame and ridicule, and intentionally compromised customers personal information. Suburban Express is a company that provides bus services to students at colleges and universities in Illinois, Iowa and Indiana to the suburban Chicago area and Chicago airports. According to Madigans complaint, Toeppen engaged in discrimination against customers, including a December 2017 mass-marketing email to customers that touted bus rides with, Passengers like you. You wont feel like youre in China when youre on our buses. Madigans lawsuit also alleges Suburban Express encourages its employees to avoid certain students who appear not to speak English when distributing coupons for bus services. The lawsuit also alleges Toeppen posted a video mocking students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, complaining that English is not the primary language spoken in one of the undergraduate residence halls offensively imitating an Asian accent. Suburban Express and Dennis Toeppen have engaged in illegal discrimination and harassment against college students and their families, Madigan said. I am asking the court to take immediate action to prevent further harm to people who have been targeted by Suburban Express and its owner, and my lawsuit seeks to shut this company down for good. According to Madigans complaint, Toeppen goes to extreme lengths to ban and publicly shame or embarrass customers who have posted negative online reviews, mistakenly tried to use the wrong bus ticket or offended Toeppen in other ways. He responds to negative online reviews by ridiculing and insulting customers, sometimes encouraging potential employers to avoid hiring them or universities not to enroll certain students. Toeppen also publishes web pages attacking individual customers and has published full credit card numbers, bank account numbers and other personal information. Along with her lawsuit, Madigan also filed a motion for a temporary restraining order asking the court to take immediate action to force the owner of Suburban Express to stop publishing customers personal financial information, stop harassment toward customers, and stop forcing them to accept unfair contract terms. Her lawsuit seeks to put Suburban Express out of business. The case is being handled by the Attorney Generals Special Litigation Bureau and Civil Rights Bureau. The Civil Rights Bureau enforces state and federal civil rights laws to prohibit discrimination in Illinois and advocates for legislation to strengthen those laws. Madigan encourages people who want to file a complaint to do so online or by calling her Civil Rights Hotline at 1-877-581-3692. Bureau Chief Jeanne Witherspoon and Assistant Attorneys General Thomas Verticchio, Elizabeth Hady and Matthew Chimienti are handling the lawsuit for Madigans Special Litigation Bureau. Assistant Attorneys General Jeffrey VanDam and Alison Hill are handling the lawsuit for Madigans Civil Rights Bureau. -30- Return to April 2018 Press Releases
Imperial Valley News Center

Department of Energy Announces $14.5 Million to Advance Geothermal Drilling Technologies

Washington, DC - Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced up to $14.5 million in new funding to advance geothermal energy development. The Efficient Drilling for Geothermal Energy (EDGE) funding opportunity announcement (FOA) will focus on geothermal drilling in support of accelerating the research and development of innovative geothermal energy technologies in America.

Advancing research in geothermal drilling technologies will help harness the heat beneath our feet to expand our domestic energy resources, said Daniel Simmons, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Geothermal is a reliable, baseload renewable energy source with firm and flexible operation, allowing it to provide a range of essential services that contribute to our nations grid stability and resiliency.

Geothermal energy represents a clean, efficient, and nearly inexhaustible domestic energy resource. The U.S. currently has an installed geothermal capacity of more than 3.8 gigawatts (GW), and there is an estimated 100 GW or more of additional potential geothermal development accessible in undiscovered hydrothermal and enhanced geothermal systems. Technological innovation is necessary to economically convert these resources into cost-effective energy services. DOEs Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO) supports early-stage research and development (R&D) to achieve these necessary technological breakthroughs.

The EDGE FOA aims to continue and expand GTOs R&D in geothermal drilling by covering three topic areas:

Topic Area 1 focuses on early-stage R&D projects to reduce common delays in drilling operations like lost circulation, stuck pipe, unstable wellbores, and other issues that take time away from deepening the hole, typically referred to as non-drilling time.

Topic Area 2 focuses on early-stage R&D projects in innovative drilling technologies that improve the rates of penetration for drilling geothermal wells.

Topic Area 3 focuses on exploring innovative approaches and models to accelerate the transfer of geothermal drilling and related technologies from the laboratory into the real world by focusing on building partnerships that will increase adoption of nascent technology and improving knowledge transfer in the geothermal industry.

The application process will include two phases: a Concept Paper phase and a Full Application phase. Applicants must first submit a Concept Paper by 5 PM ET on May 31, 2018 to be eligible to submit a Full Application.
Border Patrol Agents Rescue Drowning Man

Calexico, California - Border Patrol agents assigned to the El Centro Sector rescued a man drowning in the All-American canal.

The incident occurred Friday, April 13, at around midnight. A Border Patrol agent assigned to an area two miles west of downtown Calexico, heard an individual yelling for help and quickly responded.

Moments later, the Border Patrol agent observed an individual struggling in the canal to stay above water while shouting for assistance. Another agent also responded to the area to assist the drowning man.

One of the agents then retrieved a rescue device and threw it in the direction of the man in distress. The man was able to grab hold of the device and was consequently pulled out of the canal by both agents.

There were no injuries sustained and the individual declined medical attention.

The U.S. Border Patrol is composed of dedicated men and women who everyday make the commitment to safeguard our nations borders and save the lives of those in need, said El Centro Sector Chief Gloria I. Chavez.

The man was transported to the El Centro Station for further processing.
Border Patrol Discovers Drugs in Vehicles Wheel Well

Salton City, California - El Centro Sector Border Patrol agents arrested a woman suspected of smuggling drugs inside a vehicles wheel well.

The incident occurred on April 13, shortly after 1 p.m., when a blue Ford Mustang approached the primary inspection area of the Highway 86 Checkpoint.

At primary inspection, a Border Patrol canine detection team alerted to the vehicle passenger side wheel well. An agent referred the driver to secondary for further immigration inspection.

After a thorough search of the vehicle, agents discovered 22 wrapped bundles hidden in a false compartment inside the vehicles wheel well.

The packages were tested and proved positive for the characteristics of methamphetamine.

The total weight of the methamphetamine was 23.3 pounds with an estimated value of $76,890.

The woman, later identified as a United States Citizen, was transported to the station for further processing.

Through vigilance and hard work, the United States Border Patrol will continue to keep dangerous drugs out of our communities, said El Centro Sector Chief Gloria I. Chavez.

The subject, vehicle, and narcotics were turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration for further investigation.
President Donald J. Trump And President Emmanuel Macron Continue To Build The Trans-Atlantic Alliance

Washington, DC - "Ever since General Lafayette joined the American fight for independence, our fates and fortunes have been tied unequivocally together." ~ President Donald J. Trump

A LONG AND ENDURING FRIENDSHIP: President Trump is continuing the legacy of French-American cooperation that stretches back to Americas independence and working with President Macron to build the already strong ties between the United States and France.

President Trump has made clear that the bond between the United States and France is unbreakable. The relationship between the two countries dates back to the days of the American Revolution, when thousands of French soldiers fought alongside American troops and provided crucial support in our fight for freedom and liberty.

Presidents Trump and Macron have reaffirmed and strengthened the U.S.-France relationship. They have met in person and spoken on the phone numerous times. In September 2017, Presidents Trump and Macron met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. In July 2017, President Trump spent two days visiting with President Macron to commemorate Bastille Day and the entry of the United States into World War I. In May 2017, President Trump hosted President Macron at the official residence of the U.S. Ambassador to Belgium for a meeting before the NATO summit.



A VALUED TRADE AND INVESTMENT PARTNER: France was the first trade partner of our Republic and remains a major destination for U.S. exports and source of foreign investment in the United States.

In 1778, the United States signed its first trade agreement after the Declaration of Independence with France, the U.S.-France Treaty of Amity and Commerce.

Today, France is the third largest European trading partner of the United States and, including American and French affiliates, averages over $1 billion in commercial transactions with the United States every day. In 2017, the U.S. exported $19.3 billion in services to France, resulting in a $1.6 billion trade in services surplus. In 2017, the U.S. exported $33.6 billion in goods to France, and exported more than $5 billion in goods in just the first two months of 2018. In 2017, France was the 11th largest market for U.S. goods exports.

The United States is the top destination for French foreign investment and, in 2016, more than $24.3 billion in French investment flowed into the United States.

The United States is the largest foreign investor in France and, in 2016, total U.S. investment in the country stood at $78 billion.

French investment supported 677,500 jobs in the United States in 2015.

A STRONG AND RELIABLE ALLY: The United States has worked closely with France to combat terror around the world and, most recently, confront Syrian President Bashar Al-Assads heinous chemical weapons attack.
Anniversary of the Tragic Death of U.S. Citizen Joseph Stone, Paramedic with the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission

Washington, DC - One year ago, Joseph Stone, a U.S. citizen serving as a paramedic with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europes (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (SMM), was killed when his vehicle struck a mine in eastern Ukraine, in territory controlled by Russia-led forces. Two of Mr. Stones colleagues were seriously injured in the same blast. The United States again offers its heartfelt condolences to Joseph Stones family, friends, and loved ones, and we commend the SMM for its commitment to bringing peace to Ukraine under difficult and dangerous conditions.

Joseph Stones death underscores the reality in which the SMM operates, including almost daily access restrictions, threats, and harassment from Russia-led forces. The United States calls on Russia to initiate a real and durable ceasefire, to withdraw its heavy weapons, and to remove its forces from Ukraine, in keeping with its commitments under the Minsk agreements. We further underscore our unwavering support for the SMM and call for monitors safe, full, and unfettered access throughout the conflict zone.
Second Lady Karen Pence Adds to the Official China Collection at the Vice Presidents Residence

Washington, DC - Second Lady Karen Pence welcomed members of the Indiana World Organization of China Painters to the Vice Presidents Residence to thank the artists for their contribution to our nations history. Thirty-nine artists from Indiana painted 100 porcelain dessert plates and each one is decorated with a state flower. Each of the 50 states has two plates. The new plates will coordinate with the blue and gold Lenox china chosen by the Bidens.

I am excited to add such beautiful work of art to the china collection at the Vice Presidents Residence, said Mrs. Karen Pence. The Indiana World Organization of China Painters dedicated their heart and time into this project with great enthusiasm. I applaud their work and look forward to entertaining with these beautiful plates. From the bottom of my heart, I thank the Indiana artists for their remarkable contribution to the Vice Presidents Residence.

Last summer, artists submitted examples of their artwork to the Indiana State Fair in Indianapolis where people who visited the Indiana China Painters exhibit voted on their favorite artwork. The winners of that competition are the ones who participated in this project.
Industrial Minerals has today discontinued the following vermiculite prices:

Vermiculite Exfoliated, (bagged grading 1mm, 3mm, 8mm, per 110 litre/4 cu.ft bag) ex-Johannesburg

Vermiculite, Brazilian, big bags, fob Antwerp, $/tonne

Vermiculite, Brazilian, big bags, fob East Coast Port, $/tonne

Vermiculite, South African, bulk, fob Antwerp, $/tonne

Vermiculite, Zimbabwean, bulk fob Antwerp, $/tonne

After a consultation period, Industrial Minerals has suspended these prices after inquiries suggested a lack of market demand for them.

If you have any comments on the discontinuation of these prices please contact William Clarke by email at: pricing@indmin.com. Please add the subject heading FAO: William Clarke, re: vermiculite.

All historical data relating to these prices prior to their suspension will remain available in the pricing section of the Industrial Minerals website.

To see all Metal Bulletins pricing methodology and specification documents go to http://www.indmin.com/Methodology.html
We now offer lithium prices and coverage free for reference. Click here to read all about it. Join our growing community of participants who want to learn more about electrification and how this market is developing.
April 23, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - The sources above statement and reporting by Israels Channel 10 confirms that al Batsh was also killed by the Mossad.

Yesterday, Israels Mossad assassinated Fadi al Batsh (English language report), a Palestinian Senior Lecturer in the Electrical Engineering Section, British Malaysian Institute, University of Kuala Lumpur (UniKL). He was originally from Gaza and earned his PhD in 2009 at the same institution. His school bio describes research interests:

He is the author and co-author of more than 25 publications in an international journals and proceedings in the area of Power Systems and Power Electronics. His research interests include FACTS devices, power converters, power quality, microgrid and renewable energy.

Israeli media are calling him an engineer which is Israeli security- speak for a weapons maker. In actuality, he was professor at a major Malaysian university.

Two Israeli assassins on a motorbike shot ten bullets, four of which struck him on the head and body, killing him instantly. He was making his way to the local mosque for early morning prayer. Imagine if a Palestinian militant assassinated an Israeli nuclear engineer as he emerged from prayer at a synagogue. The uproar would be immense and geshrei of anti-Semitism would be deafening. But apparently, Muslim prayer means nothing while Jewish prayer means everything.

In the Twitter thread linked above an Israeli wrote: ten bullets? Why did they have to waste so many? This is what passes for wit in todays Israel.

A knowledgeable Israeli source likened this murder to that of Mohammed al Zoari, another Palestinian researcher accused of being a drone engineer who was, among other things, purportedly researching use of underwater drones. A Mossad hit team assassinated al Zoari in Tunis last year. The statement by the source and Israels Channel 10 news report confirm that al Batsh as well was murdered by the Mossad.

Keep in mind that these claims regarding the activities of the victims are one-sided and only offer the view of the Israeli intelligence apparatus which murdered him.

This begs the question: if the Mossad murders Palestinian academics with impunity, why is there any argument against the academic boycott of Israeli universities? It seems to me that its perfectly legitimate to argue that as long as Israels government assassins target the worlds academics, that Israeli educational institutions should be in BDS cross-hairs. If Israeli universities object to this, then they should pressure the countrys assassins to stop murdering professors.

That of course would never happen because Israelis isolate themselves from moral culpability. A professor would never see the equivalence between him or herself and a dead Palestinian professor.

It would also seem to me that such Mossad targeting might endanger Israeli academics who themselves specialize in the same engineering fields as those of the murdered Palestinian professors. Whats good for the goose
April 23, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - The recent missile attack on Syria, in response to alleged use of chemical weapons on civilians by the Assad regime, revealed the scope of Donald Trumps lawlessness. The attack, launched by the United States, Britain and France, was an open violation of international law and the United Nations Charter, which is the centerpiece of the rules-based order that the United States claims to defend. The charter prohibits the threat or use of force against a sovereign nation, unless the attack is authorized by the UN Security Council, is an act of self-defense, or is consented to by the sovereign government. None of these provisions apply. Some argue that the attack is justified by the emerging right to protect, but that too permits intervention only with UN sanction.

Defenders of the strike argued that it was necessary to trample international law in order to enforce it. Former Obama State Department official Anne Marie Slaughter praised Trump for doing the right thing, and tweeted that It will not stop the war nor save the Syrian people from many other horrors. It is illegal under international law. But it at least draws a line somewhere and says enough.

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The attack also violated the US Constitution, which lodges the power to make war in the Congress and not the executive branch. Congress has provided no authority for the invasion of Syria. The post-September 11 Authorization to Use Military Force authorizes action the organizations that perpetuated 911 and their offshoots. No contortion of logic can stretch it to include the Assad Regime in Syria which has led the attack on IS in Syria.

The secret legal rationale  if there is one  would likely be based on the rationale invoked by both Obama and Trump for earlier strikes in Syria: that as commander-in-chief, the president may use military force to uphold regional stability and vital international norms in the national interest. This contention, as Jack Goldsmith, former attorney in the Office of Legal Counsel under George W Bush, concluded, places no limit at all on the presidents ability to use significant military force unilaterally.

If Trump is allowed to step over legal lines like this, the consequences may be dire. That the impulsive, erratic, ignorant president claims the power to use the military anywhere at any time that he might decide is frightening enough. It becomes terrifying when combined with the views of the war cabinet he now seeks to assemble.

The Syrian strike coincided with uber-hawk John Bolton assuming his post as National Security Advisor. Boltons views  and treatment of colleagues are so extreme that a Republican senate refused to confirm his nomination by George W. Bush to be Ambassador to the United Nations. Bolton was not only part of the effort to sell the war against Iraq, but remains a defender of what is clearly the greatest US foreign policy debacle since the Vietnam War. Having learned nothing from that calamity, he remains a vociferous advocate of so-called preventive war against both North Korea and Iran. He openly scorns diplomatic achievements like the Paris climate accord or the multilateral Iran nuclear weapons agreement. He advocates escalating US involvement in Ukraine, and a more muscular policy against both Russia and China.

Trump has nominated Mike Pompeo, the former Congressman from Koch, to serve as secretary of state. Pompeo also was a champion of the Iraq debacle. He too has called for preventive military assault on North Korea and Iran. He is highly critical of the the Iran Agreement and the Paris climate accord. While he presented himself as an advocate of relentless diplomacy in his Senate conformation hearings, he also admitted, under questioning by Senator Jeff Merkley, that he thought the president had the power to make war without the mandate of Congress.

Trump has also selected Gina Haspel to be director of the CIA. Haspel was notoriously involved in running one of the CIAs torture sites in Thailand, where water boarding among other tortures took place. Then, in direct violation of orders from the White House, she pushed the destruction of videotapes of the torture. Her defense is the classic Adolf Eichmann plea rejected by the Nuremburg Tribunal after World War II: that she was just following orders. (Not surprisingly, her nomination has been touted by a bipartisan group of former spies and operatives, and opposed by over 100 former admirals and generals, because We did not accept the just following orders justification after World War II, and we should not accept it now.)

If confirmed, her appointment would indicate that the United States not only does not punish those who violate the most basic strictures against torture, but chooses to reward and elevate those officials.

This is where we are headed: An impulsive and bellicose president empowered to use force on his own authority advised by the advocates of aggressive war with a covert arm headed by a practitioner of torture.

This is precisely what the founders of the country sought to protect against by giving Congress the power to declare war. James Madison noted that the power to declare war is fully and exclusively vested in the Congress because the executive is the department of power most distinguished by its propensity to war: hence it is the practice of all states, in proportion as they are free, to disarm this propensity of its influence.
April 23, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Your head chopper heros are apparently not what Syrians have in mind when they think of democratic revolution.

Mehdi Hasan (MH) can hardly be blamed for the ignorance that he displays in his Intercept article, Dear Bashar al-Assad Apologists: Your Hero Is a War Criminal Even If He Didnt Gas Syrians. He has apparently never been to Syria, doesnt often do research on Syria, and gets his information from proponents of a single point of view, representing a bunch of idealists that want to usher in their idea of a liberal democracy in Syria, without benefit of electoral niceties until their power is already ironclad. Whats wrong with this picture?

But Im getting ahead of myself. Lets start by deconstructing the absurdities and the language in the MH article.

Thankfully, MH has spared us the need to deconstruct the absurd accusation that the Syrian armed forces have used chemical weapons. He apparently accepts that they dont need to, that there is no benefit in using them, so why would they? OK, then who did? Cui bono? Easy answer. The motive of the promoters of destruction in Syria is to create a pretext for the US and its partners to bomb, invade and establish a no-fly zone; i.e., to directly take on the Syrian government and its allies. These war criminals include the neoconservative cabal in the US, the Zionist and Israeli proponents of using the US to fight Israels perceived enemies, and the Saudi and Qatari adventurists backing the Project for a New Salafist Paradise. These are the same players who brought us Iraq I and II, Libya, Afghanistan forever, Somalia and Yemen. What more could we wish for?

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So let us move on to the MH complaint about barrel bombs. What is the complaint, exactly? Are they more horrible than other types of bombs? Is it OK to use bombs manufactured in western munitions factories for delivery by jet airplanes but not ones manufactured in Syria and delivered by helicopter? Never mind. Its a great opportunity for MH to use the hyped term BARREL BOMB in order to enrage and terrify an undiscerning readership.

But what about all the civilian casualties, and isnt the Syrian army to blame? Well, no, ISIS and the pseudonymous al-Qaeda affiliates are quite happy to post videos of their stonings, beheadings, crucifixions and immolations, so we know the army cant be the only ones. In fact, given the summary executions of non-Muslims in territories liberated from the government, is there any reason to think that the forces fighting the Syrian government are responsible for fewer civilian deaths? I myself met refugees who had fled up to 70 km over the mountains in the dead of winter to Latakia in March, 2013 with no more than the clothes on their back. No one knows how many children and old people died.

Aircraft? The anti-government fighters dont have them, do they? No, but they seem to be quite resourceful in eliminating innocent human lives nonetheless. An example is the at least 10,000 civilians that have lost their lives in Damascus due to mortars and hell cannons (which also use barrel bombs) since the start of the hostilities. Other examples include the withering four-year siege of the Shiite towns of Foua and Kafraya near Idlib and the unrelenting bombardment via hell cannon of the city of Aleppo from the enclave of East Aleppo until it was finally recovered by government forces in late 2016.

On the other hand, for those (unlike MH and the mainstream media), who consider evidence to be relevant, there is a plethora available to show that the Syrian army has been unusually respectful of civilian life. The claim is that Syria and its Russian allies have obliterated entire neighborhoods, raining bombs on the civilian population. The facts are somewhat at odds with this description.

First, there are the civilian casualties themselves. The UN stopped keeping casualty statistics in early 2016, but even the anti-government Syrian Observatory for Human Rights concedes that less that 1/3 of all casualties are civilians. No other war on record has had such a low ratio. By comparison, 2/3 were civilian casualties in Vietnam, WWII and most other wars.

Second, the Syrian army liberation of Homs, Aleppo and other areas has followed a typical progression that is quite the opposite of just kill them all. First, the army surrounds the area and lays siege. At this point, if the army wants to flatten the area and bring an end to the resistance there, it has the perfect means to do so. But it does not. Instead, it positions relief supplies at the perimeter and makes them available without prejudice to the inhabitants. It also offers sanctuary to all who wish to leave. Amazingly, this includes even the fighters. Syrian fighters willing to lay down their arms are offered amnesty. But many are not initially willing to accept amnesty, and many are not Syrian. To these, the government offers safe passage to other parts of Syria under opposition control, even permitting the fighters to keep their small arms.

If they refuse, the siege and the fighting continue, often for more than a year, and bombing is often a part of the campaign, especially toward the end, after multiple unilateral ceasefires from the government side, to try to conclude a peaceful end, as in Aleppo. The bombing is typically in the least inhabited areas, in order to remove cover for fighters, so that the army will incur fewer casualties when it goes in. The strategy doesnt always work, but the low ratio of civilian casualties is a testimony to its relative success.

Why does the Syrian government do this? Wouldnt it be easier to just level the entire area, civilians and all, and be rid of the fighters once and for all?

Not really. The government is aware that families are split, with some fighting on one side and some on another. One of the reasons so many Syrians remain loyal to the government is that it is seeking to protect all Syrians on all sides, with the intention of regaining their allegiance. The government also recognizes that many of the opposition fighters are, in effect, mercenaries, for whom fighting is a way to put food on the table when there are no other sources of income. Such fighters are not really enemies, just desperate people. Given an opportunity, they will easily return to the government side.

Then there are the hyped bombing casualty statistics. As I pointed out in 2015, even if we accept the statistics of the highly biased anti-government Human Rights Watch, the number of casualties per bomb is only two, including combatants. If we apply the ratio of civilian deaths, that is less than one civilian casualty per bomb, a clear indication that the Syrian air force is being far more respectful of civilians than the US was, for example, in its bombing of Raqqah, where twice as many civilians as fighters were killed.

But MH is slamming a position that nobody holds. The number of leftists that consider Bashar al-Assad a hero infinitesimal. There may be many Syrians who do, but that is not who MH is referring to. MH is misinterpreting the actions of some journalists (including leftists) to correct distortions and false information as defense of Assad. Perhaps the distinction is too subtle for him, but an aversion to disinformation and lynch mob mentality is not the same as being pro-Assad. Its not very helpful to say, on the one hand, that you oppose intervention in Syria, and then take all your (false) information from pro-intervention sources. In that case the interventionists will applaud your non-intervention stance.

Those of us whom MH accuses of being pro-Assad are nothing of the sort. We believe that Syrian sovereignty and territory should be fully respected (as MH also claims to believe), but we think it is important to counter the fake news and propaganda that are being used to justify the invasion of Syria. MH is in love with fake news. He prefers not to mention the killing of police in the uprisings that he describes as peaceful demonstrations. He prefers to cherry-pick the opinions of Syrian refugees in Germany rather than the views of the vast majority of refugees (displaced persons) who evacuated to government areas without leaving Syria. He produces the Human Rights Watch report on 50,000 morgue photos but not the deconstruction by investigator Rick Sterling. And he repeats the al-Qaeda claim and false film footage that Madaya was starving and in need when it was, in fact, sitting on a mountain of aid supplies being denied by the fighters themselves to the population.

If MH cant see the difference between being pro-Assad and not falling for interventionist propaganda, thats his problem. Whats astonishing is the number of leftists that rail against interventionism but base their views on the drivel purveyed by the interventionists themselves in the mainstream media, and that originates from propaganda mills like the White Helmets, the Aleppo/Ghouta Media Center and other lavishly funded set designers for warmongers. If MH is not an interventionist, hes nevertheless making their case for them.

Paul Larudee is one of the founders of the Free Gaza and Free Palestine Movements and an organizer in the International Solidarity Movement.
April 23, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - As Congress pretends to restrain the already vast powers to wage war acceded to the executive branch we see further dereliction of duty resulting in shameful sorrows of empire and untold suffering abroad. A draft bill touted as reigning in the AUMF (authorization for use of military force) passed shortly after 9/11 in fact gives the executive branch an even greater blank check to wage war. In part, it allows the President to proclaim new enemies against whom any amount of force may be used, requiring two-thirds of Congress to reject that determination.

The Authorization for Use of Military Force of 2018 which was released (pdf) one week ago in essence takes Congresss constitutional power to declare war, in which the president can only act when provided congressional authorization, and inverts it, by giving the president the ability to act unless a supermajority of Congress stops them.)

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The proposed bill is bipartisan, sponsored by 3 Democrats and 3 Republicans, showing that the dereliction of constitutional duty is systemic to Congress. The military and executive thus essentially oversee themselves, an obviously perilous dynamic. In 1961, President Eisenhower warned of the growing and unwarranted influence of the military industrial complex. Today, American people should see death on their doorstep, given the global slaughter wrought in their name.

Endless war is the destruction of civil society. Yet, like the 2001 & 2002 AUMFs, the 2018 proposed bill has no time limit. Thus, Americas longest wars continue and new wars are waged at the behest of war profiteers with apparent ease. Presidents fight wars if they are permitted. In 2016 the Congressional Research Service found that Bush and Obama used AUMF to justify the use of military force 37 times in 14 countries (pdf). The decision to go to war is the most consequential decision a government can make. Today, that decision is made in the shadows, with little public scrutiny or debate.

Martin Luther King wrote 50 years ago (in 1968), We must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind. War today is illegitimate and unjustifiable whether applying the principles of Just War Doctrine or moral philosophy (Kantian, Rawlsian, or utilitarian). The architects of the so-called global war on terror have sought to redefine war and the legal basis for fighting war. It is an obvious sham. We must do everything possible to resist this sordid agenda.

Christopher Anders of the ACLU predicts that the AUMF of 2018 will amp up war everywhere. The war machine fueled by myopic greed and profit is built upon a fear factory of lies. We must ask ourselves: would we be so readily placated if there was a draft/military conscription? What does this reveal? What are we doing to stop senseless wars fought in our name? If we do nothing do we have blood on our hands? What should we be doing? What will we do?

William A. Cohn, professor of jurisprudence at New York University, and lecturer on law, ethics and critical thinking at the University of New York in Prague, is a member of the California Bar. He is the author of Led Astray: Legal and Moral Blowback from the Global War on Terror (Assessing the War on Terror, Routledge 2017), and Of Men, Not Law.
How Many Politicians Can You Buy with $6.3 Billion Dollars? By Grant Smith Grant Smith, the author of Big Israel: How Israels Lobby Moves America, reveals the revenue of the Israeli lobbys will reach $6.3 billion in 2020, with 17,000 employees and 414,000 volunteers! (Please re-read that statement.) The purpose of the lobby is to influence the US government to serve its foreign-policy objectives and fund its military. Posted April 23, 2018 https://needtoknow.news/2018/03/many-politicians-can-buy-6-3-billion-dollars/ Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter ===== Join the Discussion It is not necessary for ICH readers to register before placing a comment. We ask that you treat others with respect. Take a moment to read the following - Comment Policy - What Or Who is Information Clearing House and Purpose and Intent of this website: It is unacceptable to slander, smear or engage in personal attacks on authors of articles posted on ICH. Those engaging in that behavior will be banned from the comment section.
April 23, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - This transcript of an Israeli General on an Israeli radio station (begins 6.52 in) defending the latest killing by Israeli army snipers of a 14 year old boy who posed no threat of any kind, is much more powerful if you just read it than any analysis I can give.

Brigadier-General (Res.) Zvika Fogel interviewed on the Yoman Hashevua program of Israels Kan radio, 21 April 2018.

Ron Nesiel: Greetings Brigadier General (Res.) Zvika Fogel. Should the IDF [Israeli army] rethink its use of snipers? Theres the impression that maybe someone lowered the bar for using live fire, and this may be the result?

Zvika Fogel: Ron, lets maybe look at this matter on three levels. At the tactical level that we all love dealing with, the local one, also at the level of values, and with your permission, we will also rise up to the strategic level. At the tactical level, any person who gets close to the fence, anyone who could be a future threat to the border of the State of Israel and its residents, should bear a price for that violation. If this child or anyone else gets close to the fence in order to hide an explosive device or check if there are any dead zones there or to cut the fence so someone could infiltrate the territory of the State of Israel to kill us 

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Nesiel: Then, then his punishment is death?

Fogel: His punishment is death. As far as Im concerned then yes, if you can only shoot him to stop him, in the leg or arm  great. But if its more than that then, yes, you want to check with me whose blood is thicker, ours or theirs. It is clear to you that if one such person will manage to cross the fence or hide an explosive device there 

Nesiel: But we were taught that live fire is only used when the soldiers face immediate danger.

Fogel: Come, lets move over to the level of values. Assuming that we understood the tactical level, as we cannot tolerate a crossing of our border or a violation of our border, lets proceed to the level of values. I am not Ahmad Tibi, I am Zvika Fogel. I know how these orders are given. I know how a sniper does the shooting. I know how many authorizations he needs before he receives an authorization to open fire. It is not the whim of one or the other sniper who identifies the small body of a child now and decides hell shoot. Someone marks the target for him very well and tells him exactly why one has to shoot and what the threat is from that individual. And to my great sorrow, sometimes when you shoot at a small body and you intended to hit his arm or shoulder it goes even higher. The picture is not a pretty picture. But if thats the price that we have to pay to preserve the safety and quality of life of the residents of the State of Israel, then thats the price. But now, with your permission, let us go up one level and look at the overview. It is clear to you that Hamas is fighting for consciousness at the moment. It is clear to you and to me 

Nesiel: Is it hard for them to do? Arent we providing them with sufficient ammunition in this battle?

Fogel: Were providing them but 

Nesiel: Because it does not do all that well for us, those pictures that are distributed around the world.

Fogel: Look, Ron, were even terrible at it. Theres nothing to be done, David always looks better against Goliath. And in this case, we are the Goliath. Not the David. That is entirely clear to me. But lets look at it at the strategic level: you and I and a large part of the listeners are clear that this will not end up in demonstrations. It is clear to us that Hamas cant continue to tolerate the fact that its rockets are not managing to hurt us, its tunnels are eroding 

Nesiel: Yes.

Fogel: And it doesnt have too many suicide bombers who continue to believe the fairytale about the virgins waiting up there. It will drag us into a war. I do not want to be on the side that gets dragged. I want to be on the side that initiates things. I do not want to wait for the moment where it finds a weak spot and attacks me there. If tomorrow morning it gets into a military base or a kibbutz and kills people there and takes prisoners of war or hostages, call it as you like, were in a whole new script. I want the leaders of Hamas to wake up tomorrow morning and for the last time in their life see the smiling faces of the IDF. Thats what I want to have happen. But we are dragged along. So were putting snipers up because we want to preserve the values we were educated by. We cant always take a single picture and put it before the whole world. We have soldiers there, our children, who were sent out and receive very accurate instructions about whom to shoot to protect us. Lets back them up.

Nesiel: Brigadier-General (Res.) Zvika Fogel, formerly Head of the Southern Command Staff, thank you for your words.

Fogel: May you only hear good news. Thank you.

There is no room to doubt the evil nature of the expansionist apartheid state that Israel has now become. Nor the moral vacuity of its apologists in the western media.

Craig Murray is an author, broadcaster and human rights activist. He was British Ambassador to Uzbekistan from August 2002 to October 2004 and Rector of the University of Dundee from 2007 to 2010.

Translation by Dena Shunra.
No fewer than 10 persons have died and several houses razed in a bloody clash between two border communities in Abia and Cross River States.

As at Tuesday, the state governments and security agencies have moved to control the situation as tensions were still running high.

The clash erupted between the people of Isu clan in Arochukwu Local Government of Abia State and their border neighbours, Utuma in Biase Local Government of Cross River State.

It was gathered that the bone of contention is the limestone deposit discovered in Isu with the Utuma people claiming that the area where the mineral deposit is located belongs to them.

Following the high casualty figure recorded in the border clash, the people of Isu clan have sent an S.O.S message to the Abia State government to come to their aid in order to save them from being wiped out by their neighbours.

The Abia State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Anthony Ogbizi, confirmed the ugly incident to journalists in Umuahia, saying that the situation had been brought under control by the police.

Denying the casualty figure, the police commissioner said that any community that recorded casualties should compile the names of the victims and submit to the police for necessary action.

Ogbizi explained that the warring communities had taken hostages and were prevailed upon to release the captives, but the people of Utuma claimed that their people were tortured by Isu people hence they invaded the Abia community and burnt their houses.

THISDAY learnt that the clashes between the two border communities broke out penultimateWednesday and lingered for days before it was brought to the attention of government.

An aide to Abia Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, Hon. Nicholas Igwe Kalu, who is from the affected community, confirmed that no fewer than 10 persons from Isu died in the clashes while several houses were razed.

According to him, the community has been deserted as men, women and children have fled the area for their safety and tension is still very high contrary to police claim that they have brought the situation under control.

On the cause of the border clash, Kalu traced it to an ongoing road project being prosecuted by Ibeto Group preparatory to the exploitation of the lime stone discovered in Isu.

He stated that the Utuma people had indeed intensified their attacks on Isu people following the discovery of the limestone and the publicity it has attracted since Ibeto Group expressed interest in exploiting the precious mineral.

Kalu alleged that the Utuma people were the first to take hostages when emissaries from Isu were sent to appeal to their Cross River neighbours not to disrupt the road project by Ibeto.

He said that in reaction, Isu people also abducted some Utuma people but both sides eventually released their captives following the intervention of the military.

He insisted that it is a bloody lie for anybody to claim that there were no casualties in the border clash because after the exchange of hostages they (Utuma people) went and reinforced and launched an unprovoked attack with sophisticated weapons, killing and destroying houses.

The SSA lamented that the displaced persons from Isu clan were now languishing in camps in Aro where they are taking refuge and need medical and food supplies to stay healthy pending when their home would be safe for their return.

If the government fails to intervene immediately, our clan may be wiped out, he said, adding that he had brought the attention of the Deputy Governor, Ude Oko Chukwu, (presently acting governor) to the security issue in the border community.

We want the government to bring the National Boundary Commission to, as a matter of urgency, come and demarcate our boundary with Cross River State as the best permanent solution to constant clashes between us and the Cross River people, Kalu said.




Nollywood actress, Stella Damascus releases photos and has joined the 40 year old gang which includes fellow actresses like Omoni Oboli, Omotola, Mercy Aigbe and many more.

She marked the birthday with these dazzling photos captured by her daughter, Isabel with the caption:



Gods been good to me. Grateful for another year!

Stepping into the next phase of my life. 40 about to be lit  photography: @izzybelleimages  hair: @mercyshairextension #Grateful #GodsGirl #40 #Birthday #April24th #Taurus #StellaDamasus.

Her husband, who also works in the industry as a film maker and producer, Daniel Ademinokan took to Instagram to celebrate her.





Daniel shared a photo of her and wrote:



Smart. Beautiful. Intelligent. Bold. Daring. Loving, God fearing. These words only describe a microscopic version of who you are @stelladamasus. I love you boo and I pray for more wisdom, more grace and more of Gods grace. 40 is the New Sexy!!! #StellaDamasusIa40 #StellaDamasus

Photos Below ;

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My husband and I got married in 2013 with absolutely no money in our bank accounts. The wedding was entirely financed by my parents and him and his family only just showed up.

After a year of running to my family for support to feed myself and my husband, my dad gave me N600k to start a business and I sold everything of worth that I had to increase the capital.

I got a shop and started selling cement and at first it was frustrating but after a while it picked up and I even became a big distributor. My mom took ill and I had to be shuttling between Lagos and Warri to take care of her(Im an only child). So, my husband told me to stay till my mom got better that hed help me with my business. I trusted him with my kids and the business.

Unfortunately, my mom didnt make it, so my family fixed a near date and we did the burial. My husband of course couldnt come with the kids. I got back to Lagos, worn out and agonized after 4months. Waiting to fall into my husbands welcoming hands but I met the opposite. My neighbour told me, one young girl has(whom my husband told them is my younger sister) been living with them.

I went to the shop and found them there. When I walked her out, My husband told me, I should be grateful that she is has been the one handling my duties. I was so shocked I passed out. I was told later by my husband that he loves the girl and nothing stops him from marrying more than one women.

I asked both he and his mistress to leave my shop, he said he wouldnt that he took care of the business for months and would refund my startup capital and some compensation. It feels like Im dreaming, please someone wake me up before I do harm to everybody including myself




YBNLs finest, Olamide who has got no chill for releasing hit songs is back again with this new banger, titled Owo Shayo.

Owo Shayo serves as another dance-entry-tune which baddo serves on a para-mode. The beautiful tune is for the street and the Steet-King takes charge with his lines in his new banger.

The new song which might obviously peak on the charts is produced by YBNLs in-house producer, Pheelz.





Listen and Enjoy!



https://www.yabaleftonline.ng/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Olamide-Owo-Shayo-prod.-Pheelz.mp3

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Thailand Police launched a manhunt for conspirators in a romance scam gang after they arrested a 32-year-old Nigerian who allegedly lured a Thai woman in Lampang province into wiring him nearly Bt100,000.

Tourist Police Bureau deputy commissioner Pol Maj-General Surachet Hakparn said in a press conference yesterday that the suspect, Emery Henry Ogba, was a member of a gang believed to have a monthly income of Bt1 million from illicit operations.

Ogba was nabbed at a department store in Nonthaburi province on April 21, following an arrest warrant issued by a Lampang Court on March 29 on charges of fraud and overstaying his visa.

Police seized Bt42,700 in cash, some ATM cards and bank books, and four mobile phones.

Surachet said that one of the conspirators was a Thai woman.





On February 21, a 41-year-old woman filed complaints with police in Lampangs Koh Ka area that a man who identified himself as Mark Westwood, an American millionaire, befriended with her via Facebook conversations, he said.

The suspect used the Facebook photo of another man. After about two months, he said he wanted to send her ? a large sum of money and some other items, but he asked her to send him some money to pay tax. A Thai woman then called the woman and convinced her that she was a government official and that she should do what Westwood requested.

The victim wired him money twice, totalling about Bt97,000. The next time the so-called government office rang her trying to convince her to wire more money, the sound of a baby crying was heard during the telephone conversation.

That made the woman realise that she was being cheated, as a government office should not have a crying baby. Therefore, she alerted police, Surachet said.

Deeper investigations showed that the Nigerian was a member of a romance scam operating on Facebook. He variously identified himself as Thomas Anderson, Mike Dave, Bob Frank, Ivan Stogan, Luca Perozi or Chris Benson.

Claiming to be a millionaire, he befriended Thai women online and then cheated them out of their money.

Surachet said that victims of the Nigerian suspect included the woman in Lampang and three others in Nonthaburi.

They said the suspect sneaked into Thailand via Malaysia and had lived here illegally for more than eight years. He had in his possession three fake passports  two from Northern Ireland and one American.

Surachet added that the Thai woman who worked alongside the suspect opened bank accounts and helped generate about Bt1 million in monthly income for the gang.

Source: Nation Thailand/Others

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It was a sad day in Benue State again today two Catholic priests and 18 parishioners were killed by gunmen who invaded Ukpo-Mbalom community in Gwer East LGA, today 24 April.

Rev Fathers Joseph Gor and Felix Tyolaha were reportedly attacked in church during early morning mass and murdered with some parishioners. Angry Nigerians have taken to social media to pour out their anger towards the FG inability to do anything about these senseless killings.

See reactions below;

https://twitter.com/OsasCruz/status/988834187439411200

A catholic church was attacked by herdsmen at 05:30 am today.

The priests, cathecist and congregation all shot to death. The Governor of Benue @GovSamuelOrtom is junketing in far away China. @MBuhari has like always sent us a tweet. #Benue will rise again; we will.  Ghost (@SendeKamo) April 24, 2018

This APC change has cost too many lives in Benue state, should be a lesson to every state never to vote Buhari again.  Ota ka Agu (@UcheMvP) April 24, 2018

This morning Fulani militants slaughtered 11 worshippers and 2 priests during mass at Gwer East in Benue. It appears that the military carnage in Gwer West 6 days ago has further attracted Fulani militants to massacre and completely stamp out any form of resistance in the area.  Femi Fani-Kayode (@realFFK) April 24, 2018

1. PDP mourns the mindless murder of Frs Gor Joseph and Felix Tyolaha as well as parishioners of St Ignatius Quasi Parish, Ukpor, Mbalom in Gwer West LGA of Benue State.

Our party condemns these needless killings in Benue, Taraba, Kogi, Zamfara and other states pic.twitter.com/unT2TvF8cO  Official PDP Nigeria (@OfficialPDPNig) April 24, 2018

https://twitter.com/Rouvafe/status/988820757533921280

The Spokesman of Catholic diocese of Makurdi Nigeria Fr. Mose Lorapuu confirmed the killing of two Catholic Priests & 19 Parishioners by Peul/Fulani Militia who attacked St. Ignatius Quasi parish in Mbalom Benue province in early hours of today.

73 houses were also set ablaze. pic.twitter.com/haTrSGUJWY  Edward (@DonKlericuzio) April 24, 2018
SEATTLE - April 24, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) SinglePoint Inc. (OTC:SING) announces the latest development of its cannabis payment solutions platform alongside a flurry of cannabis-related news released by members of various political parties over the past week.

Since 2014 SinglePoint has been aggressively seeking opportunities in the cannabis market. The company recently integrated a stand-alone point of sale terminal designed to give merchants the ability to accept Bitcoin as a payment option. Customers can now use their credit or debit card at the counter instead of through a web-based app. SinglePoint's push to streamline payment processes and make the cannabis purchase experience no different than using a credit card at any other store complements recent efforts by political leaders seeking cannabis reform.

Former Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), once an outspoken cannabis antagonist, has now joined the board of a cannabis company with the statement he believes cannabis should be de-scheduled so that medical studies may begin. Colorado Republican Sen. Cory Gardner announced April 13 that President Donald Trump promised he would support efforts to protect states that have legalized marijuana. Most recently, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) threw his weight behind legalizing marijuana and said he will soon be introducing a bill to de-schedule the plant.

"The legislation is long overdue based on  a bunch of different facts," Schumer said. "Ultimately, it is the right thing to do. Freedom. If smoking marijuana doesn't hurt anybody else, why shouldn't we allow people to do it and not make it criminal."

SinglePoint founder and CEO Greg Lambrecht hailed the positive political messages and growing support for the cannabis industry.

"This is exactly what we have been waiting for and what the industry needs. As we continue to develop solutions to help ease the banking issues, we welcome new regulations that may make that easier such as de-scheduling the plant and allowing banks to work with these businesses," Lambrecht said. "That would allow SinglePoint to offer all of our payment solutions to cannabis businesses."

SinglePoint management believes cannabis-related businesses and all those working within the industry will continue to grow and soon thrive under new regulations. Public opinion polls show that 61 percent of respondents believe cannabis should be legalized for adult use. Several top Democrats seen as possible contenders in the 2020 presidential race are backing legislation to de-schedule cannabis. The shift has marijuana activists and political operatives believing many of the 2020 presidential candidates will support removing cannabis from the Federal Substances Act.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), a 2016 presidential candidate widely considered a top contender for the nomination in 2020, signed onto The Marijuana Justice Act, as did Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), another possible 2020 hopeful. Proposed by another potential 2020 presidential contender, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), the Act would remove the drug from the federal Controlled Substances Act, voiding the uncertainty the federal government injects into cannabusiness and deconstructing the final barriers to national legalization.

SinglePoint's streamlined payment process helps cannabis retailers, dispensaries and consumers in several, important ways. Customers can preload their wallet with their credit card information, which brings additional efficiencies in the checkout process. A customer that preloads a wallet will simply be able to "send payment" to the merchant for the amount requested at the register. Additionally, SinglePoint is tying this payment into its Last Mile Delivery service. Delivery clients will already have the application downloaded, which means that once an order is placed the customer will be able to select a payment method and utilize a stored card or cryptocurrency.

About SinglePoint, Inc.

SinglePoint, Inc (SING) is a technology and investment company with a focus on acquiring companies that will benefit from the injection of growth capital and technology integration. The company portfolio includes mobile payments, ancillary cannabis services and blockchain solutions. Through acquisitions into horizontal markets, SinglePoint is building its portfolio by acquiring an interest in undervalued companies, thereby providing a rich, diversified holding base. Through its subsidiary company SingleSeed, the company is providing products and services to the cannabis industry.

Connect on social media at:

https://www.facebook.com/SinglePointMobile

https://twitter.com/_SinglePoint_

https://www.linkedin.com/company/singlepoint

For more information visit: www.SinglePoint.com

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this news release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Rule 175 under the Securities Act of 1933 and Rule 3b-6 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and are subject to the safe harbor created by those rules. All statements, other than statements of fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding potential future plans and objectives of the Company, 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.

Technical complications, which may arise, could prevent the prompt implementation of any strategically significant plan(s) outlined above. The Company undertakes no duty to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release.

Corporate Communications Contact:

NetworkNewsWire (NNW)

New York, New York

www.NetworkNewsWire.com

212.418.1217 Office

Editor@NetworkNewsWire.com

SOURCE: SinglePoint, Inc.

Disclosure: SinglePoint, Inc. (OTC: $SING) is featured on the 420 Cannabis Investor Ideas of 2017 at www.420cannabisinvestorideas.com

SinglePoint, Inc. (OTC: SING) is a featured company on Investorideas.com

View the profile on Investorideas.com

Disclaimer: This directory is not a recommendation to buy or sell securities or products or services Investorideas.com charges a fee for placement. The directory is not an endorsement or recommendation but meant to be an investor resource/ due diligence tool.

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. SinglePoint, Inc. (OTC: SING) is a paid PR news and social media client on Investorideas.com for bitcoin and cannabis  more details http://www.investorideas.com/About/News/Clientspecifics.asp

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 24, 2018 (Newsfile Corp.) (Investorideas.com Newswire) Hunter Oil Corp. (TSXV: HOC) (OTCQX: HOILF) (the "Company" or "Hunter") has filed on SEDAR its consolidated annual financial statements and management's discussion and analysis ("MD&A") for the year ended December 31, 2017. Readers are encouraged to visit the SEDAR website www.Sedar.com to review these documents that are highlighted below.

Highlights

Total assets were US $36.3MM or US $2.78 per common share and the Company reported US$22.1MM in shareholders' equity, representing US $1.69 per common share. Due to higher average prices received for oil sales, reduced administrative and workover expenses, the net loss was reduced by 20% to US $3.2MM for the year. The Company's asset retirement obligations ("AROs") associated with the retirement of its oil and gas properties reduced by approximately US $5MM representing a 26% reduction, as a result of field activity and reduced costs through the Company's efforts. The Company further prepared its assets for an infield horizontal redevelopment of the San Andres formation by successfully obtaining an agreed compliance order ("ACO") with the New Mexico Conservation Division, providing Hunter with drill-ready assets.

The Company is working diligently to secure financing to develop its 23,000 acres or seek other strategic options for its held-by-production acreage in the two historic Chaveroo and Milnesand oil fields. The redevelopment consists of an infill redevelopment of the San Andres productive zones where vertical wells successfully and economically produced oil. Hunter is debt free and is a 100% working interest owner. Hunter benefits from the legacy oil field infrastructure that includes existing roads, power, drilling pads and additional infrastructure essential to the operations and redevelopment of the Chaveroo and Milnesand Oil fields.

Hunter currently has 13,070,871 common shares outstanding.

About Hunter Oil Corp.

Hunter Oil owns and operates two large, historic oil fields in the Permian Basin of Eastern New Mexico - the Milnesand and Chaveroo fields, Historical production of these two fields is approximately 40 million barrels. The Company plans to unlock the value in these resource-rich fields by leveraging existing infrastructure, lowering operating costs and increasing efficiencies of its operations.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Andrew Hromyk

President and CEO

(604) 689-3355

NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute "forward-looking information" as such term is used in applicable Canadian securities laws, including statements regarding estimates of reserves and future net revenue, expectations regarding additional reserves and statements regarding Chaveroo and Milnesand wells development, including plans, anticipated results and timing. Forward-looking information is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause plans, estimates and actual results to vary materially from those projected in such forward-looking information.

Forward-looking information regarding Chaveroo and Milnesand well development and expectations regarding additional reserves are based on plans and estimates of management and interpretations of exploration information by the Company's exploration team at the date the information is provided and is subject to several factors and assumptions of management, including that required regulatory approvals will be available when required, that no unforeseen delays, unexpected geological or other effects, equipment failures, permitting delays or labor or contract disputes or shortages are encountered, that the development plans of the Company will not change, and is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause plans, estimates and actual results to vary materially from those projected in such forward-looking information, including that anticipated results and estimated costs will not be consistent with managements' expectations, the Company or its subsidiaries not being able for any reason to obtain and provide the information necessary to secure required approvals or that required regulatory approvals are otherwise not available when required, that unexpected geological results are encountered and that equipment failures, permitting delays or labor or contract disputes or shortages are encountered.

Information on other important economic factors or significant uncertainties that may affect components of the reserves data and the other forward looking statements in this release are contained in the Company's Form 51-101F1 Statement of Reserves Data and Other Oil & Gas Information dated December 31, 2016, and the Company's Management Discussion and Analysis under "Risk Factors", which are available under the Company's profile at www.SEDAR.com. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements, other than as required by applicable law.

For further information, visit our website at www.hunteroil.com

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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April 24, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) With a project located on the site of a massive gold rush, this explorer is attempting to find the hard-rock source of the region's placer gold, and an updated resource is expected any day.

The land that Cabral Gold Inc.'s (CBR:TSX.V; CBGZF:OCT) Cuiu Cuiu gold project sits on was once the territory of garimperos, migrating miners who came during the massive Brazilian gold rush of 1978-1995 and panned for gold. It's believed that the garimperos mined some 2 million ounces of placer gold in the area which would make it the largest placer camp in the entire region. The hard-rock source of all that gold has never been identified, but Cabral Gold Inc. is focused on fixing that.

Last month, Cabral came one step closer with the announcement on March 21 that it has identified several new high-grade targets on the Cuiu Cuiu property in northern Brazil.

The company explained that the "initial 2018 campaign of work involves trenching, mapping, auger sampling, soil sampling, and rock sampling in areas of recent and abandoned artisanal workings."

Cabral highlighted the following results:

Select results from reconnaissance rock sampling on new targets include:

264.0 g/t gold from the Germano target.



80.1 g/t gold from the Vila Rica target



17.7 g/t gold from the Belisca Lua target

Initial channel sampling returned:

0.5m @ 43.3g/t gold at the Vila Rica target



5m @ 3.16g/t gold at the Jerimum de Cima target

The only area of that five that has seen historical drilling is the Jerimum de Cima target. Cabral noted that among the 13 holes drilled there included results of 39m @ 5.13g/t gold and 18m @ 1.17g/t gold.

Back in 2011, a previous operator of the project identified an Indicated resource of 0.1 million ounces gold and an Inferred resource of 1.2 million ounces. Cabral noted that it is updating that resource estimate to include drilling performed after 2011 and expects to release it soon.

The company expects to begin drilling in June.

The region has grabbed the attention of other miners. Cuiu Cuiu is near Eldorado's Tocantinzinho's project, which has Measured and Indicated resources of 2.1 million ounces.

Neighboring Mato Grosso state has seen a staking rush recently, with Anglo American and Nexa Resources acquiring more than 3 million hectares of land in September and Altamira Gold announcing the additional acquisition of 52,000 hectares. According to Altamira Gold, "the catalyst for this staking rush is a rumored porphyry copper discovery in the eastern part of the Juruena Belt."

Cabral has caught the attention of industry observers. Brien Lundin, in the April issue of Gold Newsletter, finds that Cabral has a "near-ideal combination of near-term and long-term price catalysts."

On the new resource estimate that is expected shortly, Lundin states, "Just how much this new estimate will grow the resource is unknown, but the underlying data suggest it will be substantial. If so, the estimate's release could be a short-term catalyst for a higher valuation for Cabral."

And longer term, Lundin believes that "there's plenty of room for optimism that Cuiu Cuiu can grow via the drill bit. The property encompasses an 18-kilometer gold-in-soil anomaly. It also lies within the Tapajos region of Para State, which hosted the world's largest ever gold rush between the 1970s and 1990s."

Cabral "is trading at bargain levels, given Cuiu Cuiu's current resource. Add in the potential resource expansion due in the coming days and the extensive exploration program planned for this target-rich project, and you have the makings of an outstanding vehicle to leverage rising gold prices," Lundin concluded.

Gwen Preston also highlights Cabral's potential. Writing in Resource Maven on March 23, she notes that Cuiu Cuiu is in "an area that produced millions of ounces of placer gold and placer riches like that don't come from low-grade deposits."

The new resource estimate "will almost double the drill meters in the model and almost certainly increase the count notably," Preston states. In addition, "there are eight zones outside of the resource with gold drill intercepts that deserve the follow up they will now get. Outside of those, Cabral is extending soil sampling and prospecting across the license areafor the first time."

Preston highlights the improving infrastructure in the Tapajos region, "A new highway runs past Cuiu Cuiu to the east, there are new hydroelectric power plants throughout the region, and the neighbouring deposit is nearing construction."

She stresses that the management team has a lot of experience in Brazil: "In 20 years working in the country they have made four gold discoveries, including the 2-million-oz. Tocantinzinho deposit next door to Cuiu Cuiu, where Eldorado Gold (TSX: ELD) is primed to make a construction decision."

Cabral has 31.4 million shares issued and 8 million warrants. The stock is closely held; board and management control around 45% of the shares.

Read what other experts are saying about:

Disclosure:

1) Patrice Fusillo compiled this article for Streetwise Reports LLC and provides services to Streetwise Reports as an employee. She or members of her household own securities of the following companies mentioned in the article: None. She or members of her 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: Cabral Gold. Click here for important disclosures about sponsor fees. As of the date of this article, an affiliate of Streetwise Reports has a consulting relationship with Cabral Gold.

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. As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own securities of Cabral Gold, a company mentioned in this article.

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.

Disclosures from Resource Maven, Mar. 23, 2018

Companies are selected based solely on merit; fees are not paid.

The publisher, owner, writer or their affiliates may own securities of or may have participated in the financings of some or all of the companies mentioned in this publication.

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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One student studies at the end of a long row of tables on the third floor of Parks Library. Although its the first week of summer classes, campus is looking fairly empty as many have gone home and more and more students take their summer classes online.
A call to action

Is Iowa successful in combating the opioid epidemic? Depends on whom you ask.

In a recent report on the opioid crisis published by the National Safety Council, a non-profit, non-governmental public service organization, the answer would be no.

What are opioids? An opioid is a prescription drug usually prescribed to treat pain. Chemically, opioids are very similar to heroin, a drug originally synthesized from morphine as a pharmaceutical.

Iowa can do better. Iowa should do better.

The report examined all 50 states individually and rated them on a scale of improving, lagging or failing depending how well they fit into six key actions:

Mandatory prescriber education

Implementing opioid prescribing guidelines

Integrating prescription drug monitoring programs into clinical settings

Improving data collection

Treating opioid overdoses

Increasing availability to opioid-use disorder treatment

Iowa, according to the Council, met just two of these criteria  failing.

Despite this ranking, Iowa isnt alone in the lack of understanding in how to correctly identify a solution to the impending crisis the nation is facing in addressing the issue of opioid addiction and overdose.

This report isnt to say, however, Iowa isnt taking steps to address the issue of opioid addiction. During the 2016 legislative session, lawmakers passed a law that made naloxone  an opioid overdose reversal drug  more accessible to Iowans.

Law enforcement officials, including those in Ames, now carry that opioid reversal prescription. Cmdr. Geoff Huff, public information officer for the Ames Police Department, said naloxone had been administered three times in one month.

House File 2377 passed through the Iowa House in February, and if implemented, the bipartisan legislation would place limits on opioid prescriptions and implement a Good Samaritan law for those reporting overdoses.

It would also require physicians to file opioid prescriptions electronically to avoid paper prescription forgeries.

As it stands, however, the bill is stalled in the Senate and its future remains uncertain and unlikely to pass within this legislative cycle.

What does the issue look like in Iowa?

According to data provided by the Iowa Department of Public Health, opioid overdose deaths have increased from 28 in 2005 to 86 in 2016. Opioid-related deaths  meaning opioids were referenced in the medical examiners report and may have contributed to the cause of death  has spiked from 59 in 2005 to 180 in 2016.

As for opioid treatment, the rate of admissions has more than tripled in a 10-year time span  from 608 admissions in 2005 to 2,274 admissions in 2016.

Whose responsibility?

During her Condition of the State address in January, Gov. Kim Reynolds expressed her concern in regard to this rising issue.

In the past decade, opioid-related deaths have more than doubled and will continue to rise unless we take action to reverse this heart-wrenching trend, she said. ... and today I am calling on the legislature to pass legislation to reduce the number of opioids prescribed in Iowa.

From the Office of Governor This year, Gov. Kim Reynolds outlined what she sees as main priorities in addressing the opioid epidemic including: Utilizing the prescription drug monitoring program

Drug take back day in all 99 counties

Expanding naloxone access

Expanding specialized treatment through local health care providers

Improving professional training

So, how did we get to this point? What is Iowa doing right? What could it be doing better? Where are we failing?

These are questions the Iowa State Daily asked during a series of interviews with Iowa professionals directly involved in not only combating the opioid crisis, but also finding and implementing solutions to better help communities already impacted.

Read through the pages to discover what they had to say.

Editors note: This is the first installment of an ongoing series by the Iowa State Daily to address the issue of substance abuse in Iowa through the lens of the rising opioid epidemic. To counter this crisis, we hope to foster ongoing and continued conversations as a way to find and implement solutions regarding not only Iowa's successes but also its failures in addressing this national epidemic.

To do this, we want to hear from you. We need to hear from you. To reach out and share your experience in relation to this issue, please email Alex Connor, Iowa State Daily editor in chief for fall/spring 2018-2019 at alex.connor@iowastatedaily.com.
Despite facing continuous issues with regulators, Apple is not giving up on South Korea  the home to Samsung and its biggest rival. The company has hired former Samsungs corporate Vice President, Brandon Yoon, as its general manager for South Korea. Before Samsung, Yoon worked at Microsoft.

Apple recently opened its first retail store in South Korea despite working in an unfair business environment that has seen its offices being raided multiple times over the years. In fact, the companys offices were raided right before the iPhone X launch as well.

Despite an unfair environment, Apple has managed to take some market share away from Samsung in its home market. In fact, in Q4, 2018, Apple shipped 1.5 million iPhones in Korea alone and took 28.3 percent of the market share. Samsung, in comparison, shipped 2.4 million smartphones and captured 46 percent of the market.

Samsung executives share a close relationship with the South Korean government and regulators. They have used this to their advantage to make functioning difficult for Apple in the region. The Conglomerate used this relationship to its advantage as Lee Jay-yong, heir to Samsung group, bribed regulators to get government support for the companys restructuring and gaining larger control over it. This, however, led to him being sentenced to five years in prison.

[Via Bloomberg
Today

Clouds and some sun this morning with more clouds for this afternoon. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 98F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.

Tonight

Some clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low near 70F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.

Tomorrow

Mainly sunny. High 93F. Winds light and variable.
Today

Areas of patchy fog early. Showers developing this afternoon with the possibility of a thunderstorm. High 77F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%.

Tonight

Thunderstorms early, then variable clouds overnight with still a chance of showers. Low 63F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.

Tomorrow

Showers early then thundershowers developing later in the day. High around 75F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%.
The US Supreme Court [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] 5-4 Tuesday in Jesner v. Arab Bank, PLC [SCOTUSblog materials] that foreign corporations cannot be used in the US under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) [Cornell LII backgrounder].

The plaintiffs in the case are victims of terrorist attacks in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. They allege that the bank and its offices in New York should be held liable for knowingly financing terrorism. The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] that the bank cannot be held liable.

In a split opinion by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the Supreme Court affirmed that ruling. Kennedy said it must be left to Congress to decide whether to allow such suits against foreign corporations, not the courts: With the ATS, the First Congress provided a federal remedy for a narrow category of international-law violations committed by individuals. Whether, more than two centuries on, a similar remedy should be available against foreign corporations is similarly a decision that Congress must make.

Kennedy delivered the opinion of the court with respect to Parts I, II-B-1, and II-C, in which Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch joined, and an opinion with respect to Parts II-A, II-B-2, II-B-3, and III, in which Roberts and Thomas joined. Thomas filed a concurring opinion. Alito and Gorsuch filed opinions concurring in part and concurring in the judgment. Justice Sonia Sotomayor filed a dissenting opinion, in which Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan joined.
ABCNews.com(JERSEY CITY, N.J.) -- A dead baby girl found in a suitcase in April has been identified as a missing two-year-old girl from Virginia.



A Port Authority employee completing a routine inspection midday April 11 found the child's remains in a suitcase near train tracks in Jersey City, just a few miles away from lower Manhattan, Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez said previously.



The child was identified as Te'Myah Plummer, according to the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office. Her father, Travis Plummer, was arrested in Puerto Rico on April 19 and is awaiting extradition proceedings to Hudson County.



Police in Richmond, Virginia, had asked for the public's help finding the girl and Plummer in March, according to a press release obtained by ABC News.



They had not been seen since August, according to the press release, when it was believed they had moved to Charlotte-Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, area or Jersey City.



Plummer has been charged with desecrating human remains.



The child's cause and manner of death have not yet been shared publicly.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
ASHLAND, Ore. -- There's a new concierge at The Palm hotel, but you won't see him behind the desk. The Palm uses a digital concierge named Alex. Alex is a form of artificial intelligence, and was coded by the General Manager a year ago.

David Jones, the General Manager of The Palm, says he coded Alex when he saw more people communicating over text message.

"I couldn't have a dedicated staff member just responding to texts, but I could have Alex do it," says Jones.

Alex can do more than 300 tasks for guests digitally.

"He can anticipate their needs," says Jones.

Guests can talk to Alex through the chat function on The Palm's website, or you can text him and get a reply within seconds.

Jones told NewsWatch12 that Alex is a compliment to the 25 people on staff. Alex can take care of tasks like adjusting the thermostat or giving restaurant recommendations.

"They're able to spend more time with guests and not worry about that second phone call," says Jones.

Jones says the technology will not be taking away jobs because there are many things Alex can't do. While Alex can answer direct questions, he cannot problem solve for guests.

"But if you say 'I just had a car break down I don't know if I'll be in Ashland tonight' that's a much harder query for a computer to grasp. That's when a human comes in," says Jones.

Jones says a majority of guests enjoy Alex, and even try to meet him when they first arrive.

"They want to come into the office and talk to Alex, and there's no Alex there to speak with," says Jones.

The Palm is currently developing software so that guests can speak to Alex on the phone and hear a voice back.
Vietnam's kiosk attracts a large number of visitors (Photo: VNA)

At the bazaar, ASEAN members introduced their special handicraft products, traditional costumes, dishes, art performance and martial arts.

The Vietnamese Embassy introduced lacquer paintings, silk scarves, palm-leaf conical hat, traditional long dress and dishes, which attracted a large number of both foreign and local visitors. In addition, it also introduced images of famous landscapes of the nation to help visitors who intend to travel to Vietnam better understand about their planned destinations.

Speaking at the event, Malaysian Ambassador Mod Khalid Abbasi Razak praised the traditional and diversified cultural features of ASEAN member countries, and added that this was an opportunity for each country to introduce its image and culture.

He also praised the solidarity and cooperation among ASEAN member countries in organizing a significant annual event.

Deputy Foreign Minister Guillermo Raimundi thanked ASEAN countries for organizing the bazaar, thus helping Argentineans better understand the histories, cultures, lands and peoples of Southeast Asian countries.

He affirmed that the event also demonstrated the friendship and cooperative relations between Argentina and ASEAN./.
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore.  Deputies arrested two suspects in a stolen vehicle and discovered a mobile meth lab on Monday, according to the Klamath County Sheriff's Office (KCSO). The arrests occurred just after 6 p.m. on April 23, at the corner of Summers Lane and Ezell Avenue.

Deputies spotted a "primer-colored" Honda pulling into a driveway on Ezell Avenue, and conducted a traffic stop when they were able to confirm with dispatch that the car was previously listed as stolen in a Klamath Falls Police case.

Two suspects were in the vehicle and were arrested at the scene30-year-old Jonathan Mitchell and 24-year-old Pauline Carnagey. Upon a search of the vehicle, officers found drug paraphernalia. Inside the Honda's trunk, officers found equipment used to manufacture methamphetamine.

KCSO called in the Basin Inter-agency Narcotics Enforcement Team (BINET) who were able to confirm that the equipment amounted to a small mobile meth lab. As a precaution, Oregon State Police (OSP) Haz-Mat personnel responded from Salem to investigate and dispose of the materials.

Carnagey has been charged with Unlawful Use of a Motor Vehicle, Unlawful Manufacture of Methamphetamine within 100 Feet of a School, and Unlawful Possession of Methamphetamine.

Mitchell has been charged with Unlawful Use of a Motor Vehicle, Unlawful Manufacture of Methamphetamine within 100 Feet of a School, and Probation Violation.
SALEM, Ore.  After enduring such a dramatic fire season in 2017, the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) says that they are getting ready for whatever 2018 has to throw at them.

We work to ensure firefighters are equipped and ready to respond quickly and effectively to wildfires all year, with a special emphasis on being staffed and ready for the drier months, said Blake Ellis, ODF's Interim Fire Operations Manager. "We essentially double our firefighting forces going into the summer, when wildfire risk is highest.

For the ODF, being prepared for the next fire season means a whole host of preparationsensuring that contracts and agreements for firefighting equipment and aircraft have been signed, creating new policies to employ drones, hiring and training seasonal firefighters at ODF and interagency fire schools in June, giving refresher fire line courses to returning firefighters, and cleaning/rolling hundreds of miles of fire hose.

Last year, ODF began testing infrared technology in earnestinstalling infrared equipment on aircraft to see through heavy smoke at some of Oregon's most virulent fires, like Horse Prairie and Eagle Creek. According to ODF, this imaging can allow fire managers to better accomplish real-time fire mapping and tactical planning. This year will see ODF using the new technology.

Contracted aircraft flew 1,477 hours on firefighting missions for ODF last yearmore than 100 hours above average, according to ODF's Aviation Manager Neal Laugle. In recent years, various types of aircraft have become more and more vital in combating wildfires.

From detection to fire mapping and active wildfire suppression, aircraft continue to play a critical role in the fight to save lives, resources and property, said Laugle.

ODF will continue to have access to aviation resources from other states and federal agencies upon request.

We have 27 aircraft based across the state, including helicopters, fixed-wing detection planes, single-engine air tankers and a large airtanker, all of which weve secured for our exclusive use. We also have call-when needed agreements with a number of companies for additional firefighting aircraft. Among these agreements is one for the use of a 747 modified to carry 19,000 gallons of retardant should the situation warrant, said Laugle.

Uncontrolled fires can be devastating. Our relationships with our partners are invaluable to support prevention and suppression efforts statewide," said Ellis.
Miriam Osborne poses for a portrait at a Bay Street food court in Toronto, Monday, April 23, 2018. Some Canadians who rely on plastic straws are calling on the surging anti-straw movement to consider the impact it could have on people with disabilities. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Galit Rodan
A repeat of last year's podium result with Lance Stroll is an unlikely prospect for Williams, but Paddy Lowe hopes to see continued progress for the Grove-based outfit in Baku.

Last year's event was a thriller, both for the fans and the competitors, and it was a special milestone for Lance Stroll who scored an unexpected but fully deserved podium finish along the shores of the Caspian Sea.

Williams technical director and partner Paddy Lowe knows the team will be challenged to reproduce that result, but the achievement could provide an extra boost to Stroll's motivation.

We head to Baku for the third time this weekend, and it has proven to be a great addition to the Formula One calendar so far, says Lowe.

It is an exciting circuit with an incredible range of character from the slow track through the old city to the very long straight at the start-finish line.

"Last year produced a very eventful race and memorable one for Williams, with Lance securing his first Formula One podium and indeed the only podium last year from a team not in the top three.

For Lance it would be bold to expect another podium but he should perform well given his significant achievements in Baku last year.

We look forward to returning to Baku and making the best of this race to put on a good show for our new Azerbaijani fans, adds Lowe.

Russia is also a close neighbour of Azerbaijan and so we expect some great support for Sergey in his first Formula One race there.'

Stroll isn't about to forget the joy and emotion he felt ten months ago. While scoring a top-10 finish is a long shot given his team's relative under-performance in 2018, the 19-year-old Canadian will still give it his all to wrestle a point or two next weekend.

I have some great memories of Baku. It was my first podium in Formula One, so I shall never forget that, and the whole experience was amazing, he admits.

Not only is it a great circuit, but Baku itself is a nice place. I had never been before, so it was all new to me last year but there was definitely a lot to see in the city.

The track is pretty spectacular to drive. It is a long lap and is a technical track with a bit of everything. Since it is a street circuit and there are walls all round it, there is no room for errors.

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
A man crosses over the Okanagan Lake dam in Penticton in this file photo from April 2018. Currently, water is being let out of the lake at the rate of about 30 cubic metres per second, half the structure's outflow capacity.
Hundreds of old tires are among the debris left at a dumping site between Peachland and West Kelowna. Volunteers will clean up the Crown land on May 5.
Jeff Silvester, left, and Zackary Massingham of AggregateIQ appear as witnesses at the commons privacy and ethics committee in Ottawa on Tuesday, April 24, 2018. The committee is looking into the breach of personal information involving Cambridge Analytica and Facebook. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
KABUL, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Water scarcity emanated from lack of precipitation in late 2017 and early this year has affected the live of 500,000 children in Afghanistan, the UNICEF warned Tuesday.

The impact on the children could be devastating in 22 of the country's 34 provinces, with 10 worst provinces across Afghanistan, where 20 percent to 30 percent water sources are reportedly dry, threatening the lives of 1 million people, said UNICEF, or the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, in a statement.

An additional 2 million people could feel its effects over the coming months, the statement said.

"These areas have pre-existing high rates of malnutrition. Without adequate nutritious food and safe water for drinking, as well as for hygiene and sanitation, children's health will only worsen," the statement reads.

The impact of the drought couldn't come at a worse time, as cases of severe acute malnutrition, or seasonal malnutrition, rise on average by about 25 percent each year in the coming summer months.

Some 1.6 million children and 443,000 pregnant and lactating women suffer from malnutrition across Afghanistan, according to the statement.

"The priority is to prevent the situation from deteriorating, by responding to the needs of children and families in the worst affected areas," said Adele Khodr, UNICEF Representative in Afghanistan, adding that children across the country already faced numerous challenges and now they have to cope with this latest threat to their lives.

Khodr called the need for making sure that children and families get the access to nutritious food, safe water and health services, as the impact of malnutrition could last a lifetime.

The UNICEF and other partners in the nutrition cluster estimate that emergency nutrition assistance is needed for 92,000 Afghan children and 8,500 pregnant and lactating women.

The children right support organization estimates also show that between July and December 2018, some 121,000 acutely malnourished children under five and 33,000 pregnant and lactating women could need life-saving nutrition services.

[ Editor: WPY ]
A coroner removes a dead body from the sidewalk after a van hit a number of pedestrians on Yonge Street and Finch in Toronto on Monday, April 23, 2018. Ten people died and 15 others were injured when a van mounted a sidewalk and struck multiple pedestrians along a stretch of one of Toronto's busiest streets. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Aaron Vincent Elkaim
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau makes a statement on the incident involving pedestrians being struck by a van in Toronto, in the Foyer of the House of Commons on Parliament Hill on Tuesday, April 24, 2018 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
A family, claiming to be from Colombia, is arrested by RCMP officers as they cross the border into Canada from the United States as asylum seekers on Wednesday, April 18, 2018 near Champlain, NY. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson
Pipes are seen at the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain facility in Edmonton, Alta., Thursday, April 6, 2017. The Saskatchewan government has introduced legislation that would allow the province to control its oil and gas exports, similar to a bill recently tabled in Alberta. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward
Through 40 years of development, FHA has grown tremendously in tandem with Asias food and hospitality industry, and has earned itself a reputation as the most comprehensive premier international food and hospitality trade show in the region.

This years event attracts over 4,000 businesses from more than 70 nations and territories.

Around 50,000 enterprises have registered to visit and sign contracts during the tradeshow, according to the organising board.

Tran Thu Quynh, Trade Counselor at the Vietnamese Embassy in Singapore, said that together with several businesses which have export activities and commercial presence abroad like TH True Milk, Co May and Trung Nguyen Coffee, the trade office prioritises introducing small- and medium-sized startups in intensive agricultural processing, especially in coffee, cocoa, cashew nut, fruits, rice and seafood.

Especially, the office will help connect Vietnamese enterprises with others through the Vietnam Food Pavilion.

Ho Si Bao, Director of the Amazon Vietnam Food Company, said that this tradeshow offers a good chance for participating companies to introduce products and learn about international taste to build an appropriate marketing strategy so as to increase exports.
A lawsuit that was filed by the Democratic National Committee is photographed Friday, April 20, 2018, in Washington. The national Democratic Party sued President Donald Trump's campaign, his son, his son-in-law, the Russian Federation and WikiLeaks, accusing them of an intricate conspiracy to undercut Democrats in the 2016 election by stealing tens of thousands of emails and documents. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Antonio Guerrero Rodriguez was one of the five Cuban anti-terrorist fighters to be awarded the Hero of the Cuban Republic distinction. During his time in detention and prison, Rodriguez made poems and paintings. He has released 11 poetry collections and has held 13 exhibitions on different topics.

The exhibits in Hanoi include colourful water paintings on indigenous Cuban butterflies, which can be found across the country from the urban to rural areas.

The exhibition also introduces Rodriguezs poetry collection entitled "The truth names me", which has been translated into various different languages.

Addressing the exhibition, Antonio Guerrero Rodriguez said he was moved to see his works being displayed in Hanoi.

He also praised the Vietnam  Cuba solidarity, which was nurtured by Presidents Ho Chi Minh and Fidel Castro.

Nguyen Duy Cuong, Vice President of Vietnam  Cuba Friendship Association, the events organiser, said that the exhibition was held to introduce the artworks of the Cuban hero to Vietnamese people, thus helping visitors to grasp a deeper understanding about the land, culture and people of Cuba, as well as the time-honoured friendship and solidarity between the two countries.
FILE - In this May 20, 2016, file photo, U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo , back, questions a witness during a House Veterans Affairs subcommittee field hearing on VA hospitals and prescription drugs for veterans, in the state Capitol in Denver. The Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Monday, April 23, 2018, that the six-term congressmanAos name cannot appear on JuneAos primary ballot because his re-election campaign did not collect enough valid voter signatures. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)
The legislator made the statement at a meeting with Chairwoman of the Lao National Assembly Pany Yathotou on April 23 as part of her official visit to Laos from April 23-25.

Vietnam will do its utmost, together with the Party, State and people of Laos, to preserve and foster the special relationship, which is a valuable asset of the two nations, she said.

Vice Chairwoman Phong briefed the host on outcomes of her talks with Vice Chairman of the Lao National Assembly Sengnoun Sayalat.

For her part, Pany Yathotou said Phongs visit will significantly contribute to intensifying relations between the two countries in general and their legislative bodies in particular.

Earlier, during their talks, Vice Chairwoman Phong and Vice Chairman of the Lao National Assembly Sengnoun Sayalat reviewed cooperation between the two legislatures in 2017 and discussed cooperation orientations in time to come.

They exchanged operational experience of each legislative body, while seeking measures to boost coordination at multi-lateral inter-parliamentary forums in the region and the world as well.

The two sides agreed to continue exchanging high-ranking delegations, implementing reached agreements, joining hands in personnel training and sharing experience, especially in institution and law building, and law enforcement monitoring.

They will also closely coordinate with each other to supervise the building of the house of the Lao NA, which is the present of the Party, State and people of Vietnam to Laos.

Later the same day, Vice Chairwoman Phong and her encourage made a field trip to the construction site of the house.
The relations between Vietnam and New Zealand have continuously thrived over the past time based on the bilateral comprehensive partnership, Vinh said, adding that the two countries are looking toward to the strategic partnership.

He suggested the two sides develop cooperation in defence in a more pragmatic manner, focusing on education-training and defence industry.

Relevant agencies and units of Vietnams Ministry of National Defence are willing to exchange with the New Zealand counterparts to seek measures to expand the bilateral collaboration in the field, he said.

For her part, Matthews described defence cooperation as an important pillar in the relations between Vietnam and New Zealand.

She pledged to do her utmost to further deepen the two countries defence partnership.
EUGENE, Ore.  A Eugene woman is suing six businesses and one man for $30 million, after a crash in November left her a complete paraplegic.

Court documents show the crash happened on November 2, 2017. It said Evelyn Allen got into a car that Travis Simonis was driving while he was drunk, when he crashed into a home near North Bertelsen and Roosevelt Road. It said that crash left her a complete paraplegic.

According to court documents, Simonis' blood alcohol content was at .27, more than three times the legal limit. He pleaded guilty to assault and DUII in February.

Court papers said before the crash, Simonis was drinking at Shooters, Brew and Cue, Don Juan, the Keg, ODonnell's Irish Pub and the Overtime Tavern. Each were named in the lawsuit and are accused of serving Simonis alcohol, even though he was "visibly intoxicated."

The lawsuit said he was overserved, and it was a factor in the crash that led to Allens injuries.

KEZI called all the businesses named in the lawsuit. None of them wanted to comment, except Rudy Mejia, from Don Juan. He said they have no idea who the woman is and doesn't recall seeing her. He also said it sounds like she repeatedly put her life in danger by getting into the car with someone who was intoxicated from establishment to establishment. Mejia said none of their employees recognized her or the man she was with.

KEZI reached out to Allens attorney, but he did not respond. KEZI also reached out to Simonis, but said he had no comment.
The consensus was reached by Chairwoman of the Vietnamese National Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan and Speaker of the Sri Lankan Parliament Karu Jayasuriya during their talks in Hanoi on April 24. The talks were held following a welcoming ceremony for the senior Sri Lankan legislator, who is on an official visit to Vietnam from April 23-27.

The Vietnamese NA leader expressed her belief that the visit of the Sri Lankan Parliament Speaker would help to deepen the friendship and traditional cooperation between the two countries and the collaboration between the two legislatures.

She informed her guest that the Vietnam NA has established the Vietnam-Sri Lanka Friendship Parliamentarians Group.

The two sides agreed to promote the role of the friendship parliamentarians groups in boosting cooperation between the two law-making bodies in particular, and the two countries in general, while reinforcing the legislatures role in monitoring and accelerating the implementation of their reached agreements.

Chairwoman of the Vietnamese National Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan (R) and Speaker of the Sri Lankan Parliament Karu Jayasuriya

They will also step up their coordination and mutual support at regional and international forums, including the IPU.

The two legislative leaders held that Vietnam and Sri Lanka should work harder to fully realise the memorandum of understanding on defence cooperation signed in 2011, promote ties in logistics and war consequence settlement, and join hands in UN peace-keeping operations.

They called for the early implementation of the biennial security dialogue mechanism at the level of minister of public security, and further sharing of experience and information to enhance the capacity of fighting cross-border crimes and terrorists in order to ensure security in each nation.

Sri Lankan Speaker Karu Jayasuria expressed his hope for an affiliation between the police academies of the two countries, and the Vietnamese NA Chairwoman also voiced her support of the partnership.

Regarding their economic ties, the two legislative leaders took note of the growth in bilateral trade, which reached nearly US$320 million in 2017, saying Vietnam and Sri Lanka have substantial potential for cooperation, especially in oil and gas, infrastructure, information and communications technology (ICT), garment-textile, rubber, leather and footwear, farm produce processing and distribution, seafood, dairy production and consumption, renewable energy, and aviation and maritime transportation.

NA Chairwoman Ngan urged the two sides to effectively materialize the documents signed during the official visit to Vietnam by Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in April 2017, and suggested amending and signing new documents to respond to the new situation.

She called for the second meeting of the joint trade subcommittee to be held early in Vietnam in order to seek measures to remove any bottlenecks hindering the bilateral trade, towards raising the two-way trade revenue to US$1 billion.

The Vietnamese chief legislator also proposed increasing investment promotion and trade connectivity, saying that the two sides should seek ways to effectively implement the agreement on investment promotion and protection as well as the cooperation minutes on enhancing bilateral investment.

Host and guest both agreed on the need to pay more attention to aviation links, considering this as a strong and effective solution to facilitate trade and tap the tourism potential of both sides.

The Sri Lankan parliament speaker pledged to help Vietnam with technologies in farming sea cucumber and seaweed, and aquaculture, while calling on Vietnam to share its experience and experts in agriculture.

Echoing his guests views, NA Chairwoman Ngan said the two sides should support each other and avoid competition in products they both have strength in, such as tea, coffee and seafood.

During their talks, the leaders also discussed a number of regional and international issues of shared concern.

Regarding the East Sea issue, NA Chairwoman Ngan stressed that maintaining peace, stability, security and safety of aviation and navigation in the East Sea is the common interest of countries in and outside the region.

Vietnam advocates the settlement of disputes in the East Sea by peaceful measures, in line with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982 UNCLOS), with full respect for diplomatic and legal processes, as well as the legitimate and legal rights and interests of the concerned parties, while making efforts to preserve peace and stability in the sea, she said.

The chief legislator appealed to Sri Lanka to support the stance of Vietnam and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), especially in principled matters such as aviation and navigation freedom, international law observance and peaceful settlement of disputes.

NA Chairwoman Ngan is hosting a banquet for the Sri Lankan parliament speaker and his entourage later the same day.
ST. PAUL, Minn.  The Minnesota Court of Appeals agrees with a Freeborn County man that his rights were violated but still upholds his conviction.

Michael Allen Haukoos, 40 of Albert Lea, was convicted in March 2017 for possession of burglary tools and sentenced to three years of supervised probation. Haukoos was arrested in January 2016 after law enforcement found him under the deck near a home in the Indian Hills neighborhood outside Albert Lea. They had been called to the area by a resident who said he saw an unfamiliar vehicle driving slowly past his house every 10 or 15 minutes and then saw a male stranger walking past his home while it was snowing.

Authorities say when Haukoos was arrested he was wearing shoes with duct tape around the soles and had a bag holding a crowbar, a pry bar, a screwdriver, and a pair of pliers. Officers said two pocketknives, a flashlight, and a black ski mask were then found when Haukoos was searched.

Haukoos claimed at trial that he had only been looking for his dog. Law enforcement said there were no animal tracks in the area.

In his appeal, Haukoos argued his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent was violated when the prosecution referred to his post-arrest refusal to answer questions on three different occasions during the trial. On Monday, the Minnesota Court of Appeals agreed with Haukoos that two of references were improper. However, the Court ruled that because the evidence against Haukoos was overwhelming and because the improper references made up such a small part of the trial, his conviction and sentence will stand.
BOONE, Iowa  Police say a man is dead after officers were called to domestic abuse situation in central Iowa.

A 911 call was made to the Boone Police Department on Saturday. A female said a man was at 620 2nd Street and threatening her and another person with a knife. When officers arrived, they say they could hear yelling and screaming from inside the home.

Boone police say when they entered the home, Timothy Wayne Anderson, 48, charged at them with a knife. Officers say they retreated but Anderson followed them outside. Police say Anderson was told to drop the knife, then multiple officers fired. Anderson was hit and pronounced dead at the scene.

Captain Lonnie Hikiji, Officer Daniel Lynch, Officer Joseph Slight, Officer Connor McCuen, Officer Cole Hilsabeck, and Officer Seth McCrea of the Boone Police Department have been placed on paid administrative leave while this deadly shooting is being investigated.

To hear the 911 call that started this incident, click here.
KIMT-TV NEWS 3  Mayo Clinic says it has posted more than 100 job openings as part of the shift of medical services between Austin and Albert Lea.

Today we are taking an important step in providing more certainty for our valued staff in Albert Lea and Austin, and for our communities, says Mark Ciota, M.D., CEO of Mayo Clinic Health System  Albert Lea and Austin. We truly appreciate the dedication and professionalism of our staff as we have worked through the complex preparations for relocating some of our work units.

Inpatient surgery, hospitalization, and childbirth services are being moved to the Mayo location in Austin while inpatient psychiatric services are being transferred to Albert Lea. The transition is expected to take two years and Mayo says it is now posting over 100 open positions for nurses, nursing assistants, and health unit coordinators for both campuses.

As we continue our work of transitioning certain hospital services between our Albert Lea and Austin campuses, our staff is experiencing the uncertainty that can come with change, says Diane Twedell, Chief Nursing Officer for Mayo Clinic Health System Southeast Minnesota region. They have asked us  and our communities have asked us  to provide as much clarity as we can about what the future looks like.

Mayo Clinic Health System staff are being asked to apply for future positions immediately. Once theyre been hired for the new job, Mayo says that position will be held for them.

We are inviting our nursing department staff to consider their options and apply for these positions now so they can begin planning for the future, says Twedell. Holding positions for months or even years is not a standard practice in the health care industry, but we feel strongly that this is the best way to provide more certainty for our staff, and to demonstrate through our actions that we want them to remain as part of our valued staff.

In response to Mayo's announcement, Jennifer Vogt-Erickson, chair of public relations for Save Our Hospital issued the following statement: "Clearly something is up. And in a healthcare market place now driven by patient choice, we are beyond pleading with Mayo to tell the community where it is at in its plan. Given what we have been experiencing since June, there is nothing that has resembled 'optimization.' Save Our Hospital has received numerous stories from patients who have been rerouted across southeast Minnesota with or without family members with them. This has to stop. Patients' lives are at stake. This news is yet another example of Mayo's inability to be employee- and patient-centric and transparent."
WORTH COUNTY, Iowa  A dispute over what two people wanted to watch on television escalated into a woman being choked and a man facing a felony domestic abuse charge, authorities said.

Jack Greenwood, of Northwood, is being held in the Worth County Jail after an incident Monday night in the 900 block of 9th Ave. N. and is being charged with felony domestic abuse.

The woman said Jack was trying to get her to watch all of the unlabeled VCR recordings and they got into an argument about it, the criminal complaint stated.

As the argument escalated, the woman claimed she pointed a spoon at Greenwood and accidently got a hot liquid on his face before Greenwood pushed her down twice, hitting her in the face and grabbing her throat and applying pressure.
CERRO GORDO COUNTY, Iowa  A man was reportedly approached with a knife after being flagged down to pull over on Interstate-35.

Deputies responded to a medical call at 1:20 a.m. Tuesday at mile marker 180 after a semi driver, Steven Butts, 51, of Utah, reported that he had been assaulted by two unknown males around 20 years of age driving an older (possibly late 80's) Chevy Suburban.

The Suburban apparently flashed its lights at the semi urging him to pull over. Once pulled over, the subjects advised Butts to check the back of his semi.

Once there, one of the males approached with a knife and told him they were going to take his truck, authorities said.

Butts defended himself before the second subject then approached Butts and hit him in the abdomen, the Cerro Gordo County Sheriffs Office said.

Both males returned to their vehicle and fled. Butts was checked out and signed off by the Mason City Fire Department.

Deputies were unable to locate the vehicle and anyone with information is asked to contact the Cerro Gordo County Sheriffs Office.
CHARLES CITY, Iowa  An account has been set up for the survivor of Fridays two-vehicle collision in Floyd County.

Thomas Parcher, 29 of Marble Rock, was seriously injured in the crash that killed three other people at the intersection of 210th Street and Woodside Avenue. He is receiving treatment at St. Marys Hospital in Rochester, MN and is listed in fair condition.

Donations to help his family pay for Parchers medical care and recovery can be made at First Citizens Bank or the State Farm Insurance office, both in Charles City.

The collision killed Jacob Mahnesmith, 28 of Nashua, Shane Wiltse, 28 of Charles City, and a third person whose name has not been released. According to the Hauser Funeral Home, a memorial service for Mahnesmith will be held at 10:30 am Thursday at St. John Lutheran Church in Nashua and a service for Wiltse will be held at 2 pm Thursday at Saint John Evangelical Lutheran Church in Charles City.
FOREST CITY, Iowa  A burglary charge has been dismissed against a man police say was caught trying to hang himself.

Tylor Christopher Anderson, 28 of Forest City, was arrested after a woman said he broke into her Forest City apartment in late July 2017 and threatened to kill her with a knife. Officers say when they arrived at the scene, Anderson was trying to commit suicide.

A charge of 1st degree burglary was filed against Anderson but it has now been dismissed. The Winnebago County Attorneys Office says there is insufficient evidence to go to trial because of the unavailability or uncooperativeness of witnesses.
OSAGE, Iowa  Charges have now been dismissed against the final two defendants in what authorities called a marijuana-growing operation.

Karyl OConnor, Amanda OConnor, and Shane OConnor, all of Toeterville, were arrested in April 2017 after law enforcement searched their home and claimed to find baggies of marijuana, seeds, growing chemicals, and equipment used to make and sell the drug.

Shane OConnor, 28, eventually pleaded guilty to one count of prohibited acts and was sentenced to one year of informal probation and a $625 fine.

Shortly after Shane OConnor was sentenced, the Mitchell County Sheriffs Office dismissed the charges against Karyl, 54, and Amanda, 27, in the interest of justice.
The meetings took place on the occasion of her trip to attend the Global Summit of Women in Australia.

The Vice President lauded leaders and people of Victoria state for making outstanding achievements in diverse areas, especially in services and social welfare policies, turning Melbourne into the worlds most liveable city in the recent seven years.

She hailed Melbourne as one of the top financial, trade, cultural, education and sport hubs in Australia, the region and the world, contributing nearly 10 percent to the countrys gross domestic product.

Vice President Thinh wished that leaders of Victoria state will further promote ties with Vietnam, making it easier for Vietnamese localities to form relationship with the state. She also welcomed local firms to do business in Vietnam and asked Victoria leaders to facilitate activities celebrating the 45th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties to raise mutual understanding between the two peoples.

She also urged all possible support to the Vietnamese community in the state to integrate into the host community.

The Victoria Governor and Premier spoke highly of strong and vibrant development of Vietnam  Australia ties across economy, trade, national defence-security, education, science-technology and tourism since the establishment of bilateral diplomatic ties 45 years ago.

The upgrade of bilateral ties to strategic partnership level during Australias visit by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in March 2018 was an important evidence of their relationship, which was partly contributed by the two countries localities, including Victoria, they said.

Governor Dessau said education-training and tourism are strengths of the state. Tens of thousands of local people visit Vietnam each year while over 13,000 Vietnamese students are pursuing studies in the state.

She suggested cooperating in fields of shared interest such as health care and care for the elderly.

Premier Andrews said two-way trade between Vietnam and Victoria hit US$ 1.9 billion last year, accounting for nearly one-third of the total between Vietnam and Australia.

He welcomed the upcoming opening of a branch of the Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) in Melbourne and vowed to realise a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation between Victoria and Vietnamese localities, especially in trade, investment, education-training, agriculture, urban development, environment, tourism and people-to-people exchange.

The hosts committed all possible support for Vietnamese community in the state to contribute to the development of the two countries and their relations.
MITCHELL COUNTY, Iowa  The State Patrol has identified the people involved in a deadly two-vehicle collision on Monday.

Authorities say Garrett Patrick Bormann, 24, of Ionia, was driving south on Balsam Avenue when he apparently failed to obey the stop sign at the intersection with Highway 9. The State Patrol says Bormanns pickup truck hit the eastbound car driven by Kenneth Nelson Jahncke, 61 of Osage.

The State Patrol says Bormann was not wearing a seat belt and died as a result of his injuries. Kenneth Jahncke and a passenger, 65-year-old Linda Susan Jahncke of Osage, were wearing their seat belts and were taken by ambulance to Mitchell County Regional Health Center for treatment.

The Mitchell County Sheriffs Office and Mayo One Life Flight assisted at the scene of this accident, which happened around 7:30 pm Monday.
NORTHWOOD, Iowa  A Mason City woman is pleading not guilty to a string of charges after a Worth County traffic stop.

Authorities say Bridget Antonia Fleming, 33, was pulled over for having a brake light out on April 3. The state trooper who stopped Fleming says she had a fake $100 bill, a loaded syringe, methamphetamine, marijuana, acetaminophen, hydrocodone, and four cell phones. Shes charged with forgery and three counts of drug possession.

Flemings trial is set to start on June 27.
ROCHESTER, Minn.- Fillmore County will no longer provide assistance for seniors at home with homecare services. Starting July 1, homecare services like bathing and personal care will no longer be apart of the Fillmore County Public Healths homecare program.

KIMT spoke to supervising nurse Tara Thomas at Visiting Angels homecare service, the company that provides services Fillmore county will soon get rid of. Thomas said that the ones who will be affected the most are the seniors who rely on people coming to their home and assisting them.

As people get older, they want to spend the rest of their lives in their home, said Thomas.

But in Fillmore County that won't happen.

Joe Sedelmeyer is the director at Visiting Angels. He said that he used to have clients in the county but it was too far for their workers to go there everyday.

We like to have our caretakers in the same area, and in that area many dont said Sedelmeyer, especially here in Minnesota, it can be impossible to get to clients if the weather is to bad.

Aside from the county being too far from where his employees live, another issue is its very expensive to pay for healthcare services and many cant afford to pay.

Many seniors are left with the option of paying out of pocket or moving to a nursing home if they cant afford to pay for a caretaker.

Its provides another challenge for a family to overcome, said Thomas.
FOREST CITY, Iowa  A Kansas teen is pleading not guilty to sex abuse in Winnebago County.

Sean Patrick Perkins, 18 of Olathe, KS, is charged with 3rd degree sexual abuse. Hes accused of entering a womans dorm room on November 12, 2017, and having sex with her against her will. Waldorf University confirms that Perkins was a student there in the fall of 2017.

As part of his not guilty plea, Perkins is also demanding a speedy trial but a date has not yet been set.
ROCHESTER, Minn.  A man is pleading guilty to a car chase through Rochester.

Ryan Matthew Vangness, 32 of Canton, is charged with fleeing a peace officer in a motor vehicle, 5th degree drug possession, and DWI. Authorities say he was involved in a pursuit with Rochester police, the Olmsted County Sheriffs Office, and the Minnesota State Patrol on March 15. The chase on Highway 52 ended when Vangness vehicle was disabled by a state trooper.

His sentencing has been scheduled for June 12.
MASON CITY, Iowa  A man is facing a felony criminal mischief charge for allegedly damaging property at Mercy Medical Center-North Iowa.

Jordan Hendrickson, 29, of Mason City, is accused of becoming angry and destroying shelving, roll-up security cabinets and door glass that belonged to Mercy.

The value of the damage is more than $1,000 and less than $10,000. A damage estimate is pending. The incident was reported at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Hendrickson is being held in the Cerro Gordo County Jail on $5,000 bond.
GARNER, Iowa  More than 13 pounds of marijuana was found after a search warrant was executed last week in Garner.

Cory Duryee, 28, of Garner, was arrested and charged with possession of marijuana, sale and manufacturing on public property (within 1,000 feet of a public park), drug tax stamp violation and possession of drug paraphernalia.

The search happened at 620 Grove Ave. in Garner.

In addition to the 13 pounds of marijuana, one pound of marijuana dabs/wax was located.

The Forest City Police Department was assisted by the Garner Police Department and the Iowa State Patrol.
CRESCO, Iowa  A third defendant is pleading not guilty in a Howard County drug bust.

Cresco police say an investigation led them to search 411 North Elm Street, Apartment 1 on December 8, 2017. Officers say they found methamphetamine, marijuana, and the prescription drug Alprazolam.



Steven Geerts Steven Geerts

Lisa Ragon Lisa Ragon

Charges of gathering where drugs are used, maintaining premises for drug use, possession of meth, possession of marijuana, and unlawful possession of prescription drugs were filed against the three people who lived at the apartment: Lisa Rae Ragon, Steven Lane Geerts, and Peggy Sue Schneider.

Ragon and Geerts previously pleaded not guilty and Schneider joined them on Monday. Geerts and Schneider are due to stand trial on July 18 while Ragons trial is scheduled for August 8.
Groundbreaking for the ZEISS Innovation Hub @ KIT; complete caption, see end of text. (Photo: Amadeus Bramsiepe, KIT)

ZEISS held a groundbreaking ceremony today on Campus North of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) to launch the construction of a new site in Germany. As announced in October 2017, this will be an innovation building shared with KIT and its spinoff Nanoscribe  the ZEISS Innovation Hub @ KIT. Apart from the company and KIT, the building will be used by future startups and spinoffs of both partners. The groundbreaking ceremony was attended by Baden-Wurttembergs Minister of Science Theresia Bauer, KIT President Professor Holger Hanselka, and President and CEO of the ZEISS Group, Professor Michael Kaschke.

This is a clear signal for the transfer of knowledge and technology in Baden-Wurttemberg  ZEISS and KIT are addressing the topics of technology transfer and startup culture. The Karlsruhe region and KIT in particular is an excellent site for the new Innovation Hub: With its special startup culture, established collaborations with the relevant partners in this field, and innovation as a third pillar alongside research and teaching. This is a place where not only keen founders receive support, but also curious individuals are encouraged to try to make it on their own, said Minister of Science Theresia Bauer.

Turning Innovative Ideas into Marketable Products

At the ZEISS Innovation Hub @ KIT, the research university in the Helmholtz Association, whose third task  alongside with research and teaching  is innovation, has the chance to rent new spaces for its spinoffs and innovation activities and offer them long-term prospects at the site.

The ZEISS Innovation Hub @ Kit bolsters innovation at KIT and intensifies close collaboration with the business world. The Hub offers our spinoffs the space to quickly turn their innovative ideas and latest research findings into marketable products  for the benefit of both society and business. At the same time, it offers our graduates exciting prospects, said KIT President Professor Holger Hanselka. The strategic partnership between ZEISS and KIT is based on longstanding collaboration. The ZEISS Innovation Hub @ KIT enables us to achieve a milestone from which both partners and the state of Baden-Wurttemberg will benefit in the long term.

Closer Partnership at One of Germanys Most Innovative Sites

ZEISS, the global technology and innovation leader in the optical and optoelectronic industry, will move into the new building located next door to prestigious institutes for cutting-edge technology and high-tech startups.

Professor Michael Kaschke commented: We aim to use the ZEISS Innovation Hub @ KIT to expand our more than ten-year partnership with KIT and benefit from the potential of one of Germanys most innovative sites, here on Campus North. We want to offer creative, bright technologically minded graduates room to develop their ideas and projects and take advantage of career prospects at ZEISS.

One of the enterprises that will move into the building is Nanoscribe, a company that focuses on 3D microprinting and microfabrication. Nanoscribe is a spinoff of KIT established in 2007. ZEISS was one of its stakeholders virtually from the very beginning. The company will thus get the space so urgently needed for its further expansion.

Plenty of Room and Flexibility in the Resource-conserving New Building

The building will cover a total of 12,000 m2 and can be used in many ways  as office space, meeting areas, labs, and production facilities. ZEISS is investing approximately EUR 30 million and will bear the construction and operating costs. While planning the new building, conserving resources was a major consideration.

The new site near Karlsruhe is just one in a series of projects at sites in the USA, the company headquarter in Oberkochen, and its founding site in Jena, which are designed to ensure growth at ZEISS and its innovation and digitization sites, as well as in emerging markets.

Complete Caption:

Groundbreaking for the ZEISS Innovation Hub @ KIT (from left to right): Bernd Stober, Mayor of Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen; Prof. Thomas Hirth, Vice President for Innovation and International Affairs of KIT; Professor Michael Kaschke, President and CEO of Carl Zeiss AG; Theresia Bauer, Baden-Wurttemberg Minister of Science, Research, and the Arts; Professor Holger Hanselka, President of KIT; Dr. Ulrich Simon, Corporate Research & Technology of Carl Zeiss AG; and Dr. Michael Thiel, co-founder of Nanoscribe GmbH. (Photo: Amadeus Bramsiepe, KIT)

ZEISS is an internationally leading technology enterprise operating in the optics and optoelectronics industries. The ZEISS Group develops, produces, and distributes measuring technology, microscopes, medical technology, eyeglass lenses, camera and cinema lenses, binoculars and semiconductor manufacturing equipment. With its solutions, the company constantly advances the world of optics and helps shape technological progress. ZEISS is divided up into the four segments Research & Quality Technology, Medical Technology, Vision Care/Consumer Products and Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology. The ZEISS Group is represented in more than 40 countries and has over 50 sales and service locations, more than 30 manufacturing sites and about 25 research and development centers around the globe. In the fiscal year 2016/17, the company generated revenue approximating EUR 5.3 billion with around 27,000 employees. Founded in 1848 in Jena, the company is headquartered in Oberkochen, Germany. Carl Zeiss AG is the strategic management holding company that manages the ZEISS Group. The company is wholly owned by the Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung (Carl Zeiss Foundation).

Further information at www.zeiss.com

Being The Research University in the Helmholtz Association, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 9,600 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 23,300 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence.
Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE: FCX) reports first-quarter net income rose to $692 million, or 47 cents per share, from $228 million, or 16 cents, in the same period a year ago. After adjusting for net gains of $13 million, the adjusted profit was $679 million, or 46 cents. Freeport is the worlds largest publicly traded copper company but is also a major gold producer. First-quarter copper sales of 993 million pounds were in line with the January estimate of 1 billion and were higher than first-quarter 2017 sales of 809 million pounds, primarily reflecting higher operating rates in Indonesia, Freeport says. First-quarter gold sales of 610,000 ounces were lower than the January estimate of 675,000, primarily because of lower-than-expected mill throughput rates associated with maintenance activities at Grasberg. However, gold sales were higher than 182,000 in the year-ago quarter due to higher ore grades and operating rates in Indonesia. First-quarter molybdenum sales of 24 million pounds were in line with the January estimate and year-ago total. We continue to engage in negotiations with the Indonesian government to restore long-term stability for our Grasberg operations and look forward to reaching a mutually positive resolution, says Richard C. Adkerson, president and chief executive officer. The company is in talks with the government over mining rights and construction of a smelter. Our improved financial position enabled our board to reinstate cash dividends to shareholders and a continuation of strong results and positive market conditions will enable further strengthening of our balance sheet, investments in attractive long-term growth projects and the consideration of additional cash returns to shareholders, Adkerson says. Last month, Freeport declared a quarterly cash dividend of a nickel per share, which will be paid on May 1. Consolidated sales for the year 2018 are expected to be around 3.8 billion pounds of copper, 2.4 million ounces of gold and 95 million pounds of molybdenum, including 970 million pounds of copper, 700,000 ounces of gold and 24 million pounds of molybdenum for the second quarter.
The Lao leaders spoke highly of the Vietnamese delegations official visit to Laos, expressing their belief that it will significantly contribute to enhancing the traditional friendship between the two Parties, States and people of the two nations.

Party General Secretary and President Bounnhang Volachith said he was delighted to see the development of cooperative ties between Vietnam and Laos in various fields over the past time, especially relations between the two legislative agencies thanks to the regular exchange of delegations, organisation of workshops to share experiences in law-making, and mutual assistance at regional and global forums.

He took this occasion to thank the Party, National Assembly and Government of Vietnam for their great assistance to Laos over the past time, particularly in building a new National Assembly House for Laos and constructing schools in Bolikhamsay and Champasak provinces as gifts presented by Vietnamese Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and President Tran Dai Quang.

The top Lao leader also thanked Vietnam for enabling Laos to develop wharves at Vung Ang port in the central province of Ha Tinh, which is vital for the shipment of Lao goods.

For her part, NA Vice Chairwoman Tong Thi Phong affirmed that the visit aims to reinforce the long-standing friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between Vietnam and Laos as well as promote the sound collaboration between the two legislative bodies.

She briefed the Lao leaders about the outcomes of her talks with Lao counterpart Sengnuon Sayalat and the discussion on sharing Vietnams experience in taking votes of confidence on persons holding positions elected or ratified by the NA and the provincial Peoples Councils.

The legislator thanked the Lao government for promptly removing difficulties for Vietnamese businesses to make long-term investments in Laos and providing more assistance for the Vietnamese community in Laos.
The price of gold has bounced but the metal still has a lot of work to do to recoup yesterday's sharp decline, says INTL FCStone. As of 8:44 a.m. EDT, Comex June gold was $1.70 higher to $1,325.70 an ounce, while May silver had not moved much, easing just 2.2 cents to $16.565. The stronger dollar is keeping the upside potential somewhat in check and the fact that U.S. 10-year yields are now hovering at just under 3% is not helping much either, INTL FCStone says. The next inflection point, at least for gold and oil, will likely come early next month, which is when the Trump administration has to come to grips with intense European pressure and decide whether it will remain in the Iranian nuclear deal.

By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com

Commerzbank: Palladium Falling As Concerns About Sanctions Ease

Palladium prices have fallen back as the U.S. considers easing sanctions against Russias Rusal, says Commerzbank. This in turn has reduced market fears that the Trump administration will not extent sanctions to Nornickel, a major palladium producer. As of 8:02 a.m. EDT, Nymex June palladium was $13 lower to $966.55 an ounce. Palladium has fallen as far as $955.75 so far Tuesday after it had been as high as $1,047.75 last week on worries that sanctions would limit the palladium supply from key producer Russia. As such, it has followed base metals prices on their downward trajectory now that the U.S. is considering lifting the sanctions against Rusal and probably will not impose any further sanctions against Russia, Commerzbank says. In response, the price gap to platinum has narrowed to $50 per troy ounce again.

By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com

BMO: Chinas First-Quarter Gold Output Declines

Gold output in China, the worlds largest producing nation, fell in the first quarter, which BMO Capital Markets says is due to the countrys increased emphasis on protecting the environment. The environmental clampdown in China continued to impede gold production in Q1, with output falling 3% y/y [year-on-year] to 98.2 tonnes, BMO says. Meanwhile, consumption dropped 5.4% y/y in the first Q1 decline in many years, but against a strong Q1 comparison last year. China remains the worlds largest gold-mining country at present, but unless this trend reverses this position may come under pressure.

By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com

Commerzbank: Swiss Gold Exports To Asia Soft During March

Switzerlands gold exports to Asia were soft last month, says Commerzbank. Analysts cite data from the Swiss Federal Customs Administration showing that exports to India slumped to just 12.3 tonnes. Two weeks ago, the Indian Ministry of Finance had already reported low gold imports, the bank says. Meanwhile, Switzerlands gold exports to China fell 40% month-on-month. Exports to Hong Kong more than doubled, on the other hand, analysts continued. Data from the Chinese customs authorities show that China also imported less silver (346 tonnes) year-on-year in March but somewhat more platinum and palladium (8.5 and 1.6 tonnes, respectively).
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron pledged on Tuesday to try to resolve U.S.-European differences on Iran but Trump gave no clear signal about whether he would carry out a threat to abandon an international nuclear deal with Tehran.

After lengthy talks at the White House, Macron told a joint news conference with Trump that they had discussed a new deal that would strengthen the 2015 accord along the lines Trump wants, such as by addressing Irans expansion in the Middle East and its ballistic missile program.

But with a deadline on U.S. economic sanctions against Iran looming next month, it was unclear whether the two allies made substantial progress on the future of the nuclear deal, which the West sees as vital to preventing Iran from building a nuclear bomb.

Trump continued his hostile rhetoric toward the nuclear deal, calling it terrible, ridiculous and insane and threatening Iran with repercussions should it restart its nuclear program.

If Iran threatens us in any way, they will pay a price like few countries have ever paid, Trump said.

Trump has until May 12 to decide whether to keep the United States in the agreement and is under strong European pressure to remain in it, with Macron saying that while imperfect it holds the best chance of containing Tehran.

The two leaders also discuss Syria with Macron urging Trump to keep U.S. forces there for the time being as bulwark against Iran and to ensure the defeat of Islamic State militants.

Trump did not promise to leave the troops in Syria but made clear they would not be withdrawn imminently.

We want to come home. Well be coming home. But we want to leave a strong and lasting footprint, Trump said.

Iran has said it will ramp up its nuclear program if the deal collapses and a senior Iranian official said on Tuesday that Tehran might quit a treaty designed to stop the spread of nuclear weapons if Trump scraps the agreement.

Under the deal, Iran agreed to curb its nuclear ambitions in return for relief from economic sanctions. Tehran says its nuclear program is only for peaceful means.

Trump said he and Macron could have an agreement soon on the Iran deal. We could have at least an agreement among ourselves very quickly. I think were fairly close to understanding each other.

Trump called the Iran agreement, struck between Iran and world powers, a terrible deal that was insane and ridiculous because it did not deal with ballistic missiles or Irans involvement in conflicts such as those in Yemen or Syria.

A U.S. withdrawal from the Iran agreement would raise tensions in an already volatile region, possibly prompting an arms race involving Saudi Arabia. Iran says its nuclear program is aimed only at peaceful purposes.

Pulling out of the Iran agreement would also raise questions over how Trump could coerce North Korea into giving up its nuclear weapons. Trump is trying to arrange a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in late May or early June.
The meeting with 60 veterans of the Tay Nguyen Front liaison board of the 3rd Army Corps took place on the threshold of the 43rd anniversary of the South Liberation and National Reunification (April 30, 1975), 54 years of the establishment of the Tay Nguyen Front (May 1, 1964), and 43 years of the foundation of the 3rd Army Corps (March 26, 1975).

During the 11-year resistance war against the US, the Central Highlands was a fierce battlefield which witnessed big campaigns, including Plei Me Campaign in late 1965 and the 1972 spring-summer campaign, which changed the complexion of the war.

The 3rd Army Corps obtained many victories, including seizing two of the five key targets in the historic Ho Chi Minh Campaign that liberated the South of Vietnam in 1975. After that, the corps was also present to protect the southwestern border and the northern border of Vietnam.

At the meeting, PM Phuc appreciated the enormous contributions and sacrifice of the soldiers fighting in the Tay Nguyen Front, also known as the B3 Front. (Photo:Tran Hai)

He spoke highly of many war veterans who took part in the fight to defend the country in the past and now stand side by side with local authorities in national development, describing them as examples of enriching their hometowns and also the pride of the Vietnam Peoples Army.

The PM encouraged the liaison board to increase practical activities to support former comrades with disadvantages and continue educating younger generations on the revolutionary tradition and patriotism.

PM Phuc also asked them to join hands with local authorities in settling post-war consequences, searching and repatriating martyr remains, and engaging in social activities.
Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly of Vietnam Tong Thi Phong, who has been on an official visit to Laos from April 23 to 25, presented the order to the embassy.

Reporting on the embassys performances in the five years, Vietnamese Ambassador to Laos Nguyen Ba Hung said the embassy fulfilled all tasks assigned by the Party and State, including preparing for mutual visits by leaders of the two countries as well as ministries, sectors, organisations and localities.

Addressing the ceremony, Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly Phong said the Labour Order is the recognition of the embassy staffs achievements, but it also reminds them to make unceasing efforts to solidify the traditional friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between Vietnam and Laos.

She also appreciated contributions by the Vietnamese community in Laos, expressing her wish that the embassy, other representative agencies of Vietnam, and Vietnamese people in Laos will remain a bridge helping to develop the two countries special relations.
By Kwon Mee-yoo





Lee Sang-min / Courtesy of Korea National University of Arts

Two Korean dancers from Korea National University of Arts (K-Arts) won first place in the Pas de Deux (dance duet) at the Youth America Grand Prix held at New York City Center from April 13 to 20.



Lee Sang-min, 19, and Park Seon-mee, 18, danced pas de deux from "Don Quixote" and finished first in the category.



In addition, Lee landed second place in the men's solo dance in the senior age division and also received a special prize  the Dance Europe Award.



Park finished third in women's solo dance in the senior age division, grabbing two awards.



K-Arts, Lee and Park's school, received the Outstanding School Award in recognition for their efforts in nurturing aspiring young dancers in Korea.



This year's judges, including Larissa Saveliev of the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, Alexei Kremnev of the Joffrey Academy of Dance and Ethan Browne of the American Ballet Theater, praised the Korean participants for showcasing their exquisite and clean style of classical ballet.



Founded in 2000, YAGP is the world's largest student dance scholarship competition. Dancers aged from nine to 19 compete in classical dance solo, pas de deux, ensemble and contemporary dance categories. Over 5,000 young dancers participated in this year's competition and 250 dancers from 30 countries reached the finals in New York.





Park Sun-mee / Courtesy of Korea National University of Arts
SC Bank Korea launched keyboard banking, which enables banking transactions through smartphone keypad. / Courtesy of SC Bank Korea



By Yoon Ja-young



Following development of fintech, local banks are engaged in a fierce battle in the mobile sector. Some of them scrapped fees while launching remittance services that do not require cumbersome authentication. Others launched an AI-based banking platform, where customers can make financial transactions as if conversing with bank tellers. They have become banks in customers' hands, each offering differentiated digital services.



Standard Chartered Bank Korea (SC Bank Korea), for instance, launched a keyboard banking service for the first time here in January. It enables transactions such as remittance and account checking by simply touching the bank's logo appearing on the smartphone keypad which is widely used for mobile messengers, text messaging, portal site searching or social networking services (SNS). It doesn't require installing an application or cumbersome authentication.



Customers can send money by inputting their bank account numbers, but it doesn't matter even if they don't know the number since they also can do so by simply touching the phone number in their smartphone contact list. While there are similar services offered by Internet companies, the bank explained that customers feel more secure they are using the bank's platform. These transactions are completely free of charge, regardless of whether the money is sent to accounts of SC Bank Korea or those of other banks.



Banks are increasingly interested in non-face-to-face channels since the number of customers visiting their branches is notably falling. According to SC Bank Korea, the number of customers visiting offline branches dipped 40 percent from five years ago, despite surging number of customers and transactions. New services like keyboard banking are thus likely to attract customers thanks to easy access to banking services.



"As the Internet-only banks are attracting customers, conventional banks are also actively adopting new technologies based on their strength as a stable service provider. Their digital services are convenient and differentiated," an official at a local bank said.

"As smartphones are widely available, competition is getting fierce in the mobile industry which is the most important non-face-to-face platform," she added.


A North Korean solider is on guard at its building inside the truce village of Panmunjom in this recent photo. / Yonhap



By Oh Young-jin



Just days before the April 27 inter-Korean summit, the atmosphere is one of optimism.



If the past two summits serve as any guide, they are a cautionary tale, advising us not to be overly expecting.



Expectation over the stated goal of South Korea and the United States  North Korea's willingness to separate itself from its nuclear programs or the so-called denuclearization  is far from reality.



The North has never committed itself to it.



The South and the usually less emotional U.S. appear to have a case of confirmation bias  seeing only what they want to see and what they want to hear. President Moon Jae-in positively believed that the North's denuclearization was doable, while U.S. President Donald Trump was no less positive.



But one North Korea observer called this collective wishful thinking on the part of the Moon government and the media "dyslexia." "It is as if people do not comprehend what North Korea's Kim Jong-un is saying in plain Korean."



The observer said on condition of anonymity that Kim's intentions were contained in a statement issued by the North after the end of the plenary meeting of the North Korean Worker's Party Central Committee last week.



The part in question reads, "We have achieved a victory in our 'byeongjin' policy of pursuing nuclear and economic development. Our people's belt-tightening effort to gain the strong treasured sword for the preservation of peace has been brought to a stellar conclusion.



"The firm collateral for our posterity to enjoy the most respectable and happy life has been attained," it quoted Kim as saying in the meeting.



This part requires rhetorical nitpicking with an insider's help from the observer, one of the highest-ranking North Korean defectors to the South.



He first called attention to the emphasis of success of the dual pursuit policy in the paragraph. "It is an expression of confidence about maintaining its newly gained advantage  nuclear weapons," he said.



If there is any doubt, the next sentence is dismissive of it, as it dubbed its nuclear weapons a treasured sword with peacekeeping being its purpose.



"If you depart from being the peacekeeper, what would it make you  a peace destroyer?" he said.



Then, the last sentence explains the primary reason for Kim not being able to give up nuclear weapons.



"Kim said that the nuclear weapons were for the wellbeing of posterity," he said. "This means that Kim will stick to the nuclear weapons, which he sees as a sure way to continue his dynasty far beyond him," he said.



Then, there was a more clear show of the North's intention in bullet points toward the end of the statement.



The first point stresses the "credible realization" of nuclear weaponization through warhead miniaturization and development of "supersized" nuclear devices and delivery systems, which the North "solemnly declares."



Point Three states that its moratorium on nuclear tests was part of the international nuclear arms reduction process. "The North is showing its willingness to join the Comprehensive Test Nuclear Ban Treaty (CTB)," the observer said, referring to the 1996 treaty that was not signed by China and signed but not ratified by the U.S.



"Then, note Point Four where the North says that it won't transfer nuclear materials and technology or won't use nuclear weapons unless attacked in kind," he said. "It is a non-proliferation commitment that is only possible from a nation that is intending to keep its nuclear weapons."


Kim Jong-un consoles a Chinese tourist who was injured in Sunday's bus accident in North Korea. / Yonhap

/ Yonhap

/ Yonhap



By Kim Rahn

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited the Chinese embassy in Pyongyang to express his "bitter sorrow" over the deaths of Chinese tourists in a bus accident in his country, by visiting the Chinese embassy in Pyongyang, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Tuesday.

His visit came only hours after the accident, an unusual move. It was also Kim's first visit to the Chinese embassy in his country since taking power in late 2011. It was unusual for the North's state-run propaganda media to report negative news about the regime.

The rare response reflects the rapidly improving Pyongyang-Beijing relations, following Kim's visit to Beijing and talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping last month.

"Kim visited the Chinese Embassy here at around 6:30 a.m. on April 23 and expressed his condolences over a large number of casualties among Chinese tourists in a bus crash," the KCNA reported.

The accident took place Sunday evening when a tour bus fell from a bridge in North Hwanghae Province, killing 32 Chinese tourists and four North Koreans.

The KCNA said Kim expressed his regret to Xi, the Chinese government, the Communist Party of China, the victims and the bereaved families.












North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will walk across the Demilitarized Zone on Friday for a historic summit with the South's President Moon Jae-in, the highest-level encounter yet in a whirlwind of nuclear diplomacy.

Pyongyang's atomic arsenal will be high on the agenda the first time one of its rulers sets foot in the South since the Korean War ended 65 years ago, and a peace treaty to formally end the conflict could also be discussed.

The meeting on the southern side of the truce village of Panmunjom -- only the third of its kind after two in Pyongyang, the last 11 years ago -- is intended to pave the way for a highly anticipated encounter between Kim and US President Donald Trump.

It comes after a rapid and spectacular diplomatic dance on the peninsula, orchestrated by Moon and set to the beat of the Winter Olympics in the South.



Kim sent a delegation headed by his sister to the Games and offered to put denuclearisation on the table in exchange for security guarantees. Trump accepted his proposal for a summit, and Kim went to Beijing to pay his respects to ally China in his first overseas trip as leader.

It is a stunning contrast from last year, when Pyongyang carried out its sixth and by far most powerful nuclear test to date and launched missiles capable of reaching the US mainland, while Kim and Trump traded personal insults and threats of war.

The UN Security Council imposed several more sets of sanctions on the North, including measures targeting its crucial coal, fishing and textiles sectors, along with oil imports.

Washington is demanding Pyongyang give up the weapons it has spent decades developing and says it needs to protect itself from a US invasion.

At the weekend Pyongyang announced a moratorium on nuclear tests and intercontinental ballistic missile launches, with Kim saying it had completed its goal.

It made no further commitments, but that did not stop Trump tweeting: "We haven't given up anything & they have agreed to denuclearization (so great for World), site closure, & no more testing!" On Monday, Moon said it was "a significant decision towards total denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula".

But the North has declared moratoriums before, and has also talked about denuclearisation, while previous agreements have ultimately foundered.












Deputy Minister Giang, who is also Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam Peoples Army (VPA), made the statement while receiving Gen. Siek Socheat, head of the border affairs office of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces in Hanoi on April 24.

He also affirmed that the General Staff of the VPA has worked to create favourable conditions for the efficient cooperation between the two sides, contributing to the countries efforts to ensure security and defence.

Gen. Siek Socheat informed his host on the results of his earlier working session with the Vietnam Border Guard High Command. Accordingly, the two sides agreed to continue to exchange information and patrols, maintain order and security in border areas, while assisting relevant agencies in border demarcation and marker planting as scheduled by the two governments.
By Choi Ha-young





Hong Il-pyo


By Lee Min-hyung



The two Koreas will hold joint rehearsals Wednesday for Friday's summit between President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.



The rehearsals will be held under the exact same format as the actual summit on Friday. But Cheong Wa Dae has not confirmed the detailed timeline for events on the day of the summit.



Presidential chief of staff Lim Jong-seok will head the southern delegation for the rehearsal. Kim Chang-son, a member of the Party Central Committee from the North, will also visit the summit venue of Peace House on the southern side of the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjeom.



Both sides will engage in comprehensive on-site inspections by tracing detailed routes on which the two leaders will walk during the summit. Other details include the arrangement of furniture at the Peace House.



Lim also plans to hold a final briefing on Thursday, delivering up-to-date preparatory processes for the historic inter-Korean gathering.



"The joint rehearsal will be conducted behind closed doors," a Cheong Wa Dae official told reporters today. The presidential office fell short of revealing other details, due to the gravity of the summit.



The two Koreas ended their round of working-level preparatory talks on Monday, with both sides agreeing to broadcast key events live  such as Kim Jong-un's arrival at Panmunjeom and the first-ever greeting between Moon and Kim.



Kim will cross the military demarcation line in a car to reach Peace House. The young dictator will then meet with President Moon in person for the first time.



Aside from the government, KT  a Seoul-based mobile carrier  also plans to stage a pilot test in the briefing room and at a press center in KINTEX in Gyeonggi Province, by delivering its 360-degree fifth-generation (5G) virtual reality visual demonstration set to be broadcast during the summit.



The company installed the infrastructure in the briefing room and press center to deliver vivid visual coverage of the event to the world.



More than 3,000 reporters here and abroad are expected to cover the summit on Friday.



The upcoming summit is the third in a series of historic gatherings between leaders of the two Koreas. In 2000, President Kim Dae-jung met with his northern counterpart Kim Jong-il, the father of Jong-un, for the first-ever inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang.



The second summit came in 2007 when President Roh Moo-hyun visited Pyongyang.


Bouquets of flowers are placed at a makeshift memorial to the victims as a woman writes her condolences after a van mounted a sidewalk crashing into pedestrians in Toronto on Monday (local time). The rented van jumped onto the crowded sidewalk, killing and injuring people before the driver fled and was quickly arrested in a confrontation with police. / AP

A police officer patrols along Yonge Street in northern Toronto. / EPA



By Jung Min-ho



Two Koreans were killed and one was injured in a van attack in Toronto, the Korean government said Tuesday (KST).



The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said two Koreans were killed and one was seriously wounded as a result of the attack, in which a van plowed into pedestrians in the Canadian city. Their identities have not been disclosed.



The government has sent consular officials to local hospitals and police stations to help them and their families.



"The foreign ministry has taken necessary steps, including contacting the families of the victims, and plans to provide relevant consular support," a ministry official said.




By Anastasia Traynin





The audiovisual festival Big Day South is coming to Busan this Saturday for a full day of music, art and dance. The festival started in nearby Daegu in 2014 before moving to Ulsan the following year, and more recently appeared in southwestern Gwangju in April 2016.







Back after two years, the fourth installment promises to be bigger than ever, showcasing burgeoning Korean and foreign creative talents from across the country.







The festival is the work of Irish expat Philip Brett, who co-founded the bilingual online Angle Magazine in January 2013. Angle covers artists active outside the capital, and has expanded to organizing regular events, developing a signature theme of live music combined with interactive visual art. Busan expat resident Cindi L'Abbe, a dancer from the U.S., is co-organizing this year's festival.







"With every Big Day South we want to challenge the audience to engage," Brett told The Korea Times. "This time around we've revisited how we define community."







Big Day South 2018 takes place across four venues near Pusan National University. Activities shift between venues throughout the day, taking attendees on an adventure through the neighborhood. Art Gallery Open will be dedicated to visual art from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., combining the twin talents of collectives Crazy Multiply and Exotic Beasts. Performances start at noon at Someday with six dance, theater and movement arts performances. At 2:30 p.m., live music starts at Basement and Interplay. At 9 p.m. the action moves back to Someday.







This year's festival is focused on its host city, with the 14 bands including Busan acts All I Have, B9, The Magus and Banana Monkey Spanner, plus Daegu's Drinking Boys and Girls Choir and Gwangju's Dirty Rockhon.







"Personally, I've always found Busan shows more exciting than Seoul shows. The audience here gets in your face, and really interacts with shows," Brett said.









At the same time, he is excited to bring in new collaborations. This includes

run by promoters, musicians and fans, which is sending Seoul acts including Billy Carter, Tengger and Nametag to the festival.



also offers special tattoo flashes at a 50 percent discount. Those who get one as a tattoo by April 27 get 75 percent off festival tickets.







L'Abbe praised the festival's collaborative nature.







"A multi-arts festival like Big Day South provides an opportunity for audiences to broaden their experience of art and see something they may not otherwise have a chance to," she said, "but it also introduces artists who might be interested in cross-discipline collaboration to each other. It can be, and has been, a launch pad for new and exciting projects."







Her experience performing in Daegu and Ulsan led to her involvement as an organizer and she has been a key force in keeping the festival moving.







"Big Day South is the ultimate expression of our mission at Angle, which is to bring together local artists and art lovers and enjoy all that the community has to offer," she said.





Big Day South 2018 starts at 10 a.m. and runs late into the night. All-day tickets are 25,000 won in advance or 30,000 won at the door. Single-entry tickets are 12,000 won. Visit

for more information.






Former South Korea President Park Geun-hye arrives at the Seoul Central District Court on Sep 18, 2017 in Seoul. / The Korea Times file



By Kim Hyun-bin



Former President Park Geun-hye failed to appear at the first hearing of her second trial, this time on charges of accepting bribes, embezzlement, and causing government losses, Tuesday. Park is accused of taking 3.6 billion won ($3.35 million) from National Intelligence Service chiefs, while serving in the nation's top office.



Three former spy agency chiefs _ Nam Jae-joon, Lee Byung-ki and Lee Byong-ho _ allegedly gave the money from the agency's off-book funds.



Nam headed the National Intelligence Service (NIS) from 2013 to 2014. He is suspected of paying 600 million won to the ex-president.



Lee Byung-ki and Lee Byong-ho are also accused of handing over regular payments to Park.



Her lawyers submitted a statement to the Seoul Central District Court, denying the charges, adding Park was unable to attend the hearing due to her health.



"The defendant did not appear in court. We concluded it is impossible to force her attendance," the chief presiding judge said.



The court decided to push ahead with the trial, hinting that it could issue a judgment by default as only the prosecutors and court-appointed lawyers were present.



Park took office in 2013, but was impeached by the National Assembly Dec. 9, 2016.



She was ousted after the Constitutional Court upheld the impeachment March 10, last year.



Park has been standing trial while being kept in custody since her arrest in late March. The former president started to boycott all hearings starting October 16 to protest her extended detention.



Earlier this month, Park was sentenced to 24 years imprisonment and fined 18 billion won ($16.8 million) after being found guilty of abuse of power and extorting money from businesses.



Prosecutors initially sought to put her in prison for 30 years with a fine of 118.5 billion won.



The court convicted Park on 16 out of 18 charges including bribery, abuse of power, and soliciting more than 23 billion won in bribes from Samsung, Lotte and SK Group to fund the Mir and K-Sports foundations run by her close confidant Choi Soon-sil.



The ex-president denied the charges that also including sharing state secrets with Choi, who held no official position I her administration.



Choi was sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined 18 billion won as well as having 7.29 billion won in assets confiscated in February. Choi was charged with illegal manipulation of government affairs for her personal interests.



In 1996, two former Presidents Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo were sentenced to a death and 22 year prison sentence, respectively, but both were later pardoned by then President Kim Young-sam.


















President Moon Jae-in, second from right, speaks during a Cabinet meeting at Cheong Wa Dae, Tuesday. Moon expressed concern over missing the Monday deadline to revise a referendum law for the constitutional revision in tandem with the June 13 local elections. / Yonhap



By Park Ji-won



President Moon Jae-in expressed his regret over the Assembly's failure to revise the referendum law for the constitutional revision together with the local elections, as well as failing to keep the promises he and all the political parties made. The ruling party also expressed concern and strongly criticized the LKP over the failure.



"I didn't keep my word to hold the referendum for revising the Constitution together with the local elections. I publicly express regret and concern in front of citizens," President Moon said during a Cabinet meeting, Tuesday.



"All political forces made a promise to citizens that they will revise the Constitution by holding a concurrent referendum vote. With my knowledge, it is not acceptable to move onto the next agenda as if nothing happened and leave the Constitution unchanged for more than three years after the referendum law was ruled unconstitutional."



The remarks came after the Assembly failed to reach a consensus on revising the referendum law, which was ruled unconstitutional in 2014 for limiting the voting rights of South Korean citizens living overseas. The deadline of the revision was Monday.



Moon added he would decide what to do for the revision bill after the inter-Korean summit which is scheduled to be held Friday. He also requested each government ministry come up with policies that reflect the purpose of the revised Constitution bill.



President Moon Jae-in submitted his own reform bill last month to stir lawmakers into action to come up with their own. While the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) agreed to adopt the bill, opposition parties objected to the President's "unilateral" move, as well as saying they consider the bill to lean toward "socialism."



The main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) announced its own revision bill following the government bill, however, with different views regarding the presidential power structure. The LKP has been insisting on holding a referendum in September.



Leaders of the ruling DPK echoed Moon, blaming the LKP for boycotting the Assembly only to derail the revision.



"A precious opportunity to revise the Constitution after 31 years went in vain because the opposition party has made every effort to interrupt the amendment," Rep. Woo Won-shik, floor leader of the DPK, said during a party meeting, Tuesday.



"Every promise the LKP made has turned out to be lies. The LKP made excuses not to participate in the Assembly in order to derail the Assembly as part of efforts to block the amendment of the Constitution."



DPK policy chief Kim Tae-nyeon also criticized the opposition party, saying the LKP's move to derail legislation is a political action for the local elections.



"The opposition party should apologize to citizens for breaking their pledge to put a referendum together with the June 13 local elections before they ask for a special investigation into the online opinion-rigging scandal," Kim said.
By Kim Bo-eun



The two Koreas have no differences over discussing denuclearization in the upcoming inter-Korean summit, Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon said Tuesday.



"The summit agenda will include denuclearization, promoting peace on the Korean Peninsula and enhancing inter-Korean relations. These are key issues of the summit. Regarding this, there are no differences between the two Koreas," Cho told reporters.



The minister said an additional high-level meeting will be held just before the summit Friday to have in-depth discussions on these topics.



Meanwhile, a high-level unification ministry official said North Korea's declaration Saturday that it will suspend nuclear and missile tests and shut down the Punggye-ri nuclear test site shows the regime's willingness to move toward denuclearization.



"(Its statement) that it would shut down its Pyunggye-ri test site shows North Korea's willingness for negotiations toward denuclearization," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity, after the briefing.



While Pyongyang's announcement was welcomed by the international community, skepticism has lingered, because the regime did not state it would give up the nuclear weapons it already has. North Korea explicitly said nuclear and missile tests will be halted because there is no need for them, as it has completed the development of nuclear weapons.



The official's remarks were made as final preparations are taking place for the inter-Korean summit Friday.



It is yet to be seen how far the discussion on denuclearization will go between President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.






All vehicles in South Korea will be rated based on their levels of air pollutant emissions beginning this week under a new rating system designed to encourage drivers to opt for greener cars, officials said Tuesday.

The Ministry of Environment said the revision to the state emissions rating regulation, which will divide cars into five different grades with Grade 1 being the best, will go into effect on Wednesday.

The existing rating system has been applied only to cars rolled out since 2012, but all cars will be subject to the revised system from Wednesday, officials said.

Under the new system, electric cars and hydrogen fuel cars will get Grade 1, while hybrid cars will receive Grades 1 through 3. Gasoline or liquid petroleum gas (LPG) cars will get Grades 1 through 5, while diesel vehicles will score Grades 3 through 5.

The rating system will not immediately lead to restrictions on the operation of cars that receive low grades, but provincial and municipal governments are expected to use the rating system if necessary to control traffic to address fine dust pollution in their jurisdictions, Lee Hyung-sup, a senior ministry official, told reporters.

"As for the restriction issue, each provincial administrative unit will make its own decision after considering those subject to the restriction and other issues and soliciting related opinions," Lee said.

He also noted the need for related legislation to use the rating system to restrict the operation of high-emission vehicles. (Yonhap)
Liberty Korea Party leader Hong Joon-pyo speaks during a political event in Daejeon, April 17. / Yonhap



By Park Ji-won



Main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) leader Hong Joon-pyo downplayed the upcoming April 27 inter-Korea summit as a "political show" that may only benefit North Korea, Monday.



"This is like negotiating with a thief with a knife who claims to be giving up the knife," Hong said on Facebook.



"If North Korea does not give up its nuclear weapons, any agreements between the two Koreas will only benefit the enemy."






By Kim Rahn



President Moon Jae-in has reaffirmed that signing a treaty to formally end the Korean War will require a tripartite agreement among North and South Korea and the United States, and is not possible just between the two Koreas.



He made the remarks during a 40-minute phone conversation with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Tuesday, three days before his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.



It has recently become known that the two Koreas and the U.S. could discuss the possibility of changing the current armistice agreement into a peace treaty in the inter-Korean and following Washington-Pyongyang summits.



"Declaring the end of the war cannot be achieved through inter-Korean talks; it can only be done when at least the two Koreas and the U.S. agree on it," Moon was quoted as saying by presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom.






Minister Lich made the remark at a meeting with RoK Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon in Seoul on April 24, during which he hoped the PM will continue supporting the two countries defence ministries to step up effective collaboration in the coming time.

PM Lee said the RoK considers Vietnam a focus in its New Look South Policy, adding that Vietnam is one of the fastest growing economies in Southeast Asia with abundant natural resources and a large population.

Vietnam is evaluated to see the most stable development in the region and the RoK is honoured to join this progress, he said.

The PM affirmed that the RoK wants to expand cooperation with Vietnam in different fields including external affairs and economy.

He applauded the two countries defence ministries to sign a joint vision statement on cooperation through 2030 and hoped the two sides will develop collaboration in defence industry.

Lich said bilateral relations have grown rapidly since Vietnam and the RoK established diplomatic ties 25 years ago and strategic cooperative partnership in 2009.

The RoK is one of the leading foreign investors in Vietnam and providers of official development assistance (ODA) for the country, he said.

The minister welcomed the RoKs New Look South Policy and affirmed that Vietnam is willing to play an active role to promote relations between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the RoK.

Vietnam advocates the denuclearisation on the Korean peninsula and hails the RoKs efforts to promote inter-Korean dialogue, Minister Lich said.

Vietnam also supports active and constructive measures to promote the dialogue to maintain peace, security and stability on the peninsula, he added.

During the earlier talks between Minister of National Defence Ngo Xuan Lich and his RoK counterpart Song Young-moo, the two sides expressed their pleasure at the growing relations between Vietnam and the RoK, and hoped defence cooperation will play a crucial role in the bilateral rapports.

Lich said the peaceful settlement of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK)s nuclear issue and the establishment of eternal peace on the Korean peninsula is not only essential to peace and prosperity of the peninsula but of the international community.

Regarding disputes of territorial sovereignty at sea, including the East Sea, the two sides stressed the need for the involved parties to restrain and fully respect diplomatic and legal processes, peacefully settling disputes based on international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), while implementing effectively and comprehensively the Declaration on the Conduct of the Parties in the East Sea (DOC), soon signing a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) to maintain peace and stability, and seeking long-term fundamental measures acceptable by all parties.

The two defence ministers highly valued the positive development in defence cooperation between Vietnam and the RoK over the past time.

They agreed to increase the exchange of delegations at all levels, promote cooperation between military forces, and step up partnerships in defence industry, cyber security and peacekeeping activities of the United Nations in addition to enhancing coordination at multilateral defence and military forums.

Minister Lich expressed his wish that the RoK is expected to share its development experience with ASEAN member countries, including Vietnam, to jointly build a peaceful, prosperous and people-centered community.

Vietnam will take over the ASEAN Chairmanship in 2020, he said, adding that as a member of the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting Plus (ADMM+), Vietnam hopes the RoK will help the Vietnamese Ministry of National Defence to successfully host relevant events.

Minister Ngo Xuan Lich invited Minister Song Young-moo to visit Vietnam in early June 2018. The RoK Minister accepted the invitation with pleasure and revealed that he will visit Vietnam on the occasion of attending the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
Finally, the shipping industry will be asked to do its part to fight climate change. The United Nations' International Maritime Organization, which regulates the industry, agreed in London this month to set a 2050 goal of reducing emissions from oceangoing cargo ships to 50 percent below the 2008 level.



It's an ambitious goal, and the details on how it is to be achieved are still being worked out, but climate experts say the sector still needs to do more if the world is to meet the 2015 Paris agreement goal of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.



In other words, the shipping pact is a nice, if late, start, but the global shipping industry needs to keep working toward the ultimate goal of phasing out fossil fuels entirely.



Does it matter? Is shipping really an important front in the war against global warming? Surprisingly, international maritime shipping emits levels of greenhouse gases that collectively are on par with Germany, which has the world's sixth-highest level of emissions.



Driving the maritime emissions has been the sector's reliance on heavy fuel oil, a cheap but dirty-burning energy source that spews high levels of sulfur and other gases and particulates into the atmosphere.



The industry, which moves at least four-fifths of the world's cargo, has been shifting from heavy fuel oil to liquid natural gas and other alternatives, and the International Maritime Organization will require all new ships added to fleets after 2025 to be 30 percent more efficient than those built under current construction designs.



But more needs to be done, as increasingly globalized trade means more ships sailing more miles. The European Union estimated that maritime emissions could rise from 2.2 percent of global emissions to 17 percent if left unchecked.



The nature of maritime shipping (as with international aviation) makes it hard to regulate. Although individual countries have adopted national emissions caps under the Paris agreement, it is hard to know how to count shipping emissions.



Much of the pollution is emitted in international territory, and the ships themselves are predominately registered in small nations with limited regulation; Panama, Liberia and the Marshall Islands are the three most common. Meanwhile, the bulk of shipping is moving among the nations with the largest economies and highest carbon emissions.



That makes it difficult to assign the emissions to specific countries, and that's why international shipping and aviation were left out of the historic Paris agreement that (eventually) led every nation on the planet to agree to reduce carbon emissions in an effort to cap global warming. President Trump since has pledged to withdraw the U.S. from that supposed "bad deal," evidence that he neither knows what makes a good deal nor what the implications are for the American people if global warming is not reined in.



The International Maritime Organization now must come up with a muscular and workable plan to hold individual nations responsible for enforcing global regulations on emissions. That could be good news for the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which, to their credit, have pledged to slash greenhouse gas emissions and diesel pollution from the shipping and freight industries, but face intense competitive pressure from other U.S. ports with less stringent environmental policies.



This will not be an easy transition. Maritime shipping is economically efficient when you measure the price and amount of heavy fuel oil used against the amount of cargo moved, but its carbon footprint is outsized. The sector needs to find and adopt more climate-friendly ways. International aviation regulators and companies also are looking at technologies and approaches to offset or reduce emissions under a pact reached in 2016 through the U.N.'s International Civil Aviation Organization. But they, too, need to do more, and faster.



Unfortunately, the U.S.  an integral part of the international shipping and aviation worlds  has under the current administration abdicated its responsibility to be a global leader in fighting climate change. The current (and maddening) deregulatory push by the Environmental Protection Agency, and the rush by the Department of the Interior to sell oil and gas leases, are being slowed by legal challenges and market forces, thank goodness.



Gov. Jerry Brown told a Canadian audience last Monday that the Trump administration poses a "momentary deviation" in the United States' fight to control global warming. We hope he's right. But even those at the forefront of the fight still need to do more. And reducing ship emissions is a significant piece of that.





The above article appeared in the Los Angeles Times. It was distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.


Long-term measures needed to normalize automaker



The union and management of troubled GM Korea tentatively agreed on a self-rescue plan Monday, averting a filing for bankruptcy protection. The agreement will open the way for about $500 million in fresh capital to be injected into the company by the government.



On Monday, both employers and employees struck the deal to share the burden of restructuring the loss-making automaker minutes before the deadline for the bankruptcy filing. The government's active mediation also played a part in the 11th-hour settlement.



The two sides began to make progress in negotiations as they found a compromise on the thorniest issue of guaranteeing job security for the workers at the closed Gunsan plant in North Jeolla Province. They agreed to offer a voluntary retirement program and job displacement for the remaining 680 employees at the factory but not push ahead with unpaid leave. They will also discuss a way to "smoothly resolve" the job issues of those who do not want to leave the company.



GM Korea has just taken the first step for survival. The local unit of GM still has a rough road ahead, however. Notably, they set aside some contentious issues for future debate, leaving room for strife later.



For its long-term survival, it is necessary for GM's headquarters to confirm its determination to come up with a plan. A stopgap scheme will get nowhere and a blueprint that ensures the company's survival for at least the next 10 years is needed. GM, however, seems to be bent on only securing financial support from the government, leaving a sense of uneasiness.



It was regrettable in this regard that Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon and Governor Lee Dong-geol of the Korea Development Bank, the second-largest shareholder of GM Korea, hinted at providing funds in the middle of union-management bargaining. Pouring taxpayers' money into poorly run companies cannot resolve their fundamental problems if past experience is any guide.



The government should make all stakeholders of GM Korea  management, workers, the headquarters and the shareholders  share the burden equally to ensure its sustainability. It ought to urge GM's headquarters to promise to assemble new cars here, such as electric and autonomous vehicles, instead of producing conventional models including SUVs.




Seoul suspends hostile broadcasts ahead of summit





Earlier this week, South Korea halted loudspeaker broadcasts directed at North Korea from Panmunjeom, the site of the Friday inter-Korean summit between President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The military has operated 40 loudspeakers broadcasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda.



The move, aimed at reducing military tension aheaad of the third inter-Korean summit, comes more than two years after Seoul resumed the broadcasts in January 2016 following the North's fourth nuclear test. In response, North Korea has reportedly been reducing its anti-South Korea broadcasts.



The military did well to suspend the broadcasts in the border town of Panmunjeom, where the 1953 armistice was signed, to set the mood for the summit. It should be the start of more concrete steps to significantly reduce military tension between the two Koreas.



Ahead of the summit, Pyongyang has been taking noticeable steps to ease tension. The North announced Saturday that it would suspend nuclear tests and shut down a nuclear test site in Punggye-ri. In addition, the two Koreas set up a direct hotline between their two leaders last week.



With the meeting just days away, these steps have greatly raised hopes for the summit, which will be the culmination of Moon's peacemaking efforts that started with the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games, in which Pyongyang decided to take part at the last minute.



According to the latest Cheong Wa Dae briefing, the two leaders will meet Friday morning. The day will also include a welcoming ceremony for Kim, who is the first North Korean leader to set foot in the South, and a dinner for the leaders.



There is also high anticipation that Kim's wife Ri Sol-ju will attend the dinner. She has been appearing frequently in diplomatic settings lately.



Although preparations seem to be going smoothly, there are still concerns about the effectiveness of the inter-Korean summit in bringing North Korea closer to complete denuclearization.



The entire world will be watching the Moon-Kim meeting Friday. Kim should show his firm commitment toward ending the state of military tension that has persisted for too long since the 1950-53 Korean War. This will be helpful in convincing the U.S. that it can be a serious negotiating partner ahead of the first-ever U.S.-North Korea summit in May or June.



U.S. President Donald Trump said recently he would give the two Koreas his "blessing" to discuss ending the war. The Moon-Kim meeting will hopefully lay the groundwork for permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula.




By Lee Seong-hyon





For the last few weeks, I have travelled to Washington and Beijing, and North Korea was a major topic. While honoring the Chatham House rule, here are a few perspectives to share, pertinent to the upcoming North Korea summits with South Korea and the United States. The primary purpose is to inform North Korean leader Kim Jong-un about how the outside world really thinks about Pyongyang's current moves and, importantly, that's why this time Kim should truly take the courage to denuclearize.



In Washington, both Democrats and Republicans remain deeply suspicious about Kim's intentions. It was difficult to maintain the argument that "North Korea is different this time." Second, Washington predominantly judges that the reason North Korea has reached out for dialogue this time is due to the threat of a U.S. military attack and biting economic sanctions. North Korea may think otherwise; but Washington's view is introduced here as it is.



Importantly, Washington's view has ramifications of how the U.S. will react to the North if the latter decides not to denuclearize. Since Washington "believes" that sanctions and military options are effective in getting Pyongyang's attention, it will more likely act in that direction in the future  only much tougher and stronger.



Third, observers in Washington expect that the summits, as a diplomatic "event," will go well, but the problems will come thereafter. A summit where a North Korean leader shows up is a rare media stunt itself. Already, there are reportedly over 800 international media crews who have descended upon Seoul to cover this weekend's inter-Korean summit.



A person who works for the White House was more worried about "the day after" all the shows conclude. If North Korea cheats again, Trump can then declare he has "used up" all the diplomatic options available on the table and now it's time to switch to a military option. The American public then is also more likely to accept the logic and support a military move too.



Fourth, the summit preparations in Pyongyang, Seoul and Washington are all being undertaken by spy agencies and done under the highest-level of secrecy. Therefore, very little information is shared with think tanks in Washington. The problem is that these think tanks are opinion leaders and have close ties with media outlets. Disconnected from intelligence, these think tanks resort to their past habits in looking at North Korea. It partly explains why the predominant media predictions in the U.S. are also on the pessimistic side. It is Kim's opportunity to prove them wrong.



For China, the North Korean problem is not so much about North Korea per se, but a part of Beijing's bigger regional strategy in dealing with the U.S. In the past, all roads leading to Pyongyang had to go through Beijing first. China's hosting the six-party talks for many years, in this sense, confirmed Beijing's leading role in North Korean affairs and strengthened China's historical sense of "sphere of influence" over North Korea.



Trump, however, changed the rules. Trump "bypassed" China to directly coordinate with Pyongyang to hammer out a summit. This made Beijing antsy. The preemptive summit by Chinese leader Xi Jinping with Kim in late March was to secure China's interests ahead of Kim's summits with Seoul and Washington. China hopes Seoul and Washington will put Beijing more in the loop. China fears a "secret deal" between Washington and Pyongyang that may put Beijing at a disadvantage.



China also frowns upon Seoul's close consultations with Washington in the process. China has a strong desire for "recognition" when it comes to North Korean affairs and is ready to "remind" Seoul if it sees that is not the case  for instance, by slowing down its easing of economic sanctions on South Korea it imposed over its anger with a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system. China, however, is also supportive of South Korea in its tension-thawing outreach to the North. Importantly, China is also supportive of North Korea's denuclearization.



Taken together, the central question from both Beijing and Washington that starts from the inter-Korean summit is whether this will lead to North Korea's denuclearization. There have been past failures and dashed hopes. Observers in Washington remain deeply suspicious about North Korea's intentions. Many Chinese are also quite skeptical too. Now, Kim has the chance to prove them wrong. It is very likely that this is Kim's final "window of opportunity" to join the international community.





Lee Seong-hyon (sunnybbsfs@gmail.com), Ph.D., is a research fellow at the Sejong Institute.


General Motors Vice President Barry Engle, second from left, speaks after GM Korea's labor and management reached a last-minute agreement on the survival of the U.S. carmaker's affiliate in Korea at the GM Korea head office in Incheon, Monday. / Courtesy of GM Korea



By Jhoo Dong-chan



GM Korea continues to face a bumpy road ahead until it gets itself back on track as its two largest stakeholders  General Motors and the Korea Development Bank  square off over the details of the rescue plan for the troubled automaker.



General Motors is demanding the state-run bank confirm its investment in its struggling Korean unit by April 27, while the KDB says it will invest in GM Korea only if the U.S. carmaker promises to operate its business in Korea for more than 10 years.



The state-run bank also said it wants to continue exercising its veto right even if KDB's shares in GM Korea are reduced from its current 17 percent after a possible capital reduction process or debt-for-equity swap.



"It's inappropriate for KDB to make any promises with General Motors at this point," said a KDB official.



"The due diligence report on GM Korea is scheduled to be released next month. Decisions on whether or how to salvage the carmaker will be made after that."






The new aircraft carrier was launched in April last year and could join the navy as early as the end of this year. / AFP



By Catherine Wong, Minnie Chan

China's first domestically built aircraft carrier is expected to start sea trials imminently, a source close to the navy said, amid what analysts say is growing external pressure to push forward its development.

The Type 001A aircraft carrier's maiden sea trial could take place this week, possibly coinciding with the PLA Navy's 69th anniversary on Monday depending on weather and ocean conditions, according to the source.

The Liaoning Maritime Safety Administration announced on Friday that three areas in the northeastern Bohai and Yellow Sea would be cordoned off for military activities from April 20 to 28. The restricted areas are close to the shipyard in Liaoning province where the new carrier is being built.

A main engine run was conducted on Tuesday, indicating sea trials were about to start, said another source who witnessed the engine test.

The aircraft carrier is expected to enter service later this year, 12 months ahead of schedule, which one naval expert put down to a growing sense of urgency as rivalry between China and the United States intensifies.

Another military source told the South China Morning Post earlier that the trial would test the ship's basic functions, including power, damage control and radar and communication systems, as well as checking for leakage.

But the carrier is not expected to sail far on its first voyage, the source said, and it may just stay within Bohai Bay.

Liu Zheng, chairman of Dalian Shipbuilding Industry, confirmed last month that the new aircraft carrier was ready to start sea trials.

The 70,000-tonne Type 001A was launched in April last year and is expected to join the navy as early as the end of this year, well before the original target of 2019.

The new warship is an upgrade to the Type 001 Liaoning, China's only operational aircraft carrier, a retrofitted Soviet-era Admiral Kuznetsov-class multi-role vessel.

But the source close to the navy said it was far "too early to estimate" when the new ship would be combat-ready.

It took nearly six years for the Liaoning to become a fully combat-ready battleship after it joined the navy in 2012, mainly because it lacked adequately trained crew members and commanders.

The Liaoning conducted intensive ocean drills last week, similar to those carried out by the US Navy, after taking part in the PLA's biggest-ever naval parade off the coast of Hainan Island in the South China Sea.

It also passed through waters south of Taiwan on its way to carry out the military exercises in the Western Pacific, the latest in a series of drills that self-ruled Taiwan has criticised as "intimidation".

The Liaoning is mainly used as a training vessel, but the new Type 001A  which will be able to carry up to 35 aircraft and will weigh 70,000 tonnes when fully loaded  is expected to be combat-ready.

"There is growing external pressure for China to speed up the development of its aircraft carrier so that it is the main force of the navy, especially since the US has increased its deployment in Asia," said Ni Lexiong, a naval expert at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law.

"But China is still 10 to 20 years behind the US in this competition."

The latest US carrier  the USS Gerald R Ford  weighs roughly 100,000 tonnes and can hold more than 75 aircraft.
Police in Canada's biggest city are piecing together witness accounts and surveillance video trying to determine why a driver plowed a rented van along a crowded sidewalk, killing 10 people and injuring 15 in what many said seemed a deliberate attack.

A 25-year-old suspect was quickly captured in a tense but brief confrontation with officers a few blocks away from where his van jumped the sidewalk Monday and continued for a mile, leaving people bloodied and dead in his wake. But authorities so far had not disclosed a possible motive or cause even as the police chief agreed with witnesses that it seemed intentional.

''The incident definitely looked deliberate,'' Police Chief Mark Saunders told reporters at a late-night news conference.

Saunders said the suspect, Alek Minassian, who lives in the Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill, had not been known to police previously. An online social media profile described him as a college student.

Officials would not comment on a possible motive except to play down a possible connection to terrorism, a thought that occurred to many following a series of attacks involving trucks and pedestrians in Europe and the presence in Toronto this week of Cabinet ministers from the G7 nations.

Asked if there was any evidence of a terrorist link, the chief said only, ''Based on what we have there's nothing that has it to compromise the national security at this time.''

A senior national government official said earlier that authorities had not turned over the investigation to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a sign that investigators believed it was unlikely that terrorism was the motive. The official agreed to reveal that information only if not quoted by name.

Authorities released few details in the case, saying the investigation was still underway, with witnesses being interviewed and surveillance video being examined.

''I can assure the public all our available resources have been brought in to investigate this tragic situation,'' Toronto Police Services Deputy Chief Peter Yuen said earlier.

Police said the suspect was scheduled to appear in court at 10 a.m. Tuesday, and that information on the charges against him would be released at that time.












The Goldman Environmental Foundation announced the seven winners of the 2018 Goldman Environmental Prize on Monday. The annual award is presented to environmental heroes around the world in recognition of their significant achievements to protect the environment.

Khanh is among the seven recipients of this years award, honoured for her efforts in using scientific research and engaging Vietnamese State agencies to advocate for sustainable long-term energy projects in Vietnam. Highlighting the cost and environmental impacts of coal power, she partnered with local officials to reduce coal dependency and move toward a greener energy future.

In 2011, she founded the GreenID in order to promote sustainable energy development in Vietnam, as well as good water and air governance and green development. She also established the Vietnam Sustainable Energy Alliance, a network of 11 Vietnamese and international environmental and social organisations that collaborate on regional energy issues.

In 2013, she collaborated with energy experts to conduct a study on the opportunity to reduce the amount of coal used in the power supply mix in favour of sustainable energy sources. She has strengthened her efforts of working with her peers and the government to support Vietnams transition to renewable and sustainable energy solutions.

This years winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize.

In addition to Khanh, this years Goldman Environmental Prize also went to Makoma Lekalakala and Liz McDaid (South Africa), Claire Nouvian (France), Manny Calonzo (the Philippines), LeeAnne Walters (the US), and Francia Marquez (Colombia).

The award ceremony will be held at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Centre in Washington D.C., on April 25 (local time).

The Goldman Environmental Prize was established in 1989 by late San Francisco civic leaders and philanthropists Richard and Rhoda Goldman. Prize winners are selected by an international jury from confidential nominations submitted by a worldwide network of environmental organisations and individuals.
Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Areas of patchy fog early. Foggy this morning. Scattered thunderstorms developing this afternoon. High near 70F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Rain showers early becoming more intermittent overnight. Low near 60F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.
This years festival marks the 1,050th anniversary of the establishment of Dai Co Viet, the first feudal state of Vietnam.

A series of cultural and sporting activities and festivals, including an art exchange, a national workshop on the role of Dai Co Viet in the countrys history, as well as art and photo exhibitions and the Thai Vi Temple and Trang An festivals, will be held.

The events is expected to provide people with a better understanding of the role and historic values of Dai Co Viet and promote the signature cultural and natural beauties of the Hoa Lu ancient capital, according to Pham Quang Ngoc, head of the provincial Partys Committee Board of Information and Education.

In the late 10th century, Hoa Lu was the capital and economic, political and cultural centre of Dai Co Viet founded by Dinh Bo Linh (968-979), before the Early Le Dynasty (980-1009).

Dai Co Viet (Great Viet) was the first centralised feudal state in Vietnam and existed from 968 to 1010 AD. It was also the native land of three royal dynasties: the Dinh, the early Le and the Ly. Hoa Lu was the first capital of the country until King Ly Thai To moved the capital to Thang Long (now Hanoi) in 1010.
Xi said he is looking forward to President Putin's China visit in June and his attendance at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in the eastern Chinese coastal city of Qingdao.

He said he hopes to boost friendship with President Putin, jointly plan China-Russia ties in a new era, and discuss the future development of the SCO together with the leaders of other SCO member countries.

Calling a high-level bilateral relationship "precious wealth of both countries," Xi said the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination has maintained positive development momentum.

China and Russia need to continue to give play to the guiding role of high-level exchanges in the development of bilateral ties, fully implement the consensus reached by the two heads of state, and synergize the Belt and Road Initiative and the Eurasia Economic Union, Xi said.

He also called on the two sides to enhance mutual support in international affairs, jointly uphold international law and universally recognized norms of international relations, and strengthen cooperation within the SCO, BRICS, G20 and other frameworks so as to build a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for humanity.

"I believe that with the efforts of both sides, China-Russia ties will make new achievements," said Xi.

Lavrov said President Putin looks forward to visiting China and attending the SCO Qingdao summit.

Russia has attached great importance to the comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination with China and stands ready to further strengthen bilateral cooperation, he said.

Both Russia and China respect international law and the UN Charter, said Lavrov, adding that his country agrees that the two nations need to further enhance coordination within multilateral frameworks.
BEIJING, April 23 (Xinhua) -- The Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Monday reviewed a proposal on strengthening border and coastal defense in the new era through joint efforts of the Party, government, military, police and the civilian sector.

The leadership of the CPC must be strengthened in building a strong and modern border and coastal defense, according to a statement released after a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, presided over the meeting.

"Joint efforts by the Party, government, military, police and the civilian sector constitute a unique advantage of China's border and costal defense," the statement said.

The statement stressed strengthening planning and coordination, improving institutional mechanisms, and advancing border administration in accordance with the law.

China will coordinate border defense with Belt and Road construction, poverty alleviation and ecological preservation to promote economic and social development and opening-up of border areas, and safeguard the security, stability, prosperity and development of border and coastal as well as sea areas under its jurisdiction.
One million always seems like a number so out of reach for many people as their income, if not a lottery win, but for some, a million is not only within reach but also very easy to find.

We offer a million yuan reward to those who can crack our bugs!

At the Hack for Security 2018 conference in Shanghai in March, such calls were not extraordinarily eye-catching.

file pic

Being a white hat hacker in China nowadays not only means a cool title, it also means a good income, that is, if you are skilled enough, as the country rapidly connects everything online but faces a desperate shortage in the supply of cybersecurity talent.

Sqler, a 24-year-old white hat hacker, started off as a bug bounty hunter on Butian, Chinas largest vulnerability response platform. Three years later, he has changed his job twice with a consistent rise in income that has reached more than 200,000 yuan per year as a cybersecurity expert.

My pay rise may be higher than others. It tripled when I changed jobs, he told Peoples Daily Online.

Similarly, Lunlun, a 26-year-old white hat hacker on Butian who is also a senior Internet security expert with Guangdong-based breeding industry R&D enterprise, HAID Group, now enjoys an annual income of over 200,000 yuan.

The young men were not shy to admit that cybersecurity experts in China tend to receive better paychecks than average IT professionals, adding that their bug hunts also help them collect bonuses  money, gifts, and trips  from companies beyond their main employers.

(Photo courtesy of Butian)

The more, the merrier

The 2018 report from HackerOne, a San Francisco-headquartered international bug bounty platform, showed that top white hat hackers on the platform earn 2.7 more than software engineers on average globally. In China, it is 3.7 times more.

According to a survey by China Information Technology Security Evaluation Center (ITSEC), the average annual salary of cybersecurity professionals in China was between 122,000 and 178,000 yuan in 2017, while that of IT professionals on average was 120,000 yuan.

With international cyber attacks targeting financial institutions, Chinese banks are also hiring more cybersecurity talents, and the competition is fierce, Cao Yue, a Beijing-based financial cybersecurity expert, told Peoples Daily Online.

The ITSEC survey indicated that financial institutions were the most generous in terms of payment to cybersecurity professionals. Of those surveyed, 80% receive an annual income of over 200,000 yuan and 31.8% make over 300,000 yuan each year.

Game on for whats rare

Its normal to see a high salary for the young people and fierce competition among companies on cybersecurity talents. It was also like this 20 years ago for programmers when the Internet was a newborn, Qi Xiangdong, Chairman of 360 Enterprise Security Group, told Peoples Daily Online on the sideline of Hack For Security 2018 conference.

Data released at the conference showed that China needs 700,000 cybersecurity talents and the number is expected to grow at 15,000 per year till it jumps to 1.4 million by 2020.

The talent shortage has become especially prominent as cybersecurity no longer threatens websites only, but also new technologies like AI and IoT, which are harder to fix due to their complexity. It is a matter of national strategy and personal safety, Qi emphasized.

(Photo courtesy of Butian)

As blockchain developers, we want to ensure everything on our blockchain is secure. There were several security breaches in the past on some of the industry-famous blockchains, which caused millions of dollars in losses. Were happy to have white hat hackers help to mitigate the risks and seek out systematic vulnerabilities. We already have tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands yuan invested in blockchain network securities. Experts such as white hat hackers are worth their price, Li Pu, a partner at Achain, a Beijing-based blockchain technology company, told Peoples Daily Online.

Fill in the blanks

In spite of the rising awareness on cybersecurity among Chinese companies after several outbreaks of attacks in the past years, including the WannaCry ransomware attack in May 2017, it is never easy to fill talent shortage gap, especially for cybersecurity talents, experts noted.

As early as 2015, China began to list cyberspace security as a university major like software engineering or civil engineering. Since then, the nation has stepped up its efforts in this regard and in 2017 it unveiled an ambitious plan to build four to six world-class cybersecurity colleges by 2027.

On March 29, the nations first cybersecurity training center was launched in Mianyang, Sichuan Province, to specifically train professionals capable of handling cyber attacks in real life. The base is expected to provide 1,200 cybersecurity engineers every year.

Cybersecurity companies like 360 Enterprise Security Group and vulnerability response centers like Butian have also pooled their efforts in this regard. Based on experience, the group has designed a series of textbooks for undergraduate students on cyberspace security and for white hat hackers on Butian, who serve as tutors at some 60 Chinese universities and have given lectures at over 30 universities to help students get first-hand information and skills.

In addition, many cybersecurity training courses are now available online to meet the demands from both the professionals and the newbies who are trying to tap into the industry.

But I must admit that many who come out of the training are far from good. Some even lack basic knowledge. Ive seen too many of them join, driven by profits, just to quit half way in the end. Its important to constantly study by yourself, if you are truly interested in it, said Sqler.

Echoing Sqler, Lunlun added that studying cybersecurity technologies is a long and boring process, which takes more time than interest.

The two white hat hackers said they sometimes still do cybersecurity case studies late into the night, which was more common back when they were at school.

Were not geniuses as people say. Its more about practice makes perfect. Youll be able to see more problems and threats after youve seen enough, Lunlun said.
Gorizia, April 24 - Italian police on Tuesday seized a large arms cache from a vehicle coming from Slovenia. They said a large amount of war weapons had been seized, including two Skorpio machine pistols, six Kalashnikovs, one .22 calibre rifle, a sawn-off shotgun, sights for a high-precision rifle, and ammunition for all these weapons. The Bosnian citizen driving the vehicle was arrested. The weapons were reportedly headed for Barcelona, police said after finding relevant papers.
Rome, April 24 - Italy is ready to fly in a respirator for terminally ill British toddler Alfie Evans, who has been granted Italian citizenship in a bid to beat court orders to pull the plug, Vatican-owned Rome's Bambino Gesu Hospital chief Mariella Enoc said Tuesday. The hospital said "Alfie now has a respirator. The Bambino Gesu team is ready to leave on a plane provided by (Defence) Minister (Roberta) Pinotti." "I spoke a short while ago with Thomas, Alfie's father. At this time Alfie has an oxygen mask but we need to transport him". She added "a short time ago I spoke with Ambassador (Raffaele) Trombetta to whom I said that our team has been alerted and is ready to leave in a few minutes". Contacts between Italian representatives and British political, health and judicial authorities have been continuing since last night but for now the UK authorities say the child's British citizenship must take precedence in deciding jurisdiction, Italian sources said Tuesday. Liverpool's Alder Hey Hospital meanwhile said it would not be issuing any bulletins on Alfie's condition out of respect for the privacy of the child and his family. It said that Alfie had been put back on oxygen but not reattached to a life-support machine. Alfie is still alive almost twelve hours after his breathing tube was removed, sources close to his family said Tuesday. Alfie, who is now an Italian citizen, was taken off the respirator at 22:30 British time Monday (23:30 Italian). His parents Tom Evans and Kate James gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation all night after he was taken off life support, the sources said. Diplomatic contacts are ongoing with the aim of putting Alfue back on life support, sources said. Alfie is still breathing but will need "help" to continue to do so "in a couple of hours", his father Tom told the media Tuesday. This was not what doctors had expected, he said outside a Liverpool hospital. "They said he was suffering but instead he is not suffering even without the respirator," said Tom Evans. He added that Alfie had not had water or food for six hours but was then hydrated by medics. Alfie's mother Kate James is sleeping with him, Tom Evans said. Alfie was later put back on oxygen and water, his mother Kate James said. She added: "It doesn't matter what happens, he has already shown that the doctors are wrong". Kate James said "it is surprising". Alfie's family is in a legal battle with Alder Hey, which has been granted the right to withdraw ventilation as his condition cannot be treated and has destroyed much of his brain.
Rome, April 24 - A tug-of-war continued Tuesday between Britain and Italy over Alfie Evans, a terminally ill British toddler who has been made an Italian citizen in a bid to beat British court orders to let him die. As Alfie survived being taken off life support and his parents practised mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, negotiations continued on bringing the child to Rome but the UK insisted it had jurisdiction, well-informed sources said. Amid the new developments, British High Court appeals judge Anthiny Hayden, who signed the ruling pulling the plug on Alfie, set a fresh hearing for this afternoon. The hearing has been called in Manchester at 15:30 local time (16:30 Italian time), his spokesman said. Lawyers from all parties including the family and Liverpool's Alder Hey Hospital have been summoned, sources said. Italy said it was ready to fly in a respirator for Alfie in a bid to beat court orders to pull the plug, Vatican-owned Rome's Bambino Gesu Hospital chief Mariella Enoc said. The hospital said "Alfie now has a respirator. The Bambino Gesu team is ready to leave on a plane provided by (Defence) Minister (Roberta) Pinotti." "I spoke a short while ago with Thomas, Alfie's father. At this time Alfie has an oxygen mask but we need to transport him". She added "a short time ago I spoke with Ambassador (Raffaele) Trombetta to whom I said that our team has been alerted and is ready to leave in a few minutes". Contacts between Italian representatives and British political, health and judicial authorities have been continuing since last night but for now the UK authorities say the child's British citizenship must take precedence over his newly granted Italian one in deciding jurisdiction, Italian sources said Tuesday. Vatican diplomacy is at work to get Alfie to Italy for treatment, sources said Tuesday. Hopes are growing after the child survived being taken off life support, the sources said. The Bambino Gesu Hospital has everything ready to welcome Alfie, they said. They noted that the chances of bringing the child to Italy have risen since he was made an Italian citizen, although the UK is still insisting it has jurisdiction. Liverpool's Alder Hey Hospital meanwhile said it would not be issuing any bulletins on Alfie's condition out of respect for the privacy of the child and his family. It said that Alfie had been put back on oxygen but not reattached to a life-support machine. Alfie is still alive almost twelve hours after his breathing tube was removed, sources close to his family said Tuesday. Alfie, who is now an Italian citizen, was taken off the respirator at 22:30 British time Monday (23:30 Italian). His parents Tom Evans and Kate James gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation all night after he was taken off life support, the sources said. Diplomatic contacts are ongoing with the aim of putting Alfue back on life support, sources said. Alfie is still breathing but will need "help" to continue to do so "in a couple of hours", his father Tom told the media Tuesday. This was not what doctors had expected, he said outside a Liverpool hospital. "They said he was suffering but instead he is not suffering even without the respirator," said Tom Evans. He added that Alfie had not had water or food for six hours but was then hydrated by medics. Alfie's mother Kate James is sleeping with him, Tom Evans said. Alfie was later put back on oxygen and water, his mother Kate James said. She added: "It doesn't matter what happens, he has already shown that the doctors are wrong". Kate James said "it is surprising". Alfie's family is in a legal battle with Alder Hey, which has been granted the right to withdraw ventilation as his condition cannot be treated and has destroyed much of his brain.
Varese, April 24 - Italian man Stefano Binda got life imprisonment Tuesday for the January 1987 murder of Varese student Lidia Macchi in a wood near Varese. Macchi was stabbed 29 times in the wood at Cittiglio. In January forensic experts told a judge that four hairs belonging to an unknown person were found on Macchi's body when it was exhumed in March 2016. They said the hairs did not belong to the victim or the accused, Binda.
BEIJING, April 23 (Xinhua) -- China has seen a good start to its high-quality development, the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee said Monday.

The Chinese economy has maintained its steady growth momentum in the first quarter of this year, as major economic indicators pointed to stronger domestic demand and good coordination between the growth of the industrial and service sectors, according to a statement released after a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

The meeting, presided over by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, studied the current economic situation and economic work.

China's GDP expanded 6.8 percent year on year in the first three months of 2018, unchanged from the growth rate in the previous quarter, official data showed last week.

Economic restructuring has played a bigger role in supporting growth as good progress was made in developing new industries and upgrading traditional sectors, the statement said.

The economy still faces pronounced underlying structural challenges despite the upside cyclical turn for growth, the statement pointed out.

The central government should speed up the release of indicators, policies, standards, statistical system, and performance evaluation methods as guidance for local governments and departments to follow in promoting high-quality development.

Local governments are also encouraged to explore ways that fit their local conditions to pursue high-quality development.

Efforts should be enhanced to win the "three tough battles," namely controlling risks, reducing poverty, and tackling pollution, the statement said.

The government will stick to a proactive fiscal policy and prudent and neutral monetary policy. Market-based measures will be taken to reduce overcapacity and support will be offered to new sectors and new business models.

The meeting also urged bolder reform and opening-up efforts and timely implementation of major opening-up policies.

The development of the country's financial and real estate markets should be watched closely to guard against potential risks, the statement said.
Rome, April 24 - The father, a brother and an uncle of Sana Cheema, the 25-year-old Brescian of Pakistani origin killed in Pakistan on April 18, have been arrested, Pakistani journalistic sources said Tuesday. The young woman is believed to have been killed for refusing an arranged marriage. The father, brother and uncle have been charged with murder and unauthorized burial. Another two people are involved, the doctor who signed the death certificate and the driver who drove a car to the burial site. Sana's cousin was said to be the driver. On Monday Pakistani authorities said they were investigating Cheema's death. Cheema, who became an Italian citizen in September after living for years in the northern city of Brescia, had returned to her birth country two months ago where she died of "natural causes", according to initial reports from Pakistan. However, members of the Pakistani community in Italy have said she was "killed by her father and brother because she refused an arranged marriage". Local media outlets also said she had a boyfriend in Brescia. Raza Asif, the national secretary of the Pakistani community in Italy, on Sunday said prosecutors in the Pakistani district of Gujarat, where the young woman died, are investigating and "we will know the truth in 48 hours". The Italian foreign ministry is following the case through its embassy in Islamabad. Cheema had opened an automotive office in Brescia but shut it down at the end of last year. The Pakistani community in Brescia received a medical certificate stating that the young woman was taken to hospital on April 11 after feeling unwell, reportedly due to a heart attack. They also said that her father and brother had not been arrested, as previously claimed by unconfirmed reports.
(refiling corrected) (corrects 'thumbs-up' to thumbs-down', 3rd graf). Rome, April 21 - League leader Matteo Salvini on Tuesday rejected the Democratic Party (PD) as part of a possible government formation. Lower House Speaker Roberto Fico was given a mandate on Monday to explore a possible government between the PD and Fico's anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S). On Twitter, Salvini posted a photo of himself giving a thumbs-down (RPT thumbs-down) accompanied by the tweet: "PD in the government? No, thank you. I will do everything I can so that the vote of the Italians is respected, from Rome and from Brussels. P.S. Coincidentally, the illegals are arriving again..."
Siracusa, April 24 - A Sicilian laborer was on Tuesday sentenced to 10 years in prison on appeal for killing a friend two years ago. Franco Iraci, 44, died after being punched in the face by Sebastiano Musso, also 44, during a dispute over a woman at a local bar on March 26, 2016. Initially Musso was sentenced to 12 years for manslaughter.
Brussels, April 24 - Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, the president of Italian bishops conference CEI, said Tuesday that Italy's post-election political deadlock risks hitting the weakest people in society. "I hope a solution comes because it is clear that the power vacuum is damaging for the poorest," Bassetti told a news conference during a meeting of COMECE, the Bishops' Conferences of the European Union, in Brussels.
Rome, April 24 - 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Luigi Di Maio said Tuesday that League leader Matteo Salvini has "condemned himself to irrelevance" for refusing to meet the anti-establishment group's demand that he drop his centre-right alliance partners to make a government-formation agreement possible. Di Maio said that option of the M5S ruling with the whole centre right, including Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia, was a path that could not be taken, after talks with Lower House Speaker Roberto Fico.
Milan, April 23 - An elderly man who was attacked in front of his apartment building in Milan is in serious but stable condition, medical sources said Monday. A 29-year-old Romanian national has been arrested in connection with the attack after investigators watched footage from security cameras in front of the building. He faces charges of attempted murder and robbery. The victim was attacked last Friday morning but hospital staff only reported the attack to police the following day as they initially thought the man had fallen by accident. Video footage showed the elderly man being punched by an attacker with the same tattoo on his arm as the suspect, who has a police record and lives near the location of the attack, in Milan's Villa San Giovanni district, with his wife and children.
BEIJING, April 23 (Xinhua) -- China regards boosting the development of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as one of its diplomatic priorities, said President Xi Jinping Monday, adding that he believes the upcoming SCO summit in the coastal city of Qingdao, Shandong Province, in June will be a success.

Xi made the remarks in a group meeting with foreign ministers from Russia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as well as with SCO secretary-general, and the director of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure Executive Committee.

They are in Beijing to attend the meeting of the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers, scheduled for Tuesday.
Judging by its first week of sales, James Comeys book is on track to become the biggest political hit of 2018.

A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership sold more than 600,000 copies in its first week, during which the former FBI director made media appearances and crossed the nation on a sold-out book tour.

A Higher Loyalty is the No. 1 bestselling book in the country, and the No. 1 bestselling English language book in the world, publisher Flatiron Books said in a news release, adding that the book had already been reprinted several times.

Comeys book has sold three times as many copies as the hardcover edition of Michael Wolffs Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House did in its first week of release, the New York Times reports. Comeys book has also sold twice as many copies as Hillary Clintons What Happened did in all formats in that books first week in print.

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A Higher Loyalty, which now has more than a million copies in print, remains the No. 1 bestselling book on Amazon, where its lingered at or near the top of the charts ever since it was made available for pre-order.

Its also highly rated by customers at the online retailer, with an average review of five out of five stars. Amazon has been criticized for restricting reviews of the book to customers who bought it from their website, Deadline reports.

Stacks of James Comeys book A Higher Loyalty on display April 17, 2018, the day it went on sale. (Drew Angerer / Getty Images )

Comey is in the midst of a book tour promoting A Higher Loyalty, with stops in five cities remaining. Hes scheduled to appear at the Aratani Theatre in Los Angeles on May 24; the event has been sold out for weeks.
With critical political deadlines fast approaching, the Trump administration is racing to strike a deal on a revamped North American Free Trade Agreement by early May  with an eye toward forcing a congressional vote on a new pact by the end of the year.

After months of making little progress, recent statements from high-level trade officials meeting in Washington indicate that negotiations have been gaining momentum and that theres a fair chance of reaching an agreement in principle in weeks or even days.

Were doing very nicely with NAFTA, Trump said Tuesday.

But as the presidents chief trade negotiator, Robert Lighthizer, continues talks with his Canadian and Mexican counterparts, analysts wonder whether enough time exists to close gaps on sensitive matters including trade in autos and farm goods and rules for handling investment disputes.

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Canada and Mexico, rather than make politically unpopular concessions, may decide it better to prolong the talks, even at the risk of a U.S. withdrawal from NAFTA, as Trump has repeatedly threatened.

Moreover, Trumps practice of lumping different issues together for bargaining leverage has increased uncertainties about the fate of negotiations. Last month, Trump gave an exemption to Canada and Mexico on hefty steel and aluminum tariffs, but only until May 1, saying what happens afterward would depend on how rewriting NAFTA comes along.

On Monday, Trump suggested that a NAFTA overhaul should include another one of his goals, tighter control of people entering from the southern border.

Mexico, whose laws on immigration are very tough, must stop people from going through Mexico and into the U.S., the president said on Twitter. We may make this a condition of the new NAFTA Agreement.

The Trump administration has good political reason to wrap up NAFTA talks in the coming weeks. It wants to lock in a deal ahead of Mexicos presidential election on July 1 in which a leftist candidate who opposes NAFTA is favored. Trump and his Republican backers also have their sights on the U.S. midterm elections. A successful conclusion to NAFTA talks could give a lift to the GOP and soften an expected loss of seats and possibly control of the House.

For Congress to complete work on a deal this year, Lighthizer would need to reach an agreement in principle very soon. Thats because the parties need time to write a text, give a mandated 90-day notice to Congress and have an economic impact report completed before Congress can vote it up or down.

Trump is betting that his best shot for approval would come during the lame-duck session after the November election, when many lawmakers may be willing to take more difficult votes.

As part of the administrations legislative strategy, Trump could give the required six months notice of withdrawal from NAFTA about the time a text is ready, essentially forcing Congress to accept the new accord or risk the end of the 24-year-old pact, according to trade experts.

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The status quo, which most members of Congress probably prefer, would not be an option, wrote William Reinsch, a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, although he questioned the wisdom of employing such hardball tactics.

Such a move could inflame opposition. Nor is it clear whether Trump has the legal authority to pull out of NAFTA without congressional support. Many on Capitol Hill and Wall Street fear the potential political and economic fallout of termination. An end to NAFTA would cause tariffs to rise and create other barriers that would almost certainly hurt trade, production and investments throughout North America.

Settling the NAFTA talks would allow the Trump administration to focus on another, more-fraught trade front with Americas biggest trading partner, China. Trump said Lighthizer would join Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in Beijing next week to discuss trade, in what could help lead to a thaw in increasingly tense relations with China.

On NAFTA, the tight political calendar already has spurred Lighthizer to soften his demands to overhaul rules on cars to increase auto and parts production in the United States.

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Lighthizer dropped his initial push for a new 50% minimum of U.S.-local content before a vehicle can get NAFTAs tariff-free treatment, and instead is looking at a different formula that could provide more work for American facilities. He has also shown a willingness to bend somewhat on his original proposal to raise the overall North American portion of the value of vehicles to 85% from the current 62.5%, meant largely to reduce reliance of parts from Asia in the assembly of cars and trucks.

But at the same time, Lighthizer has given little indication that he will make a broad retreat on major negotiating objectives, including eliminating or weakening certain NAFTA dispute-resolution mechanisms, revising government procurement rules in favor of American firms, and inserting a new, so-called sunset provision that would allow the U.S. to reopen NAFTA after a period of time.

Trump has repeatedly blasted NAFTA as a bad deal for America, blaming it for destroying domestic jobs and factories. But many economists point to factors such as automation for displacing U.S. workers and doubt that a revamped NAFTA would lead to a renaissance in manufacturing resulting in many jobs.

Lighthizer gave notice of renegotiating the agreement last spring in one of the administrations first trade acts.

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This is where he sees creating a new American trade agreement model, and so hes not going to just drop all those rebalancing and restructuring issues, said Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizens Global Trade Watch, which has been a vocal critic of NAFTA. She added that its also an opportunity for Lighthizer to get a trade deal that can pass Congress, unlike the Trans-Pacific Partnership that languished without enough support.

Wallach, a lawyer and veteran trade analyst who has been monitoring the developments since talks began last August, said it was hard to assess the odds that Lighthizer and Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and Mexican Economy Secretary Ildefonso Guajardo will reach an agreement in principle in the next couple of weeks.

For Mexico, the political calculus includes a desire by the current government to enshrine certain rules on privatizing energy industries through NAFTA before a potentially new president takes office and makes that impossible. The opposition leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has a big lead in the polls and is considered to be more nationalistic and protectionist than the current president, Enrique Pena Nieto.

Yet Mexican negotiators will be hard-pressed to accept U.S. demands aimed at pushing up Mexican wages, as well as restrictive rules on textiles and perishable produce, among other changes.

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Congressional Democrats have urged Lighthizer to address Mexican workers rights to organize and bargain for higher pay  something that Rep. Sander M. Levin (D-Mich.), a key proponent for tougher labor standards, says will be important if the Trump administration hopes to win Democratic votes for passage of a new NAFTA.

They have been slowly, incrementally beefing up their proposal, said Celeste Drake, a trade policy specialist at the AFL-CIO, referring to the Trump trade teams labor demands. But Drake, one of several hundred business and other stakeholders with whom U.S. trade officials have shared specific negotiating proposals, said she has not yet seen the administrations consolidated chapter on labor.

On balance, Mexican negotiators would prefer to make a deal and sign a NAFTA agreement before a new government is seated, analysts in Mexico said. But if the terms are too costly, they said, Mexican officials may decide its worth the risk to delay and call Trumps bluff. Some analysts believe Trump will find it hard to act on his threat to withdraw given the intensity of internal political pressures that are likely to build.

The U.S. administration is in some conundrum, said Manuel Molano, an economist at the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness in Mexico City. It is on the verge of a trade war with China, and if it also decides to cancel the agreement with Mexico and Canada, this could spell trouble for the U.S. economy.

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Canadas prime minister, Justin Trudeau, isnt up for election until the fall of 2019, and as such, may have more reason to try to extend negotiations in an effort to lessen any givebacks. Canadian officials have pushed back on, among other things, the Trump administrations bid to erase a legal mechanism to challenge U.S. dumping duties and to have Canada open up its sensitive dairy market to American producers.

Canada is experiencing uncertainty from a NAFTA up-in-the-air that may be having an impact on investment and production decisions, said Laura Dawson, director of the Wilson Centers Canada Institute, a think tank.

But overall, Canada is much more inclined to stay at the negotiations in order to get a good deal rather than accepting some sort of politically expedient turnoff.

The latest from Washington 

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More stories from Don Lee 

don.lee@latimes.com

Twitter: @dleelatimes

UPDATES:

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1:15 p.m.: This article was updated with President Trumps comment Tuesday.

The article was originally published at 3 a.m.
A year ago, Wells Fargo & Co. shareholders voted in droves against some of the banks longest-serving board members, a revolt sparked by the scandal over unauthorized bank accounts.

But 12 months later, even as outrage against the bank continues in the wake of new enforcement actions, shareholders stood with the company.

At Wells Fargos annual meeting Tuesday at a hotel in Des Moines, Iowa, investors overwhelmingly voted to elect the companys slate of directors, signed off on the banks executive pay and rejected a proposal that would have required the bank to report on risks associated with its compensation practices.

All 12 directors  many of them recent additions to the board  who stood for election received nearly 90% of shareholders votes, according to preliminary results released at the close of the meeting. Thats a blow to bank critics, including protesters who marched outside the meeting, who had called for the ouster of more board members and Chief Executive Tim Sloan.

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In Des Moines to demand that #WellsFargo fire its board and CEO, break up the bank, pay restitution to its victims, and respect workers rights to organize without retaliation! #ForgoWells #BustUpWells pic.twitter.com/B0GWpF0NMn  Samantha Nichols (@lalaladybug5) April 24, 2018

Sloan took the job after the accounts scandal broke in 2016 but is a longtime Wells Fargo executive and previously ran the commercial banking business.

Tuesdays votes stood in stark contrast to last years meeting, at which no director received more than 80% support and four  including the banks then-chairman, Stephen Sanger  received less than 60% in what Sanger described as a clear message of dissatisfaction. Corporate directors are typically elected with near-unanimous support.

California Treasurer John Chiang, whos running for governor, was at the meeting and told fellow shareholders they should withhold votes for John Baker, who has been a director since 2009, one of few holdovers from prior to the accounts scandal. He served on a board committee that reviewed customer complaints and, Chiang said, should have known about the unauthorized accounts problem long before it became public.

I am here to deliver a message from the people of California: Integrity and trust matter, he said, arguing Baker and several former directors tuned their backs on this metastasizing greed.

Chiang also asked shareholders to withhold support for the banks executive compensation packages, saying Sloan in particular does not deserve the $15 million in potential incentive compensation he was granted last year  calling him an insider and champion of the old guard.

It is time for him to go, Chiang said.

Board Chairwoman Betsy Duke defended Sloan, saying she believes he is the right CEO for Wells Fargo.

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He knows this company, he cares deeply about this company, she said. He has worked every day to make those changes within this company.

Shareholders also did not approve a proposal asking the bank to report on risks associated with its incentive compensation system. Incentive pay tied to onerous sales goals was one of the factors that motivated Wells Fargo workers to open unauthorized accounts, and a former currency trader alleged in a recent lawsuit that similar incentives may have led to problems in the banks foreign-exchange business.

The proposal for a report on risks related to incentive pay was brought forward by New York state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and supported by the influential shareholder advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services. It received the support of 21.7% of votes, according to the early tally.

In a statement, DiNapoli said he believes that level of support was a positive sign and plans to make the same proposal at next years shareholder meeting.

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We need daylight on what Wells Fargo is doing to oversee risky incentive pay practices that have contributed to multiple scandals at the bank, he said. As long-term investors, well be back next year and expect to gain even stronger support.

Bank analyst Bert Ely said he wasnt surprised by the apparent shareholder support for Wells Fargos management and board, especially given all the changes of the past year and a half. Investors, he said, are eager to move on and to give the new regime room to fix and stabilize the bank.

Investors want things to settle down, they want to see a company get this behind them and get the share price up, he said, though he added that shareholders will be unforgiving if the banks situation does not improve.

Where there will be investor unhappiness is if, over the next year, new problems surface that are indicative of management that hasnt gotten the message, he said.

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Tuesdays meeting was the second since the bank reached a $185-million settlement with regulators in September 2016 after admitting that its employees had created potentially millions of accounts for customers without their knowledge or consent.

And it comes less than a week after regulators fined the bank $1 billion over other problems uncovered in the scandals wake. The bank has also been ordered by the Federal Reserve to halt its loan growth until it can improve its risk management and governance practices.

Shareholders may have offered more support for the banks board in part because most directors are relatively recent additions. Of the 12 directors up for election Tuesday, just five have been with the bank since before the account scandal broke. Only three have been the the bank since 2013, the year The Times first reported the practice among employees of creating unauthorized accounts.

The bank has taken other actions, too, starting a wide-ranging review of practices that has led to leadership changes in several business units and the discovery of additional problems, including the fact that it forced hundreds of thousands of auto loan borrowers to pay for insurance policies they did not need. Thats one of the practices regulators cited when handing down last weeks fine.

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Theres no question that in this companys 166-year history, weve made mistakes, and weve acknowledged mistakes, Sloan said Tuesday. I said it last year and its still true: Rebuilding trust is our top priority.

As Sloan and the board received support from investors, they also got an earful from small shareholders and advocacy groups who criticized a wide range of the banks practices, from its financial relationships with oil and firearms companies to how it pays employees.

Protestors marched in downtown Des Moines before Tuesdays meeting and briefly made their way into the Marriott lobby. Marchers carried signs calling for Sloans ouster and calling on the bank to cut ties to oil pipeline projects, particularly those that cross tribal lands. The bank was one of several financial institutions that provided financing for the Dakota Access Pipeline.

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Sloan said the bank has a relationship with TransCanada, the company behind the Keystone XL pipeline, but isnt involved in that project specifically. He defended the banks business of lending to oil companies and pipeline projects, saying they are important to the economy. In answering one question about divestment from oil companies, Sloan asked meeting attendees to raise their hands if they drove or flew to the shareholder meeting.

Were proud to provide credit to companies in the energy industry, both those that provide fossil fuels and those dedicated to environmental sustainability, he said.

Sloan also faced questions over the banks financing of gun manufacturers, an issue that has gained traction in the weeks since Bloomberg reported that Wells Fargo is the National Rifle Assn.s primary bank and does more business with gun makers than any other bank.

Sister Nora Nash, a Philadelphia nun and member of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility who last year was named to a Wells Fargo advisory committee, urged the bank to stop doing business with companies that make or sell assault weapons.

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Protester showing this sign to drivers off Grand Avenue. #wellsfargo pic.twitter.com/LsllgmK1v4  Linh Ta (@linhmaita) April 24, 2018

Our company must not be financially associated with manufacturers of military weaspons, assault-style weapons, that are sold to the public, she said.

After a contentious exchange with another meeting attendee who asked about the banks stance on gun control, Sloan said the bank is not taking a position and will leave the issue to lawmakers. Some of Wells Fargos competitors, notably Bank of America and Citigroup, have said they will curtail their dealings with companies that make or sell certain types of firearms.

We think gun safety and gun violence are best addressed by legislation, Sloan said. We dont think its a good idea to allow banks to decide what products and services Americans can buy.

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james.koren@latimes.com

Follow me: @jrkoren

UPDATES:

2:45 p.m.: This article was updated with details about protests and a question-and-answer session.

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1 p.m.: This article was updated throughout with results of the meeting.

This article was originally published at 8:35 a.m.
Among the most challenging issues for Facebook Inc. is its role as the policeman for the free expression of its 2 billion users.

Now the social network is opening up about its decision-making over which posts it decides to take down  and why. On Tuesday the company for the first time published its 27 page of guidelines it calls Community Standards which gives to its workforce of thousands of human censors. It encompasses dozens of topics including hate speech, violent imagery, misrepresentation, terrorist propaganda and disinformation. Facebook said it would offer users the opportunity to appeal Facebooks decisions.

The move adds a new degree of transparency to a process that users, the public and advocates have criticized as arbitrary and opaque. The newly released guidelines offer suggestions on various topics, including how to determine the difference between humor, sarcasm and hate speech. They explain that images of female nipples are generally prohibited, but exceptions are made for images that promote breastfeeding or address breast cancer.

We want people to know our standards, and we want to give people clarity, Monika Bickert, Facebooks head of global policy management, said in an interview. She added that she hoped publishing the guidelines would spark dialogue. We are trying to strike the line between safety and giving people the ability to really express themselves.

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The companys censors, called content moderators, have been chastised by civil rights groups for mistakenly removing posts by minorities who had shared stories of being the victims of racial slurs. Moderators have struggled to tell the difference between someone posting a slur as an attack and someone using the slur to tell the story of their own victimization.

In another instance, moderators removed an iconic Vietnam War photo of a child fleeing a napalm attack, claiming the girls nudity violated its policies. (The photo was restored after protests from news organizations.) Moderators have deleted posts from activists and journalists in Myanmar and in disputed areas such as the Palestinian territories and Kashmir, and have banned the pro-Trump activists Diamond and Silk as unsafe to the community.

The release of the guidelines is part of a wave of transparency that Facebook hopes will quell its many critics. It has also published political ads and streamlined its privacy controls after coming under fire for its lax approach to protecting consumer data.

The company is being investigated by the Federal Trade Commission over the misuse of data by Cambridge Analytica, a consultancy linked to President Trump. Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg recently testified before Congress about the issue. Bickert said discussions about sharing the guidelines started last fall and were not related to the Cambridge controversy.

Facebooks content policies, which began in earnest in 2005, addressed nudity and Holocaust denial in the early years. They have ballooned from a single page in 2008 to 27 pages today.

As Facebook has come to reach nearly a third of the worlds population, Bickerts team has expanded significantly, and it is expected to grow even more in the coming year. A far-flung team of 7,500 reviewers, in places such as Austin, Texas; Dublin, Ireland; and the Philippines assesses posts 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in more than 40 languages. Moderators are sometimes temporary contract workers without much cultural familiarity with the content they are judging, and they make complex decisions in applying Facebooks rules.

Bickerts content review team also employs high-level experts including a human rights lawyer, a rape counselor, a counter-terrorism expert from West Point and a researcher with a doctorate who has expertise in European extremist organizations.

Activists and users have been particularly frustrated by the absence of an appeals process when their posts are taken down. (Facebook users are allowed to appeal the shutdown of an entire account, but not of individual posts.) People have likened this predicament to being put into Facebook jail without being given a reason they were locked up.

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Zahra Billoo, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations office for the San Francisco Bay Area, said adding an appeals process and opening up guidelines would be a positive development but said the social network still has a ways to go if it wants to stay a relevant and safe space.

Billoo said that at least a dozen pages representing white supremacists are still up on the platform, even though the policies forbid hate speech and Zuckerberg testified before Congress this month that Facebook does not allow hate groups.

An ongoing question many of the Muslim community have been asking is how to get Facebook to be better at protecting users from hate speech and not to be hijacked by white supremacists, right-wing activists, Republicans or the Russians as a means of organizing against Muslim, LGBT and undocumented individuals, she said.

Billoo herself was censored by Facebook two weeks after Trumps election, when she posted an image of a handwritten letter mailed to a San Jose mosque and quoted from it: Hes going to do to you Muslims what Hitler did to the Jews.

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Bickerts team has been working for years to develop a software system that can classify the reasons a post was taken down so that users could receive clearer information  and so Facebook could track how many hate speech posts were put up in a given year, for example, or whether certain groups are having their posts taken down more frequently than others.

People whose posts are taken down receive a generic message that says that they have violated Facebooks community standards. After Tuesdays announcement, people will be told whether their posts violated guidelines on nudity, hate speech and graphic violence. A Facebook executive said the teams were working on building more tools. We do want to provide more details and information for why content has been removed, said Ellen Silver, Facebooks vice president of community operations. We have more work to do there and we are committed to making those improvements.

Facebooks content moderation is still very much driven by humans, but the company also uses technology to assist in its work. It uses software to identify duplicate reports, a time-saving technique for reviewers that helps them avoid reviewing the same piece of content over and over because it was flagged by many people at once. Software also can identify the language of a post and some of the themes, helping the post get to the reviewer with the most expertise.

The company can recognize images that have been posted before, but it cannot recognize new images. For example, if a terrorist organization reposts a beheading video that Facebook already took down, Facebooks systems will notice it almost immediately, Silver said, but it cannot identify new beheading videos. The majority of items flagged by the community get reviewed within 24 hours, she said.

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Every two weeks, employees and senior executives who make decisions about the most challenging issues meet. They debate the pros and cons of potential policies. Teams who present are required to come up with research showing each side, a list of possible solutions and a recommendation. They are required to list the organizations outside Facebook with which they consulted.

Bickert and Silver acknowledged that Facebook will continue to make errors in judgment. The scale that we operate at, said Silver, even if were at 99% accuracy, thats still a lot of mistakes.

UPDATES:

7:25 a.m.: This article was updated throughout with additional details and comments.

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This article was originally published at 4:10 a.m.
Officials of the Chongqing Municipal Public Security Bureau hold a news briefing on April 23, 2018. More details on the case of Guo Wengui, one of China's most-wanted fugitives, who allegedly forged official state documents to mislead the public, have been revealed. Guo instructed and instigated suspects Chen Zhiyu and Chen Zhiheng to forge the documents, officials of the Chongqing Municipal Public Security Bureau said at the news briefing on Monday. (Xinhua)
When Abby walks in on Zack entertaining himself, so to speak, with porn, it takes some time for them both to recover from the shock. Zack doesnt understand why Abby is home so early from the yoga class she was scheduled to teach, and Abby cant figure out why Zack, a doctor, isnt with his patients.

But the biggest surprise is the discovery that this American husband and wife living in the Belleville section of Paris may not know each other as well as they suppose. A portrait of a marriage coming undone, Amy Herzogs Belleville, which opened Sunday at Pasadena Playhouse, is a stylish psychological thriller predicated on the idea that the person closest to you may in fact be a complete stranger.

The play, as mysterious and unpredictable as the strained relationship it depicts, sets up expectations only to subvert them. Its intentionally tricky to find ones footing as this contemporary relationship drama, a tale of two millennials fumbling abroad, morphs into modern-day Hitchcock, complete with a large knife and rivulets of blood.

The production, directed by Jenna Worsham, features a charming apartment set by David Meyer that suggests the hipster lifestyle pervading this gentrifying neighborhood. The enchanting Parisian views from the large windows never let Abby (Anna Camp) and Zack (Thomas Sadoski) forget that they are now islanded together, foreigners among the disdainful, elegant French.

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Anna Camp as Abby and Thomas Sadoski as husband Zack in Belleville. (Philicia Endelman )

Abby regularly shares her feelings to correct her husbands. Zack assumes the role of caretaker to control her and cover up his lies. They call each other homey when feeling insecure, but the term of endearment has the ring of an IOU.

The couples claustrophobic dependency is alleviated by visits from Alioune (Moe Jeudy-Lamour), the Senegalese-French landlord, who drops by to smoke bowls of weed with Zack. Married with a baby, Alioune appreciates the respite from the domestic grind. His wife, Amina (Sharon Pierre-Louis), a headscarf-wearing Muslim with a no-nonsense demeanor, runs a tight ship. But he quietly lets Zack know that hes imposed too long on their friendship and must come up with the four months back rent or face eviction.

Herzog, the author of 4000 Miles, Mary Jane and other discreetly adventurous plays that are never quite as straightforward as they seem, allows suspicions and doubts to accumulate. Why does Zack owe so much money? Is there a reason he keeps skipping work and whys he smoking so much pot? Should we be concerned that Abby has gone off her anti-depressants and is no longer making an effort to learn French? And what to make of the constant telephone contact she has with her widowed father, whose updates on her sisters pregnancy are clearly getting under Zacks skin?

The naturalism of these scenes, in which the glitches in human behavior are casually revealed through the awkwardness of silence and the annoyance of too much speech, is lost in Worshams production. The actors often over-theatricalize their exchanges, leaving little room to register the interior blips and bumps occurring between words.

In portraying Abby, Camp, a film and TV actress (the Pitch Perfect films, True Blood) with a solid stage resume, puts everything on the surface. Coddled and entitled, Abby is 28 going on 22, which is why she gets so upset when Alioune, whos only 25, guesses shes 32.

Camp paints an accurate enough external portrait, but theres not much stirring inside the character. Abbys banter with Alioune and Zack initially plays like sitcom dialogue, draining the work of its neo-Pinteresque menace and setting up erroneous expectations of what stylistically lies ahead.

Sadoski, an unimpeachably good stage actor in his early 40s, might be a tad old for Zack, who went to college with Abby and recently finished medical school to take a job with Doctors Without Borders. The difference in how you perceive a guy whos not yet 30 and one who is over 40 is not insignificant in a play about a couple forced finally to reckon with realities that have too long been postponed.

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Zack (Sadoski), left, talks with his landlords, played by Moe Jeudy-Lamour and Sharon Pierre-Louis. (Philicia Endelman )

The acting in Worshams imprecise production is jangled at points; beats are missed and subtext is sometimes ignored. Having seen Anne Kauffmans impeccable 2013 production of Belleville at New York Theatre Workshop starring Maria Dizzia and Greg Keller, I was keenly aware of what was no longer happening between the lines.

As the suspense intensifies, Worsham ramps up the directorial flourishes, with blinking lights and sound effects, instead of digging deeper into the plays psychological substance. It can feel at times as though shes directing the movie studio version of Belleville.

The more hair-raising moments are handled with unflinching effectiveness. (I had to look away as Abby, having badly stubbed her toe, performs a bit of butchery on the afflicted toenail.) But credulity is occasionally a casualty of the overemphatic staging, as when, after a drunken night, Abby inexplicably smashes the baby monitor Amina left behind. (The stage directions only call for Abby to stumble out of bed, unable to place the sound of the crying infant.)

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Still, the production seizes our attention with the slippery intrigue. Its never clear how far the play is going to veer into Psycho territory. (Warning: Abby and Zack spend a fair amount of time in the bath and shower.) The uncertainty makes us squirm all the more.

Perhaps the most unsettling moments are when Zack and Abbys intimacy turns threatening. Here, the acting is at its convincing best, the focus squarely on the desperate transactions made for love and security.

As Alioune and Amina, Jeudy-Lamour and Pierre-Louis excel when playing off each other in relatively simple French. They provide ironic cultural commentary of these stunted, privileged Americans. But more important, the characters extend Herzogs insight into the bargain with the truth two people make when they entwine their lives.

Belleville is deviously difficult to pin down. This uneven Pasadena Playhouse production complicates matters further, but the arresting drama unfolds in the mind like a scary dream that demands to be decoded in the cold light of day.

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Belleville

Where: Pasadena Playhouse, 39 S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena

When: 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays, 2 & 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Ends May 13

Tickets: Prices start at $25

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Contact: (626) 356-7529 or www.PasadenaPlayhouse.org

Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes

charles.mcnulty@latimes.com

Follow me @charlesmcnulty

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Arriving at the ASCAP Pop Music Awards on Monday, rocker Alice Cooper said he came to honor the recipient of the nights Founders Award, songwriter Desmond Child, whose songs have been recorded by music superstars such as Katy Perry, Ricky Martin, KISS, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Cher and Joan Jett.

Desmond basically wrote the 80s, Cooper said of the Songwriting Hall of Famer. Back then, he wrote for all the hair groups. Youd get him on the phone and say, Desmond, I need a hit.

The event

Alice Cooper, right, onstage at the 35th annual ASCAP Pop Music Awards. Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images for ASCAP

The ASCAP Pop Music Awards (ASCAP is the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) presented the Founders Award to Child; the Vanguard Award to the members of Portugal. The Man; and the Global Impact Award to Lana Del Rey. Also named were the years top pop composers and publishers, including Steve Mac, Max Martin, Drew Taggart and Starrah, who all tied for pop music songwriter of the year. Starrah was the first woman so-named since Beyonce, who received the honor 16 years ago.

The crowd

Kandi Burruss on the red carpet at the 35th annual ASCAP Pop Music Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images for ASCAP

Songwriter Paul Williams, the organizations president, welcomed the by-invitation audience of 750 songwriters, composers, producers and other music insiders including The Real Housewives of Atlanta cast member Kandi Burruss and Tameka Harris, both original members of the girl group Xscape; former Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora; Wyclef Jean; and Alex Pall of the Chainsmokers.

The program

In tribute to Del Rey, Father John Misty performed her song Ride, after which the pop star proclaimed him her favorite artist. Portugal. The Man sang its hit, Feel It Still, and in honor of Child, Cooper sang their hit, Poison.

The quotes

The members of Portugal. The Man at the 35th annual ASCAP Pop Music Awards. Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images for ASCAP

Ive been a fan of music my whole life, said bassist Zach Carothers, expressing thanks on behalf of Portugal. The Man. Im from a small town in Alaska, and we were always just listening to music  listening to the artists, but when I got older I realized that its the songwriters  its those people that were actually speaking to me my entire life, shaping who I am.

In presenting the nights biggest award to Child, Paul Stanley of KISS said, Success is difficult, but sustaining it is almost impossible. Des has 40 years of success, and that says it all. You can read a list of all the artists hes worked with, and its humbling and inspiring. He added that the second song he and Child wrote together, I Was Made for Lovin You, remains the biggest KISS hit to this day.

ASCAP Chief Executive Beth Matthews, from left, Desmond Child and Paul Stanley at the 35th annual ASCAP Pop Music Awards. Lester Cohen / Getty Images for ASCAP

I would not be here tonight if it werent for Paul Stanley, said Child, accepting the award. Paul has been a loyal friend and mentor who taught me [and] KISS Rule No. 1, that ultimately no matter what the critics say human beings only want to hear big fun songs full of hope.  I use those rules for almost everything Ive done since then.

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Ellen Olivier is the founder of Society News LA.

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From a new cocktail bar in the Theater District to a new Greek restaurant in Beverly Hills, heres whats happening in the Los Angeles food and drink world:

Thai town sweets: Pastry chef Justin Chao, who trained at the Michelin-rated Le Meurice in France, has made a name for himself supplying guests at the Cannes Film Festival, the Golden Globes and the White House Correspondents Dinner with his caramels and pastries. The chef just opened his first cafe and confection shop, called Le Bon Garcon, on Hollywood Boulevard in Thai Town. To start, Chao is making the caramels hes known for, as well as caramel-filled waffles. Chao has seven flavors of caramel, including mango passion fruit, honey lavender and yuzu. And hes set up a caramel fountain inside the shop, where you can fill up jars to take home. Chao eventually plans to extend the stores hours and selection to include coffee and breakfast items. 5158 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, (424) 272-6677, www.lebongarcon.com.

Family affair: Actor Patrick Duffy (Dallas) grew up above his fathers bar in Montana. His grandfather also had a bar in Boulder, Mont. And now his son Padraic and his daughter-in-law Emily Kosloski are spearheading a new bar on Theater Row called the Broadwater Plunge. When the bar opens inside the Duffy familys Broadwater theater complex on Santa Monica Boulevard May 24, it will be the first bar to open inside a theater that will operate regardless of when the theater is open (you will not need a theater ticket to get inside). The 900-square-foot bar is named after a spa called the Broadwater in Montana that had a swimming pool, or plunge, in the middle of it. The Broadwater Plunge is adjacent to stages where the Sacred Fools Theater company, of which Padraic has served as the company managing director for almost a decade, puts on shows. We wanted it to be a public space within the community where artists could all gather in one place, said Padraic. Its the melding of our family history and the theaters history.

The bar features an actual piece of Padraics grandfathers bar and a library of Samuel French-inspired theater scripts. And on the menu are 10 signature drinks: five inspired by the Sacred Fools Theater company and five designed as homages to Padraics grandfathers bar in Montana. The Stubblefields was named after a regular who used to bring his donkey into the bar and is a take on a Mule. The Serial Killer is a spicy margarita inspired by a Sacred Fools late-night show. 6324 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, www.thebroadwaterla.com/the-plunge.

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Drinks with a view: The Rooftop Cafe at the NoMad Los Angeles is now open for reservations only, at the downtown L.A. hotel. You can sit by the pool and order club sandwiches; prawn rolls; and ice cream sandwiches. Bar director Leo Robitschek prepared a full list of cocktails that includes a spicy Paloma and a weekly frozen cocktail. Reservations can be made through the Resy reservation website and app. 649 S. Olive St., Los Angeles, (213) 358-0000, www.thenomadhotel.com/los-angeles.

Avra: Theres been even more of a shortage of Los Angeles Greek restaurants of late, since Ulysses Voyage closed at the Farmers Market in March. But restaurateurs Nick Tsoulos, Nick Pashalis and Marc Packer have brought Avra, the West Coast version of the New York Greek restaurants Avra Estiatorio, to Beverly Hills. The 11,000-square-foot restaurant is located on Beverly Drive, across from the Montage Hotel. The menu focuses on traditional Mediterranean food, with charcoal-grilled octopus and kolokithia (crispy zucchini and eggplant chips with tzatziki. The restaurant, which features lemon trees, a 1,500-pound sculpture by Brooklyn artist Fernando Mastrangelo and two private dining spaces, was designed by Rockwell Group. 233 N. Beverly Dr., Beverly Hills, (310) 734-0841, avrabeverlyhills.com.

Permanent digs: Chef Ari Taymor is making Little Prince, his brunch-only pop-up restaurant in Santa Monica, a permanent brick-and-mortar. The chef, known for his Alma restaurants, has closed his two-month pop-up for renovations and plans to reopen as a full restaurant with dinner service May 4. Our evening menus will consist of light and bright offerings inspired by the markets and farms nearby, said Taymor recently. And general manager Steve LaFountain put together a list of all-natural wines and cocktails. The restaurant is named after the French childrens book The Little Prince, which Taymors mother read to him when he was a kid. 2424 Main St., Santa Monica, littleprince.la.

jenn.harris@latimes.com

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USC names retired aerospace executive Wanda Austin as acting president, announces Nikias departure By Harriet Ryan USC appointed a retired aerospace executive as interim president and laid out a detailed plan for selecting a permanent leader Tuesday, ending speculation about whether outgoing President C.L. Max Nikias might remain in the post. Nikias, embattled over his administrations handling of a campus gynecologist accused of sexually abusing patients, relinquished his duties after a meeting of USCs board. The trustees tapped one of their own, Wanda Austin, an alumna and former president of the Aerospace Corp., to temporarily run the university. The trustees also approved the formation of a search committee and the hiring of firm Isaacson, Miller to coordinate the selection of a successor. A second search company, Heidrick & Struggles, will also advise trustees. Read More Facebook

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Ex-student sues elite Brentwood School after teacher is charged with sexually abusing him By Richard Winton A former student sued the elite Brentwood School on Monday in the wake of a female teacher being charged with repeatedly having sex with the minor, alleging that other faculty members encouraged the unlawful behavior and failed to report it to authorities. The lawsuit accuses the private school, whose students include the children of many of Hollywoods elite and L.A.s powerful, of acting negligently and allowing Aimee Palmitessa to abuse and batter the teenager sexually. The suit alleges that the student was abused in summer 2017 after one of the schools counselors offered words of encouragement to the then-17-year-old, identified in the suit as only John Doe, to engage in an illegal relationship with the teacher. Read More Facebook

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Civil jury vindicates fired Montebello school executives in whistleblower case By Howard Blume The Montebello school district is in dire straits  at risk of insolvency and under apparent criminal investigation. An outside audit in July found some teachers earning more than $200,000 a year, as well as improper raises, excess paid vacation time and inappropriate overtime, sick leave and car allowances. Fixing the district and pinpointing blame could take time. Read More Facebook

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L.A. schools fall short on safety measures, new report warns By Howard Blume After the mass shooting at Floridas Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February, Los Angeles school officials reassured parents that much had been done to keep local schools safe. California had tougher gun laws, after all, and the school district paid close attention to students mental health. But a new report issued Monday by a panel convened to take a close look offers some cause for concern, flagging inconsistent campus safety measures, thinly spread mental health staff and inadequate coordination between the school district and other public agencies. With the stakes this high, we must strive to do better, said L.A. City Atty. Mike Feuer, who assembled the panel. Read More Facebook

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L.A. school district says more are graduating, but rate may not show it By Howard Blume The L.A. Unified School District has hopes of continuing its winning streak this year with another record graduation rate, but the official numbers may not show it. A senior district administrator warned the board Tuesday that graduation rates were likely to decline 2% to 3% across the state, even though L.A. Unified is likely doing better than ever in producing graduates, he said. The issue is that the state will now count high school students who transfer to adult school as dropouts, said Oscar Lafarga, who heads the districts office of data and accountability. Previously, schools treated these students as though they had simply enrolled in another high school, he said. Read More Facebook

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Betsy DeVos to California: Not so fast on that federal education plan By Joy Resmovits Education Secretary Betsy DeVos (Erik Lesser / European Pressphoto Agency) In April, Californias top education officials breathed a sigh of relief. After months of debate and back-and-forth with Betsy DeVos staff, they had finalized a plan to satisfy a major education law that aims to make sure all students get a decent education. The state focused on aligning its plan to fulfill the requirements of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act with Californias Local Control Funding Formula, which gives extra money to districts to help students who come from low-income families, are in the foster system or are English learners. But this week, DeVos team said not so fast. Jason Botel, the U.S. Department of Educations principal deputy assistant secretary, sent California education officials a letter asking for more information in such areas as measuring student progress, graduation rates and English learners. In an unsigned statement, the California Department of Education declared itself surprised and disappointed because officials thought  after a meeting with federal officials in Washington  that they were on the right track to get approval. Now the Every Student Succeeds Act plan will be up for discussion once again at the July meeting of the State Board of Education. The U.S. Department of Education has already approved most state plans. Every Student Succeeds is the Obama administrations 2015 replacement for the No Child Left Behind Act. Facebook

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L.A. school board sets a new goal: prepare every grad to be eligible to apply for Cal State or UC By Sonali Kohli Last month, Los Angeles school board president proposed a spate of highly ambitious mandates aimed at ensuring that every district graduate be eligible to apply to one of the states public four-year universities by 2023. By the time the L.A. Unified school board unanimously approved the resolution Tuesday, the original language had been watered down. The goal is no longer that in five years 100% of students meet the long list of benchmarks, which include not just college eligibility for graduates but first-grade reading proficiency and English fluency by sixth grade for all students who enter the district in kindergarten or first grade speaking another language. The original college-readiness goal, for example, called for 100% of all high school students to be eligible to apply to one of the states four-year universities. Now the goal seems to offer more wiggle room: Prepare all high school graduates to be eligible to apply to a California four-year university. Read More Facebook

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We have been hurt. More women say they were mistreated by USC gynecologist By Richard Winton USC student Anika Narayanan says she vividly recalls her first appointment with Dr. George Tyndall at the campus health center, alleging that he made several explicit comments during an examination she felt was inappropriate and invasive. When she came back for a second visit in 2016 after a nonconsensual sexual encounter, he allegedly chastised her, she said in a civil lawsuit and at a press conference Tuesday. He asked me if I had forgotten to use a condom again,  said Narayanan, 21. At one point, she said, Tyndall asked if I did a lot of doggy style,  she said. Read More Facebook

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L.A. Unified gives inspector general brief contract extension By Howard Blume The Los Angeles school board on Tuesday extended the contract of Ken Bramlett, its inspector general, by three months, though his job is far from secure and questions remain about the future direction of his watchdog office. Board members also unanimously promoted Vivian Ekchian, who had been the runner-up for the superintendents job, to deputy superintendent  the districts No. 2 position. Both moves had elements of peacemaking between different factions on the board. Read More Facebook

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USCs handling of complaints about campus gynecologist is being investigated by federal government By Harriet Ryan The U.S. Department of Education announced Monday that it has launched an investigation into how the University of Southern California handled misconduct complaints against a campus gynecologist, the latest fallout in a scandal that has prompted the resignation of USCs president, two law enforcement investigations and dozens of lawsuits. In revealing the inquiry by the departments Office of Civil Rights, officials rebuked USC for what they alleged was improper withholding of information about Dr. George Tyndall during a previous federal investigation. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, who has been criticized for taking a less vigorous approach to examining sexual misconduct than predecessors, called for a systemic examination of USC and urged administrators to fully cooperate. Read More Facebook

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Judge to sentence woman and her boyfriend for the murder of an 8-year-old that led to L.A. child welfare reforms By Marisa Gerber A woman and her boyfriend are expected to be sentenced Thursday for the torture and murder of an 8-year-old boy whose killing in 2013 provoked public outrage, prompted sweeping reform of Los Angeles Countys child welfare system, and led to unprecedented criminal charges against social workers who handled the childs case. Pearl Sinthia Fernandez, 34, faces life in prison without the possibility of parole for her role in the death of her son, Gabriel. A jury decided last year that her boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre, 37, should be executed. When paramedics arrived at the boys Palmdale home in May 2013, Gabriel had slipped out of consciousness. He had a fractured skull, broken ribs, burned skin, missing teeth and BB pellets embedded in his groin. A paramedic would later testify that every inch of the boys small body had been abused. Read More Facebook

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L.A. Unifieds spending out of step with similar school systems, task force says By Howard Blume The Los Angeles school district is out of step with similar school systems, spending more on teachers pay and health benefits and less on activities that could enhance student learning, according to a new report by an outside task force. The L.A. Unified School District Advisory Task Force did not make specific recommendations, but instead posed a series of questions it said the district needs to answer to make sure its funding is aimed at providing a full opportunity for all students to succeed. What were trying to say is: Lets put the data on the table. Lets look at the truth. Lets be transparent and here are the numbers, said task force member Renata Simril. This is not to say that  we should cut teachers salaries. Read More Facebook

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Top USC medical school official feared dean was doing drugs and alerted administration, he testifies By Paul Pringle A former vice dean of USCs Keck School of Medicine testified Tuesday that he feared the schools then-dean, Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito, could be doing drugs and expressed concerns about his general well-being to the universitys No. 2 administrator before Puliafito abruptly left his job in 2016. Dr. Henri Fords testimony at a hearing of the state Medical Board marks the first suggestion that any USC administrator had suspicions about Puliafitos possible drug use before he stepped down. A Times investigation in 2017 found Puliafito led a secret second life of using illegal drugs with a circle of young criminals and addicts. Puliafito testified about his behavior at the hearing Tuesday, saying he took drugs with one young woman on a weekly basis. Ford said that he decided to alert USC Provost Michael Quick after receiving reports in early 2016 that Puliafito was partying in hotels with people of questionable reputation, and that he came to worry about his mental stability. Read More Facebook

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Why L.A. Unified may face financial crisis even with a giant surplus this year By Jessica Calefati With more than half a billion dollars socked away for next school year, the Los Angeles Unified School District hardly seems just two years from financial ruin. Its a scenario that is especially tough to swallow if youre a low-wage worker seeking a raise or a teacher who wants smaller classes. But budget documents show that todays $548-million surplus cannot be sustained  and that even basic services face steep, seemingly unavoidable cuts because of massive problems barreling the districts way. Theres a disconnect between the rosy short-term picture and what we know is coming, said board member Kelly Gonez. Read More Facebook

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We have failed: Top USC officials try to reassure students amid gynecologist scandal By Joy Resmovits Top administrators at USC are reaching out to students in the wake of misconduct allegations against the universitys longtime gynecologist, acknowledging failings and vowing reforms as they try to address growing outrage over the revelations. Several USC deans have sent out messages trying to reassure students and faculty that the university is committed to changing. We have failed, wrote Jack H. Knott, dean of USCs Sol Price School of Public Policy, in a May 24 letter. What happened is antithetical to everything we know is right. Read More Facebook

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Rick Caruso is named chair of USCs trustees, vows swift investigation of gynecologist scandal By Thomas Curwen The University of Southern Californias board of trustees has elected mall magnate Rick Caruso to be the new chair of the board, giving fresh leadership as the university navigates a widening scandal involving a longtime campus gynecologist. The move marks the latest effort by USC to address the case, which has sparked a criminal investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department and dozens of civil lawsuits. More than 400 people have contacted a hotline that the university established for patients to make reports about their experience with Dr. George Tyndall. In his first act as chairman, Caruso announced that the white-shoe L.A. law firm OMelveny & Myers would conduct a thorough and independent investigation into the gynecologists conduct and reporting failures at the clinic. He set an ambitious timeline for the review, pledging it would conclude before students return for the fall semester. Read More Facebook

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UC Berkeley students persistence helps win more liberal rules for in-state tuition By Teresa Watanabe Ifechukwu Okeke thought shed be a shoo-in for in-state tuition when she was admitted to UC Berkeley for fall 2016. She had moved to the United States from Nigeria in 2012 to go to Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga. By the time she got her acceptance to transfer to UC to study molecular and cell biology, she had lived in California four years. She had a California drivers license, bank account and rental records as proof. UC Berkeley, however, ruled she was a nonresident  which meant she would have to pay nearly $27,000 more. Read More Facebook

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State medical board calls former County-USC doctor a sexual predator, suspends his license By Matt Hamilton A UCLA cardiologist has been temporarily stripped of his medical license after state regulators described him as a sexual predator who assaulted three female colleagues when he was working and training at L.A. County-USC Medical Center. Read More Facebook

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Global California 2030' aims to get more students learning more languages By Joy Resmovits Tom Torlakson (Andrew Seng / Associated Press) Outgoing state Supt. of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson on Wednesday announced a new statewide effort to encourage students to learn more languages. Called Global California 2030, its goal is to help more students become fluent in multiple tongues. Torlakson said that by 2030, he wants half of the states 6.2 million K-12 students to participate in classes or programs that lead to proficiency in two or more languages. By 2040, he wants three out of four students to be proficient enough to earn the State Seal of Biliteracy. Torlakson announced the initiative at Cahuenga Elementary School, which offers a dual-language immersion program in English and Korean. Californias public school students speak more than 60 languages at home, and 40% come to school with knowledge of a language other than English. Torlakson called his plan a call to action that invites parents, legislators, educators and community members to pool resources to expand language offerings in schools and get more bilingual teachers trained. He said the state already is working with Mexico and Spain to expand a teacher-exchange program. Fluency, the plan argues, can help students succeed economically  and language acquisition can help their overall critical thinking. The initiative builds on Proposition 58, a ballot initiative passed in 2016 that undid an earlier requirement that English learners be taught in English-immersion classes unless their parents signed waivers. Torlakson recently visited Mexico and met with that countrys education secretary. They later signed a pact to increase collaboration, particularly in language education. This [Global California 2030] is great follow-through on Toms part and very important, Patricia Gandara, a UCLA education professor who hosted the Mexico meeting, said in an email. It hands over a plan to move forward in an area in which California has a unique advantage, but must seize the opportunity. Facebook

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Jury convicts man of murder in 2015 slaying of UCLA student found inside her burning apartment By Marisa Gerber A jury on Tuesday convicted a man in the 2015 slaying of a UCLA student found dead inside her burning apartment  a gruesome stabbing case that led to a fierce rebuke of the police response amid concerns that the killing could have been prevented. The panel deliberated for about six hours before finding Alberto Medina, 24, guilty of murder, arson, burglary and animal cruelty. On Sept. 21, 2015, firefighters found the charred body of Andrea DelVesco inside her apartment after responding to the complex a block from campus. The 21-year-old student  an Austin, Texas, native known to her sorority sisters as a fearless giver who befriended others with ease  was stabbed at least 19 times, authorities said. Read More Facebook

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LAPD begins sweeping criminal probe of former USC gynecologist while urging patients to come forward By Adam Elmahrek The Los Angeles Police Department said Tuesday it is investigating 52 complaints of misconduct filed by former patients of USCs longtime campus gynecologist as detectives launch a sweeping criminal probe into the scandal that has rocked the university. LAPD detectives also made an appeal for other patients who feel mistreated to come forward, noting that thousands of students were examined by Dr. George Tyndall during his nearly 30-year career at USC. More than 410 people have contacted a university hotline about the physician since The Times revealed the allegations this month. Tyndalls behavior and practices appear to go beyond the norms of the medical profession and gynecological examinations, said Asst. Chief Beatrice Girmala. We sincerely realize that victims may have difficulty recounting such details to investigators. We are empathetic and ready to listen. Read More Facebook

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At L.A.'s only school for the deaf, parents want leaders who speak the same language By Anna M. Phillips Ever since her son was 6 months old, Juliet Hidalgo has been bringing him to the Marlton School, a low-slung building in Baldwin Hills that for generations has been a second home for deaf and hard-of-hearing students in Los Angeles. Marlton staff taught Hidalgos brother and sister, both of whom are deaf. The school was where her deaf son learned to make the signs for milk and food. Hidalgo had planned to enroll her daughter, taking advantage of a popular program that allows hearing children to learn American Sign Language alongside their deaf siblings. But after more than a decade of involvement, she and other family members are considering withdrawing their children. They are not alone. Read More Facebook

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Fueled by unlimited donations, independent groups play their biggest role yet in a California primary for governor By Ryan Menezes An unprecedented amount of money from wealthy donors, unions and corporations is flowing into the California governors race, giving independent groups  unrestricted by contribution limits  a greater say in picking the states chief executive than ever before. The groups have already spent more than $26 million through Thursday, the most ever spent by noncandidate committees in a gubernatorial primary, according to a Times analysis of campaign finance reports. California elections have always been expensive, and the future is even more expensive, said Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College and a former state Republican leader. The stakes are very real. Read More Facebook

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2 hurt in Indiana middle school shooting; suspect in custody, authorities say By Associated Press Authorities say two victims in a shooting at a suburban Indianapolis school are being taken to a hospital and the lone suspect is in custody. Bryant Orem, a spokesman for the Hamilton County Sheriffs Office, said in a news release that the victims in Friday mornings attack at Noblesville West Middle School are being taken to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis and their families have been notified. He says no other information is available about the victims. Orem said the suspect is believed to have acted alone and was taken into custody. No additional information about the suspect was made public. Read More Facebook

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For new L.A. schools chief Austin Beutner, some key unions are giving no honeymoon period By Howard Blume In the less than two weeks since Austin Beutner took charge of Los Angeles schools, unions representing teachers and administrators have staged a job action and a protest. Theyve made it clear that they will not give the new superintendent the traditional honeymoon period, and they are bashing him for his wealth and lack of experience running either a school or a school district. Beutner is a billionaire investment banker with zero qualifications, local teachers union President Alex Caputo-Pearl told members in a phone alert urging them to participate in a Thursday afternoon rally in Grand Park. The board is saying that billionaires who made their money blowing institutions up and making money off it know best  not the education professionals who have dedicated our careers to working with students. Read More Facebook

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Pressure grows on Board of Trustees amid USC gynecologist scandal By Paul Pringle USCs large and powerful Board of Trustees is coming under growing pressure to provide a stronger hand as the university faces a crisis over misconduct allegations against the campus longtime gynecologist that has prompted calls for President C.L. Max Nikias to step down. Allegations that Dr. George Tyndall mistreated students during his nearly 30 years at USC have roiled the campus, with about 300 people coming forward to make reports to the university and the Los Angeles Police Department launching a criminal investigation. USC is already beginning to face what is expected to be costly litigation by women who say they were victimized by the physician. So far, the trustees to whom Nikias reports have expressed sympathy for the women who have come forward and launched an independent investigation while also publicly backing the president. Read More Facebook

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UC regents approve leaner budget for Janet Napolitano By Teresa Watanabe University of California regents on Thursday unanimously approved a leaner, more transparent budget for President Janet Napolitano, moving to address political criticism over the systems central office operations. The $876.4-million budget for 2018-19 reflects spending cuts of 2%, including reductions in staffing, travel and such systemwide programs as public service law fellowships, carbon neutrality and food security. Napolitano shifted $30 million to campuses for housing needs and $10 million to UC Riverside to support its five-year-old medical school. She also permanently redirected $8.5 million annually to help enroll more California students, as required by the state. Read More Facebook

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USCs Academic Senate calls on university president to resign after a series of scandals By Matt Hamilton The body that represents USCs faculty called on President C.L. Max Nikias to resign Wednesday in the wake of relevations that the universitys longtime gynecologist faced years of accusations of misconduct by students and colleagues at the campus health clinic. The Academic Senate took the vote late Wednesday afternoon after a fiery town hall meeting attended by more than 100 faculty members, many of whom voiced outrage over Nikias and the Board of Trustees leadership. The vote came a day after the trustees executive committee stood firmly behind Nikias, saying it has full confidence in his leadership, ethics and values. At the town hall meeting, Senate President Paul Rosenbloom said he did not think Nikias or Provost Michael Quick committed wrongdoing but that the university president deserved criticism for a lack of transparency. Read More Facebook

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Californias public universities on the way to getting a big longed-for boost in funding By Teresa Watanabe The University of California and California State University systems are poised to get major funding boosts that will help them enroll thousands of additional state students and eliminate the need for tuition increases in the coming school year. A key Assembly budget panel on Wednesday approved $117.5 million in new funds for the UC. A Senate panel approved a similar sum last week. The same committees recently approved even more funding for the Cal State system. Read More Facebook

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UC regents to scrutinize Janet Napolitanos office budget in a step toward stronger oversight By Teresa Watanabe University of California regents this week plan to scrutinize the budget of President Janet Napolitano, whose office came under political fire last year for questionable spending and murky accounting. Regents will vote on the proposed $876.4-million budget for 2018-19 during their two-day meeting, which starts Wednesday, at UC San Francisco. They also will discuss state funding, financial aid, online education and transfer student policies. Board Chairman George Kieffer said regents are stepping up to exert stronger oversight of the presidents office after a blistering state audit last year found financial problems including an unreported $175 million budget reserve. Read More Facebook

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State legislative panels approve major funding boost for Cal State By Teresa Watanabe Cal State students protest against a tuition increase outside the chancellors office (Irfan Khan) After months of intensive lobbying, Cal State University has convinced two key legislative panels to approve funding to enroll nearly 11,000 more students, hire more faculty and expand housing aid to those without shelter this fall. An Assembly budget panel on Tuesday approved $215.7 million more for Cal State, adding to Gov. Jerry Browns proposed $92.1 million general fund increase. A Senate budget panel approved a similar increase last week. The extra funding  which went beyond Cal States own request to the Legislature of $171 million  is still subject to final budget negotiations with Brown. But the actions by the Senate and Assembly panels amount to a demand from Democrats that the governor hike higher education spending. Cal State University is the workhorse undergraduate university serving hundreds of thousands of Californians, said Assemblyman Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento), who heads the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Education Finance. We need more graduates for the California workforce and higher education is the ticket to the middle class. Cal State Chancellor Timothy P. White hailed the actions, but said it was too soon to celebrate. The CSU has a singular focus on helping students earn high-quality degrees sooner, and the entire university community has rallied to reinforce that message to our states lawmakers, he said in a statement. The actions taken thus far by the Assembly and Senate are promising and show that our message is being received, but there is still work to be done. Funding for the University of California was not taken up Tuesday as originally scheduled. McCarty would not comment on sticking points but said he was confident that a resolution would be reached this week. Were looking to provide resources above whats in the governors budget, but negotiations are ongoing, he said in an interview. State per-student funding is not what it once was, leaving both Cal State and the UC in a tough financial squeeze. Both systems raised tuition last year after a six-year freeze on higher costs. For this year, Cal State had asked for funding to enroll an additional 3,621 students, but both the Senate and Assembly panels approved three times that amount. Cal State, the largest public university system in the nation, turned away 32,000 eligible students last year because its campuses werent able to accommodate them. The panels asked that at least $50 million of the extra funding be used to hire more tenure-track faculty to help boost graduation rates. The Assembly panel also approved one-time funding of $5 million to ease hunger on campuses and $14 million for rapid rehousing pilot projects at three campuses, offering needy students rental support and short-term case management. Other items approved include $5 million to support the CSU Long Beach Shark Labs research on sharks and beach safety and $2 million for equal employment opportunity practices. This post has been updated to include comments from Assemblyman Kevin McCarty and Cal State Chancellor Timothy P. White. Facebook

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Faculty members call for USC president to step down: He has lost the moral authority to lead By Matt Hamilton Two hundred USC professors on Tuesday demanded the resignation of university President C. L. Max Nikias, saying he had lost the moral authority to lead in the wake of revelations that a campus gynecologist was kept on staff for decades despite repeated complaints of misconduct. Read More Facebook

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Gun battle, negotiations lasted 15 minutes before Texas school shooter was apprehended, sheriff says By Molly Hennessy-Fiske Minutes after a school shooter opened fire in an art class last week, killing 10 people and wounding 13, including a local police officer, fellow officers returned fire in a protracted gun battle before isolating the suspect, the local sheriff said Monday. Galveston County Sheriff Henry Trochesset praised first responders as well as Santa Fe Police Officer John Barnes, who was working as a resource officer at the school the day of the shooting. Their actions, he said, prevented the attack from spreading to other classrooms and potentially claiming additional victims. As officials continue to probe last Fridays shooting at Santa Fe High School, students are worried about returning to the scene of the attack when classes resume next week. Read More Facebook

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6 women sue USC, alleging they were victimized by campus gynecologist By Richard Winton Six women filed civil lawsuits Monday alleging that a longtime gynecologist at the University of Southern California sexually victimized them under the pretext of medical care and that USC failed to address complaints from clinic staff about the doctors behavior. One woman alleged Dr. George Tyndall forced his entire ungloved hand into her vagina during an appointment in 2003 while making vulgar remarks about her genitalia, according to one of the lawsuits. Another woman alleged that Tyndall groped her breasts in a 2008 visit and that later he falsely told her she likely had AIDS. A third woman accused the doctor of grazing his ungloved fingers over her nude body and leering at her during a purported skin exam, the lawsuit states. The wave of litigation comes as USC continues to grapple with the scandal, which legal experts said could prove costly to the university as scores of former patients come forward about their experiences with the gynecologist. Read More Facebook

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Fatalities reported in Texas high school shooting; suspect arrested, officials say By Associated Press Houston-area media citing unnamed law enforcement officials are reporting that there are fatalities following a shooting at a local high school Friday morning. Television station KHOU and the Houston Chronicle are citing unnamed federal, county and police officials following the shooting at Santa Fe High School, which went on lockdown around 8 a.m. The Associated Press has not been able to confirm the reports. The school district has confirmed an unspecified number of injuries but said it wouldnt immediately release further details. Assistant Principal Cris Richardson said a suspect has been arrested and secured. Read More Facebook

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This student followed the new L.A. schools chief on his first-day tour L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner is greeted by Van Nuys High School principal Yolanda Gardea. (Melissa Barales-Lopez) Melissa Barales-Lopez, a senior at Garfield High School followed Supt. Austin Beutner on his first day on the job, as he toured a variety of programs around the Los Angeles Unified School District. Heres what she took from the experience. LAUSD students and staff alike are looking for a personal champion, someone who will address and improve the difficulties afflicting their education.  What LAUSD students need is someone whos willing to listen and learn, someone who can understand the current issues affecting their schools and act to efficiently amend them, someone who can unlock the full potential of LAUSD students and enable them to reach their goals. During the entirety of his first day, superintendent Austin Beutner did indeed demonstrate a willingness to learn. Posing questions to teachers and students, Beutner engaged with the student communities he encountered to gain a better comprehension of the minutiae and nuances that distinguish each school inside an overwhelmingly large district. From inquiries about Grand View Boulevard Elementary Schools dual language program to questions regarding the services of LAUSDs after-school program, Beyond the Bell, Beutner revealed he has a lot to learn about the system. But, Beutner also showcased a willingness to tackle challenges head-on on his first day. Read More Facebook

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USC let a gynecologist continue treating students despite years of misconduct allegations By Matt Hamilton For nearly 30 years, the University of Southern Californias student health clinic had one full-time gynecologist: Dr. George Tyndall. Tall and garrulous with distinctive jet black hair, he treated tens of thousands of female students, many of them teenagers seeing a gynecologist for the first time. Few who lay down on Tyndalls exam table at the Engemann Student Health Center knew that he had been accused repeatedly of misconduct toward young patients. The complaints began in the 1990s, when co-workers alleged he was improperly photographing students genitals. In the years that followed, patients and nursing staff accused him again and again of creepy behavior, including touching women inappropriately during pelvic exams and making sexually suggestive remarks about their bodies. Read More Facebook

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Cal State trustees to discuss Browns latest budget proposal, which they say still falls $171 million short By Joy Resmovits Just how much money does California State University need to serve its students? In recent years, this question has been front and center for the nations largest public university system. Cal States leaders say that to keep their campuses quality from slipping, they need much more money than the state is giving them. This year, theyre also at odds with Gov. Jerry Brown on the question of whether any extra money should come in one-time bursts or be ongoing. Read More Facebook

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On his first day as L.A. schools chief, Beutner plans a day of visits across the district By Howard Blume L.A. Unifieds new superintendent, Austin Beutner, will kick off his first day of work on Tuesday with a choreographed tour of the nations second-largest school district, from the San Fernando Valley to Carson. His day is scheduled to begin at 5:15 a.m. at a school bus depot and end more than 12 hours later at a parent meeting at Garfield High School. Along the way, Beutner is expected to be joined by school district administrators, L.A. Unified board members and the vice president of the union that represents school bus drivers. Though he will be covering a lot of ground, Beutners tour has him skipping Tuesdays school board meeting, when board members are expected to discuss labor negotiations in closed session. Read More Facebook

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Cal State trustees to discuss Browns latest budget proposal, which they say still falls $171 million short By Joy Resmovits Just how much money does California State University need to serve its students? In recent years, this question has been front and center for the nations largest public university system. Cal States leaders say that to keep their campuses quality from slipping, they need much more money than the state is giving them. This year, theyre also at odds with Gov. Jerry Brown on the question of whether any extra money should come in one-time bursts or be ongoing. Read More Facebook

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Why a handful of rich charter school supporters are spending millions to elect Antonio Villaraigosa as governor By Ryan Menezes California voters have seen a barrage of sunny television ads in recent weeks touting former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosas record on finances, crime and education, aired by Families & Teachers for Antonio Villaraigosa for Governor 2018. But the group is, in fact, largely funded by a handful of wealthy charter-school supporters. Together they have spent more than $13 million in less than a month to boost Villaraigosas chances in the June 5 primary  at a time when his fundraising and poll numbers are lagging. Reed Hastings, the founder of Netflix, jump-started the group with a $7-million check, by far the largest donation to support any candidate in the election. Their efforts are part of a broader proxy war among Democrats between teachers unions  longtime stalwarts of the party  and those who argue that the groups have failed low-income and minority schoolchildren. Read More Facebook

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Talking schools with L.A. Unifieds new superintendent By Anna M. Phillips Al Seib / Los Angeles Times ( Incoming L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner talks to students at Belmont High School.) Austin Beutner, who officially starts Tuesday as the new superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, is taking on a famously difficult job at a particularly difficult time. The school board is divided and did not back him unanimously. The nations second-largest school district has deep-seated problems, including declining enrollment, lagging academic achievement and rising pension and healthcare costs that eat away at its budget. The 58-year-old former investment banker and former L.A. Times publisher has years of experience in the financial world but none as an educator. Earlier this week, he sat down with the Times education team to discuss the challenges facing the district, which has about 60,000 employees and 500,000 students in traditional public schools. He did not talk about his plans  saying repeatedly, stay tuned  but he spoke in broad terms about his mindset in approaching the tough decisions ahead. Read More Facebook

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Suspect detained, authorities search campus after reports of armed man at Palmdale high school By James Queally One person has been detained after a report of an armed man at a Palmdale high school sparked a massive law enforcement response Friday morning. The suspect was spotted at 7:05 a.m. on the campus of Highland High School in Palmdale, according to Sheriffs Department spokeswoman Nicole Nishida. The person was detained in a nearby parking lot, according to Nishida, who did not know whether that person was an adult or juvenile. Deputies at the scene are clearing the school methodically, and students will be transported home via school buses once the campus is deemed safe, Nishida said. Read More Facebook

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The education of Bertha Perez: How a UC Merced custodians disenchantment led to a political awakening By Robin Abcarian Its the third day of a three-day strike, and UC Merced custodian Bertha Perez is taking a break from a picket line at the universitys unremarkable entrance, an intersection with stop lights. Photos from other UC campuses this week have shown big crowds of striking service workers  members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees  marching and chanting pro-labor slogans as they try to force the University of California back to the negotiating table. But here, at UC Merced, whose handful of big buildings rise from a flat expanse of farmland, the picket line is tiny, maybe two dozen workers and a few students. Its not a big-city-style show of force. Then again, a union sympathizer is banging relentlessly on a snare drum, so its noisier than youd expect. Read More Facebook

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Ref Rodriguez resigns from teacher credentialing commission By Howard Blume Ref Rodriguez appears during a court appearance. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times) Los Angeles school board member Ref Rodriguez has resigned from the states Commission on Teacher Credentialing, which oversees the integrity and quality of Californias teachers. Rodriguez faces felony and misdemeanor charges for political money laundering. Separately, his former employer, a charter school organization, has accused him of improperly authorizing checks to a nonprofit under his control. Rodriguez has denied wrongdoing. Rodriguezs resignation from the state body was effective May 4, days after he cast a crucial vote as part of a narrow majority that voted to authorize contract negotiations with Austin Beutner to become superintendent of the L.A. Unified School District. Beutners first official day on the job is Tuesday. Rodriguez remains in his $125,000-a-year position on the Los Angeles Board of Education. The mission of the state body is to ensure integrity, relevance, and high quality in the preparation, certification, and discipline of Californias teachers. Critics had questioned Rodriguezs continued service on the commission, given that teachers can be suspended from work if they face criminal charges. They also can lose their jobs for lapses in personal behavior, such as excessive drinking, with the potential to affect their performance. Police in Pasadena arrested Rodriguez on a Friday afternoon in March for public drunkenness. He was not charged in the incident and has apologized. The state commission reviews teacher discipline cases and can take action to remove a teachers credential to work in a California classroom. The commission has 15 members. Rodriguezs departure was disclosed in a one-sentence announcement on the agencys website. Facebook

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School board members request for restraining order against blogger is rejected By Priscella Vega An Orange County Superior Court judge on Wednesday denied a school board members petition for a permanent restraining order against a Huntington Beach blogger. Attorney Jeffrey W. Shields filed the petition on behalf of Ocean View School District trustee Gina Clayton-Tarvin, 46, who alleged in court documents that Charles Keeler Johnson, 56, has threatened her on social media and at school board meetings, causing her to fear for my own safety and for that of my immediate family members. Johnson, who goes by Chuck and publishes HBSledgehammer.com, said the trustee tried to stifle his freedom of speech. He also contended that Clayton-Tarvin took his blog posts and Facebook comments too seriously and out of context, saying anyone who is afraid of metaphors has serious issues. Read More Facebook

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Deal with workers averts one-day strike that could have shut down L.A. schools By Howard Blume Los Angeles school district and union officials announced a contract agreement Tuesday night that averted a one-day strike planned for next week. The pact, which runs through June 2020, removes one labor problem from the desk of incoming Supt. Austin Beutner  whose first day on the job would have coincided with the strike. Plenty of other challenges remain. Read More Facebook

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UC labor strike expands with show of support from more unions By Teresa Watanabe Fong Chuu is a registered nurse who has assisted with countless liver transplants, kidney surgeries and gastric bypasses during 34 years at UCLA. Working with her are scrub technicians who sterilize equipment, hand medical instruments to the surgeon and dress patient wounds. They are a team, Chuu says, which is why she walked off her job Tuesday in support of those technicians and other members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299. The 25,000 member AFSCME local, the University of Californias largest employee union, launched a three-day strike Monday. Read More Facebook

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We are humans too: Voices of UCLAs striking custodians, hospital aides and imaging technicians By Joy Resmovits Demonstrators parade in front of Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) This week, thousands of UC employees are staging a three-day strike for better pay and working conditions. On Monday, more than 20,000 custodians, cooks, lab technicians, nurse aides and other members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 walked off their jobs. By Tuesday, two more unions joined in sympathy strikes. The union and UC reached a bargaining impasse last year. The university has said it wont meet the workers demands. The strikers said they wanted better pay, more equity in the allocation of work, stable healthcare premiums and an end to the universitys use of contract workers. These are their stories. Read More Facebook

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Massive UC workers strike disrupts dining, classes and medical services By Joy Resmovits A massive labor strike across the University of California on Monday forced medical centers to reschedule more than 12,000 surgeries, cancer treatments and appointments, and campuses to cancel some classes and limit dining services. More than 20,000 members of UCs largest employee union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, walked off their jobs on the first day of a three-day strike. They include custodians, gardeners, cooks, truck drivers, lab technicians and nurse aides. Two altercations involving protesters and people driving near the rallies were reported at UCLA and UC Santa Cruz. At UCLA, police took a man into custody Monday after he drove his vehicle into a crowd, hitting three staff members. They were treated for minor injuries at the scene and released, said Lt. Kevin Kilgore of the UCLA Police Department. Read More Facebook

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Sen. Kamala Harris to skip UC Berkeley commencement in support of striking workers By Teresa Watanabe Sen. Kamala Harris (Chris Dekmas) California Sen. Kamala Harris has canceled plans to deliver UC Berkeleys commencement address this weekend in support of UC workers who are on strike over wages and health benefits. Due to the ongoing labor dispute, Sen. Harris regretfully cannot attend and speak at this years commencement ceremony at UC Berkeley, said a statement from Harris office issued Monday. She wishes the graduates and their families a joyous commencement weekend and success for the future. They are bright young leaders and our country is counting on them. UCs largest employee union, the 25,000-member American Federation of County, State and Municipal Employees Local 3299, launched a three-day strike Monday and had earlier called for a speakers boycott. The union and university reached a bargaining impasse last year and subsequent mediation efforts have failed to produce an agreement. The union is asking for a multiyear contract with a 6% annual pay increase while the university is offering 3% annual increases over four years. UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ will deliver the keynote address instead, the university announced. About 5,800 students are expected to participate in the ceremony Saturday. Facebook

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School mural depicting Trumps bloody, severed head sparks controversy By Gary Warth A Chula Vista school mural that depicts the bloody, severed head of President Trump on a spear sparked a controversy that prompted officials to cover it and issue a response distancing themselves from the work. The statement also said the artist will alter the painting. We understand that there was a mural painted at the event this past weekend that does not align with our schools philosophy of non-violence, read the statement from MAAC Community Charter School director Tommy Ramirez. We have been in communication with the artist  who has agreed to modify the artwork  to better align with the schools philosophy. Read More Facebook

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New blackface incident at Cal Poly prompts calls for state investigation By Kim Christensen Cal Poly San Luis Obispo officials have asked the state attorney generals office to investigate after a new photo of a white student in blackface surfaced on a fraternity groups private Snapchat. I am outraged, Cal Poly President Jeffrey D. Armstrong said in a video address Friday to the campus. These vile and absolutely unacceptable acts cannot continue. We must not allow these acts to define us as an institution. Armstrong said the latest photo was intended to imitate an incident last month in which a white member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity was photographed at a party wearing blackface. Read More Facebook

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More than 50,000 UC workers set to strike this week but campuses will remain open By Teresa Watanabe More than 50,000 workers across the University of California are set to strike this week, causing potential disruptions to surgery schedules, food preparation and campus maintenance. The systems 10 campuses and five medical centers are to remain open, with classes scheduled as planned. UCs largest employee union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, plans to begin a three-day strike Monday involving 25,000 workers, including custodians, gardeners, cooks, truck drivers, lab technicians and nurse aides. Read More Facebook

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New L.A. schools chief Beutner pledges to listen, learn and take action By Howard Blume New Los Angeles schools Supt. Austin Beutner proved Wednesday that hes a quick learner even without an education background. Like countless public officials before him, he appeared at an important event  his first speech and news conference  with a photogenic background of students. His message  that he would put those students first  seemed heartfelt if hardly original. Nor was it a huge surprise that he pledged to push cooperatively but unflinchingly to improve the districts academic performance and stabilize its finances. As an introduction, Beutner, a former investment banker who made a fortune on Wall Street, offered little flash, but that was partly the point. Read More Facebook

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In a school lockdown, one student takes stock of the stressful scene (Phalaen Chang) At the beginning of lunch one day late last month, Duarte High School, Northview Middle School, and California School of the Arts-San Gabriel Valley were advised by the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department to go into lockdown mode due to police activity in the immediate area. Phalaen Chang, a junior at the California School of the Arts, wrote a series of notes on her iPhone while she sat in a room with her classmates. By the time the lockdown ended an hour later, she wrote, she knew which of her friends would hold open the door for others, be the ones calming others down, be the ones barricading the doors. She knew that all of them have the potential to be such strong people. Read More Facebook

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Tale as old as time: L.A. Unified superintendent pick follows a historical pattern of outside-the-box choices By Joy Resmovits Navy Vice Adm. David L. Brewer III, superintendent from 2006-2008. (L.A. Times file photo) L.A. Unified has long gone back and forth between picking insiders and outsiders to run the nations second largest school district. The choice of Austin Beutner, announced Tuesday, places the district squarely back in the outsider camp  months after a consummate insider, Supt. Michelle King, announced that she had cancer and would not return to the job. Check out this timeline of former L.A. superintendents to see how the school board members have changed their minds, sometimes favoring leaders who come from the world of education and sometimes executives from elsewhere, recruited to shock the system into change. At one point, the district hired someone from the military  retired Navy Vice Adm. David L. Brewer III, who served as superintendent from 2006-2008. In hiring Brewer, board members had opted for a non-educator  largely because they sought a fresh thinker, unwedded to the bureaucracy, unafraid to make bold, even unorthodox moves, reads a 2008 Times story. Facebook

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Austin Beutner named superintendent of Los Angeles schools By Howard Blume Austin Beutner, a philanthropist and former investment banker, on Tuesday was named superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nations second-largest school system. His selection was the biggest move yet by a Los Angeles school board majority elected with major support from charter school advocates. The decision came after lengthy public testimony, most of it in support of the other remaining finalist, interim Supt. Vivian Ekchian, who is well known within the school system. Beutner, 58, has no background leading a school or school district. Less than 2 years ago, a school board with a very different balance of power named Michelle King, a former teacher who rose through the district throughout her career, to L.A. Unifieds top job. Read More Facebook

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Hearing delay gives both sides more time in Ref Rodriguezs potential trial By Howard Blume Ref Rodriguez and his attorneys will have more time to prepare their defense against charges of political money laundering, a judge ruled Monday. The preliminary hearing in the case had been scheduled to begin May 9, but that date will now be pushed back to July 23 per the ruling from L.A. Superior Court Judge Deborah S. Brazil. Rodriguez, 46, faces three felony charges of conspiracy, perjury and procuring and offering a false or forged instrument, as well as 25 misdemeanor counts related to the alleged campaign money laundering. Read More Facebook

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L.A. school board poised to name Beutner as superintendent By Howard Blume The Los Angeles Board of Education is poised to select philanthropist and former investment banker Austin Beutner to be the next superintendent of the nations second-largest school system. Barring a last-minute development, the only mystery is whether Beutner emerges with four or five votes from the boards seven members. Terms of his contract already have been under discussion, according to sources close to the process who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak. The selection of Beutner, 58, who has no experience managing a school or a school district, would be a signal that the board majority that took control nearly a year ago wants to rely on business management skills instead of insider educational expertise. Read More Facebook

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Teacher walkouts in Arizona and Colorado continue national debate on money for schools By Michael Livingston Following the lead of teachers who walked off the job in other states in recent weeks, thousands of teachers and their supporters took to the streets in Arizona and Colorado for the second day in a row to demand better pay and more funding for education. Read More Facebook

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Three decades before the #MeToo movement, UC San Diego led the way against sexual assault By Teresa Watanabe When Nancy Wahlig first started her fight against sexual assault, one company was marketing a capsule for women to stash in their bras and then smash to release a vile odor. Because of the very nature of society, the only person who can prevent rape is the woman herself, read a 1981 advertisement for the Repulse rape deterrent. Ideas about how to prevent sexual violence have come a long way since then, and Wahlig has helped lead that evolution on college campuses. In 1988, she started UC San Diegos Sexual Assault Resource Center (SARC), the first stand-alone program at the University of California. Today, she remains the systems most senior specialist. Read More Facebook

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Andres Alonso withdraws from consideration for L.A. schools job By Howard Blume Andres Alonso, believed to be one of three remaining finalists to lead the Los Angeles school system, has withdrawn from consideration. The remaining known candidates in the confidential search are former investment banker Austin Beutner and interim Supt. Vivian Ekchian. Alonso, 60, announced his decision on Twitter on Thursday night, saying he had notified the L.A. Unified School District on Monday. The exit of Alonso, the former Baltimore schools chief, seems to solidify the front-runner status of Beutner, who also was a former L.A. Times publisher and a Los Angeles deputy mayor. He held each of those positions for about a year. Read More Facebook

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Heres why the apparent increase in autism spectrum disorders may be good for U.S. children By Karen Kaplan The prevalence of autism spectrum disorder among American children continues to rise, new government data suggest. And that may be a good thing. Among 11 sites across the U.S. where records of 8-year-olds are scrutinized in detail, 1 in 59 kids was deemed to have ASD in 2014. Thats up from 1 in 68 in 2012. Normally, health officials would prefer to see less of a disease, not more of it. But in this case, the higher number is probably a sign that more children of color who are on the autism spectrum are being recognized as such and getting services to help them, according to a report published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Read More Facebook

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UC shelves tuition increase for now, in hopes of getting more state funding By Teresa Watanabe University of California regents will not vote on a tuition increase next month, shelving the plan for now in hopes that state lawmakers will come through with more funding. Raising tuition is always a last resort and one we take very seriously, UC President Janet Napolitano said Thursday in a statement. We will continue to advocate with our students who are doing a tremendous job of educating legislators about the necessity of adequately funding the university to ensure UC remains a world-class institution and engine of economic growth for our state. Last week, Cal State Chancellor Timothy P. White said the 23-campus system no longer would consider a plan to raise tuition for the 2018-19 academic year. But unlike Cal State, UC officials have not taken a tuition increase off the table entirely. Read More Facebook

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A chemical spill, unchecked eyewash stations, poor training: Audit details Cal States lax lab safety By Joy Resmovits In May 2016, two bottles tumbled off a poorly supported shelf and broke, leading to a chemical spill in a Sacramento State University lab. The liquid got onto one students legs and soaked anothers feet. Five employees cleaned up the mess, even though no one knew for sure what it was and whether it was dangerous. They called fellow employee Kim Harrington, their union representative, to let her know what happened. Read More Facebook

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After blackface incident, minority students at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo say they dont feel welcome By Hailey Branson-Potts Aaliyah Ramos was walking through the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo campus last year when a prospective student approached her. Ramos was the only black person, the young woman said, that she and her mother had seen that day. They asked about the quality of education and the diversity of the student body. Ramos, a mechanical engineering student, didnt want to sugarcoat the truth: Cal Poly long has been predominantly white. But she told the young woman  who also was black  that she didnt want to discourage her from applying, because that wouldnt help with diversity at a school where only 0.7% of students are African American  the lowest percentage of any university in the California State system. Read More Facebook

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El Camino Real Charter High School in Woodland Hills wins the 2018 U.S. Academic Decathlon By Carlos Lozano El Camino Real Charter High School in Woodland Hills has won the 2018 U.S. Academic Decathlon, officials said. The winner was announced early Saturday at a ceremony in Frisco, Texas. More than 600 students from the U.S., Canada, China and the United Kingdom gathered there over the last three days to compete in the 37th annual U.S. Academic Decathlon. Congratulations to El Camino Real Charter High School for another impressive victory, said Vivian Ekchian, interim superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Your academic stamina and competitive spirit to win is remarkable. The entire L.A. Unified family is so proud of you. Read More Facebook

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Anticipation mounts as L.A. school board meets over superintendent selection By Howard Blume L.A. schools superintendent candidate Andres Alonso got an endorsement Friday, but Austin Beutner and Vivian Ekchian also have supporters. (Elizabeth Malby) The Los Angeles Board of Education is reconvening in closed session Friday at noon as anticipation mounts about the choice of the next leader of the nations second-largest school system. The presumed front-runner is former investment banker and philanthropist Austin Beutner, but interim Supt. Vivian Ekchian and former Baltimore Supt. Andres Alonso also are in the running. Most district insiders appear to be rooting for Ekchian, who has spent her entire career in education within the school system. After her 10 years as a teacher, her roles have included head of human resources, chief labor negotiator and regional administrator for campuses in the west San Fernando Valley. Shes managed the district since September, when then-Supt. Michelle King went on medical leave and chose Ekchian to fill in for her. King, who is battling cancer, never returned and announced her retirement in January. Numerous influential civic leaders have urged  and pressured  the board to select Beutner. Also lending their weight have been advocates for charter schools, which are independently operated, growing in number and competing for students with district-operated campuses. Four of the seven board members  enough to control the outcome  were elected with major financial support from charter supporters. Beutner has two ongoing connections with the L.A. Unified School District. The first is his leadership of an outside task force that is making recommendations on how to improve the school system. The second is his charity, Vision to Learn, which supplies glasses to low-income students. The charity and the school system are in a dispute at the moment over who is responsible for delays in providing services to students as part of a $6 million contract, half of which is paid for by L.A. Unified. Unlike Ekchian and Buetner, Alonso, who currently teaches at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, has no deep-seated local constituency, but the prospect of his selection has generated some excitement. While in Baltimore, Alonso was recognized for pushing for progress at low-performing schools, and for being willing to take strong action. While in Baltimore, he also weathered a test-score cheating scandal and occasionally rocky relations with the teachers union. But by the time he resigned, after six years, he and union leaders seemed to be working together without rancor. Leaders of some community groups have split from the pro-Beutner camp. They worry that Beutners approach to confronting the districts financial problems could shut out their voices or involve severe economic cutbacks that would undermine programs that are helping students. Some prefer Ekchian; some Alonso. Theyve been reluctant to speak out publicly because theyll have to work with whoever is selected, but they have tried to get the ear of board members. On Friday morning, one leader of a community group decided to come out in favor of Alonso. L.A. Unified has the opportunity to bring in an instructional leader of color with a history of success, said Alberto Retana, president and chief executive of Community Coalition, which works on behalf of low-income students and families in South Los Angeles. If we have a shot at that, we should go for it  because its in the best interests of our kids and of our community. Retana said his statement was not meant to criticize Beutner or Ekchian but to alert board members that there also is community support for Alonso. Facebook

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Cal State leader shelves proposed tuition hike: Its the right thing to do, but its not without risk By Joy Resmovits Cal State, the nations largest public university system, will no longer consider a plan to raise tuition for the 2018-19 academic year, Chancellor Timothy P. White announced Friday. The decision is a bet that Sacramento will come through in the end. If Cal State loses that bet, it could mean cuts to campus programs. White said in an interview that Californias economy is strong enough that families should not be shouldering the burden of higher college costs. Read More Facebook

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L.A. students to participate in national walkout activities on Friday By Joy Resmovits (Los Angeles Times) Students are taking to the streets again Friday to protest gun violence on the 19th anniversary of the Columbine school shooting. Starting at 10 a.m., students at many schools will spend 13 seconds honoring the 13 people  12 students and one teacher  killed on that day in Littleton, Colo. After that, theyll participate in a host of different activities. Within L.A. Unified, one school is having an open-mic event for students to talk about school violence, and lawmakers are visiting campuses to hear students thoughts. According to a central hub for organizing the protests  written by the students of Ridgefield High School in Connecticut  the walkouts are intended to drive the political change necessary to curb school violence. The day is also a time for students to interact on an elevated platform they have never had before, the site states. It is a day of discourse and thoughtful sharing. Bringing together communities and students to get a national discussion rolling. Organizers have suggested using the event to convey the importance of curbing gun violence to legislators. They are encouraging students to push legislation that would ban assault weapons and tighten up rules around who can buy guns and how. Over 2,500 schools nationwide are expected to participate. In L.A., some students  at campuses including Eagle Rock High School, the Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts and Bravo Medical Magnet  plan to walk out. Students from various schools expect to join area marches, including those in Santa Monica and Huntington Park. Other schools are hosting career days and voter registration drives. At 1 p.m., students plan to start a rally in front of L.A. Unified headquarters. For the record: An earlier version of this article stated that 12 teachers and one student were killed in the Columbine shooting. The opposite is true: twelve students and one teacher died. Facebook

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Stabbing of popular student devastates South El Monte High School; teen friend suspected in slaying By Sonali Kohli When administrators at South El Monte High School called Jeremy Sanchezs parents to say he never showed up for class Wednesday, his father began to worry. It was unusual for the 17-year-old junior to miss school, so his father filed a missing persons report and assembled two of Jeremys close friends to look for the popular student-athlete. Their search took them to a scenic stretch of the San Gabriel River Trail, where one of the friends  a 16-year-old boy  made a tragic discovery. Among the bushes in the riverbed near Thienes Avenue and Parkway Drive was Jeremys body, punctured with stab wounds, according to Lt. John Corina of the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department. Read More Facebook

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Racist fliers spark outrage at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo By Alene Tchekmedyian Soon after Neal MacDougall arrived on the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo campus Tuesday, the professor noticed university police standing outside a restroom near his office. A racial slur against African Americans had been scrawled in red marker on a stall wall. Later, he discovered a series of racist fliers pinned up next to his door. Someone had also slashed posters hed hung outside his office supporting students in the country illegally. The discovery was the latest controversy on the prestigious campus  which the president said is less than 55% white  that MacDougall said demonstrates a culture of racism at the university. Last week, photographs emerged of white fraternity members, including one in blackface, flashing gang signs. Read More Facebook

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The superintendent waiting game, paying for L.A.'s College Promise, Princetons slave history: Whats new in education By Joy Resmovits Acting LAUSD superintendent Vivian Ekchian is a finalist for the permanent job. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) In and around Los Angeles: The L.A. Unified school board spent 10 hours interviewing and discussing candidates for superintendent. When they adjourned after 10 p.m., they said they would reconvene on Friday. Who is paying for Mayor Eric Garcettis much-touted College Promise, a program that promises two years of community college for LAUSD grads? In California: The Legislature is considering a proposal that would boost K-12 education funding for black students. When the cost of living is taken into account, California has the highest rate of child poverty. Nationwide: The families of two children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School are suing Alex Jones and Infowars for saying the school massacre never occurred. Princeton will name two spaces  an arch and a garden  after slaves who lived or worked on the campus. Facebook

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L.A. school board meets privately with finalists and debates choice for school district leader By Howard Blume The Los Angeles Board of Education adjourned late Tuesday after spending more than 10 hours interviewing candidates and trying to reach a decision on who would be the next leader of the nations second-largest school system. When the meeting finally recessed at 10:11 p.m., a spokesman announced only that the school board would reconvene Friday at noon. Going into the days meetings, there were apparently four finalists, according to sources who could not be named because they were unauthorized to speak. Read More Facebook

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Two Sandy Hook families sue Alex Jones and Infowars for saying the school massacre never happened By David Altimari Families of two children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School have filed lawsuits in Texas against controversial radio host Alex Jones for continually claiming the massacre never happened. Neil Heslin, the father of Jesse Lewis, and Leonard Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa, whose son Noah Pozner died in the massacre, filed separate lawsuits late Monday in Travis County, Texas. The lawsuits allege that Jones defamed the parents by constantly calling them crisis actors and insisting the shooting was a false flag operation; they also claim Jones accusations have led to death threats against the Sandy Hook families by Jones followers. Read More Facebook

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Beutner emerges as a top pick for L.A. schools superintendent amid last-minute jockeying By Howard Blume Austin Beutner has emerged as a leading contender to run the Los Angeles school district, with backers saying he is smart enough and tough enough to confront its financial and academic struggles. Though he does not have a background in education, the former investment banker has in the last year examined some of the districts intractable problems, serving as co-chair of an outside task force with the support of then-Supt. Michelle King. Sources inside and outside the school district said Beutner appears to have more support on the seven-member board than other finalists, and his name could come up for a vote as early as Tuesday. Read More Facebook

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Challenge at Chicago school construction site: Watch for 38,000 unmarked graves By Nereida Moreno A 15-year effort to build a school in Chicagos Dunning neighborhood is underway with an unusual complication: Construction workers are taking careful steps to avoid disturbing human remains that may lie beneath the soil. The $70-million school is to be built on the grounds of a former Cook County Poor House, where an estimated 38,000 people were buried in unmarked graves. Among the dead are residents who were too poor to afford funeral costs, unclaimed bodies and patients from the countys insane asylum. There can be and there have been bodies found all over the place, said Barry Fleig, a genealogist and cemetery researcher who began investigating the site in 1989. Its a spooky, scary place. Read More Facebook

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Oklahoma teacher walkout winds down despite lawmakers failure to meet demands By Washington Post Oklahomas largest teachers union has announced an end to a walkout that has drawn thousands of educators out of classrooms and to the state Capitol demanding greater investment in the states schools, which have endured the nations steepest funding cuts. The announcement Thursday from the Oklahoma Education Assn. does not necessarily end the protests at the Capitol, as teachers not affiliated with the union vowed to stay longer. Instead of a walkout, the union and school districts across the state have said they plan to send delegations of teachers to Oklahoma City to keep the pressure on lawmakers. Teachers and their supporters have also promised to push education issues to the forefront of November elections, when the state chooses a new governor. As school districts begin to reopen, the protests may lose steam. The Legislature is not in session Friday, and observers are waiting to see what happens Monday, when lawmakers return. Read More Facebook

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Most Californians are worried about school shooting threats and oppose arming teachers, survey finds By Joy Resmovits Hamilton High School student Aiyana Dabriel holds a sign during a March 14 walkout in support of the Parkland shooting victims. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) Most Californians are worried that a school shooting like the one that occurred in Parkland, Fla., in February could shed blood closer to home, a new survey found. Some 73% percent of adults and 82% of public school parents said they were very concerned or somewhat concerned about school shootings. The Public Policy Institute of California surveyed 1,704 adults in the state by phone just after the March for Our Lives protest against gun violence. Latino and black respondents were significantly more likely to be concerned about school violence than white or Asian respondents, the institute found. Two-thirds of adults and public school parents said they opposed letting more educators carry weapons in school. The response differed across party lines, with 86% of Democrats and 69% of independents voicing their opposition, while 60% percent of Republicans said they would support a measure to arm educators. The poll, which had a margin of error of 3.2% in either direction, also asked Californians about school funding, educational issues in the governors race and the impact of immigration enforcement on students. You can find the full results here. Facebook

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Californias largest virtual charter school network agrees to contract with its teachers By Anna M. Phillips Nearly four years after teachers at Californias largest online charter school voted to unionize, they have reached a deal to increase pay and create job protections, according to a spokesman for the California Teachers Assn. The contract, which is still tentative and subject to ratification, is a victory for the teachers union. Although charter schools are publicly funded, most are privately managed and their employees arent protected by labor contracts. Under the terms of the contract  the result of years of negotiation and legal wrangling  approximately 500 teachers working for California Virtual Academies will no longer be at-will employees who can be dismissed for almost any reason. Their average salary will rise to just over $45,000, according to union estimates, a figure that remains far below the norm for traditional public school teachers. Still, it is an improvement over the previous average of $38,000. The accord also places a limit on the number of students each teacher is responsible for monitoring in online homeroom classes. Were very satisfied with the gains we made, said teacher Brianna Carroll, president of California Virtual Educators United. I think were going to see some extraordinary changes in our schools. According to Carroll, teachers at California Virtual Academies  better known as CAVA  had grown frustrated with the organizations foot-dragging and were making preparations to go on strike when CAVAs leadership agreed to the deal. CAVA and K12, the Virginia-based for-profit company linked to its schools, did not immediately respond to an email Tuesday asking for comment. The network currently operates nine virtual charter schools across California. In 2016, the charter network agreed to pay $8.5 million to settle claims of false advertising, misleading parents and inadequate instruction. The state attorney generals office had also accused K12 of controlling the charters for its own financial benefit. Neither CAVA nor K12 admitted to wrongdoing in the settlement. A year later, the state imposed a $2-million fine on CAVA after an audit found that it had misspent public funds. The network disputed the findings. Facebook

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School board approves a new formula for funding high-need schools By Sonali Kohli L.A. schools will soon get more money if they are located in neighborhoods with such problems as high levels of gun violence and asthma. The Los Angeles Unified school board voted unanimously Tuesday to adopt a new formula to determine how to dole out some funding to schools, based not only on the characteristics of the student populations but on the traumas that affect the communities around campuses. The new formula will be applied to $25 million in funding next fiscal year and about $263 million annually in future years  a small part of the districts $7.5 billion annual budget. Read More Facebook

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Protesters demand Ref Rodriguez resignation outside school board meeting By Sonali Kohli Students, parents, teachers and UTLA marching outside the board meeting chanting "Ref resign" pic.twitter.com/W0LRWZSIXY  Sonali Kohli  (@Sonali_Kohli) April 10, 2018 A few dozen parents, students and teachers marched outside the Los Angeles Unified School Board meeting Tuesday, some calling for board member Ref Rodriguez to resign the week after news broke that he was taken into custody on suspicion of being drunk in public at a Pasadena bar and restaurant. Rodriguez was not cited or charged in that incident, but was held for more than five and a half hours before being released. The school board member faces felony and misdemeanor charges for political money laundering. He is accused of getting more than two dozen people people to donate to his campaign for his school board seat with the understanding that he would reimburse them. He stepped down from his post as school board president after he was charged last fall, but he did not give up his seat on the board. He has pleaded not guilty to three felony counts of conspiracy, perjury, and procuring and offering a false or forged instrument, as well as 25 misdemeanor counts related to the alleged campaign money laundering. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for May. He cant give his full focus to our students, said Rebecca LaFond, a Highland Park parent whose three children marched with her as she chanted, Ref resign. One daughter marched in front of her, using a drum stick to hit the bottom of a gallon-size empty water jug. Our kids deserve someone who has the utmost ethical standards representing them, LaFond said. The protests continued into the board meeting, where some addressed Rodriguez directly, calling on him to step down during public comment portions of the meeting. Rodriguez, through his chief of staff, declined to comment. Some parents outside the board meeting did not know about the charges against Rodriguez but came out to protest the possibility of sharing their school campuses with charter schools. Protesters also oppose colocation  not all of the parents are here to ask Ref Rodriguez to step down pic.twitter.com/1Co8zQ9zSi  Sonali Kohli  (@Sonali_Kohli) April 10, 2018 Cynthia Martinez said her son, who goes to Christopher Dena Elementary School in Boyle Heights, has been bullied in the past by students from a charter school sharing the campus. She said she didnt know who Rodriguez was. Some parents and teachers are worried about losing computer labs, robotics rooms and fitness centers if they are required to share their campus with charter schools, said Ilse Escobar, a parent community organizer for United Teachers Los Angeles. The issues of Rodriguez and colocation are related, Escobar said. Rodriguez is part of a majority on the school board elected with financial backing from charter school supporters, and many parents, she said, feel that the school board is compromised if he is a part of it. Staff reporter Howard Blume contributed to this post. Facebook

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Delaine Eastin tries to gain momentum in the California governors race, one voter at a time By Seema Mehta Delaine Eastin was a sophomore in high school when a drama teacher urged her to try out for a part in The Man Who Came to Dinner. She hesitated until he told her: This is a metaphor for your whole life. If you never try out, you will never get the part. Eastin auditioned and won the role. Decades later, the advice sticks with the former state schools chief, this time in her unlikely run for governor. Despite calls for more women in leadership roles in state politics following sexual misconduct allegations in Sacramento, Eastin has been largely overlooked in the race, lagging far behind her Democratic rivals in fundraising and the polls. Read More Facebook

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Arizona high court rejects in-state tuition for DACA recipients By Associated Press 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. Read More Facebook

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New York high school students injured when bus strikes overpass By Associated Press A charter bus carrying teenagers returning from a spring break trip Sunday night struck a bridge overpass on Long Island, seriously injuring six passengers and mangling the entire length of the top of the bus. The crash happened shortly after 9 p.m. Sunday on the Southern State Parkway in Lakeview, according to New York State Police. One of the six injured passengers had very serious injuries, said State Police Maj. David Candelaria. Thirty-seven other passengers suffered minor injuries. Read More Facebook

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Some good news for California in national student test scores By Joy Resmovits National test scores for fourth- and eighth-graders were generally flat from 2015, but eighth-grade reading scores showed some improvement. 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 compared with 2015, 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. Read More Facebook

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Under state control, Inglewood school districts financial picture worsened By Anna M. Phillips When Eugenio Villa agreed to return to the Inglewood schools for a second tour last summer, he knew the district remained one of Californias most troubled. Inglewood Unified had been nearly insolvent when it was taken over by the state Department of Education in 2012. Six years later, its enrollment was still declining. Its school buildings were tired  some edging into decrepitude. Its test scores and graduation rates were still below the state average. And the public was out of patience. Still, Villa, who had signed back on as the districts chief business official, was shocked at what he found when he arrived in June 2017. Two years earlier, he had left the school system on what he thought was firm ground. Read More Facebook

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Charter school group drops two lawsuits against L.A. Unified By Howard Blume A charter schools advocacy group last week announced that it would end two long-running lawsuits in which it was seeking more classroom space and construction money from the Los Angeles school district. The decision, the California Charter Schools Assn. said, reflects better relations between charter schools and the L.A. Unified School District. But the move also suggests that the litigation, which already contributed to significant gains for area charters, was unlikely to produce much more. It takes time, money and effort to litigate, said Ricardo Soto, general counsel for the charter group. Maybe its better to see if we can find the time and opportunity for collaboration. Read More Facebook

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L.A. school board member Ref Rodriguez is arrested on suspicion of public intoxication By Richard Winton Los Angeles school board member Ref Rodriguez was arrested recently on suspicion of being drunk in public at a Pasadena restaurant, the latest trouble for an elected official who faces political money-laundering charges. Pasadena police took Rodriguez into custody on March 16, according to city spokeswoman Lisa Derderian. Officers arrested Rodriguez at about 4:30 p.m. at the Yard House restaurant and bar at the Paseo Mall and held him in jail for more than five-and-a-half hours. Rodriguez was ultimately released without being cited or charged, Derderian told The Times. Other details about the arrest were not available, she 
An attorney for the family of a black man who was shot to death by Barstow police said that an independent autopsy reveals Diante Yarber was struck by at least 10 rounds before he asphyxiated on his own blood.

Family attorney S. Lee Merritt also told reporters Monday that witnesses say officers never attempted to render aid to the dying man.

Yarber, 26, was behind the wheel of a black Ford Mustang in a Walmart parking lot when officers fired 30 rounds at the vehicle on April 5.

Barstow police have insisted their officers opened fire after Yarber shifted into reverse and hit a patrol car. They say he accelerated again toward officers standing near their vehicles.

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Yarber was pronounced dead at the scene while a 23-year-old female passenger was airlifted to a trauma center with multiple gunshot wounds. Two other young men fled from the car during the incident, officials said.

Merritt said the independent medical examiner who was commissioned for the autopsy believes Yarber might have survived if officers had provided him medical aid at the scene.

Witnesses who were inside the car at the time of the shooting have said none of the officers tried to keep Yarber alive, according to Merritt and the witnesses attorney, Dale Galipo. He sat there bleeding to death, Galipo said of Yarber.

Merritt, who spoke on behalf of the family, called the officers actions unreasonable and said they should face criminal charges. We want criminal accountability for these officers, Merritt said.

Attorneys for the family and those in the car said they will also seek civil settlements.

Grainy cellphone video captured the sound of gunfire as police rounds pierced the vehicle, but the video does not show the full incident.

However, family members and attorneys say it belies the officers accounts of the shooting. The video, they say, appears to show the Mustang moving slowly backward as the officers fired.

Yarber, who was known as Butchie, was the father of three girls, ages 9, 7 and 1. His death spawned a march by about 100 protesters to City Hall and police headquarters earlier this month.

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The incident came a month after the high-profile killing of another African American young man, Stephon Clark, by police in Sacramento.

The fatal shooting is now under investigation by San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department homicide detectives. San Bernardino County will review that probe and decide whether to file charges.

Sheriffs officials said Barstow officers had responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle prior to the shooting. Officers believed the driver was a subject wanted for questioning in a recent crime involving a stolen vehicle, they said. Officials wont say whether Yarber was the person wanted.

Sheriffs officials said that after they attempted to stop the Mustang, Yarber tried to flee  first reversing into one police cruiser and accelerating again toward officers and hitting a second patrol vehicle. At that point, officers opened fire. Two officers have been placed on paid administrative leave.

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Yarber had prior convictions for escaping the police and misdemeanor domestic violence and was on three years probation at the time of the shooting. Court records show he was charged in March with violating his community supervision. Authorities have not said whether officers knew the drivers identity.

Barstow city officials have refused to answer further questions about the shooting and have yet to respond to a request to identify the officers. The city Police Department continues to stand firm in its commitment of full cooperation with the county Sheriffs Department in this matter, wrote Anthony Riley, a city spokesman.

richard.winton@latimes.com

Twitter: @lacrimes
Los Angeles is ending its economic boycott of Arizona, which was launched eight years ago to protest a hotly contested law targeting illegal immigration and then repeatedly lifted as the city continued buying products from that state.

The restrictions, backed by lawmakers in 2010, were supposed to curb purchases from Arizona and largely stop city employees from visiting the state on official municipal business. But it was often waived, with the city buying Tasers, cameras and other supplies from that state.

The City Council voted 10 to 0 Tuesday to end the restrictions, in large part because key parts of the Arizona law, known as Senate Bill 1070, have been softened or eliminated. Lawmakers said those developments rendered the boycott unnecessary.

Councilman Gil Cedillo, who pushed for the repeal, said he would have preferred to see fewer exceptions to the citys ban. Nevertheless, he said he viewed the policy as effective, particularly since it coincided with similar bans at the state level and elsewhere.

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Cedillo said he had one piece of evidence to show the ban had an effect: Politicians in Phoenix repeatedly approached him over the years about repealing it.

They evidently felt it was successful, or meaningful, he said. They would always come to me and ask me to work to lift it.

SB 1070 allowed officers in Arizona to arrest a person without a warrant if they believed the person had committed an offense that could lead to deportation. The law made it a crime for people in the country illegally to seek work, and required police to check the immigration status of people they suspect are in the country illegally when they are stopped for other reasons.

Several parts of the polarizing law were struck down by the Supreme Court. In addition, immigrant rights groups reached an agreement with Arizona officials that ended the practice of requiring police to demand papers from people suspected of being in the country illegally.

In Los Angeles, the council initially responded to passage of SB 1070 by ordering city officials to look for ways to terminate contracts with companies based in Arizona. The Police Department canceled plans for sending four police officers to a training conference in Tucson, angering union leaders.

Within a year, however, the city was still purchasing street-sweeper parts and other supplies from the state.

The ban did not ultimately apply to some of the citys biggest agencies  the Department of Water and Power, Los Angeles World Airports and the Port of Los Angeles, according to a 2016 report from the citys chief legislative analyst. Once those agencies are factored in, the city spent $38 million between 2012 and 2015 to entities with Arizona addresses, the report states.

Muddying the picture further, officials said they had found that some of the companies with Arizona addresses that received city funds actually were headquartered in other states.

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The council worded its boycott in a way that allowed municipal employees to travel to Arizona if failing to do so would seriously harm city interests. As a result, the council waived its travel restrictions at least three times, the report states.

City analysts said in their report that they had identified other city flights to Arizona that did not appear to have received council review. They said more research would be needed to understand those trips.

david.zahniser@latimes.com

Twitter: @davidzahniser

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emily.alpert@latimes.com

Twitter: @AlpertReyes
In a sea of protesters, Arsineh Sarkisians cry still rang through.

Payqar, payqar! Minchev verj!

Persist, persist. Until the end.

Every April, the 23-year-old student comes to Little Armenia to mark the anniversary of the Armenian genocide. On Tuesday, she joined tens of thousands of marchers along Hollywood Boulevard to honor the 1.2 million Armenians who were once rounded up and killed by the Ottoman Turkish government.

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Those atrocities of 1915 are characterized by historians as a precursor to the Holocaust, but they have yet to be recognized by Turkey. Or by the United States because of political reasons.

So each year, in Los Angeles and beyond, the Armenian diaspora gathers in a solemn call for justice. The young and the old take to the streets in a sort of pilgrimage  draped in their Caucasus nations orange, blue and red colors. They wave flags and signs, and shout from megaphones until their voices crack.

We are here representing our ancestors, Sarkisian said as she marched alongside a group of friends. Its been so long, but we will never stop fighting.

1 / 9 David Serobyan, 13, of Tujunga, participates in the Armenian Genocide Committees March for Justice demonstration on April 24. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 9 Tennya Ala takes part in the Armenian Genocide Committees March for Justice demonstration on April 24. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 9 The Armenian Genocide Committee holds its March for Justice demonstration, a march from Pan Pacific Park to the Turkish Consulate, on April 24. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 9 From left, Natalie Khanjaryan, 13, Vartui Khanjaryan, 16, and Kristina Berberian, 16, along with other marchers walk along Hollywood Boulevard in Little Armenia during the annual March of Justice, to mark the 103rd anniversary of the Armenian genocide. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 9 Marchers walk along Hollywood Boulevard in Little Armenia during the annual March of Justice to mark the 103rd anniversary of the Armenian genocide. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 9 Vrltin Hmoudia holds a flag while marching along Hobart Boulevard in Little Armenia during the annual March of Justice. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 9 Members of the Armenian Brigade Motorcycle Club hold flags as marchers gather to participate in the annual March of Justice remembering the Armenian genocide. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 9 George Khaltyan holds a large American flag while he and other marchers walk along Hollywood Boulevard in Little Armenia during the annual March of Justice to mark the 103rd anniversary of the Armenian genocide. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 9 Marchers walk along Normandie Avenue in Little Armenia during the annual March of Justice to mark the 103rd anniversary of the Armenian genocide. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)

This year, the energy in the crowd was palpable. And it had to do with home.

Back in Armenia, just a day before, thousands of protesters did the unthinkable: They overthrew the prime minister, a man who had ruled the former Soviet state for 10 years. Though his term as president had ended, he continued to cling to power.

Nune Yenokyan of Tujunga followed the 11-day revolution online, as did many Armenians living abroad. She watched in suspense as demonstrators in the capital of Yerevan brought down Serzh Sargsyan with a mix of peaceful protests, road blockades, even the late-night clanging of pots and pans.

The morning of the Hollywood march, Yenokyan, 31, arrived with relatives. She said she felt inspired by the events in her home country. She and her husband are now thinking of returning to Armenia to be closer to her people.

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This gives us more hope, more strength, she said. If we are united we can achieve anything, including recognition of the genocide so these crimes against humanity never repeat.

During the march, protesters varied on their definition of justice. Some called for reparations of land, others called for a formal acknowledgment, particularly from the United States.

No sitting president has formally recognized the genocide. That includes former President Obama, who promised he would before entering the White House.

In a statement this year, President Trump called it one of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th century.

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As we honor the memory of those who suffered, we also reflect on our commitment to ensure that such atrocities are not repeated, the statement read.

Southern California is home to the largest Armenian community outside Armenia. Census data show about 200,000 people of Armenian descent live in Los Angeles County. There are memorials honoring the victims of the genocide in Montebello, Little Armenia and Glendale.

On Tuesday, a number of political leaders took the stage to support the protesters. City Councilman Paul Krekorian spoke of his great uncle, who was a math professor in eastern Turkey at the time of the genocide. He was seized by Turkish agents that summer.

His throat was sliced and his tongue was cut out, Krekorian said.

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Mayor Eric Garcetti, who led the march, told the audience that Los Angeles supports their fight for recognition.

You dont have to be Armenian to know what a human tragedy looks like, Garcetti said. This was an Armenian tragedy and a human tragedy and all of us will say never again.

More than a century after the genocide, most survivors have died, but their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren continue to march.

Among them was Albert Agadjanian of Pasadena, a member of the motorcycle club the Armenian Brigade. He stood at the front of the march, a stocky presence in a leather jacket holding tight to an Armenian flag.

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Growing up, Agadjanian always knew his great grandparents on his fathers side had perished in the genocide. But his grandparents never spoke of it. Neither did his father.

It was too painful, Agadjanian said.

Until this day, he doesnt know how they died. The sorrow and the anger cut deep.

But looking around at the mass of protesters lining Hollywood Boulevard, Agadjanian said he felt good about the future. Better than he has in a long time.

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Behind him, a line of school-age boys and girls locked hands, ready to march.

These young people respect our history, and that brings me comfort, Agadjanian said. That means the new generation that comes after them will do the same.

UPDATES:

7:20 p.m.: This article has been updated throughout with additional background and quotes from the march.

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2:45 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti and other demonstrators.

This article was originally published at 8:55 a.m.
Police are looking for a man who tried to sexually assault a woman in a secluded area of Beverly Hills early Sunday, authorities said.

Security video caught the man following the woman on a red single-speed bicycle while she walking in the city before 4 a.m., coming from West Hollywood, according to the Beverly Hills Police Department.

The man grabbed her from behind as she was walking near Wilshire Boulevard and Merv Griffin Way, pulled her into a hidden area and tried to assault her, police said.

The man fled on his bike, riding east on Wilshire and then west on Santa Monica Boulevard. He is described as Latino in his 30s, about 5 feet 6, with a black ponytail and facial hair. He was wearing a dark green shirt.

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Anyone with information is asked to call detectives at (310) 285-2158.

alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @AleneTchek
A man who opened fire Tuesday as firefighters knocked down a blaze at a Harbor Gateway home is in custody, police said.

The suspect, who appeared to be suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, was transported to a nearby hospital, where he is in critical condition, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

A woman was fatally shot at the scene, and police said the shooter may be the womans son.

Shots rang out after firefighters put out the flames inside a two-story home, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

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Firefighters arrived at the 15400 block of South Orchard Avenue around 4:30 a.m. Four adults and one child were displaced by the fire, the Fire Department said, and the American Red Cross responded to the scene to help them.

(Los Angeles Times )

Four LAPD divisions as well as Los Angeles County sheriffs deputies responded to the area, authorities said.

sarah.parvini@latimes.com

For more California news follow me on Twitter: @sarahparvini

UPDATES:

8:55 a.m.: This article was updated with a woman being fatally shot at the scene.

7:20 a.m.: This article was updated with the suspect being taken into custody.

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6:45 a.m.: This article was updated with the Fire Department response time and details on those displaced by the fire.

This article was originally published at 6:30 a.m.
Nearly 18% of Los Angeles city employees who responded to a recent survey said they have been sexually harassed in the workplace, while more than half of employees who said they have been subjected to harassment didnt report the incident to anyone.

The anonymous survey, released last week by the Personnel Department, is believed to be the first citywide poll of employees on sexual harassment in decades.

City Council members Paul Krekorian and Nury Martinez requested a survey of the citys 45,000 employees last fall amid a nationwide focus on unwanted sexual attention in the workplace.

A total of 4,205 employees responded to the survey, a strong sample response, said Jody Yoxsimer, an assistant manager who worked on the project.

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The survey was purposely broad, Yoxsimer said. For example, employees were asked if they have experienced harassment in the workplace, and workplace could be interpreted as either the city of Los Angeles or a previous employer.

We wanted to know about peoples experiences because their responses are going to guide us in our review of our policies, Yoxsimer said.

Krekorian said in an interview Monday that he was troubled by the high number of employees who said they didnt report harassment. There is a problem in our workforce, Krekorian said. Its more pervasive than we thought.

Martinez said in a statement that the results confirmed my belief that we have to educate our employees on how to report incidents of harassment.

I am comforted by the fact that an overwhelming number of respondents reported never having experienced sexual harassment in the workplace, but even one person is unacceptable, she said.

A total of 745 people, or about 17.7% of those who answered the survey, reported that they had been sexually harassed on the job. Responding to the same question, 639 employees  or 15.2%  said they had witnessed sexual harassment in the workplace. (Respondents were allowed to check more than one box on this question.)

In response to another question, 929 people out of 1,674 who responded said they had been subjected to harassment but never reported it  a total that exceeds the 745 who said they been harassed.

Asked about the discrepancy, Yoxsimer said the higher figure may include employees who witnessed other people being harassed.

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More than 48% of respondents said they didnt know the contact information, or where to find it, for their departments sexual harassment counselor, defined as the employee who can receive claims.

City officials are expected to discuss the report at an as-yet unscheduled committee hearing.

New reporting protocols to track harassment complaints against city employees were put in place in December after The Times reported that the city lacked a centralized method for lodging abuse complaints.

The Personnel Departments Equal Employment Opportunity Division has received 26 reports of sexual harassment allegations since Mayor Eric Garcetti ordered the new guidelines, according to a February report.

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Before the new system was implemented, the division received 35 sexual harassment-related complaints from 2013 to 2017, according to the city.

To read this article in Spanish, click here

dakota.smith@latimes.com

Twitter: @dakotacdsmith
President Xi Jinping, who is also chairman of the Central Military Commission, meets with all Shanghai Cooperation Organization defense ministers in Beijing at the Great Hall of the People on Monday. FENG YONGBIN / CHINA DAILY

Meetings include senior diplomats, defense ministers

President Xi Jinping called on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization members on Monday to remain true to their original aspiration and push cooperation in all areas.

Xi made the remark while meeting with senior diplomats of the members of the SCO at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. After the meeting, Xi also met with defense ministers of those countries.

It was the first formal meeting of SCO foreign ministers since the organization accepted Pakistan and India as its new members last year.

Since its establishment 17 years ago, the SCO has stood the test of the time and developed into a comprehensive regional organization with wide influence, Xi said.

The SCO has set a model for a new type of international relations with the characteristics of mutual respect, justice and win-win cooperation, he added.

Saying the SCO summit to be held in Qingdao, Shandong province, in June will be the first of its kind since the increase in SCO members, Xi told the senior diplomats that he hopes all sides will cooperate for its success.

China has successfully hosted more than 120 activities of the SCO since it assumed the rotating presidency of the organization, Xi said.

The current global and regional situation is complex, he said, with unstable and uncertain factors, and SCO members should make real efforts to meet the expectations of all nations.

China would like to make joint efforts with all SCO members to continue to support each other and offer SCO wisdom and SCO solutions, safeguard regional security cooperation, deepen Belt and Road cooperation and expand people-to-people exchanges, Xi said.

During the meeting, the foreign ministers of Russia, Kyrgyzstan, India and Pakistan made speeches. They spoke positively of the efforts that China has made to prepare the SCO summit.

The SCO should enhance coordination and cooperation on international and regional affairs, the senior diplomats said.
Authorities are searching for a legally blind man who went missing after going for a hike in Joshua Tree National Park on Saturday morning.

David Sewell, 76, appears to have left the Quail Springs parking lot and was headed for an unspecified location in Johnny Lang Canyon, the National Park Service said.

Park rangers who found Sewells silver Honda Odyssey around 8 p.m. Saturday also discovered a note in the car. In it, the Joshua Tree resident wrote that he was departing at 8:45 a.m. on April 21 and that if he was not back by the next day, he would need assistance.

Search and rescue personnel started looking for Sewell on Monday morning. About 50 searchers, two K-9 teams as well as fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft from the California Highway Patrol are involved in the search.

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Park officials said they spoke with Sewells daughter by phone and she described her father as having numerous health issues in addition to being legally blind.

Anyone with information on Sewells location is urged to call the tip line at (888) 294-3666.

sarah.parvini@latimes.com

For more California news follow me on Twitter: @sarahparvini
Venturas police chief said Monday that his officers should have responded to reports of a disruptive man on the citys promenade and not relied on a pier security camera to assess the situation. Less than three hours later, police said, the man fatally stabbed a diner at a beachside restaurant.

The victim was identified as Anthony Mele Jr., 35, who was having dinner with his wife and 5-year-old daughter at a steakhouse when he was stabbed in the neck. He was taken to a hospital where he died.

Police arrested Jamal Jackson, 49, a homeless man with a lengthy criminal history, after he was chased down by bystanders.

Chief Ken Corney said the department received a call about 6:23 p.m. describing a man yelling and being disruptive on the promenade near the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

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Jamal Jackson , 49, has been charged with murder. (Associated Press )

All of our patrol units were tied up on other calls, he said.

The 911 operations center used a security camera on the pier to watch the man.

They didnt see any behavior that appeared to be concerning or significantly disruptive, the chief said.

At one point, the man later identified as Jackson took a photo of a couple, the chief said.

But Corney said officers should have eventually responded to the area. A decision was made by personnel at the 911 operations center, which can operate the security camera, to cancel the 911 response. The chief said that decision is being addressed within the department. He said the cameras are meant to supplement patrol officers, not replace them.

Corney would not detail what actions would be taken.

Our practice is not to handle these calls by security cameras, it is to put boots on the ground, he said.

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Corney said those in 911 center did not know the man on the footage was Jackson, who since the beginning of the year has had a number of run-ins with his officers throughout the city. Those incidents include a domestic violence arrest at the beginning of March at Cemetery Park, where prosecutors opted not to charge Jackson.

At a City Council meeting Monday evening, residents expressed frustration with the citys response to the homeless population.

We have been devastated by the fires and we are now been run out by vagrants, said one speaker, adding that her kids have found men with spoons and needles in their yard. Her comments drew cheers and applause.

Another woman said she found a transient with an ax at her backdoor. I cannot answer my front door anymore, she said.

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richard.winton@latimes.com

Twitter: @lacrimes

UPDATES:

8:55 p.m.: This article was updated with quotes from a City Council meeting.

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This article was originally published at 5 p.m.
On Wednesday evening, the Ventura Police Department received a call about a homeless man yelling and being disruptive in the citys promenade area, a bustling boardwalk flush with restaurants.

Officers in the area were busy, so police decided to monitor the man on a surveillance camera, ultimately deciding he was not a threat.

Hours later, police said, the man entered a nearby steakhouse and plunged a knife into the neck of Anthony Mele Jr., fatally wounding the 35-year-old while his wife and daughter looked on in horror.

Meles killing has roiled the city: Some residents are highly critical of police for failing to send officers after the initial complaint. Advocates for the homeless fear the attack could reverse the citys progress in reaching out to its most vulnerable residents.

Charnell Smith, center, co-owner of Aloha Steakhouse in Ventura, wipes away tears during a moment of silence at Ventura City Hall for Anthony Mele Jr., 35, who was stabbed to death in the restaurant. Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times

The slaying also highlights the difficulty police face in interacting with people who are homeless or mentally ill. In some cities, including Los Angeles, law enforcement has been accused of over-policing the homeless community, leading to encounters that sometimes turn deadly. But in Ventura, many believe the lack of a police response may have led to Meles death.

Ventura Police Chief Ken Corney said Monday that officers should have responded to the initial call, adding that an administrative review is underway.

Our practice is not to handle these calls by security cameras. It is to put boots on the ground, he told The Times.

But outrage had already spread through the community. Rebecca Mele said she is furious with police in the wake of her sons killing, and has demanded that city leaders do more to address Venturas homeless population.

To the mayor, I say, 'What are you doing?  she said. This is your city, and so are the homeless people. We should have something to provide for them. Its very hard. I understand there were complaints [about the suspects behavior], the police didnt answer, and now my son is dead.

Alicia Carman of Ventura looks at a memorial outside of Aloha Steakhouse on the promenade in Ventura where Anthony Mele Jr., 35, was stabbed to death. Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times

Dozens showed up at a City Council meeting Monday evening to vent frustrations over how the city is handling the homeless population.

We have been devastated by the fires, and we are now being run out by vagrants, said one speaker, adding that her kids have found men with spoons and needles in their yard. Her comments drew cheers and applause.

In a statement last week, police promised to increase patrols in the promenade area, a move that has drawn concern from social workers and homeless advocates.

Ventura Countys homeless population has decreased annually since 2012, and the number of homeless people in the city of Ventura dropped by more than 50% in the same time frame, according to a countywide study conducted last year. Some advocates fear that a strong police response to the stabbing might scare people away from services they desperately need.

Anthony Mele Jr. and his 5-year-old daughter, Willow. Courtesy of Mele Family

We are hoping it doesnt result in a setback for the movement that has been happening in the county and city, said Susan Brinkmeyer, former director of Lift Your Voice, a program under the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ventura that provides services to the homeless. Were not going to solve anything by rousting people, but rather by dealing with it by creating a solution.

Brinkmeyer hoped fallout from the stabbing would not lead to generalizations about the citys homeless community.

I know at the moment there is a good deal of anger and a sense that the individual who committed the assault is homeless, and that may lead to a backlash against all homeless people, she said. As a community, we need to help those that are homeless.

Corney said the department received a call about a man yelling and being disruptive on the promenade near the Crowne Plaza Hotel at 6:23 p.m. on Wednesday. All patrol units in the area were tied up on other calls, according to Corney, who did not disclose the nature of those calls.

A decision was made at the departments 911 operations center to observe the man on a security camera trained on the pier.

They didnt see any behavior that appeared to be concerning or significantly disruptive, the chief said.

The man, 49-year-old Jamal Jackson, entered the nearby Aloha Steakhouse at 9:09 p.m. and slashed Mele in the neck with a 4- to 5-inch hunting knife while the victim sat at a table, according to Cmdr. Tom Higgins.

It was so quick, my son turned and was stabbed while hes holding his daughter, Rebecca Mele, 57, said.

Jackson has been charged with murder and is being held without bail. He is due in court this week.

Ventura police officers Tim Davis, left, and Schuyler Heard patrol the Ventura boardwalk on Monday. Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times

Officers should have eventually been dispatched to the area to contact the man once they completed other calls, Corney said. The department is reviewing the way it uses surveillance cameras to monitor calls for service, Higgins said.

The officers in the dispatch center did not know the man they were observing was Jackson, a homeless man with a lengthy criminal record in Ventura and San Bernardino counties who had been arrested by city police a month earlier.

Jackson has prior convictions for burglary and statutory rape in Ventura County, Senior Dist. Atty. Richard Simon said. He has also been arrested several times in San Bernardino County, most recently in 2014, when he was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, making criminal threats and false imprisonment, according to court records.

Jackson pleaded guilty to the false imprisonment charge as part of a negotiated plea deal in 2016, records show. Calls and e-mails to the San Bernardino County district attorneys office were not returned Monday. Corney said Jackson was not on parole or probation at the time of the killing.

Im angry. My colleagues are angry, and yet, we understand that there is a limitation on what might be appropriate action. Ventura Mayor Neal Andrews

Jackson was arrested by Ventura Police in a March domestic violence incident, according to Simon.

Its a horrible attack, Simon said. No one expects to go to a restaurant with their family and be stabbed as they hold their daughter.

Ventura Mayor Neal Andrews said he was concerned by the decision not to approach Jackson.

While he apparently did not exhibit any behavior warranting immediate intervention, my concern was still the response was canceled instead of followed up later as other calls were managed and handled, he said.

A memorial for Anthony Mele Jr. in front of Aloha Steakhouse on the promenade in Ventura. Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times

Violent crime is rare in the community  the stabbing marked the citys first homicide of the year  and Andrews said anger over the attack has been palpable. He has received e-mails from residents demanding the city outlaw panhandling, or conduct aggressive arrests along the promenade and pier area where homeless people are known to congregate.

People get angry about situations like this and its totally, totally, understandable, Andrews said. Im angry. My colleagues are angry, and yet, we understand that there is a limitation on what might be appropriate action.

Some policing experts said the situation is indicative of a larger problem in law enforcement. At a time when trust between police and the citizens they are sworn to protect is shaky, officers are less likely to interact with a homeless or mentally ill person because the situation could end in a deadly use of force or community backlash.

The national tone at this point is he has an illness and enforcement is disfavored. Enforcement can be construed as harassment pretty quickly, said Eugene ODonnell, a former New York City police officer and professor at the John Jay School of Criminal Justice in Manhattan. Hes on the street, hes not committing a crime, and youre gonna roust him with a heavy hand?

Mele said police and city leaders should expect continued outrage over their handling of her sons death.

Its a sick thing," she said. My son was a wonderful, loving father. His daughter loved him to death. He was an all-around good guy and a good son.

ruben.vives@latimes.com

richard.winton@latimes.com

james.queally@latimes.com

Follow @LATVives @LAcrimes & @JamesQueallyLAT for crime and police news in California.
Two women believed to be mother and daughter were found dead Monday evening in their Whittier home, authorities said.

Whittier police officers responded to the 12400 block of Beverly Drive around 8:48 p.m. after receiving a call that a couple was unresponsive. When they arrived, officers found the women  one believed to be in her 70s, the other in her 90s  and attempted to revive them.

Police said they dont know how the two died.

There is no indication of any foul play, no injury, nothing we could see that was noticeable that was related to their death, said Lt. Jay Tatman. Its obviously peculiar to us.

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Tatman said police are working with the coroners officer to determine what led to the womens deaths.

sarah.parvini@latimes.com

For more California news follow me on Twitter: @sarahparvini
On Feb. 6, conservative media personality Sean Hannity brought his longtime financial advisor, William Lako, on his popular radio show to talk about money.

For 25 years, youve watched me start with nothing, right, pretty much? Hannity asked Lako. Yes, I did, replied Lako.

Since Hannity started investing with Lakos Georgia-based firm, Henssler Financial, as an Atlanta radio host in the 1990s, he has risen to stardom as a host of Fox News. Hes built an image of himself as a blue-jeans-wearing regular guy willing to take on out-of-touch elites and hypocritical Learjet liberals.

When you go shopping for clothes, dont you go to the discount rack? Lako asked Hannity. If I do go shopping, its at Kmart, Walmart and Target, my favorite stores, Hannity said. Or Costco.

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But when it comes to shopping for real estate, Hannity has far more expensive tastes.

Over the last decade, Hannity appears to have built a real-estate empire worth tens of millions of dollars that spans at least four states and whose existence has remained hidden from the public behind anonymous shell corporations registered to the address of Henssler Financial, according to property records and corporate filings reviewed by The Times.

The companies all start with the same four letters  SPMK, followed by Roman numerals  and, along with high-end luxury properties, they also own rental properties that could house hundreds of tenants and which are currently taking new renters.

SPMK companies own an entire neighborhood of duplexes in Lithia Springs, Ga.; apartment complexes in Athens, Ga., Brunswick, Ga., Gainesville, Ga., and Madison, Ala.; high-rise condos in South Florida; and a private helicopter and a private jet registered at an airport 20 miles from Hannitys mansion on Long Island.

Property records show that a neighborhood of duplexes in Lithia Springs, Ga., is owned by a shell company reportedly linked to Sean Hannity.

One of the companies, SPMK II, is a co-owner of Henssler Property Management LLC, which manages rental properties owned by other SPMK-named limited liability corporations, according to financial disclosures from Henssler Financial. Lako is also listed as an investor.

SPMK II also co-owns Henssler Capital LLC, an investment fund that recently launched a private securities offering that has raised $13 million from 65 investors between Jan. 31 and Feb. 15, according to Securities and Exchange Commission disclosures. Lako, again, is listed as an investor.

A deed for Sean Hannitys mansion in Nassau County, N.Y., revealed that Hannity was the managing member behind a limited liability company titled SPMK IV NY, LLC. (The Nassau County Clerks Office )

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The shell companies links to Hannity were first reported by the Guardian, which said that many of the properties were bought after banks foreclosed on their previous owners after the Great Recession.

The companies also appear to have obtained mortgages insured by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, leading some commentators to ridicule Handout Hannity for using taxpayer help to build his wealth at the same time that Hannity was criticizing the Obama administrations housing policies. Hannity had not previously disclosed his relationship with HUD when previously interviewing and praising HUD Secretary Ben Carson on Fox News.

I think its funny that Sean Hannity turns out to be a welfare queen for HUD, having taken advantage of guarantees that were put forward by none other than the Obama administration, conservative New York Times columnist Bret Stephens said on an MSNBC panel Monday.

Hannity on Monday said he had no direct discussions with HUD regarding loans for his real estate holdings. And he defended his shell companies as REAL companies that spend real investment money on real properties, many of which are rental homes and apartments in lower-income areas.

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It is ironic that I am being attacked for investing my personal money in communities that badly need such investment and in which, I am sure, those attacking me have not invested their money, Hannity said in a statement on his website. The fact is, these are investments that I do not individually select, control, or know the details about; except that obviously I believe in putting my money to work in communities that otherwise struggle to receive such support.

Lako did not respond to a message seeking comment Monday.

Christopher Reeves, a real-estate attorney who serves as the registered agent for many of the SPMK companies and who maintains offices at the same address as Henssler Financial, did not respond to a message seeking comment.

I doubt you would find it very surprising that most people prefer to keep their legal and personal financial issues private, Reeves told the Guardian in an email. Mr. Hannity is no different.

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Hannitys personal business dealings, and their mixture with his on-air media commentary, have recently been thrust into the public spotlight after President Trumps personal attorney, Michael Cohen, disclosed that Hannity was one of his other clients.

Hannity, who had been using his media platform to bash the criminal investigation into Cohen, said that his legal discussions with Cohen were almost exclusively about real estate.

But its hard to pin down what real-estate matters Hannity might have been discussing with Cohen, simply because Hannity has accumulated so much real estate. A review of corporate records revealed more than 20 holding companies with SMPK names registered at Henssler Financials address in Kennesaw, Ga.

Hannity having business dealings that involve a federal government agency would likely be frowned upon at a legacy news division. But Fox News has held more relaxed standards for its prime-time hosts, who are commentators and not journalists in the traditional sense.

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Hannity, who has been with Fox News since it launched in 1996, is also feeling the laser-like spotlight that comes with being the top dog at the most-watched cable news channel that drives much of the politically charged national dialogue.

While Hannity has been part of the prime-time lineup for years, it has been other stars, such as Bill OReilly and Megyn Kelly, who have generated the attention and controversy on Fox News.

But OReillys firing last year and Kellys departure to NBC have turned the staunchly conservative Hannity into the networks main attraction. Moved to the 9 p.m. Eastern time slot last year, his show has become the tent-pole program for Fox News in prime time, delivering the largest audience in cable news on most nights.

Hannity has never had Lako on his television program, according to a Fox News representative.

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Hannitys presenting of Lako as an expert on his radio program  with disclosure that he is his client  is an accepted practice, according to Michael Harrison, publisher of the talk radio business publication Talkers.

Just having people on the air who you do business with or have contacts with is not necessarily saying, Go do business with this person heres their number, Harrison said. If its short of touting, its basically using your connections to bring colorful personalities onto the air.

Harrison said radio hosts run afoul of the law if they take direct payment from a guest for appearing without disclosing it.

I see Hannity using his sources for content and for experts, Harrison said. I do not believe there was anything done with intent to deceive or to promote these people on the radio. Its uncomfortable, and a lot of that is because of the murkiness of the laws that apply to this.

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matt.pearce@latimes.com

Matt Pearce is a national reporter for The Times. Follow him on Twitter at @mattdpearce.

stephen.battaglio@latimes.com

Twitter: @SteveBattaglio

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A mistrial was declared Monday in the case of a U.S. Border Patrol agent after an Arizona jury acquitted him of a second-degree murder charge in the killing of a teen from Mexico but deadlocked on lesser counts of manslaughter.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Raner Collins means prosecutors could seek another trial for Agent Lonnie Swartz on the manslaughter charges in the 2012 death of Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, who was fatally shot as he threw rocks at authorities during a drug smuggling attempt. Prosecutors say they were evaluating whether to pursue a retrial.

Jurors had deliberated about 18 hours over five days in what human rights attorneys say was the first prosecution of a Border Patrol agent in a fatal shooting across the border.

Swartz fired 16 shots late on Oct. 10, 2012, through a 20-foot-tall fence that sits on an embankment above Mexicos Calle Internacional, a Nogales street lined with homes and small businesses.

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Prosecutors acknowledged during the monthlong trial that Elena Rodriguez was lobbing rocks across the border during a drug smuggling attempt. But they say he did not deserve to die.

Defense attorneys countered that Swartz was justified in using lethal force against rock-throwers and shot from the U.S. side of the border in self-defense.

Defense attorneys Sean Chapman and Jim Calle didnt immediately return a phone call seeking comment late Monday afternoon.

Art Del Cueto, head of the Tucson union for Border Patrol officers, said: I believe that justice was properly served. The jurors took their time, and were pretty happy with it.

Prosecutor Elizabeth Strange said her office respects the jurys decision. I am proud of our offices work in presenting this difficult case to the jury, Strange said.

The Border Patrol came under close scrutiny during the Obama administration for allegations involving excessive use of force. Customs and Border Protection, its parent agency, reported 55 incidents in which employees used firearms from Oct. 1, 2011, to Sept. 30, 2012. The number of incidents fell to 17 for the same period five years later.

Swartz initially was charged with second-degree murder in the shooting of Elena Rodriguez in Nogales, Mexico.

Collins told the jury in his instructions that they could consider a lesser charge of voluntary or involuntary manslaughter if they had trouble reaching a verdict on the more serious charge.

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During closing arguments, Assistant U.S. Attorney Wallace Heath Kleindienst said Swartz was fed up with being rocked after being targeted in at least six other attacks.

He was angry with those people who had been throwing rocks against the fence, Kleindienst said.

It was not about eliminating a threat, because there was no threat, he said. It was about eliminating a human being.

Defense attorney Sean Chapman argued there was not a scintilla of evidence that Swartz was angry or fed up.

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He said Swartz shot because he was trying to protect himself and his fellow agents during a drug operation.

From his first day in the Border Patrol, it had been ingrained in him that rocks were dangerous, Chapman said.

The trial played out as President Trump called for National Guard troops to be sent to the Mexican border to free Border Patrol agents to concentrate on stopping drugs and people from illegally entering the United States.

The killing of Elena Rodriguez was felt deeply in the twin communities of Nogales, where about 20,000 people live on the Arizona side and about 300,000 in Mexico. The communities are linked by family members, trade and culture and have long been referred to locally as Ambos Nogales  Both Nogales in Spanish.

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During the trial, jurors visited the border area at night to get a better idea of what Swartz was facing.

The agent, who has been on administrative leave pending the trials outcome, testified that he remembered little of what happened.

The Border Patrol has not said if he was receiving his salary.
Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. Its Tuesday, April 24, and heres whats happening across California:

TOP STORIES

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Monday he would absolutely consider extending L.A. limits on rent increases to cover newly built apartments, if voters roll back a state law that prohibits it. Garcetti joined tenant and community activists at a news conference outside City Hall to back a proposed ballot initiative that would roll back the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, which bans cities and counties from capping rent increases on apartments built after 1995. Los Angeles Times

Wild weather only gets wilder

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California can expect more whiplash between severe drought and very wet years, according to a new study that examines the effects of human-caused global warming. Such sudden swings between severe drought and intense storms will increase the threat to aging dams and flood-control networks, accentuate the wildfire threat and make management of the states complex waterworks even more daunting. Los Angeles Times

Tragedy in Ventura

Venturas police chief says his officers erred in not responding to reports of a transient scaring people in the citys boardwalk. Hours later, the same man would stab a father to death at a steakhouse, reigniting concerns about the way the city handles homelessness. Los Angeles Times

L.A. STORIES

A worrying warning: The electrical power systems in some Toyota Prius models are failing at an unusually rapid rate across the nation and leaving owners stranded, despite a 2014 safety recall that was supposed to have fixed the problem, according to Toyota documents reviewed by The Times. Some Southern California dealers are refusing to sell these Priuses because they believe a defect can cause them to lose power and stop. Los Angeles Times

Eesh: Southern California home prices jumped to a record high in March. Los Angeles Times

Bombay Beach! In a forgotten town by the Salton Sea, newcomers build a bohemian dream. The Guardian

At the port: SpaceX is coming to San Pedro, and residents think it could be a game changer. Daily Breeze

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IMMIGRATION AND THE BORDER

Where cars are made: Mexicos own Motor City is experiencing billion-dollar investments but also fear over President Trumps trade moves. Los Angeles Times

Inspiring: Sergio Sandoval crosses the Tijuana border each day hoping to one day work for NASA. Los Angeles Times

[Cries in Spanish]: New competition from the likes of Netflix has forced Televisa and other Latin American broadcasters to develop real-life, edgier dramas and crime stories to replace the torrid romances that once enthralled millions. Wall Street Journal

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Wowzer: The Border Patrol is said to have faked statistics showing a 73% rise in assaults against agents. The Intercept

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

On the campaign trail: Californias candidates for governor dont talk about taxes much. They need to start, says columnist George Skelton. Los Angeles Times

Plus: Gavin Newsom didnt really go to rehab. Sacramento Bee

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Someone to watch: Freshman Rep. Nanette Barragan is on Politicos Power List of Women to Watch. Politico

Not good: Four hundred people were evacuated Monday morning from Next Door: Episcopal Community Services  one of San Franciscos largest homeless shelters  due to a gas leak. San Francisco Chronicle

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Police take Matthew Hermsmeyer into custody on suspicion of stealing a truck full of beer in Santa Rosa. (Santa Rosa Police Department )

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CRIME AND COURTS

The gall! A string of armed robberies at Trader Joes stores has police investigating whether theyre linked. Los Angeles Times

Mark your calendars: A judge has set a September trial date in the murder case of former rap mogul Marion Suge Knight, whose dramatic court saga stretches back more than three years. Los Angeles Times

Murica: A shirtless man with American flag shorts hid in the bushes after stealing a beer truck in Santa Rosa, police say. Los Angeles Times

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Interesting story: Pain management rarely means opioids for San Diego jail inmates. San Diego Union-Tribune

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

History lesson: In 1968, moviegoers had a lot more choices before blockbuster fever took over. Los Angeles Times

Sticker shock: The most expensive home on Malibus famed Billionaires Beach has found a bona fide billionaire buyer. Los Angeles Times

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Yum: Several local spots made GQs list of best new restaurants in America in 2018. GQ

Double yum: Famed chef David Chang, who recently set up shop in Los Angeles, is now getting a podcast. Eater LA

Not so much: A California judges ruling on warning labels for coffee isnt backed by evidence and could do more harm than good. New York Times

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

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Los Angeles area: Partly cloudy, 76, Tuesday. Sunny, 74, Wednesday. San Diego: Partly cloudy, 68, Tuesday and Wednesday. San Francisco area: Partly cloudy, 63, Tuesday. Partly cloudy, 61, Wednesday. Sacramento: Partly cloudy, 85, Tuesday. Sunny, 85, Wednesday. More weather is here.

AND FINALLY

Todays California memory comes from Sherri Peltier:

I was born 1952 and raised in Redwood City, a small city slap dab between San Francisco and San Jose. My father was a policeman in Redwood City, and it had a policy that you had to live in Redwood City to work as a cop. As the home prices started to rise, the police started to lobby the city government to live in nearby cities such as San Jose and Santa Clara. This started a new family hobby. Every weekend we would go tour model homes in San Jose, because their new homes were starting around $20,000. You could still experience peach orchards surrounding the new home tracts. It was fun; my brother, sister and I would try to sneak fruit whenever we could. Most of the time, though, we got a lecture about taking something that didnt belong to us. My parents never did leave Redwood City until retirement came, but the memories of growing up never leave.

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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.
Before launching his campaign for governor last year, Assemblyman Travis Allen (R-Huntington Beach) was a fairly ordinary legislator. Republican, but not in a rabble-rousing kind of way, and seemingly willing to work across the aisle to get things done. His first attention-getting legislation was a bill he co-authored in 2013 with a Democratic colleague to stop the South Coast Air Quality Management District from banning beach bonfires.

But now hes running for governor and hes changed. Last year, for example, when the Democratic-majority Legislature passed a bill to stop police from arresting children on charges of prostitution, he wrote an overwrought article suggesting that the state had legalized child prostitution.

Needless to say, that was not the case. The bill didnt make it legal for an adult to have sex with a minor, and Allen knew it. It merely declared that kids who were being sold for sex should be treated as victims rather than criminals.

But Allen clearly felt that his assertion, true or not, would feed a belief about out-of-control liberals held by the silent majority of conservatives he thinks exists  and would motivate them to vote for him in the June 5 statewide primary. It was part of a strategy he has followed since then of tapping into fears, making false claims, demonizing certain groups of people and promising things he cant possibly deliver. Politicians have, of course, always done such things to one degree or another  and we would never suggest that Allen is the only demagogue out there. But these days, in the aftermath of the November 2016 election, it no longer makes sense to ignore such irresponsible campaign behavior or to view it as the domain of only fringe candidates hoping desperately to get attention.

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In the aftermath of the November 2016 election, it no longer makes sense to ignore such irresponsible campaign behavior.

Allen is not a fringe candidate  hes either the top Republican in the race or the No. 2, depending on the poll  and he has no problem employing the Donald Trump playbook. Even his campaign slogan, Take back California, has a familiar ring. He has repeated the debunked myth of rampant voter fraud in California and he told the crowd at one Republican forum that Democrats are going to try to steal 2018 from us.

Other myths he propounds include his assertions that cutting taxes will somehow improve the state budget, and that when hes governor, every Californian will have a green lawn and take long showers. Thats misleading and reckless, an unrealistic vision of a California that cant possibly exist in a climate-changed state with nearly 40 million people, no matter how nostalgic voters may be for the old days.

Allen touts a California of the past, where everyone has a right to live in a single-family home with a lush lawn, where homeless people are carted off to institutions or sent on one-way bus trips out of state, where public schools are magically improved by private school vouchers, and roads are smooth and speedy even though the gas tax has been repealed.

Its a fantasy, and Allen ought to know better.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook.
It is easy to despair of politics  witness the actions of President Trump and the gallery of narrow-minded populists taking power across the globe. In particular, political rhetoric, in these leaders hands, is in the dock, accused of fakery, falsity and spin. But political speech can sing, and when it does, it moves the world in the right direction.

President Obama famously did sing. At the memorial service for the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, shot in Charleston, S.C., in July 2015, Obama paused in his remarks and began a brief rendition of Amazing Grace. I was a chief speechwriter to Britains former prime minister Tony Blair, and I have wondered how Obama and his staff worked that out. I imagine the president going through the script and saying, Then I intend to sing. Everyone would have looked at one another until someone said, You are going to do what?

And yet it worked, beautifully.

Great speakers  great political speakers  find an idiom of their own. Lincoln was hardly charismatic, but government of the people, by the people, for the people dazzles us. Franklin was so unwell at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 that he asked a friend to finish off the speech in which he endorsed this Constitution, with all its faults. Kennedys voice was rather thin, but his request that his fellow Americans ask not what their country could do for them has given him immortality in the pantheon of political speech.

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The most intriguing contemporary case study is, of course, President Trump. It is common to criticize the president for the looseness of his rhetoric, but the truth is, whether you like his politics or not, Trump displays two of the virtues that any successful speaker must have.

The first is character. Like Elizabeth I addressing her troops as the Spanish Armada gathered, good speakers are confident in their role in the drama. Elizabeth personified the nation and spoke directly to its fears: I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England Should [any] dare to invade the borders of my realmI myself will take up arms.

Trump at least has a presence that is confidently and decisively his own. The fact that he can be easily mocked is a strange kind of compliment. His mannerisms and style are instantly recognizable. Speechwriters call it authenticity and cultivate it in their clients.

Political speech can sing, and when it does, it moves the world.

The second virtue is clarity. We know what the president is saying. Aristotle called this the seat of the argument; Cicero called it the Topic. Rhetoric fails when it does not get to the point. In all Trumps campaign and campaign-style speeches (and in his rallies since), he has been forensic in his focus on his audience. Trump speaks their language and he promises them deliverance. He inspires them.

That too is crucial for great political rhetoric: Define an injustice and answer it. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. inspired millions with his I Have a Dream speech at the March on Washington in 1963. Winston Churchill mobilized the English language to defeat Hitler in World War II. Nelson Mandela, on trial for his life, defended the right of all men and women to equal citizenship.

But inspiration is not sufficient, and here Trump should take a lesson from King. The little-known early parts of Kings famous speech were all about the need for the nation to unite. And in that, King was following a well-established pattern among American leaders.

In the brutal election of 1800, Thomas Jefferson had accused his opponent, John Adams, of being pro-English, and Adams countered by revealing that Jefferson had fathered a child with one of his slaves. Yet when Jefferson took office in March 1801, he ended the verbal warfare: Let us, then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind.

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Jefferson used a phrase that would be echoed by presidents many times since: We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists. (Theres not a liberal America and a conservative America, said then-Sen. Obama in 2004. Theres the United States of America. )

Justice, inspiration, unity: That is political rhetoric at its best. Trump may never shine as a public speaker in categories other than character or clarity, but there is no need to despair for speechmaking. Oratory that meets the highest criteria is still possible. It only requires a leader to show some amazing grace.

Philip Collins is a columnist for The Times of London. His latest book is When They Go Low, We Go High: Speeches that Shape the World and Why We Need Them.

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Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, April 23, 2018. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei)

BEIJING, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping said Monday that he is looking forward to meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in June and jointly planning China-Russia ties in a new era.

Xi made the remarks when meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Xi said he is looking forward to President Putin's China visit in June and his attendance at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in the eastern Chinese coastal city of Qingdao.

He said he hopes to boost friendship with President Putin, jointly plan China-Russia ties in a new era, and discuss the future development of the SCO together with the leaders of other SCO member countries.

Calling a high-level bilateral relationship "precious wealth of both countries," Xi said the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination has maintained positive development momentum.

China and Russia need to continue to give play to the guiding role of high-level exchanges in the development of bilateral ties, fully implement the consensus reached by the two heads of state, and synergize the Belt and Road Initiative and the Eurasia Economic Union, Xi said.

He also called on the two sides to enhance mutual support in international affairs, jointly uphold international law and universally recognized norms of international relations, and strengthen cooperation within the SCO, BRICS, G20 and other frameworks so as to build a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for humanity.

"I believe that with the efforts of both sides, China-Russia ties will make new achievements," said Xi.

Lavrov said President Putin looks forward to visiting China and attending the SCO Qingdao summit.

Russia has attached great importance to the comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination with China and stands ready to further strengthen bilateral cooperation, he said.

Both Russia and China respect international law and the UN Charter, said Lavrov, adding that his country agrees that the two nations need to further enhance coordination within multilateral frameworks.
President Trumps travel ban heads to the Supreme Court on Wednesday as the justices hear arguments in Hawaii vs. Trump. Some court watchers have cast doubt on whether the justices will uphold rulings from lower courts on both coasts that have struck down Trumps ban, now in its third incarnation. Skeptics point to the courts decision in December allowing this version of the ban to go into effect while legal challenges continued and suggest that the court was signaling its intention to let the travel ban stand.

But reading Supreme Court tea leaves is tricky, and there are reasons to be optimistic that the court will agree with the 9th and 4th Circuit courts and decide against the administration. The nine justices who make up the court have different predilections, but this case is something of a judicial buffet: Theres a rationale for overturning the ban that fits everyones taste.

Some of the justices, following in the footsteps of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, emphasize a close and direct reading of the plain text of the law. Adhering to that approach is enough to resolve this case against the administration.

The Immigration and Nationality Act was changed in 1965 specifically to prohibit the government from barring immigration to the U.S. solely on the basis of nationality. Yet thats precisely what Trumps travel ban does. His presidential proclamation prevents entry to the United States on a country-by-country basis, targeting travelers and immigrants from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen and North Korea (plus a handful of Venezuelan government officials).

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When the White House holds up the travel ban as the implementation of an anti-Muslim position, it smacks of precisely what the 1st Amendment forbids.

The president claims emergency authority as a justification for his order. However, the Immigration and Nationality Act requires that emergency changes to immigration policy must be temporary, and Trumps third travel ban is indefinite, not temporary. For justices who dig into the statutory text, theres plenty to cause them to strike down the order.

Another angle may be of particular interest to the courts newest member, Justice Neil Gorsuch: the question of how much of Congress constitutional authority it can give away to the president. Under a longstanding constitutional principle, each branch of government must, in essence, stay in its constitutionally allocated lane; it cant escape or hand off the powers it has been given by the framers. The legislature, for example, cant punt to the president or the judiciary on its obligation to levy taxes and appropriate funds. This is known as the nondelegation doctrine: Each branch must fully own the responsibilities that the Constitution gives it.

Article I of the Constitution assigns the authority over immigration to Congress, not the president: The Congress shall have Power  To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization. And yet, the Trump administration argues that the Immigration and Nationality Act permits him to dramatically and drastically redesign, with the stroke of his pen, Americas approach to immigration. The nondelegation doctrine should render the administrations position untenable.

Finally, we know some of the justices are deeply interested in sustaining the 1st Amendments establishment clause, which prevents the government from favoring  or disfavoring  a particular religion. That yields yet another perspective for ruling against Trump.

The travel ban arguably represents Trumps fulfillment of a campaign promise to institute a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States. Five of the countries the ban applies to are overwhelmingly Muslim-majority nations. And since the inauguration, the White House has more than once publicly linked the ban to the basest forms of Islamophobia.

For example, after Trump retweeted three virulently anti-Muslim videos posted to Twitter by a far-right British politician, the presidents deputy press secretary, Raj Shah, was asked to explain the presidents views. He squarely put the posts in the context of the ban: The president has addressed these issues with the travel order that he issued earlier this year, and the companion proclamation.

When the White House holds up the travel ban as the implementation of an anti-Muslim position, it smacks of precisely what the 1st Amendment forbids. For some justices, this alone should be sufficient basis for striking down the third travel ban.

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Some cases reach the Supreme Court with limited choices for the justices as they consider the arguments on both sides. This case is different. At this judicial buffet, the justices can load up their plates based on multiple issues. There are any number of ways to defeat the ban because there are any number of legal defects with what Trump has done. The question should be not whether to rule against him, but how.

Joshua A. Geltzer is executive director and visiting professor of law at Georgetown Universitys Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, and a fellow at New America.

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Responding to reports that North Korea said it no longer needs nuclear tests, Jim Hanson, president of the generally pro-Trump Security Studies Group, credited President Trump.

No one was expecting anything to come of Trumps fiery rhetoric, except people who understand that diplomacy works better with a credible threat of force backing it up, Hanson told Fox and Friends over the weekend. Its brought Kim Jong Un to the table in ways none of Trumps predecessors were able to do.

Even though the nuclear-test freeze is mostly symbolic, this strikes me as entirely defensible. Trump critics who dont like his fiery rhetoric and unpredictability, myself included, should concede that it has its benefits on occasion.

Im not sure it should be chalked up to some grand strategy, though. Trump is fiery and unpredictable all the time. Calling it strategic brilliance only when it works for him is a bit like celebrating the perfect accuracy of a broken clock twice a day.

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Still, Hansons right. In this case, letting Trump be Trump has yielded real diplomatic results that would likely be hailed as breakthroughs under, say, a President Hillary Clinton.

You cannot simply negotiate a country into negating its reason for existence.

The problem is that these diplomatic triumphs are almost certainly meaningless or even dangerous  something that many Trump supporters would be saying right now if Hillary Clinton were president.

The crux of the dilemma isnt Trump. Its North Korea.

Put simply: North Korea is not a normal country. Its not even a normal dictatorship. It is essentially a totalitarian monarchy whose dynastic rulers claim divine origins.

But even totalitarian regimes have domestic interests and internal politics they have to contend with. The Kim dynasty has sustained itself for three generations by force-feeding its own people, including the elites, a powerfully intoxicating ideological brew.

It holds, among other things, that Koreans are the worlds superior race and that the North is destined to fulfill their destiny by reuniting the peninsula under Kims rule. North Koreans are taught almost from birth that Americans are barbarians.

U.S. imperialist aggressors, Kim said a few years ago, are cannibals seeking pleasure in slaughter. He was commemorating a largely fictional U.S. atrocity during the Korean War.

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North Korea, in effect a modern Sparta, subscribes to the doctrine of chonmin mujanghwa, or arming the whole people.

Of course, absolute rulers have a lot of latitude to do whatever they see as being in their self-interest, but facts and their own ideologies get in the way.

The leaders of Hamas cannot accept the legitimacy of Israel; the mullahs in Iran cannot embrace secularism; and Kim almost surely cannot decide that North Korea doesnt need a nuclear arsenal or to make real peace with South Korea.

Domestically, accepting the legitimacy of South Koreas government would be tantamount to delegitimizing North Koreas government. The Kim regime is similarly convinced, perhaps with reason, that it needs a nuclear deterrent to survive. Agreeing to disarm, in the leaders minds, would be suicidal. Moreover, theyve been telling their own citizens that having nukes is an existential imperative.

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In other words, you cannot simply negotiate a country into negating its reason for existence.

North Korea can be coaxed into some kind of peace process with the South as a way to extract more concessions from the West. But thats the same game its played for decades.

The North Korean regime will never get rid of its nuclear deterrent, because its leaders believe they need it and have told their own people they must have it.

Contrary to a lot of the White House talking points, Kims trial balloon about denuclearizing doesnt mean hes open to disarming. Its 30-year-old jargon for getting America to abandon the South Koreans, paving the way for unification on the Norths bloody terms.

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President Trump may think, as a source reportedly told Axios he does: Just get me in the room with the guy [Kim] and Ill figure it out.

If the president does get in a room with Kim Jong Un, I have no doubt hell emerge with something he can call a victory. I also have no doubt that it will be very similar to previous American diplomatic victories.

jgoldberg@latimescolumnists.com

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Starbucks is synonymous with the urban good life, an oasis where anyone with a few dollars can get a caramel macchiato and sit for hours writing, reading, talking or contemplating life. Its cookie-cutter, but thats the point  its thousands of stores powerfully symbolize the luxury of leisure time, and a culture of aspiration. Thats why after the L.A. riots, South Central put Starbucks on its wish list for what should replace burned-out storefronts and unsavory businesses like liquor stores. In Ladera and Compton, just as in Larchmont and Hermosa Beach, Starbucks guarantees dreaming space, a purely me space for all of us city dwellers.

When two black men arrived at a Starbucks in Philadelphia a week and a half ago, thats what they were apparently thinking too: We all belong to the Starbucks nation. But in the days since those men were arrested for trespassing, weve been grappling with the jarring reality that for black people, especially men, there is no such thing as that kind of neutral space; at least its not guaranteed.

Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson were denied access to the Starbucks restroom because they hadnt purchased anything, so they sat down to wait for a (white) friend theyd arranged to meet there. An employee called the police; officers arrived minutes later and quickly arrested the two of them.

Its notable that Nelson and Robinson were dressed nattily, like hipsters  that is, they looked like typical Starbucks clientele, they didnt present as homeless or gangsta, two conditions closely associated with black men that put retailers on edge. When the police showed up, Robinson, who acknowledges that he harbors the usual black-man wariness of law enforcement, said he nonetheless believed the officers who showed up minutes later couldnt have possibly come for us. This is what black people get for thinking they blend in, for not remembering that their assumed invisibility can change in an instant.

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Anonymity, like leisure time, can be a luxury we arent always afforded.

That things took a nasty turn in Philly isnt merely an artifact of back-East intolerance. Earlier this year at a Starbucks in Torrance a black man who was also denied access to the restroom videoed a white customer who was given access with no problem. (The denial of bathroom use in both cases is an uncomfortable reminder of the segregated toilets common in the South during Jim Crow. So much for aspiration.)

I admit, I have been lulled into believing that Starbucks is a safe space, too. Ive camped out with a computer or a book along with others who may stay a half hour or half a day. I havent run into resistance, and Ive committed the sin of forgetting how tenuous safety can be.

Lingering anywhere can be seen as ominous. Black people arent waiting, were loitering, an infraction that goes back to post-Reconstruction days when police were looking to contain blacks whod migrated north from the Jim Crow South. The racial double standard around leisure time has become embedded in our culture. Young white men not gainfully employed are sometimes called, almost affectionately, slackers or creatives; young black men not employed  let alone standing around  are potential criminals.

And anonymity, like leisure time, can be a luxury we arent always afforded. Ive relaxed in Starbucks because I do feel anonymous there. I fancy myself just another person ordering a flat white. We all speak Starbuck-ese, right? Tall, grande, extra shot of this or that. And my order, not my skin color, is the most notable thing about me. I feel the same way at Trader Joes all over town, when Im hunting down ginger granola and dark chocolate-covered acai berries. I dont think I stand out, which is why Ive always called TJs the happiest place on Earth, happier than Disneyland.

The Philadelphia incident has disrupted all that, brought me back to the unwelcome fact that blacks are still not equals in the culture of aspiration that Starbucks, in its modest way, represents. In the minds of a crucial few, Nelson and Robinson were not in a typical meeting place to discuss business, they were wannabes, they didnt fit, and they had to be called out. What the Starbucks employee and the cops thought the two men were doing, and who they were, was more important than the truth.

Starbucks management is responding to the Philadelphia incident with a vengeance. The employee who called the police is gone, though exactly how or where isnt completely clear. (Fired? Moved? Witness protection?) And there have been clear and unadulterated mea culpas. Chief executive Kevin Johnson apologized personally to Nelson and Robinson, a move in keeping with the companys racial-awareness campaign Race Together, which was rolled out (and short-lived) in 2015. On May 29, most of Starbucks 8,000 locations will close down for a day of racial-bias training.

The company wants to protect its profits, Im sure, by winning back any customers put off by the racism that seems antithetical to the Starbucks brand of better living through lattes. Id also like to believe that it really does understand that what happened was wrong, and is making amends. I can dream  though Im half avoiding Starbucks now  cant I?

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Erin Aubry Kaplan is a contributing writer to Opinion.

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To the editor: Its nice to be reassured by the politically conservative farmers in the parts of California that voted for President Trump that they no longer require immigrant workers in their fields, thus they will continue to swear fealty to the man in the White House. (Raids and tariffs? Well take our lumps, say California farmers, April 21)

The farmers in this article say they will take a few bullets to ensure that Republicans are guaranteed to play by their own rules, regardless of its outcome. These diehards in the San Joaquin Valley seem much more intent on pushing their political support for the far-right agenda than having any concern for the well-being of the state.

California is a Democratic stronghold, and these people are concerned only in promoting the GOP. Thats not going to work here.

John Reed, Hemet

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To the editor: This past July, my brother and I were in the middle of researching for a book we are writing about Texas agriculture. What we found is that Texan pecan farmers, and likely pecan farmers all over the nation, were experiencing huge increases in demand because China was placing massive order for pecans.

Pecan growers all over Texas have been operating with their eyes toward expansion, which is likely the case for California nut growers as well. However, plans for expansion are dependent on a stable price, which may not be the case if China, which happens to be an enormous importer of pecans and walnuts, slows down its ordering because of a trade war with the United States.

Unlike corn, wheat and soy, which are staple foods, pecans and walnuts are more of a luxury, so if the price drops drastically due to a lack of demand, then there may be little to no protections afforded to cash-strapped farmers.

Samuel David Garcia, Cambridge, Mass.

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To the editor: Thank you for shining a light on the effort of Bryan Stevenson and his Equal Justice Initiative to memorialize the more than 4,000 victims of lynching in this country. (New lynching memorial in Alabama offers chance to remember and heal, April 21)

In talks across the country, Stevenson points out that unlike countries such as Germany, South Africa and Rwanda, the United States has never directly confronted the tragic legacy of slavery and the subsequent decades of racial injustice perpetrated on our black community. We seem to have the attitude that those days are over and done with, so lets move on.

But only by confronting and acknowledging the gross injustice done to blacks in this country, and expressing sincere and heartfelt regret for it, can we as a country truly move past this horrible chapter in our history.

I did not personally participate in these crimes, but as a white American, I feel the burden of history and feel strongly the need to acknowledge and apologize for the crimes of my race.

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Sharon Blain, Aliso Viejo

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To the editor: As abhorrent as I find lynchings of black men and women in this country, I also want to remind readers of the single mass lynching in Los Angeles history.

In 1871, at least 17 Chinese males, some of them just boys, were hanged off a street ironically named Calle de los Negros, or Negro Alley. Sadly, the people who were charged and sentenced for these crimes had their convictions overturned on a legal technicality.

I hope the National Memorial for Peace and Justice will include these equally abhorrent lynchings.

Al Chin, Lake Forest

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To the editor: Unexpectedly finding a stolpersteine (stumbling stone) memorial for my great-grandmother, a Holocaust victim, in her home town of Gotha, Germany, was one of the most meaningful experiences of my life.

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It meant that someone, if only a city official reviewing records of local Jews murdered in the Holocaust, had taken note of her life and death. Its presence offered me a token of recognition and apology for the immense evil responsible for her death.

Congratulations to the Equal Justice Initiative on the opening of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, a monument to the more than 4,400 African Americans murdered by lynching. I urge each of the 805 counties in which lynchings occurred to claim and display the memorials planned for local use.

More importantly, I hope that current and future generations of African Americans find the same sense of admission of wrong and atonement for the racism that precipitated these deaths that I find in the placement of stolpersteine throughout Germany.

Rachel Rubin Green, Los Angeles

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To the editor: Im thrilled that the North Koreans and the South Koreans are engaging in serious peace talks, and I am amazed that President Trump and CIA Director Mike Pompeo are also willing to support this effort. (North Korea says it will suspend nuclear and missile testing, April 20)

As someone who has urged our elected officials to call on the president to pursue diplomatic rather than military options, Im glad this is finally happening. But if the U.S. wants North Korea to denuclearize, we need to set an example.

We have greater than 4,000 nuclear warheads, more than enough to deter any threat. We dont need to waste billions more on weapons that would destroy all human life on this planet.

Lets work for denuclearization of the world and start by asking all the nuclear powers to reduce their stockpiles by at least half and keep reducing these demonic weapons until we have a nuke-free world.

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Anthony Manousos, Pasadena

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To the editor: I applaud Trump for pursuing a dialogue with North Korea. Past presidents have failed to confront this problem, and I truly hope he is successful.

But a deal with the dictator of North Korea is not the same as a deal with another Manhattan businessman. Lives are at stake here, and Im not sure the president fully realizes that. His erratic behavior on Twitter suggests an indifference toward the diplomatic processes that make these seemingly impossible deals possible.

I wish Trump the best, but I cant say I have high expectations for our president, the self-described deal maker.

Nick Stanton, Whittier

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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
Rep. Duncan Hunter is attempting to set up a fund to raise money to pay for lawyers and other costs related to an ongoing FBI criminal investigation into allegations of misused campaign cash, according to documents filed in Congress.

Hunter, a Republican from Alpine, filed the required paperwork to the House Ethics Committee nearly a month ago, on March 27, seeking a rarely approved Legal Expense Fund. Yet the document was signed, notarized and dated nearly a year ago, in June.

With such a fund, lawmakers who are under investigation or being sued in connection with their jobs or campaigns can raise money for legal expenses.

The document establishing the fund was not available to the public until late last week and was missing other records that typically are included, such as a letter from the ethics committee approving the trust fund and quarterly financial disclosures of any fundraising and spending. House regulations for establishing trust funds state that the member must obtain written permission of the House Ethics Committee before raising any money.

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Hunters chief of staff, Michael Harrison, did not immediately returns calls and emails seeking clarification about the status of the fund or how much money had been raised or spent.

The House Ethics Committee does not comment on pending matters.

The Federal Election Commission and the San Diego Union-Tribune first questioned in April 2016 Hunters reported spending for video games and for childrens private school tuition. Federal law prohibits spending campaign funds for personal use.

A subsequent investigation by the Union-Tribune found a host of other potentially improper expenses, including for oral surgery, groceries, garage door repair, surfing equipment, dance recital trips, school lunches and airfare for the family rabbit cross-country.

The House Ethics Committee announced in March 2017 that it was suspending its own probe into Hunters campaign spending at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice, to avoid interfering with the FBI investigation.

The FBI has investigated Hunters campaign spending for more than a year, and Hunters campaign has paid more than $600,000 in legal fees.

Hunter denies involvement in any criminal action. While his attorneys have said he is cooperating with the FBI investigation, Hunter has been publicly impatient with the drawn-out probe.

I think that the longer they drag this out, the worse it is for me, and they know that. So lets just get it over with, Hunter told KUSI in January.

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Legal expense funds are administered by an independent trustee and allow donors to give above the maximum amount they can contribute to a candidates campaign.

Individuals, corporations and political action committees can contribute up to $5,000 to the fund. Lobbyists and agents of foreign governments may not contribute.

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BEIJING, April 23 (Xinhua) -- President Xi Jinping has asked the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the embassy in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to immediately take "all necessary means" to handle a major road accident there involving Chinese tourists.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, called for "all-out" effort to rescue the injured and "handle ensuing issues of the deceased."

A tourist bus fell from a bridge in North Hwanghae Province at around 6 p.m. Sunday. The victims included 34 Chinese -- 32 dead and two seriously injured.

Premier Li Keqiang also gave rescue instructions.

Acting on their orders, the foreign ministry and the embassy have been in close contact with the DPRK to coordinate emergency response.

Xi said the recent frequent occurrence of accidents demanded closer attention to safety issues.

Many people will be traveling during the upcoming May Day holiday, he said, ordering local authorities and government departments in China to close safety loopholes, strengthen accident prevention and improve responses to better protect people and property.
She is either complicit in her husbands worst instincts or a victim of them, either struggling in an anachronistic job or confidently doing precisely what she wants to do with it. Fifteen months after she became first lady, Melania Trump remains a mystery.

In the span of several days ending Tuesday, Melania Trump will have been thrust into a more visible public role than perhaps at any other time in her husbands presidency. It comes after a lengthy period of relative invisibility that has not only confounded White House tradition but also limited her potential political benefit to a troubled administration.

After hosting the Japanese prime minister and his wife at Trumps Mar-a-Lago compound in Florida last week, Melania Trump attended the Saturday funeral of former First Lady Barbara Bush in Houston; the president stayed away. Before the service she smiled and chatted with former President Obama, whom her husband has scorned for years, and, again smiling, joined in a formal picture with all of the former presidents and first ladies who attended the funeral.

Later that day, as her husband continued to rage at perceived opponents on Twitter, she released a statement reiterating support for the Bush family, which has been openly antagonistic toward the president.

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On Tuesday, two days before her 48th birthday, Melania Trump will preside over the first state dinner of the Trump presidency, honoring the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, and his wife, Brigitte. The delay in hosting a state dinner, an event usually held in a presidents first year, had raised questions about Melania Trumps view of the job.

The White House on Monday sought to underscore her central role by releasing a video showing the first lady picking out dishes and linens and orchestrating a luxurious tableau. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders emphasized at the top of her daily briefing that Melania Trump has taken an active role in every detail and planning of the visit.

It should be no surprise that Melania Trumps tenure as first lady has been as unconventional as her husbands presidency. She delayed her arrival in Washington for five months, so their pre-teen son Barron could finish school in New York. Since coming to the capital, she has been buffeted by the presidents controversies, most uncomfortably the multiple accusations of affairs during their marriage.

She and Barron have been only sparingly seen compared with other first families. Yet if past first ladies were seen as largely apolitical, Melania Trump seems to have become a vessel for Americans polarized emotions about her husband.

We still dont know that much about her and it seems like she intends to keep it that way, said Kate Andersen Brower, author of First Women and a second book about the inner workings of the White House.

In the absence of a fully developed image, Melania Trumps actions have drawn outsize attention. In January, after allegations surfaced about Trumps pre-presidential affairs, Melania Trump suddenly canceled her participation in an overseas trip with her husband.

She traveled separately to the State of the Union address at the Capitol on Jan. 30, and marched into the House chamber wearing a white pantsuit, a style evocative of womens suffrage and a totem of Hillary Clintons campaign. The couples anniversary on Jan. 22 and then Valentines Day passed without any public recognition of their marriage.

Yet when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrived at the Trumps Florida home last week, the first couple strode hand in hand across the lawn to greet him.

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That yin and yang was reminiscent of the 2016 campaign. Melania Trump spurned the practice of modern political wives and barely campaigned for her husband. Yet when he needed it most  after the release of a video showing him bragging about assaulting women  she went on camera to defend him and said the controversy was organized by the opposition.

The role of first lady is often defined by staged events, like the annual Easter egg roll, which Melania Trump has embraced. What she has done far less is serve as a political buttress.

Amid Bill Clintons impeachment crisis, Hillary Clinton was in heavy demand among Democrats campaigning for the 1998 midterm election, her own popularity soaring. When George W. Bush plummeted in popularity during his presidency, Laura Bush traveled the country in his stead, raising money for Republicans. Michelle Obama developed such a visible political presence that some Democrats begged her to run for president. Her emphasis on childhood nutrition dovetailed with her husbands effort to expand healthcare coverage.

Tina Tchen, Michelle Obamas chief of staff, said of the relative roles of the president and first lady, Hes the elected official and anything we do should serve to amplify. She declined to address the Trumps specifically.

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At the same time, Tchen said, You need to select issues and act in the role with things that are authentic to you.

Anita McBride, who served as chief of staff to Laura Bush, noted that Melania Trump, unlike most other first ladies, did not come to the White House after a lifetime in politics.

Even the most experienced politicians  will find it very difficult at first to adjust to the security, adjust to the schedule, McBride said. I think she was smart to buy time for herself.

Yet it is President Trump who seems to have affected his wifes ambitions the most. When she announced that a prime focus would be cyberbullying, Melania Trump cast it as an extension of her concern about children.

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We have a real opportunity to teach positive online behaviors, but that also means addressing issues offline such as kindness, empathy and respect, she said. Her invocation of civility drew hoots from those critical of her husbands frequent forays into online mockery.

Similarly, Melania Trump has spoken often about solutions to the opioid epidemic.

Im proud of this administrations commitment to battling this epidemic, she said in New Hampshire in March, calling attention to a White House gathering of addiction experts.

Her husbands record is more mixed. Trump has asked for billions to combat opioid addiction. But he also has slashed money for the office leading the battle and sought to cut Medicaid, which pays for much of the nations drug treatment programs.

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Robert Watson, an American studies professor at Lynn University in Florida, who has written extensively about first ladies, said Melania Trumps background should be a strength  she is an immigrant, now an American citizen, who speaks several languages. But that too has been made problematic by her husbands broadsides against immigrants and his desire to retreat from global cooperation.

The first lady can be a secret weapon and  Melania could soften his image, Watson said, but instead she has chosen so far to do the absolute minimum necessary.

Ohio University historian Katherine Jellison said that while first ladies are almost always more popular than the presidents to whom theyre married, Melania Trump may be tripped up more than most by the current take no prisoners political environment.

Trump critics can point to Mrs. Trump and say shes been an enabler or shes a victim of the Stockholm syndrome, Jellison said. I think if she did have a more upfront role, in an effort to soften his public image, shed come in for more slings and arrows. Part of the reason she is more popular than her husband is that she is lower profile.

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At the start of the year, Melania Trump announced additions to her small staff, meant to bolster her policy priorities. The state dinner Tuesday represented that teams biggest challenge so far, all the more so because it did not call in event planners for help as previous administrations have done. (Her staff did not return calls for comment.)

Its not clear if the week of activity will inspire a higher public profile or whether Melania Trump will return to the pace of her first year in office.

I think what we see now is what to expect the remainder of his time in office, said Jellison, who has studied first ladies. Were going to see a woman who does not want to be involved politically much, and sometimes does not want to be in the fishbowl at all.

To read this article in Spanish, click here

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The latest from Washington 

For more on politics from Cathleen Decker 

cathleen.decker@latimes.com

Twitter: @cathleendecker
President Trump suggested on Tuesday that he would consider a plea from visiting French President Emmanuel Macron to renegotiate and expand the multinational Iran nuclear deal rather than follow through on his long-standing pledge to tear it up.

Macron, who came to Washington intent on salvaging the 2015 accord that dismantled Irans nuclear program through 2025, proposed a new deal to allay Trumps concerns  by adding planks to contain Irans uranium enrichment, its missile programs and its support of militants throughout the region.

I think we will have a great shot at doing a much bigger  maybe  deal, maybe not deal, Trump said, equivocating as he often does, during a news conference with Macron. Were going to find out, but well know fairly soon.

Macron is on a three-day state visit, the first such formal event for a foreign leader in the Trump presidency, reflecting the affinity between the two leaders. With a May 12 deadline looming for Trump to waive U.S. sanctions against Iran, in keeping with the Iran deal brokered by the Obama administration, Macrons main mission is preserving the pact. Trump, who has reluctantly waived sanctions in the past, has vowed he would not do so again.

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That would probably unravel the deal. Besides the United States, France and Iran, the parties to the accord are Britain, Germany, Russia, China and the European Union. Like France, they maintain support for it. Whether they are open to renegotiation was unclear.

Macron said he and Trump held frank discussions; likewise in public, side by side before reporters, they frankly conveyed their differences. The French president acknowledged that Trump had campaigned against the deal, yet he seemed to appeal to Trumps instinctive desire to hatch something big, outdoing his predecessors, by pressing him to renegotiate instead of scrapping it.

This is the only way to bring about stability, Macron said, adding that France is not naive when it comes to Iran.

He made the case that a new deal would not only keep Irans nuclear ambitions at bay, but also help bring a political settlement to the Syrian civil war  another issue in which Macron is trying to persuade Trump to stay the course. Trump repeated that he is eager to withdraw remaining U.S. troops from Syria, while France wants the United States to keep a force in the war-torn country as a counterbalance to Iran and Russia.

We need to win peace and make sure that Syria does not fall into any hegemony in the region, Macron said, singling out Iran for its influence over the Syrian government of Bashar Assad.

Trump not only stopped short of endorsing a new Iran deal, in public he mostly disparaged the existing pact as a disaster.

Its insane. Its ridiculous. It should never have been made. But we will be talking about it, Trump told reporters as the two leaders sat in the Oval Office for their first business meeting early Tuesday.

Against such criticisms of the accord he favored, Macron stood gamely by, seemingly willing to risk political capital to sway Trump. He even endured an awkward gesture by the U.S. president, who at one point  before the television cameras and French and American reporters  drew attention to dandruff on Macrons coat.

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We have a very special relationship. In fact, Ill get that little piece of dandruff off, Trump said, brushing at Macrons lapel. We have to make him perfect  he is perfect.

During one meeting attended by officials from both countries, Trump separately expressed optimism about his still-unscheduled meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un this spring, calling him very honorable.

Questioned at the news conference about his kind words for an autocrat accused of starving his people, among other abuses, Trump said, I havent even discussed a concession, other than the fact that meeting is a great thing.

Trump has formed a close bond with Macron, but sounded like a man who might yet disappoint his friend. He complained that the deal to dismantle Irans nuclear program gave the country too much money and no restrictions on its separate activities to develop missiles and make trouble internationally. (The money Iran got was its own, assets that had been long frozen until it complied with the 2015 accord.)

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It just seems that no matter where you go, especially in the Middle East, Iran is behind it. Wherever theres trouble  Yemen, Syria  no matter where you have it, Iran is behind it, Trump said. And now, unfortunately, Russia is getting more and more involved.

Trump spoke vaguely but ominously about how the United States would contain Iran if it resumes its nuclear weapons development. If they restart their nuclear program, he said, then they will have bigger problems than theyve ever had before.

Macron emphasized the agreements geopolitical benefits, to underscore the case that an enhanced deal would accomplish some of what concerned Trump.

The Iran deal is an important issue but we have to take a far broader picture, which is security in the overall region, he said.

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Policy analysts saw a shift  or a potential shift  on Trumps part.

Joe Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund, which supports the Iran deal, said that initially, after Trumps more critical remarks in the morning Oval Office meeting with Macron, I thought President Trump was on the verge of declaring war on Iran if it broke the limits on nuclear production.

By the afternoon, Cirincione said, he appeared to agree with the French president that it was better to build on the deal and not tear it up.

Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, which previously lobbied against the agreement, said Macron appeared to be laying the groundwork for framing the Iran issue in a way more palatable to the American people  and to Trump.

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Several analysts said Macron, more than other world leaders, had learned how to manipulate Trump, who seems to genuinely like Macron.

Macron has apparently convinced Trump that he can have a bigger deal by building, not tearing down, [and] helped Trump see that he can supplant Obamas legacy, Cirincione said.

Macron, 40, and Trump, 71, share a mutual sense that they were elected as outsiders, and disrupters. Macron has built the closest relationship with Trump of any leader in Europe  certainly more than Germanys Angela Merkel, who is scheduled to visit on Friday  despite the fact that Trump is generally viewed on the continent with skepticism and alarm.

Their policy discussions were sandwiched between festive ceremonies honoring the friendship between their countries, and between themselves, following Macrons arrival on Monday.

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They shared a private dinner with their spouses on Monday at Mount Vernon, the Virginia plantation home of George Washington. On Tuesday morning, they participated in an elaborate welcoming ceremony at the White House, which included a military inspection and rousing speeches from both presidents about the Franco-American bond cemented through revolutions and two world wars over nearly 250 years.

Let the United States and France stand forever in solidarity for the noble cause of liberty and peace, Trump declared.

Macron spoke of their appointment with history, while trying to nudge Trump toward the international consensus not only on Iran but on climate change, trade and other issues on which he differs with the U.S. leader. He called on Trump to resist the rise of aggressive nationalisms that deny our history and divide the world.

It is together that we will be able to act effectively for our planet, Macron said. Im not just referring to climate, but also to the oceans, to biodiversity and to all forms of pollutions.

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On this issue, we do not always agree as to the solutions, he added. But, in the end, such is the case in any family and in any friendship.

Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson contributed to this report.

noah.bierman@latimes.com

Twitter: @noahbierman

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UPDATES:

3:55 p.m.: The story was updated with additional reporting and analysis.

12:25 p.m.: The story was updated to include quotes from President Trump and Emmanuel Macrons news conference, as well as analysis.

The story was originally published at 9:05 a.m.
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.

Los Angeles Times

Until now, the loudest critics of the efforts have been bail agents who have filled Capitol committee hearing rooms, blasted legislators on social media and poured more than $600,000 into lobbying efforts to prevent changes to how judges set bail and how their businesses are regulated. Civil rights and criminal justice groups have aggressively fought back against campaigns from the bail industry. One tactic: exposing agents who have faced criminal charges on a public website.

Jane Un, a Redlands bail agent who founded her own company in 2006, believes bail companies have too much power.

There are a number of examples of practices for collecting the bail money that she calls abusive. Agents can use any citation to dock a client for breach of contract, such as arriving a few minutes late to a court appearance. She said clients have told her some agents hold people inside their offices until they or a relative can produce the money owed.

Un got involved in the business after having her own negative experience following a brush with the law. (She was eventually cleared of real estate fraud and conspiracy to commit burglary, public records show.) She has privately reached out to lawmakers about the bad practices shes seen from bail agents motivated by greed.

Jane Un, CEO and founder of Abba Bail Bonds, works with 24-year-old Tyshaun Middelton on posting bail. Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times

Now shes being more vocal and calling for a change to the system. There are multilayered problems. Un sees her clients struggling from the beginning. When someone is arrested, judges set bail according to county-established fees based on the gravity of the alleged crime. The fixed amounts vary widely and are too high for many families, she said.

Defendants must post the amount up front or pay a 10% fee to a bond company before they are released. Those who can't afford either option may remain behind bars up to an additional 48 hours before they are formally charged and see a judge.

Un has helped petition courts for lower bail amounts on behalf of some defendants, according to court records and her clients  something she says many others in her business dont do. Bail agents give [clients] the contract and dont explain it, and people sign and initial without fully reading or understanding it, she said.

One of Uns most recent clients, 28-year-old Araceli Cortes, said a different bail company took $5,250 in payment for her husbands release, but lied to her and said he couldnt actually leave because of an immigration hold. Cortes said she checked with the jail and found there was no hold and that the company hadnt posted the bail. The agents refused to return her money.

Jorge Garcia, 26, with wife Claudia Abarca and 2-year-old son Jaasiel Garcia, visits Jane Un, center left, who helped him make bail. Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times

Another element of the business under scrutiny: recovery agents and bounty hunters. Many are paid on commission and dont need to be licensed, meaning they can have insufficient knowledge of search and seizure or other laws of arrest.

Marc Bender is a recovery agent with Aladdin Bail Bonds, one of the largest companies of its kind in the state based on its number of employees. He said many bounty hunters dont get paid if they dont bring a person in, meaning there is a lot of incentive to cut corners.

Un said she once overheard two bounty hunters that she hired bragging about taking an already stolen Louis Vuitton purse from the client. I am hearing all of this, and Im thinking, My god, the bounty hunters I hired are committing a crime and they are getting away with it, she said.

She said the most she could do was not hire them again.

Norma Alcala, a West Sacramento school board member who owned her own bail company in the late 1990s, remembers more-severe cases. In the male-dominated industry, she said, agents often did not return their clients collateral, things like luxury cars and expensive jewelry, and some were known for demanding couch bail, getting someone out in exchange for sexual favors.

She left the business because she saw the rich buying themselves out of trouble while poor people were the ones who really suffer.

Gov. Jerry Brown postpones negotiations over legislation to overhaul the bail system in California 

Investigator Marc Bender, a recovery agent for Aladdin Bail Bonds, looks for a person in Redlands who failed to appear for a scheduled court date. Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times

Stories like these have prompted lawmakers to take a hard look at an industry of roughly 3,200 registered agents in California who collectively write about 175,000 bail bonds per year.

Assemblyman Rob Bonta (D-Oakland) and state Sen. Bob Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys) are working to overhaul the bail system.

One proposal would eliminate fixed bail fees and require counties to establish their own agencies to evaluate defendants for release. Another measure would compel bail companies to post the terms of their contracts online and direct the California Department of Insurance  which regulates the bail bond industry  to conduct a review of the surety corporations that back them.

State Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones supports the changes. Citing increases in complaints, he said in a February report that the state should also license bounty hunters, require more data disclosures from bail companies and create special units to investigate bail violations and enforce compliance.

Department of Insurance data show that complaints against agents and companies more than tripled between 2010 and 2012, from 62 to 225 cases. In 2017, the number of complaints was 131, accounting for 10% of all violation allegations sent to the departments enforcement agency, even though bail makes up less than 2% of the insurance market.

The figures could be even worse. State bail agent associations have told their members to stop filing complaints against other agents and companies while legislative debate is pending, according to a spokeswoman for the Insurance Department. One investigation out of Santa Clara County resulted in the arrests of more than 30 bail agents. They were charged in a scheme to scoop away business from competitors by paying inmates to recruit other inmates for them as clients.

With limited state resources, only a few of the reported cases resulted in enforcement, such as agents having their licenses revoked or facing criminal charges. Legislation to increase funding for investigations and prosecutions was shelved in 2015 and 2016 amid heavy bail industry lobbying.

Marc Bender, is one of a handful of bail agents that are calling for more oversight. (Video by Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

The state also releases little public information about complaints. Thus, the Bail Reform Coalition, a group of civil rights and criminal justice organizations, on Monday detailed cases against agents and bounty hunters across the state.

The research project is compiled from news stories, court records and regulatory proceedings. It lists agents including Fausto Atilano Jr., who, along with employees, has been charged in Riverside County with pointing guns at residents and, in one case, using a taser weapon against the daughter of a Wildomar mayor. Another offender on the groups website is former reality television star Arturo Alfred Torres, an agent with bond companies in Los Angeles and Orange counties. He pleaded guilty to felony grand theft in 2016 after investigators said he refused to return $18,000 to the mother of a client whose charges were dropped.

The group cites vocal bail legislation opponents like Teresa Lynn Golt and Lisa Louise Golt. The sisters and founders of Lipstick Bail Bonds have testified at Capitol hearings and passed out chapsticks with their logo, clad in matching pink jackets.

In one 2013 case, the Golt sisters were sued by a man alleging he was injured when they tried to detain him, pepper spraying him and shooting him with a stun gun and rubber bullets. The sisters countered the claims were false, and a judge dismissed the lawsuit. In 2000, they were charged with issuing bail without a license and illegally accessing private information from law enforcement computers. They were sentenced to probation after they pleaded no contest to lesser charges.

Calls and emails to Atilano and the Golt sisters were not returned.

Un, Bender and others in the industry are in favor of increasing standards, improving court evaluations of defendants and lowering bail fees. When it comes to the bigger picture, they remain staunch defenders of bail, saying it is needed to hold people accountable.

Bender contended that counties need trained recovery agents like himself to bring people back to court. Some clients cycle in and out of jail, bailing out with different companies, and he believes court agencies wont have the resources to help them.

He said his job isnt like what appears on reality television. He tries talking to his clients about turning their lives around.

Every once in awhile, I do reach someone, Bender said. That is what its about for me. Those few people I could reach.

jazmine.ulloa@latimes.com

@jazmineulloa
Every city is unique, and Burbank can claim unique qualities in a variety of ways.

One of those ways is that, unlike most municipalities throughout the United States, or the world for that matter, an overwhelming number of Burbankers make their livelihood, either directly or indirectly, in some type of an arts-related business or industry.

Whether it be film, television, recording, animation or video gaming, both the hands-on artists and thousands of executives and support people who stand behind them serve as the economic engine of Burbank.

It is the knowledge of just how important the arts are to Burbank that served as the impetus for the formation of the Burbank Arts for All Foundation back in 2006.

Working in partnership with the Burbank Unified School District to make sure every child in Burbank gets a quality arts education, the impact of the organizations work has supported thousands of students in their academic, social and emotional growth, thanks to the support of major studios, local businesses, media companies, parents, educators, the city of Burbank and dedicated supporters and patrons of the arts.

Close to 400 of those who understand the value of the arts and arts education came together to support Burbank Arts for All as the nonprofit organization staged its annual Party for the Arts at Universal Studios this past Friday evening.

Co-chaired by Carrie Brown, Joan McCarthy, Cathy Stevens, Karen Volpei and Suzanne Weerts, last weeks event honored three individuals and one company for their commitment to the cause.

The groups Arts for All Educator Award was bestowed upon Guy Myers, who teaches English and drama at John Burroughs High School.

Arts for All Educator Award winner Guy Myers, center, flanked by his husband, Brian Carlson, and his mother, Janet Myers, at last weeks gala. (Photo by David Laurell )

Honored as Champion of the Arts were the husband-and-wife team of Penny and Michael Zambrano for their longstanding volunteer efforts and philanthropy.

Rounding out the evenings honorees was NBCUniversal, which was named the Burbank Arts for All 2018 Patron of the Arts for its dedication and support of the foundation.

Accepting the award on behalf of the company was Scott Strobel, who serves as the vice president of operations at Universal Studios Hollywood.

He asked NBC4 weatherman Fritz Coleman, who served as the events emcee, to join him in accepting the honor.

Always well attended by representatives of the local business, governmental and media communities, the evenings guest list included a Whos Who of Burbank who were welcomed by the organizations executive director, Trena Pitchford, and the foundations co-chairs, Tom Vice and Jill Vander Borght.

Among the many notables out in support of the organization were state Sen. Anthony Portantino, Assemblywoman Laura Friedman, Mayor Emily Gabel-Luddy, City Council members Jess Talamantes, Bob Frutos and Sharon Springer, City Clerk Zizette Mullins, City Treasurer Debbie Kukta, former mayors Jef Vander Borght and Anja Reinke, and Gema Sanchez, executive director of the Burbank Chamber of Commerce.

DAVID LAURELL may be reached by email at dlaurell@aol.com or (818) 563-1007.
Certified hypnotherapist and dog lover Darcy MacDuff saw the value of canine therapy when working with veterans with PTSD.

The therapeutic nature of dogs is part of the inspiration behind her nonprofit Heal Our Troops America in Huntington Beach, which offers complementary alternative medicine and related services for veterans with PTSD  including service dogs trained to soothe veterans during anxiety attacks and wake them from nightmares.

I always have my dog with me during my hypnotherapy sessions, MacDuff said. Which is, I understand, worth its weight in gold.

The dogs are either rescues or belong to the veterans, and they train along with the veterans in a two-year program.

Heal Our Troops is one of the long list of vendors, exhibitors, organizations, shows and rescues that will be attending the 29th annual Americas Family Pet Expo at Costa Mesas OC Fair & Event Center from Friday to Sunday.

Ace Mask of Brea will be attending for his fifth year, with plans to educate the public about collie dogs.

Hell be there with his 9-year-old male collie, Kane, and 5-year-old female, Heather, with the San Gabriel Valley Collie Club and the Pet Prescription Team pet therapy volunteer group.

There are many young people that have never seen a collie before  and have never heard of Lassie, Mask said.

Through the nonprofit Pet Prescription Team  which provides ongoing training and certification of therapy dogs  Mask and his dogs visit hospitals, senior assisted-care facilities and libraries.

Beyond that, Mask and his dogs work with the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Departments human trafficking bureau to help calm young victims. He and the dogs also visit prisoners  escorted by corrections officers  and spend time in cells help calm inmates.

Its a pretty incredible thing to see, Mask said.

Nonprofit Rescue Express will be at the expo for the first time, showcasing one of the buses it uses to transport rescue animals from Oceanside to Burlington, Wash.

Mike McCarthy of Rancho Santa Fe, founded the group about four years ago when he was living in Oregon and noticed that rescue groups were receiving animals from Central Valley shelters because of a shortage of animals in the north. He wanted to provide a more comfortable, reliable form of transportation to these animals moving from south to north.

I outfitted a bus and we started to do transport with it, McCarthy said. Our service is always booked.

Another new participant of the expo is James Earhart and his Mojave based-Sea Lion Splash Show.

We are a sea lion rescue facility, said Earhart whose touring show puts on 10 to 20 shows a year. Two of the three that will be there are beach-stranded rescues. They are deemed unreleasable and we give them a forever home and travel to different event[s].

Also making its debut is the Los Angeles-based Surprise Pawty, founded by Sandy Giang in 2016. It is a subscription-based company that delivers custom-tailored dog toys, treats, chews, accessories and other products every month.

The true inspiration behind Surprise Pawty is really our dog, Buttercup, Giang said. With our busy schedules, it was difficult to find time to drive out and buy her new toys and treats every so often, especially since she is a heavy chewer and has a grain intolerance.

Orange County Beekeepers Assn., a group that started in the early 1970s bringing together O.C. beekeepers and others interested in helping bees, will be at the expo educating participants about bees, behavior patterns and their importance to the environment and food industry.

Mike Karsting, vice president of exhibitions for the World Pet Assn., which puts on the expo, said adoptions are a key component to the event.

Its a great, fun family time, but at the end of the day, we find 500 pets new homes, Karsting said. Thats pretty cool.

If You Go

What: Americas Family Pet Expo

When: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. April 27 and 29, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. April 28

Where: OC Fair & Event Center, 88 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa

Cost: $10 to $15; children age five and younger admitted free

Information: (800) 999-7295 or petexpooc.org.

Jessica Peralta is a contributor to Times Community News.
The Newport Beach City Council is unlikely to hold a previously planned closed session Tuesday regarding the city manager recruitment process.

The closed session was included on the councils meeting agenda when it was released last week. The session heading reads Public employee appointment, with the title Initiation of recruitment process for new city manager.

The councils regular public session later Tuesday includes an item on selecting an executive search firm to help find a new city manager to replace Dave Kiff, who plans to leave Aug. 31.

After some public feedback questioning the legality of a closed session on the topic, City Clerk Leilani Brown pulled back.

Brown said in an email Tuesday that I dont think its going to occur. The day before, she had sent the council a memo recommending that it cancel the closed session to avoid a possible violation of the state open meetings law.

My understanding is that there was a complaint made to the Orange County district attorneys office related to an alleged Brown Act violation, she wrote in her memo. The city attorneys office received confirmation from the district attorneys office that they will not be pursuing the matter due to insufficient evidence related to the allegations made in the complaint. However, since I was directed by the City Council to manage the hiring of the executive search firm, and in the interest of transparency, I am recommending that the closed session item be canceled.

Local government watchdogs Susan Skinner and Jim Mosher had pressed the issue with the city, with Skinner notifying the district attorneys office.

Ray Armstrong, a senior deputy D.A. in the special-prosecutions unit, confirmed in an email to Skinner and the city attorneys office that after reviewing the matter, we have determined that there is insufficient evidence to warrant intervention by the district attorneys office at this time.

Replacing Kiff has been a touchy subject as critics contend that four members of the City Council  Scott Peotter, Kevin Muldoon, Mayor Pro Tem Will ONeill and Mayor Marshall Duffy Duffield  colluded to force Kiff to leave about eight months earlier than he originally planned. The four have repeatedly denied that.

Tuesdays regular council session starts at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 100 Civic Center Drive.

hillary.davis@latimes.com

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHD
Go forth and heal the world. Were counting on you. That advice came from TV writer and novelist Diane Dixon, who was master of ceremonies at the Cabrini Literary Guilds annual Creating Writing Awards luncheon on April 12.

Dixon was primarily addressing the four teenage essay writers who won the cash awards she presented to them.

The Oakmont Country Club was the setting for honoring the young writers, all from Mary Star of the Sea High School in San Pedro. Their essays were chosen out of 124 entries from 40 Catholic high schools in the Los Angeles Archdiocese.

At the start of the program, Marie Urrutia, guild president, welcomed several dozen members and their guests. Guild moderator Father Norman Supancheck gave the opening prayer.

After lunch, Heather Ghermezian, director of the Cabrini awards, introduced judges Gael Davitt, Stella Fejek and Susan Hunt. They had their work cut out for them as they read through each entry answering the prompt, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation hires you as a consultant to determine how best to use $20 billion to save the world. What is your plan?

First-place winner was Grant Smith, 18. His plan is to lower crime rates and boost disaster-relief efforts. Smiths award was $1,000.

Second-place winner was Matthew Morreale, 15. His goal is to provide clean water to third world countries. For his career, Morreale wants to be a film composer. He was awarded $750.

Everett Courtois, 18, nabbed third place. His plan is to make Esperanto the International language. Esperanto is based on roots from European languages and has an estimated 2 million speakers. Courtois was awarded $500.

Fourth-place winner, Jacqueline Gettys, 18, outlined her plan to use the $20 billion for cancer research. Her award was $350.

The teacher of all four students is Carson resident Monica Aguilar. She made writing the essay mandatory. That meant no one could get out of the assignment even if they wanted to.

But the incentives were good grades, cash, the opportunity to listen to inspirational speaker Dixon and the chance to speak before the guild. English teacher Aguilar was present at the luncheon.

I know how hard everyone worked. Im proud of them. Its a huge blessing. God is good, Aguilar said.

Master of ceremonies Dixon is a double Emmy nominee and a recipient of the Humanitas prize for outstanding accomplishment in writing for television. She is also a novelist with three novels under her belt. Her debut novel, The Language of Secrets, was named a Top 10 New Fiction title on Amazon. Dixons inspirational words to the students ended with, Tell us the truth. Write with humility.

The end of the program meant photo snapping. Proud parents took plenty of pictures of their winners.

The mission of the Cabrini Literary Guild is to Assist, financially and otherwise, Catholic and charitable organizations. Through activities, the guild stimulates interest in Catholic literature, thought, action and philanthropy.

Earth Day cupcakes

Sidney Flores, 5, shows off her face paint and her Earth Day cupcake box straight out of the Sprinkles Cupcake ATM in the Americana at Brand. (Photo by Ruth Sowby Rands )

In recognition of Earth Day on Sunday, Sprinkles Cupcakes at the Americana at Brand was brimming with Earth Day vanilla cupcakes.

Sidney Flores, 5, popped by the Sprinkles Cupcake ATM for hers. Aunt Diana Lobos and friend Alexis Vazquez treated her to the $3.95 sweet.

At the counter, sales associate Su Sel of Glendale sold hundreds of cupcakes, many of which were the Earth Day variety.

People are asking for them, Sel said.

Of the days proceeds, 10% will be donated to the Nature Conservancy.

RUTH SOWBY RANDS may be reached at ruthasowby@gmail.com.
Community members have an open invitation to drop by and enjoy watching equestrians compete during the four-day, 97th annual Flintridge Horse Show taking place at Flintridge Riding Club beginning at 8 a.m. Thursday, April 26, and concluding on Sunday, April 29.

Admission to the shows daily events is free, as is parking on the grounds of the club, located at 4625 Oak Grove Drive, La Canada. On Saturday night, Land Rover Pasadena will present the $15,000 Grand Prix and Ringside Benefit Dinner, with proceeds earmarked for Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena. Tickets for that dinner are $150 per person, with children under 10 admitted for $50 each.

The president of the historic riding club, Suzie Osimo, stated in a news release that the organization is pleased to have the opportunity to host the show each year, where ponies and horses are put through their paces in several rings.

We want people to enjoy our Flintridge Riding Club and have an opportunity to see magnificent horses and riders of all ages compete, Osimo said. Also, every year the Flintridge La Canada Guild works diligently to raise funds to support the Huntington Hospital. The proceeds from this benefit horse show go toward providing the best in possible care to patients there. We welcome folks to come to the show and have some fun with us.

Show sponsorships and tickets to Saturday nights Grand Prix and dinner are available by contacting Helen Lund at (818) 693-1010.

carol.cormaci@latimes.com

Twitter: @CarolCormaci
The fallen, Yankee and Confederate, litter the fields of Shiloh in southwestern Tennessee.

The dead of World War I were so numerous at the Second Battle of Ypres in the Flanders region of Belgium that John McCrae was moved and so wrote In Flanders Fields. Ironically, he discarded the poem because he believed it did not express sufficient sentiment. It was later retrieved by soldiers and became the most significant work of the war.

During World War II, the frozen dead at Bastogne were stacked for later burial. On Okinawa, E.B. Sledge wrote in his diary, Every crater was half full of water, and many of them held a Marine corpse. The bodies lay pathetically just as they had been killed, half submerged in muck and water, rusting weapons still in hand.

This has been the world that has shaped the commemoration that we call Memorial Day, a day born in darkness. Today, an age in which few of us go to war, the somber, deep, important meaning remains.

Memorial Day has become a company holiday, an excuse for a three-day weekend, and an opportunity for retail sales promotions that signal the beginning of the summer season. We have forgotten what it is all about. Unfortunately, with less the than 1% of the population in the military and the total number of veterans shrinking every day as we lose our greatest generation of World War II veterans, the general population doesnt have a personal connection to Memorial Day. Subsequently, over the course of the last century, the number of families touched directly by the fire of war has dwindled. Meanwhile, the size and diversity of the American community have expanded. Thus, when America goes to war, she does so in single digits. Further, the actual share of those able to bear the burden of battle has declined.

From the initial days of the Revolutionary Army, the United States has been a nation of free peoples. Forced military service was an anathema and only for times of peril. Volunteerism in all aspects of public life, without coercion or special privilege, is the essence of Americanism, which transcends to military service. The population of those who bear the burden of sacrifice are atrophying; consequently, there exists a greater disparity between the soldier and America. Yet, Americas warriors fight and die because they have chosen to put their lives on the line for the rest of us. As long as our nation produces men and women willing to bear any burden, pay any price, our nation earns the liberty it enjoys. That is the meaning of Memorial Day.

On May 28, at Memorial Park in La Canada, my team will commemorate those soldiers who lost their lives in American wars. The children of the foothill communities will prosecute this ceremony, for if this tradition is to survive, then it will evolve from them.

I am calling for volunteers. Email me at doctorjoe@ymail.com for more details.

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.
Are shorts and tank tops OK in Royal Caribbean International dining rooms? No. Yes. No. Were not sure if the ruling is final, but the cruise lines website makes it clear theyre currently off limits.

After changing its website to indicate that the very casual look would be allowed, Royal Caribbean altered the dress code to ban shorts and tanks in the main dining room.

Royal Caribbean certainly isnt the only line to have banned shorts and swimwear. Holland America, Princess, Cunard and a host of other lines have considered them inappropriate dining room attire.

But some cruise companies allow passengers to decide what to wear for themselves, including Carnival and Norwegian. Royal Caribbean tried to adopt a more laid-back attitude, but apparently was hit with complaints from some of the lines fans. So they changed to a more traditional dress code.

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The new rules are:

--For formal nights, the cruise line recommends suits and ties, tuxedos, cocktail dresses or evening gowns.

--For smart casual nights, think of this as a step up from your typical dinner wear and wear collared shirts, dresses, skirts and blouses, or pantsuits.

--For casual nights, Royal suggests jeans, polos, sundresses and blouses but asks guests to keep swimwear to the Pool Deck. Shorts and tanks will be accepted for breakfast and lunch, but not in the main dining room at dinner.

travel@latimes.com

@latimestravel
Neil Buhne, the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Pakistan.

Islamabad (Peoples Daily) - China-funded UN project has benefitted 80,269 Pakistani people and 8,100 temporarily displaced families in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) as well as 19,000 school children in the Balochistan province, UN official said Monday in Islamabad.

China is playing a leading role in South-South cooperation and has already become a significant partner for many developing countries. Neil Buhne, the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Pakistan said at the closing ceremony of the Pakistan-China Recovery Initiative on Monday.

According to Buhne, the United Nations Development Programmes project provided essential assistance to 8,100 returning families in FATA to re-establish their lives in the critical first months after return. He added, 423 schools in flood-affected districts of Balochistan were refurbished giving almost 19,000 children the opportunity to receive education in a suitable conducive environment.

The South-South cooperation fund is set up by the Chinese government to shoulder its international responsibility, as a special fund dedicated to helping developing countries to pursue sustainable development goals, said Zhao Lijian, the Chinese Deputy Head of Mission to Pakistan.

Families who have benefitted from the project are invited to share their stories.

It is highly appreciated that the Pakistani government has given a strong support to South-South Cooperation and I am very impressed by the high sense of responsibility, rich experience and professional competence of UN agencies. Zhao said.

China also contributed 1 million dollars to enable the World Food Programme (WFP) food assistance for 158,000 people in Pakistan. In addition, 5,600 children under five months and pregnant and nursing mothers received six months of support to prevent malnutrition, according to the results released on Monday.

Families who have been affected by displacement and insecurity in recent years are vulnerable to food security. They often lack the resources to access nutritious foods. This has impacts on every aspect of life, from health and education to work and well-being. Katrien Ghoos, WFP Acting Country Representative, said, adding that China is an increasingly significant global player and a vital donor to WFP operations.

We are all fortunate that China has prioritized supporting development and humanitarian assistance in Pakistan, in particular through this initiative to providing assistance to people in areas that have been affected by both natural and human-made crises. Buhne said.
After World War II, Los Angeles experienced an acute housing shortage. Evictions grew.

This photo accompanied an article in the Aug. 6, 1946, Los Angeles Times that reported:

If you are tired enough you can sleep anywhere.

The is the only reason Floyd Heagle, 33, a painting contractor, and seven relatives, including five children from 10 to 1 years of age, have been able to live in an automobile near one of the citys parks.

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They have been living, or rather existing, in the car for three weeks. And to add to their woes, Heagles wife Ruth, 28, was taken to General Hospital Sunday with an undiagnosed illness. For several nights they slept in the park but they were evicted from that, too, when a nearby resident complained to police.

Heagle, his wife, their three children, Geraldine, 10; Floyd Jr., 7; Adrian, 1; and his cousin, Mrs. Dorothy Johnson, 28, and her two children, Priscilla, 9, and Jimmy, 2, were evicted from their home in Highland Park district three weeks ago. They had lived there three and a half years. Mrs. Johnsons husband was reported missing in action during the war.

Ive traced down every lead I could for a house, Heagle said, but when I get there its always gone. Its incredible but there isnt a house for us anywhere.

The two families are staying near Echo Park Lake, where cooking and sanitation facilities are available. The children now can play in the park. But Heagle fears to look ahead to the winter months.

There is no further mention of these families in the Los Angeles Times.

Another photo of the Heagle family is online: Evictees camping out. This photo is in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner collection at the Los Angeles Public Library. The Herald-Examiner caption reported:

Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Heagle, children Geraldine and Floyd Jr., camping out in Echo Park on July 24, 1946. They join Los Angeles ever-growing legion of those evicted from their homes.

This post was originally published on Oct. 13, 2015.

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See more from the Los Angeles Times archives here
China unveiled its plan to dominate the worlds most crucial technologies with little international fanfare, another vague, guiding principle in the labyrinth of Communist Party bureaucracy.

Three years later, its at the core of a trade dispute with Washington that threatens to upend the global economy.

Made in China 2025 is a blueprint for transforming the country from a labor-intensive economy that makes toys and clothes into one that engineers advanced products like robots and electric cars. The Trump administration views it as an attempt to steal U.S. technology and control cutting-edge industries.

Officials aimed to temper the initiative this month when they announced potential tariffs on $50 billion in goods. But Chinese leaders consider the plan key to the countrys development and refuse to alter its course.

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China is trying to achieve a clear goal and America wants to stop it, said Andrew Polk, co-founder of Trivium/China, a Beijing research firm. And thats where the competition is.

Heres what China 2025 is all about and what it means for the trade war:

Whats the objective?

The plan funnels billions into 10 industries, everything from biopharmaceuticals to aerospace and telecom devices. It calls for 70% of related materials and parts to be made domestically within a decade. A separate document details Chinas strategy to lead in artificial intelligence by 2030.

Officials modeled Made in China after a German initiative called Industrie 4.0, which envisions greater automation in manufacturing and intelligent factories that operate with wireless sensors. They didnt have much choice. The worlds biggest population is aging and rising wages are sending low-tech factories to other countries.

The labor supply is decreasing, said Ashley Qian Wan, China economist for Bloomberg Economics in Beijing. And thats going to be a big problem for China.

Why does China care about this so much?

When President Kennedy vowed in 1961 to send a man to the moon, more than 30 million people in China had just starved to death. Peoples Republic founder Mao Tse-tung closed universities for a decade while researchers invented the Internet in Silicon Valley. China sees itself as simply trying to catch up.

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The country developed its first bullet train last year, a 248 mph vehicle named Fuxing, or rejuvenation. Engineers also built the countrys first homegrown jetliner, an initial step toward filling Beijings crowded airport with planes from China rather than Americas Boeing or Europes Airbus.

Officials portray the initiative as transparent and open to foreign companies. They dispel notions that it will monopolize domestic markets. Americas dismissal of the plan reinforces a party narrative that the U.S. seeks to undermine Chinas resurgence.

We have good reasons to question the legality and legitimacy of many actions taken by the U.S. on the grounds of national security, like its plan to impose high tariffs on many industries of Made in China 2025, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters this month. Clearly, they are targeting something else.

Why is the U.S. concerned about it?

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The Trump administration frets about the way China aims to achieve its 2025 ambitions. American businesses have long complained about the sacrifices they make to operate in the worlds largest market, including requirements to partner with domestic companies and hand over trade secrets.

Officials fear these techniques will make it impossible for U.S. companies to compete in the worlds most critical fields. They also worry massive Chinese government subsidies will lead to a global glut of products that push down prices and hurt U.S. businesses.

There are things China listed and said, Were going to take technology, spend several hundred billion dollars, and dominate the world, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told senators at a March hearing. And these are things that if China dominates the world, its bad for America.

A lengthy U.S. report on Chinas intellectual property theft  which led to the most recent potential tariffs  mentioned the plan more than 100 times. Officials are exploring multiple ways to restrict Chinese investment in key industries. The administration recently banned ZTE, Chinas second-largest maker of telecom equipment, from buying American technology.

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Consensus is growing in Washington that the U.S. is in a race with China for technical leadership, Arthur Kroeber, managing director of Beijing research firm Gavekal Dragonomics, said he recently told clients. And some think economic cold war is the answer.

Is the Trump administration right?

President Xi Jinping recently told a room full of global investors that China would further open its economy. Officials last week said they would phase out rules that require car manufacturers like General Motors to find a local partner before opening factories in China. They plan to end foreign ownership requirements on electric vehicle makers this year.

This wouldnt mark the first time authorities vowed to shed their protectionist shield. The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China complained last year that foreign businesses were suffering from promise fatigue.

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The problem is Chinas high-tech ambitions include plans to use instruments such as subsidized credit and market access restrictions, said David Dollar, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former U.S. Treasury official in China. It makes sense for the U.S. to oppose this practice.

But Chinese officials see an irony in efforts that try to maintain Americas chokehold on innovation. Hua, the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, likened the U.S. to a bully  only it can have high tech and others cannot.

Neither side looks willing to bend. Recent talks to de-escalate the trade dispute reportedly collapsed over the 2025 plan.

China views the overall system as inherently unfair because it was created by the current dominant power, Triviums Polk said. America should stop complaining and start designing its own industrial policy to counter China.

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Meyers is a special correspondent.

Twitter: @jessicameyers

Kemeng Fan, Gaochao Zhang, and Nicole Liu in The Times Beijing bureau contributed to this report.

Amid Trumps threats, Xi pledges to slash tariffs, open Chinas markets

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China announces retaliatory tariffs on 128 U.S. products, including California wine and almonds

Trump wants to punish China on trade, but his latest tariffs strike Asian allies instead
Thirty-two years after moving into her cozy one-bedroom apartment near Berlins city center, Brigitte Lustig is about to be evicted  a fate the 61-year-old never imagined in a city renowned for its cheap rents and bohemian spirit.

I was born just up the street and lived here my whole life, she said, the fear and frustration tangible. Why should I be forced out? I never thought this could happen to me. I thought I was safe.

Lustigs looming expulsion is a rarity in Germany, where renters enjoy extraordinary protection and considerable clout while the rights of property owners are restricted and controlled. Its difficult to cancel leases and nearly impossible to evict a tenant who pays rent on time.

Lustig pays $300 a month from her $800 disability check for the 570-square-foot apartment, located in a newly fashionable district only a mile from Tiergarten, a leafy city park thats one of Berlins most popular.

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Her new landlord, who paid $60,000 for the apartment, first tried to get her to leave in 2015 so his sister could move in. When the sister died during his protracted dispute with Lustig, he decided to take advantage of the suddenly overheated rental market and find a new tenant, or  barring that  a buyer.

Lustig said she couldnt afford another place to live, with apartments in the city now going for more than double what she paid. She turned to the courts for relief.

Tenant protection is important in Germany and its a completely different situation than in the United States, said Lustigs lawyer, Christoph Mueller. As long as you pay your rent on time and dont do anything ridiculous like start a fire in the living room, its really hard to cancel the lease. Thats a great social achievement in Germany and we dont want any change to it.

But, on a technicality related to the death of the owners sister, a city court ruled against Lustig, an outcome that quickly became a catalyst for a renters rebellion in Berlin.

Tens of thousands took to the streets this month to demand increased political action to combat rapidly rising rents and surging property prices. Until recently, Berlin was famous for its affordable housing and proud of a motto coined in 2003 by former Mayor Klaus Wowereit: Berlin is poor, but sexy.

Growing in size and volume, the ongoing demonstrations for tougher rent control and more low-income housing are now shaping political forums and making newspaper headlines, in part because  unlike in many large cities  the overwhelming majority of Berlin voters are renters.

Sociology professor Ulrike Hamann takes part in a rent demonstration in Berlin. Kotti is a nickname for a popular enclave in the German capital. (Erik Kirschbaum / For The Times )

About 85% of Berlins 3.4 million residents live in rentals and homeownership remains remarkably low  a condition fostered by the citys turbulent history, Cold War division and five decades of communist rule in East Berlin. Almost by nature, Berliners tend to have a low regard for property owners.

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The reunified capital city also has a proud tradition of heavy state support for low-cost housing for the working classes. Generations of mayors from all political parties have wholeheartedly backed the notion that nurses, teachers, police officers, firefighters and other workers with ordinary incomes need to be able to afford to live in the heart of the city.

Real estate investors had long avoided Berlin, which has little industry to speak of, relatively high unemployment and an abundance of low-income workers. Property prices actually fell in some areas during parts of the 1990s and the first decade of the new millennium. And in a move it now regrets, the deeply indebted city sold off more than 220,000 of its 360,000 rent-subsidized social housing units when prices were depressed.

But all that has begun to change as investors  many of them foreign interests  snap up entire apartment complexes at bargain basement prices.

Though still modest compared with other cities in Europe, rents in Berlin have risen 75% in the last five years. A recent survey by the property consultant group Knight Frank showed that property prices in Berlin rose 21% in 2017, the steepest rate in its survey of 150 cities around the world and far above the average increase of 4.5%. The biggest increases that year in the United States were Seattle, where rents rose 12.7%, and San Francisco, where they were up 9.3%.

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We dont want Berlin to become a city for only rich people, said Ulrike Hamann, a 42-year-old sociology professor at Berlins Humboldt University who marched with 21,000 others in the recent rent protest.

We know global capital has discovered Berlin and is getting into the market here. But Berlin has always been a city of renters and we have the tools to fight to keep it that way, she said.

Rainer Wild, an executive with a renters association, hoists a sign for his group at a Berlin protest. (Erik Kirschbaum / For The Times )

Theres nothing wrong with investors who buy apartments with the idea of earning a small profit someday, said Rainer Wild, the managing director of the Berliner Mieterbund renters association. But a modest profit is not good enough for some. They want profits that far exceed what people can afford to pay and thats the problem.

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Wild points out that Germanys Constitution guarantees everyone the right to Wohnraum, or a place to live. He and others in Berlin reject any suggestion that market forces, such as supply and demand, should influence the price of property or rents.

An apartment is not just another piece of merchandise that can be rented to the highest bidder like with most other wares, Wild said. Its immobile and cant be carted off. And its not like a stick of butter you could substitute with margarine. Theres no room for speculators when it comes to apartments.

Ryan Harty, a 34-year-old from Denton, Texas, who moved to Berlin more than a decade ago and now works for Germanys national association of food banks, joined the resistance march even though his $700-a-month rent has not risen in 10 years and is unlikely to, thanks to rent control. He said he joined the march on behalf of those who cant afford higher rents.

Once you move into an apartment in Germany, you are basically in the lease for life unless you cancel it yourself, said Harty. I think its a good thing that people can feel safe and dont have to worry about renewing the lease. If you have that long-term security, its pretty much the basis for having a life. Its a lot easier to plan your life.

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Because taking action against property speculators, gentrification and developers motivated by profit tends to go down well with most Berliners, some local politicians such as Florian Schmidt of the Greens party have resorted to unusual methods to frustrate and hold off investors.

Schmidt, who is responsible for development in the urban, hip Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district, has been dubbed the Robin Hood of the property market because of his ability to use an obscure real estate law to snatch property away from speculators and give the property to state-owned housing companies.

By preventing developers from selling properties for huge profits, he hopes to save 1,000 apartments a year in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. Critics, though, say he is actually blocking badly needed capital investment to renovate buildings that have fallen into disrepair.

We want to prevent rental units from being sold off at a profit and turned into privately owned units, Schmidt said, defending his aggressive tactics. If someone promises [in writing] not to convert rentals into private apartments, they can buy them. Otherwise, were stepping in. Rental apartments need to be protected from speculators. Thats what people are afraid of.

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Kirschbaum is a special correspondent.
A mummified body discovered near the site of a former royal mausoleum in Iran may be the remains of Reza Shah Pahlavi, the founder of the Pahlavi dynasty and the father of the countrys last shah.

The recent find of the gauze-wrapped body  and the speculation it triggered  puts new hurdles in the way of the Islamic Republics efforts to fully erase the countrys dynastic past, which includes the destruction of the autocrats tomb immediately after the 1979 revolution.

Yet, as disaffection and economic problems grow in the run-up to the Islamic Revolutions 40th anniversary, mystique around Irans age of monarchies persists even with its history of abuses.

Reza Shahs grandson, the U.S.-based exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, already tweeted about it as forensic experts in Iran try to determine whose body they found.

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Construction workers discovered the mummified remains while working at the Shiite shrine of Abdul Azim, whose minarets once rose behind Reza Shahs mausoleum. A digger pulling away dirt and debris uncovered the body, according to the semiofficial Iranian Students News Agency.

Pictures of the body, as well as construction workers posing with it, quickly ricocheted across social media in Iran.

A spokesman for the shrine dismissed the idea of a mummy being found there. However, Hassan Khalilabadi, the head of Tehran City Councils cultural heritage and tourism committee, was quoted by the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency on Monday as saying that its possible the mummy is the body of Reza Shah.

Authorities say theyll need to conduct DNA tests to ascertain whose body it is.

State television has yet to report on the find, probably because of complications that mentioning the Pahlavis can entail.

State media typically refer to the Persian dynasties, including the Pahlavis, as despotic, focusing on the abuses of the monarchys feared SAVAK intelligence agency and the royals once-lavish lifestyles.

Reza Shahs rise gave birth to what has become modern Iran, which was still called Persia until he ordered foreign diplomats to cease using the name. He came to power in 1925, ruling as an absolute autocrat who used taxes and the countrys burgeoning oil revenue to rapidly modernize the nation.

His decisions echo today, particularly his 1936 decree banning women from wearing long, flowing black robes known as chadors. He ordered men to wear Western clothes and bring their wives to public functions with their hair uncovered, borrowing from the secularization of Turkeys first president, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, a contemporary.

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The ban became a source of humiliation for some pious Muslim women in the country. Shiite Muslim clerics, angry over his secular beliefs, purges and mass arrests of opponents, held grudges that would foment the revolution that created the Islamic Republic. Controversies over the chador and hijab persist in Iran today.

Irans strong trade ties with Germany, Reza Shahs push for neutrality amid the coming of World War II and Western fears over its oil supplies falling under Nazi control ultimately sparked a Russian-British invasion of the country in 1941. Reza Shah abdicated in favor of his son, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, at the insistence of the occupying British forces.

Reza Shah ended up in South Africa and died there in 1944. His body was taken to Cairo and mummified and remained there for years. After its return to Iran, the mummy was housed in a grand mausoleum near Tehran, which President Nixon visited in 1972.

After 1979, however, Islamists viewed the mausoleum as an affront.

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Iranian cleric Ayatollah Sadegh Khalkhali, who ordered the executions of hundreds after the revolution, led a mob of supporters who used sledgehammers, jackhammers and other tools to demolish the mausoleum.

Khalkhali later wrote in his memoirs that he believed the shahs family members took his body when they fled the country. Reza Shahs family, however, maintained that the body remained in Iran. His son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was buried in Cairo after dying of cancer in 1980.

Today, Irans youth remain fascinated by the time before the revolution. Television period pieces have focused on the Pahlavi dynasty, including the recent state TV series The Enigma of the Shah, the most expensive series ever produced to air in the country. While incorporating romances or mobsters into the tales, all shows uniformly criticize the royal court.

Reza Pahlavi, the grandson, has seen his profile rise after the election of President Trump, who appears to hold the future of the Iran nuclear deal in the balance. From exile, the crown prince has agitated for an end to Irans theocracy  though gauging national sentiment about restoring the monarchy remains impossible.

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Reza took to Twitter on Monday night to tell Iranian officials he was watching what they will do next with the body.

I warn the responsible authorities not to hide anything, he wrote.
Three Mexican film students whose disappearance last month sparked large-scale protests in the city of Guadalajara were beaten, killed and their bodies dissolved in acid, Mexican authorities said Monday.

Two suspects have been arrested in connection with the gruesome crime, said officials of the attorney generals office in Jalisco state, which includes Guadalajara. Arrest warrants have been issued for six other suspects.

The investigation is continuing, the Jalisco state attorney general, Raul Sanchez, told reporters in a videotaped news conference providing shocking new details on the closely watched case.

Prosecutors blamed a criminal group which they believe to be the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel  for the crime. Dissolving human remains in acid to conceal traces of slain victims is a tactic associated with drug cartels in Mexico.

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Why the three young men were targeted has been a matter of intense speculation since their disappearance March 19. None of the three had any known link to criminal gangs, authorities stressed. But on Monday investigators revealed what they called a probable motive for their abduction and slayings.

According to official accounts, on the day of their disappearance the three students had been doing schoolwork in a house in Tonala, a Guadalajara suburb, associated with a major criminal figure. The house belonged to the aunt of one of the students, authorities said. Rival traffickers were watching the house, and the presence of the three men probably aroused suspicions, authorities said.

Heavily armed men who identified themselves as police officers later led the three away from their vehicle, which had stopped because of a mechanical problem, according to witness accounts.

Jalisco state in central-west Mexico is home turf of a number of organized crime syndicates, including the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, considered among Mexicos fastest-growing and most violent.

Authorities said genetic evidence found at two of three homes linked to the crime provided a forensic connection to the students  Javier Salomon Aceves, 25; Jesus Daniel Diaz, 20; and Marco Garcia Avalos, 20. All studied at the University of Audiovisual Media in Guadalajara.

In one residence that was searched, authorities said, investigators found firearms and 46 barrels of sulfuric acid. Police suspect that the bodies of other victims besides those of the students may have been disposed of in that site.

It was not exactly clear how the three students were killed.

But Lis Torres, who headed the investigation, told reporters that one student was beaten so savagely that he died. The kidnappers then concluded that they had to execute the other two, she said.

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Authorities said that, following their abduction, the three were first taken for interrogation to a residence outside Guadalajara. Blood believed to be from one of the students, Garcia, was found at the site of the interrogation, authorities said.

Many questions remain unanswered about the case. Authorities declined to provide extensive details about the genetic evidence gathered in the searches of three residences linked to the crime.

The disappearances  which came amid a spat of kidnappings, killings and other crimes in Jalisco state  ignited huge street protests in Guadalajara demanding that authorities find the three, along with a parallel social media campaign.

Among those condemning the abduction of the film students was Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro, a native of Guadalajara who has contributed substantially to film education in Mexico.

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To read this article in Spanish, click here

Cecilia Sanchez of The Times Mexico City bureau contributed to this report.

patrick.mcdonnell@latimes.com

Twitter: @PmcdonnellLAT
A sense of smoldering discontent was evident in Nicaragua on Monday after President Daniel Ortegas decision to cancel a welfare overhaul plan  a proposal that sparked days of deadly protests and looting in this Central American nation of 6 million.

On Monday afternoon, thousands of peaceful protesters  many waving Nicaraguan flags and some hoisting photos of people killed in the earlier protests  took to the streets of the capital, Managua. What began as protests against the welfare proposal morphed into demonstrations reflecting broader discontent with the Ortega government.

Human rights groups said more than two dozen people had been killed since street protests erupted last week after the governments rollout of hikes in income and payroll taxes. The measures were meant to shore up the nations foundering social security system.

Police again clashed with student demonstrators on Sunday evening at one of the hubs of the protest movement, the Polytechnic University of Nicaragua in Managua. Many students had remained on university grounds despite what they called attacks from government security forces.

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Speaking at the Vatican on Sunday, Pope Francis said that he was very worried about the deteriorating situation in Nicaragua and called for talks.

Finally, Ortega announced Sunday that the controversial social security overhaul had been scrapped. The move was a clear effort to quiet the growing strife, and it seemed to lead to an uneasy calm on the streets until the large-scale protests on Monday afternoon.

Marchers on Monday saluted the protesting youth of the Upoli, as the polytechnic university is known here.

Hundreds were injured in the days of turmoil across the country that followed the announcement of the social security decree. Reports indicated that more than 100 people had been arrested. Dozens of businesses were looted.

Although it was the social security changes that ignited the unrest, the street protests soon expanded to a wider condemnation of the Sandinista government and its leaders, Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo. Protesters voiced long-held grievances, including what they called the governments throttling of dissent and of the opposition press.

Some protesters in recent days hoisted banners demanding Fuera Ortega [Out With Ortega] and bearing other anti-government slogans aimed at Ortega, a former left-wing guerrilla leader who is serving his third consecutive term as president.

Critics accuse Ortega of seeking to establish a family dynasty with his wife.

The people have risen against Ortega, Alberto Antonio Fonseca, a student protester, said Monday in the city of Masaya, once a stronghold of the Sandinista rebel front that overthrew U.S.-backed dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979. We dont want him as president any longer. There is too much repression.

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Protesters blamed police and government-allied security forces for the violence.

But Ortega charged on Saturday that criminals and gang members had infiltrated the protests as part of an unspecified conspiracy meant to destabilize the government.

His wife denounced the protesters as minuscule groups filled with hate.

The comments enraged the protesters and appeared to fan the flames of discontent.

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Mr. Ortega is wrong, said Felipe Lanuza, a civil engineer who backed the street mobilizations. The protests have been peaceful and the vandals and gangsters have been those on [Ortegas] side.

Added Tania Rivera, a protest supporter who runs a dental clinic in Managua: We are professionals, grandparents, business owners  there are no gangsters. We are people who want a change in the country. Thats why we are on the streets.

Business groups helped organize Mondays anti-government demonstration, a sign that discontent with the Ortega administration extends beyond the student population.

Nicaraguas business community has generally been allied with the Ortega government, but business leaders pointedly declined to condemn the protests, and some joined in. It was not clear whether that move signaled a more long-term fracture in Ortegas relationship with the countrys business class.

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On Monday, the U.S. State Department said it was reducing operations at its embassy in Managua and pulling out some of its employees and family members. An official advisory urged would-be visitors to reconsider travel to Nicaragua.

Nicaragua has generally been regarded as stable and relatively prosperous compared with some other Central American nations, notably crime-ridden El Salvador and Honduras. The countrys economy has grown steadily as the onetime Marxist Ortega has softened his denouncements of U.S. imperialism and embraced capitalism.

Ortega, 72, was a leader of the Sandinista front that overthrew the Somoza government in 1979 as the Cold War flared. He was elected president of Nicaragua in 1984 but lost a reelection bid in 1990, following years of the U.S.-backed Contra war against the Sandinista government.

Ortega returned to the presidency in 2006 and in 2016 was reelected in a landslide to a third consecutive term in balloting that the opposition denounced as rigged.

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Ortegas relationship with Washington has long been a contentious one. U.S. officials regularly criticize what they call an ongoing crackdown against the Nicaraguan opposition, while also assailing Managuas foreign policy backing the governments of U.S. adversaries such as Cuba and Venezuela.

Special correspondent Miranda reported from Managua and Times staff writer McDonnell from Mexico City. Staff Writer Tracy Wilkinson in Washington and Cecilia Sanchez of The Times Mexico City bureau contributed to this report.

patrick.mcdonnell@latimes.com

Twitter: @PmcdonnellLAT
The gruesome case of three Guadalajara film students who were kidnapped, beaten and killed  and their bodies dissolved in acid  was generating outrage Tuesday across Mexico and on social media.

The internet was awash with denunciations and somber reflections on the wave of violence and impunity that has overtaken Mexico, where a record number of homicides were reported last year and where disappearances of people are a distressingly regular occurrence.

While Mexico has been the site of countless kidnappings, slayings and even massacres in recent years, the case of the three film students appears to have touched a fundamental national nerve  somewhat akin to the way the rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., in February crystallized U.S. attention on the crisis of school shootings.

The frozen, youthful images of Salomon, Marco and Daniel  the slain students first names have already entered into common usage  have become emblematic of the intractable crisis that escalating violence poses for Mexican society, especially for the young. Their grisly trajectory from exuberant would-be filmmakers to rendered remains in vats of sulfuric acid has exposed as hollow the vows of politicians, police chiefs and generals to fix the problem.

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We Mexicans are killing each other at levels never before seen, wrote journalist Luis Pablo Beauregard in a column in the Spanish daily El Pais after the news that the three had been killed. Mexico must newly attend, with urgency, to the disaster that is consuming our youth.

Among those lamenting the slaying of the three students was Guillermo del Toro, the Oscar-winning director and Guadalajara native who has been a patron for young Mexican filmmakers.

Words are not sufficient to comprehend the magnitude of this madness, Del Toro said in a Twitter message. 3 students are killed and dissolved in acid. The why is unthinkable, the how is terrifying.

Las palabras no alcanzan para entender la dimension de esta locura. 3 estudiantes son asesinados y disueltos en acido. El porque es impensable, el como es aterrador.  Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) April 24, 2018

Other prominent members of the Mexican film community also expressed their indignation and offered condolences on Twitter.

How sad, wrote actor Gael Garcia Bernal. Its time for this nightmare to end.

Que tristeza. Que se acabe esta pesadilla. #SalomonMarcoyDaniel  Gael Garcia Bernal (@GaelGarciaB) April 24, 2018

Added actor Luis Gerardo Mendez: What anguish and pain, how devalued life is in this country. Mexico and the cinema are in mourning.

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Like Mendez, many commentators bemoaned the nations perilous state of security.

To be young in this country implies that if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time, the smallest error in your behavior can imply your torture, your death and your dissolution in acid, wrote Jose Merino, a political analyst.

According to law enforcement authorities, the three students were abducted on March 19 in a Guadalajara suburb and later tortured and killed in a case of mistaken identity stemming from a rivalry between two criminal gangs. The heavily armed men who waylaid the three on a street identified themselves as cops.

Prosecutors said the three had been doing schoolwork at the wrong place at the wrong time  at a house under surveillance by traffickers who were anticipating the arrival of a rival gang member.

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The three students were not involved in illegal activity and had no idea of the grave risk they faced, according to the district attorneys office in Jalisco state, which includes Guadalajara.

The house where the three were studying was listed under the name of the aunt of one of the students, police said. But the aunt, who was arrested on prostitution and money-laundering charges after the students abduction, was acting as a front for an organized-crime figure, authorities said. Heavily armed men had been observed at the home during 2017, prosecutors said, but the students were unaware of the danger.

On Monday, Jalisco prosecutors gave a televised news conference revealing the fate of the three students  Javier Salomon Aceves, 25; Jesus Daniel Diaz, 20; and Marco Garcia Avalos, 20. All studied at the University of Audiovisual Media in Guadalajara. The three were beaten and tortured before being killed, and their bodies were later dissolved in sulfuric acid, said authorities, who cited genetic evidence gathered at various scenes associated with the crime.

Apparently students being disappeared and dissolved in acid in Mexico is so normal that the fact that Jalisco government has declared this was the fate of Javier, Marco & Daniel has barely made international headlines and caused little stir in national ones #NoSomosTresSomosTodxs pic.twitter.com/9rdkJFgB3c   (@Andalalucha) April 24, 2018

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Social media carried photos of happy moments in the lives of the three young men  one playing in a rock band, another smiling by the sea, another in a snowy landscape.

Various Twitter hashtags such as #nosomostressomostodos (we are not three, we are all) and #SalomonMarcoyDaniel (after the victims first names, including the Spanish conjunction y, meaning and) have sprung up commemorating the students and demanding answers. Many commentators have expressed skepticism about the official version of events.

The major candidates in Mexicos July 1 presidential election also condemned the crime and offered condolences. How to stop Mexicos rampaging violence has been a major campaign theme, though many citizens seem skeptical that a new president can do much to alter the deadly dynamic.

The disappearance of the students  occurring at a time of rising crime in Jalisco and elsewhere in Mexico  prompted large-scale demonstrations in Guadalajara demanding that the students be found and released.

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Now, with confirmation that the three were killed, new protest marches are planned for Guadalajara and elsewhere in Mexico.

On Monday evening, demonstrators in Guadalajara called for the resignation of Jalisco Gov. Aristoteles Sandoval, a member of Mexicos long-dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party, which currently holds the presidency. The governor said he has no plans to step down.

Authorities say two suspects are in custody in connection with the killing of the three students and six others are being sought. All were linked to the New Generation Jalisco cartel, among Mexicos most powerful criminal syndicates.

Mexico has seen tens of thousands of people murdered and multitudes of others snatched and disappeared during the governments more than decade-long war against cartels, which control the illicit drug-production industry and lucrative trafficking routes to the United States. The bodies of some kidnap victims turn up in clandestine graves; the remains of many are never found.

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Among the most notorious cases was the disappearance in 2014 of 43 teacher trainees in Guerrero state. Their fate has never been completely clarified, despite numerous investigations, demonstrations, legal petitions and other actions demanding answers.

patrick.mcdonnell@latimes.com

Twitter: @PmcdonnellLAT

Special correspondents Liliana Nieto del Rio and Cecilia Sanchez in The Times Mexico City bureau contributed to this report.
Students from Beijing Institute of Technology were taught to drive and assemble tanks in March at a military university in Bengbu, east Chinas Anhui province. The 66 students also received security and confidentiality education during their three-week internship. The special course is a must for students majoring in armored vehicle engineering at the university.
The 45-year-old man who allegedly ran off with a 16-year-old girl to Mexico now faces trial on charges related to their trip.

Kevin Esterly

Kevin Esterly, of the 3000 block of Highland Road in Lowhill Township, waived his hearing Tuesday on charges of interference with custody of children, concealment of the whereabouts of a child and corruption of minors.

The case now heads to Lehigh County Court.

Easterly is also scheduled to have a summary trial Tuesday afternoon on a harassment charge related to a separate incident Feb. 10 with his now-estranged wife.

Esterly remains in Lehigh County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail. He has been held there since he was extradited from Florida, where he was arrested March 18.

A message left for Easterly's attorney, Carol Marciano, was not immediately returned.

Esterly is accused of taking 16-year-old Amy Yu, of Allentown, on a one-way flight to Cancun on March 5.

Authorities said on multiple occasions he previously signed her out of a Northampton County charter school -- the Associated Press reported it was Lehigh Valley Academy Regional Charter School in Hanover Township, Northampton County -- posing as her stepfather.

Yu did not have a stepfather, authorities said.

Yu left the Lehigh Valley willingly, authorities previously said. Various published reports indicate Yu failed to get on a school bus the morning of March 5 and met up with Esterly, who took her to Philadelphia International Airport.

Yu's family previously said the two met at church years ago, and the 16-year-old girl is friends with one of Esterly's daughters.

They were found by Mexican authorities and sent to Miami. Yu was returned to her family unharmed.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Easton police on Tuesday morning raided two West Ward homes, making two arrests but failing to find the target of a weeks-long heroin sales investigation, according to Lt. Matthew Gerould.

Oris Barner, 33, who bounces around among several addresses, is the man police sought, Gerould said. Barner should be considered armed and should not be approached, he said. He will be charged with two counts of heroin delivery after recent Vice Unit buys, he said.

Police were looking for Barner at both addresses that were entered, Gerould said.

Barner is also wanted by Pennsylvania State Parole, Gerould said.

Barner's criminal record in Northampton County includes assault charges and numerous drug counts. He also faced drug charges in Warren County, records show. He was listed as "absconded" on Saturday by the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole. He had been released on parole from state custody on March 27, 2017, records show.

Pennsylvania State Police Special Emergency Response Team troopers served a warrant just after 6 a.m. on the first floor of 896 Wolf Ave., and city vice and Special Response Unit officers served a simultaneous warrant at 928 Spruce St., Gerould said.

Richard Moyer, 46, was arrested in the Spruce Street home and will be charged with possession of cocaine and possession of drug paraphernalia, Gerould said.

Cocaine, paraphernalia, a handgun and two rifles were seized from the Spruce Street home, Gerould said.

Kelsey Ravese, 28, was arrested in a first-floor apartment on the left side of the Wolf Avenue building and will be charged by summons with possession of a small amount of marijuana, Gerould said. Ravese, speaking to a small child who walked out of the apartment with her, said, "I didn't do anything wrong. Nothing," before promising to be home soon.

A neighbor on North Ninth Street praised police after a K-9 searched in the Wolf Avenue apartment.

"I want to tell you guys you do a wonderful job," she said.

Anyone who knows where Barner might be is asked to call police at 610-759-2200 or on the department's tip line at 610-250-6635.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Authorities were continuing this week to try to determine how a 24-year-old woman died, after her body was found Friday outside a Pocono Mountains mobile home.

An autopsy was done Monday on the remains of Nicole Murray, who was from Philadelphia. She was reported missing to city police in December and to Pocono Mountain Regional police in January.

Murray had gone to the Long Pond area in the the Poconos with one, possibly three people, she knew only by first name, according to a now-deactivated gofundme.com campaign that sought to raise money for a private investigator to track down Murray. One of them called Murray's mother on Jan. 7, claiming she'd run off without any of her belongings.

Nicole Murray, reported missing in December 2017 to police in her hometown of Philadelphia, is seen in an undated photo from pennsylvania.missing.report. Her remains were found April 20, 2018, behind a mobile home in Tunkhannock Township, Monroe County, authorities said. (Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com)

Her remains were found behind the home along Foliage Drive in Blakeslee, a section of Tunkhannock Township in Monroe County.

Monroe County Coroner Tom Yanac said Tuesday he hoped to have an answer as early as Friday, as to what happened to Murray.

Investigators are awaiting the results of medical testing, Pocono Mountain Regional police Chief Chris Wagner said Tuesday.

He said there was no danger to the general public.

Police were not looking for anyone involved in the investigation.

"Everybody that's involved we've identified so there's nobody out there that's unknown to us at this point," Wagner said.

No charges were pending as of Tuesday, according to police.

"We have to let the autopsy and the coroner's investigation take its course and then we're kind of guided where we end up after those conclusions are made," Wagner said.

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A pilot who crashed his single-engine Citabria plane into a small lake next to a Sussex County airport on Monday got out before it sank and was swimming toward shore when a police rowboat plucked him from the frigid water, authorities said.

The 49-year-old pilot was alone in the plane and complained of neck and back pain upon being rescued from Lake Aeroflex, state Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Larry Hajna said.

First responders returning from scene of a small plane crash at Lake Aeroflex

He was flown to Morristown Medical Center with what were described as non-life threatening injuries.

No one else was on the lake at the time of the 11:50 a.m. crash, but at least one person witnessed it and called 9-1-1, Andover Police Chief Eric Danielson said.

"The plane had taken off, went up, banked hard to the left and then went down -- not a straight nosedive, but landed more so on the belly of the plane and then tipped over and went down," Danielson said.

Danielson said the plane was between 100 to 150 yards from shore when it crashed and sank to the bottom in at least 50 feet of water.

"The plane is totally submerged. You can't even see the tail," Danielson said.

Recounting the rescue, Danielson said Andover Township police officers Richard Then and Alex Price were rowing toward the pilot within 5 minutes of the 9-1-1 call.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating. FAA spokesman Jim Peters describe the plane as a Bellanca CH7A model.

Aeroflex-Andover Airport is in Kittatinny Valley State Park and is owned by the New Jersey State Forest Fire Service. The runway is 1,981 feet long and there is water at both ends of the runway.

A message left at the airport by NJ Advance Media was not immediately returned.

Jeff Goldman contributed to this report.

Rob Jennings may be reached at rjennings@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @RobJenningsNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Rate capping claims are "disingenuous"

South Australias Minister for Local Government has today used the local daily newspaper to allege that councils have been gouging ratepayers.

Local Government Association of South Australia (LGA) President, Lorraine Rosenberg has hit back saying that Australian Bureau of Statistics figures from 2006-2016 show that SA council rate increases over this period were actually the second lowest in Australia.

This data also shows that state government land taxes increased 72 percent over this period, and motor vehicle taxes by 56 percent, so its disingenuous to suggest the State Government has kept its tax increases lower than councils.

South Australian councils raise the lowest revenue per capita in Australia - $1,329 per person compared to the national average of $1,662.

The average rates increase this year in SA was $44, and a 2.5 percent rate cap would have saved Adelaide ratepayers a mere $6.

Mayor Rosenberg said many of the cost pressures on councils were outside of the control of the sector.

Between 2002 and 2016 the cost of electricity in South Australia increased 146 percent, while the cost of water rose by 121 percent.

The State Governments own Solid Waste Levy has skyrocketed from $5 a tonne in 2003/04 to $87  and is scheduled to hit $100 in a few months time.

The savings councils work hard to find in their operations each year have been quickly eroded by the decisions of State Parliament to force councils to collect state taxes, subsidise state policies and take on state responsibilities.

Councils collect just 4 percent of national taxation, and in South Australia are responsible for administering $22 billion worth of public assets.

Mayor Rosenberg said the LGA and local government sector are supportive of sensible, evidence-based local government reforms.

The LGA has presented the new government with a comprehensive proposal for local government reform, based around changes that will improve efficiencies and transparency, Mayor Rosenberg said.

In Victoria their rate capping system is costing $2 million a year to administer  this is funding that would be better spent in SA on a benchmarking system for the sector that would help identify opportunities for continuous improvement.
Business SinglePoint (OTCQB: $SING) Continues Expansion into Cannabis Industry as Proposed Legislation Favors Industry Growth



24.04.2018 18:59:07 - SinglePoint Inc. (OTC:SING) announces the latest development of its cannabis payment solutions platform alongside a flurry of cannabis-related news released by members of various political parties over the past week.



(live-PR.com) - SinglePoint (OTCQB: $SING) Continues Expansion into Cannabis Industry as Proposed Legislation Favors Industry Growth



SEATTLE - April 24, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) SinglePoint Inc. (OTC:SING) announces the latest development of its cannabis payment solutions platform alongside a flurry of cannabis-related news released by members of various political parties over the past week.



Read this news in full at



Since 2014 SinglePoint has - SinglePoint (OTCQB: $SING) Continues Expansion into Cannabis Industry as Proposed Legislation Favors Industry GrowthSEATTLE - April 24, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) SinglePoint Inc. (OTC:SING) announces the latest development of its cannabis payment solutions platform alongside a flurry of cannabis-related news released by members of various political parties over the past week.Read this news in full at www.investorideas.com/CO/SING/news/2018/04241Expansion.asp Since 2014 SinglePoint has been aggressively seeking opportunities in the cannabis market. The company recently integrated a stand-alone point of sale terminal designed to give merchants the ability to accept Bitcoin as a payment option. Customers can now use their credit or debit card at the counter instead of through a web-based app. SinglePoint's push to streamline payment processes and make the cannabis purchase experience no different than using a credit card at any other store complements recent efforts by political leaders seeking cannabis reform.



Former Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), once an outspoken cannabis antagonist, has now joined the board of a cannabis company with the statement he believes cannabis should be de-scheduled so that medical studies may begin. Colorado Republican Sen. Cory Gardner announced April 13 that President Donald Trump promised he would support efforts to protect states that have legalized marijuana. Most recently, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) threw his weight behind legalizing marijuana and said he will soon be introducing a bill to de-schedule the plant.



"The legislation is long overdue based on a bunch of different facts," Schumer said. "Ultimately, it is the right thing to do. Freedom. If smoking marijuana doesn't hurt anybody else, why shouldn't we allow people to do it and not make it criminal."



SinglePoint founder and CEO Greg Lambrecht hailed the positive political messages and growing support for the cannabis industry.



"This is exactly what we have been waiting for and what the industry needs. As we continue to develop solutions to help ease the banking issues, we welcome new regulations that may make that easier such as de-scheduling the plant and allowing banks to work with these businesses," Lambrecht said. "That would allow SinglePoint to offer all of our payment solutions to cannabis businesses."



SinglePoint management believes cannabis-related businesses and all those working within the industry will continue to grow and soon thrive under new regulations. Public opinion polls show that 61 percent of respondents believe cannabis should be legalized for adult use. Several top Democrats seen as possible contenders in the 2020 presidential race are backing legislation to de-schedule cannabis. The shift has marijuana activists and political operatives believing many of the 2020 presidential candidates will support removing cannabis from the Federal Substances Act.



Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), a 2016 presidential candidate widely considered a top contender for the nomination in 2020, signed onto The Marijuana Justice Act, as did Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), another possible 2020 hopeful. Proposed by another potential 2020 presidential contender, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), the Act would remove the drug from the federal Controlled Substances Act, voiding the uncertainty the federal government injects into cannabusiness and deconstructing the final barriers to national legalization.



SinglePoint's streamlined payment process helps cannabis retailers, dispensaries and consumers in several, important ways. Customers can preload their wallet with their credit card information, which brings additional efficiencies in the checkout process. A customer that preloads a wallet will simply be able to "send payment" to the merchant for the amount requested at the register. Additionally, SinglePoint is tying this payment into its Last Mile Delivery service. Delivery clients will already have the application downloaded, which means that once an order is placed the customer will be able to select a payment method and utilize a stored card or cryptocurrency.



About SinglePoint, Inc.

SinglePoint, Inc (SING) is a technology and investment company with a focus on acquiring companies that will benefit from the injection of growth capital and technology integration. The company portfolio includes mobile payments, ancillary cannabis services and blockchain solutions. Through acquisitions into horizontal markets, SinglePoint is building its portfolio by acquiring an interest in undervalued companies, thereby providing a rich, diversified holding base. Through its subsidiary company SingleSeed, the company is providing products and services to the cannabis industry.



Connect on social media at:

www.facebook.com/SinglePointMobile

twitter.com/_SinglePoint

www.linkedin.com/company/singlepoint



For more information visit:



Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this news release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Rule 175 under the Securities Act of 1933 and Rule 3b-6 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and are subject to the safe harbor created by those rules. All statements, other than statements of fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding potential future plans and objectives of the Company, 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.

Technical complications, which may arise, could prevent the prompt implementation of any strategically significant plan(s) outlined above. The Company undertakes no duty to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release.



Corporate Communications Contact:

NetworkNewsWire (NNW)

New York, New York

www.NetworkNewsWire.com

212.418.1217 Office

Editor@NetworkNewsWire.com



Disclosure: SinglePoint, Inc. (OTC: $SING) is featured on the 420 Cannabis Investor Ideas of 2017 at

SinglePoint, Inc. (OTC: SING) is a featured company on Investorideas.com

View the profile on Investorideas.com

Disclaimer: This directory is not a recommendation to buy or sell securities or products or services Investorideas.com charges a fee for placement. The directory is not an endorsement or recommendation but meant to be an investor resource/ due diligence tool.

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:

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:

been aggressively seeking opportunities in the cannabis market. The company recently integrated a stand-alone point of sale terminal designed to give merchants the ability to accept Bitcoin as a payment option. Customers can now use their credit or debit card at the counter instead of through a web-based app. SinglePoint's push to streamline payment processes and make the cannabis purchase experience no different than using a credit card at any other store complements recent efforts by political leaders seeking cannabis reform.Former Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), once an outspoken cannabis antagonist, has now joined the board of a cannabis company with the statement he believes cannabis should be de-scheduled so that medical studies may begin. Colorado Republican Sen. Cory Gardner announced April 13 that President Donald Trump promised he would support efforts to protect states that have legalized marijuana. Most recently, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) threw his weight behind legalizing marijuana and said he will soon be introducing a bill to de-schedule the plant."The legislation is long overdue based on a bunch of different facts," Schumer said. "Ultimately, it is the right thing to do. Freedom. If smoking marijuana doesn't hurt anybody else, why shouldn't we allow people to do it and not make it criminal."SinglePoint founder and CEO Greg Lambrecht hailed the positive political messages and growing support for the cannabis industry."This is exactly what we have been waiting for and what the industry needs. As we continue to develop solutions to help ease the banking issues, we welcome new regulations that may make that easier such as de-scheduling the plant and allowing banks to work with these businesses," Lambrecht said. "That would allow SinglePoint to offer all of our payment solutions to cannabis businesses."SinglePoint management believes cannabis-related businesses and all those working within the industry will continue to grow and soon thrive under new regulations. Public opinion polls show that 61 percent of respondents believe cannabis should be legalized for adult use. Several top Democrats seen as possible contenders in the 2020 presidential race are backing legislation to de-schedule cannabis. The shift has marijuana activists and political operatives believing many of the 2020 presidential candidates will support removing cannabis from the Federal Substances Act.Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), a 2016 presidential candidate widely considered a top contender for the nomination in 2020, signed onto The Marijuana Justice Act, as did Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), another possible 2020 hopeful. Proposed by another potential 2020 presidential contender, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), the Act would remove the drug from the federal Controlled Substances Act, voiding the uncertainty the federal government injects into cannabusiness and deconstructing the final barriers to national legalization.SinglePoint's streamlined payment process helps cannabis retailers, dispensaries and consumers in several, important ways. Customers can preload their wallet with their credit card information, which brings additional efficiencies in the checkout process. A customer that preloads a wallet will simply be able to "send payment" to the merchant for the amount requested at the register. Additionally, SinglePoint is tying this payment into its Last Mile Delivery service. Delivery clients will already have the application downloaded, which means that once an order is placed the customer will be able to select a payment method and utilize a stored card or cryptocurrency.About SinglePoint, Inc.SinglePoint, Inc (SING) is a technology and investment company with a focus on acquiring companies that will benefit from the injection of growth capital and technology integration. The company portfolio includes mobile payments, ancillary cannabis services and blockchain solutions. Through acquisitions into horizontal markets, SinglePoint is building its portfolio by acquiring an interest in undervalued companies, thereby providing a rich, diversified holding base. Through its subsidiary company SingleSeed, the company is providing products and services to the cannabis industry.Connect on social media at:For more information visit: www.SinglePoint.com Forward-Looking StatementsCertain statements in this news release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Rule 175 under the Securities Act of 1933 and Rule 3b-6 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and are subject to the safe harbor created by those rules. All statements, other than statements of fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding potential future plans and objectives of the Company, 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.Technical complications, which may arise, could prevent the prompt implementation of any strategically significant plan(s) outlined above. The Company undertakes no duty to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release.Corporate Communications Contact:NetworkNewsWire (NNW)New York, New York212.418.1217 OfficeDisclosure: SinglePoint, Inc. (OTC: $SING) is featured on the 420 Cannabis Investor Ideas of 2017 at www.420cannabisinvestorideas.com SinglePoint, Inc. (OTC: SING) is a featured company on Investorideas.comView the profile on Investorideas.comDisclaimer: This directory is not a recommendation to buy or sell securities or products or services Investorideas.com charges a fee for placement. The directory is not an endorsement or recommendation but meant to be an investor resource/ due diligence tool.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: www.investorideas.com/About/Disclaimer.asp . SinglePoint, Inc. (OTC: SING) is a paid PR news and social media client on Investorideas.com for bitcoin and cannabis  more details www.investorideas.com/About/News/Clientspecifics.asp 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: www.bcsc.bc.ca/release.aspx?id=6894 . Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country. Contact information:

SinglePoint



Seattle, WA



Contact Person:

Greg Lambrecht

CEO

Phone: 855-711-2009

eMail: eMail



Web: http://www.singlepoint.com

Author:

Dawn VanZant

e-mail

Web: http://www.investorideas.com

Phone: 800-665-0411 24.04.2018 18:59:07 -

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Stock Market News

Apple agrees plan for repayment of Ireland's 13bn back taxes 24-04-2018 16:49



Stock News headlines are gathered from financial news sources around the web. Views and opinions on each item are from their respective authors and website. They are not opinions of LiveCharts.co.uk
Stock Market News

Tuesday newspaper round-up: Alphabet, Mirror, whistleblowing 24-04-2018 07:34



Stock News headlines are gathered from financial news sources around the web. Views and opinions on each item are from their respective authors and website. They are not opinions of LiveCharts.co.uk
While the majority of Bell & Rosss mens watches are inspired by aeroplane cockpit instruments, the new BR S Diamond Eagle collection for women aims higher  out into the Milky Way, far from the chatter of technology and the whine of engines, to the unfathomable sidereal silence of deep space, to the constellation of Aquila, the eagle, after which Bell & Rosss new collection is named. The latest range builds on the success of the BR S Diamond Eagle, which launched in 2016 in midnight blue.

The BR S Diamond Eagle returns this year as a collection, in a choice of four colours: midnight blue, grey, pink and white. They come in plain or diamond versions  the latter set with 66 white diamonds around the bezel, totalling almost 1 carat.

BR S Diamond Eagle, pink dial, leather and metal Milanese meshet straps  Bell & Ross

While the sunburst finish of the dials of the grey and pink models carries some celestial symbolism, and the deep blue dial clearly evokes the night sky, the principal focus is obviously the Aquila constellation. The seven diamonds set into the dial outline the shape of the constellation, which is clearly visible from Earth, and their dimensions and brilliance are true to that of its seven biggest stars. The largest and brightest star is Altair, positioned at 10 oclock. The twelve small faceted metallic markers complement the miniature starscape.

BR S Diamond Eagle, white ceramic  Bell & Ross

The 39 mm case of the BR S Diamond Eagle borrows the minimalist aesthetic of the famous model BR01 by Bell & Ross. The blue, grey and pink versions all come in a steel case, with alternating polished surfaces on the bezel and a satin-brushed finish for the distinctive square surround. The white version features an innovative and extremely feminine ceramic case, matched with a bright white dial. At the heart of the case, which is decorated on the back with the Aquila constellation, lies the Swiss made quartz movement BR-CAL.102, which drives hours and minutes.

BR S Diamond Eagle, midnight blue dial  Bell & Ross

Each of the models comes fitted a leather strap that matches the dial  in alligator for the blue and pink versions, and satin-finished calf leather for the grey and white  or with a Milan mesh bracelet made of steel wire polished on both sides. A ceramic and rubber bracelet is also available for the white version. Fans of pink watches may also be interested to learn that Bell & Rosss Novarosa models are similar, but with an additional small second and date.

Price: 2,350 to 2,850 Swiss francs for the plain versions with leather or Milan mesh strap; CHF 2,900 / 3,600 for the white ceramic version with leather / ceramic strap; CHF 6,200 / 6,820 for the diamond versions; and CHF 7,920 in white ceramic with diamonds.
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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Hisham Geneina was convicted for media comments he made in February relating to former military chief-of-staff Sami Anan

An Egyptian military court sentenced on Tuesday the former head of the Central Auditing Organisation Hisham Geneina to five years in prison for spreading false news about the Armed Forces and the country's internal affairs.

Geneina was arrested last February over an interview he gave to the HuffPost Arabi news website, where he claimed that former military chief Sami Anan possessed secret documents containing state secrets and evidence relating to major events since 2011.

Tuesday's sentence can be appealed before a military appeals court.

Geneina was a leading figure in Anan's short-lived 2018 presidential campaign, before Anan was barred from running in the elections by the National Elections Authority for being an active member of the armed forces.

Anan was later arrested and faced charges by military prosecutors of violating military rules in announcing his candidacy while still an active-duty officer.

In the interview, which took place after Anans arrest, Geneina said that these documents were kept abroad and would be released if any harm came to Anan.

Anan's lawyer had distanced his client from Geneina's claims, which he slammed as completely "unfounded" and "untrue."

On the other hand, Geneina's defense team later said that the statements he made during the HuffPost interview were the result of a nervous imbalance caused by an injury he sustained in late January after he was attacked and severely wounded in a street dispute.

Geneina was sacked in early 2016 as top auditor of the country's main anti-corruption agency after he claimed that widespread graft has cost Egypt $68 billion in four years.

He stood trial for spreading false information after the State Security Prosecution charged that his statements were misleading.

He was sentenced in late 2016 to a one-year suspended prison term after being convicted in a regular court of spreading false news.

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Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi commemorated the 36th anniversary of the Sinai Liberation Day by laying a wreath at the Memorial of the Unknown Soldier in Nasr City, Cairo on Tuesday.

The president also paid his respects at the tomb of late Egyptian President Anwar El-Sadat, who led the 1973 October War for the liberation of Sinai from Israeli occupation.

President El-Sisi was received at the memorial by the Minister of Defence Sedki Sobhy, Armed Forces Chief of Staff Mohamed Farid and a number of military commanders.

On 25 April, Egypt celebrates the completion of the withdrawal of all Israeli military forces from the Sinai Peninsula in 1982, following the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty.

Sinai Liberation Day is an official holiday in Egypt.

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Thiruvananthapuram: The indefinite strike called by nurses of private hospital in the state from today on wards has been withdrawn. The government on last day issued the order increasing the minimum wage of nurses from Rs. 8975 to Rs. 20,000 with effect from October 1. 2017.

The decision was taken in a meeting with the representatives of nurses with Chief Minister Pinaryi Vijayan. Late the CM said that the decision regarding the wage hike was unanimous.

The government will appoint a committee to decide on the salary of nurses working in hospitals where the number of beds is more than fifty. There will be timely increase in the stipend of nursing trainees. The committee will also consider and submit recommendations on the trainees stipend and the period of training. The committee will submit its report in a month, a statement from the Chief Ministers office said.
Al-Ahram's Al-Siyassa Al-Dawliya magazine is holding a special celebration next week on the occasion of issuing a supplement on Egypt's non-permanent membership in the UN Security Council in 2016 and 2017.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry will participate in the event, where he will give a speech about Egypts role in the UN Security Council.

A documentary about Egypts membership in the UN Security Council will be screened during the event, which will also be attended by members of the Egyptian diplomatic service as well as foreign ambassadors to Cairo.

The celebration will be held at the Al-Ahram institute building on Al-Galaa Street, Cairo on 2 May.

Egypt chaired the Security Council twice in May 2016 and August 2017, and was the president of the UN counter-terrorism committee.

During Egypt's chairmanship of the Security Council in May 2017, the council unanimously adopted UNSC Resolution 2354, a comprehensive international framework to counter terrorist narratives.

In August 2017, the council unanimously adopted UNSC resolution 2370 on preventing terrorists from acquiring weapons.

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The IMF declared at the beginning of April that we have entered into the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Yesterday, their perspective was confirmed when figures released for the US showed a rate of 4.8 percent decline. Today, the figures are out showing a 3.8 percent contraction in one quarter in the Eurozone. The disastrous handling of the coronavirus pandemic sharpened an economic crisis that was already in the making.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi met on Tuesday with leading European energy officials to discuss transforming Egypt into an energy hub for the region, according to a statement by the presidency.

El-Sisi met with the European Climate and Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete as well as Ulrich Spiesshofer, the German chief executive officer of the ABB Group, a leading power and automation technology company.

Spiesshofer discussed his vision for transforming Egypt into an energy hub for the Middle East and North Africa; while President El-Sisi expressed Egypt's readiness for cooperation projects in electricity and renewable energy.

Following the meeting, ABB said in an official statement that they are committed to Egypts energy and industrial future.

"We fully support Egypts goal of becoming an energy hub and a centre for export-oriented industrial production. We have been present here since 1926 and are proud to invest and provide job opportunities for Egyptians, said ABB CEO.

ABB has invested more than $200 million in expanding and developing its facilities in Egypt in the past couple of years. About 20 percent of ABBs production in Egypt is currently exported; the target is to increase that figure to 25 percent.

ABBs recent landmark projects in Egypt include power stations serving the new Terminal 2 at Cairo International Airport; the control system for Cairo water treatment and the electricity for the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza.

El-Sisi discussed with the EU Climate and Energy Commissioner Canete the developmental steps that Egypt has taken in the fields of electricity, renewable energy and infrastructure.

El-Sisi highlighted that these developments qualify Egypt to become a bridge between the MENA region and European countries in electricity linkage projects.

El-Sisi and Canete also praised the signing of a memorandum of understanding on Monday between the EU and Egypt in the field of energy.

The memorandum highlights six priorities in the context of EU-Egypt partnership, including further assistance to the development of the oil and gas sector, continued support to electricity sector reforms, and development of the energy hub, according to the statement.

Canete stressed that Egypt has become an important gas hub in the region in light of its strategic geographical location, as well as recent gas discoveries that qualify it to move to the export stage in the future.

He also highlighted the European Union's support for Egypt's plans to export liquefied natural gas, in light of the interest of the Union in diversifying its sources of energy.

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EAST LONGMEADOW -- Lucky kids get a Play-Doh Fun Factory to make the classic modeling compound into tubes and twists, strips and shapes.

And Belgium-based Cartamundi's East Longmeadow plant is getting a real-life Play-Doh factory.

Rhode Island-based toy giant Hasbro is shifting Play-Doh production back to East Longmeadow after having moved it to Turkey and China in 2004. The company first announced the plan last year.

The overseas factories had been unable to keep up with strong demand for Play-Doh, according to copmany officials.

Cartamundi now expects to begin Play-Doh production in East Longmeadow Sept. 4, Jeff Lombard, CEO of Cartamundi East Longmeadow, said in a series of emails Tuesday. Cartamundi is hiring for the job, advertising for workers with the job title "Play-Doh Technician".

On Monday, Hasbro told investors its revenue was falling because of the demise of the Toys 'R' Us chain.

The company's revenue dropped to $716.3 million in the first quarter, from $849.7 million, according to the Associated Press. Revenues were well below the $824.7 million forecast by analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research.

But Lombard said that the disruption has not filtered down to the plant.

"We have not been made aware of any production plan adjustments by Hasbro," Lombard wrote in an email.

For Play-Doh, equipment is arriving now at the sprawling plant where Cartamundi also makes board games like Life, Risk and Sorry! for Hasbro. Flour silos are on site as well as a dough mixer. The majority of the equipment should be in place by the end of June, Lombard said.

The old Play-Doh manufacturing equipment Hasbro used to use was removed.

Play-Doh production means about 20 new jobs for Cartamundi in East Longmeadow. The plant has a staff of about 480.

It's a union workplace, so workers will have a chance to bid on the Play-Doh jobs.

In an earlier news release, Cartamundi said its grown the staff by 13.5 percent growth since Cartamundi acquired the factory in 2015.

Cartamundi -- the name is Latin for "cards for the world" -- bought the factory from Hasbro in 2015 for $19.4 million. Cartamundi also bought a sister facility in Ireland.

Hasbro no longer has any of its own manufacturing facilities.

Instead, Cartamundi makes products for Hasbro at the 1.2 million square-foot facility under contract.

Cartamundi makes 30 million Hasbro games a year.

The East Longmeadow plant was built between 1963 and 1965 by the former Milton Bradley Co. and sold to Hasbro in 1984.
Bill Cosby's sexual assault retrial is slated to go to a Pennsylvania jury on today.

Jurors will be asked to weigh the prosecution's portrayal of the comedian as a sexual predator against the defense's contention that his accuser fabricated drugging and molestation allegations to score a big payday.

The defense rested on Monday after the 80-year-old comedian declined to testify, echoing his decision at his first trial, which ended in a hung jury last year.

"You now have all of the evidence," Judge Steven O'Neill told the 12 primary and six alternate jurors, according to ABC News. "Try to relax, so that you're on your game tomorrow."

Jurors at Cosby's first trial deliberated for five days without reaching a verdict on three related counts of aggravated indecent assault. Each carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years.

That trial hinged largely on Andrea Constand's testimony alleging that the TV icon drugged her with three pills and sexually assaulted her at his suburban Philadelphia mansion in 2004.

Cosby maintains he gave Costand a cold and allergy medicine to help her relax before what he called a consensual sexual encounter.

Cosby's new defense team, led by Michael Jackson lawyer Tom Mesereau, attempted to raise doubts about Constand's credibility.

Both juries also heard from Cosby himself, via a deposition he gave in 2005 and 2006 as part of Constand's civil suit against him. In it, Cosby acknowledged he gave the sedative quaaludes to women before sex in the 1970s.

Constand got a civil settlement of nearly $3.4 million from Cosby.
Students, parents and teachers struck by news that Mount Ida College will shut down as part of a transaction with the University of Massachusetts Amherst will have a chance to air their grievances on Tuesday.

The Department of Higher Education will hold a meeting at One Ashburton Place in Boston Tuesday morning to discuss the Newton college's current plans for closing, as well as student options for transferring to other schools. The meeting is also scheduled to allot time for students, parents, teachers or anyone else to speak.

Mount Ida recently announced they would close, lay off most faculty and sell its campus to UMass Amherst, which would acquire the school's multi-million debt.

Students enrolled and admitted to Mount Ida are being offered automatic admission into UMass Dartmouth and possibly other UMass schools, though that option has been of little consolation to those studying for degrees not offered in the UMass system. The small private school has spent recent weeks scrambling to find transfer options for admitted and enrolled students for next fall semester, especially for those in special programs like veterinary technology, dental hygiene or mortuary science.

The Dept. of Higher Education has not yet voted on Mount Ida's closing plans, though officials said a meeting with the college went well last week, according to the State House News Service. State officials planned to meet with representatives from the college again this week.
Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Ralph Gants said a court clerk's error allowed for an Uber driver charged with raping his passenger to flee to his native Ghana earlier this month.

Gants told The Patriot Ledger Monday that Frederick Amfo was not asked to turn over his passport after posting bail because of "confusion" in the clerk's office.

Amfo, 30, was charged with rape after he allegedly assaulted a woman in Weymouth on April 8, prosecutors said. He was arraigned in Quincy District Court on April 13 and ordered held on $10,000 bail with the conditions that he stay away from the alleged victim, surrender his passport, and no longer work as a rides-hare or tax company driver, The Boston Globe reported.

A spokesman for Norfolk County Sheriff Michael G. Bellotti told The Globe that Amfo posted bail at around 5:30 p.m. on April 13. As is protocol for when a sexual assault suspect is released, the sheriff's department alerted the district attorney's office, The Boston Globe reported.

The Massachusetts Trial Court told The Boston Globe in a statement that officials issued a warrant for Amfo's arrest on April 17, after learning he had left the country.

"At the time the defendant posted bail and was released from the House of Correction, the defendant had not surrendered his passport to the court," court officials told The Globe.

Gants told The Patriot Ledger Monday that it seemed a clerk's office employee confused rules for people released on personal recognizance with the protocol for people are required to post bail. People released on bail are required to turn in their passports.
Members of the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education listened Tuesday as parents and students fumed over the expected closure of Mount Ida College.

At a public meeting held in Boston, members of the board's academic affairs committee explained how they, too, learned first from media reports that Mount Ida's Newton campus would be purchased by the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and were now scrambling to help map transitions for students left with few options.

The Board of Higher Education, which has some oversight authority on closures and academic programs, has received 128 complaints about the proposed deal.

Chris Gabrieli, the board chairman, called the situation a "hot mess."

Unsettled parents and students from Mount Ida were joined by faculty and students from UMass Boston, a campus strapped with debt and faced with proposed cutbacks as UMass Amherst gains a satellite campus.

"I chose Mount Ida. Not any other school. And now it's being taken away from me," said a sobbing Laura Gilson, reading a letter on behalf of her daughter Melissa, a Mount Ida student currently traveling abroad. "And how fair is that to me and any other student?"

"They're the most pitied kids anywhere," said Laurel Collins, whose daughter is a freshman in Mount Ida's veterinary-technician program. "Parents and students together will be paying for an extra year of college due to this debacle."

Collins has become somewhat of a spokesperson for the group of displaced students and parents, many of whom chose Mount Ida for special programs offered at few, if any, other colleges in Massachusetts.

Mobilized by their shared frustration, nearly 800 people joined a Facebook group to share the information and misinformation they picked up through media reports and other sources, though rarely by Mount Ida College itself.

"They will not speak to parents," Collins said. "They're hiding, as far as we can tell."

Mothers, fathers, incoming students and enrolled students all took turns at the microphone in the front of the room, facing board members as they expressed their disappointment.

Woburn resident Laurel Collins whose daughter is a freshman at Mt Ida vet-tech program, speaks to the Board of Higher Ed. She has become a spokesperson for other distraught parents and students. pic.twitter.com/LZ8vYNJ9iq  Kristin LaFratta (@kristinlafratta) April 24, 2018

Many pointed out how Mount Ida - which accepted incoming students and deposits up until early April, just before announcing its closure - had touted its reputable specialty programs and accessibility services.

"Mount Ida is more than a school, it's a home," said Taylor Higgins, a student with hearing loss who said she was provided an opportunity to work with interpreters who helped accommodate her college experience. She was accepted into eight different schools, but since sophomore year of high school she knew Mount Ida was where she wanted to go.

Higgins said she found one other school that she is considering, though it is significantly more expensive than Mount Ida and would require her to accrue much more debt in student loans.

Finances are on the minds of many students who have invested thousands into their Mount Ida educations over the years. Colleen Moroney, a junior finishing her dental hygiene program at Mount Ida, said if students cannot transfer into a new program in the fall, loan payments will begin in November.

For dental hygiene students, the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences is the only other school in the state that offers a comparable program, though the curriculum at MCPHS demands extra requirements for admissions and the completion of a bachelor's degree.

Parents and students have told MassLive that some initial plans announced by the college have fallen through. But, the Department of Higher Education said there will be special accommodations made for schools that wish to introduce new programs, like Cape Cod Community College, which has expressed interest in creating a mortuary/funeral program for displaced Mount Ida students.

The Mass. Board of Higher Education's academic affairs committee said on Tuesday they've had received two drafts of Mount Ida's "closure plan," a template required by the Department of Higher Ed. when an institution closes.

While Gabrieli and his fellow board members acknowledged the dire financial condition of Mount Ida, they added that other small colleges are seeing similar struggles and many are likely to close as well in the near future.

"The picture here is not just about Mount Ida and UMass. It's about what we see unfolding in real time in higher education here in Massachusetts and across the country," said J.D. LaRock, the board's community college Trustee Representative.

"I personally can name half a dozen institutions in Massachusetts that are likely in a similar place to Mount Ida," he added.

LaRock also referred to the testing the limits of the board's authority over higher education in the state. He said a statute in the board's authority calls for members to oversee activities at community colleges, state universities, including schools in the University of Massachusetts system.

"The fact that a month ago I received a signed contract for next year was cruel," said Jeffrey Marshall, Associate Professor of Art Foundations at Mount Ida College, who called on UMass, and by extension the state, to honor the contracts of Mt Ida faculty. pic.twitter.com/x4f9GxRCft  Kristin LaFratta (@kristinlafratta) April 24, 2018

Drawing the ire of some Mount Ida students and parents, UMass Boston advocates spoke as well at the public meeting to criticize the deal between UMass Amherst and Mount Ida.

The recent announcement said UMass Amherst will rename the Newton school as "the Mount Ida Campus of UMass Amherst," which will serve as a satellite for Amherst students who get internships around Boston. UMass Boston supporters claim their campus is in dire need of funding, as evidenced by crumbling buildings and layoffs.

One critical voice came from Richard Freeland, who previously worked in roles as the Massachusetts commissioner of higher education, president of Northeastern University and a top administrator at UMass Boston.

"The likely impact is the cannibalization of enrollments at UMass Boston, and other public campuses in the area and also area private colleges and universities," Freeland said of the UMass Amherst deal.

Gabrieli, the board chairman, said the UMass debate would fall behind in priority to the immediate needs of Mount Ida students scurrying to secure plans for next fall.

"It's frustrating for every parent the fact that this will take weeks more before it all becomes clear enough," Gabrieli said.

This article has been updated.
Yemen's Houthi militias vowed Monday to avenge the killing of their top political leader in what they said was a Saudi-led coalition air strike, the highest-ranking rebel to die in the three-year conflict.

Saleh al-Sammad, head of the Houthis' supreme political council, was "martyred" last Thursday in the eastern province of Hodeida, the Iran-allied rebels said via their Saba news agency.

Sammad's death is a major blow to the Shia rebels who have been fighting forces of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi backed by a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia.

The most senior rebel to have been killed since the coalition intervened in March 2015, his name was on a Saudi list of 40 Houthi leaders that put bounties on their heads totalling $440 million.

The rebels named Sammad's successor as Mehdi Hussein al-Mashat.

"This crime won't go unanswered," said the Houthis' overall leader, Abdul Malek al-Houthi, adding that six other people were killed in the same raid.

The news came hours after officials in Yemen said dozens of people were killed and wounded in an air raid on a wedding party in the country on Sunday, in another attack the Houthis blamed on the coalition.

Medical sources and local officials put the number of dead between 22 and 33, with at least 40 to 50 wounded, while the circumstances of the raid remained unclear.

Doctors Without Borders tweeted that a hospital it supports in Hajjah received at least 65 patients, including at least 13 children, wounded in the air strikes, which it said were "among the most devastating in the area in recent months".

Rescue teams said the wedding was being held in the Houthi-controlled Bani Qais area of Hajjah province, north of Sanaa, when jets carried out the raid.

A local official said at least 23 civilians, including women and children, were killed.

The official, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said a double air strike on the venue had left a number of bodies buried beneath the rubble.

Houthi-run television said at least 33 people, including women and children, were killed and as many as 55 people wounded.

The coalition's spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki said they were following media reports of the bombing, and will investigate the allegations.

Iran, which is accused of supplying arms to the Houthis, swiftly condemned the raid.

"The escalated bombardment of residential areas proves the desperation and inability of the invaders in achieving their goals," foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said.

Also on Monday, the coalition said it downed two new ballistic missiles fired by the Houthis, who claimed to target facilities belonging to the kingdom's oil giant Aramco in southern Jizan city.

The coalition reported no damage or loss of life from the strikes, the latest in a string of bombardments on Saudi Arabia by the Houthis.

Saudi forces said they intercepted a rebel ballistic missile targeting its southern border city of Najran on Sunday, which set a farm ablaze, after another aimed at Jizan was shot down on Friday.

At the beginning of April, Houthi political head Sammad dubbed 2018 "the year of ballistics", referring to cross-border missile attacks.

Sunday's deadly strike in Hajjah was one of a series to have struck weddings in Yemen's conflict, which has killed nearly 10,000 people and wounded 54,000 others since March 2015.

Elsewhere in Yemen on Monday, five pro-government soldiers were killed and 19 wounded in clashes with jihadists in the southern city of Taez, medics said.

Fighting in the city's Jahmaliah district came after the governor of Taez launched an operation against jihadists he suspected were behind the murder of a Red Cross aid worker over the weekend.

The Lebanese aid worker, Hanna Lahoud, was shot dead in Taez on Saturday by unidentified assailants who sprayed his Red Cross vehicle with bullets.

President Hadi's government was driven out of Sanaa in 2014 by the Houthis, who still control the capital and much of northern Yemen.

*This story was edited by Ahram Online.

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AMHERST -- Amherst police spent more than an hour monitoring the Townehouse apartments Saturday while large crowds gathered once again.

Last weekend, police needed help from Hadley, University of Massachusetts Amherst and Massachusetts State Police to disperse a crowd that had grown to at least several hundred. People were throwing bottles and cans at each other, police said.

This weekend there were no reports of bottle throwing, police said.

Police did ask UMass Transit to stop dropping students off at the Townehouse complex and at the nearby Puffton Village, Brandywine and Presidential apartments, all in North Amherst, because of the growing numbers of students gathering.

In March 2017, Townehouse management, after working with police and University of Massachusetts officials, put up a fence in the western quad to help reduce the number of large gatherings there. A second fence was put on the eastern quad.

But last week people scaled the fence, and partygoers can also gain access through apartments.

Police talked to one resident about securing his door and not allowing his apartment to be a gateway to the quad. They tried to speak to tenants in other units as well.

Police arrested two near the complex on alcohol violations. Neither were listed as University of Massachusetts students.

Other weekend police activity

Police issues six nuisance house violation citations with a cost of $300 each, Lt. William Menard wrote in an email.

In addition to the two arrested near Townehouse, police issued six liquor violation warnings, will issue court summons for three more and arrested a 19-year-old UMass student.

Two more men were arrested early Sunday morning following a report of a fight outside the Monkey bar.

Police said John C. Conte, 21, of Hull, and Nicholas Aiello, of Port Jefferson, New York were fighting in front of the bar at 1:18 a.m. and were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct. Neither were listed as UMass students and police did not know the cause of the fight.

The five people arrested over the weekend are scheduled to be arraigned in Eastern Hampshire District Court in Belchertown Monday.
Local and state law enforcement were called to Holyoke for a report of an unwanted visitor to downtown: a bear.

The small black bear was reported in the area of 37 John St., alongside the Lyman Terrace public housing complex and a block from Holyoke City Hall.

Holyoke police officers responded to the call, requesting assistance with removal of the bear form Massachusetts environmental police officers and found the bear in a tree.

Residents were asked to stay indoors while the bear was removed from the area.
SPRINGFIELD -- A Boston company has offered to pay the city $300,000 for seven tax-title downtown lots on Worthington and Winter streets as part of a $13.8 million project for market rate apartments and retail space at the adjacent Willys-Overland building.

The offer made by Davenport Advisors LLC, of Boston, was the sole bid submitted for the city lots by Monday's deadline. The bid has been referred to a city review committee that will submit its recommendation to Mayor Domenic J. Sarno to accept or reject the offer, officials said.

Davenport Companies purchased the Overland building in December of 2017, announcing plans to convert the site to 60 loft apartments and some retail.

The building was badly damaged by the 2012 natural gas explosion.

Construction is planned this year, and will feature historic renovation of the Willys-Overland building, Davenport said.

Davenport Advisors, through the affiliated Davenport Companies, is proposing to convert the tax-title lots into the parking lot for future tenants, according to the submitted proposal. The conceptual development plan shows 69 parking spaces.

The proposal says Davenport Advisors is the development entity for the Overland building property and also for the Springfield Plaza property on Liberty Street among other sites. Davenport Companies and Albany Road Real Estate, of Boston, bought the Springfield Plaza in 2014 for $35 million, and invested in renovations and new signs.

The company and its affiliates own or manage more than 40 properties in the Northeast, the company said.

The vacant Willys-Overland building was built in 1916, and is the former Willys-Overland Motor Co., considered a significant part of the city's early automotive history. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The apartment project at the Overland site is a mirror of the rehabilitation completed at its twin Willys-Overland building in Detroit, officials said.

Davenport used the name Chestnut Acquisitions LLC. to buy the Overland building at 151 Chestnut St., for $450,000 from Ciocca Construction Corp. of Wilbraham, according to documents. It was built in 1916 as a sales floor and regional office for its cars.

The sale of the abutting lots on Worthington and Winter streets will need approval from Sarno and the City Council.

The lots total 36,922 square feet and are located between Worthington and Winter streets, just north of Chestnut Street and the downtown dining district.

In advertising for proposals for the lots, the city said it was looking for a reuse of the property that is "beneficial too the concept of a Downtown Dining District, and the overall goals of the Transformative Development Initiative (TDI) district."

The TDI district "is focused on innovation -- whether it is the technology, food, retail, or housing fields," the city said in the advertisement for proposals.

Davenport, in its proposal for the lots, said it believes that "the successful absorption of market rate apartments in Overland will translate to further investment in the Innovation District. The propety would be acquired as part of that vision."
Bryon Hefner, the husband of Senator Stanley C. Rosenberg, is to be arraigned on multiple charges of sexual assault, criminal lewdness, and distributing nude photographs without consent Tuesday morning.

Hefner, 30, was indicted by a statewide grand jury on March 29, on 10 felony charges, according to a press release from the offices of Attorney General Maura Healey and Suffolk District Attorney Dan Conley.

The indictment centers on four victims, three of whom prosecutors say Hefner sexually assaulted within the last five years.

Prosecutors say Hefner sexually assaulted one person on three separate occasions: once in a residential building in June 2015 and twice in April 2016 in a vehicle and in a restaurant.

Hefner allegedly sexually assaulted another person in 2014 and exposed his genitals to that person two years later, in June 2016.

Prosecutors say Hefner sexually assaulted a third victim in August 2016.

All of the alleged offenses happened in Boston, prosecutors said in a news release.

Also in the indictment is an allegation that Hefner "obtained nude and partially-nude photos of another victim without the victim's knowledge" and sent or showed those pictures to four other people. Hefner did this without the person's consent, prosecutors alleged.

The indictment comes fives months after The Boston Globe first reported that four men had come forward saying Hefner had sexually assaulted and harassed them. Two of these men are cited in the indictment, according to the newspaper.

In December 2017 MassLive reported that Hefner sent a text message with male genitalia to someone who works in Massachusetts state politics. That person, who spoke with MassLive and shared a screenshot of the message, is not one of the four men who spoke to the Globe.

The investigation is still ongoing, a joint release from both offices said. Conley said investigators found a "disturbing pattern of conduct that was not only inappropriate but criminal."

Rosenberg, an Amherst Democrat, and Hefner were married in September 2016. They met when Hefner had a summer job in Rosenberg's office and bonded over the fact that they each lived in foster care as children, The Boston Globe has reported.

They have been a couple since 2008 and Rosenberg, 68, credits Hefner with his decision to live as an openly gay man. Following the allegations of assault, Rosenberg said he was heart broken, and said Hefner was entering treatment for alcohol dependency.

The couple has since split up and Rosenberg has been replaced as leader of the Senate.

Hefner is expected to be arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Bryon Hefner, the husband of Sen. Stanley C. Rosenberg, pleaded not guilty to 10 felony charges including multiple counts of sexual assault and distributing nude photographs without consent at his arraignment in Suffolk Superior Court Tuesday morning.

Hefner, 30, was indicted by a statewide grand jury on March 29. Tuesday morning marked his first day in court following months of reports about his inappropriate behavior with men he met through his work on Beacon Hill.

The commonwealth brought 10 felony charges against Hefner in the case, which centers on four victims. Hefner sexually assaulted three of those four people within the last five years, according to a press release from the offices of Attorney General Maura Healey and Suffolk District Attorney Dan Conley.

He pleaded not guilty to each of the 10 charges read before the courtroom on Tuesday. He's charged with five counts of indecent assault and battery, four counts of disseminating nude photos of an unsuspecting person without consent, and one count of open and gross lewdness.

Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Snook presented the state's case against Hefner, who stood quietly at the front of the courtroom Tuesday wearing khakis and a sweater.

Snook said described a pattern of touching men's genitalia without asking in both public and private settings.

The first person told prosecutors that in June 2015 Hefner was at the person's apartment. While sitting together, Hefner "put his hand repeatedly over the man's genitals, despite him continuously pushing away," Snook said.

In April 2016 that same person "found himself in a professional setting" with Hefner. The two men were in a car together when Hefner touched his crotch

The man told Hefner to knock it off, Snook said, but later that night the men were seated together at a business dinner. Again, Hefner put his hand on the man's genitals

"All of these acts were done without the person's consent," Snook said.

In August 2016 while at a birthday party Hefner ran into another person -- labeled "Person 2" in case. They had met once before. Hefner allegedly told the person he thought he was hot and then grabbed the man's face and "forcibly kissed him," Snook said.

The third person became close friends with Hefner in the summer and fall of 2014, Snook said. One night Hefner "stuck his hand down that person's pants and touched his penis over his underwear," Snook said.

On June 30 2016 Hefner "invited himself" to a party with that same man, Snook said. Hefner started taunting the man and eventually, dropped his pants "showing his penis and his buttocks," Snook said.

The fourth person attended a conference with Hefner, Snook said. After a night of drinking he woke up in his own bed, naked without any memory of coming home, Snook said.

He later learned that Hefner was "in possession of naked photos of him that he never consented to," Snook said.

Snook said Hefner showed those photos to four people, who have been interviewed by prosecutors.

"He appeared proud he had those photos," Snook said.

Hefner's lawyer Tracy Miner handed a stack of printed statements to reporters gathered outside the courthouse before walking to her car. She did not answer questions. Hefner also declined comment outside court.

"Mr. Hefner Rosenberg had pled not guilty to the charges and looks forward to defending himself in a court of law where accusers cannot remain anonymous and must face cross-examination," Miner wrote in the statement. "Unfortunately, he has already been pilloried in the press for political purposes, having never had a trial."

Hefner was ordered to stay away from the alleged victims and the Massachusetts State House. He must also must surrender his passport to the Boston police and check in with an officer twice a week by phone.

He is to return to court in June for a pretrial conference. A date of March 25, 2019 was set for trial.

If convicted, Hefner could face more than 30 years in a state prison.
CHICOPEE - A Holyoke man accused of driving across a lawn and over some stairs before crashing into a parked car was arrested on his fourth drunken driving charge Monday.

Daniel Robert, 56, of 27 Gates St., was arrested at about 5:50 p.m. and charged with drunken driving, fourth offense, and reckless operation of a motor vehicle, said Michael Wilk, police public information officer.

Robert lost control of his pickup truck and drove over the lawn at 48 Sanders St., bumping over stairs and then striking a Honda of a worker who was delivering food, he said.

The owner of the Honda was not in the car at the time and was warned by another witness of the crash to "Get out of the way, he is drunk." The Honda was badly damaged in the crash, Wilk said.

When Officer Eric Sunny arrived he spoke to Robert, who was still in his truck. He allegedly smelled of alcohol, his speech was slurred and he was unsteady on his feet. He also did not have a valid Massachusetts license, Wilk said.

Robert was arrested and held on $1,040 bail. He is expected to be arraigned in Chicopee District Court Tuesday.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office are asking for help identifying a man in connection with an alleged 2015 beating of four men by off-duty Springfield police officers following an argument at Nathan Bill's Bar and Restaurant.

The agencies released an image depicting a white man wearing jeans, white sneakers and a T-shirt. Agents and task force officers are attempting to speak with the man, who is not accused of any wrongdoing, about a "violent assault that occurred in the Springfield area in 2015," the FBI said in a press release.

The FBI did not release any details about the assault in question. But a source familiar with the ongoing probe into the alleged Nathan Bill's police beating, who requested anonymity to speak about an active investigation, confirms the image was drawn from security footage that had been shown to the alleged victims during interviews with the FBI.

#FBI Boston & @MassAGO are asking for help in identifying this individual who is not accused of any wrongdoing. Agents & task force officers would like to speak with him about a violent assault that occurred in the Springfield, MA area in '15. Call 857-386-2000 with information. pic.twitter.com/xBINUvDKCP  FBI Boston (@FBIBoston) April 23, 2018

"We do not want to create a sense of alarm by releasing this photo," FBI Boston Special Agent in Charge Harold Shaw said in a statement. "Our job as law enforcement is to track down any and all potential witnesses relating to criminal behavior in an ongoing investigation. We hope someone in the community has information that will help us identify him."

An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment beyond the contents of the press release, saying it is not FBI policy to confirm details about ongoing investigations.

The existence of the image is the first public evidence that federal and state authorities have obtained security footage related to the fight that includes potentially identifiable individuals. Springfield police investigators reviewed a video from a nearby Bank of America in 2015, but the footage was unclear and did not include identifiable faces.

A statewide grand jury began hearing testimony about the alleged beating in February and is still ongoing, raising the possibility of criminal charges in the case over a year after the Hampden District Attorney's Office announced it could not proceed with charges due to weak eyewitness identifications.

The Nathan Bill's case, as it became known by internal investigators, has dogged the Springfield Police Department and frustrated the alleged victims for over three years.

On the night of April 7, 2015, Paul Cumby, his cousins Jackie and Jozelle Ligon and their friend Michael Cintron went out for drinks at Nathan Bill's Bar and Restaurant -- a family-owned pub on Island Pond Road popular with neighborhood residents, police officers and local politicians hosting fundraisers.

According to accounts given to internal investigators, an off-duty officer, Daniel Billingsley, began arguing with Jozelle at the bar, accusing him of whistling at a woman in his party.

Uniformed officers responded to the verbal argument, and later confirmed to internal investigators that Billingsley and fellow officers Melissa Rodriguez, Christian Cicero, Anthony Cicero and Igor Basovskiy were in the bar at that time. The Ligon's group left the bar peacefully after Billingsley made it clear they were not welcome, they told investigators.

The Ligons and Cintron waited in the parking lot of Murphy's Pop Stop as Cumby, who had driven his truck to the bar, took a walk and spoke to his girlfriend on the phone, according to the lawsuits filed by the victims and interviews with investigators. Cumby reunited with his cousins as a large group of men, led by Billingsley, allegedly bore down on them and instigated a fight, according to a civil suit.

Cumby was knocked unconscious, suffered loosened teeth and had his leg broke in the altercation. The Ligon brothers were also beaten after Jackie began exchanging blows with the men to defend his brother, according to his account.

The fight prompted a 911 call but did not immediately prompt an extensive investigation. The initial police report, filed by Officer Darren Nguyen, did not mention the alleged role of off-duty officers in the fight, described the victims as "uncooperative" and understated the extent of Cumby's injuries.

After Cumby filed a citizen's complaint in May of 2015, the police department's Major Crimes Unit launched a criminal investigation. The Hampden District Attorney's Office announced it would not file charges in February of 2016, saying that while the Ligons, Cumby and Cintron were victims, their identifications of their attackers were not clear enough to stand up in court.
WESTFIELD -- Massachusetts Emergency Management Association representatives and other relief resource agencies will meet Thursday with victims of the Powdermill Village apartments fire.

Westfield Community Outreach Coordinator Amber Danahey said MEMA will provide information on all aspects of assistance available through the state, including the Department of Mental Health/Crisis Counseling, Department of Elder Affairs, Department of Transitional Assistance, Office of Refugee and Immigration, Public Health and Department of Children and Families.

City departments and aid agencies that will be in attendance include the housing authority, health, fire and police departments, the Red Cross and Salvation Army.

The meeting is 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Powdermill Village on Union Street. Russian and Spanish translators will be on site to assist.

A three-alarm fire was caused by cigarette butts put out in a plastic plant pot on a balcony. The fire quickly spread throughout Building 5, and the four center apartments were destroyed. Adjacent apartments suffered heavy damage from fire, heat, smoke and water, and residents of all 22 units in the building were evacuated.

Property owner Peabody Properties convened a meeting Monday at the complex to help residents begin transitioning to new homes. Peabody issued checks to all displaced families.

Donations are being accepted at the Powdermill Village Community center, but there are no further clothing needs. Other donation inquiries may be made to Phyllis Ortona of the tenant board at 413-977-2886.

Mayor Brian P. Sullivan said he is grateful for all assistance offered to victims. "Understand that these families are shocked and scared because of the change in their lives happened in a split second," he said. "Take a moment to be thankful for what we have. It can change in a heartbeat."

Sullivan said city employees are participating in dress-down days to raise funds to help the victims. Sullivan and Danahey said numerous city businesses have reached out to offer assistance as well.
GREENFIELD -- Jurors are now being seated in the murder trial of Brittany Smith, the second of two suspects in an Oct. 5, 2016 home invasion that left a 95-year-old Orange man dead and his 77-year-old wife fatally wounded, according to the office of Northwestern District Attorney District Attorney David Sullivan.

Smith, 29, of Athol, has pleaded not guilty to charges in the deaths of Thomas Harty and Joanna Fisher, who prosecutors say were relaxing at home when Smith and Joshua Hart, 25, also of Athol, entered the house and attacked them.

Hart and Smith were apprehended days later in Virginia.

Earlier this month, Hart was convicted on two counts of first degree murder, and faces a mandatory minimum sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Hart and Smith, indicted in December, are being tried separately in Franklin Superior Court.

Smith's lawyer, Mary Ann Stamm, last week requested a change in venue and limits on courtroom use of photos of victims' bodies, according to the Greenfield Recorder. Judge John Agostini has yet to rule on those motions.

At the time of her arrest, Smith was also wanted in Alaska on theft charges.
SPRINGFIELD -- Nathanial Ramos, 18, on Tuesday admitted he was responsible in the fatal shooting of Demarcus Johnson in Springfield in 2014.

Ramos was 15 when he hit Johnson in the head with his gun during an attempted robbery. The gun went off at the time and the bullet went into Johnson's skull and brain, Assistant District Attorney Max Bennett said.

Superior Court Judge Constance M. Sweeney, sitting in Juvenile Court, accepted Ramos' admission of guilt as a youthful offender. The language used in court was that Ramos was "adjudicated" as a youthful offender for involuntary manslaughter.

The law requires a pretrial sentencing report for youthful offenders be prepared by the state probation department before sentencing. Bennett and defense lawyer Jeffrey Brown are recommending the same sentence of 20 to 22 years.

The first part will be served as a commitment to the state Department of Youth Services, and at age 21 custody will be transferred to the state Department of Corrections.

Sentencing will be July 9 at 2 p.m. Ramos, of Springfield, also admitted to the crimes of carrying a weapon illegally and armed assault with intent to rob.

Johnson, 38, of East Hartford, Connecticut, was found with a gunshot wound to his head shortly before 5 a.m. on Sept. 7, 2014, near the corner of Overlook Drive and Island Pond Road in East Forest Park. He died two days later in Baystate Medical Center.

Four people had been charged with murder in Johnson's death. Murder charges were dropped against Radames Llanos, 16 at the time of the shooting; Doris Pessolano, 35; and Shacolby Merriman, 27. The three still face charges in relation to the attempted robbery of Johnson.

Bennett said in the early morning hours the day of the crime, Ramos was in a car driven by Merriman, with Llanos as another passenger. They went to a gas station to meet Pessolano, a drug dealer who lived next store to Ramos.

Pessolano offered to talk to a man who had just pulled into the gas station to find out what he had to steal. Pessolano and Johnson decided to go somewhere more secluded to "do drugs and party," Bennett said.

Ramos, Llanos and Merriman planned to follow Johnson and Pessolano and rob Johnson. Ramos and Llanos ran to Johnson's car.

"The defendant then pointed the gun at Demarcus Johnson and demanded that he empty his pockets. ... After change was emptied out of the victim's pockets and a watch was taken from his body, the defendant struck Mr. Johnson in the head with his gun. Immediately following that contact the gun discharged directly into the top of Mr. Johnson's head," Bennett said.

A group of Ramos' family members, including his mother, were in the courtroom.

On the other side were family members of Johnson, including his wife and mother.

Bennett read a victim impact statement from Donya Johnson, Demarcus Johnson's wife and the mother of their twin boys.

She wrote, "Ethan and Julian were just 3 years old when he passed. They loved him impossibly -- playing, talking and laughing with him. ... My heart bleeds for these sweet children.

"Understand that this tragedy is a life-changing event for us. It has rocked us to the core and will greatly affect me and my children for many many years," she wrote. "It is my hope and wish that the ones responsible for Demarcus' death will have adequate time to reflect on their deeds and eventually recognize the everlasting pain it has caused my family."
As the war in Yemen enters its fourth year, the ongoing air-strikes, the fragmentation of camps and the battle against terrorists mean peace may not be arriving any time soon

Yemen's Houthi militant group announced on Monday that Saleh Al-Sammad  head of their supreme political council  was killed on Thursday in air-strikes by the Saudi-led coalition on the coastal city Al-Hudaydah.

Al-Sammad is the highest-ranking Houthi official to be killed by the Saudi-led coalition since it started its operations in the Arab world's poorest state in March 2015. He was second only in seniority to the Houthi's overall leader Abdel Malek Al-Houthi, who is still residing in Yemen.

According to Saba News Agency, which is controlled by the Houthi rebels, Al-Sammad will be replaced by Mahdi Mohamed Hussein, another supreme council member.

AFP reported that Al-Sammad is the second name on a list of 40 Houthi figures that Saudi Arabia has announced as seeking to target, offering millions of dollars in rewards for anyone providing information.

Following the death of Al-Sammad, the Houthi's declared their intention to avenge his killing; they now seem likely to renew their battle against the Saudi-led coalition, meaning the chances of a swift end to the conflict are slim.

The chances of peace are further undermined by the ongoing programme of air-raids by the Saud-led coaltion that have caused large-scale loss of civilian life. While the Saudi's claim their air-strikes are aimed at killing Houthi leaders, the civilian casualties that result have provoked anger within Yemen.

On Sunday night, the day before the killing of Al-Sammad, an air-raid took place on a wedding in Bani Qa'is District in Hajjah Governorate.

According to local emergency services, this attack resulted in the deaths of 40 people, including women and children, with many more injured. The Houthis who control the district blamed the attack on the Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia.

The head of Al-Jumhouri Hospital in the Houthi-controlled province told Reuters by telephone that "since 10 pm the hospital had received 40 bodies, most of them shredded to pieces, and that 46 people had been injured, including 30 children, many of whom are severely injured."

According to the Houthis' Al-Masirah TV, three children had to undergo amputations.

Saba reported that the dead and wounded numbered 88 in total, reporting this news under the heading: "A New Saudi War Crime".

This is not the first time that an air-raid has hit a wedding in Yemen; on September 28, 2015, a wedding taking place in the coastal city of Mocha was bombed, resulting in the deaths of 131 civilians.

In October 2016, an air raid was conducted on a hall hosting a funeral, killing 140 people.

Fragmentation of camps

Since 2015, the Arab military coalition, led by Saudi Arabia, has been fighting Houthi forces, who have been in control of Sana'a, along with most of what was known as the Republic of North Yemen.

Riyadh and its Gulf allies accuse Iran of supporting the Zaydi Shiite Houthis. It is important to note that Zaydi Shiites account for more than half of Yemen's population.

As a result of the war, which has raged since March 2015, the country has reached the brink of famine. Most children (more than two-thirds of children, according to UNICEF) suffer from malnutrition, and thousands have already died due to food shortages.

Moreover, according to the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) 18 million Yemenis (out of a population of 23 million) are in dire need to urgent humanitarian assistance.

Any chance of a negotiated settlement that would end the suffering have receded in recent months as the two main camps on the ground found themselves fragmenting.

At the end of last year, the Houthi's alliance with the forces of late president Ali Abdel-Saleh fell apart when the Sana'a-based leader hinted at his willingness to do a deal with Saudi Arabia. He was killed in the following clashes with Houthi forces.

Earlier this year, the two main pro-Saudi camps clashed around Aden, with the Southern Movement taking control of Aden and ejecting the Al-Islah Party, which is the Yemen branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.

This fragmentation of both camps will make any potential negotiations much more difficult to arrange.

On a wider scale, the split between the Houthi's and the forces of Abdel-Saleh meant that the Houthi militias would face the Saudi-led coalition alone, without any allies from within Yemen.

As such, the Houthis alone have been launching missiles into Saudi Arabia, which said on Monday that its air defence system has intercepted another Houthi missile.

Riyadh has accused its Iranian rival of providing the Houthis with weapons, but Tehran denies such claims.

The terrorist elements

Further complicating matters is the factor of "jihadist" forces across Yemen who are fighting against all the other camps simultaneously, including both the Houthi forces and their Gulf-backed enemies in the south.

On Sunday, AFP news agency reported heavy fighting between "jihadist" militants and forces loyal to Hadi, who control the central city of Taiz, the third largest city in Yemen. The clashes errupted following the killing of an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) staff member, which Hadi's forces have blamed on the jihadists.

The clashes resulted in the deaths of five government soldiers and the wounding of 19 others, but there is no confirmed information about the jihadists' losses and casualties.

For the past three years Taiz has been going through a difficult situation, being controlled by government forces and besieged by Houthi militias. The involvement of jihadist groups further fragments and complicates the picture, increasing the chances for clashes in various locations across Yemen.

As the Yemen conflict begins its fourth year, the prospects for a solution are few, bearing in mind the ongoing airstrikes, the fragmentation of forces and the complicating factor of terrorist groups with their own agendas.

It seems Yemen is moving further away from peace, with the prospects for a wide-scale famine looming closer  described by the United Nations as worse than ever.



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WASHINGTON -- After a student gunned down 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, talk turned to training and arming teachers so they could intervene in a school shooting. Even President Donald Trump endorsed the idea, saying it could make a school "a hardened target."

But what if students were taught, too, about gun handling and safety? What if that were part of the school curriculum?

The goal wouldn't be "to create Rambo," said Jon Godfrey, of Parish, New York. Rather, it would be "to create safe life knowledge."

Armed Educators (and trusted people who work within a school) love our students and will protect them. Very smart people. Must be firearms adept & have annual training. Should get yearly bonus. Shootings will not happen again - a big & very inexpensive deterrent. Up to States.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 24, 2018

This is not an idea specifically prompted by Parkland.

Rather, it is the result of ongoing conversations that involve more than school shootings. A number of gun owners -- people who target-shoot and hunt or keep guns for protection -- say they see the need for young people who may handle guns to learn to handle them safely.

A gun is a powerful and deadly weapon, they acknowledge, but that's exactly why more training is needed. There are "millions and millions of guns in America; chances are, you will come in contact with one, one way or another, in your lifetime," said Ambar Ramos of Boston. "Therefore, I think people should know at least basic safety."

Today's topic: Should gun safety training be taught in schools?

The comments in this story are not just random. They were among those given in the course of "Guns, An American Conversation" an initiative by Advance Local newsrooms from across the country in partnership with Spaceship Media.

The monthlong project has brought together 150 engaged readers with a broad spectrum of opinions to talk about guns in an honest and civil way through a closed Facebook group

"It's not that you are promoting or demoting guns, it would just be educating on safety," said Vanessa Kooper, of Slidell, Louisiana. It would be "kind of like you teach kids about water safety."

Or, adds Ade Kelly, of East Orange, N.J., it could be "similar to how driver's ed is mandated at least in my state."

No way, said a Cleveland, Ohio teacher, Charles Ellenbogen. It's not as if teachers have time to add to the current school curriculum, he said.

"Don't expose my kids to gun culture," said Joe Vargo, of Columbus, Ohio. "It's not part of us and we're not part of it."

The conversation is still continuing, and it involves parents, students, police officers, teachers, a resolution-conflict advocate, gun-rights advocates and proponents of more gun regulation. This is not just a pro-or-con gun dialogue. It is seldom that simple.

But ideas and seeds of ideas emerge in the the project's closed, moderated Facebook group, and the use of school curriculum has come up twice in these extended conversations. Critics may scoff, but proponents say guns are so prevalent in American society, whether they're legally owned or stolen, that it might be wise to make sure students know about their safe handling.

"There are around 400,000,000 guns in the US with another 20,000,000 being added every year," said Dan Zelenka, a Louisiana attorney, firearms rights activist and participant in the gun conversation. "It is not possible to completely insulate anyone from coming into contact with them. Gun safety training, including hunter's education classes, has led to a significant decrease in the number of gun accidents in the country. It is actually at a 115 year low with 495 in 2016. Why wouldn't gun safety classes be a good idea for everyone?"

Pew Research Center polling shows that 58 percent of rural households have at least one gun, and 48 percent of suburban households say the same. The number drops to 28 percent when only urban residents are asked.

Inside the conversation

Here is a taste of how this conversation arose and played out.

It was sparked in part when Robert Davis, of Winter Haven, Florida, asked, "If 'education beats fear and ignorance,' why can't we talk about teaching kids gun safety and responsibility at schools? If a large part of the gun problem comes from kids, why don't we start there?"

Todd Bozes, of Fountain Hill, Pennsylvania, replied, "I think that is a very complicated proposition. I'm also not sure if a large part of the gun problem comes from kids."

In a subsequent email discussion, he explained what he meant. School boards would have to come up with a plan implement such training, including how it would be funded. School districts could face insurance ramifications for districts that wanted to offer this, Bozes said, and there could also be "major pushback" from parents in many areas of the country, especially if districts planned to have have real guns in the classroom. "I think it would have to be an optional course in most areas," he said.

Annie Du, of Cleveland, Ohio: "I agree. Many mass shootings are committed by adults, and they do not just occur in schools, but a variety of other public settings."

Davis: "If there wasn't a problem with kids and guns, there wouldn't be talk about raising the age to own a rifle... And how many school shootings were done by students?"

Rev. Kris Eggert, of South Euclid, Ohio: "I would not give permission for my kids to take training on guns."

Davis: "Since most propositions when it comes to guns are 'what if' situations, what if it it did help stop school shootings? Possibly other shootings as well? Would it at least be worth a look?"

Charles Ellenbogen, of Shaker Heights, Ohio: "We have enough to do (as teachers). Every time there's a societal problem, our only answer is 'Teach it at school.' I am no more going to teach gun safety than I am going to teach you how to do your taxes or change a tire."

Jon Godfrey, of Parish, NY, brought up the topic in another discussion, saying, "I feel school is an excellent venue, because it exposes the masses and doesn't need to be prolonged. It could also meet a basic requirement for those who need to have a safety standard level of training for responsible ownership. I bet the NRA would even offer instructors. Both my wife and I took our "hunter's safety course" in our schools. My wife's (great state of Wyoming) was done as part of her science class!"

John Noel Bartlett, of Oil City, Pen replied that the National Rifle Association might best be feft out of it.

"I would rather not have the NRA involved," Bartlett said. "I will be the first to say they have excellent programs, but the political baggage brought to the table would likely be bothersome to many. It is to me. Individually, whether you love guns or hate guns, it is imperative that you teach your children at a very young age what to do and NOT do if they find a gun, or one of their friends shows up with one."

Godfrey: "If we are considering parents objecting, how about parents rejecting sex education? It was deemed a public safety risk and the training is still in schools. The argument being, just because kids learn about condoms, doesn't mean they need to have sex. The same argument works here."

Joe Vargo, of Columbus, Ohio: "To be fair, way more people have sex than have guns."

Godfrey: "Do you think guns would be as large a public health issue as teen pregnancy?"

Vargo: "I think safety education is fine, unless it's about actually using or showing real guns. I'd be very against a training from the NRA, or one that glamorizes gun culture... Also, teen pregnancy is not usually fatal."

Vanessa Kooper, of Slidell, Louisiana: "You could always use dummy rounds instead of actual ammo in the classroom."

Ruth Grunberg, of Cortland, NY: "High schools have kids take care of a sack of potatoes, pretending it is their baby for a week. Safe gun storage could be included in that class."

Godfrey: "I look at this much like any other public health crisis. Teenage pregnancy and STD's were much worse until the introduction of sex education in school health classes. I remember parents not wanting that because it was their personal belief that they should be the deciding teacher of their children when and if they felt it appropriate. Public safety won and it's now taught, with limitations. Do you see a parallel?"

Jennifer Brush, of Solon Ohio, replied that she sees a difference, because while she wanted sex to someday be part of her child's life -- "just not yet" -- guns "don't have to be."
Police in Yarmouth said Nero, the K-9 partner of slain Police Sgt. Sean Gannon, is getting stronger by the day and continues to recover.

The department updated Nero's progress in a Facebook post Tuesday after receiving several inquiries about the police dog's health. In an additional Facebook on Wednesday, April 25, the Yarmouth Police Department shared photos of Nero paying the officers a visit.

Nero came to YPD today to say hello. It is very uplifting to see him during these difficult times. Posted by Yarmouth Police Dept. on Wednesday, April 25, 2018

"Nero is getting stronger by the day. He is being well cared for by K9 handlers and friends," Yarmouth police wrote. "He still is not fully recovered but his future is bright."

Gannon and Nero were shot on April 12 while police served a warrant at a Marstons Mills home in Cape Cod.

Thomas Latanowich, 29, shot Gannon in the head and Nero in the face and neck, authorities said. Latanowich, the man to whom Yarmouth Police are referring to only as 125 -- for the number of prior criminal charges he has on his Board of Probation criminal record in Massachusetts - pleaded not guilty to a murder charge in court.

Nero underwent surgery after the shooting. On the day Gannon's body was brought from Pope Piux X Catholic Church in Yarmouth to the cemetery, Nero rode to a temporary new home.

Retired Yarmouth K-9 handler Peter McClelland entered the home where Gannon and Nero were shot and stayed with the dog.

He then stayed with Nero for 144 hours straight at the local veterinary hospital.

Police said Nero will return to Gannon's family when everyone is ready. Gannon, 32, leaves behind his wife, Dara, his parents and a brother and sister.
SPRINGFIELD -- The City Council gave its approval Monday for the Police Department to hire back some retired officers for extra-duty details such as road construction jobs. The proposal now needs approval from the state.

The council vote was unanimous after Deputy Police Chief Cheryl Clapprood said there was a critical need for the officers due to a great volume of requests for the police details from utility companies and private vendors.

The department will be very selective in the retirees chosen, focusing on those with "pristine" service records, Clapprood said. She said that residency in Springfield will also be a priority in hiring, but not a requirement.

During a meeting of the council's Public Safety Committee, Clapprood said that under the act, the retired officers will be sworn in as special officers, and they will have police powers. All details are paid by the companies that ask for the officers, not the city, officials said. Officers who work details are paid $46.37 per hour under a union contract, according to the Police Department.

The jobs will initially be filled by current police officers and supervisors, and the retirees will get any remaining jobs, Clapprood said.

The officers chosen must be under age 65, and must be retired less than five years to avoid the need for full academy training, Clapprood said. The officers will receive recertification in firearms and lifesaving skills, and will carry a gun and have arrest powers, she said.

The special act now needs approval from the state Legislature and Gov. Charlie Baker, but the Police Department will launch the application process immediately as a result of council approval, Clapprood said.

There is a shortage of officers for extra details partly because of the improved economy and a high volume of construction in the city, Clapprood said. The problem is most acute in the spring and summer months, but there also has been difficulty filling police details for the Bright Nights holiday display at Forest Park, she said.

In addition, the department is struggling with high attrition, losing 142 officers to retirement in the past three years, Clapprood said. Councilor Justin Hurst, chairman of the Public Safety Committee, said he did not realize how high attrition had become.

When considering the shortage, and the volume of "sorely needed" details, Hurst said, the plan to hire retired officers who have clean records makes sense for the city and for the retirees.
The vehicle sought in connection with a young mother and her infant son has been located.

Massachusetts State Police said Tuesday that the vehicle, a grey Honda CRV, was located in Springfield. It was found at an address associated with 15-year-old Shantel Van Voorhis's family.

Shortly after, police said her 4-month-old son, Jacob Van Voorhis, was turned over to authorities at the Department of Children and Families by a member of her family. The teen has yet to be located.

Van Voorhis is described as approximately 5 feet 6 inches tall and about 180 pounds. She is biracial - Latina and white - with long curly brown hair and hazel eyes.

Police say Van Voorhis disappeared early Monday with her infant son from a residential program in Newburyport where they were residing.

She left without antibiotics prescribed to Jacob for an infection or soy formula for the child.

If located, please contact the Newburyport Police Department at 978-462-4411 or dial 911.
WESTFIELD - Police are seeking the public's help as they search for a 16-year-old male who was last seen on the morning of April 20.

John Dyer, last seen before he left his foster home, is approximately 5 feet 3 inches tall and 130 pounds. He was last seen wearing ripped jeans, a jean jacket, a gray sweatshirt and a blue shirt.

Those with information are asked to call detective Mejias at 413-562-6400 or the dispatch center at 413- 562-5411.
As local school committees struggle with impossibly tight budgets, an additional confounding factor has become the accommodation of students displaced from Puerto Rico as a result of the devastating hurricanes last year. In light of this, it was heartening to see the Baker administration announce that school districts will soon have access to increased funding to help them serve those evacuee students.

Springfield, having accepted the lion's share of student evacuees will receive the largest allocation of funds, $1.8 million out of the total $15 million that has been allocated statewide thus far. Chicopee and Holyoke will also see additional funding in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. This kind of investment will help ensure that our public schools will have the tools they need to assist students from Puerto Rico who have come to our Commonwealth in need of help, while ensuring there is no measurable loss in quality of education to the students who already reside here.

Massachusetts is taking a leadership role in assisting our fellow Americans from Puerto Rico as they seek to cope with the devastating impact of last fall's hurricanes. In announcing these funds, Governor Baker has demonstrated that he and his team are committed to ensuring the state continues its tradition of assisting our fellow Americans at a time of distress.

Ensuring that we serve these students effectively is going to take the commitment and dedication of public officials at all levels of government. It's nice to see leaders at the state level step up and do their part.

W. Kaween Fernando, Chicopee
A Muslim ban by any other name smells just as foul.

When the Supreme Court on Wednesday hears oral arguments in a case concerning the constitutionality of President Donald Trump's Muslin ban, er, make that his travel ban, justices will be considering not only the letter of the law, but also Trump's statements, his posts to Twitter, his administration's comments more generally.

At least that's what justices ought to do.

Trump has taken three swings at implementing his travel ban. The high court should let him know, in no uncertain terms, that he's struck out.

The initial travel ban was an ill-considered and badly implemented abomination rolled out just a week after the reality TV star was inaugurated as president in January 2017. It barred those from several Muslim-majority nations from traveling to the United States, caused chaos at airports across the land and around the globe, and demonstrated clearly that the new administration would be as abnormal as many had feared.

It was effectively the ban on Muslims that Trump had promised as a presidential candidate. And it was, thankfully, quickly put on hold by the courts.

Two months later, the White House took another crack, making some cosmetic adjustments to the ban in the hopes that the second try might pass muster. It, too, ran afoul of federal judges.

So Trump came back again. It's that ban, the third try, that is before the Supremes.

Historically, our nation's chief executive has been granted broad latitude in determining who can, and cannot, enter our country. As such, there are those who've suggested that our nation's highest court would be hesitant to rule against Trump's travel ban. Well, that's one way to look at it -- if one has blinders firmly affixed.

Though the Supreme Court, unlike a president or the Congress, goes about its business largely out of sight, justices are not removed from the day-to-day doings in our nation. They knew, along with everyone else, that candidate Trump had wanted to impose a ban on Muslims. And they've doubtless followed the botched efforts to do just that, noting Trump's many comments along the way.

The list of examples showing that Trump and those working for him want to ban Muslims, no matter how they try to spin it, is long. A couple suffice in telling the tale.

On Dec. 7, 2015, speaking during a press conference, the businessman candidate, referring to himself in the third person, said:

"Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on."

And here was Trump on March 15, 2017, speaking at a rally in Nashville, Tennessee, after a federal judge in Hawaii had blocked implementation of the second travel ban:

"This is a watered-down version of the first one. And let me tell you something: I think we ought to go back to the first one and go all the way, which is what I wanted to do in the first place."

Throughout, those speaking on the president's behalf have also said effectively the same thing -- that the travel ban in all its incarnations is nothing more than the Muslim ban in sheep's clothing. These include senior policy adviser Stephen Miller; since-ousted White House press secretary Sean Spicer; and on-again, off-again Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City who just recently signed onto the president's legal team.

If justices ignore all of this, and so much else, looking only at the third version of the travel ban as it was written, considering exclusively the letter of the law even as they refuse to take in the overall picture, they'll be doing a grave disservice, failing to act in accordance with their charge.

In America, we don't discriminate -- or ban people -- based on religion.

As Trump's travel ban does just that, the court should have no difficulty in finding it unconstitutional.
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, called on the Department of Labor this week to phase out a practice that allows employers to pay workers with disabilities less than the federal minimum wage -- a policy which she called "inherently discriminatory."

In a Monday letter to Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, Warren and other senators requested information on the agency's oversight and enforcement of employers who use waivers to hire workers with disabilities and pay them below the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour.

Raising concerns about past abuses of the program, the lawmakers asked Acosta how DOL is working to prevent employers from mistreating and discriminating against workers with disabilities.

They further called on the secretary to responsibly end the practice.

"These waivers are inherently discriminatory and should be phased out in a responsible way," they wrote. "While the department continues to issue these waivers, however, we are concerned by past abuses of the program and hope to better understand the extent to which the Department is able to prevent employers' mistreatment of and discrimination against workers with disabilities."

Although the senators acknowledged that a section of the Fair Labor Standards Act lets DOL issue certificates allowing employers to pay workers with disabilities -- including those "impaired by age, physical or mental deficiency" -- a "special minimum wage," they cautioned that such waivers could lead to discrimination and unjustifiably low expectations.

The lawmakers, for example, pointed to reports suggesting that sub-minimum wage workers at Goodwill Industries sites have earned as low as 22 centers per hour, while those at a "vocational school" in Rhode Island "were forced to work long hours for little or no wages."

A USA Today report on the use of the waivers in New York, meanwhile, found such workers earned just 16 cents per hour at organizations that were paying tens of thousands of dollars in bonuses to their executives, they noted.

DOL public data suggested that as of January employers held more than 1,700 waivers, which covered 150,000-plus workers eligible for the lower wage -- including several in Massachusetts -- Warren's office noted.

Contending that several advocates and experts in the disability community have raised concerns about the potential for abuse under the DOL waivers, the senators noted that the Advisory Committee on Increasing Competitive Integrated Employment for Individuals with Disabilities has recommended a "well-designed, multi-year phase-out" of the practice, which allows those with disabilities to enter competitive integrated employment.

The committee, they added, has further recommended ways in which DOL can strengthen enforcement of the waivers and ensure they are issued only when "necessary in order to prevent the curtailment of opportunities for employment."

The senators asked Acosta to provide information on the pay rates for individuals with disabilities by employers using the certificates, the annual number of applications for the waivers and the number of inspections it has conducted on employers with the waivers, among other things.

U.S. Sens. Bob Casey, D-Pennsylvania; Patty Murray, D-Washington; Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland; Maggie Hassan, D-New Hampshire; Tammy Duckworth, D-Illinois; and Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, joined Warren in sending the letter.
BOSTON -- Judge Thomas Estes is guilty of "egregious and willful misconduct" that has "seriously damaged the public's trust and administration of justice in Massachusetts," Howard Neff, an attorney representing Massachusetts' Commission on Judicial Conduct, told the Supreme Judicial Court Tuesday.

"I suggest he can never command the moral authority and respect necessary to be a judge in Massachusetts," Neff said.

The SJC heard arguments Tuesday on how Estes should be sanctioned for having an extramarital affair with a clinician in a drug court he oversaw. The affair included courthouse sexual encounters.

The state Commission on Judicial Conduct, which investigates complaints about judges, recommended that Estes be suspended without pay indefinitely while state lawmakers decide whether to remove him from the bench. Estes' attorney, David Hoose, asked that he be given a four-month suspension.

"There have been many sinners in the workplace generally," Hoose said in court. "He is not the first person to have a sexual relationship with a coworker, he's not first judge, male or female, to have a sexual relationship with a coworker... Many people got nothing more than censure and were allowed to remain on the court."

The state Commission of Judicial Conduct found that Estes, who lives in Northampton, had an extramarital affair with Tammy Cagle, a clinician in the drug court program at Pittsfield District Court, from November 2016 to July 2017. They had sexual encounters in Estes' lobby at Eastern Hampshire District Court in Belchertown. Estes used his state email address to send personal emails to Cagle.

Cagle filed a sexual harassment complaint against Estes with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, but withdrew the complaint in favor of filing a federal lawsuit. That lawsuit is pending in U.S. District Court in Springfield. The Commission on Judicial Conduct did not make a finding on whether there was sexual harassment.

Estes was nominated as a judge by former Gov. Deval Patrick in 2014. He was reassigned to administrative duties last July.

In court, Neff argued that Estes knew his conduct was wrong, but continued it anyway, and brought discredit to the administration of justice in Massachusetts.

The commission did not find evidence of favoritism to Cagle or evidence that their relationship biased Estes' judicial decisions. But Neff said judicial decision-making is nuanced.

"Who can say whether she has subtle impact on his decision-making one way or another?" Neff said. Given their sexual relationship, Neff said a reasonable person could infer that every decision about the Pittsfield Drug Court "could have been influenced by Ms. Cagle because of their ongoing undisclosed sexual relationship."

Neff argued that because Massachusetts judges are appointed for life and not subject to election, the SJC should be stricter in its discipline than if there were another way for a judge to be removed from office.

Hoose responded that Estes' relationship with Cagle did not affect his work. Hoose cited witnesses who said all the decisions made in the drug court were made by consensus, and there is no evidence Estes favored Cagle in court.

Justice Scott Kafker questioned Hoose on whether Estes can continue to work now that the allegations are public. "Now we have an appearance issue and an abuse of power issue that, even if it didn't directly impact the individual decisions, places the integrity of the process itself at issue," Kafker said.

Kafker said as the highest officers in the court, judges are "held to the highest standards."

"Whenever the person in charge of an organization is having a sexual relationship with someone who reports to them, that creates all kinds of problems," Kafker said.

Hoose said Estes does not deny that he acted improperly. "There is no question here that Judge Estes has engaged in conduct that is worthy of sanction," Hoose said. "The question is whether it's sufficient to terminate his career. I most vigorously suggest that it is not."

Hoose said the court has only suspended a judge and referred the matter to the governor and Legislature three times, and both involved more serious infractions connected to their work on the bench.

Hoose said judicial evaluations show that Estes was a good judge. "He's a superlative judge and an exemplary judge who has sinned, but not sinned so severely as it should cost him his career," Hoose said.

After court, Hoose described Estes' conduct as "a mistake thousands of people make," which he described as "engaging in a consensual relationship with a willing adult woman who was a coworker."

Both Estes and Cagle attended the hearing but declined to comment.

Cagle's attorney, Leonard Kesten, said Cagle wants Estes to be removed from the bench. "This is a story of a powerful man taking advantage of an employee," Kesten said after the court hearing.

Kesten compared Estes to movie mogul Harvey Weinsten, who was accused of sexually harassing and assaulting multiple women.

Kesten said the relationship was not consensual because of the power differential between Estes and Cagle.

"People like that have taken advantage of their positions with women forever, and that is exactly what happened here," Kesten said. "You have powerful men who are approaching women with much less power offering to help them and obtaining sexual favors and later on saying it was consensual."

Hoose called the allegations of sexual harassment "completely baseless."

The SJC can impose sanctions on Estes including a temporary suspension or reassignment.

If the SJC refers the matter to the Legislature, there are two ways for lawmakers to remove a judge. The House could pass a bill containing articles of impeachment, then the Senate would hold a trial. Alternatively, the House and Senate may both issue a "bill of address," which must be agreed on by the governor and confirmed by the Governor's Council.

Gov. Charlie Baker supports Estes' removal.

The last time a judge was removed from office by the Legislature was in 1973, according to the Associated Press.
BOSTON -- Massachusetts' highest court has upheld the state cap on charter schools.

The Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday, in a decision written by Justice Kimberly Budd, agreed with a Superior Court judge and dismissed a case brought by five public school students challenging the charter cap.

"The education clause (in the Massachusetts Constitution) provides a right for all the Commonwealth's children to receive an adequate education, not a right to attend charter schools," Budd wrote.

The five students, whose attorneys filed the brief without using their names, are assigned to low-performing schools in Boston. They all wanted to switch to charter schools but failed to get seats through the lottery that determines entry.

They challenged the state cap, which effectively limits the number of students who can attend charter schools.

The students claimed that their schools do not provide an adequate education, and the charter school cap violates the state's constitutional requirement to provide an adequate education to all students and the constitution's equal protection clause.

Charter schools in Massachusetts are controversial because, while they are public schools, they take money away from district public schools. Tuition money paid by the state follows the child from the district school to the charter school. While public schools get some reimbursement for a short time, that reimbursement has not been fully funded by the Legislature for years.

The state imposed the charter school cap to limit the amount of money districts can spend on charter school education as opposed to traditional public education. The cap also limits the total number of charter schools that can operate in the state.

Charter schools do not have the same requirements as other public schools in terms of local governance or union contracts that govern things like staffing and schedule.

A 2016 ballot question would have expanded the number of charter schools allowed in Massachusetts, but that was overwhelmingly rejected by the voters. The issue has frequently come up before the Legislature.

Budd wrote that the students failed to prove that the state is not fulfilling its constitutional duty to provide all students with an adequate education.

"Although the plaintiffs' complaint supports their claim that the education provided in their schools is, for the moment, inadequate, they have not alleged any facts to support a claim that the Commonwealth's public education plan does not provide reasonable assurance of improvements for their schools' performance over a reasonable period of time," she wrote.

Budd wrote that the court cannot establish that students have a right to attend a charter school when other means of providing them with an adequate education are available - for example, improving low-performing public schools. Budd wrote that the means of ensuring students get an adequate education is a policy decision that should be made by the Legislature.

"Whether to divert an increased amount of school district funds from traditional public schools to charter schools to comply with the education clause mandate is a choice for the Legislature, not for the courts," Budd wrote.

The court also rejected the equal protection claim.

Budd, in her decision, acknowledged that funding of traditional public schools is negatively affected by the expansion of charter schools, and wrote that the cap is an attempt to mitigate that. She also described other policy purposes of the cap - such as limiting the loss of local control and ensuring that charter schools are used as models for district schools to replicate practices that work.

Gov. Charlie Baker and Education Secretary Jim Peyser both support expanding access to charter schools. Peyser was named as a defendant in the lawsuit. A spokeswoman for the state Executive Office of Education said Peyser would not be available to comment.

The plaintiffs' attorneys, William Lee, Paul Ware and Michael Keating, said in a statement that the SJC's decision "is a disappointment for those interested in and committed to providing a meaningful education for all the children of Massachusetts."

"While we disagree with the outcome and the Court's reasoning, we are heartened that the SJC has re-affirmed the Commonwealth's commitment to providing an adequate public education to all our children," the students' attorneys said. "We hope that the legislative and executive branches will ensure that this obligation is fulfilled."

Attorney General Maura Healey called the ruling "a victory for public education and democracy."

"Massachusetts public schools are among the strongest in the country, but there is still more to be done to ensure that every child gets a high-quality education," Healey said in a statement. "Today's decision reaffirms that change must come from the people of Massachusetts, not special interest-driven litigation."

Barbara Madeloni, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, which filed a brief in the case, called the ruling an "excellent decision."

"They make it clear that charter schools in fact are detrimental to public schools, and they affirm the decision of the voters back in 2016," Madeloni said. "I think we can now put raising the charter cap to bed here in Massachusetts and work on fully funding our public schools."

Madeloni noted that charter school advocates tried to raise the cap legislatively, through the ballot and through the courts, and have failed each time. "They don't have anything to stand on," Madeloni said.

A representative of the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association, which was not part of the lawsuit, said charter schools will continue to grow under the existing law.

"We firmly believe that enrollment caps continue to arbitrarily deny families the high quality choices that charter public schools offer families and children," the association's executive director, Tim Nicolette, said in a statement. "However, there are many communities in the Commonwealth that still have room under existing caps, and we expect to continue to grow in those communities in the slow, steady way we have for the past 20 years."
The UN is intentionally providing only barebones aid in the former Islamic State group stronghold of Raqqa in Syria to avoid attracting more civilians to the still highly dangerous city, an official said Tuesday.

"We don't want to start too vigorous programmes... because we don't want to make the impression that Raqqa city is safe," said Jakob Kern, head of the World Food Programme's operations in Syria.

"Because it is not safe. Nobody should actually live there," he told journalists in Geneva.

His comments came after the UN earlier this month conducted its first humanitarian mission to Raqqa since it was liberated from IS group last October.

The city, which IS proclaimed part of its "caliphate" in 2014, remains littered with mines, said Kern, who himself visited Raqqa a few weeks ago.

He said on average two people are killed each day by stepping on mines or other unexploded devices.

"You have a city that was completely destroyed... completely mined," he said, "and yet 100,000 people are living there."

The WFP is for now providing food aid to some 50,000 people in Raqqa through local partners on the ground.

But Kern said the organisation would not be sending in its own staff for the time being.

"We decided that it is way too dangerous for us to work there," he said, stressing "we are not exposing our own staff to that type of risk."

Kern said that when he and other WFP staff entered Raqqa they had had one security officer for two staff members to keep them safe.

Kern, who only has a month left heading WFP's Syria operations, also addressed the situation elsewhere in Syria.

In Deir Ezzor, where 100,000 people were besieged by IS group for three years, he said WFP's high-altitude airdrops of food aid had helped "avert famine".

When a WFP team went in two months ago, "people were overwhelmingly saying the same thing: without that food, we would not have survived," he said.

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Deborah Long of Chicopee was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1998. But figuring out how to fight her disease was only a precursor to the fight that was to come: navigating her insurance coverage.

Her insurance plan changed twice, requiring her to switch to a new medicine because her old one was no longer covered. The second time, she went off medication for four months because of the high copays.

"I said maybe I should just give up and see what happens," Long said. "You get to a point where you're frustrated and not knowing where to turn."

Long is working with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society to advocate for a bill in the Massachusetts Legislature that would require an insurer to cover a patient's ongoing medication for multiple sclerosis, even if the patient switches insurance providers or the insurer changes its plan. The insurer could not charge a higher copay for that drug than it charges for other multiple sclerosis drugs that it covers.

"If you're on a drug that is working well for you ... you should be able to continue with that treatment regimen regardless of any change in your insurance coverage," said Michelle Dickson, senior manager of advocacy for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

The proposed legislation, S.539/H.529, is sponsored by Rep. Sean Garballey, D-Arlington, and Sen. John Keenan, D-Quincy. It is pending in the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing.

Garballey said he filed the bill after being contacted by constituents with multiple sclerosis whose medication was dropped by their insurance company. He heard of patients who went to an emergency room for treatment after the disease flared up.

"It felt to me like there was a serious loophole in coverage and safety of these individuals," Garballey said.

Health Care Financing Committee Chairman Sen. Jim Welch, D-West Springfield, said he hopes the committee will move the bill along soon with a favorable recommendation.

Welch said the problem of a patient losing drug coverage "is a glaring highlight of why we continue to need to push for more transparency in drug costs or how pharmaceuticals are paid for."

Welch said a multiple sclerosis patient can be on a drug for years, but could get a notice from their insurance carrier at any time that their drug is no longer covered. This could come when someone switches plans or during a routine annual renewal if an insurer changed the way it negotiated drug prices. "No one should be put in that situation ever," Welch said.

Long worked as an administrative assistant for MassMutual until she went on disability in 2004.

She took the medication Betaseron for years, paying $80 a month. When MassMutual switched insurance plans, Betaseron was no longer covered so she had to switch to Extavia. A year later, the insurer told her she had to switch to copaxone. The copay for that drug was $2,500 for the first month, $1,200 the second month, and $300 a month after that, Long said.

Long said she did not want to switch because the drug had to be injected more frequently and had potential side effects. She could not afford the copays.

Long went off medicine altogether for four months until she found and was approved by the Prescription Assistance Fund, a philanthropic organization that helps people pay for medication. Although copaxone ended up being a better drug for her, she still struggles with the copays. This year, the Prescription Assistance Fund did not tell her until February whether it would cover her drug again this year.

"It's just so stressful to be dealing with the illness and then having to also deal with trying to get medication to help keep you stable," Long said.

Advocates for the bill say MS is unique because patients can live with the disease for years, generally with the help of a disease-modifying drug. There are 16 drugs on the market, and different drugs work for different patients. Each has its own side effects.

Dickson said insurance companies often drop drugs, or require someone to stop a treatment and try other drugs before going back on their original drug. Insurers do offer exceptions, but it can be difficult to get one.

Patients are stuck stopping or changing medications not for medical reasons, but for insurance reasons, Dickson said. Paying out of pocket costs thousands of dollars.

"The good news is we find most plans are covering a lot of the drugs or most of the drugs, but that's not true across the board," Dickson said.

The bill would not affect insurance coverage for someone being prescribed a medication for the first time.

There are approximately 13,000 people with multiple sclerosis living in Massachusetts. The Center for Health Information and Analysis estimates that the proposal would increase commercial health insurance premiums by 4 cents per member per month.

Insurers worry that the bill would eliminate the ability of each plan to bargain with pharmaceutical companies.

Pete Wilson, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans, said each plan negotiates the cost and coverage of prescription drugs and establishes a drug formulary. "This process allows the plan to negotiate the best price for their members based on the member population and marketplace," Wilson said.

The bill "would eliminate the bargaining power of each plan to establish its own drug formulary and could contribute to increased cost of prescription drugs," Wilson said.

All insurers have an exception process where a member can apply for coverage for a drug that is not typically covered by the drug formulary, he said.
Despite previously trading barbs with Kim Jong Un, President Donald Trump praised the North Korean Leader Tuesday, saying he has been open and "very honorable" as the two prepare for an upcoming summit.

Trump, during a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, told reporters that he looks forward to sitting down with Kim and hopes their meeting will take place soon.

"We have been told directly that they would like to have the meeting as soon as possible. We think that's a great thing for the world: that's a great thing for North Korea, South Korea and Japan -- and France -- and everybody," he said. "We're having very good discussions. Kim Jong Un ... really has been very open and, I think, very honorable from everything we're seeing."

The president added that while North Korea has made "a lot of promises" over the years, the country's leaders have never been in a position like they are today.

"We have been very, very tough on maximum pressure. We have been very tough on trade. We've been very, very tough on the border. Sanctions have been the toughest we've ever imposed on any country," he said. "We think it will be a great thing for North Korea and it will be a great thing for the world, so we'll see where that all goes."

Trump, however, said if the meeting does not go well, he's willing to "leave the table."

The president's comments came one week after news broke that CIA Director and Secretary of State nominee Mike Pompeo secretly met with Kim in early April to help set up direct talks between the North Korean leader and Trump.

Officials announced in March that Trump had agreed to meet with Kim by May to negotiate an end to North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

The president, who previously referred to Kim as "rocket man," has repeatedly expressed optimism about the upcoming meeting.
Republican Helen Brady announced Tuesday that she will run against Massachusetts auditor Suzanne Bump, a Democrat, in the 2018 election.

Brady, who lives in Concord, is the sales and business director for the Boston Pops. She has worked for the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 30 years.

Brady said she is running on a platform of "transparency, neutrality and full accountability."

Brady, in a press release, criticized Bump for accepting a pay raise passed by the Legislature last year and for not doing enough on waste, fraud and abuse.

"I am stunned at the State Auditor's inability to play an active and aggressive role in rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse," Brady said in a statement. "The Auditor's refusal to stand up and fight for taxpayers is made all the more shameful by her willingness to accept a massive increase to her taxpayer-funded salary.

"As a political outsider, I'll be accountable to my constituents, not the Beacon Hill bureaucracy," Brady said.

Her slogan is "Give 'Em Helen."

Brady has previously made small donations to the Republican State Committee, Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, State Rep. and U.S. Senate candidate Geoff Diehl, R-Whitman, and State Rep. David Nangle, D-Lowell.

Brady formed a campaign committee in 2016 to run for state representative in the 14th Middlesex District. She won the Republican primary unopposed, but lost to Democrat Cory Atkins, 60 percent to 36 percent, in the general election.

She grew up in South Weymouth and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Bump was elected auditor in 2010 and re-elected in 2014. She is running for a third term.

Autumn McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for Bump's campaign, said Bump is a national leader among state auditors and her work in auditing and information technology innovation has won national awards. She has identified millions of dollars in public assistance fraud.

"Her office has identified more than $1.3 billion worth of savings, inefficiencies, misspending and fraud and has changed state agency operations in fundamental ways," McLaughlin said. "Throughout her time in office, she's grown a grassroots network of supporters, ready to spread her message of increasing accountability and improving government performance."
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An experienced and respected group of business executives from around the state have signed on to provide their expertise and knowledge as judges for EarlyStageMT http://www.EarlyStageMT.org , a statewide showcase competition designed to provide mentoring and financial support for "Seed" and "A" stage technology companies based in Montana. Two finalists from each of three regional competitions to be held in May will move on to the statewide finals in September where the winners will be eligible for up to $50,000 in investment capital and gain exposure to hundreds of investors, mentors, and prospective customers.

In between May and September, the 6 regional finalist companies will also get to participate in a free, one-week intensive "hyperaccelerator" program featuring instruction and active mentorship by a group of successful entrepreneurs.

The judging panels for each regional event are as follows:

***

Billings: (Competition date is May 3; entries close April 26)

Vu Pham  End Game Solutions

Dave Stoltenberg  Brightsun Technologies and Patent Examiner

Will Price  Next Frontier Capital

Todd Buchanan  Buchanan Capital

***

Missoula: (Competition date is May 17; entries close April 22)

Richard Harjes, Next Frontier Capital

Michael FitzGerald, Submittable

Diane Conradi, Conradi Anderson

Dawn McGee, Goodworks Ventures

Ken Fichtler, Governors Office of Economic Development

***

Bozeman: (Competition date is May 22; entries close May 1)

Les Craig, Next Frontier Capital

Kregg Aytes, Dean  Jake Jabs College of Business and Entrepreneurship

Ken May  ClearPoint Investment Partners, and Executive

Committee chairman of Frontier Angels

Susan Carstensen  Yellowstone Growth Partners

Dan Goldberger, RMS Medical Products, SDRI, Wellfleet Capital Partners

***

Entries for each of the regional events close soon, so interested companies should submit their applications at http://www.EarlyStageMT.org.
The European Union and the United Nations on Tuesday appealed for swift political talks to end the long war in Syria, saying the latest territorial gains by Damascus and its allies had not brought peace any closer.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, backed by Moscow and Tehran, is pushing a military offensive to wipe out the last few rebel enclaves near Damascus.

Efforts for a negotiated end to the war, that killed half a million people over seven years and displaced millions, are stuck.

"We're seeing in last few weeks, days ... that military gains, territorial gains and military escalation do not bring a political solution, has not brought any change. On the contrary," the UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, told a news conference in Brussels.

He spoke as governments and aid groups gathered in Brussels to pledge more than $6 billion in aid for Syria.

De Mistura's co-host and the EU's top diplomat, Federica Mogherini, said "real, meaningful political negotiations ... are clearly the only way forward."

The proxy war pits Damascus, Russia and Iran against rebels seeking to oust Assad and their backers in Turkey and the West. Islamic militants have also spread havoc in the conflict, where the UN says over 400,000 people are still trapped in sieges.

"Medieval" War

A British deputy development minister at the Brussels meeting said it was an important signal as the Syrian army continued to use sieges and bombardments to force rebels out.

"We want to make sure that medical facilities stop getting targeted, medical aid stops getting stolen, that gender-based violence is reduced, that the medieval tactics of starvation come to an end," Alistair Burt told Reuters.

The donors would offer new money for humanitarian assistance inside Syria, as well as for the Syrian refugees in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

But the United States and the EU - the world's largest donors - refuse to chip in billions of dollars that would eventually be needed to rebuild Syria for as long as Assad does not let the opposition share power.

"We see absolutely no motivation to give up one of the most significant levers that we have in the absence of even minimal movement towards a better political shaping or framework for Syria to make it more, rather than less, stable and secure," said a senior US administration official.

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A suspect was arrested on the scence; Canadian police are still unaware of the motives

Canadian police sought a motive Tuesday for a van attack on a bustling downtown Toronto street that left at least 10 pedestrians dead.

The driver of the van, who was arrested, was to appear in court Tuesday at 10am (1400 GMT), Canadian media said. Police said the incident during the busy lunch hour Monday appeared to be deliberate, but that they had not identified a terror link.

It took place in broad daylight around 16 kilometers (10 miles) from a conference center hosting a meeting of G7 ministers, but officials said they had no evidence of a link to the event.

"The actions definitely looked deliberate," Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders told journalists.

Ralph Goodale, the minister of public security, added that "on the basis of all available information at the present time, there would appear to be no national security connection to this particular incident."

"Horrible day in Toronto," he posted earlier on Twitter. "Senseless violence takes heavy toll."

Police arrested a suspect at the scene, who police identified later as 25-year-old Alek Minassian from a northern Toronto suburb.

The suspect and a police officer faced off, their guns drawn. The suspect eventually surrendered his weapon and was taken into custody.

Fifteen people remained in hospitals throughout the city, Saunders said, adding that local, provincial and federal investigators were probing the case.

Two South Koreans were among the dead, a Seoul foreign ministry official told AFP, with another of its citizens seriously injured.

At the scene, at least three bodies could be seen under orange sheets and a long stretch of road was sealed off with police incident tape.

Vehicle attacks have been carried out to deadly effect by extremists in a number of capitals and major cities, including London, Paris, New York and Nice.

Canada's Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said the G7 meeting would continue as planned into Tuesday, with officials discussing ways to secure democratic societies from foreign interference.

"The work of the ministers obviously goes on. This is a very sad day for the people of Toronto and the people of Canada," she said.

Officers were called to the scene -- on Yonge Street at the corner with Finch Avenue -- around 1:30 pm (1730 GMT), police said.

A white rental van with a dented front bumper was stopped on the sidewalk of a major intersection, surrounded by police vehicles.

"He was going really fast," witness Alex Shaker told CTV television.

"All I could see was just people one by one getting knocked out, knocked out, one by one," Shaker said. "There are so many people lying down on the streets."

Another witness, Jamie Eopni, told local Toronto television station CP24: "It was crashing into everything. It destroyed a bench. If anybody was on that street, they would have been hit on the sidewalk."

Though the act seemed "deliberate," officials did not identify a terror link.

Canada has only rarely been the scene of terror attacks.

In October, a man stabbed a police officer in the western city of Edmonton before slamming his van into a group of pedestrians, hurting four people.

And in Quebec in October 2014, a Canadian man ran over two soldiers in a parking lot with his car, killing one of them. The driver was shot dead by police when he attacked them with a knife.

In March 2016, a Canadian who claimed to have radical Islamist sympathies attacked two soldiers at a military recruitment center in Toronto.

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An Afghan official says two policemen were killed and six soldiers were captured when the Taliban attacked their checkpoints in western Badghis province.

Mohammad Naser Nazari, a member of the provincial council, says the attacks happened on Tuesday morning when the Taliban stormed several police and military checkpoints in Qadis district. He says reinforcements have arrived and the security situation is now under control.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks in Badghis but the Taliban claimed other attacks Tuesday  in western Farah and in eastern Ghazni province.

The Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, also claimed the insurgent group's fighters captured two soldiers during the battle in Farah on Tuesday.

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Three suicide bombers attacked Pakistani police and paramilitary soldiers in the southwestern city of Quetta on Tuesday, killing six police and wounding 15 members of the security forces, officials said.

One bomber detonated his explosives near a police truck, provincial police chief Moazzam Jah Ansari said. Seven police officers were wounded in that attack.

"It is a suicide attack, and we have a confirmation that six of our police officials are dead," Ansari told Reuters.

Half an hour earlier, two suicide bombers tried to attack a paramilitary checkpoint on the city's outskirts, but troops deployed there engaged them, a paramilitary officer said.

He said the troops had opened fire at the attackers, who detonated their explosives, wounding eight soldiers. Both the suicide bombers died, he said on condition of anonymity because the army was due to issue an official statement.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Quetta is the capital city of the southwestern province of Baluchistan, which has been plagued by violence.

Islamist militants linked to the Taliban, al Qaeda and Islamic State have been operating in the province, which borders Iran as well as Afghanistan. It also has an indigenous ethnic Baloch insurgency fighting the central government.

Islamic State group has created a branch in Pakistan and Afghanistan, mostly by recruiting among break away factions of other established militant groups. Its followers have claimed some of Pakistan's most deadly recent attacks.

Six members of Pakistan's tiny Christian minority community, four of them from the same family, and two people from the Shia Muslim minority were gunned down in Quetta this month.

In December two suicide bombers stormed a packed church in southwestern Pakistan, killing at least 10 people and wounding up to 56.

Pakistan a nuclear armed nation of 208 million people has for some time seen a decrease in militant violence, but the Islamists, who want to install their own harsh brand of Islamic law, remain potent.

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Egypt's Tourism Minister Rania El-Mashat said on Monday that focusing on sustainable cities, untapped locations and regulatory reforms are all part of a plan by the tourism sector to attract more tourists and investors to the country.

In an interview with Bloomberg, El-Mashat said that part of her ministrys strategy to boost tourism is to create sustainable cities, one of which has already been built near the Mediterranean coastal city of El-Alamein.

The newly built eco-city aims to develop Egypt's tourism, agricultural, residential, and industrial sectors.

Al-Ahram reported that more projects are set to be launched in Al-Galala city near Ain El-Sokhna.

"We have areas that are untapped along the Mediterranean and Red Sea coasts, we want to open these up for international bids," El-Mashat told Bloomberg on the sidelines of the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) exhibition in Dubai, which is being held from 22 to 25 April.

On Sunday, El-Mashat told Al-Ahram that Egypt is seeking investors for the development of upscale tourism projects in these untapped areas.

"We want to remove many of the structural impediments to pushing the sector forward," El-Mashat said during the Bloomberg interview.

The minister said that the tourism sector contributed 15 percent to the countrys economic growth in the last quarter, which registered an overall growth rate of 5 percent.

El-Mashat added that the tourism sector has always traditionally been a big job creator for Egyptians.

"We have a number of laws that govern the tourism sector that have not been touched since 1970, so regulatory reforms could attract investments to hotels and tourist facilities," Al-Mashat said during the interview.

Al-Mashat also said that training is an extremely important structural reform that the ministry is working on in different governorates.

During her participation in the ATM, El-Mashat met with different tour companies that specialise in market studies and reviews of tourist impressions on all booking sites and social networking platforms.

The minister called on the companies to develop plans to increase the number of tourists from the Arab market as well as find ways to ease procedures to obtain entry visas to Egypt.

El-Mashat said that bookings by tourists to Egypt look promising, and that 2018 is expected to be stronger than last year.

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Egyptian bus ride-hailing app Swvl closed an $8 million series-A financing deal with venture fund BECO Capital, Africa-based investor DiGAME and global venture capital fund Silicon Badia, according to a press release by the company issued on Monday.

Raed Ventures, Arzan VC, Oman Technology Fund, and chairman of EDventure Holdings Esther Dyson also participated in the funding round, which was the largest yet for Egypts tech startups.

With this funding, Swvl aims to solidify its position in Egypt and establish the company as a global leader in the affordable smart transportation sector, offering fixed routes at flat fares that are up to 80% cheaper than on-demand ride-hailing services, said SWVL co-founder and CEO Mostafa Eissa Kandil.

Hundreds of thousands of Swvl rides have been completed, hailed mainly by university students and corporate employees, since the company was founded in March 2017.

Swvl follows a network of 200 fixed routes in Cairo and Alexandria and charges a flat fare for all rides.

Riders schedule their trips by choosing pick-up and drop-off points, and can pay in cash or by credit through.

Swvl intends to invest EGP 300 million in the local market in the upcoming three years to empower as many micro-entrepreneurs as possible in Egypt and the region and to become one of the biggest job creators in the country, co-founders Mahmoud Nouh and Ahmed Sabbah said.

Kandil, along with Nouh and Sabbah, were featured in Forbes Middle Easts first list of Arab 30 under 30 last month.

Careem invested $500,000 in seed funding in Swvl in July 2017.
Nasrallah is set to receive the $50,000 award for his dystopian novel exploring the depths of human depravity

The Second War of the Dog by Palestinian-Jordanian author Ibrahim Nasrallah was announced in a ceremony in Abu-Dhabi on Tuesday the winner of the 11th International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF), known as the Arabic Booker 2018.

Nasrallah is set to receive a $50,000 award, and each of the six shortlisted authors will receive $10,000.

The chair of judges, Ibrahim Al-Saafin, described Nasrallahs novel as a masterful vision incorporating fantasy and science fiction techniques to portray a dystopian future in a nameless country.

With humour and insight, it exposes societys inherent tendency towards brutality, imagining a time where human and moral values have been discarded and anything is permissible, even the buying and selling of human souls.

The novel focuses on the corrupt main character, Rashid, who changes from an opponent of the overarching regime to a materialistic and unscrupulous extremist.

Professor Yasir Suleiman, chair of the board of IPAF trustees, said Ibrahim Nasrallahs novel paints a chilling picture of humanity in all its destructive potential. Without a moral compass, the protagonist lets go of the normal bounds that constrain human behaviour. Nasrallah expertly draws the reader into this world from different vantage points, using crisp language in which humour makes relating to the main character bearable, or just so. His win is an accolade well-deserved.

Nasrallah was born in 1954 to Palestinian parents who were uprooted from their land in 1948. He spent his childhood in the Al-Wehdat Refugee Camp in Amman, Jordan and began his working life as a teacher in Saudi Arabia.

After returning to Amman, he worked as a journalist and then later for the Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation. Since 2006, he has been a full-time author and has acted as a mentor to emerging writers at IPAFs annual writers workshop in 2014 and 2016.

Four of his novels and a volume of poetry have been translated into English, including Time of White Horses, which was shortlisted for the Arabic Booker in 2009 and Lanterns of the King of Galilee, long-listed in 2013.

In a 2012 review of Time of White Horses, the British current affairs magazine The New Statesman praised Nasrallahs intensely eloquent voice [that] gives Western audiences an insight into the lives of the marginalised.

After his shortlisting, Ibrahim Nasrallah said in an exclusive film for IPAF: The novel was written to provoke the reader, to worry the reader, to even, sometimes, make them breathless. The Second War of the Dog is, in my opinion, a warning of what we could become in the futureThe novel starts off at the moment of a loss of certainty, that loss of trust in those whom you interact closely with  that neighbour, brother, father, or whoever it may be. The novel suggests that if we continue on our current path, we will reach a future where we would become mostly nihilistic.

The Second War of the Dog was chosen by the IPAF judges as the best work of fiction published between July 2016 and June 2017 from a list of 124 entries from 14 countries.

Alongside chairperson Al-Saafin, who is a Jordanian academic, critic, poet, novelist and playwright, the 2018 judges were: Inam Bioud, an Algerian academic, translator, novelist and poet; Jamal Mahjoub, a Sudanese-English writer and novelist; Mahmoud Shukair, a Palestinian short story writer and novelist; and Barbara Skubic, a Slovenian writer and translator.

The five shortlisted finalists -- Amir Tag El-Sir, Aziz Mohammed, Shahad Al-Rawi, Walid Shurafa and Dima Wannous -- were also honoured at the ceremony, each receiving $10,000.

Ahead of the announcement, the shortlisted authors took part in an event at the National Theatre in Abu Dhabi hosted by the Emirates Writers Union and NYU Abu Dhabi Institute. The event was chaired by Sudanese novelist Ann El-Safi.

Ibrahim Nasrallah will participate in his first public event as winner of the prize, alongside the five shortlisted authors, on Wednesday 25 April, the opening day of the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair.

The event will run from 7-9:30pm at the Sea of Culture Foundation Stand (12B36), under the patronage of Sheikha Sheikha bint Mohammed bin Khalid Al-Nahyan.

This year's judging panel was chaired by Ibrahim Al-Saafin, a Jordanian academic, critic, poet, novelist and playwright. The panel also included: Inam Bioud, an Algerian academic, translator, novelist and poet; Jamal Mahjoub, a Sudanese-English writer and novelist; Mahmoud Shukair, a Palestinian short story writer and novelist; and Barbara Skubic, a Slovenian writer and translator.

The International Prize for Arabic Fiction supported by the Booker Prize Foundation in London and sponsored by the Department of Culture and Tourism, Abu Dhabi.

Last years winner was A Small Death by Mohammed Hasan Alwan.

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Following a meeting with Egypt's Minister of Industry and Trade Tarek Kabil to discuss the latest work on Egypt's Suez Canal region, Mamish noted that negotiations with Dubai Ports (DP) are close to reaching an agreement to further develop Egypt's Ain Sokhna port region.

Mamish said good news on an agreement is expected in the next two months.

Moreover, Minister Kabil affirmed that negotiations between the Egyptian and Russian sides on the establishment of a Russian Industrial Zone in eastern Port Said are progressing smoothly.

The deals aims to develop necessary infrastructure at the sites, including water desalination plants and high-power grid networks.

Kabil highlighted the Egyptian cabinet's approval for establishing a residential city for Russian experts and workers and their families in Al-Salam City, four kilometres from the planned industrial zone.

Mamish also announced a Russian delegation is to visit Cairo this weekend to complete the negotiations led by the Egyptian government, represented by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, with the final agreement to be inked soon.

Mamish announced in March that work on the zone would start in 2018 and that Russia would act as an industrial developer to attract companies and global investors for two years.

Egypt is working to promote the Suez Canal Economic Zone to attract international investors and boost job creation and economic growth.

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General Motors wasn't kidding when it said the Corvette ZR1 would be its "fastest, most powerful" car as Chevrolet shared video of the supercar hitting its top speed of 212 mph on Monday, April 23.

The Chevy Corvette ZR1 hit 212 mph at the Automotive Testing Papenburg proving ground track in Germany, a spokesperson with the automaker said in an email. The automaker revealed the supercar back in November 2017 in Dubai.

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The ZR1's LT5 engine comes in the form of a 6.2-liter supercharged one that makes 755 horsepower, 715 pounds of torque. Some key changes to the LT5 engine include Chevy's new "intercooled" supercharger system that is expected to offer 52 percent more displacement than the previous generation LT4.

Chevy will offer the 2019 ZR1 with a seven-speed manual transmission, and for the first-time-ever, an eight-speed paddle shift automatic transmission.

The General Motors automaker touts the Corvette as its "fastest, most powerful" production version of the car ever. This new supercar will also come with the optional high wing, which Chevy says will create an estimated 950 pounds of downforce when in use.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- The Michigan Strategic Fund has approved a $5.5 million performance based loan for "Studio Park," a $110 million mixed use project that will include a multiplex movie theater, retail space, apartments, a hotel and commercial office space.

The project, which broke ground last month on two surface parking lots in the Heartside Neighborhood south of the Van Andel Arena, is expected to create 440 full-time equivalent jobs when completed in the fall of 2019.

The loan is part of $126 million in funding approved by the Michigan Strategic Fund on Tuesday, April 24. Plastic Trim's Baldwin Township plant in Iosco County got a $1.5 million performance based grant that will create 210 jobs.

"Today's MSF actions continue to help fuel new economic activity across Michigan, strengthening our communities and creating good jobs for our residents," said Jeff Mason CEO of the Michigan Economic Development Corp., which administers programs and performs due diligence on behalf of the MSF.

In February, the Grand Rapids City Commission approved a $29 million brownfield reimbursement agreement for the $110 million Studio Park project.

Last month, construction crews vacated the parking lots next to the U.S.-131 S-curve and began work on the project. Olsen Loeks Development said initial construction work will involve laying the groundwork for a parking garage with 900-plus spaces.

The first phase of Studio Park includes construction of a nine-screen Studio C! movie theater, about 100 residential units, 32,500 square feet of retail space, about 30,000 square feet of office space, a parking garage and a public piazza. The second phase includes a $30 million apartment tower.

In January, Mount Pleasant-based hotelier Lodgeco Hospitality, announced it will open a 164-room Canopy by Hilton as part of the development.

Franklin Partners plans to build a seven-story office building, dubbed 100 Ottawa SW, as part of the Studio Park project. The building will feature a glass exterior, column-free floors, a roof-top deck and fitness center.
Photo by Sam Ozanich // instagram.com/samozanich

If you've ever stepped out to a sweeping lakeshore view at Sleeping Bear Dunes, or gazed at one of the waterfalls tumbling down Pictured Rocks' infamous walls of sandstone, you know it to be true: Michigan's national parks are an essential piece of our state's beauty, history and culture.

The National Park Service operates five national parks in Michigan -- though some are under specific designations, like national lakeshore, national battlefield and national heritage park. Collectively they attract more than 2.5 million visitors each year.

In fact, we almost might have been home to six national parks: Mackinac Island State Park was originally established as Mackinac National Park, America's second national park. The park was created in 1875, just three years after Yellowstone. (It was returned to the state 20 years later, and it's been a state park ever since.)

National Park Week is held every April to celebrate America's national park system -- but we think anytime is a good time to explore the rich heritage and resources found in Michigan's national parks.

Read on for an introduction to each park.

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1. Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore stretches more than 40 glorious miles along the edge of Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Established in 1966, it was America's first national lakeshore. (All four national lakeshores are on the Great Lakes; two are in Michigan.) The park boasts more than 100 miles of trails, seven waterfalls, beaches, sand dunes, forests and more -- but the main attraction, which lends the park its name, are the stunning sandstone cliffs that feature ribbons of color, thanks to the presence of minerals like iron, copper, limonite and manganese.

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(Cory Morse | MLive.com)

Chapel Rock at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

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(Cory Morse | MLive.com)

Grand Sable Dunes, near Grand Marais, is one of many attractions at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

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(Cory Morse | MLive.com)

A view of the North Country National Scenic Trail (which is also maintained by the National Park Service) near the Hurricane River at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

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2. Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

Of the more than 2.5 million visitors to Michigan's five national parks in 2016, 1.5 million of those were to Sleeping Bear Dunes alone: A testament to this park's transcendent beauty and broad appeal. Indeed, this 71,000-acre Lake Michigan oasis, established in 1970, is a four-season playground with something for just about anybody: camping, fishing, boating, beaches, 100-plus miles of trails, historic villages and farmsteads, scenery that ranges from dramatic sand dunes to bucolic barns, a shipwreck, and even two islands to explore.

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Lyrid meteor shower along the coast of Sleeping Bear Dunes.

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Photo by Instagram user erkthe_jerk

A historic covered bridge along Pierce Stocking Drive in Sleeping Bear Dunes.

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The Lake Michigan Overlook along Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

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3. Isle Royale National Park

Founded in 1940, this national park is actually comprised of not just the main island of Isle Royale itself, but also the 400-island archipelago that surrounds it. This wild, remote park is one of the least-visited parks in the entire National Park system, in part because it takes so long to get there: Lying out in Lake Superior some 55 miles from Copper Harbor in the Keweenaw Peninsula, the ferry ride there can take up to three hours. Once you're there, though, the rugged islands are yours to explore: Backpacking, camping, paddling, and wildlife watching are all popular ways to spend one's time here.

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Photo Credit: Travel Michigan

Isle Royale National Park in the western U.P. is one of the least-visited national parks in the country, making it more appealing to those who enjoy rugged quiet.

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A paddler maneuvers along the shoreline of Caribou Island in Isle Royale National Park.

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Photo by Jim DuFresne

A backpacker enjoys the view from the Greenstone Ridge Trail at Isle Royale National Park.

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Backpackers hike the Rock Harbor Trail on Isle Royale National Park.

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A backpacker sets up a tent in a backcountry campsite on Isle Royale National Park.

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4. River Raisin National Battlefield Park

Established in 2010, River Raisin National Battlefield Park in Monroe is Michigan's newest national park. The 81-acre park commemorates the January 1813 battles of the War of 1812 -- most notably, the Battle of Frenchtown, which was the greatest loss of the war for the Americans. These days, the park is home to walking and biking trails, historical demonstrations and exhibits, and workshops as well as other events pertaining to that period of American history.

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5. Keweenaw National Historical Park

Copper mining has occurred in Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula for more than 7,000 years -- which was the kind of rich history that people sought to preserve by establishing a national historical park in this region in 1992. Keweenaw National Historical Park encompasses 1,700 acres of land, plus 21 heritage sites. Kathleen Harter, the park's chief of interpretation and education, says there's something to do here in every single season, ranging from mine tours to museums to mountain biking. In fact, she says spring is one of the most exciting times to visit: When artifacts and the remnants of historical structures are more visible, because the wild northwoods around them have not yet filled in.

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Related stories:

Jaw-dropping places people can't believe are actually in Michigan

12 mind-blowing spots in Sleeping Bear Dunes

The 7 natural wonders of Michigan

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UPDATE: The suspect is described as a black male, 5-foot-11 to 6-foot-tall, medium build, wearing dark clothing, according to Ann Arbor police Sgt. Craig Martin.

ANN ARBOR, MI - Police are searching for a suspect wanted in connection with an armed robbery early Tuesday morning at a Buffalo Wild Wings in downtown Ann Arbor.

Police were dispatched about 2:42 a.m. Tuesday, April 24 to Buffalo Wild Wings, 205 S. State St., for a report of an armed robbery, Ann Arbor police Sgt. John Dunlap said.

A man reportedly entered the location during closing time and pulled a gun on employees before demanding unknown items, Dunlap said.

The suspect fled on foot before police arrived. Dunlap said authorities currently do not have a description of the man.

No one was injured and police are investigating. Further details were not immediately available.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Ann Arbor Police Department at 734-794-6939.

Police investigated an armed robbery at the same location on Nov. 18, 2017 after two men reportedly stole $2,000. That robbery also happened about 2 a.m.
ANN ARBOR, MI - A familiar scene played out at the Ann Arbor city clerk's office on Monday afternoon, April 23, as the grassroots push for a downtown central park continued.

For the second time in two years, members of a citizens group known as the Ann Arbor Committee for the Community Commons turned in 5,000-plus petition signatures in hopes of putting the future of the city-owned Library Lot to a vote of the people.

"We are implementing democracy in Ann Arbor," group member Odile Hugonot Haber said just before the signatures were submitted. "And we hope that we will be able, this time, to put it on the ballot."

The group has been fighting the City Council for years to put the question of the Library Lot's future -- the parking lot atop the Library Lane underground parking garage -- to voters.

If a 4,836-signature requirement is met, it could go on the ballot this November.

A majority of council has favored selling the lot along Fifth Avenue to a Chicago developer for $10 million to facilitate a new high-rise development, while the residents behind the petition effort want to see something more along the lines of a downtown central park and civic center commons created next to the downtown library.

The question the group hopes to put before voters is whether to add a section to the city charter stating all city-owned land on the Library Lot block, which includes both the Library Lot and Liberty Plaza, must be retained in public ownership in perpetuity and developed as an urban central park and civic center commons.

The City Council on multiple occasions has rejected putting the issue to voters in the form of a ballot proposal.

"I think it's time for the city to step aside and let the people's voice be heard," said David Olson, a supporter of the petition drive who was at city hall on Monday. "I mean, the people should decide this issue.

"There are literally thousands and thousands of people in town who think that this at least deserves to be brought up and let the citizens of Ann Arbor decide. And if the city keeps trying to filter out the votes and keeps trying to block it, I mean, they've got some more questions to answer. Why don't they trust the people of Ann Arbor and trust the public to decide what happens to public land?"

The city-owned Library Lot along Fifth Avenue in downtown Ann Arbor on April 23, 2018, as viewed from the Fourth and William parking garage looking east. (Ryan Stanton | The Ann Arbor News)

In June 2016, after months of work, the group submitted more than 5,700 petition signatures to the city, but hundreds of the signatures were disqualified by the city for various reasons, including circulator errors and duplicate signatures. So, the group's proposal didn't make it on the ballot via the citizen-led initiative process and the City Council hasn't been willing to vote to put it on the ballot.

After the City Council voted 8-3 in April 2017 to sell the Library Lot to developer Core Spaces -- which has proposed a 17-story high-rise including a hotel, apartments and office/retail space -- the commons group pushed forward with collecting more signatures. The outdoor plaza space shown in Core's plan isn't enough for the group, which also is concerned about high-rise development.

"Definitely people do not want anymore construction in the middle of the city," Hugonot Haber said. "They're not against, like, senior housing or low-income housing on the low level, but they want a few trees. They want a playground, water, benches ... something to be able to come and sit and schmooze a little bit. That's it."

The Library Green Conservancy, another grassroots group in support of public open space on the Library Lot, has supported the petition effort, working with the committee for the commons.

Together, they collected 6,887 signatures over the past year, said Will Hathaway, a member of the Library Green Conservancy.

He said they checked every signature against a list of registered voters and removed duplicates, with the result being about 5,000 signatures that matched the city's voter list and another 1,000-plus that did not match the list but may still be registered voters.

"If they go and update their addresses with the city clerk, that will ensure that their signature counts," Hathaway said.

With the extra efforts to verify signatures, the group is confident it has met the signature requirement.

"It was a lot of work, but it's well worth it because it's democracy in action," Hugonot Haber said.

The requirement for a citizen-led ballot initiative is equal to 5 percent of the city's registered voters at the time petitions are filed.

City Clerk Jackie Beaudry said there were 96,720 registered voters in Ann Arbor as of Monday.

That puts the requirement at 4,836 signatures, with a one-year window for gathering signatures.

The city clerk's office now must verify the signatures on the 649 petition sheets within 45 days, or by June 7.

Alan Haber, a member of the Committee for the Community Commons, said his group never gave up.

"We kept starting and never quitting," he said. By the time they got the number of signatures they needed within a one-year window, he said, it just turned out that they went from last Earth Day to this Earth Day, "and we've got our claim to the earth in the center of Ann Arbor."

Since the sale of the Library Lot hasn't been finalized in the year since the council voted on selling it and no site plan has been submitted or approved, the group is hopeful its proposal will be timely and give voters a say before the sale and development are a done deal.

Mayor Christopher Taylor and a majority of council members are in favor of a dense development on the Library Lot combined with a public plaza, and they argue a large park there isn't realistic.

Taylor has said he fears a large park without activation of the space in the way that Core Spaces proposes with its development would replicate the problems the city has with Liberty Plaza, a corner park on the same block where the city has struggled with issues such as drug activity, overdoses, fights, assaults, disorderly conduct, larceny, malicious destruction of property, open intoxicants, panhandling, noise complaints, urinating in public, littering and vagrancy.

Ann Arbor officials are still trying to figure out what to do about another property across the street known as the Y Lot, a site that's currently the subject of litigation between the city and Dennis Dahlmann, who bought the property from the city four years ago.
PITTSFIELD TOWNSHIP, MI - A 19-year-old man accused of strangling a barista at a cafe in Washtenaw County's Northfield Township will be examined for his ability to stand trial.

Zachary A. Campbell was ordered to undergo a competency review for criminal responsibility and his ability to stand trial when he appeared for a probable cause conference Tuesday, April 24 in 14A-1 District Court.

Campbell's attorney, Assistant Washtenaw County Public Defender Gina Noveskey, requested the review based on discussions with her client, she told District Court Judge Charles Pope.

Campbell is accused of strangling the 22-year-old woman about 8 p.m. April 11 at the Peaberry Bean & Beats Cafe, 152 Barker Road in Whitmore Lake.

The barista called police about 8:30 p.m. to report being strangled about 30 minutes prior, police said. She said she'd been unconscious until she made the report.

Campbell was identified and arrested within 10 minutes, police said.

Northfield Township Director of Public Safety William Wagner previously said police were still investigating a motive.

"The victim knew of the suspect from being in the cafe previously," he said in an email.

Campbell faces one count of assault with intent to murder and one count of assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder

He faces up to life in prison if convicted of assault with intent to murder and up to 10 years in prison if convicted of assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder.

Campbell is being held on an $80,000 cash bond and is scheduled to return to court on June 26 for a competency hearing.
ANN ARBOR, MI - After serving on the Ann Arbor City Council since 2012, Sumi Kailasapathy is stepping down this year.

"I have always believed that local government flourishes when new people with new ideas enter politics," the 1st Ward rep said.

A native of Sri Lanka, Kailasapathy brought her experience as a certified public accountant to council. After winning election three times, she has decided not to seek re-election.

The filing deadline for City Council candidates to compete in the Aug. 7 primary was 4 p.m. Tuesday, April 24, and a total of 13 candidates have filed to run in six different races.

In five of those races, the incumbents are seeking re-election, but Kailasapathy did not file in the 1st Ward.

Her term expires in November.

Jeff Hayner, a local business owner who has supported Kailasapathy, filed to run in the 1st Ward shortly before the deadline on Tuesday.

He'll challenge Ron Ginyard, who filed last week, in the Democratic primary for a chance to become the next 1st Ward rep.

Kailasapathy, a Democrat, said she has served 1st Ward residents for three terms and believes it's time to allow others to serve.

She said she's sure 1st Ward residents will continue to counsel, advise and prod their new council member to serve them well.

"I appreciate the advice and information that my constituents gave me while I served and hope the next Ward 1 council member works closely with his constituents," she said.

Kailasapathy pulled petitions to seek re-election on March 30 but decided not to file.

Hayner said after filing on Tuesday he was unaware that Kailasapathy decided not to run.

He said he's running because the timing feels right and there are issues he thinks aren't being discussed enough.

Hayner said he wants the city to take an honest look at what residents are getting in terms of services compared to what they're paying. He said he would be a strong advocate for neighborhoods.

Clean water, sustainability and environmental issues such as the Gelman dioxane plume also are on his agenda, Hayner said, indicating he also wants to see the city leverage technology to better communicate with residents.

Hayner is the owner of Saturate Studios LLC, a design/fabrication shop, and The Gum Giant, which does gum and graffiti removal.

Ginyard is a retired wealth advisor for Morgan Stanley. Born and raised in Ann Arbor, he said he spent 39 years in Los Angeles before moving back to Ann Arbor toward the end of 2014.

He said he's been thinking about getting into city politics for a couple years and hopes he can be an independent voice on council, bridging the divide between what he sees as a divided council.

"I want to be a problem solver," he said, indicating he would seek consensus from 1st Ward residents on issues.

Ginyard said some of the issues on his mind include how to hold down taxation without cutting city services, traffic issues, pedestrian and bicycle safety, and repairing city streets.

"We've been living with bad road conditions for a number of years," he said.

He said he was almost killed in a bicycle accident last year so safety on the streets is huge for him, and he also wants to help Ann Arbor find solutions in terms of where to add more housing density.

Hayner has run for office multiple times. In 2013, he challenged Council Member Sabra Briere, running as an independent. He also sought to replace Briere in 2016 after she vacated her seat, though the council opted instead to appoint Jason Frenzel.



Hayner also ran as a write-in candidate for the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners in 2016, losing to Conan Smith.

The winners of this year's council races will be elected to serve four-year terms, as city voters have approved doubling terms.
HARRISON, MI -- A 31-year-old man has been charged with holding up a Farwell pizza parlor.

About 11 p.m. on Saturday, April 21, Clare County Sheriff's deputies were dispatched to the area of Superior and Main streets in Farwell for a reported armed robbery. Upon arrival, deputies met with an employee of Buccilli's Pizza, 203 E. Main St., who had been held-up at gunpoint by a man wearing a black ski mask.

The employee handed over the restaurant's nightly deposits of $1,431.17 and the robber fled on foot.

Deputies used a K-9 Unit to track a man who was hiding in some bushes behind Farwell Elementary School, located 0.3 miles from the pizzeria at 268 Ohio St. Deputies arrested the man, identified as Adam Lee Pitt, and found the stolen money and a firearm on him.

Pitt on Monday, April 23, was arraigned by Clare County District Magistrate Steven Worpell on single counts of armed robbery, felony firearm, and assaulting, resisting, or obstructing police. The robbery count is a life offense, while the latter two charges are two-year felonies. Felony firearm's term must be served consecutively to any other prison stint.

Worpell set Pitt's bond at $800,000 cash-surety and he remains lodged in the Clare County Jail as of Tuesday morning.
OAKLAND COUNTY, MI - A message on a digital billboard in Oakland County calling for a ban on pit bulls was taken down hours after it was put up following complaints from a nonprofit education group that backs the breed.

A message reading "BAN PIT BULLS" went up Friday, April 20, on a billboard located at Interstate 75 and the Grange Hall Road exit in the Holly area.

William Guzman, the man behind the message, said it was supposed to stay up for two days -- April 20-21 -- but it came down before day's end on Friday after pressure from animal advocates.

He put up the message in response to the state Senate approving a package of bills in March, including Senate Bill 741 that would prohibit local governments from enacting or enforcing any laws banning a specific breed.

"I think that the risk posed by pit bulls far outweighs the benefits," Guzman said, arguing the breed was "genetically engineered" to fight.

Guzman cited the risk of pit bull attacks as the "impetus" for a campaign he's leading, which includes the billboard and literature, to combat what he believes are media efforts to show a softer side of the animal.

He claimed the billboard message come down following an effort by Terry Hodskins, president and founder of the nonprofit Michigan Pit Bull Education Project.

Terry Hodskins

Hodskins confirmed she and others contacted the sign company to get the message taken off the billboard as soon as they were notified it'd gone up.

Unlike Guzman, she believes the media villainizes the dog breed.

She argued the media only mentions the breed of dog when a pit bull is involved in an incident and that other dog breeds often get mistaken for pit bulls.

"It's discrimination at its worst, at that point," said Hodskins, who sold an insurance company more than a decade ago to begin rescuing pit bulls and start the nonprofit education project that, in part, helps owners keep their dogs when faced with issues involving landlords, insurance or breed restrictions.

The breed-specific bill sponsored by state Sen. Dave Robertson, R-Grand Blanc, originally came up in 2014 after members of the Make Michigan Next coalition held a rally at the state Capitol and received a call from the senator to discuss his support. The bill died after not being called for a vote.

Some communities, such as Waterford Township in Oakland County and Tawas City in Iosco County have enacted bans on pit bulls, with several others labeling the breed "dangerous" or "vicious" and requiring an enclosed area or mandatory spaying or neutering for anyone who owns the breed.

Guzman said he would continue his opposition to the breed and was unfazed at threats posted on social media over the message.

"I've received a ton of threats, calls for violence," he said, sharing screengrabs of some of the comments left on social media. "There are even people that said they want to burn the billboard down."

The bill has been referred to the House committee on local government.
FLINT, MI -- The Hurley Medical Center doctor who helped expose rising blood lead levels in Flint children has been subpoenaed to testify in court as part of the Flint water crisis hearings.

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha confirmed to MLive-The Flint Journal that she was subpoenaed by defense attorneys to testify in the Eden Wells hearing on Tuesday, April 24, in Genesee District Court.

Wells is the state's chief medical executive and faces charges of obstruction of justice and lying to a peace officer for her role in the water crisis.

Special prosecutor Todd Flood has said he plans to ask Genesee District Judge William Crawford to bind Wells, a member of the governor's cabinet, over to Genesee Circuit Court on those and an additional charge of involuntary manslaughter.

Neither Wells nor other officials with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services announced Legionnaires' outbreaks in the county until they appeared with Snyder at a news conference in January 2016 -- just days before the federal government recognized Flint's contaminated water as a public health emergency.
FLINT, MI -- Two suspicious bags found outside the Flint federal courthouse contained garbage, papers and clothes.

Investigators were dispatched to the Federal Court Building in Flint on Tuesday, April 24, after two black duffel bags were discovered outside the building's Third Street entrance, according to Court Spokesman David Ashenfelter.

The bags were found when agents drove by the building, he said.

Flint police's K-9 and bomb technicians responded at 8:30 a.m. to the 600 Church St. facility to assist Homeland Security, according to a statement from Flint police.

There was garbage, paper, Styrofoam cups and some clothes inside the bags, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.

The Federal Protection Service took the two bags, Ashenfelter said.

Ashenfelter said there were no disruptions to activities inside the courthouse.
OTTAWA COUNTY, MI -- The man police say shot two people in Muskegon, one fatally, died from a single gunshot fired by police as he held a gun to his wife's head.

Holland police on Tuesday, April 24 said an autopsy showed that Matthew Hartman, 27, died from the single wound.

Police said a Holland Department of Public Safety officer was assisting Ottawa County sheriff's deputies Sunday at the scene of a West Olive Estates mobile home -- where Hartman was holding his wife at gunpoint -- and the officer "fired at the suspect, the suspect went down, and the hostage was rescued and taken to safety by Sheriff deputies."

The officer is on paid administrative leave, per routine protocol, pending an investigation into the police shooting.

Hartman is believed to have fatally shot Jordan Carey, 29, and wounded Mariah Cantu, 25, at a home in the 300 block of Merrill Avenue in Muskegon on Sunday morning.

Later, police responded to the mobile home park because Hartman's wife, Mary, was texting police that she needed help.

Police said Hartman came out of a residence on Brickersville Drive and was holding a gun to his wife's head.

State police, Muskegon Police Department and the Ottawa County Sheriff's Department all are investigating different parts of the incident.
PIERSON, MI -- The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality is holding a public meeting after recent testing discovered fluorochemicals in the groundwater near a landfill where Wolverine World Wide disposed of toxic tannery waste for years.

The DEQ is holding the 6 p.m. meeting on Thursday, April 26 at the Pierson Village Hall to "share our plan to investigate possible offsite contamination," according to a meeting flier.

According to the flier, monitoring wells around the Central Sanitary Landfill show per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance, or PFAS, in the groundwater at concentrations above the Environmental Protection Agency health advisory level of 70 parts-per-trillion.

Exposure to PFAS has been linked in human studies to some cancers, thyroid disorders, elevated cholesterol and other diseases.

DEQ geological data shows numerous private drinking water wells within a mile radius around the landfill, including clusters in the village of Pierson and along the shores of nearby Whitefish and Bass lakes.

Pierson is a small Montcalm County village north of Grand Rapids.

The DEQ meeting flier includes a "phase 1" testing area around the landfill, bounded by Bass Lake Road, Pierson Road, Cannonsville Road and Federal Road. Although not within the testing area, the meeting flier encourages Whitefish Lake residents to attend.

Michigan Department of Environmental Quality map showing the location of PFAS contamination testing at the Central Sanitary Landfill in Pierson Township, as well as a preliminary water well testing boundary and general direction of groundwater flow.

The DEQ has not widely-announced the meeting.

Public notice is not posted on the Michigan PFAS Action Response Team (MPART) website through which the state is funneling all public information related to the widening state probe into PFAS contamination in groundwater, drinking water supplies, lakes and rivers, wastewater effluent and industrial emissions.

The DEQ did not return several calls or emails on Tuesday. Russ Knocke, spokesperson for landfill owner Republic Services, also did not return messages for comment.

The Michigan Department of Health & Human Services deferred to MDEQ spokesperson Melanie Brown for information on the meeting.

According to local officials, the DEQ held a meeting with local government representatives in Stanton last week. Kathy Hyrns, Pierson Township treasurer, attended the meeting but declined to elaborate on what information the state shared.

The DEQ recently conducted similar "pre-sampling" meetings related to PFAS testing at Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Mount Clemens and the Battle Creek W.K. Kellogg Airport -- two Michigan National Guard sites where PFAS-laden firefighting foam was used.

The Pierson landfill isn't included on the Michigan PFAS problem site list despite the facility having taken-in PFAS-laden tannery waste from Wolverine World Wide for decades.

According to documents and former employees, Wolverine began sending sludge from the former Rockford tannery to the Central Sanitary Landfill in the early 1980s. Wolverine began using PFAS-laden 3M Scotchgard to treat shoe leather at the tannery in 1958.

The landfill is rubber lined, has a leachate collection system and is certified to accept industrial waste. Nonetheless, Republic Services stopped taking Wolverine dump site excavation waste last fall at Pierson and the Ottawa Farms landfill in Coopersville.

The Pierson landfill has had groundwater problems in the past.

The 36-acre sanitary landfill once accepted hazardous waste from Hooker Chemical in Muskegon County. Previous groundwater contamination prompted litigation.

DEQ records show the landfill sent contaminated leachate to Rockford to wash through Wolverine's former tannery wastewater treatment plant, which sent industrial effluent to the Grand Rapids wastewater plant prior to construction of the North Kent Sewer Authority plant.

Through a spokesperson, Wolverine said it has not been in contact with Republic Services related to the PFAS testing in Pierson.

"This landfill... has had multiple users and parties over the years that could have contributed to the potential presence of PFOA and PFOS," the company said.

"Wolverine Worldwide is not involved in testing at this location, was not invited to participate in this public meeting, and therefore has little information about this meeting beyond the public notice."

The Pierson Village Hall meeting is at 190 Grand Street.
WYOMING, MI - Criminal charges will not be filed against Wyoming police officers involved in a fatal cemetery shooting.

That's based on the determination of Kent County's prosecutor, who issued an official legal opinion Monday, April 23.

Christopher Becker, Kent County prosecuting attorney, wrote that the officers involved, Officer Dwayn Holmberg, Officer Lee Atkinson and Sgt. Ross Eagan, had a reasonable fear that Joel Peloquin, 52, may have fired at them or the bystanders, and they had to make a split-second decision.

"We now know that the movement Mr. Peloquin made was to put the gun to his head to take his own life," Becker wrote in the opinion letter. "The officers do not have the luxury to wait and see exactly what he is going to do with that gun as he turns to face them."

The shooting happened about 5:40 p.m. Friday, March 30, at Resurrection Cemetery along Clyde Park Avenue SW north of 44th Street.

Police said Wyoming officers responded to the cemetery, 4100 Clyde Park Ave. SW, on a report of a suicidal man.

When the Wyoming officers contacted Peloquin, he brandished a firearm and two officers fired and shot him three times, police said.

He then brought the gun to his head and fired the fatal shot, according to police.

Police said the incident was seen by three independent witnesses at the cemetery. Peloquin was transported to the hospital where he later died from his injuries.

The manner of death was listed as suicide by the medical examiner's officer, according to police. The Kent County Sheriff's Office investigated the officer-involved shooting.

One of the witnesses to the shooting, Chuck Morgan, 81, told Mlive in a previous interview that he tried talking Peloquin out of ending his own life for 45 minutes.

While Morgan and Peloquin were talking, Morgan's brother's granddaughter texted her mother to call the police and explain the situation. When he saw the officers arrive, Morgan said he hoped they would sneak up and tackle the man.

But when Peloquin saw the officers, he slipped away from Morgan, pulled a handgun from his jacket, put it to his head, and shot himself, Morgan said.

He said the man never aimed the gun at police nor did he say anything to the officers. He wasn't sure why police fired at Peloquin, though he believed they fired their guns after the man shot himself.

Morgan said he heard six shots fired, followed by officers instructing him to get away from Peloquin.

One witness in the opinion letter reported not seeing what happened after Peloquin got away from Morgan's attempt to tackle him, while the other stated she did not know if shots came from Peloquin or police.

Of the shots the officers fired, only three struck Peloquin and none would have been fatal, according to medical examiners.

The fatal shot was the shot to the head, which medical examiners report was a "contact" wound, meaning the gun was in contact with the head when the shot was fired.

The most serious officer shot struck Peloquin in the right chest and penetrated the lung.

"This was the most serious injury, yet survivable according to the medical examiner," the opinion letter states.

Another shot struck him in the right thigh, according to the report, and both shots were from the front of the body to the back.

The third shot was to the upper arm and shoulder of Peloquin, which was slightly back to front. The medical examiner explained in the report this would be consistent with the arm of Peloquin bent at the elbow, consistent with someone who would be pointing a gun at his head.

Toxicology showed Peloquin had a blood alcohol level of a .16 the night of his death and no other drugs were detected in his system, according to the letter.

Detectives also discovered a possible motive for his actions, according to Becker's letter.

The Allegan County Sheriff's Department had been at Peloquin's home two days earlier and had seized his computer equipment. He was under investigation for child sexually abusive material, according to Becker's letter.

In their reports, all three of the Wyoming police officers state they were fearful for the wellbeing of the other people on the scene as well as their own.

In Michigan law, the killing of another person in self-defense by one who is free from fault is justifiable homicide if, under all the circumstances, he honestly and reasonably believes that he is in imminent danger of death or great bodily harm and that it is necessary for him to exercise deadly force.

"The officers were justified in taking the action they did that day," Becker wrote. "They had an honest and reasonable belief at that moment Mr. Peloquin was going to shoot at them as he turned suddenly to face them."
STANWOOD, MI -- About 40 protesters, some referencing the Flint water crisis, were asked to leave after showing up at a water bottling facility that was recently approved to pump more water from a well in the ground, police say.

At 4:18 p.m. Monday, April 23, the Mecosta County Sheriff's Office was dispatched to Nestle's Ice Mountain water bottling plant in Stanwood for a report of protesters attempting to gain entry to the plant.

Deputies arrived on scene and saw protesters exiting the lobby entrance, the Mecosta County Sheriff's Office said in a news release.

The protesters were cooperative and told police they were there to speak with plant personnel about a permit to pump more water, and also about the Flint water crisis.

Deputies spoke with plant personnel and were told no protesters made it past the lobby. No property was damaged and no assaultive behavior was reported.

After speaking with both side of the issue, the protesters agreed to leave the property and did so without incident, police said.

Ferris State University Police, Michigan State Police, and Michigan DNR Law Division assisted the sheriff's office.

The DEQ announced a permit issuance Monday, April 2, that will allow Nestle to increase the water withdrawal rate at White Pine Springs well No. 101 from 250 to 400 gallons-per-minute.

The well and Ice Mountain Plant are located in Osceola County, northwest of Evart. It is about 125 miles to drive from Stanwood to Flint.
LANSING, MI -- James Fejedelem, 60, died while on the job at a tow-truck company.

The workplace fatality occurred when a bus he was trying to tow rolled on him.

That was six months ago.

Joshua Fejedelem, James' son, says he still doesn't know specific details of how his dad died. The last contact he and his younger brother had with their father's longtime employer was at his funeral.

"We're his kids. We would actually like to look at somebody, and tell us, 'Hey, this is what happened. This is why your dad died.' We haven't even got that. He died in October. To me, that is kind of ridiculous," Joshua Fejedelem said.

Copies of the full investigative reports into workplace deaths are not readily available for family members of those killed. Families tell MLive/The Grand Rapids Press that it can be difficult to find out what happened in these tragic incidents.

Despite calls, Fejedelem said he hasn't received a report from Michigan workplace safety investigators or Michigan Workers' Compensation, where he filed a claim. Online Occupational Safety and Health Administration records show the investigation is in the settlement phase. Another family whose loved one died on the job said it's resorted to filing a Freedom of Information Act request in hopes of getting answers to certain questions.

The families' unanswered questions are part of a lack of transparency from the governmental agency charged with investigating workplace deaths and overseeing safety checks on employers. Workplace death information is becoming more difficult to access for families, journalists, attorneys and the general public.

Bart Pickelman, MIOSHA director, said families of workers who die on the job should receive the same report sent to employers, summing up what, if any, penalties were issued and why. A letter informing them of that right is sent to the person listed as the worker's next of kin, which is provided by the employer to MIOSHA during the investigation.

If family members want more details, they have to file a Freedom of Information Act request asking for the case file just like a reporter or attorney might. The state charges a per-page fee and the cost of the state employee's time in preparing the file.

Basic information about the investigations, including those safety rules violated, isn't available on the OSHA database for the public to look up. Pickelman said the information is uploaded to the database by his Michigan staff, but the national agency decides what can be viewed by the public.

Pickelman insisted Michigan is ahead of most states when it comes to transparency. MIOSHA immediately puts information about workplace deaths on its website and alerts the media with emails.

The emails lack the victims' and the employers' names. Sometimes information like age and a description of what happened aren't accurate, according to a review of MIOSHA documents by MLive. The information is usually supplied by the employer, which can range from the foreman on the job to a human resource employee in another state, Pickelman said.

Sometimes, MIOSHA first learns of a workplace death not from the employer but a family, police or even a news report. The agency is required to begin an investigation within 24 hours of notification. Businesses are required to report workplace deaths within eight hours.

"We make sure it is spelled out on emails and the website that what we are reporting is what we heard from the employer," Pickelman said. "It's the initial reports. It's not the result of the investigations."

'Callous' response

Joshua Fejedelem said his dad began working for George's Towing Company in the Flint area 37 years ago, a year before Joshua Fejedelem was born.

James Fejedelem, who celebrated his 60th birthday a week before he died Oct. 23, was thinking about taking an early retirement at the end of the year, his oldest son said.

The former Marine, who drove a semi-style tow truck, spent most of his career working or on call. He traded his vacation time for bonus checks. That schedule meant James Fejedelem wasn't available to spend much time with his only grandson, Joshua Fejedelem's 4-year-old son.

Workers' compensation paid out little for James Fejedelem, who was divorced with two grown sons. It was only required to contribute $6,000 toward funeral costs.

Fejedelem's sons paid for some of the other funeral expenses. He received a free military burial at Great Lakes National Cemetery in Holly.

For Joshua Fejedelem, the response by his longtime employer and investigators to his dad's death seems callous and dismissive.

"His employer gets off of everything because he wasn't injured on the job, he was killed. So that falls back on workers comp," said Joshua Fejedelem, who lives in Macomb County's Chesterfield Township. "I haven't gotten any calls from his employer asking, how anybody is doing? Can we help out? Nothing. It's just like how can we sweep this underneath the rug."

Dan McNamara, owner of George's Towing Company, said he reached out to Fejedelem's sons at his funeral, but didn't hear back. He said the company offered to pay for whatever insurance or workers' compensation didn't pick up.

The loss of the longtime employee has been devastating professionally and personally, McNamara said.

"There were only two guys, myself and him," McNamara said. "You didn't have to mention anything to him because he was always thinking of something. He was heck of a man. You don't find them like that anymore."

A MIOSHA investigation concluded that Fejedelem failed to engage the parking brake on the bus he was setting up to tow. He also didn't use two rubber wheel chocks as a secondary support system to putting wood blocks under each tire.

The state agency issued one serious violation, with a $7,000 penalty, against the company for failing to a have written procedures for towing vehicles, according to a violation worksheet obtained by MLive through the Freedom of Information Act.

Transparency issue

Transparency is becoming a battleground issue at OSHA. Under President Trump, the Department of Labor agency has rolled back some of the changes made under the Obama Administration.

OSHA is publishing fewer reports about workplace deaths. The agency also removed last year a scrolling list of names of people killed on the job.

The changes were described by the Department of Labor as more fair to employers and providing a measure of respect for the victims' families and their privacy.

The previous listings included fatal incidents that were outside federal OSHA jurisdiction, not work-related, or the employer was not cited for a violation related to the incident, according to the department.

"We are continuing to review all of the data to ensure it is accurate and useful to our stakeholders. Previous entries remain available in the original format on OSHA's data and statistics page," a department spokesperson said in an email.

People should know the extent of the workplace death and injuries in this country, said Jordan Barab, former deputy assistant secretary of OSHA under President Obama who now writes about workplace safety issues in a blog, Confined Space.

With about 2,000 inspectors and 8 million workplaces, OSHA only has enough staff to inspect a tiny portion of job sites. Transparency puts pressure on companies and industries to improve workplaces' safety conditions, he said.

"We were accused of shaming employers," Barab said. "We've had a lot of attorneys tell us that their clients tell them that they don't really care much about the small OSHA fines. What they really don't want is to end up in an OSHA press release."

Six months after Jason Perez died, his family still doesn't know the details of his workplace death.

"From the beginning, we were in constant contact and (MIOSHA) told us once the citations were issued, they would contact us," Christina Perez said of her brother, who was the second youngest of four siblings.

Perez, 35, died Oct. 8, 2017, from burns from an explosion that happened while he was purging a gas line for an air handling unit. MIOSHA cited the union pipefitter's employer, Pontiac-based FM Sylvan, with two serious violations and a total fine of $14,000. The financial penalty was reduced to $7,000, according to an online OSHA report.

A MIOSHA investigation concluded there wasn't proper ventilation in the mechanical rooms where the employees were working with gas lines, according to a violation worksheet obtained by MLive through the Freedom of Information Act.

MIOSHA still hasn't provided this information to his parents and siblings. The family is now requesting a full report of the investigation under the Freedom of Information Act.

They'll have to pay for the report that will cost around $50 to compensate the state for employee costs of preparing the document to be shared publicly. The version they will receive will likely have redacted portions, including the names of witnesses.

His family obtained a report from the fire marshal, which also investigated what caused the explosion that killed Jason Perez. The report cost about $35.

Perez grew up in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. He left the West Coast for the Midwest to find work.

"He fell in love with Detroit. He planned to stay out in Michigan," Christina Perez said of her brother.

MLive's FOIA request for citation worksheets from each of the 38 workplace deaths in 2017 took nearly two months.

Not a 'freak accident'

If Bianca Davis hadn't been able to see the MIOSHA investigator's report, she wouldn't have realized her father's death was, in her opinion, preventable.

"For a long time, I thought it was freak accident," said Bianca Davis, who is working with an attorney to sue Chieftain Contract Services.

Glenn Davis, 61, died Feb. 1, 2017 after he was struck by material from an exploding tire.

Davis was assisting truck mechanics in the repair of a leaking tire when the sidewall of the tire ruptured. Standing three feet from the tire, Davis was thrown about six feet, causing him to hit his head on the floor. The Davison man died from a head injury.

MIOSHA issued one serious violation with a $6,300 penalty against Chieftain Contract Services.

A MIOSHA investigation found that Davis did not have the training to be working in automotive/tire service operations. As a result, Chieftan no longer allows drivers to enter the service area, according to a violation worksheet obtained by MLive through the Freedom of Information Act.

"I realized it was preventable and they chose not to prevent it," Bianca Davis said.

Chieftain, and its parent company of E.L. Hollingsworth and Co., a Flint-based freight hauler dating back to 1924, didn't have any previous MIOSHA violations, according to the OSHA database.

Eric Ruth, the company's general counsel, declined to comment, citing litigation.

Investigation lacked depth

MIOSHA's investigation into the cause of Lee Sommers' death left many unanswered questions, according to Lansing-based attorney Neal Wilensky.

He said a lawsuit is the family's best hope to get those questions answered.

Lee Sommers, 58, died March 7, 2017, when he was struck by a piece of a door. The maintenance worker at Hi-Tech Steel Treating Inc. in Saginaw was working with employees on a furnace used to heat automotive parts. They had removed the vacuum line used to purge the furnace and connected air to the door to check for leaks when a section of the door broke away and struck Sommers.

MIOSHA issued one serious violation with a $3,500 penalty to Hi-Tech Steel Treating, according to an online report.

"Part of the problem in this matter is the MIOSHA investigation wasn't in-depth," Wilensky said.

He is counting on the discovery process that is part of a court case to draw out information the company has declined to provide so far.

MIOSHA investigations aren't intended to determine root cause, Pickelman said.

"We don't get into all the extenuating circumstances and really dive deep into what caused the accident," Pickelman said. "We focus on what were the circumstances around the fatality and how that intersects with compliance of our rules. It's a fine line to try to determine root cause."

Workplace lawsuits are rare in Michigan because the Workers Compensation Disability Act prevents negligence claims against employers and coworkers across the country, in exchange for providing benefits to workers or their families in the case of injury or death.

However, in other states, employers can be sued for "recklessness" causing death or injury. In Michigan, Wilensky said, it must be proven there was intention to harm a worker.

"Michigan law allows suits in cases where there is intentional tort, but it's a high burden," Wilensky said.

In Sommers' case, the attorney alleges the furnace Sommers was working on had previous issues. The cap that blew, causing his death, had been replaced nine months earlier, according to Wilensky.

Hi-Tech Steel Treating didn't return a call from MLive seeking comment.

Sommers' daughter, Shawn Sommers, made the rounds of law offices before he found an attorney willing to take the case.

Wilensky said the response to workplace deaths and injuries will improve if laws change.

"If their loved one gets hurt in the workplace, we have workers comp. But in workplace deaths if there are no children or surviving dependent spouse, all the company's insurance has to do is pay the funeral bills. It's the law that is bad. Nobody brings that harsh light on the law and the big businesses that write the law," Wilensky said.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI - While Quinn James, suspected of killing an East Kentwood High student, reclined in his chair at the defense table, his co-defendant, Gerald Bennett, declared that the two shouldn't be tried together.

Both were in court Tuesday, April 24, for a probable-cause conference on multiple charges in the January killing of Mujey Dumbuya, 16, who was strangled before her body was dumped in Kalamazoo.

Bennett objected to a delay in his preliminary examination - to determine if he should stand trial - to June 8, rather than next week.

"The majority of the evidence has got nothing to do with me, it's got something to do with somebody else," Bennett told Grand Rapids District Judge Jennifer Faber.

Bennett, originally arrested for perjury before a murder charge was filed, added: "You're using one issue to hold for another. The perjury ... ."

The judge stopped Bennett. She said she didn't charge him with any crime. She reminded him of his right to remain silent and told him that the court recorder and media were documenting his statements.

She said he should listen to attorney Charles Clapp's advice.

"You have one of our town's most stellar and outstanding attorneys appointed to represent you," Faber told Bennett.

Clapp, and James' attorney, Jonathan Schildgen, and Assistant Kent County Prosecutor Kellee Koncki, agreed to hold the hearing in June.

Defense attorneys have to review tens of thousands of documents.

James did not object to the delay. He spent most of the hearing leaning back in his chair. He appeared relaxed.

Through his attorney, who has called the prosecution's case "speculation," James has denied killing the girl.

Mujey Dumbuya

He is accused of kidnapping her, killing her and leaving her body in the woods in 800 block of North Prairie Avenue, on Kalamazoo's north side. He was awaiting trial for allegedly raping her and still faces sex-assault charges.

The girl was reported missing Jan. 24 after she did not show up at the bus stop for school. Four days later, her body was found.

James, 42, of Wyoming, and Bennett, 58, of Detroit, were charged April 11 after a lengthy investigation by Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo police. Police say an acquaintance put the two together.

James is charged with first-degree premeditated murder, felony murder, with kidnapping the underlying offense, and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. Bennett is charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.

Records showed that Dumbuya died of "asphyxia, including strangulation."

Witnesses said James was looking for someone to kill Dumbuya and dispose of her body. The suspects were captured on surveillance video in Grand Rapids the day before Dumbuya was killed, police say.

The alleged sex assaults happened last year. Dumbuya's boyfriend, Daquarius Daymont Bibbs, 17, is a key witness. He was living with James, who was engaged to Bibbs' aunt, Tiara Burnett. Bibbs testified that James sexually assaulted Dumbuya in his presence.
WYOMING, MI - The Wyoming Board of Education announced Tuesday, April 24, Craig Hoekstra will be the school district's next superintendent.

Hoekstra, the district's assistant superintendent for instructional services since 2015, will take the reins July 1.

He replaces the retiring Thomas Reeder, who was at the helm for seven years and also an internal appointment.

"I appreciate the Board of Education's confidence in me and for Dr. Reeder's strong leadership which has resulted in many accomplishments and a solid foundation to position the district for future success," said Hoekstra, in statement.

The school board voted unanimously to enter into contract negotiations with Hoekstra on Monday, April 23. He was interviewed April 18, in a special session before parents, staff and community members.

"Craig's dedication, drive and passion for our community will provide great leadership for many years to come,'' Craig Popma, school board president.

"I am excited to begin this new chapter, working closely with Craig and driving Wyoming to our next positive chapter.''

Hoekstra has spent 27 years in the 4,300-student district. He was a student, then a custodian, teacher, and principal before his current cabinet position.

"I am very excited to lead this great school district. A district that I hold dearly as a proud graduate," Hoekstra said.

"I am looking forward to working with staff, administrators and members of the community to build on what we have established in Wyoming as we continue to provide meaningful and memorable experiences for everyone in the organization.''
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder is in Europe spreading news about Michigan's innovation on autonomous vehicles and paving the way for future collaborations, he told MLive in a phone interview Tuesday.

Snyder last week embarked on an eight-day investment mission that started in Austria, proceeded into the United Kingdom and Germany and will end in the Netherlands. He's been meeting with companies big and small, some with a presence in Michigan and some without.

But he's building connections that he says will be helpful as Michigan positions itself as a leader in autonomous vehicles through initiatives like Planet M, roads ready for connected vehicles, and the testing facility at Willow Run. All these things, he said, have implications far beyond Michigan's borders.

"The whole field of Planet M and mobility, it's going to help transform the world," he said.

Snyder said Michigan was already a world leader, but making connections was important so the whole industry could benefit from additional testing and innovation that occurs across the globe.

"If you look at new technologies like this there's not going to be one organization or one place that has all the good ideas," Snyder said.

While overseas Snyder signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Minister Richard Harrington of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom to work together in advancing intelligent vehicle transportation. He expects to sign another before leaving.

The partnerships, he said, are paving the way for autonomous vehicles and the mobility industry built up around them to give people new opportunities and change lives.

"I think that our most exciting days in this field are still to come. But hopefully we're laying a strong foundation that people can build on," Snyder said.

His trip ends Wednesday.
MACKINAW CITY, MI - Today marks the anniversary of a Michigan pilot's dangerous, and illegal, stunt in the Straits of Mackinac.

It was April 24, 1959 when Air Force Capt. John S. Lappo interrupted a calm Friday afternoon in the region by spontaneously flying a state-of-the-art Boeing B-47 jet underneath the Mackinac Bridge.

A native of Muskegon who had an otherwise distinguished career in World War II, Korea, and flying spy planes over Russia, the stunt cost Lappo his wings. He never flew for the Air Force again.

MLive published a detailed account of the day's events in 2017.

Lappo was ultimately accused of violating Article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice at general court-martial in Aug. 1959.

Specifically, Air Force regulation 60-16, according to Shepherd. At that time, it stated, "Except during take-off and landing, aircraft will not be flown at less than 500 feet above the ground or water. His stunt stuck with him until his final days and even after.

"Mr. Lappo made headlines in August 1959 when he flew a B-47 bomber under the Mackinac Bridge in Michigan," his obituary published in the Anchorage Daily News on Nov. 22, 2003 reads.

Flying any aircraft under the Mackinac Bridge is illegal to this day.
LANSING, MI - The Michigan House of Representatives on Tuesday passed two budget bills spending a total of $56.7 billion on everything from the state's operations to educating Michigan's children.

The omnibus budget, which lays out funds for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, 2017, passed 66-41. A second bill containing the education budget passed 71-36.

The omnibus budget passed by the House clocked in at 39.8 billion, lower than the current omnibus budget of 39.9 billion the legislature passed last year. The education budget at 16.9 billion came in higher than the current fiscal year spend of $16.6 billion.

The total spend approved by the House on Tuesday would be 56.7 billion, higher than the current spend of $56.6 billion.

Cox said the increased education budget was because of a commitment to school safety and implementing part of the governor's Marshall Plan related to talent. Overall, she said, she's committed to budgetary restraint as the budget moves forward in the process. Next she'll begin talking with the Senate and governor's office about a final product.

"There will be some growing of this budget and I want to make sure that I rein that spending in," Cox said.

On the main budget Democrats proposed but lost a series of amendments, including one from Rep. Fred Durhal III, D-Detroit, that would have added an additional $150 million to improve Michigan's roads.

"Our constituents right now are already paying for the roads, and they see no action," Durhal said.

His was one of a series of amendments rejected by the Republican majority. Another would have inserted funding to continue giving Flint residents bottled water.

In the end the bill passed 66-41 with most Democrats voting against it.

The education budget clocked in at $16.9 billion and increased the foundation allowance schools get for each child by $120 to $240 per pupil.

Rep. Pam Faris, D-Clio, offered an amendment to fund cyber schools at a lower level than brick and mortar schools, saying they don't have the same costs as transitional schools and "our state's funding should be in line with the need of the operation." Gov. Rick Snyder proposed a similar concept in his budget proposal, but the House did not go along with it.

Faris would have put the savings toward a reading program. However, her amendment, along with several amendments from the House Democrats, was shot down by the chamber's Republican majority.

The Senate will pass its own version of the budget, and the bodies will hammer out their differences to come up with a final product later this year. The budget has to be done to continue funding state programs by Oct. 1, but Snyder has set a precedent of getting budgets done months ahead of time for planning purposes.
State Sen. Steve Bieda is dropping his effort to run for the 9th Congressional District to pursue a run for Macomb County Clerk and Register of Deeds.

In a Monday afternoon statement, Bieda said he made the decision to end his campaign and set his sights on a county position after talking to many Democrats in Macomb County "who are very concerned about the state of the Clerk's Office after two years of dysfunction."

"I cannot stand by as our Clerk's Office, which was once a model of efficiency and innovation for the entire state of Michigan, has been torn apart by corruption and scandal over the last two years," Bieda wrote.

The Macomb County Clerk seat was recently vacated after a judge removed Republican Karen Spranger from office. St. Clair County Circuit Judge Daniel Kelly determined Spranger's election was invalid because she did not live in the county as she'd claimed.

Her ouster came after months of controversies, including several legal battles, attempts to remove unionized staff, an ethics violation and an accident involving her county-owned car.

Bieda said he wants to help "restore sensibility and integrity to the office" and work with existing staff to make the Macomb County Clerk's office a better environment.

"Macomb County deserves better," he wrote.

Remaining candidates in the 9th Congressional District Democratic primary include Andy Levin, Ellen Lipton and Martin Brook. Candius Stearns is currently the only Republican running for the seat.

They're competing to replace sitting U.S. Rep. Sandy Levin, D-Royal Oak, who said last year that he'd be retiring at the end of this Congressional session.
JACKSON, MI - A man who police allege shot a 15-year-old boy in the face and then later shot at his 15-year-old girlfriend is heading to prison soon for a fraction of his initial charges.

Janosha Riley, 18, pleaded guilty Friday, April 20, to one felony count each of assault with intent to harm less than murder and felony firearms, according to court records.

In pleading guilty, prosecutors dropped seven additional charges and dismissed the case where he was accused of shooting the teenage boy near the Martin Luther King Center in 2016, record show.

Spanning the two cases, Riley was originally charged with one count each of assault with intent to murder, assault with intent to do great bodily harm, carrying a concealed weapon, two counts of felonious assault and three counts of felony firearms, records show.

On April 8, 2017, police said Riley was in a car full of teens leaving Jackson's Blair Park when an argument broke out inside the vehicle. When the car stopped, Riley began punching a passenger, his 15-year-old girlfriend, in the head until she fled the vehicle, they said.

Witnesses said Riley pulled out a handgun and fired several shots at the girl as she ran from the car, missing her with each shot, police said. The girl was treated at Henry Ford Allegiance Health for a head laceration.

A warrant was issued for his arrest, but police said they were unable to locate him at the time. He was later found in Mississippi and brought back to Jackson to face his charges.

Riley was also one of two people charged with attempted murder in connection with the Sept. 1, 2016, shooting of the 15-year-old boy near the Martin Luther King Center. That case was dismissed in his acceptance of the plea deal.

His co-defendant in that case, Tyrel Stewart, recently pleaded guilty to one felony count of assault less than murder, dropping his attempted murder and felony firearms charge.

Stewart, 19, was previously tried on his original charges, but the jury was unable to reach a verdict, deadlocked six to six.

Police responding to the shooting were told there were several young black male teens with handguns in the area who had shot at someone four to five times, police said.

Police located the shooting victim, the 15-year-old boy, half a mile away in the 200 block of Damon Street. The teen had a gunshot entrance and exit wound to the left side of his face, police said.

While he and his friends were walking home along the bike trail, he saw the two figures ahead of him in the darkness, followed by the gunshots, he said during Riley's preliminary examination.

He ran from the shooters and did not realize he had been shot until he made it to Damon Street where his friend called 911.

The victim was unable to definitively identify the person who shot at him.

Riley is scheduled to be sentenced June 13 and Stewart is scheduled to be sentenced May 2. Both sentencings will be before Circuit Judge John McBain.
ST. JOSEPH, MI - Congressman Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, has officially filed for re-election in Michigan's Sixth Congressional District, his office announced today.

"We are full steam ahead and excited about the future," Upton said in a prepared statement. "Helping folks, getting results, jobs, our economy, improving health care, fighting the opioid epidemic, preserving our Great Lakes, and more. That's what we've always been dedicated to.

"It's clear folks want responsible, bipartisan, problem solvers now more than ever. We're totally focused on our positive track record and the work ahead of us."

Upton and his campaign team turned in more than the requisite amount of petition signatures to the Michigan Secretary of State's office on Monday, April 24, ensuring ballot access, Upton said.

Upton represents Michigan's Sixth Congressional District which includes all of Berrien, Cass, Kalamazoo, St. Joseph and Van Buren counties and most of Allegan County.

He was first elected to Congress in 1987 and has served as the representative for the Sixth District since 1993.
OTSEGO, MI -- The removal of the Otsego Township Dam is helping to return the Kalamazoo River to its natural state, and helping Mark Mills sleep better.

The dam, built more than a century ago, has not produced power for decades and has served no purpose in the river besides making Mills, Michigan Department of Natural Resources field operations manager, nervous.

"Every flood we get, I'm not sleeping at night," he said during a mid-April tour of the spot in southern Allegan County where the dam was recently removed, remembering how he felt in recent years as it deteriorated.

"I'm getting up first thing in the morning to make sure its OK," he said.

Otsego Township Dam removal 8 Gallery: Otsego Township Dam removal

In 2013 and 2014, the DNR did interventions to make sure the dam did not completely fail, which would have spread contaminated sediment downriver, Mills said.

Ultimately, he said, the dam had to go.

Its removal was included in the EPA's project to clean up PCB-laden sediments in the Kalamazoo River as part of an the 80-mile Allied Paper/Portage Creek/Kalamazoo River Superfund site, listed on EPA's National Priorities List in August 1990.

Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs) left over from processes at paper mills operating on the river beginning in the 1950s is the primary concern targeted in the cleanup.

The DNR is completing its own work, funded by a separate EPA grant, that complements the EPA cleanup. The DNR's work includes removal of a structure that housed electrical producing equipment adjacent to the Otsego Township Dam, and removing a concrete pad that sat next to the dam.

DNR workers removed large timbers that were installed in 1903, Mills said, and a worker used a chainsaw at the site to cut one of the weathered poles that had axe marks on it from when it was installed. The DNR plans to use the old wood for something, Mills said.

The goal is to return the location to what it was like more than a century ago, Mills said.

"We're pretty close," he said. The banks will be a little higher than they were in the past, he said, though contamination within them will be cleaned up.

Trees are being buried inside the riverbanks, with root balls intact, to stabilize them.

On the morning of Wednesday, April 18, a crane lifted a boat from the back of a pickup truck and placed it into the rapids of the river where the dam once sat.

An excavator's hydraulic arm punched through the concrete structure connected to a dam that was shut down decades ago, while other excavators dug sections of the riverbank to be hauled off site.

A goose stepped over a construction barrier, honking while walking along thick mud contoured by large tire treads and work boots.

Within about six months, the machinery will be gone from the riverbed site and the area will look closer to what it looked like more than 100 years ago, when the dam was installed.

"What's left behind is going to be restored and really look pretty natural," Mills said.

The result will be light rapids nearby where the dam once stood and a natural looking area next to a parking lot with access to place a kayak in the river. "The wildlife are going to like it too," Mills said.

The dam removal exposed a clay and rock vein and a section of the river with ripples that kayakers will love, he said.

"The fishermen are going to be fishing in here like crazy," he added.

Before the dam was removed, boaters would have to pull their craft out and relaunch it on the other side of the dam. Now, boats and fish will be able to pass through freely where the dam once was.

A goal of the EPA cleanup is to make it safe to eat fish from the river again, though it will take time.

The DNR is doing initial work for a possible project in the future to remove the nearby Trowbridge Dam, Mills said. The state is working on designs for a removal and several other agencies are involved, Mills said. He expects work to begin sometime in 2019.

This map shows the locations of dams on the Kalamazoo River. The Otsego Township Dam was recently removed.

After years of dealing with the Otsego Township Dam and coordinating with other agencies to complete the project, Mills said it is nice to see it nearing the end.

"The next generation is going to enjoy a river that looks like a lot of other areas, where we have forested and wetland habitats right up to the edge of the river where folks and wildlife can enjoy," he said.

While activity at the site remains high, he expects things to be a lot different by October, when work on that portion of the river is slated to be complete.
KALAMAZOO, MI -- A nonprofit is seeking state and local tax incentives to rehabilitate an apartment complex serving low-income tenants.

Summit Park Apartments is owned by Housing Resources, Inc., but a purchase agreement is being worked on with Full Circle Communities, Inc. so HRI can concentrate on providing support services. Full Circle Communities, a nonprofit with properties in three states, would maintain and rehabilitate 33 affordable rental units in the northwest part of Kalamazoo.

Full Circle Communities is seeking a low-income housing tax credit from the Michigan State Housing Development Authority. Last week, the Kalamazoo City Commission approved a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) for 35 years, the length of the new mortgage.

Here's the deal: Kalamazoo will lose out on almost $67,000 from 2019-2054 to keep the apartments available for low-income tenants.

It's the same as a 20-year break HRI was given in 1999 after the apartments were built at 1117 Summit Ave.

Keeping affordable housing units available and building new ones are part of larger strategies the city of Kalamazoo is working on to increase housing options for marginalized residents.

The renovations are needed too, said Life Walker, an office manager at Summit Park. All the units are in some state of disrepair.

"It's all about preservation," said HRI Executive Director Michelle Davis. "I think the city and the county in general are talking about the need for more affordable housing and I think that's great. While HRI is looking at its current properties and how we maintain and keep those units, we will also go into strategic planning this spring (to discuss) redefining our role in development."

It can be financially difficult for property managers to offer units at 30 percent of a person's income -- the standard the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development uses to describe "affordable" -- Commissioner David Anderson said during a broader discussion about low-income housing.

Kalamazoo can help leverage affordable housing projects by offering PILOT incentives.

Chuck Vliek, vice president of the Local Initiative Support Corp., emphasized the impact quality mixed-income housing can have on the city's north side. Income integration supports nearby retail and commercial business, and that's how a neighborhood bounces back.

If the state tax credits are awarded, and the rental units remain affordable for low-income people, the city's PILOT would take effect next year.

Units will have rents ranging at 30 percent, 50 percent or 60 percent of area median income, according to a city staff report. Seven will have rental assistance through MSHDA.

Today, all units are rented by people at 40 percent of the area median income.

According to a proposal to the city, rents won't change for current tenants. Instead, the new rental rates will be applied to vacant units and when units turnover.

Almost three-quarters of the units would have two bedrooms, with monthly rents ranging from $396 to $891.

Full Circle Communities plans to add two units to the property and a computer resource center, library and child play area. It also seeks to make the site more accessible for people with disabilities and upgrade kitchens, bathrooms, flooring, landscaping and parking areas.

Davis said the plan is to make the units "like-new."

Plans also call for improving energy efficiency and stormwater management features.

The project will retain affordable rental apartments designed as an integrated permanent supportive housing population, which combines low-barrier affordable housing, health care, and supportive services to stabilize tenants.

Seven tenants will be supported through existing project-based Section 8 rental assistance from MSHDA. Twenty-five units are designed to serve low-income individuals and families.

There will also be one residence for an employee.

Full Circle Communities received its first MSHDA tax credit in 2018, for a 75-unit integrated permanent supportive housing project in Portage. The proposed Selinon Park project is expected to begin construction in fall 2018 and open next year.

In total, Full Circle Communities has an ownership interest in 810 units in Illinois, Florida and Michigan, with 61 units currently under construction.

The nonprofit expressed a commitment to expanding access to quality affordable housing in urban areas.
MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI - A recent complaint filed against Muskegon County Circuit Judge Kathy L. Hoogstra alleges that she verbally abused a county employee.

The complaint was filed by Muskegon County Deputy Clerk Marcia Wilkes on March 2 with the state's Judicial Tenure Commission, which is reviewing the claims to see if they are valid.

The incident follows several workplace harassment allegations made against current and former Circuit Court employees.

Hoogstra presides over the 14th Circuit Court's Family Court division which hears cases on domestic relations, neglect and abuse and delinquency matters. She was appointed in 2013 and retained the seat in the 2014 election.

The complaint obtained by MLive/Muskegon Chronicle alleges that Hoogstra verbally abused Wilkes in private and within earshot of her coworkers in response to a request from the clerk's office about a missing circuit court file.

When asked by a reporter, neither Wilkes nor Hoogstra would comment on the complaint. However, in an email to the clerk's office provided to MLive, Hoogstra claimed Wilkes' request for the document was "unprofessional and offensive."

Hoogstra deferred comment to the Michigan Supreme Court's communication department, which handles media inquiries for some court offices that don't have staff equipped to handle such inquiries, said John Nevin, public information officer with the Michigan Supreme Court.

Nevin declined to comment on Hoogstra's case, but did say the court works closely with county clerks and the public to hold officials to the highest standard.

The Judicial Tenure Commission is an independent state agency responsible for investigating complaints of misconduct among state judges. The 11-person panel made up of lawyers and judges recommends discipline for judges to the Michigan Supreme Court, which rules on whether misconduct had occurred.

Wilkes didn't file a complaint for workplace harassment to the county's Human Resources Department or Equal Employment Office, said Muskegon County Administrator Mark Eisenbarth.

The complaint alleges that Hoogstra verbally abused and threatened Wilkes after Wilkes and Muskegon County Clerk Nancy Waters inquired about an opinion on a case that did not appear in the court's register of actions. Wilkes also states that Hoogstra created a hostile work environment with her alleged "unprofessional conduct."

The case in question involved a Muskegon County man who was awaiting an opinion from Hoogstra following a hearing on Sept. 24, 2017.

The man had called the clerk's office on Feb. 12 and did not want to speak to Family Division staff because "he did not want to 'alert anyone that he was still waiting on his opinion because the judge's office didn't like him,'" according to a statement from Wilkes attached to the complaint.

Wilkes and Waters had attempted to find the opinion in the court's register of actions, but it had not yet been entered into the system, Waters told MLive/Muskegon Chronicle.

The deputy clerk then sent an email to Circuit Court Administrator Sandra Vanderhyde and Deputy Circuit Court Administrator Alisha Riedl asking for the file. Wilkes wrote in her statement that "he was obviously afraid of retribution if he contacted (Hoogstra's) office."

Wilkes' written complaint alleges the following:

On Feb. 14, Hoogstra pulled Wilkes out of a work luncheon on the third floor of the courthouse and asked to meet with Wilkes in the court administrator's office alone. Once there, Hoogstra asked Wilkes to take a seat, sat next to her in another chair and turned her body in a manner that made Wilkes feel "threatened and caged," she said.

Hoogstra then began yelling at Wilkes, saying: "How dare you. How dare you. You have crossed the line. This is my file, do you hear me, my file."

Wilkes wrote she recalls saying sorry, but Hoogstra allegedly carried on, adding: "Why would you do this to me, this is my file."

The deputy county clerk added that she didn't hear all of what Hoogstra said because she "was in total shock over being treated so unprofessionally by a judge."

"I was both confused by her outburst and petrified," Wilkes wrote in her statement. "All I had done was report a complaint which I had received on the phone ... I was frightened and she was wildly mad and kept going on like a crazy person.

"I was fearful she might slap me because she was so furious. I was truly traumatized by her actions and body language."

After the outburst, Wilkes wrote that she stood up, prompting Hoogstra to stand and let her leave. As she took a few steps, Wilkes wrote, Hoogstra continued her onslaught by yelling while following her down the hall, saying: "You will never do this to me again, do you hear me?" And you will never do this again!"

As she moved to go back into the luncheon, Hoogstra repeated the warning that Wilkes should never inquire about her files again, Wilkes wrote.

"Judge Hoogstra was out of line," Wilkes wrote. "I am not her employee. Hoogstra was so boisterous right next to a conference room where judicial staff was meeting, it was clear that most of the attendees of that meeting could hear her elevated voice demeaning me in earshot of people I work with on a daily basis.

"I did not deserve to be treated so unprofessionally and abusively by an elected official, someone that should be held to a higher standard."

Wilkes ends her statement by saying that she went into a break room immediately after the incident, broke down shaking and began to cry.

Hoogstra defended her actions in an email obtained by MLive that was sent to Chief Judge William Marietti and Waters on Feb. 14.

"The problem I have is that SHE NEVER BOTHERED TO CONTACT MY OFFICE ... ABOUT MY CASE ... while accusing me of not following through on an issue for over five months," Hoogstra wrote. "(Wilkes') behavior is unprofessional and offensive. A review of the court file would have shown Opinion and Orders from June 2017, July 2017 and August 2017.

"I met with Marcia and told her I was very disappointed with how this was handled."

Waters, on Wilkes' behalf, distributed the complaint filed on March 2 to other 14th Circuit Court judges and Eisenbarth, the county administrator.

Eisenbarth added that he was only made aware of the situation once Waters had begun circulating the complaint.

Human Resources Director Kristen Wade said she had not received a complaint made by Wilkes or anyone on her behalf.

The county has been holding several workplace harassment seminars and training sessions for all county and court employees following the complaints of sexual harassment made against current and former 14th Circuit Court employees.
MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI - Former state Rep. Collene Lamonte, a Democrat from the Montague area, is planning a 2018 bid for the state Senate seat representing Michigan's 34th district.

Lamonte's intention to run was announced by her campaign in a news release issued on Monday. Lamonte represented the 91st District of the state House from 2013 to 2015.

Michigan's 34th District covers Muskegon, Newaygo, and Oceana counties. If elected, Lamonte would replace incumbent State Sen. Goeff Hansen, R-Hart, who is term-limited and can't seek re-election.

Vying for the same seat are current 91st State Rep. Holly Hughes, R-Montague, and former state Rep. Jon Bumstead, R-Newago. The pair will face off against each other in the Aug. 7 primary.

Bumstead announced his candidacy October 2017, whereas Hughes announced her bid last July.

Lamonte will also face off against Democrat Poppy Sias-Hernandez in the August primary, who is the only other Democrat who has filed so far.

A former Muskegon High School math and science teacher, Lamonte said education and protecting Michigan families are among her top priorities.

"West Michigan is my home, and I've seen what Republican policies have done to the hardworking, middle-class families of this region," Lamonte said. "I will continue the fight I began for better school funding, jobs and fair wages, safer roads and the protection of our natural resources."

Lamonte said she'll also fight for consumers by tackling what she called "unfair" practices of automotive insurance companies and the way they determine rates.

"It has always has been a passion of mine to make things right in the world," Lamonte said. "I became a teacher because I wanted to get kids excited about learning. I answered the call to serve in the Michigan House because I wanted to make a difference. People in our community are struggling.

"Now, more than ever, there is more work to be done."
SPRING LAKE TOWNSHIP, MI - A Grand Haven-based company is closing a Spring Lake furniture manufacturer that it's owned since 2001.

JSJ Corporation will begin phasing down operations at izzy+, 17237 Van Wagoner Road, "within 14 days of May 28" with a target for final closure in July, according to a Worker Adjustment Retraining Notice (WARN) filed with the state of Michigan on Monday, April 23. The closure will result in the loss of 72 jobs.

The company will stop taking orders and end production after fulfilling its supplier and contractual obligations.

"While difficult, the decision to close izzy+ is the right one for our company, and we are working closely with employees, suppliers, business partners and others to ensure an organized and thoughtful transition," said Nelson Jacobson, chairman and CEO of JSJ Corporation, in a statement.

JSJ plans to repurpose the facility to meet the growing needs of three of its other holdings: GHSP, Sparks and Dake. JSJ also owns McLoone Metal Graphics and Hudson Technologies.

"While izzy+ is an important part of JSJ's history, unfortunately, it no longer fits within our strategic plan and goals for the future," said Tom Rizzi, JSJ's COO, in a statement. "It's a consumer-facing furniture company, whereas our focus is investing in portfolio companies that provide highly engineered solutions and value-added services within highly complex, business-to-business environments. As we pursue new opportunities for growth, it makes business sense to discontinue the izzy+ brand and reposition our resources in other strategic areas."

Some izzy+ employees will have the opportunity to move to open positions at other JSJ portfolio companies, according to a news release. All others will receive financial compensation and transition support services. The WARN states that employees do not have "bumping rights."

Shuttering the izzy+ furniture brand will also affect a plant in Middlebury, Indiana, which will close at the end of its production cycle, according to the release.

JSJ Corporation is a world-wide growth firm with manufacturing, distribution, and service businesses. It is made up of a portfolio of companies that focus on highly technical skills to deliver engineered solutions. JSJ was founded by Alvin E. Jacobson, Sr., Paul A. Johnson, and B.P. Sherwood, who rebuilt the Grand Haven Brass Foundry in Grand Haven, Mich., after a fire in 1919 and officially formed JSJ in 1970.
MUSKEGON, MI - Two months after determining the Muskegon Public Schools superintendent is "minimally effective," the school board has yet to put him on a required improvement plan.

The board announced its job performance rating for Superintendent Justin Jennings at its regular meeting in February. His evaluation was conducted in closed session meetings over several months.

Michigan law requires that superintendents ranked less than effective be placed on an "individual development plan."

Board President Cindy Larson said she assigned development of the plan to another board member, and it is still in the works.

"It should have been done by now," Larson said.

An individual development plan (IDP) is meant to help that person develop skills that will improve their job performance.

When they released his "minimally effective" rating, board members cited low student test scores and "less than desirable" student achievement.

Jennings received an "effective" score for instructional leadership, which accounts for 19.5 percent of the evaluation that has eight categories, according to the evaluation document obtained by MLive/Muskegon Chronicle through the Freedom of Information Act. That was his highest-rated category along with "progress toward district goals."

The lowest rated categories were student growth (25 percent of the overall score) and business and finance (13 percent of the overall score), with Jennings being rated as "minimally effective" in both.

It was announced at the February meeting that Jennings would be placed on a "plan of assistance" to increase his effectiveness. The plan would focus on the following areas:

Human resources hiring practices

Financial planning

Individualized instruction

Accountability and transparency

A plan is also referenced in the evaluation.

"A plan of assistance developed by the board with input from Mr. Jennings will be reviewed at least every three months," the evaluation states.

In February, Jennings and board President Cindy Larson both said the evaluation would be posted online "soon." However, the district is not required to post the evaluation and has not done so.

Before announcing the results of the evaluation, the board met for nine special meetings from December to February, all of which included a closed session to discuss "personnel matters."

In April, an MLive investigation revealed that the board had violated the Open Meetings Act by deliberating on official business via text messages. One of the screenshots provided to MLive/Muskegon Chronicle by board Trustee Zachary Anderson included a discussion that took place in December about a $100,000 severance package for Jennings.

Veteran trustee Billie Bruce called for Jennings' dismissal at a board meeting in January. Before that, Anderson was the only known opponent of Jennings' leadership among seven trustees.

In October 2017, an MLive investigation revealed an increase of more than $500,000 in spending on administrative salaries. Jennings defended the increase in November, which sparked an outpouring of rage from Muskegon teachers and the community.

When the administrative spending was implemented, there was a deficit of $105,500 in the 2017-18 projected budget.

At the same February meeting that the board announced the minimally effective rating, it approved a budget amendment that puts the district $1.3 million in the red for 2017-18 school year. If it stands, it would cut the district's fund balance to less than the state-required 5 percent of expenditures.
MOUNT PLEASANT, MI -- Satanists and radical Christians will trade verbal blows Tuesday afternoon at Central Michigan University to show students the fringe protections of free speech.

The discussion championing First Amendment rights comes with a twist of irony, though, said the professor hosting the Q&A: The university has barred media from attending and students from recording.

"I call it the 'Richard Spencer syndrome,'" said Central Michigan University Journalism Professor Timothy Boudreau. "They're concerned about campus safety and security, but I'm not sure how barring the media advances that interest in anyway."

Boudreau was referencing the prominent white nationalist whose appearance at Michigan State University in early March sparked protests, violence and multiple arrests. In recent years, universities across the U.S. have grappled with how to balance hosting controversial conservatives such as Spencer and Milo Yiannopoulos and the negative, sometimes destructive response from students.

The guests to Boudreau's upper-level communications law class Tuesday afternoon are Westboro Baptist Church spokesperson Shirley Phelps-Roper and Satanic Temple of Detroit founder Jex Blackmore.

"They are among the most reviled, unpopular voices out there today," the professor said. "In my opinion that's precisely the type of speech the First Amendment is designed to protect ... They really illustrate, they bring to life the cases and concepts we discuss in class."

Both have been guests to his class before, but never at the same time and never with the university barring media attendance, Boudreau said. Though the university is forbidding video recording of the event, Blackmore said she plans to stream the Q&A live on her Instagram page.

To access the class, which begins at 2 p.m., the university is mandating students present their school ID's at the entrance, Boudreau said.

Boudreau believes the recording and media restrictions likely stem from the university trying to thwart any negative image of having controversial speakers come to campus.

CMU spokesperson Heather Smith contended the media blockade was to prevent disruption of education and, in part, due to Boudreau's desire of a "closed event."

"Conversations between Dr. Boudreau, the dean, and the provost's and general counsel's offices led to the decision to protect the integrity of the learning experience rather than making this a larger media event that would disrupt students and the lesson," Smith said.

Students of the course who report for Central Michigan Life, the university's student newspaper, can report on the event if they choose, Smith said.

"Media can choose, of course, to cover the story in other ways, if they deem this classroom experience newsworthy," she said. "That includes talking with students before or after class. The dean and provost have worked with Dr. Boudreau and identified a conference room where Dr. Boudreau can host media to interview the guest speakers after the event, if he wants to do so."

Boudreau assented he wanted control over who can attend and that it wasn't a public forum. But, he said, having some members of the media and other guests wouldn't disrupt the class.

"I think they're overreacting," he said of the administration.

Jane Briggs-Bunting, founding president and current board member of Michigan Coalition for Open Government, said though public universities are, well, public, there are some restrictions on access.

"Do universities have a right to control access where classes are in session? I'd say yes, because they have a right to protect the health, safety and welfare of the students as well as the educational experience," Briggs-Bunting said.

Boudreau reached out to campus police March 24 saying he was tentatively planning the event for late April. A week later, the date solidified and he hadn't heard back, so he reached out again, but still didn't receive a response.

Then, several days later, Boudreau was called into a meeting with six administrators and two lawyers, he said. At first, they wanted to push the event back to the fall. They relinquished, but wanted no media at the event. Boudreu said the administration brought up privacy issues and claimed to have a no-media police in place for classrooms.

Phelps-Roper spoke in Boudreau's class in 2010 and 2012 with no blockade of media, the professor said.

The Mount Pleasant Morning Sun reported classroom access wasn't an issue before.

"The Morning Sun has over at least the last 20 years had access to CMU classrooms on multiple occasions without a requirement to obtain official permission, covering curriculum that may have public interest at the invitation of the instructor."

The university reaction to the speakers coming has been a sort of meta lesson for the class, illustrating concepts such as control of information, Boudreau said.

"It's already been a good class discussion," he said.

Boudreau said the university should be impartial in allowing media access, not just in instances where CMU is displayed in a positive light.

"They need to treat all guest speakers the same way," he said.
The chronicle of a life split between urban Manhattan and rural Montana.
East Rockhill looking into options for dealing with bridge flooding
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 24, 2018

Syria-Iraq - U.S. Coddles ISIS - Others Plan For The Final Fight

OIR Spokesman Verified account @OIRSpox - 15:02 UTC - 24 Apr 2018 #Iraq's strike on a known Daesh HQ in Syria was planned/conducted by the Iraqi Security Forces, w/ support from @CJTFOIR. This strike shows Iraq's willingness to do what's necessary to secure its citizens as well as their important role in the Global @Coalition to #defeatDaesh

The above tweet by the spokesperson for the U.S. Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) against ISIS is extremely misleading if not false. The U.S. is trying to take some credit for a strike which was done without its consensus. The attack against ISIS was initiated by an anti-U.S. alliance as a warning against further U.S. shenanigans with ISIS.

The U.S. military in Syria has refrained from fighting ISIS for months. The map of the territory held by ISIS (grey) at the Syrian-Iraqi border in the U.S. controlled zone north of the Euphrates (yellow) has not changed since November 2017.

(The yellow corridor going south east towards Iraq on the map is misleading. The U.S. has no forces there and ISIS crossed it several times to attack Syrian forces (red) across the river.)

The British group Airwars documents the U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria. U.S. strikes on ISIS in Syria are down to one per day or less:

The U.S. strikes hit, if anything, only very minor targets. From OIR's weekly summary from March 30 to April 5 (Syria only):

Between March 30 and April 5, Coalition military forces conducted nine strikes consisting of 11 engagements in Syria and Iraq.

There were no reported strikes conducted in Syria on April 5, 2018.

There were no reported strikes conducted in Syria on April 4, 2018.

There were no reported strikes conducted in Syria or Iraq on April 3, 2018.

There were no reported strikes conducted in Syria on April 2, 2018.

On April 1 in Syria, Coalition military forces conducted one strike consisting of three engagements against Daesh targets.

 Near Abu Kamal, one strike engaged a Daesh tactical unit and destroyed a Daesh vehicle.

On March 31 in Syria, Coalition military forces conducted one strike consisting of one engagement against Daesh targets.

 Near Abu Kamal, one strike engaged a Daesh tactical unit.

On March 30 in Syria, Coalition military forces conducted one strike consisting of one engagement against Daesh targets.

 Near Shadaddi, one strike engaged a Daesh tactical unit and destroyed a Daesh vehicle.

Two cars and three assumed militants (aka 'tactical units') targeted in one week is not a fight at all. The total number of ISIS fighters in the area is estimated between 5,000 and 12,000. The current U.S. strikes are not even pinpricks.

It is obvious that the U.S. wants to keep ISIS alive and well to again use it, if need be, against the Syrian and Iraqi government. Then Secretary of State Kerry as well as then President Obama admitted that they used ISIS to put pressure on the Syrian President Assad and then Prime Minister of Iraq Maliki:

The reason, the president added, that we did not just start taking a bunch of airstrikes all across Iraq as soon as ISIL came in was because that would have taken the pressure off of [Prime Minister Nuri Kamal] al-Maliki.

We now see a repeat of such 'games'. ISIS was given time to rest. It is regaining capacities especially in Iraq's Anbar province where it is moving between villages and threatening the inhabitants. It is issuing new strategic instructions to its followers and calls on them to attack or sabotage the upcoming elections in Iraq.

As the U.S. is unwilling to fight ISIS, the governments of Iraq, Syria, Iran and Russia (+ Hizbullah) decided to again take the issue into their own hands. On April 19 the 4+1 met for coordinating their future campaigns.



Patch of the 4+1 op-room - via @IraqiSecurity - bigger

Military officials from Iraq, Syria, Iran and Russia meet in their Baghdad operations room to coordinate the further fight against ISIS. Note the four flags on the head table.

The Iranian Minister of Defense Brig. Gen. Amir Hatami attended the op-room meeting and held additional meetings with leaders of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) or Hashd al-Shaabi. (IRGC commander Qassem Soleimani, a red rag for all anti-Iranian forces, is now intentionally kept out of sight.)



Source: IRNA via @Sadattawa - bigger

The high level operations room meeting agreed upon future operations and strikes. Before the meeting military intelligence officials of the 4+1 had identified a potential target for a common operation. An attack was planned and designed to give the new combat phase some fresh impetus. It was also intended to be a warning to the U.S.

Shortly after the meeting the Iraqi air force hit an ISIS command and control center in east-Syria near Abu Kamal within the nominally U.S. controlled zone:

According to an Iraqi military spokesperson, the operation was fully coordinated with the Syrian army.

The Iraqi Ministry of Defense distributed video of the successful strike on a three story villa. Iraq later announced that 36 ISIS fighters, including high ranking ISIS commanders, were killed in the strike.

After the strike had happened the U.S. Operation Inherent Resolve tried to take credit for the attack by claiming that its was involved.

SOUTHWEST ASIA  The Iraqi air force conducted an air strike near Hajin, Syria, against Daesh terrorists operating near the Iraq-Syria border on April 19. The strike was approved by the Iraqi Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Dr. Haider Al Abadi. The strike demonstrates Iraqs commitment to destroy Daesh remnants who continue to threaten their citizens. The operation was planned and executed by the Iraqi Joint Operations Command with intelligence support from the Coalition. This operation highlights the capabilities of Iraqs armed forces to aggressively pursue Daesh and to maintain their countrys internal security, said Brig. Gen. Robert B. Sofge, deputy commanding general of operations, Combined Joint Task Force  Operation Inherent Resolve. The Combined Joint Task Force  Operation Inherent Resolves mission is to defeat Daesh in designated areas in Iraq and Syria, and sets conditions for follow-on operations to increase regional stability.

My sources say that the U.S. claim is misleading if not completely false. After the four commanders in the Baghdad op-room decided on the strike, the Iraqi command initiated the pre-planned attack. The Iraqis informed the U.S. OIR command that a strike would happen but gave only a rough description of the target area. Said differently - no time was given to the U.S. to warn ISIS. The U.S. "intelligence support" for the operation consisted of keeping its planes out of the way.

The tweet by the OIR spox quoted above is a repeat of the statement the OIR command issued on April 19. It is claiming credit where non belongs.

While the U.S. coddles with ISIS in Syria to again use it for its own purpose, the 4+1 plan for a larger common operation to finally destroy the Takfiri menace. I expect that operation to begin only after the Iraqi parliament election on May 12 is over and a new Iraqi government is in place. Enough forces will have to be prepared on the Syrian as well as the Iraqi side of the border. On the Syrian side a military bridge to cross the Euphrates has recently been rebuild by the Syrian military and new equipment is arriving in the area. The meeting of the Iranian defense minister with the PMU hints at a strong role for these units in the upcoming fight.

Will the U.S. try to prevent or undermine the plan or will it stay out of the way?

Posted by b on April 24, 2018 at 19:36 UTC | Permalink

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Each year, we assign Morningstar Analyst Ratings to college savings plans based on five key pillars--Process, People, Parent, Price, and Performance. When evaluating 529 plans, we may also take into consideration the unique benefits that plans offer to college savers, including local tax breaks, grants, and scholarships, which can influence a plan's Analyst Rating but usually do not drive the overall outcome.

In 2017, Morningstar identified 34 plans that it believes to be best-in-class options, assigning these programs Analyst Ratings of Gold, Silver, and Bronze. These plans for the most part follow industry best practices, offering some combination of the following attractive features: a strong set of underlying investments, a solid manager selection process, a well-researched asset-allocation approach, an appropriate set of investment options to meet investor needs, low fees, and strong oversight from the state and program manager. These features improve the odds that the plan will continue to represent a strong option for investors. Gold-rated plans have all or a vast majority of these attributes. Silver- and Bronze-rated plans embody most of these qualities but often have some room for improvement.

Meanwhile, 26 plans earned Neutral ratings. These plans remain unexceptional, because either weaker aspects offset stronger ones or an element of uncertainty, such as an investment team change, clouds their prospects. Some Neutral-rated programs may hold appeal for in-state residents because of meaningful added benefits, such as local tax breaks, so investors should research their state's particular benefits.

Just two plans received Negative ratings in 2017. These plans generally lack compelling traits and have at least one major flaw that makes them worth avoiding. Nationwide, there are 84 529 college savings plans, and these 62 ratings represent more than 95% of assets invested in 529 plans.

Ratings Changes

This year, Morningstar upgraded six plans and downgraded three, compared with six upgrades and six downgrades in 2016. We also dropped coverage of Illinois advisor-sold Bright Start College Saving plan, which will merge into Illinois other advisor-sold plan, Bright Directions College Savings Program, in November 2017.

The 529 industry made meaningful improvements over the last year, with many plans reducing expenses and improving the asset-allocation approach used within the age-based portfolios by smoothing out the transition from stocks to bonds as the beneficiary ages.

This article focuses on this year's upgrades. Part two of this series publishes on Thursday and will detail the downgrades along with industry trends that these plans have not kept pace with.

In-depth analyses of all 62 plans under coverage are located in the 529 Plan Center on Morningstar.com.



On the Rise

We upgraded two direct-sold plans run by program manager Union Bank & Trust. Illinois overhauled the direct-sold Bright Start College Savings Program in July 2017 when it replaced program manager Oppenheimer Funds with Union Bank & Trust. With the revamped plan, investors can choose passively managed age-based tracks or tracks that blend active and passive underlying managers. The tracks have strong underlying funds, with passive strategies from Vanguard and a number of well-regarded active funds from firms including Dodge & Cox, T. Rowe Price, and BlackRock. Fees also declined; in fact, the index age-based tracks rank among the cheapest in the industry, with fees ranging from 0.12% to 0.15%, and the state also eliminated a $10 account maintenance fee that previously weighed down the index-based portfolios. The total package makes for one of the best plans in the industry, leading to its upgrade to Gold from Bronze.

In addition, we upgraded Alabamas CollegeCounts 529 Fund to Silver from Bronze. Alabama takes an active role in overseeing the plan, and Union Bank and Trusts involvement increases our confidence that the plan will remain an exceptional choice for the long haul. Investors can choose from three age-based tracks that invest in passive underlying strategies, or they can build customized portfolios from an impressive lineup of 26 active and passive strategies. The plan is not as attractive as Illinois' direct-sold plan, however, as the age-based tracks charge higher fees than Illinois' tracks that invest in passive underlying funds.







Two New Morningstar Medalists

We also upgraded four advisor-sold plans. Ohios BlackRock CollegeAdvantage 529 plan made a number of improvements during the last year. It cut fees meaningfully, with expenses for the age-based portfolios falling by 17 basis points on average. Moreover, in November 2017, the plan will restructure the age-based portfolios by moving from a stepped approach, which courts market-timing risk by making a number of large single-day asset-allocation shifts, to a progressive process that allows for a smoother transition to bonds from stocks. The plans rating increased to Bronze from Neutral in light of these changes.

Meanwhile, we raised Colorados Scholars Choice College Savings Plans rating to Bronze from Neutral thanks to another year of stability following a program-manager shakeup in 2014. QS Investors became the program manager here after Legg Mason acquired the firm in 2014. Many of Legg Masons asset-allocation team transitioned to QS, though a couple of departures raised concerns. Nonetheless, the regime change has ultimately not had a meaningful impact on the plan. The underlying fund lineup remains solid, and the plans age-based options carry very low fees versus advisor-sold peers that invest primarily in active underlying funds.





Off the Lows

Lastly, two advisor-sold plans that we previously rated Negative were upgraded to Neutral. South Dakotas CollegeAccess 529 plan and West Virginias The Hartford Smart529 College Savings Plan each smoothed the transition to bonds from stocks within the age-based portfolios, and they also lowered fees. Both plans previously had equity step-downs as large as 25 percentage points in the age-based portfolios, but now both tracks have average step sizes of about 10 percentage points. Meanwhile, both plans also cut fees by about 10 to 15 basis points.





Morningstar Analyst Rating Inputs

Since 2012, ratings for 529 plans use the same scale as the Morningstar Analyst Rating for mutual funds. Both Analyst Rating methodologies consider the same five factors to arrive at the final rating, though the 529 ratings reflect the quality of the entire plan--not a single investment, as is the case for the fund rating. To arrive at an Analyst Rating for 529 plans, analysts consider:

Process: Did the plan hire an experienced asset allocator to design a thoughtful, well-diversified glide path for the age-based portfolios? What suite of investment options is offered?

People: What is Morningstar's assessment of the underlying money managers' talent, tenure, and resources?

Parent: Is the program manager a good caretaker of college savers' capital? Is the state managing the plan professionally?

Performance: Have the plan's options earned their keep with solid risk-adjusted returns over relevant time periods? How is the plan expected to perform going forward?

Price: Are the investment options a good value?

Want to learn more about your plan's strengths and weaknesses? Go beyond the Morningstar Analyst Rating and read detailed analyses of 62 of the largest 529 plans. Click here to try a Premium Membership, free for 14 days.
The passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ushered in significant changes to 529 accounts. Before that, 529 plans were strictly college savings vehicles: Only qualified higher education expenses were eligible for penalty-free, tax-favored withdrawals.

Now, however, up to $10,000 per year, per beneficiary can be used for tuition expenses "in connection with the enrollment or attendance of the beneficiary as an elementary or secondary school student at a public, private, or religious school."
HOW TO SHOP AT MENDELSONS

Your first trip to Mendelsons can be a little intimidating especially if you are the nerdy maker type. Dont worry, you will be a better maker for it. For millennials like us you rarely get the opportunity to procure goods the way our parents and grandparents did. Haggling and handshakes have been replaced by Amazon and Walmart. Do yourself a favor and jump right into the Mendelsons shopping experience!

To start, you dig through shelves of electrical components to find that perfect vintage gauge to finish off a project and you take it to the counter and you haggle. There is a mutual understanding, they know you would have a hard time finding such an amazing gem somewhere else and you know it may be 5 years before someone else wants to buy that part. Only fools dont haggle at Mendelsons. The rarer the item the more opportunity there is for a deal. Sandy Mendelson is a man of his word and values an old-fashioned handshake deal. The shopping experience mirrors this old-school philosophy many of us miss.
Vincent Bollore in Police Probe

Billionaire Vincent Bollore, the former Chairman of marcoms group Havas, is being held for questioning by the French police as part of an investigation into alleged bribes of public officials in two African countries.



Bollore (pictured) began buying Havas stock in 2004, and later, during his time as CEO, the firm invested in big data and other predictive analytics firms including buying pan-European firm ElisaDBI and MFG Labs. It also acquired stakes in research groups including British-held Creston Plc (now known as The Unlimited Group) and RSMB; while Bollore's own corporation acquired stakes in Harris Interactive, Vivendi and the Aegis Group. Between 2005 and 2008 he made no fewer than five attempts to get two nominees onto the board of Aegis, then the parent of MR group Synovate.



Last year, Havas was acquired from The Bollore Group by mass media conglomerate Vivendi, and Vincent Bollore served as Chairman of the latter firm's Supervisory Board until stepping down a week ago and handing the position to his son Yannick, who also serves as Chairman and CEO of Havas.



Aside from the marcoms sector, the family business, The Bollore Group, offers transportation and logistics services and has worked with several former French colonies in Africa, operating container terminals in Guinea, Togo and Nigeria and running dry ports in nations such as Burkina Faso and Chad. According to media reports, the police probe is focusing on contracts awarded to The Bollore Group, relating to the operation of container terminals in Lome, Togo and Conakry, Guinea. Judges will look at allegations that Bollore Group managers used Havas to facilitate the election of African officials through the provision of communications advice at a discounted price.



In a statement, The Bollore Group denied that the company has done anything 'irregular', adding: 'The interrogation of executives will provide clarity to the judiciary on these questions, which were the subject of an independent audit that found the operations were perfectly regular. The executives are happy to cooperate fully with authorities'.



Web site: www.bollore.com .




Cali Has Gone to Pot | Marijuana Mecca..Not Bodybuilding

Written by Steve Blechman

24 April 2018

CALI HAS GONE TO POT



Marijuana Mecca, Not Bodybuilding!!

California is the number one state for recreational and medical marijuana sales in the United States! Marijuana is quickly becoming legal for medical or recreational use throughout the country. Nine states California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Alaska, Oregon, Nevada, Maine, Vermont, Washington and Washington D.C. have legalized marijuana. Marijuana for medical use is legal in 29 states. Today, more than 60 percent of Americans believe pot should be legal, according to January 2018 poll by Pew Research Center. Medical and recreational cannabis sales will hit $11.7 billion this year, predicts cannabis analytics from New Frontier Data, increase by 25 percent in 2019 and hit $25 billion in seven years, as reported in USA Today on April 20, 2018.

Increasing access will lead to increased abuse. The state of California leads the projected sales in the United States in 2018, according to New Frontier Data. The common perception is that smoking pot is a harmless drug with minimal side effects. The National Institute on Drug Abuse in Bethesda, Maryland says acute effects include impaired short-term memory, disturbed motor coordination and altered judgment. In high doses, the drug can trigger paranoia and psychosis. Long-term use can lead to addiction, altered brain development, cognitive impairment, chronic bronchitis and increased risk of schizophrenia and cancer!

Exposure to marijuana smoke may also increase the risk of cancer. Smoking pot contains many of the same chemicals and carcinogens as tobacco smoke. Also, marijuana use is associated with a threefold risk of death from hypertension, according to research published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. On the flip side, research has shown that marijuana can ease ocular pressure in glaucoma and prevent nausea during chemotherapy. It can also increase appetite in HIV and cancer patients; reduce chronic pain and inflammation and improve quality of life in people with multiple sclerosis and epilepsy.

In April 2018, an expert panel unanimously recommended that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approve Epidiolex or cannabidiol (CBD) for epilepsy. Its manufacturer is GW Pharmaceuticals. If the FDA approves CBD as a drug for epilepsy, it may restrict CBD from being sold over-the-counter in the U.S. in all 50 states! CBD is a component of cannabis that is non-psychoactive and does not make people high. If approved by the FDA, it would be the first drug medication made from marijuana with legalization and decriminalization.

Chronic marijuana use reduces the brains reactivity to dopamine according to a study from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and Alcoholism in Rockville, Maryland. Dopamine is an important neurotransmitter in the brain that is involved in the perception of reward. Dopamine increases memory, focus, alertness, creativity, confidence, mood, motivation, libido and weight control. Users of marijuana also showed lower positive and higher negative emotional scores compared to control subjects. Marijuana users showed lower levels of motivation and less sensitivity to rewards but increased reaction to emotional stress and irritability. Additionally, according to a study recent published in The Review of Economic Studies, access to legal marijuana may significantly reduce academic performance. This research suggests that marijuana interferes with dopamine release in the brain.

Sixty percent of Americans believe the time has come to decriminalize marijuana. Recently, President Donald Trump signaled that the federal government would not crack down on nine states that have legalized recreational use of marijuana. Most recently, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said he would introduce legislation to legalize recreational use of marijuana in New York State. Medical marijuana use is already approved in New York. Schumer said, If smoking marijuana doesnt hurt anybody else, why shouldnt we allow people to do it and not make it criminal? In states where it has become legal, pot is providing an increase in sales and billions of dollars in new tax revenue. The downside is the potential health side effects! Increased legalization and access will lead to increased use and abuse, which will result in increased health care costs.

Men who like smoking weed often suspect that marijuana might cause an increase of estrogen and man boobs often referred to as bitch tits, called gynecomastia. Gyno is caused by a decrease in testosterone compared to estrogen. Animal studies have shown that delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive compound in marijuana, can decrease testosterone levels and testicular size. Lower testosterone levels have been reported in chronic pot smokers, but not all studies support this. Many plastic surgeons today are telling their patients with gynecomastia to stop smoking pot, even though the association of smoking pot hasnt been conclusively proven. If a link to smoking pot and gynecomastia does exist, we should see an increase in gynecomastia treatment in those states that legalized pot. If you already have man boobs, it might be best to stop smoking weed now! So, put out that joint!

References:

Scott JC, Slomiak ST et al. Association of Cannabis With Cognitive Functioning in Adolescents and Young Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JAMA Psychiatry. Published online April 18, 2018.

Kolodny R, Masters W et al. Depression of Plasma Testosterone Levels after Chronic Intensive Marijuana Use. New England Journal of Medicine 1974; 290: 16, 872-874.

Olivier M and Zolitz U. High Achievers? Cannabis Access and Academic Performance, The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 84, Issue 3, 1 July 2017, Pages 1210-1237.

Thistle JE, Graubard BI et al. Marijuana use and serum testosterone concentrations among U.S. males. Andrology 2017, 5: 732-738.

Volkow N, Baler R et al. Adverse Health Effects of Marijuana Use, New England Journal of Medicine 2014, 370, 23, 2219-2227.

Volkow N, Wang G et al. Decreased brain DA reactivity in marijuana abusers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jul 2014, 201411228.

Yankey B, Rothenberg R et al. Effect of marijuana use on cardiovascular and cerebrovascular mortality: A study using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey linked mortality file. European Journal of Preventive Cardiology 2017; 204748731772321.

European Society of Cardiology. Marijuana associated with three-fold risk of death from hypertension. ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 9 August 2017.

Panel recommends FDA approval of epilepsy drug derived from marijuana. Andrew Joseph April 19, 2018. www.statnews.com/2018/04/19/fda-epilepsy-drug-marijuana

Industry growing like weeds. Trevor Hughes, USA Today. April 20-22, 2018.

Schumer has bill to legalize pot. Michael Gormley, Newsday. April 21, 2018.

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Vous etes confrontes a une infestation par la puce, la punaise de lit ? Voici plusieurs actions qui sont a mettre en uvre pour faire []
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Maybe Im foolish, but I remain hopeful about the potential of software leading to more affordable, accessible education. In 2014, Georgia Tech launched an Online Master of Science in Computer Science (OMSCS) with the goal of offering an accredited, top-tier education at a surprising price of $7,000. The program has been regularly ranked in the Top 10 by U.S. News & World Report, and the traditional residential program costs $28,000 two years of tuition (out-of-state, not including housing).

OMSCS offers the same lectures from the same professors, the same homework assignments, and the same exams. A few other top universities have online versions of their masters programs, but they charge the same tuition as in-person ($40,000+). The diploma is exactly the same as those of on-campus graduates, with no special online designation.

Would there be enough interest from qualified candidates? Would it remain financially viable? Would the online program cannibalize from the traditional on-campus program? Would employers discriminate if they found out that this was an online degree? Would the careers prospects be different due to the lack of in-person networking opportunities?

EducationNext recently published an article An Elite Grad-School Degree Goes Online addresses some of these questions. InsiderEd has a an article Online, Cheap  and Elite that summarizes the findings.

Analyzing the first six cohorts of the online program, from spring 2014 to fall 2016, the report found that the typical applicant to the online program was a 34-year-old midcareer American, while the typical applicant to the in-person degree was a 24-year-old recent graduate from India. Of the 18,000 students who applied to the in-person and online degrees, less than 0.2 percent applied to both, the report said. Students admitted to the online program typically had slightly lower academic credentials than those admitted to the in-person program, but they performed slightly better in their identical and blind-marked final assessments  a finding the study hailed as the first rigorous evidence that we know of showing that an online degree program can increase educational attainment.

Overall, the program has been a success in terms of expanding access to high-quality computer science education. Total enrollment is now over 6,000 students. The questions about career effects will be addressed in future studies.

In 2017, Georgia Tech announced a new Online Masters Degree in Analytics for under $10,000. This is also a nationally-ranked Top 10 program where the traditional in-person tuition ranges from $36,000 for in-state students to $49,000 for out of state. The data analytics program is an interdisciplinary collaboration between the College of Engineering, College of Computing and the Scheller College of Business.
LONDON (AP)  A British judge on Tuesday said the parents of a terminally ill toddler cannot take him to Italy for treatment, a course of action U.K. courts have said would be futile and wrong.

Justice Anthony Hayden rejected what he said was a final legal appeal by the parents of 23-month-old Alfie Evans, who has a degenerative neurological condition.

The judge said the ruling "represents the final chapter in the life of this extraordinary little boy."

The months-long legal battle between Alfie's parents and his doctors has drawn interventions from Pope Francis and Italian authorities, who have supported the family's desire to have their son cared for at the Vatican's hospital.

Doctors say Alfie is in a "semi-vegetative state" as a result of a degenerative brain condition that medics have been unable to identify precisely. Doctors treating him at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool say he has little brain function and further treatment is futile.

But his parents have refused to accept the decision and fought to prevent Alfie's life support being switched off. Evans, 21, and Alfie's mother Kate James, 20, want to take Alfie to the Vatican's Bambino Gesu Pediatric Hospital.

Lawyers for Alfie's parents had secured Tuesday's hearing a day after the toddler's lie support was withdrawn after a series of court rulings blocked further medical treatment.

Alfie's father Tom Evans said earlier Tuesday that Alfie survived for six hours with no assistance, and that doctors had subsequently resumed providing oxygen and hydration.

In court, the family's lawyer, Paul Diamond, read a statement from Tom Evans saying his son was doing "significantly better" than previously believed. Doctors say it is hard to estimate how long Alfie will live without life support, but that there is no chance his condition will improve.

At Tuesday's emergency court hearing in Manchester, the judge asked whether there might be "other options" that involved Alfie's parents taking their son home.

Emotions have run high over the case, which has seen Alfie's parents supported by a Christian charity and a band of supporters known as "Alfie's Army" protesting regularly outside the hospital. They have blocked roads and on Monday tried to storm a door of the hospital before being pushed back by police.

Pope Francis has met Alfie's father and made appeals for the boy's parents' wishes to be heeded, saying only God can decide who dies.

The head of the Bambino Gesu Hospital said the Italian defense ministry had a plane ready to transport Alfie to Italy if he were allowed. In an interview with Italian Radio 24, Mariella Enoc, who travelled to Liverpool to personally try to intervene on behalf of the parents, said she spoke to the Italian ambassador in London who said the plane could leave with him in a matter of minutes.

On Monday, the Italian foreign ministry announced it had granted Alfie Italian citizenship to facilitate his arrival and transport.

Under British law, it is common for courts to intervene when parents and doctors disagree on the treatment of a child. In such cases, the rights of the child take primacy over the parents' right to decide what's best for their offspring

The emotive case recalls the short life of another British child, Charlie Gard, who died of a rare genetic disease in July 2017 after a vicious court battle in which his parents sought treatment first in the U.S. and then Italy.

The case drew interventions from the pope and President Donald Trump, and became a flashpoint for debates on the rights of children and parents, the responsibilities of hospitals and the role of the state.

Russell Viner of the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, said decisions about withdrawing treatment were never taken lightly.

"Every action and decision is taken in the best interests of the child," he said.

___

Associated Press writer Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed to this story.

___

An earlier version of this story was corrected to show that the father's name is Tom, not James.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
NEW YORK (AP)  Allison Mack, the TV actress who starred in The CW network's "Smallville," was bailed out of jail on Tuesday and met with a chaotic scene outside a courthouse where she's charged with helping recruit women as sex slaves for the leader of a self-improvement group in upstate New York.

A federal judge in Brooklyn agreed to release Mack, who was arrested last week, on $5 million bond and place her under home detention in California. She'll be living with her parents at their home in Los Alamitos as she awaits trial.

Mack, 35, appeared in tan jail smocks for a brief court appearance. She only spoke to answer "yes" when the judge asked her if she understood the bail conditions.

Among those conditions: No contact with current or former members of the secretive group known as NXIVM. She'll also be subject to electronic monitoring and restrictions on computer and cellphone use.

By the time Mack left the courthouse more than two hours later, she had switched into a jean jacket, gray slacks and sneakers. She stared straight ahead in silence as she and her lawyers fought through a media scrum to a waiting car, with at least three photographers tripping over each other and toppling to the sidewalk along the way.

The actress played Chloe Sullivan, a teenage friend of Superman, on "Smallville." Since that series ended in 2011, she has played only minor roles.

Prosecutors said she helped recruit women for NXIVM leader Keith Raniere by telling them that they were joining a purported female mentorship group, prosecutors said. Instead, the victims "were exploited, both sexually and for their labor," and even branded with Raniere's initials, prosecutors said.

Federal authorities raided a residence near Albany where NXIVM was headquartered in March. The organization also ran programs in Mexico.

Raniere, 57, was arrested in Mexico, brought to the U.S. on March 26 and is being held without bail in Brooklyn on sex-trafficking charges.

At the time of Raniere's capture, Mack was living with him at a luxury villa in Puerto Vallarta, according to court papers.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
People in Toronto are waking up to a makeshift memorial for victims in the deadly sidewalk attack that left at least 10 people dead and more than a dozen injured.

Police say van driver Alek Minassian has no connection to terrorism

Toronto mayor says there is not threat to Canada's safety

Candles and signs now fill the area where a van deliberately plowed into a crowd Monday afternoon.

Toronto's Police Chief Mark Saunders says law enforcement is working collaboratively on a local and federal level to put all the pieces together.

"We are looking very strong into what the exact motive or motivation was for this particular incident to take place and at the end of the day we will have a fulsome answer and we'll have a fulsome account as to what the conclusion of this is," said Saunders.

A video caught by a bystander shows Toronto police arresting the 25-year-old Alek Minassian, who is accused of driving the van.

Police say he has no known connection to terrorism.

The city's mayor is asking for calm and said there is no threat to national security.

The White House responded to the tragedy in Canada. On Monday evening, the Press Secretary released a statement, saying that the United States stands with the Canadian people and pledges to provide any support.

Vice President Mike Pence also made a statement on Twitter.
MAITLAND, Fla.  The City of Maitland is now working to fix a flooding problem on a stretch of Highway 17-92 where on Monday night, at least one woman had to be rescued from her flooded car.

Maitland officials working to fix flooding on U.S. 17-92

Rains have flooded intersection of Park Ave.

At least 1 woman had to be rescued from car

RELATED: For 2nd time in 2 days, driver rescued from US 17-92 flooding

Recent rains have flooded Highway 17-92 in Maitland near the intersection of Park Avenue  just north of Lee Road.

Maitland Assistant City Manager Mark Reggentin says in early April, the city began project to install a new drainage system to fix longstanding flooding problems on 17-92.

But while that project was underway, Reggentin says temporary pumps designed to keep water off the roadway couldnt handle several bouts of heavy rain.

(It's) still technically dry season, so we thought we had a factor of safety, but obviously that wasnt what turned out, Reggentin said.

Reggentin says the city is now adding more pumps until the permanent drainage ditch is built. In the meantime, Reggentin says the city is going to man the area with first responders whenever it rains  just in case.

Sandra Beauford grew up in Maitland and still visits family at her childhood home. Beauford says the flooding has made it difficult and dangerous to get to her familys home.

Im very, very concerned, because what if Im in the car with my kids and I get stuck  what am I going to do? Beauford said.

Beauford says she was stuck in a traffic backup Sunday when stormwater flooded the road. That was the second time its happened in the same spot in April.

The area flooded for a third time Monday night. Maitland police had to rescue at least one woman from her car.

Its a big inconvenience and very scary, Beauford said.

Hopefully the problems wont be happening in the future. After tomorrow we get the system in and the road will be clear, but anytime you come through here during a heavy rain event, use caution, Reggentin said.

Maitland city officials say theyll also be working with the Florida Department of Transportation to see if other steps can be taken to prevent any future flooding in the area.
GILCHRIST COUNTY, Fla. -- The small, tight-knit community of Trenton was filled with law enforcement agencies from around the state and hundreds of other mourners Tuesday to remember the two deputies killed last week.

Flags continued to fly at half-staff in Gilchrist County in honor of Sgt. Noel Ramirez and Deputy Taylor Lindsey.

Viewing, funerals for slain Gilchrist Co. deputies

2 deputies killed in line of duty in Trenton, Florida

Deputies from Gilchrist County in north central Florida

PREVIOUS STORY: North Florida deputies shot dead in restaurant

Community gathers for vigil

The Gilchrist County Sheriff's Office deputies were shot and killed last week as they sat down for lunch at a restaurant.

Thousands turned out for the public viewing and funeral service at a the Bell High School gym. Bagpipes played as graveside honors followed at Bronson Cemetery.

Sgt. Ramirez and Deputy Lindsey are making their way to their final resting places surrounded by hundreds of law enforcement officers from across the state @BN9 @MyNews13 pic.twitter.com/SC8xEPKV0J  Angie Angers (@angie_angers) April 24, 2018 <_script charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js">

Authorities say 58-year-old John Hubert Highnote shot Ramirez and Lindsey on Thursday at the Ace China restaurant. He then went to his car and killed himself.

Sheriff Bobby Schultz blamed the deaths on hatred toward law enforcement.

"We will refuse to give up," Schultz said Tuesday. "We will refuse to give in to Satan. We will refuse to say that we are lesser than other people. We will refuse to apologize for doing our job that God has called us to do."

The scene inside todays packed memorial service for two Gilchrist County sheriffs deputies who where shot & killed while dining in a Chinese restaurant last week: pic.twitter.com/hcwunv4gSq  Troy Kinsey (@TroyKinsey) April 24, 2018 <_script charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js">

Police officers, sheriff's deputies and troopers from practically every corner of the state were in Trenton to pay their respects.

Ramirez and Lindsey were called over the radio for the last time around 3 p.m. Tuesday.

"Gilchrist to Papa 268 and Papa 293. Thank you for your service - rest easy, we have your watch from here. Papa 268 and Papa 293 this is the end of watch for the final time."
BERLIN  More than a dozen members of the Berlin Fire Department, representing all four companies, lined the wall behind members of the Board of Education Monday night in a stand against the elimination of the high school firefighting course.

Where are we steering these students? said Jim Simons, former fire chief and current town fleet manager and fire administrator. We received 28 firefighters through that program.

Simons was among several seasoned firefighters and former firefighting students who spoke to the education board about the need to keep the firefighting program at Berlin High School.

The decision was made to no longer offer the course in the fall due to low enrollment this spring. Course selection is based on teacher recommendations and student interest.

According to Berlin High School registration reports, a total of nine students, four for Firefighting and five for Firefighter Leadership, requested the full year course for the fall of 2018.

Other courses with low enrollment  less than 10 student requests  that will not be offered next year include automotive transportation systems, basic house wiring, basic plumbing and HVAC, introduction to electrical energy, and the yearbook class, among several other electives.

The enrollment at the high school in those courses is far behind other courses, said Brian Benigni, Superintendent of Berlin Schools. There are some budget constraints.

He said in order to be fiscally responsible, courses with less than double digit enrollment needed to be cut until more students are interested.

As part of the proposed $43.9 million school budget, two teachers were reduced at the high school, including a technology education teacher who taught the firefighting course.

Several members of the fire companies that attended the meeting questioned why the district is not making more of a push toward the tech ed field and less down the four-year college path.

These courses teach leadership skills, said Tyler St. Jarre, of the South Kensington Volunteer Fire Department. College is not the route for all students.

The 2012 Berlin High School graduate joined other alumni in speaking in support of the course.

Its too easy to see why this class is important, said James Wall, of the Kensington Fire Department. This class was something different.

He said he took the class in 2012 and was impacted by not only the lessons, but also teacher Russell Fuller.

Benigni said if enrollment improves, the course and other cut electives could potentially run next spring. He said the firefighting course has been facing decreased enrollment for the last five years, falling from 20-plus students to the nine requests for the fall.

Resident Sarah Patel said the school should find a way to highlight and advertise the tech ed classes and the firefighting course to students, adding its not all about grades.

Benigni said there has been discussions with departments about creating more interest in electives as well as consolidating classes for more opportunities. Final decisions on what classes will be held next year will be made before the end of the school year.

akus@record-journal.com

203-317-2448

Twitter: @KusReporter
MERIDEN  A Middletown man faces charges after police said he tried to pass 13 counterfeit $20 bills at Stop and Shop in February.

Dominic Perretti, 60, of 37 Warwick St., Middletown, was arrested on Monday and charged with two counts of first-degree forgery and one count of criminal attempt to commit fourth-degree larceny.

On Feb. 27, a man, later identified as Perretti, went into Stop and Shop, 485 Broad St., and tried to purchase gift cards, according to an arrest warrant. Perretti tried to pay using 13 $20 bills, and the cashier determined they were fake after using a counterfeit detection pen.

The manager and the store asset protection were alerted, but Perretti left the store without incident, the warrant noted. The store did not notify police about the incident until March 5.

Officers met with staff, who provided the counterfeit bills and security footage, the warrant said. Police noted the bills all had the same serial number and were marked with Motion Picture Use Only and security features were missing.

Police were contacted by a state police trooper who saw the information from the case on a state database, the warrant said. The trooper said he was investigating similar incidents at a Target in Lisbon and a Walmart in Putnam. The suspect in those cases was identified as Perretti, and they discovered the bills were purchased on Amazon. The trooper said he spoke with Perretti, who said his money was switched when he was sleeping.

Meriden police learned there are three Massachusetts police agencies that are investigating the use of motion picture money and Perretti, the warrant said.

When Perretti was taken into custody, police searched his possessions and found four additional counterfeit bills in his wallet, the report said. The four bills had the same serial number as the ones seized in the Stop and Shop incident.

Perretti was arraigned in Meriden Superior Court on Tuesday. Bond was set at $15,000 and Perretti is due back in court on May 25.
SOUTHINGTON  Board of Education members and supporters fired back at the Town Council during a budget hearing Monday night, responding to some councilors criticism of education spending at a meeting last week.

The council is considering a 2018-19 fiscal year budget and much of the discussion has centered on school funding.

Last week, Republican Councilor Michael Riccio suggested the town hire a consultant to look at potential savings in the Board of Education budget. Other councilors, including Democrat John Barry, also questioned whether the school district was focused on cost cutting.

Democrat Bob Brown, a school board member and former Southington High School teacher, said he listened to the discussion with disappointment and embarrassment to the insulting tone directed at the Board of Education.

Terri Carmody, school board vice chairwoman and a Republican, said councilors left the the impression that the school board was hoodwinking the public with reckless spending.

There could be nothing further from the truth. We look very, very diligently at the programs, what we can keep, what has to be cut, she said.

The Board of Finance unanimously approved a budget of $95,312,329 for the Board of Education last month. The council must decide whether to accept that figure or alter it.

Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connellan had sought a $97.3 million budget, an increase of about $3 million from the current year. In January, the school board approved a $96.8 million education spending plan. The finance board also unanimously approved a general government budget of $53.3 million.

Brian Goralski, school board chairman, said the district would likely cut teachers if money is not restored.

Thats not a threat, thats a reality, said Goralski, a Republican. Those are the real plans for how were going to find the $2 million.

After the hearing, Riccio said hes supported education while on the council but the traditional way of funding cant continue with the states financial situation.

The conversation (last week) was a discussion around fundamentally changing the way we provide education in the town of Southington. It doesnt mean going after teachers, he said. The party at the state of Connecticut is over.

jbuchanan@record-journal.com

203-317-2230

Twitter: @JBuchananRJ
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Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: After admitting that Congress party has its hands stained with Muslims blood, senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid on Tuesday went on back foot and took to twitter to defend his statement and justify his admission which he made at an event on AMU campus last Sunday. Now the senior Congress leader is blaming media for 'distorting' his answer to a student's question.

Media saddens. They question right to speak truth. They distort reply to isolated hostile question by imputing confession instead of reporting despite allegations would you deny our duty to protect you from harm? Sensationalism for profit?  Salman Khurshid (@salman7khurshid) April 24, 2018

He tweeted: Media saddens. They question right to speak truth. They distort reply to isolated hostile question by imputing confession instead of reporting despite allegations would you deny our duty to protect you from harm? Sensationalism for profit?

READ HERE | Salman Khurshid's answer on communal riots during Congress regime not satisfactory, says ex-AMU student Mohammad Amir Mintoee

On Sunday, Khurshid, during an interaction with students at the annual function of Aligarh Muslim University on campus, had accepted that the Congress had blood of Muslims on its hands. He was replying to a direct question put forth by an ex-student Mohammad Amir Mintoee who asked if Congress had stains of Muslims blood on its hands owing to a number of riots in its receptive regimes.

Khurshid, gave an answer in affirmative, however, added that the Congress would stop others from doing so by bringing such instances to the fore so that others could take a lesson from the past mistakes or else they would also have the stains on their hands.

On being asked how would he wash those stains off after so many anti-Muslim riots and also the sacrifice of Babri mosque, former union minister averred that he also had those stains by virtue of being a Congressman.

Our hem is tainted by blood stains but we will show these stains to others to make them understand that if they attack these people, they will also get those stains, Khurshid was shown as saying. He maintained that lessons from the past mistakes should be taken so that if someone comes here after 10 years from now there are people like you to question them, he said.

Mintoee had referred to Meeruts Hashimpura, Muzaffarnagar and Malyana riots while posing the query to the Congress leader. He had also mentioned the unlocking of Babri mosque, placement of idols inside it and the final demolition.

Despite kicking up a row, Khurshid refused to withdraw his statement and said he was merely defending the Congress.

When asked whether his views represented those of the Congress, Khurshid asserted: I am not a representative of the Congress party, I am the Congress party".

However, later when the party distanced itself calling the statement his personal view, Khursheed clarified that he made the statement as a human being. What I said I will continue to say, I made the statement as a human being," tweeted the Congress leader.
Harpreet Bajwa By

Express News Service

CHANDIGARH: Sir Simon McDonald, Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Head of the Diplomatic Service of United Kingdom had to apologise for calling the Sikhs holiest shrine Golden temple also known as Harmandir Sahib as a mosque during his visit to Punjab, after criticism on social media.

Yesterday he tweeted referring to the Golden Temple as the Golden Mosque, "At QBP in Chandigarh @SinghLions presented @DHCAndrewAyre with picture of HM The Queen at Golden Mosque in Amritsar in 1997, a permanent memento for Deputy High Commissions wall @UKinIndia."

At QBP in Chandigarh @SinghLions presented @DHCAndrewAyre with picture of HM The Queen at Golden Mosque in Amritsar in 1997, a permanent memento for Deputy High Commissions wall @UKinIndia pic.twitter.com/GFkBT0GcRU  Sir Simon McDonald (@SMcDonaldFCO) April 23, 2018

He was widely criticised for his unbelievable comment on social media. Someone in such a senior position and while visiting the Sikh homeland should not be making such a fundamental mistake.

McDonald apologised, tweeting: "I was wrong: I am sorry. I should of course have said the Golden Temple or, better, Sri Harmandir Sahib."

I was wrong: I am sorry. I should of course have said the Golden Temple or, better, Sri Harmandir Sahib. https://t.co/4rJ4mwOdCJ  Sir Simon McDonald (@SMcDonaldFCO) April 24, 2018

Bhai Amrik Singh, the Chair of the Sikh Federation (UK) said, "This was a major gaffe by a top civil servant and totally unacceptable. It demonstrates a remarkable level of ignorance from someone in his position. What hope is there for the average person to distinguish between Sikhs and Muslims if someone holding his position can make such a massive blunder while visiting the Sikh homeland?"

"Unfortunately, it is this sort of ignorance or mistaken identity that breeds hate and has resulted in Sikhs being abused, attacked and in some cases killed across the globe since 9/11. In our view a public apology and admitting the mistake is not enough. What we need is a commitment from the UK Government and senior civil servants to root out such ignorance and discrimination or we will continue to face hate, abuse and threats of violence," he said.

Singh said, "The Prime Minister and Home Secretary will have an opportunity next week to address this head on. The Prime Minister will be celebrating Baisakhi with Sikhs at 10 Downing Street next Monday and the Home Secretary the next day will be meeting Preet Kaur Gill MP, the first Sikh woman MP and the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for British Sikhs to discuss ignorance, ending discrimination and hate crimes targeting Sikhs."
Why there isn't necessarily sweeping police reform in Newport County

The desire to change for the better is there, community advocate Randy Butler said.
Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Areas of patchy fog early. Cloudy skies with a few showers this afternoon. High near 75F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 62F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph.
Song Chen / China Daily

High-level visits between India and China have never seen such a scale and speed. On Tuesday, India's ministers for external affairs and defense Sushma Swaraj and Nirmala Sitharaman will respectively attend the foreign ministers' and defense ministers' meetings of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Beijing.

But more importantly, the two Indian ministers will get an opportunity to hold parleys with Chinese leaders on bilateral issues, including on the summit meeting between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping in Wuhan, Hubei province, on April 27-28, two months before Modi is scheduled to attend the SCO Summit in Qingdao, Shandong province. Such back-to-back visits will be the first in history.

These developments do send positive signals after the border standoff between the Chinese and Indian armies last year. The two sides have since focused on rebuilding mutual trust, with Modi's visit to Xiamen, Fujian province, to attend the BRICS Summit in September breaking the jinx. Yet the ice at the official level started melting only when Rajiv Kumar, vice-chair of India's top planning body, NITI Aayog, visited Beijing on Dec 5 for the third annual dialogue with China's top think tank, Development Research Center of the State Council, China's Cabinet.

This was followed by frequent visits from both sides, including Chinese top diplomats Wang Yi and Yang Jiechi's visits to India, and Indian's Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale's visit to China in February.

Commerce Minister Zhong Shan visited New Delhi last month to hold talks to promote discussions on "China-India free trade area" and India's trade deficit of $51 billion with China in 2017. The spirits seem high because of an unprecedented rise in China-India trade last year, especially because of about 40 percent increase in Indian exports to China.

It was Vice-Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou's visit to New Delhi on April 5-6 to hold talks with India's foreign secretary, which set the tone for the meeting between Xi-Modi in Wuhan.

Since 2014, when Modi became India's prime minister, Xi has visited India twiceon a state visit in September 2014 and to attend the BRICS Summit in 2016, while Modi has visited China thriceon a state visit in May 2015, and to attend the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, in September 2016 and the BRICS Summit in Xiamen in September last year.

Discussions between Indian and Chinese officials on Modi's visit to China began on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, which Modi addressed in January, just like Xi had done last year. Much of these had been under the wraps and now reports about the Modi-Xi summit in Wuhan have raised expectations with both sides projecting new initiatives.

India wants China's support for its membership to the Nuclear Suppliers Group, while China would like to explore India's support for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and the China-Nepal-India economic corridor, which are part of the Belt and Road Initiative.

Although New Delhi may not be averse to endorsing the China-Nepal-India economic corridor, its negotiations for renaming and remodeling the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, to fully redress India's serious reservations, may prove to be difficult even for the planned close door talks between Modi and Xi.

The author is a professor of international relations at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam says she is confident an Education Bureau committee which reviews textbooks is focused solely on ensuring accurate wording.

She made the statement before today's Executive Council meeting in response to questions about the Textbook Committee scrutinising certain phrases.

"It's not a question of me changing the phrases or the presentation. It's a question for the committee to ensure that textbooks used in Hong Kong are accurate and precise.

"So I have every confidence that these experts are doing this very important task with that one single objective in mind, and that is to ensure a high degree of precision and accuracy in our textbooks."

Giving the constitutional status of the Chief Executive as an example, she said the position holds dual accountability under the Basic Law as the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the head of the HKSAR Government.

However, the post of her deputy should be described as Chief Secretary for Administration of the HKSAR Government.

Mrs Lam said if there is confusion over such terms in government documents or textbooks, they should be corrected.

"I just feel that some people have overreacted to this very important exercise to ensure that the descriptions that we use, especially when we use them in textbooks, are accurate."
China has achieved remarkable achievements in the development of its naval forces, though the People's Liberation Army Navy is facing ever increasing challenges due to uncertain relations with the US, experts say.

The PLA celebrated Navy Day on Monday, marking the 69th anniversary of the founding of China's navy.

China's first domestically built aircraft carrier Type 001A is currently under construction at Dalian Port, which is about to finish outfitting work and prepare for its first sea trial.

On Monday morning, the carrier started to move from its berth at the outfitting quay. Chinese military enthusiasts and net users hailed the update saying this could be the "best birthday gift" for the navy.

"Very soon, China will have two aircraft carrier strike groups. Extensive training on the country's first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, has given the PLA Navy experience operating the huge ship in the open sea, and gained initial capabilities on military operations in the far seas," Wang Yunfei, a Beijing-based naval expert and a retired PLA Navy officer, told the Global Times on Monday.

A third aircraft carrier the Type 002, which is much more advanced than the Liaoning and the Type 001A, is under construction at the Shanghai Jiangnan Shipyard.

The PLA Daily and the Ministry of Defense released a video on their official websites and social media accounts showcasing the achievements of the PLA Navy in recent years. The video provides details on China's nuclear submarines, the country's first overseas logistics base in Djibouti, anti-piracy missions in Somalia, amphibious landing military exercises by the Marine Corps and the aircraft carrier strike group's training missions in the open seas.

China's submarine-launched nuclear strike capability has also been improved, Wang said. "The Type 094 nuclear ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) can carry multiple missiles and nuclear warheads," he said.

The Type 094 nuclear submarine is a highly classified strategic warship, but it appeared at the massive naval parade in the South China Sea on April 12. A new type of Chinese SSBN is under construction, according to military sources, and will have much more advanced combat capabilities.

Although the Chinese navy has made remarkable achievements, it still needs to improve in many areas, including anti-submarine capability, additional auxiliary ships for replenishment missions, and boosting the development of amphibious assault ships, said Song Zhongping, a military expert and TV commentator.

"With China's fast-growing overseas national interests, the navy's mission will be more complicated and significant. China now has only one overseas logistics base in Africa, but in the future, the Chinese navy will need more bases around the globe, especially in key regions, to support its overseas missions, said Xu Guangyu, a retired major general of the PLA and senior adviser to the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association.

Challenges remain

The Navy Day in 2018 is unusual, Wang said. "The recent uncertainty between China and the US has brought challenges to China's navy. Possible incidents including the US sending senior officials or naval ships to Taiwan carry the danger of military conflict. The requirement for China to use it navy and other military forces is increasing."

The PLA is conducting various missions around Taiwan to deter "Taiwan independence" forces and foreign forces that try to provoke China's sovereignty, including sending the Liaoning on a training mission near Taiwan, sending bombers and fighter jets to fly around the island, and launching live-fire drills in the Taiwan Straits.

Solving the Taiwan question militarily would require powerful amphibious landing capability and China is developing its new amphibious assault ships that will carry China's most advanced armed helicopter, the Z-20. The PLA Navy will very soon have the ability to conduct massive amphibious landing operations, which can deliver a division of troops at a time, Wang said.
Islamabad (Peoples Daily) - The death toll from a suicide bombing attack at a voter registration center in Kabul on Sunday morning has risen to 57, according to Afghanistans Public Health Ministry.

Local people wait to see their family members outside a hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, on April 22, 2018. [Photo/Xinhua]

A police spokesperson said a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device in proximity to people waiting in line to register to vote, the Pajhwok News Agency reported.

At least 112 innocent bystanders sustained injuries related to the attack, said Wahidullah Majroh, spokesperson for the Public Health Ministry.

The extremist group Islamic State (IS) later claimed responsibility for the attack.

Earlier this month, Afghan election officials set October 20 as the date for legislative and district council elections, which have already been delayed by three years. Since voter registration began last week, attacks focused on the countrys election efforts have occurred.

Two hours after the Kabul bombing, an explosion was reported close to another voter registration center in Baghlan Province, killing at least six people and injuring five others.

Local media reported that a total of five attacks targeting the election facilities have been carried out in less than a week.
A group of Russian military inspectors will visit a designated district in Britain and receive briefings there about military activities by the British side, a senior Russian military official said Monday.

The visit, to be carried out within the framework of Vienna Document 2011 on Confidence and Security-Building Measures, is scheduled between April 23-26, Sergei Ryzhkov, head of Russia's National Nuclear Risk Reduction Center, was quoted by Sputnik news agency as saying.

Russian inspectors will visit training grounds and ranges, receive briefings on military activities, formations and units in the specified area, as well as the information about Britain's military drills Joint Warrior 18/1 slated for April 21-May 4, added Ryzhkov.

The Vienna Document is an agreement between the participating states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to promote information sharing and beef up regional security.

The document has been revised periodically, and the provisions of the current 2011 version include an annual exchange of military information about forces located in Europe.
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(Newser)  A US serviceman has become the world's first man to ever receive a full penis and scrotum transplant. Per USA Today, the veteran was injured by an IED years ago while on combat tour in Afghanistan. Surgeons from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine announced the historic news on Monday after performing the unprecedented surgery in Baltimore last month. The patient is expected to recover both urinary and sexual function, according to the surgeons. Surgeons said they rebuilt the man's entire pelvic region over the course of 14 hours. Per the AP, the scrotum transplant did not include the donor's testicles, meaning reproduction won't be possible. "We just felt there were too many unanswered ethical questions" with that extra step, said Hopkins' Dr. Damon Cooney.

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Three other successful penis transplants have been reported, two in South Africa and one in 2016 at Massachusetts General Hospital. Those transplants involved only the penis, not extensive surrounding tissue that made this transplant much more complex. Hopkins is screening additional veterans to see if they are good candidates for this type of reconstructive transplant. The Hopkins patient received an extra experimental step, an infusion of bone marrow from his donor that research suggests may help a recipient's immune system better tolerate a transplant. Surgeons said that is enabling the veteran to take one anti-rejection drug instead of several. In a statement from Hopkins, the patient was quoted as saying: "When I first woke up, I felt finally more normal." (Read more penis transplant stories.)
(Newser)  Scientists using the huge telescope on Hawaii's Mauna Kea volcano have discovered the world's most obvious space joke. "Uranus smells like farts" is an actual, and correct, headline making the rounds, as here and here. But as the BBC explains, it's no joke. It seems the seventh planet from the sun does indeed smell like rotten eggs. Scientists figured this out using the spectrometer on the Gemini North telescopethey found that the planet's clouds are made up mostly of the smelly gas hydrogen sulfide. The discovery, reported in Nature Astronomy, should help astronomers better understand the formation not only of Uranus but of the other outer planets. For one thing, Uranus differs from gas giants Jupiter and Saturn, whose clouds are made up mostly of ammonia ice (and are thus less smelly).

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"If an unfortunate human were to ever descend through Uranus' clouds, they would be met with very unpleasant and odiferous conditions," says study co-author Patrick Irwin of the University of Oxford in a news release. Not that they'd live long enough to sniff it: "Suffocation and exposure in the (minus 328 degrees Fahrenheit) atmosphere made of mostly hydrogen, helium and methane would take its toll long before the smell." It's likely that Neptune's clouds are similar to Uranus' clouds in makeup, given that those two planets formed farther from the sun than Jupiter and Saturn, notes Space.com. For the record, astronomers generally prefer pronouncing the planet with the accent on the first syllable (YER-in-us), per Universe Today. (Scientists examining 30-year-old images from Uranus found a surprise.)
(Newser)  If you have a BFF and no big summer plans, an Icelandic airline is making a tempting offer. Per Business Insider, Wow Air will set up one lucky duo in a fully furnished apartment in downtown Reykjavik, which will serve as home base from June 1 to Aug. 15, with a $4,000 monthly stipend for each. From there, winners will travel to four destinations in Iceland, as well as eight random Wow destinations (there are 38 to choose from) across Europe and North America, then blog and vlog about their experiences as a Wow Air "travel guide."

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As Thrillist notes, however, there are some "serious expectations" involved. The winner(s) will need to churn out a constant flow of Instagram posts, videos, and other content detailing food, culture, and transportation tipsbasically compiling a "complete digital travel guide" for each destination. The application on the Wow Air site is due May 14, and applicants should be prepared to start showing off their stuff now: Contenders need to upload a short video (two minutes max) detailing tips for their own hometown. The winners will be announced by May 18. (Will the victors feel guilty about ruining Iceland while they're there?)
(Newser)  Police have arrested a woman believed to have visited neonatal units of hospitals in the Carolinas "possibly in attempts to abduct a child." Linda Mae Everett, 36, visited a women and children's hospital in Wilmington, NC, on April 5, but was denied entry at a check-in desk where all visitors must present photo identification, reports the News & Observer. Undeterred, Everett made her way to patient care areas anyway, says a rep for the New Hanover Regional Medical Center. She was reportedly stopped and questioned when she was spotted without a visitor's badge.

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While the hospital says there was no attempt to remove an infant, per the Wilmington Star-News, police fear that was Everett's plan. Following warrants for her arrest, she was taken into custody in High Point, some 200 miles from Wilmington, on Tuesday, reports ABC11. She faces three counts of felony breaking and entering and one count of misdemeanor larceny tied to the April 5 incident. Police say Everett also faces one count of misdemeanor larceny tied to an incident in Brunswick County. She is out on bond, reports WWAY. (This woman admitted kidnapping a newborn 20 years ago.)
The Dalian Naval Academy holds a parade to celebrate the 69th anniversary of the PLA Navy, April 23, 2018. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Perfect synchronization! These 1,050 cadets from the Dalian Naval Academy form an invulnerable phalanx as they march forward and seamlessly change formation to the beat of military songs.

On Monday, the future sailors marched on the academy's parade ground to celebrate the 69th anniversary of the PLA Navy, April 23, 2018.

The Dalian Naval Academy holds a parade to celebrate the 69th anniversary of the PLA Navy, April 23, 2018. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
(Newser)  The NRA's charitable arm is calling the maker of a premium brand of cooler "unsportsmanlike" after the manufacturer ended a discount program. That's per a letter from NRA Foundation lobbyist Marion Hammer, who was the NRA's first female president and says Yeti "should be ashamed," USA Today reports. In a statement, Yeti took issue with the NRA's characterization, saying Hammer's letter is "inaccurate" and that it's simply halting some "outdated discounting programs" and setting up an "alternate customization program." Yetiwhich sells coolers that can go for up to $1,300 and is the latest company to modify its relationship with the NRA after the Parkland shooting, per the Hilladded it's "unwavering in our belief in and commitment to the Constitution of the United States and its Second Amendment," the Austin American-Statesman reports.

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No matter the details, gun owners are railing against Yeti and saying they've "shot themselves in the foot." One prominent detractor who now supports a boycott: Chris Loesch, husband of NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch. "Do you not understand who your base is?," Chris Loesch tweeted. "Will never buy or use any of your products again and we had a bunch." Some are even taking to destroying their Yeti productsincluding by blowing them up, shooting them with rifles, and crushing them in visesusing #YetiCoolerChallenge. Not everyone agrees this is the most sensible reaction. "Let me get this straight: #yeticoolerchallenge = fill $500 cooler with $20 of tannerite. Blow up cooler. Outcome: @Yeti keeps $500, @NRA foundation receives no benefit, and you are left with no cooler and a huge mess to clean up  seems reasonable," one observer sarcastically notes. (Read more NRA stories.)
(Newser)  Former President George HW Bush has been hospitalized in Houston with an infection, just after attending the funeral of his wife, Barbara, a spokesman said Monday. Jim McGrath said on Twitter that the 93-year-old Bush is "responding to treatments and appears to be recovering," the AP reports. He was admitted Sunday morning to Houston Methodist Hospital after an infection spread to his blood, McGrath said. McGrath wouldn't elaborate Monday night on the specifics of Bush's condition, saying additional updates would be issued "as events warrant." But he said the 41st president was eager to get well so he can get to his summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine. "He's the most goal-oriented person on this planet," McGrath said.

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First lady Melania Trump, who attended Barbara Bush's funeral, sent her best wishes to the former president Monday evening. "Sending healing thoughts of strength, along with prayers, for President George HW Bush tonight," Melania Trump tweeted. Barbara Bush was laid to rest Saturday in a ceremony also attended by former presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and their wives. She was 92, and she and her husband had been married 73 yearsthe longest presidential marriage in US history. Their son, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, indicated during his eulogy Saturday that his father had been hospitalized recently at the same time Barbara Bush was in the hospital for the last time. Those hospitalizations were not publicly disclosed at the time. "I think Dad got sick on purpose so that he could be with her," Jeb Bush said.

(Read more George HW Bush stories.)
(Newser)  President Trump's choice for secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, has cleared the Senate Foreign Relations Committee with a favorable recommendation, narrowly avoiding a rare rebuke as his confirmation heads to the full Senate. Democrats put up stiff resistance and voted against Pompeo, who's currently the CIA director. Only a last-minute switch from Kentucky Republican Rand Paulwhom Trump called before the voteenabled Pompeo to win committee approval, the AP reports. It would have been the first time since the committee starting keeping records in 1925 that a secretary of state nominee faced an unfavorable report.

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Pompeo's nomination now goes to the full Senate, where votes are tallying in his favor. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he looks forward to voting to confirm Pompeo this week. Paul announced his change in position after talking with Trump moments before the committee was set to consider the nominee. He tweeted that after talking with Trump and meeting with the nominee he received assurances that Pompeo believes the Iraq war "was a mistake, that regime change has destabilized the region, and that we must end our involvement with Afghanistan." With those assurances, the senator said he had "decided to support his nomination to be our next secretary of state."

(Read more Mike Pompeo stories.)
(Newser)  A crash that killed 32 tourists from North Korea's chief ally brought "bitter sorrow" to the heart of leader Kim Jong Un, according to Pyongyang's official KCNA news agency. The agencyin a rare admission of bad newssaid the Chinese tourists and four North Koreans were killed when a tour bus plunged off a bridge in North Hwanghae province, south of the capital, the BBC reports. Kim "couldn't control his grief at the thought of the bereaved families who lost their blood relatives," KCNA said. The AP reports that China, source of the vast majority of foreign tourists to North Korea, has sent diplomats and a medical team to assist. (Read more North Korea stories.)
(Newser)  Frustration over the disappearance of three university students in Mexico turned to outrage Monday as authorities revealed the men were tortured and killed by cartel members who wrongly suspected them of belonging to a rival gang. Enrolled at Guadalajara's University of Audiovisual Media, Javier Salomon Aceves Gastelum, 25; Marco Avalos, 20; and Jesus Daniel Diaz, 20, were filming a school project at the Tonala home of one of their aunts when they were abducted by armed men dressed as police officers on March 19. The home had previously been used as a safe house by a rival gang of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which had been keeping an eye on it, reports the Washington Post. When car trouble left the students stranded, the cartel apparently saw an opportunity.

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Though Gastelum, Avalos, and Diaz had no known connection to criminal gangs, authorities believe they were taken to another home to be interrogated. One of the three was beaten to death before the others were executed, authorities say. Their bodiesand possibly otherswere then dissolved at a separate location where 46 barrels of sulfuric acid were found, police add. Students who last month took to the streets to demand the men's safe return in a country that saw its deadliest year with more than 25,000 homicides in 2017 were outraged by the news, even as authorities said two of eight suspects were in custody, per Reuters. "They murdered the film students and dissolved their bodies in acid for doing homework," reads one sample tweet, per the Post. "This country is hell." (Read more Mexico stories.)
(Newser)  Nearly 60% of Maine's voters gave the green light to Medicaid expansion in their state in a November ballot initiative, and individuals are supposed to become eligible for coverage starting July 2, per that mandate. But there's a wrench in the works in the form of Gov. Paul LePage, who is defying voters by refusing to adopt the ObamaCare program and missing paperwork deadlines, reports Politico. LePage has already five times vetoed bills related to the expansion, which would cover an estimated 80,000 low-income Maine adults. An expansion funding deal disintegrated last week just as Maine's legislative session wrapped up, and it's not clear if lawmakers will address the issue when they come back for a veto session later in the year.

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Per MaineBiz.com, LePage says the expansion would throw Maine into a fiscal crisis and that his administration won't give the go-ahead unless lawmakers can guarantee funding without raising taxes or tapping into "rainy day" funds, among other conditions. But an article last month in the Modern Healthcare trade publication cites two recent reports, with one noting Medicaid expansion in 31 other states has so far brought about "negligible or minor" costs, and the other asserting that the cost is about half of what LePage says it will be. The next step for Medicaid expansion proponents in the Pine Tree State: heading to court. "The law is clear," a rep for advocacy group Maine Equal Justice Partners tells Politico. "People will have a right [to coverage] and we will represent them in court." (Read more Paul LePage stories.)
(Newser)  An eastern Minnesota teen who asked her celebrity crush Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to prom got a huge surprise when he actually responded, per the AP. Stillwater Area High School senior Katie Kelzenberg asked the actor to "Rock" it with her at the school's May 5 prom in a Twitter video posted last week, the Pioneer Press reports. The self-proclaimed fan was dressed like The Rock in the video, sporting a black turtleneck, jeans, a gold necklace, and fanny pack. She also showed off her collection of Johnson-related merchandise, including a pillow, T-shirts, and an action figure. Johnson's recorded response was played over the school intercom Friday. A Warner Bros. representative contacted school officials Thursday about the surprise message, says a spokeswoman for the district.

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Johnson said he admires Kelzenberg's courage but that he won't be able to attend prom because he'll be in Hawaii filming Jungle Cruise. Instead, Johnson rented out a nearby movie theater on Saturday for Kelzenberg and more than 230 friends and family to watch his latest movie, Rampage. Johnson even covered the cost of snacks and drinks for the theater. "I couldn't believe it. I was so surprised," Kelzenberg says. "I just kept thinking, 'He saw me! He knows who I am!'" Kelzenberg says she became a fan of Johnson's five years ago. Her favorite movies of his include Central Intelligence and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. "I like that he interacts with his fans so well," she says. "He takes time out of his day to connect with them." Kelzenberg plans to go to prom with her friends.

(Read more Dwayne Johnson stories.)
(Newser)  A surprising turn of events this week has focused attention on the former Soviet state of Armenia: There, longtime leader Serzh Sargsyan abruptly resigned on Monday amid protests accusing him of a blatant power grab. "I was wrong," Sargsyan, an ally of Vladimir Putin, told the nation. As the BBC explains, Sargsyan had served as Armenia's president from 2008 until term limits forced him from the post this month. His solution? He took advantage of a referendum back in 2015 that transferred most power from the president to a prime ministera vote critics say Sargsyan himself engineered so he could remain in control by switching offices when his presidential term ended, drawing parallels to Putin. Sure enough, as soon as his term wrapped up, the parliament voted him into the prime minister's post with no opposition, reports the New York Times.

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"The way that they proceeded was so arrogant that it triggered a rather intense reaction that nobody expected," says the head of an Armenian think tank. Protesters took to the streets for days, and things came to a head Sunday after Sargsyan walked out of televised talks with opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan when Pashinyan demanded his resignation. Pashinyan was detained, and protests intensifiedand they likely would have gotten worse Tuesday, when the nation marks the genocide of 1.5 million Armenians at the hands of Ottoman Turks. Perhaps to ward that off, Sargsyan stepped down, saying that Pashinyan "was right." A Sargsyan ally has assumed the prime minister's post for now. A Washington Post editorial sees all this as bad news for Putin, along with "the thuggish, corruption-ridden, and economically failed model that is Putinism." (Read more Armenia stories.)
(Newser)  Amazon is an odd companyit's "often compared to Silicon Valley tech giants," as the Wall Street Journal puts it, but tech is just one part of its business. Retail, logistics, and transportation are the other parts, and that explains why the median annual salary of its workers is just $28,446. Its half-a-million-strong workforce is largely blue-collar, with most of its employees working in warehouses and making about the same as workers in the warehouses of other companiesdespite the fact that Amazon has, as one economist puts it, an "enormous market advantage"; its market valuation is 184 times this year's estimated earnings. Amazon, along with more than 330 other companies, just released its median annual pay amount as part of the Dodd-Frank Law's requirement to reveal the gap between worker pay and executive pay, Bloomberg reports; Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos reported total compensation of $1.68 million last year.

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When comparing Amazon's median pay to other tech companies, it comes in quite low: Facebook's median annual compensation, for example, is $240,430. But Amazon has the fifth-highest median pay of retailers that are ranked by S&P Global; retailers including Home Depot, Macy's, Walmart, and Gap all have lower median compensation figures. Amazon pays less than all the transportation companies ranked by S&P Global, and when it comes to logistics, an expert estimates its pay comes in in the top half of logistics employers but not in the top 10%. The median annual figure takes into account all of Amazon's employees, both full- and part-time, who are located in more than 50 countries. (Amazon's workforce now also includes Whole Foods grocery store employees.) An Amazon spokesperson says full-time US fulfillment-center workers make an average wage of more than $15 per hour, including cash, stock, and incentive bonuses. (Read more Amazon.com stories.)
(Newser)  A construction worker in Tehran has unearthed a mummified body at a former royal mausoleum, and its discovery could pose a tricky problem for the nation's rulers. The hot speculation is that the remains are that of Reza Shah Pahlavi, seen by many as the founder of modern Iran and the father of the shah who was overthrown in the 1979 revolution, reports the Telegraph. It's a "possibility," says the head of the city's heritage committee, and one "that will be examined by responsible bodies." It was not clear if or when DNA tests would take place. Pahlavi had been placed in the mausoleum after his death in 1944, but revolutionaries destroyed the site following the Iranian revolution. Pahlavi's body was never recovered. It was his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was overthrown.

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The discovery of the remains came during work on a Shiite shrine, and a spokesman for that shrine dismisses the idea that the remains are that of Pahlavi. If he's wrong, however, the AP explains that Iran's leaders have a fine line to navigate. Pahlavi, who rose to power in 1925 and ruled until his abdication in 1941, is still widely revered. Among other things, he ordered men to wear Western clothes and to bring their wives to public events with their hair uncovered. He also banned women from wearing long robes known as chadors. His grandson, Reza Pahlavi, tweeted Monday that he is closely watching how authorities handle the investigation into the remains. "I warn the responsible authorities not to hide anything," he wrote. (Read more Iran stories.)
Source: Associated Press of Pakistan

BEIJING: Chinese Defence Minister, Wei Fenghe said on Monday that China and Pakistan defence and military cooperation was the pillar of the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries.

He made these remarks while talking to visiting Defence Minister, Engr Khurram Dastgir Khan in a meeting held here.

The Chinese defence minister acknowledged the unprecedented sacrifices made by the armed forces and people of Pakistan during the ongoing fight against the menace of terrorism.

Wei Fenghe said that China supported Pakistans stance over longstanding Kashmir issue, which was pending unresolved for the last 70 years.

He said that all-weather partnership and the defence military cooperation between the two countries helped maintain a strategic balance in the region.

Khurram Dastgir discussed way and means to further strengthen defence cooperation between the two countries.

He also briefed the Chinese defence minister about the latest situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir and massive human rights violations by Indian troops against the innocent Kashmiris.

Meanwhile, Khurram Dastgir met Defence Minister of Belarus, Andrei Ravkov on the sidelines of SCO defence ministers meeting here.

Both the ministers discussed bilateral defence and military cooperation during the meeting.

They agreed to further broaden and deepen the defence cooperation and said, this cooperation should be visible in the bilateral relations of the two countries.

Khurram Dastgir is visiting China on a two-day official visit to attend a meeting of the defence ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

The SCO, an inter-governmental organization, founded in Shanghai, China on June 15, 2001, now includes China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and India as full members.

Pakistan and India were admitted as full members of the organisation at the summit in Astana last year.

Disclaimer: This article was originally produced and published by Associated Press of Pakistan. View the original article at Associated Press of Pakistan.
(Newser)  One of the moments getting the most attention from President Trump's press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron Tuesday had to do with ... dandruff. "We have a very special relationship, in fact I'll get that little piece of dandruff off," Trump said while learning over to brush something off Macron's suit. "We have to make him perfecthe is perfect." CBS News reports that Macron seemed at first "caught off guard," but then smiled and laughed. More details from the joint news conference, which took place during Macron's second day of meetings at the White House:

Another weird move: Live MSNBC footage caught Trump apparently attempting to hold the First Lady's hand, and Melania Trump apparently not being into it at all. People calls the whole thing "awkward" and rounds up amused Twitter reactions, while Elle says it's "absolute agony" to watch and rounds up images of Trump's other awkward hand-holding encounters. Cosmopolitan calls it "without a doubt the most uncomfortable Donald/Melania hand-holding moment of all time," noting it took Trump 13 seconds before finally managing to grasp his wife's hand in his, and the Cut reminisces about the other times Trump has failed at holding hands with his wife.

Live MSNBC footage caught Trump apparently attempting to hold the First Lady's hand, and Melania Trump apparently not being into it at all. People calls the whole thing "awkward" and rounds up amused Twitter reactions, while Elle says it's "absolute agony" to watch and rounds up images of Trump's other awkward hand-holding encounters. Cosmopolitan calls it "without a doubt the most uncomfortable Donald/Melania hand-holding moment of all time," noting it took Trump 13 seconds before finally managing to grasp his wife's hand in his, and the Cut reminisces about the other times Trump has failed at holding hands with his wife. Hand-holding success: Trump had more success grabbingand holding ontoMacron's hand, but that moment was also widely hailed as awkward, People reports, rounding up reactions.

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And yet another weird move: Trump also attempted that oh-so-French sign of affection, the double cheek kiss, on his wife ... but he couldn't reach her cheeks due to the large brim of the hat she was wearing, and settled for air kisses instead, Yahoo News reports. Interestingly, Macron was able to maneuver around the brim to successfully plant two smooches on Melania's cheeks, and Trump had similar success kissing Macron's wife on the cheeks.

Trump also attempted that oh-so-French sign of affection, the double cheek kiss, on his wife ... but he couldn't reach her cheeks due to the large brim of the hat she was wearing, and settled for air kisses instead, Yahoo News reports. Interestingly, Macron was able to maneuver around the brim to successfully plant two smooches on Melania's cheeks, and Trump had similar success kissing Macron's wife on the cheeks. Speaking of that hat: Melania's white hat got lots of attention on social media, with some wondering if she wore it specifically to keep a distance from her husband's lips. Some praised the hat as a bold fashion choice; others said she looked like, among other things, Carmen Sandiego, Jude Law in The Young Pope, or Beyonce in her "Formation" video. The New York Times takes a closer look at Melania's outfit choice and the reaction to it.

Melania's white hat got lots of attention on social media, with some wondering if she wore it specifically to keep a distance from her husband's lips. Some praised the hat as a bold fashion choice; others said she looked like, among other things, Carmen Sandiego, Jude Law in The Young Pope, or Beyonce in her "Formation" video. The New York Times takes a closer look at Melania's outfit choice and the reaction to it. "Fantastique" photos: At the Guardian, Hannah Jane Parkinson rounds up some of the weirdest pictures from day one of Macron's visit and writes, "never will we be gifted such a dream set of press photos as the three day Macron-Trump tete-a-tete, the first day of which has seen the foursome visit the former home of George Washington and awkwardly plant a tree."

At the Guardian, Hannah Jane Parkinson rounds up some of the weirdest pictures from day one of Macron's visit and writes, "never will we be gifted such a dream set of press photos as the three day Macron-Trump tete-a-tete, the first day of which has seen the foursome visit the former home of George Washington and awkwardly plant a tree." What did Trump and Macron actually talk about? For those looking for actual talking points from Tuesday's joint press conference, NPR reports the two leaders could not hide "stark differences" on matters including trade, Syria, and the Iran nuclear deal. The Atlantic agrees, noting the two world leaders "aren't all bromance."

For those looking for actual talking points from Tuesday's joint press conference, NPR reports the two leaders could not hide "stark differences" on matters including trade, Syria, and the Iran nuclear deal. The Atlantic agrees, noting the two world leaders "aren't all bromance." Coming up tonight: A state dinner, Trump's first. People reports that though he said on the campaign trail he'd do away with expensive state dinners in favor of eating hamburgers at a conference table, tonight's dinner will see the traditional fancy fare served. People has the menu.

(Macron has been called the Trump whisperer .)
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ABOARD LIAONING AIRCRAFT CARRIER, April 24 (ChinaMil) -- A Chinese naval flotilla headed by the aircraft carrier Liaoning conducted Sunday confrontation drills in a water of the East China Sea with shore-based warplanes and submarines of the PLA Navy.

The Liaoning, several guided-missile destroyers, guided-missile frigates and dozens of aircraft including ship-based J-15 fighters and helicopters of multi-types, which together form the aircraft carrier battle group, have carried out combat training exercises in the Western Pacific, South China Sea and East China Sea in the past days in a row.

In the ship-to-air training exercise between the carrier battle group and fighters from a shore-based naval aviation combat unit on Sunday, the ship-borne and airborne radar systems of the carrier battle group built an effective reconnaissance and early-warning system and air defense firepower network.

During the exercise, several J-15 fighter jets took off from the aircraft carrier Liaoning to intercept fighters of the shore-based naval aviation troops. At the same time, the destroyers and frigates guarding the perimeter of the carrier battle group also launched anti-aircraft missiles against the incoming targets.

In the drill of breaking through the "enemy" submarine blockade, the carrier battle group used a variety of detection methods to locate the submarines and successfully passed the submarine ambush zone.

The carrier battle group conducted its first combat exercise in an unidentified area east of the Bashi Channel, the western Pacific on Friday and Saturday, with guided missile destroyers Ji'nan and Changchun acting as its rivals, the PLA Navy said in a statement on Saturday.

In the training exercises staged in the South China Sea since the PLA Navy held the fleet review on April 12, the carrier battle group engaged in reconnaissance, early warning, electronic countermeasures and strikes against air, surface and land targets and submarines, said a statement from the navy on April 17.
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New Delhi:

Hollywood star Brad Pitt, who is adjusting to his new life as a single lad, is gaining eyeballs these days due to his love life. The Mr and Mrs Smith actoras rumoured love affair has become the talk of the town.

Grapevines have been buzzing with the rumours that the charismatic actor would soon become a dad. The Oceanas Eleven star is expecting a child with a Los Angeles based woman, a report in the magazine NW suggested.

"She's claiming that she hooked up with Brad after she met him at a private art viewing. Apparently, she's saying that they didn't use protection and he never left her a way of getting in touch, which is why she's come forward", a source told the magazine.

The magazine said that unnamed woman in her twenties became pregnant with Bradas baby. Speculations about the name of the woman have started doing the rounds, ever since the report hit the internet.

However, a report in the Gossipcop has refuted all the rumours, much to the dismay of gossip mongers.

Brad Pittas representative told the online portal that the news was not true at all and publication which published it didnat verify the serious allegation from the actoras camp.

#Bytheseapremiere A post shared by Brad Pitt iii (@bradpittoficial) on Nov 6, 2015 at 4:16pm PST

The Fight Club actor has often grabbed headlines owing to his personal life. The Killing Them Softly star separated from Angelina Jolie after 12 years of relationship in 2016.

It was also reported Brad Pitt had reconciled with his former wife Jennifer Aniston, but theA rumoursA were squashed by both the camps.

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New Delhi:

The rape case against self-styled godman Asaram by the Jodhpur court is set for its hearing. Fearing outbreak of violence that may follow the verdict, the Centre on asked Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana to tighten security and deploy additional forces, police sources said.



Asaram is accused of raping a young girl from Shahajahanpur of Uttar Pradesh. The victim was studying at his ashram at Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh.



In a communication, the Home Ministry told the three states to ensure that no violence takes place after the verdict. The three states were told to beef up security and deploy additional forces in sensitive places. The three states have large number of followers of Asaram.



A court in Jodhpur will pronounce its verdict in the rape case against Asaram on .



In March, Judge Madhu Sudan Sharma of the Jodhpur court heard the final arguments from the prosecution and defence counsel and reserved the order for .



Following the directions of the Rajasthan High Court, the trial court will deliver its verdict in the case in Jodhpur Central Jail premises.



The victim had alleged that Asaram had called her to his ashram in Manai area near Jodhpur and raped her on the night of .

Asaram was charged under sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, and the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. A charge sheet against Asaram and four other co-accused - Shiva, Shilpi, Sharad and Prakash - was filed by the police on under various sections of the POCSO Act, Juvenile Justice Act and IPC.

Following the charge Asaram was arrested and has been in jail since . The trial of the case began in the district and session court on , which was shifted to the special court for SC/ST Cases on . If convicted, he could be jailed for a maximum of 10 years.



Asaram is also facing a rape case in Gujarat.

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New Delhi:

The Union governments decision to withdraw AFSPA from parts of Arunachal Pradesh has sparked off divergent views from political parties in the state, with the Congress demanding total withdrawal of the "draconian law" while the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party maintaining a cautious stand.



The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, which empowers security forces to conduct operations and arrest individuals without prior notice, is "not relevant" in a peaceful state like Arunachal Pradesh, state Congress president Takam Sanjoy said.



"When the Centre can lift the Act from Meghalaya, why not in Arunachal Pradesh? There are no records of terrorist activities in the state over the past several years. There are other laws to deal with such activities and AFSPA would only jeopardise public peace," Sanjoy said.



The Home Ministry has "arbitrarily extended" the provisions of the Act at a time when the Naga rebel groups are holding peace talks, he alleged.



The Centre withdrew AFSPA from the entire state of Meghalaya and parts of Arunachal Pradesh, with effect from , a home ministry official announced on .

The ruling BJP is of the view that the Centre should study the ground situation in the state and, if permissible, should repeal the Act to ensure peace in the region.

"The presence of anti-national elements in the northeast cannot be denied. It is a central subject and if the Union government deems fit to revoke the Act, then it will be for the greater good," state BJP president Tapir Gao said.



Peoples' Party of Arunachal president Kahfa Bengia feels the eight police stations areas need not come under AFSPA as there were no reports of militant activities from these regions in a very long time.

"The Home Ministry should make sure its decisions do not affect the people of the state," he said.

Hawa Bagang, president of All Arunachal Pradesh Students Union, asserted that AFSPA helps in curbing anti-social activities by insurgent groups of neighbouring states.

"The Army should properly verify the details before booking anybody under the Act," he added.

In Arunachal Pradesh, areas under the controversial Act have been reduced from 16 police stations areas, bordering Assam, to eight police stations, besides Tirap, Changlang and Longding districts.



(With inputs from PTI)

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New Delhi:

Acting swiftly against Pakistan, Indian security forces on Monday gunned down several Pakistani soldiers along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir.

According to the initial reports, at least five Pakistani soldiers were killed and several posts along the border were destroyed by the Indian Army.

The Indian action came as a retaliatory measure against Pakistan's continuous violation of ceasefire along the border in Jammu and Kashmir. For the last 24 hours, Pakistan was violating ceasefire and firing mortar shells in Rajouri and Poonch sector.

So far, Indian Army has not released any official statement but sources said that the action was taken after Pakistans continuous violation of ceasefire along the LoC.

Security personnel killed in an encounter in Pulwama

Meanwhile, a security force personnel was injured in an encounter with militants in a forest area of Pulwama district in Jammu and Kashmir.

Security forces launched an anti-militancy operation in Laam forest of Tral area in Pulwama district following information about presence of militants there, a police official said.

He said a gun battle broke out between militants and the security forces when the ultras opened fire.

A security force personnel received bullet injuries while the operation was still underway, the official said.





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New Delhi:

Pakistan authorities on handed over an Indian national who had gone missing in Pakistan on a pilgrimage, according to officials.

The Sikh pilgrims had gone to Pakistan to celebrate Baisakhi festival and returned to Amritsar on after a 10-day pilgrimage. But 24-year-old Amarjit Singh, a resident of village Niranjanpura in Amritsar district, was not to be found in the group.

Pakistan authorities later found him at the home of his "Facebook friend" Amir Razak in Sheikhupura, 50 km from Lahore, and handed him over to their Indian counterparts, the officials said.

The boy told officials that he had gone to stay with his friend Razak on , telling his hosts that he held a visa for over a month's stay in Pakistan.

On , Pakistani and Indian TV channels reported about his sudden disappearance from a gurdwara. Indian authorities also reported him missing after they learnt that he was found among the pilgrims who had returned home.

On hearing the news, the host family reported the matter to police, and officials from the Evacuee Trust Property Board of Pakistan took Singh to Lahore on .

Amarjit Singh's passport was deposited with the officials of the Evacuee Trust Property Board, who reportedly informed top officials when he failed to collect it within the stipulated time.

The Pakistani police had launched a manhunt in Nankana Sahib where a number of Sikh families live, reports said.

Kiran Bala, another member of the same group, had also not come back with the jatha, after reportedly converting to Islam and marrying a Pakistani man.

(With inputs from agencies)

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New Delhi:

The abruptly-called summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Wuhan, China, later this week could turn out to be a clever ruse to showcase Sino-Indian convergence on issues relating to US protectionism.

The Chinese, caught in a piquant situation after the trade restrictions imposed by the Trump administration on Chinese exports to the US are apparently keen to project to US President Donald Trump that they have Indian support.

Modi would have to tread warily to dispel any impression of a hidden agenda with China on this issue. The US is Indias bulwark against any Chinese designs to encroach on Indian territory and India can ill afford to displease the Trump administration, loaded as the US President is with his idiosyncrasies.

Said Lu Kang, the Chinese spokesman, after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swarajs visit preparatory to Modis talks: We are newly emerging markets as well as developing countries with big population. So we believe the two countries will continue to uphold the globalisation so that it is more inclusive. We have a lot of shared interests, concerns and positions.

At Wuhan, the two leaders will exchange views on overarching long-term strategic issues as well as the latest trends of the world so that the world will develop in a more stable way, Lu said.

The latent message from this is that there would be an undercurrent of agreement on globalisation as opposed to US unilateralism and protectionism.

To a specific question by a journalist whether there would be a joint message related to trade and protectionism, especially against US unilateral protectionism, he said while he cannot make any pre-judgement ahead of the meeting, It is sure that the two leaders will exchange views on these issues but I believe you will see and hear very positive voices.

Chinese hopes that India could be on the same page as them were rekindled recently when NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar said in his address to the fifth India-China Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) that the world economy was staging a synchronised recovery after a long time but that it was marred and disrupted by unseemly protectionist noises that are coming out from the Atlantic basin from north and America and Europe. This was seen as a thinly veiled attack on US and Western countries' protectionist policies.



How Modi would deal with the issue and steer clear of the seeming Chinese trap remains to be seen but the Prime Minister is no babe in the woods. He has shown in time that he is no pushover on strategic issues.

On his part, Modi would strive to freeze the Chinese claim to Doklam in Bhutan which is Chinas way of showing to countries in the region that India cannot shield the tiny once protectorate from Chinese covetous eyes.

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor which is slated to run through a part of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is a major sore point with New Delhi.

While the road is now virtually a fait accompli, India would expect from Beijing concrete assurances that Indias access to the seas for trade and commerce would not be hampered by this Sino-Pak partnership.

With the Ballochis in Pakistan up in arms against the corridor and the fact of Indias covert links with the rebels, China is looking for neutralising India on the issue.

Just as the Americans have reacted strongly to a huge trade balance in favour of China, India too has the same issues with Beijing which it needs to sort out.

Besides, the Chinese have been dumping all manner of goods in India, most of them of sub-standard quality, attracting the Indian consumer through cheap pricing. In the process, Indian small and medium industry has suffered grievous damage and thousands of people have been rendered jobless.

Modi and his team justifiably need to take this issue up strongly with the Chinese. One can only hope that the Wuhan Summit would yield

positive results for India and would not be a triumphant Chinese capturing of the Indian mind.
New Delhi:

The Donald Trump administration is working on a proposal to streamline the H-1B visa procedure to attract the brightest foreign talents, according to a top federal agency official.

The proposed regulation aims to intensify crackdown on H-1B visa fraud, said Francis Cissna, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director in a letter to Senator Chuck Grassley, according to PTI.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is working on two proposed regulations with regard to the H-1B programme. The first regulation proposes to establish an electronic registration programme for petitions subject to numerical limitations for the H-1B non-immigrant classification.

This rule is intended to allow USCIS to more efficiently manage the intake and lottery process for these H-1B petitions, said Cissna.

The letter is dated April 4, the content of which was first reported by Axios news website on .

The second regulation will propose to revise the definition of specialty occupation, so as to increase focus on obtaining the best and the brightest foreign nationals via the H-1B programme and to revise the definition of employment and employer-employee relationship to better protect US workers and wages, Cissna said.

The two proposed regulations are expected to improve the H-1B programme, which visa procedure is most sought after by Indian talents.

The Department of Homeland Security will also propose additional requirements designed to ensure employers pay appropriate wages to H-1B visa holders, the letter stated.

The USCIS is also drafting a proposed rule to remove the International Entrepreneur Rule (IER), as announced in the regulatory agenda. Due to the court order which invalidated the IER delay rule, the International Entrepreneur Final Rule is currently in effect.

We have not approved any parole requests under the International Entrepreneur Final Rule at this time, Cissna said, adding that USCIS now has a dedicated email addresses to make it easier for the public to report suspected fraud and abuse in the H-1B and H-2B programmes.

Other steps that the USCIS announced earlier include establishing a more targeted approach in the H-1B employer site visit programme.

We initiated these targeted site visits to help us determine, among other things, whether H-1B-dependent employers are actually paying their workers the statutorily required salary to qualify for an exemption from recruitment attestation requirements, it said.

The USCIS is also expanding its administrative site visit programme to include L-1B petitions.

We are initially focusing on employers petitioning for L-1B specialised knowledge workers who will primarily work offsite at another company or organizations location to ensure that they are complying with the requirements from the L-1 Visa Reform Act of 2004. These requirements were meant to help prevent United States workers from being displaced by foreign workers, the USCIS said.

Cissna said it also published a policy memorandum that instructs officers to apply the same level of scrutiny to both initial petitions and extension requests for non-immigrant visa categories. The guidance applies to all non-immigrant classifications filed using Form r-129, Petition for a Non-immigrant Worker.

The previous policy instructed officers to give deference to the findings of a previously approved petition, as long as the key elements were unchanged and there was no evidence of a material error or fraud related to the prior determination.

The updated policy guidance rescinds the previous policy. Under the law, the burden of proof in establishing eligibility for the visa petition extension is on the petitioner, regardless of whether users previously approved a petition, it said.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

(With inputs from PTI)

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China will continue to strengthen military to military relations with Russia to address new security challenges in the world, senior military officials said on Tuesday.

Air Force General Xu Qiliang, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remark while meeting with Russia's defense minister Sergey Shoygu in Beijing on Tuesday.

Xu said the Sino-Russian relationship has reached new heights, thanks to a strong push by leaders from both countries.

Sino-Russia bilateral relations are now at an all time high, characterized by deepening strategic mutual trust and expanding cooperation, Xu said.

The military relationship between the two countries also is seeing positive growth, with frequent and fruitful exchanges and cooperation across various levels, he added. This trend has contributed greatly to facilitating a Sino-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination.

At the moment, new security challenges and issues are emerging due to growing uncertainties around the world, Xu said.

Therefore, China is willing to deepen mutual support with Russia, increase comprehensive cooperation and enhance bilateral relations, especially in military relations, he said.

China and Russia also will jointly protect the security interests of both countries and maintain regional strategic balance, Xu added.

Shoygu said Russia prioritizes strengthening the comprehensive strategic partnership with China.

Russia will continue to expand and deepen cooperation to fulfill the consensus reached by leaders from both countries, and jointly address new security threats in an effort to maintain regional and world peace and stability, he said.
New Delhi:

Amid the strained ties between the Asian rivals, India and China on Monday announced an informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping at central Chinas Wuhan city from April 27 to 28.



The meeting, which was announced by the External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, brought positivity to the otherwise gloomy Chinese state media.



The dragon has been using its official media to issue indirect threats to the rival nations and to spread its agenda of creating global hegemony, adding a gloomy tinge to it.



During the Doklam standoff, the Chinese governments mouthpiece The Global Times would carry articles and opinion pieces full of rhetoric against India. Dropping war threats to India were actually the Chinese governments unofficial stand which it otherwise could not say owing to several obligations.



However, with the announcement of Modi-Xi summit later this week, the otherwise depressing scenario created by the Chinese media found some positivity.



Several articles, hailing the diplomatic wisdom of China and India, encouraged people-to-people engagement to usher a new chapter in the Sino-Indians relations.

Within China, hostility toward India is being replaced by hopes for friendly ties. The two countries need more communication to enhance mutual trust and eliminate the possibility of another border crisis, The Global Times, considered the official Chinese media, commented on Tuesday.

The English daily even termed the meeting as significant as the one between former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and then Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in 1988.



The daily further hailed the diplomatic wisdom of India and China and wrote: Indian leaders attach importance to reciprocity in diplomacy.



The proposed Modi-Xi meeting also seems to be helping the Chinese to change their radical attitude towards India highlighted in Doklam standoff last year.



Within China, hostility toward India is being replaced by hopes for friendly ties, read another article published by the tabloid.



Both the countries are emerging superpowers on the global front and share common interests in international affairs.



During the informal meeting before the formal summit meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in June, Modi and Xi are expected to discuss more practical, urgent and significant issues.



The meeting would also be significant in the wake of the anti-globalisation trend sparked off by US President Donald Trump to contain increasing Chinese influence in the Asia-Pacific region. Click Here To Read More Related Articles

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It is a boy for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Kate, the wife of Britain's Prince William, gave birth Monday to their third child, a boy weighing 3.8 kg.

Well-wishers had camped for several days outside St. Mary's Hospital in London to await the birth of the newest British royal. There has been no word on the baby's name.

"The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, The Prince of Wales, The Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Harry and members of both families have been informed and are delighted with the news," Kensington Palace said in a statement on Twitter.

British Prime Minister Theresa May welcomed word of the baby's birth.


U.S. President Donald Trump is welcoming French President Emmanuel Macron to the White House on Monday for a three-day state visit, during which the two leaders have scheduled a mix of official meetings and social events.

Shortly after his arrival, the French leader and his wife Brigitte Macron, Trump and his wife, first lady Melania Trump, are planting a European Sessile Oak sapling on the South Lawn of the White House, a gift from the Macrons.

About a meter and a half tall and between five and 10 years old, the tree comes from Belleau Wood, where more than 9,000 American Marines died in a 1918 World War I battle on French soil as allied forces fought off German troops.

The two couples are then taking a helicopter tour of historic monuments in Washington before heading to Mt. Vernon, the majestic 18th century estate of the first U.S. president, George Washington, that overlooks the Potomac River in nearby Virginia. They are touring Washington's white, British Palladian-style mansion, one of the country's most popular tourist sites, before having dinner there.
The European Union asked on Monday to join a dispute brought by China to the World Trade Organization over U.S. import tariffs on steel and aluminum, just over a week before U.S. President Trump decides whether they should apply to Europe.

The U.S. administration has set duties of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum on grounds of national security, but provided a temporary exemption until May 1 for the European Union.

China has taken the United States to the WTO over the measures. The first step in the WTO process involves consultations.

The WTO said on Monday that the European Union had made a formal request to join the consultations as a party with a significant trade interest in the matter.
But as the panel prepared to vote, Paul made a dramatic announcement. "I have changed my mind. I have decided to go ahead and vote for director Pompeo," the Kentucky senator said, explaining that he had been reassured by conversations with the nominee, as well as Trump, concerning the lessons of the Iraq War and other issues of concern to him.

Pompeo risked becoming the first nominee in modern times to fail to get a favorable recommendation from the 21-member Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as Paul and all 10 Democrats on the panel had announced they would oppose him.

Averting a historic rebuke, a Senate panel on Monday narrowly voted in favor of U.S. President Donald Trump's pick for secretary of state, CIA director Mike Pompeo, with Kentucky Republican Rand Paul reversing his opposition to the nominee at the last minute.

Soon thereafter, the committee narrowly voted to favorably recommend Pompeo to the full Senate, which is expected to confirm him as Americas top diplomat by week's end.

Delaware Democrat Chris Coons opposed Pompeo but agreed to vote present -- neither for nor against the nominee -- to compensate for the absence of a Republican on the committee, Johnny Isakson of Georgia.

Democrats insisted Pompeo is ill-suited to be America's top diplomat, noting he repeatedly advocated military solutions in the world's hotspots as a congressman before Trump tapped him to lead the CIA.

"I do not believe director Pompeo is someone who will always prioritize diplomacy over conflict," the committee's top Democrat, Bob Menendez of New Jersey, said. "I'm particularly concerned because of his past comments on regime change in North Korea and Iran."

Republicans noted Pompeo's accomplishments, from graduating at the top of his class at the U.S. military academy at West Point to attending Harvard Law School to his brief tenure as CIA director.

"I can't imagine having someone more qualified be secretary of state [than Pompeo]," the committee's chairman, Republican Bob Corker of Tennessee said.

The nomination will go to the full Senate, where three Democrats have announced they will join Republicans in voting to confirm Pompeo.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, spoke confidently of Pompeo's ultimate confirmation. "In Mike Pompeo, the United States will have a chief diplomat who enjoys the total confidence of the president and who is uniquely qualified to reinvigorate our foreign service and represent our interests abroad," McConnell said.

Trump recently sent Pompeo to Pyongyang to meet with North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un in advance of Trump's planned summit with Kim to discuss the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

"He (Pompeo) is trusted by the president," Tennessee Republican Lamar Alexander told VOA. "He was a logical person to send to North Korea. You'd want to send someone who the North Koreans knew had the president's ear, and he obviously does."
The Defense Ministry turned off anti-communist propaganda broadcast speakers along the border with North Korea at midnight on Monday.

The move came two days after North Korea announced it would halt all nuclear and missile tests as well as closing down its nuclear test site in Punggye-ri.

"We decided to turn off the broadcasts to ease tensions and create a peaceful atmosphere" ahead of the inter-Korean summit on Friday, a ministry spokesman said. "The decision was made at the Defense Ministry's discretion and we did not inform North Korea in advance."

North Korea also apparently halted its own tinny propaganda broadcasts on its side of the border.


The celebrated sex-for-grade scandal that rocked Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State, eight years ago, involving Engr. Peter Otub...

The celebrated sex-for-grade scandal that rocked Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State, eight years ago, involving Engr. Peter Otubu, a lecturer in the Department of Electrical and Electronics of the institution and Miss Juliet Ivie Okosun has climaxed in the conviction of two siblings, Miss Judith Ivie Okosun and Juliet Obehi Okosun.Chief Magistrate Martina Iluobe of Ekpoma Chief Magistrate Court, Esan West Local Government Area, last weekend sentenced the two former students who had since graduated from the institution to two years imprisonment, for unlawful detention and indecent assault of Dr. Otubu.Delivering judgement in the case marked MEK/18C/2012, Iluobe recalled that Juliet Obehi Okosun (second accused person) had admitted in her evidence before the court that she had the key to the apartment where the first accused person, Judith Ivie Okosun, unlawfully assaulted Dr. Otubu.The lecturer was held hostage and stripped naked at their one-room apartment in a private female hostel near the university on 17 July 2010.The accused persons were also said to have made Dr. Otubu to issue a cheque in the sum of N100,000 in favour of Judith Ivie Okosun.The court specifically established that in the recorded video clips which was also posted in the internet by one Oziengbe, now at large, the second accused person had told court that she was in possession of the key to the apartment where Engr. Otubu was held, making her liable for the unlawful detention of the lecturer.Chief Magistrate Iluobe, however, discharged and acquitted the accused persons who were both undergraduate students at AAU at the time they were charged to court on counts 1, 5, and 6 which bothered on conspiracy and stealing and frivolous petition against Engr. Otubu, following the failure of the prosecution to prove these beyond reasonable doubt.It also discharged and acquitted the 3rd to 7th accused persons, Esther Ogbeide (21), Samson Ogbeide (32), Igbudu Samuel (42), Ojeabulu Eghosa Clement (37) and Aruya Ohis Williams (24) for lack of substantial evidence against them.According to the court, the failure of Mobile Telecommunications Network (MTN), to provide calls log of conversations between the first Principal Witness (Engr. Iluobe) and some of the accused persons as required by the prosecution to prove his case was fatal to the prosecution.Chief Magistrate Iluobe tongue-lashed Engr. Otubu, saying he suffered for the sin of immorality to have gone to the room of her student which resulted in the show of shame, humiliation and torture which left his career in ruins.This court is of the view that there is a very strong conspiracy and set up against Engr. Peter Otubu, even though the defense Counsel had submitted before the court that suspicion does not amount to conspiracy.Throughout the length and breadth of the case, there is a thread which runs through criminal procedure of the case against the accused persons.Therefore, I hold that count 1 has not been proved as required by the law. For count 2, the the first and second accused persons had testified that the allegations were communicated to the school authorities about the show of shame.I believe them in this, because judging from the position of the the Principal Witness (PW1) and the first accused person, the whole truth was found and doctored. Such situation is highly embarrassing to him as a lecturer, his family and the university community.Responding to the judgment, counsel to the defendants, Mr. Olayowola Afolabi, agreed with the judgement on the sexual promiscuity of PW1, describing it as a show of shame.But he pleaded with the court for clemency for the convicted persons on the ground that they were first offenders, stressing that the second convict is a nursing mother.The first accused person, my lord, is about to get married. I had to plead with the husband to allow her to come to court.My lord, the first and second accused persons were first offenders. My lord also has the option to caution the convicts in view of the circumstances. My lord is a woman who knows where the shoe is pinching us.So, my lord, I am pleading. Literally, my lord, I am on my knees. It is a show of shame for the lecturer to come to the house of his student.Following the pleading from the counsel to the defendants, Chief Magistrate Iluobe handed down an option of fine to the first and second accused persons in lieu of imprisonment.Engr. Otubu who was highly elated, said the judgement has vindicated him.I am okay. The principal suspect, Ivie Okosun and her sister, Juliet Obehi Okosun, have been convicted and jailed, whether they were given an option of fine or not.To correct the erroneous impression that I was dismissed, I was never dismissed from AAU. My appointment was terminated following the video that was posted on the Internet, he said.
Dino Melaye, senator representing Kogi west, has just been admitted into the intensive care unit of Zankili Medical Center, Mabuchi, in the ...

Dino Melaye, senator representing Kogi west, has just been admitted into the intensive care unit of Zankili Medical Center, Mabuchi, in the federal capital territory (FCT).

He was said to have been brought into the hospital after sustaining injuries in a bid to escape.





The hospital ambulance brought him to the hospital around 4:25pm, after which he was admitted into the emergency unit.





There were no security operatives when he arrived.





We learnt that the senator was reportedly being led to court by the policemen on Tuesday afternoon when he attempted to escape. The police vehicle carrying Melaye reportedly turned to an unknown location, around Area 1, Abuja.

The police vehicle carrying Melaye reportedly turned to an unknown location, around Area 1, Abuja.





Unconfirmed reports have it that they had manhandled him and had planned to take him to Kogi, his home state.





Melaye was said to have immediately jumped out of the vehicle, wounding himself in the process.





A man who followed the ambulance that conveyed the senator to the hospital said he witnessed the drama leading to the injury.

Addressing journalists at the hospital, the man simply identified as Peter said: I was there at Area 1 when the police vehicle stopped somewhere and amid the confusion, there were shouts of shoot him, shoot him.

He has been saying it that they want to take his life and we can see that now. Yesterday, about 200 policemen were in house. They were there till this morning. When he came out, he told them okay, Im going to go with you people to the police station. That he is not a criminal and that they dont even have any arrest warrant on him. But he followed them.



It was later this afternoon, while he was being taken to court, around that Area 1, the crowd had gathered and the police officers were there with him. I dont know if he was pushed out of the vehicle or not but amid the confusion, they later moved him from there.

Melaye has been having a running battle with the police lately.

Security operatives on Monday laid siege to his house after he was detained at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, and prevented from travelling abroad.



The police had earlier declared him wanted over allegations of supplying arms to crime suspects. The police are yet to release any official statement regarding the recent developments.

Recall that Melaye has been objecting to the decision to either be arrested by the Kogi police command or arraigned before the Kogi high court on security grounds which reportedly pitched him against the law enforcement agents.



The fear of Melayes safety was heightened following lingering political difference he has been having with Governor Yahaya Bello of his home state. The fear of Melayes safety was heightened following lingering political difference he has been having with Governor Yahaya Bello of his home state.
The alleged victim of sex-for-mark, Monica Osagie, is currently appearing before the committee raised by the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, to probe the allegations against Prof. Richard Akindele.The committee is sittng at the Pro-Chabellors Lodge on the campus but only Osagie and her lawyer were allowed into the venue which is manned by the OAU security personnel.Journalists and some members of the National Human Rights Commission were barred from attending the sitting.Read also: Sex-for-mark: Protest as panel denies victim legal representationThe Vice Chancellor of the OAU, Prof. Eyitope Ogunbodede, confirmed to our correspondent on the telephone that the lady is appearing before the committee.The VC said,  The lady is appearing before the committee. Members of the committee told me that the lady came and she is appearing before them.The university had suspended Akindele following the recommendation of the committee in their interim report.The committee said the lady failed to honour their invitation but her appearance now has settled the controversies surrounding that.
The Center for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL), has reacted to the arrest of Senator Dino Melaye on Monday.

The Center for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL), has reacted to the arrest of Senator Dino Melaye on Monday.





Melaye, on Monday had announced that he was arrested at the international wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport on his way to Morocco.





Reacting to Dinos arrest, the group in a statement issued by its director, Debo Adeniran said questions should be raised by Nigerians whether due process was followed before a serving senator was arrested.





Adeniran called on the Nigeria Police to publicise the crime committed by Sen. Melaye.





The statement reads, If they invited him and he didnt show up, they should have waited for him at the gate of the National Assembly. If anybody commits a crime, he is supposed to be arrested and prosecuted immediately.





 If Dino has committed any crime, it should be made public and the police should be sure they have concluded their investigations so that they can immediately prosecute him. We should be told the offence he was arrested for.




The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen, has stated that the judiciary is not to be blamed for the perceived slow disp...

The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen, has stated that the judiciary is not to be blamed for the perceived slow dispensation of justice in the country.

Onnoghen, speaking with State House correspondents after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday, said the adjournment of cases is responsible for the delay in delivering judgement in cases.





He said, Now, l believe that you know, with your experience of many years of practice that there has never been situation in which any case was taken to court and decided upon and the Judge was not there to listen to the case, or having finished hearing, he refused to deliver judgement.





So, when cases are not tried expeditiously and the Judge is there, ready to listen to the case, you come and for one reason or the other, you take a date to adjourn the case, and the court grants the adjournment which is normal during proceedings, you cannot turn round and blame the Judge for that. These are the basic things that everybody must know. We must all work together, cooperate for the system to move forward.





But if you keep thinking that the Judiciary is the culprit in this delay process, you are not telling the whole story.





It is not the judiciary that would go and arrest someone before looking for evidence. It is not the judiciary that would go into investigations. No, we do not operate the inquisitional mode of justice as it is practised by the French. Our own is that an independent body must investigate, prosecute while the judge decides.





Justice Onnoghen, who said he was at the presidential villa to felicitate with President Buhari on his return from the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), expressed joy with the performance of judges.





The Commission for the Prevention of Corruption (COMPRECO) has enhanced the process of justice dispensation.





It is in order to enable you to know the workings of the system that I set up the COMPRECO (Commission for the Prevention of Corruption) committee.





All along, everybody is passing the buck. The prosecution will say it is not our responsibility, we are not the cause of the delay; the investigator will say I am not the cause; the Judge will say, I am not the cause. So, the people must know who is the cause of the delay. That was why I set up that committee. And it is made up of both the defence counsel, the prosecutor and the Judiciary under the NJC.





On whether the judiciary is on the same page with the Executive in the fight against corruption, he said: I have answered that before and I still say the same thing. We are on the same page with the Executive. There are three arms of government and these three arms constitute the government. The government is not only the Executive.





The CJN also spoke on the idea of setting up of special courts for corruption cases and congestion of prisons.





According to him, It is the Executive in conjunction with the Legislature that has the prerogatives of setting up Courts, including the Special Courts, under our Constitution and not the Judiciary. Once the Executive set up such Courts, the Judiciary will provide the manpower.





You are seeing everything being done on the issue of decongesting prisons. Next week, we are continuing with our action. But there is one thing you need to know. There is the physical constraint about the congestion itself.





How many were to be contained in a prison room and how many are there now.





Secondly, you should also know that the actual prisoners are fewer compared with the total number you see there.




The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested Peter Nwaoboshi, one of the three Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senato...

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested Peter Nwaoboshi, one of the three Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senators on the list of alleged looters released by the federal government. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested Peter Nwaoboshi, one of the three Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senators on the list of alleged looters released by the federal government.





Nwaoboshi, who represents Delta north senatorial district, was listed alongside Stella Oduah from Anambra and Jonah Jang from Plateau.





According to SaharaReporters, the anti-graft agency arrested Nwaoboshi last week following the corrupt manner he allegedly purchased a building owned by Delta state, Guinea House in Lagos state.





Yes we arrested Senator Nwaoboshi few days ago based on series of corrupt cases hanging on his neck, SaharaReporters quoted a source as saying.





On several occasions he has turned down our invitation extended to him. He is under our custody right now but I wont give you further details because he will soon be charged to court. But I advise you to also get across to our spokesman, Mr Wilson Uwujaren for further clarifications.





The online platform said it gathered that Okowa is behind the current predicament of Nwaoboshi.





Nwaoboshi is said to have fallen out with Ifeanyi Okowa, Delta state governor, over plans to stop him from returning to the red chamber in 2019.





The online publication said a commissioner in Okowas cabinet as confirming that there is a rift between Okowa and Nwaoboshi.





Though I seriously frowned against the fraudulent manner Senator Peter Nwaoboshi purchased the state asset known as Guinea House located in Lagos, I can authoritatively confirm to you that the governor is the mask behind the senators current hurting by the commission, the source reportedly said.





Last year, the governor through his principal secretary, Mr. Hilary Ibegbulem hired some youths to stage a mass protect against Nwaoboshi at the national assembly but the plan later failed.





The governor had always before now through his principal secretary, Mr. Ibegbulem used some boys which I dont to mention now to sponsor petitions against Nwaoboshi and other political opponents in the state which he perceived as enemies. Go and write it down, I can confide in you that the governor has already struck a deal with the commissions officials and in the few months to come the officials of the commission in its Benin city office in Edo state will turn Delta state to a sort of mecca for arrest of political opponents especially government officials served in the immediate past administration.





Confirming the arrest of the senator, one of his loyalists who simply identified himself as Nkem, was said to have told SaharaReporters, that Yes our oga as we talk is in EFCC custody since last week and I can tell you that was the handiwork of governor Ifeanyi Okowa. There are series of petitions being sponsored by the governor against Nwaoboshi and everything is being handled by Okowas hitman, Hilary. They governor has boasted to spend his last kobo to see that Nwaoboshi does not go back to the senate in 2019. Check page 36, todays Vanguard Newspaper for our full page advert calling for the immediate release of our oga.




The Nigeria Police Force on Tuesday explained how the Senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District, Dino Melaye, escaped from its c...

The Nigeria Police Force on Tuesday explained how the Senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District, Dino Melaye, escaped from its custody.The police said Melaye jumped out of a police vehicle through the window after some hoodlums in two Toyota Hilux vehicles blocked the police vehicle conveying the Senator to Kogi State.The police said the senator was rescued from policemen by the hoodlums and taken to an unknown destination.The incident took place around Area 1 Roundabout in Abuja.The Force Spokesman, Jimoh Moshood, disclosed these in a statement in Abuja.The statement reads: At about 1200Hrs of today (Tuesday) Sen. Dino Melaye while in lawful custody of the Nigeria Police Force and being taken for arraignment in Federal High Court, Lokoja, from Abuja, escaped from lawful custody when hoodlums and miscreants in two Toyota Hilux Vehicles blocked the police vehicle conveying Senator Dino Melaye around Area 1 Round About, Abuja.In the process, the senator jumped out of the police vehicle through the window and was rescued from the policemen by hoodlums and miscreants to an unknown destination.The police team re-enforced and trailed Senator Dino Melaye to Zankli Hospital, Abuja, where he was re-arrested.The police said Melaye would be arraigned in court without further delay, adding that one of the Toyota Hilux vehicles used by the hoodlums and miscreants in aiding the senators escape has been recovered by the police investigation team.Moshood said the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, has directed a thorough investigation into the circumstances leading to Melayes escape from lawful custody.
Senator Dino Melaye, who was arrested Tuesday morning by operatives of the Nigeria Police drawn from its Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS,is at present being moved to Lokoja.The embattled senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District under the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, is expected to be paraded later this evening among other hardened criminals who implicated him in the crime that necessitated his arrest.Vanguard learnt that the senator who was taken into SARS detention facility, located opposite the old Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN junction along the Area 1 expressway, Abuja, was moved out around 12 noon today in police vehicle heavily manned by SARS operatives.The detention facility is where hardened criminals arrested for theft, murder, cultism and other criminal acts are kept.Vanguard source in the police said the parade of Melaye and other criminal suspects among them the re-arrested suspects who had escaped from prison cell, is to be conducted by the Deputy Force Public Relations Officer, Aremu Adediran, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, DSP.He is to carry out the parade assignment on behalf of his immediate boss, Jimoh Moshood, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, ACP, who is currently in China on a course.Our source said before being moved out into the waiting vehicle for onward journey to his home state, Melaye was handcuffed to avoid possible escape from the security operatives.Attempts for inquiry from the Force Headquarters deputy image maker were not successful as he refused to pick calls made to his known telephone lines.Recall that the men of the Nigeria Police Force reportedly forcefully carried out the arrest of Melaye without arrest warrant or court order in the early hours of Tuesday.Initial attempts were made by the police to arrest the senator after immigration officials disembarked him from a flight to Morocco on Monday morning.Following his release after three hours detention at the immigration office at the airport, the lawmakers house was besieged by over 80 armed police men from Monday noon until the early hours of Tuesday.
The U.S. State Department has told representatives of North Korean defectors' groups that Washington will put human rights on the agenda of a summit with Pyongyang, according to a defector on Monday.

Park Sang-hak of Fighters for Free North Korea told the Chosun Ilbo three defector activists visited the State Department on April 13, where they met officials including an assistant secretary. He quoted the officials as saying both denuclearization and human rights will be on the agenda.

The officials accepted the defectors' suggestion to bring up the closure of political prison camps and a halt to forced repatriation of defectors from overseas.

The officials said the U.S. takes North Korea's human rights abuses as seriously as the nuclear issue, according to another defector who was there.

The officials were aware that North Korea cheated the U.S. eight times in previous nuclear negotiations, and they vowed not to repeat the same mistake or accept a proposal for step-by-step dismantlement, according to Park.

They added the U.S. is not ruling out the possibility that Kim is launching a fake charm offensive to buy time.


Governor of old Kaduna State and National Chairman of the Peoples Redemption Party, PRP, has said that even if the All Progressives Congr...

Governor of old Kaduna State and National Chairman of the Peoples Redemption Party, PRP, has said that even if the All Progressives Congress, APC and President Muhammadu Buhari rigged the 2019 elections, they will still lose because not only the opposition, even their supporters have lost confidence in them.Governor of old Kaduna State and National Chairman of the Peoples Redemption Party, PRP, has said that even if the All Progressives Congress, APC and President Muhammadu Buhari rigged the 2019 elections, they will still lose because not only the opposition, even their supporters have lost confidence in them.Speaking in an interview with newsmen, Balarabe Musa who was impeached as Kaduna governor in the Second Republic said: As a president, Buhari has the means of transforming everything but obviously, it is quite clear that Buharis popularity before 2015 elections and now has gone down drastically. If he (Buhari) thinks he is still popular as he was before winning the last presidential election he must be deceiving himself. He has betrayed those who voted for him by abandoning his promises and instead, he is inflicting pains on the masses. Since he took over as president, the country has suffered from one hardship to another.
The police said on Monday night that the siege on Senator Dino Melayes residence was necessitated by his involvement in a case of unlawf...

The police said on Monday night that the siege on Senator Dino Melayes residence was necessitated by his involvement in a case of unlawful possession of prohibited firearms.Speaking with The Nation, the Force Deputy Spokesman, Adeniran Aremu, said: Our action was prompted by the fact that he was invited in a case of unlawful possession of firearms and other crimes.The police had invited him on more than two or three occasions but he failed to honour the invitations. That is why we are there right now.You know when a case is in court, there is no law that stops you from further questioning if you need to answer question on the suspects.There is no law that stops the police from further inviting him or asking question about the case.
Exactly seven months after Cody MacPherson disappeared in the middle of the night, authorities announced Monday they've charged an acquaintance with killing the 20-year-old Pemberton resident, confirming the MacPherson family's worst fears and suspicions.

Alan McGinnis, of Pemberton, stabbed MacPherson to death, dumped his body in Ocean County and went back to the Pemberton home where the stabbing occurred to clean up the blood, according to a joint statement released Monday by prosecutors from Ocean and Burlington counties and the New Jersey State Police.

Alan J. McGinnis

Authorities said MacPherson was the body state forest firefighters found in the Colliers Mills Wildlife Management Area in Jackson Township last month.

McGinnis, 27, is being held in jail on charges including murder, kidnapping, and improper disposal of human remains, authorities said.

MacPherson's family, who continued to search for him until recently, suspected McGinnis may have been involved with MacPherson's disappearance all along, after learning that there had been in an altercation the night he went missing.

According to MacPherson's family, he was at the home of a woman with which he was romantically involved on the evening of Sept. 23, 2017.

Ashley King, the fiance of MacPherson's brother, told NJ Advance Media at the time that they had learned from witnesses that McGinnis was at the house and there was some kind of altercation involving MacPherson, McGinnis and another man.

People at the house told them MacPherson walked home alone around 4 a.m., King said.

But statements made by authorities Monday seems to contradict that narrative.

Authorities said McGinnis stabbed MacPherson multiple times at a home on Pardee Boulevard in Pemberton Township early in the morning on Sept. 24. A search of property records show the home in question belongs to the parents of the woman MacPherson's family said he had been seeing.

"McGinnis then used a vehicle available at the residence to transport the victim in the trunk to the Colliers Mills Wildlife Management Area on South Stump Tavern Road in Jackson," authorities said in their statement. He hid the body with branches and leaves, they said. "McGinnis later traveled back to Pemberton where the scene was cleaned of visible blood and other evidence of the murder."

In court documents, investigators said that McGinnis then went back to the woods and burned the surveillance system from the home, the alleged murder weapon, MacPherson's cell phone and clothes, and his own clothes.

MacPherson's family filed a missing persons report Sept. 24, and spent months searching for him or any evidence, with the help of friends and even total strangers who volunteered.

On March 19, six months after his disappearance, State Police got a call from a warden with the New Jersey Forest Fire Service at Colliers Mills Wildlife Management Area. He told police he was conducting a controlled burn when he found human remains, including a skull, under some logs, according to the statement.

State Police homicide unit detectives believed the remains were likely to be MacPherson's. He was positively identified using DNA on Tuesday, authorities said.

Police obtained search warrants for two homes in Pemberton and Jackson townships and they were executed early Saturday, authorities said. McGinnis was arrested that day.

Joel Bewley, spokesman for the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office, said he could not comment on whether anyone else could face charges in connection with MacPherson's killing.

In September, King described MacPherson as a goof and a people person who was always doing something with his friends. She said he was a good kid and was thinking of joining the military, but his family worried he may have been "caught up in the wrong crowd."

On Monday morning, a Facebook group that had been devoted to the search efforts for MacPherson featured instead messages of grief and condolences for the family.

MacPherson, who previously lived in Portage, Indiana, with his mother, leaves behind a young daughter.

"Justice will be serve and you can rest in peace," one person wrote.

Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccajeverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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HOBOKEN  When Sathya Priya Senthil started having contractions inside her Jersey City home Monday morning, she and her husband thought there was time to get to the New York hospital where her baby was to be born.

But instead of giving birth in the comfort and security of a hospital, it was in the backseat of an Uber where Senthil had her 6-pound, 3-ounce daughter -- thanks to three Port Authority police officers who were ready to assist just outside the Lincoln Tunnel.

"I was in severe pain, but I can't explain and I can't tell," Senthil said from Hoboken University Medical Center, where she was taken following the backseat delivery. "It was so quick."

Senthil, who also has an 8-year-old daughter, said she began feeling pain early this morning. She and her husband, Karthik Lakshmanan, dropped their other daughter off at the neighbor's house and headed to Tisch Hospital in Manhattan.

But as their Uber was approached the Lincoln Tunnel, Senthil said she felt the baby girl coming.

The driver pulled over and three Port Authority officers  Krystal Armenti, Catherine Conant, and Dana Fuller  arrived to help finish delivering the baby. Lakshmanan cut the umbilical chord and the mother and child were brought to the HUMC.

"It was a very uncomplicated birth," Conant said. "If you could ask for a birth at the tunnel, it was perfect."

Conant helped deliver a baby once before at the Holland Tunnel, but this was the first baby Armenti and Fuller helped deliver. Fuller, the father of two girls who were born via C-section, said experiencing a natural birth was quite different.

The three officers, who graduated the academy together about five years ago, said this is a day they will remember forever and talk about for a long time. The family was reunited with the man and two women who helped deliver their baby at Hoboken University Medical Center, just six hours after the birth.

"I have to thank the officers," the happy father said as her daughter napped. "Otherwise, if we had gotten stuck in the tunnel, I don't know what we would have done."

Caitlin Mota may be reached at cmota@jjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @caitlin_mota. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.
JERSEY CITY -- The father of a 23-month-old girl found dead in a suitcase on train tracks earlier this month has been arrested by federal authorities in Puerto Rico, officials said.

Travis Lamont Plummer, 37, is charged with desecrating the human remains of Te'Myah Layauna Plummer. The cause of the toddler's death is still pending, Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez announced.

Following the April 11 discovery just outside of Journal Square, homicide investigators were contacted by the Richmond Police Department in Virginia, which was investigating the whereabouts of Te'Myah and her father, officials said.

Authorities had asked for the public's assistance locating Plummer and the young girl in March, saying family members had not heard from the two since August and they may be in Jersey City or North Carolina, according to a Facebook post by Richmond police.

The FBI was able to trace Plummer to San Juan, Puerto Rico, where he was arrested without incident on April 19. He is awaiting extradition to Hudson County.

While the cause of death is still pending, a preliminary investigation indicates Te'Myah died out of state, officials said.

Suarez credited homicide detectives, the Port Authority Police Department, the FBI offices in Newark, Richmond, and San Juan, and Richmond Police Department with helping identify the child and arrest the father.

Caitlin Mota may be reached at cmota@jjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @caitlin_mota. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.
NEW YORK  First, Jared Kushner's big plans for a skyscraper in Manhattan fell apart. Now, it's the turn of his major twin-towers project across the river in Jersey City.

Plans for a pair of gleaming, 66-story residential towers in Jersey City championed by Kushner when he was CEO of his family company are in danger of collapsing amid a heated exchange of letters and emails with the city.

The Kushner Cos. is now making veiled threats of legal action. It is saying the heavily Democratic city, run by Mayor Steven Fulop, ended negotiations over the project for no good reason, other than perhaps bias against Kushner because he has moved on to become an adviser to President Donald Trump, his father-in-law.

"It is crystal clear that Fulop is now playing politics," Kushner Cos. said in a statement to The Associated Press.

"It should be obvious to everyone that the Kushner's claim that the mayor needed to 'play politics' to win votes has no merit," city spokeswoman Hannah Peterson said in an email. "This is a false argument that is being used to explain why things didn't go their way."

The falling fortunes of One Journal Square is another example of how the Kushner family's ties to the White House may be hurting its business. Among recent hits, the company has had to abandon plans to raze and rebuild its money-losing skyscraper, 666 Fifth Avenue, after potential foreign investors pulled out following criticism their money could raise potential conflicts with Kushner's public role as an adviser to Trump.

Fulop has known the Kushners for years. He supported the company's other project in Jersey City called Trump Bay Street, a residential building along the Hudson River that licenses its name from Trump's company, the Trump Organization.

The war of words between Jersey City and Kushner Cos. follows several blows to the project, including the withdrawal of a key tenant and funding source earlier in the year and dashed hopes for $150 million in financing from China. Later, the Kushner Cos. and its partner, KABR Group, pulled an application to the city for a 30-year break from local taxes after Fulop came out against it before his re-election in November.

Still, the Kushner Cos. was striking an optimistic tone as late as January, issuing a statement that the project was "shovel-ready."

Behind the scenes, things had been deteriorating for months.

In a letter to the city in February, a lawyer representing Kushner Cos. and KABR Group blasted the city for "suddenly and unexpectedly" cutting off all serious discussion over a "nearly completed" draft agreement on building plans the previous summer. The city action had harmed his clients, lawyer Eugene Paolino wrote, and any further delays would compel him to take "necessary action to protect" their interests.

The city fired back with a letter from one of its lawyers, laying blame for the delays on the two developers and their changes to original plans for the building. It also said the developers missed a key construction deadline and failed to pay a $40,000 fee to the city in April last year, which it said raised doubts about their ability to "see the project through to fruition."

The stalemate between the Jersey City and the Kushners was earlier reported by online news site Hudson County View.

In recent days, the fight has only gotten nastier. Referring to a new application for local tax breaks, Fulop tweeted on Friday, "There is a sense of entitlement that the developer has towards a subsidy  we as a city just don't see it the same way."

City Councilman Rich Boggiano, who represents a struggling area where One Journal Square is planned, said he is disappointed with the "politics" of the situation, and getting impatient.

"All I know is I want the damn thing done," Boggiano said. "It's my neighborhood, and we're tired of having an empty dirt lot."
A man and woman have been arrested and charged in connection to a March 18 hit-and-run that left a Jersey City woman seriously injured, authorities announced.

Julius Smith, 39, and Shakira Stuckey, 38, both of Jersey City, were arrested last week following an investigation by the Hudson County Regional Fatal Collision Unit into the incident at Boyd and West Side avenues in Jersey City, Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez said.

Julius Smith appeared in Criminal Justice Reform Court in Jersey City on Friday via video link from Hudson County jail in Kearny. Michaelangelo Conte | The Jersey Journal

Investigators determined a pedestrian, identified by family as 25-year-old Judy Tugonon, was struck by a 2017 Jeep at approximately 8:15 p.m. The vehicle had fled the scene when police arrived and Tugonon was taken to Jersey City Medical Center with various injuries. Her family told The Jersey Journal she suffered multiple rib fractures, a head injury, pelvis fractures, broken bones in her back, a collapsed lung, and burns to her stomach from the car's tires.

Her current condition was not immediately available.

A GoFundMe page was set up last month to help Tugonon while she undergoes months of recovery.

Authorities, who had video footage of the crash, eventually located the vehicle involved in the hit-and-run and found that damage to the SUV had recently been repaired in an attempt to conceal the crash, Suarez said.

Stuckey was arrested Thursday morning on Communipaw Avenue in Jersey City by members of the collision unit, and Smith turned himself into authorities later that day, Suarez said.

Smith, who was taken to Hudson County jail in Kearny, is charged with knowingly leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident resulting in serious bodily injury, a third-degree crime; hindering apprehension or prosecution by way of concealment or destruction of evidence, a fourth-degree crime; and tampering with physical evidence, a fourth-degree crime.

Smith appeared in Criminal Justice Reform Court in Jersey City on Friday via video link from Hudson County jail in Kearny. At the hearing, the state moved to detain him through the course of his prosecution. A detention hearing is scheduled for Wednesday before Hudson County Superior Court Judge Paul DePascale in the Hudson County Administration Building in Jersey City.

Stuckey was charged with hindering apprehension or prosecution by way of concealment or destruction of evidence and tampering with physical evidence. She was released on her own recognizance with her first appearance scheduled for May 8 in Criminal Justice Reform Court in Jersey City.
The North Bergen "sexorcist" who fled the country after being convicted of molesting a 13-year-old boy was sentenced to five years in prison yesterday for bail jumping.

The prison term will start after Gregorio Martinez finishes serving the four-year sentence he is currently serving for the sex crime.

"Not only did he flee, but he also continued to engage in criminal activity by trying to remove his fingerprints," Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Linda Claude-Oben said yesterday while holding up an image of Martinez's bandaged and bloody fingers.

That photograph, and others displayed by the prosecutor, were taken at the time of Martinez's arrest in Honduras, which was accomplished with the help of the U.S. Marshal's Service.

The justice system is far from done with the 50-year-old former pastor who has charges pending against him in three more sex cases. Today, jury selection begins for his next trial, which involves an alleged male victim who was 18-years-old at the time. Martinez faces five to 10 years in prison if convicted in that trial.

Prior to sentencing Martinez yesterday, Hudson County Superior Court Judge Mirtha Ospina noted "the extent to which this defendant took to hide his identity and to not be found by law enforcement so he would not be brought to justice with regard to these charges."

On Feb. 25, 2015, Martinez, who was described as a prophet and exorcist, was found guilty of touching the 13-year-old's genital area and kissing him on the lips inside the boy's mother's minivan in 2012 while she shopped.

The former pastor was out on bail at the time of the conviction and was allowed to remain free pending sentencing. When sentencing day rolled around, he was nowhere to be found. He was tracked to Nicaragua in 2016 and then arrested in Honduras. He was convicted of bail jumping.

Jury selection will begin before Ospina today in the Hudson County Administration Building in Jersey City. Opening statements in the trial are expected on May 1.

In court yesterday, Martinez's lawyer, Daniel Gonzalez asked Ospina to sentence his client to a three-year prison term to be served concurrent -- at the same time -- to the term he is serving for molesting the 13-year-old.

Last week Martinez turned down a plea offer that would have resolved his three pending case in exchange for an 18-month prison term to run concurrent with his bail jumping sentence.
Police found a newborn baby girl dead inside a vacant building on South Broad Street in Trenton Monday evening, authorities said.

The infant appeared to be a day or two old, police said. She is the third newborn abandoned in New Jersey this month. Two of the infants were found in Trenton. The baby boy found earlier this month in the city survived.

Police were called Monday to the vacant building on the 800 block of South Broad,, a busy commercial and residential area less than 2 miles from the Statehouse for a report of an unresponsive newborn, Trenton police spokesman Detective Lt. Darren Zappley said.

Detectives are looking for the mother and do have some leads, Zappley said. The Middlesex County medical examiner's office took the baby for an autopsy.

New Jersey has a Safe Haven Infant Protection Act, which allows parents, or someone acting on their behalf, to surrender a child less than 30 days old at hospital emergency rooms, police stations, fire houses and rescue squads - with no questions asked.

Zappley said, unfortunately, some pregnant mothers are still unaware of the program.

Since 2000, 64 babies have been surrendered through the Safe Haven program, a state spokesman said recently.

Trenton police are also continuing to look for the mother of an infant boy found in a duffel bag on the porch of a home on Beechwood Avenue in Trenton's West Ward on April 15.

The newborn boy was rushed to a local hospital and police later said he was in good condition. That baby was later placed with state child protective authorities.

In Highland Park the next day, police found a newborn baby boy outside a Lincoln Avenue home. Emergency crews rushed the infant to a hospital, where the boy died.

Middlesex County authorities have since arrested the 14-year-old mother on murder-related juvenile charges and her 35-year-old mother on charges she endangered the welfare of her daughter by not seeking medical care for the teen, and tampering with evidence in the case.

In addition to the Safe Haven website, parents or others can call the New Jersey Safe Haven hotline -- 1-877-839-2339 - to find directions to the nearest surrender location. No name or other identifying information must be provided when dropping off an infant.

Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@kevintshea. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
A lawyer for an indicted Carteret police officer wants to reopen the dismissed criminal cases against two men he arrested and put his cop client on the stand while officer faces criminal prosecution and lawsuits over alleged excessive force.

The attorney, Charles Sciarra, said Officer Joseph Reiman has nothing to hide, but experts questioned lawyer's judgment to push for his client to be questioned under oath while facing indictment and if it was even possible to reinstate the charges.

Jamal Merritt and Aramis Rosario were arrested by the Reiman during his 23-months on the force and have accused the officer of excessive force.

Reiman, who is the youngest brother of longtime Carteret Daniel Reiman, faces multiple counts of official misconduct and an assault charges in the violent arrest of a teenager last year.

"Upon my motion, these matters were dismissed based upon my mistaken belief the arresting officer, Joseph Reiman, would be unavailable as a witness in these cases because he had been indicted by a Middlesex County grand jury," municipal prosecutor John Kawczynski wrote in the motion filed Friday. "I have subsequently learned that Office Reiman would be willing to testify despite the fact that he is under indictment."

Both men faced charges of resisting and obstruction in two separate incidents that were detailed in an investigation into Joseph Reiman's history of force on the department in which NJ Advance Media found the officer had accounted for more than 20 percent of all incidents involving force during his tenure.

But those charges, as well as other motor vehicle violations and a count of possession in Rosario's consolidated case, were dismissed in South Amboy municipal court last month when no one from the Carteret Police Department appeared to testify. The judge ruled the cases could not move forward without the state's witness.

Sciarra had asked the municipal prosecutor to file the motion, saying that Reiman was ready and willing to take the stand, but had not been told of the March 20 hearing.

"As a bail restriction, Reiman is not permitted to communicate with the police department," Sciarra said in a statement via email. "He had no idea these cases were scheduled or being dismissed until the Star-Ledger reported on it. These are solid arrests and should be prosecuted and Police Officer Joseph Reiman will offer testimony to support these prosecutions."

Both Rosario and Merritt got word Monday from their attorney about the motion and expressed concern in separate interviews about being brought back into court for cases that had been closed. In Merritt's case, he'd been fighting the charges along with his mother, sister and friend since August of 2015.

"There's an expectation of finality when a prosecutor dismisses a case," said Paul Catanese, who spent 20 years on the bench in multiple municipalities and served as the presiding judge for municipal courts in Mercer County.

The attorney who represents both men, Kevin Flood, said if the judge approved the motion, he would take the cases to trial where Reiman's credibility would be challenged as he faced cross-examination by four lawyers on just Merritt's case alone.

"He is opening himself up to being questioned, under oath, on the matters for which he faces serious criminal charges, and for which it appears he faces very serious time in state prison," Flood said in an emailed statement.

"He is also opening himself up to being cross-examined on what other law enforcement officers and administration officials did and did not do in these cases, and many of these other law enforcement officers and administration officials are being sued civilly on the same matters. So we will see," Flood wrote.

Sciarra also doubled-down Tuesday on his previous claim that the other officers involved were ordered not to testify in the cases.

Carteret Police Director Kenneth Lebrato said he never told the officers involved not to take the stand. The borough spokesman, Jon Salonis, however, would not say whether or not someone else in the department had ordered the officers not to attend the hearing.

The borough's attorney, Robert Bergen, said the other officers involved were not notified of the hearing because they were set for trial at a later date.

"Some defense attorney perhaps misadvised the court and it appears the prosecutor that these officers would not be available to testify in various matters," Bergen said. "This makes no sense because, as I indicated, several officers beside Joseph Reiman had instituted the charges against these various individuals."

Robert A. Bianchi, a former Morris County prosecutor who is now a partner at the Bianchi Law Group, said the motion, if approved, could violate due process and raised a number of double jeopardy issues.

"It can only hurt your client, not help them," Bianchi said of potentially putting Reiman on the stand to face cross-examination. "The basis of any good representation is to remain silent."

However, he noted, since the municipal prosecutor admitted he made a mistake, he believed there was a possibility the case could be reinstated.

Catanese didn't believe the motion would double-jeopardy protections because the cases were dismissed in pretrial hearings but didn't believe the cases would be reopened.

The motion argues it would be clearly unjust to not reinstate the charges based on the "misunderstanding" over the arresting officer's availability.

Bianchi said in similar cases, it is common for a witness facing charges to plead the Fifth while the other matters are pending, which would prohibit the prosecutor from moving forward if the officer was the state's key witness. He also said that a prosecutor has the discretion to dismiss a case if they questioned the officer's credibility.

"Reiman neither pleaded the fifth nor has the prosecutor said anything about Reiman's credibility," Sciarra said when asked about details of dismissal. "Not sure what 'expert' dreamt that up."

Before the cases were dismissed, the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office had sent a letter to the municipal prosecutor to ensure the state could be proved the case beyond a reasonable doubt, according to spokeswoman Andrea Boulton.

Reiman, who was hired in 2015 as a disabled veteran, has been suspended with pay as he fights the charges. He currently has an annual salary of $61,505, which is about $5,000 more than he was making when he was charged, according to salary records obtained through a records request.

Craig McCarthy may be reached at 732-372-2078 or at CMcCarthy@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @createcraig and on Facebook here. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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A tour bus crash in North Korea on Sunday left 32 Chinese tourists and four North Koreans dead.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told reporters the accident occurred in North Hwanghae Province at night. He said two other Chinese tourists were in critical condition.

"The Foreign Ministry has already dispatched a task force accompanied by medical experts to [North Korea] to work with the [North Korean] side on rescue operations, medical treatment and other matters," Lu added.

Chinese President Xi Jinping also instructed the Chinese Embassy in Pyongyang to take all necessary measures to deal with the accident.
Soon after Gerald Lorence lost his wife of 40 years in August, the 71-year-old retired firefighter required several months of care in a nursing facility.

His neighbor Yimeng Ling said she didn't even know that Lorence recently had returned to his home, where he lived with his 39-year-old son Jeremy, until Sunday when the police started to arrive in their Edison quiet cul-de-sac.

Family members had called authorities after Lorence suddenly stopped returning phone calls. Inside the house, police found both father and son dead.

Prosecutors say Gerald Lorence shot his son in the head before turning the gun on himself.

Ling said she believes Lorence struggled after the death of his wife, Kathleen, a retired school nurse.

"We were very saddened by her death because it was all of a sudden," Ling said of Kathleen, who cared for Ling's cat when she was away. "It wasn't a long-term illness. So I think that was too much for the husband."

Jeremy had a long-term condition that prevented him from leaving the house often and required the care of his parents, she said.

"The son almost never came outside," Ling said. "I saw him only a few times."

Another neighbor, Hubert Syzmanski says he didn't speak to Gerald Lorence often, but he always had a kind word.

"We came back home around 7 o'clock Sunday and I saw about four cop cars. I had no idea what was going on." Syzmanski said. "He was a nice guy from the times I spoke with him."

He said he believed Lorence had retired from the Bayonne Fire Department.

Chief Keith Weaver of the Bayonne Fire Department said he did not know Gerald Lorence, but a man by that name retired from the department in July 1994.

Details about when exactly the shooting took place are still unclear, as the Middlesex County Prosecutor's office said Tuesday that the investigation is still ongoing.

Alexis Johnson may be reached at ajohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @alexisjreports. Find nj.com on Facebook.
The former ferry MV Twin Capes is getting ready for one last sailing that, if all goes according to plan, will end at the bottom of the ocean.

The vessel, which once plied the waters between Cape May and Lewes, Del., is expected to be sunk in the Atlantic Ocean sometime in May to become part of an artificial reef aimed at boosting marine life, according to a spokesman from the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.

The vessel, once one of the Cape May-Lewes Ferry's fleet, will join others that make up the Del-Jersey-Land reef located at a point 26 miles in the ocean from Cape May, Indian River, Del., and Ocean City, Md.

The ferry was declared surplus in 2010 by its operator, the Delaware River and Bay Authority.

The 320-foot long Twin Capes was last used for passenger and vehicle service in 2013. Unable to sell the vessel to another ferry service, the DRBA decided to let it be used for the reef.

"We're pleased to be able to partner with DNREC on this worthwhile environmental project," said Heath Gehrke, director of ferry operations at the time the DRBA announced the ferry would be used for the reef. " .... For us, it made sense to partner with DNREC on this artificial reef project to benefit the divers and sport fishermen of Delaware, New Jersey, and Maryland."

According to a DNREC spokesman, the sinking is weather-dependent. A 72-hour-window with calm weather is needed to bring the ferry from the Virginia Beach, Va., shipyard where it is being prepared for the sinking to the waters above the reef site.

The Twin Capes will receive a final inspection by representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency before the go-ahead is given to tow it to the reef area.

The reef area includes many vessels. Among them are the former U.S. Coast Guard cutter Tamaroa, which was featured in the book and movie, "The Perfect Storm," which was sunk in May 2017.

Also there is the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Arthur W. Radford. The Radford was sunk on Aug. 10, 2011.

Reports say the reef has been a success at attracting and providing habitat for marine life and fishermen, especially, have reaped the rewards with catches of a wide variety of fish, even sharks.

The Twin Capes was sold to DNREC for $200,000. After it was out of service, the ferry was taken from the Cape May terminal to Coleen Marine of Virginia Beach, Va.,

An estimated $230,000 of items were expected to be salvaged from the vessel, officials said. Other items were warehoused for future use on some of the remaining three vessels in the Cape May-Lewes Ferry fleet.

Built in 1974, the Twin Capes could carry 895 people and 100 vehicles.

The Cape May-Lewes Ferry fleet once had five vessels, but declining ridership has now left it with just three.

An exact date for the Twin Capes sinking has yet to be set, officials said.

Bill Gallo Jr. may be reached at bgallo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow Bill Gallo Jr. on Twitter @bgallojr. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips
Barbie was there, it was on a beach, but Barbie's Beach House was never supposed to looked like this.

A Barbie doll was found on the beach in Asbury Park on Saturday during "beach sweeps" organized by the New Jersey-based environmental group Clean Ocean Action. The weekend-long cleanups occur twice a year in about 70 locations across the state. 4/21/18 (Courtesy of Clean Ocean Action)

It was more like Barbie's Nightmare House when a volunteer crew went walking along the Asbury Park beach to perform an Earth Day weekend cleanup. The 5,000 people who did the same at beaches and miles of shoreline across the state discovered Mattel's favorite 11.5-inch tall moneymaker, along with tons of other debris.

Clear across the state at Palmyra Nature Cove along the Delaware River in Burlington County, the volunteers who fanned out filled dozens of trash bags with items that were anything but Malibu-pretty.

It's a matter of natural tides that spots like Palmyra require seasonal cleanups; they're not actively patrolled against litter the way our state's beloved Atlantic Ocean beaches, used daily by bathers and sun-worshipers, are. At the more remote beaches, most of the trash is not the residue of lunches from careless "shoobies." Instead, it ought to remind us of how casually we toss away refuse miles away.

A plastic bottle dropped into a city sewer outlet, a snack-food bag left to blow into the wind, get dumped into or swept into the water, to emerge like shipwreck victims on the closest strip of land. The Professor, Mary Ann and Gilligan's bucket hat were not spotted during the local cleanups, but lots of other items like tires and furniture were.

Barbie can adapt (she has far more career options than in 1959), but it's not so easy for delicate plants or barely surviving animal species to do the same. Trash, no matter how it arrived at their habitats, threatens their lives.

Much of the litter haul statewide consisted of the villain du jour this Earth Day, "disposable" plastic. A relatively new question in fast-food joints and ice cream shops alike is: "Do you really need that plastic straw?" Maybe, when you're sharing a milkshake. Otherwise, not so much.

It adds up. Clean Ocean Action, which sponsored many of the weekend cleanups, reported collecting 3,693 straws at Sandy Hook alone.

Plastic is relatively benign to anyone who stumbles across it, but there was more scary stuff. At Palmyra Cove, there were bottles of pills. Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer detailed how a cache of used syringes, presumably left by opioid abusers, surprised members of a bass fishing club at a favorite Salem County spot, the Department of Defense ponds near the river.

These items could seriously injure or sicken a child, and remind us of when unscrupulous health care providers seeking to avoid proper-disposal costs regularly left medical waste at the shore. Now we need to be concerned that another side effect of the addiction crisis is spoiling our recreation and fishing venues.

Meanwhile, we're seeing new victories in the effort to reclaim natural tidelands, such as the ongoing effort to return Petty's Island -- just south of Palmyra Cove in Pennsauken -- to its natural state. The island, which holds a 300-acre abandoned oil-tank farm, was targeted for intense urban redevelopment a decade ago. By 2022, it's expected to reopen as a park and a preserve.

So, cheers to everyone who cleaned the beaches over the weekend, but especially at those out-of-sight, out-of-mind places. Trash collection there is a matter of perpetual care, but it can be aided by everyone who makes smarter choices at the convenience store, or sees to it that their plastic bits do not become homewreckers for birds.

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Historically speaking, did you know:

New Jersey's political development during the Reconstruction era that followed the Civil War was characterized by both change and continuity. Major reforms enfranchised blacks and intensified partisan conflict.

But there was no voter realignment or formation of new parties, as some pundits predicted. Instead, New Jersey's two major parties endured. Some 25,000 black people were given the vote, the largest block in any northern state.

George Lawrence Record (1859-1933), born in Auburn, Maine, attended Bates College and later studied law in New York City. He went on to practice law in Jersey City and was appointed corporation counsel by Mayor Mark Fagan. He fought the railroad and utilities corporation, whose domination of the leadership of both parties gave them outrageous tax breaks.

Ira L. Reeves (1872-1939) was appointed director of the Prohibition Bureau's New Jersey district. Reeves, 54, was a wounded and decorated World War I Army veteran, however, he found the Prohibition laws were openly flouted. He was ridiculed in the newspapers and refused cooperation by local officials, and his agents were bribed by bootleggers. He became disillusioned and resigned after eight months. He wrote a book about his experience in New Jersey, entitled "Ol' Rum River."

Religious communities of women, founded predominantly in the Roman Catholic Church, staffed many parochial schools, health care facilities, and social service agencies.

Joseph Albright's column appears every week in The Jersey Journal
I am very glad that U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., has been opposing Mike Pompeo's nomination to become the next secretary of state.



While it's hard to nail down exactly where Pompeo stands on a number of issues, from denuclearizing Iran and regime change in North Korea, to domestic issues like abortion and the the treatment of LGBTQ individuals, we can be certain about his first solution to international conflicts: it's usually WAR. This cannot be the mentality of our nation's top diplomat.

Opposition to Pompeo shows who Menendez -- who is running for re-election -- is. The senator is constantly standing up for New Jerseyans and fighting back against the Trump administration.



When the president wanted to strip health care from thousands, Menendez voted to stop them,and even secured more funding for community health centers and opioid addiction treatment.



He's fighting back against plans to drill for energy off of our coasts, which could cripple New Jersey's tourism industry and threaten thousands of jobs. He's holding people like Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt accountable for spending our tax dollars on luxury travel and junk like a sound-proof phone booth. I won't even go into how Pruitt's hurting our environment.



I feel like this has been said about every election for decades, but this year's election really is the most important of my life. We need to have someone fighting for us in Washington. We need to make sure that we send Sen. Menendez back to Washington, and I'm proud to be supporting him.



Lavonne Bebler Johnson, Willingboro

Have Syria's lethal gases traveled?

The Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria has been credibly accused of dropping chemical bombs in Douma and possibly elsewhere in the country during a war against rebel-held areas.



This makes me wonder if these airborne lethal chemicals, which reportedly include nerve gases such as sarin, aren't also affecting affecting people all around the world -- and especially in countries in close proximity to Syria.

Dominick A. Ruggiero Jr., Sewell

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PHILADELPHIA -- The tales of political vendettas and back-room machinations that animated the 2013 George Washington Bridge lane-closing scandal were replaced Tuesday with comparatively dry legal arguments as two former associates of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie argued before a federal appeals court to have their convictions overturned.

Attorneys for Bill Baroni and Bridget Kelly acknowledged that even if the motivation for realigning the lanes at the bridge, causing traffic jams in the town of Fort Lee was to punish its mayor for not endorsing Christie, that wasn't a crime under federal law. The lanes still were being used for a public purpose and not to benefit either defendant, the attorneys argued.

Their conduct may have been "bad, wrongful and unjustifiable," Baroni's attorney Michael Levy told the judges, but "that is not the standard for a federal crime. This was bad conduct in search of a criminal theory on how to prosecute it."

Bridget Kelly and Bill Baroni leave federal court after sentencing in Newark. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)

The massive gridlock over four days and part of a fifth in September 2013 mushroomed into a scandal that dragged down Christie's presidential aspirations and, Christie later conceded, played a role in then-Republican nominee Donald Trump's decision not to name him as his running mate.

Baroni was deputy executive director at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the bridge, and Kelly was Christie's deputy chief of staff. Baroni received a 24-month sentence last year; Kelly was sentenced to 18 months. They've been free pending their appeals.

Yaakov Roth, representing Kelly, said Tuesday even though the pair's conduct "wasn't a model of public service," they received no personal benefit from realigning the lanes. Roth likened it to the difference between a mayor authorizing the filling of potholes on the street of a political ally instead of doing the same on the street of a political foe. Criminalizing that behavior would criminalize most political behavior, he implied.

"If the difference between lawful and unlawful use of property turns solely on what's in the person's head, then this statute has astounding breadth," he said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Keller, arguing for the government, countered that the example showed bad motives but no fraud, because the mayor had the power to authorize the work "without having to lie to colleagues" as Baroni did to subordinates.

That touched on another point of contention: whether Baroni had the authority to realign the lanes on his own, since the law specifies the unauthorized use of the property

"In this case, it was unauthorized and unjustified because it was accomplished by fraud," Keller said.

The two sides also clashed over whether there is a right to intrastate travel, a key component of two civil rights charges on which both Kelly and Baroni were convicted.

Christie wasn't charged and denied knowing about the plot until months later, but the negative publicity from the scandal torpedoed his presidential aspirations in the 2016 GOP primary. His account of when he knew about the scheme was contradicted during the fall 2016 trial by Kelly, Baroni and others.

Former Port Authority official David Wildstein, a former political operative and high school acquaintance of Christie's, pleaded guilty and testified that he concocted the revenge plot and that Baroni and Kelly willingly went along. Wildstein was the recipient of Kelly's infamous "Time for traffic problems in Fort Lee" email a month before the traffic jams.

Wildstein was sentenced to probation and now publishes a news website focusing on New Jersey politics from his home in Florida.

Christie, now a political analyst for ABC, said last year he was "incensed" by their conduct and characterized as "ridiculous" the idea that he would have endorsed it.
New Jersey cemented a place in history books Tuesday after Gov. Phil Murphy signed the most sweeping equal pay legislation in the nation.

The new law protects women and minorities in the state from workplace discrimination by making it illegal to offer lower pay and benefits to them. Employers who pay one person more than another will now have to demonstrate how their experience and education sets them apart.

Women who seek damages in court would be allowed to recoup lost wages for up to six years -- three times longer than the federal law's two-year cap.

Employers are also prohibited from cutting the wages of higher-paid staff in order to make salaries comparable.

New Jersey now has the most rigorous protections against pay discrimination, according to the legislation's proponents.

The bill-signing ceremony in Trenton was a raucous event.

About 200 supporters and advocates cheered the governor and hailed the day's special guest, Lilly Ledbetter. She was the driving force behind the nation's federal equal pay law.

"I am so overwhelmed to be here and be a part of this -- just a little part," Ledbetter said.

"This bill being signed today will mean so much more than a signature on a piece of paper," she said. "The law will make an incredible difference in the lives of New Jersey women and their families."

Ledbetter worked for Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in Alabama for 20 years. After she neared retirement, she told the audience, she found out her paycheck had been "shortened by nearly 40 percent."

"It's your retirement. It's your 401K and it's your Social Security," Ledbetter said.

Besides, she quipped, men should want their mothers, sisters and any other women in their lives to earn equal pay. "You want us women to earn equal pay because you can help us spend it," she said to laughs and applause from the crowd.

Women working full-time in America in 2015 earned just 80 cents for every dollar that men earned, and at this rate, women won't reach pay equality until 2059, according to a report by the Institute for Women's Policy Research.

"There are so many people who worked such a long time to see this bill signed," Murphy said.

"Let there be no doubt: New Jersey is back and New Jersey is once again leading the way," he said. "Our wage gap will be closed and we are not going to wait around."

The new law is called the "Diane B. Allen Equal Pay Act," named after the longtime state senator who left her broadcasting job in 1994 after filing gender and age discrimination complaints with the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission. Allen retired from the Senate in January.

"I can't think of a better bill to hold my name," Allen said.

"This is so important to me to see women move forward," she said. "I think it's so important that we have everything on an equal field."

She was praised by her former colleagues for her work and determination.

"It couldn't be any more appropriate, Diane, for it to be named after you," Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, said.

He declared New Jersey is "setting the bar" and encouraged other states to "come join us."

The legislation, (S104) was popular among lawmakers when it made its way through both chambers of the state's Legislature.

It passed in the Senate by a 35-0 vote and in the Assembly by a 74-2, with Assemblymen Michael Patrick Carroll and Assemblyman Jay Webber, both R-Morris, voting no.

Despite the popularity for it among legislators, similar legislation that was signed Tuesday was repeatedly vetoed by former Gov. Chris Christie. In 2016, Christie said it would go beyond federal standards and make New Jersey "very business unfriendly."

While emphasizing his support for equal pay protections, the Republican governor criticized where the legislation "departs significantly from well-established law," according to his veto message.

A veto override attempt failed before Christie left office.

Murphy has made a point to highlight the importance of equal pay for women since he took office in January.

His first official action after he was sworn in as governor was to sign an executive order that barred managers in state government roles from asking job applicants about their previous salary.

The order stretched across all public jobs and was a step toward equal pay for women, Murphy said at the time.

"This is a proud day. This is a proud day for all of us," Weinberg said at the bill signing. "This is a fulfillment of a dream that New Jersey would have the strongest pay equity bill in the nation."

Gov. Phil Murphy signs into law the Diane B. Allen Equal Pay Act which promotes equal pay among all groups of people in the state of New Jersey. (Andrew Maclean/NJ Advance Media photo.)

NJ Advance Media Staff Writer Susan K. Livio contributed to this report.

Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or Facebook.
New Jersey's only women's prison faces growing scrutiny over allegations of sexual abuse, but former inmates and their advocates say prisoners there face other daily indignities.

A state lawmaker said Monday she was introducing legislation requiring more oversight to prevent physical and sexual abuse, free feminine hygiene products for female prisoners and stronger parental rights for inmates with children.

"A prison sentence is punishment enough," said Assemblywoman Yvonne Lopez, D-Middlesex. "This experience must not be coupled with abuse and a lack of basic rights."

Joined by former inmates and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker during a roundtable discussion at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice in Newark, Lopez said the bill was modeled on similar legislation introduced by Booker in the U.S. Senate.

Text of the bill obtained by NJ Advance Media shows it would require major changes in how New Jersey's prisons and jails treat women as well as male inmates who are the primary caregivers of children.

The measure, which has not yet been formally introduced, would create a new special ombudsman in the Department of Corrections to handle claims of physical and sexual abuse as well as mistreatment of female prisoners.

It requires jails and prisons to make accommodations for parents behind bars, including free phone calls and expanded visiting hours, and sets up a pilot program for "overnight visits" with children.

It also mandates free feminine products of inmates and prohibits shackling and solitary confinement for pregnant prisoners.

New Jersey only has one women's prison: the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility in Hunterdon County. State and county officials are investigating allegations of sexual abuse of inmates that have led to charges for seven corrections officer and one civilian employee.

The controversy has stalled the nomination of state Corrections Commissioner Gary Lanigan, who was appointed by former Gov. Chris Christie but asked to stay on by Gov. Phil Murphy.

Spokespeople for Murphy and the Department of Corrections did not respond to questions about the proposal.

Booker, who co-sponsored the Dignity for Incarcerated Women Act with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, said the federal version was still awaiting a vote in the Senate. But he noted that lawmakers in 10 other states have enacted portions of the bill and called on New Jersey state lawmakers to do the same.

"When you punish women in such an inhumane manner, it doesn't stop there," Booker said. "It goes to entire families. It affects children, it affects communities."

Booker told NJ Advance Media he had spoken to Murphy about the legislation and said the governor was "very open to supporting to these kinds of efforts."

S.P. Sullivan may be reached at ssullivan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un gave a warm welcome to CIA Director Mike Pompeo when he visited Pyongyang early this month. According to the Asahi Shimbun daily, Kim reportedly told Pompeo this was the first time he has met "someone with the same kind of guts."

The daily said Pompeo met South Korean National Intelligence Service officers in Seoul before he flew to Pyongyang, where he negotiated in secret for three days. He was accompanied by five other CIA officials.

Kim met Pompeo three to four times including dinner. Separately, Pompeo also met Kim Yong-chol, the chief of the United Front Department, and another senior official.

Kim "expressed his intention to give up his nuclear weapons program while not asking for the withdrawal of U.S. forces" from South Korea, according to the paper.

Instead, the North demanded that the U.S. agree to establish diplomatic relations and ease economic sanctions, but declined at this stage to detail what measures it will take and in what timeframe, according to the daily.


Investigators in central Alabama believe a 5-year-old boy has been kidnapped and could be headed to New Orleans, according to a Facebook post by the Sylacauga (Ala.) Police Department.

-- Update: Child has been found safe

Malachi Quintanilla is believed to have been kidnapped as he got off the bus at his home in the Sylacauga area, roughly 50 miles outside of Birmingham.

According to police, the suspected kidnapper is a woman who may be related to Quintanilla's biological father, who lives in New Orleans. She is driving a gray car.

"This abduction is not believed to be a random act," authorities said in the Facebook post.

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Malachi Quintanilla is 4-foot-3 in height and 50 pounds in weight, with brown hair and brown eyes. He was wearing blue jeans, a white-and-Navy striped polo-style shirt and black shoes.

Anyone with information on Malachi's whereabouts is urged to call 911, the Sylacauga Police Department at 256-761-1556 or Investigator Ben Layton at 256-401-2456.

--

UPDATE: The child has been safe in Mississippi, authorities said. NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune has removed his photo from this story.
The man accused of going on a "violent crime spree" Sunday afternoon (April 22) admitted during police questioning that he fatally shot 38-year-old Lil' Ricky Goins while the two were driving in separate cars on Elysian Fields Avenue, according to Charles Williams' warrant, which was read in court Monday.

Williams, 25, told police he shot from his moving car at Goins, while they were driving near the intersection of Elysian Fields Avenue and North Galvez Street, the warrant states. Goins kept driving after he was shot, but crashed into a black Lincoln Town Car in the 2400 block of Elysian Fields Avenue. Two people inside the Town Car were injured, but both were reported in stable condition, according to police.

Goins was pronounced dead on the scene, and police said Williams immediately sped off to the 1900 block of St. Roch Avenue, where he shot three more people who were sitting on a porch.

Williams was booked into Orleans Justice Center jail shortly after 5:30 a.m. Monday on one charge of second-degree murder. Orleans Magistrate commissioner Brigid Collins set his bond for $750,000 Monday afternoon. At the time, Williams was only booked on the murder charge, but NOPD Michael Harrison said more charges will be added to his case in the coming days.

Police have connected Williams to the following incidents:

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Goins was

Williams is also accused of various driving charges, including reckless operation of a motor vehicle and hit and run. After he fired at officers processing the scene on St. Roch Avenue, Williams led police on a cross-city chase from a stolen Toyota Corolla. He was apprehended peacefully after crashing the car in Mid-City about 6 p.m.

During court Monday, Williams told Collins he has been unemployed since January and he takes care of his baby son "full time." According to Williams, his child turned 11-months-old Sunday.

According to his warrant, Williams lives in the 1900 block of St. Roch Avenue, where he is accused of shooting three people Sunday afternoon. Harrison said Williams' spree started after he got into a "domestic issue."
A man was fatally shot Tuesday morning (April 24) at the edge of the St. Roch and St. Claude neighborhoods, New Orleans police said. His name has not been released.

NOPD said the shooting was reported at 3 a.m. in the 1500 block of Franklin Avenue (map) between North Claiborne Avenue and North Robertson Street. The victim was shot in the chest and died at the scene, officers said.

Police said a report of a burglary at the same address came in while officers were on their way to the shooting, but NOPD spokesman Aaron Looney said he couldn't confirm any additional details.

NOPD said the investigation was ongoing and no more details were immediately available, including the victim's age, a possible motive or a description of a potential suspect.

By 8 a.m. Monday police were gone from the scene, but three employees at a nearby gas station said there was a large number of police and investigators there around 4:30 a.m. when they arrived at work. The employees said they were not there when the shooting happened, but all three noted a coroner's van was parked outside a home next to the store.

One man who works at the gas station said it was "concerning" to know a murder happened so close to his work, but said he does not live in the area.

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"Too much killing," an employee said as she walked back into the store.

Authorities ask anyone with information about this crime to contact Homicide Detective Leonard Bendy at 504-658-5300 or Crimestoppers at 504.822.1111. You could receive a cash reward of up to $2,500 for the information leading to the arrest and indictment of the responsible person. You do not have to give your name nor testify to receive the reward. Citizens can also submit an anonymous tip to Crimestoppers at www.crimestoppersgno.org.

--

Correction: NOPD initially said the homicide was in the 1700 block of Franklin Avenue. They later said the correct address was the 1500 block of Franklin. The story has been updated.

NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune reporter Carlie Kollath Wells contributed to this story.
Investigators arrested a New Orleans woman found with 52.5 pounds of marijuana in her car during a traffic stop, according to authorities.

Kanika Lemon, 42, was taken into custody on eastbound Interstate 10 in Kenner on Saturday afternoon (April 21). Lemon is accused of transported large amounts of marijuana into the New Orleans area from Houston, according to a Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office arrest report.

Narcotics detectives developed information about the delivery and set up surveillance along the interstate with help from Louisiana State Police troopers, the arrest report said. The investigators stopped Lemon's vehicle in Kenner around 1:45 p.m. based on that information.

The trooper who stopped Lemon "noticed inconsistencies in Lemon's travel itinerary," the report said. Lemon refused to give authorities consent to search her car.

State Police K-9 Trooper Boyca conducted a perimeter check of the vehicle and alerted on the trunk, the report said. Inside, investigators found a large duffel bag with five bundles of marijuana weighing 52.5 pounds, the report said.

Lemon eventually admitted transporting marijuana from Houston to New Orleans for $800 per trip, the report said. She told authorities this was her ninth delivery.

Lemon was booked into the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna with possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute. She was released Sunday on a $100,000 bond.
A warrant for Charles Williams, the man accused of killing someone, shooting four other civilians and one police officer and carjacking multiple cars during what New Orleans police called a "violent crime spree," early on Sunday evening (April 22), states Williams freely admitted to the homicide and some of the other crimes.

Williams, 25, was booked early Monday on a charge of second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of 38-year-old Lil'Ricky Goins. A warrant for his arrest in that charge states he was being interviewed by detectives related to a different shooting when Williams "bought up the shooting incident involving the brown Audi," which resulted in Goins' death, "prior to (the detective) even asking him."

According to the warrant, sworn by NOPD Detective Bruce Brueggeman, Williams also told NOPD 5th District Detective Charles Ward, after being read his Miranda rights, that earlier on Sunday he had a "domestic altercation" with his girlfriend and "became angry." He became further angered, he told police, when his father then refused to give him "extra ammunition" after Williams demanded a box of bullets.

Police say Williams told the detective he then left the home with "what ammunition he already had," and "went to on a shooting rampage on St. Roch Avenue, Kelerec Street, North Villere Street and Elysian Fields Avenue," according to the warrant.

The murder warrant states Williams told police he left the home in a car after becoming angered and was at the intersection of North Galvez Street and Elysian Fields Avenue "when he observed a brown Audi pull up next to him," in the right lane. The warrant states Williams "voluntarily stated that he was sitting in the driver seat of his vehicle when he retrieved his firearm and pointed it at the driver of the Audi." He told police he shot the Audi's driver one time, the warrant states, "but later in the interview stated that he may have shot him multiple times, and that he did not remember."

As the victim later identified as Goins fled from Williams in his Audi, the warrant states, he "subsequently lost consciousness" from his injuries and crashed into another car.

Williams, whose address is listed in booking records in the 1900 block of St. Roch Avenue, where one of the shootings took place, was represented Monday during his first appearance in magistrate court by the Orleans Public Defender's office. He told Magistrate Commissioner Brigid Collins he was unemployed and cared for his nearly 11-month-old son full time.

He was scheduled to appear in court Tuesday morning in front of Magistrate Judge Harry Cantrell to face additional charges of attempted second-degree murder, four counts of aggravated assault with a firearm, two counts of armed robbery, one count of illegal use of a weapon and one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

However, court records show that because of a "high security risk," Williams was not transported to the courthouse by Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office deputies. The public defender's office represented him at the hearing, though, and Cantrell found probable cause to hold him on the new charges and set a total bond of $485,000, which will be added to the $750,000 bond Collins set, for a total of more than $1.2 million. The public defender's office generally does not comment on open cases.

Police have connected Williams to the following incidents:

Goins was

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The warrant for the additional charges offers new details about some of the other crimes in which Williams is accused.

An interview police conducted with the girlfriend of a man who was shot in the face but survived on North Derbigny near Kerlerec during the alleged "rampage" sheds light on that incident. The woman told police she was driving a Gold Mercury Milan on North Claiborne Avenue and took a left on Kerlerec when a "male in a gold vehicle stuck his hand out of his driver window armed with a gun and fired in her vehicle," the warrant states.

Her boyfriend, who had been seated in the front passenger seat, was shot in the face. Also in the car at the time of the shooting was the woman's 1-year-old daughter and a friend of theirs, an adult male, the woman told police.

The woman said she did not know the person who fired the gun but would be able to recognize him again. The woman said the man who shot her boyfriend looked to be about 25 years old, with a low haircut and was "attired in a blue Dickie brand shirt and appeared to be evil," the warrant states. As police interviewed her, they said, her boyfriend was undergoing surgery.

The adult male passenger who was in the car also provided police with a statement corroborating the woman's story, a detective wrote in the warrant.

While detectives investigated the shooting on North Derbigny and Kerlerec, they got word of an armed carjacking in 1400 block of North Villere Street. Someone in a gold vehicle "took a red Ford Taurus" in the 1400 block of North Villere and fled south on Columbus Street, the warrant states. After turning on Columbus, the perpetrator - later identified as Williams - then "fired gunshots at the occupant in a white Ford Crown Victoria." The driver of the Crown Victoria then struck a fence in the 1400 block of Kerlerec. The driver of the Crown Victoria then abandoned the car and left the engine running and car in drive. It does not appear the suspect took the Crown Victoria.

Another carjacking was then reported - this time an armed man in a Ford Taurus, initially described as the color burgundy, "ordered the occupants of a four-door white Jaguar to exit the vehicle," and then fled the area in the Jaguar. Police said in the warrant that the white Jaguar crashed near Interstate 10 and Read Boulevard.

As investigators worked, they learned the same suspect led the NOPD and Louisiana State Police on a vehicle pursuit though the city until the suspect "crashed another carjacked vehicle" at the intersection of North Carrollton Avenue and Flowerdale Court. A red Toyota sedan Williams was seen driving was flipped over at the scene. At that point, police say, Williams peacefully surrendered.

Two "known victims" were taken by police to the location where Williams was apprehended where police conducted a "show up." The victims positively identified Williams as the man who shot the person riding in the gold Mercury Milan in the face.

"Additionally, Mr. Williams confessed to being responsible for the crime spree," the warrant states.

Staff writer Marie Simoneaux contributed to this report.
Workers will continue to receive subsidies for their children's education but no more payments for their own educational pursuits.

Under the agreement, management will not impose an unpaid leave of absence on the remaining 680 workers at its Gunsan plant that will be closed while offering another voluntary retirement program.

GM Korea's labor union reached an 11th-hour deal with management on Monday over cost-cutting measures, saving the cash-strapped automaker from declaring bankruptcy.

GM announced the closure of the Gunsan plant and started a major restructuring program of its Korean unit in February of this year. Some 2,600 workers applied for voluntary retirement packages, while the union agreed to relinquish bonuses and freeze wages this year.

The agreement has yet to be approved by a union vote later this week.

"Ratification of the tentative agreement is critical to our viability plan and securing support of the Korean government and our shareholders," GM Korea CEO Kaher Kazem said in a statement. "The labor union has demonstrated its commitment and we continue to work with our other key stakeholders to gain their support."



GM headquarters will in turn inject W500 billion in emergency funds into the Korean unit this month (US$1=W1,075).

The Korean government also needs to decide on the size of its bailout. State-run Korea Development Bank, GM Korea's second-largest shareholder, will decide whether to provide the automaker with another W500 billion in emergency loans following due diligence.
Housed in a 19th century building on Decatur Street, G&E Courtyard Grill was full of history. One wall was a mural that harkened back to ancient Rome. The name referred to Giusseppe and Elaynora Uddo, the grandparents of chef and owner Michael Uddo. A block from the restaurant, on Gov. Nicholls Street, Giuseppe and Elaynora founded a grocery that become Progresso Foods.

When it came to food, G&E, which opened in 1990, was contemporary for its time. The menu was largely Italian but far from the traditional red-gravy restaurants of New Orleans. The cooking nodded to the Mediterranean, the American Southwest and even California and Asia, thanks to Beryl Guidroz, who was Uddo's co-chef when the restaurant opened. And on the namesake courtyard, meat cooked on a rotisserie.

G&E closed in 1999. Uddo, after working in catering for many years, is now the executive chef and general manager of Cafe B in Old Metairie. The Decatur Street space where G&E was located is now the bar and restaurant Cane & Table.

Readers who ate at G&E shared these memories:

"Best restaurant in town at that time." -- David Smith

"That's where I learned grilled fish was the best." -- Vicki Karno

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"I still miss his duck breast with ginger-plum-teriyaki glaze." -- Troy Roth

"My favorite place to take out of town guests." --

Rachel Piercey

"Proposed to my wife on that courtyard, Valentine's Day 1991!" -- Dustin DeNicola

"Had my first glass of wine at dinner with my family at G&E and now we occupy the space with Cane & Table. Always have felt very honored to be able to run a restaurant in the same space." -- Neal Bodenheimer, partner in Cure and Cane & Table

Share your memories and photos at www.facebook.com/groups/whereNOLAeats.
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Three Louisiana congressmen who backed President Donald Trump's ban on Syrian refugees entering the United States also supported his missile strikes on chemical weapons sites in the largely Muslim country. Does that make them hypocrites?

A liberal think tank says yes. Two of the congressmen - Republican Reps. Steve Scalise of Old Jefferson and Ralph Abraham of Alto - dismiss the labeling; the third, Rep. Clay Higgins, R-Port Barre, did not respond to a request for comment.

Syria has been wracked by civil war since 2011 and its president, Bashar al-Assad, pilloried by some for terrorizing his own people. More than 5.5 million have fled the country, many of them seeking asylum in the U.S.

But a week after taking office in 2017, Trump suspended all Syrian refugee resettlement in the U.S., as well as those of people from six other Muslim countries He's twice modified the order, and the Supreme Court is considering a challenge to it.

On April 14, the Trump administration joined the United Kingdom and France in launching missiles to destroy sites linked to the Syrian government's chemical weapons, further roiling the country.

Six days later, Think Progress, a website of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, posted a story headlined "The 111 hypocrites that backed Trump's refugee ban and strikes on Syria." In that number were Scalise, Abraham and Higgins. Here's the gist of the post:

"Like Trump, nearly all the members of Congress who said they support the airstrikes also expressed humanitarian concerns for the plight of the Syrian people. But ... lawmakers tallied by Think Progress either expressed support for, or failed to condemn last year's Muslim ban, which halted refugee resettlement for 120 days and suspended all Syrian immigrant and non-immigrant visas for 90 days."

Here's what Scalise spokesman Chris Bond said in response:

"Congressman Scalise believes strongly that it was the right decision to work with our British and French allies to strike the chemical weapons capabilities that Assad has used to slaughter innocent civilians.

"He also understands that it is vital to America's security for our government to vet the people coming here, especially when terrorists have made it clear that they will use any means available to infiltrate our country.

"We are confronting serious problems in a dangerous part of the world, a bad situation made worse by President [Barack] Obama's failure to enforce his own 'red line.'

"It's unfortunate, but not at all surprising, that a left-wing activist blog would fail to understand these facts."

Said Abraham: "The left refuses to give President Trump any credit, and that post is the latest attempt from liberals in the media to take shots at a very successful mission in Syria. There is absolutely nothing hypocritical about punishing a tyrant like Assad for gassing his own people while holding legitimate concerns about whether refugees from the area could be adequately vetted for security risks."

We emailed Higgins' press secretary on Friday for comment. If we receive one, we'll update this story.

. . . . . . .

Drew Broach covers Jefferson Parish politics and Louisiana interests in Congress, plus other odds and ends, for NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. Email: dbroach@nola.com. Facebook: Drew Broach TP. Twitter: drewbroach1. Google+: Drew Broach.
The Mississippi Gulf Coast's Crooked Letter Brewing Co. has moved into a new home in downtown Ocean Springs, a Mississippi newspaper reports.

The Sun Herald reported April 17 that the new location for the brewpub will move the brewery to a more visible location and take advantage of the downtown nightlife.

Crooked Letter first opened in another location in Ocean Springs in 2012. Mississippi's Gulf Coast is home to several other microbreweries, including Biloxi Brewing Co., Chandeleur Island Brewing Co. in Gulfport and Lazy Magnolia in Kiln.

Crooked Letter's Paul Blacksmith told the newspaper the menu focuses on dishes that will complement the company's brews. The beer will always come first, he said.

"Beer will always be the priority at our brewpub," Blacksmith told the newspaper.
The sentencing of a Slidell woman convicted last week of stealing another woman's identity via social media and using fake credentials to obtain a high-paying job has been delayed until May 29.

Cindy T. White was scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday (April 24) but Judge Scott Gardner of the 22nd Judicial District Court set the new sentencing date after denying a defense motion for a new trial.

A St. Tammany Parish jury found White guilty of theft of identity over $1,000 on April 18. She faces a prison sentence of up to 10 years, according to North Shore District Attorney Warren Montgomery's Office.

Prosecutors said White, who has a criminal record that includes forgery and theft, provided a resume with fraudulent Social Security and driver's license numbers to obtain an executive level job with Diversified Foods and Seasonings in 2015. She was promoted a short time later to senior human resources director and her annual pay was raised to $105,000, the District Attorney's Office reported.

Company officials became suspicious when White had trouble performing duties that the position required. An ensuing investigation revealed that she had copied the credentials directly from the Linked In account of someone with a similar name and had obtained that woman's Social Security and driver's license numbers through an unspecified online site, Montgomery's office reported.

Prosecutors contended that between October 9, 2015, and May 6, 2016, White fraudulently collected $56,209 in salary from Diversified Foods, which was founded in 1984 by the late entrepreneur Al Copeland, Sr., founder of Popeyes Fried Chicken. White admitted in a statement to investigators that she fraudulently used the victim's educational experience and Social Security number to get the job. But her attorney argued during the trial that she actually earned the salary.

The jury deliberated 15 minutes before returning the guilty verdict.
Politicians are trying to cash in on the bitcoin craze to lure voters ahead of the June 13 local elections.

A dozen candidates running in Seoul, Busan, Gyeonggi and North Chungcheong constituencies have proposed issuing new cryptocurrencies.

The trend is most prevalent in Seoul. Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, who recently won the ruling Minjoo Party's nomination for a third term, vowed to create a currency called "S-coin" that can be used in Seoul.

He pledged to award "eco-mileage" S-coins to households that save electricity, water and gas as well as using it to pay subsidies for young jobseekers struggling with unemployment and welfare benefits for city officials.


Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes defined the bedrock principle of the First Amendment with a call to honor the "freedom for the thought that we hate." Or, more completely, "not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate."

Thoughts and concepts that are widely embraced or benignly accepted are not in need of protection. The kind of talk that cries for constitutional protection is that which strikes many as odious, contemptible, vile and despicable.

That's how a lot people would describe the Twitter rant that California State University at Fresno English professor Randa Jarrar unleashed last week just minutes after the death of former first lady Barbara Bush was announced.

"Barbara Bush was a generous and smart and amazing racist who, along with her husband, raised a war criminal," Jarrar tweeted Tuesday night (April 17). "F--- outta here with your nice words."

In another tweet, she wrote: "I'm happy the witch is dead. can't wait for the rest of her family to fall to their demise the way 1.5 million iraqis have. Byyyeeeeeee."

As her Twitter hate spread across the internet and people began to push back, Jarrar mocked her social media pursuers and tossed off a final taunt that seemed especially designed to inflame conservatives already up in arms over what they see as a liberal takeover of American colleges.

"I work as a tenured professor," she said. "I make 100K a year doing that. I will never be fired. I will always have people wanting to hear what I have to say."

In a final juvenile jeer, Jarrar then gave out a contact number that turned out to be the crisis hotline at Arizona State University, which had to bring in extra people to answer the telephones so that no legitimate, life and death emergency calls were missed.

There is nothing remotely redeeming about Jarrar's behavior throughout these exchanges, and her conduct brought the expected cries for her resignation and firing.

Fresno State president Joseph Castro immediately announced an investigation that includes reviewing all the facts as well as the faculty's collective bargaining agreement, according to the Fresno Bee.

"A professor with tenure does not have blanket protection to say and do what they wish," Castro told the newspaper. "We are all held accountable for our actions."

Jarrar, who is not teaching at the school this semester, has since taken her Twitter account private and declined media request for comment.

"This was beyond free speech," Castro said. "This was disrespectful."

With all due respect to President Castro, who no doubt is getting an earful from students, parents, elected California officials and donors, "disrespectful" is exactly the kind of discourse that Holmes had in mind. And as an employee of a state-financed university Jarrar is protected by the First Amendment, tenured or not. Talking tough may be the right public relations move for Castro at this point, but he should restrain himself from actually giving her the boot.

And conservatives who have complained stridently about right-leaning speakers being banned, shouted down or disinvited from speaking at campus events need to avoid the hypocrisy of now demanding that Jarrar be silenced for expressing her views, no matter how offensive and disrespectful they are.

If nothing else, resisting the urge to oust the professor will preserve the sanctity of free speech at a time when many are trying to weaken it with exceptions for hate speech, micro-aggression and the vague umbrella complaint of intolerance. And as long as conservative thinkers remain the minority in most faculties, they will be the most likely to benefit from maintaining constitutional protections.

If Jarrar had chosen a different target, in fact, she might be under fire from the campus thought police for defining a woman by the actions of the men in her life and using the gender-offensive term "witch" in disparaging her personally.

One can only hope that Jarrar, who was described in a Los Angeles Times profile last year as being "in her late 30s," will mature in this little crucible and realize that there are times when odious, contemptible, vile and despicable speech is needed. And there are times when it's better not to share our most loathsome thoughts with the world.

And along with tenure comes responsibility.

Tim Morris is an opinions columnist at NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. He can be reached at tmorris@nola.com. Follow him on Twitter @tmorris504.
NORTH RIDGEVILLE, Ohio - Visitors to the Sandy Ridge Reservation on Sunday witnessed a traumatic nature event when a non-resident bald eagle attacked the eagles nesting there.

As birders and trail walkers watched in horror, the invading eagle repeatedly thrashed at the nesting female with its sharp beak and talons, eventually driving it away.

The gravely wounded female was later found on a roadside in North Ridgeville and taken to the rehabilitation clinic at the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center, where it died, said Senior Park Naturalist Tim Fairweather.

But the invading eagle wasn't finished with its assault.

Photographer Daniel Grossi arrived at the nest site about 5 p.m. to find the male on the nest keeping watch on the eaglet. The female invader was perched nearby for at least two hours, eyeing the nest, he said in a Facebook post.

About 7 p.m., the female dove for the eaglet and scuffled with the male. Then she flew away with the eaglet clutched in her talons, he said.

The male screamed, but did not pursue the female.

"It was the worst thing I have ever seen," said Caroline Gerace Martinsen, who witnessed the event and posted her sighting on Facebook. "I hope I never see anything like that ever again."

"I checked the nest this morning and there are no adults or eaglets," Fairweather said.

One eagle cam viewer said he was watching the nest online when the camera suddenly went dark. When the picture returned online a short time later, the nest was empty, according to a Facebook post from Jeff Barnes of Elyria. Glitches on bird cameras are not uncommon.

On Monday, the Lorain County Metro Parks posted a message on Facebook about the attack.

"Sad to report that the resident female Bald Eagle was attacked by another female eagle and died. The same 'intruder' also killed the eaglet."

Bald Eagles have nested at the Sandy Ridge Reservation since 2002, building three separate nests over the years. They built at the present location after Superstorm Sandy destroyed its predecessor in 2012. There have been four different adult eagles during that time, and typically one or two eaglets fledged per year. Last year in Ohio, there were an estimated 221 nesting pairs that produced an estimated 312 young eagles.

Sunday's dramatic eagle attack wasn't unprecedented, Fairweather recalled. The resident female that just died obtained its claim to the territory by killing the original resident female, he said.

Witnesses to the aerial clash may take longer to recover from the bloody trauma than the male eagle, Fairweather said. He quoted a Facebook post from Lisa Romaniuk, who noticed that, afterward, the male eagle returned to the nest where it proceeded to finish eating a duck he had been feeding the eaglet when the attack began.

"Less traumatic for him than us," Romaniuk said. "Nature is not always beautiful but still amazing."

Sure enough, Fairweather reported Monday afternoon that the resident male was observed engaging in courtship activity with the female interloper, who was sporting a deep gash on her face.

"The plot gets deeper," Fairweather remarked.
The state will soon be pushing the locally elected officials of Powhatan out of the way to administer the finances of the northwest Louisiana village that in mid-July had only $105 in its general fund and is hiring a cop to drum up some money from
Korean Air chairman Cho Yang-ho's wife has allegedly become the latest member of his dysfunctional family to be caught out in a bizarre tantrum.

A video clip that surfaced online Monday shows a woman who is purportedly Cho's wife Lee Myung-hee turning on construction workers in a blind rage and shoving one violently out of the way while another tries to intervene.

The anonymous source who provided the video to a media outlet said the woman is Lee.

The clip was recorded in May 2014 at a construction site for the Grand Hyatt Incheon, which belongs to KAL Hotel Network, a subsidiary of Cho's Hanjin Group, and uploaded in a chat room for KAL staff to tip the media off about the owner family's abuses.

In the one-and-a-half-minute clip, the woman kicks objects on the ground and points her finger at standing workers. Then she jerks a female worker's hand and keeps shoving her back. A male worker who tries to stop her is then also being harangued by the woman, who snatches a bundle of documents he is holding and throws them on the floor.

The workers were identified as staff of a subcontractor in charge of landscaping for the hotel.
Academic praises new environment ministry, prosecution of polluters

From:ChinaDaily | 2018-04-24 00:31

Chinas new Ministry of Ecology and Environment shows Beijings determination to reconcile economic growth with environmental protection, says a British energy policy adviser.

President Xi Jinpings speech on the subject at last years 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, coupled with the creation of the ministry in March, demonstrates a strong commitment to address the issue, said Neil Hirst, a senior policy fellow at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College London.

Its a tough call because China still needs rapid economic growth to fight against poverty and achieve the aim of a moderately prosperous society, he added.

Hirst, who also works with the Chinese government on its policies for international energy cooperation, said: The fact that more than 1,000 officials are to be punished for failing to fulfill environmental protection duties is a sign of determination, but it is also, perhaps, an indication of the extent of the challenge.

At the recent launch of his book The Energy Conundrum: Climate Change, Global Prosperity, and the Tough Decisions We Have to Make, Hirst lauded Chinas aim of reducing the energy intensity of its economy by 15 percent between 2015 and 2020, saying it is the most important target as it detaches economic growth from carbon emissions. He said success requires the rapid rebalancing of the Chinese economy, from heavy industry toward services and domestic demand.

It will require further improvements in industrial efficiency and energy regulation, which are already high priorities for the government, said Hirst, who noted it will also be important to continue to adopt low-carbon technologies, such as solar and wind energy.

Hirst argues that developing countries are responsible for most greenhouse gas emissions today and will produce all future growth in the emissions.

According to the International Energy Agency, energy-related carbon dioxide emissions from developed economies in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development  including Europe, the United States, and Japan  were 11 billion metric tons in 2016, while non-OECD emissions stood at 19 billion tons. China alone contributed 9 billion tons.

The IEA expects emissions from the developed economies to gradually decline by 2040, while non-OECD emission will increase, to 25 billion tons.

During the 2018 two sessions meetings in Beijing, Li Ganjie, minister of ecology and environment, emphasized that green development is the way for countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative to achieve a promising future.

Hirst said that means the emphasis should be on improving energy-efficiency, and on low-carbon energy sources, such as renewables, hydro, and nuclear power, together with the transmission and distribution networks they will need.

It would probably be unrealistic to rule out new coal generation altogether, but  the absolute minimum of new coal plants should be highly efficient, he said, adding that, in addition to concentrating on low-carbon hardware, the Belt and Road Initiative should also help to educate governments, industry, and people, in the low-carbon policies, technologies, and practices, that China is now beginning to pursue at home.
Safety stressed after DPRK crash kills 32 Chinese

From:ChinaDaily | 2018-04-24 01:10

President Xi Jinping has urged maximizing safety precautions to protect the lives and assets of the public in an instruction on handling Sunday's fatal bus accident in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

On Sunday night, the accident in North Hwanghae province, in the southwest of the DPRK, killed 32 Chinese tourists and four DPRK citizens, and left two other Chinese in critical condition.

Xi quickly issued the instruction after the accident to require the Foreign Ministry and embassy in the DPRK to take all necessary measures to coordinate with DPRK authorities and effectively handle any issues or needs that arise.

No effort should be spared to assist the injured and deal with the aftermath involving the victims, and localities involved should take the initiative to console their family members, Xi said in the instruction.

Xi said great attention should be paid to the recent frequency of accidents, and with the May 1 holidays approaching, localities and departments should fully honor their safetyrelated duties, rule out hidden risks, boost precautions and ramp up emergency responses.

Premier Li Keqiang also called for an early verification of the accident's details and effective rescue and treatment.

China solemnly mourns the Chinese compatriots and DPRK citizens, and offers condolences to the family members of those killed and injured, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said at a daily news conference in Beijing on Monday.

In a release earlier on Monday, the ministry disclosed that Pyongyang had briefed the Chinese embassy on Sunday night about the crash.

An embassy working group rushed to the scene of the accident accompanied by officials from the DPRK Foreign Ministry.

China's Foreign Ministry and National Health Commission activated their emergency response procedures overnight.

The National Health Commission selected four national-level medical experts with specialties in areas such as neurosurgery and spinal injury surgery from four leading hospitals in Beijing as members of the state medical experts group.

The group, led by commission officials, carried needed medical equipment and medicines and left for the DPRK on Monday, the commission said in a statement.

The Foreign Ministry has sent a working group that accompanied the medical experts to the DPRK, Lu said.

They will work with the DPRK on such tasks as further rescue and recovery issues and medical treatment, Lu added.

Pyongyang considers the accident to be of great importance, and various departments concerned are coordinating with China on the aftermath of the crash and investigating the accident, Lu said.

Zhou Jin contributed to this story.

zhangyunbi@chinadaily.com.cn
Beautify countryside nationwide, Xi orders

From:ChinaDaily | 2018-04-24 07:47

President Xi Jinping has demanded nationwide efforts to emulate the transformation of East China's Zhejiang province in building a beautiful countryside with a pleasant living environment to increase the sense of gain and happiness for all rural residents.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said Zhejiang has made constant efforts during the past 15 years to improve the rural living environment, creating "tens of thousands of beautiful villages".

"As I have said on many occasions, developed and underdeveloped areas should all get involved in improving the rural environment, though the standards may vary," Xi said.

During the implementation of a three-year campaign to improve the rural living environment and the rural vitalization strategy, the country must popularize Zhejiang's experience and practices, he said, adding that measures should be targeted and adjusted to local conditions.

Zhejiang, where Xi's "Two Mountains" theoryin which clear waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets comparable to the gold and silver mountains of legendwas originated, has taken the lead in rural vitalization since 2003, when it implemented a project to overhaul the living environment of villages.

At the end of last year, 97 percent of villages in the province had been overhauled.

"Through implementing the rural vitalization strategy, the longtime imbalance in the development of China's urban and rural areas and the insufficiency in China's rural area development will be addressed," said Huang Zuhui, dean of the China Academy for Rural Development at Zhejiang University.

He said the strategy must be pushed ahead under the framework of urban-rural composition and integration.

The Zhejiang CPC provincial committee and Zhejiang provincial government on Monday issued an action plan to fully implement its rural vitalization strategy to realize countryside modernization before 2022.

According to the plan, by 2020, Zhejiang will form basic systematic and policy frameworks to achieve "substantial progress" in rural vitalization, building up a well-off society in its rural areas.

By 2022, per capita rural disposal income in Zhejiang will rise by 10,000 yuan ($1,585) to reach over 35,000 yuan. It also will reconstruct and overhaul over 10,000 kilometers of rural roads during that period.

Long-term goals include realizing its rural vitalization goals on a whole by 2035, with farmers realizing common prosperity and modernization; and all goals for "common prosperity and modernization" will be realized "at high standards" by 2050.

A rural vitalization college was launched on Saturday in Xianju county. Pritzker Prize winner Wang Shu, dean of the architecture department at China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, accepted the appointment to head the college.

Xinhua contributed to this story.
City museum devoted to marriage

From:Shine | 2018-04-24 00:29

Marriage certificates from different eras are on show at Shanghais Marriage Culture Museum that opens on May 1. It tracks old rituals to the modern era of simpler weddings.

A marriage is made in heaven and a marriage museum is made in Shanghai.

From May 1, the city will showcase the historical evolution of Shanghais marriage culture from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) onwards.

Shanghai Marriage Culture Museum will feature 137 exhibits, including dowries and photographs. Entry is free.

The museum in Putuo District is Chinas first to be devoted to provincial level marriage culture. It describes wedding customs and rituals and records the development of the citys marriage registration system.

Shanghais marriage culture is unique and its development experiences three periods, which are ancient marriage, marriage influenced by the integration of Chinese and Western cultures, and marriage in modern times that centers on the legalization of marriage registration management, said Zhou Jingbo, an official with the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau.

A variety of items, once commonly seen in Shanghainese families, are displayed, such as porcelain teapots, silver commemoration plates, copper hand warmers, washbasins and tooth glasses, and glass fruit plates with dragon or phoenix patterns that have auspicious meaning in Chinese mythology.

A signing roll of a wedding in the 1960s, bearing all the names of the guests who participated, is on show as are bridal hairpins from the 1912-1949 Republic of China period, a bronze lock from the Qing Dynasty, embroidered sachets, silver bracelets, bronze mirrors, oil lamps and bridal porcelain make-up jars.

Visitors will also find items reflecting the lighter side of marriage, such as an embroidered love token showing a pair of mandarin ducks symbolizing lifetime marriage, 555 brand clocks  widely used in Shanghai in the 1980s  a 1963 script of the Huju marital opera Luo Han Qian, and even a picture-story book from the 1980s about the Marriage Law.

Marriage certificates over the past six decades and different versions of marriage laws and regulations dating from the 1950s are also showcased.

And of course those ubiquitous wedding photos are on display  from the 1950s to the present day.

It is very interesting to see all these items as they remind me of a bygone era, said Wang Shirong, a 59-year-old Shanghai resident, who attended a preview. Visitors will also learn about wedding rituals in different periods.

Gifts to the bride in Shanghai during the Qing dynasty would usually involve jewelry, clothing and tea leaves, while the brides gifts to her husband would often comprise shoes, hats or spectacles. Quilts, clothing, cases, perhaps a bath too would form the brides dowry  and a bridal sedan chair was a must for some.

During the Republic of China period, some young students were daring enough to propose marriage without any intervention from their parents, and during this period bridegrooms began wearing tailcoats, and brides a white wedding dress.

After the implementation of the Marriage Law in 1950, arranged marriages fell out of favour and some long-held traditions disappeared.

The wedding process became much simpler and certificates from civil affairs authorities became the norm.

In the 1980s and 1990s  and with the improvement of financial conditions for many  televisions, refrigerators and washing machines were the order of the day on the gift front. Visitors to the museum can watch a video on the changes in Shanghais wedding customs and rituals.

The museum is located at 510 Caoyang Rd. inside the Putuo District Resident Service Center. It is open from 9am-11:30am, and 1:30pm-4:30pm on Mondays and Fridays, and from 9am to 3pm on Saturdays.
Thugs have robbed Shs 30 million from Jetset forex bureau in Kisoro municipality.



The bureau located along the Kisoro-Bunagana road, is the largest in the municipality. The incident happened last night when thugs who were residing in Supa's Bistro and Guest House, next to the Forex Bureau used ladders to access the bureau.

Jetset forex bureau, Kisoro

Semu Kigarama, the manager Jetset, explains that the thugs cut the roof of the forex bureau to access the safe, where the money was kept. He also says that thugs also stole the company's internet modem and his eye glasses.According to Kigarama, he learnt of the robbery at 8:30a.m on Tuesday morning when he opened the office for work.Following the robbery, police used a sniffer dog to track the suspects. The dog led the officers to the home of Robert Turyakira, a security guard attached to Security Plus Uganda Limited, who was guarding the bureau last night.Charles Okotto, the Kisoro district police commander, says that the company's internet modem and eye glasses were found in Turyakira's room. Turyakira is currently on the run.According to Okotto, two staff of the forex bureau, have been arrested and are detained at Kisoro police station.This is the second time thugs have robbed the forex bureau. Early last year, unknown thugs robbed unspecified millions of money. In August 2012, the bureau's Gulu branch was also robbed of Shs 40 million by armed gangs.
Bloggers and others running online platforms in Tanzania have two weeks to register with the government or face fines and jail time.

Rights groups are expressing concern about the measure, which stems from a new law regulating online content. The new law in Tanzania targets online platforms like blogs, podcasts and others streaming live content, for example via YouTube channels.

The government says it will monitor the platforms for hate speech, obscene content and threats to national security and public order. Local bloggers fear the oversight will be used to stifle dissent.

Maxence Melo is the co-founder of Jamii forums, a web site about corruption in Tanzania. He has been detained several times since 2015, including two formal arrests.



"We have been a lot of pressure from our government in the past years because authorities wanted to know our whistle blowers, and we said we cannot do this," said Melo.

"And most of the whistle blowers were people helping to reveal some misconduct in the government. As we speak we are facing three trials, and all of them are about revealing our sources of our stories."



Tanzania's government spokesman declined VOA's request for an interview. On Friday, the Tanzania communication regulatory authority said the owners of online platforms must pay about $900 (about Shs 3.3 million) to get a license.

The state agency also said it would use suspensions to force the removal of content it deems in violation of the law. Those who fail to comply with the new regulations could face fines and up to a year in jail.



Reporters without Borders has slammed the license fee as "exorbitant" and called the new law "the latest blow to free speech in Tanzania."

Since taking office in 2015, President John Magufuli has cracked down on a range of issues, including corruption, tardiness among civil servants, and criticism of his government.



Newspapers seen as critical have been shut down or seen their licenses suspended. In February, two opposition politicians were jailed for allegedly insulting the president.



Henry Maina is the East Africa regional director for Article 19, a global NGO that promotes freedom of expression and information worldwide.



"Tanzanians are beginning to organize themselves online, and so here is a clear measure of a state policy to try and close down civic space," said Maina". "And in so doing, they are not only closing down civic space, but they are closing down virtual space so that Tanzanians cannot organize."



Maina points to a regional trend. Countries like Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia have cut the internet or restricted access to certain social media sites during times of unrest.



Rights groups like Article 19 urge restraint.



"There is a big discussion globally on how to regulate social media, but that must not be equated to criminalizing social media. Yes, regulation may be required, and if so, the regulation must be done for three or four main purposes. One for the purpose of protecting the reputation of others, two is for the purpose of what will be narrowly described as national security, three public morality and four public health. Any other reason that a state may throw up as a reason for regulating or controlling social media in itself will be a violation of human rights."



In Tanzania, bloggers and administrators of other online platforms have until May 5thto get registered. Their licenses will then come up for renewal, for a fee, every three years
A young Chinese doctor was recently set free after spending three month in jail for claiming that a certain brand of medicinal wine was toxic and couldnt cure heart disease and arthritis, as the manufacturer claimed.

It all started last December, when Guangzhou-based physician Tan Qindong published a short article on Chinese social media platform Meipian, stating that the popular Hongmao Medicinal Wine was not only toxic, but also ineffective in treating serious heart conditions and arthritis, as advertised by the manufacturer. His post apparently drew a lot of attention, as Hongmao soon filed a defamation lawsuit against the 39-year-old doctor, claiming that it had maliciously discredited the brands reputation and had caused significant financial losses of as much as 1.4 million yuan ($223,000).

Photo: Tan Qindong, before and after jail

On January 10, 2018, an unsuspecting Dr. Tan was taken from his home in Guangzhou by police, taken to Inner Mongolia  where the maker of Hongmao is based  2,300 km away, and thrown in jail without actually being charged.

According to a police document quoted by Red Star News, Hongmao complained that the doctors article, titled Chinese magic pharmaceutical liquor is a toxic substance from heaven, had been widely shared online and had resulted in two pharmaceutical distributors and seven individual customers returning the medicinal wine and asking for refunds. Police considered the article clear proof of defamation, so they arrested him.

Dr. Tan Qindong spent three months in a jail thousands of kilometers away from home, and was only released last week, after news of his arrest went viral, sparking uproar on Chinese social media. Lawyers, doctors and state-run news outlets started asking how a company known for exaggerating advertising claims could convince police to arrest someone simply for calling into question the benefits of its product.

Photo: Hongmao Medicinal Wine

Hongmao Medicinal Wine is the main export of Liangcheng County in Inner Mongolia. It contains 67 plant and animal ingredients, including leopard bones, and is supposed to relieve ailments like painful joints, frail kidneys, and weakness and anemia in women, as well as help cure heart disease. However, this is only according to the theories of Chinese traditional medicine, and has not been scientifically verified.

Dr. Tan was recently released from jail on a sort of bail, due to pressure from the media and the general public, but the investigation has not yet ended, and his lawyer has said that there is a change he could be arrested again.

In an interview he gave recently, the 39-year-old physician talked about the nightmare of being jailed, but also made it clear that he does not regret writing the article about Hongmao Medicinal Wine.



Honestly, that time was not for humans. Every day I slept beside the toilet, every day I ate two and a half pieces of steamed bread. There was no freedom, Dr Tan said about his jail time, adding that he even considered suicide at one point.

It was right to write this essay, he told Beijing News. You must speak the truth a couple of times in your lifetime, and especially if a doctor doesnt speak the truth and lets these ads about miracle cures run rife, theyll hurt even more people.

For now, Dr. Tan Qindong is being hailed as a hero, and Hongmao, the company that tried to silence him, is already feeling some backlash. Many drugstores in China have taken down the medicinal wine from their shelves to avoid angering customers.
A mother-of-three from the UK reportedly performed the worlds first DIY breast implant removal at home, because she couldnt stand her F-cup breasts anymore and wouldnt get on the health services waiting list.

14 years ago, Tonia Rossington, from Skegness, Lincolnshire, underwent a breast-enlargement procedure in Brussels, which increased her bust size from 36B to 36F. At the time, she felt her large breast looked natural, but a few years later, she lost a lot of weight and she began to hate them. She thought they looked ridiculous and couldnt bare the thought that she was stuck with them for the rest of her life. So she started weighing her options, and somehow eventually decided that the best thing to do was to remove the implants herself.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

I would cover them up, wear tight bras and high-necked tops. But the last two years I got really serious about wanting them out, the 49-year-old woman told British media. They affected me mentally and physically. I was constantly trying to cover them up.

A year ago, after learning that a private operation to have the implants removed would cost her 3,000 ($4,200)  which she couldnt afford  Tonnia wrote to her doctor, telling him that the implants were causing her mental health problems and that she was considering taking them out herself. The UKs National Health Service (NHS) only performs the operation for free in severe cases, like if the implants rupture or there is excessive scarring. And even so, patients have to get on really long waiting lists, something Rossington really didnt want to do.

So she started thinking more seriously about a DIY operation. First, she started googling it, and learned that only one other woman had attempted it before, and she had managed to get out one before passing out and being rushed to the hospital. But that didnt discourage her. The Metro reports that she looked up tutorials on how to do the operation at home, then bought a $1 cutter and decided to get it done while her husband was at work.

Photo: Evam Amos/Wikimedia Commons

I went upstairs, I got the mirror in front of me. I sat there for a while and thought Id just cut a little bit to see if it hurts, Tonnia recalled. I put the ice underneath where the original scar is. I lifted my boob up and held the ice there for five minutes until I couldnt bear it any longer. After a bit I pinched the skin and I couldnt feel anything. I just got the knife and I did a tiny little incision on the original scar tissue and I couldnt feel a thing. I thought Oh, this doesnt hurt. Great!'

She goes on to describe the procedure in great detail, from how she traced the line of her 14-year-old scar, being careful not to hit any major veins or arteries, and how she felt this jelly that turned out to be her fatty tissue, to how she eventually pushed down on her implants until they eventually popped out

Tonnia Rossington then made makeshift dressings under her breasts, put on a bra to keep them in place and casually drove to Pilgrim Hospital in Boston, Lincolnshire. Once there, the shaking woman handed the emergency room desk clerk a note detailing what she had done. Doctors then squirted saline in the breast where one of her implants had ruptured, to remove any leftover silicone, changed her dressings, and discharged her a few hours later, without stitches.

Photo: Droliver/Wikimedia Commons

Now that theyre gone I just love it, Tonnia recently said. Ill be honest, they dont look pretty; theres a lot of saggy skin, but I would never have implants again. They were the worst mistake I ever made.

If I want to say one thing, its dont get implants, ever, she added. I see these adverts on TV for MYA [a cosmetic-surgery specialist] and these girls bouncing around on horses saying I got breast implants and life is great! And I just think Youll regret it! I wouldnt advise anybody to get them. And once youre desperate to get them out you basically get Well you paid to have them put in, so you should pay to get them out.

Plastic surgeon Dr Naveen Cavale, from the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, told Daily Mail that Tonnia was incredibly lucky to get away with her DIY breast implant removal surgery. This procedure carries immense risk of infection, not to mention accidentally hitting arteries.



As for how the 49-year-old woman was able to bare the pain of cutting her own breasts open, Cavale said that it is possible the previous surgery affected the nerves at the base of the breasts, which prevented her from feeling any pain.

Tonnia Rossington is definitely not the first person to conduct surgery on herself. In fact shes not even the first person in the UK. A couple of years ago, we wrote about Graham Smith, an engineer who operated on himself to remove eight millimeters of stitches left by surgeons inside his body, years before.
3 routes for larger buses planned for Shanghai

From:Shine | 2018-04-24 01:29

Shanghai'stransport commission is planning to build three more medium-capacity bus routes following the success of the No. 71 service.

Xie Feng, head of the citys transport commission, said larger buses are a key part of the citys public transport first strategy.

Of the three routes under consideration, one runs along Zhaojiabang and Lujiabang roads to connect Xujiahui and Nanpu Bridge. However, whether an exclusive bus lane will come into play if this route is promulgated is still being discussed.

The second route runs across the north of the city from Zhoujiazui Road in Yangpu District to Changning Road in Changning District, Xie said.

The third proposed route, Xie said, is in the Pudong New Area, from Pujian Road to Hunan Road. The public transport demand is huge since many residential communities are distributed in the area, Xie added. But the traffic flow in this area is also huge, which is a handicap for us to open a medium-capacity bus route.

The citys first medium-capacity bus route 71 has carried an average 46,000 passengers a day since March 2017.

Shanghais traffic management also has to adapt to the new order of online ride-hailing taxis and shared bikes.

So far, we have granted online ride-hailing certificates to 9,535 drivers in the city, Xie said, adding that online ride-hailing offers an alternative to public transport for the citys commuters. But he said companies are engaging in vicious competition to try to monopolize the ride-hailing market, and this is contrary to the ideal development of the citys transportation.

Meanwhile, the boom in shared bikes, he said, is restricting pedestrians street space. To restrain and discipline the bike-sharing industry, Xie said a formal regulation on the citys shared bikes and electric bikes will be released soon.

The citys traffic authority has banned new bikes in the city since August when the number of bikes had reached 1.8 million, far more than needed to meet demand.

Xie said that in the second half of this year, an online information platform will be opened to both the authority and the bike companies to better coordinate the distribution of bikes.

We also encourage the companies to be more innovative in developing technologies like electronic fencing systems to stop problems like chaotic bike parking, Xie said.


Richard Goldstein

Many of my clients are investing in real estate, but most dont understand the tax rules that go along with the investment. The motivation for making this investment varies, but for the most part, its appreciation and cash flow.

A real estate investment can be as simple as a vacation home or rental property. Rental property can be, for example, a multi-family dwelling or a property thats rented to the taxpayers business (there are separate rules for this not discussed in this column).

Before going any further, theres one basic rule that must be understood. For the most part, a trade or business that the taxpayer doesnt materially participate in is considered a passive activity. This means that the taxpayer may not deduct passive activity losses against non-passive activity income. Assume a PR professional operates a small PR agency that earns $200,000. The same PR professional also invested in another business that he or she does not actively participate in. This business lost $200,000. This loss of $200,000 cannot offset the income earned by the active business. Therefore, the loss is suspended!

Unfortunately, rental real estate activities are considered passive activities, even if the property owner does materially participate in the rental activity. (There are exceptions to this rule however.) Therefore, the real estate loss cannot offset the income earned by the PR agency.

Passive activity income and losses

It matters not how real estate is owned. You can purchase property directly or make an investment in an S corporation, partnership or limited liability company. If the real estate activities generate operating income, this income is taxed as ordinary income. If the activities generate a loss, these loses must clear three hurdles before it can be deducted: tax basis, at-risk and passive loss limits.

Without getting into too much detail, the tax basis hurdle is simple: it limits the loss deduction to your tax basis in the property. Therefore, if you purchase real estate for $2.0 million free and clear your tax basis is $2.0 million.

If, on the other hand, you purchase the same property for $2.0 million and secure a $1.5 million mortgage, you need to clear the at-risk rule. Your tax basis is still $2.0 million assuming youre at-risk for the mortgage. Therefore, if the property generates a $100,000 loss, you have the potential to deduct the $100,000 loss. If, on the other hand, the loan to purchase the property is non-recourse, you have no economic risk other than for the $500,000 down payment. Once you get by these two hurdles, the passive activity loss rules must be satisfied as discussed above. Remembering that real estate activities are considered passive not active activities, a taxpayer must pass one of a series of tests to be considered materially participating in the activity. If you make a direct investment in real estate the material participation requirement is simple to pass. If you are one of 50 other investors in a real estate partnership, the likelihood is you will not pass the material participation requirement.

Accordingly, if your share of the real estate activity loss is $50,000, you will not be able to deduct this loss unless you have other passive activates that generate passive income. Theres an exception to this rule in the year you sell or otherwise dispose of the property and thats not discussed in this column.

Rental real estate exception

Small landlords with modified adjusted gross income under $150,000 ($75,000 if married filing separately) will be able to deduct the loss against non-passive sources of income. Under this exception, you can deduct up to $25,000 of rental losses from your non-passive income, such as wages, dividends and interest. If your Modified Adjusted Gross Income exceeds $100,000 ($50,000 for married filing separately) the $25,000 deduction ($12,500 for married filing separately) is reduced by 50 percent of each dollar over $100,000. ($50,000 for married filing separately). Once your MAGI reaches $150,000, the $25,000 deduction is eliminated.

Real estate professionals

Lets say you are year employed or own a PR agency. Lets further assume your average work year is 2,000 hours, and you also work 752 hours managing your properties. Over the years, youve purchased real estate and now you own and manage six properties. Youre familiar with the tax rules concerning real estate. However, a friend told you that youre a real estate professional and the passive activity loss rules dont apply to you. You make an appointment with your tax advisor and ask why you were never considered a real estate professional?

The simple answer is you just do not qualify! True, income and losses arising from any rental activity are generally considered passive. One exception to this rule applies to real estate professionals. If you qualify as a real estate professional, the rental real estate activity escapes the per se rule otherwise applicable to a rental activity.

So, can a PR professional qualify as a real estate professional? Its difficult and, yes, maybe even impossible!

To be a real estate professional, a PR pro must provide more than one-half of his or her total professional services in real property trades or business in which he or she materially participates and performs more than 750 hours of services during the tax year in real property trade or businesses. For purposes of determining if youre a real estate professional, your material participation is determined separately for each property unless an election is made to treat all interests as a single rental activity.

Getting to the math. Our PR pro worked 752 hours and passed the more than 750-hour test. However, 2,000 hours plus 752 hours is 2,752 hours divided by two is 1,376 hours. Our PR professional worked 752 and therefore failed the test. Play with the numbers; unless your primary business is real estate, its extremely difficult to pass this test.

***

Richard Goldstein is a partner at Buchbinder Tunick & Company LLP, New York, Certified Public Accountants.
Vincent Bollore

Vincent Bollore, the 67-year-old French billionaire who unexpectedly stepped down from Vivendi's board at its April 19 general meeting was put into police custody outside Paris as part of an investigation into bribing public officials in Africa, according Le Monde.

The Bollore Group in 2017 sold its 60 percent stake in ad/PR conglom Havas Group to Vivendi for $2.5B in 2017.

Yannick Bollore, 37-year-old son of Vincent, serves as chairman/CEO of Havas.

He replaced his father as Vivendi's chairman. Bollore Group owns a 20 percent stake in Vivendi.

The Bollore Group, according to its statement released today, "formally denies that its subsidiary company SDV Africa has committed irregularities. The services relating to this invoicing were carried out in full transparency.

It said the investigation relates to invoices for communications services in Guinea and Togo during 2009 and 2010.

The statement emphasizes that Havas for more than 50 years, "has brought its expertise in communications to political campaigns around the world in full compliance with the law and regulation and transparency standards."

Bollore Group welcomes "this opportunity to fully cooperate with the judicial authorities to restore the truth about those facts."
"There is nothing the country is experiencing today that we in Louisiana haven't seen or faced in the last 30 years," writes New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu in his powerful new book, "In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History."

Landrieu made national headlines with his 2017 decision to remove statues of Confederate leaders Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and P. G. T. Beauregard from the streets of New Orleans, which was the America's largest slave market.

His book also deals with equality and the state of race in America. He draws parallels between the rise of ex-Klan wizard David Duke in Louisiana during the 1990s and Donald Trump.

Duke ran for Louisiana's Senate seat in 1990 and for Governor in 1991.

Landrieu recalls how Duke, "who wanted welfare mothers to be inoculated with birth control serum" and would celebrate Hitler's birthday each year, proclaimed to be a born-again Christian due to opposition to abortion. He won the support of Evangelical voters.

Landrieu, a long-shot candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, writes:

"In those years, Louisiana politics demonstrated the raw susceptibility of voters, particularly Evangelical Christians, who rallied behind David Duketrailed by TV spots exposing his Nazi beliefsas a would-be defender of human life.

"It is the same phenomenon that allowed Christians in 2016 to support Donald Trump, despite the women who accused him of sexually assaulting them, after the "Access Hollywood" video in which he bragged about groping women, using words that TV networks bleep out.

"Have we gotten to the point where winning is everything? It is clear there is a deal with devil, where morals, personal responsibility, or principles are secondary to election wins."

In the current age of disinformation, according to Landrieu, journalism operates in a digital stratosphere with few restraints and with easily doctored images that distort information.

He notes that spin-doctors, who used to work to shape public opinion, have been "subsumed by con artists on social media, or even Russian manipulation. This is an atmosphere in which demagogues thrive."

The people of Louisiana saw it all coming years ago. "When people are scared and hurting, when jobs are drying up and they get angry, and a demagogue arises pointing the finger at black and brown peopleblame the otherit takes a counteroffensive not just to expose the lies but to offer people hope and a belief in the better impulses of democracy.

"When the truth is lost, the battle to fill that vacuum is a sinister spectacle and a struggle from which good people can never call retreat," writes Landrieu.

Duke lost his Senate and Governor races partly because the national Republican party disavowed him and tacitly backed his Democratic opponents.

Republicans had a backbone during the 1990s, which is missing today.
China will further publicize its governmental work in 2018 in four main aspects: responding to public concerns, improving government services, building platforms for information disclosure, and standardizing information openness, said a circular issued by the State Council on April 24.

The move is aimed at pushing forward restructuring governmental bodies, advancing administration streamlining and power delegating, facilitating the sustainability of economic and social development, and laying the groundwork for the construction of a service-oriented government.

According to the document, an all-around governmental work disclosure will be bound by legislative work, which means that all items and policies, unless legally subject to confidentiality, should be open to the public, in order to facilitate law-based administration and protect peoples right-to-know.

Major sectors will be granted more autonomy in information disclosure, including fiscal budget and final accounts, approval and implementation of significant projects, distribution of public resources, and more.

Policies on market expectancy will be mapped out in further detail, highlighting interpretations for policies regarding precautions against major risks, targeted poverty alleviation, and pollution prevention.

Efforts should also be made to further active reaction to public opinion in terms of their major concerns, and efficiently forecast, analyze, and deal with those associated with important policies on the economy and society, authority of the Communist Party of China and the government, and public morality.

The document also called for further improving online governmental services, with an increasing number of service items available on the internet, bringing more convenience to the public.

Governmental services in physical offices will be continuously strengthened, which comes with a unified set of standards and integrated work flow, greatly enhancing the efficiency and quality of governmental services.

Furthermore, approval services will be further optimized in accordance with the policy of streamlining administration and delegating powers, including timely disclosure of when enterprises are open for business, simplified procedures for approving construction projects, among others.

Regulations in constructing e-government portals will be stepped up, the circular stressed, in order to substantially amplify information resources, and upgrade the information retrieval system and other related services.

Weibo, WeChat, and mobile service applications will be intensely utilized to further information disclosure, and governmental hotlines will be systematically integrated to benefit the public.

Additionally, positive disclosure of basic directory on government affairs will be implemented at all levels, according to the circular.
Daily newspapers published in Kathmandu on Tuesday have prioritised a host of political, social and economic issues on their front pages. Indian Prime Minister Modis impending visit to Nepal and its preparations, the 12th anniversary of the conclusion of the Second Peoples Movement and the impact of the 2015 earthquake three years on, are some of the stories that have made it to the front pages. Heres a summary of important, ignored and interesting stories in the press on Tuesday.

Janakpur to felicitate Modi during Nepal visit

The Kathmandu Post says Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in Kathmandu on May 11. The paper says that two separate civic receptions are being organised for the visiting Prime Minister in Kathmandu and in Janakpur. Modi is also likely to travel to the Muktinath temple and lay the foundation stone to the Arun III hydro project. It adds that a preliminary team has arrived from India to study the situation and coordinate with Nepali officials on matters related to security and logistics.

Acting CJ courts controversy, meets Prachanda

The Himalayan Times reports that Acting Chief Justice Deepak Raj Joshee met CPN-MC chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal for 40 minutes on Saturday. The paper says that Joshee admitted to meeting Dahal, but only as a friend. It is not that judges cannot meet their friends, Joshee was quoted as saying. Constitution expert Bhimarjun Acharya told the paper that the meeting was a violation of the norms of an independent judiciary.

Ignored

Traffic congestion causes delays at TIA

Naya Patrika reports that lack of adequate infrastructure at Nepals only international airport has triggered unprecedented congestion. The paper reports that planes are forced to make several rounds in the air before getting the clearance to land in Kathmandu. It says that because of this, passengers are forced to wait for a long time in the air even after arriving in Nepal. It says that the TIAs infrastructure has not been upgraded for the last 28 years. Although various studies have recommended that the domestic section of the airport be moved to Thulachaur in Kavre, the government has not taken the proposal seriously.

Quake survivors building one-room houses to get govt aid

The Kathmandu Post reports that familes affected by the 2015 earthquake are building one-room houses to get the governments reconstruction aid. The paper reports that families who are affluent and have houses in other places such as Kathmandu are constructing one-room houses only to get government cash.

Interesting

Docs to be held responsible for illegible prescription

Nepal Medical Council has ordered doctors in the country to write clearly on prescriptions so that patients can understand the diagnosis and the prescribed medicine. In a recent notification, the NMA said that doctors whose writing is illegible will be punished. The council has also made in mandatory for doctors to mention their name, address and registration number on their prescription sheets.

Nijgadh Airport to be built in PPP model

Officials from the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation have recommended that the Second International Airport be built under the PPP model. In a report prepared by the ministrys aviation security department, officials have said that the airport cannot be constructed under any other model. Although the Nijgadh Airport has been part of the official discourse for a long time, it is still not clear how the government will build it. Minister Rabindra Adhikari, who took charge of the ministry recently, had said that the model would be finalised within 100 days.
Home  Just In  (updated) UN Mission in South Sudan says no allegation of rape made against Nepali peacekeepers

Kathmandu, April 24

Update 16.20 hrs:

The United Nations Mission in South Sudan said allegation of rape has not been made against any Nepali peacekeeper. In a statement, the mission said that on April 13, four teenagers were caught trying to enter the United Nations base in Aweil through the perimeter fence.

It was alleged that one of the teenaged girls had been touched inappropriately by a member of the Nepalese

contingent in exchange for money. There was no allegation made of rape, it said.

The mission also said that it deployed a Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Immediate Response Team (IRT) to Aweil to gather information and preserve evidence prior to the launch of an investigation by Nepali authorities. The matter has also been reported to the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), an agency that is

independent from UNMISS, it said.

Earlier report:

Nepali personnel working as peacekeepers under the UN flag are facing allegations of child rape in South Sudan, a UN data dump has revealed.

Five more cases of sexual exploitation by peacekeepers were disclosed on the UNs website on Friday, April 13, reports said. However, the details of the cases are under the wraps. It is not known how many Nepalis were involved in the case and whether they belong to the army or police.

The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) received an allegation of sexual abuse involving unidentified members of the Nepali contingent, Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, told reporters on Monday. He added that the UN has informed Nepali officials of the case and a response had been sought.

Weve requested a full investigation be conducted by the troopcontributing country within the expedited timeframe of 90 days, jointly with a team of from OIOS [Office of Internal Oversight Services], Dujarric said without divulging the details.

He said that Nepals response on whether it will investigate the matter or not is expected by April 25.

UNMISS, as you know, has a zero like all of us, have a zerotolerance [policy] and no excuse and no second chance approach to child sexual exploitation and abuse. The Mission reiterates that such acts should be properly investigated, and where applicable, criminal prosecution be pursued under the law of the contributing country, the spokesperson added.

Any act of sexual abuse is horrendous; one involving a child, I think, is especially heinous, if one needs to qualify these things.

The UN has 14,800 troops and police deployed in war-torn South Sudan, with a mandate to protect civilians in a war between the forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and rebels. In February, 46 UN peacekeepers from Ghana were recalled from their base in north-western South Sudan after the mission received allegations of sexual exploitation of women.
Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York:

Top tier hedge fund managers gathered in New York to give their best ideas at the Sohn Conference today. Overall managers seemed more confident about their picks than they have in previous years.

Tech dominates Sohn bets

Citing recent controversy, DoubleLine's Jeff Gundlach announced that he was short Facebook. In his presentation, he said that regulation is coming for the tech giant and when that happened in other once hot industries stocks tanked.

"What's happened in the past will happen again and again and again," Gundlach said.

Facebook was the only tech short announced at the conference which was positive on the sector overall. After Gundlach, Social Capital's Chamath Palihapitiya led a tech-heavy presentation that included long calls on Google parent Alphabet. He also reinforced his long cases on Amazon and Tesla from last year's conference. "We still believe," Palihapitiya said of Tesla.

For 2018, Palihapitiya announced a long call on Box, a data management application. He argued that where companies like Google and Amazon have the infrastructure in place to support the growth of data and artificial intelligence, Box allows users to organize and manage data in a way that is useful for powering AI applications. Palihapitiya ended his presentation with a pithy summation - "be long Apple, be long Google, but frankly be long Box."

Glen Kacher of Light Street Capital rounded out an alread......................

To view our full article Click here
What cities have, over the past century, defined in our imaginations the very concept of the city? Obvious choices include New York and London, and here on Open Culture weve featured historic street-level footage of both (New York in 1911, London between 1890 and 1920) that vividly reveals how, even over a hundred years ago, theyd already matured as commercially, technologically, and demographically impressive metropolises. At the turn of the 20th century, the 6.5 million-strong London ranked as the most populous city on Earth, and New York had overtaken it within a few decades. But by the mid-1960s, a new contender had suddenly risen to the top spot: Tokyo.

Historically speaking, of course, the word new doesnt quite apply to the Japanese capital, since as a settled area it goes back to the third millennium BC. But Tokyo didnt become the capital, effectively, until 1869 (not that even todays denizens of Kyoto, the countrys previous capital, seem ever to have ceded the distinction in their own minds), around the same time that the previously closed-off island nation opened up to the rest of the world. Provided by Amsterdams EYE Filmmuseum, the footage at the top of the post dates from less than half a century thereafter and conveys something of what it must have felt like to live in not just a country zealously engaged in the project of modernization, but in the very center of that project.









These clips were shot on the streets of Tokyo in 1913 and 1915, just after the death of Emperor Meiji, who since 1868 had presided over the so-called Meiji Restoration. That period saw not just a re-consolidation of power under the Emperor, but an assimilation of all things Western  or at least an assimilation of all things Western that official Japan saw as advantageous in its mission to catch up with the existing world powers. For the citizens of Tokyo, these, most benignly, included urban parks: Japanese enjoy to the fullest the pleasures afforded by the numerous parks of the Empire, says one of the films title cards. Uyeno Park, Tokio, is a very popular place, especially on Sunday afternoons. But then, going by what we see in the footage, every place in Tokyo seems popular.

On the brink of thoroughgoing urbanization, the cityscape includes shrines, woodblock prints, signs and banners filled to bursting with text (and presumably color), and hand-painted advertisements for the then-novelty of the motion picture. The Tokyoites inhabiting it wear traditional kimono as well as the occasional Western suit and hat. Young men pull rickshaws and ride bicycles (those latter having grown much more numerous since). Peripatetic merchants sell their wares from enormous wooden frames strapped to their backs. Countless children, both in and out of school uniform, stare curiously at the camera. None, surely, could imagine the destruction soon to come with the 1923 Kanto Earthquake, let alone the firebombing of World War II  nor the astonishingly fast development thereafter that would, by the time of the reborn citys 1964 Olympic Games, make it the largest in the world.

Related Content:

Time Travel Back to Tokyo After World War II, and See the City in Remarkably High-Quality 1940s Video

Immaculately Restored Film Lets You Revisit Life in New York City in 1911

The Oldest Known Footage of London (1890-1920) Shows the Citys Great Landmarks

Berlin Street Scenes Beautifully Caught on Film (1900-1914)

Download Hundreds of 19th-Century Japanese Woodblock Prints by Masters of the Tradition

Based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities and culture. His projects include the book The Stateless City: a Walk through 21st-Century Los Angeles and the video series The City in Cinema. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall or on Facebook.
A 25-year-old man who set a stranger on fire at a Denny's restaurant in Happy Valley last year was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in prison.

Deshaun James Swanger pleaded guilty Monday to attempting to murder Scott Ranstrom. He also pleaded guilty to assaulting a second man, who said he suffered minor burns, and harassing a third man in a movie theater days before the Denny's attack.

Swanger didn't speak at length in court. He wore gray-and-white horizontal striped jail apparel from the Clackamas County Jail during Tuesday's sentencing.

He was arrested last April on suspicion of attacking Ranstrom, a Denny's regular who was 69 years old at the time, as the man sat in a booth at the restaurant near Clackamas Town Center. The Clackamas County Sheriff's Office said after the attack that surveillance video shows Swanger walking into the restaurant, sitting in a booth near Ranstrom, dousing him in gasoline and using a match to ignite the fuel.

Ranstrom was treated at the Legacy Oregon Burn Center for face and body wounds. The Oregonian/OregonLive was unable to reach him by phone Tuesday morning, and he was not present in court.

He told KOIN-TV, however, that he doesn't think the sentence is lengthy enough.

"I don't feel it's adequate for the crime he committed and the ones he tried to commit," he told the news station. "I don't think that 10 years in a young man's life is sufficient to guarantee that's he's not going to do it again when he gets out. He'll only be 34. I have to live with this for the rest of my life."

Another victim, Jason Pappas, also doesn't think the sentence is long enough.

Pappas, a 48-year-old Portland man, told The Oregonian/OregonLive he would have liked to have seen Swanger jailed for 20-plus years.

He said he was drinking coffee and working on his computer at Denny's when he saw a poof of flames three booths away. Ranstrom, he said, was on fire.

Pappas said he draped his coat over Ranstrom and wrestled him to the ground, and he asked him questions to keep him conscious. Pappas said he also took off his sweater and put it over Ranstrom while Ranstrom was still burning and that a restaurant employee doused Ranstrom with water.

Pappas suffered minor burns and went to the emergency room for treatment. He said it's still painful to reflect on the attack over a year later.

"If I think about the situation, it hurts," he said. "And I wasn't impacted like Scott. So his pain is multiplied, and that hurts too."

Candice Swanger told reporters outside the Oregon City courtroom that her brother has mental problems and that she would rather have seen her brother be committed to the state hospital.

Swanger's criminal history includes first- and second-degree burglary, delivery of marijuana for consideration and unauthorized use of a vehicle convictions, according to records.

He was also sentenced Tuesday to three years of post-prison supervision. Additional charges of attempted murder and second-degree arson and assault were dismissed.

-- Jim Ryan

jryan@oregonian.com

503-221-8005; @Jimryan015
Workers at a Burgerville in Southeast Portland overwhelmingly approved the formation of a federally-recognized union, making them the first to do so since a fast-food labor fight erupted nationally five years ago.

Employees of the chain's Southeast 92nd Avenue and Powell Boulevard location voted 18-4 in favor. Three workers abstained from voting. Workers cast ballots at the restaurant during a two-day election, which ended Monday night.

The results, overseen by the National Labor Relations Board, will now legally require Burgerville to negotiate with the store's workers, who have pushed for a wage increase, affordable health care and other benefits.

"A lot of us are poor, hungry and even homeless," Mark Medina, a store employee and union organizer, told The Oregonian/OregonLive on Monday. "We hope this will be the beginning of the end to poverty wages."

Beth Brewer, a Burgerville spokeswoman, said the company supports the workers' decision.

"We are proud of our relationship with our coworkers, and we will continue to provide a fair, postive work environment for all," she said in a statement.

The victory comes amid growing national efforts to increase the minimum wage of fast-food workers to $15 an hour, which first began in 2012.

It also marks the biggest win in a two-year campaign by Burgerville workers and labor activists  who are working independently of the national "Fight For 15" campaign  to compel the regional chain to come to the bargaining table.

In April 2016, members of the Industrial Workers of the World  better known as the Wobblies  helped launch the Burgerville Workers Union. Emmett Schlenz, a campaign spokesman, said six of the company's 42 locations now have publicly active unions that are led by workers. However, without a formal election administered by the National Labor Relations Board, the company has not had to negotiate with them.

Several shops in the Portland area held walkouts and a three-day strike in February. Last week, workers at a second Burgerville location announced they had also filed for a federal union election.

Activists and supporters, meanwhile, said they will continue a Burgerville boycott campaign that's garnered the backing of multiple labor unions as well as some progressive civic leaders and elected officials.

The momentum building locally may galvanize those organizing in other parts of the country, said Wilma Liebman, a former chair of the National Labor Relations Board under President Obama and now a law professor at New York University.

"Fast food workers in other locations could be encouraged or energized by it," she told The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Known for its anti-capitalist leanings and focus on low-skilled laborers, the Industrial Workers of the World has previously tried to organize workers at Starbucks and Jimmy John's locations throughout the country, with limited success.

Burgerville, owned by Holland Inc., has about 1,500 employees in Oregon and southern Washington, the company said.

Everton Bailey Jr. of The Oregonian/OregonLive staff contributed to this report.

-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh

skavanaugh@oregonian.com

503-294-7632 II @shanedkavanaugh
Though the Rebel has represented South Albany High School since 1971, the school's principal became particularly uncomfortable with it in the months after counter protesters were attacked at white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Since the early '90s, the school has tried to rebrand the Rebel mascot to be a less obvious nod to the Confederacy, but there was a time when the school used imagery that included a Confederate flag and a Confederate soldier, Jim Haggart, executive assistant to the superintendent of the Greater Albany School District, said over the phone Tuesday.

At a school board meeting Monday night, acting Superintendent Tonja Everest decided to drop the Rebel as the mascot for South Albany. The move came after South Albany Principal Brent Belveal spent months researching how to deal with the problematic mascot.

The process began Aug. 28, weeks after the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, according to documents provided by the Greater Albany School District. Belveal sent a letter to the school board, saying "he believed it was time to implement a thoughtful and inclusive process to consider a different mascot name that more closely aligns with the many great things going on at South Albany High School."

In September, Belveal began working on how to make the change. He interviewed students and investigated the history of the mascot, as well as what a change would cost.

Belveal estimates that replacing Rebel-themed uniforms, signs and decorations will cost the school $114,200.

South Albany High School is over 70 percent white and less than 1 percent black. In January, Belveal took a group of 40 students to Portland's Parkrose High School, which is 30 percent white and 16 percent black, to hear what students at a more diverse school thought about the mascot.

According to a report from Belveal, the meeting at Parkrose changed the perspective of many students. He wrote that one of the general themes that came out of the the discussions was "We should absolutely change the mascot."

Belveal gave his report to the school board Monday, concluding that it was time to change the mascot. Everest agreed with his conclusion, and instructed the students of South Albany High School to begin the process of replacing their mascot. They have until the end of the school year to decide on a new mascot and symbol.

South Albany is the latest Oregon high school to change its mascot this year. In February, South Eugene High School officially changed its mascot from the Axemen to the Axe, in an effort to be more inclusive to non-male students.

In 2015, the Oregon Board of Education ruled that schools with Native American mascots needed to change those mascots by 2017.

-- Lizzy Acker

503-221-8052

lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyacker
A 50-year-old man Monday pleaded guilty to 17 counts of video voyeurism, admitting he placed a concealed camera in the bathroom of a Portland daycare and took images of 17 different victims.

Jay Walter Jaacks, whose own children attended the downtown daycare, issued separate guilty pleas to each of the counts before U.S. District Judge Marco A. Hernandez.

He's expected to face five years of probation with special conditions when sentenced in July.

Under the plea deal, he's likely to spend 34 days in jail  two days for each victim  and ordered to complete six months of home detention and 240 hours of community service. Video voyeurism is a misdemeanor.

The offenses occurred on July 29, 2016, at the Joyful Noise Child Development Center, in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers building at 333 S.W. First Ave.

An employee of the daycare discovered the hidden camera in a small leopard-print cosmetic case in the bathroom with a lens protruding from a hole in the case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Kerin told the court.

The camera was positioned facing the toilet in the bathroom. Federal Protective Services was notified, seized the camera and the images taken. The federal investigators found images of a family, an adult male and kids on the camera, Kerin said.

The images also showed Jaacks positioning the camera and placing it in the bag. Staff at the daycare were able to identify the man in the images as Jaacks, Kerin said.

The camera caught victims as they pulled down their clothes to use the bathroom, Kerin said.

Under the negotiated plea deal, Jaacks is expected to be ordered to have no direct contact with the daycare. The defendant also must undergo psychological and psychiatric evaluations.

Alice Smith, executive director of Joyful Noise Child Development Center, said Jaacks' actions tore apart his family and left a significant number of people victimized. "I'm not sure that any sentence ameliorates this,'' Smith said, in an email.

In a separate marriage dissolution file in Multnomah County, Jaacks said he's undergoing personal counseling "to deal with the depression and anxiety that led me towards the poor decisions that I have made.''

He said he's agreed with his estranged wife's demands that any of his parenting time with his own children be supervised "in order to keep the peace,'' but denied that he poses any danger to his two children.

Jaacks is set to be sentenced July 30 in U.S. District Court in Portland.

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian
Two signed statements in the latest Oregon State Bar bulletin  one by the bar condemning speech that incites violence and the other by non-bar specialty groups decrying the rise of the white nationalist movement under President Trump -- have drawn fire from some lawyers aghast that the bar would allow such political statements.

The bar has received requests from six lawyers who requested refunds of their dues, and has granted one partial refund so far, said spokeswoman Kateri Walsh. The bar stands by its own statement, but the refund will respond to the second statement that wasn't approved by state bar leadership, she said.

A "Statement on White Nationalism and Normalization of Violence" denounces hate mongering, referencing the white nationalist march last August in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the May stabbing attacks on the Portland MAX train. The bar's statement calls out a "current climate of violence, extremism and exclusion" that threatens the rule of law and judicial system that serves everyone.

That statement was signed by the president and president-elect of the bar's board of governors, a board member, the bar's chief executive officer, a state bar staff member and a volunteer lawyer who leads the bar's diversity and inclusion committee.

An adjoining page has a "Joint Statement of the Oregon Specialty Bar Associations Supporting the Oregon State Bar's Statement.'' It goes further, repeatedly criticizing President Donald Trump for having "catered to this white nationalist movement, allowing it to make up the base of his support and providing it a false sense of legitimacy."

Leaders of the Oregon Asian Pacific American Bar Association, Oregon Filipino American Lawyers Association, Oregon chapter of the National Bar Association, Oregon Hispanic Bar Association, Oregon Women Lawyers, OGALLA-The LGBT Bar Association of Oregon and Oregon Minority Lawyers Association signed the supporting statement.

Document: The Oregon State Bar Bulletin's pages

West Linn lawyer Diane Gruber slammed the statements as "blatantly partisan" and in clear violation of a 1990 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Keller v. State Bar of California, which held that attorneys required to be members of a state bar association have a First Amendment right to refrain from subsidizing the organization's political or ideological activities.

The Oregon State Bar is a government agency that regulates the legal profession in the state. It publishes a bulletin, a magazine that is mailed to members 10 times a year.

Lake Oswego lawyer Shawn Lindsay, who identified himself as a Republican but not a Trump supporter, said he felt the bar "grossly violated" the Keller ruling.

He wrote to the bar that he supports the first statement's "underlying message'' of "fair and equitable administration/equal justice for all,'' but added, "you and the other signers went far beyond that by making it biased and political.''

"You and the other signers have the right to educate and make statements, but you should do so by presenting impartial information and unbiased statements," he wrote. "You did not do so."

Several demanded that the bar print a retraction.

"I am distressed to learn that my bar dues are being used to promote a left-wing agenda," wrote Darcia Krause, another Portland lawyer.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Nyhus wrote that he was disappointed to learn his dues were "used to promote a political and partisan letter  directed at hate speech but clearly intended to suppress other viewpoints."

Dues range from $465 to $552, depending on when a lawyer was admitted to the bar.

The Multnomah County Republican Party also sent the bar a letter, demanding that it "cease its partisan attacks against Trump.''

"The bar has no business taking its members' dues money to publish false claims that fringe racist groups constitute the 'base' of the president's support," wrote lawyer James Buchal, a member of the bar and chairman of the county GOP.

Other bar members supported the statements.

Portland attorney Eric E. Meyer, for example, applauded the bulletin for publishing a "strong statement against white nationalism" and said it's crucial for all attorneys as "guardians of justice" never to be "silent in the face of racism and hatred.''

At a meeting of the bar's board of governors Friday, bar chief executive officer Helen Hierschbiel noted that the board didn't formally adopt or support the statement by the specialty bar groups and said publication of the statements side-by-side was "ill-advised and confusing."

The board voted to rescind partial dues of angered members, resulting from the publication of the specialty bar statement. The board also voted to run a clarification in its next issue, affirming the state bar's statement, but explaining that the other statement was independent.

The bar also is re-examining the "editorial function'' of the bar's bulletin, she said.

-- Maxine Bernstein

503-221-8212
Portland transportation officials want to paint the city orange next month.

Biketown, the city's nearly two-year-old, Nike-sponsored bike-share program, will be free for the entire month of May, with some catches.

The city announced the promotion Tuesday, one week before the five-month seasonal bike pathway known as Better Naito converts one lane of vehicle travel to bikes near the Willamette River through downtown. May is also National Bike Month and includes a series of events designed to entice more people to the saddle.

New and existing Biketown riders will get a free, 90-minute spin on the 52-pound behemoths. After 90 minutes are up, riders will be charged 10 cents a minute. Bikes can be parked at any public rack in the central city's service area. Annual users will receive a $12 discount in May, which covers their monthly payment. The city's adaptive use bikes for riders with disabilities will also be free, as is a program that offers discounts to low-income riders.

"With over half a million rides taken in the last two years, it's clear that Portlanders have embraced the convenience and fun of bike share," Leah Treat, the Portland transportation director, said in a statement.

Portland is funding the promotion through Biketown revenue. The bureau estimates it will cost $50,000 to $80,000 to pay for the May rides, but that won't be finalized until the end of the month. Nike signed a five-year, $10 million sponsorship deal.

John Brady, a transportation spokesman, said in an interview the city previously hasn't taken on a free promotion like this for Biketown. On its one-year anniversary, Portland offered free ride thanks to Metro's sponsorship. Brady said Portland saw the idea as a way to give back to loyal riders - Portland has 3,469 annual members - while also encouraging more riders as the weather heats up.

Portland posted data Friday showing where and when riders are using the 1,000 orange bikes spread across more than 100 stations.

Since July 2016 when the service debuted, the city recorded 519,493 different rides, with the average trip lasting 25 minutes.

During the first year, Biketown recorded 319,715 trips.

Since the one-year anniversary, the system recorded just 202,041 rides, but that is expected to pick up as weather improves and tourists descend on the city. Brady said the bureau is happy with its ridership and said trips increased 60 percent in March compared with 2017.

A single ride usually costs $2.50 for a 30 minute ride, and rides beyond that cost 10 cents per minute.

-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@andrewtheen




Two Oregon wines with French connections are on the menu for Tuesday night's State Dinner for France at the White House.

While President Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron feast on Goat Cheese Gateau and rack of lamb, dinner guests will enjoy Domaine Serene's "Evenstad Reserve" Chardonnay from 2015, and Domaine Drouhin's "Laurene" Pinot Noir from 2014. The California sparkling wine Schramsberg Demi-Sec "Cremant" will also be served.

The two Oregon wines are deeply rooted in France. The Domaine Serene wine is from grapes grown on French roots, which thrive in the Willamette Valley. Domaine Drouhin comes from the famed French winemaking family, and made history when Joseph Drouhin invested in Oregon land in 1987, signaling that Oregon had the potential to produce world-class wine at a time when the industry was still small.

According to the White House, the wines were chosen because they embody the historic friendship between the United States and France, which dates back to the American Revolution.

You can vicariously get a taste of the State Dinner by visiting the two Oregon wineries, which are neighbors situated across the road from each other in Dayton, about 40 minutes south of Portland.

-- Grant Butler

503-221-8566; @grantbutler
American Eagle Paper Mills to Receive 2018 Pennsylvania Governor's Award for Environmental Excellence American Eagle Paper Mills commissioned Project Phoenix to increase energy efficiency and reduce water usage at their Tyrone, Pennsylvania mill  one of the oldest working paper mills in the United States. April 20, 2018 - Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf announced today that American Eagle Paper Mills will receive a 2018 Governor's Award for Environmental Excellence for its Project Phoenix. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) chose 23 organizations from more than 60 applications. Applicants were evaluated for their degree of environmental protection, innovation, partnership efforts, economic impact, consideration of climate change and sustainability with results achieved. Just as important as Pennsylvania's abundant natural resources are the Pennsylvanians who invest their time, labor, and ingenuity to protect them, said Governor Tom Wolf. Their dedication results in public health and safety, environmental, economic, and recreation benefits across the commonwealth. American Eagle Paper Mills commissioned Project Phoenix to increase energy efficiency and reduce water usage at their Tyrone, Pennsylvania mill  one of the oldest working paper mills in the United States. Infrastructure updates, including a transition to natural gas from coal, resulted in an 83 percent reduction in daily river and watershed water withdrawal while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 68%. This is the third sustainability award honoring American Eagle Paper Mills over the past year. We are very proud to accept this recognition for our sustainability efforts," stated CEO Mike Grimm, noting that the mill was also recently honored by AF&PA and the Pennsylvania Resources Council. "Our $8 million dollar investment in Project Phoenix not only benefited the mill with efficiency savings; it also benefited the Pennsylvania community in which our workers live and raise their families. The air is cleaner, the natural watershed improved, and the paper mill is more efficient and better positioned to sustain good paying jobs in Tyrone, PA. The Pennsylvania Environmental Council and DEP is hosting a dinner to honor the award winners on April 24th at the Harrisburg Hilton. More information about the Governor's Awards for Environmental Excellence is available through the DEP release or website. Located in Tyrone, Pennsylvania, American Eagle Paper Mills is a leading U.S. producer of recycled uncoated freesheet papers, including office, printing and converting grades. To learn more, please visit: aepaper.com . SOURCE: PR.com
Ahlstrom-Munksjo to Acquire Caieiras Specialty Paper Mill in Brazil for $100 Million April 24, 2018 - Ahlstrom-Munksjo announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire MD Papeis' Caieiras specialty paper mill in Brazil from Formitex Group, an industrial conglomerate active in the paper, chemicals and panel board industries. According to Ahlstrom-Munksjo, annual net sales of the business to be acquired are approximately EUR 80 million and comparable EBITDA approximately EUR 13 million in 2017. The debt free purchase price is approximately EUR 100 million. Annual synergy benefits of up to EUR 6 million are estimated, mainly arising from optimization of overlapping business. Banco Citibank S.A. has agreed and committed to provide financing for the acquisition. The Caieiras business is an excellent addition to our global platform, and drives our ambition to maintain a leading position in selected niches of the global fiber-based solutions market that offers growth. We have plentiful of opportunities to grow in our existing business segments, proceed with new product development and consider growth in adjacent segments, says Hans Sohlstrom, President and CEO of Ahlstrom-Munksjo Oyj. Formitex Group noted that the sale of the specialty paper mill is in line with its strategic interest in focusing on its core chemicals businesses. Ahlstrom-Munksjo said products produced at the Caieiras' mill are an excellent match to its product portfolio and significantly strengthens Ahlstrom-Munksjo's offering and production platform in the region, and provides attractive growth opportunities, synergies and further production optimization opportunities for the longer term. The Caieiras mill is located in the vicinity of Ahlstrom-Munksjo's existing production plants in Jacarei, part of the Industrial Solutions business area, and in Louveira, part of the Filtration and Performance business area. Ahlstrom-Munksjo expects to complete the acquisition during the third quarter of 2018. The deal is subject to customary completion terms, including merger clearance from the relevant competition authorities. 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
BPM Paper Named Green Professional by Wisconsin Business Council The Green Masters Program recognizes and assesses Wisconsin businesses on their sustainability performance in a variety of sustainability categories. April 24, 2018 (Press Release) - For the fourth year in a row, BPM Inc., northeast Wisconsin paper mill, has received recognition as a Green Professional in the Wisconsin Green Masters Program. The Green Masters Program recognizes and assesses Wisconsin businesses on their sustainability performance in a variety of sustainability categories. According to a letter received from Kevin Banas, Green Masters Program Director, BPM is also in the running to achieve the highest rank as a Green Master, to be announced the end of October with Masters level certificates given out in person at the annual conference?in December. Participation in the Green Masters Program validates BPM's continued commitment to the environment, sustainability and social responsibility, said Jim Koronkiewicz, BPM General Manager. It's a hands-on tool that BPM can use annually to review areas of sustainable potential. With an increased score of 20% over last year, the BPM team has worked hard for this impressive accomplishment. The program is grounded in an in-depth survey where points are rewarded for a variety of actions. These actions are grouped into areas that include: Energy, Climate, Workforce, Governance, and Community and Educational Outreach. BPM has proven their dedication and commitment to sustainability through advancing in the program. "BPM is among a small group of companies that receives a higher score every year in the Green Masters Program, said Tom Eggert, Executive Director, Wisconsin Sustainable Business Council. They are obviously dedicated to continuous improvement and are one of the top performing paper companies every year." BPM manufactures machine glazed (MG) converting paper grades for the flexible packaging, food, and confectionery industries, and in addition, offers in-house toll printing and waxing under one roof, making the operation unique to the industry. The specialty paper mill also manufactures uncoated fine paper and bag stock grades made from 100% post consumer waste recycled paper, EnvirographicTM 100. To learn more, please visit: www.bpmpaper.com . SOURCE: BPM Inc.
iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- Voters will head to the polls Tuesday in Arizona's 8th Congressional District, a deep red district where a solid performance by the Democrat would be yet another sign of the party's growing strength ahead of a contentious and competitive midterm election in November.

The race, triggered by the resignation of GOP Rep. Trent Franks last year, pits Democrat and cancer research advocate Hiral Tiperneni against Republican former state senator Debbie Lesko.

President Trump won the suburban district, which lies to the northwest of Phoenix and was once the home base for Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, by 21 points in the 2016 presidential election and the population in the district is older than most, with a median age of 43 according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

The average median age for congressional districts in Arizona is 38, and the 8th Congressional District is the 2nd oldest in a state with a significant retiree population.

Tuesday night's results will again give both parties another benchmark of political standing leading up to the midterms. Even a Democratic loss by single digits will cause anxiety among Republicans already convinced that their House majority is in deep trouble.

Democrats have not invested heavily in the race, but Republicans are hoping to avoid another electoral embarrassment after Democrat Conor Lamb's upset victory in Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District last month, and the consistent over-performing by Democrats in special elections since the beginning of the Trump presidency.

Tiperneni has outpaced Lesko in campaign fundraising by over $100,000, but outside groups have invested heavily in the Republican in recent days. The Republican National Committee (RNC), National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC) and the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF) have poured over $1.3 million into the race since the primary, according to FEC filings.

One GOP strategist called the Republican spending in the race an education campaign to remind voters the special election was taking place.

The move is likely a counter to the Democratic enthusiasm that has manifested in other recent special elections.

Indications from early vote data show that Republicans still maintain a strong advantage in the district.

As of Friday last week, 151,532 early votes have been cast in the district. According to data from the Arizona Secretary of State's office nearly half of the early votes cast have come from Republicans, and over half of early votes have been cast by voters over the age of 65. In the February primary election, a total of 116,732 ballots were cast according to the official canvas results from the Secretary of State's office, indicating a slight uptick in turnout in a race where the large majority of votes will be cast early.

The candidates

Republican Debbie Lesko, 59, is a former state senator and before that was a state representative. Lesko stepped down from the statehouse in January to focus on the special election.

She got her start in politics with the local GOP about 20 years, becoming as a district chairwoman and eventually running for the statehouse. She spent about 10 years as a volunteer for the party before she ran for public office, joining the state house in 2008.

The Peoria, Arizona resident is a former hearing officer in North Valley. Lesko left an abusive husband 25 years ago, remarried and has three children and two grandchildren.

She has endorsed the presidents idea of a border wall and has called for the repeal of Obamacare.

Lesko is endorsed by Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, GOP Reps. Paul Gosar, Andy Biggs and David Schweikert, the US Chamber of Commerce and the Susan B. Anthony List. She defeated former state senator Steve Montenegro in the February GOP primary for the special election.

Democrat Hiral Tiperneni, 50, is a former emergency room doctor who currently works as a cancer research advocate. She was born in Mumbai, India and her family immigrated to the U.S. when she was just three years old. According to her campaign website, she was inspired to enter the medical field after a childhood illness. She met her husband, Dr. Kishore Tiperneni, during her first year of medical school at Northeast Ohio Medical University.

Tiperneni lost both her mother and nephew to cancer, and because of her medical background has made healthcare a central plank of her campaign. Tiperneni has never run for or held political office before, but told a local Arizona TV station that she first started having conversations about running for Congress the day after Donald Trump was elected President.

Tiperneni was endorsed by EMILYs List, former AZ Congresswoman Woman Gabby Giffords (including her anti-gun violence PAC), and End Citizens United. Tiperneni defeated LGBTQ activist Brianna Westbrook in the Democratic primary with nearly 60 percent of the vote.

The money race

Tiperneni has out-fundraised Lesko by roughly $130,000 throughout the entire election cycle. Through April 21st, Tiperneni has raised $848,485, while Lesko has raised $718,504.

However that trend has changed since the primary. After the primary through April 17th, Tiperneni has raised $276,503, while Lesko has brought in $413,194.

Since after the primary, outside groups have spent a total of $1.7 million on the special election, overwhelming in favor of Lesko.

A total of $1,358,199 of that has been spent by pro-Lesko groups such as the Republican National Committee (RNC), National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF) and the House Freedom Fund.

That number dwarfs outside spending in support of Tiperneni, where groups have spent just over $330,000. Tiperneni got a boost in recent days from the Working Families Party PAC, which rolled out $200,000 worth of television ads in support of the Democrat last week.

The early vote

According to early vote data from the Arizona Secretary of States office, a total of 151,532 ballots have been counted as of April 19.

Of those ballots, Republicans hold a clear advantage over Democrats in terms of vote by party registration. Of those over 140,000 ballots, 48.6 percent have been cast by Republicans, 27.7 percent were cast by Democrats, and 23.2 percent were cast by Independents.

In another good sign for Republicans, 56.6 percent of early ballots cast in the election so far have come from voters ages 65 and older, a voting bloc that usually skews in their favor.

The median age among voters that have cast their ballots early in this election is 67, and the early vote is 53.6 percent female.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Just one quarter into 2018, there is already an abundance of car-concert-appropriate musical content, and there are still about 20 more Instagram captions I need to dish out from Cardi B's Invasion of Privacy. Artists like Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, Rihanna, and Radiohead have previously taken the Beyonce surprise-drop approach, but the days of announcement, rollout, and anticipated releases are still alive.

Just last week, Drake and J. Cole announced their album release dates, providing just enough heat one Hip-Hop lover can take. In true OVO fashion, Champagnepapi shared Scorpion, the title to his next album, which he referred to as "the summary" in his 2017 outro "Do Not Disturb." According to his IG post and fly ass bomber jacket, Scorpion is set for release in June 2018.

Related | Beautiful People: Cardi B Is Still Real

J.Cole held a surprise show for fans to preview his album in New York City's Gramercy Theater. The project, entitled KOD, just dropped last Friday. That's right, the real is back, the ville is back.

Although those releases are surely in motion, there are some we still can't quite stick a pin in. The follow-up to Ariana Grande's 2016 Dangerous Women has been teased for a while on Twitter, but we weren't sure whether the upside down title "No Tears Left To Cry" was for an album or single. On Friday, Grande dropped a song and accompanying video, and left us counting down the days until another album.

Here's a list of music we foresee dropping this year:
In 1966, Andy Warhol released his first major film, The Chelsea Girls. Starring Nico, Brigid Berlin, Ondine, and Gerard Malang, it was an experimental art house documentation of 1960s New York City and the Factory Scene as seen through the lives of residents of the Chelsea Hotel. It was wildly successful, garnering critical acclaim and playing in theaters internationally for two years.

Now, The Andy Warhol Museum is publishing Andy Warhol's The Chelsea Girls to celebrate the museum's 24-year anniversary. The book is full of stills from the film, never-before-seen transcripts, and background information about the film. It takes care to visually represent all aspects of The Chelsea Girls. For example, the film projects audio alternatively on the right and left screens, an auditory decision that the book captures visually by printing a transcription of the film's dialogue, "directly alongside imagery from the corresponding reels on silver metallic paper to evoke an authentic experience of the film."

It is edited by Geralyn Huxley and Greg Pierce, and has a forward written by Rajendra Roy.

Check out images from the book, below:

Andy Warhol, The Chelsea Girls, 1966. Pictured: Ingrid Superstar, Angelina "Pepper" Davis / Angelina "Pepper" Davis, Mary Woronov, Ingrid Superstar, 2018 The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, a museum of Carnegie Institute. All rights reserved. Film still courtesy The Andy Warhol Museum

Image via Andy Warhol, "Nico" / "Nico Crying", 1966. Pictured: Nico, 2018 The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, a museum of Carnegie Institute. All rights reserved. Film still courtesy The Andy Warhol Museum.
A California family was not able to go home as scheduled after a Delta Airline official reportedly booted them off a flight when they refused to give up a paid seat for their two-year-old child. The couple also had a one-year-old in tow and the official working with the airline threatened they could get jail time.

Reports identified the parents as Brian and Brittany Schear of Huntington Beach, California. The incident took place on April 23, NBC News reported.

A video showing the exchange between Brian and the Delta Airline officer surfaced online. Accordingly, the plane ticket was in the name of the couple's teenage son but he went home earlier so their two-year-old son could use the paid seat. When they boarded their flight, they had no issues but because there were too many passengers on the standby list, an officer approached them.

Brittany took the video and they uploaded it on Thursday this week. The Delta Airline agents said they could get kicked off the flight if they did not give up the seat. An officer said while the camera rolled, "So this is a federal offense. You and your wife could be in jail and your kids will be in foster care." Brian countered and asked the official why he had to give up the seat they paid for so that someone else could use it, noting it was not right.

The official said the ticket was under the name of their teenage son so the two-year-old could not sit there. Later, another employee stated the Federal Aviation Administration rules about a two-year-old not allowed to seat or occupy a car seat. The toddler had to sit in an adult's lap. Brian said when they flew to Maui, their two-year-old child sat in a car seat on his own seat on the plane. The Federal Aviation Administration's rule backed up Brian's claim as they urged parents to let toddlers sit alone in a plane seat provided they have a car seat.

Delta Airline did not explain why the family had to be removed. A spokesman pointed out the flight was not overbooked. They did say, however, that they were sorry for the unfortunate experience that the customers had. They reached out to those involved and offered a refund plus additional compensation.

This latest airline-related incident came weeks after United Airlines officials forced a doctor to give up his seat due to overbooking. The video became viral as the removal of the doctor, identified as David Dao, was violent and forceful.
In November South Korean authorities raided Apple's offices prior to the launch of iPhone X in that country. Earlier this month we reported that Apple could face sanctions from Korea's watchdog for dumping iPhone ad costs on local telecom operators. Suffice to say Apple has had some problems in Korea of late and with Apple opening their first flagship store in January, they've now hired a new General Manager for Korea this month, first noted by Bloomberg.

Brandon Yoon's background shows that he's a seasoned executive with strong track record in managing E-commerce, retail, and digital marketing for global brands in multiple markets. He also has a history of building strong teams at the subsidiary, regional, and corporate levels. Mr. Yoon spent 12 years at Microsoft in different positions including Senior Director of Microsoft Store Online in the U.S., Greater China and Japan.

Mr. Yoon spent his last 2.7 years at Samsung as a Corporate VP and Global Head of Digital responsible for overseeing digital strategy, multi-billion dollar e-commerce P&L (channel-based and direct to consumer), performance marketing, digital content, social and more.

Apple is likely to open more brick and mortar stores in Korea and Mr. Yoon appears to have the experience and talents to lead that charge and hopefully be able to work with Korean authorities on a number of issues. Bloomberg discovered the LinkedIn profile about Mr. Yoon.

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Ive been over here in Jordan, with my wife, to participate in what was called, in English, The First Annual Middle East Conference on the Rule of Law and Religion: The Amman Message in a Changing World,' which was held on 22-23 April 2018 at the School of Law of the University of Jordan. Co-sponsored by the University of Jordans law school and the International Center for Law and Religion Studies of the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University, the conference featured mostly Jordanian academics, with a sprinkling of others from New Delhi, Geneva, Brussels, Washington DC, and, of course, BYU itself.

My presentation, which I delivered mostly in English and which was titled Terrorism, Tolerance, and Holy Envy, was included in a session on The Amman Message and Responding to Violent Extremism. (For more on the so-called Amman Message, see here.)

Today, though, we relaxed. Sort of. Several of the non-Jordanian participants in the conference  the associate dean of the University of Jordan law school also came along, though  jumped on a bus for a bit of touring. We were accompanied by my long-time friends Dilworth and Laurabeth Parkinson; he essentially founded BYUs very successful Arabic program and recently retired from the University. Theyre currently serving as volunteers for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints here in northern Jordan, which includes working with refugees.

Together, we went to al-Maghtas, the Jordanian site associated with the crossing of the Children of Israel into the Holy Land, the ascension of the Prophet Elijah, and, most significantly, the baptism of Jesus at the hand of John the Baptist. (See the image above.) In my opinion, the site is a very significant one and very possibly authentic. (I certainly prefer it to the Galilean site of Yardenit, to the north.) The Hamblin/Peterson Deseret News column for this coming weekend will be about al-Maghtas.)

From al-Maghtas, we drove to lunch at the Marriott Dead Sea Resort, which is spectacularly beautiful. The Jordanian side of the Dead Sea is much better developed than the Israeli side.

Then we ascended from the floor of the Jordan River Valley (which lies at 12oo feet below sea level) to the top of Mount Nebo (which soars, relatively speaking, to 1800 feet above the level of the sea), from which, even on a hazy day like today, we looked over the Dead Sea and could see both Jericho and, very tiny and far away in the distance, the towers of the Augusta Victoria Hospital, the Church of the Ascension, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on the ridge of the Mount of Olives.

Finally, we visited Madaba, the site of the invaluable sixth-century mosaic map of Jerusalem, the Holy Land, and environs. The image above shows a detail of the map: The River Jordan flows southward into the Dead Sea. (The top of the map is oriented  literally  to the east.) Above the river is a small circle-like thing indicating al-Maghtas. One fish is swimming southward, with the flow, but another has turned in terror away from the Dead Sea and is swimming upstream. Just under the fleeing fish is the placename Bethabara (Place of Crossing). At the bottom of the image is the toponym Ierikho (Jericho) and a representation of the city of palm trees.

All in all, a nice day.

Posted from Amman, Jordan
Many Pagans are solitary practitioners, either by choice or by necessity. But most traditional activities for Beltane are designed for either large groups or for couples (and straight couples at that). In 2014 and 2015 I wrote a series of rituals for those working alone on the Wheel of the Year. Every year theyre near the top of the list of most popular posts  especially the Beltane ritual.

But what if youd like to celebrate Beltane with something other than a ritual? Maybe youre part of a group that holds its rituals on the Saturday nearest the holiday and you dont want to do a second ritual. Or maybe youre just feel the need to do something other than a ritual this time.

Here are eight things you can do to celebrate Beltane.

1. Plant flowers

Ostara is the beginning of Spring, but even here in Texas it doesnt really feel like Spring till closer to Beltane. Now the wildflowers are in bloom, and a walk outside is a stark reminder that there are two colors in my yard: green and brown. Maybe yours is the same.

Put some color in your yard  plant flowers! You can start from seeds, though starting from plants is faster and more reliable. Some flowers are annuals, but others are perennials  plant them once and youll have them for years to come.

Dont have a yard? Most flowers grow well in pots, especially in sunny places like kitchen windows.

2. Buy flowers

Have you managed to kill every plant youve ever tried to grow? Does your cat think flowers make nice appetizers? Or are you just not up for planting? Then go buy some fresh cut flowers.

Most grocery stores carry them, at least around here. For a few dollars you can brighten up your house and make it look like Beltane, even if your local weather is decidedly Winterish.

Cut flowers can last for up to two weeks if you keep them in water. And then when their time has obviously come, there are still more things you can do with them rather than throwing them in the trash.

3. Introduce yourself to the local land spirits

How well do you know your local land spirits? Perhaps more importantly, how well do they know you? Have you given them any indication youre anything more than yet another clueless human whos going to trash the place and then move on?

Remember than in the Indo-European languages host and guest share the same root word (*ghosti). The land spirits were there long before you  you are a guest in their home. But as someone who wields the of power of human culture and technology, you also have obligations as a host. That makes for a complicated relationship  be especially polite.

Go outside and introduce yourself. Dont go emptyhanded  take something to offer. Clean water is almost always an acceptable offering, especially for land spirits.

After you introduce yourself, listen. You may encounter one spirit, or several, or many. Where I live, the land has (is) one spirit. The trees are all individual spirits. And the rosemary bush is the strongest of all.

Or you may encounter none, particularly if youre new to the place, or if your conduct toward the land has been less than hospitable in the past. Talk is cheap  show that you really mean all those pretty Nature-centered ideas.

But a relationship starts with saying hello.

4. Leave a gift for the Fair Folk

According to Morgan Daimler (my go-to person for all things Fae) the fairies were thought to be especially active and powerful on Beltane. That means its a good time to leave gifts for them, to make sure you stay on their good side and avoid important items disappearing with no explanation. Cream and whiskey are traditional offerings, and food offerings are usually well-received.

Traditionally theyve valued their privacy  the stories of our ancestors warn against getting involved in their affairs. But Im seeing more and more interactions of the Fair Folk with the ordinary world, and it appears we have common interests where cooperation is warranted.

Regardless, you could do far worse than to demonstrate youre willing to be a good neighbor to the Good Neighbors.

5. Read the story of the Coming of the Tuatha De Danann

It was on the first day of Beltaine, that is called now May Day, the Tuatha De Danann came, and it was to the north-west of Connacht they landed. But the Firbolgs, the Men of the Bag, that were in Ireland before them, and that had come from the South, saw nothing but a mist, and it lying on the hills. from Gods and Fighting Men

Are you a book lover? An avid reader? Looking for something a little less physical for this Beltane? This is the anniversary of the coming of the Tuatha De Danann to Ireland, which makes Beltane the perfect time to read (or re-read) this story.

I quoted from the 1904 translation by Lady Augusta Gregory on the Sacred Texts website, but this version from the Celtic Literature Collective is also good. Morgan Daimler has a translation of part of the story and some commentary on the Four Treasures of the Tuatha De Danann on her blog.

6. Perform divination

Beltane is 180 degrees opposite Samhain on the Wheel of the Year. Both are times when the Veil Between the Worlds is at its thinnest (even though many of us think the Veil is shredded) and thus its easier to hear from the Otherworld. That makes divination easier than normal.

So break out your Tarot cards, runes, or other divination tool. Ask a question for yourself, your family, or your community. And then see what you can see.

Remember that divination cant make decisions for you. It shows you whats coming  you have to decide if thats a good thing or not. Divination is like turning on your headlights when youre driving at night  it shows you whats in the road before you run into it.

Also remember that divination shows what will be, not what must be. If you dont like what you see, its up to you to make the changes necessary to create a more favorable outcome.

If you cant read for yourself (some diviners can, others cant) then contact a professional diviner (and expect to pay them for their services). Or contact a friend who does divination and trade readings with them.

7. Walk between two fires

Beltane is a Fire Festival, and one of the traditional activities was to build two bonfires and pass livestock and people between them for cleansing and blessing. Building two bonfires might be a bit much for a solitary practice, but you probably can light two torches, or two candles. Or if you live some place where open flames arent safe, use electric candles.

Simply light the two fires and then walk between them. You may want to pause for a moment or two as you do, to meditate on what you want to leave behind and what you want to call into your life.

8. Take a nap under a tree

If you dont feel like doing anything active  or in contrast, if youre feeling particularly adventurous  take a nap under a tree. Find a friendly tree in a place where you wont be disturbed. Ask permission, make offerings to the spirits of the place, and listen to make sure its OK. If you get a favorable response, stretch out on the ground with your back to the tree and relax.

There are no guarantees. Trying to go to sleep  particularly at a time of day when youre usually awake  can be counterproductive. But if you do, you may find your dreams are particularly deep and vivid.

But you might want to have some iron in your pocket when you do.

However you celebrate, may your Beltane be bright and joyous!
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Paxton, IL (60957)

Today

Areas of patchy fog early. Cloudy this morning with showers during the afternoon. High 74F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Showers early, then cloudy overnight. Low 61F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.
Iranian FM Zarif Says Neither Saudis Nor Iran Can Dominate Middle East; Talks Needed

04/24/18

Source: RFE/RL

Iran's foreign minister has said that neither Iran nor Saudi Arabia can be the dominant power in the Middle East and called on countries in the Persian Gulf region to start talking to each other. "In an attempt to be the strongest in the region, to exclude one another from the region, we have managed to destroy the region," Mohammad Javad Zarif said in an address to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York late on April 23.

Zarif said there was "a dire need for change" and "Iran is ready for it because we are big enough, old enough, mature enough to appreciate this reality."



"None of us can become the new hegemon" in the region, he said. "The era of hegemonic influence is long gone," he said. "Neither Iran nor Saudi Arabia can be the hegemons of the region. That's a fact."



Zarif called for a new "regional dialogue forum" that would include five Gulf Cooperation Council countries along with Iran, Iraq, and Yemen. He said such a dialogue had the potential to transform the Middle East.



Zarif's visit to New York comes two weeks after a visit to Washington and New York by Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, the heir apparent to the Saudi throne who has portrayed Iran as Riyadh's biggest foe.



"Our neighbors, particularly Saudi Arabia, want to create an impression that we are an existential threat against them," Zarif said, asserting that was "one of the most important messages" conveyed by Salman to audiences in the United States.



The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump signed off on the sale of more than $1.3 billion in artillery to Saudi Arabia during his visit. Zarif said other Gulf Arab countries were now trying "to compete with one another in buying more weapons."



But "security cannot be purchased," he said. Rather, he said, it requires "understanding in the region."



Saudi Arabia and Iran are engaged in proxy conflicts in Syria and Yemen, and they also back opposing groups in Lebanon, Bahrain, and Iraq.



Zarif said the region was suffering from "a dialogue deficit," and that's why he has suggested creating "a regional dialogue forum."



Such a forum should include Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and probably Yemen, he said.



To join the forum, he said, countries should agree on a number of principles: the inviolability of borders, respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, and nonintervention in each other's internal affairs.



In addition to the "dialogue deficit," Zarif said there was also "a confidence deficit."



He said Persian Gulf countries not only need to start talking but to work on confidence-building measures.



Zarif suggested joint task forces on issues ranging from nuclear safety -- because "very soon" there will be a growing number of nuclear reactors on the Persian Gulf coast --to tourism, cultural exchanges, women's empowerment, and democratic processes.



"We need to have a strong region," he said, "not to be the strongest in the region."



Unless this transformation takes place, Zarif warned that no matter how many weapons the United States sells to its Arab allies, "at the end of the day the cost for the United States will be much higher than the profits made by the weapons sold."



A day earlier, on April 22, Zarif told the Al-Monitor television network that the Saudis have not been able to help Yemen's embattled government win a war against Iranian-backed Huthi rebels despite having "beautiful U.S. weapons."



"The Saudis remain under the false assumption, which they also had in Syria, that they can achieve a military victory. This is why the war on Yemen continues," he said.



Zarif said that the only solution to the civil war in Yemen was a political settlement.



With reporting by AP and Press TV.
The IMF is likely to release an amount of two hundred and thirty-six million dollars ($236,000,000) to Ghana under the agreement with the Fund, by the first week of May this year.



This comes on the heels of the IMF missions review of Ghanas performance, last month (March).



The facility will be the 5th and 6th disbursements under the economic support program.



Officials say, this forms part of the highlights at this years spring meetings of the IMF/World Bank in Washington, DC.



Under the programme, Ghana had to shove down its throat some bitter pills so as to maintain tight fiscal discipline, without sacrificing growth.



The bail out programme has been extended to April 2019 , from an initial deadline of April 2018, after the NPP government agreed to an extension of the program.



The fund is giving the country over $918 million to support its current account which is necessary for stabilising the local currency and control the shocks in the economy.







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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The woman who is set to become the seventh wife of South Africa's ex-President Jacob Zuma has been forced to resign from her job at She Conquers, a non-governmental organisation, local media reports.



Nonkanyiso Conco's "affiliation" with Mr Zuma - 52 years her senior - was contrary to the organisation's campaign to empower young women in every phase of their lives, and to end reliance on sugar daddies, She Conquers' leadership said in a statement quoted by Daily Maverick news site.



Ms Conco, 24, gave birth to Mr Zuma's child last week, in what staff at a private hospital in the coastal city of Durban described as a "VIP delivery".



Mr Zuma, 76, currently has four wives, including one from whom he is separated, and more than 20 children.



A fifth wife took her own life in 2000, and a sixth one - who was his preferred presidential successor - divorced him in 2008.



Ms Conco was was forced to resign as the national treasurer and communications officer of She Conquers, a campaign to tackle HIV among young women, gender-based violence and high rates of teen pregnancy.



As young girls, we are lured and used by people with power who use their position to take advantage of us, She Conquers' deputy chair Leonora Mathe was quoted by Daily Maverick as saying.



As a campaign, we promote economic empowerment and self-dependency of young women to eliminate the concept of reliance on blessers, she added, using a South African word to refer to sugar daddies.



Ms Conco has not yet commented on the criticism, but she had submitted a resignation letter to the organisation, Daily Maverick reported.



The planned wedding has been at the centre of much media publicity, and has got tongues wagging in South Africa:

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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One of the concessionaires that bid to manage the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) under the Power Compact II agreement, BXC Consortium has sued the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) over what it describes as an unfair disqualification in the bidding process.



MIDA last week disqualified BXC Consortium and selected Meralco Consortium, a company led by Manila Electricity Company from the Philippines, to manage the Electricity Company of Ghana [ECG], under the Power Compact II agreement.



MiDAs letter of disqualification



In a letter dated April 12, 2018, the Chief Executive Officer of MiDA, Martin Eson-Benjamin, explained that BXC Consortium was disqualified because the company has one or more conflicts of interest, and, therefore, cannot continue with the bidding process.



MiDA said it disqualified BXC Consortium for conflict of interest or potential conflict of interest for not disclosing existing contract with ECG.



According to the letter, the consortium said we are not aware of any actual or potential conflict of interest arising from a prior or existing contract or relationship with Ghana, ECG, their affiliates, representatives, advisors or consultant.

However, MiDA obtained information concerning a contract BXC has with ECG.



On the basis of this, MiDA, in the letter, said one or more conflicts of interest or potential conflicts of interest existed.

It added that the foregoing statement by BXC Consortium is false and/or misleading.



Therefore, MiDA decided not to open the financial proposal submitted by BXC Consortium.

The co-ordinator of the BXC Consortium in the ECG takeover, Daniel Azu, however, insisted MiDAs reasons for disqualification were completely flawed and baseless as evidence emerging suggests that it was done to favour Meralco Consortium.



We are in court because we think MiDA has not been fair to BXC and we need them to explain to us the reasons why they have disqualified BXC. MiDA was aware BXC had other projects with ECG, and we made that clear to them from the beginning. We do not know why they are bringing this up now. We can provide documents to show that in all the presentations that we did, we included this knowledge. We want the court to look at the merit of the decision, Mr Azu said.



BXC, in a letter dated April 13, 2018 and addressed to MiDA, said: it had not misled MiDA and/or have not engaged, and/or are not aware of any actual or potential conflict of interest in anyway whatsoever and/or howsoever. We state that we have always informed MiDA about our distribution contracts together with our previous pending contracts with ECG.



We add that by a letter dated 1st March, 2018, prior to the submission of the bid, we informed you of all past and present contracts between BXC Consortium and ECG dating as far back as 2005. We add further that contrary to your statement in your letter under reference, in the bid submitted to MiDA, and specifically on pages 17, 76, 87, 88 and 95 of the technical proposal, we make specific mention of the contracts entered into between BXC and ECG. We would therefore urge you to reconsider your decision to disqualify our bid and request that you send us a response by the close of Friday, April 13, 2018, the letter further indicated.



BXC Ghana Limited (BXC), a Chinese company registered in Ghana, is a subsidiary of Xiaocheng Electronic Technology Stock Co. Ltd.



The company is engaged in the business of manufacturing and deploying highly efficient pre-payment metering systems and management of power supply across the world.

BXC Consortium was established in Ghana in 2010. It has over the years trained and used Ghanaians to implement major projects in Ghana.



In September 2011, BXC Consortium and the ECG signed an agreement for 10 years, where BXC was expected to engage in System Loss Reduction in the Teshie and Bortianor areas, the commercial aim of which was to share proportional losses recovered by the project while technically improving the infrastructure and deploying more modern systems of power distribution management.



What happens to BXC, ECG contract?

What happens to the contract of BXC with ECG is yet to be clarified by MiDA.

Therefore, MiDAs decision to reject the BXC Consortium could result in a legal tussle.

BXC Consortium has Xiaocheng Technology Stock Company Limited and Shaanxi Regional Electric Power Group Company Limited as part of it.



A. BXC operations in Ghana since 2011 are as follows:

1. Solar IPP project in Mankoadze

 $30M - completed

2. Rural Electrification project

 $40M  completed

3. Boundary metering project

 $11M - completed



4. Thermal power generating plant in Takoradi

 $650M  work in progress



5. Mining Concession in Eastern Region (not discussed at meeting)

 $20M  exploration completed, mining about to commence

6. $170M Pre - finance loss reduction contract with ECG in Accra West covered by contract signed in 2011 - work in progress



a. Contract called for BXC to invest its own funds to reduce Technical and Commercial Losses from 31.98% for a population of 450,000 subscribers in Accra West.



b. BXC and ECG will share 80% and 20% respectively on revenue from loss saving



c. BXC was assigned by ECG to work in the Teshie, Nungua and Bortianor areas covering 200,000 subscribers, and upon completion of assignment, there was dispute about the baseline of 31.98% loss level to measure performance



d. Based on independent system planning division in March 2017, Technical Losses have been reduced to about 7% due to investment in Accra West Network, indicating a highly successful performance by BXC contractual obligation.



e. To resolve this, an agreement was reached to compensate BXC for work done and return on capital employed



f. Again, BXC claimed, and ECG disputed, compensation of $80M, but later both parties settled on $60M to enable further work to continue in harmony



g. An addendum to existing contract was signed in March 24, 2017, in which, among other amendments, ECG resolved to pay the agreed sum of $60M at 6% monthly annuity instalments of $590,000 for 12 years



h. Payment has only been ongoing for six months, for which ECG MD apologised for and promised to normalise



i. BXC now working in Nsawam covering the remainder of the 250,000 customers contained in the contract



There are issues with delays, complaints, finger-pointing from both sides, and, above all, lack of payment for the current Nsawam phase of the contract. BXC claims ECG currently owes it about $3,600,000 for Operations and Maintenance ($180,000 monthly payment for about 20 months).

Source: The Finder









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The Minister of Trade and Industry of Ghana, Alan Kyerematen, took part in the International Economic Forum: Perspectives of economic growth in West Africa, held in the Canary Islands, Spain, on April 19, 2018.



The meeting, attended by ministers and senior officials from Morocco, Mauritania, Ghana, Senegal, Cape Verde and Ivory Coast, together with the Director of Economic Affairs of the African Union Commission, Rene N'Guetia Kouassi, was organised by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Co-operation, the regional government of the Canary Islands and Casa Africa, with the collaboration of the Organisation for Co-operation and Economic Development (OECD).



The forum arises in a context in which both the Spanish Government and the Canary Islands are committed to strengthening relations with the African continent, with special interest in the West African coast. The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Co-operation, Alfonso Dastis, stressed that the African continent is one of the major priorities of Spain`s foreign policy, which has led the government, during the current term, to take important steps to strengthen its relationship with Africa and, in particular, with the sub-Saharan region, highlighting the role of West Africa.



In this regard, the Minister said that being aware of the new reality of the continent, we are redesigning our strategic approach to the region based on our accumulated experience and our growing weight in Africa".



The new framework of Spain`s relations with Africa will be reflected in the III African Plan, in which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Co-operation is working on, with the aim of being more effective in defending our interests while also contributing to the development and growth of the African continent.



Spain will continue to co-operate with the countries of West Africa to achieve an inclusive and sustainable economic development for the benefit of the two.



Ghana was one of the countries invited to the forum in recognition of its leadership role in the ECOWAS and its favourable economic perspectives, being one of the fastest growing economies in Africa and globally, with a growth rate expected to reach 8.3% in 2018, according to the World Bank.



Mr Kyerematen briefed the audience on the important economic reforms that are being implemented in Ghana, and outlined the main policies and flagships programmes in the context of the Ghana beyond Aid agenda.



Mr Kyerematen also chaired a panel discussion on agroindustry and logistics, and held a bilateral meeting with Minister Dastis to discuss ways to further strengthen bilateral economic and commercial ties, as well as exchange views on business opportunities and the presence of Spanish companies in Ghana.



During the forum, the OECD and other participants highlighted that after decades of low economic growth and dragging the cliche of being one of the regions most neglected by globalisation, most of the countries of West Africa maintain a constant average growth of 5% per year for 10 years.



In addition, trade between West Africa, with 400 million people, and the rest of the world continues to grow, and infrastructure development projects to achieve better internal connectivity are advancing firmly from the ECOWAS, which is currently studying the incorporation of Morocco and Mauritania to the organisation.



In a gesture that advances steps towards the promotion of intra-African trade and industrialisation in Africa, the future CFTA will allow the creation of a common market of more than one billion consumers, with an increase of 52% in trade between African countries, a customs union between now and 2022 and an African economic community in 2028.



The director of Casa Africa, Luis Padron, mentioned that the dynamism and growth of West Africa is unstoppable, with an already exciting present and a more than encouraging future, and riveted that the current indicators favour confidence in regional integration and the advent of a prosperous and stable future, based on the large infrastructure projects that the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has in place, the demographic growth and prospects for increased intra-African industrialisation and trade. Padron also referred to the recent signing of the agreement to create the African Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA), which paves the way for the establishment of the largest single market for goods and services since the creation of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).



Fernando Clavijo, President of the Canary regional government, recalled that the European Union encourages the outermost regions, such as the Canary Islands, to integrate into their respective regional spaces.



In this respect, the Canary Islands constitute a natural platform and a space for co-operation and want to strengthen a cross-border co-operation programme with West Africa with the aim of contributing to the sustainable and inclusive development of the region.



At 95km from the coast of Africa (nearest point), the Canary Islands have become a link between continents and a base to develop co-operation, economic and commercial ties and cultural exchanges.

Source: The Finder









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The University of Ghana has elected Mrs. Mary Chinery-Hesse to replace H.E. Kofi Annan, as the schools Chancellor.



According to a statement signed by the Universitys Registrar, Mercy Haizel Ashia, Mrs. Chinery-Hesse assumes the role officially on 1st August, 2018.



Kofi Annan was appointed Chancellor of the University of Ghana in 2009, succeeding Nana Wereko Ampem II.



About Mrs. Chinery-Hesse:

Mrs. Chinery-Hesse is an alumnus of the University of Ghana. She was also awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws (Honoris Causa) by the University of Ghana in 1991.



Mrs. Chinery-Hesse is a distinguished national and international public servant.



She has also received several prestigious awards and decorations including the Order of the Star of Ghana in 2006, and the Gusi Peace Prize for International Diplomacy and Humanitarianism in 2010.



Below is a highlight of her profile:



 Chief Advisor, to H.E. John Agyekum Kufuor, May 2006  January 2009.

 Member, Council of University of Ghana, 2006-2009

 Commissioner, Public Utilities Regulatory Commission, 2003  2006

 Vice-Chairman, National Development Planning Commission, 2001  2009

 Member, National Council for Higher Education,1974 -1980

 First female Deputy Director-General, International Labour Organization (ILO) Geneva, 1989  2000.

 Chairperson, UN Consultative Committee on Programme Operational Questions (CCPOQ), 1993  1998

Source: citinewsroom.com









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Former Deputy Communications Minister, Felix Kwakye Ofosu has condemned President Akufo-Addos frivolous staff at the Jubilee House, and wants Ghanaians to rise up before it would be too late.



Commenting on the list of 998 staff released by President Akufo-Addo as workers at the seat of government on 3FMs News Hour Friday, Kwakye Ofosu minced no words calling the list totally outrageous, totally unjustifiable.



In all honesty, the president has done a terrible deed by appointing all these number of people. He is deliberately wasting taxpayers money, and all of us as Ghanaians must rise up and question his conduct, and not allow him to run this country aground before we express regret at a later date, when it would be too late.



The former deputy minister accused the president of constituting a government full of family and friends.



This is the president who appears only interested in enhancing the fortunes of his relatives, family and friends and members of the NPP. It appears to me that the victory that he chalked in 2016 was a personal triumph to do what he pleases as president; it was never about the people, otherwise he would not be conducting himself like he is doing, Kwakye Ofosu commented.



In his assessment, the 998 in addition to the over 100 ministers and deputies appointed last year, shows that President Akufo-Addo has no respect for the people of this country.



He was amused that the NPP government whilst in opposition criticised the 678 presidential staffers and civil staffers under former President Mahama, but has failed to maintain the number if it cannot reduce it.



He said the government is dissipating the taxpayers money for greater comfort of NPP who are not adding any significant improvement in the lives of Ghanaians.



kwakye Ofosu was also shocked by a secretariat established at the presidency for the construction of a national cathedral headed by Dr Paul Opoku Mensah, when the cathedral he said would be built by the private sector.



This is a man willing to dissipate the resources of our people with reckless abundance, he asserted, Akufo-Addo and NPP are hypocritical.



He also wondered if Ghana runs a monarch to have a lady-in-waiting among the list of staffers.

Source: 3news.com









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Aspiring National Chairman of the People's Progressive Party (PPP), Nana Ofori Owusu has vehemently kicked against the number of staff working under the Office of the President.



Registering his resentments over what he believes is a ridiculous number to behold in government; Nana Ofori Owusu wondered what all those people are doing at the Presidency.



According to him, it is very disturbing that a nation like Ghana with a population of only 26 million would have 998 Presidential staff when the economy is challenged by several issues that need to be addressed.



To him, the government is piling up expenditures that will later blow back into the faces of Ghanaians and exert pressure on the economy.



Nana Ofori Owusu noted that it is prudent for the nation to establish the correct number to staff the Presidency.



What is the correct staffing level for a country like Ghana? A nation of 26 million people, at the Presidency; what should be the correct staffing levels . . . In the United States of America, Presidential staffers are 377. In the Republic of Ghana, with the population of 26 million, we have Presidential staffing coming from 678, 700, 998, he said.



In his earnest view "Ghana cannot go beyond aid when we continue to pile up expenditures on the government budget, on the national purse. It is not possible".













Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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CARLISLE--Heroin is in your neighborhood and maybe in your home. Be ready. Don't be blind-sided like he was.

That was the message of Allan Jones, who spoke at an opioid action and awareness forum on Monday night, sharing painful details in the life of his son, A.J., who died last year of an overdose after being in recovery for 18 months.

"If you haven't been affected in any way by this epidemic, then you most likely will in the future," he told in an audience in a middle school auditorium.

Jones described gradual warning signs he noticed but didn't understand until too late: His son seeming unusually "upbeat," probably because he had begun using opioid pills. Sleeping during the day. Appearing sick and losing weight. Items missing from the home.

Jones advised the audience not to enable an addicted child, but never to abandon the child. He described telling his son he could no longer live at home, and then of A.J. embarking on a recovery in which he attained a long succession of goals, and which caused his father to feel "pride and an overwhelming feeling of happiness."

Yet the end came as a shock when the young man's seven-year-old daughter awoke for school to find him dead of an overdose. Jones stressed to the audience that addiction is a disease of relapse, and the daily devotion to recovery must last a lifetime.

The event featured a panel of local leaders and experts who acknowledged they were likely "speaking to the choir" in that most in the audience had likely lost someone to an overdose, or for other reasons were already well-informed about the crisis.

But the experts, including Taro Landis, Carlisle's police chief, urged everyone to think of something they can contribute to fighting the crisis. Another expert advised the audience to take the message to their church or other community organizations, and to consider arranging for some of the panelists to speak to their group.
WILLIAMSPORT -- A federal judge has thrown out the suit a Georgia State University student filed over Penn State's refusal to rent him space to allow white nationalist Richard Spencer to speak on the University Park campus.

U.S. Middle District Judge Matthew W. Brann took that action Monday because Cameron Padgett had not served his complaint on Penn State.

He also failed to respond to Brann's April 10 order that required him to show why the suit should not be dismissed.

Padgett last October sued the university, its President Eric J. Barron and the board of trustees after his failed attempt to rent a conference room or lecture hall for a Spencer talk.

The senior at Georgia State University identified himself in the complaint as an individual who subscribes to the identitarian philosophy.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, identitarians preach opposition to multiculturalism and advocate separate regions and nations that, within their borders, are culturally and ethnically homogenous.

Padgett claimed in his court complaint he does not consider himself alt-right but supports Spencer and is the organizer of his collegiate speaking tour.

After Padgett made a request in July to rent space, Barron released statement in which he said Spencer was not welcome on the Penn State campus in light of violence in Charlottesville, Va., during a "unite the right" protest rally.

Barron said although Penn State supports the right of free speech, "the First Amendment does not require our university to risk imminent violence."

Padgett contended in his suit the refusal to rent a conference or lecture hall for fear of violence constitutes unconstitutional content discrimination.

There is no reason to believe Spencer or his supporters will engage in or advocate criminal misconduct, he claimed.

Besides an injunction to force Penn State to rent him space, Padgett sought unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
A jury on Monday convicted a Huntingdon County man and his niece of murdering a Penn State professor by pushing him off a cliff and leaving him to die, according to the Centre Daily Times.

George Ishler Jr., 41, and Danielle R. Geier, 34, were found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder of the first-degree, murder of the first-degree, murder of the third-degree, aggravated assault and tampering with, or fabricating, physical evidence.

They were sentenced to life in prison.

They are accused of killing Ronald Bettig, 56 on Aug. 13, 2016. Bettig, who joined Penn State's College of Communications in 1988 was an associate professor of media studies.

He had befriended Ishler, who introduced Bettig to his niece, Geier. Geier and her toddler son soon moved in with Bettig, who told some people he was trying to get her help for an addiction.

Police said Ishler and Geier plotted to kill Bettig. On Aug. 13, 2016, they convinced the Bettig or to come with them to a quarry near his home Lemont, police say, telling him they could harvest marijuana growing there. When the trio arrived at the Blackhawk Quarry, Bettig fell 80 feet of a cliff.

The Centre Daily Times reported that forensic pathologist Harry Kamerow testified during the trial that Bettig, 56, had a broken forearm and jaw as well as two broken arms, femurs, and hips after the 75-foot fall. His brain, heart and lungs still functioned after the fall. Kamerow said he could have survived as long as two days.

A former state police investigator testified that Ishler admitted pushing Bettig off the cliff, and reported him missing in an attempt to make the death look accidental.

Police said when Ishler was interviewed by investigators, he admitted pushing Bettig of the cliff, and that he and Geier believed Bettig's will had been updated to include them, and that they stood to inherit an unspecified sum of money if he died.
Penn State graduate student employees have killed an effort to unionize after a year-long certification effort.

In election results released by the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board Tuesday, students opposing the organization efforts prevailed over those who wanted to be represented, 1,438 to 950.

Voting took place earlier this month at University Park, Hershey and Harrisburg.

University officials, who have argued against the unionization effort, pledged in a statement to "continue to address areas of concern to graduate students through direct interaction and through regular coordination with the Graduate and Professional Students Association," the existing student government arm for grad students at PSU.

The students involved see themselves as the worker bees that carry out much of the academic and research mission at Penn State. Those affected generally receive tuition waivers, and are paid stipends designed to cover living expenses.

But some have maintained that to do their teaching or research assignments well, they must often work for more than the 20 hours per week they are obligated to by their contract.

Organizers campaigned on winning the right to negotiate for better health care, a living wage and better working conditions for 3,724 students at Penn State who work as teaching or research assistants.

Emma Van Burns, record keeper for the Coalition of Graduate Employees, said Tuesday the group has no plans to challenge the election result, but that its members will continue to press forward with their concerns.

The Penn State students sought to join 32 other universities across the nation that have graduate employee unions, including six of its peers in the Big Ten Conference.
Penn State Health is promising a do-over in its handling of 2,100 multiple sclerosis patients told they must find new doctors because of departures and retirements of four neurologists who specialized in MS patients.

The patients still have to find new doctors, at least for the short term.

"Most importantly, I can tell you our physician leadership is actively working on this issue and developing a plan to reach all affected patients with more information to help ensure their concerns are addressed and their care needs are met," said Scott Gilbert, a spokesman for Penn State Hershey Medical Center, which is part of Penn State Health.

Meanwhile, Harrisburg-based UPMC Pinnacle on Monday said it has at least six neurologists capable for caring for the displaced patients. A spokeswoman said the normal waiting period for a first appointment is three to six months, but UPMC Pinnacle will give priority to patients with urgent needs.

The Penn State Health situation stems from the fact that two neurologists specializing in caring for patients with MS recently retired, and two others left for other jobs. That leaves the medical center with only one neurologist specializing in MS patients. Any MS patient who hadn't been seen by the remaining doctor within the past year was asked to find a non-Penn State Health neurologist.

Gilbert wrote in an email, "We missed the mark last week with this mailing to our patients."

However, Gilbert said he couldn't elaborate on how specifically the letter "missed the mark," or how the situation should have been handled. A doctor who Gilbert said could address the question wasn't immediately available late Monday afternoon.

"We have been doing our best to address patient concerns we've heard through phone calls to our clinic. We want our community to know we are working hard to develop a plan to meet these challenges, and we regret the concerns the letter we sent has caused patients," Gilbert said.

Gilbert said the medical center will recruit new MS specialists to replace the others, although he couldn't say when the spots will be filled.

He attributed the overall situation to what he called a national shortage of doctors who specialize in caring for MS patients, and an additional challenge of recruiting them to rural academic medical centers such as Penn State Hershey.

Neurologists also specialize in treatment of conditions including strokes, epilepsy and Lou Gehrig's disease. Gilbert said the medical center has an adequate roster of general neurologists and neurologists who specialize in the other conditions.

Gilbert said the letter sent to patients included names and contact information for neurologists working for other nearby health systems who can care for them, and the paperwork needed to arrange transfer of their medical records.
HARRISBURG--Stacy Parks Miller last year lost reelection to a third term as Centre County District Attorney.

On Monday, Parks Miller fought in a Harrisburg courtroom against potentially losing her law license.

The state's Disciplinary Board accused Parks Miller of violating established rules for professional conduct when she was district attorney in that she communicated with judges inappropriately outside of court and created a fake Facebook page that could have been used for spying on defendants.

Monday's all-day hearing at the Pennsylvania Judicial Center represented a rare public examination into allegations against an attorney and the first time the embattled former prosecutor admitted that she violated rules for communicating with two judges on four occasions.

But Parks Miller said none of the communications were intended to influence the judges.

Parks Miller has not practiced law since leaving office earlier this year, she testified, because she thought it would be unfair to clients with the uncertainty of the disciplinary proceedings hanging over her head.

She likely will be sitting on her hands for several more months before learning her fate.

The three-member committee that took testimony Monday will take at least 60 days before issuing a recommendation in the case to allow time for transcripts to be created and final briefs to be filed. The committee's recommendation then will go to the full disciplinary board for a recommendation and then to the state's Supreme Court for a final decision.

She could face discipline ranging from a private conversation to disbarment.

During Monday's hearing, Parks Miller admitted that she responded to a 2013 email from a judge that previously had been part of a group email she started involving the defense attorney. But she said she did not notice that others had been dropped from the email string by the judge when he sent her a reply.

So when she "replied all," to reiterate that prosecutors should have been allowed to weigh in on a suspected rapist's release from jail without bail, it was only her and judge communicating.

Because the communication involved a current case before the judge, and the defendant was not privy to it, it was considered an "ex-parte," or prohibited communication.

Parks Miller admitted to a second mistake involving the same judge in 2014 when she sent a text message directly to him about moving a hearing date.

"There's absolutely no excuse," Parks Miller said about that text message. "I can't try to defend that."

Parks Miller said that both communications were not intended to inappropriately influence the judge's opinion. The email about the release of the rapist was intended to correct an oversight by the judge at 4 p.m. on a Friday when she saw no other available remedies, she said.

Two additional errors to which Parks Miller admitted came with the caveat that she would have challenged them as violations, but her attorney missed a deadline to file her response.

By missing the deadline, she was "defaulted," or it was assumed that she stipulated to the allegations by the office of disciplinary counsel.

Those cases involved recovered fragments of two text messages from her phone that were sent to judges who had pending cases in front of them. But the meaning of each fragment was not clear, Parks Miller said.

While she had to stipulate to the mistakes, Parks Miller said the first fragment appeared to be an inside joke with a staff member that would have not been understood by the judge who also was on the string. The message also came after the defendant had been found guilty, she said.

In the second fragment, which contained the word 'restitution," Parks Miller said that too likely was a joke after an attorney crashed into a juror's vehicle. She said someone else in her office handled issues of restitution.

The other charge levied by the disciplinary office concerned a Facebook page Parks Miller created for the fictitious "Britney Bella," which featured stock photos of "attractive, buxom, scantily-clad" young women in order to enhance the page's allure, according to the office of disciplinary counsel.

She sent notification of the fake account to her staff with a note that it would allow them "to befriend people and snoop."

The creation of the account represented conduct that was "dishonest and deceitful," according to the complaint filed against Parks Miller.

But Parks Miller said she started the page in 2011 because Pennsylvania State Police don't have access to social media because of their restrictive firewall and she wanted to be alerted when three particular stores in town held giveaways for dangerous bath salts.

Police were making undercover buys from the three stores but the stores also alerted followers to promotions online, which she said she wanted to monitor.

As it happened, two people with cases filed by the district attorney's office became "friends" with the page, which could have allowed the office access to information that otherwise would have been private. But Parks Miller said there was absolutely no communication with those defendants and that her office was unaware that they had open cases.

In all, Parks Miller said the disciplinary case against her unearthed 84 text messages involving judges but only four involved violations.

James Kutz, Parks Miller's attorney, repeatedly noted that the cell phone evidence used in the disciplinary action stemmed from a "politically-motivated" search warrant that later was determined to be defective.

The resulting search of her phone for evidence in a forgery case did not turn up any evidence and in fact, Kutz said, she was found by a grand jury not to have forged a judge's signature.

Defense attorneys made hey of her cell phone logs, which were released publicly before a complete analysis was performed, by claiming the communications jeopardized their cases.

In the end, when the analysis was complete, Kutz said, there were no messages in the two most highly-cited cases including one for a defendant "Jalene McClure," who was convicted of seriously injuring an infant in her daycare.

McClure's defense attorney, Bernie Cantorna, had alleged inappropriate communication between Parks Miller and the judge overseeing McClure's case, but none was found, Kutz said.

Nonetheless, McClure has been granted a new trial over an unrelated issue, Kutz said.

Cantorna eventually ran against Parks Miller and won her office.

Parks Miller has long alleged that the attacks against her, including the "bogus" search warrant, were politically motivated.

She testified Monday that her tough stance against easy plea deals earned her quick enemies among defense attorneys, including Cantorna.

One of the witnesses who testified on behalf of Parks Miller on Monday was famed Philadelphia civil attorney Thomas Kline, who currently represents the parents of Tim Piazza.

Piazza died in an alleged hazing incident at Penn State last year and Parks Miller filed criminal charges against two groups of fraternity brothers.

Kline dropped a nugget during his testimony that wasn't previously known about why Cantorna had asked for the Attorney General's office to take over prosecution in the Piazza case. Kline said Cantorna told him that he had previously provided legal advice to one of the defendants in the case.

Kline spoke glowingly of Parks Miller's handling of the Piazza case and said she "has a lot to offer" as an attorney.

After leaving the courtroom, Kline said Parks Miller had stood up for the Piazzas, and "today, she needed someone to stand up for her."

Other witnesses included former acting Attorney General Bruce Castor, who works as Parks Miller's private attorney, and a sister of a homicide victim killed last year.

Kutz asked the committee to consider fair sanctions that take everything into account.

Anthony Czuchnicki, from the office of disciplinary counsel, did not make a specific recommendation for discipline but said Parks Miller had "failed in her obligation," by showing a lack of sound judgment in communicating with judges.

"She has publicly harmed the reputation of the judicial system," he said, and asked that a message be sent that such conduct "was inappropriate and will not be tolerated."

Disciplinary complaint against Stacy Parks Miller, former Centre County DA by PennLive on Scribd
By Lauren E. Martin

Like many military spouses, I often find that a simple "yes" or "no" question becomes a complicated guessing game.

Lauren E. Martin

Take, for example, a wedding RSVP addressed to me and my husband. He may be available on that date, but he could just as easily be on a submarine or moving to a new duty station. Anything is possible.

A military family moves, on the average, every two to three years. As a wife, I love my husband.

As a military spouse, I'm prepared to support my service member. But as a lawyer, following my spouse presents some very practical challenges as a result of the requirement to obtain a state license to practice

Women lawyers are disproportionately affected: 92.5 percent of all military spouses are women and 95 percent of military spouse attorneys are women.

Many of the women who have maintained a legal career have done so by living apart from their husbands, remaining in one jurisdiction while their spouses are stationed in various states and countries. My husband and I currently live 2,800 miles apart for that reason.

Since 2011, the Military Spouse JD Network ("MSJDN") has been working towards a military spouse attorney licensing accommodation in each state.

Today, 29 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands have adopted military spouse licensing accommodations, making it easier and less expensive for qualified lawyer spouses to relocate and retain their ability to practice law.

I emphasize the word "qualified." A military spouse licensing accommodation is not a back door for attorneys to stay in a jurisdiction forever without taking a bar exam.

In fact, under the MSJDN model rule (and the rules adopted by multiple other jurisdictions), military spouses would only be eligible for this licensing accommodation if they have passed at least one bar exam, have not failed this jurisdiction's bar exam within the past five years, and are in good standing in every jurisdiction in which they are admitted.

Additionally, this license to practice law would only be valid while the service member is stationed in the jurisdiction.

It is disappointing that Pennsylvania - my home state -- has not yet adopted a military spouse licensing accommodation.

The American Bar Association recommended licensing accommodations and other support for military spouse attorneys.

The Pennsylvania Bar Association and the Commission on Women in the Profession supported this eesolution. Multiple county bar associations, Pennsylvania law schools, and legislators also stand in support of a military spouse license accommodation.

Why shouldn't Pennsylvania be the next state to make it easier for military families to stay intact during their service?

It makes no sense to welcome military spouse attorneys only after their spouses retire or to break up families who are already making sacrifices for our common good. While the cost to the state would be minimal, the difference this kind of reciprocity would make for the financial and personal well-being of military families who may be stationed here would be phenomenal.

I admit I'm biased. I love Pennsylvania. I was born and raised in Lancaster County, met my husband and all of my closest friends here, and our families are here. I took the bar exam here because this is my home and I love being part of our state's vibrant legal community.

Other military spouse attorneys may not have the opportunity to settle down here and make it home forever, but I want so badly for those spouses to experience the same kindness and professionalism of our community that I have enjoyed, for however long the military needs them here.

Lauren E. Martin is an attorney with Pyfer, Reese, Straub, Gray & Farhat, P.C. in Lancaster. Her husband, LTJG Jared Martin, is a submariner in the U.S. Navy.
House investigators determined that state Rep. Nick Miccarelli, accused of domestic violence by two women, violated House policies on sexual harassment and workplace violence.

So why has the Delaware County Republican not been sanctioned?

No funding stripped. No staff removed. No committee assignments changed or eliminated. No resolution introduced to call for his expulsion.

House GOP leaders say they did take a significant -- and unprecedented -- step of calling on Miccarelli, a Republican, to resign. To the outside world, said House Republican spokesman Steve Miskin, it may sound hollow but for legislative leaders to call for a member's resignation is "an extraordinary step."

It's not sufficient, says the Harrisburg political consultant who, along with state Rep. Tarah Toohil, R-Luzerne County, filed a complaint with the House accusing Miccarelli of sexual assault and domestic violence when each was dating him.

"How they are choosing to handle this is an affront to victims everywhere and Exhibit A in why women do not come forward for help. Or when they do, why it takes years to build the courage to," the consultant said.

PennLive is withholding the name of the woman in keeping with a policy not to identify victims of sexual abuse without their consent.

Miccarelli has ignored the leaders' call for him to step down from the House seat he was first elected to in 2008. He has vehemently denied the women's accusations. The Dauphin County district attorney's office is investigating the allegations, but no charges have been filed.

House Republican leaders have said they are limited in what they can do because Miccarelli is an elected official. Miskin indicated the situation would be more clear cut if Miccarelli had been an employees, rather than a lawmaker.

A spokesman for House Speaker Mike Turzai emphasized his boss was one of the voices to call for Miccarelli to resign. Spokesman Neal Lesher said the speaker "still believes that is the best recourse. Absent that, we don't have the authority to single-handedly remove him from office."

While House GOP lawyers found that Miccarelli had violated caucus policies, Lesher said, "Breaking a House policy and being charged or found guilty of a crime are different thresholds. In no way am I making light of the allegations here, we did find them credible so we're not making light of the allegations but there are still due process rights that are afforded individuals."

Lesher repeated, "We still stand by our position that we believe the best course of action would have been for Nick to resign."

Frank Keel, a spokesman for Miccarelli, said the reason the House hasn't acted is because "it's become increasingly obvious to the vast majority of the members that the two accusers' allegations lack credibility. Neither woman has yet to produce any evidence whatsoever to support their stories. Why? Because none exists, that's why."

House Republican lawyers who investigated the complaint, in their report described the women's allegations as "extremely serious" and "credible" and referred them to law enforcement for further review.

It's not clear if the matter also was turned over to the House Ethics Committee.

Per House rules, Lesher said ethics committee investigations are confidential, including whether a matter was even referred to that committee.

"I would not be able to comment on any current or potential investigations," he said.

Lesher didn't directly answer whether Turzai sees a need for caucus policies to be strengthened with regard to sanctions for caucus policy violations

"We are continuously reviewing our policies to ensure a safe working environment for employees of the House,'' he said.

The women, through their lawyers Terry Mutchler and Charlie Lyons, argue that the call for a resignation is insufficient.

"Our clients went through this grueling process," Mutchler said. "While we very much appreciate that the House took initial quick action [in responding to the women's complaint] and called on him to step down. It does beg the question: Now what? ... I think that this moment in Pennsylvania history demands more than a call for a resignation."

Kristen Houser, spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, said she finds the House's handling of this situation perplexing.

"Every arm of that body is putting forth legislation to make the situation better and easier to report but if you don't see action or follow through [when a credible sexual or workplace harassment case arises], that's one of the big discouragements why victims don't report," she said. "They don't believe anything will come of it."

In response to the handful of #MeToo cases that have come to light over the past six months, Gov. Tom Wolf has called for better laws as have members of all four caucuses when it comes to workplace and sexual harassment rules.

Miccarelli, while not agreeing to step down, has chosen to drop his bid for re-election. By completing his current term, he will have met the necessary threshold to ensure himself and his wife to become entitled to a lifetime health, dental, vision, prescription, and long-term care insurance package.

Houser said there would be "real outrage" had any other public employer been presented with credible allegations against an employee and then allowed the employee to stick around until they were eligible for such benefits.
Pittsburgh will join 68 other cities around the world in City Nature Challenge 2018, an annual competition to explore nature in urban settings and document the species encountered, Friday through Monday, April 27-30.

It will be the first Pennsylvania city to join the event, which began in 2016 between San Francisco and Los Angeles, and expanded to 16 U.S. cities last year.

Bringing Pittsburgh into the challenge are Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, Allegheny Land Trust, the National Aviary, the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania and the Animal Rescue League Shelter and Wildlife Center.

The challenge asks current and aspiring community scientists, nature and science fans, and people of all ages and science backgrounds to observe and submit pictures of plants, animals and fungi using the free app iNaturalist.

More than 4,000 "community scientists" across the U.S. contributed more than 125,000 observations of more than 8,500 species to science, according to Community Science Senior Manager Lila Higgins.

Participants find any plant, animal, fungus, slime mold, or other evidence of life like scat, fur, tracks, shells or carcasses; take a photo of what they find; note the location; and share those observations. The sharing can be done through the iNaturalist app.

Results will be announced May 7.

For more information, visit the City Nature Challenge website.
Ralph Goodale, Federal Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, speaks during a news conference in Toronto on Monday, April 23, 2018. Nine people died and 16 others were injured when a van mounted a sidewalk and struck multiple pedestrians along a stretch of one of Toronto's busiest streets, authorities said Monday, calling it "a horrific attack." THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
Armenian people a march to attend a memorial service at the monument to the victims of mass killings by Ottoman Turks, to commemorate the 103rd anniversary of the massacre in Yerevan, Armenia, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. Tuesday's commemoration of the massacre that began 103 years ago Aiviewed by Armenians and many historians as genocide Ai comes after the country's prime minister resigned in a surprise move following days of anti-government protests. (Tigran Mehrabyan/PAN Photo via AP)
Emergency services search the rubble of houses destroyed overnight by an earthquake, in Samsat, southeastern Turkey, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. Turkish officials say dozens were slightly injured after an earthquake in southeastern Turkey. The earthquake struck Samsat village in the province of Adiyaman early Tuesday at 3.34 a.m. local time (0034 GMT). The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a magnitude of 5.2 at 10 kilometers deep. (Mahir Alan/Depo Photos via AP)
This photo provide by China's Xinhua News Agency shows the fire accident site of a karaoke bar in Yingde City, south China's Guangdong Province, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. Police in the southern Chinese city have caught a man suspected of setting the fire at the three-story building Tuesday that killed 18 people and injured five others. (Deng Hua/Xinhua News Agency via AP)
Perryville soccer coach Jerry Fulton has been approached about how good his team is, because according to the results, they have to be pretty good.Perryville claimed first place in the Hillsboro 

The St. Vincent cross country teams made a statement. The boys finished first, while the girls took second place at the Perryville High School Invitational on Tuesday in the Perryville City Park.It 

St. Vincent football has asserted itself the past few years when it comes to matchups with their crosstown rival Perryville. The Indians had won three straight contests against the Pirates. St. 

Roth to help raise money for cancer society During last years Perryville homecoming game, the football coaches donned pink hats and pink pants in honor of a noble cause. They hope to do so again this year.Perryville football head coach 

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 

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ExxonMobil discriminated against largest selling newspaper in Guyana on drillship visit due to unfavorable coverage

By Kaieter News



GEORGETOWN

Petroleumworld 04 24 2018 Last Saturday saw ExxonMobil taking six reporters on an all-day trip to the drillship Noble Bob Douglas, the vessel that is currently operating offshore Guyana in waters explored by the oil company. Kaieteur News was ignored.



It was not even made aware of the visit. The exploration is currently ongoing in the Liza One block.



News of the visit began to circulate ahead of the date. No one could say, at the time, who were selected, because there were no media invitations.



Usually, interventions by companies to solicit media coverage would be made to the respective media houses. In other cases such requests would be made through the Guyana Press Association, which would then request the media houses to nominate a reporter.



Since only six were required, the press association would have shortlisted those media houses to travel to the drillship. However, the GPA was not involved. It was ignored by ExxonMobil, the party issuing the invitation.



The oil company is not enamoured with Kaieteur News. The newspaper has been critical of the contract signed between the Guyana Government and the oil company. On occasions there have been reports that angered the oil company.



Investigations revealed that the invitation was circulated between people who have a well-established relationship with ExxonMobil. There was also talk that the people who visited the ship were from those who had previously been selected for a research course at the University of California, La Jolla.



These research courses had been offered for some three years. Some of those who went were Iva Wharton, Denis Chabrol and Bert Wilkinson. But on Saturday there were people who had never gone on the course. They included Marcelle Thomas of Stabroek News; Shunza Samuels of National Communications Network and Christopher Chapwanya of Oil Now.



The others who were taken to the drillship were Bert Wilkinson of Associated Press; Denis Chabrol of Demerara Waves, an online media outfit, and Royden James of Nightly News, a local television station.



Kaieteur News, the largest selling newspaper in the country was ignored.



There was no invitation to the publication although one of its reporters had been selected for the University of California programme. Petroleumworld.com



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massive scale of corruption and money laundering in Guyana during Jagdeo era -SARA



By Demerarawaves



GEORGETOWN

Petroleumworld 04 24 2018

The Head of the State Assets Recovery Agency , Professor Clive Thomas says evidence from international law enforcement agencies have revealed a massive scale of corruption and money laundering during the period that Bharrat Jagdeo served as Guyana's President.

Documents received from external Law Enforcement Agencies such as Interpol, Homeland Security and CFATF (Caribbean Financial Action Task Force) have shown the massive scale of corruption and money laundering during the late 2000s to the mid 2010s, Thomas said in his letter to Opposition Chief Whip, Gail Teixeira dated April 19, 2018.

Jagdeo served as President from 1999 to 2011.

Responding to Teixeira's letter in which she stated that Jagdeo would boycott Thursday's symbolic anti-corruption walk organised by SARA, the SARA Director also suggested that the People's Progressive Party's (PPP) has failed to submit formal complaints about alleged corruption by functionaries of the David Granger-led administration. I also acknowledge receipt of the complaints in your letter. Several of them have been reported in the media, but contrary to popular political belief, SARA does not and cannot initiate investigations

without first receiving a complaint such as yours, in keeping with international best practices processes designed to ensure transparency, fairness and legal appropriateness, he said.

Professor Thomas noted that SARA was established in 2017 as a follow-on from Guyana, through Jagdeo, becoming a signatory to the United Nations Convention on Corruption in 2008, but the then government had done nothing much to set up the required institutions. Little, if anything, institutionally was done between 2008 and the mid 2010s to ensure corruption is everybody's business until the SARA Act of April 4, 2017, just over a year ago. This took place in spite of numerous annual reports over the last decade made by local, as well as external bodies like the United Nations Drugs and Crime Office, the US State Department in its International Narcotics Control Strategy Report and annual Transparency International reports. These have depicted Guyana as one of the most corrupt nations in the world, Thomas told Teixeira.

The SARA Chief informed Teixeira, who is former presidential advisor on governance, that SARA, an independent agency, does not and cannot pursue criminal cases or put individuals in jail. Noting that that is the work of the Special Organised Crime Unit, Guyana Police Force and the Director of Public Prosecutions, Thomas said recovering state assets takes a long time. SARA's mandate is to recover State assets through civil recovery and not through criminal recovery. In many cases, some of which are mentioned in your letter, SARA has to await criminal proceedings which take precedence, before engaging in civil recovery, making the life cycle of civil recovery delayed.

While SARA welcomed the Opposition Leader's support to fight corruption in keeping with the Inter-American Convention Against Corruption, the United Nations Convention Against Corruption and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Thomas said his agency was greatly disappointed that Jagdeo would not participate in the walk with members of the diplomatic community, religious leaders, the private sector and several civil society organisations.

SARA looks forward to reducing and eliminating corruption through public awareness efforts such as the first ever symbolic walk. There will be many other public engagements with civil society, schools, ministries, the private sector, as well as religious and community organisations. The goal is to repel procurement fraud, stolen state assets, corruption so that, Guyanese of all walks of life, can be assured their roads, national patrimony, gold and other state assets are used for the betterment of all Guyanese, he said.

The SARA Director thanked Teixeira for publicising the march through her timely response and public engagement.

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ExxonMobil's Noble Bob Douglas drillship with Guyanese workers employed onboard, hail emphasis on safety



By Demerarawaves



GEORGETOWN

Petroleumworld 04 24 2018

NOBLE BOB DOUGLAS: A drill-ship that is a home away from home for not only the mostly foreign workers, who are currently, searching for more oil offshore Guyana, but also for the 14 Guyanese who have clinched jobs either directly with Noble or through sub-contracting arrangements for catering and logistics.

Either way, their local training and experience at institutions such as the Guyana Sugar Corporation's Port Mourant Training School, Government Technical Institute, Carnegie School of Home Economics or the University of Guyana have moulded them for the opportunities they seized when advertisements had been placed in the local media.

ExxonMobil and Noble officials are impressed with the high quality of Guyanese human resources who are almost routinely sent to Trinidad or the United States for additional training or rigorous safety orientation exercises before they return to work either on Noble Bob Douglas or Stena Carron.

Whether they are working in the kitchen, at the heliport or in logistics support, the mostly young Guyanese are very happy that their applications were successful and they are part of a family-oriented network whose common objective is to find and produce oil in an ultra-safe environment.

From the you wake up in the morning you hear the word safety. It is what is the most important thing on this ship, said Marlon Humphrey who hails from Canje, Berbice. He formerly worked as a machinist in his hometown.

In a briefing session with workers in the presence of visiting journalists, the Noble Rig Master carried them through an almost militaristic segment.

No one is allowed to board any of the helicopters, operated by Bristow, to or from the vessel without being properly briefed in person and by video recording of all of the safety rules. Aboard the drill-ship, visitors are also briefed about safety on the vessel and can tour the vessel only if they are clad in overalls, gloves, eyewear and helmets.

Journalists were shown where exploratory drilling is being conducted and told about emergency safety mechanisms and procedures to shut off and seal the pipe to avoid oil spills.

Among the Guyanese aboard is a University of Guyana (UG)- trained Doctor Wilburg, who mans a the medical facility aboard the 755-foot long drill-ship that will also be responsible for the commercial pumping of oil from the Liza 1 reservoir. The work here is much much more quieter than what I was accustomed to working at the hospitals, she said. Wilburg can easily team up with foreign specialists via camera in case of an emergency until the patient is lifted off by helicopter to a hospital for emergency treatment.

After Noble Bob Douglas completes exploratory drilling at Sorubim, the vessel will move back to Liza to prepare the groundwork for first oil' in 2020- when Guyana will officially become the Caribbean's major oil producer, surpassing Trinidad and Tobago whose oil production has slumped to less than 100,000 barrels per day.

In case you are thinking that the Stabroek Block is located near Stabroek Market or just off the mouth of the Demerara River; not so! For instance the Noble Bob Douglas drill ship is located about 100 miles off Georgetown and the only way you can get there is by helicopter or ship. Then again, there is a 14 mile radius off-limits area so you will first have to get permission to enter that sea-space or land.

The drill-ship is kept in a virtually fixed position, even in bad weather, by sophisticated Global Positioning System and other related technologies. In contrast to a nearby supply vessel that was bouncing up and down the Atlantic Sea waves, the Noble Bob Douglas was barely moving while engineers continued to drill to a depth of more than 4,000 meters with the hope of finding more black gold.

Security was pretty tight with journalists being prohibited from taking photos aboard for the most part of the tour except the heliport. An ExxonMobil-assigned photographer was also fitted with a tracker to monitor his movements.

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Venezuelan deportations from Trinidad & Tobago angers Amnesty Int'l



By Rhondor Dowlat



PORT SPAIN

Petroleumworld 04 24 2018

Amnesty International's Americas director Erika Guevara Rosas has written to the Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley criticising the way in which 82 Venezuelan nationals were repatriated to their home country on Saturday.

Rosas' letter came one day after a non-governmental organisation in Venezuela said it was going to lodge an official report on behalf of the 82 Venezuelans who were repatriated and as international outcry over the act intensified.

In the letter, Rosas requested information about the procedures followed by the T&T Government in carrying out the deportation. She indicated that they have received information suggesting those returned did not do so voluntarily, contrary to National Security Minister Edmund Dillon's claims. In fact, she said they received information the deportees were presented with papers to sign in a language they do not understand, stating that they would return voluntarily.

As part of the Convention relating to the Status of the Refugees (1951 Refugee Convention) and its Protocol (1967), Trinidad and Tobago is obliged to fully protect the rights of those in need of international protection, Rosas said in her letter.

To do otherwise implies a breach of international law and it is regrettable that your Government has chosen to ignore its obligations in a way incompatible with international human rights standards.

Among other things, she said the deportees were forcibly returned without an individualised assessment or having the opportunity to challenge or appeal their deportation orders, without having their legal options explained to them in a language they understand and without access to their lawyers or UNHCR, the actions of your Government have undermined due process, your Government's own policy on asylum, and your country's international human rights obligations. This cannot be repeated.

Rosas explained that mass deportations are prohibited under international law, as is the violation of the principles of non-refoulement, confidentiality, non-penalisation and the right to due process and judicial protection.

She disclosed that based on the information Amnesty International received, it appeared the T&T Government chose to ignore each one of these key protection principles.

Questions remain as to why a government that should protect refugees and asylum seekers as part of its international obligations offered confidential information to the Venezuelan authorities, and deported asylum seekers with open refugee claims back to their country where they may face torture or other grave human rights violations, Rosas told Rowley.

Trinidad and Tobago must guarantee the rights of the growing number of asylum seekers and refugees from Venezuela in need of international protection, whose hope for survival are increasingly in countries such as yours. To fail to do so is to ignore your country's commitment and international obligations to protecting human rights.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Assistant High Commissioner for Protection Volker Turk yesterday also expressed deep regret over the deportations. He described sending back those who applied for refugee status as a breach of international refugee law. He also said some of them were deported from T&T despite the UNHCR's request for access to them concerned and written interventions.

The forced return of this group is of great concern, Turk said.

UNHCR calls on Trinidad and Tobago to continue to abide by its international obligations as signatories to the 1951 Refugee Convention and other applicable international instruments that are incorporated into its official Refugee Policy, in particular the principle of non-return, known as non-refoulement, and Article 31 of the Convention which requests signatories not to impose penalties, on account of their illegal entry or presence to people who are in need of international protection.

UN Resident Co-ordinator Richard Blewitt meanwhile called on Government to speed up work on the asylum/refugee policy he said has been at the Attorney General's (AG) office for the past 12 months.

The Government has worked on the policy quite diligently and in the last 12 months. It is now at the AG's office and the final draft is almost ready to go to Parliament and I will urge the Government to take this moment to put this legislation in place. The Opposition must support it, Blewitt said.

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Canada moving oil one truckload at a time

By Rod Nickel, Julie Gordon



WINNIPEG, Manitoba/VANCOUVER

Petroleumworld 04 24 2018

At an Alberta oil loading terminal, a convoy of big rigs are gearing up to haul Canadian crude oil hundreds of miles through bone dry fields across the U.S. border into Montana, where the oil will be transferred to pipelines and rail cars headed south and west.

Trucks loaded with crude are an increasingly common sight at the border. Production has risen in the world's fifth largest producer but full pipelines and a rail car shortage have made it difficult for drillers to ship oil out of Canada.

Some oil producers are feeling the pressure from customers. Alberta-based Gear Energy Ltd pumps about 7,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day, and recently had an Asian customer walk away from an agreement to buy crude after failing to secure a way to ship oil to the West Coast.

We've never had more inbound calls looking for heavy oil, said Gear Chief Executive Officer Ingram Gillmore. And we have never had more challenges actually getting it to them. It is very frustrating.

Production in Canada rose 8 percent in the last year to a record 4.2 million barrels per day (bpd) and is forecast to keep rising. Over the next five years, OPEC production is expected to only grow modestly, leaving the bulk of forecasted global supply increases to the United States and Canada.

But Canada's oil industry faces significant challenges, not the least of which are high production costs, remote oil fields and, perhaps most pressing, the shipping bottlenecks. So significant are the problems that a number of oil majors have withdrawn from Canada.

No easy solution is on the horizon. Plans for new export pipelines are running into opposition from environmentalists, Aboriginal groups and rival provinces. Most recently, Kinder Morgan Canada hit the brakes on its Trans Mountain expansion, and TransCanada Corp has not yet fully committed to its Keystone XL project.

Frustrated and fearful of missing out on the rebound in prices, drillers are increasingly relying on trucks to move oil to the market. Crude exports from Canada by road nearly tripled from 2015 to 2017, and continued to rise in the first two months of 2018, according to StatsCan data provided to Reuters. (For graphic, see tmsnrt.rs/2qDogMD )

However, a truck can only carry 200 barrels of oil, compared with 60,000 barrels in one unit train, or nearly 600,000 per day on the Keystone Pipeline - the equivalent of 3,000 trucks. Each one of those trucks needs a driver and enough fuel to carry crude over long distances. Moving crude by truck is at least 10 times more expensive on a mile-for-mile basis compared with rail or pipeline.

We have demand for 50,000 bpd and we can move about a fifth of that, said Jarrett Zielinski, chief executive of Torq Energy Logistics, an Alberta company that owns rail loading facilities and 275 trucks.

TRUCKIN'

Rising opposition to pipelines is hitting Alberta, the landlocked province where most Canadian oil is produced.

The fight over the Trans Mountain expansion, which would nearly triple the capacity of the 1,150-kilometre (715 mile) line from Alberta to a British Columbia port, has engulfed two provinces and the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

British Columbia is opposed to the project, which prompted Kinder Morgan to suspend work on the line. Alberta's premier threatened to cut fuel deliveries to its neighbouring province in retaliation.

As for trains, during certain months, rail operators face political pressure to prioritize movement of agricultural products. Rail operators want long-term deals from shippers, but oil companies prefer to have the flexibility to shift to pipelines if space becomes available.

Exports by road rose from just over 17,000 barrels per month in 2015 to more than 51,000 in 2017, according to data Statistics Canada provided to Reuters. In the first two months of 2018, road exports surged to an average of 180,000 a month.

By contrast, rail exports averaged 4 million barrels a month in 2017.

Using trucks allows producers to reach northern U.S. rail loading sites, where there is more capacity and rates are cheaper, Zielinski said.

Monthly demand fluctuates based on the discount for western Canadian crude versus the U.S. benchmark. When the discount is above $20, oil producers will pay to haul crude up to five hours, more than twice as far as usually makes economic sense, Zielinski said.

However, the trucking industry's capacity to move more crude is limited by a severe driver shortage in Western Canada, said Andrew Barnes, director of compliance and regulatory affairs at Alberta Motor Transportation Association.

This is not unique to Canada. Booming production in west Texas has strained pipeline capacity, increasing reliance on trucks to deliver to injection points. But ongoing pipeline construction in Texas should alleviate the glut in the next year, while Canada's future in less clear.

The uptick in truck transport also raises safety questions. There were 205 road accidents involving crude tanker trucks in Canada from 2010 through 2016, which killed 10 people, according to Transport Canada data. There were nine accidents involving crude trains, though one was the Lac Megantic, Quebec disaster in 2013, where a train hauling 72-crude cars derailed and exploded, killing 47.

RAIL SLOW TO RETURN

When the Canadian oil discount hit a four-year high at $31 in January, Alberta oil companies started calling Ceres Global Ag Corp, a grain and fertilizer handling facility on the Canada-U.S. border at Northgate, Saskatchewan.

Desperate for access, companies were pushing Ceres to accelerate long-term plans to add crude hauling, starting with a C$1 million ($795 million) facility to transfer crude from trucks to rail and onto the BNSF system.

Every day they have fewer options of where to take it, said Ceres CEO Robert Day, who said his company is working to get to the point where they can load oil. We're going to work real hard to make that happen in 2018.

The bottlenecks are frustrating for Canadian oil producers because heavy crude is in great demand from U.S. Gulf of Mexico refineries, which are designed to process it, and have faced shortages of Venezuelan and Mexican heavy crude.

Large producers tend to store oil until they have enough volume to fill a train, but for smaller producers who cannot shut production and lack storage capacity, trucks may be the only option, said a Calgary trader.

At the end of the day, you cannot put it back in the ground - it has to go somewhere, he said. If your alternative is a camel or a donkey, then that's the alternative you have to go with.

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Odebrecht Mexico's unit vows to fight sanctions imposed by Mexico





By Reuters



MEXICO CITY

Petroleumworld 04 24 2018

The Mexican unit of Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht said on Monday it will fight the sanctions announced last week by the Mexican government, dismissing them as unfair and unjustified.

Mexico banned federal institutions and state governments from doing business with Odebrecht for 2-1/2 years and fined two units of the companies around $30 million each.

The government did not detail what was behind the decisions, but officials said they were related to probes into suspected corruption between the firm and Mexican state oil company Pemex.

In an open letter in the Mexican newspaper Excelsior, Odebrecht Mexico said the sanctions imposed were completely unfounded and unfair and it would fight them with all legal means.

Odebrecht has spent the past few years at the center of one of the largest corruption scandals in Latin America, and has admitted paying bribes from Peru to Panama and Mexico.

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Mexican immigration control and NAFTA maybe tie-in by trump





By Doina Chiacu and Anthony Esposito



WASHINGTON/MEXICO CITY

Petroleumworld 04 24 2018

U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to make Mexican immigration control a condition of a new NAFTA trade deal on Monday, even as ministers from Canada, the United States and Mexico readied a fresh push to finalize a revamped accord this week.

Mexico, whose laws on immigration are very tough, must stop people from going through Mexico and into the U.S. We may make this a condition of the new NAFTA Agreement, Trump wrote in a Twitter post. Our Country cannot accept what is happening!

Trump made similar comments linking the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and immigration when a caravan' of migrants from Central America moved through Mexico earlier this month. They must stop the big drug and people flows, or I will stop their cash cow, NAFTA, Trump wrote in an April 1 Twitter post.

However, discussion of immigration controls has not been a part of formal negotiations on the new NAFTA accord, and talks by all accounts - including Trump's - are progressing.

Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray dismissed Trump's comment in his own Twitter post. Mexico decides its immigration policy in a sovereign manner, he said, and it would be unacceptable to condition the renegotiation of NAFTA.

Before Trump's tweet, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said he hoped for agreement soon on a reworked NAFTA.

Speaking in Germany, Nieto said differences between the parties could be overcome to revamp the 24-year-old accord, which underpins some $1.2 trillion in annual trilateral trade.

Canada's Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland told a news conference in Toronto that she would be traveling to Washington on Tuesday to meet with Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.

We have for the past few weeks been involved in intensive negotiations. This is a phase of very, very energetic work by Canada and we will be continuing that at the ministerial level in Washington, said Freeland.

Guajardo and others have said a NAFTA deal could be possible by early May, and officials hailed progress made on the key issue of new automotive sector rules last week.

Even so, differences still remain on U.S. demands to change dispute resolution mechanisms, and other issues.

The U.S. still needs to be more flexible so there are conditions to create jobs in Mexico, the United States and Canada, said Juan Pablo Castanon, head of the Consejo Coordinador Empresarial, the umbrella group representing Mexican private sector interests at the NAFTA talks.

It was too early to say when a deal could come, he added.

A Mexican source close to the talks, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a deal was unlikely for Tuesday, adding that two to three days of work between negotiators and ministers were still needed.

DWINDLING CARAVAN

Since peaking at about 1,500 people, the so-called caravan of migrants has dwindled under pressure from Trump and Mexican authorities, who vowed to separate those migrants with a right to stay in Mexico from those who did not.

One group of several hundred migrants could reach the U.S. border by Tuesday or Wednesday.

If members of the caravan' enter the country illegally, they will be referred for prosecution for illegal entry in accordance with existing law, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen M. Nielsen said in a statement on Monday.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement he had directed officials to beef up the numbers of prosecutors and immigration judges at the border to deal with any increased workload from the caravan.



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Brazil CNV securities regulator sets May 18 as Eletropaulo live auction bid deadline





By Reuters



BRASILIA

Petroleumworld 04 24 2018

Brazilian securities regulator CVM has set a May 18 deadline for companies to bid for Eletropaulo Metropolitana SA ( ELPL3.SA ) in a live auction on Brazil's stock exchange, the company said.

Eletropaulo shares jumped 6.3 percent to trade at 30.78 reais as European groups Iberdrola SA ( IBE.MC ) and Enel SpA ( ENEI.MI ) have engaged in a bidding war for Brazil's largest power distribution company.

Competing bids will be presented to the Sao Paulo stock exchange on May 18, the company said in securities filings over the weekend, with bids to be delivered by 4 p.m. local time (3.00 p.m. ET), according to Brazilian stock exchange operator B3 SA.

Three competitors - Brazil's Neoenergia SA, controlled by Spain's Iberdrola; Enel and Brazilian rival Energisa SA ( ENGI11.SA ) - have already bid.

Late on Friday, Neoenergia bid 29.40 reais per Eletropaulo share, topping Enel's offer of 28 reais per share.

Enel is ready to raise its bid, Newspaper Valor Economico reported on Monday, citing sources.

Eletropaulo's board announced in a securities filing later on Monday it has decided to keep a proposed follow-on offer to raise 1.5 billion reais ($439.51 million) as announced last week.

Eletropaulo plans to issue the new shares to reduce its debt.

Enel declined to comment.

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No chance of export tax as Paraguay's ruling Colorado party keep strong presence in Senate





By Hugo Bronstein and Daniela Desantis



ASUNCION

Petroleumworld 04 24 2018

Paraguay's business-friendly ruling party performed better than expected in Sunday's Senate election, losing fewer seats than polls had projected and ensuring strict fiscal policies while lessening chances of a tax hike on the key soy sector.

Farmers in the world's No. 4 soybean exporter had feared that the new Senate might approves a measure, defeated last year, that would slap a 10 percent levy on exports.

Surveys had projected that the ruling Colorado Party, whose presidential candidate Mario Marito Abdo won by a 3.7-point margin over his center-left opponent, could lose up to seven of the 20 seats it currently controls in the 45-member Senate.

But with 97.33 percent of the Senate vote officially counted on Monday, the Colorado Party looked to have lost only three.

It appears that the shift toward the political left that had been projected did not happen, political analyst and former member of Congress Sebastian Acha said in a telephone interview.

Abdo kept a strong presence in the Senate, he added.

Abdo, a 46-year-old former senator who campaigned on an anti-corruption platform and is set to be sworn in as president in mid-August, beat his main rival Efrain Alegre, a lawyer from the center-left GANAR coalition. But his margin of victory was much smaller than had been projected in polls.

Outgoing President Horacio Cartes had vetoed the proposed soybean export tax, and Abdo is also against the measure, which the business community feared would slow growth of the country soy sector.

Abdo was expected to keep most of Cartes' policies unchanged.

Credit ratings agency Fitch in a statement kept Paraguay's outlook at positive, considering its opinion that Abdo would maintain Cartes' fiscal discipline. The agency said it projected that Paraguay's recent trend of robust growth and diversification will continue.

Moody's said that although the presidential election result was much tighter than anticipated, it expected Abdo's government to broadly maintain the previous administration's policies.

Paraguay has a strong track record of fiscally conservative policies, supporting our view that the country will keep low debt burdens, Moody's analyst Samar Maziad said.

Results of Sunday's election of members of the lower house of Congress, where the Colorado Party currently has 46 of the chamber's 80 seats, are expected to be released next month.

Petroleumworld.com





Story by Hugo Bronstein and Daniela Desantis; Editing by James Dalgleish from Reuters.



reuters.com / 04 23 2018
Chevron's Venezuela arrested workers could face treason charge

Los Angeles Time



Chevron employees, Carlos Luis Algarra, refining expert and Rene Vasquez, procurement advisor were detained in Venezuela last week when they refused to sign a supply contract written by PDVSA executives under an emergency decree - which skips the competitive bidding process, according to a half dozen sources close to the case.

By Marianna Parraga and Alexandra Ulmer



HOUSTON/CARACAS

Petroleumworld 04 24 2018

Two Chevron Corp. employees detained in Venezuela last week could be charged with treason for refusing to sign a parts contract for a joint venture with state-owned oil company PDVSA, according to two sources familiar with draft charges against the U.S. firm's executives.

The arrests, by national intelligence agents, marked the first at a Western oil firm in Venezuela and represent a dramatic escalation of growing tensions between PDVSA and foreign companies over control of supply contracts, the sources told Reuters.

The widening dispute could worsen operational chaos that has caused the OPEC nation's oil output to plunge by 23 percent, or 450,000 barrels per day, since October.

These detentions are going to accelerate the operational crisis, another source with knowledge of Chevron's operations told Reuters. Procurement could end up in paralysis if nobody wants to take the risk of signing or authorizing anything.

The draft treason charges - seen by Chevron lawyers last week, the two sources said - raised concern that the oil major could get caught in the crossfire between Washington and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who accuses the U.S. government of sabotaging the economy to topple his administration. The United States has imposed sanctions on senior members of Maduro's government and PDVSA.

The two Chevron employees were jailed when they refused to sign a supply contract written by PDVSA executives under an emergency decree - which skips the competitive bidding process, according to a half dozen sources close to the case. Such decrees have been cited by Venezuela prosecutors as a means of extracting bribes in some recent PDVSA corruption cases.

The Chevron employees balked when the parts were listed at more than double their market price in a contract worth several million dollars, one of the sources told Reuters. The workers oversaw operations and procurement at Petropiar, an oil upgrading project co-owned by PDVSA and Chevron to transform Orinoco Belt's extra heavy crude into an exportable product.

Venezuela's national intelligence service, Sebin, arrested the Chevron workers, Carlos Algarra and Rene Vasquez, in front of stunned co-workers in a raid of Chevron's office in Puerto La Cruz and the upgrader on April 16.

Venezuelan authorities have yet to comment on the arrest of the men, both Venezuelans, and no charges against them have been made public.

The Venezuela public prosecutor's office declined to comment, and PDVSA did not respond to several requests for comment.

The arrests follow a purge that has seen more than 80 executives at PDVSA and its suppliers jailed for alleged corruption as the state firm's new chief, Major General Manuel Quevedo, has sought to stamp his authority on the sector - the financial lifeblood of Venezuela's unraveling socialist government.

Tensions between PDVSA and foreign oil companies have steadily risen since Quevedo took charge in November and appointed military officers who had little or no oil industry experience to senior jobs.

Foreign firms have pushed for a greater say in procurement to combat inefficiencies and graft, oil industry sources said, but disputes over governance standards have caused operational delays, raising tensions over Venezuela's falling oil output.

In February, the Petropiar upgrader had been temporarily halted because of problems scheduling its exports, and PDVSA executives were concerned it could be forced to stop again due to lack of spare parts, one of the sources said.

When the imported furnace parts did not arrive on time, PDVSA executives blamed the Chevron employees for the delays, according to the two sources familiar with the draft charges.

The men are being represented by Chevron lawyers. The charges against them have not been formalized and could change, the two sources said.

A spokesman for Chevron declined to comment.

Venezuela defines treason as conspiring with foreign enemies against the state and proscribes punishment of up to 30 years in prison. Defendants are not entitled to due process protections afforded to those accused of other crimes, according to the statute.

As of Sunday, the two men were being held in the offices of the intelligence services in the coastal city of Barcelona, according to the two sources with knowledge of the draft charges.

CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE

The detentions highlight the growing difficulties for foreign oil firms amid a deepening economic crisis in Venezuela, allegations of rampant corruption, a power struggle within PDVSA and an increasingly authoritarian government.

Reuters reported earlier this month that Maduro had granted extra powers to Quevedo to create, annul or modify deals involving state energy company PDVSA and its subsidiaries.

Foreign oil firms, at a meeting in Caracas this month to discuss how to tackle production problems at joint ventures, expressed their concerns over procurement and governance to Quevedo, according to documents seen by Reuters.

PDVSA has a minimum 60 percent stake in joint ventures and has been slow to share operational control, despite large-scale staff resignations in recent months.

About 25,000 PDVSA workers resigned between the start of January 2017 and the end of January 2018, out of a workforce last officially reported at 146,000, Reuters reported last week. The resignations - including high-level professionals that are now almost impossible to replace - have only accelerated since Quevedo arrived, two dozen industry sources told Reuters.

Oil majors such as Chevron and Eni SpA, Total SA and Repsol SA still operate in Venezuela, home to the world's largest oil reserves. Although no foreign workers have been detained in the purge of the sector until last week, some companies have previously withdrawn expatriate workers over security concerns.

Many foreign workers' families are reluctant to stay in Venezuela for long periods, one executive from a company operating in the Orinoco Belt told Reuters.

We no longer have any guarantee that expatriates will not be sent to jail, the executive said.

Petroleumworld.com



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Wilmington Trust Co. headquarters on Rodney Square was an anchor of what is now the city's half-empty corporate headquarters district. Read more

Is it a crime  should bosses go to prison  when bankers wreck government-insured banks and impoverish their own shareholders by making lots of risky loans that don't get paid back?

Or is banking failure, at worst, a question for the civil courts, settled (if at all) by using a slice of a bank's remaining assets to pay partial damages to disappointed investors  who, after all, take a risk when they buy public companies?

One of the few federal criminal cases to arise out of the financial collapse of the late 2000s reached closing arguments in Wilmington on Monday, as Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Kravetz spent more than four hours summarizing five weeks of testimony in the case against four top executives of the former Wilmington Trust Corp.

That's after District Judge Richard G. Andrews spent most of the morning reading his own detailed instructions to the jury, urging them to vote carefully on each accusation against each executive, as the jurors read along on copies of Andrews' instructions.

Summarizing testimony by federal investigators and some of the bank executives' former underlings, Kravetz accused the bank bosses of fraud, conspiracy, and filing false Securities and Exchange Commission and bank regulatory reports. They lied  and "the lie mattered," as investors and regulators were fooled, losses grew in the darkness and finally overwhelmed the bank, he told the jury.

The government alleges that the bank's leaders hid the bank's dire financial condition, disguising hundreds of millions of dollars in sloppy loans to southern Delaware and shore developers  and insisting, instead, that the bank had few bad loans, and that the losses were declining  even as the recession of 2008-09 was deepening  so they could sell more stock and keep control of what was, at the time, the largest bank still based in the Philadelphia area.

In testimony from Joseph Terranova, one of several former Wilmington Trust bankers who have been found guilty of fraud since regulators pushed the troubled bank into a discount-priced takeover by M&T Bank of Buffalo in 2010, and in exhibits of internal bank correspondence, Kravetz and his fellow prosecutors sought to show that bankers led by then-Wilmington Trust President Robert V.A. Harra Jr. illegally instructed lower-ranking managers to misclassify bad loans so the bank would not have to disclose they were in danger of default.

Terranova testified in a plea bargain that could limit his sentence.

Harra's codefendants are former Wilmington Trust chief financial officer David Gibson, former chief credit officer William North, and former controller Kevyn Rakowski.

The defense, including Wilmington lawyer Michael Kelly and other local and out-of-town counsel, insisted that Harra and his colleagues had engaged in common banking practices: So long as borrowers had made arrangements the bankers believed would eventually result in loan payments, they told the jury, it wasn't strictly necessary for the bank to warn that their loans were late or to classify them as defaulted, even if they had fallen many months behind on their principal payments.

Kelly sought to portray the government's detailed case as confusing and meandering, likening Kravetz to the kind of storyteller who doesn't get to the point. He said the government hadn't proved the bankers "intended" to deceive shareholders or regulators. He noted that some of the lenders cited by the prosecution had themselves been fired by the bank for violating company policy.

And the bank had been holding late loans to developers on the books without declaring them in default for many years, Kelly added, noting Harra and his colleagues acted in apparent good faith, without complaints from regulators  until the Great Recession stalled home buyers and the developers who had planned to build sprawling neighborhoods were left unable to repay their loans.

If regulators didn't complain until it was too late, that's because Wilmington Trust made a practice of hiding bad loans so they never knew about them  flouting regulatory and industry rules as well as its own guidelines, Kravetz said, citing testimony.

Wilmington Trust went easy on big, risky loans to developers and hid the danger from investors and regulators  but didn't cut that kind of slack to mortgage or credit-card borrowers or small businesses, which had to pay what they owed, or else, Kravetz said.

Successor M&T agreed last fall to pay the government and investors $60 million to settle its own alleged criminal liability. But M&T was obliged to continue paying the ex-bankers' legal defense bills.

Some of the bank's former shareholders, who included mutual and pension funds and members of the founding du Pont family, lost hundreds of millions of dollars in shareholder value in the bank's final year. Some have sued in civil court to recover losses. Those suits have been sidelined, awaiting the criminal verdict.

The government has not filed a case against the bank's former chairman and chief executive officer, Ted T. Cecala. Prosecutors would say only that their investigation has not concluded, even as the main case reached trial.

Cecala was represented during the government's investigations by Colm Connolly, a former federal prosecutor who has since been nominated by President Trump for a federal judgeship.
Two drinks that Hop Sing Laundromats Le created for Han Dynasty. Read more

On the banned list at Chinatown's Hop Sing Laundromat?

You can still enjoy a cocktail.

Owner Le is partnering with Han Chiang, owner of the Han Dynasty Chinese restaurants, on a series of drinks.

They'll go on the menu on May 14 at the five Han Dynasty locations with bars  Old City, University City, and the three in New York City.

Why the partnership? "I want all of the customers that Le kicked out," said Chiang, referring to Hop Sing's stringent policies on clothing, photography, and personal decorum.

The cocktails will be offered with and without alcohol.

In a demo last week, Le sampled two of them, whose names may not be suitable for a family website.

One is a riff on raspberry lemonade, a crisp combo of 6100 vodka, lemon juice, lemongrass syrup, mint, and raspberries. The other is a creamy matcha-tea-based drink that blends 6100 vodka, Japanese matcha, cream, vanilla liqueur, and egg white.

To see the names, click here.
Marijuana growing under lights in a warehouse facility. Dispensaries across the state began to sell medical marijuana program in mid-February. But two months after the launch, there are no operational dispensaries in Philadelphia. Read more

More than two months after Pennsylvania's medical marijuana growers harvested their first crops, Philadelphia still lacks an operational dispensary.

The state granted permits last year to five retailers to sell legal cannabis in the city. But lawsuits, protests, and construction issues  as well as concerns about the number of registered patients  have delayed their openings.

Although three dispensaries have opened in the suburbs, Philadelphia won't get its first retailer until late May, when Restore Integrative Wellness is scheduled to open in Fishtown.

Neighborhood opposition derailed two of the retailers  one that had been planned near Philadelphia Mills in Northeast Philadelphia and another inside a former bank in East Mount Airy.

Pharmacann pulled the plug on opening next to Philadelphia Mills, near I-95. The shopping center had filed suit in federal court, claiming that deed restrictions on the $1.1 million property banned a "drug store" from occupying the property.

The case was set to become a flashpoint in the clash between federal law, which outlaws all cannabis, and medicinal marijuana programs operating in 29 states and the District of Columbia.

Pharmacann surrendered on March 27 rather than run the risk of setting a precedent that would have imperiled the programs. It will relocate the shop to northwestern Bucks County, said Pharmacann lawyer Jeremy Unruh.

"We've elected to sell the property," said Unruh. "We were on the right side of this dispute, but undertaking the fight would have been a major lift in terms of time and resources."

Pharmacann wasn't the first to wave the white flag.

TerraVida Holistic Centers retreated from East Mount Airy after local politicians rallied with church groups to challenge its zoning permit, saying the dispensary was illegally sited within 500 feet of an unlicensed day-care center. Co-owner Chris Visco scoured the city for a new site.

"There was nowhere to go," Visco said.

The Department of Health granted permission for TerraVida to relocate the East Mount Airy shop to a former auto parts store in Malvern.

"Zoning makes it nearly impossible to find viable sites in Philadelphia," said lawyer Andrew Sacks, who co-chairs the Pennsylvania Bar Association's committee on medical marijuana. Few available storefronts are outside the required setbacks from schools and child-care centers.

After City Council appealed the original 1,000-foot setback, the Department of Health granted the city a 500-foot variance. But day-care centers are so common that most residential and business areas are still no-go zones. Sacks is trying to get the setback reduced to one foot from any child-care facility.

"No 18-month-old child is going to crave medical marijuana," Sacks said. But he's not getting buy-in on the idea from local politicians. "Right now, we have nothing moving with City Council."

In Fishtown, Steve O is preparing to open Restore Integrative Wellness on Frankford Ave. He had planned to launch in early April, but was delayed by construction issues and hold-ups in city permitting.

"Usually, you'd need a year to build all this out," O said. "The initial state regulations gave us six months. The window has been pretty heroic."

O is waiting for the Water Department to test the lines for a sprinkler system. Until the fire-suppression system is approved, O can't get his certificate of occupancy.

"I can still guarantee that we'll be the first to open in Philadelphia sometime next month," O said.

In South Philadelphia, Keystone Shops has a building on the 300 block of Packer Avenue slated for a dispensary. They're taking their time, said Skip Shuda, chief operating officer. He said the company has focused on its other two sites, in Devon and King of Prussia. Shuda said the South Philadelphia store would open in late summer.

In Bustleton, Holistic Pharma has held back the dispensary launch at Krewstown Road and Bloomfield Avenue to wait for the medical marijuana market to mature, said Keith Morgan, Holistic's director of operations. The company also owns a growing facility in the northwestern region of the state, where it expects to harvest its first crop in early May.

"It didn't make sense to open if there weren't many patients or enough product," said Morgan. "Most of the dispensaries that did open in February ran out. We didn't want to disappoint anyone."
Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. offered a revised plan to sell TV stations to satisfy regulators vetting its $3.9 billion purchase of Tribune Media Co., saying it would keep New York's WPIX and offer other stations to friendly buyers in transactions that have drawn criticism.

Signature station WGN in Chicago would go to a business associate of a top Sinclair executive, while other outlets would be sold to a company controlled by the estate of his mother. Howard Stirk Holdings, owned by conservative commentator Armstrong Williams, would buy some stations, as would New York-based hedge fund Standard General LP, led by Soo Kim. Meredith Corp. would buy one.

Sinclair didn't list a potential sale of WPIX, the New York station that it earlier proposed divesting to satisfy regulators.

The Tribune transaction would give Sinclair, which has 193 stations, an additional 42 stations in 33 more markets. The Maryland-based broadcaster is known for its conservative leanings, including commentaries by Boris Epshteyn, a former aide to President Trump.

As proposed in May, the deal would leave Sinclair reaching more than 70 percent of U.S. homes, exceeding an ostensible national limit of 39 percent.

Sinclair said the divestitures proposed Tuesday would bring it into compliance with the national cap. That calculation assumes it can count some stations' audience on a discounted basis, a procedure approved by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission but under legal attack.

"While we continue to believe that we had a strong and supportable rationale for not having to divest stations, we are happy to announce this significant step forward in our plan to create a leading broadcast platform with local focus and national reach," Sinclair president Chris Ripley said in a news release.

The transactions are aimed at gaining regulatory approval for the Tribune deal and are expected to be completed when that purchase closes, Sinclair said on Tuesday. The company is seeking approval from the FCC as well as antitrust regulators at the Justice Department.

Sinclair had planned to complete the deal by the end of 2017, but now sees it closing in the second quarter of this year. The company has had to increase the level of divestitures in order to push the transaction through.

Sinclair said it would share the operations of WGN as well as the three stations proposed for sale to Armstrong's Howard Stirk. Those three are in Seattle, Salt Lake City, and Oklahoma City, and Sinclair also would retain outright ownership of a station in each city.

Such sharing arrangements have been criticized as end runs around ownership restrictions.

Moelis & Co. served as Sinclair's financial adviser on the TV station deals. They include the sale of WGN, KDAF in Dallas to Cunningham Broadcasting Corp. and KUNS in Seattle to Howard Stirk Holdings. Meredith is also buying KPLR in St. Louis, a CW affiliate, for $65 million.

Sinclair on Tuesday said WGN's proposed purchaser is WGN-TV LLC. In an earlier filing, it identified that buyer as belonging to a Maryland executive, Steven Fader, whose car dealership is controlled by Sinclair executive chairman David Smith, according to a Sinclair securities filing. Cunningham is owned by the estate of Carolyn Smith, the mother of Sinclair's controlling shareholders, including Smith.

Tina Pelkey, an FCC spokeswoman, declined to comment.
Democrat Ashley Lunkenheimer, pictured here, just got a boost in her campaign for the U.S. House: A super PAC has started spending money to support her. Read more

A second super PAC has jumped into the highly competitive race for Pennsylvania's Fifth Congressional District.

The group, known as "Progress in PA-05," is backing Democrat Ashley Lunkenheimer. Depending on how much the super PAC spends, it could be a major boost for her campaign.

Lunkenheimer, a former assistant U.S. attorney, is seen as one of the leading candidates in the 10-person Democratic primary for the seat in the Philadelphia suburbs. She received the second-highest number of votes in an endorsement meeting held recently by the Delaware County Democratic Party.

Only one other candidate in the primary, former deputy mayor Rich Lazer, is known to have the support of a super PAC. That committee was launched by John "Johnny Doc" Dougherty, the powerful leader of Philadelphia's electricians union, and is spending $200,000 on TV ads over the next week.

It is unclear who is funding the super PAC for Lunkenheimer. The committee has not disclosed any donations. Its treasurer, Brian Lenzmeier, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

The super PAC lists its address as a suite in a high-rise building in Washington where the political law firm Sandler Reiff Lamb Rosenstein & Birkenstock is located. A woman who answered the phone at the company said Progress in PA-05 is one of its clients.

Progress in PA-05 has spent more than $18,000 for mailings in support of Lunkenheimer, according to records filed this week with the Federal Election Commission. The group submitted a statement of organization earlier this month.

Super PACs can spend an unlimited amount of money on elections as long as they don't coordinate with political campaigns. A spokesman for Lunkenheimer declined to provide comment.
The Dancing Monks of Assam live on a remote river island in India and devote their lives to celebrating the Hindu god Krishna through the arts. Eight of them visit Philadelphia this week on their first-ever U.S. tour, initiated by a Philadelphia dance company with roots on that same river island.

The monks are now in residence at Drexel University, where they're teaching master classes and screening a documentary, among other activities. They perform for the public Saturday night at Drexel's Mandell Theater.

They're all men, but the two women who are co-artistic directors of Philadelphia's Sattriya Dance Company  Madhusmita Bora and Prerona Bhuyan  will also dance at the show in the 500-year-old Sattriya style of the monks.

Bora and Bhuyan were both born and raised in Assam and grew up surrounded by the traditions of the monastery. Bora now lives in Philadelphia but travels home several times a year to continue her Sattriya dance studies. Bhuyan is still based in Assam but visits the U.S. regularly.

Like other Indian classical dance styles, Sattriya is a form of spiritual devotion with a challenging technique that requires many years to master. Performers represent details of traditional Hindu texts using subtle inflections of the feet, fingers, and face.

Unlike dancers in the better-known Bharatanatyam and Kathak styles, "Sattriya dancers do not stamp their feet or wear ankle bells," Bora said. "Their movement occurs mainly in the torso."

Both female Sattriya dancers and Assam's "dancing monks" wear white silk garments, for the most part. In addition to dancing, the monks play drums. Some sing or play cymbals.

At home at their monastery on the river island of Majuli, in India's Assam state, the monks have the same religious obligations as members of any monastic community. But they also receive rigorous daily instruction in traditional singing; how to play drums, cymbals, flutes, violins, and conch shells; plus mask-making, yoga, and dance. They often join the monastery as children.

Everyone studies everything, and eventually each monk chooses an area of specialization. Those visiting on the U.S. tour range in age from 18 to 47. Their master classes for Drexel students, faculty, and staff include sessions on yoga, drumming, and theater.

Bora and Bhuyan will provide a brief introduction to Sattriya before the public performance so viewers unfamiliar with Indian classical art forms can more fully appreciate the event.

The choreography in the dance program "Sattriya: An Odyssey of the Spirit" showcases a variety of Sattriya techniques and storytelling, including some mime. While in town, the monks also danced a program at the Philadelphia Museum of Art based on a textile style known as "Cloth of Vrindavan," an elaborate silk cloth once woven in Assam. It uses the now-extinct lampas technique to tell stories from Krishna's life through stylized images and ancient Assamese text.

"Growing up in Assam," Bora said, "everyone heard about this cloth." But no one saw it, since the textiles themselves, and records of their whereabouts, had long since disappeared.

Then, in the 1990s, a British textile curator chanced upon several 17th-century examples in London, Paris  and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The museum's Dilys Blum, head curator of costumes and textiles, had acquired the cloth in London in 1990 strictly for its aesthetic qualities.

Thanks to support from the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage and some other sponsors, the ancient Assamese script on the Philadelphia textile was decoded as part of the dance project. Bhabananda Barbayan, an Indian monk, translated the cloth's images into movement.

The textile itself is on display in Gallery 231, in the Asian Art wing on the museum's second floor.
Since his 2000 solo debut, Fijate Bien, Colombian-born Juan Esteban Aristizabal Vasquez  Juanes, to his legion of fans  has crafted a globally appealing brand, relying solely on his native tongue and dark tales of wronged romance and societal grief. Unlike other crossover pop sensations, Juanes has sung only in Spanish, seamlessly blending elements of indigenous folk and crunching Anglo-brand hard rock. Two decades into his career, Juanes has expanded into a visual album  think what Beyonce did with Lemonade  called Mis Planes Son Amarte (My Plans Are to Love You) that is ripe with optimistic messages; its accompanying film, The Juanes Effect: De Canciones y Transformactiones, features his first attempt at English-language lyricism ("Goodbye for Now").

He'll stop by the Fillmore on Tuesday with Mexican nu-music superstar Mon Laferte. Although this is far from the first time Juanes has played Philadelphia, it's safe to say his previous audience here was a bit larger than the comparatively intimate Fillmore show: In 2016, he performed at the World Meeting of Families, attended by Pope Francis.

Youve lived in Miami for some time  a city rich with Latin American expatriates. How has your perspective changed about America since being here?

I've lived in Miami since 2003, but the first time I came to the States was 1996. For me, it was a totally different county than the one it is now. Everything seemed possible: a land of dreams and opportunity. I think that's still true  though it's a little bit different as things changed since 9/11. But I still see this as a special country that I love very much. My three kids were born here in Miami, a great place where the Latin community is huge and the cultural development is great.

Its interesting you mention your children being born here. What do you tell them  what do you tell yourself  about the current administration?

We are trying to teach our kids to respect everybody; where they come from or those who speak a different language. It is still hard for us to handle the situation, because what they see on the news is very strong and sad. But they are disciplined. They know about our culture and its traditions. I do not know where we are headed with this current political situation, but I am happy, though, that they were born here. They have both nationalities: Colombian and American. They are learning.

Speaking of the current administration, when did you start the writing process for Mis Planes Son Amarte?

Two and a half years ago, with another year of doing demos, experimenting with rhythms and stuff. We finished it a year ago, came up with the idea of making it a visual album, and started the movie.

I ask because your albums have many emotions and moods, but your lyrical outlook is often dark or bleak or even caustic. This new one, though, is surprisingly optimistic. Howd that happen?

Yes, definitely, yes. The world is in a more difficult situation than ever before. The news is complicated and filled with bad energy and crazy people. Yet, I just want to give people happiness and hope. I want to be optimistic even if things aren't going well. I want to have a good time performing my music and have people have the same good time. Look, I will probably in the future return to dark lyrical themes, but for now, what I want to do is this.

Your first album is 18 years old. What do you recall about the Juanes who made that?

I remember that when I started, I had no pressure to do anything. I had no clue what was going to happen with my career. I didn't even have a record label deal. I made those songs experimenting with my computer, my guitar, and my melodies. It was all very innocent  and, yes, a little bit dark. It was a nice time for me. I was enjoying trying to make it happen. I had no fame. No money. Just music.

What were your initial inspirations and how have they changed with time?

I came up in Colombia with folk music, singing with my parents and sisters. There were the rhythms of tango and bolero and cumbia. Those were my strongest influences. But when I was 13, I went crazy with rock music and became the biggest fan of Metallica, Slayer, and Sepultura. I still love Metallica. Today, I listen to many new artists and learn while staying connected to my roots. For instance, I love reeggaton. I hear that stuff from my kids. They teach new music all the time.

Speaking of new artists, why did you choose to tour with Mon Laferte? Shes amazing.

She is. When I was in Mexico two years ago, I listened to the radio and she was all over it. I met her months after, saw one of her shows, and I almost died. She was the most incredible and assured artist I have witnessed in the last 10 years  her style and her sound. We became friends, recorded songs together, and I'm excited to have her tour with me. I want my audience to know her and her audience to know me.

You recorded most of your new album in Colombia  why? Does going home bring about another feeling?

Much of it, yes, and I do sense the difference. For me, it's important to come back home, to work with people from my hometown and reconnect with who I really am. There is something about that that makes me feel so  healed. No matter where I am, I believe it is important to go back.

You have always staunchly written and sung in Spanish. Thats your thing. Why change up with Goodbye for Now? Why was it important that that song was sung in English?

I was always trying to record in English. I just had to find the right one. I always wondered if I would even be able to find that song.

There would certainly be pressure and expectation associated with that move.

I experimented all the time and nothing worked until this one. I love the lyrics and how they sound in English. I still wish to, and will sing, in Spanish. I just figured this would break the ice.

Do you have an idea how American audiences see you, as you dont fall into the pop star trope?

I may sing in Spanish, but I play universally. I make something unique. I know I'm sometimes too soft for the rockers and too hard for the poppers, but if they all listen, they will find my true essence.

MUSIC

Juanes
It's going to take a lot of sweat and muscle to plant 10 millions trees, but Pennsylvania says it has the might.

State officials, along with federal and local partners, announced an ambitious plan to plant that number of trees by the end of 2025 within a key watershed as a way of controlling pollution in rivers and streams.

The effort is coordinated by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. The commonwealth's involvement is critical to cleanup of the bay. The Susquehanna River basin, spanning 27,000 square miles, drains into the bay as part of its watershed and is a major source of its pollution. For example, Lancaster releases 750 million gallons of sewage mixed with stormwater annually into the Conestoga River. The Conestoga flows into the Susquehanna and ultimately the Chesapeake.

Officials gathered on the Garber Farm in Manheim, Lancaster County, on Tuesday to announce the Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership. But the collaborative effort got underway several weeks ago and is getting help from conservation organizations, outdoors enthusiasts, businesses, and residents. It is placing particular importance on plantings in Lancaster County and other areas of south central Pennsylvania because of nitrogen pollution from agricultural operations.

Already, partners have started planting, and hope to put in 31,000 trees at 50 sites by the end of April.

"The commonwealth is significantly behind in meeting its pollution-reduction commitments," said William Baker, president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, "and the Keystone 10 Million Tree Partnership will accelerate efforts to close that gap."

Baker was referring to Pennsylvania's Clean Water Blueprint, which calls for 96,000 acres of new, forested buffers to be planted along the watershed. That equates to about 8.5 million new trees to be installed at an average density per acre recommended by restoration experts. Adding trees to other locations, such as abandoned mine land, brought the total to 10 million.

Specifically, the new trees are expected to reduce the 4.6 million pounds of nitrogen, 22.2 million pounds of sediment and 43,000 pounds of phosphorus that would have flowed into waterways. Overall, such buffers have the potential to reduce 90 percent of nitrogen in runoff and 80 percent of phosphorus. The trees will be a mix of 130 native species such as oak, hickory, maple, dogwood, red bud, sycamore, and honey locust.

"Planting a tree is one of the most impactful conservation practices anyone can do," said Cosmo Servidio, administrator for EPA Region 3. He said trees absorb the stormwater, filtering out pollutants and preventing erosion.

A single deciduous tree can intercept up to 750 gallons of water per year, according to the partnership's literature.

B.J. Small, a spokesman for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said the trees are coming from Musser Forests and Octoraro Native Plant Nursery, both in Pennsylvania. He said the trees will come in a mix of forms from root balls to saplings, but won't be seeds or mature trees. He also said there was no total cost of the project available because money is coming from multiple sources, including the foundation and grants, and will be spread over seven years.

To accomplish the 10 million tree goal, members of the partnership say, they will need more help.

"Many hands make light work," said Harry Campbell, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's executive director for Pennsylvania. "We encourage organizations, business, schools, and anyone else concerned about restoring and protecting Pennsylvania's waters, to sign up as partners."

Officials say anyone wanting to get involved should examine the planting events map, and fill out this form or call 717-234-5550.
Bridget Kelly, an ex-aide to former N.J. Gov. Chris Christie, appeared before a federal appeals court in Philadelphia Tuesday to appeal her conviction in the Bridgegate scandal. Read more

Chris Christie is no longer governor of New Jersey, but the political scandal that helped derail his bid for the White House hasn't gone away.

Four and a half years after Christie loyalists caused notorious traffic jams near the George Washington Bridge, lawyers are still debating whether the bizarre scheme crossed the line from political retribution to federal crime. A class-action lawsuit is also pending.

On Tuesday, attorneys for two of the former Christie allies who executed the plot appeared before a three-judge panel of the federal appeals court in Philadelphia in a bid to toss the convictions and spare their clients from prison.

Christie, who completed his second term in January, has moved on. The former Republican presidential hopeful now collects a check from ABC News, where he's an analyst, and has commissioned an Australian artist to paint his official portrait  to the tune of $85,000 in taxpayer money.

His personal attorney in the affair known as Bridgegate, Christopher A. Wray, has jumped to a new controversy as director of the FBI. Another former Christie attorney, Craig Carpenito, who defended the governor against a citizen's complaint of official misconduct, is now the U.S. attorney for the district of New Jersey.

David Wildstein, the former Christie ally turned government star witness, pleaded guilty in 2015 and was sentenced last year to three years of probation. He lives in Florida with his family and regularly breaks news on New Jersey politics on a website  with the occasional roast of his former political patron. Wildstein teamed up in the venture with Ken Kurson, a close associate of Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser. Another top Christie aide whose name came up repeatedly at trial, former campaign manager Bill Stepien, works in the White House as Trump's political director.

And yet on Tuesday, there were Bill Baroni and Bridget Anne Kelly, spending another day in court.

Baroni, former deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and Kelly, Christie's former deputy chief of staff, were convicted in November 2016 of conspiracy, obtaining by fraud and misusing Port Authority resources, wire fraud, and civil rights violations.

A federal judge in Newark sentenced Baroni to two years in prison, and Kelly, to 18 months. They are free on bail while they appeal.

Their chief offense, according to prosecutors: reducing access lanes available to Fort Lee, Bergen County, residents from three to one, snarling traffic near the world's busiest bridge and causing four days of gridlock in September 2013. Their goal: to punish Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich for his refusal to endorse Christie's reelection campaign that year.

Baroni, Kelly, and Wildstein conspired to cover up the scheme by saying the lane reductions were part of a "traffic study," the jury found.

Even as the three appellate judges probed the various legal arguments for two hours Tuesday morning, they couldn't help but raise the peculiar nature of the case.

If the Christie aides wanted to send a political message to the mayor, mused Judge Thomas L. Ambro, why not cause traffic jams for just one day, instead of four? "You might not have been here today if this had just gone on for one day," he said, noting that by then the traffic had already generated publicity.

"I don't really know the answer to the question," replied Yaakov Roth, an attorney for Kelly.

"It's like, overkill on overkill," Ambro added as Baroni, dressed in a crisp blue suit, sat attentively a couple rows back from the defense table. (The three prosecutors who tried the case observed the proceeding from the back of courtroom.)

The whole thing may have been stupid, defense attorneys conceded, but it wasn't a crime.

"From a moral perspective, I think it would be fair for your honors or the jury to conclude that that was bad, that it was wrongful, that it was unjustifiable," Michael A. Levy, an attorney for Baroni, told the panel. "That is not the standard for a federal crime, however."

Christie's approval ratings plummeted, and the principal actors were fired, Levy noted. "The normal, ordinary political process took hold," he said.

Defense attorneys challenged the government's case on several legal fronts. First, they said, there isn't a clearly established constitutional right to intrastate travel. Thus, Baroni and Kelly didn't violate Fort Lee residents' civil rights, the attorneys said. Plus, the bridge was never closed. Instead, the lanes were realigned such that Fort Lee residents could only access one toll booth; two other lanes that had historically been dedicated to Fort Lee were now available to motorists approaching the bridge from a different highway.

Defense attorneys also argued that Baroni and Kelly didn't misapply Port Authority resources for unauthorized use. As deputy executive director, Baroni had the authority to realign the lanes, Levy said. And they didn't misapply the property for personal use  the lanes were simply diverted to a different set of motorists.

That Baroni and Kelly may have been motivated by politics instead of serving the public interest doesn't mean they committed a crime, their lawyers said, arguing their actions were similar to that of a mayor who used city resources to pave streets in his neighborhood.

What would rise to a crime, Roth said, was if that same mayor used city resources to pave his private driveway. The prosecution's interpretation of the law would create an "all-purpose political ethics code for every state and local official in the country," Roth said.

At least one of the judges, Ambro, expressed skepticism that Baroni had the authority to close the lanes. "Nobody was authorized" to do that, Ambro said, citing trial testimony.

Bruce P. Keller, an assistant U.S. attorney, said the defendants missed the point. Kelly and Baroni had to deceive subordinates and the public about the true purpose of the lane closures to carry out their mission, Keller said.

The purported traffic study "was an absolute fraud used to obtain the property of the Port Authority," he said.

Christie, for his part, doesn't think his former aides should go to prison. "Listen, I think what they did was stupid and I think they deserve to be fired," he said in a January interview with NJTV. "And I think they deserve to not get an opportunity to work in government again. But, I don't think either one of them belong in jailthis wasn't a crime."
Facebook recently informed 87 million users that Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm, harvested their confidential information, using it to create targeted ads that may have influenced the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.

Many users were shocked to learn that Cambridge had access to their data. They thought only Facebook could view the information. Naive? Perhaps.

Now, Congress is demanding reforms from Facebook and other social-media sites. Our lawmakers want social networks to simplify privacy terms and conditions.

That way, when we check "I accept," we'll better understand the risks of sharing personal information with social-media platforms and their numerous commercial clients.

>> Read more: An ancestry test taught me about myself, but can it get my kid a free education?

But Facebook isn't the only firm that puts users' privacy at risk. Some genetic testing companies like Invitae, 23andMe, and AncestryDNA do too  and the consequences of irresponsibly sharing DNA data are far more serious than a social-media data breach.

Lawmakers and regulators ought to demand these genetic-testing companies clearly inform consumers whether, and how, their data will be shared.

Every year, millions of people undergo genetic testing to help predict health problems or just discover their heritage. Doctors send patients' blood or saliva samples to lab testing companies like Invitae. Millions of people have bought DNA testing kits from companies like 23andMe and AncestryDNA and submitted their samples through the mail.

After sequencing the DNA samples, genetic-testing firms often sell or share the genetic information to third parties. Many testing companies have inked multimillion-dollar contracts with pharmaceutical companies. For instance, 23andMe agreed to share its data with the biopharmaceutical firm Genentech in exchange for as much as $60 million.

>> Read more: Regulating Facebook might not be the best response to Zuckerberg's missteps | Opinion

Testing firms seek users' permission to share the data. But they gloss over the risks. As a result, consumers sign away their rights with little comprehension of the privacy violations and discrimination that could ensue.

Take Invitae. Its privacy policy states that it may use patients' "de-identified" data for "general research purposes," which may include "research collaborations with third parties" or "commercial collaborations with private companies."

The problem is that the data aren't permanently "de-identified." The information can easily be tied back to specific people.

Just ask Harvard Medical School professor Latanya Sweeney. She recently identified the names of more than 40 percent of participants in a supposedly anonymous DNA study. Sweeney cross-referenced participants' provided zip codes, birthdays, and genders with public records like voter rolls. She then was able to match people up to their DNA.

Your DNA contains a wealth of sensitive medical information. Imagine what employers might do if they got access to people's DNA. They easily could exploit this information to discriminate against prospective hires.

Say an employer discovers that a job applicant has a genetic mutation that's likely to lead to breast cancer. The employer might be tempted to not hire the candidate to avoid huge health-care costs. If you're worried about someone stealing your Social Security number, imagine identity theft on the genetic level.

Genetic privacy is a human right. To protect consumers from such abuses, the U.S. government should increase regulation of genetic-testing companies to protect people.

>> Read more: When a DNA test unites family members, not everyone is happy about it

European policymakers have already done so. In late May, the European Union's online privacy legislation  known as the General Data Protection Regulation  will go into effect. Among other provisions, the new law will require genetic testing companies to delete personal information if users request it.

Some DNA testing companies aren't waiting for regulators to act. They're already voluntarily promising to not share any genetic samples, leaving the important privacy decisions in patients' hands, where they belong.

Social-media platforms like Facebook are failing to secure users' personal information. Most genetic-testing companies are failing too.

The consequences of such irresponsible data-sharing range from election meddling to employer discrimination. It's time for lawmakers and regulators to impose tougher consumer protections so that we don't have a Facebook-like crisis involving people's most sensitive genetic information.

Peter J. Pitts, a former FDA associate commissioner, is president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest.
SAN FRANCISCO  Among the most challenging issues for Facebook is its role as the policeman for the free expression of its two billion users.

Now, the social network is opening up about its decision-making over which posts it decides to take down  and why. On Tuesday, the company for the first time published the 27-page guidelines, called Community Standards, that it gives to its workforce of thousands of human censors. It encompasses dozens of topics, including hate speech, violent imagery, misrepresentation, terrorist propaganda, and disinformation. Facebook said it would offer users the opportunity to appeal Facebook's decisions.

The move adds a new degree of transparency to a process that users, the public, and advocates have criticized as arbitrary and opaque. The newly released guidelines offer suggestions on various topics, including how to determine the difference between humor, sarcasm, and hate speech. They explain that images of female nipples are generally prohibited, but exceptions are made for images that promote breast-feeding or address breast cancer.

"We want people to know our standards and we want to give people clarity," Monika Bickert, Facebook's head of global policy management, said in an interview. She added that she hoped publishing the guidelines would spark dialogue. "We are trying to strike the line between safety and giving people the ability to really express themselves."

The company's censors, called content moderators, have been chastised by civil-rights groups for mistakenly removing posts by minorities who had shared stories of being the victims of racial slurs. Moderators have struggled to tell the difference between someone posting a slur as an attack and someone who was using the slur to tell the story of their own victimization.

In another instance, moderators removed an iconic Vietnam War photo of a child fleeing a napalm attack, claiming the girl's nudity violated its policies. (The photo was restored after protests from news organizations.) Moderators have deleted posts from activists and journalists in Myanmar and in disputed territories such as Palestine and Kashmir, and have banned the pro-Trump activists Diamond and Silk as "unsafe to the community."

The release of the guidelines is part of a wave of transparency that Facebook hopes will quell its many critics. It has also published political ads and streamlined its privacy controls after coming under fire for its lax approach to protecting consumer data.

The company is being investigated by the Federal Trade Commission over the misuse of data by a Trump-connected consultancy known as Cambridge Analytica, and Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg recently testified before Congress about the issue. Bickert said discussions about sharing the guidelines started last fall and were not related to the Cambridge controversy.

The company's content policies, which began in earnest in 2005, addressed nudity and Holocaust denial in the early years. They have ballooned from a single page in 2008 to 27 pages today.

As Facebook has come to reach nearly a third of the world's population, Bickert's team has expanded significantly, and is expected to grow even more in the coming year. A far-flung team of 7,500 reviewers, in such places as Austin, Dublin, and the Philippines, assesses posts 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in more than 40 languages. Moderators are sometimes temporary contract workers without much cultural familiarity with the content they are judging, and they make complex decisions in applying Facebook's rules.

Bickert also employs high-level experts including a human-rights lawyer, a rape counselor, a counterterrorism expert from West Point, and a Ph.D. researcher with expertise in European extremist organizations, as part of her content review team.

Activists and users have been particularly frustrated by the absence of an appeals process when their posts are taken down. (Facebook users are allowed to appeal the shutdown of an entire account, but not individual posts.) The Washington Post previously documented how people have likened this predicament to being put into "Facebook jail"  without being given a reason why they were locked up.

Zahra Billoo, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations' office for the San Francisco Bay Area, said adding an appeals process and opening up guidelines would be a "positive development" but said the social network still has a ways to go if it wants to stay a relevant and safe space.

Billoo said that at least a dozen pages representing white supremacists are still up on the platform, even though the policies forbids hate speech and Zuckerberg testified before Congress this month that Facebook does not allow hate groups.

"An ongoing question many of the Muslim community have been asking is how to get Facebook to be better at protecting users from hate speech and not to be hijacked by white supremacists, right-wing activists, Republicans, or the Russians as a means of organizing against Muslim, LGBT, and undocumented individuals," she said.

Billoo herself was censored by Facebook two weeks after Donald Trump's election, when she posted an image of a handwritten letter mailed to a San Jose mosque and quoted from it: "He's going to do to you Muslims what Hitler did to the Jews."

Bickert's team has been working for years to develop a software system that can classify the reasons a post was taken down so that users could receive clearer information  and so Facebook could track how many hate speech posts were put up in a given year, for example, or whether certain groups are having their posts taken down more frequently than others.

Currently, people who have their posts taken down receive a generic message that says that they have violated Facebook's community standards. After Tuesday's announcement, people will be told whether their posts violated guidelines on nudity, hate speech, and graphic violence. A Facebook executive said the teams were working on building more tools. "We do want to provide more details and information for why content has been removed," said Ellen Silver, Facebook's vice president of community operations. "We have more work to do there and we are committed to making those improvements."

Though Facebook's content moderation is still very much driven by humans, the company does use technology to assist in its work. The company currently uses software to identify duplicate reports, a time-saving technique for reviewers that helps them avoid reviewing the same piece of content over and over because it was flagged by many people at once. Software also can identity the language of a post and some of the themes, helping the post get to the reviewer with the most expertise.

The company can recognize images that have been posted before, but cannot recognize new images. For example, if a terrorist organization reposts a beheading video that Facebook already took down, Facebook's systems will notice it almost immediately, said Silver, but it cannot identify new beheading videos. The majority of items flagged by the community get reviewed within 24 hours, she said.

Every two weeks, employees and senior executives who make decisions about the most challenging issues around the world meet. They debate the pros and cons of potential policies. Teams who present are required to come up with research showing each side, a list of possible solutions, and a recommendation. They are required to list the organizations outside Facebook that they consulted with.

In an interview, Bickert and Silver acknowledged that Facebook would continue to make errors in its judgment. "The scale that we operate at," said Silver. "Even if were at 99 percent accuracy, that's still a lot of mistakes."
Kevin Hart reacts during the first half in Game 2 of a first-round NBA basketball playoff series between the Miami Heat and the Philadelphia 76ers, Monday, April 16, 2018, in Philadelphia. The Heat won 113-103. Read more

Kevin Hart visited fellow Philadelphian Meek Mill in prison at State Correctional Institution Chester on Tuesday, where he told reporters following the meeting that the rapper's prison time is the result of "a personal vendetta" by Judge Genece Brinkley and that Mill "should be out of jail."

Hart, 38, was accompanied to the prison by 76ers co-owner Michael Rubin, who brought New England Patriots owner Robert Craft to SCI Chester for a visit with Mill earlier this month. Hart said that Mill, who is being held at the jail following a two- to four-year sentence levied by Brinkley last year, is in "good spirits"

"I'm not going to sit up here and say he's an angel," Hart said of Mill, whose real name Robert Rihmeek Williams, 30. "He has done wrong. In doing wrong, he has paid for it  he has done his time. He's been there, he's done that for this particular case."

Last week, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner's office issued a recommendation supporting a new trial for Mill, citing credibility issues with his arresting office, Reginald Graham. Earlier this year, the office revealed that Graham's name is on a list of "tainted" police officers deemed unfit to testify in court due to corruption issues.

At the time of Mill's initial arrest in 2007, Graham claimed Mill pointed a gun at police as they attempted to arrest him on gun and drug charges. Outside SCI Chester on Monday, Hart called that bit of information into question.

"Pointing a gun at a cop as a black man, guys, we all know the consequences behind that," Hart said. "You'll end up dead in today's times, so I doubt that that could happen, and you're able to walk away from it. There's no truth to it, and it's unfair."

Judge Brinkley denied Mill's request to be released from prison on bail earlier this month, and also refused to recuse herself from Mill's case. Another hearing is currently scheduled for June, according to an Inquirer report. As Hart said Tuesday, "the judge is holding [the case] up."

"This is a personal vendetta, it's obvious to see that" Hart said of Brinkley's sentence for Mill. "I hope that the judge does the right thing. I hope that she really, really sees how ridiculous this is and lets this guy out of jail."

The comedian also vowed to continue his support for Mill as the rapper remains behind bars in Chester. As he told reporters outside of the prison, Hart hopes some good can come from Mill's imprisonment.

"Sometimes these bad things have to happen for good things to come out of it," Hart said. "The good that can come out of this is really correcting the system."
Rapper Meek Mill, who had become a cause celebre during a controversial five-month stint behind bars, was released from prison Tuesday, ending a term of imprisonment that had been marked by celebrity outcry, conflict with a judge, and questions about the validity of the entertainer's decade-old arrest.

Mill departed a state prison in Chester around 6:30 p.m., quickly getting into a helicopter and heading to the 76ers playoff game against the Miami Heat with team co-owner Michael Rubin. After meeting with players in the locker room, the Philadelphia-born rapper  whose backers included Sixers and Eagles players and politicians such as Mayor Kenney and Gov. Wolf  rang the bell for the home team before tip-off, electrifying the crowd.

His freedom was secured thanks to an order issued Tuesday afternoon by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which agreed to grant Mill "extraordinary relief" because of questions the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office recently expressed about the credibility of Mill's arresting officer. Prosecutors said last week that they believed Mill was entitled to a new trial and would not oppose his release on bail. They have yet to say whether they will continue to pursue those charges.

The rapper tweeted about his release shortly after the order was made public, calling his time behind bars "a nightmare" but thanking his family, supporters, and even the prosecutors' office for its "commitment to justice."

As news of his impending release spread across social media, hundreds of Mill supporters gathered outside the state prison in Chester where he had been incarcerated, blocking traffic in an impromptu rally while trying to catch a glimpse of the entertainer upon his release.

Mill's lawyer, Joe Tacopina, said in a statement that he was "thrilled," and that "Meek is excited to be reunited with his family, and we, along with Meek, intend to continue to shine the light on a justice system in need of reform to prevent any other citizen from being put through what Meek has endured."

Mill has been imprisoned since November, when Common Pleas Court Judge Genece E. Brinkley sentenced him to two to four years for probation violations related to a decade-old conviction on gun and drug charges.

Her decision sparked immediate outrage among athletes and celebrities, and fans rallied outside the Criminal Justice Center to describe Mill's case as an example of the flaws in the criminal justice system.

Political support soon followed, with Kenney among those who traveled to the prison in Chester to visit Mill, 30, whose legal name is Robert Rihmeek Williams.

Wolf sat with Mill and Rubin at Tuesday's game, an invitation Rubin had extended weeks before Mill's release was secured, said Wolf's campaign manager, but one the governor was nonetheless happy to accept even after Tuesday's developments.

Still, perhaps nothing was more instrumental in facilitating Mill's release than what happened after District Attorney Larry Krasner took office in January.

Krasner, who campaigned on a pledge to reduce the number of people behind bars, disclosed in February that Mill's arresting officer, Reginald V. Graham, was on a list of police officers with credibility questions, something Mill's attorneys said they had not previously been told.

His attorneys then filed paperwork accusing Graham of lying to secure Mill's arrest, and Krasner's office responded by saying it had questions about whether Mill's original conviction should stand. Last week, prosecutors stated in court that Mill was entitled to a new trial and that they did not oppose his release on bail.

Before Tuesday, none of those actions had led to Mill's release because his case lay in the hands of Brinkley. And Mill's legal team for months had accused her of ethical improprieties, which she later described as evidence-free. Late last month, the judge defended her handling of the case, saying: "This court committed no error."

The Supreme Court's order Tuesday said that because the District Attorney's Office had agreed to a new trial and did not oppose Mill's release on bail, the rapper should immediately be released. The order also said that Brinkley  or another Philadelphia judge, if she chooses to recuse herself  should come to a final resolution over the matters still pending in his case within 60 days.

It was not immediately clear whether prosecutors would seek to try Mill again on the original drug and gun charges.

Ben Waxman, a spokesman for Krasner's office, declined to offer further specifics about Mill's case, but noted that prosecutors last week dismissed three other cases built by Graham due to concerns about the officer's credibility.

Such questions were a bit of an afterthought Tuesday. In a video posted to Instagram, Mill recorded himself running onto the helicopter that was departing a prison and headed to a frenzied playoff game. It was captioned simply: "Blessings."

Staff writers Angela Couloumbis and Sarah Todd contributed to this article.
Joe Meloche (left) Superintendent of Cherry Hill Public Schools testifies with Cherry Hill Police Chief William Monaghan (right) before a joint hearing of the N.J. Senate and Assembly Committees on school security earlier this month. Read more

Campus police officers at Cherry Hill's two public high schools began carrying weapons Monday, replacing township police officers who had been assigned to the schools following the massacre at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

Cherry Hill West and East now have two armed officers each, Superintendent Joseph Meloche said in a letter to parents. There have been campus officers at the high schools since the 1980s, but they were not authorized to carry weapons.

The school board approved a policy change last month allowing the officers to carry weapons effective Monday, the superintendent said. The district's security director has been armed since March 28, he said.

Cherry Hill police assigned an armed officer to each of the high schools on March 5 after protests led by students about security concerns in the aftermath of the February school shooting in Florida that left 17 dead. At the time, officials said the officers would remain in place until the end of the school year.

In the letter to parents on Friday, Meloche said arming campus police officers was the next step for the district, which has 19 schools and enrolls about 11,200 students. Next school year, the district plans to hire five additional campus police officers who will be assigned to the middle and elementary schools, he said.

"The safety and security of our children will always remain the primary focus of our responsibility, every day," Meloche wrote.

Police Chief William "Bud" Monaghan said two township police officers will continue to conduct random walk-throughs daily, one at each high school. Three township officers are assigned to the middle schools and four to the elementary schools, he said.

"We will still have a very visible presence," the chief said.

Monaghan said arming the campus police officers was a step in the right direction for the district. Three are retired police officers who are certified by the New Jersey Police Training Commission and undergo regular training with township police, he said. His department provided the officers with weapons, bullet-proof vests, and radio communications systems, he said.

"They're fully-sworn trained police officers, but they work for the school district," Monaghan said Monday. "From our perspective, it's extremely positive. They're more than doubling their force."

In an email Monday, a district spokeswoman said "the school day has progressed as usual at our schools" with the armed campus officers replacing township police.
Rapper Meek Mill, right, arrives at the Criminal Justice Center with his lawyer, Brian McMonagle, on Nov. 6, 2017. Read more

2007

Meek Mill, 19, whose birth name is Robert Rihmeek Williams, is arrested in Southwest Philadelphia on drug and weapons charges.

2008

In a trial before Common Pleas Court Judge Genece E. Brinkley, narcotics officer Reginald V. Graham testifies that he saw Mill sell crack cocaine and pull a gun from his waistband when officers approached. Mill admits having a gun but denies selling drugs or pointing a weapon at police. Brinkley convicts Mill of drug possession, firearms violations, and simple assault. Mill serves five months in jail.

2012

Dec. 17: At a hearing, Brinkley rules that Mill violated the terms of his probation by scheduling performances to promote his first CD, and forbids him from touring for a month. The ruling forces cancellations of concerts in Africa, the Caribbean, and across the United States. "Clearly this court has bent over backwards all these years," Brinkley says, referring to Mill's short six-month jail term.

2013

June 28: Brinkley orders Mill to attend etiquette classes to learn how to act in public and online, and to notify his probation officer when he wants to travel outside Pennsylvania. Mill tells the judge that it was difficult to detail his travel plans because many of his business activities are arranged on short notice.

2014

July 11: Brinkley sentences Mill to three to six months in prison for ignoring her order not to schedule any new concerts between July 1 and Aug. 11. "After all these years of me trying to help him move his career forward  I believe this defendant is basically thumbing his nose at me," Brinkley says.

Aug. 18: Brinkley denies Mill early parole, saying she saw no signs he had changed his ways. "I'm not going to have him thumbing his nose at me every time I turn around," she says.

Dec. 2: Mill is released from jail. Brinkley prohibits him from resuming concerts until he completes a plan of treatment and community service.

2015

March 21: Mill performs a "homecoming" concert at the Wells Fargo Center.

Dec. 14: At a 5-hour probation hearing, Brinkley rules that Mill once again violated parole. She bars him from performing and limits his travel, saying: "I bent over backward to give him every opportunity to grow his career."

2016

Feb. 5: Brinkley sentences Mill to at least 90 days' house arrest.

2017

Aug. 17: Brinkley bars Mill from performing outside Philadelphia or Montgomery County.

Nov. 4: Responding to cancellation of a Mill performance at Syracuse University, students mount a phone and email campaign seeking to convince Brinkley to let him perform.

Nov. 6: Brinkley sentences Mill to two to four years in prison for repeatedly violating his probation, and orders him taken into custody immediately. "I gave you break after break, and you basically just thumbed your nose at this court," Brinkley tells Mill.

Nov. 13: Hundreds of Mill supporters rally outside the Criminal Justice Center. Speakers include 76ers Hall of Famer Julius Erving, Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins, and rappers Rick Ross and Freeway.

Nov. 14: In a legal filing, Mill's lawyers ask Brinkley to disqualify herself from further involvement in his case and to let a new judge reconsider Mill's prison sentence.

Nov. 16: "Stand With Meek Mill" ads appear on billboards and newsstands, and wrapped around SEPTA buses. The ads are paid by Jay-Z's management company and by Michael Rubin, an owner of the 76ers.

2018

Feb. 13: The Inquirer and Daily News report that the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office in 2017 secretly compiled a list of Philadelphia police officers with a history of lying, racial bias, or brutality in a move to block them from testifying in court. On the list was Reginald V. Graham, who arrested Mill in 2007. Prosecutors acknowledge that Mill's lawyers were never told of the list or that Graham was on it.

Feb. 14: A former Philadelphia police officer accuses Graham of lying under oath in 2008 in an effort to put Mill in jail.

March 14: The District Attorney's Office says it would not oppose Mill's release from prison on bail because it has questions about whether the rapper's conviction from a decade ago would withstand his most recent appeal efforts.

March 23: Gov. Wolf tweets his support for Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner's position on Mill.

March 29: In a 48-page opinion, Brinkley writes that she "committed no error" in not recusing herself in Mill's case and that the prison sentence she imposed on him of two to four years "was not manifestly excessive."

April 11: Mayor Kenney visits Meek Mill in prison. A Kenney spokeswoman says the mayor believes that Mill "would better serve the community outside of prison."

April 16: The District Attorney's Office says Mill's conviction should be vacated and he should be granted a new trial, due to questions about the credibility of Graham. It is the first time that prosecutors have publicly said they agree with the claim by Mill's lawyers that his 2007 arrest might have been improper. Brinkley does not immediately vacate the conviction and refuses to hear arguments from Mill's attorneys that he should be let out on bail, scheduling another hearing for June.

April 24: The Pennsylvania Supreme Court orders that Mill should be immediately released from prison on bail.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner was sworn in a little more than 100 days ago.

Now he's asking City Council to give his office a 13 percent raise.

During a two-hour budget hearing at City Hall on Tuesday, an impassioned Krasner said he needs an extra $5 million to modernize his office's technological capabilities, recruit new staffers from more diverse backgrounds, and correct pay inequities that he says have affected women and minorities already employed at the office.

"We need that support," Krasner told Council members. "We need to be able to compensate a staff that has been very much underpaid, we need to equalize discriminatory compensation against women and people of color, and we need to bring in the best and the brightest."

His remarks highlighted a day of budget hearings in which testimony also was provided by leaders of the court system, the Law Department, and the Defender Association of Philadelphia.

But it was Krasner, the first-time prosecutor, who asked for the biggest funding increase, saying his predecessors had allowed the office to become "outdated" and "a Grade-B District Attorney's Office," and had deliberately recruited staff from a limited pool of applicants  problems he believes additional funding can help rectify. Krasner was similarly critical of the office's technological capabilities, saying: "When I walked in and saw the IT in that office, I thought I was back in 1986."

Mayor Kenney, in his budget proposal, had agreed to give Krasner's office an increase of $868,000 for fiscal year 2019, bringing the office's total funding level to $38.2 million. Kenney's spokesman, Mike Dunn, said in an email that "no other independently elected official made a request" of the size Krasner sought, and that the Mayor's Office understands "the District Attorney's concerns, some (but not all) of which he voiced during our conversations while we prepared the budget."

In arguing for an increase more than five times as large as Kenney's proposal, Krasner told Council members  who ultimately control the city's budget  that he wanted to continue quickly reshaping the office internally with aggressive recruitment of lawyers across the country. He said previous administrations recruited from a deliberately small set of law schools and other professional avenues, which left the office without a national reputation to attract the best candidates  something he wants to change.

"This was not actually an accident, this was intentional," Krasner said. "This was the people in charge wanting to replicate themselves."

He also said he believes that many of his policy initiatives, which have been designed to reduce the number of people behind bars, will begin yielding the city savings sooner rather than later.

He pointed to his office's stance on juvenile lifers, each of whom is entitled to a new sentence thanks to a U.S. Supreme Court decision. His office has been suggesting earlier releases for many of the affected inmates than had been granted under former district attorneys. Krasner said that if 100 prisoners are released 10 years earlier than they otherwise would have been, the savings in incarceration costs could almost immediately reach into the millions.

"That's just one of the things we're doing," Krasner said, also highlighting reducing the use of cash bail and seeking shorter sentences for certain crimes.

Few Council members on Tuesday got into the nuts-and-bolts of how and when money might be appropriated. The discussion with Krasner  who was flanked by first assistants Carolyn Engel Temin and Robert Listenbee  revolved around some of his early policy changes, aspirations, and challenges in his quest to revamp the city's criminal justice system.

Other city agencies will have similar budget hearings over the next several weeks. Council is expected to pass a final budget  which could total $4.7 billion  by mid-June.

Staff writer Claudia Vargas contributed to this article.
On paper, Meredith Chapman and Jennair Gerardot had plenty in common.

Both were well-educated, accomplished women with backgrounds in marketing. Both had notable ties to Delaware: Chapman once ran for office there, and worked for much of the last eight years at the University of Delaware. Gerardot lived in Wilmington, and her husband, Mark, briefly worked for the university, too.

Mark Gerardot proved to be another way in which the two women's lives overlapped, police say  and earlier this week, that shared interest turned fatal. According to law enforcement officials, the 49-year-old had been having an affair with Chapman, 33, who was recently named an assistant vice president at Villanova University.

>>LATEST: Before Radnor murder-suicide, Jennair Gerardot begged for marriage help on neighborhood app

Jennair Gerardot caught wind of her husband's relationship, and plotted her response in a series of text messages and emails that made her intentions clear. She wanted revenge.

On Monday, Gerardot, 47, disguised herself by donning a wig, and took a train from Delaware to Radnor, where Chapman lived alone in a three-story brick property on the bucolic-sounding Lowrys Lane.

Chapman wasn't yet home from work. Gerardot broke into her house through a front door, and was careful to clean up the shards of broken glass that had scattered to the floor, according to Radnor Township Police Superintendent William Colarulo. She didn't want Chapman to realize that something was amiss, he said.

When Chapman walked into her house, Gerardot pounced. In the moments that followed, the sound of gunfire jarred this otherwise quiet neighborhood. Residents called police shortly after 7 p.m. to report that they'd heard gunshots.

Officers arrived at the scene within minutes, and were met by an unexpected visitor. Mark Gerardot was standing in Chapman's driveway, and told the cops "my wife might be inside," Radnor Police Lt. Christopher Flanagan said at a Tuesday afternoon news conference.

Once inside, the officers found Chapman dead in the kitchen from a single gunshot wound to the head. Jennair Gerardot was dead, too; she'd committed suicide by turning her Taurus Tracker .357 revolver on herself.

"It's cleared as far as we're concerned," Colarulo said of the shocking murder-suicide.

"You had a man who's married who's having an affair with this other woman. His wife knew that. This was a calculated attack," he said. "She broke into the house. She was lying in wait, and then she shot herself. There were emails and text messages indicating what she planned to do. Detectives are still sorting that out."

Why, then, was Mark Gerardot in the area?

Investigators believe Gerardot might have been told that Chapman was going to meet him for dinner somewhere nearby. When she didn't arrive, "that's when he got concerned and showed up at the house," Colarulo said.

Chapman was married to former Newark City Councilman Luke Chapman, who announced earlier this year that he was not running for a fourth term. He could not be reached for comment. Colarulo said the couple no longer lived together.

Mark Gerardot, who recently worked as the creative director at the University of Delaware, also could not be reached for comment. He left his position at the university earlier this month.

>>READ MORE: Main Line murder-suicide case stands out for its rarity

According to Jennair Gerardot's LinkedIn account, she'd worked as a marketing manager for a South Carolina-based manufacturing company called Circor Instrumentation for five years, but left the company in December. Before that, she and her husband worked at their own marketing and design company, Gerardot & Co.

On her website, Gerardot described herself as a "highly-driven businesswoman" and an "environmentalist at heart" who loved animals and traveling. She wrote that she graduated from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

There was no hint of any marital discord on their Facebook accounts, which showed the couple  who got married in Allen County, Ind., in 1993  smiling together, sometimes posing alongside their golden retrievers. "My birthday present 24/7. I'm a lucky guy," Mark captioned a photo of his wife on Instagram in October 2015.

But then the Chapmans appeared just as much in love on Meredith's Facebook page, where they were shown cuddling together in Paris, on their wedding day, on the beach. "Happy eight years, lukerchapman! Love you," Chapman tweeted at her husband in September.

News of Chapman's death sent shock waves through local political and higher-education communities.

A 2007 graduate of the University of Delaware, Chapman worked for a time at WHYY, where she produced nightly news segments and managed the outlet's website. She later took a job as a communications manager for U.S. Rep. Mike Castle of Delaware, and was thrilled by her time in Washington.

"The fast-pace, excitement and impact of being at the epicenter of our country's government system was inspiring and invigorating every day," Chapman wrote on her website.

In 2010, she returned to the University of Delaware, where she was hired to work as a media relations manager, but quickly advanced. Chapman later got a master's degree in educational technology, taught hundreds of undergraduate and MBA students, and became the university's senior director of marketing.

Chapman even tried her hand at politics, running unsuccessfully for a Delaware state Senate seat as a Republican in 2016. "She was the type of person who you thought was going to help shape the world," Andrew Mitchell, who volunteered on Chapman's campaign, wrote in a Facebook post Tuesday.

Mitchell noted that Chapman had been excited to begin working at Villanova, only for her life to come to a sudden, violent end. "It doesn't make sense," he wrote. "I doubt it ever will."

Chapman loved the color green  her social-media accounts often featured the hashtag "#alwaysthegirlingreen"  and often wore it, her colleagues said. She loved to run and spend time with her dog, Indy. High-heel shoes were another passion.

Melissa DeJoseph was one of the last people to see Chapman alive. They lived just two doors away from each other on Lowrys Lane, and DeJoseph watched from her back porch as Chapman pulled up in her Audi between 5 and 6 p.m. on Monday.

In an interview at her home Tuesday, DeJoseph, 40, retraced Chapman's final seconds. The petite former cheerleader carried a bag as she stepped out of her car and walked toward her redbrick twin house, which bumps up against train tracks for the Norristown High Speed Line. A dresser stood on the curb outside, and a mattress appeared to be propped up inside her enclosed front porch.

DeJoseph didn't see Chapman step inside her house  her line of sight was blocked by some bushes  but she heard what happened next.

Within seconds, noises echoed from Chapman's house. Then came an even louder, sharper sound that left DeJoseph unsettled.

"In my head, I was like, 'Is that a gunshot? No it can't be a gunshot,' " she said.

About an hour later, neighbors began gathering outside, and law enforcement swarmed the neighborhood, which is just blocks from Villanova's campus.

DeJoseph said she initially felt guilty for not having called 911, but she couldn't imagine that a violent crime had occurred on her block, which is home to several young families. DeJoseph said she and her husband met Chapman for the first time Sunday, when she stopped by to introduce herself. She'd only recently moved into the area.

Both Villanova and the University of Delaware offered statements that similarly underscored the heartache felt by those who knew Chapman, while her friends and former colleagues took to social media to try to process their grief.

"She was a beloved professor and a wonderful neighbor," tweeted Emma Lyles, a University of Delaware student.

Erik Raser-Schramm, the chairman of the Delaware Democratic Party, released a statement that read in part: "Like so many Delawareans touched by Meredith, I am devastated to learn of the tragic loss of a dear friend. In the hours since receiving the news, it has been impossible for me to imagine our Delaware without someone so transcendent and committed to service."

Natalie Hines, who graduated from the University of Delaware with a degree in communications in 2015, said Chapman always went out of her way to help students in and out of the classroom and solidified Hines' desire to go into the communications field.

"It was so nice to have a young woman so close to our age to look up to," Hines said. "She had that magical touch of being able to connect with students."

The year after Hines graduated, she and Chapman met for lunch, because Chapman wanted to hear how she was doing in her new job.

"Despite whatever comes out with this story, I don't want anyone to forget about all the people she inspired, especially the young women at UD," Hines said.

Staff writer Dylan Purcell contributed to this article.
Southwest technicians perform ultrasonic inspections of engine fan blades like the one that broke off in Flight 130 last week. Read more

An emergency directive prompted by the Southwest Airlines engine failure that led to an emergency landing in Philadelphia last week means 681 jet engines worldwide must be inspected for signs of weakness in their fan blades, the Federal Aviation Administration said Monday.

The FAA order affects engines that have undergone at least 30,000 takeoff and landing cycles, including 352 in the United States owned by Southwest and other airlines, agency officials said.

Southwest has said it will go further, inspecting the fan blades of all engines like the one that failed last Tuesday, leading to the death of one passenger and the landing at Philadelphia International Airport.

The National Transportation Safety Board says a fan blade on Flight 1380 appears to have broken off due to metal fatigue, ultimately causing engine debris to penetrate the cabin.

Airline technicians have been using ultrasonic equipment to inspect all fan blades of the type used in that aircraft, in an engine type called the CFM56-7B. The airline says that from now on, it will inspect fan blades in its Boeing 737 fleet every 3,000 cycles. So far, the airline says, the inspections have resulted in the cancellation of fewer than 40 of its 4,000 flights each day.

The FAA originally proposed inspections of the fan blades in this type of engine in August 2017, after a fan-blade failure in another Southwest flight. At the time, Southwest officials warned that they would need extra time, as the airline might need to inspect older fan blades that were installed in newer engines not covered by the proposal. Fan blades are sometimes swapped in and out of engines for inspection and maintenance.

Asked if its new inspection order, issued Friday, could potentially overlook any older fan blades installed in newer engines, the agency responded: "The Emergency Airworthiness Directive is considered to be an interim action and was designed to address the engines posing the most immediate risk. We are prepared to issue necessary follow on directive(s) to expand inspections to include additional engines."
Musician Bob Dorough, 94, best known as a composer and performer for ABC's educational series of short cartoons Schoolhouse Rock!, died of natural causes at his Mount Bethel, Pa., home on Monday, his son, Chris, said. Originally a jazz musician, he "set the multiplication tables to music" as musical director for the educational cartoon series between 1973 and 1985, according to his biography.

The cartoons, which returned to the airwaves from 1993 to 1999, focused on teaching children school subjects like history, math, and grammar through songs set to animation. It began in 1971, when Mr. Dorough was approached by an advertising executive to put multiplication tables to music, leading to "Three Is a Magic Number," as well as a Multiplication Rock collection.

By 1973, the project evolved into the now-beloved Schoolhouse Rock! Some of Mr. Dorough's most memorable songs from the series include "Conjunction Junction," "The Shot Heard 'Round the World," and "I'm Just a Bill." According to the Morning Call, Mr. Dorough still performed some of his Schoolhouse Rock! songs in live shows as recently as 2016.

An Arkansas native raised in Texas, Mr. Dorough first began playing music in his high school band, according to The Wrap. He later joined the Special Services Army Band Unit in 1943, and served there through the duration of World War II. After his service, he enrolled at the University of North Texas, where Mr. Dorough earned a music degree before moving to New York City in 1949 to pursue a life in the city's jazz scene.

His first record, Devil May Care, was released in 1956 via the New York-based Bethlehem Records. After its release, Mr. Dorough struck up a relationship with the jazz great Miles Davis and worked with him on tracks including "Blue Xmas," "Nothing Like You," and an instrumental version of Devil May Care's title track.

"I always dug Miles and would go to see him in New York City," Mr. Dorough told the Inquirer in 2016. "But he was a very unapproachable cat. You'd say, 'Hey, Miles, I really dug that set!' and he wouldn't stop. He might glance at you, but he didn't say a word. Years later, I was in L.A., and one of my friends related to me that he actually heard my LP when he was in town doing a three-week engagement, so I took her to the club and met him there, and we became pals for a minute."

In the 1970s, Mr. Dorough began his work on Schoolhouse Rock! As he put it to the Inquirer, he "stumbled into that gig."

"We had a captive audience  every Saturday, kids were eating cereal and watching cartoons, and some of them found Schoolhouse Rock! and got stuck on it," he said. "If it were up to me, it would last forever, because there's always kids."

A funeral is tentatively scheduled for Monday, April 30, in Mount Bethel.

This article contains information from the Associated Press.
Michael D. Healy, 91, an Army major general and highly decorated counterinsurgency expert who retired as the top-ranking Green Beret and a legend in the Special Forces, died April 14 at a hospital in Jacksonville, Fla.

He suffered a heart attack, said his wife, Jacklyn Healy. He had previously undergone two bypass surgeries, and for years wore dog tags that boasted an epithet to ridicule death  which he had evaded in combat during the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

Gen. Healy bore scars on his neck, face, arms, legs and stomach, many of them from covert operations in which he parachuted into remote villages or trekked behind enemy lines in the jungles of Southeast Asia. The details of nearly all his operations, which took him from Cold War Germany to lucrative oil fields in the Middle East, remain shrouded in secrecy. But his brilliance as a counterinsurgency expert was evident in a career that saw him become one of the first Green Berets to achieve the rank of a general.

"There was always one thing about Healy," the novelist and war chronicler James Jones wrote in Viet Journal, his 1974 book about the last months of the Vietnam War. "You knew his aggressive physical courage was monumental, and that his nerves were absolute steel."

The son of a Chicago police officer, Gen. Healy enlisted in the Army at the close of World War II. He commanded a Ranger company during the Korean War and became known as "Iron Mike" for dodging enemy machine-gun fire while leading an assault on a hill.

Gen. Healy joined the Special Forces in 1953, one year after the unit was formally created, and led guerrilla attacks during the Vietnam War that made him an inspiration for John Wayne's character in a patriotic 1968 movie about the conflict, The Green Berets.

He arrived in South Vietnam in 1963, as the United States began expanding the number of military advisers in the country, and served five tours for a total of eight years  a remarkable duration for a soldier of his rank, said Keith Nightingale, a retired Army colonel who served with airborne and Ranger units in Vietnam. "There were probably very few people who understood the war and its issues better than he," Nightingale wrote in an email.

Gen. Healy initially served as the operations officer and senior American adviser to Vietnamese Special Forces, organizing and commanding a battalion-size mercenary unit that bore his name: The Mike Force, short for mobile guerrilla strike force. Mike Forces used indigenous fighters and deployed in hot spots across Vietnam, where they were sometimes outnumbered 4 to 1 by enemy troops.

He was named commander of Special Forces in Vietnam in 1970, in the aftermath of what Time magazine described as "a Vietnam War scandal second only to the My Lai killings," when U.S. troops massacred 500 unarmed civilians.

The incident, known as the Green Beret affair, centered on the killing of an alleged Vietnamese double agent, who was taken into custody by the Green Berets and killed at sea.

The slaying became a national sensation when the Green Beret's commander, Robert B. Rheault, was arrested and charged with murder and conspiracy. The charges against Rheault and seven other Green Berets were dismissed, but resulted in Gen. Healy's taking over the Green Berets at a time when Creighton Abrams, the general overseeing U.S. military operations in Vietnam, was said to be fed up with the unit.

Gen. Healy "was able to resurrect [Special Forces] in Abrams' view," Nightingale said, and effectively brought them "back into the Army" during his nearly 20-month tenure as the unit's commander in Vietnam.

After the last U.S. combat forces were withdrawn from the country in 1973, Gen. Healy played a similar role as commander of what was then the John F. Kennedy Center for Military Assistance at Fort Bragg, N.C., the training center for Special Forces warriors.

According to the center, now known as the Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, Gen. Healy was "charged by the conventional Army to dismantle Special Operations." Instead, he worked to modernize the unit's training regimen, using his experience in Vietnam to create a new emphasis on counterterrorism operations.

In 2015, Gen. Healy was named a distinguished member of the Special Forces Regiment, essentially the unit's hall of fame.

"This is the highest honor that I have ever received, but it's not really mine," he said at the time. "This honor belongs to every soldier I was ever honored and permitted to serve with.  They gave me their hearts and a lot of them, their lives. I never forget them. Every night I speak to them."

Michael Daniel Healy was born in Oak Park, Ill., on June 13, 1926. His father was chief deputy of detectives for the Chicago Police Department and a disciplinarian who insisted Healy and his three brothers eat at the dinner table in coat and tie, seated on the edge of their chairs. The regimen of Army life, he later quipped, "was nothing compared to what we had at home."

He graduated from a Catholic preparatory school in 1945, then enlisted in the Army at Fort Sheridan, Ill., two months before the Japanese surrender ended World War II.

While serving with the Allied occupation forces in postwar Japan, he met and married Jacklyn Maddrix, whose father was a U.S. prosecutor in the military tribunal that tried Japanese leaders for war crimes. In addition to his wife of 69 years, of Jacksonville, survivors include six sons; 10 grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

Gen. Healy's most renowned engagement occurred on his first day of combat during the Korean War, when he parachuted onto the roof of a thatched hut and then rolled into a ditch in the village of Munsan-Ni during an assault on a nearby hill. Nine members of his company were killed in the first three minutes of the attack, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Taking charge from a platoon commander who refused to move, Gen. Healy took four volunteers and soon secured the hill.

Gen. Healy said he killed four or five North Koreans before he was knocked down by a grenade blast, which knocked his carbine from his hands. A North Korean soldier charged him and lodged a bayonet in his leg. Weaponless for the moment, Gen. Healy grasped the North Korean's hands to keep him from striking again. An American medic subsequently shot and killed the soldier.

For his actions in the attack, Gen. Healy was recommended for the Distinguished Service Cross, the Army's second-highest honor. He received the Bronze Star Medal, in what the Tribune described as a case of military politicking over which unit was supposed to have taken the hill.

His other military honors included three awards of the Distinguished Service Medal, two awards of the Silver Star, four awards of the Legion of Merit, and the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Gen. Healy went on to serve in the office of the Army's assistant chief of staff for intelligence, as head of the special warfare operations and foreign intelligence branch. He also held several postings in Vietnam, including brigade commander with the 9th Infantry Division and finally as the top U.S. military official in the country's rugged Central Highlands.

In one of his last Army assignments, he oversaw joint military maneuvers in Ankara, Turkey, before breaking his hip while riding an Arabian stallion.

At the request of Chicago Mayor Jane Byrne, he served briefly in 1981 as the chief of public health and safety for the Chicago Housing Authority, where he was tasked with stemming gang violence at the Cabrini-Green Homes and other housing projects.

He was offered the job within weeks of being mustered out of the Army, after reaching the mandatory retirement age for soldiers who fail to become three-star generals. ("Mike didn't have the West Point ring, or the right schools," one retired general told the Tribune in 1981. "He's from the old school. He's a fighter, not a manager, not a systems analyst.")

Gen. Healy said he was angry that his military career ended when he was 54, and still felt he had more to give. He soon got over that, he told United Press International.

"My only regret is that I can't start all over again," he said. "I'd like to walk in the back gate at Fort Sheridan, like I did almost 36 years ago, and say, 'Yes, sir, I'll go.' "
Provincial departments with similar functions are to merge

Le Thanh Van, a member of the National Assembly Finance and Budget Committee, speaks to VOV online about the pro and cons of merging provincial departments that have similar functions.









Mr. Le Thanh Van













What are your views on the proposal to merge or integrate provincial departments with similar functions?



An important principle in the operation of an office or department is the clear duty for each small group or each staff member. Thats why in my opinion, the most important thing is to have a clear job description for each group member.



Principally speaking, the first thing an office must do is to define its assigned tasks and from that the office management board will decide how many staff they need. All these have already been covered in the Partys Resolution. However, in certain offices, the personnel work has not been done properly. In such cases, in my opinion, the office chief boss should be blamed.



However, thanks to the strained state budget, expenditure pressure and the peoples dissatisfaction with the services that they have received, the Party Central Committee realises that it is high time to restructure municipal/provincial organisations.



According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, 17 provincial departments could be merged while the remaining the Departments of Justice; Natural Resources and Environment; Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs should be organised in the same format. How do you respond to the idea of re-arrangement of provincial departments?



I should say this is an issue concerning the re-arrangement of a specific administrative unit. The proposal of the Ministry of Home Affairs, I feel, could end up retaining the same number of staff and agencies as the departments merge, without requiring departments to seriously review their different functions and assigned missions in order to eliminate redundancies.



The tendency has been that as society becomes bigger and bigger the State becomes smaller and smaller  it means the States functions are being narrowed down, particularly the economic functions. In areas that the State should not control, State control should be eliminated.



In short, the merger plan is aimed at streamlining the State. But what is more important is that we have to ask questions like, are the functions of these departments are appropriate? In my opinion, it is time for us to sit down and draw lessons learned.



Some people have expressed their doubt that the merger may not be better than the status quo. How do you respond to that?



The Resolution of the 6th Plenum of the Party Central Committee and Resolution 39 of the Party Politburo have both talked about the need to streamline the provincial governments organisations.



In my opinion, any public services  if they are not essential, they could be delegated to the society (the people) to do it and this has already been practiced in other countries.



What is more important is the personnel work. If we are able to select a team of capable and reliable provincial leaders, Im confident that everything will go smoothly and there will be no chances for corruption or power abuse to raise their heads.



Some people have raised the idea that the Ministry of Home Affairs should make the decision on the merger of several provincial departments into one, not the Provincial Peoples Council. How do you respond to that suggestion?



Principally speaking, I agree with the Ministry of Home Affairs proposal. It is a fact that Vietnam now has 63 provinces and cities but they dont have the same geographical advantages nor development potential or population distribution. Thats why we should only come up with certain principles and then it is up to the local government to make their own decisions.  VNS






This article originally appeared on the Hayabusa2 Project website and is reposted here with permission.

We are now only a short distance from asteroid Ryugu! On February 26, 2018, an image of Ryugu was successfully captured using the Optical Navigation Camera - Telescopic (ONC-T) onboard Hayabusa2 (story and images here). Although the asteroid can currently only be seen as a bright point, it is very encouraging for the Hayabusa2 Project Members to spot the destination!

Nobody yet knows what Ryugu will look like. Even the Hayabusa2 Project Members and experts from all around the world do not know! This is why we are hosting a contest to ask you all to imagine what Ryugu will be like before Hayabusa2 arrives at the asteroid. But what do we already know about Ryugu, and why is it so hard to know what it looks like? Here I will summarise what you might find helpful when picturing Ryugu.

Note: This explanation is quite long and sometimes a bit technical. For imagining what Ryugu will look like, it may be better not to have your ideas tangled up in all this information! So if you find this a tricky read, feel free to just skip to the last summary.

Introduction

The reason we do not yet understand Ryugu is because asteroids appear only as points even when viewed with a large telescope. This may seem a little strange! How are we able to see the shape of a galaxy tens of millions or even billions of light years away, but we do not know the shape of celestial bodies within our Solar System? Actually, a quick calculation can show you why this is true.

Let's consider an asteroid with size 1 km at the same distance as the Moon, which is about 380,000 km from the Earth. The apparent size (how big it looks to us on Earth) is about 0.5 "arc seconds" or arcsec, which is the size of the angle the asteroid fills on the sky. An angle of 1 second is 1/3600 of a degree, so 0.5 arcsec covers just half that on the sky! Even to large ground-based telescopes (telescopes here on Earth rather than in space), such a small size looks like a point, even when the asteroid is as close as the Moon. Normally, asteroids are much further away than the Moon so they become even smaller points. For comparison, the diameter of the Moon is about 3,500 km, which is about 0.5 degrees (30 minutes or 1800 arcsec) when seen from Earth. The elliptical galaxy, M87, in the Virgo Cluster of galaxies, is a staggering 60 million light years away, but the galaxy is very big and has an apparent size of about 7 minutes (420 arcsec). This is big enough to see the galaxy's shape through a telescope.

So how can we know the shape of an asteroid without travelling much closer? There are two different methods for deciphering the shape at a distance. The first is to estimate the shape by examining changes to the asteroids brightness. Asteroids are bright because they reflect sunlight. Like the Earth, they also rotate on their own axes (they spin). If the asteroid's shape is irregular, the brightness changes as the asteroid rotates and different parts of its body come into view. This data from the change in brightness is called a "light curve" (or "light intensity curve"). By acquiring many light curves, information about the asteroid's rotation (such as the rotation rate and orientation of the rotation axis (direction of spin)) and the shape of the asteroid can be found. The second method for finding the shape uses radar.

An example: Asteroid Itokawa

As an example of how shape-finding works, let's look at the asteroid explored by Hayabusa; the predecessor of Hayabusa2. This was asteroid Itokawa. Itokawa originally had the moniker "1998 SF36" before it was named "Itokawa". We call this code name the "provisional designation" of an asteroid. Although we will not unpick the full meaning of the provisional designation here, the "1998" is easily understood as it refers to the year of discovery.

The asteroid explorer, Hayabusa, also had a code name and was called "MUSES-C" before launch. Many observations of 1998 SF36 were made once the asteroid was chosen as the destination for MUSES-C and one important one was the observation of the light curve.
After a manhunt that swept across Nashville, police in the Tennessee capital on Monday arrested Travis Reinking, the 29-year-old accused of killing four people in a shooting rampage at a Waffle House over the weekend.

Embed from Getty Images

The announcement came nearly 34 hours after the eruption of violence in the Waffle House. A little more than an hour before taking him into custody, police had acknowledged having no confirmed sightings of him and saying they were not even sure if he remained in the area, reports the Washington Post.

That changed suddenly when police received a tip that someone matching Reinkings description was seen heading into a wooded area about a mile from the Waffle House. Detectives marched into the wooden area and found Reinking, who was taken into custody without any incident, they said. When he was captured, police said Reinking was wearing a backpack that held a semiautomatic firearm as well as ammunition.

Authorities say Reinking, wearing nothing but a green jacket, opened fire at the Waffle House restaurant in Antioch, a neighborhood southeast of downtown Nashville, just before 3:30 a.m. Sunday. He got out and immediately began shooting at customers in the parking lot, said Don Aaron, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.

The man kept shooting as he walked inside, shattering the restaurants glass windows. At one point, he stopped, presumably to reload. Thats when police say a customer, James Shaw Jr., lunged at the gunman, wrestled the weapon away from him and tossed it over the counter.

Even with the suspected shooter alive and in police custody, what could have motivated the massacre remained frustratingly unknown, authorities said.
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As snowstorms cropped up one after another early this month, plans for fieldwork stayed on ice.

Even now with warmer temperatures and more consistent sunshine, April planting is pretty much out of the question. But its not too late for farmers to get maximum yields on corn and soybean crops, said University of Minnesota Extension Educator Dave Nicolai.

"The rule of thumb is that once we get beyond the middle of May, were going to start seeing some significant yield loss," said Nicolai. "But at this point, were still engaged and hopeful that we can get into the field in early May."

The ideal planting window for corn in Minnesota and northern Iowa covers the last week in April through the first week in May, said Nicolai, and the window for soybeans immediately follows. From a germination standpoint, soil needs to be 50 degrees for both crops. This years lingering cold weather has kept the frost in the ground longer than normal.

Nicolai said that even once the winter weather has ceased, the ground will need enough time to dry out before farmers will be able to start planting, and even then, hes wary of soil compaction problems.

For growers, there are long days ahead.

"A lot of farmers will be working longer hours, because in some situations, theres still some applying of fertilizer, weed control and tillage that needs to be done," said Nicolai. This year, "the time to do those things has been compressed."

For Dan Brandt, whos been growing soybeans and corn near Eyota for more than 40 years, his 550 acres were still covered with about 6 inches of snow on April 17. Brandt said he cant recall his latest planting date, but he knows its been later than what he expects for this year. That doesnt help him lose less sleep, though.

"The later it gets, the more yield you lose," said Brandt, whose equipment was still inside his shed as of last week. "We usually like to have our corn in by the first of May, and beans right after that. But thats not gonna happen this year."

With the sun continuing to rise to a higher angle and forecasts for warmer weather ahead, Brandt said he thinks the ground wont take long to warm up. But he said if it gets past May 10 and the ground still isnt ready for planting, hell go with a different batch of seed.

"You plan for a normal spring by getting 100, 105-day seed, and you stick with that until something comes up," said Brandt. "Then if it does, you call your seed dealer and say what else you got? Everybody plans for a normal year, and you adjust from there."

Brandt said seed dealers are likely paying attention to the conditions, but hes doubtful they all have enough seed on hand to supply every farmer in need of a new, faster maturing variety.

"If we all had to switch to 85-, 90-day hybrids, that would be a scramble for the seed industry," said Brandt. "Im not sure if theyre ready for it."

When asked if his many years of growing experience helped with the process of adjusting to Mother Nature, Brandt said not at all.

"Just when you think you got it down pat, the good Lord comes and throws a wrench into it," he said.
We havent yet written about the fact that the Left is engaging in the despicable tactic of demonstrating, i.e. committing vandalism, at the home of Chris Cox of the National Rifle Association, and harassing his wifes business. This report comes from the Associated Press:

Protesters are targeting the northern Virginia home of the National Rifle Associations top lobbyist and say the protests will continue. In one case, court records show Patricia Hill of Lincoln, Nebraska, has been charged with misdemeanor destruction of property outside the home of NRA lobbyist Chris Cox.

***

Protesters also conducted a confrontational but peaceful protest April 10 outside Coxs home as well as his wifes nearby decorating business. Libby Locke, a lawyer for the Cox family, said the vandalism included spraying fake blood and defacing the home with stickers.

Catherine Koebel of Roanoke, Virginia, and Amanda Gailey, a professor with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, representing the Great Gun Melt, stood outside Coxs home with a sign reading Chris Cox profits off dead kids. They handed out fliers urging a consumer protest of his wifes business.

We have encountered Ms. Gailey before, when she harassed a conservative college student at the University of Nebraska. I noted that she had tweeted, f*** [our] society, f*** the laws, f*** police officers and f*** the NRA. The asterisks are mine.

Koebel said Courtney Cox, Chris Coxs wife, grabbed a cellphone from her hand and threw it to the ground, injuring Koebels hand in the process. She said she is considering pressing charges through a magistrate.

Democracy presumes a certain level of civility and accommodation among citizens. But how can we coexist with people this awful? Probably the only way to stop liberals from engaging in these disgusting tactics is to do the same to them, but I doubt that we can find conservatives who can match the Left for obnoxiousness, even if we want to.

My only other comment is this: it may be the NRA today, but if Leftists think the tactic is working, they will deploy it against conservatives of all stripes. It is important for all conservatives to stand with Chris Cox and anyone else who is subjected to this contemptible form of protest.
I had the opportunity to meet and chat with North Dakota Rep. Kevin Cramer at a fundraiser this past Friday morning in Minneapolis. Rep. Cramer serves in Congress as North Dakotas at-large representative. With President Trumps support and at his urging, he is running against Democratic incumbent Senator Heidi Heitkamp in the election this November. Not having heard Rep. Cramer speak before, I was extremely impressed. He is personable. He is ebullient. He is smart. He is conservative. I think he is a tremendous candidate.

Having been elected to Congress along with Heitkamp in 2012, Rep. Cramer has compiled a record that stacks up favorably against hers. Indeed, he is already exerting a chilling effect on her.

On April 18 last week, Rep. Cramer issued a statement supporting the confirmation of Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State. His press release stated: While working with Mike on the Energy and Commerce Committee, I witnessed his expert questioning and understanding on diverse policy matters. I am confident he is qualified to uphold this position with his experience in the House, leading the CIA, graduation from Harvard Law, and Military service just to name a few. Mike has earned a swift confirmation by the Senate, and I wish I could vote for him.

On April 19 the Hill reported Heitkamp becomes first Dem to back Pompeo for secretary of State (virtually guaranteeing that he will win confirmation).

See what I mean? Thank you, Rep. Cramer.

The great state of North Dakota should not be represented in the Senate by phony Heidi Heitkamp. (Query: is that the correct nickname?) Trump carried the state in 2016 with 63 percent of the vote. Hillary Clinton couldnt crack 30 percent.

I asked Rep. Cramer on Friday if it wasnt apparent that Heitkamp pretends to be an independent sort of Democrat but votes a strict party line when her vote matters. In response to my question he gave me a case study. Its a case study that he will probably find of use on the campaign trail this fall.

The case involves the 2017 Congressional Review Act resolution to repeal the Obama administrations methane rule. The methane rule is intended adversely to affect North Dakotas interest in the development of its oil and gas resources. Energy development is of course critical to the states incredibly successful economy.

Heitkamp proclaimed herself undecided on the CRA resolution to repeal the rule. She was alone among the states top elected officials in mulling it over as the vote approached. All other North Dakota officials supported repeal. The Democrats and their left-wing environmental activist base opposed it. On this point see the February 2018 account by Michael Sandoval at Western Wire. Sandoval put it this way: Heitkamps fence-sitting prov[ed] a head-scratcher for political observers in the state.

Heitkamp had to wait to see if her vote was needed by the Democrats. When John McCain joined Lindsey Graham and Susan Collins to vote against repeal, it turned out that it was. Heitkamp was then able to make up her mind. Her mind belongs to the Democrats. Heitkamp became the fifty-first and deciding vote against repeal. The Washington Post more or less nails this part of the story in its recap of the vote.

There is much more to be said about this race. Im sure we will have an occasion or two to return to it in due course.
Byron York describes the new standard for evaluating wild allegations against President Trump: Have they been disproved?:

When a political figure is accused of wrongdoing, a conversation begins among journalists, commentators, and public officials. Are the charges true? Can the accusers prove it? Thats the way it normally works. But now, in the case of the Trump dossier  the allegations compiled by a former British spy hired by the Clinton campaign to gather dirt on presidential candidate Donald Trump  the generally accepted standard of justice has been turned on its head. Now, the question is: Can the accused prove the charges false? Increasingly, the presidents critics argue that the dossier is legitimate because it has not been proven untrue.

Byron cites examples:

Not a single revelation in the Steele dossier has been refuted, noted Sen. Dianne Feinstein, top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, in February. In late December, Laurence Tribe, the Harvard law professor, tweeted a message about the allegations against Trump to his followers: Retweet if, like me, youre aware of nothing in the [Trump] dossier that has been shown to be false. The dossier has not been proven false, said MSNBC anchor and former George W. Bush aide Nicolle Wallace in February. More recently, Chuck Todd, moderator of NBCs Meet the Press, asked former CIA Director John Brennan, So far with this dossier, nothing yet has been proven untrue. How significant is that? As Jim Comey has said, I think very famously, these were salacious and unverified allegations, Brennan responded. Just because they were unverified does not mean they were not true.

Comey has also said that its very difficult to prove something didnt happen. John Brennan isnt very bright, but he understands this.

In addition, Comey has said that when Trump asked him to investigate the most salacious allegations in the dossier, he demurred. Indeed, the FBI has never attempted to disprove these allegations.

Moreover, according to the new book Russian Roulette by Michael Isikoff and David Corn, Michael Steele who wrote the dossier doesnt believe the alleged sex episode occurred. He said theres perhaps a 50-50 chance of it being true. And Glenn Simpson, head of the opposition research company that commissioned the dossier, reportedly considered the Russian source for the story a big talker who might have made the sex episode up to impress Steele.

Yet, Sen. Feinstein, Prof. Tribe, John Brennan, and assorted talking heads place on President Trump the burden of disproving salacious allegations not believed even by those who spread them. And they do so despite the fact that Trump asked the FBI to investigate the matter, but the FBI did not.

Most Americans still believe in fair play, including the proposition innocent until proven guilty. Increasingly, they perceive, I think, that President Trump isnt being treated fairly. Defying the odds once again, Trump may well be gaining public sympathy.
Soon after the raid of Michael Cohens office, home, and hotel room, I suggested that Attorney General Sessions now has a role in Trump-related DOJ investigations. This was my analysis:

[Sessions] recused himself from any existing or future investigations of any matters related in any way to the campaigns for President of the United States. This covers the payment made by Cohen to Stormy Daniels during the campaign, even though Sessions almost certainly had no involvement in, or knowledge, of that payment. But the recusal may not extend to other matters as to which the SDNY U.S. Attorney might be investigating Cohen. Indeed, Mueller himself concluded that these matters, whatever they are, fall outside the scope of his Russia-campaign investigation. This suggests that any non-Stormy matters for which Cohen is being targeted do, indeed, fall outside of Sessions recusal. If so, Sessions can involve himself.

Sessions apparently agrees. According to this report from Bloomberg, he has decided against recusing himself from the investigation into Michael Cohen, but will consider stepping back from specific questions tied to the probe.

The Bloomberg report implies that Sessions decision is motivated by the displeasure President Trump has expressed over the attorney generals recusal from the Russia investigation. It ignores the fact that that decision does not entail a full recusal from the Cohen investigation. Nor does the Bloomberg report offer any reason why Sessions should fully recuse himself in this instance.

In fact, Sessions should not recuse himself. Its his job to oversee, at least nominally, all criminal investigations conducted by the Department of Justice. Theres an exception for investigations that pertain to him, such as an investigation of Russian influence in a political campaign in which he served and in which he had contacts (albeit slight) with the Russian ambassador.

But that exception apparently doesnt apply to much (or maybe any) of the investigation of Cohen. Thus, the premise of any claim that Sessions should fully recuse himself from this investigation appears to be that Sessions works for Trump and used to be his friend. However, the attorney general always works for the president, and presidents frequently appoint friends to the post (e.g., President Obama and Eric Holder; President Kennedy and his brother Robert, etc).

The real premise of an argument for recusal is that normal rules dont apply to this president and his appointees  that they are not entitled to exercise the full power of their offices. Indeed, this is the premise of much of what the Resistance argues, including to the Supreme Court in the travel ban case.

Its a profoundly anti-democratic argument  the kind one has come to expect from the modern American left.
On Saturday, the New York Times published an article by technology reporter Nellie Bowles on Campbell Brown, a former TV newswoman who now works for Facebook. The article betrays the authors hostility to conservatism at several points, but what drew attention was this howler:

Once those shows get started, Ms. Brown wants to use Facebooks existing Watch product  a service introduced in 2017 as a premium product with more curation that has nonetheless been flooded with far-right conspiracy programming like Palestinians Pay $400 million Pensions For Terrorist Families  to be a breaking news destination.

Many commentators pointed out that the Palestinian Authority does, indeed, pay pensions to the families of terrorists, and the $400 million figure is correct. Today, the Times ate crow:

An article on Sunday about Campbell Browns role as Facebooks head of news partnerships erroneously included a reference to Palestinian actions as an example of the sort of far-right conspiracy stories that have plagued Facebook. In fact, Palestinian officials have acknowledged providing payments to the families of Palestinians killed while carrying out attacks on Israelis or convicted of terrorist acts and imprisoned in Israel; that is not a conspiracy theory.

Thats a step in the right direction, of course. But note that the correction describes the erroneous Palestinian story as an example of the sort of far-right conspiracy stories that have plagued Facebook. In fact, it was the only example. The corrected paragraph now reads:

Once those shows get started, Ms. Brown wants to use Facebooks existing Watch product  a service introduced in 2017 as a premium product with more curation that has nonetheless been flooded with far-right conspiracy programming  to be a breaking news destination.

If the journalists best example of far-right conspiracy programming on Facebook turned out to be wrong, why should we believe that Facebooks Watch is flooded with such content? And is there far-left conspiracy programming on Watch, too? Or does the Times believe there is no such thing as a far-left conspiracy theory? Some would say that the Times itself has peddled more than a few such theories.

The New York Times suffers from a deep rot that will take much more than an occasional correction to cure.
CAMBRIDGE, England, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Tata Power Company to deploy the Blighter B400 series radars as part of the Indian Government's Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System (CIBMS)

Blighter Surveillance Systems Ltd (http://www.blighter.com), a British designer and manufacturer of electronic-scanning (E-scan) radars and surveillance solutions, has secured its first sale into India for its Blighter B400 series E-scan micro Doppler ground surveillance radars.

The contract was awarded by system integrator Tata Power Company Limited (Strategic Engineering Division) following Blighter's success at a radar/sensor trial organised by India's border management organisation in Gwalior in November/December 2016. The Blighter radars will be deployed by Tata Power during 2018 as part of the Indian Government's Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System (CIBMS).

The CIBMS programme aims to establish a multi-tier security ring - ground surveillance radar, thermal cameras, unattended ground sensors, seismic vibration systems, fences and fence protection systems - to protect the country's long international borders. Pilot projects are already underway as part of this modernisation programme.

Mark Radford, CEO, Blighter Surveillance Systems, said: "This is great news for Blighter in India and further confirmation of the quality of our ultra-reliable, zero-maintenance Blighter B400 series radar. Yet again, our product outperformed all the other radars in a Government-sponsored trial achieving the highest benchmarking performance and top technical score during the evaluation."

The Blighter radar's wide (20-degree) elevation beam was a key feature for the Indian CIBMS project as it ensures that the radar can operate effectively in all terrains allowing the hills, mountains, plains, riverine territories and marshes to be scanned simultaneously, without the need to tilt the radar. The wide beam also provides detection of low flying manned and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and drones.

The solid-state passive electronically scanned array (PESA) radar detects small and slow-moving targets - even in cluttered environments - due to the radar's coactive frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) micro Doppler fast-scan processing.

"Our radar's PESA technology and wide elevation beams are a big advantage for border security and were a key factor in securing this Indian contract," added Mark Radford, "as they allow the radars to be mounted on towers, buildings and other infrastructure and to surveil an area of over 3,000 km (1,800 square miles) in just seconds."

The Blighter B400 E-scan micro Doppler radar delivers a 24x7x365 all-weather persistent surveillance capability. It can detect and track a walking person at 11km (6.8 miles), a crawler at 4.6km (2.9 miles) or a large moving vehicle at 25km (15.5 miles) and then cue a camera system to follow and identify targets.

Blighter Surveillance Systems has now sold hundreds of its E-scan ground surveillance radars across 35 different countries. It has systems deployed along the Korean demilitarised zone (DMZ), on the US Southern border, in several Middle Eastern countries, and now in India too.

Blighter Surveillance Systems delivers an integrated multi-sensor package to system integrators comprising the Blighter radars plus cameras, thermal imagers, trackers and software solutions. Its ITAR-free systems are used worldwide in commercial, government and defence markets in area and asset protection for national border security, homeland security, critical infrastructure protection such as oil and gas facilities, coastal surveillance, and in military applications.

For more information about the Blighter B400 series radar please visit http://www.blighter.com , telephone +44-1223-491122 or email [email protected].

Media photos:

http://www.blighter.com/images/images/pr/2018/blighter-secures-first-e-scan-radar-sale-into-india-high-res.jpg

http://www.blighter.com/images/images/pr/2018/blighter-ceo-mark-radford-right-with-cdr-yvv-prasad-india-business-head-left-high-res.jpg

Data sheet:

http://www.blighter.com/images/pdfs/fact-sheets/blighter-b400-series-radars-fact-sheet.pdf

About Blighter Surveillance Systems Ltd (http://www.blighter.com)

Blighter Surveillance Systems is a world leading designer and manufacturer of electronic-scanning radars and surveillance solutions. Its maintenance free solid state micro Doppler radars are deployed in 35 countries to deliver round the clock all-weather protection along borders, for coastal facilities, at military bases, and to guard critical national infrastructure such as airports, oil and gas facilities and palaces. The radar products include the Blighter B400 series for ground surveillance, the Blighter C400 series for coastal security, the Blighter B202 Mk 2 man-portable radar system for rapid, mobile deployment and the Blighter Revolution 360 radar system for vehicle mounted solutions. Blighter Surveillance Systems Ltd. is based at Great Chesterford on the outskirts of Cambridge, England.

SOURCE Blighter Surveillance Systems
NEW DELHI, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Dalmia Bharat Limited today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ministry of Tourism for adoption of Red Fort monument under the 'Adopt a Heritage' project. With an estimate of over Rs. 5 crores per year, Dalmia Bharat Limited joins 'Monument Mitras' from other various private sector companies to look after the operations and the maintenance of this heritage site for the next five years.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/681292/Dalmia_Bharat_Limited_Logo.jpg )



The MoU was signed in the presence of Chief Guest Shri. K. J. Alphons, Hon'ble Minister of State for Tourism (Independent Charge) and other senior officials of Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Culture and Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

Talking about the signing of MoU, Mr. Puneet Dalmia, Managing Director, Dalmia Bharat Group said, "We are very honoured to have adopted one of the India's top heritage sites. At Dalmia Bharat, we take pride in Indian culture and practise it at the workplace. For us, it is an extension of what we believe in. Adopting a Heritage Project is a unique endeavour by Ministry of Tourism which envisions in developing monuments, heritage and tourist sites across India to enhance their tourism potential and cultural importance. We look forward to adding value to India's heritage sites in every possible manner."

On the occasion, Mr Sundeep Kumar, Executive Director, Dalmia Bharat said, "We are grateful to the Ministry of Tourism for trusting us and giving us this opportunity. With our dedicated efforts we will endeavour to make Red Fort a world-class monument in terms of amenities and experience. Such initiatives will enhance the tourist experience, resulting in more footfalls from both domestic and foreign tourists. With our efforts we will make Indian heritage sites a symbol of pride for all of us."

The first of its kind adoption enables Dalmia Bharat to construct, landscape, illuminate and maintain activities related to provision and development of tourist amenities. This includes various basic and advanced amenities such as public conveniences, clean drinking water, cleanliness of the monument, accessibility for all, signage, cloakroom facilities, illumination and night viewing, surveillance system, tourist facilitation cum interpretation centre among others.

In addition to this, Dalmia Bharat will also introduce other key amenities for the visitors like App based multi lingual Audio-Guide, Digital Interactive Kiosk, Digital (LED) screening, free W-Fi and cafeteria along with souvenir shop which will help in promoting local art and craftsmanship. Keeping in mind easy accessibility to the differently-abled visitors, there will be construction of ramps and differently-abled friendly toilets. Facilities like wheelchair availability, battery-operated vehicles, and braille signages are some of the key additions which will make Red Fort a barrier free monument. Use of advanced surveillance system like PTZ based CCTV cameras will also be installed as permissible guidelines as per ASI. Dalmia Bharat will also assist in controlling the advanced tourist flow management system linked with carrying capacity of the monuments including light and sound shows with regular cultural shows and facilitation of night visits to the monuments.

The 'Adopt a Heritage Scheme' (Apni Dharohar Apni Pehchan Project) was launched by President of India on World Tourism Day (27th September 2017). Under it, Private, Public Sector Companies and Corporate individuals are invited to adopt heritage sites and to take up responsibility for making them and promote sustainable tourism through conservation and development under their Corporate Social Responsibility activities.

About Dalmia Bharat Group

Dalmia Bharat Group (http://www.dalmiabharat.com) is a leading national player in India's core manufacturing sector since 1939. With a turnover of over 10,000 crore it has a leadership position in Cement, Sugar, Refractories. A leader in specialty cements and the country's largest producer of slag cement, Dalmia Bharat is the world's greenest cement company. And a leader in sustainability best practices set to global benchmarks. In generic sugar, the group caters to several marquee brands. It has an enduring and growing customer base in refractories.

Media Contact:

Rashika Kaul

[email protected]

+91-9873411525

Head - Corporate Communications

Dalmia Bharat Group



SOURCE Dalmia Bharat Limited
PUNE, India, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

According to a new market research report "DDoS Protection and Mitigation Market by Component (Hardware Solutions, Software Solutions, and Services), Application Area (Network, Application, Database, and Endpoint), Deployment Mode, Organization Size, Vertical, and Region - Global Forecast to 2023", published by MarketsandMarkets, the DDoS Protection and Mitigation Market size is expected to grow from USD 1.94 Billion in 2018 to USD 4.10 Billion by 2023, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 16.1% during the forecast period.

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Browse 77 market data Tables and 55 Figures spread through 193 Pages and in-depth TOC on "DDoS Protection and Mitigation Market"

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/ddos-protection-mitigation-market-111952874.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report

The DDoS Protection and Mitigation Market is gaining traction, due to the rise in volumetric DDoS attacks that cause traffic congestion by flooding networks with numerous illegitimate network packets.

The high demand for cloud-based and hybrid DDoS protection and mitigation solutions among enterprises is expected to drive the DDoS Protection and Mitigation Market over the next 5 years.

The services segment is expected to play a key role in the DDoS Protection and Mitigation Market.

The services segment is expected to play a vital role in changing the DDoS Protection and Mitigation Market landscape and grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Services offered by DDoS protection and mitigation vendors are classified into professional and managed services. The rise in the demand for DDoS services is due to the need to protect websites, networks, and critical infrastructure devices, as well as, to reduce the downtime and business risks. Cyberattacks on websites are increasing at an alarming rate and have compelled organizations to adopt robust security services for addressing risks in the continuously evolving threat landscape. Services offered by DDoS protection and mitigation vendors help safeguard websites, networks, and layer 3 and layer 7 threats.

Speak To Our analyst @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/speaktoanalyst.asp?id=111952874

The Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) segment is expected to grow at the fastest rate.

In the DDoS Protection and Mitigation Market, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are expected to be the fastest-growing segment, as these enterprises have become the key targets for cyber terrorists or hacktivist. SMEs need to appraise their security systems to effectively close the gaps that slowdown the performance of their servers. Hence, it has become essential for SMEs to incorporate DDoS protection techniques, such as scrubbing services, Border Gateway Protocol(BGP) routing, sinkholing, null routing, and Domain Name Server(DNS) routing.

North America is expected to have the largest market size in the DDoS Protection and Mitigation Market.

North America is expected to have the largest market size in the DDoS Protection and Mitigation Market, due to the growing trends such as Internet of Things (IoT), Internet of Everything (IoE), Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) have brought tremendous growth in the region. Asia Pacific (APAC) is expected to be the fastest-growing region during the forecast period, owing to the factors such as the region has a large number of established SMEs that are growing at an exponential rate and these enterprises are increasingly adopting DDoS protection and mitigation solutions and services. Furthermore, the market in regions such as Middle East and Africa (MEA) and Latin America is expected to grow, due to the increasing technological proliferation across manufacturing, and energy and utilities industry verticals.

Major vendors in the DDoS Protection and Mitigation Market include Arbor Network (US); Akamai Technologies (US); F5 Networks (US); Imperva (US); Radware (Israel); Corero Network Security (US); Neustar (US); Cloudflare (US); Nexusguard (Hong Kong); A10 Networks, (US); Fortinet (US); Huawei Technologies (China); Verisign (US); Zenedge (US), Sucuri (US); SiteLock (US); Flowmon Networks (Czech Republic); StackPath, (US); DOSarrest Internet Security (Canada); Century Link (US) ; NSFOCUS (US); Corsa Technology (Canada); Rackspace (US); Allot (Israel); and Seceon(US).

Know more about DDoS Protection and Mitigation Market:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/ddos-protection-mitigation-market-111952874.html



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SOURCE MarketsandMarkets
#SK Innovation SK Innovation to double EV battery researchers by 2023 South Korean battery maker SK Innovation Co. said Monday that it plans to double the number of researchers to develop electric vehicles (EV) batteries from the current level by 202...
While Hanergy's advances in the thin-film solar industry are well known  it currently holds three world records in the field  many people don't realize that the company has been a pioneer in clean energy for more than 20 years. In fact, Hanergy was originally known for building the world's largest privately-owned hydropower station  the Jin'anqiao Hydropower Station, at a total investment of over RMB20 billion (US$3.2 billion). Constructed at an altitude of 2000 meters, the station's total installed capacity is 3 million KW, generating up to 13 billion KWh on an annual basis.

Based on its early success in developing clean energy, Hanergy set its sights on becoming a global leader in clean energy technology, investing more than US$10 billion to acquire four companies possessing leading thin-film solar technologies. Today, Hanergy is a global champion of clean-energy applications and the undisputed leader in thin-film solar power.

With the recent launch of its upgraded Hantile, which combines thin-film solar panels with traditional roof tiles, Hanergy envisions a new generation of buildings that do not create environmentally damaging emissions by consuming traditional fossil fuels, and actually produce a surplus of clean energy. With each Hantile in use equivalent to planting a single tree, Hanergy is devoted to realizing its vision of a future in which development and a pristine environment are concepts that exist in harmony  rather than conflict  throughout the world.

To further illustrate the environmental impact of a Hantile powered building  for every 100 square meters of Hantile installed on a house or building, the power produced is equivalent to burning 123 tons of coal  meaning that a single "Hantile house" can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 322 tons, sulfur dioxide by 1045 kg and nitrogen oxide by 910 kg  the equivalent of planting 340 trees.

But to be truly disruptive, a clean energy solution needs to combine environmental enlightenment with true economic value  and this why Hantile is an ideal win-win solution for both people and the planet. For families, Hantile can be a valuable income-producing asset  for example, for a residence of 100 square meters, 8.5 KW of installed Hantile capacity would produce over 306 thousand KWh in a 30-year period, equivalent to approximately RMB 266,000 (US$42,253) as per China's power rate or twice the original investment.

Overall, if people calculate the income from power generation, material savings, and energy savings, a Hantile investment can be recovered in as little as 7 years  and with a guaranteed lifetime of 25 years, there is a significant upside  both economically and environmentally.

With these clear advantages, the demand for Hantile is booming  and expected to see exponential growth in China and globally. According to third party numbers, by 2022 the market for Hantile is projected to reach RMB 6,300 billion (US$1,000 billion) in China alone, and the global opportunity is expected to exceed RMB 12,600 billion(US$2,001 billion).

And there is much more to come  with global R&D centers in Beijing, Shenzhen, Silicon Valley and Germany, Hanergy is committed to maintaining a fast pace of innovation, constantly creating new world records in thin-film technology, while pushing the boundaries with high-value clean energy applications for businesses and consumers. Last year, Hanergy have made three new world records in the field of thin-film solar energy research and development and the related mass production conversion rate: the mass production conversion efficiency of gallium arsenide single-junction module is now up to 25.1%; the full-area conversion efficiency of copper indium gallium selenide glass-substrated module is now up to 18.72%; the conversion efficiency of flexible sputtering technique champion module is now up to 17.44%.

Contact:

Mark Lu

+86 (10) 83914567 ext 5259

[email protected]

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20180421/2110969-1

SOURCE Hanergy Holding Group Ltd.
BHUBANESHWAR, India, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

IBC SOLAR, a global leader in photovoltaic (PV) systems and energy storage, has completed a 27 MW (DC) solar plant near Kesinga in the District of Kalahandi/Odisha

While states like Rajasthan, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh already have a large share of solar power with more than 2 Gigawatts installed capacity each, the state of Odisha lags behind with approx. 90 MW installed capacity (by autumn 2017) and has only recently begun to try and pick up speed. With the newly connected PV plant, IBC SOLAR is supporting Odisha to increase its share of solar power by around 30%. This is an important step for the economic development in Odisha and, in particular, for the district of Kalahandi where the new solar plant is situated.

Mr Shailendra Bebortha, Managing Director of IBC Solar in India, explained that this project will bring western Odisha prominently in the solar map of India and contribute to increase the standard of living in the area by creating many local opportunities both during the construction and operations phase. He also expressed his thanks to all the Contractors, State Government departments, SECI, lenders and local public for this success.

IBC SOLARs Sadipali project is part of a 270 MW PV tender floated by Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) in the state of Odisha in August 2016, and a 25-year PPA was awarded to IBC SOLAR through a competitive reverse auction process. Non-recourse project financing was concluded with L&T Infrastructure Finance Company Limited in March 2017. Following the securement of 111 acres of land in August 2017, the local electric power transformation substation had to be upgraded to manage the soon-to-be generated energy, a transmission line for approx. 8 km was built and construction of the solar plant then started in November 2017.

"With this project, we have consolidated a strong know-how in project development, land securitization and grid connection in Odisha, a state with a high potential for solar PV build-up," says Mr. Jose Maria Llopis, CEO of IBC SOLAR Energy GmbH. It is not only the company's largest single location plant, but also its first project in India that was fully developed, financed, constructed and commissioned by IBC SOLAR alone. The solar plant meets the high-quality standards of IBC SOLAR as well as it fulfils stringent international standards of health and safety.

About IBC SOLAR

IBC SOLAR is a leading global provider of photovoltaic and energy storage solutions and services. The company offers complete systems and covers the entire product range from development and planning to the turnkey handover of utility-scale photovoltaic systems and large-scale storage followed by operation and maintenance as well as monitoring services.

As a project developer and general contractor, IBC SOLAR implements and markets major solar projects worldwide. The manufacturer-independent system house guarantees the highest quality for all projects and has currently implemented photovoltaic systems with an output of over 3 gigawatts worldwide.

IBC SOLAR was founded in Bad Staffelstein, Germany in 1982 by Udo Mohrstedt who has managed the company as the Chairman of the Executive Board to date. The group is active internationally with numerous regional companies, sales offices and partner companies in more than 30 countries.

Media Contact:

Somali Dasgupta

[email protected]

+91-9008363400

FleishmanHillard for IBC SOLAR



SOURCE IBC SOLAR
MUMBAI, India, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In today's dynamic and tumultuous environment, the corporate world offers unparalleled opportunities for many. As India's economy liberalizes, it creates opportunities and disruption for companies. Companies in India today are looking for new market opportunities within India and globally. Research has shown that today's companies experience high levels of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity and hyper-connectivity. To control this disruption, and develop entrepreneurial leaders for tomorrow, Imbiber, a specialized educational services company, based in Mumbai, India, is working with Babson Executive Education, located outside Boston, USA and have devised an entrepreneurial program to help Indian corporates scale and globalize their businesses.

Imbiber's Jash Panchamia (Partner) recognizes that entrepreneurial leaders change the dynamics of competition through innovation and digital transformation. Jash says, "As Indian companies are undergoing transformation from being domestic to next generation of multinationals competing on a global scale, they are realizing the need for reskilling their executives to manage and adapt to these challenges. Babson has been recognized as a leading institution which has trained many leaders over the years from different countries that have gone through a similar transformation as India. We are pleased to be working with such a prestigious institution."

The program will be available to all private corporations in India and some of the major focus areas covered by the program will be innovation and experimentation, continuous improvement, mobile and digital business models and intrapreneurial and entrepreneurial leadership. The program will exclusively be headed by Babson's Professor Jay Rao, who has extensive experience in delivering to many global multinationals along with NASA and the U.S. Navy. Professor Rao adds, "This program is customized for leaders in established firms, who will benefit highly from my action-oriented and practical pedagogical techniques of simulations, analysis and discussions based on real life cases and multimedia presentations."

Prof. Rao currently teaches extensively in Babson Executive Education programs and specializes in areas of innovation, implementation and corporate entrepreneurship.

The registration for the program will be rigorous and all applications will undergo a review by the selection committee ensuring all the criteria for the program are met.

About Imbiber

Imbiber is a specialized educational services company providing tailor made solutions for educational institutions and corporates which comprises subject based immersion programs (domestic & international), workshops, executive education programs and bilateral trade interface. We aim to create Imbibers and not students in relevant fields through our experiential programs generally conducted with our large base of Knowledge Partners across Corporates, NGOs, Govt Departments, International Affiliations, etc.

Imbiber also intends to extend services to international groups through their Explore India initiative for educational institutions and businesses outside India to make India a learning base and create emerging market business opportunity for themselves.

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SOURCE Imbiber
JFrog, the DevOps accelerator, today announced the establishment of a new entity. JFrog India, located in Bangalore, will be focused on developing JFrog's new product, JFrog-Insight, and supporting the local customers and community. The team in India is expected to double in size within the next year.

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(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/680916/JFrog_India.jpg )

JFrog joins an increasing number of tech companies in the region as the booming Indian economy continues to grow into one of the world's largest economies. Following last year's acquisition of CloudMunch, the universal DevOps intelligence platform, JFrog has continued to expand its product offerings for developers and grow its team globally. JFrog's fully automated solution for distributing trusted software releases, connects all developers and DevOps engineers to end devices to create a complete solution for Continuous Updates.

JFrog solves critical pieces of the DevOps toolchain, such as safely storing, managing, securing, and distributing all types of binaries, such as collecting key metrics, correlating them across diverse systems, and providing actionable information to improve software update release cycles. JFrog's products are built for companies of all sizes, including startups that want the best foundation for growth, all the way to the largest Fortune 500 enterprises, who get access to all the resources needed to operate flawlessly.

"As JFrog continues its global growth, I'm very excited to announce our newest office in India. There's huge potential with the growing economy. But, as with the rest of the world, it's crucial companies fully embrace DevOps in order to succeed," said Shlomi Ben Haim, CEO and Co-Founder of JFrog. "JFrog will continue to offer leading solutions for enterprises around the globe and we're now looking for our next recruits in India who are passionate about helping companies deliver better software, faster."

About JFrog the "Database of DevOps"

With more than 4,000 customers and over 3 billion downloads per month on its binaries hub, JFrog is the leading universal solution for the management and distribution of software binaries. JFrog's four products, JFrog Artifactory, the Universal Artifact Repository; JFrog Bintray, the Universal Distribution Platform; JFrog Mission Control, for Universal DevOps Flow Management; and JFrog Xray, Universal Component Analyzer, are used by Dev and DevOps engineers worldwide and are available as open-source, on-premise, and SaaS cloud solutions. Customers include some of the world's top brands, such as Amazon, Citi Bank, Credit Suisse, Google, Facebook, Uber, Netflix, Twitter, Adobe, VMware, Slack, and Spotify. The company is privately held and operated from the United States, Israel, India, China, and France. More information can be found at jfrog.com.

JFrog Media Contact:

Lauren Perry

Blonde 2.0 for JFrog

[email protected]

SOURCE JFrog
BEIJING, PARIS and YOKOHAMA, Japan, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

World's Leading Automotive Alliance Joins Didi to Pursue New Mobility Solutions in China

Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi, the world's leading automotive alliance, today announced it is one of the partners of DiDi Auto Alliance (the D-Alliance), which was formed by DiDi Chuxing ('DiDi'), the top Chinese mobile transportation platform.

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The DiDi Auto Alliance is an intelligent ride-sharing alliance initiated by DiDi that empowers and redefines smart mobility. By promoting the new energy automotive industry with partners along the value chain, it aims to unite all members to transform the business model of the automotive industry, and establish itself as the world's largest full-capacity vehicle operator platform.

Ogi Redzic, senior vice president of Connected Vehicles and Mobility Services for Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi said, "We share a common vision with DiDi in our pursuit of clean, safe mobility for all. China is a key market for Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi and we plan to work in close partnership with market leaders like DiDi to shape the future of smart mobility in China."

Cheng Wei, Founder and CEO of DiDi, said, "We will empower our partners by providing collaboration aspects ranging from auto leasing and sales, auto finance, auto service, fleet operation to car-sharing solutions. The goal is to create more value for our partners, user community, and the society."

Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi signed a memorandum of understanding with DiDi in February to explore the possibility of future business cooperation on a new electric vehicle car-sharing program in the People's Republic of China. The memorandum of understanding signed with DiDi is in line with the exploration of new mobility services at the Alliance, including the launch of robo-vehicle ride-hailing services, as part of the Alliance 2022 strategic midterm plan launched last year by Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi.

As the world's largest automotive group in unit sales, the Alliance is accelerating convergence and synergy initiatives in a range of new automotive technologies. By the end of its strategic plan, the Alliance will launch 12 pure electric models worldwide, utilizing common EV platforms and components, while also bringing to market 40 vehicles worldwide with autonomous drive technology and developing robo-vehicle ride-hailing services.

To support this plan, the Alliance also launched Alliance Ventures, a new corporate venture capital fund that plans to invest up to $1 billion to support open innovation over the next five years.

ABOUT RENAULT-NISSAN-MITSUBISHI:

Groupe Renault, Nissan Motor Company and Mitsubishi Motors represent the world's largest automotive alliance. It is the longest-lasting and most productive cross-cultural partnership in the auto industry. Together, the partners more than 10.6 million vehicles in nearly 200 countries in 2017. The member companies are focused on collaboration and maximizing synergies to boost competitiveness. They have strategic collaborations with other automotive groups, including Germany's Daimler and China's Dongfeng. This strategic alliance is the industry leader in zero-emission vehicles and is developing the latest advanced technologies, with plans to offer autonomous drive, connectivity features and services on a wide range of affordable vehicles.

http://www.alliance-2022.com

https://www.alliance-2022.com/ventures/

http://www.media.renault.com

http://www.nissan-newsroom.com

http://www.mitsubishi-motors.com/en/newsrelease/

http://www.DiDichuxing.com/en/

SOURCE Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi
MUMBAI, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Students of the 3-year program will graduate with 2-year Post Study Work Rights in Australia

The Bachelor of Data Science is a futuristic program designed to bridge the ever-widening gap for data scientists. The application-based full-time program, will commence in September 2018, and will be offered at S P Jain Global's campuses in Mumbai and Sydney. Students have the option of studying in Mumbai (year 1) and Sydney (years 2 and 3), or entirely in Sydney (years 1, 2 and 3). An attractive highlight of the program is that students will graduate with a 2-year Post Study Work Rights in Australia. Careers in this emerging field, dubbed the 'sexiest job of the century' by the Harvard Business Review, are in such high demand that they are expected to fetch up to three times Australia's average salary.

The new program is expected to equip students to fill the need for data expertise in practically every field imaginable - from IT, Consulting, and BFSI to Healthcare, Education, Retail, Telecom, and Media. Graduates will be well positioned for careers in data mining, data modelling, data architecture, extraction, transformation, loading development, and business intelligence development, and for roles like Data Scientists, Analysts, Developers, and Consultants.

An exciting option provided to students is a subsidised trip to Silicon Valley, USA, between years 2 and 3, where students will meet key people involved in designing the future.

Speaking on the launch of the program, Dr. Mehregan Mahdavi, Program Director based in Sydney, shared, "It is reported that more data has been created in the past two years than in the entire previous history of the human race. It is also estimated that by 2020, 1.7 megabytes of new data will be created every second for every human being on the planet. Data is everywhere in our lives, and under this evolving scenario, we felt that the time was right to pioneer such an innovative program."

"Through this course, graduates will develop an in-depth understanding of data science and the techniques for analysis of quantitative and qualitative data to arrive at solutions. They will be able to identify patterns in order to predict trends from analysing data from various sectors such as manufacturing, banking and finance, retail and healthcare."

To ensure that the program meets the needs of employers, Dr. Mahdavi, who holds a Doctorate in Computer Science from the University of New South Wales, Australia will collaborate with leading technology experts and academicians drawn from some of the world's top educational institutions including Columbia University, the Indian Institute of Technology, Sussex University, and the Nanyang Technological University.

The program framework will include foundation topics in Statistics and Programming, as well as specialist topics such as Algorithms, Data Structures, Data Integration and Warehousing, Visual Analytics, Programming, Machine Learning, Data Mining, Social Web Analytics, and Big Data Processing. Mandatory capstone projects and internships are included within the coursework to help students gain practical, hands-on experience in identifying and interpreting actionable information from raw data and using them to make informed, mathematically-valid decisions.

Admissions are now open to the program. For more information, please visit http://www.spjain.org .

About S P Jain School of Global Management (S P Jain Global)

S P Jain Global is an Australian technology-led business school with campuses in Dubai, Singapore, Sydney and Mumbai. The School offers a plethora of undergraduate, postgraduate, professional and doctoral programs with a motive towards crafting leaders for the 21st century workplace. Their full-time Global MBA program has received significant recognition in global rankings.

- Forbes: Top 20 Best International 1 year MBAs (2017 - 19)

- The Economist: Top 100 Full-time MBAs Worldwide (2015)

- Forbes: Top 20 Best International Business Schools (2013 - 14)

- Financial Times: Top 100 Global MBA Programs (2011 and 2012)

SP Jain School of Global Management is registered as a Higher Education Provider in Australia. Upon graduation, students receive a degree conferred by SP Jain School of Global Management, Australia. SP Jain's world-class business courses are accredited by the Department of Education/Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA), Australia, and licensed by the Council of Private Education, Singapore and the Knowledge and Human Development Authority, Dubai.

Click here to read more.

For media queries:

Sonali Hingorani

+91-9823162084

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Meena

+91-9823322290

[email protected]

Group Head - Corporate

Blue Ocean IMC Private Limited



Apurva Jivannavar

+91-9870326814

[email protected]



SOURCE S P Jain School of Global Management
"The sustained, robust growth in sales of the first quarter is evidence of the competitiveness of the GAC Motor brand," said Yu Jun, president of GAC Motor. "Standing firm on world-class quality, we aim to build cars with supreme quality and personalized design that elevates the travel experience for everyone. This is the foundation upon which we are building our brand, and will continue our international expansion from."

In the past year, GAC Motor has released new vehicles in the categories of sedan, SUV and minivan that have demonstrated the company's advanced and upgraded capabilities in research and development (R&D), manufacturing and quality. The release of the elite GA8 sedan, luxury GS8 SUV and GM8 minivan has made GAC Motor the first Chinese automaker to cover the mid- to high-end sedan, SUV and minivan markets with a complete layout of luxury Class C vehicles.

The company is also striving to attract skilled global talents and build more comprehensive management system that guarantees production quality in all four links of vehicle production including product R&D, manufacturing, supply chain and marketing and services.

By establishing partnerships with the world's top suppliers such as Aisin Seiki, Michelin, Continental and Faurecia, GAC Motor is fulfilling its commitment to making the best quality vehicles on the basis of its global supply chain system. The company's rapid development is credited to its strategic cooperation with the world's leading suppliers, cutting-edge technology, intelligent and information-based production line layout, and the comprehensive quality assurance system at its world-class factory.

The auto brand has ranked first among all Chinese brands in J.D. Power Asia Pacific's China Initial Quality Study (IQS) for five consecutive years, with the best-selling GS4 SUV ranked third in the compact SUV category in 2017. Its luxurious flagship 7-seat GS8 SUV has received a five-star safety score of 57.7 in the China-New Car Assessment Program (C-NCAP), the highest among all medium-large SUVs in the Chinese market.

In 2018, GAC Motor will release three new models to further enhance the competitiveness of its products in different categories, accelerating the implementation of its international brand strategy.

After its first North America R&D Center in Silicon Valley was up and running, GAC Motor established an advanced design studio in Los Angeles on April 14th. The U.S. version of the GS8, which will be GAC Motor's first model to hit the North American market, has entered the detailed design phase. And after a successful debut at the National Automobile Dealers Association Show last month, GAC Motor will establish a sales company in North America and trading platform in Hong Kong in 2018.

"Our goal is to build a world-class Chinese brand that innovates, manufactures and distributes globally. We always put the quality first and want to create a new image of Chinese brands that have far-reaching influence," said Yu.

GAC Motor will attend Auto China 2018 from April 27 to May 4 at the China International Exhibition Center in Beijing. The company will display at booth number E103 at China International Exhibition Center New Venue. A brand-new minivan model is to make a world debut at the press conference.

About GAC Motor

Founded in 2008, Guangzhou Automobile Group Motor CO., LTD (GAC Motor) is a subsidiary of GAC Group which ranks the 238th among the Fortune Global 500 companies. The company develops and manufactures premium quality vehicles, engines, components and auto accessories. GAC Motor has now ranked the first among all Chinese brands for five consecutive years in J.D. Power Asia Pacific's China Initial Quality Study SM (IQS), demonstrating the company's quality-centric strategy from innovative research and development (R&D), manufacturing to supply chain and sales & services.

For more information, please visit:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GACMotor

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gac_motor

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/gac_motor

Media Contact:

Sukie Wong

+86-186-8058-2829

[email protected]

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SOURCE GAC Motor
New Tableau Creator, Explorer, and Viewer offerings are tailored to user needs, empowering everyone from the sophisticated analyst to the casual business user with Tableau's end-to-end analytics capabilities.

SEATTLE, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Tableau Software (NYSE:DATA) today introduced new offerings that combine new and existing analytical capabilities into packages appropriate for everyone across an organization, regardless of skill level. With a new way to buy and scale Tableau's best-in-class analytics platform, organizations now can cost-effectively achieve a critical objective: enabling the data-driven enterprise by putting the data in the hands of everyone. Tableau Creator, Explorer, and Viewer subscriptions provide tailored combinations of sophisticated analytics and drop-dead simplicity. This allows every customer to create the appropriate mix of analytics capabilities to meet the specific needs of their entire organization. From consuming data and performing ad-hoc analysis from curated data sources, to preparing and developing advanced analysis, the new price offerings cover a wide breadth of powerful capabilities. They also include the newly released data preparation application Tableau Prep, new web authoring capabilities, and the renowned Tableau Desktop. Customers can choose to work on-premises or in the cloud.

Customers can choose to migrate their existing Tableau Server and Desktop installations to the new subscription offerings, available today in the Tableau 2018.1 release. Once migrated, administrators will be able to assign a specific option -- Creator, Explorer, or Viewer -- to each user in their organization, completing the transition process.

"With the unprecedented and accelerating growth of data that customers are experiencing, the need to see and understand data is more important than ever before. Professional analysts, teachers, doctors, project managers, marketers, sellers, developers, factory line workers, recruiters  everyone needs data to make better decisions. Organizations are facing the urgent need to empower their entire workforce to help drive more revenue, reduce costs, provide better service, increase productivity, discover the next scientific breakthrough and even save lives," said Adam Selipsky, CEO at Tableau. "Our new offerings will help entire organizations make analytics ubiquitous, enabling them to tailor the capabilities required for every employee."

High-Value Offerings for Everyone

Tableau's new tailored offerings are designed to deliver more value than ever before, leading with Tableau Creator, which gives full analytics capabilities to analysts and power users. For organizations looking to scale analytics, Tableau Explorer allows self-service analysis of governed data, and Tableau Viewer enables casual users to consume dashboards and visualizations created by others. Tableau's new offerings, available on-premises, in the public cloud or via SaaS, and make it easy to start and to scale. Combined, these offerings provide a complete end-to-end platform with no hidden costs.

Tableau Creator

Tableau Creator provides the full power of the Tableau platform. It helps people uncover insights faster by combining a suite of products for visual and direct data prep, powerful analytics on the web and desktop, and secure collaboration to support their end-to-end analytics workflow. It includes Tableau Desktop, and, at no additional charge, Tableau Prep, a new data preparation product designed to help customers get their data ready for analysis. It also includes a license for Tableau Server or Tableau Online, allowing people to publish and share their work.

Tableau Explorer

Tableau Explorer is perfect for governed self-service analytics. It enables people to create new dashboards based on governed data sources, collaborate with others, and stay on top of data with subscriptions and alerting. This offering enables people to explore trusted data, create their own tailored content, share and collaborate with data, and stay on top of key data points with data driven alerts, all within the convenience of their web browsers.

Tableau Viewer

Tableau Viewer makes it possible for organizations to extend the value of data and analytics across their entire workforce in a very cost-effective manner. It helps people within scaled deployments make data driven decisions based on trusted content by interacting with dashboards and visualizations created by others in a secure, easy-to-use platform. Customers will be able to view and filter dashboards, receive and manage subscriptions to dashboards, and receive data driven alerts, all via mobile and/or the web.

From the choice of SaaS, on-premises, public cloud or hybrid solutions, to enabling the individual analyst as well as the largest enterprise deployments, to a range of subscription choices, Tableau gives organizations the flexibility to buy what they need, when they need it. Likewise, Tableau's new tailored offerings allow people to leverage the power of analytics in a way that is flexible, easy to ramp up, and simple to scale. Entire organizations now have the flexibility to license the role appropriate to the capabilities each person needs at a price that makes sense for them. This reduces the upfront investment and makes it easier than ever to scale best-in-class business intelligence across the organization.

For more information on the new pricing structure, visit online at www.tableau.com/pricing

About Tableau Software

Tableau (NYSE: DATA) helps people see and understand data and explore with limitless visual analytics. Customers can build dashboards and perform ad hoc analyses in just a few clicks. They can share their work with anyone and make an impact on their business. From global enterprises to early-stage startups and small businesses, more than 70,000 customer accounts around the world use Tableau to turn data into actionable insights, and more than 300,000 people use Tableau Public to share public data in their blogs and websites. See how Tableau can help you by downloading the free trial at www.tableau.com/trial.

Tableau and Tableau Software are trademarks of Tableau Software, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. If any such uncertainties materialize or if any of the assumptions prove incorrect, the results of Tableau could differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements we make. All statements other than statements of historical fact could be deemed forward-looking, including any projections of product capabilities, performance, integration and security, or any statements of belief concerning new, planned, or upgraded product features and developments.. These and other important risk factors are included in documents filed with the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including Tableau's most recently filed Form 10-Q, and Annual Report on Form 10-K, and other reports and filings with the SEC and could cause actual results to vary from expectations. Tableau does 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.

Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases, presentations or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase our products and services should make the purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available.

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Related Links

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SOURCE Tableau Software
Mr Chatchai Panyoo, Acting Chief Executive Officer, THAI Smile Airways Co Ltd, revealed that the prize from 2018 TripAdvisor Traveler's Choice Awards has reflected the readiness to compete in the region and is a testament to the hard work and dedication of employees through their heartfelt service which is the concept and value of the organization. THAI Smile also strives to provide the best experience for customers in every touch point and create a superior travel experience for clients in every flight.

"Best Airline in Thailand and Winner of Regional Airline in Asia are the awards we have received for the second consecutive year. We are proud of it and this award is a reflection from our customers who have used our service. It can guarantee the success of THAI Smile that focuses on providing excellent service coupled with the value for money. The cleanliness of the cabin can substantially meet the needs of our customers. This year, we have also won the award for the Winner of Economy Class Airline in Asia for the first time. It is a proven record to the significant marketing position as a full-service airline that is ready for delivering full services and offers maximum comfort to all passengers, especially for serving foods and drinks on board," Mr. Chatchai said.

TripAdvisor is a well-known online travel website that gives members and travelers around the world the opportunity to share their experiences and to rate their favorite airlines around the globe. The ratings are both quantitative and qualitative throughout the period of 12-months. The scores indicate the prominence of both quality of service and worthiness the customers' favor.

Media contact:

THAI Smile Airways

Tapanee Nanthavisai

Tel. +669-1790-4519

Email: [email protected]

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20180424/2113268-1

SOURCE THAI Smile Airways
Frost & Sullivan Webinar Explores the Growth Opportunities of Connected Truck Telematics and the Changing Dynamics in 2018

LONDON, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Frost & Sullivan, the growth partnership company, announced today that it will host a live, complimentary Growth Innovation Leadership (GIL) briefing titled, "Growth Opportunities for Connected Truck TelematicsChanging Dynamics in 2018", on Monday, 30th April 2018 at 4:00 PM BST. The webinar will offer Frost & Sullivan's expert insight from Franck Leveque, Business Unit Leader Mobility Team and Partner at Frost & Sullivan. The webinar will also feature expert commentary from Hilik Stein, CTO & Founder at SafeRide Technologies Ltd and Frank Friesacher, Executive Director - Product Commercialization at Cummins.

Globally, OEMs will look to capitalize on the inclination towards complete digitization as this will have a major bearing on the evolution of the transport and logistics industry post 2018. As the trucking industry moves closer to complete connectivity and pacing gradually towards autonomous technology, data privacy and cyber security takes the center stage. The entry of non-traditional telematics companies, the deepening engagement with smart cities, and the development of open telematics platforms against a backdrop of intensifying digitization will shape market dynamics. Such trends will create notable challenges but, equally, significant opportunities for growth. At the same time, mergers & acquisitions will emerge as a go-to strategy for market leaders to rapidly increase their installed base and fast-track future expansion.

Expert Insight You Don't Want to Miss:

Learn about disruptive trends driving the connected truck telematics market in 2018, and its perceived importance across regions.

Learn about regional market outlooks and implications behind vendors' pursuit of emerging markets and global coverage

Identify the challenges and familiarity of fleet telematics across Europe and Americas from the Essence Frost & Sullivan's Voice of Customer Research.

and Americas from the Essence Frost & Sullivan's Voice of Customer Research. Identify opportunities and market growth indicators of regional fleet telematics players (market share, and Y-o-Y growth)

Learn about the detailed analysis of service revenue and global connected LCV, M/HCV telematics penetration

For more information and to register for the webinar, please click here.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants. For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Contact us: Start the discussion

Press Contact:

Kristi Cekani

Corporate Communications - Frost & Sullivan, Europe

P: +39 (0)2 4851 6133

E: [email protected]

http://www.frost.com

Related Links

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SOURCE Frost & Sullivan
NEW DELHI, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

T&T Group is coming up with their first project at Siddhartha Vihar in Ghaziabad, with claims to revolutionize the real estate sector through this project. "T&T Group is coming with a new revolutionized product. Everyone is talking about Carpet Area, Land Clearance, Club Membership, etc., which is being force fed to the customers in the name of value addition. We are focusing on proper R&D and infusing innovation in the lifestyle of the people who will be residing at our project. Our project is a first-of-its-kind project in India," said Mr. Ankush Tyagi, CEO of T&T Group. There is some excitement and hype that has already been stirred up by T&T Group to know what actually they are coming up with, but it is sure that it is something that we have never seen before.

T&T Group is - what they like to call themselves - "A Techno-Real Estate Company". When asked about how a new start-up in the real estate got the courage to come up with a new project in these times, Mr. Tyagi sufficed his answer in one single word - ' Innovation'.

"There are some basic fundamentals and principles of business that are universal for each sector and Real Estate is no exception. We have to understand that the slowdown in the real estate sector is not due to the decrease in demand and increase in supply; it is because the demand is not met by the right kind of product. And T&T Group is here to bridge the gap and provide the right kind of product," said Mr. Tyagi.

Despite the connotation of 2017 not being good for real estate, the scenario of the housing real estate industry especially in Delhi NCR is on the rise. According to World Investment Report 2016-17, India is the 4th highest country in the world in terms of FDI Inflows. The highest beneficiary for this infusion of capital in the real estate was seen in Delhi NCR as residential property is seeing a rise in demand. There has been a silver line after the slump period, now that the market is filtered from both the supply and demand side. Only the most dependable companies are striving in the market on the basis of genuine leads of buyers who have the actual need. Also, residential property purchase for investment purposes has also seen a hike due to the confidence and interest of NRIs in residential property especially in NCR Region.

One would probably think that real estate in this scenario is not a viable and feasible sector for a start-up and expect to have higher returns.

About T&T Group

Penetrating the Indian real estate market with a vision for revolutionizing the sector with innovation and transparency, T&T is one of the most prominent real estate companies in the Delhi-NCR area. T&T's aim is to change the way people look at real estate, raising the bar on traditional thinking the way it's never been done before. In the pursuit of overall excellence, taking massive steps towards innovating the living experience, T&T follows a strict work ethic and works on providing a transparent dealing environment for its customers and a trustworthy one for its employees. Backed by the power of new-age developers who believe in innovation and tradition alike, T&T believes in deliverance on quality, uncompromised living at a convenient price point for all the sectors of society. Built on values, the T&T family is growing exponentially - building homes with one arm and building healthy relationships with customers, employees, clients, and associates with the other.

Media Contact:

Yashwant Pratap Singh

[email protected]

+91-9999329158

Stratton Leo Communication



SOURCE T&T Group
HYDERABAD, India, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Over 150 exhibitors congregate at South's India's premium energy expo catering by the organisers of Renewable Energy India Expo (REI India)

UBM India, organisers of the Renewable Energy India (REI) Expo concluded the third edition of RenewX, a two-day exhibition (April 13 - 14) in Hyderabad. The expo witnessed a congregation of South India's green economy community to discuss industry trends, challenges and market insights.

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The inaugural ceremony took place in the presence of Shri G. Raghuma Reddy, Chairman and Managing Director, Southern Power Distribution Company of Telangana Ltd.; Shri Ismail Ali Khan, Chairman, Telangana State Electricity Regulatory Commission; Mr. Uday Kiran, Director, Infrastructure, Government & Healthcare, KPMG in India; Mr. Yogesh Mudras, Managing Director, UBM India and Mr. Rajneesh Khattar, Group Director, UBM India amidst an industry gathering.

This year, the show grew in size and depth bringing together over 150 exhibitors that included manufacturers, EPCs, distributors and service providers. In its third edition, RenewX attracted an array of industry leaders and key exhibitors including Renewable Energy Corporation (India) Pvt Ltd., Tata Power Solar, Vikram Solar Limited, Anchor Electricals Pvt. Ltd. (A Panasonic Group Company), Havells India Ltd., Premier Solar, Phocos India, ORB Energy, Canadian Solar Energy Private Limited, Jinko Solar, Jiangsu Goodwe Power Supply Technology Co. Ltd, Ginlong (Solis) Technologies Co Ltd., Oriano Clean Energy Private Limited, SolarEdge, Power One Micro Systems Pvt Ltd., Enectric Projects and Solutions India Pvt Ltd., to name a few.

In its 3rd edition, the expo had dedicated pavilions for Start-ups as well as the Telangana State and China. The Chinese pavilion included firms such as Zhejiang Jinko Solar Co., Ltd; Goodwe Power Supply Technology Co., Ltd; Ginlong (Solis) Technologies Co Ltd.; Anhui Daheng Energy Technology Co., Ltd.; Tbea Xi'an Electric Technology Co. Ltd; and Zhuhai Gmee Solar Equipment Co. among others. Companies from Telangana included organisations such as Sri Savitr Solar Pvt Ltd., Telangana State Renewable Energy Development Corporation Ltd., (TSREDCO); Premier Solar Powertech Pvt Ltd.; Premier Solar Systems Pvt Ltd.; Archimedes Green Energys Pvt. Ltd and Cygni Energy Private Limited. The Start-up pavilion included companies such as RPK Green Trading; Ganco Energy India Pvt Ltd.; and Grace solar Systems amongst others. All of them provided immense value addition and knowledge sharing for visitors.

RenewX was supported by central nodal agencies such as Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd., Telangana State Renewable Energy Development Corporation Ltd., (TSREDCO), Electronic Industries Association of Andhra Pradesh, Skill Council for Green Jobs, Indo-German Energy Support Forum, Indo-German Energy Support Forum, TELMA, The Federation of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FTAPCCI) and Indian Biogas Association (IBA).

Held on the sidelines of the expo was a power-packed two day conference, 'Sourcing the Sun' that focused on integrating Renewables into business, and finding the best solutions and practices to enable the same. The conference also included Case Study Presentations and Technical Presentations to bring forth the experience from the ground and discuss the most pertinent issues in technology.

One of the key highlights this year was the immensely successful Green Job Fair. Held in association with Skill Council for Green Jobs - SCGJ UBM India organised a 'Green Job Fair' to fill in the gaps in the renewable energy market. The fair was meant for graduating students, working professionals, and new entrepreneurs who want to explore opportunities in the clean energy sector and provided opportunities to candidates to work with the leading names in the renewable energy sector across a plethora of job roles.

The expo also saw a full day training workshop on 'Best Practices in Design and Implementation of Solar Power Plants with an Overview of Techniques in Energy Yield Estimation / Forecasting'. This workshop was conducted by Iacharya Silicon Limited in Partnership with Solar Radiation Resource Assessment & Advance Measurement Station (SRRA), a unit under NIWE which is an autonomous unit under Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

Speaking on the successful conclusion of RenewX 2018, Mr. Yogesh Mudras, Managing Director, said, "Four years after it was launched, India's Renewable energy ambition is firmly on track, exceeding the expectations of even the most optimistic advocates of renewables. The government's ambitious goal of achieving 175 GW of renewable power in the country by 2022 has thus caught global interest and will offer massive investment opportunities across the value chain. With the state of Telangana, since its establishment, aggressively supporting solar energy and other states in South India aggressively promoting renewable energy, the region holds promise for the sector with its lucrative and favourable government and industrial policies. RenewX since its inception has been the most comprehensive platform in South India covering innovations, policies and processes in the renewable energy sector. The show just in its third edition has acquired a unique dynamism in terms of robust technology categories, superlative knowledge forums, showcases from coveted brands, and innovative engagements."

India is taking a number of green initiatives and switching to renewable energy for its upcoming major projects. Trade ports, railway stations, and zoos are smartly and creatively being developed to minimise carbon emissions, making the country a fast growing green energy consumer. The country is also receiving aid from its international associates such as France and World Bank to achieve its ambitions. The country's solar installed capacity reached 20 GW in February 2018, 8 times from 2,650 MW on 26 May, 2014. The 20 GW capacity was initially targeted for 2022 but the government achieved the target four years ahead of schedule. On a pan Indian scale, while Telangana has the highest installed solar energy capacity, Andhra Pradesh, and Rajasthan follow closely along with Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Gujarat.

About UBM India:

UBM India is India's leading exhibition organizer that provides the industry with platforms that bring together buyers and sellers from around the world, through a portfolio of exhibitions, content led conferences & seminars. UBM India hosts over 25 large scale exhibitions and 40 conferences across the country every year; thereby enabling trade across multiple industry verticals. A UBM Asia Company, UBM India has offices across Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai. UBM Asia is owned by UBM plc which is listed on the London Stock Exchange. UBM Asia is the leading exhibition organizer in Asia and the biggest commercial organizer in mainland China, India and Malaysia.

For further details, please visit http://www.ubmindia.in.

About UBM plc:

UBM plc is the largest pure-play B2B Events organiser in the world. In an increasingly digital world, the value of connecting on a meaningful, human level has never been more important. At UBM, our deep knowledge and passion for the industry sectors we serve allow us to create valuable experiences where people can succeed. At our events people build relationships, close deals and grow their businesses. Our 3,750+ people, based in more than 20 countries, serve more than 50 different sectors - from fashion to pharmaceutical ingredients. These global networks, skilled, passionate people and market-leading events provide exciting opportunities for business people to achieve their ambitions.

For more information, go to http://www.ubm.com; for UBM corporate news, follow us on Twitter at @UBM, UBM Plc LinkedIn

Media Contact:

Roshni Mitra

UBM India

[email protected]

+91-22-61727000

Mili Lalwani

[email protected]

+91-9833279461

UBM India

SOURCE UBM India Pvt. Ltd.
TRIVANDRUM, India and ALISO VIEJO, California, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

For joint innovation on digital platforms to solve business problems of customers

UST Global, a leading digital technology services company, today announced that it has signed an MoU with the University of Oklahoma by and through the Gallogly College of Engineering, Data Science and Analytics MS program. The MoU will enable joint innovation by UST Global Infinity Labs[TM] and the students on digital platforms to solve business problems of customers.

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UST Global Infinity Labs[TM] 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 MoU will help leverage the academic talent in solving business problems of UST Global's Global 1000 customers. The internship will be for the duration of 3-6 months.

The Infinity Labs[TM] 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 academia. The Infinity Labs[TM] 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.

Sridhar Radhakrishnan, Professor and Director - School of Computer Science, University of Oklahoma, said, "We are excited to partner with UST Global so that our students have the opportunity to work in partnership. The Data Science and Analytics (DSA) MS program prepares students to be leaders in the development of solutions for large complex data science problems. Our rigorous curriculum brings together algorithmic development, programming expertise, advanced analytics, and systems thinking for to drive business decisions in technology-based industries. UST Global's partnership with the OU DSA program recognizes the critical role that corporations can have in building expertise in this rapidly growing discipline."

Commenting on the MoU, Arun Narayanan, Chief Operating Officer, UST Global, said, "UST Global is truly excited to partner with the University of Oklahoma. Some of the brightest minds from both the organizations will work together on creating innovative solutions to solve key business problems. We also believe this partnership will provide the necessary industry exposure to students as they get ready to jumpstart 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:

UST Global

[email protected]

+91-8552944004



SOURCE US Technology International Pvt Ltd
PUNE, India, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

According to the new research report "Wearable Display Market by Product Type (Smart Bands, Smartwatches, Head-Mounted Displays), Display Technology (LED-Backlit LCD, OLED), Panel Type (Rigid, Flexible, Microdisplay), Display Size, Vertical, and Geography - Global Forecast to 2023", published by MarketsandMarkets, the market is expected to reach USD 3.37 Billion by 2023 from USD 1.34 Billion in 2018, at a CAGR of 20.33% between 2018 and 2023. The increased use of flexible OLED displays in smartwatches, rising demand for OLED display for use in smart wearable devices, and technological shift and development of energy-efficient and high-specification display products are the major factors driving the growth of the market.

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Browse 69 market data Tables and 54 Figures spread through 161 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Wearable Display Market - Global Forecast to 2023"

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/wearable-display-market-254908329.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report



Head-mounted displays to hold the largest share of the wearable display market throughout the forecast period

The market for HMDs is likely to grow at a high CAGR between 2018 and 2023 due to their expected use in various upcoming applications. The major application areas of VR healthcare include game-based rehabilitation, mental and behavioral health, neurocognitive assessment and training, and virtual humans. Displays such as OLED and LCDs are increasingly being used in AR/VR devices as they offer reduced response time and better time latency compared with older technologies.

Market for OLED display technology to grow at a higher rate during the forecast period

OLED display panels offer advantages such as small thin form factor, sharp color performance, and low power consumption over LCD panels. OLED-based displays also offer higher refresh rates, better viewing angle, and excellent contrast. Rising awareness about the OLED technology among consumers has prompted makers of smart wearable devices to incorporate this technology in their offerings. These factors are driving the growth of the market for OLED-based wearable displays.

Ask for PDF Brochure @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=254908329

Asia Pacific to hold the major share of the wearable display market throughout the forecast period

Applications such as consumer electronics, industrial, healthcare, and military contribute significantly to the growth of the wearable display market in APAC. The region has become a global focal point for huge investments and business expansions. The region comprises both developed and developing countries; hence it is witnessing major changes in the adoption of new technologies and advancements. Due to the presence of a significant number of wearable display panel manufacturers in the region, there is an increasing adoption of the latest technology-based display devices in APAC.

Major players in the market are Samsung Electronics (South Korea), LG Display (South Korea), AU Optronics (Taiwan), Japan Display (Japan), Sharp (Japan), BOE Technology (China), Tianma Microelectronics (China), Kopin Corporation (US), Truly Semiconductors (China), eMagin Corporation (US), and Hannstar Display (Taiwan), among others.

Know more about the Wearable Display Market:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/wearable-display-market-254908329.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, "Knowledge Store" 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
The theme 'Reflections on the last 20 years' will run throughout the event as AEF stalwarts from the public and private sector are invited back to the Forum to discuss the progress of Africa's energy sector over the last two decades. 61% of the African continent is typically represented at the Forum which welcomes 2,000 c-suite attendees each year for a four-day conference and private exhibition.

Video - https://youtu.be/G7Zq_esYdRQ

20-year Energy Roadmap

Leading organisations such as the World Bank and University of California, Berkeley will present road maps for a self-sustainable Africa to set and monitor future objectives and outcomes from the 20th AEF.

Awards of Recognition are to be presented to individuals who have made a significant contribution to the sector over the 20 years in the 'Africa Energy Forum Hall of Fame.' Programme Director for the Forum Shiddika Mohamed commented, "This milestone would not have been possible without the continued support of the AEF community; their resilience and determination to succeed in the sector is inspirational. It's important to take stock at a milestone like this and give recognition to the individuals and teams behind the achievements."

AEF welcomed almost 2,000 participants to Denmark in 2017 from 77 countries - 33 of those being African. A number of deals took place including announcements from USTDA, World Bank and InfraCo Africa.

View the highlights from the Africa Energy Forum 2017 in Copenhagen

For more information about the Forum:

Contact: Amy Offord | Marketing Manager

Event dates: 19-22 June 2018

Event location: Paradis & Dinarobin Beachcomber Hotels, Mauritius

Organisers: EnergyNet, part of Clarion Events Ltd

Email: AEF@energynet.co.uk, +44(0)20-7384-8068

http://www.africa-energy-forum.com

SOURCE Africa Energy Forum
FELTON, California, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Global Drug Discovery Informatics Market is expected to show a tremendous growth over the forecast period owing to the technological advancements in the field of data mining and analytics regarding structured and unstructured data explosions, and drug development. In addition, the increasing usage of cloud-based services is projected to fuel the growth of this industry.

The continuous advancements in software for the endowment of data visualization, data processing and analysis and data aggregation for the adoption of more automated and integrated lab systems. Thereby, fueling the growth of drug discovery informatics market. Furthermore, the lack of informational technology applications that provides critical attributes of data evaluation and assisting in data aggregation so as to make real-time decisions is presumed to influence research in this sector.

The significant shift from conventional in-vitro drug development to computer aided drug designing as expensive failures of late drug development upsurges the use of in-silico models for early ADME/Toxicity screening is estimated to boost the growth of this sector. Moreover, the increasing disease burden due to growing incidence of chronic diseases such as infectious diseases, oncology, cardiovascular and diabetes is considered to be the major concerns for healthcare and government providers across the globe.

On the basis of workflow, the market is segmented into discovery informatics and development informatics. Discovery informatics is further classified into lead generation informatics and identification and validation informatics assay development informatics. While development informatics is further categorized into FHD preparation, lead optimization, Phase IB/2 informatics, and Phase IA.

Browse 139 page research report with TOC on "Global Drug Discovery Informatics Market" at: https://www.millioninsights.com/industry-reports/drug-discovery-informatics-market

Discovery informatics is estimated to hold the largest market share owing to the presence of a considerable number of in-silico databases and tools which support the process of lead identification and validation. On the other hand, development informatics is expected to witness a significant growth over the decade owing to the continuous progress in the sub-segments that include clinical trial data management software and services.

The market on the basis of mode of service provision is classified into in-house and outsourced informatics. In-house informatics is projected to dominate the market owing to the presence of a large number of information technology platforms among the key players in this region. Outsourced informatics is estimated to witness the fastest growth over the coming six years owing to the rising collaborations between key players and software service provider so as to gain access to in-silicon databases and tools for the therapeutic drug discovery.

On the basis of services, the market is segmented into sequence analysis platform, molecular modeling, docking, and clinical trial data management. The sequence analysis platform is expected to hold the largest market share owing to the high R&D investments for genomic sequencing which provides new avenues in lead identification. In addition, due to the cost effectiveness of sequencing, the adoption rate of it is increasing, thus, resulting in the growth of this market.

Geographically, the key regions identified in this industry include North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East and Africa. North America is estimated to dominate the market owing to the high research and development expenditures in information technology. The growing adoption of innovative objects discovery standards is another factor presumed to propel the growth of this industry. Moreover, the presence of enhanced technological framework is anticipated to boost the market growth.

Asia Pacific is expected to witness the fastest growth over the forecast period owing to the continuous technological advancements in developing countries such as Japan, and China so as to promote the introduction of new drug targets for the reduction of chronic diseases.The key players in this industry are Jubilant Biosys, Boehringer Ingelheim GmBh, Certara, Selvita, Charles River Laboratories, DiscoverX, ChemAxon, and Infosys. Other prominent players are GVK Biosciences, Covance, Albany Molecular Research Inc., Novo Informatics and Collaborative Drug Discovery Inc.

In April 2016, Certara, launched a SIVA (Simcyp in Vitro Analysis) toolkit 2.0 to assist drug development researchers with the analysis of complex in-vitro studies. In March 2016, DiscoverX, launched KILR assay platform for the use in cancer immunotherapy drug development.

Browse reports of similar category available with Million Insights:

Global Drug Discovery Informatics Outlook, by Workflow (Revenue, USD Million, 2012 - 2022)

 Discovery Informatics

 Identification & Validation Informatics Assay Development Informatics

 Lead Generation Informatics

 Development Informatics

 Lead Optimization

 FHD Preparation

 Phase IA Informatics

 Phase IB/2 Informatics

Global Drug Discovery Informatics Outlook, by Mode (Revenue, USD Million, 2012 - 2022)

 In-house Informatics

 Outsourced Informatics

Global Drug Discovery Informatics Outlook, by Services (Revenue, USD Million, 2012 - 2022)

 Sequence Analysis Platforms

 Molecular Modeling

 Docking

 Clinical Trial Data Management

 Others

Drug Discovery Informatics Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2012 - 2022)

 North America

 U.S.

 Canada

 Europe

 Germany

 UK

 Asia Pacific

 China

 Japan

 Latin America

 Brazil

 MEA

 South Africa

About Million Insights:

Million Insights, is a distributor of market research reports, published by premium publishers only. We have a comprehensive market place, that will enable you to compare data points, before you make a purchase. Enabling informed buying, is our motto and we strive hard to ensure that our clients get to browse through multiple samples, prior to an investment. Service flexibility & the fastest response time are two pillars, on which our business model is founded. Our market research report store, includes in-depth reports, from across various industry verticals, such as healthcare, technology, chemicals, food & beverages, consumer goods, material science & automotive.

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SOURCE Million Insights
POZNAN, Poland, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Wuxi Suntech Power Co., Ltd. ("Suntech") announces today that it is showcasing smart solar modules at Green Power 2018 in Poland.

Green power is a trade fair for new energy industries. It gathers representatives of all sectors of RES, constitutes an excellent opportunity to learn about market tendencies and seeks challenges and possibilities in the field of new energy.

Solaredge and Maxim Smart modules which are showcased by Suntech in Green Power 2018 use integrated J-box. Compared to conventional J-box, intelligent J-box with built-in IC optimizes power output. Intelligent IC can be regarded as shunt impedance under shading condition to reduce power loss caused by current mismatch. Built-in intelligent cell optimizer IC avoids negative consequences of any type of mismatch within a panel caused by shading, soiling, aging, unfavorable house orientation, etc. Best-in-class shade tolerance by performing MPPT on individual cell-strings to maximize energy output, elimination of hot spots, which results in minimized panel degradation. Under shading condition, smart modules can increase current and decrease voltage, which rise the total power by 30%.Enables 20% tighter row pitch at same energy production per panel which can effective increase power output, enables 3% more energy output per panel at same row pitch than conventional panel.

Poland is one of the emerging PV market in Europe recent years, the proportion of renewable energy in Poland is only 10% at the moment. There is still a gap to reach the EU's goal of 20% renewable energy by 2020. On the one hand, supported by government, Poland has a plan to increase the PV installation capacity 10 times more than it has now in the next four years. Therefore, the PV market has a greater promotion space to develop in Poland. On the another hand, Poland has special police support in residential PV marketwhich arises the interest of Suntech to invest more resource to develop this field in Poland. Where there is sunshine, there will Suntech present. In line with our original intention, we'll light up the wonderful lives of our human beings with green energy.

SOURCE Wuxi Suntech Power Co., Ltd.
The worlds first crypto bank  The World Bit Bank (WBB)  has reported about obtaining two major licenses, which are going to lay the foundation for providing authorized cryptocurrency-related services.

What do these EU licenses mean to the crypto banks activities?

Banking business is a specific area in global finances with increased responsibility, The World Bit Bank experts say. Thats why there is nothing surprising about the fact that the process of founding and legalizing a bank is rather long and complicated.

Any international or local financial regulator will issue a license only after thoroughly checking all the documents provided by the applicant. The regulators key requirement is the compliance of the banks possibilities and intentions with the national or international law and the watchdogs regulatory documents.

As for The WBB, the situation got even more complicated since the regulators had to deal with using cryptocurrencies in conventional banking operations (credits, financial transactions, currency exchange etc.) for the first time. According to Mattia Rottaggi from Crypto Valley Association (Switzerland), the legal side of the matter is the very thing that is going to lay the foundation for the new future of digital currencies. So, everyone knows how important it is to do it.

This is one of the reasons why the WBB team was so proud to announce that they had obtained the first two licenses. These are significant documents from an international regulator allowing the bank to manage crypto assets and render related services to crypto holders.

The first license  Virtual currency against fiat currency exchange license  gives the bank the right to offer the client a virtual currency wallet (an e-wallet). The second license  Virtual currency wallet service license  allows the bank to exchange cryptocurrencies for fiat money.

The next stages of developing the EUs first cryptocurrency bank

This was the first item on the list of the banks business plan. It was successfully completed by the Wibcoin developer team in time. Now the team is going to proceed to the next steps through revealing the business plan:

- Wibcoin pre-ICO  late April 2018

- developing, testing and putting into operation the software and tools backing the cryptocurrency transactions.

- ICO to collect enough money to develop an international banking network.

- acquiring 9 functioning banks in Europe, North and Latin America, Asia, Japan and Australia and rebranding them to make them a part of the WBB network.

On top of that, the Word Bit Bank project implies creating a complete closed cycle of cryptocurrency services, which is why The WBB will also expand at the expense of a crypto exchange, crypto fund, insurance and leasing companies. Such a financial holding will make it possible to serve international customers in a comprehensive, efficient, and secure manner.

According to Robert Kiyosaki, we are slaves to our habits. So, if we change our habits, our lives will definitely change as well. What are the major achievements of such international brands as Google, Apple, Facebook, Tesla, Bitcoin, Ethereum and others? They gave people some freedom by letting them break away from their old habits and opening new horizons for them.

Whats offered by The World Bit Bank? The same revolution in using cryptocurrencies by moving their usage by millions of miners and investors to the legal side, with legal assurance and guarantees offered by a European bank.

According to Masterforex-V Academy experts, this is a decent and wide-scale idea. Obtaining major banking licenses by The World Bit Bank is the worlds first officially documented success in this field. This testifies to the right choice made by the founders as well as a lot of big steps made in the right direction. These licenses give the Wibcoin investor certain guarantees and show that the wbb.io team has been good at sticking to the plan.

In order to fulfil those ambitious plans, the WBB crypto bank is yet to complete hundreds of current tasks to persuade the community that the team has been moving closer to reaching the goal step by step, which means that the Wibcoin token will grow in value

________________________________________________

Extra info on The World Bit Bank
If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this





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Vacation Rentals in Pensacola Beach We are highly passionate about bringing people from all over to our sugar white sands. It is as much their home as it is ours, whether they live or vacation here. It is truly an incredible honor to see our beautiful beaches recognized all over the world.

Earlier this month, USA Today named Pensacola Beach the Number One Best Beach in Florida. Readers responded to a poll proffered by the newspaper throughout the month of March, and winners were announced on April 6. Southern Rentals and Real Estate is proud to operate along this award-winning area, managing Pensacola Beach vacation rentals, homes, and condos through Southern Vacation Rentals to helping families find their new Gulf Coast home with Southern Real Estate Sales.

The Pensacola News Journal said readers recognized Pensacola Beach for its white, powder-soft sands and busy boardwalk. The sound-side of Pensacola Beach, known as Quietwater Beach, offers clear, shallow waters and gentle waves  a favorite for families with small children. Pensacola Beach is home to some of the most popular restaurants along the Gulf Coast, from The Grand Marlin and Hemingways to the famous Sandshaker Lounge.

We are highly passionate about bringing people from all over to our sugar white sands, said Richard Lamar, General Manager of Southern Rentals and Real Estate. It is as much their home as it is ours, whether they live or vacation here. It is truly an incredible honor to see our beautiful beaches recognized all over the world.

Readers also loved Pensacola Beach for its old Florida feel. Fort Pickens, a historic military site, can be found along the Gulf Islands National Seashore. Fort Pickens is open year-round, and visitors can enjoy fishing, hiking, camping, historic structure tours, and more. Those looking for activities in Pensacola Beach can view Southerns Gulf Coast Guide, which contains information on dining, outdoor fun, and more.

In addition to Pensacola Beach, other Southern Rentals and Real Estate destinations made the cut: Panama City Beach topped the list at #2, Gulf Islands National Seashore, Pensacola at #3, and Navarre Beach at #4. USA Today readers have previously named Gulf Islands National Seashore the Best Florida Attraction in 2018 and Best East Coast Beach in 2016 and 2015.

Also, Southern Living Magazine recognized two of Southerns other areas of operation as The Souths Best Beaches: Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, Alabama, in the #2 spot, and Destin, Florida, as #3. Southern invites visitors to experience the areas for themselves, whether its with a stay at Grande Villa, a Destin vacation home, or in a Gulf Shores condo at Regency Isle #512.

Southern Rentals and Real Estate is a leading provider of vacation rentals, residential leasing, real estate, and property management services in Northwest Florida and Coastal Alabama. Southern represents nearly 1,400 vacation rentals in Pensacola Beach, 30A, Destin, Ft. Walton Beach, Gulf Shores & Fort Morgan, Navarre Beach, Orange Beach, Panama City Beach & Perdido Key, as well as approximately 1,000 long term rentals and valuable real estate listings through RE/MAX Southern. Established in 1995, the company is locally-owned and operated. For more information, visit GoSouthern.com.
intensive programming and highly individualized support that ABA provides is needed for families in the Seattle area. Many programs have extensive waiting lists and as such, many families are not able to access services quickly, something that can have a dramatic positive impact on the family.

Autism Learning Partners (ALP) is a national leader and a full service provider in the treatment of autism and other developmental disabilities and is now serving Seattle and surrounding cities in Washington. ALPs expansion to Seattle, addresses the service gap and alarming rise in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnosis while also developing jobs and training for constituents of Washington State. Operating since 1988 and serving 3,800 families yearly in 10 states, ALP has been a strong proponent of Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA Therapy), the only evidenced based intervention recommended by the US Surgeon General. ABA is the cornerstone of ALPs practice, supported by speech, occupational and physical therapists. Families in Seattle will now have greater access to in-home ABA services, early intervention services, social skills classes and parent training.

ALPs, President and CEO, Jeffrey P. Winter, leads the expansion, with a passion for empowering families and providing access to quality clinical services. Mr. Winter indicates, Were committed to making progress possible for the families in Seattle and surrounding areas by employing the best clinical and local leaders who will put families first. Courtney Nolan, M.Ed., BCBCA, Associate Clinical Director, has more than 15 years of experience in Special Education and will lead our expansion in Seattle. Courtney indicates, Intensive programming and highly individualized support that ABA provides is needed for families in the Seattle area. Many programs have extensive waiting lists and as such, many families are not able to access services quickly, something that can have a dramatic positive impact on their child and family unit as a whole. ALP looks forward to bringing needed resources to Washington State.

Autism Learning Partners will serve as a resource center for families needing services and will invest in a complete clinical and operational infrastructure in Seattle. Families can get assistance navigating the insurance system, find a local ASD diagnosing provider and obtain access to all resources necessary as they enter their journey with ASD. ALP will also empower the local workforce by creating management and Behavioral Technician jobs and training in Seattle.

ALP has also invested in a robust workforce development training program designed to train individuals interested in the special needs field. Under the supervision of Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), Behavior Technicians work one-on-one with individuals with ASD and implement an individualized treatment plan in the home, in schools and in the community. Mr. Winter indicated that a new ALP office, such as Seattle, can often create over 100 jobs in the first couple of years of operation.

The number of ASD diagnosis continues to rise at rapid rates. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) indicates that 1 in 68 children have been diagnosed with ASD (1). Advocates continue to push for quality early intervention services. Research demonstrates, as summarized by the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, high-quality early intervention services can change a child's developmental path and improve outcomes for children, families, and communities (2). ABA services are funded by private insurance and Medicaid, making it easier for families to access services.

Autism Learning Partners has created a strong clinical and operational ASD pipeline to support the local community. ALP is interested in collaborating with families, local medical professionals, pediatricians, early interventions programs and schools who can together, collaborate and make progress possible for families touched by ASD.

Families seeking services or support can contact 855-295-3276 or visit http://www.AutismLearningPartners.com.

About Autism Learning Partners

Autism Learning Partners (ALP) is a private and full service provider specializing in the treatment of autism and other developmental disabilities and has been a national leader in the special needs field for close to 30 years. ALP is headquartered in Glendale, CA, employs over 150 Board Certified Analysts (BCBAs) and Master level supervisors, and has a total workforce of 2,600 Behavior Technicians providing in-home and in-clinic ABA-based care across the country. ALPs services include Applied Behavioral Analysis, speech, occupational, and physical therapies. Autism Learning Partners now offers treatment services in ten states, California, Colorado, Connecticut, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Ohio, Texas and Washington.

Interested in partnering with Autism Learning Partners?

Contact Jeffrey Winter, CEO at jwinter(at)autismlearningpartners.com or (818) 241-6780, or contact Dr. Gina Chang, Chief of Clinical Operations at gchang@autismlearningpartners.com or Courtney Nolan at CNolan@autismlearningpartners.com to discuss collaboration opportunities. For more information visit, http://www.autismlearningpartners.com.

1) https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/data.html

2) http://www.nectac.org/~pdfs/pubs/importanceofearlyintervention.pdf
An annual meeting, one of the many events Adolfson & Peterson Construction has for their employees. Our unique culture sets us apart from other general contractors and is why our employees have an average tenure of over seven years

Adolfson & Peterson Construction (AP) has been awarded a 2018 Top Workplaces honor by The Denver Post. The list is based solely on employee feedback gathered through a third-party survey administered by research partner Energage, LLC (formerly WorkplaceDynamics), a leading provider of technology-based employee engagement tools. The anonymous survey measures several aspects of workplace culture, including alignment, execution, and connection, just to name a few.

The event, considered the Oscars of the HR industry, included a celebration gala with winners across Colorado. AP placed 33 out of 50 in the midsize company category. The Top Workplaces survey reflects the responses of more than 48,000 Colorado workers.

Top Workplaces is more than just recognition, said Doug Claffey, CEO of Energage. Our research shows organizations that earn the award attract better talent, experience lower turnover, and are better equipped to deliver bottom-line results. Their leaders prioritize and carefully craft a healthy workplace culture that supports employee engagement.

Our culture functions on the premise that successful employees make successful clients and projects, said APs Regional President Tom Horsting. We foster an environment of family and growth, seeking to balance personal fulfillment with professional achievement. As a family company, our culture honors traditions and values which were instilled by our founders. Our unique culture sets us apart from other general contractors and is why our employees have an average tenure of over seven years. Im honored by this award and the great team members we have here.

Becoming a Top Workplace isnt something organizations can buy, Claffey said. Its an achievement organizations have worked for and a distinction that gives them a competitive advantage. Its a big deal.

About AP

Adolfson & Peterson Construction (AP) is a U.S.-based, privately held builder that is consistently ranked among the top 50 construction managers and general contractors in the nation. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the company delivers innovative and collaborative building solutions for clients across the country from its regional offices in Dallas, Denver, Minneapolis and Phoenix. Founded in 1946, AP serves clients in the education, healthcare, commercial, municipal, multifamily, hospitality and senior living market sectors. For more information, visit http://www.a-p.com or follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

About Energage, LLC

Headquartered in Exton, Pa., Energage (formerly known as WorkplaceDynamics) is a leading provider of technology-based employee engagement tools that help leaders to unlock potential, inspire performance, and achieve amazing results within their organizations. The research partner behind the Top Workplaces program, Energage has surveyed more than 47,000 organizations representing well over 16 million employees in the United States.
Tenn And Tenn, P.A. congratulates Mary Elizabeth Tenn for being named the 2018 Lawyer of the Year for Family Law in New Hampshire by Best Lawyers in America. Mary previously received the Lawyer of the Year honor for the State of New Hampshire in 2016 and has been recognized regularly in Best Lawyers in America annual ratings.

The Firms partners, James J. Tenn, Jr. (Family Law, Family Law Mediation, Personal Injury  Plaintiffs) and John J. Tenn (Personal Injury  Plaintiffs) also have been recognized in their respective fields by Best Lawyers in America.

Inclusion in Best Lawyers is based upon a rigorous peer review process. Recognition by Best Lawyers symbolizes excellence in practice of law, and is widely regarded by clients and legal professionals as a significant honor. For more than three decades, Best Lawyers publications have been a trusted source for reliable and unbiased legal referrals.

Marys practice includes plaintiffs personal injury matters, family law and business litigation. She is a past-president of the New Hampshire Bar Association and the Manchester Bar Association. Prior to joining Tenn And Tenn, P.A., Mary worked as a trial attorney at Bostons Hale and Dorr, now WilmerHale. She is a graduate of Boston College and Harvard Law School. Mary can be reached at Tenn And Tenn, P.A. in Manchester, NH by calling (603) 624-3700.
Bob Mills Furniture

12621 W Interstate 10

San Antonio, TX 78230-1025

(210) 580-8200 We believe we can bring San Antonio a better way of shopping for furniture and mattresses.

Bob Mills Furniture announces the grand opening of its newest store on May 1, introducing San Antonio to a different way to shop for furniture and mattresses. The new store is opening in a 96,000 square foot building, located in the Fiesta Trails Shopping Center, next to Marshalls and H-E-B on I-10. This is their newest store with eight other locations throughout Texas and Oklahoma.

Bob Mills, President of Bob Mills Furniture, said, Our staff, exceeding 400 people in our eight stores throughout Texas and Oklahoma, are eager to welcome San Antonio as our newest Texas store. This has been an exhilarating experience because we believe we can bring San Antonio a better way of shopping for furniture and mattresses.

We work in a commission-free shopping environment. There are no shopper stalkers at Bob Mills Furniture. Browse as long as you like and get help only when you want it, added Brian Fierro, General Manager of the new San Antonio location.

A Different Way to Shop for Furniture and Mattresses in San Antonio



No Shopper Stalkers: Customers enjoy a comfortable shopping experience in a commission-free environment. Furnishings Sales Hosts enjoy a stable security, so they dont need to fight over customers for a sale.

BedMatch: The revolutionary BedMatch system uses 18 statistical body measurements and over one thousand mathematical calculations to use science to find the right mattress for the individual needs of the customer.

Trained Sleep Advocates: Only Bob Mills Sleep Spa has a full-time Doctor of Chiropractic, Dr. Angie Shepardson, personally training our sleep advocates and guiding customers to a mattress experience tailored to their unique support needs.

Customers Deserve a Bit of Free: For example, with any selected master bedroom group at Bob Mills Furniture, you can get the queen pillow-top mattress set, FREE or, a large flat screen TV with any selected living room set.

Companions Pricing: When choosing a living room, bedroom or dining room set, Companions Pricing helps customers to save by putting "Everything, Together for Less".

60 Months to Pay: Bob Mills Furniture offers their exclusive Bob Mills Get It Now Card giving customers 60 months to pay on any item $500 or more. See store for details.

The showroom, which spans almost 2 acres, is filled with well-known brands such as Flexsteel, England, Daniels Amish and Franklin, with styles from traditional, modern, and transitional to contemporary. The departments are separated by furniture for living room, dining room, bedroom, kids room, area rugs in the Bob Mills Rug Gallery, and the Bob Mills Sleep Spa, our mattress store in San Antonio.

The Bob Mills Furniture store in San Antonio opens for business on April 24. The ribbon cutting ceremony for the Grand Opening will be conducted at 9:45 a.m. on May 1 by the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce.

About Bob Mills Furniture

Bob Mills Furniture Co., L.L.C. opened its doors for business on July 3, 1971. Currently, Bob Mills Furniture has nine locations, one in Oklahoma City, one in Tulsa, and seven in Texas; Amarillo, Lubbock, Midland, Odessa, Temple, Waco and San Antonio. The corporate headquarters is located in Oklahoma City with a distribution center in Fort Worth, Texas. The company employs over 400 employees, many of them working for the company for over 25 years. For more information, visit their website at http://www.BobMillsFurniture.com.
With spring now in full-swing, were certain that these types of accidents are going to skyrocket.

Abundant sunshine as a contributing factor to automobile crashes? It almost defies conventional logic, but there are no shortage of studies and news stories that show how sun glare across the windshield can temporarily blind a driver and cause a tragic accident. Whats more, a recent study found that bright sunlight can even create visual illusions that cause drivers to miscalculate distance. Fortunately, the legal team at Monge & Associates is well-versed on the dangers of sun glare and hopes to offer insight on the issue for motorists hitting the road this spring.

According to a 2017 study in the Maryland-based industry journal Medicine, sun glare was at its worst in the early-afternoon hours. The risk of a life-threatening crash was 16 percent higher during bright sunlight than normal weather, the study states. All told, the study found that increasing awareness surrounding sun glare could help drivers be more cognizant of the possible risks despite their obstructed vision. Scott Monge, attorney at law with Monge & Associates, says that scientific backing of real-world incidents is evidence enough to prove that cautious driving should be adopted.

Sun glare is a very real concern for drivers here in sunny Georgia, said Scott Monge, attorney at law. With spring now in full-swing, were certain that these types of accidents are going to skyrocket.

A look at recent headlines reveals that accidents can occur despite the best efforts of motorists to avoid them. According to a January 2018 article in the Orlando Sentinel, a former Osceola County politician who was riding a bicycle was struck and killed by a driver who could barely see because of glare of the sun. Moreover, the driver was cited for careless driving and has had to make mandatory court appearances because the crash resulted in a death, according to the newspaper. At Monge & Associates, the prevailing belief is that its better to make those appearances with a knowledgeable lawyer representing you than trying to explain to the judge how you simply couldnt see at the time of the crash.

What can drivers concerned about sun glare do? Two simple solutions to improving vision are to pull over and wait for conditions to improve or seek out a pair of specially-designed driving sun glasses. The former method costs nothing except a few minutes of time while the latter with ultraviolet ray protection can easily be purchased online.

If youve been involved in a car crash and suspect poor visibility was at play, its best to consult the legal team at Monge and Associates to gather evidence and interview witnesses who can support your claims. Accidents happen, but victims shouldnt have to shoulder the cost of medical fees if another party was at fault.

About Monge & Associates:

Monge & Associates, located in Atlanta, Georgia, can assist clients recovering from auto accidents, slip-and-fall injuries, nursing home neglect, workers compensation cases and much more. For more information, contact Scott Monge, attorney at law, by calling 800-676-4878 (HURT) or email info@monge.lawyer.
This synergistic effort impacts all of our dealers across the country in terms of revenue and marketing ROI, and has already generated impressive results. -- Lawrence Hamilton, Director of Marketing, Hyundai Auto Canada

Search Optics, a leading global digital marketing provider with expertise in the automotive industry, has announced a partnership with Hyundai Auto Canada Corp. and Innocean Worldwide Canada to implement a first-of-its-kind, fully-integrated digital marketing strategy spanning all of Hyundais dealerships across the Canadian market.

Currently in launch phase, the partnership creates new levels of synergy and establishes a single-source digital marketing solution that drives brand consistency across Corporate, Dealer Advertising Associations (DAA), and Dealership communications on a nationwide scale. Now, dealership marketing efforts will be fully aligned with Brand and DAA initiatives for the first time, with a goal of enabling dealers to meet and exceed their monthly sales targets while also delivering a powerful and connected customer experience.

Its a privilege and honor to partner with Innocean and Hyundai Auto Canada to achieve a level of digital marketing integration that the automotive industry has never seen before, said David Ponn, Chief Executive Officer, Search Optics. Through transparency, trust and shared audience insights, were breaking down the barriers that traditionally prevent OEMs from engaging with their dealers to build effective brand consistency in the market.

The Canadian partnership will align dealer campaigns with Hyundai Auto Canada brand marketing across a variety of digital channels, according to Lawrence Hamilton, Director of Marketing, Hyundai Auto Canada.

Were excited to leverage Search Optics proven track record to implement a program that strategically supports our business goals, said Hamilton. This synergistic effort impacts all of our dealers across the country in terms of revenue and marketing ROI, and has already generated impressive results.

During a three-month pilot program in 2017, a major dealership group achieved a 69% increase in website conversions, an 87% rise in appointment requests, a 50% boost in web traffic, and a 14% jump in sales. These results were realized utilizing the integrated programs full range of channels, including search, display advertising, social media, SEO and analytics.

Were proud to engage in this innovative, results-driven partnership with Search Optics and Hyundai Auto Canada, said Caroline Canlas, Senior Director, Biddable Media, Innocean Worldwide Canada. By uniting all Canadian Hyundai dealerships under the same integrated digital marketing strategy as Corporate and DAA, well be able to amplify our marketing messages, increase the value of our digital media investments, and share powerful audience data insights to better understand the customer journey.

The new partnership marks a deepening of the three companies global business relationship following a successful collaboration on a recent high-impact digital marketing program in the Brazilian market. An Australian market pilot program similar to the Canadian initiative is also in the planning stages, with initiatives in additional global regions likely to follow.

About Search Optics

Celebrating 20 years of business in 2018, Search Optics has earned its status as a leader in global digital marketing. Using an uncommon blend of class-leading technology backed by real people, the company specializes in custom, integrated solutions with an emphasis on outstanding measurable results. With a client base of over 3,000 customers worldwide, Search Optics has offices in the North American, APAC, EMEA and LATAM regions. For more information, please visit http://www.searchoptics.com. You can follow Search Optics on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

About Innocean Worldwide Canada

Innocean Worldwide Canada was started in 2010 with the goal of being a leading innovator of communication solutions that make every human connection more meaningful. Our global network, Innocean Worldwide, has 23 offices in 19 countries with 1780 employees and $3B in media billings. In Canada, Innocean employs over 100 innovators working on strategy, creative, delivery, content and media assignments for our diverse set of clients. We are a true fullservice agency, with a proven ability to adapt and scale to meet the needs of any client. Visit Innocean.ca today or contact us to see what youve been missing.

About Hyundai Auto Canada Corp.

Hyundai Auto Canada, established in 1983 and headquartered in Markham, Ontario, is a subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Company of Korea. Hyundai vehicles are distributed throughout Canada by Hyundai Auto Canada and are sold and serviced through more than 210 dealerships nationwide. Hyundai is also the first to offer its zero-emissions Tucson Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle to Canadian customers. More information about Hyundai and its vehicles can be found at http://www.HyundaiCanada.com.

Media Contacts:

For Search Optics:

Paula Johns

T: 760-522-0941 (M); 760-487-1799 (O)

E: paula(at)paulajohnscommunications.com

For Innocean Worldwide Canada:

Brent Dunn

T: 647-209-1113

E: bdunn(at)innocean.ca

For Hyundai Auto Canada Corp.:

Maxine Roy

T: 905-948-6837

E: mroy(at)hyundaicanada.com
The Foundation for Blended and Online Learning A testament to the growing availability of blended and online learning opportunities, the program's 2018 applicant pool already includes students from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and overseas military families.

Introduced in 2016, the Foundation for Blended and Online Learning's (FBOL) annual scholarship award program remains central to its mission to increase access to, and awareness of, innovative practice and policy transforming America's classrooms and schools. One of three core grant-making areas, FBOL's scholarship awards celebrate graduating high school students who have taken a number of online or blended courses and are matriculating to a two-year, four-year, or vocational college.

A testament to the growing availability of blended and online learning opportunities, the program's 2018 applicant pool already includes students from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and overseas military families.

Amy Valentine, FBOL's executive director, said, "In the past year alone, the number of scholarship applicants benefiting from online and blended learning programs has more than doubled. Sharing their stories and supporting their continued success is greater than our founding mission, it is a tremendous privilege."

Each year, FBOL provides post-secondary support to 30 students without restricting the type of accredited high school attended or higher education destination. From remote communities on the Alaskan shoreline to the country's largest urban school districts, the range of U.S. high schools providing online and blended learning opportunities is represented by traditional public, public charter, private, and parochial institutions.

Over the past two years, FBOL has provided more than three-quarters of a million dollars to support the post-secondary journey of pioneering students from 26 states. While each of their stories is unique, a theme common to all is the profound impact technology-enabled learning environments -- and mindsets -- have had on the lives and futures of children and families throughout the United States.

FBOL's 2018 Student Scholar Award application window is open through 11:59 pm Eastern on Monday, April 30. For more information about the foundation, or to access the scholarship application portal, please visit our website at https://www.blendedandonlinelearning.org.

About the Foundation for Blended and Online Learning

Through scholarships, grants, original research, and strategic partnerships with a diverse cross-section of leaders, the Foundation for Blended and Online Learning is working to close the gap between the pace of technology in daily life and the pace of change in education. By documenting and sharing their stories, our efforts to keep the student, parent, and educator experience central to the conversations about the future of education help ensure that school effectively serves all learners and students can achieve their unique and unbounded potential. Learn more at https://www.blendedandonlinelearning.org.
Dragonfly Receives Grant to Install 3 More Power Tower Charging Stations! You dont want to be locked/cooped up in your (hospital) room, said Jordan Klette-Cusher, Program Officer of the Elsa Heisel Sule Foundation, you want to be connected to the world in one way or another.

Cancer is made worse when you dont have access to family, pets, friends, and the world outside the hospital. Technology is an important tool for patients/families to maintain/manage communications, relationships, life circumstances, responsibilities outside of the hospital, education, and employment. The Elsa Heisel Sule Foundation has awarded a $20,801 grant for The Dragonfly Foundation to provide additional laptops, charging stations, and tablets to Cincinnati Children's Hospitals Cancer & Blood Diseases Institute (CBDI) in Cincinnati and Liberty Township, OH.

Dragonfly has already provided Cincinnati Childrens CBDI with more than 50 laptops, dozens of iPads/tablets and video gaming systems, and an industrial-size, high-end Power Tower charging station. The Sule Foundation grant enables Dragonfly to replace broken and/or obsolete equipment and add additional laptops and tablets for patients and caregivers to use while in the hospital. Dragonfly will also be delivering three additional Power Tower charging stations (valued at $5,240 each for a total of $15,720) to Cincinnati Childrens two CBDI locations, specifically Liberty Centers CBDI Family Lounge, and Cincinnatis Pediatric Waiting Room and Adolescent/Young Adult Waiting Room.

Stress from isolation and missing family/school/work/social opportunities, along with the fear falling behind while in the hospital, makes a horrible situation that much worse. You dont want to be locked/cooped up in your (hospital) room, said Jordan Klette-Cusher, Program Officer of the Elsa Heisel Sule Foundation, you want to be connected to the world in one way or another. (Dragonfly Video Source: https://youtu.be/vOxqzOXxGnQ)

The technology grant Dragonfly received makes this and so much more possible.

Dragonfly is a Cincinnati-based 501c3 nonprofit that helps pediatric cancer and bone marrow transplant patients and their families find strength, courage, and joy. To learn more or to donate, please visit Dragonfly.org.

The Elsa Heisel Sule Foundation is a Charitable Trust established in 2004 by Elsa Sule, a native of Northern Kentucky. For more information, please visit elsasulefoundation.org.
Scriptel Corporation Meeting in an intimate setting like this one truly allows us to serve customers better

The North American Veterinary Community will host its 2018 NAVC Institute for veterinarians May 20-25 at Caribe Royale Orlando.

With an expo hall limited to 40 exhibitors, in total, Scriptel Corporation is eager to showcase its practice management software, patient registration, and electronic signature solutions of benefit to physicians who specialize in animal health.

Meeting with veterinary practice clients in an intimate setting like this one truly allows us to serve them better, says Scriptel President & CEO Stephan Herron.

Were eager to learn more about their individual practices and the unique challenges they faceones well address by helping them improve their ability to deliver clinical care and by expanding their digital workflow capabilities.

Along with demonstrations and information about the companys eSignature capture pad hardware and handwriting recognition software, Scriptel staff will share insights aimed at helping veterinary physicians and their in-house practice staff:



Save time with electronic health records

Save money by reducing print/paper waste

Benefit from eSignature and related technology

Improve patient care for animals and animal owners

Transition quickly to beneficial Citrix-Ready solutions

Scriptel staff will be on handat the 2018 NAVC InstituteMon., May 21, through Thurs., May 24, guiding veterinarians and veterinary practice staff through the paperless technology, document management, and health information management process.

Health IT concerns are universal, explains Steve Sedaker, Dir. of Strategic Marketing for Scriptel. Information security and authentication measures have an impact on everything from how consent forms are handled to the archiving of client records.

Thats true for Scriptel business users of all types and sizes.

According to the NAVC, Institute attendees routinely scour the exhibit hall in search of solutions to long-standing problems which affect their ability to deliver Industry Best service to their own clientele. Sedaker says Scriptel looks forward to engaging in one-one-one conversations with practitioners and practice managers who hope to increase client satisfaction rates and animal wellbeing on a daily basis:

98% of whom are veterinarians themselves

85% of whom make purchasing decisions

82% of whom work with 2+ veterinarians

87% of whom have practiced for 6+ yrs.

Institute attendees are highly experienced. They know exactly what their practices concerns are. Yet, they dont always know how to solve themor which products best suit their individual practice needs. Thats where Scriptel comes in.

Its our job to help them make sense of the technology landscape. We do that by identifying digital signature, capacitive touchscreen, and software packages (like ScripTouch Sign and Save) designed to give their practices a distinct advantage.

Scriptel electronic signature solutions are proven to streamline patient registration, simplify in-house EHR management, and improve care delivery through rugged, reliable, Point-of-Sale (POS) technology backed by Industry Best technical support.

Scriptels no-scratch, glass-surface, electronic signature pads include the ScripTouch Compact LCD and USB-interface equipped ScripTouch Slimline and Desktop LCD signature capture devices. Sign and Save software and apps like mSign help take integration one step further.

The weeklong 2018 NAVC Institute is being held at the Caribe Royale Orlando, which offers one-bedroom suites and two-bedroom villas. The resort is accessible via the Central Florida Greenway and is located at 8101 World Center Drive (32821).

Event details and registration are available at NAVC.com and NAVC.com/Institute.

Veterinarians and veterinary practice staff who are unable to attend the 2018 NAVC Institute can learn more at Scriptel.com. They may also request a free product trial by calling the Scriptels Sales Team at (877) 848-6824.

SCRIPTEL CORPORATION leads the way by advancing rugged, reliable eSignature and signature capture technology. Our Citrix Ready, plug-and-play hardware and software solutions make easy work of document signing, electronic recordkeeping and practice management in Dental, Healthcare, Retail, Tax Prep and other dynamic environments.

Scriptel (est. 1982) has a history of leading through innovation, bringing the first peripheral to mimic superior pen input on an LCD screen to market. Today we produce and provide unmatched support for a full suite of ScripTouch signature pad and workflow products, including EasyScript, ProScript and mSign.

Scriptel is based in Columbus, Ohio, and has deployed more than 3 Million products worldwide. Which of our hardware and software solutions best suit your needs? Find out! Request a 30-Day, Risk-Free Trial at Scriptel.com.

Copyright  2018. Scriptel, ScripTouch, Assist, EasyScript, mSign, OmniScript, ProScript, StaticCap, and Sign and Save, along with their associated logos, are the property of Scriptel Corporation.
Eclair Cinema Multi-Dynamic DCP offers a unique opportunity to assemble all versions of the same film on just one medium, one single DCP, without any significative increase in file size compared to a regular DCI DCP - Cedric Lejeune

Ymagis Group (FR0011471291, MAGIS, PEA-PME, TECH 40), the European specialist in digital technologies for the cinema industry, is pleased to announce today at CinemaCon the launch of its new HTM (Hybrid Tone Mapping) technology, which enables the optimized storage of two or more versions  SDR (Standard Dynamic Range) and HDR (High Dynamic Range)  of a same feature film in a single SMPTE-compliant (Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers) DCP (Digital Cinema Package).

The patent-pending HTM solution offers a multi-display DCP (MD DCP  Multi-dynamic Digital Cinema Package) that comes with a special software, MD Map (Multi-dynamic Mapping), that is easily integrated in projection systems through regular updates, as well as current or future LED displays. MD DCPs are fully compatible with all types of projection systems and LED cinema screens.

By incorporating specific settings in the DCP, the same content can be played via a standard projection system in SDR format as well as in HDR, whether the equipment is an EclairColor HDR-certified projector or simply HDR-ready. HTM technology allows the system to read the same group of files by automatically selecting the correct version of the film that matches the projection systems or existing LED displays technical specifications. Each version of the film gives filmmakers full artistic control over the content knowing that the HTM technology allows to combine an automatic adaption of the signal with the settings done by the color grader at the postproduction stage.

The way distribution companies work today implies the multiplication of DCPs to adapt to the different screening environments of movie theaters, which is quite a constraint, explains Cedric Lejeune, Vice President of Technology & Innovation at Eclair. MD DCP offers a unique opportunity to assemble all versions of the same film on just one medium, one single DCP, without any significative increase in file size compared to a regular DCI DCP. This enhancement represents a great competitive advantage for both distributors and exhibitors. With this new, smart DCP, they can adopt HDR solutions like EclairColor HDR while simplifying the supply chain in a bold way. Without altering any aspect of the artistic choices made by the filmmaker or the director of photography, HDR and SDR versions are merged in an intelligent manner on one DCP. Movies can be projected from a single media fully compatible with the SMPTE standard and fit any type of existing display technology.

Today, for each film release, distributors need to provide hundreds of versions due to the various different technical and language versions, comments Jean Mizrahi, co-Founder and President of Ymagis Group. Thanks to Eclair's talented engineers, we are launching a singular smart solution that provides one DCP that is entirely compatible with projection system and LED display capabilities. The number of DCPs required is therefore greatly reduced. The HTM technology will facilitate the adoption of the HDR image in movie theaters. It can be used with both digital cinema projection systems installed at the beginning of the digital transition all the way to EclairColor-certified high contrast projection systems and EclairColor-certified high contrast LED Cinema Screens. With such flexibility, MD DCP paves the way to a flexible and staggered migration of movie theaters toward HDR technology.

ABOUT YMAGIS GROUP

Founded in 2007 and managed by professionals from the motion picture and high-tech industries, Ymagis Group is a European leader in advanced digital technology services for the cinema industry. Through its two business units CinemaNext and Eclair, the Group provides smart, comprehensive solutions to movie exhibitors, distributors (feature films & event cinema), producers, rights holders, cinema/TV advertising networks, broadcasters, OTT channels and video publishers. Over the years, Ymagis Group has significantly expanded its portfolio of solutions & services and further developed its geographic footprint in Europe with permanent offices in 26 countries. The companys core business is structured around three main units: CinemaNext (exhibitor services: sales and field services, software solutions, customer service/NOC and consulting), Eclair (content services: post-production, theatrical delivery, digital distribution, versioning and accessibility, restoration and preservation) and Ymagis (VPF & financial services). A publicly-traded company listed on Euronext, Ymagis Group is headquartered in Paris (France) and has close to 800 employees. For more information, please connect to http://www.ymagis.com, http://www.cinemanext.com or http://www.eclair.digital
On Wednesday, May 2, TEDxLadyBirdLake will host an event at the Austin Central Library from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. This independently organized event, licensed by TED, will feature local voices stemming from Austin talking about what fuels their passions and what keeps Austin weird.

Launched in 2009, TEDx is a program of locally organized events that bring the community together to share a TED-like experience. Some of the best talks from TEDx events have gone on to be featured on TED.com and garnered millions of views from audiences across the globe.

TEDxLadyBirdLake is excited to shed light on how Austin has become a new hub for innovation and growth that is in large part fueled by the resilient and out of the box mentality of Keeping Austin Weird. As a result, this mentality of Keeping Austin Weird feeds the inner drive and passions of the many diverse and wonderfully creative voices that make up the Austin community.

Due to the efforts of Executive Producers Cassaundra and Alba Melgar-CDe Baca, team members, corporate sponsors, and the TED community, a multitude of talented speakers are coming together to share how their innovative drive adds to the beautifully diverse canvas that is Austin.

"Through our corporate sponsors, the new TEDxLadyBirdLake is positioned as an integral part of the TED community, bringing together new ideas from an extraordinary group of thinkers, visionaries, and life long learners to ignite a platform where one idea shared can change the course of the future, said Barbara Kelso, Executive Director of TEDxLadyBirdLake. We invite any company interested in supporting the TEDx community to join our rooster of select companies who are helping us Keep It Weird in Austin, Texas."

Speakers at TEDxLadyBirdLake include:



Kendall and John Antonelli  Founders and owners of Antonellis Cheese Shop

Rod Hairston  CEO and chairman of Trusum Visions

Daniel Alarik  Military Veteran, Army drill sergeant, and entrepreneur

TEDxLadyBirdLake sponsors include: Intrepid Global Solutions, Audience Generation, Kelso Consultants, VETTED, Mary Taylor Productions, Media Tech Labs, Your 6, and Pied Parker.

For more information about TEDxLadyBirdLake and the full line-up of speakers, please visit: https://www.ted.com/tedx/events/23695

About TEDx, x = independently organized event

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TED Talks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.

About TED

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or fewer) delivered by todays leading thinkers and doers. Many of these talks are given at TEDs annual conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, and made available, free, on TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Monica Lewinsky, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Sal Khan and Daniel Kahneman.

TED's open and free initiatives for spreading ideas include TED.com, where new TED Talk videos are posted daily; the Open Translation Project, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as translations from thousands of volunteers worldwide; the educational initiative TED-Ed; the annual million-dollar TED Prize, which funds exceptional individuals with a wish, or idea, to create change in the world; TEDx, which provides licenses to thousands of individuals and groups who host local, self-organized TED-style events around the world; and the TED Fellows program, which selects innovators from around the globe to amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities.

Follow TED on Twitter at http://twitter.com/TEDTalks, or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TED

For information about TED's upcoming conferences, visit http://www.ted.com/registration

Release Issued by Audience Generation, LLC

Audience Generation is a forward-thinking agency at the forefront of the digital revolution and is a nationally and internationally recognized provider of integrated marketing, advertising, and technology services and solutions that offer a new way to find, generate, and engage live, online, social, and mobile audiences where they exist on demand.

Audience Generation is known for its creative strategy, actionable solutions and measurable approach to transforming the ways brands interact with their target audience, whether they exist in person, online, via social networks, or on their mobile devices.

Audience Generation has produced winning traditional, online, e-commerce, social and mobile campaigns including mobile application solutions for Fortune 500, small and medium businesses, not-for-profit organizations, national and international associations and societies, and venture-backed start-up companies across a variety of industry verticals around the world.

To learn how Audience Generation can find your ideal customer, reach them where they exist, build your brand, and grow your bottom line, please call us at 512-708-4678 or email us at mwayne(at)audiencegeneration(dot)com or visit us at http://www.audiencegeneration.com.
Newcomb Spring's BAM department custom manufactures heavy-duty springs and heavy-gauge wire forms. "Newcomb Spring is a custom manufacturer," says company president, Robert Jacobson. "We assembled the BAM department to offer customers a range of resources focused solely on the manufacturing of heavy-duty springs and heavy-gauge wire forms."

Newcomb Spring Corp. is proud to introduce their BAM department, specifically developed for the manufacturing of heavy-duty springs and heavy-gauge wire forms. While the department may have an amusing name, BAM, which stands for Big A*$ Manufacturing, it has a serious-minded mission. The BAM department combines large-capacity CNC forming machines, specialized engineering, and precision tooling to custom manufacture big, heavy-duty springs and wire forms for heavy-duty applications.

Newcomb Springs BAM department addresses the needs of industries such as construction, agriculture, aerospace, defense, energy, mining, and more. Equipment and machinery in these industries often experience heavy loads and need specialized, heavy-duty springs and components to handle the extreme forces involved in their operation.

Employing state-of-the-art CNC forming technology to large diameter materials is the cornerstone of the BAM departments capabilities, says company president, Robert Jacobson. The automation and precision of CNC forming allows us to produce long or short runs of heavy-duty springs and wire forms with accuracy and consistency. With BAM, Newcomb Spring brings over a century of spring and wire form manufacturing experience to the production of heavy-duty versions of these components. The department can produce heavy-duty compression springs, extension springs, and torsion springs, as well as heavy-gauge wire forms, from a wide variety of materialsup to 0.625 inches (15.875 mm) in wire diameter.

"Newcomb Spring is a custom manufacturer," continues Jacobson. "We assembled the BAM department to offer customers a range of resources focused solely on the manufacturing of heavy-duty springs and heavy-gauge wire forms. Through BAM, we can collaborate with customers to meet their precise specifications, as well as critical standards for performance and reliability.

Customers seeking precision, CNC manufacturing services for heavy-duty springs and heavy-gauge wire formed components can contact Newcomb Spring through the company's website at Newcombspring.com/BAM.

About Newcomb Spring Corp.

Newcomb Spring Corp. is a worldwide supplier of compression springs, extension springs, torsion springs, wire forms, stampings, rings, hooks, and battery contact springs. The companys products meet demands in a variety of industries, including aerospace, agricultural, automotive, computer, medical, military, and telecommunications. Family-owned and operated, Newcomb Spring Corp. is headquartered in Decatur, Georgia and offers additional facilities in California, Connecticut, Colorado, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Ontario, Canada. Newcomb Spring operates with ISO 9001 certified quality systems and delivers a wide range of material capabilities in the manufacture of metal componentsspecializing in reliability, rapid response times, and stringent quality control.

Additional information is available at http://www.newcombspring.com.

END

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Dr. Andres Sanchez Gently Treats Receding Gums in Minneapolis, MN The Pinhole Surgical Technique has transformed the way that progressive dental professionals restore the gums in patients.

As a well-respected periodontist both in his community and among his peers, Dr. Andres Sanchez welcomes patients suffering from gum recession in Minneapolis, MN, and surrounding areas to his Eden Prairie, MN practice. His preferred gum recession treatment is the minimally invasive Pinhole Surgical Technique (PST).

Gum recession is a widespread problem facing adults and can lead to other dental related issues. Many patients begin noticing elongated teeth due to gum recession, leading to an unappealing smile. Beyond aesthetic concerns, individuals with receding gums in Minneapolis, MN and across the country, who come to Dr. Sanchez report having increasingly sensitive teeth. If left untreated, receding gums leave patients more susceptible to gum disease and eventually tooth loss. Consequently, most dentists like Dr. Sanchez recommend visiting a professional to discuss options early.

The Pinhole Surgical Technique has transformed the way that progressive dental professionals restore the gums in patients. Using specialized equipment and training, Dr. Sanchez carefully uses the existing gum tissue to cover exposed sensitive teeth to create a healthy and attractive gum line. This eliminates the need for gum grafting, soft tissue cutting and sutures.

For patients, PST provides instant results and less downtime during and after treatment. Not only has it received excellent reviews for its ability to use existing gingiva and save patients from more extensive surgery, but it is widely regarded as the preferred way to treat receding gums.

Those interested in meeting with board-certified periodontist Dr. Sanchez to discuss receding gums or any other periodontal concern can make an appointment by calling 952-479-4705.

About the Practice

PerioWest is a periodontal practice offering personalized dental care for patients in Eden Prairie, MN and the Twin Cities areas. Dr. Andres R. Sanchez received his Certificate & Masters Degree in Periodontics from the prestigious Mayo Clinic in Minnesota in 2004. He is a Board-Certified periodontist and a Diplomate of the American Board of Periodontology. In addition, Dr. Sanchez has been involved as a primary author in more than ten scientific papers published in major periodontal and implant dentistry journals. To learn more about Dr. Sanchez and the services he provides, please visit his website at http://www.periowestmn.com or call 952-479-4705.
The American College of Prosthodontics estimates that roughly 178 million Americans have lost at least one tooth.

Dr. David McIntyre welcomes new patients with missing teeth from San Marco, TX to his state-of-the-art practice in Kyle, TX for dental implants. Dr. McIntyre strives to reach out to his own community as well as surrounding communities to ensure they are educated on the latest dental care available to them. Dental implants are now considered the gold standard in tooth replacement techniques, making it the preferred solution by patients and clinicians for tooth loss.

The American College of Prosthodontics estimates that roughly 178 million Americans have lost at least one tooth. This number is expected to grow over the coming decade as people live for longer periods. Losing a tooth is not just a functional problem that contributes to conditions such as diabetes and obesity, it has also been linked to economic concerns. According to a study by the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry (AACD), 74 percent of people feel that an unattractive smile can cost a job seeker employment opportunities.

Considering these statistics, Dr. McIntyre helps patients with missing teeth learn more about the newest dental implants. Dental implants are permanent replacements for missing teeth and enable people to not only be able to eat and speak clearly, but to regain confidence in their smiles. Beyond just aesthetic and functional benefits, dental implants can improve oral health by stimulating healthy bone levels.

Interested individuals can speak with Dr. McIntyre about dental implants and related missing tooth replacement treatments like full arch All-on-4 dental implant solutions by making an appointment with Clear Springs Family Dentistry at 512-268-4011. A referral is not necessary to schedule an appointment with Dr. McIntyre.

About the Practice

Clear Springs Family Dentistry is a general dental practice offering personalized dental care to patients in Kyle, TX. Dr. David McIntyre is a dentist who values building relationships with each of his patients to truly understand their unique needs and help them reach the healthy smile they deserve. Dr. McIntyre offers a wide variety of services including dental implants, cosmetic dentistry, periodontal treatments, dental crowns and pediatric dentistry. To learn more about Dr. McIntyre or the services he offers, please visit http://www.clearspringsdentistry.com or call 512-268-4011 to schedule an appointment.
The concepts of Gross National Happiness and Carbon Negativity are the backbone of our Bhutan itinerary and very much resonate with our company philosophy, which focuses strongly on sustainable tourism and making a positive impact when traveling.

Global student travel tour operator CAS Trips launches their first Asia trip in Bhutan. As of today, CAS Trips will be traveling to Bhutan with middle- and high school students and teachers from around the world to introduce them to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the positive impact of sustainable tourism.

These customizable trips, provide students and teachers the opportunity to explore the monasteries, mountains, rivers and cities of this stunning country to gain an unforgettable first-hand insight into Bhutans incredible implementation of Gross National Happiness, Carbon Negativity, Buddhism and the countrys commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, while integrating the 7 Learning Outcomes that are the core of International Baccalaureate educational programs.

Director of CAS Trips Simon Armstrong says, The concepts of Gross National Happiness and Carbon Negativity are the backbone of our Bhutan itinerary and very much resonate with our company philosophy, which focuses strongly on sustainable tourism and making a positive impact when traveling.

Gross National Happiness is the measure of collective happiness and well-being of a population whilst Carbon Negativity describes the activity of removing more CO2 from the atmosphere than is being created. By law, a minimum of 60% of Bhutan must be covered by forest. Combined with minimal pollution and the promotion of organic farming methods, this has resulted in Bhutan becoming the worlds only carbon-negative country.

The brand-new Bhutan itinerary can be tailored to specific schools and their curriculums. To find out more head over to: http://www.castrips.org/bhutan or contact Simon directly at simon(at)castrips.org.

###

About CAS Trips

CAS Trips is an all-inclusive educational tour operator. CAS Trips tackles the UN Sustainable Development Goals whilst engaging in volunteer projects across the world. Together with schools, CAS Trips aims to make a genuine, sustainable impact by taking students and teachers on customizable school trips.
Tiffs Treats, the original warm cookie concept, is excited to expand their footprint in Nashville with the debut of their second store located in the Midtown area. Located at 2422 Elliston Place (the former location of Jakes Bakes) this store will service the Vanderbilt community as well as the Midtown area. The store will host their grand opening celebration on Sunday, April 29th with a charitable kick off from 10am to 3pm to benefit Small World Yoga, a non-profit organization that is near and dear to Tiffs Treats. Small World Yoga was founded by Liz Veyhl, wife of Jake Veyhl, former owner of Jakes Bakes and the current Nashville District Manager of Tiffs Treats. Small World Yoga strives to enhance the lives of the Nashville community with yoga. Volunteer teachers partner with nonprofits including homeless shelters, public schools, detention centers, senior living facilities and libraries to provide weekly free yoga classes.

There is a reason why people line up overnight when a Tiffs Treats store opens. To celebrate on opening day, the first 40 people in line at 10am will be given a $100 Tiffs Treats gift card. All others in line at 10am will get a $10 gift card (must be 18 or older). In honor of the opening, customers will be able to purchase a dozen cookies for only $5, and Tiffs Treats will donate all the sales from opening day to Small World Yoga, up to $5,000. Customers can purchase up to three one-dozen boxes filled with one of Tiffs Treats most irresistible flavors: chocolate chip, snickerdoodle or oatmeal raisin. Normally, customers are encouraged to place orders by website, app, or phone, either for pick up or delivery, and cookies are baked on demand and delivered still warm from the oven. But for this event, no advance order is needed.

In addition, customers are encouraged to bring a new or gently used yoga mat to donate to Small World Yoga to receive a $5 Tiff's Treats gift card. Everyone who attends the opening day celebration will have a chance to win free cookies for a year!

We are so humbled by the overwhelming response we have seen from the Nashville community with our first store in The Gulch said Tiffany Chen, co-founder of Tiffs Treats. The company recently announced their merger with Jakes Bakes and have spent the past month renovating the former Jakes Bakes location to become a signature Tiffs Treats store. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to continue servicing the Midtown area with our fresh, warm cookies, explains co-founder Leon Chen. Geographically, Tiffs Treats always thrives in a college community. We love the energy, entrepreneurial spirit and appetites that come with campus life, explains Chen. Tiffany and I started the company while we were sophomores in college at University of Texas and we know that this demographic resonates really well with our mission, shares Chen.

In addition to satiating everyday cookie cravings, Tiffs Treats is very philanthropically minded. As a company, we are committed to being an active community member by supporting organizations that we know directly touch our customers, explains co-founder Chen. The money raised on opening day for Small World Yoga will be used to help further the mission to connect people and create community by increasing access to yoga and growing outreach programs in the Nashville community.

More About Tiffs Treats

Tiffs Treats created the warm cookie delivery concept. Tiffs Treats makes and delivers classic, baked-to-order cookies and brownies straight from the oven to the home or office, WARM, in about an hour. Founded in 1999, what started as two friends baking cookies at University of Texas at Austin to help fellow students get through exams has now grown to 39 stores in Texas, Georgia and Tennessee, with more than 700 employees, baking more than 80 million cookies since its inception. The company is consistently focused on giving back: with grand opening fundraisers that fill needs for charities (and hungry bellies for Tiff's Treats fans!), Tiffs Treats has donated $150,000 to worthy causes. For more information, please visit http://www.cookiedelivery.com.
'The Deep Learning Summit brought together a fantastic collection of people from diverse areas of the field, from both academia and industry, with a balance of both technical and industry focused backgrounds' Drew Volpe, First Star Ventures (Deep Learning Summit, San Francisco, 2017)

These events will bring together 550 experts and 60 speakers working in AI and Deep Learning. All attendees are welcome to attend presentations and workshops from both tracks, providing an in-depth but varied agenda. At the Deep Learning for Robotics Summit, global experts will explore where AI meets the real world through human-robot interaction, imitation learning, skill embeddings, robot perception and many other areas. The AI in Industrial Automation Summit will delve into industry 4.0 and discover how to harness advancements in AI to create factories of the future.

Manufacturing is susceptible to bottlenecks in production, inefficiency, waste and high costs in production. The Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) is bringing us the factories of the future with the implementation of AI to help optimise and scale operations through predictive maintenance, improved safety amongst others. Digital technologies promise to transform the industry and theres a huge buss around advanced analytics, augmented reality, additive manufacturing, and other technologies. However, many companies struggle to create value. Greg Kinsey, Vice President of Industrial Solutions and Innovations at Hitachi will share his expertise in creating practical value from AI in manufacturing. He explains that "some companies fail by focusing purely on technology", and will explain how AI can be used to predict and avoid defects and bottlenecks, and well as presenting a roadmap for digital transformation of manufacturing.

Another company leading the way in this area is Caterpillar, and Analytics Tech Specialist, Benjamin Hodel, will share breakthrough research on how theyre creating better earth-moving machines controlled through AI. Developing products is expensive, and virtual product development is able to iterate new designs in simulation before prototypes are built, avoiding unnecessary expenditure. Benjamin explains that when the simulations are run by a computer, the machines need to be able to operate in a "human-like" way so that the results can be trusted. Caterpillar Inc. have identified challenges in creating these models, as the simulation environment is very dynamic, meaning simple rules fail to achieve the right behaviour. Through using reinforcement learning a program is able to learn to operate an earth moving machine by itself and learn to improve its behaviour over time.

Recent results in the fields of deep and reinforcement learning have also ignited immense interest in the possible applications for robotics, however there are several areas where robots are still falling short. Derik Pridmore, CEO of Osaro explains that "humans are able to learn new skills from interactions and experiences in the real-world. Whilst AI has already beaten the best human player at Go, and achieved superhuman performance in many video games, current AI systems using advanced DL techniques still cant accurately navigate a car in the real world, even with millions of miles of driving data. A human, in this instance, would not need significant experience - humans learn new skills using a commonsense understanding of physical objects and intentional agents." Osaro is a machine learning company building products powered by deep reinforcement learning, and at the Deep Learning for Robotics Summit, Derik will discuss the most recent advances in this space and the current state of industrial robotics.

Both summits bring together industry and academia to share their knowledge and expertise, and presenting her work in Semantic Understanding for Robot Perception is Jana Kosecka, Professor and visiting research scientist at the George Mason University and Google. She explains how "advancements in robotic navigation and fetch and delivery tasks rest to a large extent on robust, efficient and scalable semantic understanding of the surrounding environment. Deep learning fueled rapid progress in computer vision in object category recognition, localization and semantic segmentation, exploiting large amounts of labelled data and using mostly static images.

"There are both challenges and opportunities in tackling these problems in indoors and outdoors environments relevant to robotics applications. These include methods for semantic segmentation and 3D structure recovery using deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs), localization and mapping of large scale environments, training object instance detectors using synthetically generated training data and 3D object pose recovery."

Additional confirmed speakers across both tracks include Andrei Polzounov, Senior Research Scientist at Blue River Technology sharing his work on Image Segmentation for Precision Agriculture; Alicia Kavelaars, Co-Founder and CTO at OffWorld who will be discussing an Industrial AI Revolution in Space; Yibiao Zhao, Co-Founder and CEO of iSee talking about Engineering Common Sense; Animesh Gard, Postdoc Researcher in Robotics and DL at Stanford University who will be discussing his research in Generalisable Limitation in Robotics, and many more.

Early bird passes end May 4th, so register now to guarantee your place at a discounted price. Join REWORK and and meet global experts in the field who will share their work in 15 minute presentations followed by a 5 minute Q&A, get involved with the interactive workshop track, and explore the exhibition space. This event will sell out.
CRN 5-Star Award We developed our program with our partner community in mind... to help our partners build a profitable, long-term cloud business thats sustainable through rapid market and technological changes.

iland, an award-winning global cloud service provider, announced today that CRN, a brand of The Channel Company, awarded the iland Partner Program with a 5-Star rating in its 2018 Partner Program Guide. This annual guide is the definitive listing of partner programs from technology vendors that provide products and services through the IT channel. The 5-Star Partner Program Guide rating recognizes an elite subset of companies that offer solution providers the best partnering elements in their channel programs.

To determine the 2018 5-Star ratings, The Channel Companys research team assessed each vendors partner program based on investments in program offerings, partner profitability, partner training, education and support, marketing programs and resources, sales support and communication.

Finding the right technology vendor to partner with can be a daunting task, given the vast array of choices now available to solution providers, said Robert Faletra, Executive Chairman of The Channel Company. CRNs Partner Program Guide and 5-Star ratings help them narrow the field and find the best fit, identifying the most rewarding partner programs and providing crucial insight into their strengths and benefits..

The iland Partner Program allows value-added resellers (VARs), managed service providers (MSPs) and consultants the opportunity to partner with a global cloud leader and establish a revenue stream with profitable cloud services. ilands no-cost, easy-to-join partner program allows partners to offer Infrastructure as a Service, Disaster Recovery as a Service and cloud backup in ilands VM-ware based cloud.

We developed our program with our partner community in mind, based on feedback theyve provided over the years, said Dante Orsini, Senior Vice President of Business Development at iland. The program is designed to help our partners build a profitable, long-term cloud business thats sustainable through rapid market and technological changes.

The 2018 Partner Program Guide is featured in the April issue of CRN and online at http://www.CRN.com/ppg.

About iland

iland is a global cloud service provider of secure and compliant hosting for infrastructure (IaaS), disaster recovery (DRaaS), and backup as a service (BaaS). They are recognized by industry analysts as a leader in disaster recovery. The award-winning iland Secure Cloud Console natively combines deep layered security, predictive analytics, and compliance to deliver unmatched visibility and ease of management for all of ilands cloud services. Headquartered in Houston, Texas and London, UK, iland delivers cloud services from its data centers throughout the Americas, Europe, Australia and Asia. Learn more at http://www.iland.com.

About the Channel Company

The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequaled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. http://www.thechannelco.com

CRN is a registered trademark of The Channel Company, LLC. All rights reserved.
Introducing the new CRL Website and Branding

With a legacy of over 70 years of innovative experience, CRL continues to develop an unrivaled offering of remote handling solutions. We are constantly building on our experience to provide our customers with the best possible solutions for every application need, helping them to create better products  and a safer environment for their employees. Our approach to evaluate and customize our solutions to optimally serve our customers needs gives us a unique advantage in the marketplace, says Byron J. Paul, DESTACO President. As we continue to evolve and advance, we want our brand and messaging to reflect the unmatched service and value that we deliver.

The new logo provides a more dynamic look and feel, while better representing the protective barrier created by each of our products, continued Paul. This, along with the new blue color palette, better represents CRLs identity as a technology leader and innovator with our customers

The redesigned website (with a new home at crlsolutions.com) provides a more intuitive and enhanced user experience, highlighting advanced application-focused solutions for both nuclear and life science markets. The revamped layout highlights the full portfolio of products  including Telemanipulators, Transfer Systems, Glove Ports and DURABLE Glove Sleeve Systems  while seamlessly integrating application focused solutions into each of these product groups, providing a truly enhanced user experience.

For more information on CRL and its extensive family of remote handling solutions, please visit crlsolutions.com.

About CRL & DESTACO

Headquartered in Red Wing, MN, USA, Central Research Laboratories (CRL) became a DESTACO company in 2007. It possesses more than 70 years of innovation experience in the development of remote-handling systems, including Telemanipulators, Transfer Systems, Glove Ports and Waste Drum Transfer Systems. CRL solutions promote operator safety and efficiency when performing various tasks in nuclear and life science applications around the world.

DESTACO, a Dover company, is a global leader in the design and manufacture of high-performance automation, workholding and remote-handling solutions. The company serves customers in a variety of end-markets, including the automotive, life science, consumer packaged goods, aerospace, industrial and nuclear sectors.

Built on a legacy of more than 100 years, DESTACO offers a comprehensive portfolio of products designed to engineer precise movement, placement and control solutions that drive productivity and uptime for manufacturers around the world. The DESTACO family of products consists of industry-leading brands such as DESTACO Manual Clamps, Power Clamps, and End Effectors; CAMCO and Ferguson Indexers; Robohand Grippers; and CRL Manipulators and Transfer Ports.

DESTACO is based in Auburn Hills, Michigan, U.S.A. The company has more than 800 employees with 13 locations, in 9 countries, across the Americas, Europe and Asia.

DESTACO is part of Dover Corporation, a diversified global manufacturer with annual revenues of $7 billion. The company delivers innovative equipment and components, specialty systems and support services through four major operating segments: Energy, Engineered Systems, Fluids, and Refrigeration & Food Equipment. Headquartered in Downers Grove, IL.

More information is available at destaco.com and dovercorporation.com.
Echelon Analytics today announced the opening of its Los Angeles office led by Krista Santino. The expansion to Los Angeles will allow the firm to better serve its clients with a stronger local presence as the firm continues to grow. The office is located at 730 Arizona Ave, 1st Floor, Santa Monica, California 90401.

Commenting on the new office, Managing Member Barry Bell said, As we celebrate our 8th anniversary, were excited to plant the firms flag on the West Coast. We appreciate the great relationships we have with the California offices of some of the top law firms in the country and look forward to more effectively serving those clients from a local base.

For more information about the new Los Angeles location, visit http://www.ea-us.com.

About Echelon

Echelon Analytics is a recognized leader in expert witness services, economic and financial analysis, business consulting, and financial investigation. From its offices in Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake City, the firm works with law firms, corporations, government entities, and private individuals across the United States and internationally in matters involving commercial damages, intellectual property disputes and valuation, and banking and finance litigation.

Learn more about Echelon Analytics at ea-us.com.

Press Contacts:

Barry L. Bell

Managing Member

214.965.8530

bbell@ea-us.com
Registration is now open for a webinar about how accurate location data can help public safety answering points (PSAPs) pinpoint the location of all emergency calls. Presented by Solacom and the National Emergency Number Association (NENA), this webinar looks at how one PSAP used a fully optimized mapping solution to effectively pinpoint the location of a school shooting hoax caller, allowing police to locate, apprehend, and arrest the caller within 13 minutes.

Instant access to accurate caller location information is crucial during 9-1-1 calls, says Tony Parrott, vice president of sales at Solacom. Call handling systems must have the ability to pinpoint the callers exact location, whether the call comes from a landline or wireless phone. As PSAPs transition to Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1), the databases that provide the raw location data and the mapping solutions that display that data must be optimized for emergency call handling.

Experts from Solacom and RapidSOS will discuss how all PSAPs can leverage geographic information system (GIS) databases, sophisticated mapping applications, and third-party location information to optimize call handling and improve response times. The webinar includes a Q&A.

Webinar details:

Title: Pinpointing Callers With Accurate Location Data

Date: Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Time: 1:00 p.m.  2:00 p.m. ET

Presenters: Jennifer Hunt, E911 Coordinator, Marion County, Arkansas

Tony Parrott, Vice President Sales, Solacom

Nancy MacDonald, Vice President Business Development, Solacom

Reinhard Ekl, Vice President of Product & Public Safety, RapidSOS

For more information, and to register, visit the NENA webinar registration page at: https://www.webcaster4.com/Webcast/Page/92/25302

This webinar is free to all registrants. All attendees receive one-half ENP re-certification point toward the six-point maximum for non-NENA courses in NENAs Professional Development CEU/Course Credits section.

About Solacom

Solacom 9-1-1 call handling and management solutions are built on more than 30 years of research and innovation in the application of advanced hardware and software technologies for public safety. Today, Solacom Guardian 9-1-1 solutions support thousands of agencies affecting millions of lives annually. From dense urban environments to statewide deployments, Solacom solutions are trusted to streamline 9-1-1 call handling and management processes and enable more efficient collection of critical information in emergency situations. For more information, visit: http://www.solacom.com

Media Contact:

Gurprasad Green

Media Relations

Aragona Agency

Phone: (613) 836-1892 ext. 254

ggreen(at)aragonaagency.com
NY Furniture Outlets mission is to create cozy interior people will truly love

Dedicated to create wonderful traditional and modern home interiors, NY Furniture Outlets online furniture store is constantly developing, making your furniture shopping faster, easier and even more comfortable.

NY Furniture Outlets new website:

New Design. Fresh appearance of the online furniture store, that matches the latest digital trends of 2018 will make the purchasing process comfortable. The store and the branding of the company is made in a light green solution, selected to assist in boosting your mood. We wanted our customers to know, that our products is the freshest and the most convenient option for furnishing todays modern interiors.

Easy-to-use interface. One of the great features of our new website is to create the possibility to find exactly what you need. Our customers can easily choose the desired furniture from enormous product range by room and furniture type. Soon NY Furniture Outlets will add up extra navigation features like search by upholstery material, style and distinctive details like tufting on upholstery or wood carving decor.

Enlarged range of products. Over 10 new brands of US domestic and European furniture are added to NY Furniture Outlets' product range, to make sure that customers are able to find the perfect option for their home interior. From well-known furniture moguls like ACME and ESF to exclusive fine furniture design ateliers, NY Furniture Outlets select only the best furniture to offer our customers flawless customer experience.

Product suggestions. Buying furniture online entails of research and continuous browsing, seeking of extra options and offers, in order to find one furniture, that will perfectly fit in your home interior. Now, in similar products section we offer NY Furniture Outlets' customers to take a peek on some other options, that maybe will be exactly what they will love in their home interior.

Free Nationwide delivery. NY Furniture Outlets decided to offer special conditions for shipping furniture orders to its customers. Buy offering free Nationwide Delivery on all orders, NY Furniture Outlets provide the most affordable pricing solution throughout the Mainland States.

About New York Furniture Outlets Inc.

NY Furniture Outlets mission is to create cozy interior people will truly love. Applying the latest digital technologies, NY Furniture Outlets goes further in delivering convenient and easy customer experience, offering a large selection of over 10000 different furniture items. Devoted to deliver ultimate customer satisfaction, NY Furniture Outlets offers its customers special experience in furniture shopping, from the idea to the moment furniture piece finds its final place in home interior.

NY Furniture Outlets was found in 2005. Headquartered in San Diego, California, company operates throughout the United States Mainland and Canada.

Contact us

By Phone: +1-877-301-8702

By Email: office@nyfurntitureoutlets.com

Instagram: instagram.com/nyfurnitureoutlets

Twitter: twitter.com/NYFOutlets

Facebook: facebook.com/nyfurnitureoutlet
DIGISTOR, the leader in secure data and storage solutions, is pleased to announce that entrepreneur and investor Dave Withers has joined their board of directors. A veteran of multiple successful startups, Withers brings with him a 20 year track record of identifying disruptive technologies and building successful hardware and software businesses as both an operator and investor. Withers joins DIGISTOR to assist the company through their unprecedented growth.

Withers most recently served as VP of Technology for Global Platform Engineering at Dell/EMC. He joined Dell/EMC via the acquisition of Renasar Technologies, where he was CEO and co-founder. Prior to co-founding Renasar Technologies, Withers served as COO at Nebula, a Kleiner Perkins and Highland Capital backed private cloud company. He joined Nebula from Dell, where he led the storage business in the U.S., Canada and Latin America. Withers joined Dell via the acquisition of Ocarina Networks, a Kleiner and Highland backed compression and de-dupe startup, where he served as Vice President of Business Development & Sales. Prior to Ocarina Networks, Withers served as the Senior Director of Business Development at Isilon Systems, where he built the BD practice and drove the expansion of the addressable market for clustered storage leading up to a successful IPO and acquisition by EMC for $2.2 billion.

An advisor to DIGISTOR for several years, Withers has now taken a more active role on the board and will work closely with the executive team to accelerate business development efforts.

Daves wealth of experience and industry knowledge has already proved valuable as an advisor to DIGISTOR, said Larry Friss, co-founder and President. Having him take a more engaged role on the board will no doubt galvanize new growth and development efforts. We are very excited to be working with him.

About DIGISTOR

DIGISTOR is a leading innovator, manufacturer, and distributor of industrial-grade flash storage products, secure storage products, and digital video storage solutions. DIGISTOR proudly supports customers around the world in industries such as law enforcement, medical, professional video, security/surveillance, and federal agencies.
Dan Grinberg, Elara Brands 1 in 8 people face hunger in our country, a mind-boggling statistic that we want to help change.

Elara Brands, a social mission-driven producer of food handling gloves for restaurants and non-commercial foodservice operators, announced a new partnership with Feeding America - the nation's largest domestic hunger relief organization. Through Elaras One Case  One Meal giving program, the company will donate a minimum of 750 thousand meals* to Feeding America in 2018 to help people struggling with hunger.

Elara was launched in 2011 with the mission of fighting hunger embedded in its business model. For each case of an Elara product purchased, the company donates a meal to a local food bank. Elara has helped provide more than 2 million meals through its One Case  One Meal program to date. Our partnership with Feeding America will enable Elara to further expand our meal giving program, said Dan Grinberg, Elaras founder and president. 1 in 8 people face hunger in our country, a mind-boggling statistic that we want to help change.

We are grateful for Elaras partnership with Feeding America in our mission to end hunger, said Nancy Curby, Senior Vice President of Corporate Partnerships & Operations at Feeding America. Food insecurity affects 41 million people in America, including 13 million children. Giving models such as Elaras are helping to make a difference.

We are proud of the more than 100,000 meals Elara and Shake Shack have helped provide to our designated member food bank, City Harvest, since our partnership began, said Jeff Amoscato, Vice President of Supply Chain & Menu Innovation at Shake Shack. Elara is a vendor that shares Shake Shacks mission to Stand for Something Good.

For TriMark Adams-Burch, a leading foodservice equipment and supplies distributor based in Landover, Maryland, Elaras One Case  One Meal program is part of our commitment to helping people in need, said Lisa Monge, Director of Product Management and Marketing. Through Elaras One Case  One Meal program, Tri-Mark Adams Burch helps provide meals to three Feeding America member food banks in the Mid-Atlantic region we serve.

Theres strength in numbers, adds Grinberg. As more companies and individuals join with us, were going to help feed that many more people. Thats what Elara was set up to do. Now with Feeding America, our impact will be even greater

*$1 helps provide at least 10 meals secured by Feeding America on behalf of local member food banks. Elara Brands guarantees a minimum donation of 750,000 meals to Feeding America and member food banks from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2018.

About Elara Brands

Elara Brands, headquartered in Jericho, New York, is a leading supplier of single-use gloves, apparel and related products for foodservice, industrial and medical applications. Elara was established with a social mission in its DNA  fighting hunger in America. Through its signature One Case  One Meal program, for each case purchased by a customer, Elara donates a meal to a local food bank to help a person struggling with hunger. For more information, please visit the Elara Brands website at http://www.elarabrands.com.

About Feeding America

Feeding America is the largest hunger-relief organization in the Unites States. Through a network of 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries and meal programs, we provide meals to more than 46 million people each year. Feeding America also supports programs that prevent food waste and improve food security among the people we serve; educates the public about the problem of hunger; and advocates for legislation that protects people from going hungry. Individuals, charities, businesses and government all have a role in ending hunger. Donate. Volunteer. Advocate. Educate. Together we can solve hunger. Visit http://www.feedingamerica.org, find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
A larger trade deficit can actually be the result of a stronger economy.

Steven Buchwald of Buchwald & Associates, a leading provider of legal services for overseas entrepreneurs and startup investors, spoke today about the widening trade deficit in the United States. Specifically, he examined what it could mean for overseas entrepreneurs. It is well-known that the country has been operating at a significant trade deficit for quite some time.

A trade deficit occurs when a country imports more goods and services than it exports. There can be many factors at play that cause such a state of affairs, but in general, a trade deficit is caused by an imbalance between a countrys savings and investment rates. In the United States, this imbalance is considerable - the trade deficit currently sits at approximately $450 billion, or 2.5% of annual GDP.

Americas trade deficit may seem high, perhaps intimidatingly so, explains Buchwald. But the truth is that the numbers are a bit misleading. Were moving into an era of global trade, one where multinational corporations are the norm rather than the exception. In the face of such globalization, factors such as trade deficits matter far less than they used to.

Furthermore, a larger trade deficit can actually be the result of a stronger economy, continues Buchwald. It means consumers spend and import more, and foreign investors are more willing to put money towards the country. In a sense, one could argue that the trade deficit is only one facet of what makes the U.S. such an attractive destination for so many entrepreneurs.

In the short term, continues Buchwald, the national trade deficit likely wont have a great impact on entrepreneurs - domestic or overseas. At the same time, should overseas investment start to fall off, we could witness an economic shift which makes it more difficult for entrepreneurs outside of the US to get their start there. For the time being, however, its business as usual - and Buchwald will do what he can to help clients get their feet on the ground either way.

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About Buchwald & Associates

Founded with the intent of providing legal services to tech startups, Buchwald & Associates focuses on corporate and intellectual property law, internet law, international mergers & acquisitions, structuring complex transactions, and technology transfer. It also represents individuals in small and mid-sized companies on immigration and naturalization issues. Featured in multiple publications such as Inc., Entrepreneur, Forbes, and TechCrunch, Buchwald & Associates is one of the leading legal authorities for business professionals, particularly entrepreneurs and investors.
San Francisco Serviced Apartments Its no secret that short term and corporate housing can be tight in the city of San Francisco and it can get even tighter during the summer.

Key Housing, a Leading Corporate and Short Term Housing Service for Cities as diverse as Sacramento, San Francisco, and San Diego, is proud to announce an important seasonal reminder for Bay Area visitors. The reminder argues that waiting until the last minute to book a San Francisco serviced apartment could turn out to be a problem. Instead, it advocates that a smarter strategy is to schedule early before the rush, working with a corporate and short term housing service such as Key Housing.

Its no secret that short term and corporate housing can be tight in the city of San Francisco and it can get even tighter during the summer, explained Robert Lee, President of Key Housing. Visitors such as Europeans and summer interns need to know its best to book service apartments, corporate housing, and other short term rentals in San Francisco as early as possible.

To review newly updated information on San Francisco serviced apartments, visit http://www.keyhousing.com/rightside.asp?action=form3&ID=692. Europeans, including British visitors may be scheduled for an internship, or contracted position in the City by the Bay for the summer months. Booking a San Francisco serviced apartment prior to June may help secure a place before travelling abroad. For this reason, the company is highlighting its featured complex for May as "388 Beale Street," which can be viewed at the link above. Alternatively, persons can visit http://www.udr.com/san-francisco-bay-area-apartments/san-francisco/388-beale/. Finally, those who would like to read the company's latest posts to its blog on San Francisco corporate housing can visit http://blog.keyhousing.com/tag/san-francisco/.

SUMMER INTERNS LEARN EARLY BIRDS GET THE BEST SAN FRANCISCO SERVICED APARTMENTS

Here is background to this release. As summer approaches, vacationers and interns alike could be planning to stay in the Bay Area for the months of June through August.

American citizens might be familiar with the difficulty of securing housing during a short-term stay in the Bay Area. Europeans may not be aware booking short-term San Francisco housing can require confirming plans several months before the summer season. It can be helpful to learn booking a San Francisco serviced apartment prior to scheduling a flight overseas can ensure a successful visit.

For this reason, Key Housing has made a new announcement for summer visitors to the Bay Area. An internship or month-long holiday in San Francisco may include finding an extended stay apartment, often called a "serviced apartment" by Europeans or British citizens. The Key Housing featured apartment for May, or "388 Beale Street," for example, can be considered a prime example of a top San Francisco serviced apartment. Located near the Financial District, the short-term apartments provide a pool, spa, game room and exercise room. Private conference rooms and personal office areas can also be used by summer interns requiring professional work spaces. Confirming a furnished apartment in the Bay Area can be difficult if visitors wait until the last minute. It may be important to learn a successful summer trip can be enjoyed by early birds booking a San Francisco serviced apartment before summer arrives.

ABOUT KEY HOUSING

Key Housing Connections Inc. (http://www.keyhousing.com/) specializes in serviced apartments, corporate housing and corporate rentals in large Southern California cities like Los Angeles and Orange County as well as Beverly Hills, Burbank and Anaheim. Whether the need is for a Los Angeles serviced apartment or short term rental in Hollywood, interested parties should browse listings on the website to find the rental that fits ones short term corporate housing needs. The service is competitive with extended stay hotels in cities such as Huntington Beach, La Jolla and Lake Foresta. Many Europeans on holiday and people seeking pet friendly short-term rentals or vacation rental apartment services depend on Key Housing for their serviced apartment or other temporary housing needs. Whether a person is after a Los Angeles serviced apartment, short term rentals in Hollywood, or a serviced apartment near Encino, Key Housing can aid the search for the right apartment in the Golden State.

Key Housing

Tel. (800) 989-0410
Programs such as the Rising Ground's Family Resource Center in the South Bronx help strengthen families and help individuals rise above adversity and thrive. The name Rising Ground captures the essence of what we believe, what we do, and what we accomplish.

On the steps of City Hall in lower Manhattan today, Alan Mucatel, executive director of what was formerly known as Leake & Watts, one of New York Citys oldest and largest human services agencies, announced that the organization has changed its name to Rising Ground. He said that the new name reflects the agencys ability to provide a comprehensive foundation of support to New Yorks children, adults, and families in need so they can rise above adversity and thrive.

Mr. Mucatel was joined at the ceremony by Rising Ground Board Chair Jose Jara, and staff and youth from the Biondi Elementary School, an accredited special education school and one of Rising Grounds many supportive programs.

For nearly two centuries, Leake & Watts has been at the forefront of providing services that support children, adults, and families in need. Over time, as community needs have changed, so have our services and our approach to meeting those needs, Mr. Mucatel explained. Without letting go of our rich and inspiring history, our new name connects to and clearly communicates the underlying positive themes inherent in our work. We offer a solid foundation of support, providing people with the resources, hope, and opportunity to move ahead and reach their goals. [A video announcing the name change can be viewed here. The video file is available to members of the media upon request.]

Rising Ground supports more than 12,000 of the Greater New York areas neediest children and adults each year through special education, early childhood programs, foster care and adoption programs, family mental health services, services for children and adults with intellectual/developmental disabilities, and juvenile justice services, among other areas of support. The agency operates 47 programs at 25 different sites and employs a workforce of 1,400 people, making it one of the citys largest human services agencies.

Renaming and rebranding the agency comes after a period of rapid growth. Rising Grounds operating budget nearly doubled in size from $56 million in 2009 to more than $100 million in 2018, as the number of people in its programs jumped from 5,000 to more than 12,000 over the same period. The organization has tripled the amount of private charitable support it receives. It is also the Gold Winner of the prestigious Gold Nonprofit Excellence Award for Overall Management Excellence from the New York Community Trust, and was a finalist for the Brooke W. Mahoney Award for Outstanding Board leadership.

Mr. Mucatel explained, We rapidly expanded our services so we could offer multifaceted support to address the complex challenges of people in need in New York City. We now have a name that better communicates what we do, and the broad scope of our services.

Until today, the agency carried the eponymous name of its founders, John George Leake, a New York lawyer, and John Watts, Jr., a Westchester County judge and former congressman. What began in 1831 as the Leake and Watts Orphan House, sited at Trinity Church in lower Manhattan, grew into a large agency with operations in The Bronx, Westchester, Manhattan, and Brooklyn. Although not religiously affiliated, the legacy of the agencys initial relationship with Trinity Church persists to this day with a member of the churchs community sitting on the not-for-profits Board of Directors.

WINNING A RARE GRANT FOR REBRANDING

The agency was awarded a $250,000 Community Resiliency Fund grant in 2015 to rebrand the organizationa rare accomplishment, since most grants are earmarked for programs. But the agency made a strong case that it needed a new brand to reach more people and attract new donors. As part of the rebranding, the agency developed new mission and vision statements, a new visual identity, and redesigned its website. Red Rooster Group, a branding agency focusing on working with nonprofit organizations, managed the three-year renaming and rebranding process.

Our prior name did not convey the nature of our work, and lacked immediate recognition within the communities we support, explained Meredith Barber, senior director of institutional advancement at Rising Ground. We wanted our neighbors to quickly connect our name to our work and mission, and find us easily when they sought support. Rising Ground does just that.

Board Chair Jose Jara also sees the name as an inspiration. The Rising Ground name will help more people understand the scale and scope of what we do, as it represents advancement, not only for the people we support, but for our organization as well. We keep reaching higher, and we keep looking for more opportunities to serve. The name captures the essence of what we believe, what we do, and what we accomplish.

ABOUT RISING GROUND

Rising Ground, formerly Leake & Watts, is a leading nonprofit human services organization, providing the children, adults, and families in the Greater New York City area with the resources and skills needed to rise above adversity and positively direct their lives.

Rising Ground delivers: innovative educational programs from early childhood through high school; dedicated support that facilitates safe environments for children and helps families thrive; result-focused programs that help youth involved in the juvenile justice system change the trajectory of their lives; caring services that help promote independence for children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities; and pro-active community health initiatives that foster physical and emotional well-being.

Founded as an orphanage in 1831, Rising Ground has been at the forefront of evolving community needs and has become a leader in utilizing result-driven, evidence-based practices. Today, the organizations work is a positive force in the lives of more than 12,000 individuals annually. The organization was honored as the Gold Winner of the New York Community Trust Nonprofit Excellence Awards. For more information, visit http://www.risingground.org.
Best Social Media Marketing Agencies

10 Best SEO has just released its most recent list of award-winning SMM companies, naming Straight North as the top contender. Each month, 10 Best SEO recognizes the top agencies for social media marketing. These awards are based on multiple factors, and they are considered to be a significant honor. Award recipients have proven their ability to sustain excellence in the services they provide. 10 Best SEO employs a thorough evaluation process in making these SMM awards.

Social media marketing is an important aspect of online marketing. It involves the use of popular social media platforms by businesses to expand brand visibility and increase sales. Each agency being honored by 10 Best SEO excels in multiple areas, including services provided, client retention, and staff experience.

Leading the list of best social media marketing agencies for April 2018 is Straight North, a Chicago-based social media marketing agency. This firm has been in business since 1997, and it maintains offices in several major U.S. cities. Over 100 employees of the firm work directly with clients to improve social media engagement. This agency boasts a very high client retention rate.

Ignite Visibility has also been named as a Best Social Media Marketing Agency award winner by 10 Best SEO. Ignite Visibility is a top SMM company that is located in San Diego, a hub of web development and SEO companies. As the name of the firm suggests, Ignite Visibility uses social media marketing to help its clients acquire more consumers and targeted leads.

Also included on the April 2018 list of award winners is Boostability. As a leading SMM company, Boostability uses a dedicated approach that blends social media marketing with SEO and web design. The goal of this firm is to provide comprehensive solutions for clients who wish to maximize their online visibility.

These Best SMM Company honors are a new monthly award that has been created by 10 Best SEO to recognize excellence in SMM. 10 Best SEO hopes to help its award winners achieve the recognition they richly deserve. Thousands of agencies are considered each month for these new awards. The winners are featured on the 10 Best SEO website.

For more information about this months award winners, visit http://www.10bestseo.com.
With Zayo, weve created stable and mature IT environments that have allowed us to jointly produce a near five 9s environment.

The recent opening of an innovative new zColo data center in France provided cause for celebration for Chicago-based IT consulting company RKON. A leading managed services provider, RKON provides stable IT infrastructure with state-of-the-art design, technical advantages and connectivity to the world. With its new European Data Center Operations, built by RKON partner Zayo Group Holdings, RKONs customers are assured of near five 9s uptime capabilities, a socially responsible environmental footprint and stringent security.

The partnership between the two companies began over 10 years ago and was recently renewed. Zayo provides scalable, highly redundant communications infrastructure solutions, including fiber and bandwidth connectivity, colocation and cloud infrastructure, to leading companies worldwide.

Zayo held a grand opening for its 55,000 square-foot zColo data center in Velizy, France on March 8. Located in a suburb regarded as the heart of Silicon Paris, the data center will support European business colocation solutions and provide connectivity across Western Europe, with access to Asia, Africa and back to the U.S.

The opening of this facility dovetails with our plans for growth and gives us the capability to better serve our private equity and multinational customers who manage operating companies around the world. Data privacy laws in different countries, along with the globalization of the economy, has driven us to expand, said Jeff Mullarkey, co-founder and CEO of RKON, Inc.

Zayo has a great global footprint and having a presence in the EU makes us more nimble in responding to clients needs, continued Mullarkey. Their data centers can establish cross connects to create a presence in any other continental data center. They always are building out new data center co-location space, taking into account the synergies between power, cooling, environmental footprint, and other critical issues. The formula changes constantly, and they have done an incredible job to keep the data center formula cost-optimal.

RKON is known for helping customers manage security risk and ensuring corporate compliance, all while reducing IT infrastructure operating costs. It gets results by combining strategic guidance for achieving long-term goals with the latest technical resources, including high quality design and advanced security monitoring services. Mullarkey says these solutions greatly reduce the odds of zero-day threats.

With Zayo, weve created stable and mature IT environments that have allowed us to jointly produce a near five 9s environment, said Mullarkey. RKON has averaged 99.998 uptime over the last 7 years -- less than 11 minutes per year -- which is a world class track record compared to others in the market.

The Velizy data center was originally constructed by a military company in the 1970s, providing a strong foundation for physical security and disaster recovery. Zayo has added multi-layer physical security and continues to be focused on defining and adhering to process, controls and training that are best in class. Additionally, zColo has focused on high standards for sustainability and efficiency, including high-efficiency cooling, airflow and temperature management upgrades and LED lighting. External compliance audits for the upgraded data center are in process.

About RKON, Inc.

RKON is a leading IT consulting firm providing high performance, reliable, scalable and secure managed and hosted IT solutions. Founded in 1998 in Chicago, the company has built a reputation for early adoption, innovation, and high quality design and implementation. RKONs 20 years of experience with data center design and migration, managed virtualization and managed security make them a unique partner for companies looking for ways to move their critical applications and data to the cloud. For more information, visit http://www.rkon.com or call (312) 654-0300.
Ten years after he pulled off one of the biggest national television pranks in front of 33 million viewers, Paul Marturano, 42, of New Hope, PA, signed a record deal to distribute his next EP, MORE!, with Blacbird/Universal Records. Marturano humorously serenaded judge Paula Abdul with a self-penned parody that aired on American Idol in 2008. MORE!s official release date is May 18, 2018 but it can be ordered now on iTunes and Google Play at http://www.paulpiano.net

Marturano is a seasoned stage performer, playing over 100 solo piano comedy shows, dueling piano shows and full band shows per year. According to Marturano, MORE! (his new EP) has a more serious tone, but there might be one good comedy tune on it.

As a songwriter, I am either trying to make you think, make you cry, make you dance or make you laugh. There is something for everyone on MORE!, said Marturano.

Marturano teamed up with nine-time Grammy Award Winning Producer, Joe The Butcher Nicolo, to release MORE! in 2018. Nicolo, a former producer at Columbia Records and former owner of Ruffhouse Records, previously worked with some of the most successful recording artists in the industry, including The Rolling Stones, Will Smith, Aerosmith and Bob Dylan. He won Grammys for his work with James Taylor's Hourglass, Jazzy Jeff, The Fugees, and Lauryn Hill. He was also nominated for a Grammy for his production of Billy Joel's album, River of Dreams. He was recently honored with a plaque on Philadelphias Walk of Fame on Broad Street outside of the Kimmel Center. https://joenicolo.net/

It was a pleasure making this record with Paul, said Nicolo. His songs come from the heart. The satisfaction we had making this record comes through in the recordings. Hes an underappreciated talent.

Marturano has performed at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, PA, to a crowd of thousands playing a preshow concert and post-show concert to the Billy Joel/Elton John top grossing Face to Face Tour. He sat in at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City with the Legendary Les Paul, performed on many local and national television shows and has opened shows on the piano for many comedians such as Jackie the Jokeman Martling. He played on the USS Midway prior to Frank Sinatra, Jr. at an event honoring Lee Iacocca and was also part of the team that earned a Daytime Emmy Award behind the scenes of the popular television show, Who Wants to be a Millionaire with Regis Philbin. He is a longtime voting member of The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) and is a co-founder of an Animal Rescue in Pennsylvania.

Marturano does have a serious side, and if you want to know who he is, you should pick up his albums, MORE!, Reflection, and Buck County, as well as read his book 33 Beliefs for a Happy Life.

The songs he penned for MORE! are quite heartfelt and masterfully produced.

"If you like Billy Joel, Ben Folds, Adele or Bruce Springsteen, you will like the serious side of Marturano that he puts forth on MORE! added Marturano. I love writing serious music, and I still love doing the comedy, too. I had a fun time working with Joe Nicolo on MORE! He is an amazing talent.

Marturano is known for his rock n roll piano style, his soothing ballads and also for his clever comedy songs. Whether he is performing solo, a dueling pianos show, or a show with his band, Marturanos live show is full of energy and is always a good time!

On his newest album, Marturano plays keyboards and provides vocals. He is joined by James Darlington on bass, Mark Kain on guitar Grant Maloy-Smith on guitar, Jay Davidson on saxophone, Oz Brown on violin and Frank Romond on drums. It was recorded at Joes Garage. It was mixed and mastered by Joe Nicolo.

MORE! Is being released by Blacbird/ Universal Records and available on Universal Records Digital Platform and their list of vendors in May. Marturanos previous works are currently available on CDbaby, iTunes, Spotify, Applemusic, and Marturanos website http://www.paulpiano.net

Paul Marturano on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/paul.marturano

Paul Marturano's Music Page on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Paul-Marturano-Musician-and-Author-224417691913/
We can conduct due diligence both domestically and internationally," said Corra Group Co-Founder, Gordon Basichis. "Additionally, for companies with government contracts, we assist them in conducting background checks for compliance mandates."

Corra Group attended last weeks 2018 RSA Cybersecurity Conference, in San Francisco, CA. The show is on of the premier conclaves on Cybersecurity and was held at the Moscone Center, with some 45, 000 people in attendance.

Corra Group is headquartered in El Segundo, California, said Corra Group Co-Founder, Gordon Basichis. El Segundo is part of what is termed the Silicon Beach, a key center for cutting technology as well as defense and aerospace. Corra Group conducts employment screening and due diligence for a number of clients in this sector.

Corra Group attends these shows to stay current with the current and emergent technologies, said Basichis. Lets face it, there are few things as topical as cybersecurity. This is an emerging industry with adaptive growth as a driving force in industrial development. 

Basichis pointed out that as these companies continue to expand they will require more recruiting and employment screening and will need due diligence services for the inevitable process of mergers and acquisitions or diversification.

This is what Corra Group does, said Basichis. We can conduct due diligence both domestically and internationally. Additionally, for companies with government contracts, we assist them in conducting background checks that will keep them in compliance with security mandates.

Corra Group has formed partnerships to further expand our suite of searches for due diligence and investigation, said Basichis. We can conduct everything from business credit reports to reputational searches to open source intelligence operations. As business changes and clients are confronting new challenges and with it new demands, we work to provide them with every service they will need both in the present and in the future.

Basichis noted that even the cybersecurity entities will be going through their changes. He pointed out that at the RSA Cybersecurity Conference there were hundreds of companies, entering a growth industry. This, he indicated, can lead to all sorts of challenges.

A growth industry is very exciting but at times there is the unforeseen, and with that many hurdles, said Basichis. Start Up Companies can face uncertain times and financial speed bumps. They may want to merge, they may want to sell to the highest bidder, or they may want to seek financing and partner with another entity. If you dont check out your potential partners, then you may find yourself chasing after your money. That is never pretty. We do our best to eliminate the potential for another sad story.

BACKGROUND: Corra operates as Corra Group and Corra Global Research and specializes in employment screening and corporate research and due diligence. It is one of the few companies that will answer the phone. You can review the website at http://www.corragroup.com.
Professor Takeuchi's innovative work on energy storage and power sources is enabling life-saving technologies that benefit millions of heart-failure patients.

The European Patent Office (EPO) today announced that it has named U.S. Inventor Esther Sans Takeuchi a finalist for the European Inventor Award 2018 in the category "Non-EPO countries." The winners of this year's edition of the EPO's annual innovation prize will be announced at a ceremony in Paris on June 7, 2018.

Patients at high risk of heart attack often receive pacemakers, and more frequently today, sophisticated implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICDs). These devices detect and correct irregular, potentially fatal, heart rhythms, thereby safeguarding millions of lives. The fitting of these devices, and the replacement of the batteries that run them, involves surgery, with its attendant hazards. U.S. Inventor Esther Sans Takeuchi developed a battery with a nearly fivefold increase in lifespan that greatly reduces the number of times an ICD wearer might have to go through such an operation. This has led not only to an advance in battery chemistry but wider acceptance of a life-saving ICDs and a significant improvement in patient well-being.

Sans Takeuchi's innovative work on energy storage and power sources is enabling life-saving technologies that benefit millions of heart-failure patients, said EPO President Benoit Battistelli, announcing the European Inventor Award 2018 finalists. "Her developments in the field of battery technology have also made her one of the most prolific US women inventors."

THE POWER BEHIND IMPLANTABLE CARDIAC DEFIBRILLATORS

Materials scientist and chemical engineer Esther Sans Takeuchi's career has been dedicated to electrochemistry and more specifically battery technology. Sans Takeuchi's invention of the compact lithium/silver vanadium oxide (Li/SVO) battery enabled the wide-spread introduction of modern implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICDs). With about 300,000 of these devices implanted each year, they are quite literally life-savers  using a high-voltage shock to reset the heart and prevent sudden death in high-risk patients who are susceptible to cardiac arrest.

Sans Takeuchi's Li/SVO battery extended the power-source lifetime for ICDs to around five years and played an important role in their widespread adoption beginning in the late 1980s. The battery technology was first employed in an implanted ICD in 1987 and commercialised by Greatbatch (since 2016 renamed Integer Holdings), which now manufactures ICD batteries based on the invention and licenses the technology to two other battery suppliers. Li/SVO batteries remain the most commonly used batteries in ICDs and have since been incorporated as one of the leading power sources for a broader class of implantable cardiac rhythm management devices, which includes devices that combine ICD, pacemaker and other heart monitoring functions.

Sans Takeuchi also played an active role in numerous additional improvements of the system that optimised it as a high-rate ICD battery. Two of other her patented inventions added carbon monofluoride to the silver vanadium oxide in the cathode to develop a related, smaller battery that enabled the development of more compact ICDs that are safe to use despite their reduced volume. Sans Takeuchi's patents are also behind batteries powering neurostimulators, pumps and many other implanted devices.

TALENTED, FOCUSED, PROLIFIC

The daughter of Latvian emigrants, Esther Sans Takeuchi credits her parents for instilling in her a strong work ethic from a young age and for awaking her interest in science. My father did not believe that school did an adequate job of teaching mathematics and would teach me algebra in the evening, says Sans Takeuchi. "Both my parents felt that a scientific education was extremely important." Indeed, Sans Takeuchi's academic programme provided her with a rich background for her later professional work. She earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry and history from the University of Pennsylvania in 1975 and a PhD in organic chemistry from Ohio State University in 1981. She then served as postdoctoral research associate in electrochemistry, first at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1982 to1983, and then at the State University of New York at Buffalo from 1983 to 1984. Directly thereafter she found a professional home as scientist, chief scientist, then Director of Research and Development of Battery Research & Development at Greatbatch Inc.

She returned to her academic roots in 2007 to take a professorship position at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Since 2012, she has been the SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Materials Science and Engineering department at Stony Brook, New York, as well as Chief Scientist of the Energy Sciences Directorate at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

With over 150 U.S. patents and 39 European patents to her name, Sans Takeuchi is credited with being one of the most prolific American female inventors. In 2009, she was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation by U.S. President Barack Obama for her invention of the Li/SVO battery. In 2011 she was inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame, and in 2013, she received the E.V. Murphree Award in Industrial and Engineering Chemistry from the American Chemical Society. She is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological engineering, and a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society, for which she served as President from 2011-2012.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

Video and photo material

Read more about the inventor

View the patents: EP1768203, EP1816692

ABOUT THE EUROPEAN INVENTOR AWARD

ABOUT THE EPO

With more than 7,000 employees, the European Patent Office (EPO) is one of the largest public service institutions in Europe. Its headquarters is in Munich and it has offices in Berlin, Brussels, The Hague, and Vienna. The EPO was founded with the aim of strengthening co-operation on patents in Europe. Through the EPO's centralized patent granting procedure, inventors are able to obtain high-quality patent protection in the 38-member states of the European Patent Organization. The EPO is also considered the world's leading authority in patent information and patent searching.
Sharing the sum of living a Christian life and the wisdom found and learned in the process, author Leonel Dieujuste releases The Practice of His Righteousness (published by iUniverse). This spiritual guidebook and commentary explores the revealed truths of the Bible as a way to live a prosperous, successful and fulfilling life that glorifies God.

In The Practice of His Righteousness, Dieujuste takes a personal approach to finding and fulfilling ones true purpose in life. The book centers on being at service to oneself, then to others. It highlights the importance of building a good character so one may serve and be an ideal example to others. It also covers a wide spectrum of life and living.

Dieujuste shows the readers how to use the Bible to discover the essential truths for living a rewarding Christian life. The author further stresses that whether or not one believes that the Bible comes from God, anyone who reads and understands the Holy Word will find a number of truths concerning life, death and prosperity.

Id like readers to get a sense of value for themselves without having to be a millionaire and remain a good friend, a great neighbor, a person of great character after they make a few millions.

The Practice of His Righteousness will appeal to the general readers who seek an understanding about life and themselves.

The Practice of His Righteousness

By Leonel Dieujuste

Hardcover | 5.5 x 8.5in | 268 pages | ISBN 9781532036620

Softcover | 5.5 x 8.5in | 268 pages | ISBN 9781532036606

E-Book | 268 pages | ISBN 9781532036613

Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the Author

Leonel Dieujuste has been a born-again Christian for 35 years. He has been studying the Bible since the age of 12. He enjoys photography, fashion design and culinary arts. He currently lives in Florida Keys with his wife, Esther, who is also in the ministry. The Practice of His Righteousness is his debut book.

iUniverse, an Author Solutions, LLC, self-publishing imprint, is the leading book marketing, editorial services, and supported self-publishing provider. iUniverse has a strategic alliance with Indigo Books & Music, Inc. in Canada, and titles accepted into the iUniverse Rising Star program are featured in a special collection on BarnesandNoble.com. iUniverse recognizes excellence in book publishing through the Star, Readers Choice, Rising Star and Editors Choice designationsself-publishings only such awards program. Headquartered in Bloomington, Indiana, iUniverse also operates offices in Indianapolis. For more information or to publish a book, please visit iuniverse.com or call 1-800-AUTHORS. For the latest, follow @iuniversebooks on Twitter.
#EUhealthyworkplaces Our campaign raises awareness of all types of dangerous substances, not just the obvious ones, and emphasises the importance of risk assessment in all sectors as the first step towards prevention.

Contrary to widespread belief, the use of dangerous substances is not decreasing in the EU, and the need to manage the risks they pose is as pressing as ever. Some of the substances that workers are most commonly exposed to include carcinogens. The European Commission has recently proposed to limit workers' exposure to five cancer-causing chemicals, in addition to the 21 substances that have already been limited or proposed to be limited.

Marianne Thyssen, European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility, spoke at a press conference in Brussels to mark the campaign launch: We will continue to raise awareness and take action to limit workers' exposure to cancer-causing chemicals. This is a key priority for the European Commission, not least because the European Pillar of Social Rights entitles workers to a high level of protection of their safety and health at work. EU-OSHAs campaigns are leading the way in reaching workplaces across Europe and help organisations adopt effective approaches to occupational safety and health management with the necessary tools.

The new campaign aims to promote techniques for the proper management of dangerous substances in the workplace, such as risk assessment, elimination and substitution, by disseminating practical tools and case studies. It also focuses on groups of workers who are at particular risk.

Dr Christa Sedlatschek, EU-OSHAs Director, states that: Many workers are unaware that not only manufactured chemical products that are labelled with risk and safety information can cause harm. Other commonly used substances across all sectors  from working with flour in bakeries to silica dust on construction sites  can be hazardous if their use is not managed effectively. Therefore, our campaign raises awareness of all types of dangerous substances, not just the obvious ones, and emphasises the importance of risk assessment in all sectors as the first step towards prevention.

The campaign brings together a wide range of partners, including EU-OSHAs network of national focal points, official campaign partners, media partners and the Enterprise Europe Network, which help to spread the campaigns messages to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. The campaign also has the backing of the European institutions and their networks, in particular the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU.

Lazar Lazarov, Bulgarian Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Policy, commented, The latest Healthy Workplaces Campaign has an important message. While the legislation may be in place, workers and employers across the EU need to be aware of the rules and regulations and how best to comply with them. Otherwise, the risks posed by exposure to dangerous substances will not be managed properly. We look forward to working with EU OSHA and the campaign partners over the coming years.

Ideas and interventions that make an impact at workplace level are shared in particular through the Healthy Workplaces Good Practice Awards. Furthermore, a range of materials have been developed and made available through a multilingual website to support the campaign. An e-tool to effectively manage dangerous substances in the workplace is available in English and soon will be accessible in three country versions (Austria, Estonia and Romania). Furthermore, a database has been created of almost 700 practical tools and guidance documents from 11 Member States, and case studies, infographics and animated short films starring the character Napo can also be found on the campaign website.

In addition, EU-OSHA is a partner of the Roadmap on Carcinogens. This action scheme aims to raise awareness of carcinogens in the workplace and the associated limit values and legislation, and to provide practical information on risk assessment and good practice examples for eliminating or managing risks.

Links:


Today, Morrison & Foerster, a leading global law firm, announced the results of Legal Risks to Consumer Products Companies in 2018, a survey of senior in-house legal counsel at consumer products companies. Morrison & Foerster commissioned the survey to gain and share insights into consumer products companies and their key legal concerns, perceptions of emerging risks, and expectations for 2018.

To view the full survey report, visit: https://www.mofo.com/special-content/legal-risks-consumer-products-companies-2018/

The report includes the following notable findings:



The most important drivers of change for consumer products companies in 2018 will be the economy (78%), government regulatory change (71%), and technological advancements (59%).

69% of respondents said that litigation was their biggest concern, followed closely by protection of brand equity (60%) and privacy and data security (56%).

Approximately two out of five legal departments expect their litigation costs to increase in 2018. Estimated cost increases ranged from 5% to 11% or more.

Approximately one in three legal matters in 2017 were considered high risk or complex, with one out of five in-house counsel expecting more high-risk lawsuits in 2018.

Survey respondents expect that product liability (45%), data privacy (44%), and regulatory/compliance (42%) will give rise to the most new case activity.

Consumer products companies have always faced unique legal challenges, but in-house counsel are now under more pressure than ever to protect their brand and keep their consumers trust, said Erin Bosman, chair of Morrison & Foersters Product Liability and Counseling Practice. Our survey revealed that, while reputation and litigation threats continue to grow, advancing technology  like the Internet of Things  has created an even more complex legal landscape that will force companies to anticipate and plan for previously unknown risks.

Our survey results show that the ever-changing regulatory environment is also top-of-mind for consumer products companies, stated Julie Park, a partner in the Product Liability and Counseling Practice. While the current federal government is unlikely to add regulations, state and local governments are taking a different approach and could implement changes on everything from climate change and nutrition to privacy and labor laws.

ABOUT THE SURVEY

Morrison & Foersters Legal Risks to Consumer Products Companies in 2018 survey of consumer products companies was conducted in late 2017 by telephone, primarily by market research company YouGov. The survey incorporates responses from senior in-house counsel at more than 60 consumer products companies in the United States with revenues ranging from $250 million to $1 billion. Companies participating in the survey represent a range of consumer products, including electronics, foods and beverages, household products, apparel, cosmetics, and office products. To view the full survey report, visit: https://www.mofo.com/special-content/legal-risks-consumer-products-companies-2018/

ABOUT MOFOS CONSUMER PRODUCTS AND RETAIL GROUP

Morrison & Foerster knows consumer products. Our clients span the consumer products spectrum, from prestige to mass market, electronics to baby products, chemicals to textiles. We provide a full-spectrum of legal services to some of the most popular and prolific household brands, that trust us to guide them through their toughest strategic business decisions. With lawyers across the United States, Asia, and Europe, were always available to help clients develop their businesses through corporate and transactional matters and defend against high-stakes litigation. When the stakes are the highest, we are ready at a moments notice to manage safety crises and product recalls. And no matter what issues our clients face, we work with them to protect their reputation and brand integrity.

ABOUT MOFO

We are Morrison & Foerster  a global firm of exceptional credentials. Our clients include some of the largest financial institutions, investment banks, Fortune 100, and technology and life sciences companies. The Financial Times has named the firm to its lists of most innovative law firms in Northern America and Asia every year that it has published its Innovative Lawyers Reports in those regions. In the past few years, Chambers USA has honored MoFos Privacy and Data Security, Bankruptcy, and IP teams with Firm of the Year awards, the Corporate/M&A team with a client service award, and the firm as a whole as Global USA Firm of the Year. Our lawyers are committed to achieving innovative and business-minded results for our clients, while preserving the differences that make us stronger. The firm also has a long history of commitment to the community through providing pro bono legal services, including litigating for civil rights and civil liberties, improving public education for poor children, advocating for veterans, promoting international human rights, winning asylum for the persecuted, and safeguarding the environment.
For the First Time Ever, Polaris Off-Road Vehicles are Now Available Through Military AutoSource. "Polaris and their incredible products exemplify the passion, personal freedom and leadership that truly reflects our men and women in uniform." - Ken Engberg, senior vice president of marketing, Military AutoSource

Polaris has signed on exclusively with Military AutoSource, the Army & Air Force Exchange Service and Navy Exchange to be the first and only off-road vehicle manufacturer to offer military members privileged pricing on vehicles purchased on overseas military bases.

We are thrilled to be adding Polaris to the family of brands available through Military AutoSource, said Ken Engberg, senior vice president of marketing, Military AutoSource. Polaris and their incredible products exemplify the passion, personal freedom and leadership that truly reflects our men and women in uniform. As always, Military AutoSource stands ready to enable our service members to make the most of their well-deserved downtime in pursuit of their own personal adventures on, and now off-road.

The full Polaris off-road vehicles line up is now available for purchase exclusively at overseas Exchanges.



The Polaris RANGER is the industrys best-selling utility side-by-side (SxS), known for its rugged off-road capability and smooth ride. Perfect for farms, hunting, or simply working.

The Polaris RZR is the best-selling recreational SxS, known for delivering the ultimate combination of power, suspension and agility. The RZR is engineered for all off-road recreational riding with friends and family, including for trails, deserts, dunes, rocks, and mud.

Polaris GENERAL is the best-selling crossover utility vehicle (UTV) on the market. Polaris has expanded the Polaris GENERAL line-up with more models to choose from including a military-inspired, limited-edition vehicle. The Polaris GENERAL provides riders the best combination of recreational performance with RZR-inspired suspension and power paired with a 600-pound dumping cargo box to get work done.

The best-selling Polaris Sportsman all-terrain vehicle offers legendary ride and handling for the toughest trails and tasks.

Polaris ACE continues to bring the revolutionary, single-seat experience to riders. The Polaris ACE line has a standard roll over protection system and a full line for trail riders of all types.

U.S. military stationed overseas can now buy an industry leading vehicle through this exclusive program on an overseas base and you, a friend or a family member can then receive it at your local U.S. Polaris dealer.

Learn more about the program and receive privileged military pricing on vehicles from the world leader in off-road.

About Military AutoSource:

Military AutoSource (MAS) is a subsidiary of Overseas Military Sales Corporation (OMSC) based in Woodbury, New York. For close to 60 years, Military AutoSource has been serving the military community by providing U.S. specification cars, trucks, SUVs, minivans, motorcycles and off-road vehicles to active duty military, civilian, DOD employees and the diplomatic community stationed on U.S. installations outside the United States. The on-base division of Military AutoSource is authorized by The Exchange (AAFES) and Navy Exchange (NEXCOM) and maintains operations in close to 70 locations in over 20 countries. Learn more about Military AutoSource.

About Polaris:

Polaris Industries Inc. (NYSE: PII) is a global powersports leader that has been fueling the passion of riders, workers and outdoor enthusiasts for more than 60 years. With annual 2017 sales of $5.4 billion, Polaris innovative, high-quality product line-up includes the RANGER, RZR and Polaris GENERAL side-by-side off-road vehicles; the Sportsman and Polaris ACE all-terrain off-road vehicles; Indian Motorcycle midsize and heavyweight motorcycles; Slingshot moto-roadsters; and Polaris RMK, INDY, Switchback and RUSH snowmobiles. Polaris enhances the riding experience with parts, garments and accessories, along with a growing aftermarket portfolio, including Transamerican Auto Parts. Polaris presence in adjacent markets globally include military and commercial off-road vehicles, quadricycles, and electric vehicles. Proudly headquartered in Minnesota, Polaris serves more than 100 countries across the globe.

Visit http://www.polaris.com for more information.
Malia Cox Nobrega and Barbara Scrivens

Haute Residence welcomes Malia Cox Nobrega and Barbara Scrivens to its real estate network. As Haute Residence partners, Nobrega and Scrivens exclusively represent the high-end real estate market in Vail, Colorado.

Nobrega and Scrivens have forged successful real estate careers, grounding them in exceptional local insights, technology savvy and commitment to customer needs. On their own, both Nobrega and Scrivens have earned coveted top-producer recognition and rank in the highest echelons of Vail Valley brokers.

Vail Valley locals, both Nobrega and Scrivens have seen the region evolve, understand its uniqueness and know how to match the local resort lifestyle to their clients preferences.

About Malia Cox Nobrega:

Nobrega hit the ground running early in real estate and was named Outstanding Rookie by Whos Who In Luxury Real Estate in 2016. She is continuously one of the top producing brokers in the Vail Valley in dollar volume of sales and currently she is ranked 9th out of approximately 650 brokers in the Vail Valley based upon sold and pending listings in the last 12 months (as of 3/21/18).

After an initial career in commercial litigation, and although she still maintains her law license, Nobrega changed her career from law to real estate when she moved back to the Vail Valley to start a family with her husband Jay Nobrega. She and her husband purchased Nobregas family real estate brokerage firm and property management company, which has operated in Vail since the 1970s. They sold that company in 2014.

Nobrega now devotes her career to residential real estate sales with LIV Sothebys International Realty. She is a Regent for LuxuryRealEstate.com and the exclusive broker for the Haute Residence Luxury Real Estate Network for the Vail Valley.

About Barbara Scrivens:

Scrivens brings extensive real estate, historical and community knowledge of the Vail Valley and applies these attributes for optimal results for her clients. A resident herself for 25 years, her sales production consistently ranks within the top 5 percent for the Vail Valley, exceeding $60 million in 2017.

After years of running a high-end boutique real estate development firm in Vail Village, Scrivens was attracted to the strength of the Sothebys brand; centuries-old heritage of expertise, a global network and a reputation for delivering the highest level of service and results. With over 830 offices in 63 countries and territories around the world, Sothebys International Realty and dominate position in Colorados luxury real estate market is a powerful and compelling force for Scrivens clients.

About Haute Residence:

Designed as a partnership-driven luxury real estate portal, Haute Residence connects its affluent readers with top real estate professionals, while offering the latest in real estate news, showcasing the worlds most extraordinary residences on the market and sharing expert advice from its knowledgeable and experienced real estate partners.

The invitation-only luxury real estate network, which partners with just one agent in every market, unites a distinguished collective of leading real estate agents and brokers and highlights the most extravagant properties in leading markets around the globe for affluent buyers, sellers, and real estate enthusiasts.

HauteResidence.com has grown to be the number one news source for million-dollar listings, high-end residential developments, celebrity real estate, and more.

Access all of this information and more by visiting: http://www.hauteresidence.com
I believe women have a distinctive voice that is desperately needed in the technology sector.

Women have a unique perspective that can help push connected technologies, M2M, and the IoT (Internet of Things) forwardand the most successful ones will be recognized at an annual gala.

The event, sponsored by MultiTech and Able Devices, will bring together women from all over the U.S. to honor them as winners of the 2018 Women of M2M awards. The event will take place at 7:00 PM on the evening of May 17, in San Francisco at ThoughtWorks.

Beverly Rider, senior vice president and chief commercial officer, Hitachi, will deliver the keynote and will also be named the first Hall of Fame winner.

The Women of M2M list is comprised of some of the most powerful women in the technology sector, and representing many of the most innovative companies in the world. These women are selected because they each bring a unique lens to their respective companies that helps push connected technologies forward.

The sixth annual awards program recognizes women as trailblazers and innovators in the IoT enterprise.

The celebratory gathering will include the keynote address by Beverly Rider, networking with current and past winners during cocktails and dinner, followed by an awards presentation by the President of Specialty Publishing, and Editorial Director of Connected World magazine, Peggy Smedley.

I believe women have a distinctive voice that is desperately needed in the technology sector, says Smedley. The women to be honored serving the emerging technology community continue to make significant contributions and its always nice to take a few moments to enjoy all that they have achieved with other like-minded women. I am looking forward to joining these honorees and their peers to celebrate their successes and learn what is next.

To learn more about this dinner, or to take part in the celebration, please visit https://connectedworld.com/wom2m18/

The 2018 Women of M2M will appear in Connected World in June.

About Connected World

Connected World is the business and technology publication that provides the intelligence industry titans need and the guidance consumers crave. Its all about M2M. connectedworld.com
I am thrilled to be part of the Bellefield team. Having spent almost a decade in legal technology, I look forward to continuing to work in this space and am motivated to connect Bellefields current and future customers with solutions that will improve results for the firm

Bellefield Systems, the providers of the fastest path to revenue through its time entry solutions, announced John Blake as Regional Sales Manager for the West Region. John brings over 25 years of business experience to Bellefield, including nearly a decade in legal technology. In his role of Regional Sales Manager, John is responsible for driving growth for Bellefield and its customer base, assisting firms with identifying the right solutions to improve accuracy in time entry and billing in order to prevent revenue loss and increase competitiveness.

We are excited to welcome John Blake as Regional Sales Manager for Bellefield, stated Gabriela Isturiz, President. At Bellefield, we are constantly seeking ways to help our customers improve timekeeping behavior in order to prevent lost time, reduce write-offs, increase revenue and improve collection realization. Johns extensive experience in the legal industry and alignment with our core values are a natural fit for both Bellefield and our current and future customers.

Prior to joining Bellefield, John served as the Regional Sales Manager for Thomson Reuters Elite/eBillingHub and West Law, where he was instrumental in growing the Western/Central client base.

"I am thrilled to be part of the Bellefield team. Having spent almost a decade in legal technology, I look forward to continuing to work in this space and am motivated to connect Bellefields current and future customers with solutions that will improve results for the firm."

Bellefield is thrilled to have John on board and looks forward to a prosperous future.

About Bellefield Systems & iTimeKeep

Bellefield provides the fastest path to revenue by removing barriers to time entry for attorneys and law firms. Through the iTimeKeep platform, Bellefield brings better timekeeping to any law firm or professional services firm by increasing attorney engagement, providing real-time compliance with outside counsel guidelines and enabling firms to manage their time entry policies. In an area that was long disregarded and accepted as a cost of doing business, Bellefields innovations are bringing about efficiencies that allow firms to achieve the best timecard inventory, leading to less rejections, increased compliance and maximum client satisfaction.

Bellefield was founded with one simple (yet powerful) purpose: create better timekeepers. iTimeKeep ranks #1 as the most adopted Mobile (and anywhere) Time Entry solution for attorneys for five consecutive years. Bellefields founding members include the former founders of eBillingHub (now Thomson Reuters ), Gabriela Isturiz and Daniel Garcia and software veteran, John Kuntz. Bellefield Systems is an independent, privately held company headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. To learn more, visit http://www.bellefield.com
Making a difference in each of our local communities is critical to what we do every day - Allen Tate President Pat Riley.

Allen Tate Realtors and employees recently contributed $161,000 to local arts and cultural programs and United Way agencies in North and South Carolina through its Tate Cares combined giving campaign.

Each year, agents and employees are given the opportunity to support local and regional arts and cultural organizations and United Way agencies. The Tate Cares umbrella also includes FUNday, an event held each fall to raise money for public education in local communities.

"People and companies want to relocate to communities that have vibrant and exciting cultural amenities and strong support systems for underserved populations. Our Realtors and employees understand this. Making a difference in each of our local communities is critical to what we do every day," said Pat Riley, Allen Tate Companies president and CEO.

Stephanie Gossett, Allen Tate regional vice president, served as company chairperson for the 2018 Tate Cares campaign.

During the past 21 years, Allen Tate agents and employees have contributed more than $4.88 million through Tate Cares.

Allen Tate Realtors is the Carolinas largest real estate company with 47 offices in the Charlotte, Triad, Triangle and Upstate South Carolina regions. Allen Tate offers the advantage of hometown service with international capabilities and the latest in real estate technology and maximum marketing exposure. Visit http://www.allentate.com for more information.
Debbie Smith, Georgia Uniteds President and CEO, is pictured with award recipients Kathryn Madden, Jamila Pellum, Alisha Zamore and Jessica Stevens.

Georgia United Credit Union is proud to announce the winners of their 2018 scholarship programs. A total of $27,500 has been awarded to four high school seniors through scholarships named for the credit unions founder, Vernon E. Carne and notable board members Geraldine Tilson, Dorothy Dusenberry Pirkle and Polly Hinde.

This marks Georgia Uniteds 24th year of awarding scholarships to deserving students. This years recipients were chosen based on a video competition with consideration given to academic accomplishments, leadership and participation in both school and community activities.

Congratulations to the 2018 winners:

Jamila Pellum is the Vernon E. Carne winner of a $10,000 scholarship.

Pellum is a senior at Fayette County High School and is a member of various academic and community service organizations such as Parliamentarian of the National Honor Society, Vice President of the National Beta Club and is a member of the National Spanish Honor Society and the Science National Honor Society. She is a Georgia Merit Scholar, AP Scholar, High Honors recipient and served as a Junior Marshal. In addition to her academic accolades, she is a member of the top chorus at Fayette County High School and participated in the District VI Honor Chorus. Pellum is the daughter of Reginald and Cheryl Foster and Frederick Pellum, Jr. She plans to attend The University of Alabama at Birmingham to major in nursing.

Alisha Zamore is the Geraldine Tilson winner of a $7,500 scholarship.

Zamore is a senior at McIntosh High School in Peachtree City. She is an active musician in the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony, Southern Crescent Symphony Orchestra and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestras Talent Development Program. Last year, her Mozart Clarinet Quintet won first place at the first annual Franklin Pond Chamber Music competition. This summer, she will be joining the National Youth Orchestra on their performance at Carnegie Hall and tour of China, South Korea and Taiwan. Zamore is the daughter of Lector and Jackie Zamore.

Jessica Stevens is the Dorothy Dusenberry winner of a $5,000 scholarship.

Stevens is a home school student from Cumming and is currently dual-enrolled at Kennesaw State University in the Honors Program where she has been named to the Deans List. She is a member of the district honor band and district honor chorus this year. She is also a member of the Eta Sigma Alpha National Honor Society. Each summer Stevens serves as a family partner volunteer with Lighthouse Family Retreat, a preschool childcare volunteer each week at her church, a student leadership coalition volunteer at her fine arts school, a service project volunteer with her national honor society and as a volunteer each summer at vacation Bible school. She is the daughter of Rich and Diane Stevens. Stevens plans to attend Kennesaw State University in the fall and major in architecture.

Kathryn Madden is the Polly Hinde winner of a $5,000 scholarship.

Madden is a senior at South Forsyth High School. She is a member of various academic and community service organizations such as Vice President of National Honor Society, competing in DECA marketing competitions, volunteering with special needs students, MD Junior club, serving as an ambassador to incoming freshman students and running on the cross country team. Outside of school she enjoys volunteering at church, spending time with friends and family and playing and watching sports. Madden is the daughter of Brian and Elisabeth Madden. She plans to attend the University of Georgia where she will major in Human Development and Family Science, with a pre-nursing intent.

As a credit union founded by DeKalb County School educators, Georgia United is proud to continue to offer financial support to young members planning to continue their education after high school this fall.

About Georgia United Credit Union

Georgia United Credit Union is ranked as one of the top credit unions in Georgia with over $1.2 Billion in assets, 160,000 members and 19 branch locations. As a full-service community minded financial institution, they offer competitive products and services including financial literacy programs for all ages to help members achieve their financial goals. Visit gucu.org to learn more or follow the credit union on Facebook at facebook.com/GeorgiaUnitedCU, Twitter @GAUnitedCU and Instagram @gucucares.
Jennifer DeMello-Johnson, Amerisure's Vice President, Agency Services I am pleased to welcome Jennifer to the AMHI team, said Graf. She is a valued leader in our organization and has demonstrated her ability to develop outstanding solutions that fulfill the needs and mutual success of Amerisure and its PFS agencies.

Amerisure Mutual Holdings, Inc. (AMHI) announces the promotion of Jennifer DeMello-Johnson to vice president, agency services. She will report to Dan Graf, chief investment officer.

In her new role, DeMello-Johnson will identify, create and implement critical non-insurance business services, offered through Amerisures Partners For Success (PFS) program, that drive profitability and organic growth for all Amerisure partner agencies. She will also continue to be part of Amerisures customer engagement team.

I am pleased to welcome Jennifer to the AMHI team, said Graf. She is a valued leader in our organization and has demonstrated her ability to develop outstanding solutions that fulfill the needs and mutual success of Amerisure and its PFS agencies.

DeMello-Johnson joined Agency Services Group, a subsidiary of Amerisure Mutual Holdings, Inc., in 2008 as assistant vice president, agency services, and transitioned to Amerisures customer engagement team in 2016. During her tenure, she has developed Amerisures PEaK Producer Program, ACHIEVE Strategic and Business Planning, Agency Leadership Forums, and a comprehensive array of additional professional services which benefit Amerisures PFS agencies.

She began her career as human resource (HR) manager for BHP Petroleum and later transitioned into HR and information technology consulting and global resource management at Deloitte Consulting, Siemens Consulting Group and EMC. Her industry focus includes financial services, manufacturing, construction and education. Her role further extends into the insurance industry as a presenter and facilitator at various conferences throughout the country.

DeMello-Johnson earned her bachelor and masters degree from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. She is an active member of the Womens Association, and serves on the board of directors for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southeastern Michigan.

About Amerisure Insurance

Amerisure Mutual Insurance Company is an insurance organization charged with creating exceptional value for its Partners For Success agencies and policyholders. As an A-rated (Excellent) property and casualty insurance company licensed in 50 states, Amerisure provides a comprehensive line of insurance products to protect businesses focused in construction, manufacturing and healthcare through strategically located Core Service Centers. For more information, visit amerisure.com.
Transpay provides a secure, transparent method in which online freelancers can access their earnings in local currency. Our goal is to ensure that gig workers working abroad with an international clientele can be paid easily, quickly and securely, said Peter Shore, General Manager at Transpay.

Freelance Economy Sees Nearly Triple-Digit Jump in Outbound Payments from U.S. to Overseas, According to Recent Transpay Data

Up Nearly 100 Percent From 2017 Levels, Cross-Border Payouts Provider Expects Continued Growth

New York, NY  April 24  Outbound payments from the United States of America to various countries around the globe have increased significantly in the past 12 months, according to recent data from Transpay, the global cross-border mass payout platform.

The data are indicative of global growth in the online freelance economy, a business engine that is allowing more workers to sell their products or services from remote locations around the world.

U.S. outbound cross-border transactions processed by Transpay increased by 93 percent in the first quarter of 2018, compared with the same period last year, while the total transaction value, or principal, increased 43 percent.

We have seen extraordinary growth of the gig economy in the last year alone and our year-over-year data reflect that trend, said Peter Shore, General Manager at Transpay. Factors like U.S. H-1B visa regulations, new enterprise technology, and the proliferation of freelance marketplaces in todays digital economy have had significant influence over the way companies hire and pay freelance employees based overseas.

According to the University of Oxfords Online Labour Index (OLI)[1], the freelance marketplace has grown 25 percent in the last year. Transpay reports that the countries receiving the most principal from the U.S. in the first quarters of 2017 and 2018 were Pakistan and Bangladesh. This is in line with expectations as these are two of the top three countries with the most freelancers on online platforms according to OLI, with the U.S. showing the highest demand for these online services.

Earlier this year, Transpay expanded its direct-to-bank payouts offering to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, reinforcing that the need for streamlined cross-border payouts that span multiple regions and currencies.

In the last year alone, our expansion of new corridors into various geographies has been supported by increasing levels of freelance workers weve seen in those regions, said Shore. Transpay provides a secure, transparent method in which online freelancers can access their earnings in local currency. Our goal is to ensure that gig workers working abroad with an international clientele can be paid easily, quickly, and securely.

[1] Kassi, O. & Lehdonvirta, V. (2016) Online Labour Index: Measuring the Online Gig Economy for Policy and Research. Paper presented at Internet, Politics & Policy 2016, 22-23 September, Oxford, UK. http://ilabour.oii.ox.ac.uk/online-labour-index/

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About Transpay

Transpay provides businesses of all sizes with a scalable, secure, and fully compliant cross-border mass payout solution, making it easy to send funds directly to the local bank accounts of vendors, business partners, freelancers or others in over 100+ countries. To learn more, visit http://www.transpay.com.
We are proud to announce our partnership with Digi-Key Electronics, one of the largest electronic component distributors in the world. By teaming up with Digi-Key, we continue to further improve our customer convenience and our technical expertise availability.

ODU, a worldwide leader in designing and manufacturing high-performance connector solutions and cable assemblies is announcing its strategic partnership with Digi-Key Electronics.

Digi-Key Electronics is now an authorized distributor for ODU-USA products, able to sell the entire connector solution portfolio worldwide. The ODU-USA product portfolio is now available and distributed by Digi-Key including the advanced Push-Pull circular connectors: ODU MINI-SNAP, ODU MEDI-SNAP and ODU MINI-MED.

Offering more than 80,000 combinations of product that continues to grow through custom specific designs, ODU-USAs connectors are found in a variety of challenging application environments including medical, industrial, test and measurement, military and security, eMobility and energy.

ODU-USAs commitment is to provide the highest level of quality and customer satisfaction to all our customers. We are proud to announce our partnership with Digi-Key Electronics, one of the largest electronic component distributors in the world. By teaming up with Digi-Key, we continue to further improve our customer convenience and our technical expertise availability said Thomas Mittermeier, CEO and President of ODU-USA, Inc.

ODU-USA advanced connector solutions can be purchased from Digi-Key at: https://www.digikey.com/en/supplier-centers/o/odu

About Digi-Key Electronics:

Digi-Key Electronics, based in Thief River Falls, Minn., is a global, full-service distributor of both prototype/design and production quantities of electronic components, offering more than 6.8 million products from over 750 quality name-brand manufacturers. With over 1.4 million products in stock and an impressive selection of online resources, Digi-Key is committed to stocking the broadest range of electronic components in the industry and providing the best service possible to its customers. Additional information and access to Digi-Keys broad product offering is available at http://www.digikey.com.

ODU Group: Global Representation with Perfect Connections

The ODU Group is one of the worlds leading suppliers of connector systems, employing 1,900 people around the world. In addition to its company headquarters in Muhldorf am Inn (Germany), ODU also has an international distribution network and production sites in Sibiu/Romania, Camarillo/USA, Shanghai/China and Tijuana/Mexico. ODU combines all relevant areas of expertise and key technologies including design and development, machine tooling and special machine construction, injection, stamping, turning, surface technology, assembly and cable assembly. The ODU Group sells its products globally through its nine subsidiaries in Denmark, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, the US, China and Japan, as well as through numerous international sales partners. ODU connectors ensure a reliable transmission of power, signals, data and media for a variety of demanding applications including medical technology, military and security, eMobility, energy, industrial electronics, and test and measurement.
The Mixed Media Event will showcase a broad variety of product categories in this growing industry, and enables all retailers, especially independent stores, to learn about and purchase new products leading up to the high-traffic holiday season. - Mark Hill, President & CEO, AFCI

The Mixed Media Event, the creative industrys summer wholesale buying event exclusively for independent and online retailers, will take place July 16-18, 2018 at the newly branded Mountain America Expo Center in beautiful Sandy, Utah. The event will feature one day of hands-on new product workshops and a two-day trade show. The Association For Creative Industries (AFCI), the premier trade association for the global creative arts products industry, is hosting the event in conjunction with Sierra Pacific Crafts (SPC), a member-owned cooperative of family-owned industry retailers.

Our industry research indicates the creative marketplace in the United States is valued at $36.2 billion and that consumer participation in creative activities is growing, says Mark Hill, President & CEO, AFCI. The Mixed Media Event will showcase a broad variety of product categories in this growing industry, and enables all retailers, especially independent stores, to learn about and purchase new products leading up to the high-traffic holiday season.

Workshops will be offered on July 16 and will demonstrate popular products, techniques and trends in mixed media, cardmaking, stamping, journaling and more paper crafts. The trade show will open July 17 and July 18, and will provide attendees with the opportunity to write orders and network one-on-one with industry manufacturers.

Registration is open and is free for AFCI members and SPC members. Non-member registration for entry to the trade show is $30. Workshops costs vary. For more information and to register, visit http://mixedmedia.afci.global

Companies interested in exhibiting may contact Nadine Schwartz, Director of Sales & Sponsorships, at nschwartz@afci.global or (201) 835-1203.

ABOUT THE ASSOCIATION FOR CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

The Association For Creative Industries (AFCI) is the premier trade association for the global creative arts products industries. AFCI strives to deliver innovative high value services as we support our Members who provide products and services to educate, entertain, and inspire creative consumers. Our Members include the manufacturers, retailers, distributors, designers, educators, digital content providers, professional makers and DIYers, and other creative professionals that comprise the $36 billion+ creative arts industries in the United States alone. For more information about AFCI, membership, or its annual trade events, visit http://www.afci.global.

ABOUT SPC

SPC (formerly Sierra Pacific Crafts) began informally 40 years ago when two retail stores in Washington started working together. SPC now serves more than 60 independent member stores who represent nearly 1 million square feet of retail space and 150 million dollars in retail sales. A.C. Moore, a family-owned chain of 140 craft stores, is also part of SPCs community. For more information, visit http://www.spc.us.
The National Center for Childrens Vision and Eye Health at Prevent Blindness (NCCVEH) issues call for nominations for the 4th annual Bonnie Strickland Champion for Childrens Vision Award. Through this award, we are able to recognize the efforts of others who are helping to put our kids on the path to a lifetime of healthy vision, said Jeff Todd, president and CEO of Prevent Blindness.

The National Center for Childrens Vision and Eye Health at Prevent Blindness (NCCVEH) has issued the call for nominations for the fourth annual Bonnie Strickland Champion for Childrens Vision Award. The award recognizes significant efforts by an individual or group of individuals to improve public health approaches for childrens vision and eye health at the state or national level. The deadline for submission is June 15, 2018.

The award was established by the NCCVEH Advisory Committee to commemorate Bonnie Strickland and her groundbreaking work to establish a comprehensive system for childrens vision in the United States. Strickland served as Director of the Division of Services for Children with Special Health Needs, Maternal and Child Health Bureau prior to her retirement in 2014.

Nominees for the Bonnie Strickland Champion for Childrens Vision Award may include individuals (such as a parent advocate, legislator, or professional) or a group comprised of diverse stakeholders, including family and community leaders, who are implementing changes to improve childrens vision and eye health in the United States. Nominees should demonstrate an impact in one or more areas of a public health system supporting childrens vision:



Key Stakeholder Engagement or Collaboration, including representation from families and diverse racial/ethnic/geographic and socio-economic levels target populations

Training and Education

Public Awareness

Provision of Resources and/or Services

Surveillance and Accountability

Reduction of Health Disparities

Infrastructure Development- Local, State, or National Level

The all-volunteer Bonnie Strickland Champion for Childrens Vision Award Committee will review all nominations and select the award winner. The award will be presented at the NCCVEH annual meeting, Aug. 4, 2018, in Alexandria, Va. The award consists of a commemorative plaque, recognition and opportunity to present at the Annual Meeting, and roundtrip airfare for one to Alexandria, Va., along with one night of lodging. The award recipient will be featured on the website for the National Center for Childrens Vision and Eye Health with an overview of their program.

Past recipients of the Bonnie Strickland Champion for Childrens Vision Award include the Pediatric Physicians Organization at Childrens (PPOC), based at the Boston Childrens Hospital in Brookline, Mass. (2015 award winner), the Illinois Eye Institute (IEI) at Princeton Vision Clinic, based at the Illinois College of Optometry (2016 award winner), and Sean P. Donahue, MD, Ph.D., Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at Vanderbilt University (2017 award winner).

At Prevent Blindness we believe that all children deserve an improved system to ensure that vision problems are identified early and treated in a timely manner, standards for screening and care are uniform across the country, and that appropriate surveillance and preventive interventions are in place, said Jeff Todd, president and CEO of Prevent Blindness. Through this award, we are able to recognize the efforts of others who are helping to put our kids on the path to a lifetime of healthy vision.

For more information or to submit a nomination for the 2018 Bonnie Strickland Champion for Childrens Vision Award, please visit https://nationalcenter.preventblindness.org/content/bonnie-strickland-champion-childrens-vision-award, or contact Kira Baldonado at (800) 331-2020 or kbaldonado(at)preventblindness.org.

About the National Center for Childrens Vision and Eye Health at Prevent Blindness

Founded in 1908, Prevent Blindness is the nation's leading volunteer eye health and safety organization dedicated to fighting blindness and saving sight. Focused on promoting a continuum of vision care, Prevent Blindness touches the lives of millions of people each year through public and professional education, advocacy, certified vision screening and training, community and patient service programs and research. In 2009, Prevent Blindness established the National Center for Childrens Vision and Eye Health, with support from the Health Resources and Services Administration- Maternal and Child Health Bureau. Serving as a national resource for the establishment of a public health infrastructure, the National Center advances and promotes childrens vision and eye care, providing leadership and training to public entities throughout the United States. The National Center is advised by a committee of national experts and leaders from the fields of ophthalmology, optometry, pediatrics, nursing, family advocates and public health to guide the work and recommendations of the Center. For more information, or to make a contribution to the sight-saving fund, call 1-800-331-2020. Or, visit us on the Web at http://nationalcenter.preventblindness.org or http://www.facebook.com/preventblindness.
The only way a project of this caliber can be successful is through the commitment of a team at all levels, said Jason Traxler, Customer Service Manager at Tindall. The Tindall Utility Division is that team.

Tindall Corporations Utility Division manufactured APS hatch plugs for the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Arizona, the largest nuclear plant in the United States. GC Carolina Energy Solutions approached Tindall to complete this job due to the companys unique Nuclear Quality Assurance Level One (NQA-1) program, elite safety standards and production quality.

Tindall manufactured the precast concrete products out of their Spartanburg, SC facility. The pieces were transported to Palo Verde, AZ. Categorized as a life safety related project, Tindalls precast will serve a critical enclosure, protecting the lives of the workers and surrounding community from the functions of the power plant.

The only way a project of this caliber can be successful is through the commitment of a team at all levels, said Jason Traxler, Customer Service Manager at Tindall. The Tindall Utility Division is that team.

As a Nuclear Safety-Related Precast Concrete project for one of our customers, it was a challenge to meet all the requirements, but Tindall was up to the task, said Tim Gunnels, Principal Mechanical Engineer from Carolina Energy Solutions. [The Tindall team was] very professional, responsive, and thorough throughout the process. We were able to successfully deliver the final product while meeting all of the end customers requirements and expectations.

Tindalls Utility Division has completed hundreds of projects with complex regulations. The team is committed to bringing their partners a product they can depend on when the stakes are high.

To learn more about Tindall, visit http://www.tindallcorp.com/.

Headquartered in Spartanburg, SC, Tindall Corporation is one of the largest precast concrete manufacturers in North America. With five production facilities located throughout the Mid-Atlantic to the South Central United States, Tindall provides engineering, manufacturing, shipping and installation solutions for precast, prestressed concrete systems and underground utility structures.
Penguins on Antarctica Peninsula "A Christmas gift never to be forgotten - Antarctica!" Says TravelWild Expeditions GM Rick Vanselow. "Family travel is the best gift ever and you will not be able to top this one!"

Christmas in Antarctica! With a $1,000 Discount!

TravelWild Expeditions; small ship experts, announce a $1000 discount for select departures to spend Christmas in Antarctica. Imagine the gift this would be - for your spouse, family and friends! A discount like this is remarkable and available for a limited time. It represents the final opportunity to travel to the Seventh Continent in 2018.

This itinerary is quite unique; flying to King George Island, Antarctica from Punta Arenas, Chile to join the ship on Day One; it includes time in the Falkland Islands and South Georgia along with the Antarctic Peninsula. Many of these destinations are famous because of ties to the early explorers

Abundant wildlife and sea birds are encountered in these islands. soaring on the winds of the South Atlantic Ocean. South Georgia has often been called the Serengeti of the Southern Ocean. Guests explore the island by zodiac to view fur seals and the much larger elephant seal on the dark sand beaches. Living in the tussock grass, king penguins and their chicks may number up to 100,000 birds in some locations, including Salisbury Plain, St Andrews Bay and Gold Harbor. The island is also home to large numbers of nesting albatross as they fill the skies above, coming and going from the nest.

Around 60 miles off the coast of the Antarctic mainland, visit the South Shetland Island chain. Weather permitting, the ship sails into the flooded volcanic caldera of Deception Island, then enters the icy waters of the Antarctic Peninsula where an incredible abundance of wildlife live. Large rookeries are home to chinstrap, gentoo and Adelie penguins. Seals live on the ice floes, including the powerful leopard seal. Gulls, skuas and cormorants are also found nesting and feeding at many sites along the Antarctic Peninsula. A charter flight returns guests to Punta Arenas on Day 17 along with memories of a holiday like no other and new friendships to treasure.

This discount is per person, all cabin categories, through April 30, 2018 for sailing December 13-29. Please visit TravelWild Expeditions for additional information on inclusions and expanded itineraries.

About TravelWild Expeditions

For nearly four decades TravelWild has helped adventurous travelers bring their wildest dreams to life. Their small-ship cruises take you to places few will ever visitplaces of unparalleled natural beauty and prolific wildlife. They love to help adventurous travelers experience the wonders of the natural world in areas like Antarctica, the Arctic, Alaska and more. Their expedition trips by small ship, cruise to remote destinations where thousands of people have realized their dream of seeing exotic wildlife and beautiful landscapes; making memories that last a lifetime!

TravelWilds objective is to provide a customer-tailored voyage, comfortable accommodations and transport, a concern for the environment and the safety of clientsall while maximizing the chance for clients to experience those exceptional and elusive wildlife and nature moments. Travelers expect the spectacular from TravelWildand thats what they deliver!

TRAVELWILD EXPEDITIONS

CONTACT: Nancy Harrison

TEL: 307.421.4473

E-MAIL: nharrison@adventuremedianews.com

WEB: http://www.travelwild.com
FUND Conference Launches in Austin, TX For four years, we have assisted early- stage companies to connect with leading investors resulting in over 200 million in investments and providing all parties with opportunities for long-term strategy, said Jessica Powell, COO of FUND Conference.

FUND Conference, a prominent national network of entrepreneurs and investors, hosts its fourth annual event in Austin, Texas, Thursday, April 26, at the new Fairmont hotel in the Central Business District.

With a focus on curated deal flow, captivating content, and same day connections, the Conference will feature a full day of keynotes and panel presentations from a variety of influential business leaders across industries including Joshua Baer, Sara Brand, and Jay Samit. In addition to 16 speaking engagements, 100 innovative, highly scalable early -stage companies will exhibit in the entrepreneur expo. These presenting companies actively seek outside investment to ultimately propel their growth and profitability.

FUND Conference began in Chicago in 2015.

For four years, we have assisted early- stage companies to connect with leading investors resulting in over 200 million in investments and providing all parties with opportunities for long-term strategy, said Jessica Powell, COO of FUND Conference. The FUND team supports thriving, entrepreneurial ecosystems for growing innovation in Chicago and now Austin with more cities planned for 2019.

The Conference kicks off the morning of April 25, with a Women Investing in Women seminar, at Deloittes Austin offices, and a happy hour party for all ticket holders beginning at 5 p.m. at Capital Factory. FUNDs official legal industry sponsor is Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (WSGR), and two of its attorneys Robert Suffoletta and Scott Craig, will speak on Thursday.

"The attorneys of the WSGR firm are known for demonstrating technical excellence and establishing strong relationships with their clients," said RJ Pahura, FUND Conference Founder & CEO. "We are impressed by their many unique accomplishments and appreciate their advocacy for the advancement of entrepreneurship and its funding needs. We're proud to welcome them as partners and are excited to expand this event to Austin in support of their thriving entrepreneurial community.

FUND Conferences next conference is in Chicago in October.

About Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

For more than 50 years, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has offered a broad range of services and legal disciplines focused on serving the principal challenges faced by the management and boards of directors of business enterprises. The firm is nationally recognized as a leader in the fields of corporate governance and finance, mergers and acquisitions, private equity, securities litigation, employment law, intellectual property, and antitrust, among many other areas of law. For more information, please visit http://www.wsgr.com.

About FUND Conference

FUND Conference is a national connector of entrepreneurs, VCs, angel investors, and industry experts with a focus on curated deal flow, captivating content, and same day connections. To date, the company has introduced over 300 startups to nearly 1,250 investors and has featured more than 150 distinguished speakers.

See the recap video here: FUND Conference 2017 Recap.

Media Contact:

Jessica Powell

FUND Conference | COO

(312) 448-6550 x703

Jessica.Powell(at)FUNDConference.com

Carson Quinn

ZindseyMEDIA | president

(312) 339-9779

carson(at)zindsey.com

Press Passes: inquire at info(at)FUNDConference.com

SOURCE  FUND Conference
When I started this firm in 1988, I could not have envisioned what we have become today. It's been amazing to watch our company growth and Im excited to see what the future holds.  Dr. Richard Carlson

Carlson Environmental Inc. is happy to announce that this April marks our 30th year in business!

Founded in 1988 by Dr. Richard J. Carlson, Carlson Environmental has grown from a small firm of just two employees, to a family of about 20 full-time team members who have helped hundreds of clients close real estate deals, address environmental regulatory issues, and assist in site redevelopment.

When I started this firm in 1988, I could not have envisioned what we have become today, said Dr. Carlson, who retired in 2010 and sold the company to current Owner and President Edward Garske. Its been amazing to watch our company growth and Im excited to see what the future holds.

Carlson Environmental was founded at a time of burgeoning environmental awareness and regulation. Dr. Carlsons experience as former head of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency made him a natural fit to start one of Chicagos first environmental consulting firms.

At that time, banks were getting nervous about lending money for building projects on land with environmental issues. Dr. Carlson said. It was a perfect time and one of our advantages was my time at the IEPA.

Carlson and Garske agree that the family-focused culture at Carlson Environmental is what has driven the firms three decades of success.

This company has always been about the success of our employees and clients, said Garske, who was one of the companys first employees. Weve weathered a few economic storms through the years and we have managed to hold on to many longtime employees and clients who are still with us today. I have always considered the Carlson staff as part of my extended family.

As Owner and President, Garske remains fully involved in the day-to-day business of the firm, and his accessibility to clients and staff remains of utmost importance.

About Carlson Environmental

Carlson Environmental has been providing innovative and cost-effective environmental due diligence services to the real estate community since 1988. Since our founding, we have developed a strong track record of helping our clients achieve their business goals, whether it is closing a real estate deal, addressing an environmental regulatory issue, or assisting in site redevelopment.

Carlson has a consistent record of success in finding practical, cost-effective solutions for clients faced with increasingly complex regulatory systems and more challenging financial demands. Our staff of engineers, geologists, and environmental specialists is committed to our clients success and they take comfort in knowing that we are their advisors and a part of their team, and not just project managers.

Carlson is a nimble firm that is able to quickly adapt as deals evolve, site redevelopment plans change, or unexpected environmental conditions come to light. This core strength is important to our clients, particularly in times when business moves at the speed of technology and due diligence periods shorten.

While our initial projects were within the Chicagoland area including Wisconsin and Indiana, Carlson has grown to keep up with the demand of our clients. Though we still maintain our main office in downtown Chicago, we are also registered in Florida and Michigan. In addition, we have formed long-standing strategic alliances and teaming agreements with other reputable firms in locations throughout the U.S.

For more information about Carlson Environmentals services, please call 312-346-2140 or email info@carlsonenv.com.
With four separate events, we can hyper-focus on specific business technology trends that are of serious interest to business leaders today.

Trapp Technology, a Phoenix-based IT and tech solutions provider, is hosting their fourth annual Tech Me Out to the Ballgame event known for its engaging content and unique atmosphere. The evolution of the niche conference continues with the newly reimagined series format, consisting of four separate events that feature intimate seminars led by industry thought leaders, followed by an Arizona Diamondbacks game viewed from the exclusive field-level dugout suite at Chase Field. This event series caters to C-suite professionals and executive-level decision makers looking to challenge the status quo and move closer to reaching their operational goals.

We are proud to have hosted over 750 professionals across three years of the one-day business IT summit format. This year, each of the four Tech Me Out to the Ballgame events will create a more refined space for elevated dialogue in an environment conducive to deeper discussion, says Jay Bouche, Director of Marketing for Trapp Technology. With four separate events, we can hyper-focus on specific business technology trends that are of serious interest to business leaders today.

This year, each Tech Me Out to the Ballgame event focuses on a dedicated subject matter, with content ranging from recognizing the value of business technology to pinpointing the right amount to spend on IT security. To provide the best experience possible for every seminar, each event is limited to twelve attendees that are handpicked from a thorough application process.

Following the seminar, guests will move from the on-site conference room to the luxury dugout suite to enjoy dinner and drinks, the Arizona Diamondbacks game, and continued conversation.

The event series kicks off on Thursday, May 10, 2018 with a presentation by Dominick Grillas, the managing partner of Impestra Consulting. Having re-written a large part of the management consulting toolkit to respond to todays needs of organizations, Grillas advises leaders and executives on strategy execution, portfolio management, and enterprise performance. Through his discussion entitled Unleashing the Business Value of Your IT, Grillas challenges attendees to move from fighting the cost equation to realizing the value of technology to their business.

Future event dates include July 20, August 24, and September 19, 2018. Seminar details for these dates are slated to be announced in early Summer 2018.

For more information and to apply for tickets, visit the official event website: TechMeOutSummit.com.

About Trapp Technology

Trapp Technology provides the very best cloud, IT, VoIP, and security services to provide a true all-in-one IT solution for businesses who seek to cut IT costs and leverage technology to grow revenues. Trapp Technologys services are designed to appeal to the growing number of medium- to enterprise-level businesses looking to outsource more IT infrastructure and application management services to help reduce total cost of ownership and free up internal resources, as well as those companies seeking the skills and support to quickly complete complex IT projects. For more information, visit trapptechnology.com.
In a rapidly changing economy, weve got to make sure that workers can adapt and thrive. This grant will help our community enhance equity and open opportunities for residents to develop their skills.

The Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University announced today a new initiative to help turn South Bend, Indiana, into The City of Lifelong Learning.

The project is being coordinated with the Office of South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and seeded with $500,000 in grant funding from Google.org and Walmart, both of which have demonstrated a great commitment to advancing workforce development and education programs.

The South Bend Lifelong Learning System ultimately aims to serve all of the citys 100,000 residents, with an emphasis on helping the most economically disadvantaged.

The systempart digital, part physicalwill take what is currently a highly fragmented set of learning resources, identify those that have proven to be most effective, integrate them more efficiently and make them accessible and inviting for the entire South Bend community, regardless of someones age, educational level, income or job status.

The city is excited to continue working with the Drucker Institute, with help from Google.org and Walmart, said Mayor Buttigieg. In a rapidly changing economy, weve got to make sure that workers can adapt and thrive. This grant will help our community enhance equity and open opportunities for residents to develop their skills.

Under the South Bend Lifelong Learning System, a digital portal promises to allow every resident of the city to understand what skills are in demand in the area (based on timely employer input); see where those skills are being taught (via local institutions or through curricula available directly on the platform); keep a record of what has been learned, with badging recognized by local businesses; present, for those who have the knowledge and skills, volunteer opportunities to teach others; continually develop professional and technical skills, as well as stay intellectually engaged once retired; and learn beyond the workplacefor example, how to gain financial literacy or cook healthier food.

While lifelong learning options will be delivered in large part through this online platform, the City of South Bend will be collaborating with the St. Joseph County Library and other nonprofit partners to ensure that designated physical spaces will provide wireless connectivity, computer training, face-to-face teaching (where that is more effectual) and a conduit to other support services. Whats more, the St. Joseph County Public Library is expected to play an essential role in administering the system on an ongoing basis.

The South Bend Lifelong Learning System will be developed in three phases. During the first phase, which will take place through the end of 2018, the Drucker Institute and its partners will gather information from key stakeholdersincluding business and labor groups, nonprofits and neighborhood associations, the public schools and other educational institutions, experts in early childhood development and seniorsand evaluate local and national learning resources that are available for the platform. If successful, the project will move into a design phase and, finally, be marketed and launched across the city.

This is a major, multiyear effort, said Rick Wartzman, director of the KH Moon Center for a Functioning Society, a part of the Drucker Institute that is spearheading the project. We have a long way to go before the system will actually be up and running, and we are mindful that we ourselves have a lot to learn as we move forward.

But we are also confident that our overarching visionto create a system that allows all people to more easily acquire new knowledge and skills throughout their livesis essential to having a flourishing community in the 21st century, Wartzman added. As Peter Drucker reminded us, In the knowledge society, learning is lifelong and does not end with graduation.

We are excited to support the development of this visionary approach to lifelong learning at a community-wide scale, said Kathleen McLaughlin, chief sustainability officer at Walmart and president of the Walmart Foundation. Helping people identify and easily acquire job-relevant skillsand helping employers recognize which prospective employees have the right skillswill unlock meaningful opportunities for advancement for people across the community, and strengthen the businesses that hire them. This is exactly the sort of innovation leading to opportunity that defines Walmarts approach to workforce development.

Andrew Dunckelman, Economic Opportunity Lead at Google.org, said: Through the Google.org Work Initiative, were supporting new efforts to help people prepare for and connect to jobs in the changing economy. Were proud to support the Drucker Institutes work with the Mayors Office of South Bend as they look to create a national model for communities to advance lifelong learning.

The Drucker Institute is no stranger to South Bend, having piloted a management-training program for public sector workers in the city beginning in 2013. That program is now being used nationwide.

South Bend has proven to be the perfect place to test new and innovative programs, said Lawrence Greenspun, the Drucker Institutes director of public sector engagement. We hope to eventually replicate the lifelong learning system around the country, just as we did with the public sector training program we first developed and deployed in South Bend.

About the Drucker Institute

The Drucker Institute is a social enterprise based at Claremont Graduate University. Our mission is strengthening organizations to strengthen society. Our programmingfor the corporate, nonprofit and public sectorsis built on a foundation of YESTERDAY/TODAY/MONDAY* Yesterday refers to the fact that our work is grounded in Peter Druckers timeless wisdom. Today speaks to the urgency that we know organizational leaders feel to successfully meet their greatest challenges and opportunities. And Monday points to our proven ability to help executives move quickly from ideas to action to results, just as Drucker urged his own consulting clients: Dont tell me you had a wonderful meeting with me. Tell me what youre going to do on Monday thats different. For more, visit http://www.drucker.institute.

About Claremont Graduate University

Founded in 1925, Claremont Graduate University is one of the top graduate schools in the United States. Our five academic schools conduct leading-edge research and award masters and doctoral degrees in 22 disciplines. Because the worlds problems are not simple or easily defined, diverse faculty and students research and study across the traditional discipline boundaries to create new and practical solutions for the major problems plaguing our world. A Southern California-based graduate school devoted entirely to graduate research and study, CGU boasts a low student-to-faculty ratio.

About Google.org

Google.org, Googles philanthropy, supports nonprofits that address humanitarian issues worldwide and apply scalable, data-driven innovation to solving the worlds biggest challenges. We accelerate their progress by connecting them with a unique blend of support that includes funding, products and technical expertise from Google volunteers. We engage with these believers-turned-doers who make a significant impact on the communities they represent, and whose work has the potential to produce meaningful change. We want a world that works for everyoneand we believe technology and innovation can move the needle in four key areas: education, economic opportunity, inclusion and crisis response.

About Walmart

Walmart and the Walmart Foundation are helping people live better by accelerating upward mobility for the retail workforce, addressing hunger and making healthier, more sustainably-grown food a reality; and building strong communities where Walmart operates. We are not only working to tackle key social issues, we are collaborating with others to inspire solutions for long-lasting systematic change.
Inlanta Mortgage is named a Top 10 Medium Mortgage Company by SocialSurvey We are very excited to receive these awards from our partners at SocialSurvey. At Inlanta, we have always had a customer-first approach. We make the mortgage process easy, and the feedback we receive through SocialSurvey validates our success at creating happy customers.

SocialSurveys Top Performers Awards recognize loan officers and mortgage companies who are best at managing the mortgage game and are making the most of their online reputation. In addition to being named a top mortgage company, three of Inlantas top producers have also been individually honored as Top 100 Loan Officers for Customer Satisfaction: Cindy Laffey, Branch Partner/Mortgage Planner in Overland Park, KS; Craig March, Branch Manager in Janesville, WI; and Jim Snyder, Branch Manager in Pewaukee, WI. Laffey and March both placed in the Top 50.

SocialSurvey CEO, Scott Harris, said, I can't say enough about Inlanta Mortgage. They have awesome leadership, great originators, and really care about their customers. 99% of their customers report that they had a Great Experience. The Mortgage Loan process is complicated and it is nearly impossible to see results this good. Congrats to the entire Inlanta team."

Chris Knowlton, Chief Information Officer of Inlanta Mortgage, said, We are very excited to receive these awards from our partners at SocialSurvey. At Inlanta, we have always had a customer-first approach. We make the mortgage process easy, and the feedback we receive through SocialSurvey validates our success at creating happy customers.

Paul Buege, President and Chief Operations Officer of Inlanta Mortgage, said, There is no measurement more important than customer experience surveys. Nothing matters if you do not take care of your customers. SocialSurveys platform provides us with important feedback, and its great to be recognized as one of the best in the industry based on our customer survey results.

If you are looking to purchase or refinance a home, experience Inlantas award-winning service for yourself. Find your local Inlanta Mortgage branch or loan officer by visiting http://www.inlanta.com/branch-locator. Then, check out their SocialSurvey reviews at https://socialsurvey.me/pages/company/inlanta-mortgage-inc.

About Inlanta Mortgage

Headquartered in Pewaukee, WI, Inlanta Mortgage was established in 1993 and is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2018. The company has grown to over 40 branches in 20 states and over 250 employees. Inlanta Mortgages mission is to be the home financing partner that you trust to serve your family, friends, and community. Their team of dedicated mortgage professionals is committed to delivering an exceptional experience using honest and ethical lending practices.

Inlanta Mortgage was named a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Top Workplace in 2014, 2015, and 2016. Inlanta has also been recognized as one of the 50 Best Mortgage Companies to Work For by Mortgage Executive Magazine and one of the countrys Top Mortgage Employers by National Mortgage Professional.

Inlanta Mortgage continually seeks branch managers and loan officers who want to grow their business. To learn about growth opportunities, please contact Brian Jensen (Midwest) at brianjensen(at)inlanta.com or 630-927-0380; or Kevin Laffey (Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa) at kevinlaffey(at)inlanta.com or 913-645-4647. To learn about opportunities in other locations, visit http://www.inlantapartners.com, call 262-439-4260, or email partners(at)inlanta.com.

Inlanta Mortgage, Inc. NMLS #1016. Cindy Laffey, NMLS #261978. Craig March, NMLS #218697. Jim Snyder, NMLS # 219027.
Our instruction is rigorous and comprehensive. And because study is 100% self-paced, with no deadline pressures or class schedules to worry about, students can focus their attention on learning without distraction.

A door closed for hundreds of Mount Ida College students recently when the Newton, Mass., school announced it would close at the end of its spring semester. The school is transitioning students into other schools as efficiently as possible but many programs are full, inconveniently located, or incompatible schedule-wise. Mount Ida vet tech students, in particular, face an additional roadblock as The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, which is acquiring the Mount Ida campus, offers no program for them to transfer into. To the rescue is The Madison School of Healthcare at Ashworth College, an online vet tech program that has opened its doors for all Mount Ida transfer students.

Upon hearing of the Mount Ida closing, Madison School of Healthcare at Ashworth College Director of Veterinary Technician Programs Margi Sirois, Ed.D., reached out to Mount Ida administrators and offered a simple transfer enrollment option to its stranded veterinary technician students.

Dr. Sirois, who oversees programming, faculty, and a student body of more than 2,000 vet tech students, understands the pressure displaced students are feeling due to their schools closing. She is, however, confident that once the Mount Ida students transfer into the Madison School of Healthcare online vet tech program, they will quickly appreciate it as a game-changer for their educations.

We have some of the best faculty in the country, said Dr. Sirois. Our instruction is rigorous and comprehensive. And because study is 100% self-paced, with no deadline pressures or class schedules to worry about, students can focus their attention on learning without distraction. Its the optimal way to learn, really, but often online learning isnt something students stop to consider.

The Madison School of Healthcare at Ashworth College Associate of Science Degree in Veterinary Technology will accept transfer credits from the Mount Ida College program by exam. Interested students should contact the Madison School of Healthcare at Ashworth College Admissions Department for a seamless transition.

ABOUT MADISON SCHOOL OF HEALTHCARE

Madison School of Healthcare, a division of Ashworth College, specializes in online education programs focused on human and pet healthcare including an Associate of Applied Science Degree in Veterinary Technology. The school offers more than 30 programs from diplomas to professional certification training to masters degrees. For more information, visit madison.ashworthcollege.edu.

ABOUT ASHWORTH COLLEGE

Ashworth College is a nationally-accredited online institution that provides flexible and affordable education to students located around the world. Areas of study include more than 125 career-focused programs in the high-demand fields of healthcare, technology, business, creative services, education, legal studies, and trades. Since its founding 30 years ago, more than 300,000 students have graduated from Ashworth College with diplomas, professional certificates, associate, bachelors and masters degrees. In a 2016 survey by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission, 95 percent of graduates said they were satisfied with their studies and would recommend Ashworth College to a friend. For more information, visit http://www.ashworthcollege.edu.

Ashworth College is accredited by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC). The Distance Education Accrediting Commission is listed by the U.S. Department of Education as a recognized accrediting agency. The Distance Education Accrediting Commission is recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA).
Law Rocks is a wonderful event and we were delighted to participate, said Michelle Ferreira, managing shareholder of the San Francisco office. Not only is it an opportunity to showcase the skills of our attorneys and staff, its an opportunity to give back to very worthy Bay Area charities.

Members of Greenberg Traurig, LLPs San Francisco office performed at Law Rocks San Francisco, an annual concert featuring bands of lawyers performing for local charities.

Law Rocks is a wonderful event and we were delighted to participate, said Michelle Ferreira, managing shareholder of Greenberg Traurigs San Francisco office. Not only is it an opportunity to showcase the skills of our attorneys and staff, its an opportunity to give back to very worthy Bay Area charities.

Performing as The Latent Defects, Greenberg Traurigs Bruce Steinert and William H. Gorrod (on guitar), Michael R. Hogue (on vocals), Sierra Fitch (on keyboard) and non-Greenberg Traurig members Matt Ball (on bass) and Chris Kriese (on drums) battled against legal talent from nine other Bay Area firms. The band raised money for the Family Violence Appellate Project (FVAP), a non-profit dedicated to appealing cases on behalf of domestic violence survivors and their children.

Held at The Chapel in downtown San Francisco, the competition raised over $100k for eight nonprofits: Bay Area All Stars, Bay Area Youth EMT Program, Blue Bear School of Music, Child Advocates, Family Violence Appellate Project, Ms JD, Rocket Dog Rescue, and St. Anthony Foundation.

About Greenberg Traurig, LLP

Greenberg Traurig, LLP (GT) has more than 2,000 attorneys in 38 offices in the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. GT has been recognized for its philanthropic giving, was named the largest firm in the U.S. by Law360 in 2017, and among the Top 20 on the 2017 Am Law Global 100. Web: http://www.gtlaw.com Twitter: @GT_Law.
Watermark was recognized for going above and beyond other regional employers to foster an enjoyable and meaningful work environment for employees, and for its commitment to diversity and discussion. Everyone has the opportunity to make their mark  to grow, stretch, and flourish.

Watermark Risk Management International, a provider of innovative security and risk-management consulting services, is pleased to announce that it was named one of the Best Places to Work in the Washington, D.C. area for 2018 by the Washington Business Journal. Watermark was recognized for going above and beyond other regional employers to foster an enjoyable and meaningful work environment for employees, and for its commitment to diversity and discussion.

Watermark celebrates and welcomes differences including diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and work styles. Every employee has an important and relevant voice; opinions are absolutely required and a willingness to speak up and contribute is encouraged. Watermark is an EEO employer and strongly supports the hiring of military veterans.

Watermark Risk Management International is more than a company; we are a team of skilled individuals who are united in our mission to serve our clients, said Kevin Hodges, president of Watermark. Everyone has the opportunity to make their mark  to grow, stretch, and flourish. We believe our diversity and team spirit enables us to formulate the most beneficial and innovative solutions for our clients.

April Thornton, who joined Watermark in April 2017 as a technical editor, recently celebrated her one-year anniversary. Like any new job, as the new kid on the block, I was nervous. While I was ready to take on a demanding role, I was afraid that my coworkers would not be receptive to having a new employee join the Watermark team, commented Thornton. Boy, was I wrong! When I came on board, everyone was welcoming. As months passed, I realized how fortunate I am to be a part of such a diverse group of individuals. Watermark is my second family. They are always there to celebrate my accomplishments and lend me encouraging words during moments of bereavement. There is no other place I would rather be.

Companies selected for inclusion in the Washington Business Journal report are judged based on the results of an employee survey administered by Quantum Market Research. The survey evaluates a variety of criteria such as team dynamics and effectiveness, trust in leadership, work engagement, and alignment with company goals. Rankings of the 100 companies selected for the Best Places to Work in 2018 award will be presented at a reception held on May 17th at the MGM National Harbor in Maryland. Honorees will also be featured in a special supplement in the May 18 issue of the Washington Business Journal.

Employment opportunities at Watermark Risk Management

Watermark is always seeking exceptional talent. The company has both full-time and part-time consulting associate positions available. Watermarks ideal candidate possesses a minimum of five years of risk management, security, continuity of operations or emergency management planning experience, or experience in federal government proposal capture, management, or writing. All candidates must possess a strong work ethic, the ability to think and work independently, strong self-confidence, and a sincere interest in solving problems. Professional certifications such as CPP, PSP, BCP, CEM, and CRM are a plus, as is a current DOE or DoD security clearance.

For more information or to inquire about a position, please e-mail admin(at)wrmi-llc.com. Watermark keeps all resumes on file, even if the company does not currently have the right opportunity for applicants. Watermark is an EEO employer and strongly supports the hiring of military veterans. For current openings, visit Watermarks careers page.

ABOUT WATERMARK RISK MANAGEMENT INTERNATIONAL LLC

Watermark, a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business, is a full-service risk consultancy that helps government, public, and private clients identify, understand, and address the risks faced in every aspect of their business. Watermarks highly experienced staff provides expertise on assessments, program and policy development, implementation planning and change management, training, education and professional development, as well as quality assurance and program auditing. In addition, Watermark offers the Focus72 program, a unique crisis-response, business-resiliency, and leadership-development program. Watermark is recognized for providing exceptional value by focusing on the appropriate balance of risk and operational business objectives. For more information about Watermark, please visit http://www.wrmi-llc.com.
We are hoping the upcoming job fair at Wheeling High School will give non-college bound students career opportunities with local companies that offer long term employment and benefits to help enhance their lives."

Tool King, Inc. was awarded with Manufacturer of the Year by the Wheeling/Prospect Heights Chamber of Commerce this past March of 2018. This selective award highlighted their commitment to the economic and community development of Wheeling, the city that they have called home since 1976.

Tool King, Inc. is sponsoring a Career and Job Fair at Wheeling High School on Tuesday, May 8th. The career fair will be open to students only from 2 PM until 3:30 PM, and then from 4:30 PM until 6 PM for students and the general public.

Not only will they be present at the event, but the event itself is meant to serve non-college bound students to inform them about potential career choices, employers and internships available to them in the surrounding community. Tool King, Inc. is actively looking for companies that may want to participate in the job fair, as well! Tool King is available for contact at 847-537-2881, ext. 131.

Non-college bound students have numerous career options before them, and this event allows them to explore those options and gain some insight into potential companies and professions that may suit them.

Companies that attend this job fair are seeking people to fill open positions that offer long-term career and growth potential. Many of these companies are willing to invest in their employees, covering the expense of additional education as may be required for said growth within a company or profession.

Students need to know about these options and Tool King, in line with their consistent desire to give back to the Wheeling Community, has taken active steps in ensuring this knowledge is available to members of the community.

Peter Hestad, Tool King's CEO, looks forward to the event:

We are hoping the upcoming job fair at Wheeling High School will give non-college bound students career opportunities with local companies that offer long term employment and benefits to help enhance their lives."
"Having a special needs child and having their school close the doors 3/4 of the way through the school year is a very difficult position for the families. But just as Cumberland decided to do the right thing and take in the new students, vandals did the wrong thing to them."

April 2 started out as a typical day for Atlanta special-needs school, Cumberland Academy of Georgia. But shortly after the day started, events veered from the normal routine. Cumberland administrators learned that the Cloverleaf School, another school in the area serving students with learning challenges, had been forced to abruptly close due to financial problems. That left 10 of Cloverleafs students, two teachers and one counselor without a school. Without hesitation, Cumberland agreed to take them in.

It was a terrible situation for these parents. Having a special needs child and having their school close the doors 3/4 of the way through the school year is a very difficult position for the families. Our decision was an easy one. It was the right thing to do and the best solution to a really stressful situation for these students and their parents," said Debbi Scarborough, Cumberlands headmaster and founding director. It meant making some adjustments, like turning our library into a classroom, but we would make it work. Cumberland immediately hired Cloverleafs two teachers and counselor, and welcomed the additional students into their classes. They will be at Cumberland for the rest of the school year.

But just as Cumberland decided to do the right thing and take in the new students, vandals did the wrong thing to them. One of Cumberlands staff members went out to the parking area where the school buses were parked, only to discover that the catalytic converter had been stolen out of one of their transport vans. If that wasnt bad enough, the next morning school administrators discovered the catalytic converter had also been taken from a second van.

This was really bad news for us, because as a nonprofit school, vandalism is especially taxing, related Scarborough. Yet the buses are essential to our operations, for everything from student transportation to educational field trips. It was especially bad timing, as this was the day our new students were starting school here.

Atlanta television station WSB-TV did a story about the theft, and Steve Rayman saw the news clip. Rayman is the owner of Steve Rayman Chevrolet, a large auto dealership in Atlanta. He called Scarborough and told her he would donate all of the parts and labor to make the repairs on the two vans. This would amount to several thousand dollars worth of parts and labor.

We are so thankful to everyone at Steve Rayman Chevrolet for their kindness and generosity, and also appreciate the support and help we got from WSB-TV for doing the news story, Scarborough said. These were certainly a very eventful couple of days for us, and it could have been a much more traumatic time than it was. But things have actually settled down to a normal routine rather quickly. The new students and faculty have blended in nicely, and our transport vans are once again functioning like they should. Were all smiling around herethanks to the support from our friends in the community.

About Cumberland Academy of Georgia:

Cumberland Academy of Georgia specializes in the needs of students in grades 4 through 12 who have high-functioning autism, Aspergers syndrome, attention deficit disorder (ADD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and learning disabilities. Cumberland was founded in 2007 by Debbi and Matthew Scarborough, and is a fully-accredited, independent, non-profit school that seeks to provide a safe and supportive academic atmosphere for its students. Cumberland accepts applications year-round. To schedule a family tour, please contact Terri Brooks, director of admissions, at 404-835-9000, or emailadmissions(at)cumberlandacademy.org.
This convenient, cost-effective training series provides loan originators with actionable skills for growing their personal brand and their pipeline, said Rajan Nair, CEO, Financial Services, Indecomm Global Services.

Indecomm Global Services, a leading provider of business process as a service (BPaaS), software as a service (SaaS) technology, and learning solutions for the mortgage industry, announces open registration for its Business Builder: Loan Origination Sales Tactics Webinar Training Series. Each monthly session consists of four, 90-minute webinar classes focused on tools and strategies to generate new mortgage loan origination business, better navigate social media, and build business relationships for referrals.

This convenient, cost-effective training series provides loan originators with actionable skills for growing their personal brand and their pipeline, said Rajan Nair, CEO, Financial Services, Indecomm Global Services. Participants will learn about marketing and social media tactics, how mortgage compliance impacts those activities, and how to navigate through pitfalls or challenges that may arise  all without leaving the office.

The Loan Origination Sales Tactics Webinar Series is designed for new and sophomore mortgage loan originators who want to build their business and learn about the critical components that impact that growth strategy. Seasoned mortgage loan originators are also encouraged to attend and learn new strategies and ideas to add to their existing toolkit. The following 2018 sessions are open for online registration:



June 2018 Session: Meets daily on June 5, 6, 7, & 8 at 1:00 pm ET

August 2018 Session : Meets weekly on August 2, 9, 16, & 23 at 1:00 pm ET

September 2018 Session: Meets daily on September 17, 18, 19, & 20 at 2:00 pm ET

October 2018 Session: Meets weekly on October 3, 10, 17, & 24 at 2:00 pm ET

November 2018 Session: Meets daily on November 6, 7, 8, & 9 at 2:00 pm ET

Registration is $299 per person and includes four 90-minute webinar classes per session, interactive Q/A with the instructor, and online access to session recordings and materials.

As a value-add, all Loan Origination Sales Tactics Webinar Series registrants will receive a complimentary registration to Indecomm Mortgage Learnings TRID for Loan Officers eLearning course, a $49 value. Designed for loan originators, this online course explains the general requirements for TRID, the law that combined multiple disclosures into two separate forms  the Loan Estimate and the Closing Disclosure. The course also details the communications between the operations staff and the loan originator required for compliance with the TILA  RESPA Integrated Disclosure Rule.

To register for the Loan Origination Sales Tactics Webinar Series, visit http://mortgage.indecomm.net/loan-origination-sales-tactics-training-webinar/

To learn more about Indecomm Mortgage Learning, visit http://mortgage.indecomm.net or email marketing@indecomm.net.

About Indecomm Global Services

Indecomm was founded in 2003 as a technology-enabled services company focused on high-speed document imaging technologies and automated data capture from structured and unstructured forms, with an innate ability to apply these technologies meaningfully to improve operational efficiency and client experience. We have been consistently ranked among the Global Top 100 IT and ITeS providers. With over 3,800 associates in 21 locations, Indecomm services its clients from global delivery centers and offices in the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, the United Kingdom, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Mauritius, and the Cayman Islands. We have active business engagements with over 300 global clients, including 20+ Fortune 500 companies. Visit http://www.indecomm.net or call (732) 404-0081 to learn more.

About Indecomm Mortgage Services

Indecomm Mortgage Services is a leading provider of business services and technology for the US mortgage industry. With solutions for every stage of the mortgage lifecycle, Indecomm Mortgage Services provides outsourcing services, software as a service (SaaS) technology, and learning solutions to support the various needs of mortgage industry clients. With a proven track record of over 25 years in the mortgage industry, Indecomm partners with large and mid-sized lenders, servicers, and title companies as a trusted partner with a singular focus - helping them grow. Visit http://mortgage.indecomm.net or call (732) 404-0081 to learn more.
Annapolis Dermatology Center ADC is a special practice that has built an outstanding reputation over the years, said Geoff Wayne, CEO. We are excited to partner with the physicians and the rest of their team as we continue to bring the USDP model to more practices and their patients throughout the Mid-Atlantic.

U.S. Dermatology Partners(USDP) is pleased to announce that it has acquired Annapolis Dermatology Center. U.S. Dermatology Partners is a physician-owned, dermatology-focused practice management organization.

Founded in 1991, Annapolis Dermatology Center (ADC) has ten providers on staff and together they offer a full suite of dermatological services including medical dermatology, cosmetic dermatology, Mohs micrographic surgery and dermatopathology. With a single location in Annapolis, ADCs premier dermatology facility is also easily accessible for patients located within the greater Baltimore and Washington D.C. metropolitan areas.

Beth Diamond, MD received her medical degree from the University of Maryland, School of Medicine and was a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society. She completed her pediatric residency at Yale New Haven Hospital in New Haven, CT and was then appointed Chief Resident and Associate Instructor in Pediatrics at the Yale University School of Medicine. She subsequently completed a dermatology residency at the University of Illinois. Dr. Diamond has been in private practice in dermatology in Annapolis since completing her residency. She is a Fellow with the American Academy of Dermatology, a Diplomat of the American Board of Dermatology and a Member of the American Medical Association. Dr. Diamond is board-certified in dermatology and her areas of interest include adult and pediatric dermatology, dermatologic surgery and cosmetic dermatology.

Gail Goldstein, MD attended medical school at New York University, where she graduated with honors in molecular and cellular biology. She completed her medical training in dermatology at the University of Maryland and then joined the Annapolis Dermatology Center. Dr. Goldstein practices both general and cosmetic dermatology and has lectured on subjects such as dermatological diseases of pregnancy, skin cancer prevention, the ethics of cosmetic surgery and medical volunteerism. She recently returned from a year of medical volunteering in South America and Southeast Asia with her family and is the former recipient of Whats Up Annapolis Top Doctor and Chesapeake Familys Favorite Docs for Dermatology. Dr. Goldstein is board-certified in dermatology.

Christine Ambro, MD graduated cum laude from the Jefferson Medical College, where she was also inducted into Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society and received, among other awards, the Hobart Amory Hare Award. After a medical internship at Pennsylvania Hospital, Dr. Ambro completed her residency in dermatology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital where she was Chief Resident. Notably, Dr. Ambro received training at the Sydney Melanoma Unit in Sydney, Australia. She practices general and cosmetic dermatology as well as dermatologic surgery and is board-certified by the American Board of Dermatology. Dr. Ambro is a member of the American Academy of Dermatology and American Medical Association.

Krista Buckley, DO earned her Doctor of Osteopathy degree from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2000. She completed a transitional internship at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas in 2001 and was a general medical officer at Camp Carroll, South Korea from 2001-2002. She returned to complete her dermatology residency at Brooke Army Medical Center and Wilford Hall Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas in 2005. Dr. Buckley served as Chief of Dermatology at Womack Army Medical Center in Fort Bragg, North Carolina from 2005 to 2008 before joining Annapolis Dermatology Center in August of 2008. Dr. Buckley has published articles in dermatology and family medicine journals and is a member of the American Academy of Dermatology and DC Dermatological Society. She is board-certified by the American Board of Dermatology and practices general and cosmetic dermatology as well as dermatologic surgery.

Mark Eaton, MD received his M.D. from Mercer University School of Medicine in Macon, Georgia. He completed his internship in Internal Medicine at Naval Medical Center San Diego in 2001 and was designated as a U.S. Naval Flight Surgeon at Naval Air Station Pensacola in 2002. His career in Flight Surgery included 6 years of service at Naval Support Activity, Souda Bay, Greece, and Naval Air Facility Washington, Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, including deployment to Iraq in 2006. In 2010, Dr. Eaton completed his dermatology residency at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. He served as Department Head of Dermatology at Naval Hospital Jacksonville, Naval Air Station, Jacksonville Florida from 2010 to 2013, where he also served as Assistant Professor of Dermatology with the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences. He joined Annapolis Dermatology Center in September 2013. Dr. Eaton is board-certified in dermatology, a Fellow of the American Academy of Dermatology and a Diplomate of the American Board of Dermatology.

Ilene Bayer-Garner, MD is board-certified in dermatopathology jointly by the American Boards of Dermatology and Pathology. She attended the University of Calgary Medical School and completed her pathology residency at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Dr. Bayer-Garner completed her dermatopathology training in Houston TX at Baylor with biweekly joint melanocytic lesions conferences held at MD Anderson. She has been practicing dermatopathology in the Annapolis area since 2006. She is a fellow of the American Society of Dermatopathology and the College of American Pathology.

Marisa Braun, MD attended medical school at the University of Maryland. She completed an internship in pediatrics at the University of North Carolina and dermatology residency at George Washington University. She then completed a fellowship in Procedural Dermatology and Mohs Surgery at the Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. Braun is a member of the American College of Mohs Surgery, the American Academy of Dermatology, the Washington DC Dermatological Society, the Womens Dermatologic Society, and the American Society of Dermatologic Surgery. She is board-certified in dermatology.

Ali Damavandy, MD is a board-certified dermatologist who specializes in skin cancer surgery, including Mohs micrographic surgery and the subsequent reconstruction. He underwent fellowship training in Mohs micrographic surgery, dermatological oncology, and procedural dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA. Dr. Damavandy completed the 7-year BA/MD program at the George Washington University and graduated as the valedictorian of his medical school class. He then completed his internship in internal medicine at Harvard Medical Schools Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, MA and his residency in dermatology at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, DC, where he served as Chief Resident in his final year. He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha Omega Alpha, and Gold Humanism Medical Honor Societies as well as the American Academy of Dermatology, American Society for Dermatologic Surgery and the American College of Mohs Surgery.

Joining the physicians of ADC are, Michelle DeMattia, PA-C and Danielle Goldberg, CRNP. Michelle DeMattia has a masters degree in Physician Assistant Studies specializing in dermatology from the University of Nebraska College of Medicine and obtained her board-certification from the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants in 2005. Danielle Goldberg is a board-certified Nurse Practitioner who earned her first Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Maryland, where she graduated summa cum laude. She continued her studies to become a nurse practitioner at Johns Hopkins University where she received a second bachelors degree, a master's degree and graduated top of her class.

ADC is a special practice that has built an outstanding reputation over the years, said Geoff Wayne, CEO. We are excited to partner with the physicians and the rest of their team as we continue to bring the USDP model to more practices and their patients throughout the Mid-Atlantic.

If you would like more information about U.S. Dermatology Partners, or if you have any questions regarding the partnership with Annapolis Dermatology Center, please contact one of the team members listed below:

U.S. Dermatology Partners

Geoff Wayne

Chief Executive Officer

Geoff@usdermpartners.com

Scott Wells

Chief Development Officer

SWells@usdermpartners.com

Brent Ohlsen

Director of Corporate Development

BOhlsen@usdermpartners.com

About U.S. Dermatology Partners

Headquartered in Dallas, TX, U.S. Dermatology Partners provides comprehensive practice management services to 160 board-certified dermatologists and 61 midlevel providers across 89 locations in Texas, Kansas, Missouri, Arizona, Colorado, Louisiana, Maryland, Oklahoma, and Virginia. U.S. Dermatology Partners provides comprehensive management services allowing providers to focus exclusively on delivering high-quality care to patients.

As one of the largest physician-owned dermatology practices in the country, patients of U.S. Dermatology Partners not only have access to general medical, surgical, and cosmetic skin treatment through its coordinated care network, but also benefit from the organizations strong dermatology thought leaders and medical advisory board. The physicians of U.S. Dermatology Partners are fervently focused on providing the highest level of patient-first care, and its team therefore includes recognized national leaders in areas such as clinical research, psoriasis and Mohs Surgery. To learn more, visit usdermatologypartners.com
Its quite an honor to be selected as a semifinalist for such a world-renown award, Kevin Ortner, CEO of Renters Warehouse

Renters Warehouse, one of the largest and highest reviewed property management companies in the country, is thrilled to announce that its CEO Kevin Ortner has been selected as a semifinalist for the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2018 Heartland Awards Program for a second consecutive year.

The EY Entrepreneur of the Year award is one of the worlds most prestigious business awards for entrepreneurs. The program is held on six continents and in more than 60 countries and 150 cities. This year marks the 32nd year of the program.

Its quite an honor to be selected as a semifinalist for such a world-renown award, shared Ortner, who became the CEO of Renters Warehouse in 2015. Congratulations to the other semifinalists. Im very proud to be amongst my fellow entrepreneurs in this category, and I cant wait to see what we all accomplish this year.

In 2017, Ortner published his first book, Rent Estate Revolution, which shares the award-winning property management companys philosophy and business expertise around single-family rentals. It also educates the general public on how investing in Rent Estate (buying and renting out single-family homes) can offer everyday Americans their best path to retirement security, financial freedom, and the New American Dream.

EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2018 Heartland Awards program finalists will be announced on May 1st, 2018 with the Awards Gala taking place on June 14th, 2018 at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis.

Renters Warehouse exists to help homeowners and investors create wealth and financial freedom through Rent Estate. To learn more about Rent Estate, visit http://www.rentestaterevolution.com and order your copy of Rent Estate Revolution, Renters Warehouses cornerstone book for the masses authored by Kevin Ortner and with foreword Dr. Arthur B. Laffer, Phd., Economic Policy Advisor to President Ronald Reagan.

About Renters Warehouse

Renters Warehouse is one of the fastest growing and highest reviewed residential property management companies in America. Backed by growth equity investor and majority stakeholder Northern Pacific Group, and under the leadership of President and CEO Kevin Ortner, Renters Warehouse now manages more than $3 billion in residential real estate, servicing over 14,000+ investors across 22,000+ residential homes over 42 markets and 25 states. NPG Managing Partner Scott Honour, who in 1999 was a founder of YapStone, a leading online rental property payment service provider, serves as Chairman.

Renters Warehouse expertly serves everyday single-property homeowners as well as real estate investors. In 2015, the company officially trademarked the term Rent Estate to redefine the entire SFR (Single Family Rental) industry as more traditional real estate gives way to this new lucrative asset. Through their dedicated Portfolio Services Division led by Chief Investment Officer Anthony Cazazian, the company also brings professional, scalable and efficient single property management solutions to investment portfolios with both centralized services and local market expertise and staff. Not only has Renters Warehouse received the prestigious honor of being included on the Inc. 500 | 5000 list of fastest-growing privately held companies in America eight consecutive years in a row, it was also named one of the Best Places to Work in Minnesota (where they are headquartered) by the Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016. The company was also honored as a best place to work in Arizona (a centralized corporate services center) by the Phoenix Business Journal in 2013, 2014 and 2017, and achieved a spot on the prestigious 2016 Top Companies to Work for in AZ list. Nationwide, Renters Warehouse has been honored as one of America's "Best Places to Work" in 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016 by Outside Magazine. Recognized as pioneers in real estate, business management and innovation, Renters Warehouse has been awarded 22 Business Stevie Awards both internationally and stateside.

In 2017, Renters Warehouse received an A rating from the Better Business Bureau (BBB) after meeting the BBBs eight Standards of Trust and earning BBB Accreditation. In 2016, Morningstar Credit Ratings, LLC, a nationally recognized statistical rating organization (NRSRO) offering a wide array of services including operational risk assessments, assigned its MOR RV2 residential-vendor ranking to Renters Warehouse as a residential property manager, indicating that the company demonstrates proficiency in managing key areas of operational risk.

In 2017, Renters Warehouse published its first book - Rent Estate Revolution. Authored by CEO Kevin Ortner, the book shares the Renters Warehouse philosophy and business expertise around single-family rentals and the power of Rent Estate to drive long-term wealth creation, retirement security and financial freedom for the everyday person. Order your copy today: http://www.rentestaterevolution.com.

Media Inquiries / Interviews:

Crystal Richard

Public Relations

crystal(at)renterswarehouse.com
Sharon Kleyne, host of the nationally syndicated The Sharon Kleyne Hour Power of Water, Global Climate Change and Your Health on VoiceAmerica sponsored by Natures Tears EyeMist, has been teaching new water technology and water awareness on air for more than a decade. When the Flint, Michigan water disaster hit the mainstream news in 2014, Kleyne was among the first commentators to study the issues.

Today, Kleyne celebrates the awarding of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize to LeeAnne Walters, the mother-of-four who, according to a BBC report, led a citizens movement that tested the tap water to expose the health threat. That movement also prompted heel-dragging politicians and city officials to greatly step up efforts to replace contaminated pipes and supply bottled water to residents during the crisis.

To review the crisis, Kleyne recalled how almost 100,000 Flint residents found themselves without safe tap water due to the fact that lead was leaching into the water supply. Walters had the water in her home tested, and they showed that the water was seven times the acceptable level. Walters noted that her three-year-old twins developed rashes and the hair of her daughters fell out in clumps.

As if she had embraced Kleynes playbook for proactive engagement in solving water crises, Walters studied technical documents about the Flint water system, then joined environmental engineer, Dr. Marc Edwards of Virginia Tech, to conduct extensive water testing in the city. The pair tested water in every zip code in Flint, with Walters working over a hundred hours a week for three weeks. Tested water in some parts of the city seriously exceeded safe levels for lead. Their study, according to Kleyne, traced contamination to the city switching its water supply from Detroits water system, which comes from Lake Huron, to and drawing water from the polluted Flint River. Flint has since switched back to using Detroits water system.

In their citation, Goldman Environmental Prize jurors praised Walters inquisitive, persistent, and logical mind. Her communal spirit and powerful moral compass proved equally critical to her ability to reach and organize Flint residents and experts alike. The prize is awarded to recipients in several global regions; Walters is this years recipient from North America.

Kleyne, also the founder and research director of Bio-Logic Aqua Research Water Life Science, says that Walters proactive research and activism should be an inspiration and a blueprint for people worldwide. Kleyne, whose own water research and new water technology has earned the international respect of scientists, researchers, physicians and water activists, would like to see water education classes taught at all school levels, thus encouraging the kind of positive activism exemplified by the efforts of LeeAnne Walters. We are all citizens, says Kleyne, with a responsibility to manage our precious water supplies and resources.
DocLink helps companies make a digital transformation by providing essential software that connects people, processes and data for competitive advantage.

Altec, a leader in enterprise document management and process automation solutions, is in Chicago today as a National ISV Sponsor for the Sage Sessions 2018 Tour. Sage touts these sessions as hyper-local, single-day events that allow its customers to network with peers, meet local experts, and get practical advice on business building. Altec will present during several sessions in Chicago along other top Sage ISVs, including:



Its Not the End of the World: How to Prepare for an Audit

Next Age Workflow Automation: Going Paperless

Achieve Better Business Outcomes with Sages Business Ecosystem

In addition, Altec will be showcasing and demonstrating the Sage-endorsed DocLink, the companys industry-leading document management and process automation solution. DocLink enables companies to digitally transform their operation, improving productivity and ultimately saving companies significant time and money.

By eliminating paper, DocLinks document management capabilities fully utilize and enhance any Sage solution, enabling documents to be created, processed and approved by anyone on any device. DocLink allows users to digitally transform their operations by streamlining any business process in any department  accounts payable, accounts receivable, human resources, legal, and across the entire enterprise  providing improved visibility and control to the entire document lifecycle.

Curt Hixson, Central Sales Director for Altec Altec states, DocLink helps companies make a digital transformation by providing essential software that connects people, processes and data for competitive advantage. With the ability to store, search, retrieve and send all documents securely, DocLink effectively eliminates the need for paper while automating processes that improve organizational efficiency and reduce costs associated with human errors. Ultimately DocLink increases workplace efficiencies by providing secure and easy access to information that improves decision-making and customer service.

Sage Sessions attendees can learn about DocLink by visiting the Altec table at all remaining tour stops. Altecs industry experts will be on hand to answer questions and offer live product demonstrations:

May 8 - Toronto, Ontario

May 24 - Austin, Texas

June 5 - Atlanta, Georgia

June 26 - Montreal, Quebec

July 10 - Edmonton, Alberta

July 24 - New York, New York

Aug 7 - Seattle, Washington

Sept 18 - Vancouver, British Columbia

About Altec

Altec is a leading provider of integrated document management and process automation solutions. Its flagship product, DocLink, helps companies connect people, processes and data providing them with the ability to store, search, retrieve and send any document securely. DocLink effectively eliminates the need for paper while automating processes that improve organizational efficiency and reduce costs associated with human errors. With thousands of customers globally, Altec also enjoys strong, collaborative partnerships with ERP solution providers such as Microsoft, Sage, Acumatica, AmTech, Key2Act, Epicor, and SAP B1 to provide the most comprehensive enterprise solution. Learn more at http://www.altec-inc.com.

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"A fascinating view inside what was perhaps our first modern financial meltdown." Simon H. Johnson

Twelve Tables Press today announced its newest publication, Squeezing Silver, Peru's Trial Against Nelson Bunker Hunt, written by Attorney for the Plaintiff, Mark A. Cymrot. The legal thriller is now available for purchase in print, digital, and audio at http://www.twelvetablespress.com and on Amazon.

In Squeezing Silver, Cymrot depicts the legal strategy, an intense and remarkable courtroom battle that he experienced as a key member of the team that took on titans in business and government. The author takes the reader inside the courtroom and behind the scene of one of the most important trials in recent decades. He describes how famed Texas oil billionaire, Nelson Bunker Hunt, and Saudi royalty manipulated silver prices over four months in 1979-1980 while meeting at thoroughbred horse events, five-star hotels and posh restaurants. When silver prices spiked, they pocketed billions while thousands were cheated, including Minpeco, Peru's minerals agent. Regulators conflicted by their dealings with Bunker failed to stop his, broad daylight conspiracy. When prices crashed two months later, the Hunt defaults threatened the US economy with collapse. Paul Volcker, Federal Reserve Chairman, engineered the first controversial too-big-to-fail bailout to save the U.S. economy.

This memoir is a must-read for attorneys and non-attorneys alike. For those who enjoy a good legal thriller, it provides the twist, turns and insights not found in most legal stories. For those interested in business and the markets, the book recounts the bizarre events and regulatory failures that were the prequel for the 2008 Great Recession.

"A fascinating view inside what was perhaps our first modern financial meltdown, noted Simon H. Johnson, Chief Economist, International Monetary Fund (2007-08), Ronald A. Kurtz Professor of Entrepreneurship at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Mark Cymrot's meticulous account reads like a legal thriller complete with larger than life characters, secret liaisons, and all the machinations we have come to expect from powerful defendants. In the end, there was justice, of a particular yet meaningful American sort. Could this still happen today?"

The author, who is ranked in Chambers Global and The Best Lawyers in America, began his legal career in 1973 and was admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1977. Cymrot is a Partner at BakerHostetler LLP and leads the law firms International Arbitration and Litigation practice team. Cymrot has authored more than 30 publications and a frequent speaker on topics drawn from his career in high-stakes US lawsuits and international arbitration.

For review copy or to schedule an author interview, contact steven.errick(at)twelvetablespress(dot)com.

About the Author: Mark A. Cymrot is the Leader of Baker Hostetler LLPs international arbitration and litigation practice. He was the lead lawyer in the trial that led to Squeezing Silver, Minpeco SA v. Nelson Bunker Hunt, which was tried for six months in New York federal court in 1988. He is an author of more than 30 book chapters and articles and frequent speaker on topics drawn from his illustrious career as counsel in US lawsuits and international arbitration and as an arbitrator. He has defended the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and the High Representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina on immunities issues. He was special litigation counsel in the Civil Division of the Justice Department. He is ranked in Chambers Global and The Best Lawyers in America (International Arbitration  Commercial and Governmental) and is listed in Who's Who in America.

About Twelve Tables Press: Twelve Tables Press is a legal trade press featuring leading attorneys and their individual impact on the legal community. Twelve Tables Press is co-owned by Steve Errick, a legal industry publisher and Chief Operation Officer of Fastcase, Larry Selby, a former American Law Media (ALM) Vice President of Research Solutions, and Jay Tidmarsh, a Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School.

Twelve Table Press, contact Steve Errick, Publisher and Co-Founder

P.O. Box 568, Northport, New York 11768

steven.errick(at)twelvetablespress(dot)com

http://www.twelvetablespress.com
"If Not Now, When?," the new CD by flutist-composer Andrea Brachfeld. It seems that music always chooses me, and I very politely acquiesce to itsi energy. Of all my projects, this recording is the closest yet to my heart. Every note felt good in my body.

The incredible clarity of purpose flutist-composer Andrea Brachfeld gained after spending 2016 in deep introspection about her life and music generated the nine original compositions on her exhilarating new album "If Not Now, When?," which is set for May 18 release by Jazzheads Records. The quartet outing, featuring the dynamic rhythm section of pianist, arranger, co-composer, and co-producer Bill OConnell, a longtime collaborator, as well as bassist Harvie S and drummer Jason Tiemann, is an uncompromising manifestation of music Brachfeld recalls came to her on a cold day in January 2017.

It seems that music always chooses me, and I very politely acquiesce to its energy. This has been my journey throughout my life and 'If Not Now, When?' is no exception, she explains. Of all my projects, this recording is the closest yet to my heart. Every note felt good in my body.

The albums song titles, which include The Listening Song, Creating Space, The Silence, Anima Mea, Deeply I Live, and Moving Forward, allude to the year Brachfeld spent on an inner journey meditating as opposed to composing, an experience that was clearly cathartic. The way I composed all of the songs was like taking a huge block of marble and chopping away until I got the image inside the marble, she says. It was about seeing what melodies came out and working on them until they felt right.

A grant from Chamber Music America and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation for the CD a wonderful affirmationassured Brachfeld she was on the right path. In the end, she says, its all about your voice, your journey to find your voice.

Brachfelds flute playing has what the late New York Times critic John S. Wilson described as a vigorously dark, gutty quality. Its no wonder the first jazz flutist to turn her head was free jazz pioneer Eric Dolphy. In her music, that energy she described can pour out to bruising effect. If you want to play jazz, you have to be able to get the articulation of Charlie Parker, to make the instrument sound like a trumpet or saxophone, says Brachfeld. With a lot of flute players, I dont hear those articulations.

Andrea Brachfeld was born May 3, 1954 in Utica, NY and raised in New York City. She began playing piano at age six and flute at 10. In 1969, she enrolled at the High School of Music & Art, and, at 16, got her first jazz gig, playing her own pieces with her quartet at an All Night Soul presentation at St. Peters Church. She attended Saturday morning Jazzmobile workshops; Jimmy Heath was one of her flute instructors.

She went on to study flute at the Manhattan School of Music, where her fellow students included Kenny Kirkland, Fred Hersch, and Angela Bofill. After connecting with the Charanga band Tipica New York, Brachfeld recorded with the legendary band Charanga 76, which catapulted her to fame as the first woman to play flute with a Charanga band in the United States.

Brachfeld recorded her first album, "Andrea" (1978), with Tito Puente percussionist Jose Madera producing. A year later, she accepted an invitation to perform in Venezuela and ended up staying for two and a half years, during which time she led her own group, opening for such visiting luminaries as Gary Burton, Chick Corea, and Paco de Lucia.

When she returned home to New York in 1981, she devoted herself to her family and attended graduate school, acquiring a Masters in education. For nearly 25 years, she taught ESL and bilingual education while maintaining a local profile as a musician.

Then, in 1998, Brachfeld approached acclaimed jazz flutist (and former high school classmate) Dave Valentin with material she had written and asked if he wanted to record any of it. His response was, I want you to record it. That she did, acting as her own producer on 2002s Latin-tinged "Remembered Dreams" (Spirit Nectar). Over the next decade and a half she would release a half dozen albums, eventually moving away from Latin music and back toward her first love, bebop.

Andrea Brachfeld will be performing at the following venues (all dates with InsightBill OConnell, piano; Harvie S, bass; Jason Tiemann, drumsexcept as indicated): 4/28 The Jazz Loft, Stony Brook, NY; 4/29 An Die Musik, Baltimore; 5/18 Trumpets, Montclair, NJ; 6/18 Triad Theater, NYC; 8/10 Pavillion Cafe, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (with Bill OConnell, piano; Lincoln Goines, bass; Robby Ameen, drums); 8/25 Long Branch (NJ) Jazz & Blues Festival; 10/4-7 La Cote Flute Festival, Gland, Switzerland; 10/12 Flushing (NY) Town Hall.
Luft Qi is a filter-free air purifier that utilizes the latest UV LED technology together with nano-photocatalyst through an IP protected reaction chamber. Its never been done before. Simply plug the Luft Qi air purifier into a USB charger power port, and youre all set.

Titus&Wayne, a Taiwanese startup founded in October 2016 based on material science and chemical engineering to develop new and innovative products for the future, excitedly announced their first product, the Luft Qi filter-free air purifier, officially launches a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo starting on April 24th.

Pairing the engineering and development backgrounds between Titus Chang and Wayne Chein for a fully integrated LED experience using nano-photocatalysis technology, with Luft Qi, the two have created a totally new kind of air purifying experience. Luft means Air in German and used to describe space or breath. Qi (pronounced chee) - literally means air, breath in Mandarin Chinese. In traditional Chinese culture, Qi is described as vital life force. By balancing the flow of Qi, all the discomforts will be eliminated. Luft Qi is designed in the spirit of Qi, offering fresh, clean air by eliminating airborne pollutants.

As our first innovative product, we are launching the release in accordance with a crowdfunding campaign to help spread the word, said Chang, CoFounder of Titus&Wayne. Luft Qi is a filter-free air purifier that utilizes the latest UV LED technology together with nano-photocatalyst through an IP protected reaction chamber. Its never been done before. Simply plug the Luft Qi air purifier into a USB charger power port, and youre all set.

Luft Qi has a 360-degree air intake, a patented nano-reactor, and comprehensive air cleaning at all times. It takes in the surrounding air and pollutants from every angle. A chemical reaction is created when the patented nano-reactor is activated by UV LED light. Pollutants are broken down into harmless molecules. Clean air is dispersed with only harmless molecules such as water. It is the first compact air purifier of its kind using nanotechnology that destroys mold, airborne bacteria, formaldehyde, viruses, and toxic chemicals, using absolutely no filters.

Although traditional HEPA filters can trap bacteria and mold, they are also perfect places for these microorganisms to grow, said Chein, CoFounder of Titus&Wayne. No larger than a beverage can, this new air purifying concept will go unnoticed in any home or location.

This air purifier is designed for anyone who suffers from allergies, fatigue, or dizziness, as well as those living in old homes, or homes with unwanted smells, said Chang. Its an effective agent when battling the airborne illnesses that can cause significant harm to our loved ones today. Spread the word on the official launch of our forthcoming campaign and consider investing in quality air.

The Indiegogo campaign officially launches at 8AM EST on April 24th with an MSRP at $169 and super early bird tickets at $79. $25,000 funding goal. Total 6 color variations available, Bright White + Silver Ring, Bright White + Maroon Ring, Bright White + Iron Black, Pink, Aqua, and Wood.

Watch the video and learn how Luft Qi works: https://youtu.be/fN6T1E7ctU4

For more information about the crowdfunding campaign, visit: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/luft-qi-the-smallest-filterless-air-purifier/x

Product images download: https://goo.gl/wGqPXN

About Titus&Wayne

Created from a fateful collaboration between Titus Chang and Wayne Chein, pooling their backgrounds in material science and chemical engineering, Titus&Wayne was founded in Taiwan on October 6, 2016. Since then, the dynamic duo has fully integrated their strong LED expertise with nano-photocatalysis technology to create simpler, enhanced products that improve everyones quality of life. Their very first product, the Luft Qi, features a filter-free air purifier goes live on Indiegogo at on April 24, 2018.

Follow us:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/luft.purifier

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HelloLuft

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luftqi

YouTube: https://goo.gl/zyXAVz

Media Contact

Rita Kuo

iDee Creatives Marketing Consulting Inc. on behalf of Titus&Wayne

ritakuo(at)ideecreatives(dot)com
Square 9 Logo "Weve developed a solution for our End User community that increases office productivity, eliminates unwanted technology infrastructures and is an affordable option with a quick return on investment."

New Haven based Square 9 Softworks, Inc., announced today the new release of GlobalSearch C2, a secure and compliant cloud hosted Enterprise Content Management (ECM) platform. GlobalSearch C2 is designed to capture and control business critical information in a variety of formats, providing users with enhanced access to shared content. Delivering secure document storage through the cloud, this release represents significant improvements to the configuration, management and maintenance of ECM services.

GlobalSearch C2 protects the confidentiality, integrity and availability of business data in the cloud by providing a highly durable infrastructure that delivers 99.999999999% durability and 99.99% availability.

A unique differentiator packaged into GlobalSearch C2 is a simplified platform for setup and search creation. This simple wizard style Solutions Builder allows users to quickly create document repositories, or pre-populate exclusive, departmental-focused database components.

GlobalSearch C2 presents additional value for managing business documents and information directly from the multifunction printer. At the touch panel of the MFP, users can pre-process documents with tools like text searchable PDF creation, automated separation, and data extraction, before safely releasing to the cloud.

The new release of GlobalSearch C2 presents enormous opportunity for Square 9s channel of Resellers as we are providing a simplified solution that is easily delivered, provides a recurring revenue stream and enhances the value of their hardware offering, stated Ethan Voltolini, Director of Marketing at Square 9. At the same time, weve developed a solution for our End User community that increases office productivity, eliminates unwanted technology infrastructures and is an affordable option with a quick return on investment.

GlobalSearch C2 will be released to the Square 9 Reseller community on April 25, 2018.

About Square 9 Softworks:

For document-intensive companies looking to challenge the definition of business efficiency, Square 9 develops award-winning, next generation solutions for process automation that drive increased productivity across all business applications. As a trendsetting software development firm, Square 9 is a creative force in the next generation of both on premise and cloud-enabled Content Management solutions. Square 9 distributes its solutions internationally through a network of highly skilled Channel Resellers from its corporate office in New Haven, Connecticut. http://www.square-9.com
Our reps are looking forward to speaking with the leaders of this space at the MJ Business Conference and Expo, and demonstrating the importance of great labeling.

The rise of legal cannabis products, as both medical and recreational options, has been one of the great entrepreneurial opportunities in the U.S. over the past few years. With states such as Colorado now providing data on what a post-legalization world looks like, the market is at a fascinating turning point. The MJ Business Conference and Expo 2018, to be held in New Orleans May 9-11, will bring industry innovators together to point the way forward for these unique products.

A Show with a Busy Schedule

In addition to a bustling expo floor where entrepreneurs can speak with potential business partners - such as Lightning Labels - the MJ Business Conference in New Orleans will deliver expert insights and peer-to-peer education. A lineup of 74 speakers is set to describe the state of the cannabis industry across the U.S. and Canada. There are also programs specifically aimed at CEOs, cultivators and extractors, as well as presentations on the latest legal developments.

The expo floor is set to feature booths and presentations from 275 different companies. Rather than originating from to one location, these businesses will travel to Louisiana from across the U.S. and Canada. With so many states considering legalization - and every Canadian province set to accept recreational cannabis sales later this year - the potential for exciting breakthroughs stretches from coast to coast. No matter the corner of the space visitors are interested in, they can learn about it at this show.

A Chance to Meet Helpful Partners

Leaders of cannabis industry companies have needs like any other company owners. Ensuring customer loyalty is essential, and good packaging will serve as a way to get a brand's message across. Visitors to the MJ Business Conference and Expo will be able to discuss the complexities of custom cannabis labels directly with Lightning Labels personnel, learning how to get the perfect balance between compliance with all regulations and optimal appearance.

"With the industry growing so quickly and in such a state of transition, cannabis is one of the most exciting sectors for entrepreneurs," said Lightning Labels Director of Sales and Client Services Gary Paulin. "Our reps are looking forward to speaking with the leaders of this space at the MJ Business Conference and Expo, and demonstrating the importance of great labeling."

While cannabis labeling is fraught with challenges, Lightning Labels has been working within this space for over a decade now, and has built up a store of knowledge that can help companies excel. Industry gatherings are a good chance to discuss the unique facets - and exciting opportunities - of cannabis products in person.

About Lightning Labels:

Lightning Labels uses state-of-the-art printing technology to provide affordable, full-color custom labels and custom stickers of all shapes and sizes. From small orders for individuals to the bulk needs of big businesses, Lightning Labels is equipped to handle and fulfill custom label and sticker projects of all types. Best of all, like the name implies, Lightning Labels provides a quick turnaround for every customer's labeling needs. Uses for Lightning Labels' custom product labels and custom stickers include food packaging and organic food labels, wine and beverage labels, bath and body labels, and nutraceutical products, such as vitamins, essentials oils, and herbal remedies, as well as event stickers, adhesive window stickers and more. Lightning Labels strongly supports the development of environmentally friendly printing materials and carries EarthFirst PLA, a new kind of green label material made from corn instead of petroleum. While operating as a high-tech printer, Lightning Labels prides itself on its personalized customer service. Lightning Labels provides one stop shopping for all of your custom label needs. For more information and to place orders online, visit LightningLabels.com. For the latest in packaging news and labeling promotional offers, find Lightning Labels on Twitter (@LightningLabels), Facebook, Pinterest, Google+ and LinkedIn.
These fast change rate test chambers are capable of quick transition rates at 5 to 15C per minute. The fast transition rates are ideal for temperature and humidity testing of parts used in the automotive industry.

Tenney Environmental, a global manufacturer of environmental testing equipment, announced the shipment of three (3) Tenney Environmental Fast Change Rate Automotive Test Chambers. These test chambers will be used for temperature and humidity testing of automotive parts.

The maximum temperature rating of the automotive test chambers is 180C and the operating temperature range is -68C to 180C. The work chamber dimensions are 30 W X 28.8 D X 36 H. The fast change rate test chambers can transition the air temperature in remote chambers from 20C to -40C with a 30-minute transition rate.

The automotive test chambers utilize a continuously welded type-304 stainless steel interior with structural reinforcement used at all critical points. A combination of fiberglass and polyurethane insulation surround the chambers to maximize insulating characteristics, thus ensuring minimal thermal transfer. The automotive test chambers also feature a CSA blower for conditioning in remote cabinets which is an engineered to order option that the customer requested for this project.

The mechanical refrigeration of these temperature and humidity test chambers is of the cascade type utilizing two 6.0 horsepower, scroll compressors. The refrigerants used are R507 and R23 with water-cooled condenser systems. Special circuiting is provided to minimize pressure drop and maintain proper internal tube velocity for maximum heat transfer efficiency. The temperature and humidity chambers have a relative humidity range of 10% to 95% (limited by a +4C dew point). The humidifiers shall be the electrically heated vapor generator type, vented to operate at atmospheric pressure and provide water vapor to the environmental room, equipped with a fail-safe thermostat.

These fast change rate test chambers are capable of quick transition rates at 5 to 15C per minute. The fast transition rates are ideal for temperature and humidity testing of parts used in the automotive industry. ~ Mark Hanna, Regional Sales Manager

Unique features of these fast change rate test chambers include:



VersaTenn V Quattro touch screen control system that provides total programming capabilities

RS-232 serial communications

Solid stainless steel partial shelf

TempGard IV Over/Under Temperature Protection System

UL-508 approved panel

UUT Module

Cascade type mechanical refrigeration system

About Tenney Environmental

Tenney boasts the most comprehensive line of standard and custom environmental test chambers and rooms in the industry. Known for innovative engineering design, robust construction, and superior performance, the Tenney line of test chambers is designed to meet all your temperature, humidity, altitude, vibration, and vacuum-testing requirements.

About Thermal Product Solutions, LLC (TPS)

Thermal Product Solutions (TPS), is a leading American manufacturer of industrial ovens, furnaces, pharmaceutical sterilizers, laboratory ovens, environmental temperature chambers, and stability test chambers. TPS provides thermal processing and test solutions for a range of industries. TPS brands include Baker Furnace, Blue M, Gruenberg, Tenney, Lindberg, Lunaire, MPH, and Wisconsin Oven. For more information on equipment solutions from TPS visit the website at http://www.thermalproductsolutions.com.
Welcome Guest! You Are Here:
Grilled meats can include foods like sausages, bacon, ham and some types of jerky. Although grilled meats are unhealthy, it has somehow retained its national popularity.

Widely known as 'abochie meat', the mouthwatering and flavoured meat is quite addictive. The flavour is hard to match up to, and even a quick stir-fry or a light broth could please your taste buds like no other.

Smoked or grilled meat dipped in greasy oil, and covered with a mix of salt, chilli powder and spices, before being cooked directly over fire has been identified by the National Cancer Institute as one of the most common causes of cancer.

When meat is cooked directly over fire, it gets covered with cancer-causing carcinogens, making it more dangerous than even smoking or consumption of alcohol,the institute reports.

This ancient culinary method goes beyond just cooking the food but also leaves more than smoke in the eyes for the preparers as well as contaminate the environment.

Smokers burn wood mixed with coal and gas and produce large amounts of carbon dioxide, adding to greenhouse gases.

According to Yvette Diei-Ouadi, a fisheries expert with the UN " traditional smoking releases contaminants known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are carcinogenic and hazardous to the human respiratory system".

Over the period the West African country has place some attention on non-communicable diseases, increasing scrutiny on lifestyles and food choices.

According to a U.S. study, women who eat a lot of grilled, smoked and barbecued meats and develop breast cancer may be more likely to die from their cancer than those who eat less of these foods.

The study found that a higher intake of barbecued, smoked or grilled meat before diagnosis was also associated with 23 percent higher odds of death from all causes.

Of the three cooking options, smoking may be the worst. Routinely eating smoked beef, lamb and pork was tied to a 17 percent greater risk of death from all causes and 23 percent higher odds of dying from breast cancer.

There are many carcinogens found in grilled or smoked meats, said lead study author Humberto Parada, a researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. One of the most common are polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), which are formed during combustion of organic material.

Alternatives to smoked or grilled meat
The heads of state met to discuss Iran, trade, and other future policy plans. They also planted a tree, witnessed a major Melania fashion moment, and reveled in their bromance.

Here are the best photos from the historic state visit:

The Macrons arrived on Monday.

Source: Reuters

Macron may be the world leader Trump is closest to. Their bromance, as many have called it, has been on full display throughout the visit.

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Trump and Macron planted Macron's gift, a sapling, on the White House's South Lawn. The oak tree comes from a forest in France where US Marines fought a famous World War I battle.

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The two couples were caught preparing to have their picture taken at Mount Vernon, where they had dinner Monday night.

Source: Reuters

On Tuesday, the presidents and their first ladies greeted crowds at Macron's formal arrival ceremony.

Macron greeted Melania with a kiss on the hand.

The internet went nuts over Melania's Herve Pierre hat.

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Nearly 500 members from all five military branches, plus Cabinet secretaries and honored guests, gathered on the South Lawn for the traditional "Review of the Troops."

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Trump and Macron had private meetings in Oval Office on Tuesday. The US president led his French counterpart across the White House portico.

Source: AP

Trump brushed a piece of dandruff off Macron's shoulder in front of the press, saying, "We have to make him perfect. He is perfect."

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They clearly found something amusing.

Source: AP

The two presidents also shared a long, extended handshake-hug-kiss at a joint press conference on Tuesday. The two have a history of awkward handshakes.

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The Trumps welcomed the Macrons to the White House for the State Dinner Tuesday night.

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After enjoying cocktails together upstairs in the residence, the Trumps and Macrons descended the grand staircase to greet their guests.

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The guest list was filled with high-profile titans of business and finance, with many Wall Street CEOs in attendance.

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Inside, Melania and White House staff chose a cream and gold color scheme, which matched Brigitte's dress.

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The State Dining Room was filled with more than 2,500 stems of white sweet peas and nearly 1,000 stems of white lilac.

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Trump and Macron each gave a toast highlighting the two countries' longstanding alliance.

Source:

On Wednesday, Macron addressed a joint meeting of Congress. His speech was full of subtle shots at Trump's worldview, calling on the US to reject "isolationism" and "extreme nationalism."

Source:

"Our people cherish the friendship of the American people with as much intensity as ever," Macron said in his speech. "What we cherish is at stake. What we love is in danger. We have no choice but to prevail  and together, we shall prevail."

Source:

With them being so close, that will certainly be the case.
The Trump administration is planning to fill the long-vacant US ambassador position in South Korea with US Navy Adm. Harry Harris, who was originally set to take over as ambassador to Australia, according to multiple reports.

A senior White House official told Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin that the administration wanted to renominate Harris, the outgoing Pacific Command chief, for the South Korea job.

Harris had already been approved by the Australian government, but the White House late on Monday asked the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to postpone Harris' confirmation hearing, which was supposed to take place on Tuesday morning. Harris' successor at PACOM, Adm. Phil Davidson, was confirmed for that role by the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday morning.

Secretary of State nominee Mike Pompeo is reportedly behind the switch. The White House official told Rogin that Harris has confirmed to Pompeo he is willing to take on the ambassador role in Seoul. An official familiar with the matter told CBS News the move was likely to happen, though President Donald Trump has yet to give the go-ahead.

The impetus for the change appears to be the need to fill a critical diplomatic role, especially ahead of potential talks between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in are set to meet on Friday.

Kim has already met with Pompeo, in his role as CIA director.

Charge d'Affaires Mark Knapper has been leading the US Embassy in South Korea, but Trump has faced criticism for not filling the ambassador position there.

Victor Cha, a highly respected academic and an official in the George W. Bush administration, was under consideration for the role last year, but the White House scrapped his candidacy in December, reportedly over his privately expressed disagreements with Trump's policy on North Korea.

Harris, who is well respected by members of both parties, is planning to retire this year after four decades in the Navy. His potential confirmation as South Korea ambassador will still take time, however, in part because of the need for more vetting. While he has a background and interest in US-Australian affairs, he has less experience with North Korea and South Korea, despite numerous visits to the latter as part of his PACOM duties.

While Pompeo is reportedly pushing for the change, he himself still needs Senate confirmation to take over at Foggy Bottom. His approval by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which appeared in doubt, came through on Monday evening, and a vote by the full Senate could come before Friday.
Then we have the perfect social network for you - a Christian version of Facebook called Love Realm which forbids sex pictures and bad language.

The website launched in Ghana in 2016 is already winning popularity among Christians. So far, more than 140,000 use the social network and are very excited about it.

Love Realm is aiming to spread positivity and making people switch from other social media networks, which the site's founders claim purveys sinful content such as violence and pornography.

Co-founder of the clean social media Dr. Yaw Ansong Jnr tells Business Insider Sub Saharan Africa (BISSA) that the site is monitored by more than 2 volunteers, who vet sexually explicit content and remove swear words and other offensive phrases.

Apart from the swearwords blockage, there are other amazing features such as prayer request, anonymity, and counseling.

Co-founder Yaw Ansong told BISSA that the team hoped to have million of users within a short period of time.

"We want to be morally and technically better than Facebook. We want all Ghanaian evangelicals as well as people who want positive energy to shift to Love Realm," said Yaw.

The idea for the site was born years ago when the group was in a Ghanaian medical school and the three-person founding team received financial support from their father to set up the project.

Love Realm isn't your ordinary social media hangout for sharing memory events and happenings with friends and family but also for driving membership in the church.

Churches are registered to the network and are able to connect with members regardless of where they are.

Co-founder Yaw says the platform has been built to serve as a payment system for tithes.

Yaw explains that the network hope to grow into a challenger of some of social media's biggest names.
The private security guard and his daughters sexual relationship raised suspicion of neighbours who often see him take the victim to his workplace.

While at the Lagos state police command, Taiwo Oyelabi ceased the opportunity to offer what he thought could be an explanation for the abominable act.

READ MORE: Woman throws party for husband and for giving her rival

He was quoted as having told newsmen that: This is not ordinary. It is the work of the devil. But my daughter is also to blame because she raped me. She started by kissing me. The first time she did it, I was sleeping.

I woke up and beat her and told her to stop it. I even took her to a white garment church for deliverance, where I was told to bring some things with which to prepare some spiritual bath for her to stop the act. I even went ahead to engage her in a nylon-making factory, yet she continued.

We did it five times. By the time she realised she was pregnant, she was over three months gone and there was nothing we could do about it. Besides, I am not the only one she has slept with. She also has a boyfriend. I believe her boyfriend is responsible for the pregnancy.

When I discovered she was pregnant, I tried to kill myself three times, but people stopped me.

The first time, I tried to drink insecticide, but a neighbor stopped me. I later jumped into a well, but I was rescued alive. I wanted to take my life because this is not real. It was my landlord that reported me to the Police because I owe him

Well, the veracity of Taiwo Oyelabis claim may not be relevant now, since for reasons known to him he chose not to report such a criminal act as rape perpetrated on him by his own daughter since November, 2017 until she got pregnant.
Digiclan is a community of Digital media professionals, enthusiasts and friends committed to the growth of the Digital Media Industry in Africa. The community brings together marketers to learn, motivate one another and set standards of growth whilst helping themselves to grow.

The idea behind DigiClan was inspired by the need to create an organization committed to pushing forward the common agenda of growing the digital marketing industry, networking, support and sharing of ideas across Africa.

The group was started on September 1, 2017 as DigiClan Lagos but eventually expanded to 14 other states in Nigeria and other parts of Africa, including Kenya, Togo, and finally launched in Accra, Ghana on the April 17, 2018. Digiclan currently has a total membership of about 4000  a number which is bound to increase in the coming months.

The event was hosted at the Impact Hub, Accra, Osu, with the theme Digital Marketing and the Power of Storytelling.

Among those who spoke was the Director of Digital at RADP Ghana, Ibukun Onitiju, who delivered an extensive speech on the tagline Stories Sell, Digital Helps with examples of storytelling campaigns from brands.

Head of Marketing and Communications at Meltwater France, Benelux and Middle East, Rym Bachouche, also spoke on the topic Growth Hacking Digital Marketing with Data.

Also, the Digital Marketing Communications Strategist and co-founder of DigiClan, Ized Uanikhehi, addressed the gathering on the importance of digital publishing and storytelling.
The square-toe dress shoe was what he showed up in on the Glitz Awards red carpet in a blue shirt, a pair of trousers and a long black shoe.

READ ALSO:6 Ghanaian musicians that seriously need a fashion makeover

Kwame A Plus shared a photo of the blogger on his on Instagram with part of his ridiculous caption being,

Ameyaw is that a ceiling fan you are wearing or shoe? Every day you so called bloggers discuss peoples lives, dress, marriage even people k?ti size

Ameyaw Debrah has been known for his poor fashion sense. He was on the list of worst dressed celebrities of most fashion tabloids after his appearance at just-ended VGMAs red carpet.
According to a report by Joy News, the three suspects, who are stationed at the Weija District Police Command, hired out their assigned AK47 rifles to the robbers.

The suspects are reported to have given their guns to criminals over the weekend, in exchange for money.

A grapevine source in the Police disclosed that after the officers handed over the guns to the robbers, who had planned to go for an operation on Saturday evening, they were involved in an accident.

The source said an ex-police officer who did not know the accident victims were robbers offered to take them to the hospital, but overheard the robbers saying they had left their guns behind.

The ex-police officer was shocked by what he heard and subsequently alerted the police command to look into the issue.

Upon interrogation, the armed robbers disclosed that indeed some Police officers had given out the guns to them.

The suspected Police officers later confessed to hiring out the guns to the robbers after being confronted.

Speaking in an interview with Accra-based Adom FM, the Weija District Police Commander, DSP Joseph Afuakpah, described the incident as a big blow to the Police service.
Owusu Sekyere, who is a senior lawyer and his accomplice are said to have fraudulently taken $200,000 from one Ato Hamilton under the pretext of providing him with a parcel of land at Cantonments in Accra but failed to do so.

The two accused of taking the money three years ago and absconded with it.

The court presided over by Mrs Malike Wornya Dey found the accused guilty of the offence of defrauding by false pretenses and convicted them.
Nketiah, popularly known as General Mosquito said Akufo-Addo barely stays in Ghana but always globetrotting.

Speaking on Okays FM's 'Ade Akye Abia' programme, he explained that the President has not spent more than a month in the country without travelling outside.

"Rarely do you see or hear of him in the country, he has been travelling around to other countries as if he is a visiting President in the country", General Mosquito.

"He gets his plane fueled and then moves around other countries", he alleged.
According to NDC MP for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, the number will soon increase from 998 to 1,697.

He alleged that the Akufo-Addo government intends to employ more staff at the Jubilee House, saying that is the plan of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) for the year 2018.

Several Ghanaians were left in utter shock after it emerged that the President has a whopping 998 staff working at the Jubilee House.

The number has been described by many as absurd, with sections of the public criticizing the huge number of employees.

However, Mr. Ablakwa believes Ghanaians must be prepared for another shock, insisting the number of Jubilee House employees could soon rise from 998 to 1,697.

Speaking in an interview with Accra-based Joy FM, the NDC MP said: "That is the plan of the Akufo-Addo government for the year 2018. If Ghanaians are worried about 998, that is not going to be the end of the matter.

He explained that there are officials he knows to work at the Jubilee House whose names are not on the list of 998 staff.

He further observed that that the budget allocated to pay wages of the staff at the presidency has jumped from 79.3m cedis to 119.6m cedis.

This, Mr. Ablakwah, described as really, really absurd" following a 50% increase in the wage budget in just over a year.
The group said prosecution of such officials will be a strong caveat for others in the future.

In a statement released to the media, they said: "We found the involvement of the minority leader and some key members of the minority NDC quite disheartening. There seems to be a growing sense of impunity in respect of corruption in this country.

It has emerged that some 19 National Democratic Congress (NDC) Members of Parliament who were Ministers under the erstwhile John Mahama administration took double salaries and are currently being investigated by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service.

READ THE FULL STATEMENT BELOW

We are citizens of Ghana. We are enjoined by the Constitution and other laws of Ghana to demand accountability from those who exercise the powers of the State on our behalf. We are further invited by the laws of Ghana to report the commission of the crime to law enforcement agencies.

We are outraged by the news that some Members of Parliament and former ministers for 8 years in Government, under President Mahama, took double salary contrary to the terms of their engagement and the laws of Ghana.

We found the involvement of the minority leader and some key members of the minority NDC quite disheartening. There seems to be a growing sense of impunity in respect of corruption in this country.

To end this impunity, citizens must resort to the law to deal with the blatant plunder of public resources. The minority has so far admitted to receiving the double salary under former President Mahama. This admission establishes a prima facie case of wrongdoing.

We have noted the strenuous attempt to bury this shameful stealing of public resources because the alleged thieves are Honorable Members. If it was a case of an accountant in the public or civil service, he/she would have been dealt with according to the criminal laws of Ghana. If it was a hawker on the streets of Accra he would have been arrested immediately, denied bail and prosecuted with the speed of light and convicted harshly.

In this matter, we have decided to respond to the invitation by our laws in respect of crimes, particularly, the Special Prosecutor Act, by taking up this broad-daylight stealing of public money by some members of parliament.

We would, therefore, submit a written petition to the Special Prosecutor as required in section 26(1) of the Act establishing the Office of Special Prosecutor.

The gravamen of our petition would be that:

It is our hope that the good people of Ghana would support us in this fight so as to restore confidence in our democracy.

Ato Sam-Ghartey

Convener

Dennis Obeng Agyei

Ahmed Baba -Nah
His response comes after a report released showed that the Presidency had 998 staffs for the period January 7, 2017, to December 31, 2017.

The breakdown was as follows 9 Ministers of State, 27 presidential staffers, 256 Junior Political Appointees and 706 civil and public servants.

READ ALSO: Samira Bawumia, Dep Education Minister dance to Funny Faces Cow and ChickenSamira Bawumia, Dep Education Minister dance to Funny Faces Cow and Chicken

This number is some 220 staff more than the 778 employees presented to parliament by the erstwhile John Mahama administration in 2013.

This angered many Ghanaians who called out the Nana Addo administration for their deceit and hypocrisy.

Gabby Asare Otchere Darko, a senior member of the New Patriotic Party and a former Executive Director of policy think tank Danquah Institute (DI) justified the 998 figure, saying that President Akufo-Addo prioritises results over a lean government.

Akufo-Addo has never put lean government before a government that delivers. I recall in 2006, we were working on a speech and when I mentioned lean government, he told me to point blankly that our situation in Ghana calls more for a well-resourced government machinery that can deliver, he wrote on his Facebook Wall.

However, President of IMANI Africa Franklin Cudjoe said this position was hypocritical and sad.

I think the conversation has to be about whether we have efficient denominator to go on with, he said on Accra-based Starr FM.

The sad thing though, he bemoaned, is that, the same persons who a while back were chastising previous governments for running a bloated bureaucracy are today defending the same bloated number by suggesting he [President Akufo-Addo] didnt promise a lean government.
He said he would pulled a gun on him for planting a recording device in his office to blackmail him.

The Managing Director of MMT, Bernett Aboagye was fired over a purported tape recording where he is alleged to be plotting with some workers to dupe the company by buying 300 new buses.

Among a series of allegations, Mr Lawal threatened to leak the damming audio conversation if Mr Aboagye did not pay him $1 million.

But Kennedy Agyapong thinks Bernett Aboagye should have shot Lawal dead when he tried blackmailing him for money.

"The Security Coordinator had the confidence to go and meet with the National Security Coordinator and other big men and has confessed that he bugged the MDs office. What is going on in this country, and you entertain such person, that guy has to be arrested. He bugged the office and has transcribed all the recording and hes moving about with it. The guy, Im warning him, if this country were to be America, they would have taken care of him easily", he charged.

"Hes lucky that were loose, and the NPP understands democracy more than Britain and America, so he has the guts to meet with big men and is able to play the tape, what? This is very wrong, if I were Bennet (MMT Boss) by now, [cri cri], I swear to God, I would have taken care of that nigger, what sort of nonsense is going on in this country? he fumed.
His threats have prompted pressure from European officials ahead of a May 12 deadline for his decision.

"We have welcomed the insistence of the European Union on keeping America in the JCPOA (nuclear deal)," said Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran's Supreme Council for National Security, in a televised press conference.

"But if this means degrading the Islamic republic of Iran or paying a ransom to Trump, the Europeans are making a strategic mistake," he said.

The European parties to the agreement -- Britain, France, Germany and the European Union -- have been trying to convince Trump to stick to the accord.

French President Emmanuel Macron is currently in Washington, hoping to address Trump's concerns and keep the US in the deal.

The White House has demanded tighter restrictions on Iran's regional behaviour and its nuclear and missile programmes.

But Iran says any talk of curbing its missile programme -- which is central to its defence systems -- is off limits.
In a rare admission of negative news from North Korea's tightly controlled propaganda network, the state-run KCNA news agency ran a report saying Kim met the Chinese ambassador early Monday and later visited crash survivors in hospital.

"He said that the unexpected accident brought bitter sorrow to his heart and that he couldn't control his grief at the thought of the bereaved families who lost their blood relatives," KCNA reported.

The agency quoted the North Korean leader as saying his people "take the tragic accident as their own misfortune."

The report said the crash was caused by "an unexpected traffic accident that claimed heavy causalities among Chinese tourists." It gave no details on the numbers killed or injured.

Kim's visit to the embassy will be seen as an indication of how seriously Pyongyang takes the accident.

The KCNA report twice mentioned Chinese officials thanking Kim for taking time out of his "busy" schedule to meet them following the crash.

"The ambassador and staff members of the Chinese embassy here repeatedly expressed gratitude to Chairman Kim Jong Un for showing deep care and personally taking detailed measures as regards the recent sudden accident though he is busy with his important political schedule," KCNA reported.

North Korea's sole ally is China, which provides an important economic and political buffer against international opprobrium.

Relations have been strained by Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and missile testings, which prompted Beijing to back a series of United Nations sanctions last year.

Pyongyang has made moves to mend fences with Beijing ahead of a summit Friday with South Korea's President Moon Jae-In followed by a planned face-to-face with US President Donald Trump.
They have pleaded not guilty but are suspected of carrying out the attack on behalf of someone else.

"The government wants to know whether they acted on their own or whether someone sent them and who are these people," Foreign Minister Carmelo Abela told AFP in Paris.

"Whoever he, she or they are, they will be prosecuted in accordance with the law... no one is going to be protected," he added.

Since the murder, 45 journalists from 18 media outlets around the world have worked together to continue Caruana Galizia's work by poring over a mass of documents she left behind.

"I can understand the international media's attention on this case, it's unprecedented, it's a case that merits attention," Abela said.

"But I would like to know the reasons behind that. There was another case, unfortunately, when a journalist and his girlfriend in Slovakia were killed, I'm not seeing the same fuss that this consortium of journalists is making on this case," he added.

Slovakian journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova were shot dead in February, leading the European Parliament to pass a resolution last week calling for a full and independent investigation.

In the years leading up to her death, Caruana Galizia had gone after the ruling Labour party, virulently attacking Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, and more recently also the leader of the opposition.

Articles based on her work have since focused on abuses of Malta's "golden passport" law which allows foreigners to buy Maltese citizenship for one million euros, providing that the buyer has resided on the island for at least one year.
The election extended the Colorado partys dominance in Paraguayan politics and solidified the rightward political shift in South America.

Abdo Benitez belongs to a more conservative wing of the party than the departing president, Horacio Cartes. His election follows transitions of power in Argentina, Brazil and Chile, where conservative or center-right leaders have defeated socialist parties in recent years.

The party has held on to the presidency since 1945 with the exception of an electoral defeat in 2008 by Fernando Lugo, who was impeached and removed from office in 2012.

Election officials declared Abdo Benitezs victory shortly after 9 p.m., after more than 96 percent of votes had been tallied. He won by about 4 percentage points, an outcome far closer than polls had suggested.

Abdo Benitez struck a conciliatory tone as he thanked supporters Sunday night. We have built a project that touched the heart of the people and that seeks unity for Paraguay, he said.

There was significant overlap in the initiatives that both candidates campaigned on. Abdo Benitez and Alegre vowed to strengthen the countrys judiciary with the aim of making Paraguay more attractive to foreign investors. And they promised to overhaul the tax system to improve the economy.

The candidates also backed a gender parity bill aiming to pave the way for women to play a more prominent role in politics. They also oppose legalizing abortion and same-sex marriage.

The lack of radical policy differences made for an election in which the biographies and personal style of the presidential hopefuls loomed large.

During the campaign, Abdo Benitez, a former president of the Senate, did not overtly pay homage to the era when the country was ruled by a dictatorship.

But he refrained from disavowing the abuses carried out by the junta during the regions longest military dictatorship, which included rape, forced disappearances and arbitrary detentions.

Abdo Benitez, 46, appeared keen to elicit the memory of his father, Mario Abdo, on Sunday morning after he cast his ballot. Trailed by reporters, the candidate visited the family mausoleum where his father is buried in Asuncions Recoleta cemetery.

The dictatorship is an abstract idea for many voters in this country of nearly 7 million people, where the median age is 25. But the candidacy of Abdo Benitez clearly rattled young liberals.

On Friday night, at a concert featuring psychedelic cumbia and feminist reggaeton at a colonial house in Asuncion, Pedro Lezcano, a percussionist, grabbed the microphone and said, If your folks are Colorados, hide their cedulas, a reference to the national identity cards required for voting. Attendants clapped and started yelling, Dictatorship never again!

But some young voters said they favored Abdo Benitez because of the stories they have heard about life under military rule.

I didnt live through the dictatorship, but I know that life was good and I think we could use another period like that, Jose Rodriguez, a 19-year-old medical student, said Sunday night. There are too many thieves and assaults, and it wasnt like that before.

Paraguays economy has been among the top performers in the region in recent years, as neighboring Brazil weathered a brutal recession. But the landlocked country remains one of the continents poorest and least equitable in terms of wealth.

Despite those factors, Alegre, a former congressman and minister in the Lugo government, said leftist parties had struggled to mount a strong challenge to the governing party because its allies across government give it a built-in advantage.

There are three or four generations of public servants who are Colorados, 95 percent of government officials are Colorados, he said. Its a result of the dictatorship years and successive clientelist governments.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
One of Africa's most influential business leaders and bank chiefs, Tony Elumelu was in Washington DC for the World Bank Spring Meetings and he discussed about Digital Economy in Africa with World Bank president, Jim Yong Kim and Linkedin CEO, Jeff Weiner.

The former CEO of United Bank for Africa and Chairman of Heirs_Holdings, explained his exploits around Africa and his contribution towards achieving Digital Economy in Africa.

The session at the World Bank Spring Meetings also witnessed the launch of the launch of the Digital Economy for Africa initiative by the World Bank.

Here are the six points made by the brilliant mind and Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation:

The need to develop with technology

The world as we know it is changing rapidly. We can no longer talk about development without talking about technology and its potential to enable us leapfrog the typical growth trajectory of other economies before us.

ALSO READ: Tony Elumelu Foundation selects 1000 entrepreneurs across Africa for its 2018 programme

Tech giants scrambling for African youths

This is especially true in Africa where entrepreneurs innovate in unprecedented ways in the technology space. Last week, while in Kenya & Uganda I met some of these tech entrepreneurs who are being sought after by global tech giants like Microsoft & Google DigitalEconomy.

Young Africans are eager to succeed

I see hard working young people in Nigeria and Africa; 60% of the population; who are eager to succeed. All they need is the enabling environment that will help this continent harness this demographic dividend.

Tony Elumelu Foundation's stride across Africa

The TonyElumeluFDN is now in its 4th year of empowering young entrepreneurs across Africa, providing training, seed capital finance, networking & advocacy to help young Africans in all 54 countries across the continent to succeed.

Everybody has a role to play

We all have a role to play in this: the private sector, policy makers & development partners like the world bank. We must prioritise our youth, believe in them and invest them because their success is our collective success.

African values must be protected always
The young Kauna and other girls, who were awarded full scholarships and sanctuary at Christian academies in rural America, have explained their travails in the hands of their supposed 'benefactor' in the last four years.

Kauna and the girls narrated their American ordeal and how they were trapped again to the Wall Street Journal.

Kauna narrates her escape from being kidnapped by Boko Haram

In 2014, Kauna had jumped out of a moving truck heading toward the Sambisa forest hideout of Boko Haram, in a desperate move to avoid the fate of the more than 200 other schoolgirls abducted from Chibok, Borno State.

She alongside other escapees had been welcomed by the Nigerian government and enrolled into a private Institution, the American University of Nigeria until Emmanuel Ogebe, a Nigerian human-rights lawyer, showed up to take their custody.

The journey to America seemed perfect at first

Ogebe, who allegedly claims he is an authority on what he termed a Christian genocide in Nigeria, had helped shape U.S. policy toward Africas most populous country, the Wall Street Journal reported.

With this 'power,' Ogebe arrived Nigeria and in a hurry, made demands of the schools administrators to release the Chibok girls in the school's custody.

According to the report, Ogebe was accompanied by parents and pieces of paper demanding the school gives him four Chibok survivors, which include Kauna Bitrus, for weekend meetings in Abuja.

After much pressure, administrators of the American University of Nigeria reluctantly agreed to Ogebe's demand and released the girls. The girls never returned as they found their way to America.

Kauna and nine others were flown to Virginia alongside Ogebe where they were meant to study at the Mountain Mission School, a boarding school in Appalachia.

Ogebe's charms on prominent US dignitaries

Ogebe's calmly narrated accounts of Boko Haram murders of Christians - he rarely mentioned the sects more numerous killings of Muslims - won him friendships with powerful contacts.

Some of the powerful Americans that fell for Ogebe's ability to use the right words to get attention and what he wants are Republican Congressmen, Jason Chaffetz, Chris Smith and Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, a Miami Democrat.

Jacob Zenn, a widely-cited Boko Haram expert said Ogebe frames himself as the best personality to talk to when Nigeria's insurgency is concerned.

He frames himself as a go-to-guy to talk about the insurgency. He knows the trigger words to say that will get attention to his issues in Washington, Zenn told WSJ.

The split for further alleged exploitation

After landing on the American soil,, the students split up into two groups, both sent to Christian boarding schools in rural America: the Canyonville Christian Academy, Oregon, school run by Doug Wead, the former White House adviser; and Virginias Mountain Mission.

Months after their arrival in the United States, Ogebe and Wead would repeatedly clash, accusing each other of using the young women for personal and political gain.

WSJ reported that Wead says the students evaded one tyrant in Nigeria only to fall into the hands of another in the U.S.

This is a tale of girls being passed from Muslim predators in Africa to Christian predators in America, he said.

Wead was further quoted as saying he never pressed the young women to tell their story but did tell them people would lose interest if they didnt shop their story to filmmakers soon.

The group Kauna belonged to studied in Virginia, returning to high school for the first time since the night of their escape. They shared dorms with around 20 other students.

And Ogebe's alleged exploitation of the girls began in America

After a few days, Ogebe reportedly drove Kauna and another girl to Manhattan with sweet and lofty promises of a better life and secured future.

He told us We are going to New York, to see New York because New York is beautiful, its like the biggest city in America,  Kauna told WSJ.

On their arrival in New York, Ogebe reportedly brought the girls to a conference room full of journalists and before they could phantom what was going on, a phalanx of cameras were flashing lights as Kauna and another student stuttered while retelling the story of their escape.

According to The Wall Street Journal, two reports written by the American schools the Chibok girls attended, as well as two undisclosed Nigerian governmental investigations alleged that Ogebe and his Nigerian associates fraudulently exploited the ex-hostages for tens of thousands of dollars.

In the last four years, the girls have changed schools more than five times as a result of Ogebe's exploits around America, using the girls to solicit funds despite the scholarship and relocation process by the Christian community.

Kauna's verdict: There were too many lies. Its like we were prisoners again."

All the things that have been said about our Uncle Emmanuel are true, said another girl.

For those of you who gave money to him, we are sorry. There is nothing we can do about it. We forgive him, another girl said.

The exploitation route

Ogebe took some of the girls for speaking engagements around the U.S., and later, abroad.

Though the girls' visas showed the schools were responsible for them, Ogebe laid claim as their guardian and on Sundays, Ogebe would often bring one set of Chibok students or another to a church, where donations poured in for their education.

WSJ reported further that according to the Nigerian government investigation, one online fundraiser by the Jubilee Campaign, a Virginia NGO to help religious minorities, raised about $66,000 in the first five months of their time in the U.S.

Ogebe reportedly broke ties with the charity in 2015 after he insisted he is the custodian of that money, a decision the Jubilee Campaign felt breached financial reporting rules for nonprofit organizations.

In another fund raising ceremony, Ogebe had told a raucous crowd of hundreds of evangelical Christians that he had just received a phone call from former U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, thanking him for what he is doing for the girls.

ALSO READ: What has happened to Chibok schoolgirls 4 years after Boko Haram abduction?

When contacted, a spokesman for Brown says Mr. Brown is absolutely not in contact or communication with this person.

Ogebe's denial of accusations

Ogebe has denied the accusations against him saying the young Nigerians have been turned against him by other actors eager to exploit them.

The human rights lawyer said those that have turned the girls against him range from Nigerias government, biographers looking to publish their story and a former adviser to George H. W. Bush who took two of them to meet President Donald Trump.

As against enriching himself with proceeds of donation for the girl's schooling, accommodation and feeding in the United States of America, Ogebe says the Chibok saga ultimately left him poorer.

This was a dirty operation and they did a lot of havoc and subterfuge. Its heartbreaking to a philanthropist and humanitarian when you see how heartless people can be

Ogebe is yet to be charged with any crime because he spent money housing, transporting and catering for the kids all through their travails.

The WSJ reported that in 2016, the FBI probed allegations that Ogebe committed financial fraud but didnt pursue charges because. investigators found out that he had likely been keeping or misappropriating money he raised in the name of the Chibok students, but that he also spent some fraction of that money housing and transporting them, according to people familiar with the inquiry.

The final escape in US

Towards the end of 2015, Kauna had had enough and wanted her freedom and she began contacting people shed met over the WhatsApp messaging system, to escape from the strongholds of Ogebe.

It was further reported that another student had called Jamila Fagge, a Nigerian-American Voice of America reporter asking to be rescued.

Fagge reportedly contacted law enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security began organizing an extraction of the girls.

The agencies in conjunction with Nigerian Ministry of Women and Children, began plans to get the girls out without attracting so much awareness.

On the last day of school in May 2016, DHS agents deployed to the campus in Grundy and Vienna, Va., where Ogebe had enrolled several of the girls.

The girls were picked up by the DHS agents and after a brief car chase, law-enforcement officers sorted the matter out and DHS escorted the Chibok students to a suburban safe house.

Within days, seven of the young women signed documents saying they no longer wished to be associated with Ogebe and also signed an open letter to their families saying they were no longer kidnapped.

Ogebe, who was present when the girls were picked reportedly said: You are wicked, wicked girls. Do you want to see me go to jail?

Over 200 girls were kidnapped by the deadly terrorists, Boko Haram in Nigeria in 2014 with Kauna and few others making initial escape.

Following the resumption of office, President Muhammadu Buhari's administration had negotiated the release of over 110 girls from their captors while others are still in captivity.
The row was over the 'unconstitutional' payment of $496 million to the United States Government by the Buhari administration for the much needed 12 Super Tucano fighter jets.

According to News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, the rowdy session followed the reading of President Buharis letter to the House of Representatives, by Speaker Yakubu Dogara.

Members of the chambers of the National Assembly have been spoiling for a fight over the payment, which they contended was done in breach of the constitution.

President Muhammadu Buhari's letter

In the letter which caused rancour at the floor of the Lower chamber of the National Assembly on Tuesday, April 24, 2018, President Muhammadu Buhari said his government had given anticipatory approval for the withdrawal of the said sum from the ECA and transferred it to the U.S. Treasury in February 2018 without recourse to the National Assembly.

The President said there is need to do so in order to meet the payment deadline.

"It would be recalled that, for a number of years, Nigeria had been in discussions with the United States Government for the purchase of Super Tucano Aircraft under a direct Government-to-Government arrangement.

Recently, approval was finally granted by the United States Government, but with a deadline within which part payment must be made otherwise, the contract would lapse.

In the expectation that the National Assembly would have no objection to the purchase of this highly specialized aircraft, which is critical to national security, I granted anticipatory approval for the release of US$496,374,470.00. This was paid directly to the treasury of the United States Government.

Sale of 12 Super Tucano A-29 planes and weapons to Nigeria by the U.S.

The Pentagon last year August notified the U.S. Congress of the sale to Nigeria of the 12 Super Tucano A-29 planes and weapons worth $593 million, needed for the fight against the militant group, Boko Haram.

The package included thousands of bombs and rockets.

The sale was originally agreed by former President Barack Obamas administration but was put off by the Obama administration after incidents including the Nigerian Air Forces bombing of a refugee camp in January that killed 90 to 170 civilians.

But on 2 August, the deadlock was broken by the Pentagons Defense Security Cooperation Agency, when it announced that the sale would go ahead.

Super Tucano A-29

The Super Tucano A-29, an agile, propeller-driven plane with reconnaissance and surveillance as well as attack capabilities, is made by Brazils Embraer. A second production line is in Florida, in a partnership between Embraer and privately held Sierra Nevada Corp of Sparks, Nevada.

The Super Tucano costs more than $10 million each and the price can go much higher depending on the configuration.
Popular Christian author Joel Rosenberg has an answer to this question. During a recent appearance on PureFlix.coms Pure Talk, he said that he believes these are the end times. He added that technically, the last days started last days as soon as Jesus Christ came, died and resurrected.

Proof of the Biblical last days?

In his words, I dont know when I dont have a date  but if you look at all the prophecies  one wonders, he said. You see a lot of global chaos .. more Christians have been slaughtered in the last century than at any other time in human history  and thats saying something because weve been often slaughtered.

For Rosenberg, one of the most significant signs of the last days is the rebirth of Israel in 1948. This belief is based on Ezekiel 3639, which he says is where Israels re-emergence is prophesied.

Referring to the Gog of the land of Magog in Ezekiel, which he says is forewarning of a leader from Russia, he says, The one-day, future evil leader of Russia is going to form an alliance with Iran, Turkey and some other hostile countries to come and surround and attack Israel in the last days.

He noted that it could take several years for these events to come to pass.
According to the Punch, the committee is sitting at the Pro-Chancellor's Lodge on the campus but only Osagie and her lawyer were allowed into the venue which is manned by the OAU security personnel.

Pulse reported on Sunday that the student in the scandal, Monica Osagie would appear before the panel on Tuesday, April 24, 2018.

OAU VC confirms student's appearance before panel

The Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof Eyitope Ogunmodede confirmed the student's appearance before the panel to newsmen.

''The lady is appearing before the committee. Members of the committee told me that the lady came and she is appearing before them.

Meanwhile, the university management has suspended Prof Akindele following the recommendation of the committee in their interim report.

You'll recall that on Monday, April 9, 2018, Prof Richard Akindele, a lecturer at the Department of Accounting, was exposed in a viral audio clip in which he allegedly demanded five rounds of sex from Osagie to increase her marks from 33 to a pass mark.
Pictures and videos from the birthday began to flood the Internet on Monday, April 23, 2018, and yes, Bambam was pretty surprised.

More surprising to fans and admirers of the pair while at the Big Brother Naija house was the photo of Bambam sitting on the laps of Teddy A's mum!

In attendance at the surprise were close friends and family members of the couple. After the surprise birthday in Lagos, the couple took the second chapter of the groove to Abuja as they both flew to the federal capital where they launched Bam Beauty's oil at the Famous Potato restaurant.
According to the actor, who is currently on set in Dubai, the impersonator is also on a movie set in Lagos, filming with a director that he thought knew him well.

Nouah expressed his shock at his colleagues inability to realize that they were working with a fraud. He also revealed that efforts are underway to apprehend the imposter.

Nouah is a veteran actor popular for his role in movies such as "Dangerous Twins," "76," "Accidental Spy," "Fugitive" among others.
According to a report by Pakistani Today, the deceased died on Sunday, April 23, 2018.

She was reportedly attacked in Sialkot, where she worked as a domestic help.

Rizwan Gujjar, the person suspected to have committed the assault, was seen leaving the scene of the attack shortly after her body caught fire.

The father of the deceased, Yaqoob, who was visiting his daughter prior to the incident confirmed this according to another report by Christian Today.

"They are often harassed and intimidated at their workplace.

"They are often asked to convert to Islam and to marry Muslim colleagues.

"If they refuse they have face dire consequences  sometimes they are kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam, and sometimes they are attacked with acid.

"Such cases are becoming everyday matters and the police hardly make any advances, especially if the victim is Christian," says Muhammad Riaz, in a conversation with Christian Today.

Riaz, who is an investigator with the Civil Lines police also mentioned that the suspect Gujjar has been apprehended.

ALSO READ: Teenage girl falls in love with man who raped and took away virginity

Teenage girl stabbed after rejecting man's advances reportedly dies from wound

In Delta State, Nigeria, a teenage girl, Alero Eyesan, who was stabbed on her thigh by a man named Osama, for rejecting his offer of romance has been reported dead.

A Facebook news group, Sapele Olofofo Unugbragada, confirmed her death in a post published on Wednesday, January 10, 2018.

It revealed that the deceased failed to recover following the encounter with her attacker who is still at large according to reports.

"We lost her. Tears, the young girl who was stabbed gave up early this morning.

"The Dr's tried all they could, but the sepsis had spread very fast all over her body because she was left unattended to since the 31st of last month.

"Its a painful and pathetic situation, but God knows the best. May her soul rest in perfect peace," the Facebook comment reads.

The deceased who was 16 years old until her death was attacked on the evening of Sunday, December 31, 2017.

ALSO READ: Woman kills stepson because her children were neglected by husband

Osama had reportedly laid an ambush for the deceased, making sure to inflict her with an injury that caused her death.
This is according to a report by The Sun UK, which stated that the sexual assault lasted for a period of 18 hours.

The father, who is in his 50s had introduced the lady, 35 years old, to a pal in Kamlapur while attending a fair.

She was successfully convinced to embark on a trip with the duo to the residence of one other company in the Indian city of Lucklow.

At this location, the trio reportedly took turns to rape the victim who soon managed to escape to her mother's house.

The dad who was earlier arrested in February 2018, was granted bail, confirms police rep, Sureshrao Kulkarni.

Man addicted to porn rapes mum deeply asleep

The police in Patan, India, have apprehended a man, Rohan, alleged to have raped his mother, 46, while she was asleep.

According to The Sun UK News, the suspect, who is reportedly 22 years old, has an addiction to watching porn on his mobile device.

It was gathered that her husband and eldest son encouraged her to file a report at a police station following the shocking act.

The incident was confirmed by S M Rabari, a police inspector who said, "Rohan has been arrested. We have also sent the accused and the woman for medical examination.

Authorities in India have kept the true identity of the suspect under wrap in order to protect the image of his mum.
Shabi stated that the concerted efforts of the stakeholders will lead to an imminent total evacuation of waste from the streets.

We have been engaging different stakeholders, the waste collection operators, the community development committees, the market women, the civil societies, landlords and tenants associations and various NGOs in the state to assess how we have performed in the last one year.

There are still ongoing discussions with the waste collection operators, the former PSP operators and the state government, in conjunction with Visionscape to have as many Transfer Loading Stations, to ease the disposal of waste in the state.

Olusosun dumpsite has been shut down by His Excellency because of the safety of the people working there and public health. And we have been asking the trucks to be going down to Ewe Elepe and Epe and we are looking at the distance, as most of the waste collectors trucks cannot go far distance, " Shabi stated.

The SA to the governor said that 60 per cent of waste generated in Lagos would end up at the Epe landfill while the remaining 40 per cent would be recycled and used for other purposes.

In the next few months, Visionscape will take stock of more trucks to enhance performance in waste collection, he said.

According to him, Visionscape has distributed over eight million garbage bags and over 400,000 garbage bins in the last two months.

What we want from people living in Lagos is to generate your waste, bag your waste and drop them in front of the houses, for effective cleaning and preventive blockage of our drainages and canals.

"The garbage bags and bins are meant for the waste generated, so please ensure that the wastes are being packaged and kept at the front of the houses, he said.

Shabi also said the state government will establish plastic collection centres in 57 council areas of the state.

The theme of the World Earth Day this year is plastic pollution, and that is one of the biggest menace in the state today.

So we are going to have 57 collection centres in the state, we are going to encourage youths to bring plastic to the centres and you are given something in return. Then the plastics will be sold to the public for reuse," he said.
According to UPI.com, Crystal Tadlock had travelled from France to the US, but little did she know that US border rules required that she had to declare the apple though it was just a gift.

On the Delta flight from Paris to Denver, staff of the plane gifted apples to passengers as in-flight snack, but Crystal Tadlock chose to reserve hers to consume later.

Though the apple was still wrapped in a Delta branded pack, officials thought she had breached the immigration rules.

Crystal Tadlock told Fix31-TV that the immigration official had asked me if my trip to France was expensive and I said, 'yeah.' I didn't really get why he was asking that question, and then he said 'It's about to get a lot more expensive after I charge you $500.

She added that: "It's really unfortunate someone has to go through that and be treated like a criminal over a piece of fruit."

The hitherto ignorant passenger blamed the Delta airline for failing to educate its passengers to consume the snacks onboard the flight.

However the airline denied responsibility for Crystal Tadlocks plight, saying the snack "is given with intention you consume it on board."
A footage of this was posted on Monday, April 23, 2018, on the Instagram page of leader, David Ibiyeomie.

In the clip, Chinwo disclosed that her mum had just embarked on a trip to Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, when the kidnappers tried to cart her away based on an affiliation with an unknown church.

What followed was simply a case of supernatural intervention as can be deduced from her comments.

"My name is Christy Chinwo. I came to return all the glory back to God.

"Last week Sunday, my mum travelled to Abuja to see my immediate elder sister. So, she went for first service, she came back. She said let her sleep a little bit.

"At about 10 o'clock, four hefty men came into the yard cos the yard was built with four flats inside. They came in, they were wearing army uniforms.

"So, one now woke up my mum and said we are looking for so so man that owns this jeep. My mum now said it is the next flat - she thought maybe it is army people that came to arrest.

"One now said oh, you are going to this church (makes to touch her wristband) where the man is always praying against us - you will go with us. She never knew it was kidnappers.

"Immediately that one held my mum, he stopped there. He could not move again.

"He was asking people to rescue him. All his followers took the man and left. Nobody could help him. He was caught there right handed there," Christy Chinwo narrated.

Her testimony was met with excitement from congregants who cheered loudly following an inspiring account.

ALSO READ: DELSU lecturer escapes from kidnappers who held him for N10 million ransom

Deadly kidnappers order Rivers chief to surrender bank account or die

A group of kidnappers has advised a Rivers State traditional chief, Goodluck Umetor, against blocking his bank account or risk being killed.

This was confirmed in a Punch News report published on Monday, April 9, 2018.

Umetor, who has a chieftaincy title in the Ndele community was recently released by his captors who expressed that his circumstance could have been extreme and gotten to a level of death.

The traditional chief whose family paid a sum of N1 million for his release got kidnapped on Monday, April 2, 2018.

He told Punch News that the abductors gave him machete cuts on the head and other parts of his body.

They warned me that I should not block the (bank) accounts and said that they would be withdrawing money at will. They said if I block the (bank) accounts that they will come after me again.

The kidnappers also threatened to kill me if I try to give their identity to anyone. The gunmen took me on a journey inside a deep forest. They dragged me after blindfolding me and we trekked a long distance before we arrived their base.

They said they were hired to assassinate me, but later changed their mind to collect ransom and free me. They inflicted machete cuts on my head, back and other parts of my body. They collected all my four ATM cards and sent somebody to go and withdraw money from my account before collecting additional N1m from my family, the chief told Punch.

A spokesperson for the state police, Mr. Nnamdi Omoni, confirmed that commissioner, Mr. Zaki Ahmed in on top of the case.
At a PEN World Voices Festival lecture at the Cooper Union in Manhattan, New York on the night of Sunday, April 22, 2018, the celebrated author asked Hillary Clinton why the former American presidential hopeful had described herself as "Wife" in her bio on the social networking site, Twitter.

Sitting across from the former presidential candidate, the renowned feminist asked, "In your Twitter account, the first word that describes you is Wife. And then I think its Mom, and then its Grandmother, Adichie said.

Taking things too far?

The reactions have come in heavy and fast. In a post shared on his Instagram account (@daddyfreeze), the OAP has joined the fold with some heavy remarks, claiming he used to be a huge fan until he 'read' the interview.

"Let me set the record straight, I am not a fan of Hillary Clinton, so I'm not jumping in as her guardian angel. As a matter of fact, I completely disagree with most of the decisions she took while in office"

"Besides this, however, woman to woman, what Hillary has achieved, in my opinion, you never can. 'no be beans', so you suggesting how she should be addressed is what we Yorubas call 'Iwosi'", the post reads.

ALSO READ: Chimamanda Adichie will speak to graduating Harvard students in May

The OAP drew comparisons between Hillary Clinton's Twitter bio and former US President, Barack Obama's, which describes him as "Dad, husband, President, citizen" as proof that Chimamanda is simply making mountains out of molehills.

Freeze goes on to ask, rhetorically, if the author's utterances could "be stemming from inadequacies she needs to attend to?"; he goes on to advise her to "consider investigating this".

Feminism's extremes and what purpose it serves

"Now, let me warn you, there are no dividing forces greater than colour, race, gender and tribe. These factors continue to ensure humanity remains segregated. This table you are shaking has vast consequences even you didn't bargain for", the post continues.

Daddy Freeze then closes by offering some learnings from his budding career as an Instagram preacher, admonishing Adichie to kindly focus on her message, while implying that she may also be using her position as a marketing gimmick.

Author talks feminism, #MeToo movement and LGBT rights

The tone of the reactions to Chimamanda's interview with Hillary Clinton has, for the most part, been negative, particularly from those who believe she is doing too much.

ALSO READ: Chimamanda says she became a feminist because she grew up in Nigeria

Nigerians on social media have berated her for preaching man hate. On the other side of the fence, there are those who believe these questions are necessary to help us find a middle ground, especially when there is something to learn from a woman who is seen as one of the most powerful and influential in a lifetime.
It is the perfect place to explore traditional Africa and tribal culture.

ALSO READ: 5 most extreme tribal body modifications

Witness the many unique traditions, cultural practices and diverse people that make Cameroon a must-visit destination.

Facts about Cameroon

1. Hosts one of Africas largest volcanoes

Mount Cameroon is one of the largest volcanoes in Africa and the largest mountain in West Africa and the fourth highest in all of Africa. Eruptions at the volcano date all the way back to the 5th century B.C. The volcano erupts every 10 to 20 years.

2. Cameroon is home to a sultan

Just like Nigeria, Cameroon has a sultan in Foumban. The Sultan can be traced all the way back to the 14th-century Bamoun dynasty. He resides with his family in the Royal Palace in Foumban.

3. Locals call it Africa in miniature

Cameroon is described by the Cameroonian government as African in miniature. This is due to the extreme diversity of climates, geography, and vegetation within the country.

4. Barbaric practices like breast ironing still happens

Breast Ironing is a common practice in this Central African country. The practice is done to make young girls less susceptible to rape, bridenapping and to encourage them to pursue education.

5. There are over 250 languages spoken

Over 250 languages are spoken within the borders of Cameroon. There are over 170 Niger-Congo languages alone, and over 50 Nilo-Saharan languages spoken by Nilotic peoples. People speak English and French too.

6. One of the wettest countries on earth

Full of rainforests, it is only normal that the annual rainfall in Cameroon would be above normal. It gets more rainfall than most places on earth. In particular, the western slopes of Mount Cameroon receive between 250 to 350 inches (635 to 890 centimetres) of rain a year.

7. Lake Nyos once killed 1,700 people
The 853km long Nigeria coastline runs through seven Southern States of the Federation, Lagos, Ondo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Cross Rivers bordering the Atlantic Ocean.

ALSO READ:

Lagos

Lagos is home to several pristine beaches with a range of activities.

There are private and public beaches in Lagos which offer a place for relaxation and fun, it is an experience you would want.

The most popular of the private beaches is the Elegushi Royal Beach, a private beach owned by the Elegushi Royal family, led by HRM Oba Alayeluwa Saheed Ademola Elegushi. The beach is well known to be the go-to fun place for great meals, nightclubs, and hang out spots.

Ondo State

Civilization started around the shoreline in Araromi, Ondo state. Therefore, numerous developments in water transportation and house construction on partially or completely flooded areas are also a veritable tourist attraction.

Sadly, no hotels or resorts are located close to the beach and the government hasn't taken any steps in making it a tourist hotbed.

Delta State

Delta State is one of the oil-producing states in South-South Nigeria. It is not a land of hills and mountains as nearly 30% of the state is covered by water.

The Asaba beach at Otuogu is somewhere to visit anywhere you visit the capital of Delta State. Several rivers, creeks, and streams keep the beach in place, and it extends to the main capital city of the state. It also extends into several creeks before emptying into the Atlantic Ocean. The white sands of the beach are ideal for relaxation and for social events.

Bayelsa State

Bayelsa's coastline like so many others was used as a means of transporting slaves to the New World.

Akassa Slave Transit Camp and Tunnel, the transit camp found in Ogbokiri, Brass near Akassa in Brass LGA, is the spot where slaves were camped and later transported to America and Caribbean through the Atlantic Ocean.

Beautiful beaches dot Agge, in Ekeremor Local Government and Twon Brass in Brass Local Government.
Have you ever wondered why you have little or no savings in spite of your fat salary? Have you ever tried to understand why you still borrow money from your colleagues before payday?

If you have never thought of these questions, congratulations, you're in the right place. This piece will tell you about the three habits that withdraw your money from your bank account and your pockets.

1. Spending more as your income increases

There is no harm if you chose to raise your standard of living when you earn more money. But, if you are always looking for ways to spend your money, you may end not having any savings. The truth is if you increase your expenses because of the increase in your income every time, you may end up having nothing to show for your hard work.

2. Focusing on the present, forgetting the future

Despite the campaign and gospel about saving some of your income for the raining days, some people still wonder why they should save for the future they've not witnessed the future.

This kind of mentality only prompts you to spend your money unnecessarily because you consider only your present needs and forgetting the future.

3. Believing it's too early to save

There is no point in anyone's life when it is too early to save money. Saving is saving and it's never too early to save a portion of your salary every month.

However, if you get carried away by the various pleasures money can buy, thinking you'll start saving tomorrow, you never can tell what would happen to your income tomorrow.
But why didnt you tell me about this before? Yomi asked.

I did. When I got no response from you, I knew you didnt have it at the time, Gbade responded.

Yomi realized that he had just five days left to get the money. After spending more than N2million on tuition and school materials in two years, he found it unbearable that the final payment would deprive his step-brother of a Masters degree.

He went through a mental roll-call of his friends and colleagues, but from his observation in the office, he felt that help would not come as fast as he wanted.

He saw his colleague, Richard, walk in through the door with the files he had requested.

How much do we have left to pay again? he asked Gbade.

Hundred thousand Naira. But I wouldnt mind something extra

Just stop there, Yomi interjected. Where do you think Ill get the money? Lets find your school fees first. He ended the connection.

Richard sat down as Yomi nodded at him.

Whats going on? Richard asked.

Im totally broke. But somehow Gbade expects me to pull a stunt and send him N100,000 this week.

You didnt tell him that the weather is really harsh this time of the month?

I doubt the school is waiting to listen to that excuse. The shocking thing is that I have no idea how to get that money.

Why dont you get a loan? You are a salary earner arent you?

What loan is that? I told you that he needs the money this week. Do you know how long it takes to process bank loans in Nigeria?

No, this one is different. In fact, if you apply for it today youll get it instantly, Richard said reassuringly.

Really? How does that work? Yomi asked anxiously.

Its Access Banks salary advance. Simply dial *901*11# on your phone for confirmation. You dont even have to visit the bank or have an Access Bank account.

Thats really fast. But is that possible?

I sent some money to my Dad on Monday. Where do you think I got it?

You mean the same one he requested for that day. I definitely need this right now.

Taking his phone, Yomi began to dial as Richard watched. Gbade paid his outstanding school fees that afternoon.
On April 13, 2018, President Buhari sent a letter to the leadership of the national assembly.

This letter was received by the Office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives on April 17.

The president's letter

The presidents letter to the national assembly read in parts: "It would be recalled that, for a number of years, Nigeria had been in discussions with the United States Government for the purchase of Super Tucano Aircraft under a direct Government-to-Government arrangement.

Recently, approval was finally granted by the United States Government, but with a deadline within which part payment must be made otherwise, the contract would lapse.

In the expectation that the National Assembly would have no objection to the purchase of this highly specialized aircraft, which is critical to national security, I granted anticipatory approval for the release of US$496,374,470.00. This was paid directly to the treasury of the United States Government.

What the preceding paragraph means is that Buhari already paid this money to the United States government for the aircraft before even sending his letter to the national assembly for approval.

Reasons Buhari decided on anticipatory approval

I can understand why Buhari did what he did. The president desperately wants towin the war against Boko Haram. This Super Tucano specialized aircraft will go a long way in helping the president achieve that objective of decimating the blood thirsty terrorists in line with his election campaign promise.

One of the reasons why the war against Boko Haram suffered under Goodluck Jonathan was because soldiers often complained that they couldnt match the sophisticated weaponry of the terrorists.

Billions of dollars meant to equip soldiers allegedly disappeared into the bank accounts of army generalsunder Jonathan. But that's a subject matter for another day.

We also know how parliament can be slow and tardy when it comes to matters of urgent national importance. Lawmakers would rather fight over a mace, throw chairs at themselves or appropriate more money for themselves for invisible constituency projects, than deliberate on how to expeditiously deal with a request that will help Nigeria in its insurgency war.

What the law says

But all of the reasons above do not make the presidents anticipatory approval right. The law says Buhari got this one wrong.

Sections 80 (3) and (4) of the 1999 Constitution reads inter alia:

(3) 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.

(4) 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.

Besides, money from the ECA belongs to the three tiers of government. Which implies that the president should have sought the approval of the national assembly and those of the 36 State Houses of Assembly before handing over the $462 million to the United States.

It is called a joint account or consolidated revenue account for a reason.

The money in the ECA doesnt belong to one tier of government. It belongs to the three tiers of government in the federal, State and local governments.

Checks and balances

In a democracy, the president of a country doesnt have limitless powers and there are checks and balances to avoid precisely what Buhari just did. The framers of the constitution werent dumb when they inserted the sections cited above.

Buharis action is therefore ultra vires to the extent that lawmakers didnt approve the money for the purchase of the fighter aircraft.

In future, instead of going down the path of illegality or anticipatory approval, the president should lobby and cajole lawmakers on a matter this important and urgent. Surely, they would take a break from fighting over a mace to listen to him.
According to a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, the Governor said I will never ask you to do anything that is unbecoming of Nigerian youths, the country looks up to you in the coming elections. Please, dont allow any politicians to influence you to rig including myself.

Run away from inducement and politicians that would call your attention to do evil. You will be remembered for whatever you do.

The youths should not allow themselves to be used for thuggery or to rig elections by the politicians.

ALSO READ:5 credentials prospective corps members MUST take to camp

If I Ayo Fayose asks you to rig election for me, you should decline. Your parents have spent fortunes on you to be a graduate, you should not disappoint them. Those politicians will never call out their children to die. Dont allow yourselves to be used.

Those of you that are being sworn in today will be around when the governorship election will hold in July, dont allow yourselves to be used. Your parents expect you to return home alive, hale and hearty. The lord will keep all of you for me.
Dabiri-Erewa, in a statement in Abuja condemned the burning of Nwaogu to death by a mob in the latest xenophobia attack in South Africa.

She called on South African authorities to find lasting solution to the incessant killing of Nigerians in that country.

She also urged Nigerians living abroad to obey the laws of countries where they lived, and avoid crime and criminality to avoid unwarranted attacks and killings.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the killing of the Nwaogu comes less than 10 days after another Nigerian, ThankGod Okoro, 30.

The Presidential aide said Rustenburg, where the incident happened was a particularly hostile and a volatile community.

She noted that 14 Nigerians who protested the killing of a fellow citizen in that country North West Province some months ago were still in detention.

She said though a bailable offence, the judge had been threatened not to release them.

Just a few days ago, on April 17, the case came up in court. There was so much tension that even the Nigerian lawyers representing the Nigerians had to be escorted to court by Diplomatic police.

The community has vowed to deal with anyone who plays a positive role in getting the accused Nigerians return to Rustenberg, she said.

ALSO READ:2 Nigerians killed again by South Africans in 48 hrs

She said that the Nigerian mission in Pretoria and the consulate in Johannesburg had done everything possible, in the recent past, to get justice for Nigerians in South Africa.

Four South African policemen are currently in court for allegedly killing and maltreating Nigerians with embassy officials constantly present in court for the hearings. This is the first time this will be happening.
The attack occurred in the early hours of April 24, 2018.

Punch also reports that the attackers burnt down over 100 houses during the onslaught and sacked the entire community.

The police is yet to confirm the incident. Police spokespersons werent picking up their phones when Pulse reached out.

Endless herdsmen attacks

Nigeria has been battling incessant herdsmen attacks in the food belt of north central States.

In January 2018, Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom buried 73 of his citizens who had been killed by armed herdsmen, in one day.

The herders are opposed to the anti-grazing law in Benue and have taken up arms to resist the piece of legislation, the local press says.

This latest herdsmen attack on a church in Benue is coming just days after at least 32 Tiv villagers were reportedly killedby suspected herdsmen who carried out coordinated attacks on several communities across Nasarawa state between Saturday, April 14 and Monday, April 16, 2018.

President Buhari has promised to defeat the marauding herders even thoughhe is of the opinion that most of them are invaders from Libya.
The BBOG has been demanding for the rescue of the Chibok girls who were kidnapped by Boko Haram terrorists on April 14, 2014.

While a number of the girls have been released by their abductors following negotiations with the federal government, more than 100 of the Chibok girls remain in the custody of the terrorists.

We have been attacked by the police. We were tear gassed. Today 23rd April, BBOG members were attacked by police. We stay demanding,Aisha Yesufu, a co-convener of the BBOG group shared on Twitter.

Shame on you President Buhari and Prof Osibanjo. You both will not truncate our hard fought democracy. This is unacceptable and we will never be intimidated into silence. We have been protesting since April 2014. Will not stop until all our girls are accounted for, another member of the BBOG, Maureen Kabrik, said.

Jeff Okoroafor said; They cannot tell us what we've done wrong since the 13th when our regular place of meeting was cordoned off...our chairs are still not brought back. This is a crime. This is lawlessness. This is irresponsibility.

Former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesiliwho has been leading the group on their peaceful sit-outs since 2014, said; The police have been attacking our movement since April 13, 2018 - eve of the 4th year of Chibok girls abduction. They have pushed us out of the space we hold our daily sit outs and seized our chairs.

Our members have been physically manhandled, assaulted and sprayed with tear- gas by the Nigerian presidency and police in violation of our rights.

Police ban

The police first banned the BBOG movement from using the Unity Fountain as a starting point for their protests in June of 2014, citing security reasons.

It was a ban Ezekwesili and others kicked against at the time.

"There is no basis for and no power of FCT commissioner of police to ban peaceful assembly of any group of persons in the city. None at all," Ezekwesili said at the time.

BBOG lawyer Femi Falana had said: "The decision to ban the protest is insane. We are going to court as soon as possible to challenge the ban."

In June of 2016, the police disrupted the assembly of the protesters again. FCT police spokesperson, Anjuguri Manzah would later issue a statement accusing the BBOG group of creating "unwarranted tension and apprehension among law abiding citizens and in the process obstructing legitimate business activities."

In October of 2014, Justice Sunday Aladetoyinbo of the High Court of the FCT, ruled that the police lacks the powers to prevent the BBOG from carrying out their daily sit-outs. The court specifically ruled that, The right to freedom of assembly is the bone of democratic governance, the BBOG said in a statement.

A recent statement from the BBOG after the police told the press that their gathering was illegal, read as follows:

On Friday 13 April, just a day to the 4th year commemoration, operatives of the Nigeria police carted away stole our chairs from our usual meeting grounds in Abuja, Unity Fountain, for no just cause. The park was also sealed. Our movement and others have been purportedly banned by the police from meeting.

This stifling of citizens voices and closing of civic spaces is blatant lawlessness and an abuse. Rights to freedoms of association, peaceful assembly, thought and conscience are guaranteed by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The Nigeria police itself being a creation of the law cannot act above the law that created it.

Oby says she's disappointed in government

Over 164 of the 276 Chibok girls have so far returned home; with 112 still in Boko Haram custody.

On the eve of the 4th anniversary of the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls, Ezekwesili told Pulse that she is deeply disappointed in leadership and governance", that a chunk of the girls haven't been rescued. "A decent and just society is known for how it places dignity on its weakest and most vulnerable.

By failing our Chibok girls and their parents regardless of which government was in place in the last four years, we learn that we are yet on the journey to being a just and fair society.

That is why our BBOG movement will not stop from our government. Their return will commence our journey to becoming a decent society", Ezekwesili had added.

Police spokesperson Jimoh Moshood didnt pick up calls when Pulse rang his mobile for a reaction to Monday's tear-gas incident on the BBOG.
Buharis declaration for a second term didnt come to me as a surprise because I was one of those pressurizing him to contest. When a party comes and inherits from a party that has been in power for 16 years, you expect a little more time to clean up the rot.

We (APC) are a party with a difference because the slogan change means changing the way government conducts business and with the mess that was half known before the elections and what the federal government and the other State governments came to learn, it entailed having a vision of bringing the country back to normal.

We had to set the vision and start something, with full actualization of the vision of President Muhammadu Buhari; and APC as a political party required more than 8 years to get all of this done.

And clearly, theres a pointer, theres a direction of where we are going and where Muhammadu Buhari is going with the APC. It is now time to really actualize the vision.

So, like I said, Buhari needs the additional four years in order to finish what he has started. APC needs more than 8 years in office to redirect the country because the way we were going in 2015, even those who were at the helm of affairs, with all due respect, didnt know where they were going.

Do you think you have done enough in terms of your 'Restoration agenda' in Katsina?

When we say restoration, we were aware that things were no longer normal in Katsina, especially in the area of education. The quality of civil servants and the quality of education in Katsina used to be one of the best. And that is why if you looked through history, some of the best minds in the federal government came from Katsina.

And it wasnt through federal character. It was through professionalism. And then throughout the nation, we ranked 33rd in education in 36 States of the federation.

So, for us, it was unacceptable especially for some of us who are products of public schools. No State or individual can develop beyond its level of education. We discovered that Katsina could no longer compete educationally because when you are producing 10 percent of those who got 5 credits (including English and Mathematics) and of this percentage, maybe 7 percent are from private schools.

And maybe of this 7 percent, a chunk may live in Lagos or Abuja. The real people who live in Katsina, cannot account for 3 percent in a population of almost 7 million. So, where are you taking that population? How can that population compete nationally? So, we looked at that and also factored in other components of the health sector.

The public health services were in poor states. Katsina ranks six or seven in terms of what is collected from the federation account because of its population and number of local governments. So, it wasnt about money. The health sector is worse. If you can give people clean water, you have taken over 50 percent of water borne diseases. I know the conventional water system which we inherited in the State.

There were about 5 of those public water schemes. And even these 5, there were no improvements in terms of capacity or original design capacity. You needed to rehabilitate, change the pumps, you needed to look at the pipelines and you needed to look at the issue of energy because not enough power was coming from the national grid.

In some cases, there had been attempts to sink boreholes in the capital city by creating additional borehole networks. But by the time we came, none of it was working. We had to take it over, render diesel supply so that the semi urban centers around Katsina could benefit as well.

The water supply surrounding Katsina was commissioned in 1970 and upgraded in 1980. You can see that from the local government headquarters to the State capital. You have not addressed the pumps, the pipelines, the reservoir itself, then you have not increased.

By the time we came, the overall performance of the treatment plant in Katisna city was 40 percent because of worn out pumps, leaking pipelines..so many factors. All the machines that were supposed to be aiding treatment of the water were broken down.

What we did as a restoration government was to restore the treatment plants to their original capacity.

There's acrimony between yourself and your predecessor Ibrahim Shehu Shema. He's actually been hounded by the EFCC since you took over. Why do you have a problem with Shema?

The issues are very simple. When we were in the opposition, I could remember some people petitioned EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) and petitioned the House of Assembly and the House of Assembly dismissed the petition. For obvious reasons, the EFCC file didnt go anywhere with the petition.

Then after the elections, some elders invited us and said we should cooperate for a peaceful handover. And there and then I told them that, look, I have no intention of probing my predecessor because I have no time to probe a party that has been in place for 16 years.

Shema had 8 years. Even his own 8 years, I can spend another 4 years probing and not achieving much in terms of governance. It will be a waste of time, unless the financial mismanagement could become so obvious that nobody could do anything about it.

Well, first, they refused to cooperate. When we said let us set up a joint transition committee, they said no. So, the problem was the local government funds. Its not about awarding contracts.

We said if you awarded contracts for a building or for a road or for procurement, for anything, so long as it is there, we will not ask how much. We did not.

But what we discoveredthe entire money for local governments, what they were doingyou know there is ALGONAssociation of Local Government Chairmen. It is not a body incorporated under any State law.

The record from the bank shows us that ALGON was removing from the bank 9.5, 9.5, 9.5. The money was withdrawn by ALGON in cash. Thats local government money. And some of the funds were withdrawn by ministry of local government by the cashier.

So, these are the funds were we said, Ok, since you have taken these funds without any records of spending....ALGON is like any other umbrella association. Can you take government money and give these associations? Theres no rule that says you should do that.

And if you gave them the money, how was it spent? And you know, government created SURE-P. We discovered that throughout, there was not a single purchase order, contract, job order given to use funds from SURE-P. These funds were taken. Cash.

Some of the cash money, we couldnt trace what they said they had procured.

We couldnt even say this is what the money was used to purchase. If they even said we had purchased this or that, we needed to see it or we needed to see the beneficiaries.

The issue between us and the previous government is thiswe are not probing the contract they gave out either in construction, building or procurement of any equipment. What we are asking is this: the money that was taken from the treasury in cash, where is the money?

There was the SURE-P money, they created offices under religious garb and collected billions. We said, ok, if you say you have given it to people, let us see the records.

So, we didnt probe the previous government in terms of contracts. We are asking about money that was taken in cash from the treasury. We are asking, where is the money?

That is the issue between us and the previous government. No more, no less. We had our own judicial commission of enquiry. The transition committee came up with a figure of N73billion (as unaccounted for money). The judicial commission of enquiry came up with a figure which they could prove in court. That is N58billion.

What are you doing in terms of empowering women in Katsina?

We have an office of the Special Adviser for girl child education because we realise that if you give education to especially the girls who will grow up to be mothers, theres no greater investment because whatever you are in life begins with your mother.

So, equipping the girl child by providing education is top priority for us in Katsina. In fact, all the empowerment we are doing generally, 60 percent goes to women and youth because of the role women play especially in a society like ours where the social services structure isnt there.

What we have is the family structure and the women are better placed because they manage the household. Like I said, we have a special adviser who is in charge of girl child education, we are working with DFID to support girls by giving token amounts to their fathers and mothers to allow them attend schools.

And we have so far trained over 2,000 women teachers, those in local governments who attend secondary schools, we train them and then we support them to go for NCE. Because we believe that once they are trained, they go back to their localities and teach.

This is what we are doing in terms of education targeted at women, apart from so many interventions which the federal government is carrying out like the school feeding program. We intend to empower the women and the household.

There are several interventions we are carrying out with regards to girl child education because we believe that whatever investment we are making, especially with the international development organisations, are helpful to the education of the girl child.

As a former Speaker of the House of Reps, what do you make of the relationship between the legislature and the executive? Cordial or frosty?

The relationship between the legislature and the executive is unfortunate, to start with, because as national legislators, whatever problems they are having with the executive arm are considered normal as long as the executive and the legislature are working. Friction between both arms of government is normal in a democracy but not at the expense of the nation.

If you dont pass the budget, who suffers most? If you dont clear appointments for peoplebecause the way the matter is being treated as though some of the actions will benefit the president. No! There are for the benefit of the nation.

You could see what the IMF said about the central bank not workingit was until they spoke, from outside, before the senate considered screening of CBN nominees sent by the president. Why should you personalize an official matter?

Because if you are dealing with the nation, you look at the face of the president. Thats what we did when I was Speaker. We looked after the nation, which is why we had agreements on issues. We had disagreements on issues that we felt were more of a personal nature or an ego trip for the president. On those occasions, we went on the side of the people.

Do you think acting EFCC Chairman Magu should be confirmed?

Magu should not be an issue. Are you saying if you put Magu on one side and Nigeria on the other, Magu will outweigh Nigeria? Magu is not an issue.

The national assembly or the senate shouldnt look at Magu in isolation. Its about the nation and should be about the nation at all times.

Katsina is relatively peaceful when we speak about the herdsmen crisis bedeviling the rest of the north. What did you do to achieve the relative calm that Katsina enjoys?

When we came in, we had this fight between farmers and cattle herders. A year before we came in, there was this clash where over 140 were killed in two local governments.

At the inception of my administration, every day I was receiving reports of killings. Since the killings happened in border forests and communitiesbordering Kaduna, Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara and on the side of Kaduna was Niger. So, we directed those who were directly affected to inform the security outfit under the divisional commander in Kaduna. It was supported by the president who asked the military to cooperate with us.

So, we formed this group under the GOC which we funded for about a year. In Katsina State we created 11 patrol groups consisting of the military, the police, the civil defense, the vigilante and so on and so forth.

We also knew that there is no way we can stop this without hurting peoplefarmers and herders and the vigilante who are like the armed wing of the farmers.

We were lucky. The leaders of the herders, we were lucky that someone who was elected director of the institute of local government servicesthrough him we were able to establish contact gradually, those who couldnt reach their local government headquarters for five days, gradually by going into the forest, we started bringing them out.

We discovered to our surprise that 90 percent of those in the forest were being forced to take arms to defend themselves because what was on ground was anybody from the town cannot enter the forest and anybody from the forest will no longer come to town. They will be killed.

So, if you go to the forest, you will be killed. If you are coming to town from the forest, you will be killed. Gradually now, we have restored normalcy. They can come to the town and the other party can go to the forest.

They were a part of the community before, so, why not?

After that, we began dealing with the criminal elements hiding under that for their own benefits.

In the forest, you sell your cow for N20,000, for instance. If you bring it to town you sell it for N100,000. So, those who were benefiting from this lopsided pricing were fueling the crisis. So, we came with so many arrangements that made everyone identifiable.

So, we said, come out, bring out your arms and the cattle you have stolen and well release your people under detentionthose who havent been tried. Those who have been tried and convicted will not benefit from this.

Once they agreed, we held a ceremony and they surrendered over 350 cows. From that time to now, another 200 have probably been surrendered. In turn, we released some of their confiscated motor-bikes and all those awaiting trial were released.

You are obviously not a fan of the anti-grazing law in Benue...

Its not about laws. Its about the peoples willingness to obey the law. Nigeria doesnt lack laws. What we lack is obeying the law. And if you break the law in this country, it depends on what you have and who you know.

You see, you believe that God is a merciful God. So, if I want to stop you from eating amala, Id have to bring an alternative. These people have been living there (in Benue, middle belt) for over 100 years. Some of them know nowhere else but Benue and cattle grazing has been their source of livelihood and some of these murderers are not Nigerians. And the government of Benue must have realized that.

Because I cannot be living with you for more than 100 years and you havent killed me all those years and you suddenly wake up one day and start killing me. It has never happened! There must be something wrong!

Theres nothing wrong with the principle of anti-grazing law. But since the people exist, they have the cattle and animals, where do you want them to go?

The Kano State Governor promised President Buhari 5 million votes in 2019. Since the president hails from your State, how many votes are you promising him?
Miyetti Allah is the umbrella body of herdsmen in Nigeria.

The Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Alhaji Isiaka Gold made this known in a statement issued on Tuesday in Ilorin, the State capital.

Gold explained that the appointment was driven by Governor Ahmeds commitmentto ensure harmonious relationship between herdsmen, farmers and other segments of the society.

Ease of communication

Alhaji Gold said that the appointment would also serve to ease communication between members of Miyetti-Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), the government and local farmers in the State.

The SSG recalled that the decision to appoint a Special Assistant on Fulani Affairs was reached at the enlarged meeting of the State Security Committee held recently.

He congratulated the new appointee and urged him to approach his new assignment with the diligence and dedication that recommended his appointment.

Herdsmen-farmers clashes have led to loss of lives and livelihoodn north central States of Nigeria.

President Buhari recently blamed invaders from Libya for the crisis.
The vice president said this at the inauguration of the 30,000-seater church auditorium of the Deeper Life Bible Church in Gbagada, Lagos, on Tuesday, April 24, 2018.

He was reacting to the news of the killing of two Catholic priests and 17 other worshippers in an attack carried out by suspected herdsmen in St. Ignatius Quasi Parish Ukpor-Mbalom in Ayar-Mbalom community of Gwer East local government area of Benue state earlier on Tuesday.

The vice president urged Christian leaders to not preach hate as a result of the evil acts being carried out by such killers.

He said, " As I discussed these issues with the President (Muhammadu Buhari), it's evident the devil's bigger agenda is to stoke up a religious conflict in Nigeria, to make it impossible to preach the gospel or even for Muslims to worship in their mosques.

"While security agencies continue to work relentlessly to hunt down perpetrators of these evil acts, we as a body of Christ must not lose focus. The enemy wants us to stand on our pulpits & preach hate, we will not. We will obey Jesus who said that we must love our enemies."
Melaye, who represents Kogi west in the Senate, was admitted to the hospital after he jumped out of a moving police vehicle on Tuesday, April 24, in a bid to escape custody.

Pulseearlier reported that some thugs double-crossed the police vehicle conveying Melaye to Kogi and whisked the senator away.

A statement issued by the police spokesman, Jimoh Moshood, confirmed this, adding that the police trailed the escaping vehicle the lawmaker was transported in to a hospital.

Moshood said, "At about 12pm of today (Tuesday), Sen. Dino Melaye while in lawful custody of the Nigeria police force and being taken for arraignment in federal high court, Lokoja from Abuja, escaped from lawful custody when hoodlums and miscreants in two Toyota hilux vehicles blocked the police vehicle conveying Senator Dino Melaye around Area 1 roundabout, Abuja and in the process the senator jumped out of the police vehicle through the window and was rescued from the policemen by hoodlums and miscreants to an unknown destination.

"The police team re-enforced and trailed Senator Dino Melaye to Zankli Hospital, Abuja where he was re-arrested. The senator would be arraigned in court without further delay.

"Meanwhile, one of the Toyota hilux vehicles used by the hoodlums and miscreants in aiding the escape of the senator has been recovered by the police investigation team. The inspector general of police has therefore directed a thorough investigation into the circumstances leading to the rescue and escape of Senator Dino Melaye from lawful custody."

ALSO READ: 30 policemen reportedly stationed at the hospital Senator Melaye is being treated
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reliably gathered that the meeting would discuss national issues including the forthcoming APCs national convention slated for May 14 in Abuja.

Already the leadership of the party has written the Independent National Electoral Commission to intimate it of plans to hold congresses and convention across the country.

President Buhari had at the last National Executive Council(NEC) meeting of the party declared his intentions to seek re-election in 2019.

Those attending the meeting included Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha as well as the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari.

APC state governors in attendance were; Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna state, Yahaya Bello of Kogi, Simon Lalung of Plateau, Jubrila Bindow of Adamawa and Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara.
Amb. Pio Wennubst, Assistant Director-General and Head, Global Cooperation Department, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, told the Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in New York.

Wennubst said Switzerland returned about 322.5 million dollars (N116.11 billion) to the Federal Government.

According to him, the original amount was 321 million dollars.

The Federal Government had announced the receipt of $322.51m from the Swiss government as part of the looted funds recovered from the late former Head of State.

The Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, through her Special Adviser, Media and Communications, Oluyinka Akintunde, had confirmed the receipt of money from Switzerland.

Akintunde said: We state that $322,515,931.83 (N116,105,735,458.80) was received into a Special Account in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Dec. 18, 2017, from the Swiss government.

Confirming this, Wennubst said: We returned 321 million dollars including the interests.

We return all the amount, 322.5 million dollars including the interest for the time that the funds were blocked.

The Swiss envoy also said that the money was returned to the Nigerian Government unconditionally.

We are not talking about the condition; there was a programme on the social safety net that was developed by the Government of Nigeria and the Bank.

After discussing, the only condition, set by the judiciary, not by us, was that the return of this asset should have been monitored by the World Bank and this is where we worked on.

According to him, these funds were part of the Nigerian Government contributions to the social safety net programme, plus concessional loans from the Bank.

NAN recalls that the Abacha loot was frozen in 2014 by a Swiss court after a legal procedure against his son, Abba Abacha.

Originally deposited in Luxembourg, the money was a fraction of the billions of dollars allegedly looted during his rule from 1993 to 1998.

Similarly, the UK Government also pledged its commitment to ensuring that money and other assets illegally transferred from Nigeria are repatriated back to the country.

Mr Nick Dyer, Director General, Economic Development and International, UK Department for International Development told NAN that assets return would contribute to the development of the origin countries.
A statement in Abuja by the spokesman for the Ministry Mr Idang Alibi, said Kachikwu was at another investors meeting in the UK.

The statement read in part the office of the Minister has recently been beleaguered with various media reports concerning the absence of the Minister of State at the recent US-Nigeria Investment Summit held in Washington, DC.

It is important to note that Dr Kachikwu was not in the United States of America as reported and was not billed to attend the summit.

He was in the United Kingdom where he had just concluded the facilitation of a key investment meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and the Royal Dutch Shell plc. led by the CEO, Bernardus Van Beurden, in London.

He is committed to delivering the major aspirations of the #7BigWins of which Business and Investment Drive is a key theme.

There were reports that the Emir of Kano, the ministers who were to attend the investment summit, but were absent.
The observation was stated in the US 2017 Human Rights Report. It said the Federal Government led by Buhari failed to implement laws against corrupt practices.

The report added that although the government took steps to investigate alleged human rights abuses, "impunity remained widespread at all levels of government."

It said in part, "Although the law provides criminal penalties for conviction of official corruption, the government did not implement the law effectively, and officials frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. Massive, widespread, and pervasive corruption affected all levels of government and the security services.

"The constitution provides immunity from civil and criminal prosecution for the president, vice president, governors, and deputy governors while in office."

The report also faulted the operations of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in prosecuting corruption charges. It said the Commission failed to follow due process.

It cited the case of the embattled former National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki, who has been in custody of the Department of State Services (DSS) since 2015, despite court orders demanding his release.

The report listed the most significant human rights issues during the year to include: "Extrajudicial and arbitrary killings; disappearances and arbitrary detentions; torture, particularly in detention facilities, including sexual exploitation and abuse; use of children by some security elements, looting, and destruction of property; civilian detentions in military facilities, often based on flimsy evidence."

The list also included, "denial of fair public trial; executive influence on the judiciary; infringement on citizens privacy rights; restrictions on freedoms of speech, press, assembly, and movement; official corruption; lack of accountability in cases involving violence against women and children; trafficking in persons; and early and forced marriages."

The report also berated Nigeria's judicial system, saying it was compromised during the period under review.

Interference with judiciary

The US said the executive and legislative arms of government continued to interfere with the judiciary.

It added, "Although the constitution and law provide for an independent judiciary, the judicial branch remained susceptible to pressure from the executive and legislative branches. Political leaders influenced the judiciary, particularly at the state and local levels.

"Understaffing, underfunding, inefficiency, and corruption prevented the judiciary from functioning adequately. Judges frequently failed to appear for trials.

"In addition, the salaries of court officials were low, and they often lacked proper equipment and training. There was a widespread public perception that judges were easily bribed and litigants could not rely on the courts to render impartial judgments.

"Citizens encountered long delays and received requests from judicial officials for bribes to expedite cases or obtain favorable rulings."

ALSO READ: Bishop Oyedepo describes Buhari's government as a failure

The report is coming at a time the Buhari's administration is under heavy criticisms by prominent and ordinary Nigerians.

Ex-Nigerian leaders including former presidentOlusegun Obasanjo and former head of state Ibrahim Babangida had at separate times written an open letter to President Buhari, highlighting the failures of his government and urging him not to seek re-election in 2019.
In an interview with BBC Hausa on Tuesday, April 24, 2018, Atiku said he's passed up previous opportunities to become president because he's not desperate for power.

He pointed to his decision to step down for MKO Abiola during the race for the 1993 presidential election whose result was eventually annulled by the military government of Ibrahim Babangida.

He said, "If I am desperate, I wouldn't have stepped down for M.K.O Abiola in 1993 presidential race. In 1993, I contested with M.K.O Abiola. I later withdrew from the race.

"In 1999, I was elected a governor of Adamawa state, then invited to be Nigeria's vice president, under Olusegun Obasanjo."

Atiku, who was vice president under former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, between 1999 and 2007, said he hasn't had proper opportunities to contest as a presidential candidate.

He said, "All the times I have been contesting for the presidency, I have been opportune only once to be presented to Nigerians as a candidate.

"I could have become Nigeria's president in 2003 when virtually, all the state governors then, rallied support for me to contest which I declined. I am not desperate to be president as some Nigerians view it."

He also boasted that he knows what it takes to revive Nigeria's economy and maximise the country's wealth.

He said, "As a former vice president, I am opportune to know things. If I am opportune to be elected as a president, I will accomplish my mission by reviving the economy, by making Nigeria an investors haven.

"The present administration discouraged investors into the country, because the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) exchange rate policies is too tedious for investors. CBN has three different exchange rate policies, which is not supposed to be.

"If elected Nigeria's president, I will expand the nation's source of wealth to cater for the growing youth population in the country.

"Nigeria can justify my claims, going by the number of youth that are working in my industries across the country."

History of Atiku as presidential contestant

Atiku contested the 2007 presidential election as a candidate for Action Congress (AC), losing to the late former President Umaru Yar'Adua.

He returned to the People's Democratic Party (PDP) only to lose the party's primary election for the 2011 presidential election to the eventual winner, Goodluck Jonathan.

Due to an internal party crisis he defected to the All Progressives' Congress (APC) in the run-up to the 2015 presidential election before losing the party's ticket to another eventual winner, President Buhari.
Four of the six state chairmen of the party from the South South geo-political zone dissociated themselves from the purported endorsement of Oshiomhole for the APC top job.

The chairmen are Davies Ikanya (Rivers), Joseph Fafi (Bayelsa) Etim John (Cross River) and Amadu Attai (Akwa-Ibom) as well as the APC deputy national secretary, Victor Giadom.

The state chairmen who were at the Edo state Government House to protest plans by the Edo state Governor, Godwin Obaseki and the zonal vice chairman of the APC, Hilliard Eta to adopt Oshiomhole as the south-south zone's candidate for the partys national chairman.

They insisted that the APC National Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun should be given a right of first refusal to seek re-election for the position.

The ambush

Addressing journalists, the Rivers state APC chairman alleged that they were "ambushed" with Oshiomholes adoption agenda at the meeting.

We were here for a meeting only to be ambushed by the National Vice Chairman of the Party () to adopt a preconceived candidate, Ikanya began.

Yesterday (Sunday), we held a meeting which he attended, only for him to come and manipulate, sort out every suggestion and he is trying to say he has come out with a resolution.

The Zonal Executive Committee does not have the power to elect, nominate or to adopt candidates for national offices. It is the national convention that can do that. There are very senior members in the zone that were shut out of this meeting purposely.

We want you to know that out of the states of the zone, four states are saying that this was an ambush, it was not acceptable, there was no resolution. We have said that every person is free to run in the election. We stand by the resolution of the National Executive Committee (NEC) that there is waiver.

The national chairman can recontest if he wants to recontest, any other person from the zone can recontest if they want to recontest. What has happened in this meeting is a farce, is not binding on anybody, it is null and void.

Four states are saying no, whereas just two states - Edo and some parts of Delta are the people that are saying that they have a resolution. This is not how democracy should be practiced. Arising from this meeting today, the majority view is that there is no consensus on any candidate, he announced.

Oshiomholes endorsement illegal

Similarly, Giadom said the described Oshiomholes purported endorsement by the zonal executives as illegal and undemocratic.

What we have done here today is the Edo State Government House position. It is not the party's position, he declared.

This zone does not have the power to sit in Government House to decide or take a decision against any candidate. This decision was not put to a vote. It was smuggled by the national vice chairman of this zone and without allowing the people who were in the meeting to have input or for us to have an election as the case may be, he said while adding that the APC national chairman was not aware of the meeting.

Oshiomholes endorsement equals fraud

The Bayelsa state APC chairman described Oshiomholes endorsement as both undemocratic and a complete fraud

I want to also align myself with my colleagues from other states that they are not aware of what happened here.

It is undemocratic, unexpected and a complete fraud and we dissociate ourselves from what has happened here and we believe that the election should be open to any interested candidate from the South South and the people will decide who to vote for and not the decision of Edo state, Fafi said.
The message was released by his Media Officer, Mr Tunde Rahman, in Lagos.

A 68-member National Convention Committee headed by Gov. Abubakar Badaru, was inaugurated today in Abuja at the national secretariat of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

The committee was inaugurated to take charge of the conduct of the forthcoming congresses and national convention.

I congratulate the Chairman and members of the Congresses/Convention Committee of our party.

Gov. Abubakar Badaru of Jigawa State, who is the chairman of the committee, is a man reputed to be of high character and integrity.

Working with other members of the committee, Im persuaded that our party would conduct hitch-free congresses at all levels and the national convention.

I also congratulate our party for embarking on the congresses against all odds. This is the way to go if we are desirous of building and upholding a truly democratic political party.

Our ultimate goal should be the greater interest of the party.

I believe that all members of our party are high in expectation that the committee would perform its assignment without fear or favour through which our party can be great again,  he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the All Progressives Congress (APC) on April 18, announced that its National Convention to elect officers for a new term in the partys leadership would hold on May 14.

According to schedule of activities released by the Organising Secretary, Sen. Osita Izunaso, in Abuja, the partys Ward Congresses will hold on May 2, while appeal that may arise from the conduct will be entertained on May 3.

The schedule showed that local government area congresses would hold on May 5, with appeal arising from the exercise fixed for May 7.

It indicated that May 9 is the date for congress at states level to elect executive committees of the party in all states in the country.
The incident took place in broad daylight around 10 miles (16 kilometers) from a conference center hosting a meeting of G7 ministers, but officials said they had no evidence of a link to the event.

Police arrested a suspect at the scene, but said it was too soon to say whether the attack in Toronto -- which has a population of about 2.8 million people -- had been deliberate, and if so, what the driver's motivation might have been.

"This is going to be a complex investigation," deputy police chief Peter Yuen told reporters. "We have one person in custody and the investigation is ongoing."

"We can confirm for you tonight right now we have nine people that are dead, 16 injured."

At the scene, an AFP reporter saw at least three bodies under orange sheets and a long stretch of road sealed off with police incident tape.

Dan Cass of Sunnybrook hospital said 10 injured people had been brought in. Two of them were pronounced dead on arrival and five were in critical condition.

Television images showed the man and a police officer facing off, their guns drawn. The suspect eventually surrendered his weapon and was taken into custody.

Vehicle attacks have been carried out to deadly effect by extremists in a number of capitals and major cities, including London, Paris, New York and Nice, heightening fears of a deliberate ramming.

Canada's minister for public safety, Ralph Goodale was asked at the G7 meeting whether the government had received any threats or information to suggest that the talks might be targeted.

"No, not to my knowledge," he said.

Standing alongside him, Canada's foreign minister Chrystia Freeland said the G7 meeting would continue as planned into Tuesday, with officials discussing ways to secure democratic societies from foreign interference.

"The work of the ministers obviously goes on. This is a very sad day for the people of Toronto and the people of Canada," she said.

'Really fast'

Officers were called to the scene -- on Yonge Street at the corner with Finch Avenue -- at about 1:30 pm (1730 GMT), police said.

A white rental van with a dented front bumper was stopped on the sidewalk of a major intersection, surrounded by police vehicles.

"He was going really fast," witness Alex Shaker told CTV television.

"All I could see was just people one by one getting knocked out, knocked out, one by one," Shaker said. "There are so many people lying down on the streets."

Another witness, Jamie Eopni, told local Toronto television station CP24: "It was crashing into everything. It destroyed a bench. If anybody was on that street, they would have been hit on the sidewalk."

'It's frightening'

Canada has only rarely been the scene of terror attacks.

In October, a man stabbed a police officer in the western city of Edmonton before slamming his van into a group of pedestrians, injuring four people.

And in Quebec in October 2014, a Canadian man ran over two soldiers in a parking lot with his car, killing one of them. The driver was shot dead by police when he attacked them with a knife.
Such an operation would require "necessary reforms of the security sector for the reconstitution of national defense forces and interior security forces," Touadera added.

His comments come as the FPRC -- the Popular Front for the Rebirth of Central Africa, one of the country's main armed groups -- threatened to march on Bangui.

The group said it wanted to act following a UN peacekeeper operation against militia in the volatile PK5 Muslim enclave of the capital.

Touadera urged "dialogue" as the preferred approach to combat the violence that has ravaged his country since 2013.

He stressed that "consolidation of peace... can only be achieved through the restoration of security throughout the territory, the fight against impunity, the restoration of state authority throughout the territory."

Morocco's UN envoy Omar Hilale, who initiated Monday's meeting, assured the Central African Republic of the UN's "support" and said he would soon travel to Bangui.
The meeting comes in the wake of strikes by the United States, France and Britain on Syrian military installations, carried out in response to the alleged chemical weapons incident in Douma which has been widely blamed on Damascus.

EU officials hope to beat the $6 billion (5.6 billion euros) pledged at last year's gathering, as forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad launched a new offensive against Islamic State jihadists entrenched in a southern district of Damascus.

The UN has warned that its own appeal for money for humanitarian work in Syria this year is less than a quarter funded, receiving less than $800 million of the $3.5 billion needed.

"Within the resources we can plausibly expect to mobilise this year we cannot meet even all the urgent needs," Mark Lowcock, the head of UN humanitarian agency OCHA said at the start of the conference.

"Our focus is now to ensure the 5.6 m people we assess as being in acute need inside Syria are made the focus."

Some 6.1 people are now internally displaced, more than five million have fled Syria and 13 million including six million children are in need of aid, according to the EU.

Lowcock said the "intensity of the humanitarian crisis has escalated again in 2018", with more than 700,000 people displaced since the start of the year.

UN and EU officials are holding talks with aid groups working in Syria and neighbouring countries on Tuesday to get their views before government ministers arrive on Wednesday.

Save the Children International chief executive Helle Thorning-Schmidt urged donors to focus on education, saying a third of Syrian youngsters are out of school and a third of Syrian schools are unusable because of the war.

"We have let Syrian children down. This is the seventh year and they're still being let down," Thorning-Schmidt told AFP.

"2018 has been a very bloody year for Syrian children, and one of the things they are missing out on enormously is education."

UN children's agency UNICEF said some 2.8 million Syrian children had missed out on education, warning that in parts of the country simply going to school "has at times become a matter of life and death".

Pledges exceeded

According to EU figures, the total given by the international community after last year's conference was $7.5 billion -- 25 percent more than pledged -- with Germany, the United States and EU institutions leading the way.

Alongside the aid drive, the EU's diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini will hold talks with the UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, on Tuesday as part of efforts to restart peace talks.

Eight rounds of talks under UN auspices in Geneva have made little headway, while Russia, Iran and Turkey launched a rival process in the Kazakh capital Astana last year.

Russia and Iran are Assad's key allies and their military intervention in Syria is widely seen as tipping the balance in the civil war.

But the EU still insists the Geneva process is the best way to bring an end to the war.

"The only way to avoid that the Syrian crisis spirals into wider conflict is to put pressure on all parties including the Syrian regime to come to Geneva for meaningful discussions," Mogherini said last week.

EU foreign ministers said the conference should be used to "reinvigorate" the Geneva process, but it is not clear how effectively the gathering will be able to do this.
Her British counterpart Boris Johnson said his colleagues had backed London over the Salisbury poisoning attack and shown "strong G7 solidarity" with this month's US, French and British air strikes on Syrian chemical weapons installations.

Both said the members would set up a working group ahead of the full G7 summit in June, where the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States may decide on tougher action against Moscow.

"You can see the G7, this group of industrialized liberal democracies coming together to vindicate our values here in Canada, and I think you see the groundwork for an excellent G7 summit at Charlevoix," Johnson said.

Freeland told reporters: "We are working to that idea and that idea is to have a group in G7 to work together, to work against disinformation and to protect democracy."

The acting US secretary of state, John Sullivan -- who may be replaced this week if outgoing CIA chief Mike Pompeo is confirmed as Washington's top diplomat -- did not commit President Donald Trump to specific action.

But he too spoke out against Russia's "malign activity ... whether it's in Salisbury or its support for the use of chemical weapons by Assad's regime in Syria."

Iran deal still up in air

But, while the G7 members were united in their condemnation of Russia and, in Johnson's phrase, "its support of an connivance in" Bashar al-Assad's chemical weapons attacks, they made little progress on securing the Iran deal.

Trump has warned that if alleged flaws weakening the 2015 deal are not fixed to his satisfaction by May 12, he may refuse to waive US nuclear sanctions on Iran, effectively torpedoing the deal.

Iran has warned that it may resume its nuclear program faster than before -- although it still insists it has no plan to build an atomic weapon -- and European capitals have all but begged Trump to stay the execution of the accord.

London, Berlin and Paris have been working with US envoys to produce a "supplemental" agreement to impose restrictions on Iran's missile program, in the hope of appeasing the US leader's concerns about the broader deal.

But US officials are also concerned about the so-called "sunset clauses" in the original accord, which would allow Iran to progressively resume uranium enrichment from 2025, and Trump wants the deal itself updated.

There seems little prospect of Iran or China and Russia, fellow signatories to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, agreeing to that, and G7 ministers argued that the structure itself should remain.

France's President Emmanuel Macron arrived in the United States on Monday for a state visit and talks with Trump, and Johnson said there was "not a wafer" or difference between London and Paris on the Iran deal.

"We think that it's a valuable agreement. We think it's one of the great achievements of collective diplomacy over the last couple of decades," he told reporters.

And, even if Washington pulls out, European capitals will try to keep the accord alive somehow.

"We don't want to see that outcome, but plainly a lot of thought is going into how to keep a non-US version of the JCPOA," he said.
The kidnapped man, Trinh Xuan Thanh, 52, who was seeking asylum in Germany, was quickly spirited back to Hanoi, where he was sentenced this year to two life terms in prison on corruption charges.

Germany condemned the July 23, 2017, operation as a "scandalous violation" of its sovereignty and a "gross violation of international law".

It expelled two Vietnamese diplomats, summoned the ambassador several times and put on ice a strategic bilateral partnership.

Communist-ruled Vietnam has insisted that Thanh, the former head of PetroVietnam Construction, returned voluntarily to face embezzlement charges.

Vietnam, like China, has recently convicted scores of figures from its business and political elite as part of an anti-graft drive which observers say also serves to settle scores between hardline and reformist factions.

German prosecutors are investigating a high-ranking Vietnamese security official, General Duong Minh Hung, who allegedly commanded the abduction in Berlin before returning to Vietnam, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily reported last month.

Hung is suspected of holding more than 100 cellphone talks or text message exchanges with the agents from his temporary "command centre" inside a hotel, a few blocks from the Tiergarten park where the abduction took place.

Long N.H., the van's alleged driver who was arrested in the Czech Republic on August 12 and extradited to Germany on August 23, is the only suspect in German custody.

Violent struggle

Once among thousands of so-called guest workers in communist East Germany, he was later denied asylum and resettled in Prague, where he most recently ran a currency exchange business.

Prosecutors charge that he rented a Volkswagen Multivan T5 there and drove it to Berlin, where several armed men dragged Thanh and a female companion into the vehicle, which he allegedly returned to Prague the same day.

Thanh and his female companion were first taken to the Vietnamese embassy in Berlin before she was flown to Hanoi, while Thanh was abducted to Vietnam "by unknown means", prosecutors charge.

Long N.H., who had also allegedly rented a BMW X5 sedan that had been used for surveillance, is charged with working for a foreign intelligence service and aiding in an abduction, which each carry up to 10 years in prison.

News weekly Der Spiegel has reported that German investigators reconstructed the abduction using the van's GPS system, witness statements, footage from multiple security cameras on streets, petrol stations and inside hotels, and Thanh's smart phone, which was left at the scene.

It said that the Vietnamese snatch team found Thanh -- who had been living in seclusion in Berlin with his wife and children since mid-2016 -- when his secret lover, Thi Minh P.D., flew in from Paris to meet him at a hotel and the two then took a walk in the Tiergarten park.

The report said that in the violent struggle Thanh hit back at his attackers and the woman lashed out so strongly that "eyewitnesses thought she had suffered an epileptic seizure".

The Sueddeutsche previously reported that in the abduction, "it seems that half the embassy was involved" -- with the mission used as a drop-off stop in the kidnapping, some people involved being accredited diplomatic staff, and the wife of the defence attache booking the flights home for the agents.

The article also said that investigators had found blood traces in the rented van, pointing to a struggle.
Ndii, who is also a well-known Economist, alluded that if Deputy President William Ruto wins the presidential race in the upcoming poll he could fly out of Kenya.

Mr Ndii was responding to a tweep who told him that shame would force him to run away if Ruto becomes the President

"I am making plans just in case. I have no intention of living in a country governed by a neurotic megalomaniac," Ndii replid.

Famous handshake

On Tuesday morning, Ndii sparked the conversation when he tried to explain the meaning of the handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and NASA leader Raila Odinga.

"The IS about dynasties. and have taken personal responsibility for and committed to correct, the sins of their fathers. The hustler is flogging a dead horse," Ndii tweeted.

According to the Economist, the two had already sealed a deal and Mr. Ruto, who describes himself as a hustler was wasting his time.
President Kenyatta's speech made a special recognition of the host governor Wycliffe Oparanya, Mandera's Ali Roba and Makueni's Prof Kivutha Kibwana.

Ali Roba

Oparanya, who is also the ODM Deputy Party Leader, was hailed for being a gracious host for the ongoing conference.

The event has brought together devolution stakeholders including the Council of Governors, Senators, MCAs, and the National Government.

With regard to exemplary performance in the devolved units of governors, President Kenyatta praised Governor's Roba's work in the health sector that has since child mortality rates in Mandera drop by more fifty percent.

Prof Kivutha Kibwana

The Head of State had similarly words of praise for Prof Kibwana in his programmes that have seen the Makueni County Government pioneer in provision of subsidised healthcare services through a universal insurance system.
With highest ever number of emergency food supplies given to local people last year





Related links Local Foodbank Usage Rises at Three Times National Rate



Parish of Putney Launches Foodbank Sunday



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Putneysw15.com &

Wandsworthsw18.com Between 1st April 2017 and 31st March 2018, 5218 three day emergency food supplies were provided to local people in crisis by Wandsworth Foodbank, compared to 4712 in the previous year (an 11% increase). Of this number, 1897 went to children (36%).



Wandsworth Foodbank has been providing three days emergency food and support to local people since 2013. Through five churches across the borough host Wandsworth Foodbank sessions, in Clapham Junction, Battersea, Tooting, Southfields and Putney, the Foodbank manages to keep open 7 days a week.



The foodbank, a member of The Trussell Trusts network which has today reported a UK-wide increase foodbank use, believes the local increase is due to people struggling with continued issues with benefit payments, including the impact of the recent roll-out of Universal Credit; insecure and low-paid work; and the difficulty in accessing local government support (ie Discretionay Social Fund) when financial crisis relates to benefit problems.



Wandsworth Foodbank shares the concerns of other foodbanks in full Universal Credit rollout areas, highlighted today by The Trussell Trust in a new report about the difficulties some people are experiencing. The foodbank has provided emergency food and support to people needing help due to: the adverse impact of the initial wait for first payment of Universal Credit, the lack of available statutory support to help people apply and successfully maintain their claim, the inability of Universal Credit payments to cover the cost of living, and poor administration.

As part of a national network campaigning for change, Wandsworth Foodbank is working hard to offer practical emergency support to help prevent people affected going hungry, whilst simultaneously participating in vital research and raising awareness about the issues local people are facing.





Wandsworth Foodbank, with Citizens Advice Wandsworth, South West London Law Centres and the Katherine Low Settlement, is calling for Wandsworth Council to deliver high-quality, ongoing support for people claiming Universal Credit locally. The four charities have started a Universal Credit support campaign, including an online petition and are encouraging local people to sign it to show their support.



Additionally, Wandsworth Foodbank will launch its fifth annual food poverty report on 24 May, looking at why local people needed to use the foodbank in 2017-18.



Dan Frith, Foodbank Manager of Wandsworth Foodbank said: We dont want to be here forever. No one in Wandsworth Borough should need a foodbanks help and we want to see an end to local people needing emergency food. It doesnt have to be this way  with a benefits system that catches people before they fall into crisis, and secure work that provides people with enough money to cover the cost of essentials, this is possible. But until that time, well continue to provide vital support when it matters most  were dedicated to ensuring that people in our community with no money for food are able to access emergency support, and longer-term advice from our Foodbank Advice Project with Citizens Advice Wandsworth. We are incredibly grateful to all our volunteers at our five foodbank centres in churches across the Borough, to the community of Wandsworth and for the incredible generosity shown by local people in donating food, time and funds. Thank you.



Wandsworth Foodbank does not receive any local or national government funding as it works to help local people. Therefore it welcomes any new offers of help with funding  local businesses, organisations and individuals interested in supporting the foodbanks work can find out more at wandsworth.foodbank.org.uk/give-help/donate

April 24th 2018
Elections are slated for June 5.

Tucumcari Wranglers Club member Amber Rivera shows off a cake during the auction portion of Sunday's Candidate Forum at the Quay County Fair barn.

A candidate forum gave the Quay County 4-H Wranglers Club an opportunity to learn about the June 5 primary election and raise money for a future community service project through a dessert auction.

"For some of you, this election could be the first time for you to vote," said Ellen White, Quay County Clerk.

White said for the first time in the state's history, anyone who is 17-years old and will be 18 before the November general election can participate in the primaries. She said voters have until May 8 to register to vote or declare their party.

"I want to thank the 4-H members for holding this event and taking an interest in the election that will impact their future," said Jackey O. Chatfield, a candidate for State Rep. District 67.

The seat is open, with Dennis Roch deciding not to seek an additional term. Chatfield is unopposed in the Republican primary. Mark D. McDonald is running unopposed in the Democratic primary.

"When I was younger, participating in 4-H and FFA, I always wondered where I would ever need to know parliamentary procedure or public speaking," Chatfield said. "As I stand before, I know appreciate those valuable lessons I learned in my youth."

Quay County Sheriff candidates Russell D. Shafer and Reyes E. Gonzales each spoke about their experience that would benefit the residents if elected as sheriff.

"I have 19 years of law enforcement experience and three as an administrator as your elected sheriff," said Shafer, the incumbent and a Republican.

Shafer said his time and dedication makes him a strong candidate to continue the job as sheriff, that the residents elected him into four years ago. He said his time in the United States Navy has also given him a wealth of experience that allows him to better serve the community.

Reyes, running as a Democrat, said his eight years of experience as a certified law enforcement officer includes drug interdiction but one of his strongest assets is his ties to the community.

"I have been active in my roles as a 4-H leader," Reyes said. "In 2017 I was the 2017 leader of the year. I am always active in Christmas events or parties."

Reyes said through his work with the community and local 4-H organization he has developed a strong relationship with the residents. He said this gives him a unique insight into the issues of the area.

Candidates for the Quay County Magistrate Judge, in order of the ballot, include incumbent Timothy James O'Quinn, Patricia J. Lopez, and Paula J. Chacon.

"I think I have done a good job as magistrate judge since being appointed in 2016 by the Gov. Susana Martinez to fill the vacancy," O'Quinn said.

O'Quinn said he was born and raised in Tucumcari, and has only been out of the area while he attended college and law school. He said he served for a time as a prosecutor in the 10th Judicial District Attorney's Office and knows the issues impacting the area.

"There are three candidates for the magistrate judge position and each vote will count," said Lopez.

Lopez said she knows that O'Quinn and Chacon bring their own unique experience to the table but her 25 years as experience as a law enforcement office gives her greater insight into the issues that will come before the court.

"You don't have to have a law degree to be a judge," Lopez said. "In fact, look at some of our past judges, J. Bronson Moore and Joel Garnett. Each of them were law enforcement officers before they sat upon the bench."

Chacon said her years serving as the court administrator 11 years with Garnett and serving a total of 19 years gives her a wealth of experience. She said the knowledge and experience she gained while serving during both Moore and Garnett's administrations can be used to serve the residents of Quay County.

"You 4-H members have shown such great leadership and responsibility in holding this forum," Chacon said.

Candidates for the the Quay County Commision District 3 seat are incumbent Franklin D. McCasland and Bryan M. Rinestine.

"I have a unique insight from having worked inside the County," Rinestine said.

Rinestine said while serving as the former Quay County DWI Coordinator, he learned about many of the issues that the county faces and will face in the future.

"I have strong ties to the region, my family has been ranching in Quay County for several generations," Rinestine said. "I was raised in Quay County and I have raised a family in Quay County."

Rinestine said one of the issues impacting the county is the Quay County Detention Center. The center is in need of repair but more importantly there is an unfunded mandate that would put the burden upon tax payers for the mental health care of inmates.

Rinestine said there has to be efforts to combat the unfunded mandates from the state that would put burdens upon the county's residents. He said another issue facing our area is the retention of our workforce. There are not enough local job opportunities to help keep children from leaving the area.

"We have an aging, declining workforce," Rinestine said. "Only through working with the EDC and efforts by the county can we create job opportunities to retain our youth."

McCasland said if elected he would continue efforts to bring in money to the county's school system through the projects he has been a part of approving as commissioner.

"In my years of service, I have been a part of the approval of wind, solar projects that have issued industrial revenue bonds resulting in revenue for area schools," McCasland said.

McCasland said the IRB projects generate payment in lieu of taxes payments to the school that can be used for renovations and improvements. He said in the past two years the addition of 21 new wind turbine towers and renovation of existing towers near House will result in payments for the next 25 years for that school district.

McCasland said he has also taken courses through New Mexico State University in Las Cruces that has helped him to become a certified county commissioner and certified public official.

"If elected I would continue to secure future renewable energy projects that would continue to benefit our youth's education," McCasland said.

Quay County Assessor candidate Jannie Hoffman, who is running unopposed, also spoke at the event.

"I want to commend the 4-H for their efforts to raise money for a community service project," Hoffman said. "I hope you continue to show this dedication throughout your lives. The community is always in need of strong leadership qualities in our youth."
The 18th chuckwagon cook-off kicks off at Ute Lake Park on Saturday.

Chuck Decker of Mountain Trails chuck wagon in Rye, Colorado, cooks chicken fried steaks in the cast iron skillet as hot coals cook apple cobbler and biscuits in Dutch Ovens during last year's Chuckwagon cook-off at Logan.

Despite a drop in participating teams, organizers say residents and visitors will not be disappointed at the 18th annual chuck wagon cook-off Saturday at Ute Lake State Park in Logan.

Coordinator Sharon Reid said thanks to a publication in an Albuquerque-based magazine, there has been interest from as far as California in the upcoming cook-off. She said to date, five chuckwagons have entered the competition with another from Amarillo showing interest.

"For those enthusiasts of the old west you wont be disappointed in the authenticity of these chuckwagons and their crews," Reid said.

Reid said she has spoken with several people who would like to visit with the chuckwagon crews before the event. She said the crews will begin arriving on Friday, and residents can come by to visit as the teams set up camps.

"These chuckwagon masters and crews are happy to share the story of their chuckwagon and the history of their competition," Reid said. "However, on Saturday they are going to be a little too busy to talk, (as they're) preparing their authentic meals for the competition and visitors."

Reid said the competition will feature a chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes with gravy, beans, biscuits and apple cobbler. She said these meals will be cooked in traditional Dutch ovens (cast iron) over wood fires and hot coals.

Reid said the event, sponsored by the Canadian River Renegades, raises money that is used for sponsoring college scholarships for local students.

"This event allowed us to give two scholarships to local students last year," Reid said.

For information, tickets contact Sharon Reid at 575-403-8320.
Coordination between Tucumcari and Quay County for warning sirens as well as the duties and funding of the Quay County Emergency Manager were discussed during Mondays regular county commission meeting.

I have been working with the City of Tucumcari to develop the best plan for the use of the new warning siren system, said Daniel Zamora, county emergency manager.

Zamora said after discussion with Project Manager Ralph Lopez, it has been decided that having one alert tone and one all clear tone would be the best for alerting residents.

How would residents, other than there being an obvious severe weather situation know that an emergency was taking place? asked Mike Cherry, District 2 commissioner.

Cherry said there needs to be another form of alert to let residents know what they are being warned about. He said this would help to limit confusion and panic from the residents.

Zamora said in conjunction with the siren, there would be a mass text and email sent out with information for the residents. He said once the system is in operation, there will be opportunity for residents to sign up for the alerts.

There is still a matter of deciding who would have the authority to issue an alert and sound the sirens, Zamora said.

Zamora said the actual controls for the siren are located at central dispatch. He said there would need to be protocol set in place that would have someone be responsible for the sounding of the alarm.

We can not have it be an additional responsibility for dispatch to make the call to sound or not sound the siren, Zamora said. I could be a choice for someone who would make the determination for the use of the siren.

Cherry said there would have to be another person, a secondary choice in the event Zamora is out of town or unable to make the decision.

Zamora said he will continue to work with the city to develop the best plan for the warnings.

Along with his duties as emergency manager Zamora would be the best choice to appoint at the E-911 County Coordinator, said Richard Primrose, county manager.

The commission approved Zamoras appointment as the E-911 coordinator and approved the submission of Emergency Manager Planning Grant application to the New Mexico Finance Authority.

Primrose said the grant application helps to pay for the salary increase for Zamoras added duties as the countys emergency manager.

I was nervous at first taking over as the emergency manager, Zamora said. After taking a few courses and attending several training seminars, I am confident I can perform the duties requested of me.

Other items before the commission:

 Presbyterian Medical Services Administrator C. Renee Hayoz gave a presentation of the monthly Rural Primary Health Care Act report. Hayoz said the clinic treated 476 patients in the last month and the clinic has made home visits to senior citizens.

 Quay County DWI Coordinator Andrea Shafer was not present to give the quarterly report. Primrose presented the DWI statistics from the first quarter of 2018.

 Quay County Fire Marshall Donald Adams requested the approval of the submission of the firefighter protection funds for the 2018-19 fiscal year. The submission was approved.

 Quay County Finance Director Cheryl Simpson requested the approval of the Department of Finance Authority third quarterly report, DWI third quarter financial report and the fiscal year 2018 Audit contract. All three were approved.

 The commission held a closed executive session for the discussion of threatened or pending litigation. No action was taken.
After two years of belt tightening and difficult austerity measures implemented to plug nine-figure holes and balance the state budget, revenues for New Mexico are once again soaring.

Revenue for the current budget year was up by $672 million through January compared to the same period last year, according to the state Taxation and Revenue Department.

Thats great news for our state. And while Roundhouse lawmakers will no doubt be tempted to go on a spending spree when they convene in January, they should hold off on that impulse because, as Senate Finance Committee Chairman John Arthur Smith points out, the states economy is still heavily reliant on a market-driven fossil fuel industry.

Were on the roller coaster of oil and gas, says Smith, a Deming Democrat.

While revenues are up right now, they can just as easily tank. Given the boom in the Permian Basin, specifically the production occurring in Lea, Eddy and San Juan counties, we doubt revenues will sink in the near future, but its a boom-bust industry so what goes up eventually comes down. And as the state revenues of 2017 vs. 2018 show  what a difference a single year can make.

Realizing that, lawmakers and the governor last year created a true rainy day fund to help the state ride out some revenue lean years. And there will be more than $15 million flowing into that fund thanks to the uptick in revenue this year.

Lawmakers and the next governor should consider pumping more money into that rainy day fund. Its not sexy, but its the financially responsible thing to do, and they and taxpayers will be glad they did it when the roller coaster that is our states revenue source takes a downturn.

Yes, were riding high now, but if history has taught us anything, its that our revenue stream is volatile and the highs dont last.

Its ironic that a year ago, state leaders were fretting about how to plug a massive budget deficit and this year, the state is flush with cash. Given that level of volatility, its incumbent on lawmakers and whomever is elected governor to invest any new money wisely.

 Albuquerque Journal
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SPAIN: The National Commission on Markets & Competition has decided to resume work on reviewing the application by Air Nostrum subsidiary Intermodalidad de Levante SA to launch the countrys first open access high speed services, despite a legal challenge from the Ministry of Development.
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Jury panel to review case on organization of major gang

 RIA Novosti

14:59 24/04/2018

MOSCOW, April 24 (RAPSI)  The Moscow Regional Court has ruled to review a criminal case against alleged leader of the notorious Pushkinsky gang Dmitry Zavyalov with the participation of a jury panel, the press-service of the court has told RAPSI.

During preliminary hearings, Zavyalov asked for his case to be reviewed by jurors. The selection procedure is set for May 10.

The alleged gang leader was placed on the federal wanted list in August 2009 and on the international wanted list in December 2009. He eventually settled in Spain where he was living on a forged Belgian passport. Zavyalov was arrested in May 2014 during a routine border check in La Jonquera, a municipality in Catalonia on the border with France. He was taken to a police station where his identity was established, along with an alert indicating that he was armed and dangerous.

In June and August 2014, the Russian Prosecutor Generals Office sent a request for Zavyalovs extradition to Spain. Spanish authorities granted the request in April 2015.

According to the press-service of the Prosecutor Generals Office, Zavyalov supervised a gang that was active in Moscow and the Moscow Region, responsible for assaulting people, extorting money for protection, 19 murders, several attempted murders, causing grievous harm that resulted in deaths and other crimes.

Zavyalov is charged with organizing, leading and participation in a gang; murder committed by an organized criminal group; unlawful weapon trafficking; causing grievous harm to health; burglary; robbery; hooliganism and others.
Ex-CEO of Russian largest shipping company gets 12 years for embezzlement

 Fotolia/ VIPDesign

15:49 24/04/2018

MOSCOW, April 24 (RAPSI)  Ex-CEO of Russias major shipping company Sovcomflot (SCF) Dmitry Skarga has been sentenced to 12 years in prison in absentia for embezzling over 8 billion rubles ($130 million), the Russian Investigative Committees press service reports Tuesday.

His accomplices, ex-president of Novorossiysk Shipping Company (Novoship) Tagir Izmaylov and gang organizer Yury Nikitin, received 11 and 15 years in prison respectively. Additionally, a court ordered forfeiture of the defendants assets, the statement reads.

Depending on their role in the crime the defendants were found guilty of organization a criminal group and participation in it, abuse of authority, embezzlement and money laundering.

According to the Investigative Committee, from 2001 to 2005, Skarga, Izmaylov and other members of a gang organized by Nikitin embezzled more that 8 billion rubles belonging to Sovcomflot subsidiaries, Novoship and its subsidiaries, by a series of unlawful and uncommercial shipping and banking transactions. However, they laundered 5.5 billion rubles (about $90 million).

Russian investigators repeatedly sent requests to the United Kingdom for the defendants extradition but were denied.

SCF is Russia's largest shipping company fully-owned by the state. Its fleet consists of about 150 ships.
Russian Supreme Court clarifies details of crime grade mitigation

 RIA Novosti, Vladimir Fedorenko

11:30 24/04/2018

MOSCOW, April 24 (RAPSI)  The Supreme Court of Russia has clarified details of mitigating classification of a crime noting that there are several important factors to be considered with individual responsibility being one of them.

According to the Supreme Court, lower courts should acknowledge that mitigation of a crime grade ensures individualization of responsibility for each convict and as such serves to uphold principles of justice and humanism. Courts must examine possibility of such mitigation for each defendant.

However, while courts may mitigate the grade for serious crimes, they are restricted from changing it too radically. Also, for this decision to take place, there should be one or more mitigating factors and none of the aggravating ones.

Courts should take into account the means of committing a crime, the role of a defendant in a crime committed by a group, a type of a criminal intent or incaution, a motive, a goal, consequences of the crime and other circumstances of the case.

The Supreme Court noted that if a classification is changed, a court may release a convict from serving his or her punishment. If a person commits a crime of up to average grade, he or she may also be released from punishment and ordered to pay a fine instead.
Russian Human Rights Council asks European Commissioner to intervene in Odnovols case

16:59 24/04/2018

MOSCOW, April 24 (RAPSI)  Russias Presidential Council for Human Rights has asked Council of Europe Commissioner Dunja Mijatovic to intervene in the case of Yelena Odnovol, an activist of the Volunteers of Victory movement, who was arrested in Ukraine, the advisory bodys website reads.

According to preliminary information, Odnovol is charged with treason, subversive activities, causing damage to Ukraines sovereignty and its territorial integrity. The Council notes that these charges are related to how Ukrainian authorities view Odnovols activity. Yelenas volunteering activism has always been public with its goals being charity, peacekeeping, resolution of contradictions, reconciliation within the society and preservation of historical memory, the Council writes.

It was noted that relatives and colleagues of the activist are still not able to contact her and worried of her fate. As such the Council asks Mijatovic to take control over the situation and ask the Ukrainian authorities to immediately release her and uphold her rights.

On Monday, Ukraines Prosecutor General Yury Lutsenko stated that the activist was arrested. According to Lutsenko, Odnovol aided Russia and Russian NGO in conducting subversive activity against Ukraine.
Sputnik, March 25, 2018

Moscow is concerned about the use of helicopters without identification marks for transportation of militants and weapons, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Sunday ahead of the conference on Afghanistan.

"The use of helicopters without identification marks in various regions of Afghanistan with an aim to transport militants and weapons produced in the Western countries to the Afghan affiliate [of the Islamic State terrorist group*] raises concern. We believe the statements of Afghan authorities confirming these facts urge serious investigation," the statement read.

"[Russia] is concerned about the increase of terrorist activity of Taliban movement staging attacks in various parts of Afghanistan and the increase of IS presence in northern Afghan provinces bordering the members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)," the ministry stressed.

On Monday, a two-day conference dedicated to the situation in Afghanistan will kick off in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent with the participation of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Earlier this year, Chief of Iranian General Staff Major General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri accused the US of transferring Daesh terrorists to Afghanistan after the jihadist group's defeats in Syria and Iraq.

The same month, Damascus said that US air power had been used on numerous occasions to rescue terrorist leaders from their imminent destruction at the hands of the Syrian army and even to stage 'accidental' attacks on Syrian forces as they advanced against the militants.

The US-coalition, however, has denied all accusations.

Over the years, Afghanistan has been facing an unstable political and humanitarian situation, which had worsened due to the activities of terrorist groups such as the Taliban and Daesh*.

*Islamic State terrorist organization, also known as Daesh (in Arabic), IS, ISIL or ISIS. It is outlawed in Russia, the United States and many other countries.
Stuff, April 11, 2018

By Eugene Bingham & Paula Penfold

Last year, far away from Defence Headquarters where top brass squirmed at questions and fought off calls for an inquiry, the parents of Fatima, the youngest victim of the Operation Burnham raid, sobbed and sobbed.

Over cups of green tea, they'd been telling us of the night in 2010 when helicopters emerged from the night sky and started firing on their village in rural Afghanistan, when they broke down at the memory of their three-year-old girl.

"I feel that my heart is exploding," Fatima's father told us. "She was not just a daughter, she had become a real sweetheart."

But their tears were not just of grief; they were borne of frustration and disbelief. The raid had been led by the New Zealand SAS, but no one was taking responsibility.



According to the book Hit and Run, three-year-old Fatima was killed during a New Zealand SAS raid in Afghanistan. Now the Government has announced it will hold inquiry into allegations of civilian deaths at the hands of Kiwis. (Photo: Hit and Run) According to the book Hit and Run, three-year-old Fatima was killed during a New Zealand SAS raid in Afghanistan. Now the Government has announced it will hold inquiry into allegations of civilian deaths at the hands of Kiwis. (Photo: Hit and Run)

The doctor who treated the victims of the raid had come with them too, to meet us and Jon Stephenson, co-author with Nicky Hager of the book Hit and Run.

Through us, the doctor wanted to plead with the New Zealand Government.

"[New Zealand] should send a high-ranking delegation, one of their best delegations, with full authority to Kabul so that I can bring all the wounded people and families of the martyred so they investigate this case, but if they're not going to do this it means that they're breaching human rights," he said.

Weeks later, he was dead. In one of the countless cruel twists Afghanistan suffers every single day this man who so valued human rights was murdered, captured by the Taliban and slaughtered.

In some way, the announcement from the Government that it will hold an inquiry into Operation Burnham, honours the doctor and his wishes. At last, the people he battled for, including the parents of Fatima, can hopefully have a voice.

But there are many, many others in Afghanistan who deserve to be heard too.

Kudos to the Government for seeking answers to questions raised in the book.

However it has blatantly ignored an opportunity.

Because the specific concern over civilian casualties in Operation Burnham represents only a fraction of the problems with culture and lack of accountability at the top of Defence, particularly regarding the decade-long deployment to Afghanistan.

Those problems run very, very deep. A bold Government would have taken on these issues. Instead, it has wilfully turned a blind eye.

On the same trip to Afghanistan last year to film the documentary series The Valley, we met with others who had encountered New Zealand forces.

We sat in a small, mud hut in Bamyan with the uncle of one of the Afghan soldiers who died in the Battle of Baghak in August 2012, a battle in which two New Zealand soldiers died and six others were wounded. Our investigation showed the deaths may have resulted from friendly fire, rather than caused by insurgents, as the New Zealand Court of Inquiry found.

We met villagers from Uruzghan who told us SAS troopers provoked the firefight in 2004 which led to Willie Apiata receiving his VC. They described how the bodies of their dead were dumped on the ground of the village bazaar in a gruesome show of force, and that our troopers then kicked in doors and flexi-cuffed men.

We spoke to an MP in Kabul who expressed his anger that New Zealand soldiers were collecting biometric data from innocent Afghans, a fact Defence did not tell the New Zealand public, nor even the Defence Minister at the time.

We asked Defence for an interview with Chief of Defence Lieutenant General Tim Keating - or an interview with anyone at all. None was forthcoming. Not one person within Defence was willing to answer our questions. Actually, worse than that, there were frontline soldiers who wanted to talk to us, but they were gagged by their bosses.

The Attorney General's announcement specifically rules out inquiring into issues raised in The Valley. Spuriously, it says the the matters raised in the documentary were dealt with in a Court of Inquiry.

This ignores two important facts: the documentary showed how key conclusions of the Court of Inquiry were wrong (a fact now even acknowledged by Defence); and The Valley raised far more than just the matters that were dealt with in the Court of Inquiry.

More importantly, there are the deeper issues that overlap with themes raised by the book.

The allegations in Hit and Run and those made in The Valley are in essence the same: of lack of transparency and accountability. Of a culture of cover-up and obfuscation.

And at the heart of it all are questions raised by families of fallen New Zealand soldiers in The Valley: why were we even in Afghanistan in the first place? What were we trying to achieve? These are questions which other countries have been mature enough to deal with - why aren't we?

The families we met in Afghanistan, and the New Zealand families of our fallen soldiers, deserve more than this very limited inquiry will deliver.
The Washington Post, April 13, 2018

By Pamela Constable

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan  An ambulance packed with explosives that detonated in Kabul and a pedestrian suicide bombing outside a Shiite shrine there were among the deadly incidents that led to a near-record 2,258 civilian casualties in Afghanistan during the first quarter of this year, U.N. officials reported this week.

According to the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, there were 763 conflict-related civilian deaths and 1,495 injuries across Afghanistan between January and March. Those figures were comparable with record-high levels of casualties reported during the same period in the past two years, as aggressive attacks by Taliban insurgents and the Islamic State increased.

In an especially alarming sign, the report indicated the number of casualties caused by suicide bombings or by complex insurgent assaults with both bombs and guns was twice as high as during the first quarter of 2017, even as thousands of U.S. military troops embarked on an ambitious effort to expand and bolster the performance of Afghan defense forces.



Afghan volunteers carry a body at the scene of a car bomb explosion in Kabul on Jan. 27. (Photo: Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images) Afghan volunteers carry a body at the scene of a car bomb explosion in Kabul on Jan. 27. (Photo: Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images)

The Western-backed war effort has continued to suffer from a number of problems, including low morale among Afghan troops and corruption among military officials. The Taliban have failed to capture any cities but control large portions of territory across the country, more than at any time since the war began in 2002. The Islamic State has mainly targeted urban Shiite communities, with dozens of attacks.

The largest single spike in civilian casualties came during a 10-day period in January, when both Taliban and Islamic State forces attacked numerous targets in Kabul, killing more than 150 people and wounding hundreds. They included the ambulance suicide attack near a hospital, a commando siege of a luxury hotel and an armed raid on a military training facility.

A second deadly trend during the first three months of the year was a string of bombings and other attacks on Shiite communities, mosques and other targets, both in Kabul and in other cities including Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif. Most were claimed by the Islamic State, an extremist Sunni Islamic group. One March bombing near a shrine in Kabul, where Shiites had gathered to celebrate the Persian new year, killed 30 people and wounded scores.

Afghan civilians continue to suffer, caught in the conflict, in ways that are preventable. This must stop now, Ingrid Hayden, the U.N. Secretary Generals deputy special representative for Afghanistan, said in a statement. All parties to the conflict . . . must do everything in their power to protect civilians from harm.

The U. N. report said casualties caused by pro-government forces so far this year were slightly lower than the first part of last year, but that positive news was immediately dampened by the deadly Afghan air force bombing of a religious school in Kunduz province April 2, in which at least 30 civilians, including young students, were reportedly killed. Some residents said the number of dead was 50.

Afghan military officials said the air attack was aimed at Taliban leaders in the compound and that several of them were killed. The location of the seminary, Dasht-i-Archi district, is a longtime Taliban stronghold that Afghan forces have been unable to recapture despite months of intense fighting and air raids.

Afghan and international human rights groups condemned the aerial bombing, saying several hundred people had gathered at the location for a ceremony and that officials did not do enough to protect civilians. The incident highlighted the problems of the nascent Afghan air force, and it was reminiscent of the controversial 2015 U.S. airstrike in Kunduz city that mistakenly targeted an emergency hospital, killing 42 people.

The laws of war permit attacks only against military objectives, Patricia Gossman of Human Rights Watch wrote online after the attack. Bombing the madrassah, where hundreds of civilians had gathered, would be a classic example of a disproportionate attack. She noted the U.S. military plays a crucial role in all aspects of Afghan air operations and provides all training as well as attack aircraft to the force.

Ten days later, an especially deadly stealth attack by the Taliban in Ghazni province reinforced the impression that its forces are continuing to gain ground with aggressive military tactics, despite recent overtures from the Kabul government about reviving peace talks, and even in areas of the country that have been considered relatively safe.

On April 12, Taliban forces overran the Khwaja Omari district of Ghazni, killing the district governor and numerous policemen. The raid was carried out at 2 a.m., and the government compound was set on fire as the insurgents left the area. U.S. officials had listed that district as government influenced, meaning it was largely under state control and had minimal Taliban presence.

The fact that the Taliban was able to easily overrun the Khwaja Omari district center indicates that the Taliban presence . . . is far greater than assessed by the U.S. military, wrote Bill Roggio, editor of the Long War Journal. He said the security situation in Afghanistan has progressively declined since most U.S. forces withdrew in 2014.
Sputnik, April 14, 2018

The people of Afghanistan continue to deal with the physical and emotional aftermath of events that transpired one year ago when the US military dropped one of the biggest non-nuclear bombs ever made in their country.

On April 13, 2017, a US military aircraft dropped the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast on a tunnel network used by Daesh* terrorists in the Acin district of the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan.

However, Afghan political analyst Wahid Mozhdah told Sputnik Afghanistan that the United States does not really seek to battle terrorists in the country and pursued other goals when they deployed that weapon.

"Using a bomb this expensive against a handful of people is illogical. They simply tested this bomb in Afghanistan. The US is not really fighting against terrorists and other groups; they [the US] turned Afghanistan into a testing range for their weapons," he said.

Enough Money To Liberate Afghanistan

Kabul residents who shared their thoughts about those events with Sputnik also appeared skeptical regarding the results of the US military action in Nangarhar.

According to Seyed Jahed Hashemi, the entire operation was pointless as far as the elimination of the militants manpower was concerned.

"The deployment of the Mother of All Bombs by the US in the Acin district of Nangarhar province wasnt supposed to happen, because it was simply pointless to use such a large bomb to wipe out terrorists in such a small province. By the time the bomb was dropped on them, the number of Daesh militants there wasnt big enough to warrant a bombing. The money the US spent to develop this bomb wouldve been enough to liberate all of Afghanistan from Daesh militants," Hashemi remarked.

Masih Nezami remarked that the US simply sought to test their new weapon, arguing that the use of such bombs does not improve things, but merely exacerbates peoples anxiety.

"I think that using the Mother of All Bombs was a US strategic plan  they tested that weapon on us. I dont think that they used a bomb worth $1.5 million simply to take out those Daesh militants. It was an experiment of some sort," he explained.

Seeking Natural Resources

Shah Saeid claimed that the US sought to use the bombing to lay claim on the natural resource deposits located in the province.

"Using this bomb didnt do any good. The Americans wanted to show their might, and all it did was bring people more problems, psychological and spiritual. Using the bombs like the one that was dropped in Acin is merely a pretext for exploiting our natural resources and advancing their interests. If they want to use bombs against Taliban and Daesh militants, why wont they drop them on areas where the terrorists are massing, instead of dropping them in Acin where there are no terrorists but plenty of natural resources?" the man inquired.

Omar Yaqubi, however, said that there were both positive and negative consequences of the bombing.

"The positive ones include the elimination of terrorist groups like al-Qaeda. As for the negative consequences, however, it is the way how it affected our future generations. Weve endured many wars over the course of our history, and those who took part in them now deal with psychological problems," Yaqubi said.

Testing Lab

Nazifa Soltanzai argued that the White House treats Afghanistan merely as a place where US military can test its weapons.

"They treat Afghanistan as a backward country, as their colony, so they test in Afghanistan all the things they later use at home. We Afghans endured much in this ongoing war: physically, spiritually and mentally. And the use of such dangerous bombs leads to serious damage and consequences for all of us," she said.

Explosive Message

Sher Shah Navabi, a correspondent who covered the events in Acin, also told Sputnik that Washington used the Mother of All Bombs to display the countrys might to Russia and several other countries and to show the people of Afghanistan that their country is just a testing lab for the US.

"In truth, the US wanted to show Iran, China, Russia and North Korea  the countries that have nuclear weapons  that they cannot compete with the US in an area where the latter has vested interests," Navabi said.

The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB), also referred to as the Mother of All Bombs, is a large-yield bomb designed for the US military in 2002 and adopted a year later.

The bomb was first deployed in combat on April 13, 2017, during an airstrike against Daesh forces entrenched in the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan.
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Kim Kardashian shared a new photo of her "Party of 5" on Monday.

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The 37-year-old "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" star posted a cute picture with husband Kanye West , 4-year-old daughter North West, 2-year-old son Saint West and 3-month-old daughter Chicago West on Instagram.

The snapshot shows Kardashian striking a pose with North and Saint aboard a private plane. Kanye is all smiles as he holds baby Chicago on his lap.

"Party of 5," Kardashian captioned the photo.

The "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" star had shared a first picture of her family of five earlier this month.

"I don't think you really understand how hard it is to take a good family pic," she told fans at the time. "This was all we got before all three kids started crying. I think I cried too."

Kardashian welcomed Chicago via gestational carrier in January. She discussed the possibility of having more kids in the April issue of Elle, saying four children would be her max.

"My home and my heart feel really full right now, in the best way," the star shared.

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"I don't think I could handle more than [four]," she said.

"My time is spread really thin. And I think it's important that in all couples, the mom gives the husband as much attention as the kids."
Overbooking by an airline cannot be done ignoring the sense of duty or liability towards passengers with confirmed tickets, the national commission ruled.

Jehangir B Gai reports.

O P Srivastava, Supriya Mukherjee and Navin Singh -- all holding senior management positions in the Sahara group of companies -- had to travel abroad for a business meeting.

They booked confirmed two-way tickets on Air France's Delhi-to-Paris flight. The booking was done through Travel Wings, a ticketing agent in Kanpur.

However, on their way back on November 11, 2002, they were not allowed to board the flight despite having confirmed tickets.

The airline even refused to put them on an alternative flight.

They were compelled to stay at Paris, losing an entire day and missed an important meeting with government officials in India.

Srivastava, Mukherjee and Singh (the complainants) filed a joint complaint before the Uttar Pradesh state commission against Air France and the ticketing agent.

They contended that they are 'Commercially Important Persons', and every minute is precious.

They contended that the delay of 24 hours resulted in a monetary loss of Rs 5 million to their company.

They sent a legal notice which did not elicit any response from the airline.

The complaint was contested.

Air France argued that it denied boarding due to overbooking, an internationally-accepted industry practice.

The complainants were offered 300 euros equivalent to Rs 53,600 beside free accommodation with meals, two telephone vouchers, and nine phone cards.

Despite having accepted this, the complaint was filed to take undue advantage by making an inflated claim for an alleged loss to Sahara Parivar which was not even a party to the dispute.

The jurisdiction of the commission was challenged as the airline did not have any office in Uttar Pradesh.

The ticketing agent argued that he could not be held liable for denied boarding by the airline.

The state commission held Air France liable to pay Rs 630,000 to each of the three complainants.

Air France challenged the order in appeal.

The National Commission noted that the airline had sold the tickets through its ticketing agent at Kanpur, so part of the cause of action had arisen there.

Hence the Uttar Pradesh state commission had the jurisdiction to decide the dispute.

In respect of the complainants being consumers, the National Commission observed that tickets were issued in the individual names of the complainants who were put to personal discomfort and mental agony due to denied boarding.

Hence, the complainants were entitled to file the complaint even though the price of the tickets was paid for by their employer.

The commission considered that the crucial issue was whether denied boarding due to overbooking for the benefit of the airline at the cost of the consumer would constitute a deficiency in service.

It observed that instead of indiscriminate overbooking resulting in hardship to fliers with confirmed tickets, it would be much better to impose stringent conditions for cancellation of confirmed tickets.

It concluded that overbooking cannot be done ignoring the sense of duty or liability towards passengers with confirmed tickets.

It held that denial of boarding to a passenger holding a confirmed ticket would be a deficiency in service.

Regarding the quantum of compensation, the commission relied on the Supreme Court's judgement in Ethiopian Airlines versus Ganesh Narain Saboo, where it was held that the Consumer Protection Act provided an additional remedy for deficiency in service.

This claim would have to be independently considered without reference to the provisions of the Carriage by Air Act or the International Montreal Convention.

The National Commission considered that the compensation awarded by the state commission was on the higher side as there was no proof of the financial loss caused.

By its order of March 22, 2018 delivered by the bench of Justices D K Jain and M Shreesha, the National Commission reduced the compensation and ordered the airline to pay a lumpsum amount of Rs 400,000 to each complainant, totalling Rs 1.2 million.

This judgment is a new milestone in protection of consumer rights.

Jehangir B Gai is a consumer activist

Photograph: Kind courtesy Mads Johansen/Wikimedia Commons
About 200,000 ATMs can dispense the new series of Rs 500 notes

The government and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have told banks to recalibrate ATMs in a phased manner for dispensing Rs 200 notes.

Notes of this denomination were introduced last August. A fifth of the 221,000 ATMs in the country have been so reconfigured.

Banks had identified about 90,000 ATMs to be recalibrated and 48,000 have been, to dispense Rs 200 notes.

"However, with the increase in printing of Rs 500 notes, banks have been told to recalibrate ATMs in a phased manner, so that people dont face inconvenience in withdrawing money, said a senior finance ministry official.

About 200,000 ATMs can dispense the new series of Rs 500 notes.

We will further review the requirement for recalibrating ATMs for Rs 200 notes in the coming days, when more Rs 500 notes are introduced in the system, another ministry official said.

RBI will increase five-fold the printing of Rs 500 notes, economic affairs secretary Subhash Chandra Garg had said last week.

It would, within a month, print Rs 700-750 billion worth of these notes.

RBI said it had raised the circulation of Rs 200 notes in the economy to ensure balance in the required denomination-mix of currency notes to the public.

However, slow progress in recalibrating of ATMs to receive Rs 200 notes was one of the factors responsible for the recent cash crunch.

The shortage might be felt in some pockets, largely due to logistical issues of replenishing ATMs frequently and the recalibration of ATMs being still underway. RBI is monitoring these aspects, the central bank said last Tuesday.

The government has written to the chief executives of all banks to ensure the cash situation at ATMs is monitored, especially on the coming bank holidays that coincide with a weekend when bank premises will be closed.

Banks in some states will be closed on April 30 (Buddha Purnima) and in some on May 1 (May Day).

Cash withdrawals are usually high towards the end and the beginning of a month. In March-end, there were continuous bank holidays that also led to a situation of crunch in some states, as ATMs were not filled with cash, a third finance ministry official said.

Ministry officials say availability of cash had improved, with 86 per cent of ATMs dispensing cash on Monday, compared to 84.7 per cent on Friday.

However, the situation worsened in Bihar, where cash was available in about 69 per cent of ATMs on Monday, compared to 74 per cent on Friday.

In Jharkhand, 75 per cent of ATMs were dispensing cash, as against 72.4 per cent on Friday. Cash availability at ATMs improved in Andhra (from 71 per cent to 80 per cent), Telangana (from 78 to 84 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (80 to 82 per cent) and Uttar Pradesh (72.4 per cent to 75 per cent).

RBI has moved additional cash to banks in MP, UP, Tamil Nadu and Bihar, beside Hyderabad, an official said. The difference between cash withdrawal and deposits has also narrowed.

The former, at around Rs 240 billion, were 14 per cent more than deposits on Monday.

The difference between withdrawal and deposits stood at a little over 24 per cent last Monday.

On Tuesday, the finance ministry stated there had been an unusual spurt in currency demand in the last three months in some parts, including Andhra, Telangana, Karnataka, MP and Bihar. RBI data showed cash withdrawal from banks was higher than the deposits in April.

Photograph: PTI Photo
Hoodwinking the taxman is difficult.

If your case is picked up for random scrutiny, any of the tricks that you or your financial advisor may have used to avoid tax will be easily detected, experts tell Sanjay Kumar Singh.

Cases of salaried employees making false declarations to claim tax deductions and under-reporting their income have become quite common in recent times.

In January, a case involving a large number of IT employees in Bengaluru came to light.

As a result, the income tax department issued a warning recently to the salaried class against indulging in fraudulent practices.

Fraudsters' bag of tricks

Salaried employees show a lot of ingenuity when it comes to claiming deductions falsely from their employers.

To claim leave travel allowance, say tax experts, employees go to a travel Web site, book a ticket and take a print out.

Once they have proof of having travelled, they cancel the ticket.

Another creative practice is to use editing software to change the dates and other details on an old ticket.

For availing HRA, the most common practice is to claim that the employee paid rent to his parents for living in their house, when none is paid.

False rent receipts are created.

Experts say that claiming HRA for rent paid to a parent is not illegal per se, but employees need to follow the proper norms when doing so.

"The rent agreement should be registered, and you should pay by cheque to create documentary proof of payment. Your parent should also declare this rental income in his income-tax return," says Ashok Shah, partner, N A Shah Associates.

Another practice is to donate by cheque to a non-government organisation, claim deduction under Section 80G, then take the money back from that organisation in cash while paying it some commission.

Many employees work for one organisation, but also moonlight for another. Often, they don't report this.

Capital gains from the markets are also not reported at all or fully.

If you did not submit proof of investment under Section 80C to your employer, you can still avail of this deduction.

"You can avail of it directly at the time of filing your tax return," says Archit Gupta, founder and CEO, Cleartax.

The temptation to claim false deductions is higher when they are claimed directly at the time of filing return.

Detecting frauds is not difficult

Salaried employees who indulge in such practices often do so under the mistaken belief that the IT department only goes after bigger fish.

Some believe there is safety in numbers: Since the department has millions of returns to process, theirs will escape attention.

And in any case, some argue, the processing is automated, so how will any fraud be detected?

Experts say that you could still get caught.

"The main reason you should not indulge in fraudulent practices is that you can be caught very easily by the IT department. What if your case is selected for random scrutiny?" asks Naveen Wadhwa, deputy general manager, Taxmann.com.

Suppose that to claim HRA you declare that you pay rent to your parent.

If your case comes up for scrutiny, the assessing officer will ask you to show proof.

You may show her/him the false rent receipt you have created. S/he may then demand your bank statement for proof of money transfer.

If you claim that you paid in cash, s/he may ask for a rental agreement, or for your parents' IT return.

If you are unable to produce all the required evidence, you will be caught.

Sometimes, firms are assessed for tax deducted at source (TDS).

During the assessment, the officer asks the firm to submit supporting documents that were considered while granting deductions to employees.

If any of these documents are found to be bogus, not only is the employer penalised, a reassessment notice is issued to the employee as well.

The annual information return (AIR) is another source through which tax officers detect evasion.

This is a return that institutions like banks, NBFCs, mutual funds, housing registration authorities, etc file listing high-value transactions.

"The IT department does a lot of data mining now, and its ability to use data to detect frauds will only get better with time," says Kuldip Kumar, partner and leader personal tax, PwC.

Penalties are harsh

If you are found guilty of under-reporting or misreporting your income, the consequences can be dire.

"The penalty is 50 per cent of the tax due for underreporting of income, and it can go up to 200 per cent for misreporting. This penalty is over and above the interest liability which will be levied as applicable under Section 234B and 234C at 1 per cent per month," says Kumar.

In case of willful attempt to evade tax, authorities also have the power to initiate prosecution proceedings under Section 276C, wherein a person can be imprisoned.

Taxpayers sometimes indulge in fraudulent practices because they don't plan their tax saving from the start of the financial year.

"Meet an accredited tax advisor at the beginning of the year and get proper guidance on how to save tax using all the available provisions," says Wadhwa.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com
The Centre has, however, retained its proposal to curb flash strikes as workers in all factories will be required to give employers a strike notice of at least two weeks after the Bill becomes a law.

The Union government has dropped a proposal to allow only employees working in factories becoming office-bearers of trade unions in those units.

The government had proposed the move in the Code on Industrial Relations Bill, 2015, in an attempt to keeping a check on politicisation of trade unions.

However, the central trade unions viewed this as an attack on the trade union movement and said the government should not interfere in composition of unions.

The provisions on restricting outsiders from becoming office-bearers in trade unions have been dropped following widespread consultations and studies on best international practices.

"All the countries that we studied have allowed outsiders to become part of the trade union leadership, said a senior labour and employment ministry official on the conditions of anonymity.

The labour ministry observed that the proposed provisions were against International Labour Organisation conventions.

The ILO Convention 87 on freedom of association states that workers have the right to elect their representatives in full freedom.

Though the convention has not been ratified by India, but we studied other countries such as China and the United States that have not ratified it. In these countries, too, outsiders are allowed to be part of executives of trade unions, the ministry official said.

According to the proposed Labour Code on Industrial Relations Bill, only people engaged or employed in an industry can become office-bearers of a trade union in the organised sector and two outsiders can be office-bearers of a trade union in the unorganised sector.

The Bill has been circulated for inter-ministerial consultations and is expected to be sent to the Cabinet in May, following which it will be introduced in Parliament.

The government has also removed a proposed provision disqualifying a person as an office-bearer if he is an office-bearer in 10 other trade unions.

Data Under the present law, one-third of the office-bearers in a trade union in the organised sector can be outsiders (with a maximum limit of five such persons).

In the case of the unorganised sector, half the office-bearers can be outsiders.

I think it is a step in line with the spirit of ILO Convention 87, which the Indian government is bound to respect even if it has not ratified it yet.

"Nowadays, factories have a comparatively younger workforce and an experienced leadership is important. Outside workers will also not be subjected to any pressure from the management, labour law advocate Ramapriya Gopalakrishnan said.

According to XLRI Jamshedpur professor K R Shyam Sundar, who authored the book Contemporary Reforms of Labour Market and Industrial Relations System in India, Maruti Suzukis Manesar plant witnessed violence between workers and the management in July 2012 that claimed the life of one of the carmakers senior executives principally because of inexperienced union leaders.

The Maruti Suzuki case has shown that the absence of experienced leadership will play havoc. Inexperienced and immature trade union leadership may lead to violence, Sundar said.

Last year, the Gurgaon district court had sentenced 13 workers, all of whom were a part of the then newly formed Maruti Suzuki Workers Union, to life imprisonment.

The ILO had also felt that it should be up to the trade unions to decide structures and the government should play the role of a facilitator.

Often workers who are part of a factory are unable to raise their voice when they become part of a trade union belonging to that unit. In such cases, the role of outsiders becomes important, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) general secretary Virjesh Upadhyay said.

Trade unions should be a true reflection of the workers. It is not that you hijack the agenda by bringing people from outside. We are encouraging those who are stakeholders and are involved with the workers to form unions, the then Labour Secretary Shankar Aggarwal had said in an interview to Business Standard in June 2015, justifying the proposal which has now been shelved.

This is the second contentious proposal that the Centre has withdrawn from the Bill.

The Centre has also sidestepped from its proposal to allow factories with up to 300 workers to retrench workers and shut shop without seeking government permission, up from 100 workers at present.

This also led the Centre to remove the proposed provision to hike severance pay three times to 45 days of wage for each year worked from 15 days of wage per year at present.

The Centre has, however, retained its proposal to curb flash strikes as workers in all factories will be required to give employers a strike notice of at least two weeks after the Bill becomes a law.

At present, only workers in public utilities are required to do so.

Public utilities include banking, cement, coal, cotton textiles, hospitals, among others.

Go-slows, gheraos, squatting or demonstrations by employees at employers houses during conciliation proceedings will not be allowed.

Photograph: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters
Modi and Shah can't afford to lose any of the 24 per cent Dalit vote of 2014, says Shekhar Gupta.

IMAGE: Protesters block the Delhi-Gurugram Expressway, Gurugram, Haryana during the Bharat bandh called by Dalit organisations on April 2, 2018. Photograph: PTI Photo

The Muslims are just about 15 per cent of the Indian electorate. They don't vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Even in post-1989 politics, when the Congress lost its heartland vote bank, the Muslims joined the Yadavs, the most dominant among the Other Backward Classes, and occasionally Mayawati's Dalits to keep the BJP out.

Frustrated by the arithmetic, BJP leaders would often say that the Muslims have a veto on who will rule India.

Narendra D Modi changed that in 2014. He junked all symbolisms of political correctness and hypocrisies.

If the Muslims insist on not voting for us, let them be, there are enough votes elsewhere -- this was the argument.

To his credit, he was quite clearheaded: No special dispensation for minorities, just that all-encompassing 'sabka saath, sabka vikas'.

The Muslims didn't vote for him. He swept the polls nevertheless.

He won 282 seats, not one of which was represented by a Muslim. This was repeated in the state elections.

The BJP didn't field one Muslim in Uttar Pradesh, which has a 19 per cent Muslim population, and won 77 per cent of the seats.

The voodoo of the Muslim 'veto' on who rules India was fully broken.

Modi and the BJP responded by not accommodating Muslim names sideways, not bothering to create a new, friendly, Muslim political elite.

You don't vote for us, don't expect us to share power with you.

It happened because his appeal cut across Hindu social groups which had been wary of the BJP so far, or were loyal to their own caste leaders.

A large-scale non-Yadav OBC shift to the BJP was a 2014 reality.

Further, if Mayawati drew a blank out of the 80 seats in UP in the 2014 Lok Sabha election and won just 19 -- less than 5 per cent of the more than 400 in UP -- in the assembly election in 2017, it is logical to conclude that a sizeable enough number of Dalit voters too shifted to the BJP.

The BJP's 282 MPs in the Lok Sabha included 40 Dalits, who won from reserved seats and another six belonged to the Lok Janshakti Party and the Telugu Desam Party, allies in 2014.

This is the reason the BJP could win so handsomely despite being out of the race for 15 per cent of the vote.

The last few months have brought new questions on this as Dalit anger and assertion are rising across the country.

It started much earlier, with Rohith Vemula and Una.

But with the rise of young and articulate Dalit leaders, mostly out of student and grassroots politics, and Bhima-Koregaon onwards to the latest protests over the Supreme Court's order on the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the post-2014 approach -- never-mind-the-Muslims, we will contest in a pool of 85 per cent voters -- is looking tricky because continued Dalit anger threatens to reduce it to a perilous 70 per cent.

This is the message from three of the party's Dalit MPs in Uttar Pradesh who have complained publicly.

In an article in the Deccan Chronicle (August 31, 2016), Sanjay Kumar, leading psephologist at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, confirmed that the BJP had got more Dalit votes in 2014 than ever before.

'Over the last several Lok Sabha elections,' he wrote, 'roughly 12 to 14 per cent Dalits voted for the BJP'.

In 2014, this number doubled to 24 per cent, putting the BJP's Dalit vote share ahead of the Congress (19 per cent) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (14 per cent).

The recent Dalit impatience threatens these gains.

It is complicated further by the alliance between the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party. How potent this can be was evident in the Gorakhpur and Phulpur bypolls.

An important fact also is that the BSP, not contesting, was able to transfer its vote.

The three UP MPs who complained are reflecting this new insecurity.

New images are also emerging to add to the earlier ones, from Vemula to Bhima-Koregaon, notably that of an upper-caste man firing at a crowd of Dalit protestors in Gwalior.

The fact is, the government hardly had a role to play in the Supreme Court order on the SC/ST Act. Nor, on a careful reading of the order, does it seem like a dilution of a good law.

The sharp, nation-wide Dalit reaction and protests show a pent-up anger brimming over.

This the prime minister and BJP President Amit A Shah cannot overlook or presume that, come 2019, the 'Modi magic' will subsume everything.

They cannot afford to lose any of the 24 per cent Dalit vote of 2014.

Their overall party tally was 31 per cent and without a fourth of the Dalits again voting for them, it will be impossible to maintain that percentage.

The party you'd presume has already maxed out with the upper castes.

That is the reason the prime minister spoke out so strongly on reservations and the well-publicised Shah meal at a Dalit home in Odisha.

The latest phase of Dalit assertion is essentially different from the past.

With many more going to school and college, and easy availability of the Internet, it is a much more aware generation.

Its aspirations are not limited to physical protection, food, shelter and preservation of traditional avocations.

The young Dalit now wants to break out of that trap.

Social media and WhatsApp are also enabling them to network across states.

A young leader and first-time MLA such as Jignesh Mevani could attract a sizeable crowd almost anywhere in north, central and western India.

This Dalit rise is also more ideological than in the past.

The tone and tenor is distinctly Left, and therefore compulsively anti-BJP.

Until 1989, the BJP believed that it wasn't able to win because of caste divisions in Hindu society.

L K Advani first acknowledged it and embarked on a project (through Ayodhya) to use religion to re-stitch what caste had divided. It worked to a great extent.

But it ran its course and caste loyalties did not remain subdued for long.

As a result, in the entire heartland, the BJP got power only patchily.

In Uttar Pradesh, where it once had a majority, Mayawati and Mulayam/Akhilesh took turns to be chief minister eight times, with Mayawati and Akhilesh getting a full term each.

The combination Modi-Shah employed in 2014 was more potent than Advani's a quarter century earlier.

They brought in unapologetic Hindutva nationalism, combined with Modi's magnetism and the achhe din promise that looked convincing because of his Gujarat record.

This again overpowered all caste-based parties as the BJP made a spectacular sweep of the heartland.

This would not have been possible without sizeable votes coming in from unlikely sections of Hindu society -- the OBCs and Dalits.

The latter is under a threat now.

As the caste see-saw shifts yet again, disaffections of anti-incumbency, lack of jobs, rise of a powerful upper-caste chief minister in Uttar Pradesh (the first upper caste in 15 years) have all combined to bring caste back in the equation.

The BJP has been quick to realise this, Modi and Shah are speaking.

But they have three problems: First, they do not have any prominent and convincing Dalit voices.

Second, while in the past the BJP had produced a star-cast of OBC leaders including Modi and Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the post-2014 phase has seen the rise of upper castes, notably in large states like Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.

And third, they may have left it too late, with their party and intelligence machinery failing to pick up the rising Dalit frustration early enough.

The party, however, has joined the issue now.

How much damage control it can do will have a crucial bearing on the numbers in 2019.

By special arrangement with ThePrint
'The political leadership is not realising that it is dividing the uniform on the lines of religion.'

'This will lead to anarchy.'



IMAGE: Kind courtesy the Mumbai Police calendar 2018.

Dr Meeran C Borwankar was Maharashtra's first woman commissioner of police and the officer in charge of the hangings of Ajmal Kasab and Yakub Memon.

Dr Borwankar was one of the 49 retired civil servants who wrote to Prime Minister Narendra D Modi, telling him that 'In post-independent India, this is our darkest hour and we find the response of our government, the leaders of our political parties inadequate and feeble.'

"It is most important for society, for the uniform, to be above religion. Otherwise, whom will we look up to if we feel this police station is aligned to Hindutva and this police station to a minority?" Dr Borwankar, below, left, tells Rediff.com's Archana Masih.

It took the rape victim in Unnao 10 months to register an FIR against a powerful MLA and an order from the Allahabad high court to get him arrested.

Why is filing an FIR still so difficult in our country?

This is an endemic problem all over the country, but not like this, that for one year the FIR is not registered.

This shows absolute Jungle Raj.

You can always close it as a false complaint in case you conclude it is a false case, but not registering it for one year despite the girl protesting and making an arrest only after court intervention is Jungle Raj.

Why is there a reluctance to register an FIR?

The police immediately registers cases in murders, dacoity and in other cases. Reluctance is also because of overwork.

A citizen walks into a police station, but the policeman doesn't see him as az citizen, but as an extra load of work.

His shift is 12 to 14 hours long and he may not like to take your case.

I feel the way out is that officers at the reception who take down your complaint should not be investigating officers.

It should be then distributed to officers who should not be made to work beyond 8 hours.

They are overworked, that is why they are impolite, rude, arrogant. Not because of their nature, but because of 365 days of work load.

I am also very distressed that in the Unnao case there was such political pressure on the police.

I feel myself a failure that we have not been able to convince the police officer to register a case immediately.

The Kathua rape chargesheet not only says that an SHO raped the child, but two policemen washed her clothes to destroy evidence.

This should not be considered a norm in the police at all. It is extremely, extremely, rare.

I agree that late registration or the reluctance to register an FIR is common, but the washing of the victim's clothes? Only 1 in 1 lakh policemen will do such a thing.

This is unheard of. If this is proved in the court of law, the policeman is going to suffer very badly.

Have you come across instances of destruction of evidence by the police in your career?

I have not come across destruction of evidence, but I have come across instances of policemen responding to the religious call than to professional duty.

This fanaticism -- though very minor -- has crept into the police.

What should be done to reform the police force and sensitise them?

Rationalise duty hours so that they are neither able to justify their corrupt practices or their rude, arrogant behaviour to citizens.

Punish those who deviate from that.

Mind you when it comes to punishment, the police department takes maximum action. No other department does that.

Frequent in service training, sensitisation to gender, minorities should also help.

Have you faced pressure from politicians in the discharge of your duties?

Yes, many a times. Initially, you face pressure and then your reputation builds up.

I have gone to the extent of telling a politician that only the President of India can take action against me.

Every officer has to decide where s/he shall draw a line. Political pressure is a reality in any bureaucrat or police officer's life.

As police commissioner of Pune, a political party wanted to give 2 acres of police station land to a company to develop an IT hub.

I refused despite tremendous political pressure. I am happy I proved true to the salt of the police.

Many officers don't consider it difficult to stand up to pressure, we are in the department for this purpose, otherwise what is the point of the IPS?

But as a society we must pitch for Constitutional-minded police officers and bureaucrats.

48 bureaucrats and yourself sent a letter to the prime minister saying this was India's darkest hour. What troubles you most about our times?

There have been many darkest hours -- Partition, the Emergency, Sikh riots -- one of the darkest hours is today because Dalits, minorities are alienated, women are suppressed and oppressed. The population is feeling insecure.

The letter said civil servants fail to do their duty.

What better example of this than Unnao and Kathua?

Two officers taking money for a cover-up in Kathua, and not making the arrest in Unnao -- are examples of service officers failing.

What has shocked you most about the conduct of the protectors of law in these two cases?

Maybe Maharashtra (where she served) is a better administered state.

During the Jalgaon sex scandal which I investigated, the message was don't spare anybody irrespective of political parties.

Police officers have to have a backbone. I would have exposed those putting pressure on me not to make an arrest, luckily that didn't happen.

In UP, the court intervened and then the arrest happened. It is very, very, distressing.

The lesson is to make the police autonomous so that it does not come under pressure and hold them accountable.

They should be answerable to the DG (director general) of police or the Police Compliant Authority.

At the same time if we are pointing fingers at politicians, we also have to introspect at the police level.

From the Jalgaon sex scandal that you investigated in 1994 to now, what changes have you seen in the manner law enforcement agencies deal with sexual violence?

The changes have come after the Nirbhaya case.

There are many positive changes in the IPC (Indian Penal Code), CRPC (Criminal Procedure Code) under which we investigate crime.

The law is in favour of the victim and the prosecution branch gets very good points in its favour for strengthening the prosecution.

But the ground reality is quite different.

Why are rapes so rampant in India?

Why does it come into the picture after it is reported?

Isn't it a social disgrace that we have so many rapes?

Many are in favour of capital punishment, but the fear is also true that rapists will start murdering the child.

How do you look back at the Jalgaon sex scandal that you investigated?

In the Jalgaon case, getting them convicted was a difficult task. The earliest case was registered six months after the rape.

As a professional police officer I knew my cases were weak.

It depends on how the judge assesses the investigation.

I was very amused to realise that recently when I went to Jalgaon to speak to school students, a hall booked for my talk was cancelled because it belonged to one of the accused in the Jalgaon sex scandal.

You say a policeman can be swayed by his/her religious feelings. How dangerous is that?

It is extremely dangerous.

We feel the political leadership is not realising that it is dividing the uniform on the lines of religion.

It will ultimately be a dead end. It is most important for society, for the uniform, to be above religion.

Otherwise, whom will we look up to if we feel this police station is aligned to Hindutva and this police station to a minority?

This will lead to anarchy.

Now that you spend a lot of time giving talks post-retirement, what is that you are asked about the most by your audience?

People are most curious about the Kasab and Yakub Memon hangings -- but students are more curious about the civil services and how to be good citizens.

What do they want to know about the hangings?

Many are most aghast that a lady could see the actual hanging. I feel people underestimate our gender.

So many times I am asked if I fainted, or if I was really present.

I tell them presence is a very small part in an execution, the big legal work involved, managing the prison at that particular time, and keeping it secure is much more important.

The curiosity is more about my gender witnessing the execution.

These two executions were part of my career.

I like interacting with young boys and girls. They have zest and enthusiasm.

I strongly feel that the next generation will do better than us. Somehow, my generation has failed the country.

I see a lot of honesty, enthusiasm and selflessness amongst the youth today. I hope they do not get divided on the lines of caste/religion, but value the diversity. And are tolerant, which is the basic Indian ethos.
IMAGE: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj during SCO Foreign Ministers' meeting in Beijing. Photograph: @MEAPhotogallery/Flickr

In a veiled attack on Pakistan, India on Tuesday asserted that arguments of 'political convenience' to provide an alibi for terrorist organisations are no longer tolerable and the international community should identify states that provide 'sanctuary' to terror groups.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, addressing separate meetings of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Beijing underlined India's strong opposition to cross-border terrorism and the urgent need to build a strong security architecture to combat the threat posed by it.

India also did not endorse China's controversial Belt and Road Initiative at the SCO Foreign Ministers' meeting while the rest of the eight-member bloc backed the pet project of President Xi Jinping.

In her address at the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers' meeting, also attended by Pakistan Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif, Swaraj raised the issue of global terrorism.

There are a number of challenges that are being faced by the world today, foremost being the threat of global terrorism and the imminent need to build a strong security architecture to combat it, she said.

"Terrorism is an enemy of the basic human rights: of life, peace and prosperity," Swaraj said.

The criminal terrorist militias are not impeded by borders as they seek to destroy the architecture of international stability and build walls of fear in societies that believe in pluralism, she said.

"We strongly believe that our fight against terrorism should not only seek to eliminate terrorists but should also identify and take strong measures against states that encourage, support and finance terrorism and provide sanctuary to terrorists and terror groups," Swaraj said without mentioning any country.

Addressing the SCO Defence Ministers' meeting, Sitharaman raised the issue of cross-border terrorism and said the world has now realised that there are no good terrorists.

"Arguments of political convenience to provide an alibi for terrorist organisations that support terrorism through material support or otherwise are no longer tolerable. Indeed, as the world has now realised, there are no good terrorists," she said, in the presence of Pakistan Defence Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan.

India and Afghanistan blame Pakistan for providing safe havens to terror groups such as Lashkar-e-Tayiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, the Taliban and the Haqqani Network.

The Haqqani network has carried out a number of kidnapping and attacks against the United States' interests in Afghanistan. The group is also blamed for several deadly attacks against Indian interests in Afghanistan, including the 2008 bombing of the Indian mission in Kabul that killed 58 people.

"We must adopt an uncompromising approach towards the persisting threat of terrorism in Afghanistan. India is committed to assist Afghanistan in regaining stability, including cooperation in building capabilities of Afghan security forces," the defence minister said.

Swaraj said maiming and killing innocent lives indiscriminately, constitutes the most blatant violation of human rights.

"We have to work together to wipe-out this scourge from the face of the earth. In order to realise this objective, we must unite across our differences, strengthen our resolve and script an effective strategy against terror. We welcome the clarity shown by the SCO on terrorism from its inception.

"We should also urgently resolve to establish Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism that India proposed more than two decades ago in the United Nations. We are determined to consistently strengthen cooperation within the SCO framework for comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security," Swaraj told the SCO foreign ministers.

The SCO, headquartered in Beijing, was founded in 2001.

Comprising China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, India and Pakistan, the SCO aims at military cooperation between the member states and involves intelligence sharing, counter-terrorism operations in Central Asia and joint work against cyber terrorism.

India and Pakistan were admitted last year into the organisation in which China plays an influential role.

No support to Belt and Road Initiative

'The foreign ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan reiterated their support for the 'Belt and Road Initiative' proposed by China,' said a joint statement issued by SCO Foreign Ministers at the end of their one-day meeting on Tuesday.

India's name was conspicuously missing from the list of countries which endorsed the BRI in which China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is a part.

'The parties support the use of the potential of countries, international organisations and multilateral institutions in the region to establish a broad, open and mutually beneficial partnership in the SCO region,' the statement said.

Differences should not become disputes, Sitharaman tells Chinese defence minister

Differences should not lead to disputes in relations between India and China, Sitharaman told her Chinese counterpart General Wei Fenghe in the backdrop of the strain in ties between the two countries after the Doklam standoff.

Sitharaman's remarks came as she met Wei during which both sides reviewed defence ties between the two countries. This is Sitharaman's maiden visit to China post Doklam.

During the meeting, she congratulated Wei for his appointment as the defence minister last month. "You have been assigned a major responsibility," she said.

"This is my first visit to China after becoming defence minister. We view India-China relations as an important relationship in our foreign policy," she told Wei, regarded a close confidant of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

As two large developing countries engaged in their national modernisation, India-China relations transcend bilateral dimensions and will have bearings on regional and global context, she said.

"We are guided in our relations with China by the consensus reached between our leaders that at the time of global uncertainty, India-China relations could be a factor of stability and that we must not allow our differences to become disputes," she said.

Welcoming Sitharaman, Wei said that China attaches great importance to her visit.

"Your attendance at the meeting in China will further deepen our military relations and enhance the development of security cooperation of the SCO," Wei said.
IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a gathering at Mandla in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday. Photograph: Press Information Bureau of India

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said sons have to be made more responsible for a safe environment for daughters and asserted that the promulgation of an ordinance on rape showed the Centre acted on people's outrage on sexual crimes against minors.

Days after the government approved the ordinance allowing courts to award the death penalty to those convicted of raping girls below the age of 12 years, Modi also called for a social movement to ensure the safety of girls.

"Shivraj ji (Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan) just referred to the capital punishment provided in the ordinance for rape against minors and I could see that it (the remark) received cheers from everyone present here," Modi said while addressing a rally in Madhya Pradesh's Mandla district.

"There is a government in Delhi which listens to your voice and takes decisions. So, the Centre has made a provision for capital punishment to the monstrous intent," he said.

The Union cabinet had on April 21 okayed the ordinance amid a nation-wide uproar over the rape and murder of minors in Kathua and Surat and the rape of a teenager in Unnao.

"Those who commit such ghastly crimes will hang," the prime minister said.

Modi, while addressing the National Panchayati Raj Sammelan at Ramnagar in Mandla district, also pitched for creating an atmosphere for daughters' safety within the family.

"Families will have to enhance the honour and respect of daughters. Families should also make their sons more responsible.

"In this way, the safety of daughters would not be a difficult task. We have to launch a social movement in this direction," Modi said.

He also mentioned measures taken by the government for the welfare of tribals and farmers and asked the elected representatives of panchayats to ensure that these steps were implemented.

"Earlier, bamboo was considered a tree and it was hard for the villagers to use bamboo (wood). Now the government has categorised it as grass. Farmers can grow bamboo on the boundaries of their farmland and have an additional income," Modi said.

The country imports bamboos worth Rs 12,000-15,000 crores every year, he said.

The prime minister also urged panchayat representatives to spend National Rural Employment Guarantee Act funds during the summer months of April, May and June only on works related to water conservation.

"We should work for saving rain water. Panchayats should spend NREGA funds on water conservation during April, May and June. Every drop of rain should be conserved. This would not only save our money but also save villages from water shortages and help in agriculture," he said.

In his speech at the rally in the tribal-dominated district, Modi also referred to the role of members of tribal communities and others in India's freedom struggle, and said it was unfortunate that only the contribution of a few families was mentioned in its history.

"To highlight the contribution of those people who have played a major role in the freedom struggle since 1857, a museum will be set up in every state to remember those who sacrificed their lives for the country's independence so that new generations will come to know about their sacrifice," he said.

On the occasion of National Panchayati Raj Day, Modi also urged people in rural areas to focus on "Jan Dhan, Van Dhan and Gou Dhan" (human wealth, forest resources and the bounty of cows) to develop villages as envisaged by the Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi.

"By 2022, when the country celebrates the 75th anniversary of its independence, we should strive to make villages as envisioned by Mahatma Gandhi. It can be done by using villages' manpower for developing villages, Van Dhan by collecting neem seeds for coating urea and Gou Dhan by using cow dung for producing electricity, bio-gas and manure for becoming self-reliant," Modi said.

He also called upon them to opt for bamboo farming and honey cultivation to raise their earnings.

During his visit here, the prime minister also laid the foundation stone for an LPG bottling plant at Maneri in the district.

The Rs 120-crore plant will supply LPG cylinders to all neighboring districts including Balaghat, Singrauli, Rewa, Shahdol and Jabalpur.

He called upon the public representatives to ensure that people in their respective panchayats were fully covered under the Jan-Dhan programme and the Prime Minister's Insurance Scheme which only needed a premium of 90 paise.

Even the poor, who could be smoking a beedi which cost more than that every day, could afford 90 paise, he said.

Modi also handed over a cheque of Rs 2 lakh to a woman who lost her husband as a beneficiary of the insurance scheme.

"There is no problem of a budget. But there is a problem of priorities and transparent implementation of the developmental schemes. Public representatives can play a major role in it," he added.

Earlier, Modi launched a scheme that seeks to strengthen the country's Panchayati Raj system and address the critical gaps that hinder its success.

The Central government's Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan aims at making rural local bodies self-sustaining, financially stable and more efficient.

Modi also unveiled a roadmap for the development of tribal areas of Madhya Pradesh over the next five years. Under the plan, Rs 2 lakh crore will be spent for the development of areas under tribal panchayats.
Modi was expected to arrive in Wuhan in the evening on April 26 and join Xi in the informal summit at a picturesque location the next day.

The Wuhan summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping could be as significant as the one between former premier Rajiv Gandhi and then leader of China Deng Xiaoping in 1988, the official Chinese media commented on Tuesday.

Xi and Modi will hold an "informal summit" in central China's Wuhan city from April 27 to 28 to improve bilateral relations and discuss global issues of mutual concern.

Both the leaders will try to work out a new paradigm for the bilateral ties bogged down with a host of disputes and differences.

"The meeting can be as significant as the one in 1988 when Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and then Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi met, and will set the course for bilateral ties," an op-ed in Global Times said.

Another official newspaper, the China Daily, said it remains to be seen whether the Modi-Xi summit "will live up to its billing as an unprecedented meeting" like the 1988 meeting between Rajiv and Deng.

"This (Rajiv-Deng summit) was when the two countries agreed to put their quarrels behind them. However, this has proved harder to do than say.

"Yet clearly both Beijing and New Delhi hope for something substantial from the upcoming two-day meeting, since the announcement was made on Sunday after talks between State Councilor Wang Yi and visiting Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj," the China Daily said.

In its editorial 'Xi-Modi meeting to show diplomatic wisdom of China, India', the Global Times said "Indian leaders attach importance to reciprocity in diplomacy. After visiting China in 2015, Modi attended the Ninth BRICS Summit in Xiamen last year and will attend the summit of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Qingdao in June".

He is visiting China before June to meet Xi. This unusual move highlights how much the two sides value this meeting, it said.

The tabloid which is attached to the ruling Communist Party of China's official publications and known for its anti-India rhetoric said: "within China, hostility toward India is being replaced by hopes for friendly ties. The two countries need more communication to enhance mutual trust and eliminate the possibility of another border crisis".

"Asian powers and emerging countries, both China and India share many common interests in international affairs. They both have to strive for the right to develop and face Western pressure on issues like trade and intellectual property rights. There is large room for economic cooperation.

"Many conflicts between China and India broke out due to a lack of trust or at Western instigation, like the border disputes and so-called dragon-elephant competition," it said.

The US and Japan began underscoring Indo-Pacific strategy last year in an explicit attempt to rope in India against China. But the strategy hasn't brought India any strategic benefit except to trigger vigilance between New Delhi and Beijing, it said.

China and India cooled down soon after the Dokaam standoff, which indicates the solid foundation for ties. The West wanted China and India to confront each other, but it didn't work out that way, it said.

China and India have a more robust economic development than other emerging countries and are both independent. Any attempt to manipulate the way they deal with each other will likely fail, it said.

The cooperation of two countries, home to about 40 per cent of the global population, is highly significant for the whole world, it said.

The China Daily editorial said "there is good reason for optimism" for Modi-Xi summit.

The previous meeting between Xi and Modi in Xiamen last September and it produced an end to the tense border standoff (Doklam) that had been souring relations for months, it said.

"That incident was a reminder to the two proud neighbours that they must manage their border issues, or they will continue to trouble them.

"While third parties may profit from a deteriorating China-India relationship, the two countries themselves will not. They should be vigilant of others seeking to benefit at the expense of their friendly relations and recalibrate their relationship so it serves more constructive purposes," it added.

Though there were informal get-togethers organised by Chinese leaders with foreign dignitaries, it was part of state visits.

The idea for a such a summit was mooted when Modi and Xi met during the BRICS summit at Xiamen last year in the backdrop of the Doklam standoff and evolved steadily over the months with high-level meetings starting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Delhi last December.

Modelled on the 1988 ice-breaking summit between former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and Chinese paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, the summit would look at the big picture of India-China relations.

Modi-Xi will not sign agreements but build trust to resolve bilateral issues: China

Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping will not sign any agreements or issue a joint statement at the Wuhan summit this week but they will try to build mutual trust and reach important consensus to resolve the outstanding issues, a top Chinese official said.

"Both sides have agreed not to sign an agreement or release any joint document but reach important consensus to resolve outstanding issues," Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou told the media here on the two-day summit.

This informal summit is the first of its kind and there is no precedent in each other's country, he said, explaining why both the leaders opted to hold the summit.

"At the informal summit, the two leaders will have heart-to-heart discussions on overarching issues and try to build mutual trust and consensus to resolve outstanding differences," Kong said.

Asked whether the Doklam issue and the boundary dispute will figure in the talks, Kong said Doklam happened because of lack of trust.

"The two countries need to create conditions and trust between them to resolve the boundary issue," he added.

The summit will mostly be one-on-one where they will devote most of the time to discuss the big picture of the India-China relations rather than specific issues, official sources said.

Sources said that the summit is not the platform where the two leaders will discuss specific issues like the UN ban on Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group chief Masood Azhar and tick off one by one.

A veto-wielding permanent member of the UN Security Council, China has repeatedly blocked India's move to designate Azhar a global terrorist under the Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UNSC.

The two leaders will have free-flowing discussions and no agreements were expected to be signed, they said.

Also there will be few officials present at the informal summit venue.

Most of the time the two leaders were expected to interact between themselves with the presence of just translators, official sources said.

Modi was expected to arrive in Wuhan in the evening on April 26 and join Xi in the informal summit at a picturesque location the next day. Their meetings were expected to go on till mid-day of April 28 after which the Prime Minister will return, they said.
After ploughing the van into crowd the suspect told police officers that he had a weapon and said, "Shoot me in the head."

IMAGE: Investigators view a damaged van seized by police after multiple people were struck at a major intersection northern Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Photograph: Saul Porto/Reuters

Ten people were killed and 15 others injured after a man plowed a white van into a crowd of pedestrians in Canada's biggest city Toronto on Monday.

The incident took place on Yonge Street at the corner with Finch Avenue in broad daylight.

"The actions definitely looked deliberate," Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders said.

Police arrested a suspect at the scene -- who police identified later as 25-year-old Alex Minassian from a northern Toronto suburb -- of the attack.

"Were working collaboratively not just on a local level but on a federal and provincial level," Saunders said.

"We are looking strongly at the exact motive," he added.

IMAGE: A covered body lies on a sidewalk after the van struck multiple people. Photograph: Saul Porto/Reuters



Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered condolence to the families of victims and called the attack a "tragic and senseless".

"It was with great sadness that I heard about the tragic and senseless attack that took place in Toronto this afternoon. On behalf of all Canadians, I offer my heartfelt condolences to the loved ones of those who were killed, and my thoughts for a fast and full recovery to those injured," he said in a statement.

"I thank the first responders at the scene who managed this extremely difficult situation with courage and professionalism. They faced danger without hesitation, and their efforts no doubt saved lives and prevented further injuries," the statement said.

"We should all feel safe walking in our cities and communities. We are monitoring this situation closely, and will continue working with our law enforcement partners around the country to ensure the safety and security of all Canadians," Trudeau said.

IMAGE: Toronto police begins investigation into the van attack. Photograph: Chris Donovan/Reuters

Saunders said Minassian was not known to police, and that he did not have a weapon.

Police said they did not yet know of a motive.

The driver was taken into custody after a showdown, captured on video, in which he told officers that he had a weapon and said, "Shoot me in the head."

He gestured at police with an object and then tossed it onto the ground.

IMAGE: The suspect, 25-year-old man named Alek Minassian. Photograph: Alek Minassian/LinkedIn

Canadian officials were cautious in the aftermath of the incident, saying that they would need a long investigation into one of the country's bloodiest mass killings.

Canada's public safety minister, Ralph Goodale, said that "on the basis of all available information at the present time, there would appear to be no national security connection to this particular incident."

Officers were called to the scene, on Yonge Street, around 1:30 pm (1730 GMT), police said.

IMAGE: A pedestrian, who police say was a witness to a van striking multiple people at a major intersection in Toronto's northern suburbs, reacts. Photograph: Carlo Allegri /Reuters

A white rental van with a dented front bumper was stopped on the sidewalk of a major intersection, surrounded by police vehicles.

"He was going really fast," witness Alex Shaker told CTV television.

"All I could see was just people one by one getting knocked out, knocked out, one by one," Shaker said.

IMAGE: "He was going really fast," a witness told a local news media outlet. Photograph: Carlo Allegri /Reuters

Though the act seemed "deliberate," officials did not identify a terror link.

A string of vehicle attacks have been carried out to deadly effect by extremists in a number of major cities in Europe, including London, Paris, New York and Nice.
In the order, the court also observed that working for Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh does not make a person communal and anti-social.

The special anti-terror court that acquitted five accused in the Mecca Masjid blast case held that the confessional statement of Hindu preacher Swami Aseemanand to the police, which he retracted later, was not voluntary.

The National Investigation Agency court also maintained that a person cannot be considered "communal or anti-social" only because of links to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which is not a banned organisation.

The court also dismissed the prosecution's claim that Aseemanand had confessed to his guilt to two inmates of a prison in Hyderabad, saying the Central Bureau of Investigation, which initially probed the case had not provided any documentary evidence to back its charge.

A powerful blast, triggered by remote control, had ripped through the over four centuries-old mosque in Hyderabad during an assembly of devotees on May 18, 2007 when they had gathered for Friday prayers, killing nine people and wounding 58.

Special Judge K Ravinder Reddy in his April 16 order said the confessional statement of Aseemanand was "hit by section 26 of the Indian Evidence Act and the same is not a voluntary one which was recorded during the course of police custody".

The special public prosecutor for NIA, the country's premier agency that probes terror cases, had submitted that Aseemanand gave the confessional statement in December, 2010, and retracted it four months later.

Rejecting the prosecution charge that Aseemanand had confessed his guilt to two inmates -- Maqbool Bin Ali alias Chawaish and Shaik Abdul Khaleem -- in the Chanchalguda prison, the court said there was no record to show that the duo was in the prison at the time when Aseemanand was lodged there.

"Except the oral testimony of PW (prosecution witness) 104 and PW 105, there is no other record to show that they haven been in Chanchalguda jail when Aseemanand was lodged there," the court said.

The order said Additional SP of CBI Raja Balaji, one of the investigating officers, "has not collected any documentary evidence and produced before this court" showing that the two wintesses had been in Chanchalguda jail along with Aseemanand.

The CBI official did not examine the jail superintendent and record his statement that Khaleem and Chawaish were in the prison when Aseemanad was there, it said.

In the order, the judge also observed that working for Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh does not make a person communal and anti-social.

He made the observation while referring to Devender Gupta, one of the accused, who was an RSS pracharak from Bihar.

The court said the evidence produced by the prosecution did not prove beyond reasonable doubt that Gupta, being an RSS volunteer, nurtured communal hatred.

"There were no records to show what were the communal hatred speeches of Devender Gupta being delivered at Jamtara (Jharkhand). The oral evidence given by a prosecution witness does not support the charge," he added.

"The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is not a proscribed organisation. If any person works in it, it does not give any scope that he is a communal and anti-social," the judge observed.

The court had acquitted all the five accused, who faced trial, holding that the prosecution failed to prove "even a single" allegation against them.

Besides Aseemanand and Gupta, other acquited are Lokesh Sharma, Bharat Rateshwar and Rajender Chowdary.

There were 10 accused in the case. Two accused -- Sandeep V Dange and Ramchandra Kalsangra -- are absconding, while Sunil Joshi was murdered. Investigation is continuing against two others.
With the Maharashtra government doling out pieces of the lush green Aarey forest to various utilities, the tribals living in it for generations are feeling increasingly insecure. Hepzi Anthony reports.

Photograph: Hitesh Harisinghani / Rediff.com Image: A kid looks at the Warli painting on the wall of one of the houses at Keltipada inside Aarey forest.

The Maharashtra government plans to rehabilitate all the tribals living within Mumbai's green zone of Aarey under its slum redevelopment projects within the colony.

Minister of state for housing and local Shiv Sena legislator from Aarey, Ravindra Waikar, informed this reporter that the state government is trying to rehabilitate tribals in one corner of Aarey so that the rest of the land could get freed up for developmental work.

"We have decided to change the Development Plan of the city to accommodate these people. These tribals are spread out over 185 places. If they all are housed in one place, that could be around 125 acres, then so much of land could open up for development," Waikar told Rediff.com.

The residents of Aarey, who mainly comprise Warli tribals and are Mumbai's oldest residents, are naturally on the edge over this decision. Though the development plan sounds generous on the face of it, it has led to fear and a sense of apprehension among the residents.

That these tribals occupy the largest stretch of open space available in the entire city as of now, makes all powerful lobbies, including the state government, eye this piece of land for their developmental works.

Photograph: Hitesh Harisinghani / Rediff.com IMAGE: Residential buildings on the nearby highway form a distant backdrop to the tribal hamlet inside Aarey.

That Aarey is officially declared as an eco-sensitive zone and hence a no- development area with no construction allowed in it, has not deterred them.

Waikar says the state government is already planning to amend the citys Development Plan to ensure housing schemes are allowed on a stretch of 125 acres, although only for local residents.

"The Aarey residents are human beings and it is unfair to them that they should live in constant fear of the likes of wild animals like leopards around them. They should be resettled in proper houses," Waikar justifies the decision.

The state government is also planning to rehabilitate tribal residents from the neighbouring SanjayGandhiNational Park; housing for them is being planned within Aarey within the 100 acres to be allocated to a new, proposed zoo.

Photograph: Hitesh Harisinghani / Rediff.com IMAGE: Pramila and Prakash Bhoir working on their farm inside Aarey forest.

Currently, the deputy collector (encroachment) is carrying out a survey to find the exact number of people residing there, both legal and illegal.

As the government keeps doling out pieces of the lush green Aarey forest to various government departments, the tribals living there are feeling increasingly insecure about being displaced from their own lands and their way of life.

Right from the inception of Aarey Milk Colony in 1949, when 3162 acres of green forests of Goregaon were handed over by then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru for the noble purpose of providing cheap milk to the city of Mumbai, the green patch today stands allotted piecemeal to various government and private agencies.

Initially, about 30 stables were constructed, with each unit bearing a capacity to hold over 500 animals along with an attached building for ancillary functions like chaff-cutting, hay godown and even residential accommodation for staff and cattle-owners to house animals.

Photograph: Hitesh Harisinghani / Rediff.com IMAGE: The residential quarters of the anti-terrorism unit Force One, which can be seen from Keltipada inside Aarey.

Private cattle owners from various parts of Mumbai were also encouraged to shift their buffalo stables there on rent. Currently, about 16,120 buffaloes are being reared in the 30 units of Aarey, according to the chief executive officer of Aarey Diary Development Board, Nathulal Rathod.

The State Reserve Police Force came in 1977, taking away a chunk of about 200 acres of land.

FilmCity came up here in 1989, set up by the state culture ministry to promote the film industry.

Recently, in 2009, Force One, India's premier anti-terrorism strike force, was handed over about 98 acres of land in the wake of the 26/11 terror attacks on Mumbai.

Photograph: Hitesh Harisinghani / Rediff.com IMAGE: A man washes his cattle in a stable inside Aarey forest.

And Mumbai Metro, the latest land allottee, has only added to the residents fears that they are being squeezed out of their environment.

Recently, residents of Prajapurpada were forcibly evicted and shifted to Slum Redevelopment Authority flats in Chakala, Andheri East, to make way for the Mumbai Metro carshed project. The residents objections were overruled, their protests ignored and their pleas to retain their traditional way of life, rejected.

"My parents had about 100 hens when we stayed in Aarey in 2017, that earned them a steady monthly income of about Rs 5000. After being forced into flats, they just couldn't raise the hens there. Also, no compensation was for their loss of one and a half acres of paddy field. Community bonding is also completely lost as relatives are now spread out far and wide," rues Sanjay Padvi, a bank manager who lost his family home and fields to Mumbai Metro.

In fact, many tribals allege that they are not allowed to even farm in their own farmlands, with the government itself not keen to support their demand.

Photograph: Hitesh Harisinghani / Rediff.com IMAGE: Warli painting on the walls of a house at Keltipada, one of the tribal enclaves in Aarest forest.

Activists are sceptical of the government's intentions and accuse it of being hand in glove with the powerful builders lobby eyeing the prime piece of land.

The Aarey Conservation Group, a citizens initiative which has been working to protect the forest from the harmful impact of development, is also opposed to the displacement of tribals.

"The government has been doling out land to various projects but they are not bothered about the people affected by these projects," complains Cassandra Nazareth, who works for Aarey tribal womens welfare and is part of the ACG.

"These are the original residents of Mumbai, the sons of the soil here, and its actually Mumbai's urban-dwellers who are the encroachers. These tribals have been living here for centuries but now they are being served with eviction notices, not allowed to carry out alterations in their own homes and even denied permissions to rebuild their houses. The government cannot force these people out," she says.

Photograph: Hitesh Harisinghani / Rediff.com IMAGE: Prakash Bhoir shows off the ivy gourd grown in his farm inside Aarey forest.

Stalin Dayanand, director (conservation) of non- government organisation Vanashakti, felt that rapid allocation of land from Aarey probably had to do with the fact that the forest is currently the largest land bank available in Mumbai, which the state is trying to usurp. Vanashakti is fighting many legal battles to save Aarey and has even approached the National Green Tribunal.

"The government is even trying to take over the buffer zone between Aarey and the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, which is declared as an eco-sensitive zone and hence is a no-development area. With the 2019 elections round the corner, there is an undue haste on the part of the government to clear as many projects to private entities within this space.

The tribal people are being short-changed by the government with the help of developers. The government cannot deny them their fields in the name of development. They cannot be put in 250 sq ft flats. Is the government going to take care of their livelihood or hand out Rs 15-20,000 per month to them?" asks Dayanand.

This is also what the local people are uneasy about -- of being pushed into small, dingy flats, away from their farms and the wide spaces around them.

"We live with our hens and goats. Farming is our source of livelihood. We are the sons of the soil and do not wish to lose touch with our base. How can we continue with our livelihood from flats? The authorities even refuse to let us grow our crops. What will our young boys do?" says Sita Umbersade, a resident of Navsachapada, one of the 27 tribal enclaves in Aarey colony.

"Local residents have already successfully got orders from the Bombay high court that indigenous people like them cannot be put under SRA. They are eligible to receive land for land and house for house (not a flat) under the Maharashtra Urban Transport Planning Act. Aarey has a Floor Space Index of 3, which means a house could be built three times. Its like taking away their 3000 sq ft house and putting them in 269 sq ft flats," observes Amrita Bhattacharjee of ACG.

Prakash Bhoir of tribal welfare group Shramjeevi Sanghatana, points out that the community is keen to hold on to its traditional way of living amidst the lush green fields. Their livestock rearing also continues to provide a steady source of income for many families in the midst of a concrete jungle like Mumbai.

"We are dependent on our farms and fruit trees like mango and jackfruit. We grow leafy vegetables, cucumber, ladies finger, snake gourd etc during the monsoons. Lack of availability of water sources hampers our farming, as well as denial of farming rights by various authorities that now claim ownership over our land," says Bhoir.

Amidst all this, people like Asha Bhoye await their fate with fear, uncertainty and despair. Her neighbours recently received eviction notices from the Mumbai Metro project and she knows her turn will come soon.

"Who would want to leave Aarey and get into a flat?" says Bhoye. She wants to continue rearing her hens and grow crops on her half-acre farm, but is unsure if she will be able to do that for long.

Its a dream that Maximum City isn't letting them live.
'I returned to jail at 4.45. I was body searched and sent back to my cell.'

'A bowl of dal was kept there covered.'

'Another guard gave me a tablet and I became unconscious.'

Accused One spoke about a similar incident happening to her in October 2015 and also with a bowl of dal.

Vaihayasi Pande Daniel reports from the Sheena Bora trial.

Illustration and animation: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com

Plenty was spoken in court on Monday, April 23, at the Sheena Bora murder trial.

Volumes.

Between Kajal Sharma* and Kavita Patil*.

Between Judge Jayendra Chandrasen Jagdale* and Kajal Sharma.

Between Sharma and Sudeep Pasbola*.

Between Kavita Patil and Pasbola.

Between Judge Jagdale and Patil.

Between Gunjan Mangla* and Judge Jagdale.

Between Pasbola and Bharat Badami*.

Between Indrani Mukerjea and Judge Jagdale.

But much more was conveyed through a few unspoken moments at Courtroom No 51 at the Mumbai city civil and sessions court.

Like how the courtroom suddenly developed a crisp, office-like, atmosphere when, standing in the witness box, Kajal Sharma, Indrani Mukerjea's former assistant, began to carefully check receipts, deposit slips, letters and documents.

You knew a secretary was deposing evidence because of the methodical and efficient way in which Sharma inspected each piece of paper shown to her by Special Public Prosecutor Kavita Patil.

The caution and thoroughness, with which she did so, also gave you a good sense of why Indrani kept Sharma on her staff for so many years.

Or like the wretched discomfort, that hung silently in the air, when Sudeep Pasbola, Indrani's lawyer, asked Sharma, over and over again, that didn't she think forging Sheena's signature and opening an e-mail account in the then dead girl's name was wrong.

Or like that peculiar moment at the end of Sharma's deposition of evidence, when she was asked by Patil to identify Accused 1 Indrani Mukerjea and Accused 4 Peter Mukerjea.

In slow motion Sharma's head swivelled clock-wise, her eyes roving carefully around the room, from left to right.

They alighted on Peter and lit up. With an outstretched arm, she pointed him out, exclaiming, "Peter Sir."

Peter, who was standing in the accused enclosure at the back, waved at her.

Then she identified Indrani, who seemed unaware, unusually, of the exercise in progress and was sitting between Peter and Sanjeev, her head bent over, looking at her papers.

Again Sharma pointed.

Indrani looked up and gave a sort of half wave.

Sharma and Indrani first looked guardedly at each other and then each of their faces broke into rather warm smiles.

The oddness of this identification process -- more like a fan greeting two stars, rather than a witness pointing out the accused in a murder case -- must have been reflected on Special Public Prosecutor Bharat Badami's face.

CBI Special Judge Jagdale chided him with a grin, "Kya Badami Sahib, the world is changing," and said something to the effect that things were not what they were like 40 years ago.

Kajal Sharma's second day in the witness box began as expected.

Patil, wearing a black-and-white-patterned sari, continued from where she had left off with Indrani's former personal assistant on April 18, when the evidence dwelt on the resignation letter Sharma signed for Sheena and sent in to Mumbai Metro One (where Sheena had worked), on instructions received from Indrani, by telephone and e-mail, from Britain:

Patil: "Sheena ke naam mein pe, jo Mumbai Metro ko resignation letter likha tha, dekhenge toh pahchanege? (Will you be able to recognise the resignation letter you wrote to Mumbai Metro in Sheena's name?)"

Sharma: "Ji (Yes)."

The two court lady clerks, always starchily efficient, you note admiringly, in spite of the odds, and in total control of the vast kingdom of legal papers, wrapped in a series of red cloth bundles, they rule, pulled out a sheet of white paper.

Sharma examined it closely. She confirmed it was the resignation letter.

Patil: "Yahi hai woh letter? (Is that that letter?)"

Sharma, in a short white kurti, blue jeans, those black pointed flats and a dot of sindhoor in her hair, studying every corner of the paper in the file for a good two minutes, slowly and with certainty said: "Ha (Yes)."

Patil: "Sign kisne kiya? (Who signed it?)"

Sharma: "Mein ne kiya (I did)."

Judge Jagdale: "What kind of document is it?"

Sharma: "Resignation letter."

Patil: "Kis naam se? (In whose name?)"

Sharma: "S Bora."

Patil: "Kiske behalf kiska signature? (On whose behalf whose signature?)"

Sharma: "Sheena Bora."

Patil: "Who has prepared this letter?"

Sharma: "I had taken the printout. The matter was prepared by Indrani."

Patil asked for the envelope of the letter.

The clerks fished it out and presented it to Sharma.

Sharma: "Mera handwriting nahin hai. Shayad Pradeep (Waghmare, office boy at INX Media) ka hai (It is not my handwriting. Maybe it is Pradeep's)."

The 'termination of leave and license' letter was produced, that Sharma also signed on Sheena's behalf and handed over in 2012 to the Mukerjeas' then driver Shyamvar Pinturam Rai, to be taken to the landlord of the flat Sheena had rented.

That letter too she perused intently and said it was the paper given to Rai.

After a pause, examining the paper again and again, she declared: "Excuse me, but yeh xerox hai (This is a xerox/photocopy). This is not an original."

Patil then requested the judge that she would ask Sharma to go through the document once more, since she was saying it was a photocopy.

She started asking in a roundabout way a question -- "Are you in a position..." -- about the document that Sharma had said was not an original.

Pasbola sharply cut her short and took objection, stating that could not be asked of the witness.

Judge Jagdale, mediating, inserted: "She (Sharma) has her own mind."

Patil abandoned that line of questioning and began to ask the secretary about the pen drive and laptop she had been using from INX Media and what happened to it.

Sharma said she had handed it over to the police at the Khar police station, north west Mumbai.

Patil moved to the next document she wanted to show Sharma: "Yeh paper dekho. Aapka sign hai? (See this paper. Does it have your signature?)"

Pasbola got to his feet and in a reasonable tone said, "Again I have to object. The document is being thrust on the witness... You can't just put a document in her hand. That is leading the evidence... Don't surprise her the way you have been surprising her."

Patil denied Pasbola's accusation. She started introducing a sequence of further documents. Some were paying-in slips to banks. Others were payment receipts and then a receipt from a courier company, through which the resignation letter was sent.

A series of questions were put to Sharma, by Patil, about how money was deposited into Rai's account, whose signatures were on the slips, how could she recognise Indrani's signature, how much money was sent to the company where Rai booked cars from and when and so on.

Sharma identified that most of the slips were signed by Waghmare, who usually took the cheques to the bank. The cheques were signed by Indrani.

Judge Jagdale took time out to patiently, and sometimes irritably, school Sharma on how to answer questions put to her in the witness box.

Unlike the earlier two witnesses -- police Sub-Inspector Ganesh Dalvi and Rai, who were allowed to get away with not replying or monosyllabic answers -- the judge was particular in having Sharma supply complete answers:

"You have to answer the question. See you have to explain and speak up" was Judge Jagdale's constant refrain to her, in the same or similar words.

Sharma would look solemnly at him, like an earnest pupil and rephrase her answer, keen to get it right.

A man in a white striped shirt and black jeans, who was likely her husband, sat in the first row of the courtroom, absorbedly listening to her statement to the court, his face showing no expression.

Patil continued with a line of questioning, about the documents she was having put into Sharma's hands, that irked Pasbola further and further, till he finally had had enough.

On his feet in righteous anger to Patil and the judge: "You can't lead the evidence regarding the contents of a document! This document is yet to be proved. You can't lead the contents of a document. Let us take it seriously. This is not the way!"

A fiery argument followed about the legal procedure of presenting a document to a witness and what questions could be asked of the witness about the document.

Pasbola laboured on about how only two questions could be asked since the document had not been proved.

Judge Jagdale looked at him in amazement, not always agreeing with Pasbola, but firmly told Patil a thing or two about the rules of evidence.

"The contents of the documents cannot be proved by oral evidence."

He was exasperated too when Patil introduced that courier receipt and supported Pasbola's contention that it was "someone else's document" and didn't concern Sharma, although the judge added drolly that what Patil was doing was actually beneficial to the defence, since the secretary was an authentic witness.

Towards the end of her deposition of evidence on Monday, Sharma spoke about the winding down of affairs at INX Media.

"November-December 2012 Indrani bolee Shyam ko nikaal dena hai, Shyam ko chodna padega (In November-December 2012 Indrani said Shyam has to go, he has to leave)."

Sharma explained that Indrani said there was not enough work to justify keeping him on as a driver.

She asked Sharma to inform Rai that he had to leave and that she could help him get another job with Star Protection Pvt Ltd run by Samir Buddha, a friend of the Mukerjeas.

Sharma: "Shyam bola nahin, aur woh gaav (Danwa, MP) jaana pasand karenge. Uske bad business down ho gaya... May 2015 mein Indrani saare saaman garage (at the Marlow building where the Mukerjeas had a flat in Worli, south central Mumbai) mein daalne ko kaha. Shift kar diya (Shyam said no. He said he preferred going home to his village. Business at INX Media was down. In May 2015 he told me to shift all the office material to the garage. It was shifted)."

Patil: "Aage kya hua? (What happened next?)"

Sharma recounted that in 2015 she heard about Indrani's arrest and she added: "Mein beech mein news mein padha, in 2016, ki Peter Sir ne mere baare mein kaha (that I spoke to him on the phone, posing as Sheena, and said to him) 'Hi Jiju, I am okay'. Jab mein yeh news padha mujhe galat laga. Mein hamesha Peter Sir ko Peter Sir address karti hu. Indrani ne kabhi us se didi bulane ko nahin kahi. Indrani ne humein kabhi instructions nahin diya ki Peter Sir ko Jiju bolne ke liye. Mein hamesha unko Peter Sir kehte the (I read in the newspaper that Peter Sir, in 2016, said I called him and said 'Jiju, I am okay'. When I read this I thought this was wrong. I always called Peter Sir as Peter Sir. Indrani never asked me to call her didi and she never gave me instructions to call Peter jiju. I always called him Peter Sir)."

As a colleague pointed out, Sharma in her testimony wavered between referring to Indrani as usko or unko, but the respectful unko was reserved for Peter.

"Jab mein yeh news mein padhi shock laga wrong bhi laga. Mein CBI ki office mein gayi bolne ke liye (When I read this in the news I was shocked and I felt it was wrong. I decided to visit the CBI office to tell them)," Sharma concluded, leaving many in the courtroom puzzling over why a young woman, no matter how brave, would volunteer to tell the formidable CBI this somewhat innocuous information.

After Sharma identified the accused, it was time for the defence to begin her cross-examination.

Judge Jagdale to Sharma gently: "Yeh aap ko question puchenge. Indrani ka advocate hai. Agar question nahin samjha (then ask him to repeat/rephrase it)."

Pasbola, in a mock -- or maybe not mock -- warning said with a smile: "Agar aapko question samajh nahin aaya toh (only if you don't understand the question)..."

Indrani's lawyer began by attacking the last part of Sharma's testimony -- about what she had read in the newspaper about Peter that led her to visit the CBI's Mumbai office.

He wanted to know the date of the newspaper in which she read the article and which newspaper and to which CBI officer she spoke to.

Pasbola's tone was not nasty, but not pleasant either.

In response Sharma, who would look Pasbola in the face, was no longer speaking gently or softly and her "nahins" were loud and mildly annoyed, before Pasbola's offence had even begun.

Some of her confidence eroded, her sangfroid slipped a bit, and she often looked down, her hands clutching the railing, but Sharma generally succeeded in keeping it together, in the face of Pasbola's initial onslaught.

Pointing to CBI Investigating Officer K K Singh, Pasbola enquired: "Yehi officer ko mila tha? (Did you meet this officer?)"

Sharma turned around and looked at Singh squarely and said: "Ji (Yes)."

Singh didn't wave, like the accused had, not ten minutes earlier, but gave his usual thoughtful half-smile that is not a smile exactly.

Judge Jagdale quipped: "Now he is useful for cross examination."

Pasbola dourly: "Has to."

Sharma initially insisted she could not remember the exact date in which she read the Hi-Jiju-I-am-Okay article on Peter.

Sharma: "Ninth ke aas paas (Around the 9th)."

Pasbola: "Kitni paper minimum padti ho? (How many papers do you read minimum?)"

Sharma: "I get Times of India, Hindustan Times and Mumbai Mirror at home. I read it in these three or in at least two of them."

Pasbola quizzically, "Local newspapers?"

Sharma agreed, "Yeh sab local newspapers hai (Yes, these are local newspapers)."

Then Pasbola slowly closed in for the kill, suggesting softly to Sharma that she did not approach the CBI and it was the other way round.

Sharma belligerently: "Nahin mein khud se gayi hu (No, I went there myself)."

Attempting to call her bluff, Pasbola wanted to know how many days after reading the newspaper article did she go to the CBI office.

Sharma was vague."Thoda der ke baad (A few days later). I don't remember the date."

Pasbola tried to pin her down: "I am asking approximately."

Sharma offered tentatively: "Ek mahina ke andar (Within a month)."

Pasbola repeating satisfied: "Ek mahina ke andar (Within a month)."

The lawyer wanted to know why she decided to approach the CBI, when she read something she considered erroneous in the newspapers. Why didn't she think of writing to the newspapers?

Sharma, disdainfully: "Us taraf dhyan hi nahin gaya (I didn't even consider it)."

Had she spoken to any press people? Again, Sharma said no, adding: "Ek-aad baar phone aaya. Mein entertain hi nahin kiya (A couple of a call came in, but I didn't entertain them)."

There was a back and forth -- a probably deliberately tangled Q and A -- between Pasbola and Sharma about her statement to the magistrate and if she had been asked to give it or gave it on her own.

Pasbola then went to his main question of the day: "Yeh jo kaam kiya, forgery Yeh dono galat kaam kiya. Galat kam hai barabar? (This job you did, forgery, both of them were wrong. Are they not wrong?)"

Sharma looked pained, "See woh situation alagh thi (It was a different situation)."

Pasbola cut her off, saying he just sought an answer to his question.

Sharma attempted to begin again, unhappily, the burden of what she did six years ago still weighing heavily on her mind, it would seem: "Situation alag thi. Mein good faith mein kiya. It was not about either property or paisa. I could never have even dreamed someone was doing this to their sister. Mein good faith mein kiya. Compulsion tha boss ka... (It was a different situation. I did it in good faith. It was not about land or money so I did it. I did it in good faith and because of the compulsion of a boss)."

Continuing after a pause, she added with some angst: Jab yeh sab patta chala, Sir then I knew ki yeh kaam galat hai. Yes sir, galat hai. I tried to disagree with her. Ek taraf boss urgent pressure dal rahi thi. Compulsion. And it did not involve money or property. Good faith mein kiya. Option nahin tha (When the whole matter emerged I knew I had done something wrong. Yes sir, it was wrong. I did try to disagree with her. On one hand it was the pressure put by a boss and the other hand I did it in good faith. I had no other option)."

Pasbola quipped: "A boss is boss."

That was where Pasbolas cross examination ended on Monday. It resumes again on Tuesday.

Badami gestured for Sharma to exit the witness stand. The former secretary headed to a chair that the tall bespectacled man, who was probably her husband, vacated for her. She sank into it gratefully and had some sips of water.

Then began the now-established routine of Peter taking permission from the judge to eat the lunch his sister Shangon Das Gupta had brought, at the back of the courtroom.

Sanjeev, newly returned from hospital, got the judge's assent, via his lawyer, to meet his brother who had come from Bengaluru.

Sharma, who was still sitting in court, turned around curiously to look at the various knots of people around each of the accused.

Indrani, wearing all white, her numerous police escort tailing her, approached the witness stand.

She stepped in, and looking distraught, addressed the judge in an agitated manner: "On April 6 I was brought to court. I would like to say that while I was in court I didn't eat anything or drink anything and nobody gave me anything to eat. I was fasting. I only met my three lawyers..."

"I returned to jail at 4.45. I met the superintendent. I was body searched and sent back to my cell. A bowl of dal was kept there covered."

"I had a bath, said my prayers. It was 5.20. I looked at the time because I had to break my fast. Another guard brought another slip of paper and gave me a tablet and I became unconscious."

Accused One spoke about a similar incident happening to her in October 2015 and also with a bowl of dal.

Indrani continued, disturbed, distrait, her eloquent eyes large in her face, the sindoor in the parting of her hair noticeable: "Sir, I fear for my life. There is a threat to my life. Someone is trying to kill me. I cannot deal with this (if it happens) a third time."

"I am constantly looking over my shoulder wondering what is going to happen next."

In a low tone, not audible to the room, the judge seemed to be assuring her and perhaps calmed her down.

Since Indrani's recent bout of hospitalisation, the trio have spent much less time on the court premises. Each of the accused spend maybe 15 minutes or so with their lawyers and relatives before heading back to jail.

*PW 3, prosecution witness No 3 and former INX Media secretary, Kajal Sharma; Special Public Prosecutor Kavita Patil; CBI Special Judge Jayendra Chandrasen Jagdale; Indrani's trial lawyer Sudeep Pasbola; Indrani's lawyer Gunjan Mangla; Special Public Prosecutor Bharat Badami; Accused One and Sheena Bora's mother Indrani Mukerjea.
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.
Selbyville, DE -- (ReleaseWire) -- 04/24/2018 --The Industry trends report "Instrument Transformer Market Size By Product, By Winding, By Installation, By Cooling, By Insulation, By Phase, By Rating, By Mounting, By Application, Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, Mexico, Germany, France, Russia, UK, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Egypt, South Africa, Nigeria, Kuwait, Oman, Israel, Turkey, Brazil, Peru, Argentina), Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2017  2024" by Global Market Insights, Inc. says Instrument Transformer Market share is expected to cross $7 billion by 2024.



Rising demand for electricity owing to rapid urbanization across the globe have instigated concerns pertaining to grid stability, which in turn will drive the instrument transformer market size. Ongoing urban migration adhered by rising infrastructural investments will further complement the deployment of effective monitoring and control T&D systems. Sustainable economic proliferation along with revamping lifestyles have led to an exponential rise in the peak load demand for energy. Hence, accruing energy demand across the globe subject to the ongoing economic and social reformation will appreciable augment the industry outlook.



France instrument transformer industry size is set to exceed USD 100 million by 2024. Stringent regulatory reforms pertaining to emissions coupled with rapid technological transitions to sustain an energy efficient grid infrastructure will comprehensively thrust the business. Inclination towards clean energy adhered by rising investments across the renewable sector will further escalate the product penetration across the country. In 2017, the French government has led forward its plan to invest over USD 20 billion toward its energy transition plan. The framework lays grounds for a segregated investment mechanism catering towards energy efficiency, renewable integration and cleaner vehicle development.



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Oil immersed in 2016, accounted for over 50% of the instrument transformer market share. Effective insulation and di-electric strength when compared to its counterparts makes its adoption preferable. Applicability across high voltage applications coupled with economical cost structure will further escalate the product penetration. The technology since inception has witnessed sheer progression owing to its higher voltage output and operational flexibility with its prime application across utility and commercial electrical networks.



Rising rural electrification demand across Asia Pacific & Africa supported by accruing investments by financial institutions including the World Bank, and Asian Development Bank (ADB) will foster the market size. Re-structuring of electrical grids across war affected nations including Iraq, Syria, and Sudan will further boost the industry growth. In addition, large scale grid integration of sustainable energy sources coupled with rapid expansion of T&D networks to sustain security of supply concerns will further proliferate the industry expansion. In 2017, the World Bank declared an investment worth USD 4 million towards expansion of an effective grid infrastructure across the Pacific Island.



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The U.S. instrument transformer market is projected to witness sustainable growth owing to rising demand for the upgradation of existing grid infrastructure along with rapid expansion of effective T&D networks. The transformer industry across the nation has witnessed significant upsurge on account of favourable regulatory reforms pertaining to energy efficiency and grid stability. Ongoing trends subject to the adoption of sustainable technologies along with briskly advancing monitoring & control technologies will further embellish the business outlook.



Asia Pacific instrument transformer market is set to grow over 7% by 2024. The industry in the recent years has witnessed an appreciable escalation on grounds of favourable renewable integration reforms coupled with increasing rural electrification demand. Large scale migration across urban areas along with rapid expansion of utility-based electricity networks to cater the rising energy demand will comprehensively thrust the business growth.



Eminent players across the instrument transformer market include ABB, GE, Siemens, Crompton Greaves, Amran Inc, ITL, Weidmann, Raychem RPG, Meramec, ITEC, Schneider Electric, KONCAR, HEYI Electrical, EATON, Toshiba, TRENCH, BHEL, Mitsubishi, DENT Instruments, Mehru, Celme and Ruhstrat.



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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.
Pembroke Pines, FL -- (ReleaseWire) -- 04/24/2018 --With the advancement of technology, pizza delivery has gained momentum in various parts of the world. Earlier, people had to wait in the long queue to get their pizza, or any other food items. However, the emergence of new apps has remarkably facilitated the delivery process.



Now, pizza delivery has become an everyday indulgence for many people across Florida, thanks to Pizza Machine for the quality pizza delivery in Weston and Hollywood, Florida. With them around, no one will have to worry about placing the order. The restaurant offers traditional Italian pies, along with hoagies, wings, burgers, and more.



This reliable service will save one the hassle of running to the grocery store, cooking a meal, and washing dishes. One will have to simply place the order to have the pizza delivered quickly at the doorstep without standing in the long queue. One can save even more time by scheduling pizza delivery in advance.



Pizza delivery is also an effective way for families to save money. One can feed a large group of people relatively affordable by ordering a pizza. Cooking a gourmet meal at home or sitting to eat at a restaurant can always be an expensive affair.



After a day of work, it becomes challenging to prepare a meal. Having the pizza delivered at home allows one to relish an evening relaxing on the couch, while crispy, delicious pizza will satiate the taste bud. Pizza Delivery will bring both lunch and dinner convenient to one' door so that one can relax at home.



With 25 years of experience in the sleeve, the company has earned a great reputation by providing mouth-watering experience. They also offer school lunch catering program. Besides pizza, they also offer wings, burgers, sandwiches, salads, wraps, pasta, Italian entrees, and desserts.



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A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
De Beers receives approval of 23 prospecting licences in SA, awaits 31 more

24 april 2018 News

De Beers said South Africas Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) has approved 23 of the 54 prospecting licence applications lodged by its local unit.

Group head of strategic communications David Johnson told Rough & Polished in an exclusive interview that the licences approved were in the Free State, Limpopo and Northern Cape Provinces.

We remain hopeful that the remaining 31 prospecting licence applications will also be approved, he said.

We believe South Africa remains highly prospective and we hope it will remain a key focus of our exploration activities in the future.

De Beers Consolidated Mines (DBCM) chief executive Phillip Barton said last October that they had gone for two years with no response from DMR on the status of their application for the prospecting licences.

DBCM also suspended its R 40-milion annual budget for Greenfields exploration last October after talks with the then mineral resources minister Mosebenzi Zwane yielded no progress.

Sadly, over the last few years, although weve put that into our budgets, weve spent less money, to the extent where well probably next year spend no money on exploration in South Africa, Barton was quoted by Mining Weekly as saying then.

The reason for that is that as much as we want to explore in South Africa, we dont have any prospecting licences granted to us at the moment.



Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished




ZCDC offers $4 mn to acquire mothballed River Ranch, bid dismissed as ridiculous

24 april 2018 News

The Zimbabwe Diamond Consolidated Company (ZCDC) is reportedly planning to acquire Limpopo Mining Resources (LMR) also known as River Ranch Mine for a measly $4 million.

The Zimbabwe Independent reports that the state-owned diamond company was facing resistance from Rani Investments, which had filed a court application describing the offer as too ridiculous to even consider.

Rani was the majority shareholder of LMR with a stake of 80 percent, while the remaining shareholding was held by Khupukile Resources, a firm owned by the late Solomon Mujuru, husband of Zimbabwes former deputy president Joice Mujuru.

Rani said the amount offered by ZCDC constituted about 4,8 percent of the debt owed to the creditors.

LMR s debts amounted to $21,4 million and Rani Investments being the major shareholder was the major creditor with $21 million.

ZCDC chief executive officer Morris Mpofu confirmed to the weekly that his company had approached River Ranch liquidator, Winsley Militala with an offer to purchase the mine.

As you know, the mine (River Ranch) has been under liquidation as granted by the High Court for some years now. So we did reach out to the liquidator (Winsley Militala) with an offer to purchase the mine and re-open it, he said.

The liquidator is yet to get back to us on our offer. I cannot divulge details of the offer at this moment. It will be up to the liquidator, probably at the opportune moment, to lift the lid on the price tag.



Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished




On Sunday, April 22nd, Montana House representative Kathleen Williams stopped in Sidney Montana for a house party as part of her Opportunity for Montana tour. She is running for Congress and did the tour to talk with locals in different parts of Montana and learn the specific issues plaguing each area. Not many people attended so it was held in the nice, cozy dining room of a supporter's home.

After everyone got comfortable, Kathleen introduced herself and gave a little of her history. When she went to college, Kathleen started out pursuing business at her father's advice. Then discovered she was interested in natural resources and how policies are made. She got a degree in resource economics then traveled around and got a job working as nonpartisan staff for the Environment Quality council in Helena for four years. She worked as the Water Program Manager for Montana's Fish, Wildlife, and Parks for five years. It gave her a good background for her fascination with solving touchy issues. For the last four and a half years she's been with the Western Landowner's Alliance and stopped to begin her campaign for Congress. Back in 2007, when the Montana legislature could not pass a budget, it made Kathleen consider running for office. She said " Things have gotten so partisen it's just unfortunate that it divides communities." Kathleen's served in the Montana House for three terms and she feels that Congress is how the Montana legislature was in 2007, inexperienced, hyperpartisan and in need of fixing.

Then Kathleen shared the six priorities of her campaign: healthcare, fostering opportunities, protecting our environmental heritage, fostering a civil dialogue in Congress, rebuilding our place in the world, and drawing a line between hunting weapons and military grade assault rifles. Then she offered a few ideas on how those issues could be fixed such as allowing those 55 and older to buy into Medicare.Those in attendance shared a few local issues such as the lawsuit against the Lower Yellowstone Irrigation project and its ramifications, jobs, and the Dry Red Water Project. Several attendees shared their concerns about nationwide issues like healthcare, undocumented immigrants and women's health. Kathleen expressed a need for case studies on the effects of the tax plan in the taxes of individual citizens. Kathleen listened to everyone's concerns and took careful notes. She seems confident in her ability to defeat Greg Gianforte, if she can win the primary election, by holding him accountable for the things he has done while in office.
Guest Opinion

Budget problems, budget cuts and lower than expected revenue. Such has been the news from Helena this past year.

The budget cuts even hit Sidney. The Office of Public Assistance closed, ending three jobs and Richland Opportunities Inc. suffered a 3% cut for state reimbursement, which will result in a loss of more than $60,000 for their care of developmentally disabled people. Our State Health and Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP), which counsels hundreds of seniors annually regarding choosing the right Medicare Part D plan is also seeing funding threatened.

How did these budget problems happen? We were told about the strong fiscal health of Montana and low unemployment rates, record growth in Bozeman, a growing high-tech industry and another record breaking year for tourism.

Even with these positive economic indicators, Montana's budget experienced problems because our key economic drivers of agriculture and energy are struggling.

For instance, Montana has one oil and gas rig, while North Dakota has 53 and Wyoming has 30. Montana lags because of failed policy to encourage natural resource development.

The State of Montana loves the Richland County cash cow that keeps pumping revenue from oil and gas to Helena. In 2014, Richland County sent $50,547,460 in oil and gas revenue to Helena. In 2016, with oil down, this figure was still $18,723,405. Interestingly, the oil and gas revenue sent to Helena in 2014 by Richland County was more than the revenue sent by any other county in Montana, not including income taxes, even when other counties include property and vehicle taxes.

Montana lawmakers want the cash cow to keep pumping. We must bring lawmakers around to support legislation in 2019 that will promote more natural resource development. They also need to pay attention to the infrastructure needs of our area that have been overlooked now for multiple sessions. The status quo is unacceptable.

Look at how North Dakota has supported their impacted communities like Williston and Watford City where much of their state's wealth has been produced. Then look at the unfair treatment that local energy producing communities are getting in Montana. In my opinion, more oil and gas revenue produced in Richland County needs to stay in the area from which it is created to offset these impacts.

No one expects our communities will get a dollar for dollar return on the revenue they send to Helena, but it's not unrealistic for the people of Richland County to expect that we would get state financial help for our infrastructure expenses. We should be compensated for the wear and tear on roads, water systems, and strains on our county and towns due to this oil and gas development.

The current budget problems present an opportunity to talk about how Montana can promote more oil and gas development while also taking care of impacted areas. It may be a challenge, but I believe our Representative has to try. I will give this crucial problem all I have and I will be focused on delivering results for Richland County in Helena.

Joel Krautter is a Republican candidate for Representative of MT House District 35.
REMSA

Rep. Scotty Perry (R-PA-4), a member of the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure, joined representatives from Aaron Enterprises Inc., Genesee and Wyoming Inc., and other Pennsylvania businesses on April 20 for a tour and discussion of transportation policy at Aaron Enterprises' facility.

The Railway Engineering-Maintenance Suppliers Association (REMSA) coordinated the event. Located in south central Pennsylvania, Aaron Enterprises, Inc., has operated since 1976, serving as a specialty contractor practicing various disciplines related to trenchless technology.

The company has completed several projects for railroads and transit systems including CSX Transportation, Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, Amtrak and state departments of transportation, REMSA noted.

Aaron Enterprises Vice President Eric Harlacher led the April 20 tour, allowing the visitors a glimpse of the companys maintenance and fabrication shops, as well as its specialized trenchless equipment used to install underground utilities.

It was a privilege hosting Congressman Perry, Genesee & Wyoming and numerous local businesses that we work on a daily basis, Harlacher said. Our company is dedicated to serving the needs of the entire transportation industry and we appreciate the congressmans role and leadership on the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee. It is important our representatives promote policies that promote the expansion of our nations infrastructure and encourage technological innovations that will enhance safety.

Rep. Perry was elected as the United States Representative of Pennsylvanias 4th Congressional District in 2013. The House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee maintains legislative oversight the Department of Transportation, as well as Amtrak, transit and freight rail, REMSA explained.

Our rails, roads and bridges are critical to the economic success of our region, which is why we must modernize our infrastructure networks, especially here in the commonwealth. Improvements will help ensure that quality, family-sustaining jobs remain available to our citizens, Rep. Perry said. I appreciate hearing from so many job creators in the transportation industry and am committed to developing policies and ideas that move our economy forward.

The group also advocated for support of the Building Rail Access for Customers and the Economy (BRACE) Act, which officials say will allow the nations small, local freight railroads to increase their reinvestments to upgrade and expand upon first- and last-mile improvements to transportation infrastructure. Rep. Perry is a co-sponsor of the BRACE Act, REMSA noted.

The group also highlighted increased funding for the Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery, the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure & Safety Improvements and the Capital Investment Discretionary grant programs as part of the recently passed Fiscal Year 2018 Omnibus Appropriations Act. Such grant programs fund freight and passenger transportation projects that are of regional significance and enhance safety, REMSA said.

Representatives from several local companies and REMSA were also in attendance at the meeting. In addition to the the transportation industry, Aaron Enterprises serves the water, sewer, oil and gas, stormwater, electric and communications industries, officials said.
Crane Co. (CR) increased 2018 full year GAAP EPS guidance to a range of $4.75-$4.95, compared to the prior range of $4.65-$4.85. The company now expects 2018 EPS, excluding special items, of $5.45-$5.65, compared to the prior range of $5.35-$5.55. The company said its full year 2018 free cash flow is now expected to be in a range of $240-$270 million, compared to the prior range of $220-$250 million.

Crane Co. reported first-quarter earnings per share of $1.13, compared to $1.05 per share, prior year. Excluding special items, first quarter EPS increased 25% to $1.31.

First quarter sales were a record $799 million, an increase of 19% compared to $673 million in the first quarter of 2017. The company said the sales increase was comprised of a $103 million, or 15%, benefit from acquisitions, and a $28 million, or 4%, benefit from favorable foreign exchange, partially offset by a core sales decline of $5 million, or 1%.

Crane Co. also announced its regular quarterly dividend of $0.35 per share for the second quarter of 2018. The dividend is payable on June 8, 2018 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on May 31, 2018.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
Apple Inc. appointed a new leader for its in South Korea. Brandon Yoon, a veteran Microsoft Corp. executive and most recently a vice president at Samsung Electronics Co., joined this month as general manager of Apple Korea, according to reports.

In the days leading up to the iPhone X launch last year, Apple's offices in Seoul were raided by authorities. More recently, the Korea Herald reported that Apple could face penalties in Korea over pushing iPhone marketing costs on to telecom partners in the country.

In 2012, Apple fired its Korea head amid slow iPhone sales in the region. Earlier this year, Apple opened its first retail store in the country.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
Petrofac Limited (POFCF.PK,POFCY.PK,PFC.L), an oil and gas industry service provider, Tuesday announced that Petrofac International (UAE) LLC has signed an agreement to sell the JSD6000 project to Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co Ltd or ZPMC.

The transaction comprises the sale of all JSD6000 related assets held by Petrofac, including the owner furnished equipment, for a gross consideration of $190 million and a 10% interest in a new special purpose vehicle set up to own the vessel once commissioned.

Petrofac will provide technical support for the construction of the vessel, which is expected to complete in 2022. Petrofac will not contribute to the cost of construction, commissioning or testing of the vessel.

The total consideration of $190 million is offset by a net amount of $23 million retained by Petrofac under the previous hull and marine contract with ZPMC. The remaining $167 million net cash consideration will be received in tranches.

The company will get $92 million within 20 days; a further $70 million in stages as assets are physically transferred, which is expected to be over the period mid-2018 to early 2019; and, a final amount of $5 million upon commissioning of the vessel. The proceeds from the sale will be used to reduce gross debt.

Petrofac's Group Chief Executive Ayman Asfari said, "This agreement materially completes our disposal of the project, in line with our stated intention to exit the deep-water market. It is a further positive step in the execution of our stated strategy to focus on our core strengths, deliver organic growth and reduce capital intensity."

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
Swedish bank Nordea Bank AB (NRDEF.PK) announced Tuesday that the Finnish credit information company Asiakastieto Group Plc has entered into an agreement with all owners of UC AB, including Nordea, to acquire UC at a price amounting to about 340 million euros.

Nordea owns 26.1 % of the shares in UC and will receive around 2.30 million shares in Asiakastieto, equivalent to 9.6% of the shares in the company after completion of the transaction, and approximately 26 million euros in cash.

The transaction results in a capital gain amounting to about 86 million euros for Nordea, expected to be recognised in the result in the second quarter of 2018, based on Asiakastieto's share price as at April 23 of 27.30 euros.

The transaction is subject to approval from the Board of Asiakastieto to, among other things, issue new shares to be subscribed for by Nordea and the other sellers, relevant approval from competition authorities and certain other conditions.

Nordea noted that the UC and Asiakastieto combination is expected to strengthen the market position, create better growth opportunities and enable quick deliveries of innovative and cost-efficient services to customers both on the local market as well on the overall Nordic market.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
Indian shares rose on Tuesday even as the near-term economic outlook remained clouded with significant external and domestic headwinds.

The benchmark BSE Sensex ended the session up 165.87 points or 0.48 percent at 34,616.64, shrugging off a falling rupee and rising oil prices amid Middle East tensions. The broader Nifty index rose by 29.65 points or 0.28 percent to 10,614.35.

Bharti Airtel added about 1 percent before unveiling its March quarter results.

Dr Reddy's Laboratories also gained about 1 percent on receiving the establishment inspection report from the U.S. FDA for its U.K. facility.

GNFC soared 7.2 percent and Indiabulls Ventures jumped 10 percent on robust Q4 results.

Anil Ambani-led Reliance Naval Engineering slumped 13.4 percent after auditors raised doubts about the company's ability to continue as a going concern. Reliance Power tumbled 4.2 percent and Reliance Infrastructure dropped 2 percent.

Infosys fell 2.8 percent and Wipro declined 3.5 percent after the Trump administration said it plans to end work permits for H1-B visa spouses.

Hindalco plummeted 7.4 percent on an extended slide in aluminum prices. Vedanta dropped 2.5 percent and National Aluminium gave up 7.4 percent.

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Shire plc (SHPG,SHP.L) said its Board has received a revised proposal from Takeda regarding a possible offer for the company on 24 April 2018. Shire plc said the Board is considering its position. Previously, Shire received a fourth proposal on 20 April 2018 regarding a possible offer for the company. The Board of Shire received conditional proposals from Takeda regarding a possible offer for the company, on 29 March 2018 (the First Proposal), 11 April 2018 (the Second Proposal) and 13 April 2018 (the Third Proposal).

Following the Board meeting on 14 April 2018, which rejected the Third Proposal, at the Board's request Shire's advisers entered into a dialogue with Takeda's advisers to discuss whether a further, more attractive, proposal may be forthcoming and to understand the basis on which such a proposal would be made.

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Business News
The European Commission has notified Altice N.V. (ATCV.OB) of its decision to impose upon it a 124.5 million euros fine for gun jumping in connection with Altice's acquisition of PT Portugal in June 2015. The Commission found that Altice infringed the prior notification obligation, and the stand-still obligation.

Altice said it fully disagrees with the Commission's decision, and in particular, it considers that this case differs entirely from the French Numericable/SFR/Virgin gun jumping case, in which Altice had agreed not to challenge the allegations brought against it. In Altice's opinion, the transaction agreement governing the management of the target during the pre-closing period provided Altice with a consultation right on certain exceptional matters relating to PT Portugal, and was in accordance with well-established M&A market practice.

Further, Altice considers that the elements in the Commission's file do not establish the exercise of influence, as alleged by the Commission, by Altice over PT Portugal's conduct neither prior to the merger notification to the Commission nor prior to the Commission's clearance. Besides, Altice's right to a due process was violated in several respects during the Commission's proceedings, in particular related to the investigation conducted by the Commission.

Altice said it will file an appeal against the Commission's decision before the EU General Court to request that the decision as a whole be annulled or, at the very least, that the sanction be significantly reduced. The Commission's decision does not affect the approval granted by the European Commission on April 20, 2015 for the acquisition of PT Portugal by Altice.

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Business News
Royal Dutch Shell plc (RDS-B, RDSB.L, RDSA.L,RDS-A) said Tuesday that it signed an agreement to sell its Downstream in Argentina to Raizen for $950 million in cash proceeds at completion, subject to customary closing conditions.

The sale includes the Buenos Aires Refinery, around 645 retail stations, liquefied petroleum gas, marine fuels, aviation fuels, bitumen, chemicals and lubricants businesses, as well as supply and distribution activities in the country.

In addition, after the transaction closes, the businesses acquired by Raizen will continue their relationships with Shell through various commercial agreements, which represent an estimated value of US$300 million.

Raizen, a joint venture set up in 2011 between Shell and Cosan, is a leading biofuels producer and fuels distributor in Brazil, where it already manages more than 6,000 Shell service stations.

Shell stated that the agreement is consistent with its strategy to simplify its portfolio through a US$30 billion divestment programme, and follows a strategic review of Shell's Downstream business in Argentina that began in August 2016. The agreement with Raizen is the result of a competitive bidding process and the sale is expected to complete later this year. It offers the opportunity to consolidate a regional partnership between Shell and Cosan.

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Business News
An administrative law judge has ruled that Minnesota regulators should approve Enbridge Inc.'s (ENB. ENB.TO) proposal to replace its aging Line 3 crude oil pipeline only if the company follows the existing route and not its preferred route.

Enbridge has applied to replace its Line 3 pipeline from Alberta with new pipe along its existing route. However, in Minnesota, the company's planned replacement route for the $7.5 billion project deviates from the existing route.

Environmental and tribal groups have opposed the preferred route as it would mean laying pipes across environmentally sensitive areas.

Line 3 is a 1,097 mile-long existing pipeline that was constructed in the 1960s and carries crude oil from Hardisty, Alberta, through North Dakota and Minnesota to Enbridge's Superior Station and Terminal Facility near Superior, Wisconsin. Enbridge says the replacement would restore its original capacity of 760,000 barrels per day or bpd.

The U.S. portion of the replacement program, known as the Line 3 Replacement Project, consists of replacing existing 34-inch pipe with new 36-inch pipe for 13 miles in North Dakota, 337 miles in Minnesota, and 14 miles in Wisconsin.

Minnesota administrative law judge Ann O'Reilly recommended on Monday that the state's Public Utilities Commission should ensure the pipes are replaced only along the existing route. The commission is expected to make its final decision in June.

"Enbridge is pleased that the Administrative Law Judge has listened to the extensive evidence that there's need for this safety-driven maintenance project. We will be taking time to review in more detail the recommendation that we use the existing right-of-way, and will have additional comments to follow," Enbridge said in a statement.

In a recent decision in Nebraska, the state's public utilities commission approved TransCanada Corp.'s Keystone XL pipeline along only an alternative route.

Enbridge has said that its private investment - $2.6 billion of it in Minnesota -will create well-paying jobs, provide an economic boost for local communities during construction, and also result in local community investments as well as tax contributions for several years to come.

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Business News
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has warned his American counterpart Donald Trump of "severe consequences" if Washington withdraws from a nuclear deal that US-led major powers signed with Iran in 2015.

"I am telling those in the White House that if they do not live up to their commitments, the Iranian government will react firmly," Rouhani said while addressing the nation Tuesday.

"If anyone betrays the deal, they should know that they would face severe consequences," the Iranian leader added in the speech broadcast live on state television.

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) granted several exemptions to Iran in return for agreeing to limitations on its nuclear program.

But Trump has been critical of the Obama-era deal, and said recently that the deal may be scrapped unless it is significantly strengthened and expanded to include issues not covered in the original agreement.

The Iranian President's warning came just ahead of a meeting between the Presidents of the United States and France to discuss the Iran deal.

Other signatories of the nuclear deal - Germany, Britain, China, and Russia - are scrambling to convince President Trump not to pull out of it.

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Political News
(Agencia CMA Latam) - The defense team of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva last night filed a special appealing to Brazil's Higher Court of Justice (STJ) and in the Federal Supreme Court (STF) contesting the 12 years and a month jail sentence on corruption and money laundering charges.

The extraordinary appealing contests previous rulings that increased or kept Lula's conviction during the lawsuit, including the last possible appeal at the second instance last week.

According to the lawyers Cristiano Zanin and Valeska Teixeira Zanin, the previous rulings contradict several provisions of the Brazilian legislation.

"These articles refer, among other things, to the impossibility of being judged by a biased magistrate, the impossibility of prosecutors acting as real enemies of the defendant, the need for forensic evidence related to crimes that 'leave traces,' the inability of the judge who refused to examine new documents that confirm the innocence of the defendant," the defense said.

The special appealings' admissibility should be judged by the 4th Regional Federal Court, that same that convicted Lula. The defense team considers that the criminal lawsuit should be ruled null and void. Lula was arrested earlier this month.

by Agencia CMA Latam

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Economic News

What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more.
Crude oil futures reversed course Tuesday, unable to extend 4-year highs as U.S. stocks were hammered.

Oil, which has been rising on speculation of strong global demand, was dented today by profit taking and Iran's resistance to further supply cuts.

WTI light sweet oil was down 80 cents at $67.86.

Iran has reportedly nixed a formal extension of the cartel's supply quota plan with Russia, but Saudi Arabia and others will continue to limit production beyond this year, analysts say.

Iran's oil minister Bijan Zanganeh, speaking yesterday to Iran's news service Shana, said that if oil prices continued to rise, there will be no need to extend the OPEC/non-OPEC production deal beyond the end of 2018.

Last week, President Donald Trump blasted OPEC for trying to artificially boost prices.

"Looks like OPEC is at it again," he wrote. "With record amounts of Oil all over the place, including the fully loaded ships at sea, Oil prices are artificially Very High! No good and will not be accepted!"

U.S. oil inventories data from the American Petroleum Institute and the Energy Information Administration is expected to drive trades tonight and tomorrow.

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Market Analysis
(Agencia CMA Latam) - The president of Ecuador, Lenin Moreno, claimed that the National Liberation Army (ELN) Colombian guerrilla group has not accepted to abandon violent activities. He made the comment after the departure of the delegates of the ELN, who was in Ecuador to take part in the fifth round of the peace talks with Colombia's government.

Representatives of the ELN and the Colombian government left Quito after Moreno has withdrawn his country's support as a peace sponsor. Both ELN and Colombia are trying to find a new headquarter for the peace process.

"I think enough time has passed for the ELN to give a clear signal of their desire for peace, stopping violent activities such as explosions and kidnappings. They have not done so," Moreno claimed in his radio and television program.

"If the delegates decided to leave Ecuador, I understand they did not want to commit to peace," said Moreno, who last week withdrew his country's support for the peace talks.

His decision came after the murder of a three-person press team, the killing of four soldiers and the abduction of two citizens in Ecuador. These actions, however, were all attributed to a dissidence of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a former guerrilla group now converted into a political party after a peace agreement with the government in 2016.

by Agencia CMA Latam

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Economic News

What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more.
By SA Commercial Prop News

Head of the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), Lesiba Maloba says given the shortage of existing stock in most African countries, the PIC is looking to partner SA developers, institutions and retailers to develop new properties.



The Public Investment Corporation (PIC) is awaiting final approval to invest up to R12 billion in commercial real estate in various countries across Africa, the PICs first foray into property markets outside SAs borders.

The PIC now plans to expand its real estate empire into the rest of Africa.

PIC recently overtook JSE-listed Growthpoint Properties as the biggest player in the SA commercial property space, with real estate assets under management now at a colossal R62,5bn at March 31. Thats up from R25,7bn four years ago.



Maloba says given the shortage of existing stock in most African countries, the PIC is looking to partner SA developers, institutions and retailers to develop new properties. We dont want to be a passive investor in a property fund. We prefer to be involved directly on an operational basis.



But Maloba concedes that Africa is still virgin territory, with such vast potential that the PICs African investment strategy is not yet set in stone.



The PIC has stakes in some of the biggest malls in SA including Sandton City, the V&A Waterfront and Cavendish Square in Cape Town, Menlyn Park shopping centre in Pretoria as well as a portfolio of 25 rural and township centres.



The portfolio, comprising mostly properties owned by the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF), has grown 22% since January 2012 alone.



But much of the recent growth has come from the PICs listed real estate portfolio. The PIC owns sizeable stakes in most of the JSEs 30 listed property counters.



The sector was up nearly 40% in the 12 months to May 20 but dropped around 16% over the past two weeks. The PICs listed portfolio was valued at R29bn at March 31. Property now comprises around 5% of the PICs R1,25trillion in assets under management, up from around 2% in 2008.



The GEPFs mandate allows property to grow to around 7% of total assets. That means an additional R24bn could potentially be allocated to real estate over the next few years. But Maloba is not interested in bulking up his portfolio at any cost. He says the PIC wont overpay for assets.



Listed players, who are growing portfolios aggressively, are chasing yields of prime properties down which has made it very expensive for unlisted players like the PIC to compete for deals.



Maloba refers to some recent key acquisitions such as the Somerset Mall by Hyprop Investments and the East Rand Mall by Redefine Properties and Vukile Property Fund at record low yields (annual rental income as a percentage of the purchase price) of less than 7%.



Maloba says listed funds, unlike unlisted investors, can afford to buy at these yields without diluting earnings. We are not prepared to pay those sorts of yields.



Maloba sees better value in investing in new developments and refurbishments and extensions of existing properties. But most of the growth in the PICs property portfolio over the next 5-10 years will come from the PICs planned entry into burgeoning African real estate markets.



The PICs proposed push into Africa follows that of SA pension fund managers such as Sanlam and Liberty (through Stanlib).



In fact, Sanlam three weeks ago listed its sub-Saharan Africa Real Estate Fund on the Stock Exchange of Mauritius. Sanlam Africa fund adviser CE Thomas Reilly says the fund is the first hard currency income play available to SA investors who want to tap into the growth potential offered by sub-Saharan African property markets.



An initial US100m was raised before the listing among mostly SA institutional investors. The funds first property acquisition was a stake in the Accra Mall in Ghana together with SA developer Atterbury. Reilly recently added four A-grade office tower blocks in the heart of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania to the portfolio, which was acquired at a yield of an attractive 9% (in dollars).



Reilly is already looking at a pipeline of potential deals worth more than US1bn in Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia and Mozambique. He hopes to grow the fund to $500m within the next three years. The fund is targeting a total annual dollar return of 14%-18%.


Three persons, including two security personnel and a militant, were killed on Tuesday in an ongoing gunfight in Jammu and Kashmir's Tral forest area. Police sources said the security personnel killed included an Indian Army soldier and a state policeman.



A joint operation was started by the Rashtriya Rifles (RR), state police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Lam forest area of Tral following information about the presence of militants there.



Sepoy Ajay Kumar of 42 RR, who was injured in the initial firing exchange, succumbed to his injuries at Army's 92 Base Hospital in Badami Bagh Cantonment area here.



Latif Gujar of Jammu and Kashmir Police also succumbed to injuries, while the only militant killed in the gun battle has not been identified so far.



Reports said two-to-three militants were engaged in the gunfight with the security forces in the densely forested area.






Sushma Swaraj slams Pakistan at SCO meet India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday slammed Pakistan for sheltering terrorists and urged the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) to act against the countries that promote terrorism. Without a direct reference to Pakistan, Sushma Swaraj said the world community together must "wipe-out this scourge from the face of the earth".



"There are a number of challenges that are being faced by the world today, foremost being the threat of global terrorism and the imminent need to build a strong security architecture to combat it.



"Terrorism is an enemy of the basic human rights: of life, peace and prosperity," she said at the foreign ministers meet of the SCO here.



Pakistan Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif was also present at the meeting.



"We strongly believe that our fight against terrorism should not only seek to eliminate terrorists but should also identify and take strong measures against states that encourage, support and finance terrorism and provide sanctuary to terrorists and terror groups," the Indian Minister said.



"The criminal terrorist militias are not impeded by borders as they seek to destroy the architecture of international stability and build walls of fear in societies that believe in pluralism.



"Maiming and killing innocent lives indiscriminately, constitutes the most blatant violation of human rights. We have to work together to wipe-out this scourge from the face of the earth.



"In order to realise this objective, we must unite across our differences, strengthen our resolve and script an effective strategy against terror.



"We welcome the clarity shown by the SCO on terrorism from its inception," Sushma Swaraj added.



The SCO is a Eurasian intergovernmental organisation, the creation of which was announced in 2001 in Shanghai by Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It was preceded by the Shanghai Five mechanism.



India, along with Pakistan, were granted full member status at the SCO summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, in June 2017.




The passing of Manamea Apelu-Schwalger on Sunday was a tremendously sad moment for this nation. It was especially sad for her family, close friends, the Samoa Cancer Society and cancer patients  here and abroad - who had looked up to her as a role model since she stood up to become the face of the battle against this deadly sickness.

The fact is that since early 2016 when Manamea revealed her battle with breast cancer, we knew that her time was limited. She knew it too.

It was inevitable that she would one day be called home. That day came on Sunday when she died peacefully surrounded by her loved ones.

But its not how long you have on earth that defines you.

It is what you do with the time and the resources you have been given that does and Manamea did that better than anyone we know of. Her work to promote the need for women and men to get tested early for cancer is what she will be remembered fondly by.

Folks, it wasnt as if Manamea was not a person of high profile already. Being a former Miss Samoa and Miss South Pacific are titles many women can only dream of.

But when Manamea passed away on Sunday, the countless tributes from Samoa and abroad about her strength, courage and fighting spirit were not about her being a beauty queen. Rather they were about a woman who refused to let cancer define her and how she used the platform God had gifted her to make a real tangible difference.

They were loving compliments about a wonderful human being with the heart of a lion who wanted to make the most of the time she had to help save another life.

Indeed, she used her influence to raise the profile of cancer awareness in Samoa, breast cancer especially. How can we forget the Apia Town Clock being turned pink to promote Pinktober among many other initiatives including the Miss Samoa Alumni?

But that wasnt all. Every time she had the opportunity to speak  whether it was through the media or other formal gatherings - she would talk from the heart to encourage, enlighten and empower people. What a wonderful spirit she was. She had mana in every meaning of the word.

But we need to go back to her first public address to understand that she knew exactly what she wanted from the moment she stepped up. The occasion was the commemoration of World Cancer Day at Motootua in 2016 when she spoke publically about her ordeal, which she had already been privately battling for 13 months.

Encouraging members of the public to make healthier lifestyle choices to avoid the leading cause of death in Samoa, Manamea promised she would continue to advocate for testing and early detection of cancer as long as she is alive.

She recalled the moment she got the news.

Thirteen months ago, I came to the National Hospital after self examination on my left breast where I discovered a lump, she said. Unfortunately for me, after my surgery the lump was found to be malignant and so my journey started as a cancer patient.

At Acute Seven, Manamea said of six patients, three suffered from cancer.

The first one opted to go home by choice, she said, a choice I could not understand at the time (because she went) to seek the assistance of a traditional healer.

The second person, a 35-year-old mother who had battled cancer for a very long time, was released from the hospital to go home. I presumed she had farewell her family of young loved ones.

I, fortunately at that point in time, was given the opportunity through the generous support of the Samoa Medical Scheme to travel to New Zealand to undergo yet another surgery and six months of chemotherapy.

It was a trip that brought relief.

Four months after my last chemotherapy, I came home elated. I thought I had beaten cancer. In November, I underwent my third surgery because the lump had come back and cancer has come back aggressively.

Right there and then, Manamea said she had a very simple message about cancer.

Cancer does not discriminate, she said. My doctor friend said treat the causes, dont treat the symptoms. But dont cry for me. I joke with my friends, dont cry for me Argentina, I dont want your pity, I dont want your sorrow, I want your strength.

Manamea wanted Samoans to live healthier lifestyles.

I beg of you make healthier choices for yourself and for your children. Choose healthier living. Cancer has no cure but it can be made to go into remission, advanced medicine has blessed very many in their battle against cancer.

It was also there that Manamea made a public vow that she would treat every day as a gift, living life to the fullest with her supportive husband, Sua Alan Schwalger.

My last reflection is, God has a master plan for us all and Im going to be brave for whatever second, minute, day, year that He gives me. I will live and breathe and hope that my story, my strength, will challenge the next person to look at healthier living and choices.

Well Mana, we hear you loud and clear.

Of a number of legacies she leaves behind, her advocacy work in a bid to save a life and help anyone who listens is what we will remember the most.

Samoa, the Samoa Cancer Society and everyone who was touched by the life of this beautiful, loving, and faithful soul, owe it to her to continue the work.

As for Mana, well this is not goodbye. See you later!
Re: The letter than made a former Head of State cry

I respond in sincerest respect and honor that once we did have a Samoa that was in communication with each other and Trust never failed.

After reading this letter it too has brought tears to my eyes.

There is an underlying fact that without bribes of food or money,  Our leaders do not know how to lead.

Leaders have followers gladly entrenched in the morals and Faith placed on our people. I would sincerely ask that a direction is made to the current leaders instructing them to relinquish their roles and their ability to Bribe people.

An independent body of those with the utmost knowledge of Aganuu and Faa Samoa, Our history and most of all, Matters arising from this Body.

Past laws made that can be proven to not support the welfare of Samoans, Young and Old be made null and void. Much love and soifua.

Emile Seiuli

Luatuanuu
Dear Editor,

When we have people mentioned in the Constitution to establish Acts and set up rules of laws and procedures according to the truth in the Constitution but they have something else in mind completely different from the truth in the Constitution to form a new basis of our rules of law and a new constitution of our country, then that means, we are dealing with a major problem with our Constitution in our Parliament and our government.

We rely on those people to set up rules of laws for Justice and Court to judge people, to accuse, to prosecute, to arrest and put people to prison. And most importantly, we rely on those people for our protection against any foreign threats. Before moving on any further, let me clarify what I just said very clearly.

This is not about people that we rely on because they know what they should be doing but didnt do it. So this is not about them. This is about whether our Constitution is going to be followed and respected.

To rephrase that statement in other words, this is about whether or not our country is protected under the Constitution because we have already seen it all; everything about our Constitution is falling apart. Our law makers who are also our law enforcement, they created our laws based on their own political views instead of our Constitution. Everybody seems to be negotiated with themselves then revealing just the finishing product to us.

The people of our country that I am talking about here according to the Constitution are the Prime Minister, Ministers of Cabinet and Members of Parliament in the H.R.P.P government. The new basis of our rules of law and the new constitution of our country that I am referring to is the Cabinet Handbook 2011.

The details in the Cabinet Handbook 2011 can prove us the truth about something else that is totally different from the Constitution of the Independent State of Samoa. Also, it can give us an idea of the type of system of administration our government was under beyond 2011.

The Cabinet Handbook 2011 outlines the process about how the Cabinet prepares bills to be proposed in Parliament for our rules of law. It is a requirement authorized under the Constitution for Cabinet procedures. It is not an original part of the Constitution but it is still a ray of the Constitution.

In other words, the Cabinet Handbook 2011 was not created by framers of the Constitution or the Constitutional Convention. It was created by a political government led by Prime Minister Tuilaepa and other representatives of the H.R.P.P in the Cabinet back in 2011.

A leader of a led political government who actually follows footsteps of the Founding Fathers by making Constitutional policies and procedures for Cabinet is the guardian of the Constitution and a peace keeper. That kind of leader is worthy to be called as great leader.

But a leader of a led political government who intentionally ignores footsteps of the Founding Fathers by making of political policies and procedures for Cabinet because of political reasons is nobody else but a trouble maker. That kind of leader is commendable to be labeled as a dictator.

A dictator is my own discovery about the Prime Ministers leadership. The Cabinet Handbook 2011 together with Acts and Bills created from that handbook is just a lid of the whole bottle about the Prime Ministers inappropriate behaviors that I have already explained in most of my letters in the past. So I believe, I did provide enough reasons to make the claim that our Prime Minister deserves his new name. He earns it himself from his inappropriate behaviors towards our Constitution and our country.

Our country would never be at this very sad situation today if he was keeping his leadership according to our Constitution. But because of the fact that he did turn his back against our Constitution, that means, he has a different kind of leadership based on his own belief.

That is the main reason why our country right now has been facing a serious crisis about our Constitution which affects Gods Sovereignty, Christianity, Church and Church Ministers, our national sovereignty, our customary lands, our Samoan customs and traditions, our democracy, our human rights and our freedom.

In my own view, the creation of laws from something else that is totally different from the truth in the Constitution is an intentional crime. It should be a crime and people committing crimes of that kind within our Parliament have the same inappropriate behaviors of conspiring, falsifying of history and our Constitution, misrepresenting the law, misleading members of Parliament and the people of our country during Parliament proceedings, defending of untruths and wrongdoings and the obstruction of justice.

So the bottom line of what I am trying to explain is this. The main reason of the Constitutional crisis that we are facing right now is because of the inappropriate behaviors of the Prime Minister and Members of the Cabinet. Therefore, despite of the fact that the Cabinet Handbook 2011 is a requirement of the Constitution, however, it is still un-Constitutional because of the things inside the handbook.

Those things have driven me to this conclusion. The Constitutional requirement for the Cabinet procedures was deliberately exploited for political purposes and resulted with a process that is against the Constitution. As said before, the details of the process for preparation of bills in the Cabinet Handbook 2011 can prove us that truth.

That means the Acts and Bills already established from that system which is something else that is totally different from the truth in the Constitution are all illegal and un-Constitutional. Example  L.T.R.A 2008, C.L.A.C 2013, the new tax law to tax Church Ministers, Alienation of Customary land Bill 2017 and the Electoral Constituencies Bill 2018. It is not surprising, therefore, the illegality and the un-Constitutionality of those Acts and Bills already disturbed the peace and harmony in our country.

That is, the four well-known wise Chiefs of Samoa are the first people among us to officially lodge a complaint to the A.D.B in order to secure our customary lands from the L.T.R.A 2008. Apart from that, the S.S.I.G group took the challenge on its own hands and delivered its message to the Prime Minister through protest marches, a petition to the Parliament and through public negotiation with the Parliamentary Committee. They have been challenging the government for a while now for repealing of the L.T.R.A 2008.

On the other hand, the E.F.K.S Church remained as another standing challenge to the Prime Minister and the Cabinet because of the new tax law to tax Church Ministers earnings. Saleaulas Village Council has been seen in the same way but on a different case. Saleaula is just another new resistance against the Prime Minister and the Cabinet because of the Electoral Constituencies Bill 2018.

In addition, there is another important resistance which is the voice of concern from Samoans around the world expressing through the services of the Media. Samoans around the world are fully engaged on social media and sharing their concerns about issues affecting our Constitution due to the Prime Ministers leadership. That is how serious of the crisis that we are facing right now in our country about our Constitution.

Nanai Malonuu Lealaiauloto Nofoaiga
Drugs estimated to be worth $60,000 was intercepted at the Faleolo International Airport this week.

Methamphetamine, commonly known as ice, was discovered by the Police and the Customs K9 Unit on Tuesday evening in a suitcase that belongs to a man in his 40's.

The accused was a passenger of a Fiji Airways flight from Nadi to Apia.

The K9 alerted the authorities to the suitcase.

The man was stopped, searched and questioned.

He was immediately charged with possession of narcotics and has been placed in Police custody at Tafaigata Prison, to await his Court appearance.

Police Superintendent, Auapaau Logoitino Filipo, said the drugs weighed around 26.6grams.

A 43-year-old male suspect has been arrested and charged with possession of narcotics, he said.

He is to be remanded at custody until the 30th of April."

The drugs were found in the suitcase by the Joint Police and Customs K9 unit."

The drugs weigh around 26.6grams with an estimated street value of T$60, 000, said Auapaau.

The last time there was a drug bust of methamphetamine at the Fagalii Airport was last year July, which involved two men aged 42 and 45.

The package from American Samoa went through the x-ray machine where the ice was detected.

The Police were contacted right away and they responded and confirmed that it was meth, weighing 5.9grams.
The Supreme Court of Samoa takes priority over any other Courts.

That is what the Chief Justice, His Honour Patu Tiavaasue Falefatu Sapolu, reminded on Monday.

His Honour Patu raised the point during the Criminal Mention this week when senior lawyer, Maiava Visekota Peteru, did not appear in Court.

She was apparently mediating a matter in the Land and Titles Court, as she is an accredited Mediator.

Leota Tima Leavai appeared on behalf of Maiava when a criminal case was called before the Supreme Court.

Ms. Peteru advises she was just served with the medical report this morning and she needs time therefore to discuss the report with the defendant and she respectfully asked for an adjournment, the Court was told.

Thats when the Chief Justice intervened and asked for Maiavas whereabouts.

Shes a Mediator for the Lands and Titles Court at 11am (Monday) and she apologizes, said Leota.

The Chief Justice appeared unhappy.

He said this is the second time Maiava has not appeared in the matter.

The last time Ms. Peteru did not appear and the matter was adjourned to today (Monday) for her to appear, said the Chief Justice.

And now again she has not been before the Court for this matter is called."

I think Counsel must be aware that this Court is elementary, it takes priority or precedence over any other."

This is the Supreme Court of Samoa; the mediation of the Land and Titles Court, this Courts business takes priority."

I am surprised that Ms. Peteru does not know.

The Chief Justice denied the motion for adjournment and ordered Maiava to appear in Court at 2pm that day. The matter was then stood down.

It was not possible to get a comment from Maiava.
Have you imagined reusing your menstrual pads?

Now you can, thanks to a Samoan entrepreneur launching her business called MANA Care Products.

Angelica Salele-Sefo, 25, born and bred in Samoa, won a US$10,000 ($24,000) grant to kick start making reusable menstrual pads in Samoa.

Together with her business partner Isabell Rasch, Angelica wants to create an affordable, sustainable solution to a problem keeping girls out of school and taking money out of families pockets.

She believes expensive and frequently unavailable menstrual products often lead to girls skipping school during their periods.

Angelica says some women are forced to choose between paying for their familys food and buying disposable or single use pads for their periods and they often choose food.

I did look into trying to import products but it was really expensive, she says.

Youre looking at US $150 (T$380.53) for a set of four, maybe six reusable pads.

No one is going to spend $300 tala on four reusable sanitary pads.

Two years ago, Angelica learned about the success of African programmes introducing reusable pads in their communities.

She decided to create a pilot programme here for the whole Pacific, and on a whim, Angelica entered the U.N. Environments Asia-Pacific Low-Carbon Lifestyles Challenge.

It was literally just do you have an idea worth building a business around and how is it impactful?

She and three others were chosen out of 180 applications to win US$10,000 (T$25,364) and had business training at a four-day conference in Bangkok, Thailand.

At the conference, they learned about sustainability and carbon footprint calculating, best business practice, communications and marketing, and inclusivity and gender in business.

Intense is the word I would use, she says laughing.

As part of the award, the conference team will continue to support the grant winners.

All the tutors and teachers are all mentors we can rely on for anything we need and they constantly ask if we need help.

To prepare for the training, Angelica and Isabell had some research to do.

They interviewed women in the community to gather opinions about switching from simpler rags or disposables to reusable pads.

Doing these interviews cemented for me the reason I have to do this project, Angelica says.

Women and girls at every single income level are all stakeholders in this, but you dont just have to be a woman.

As well as ensuring girls stop skipping school because of their periods, Angelica is concerned about reducing waste caused by these disposable products.

This is your home, this is your island, we all live here. Waste management is an issue.

We need to find better ways to consume, but we also need to consume wisely.

Globally, billions of plastic packaged menstrual products fill our landfills every year, and take generations to break down.

According to the Womens Environmental Network, tampons and pads create more than 200,000 tonnes of plastic waste per year and a lot end up in the ocean.

Angelica says reusable pads cut out the monthly spend on disposable products.

Instead of always buying disposable pads, you can keep using these set of reusable ones, every month, all year.

Angelica says because many women in Samoa already use rags to manage their periods, the switch to reusable pads should be easy and will be a more hygienic option.

In my research, I learned from doctors that rags often lead to sensitive issues because they dont get washed or sanitised properly.

A big component of this project is that before we sell anything, we want to educate about the importance of this product for womens health.

For Angelica, two main issues motivate her to get this project going.

Anything we can do to conserve and protect our environment is a good idea, and we should be encouraging everybody to live sustainable lifestyles.

But the biggest thing for me personally is the social impact, she says.

Helping people who may not be able to help themselves is a deep Pacific value, says Angelica.

Its totally a Samoan thing where you give to your community, your loved ones, and anyone you can. Being able to give back to my community or give to people who need it, especially on such a sensitive issue, for me is the biggest thing.

Angelicas and Isabells business, MANA Care Products, will be priced as affordably as possible in order to reach people in urban and rural areas, especially compared to the current price of disposable products.

Today, packets of 10-16 pads may cost up to $7 tala, and boxes of 16 tampons can cost over $10 tala. For an average woman, that cost can reach $100 tala per year, or more.

The duo plan to hire all their staff locally to make, market and sell the products, to expand the network of women having ownership over the project as well as engage government ministries.

With the training under their belts and the seed funding in their wallets, Angelica and Isabell are developing a prototype, having women around Samoa test it out and give feedback, and preparing to launch on May 28th, Menstrual Hygiene Day.

The international day was started by WASH United in 2013 and aims to unite non-profits, government agencies, business and media to educate about the challenges women and girls face due to menstruation, especially in developing countries.

Creating something that will succeed elsewhere is important to the women.

If we can do this in Samoa, we can do this in the Pacific and thats the heart of it.

Angelica says starting the business will take time and she plans to go slowly but surely.

We want to be ambitious, but realistic, she says.

Angelica works full time as an Outreach Support Officer at the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (S.P.R.E.P.).
It was an opportunity of a lifetime for Team Leader Joseph Iosefo and representative students of Don Bosco Alafua to meet the former World Champion, Lupesoliai Laauliolemalietoa Joseph Parker.

Don Bosco students who had won TV3s Cheer for Joseph Parker Campaign, shook hands with their idol after Lupesoliai presented a $300 prize money on behalf of TV3 who initiated the campaign, to rally the support of the community leading up to the much anticipated fight between Parker and Joshua on April 1st, 2018.

Don Bosco joined the Cheer for Parker Campaign early on in the competition which was an instant hit with Social Media fans. The competition invited individuals, groups or businesses to send to TV3 a Cheer for Parker in show of support for his fight.

The competition saw not only participating schools from around the country but prompted Samoans worldwide to send their messages for the former World Champ. Don Boscos cheer was well liked by over 11,000 people, shared 4,000 times and viewed 358,000 times. There were 12 other entries that secured similar statistics but Don Bosco came out the top favorite.

In addition to the prize money, Don Bosco received 4 boxes of Fanta Drinks from Vailima Breweries and $500 tala worth of $50 tala top up vouchers from Digicel who had partnered with TV3 to enable broadcast of the fight that saw Lupesoliai make history for fighting Joshua til the end of the full 10 rounds without a knockout.

Lupesoliai Joseph Parker has yet to confirm his next fight which TV3 looks forward to broadcasting for Samoa.
Susan Franckan feels a special connection to Samoa.

Not only is she a tourist visiting the islands, she also has links here through her adopted son, who is Samoan.

She is from Auckland, New Zealand and they are staying at the Taumeasina Island Resort with her husband, Aldo and their 17-year-old son, Michael.

They had decided on their first trip to visit Samoa again so that they can create more memories.

We just spent seven days in Savaii, which was absolutely beautiful and really lovely.

I have never been to this hotel before and it is stunning. We travelled around Upolu during our first visit. We like Samoa because it is much simpler.

There are not many tourists here and you become part of the local culture more easily.

It is lovely that you are not disconnected from the local culture, even in the hotel. Certainly, in Savaii you are much more connected with the culture. I think it is very important.

The family rented a car and went around the islands, which is good for them because they get to spend more time in one place as long as they want.

We are used to use the Samoan bus which we absolutely love. Renting a car is really easy; you can stop by villages and have the local Samoan barbeque beside the road.

I think it is good to practice the language. I do speak a little bit Samoan, not a lot. I have the intention to learn it better so the next time we come back we can better communicate.

I have to say I am so impressed that most Samoans can speak some English. Not many people in New Zealand can speak more than one language.

Through her experience, she has being an expert in providing recommendations for people planning to visit the islands.

I think when people come to Samoa they should really try and go to Savaii. These are such different places really. It takes you back in time like it was before. What I really like about Savaii is there are very few tourists.

I like both islands the way they keep the land around their fales and the hedges beside the road, with these yellow, red and green plants. Each village has its own pride.

Savaii is absolutely beautiful, those lagoons they are to die for, honestly. It felt like heaven there at the Manase Lagoon. I would recommend any tourist to go there. The fact that you can stay at the open Fales, the simple basics we did, you can have as well the air conditioned rooms or resort. We like to try everything out, we are very open.

We had dinner at Le Lagoto. that was delicious. It was very family friendly, that was really nice.

We want to have little bit of everything that is what we are doing. You can have a touch of every different part of life. So you have the modern hotel if you want, where is a really strong Samoan influence on the menu, which I really like. The palusami Pai, my husband loves the Samoan food.

The fruits like pineapple are just gorgeous.

I think Samoan people are very special too. It is very easy to connect with Samoans. I speak a little bit of their language, but if you want to connect with them, they will connect with you.

They seem to go the extra mile, not sure if its only with tourists, but we appreciated it. And they let you just be as well.

Before they leave they plan to visit Robert Louis Stevenson, and visit local friends.

If time permits, she reveals they would definitely visit Samoa again, but this time, make their travel a permanent stay.
Meet Sharon booth from central Queensland, Australia.

She came with her husband and her two children to Samoa.

To escape from their busy and stressful life back at home, her husband surprised the family with a trip to the islands.

My husband decided for us to come to Samoa. Our business is busy at Christmas time, when our children come to visit us, we are working.

We did not want to be too far away from Australia. Somewhere we have never been before, where it is paradise, somewhere in the middle of the ocean, where you are not forced to do something. Our business is about rescuing animals, it is lovely but we are constantly on call.

We just wanted to find some peace, she shared with Dear Tourist.

Sharon definitely found her peace in Samoa.

I am very happy that he (husband) decided to come to Samoa, she said.

The family arrived on Sunday and will leave on Saturday.

They rented a car for the whole week to drive around the islands.

First day we have been just hanging out on the pool at the resort and had some cocktails. Yesterday (Monday) we went to the To Sua Ocean Trench.

I am surprised about the animals in Samoa. There are a lot of roaming dogs, but they all seem to belong to someone. I am surprised at how they treat the animals.

It is almost like an animal paradise. It seems to be a very carrying nation.

We like to go around and explore more. We went out last night. We have been to the Edge, but we wanted to go to the place called Paddle, but could not find it, even with locals helping us and Google maps.

One other thing my sons partner is vegan and she was kind of disappointed there was no vegan option to choose from.

I would only say maybe more restaurants could be good for this place.

We have been travelling around the world a lot, but I am amazed and surprised the locals living accommodations, they have so little and are so happy.

We have everything we could possibly want and we still complain it is still not enough. It makes me feel very humbled. It makes me want to be more around these types of people.

Coming here it makes me realize more what the important things in life are, it is so family-orientated here, she shared.

Back home in Queensland it is not the same.

It is very sad everyone is looking after themselves, it should not be like that. Coming here made me realise this is what I like.

From all the islands Sharon including Tahiti, Rarotonga, Fiji and small islands in Malaysia, she shared the most attractive place for her is Samoa.

We are going to retire soon and we are looking for somewhere to be, not too far away from Australia because our children live there. This island could probably be an idea.

I would like to have a nice little house and a normal standard of living here. I want to be a part of the community.

I would say on a personal level, this time of my life when I am kind of pondering about the past, present and future, I am in the right place at the right moment.

What I am looking for is here, it is beautiful, and also the people. That is amazing and makes me happy, she said.
Neil Donaldson from Newcastle, Australia, finds peace in Samoa.

The busy Australian needed a rest from his stressful life back at home and he found just that place in the islands.

Mr. Donaldson is traveling with his wife, Annette. The couple arrived on Saturday and will leave today.

I am here with my wife she is in the spa having a treatment right now.

We came here for a rest, to do nothing, but to enjoy some time, he shared with Dear Tourist. Where I am working it is really busy at the moment, and the boss is pushing my holiday back. I am working in engineering.

We have really big projects. We are very busy, tight deadlines.

They have never been to Samoa before, but 2 times to Vanuatu.

We had an opportunity because our travel agent owed us some money from a mistake he made in our previous booking. The travel company recommended Samoa, so we came here.

It is beautiful and very relaxed. The people seem to be very friendly, the culture is interesting. We didnt have a lot of time but in these five days, it was good to see the dancing show here in the resort. Yesterday we had a guide driving us a little bit around.

We ended up snorkeling at the Palolo deep. Probably the snorkeling was the highlight of my stay I would say. It is so colorful, you go swimming inside a cloud of little fishes, and they are all around you.

I really enjoyed just staying at the resort to relax as well, Mr. Donaldson said.

From what I have seen in this resort, this is a good standard one. It seems to be the only island resort around.

The climate is very good for just doing whatever you want; even when it rains it is warm.

I had good food here, mostly in the restaurant, not only local food. Here in the resort, it is a mixture of food.

The main meals seem to have a theme which could be local. One thing that is fantastic is the seafood. The fish at home is usually frozen or comes from overseas.

Here it is really fresh and still there are a lot of fish in the water. In Australia, the good fishing areas are mostly fished out. When you want to go fishing by yourself in Australia, you spend hours and do not catch anything.

Mr. Donaldson is thinking of returning to Samoa and tasting more of the food.
Thousands of Australians have gathered at pre-dawn services around the country to commemorate the moment when Australian and New Zealand Army Corps troops waded ashore at the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey 103 years ago in their first major battle of World War I.

Because extremists have targeted annual ANZAC Day April 25 ceremonies in the past, concrete barriers were placed around the service in downtown Sydney to protect those who gathered at Martin Place against vehicle attacks.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, his French counterpart Edouard Philippe and the heir to the British throne, Prince Charles, will mark ANZAC Day in France with a service that also commemorates the 100th anniversary of Australian troops taking the town of Villers-Bretonneux from the Germans.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton represents the Australian government at a service at ANZAC Cove at Gallipoli where the Australian and New Zealand troops landed under British command in an ill-fated attempt to take the Ottoman Empire out of the war.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The company formerly known as Yahoo is paying a $35 million fine to resolve federal regulators' charges that the online pioneer deceived investors by failing to disclose one of the biggest data breaches in internet history.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced the action Tuesday against the company, which is now called Altaba after its email and other digital services were sold to Verizon Communications for $4.48 billion last year. Yahoo, which is no longer publicly traded, neither admitted nor denied the allegations but did agree to refrain from further violations of securities laws.

Personal data was stolen from hundreds of millions of Yahoo users in the December 2014 breach attributed to Russian hackers. The SEC alleged that, although Yahoo senior managers and attorneys were told about the breach, the company failed to fully investigate. The breach wasn't disclosed to the investing public until more than two years later, when Yahoo was working on closing Verizon's acquisition of its operating business in 2016, the SEC said.

"Yahoo's failure to have controls and procedures in place to assess its cyber disclosure obligations ended up leaving its investors totally in the dark about a massive data breach," Jina Choi, director of the SEC's San Francisco regional office, said in a statement.

Altaba spokesman Mike Pascale said the New York company declined to comment on the SEC settlement.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who urged the SEC in September 2016 to investigate whether Yahoo met its obligation to inform the public, said Tuesday that the company's failure to do so "didn't pass the smell test."

"Holding the company accountable is important, and I hope others will learn you can't sweep this kind of thing under the rug," Warner, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, said in a tweet.

Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo eventually acknowledged that the 2014 hacking attack and a separate one in 2013 affected all 3 billion accounts on its service.

Yahoo ended up having to give Verizon a $350 million discount on their deal, reflecting concerns that people might reduce their use of Yahoo email and other digital services because of the breach, decreasing opportunities to show ads.

In scooping up Yahoo's digital services, Verizon's strategy was to meld the operations with its AOL division with an eye to becoming a bigger player in the growing market for digital ads.

Yahoo's most valuable parts  investments in China's e-commerce leader Alibaba, and in Yahoo Japan  were left in Altaba. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, a former Google executive who led Yahoo for nearly five years, did not join Verizon and was out of a job.

Prosecutors have said that two Russian intelligence agents, Dmitry Dokuchaev and Igor Sushchin, used information they stole from Yahoo to spy on Russian journalists, U.S. and Russian government officials and employees of financial services and other private businesses. In February 2017, they filed computer fraud and other charges against Dokuchaev, Sushchin and two other men  another Russian national, Alexsey Belan, and a Canadian named Karim Baratov.

A U.S. judge in San Francisco on Tuesday pushed back a sentencing hearing for Baratov, who prosecutors say was hired by Dokuchaev to breach at least 80 email accounts obtained from the massive Yahoo hack. Baratov pleaded guilty in November to one count of conspiracy to commit computer fraud and abuse and eight counts of aggravated identity theft.

Judge Vince Chhabria questioned whether the sentence of seven years and 10 months that prosecutors were seeking for Baratov was longer than what other hackers had received for similar crimes.

Baratov's attorneys have called for a sentence of three years and nine months.

Chhabria stressed that Baratov was not behind the Yahoo hack. He continued the sentencing hearing to May 29.

Authorities have described Baratov as an "international hacker-for-hire" who hacked more than 11,000 webmail accounts from around 2010 until his March 2017 arrest and used the money he made  roughly $1.1 million at about $100 per hacking victim  to finance a $650,000 home and fancy cars, including a Lamborghini and Aston Martin.
Amazons free two-hour delivery of Whole Foods groceries for its Prime members is expanding to San Diego on Tuesday.

Already delivering to seven metro areas, Amazon is broadening its new Whole Foods service for Prime subscribers to not only San Diego but also Sacramento and Denver this week.

The greater Los Angeles area, which includes much of Orange County, was added two weeks ago.

The new delivery option makes sense given Amazons nearly $14 billion purchase last year of Whole Foods, known for its organic and natural foods products.

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The free delivery service, which applies to orders of $35 or more, is available to anyone who has an Amazon Prime subscription. Orders can be placed via Amazons Prime Now app or online at primenow.com. For those preferring one-hour delivery, a fee of $7.99 will apply.

Delivery is available daily from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., and in San Diego, orders can include beer, wine and spirits.

Not all of San Diego County is covered by Amazons Whole Foods delivery. The service will be offered to communities as far north as Encinitas, south to Otay Mesa and east to El Cajon, said Tanvi Patel, head of business development for Prime Now.

Amazon Prime members can put their ZIP code into the app to determine if they qualify for delivery, and if their area is not served they can ask to be updated when service will be available, Patel said.

She was not willing to disclose Amazons future growth plans for Whole Foods delivery. Other cities currently served include Atlanta, Austin, Cincinnati, Dallas, San Francisco and Virginia Beach.

We have said we are excited to roll out promotions associated with our Whole Foods acquisition, and we will continue to launch into new cities, Patel said.

The expansion of Whole Foods delivery is sure to intensify competition in the grocery delivery sector. In 2014, Instacart signed Whole Foods as its first national partner for delivery, long before Amazon acquired the upscale grocer. Since then, Instacart has expanded its portfolio to include well-known grocery stores like Albertsons and Ralphs.

I cannot comment on what others will continue to do, but we want to do whats best for the customer, Patel said. We realize customers want choice but we do know our Prime members tend to appreciate the services we offer to them.

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In addition to Whole Foods, Amazons Prime Now offers delivery from Bristol Farms and Sprouts to households in San Diego. There is no delivery fee for purchases of $50 or more at Bristol Farms, and the fee is waived for an order of at least $35 at Sprouts, according to the website.

The e-commerce giant also offers grocery delivery via AmazonFresh but that service costs an additional $14.99 a month for Prime members.

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lori.weisberg@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-2251

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Twitter: @loriweisberg
San Diego has made the first cut for a new U.S. Army Futures Command  a center focused on technologies that will shape next-generation battlefields.

Army Undersecretary Ryan McCarthy sent a letter to San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer last week seeking data about local technology talent, tech firms and academic institutions in the region.

San Diego is one of 15 cities being considered for the Army Futures Command. McCarthy also requested data on housing, transportation and other quality of life information, as well as the communitys interest in housing the command.

The new facility is expected to employ around 500 military and civilian personnel. It aims to help the Army become more agile in discovering and adopting new technologies.

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The deadline for providing the information is May 10. The San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp. will work with the city in piecing together the local proposal.

Other cities in the running are Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Raleigh, San Francisco and Seattle.

Work to establish the Army Futures Command has been under way for more than a year.

They have already set aside a four-star command to lead it, said Jesse Gipe, senior manager at the San Diego Regional EDC who handles military matters A four-star position does not come easily. So they are taking this new command very seriously.

The Army expects to trim the finalists down to four cities, but it has not set a definitive timetable for doing so, said Gipe. He expects a winner to be named in 2019.

While San Diego County has as large U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard footprint  including the Navys Space and Naval Workfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) information technology center  it does not have a big Army presence.

Its unclear how the Army would view the concentration of rival service branches here.

The region is home to several defense technology contractors that supply the Army, including Cubic Corp. and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems. San Diego has a history of commercializing technologies first developed for the military, and the region has a significant number of skilled workers with security clearances.

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San Diego easily checks all the boxes for the Army Futures Command, said Mark Cafferty, chief executive of the San Diego Regional EDC.

The Army is looking at a workforce associated with innovation -- including biomedical, chemical, computer, electrical and materials engineers, and materials scientists and software developers.

It also wants to know about research and development spending at academic institutions, incentives to encourage tech firms to locate in the region and local tech incubators/partnership to foster innovation.

We have a community that embraces its innovation economy, an unparalleled workforce and top-tier universities, said Cafferty. But beyond that, San Diego has a long history of collaborating with the military to spur innovation and protect national security.

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mike.freeman@sduniontribune.com;

Twitter:@TechDiego

760-529-4973
Long-distance caregivers have many of the same concerns and pressures local caregivers have  and then some. AARP has identified five steps long-distance caregivers can take to ensure their loved one is well cared for, wherever they live, including:

Stay in the loop

Establish regular ways to communicate with your local team and loved one, whether through various phone or tablet apps, group emails or social tools like FaceTime or Skype. If doctors dont have the time or inclination to follow up with you after meeting with your loved one, youll need to be both assertive and creative to stay plugged in.

Quick Tips:

Make good use of technology. With your loved ones permission (or her legal proxys), you can implement tools like video monitors and wearable activity trackers. Also available: remote door locks (to prevent wandering in case of dementia) and even electronic pill dispensers that can notify you if someone has taken their medications.

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Stay clued in to doctors orders. The person youre caring for might not remember everything important discussed during a doctors appointment (who does?). You might suggest taking a digital recorder so that you can listen later, or recommend bringing a friend to take notes.

Consider easy ways to coordinate. Set up an email group you can use to keep everyone up to date. You might use an online scheduling tool such as Lotsa Helping Hands to organize and stay current on whos doing what and when.

Look into workplace leave policies. You may be eligible for time off from work for caregiving under the Family and Medical Leave Act. If you work for a small company or havent worked for your employer long, you may not be. As a compromise, some caregivers arrange to work remotely when they leave town for a caregiving visit.

Essential information: The California Employment Development Department explains the state Paid Family Leave law and how it compares to the federal Family and Medical Leave Act here.

Read more: For specific tips in each of the other areas, see AARPs website or click here:

michele.parente@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @sdeditgirl
Choosing the right home care agency from the start can save a lot of time, frustration and possible disappointment later.

Start here: First, realize that home care agencies are not all the same. As with any business, some companies are better managed and operated than others. So focus your immediate attention on learning as much about an agency as possible, including their reputation in the community and qualifications of the owners/managers. Check on accreditations and collect knowledgeable referrals and personal recommendations from credible sources whenever possible.

Key resource: In 2016, California law established the Home Care Services Consumer Protection Act. It requires home care agencies to be licensed in the state. The Home Care Services Bureau (HCSB) is responsible for this licensing and also maintains a public online registry for home care aides who have undergone background checks. HCSB also receives and responds to complaints and performs unannounced visits to ensure compliance, according to its website. Contact the HCSB at (877) 424-5778 and cdss.ca.gov/inforesources/Community-Care/Home-Care-Services.

Things to consider:

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Who owns the agency and who runs day-to-day-operations? Have there been any recent changes? Is the owner/manager a health professional and what is their background? Will they provide references?

The San Diego Elder Law Center has compiled the following checklist of conditions and services to look for when choosing a home care agency:

The agency provides the type of services and caregivers that are needed now, and offers other services that might be needed later

An initial assessment is performed by a health professional, such as a nurse or social worker, at a time and location convenient to patient and family.

The agency can help with arrangements for necessary supplies and equipment in the home, home modifications, and other community resources such as Meals on Wheels, transportation and adult day care.

Families are encouraged to participate with developing the plan of care and needed ongoing changes.

The written plan of care clearly states services to be provided.

Verbal and written information about costs for services and billing procedures are provided.

The caregivers work directly for the agency.

The agency takes care of proper employment tax withholding and workers compensation for caregivers.

Staff is licensed and bonded and caregivers are subject to background checks and routine drug testing.

Families have a say in the caregivers sent to their home, and if they are unsatisfied with caregiver selection they are able to request changes.

The same caregiver will be returning each time.

There is a 24-hour on-call system in place for emergencies.

You have been provided with a copy of the Patients Rights and Responsibilities.

San Diego Elder Law Center is a privately-run law firm that offers a variety of information and services for seniors and their families.

Union-Tribune reporter Michele Parente contributed to this report.

michele.parente@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @sdeditgirl
When Cheryl Jarvis was looking for help in dealing with her moms care a few years back, she turned to the Southern Caregiver Resource Center and Alzheimers San Diego.

In addition to other services, Jarvis used both of the groups extensive support group networks. Jarvis said the support she received transcended the actual meetings, with other caregivers becoming more like family than some of her actual family members.

And, she noted, with a laugh, nothing reminded her of how good she had it than going to support group and hearing how bad others had it.

Where to start: A multitude of places offer caregiver support groups, from caregiver service organizations to disease-related associations and even private memory-care facilities.

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If youre already working with a caregiver services organization, for respite care, for example, ask them about their support program.

Hospital, VA and care-facility social workers can also recommend support groups.

If your parent lives at a long-term care community, ask if they offer support groups for family members. Sometimes groups will hold meetings at assisted living facilities; sometimes the facility itself coordinates the support group and provides the facilitator or counselor who runs it.

Most disease-affiliated associations have regular support groups around San Diego County and post the schedule on their websites. Some of the groups are limited to people with the disease; make sure to ask about groups for family caregivers.

If youre working with a geriatric care manager, ask him or her to recommend a support group.

Senior centers, adult-day care centers and churches are also places that may hold support groups.

Check out national resources: Eldercare Locator, a public service of the U.S. Administration on Aging, can connect caregivers to services. Contact: (800) 677-1116. AARP has a Caregiving Support Line. Contact (877) 333-5885.

Keep in mind: While some caregiver support groups are helpful to anyone, there are groups that focus on the specific challenges of a caregiver. Examples includes support groups for spouses, adult children of aging parents, military caregivers, Spanish speakers or mens support groups.

A sampling of places that offer support groups:

michele.parente@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @sdeditgirl


Falls have a notorious snowball effect on an older persons health. A broken hip, for example, can lead to a hospital stay that could then spiral into multiple complications. The statistics are grim.

Falls are the leading cause of injury death for those 65 or older, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

About 40 percent of those who need to be hospitalized from a fall wont be able to live independently again; most cant even return home.

Two elderly people die from fall-related injuries every day in California, on average.

How at risk are you? See the checklist from the San Diego Elder Law Center.

Common causes for falls:

Frailty and weakness

Medications that cause lightheadedness or dizziness; drug combinations; taking medications at the wrong time

Tripping hazards such as throw rugs, clutter and electrical cords

Poor lighting; diminished eyesight

Bad balance; lack of exercise; atrophied muscles

Poor nutrition; dehydration

Inner ear issues; impaired depth perception

Fear of falling; taking tentative steps

The San Diego Fall Prevention Task Force recommends: Eat well and drink lots of water; track all medications and take them when prescribed. And keep active to improve not just your overall health but strength, flexibility and balance.

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Prevent falls at home

Most fixes arent complicated and they are free or relatively inexpensive:



Clear out the clutter and keep passageways open

Remove throw rugs and errant power cords

Install grab bars in the shower and near the toilet

Install handrails on both sides of stairways.

Raise the toilet seat a few inches with an elevated seat, preferably one with arms. They are available at most medical supply and drug stores.

Use night lights. Pay particular attention to the homes key hazard zones: the bathroom and kitchen.

Geriatric physician Dr. Daniel Sewell says enhanced lighting is one of the most important changes to make.

Older people, people with cataracts or diabetes, their visual acuity is diminished, Sewell said. If the light isnt bright enough, they can become sedentary because theyre scared to get up.

Atrophy and loss of balance can be the result.

Sewell is medical director of the Senior Behavioral Health Program at UC San Diego Hillcrest Medical Center.

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Its such a simple fix, illuminating a space, he said. At home the idea would be as much natural light as possible. Think larger windows, sky lights, cathedral lighting, floor and table lamps, even lighter paint color choices.

The floor matters, too

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Floor surfaces should be softer  tile is hard and unforgiving and carpet can be too restricting for someone who uses a wheelchair or walker. Vinyl floors are a happy medium but can also be unexpectedly perilous, Sewell said, because they can be shiny.

High gloss can be slippery, and even if its not, its perceived as slippery. It changes how (people) walk. They walk like theyre on ice, which leads to falls.

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Who can help?

If you live in central San Diego, or South or East County, contact Jewish Family Service for free minor home modifications, such as grab bar installation, as part of its Fix-it program. (858) 637-3040.

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In North County, caregivers should call Interfaith Community Services at (760) 489-6380 ext. 204.

Learn more

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The county office on Aging & Independence Services San Diego Fall Prevention Task Force offers a comprehensive guide on avoiding falls, including a helpful video called Dont Fall For It.

Find more information at stopfalls.org.

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michele.parente@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @sdeditgirl


When youre caring for someone in your home, you need stuff. From beds to diabetes supplies, there is often a long list of medical devices that are required.

Common medical equipment for home caregivers

Diabetes

Diabetes testing supplies are the most-prescribed medical devices in the United States.

If you are taking care of someone with diabetes, helping them keep their disease under control is one of your most pressing concerns. The consequences of failing to do so range from kidney disease and numbness in the feet, to stroke and vision loss. Luckily, managing diabetes is much more automated today than it used to be.

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Continuous blood glucose monitors. Its possible today to get models that will automatically send you an electronic real-time readout of your loved ones glucose levels, setting off alarms on your smartphone if the numbers are going in the wrong direction.

Insulin pumps. They deliver a continual low level of insulin all day long. These tools can help add fail-safes to a caregivers efforts to co-manage diabetes. But its important, a host of experts warn, that in order to use these devices effectively, you need to understand what diabetes is, how its managed, and exactly what the danger signs are.

Medicare only covers one type of continuous blood glucose monitor, the Dexcom G5, which was approved in March 2017. Coverage guidelines require that a beneficiary require an insulin-treatment regimen that requires frequent adjustment.

Insulin pumps are covered for patients with several different diabetes complications, including histories of recurrent hypoglycemia (blood sugar levels that are too low) or wide fluctuations in blood glucose before mealtime.

Medicare also covers more mundane supplies, including normal glucose monitors, blood sugar test strips, insulin, lancets and therapeutic shoe inserts.

Airway pressure devices

CPAP machines gently blow air into your nose and mouth, preventing your airway from collapsing and causing sleep apnea, a condition that can cause severe health consequences if left untreated. CPAP stands for continuous positive airway pressure.

Its important, notes the American Sleep Association, to understand that there are other devices to treat sleep apnea. For example, a BiPAP device uses a different air pressure for exhaling and inhaling and can work better for people with lung disease. Weight loss can also alleviate the need for airway pressure devices, and a retainer-like oral appliance is also available to move the lower jaw forward during sleep, opening the airway without a pressure mask.

Medicare will cover CPAP machines but has a strict list of requirements that must be met first, including undergoing a sleep study, an in-person diagnosis from a doctor. That diagnosis must find that a persons oxygen level drops by at least 4 percent at least five times per hour in order to qualify for a machine. Thats a more strict standard than many private insurance companies require. Also, if you do meet the requirements and Medicare buys you a CPAP machine, you get it for a 90-day trial period. Your use of the machine is monitored during this period, and if you dont use it, the machine is taken away.

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Medication management

Meds are nearly universal when it comes to caregiving.

And if you are dealing with memory impairment, it can be even more difficult to make sure the right pills are taken at the right times. It is also important to understand and keep an eye out for the myriad side effects that each prescription may cause.

A pill box is the traditional method for keeping track of a rainbow assortment of pharmaceuticals. However, many caregivers have devised their own systems as variable as using shot glasses or daily manilla envelopes. Agingcare.com has put together a nice list of different methods that caregivers use to organize, persuade and remind those who are on multiple medications.

When you arent there to dispense: Technology is your friend. A wide range of electronic pill management systems available which can be set to remind a person when its time to fill a glass of water and get popping. Even better, some of these systems are connected to the Internet and can send you a message if their little compartments have not been opened on schedule, allowing you to reach out and deliver a little timely reminder.

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Medicare doesnt pay for pill management systems. But theyre not that expensive. Many basic systems can be had for less than $100.

Portable oxygen

Beds, walkers and wheelchairs

Help with lifting

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paul.sisson@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1850

Twitter: @paulsisson
Port of San Diego commissioners have approved a new RV park on Chula Vistas waterfront  the first project under larger plans to develop the scenic area into a landmark destination.

The board of port commissioners hailed the approval of the Costa Vista RV Resort as a significant step for the so-called Chula Vista bayfront project, which has been in the works for more than 20 years.

I have to say this is quite the monumental day, port commissioner Ann Moore said at the boards April 10 meeting before the 6-0 vote to approve the RV park.

Commissioner Michael Zucchet was absent.

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The board also granted the developer, Sun Communities Inc., a tentative coastal development permit. Staff said construction could begin in the fall, with opening targeted for late 2019.

Proposed features of the resort, which will be located at E Street and Bay Boulevard near the Living Coast Discovery Center, include:

255 spaces, including 139 traditional RV stalls and 116 park model RV units, which are designed to look like a house

Traditional and childrens pools, as well as a Jacuzzi

A spa/salon, sauna and gym

A grill/restaurant

An arcade and game room

A business center and multi-purpose room

A covered picnic area with outdoor grills

A childrens rock-climbing wall and playground, horseshoe pits and bocce ball courts

A welcome center, with restrooms, showers and laundry facilities

Plans for off-site improvements as part of the $39 million project include new roads and sidewalks, as well as the installation of utilities.

The Costa Vista RV Resort on Chula Vistas waterfront will include more than 100 park model RV units, which are designed to look like a house. (Tucker Sadler Architects, Inc. )

Sun Communities was chosen to develop and operate the RV park in April 2017. It owns and operates about 100 RV resorts across the U.S. and in Ontario.

The team at Sun Communities is thrilled that we have reached this milestone in our development plan, and we are looking forward to memorializing our partnership with the Port of San Diego and our commitment to the Chula Vista community, John McLaren, president and chief operating officer, said in a statement. We believe our proposed resort will be the finest coastal RV resort in California in a location that is truly irreplaceable given the extraordinary future of the Chula Vista Bayfront.

The resort is the first major project under the Chula Vista bayfront master plan. Other development plans as part of the joint project between the city and the port include a billion-dollar resort hotel and convention center on the citys 535-acre waterfront.

Weve been talking about this since I was in high school, port commissioner Dan Malcom said at the April 10 meeting. This is a big moment.

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Email: david.hernandez@sduniontribune.com

Phone: (619) 293-1876

Twitter: @D4VIDHernandez
A letter written aboard the Titanic by a woman bound for San Diego fetched almost $35,000 at an auction over the weekend in England.

The four-page, handwritten missive by Kate Buss is on official Titanic stationery and dated April 10, 1912, the day the liner departed Southampton for its maiden voyage to New York.

Described by the auction house Henry Aldridge & Son as a vivid snapshot of life onboard the ill-fated ship, the letter to one of Buss brothers talks about the accommodations and some of the other passengers. It offers just one complaint: the new-paint smell.

The pre-auction estimate for the letter was about $28,000 to $35,000 and it sold for $34,665. No details about the buyer were released. Among the other items in the Saturday sale was a menu from the Titanics sea trials, held about a week before the maiden voyage, which went for almost $140,000.

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Andrew Aldridge, an official with the auction house, told the BBC that the prices reached on the various items illustrated the publics ongoing fascination with the story of the Titanic.

Because Buss letter was mailed at a stop in Ireland, it wasnt on the Titanic when it struck an iceberg in the north Atlantic Ocean shortly before midnight on April 14, 1912. About 1,500 people died.

Buss was among the 700 survivors who made it into lifeboats and were picked up hours later by another ship, the Carpathia, and taken to New York. Then she boarded a train to San Diego, where Samuel Willis, her fiance waited.

They were married on May 11, 1912, at St. Paul Episcopal Church, and nine months later had a daughter, Sybil Lillian, whose middle name was given in honor of another Titanic passenger.

While the family was in San Diego, Kate Buss Willis befriended Viola Fay, according to Fays grandson, Ralph Hughes, who sent an email to the Union-Tribune after it published an article about the auction last week. Hughes also forwarded a copy of a five-page memoir, A Story of the Titanic Disaster, purportedly written by Buss Willis in 1932 and given to Viola Fay.

In it, she describes being in her cabin when the ship hit the iceberg. She heard a sound that she described as a big ice-skate gliding on ice. From the lifeboat, All of us watched the Titanic going down one deck at a time, she wrote. Then came a terrific explosion and we heard those terrible cries.

Kate Buss Willis died in Oregon in 1972 at age 96.

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john.wilkens@sduniontribune.com
About a month after the first large-scale immigration arrest operation in San Diego under the Trump administration rounded up 115 people, officers took another 44 into custody in a second week-long enforcement effort that ended Friday.

In the days leading up to the operation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers located nine other people who wouldve been targeted by the action, bringing the total number of announced arrests to 53. The March operation was directed by national headquarters  Aprils effort was a locally directed cross check operation and a little smaller in scope, according to ICE spokeswoman Lauren Mack.

The scheduling details pertaining to all of EROs enforcement operations, including local cross check operations, are law enforcement sensitive, Mack said when asked about the timing of the two operations.

Of the 53 people arrested, nine had pending criminal charges, 11 had criminal convictions and 10 had previously been removed from the U.S. The agency declined to clarify how many of the remaining 23 arrests were collateral, meaning that they were not targets of the operation but encountered in the process of arresting others.

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A news release about the operation called out S.B. 54, a bill that went into effect in January that restricted local law enforcements interaction with federal immigration officers, as the reason some of those arrested were targeted.

While we continue to face significant obstacles in dealing with so-called sanctuary city policies, which hinder cooperation with local law enforcement, we will continue our relentless pursuit of safeguarding communities, diligently enforcing the U.S. immigration laws, said Gregory Archambeault, field office director of ICEs Enforcement and Removal Operations in San Diego.

The news release about the operation said that offenses of those arrested who had criminal histories included vandalism, hit and run, larceny, DUI and various drug offenses.

The release detailed four cases of Mexican men who were arrested.

One had a conviction for possession for sale of heroin and was previously deported. After his April arrest by ICE, he was turned over to the U.S. Marshals Service for prosecution for illegal reentry.

The other three had pending DUI charges, and two of them were released from county jail instead of being turned over to ICE, according to the release.

One of those three men also had a pending contempt of court charge, and another had a pending possession of a controlled substance charge. Both are in ICE custody waiting to see immigration judges.

The third man had previously been deported from the U.S. and was taken back to Mexico on the same day that he was arrested under that prior removal order.

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ICE officers arrested people across the county in Santee, Vista, Encinitas, Chula Vista, Escondido, Oceanside, San Diego and Imperial Beach. Those arrested included people from Mexico and Guatemala, according to Mack.

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Immigration Videos On Now New developments in family separation case 9:53 On Now A San Diego woman volunteered as a medic in Texas helping migrant families 2:35 On Now Immigration policy protests in Carlsbad nearly cancelled after permit issue 1:38 On Now When children are separated from their parents at the border, here is where they go next On Now Prospects of a deal for 'Dreamers' may hinge on separating Trump from hard-liners on his staff On Now What is DACA? On Now Border wall prototype contractors selected On Now Video: Ukrainian boxer wins asylum in U.S. On Now 30 apprehended after Border Patrol agents discover tunnel On Now Video: Kurdish diaspora prepare to vote on independence

Follow me on Facebook for live updates about immigration news

kate.morrissey@sduniontribune.com, @bgirledukate on Twitter
The number of refugees resettling in San Diego County dropped again in March after a little rise in February.

Twenty-five new arrivals came to the county in March, a 63 percent decrease from the 68 refugees who arrived the previous month, according to data from the State Department. Nationally, the number of arrivals did not change much month-to-month with 1,927 resettling in February and 1,914 arriving in March.

Since President Donald Trump ordered changes to the resettlement program, the number of newcomers reduced to a trickle compared to recent years arrivals.

Though the end of March marks the halfway point for fiscal 2018, less than a quarter of the 45,000 quota set by the president have arrived in the U.S.

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The trend doesnt look likely to change in April.

Etleva Bejko, director of refugee and immigration services for Jewish Family Service of San Diego, said the resettlement agency had received only people from Afghanistan with special immigrant visas in April. Those with SIVs are counted separately from refugees by the State Department.

Refugees from Afghanistan, at 10, were the largest group of new arrivals to San Diego in March. Nine of the countys newcomers are from Sri Lanka and the remaining six are from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Both nationally and in San Diego, the largest group of refugees to arrive so far in fiscal 2018 is from the Democratic Republic of Congo. If refugees do not already have family members in the U.S., they often go where there are already immigrant communities from their country. All but one of the 51 Congolese refugees resettled in California came to San Diego.

Across the U.S., just over 2,500 of the 10,549 resettled refugees  or 24 percent  are from the DRC. While Congolese refugees have been the largest group to arrive nationally in recent years, San Diego County took in more Iraqis and Syrians before fiscal 2018.

So far in fiscal 2018, 7 Iraqis and two Syrians came through the refugee resettlement program to San Diego County. In the two previous fiscal years, both of those countries were near the top of the list nationally, but now Bhutan, Burma and Ukraine round out the top four after the DRC for resettled refugees in the U.S.

Because many Ukrainians resettle in Sacramento County, it has become the California county that takes in the most refugees. San Diego held that distinction for about a decade.

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Immigration Videos On Now New developments in family separation case 9:53 On Now A San Diego woman volunteered as a medic in Texas helping migrant families 2:35 On Now Immigration policy protests in Carlsbad nearly cancelled after permit issue 1:38 On Now When children are separated from their parents at the border, here is where they go next On Now Prospects of a deal for 'Dreamers' may hinge on separating Trump from hard-liners on his staff On Now What is DACA? On Now Border wall prototype contractors selected On Now Video: Ukrainian boxer wins asylum in U.S. On Now 30 apprehended after Border Patrol agents discover tunnel On Now Video: Kurdish diaspora prepare to vote on independence

Follow me on Facebook for live updates about immigration news

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kate.morrissey@sduniontribune.com, @bgirledukate on Twitter
The 29-year-old charged with killing four people at a Waffle House in Nashville, Tennessee, over the weekend left behind considerable evidence linking him to the violence, authorities said in court filings.

Travis Reinking, who was arrested Monday following a 34-hour manhunt, has been charged with four counts of criminal homicide. In affidavits filed in state court, officials said surveillance video showed someone who looked like Reinking getting out of a truck registered to him, firing a gun previously linked to him and then leaving behind two checks made out to him.

Authorities have not yet said what they believe motivated the shooting, saying only that Reinking had exhibited significant instability. But the court filings laid out the beginning of what could be an extensive and unusual criminal case, since mass shootings often end with the suspected shooters dead rather than facing trial.

Reinking is scheduled to make his first court appearance on May 7 in Nashville, about 15 miles away from the Waffle House where police say he opened fire on unsuspecting diners early Sunday morning. A public defender assigned to Reinking did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

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Four people were killed - Taurean Sanderlin, 29; Joe Perez, 20; DeEbony Groves, 21; and Akilah Dasilva, 23 - and two others were hospitalized in stable condition, authorities said. It was the second time in a matter of months that the Antioch community on the citys outskirts was shaken by a mass shooting, following the September attack on a church that ended with one person killed.

Tragedies like this are a fundamental threat to our way of life in America, Nashville Mayor David Briley, D, said in a statement after Reinkings arrest. Everyone should be able to go to a restaurant or church or school without fear.

Questions still lingered after the Waffle House shooting, including what could have prompted the attack. Police said that after he was arrested, Reinking declined to offer a statement or answer questions, instead requesting a lawyer.

Reinking had still not spoken to investigators as of Tuesday afternoon, 24 hours after he was arrested, said Don Aaron, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.

The motive is undetermined, Aaron wrote in an email Tuesday.

Some wondered whether race had again played a role in a horrific shooting, given that Reinking is white and the people he is accused of shooting were black and Hispanic.

More uncertainty also swirled around how someone who had raised so many red flags over the years - drawing the attention of local police, state police, the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service - was still allegedly able to use a gun authorities said he had been barred from possessing and had signed over to his father.

Authorities said the AR-15 used in the Waffle House shooting was among the guns that Reinking had previously said he gave to his father. In the affidavit filed in court, officials said the serial number on the AR-15 - which remained at the Waffle House after the shooting - revealed it was a gun that had been linked to him.

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Police records showed that Reinking had a series of increasingly troubled encounters with authorities since 2016. According to one report, he told police that the pop star Taylor Swift was stalking and harassing him. Another time, police said, he went to a local pool, swam in his underwear and tried to pick fights with lifeguards. The police reports say that the same day, he went to the offices of his fathers construction business with a rifle, shouted expletives at employees and then drove away.

In a police report, an officer said Reinkings father, Jeffrey, told police he had taken away his sons firearms - three rifles and a handgun - while he was having problems, but then returned them. Attempts to reach Reinking have been unsuccessful, and people who answered the door and the phone at homes registered to the family have declined to comment.

The Tazewell County Sheriffs Office in Illinois, where the 29-year-old suspect lived before relocating to Tennessee, said the state police last summer asked the office to revoke a card allowing Reinking to possess guns and ammunition in Illinois. The request came several weeks after Reinking was arrested outside the White House for trying to cross a security barrier, declaring himself a sovereign citizen and ignoring orders to stop, according to a District of Columbia police report.

Matthew Espenshade, assistant special agent in charge of the FBIs Memphis division, said Monday that every federal resource was brought to bear in Reinkings case after his arrest at the White House and an assessment the bureau carried out.

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We were able to effectively neutralize what we felt was the threat at the time by ensuring that he did not have the ability to purchase or own weapons and that those weapons were taken, Espenshade said.

Illinois state records show that Reinking signed his four guns over to his father on Aug. 24, 2017. Police said Reinkings father told authorities that he eventually gave the guns back to his son.

Federal officials said Jeffrey Reinking could potentially face charges for the transfer.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Central District of Illinois, which includes Tazewell County, declined to comment on the situation Tuesday. Illinois officials said it was not clear if Jeffrey Reinking also could face local charges.

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Stewart Umholtz, the Tazewell County States Attorney, said Tuesday that so far, his office did not have enough information to know yet if the elder Reinking committed a crime.

When our office receives information from the criminal investigation, particularly from the FBI, we will be in a position to determine if any violation of state law occurred, Umholtz wrote in an email Tuesday.

The Washington Posts Kristine Phillips, Julie Tate and Alice Crites contributed to this report.
Princes heirs have sued Walgreens and the Illinois hospital that treated the music superstar after he suffered from an opioid overdose, alleging that a doctor and various pharmacists failed to provide Prince with reasonable care, contributing to his death.

The wrongful-death lawsuit filed in Cook County, Illinois, alleges a doctor and pharmacist at Trinity Medical Center in Moline, Illinois, failed to appropriately treat and investigate Princes April 15, 2016, overdose, and that he died as a direct and proximate cause of one or more ... deviations from the standards of care.

It accuses Walgreen Co. and pharmacists at two of its Minnesota branches of dispensing prescription medications not valid for a legitimate medical purpose.

Walgreens and the hospitals parent company both declined to comment Monday, citing pending litigation.

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Prince was 57 when he was found alone and unresponsive in an elevator at his Paisley Park studio compound in suburban Minneapolis on April 21, 2016. An autopsy found he died of an accidental overdose of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times more powerful than heroin.

Authorities said it was likely Prince didnt know he was taking the dangerous drug, which was laced in counterfeit pills made to look like a generic version of the painkiller Vicodin. The source of those pills is unknown and no one has been charged in Princes death.

A week before he died, Prince passed out on a flight home from an Atlanta concert and the private plane made an emergency stop in Moline. The musician had to be revived with two doses of a drug that reverses effects of an opioid overdose.

At Trinity Medical Center, Prince refused medical tests but was asked what drugs he took. Documents show a pill that he had with him, which was marked as Vicodin, was sent to the pharmacy for testing. A hospital pharmacist said it appeared to be Vicodin and returned it to Prince.

Prosecutors said last week that no chemical testing was done on the pill, but evidence suggests it was counterfeit and laced with fentanyl.

The lawsuit alleges the pharmacist and emergency room physician, Dr. Nicole Mancha, failed to timely diagnose and treat the overdose and failed to provide appropriate counseling.

The allegations against Walgreens stem from prescriptions that were dispensed to Prince, but written under the name of his bodyguard, Kirk Johnson. Authorities said Dr. Michael Todd Schulenberg admitted that he prescribed oxycodone to Prince under Johnsons name to protect Princes privacy. Schulenberg disputes that, but paid $30,000 to settle allegations the drug was prescribed illegally.

Attorneys for Princes family, George Loucas and John Goetz, said in a statement that they will have more to say when the time is right.

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Princes family wishes, through its investigation, to shed additional light on what happened to Prince. At the same time further light on the opiate epidemic will hopefully help the fight to save lives, the attorneys said. If Princes death helps save lives, then all was not lost.

RELATED STORIES:

Files show rising alarm in Princes circle as health failed

Column: Princes death reveals how so-called friends may really be enablers

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Prince: Through the years
While campaigns across the state meet with voters, hone their platforms and jockey for an advantage ahead of Election Day, one thing is certain: On June 5, San Diego Treasurer/Tax Collector Dan McAllister will be elected to a fifth term.

McAllister has held his office since 2002 and due to a lack of challengers, he will be elected outright in the primary election. Hes the only candidate in that situation.

For a handful of other races, the June 5 election is also an inconsequential step before the general election in November, because only two candidates are running. The top two candidates  the only two candidates  will proceed to a runoff election in November.

Even with no drama, campaigns often use the primary as a weigh station to see how they compare against the competition ahead of the general election. Here are the two-candidate races:

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Sen. Ben Hueso, D-San Diego, is running for re-election against Republican Luis Vargas, a retired San Diego Superior Court judge. The 40th district is solidly Democratic.

Republican Sen. Pat Bates, R-Laguna Nigel, is running for re-election against Democrat Marggie Castellano, a businesswoman. Bates is the Senate minority leader and the 36th Senate District is solidly Republican.

Assemblywoman Marie Waldron, R-Escondido, is running for re-election in the GOP-heavy 75th Assembly district. Alan Geraci, a consumer attorney, is running as a Democrat. This race will be decided in November.

Once a Republican stronghold, the 77th Assembly District has become purple. Incumbent Brian Maeinschein, R-San Diego, faces Democrat Sunday Gover, a businesswoman.

Assemblyman Todd Gloria, D-San Diego, is running for re-election in the 78th District, and fighting a challenge from Maggie Campbell, a Republican and a trauma intervention counselor. Democrats have a large voter registration advantage.

Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, D-San Diego, is running for re-election against Republican John Moore, a retired businessman, in the 79th District. The seat is solidly Democratic.

Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, D-San Diego, is running for re-election against Republican Lincoln Pickard, a retired contractor, in the heavily Democratic 80th distrct. This race will be decided in November.

Incumbents Kevin Beiser and Michael McQuary are running unopposed for re-election to the San Diego Unified School District board. They will nevertheless appear on ballots in June and November.

Twitter: @jptstewart

joshua.stewart@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1841
The adult daughter of interim District Attorney Summer Stephan is facing drunken driving and other charges stemming from a Feb. 25 incident where she is also accused of driving the wrong way on a highway, court records show.

Kimberly Margaret Sabraw, 25, who is also the daughter of U.S. District Court Judge Dana Sabraw, is facing four misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence, driving with a blood alcohol level greater than 0.08 percent, reckless driving, and wrong-way driving. She posted $2,500 bail the night of the incident and was ordered to appear in court on April 12.

Stephan said the arrest was a family issue.

This is a personal matter, and my role here is as a mother and not as DA, she said in a written statement. My daughter is an amazing young woman, and while Im disappointed in this event, we will deal with it as a family, and my office is recused from any involvement.

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Court records show that on April 12, Sabraw pleaded not guilty via her lawyer at what is commonly known as a counter arraignment, where defendants can enter pleas to minor charges without having to physically appear in court.

The case is being prosecuted by lawyers from the state Attorney Generals Office, instead of the DAs office. That is likely to avoid the conflict of interest that would arise with Stephans office prosecuting her daughter.

Stephan is currently campaigning for a full term as DA and is locked in a competitive race with county Deputy Public Defender Genevieve Jones-Wright.

Officials with the Attorney Generals Office did not respond to an inquiry about the case late Monday.

Court records do not provide any information on the arrest, including where it was, the time of day, and what the sequence of events was. The records also do not say what her blood alcohol level was.

Rafael Acosta Jr., Sabraws lawyer, declined to comment on the case and hung up the phone when contacted Monday.

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Twitter: @gregmoran

greg.moran@sduniontribune.com
A 17-year-old boy was fatally shot on a street in Mountain View as he was riding in a car with friends Monday night, police said.

The teens companions drove him to a hospital in Coronado about 7:30 p.m. after he was shot in the upper body on Olivewood Terrace near Gilmore Street in Mountain View, San Diego police homicide Lt. Anthony Dupree said. The victim died at the hospital.

Police identified the boy as Fernando Rosas-Sanchez of San Diego.

Dupree said he didnt know if the victim was still in high school.

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Detectives were told two to four people were on the street when the shooting occurred. Police said the two other people in the car said there wasnt a confrontation or exchange between the shooter and the victim.

They said nothing was said. At least they didnt hear anything, Dupree said. They said there were several people  could be anywhere from two to four.

Police detained and questioned the two who brought the victim to the hospital, but they had limited information about suspects, the lieutenant said. He told reporters he didnt know if the shooting was gang-related.

We are still trying to contact some potential witnesses, Dupree said.

gary.warth@sduniontribune.com

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Twitter: @GaryWarthUT

760-529-4939

UPDATES:

9:15 a.m.: This article was updated with additional details.

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This article was originally published at 9:50 p.m.
What would be your top priority on the City Council?

Taking concrete actions to address affordable housing and housing affordability. Taking concrete actions to provide housing and supportive services to significantly reduce homelessness in our communities.

How would you address the citys housing crisis?

Our area has not built enough low and moderately priced homes to keep pace with our population and job growth. More and more working families are finding it difficult, if not impossible, to find an affordable place to live.

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RELATED:

San Diego City Council candidate Neal Arthur on the issues

San Diego City Council candidate Monica Montgomery on the issues

I will be convening a council meeting in July dedicated to this issue. We need to revisit our citys land-use codes and develop new strategies and goals that will increase the supply of homes that our teachers, nurses, police officers and other San Diegans in our workforce can afford.

We can do this by shortening process times and reducing development costs on affordable housing developments, building smarter along our major transit corridors, revisiting parking requirements for new development, and ensuring that our city is financially capable of leveraging state and federal incentives.

Evaluate what the city has been done on homelessness. What would you do differently?

Addressing homelessness continues to be one of my top priorities as council president because it not only impacts those experiencing it, but it also impacts the quality of life in our neighborhoods as well as our local economy.

This past year we have created a new committee to strengthen the citys role in addressing homelessness, we have erected three temporary bridge shelters that are giving hundreds of homeless individuals and families refuge from the streets, and we are doing more than ever to connect homeless individuals to services they need.

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We need to do a better job of creating more opportunities for homeless individuals and families to stabilize their situation and get the support and services they need to get back on their feet. Increasing our citys permanent supportive housing network is key to doing this.

Evaluate how the city has handled dockless bikes. What would you do differently?

The city entered into a 10-year contract with docked bike company Deco Bike in August 2013. I supported this contract and feel the City Council took the appropriate and responsible action to continue our efforts to provide meaningful ways to reduce our reliance on automobiles and reduce air pollution.

Now we have a number of dockless bike companies subject to the appropriate city regulatory review. Unless Deco Bike is willing to renegotiate with the city and possibly open the door for other dockless bike contracts, I will continue to support city staff enforcing city laws regulating the public right of ways.

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What should be done with the former Qualcomm Stadium site?

My top priority for the Qualcomm Stadium site is that it should be developed to the extent that it provides a mixture of affordable housing that includes some units for homeless veterans and homeless families. The site should also include housing development for students, retail and commercial office spaces, and parks. The voters will be deciding on two separate initiatives in November that propose development of the Qualcomm stadium site. As always, I will support the will of the voters.

What would you do to address the citys police staffing shortage?

The major reason cited over and over as to the citys police staffing shortage is that the pay was significantly less than that of police officers in other cities and jurisdictions. Recently, I was joined by the mayor and all my fellow council members in making significant pay increases to our police officers of 25 percent to 30 percent.

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I have also advocated for and supported including funding in the budget to improve and expedite our recruiting efforts to find and hire quality police officers free of implicit bias and dedicated to protecting and serving all the communities of San Diego. At least $500,000 is being included in this years budget for this purpose.

How would you change the citys approach to recreational marijuana use?

In 2017, the City Council approved regulations to permit up to 36 marijuana outlets (no more than 4 per council district) to sell both medicinal and recreational marijuana. We kept them at least a thousand feet from parks, childcare, playgrounds, libraries, churches and schools. We made this decision after several public hearings, listening to thousands of San Diegans on how and when regulations should be implemented, and studying what other cities were doing to implement the will of the voters. I think we made a wise and prudent decision in regulating the marijuana industry in San Diego and allowing for further tweaking of regulations as appropriate.

How specifically should the city regulate short-term vacation rentals?

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I have consistently been a supporter of reasonable regulations that do not ban short-term rentals (STVR) altogether but do address the larger concerns of the community.

What I would like to see going forward is a policy that allows San Diego residents to have a license to utilize home sharing freely, as a means of collecting supplemental income and a way to welcome visitors into communities they might not otherwise explore. This policy would also allow for policies and procedures which regulate whole home rentals in a way that protects our limited housing stock and ensures that year-round residents in single-family communities are not having to deal with public nuisances.
The California Community College system plays a vital role in the Golden State, helping more than 2 million students prepare for their futures at its 114 campuses. But the system has also frustrated policy makers because so many students who enroll dont end up with a certificate or degree. In February, the Legislative Analysts Office noted that the state has made repeated efforts since 2010 to address the fact that the system historically has had low levels of student persistence and completion. Despite these efforts, which include passing various laws and establishing a task force to improve student success, slightly less than half of the systems enrollees completed studies during the most recent six-year span reviewed by the LAO  about the same percentage as before efforts began to lift these numbers.

This is the crucial backdrop to evaluating complaints from college administrators and instructors about Gov. Jerry Browns proposal to partly scrap enrollment-based funding in the 2018-19 budget in favor of a formula that uses $3 billion in annual funding  about 20 percent of the systems budget  to reward campuses with strong student performance, especially by students from poor families.

Critics say this fiscal uncertainty would hamper campus planning, and they assert that the evidence from the 30-plus states with similar programs is not a strong indication it would improve student performance. But the LAO has endorsed the governors plan, saying performance-based funding has a positive effect on institutional behavior while hailing his emphasis on helping impoverished students.

If lawmakers think this change is too abrupt, perhaps they can tinker with the timeline of Browns proposal. But its core concept  linking funding to student performance  should be embraced.

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Twitter: @sdutIdeas

Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion
The state of New York looks to be considering copying California on yet another issue, this time with Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a democrat, proposing a statewide ban on plastic bags for environmental concerns.

The governors proposed legislation, announced on Monday, would ban single-use plastic bags and block local governments from imposing their own rules or fees starting in 2019, if passed by the state legislature.

Sound familiar?

California passed a similar statewide plastic bag ban during the 2016 election with Proposition 67. Californias law essentially banned plastic bags from retail stores such as pharmacies, food marts and liquor stores. Customers were left with the alternative of using recycled paper bags or reusable alternatives that cost 10 cents each in some cases.

Hows it going so far?

Data from the 2017 Coastal Clean-up Day showed that plastic bag litter dropped by 72 percent when compared to 2010.

We are seeing a substantial decline in plastic grocery bags litter on beaches, rivers and parkways, John Laird, Californias Secretary for Natural Resources told The Mercury News.

The Los Angeles Times Editorial Board described conditions in the state one year after the ban this way:

In the end, this momentous change was not a big deal. Shoppers did not revolt or launch recall campaigns against state lawmakers. Food still gets to people's houses. Reusable bags did not spark an epidemic of food-borne illnesses, as some critics suggested they would. Consumers didn't go broke paying 10 cents apiece for the thicker, reusable plastic bags stores are allowed to distribute instead.

However, the battle over Prop. 67 was close  52 percent of voters said yes to a single-use plastic bag ban, 48 percent said no. So it makes sense that there would still be mixed opinions on the issue.

Some have gotten used to it while others outright hate the ban.

How do you like Californias plastic bag ban these days? Do you have an opinion one way or another? Any advice to share with New Yorkers?

Share it with us on Twitter at @sdutideas or email me here.

The Conversation

The Conversation with Abby and Luis is live on Facebook every weekday at noon PST. They discuss whats written on this blog and more with viewers and welcome questions and comments that they reply to in real time.

Check out Abby and Luis talking about the plastic bag ban below.

Email: abby.hamblin@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @abbyhamblin
Could the third time be the charm for advocates of California secession from the U.S.?

Most likely not, but a group called Yes California is giving it another try anyway. Secretary of State Alex Padilla said on Monday that the backers of the secession initiative, commonly known as Calexit, can begin collecting signatures in an attempt to place it on a ballot.

Issue after issue, from immigration to agriculture, from taxation to banking, and on a host of other issues, it is clear that California and the United States have irreconcilable differences and it is time for a divorce, the campaigns website says. We shall now begin circulating the petition forms for that divorce.

Founder Louis Marinelli has introduced similar initiatives with little success beyond a few headlines and a lot of jokes. Based in San Diego in 2015, he introduced several independence-related initiatives that fizzled out.

Later he took his efforts to the Yes California campaign which collected signatures in 2017 for a ballot measure seeking to ask voters if California should become a free, sovereign and independent country.

Signature-gathering attempts were dropped amid questions about founder Louis Marinellis ties to Russia. More on that below.

Now Yes California is trying again. They want to ask Californians if they want to secede in 2020. If the measure passes, and yes, thats a big if, an official referendum would be held in 2021.

We realize it may seem like a long time to wait, Louis Marinelli, the author of the referendum, said. But we need time to have a serious dialogue with the people of California about why they should support the independence referendum by voting yes. The voters need to make an informed decision when they go to the polls to determine Californias political future.

Calexit gained some attention after the 2016 election when some Californians were frustrated that President Donald Trump won the presidency despite the Golden State voting 61.5 percent for Hillary Clinton. Backers of Calexit are hoping for a boost given the higher turnout of the 2020 presidential election.

If President Trump is reelected in 2020, Californians will want to secede from the United States just as they wanted to following the 2016 election, the campaign says. This ballot measure we are now circulating will make this vote possible. We are asking the people to hedge their bet in 2020: vote against Donald Trump, but at the same time vote to schedule an independence referendum for six months later on May 4, 2021. You may end up wanting the referendum if he is reelected.

Yes California says its main policy concerns include education reform, universal health care, fighting climate change, localizing immigration enforcement and keeping the states tax revenue in the state.

Heres what else you should know about it.

Marinelli, the main person behind the initiative, has been reported to be an American who has also lived in Russia. In 2017, he announced his intent to move to Russia for good and cut ties with the Calexit movement.

And yet hes back again, listed on the current initiative, and reportedly living in California again.

What are the odds? Any such push for independence faces an extremely difficult road, as weve written before.

Seth Kaplowitz, a finance lecturer at San Diego State University, told CNBC that he thinks the effort will fade away.

"It would be ridiculous to secede from the union, he said. The only person who would probably be happy about that is probably Donald Trump."

Yes California has until Oct. 17 to collect nearly 366,000 signatures.

Would you sign your name to get this measure on the ballot? Or is the idea bananas?

Email: abby.hamblin@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @abbyhamblin

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Expect to hear a lot more about rent control in California this year.

On Monday, supporters of the concept  people who want local governments to keep rising rents down  said they have enough signatures to ask voters in November to repeal a state law that muzzles rent control policies in cities all over the state. State officials still need to verify the signatures.

Economists and politicians tend to have strong views about rent control, and the debate is likely to intensify even more as rents continue to climb statewide. In San Diego County, the average rent hit a record $1,887 this month, prompting The San Diego Union-Tribune to wonder: Will it last?

So is rent control really the solution?

Heres a quick primer on rent control and the debate heating up in the 2018 elections:

Whats in the Affordable Housing Act and what does it do?

The AHA is an initiative to repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act of 1995 in order to give cities in California more power to set rent control as they see fit. Proponents say Costa-Hawkins contains loopholes that have allowed corporate landlords to raise rent prices, contributing to gentrification and the displacement of working class families.

a) To restore authority to Californias cities and counties to develop and implement local policies that ensure renters are able to find and afford decent housing in their jurisdictions

b) To improve the quality of life for millions of California renters and reduce the number of Californians who face critical housing challenges and homelessness

c) To repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act.

What is Costa-Hawkins, anyway?

Costa-Hawkins is a state law that limits how cities set rent control in two major ways. First, it prohibits cities from putting a rent cap on single-family homes or apartments built after February 1995. Second, it gives landlords the right to raise rent prices when a tenant moves out, otherwise known as vacancy control.

The law  named after state senator Jim Costa, a Democrat, and assemblyman Phil Hawkins, a Republican  was adopted in 1995 to counter vacancy control ordinances and spur new construction of single-family homes.

Costa-Hawkins does not outlaw rent control whatsoever. In fact, cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco have some form of rent control but within the parameters of the state law.

What happens if Costa-Hawkins is repealed?

Critics of Costa-Hawkins say repealing the law would remove rent control restrictions statewide and lead to housing crisis solutions unique to each city and ultimately would protect residents.

The Los Angeles Times reported this week that Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said he would "absolutely" consider extending rent restrictions in that city to cover newly built apartments if California voters repealed Costa-Hawkins. But skeptics cautioned that would make it harder for housing projects to pencil out financially, as the Times put it, undermining Garcetti's goal of approving 100,000 new units by 2021.

Other skeptics warn that repealing the Costa-Hawkins law could exacerbate the housing crisis and will do the opposite of what its critics propose. A 2016 Legislative Analysts Office report concluded that unchecked rent control can discourage developers from building new units.

Asked in 2016 if rent control would benefit the San Diego economy, all 14 experts in The San Diego Union-Tribunes EconoMeter panel answered, No.

Economists are also against repealing the Costa-Hawkins laws because it could lead to shortages in the quantity and quality of housing. Profits, they point out, incentivize landlords to maintain units in good shape.

Whats different about this initiative, and is it likely to pass?

Despite past failed efforts to repeal the Costa-Hawkins law, and at least one 2009 court case that upheld it, organizers pushing for the new initiative say they have what it takes to make it happen.

Advocates of the repeal of the Costa-Hawkins law say more than 565,000 registered voters from Californias 58 counties have signed the petition to put the initiative on the ballot. On top of that, they noted, the initiative has strong financial and political backing, including support from Garcetti.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation has given more than $2 million to push the initiative, according to state campaign records, and Garcetti publicly endorsed it on Monday.

But these efforts have stiff opposition, too.

The California Apartment Association has its own campaign to oppose the initiative and there are numerous studies  including this 2017 Stanford study and this LAO report  that also conclude that rent control does more harm than good.

One editorial writer with the Sacramento Bee wrote earlier this year that the initiative is imperfect and that it could very well make the housing crisis worse by shrinking supply.

Email: luis.gomez@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @RunGomez

Read The Conversation on Flipboard.
Get ready to cheer on the winning Kentucky Derby horse at this years Junior League of San Diegos Food & Wine Festival. Taking place from noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 5 at Ellen Scripps Browning Park in La Jolla, the 18th annual festival coincides with the 144th Kentucky Derby. With over expected 1,200 attendees decked out in Derby gear, the fest marks one of the most stylish events of the year.

Guests can carouse on the lawn while munching on tasty bites and sipping on beer, wine and cocktails from more than 40 restaurants, wineries and breweries. Local participating restaurants include Farmer & the Seahorse, Oceanaire, True Food Kitchen, Trulucks, and We Olive. Participating breweries include Viewpoint, Newtopia Cyder and Lagunitas. Oceanfront revelry continues with live music, art, a silent auction, and prize raffles. With multiple large-screen televisions on site, viewing the Kentucky Derby race will be easy-breezy.

General admission costs $85, and for VIP passes at $110, guests will be treated to the oceanfront VIP lounge and dining area, along with exclusive vendors, including Pali Wine Co and Juice Crafters, plus a swank VIP bag. Dont forget to head to the La Valencia hotel for the free after-party from 4-8 p.m. at Cafe La Rue.

If youve never attended a Kentucky Derby party or Opening Day at Del Mar, there might be two burning questions in your mind:

What do I wear?

Guys: Pull out that deep South seersucker or linen suit and pair it with a bow tie and derby hat for the appropriate look. Pastels are encouraged.

Gals: Linen dresses, springy colors, and flower prints are all the rage when it comes to the Kentucky Derby. Dont forget a fabulous (and maybe even a little outrageous) hat or fascinator (think Kate Middleton) to top off the look. Leave your stilettos at home and opt for wedges, as the event is on grass, and sinking into the dirt just isnt chic.

Where do I get a hat?

For a Derby-inspired dress, head to Westfield UTC and Vineyard Vines for a preppy look, or head to nearby Nordstrom for a more designer vibe. For guaranteed compliments, stroll down to Kendra Scott for her trademark jewelry, including enviable earrings, necklaces, and bracelets. For that perfect showstopper head-topper, try the Village Hat Shop, which has multiple locations around town and is also a supporter of the Junior League of San Diego.

For more information, outfit ideas, tickets, and parking passes, visit jlsd.org/foodandwine


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Berkeley, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/24/2018 -- BriaCell Therapeutics Corp. ("BriaCell"), an immuno-oncology focused biotechnology company with a proprietary targeted immunotherapy technology, is pleased to announce that Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami is now actively screening and enrolling patients in the ongoing, multicenter, Phase IIa study of Bria-IMT in advanced breast cancer. Dr. Carmen Julia Calfa, a Board-Certified breast medical oncologist, will act as the clinical site's principal investigator. Dr. Calfa will work closely with Cancer Insight, LLC., BriaCell's contract research organization, to manage the clinical and regulatory aspects of the Phase IIa clinical trial in advanced breast cancer on behalf of BriaCell.



With its top oncologists and state of the art facilities, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of UHealth  the University of Miami Health System, has been serving as the hub for cutting edge cancer-related research, diagnosis, and treatment in the State of Florida since 1973. Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center has received numerous awards for its excellent patient care and is part of an elite group, the Alliance of Dedicated Cancer Centers, shown to have higher survival rates in a 2015 JAMA Oncology study. The clinical site includes one main location of Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, and 4 participating locations at Deerfield beach, Coral Gables, Kendall and Plantation.



"We are very excited to include this well-established Cancer Center, and are grateful for the opportunity to work with leading oncologists as we continue to progress the clinical development of Bria-IMT in advanced breast cancer," stated Bill Williams, BriaCell's President and CEO. "We expect that the addition of the large clinical site (i.e., one main and 4 participating locations) will significantly improve our patient recruitment schedule, and accelerate the clinical advancement of Bria-IMT and the rollover clinical trials."



As a breast medical oncologist since 2008, Dr. Carmen J. Calfa, has dedicated a significant part of her clinical career to breast oncology and providing excellent care for breast cancer patients. She was awarded her Medical Doctorate in 2000, completed her Residency in Internal Medicine in 2004, and a Fellowship Program in Hematology Oncology in 2008  both at University of Miami. She is currently Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Dr. Calfa has authored and co-authored numerous publications, and has participated in a number of breast cancer clinical trials.



"We are impressed with Dr. Calfa's credentials and expertise in breast cancer and look forward to working with her team in our Phase IIa clinical trial of Bria-IMT in advanced breast cancer patients," stated Dr. Williams.



"We look forward to being part of the clinical trial with Bria-IMT in advanced breast cancer. We hope to contribute to the development of safe and effective treatment options for the advanced breast cancer patients, as these patients have limited treatment options and poor survival outlook," commented Dr. Calfa.



BriaCell recently presented a formal update on its progress with its ongoing Phase IIa clinical trial at the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2018. To view the posters, please visit the following link: http://briacell.com/category/recent-events/.



The Phase IIa clinical trial is currently being conducted at four top cancer centers: 1) St. Joseph Health-Sonoma County, Santa Rosa, CA, 2) Everett Clinic and Providence Regional Medical Center, Everett, WA, 3) Jefferson Breast Care Center, Philadelphia, PA, and 4) Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami in Miami, FL. The site at Florida Cancer Care in Plantation, FL was recently closed. BriaCell is enrolling advanced breast cancer patients in a Phase IIa trial (NCT03066947) with Bria-IMT and a rollover trial (NCT03328026) with Bria-IMT in combination with other immunotherapies. For further information on the Phase IIa trials, please visit https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03066947?term=BriaCell&rank=2.



About Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center

Since 1973, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of UHealth  the University of Miami Health System, has been committed to providing outstanding patient care in Southern Florida.



Sylvester has been supported by generous gifts from philanthropist Harcourt Sylvester Jr. and Harcourt M. and Virginia W. Sylvester Foundation to build a 117,500 square-foot State of Art cancer center which was opened in June 1992. In 2003, another generous gift established Braman Family Breast Cancer Institute at Sylvester, which is dedicated to all aspects of breast cancer.



With its state of the art facilities, leading oncologists, research scientists, and reputation for providing excellent patient care, Sylvester has become one of the leading cancer treatment centers in the US. Sylvester was designated a Cancer Center of Excellence by the state of Florida in March 2015, and re-certified in 2017, one of only four in Florida. Additionally, Sylvester has the distinction of being one of eleven academic cancer centers shown to have better patient outcomes in a 2015 study by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. That study, published in JAMA Oncology, suggested 10 percent higher survival chances for patients treated at the elite centers including Sylvester versus those who were treated at community hospitals.



At Sylvester, patients are provided with more treatment options than most hospitals in the Southeastern US. Sylvester's main inpatient and outpatient facility is located on the central medical campus in the heart of Miami. Its physicians also care for cancer patients at University of Miami Health System Tower, Jackson Memorial Hospital, Holtz Children's Hospital, and the Miami VA Medical Center. Sylvester also provides state of the art cancer care at other participating facilities including those at Deerfield Beach, Coral Springs, Kendall, and Plantation.



For more information on Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, please visit http://sylvester.org/



About BriaCell

BriaCell is an immuno-oncology focused biotechnology company developing targeted and safe approaches for the management of cancer. Immunotherapy has come to the forefront in the fight against cancer because it uses the body's own immune system in recognizing and selectively destroying cancer cells while leaving normal cells intact. In addition, immunotherapy is also considered to be a more potent approach than chemotherapy, and has the potential to prevent cancer recurrence.



Bria-IMT (SV-BR-1-GM), the Company's lead product candidate, is derived from a specific breast cancer cell line. It is genetically engineered to release granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), a substance that activates the immune system. BriaCell believes that Bria-IMT helps the body to recognize and kill tumor cells by activating both T cells that directly attack tumor cells, and B cells that produce anti-tumor antibodies.



The results of two previous proof-of-concept clinical trials (one with the precursor cell line not genetically engineered to produce GM-CSF and one with Bria-IMT) produced encouraging results in patients with advanced breast cancer. Most notably, one patient with breast cancer that had spread to other sites (metastatic cancer) responded to Bria-IMT with a substantial reduction in tumor size and volume in these sites, including sites in the breast, the lung, soft tissues, and even the brain. BriaCell is currently conducting a Phase I/IIa clinical trial of Bria-IMT in patients with advanced breast cancer. In this trial to date, Bria-IMT treatment has been safe with similar instances of tumor reduction have been observed. This trial is listed in ClinicalTrials.gov as NCT03066947. The trial is being conducted along with the co-development of BriaDX, the Company's companion diagnostic test, to be able to predict the patients who will likely benefit the most from Bria-IMT treatments. Additionally, the FDA recently approved the rollover combination study of Bria-IMT with pembrolizumab [Keytruda; manufactured by Merck & Co., Inc.] or ipilimumab [Yervoy; manufactured by Bristol-Myers Squibb Company]. This study permits continuation of the Bria-IMT treatment for patients in the ongoing Phase I/IIa trials who stop responding to the treatment. The rollover trial is listed in ClinicalTrials.gov as NCT03328026.



Based on our observation of superior tumor shrinking responses in the patients who shared certain HLA types with Bria-IMT, BriaCell is developing Bria-OTS, an off-the-shelf personalized Immunotherapy, for advanced breast cancer. Bria-OTS includes a set of cell lines, each being similar to Bria-IMT, which are being engineered to express various pre-manufactured HLA types. With only 15 different HLA types, Bria-OTS cell line combinations are expected to cover over 90% of the US population. BriaCell expects to use BriaDX to determine the HLA types of patients, and subsequently select one or two Bria-OTS cell lines with matching alleles to be administered to the patient. This should produce a potent and selective immune response against the cancer of each patient while eliminating the time, expense, and complex manufacturing logistics currently used for other personalized immunotherapies. In essence, Bria-OTS should provide a personalized treatment without the need for personalized manufacturing.



BriaCell's small molecule program includes the development of a novel, selective protein kinase C delta (PKC?) inhibitors which have shown potent activity in a number of pre-clinical models of several different cancer indications as well as fibrotic diseases.



For additional information on BriaCell, please visit our website: http://briacell.com.



Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Except for the statements of historical fact, this news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation which involves known and unknown risks relevant to the Company in particular and to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries in general, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual events to differ materially from current expectation. These risks are more fully described in the Company's public filings available at http://www.sedar.com.



Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation, except to the extent required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Springfield, PA -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/24/2018 -- As a leading septic system service provider in Radnor and surrounding areas, Delaware Valley Septics does more than just the average septic system company. This family-owned business is also a top provider of professional storm water management and on-site septic percolation throughout the Philadelphia area. Residents in Chester County, Montgomery County and Delaware County can count on Delaware Valley Septics for all of their storm water management and septic percolation needs.



Perc testing, also known as water percolation testing, is conducted to determine the water absorption rate of a particular area of soil that is planned to be used for the drainage of a septic or stormwater system. To be in accordance with Pennsylvania law, perc testing is required before the installation of each new drain field. This testing will also ensure the designated area is properly sized and able to control the incoming wastewater.



With over three decades of experience, the professionals at Delaware Valley Septics have the expertise that is needed to properly determine which septic system is ideal for a property, as well the best location. Besides just providing perc testing, this professional, family-run septic company also offers septic tank installations, repairs, maintenance, drain cleaning and pumping services.



Residents who are looking for more information regarding septic system service in Gladwyne, like perc testing or sewer and drain cleaning, can contact Delaware Valley Septics. This company can be reached by calling 844-4-DELVAL or visiting their website at http://www.delvalseptics.com.



About Delaware Valley Septics

Delaware Valley Septics is a family-owned and operated business that first opened its doors in 1986. Since then Dave and TJ have continued to uphold the same level of customer satisfaction that made the business what it is today. By providing installation, repair, inspection and maintenance services for septic, sewer and storm water systems in areas such as the Main Line, Montgomery County, Delaware County and Chester County, the company has become a household name for all things underground.
San Francisco, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/23/2018 -- The global market for high-resolution melting analysis is gaining momentum on account of the advancements in molecular biology. High-resolution melting analysis involves the microscopic study of double-stranded DNA samples to successively detect polymorphisms, epigenetics, and mutations. The study involves the amplification of the region where the mutational analysis needs to be carried out and generation of multiple copies of that region in the sample tube. The applications of high-resolution melting analysis in molecular biology are expansive, which is expected to play to the advantage of the market. TMR Research throws light on several market forces that are expected to contribute to the growth of the market over the coming. Moreover, a multifaceted approach to understand the knit and grit of the market was followed during research and analysis.



One of the most important applications of point high-resolution melting (HRM) analysis is the detection of point mutation. The conventional method of SNP typing is expensive and time-consuming which shifts the focus on HRM analysis. Testing of zygotes has also emerged as an important application of HRM analysis, which is propelling demand within the global market. Apart from the above-mentioned applications, intercalating dyes used for the transition of double-standard DNAs to single-stranded ones are another key area that is projected to contribute to the growth of the market.



Request a sample copy of the Report @ https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=2486



Genetic testing centers have been specifically very successful in North America which has given an impetus to the market. On the other hand, prominence of academic Institutes and research centers in Europe has also contributed to the growth of the regional market.



Global High-resolution Melting Analysis Market: Overview



High resolution melting analysis is a powerful and strong methodology in molecular biology for the purpose of detecting epigenetic differences, polymorphisms, and mutations in double-stranded DNA samples. It was first discovered and developed by the Idaho Technology and University of Utah. High resolution melting analysis has several advantages over genotyping technologies such as cost effectiveness, it is powerful and fast as compared to genotyping technologies, and it is comparatively simple. Based on products and services, the global high-resolution melting analysis market can be segmented into software and services, consumables and reagents, and instruments. In terms of application, it can be segmented into epigenetics, pathogen identification, species identification, mutation scanning, and SNP genotyping.



The global market for high-resolution melting analysis is likely to have a fruitful future owing to ongoing research and developments in this field sponsored by several leading companies operating in this particular field. For instance, FDA in the U.S. approves many treatments which are made for addressing a specific genomic profile or genetic makeup of the tumor of the patient.



Request TOC of the report @ https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=2486



Global High-resolution Melting Analysis Market: Drivers and Restraints



The prime factors that are boosting the growth of the market comprise the growing prevalence of cardiovascular diseases, COPD, chronic diseases such as cancer, and other different infectious diseases. The prime benefits associated with high-resolution melting analysis are optimization of therapies, patient compliance, drug safety, cost savings on several treatments, and disease diagnosis. In return, these are also expected to propel the demand for DNA testing services. Moreover, rising awareness pertaining to the applications of high resolution melting analysis technologies for HLA typing, mutation discovery, and DNA mapping are additional aspects that are anticipated to propel the growth of the high-resolution melting analysis market during the forecast period. High resolution melting analysis is a technology employed for assessing melting curve plots of amplified gene. This particular technology is basically used for gene mutation scanning, microbial species identification, methylation profiling, and other different diagnostics based on PCR. Thus, mutation scanning and other applications are likely to gain prominence over time owing to rising prevalence of advancements in technology of molecular biology, genetic disorders, and growing awareness pertaining to SNP typing.



Global High-resolution Melting Analysis Market: Market Potential



Growing government budget provision for research and development in the field of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and applied life sciences is a crucial factor heightening the demand for numerous diagnostic techniques and tools. For instance, in 2015, the Obama led administration announced the introduction of the Precision Medicine Initiative with a huge investment of US$216 mn in the President's budget of 2016. This initiative is further expected to have positive impact on the growth of the high resolution melting analysis market.



Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @ https://www.tmrresearch.com/high-resolution-melting-analysis-market



Global High-resolution Melting Analysis Market: Regional Overview



Region-wise, the market can be segmented into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Rest of the World. North America is expected to perform extremely owing to factors such as robust adoption of advanced technology in healthcare, numerous genetic testing centers, strong biotech and pharmaceutical industry, prevalence many academic universities, and high prevalence of diseases. Asia Pacific has also been identified as one of the potential regions where the market can grow steadily owing to dynamics such as rising prevalence of chronic diseases such as HIV, COPD, and cancer, growing cases of genetic disorders, and rising private and public expenditure on genetic testing and molecular diagnostic.



Global High-resolution Melting Analysis Market: Competitive Landscape



The top drawer companies operating in the market are Thermo Fisher Scientific, Kapa Biosystems, Idaho Technology Corporation, and Roche Molecular Systems.



About TMR Research

TMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in today's 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.
San Francisco, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/23/2018 -- Offshore decommissioning is the process of disassembling offshore oil platforms, which also includes burying the holes drilled into the ground for exploration and extraction purposes. Mature oil platforms can have an adverse impact on the surrounding environment, which necessitates their removal. The global offshore decommissioning market is likely to remain a key sector of the global oil and gas industry in the coming years, as the latter is likely to emphasize increasingly on offshore petroleum extraction. Well plugging and abandonment is likely to remain the key segment of the global offshore decommissioning market in the coming years, with the extensive scale of the operation key in ensuring a steady dominant share for the segment in the global market.



Global Offshore Decommissioning Market: Key Trends



The global offshore decommissioning market is likely to exhibit steady growth in the coming years due to the rising number of mature oilfields, which no longer remain commercially viable. The high number of aging platforms in shallow water is also likely to remain a key driver for the global offshore decommissioning market in the coming years.



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On the other hand, the high cost of offshore decommissioning projects could hinder the growth of the global offshore decommissioning market. Due to the large scale of offshore oil and gas platforms, significant expenditure needs to be dedicated for effective offshore decommissioning projects. Since the expenses go toward removing a nonfunctional asset rather than expanding the existing capacity, many players in the global oil and gas industry have remained reluctant about offshore decommissioning. The technology required to carry out offshore decommissioning efficiently are also lacking in several regions, as is systemic support from the regulatory framework. This is also likely to restrain the global offshore decommissioning market in the coming years.



The rising use of techniques to maximize and prolong the viability of oilfields is also likely to restrain the growth of the global offshore decommissioning market in the coming years. Refilling and other techniques can help extend the operational lifespan of oilfield by a few years, and result in further profits for the oil and gas operator. This remains a key challenge for the offshore decommissioning market in the coming years, as offshore decommissioning remains unprofitable both economically as well as logistically compared to these techniques.



Global Offshore Decommissioning Market: Market Potential



Oil and gas operations in the North Sea are likely to be vital to the global offshore decommissioning market in the coming years. The U.K. and Norway are among the leading oil producers operating in the North Sea and are likely to remain among the key consumers of offshore decommissioning technology in the coming years. As a result, Europe is likely to be the leading regional offshore decommissioning market over the coming years.



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Global Offshore Decommissioning Market: Geographical Dynamics



Following Europe, North America is also likely to retain a significant share in the global offshore decommissioning market due primarily to the rising role of the U.S. in the global oil and gas sector. The U.S. has traditionally been a major player in the oil and gas industry and is a leading operator of offshore oilfields at present. The rising prominence of Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia in the global oil and gas sector is also likely to drive the Asia Pacific market for offshore decommissioning in the coming years.



Global Offshore Decommissioning Market: Competitive Dynamics



The leading players in the global offshore decommissioning market include AF Gruppen ASA, Amec Foster Wheeler Plc, John Wood Group Plc, Ramboll Group, Aker Solutions ASA, and Tetra Technologies Inc.



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Kansas City, KS -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/24/2018 -- Dr. Craig Schwartz is celebrating the 15th anniversary of his Kansas City vein center and laser aesthetic practice, which is located in Leawood, KS and serves the entire Kansas City metro area. Known for years as Kansas City's "Vein Guy," Dr. Schwartz has performed more than 12,000 vein procedures in the last 15 years alone is also now one of the busiest Kansas City surgeons providing in-office, minimally-invasive liposuction procedures.



Triple board-certified in vascular surgery, general surgery and phlebology, Schwartz was one of the first Kansas City-based vascular surgeons to offer patients minimally-invasive laser vein ablations performed in the comfort and convenience of his practice in lieu of painful hospital surgeries, which had been the standard of care up until that time.



During the last several years, the vein treatment industry has exploded with doctors from all different backgrounds and training entering the field. "There are many options for vein doctors in our area, with Kansas City having one of the largest concentrations of "vein specialists" and vein clinics in the Midwest," said Schwartz. "There are many physicians who are "board-certified" in other specialties and refer to themselves as "vein specialists", but few of these providers are vascular surgeons or have extensive education or training, specifically, in vein disease. Up until a few years ago, only vascular surgeons would treat vein disease, but as access to in-office vein treatment has increased, so has the number and different types of doctors entering the field without any previous vascular training."



After years of treating patients with minimally-invasive vein treatment procedures, including laser vein ablation and micro-phlebectomy to treat varicose veins and topical laser treatment and sclerotherapy injections to treat spider veins, Schwartz expanded his medical practice to also offer other laser-based cosmetic procedures. His minimally-invasive, in-office liposuction procedures have become one of his most in-demand procedures, along with non-invasive body contouring, including SculpSure and CoolSculpting. Additionally, he offers skin tightening, tattoo removal, miraDry underarm sweat treatment, Xeomin, Radiesse and Restylane, as well as an array of other non-invasive cosmetic treatments. In 2014, Schwartz combined his 12-year-old vein practice, Vein Centers for Excellence of Kansas City, and eight-year-old body contouring and aesthetic practice, KC Body Contouring, into one large medical practice, Premier Vein and Body by Schwartz.



As one of the Midwest's most prominent and accomplished vein specialists, Dr. Schwartz has been voted to America's Top Surgeons in 2008, 2014, 2015 and 2016; chosen as Kansas City Super Doctor in 2013, 2014 and 2015; and has most recently been named a Real Self Top Doctor by RealSelf.com.



"My wife is from Kansas City and this warm, vibrant area is where we chose to work, live and raise our son after spending several years living and working in other cities," said Schwartz. "We just love living and working in Johnson County, but also appreciate the opportunity to meet all of the different patients that visit us from the entire Kansas City area and beyond. I can't imagine a better location to have built my practice."



Premier Vein & Body by Schwartz celebrated their 15th anniversary by offering their valued patients 20% off any cosmetic procedures.



For more information, visit https://www.premierveinandbody.com/.
New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/23/2018 -- Silver amalgam is a mixture of mercury, silver, tin and copper and used for dental applications. Amalgams are generally crystalline in structure with the exception of those with high mercury content which are liquid. Some of the important characteristics of an amalgam are dimensional change, compression strength, flow and creep. The dimensional change characteristics deal with an amalgams ability to expand and contract depending on its use. The compression strength characteristic is the ability of amalgams to resist fracture which is an important prerequisite for any restorative materials. The strength of silver amalgam depends on the composition of the alloy.



Silver amalgams alloys are also known as dental amalgams and are used for dental fillings. Silver amalgams are popular dental restorative material because of their low cost, strength, durability and ease of application. They are long lasting, have a better performance than other fillings, applicable for broad range of clinical performance and are of better quality. However, its popularity is diminishing today because of concerns of mercury toxicity, allergic potential and inferior aesthetics quality. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recommended labeling of dental amalgam products, which includes a warning against using the product in patients who have an allergy to mercury. In addition, it has a warning that dental professionals follow a proper protocol while handling dental amalgams and a statement mentioning the risks and benefits of dental amalgam so that patients and dentist can make informed decisions.



The continued use of silver amalgam in dental applications will be a major driving factor for silver amalgam industry. The FDI World Dental Federation has reaffirmed the safety of use of silver amalgams in dentistry and hence it is used by dentists all around the world. Majority of dental restorations depend on silver amalgams and hence it has a significant market. However, development of viable substitutes, growth of dental composites market and lack of awareness could hamper the growth of this market.



The market for silver amalgam is worldwide as it is recommended by FDI World Dental Federation for use in its dental applications. The use of silver amalgams is quite popular in Asia Pacific, especially the emerging markets such as China and India due to its low cost and wide availability. The American Dental Association has also approved the use of silver amalgam for dental restorative procedures and hence it is used by majority of dentists in the U.S. However, the use of silver amalgam is declining in Europe with Sweden, Norway, Germany, Denmark, Austria and Finland reducing the use of silver amalgam for dental applications.



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Some of the key players in this market are DPM limited, Sirona, Nobel Biocare, Straumann, Astra Tech, Megagen, Osstem Implant Co. Ltd, Avinent Implant Systems, Zimmer Holdings, Inc, MIS Implants Technologies Ltd, Intra-Lock International and CAMLOG Implant Systems among others. Straumann and Nobel Biocare are leading players in this market with significant global market share. Straumann, headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, has collaborated with multiple research institutes, universities and clinics to develop a broad range of dental implant products.
New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/23/2018 -- Xanthan gum is a microbial polysaccharide used as a thickener in several industries such as food and beverages, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical. It is also known by other names such as bacterial polysaccharide, and corn sugar gum. Xanthan gum is manufactured by fermenting corn sugar with a bacterium named Xanthomonas Campestris. After the consumption of food containing xanthan gum, it swells in the intestine and stimulates the digestive tract. Xanthan gum also slows the absorption of sugar in the digestive tract and functions like saliva to lubricate the mouth of people who have Sjogren's syndrome. Xanthan gums are also used in drilling activities in the oil and gas sector. Food and beverage is the key end-use industry for xanthan gum and the bakery and confectionary industry accounts for the largest demand.



The growth of end user industries is the key driver for the global xanthan gums market. Rising disposable income is propelling the demand for food and cosmetics, which is consequently boosting the demand for xanthan gums. The consumption of convenience foods that contain xanthan gums has also increased significantly in the recent past. The increasing population and a growing economically-active population in Asia Pacific is further increasing demand for on-the-go foods. Increasing government investment in healthcare is also boosting pharmaceutical sales across the globe, which is driving the xanthan gums market.



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A mounting demand for gluten-free foods is also driving the xanthan gum market. Xanthan gum is used in the gluten-free baking process for several products such as cookies, cakes and pancakes, muffins and quick breads, breads, pizza dough, and salad dressings. Among these, xanthan gum is used in large quantities in the preparation of pizza dough. The nutritional characteristic of xanthan gum further increases its acceptability, as it contains carbohydrates and fiber. One of the greatest restraints for the xanthan gum market is the availability of guar gum as a substitute.



However, guar gum is mostly used in ice cream and pastry fillings, whereas xanthan gum finds its largest use in the manufacturing of bakery products. Another restraint for the xanthan gum market is that it is not suitable for people with certain allergies. Asia Pacific dominated the global xanthan gum market in 2014 owing to increasing demand for bakery and confectionary products from countries such as China, India, Malaysia, and Vietnam.
Growing a healthier South Carolina

SC Center for Rural and Primary Healthcare improving access to quality care

Second-year student Kylie Stevens (pictured with School of Medicine dean Les Hall) is a recipient of the Rural Health Student Recruitment Loan, which encourages health profession students to pursue rural practice.

When second-year medical student Kylie Stevens started medical school, she wasnt sure what specialty she wanted to pursue, but an email from the School of Medicines financial aid coordinator quickly focused her direction.

Stevens is one of two inaugural recipients of the Rural Health Student Recruitment Loan, which is offered through the South Carolina Center for Rural and Primary Healthcare at the University of South Carolina. Loan recipients are required to commit to rural South Carolina practice in a primary care specialty or another critical need specialty for each year of scholarship funds received.

The loan program got me thinking about going into rural health care. Before I didnt really know what I wanted to do, I was interested in anything that I saw, Stevens says. At first, I didnt want to limit my options, but the more I thought about it, I realized it would be a good opportunity to reduce my debt.

Chuck Carter, M.D., directs the South Carolina Center for Rural and Primary Healthcare and hopes more students like Stevens will give rural care a second look because of the loan program.

We face a significant shortage, so each new provider is essential to the future health of South Carolina. Our rural communities are already underserved and access to care will continue to decline if we dont intervene, Carter says.

The American Association of Medical Colleges projects a total physician shortfall of between 40,800 and 104,900 physicians nationwide by 2030. In South Carolina, 45 of 46 counties currently have designated Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs).

In 2017, the USC School of Medicine established the S.C. Center for Rural and Primary Healthcare in an effort to expand programs for training, recruiting and retaining primary care physicians in South Carolinas rural and underserved areas as well as enhance service to rural patients. To date the center has received more than $12 million dollars from the state to further its mission.

Lots of organizations and researchers already are doing great work related to rural care; we want to be the force that can help connect those dots and amplify the work that is being done statewide." Michele Stanek, associate director of the SC Center for Rural and Primary Healthcare

The current loan program supports two recipients each year. Beginning in 2018 it will open to students at all publicly affiliated South Carolina medical and health professions schools.

Second-year medical student Jonathan Gallimore was the second recipient of the Rural Health Student Recruitment Loan. Gallimore grew up in the South Carolina Upstate and says he is looking forward to giving back to the community.

Rural care is something Ive kind of always been interested in, but I hadnt thought a lot about it until I got to medical school, and then I realized it would be a good fit since it would allow me to be a healthcare leader and the go to provider for my community, Gallimore says.

The loan program is only one of the many ways the centers small, but dedicated staff members are working to improve access to quality care statewide.

Lots of organizations and researchers already are doing great work related to rural care; we want to be the force that can help connect those dots and amplify the work that is being done statewide, says Michele Stanek, associate director of the center.

Research is another focus of the center, which provides funding opportunities for research related to rural health care in South Carolina. Current grantees include the University of South Carolinas College of Social Work, College of Nursing and the College of Pharmacy and the Arnold School of Public Health.

The center is accepting applications for its Innovations Cooperative Agreement program, which will fund select projects that support and identify innovative programs and/or strategies that promote and improve health, access to care or health outcomes for rural patients, populations and/or communities in South Carolina. Through this new program, the center hopes to fund a wide range of organizations focused on improving the health of rural communities. In addition to research grants, the center also sponsors grants for infrastructure or provider and/or staff development at rural practices through a partnership with the South Carolina Office of Rural Health.

Additionally, the center is helping increase access to specialists by bringing providers to underserved communities through the ICARED program and other avenues.

ICARED has partnered with the Palmetto Health and the Palmetto Health-USC Medical Group to provide subspecialists, including pediatricians, immunologists, maternal fetal medicine specialists, psychiatrists and cardiologists to augment the care being provided in the local community. The center partners with sites in Society Hill, Hartsville, Orangeburg, Sumter, Lancaster, Winnsboro, Aiken and Florence, and is planning to expand in the coming year.

The School of Medicine is dedicated to serving the people of South Carolina and beyond through exemplary medical and health education, transformative research, and compassionate patient care. The work being done by the SC Center for Rural and Primary Healthcare checks all of those boxes and is making a big impact on our state, says William Anderson, M.D., associate dean for clinical affairs and chief medical officer for the School of Medicine.

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A team of scientists from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and the Universities of New South Wales and Sydney has identified a new DNA structure  called the intercalated motif (i-motif)  inside living human cells.

Deep inside the cells in our body lies our DNA. The information in the DNA code  all 6 billion A, C, G and T letters  provides precise instructions for how our bodies are built, and how they work.

The iconic double helix shape of DNA has captured the public imagination since 1953, when James Watson and Francis Crick famously uncovered the structure of DNA.

However, its now known that short stretches of DNA can exist in other shapes, in the laboratory at least  and scientists suspect that these different shapes might play an important role in how and when the DNA code is read.

When most of us think of DNA, we think of the double helix. This research reminds us that totally different DNA structures exist  and could well be important for our cells, said co-lead author Dr. Daniel Christ, from the Kinghorn Centre for Clinical Genomics at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and St Vincents Clinical School at the University of New South Wales.

The i-motif is a four-stranded knot of DNA, added co-lead author Dr. Marcel Dinger, also from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and the University of New South Wales.

In the knot structure, C letters on the same strand of DNA bind to each other  so this is very different from a double helix, where letters on opposite strands recognize each other, and where Cs bind to Gs [guanines].

Although researchers have seen the i-motif before and have studied it in detail, it has only been witnessed in vitro  that is, under artificial conditions in the laboratory, and not inside cells. In fact, they have debated whether i-motif DNA structures would exist at all inside living things  a question that is resolved by the new findings.

To detect the i-motifs inside cells, Dr. Christ, Dr. Dinger and their colleagues developed a precise new tool  a fragment of an antibody molecule  that could specifically recognize and attach to i-motifs with a very high affinity.

Until now, the lack of an antibody that is specific for i-motifs has severely hampered the understanding of their role.

Crucially, the antibody fragment didnt detect DNA in helical form, nor did it recognize G-quadruplex structures (a structurally similar four-stranded DNA arrangement).

With the new tool, the team uncovered the location of i-motifs in a range of human cell lines.

Using fluorescence techniques to pinpoint where the i-motifs were located, the study authors identified numerous spots of green within the nucleus, which indicate the position of i-motifs.

The scientists showed that i-motifs mostly form at a particular point in the cells life cycle  the late G1 phase, when DNA is being actively read.

They also showed that i-motifs appear in some promoter regions  areas of DNA that control whether genes are switched on or off  and in telomeres, end sections of chromosomes that are important in the aging process.

We think the coming and going of the i-motifs is a clue to what they do. It seems likely that they are there to help switch genes on or off, and to affect whether a gene is actively read or not, said study first author Dr. Mahdi Zeraati, also from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and the University of New South Wales.

We also think the transient nature of the i-motifs explains why they have been so very difficult to track down in cells until now, Dr. Christ added.

Its exciting to uncover a whole new form of DNA in cells  and these findings will set the stage for a whole new push to understand what this new DNA shape is really for, and whether it will impact on health and disease, Dr. Dinger said.

The teams results appear in the journal Nature Chemistry.

_____

Mahdi Zeraati et al. I-motif DNA structures are formed in the nuclei of human cells. Nature Chemistry, published online April 23, 2018; doi: 10.1038/s41557-018-0046-3
The market continues to evolve as it grows and thats a good thing with more players and different commercial structures and people looking to bring value to the market in different ways, said Shell Energy evp Steve Hill.

Noting that the LNG market was historically seen as being quite inflexible because it was dominated by dedicated contracts and single supply sources and markets, this in a way provided security of energy supply, Hill pointed out that as the current market has become bigger and more flexible it continues to fulfil this role by being there to provide stop gap supply if the market needs it, suggesting many examples where demand is less predictable such as for heating in China or air conditioning in the Middle East that is subject to the vagaries of weather and hard to predict.

Flexibility in the LNG market today is a good thing because it means its more responsive to market disruptions and is a very good evolution, he suggested.

Providing some balance, Total Gas & Power trading vp Jean-Pierre Mateille noted that the total cost of logistics for LNG compared to cost of the product is higher than that for oil, amounting to about 30% to 40%, and this is part of the reason for the wide spreads in spot prices, which could amount to a $2 price differential between the European and Asian price.

This led on to Mateille expressing frustration with the buyers in Asia. The oil market is diverse, but its fair to say we in Total find the buyers in Asia extremely frustrating, he said. Mateille pointed out that like any producer Total needs to have security of sales in order to proceed on large new projects and this is typically secured by long term sale and purchase agreements but in Asia not only are these type of contracts not forthcoming but price expectations are not what are hoped for.

He pointed out that in fact, Total tends to become buyers of their own products in the first instance which they then sell on in the secondary market. This is a bit paradoxical because banks refuse to fund projects until Total becomes a buyer, he concluded.
While it was unanimously acknowledged that change would come to the industry, the pace of change was debated. Sagely president of Clarkson Research Martin Stopford who has seen more than his fair share of the history of shipping, pointed out that the nature of the shipping business is very different from that of Grab for example because it is relatively fixed and has until recently had little access to outside communications while at sea. Its a steep learning curve, he suggested.

Others from so-called disruptive industries that had been invited to the panel were more discrete. Group chief crossborder officer from Lazada Group James Chang while pointing to how the disruptive online retailer has adopted technology much quicker with innovations such as predictive technology in its logistics chains for example, suggested that changes in terms of the corporate culture in shipping may be harder to effect.

Singapore country head for Grab Lim Kell Jay noted that the asset-light taxi substitute company started on a digital platform from the outset and in a subtle reference to shipping, suggested it as such, had no baggage.

Finally Tal Drory, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) expert from IBM reiterated that AI is the next IT, (and) will bring a major breakthrough and influence each industry.

Continuing the debate on the use of AI, different opinions were raised on how much data is actually needed to make good decisions. Drawing an example from the world of Formula 1 racing, Stopford suggested that it was not the sheer amount of raw data that was important but looking for specific data that was most relevant to operations.

Read all the news from Singapore Maritime Week on our dedicated Live From Singapore Maritime Week 2018 page
Microsoft has been committed in providing cutting-edge AI solutions for companies across different industries to help drive digital transformation. The partnership between MSRA and OOCL demonstrates our strong progress in revolutionizing the shipping industry. said Microsoft Hong Kong gm Cally Chan.

Always an innovation leader, OOCL has sought to leverage technology to make a real business impact and accelerate customer value, in which AI is the key in their digital transformation vision. The company has a talent base of over 1,000 developers located in San Jose, Hong Kong, Zhuhai, Shanghai and Manila.

It has fully embraced a hybrid cloud infrastructure with auto-switching and auto-scaling throughout its businesses and machine learning for several years. For example, OOCL processes and analyzes over 30 million vessel data every month. By leveraging AI technology and machine learning, the company develops predictive analytics on vessel schedules and berth activities.

With MSRAs efforts and expertise, we expect to save around $10m in operation costs annually by applying the AI research and techniques for optimizing shipping network operations from our most recent 15-week engagement. Moving forward, we will embark on an 18-month joint-partnership in research and development to apply deep learning and reinforcement learning in shipping network operations, said OOCL cio Steve Siu.

MSRA will also assist OOCL in training over 200 AI engineers by conducting machine learning and deep learning sessions at the Hong Kong Science Park over the next 12 months. We look forward to strengthening our partnership with MSRA to leverage AI research and innovations to drive digital transformation in the shipping industry and to exchange knowledge among our top developers so that we can better address customer needs with advanced technologies and predictive analytics, added Siu.

Microsofts AI offering is a combination of technology, business model and user experience. Shipping network operations involve multiple parties and variables that can change at any moment. Embracing AI is a complex business challenge in digital transformation. MSRAs AI research experts have joined forces with OOCL to optimize its existing shipping operations using deep and reinforcement learning, an R&D area that needs top AI researchers and domain experts for business impact validation, said Hsiao-Wuen Hon, Microsoft corporate vp, chairman of Microsofts Asia-Pacific R&D Group, and md of Microsoft Research Asia.
The system will be built progressively, leveraging on GeTSs existing suite of global trade connectivity services, with an initial trial for selected users. The first major phase of development for CALISTA is estimated to cost SGD20m ($15.1m).

CALISTA will bring together key logistics functions such as physical movement as well as regulatory and financial elements on a digital eco-system for logistics players and other stakeholders.

The platform aims to reduce inefficiencies for the global supply chain by interacting with systems and applications (existing and new) of various stakeholders, streamlining processes, documents and data in the flow of goods within and across countries and regions.

Envisioned as a global common platform, CALISTA will enable manufacturers to have direct and increased visibility of their goods while on the move, and for Logistics Service Providers (LSPs) to collaborate to develop value-adding global supply chain solutions for their customers.

For example, with the greater visibility provided by CALISTA, manufacturers and their LSPs could partner port operators such as PSA to access new port-related asset-based and service-based solutions for greater productivity, and to explore new intermodal transport corridors to achieve shorter transit times, better cost efficiencies and more optimised inventory management.

I am excited by the possibilities that CALISTA can open up across the global supply chain  greater cargo flow visibility and improved coordination benefits everyone, from manufacturer to consumer. PSA believes that a global platform like CALISTA will be the catalyst for breakthroughs in realising the full benefits of global supply chain digitalisation. CALISTA will benefit from the strong synergies between PSAs domain knowledge and physical assets which handle a large volume of cross border trade, and GeTSs capabilities in digital trade connectivity services, said PSA group ceoTan Chong Meng.

Strategic partners among the global supply chain will be sought to co-create and drive truly global and fully integrated supply chain solutions. CALISTA will leverage Singapores extensive physical, financial and digital capabilities and connectivity in forming its global supply chain community.

Partnerships have been forged with Singapore agencies such as the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Economic Development Board (EDB), and the National Trade Platform (NTP), and will continue to reach out to Singapore-based shippers and LSPs. DBS Bank will provide financial and banking technology services in this partnership. This means that DBS will work with PSA and GeTS to create seamless trade financing solutions and the necessary risk management frameworks for the community of users.

We welcome CALISTA to be on board the National Trade Platform (NTP). As an open innovation platform, the NTP is constantly seeking opportunities to collaborate with value-added services providers to offer game-changing business solutions on our platform, which will bring greater productivity and connectivity to companies in our trade, trade-finance and logistics sectors here, said Ho Chee Pong, director-general of Singapore Customs.
Press Release

April 24, 2018 De Lima welcomes EP's call to release her, end EJKs Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima has welcomed the official resolution adopted by the European Parliament (EP) urging the Philippine government to drop all politically-motivated charges against her and end any further acts of harassment against her. De Lima, a known human rights defender, also commended the Party of European Socialists and European lawmakers for bravely addressing the worsening human rights situation in the country, including the rash of extrajudicial killings linked to President Duterte's war on drugs. "From the very start, I have always kept my innocence from all the trumped-up illegal drug trade charges filed against me. This support I'm getting from the European Parliament, other institutions and human rights groups who keep their faith in me further bolsters my courage to continue without relent my fight against injustices and EJKs," she said. "I also thank and commend the European lawmakers for voicing their opposition to the wrongdoings and human rights violations of this administration despite the risk of being attacked by our foul-mouthed President, his lapdogs, and his army of online trolls," she added. Last April 19, the European Parliament formally adopted a resolution reiterating its call for the Philippine government to immediately release De Lima from detention, as well as drop all politically motivated charges against her, as it called for the European Union to keep closely monitoring the case against the Senator. "...Whereas Senator De Lima led the investigations into the extrajudicial killings in Davao while President Duterte was mayor of the city; whereas there are serious concerns that the offences Senator De Lima has been charged with are almost entirely fabricated and politically motivated," EP noted. The said resolution also called on the Philippines to end extrajudicial killings in its drug campaign, drop human rights defenders, including UN Special Rapporteur for Indigenous Peoples Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, from its list of terrorist, and "to immediately carry out impartial and meaningful investigations into the EJKs," among others. The EP had issued similar calls before. In a resolution on Sept. 15 2016, it condemned EJKs and urged the Philippine government to stop the drug war killings. It also adopted calls for the immediate release of De Lima, on March 16, 2017. De Lima pointed out that instead of criticizing EP's adopted resolution, the government can do better by heeding the calls of the European lawmakers and socialists to prove that their administration is not guilty of crimes against humanity. "While I have always been thankful for all the support I am getting from local and international leaders demanding for my release, I have always pointed out that more than my freedom, I am more concerned about the rising death toll in Duterte's drug war and how the killings should stop now," she said. Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano recently slammed the EP's latest resolution, alleging it was "based on biased, incomplete and even wrong information and does not reflect the true situation on the ground." "If there is one thing the Duterte administration is really good at, it's on attacking personalities and groups critical of this administration. That way, it will be easy for them to dismiss valid criticisms about the government as another political interference, if not destabilization plot," she said.
Press Release

April 24, 2018 HONTIVEROS: DUTERTE'S FOREIGN POLICY PROTECTS IMPUNITY NOT SOVEREIGNTY Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros on Tuesday chided the Duterte government's foreign policy, saying that it is protecting impunity rather than Philippine sovereignty. Hontiveros issued the statement after Foreign Affairs Secretary Allan Peter Cayetano accused the European Parliament of "interference in Philippine affairs" and "crossing a red line" by passing a resolution condemning the Duterte government's war on drugs and extrajudicial killings. "President Duterte's foreign policy is protecting impunity not sovereignty. He and his ilk are the ones who are 'crossing the red line'. His foreign policy people like to use the word 'sovereignty' when what they really want to do is silence all forms of dissent, domestic and international, while they stay appallingly silent about China's blatant incursions into our territory," Hontiveros said. This administration likes to insist that its war on drugs, which violates our international commitments to human rights, is an issue of sovereignty, but in the same breath, it cannot defend our territory against China. This is not a defense of sovereignty. It is shameless cowardice," Hontiveros added. The opposition Senator urged her fellow lawmakers to lead the effort in crafting an independent and progressive foreign policy. "I appeal to my colleagues to join hands in pushing for a foreign policy founded on the principles of equality and human rights, particularly the right to life and dignity, and in the context of our other challenges, such as China and the West Philippine Sea," Hontiveros stressed. A foreign affairs policy that nurtures impunity and the climate of killing while surrendering our sovereignty & territories to China cripples our standing in the international community. The country needs a foreign policy that is truly reflective of the Filipino people's interests and aspirations," Hontiveros said. In its resolution, the European Parliament urged the European Union and its member-states to "consider calling for" the removal of the Philippines from the United Nations Human Rights Council.
New Zealand shares were mixed in light trading ahead of tomorrow's public holiday, with A2 Milk Co and Synlait Milk continuing to weaken while Fisher and Paykel Healthcare Corp rebounded and Fletcher Building extended gains.

The S&P/NZX50 Index dropped 14.98 points, or 0.2 percent, to 8,288.64. Within the index, 21 shares rose, 20 fell and nine were unchanged. Turnover was $100 million, with the index trading lightly ahead of tomorrow's Anzac Day public holiday, which will see the NZX and ASX exchanges closed, and as New Zealand school holidays continue.

"It's very quiet again today, not a lot of movement across the board. A lot of investors do take most of the week off, so it can be quite disruptive," said Grant Williamson, director at Hamilton Hindin Greene. "Overall the market is a touch weaker, we got mixed signals from overseas. The market doesn't have a lot of direction to it - we're really in a consolidation phase at the moment."

Leading the index today was Fisher and Paykel Healthcare, up 1.9 percent to $12.20. The stock hit a seven-month low of $11.97 yesterday and has dropped 14 percent so far this year.

"It's a little bit firmer today, the shares have been weakening for a while now and it has really come off the boil but it's showing a bit of strength today," Williamson said. "There's possibly a bit of bargain hunting, and the slightly weaker currency might be a reason too."

Trade Me Group gained 1.4 percent to $4.47, Fletcher Building rose 1.3 percent to $6.28 and Genesis Energy advanced 1.1 percent to $2.235.

A2 Milk was again the worst performer on the index, dropping 3 percent to $12, with its supplier Synlait Milk falling 2.6 percent to $9.56. Both stocks have been weakening since Nestle announced it has launched a competing A2 milk protein infant formula in China, with investors unsettled by competition in the market which has proven so fruitful for A2 thus far. A negative report today from an Australian broker may have spurred selling, Williamson said.

Z Energy fell 1.7 percent to $7.10, Infratil declined 1.4 percent to $3.16 and Trustpower was down 1.4 percent to $5.66.

Outside the benchmark index, dual-listed AMP shares dropped 3.6 percent to $4.33. In Australia, the wealth manager has come under fire over revelations about its conduct made at a Royal Commission public inquiry into misconduct within the banking and finance industries. Chief executive Craig Meller quit on Friday over the scandal.

On the ASX, the shares traded down 2.3 percent to A$4.075 around 5pm New Zealand time, and have dropped 15 percent since AMP first began being publicly questioned by the Royal Commission last week.

"It remains under significant pressure, with regulators looking closely at what's going on, and investors have lost a lot of confidence in that stock," Williamson said.

ASX-listed Vocus Group had gained 1.6 percent to A$2.275 at around 5pm New Zealand time. It announced today that it will hold on to its New Zealand businesses including CallPlus, 2talk, Orcon, Slingshot, Flip, and local fibre line provider previously called FX Networks, saying it didn't get any offers attractive enough to entice a sale.

The Melbourne-based company put the New Zealand business on the block last October with a view to selling it by June 2018 to help repay debt taken on during a period of rapid expansion. Today it said it's ended all discussions with interested parties due to the lack of good offers, and the board "intends to continue to invest in and grow Vocus NZ to enable that business to realise its strategic potential for shareholders."

(BusinessDesk)

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Kalyan Jewellers has announced the appointment of film actor Katrina Kaif as its global brand ambassador, and she will be the face of Kalyans existing and soon to launch product portfolios.

Ramesh Kalyanaraman, Executive Director, Marketing and Operations of Kalyan Jewellers said, On behalf of Kalyan Jewellers we welcome Katrina Kaif. Katrina personifies brand Kalyans attributes of style and elegance. She epitomizes the quintessential woman of today  confident, progressive and with the courage of her conviction. Katrina has set her own path with sheer hard work, akin to Kalyans own growth trajectory. She has built a significant fan base not only in India but globally. This new association will enable us to explore new avenues to engage with our customers as we script our future growth strategy in India and globally.
Addressing the media before leaving to the US for his routine medical check-up, Superstar Rajinikanth took a Q &A session. The actor turned politician said: I will definitely start my own political party but cant reveal the date now. Of course, I cant start my party without formal announcement.





On S.Ve. Shekhers derogatory comments against women journalists, Rajinikanth said Whether he posted with or without his knowledge, what S.Ve. Shekher did is an unpardonable crime.





On Professor Nirmala Devi luring young girls for sexual flavors, Rajinikanth said: If the professor is proven guilty, she should be given stringent punishment. Talking about Bharathi Rajas criticism, the Endhiran actor said: Criticisms are common in the public life and one cant avoid it.




Earlier in the second week of January this year, in an unprecedented move, four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court held a press conference. They were scathing in their attack on the functioning of the Supreme Court and stated that the administration of the Supreme Court is not in order and many things which are less than desirable have happened in the last few months. They, quite unsuccessfully, tried to disguise their public dissention as an extraordinary event to preserve democracy in the country.

April 20, 2018 will always be remembered as a black day in the history of independent India. Seven opposition parties led by the Congress submitted a proposal to the Vice-President of India, seeking to impeach the current Chief Justice of India (CJI).

However, the underlying cause of their discontent got revealed when queried about the main issue of concern. The reply was allocation of cases by CJI. There have been instances where cases having far reaching consequences for the nation and the institution have been assigned by the chief justices of this court selectively to the benches of their preference without any rational basis for such assignment, they alleged.

When asked if they wanted the CJI to be impeached, Justice Chelameswars response was shockingly provocative and instigative.  Let the nation decide , he said without any hesitation. It was an open suggestion to the dissidents of all hues.

Allocation of cases to different benches is the prerogative of CJI. He carries the authority of being Master of the Roster. The four unhappy judges felt that they were being assigned less important cases. Honestly, one is surprised at their assertion. One thought that every case that comes before the Supreme Court is of utmost importance with far-reaching consequences for the nation, as every judgment acts as a precedent and guidance for the subordinate judiciary across the country to follow. Where is the question of more or less important cases?

The four judges would have been justified in feeling aggrieved if no cases were being assigned to them, forcing them to sit idle. But that is not the case. They want cases of their interest. It will be interesting to know the number of cases pending before them and the efforts put in by them to dispose them. If they are already well-loaded, they should concentrate on dispensing justice expeditiously rather than go public to demand more important cases  finish work in hand and demonstrate your industriousness, before seeking cases of choice.

By going public, the judges trashed the basic norm of organisational conduct  one should never fault or criticise ones organisation publically while being a part of it. To bring disrepute to ones organisation by washing dirty linen in public is an act of gross disloyalty and unpardonable sacrilege. Issues, if any, must be raised and resolved in-house. If still aggrieved, the right step is to quit the organisation; thereafter one is at liberty to air ones grievances.

Taking the clue from Justice Chelameswars advice, six opposition parties joined the Congress in launching a vicious campaign to impeach CJI. The charges levelled against him are not only frivolous but are laughable. It needs to be recalled here that Article 124(4) of Constitution of India stipulates that the impeachment of a supreme court judge can only be carried out on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity. How can the allocation of cases to different benches be termed as misbehaviour warranting impeachment? The Vice-President has rightly rejected the notice, terming it to be lacking in merit.

A look at the chronology of events shows the devious designs of the unscrupulous. Justice BH Loya, who was hearing CBI's case of murder against BJP chief Amit Shah, died of a cardiac arrest in Nagpur in December 2014.

With a view to target Shah, a number of appeals were filed in the Supreme Court seeking independent investigation into Loyas death. Opposition parties wanted the case to be assigned to a considerate bench, hoping to get a favourable verdict.

CJI admitted the case. On 12 January, he assigned it to a bench that did not include any of the four dissenting judges. Both the opposition leaders and the dissenting judges were furious. The judges vented their anger at the press conference the same evening. The question arises as to why were the said judges so keen to hear the said case. What special interest did it hold for them?

During the hearing of the case, with a view to put pressure on the bench, the Congress started collecting signatures for the impeachment of CJI. A total of 71 members signed. It was an ominous move of the most vicious kind. It was an open challenge to the top court of the country  rule in our favour or else face impeachment.

Having conveyed the threat, the Congress leaders waited for the verdict in the Loya case. They had expected CJI to get browbeaten and fall in line. Had the verdict been according to the Congresss demand, impeachment move would have been aborted. But it was not to be.

The court dismissed the petitions on 19 April and an enraged Congress submitted the notice for impeachment the very next day. Incidentally, as the signatures were taken quite some time back, seven signatories had since retired and the list contained only 64 valid signatures.

By acting in an unbecoming manner, the four judges have inflicted immense damage to the esteemed institution. It has left the countrymen stunned. It will take decades for the Supreme Court to regain its lost reputation. Questions have been raised about the impartiality of the four judges. Why were they overly keen to hear Loya case appeals?

As the judges are unhappy with the functioning of the Supreme Court, the most honourable thing for them to do is to resign. In any case, they have lost their credibility as regards fair and objective dispensation of justice. In case they do not take such a step voluntarily, senior members of the bar and the eminent jurists should put pressure on them.

Justice Ranjan Gogoi has ruled himself out for the appointment of CJI. He accepted the fact that the immediate cause of the press conference was the assignment of petition in the Loya case. Why did he feel so aggrieved for not getting the said case? Although he said that they had come before the public to pay a debt to the nation, many feel that it was in fact to pay a debt to the Congress. Justice Gogoi has demonstrated his bias and subjectivity openly.

One is not surprised at the conduct of the Congress. It is on a ventilator and wants to retain its relevance at every cost, even if it entails destruction of all the hallowed institutions of the Indian democracy. It wants to subvert the system from within through the planted functionaries. When thwarted in its nefarious designs, it resorts to intimidation tactics through scurrilous innuendoes. All that talk of saving democracy is pure hogwash.

The parliamentary standing committee on law and personnel has recommended that the retirement age of SC judges be raised to 67 years from the present 65 to tide over the existing shortage of judges in the highest court. Modi government should immediately effect the change. Even otherwise, Justice Gogois claim must be disregarded. He is unfit for the top post.

Interestingly, a number of senior leaders of the Congress have disassociated themselves from the impeachment proposal. Have they rediscovered their spine to disobey the dynasty or is it simply a case of rats abandoning a sinking ship? It is certainly an ominous sign for the party that ruled this country for more than six decades. However, no tears need to be shed on its suicidal downfall due to its anti-national politics.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Tears were shed on Tuesday at Gloria Fields' sentencing in state Supreme Court, St. George, for first-degree murder in a toddler's torture death.

Harsh words were spoken in the audience.

Rage was tamped down beneath a mountain of grief.

And, finally, there was applause.

A spontaneous burst of clapping from about 20 members of little Anthony Delgado's family when, after Justice Wayne Ozzi sentenced Fields to 23 years to life for sexually abusing and fatally torturing the 17-month-old boy she was babysitting two years ago, the judge also said there's "no guarantee" the Concord resident would be released in 23 years.

"That poor child never had a chance in your hands," Ozzi had said moments earlier, lighting into the defendant before imposing sentence. ... "Why would anyone want to do this to an innocent 17-month-old child? To me, that just shows you were wicked and cruel."

The judge went on.

"I saw no emotion, no visible sign of remorse," Ozzi said, referring to Field's muted response when Eddie Castro, the victim's uncle, read a statement prepared by Anthony's mother, Marta Delgado, who stood beside him.

Castro wore a shirt with Anthony's photo on the front and back. On the front, a crown topped the little boy's head; on the back, it was an angel's halo.

Castro and Delgado held onto each other and wept.

'NEVER SEE HIS SMILING FACE'

"I will never get to see his smiling face," Castro read from Delgado's statement. "I don't think that I'll ever stop grieving his loss ... Since he's gone, the house is abnormally dark."

Ozzi called the case "the most disturbing" one he's ever presided over.

Earlier this month, Fields pleaded guilty to the top charge of a 12-count indictment accusing her of causing Anthony's death over the course of three days by acting in an "especially cruel and wanton manner ... intended to inflict and inflicting torture" on the child.

Prosecutors said those acts included sticking a six-inch Crayola pencil up the victim's rectum.

Prosecutors said Fields tortured and sexually abused the defenseless toddler between Friday, Feb. 19 through Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016, before he died.

According to testimony at a pretrial hearing last year, the defendant voluntarily admitted her guilt, including sexually assaulting the tot, as detectives confronted her with the results of their ongoing investigation.

Fields, who had been using heroin and smoking marijuana while the child was in her care, also slammed his face onto the floor while he was strapped into his stroller, and struck him on the head numerous times, according to court documents.

The incidents occurred at various times inside the apartment building where the defendant and victim lived, and inside Buffalo Exchange, a used clothing store on East 11th Street in Manhattan, prosecutors said.

ANGRY AT CHILD'S RELATIVE

Fields told investigators she was angry over the loss of custody of her own child after the victim's grandmother reported her to the city Administration for Children's Services, according to a videotaped recording of her interrogation by police which was played at a pretrial hearing last year.

She said she hurt the boy to get back at his grandmother.

The proceeding was emotional, and, at times, tense.

Fields had initially refused to leave a holding cell next to the courtroom to attend her sentencing. Her lawyer, Mario F. Gallucci, told the judge she didn't want to be photographed or videotaped by the media in the courtroom.

Anthony's relatives were visibly angered by Fields' refusal to come out.

"She shouldn't have a life. That baby doesn't have a life," one woman said lowly.

But the defendant relented after Ozzi assured her he wouldn't allow her photo to be taken - and after he had Gallucci inform her he might have her forcibly escorted into the courtroom if she didn't enter of her own accord.

Ozzi cautioned against any outbursts before Fields walked into the room.

Garbed in a white T-shirt and tan pants, Fields declined to make a statement before sentencing.

She has gained a considerable amount of weight while incarcerated.

In her statement, Delgado, the victim's mother, spoke of the pain of not watching Anthony grow up with his brother, of never buying him another bag of Cheese Doodles, his favorite food, and of days when she can't motivate herself to get out of bed.

Anthony's death impacts not merely her family, but "ripples across the entirety of the country," her statement said.

'NO WINNER HERE'

Outside court, Gallucci said the case was one of the toughest he's ever had to defend.

"It's unfortunate. It's sad," he said. "There's no winner here."

With regard to the crimes, Fields, he said, was remorseful.

"She says she can't believe she did it, that she was high on drugs," said Gallucci.

Eddie Castro, 31, the victim's uncle, called the sentence "a resolution to the crime."

But, he added, "It's not a resolution to anyone's feelings."

Both Castro and his twin brother, Emanuel Castro, said they believed "justice was served" for Anthony, although Emanuel Castro said he would have preferred a "full life sentence."

In a statement, District Attorney Michael E. McMahon said, "This defendant deserves to spend the rest of her life in prison for the atrocious and sickening crimes she committed, and today's sentence ensures just that."

"No family should ever have to experience the loss of a child in this way, and the entire D.A.'s office continues to send our thoughts and prayers to the family of the young victim," said McMahon.

The district attorney also thanked Assistant District Attorneys Wanda DeOliveira and Timothy Richard "for all of their hard work successfully prosecuting this case."
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- It's not every day you're given the opportunity to ring the closing bell at the New York Stock exchange. Just ask Elissa Montanti, and she'll give you details about the golden opportunity.

The founder of the Global Medical Relief Fund's name was presented to the New York Stock Exchange for consideration by one of the GMRF's benefactors.

The NYSE apparently was so impressed with Elissa's mission to provide vital medical care, prosthetics and rehabilitation to children who come to Staten Island from war-torn countries for medical treatment, they were eager to meet the woman who's been dubbed "The Saint of Staten Island."

"When I got the call I was surprised and was thrilled. It was one incredible, exhilarating day," said Elissa, an Advance Woman of Achievement in the Class of 2011.

"Signing the guest book that dates back to the 1700s with people of incredible stature was overwhelming. I was honored to be among signatures like that of J.P. Morgan and Walt Disney," she added. "When we arrived the children and members of the GMRF team were welcomed and escorted into a beautiful room filled with all sorts of refreshments. And I was presented with a brushed silver and white medallion at the Closing Bell Ceremony. This will be one of the highlights in GMRF's history."

Jim Byrne, managing director of the Intercontinental Exchange, gave them a grand tour of "the pen" and escorted the group up to the podium. He related the origin of the NYSE before leading Elissa to a table where she signed the huge, age-old book of famous signatures.

Elissa said it was also a thrill to see the GMRF name up in lights on the NYSE Megatron and see it live streamed.

"But I have to say the icing on the bell was when I signed the old, thick book that was darkened and yellowish in age," Elissa gushed. "It was magnificent. It shows credibility. And you know they did their homework. I'm so proud of my team and my board of directors and so proud of all the children and the work that we do - putting broken children back together again."

A recap of the day can be found is on the New York Stock Exchange website at www.NYSE.com.

Many will recall the GMRF recently celebrated their 20th anniversary and celebrated the momentous occasion at the Vanderbilt on the South Beach Boardwalk, where some 200 revelers whiled the evening away to mark the eventful milestone.
TORONTO -- A 25-year-old in a rented van plowed down a Toronto sidewalk crowded with lunchtime strollers Monday, killing 10 people and injuring 15 in what appeared to witnesses and the city's police chief as a deliberate attack. The driver was quickly arrested in a tense but brief confrontation with officers a few blocks away.

Witnesses and the police chief said the driver, identified by authorities as Alek Minassian, was moving fast and appeared to intentionally jump a curb in the North York neighborhood as people filled the sidewalks on a warm afternoon. He continued for more than a mile, knocking out a fire hydrant and leaving bodies strewn in his wake.

Officials would not comment on a possible motive except to play down a possible connection to terrorism, a thought that occurred to many following a series of attacks involving trucks and pedestrians in Europe and the presence in Toronto this week of Cabinet ministers from the G7 nations.

Still, Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders said he did not think it was an accident.

"The incident definitely looked deliberate," Saunders said at a news conference Monday night as he announced that the initial death toll of nine had risen to 10 after another victim died at a hospital. He said 15 others were hospitalized.

Saunders said Minassian, who lives in the Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill, had not been known to police previously.

Asked if there was any evidence of a connection to international terrorism, the chief said only, "Based on what we have there's nothing that has it to compromise the national security at this time."

A senior national government official said earlier that authorities had not turned over the investigation to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a sign that investigators believed it unlikely terrorism was the motive. The official agreed to reveal that information only if not quoted by name.

Authorities released few details in the case, saying the investigation was still underway, with witnesses being interviewed and surveillance video being examined.

"I can assure the public all our available resources have been brought in to investigate this tragic situation," Toronto Police Services Deputy Chief Peter Yuen said earlier.

The incident occurred as Cabinet ministers from the major industrial countries were gathered in Canada to discuss a range of international issues in the run-up to the G7 meeting near Quebec City in June. Canadian Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale called the incident a "horrific attack" and said the G7 foreign ministers extended their condolences.

The driver was heading south on busy Yonge Street around 1:30 p.m. and the streets were crowded with people enjoying an unseasonably warm day when the van jumped onto the sidewalk.

Ali Shaker, who was driving near the van at the time, told Canadian broadcast outlet CP24 that the driver appeared to be moving deliberately through the crowd at more than 30 mph.

"He just went on the sidewalk," a distraught Shaker said. "He just started hitting everybody, man. He hit every single person on the sidewalk. Anybody in his way he would hit."

Witness Peter Kang told CTV News that the driver did not seem to make any effort to stop.

"If it was an accident he would have stopped," Kang said. "But the person just went through the sidewalk. He could have stopped."

Video broadcast on several Canadian outlets showed police arresting the driver, dressed in dark clothes, after officers surrounded him and his rental Ryder van several blocks from where the incident occurred in the North York neighborhood of northern Toronto. He appeared to make some sort of gesture at the police with an object in his hand just before they ordered him to lie down on the ground and took him away.

Witness Phil Zullo told Canadian Press that he saw police arresting the suspect and people "strewn all over the road" where the incident occurred.

"I must have seen about five, six people being resuscitated by bystanders and by ambulance drivers," Zullo said. "It was awful. Brutal."

Police shut down the Yonge and Finch intersection following the incident and Toronto's transit agency said it had suspended service on the subway line running through the area.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed his sympathies for those involved.

"We should all feel safe walking in our cities and communities," he said. "We are monitoring this situation closely, and will continue working with our law enforcement partners around the country to ensure the safety and security of all Canadians."

By Charmaine Noronha, Associated Press. Associated Press writers Ben Fox in Miami and Rob Gillies in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, contributed to this report.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A major milestone in the Staten Island Mall's redevelopment will occur Thursday when the public gets a chance to access areas that have been under construction for more than two years.

The Advance got an exclusive sneak peek of the soon-to-be-open areas, including the brand new wing, public plaza, front entrance and the area that will house its Food District.

"We are ready to open the common area, and we are doing that ahead of schedule because we wanted to get the common areas open to the public. ... You'll be able to park on the parking deck and come straight into the Mall," said James Easley, senior general manager of the Staten Island Mall.

"The main entrance and the H&M entrance will be open so we can flow traffic through like we would normally. The tenants will be opening on a staggered schedule," he added.

The expansion project, which began in 2015, includes a major redevelopment of the Mall's 1.3-million-square-foot property in New Springville.

"Eighty percent of the project will probably be complete by the end of the year. And the rest just depends on the construction schedule," Easley said.

THURSDAY'S OPENING

Thursday's opening represents another "step in the expansion project," said Lindsay Kahn, a Mall spokeswoman. "This will add convenience and let the public enjoy some of these new amenities. We thank the public for sticking with us through this. It will be well worth it."

Between now and the end of the year, new retailers and restaurants will open in the Mall.

"The Staten Island community is so dedicated to this center it was important for us to incorporate their feedback into the development process to truly create something special," said Doug Adams, senior director of development for the Chicago-based General Growth Properties (GGP), the Mall's owner.

"It belongs to them and I can't wait to see people enjoying the new space and amenities," he added.

THE PLAZA

A centrally located exterior plaza has been created for community gatherings and seasonal events.

"In my opinion, the public plaza is the jewel of the whole expansion. It's over 11,000 square feet of area right at the main entrance of the Mall. It's something very, very new to Staten Island. Things we have programmed for that area are a potential farmer's market and ... the sky is the limit," Easley said.

The outdoor public plaza will be flanked by restaurants and will include seating for special events.

Chipotle Mexican Grill and Shake Shack will open in the plaza building in front of the main entrance of the Mall sometime before the end of May, Easley said. Another outdoor eatery will be Ono Bowl, a juice and acai bowl bar.

"The plaza will have plenty of seating, so people will be able to take their food out from Shake Shack and enjoy one of the concerts we might be having," he said.

THE FOOD DISTRICT

There will be a host of new restaurants in a sleek, modern-looking area -- dubbed the Food District -- complete with wooden high chairs, lounge-like sofas, large screen televisions, free wifi and more.

Chick-fil-A, Popeyes and The Melt Shop are three of the new food concepts that will join some of the existing food court eateries, including Sarku, Burger King and Villa Italian Kitchen.

"The new Food District is a major upgrade from what we have today. We are doubling the seat count ... We are putting in many new tenants, who are new to the area," Easley said.

A 40,000-square-foot Dave & Buster's that will be connected to the Food District is expected to open in late summer, he said.

Tommy's Tavern of Seabright, N.J., will open a restaurant/bar in the expanded section of the Mall, Easley added.

STORE OPENINGS

Among the first retailers to open will be Ulta Beauty on May 18.

Lidl, a supermarket with German roots, European retailer Zara and a new AMC Movie Theater will open by the end of the year.

NEW PARKING GARAGE

The new three-story, 732-space parking garage with LED lighting opened for business in November. The total number of parking spots for Mall patrons is 6,328.

MALL OWNER RECENTLY SOLD

It was announced last month that Brookfield Property Partners LP, a global commercial real estate company with approximately $68 billion in total assets, agreed to purchase GGP for $9.25 billion.

Kahn said the recent purchase will have "no impact on the Mall redevelopment."

MALL HISTORY

The Staten Island Mall opened its doors on Aug. 9, 1973, with Macy's and Sears as its two anchor tenants.

The Mall drew traffic away from popular North Shore shopping centers, like the Port Richmond commercial strip -- and became a central shopping hub for the influx of new residents who moved here after the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge was complete.

This is the second major overhaul the Mall has undergone since it was built.

See inside the new Staten Island Mall construction 24 Gallery: See inside the new Staten Island Mall construction

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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A former employee at the Office of the Richmond County District Attorney pleaded guilty Monday to stealing more than $440,000 in government funds, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice.

William Nelson used two RCDA American Express credit cards to purchase items like jewelry, video games, knives, flights and lodging from 2006 to 2016, according to the release from the office of U.S. District Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Richard P. Donoghue.

The 44-year-old Great Kills resident, who worked as procurement director for the RCDA, also used PayPal to transfer thousands from the credit cards to his own bank accounts.

The majority of Nelson's employment was under the administration of current U.S. Rep. Dan Donovan.

Nelson served as procurement director until May 2016, when he was removed during the transition to Michael McMahon's administration, and placed in the position of procurement analyst, a position he held until his resignation in December 2016.

Following his departure, previously undetected and unauthorized spending was uncovered, and immediately reported to the Department of Investigation, McMahon previously told the Advance.

In a statement to the Advance, Donovan's office said the congressman worked with investigators, and applauded the case's conclusion.

"Nobody is above the law, especially somebody like Bill Nelson, who worked for four district attorneys and gamed the system he knew so well for his own benefit," the statement read.

"Although Nelson concealed his criminal activity, despite three audits, by taking money from accounts that weren't reviewable, he couldn't cover up his criminal behavior any more once he left his office."

McMahon's office said in a statement that the RCDA has adopted new fiscal procedures, including recommendations from the DOI and comprtoller's office, that ensure resources will be better used.

"Mr. Nelson's crimes over many years caused financial damage to this office and signified a deep betrayal of the public trust," McMahon said in a statement. "This conviction sends the message that crime does not pay."
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Old Navy has signed a lease to open a 13,382-square-foot outlet store in Empire Outlets on the St. George waterfront.

"We're excited to grow Old Navy's presence in the New York City area," said spokeswoman Julie Van Vliet. "We look forward to being a part of this unique shopping experience and welcoming families from all over the city and the world into our new Old Navy Outlet store."

Old Navy, which is owned by Gap Inc., is expanding at a time when many brick-and-mortar stores are trying to keep pace with Amazon and other online retailers. The company recently announced that it plans to open 60 Old Navy stores across the country.

Gap Inc. previously announced plans to open outlet stores for both its Gap and Banana Republic brands at Empire Outlets.

"We're thrilled to have Old Navy join the Empire Outlets team and bring its world-class brand to Staten Island's North Shore," said Joseph Ferrara, principal of BFC Partners, developer of Empire Outlets.

"As we look ahead to an incredible fall opening, Empire Outlets is poised to provide an unforgettable visitor experience and become one of New York City's top shopping and dining destinations," he added.

"Old Navy is a brand that has captured multiple generations of shoppers," said James Prendamano, leasing broker for Empire Outlets. "We are proud to welcome them to the Empire Outlets family."

The Old Navy store in New Springville will remain open.

EMPIRE OUTLETS ROSTER

Old Navy joins a roster of other retailers that have signed on to be part of Empire Outlets. Major retailers coming to the center include: Nordstrom Rack, H&M, Ghirardelli Chocolate, Francesca's, Starbucks, U.S. Polo, Gap Outlet, Banana Republic Factory Store, Crocs, White House Black Market, Columbia Sportswear Company, Guess Factory Store, Wilsons Leather, G.H. Bass & Co., Lids, Obey Your Body, Innovation Luggage, Walgreens, Haagen Dazs and Krispy Kreme.

Restaurants set to be part of Empire Outlets' diverse group of dining options include: Mamoun's Falafel, Wasabi Steak & Sushi, Shake Shack, Mighty Quinn's Barbeque, Artichoke Basille's Pizza, Nathan's Famous and MRKTPL -- a 12,723-square-foot artisanal food hall with a 3,000-square-foot outdoor dining space and more than 30 food concepts.

The vast majority of Empire Outlets' retail and restaurant spaces are now leased and BFC Partners is actively in discussions with several prominent tenants for the balance of the lifestyle center.

Located adjacent to the St. George Ferry Terminal, Empire Outlets will feature more than 100 designer outlet retailers and a 1,250-space parking garage, along with future plans for a boutique hotel.

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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Staten Islanders will have an opportunity to voice their opinions on the proposed borough-wide charter school for dyslexic students at a public hearing on May 2.

An overview, questions and comments will start at 6:30 p.m. at the Michael J. Petrides School in Sunnyside in Room 101, Building H. Speakers can start signing in at 6:15 p.m. The school is located at 715 Ocean Terrace.

Bridge Preparatory Charter School is currently in the process of becoming the first school for dyslexic kids on Staten Island. The school is planning to open in August 2019.

The Bridge Preparatory Charter School for Creative Thinkers cleared the first step in its application process in Albany in July.

The State Education Department accepted Bridge Prep's "letter of intent" that cleared the school to proceed to the next round in the charter application process.

If approved, Bridge Prep will be open for the 2018-2019 school year. The school proposes to serve approximately 86 students in Grades 1 and 2 and grow to serve 242 students in Grades 1 to 5 during the final year of the charter term. Classes will serve no more than 12 students.

It will be the first and only public charter school in the state and one of a handful in the United States focused on specifically meeting the needs of students with dyslexia and language-based learning difficulties.

Founder of the proposed school, Tim Castanza, reached out to Staten Islanders at local community board meetings to garner support for the cause. Borough President James Oddo assembled a team to craft the application for approval from the state Education Department.

Like other charter schools, Bridge Prep will be tuition-free, and the application process will be open to all Staten Island students. Available seats will be filled by lottery.

The Regents of the University of the State of New York (Board of Regents) may vote upon this application on or around June 2018. If the application is approved, the proposed charter agreement will be sent to the Board of Regents for review and approval.

Any questions about the application process for the Board of Regents can be directed to the New York State Department of Education Charter office at 518-474-1762.

The public is welcomed and encouraged to submit comments on the applications. Anyone who is not able to attend the public hearing may send comments to charterschools@nysed.gov.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The son of an ex-fire commissioner was transferred to a Staten Island firehouse after a Brooklyn neighborhood complained about his anti-Semitic tweets, according to the New York Post.

Joseph Cassano, 28, son of former fire commish Salvatore Cassano, will be placed at FDNY Engine 162/Ladder 82 in Great Kills after complaints from the Jewish community in Borough Park, the article said.

The younger Cassano quit his EMS job in 2013 after his racially-charged tweets surfaced, but the FDNY re-hired him as a firefighter.

The younger Cassano reportedly tweeted in February of 2013: "Getting sick of picking up all these Obama lovers and taking them to the hospital because their Medicare pays for an ambulance and not a cab."

In other tweets, he reportedly referred to black people as "shwoogs," said "I like Jews about as much as Hitler," and on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, added: "MLK could go kick rocks for all I care, but thanks for the time and a half today."

The younger Cassano, who lived with his parents at the time of the rants, later apologized for the posts.

In 2015, he got a second chance with the FDNY's Emergency Medical Service Academy, the Post reported at the time.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - So now the Democrats are suing over President Donald Trump's alleged election collusion with the Russians.

Have they lost faith in special counsel Robert Mueller? It's hard to come to any other conclusion as the whole Trump-Russia saga continues with no end in sight.

The most recent "gotcha" moment came the other week, when the FBI swooped down on Trump attorney Michael Cohen.

Now they've got Trump, right?

Wrong. At least so far.

Because while we've heard a lot about Cohen's relationship with Fox TV talking head Sean Hannity, we haven't heard anything more about how Trump and Vladimir Putin stole the election from poor Hillary Clinton.

What we do know is that nobody seems too concerned about what the FBI raid on Cohen's office means for attorney-client privilege. Because it involves Trump, we're not even supposed to ask.

It almost seems like the strategy now is that anybody who works for Trump is going to become an FBI target. Maybe one of them will flip on the president, and we'll have something tangible after all these months of investigating.

Maybe.

Or maybe something will just goad Trump into doing something crazy, like trying to fire Mueller. Even though logically it's the last thing that Trump should do. But logic has never been one of Trump's strong suits. But he's shown no inclination to bounce Mueller so far. Still, those big protest rallies are ready to go should Trump make a move. Talk about astroturfing.

Is this what the U.S. criminal justice system is for, to keep plugging away until Trump just throws up his hands and leaves? Or commits an impeachable offense? I guess the anti-Trump folks can't get any more FISA warrants in order to do their dirty work. So now they have to work through the non-secret courts.

And after all the revelations about former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, and underlings Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, all their email and text lamentations over Trump winning the election, does anyone really have absolute trust in the FBI anymore?

Former FBI director James Comey has had his say as well, coming out with his long-awaited book. And we finally got a look at those memos that Comey wrote about his interactions with Trump. Interesting from a fly-on-the-wall perspective, but, again, no smoking guns. Unless you're intrigued that Comey leaked potentially classified info to the press that spurred the Mueller investigation in the first place.

But nobody cared when that news broke months ago, so why should they now? And how can we question the FBI when they were doing the right thing, i.e., trying to get Trump thrown out of office?

After all, that's the FBI's job. Isn't it?

We've also heard a lot about Trump's supposed affair with porn star Stormy Daniels, whom he's alleged to have had sex with what, twelve years ago? Yeah, it was fun to watch her on CNN while the cable channel ran ads for its show on the Kennedys, including JFK's legendary sex life with women other than his wife. While he was in the White House.

Or as commercials for the "Chappaquiddick" movie went flitting by. Teddy Kennedy was the lion of the Senate. An advocate for women and the downtrodden. Who cares if he left Mary Jo Kopechne to die after driving his car off a bridge with her in it? That's not how we judge statesmen. He would have made a great president.

Not to mention all the allegations and actual facts that have followed Bill Clinton around for decades. When he was accused of assault and rape by women, we were told that the ladies were just trailer trash. Nope, nothing to see here, even when he was dallying with a White House intern. Imagine all that happening in this #MeToo moment.

So why should I care about Trump's old peccadillos? Isn't that between him and his wife?

Let's remember where this all started: With Trump allegedly colluding with the Russians to steal the election. We're still waiting for that proof. And the Dems are getting impatient, so they've launched a lawsuit to keep the issues of Russia and Trump and Wikileaks alive on another track.

That'll do the trick.
Kim's 'bitter sorrow' as N. Korea bus crash kills 32 Chinese



Beijing, April 24 (AFP) Apr 24, 2018



North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has expressed his "bitter sorrow" after dozens of Chinese tourists were killed when a bus they were travelling in plunged off a bridge.

Thirty-two Chinese tourists and four North Koreans perished in the accident south of Pyongyang Sunday night, Chinese officials and state media said. Two other Chinese nationals were injured.

In a rare admission of negative news from North Korea's tightly controlled propaganda network, the KCNA news agency on Tuesday said Kim met personally with the Chinese ambassador in Pyongyang and later visited survivors in hospital.

The Rodong Sinmun newspaper, the mouthpiece of the ruling party, carried a front-page on Kim's actions, including pictures of him in a doctor's white coat, holding the two survivors' hands as they lay in their hospital beds.

Although such a move might be unsurprising in other countries, it is an unusual portrayal of Kim, who is usually shown presiding over formal meetings or visiting work or army units.

Kim "said that the unexpected accident brought bitter sorrow to his heart and that he couldn't control his grief at the thought of the bereaved families who lost their blood relatives," KCNA reported.

The North Korean leader said his people "take the tragic accident as their own misfortune", it added.

The fulsomeness of Kim's comments reflects the importance of China -- and its tourists -- to his country and economy.

Beijing is Pyongyang's sole major ally, providing an important economic and political buffer against international opprobrium.

Their relationship was forged in the blood of the Korean War, and while it has soured more recently, with China increasingly exasperated by the North's nuclear antics and enforcing UN Security Council sanctions against it, there has been an improvement in recent weeks.

Last month, Kim embarked on his first overseas trip since inheriting power in 2011 to finally pay his respects to Chinese President Xi Jinping, and was warmly welcomed in Beijing.

China is by far the biggest source of tourists for the North, with direct flights and a long land border connecting the neighbour, and tens of thousands are believed to visit every year, many crossing via train through the Chinese border city of Dandong.

For some, North Korea provides a window into what Communist China may have looked like decades ago.

In contrast Western visitors to the North once averaged around 5,000 a year, but numbers have been hit recently by a US travel ban -- Americans accounted for around 20 percent of the market -- and official warnings from other countries.



- 'All necessary means' -



Xinhua news agency reported that the bus had fallen from a bridge in North Hwanghae province.

China's state broadcaster showed images of a large overturned vehicle, with light rain falling on rescue vehicles at night and doctors attending to a patient.

KCNA said the crash was "an unexpected traffic accident that claimed heavy casualties among Chinese tourists". It gave no breakdown on the numbers killed or injured.

The Chinese foreign ministry said Tuesday a group of officials and five medical experts had arrived in Pyongyang to assist the North in treating the injured and dealing with the aftermath.

They also visited a temporary morgue for the dead to check their identities and express condolences, it said.

North Hwanghae province lies south of Pyongyang and stretches to the border with South Korea. It includes the city of Kaesong, an ancient Korean capital with historical sites and, until recently, a manufacturing complex operated with the South.

The tour group was travelling by bus from Kaesong to Pyongyang when the accident happened, according to the independent Seoul-based website NK News, which cited an unnamed source.

North Korean roads are largely poor and potholed, and in many areas they are dirt rather than tarmac. Vehicles are sometimes forced to ford rivers or take detours when bridges are unpassable.

But the route from Pyongyang to Kaesong is one of the best in the country.

It runs north-south from the Chinese border to the Demilitarized Zone on the border with South Korea but has little traffic, like all North Korean highways.

Tank traps have been installed along the road in many locations -- sets of high concrete columns on either side of the road that can easily be blown up to create an obstruction for invading armoured vehicles.

burs/slb/qan
Taiwan to stage live-fire drill simulating China "invasion"



Taipei, April 24 (AFP) Apr 24, 2018



Taiwan will practice thwarting a Chinese "invasion" in annual live fire drills in June, simulating surprise coastal assaults to reflect increased military threats from Beijing, officials said Tuesday.

China's growing military is increasingly flexing its muscles and held live-fire drills last week in the Taiwan Strait -- the narrow waterway separating the Chinese mainland from Taiwan -- following weeks of naval manoeuvres in the area.

Chinese officials said their drills were to safeguard Beijing's territorial sovereignty, a major priority for President Xi Jinping.

Although Taiwan is a self-ruling democracy, it has never formally declared independence from the mainland and Beijing still sees it as a renegade province to be brought back into the fold, by force if necessary.

Cross-strait relations have steadily deteriorated since 2016 when President Tsai Ing-wen took office, largely because she refuses to accept that Taiwan is part of "one China", and because Beijing is deeply suspicious of her traditionally pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party.

Taiwan's five-day drill, codenamed "Han Kuang", which means "Han Glory", will start from June 4.

"Simply put, the main goal of the drill is to make any Chinese communist military mission to invade Taiwan fail," defence ministry spokesman Chen Chung-chi told reporters.

"It simulates this year's situation and we are taking into consideration China's air and naval movements in the region," he added.

This year's drill will enlist the coastguard and National Airborne Service Corps, which handles rescue flights, for the first time for "comprehensive defence", Chen said.

Civilian drones will also participate in the drill for the first time to conduct surveillance and mark targets, while civilian telecom service providers will assist in maintaining communication and control, the ministry said.

"It's not just soldiers' duties to protect the country. Everyone has the responsibility since our defence budget is limited," Chen said.

Taipei dismissed China's military exercises in the Taiwan Strait last week as "routine" after expected large-scale naval manoeuvres failed to materialise and called it the "cheapest way of verbal intimidation and sabre-rattling".

Chinese state media reported Tuesday that a flotilla of Chinese naval vessels held a "live combat drill" in the East China Sea, the latest show of force in disputed waters that have riled neighbours.

Earlier this month Chinese president Xi inspected the convoy as it conducted exercises in the disputed South China Sea.

The flotilla then held two separate drills last week in waters on either side of Taiwan, infuriating the government in Taipei.
PHILIPSBURG:--- Residents of Roses Road Cul de Sac is calling on the Minister of Health Emil Lee to deal with the mosquito breeding sites in their area.

The residents told SMN News that they went almost every government department at the Ministry of Health, VROMI and Public works seeking assistance for the breeding sites that were created after the passing of hurricane Irma. One resident said her elderly mother is plagued by the mosquitos and as such she took it on herself to knock on the doors of government to no avail. The resident said that while some of the debris were cleaned up after the passing of Irma, the drains that are clogged in the area were not cleaned. She said Roses Road has a number of potholes that have been accumulating water and have become the breeding sites for mosquitos.
Budget schedule as suggested paramount to relegating Parliament to a Rubber Stamp.

PHILIPSBURG:--- Member of Parliament Rolando Brison, through a letter to the President of Parliament MP Wescott-Williams, expressed various concerns with the proposed process for the perusing and debating of the budget 2018 for St. Maarten.

In his letter, Brison references the Memo from the Minister of Finance regarding the proposed schedule for budget 2018 (10/apr/2018 IS/454), the convocation to meetings this Wednesday (CC 23) regarding various crucial topics (Recovery, Waste Management and the Cyber Attacks), followed by the Central Committee meeting regarding the Budget 2018 (CC24).

I am deeply disturbed by several issues related to these meetings, remarked Brison, While I am aware that the Central Committee is Thursday and it affords me the opportunity to raise these concerns in that meeting, I feel it would be irresponsible of me to let more time pass without having these urgent items addressed before any such meeting take place.

Brisons first concern was regarding the time various bodies that must review the budget, such as the council of advice, governor and council of Ministers, have had to review the budget. For example, in the Memo IS/454, the Minister has only allowed for 1 full business day for the council of advice to render advice on the budget. As you know, the Council had advised us recently that they try to get the most urgent requests completed within 2 weeks.

The preparation time parliament will have to review this budget is also a major concern. Based on the schedule, and now on the convocation for meetings, we see that the first meeting regarding the budget is scheduled for Thursday April 26th, with the budget needing to be approved on Monday May 1st, just 5 days of deliberations even if we work through the weekend and holidays (something I have no issue doing in the interest of the country). But this is after giving us just 3 days ahead of the CC24 meeting to prepare for said meeting, with a flawed document to make matters worse. On top of that we have to debate 3 crucial topics Wednesday (CC23) and we must to prepare for that too, continues the MP.

The budget is 191 pages long, is the first budget in the history of St. Maarten to have a deficit, and I believe it to be one of the most crucial budgets approved by our country, paramount to the recovery of this island. To have this budget schedule proceed as suggested by the Minister of Finance with the lack of preparation time would be paramount to relegating Parliament to a Rubber Stamp.

The MP also finds it unclear where the promised deadline of May 1st that the Minister of Finance spoke of. We need clarity on this date and why it has come to this, Brison noted.

Budget Format far from ideal

Brison found that the budget submitted in PDF form digitally is far from ideal. He remarked that it is a poorly scanned document, with most of the headings illegible, with most of the document having many illegible headings and figures.

I know that there is a working Excel document that many civil servants have access to, I think it only practical to ensure parliament has this at our disposal as well, which with just a few mouse-clicks can be made into a Read-Only documents and sent to all members of Parliament, suggested MP Brison. He also noted that the budget is in Dutch, despite many requests by several factions in the past that the budget be presented in both languages.

Regarding the review process: Brison queried whether parliament can ascertain the actual time the advisory bodies, council of ministers, governor and others have had to review this budget, and ensure that they feel they have had sufficient time to review this budget before presenting to Parliament, unaffected by the undue pressure of an unrealistic schedule hanging over them.

Regarding the deadline of May 1st, the MP requested in explanation as to why this deadline, who imposed it and whether the Minister of Finance expects parliament to Rubber Stamp the budget without any real deliberation, scrutiny and preparation in order to meet said deadline.

Lastly, the MP requested the Presidents assistance in having the Minister of Finance send a fully digital version of the Budget (Excel) and the explanatory notes (Word or PDF) to allow us to better evaluate the items within the budget, search through the document (CTRL-F), as well as confirm at least the rudimentary mathematical accuracies and calculations of said budget.

Our faction, and all my fellow MPs, have taken the oath to uphold the constitution. As we know, Article 100 and other articles of our constitution are very clear about the mandate and responsibility of Parliament in deliberating, approving, and amending the budget. Through this letter today, my goal is to ensure all MPs have what is necessary to uphold this constitutional responsibility granted to us by the people.

MP Brison dispatches letter to the chairlady of Parliament.

To the President of Parliament

The Hon. Sarah Wescott-Williams

Parliament Building

Philipsburg, Monday, April 23, 2018

Re: Serious concerns Budget 2018

Dear Madame President,

Over the past few days, I have received first the Memo from the Minister of Finance regarding the proposed schedule for budget 2018: 10/apr/2018 IS/454, the convocation to meetings this Wednesday (CC 23) regarding various crucial topics (Recovery, Waste Management and the Cyber Attacks), followed by the Central Committee meeting regarding the Budget 2018 (CC24).

Madame President, I am deeply disturbed by several issues related to the above. While I am aware that the Central Committee is Thursday and it affords me the opportunity to raise these concerns in that meeting, I feel it would be irresponsible of me to let more time pass without having these urgent items addressed before any such meeting take place.

Evaluation time of the various entities in the budgetary process

First of all, the schedule presented by the Minister of Finance has made it so that the various bodies that must review this budget have had very limited time to review. For example, in the Memo IS/454, the Minister has only allowed for 1 full business day for the council of advice to render advice on the budget. As you know, the Council had advised us recently that they try to get the most urgent requests completed within 2 weeks.

Preparation Time of Parliament

Additionally, based on the schedule, and now on the convocation for meetings, we see that the first meeting regarding the budget is scheduled for Thursday April 26th, with the budget needing to be approved on Monday May 1st, just 5 days of deliberations even if we work through the weekend and holidays (something I have no issue doing in the interest of the country). But this is after giving us just 3 days ahead of the CC24 meeting to prepare for said meeting. On top of that we have to debate 3 crucial topics Wednesday and we have to prepare for that too; these are topics absolutely crucial to the country at this stage, so I am against any further postponement of that meeting: I have no issue with high workload at all, but we want to give quality work as well to the people of St. Maarten.

Im sure you are aware that the budget is 191 pages long, is the first budget in the history of St. Maarten to have a deficit, and you may also share my opinion that this may be one of the most crucial budgets approved by our country, paramount to the recovery of this island. To have this budget schedule proceed as suggested by the Minister of Finance with the lack of preparation time would be paramount to making Parliament a Rubber Stamp.

What is also unclear is the promised deadline of May 1st that the Minister of Finance spoke of. We need clarity on this date and why it has come to this.

Budget Format far from ideal

The budget submitted in PDF form digitally is far from ideal. It is a poorly scanned document, with most of the headings illegible, and the printed version is even worse, with most of the document having many illegible headings and figures.

It is a scanned document, rather than a fully digital document. The latter format would allow us to better search through the document, confirm the formulas to check for mathematical errors or inconsistencies, and very importantly, confirm that all sub-items under the heading of the budget have been included. I know that there is a working Excel document that many civil servants have access to, I think it only practical to ensure parliament has this at our disposal as well, which with just a few mouse-clicks can be made into a Read-Only documents and sent to all members of Parliament.

As is the concern during every debate in the past: The entire budget is in Dutch. My concern is not for our faction necessarily, but more so for other MPs who are not fluent in Dutch as I am, and most importantly, the public that would like to review the document in English.

In addition, the explanatory notes are in PDF but scanned. Better to send us the original PDF which is also searchable and legible.

Questions and Requests

With the above taken into consideration Madame President, I kindly ask the following:

Regarding the review process:

 Can we ascertain the actual time the advisory bodies, council of ministers, governor and others have had to review this budget, and ensure that they feel they have had sufficient time to review this budget before president to Parliament, unaffected by the undue pressure of an unrealistic schedule hanging over them?

Regarding the deadline of May 1st:

 Why this deadline?

 Who imposed this or came up with this deadline?

 What is the authority of this entity to impose deadline on Parliament, the representatives of the people who have the constitutional mandate to approve this budget?

 Does the Minister of Finance, using the pressure of time through his proposed schedule, expect Parliament to merely rubber stamp this budget without any real deliberation, scrutiny and preparation?

Regarding the document submitted as budget 2018:

 Kindly seek your assistance in having the Minister of Finance send a fully digital version of the Budget (Excel) and the explanatory notes (Word or PDF) to allow us to better evaluate the items within the budget, search through the document (CTRL-F), as well as confirm at least the rudimentary mathematical accuracies and calculations of said budget.

 When will parliament and the public be provided with the English version of the document?

Madame President, our faction, and all my fellow MPs, have taken the oath to uphold the constitution. As we know, Article 100 and other articles of our constitution are very clear about the mandate and responsibility of Parliament in deliberating, approving, and amending the budget. Through this letter I ask you to help us have what is necessary to uphold this constitutional right as sacred, especially with a budget that has the future of St. Maarten and the recovery of this country in its peripheral.

I thank you very much for your urgent attention in this matter, as the proposed meeting is just days away.

Sincerely,

Rolando Brison

Member of Parliament

USP Faction
~ Minister of VROMI and Prosecutor fully informed.~

PHILIPSBURG: --- The United Tenants Association (UTA) representatives of all tenants that are renting from the St. Maarten Housing Development Foundation (SMHDF) accused the Vice President of BHOTA Benjamin Kelly of fraud.

The UTA members said they met with the current Minister of VROMI Miklos Giterson where they informed him of the illegalities. UTA also provided the Minister with evidence they accumulated but to date they said the Minister did not address the matter, or even respond to their concerns. They also provided Giterson with proof that shows that the UTA is representing 300 tenants that are residing at Belvedere, Union Farm, Hope Estate, Foga, The Keys, Cole Bay and South Reward.

Ramesis Jamaloodin provided SMN News with a number of documents including excerpts from the Chamber of Commerce that shows that Barbara Cornet and Benjamin Kelly are members and treasurer of the BHOTA yet they are signing letters that was sent to the SMHDF as the President and Vice President. Besides the alleged fraud the UTA said that BHOTA is acting illegally and not in accordance with their own articles of incorporation that states that must have at least nine board members to function or an odd number. So far BHOTA only has two members.

The members of UTA also provided letters they sent to the Prosecutors Office and the Minister of VROMI Miklos Giterson. The UTA also informed the Supervisory and Management Board of the SMHDF whom they said are fully aware that BHOTA does not exists and they do not represent tenants of SMHDF. BHOTA is a registered foundation but have been inactive for years.

UTA board members said that they intend to take everyone to court if justice is not done because the Dutch law clearly forbids fraud especially when it is committed by a civil servant that are functioning on boards of government organization. They said they intend to take the chairman of the Supervisory Board Antonio Brown to court since he is fully aware of the fraudulent documents.

Besides the Chamber of Commerce excerpts and letters written by Kelly and Cornet UTA provided several newspaper articles that showed that Kelly had resigned from BHOTA in 2016.

SMHDF board and management bought new vehicles instead of repairing homes.

UTA members said that they are unable to fully represent their membership because the former Minister of VROMI appointed Benjamin Kelly to the Supervisory Board even though he also knew that BHOTA was not active. Jamaloodin said that several of the homes in all locations that SMHDF manages are damaged and to date SMHDF is not making any effort to conduct the repairs. They said that SMHDF claim they do not have money for the repairs but they chose to purchase new vehicles after the passing of hurricane Irma.

Residents living in the social homes are living in deplorable conditions yet the technical director and chairman of the Supervisory Board SMHDF have new vehicles and 8 months after the passing of hurricane Irma and Maria the residents renting from SMHDF have not heard one word from their landlords. Its raining these past days and families have to deal with leaking roofs while the 2018 hurricane season is approaching.

Another concern we have is having people that are not interested in maintaining the homes they are renting but manage finances that will be provided by the recovery funds whenever it reaches St. Maarten.
PHILIPSBURG:--- Police is busy investigating the shooting death of a Jamaican national who was shot to death in his vehicle on Gibbs Drive Dutch Quarter.

Residents of Gibbs Drive said the victim does not live in the area and it appear to them that the dead man was trying to escape from his killers but somehow they caught up with him while going up Gibbs Drive.

Police Spokesman Ricardo Henson confirmed that someone was shot to death in Gibbs Drive and that Police are busy investigating. As soon as more information becomes available this article will be updated.

Man shot to death

On Tuesday April 24th at approximately 03.45 p.m. police patrols, paramedics, detectives and forensic investigators were directed to Gibbs drive in Dutch Quarter where a shooting was reported. On the scene the investigating officers encountered a male victim who was bleeding from multiple gunshots wounds to his upper body. The victim was lying on the ground next to a car which he was driving when the shooting occurred. Paramedics who arrived on the scene treated the victim and immediately transported him in very serious condition to the Sint Maarten Medical Center. The crime scene was immediately cordoned-off by police for the forensic department to collect evidence and the detectives to interview potential witnesses. Shortly after the Police department received notice from the medical center that the victim had passed from the wounds he sustained. The identity of the victim has not yet been established and the person or persons responsible for the shooting have not yet been identified or arrested. No further details to this investigation are available at this time. As more information becomes available the media will be informed.

In the meantime the Police department is asking anyone who saw what happened before, during or after this shooting to immediately get in contact with the Police Department by calling the emergency number 911, 54-22222 ext 215 and 216. Your assistance in helping to solve this case is highly appreciated.

KPSM Press Release
Serious injuries caused to 3 occupants of the SUV after accident at Lincoln and Colorado

Earlier today, Santa Monica Police Department (SMPD) Traffic Investigators filed charges on a suspect involved in a traffic collision involving a vehicle and a Metro Expo Line train. The suspect is identified as Anthony Manuel Beltran Sr., a 54-year old male from Waterford, Connecticut. The charges were filed with the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office - Airport Division.

AdvertisementOn April 18, 2018 at about 12:23 a.m., officers responded to a radio call for service regarding a traffic collision involving a vehicle and a Metro Expo Line Train at Lincoln Blvd and Colorado Avenue. The three occupants of the vehicle suffered significant injuries requiring transportation to a local hospital for treatment. One of the passengers of the vehicle remains hospitalized in critical condition.

A preliminary investigation by SMPD's Major Accident Response Team revealed the train was travelling west approaching Lincoln Blvd as a vehicle travelling north on Lincoln Blvd ran a red light causing the collision. Investigators determined a contributing factor to the collision appears to be that the driver of the vehicle was driving under the influence of alcohol. Beltran (driver) was placed under arrest and booked after he was treated at the hospital.

Beltran has been charged with 23153(a) CVC  Driving Under the Influence-Injury Involved; 273a (a) PC  Child Endangerment-Serious Injury; and 25658(a) B&P  Furnishing Alcohol to a Minor. Beltran remains in custody with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office on a $ 410,000.00 bail pending future court proceedings.

This investigation is on-going. Anyone with additional information is encouraged to contact Investigators Pace or Olson at (310) 458-8954; or the Santa Monica Police Department at (310) 458-8491.
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Five things to know about Greenland



Copenhagen, April 24 (AFP) Apr 24, 2018



Greenland goes to the polls Tuesday to elect members to its local parliament, where full independence from colonial master Denmark as well as fishing and investment in infrastructure have been the main campaign issues.

Here are five things to know about this autonomous territory located between the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans.



- Ice-covered 'Green earth' -



The name "Greenland" is puzzling as the two million square kilometre island, the second largest in the world after Australia, has three quarters bordering the Arctic Ocean and is 85 percent covered in ice.

Greenland was a Danish colony until 1953, when it became part of the Danish Realm.

In 1979, it gained "autonomous territory" status. Today, the island's economy depends heavily on subsidies paid by Copenhagen.

Its 55,000 inhabitants -- of whom 15,000 reside in the capital Nuuk -- are more than 90 percent Inuit, an indigenous group from Central Asia.







- At the heart of global warming -



This massive territory is on the front line of melting Arctic ice in a region that is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet.

According to the World Meteorological Organization, Greenland's ocean levels continue to rise by about 3.3 millimetres per year.

This phenomenon appears to be accelerating: sea levels have jumped by 25 to 30 percent faster between 2004 and 2015, compared with the 1993-2004 period.

The melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet accounts for 25 percent of this rise, up from five percent 20 years ago. And this is likely to increase as glaciers and ice caps melt.

If Greenland's ice sheet was to disappear completely, it would raise the ocean level by seven metres.



- Rich soil -



Greenland's ice melt strangely has a silver lining.

Melting glaciers unveil mineral-rich rock flour that could be used, for example, as fertilisers for dry soils in Africa and South America.

However, this substance infuriates the Greenlanders has it shuts off access to the fjords.

Greenland's subsoil is also rich in rubies and uranium which could attract foreign investment.



- Lack of roads -



As roads stretch only about 150 kilometres (93 miles) on the island, the area barely counts 2,500 car registrations which are mainly in the capital.

Most trips are made by boat, planes or sled dogs.

And the use of trains is out of the question as the island does not have a railroad network or even waterways to help reach other sides of the territory.

These conditions make travelling difficult between cities in the least densely populated territory on Earth, which stretches around 2,000 kilometres from the northwestern US Thule airbase to the southernmost harbour of Qaqortoq.



- 400-year-old sharks -



Greenland sharks are the Earth's longest-lived vertebrates -- or creatures with a spine -- with a lifespan that can last as long as 400 years and with an average lifespan of 272 years.

Their slow growth rate -- about one centimetre per year -- contributes to their exceptionally long lives, beating out other well-known centenarians of the animal world such as the bowhead whale and the Galapagos tortoise.

They also take a very long time to reach sexual maturity -- about 150 years.

Only one species of clam is known to live longer, the ocean quahog (Arctica islandica, 507 years), according to a study in the journal Science.

The two largest sharks studied, measuring around five metres (16 feet) in length, were estimated to be roughly 335 and 392 years old.
SK Hynix posts big jump in Q1 net profit



Seoul, April 24 (AFP) Apr 24, 2018



South Korea's SK Hynix, the world's second-largest memory chip maker, on Tuesday announced a big jump in first-quarter net profit thanks to strong global demand.

Net profit surged 64 percent year-on-year to 3.1 trillion won ($2.9 billion) in the three months to March, its second-best performance following the previous quarter's 3.22 trillion won.

"Favourable prices were maintained in the first quarter even if it is a low season" for the industry, the company said in a statement.

Shipment of DRAM products fell five percent from the previous quarter but their average price rose nine percent from three months earlier.

Shipment of NAND flash products fell 10 percent on-quarter, with prices edging down one percent.

The company said global demand for DRAM chips was likely to remain strong throughout this year, with internet data centres expanding facilities worldwide.

"Despite the industry's efforts to introduce new production methods and increase shipments, supply will remain insufficient," it said.

SK Hynix will complete a new factory in Cheongju in South Korea and expand its Chinese lines to cope with the rising demand.

Operating profit jumped 77 percent year-on-year to 4.36 trillion won, while sales rose 39 percent to 8.72 trillion won.
Microplastics in Arctic sea ice - 'nowhere is immune'



Paris, April 24 (AFP) Apr 24, 2018



Researchers warned Tuesday of a "troubling" accumulation of microplastics in sea ice floating in the Arctic ocean, a major potential source of water pollution as global warming melts the sheets of frozen water.

A team from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) found 17 different plastic types in ice samples gathered during three Arctic expeditions on board the research icebreaker Polarstern in 2014 and 2015.

They included plastic from shopping bags and food packaging, from ship paint, fishing nets, nylon and polyester found in synthetic fabrics, and cigarette filters.

One sample contained the highest concentration of microplastics ever found in sea ice -- up to 12,000 particles per litre of frozen water.

This was two- to three times higher than any past measurement, the research team wrote in the journal Nature Communications.

The discovery suggests microplastics "are now ubiquitous within the surface waters of the world's ocean," sea ice physicist Jeremy Wilkinson of the British Antarctic Survey said in a comment on the study.

"Nowhere is immune," he said via the Science Media Centre in London.

Sea ice grows from the freezing of seawater directly underneath the existing ice, thus incorporating floating microplastics as it grows downward, he explained.

This means the plastics were present as the ice was growing, and drifting, in the Arctic Ocean.

Of particular concern was the particles' small size.

Some were only 11 micrometres across -- about a sixth the diameter of a human hair, the team said. A micrometre is a millionth of a metre.

This "means they could easily be ingested by Arctic micro-organisms" such as small crustaceans on which fish feed," said study coauthor Ilka Peeken, an AWI biologist.



- What's the harm? -



"No-one can say for certain how harmful these tiny plastic particles are for marine life, or ultimately also for human beings," she said.

Micro-plastics are less than five millimetres (0,2 inches) long, about the size of a sesame seed.

They come in the form of "micro-beads" used in face scrubs and toothpaste, or are created when larger pieces are degraded by the Sun, temperature changes, mechanic abrasion, or ocean wave action.

The contribution of microplastics to the headache of ocean pollution is unclear.

According to environmental group WWF, 8.8 million tonnes of plastic enters the oceans every year, the equivalent of a garbage truck dumping a full load every minute.

On current trends, warns the UN, there will be more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050.

For the study, Peeken and a team used a spectrometer to bombard the ice cores with infrared light. They analysed the radiation reflected by the plastic pieces to determine their likely origins.

Samples from the Canada Basin, fed by water from the northeast Pacific via the Bering Strait, were high in polyethylene used in packaging material, leading the authors to conclude these particles came mainly from the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch -- a swirling plastic dump in the ocean now bigger than France, Germany and Spain combined.

Others were rich in particles from paint and varnish used on ships, while nylon bits from fish nets were "found frequently in almost all sea ice cores."

"Fisheries accounts for a major share of the ship traffic in the Arctic Ocean and continuous reduction of sea ice is assumed to increase fisheries further, particularly in the high Arctic," wrote the team.

The sea ice binds the particles for between two and 11 years, said the researchers.

This is the time it takes for the sheets to travel southward from the seas of Siberia and the North American Arctic to the Fram Strait between Greenland and Norway, where they melt while new ones are formed in the north -- a cycle accelerated by global warming.

"The melting of multi-year sea ice exacerbated by climate change could reasonably lead to the release into the water column of large amounts of plastics stored in the Arctic sea ice cover," Newcastle University oceanographer Miguel Angel Morales Maqueda said in another comment.

What happens to it then, is unclear -- do the particles remain in the Arctic, are they transported to waters further south, or do they sink?

Other studies have recently warned that humans are ingesting microplastics in shellfish, tap water and bottled water.

The health risks remain unclear.
Scientist in Facebook data scandal says being scapegoated



London, April 24 (AFP) Apr 24, 2018



The academic behind the app that allowed consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to farm the data of some 87 million Facebook users said Tuesday he was being scapegoated while the social network was being "mined left and right by thousands" of companies.

Aleksandr Kogan, who teaches at Cambridge University, told a British parliamentary committee that criticism of his work by Facebook showed the US social media giant was in "PR crisis mode".

"I don't believe they actually think these things because I think they realise that their platform has been mined left and right by thousands of others," said the Russian-American scientist, who is now banned from Facebook.

"I was just the unlucky person that ended up somehow linked to the Trump campaign. It's convenient to point the finger at a single entity," he said, playing down his own work as of little political value.

Kogan created a personality prediction app through his company Global Science Research (GSR), which offered a small financial payment in return for users filling out a personality test.

Facebook says it was downloaded by 270,000 people, but it also gave Kogan access to their friends, giving him a wealth of information on 90 million users, according to the social media giant's boss Mark Zuckerberg.

The data was sold to Cambridge Analytica's parent company. Cambridge Analytica went on to work on Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

However, Kogan told MPs on Tuesday that the data was too imprecise to build up accurate profiles that could be used to effectively target political Facebook ads.

"One of the biggest points of confusion has been how accurate the personality scores we provided to SCL (CA's parent company) were," he said.

"The scores were highly inaccurate. We found that the scores were more accurate than a random guess, but less accurate than assuming everyone is average on every trait."

Facebook's own tools "provide companies a far more effective pathway to target people based on their personalities than using scores from users from our work," he added.

Kogan said that CA assured him that what he was doing was "perfectly legal and within the terms of service" of the social media giant.

CA's former chief executive Alexander Nix has denied using data collected by GSR, but Kogan called the claim "a fabrication".



- 'No Bond villain' -



Clarence Mitchell, a CA spokesman told a press conference Tuesday that Kogan's data "was shown to be virtually useless in that it was only just above random guessing".

He reiterated CA did not use any of it on the Trump campaign and had broken no laws, while mistakes had been acknowledged.

"The company has been portrayed in some quarters as almost some Bond villain," he said.

"Cambridge Analytica is no Bond villain."

Kogan also accused Facebook of feigning ignorance of how their users' data was being used, saying it was "well documented that Facebook collaborates with researchers.

"They gave me the data set without any agreement signed," he explained. "Sometime later they came and we did have a signed agreement."

When asked why Facebook would be so accommodating, Kogan replied that "this was something they gave their employees to stimulate them."

Committee chairman Damien Collins asked if that meant Facebook let its employees give data to academics "and let them play with it?", to which Kogan responded; "Yes".

The scientist claimed in an earlier interview that "tens of thousands" of apps will have taken advantage of Facebook data rules.

It was, however, not part of Facebook's terms for Kogan to sell data.

Born in Moldova and raised in Russia, before emigrating to the United States at the age of seven, Kogan studied at the University of California, Berkeley, and obtained his doctorate at the University of Hong Kong.

He joined the University of Cambridge's Department of Psychology as a lecturer in 2012.

He has also conducted work funded by the Russian government with St Petersburg University, but said that was irrelevant to the Facebook scandal.

The scientist also goes by the name Aleksandr Spectre, which he took when he married his Singaporean bride.

When an MP pointed out that the name was also the evil organisation in James Bond films, Kogan said this was just an "unfortunate coincidence".

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Independence dilemma for Greenland voters



Copenhagen, April 24 (AFP) Apr 24, 2018



Greenland's tiny electorate went to the polls Tuesday with independence the key issue for the vast self-ruled Danish territory now threatened by global warming and struggling with youth suicides and sex abuse among its indigenous people.

Rich in natural resources, Greenland gained autonomy from Denmark in 1979 and was granted self-rule in 2009, although Copenhagen retains control of foreign and defence affairs.

The giant ice-covered island between the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans is home to just 55,000 people.

Denmark provides some 3.6 billion kroner (483 million euros, $591 million) in subsidies each year, equivalent to 60 percent of the budget and which would be cut if Greenland opted for full independence.

So the main issue is when and how to break the Danish link without impoverishing the island.

A gross domestic product of $2.2 billion, according to figures for 2015, puts Greenland in the same economic league as San Marino.

Of the seven political parties, six favour independence. Some are keen to declare independence by 2021 to coincide with the 300th anniversary of Denmark's occupation though most have not set a timeline.

Opinion polls suggest the left-green Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA) party will win Tuesday's election, where 31 seats in the local parliament are up for grabs.

A poll published Friday gave IA with 31 percent of votes, ahead of its main rival, the social democratic Siumut party which has dominated Greenland politics since 1979 and is currently in power.

Seen garnering 27.4 percent of votes, Siumut could find itself relegated to the opposition -- though one in four voters is still undecided.

The two parties are at odds over the use of the island's lucrative natural resources and the thorny issue of uranium mining, which IA, with strong support among urban youth, opposes.

Meanwhile, polls show the newly-formed Cooperation Party, the only anti-independence party, with around 2.9 percent of votes.

Aaja Chemnitz Larsen, a lawmaker for IA, told AFP that before setting a timeline for independence, the island should first lay the financial groundwork.

"Foreign investments are going to be crucial when you talk about the development of Greenlandic society," she said.

Her party wants to see a diversification of investments, as rising temperatures in the Arctic melt Greenland's ice sheet, exposing mineral riches -- and drawing eager glances from the West, Russia and China.



- Economic assets -



"Economic development the last (few) years has been rather good; the fishing industry has been doing quite well ... Employment has been increasing and unemployment is low," said Torben Andersen, Aarhus University economics professor and chairman of the Greenland Economic Council.

Fishing, which accounts for 90 percent of Greenland's exports, is benefiting from climate change as rising temperatures bring new species to fish to its waters but that is likely to change over time.

While Greenland may have a wealth of untapped natural resources that could help finance its independence, "it suffers from a lack of infrastructure and a qualified labour shortage," said Mikaa Mered, an Arctic expert and economics and geopolitics professor at France's School of International Relations.



- Social woes -



Heidi Moller Isaksen, a 51-year-old secretary who lives in the capital Nuuk, said breaking free from Denmark is a long-term goal.

"I do want independence one day but we've got to be realistic and take one step at a time," she told AFP.

"We can never have independence as long as we have so many social problems."

The Inuit like other indigenous populations are torn between tradition and modernisation.

That tension has led to Greenland having one of the world's highest suicide rates, and a third of children are victims of sexual abuse.

In addition, global warming has sparked an exodus from isolated villages to the few urban areas, said Mered.

It is "wreaking havoc on Greenland's culture: young people are losing interest in traditional hunting and fishing, it's difficult to travel by dogsled from one village to another, and wild animals are moving further and further away from the regular hunting grounds," he said.

All of this leads to "numerous new problems, such as youth suicides."

Voter turnout is typically high in Greenland at around 70 percent. The polls close at 2200 GMT.

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Yemen rebels vow to avenge coalition killing of political head



Sanaa, April 23 (AFP) Apr 23, 2018



Yemen's Huthi militias vowed Monday to avenge the killing of their top political leader in what they said was a Saudi-led coalition air strike, the highest-ranking rebel to die in the three-year conflict.

Saleh al-Sammad, head of the Huthis' supreme political council, was "martyred" last Thursday in the eastern province of Hodeida, the Iran-allied rebels said via their Saba news agency.

Sammad's death is a major blow to the Shiite rebels who have been fighting forces of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi backed by a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia.

The most senior rebel to have been killed since the coalition intervened in March 2015, his name was on a Saudi list of 40 Huthi leaders that put bounties on their heads totalling $440 million.

The rebels named Sammad's successor as Mehdi Hussein al-Mashat.

"This crime won't go unanswered," said the Huthis' overall leader, Abdul Malek al-Huthi, adding that six other people were killed in the same raid.

The news came hours after officials in Yemen said dozens of people were killed and wounded in an air raid on a wedding party in the country on Sunday, in another attack the Huthis blamed on the coalition.

Medical sources and local officials put the number of dead between 22 and 33, with at least 40 to 50 wounded, while the circumstances of the raid remained unclear.

Doctors Without Borders tweeted that a hospital it supports in Hajjah received at least 65 patients, including at least 13 children, wounded in the air strikes, which it said were "among the most devastating in the area in recent months".



- Iran denounces 'invaders' -



Rescue teams said the wedding was being held in the Huthi-controlled Bani Qais area of Hajjah province, north of Sanaa, when jets carried out the raid.

A local official said at least 23 civilians, including women and children, were killed.

The official, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said a double air strike on the venue had left a number of bodies buried beneath the rubble.

Huthi-run television said at least 33 people, including women and children, were killed and as many as 55 people wounded.

The coalition's spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki said they were following media reports of the bombing, and will investigate the allegations.

Iran, which is accused of supplying arms to the Huthis, swiftly condemned the raid.

"The escalated bombardment of residential areas proves the desperation and inability of the invaders in achieving their goals," foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said.

Also on Monday, the coalition said it downed two new ballistic missiles fired by the Huthis, who claimed to target facilities belonging to the kingdom's oil giant Aramco in southern Jizan city.

The coalition reported no damage or loss of life from the strikes, the latest in a string of bombardments on Saudi Arabia by the Huthis.

Saudi forces said they intercepted a rebel ballistic missile targeting its southern border city of Najran on Sunday, which set a farm ablaze, after another aimed at Jizan was shot down on Friday.



- 'Year of ballistics' -



At the beginning of April, Huthi political head Sammad dubbed 2018 "the year of ballistics", referring to cross-border missile attacks.

Sunday's deadly strike in Hajjah was one of a series to have struck weddings in Yemen's conflict, which has killed nearly 10,000 people and wounded 54,000 others since March 2015.

In late 2015, coalition air strikes on two wedding parties in northern Yemen killed at least 159 civilians.

Violence has also hit funerals. In October 2016, 140 mourners were killed in an air strike on a house in Sanaa.

Elsewhere in Yemen on Monday, five pro-government soldiers were killed and 19 wounded in clashes with jihadists in the southern city of Taez, medics said.

Fighting in the city's Jahmaliah district came after the governor of Taez launched an operation against jihadists he suspected were behind the murder of a Red Cross aid worker over the weekend.

The Lebanese aid worker, Hanna Lahoud, was shot dead in Taez on Saturday by unidentified assailants who sprayed his Red Cross vehicle with bullets.

President Hadi's government was driven out of Sanaa in 2014 by the Huthis, who still control the capital and much of northern Yemen.

Nearly 10,000 people have been killed since the coalition's intervention three years ago, triggering what the UN has called the world's largest humanitarian crisis.

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Previous inter-Korean summits: Sunshine and scandal



Seoul, April 24 (AFP) Apr 24, 2018



North and South Korea will on Friday hold only their third summit since the end of the Korean War, with Pyongyang's nuclear arsenal and a peace treaty to formally end the conflict on the agenda.

The meeting comes ahead of an expected but unprecedented encounter between Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump.

Here is a summary of what happened at the two earlier summits, both of them in Pyongyang:



- June 2000 -



The first inter-Korean summit nudged the two Koreas away from Cold War confrontation towards reconciliation and exchange.

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il surprised the world with a rare foray into the international spotlight by going to the airport to personally greet the South's president Kim Dae-jung, in emotional scenes broadcast live in the South.

Hundreds of thousands of people, women wearing colourful traditional robes known as hanbok in the South and joseon-ot in the North, men in suits and ties, all waving red and pink paper flowers, lined the streets to give Kim Dae-jung a carefully stage-managed hero's welcome.

"I am happy to see you, I have wanted to for a long time," the visitor told his host.

"We are the same Chosun (Korean) people," said Kim Jong Il.

On a shared limousine ride, Kim Dae-jung later wrote in his memoirs, Kim Jong Il asked him: "Are you scared to come to the North?"

During the three-day visit, the pair signed an accord on reducing tensions and boosting efforts for reunification, including moving towards a permanent peace on the Korean peninsula -- which has remained technically at war since the 1953 ceasefire -- and bringing together divided families.

At a farewell lunch, the two leaders joined hands to sing "Our Wish Is Unification".

The meeting was applauded by world leaders, with the United States hailing a "new day of hope".

But while the summit helped earn Kim Dae-jung a Nobel Peace Prize, it later emerged up to $500 million had been paid secretly to North Korea just before the meeting via the Hyundai business group, with critics denouncing what they called a "cash-for-summit" scandal.

Hyundai had various projects in the North including tours to the scenic Mount Kumgang, but they came to a halt in 2008 when a South Korean tourist was shot dead after stumbling into an off-limits military zone.

The Seoul-invested Kaesong industrial park was shut down in 2016 after the North's fourth nuclear test.



- October 2007 -



The second summit came amid an upbeat mood in six-nation negotiations over North Korea's nuclear disarmament, despite its first nuclear test a year earlier.

In a highly symbolic gesture, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun walked some 30 metres across the heavily fortified border before returning to his motorcade to carry on to Pyongyang.

The frontier "has divided the nation for half a century. It has caused enormous pain to our nation and hampered development," he said in comments televised worldwide.

Roh said later that he was unable to sleep on his first night in Pyongyang as he felt "formidable differences in thought" with the North.

"I was not sure whether we could agree on a single point," he added.

But the two leaders signed a declaration calling for a nuclear-free peninsula and a permanent peace pact between the two Koreas.

"The South and North will not take a hostile stance towards each other and will reduce military tension and resolve issues of conflict through dialogue and negotiation," the declaration said.

They agreed to step up trade, travel and political exchanges, and to hold summits frequently in future.

At the end of the meeting, Kim shook hands and clinked champagne glasses with Roh, who was visibly upbeat and planted a tree before he left Pyongyang.

International reaction was more lukewarm than after the first summit, with the United States saying that Korean peace hinged on the North's agreement to dismantle its nuclear weapons programme.

The South's Sunshine Policy of engaging with the North came to an end when the conservative Lee Myung-bak came to power the following year, and in 2009 the North walked out of the Six-Party Talks before carrying out its second nuclear test.

Kim died in 2011 and was succeeded by his son Kim Jong Un, who oversaw a rapid acceleration in the progress of its nuclear and missile technology -- accompanied by increasingly strong sanctions by the UN Security Council and others -- with tensions mounting until the rapprochement triggered by this year's Winter Olympics in the South.

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Chinese carrier leads live fire drill in East China Sea



Beijing, April 24 (AFP) Apr 24, 2018



China's sole aircraft carrier has led a flotilla of naval vessels in a "live combat drill" in the East China Sea, state media reported Tuesday, the latest show of force by Beijing's burgeoning navy.

The official Xinhua news agency said the vessels "took part in anti-aircraft and anti-submarine warfare training" with a simulated "opposing force".

Xinhua said the drill, which took place on Sunday, included multiple take-offs from the deck of the Liaoning aircraft carrier by J-15 fighter jets and that "anti-air missiles were fired from ships surrounding the carrier".

The manoeuvre occurred in the East China Sea, though the report did not give an exact location.

The sea is home to uninhabited islets at the centre of a festering row between Tokyo and Beijing. The Japanese government has long complained about China's routine dispatch of coast guard ships to waters surrounding the islands.

The presence of a naval convoy carrying out live fire drills in the East China Sea could anger Tokyo.

The Liaoning is a refurbished Cold War-era aircraft carrier that was bought from Ukraine and commissioned in 2012.

It has been on a high-visibility tour in recent weeks, carrying out a series of muscle-flexing drills accompanied by a flotilla of support ships, including destroyers.

Earlier this month, Chinese President Xi Jinping inspected the convoy as it conducted exercises in the disputed South China Sea.

Beijing asserts sovereignty over almost all of the resource-rich waterway, building an archipelago of artificial islands there capable of hosting military equipment, despite rival claims from several of its Southeast Asian neighbours.

The flotilla then held two separate drills last week in waters on either side of Taiwan, infuriating the government in Taipei.

China sees democratically-governed Taiwan as a renegade part of its territory to be brought back into the fold and has not ruled out reunification by force.

The Liaoning is the pride of China's rapidly expanding navy, with Beijing determined to become a major global naval power, particularly in the Pacific.

The state-run Global Times newspaper said China's first home-made carrier started moving from its berth on Monday as it prepares for its first sea trial, while a third, more advanced model is under construction in a Shanghai shipyard.

China's chief Pacific rival the United States currently boasts 11 operating aircraft carriers and two more currently under construction.
Dinner over, Trump and France's Macron get down to business



Washington, April 24 (AFP) Apr 24, 2018



After a friendly dinner at a US landmark, US President Donald Trump and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron were to get down to business Tuesday on divisive issues like the Iran nuclear accord and international trade.

They were to meet face to face for half an hour, and then again for an hour in a broader meeting with more aides -- the climax of of Macron's three-day state visit to Washington.

Before getting the full red carpet treatment at the White House on Monday -- payback for wooing Trump with military parades and a dazzling Eiffel Tower dinner in Paris last July -- Macron took an impromptu stroll to the Lincoln Memorial with his wife Brigitte.

Hailing the "very important" visit, Macron then rolled into the West Wing from Lafayette Square -- named after the storied French general who fought in America's war for independence -- beneath dozens of fluttering tricolor French flags and before a full US military color guard.

Waiting at the door, the US president smiled and held out his hand for Macron to shake, and the French leader kissed him on both cheeks.

Later, the first couples had dinner at Mount Vernon, the mansion that was the home of George Washington, the first US president.

They talked about the state of the US economy, Trump's approval rating, the mid-term elections in November in the US, internet regulation and the fight against Islamist terror, according to the French leader's office.

Trump is deeply unpopular in France and Macron, like other world leaders -- from Japan's Shinzo Abe to Britain's Theresa May -- is under growing pressure to show voters the benefits of his courtship with the 71-year-old Republican.

Looming over it all are two May deadlines that have the potential to wreck already fragile trans-Atlantic relations.



- War 'against everybody... doesn't work' -



Biting trade sanctions on European steel and aluminum will enter into force on May 1 unless Trump agrees to sign a waiver. If he refuses, there are fears of a full-fledged trade war.

Meanwhile, France and other European nations are battling to save a complex nuclear deal with Iran, which Trump will scuttle if he refuses to waive sanctions against Tehran by a May 12 deadline.

Iran says it is ready to relaunch its nuclear program -- which the West suspects is designed to produce a bomb -- if Trump kills the deal.

European officials say Trump's demand to reopen the deal are impossible, and are scrambling to address his concerns on Tehran's missile testing, inspections and the regime's behavior in the region.

There is growing frustration in European capitals that Trump's stubbornness over the Obama-era agreement is diverting attention away from other pressing issues.

In an interview broadcast on the eve of his arrival, Macron went on Trump's favorite television channel, Fox News, to make his pitch.

"If you make war against everybody," Macron said, "trade war against Europe, war in Syria, war against Iran - come on -- it doesn't work. You need allies. We are the allies."

Macron will also be keen to temper Trump's instinct to precipitously pull the US military out of Syria, amid cooperation in fighting the Islamic State group and coordinated strikes on chemical weapons installations operated by Damascus.

"I think the US role is very important to play," he said.

"Why? I will be very blunt. The day we will have finished this war against ISIS, if we leave, definitely and totally, even from a political point of view, we will leave the floor to the Iranian regime, Bashar al-Assad and these guys."



- 'Now - we will work together' -



In public, both countries are keen to emphasize their historic relationship -- recalling that France was the first ally of American revolutionaries fighting for independence.

Macron brought with him an oak sapling that he and Trump planted at the White House on Monday as a symbol of friendship.

It comes from near the site of the Battle of Belleau Woods in northern France, where 2,000 US Marines perished at the end of World War I.

The pair, clearly relaxed, also briefly visited the Oval Office before heading to Mount Vernon.

On a personal level, despite sharp differences in political background, age and lifestyle, the presidents seem to have struck up a bond as fellow outsiders who outwitted the establishment to gain power.

"We have a very special relationship because both of us are probably the maverick of the systems on both sides," Macron told Fox News.

Trump himself told Macron their "friendship" was "unbreakable" during his trip to Paris last year.

When asked about their first encounter -- a much-scrutinized six-second handshake during a NATO summit in May -- Macron acknowledged it had was a "very direct, lucid moment" that had set the tone between them.

"And a very friendly moment," he added. "It was to say now, we will work together."

On Wednesday, the centrist leader will demonstrate his English-language skills -- a rarity for a French president -- in an address to a joint session of Congress.
Russia, China call on UN nuclear forum to save Iran deal



Geneva, April 24 (AFP) Apr 24, 2018



Russia on Tuesday urged a United Nations nuclear disarmament forum to show its support for the "fragile" Iran nuclear accord by signing onto a statement, co-written by China, backing the deal.

The head of the arms control unit at Russia's foreign ministry, Vladimir Yermakov, called on UN members to not "keep silence in hope that the situation will somehow blow over".

Addressing the preliminary review meeting of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Yermakov described the landmark 2015 Iran nuclear agreement as "quite a fragile compromise".

US President Donald Trump has fiercely criticised the complex deal and has threatened to ditch it completely if the signatories do not sign up to tougher measures against Iran.

The president is supposed to waive US sanctions against Tehran by a May 12 deadline to keep the agreement alive but if he refuses to do so, it may unravel.

Russia and China, both supporters of the pact known as the Joint Comprehensive Action Plan (JCPOA), drafted a statement affirming their "unwavering support for the comprehensive and effective implementation" of the deal.

Yermakov urged all nations at the UN nuclear meeting to sign on.

"We believe there is a demand for such a collective message by the (meeting) and hope that the document will find broad support," he said.

The Russian official then took a thinly veiled shot at Trump's call to renegotiate the JCPOA in hopes of securing tougher terms.

"Any attempts to amend (the) text for someone's benefit will inevitably... have powerful negative consequences for regional global stability and security," Yermakov said.



- No renegotiation -



In his own speech to the forum, Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency Reza Najafi took on Trump directly, rejecting what he described as Washington's "ultimatum to certain JCPOA participants for one-sided alterations of the deal's provisions".

"Our response to that threat is clear and firm: No, the JCPOA will not be renegotiated or altered," Najafi said, echoing a stance adopted by Tehran after Trump first raised the prospects of re-visiting a pact negotiated by his predecessor Barack Obama.

The joint Russia-China text was introduced at the UN meeting after Moscow's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov vowed in Beijing Monday that China and Russia would block any attempts to "sabotage" the Iran nuclear agreement.

During a first day of discussions on the NPT in Geneva Monday, a long line of speakers had voiced their support for the Iran deal, including the UN's top representative for disarmament affairs Izumi Nakamitsu.

European leaders are also scrambling to the save the deal.

French President Emmanuel Macron is in Washington this week lobbying Trump to preserve the pact, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel due in the US capital on Friday.
German woman who joined IS spared death sentence in Iraq



Berlin, April 24 (AFP) Apr 24, 2018



An Iraqi court has lifted the death penalty handed to a German woman for belonging to the Islamic State jihadist group, sentencing her to life in prison instead, German foreign ministry sources said Tuesday.

The German woman of Moroccan origin, identified by German media as Lamia K., was condemned to death by hanging in January for providing "logistical support and helping the terrorist group to carry out crimes".

"The foreign ministry confirms that the death penalty against a German citizen in Iraq was commuted to a life sentence. The verdict is not yet final," a ministry source told AFP.

The woman continues to receive consular assistance from the German embassy in Baghdad, the source added.

Lamia K. left Germany with her two daughters in 2014 to join IS.

One of the daughters was killed while with the jihadists, a judicial source told AFP.

Lamia K. and her other daughter were arrested by Iraqi forces during the final stages of the battle to oust IS from its stronghold Mosul last July.

According to German news agency DPA, the commutation of her death penalty comes after Lamia K. appealed the verdict. An Iraqi life sentence usually translates to 20 years in jail, or 15 years with good behaviour, DPA added.

While hundreds of foreign suspected jihadists are being held by Iraqi authorities, Lamia K. was believed to have been the first European woman sentenced to death in the country for links to IS.

Her surviving daughter, in her early 20s, was given a one-year jail term for illegal entry into Iraq, Die Welt daily reported.

In February, a 17-year-old German teenager was sentenced to six years in prison for membership of IS and illegally crossing into Iraq.

Iraqi authorities announced the defeat of IS last December after a gruelling three-year battle.
Israel warns of attack if Russia air defences used in Syria



Jerusalem, April 24 (AFP) Apr 24, 2018



Israel's Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Tuesday that his country would attack Russian S-300 air defence systems in Syria if they were used against Israeli targets.

His remarks came a day after the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported that Moscow could soon start to deliver S-300 systems to its ally Damascus, and cited a source as warning of "catastrophic" consequences if they were attacked.

"What's important to us is that the defensive weapons the Russians are giving Syria won't be used against us," Lieberman told the news website Ynet.

"If they're used against us, we'll act against them."

Russia and Syria signed an accord in 2010 for the S-300 system but the missiles have not been delivered because of Israeli pressure, according to Kommersant.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier this month that no decision had yet been taken on the S-300 missiles.

The Russians have deployed the S-300 around their own Tartus naval base on Syria's Mediterranean coast and the more advanced S-400 at their Hmeimim air base in western Syria.

"We have an open line; we really do have discourse" with the Russians, said Lieberman, noting that their systems had never been used against Israel.

"For several years we've been constantly in coordination and able to avoid friction with the Russians."

Israel and Syria are still technically at war, though the armistice line on the sector of the Golan Heights which the Jewish state seized from its Arab neighbour in 1967 was largely quiet for decades until the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011.

The Israeli side of the Golan has since seen regular spillover fire, and Israel has carried out dozens of air strikes on Syrian armed forces and their allies.

Israel says its strikes aim to stop advanced weapons deliveries to Hezbollah, a Lebanese armed group allied to the Syrian government and with which the Jewish state fought a devastating war in 2006.
Some US-backed Kurdish fighters return to fight IS: coalition



Washington, April 24 (AFP) Apr 24, 2018



Some of the US-backed Kurdish forces that had abandoned offensive operations against the Islamic State group in Syria have started returning to fight the jihadists, a US military official said Tuesday.

Kurdish members of the Syrian Democratic Forces -- made up of Kurds, Syrian Arabs and other groups -- had quit the Middle Euphrates River Valley in February after Turkey sent troops into Syria and launched an operation against the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia in its Afrin enclave.

Turkey drove the group from the city on March 18.

The sudden departure of SDF fighters resulted in a slow-down in missions against IS in two remaining jihadist pockets along the river.

"We are encouraged by the return of some Syrian Democratic Force partners to the Middle Euphrates River Valley," said Colonel Ryan Dillon, a spokesman for the US-led coalition fighting IS in Iraq and Syria.

"More combat power is returning to Euphrates River Valley to really turn it on to the ISIS elements," he added.

Dillon did not provide any details on the numbers of fighters returning.

The United States has since late 2014 led an international coalition to defeat IS in Syria and Iraq.

President Donald Trump recently threw America's commitment to Syria into doubt, especially after IS is defeated, when he said he wanted US forces out as soon as possible.
Portugal joins NATO cyber-defence centre



Tallinn, April 24 (AFP) Apr 24, 2018



Portugal on Tuesday became the 21st country to join NATO's cyber defence centre, the Tallinn-based body said at a flag-raising ceremony.

"We are facing adversaries who target our common values in cyberspace: freedom, truth, trust," centre director Merle Maigre said at the ceremony.

"To build resilience we need to come together. That is why I am glad to welcome Portugal as together we are stronger," she added.

The centre was founded in 2008 in the capital of cyber-savvy Estonia, ranked as having one of the world's highest internet user rates, which itself had come under attack the previous year.

Estonia accused Russia, NATO's old Cold War foe, of being behind the attacks on its official sites and information networks.

At the centre, data experts from across Europe and the United States work to protect the information networks of the Western defence alliance's 29 countries.

The centre's current members are Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Australia, Norway and Japan have said they also plan to join.
Macron on Iran nuclear deal: There is no 'Plan B'







Washington (AFP) April 22, 2018





French President Emmanuel Macron, who is heading to Washington to urge his US counterpart to stay in the Iran nuclear deal, said in an interview broadcast Sunday that there is no "Plan B" if the accord is scrapped. "I don't have any Plan B for nuclear - against Iran," Macron told Fox News Sunday, in an English-language interview broadcast on the eve of his three-day state visit. "So that's a question we will discuss, but that's why I just want to say, on nuclear - let's present this framework ... read more
English23/04/2018

KARADZIC DEFENCE ASKS FOR ANNULMENT OF JUDGEMENT AND NEW TRIAL

BELGRADE, April 23 /SRNA/ - At the beginning of the appeal hearing on Monday, defence of the former president of Republika Srpska Radovan Karadzic requested an annulment of the judgement sentencing him to 40 years in prison and asked the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals in The Hague to order a new trial.



The defence team is presenting its arguments on 46 grounds of appeal, reports the public broadcaster Radio and Television of Republika Srpska.



In its appeal, the prosecution demands a life sentence for Karadzic.



Karadzic lodged a complaint in December 2016 to the ICTY judgement sentencing him to 40 years in prison for genocide in Srebrenica and crimes against humanity in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995.



The defence hope they will manage to prove a lack of connection between Karadzic and the events in Srebrenica, which would, they believe, influence the length of the sentence.



Lawyer Goran Petronijevic, a member of the defence team, told Srna on an earlier occasion that the defence and prosecution views on mutual complaints and replies would be presented at the appeal hearing.



He noted that after the appeal hearing, only status conferences would be held until the pronouncement of the final judgement, which could take place towards the end of the year, according to the defences estimates.



Karadzic was sentenced by the Trial Chamber in March 2016. /end/ds
I'm thinking people aren't buying Kathleen Wynne's bullshit anymore.



The Ontario PCs would win a strong majority if a provincial election was held today, and the NDP would form the Official Opposition, a new poll suggests.



Forum Research found that 46 per cent of decided or leaning voters said on April 18 that they would support the Ontario PCs if a vote were held today, compared to 27 per cent for the NDP and 21 per cent for the Liberals.



The PCs strength has been trending in their polls for several years. But the NDP have now come second in six of the firms last 11 polls, dating back to June 12-14, 2017.



The bump in support following the Liberal budget is gone, Forum Research President Lorne Bozinoff said in a news release. The (PCs) are back where weve seen them for the past year, and Doug Ford looks on track to be Premier in a few months.



Two days before the poll was conducted, the Ontario NDP released its party platform, calling for universal pharmacare and dental care, higher corporate taxes and the re-purchase of Hydro One to make it public.



Four per cent of respondents said they would vote Green while two per cent expressed support for another party.



Translated into seats, Forum said the PCs would win 94 of 122 available seats, putting them into what Bozinoff calls super-majority territory.



Their support is strongest in southwestern Ontario, eastern Ontario and the 905 area.



The NDP would win 23 seats, while the Liberals would win only seven seats, not enough for them to maintain official party status and the privileges it provides at the legislature.



When asked who they thought would win, irrespective of their personal choice, 54 per cent of respondents said they thought the PCs would win, while 19 per cent said the Liberals and 10 per cent said the NDP.



Forum puts Liberal leader Wynnes approval rating at 18 per cent, PC leader Doug Ford at 37 per cent and Horwath at 37 per cent as well.



Nearly three-quarters of respondents said they disapprove of Wynnes leadership, while 40 per cent disapprove of Ford and 32 per cent disapprove of Horwath, meaning she is the only one of the three to have a net-favourable view among respondents.



The poll was conducted using interactive voice response technology and reached 1,126 Ontario voters. The data was weighted to reflect the overall demographics of Ontario.



It is considered accurate plus or minus three per cent, 19 times out of 20.
Hooray for trade deficts killing GDP and mediocrity!With the Kinder Morgan pipeline hanging by a thread, the federal Liberals had a chance on the weekend to express support for Alberta and the national economy.They didnt.The partys annual convention in Halifax voted against a resolution to make Canadian oil and gas independence an official policy.The resolution came from the partys Alberta section. It was eminently reasonable and responsible. But it wasnt good enough to become Liberal doctrine.The winning resolutions focused on a guaranteed minimum income, decriminalization of consensual sex work and the sex trade, pharmacare, a Canadian Environmental Bill of Rights, and a good deal more.But the idea that Canadian oil and natural gas should fill all of Canadas needs for oil and natural gas? Not a chance.That would mean new pipelines to the east, through vote-rich Ontario and Quebec, and on to the Atlantic. Liberal territory, every inch of the way.With an election due next year, that applecart would not be upset.Party officials point out that the resolution went through several hoops before being included in a list of 30, and then 20 resolutions up for consideration. It did have some support from members.But the Alberta plan didnt make the list of 15 official policies of Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus governing party.Now, governments dont always pay that much attention to the policies their party members adopt.But they pay none at all to policies their members do not adopt. Oil and gas independence is a dead idea in Liberal Canada.I asked for comment on this vote from two Alberta Liberal MPs, Calgarys Kent Hehr and Amarjeet Sohi of Edmonton, the infrastructure minister.There was no response Monday.The Notley government didnt comment either. You can understand that  with the pipeline at such a crucial stage, theres no point in annoying the uneasy allies in Ottawa.United Conservative Party leader Jason Kenney, however, was not reticent.Not surprised this wasnt a priority for the Liberals, Kenney wrote on Twitter. After all, Justin Trudeau killed Energy East, the pipeline that wouldve brought Western Canadian oil to the rest of the country.It is now fixed policy that this country will keep buying oil from crooked and environmentally lax regimes, in preference to western Canadian oil. Hundreds of tankers from overseas and the U.S. will continue to ply the Atlantic Coast and the St. Lawrence.Of all the many weird things about Canada, strangest of all is the anti-tanker opposition to pipelines on the West Coast, and the pro-tanker rejection of pipelines in the East.In rational terms  which is to say, not Canadian terms  its hard to see how any government could reject this resolution.It said, in part:Canada imported roughly 759,000 barrels and 736,000 barrels of oil per day, in 2016 and 2015 respectively, despite Canada having among the largest oil and gas reserves in the world, capable of meeting all Canadian oil and gas needs;Canadian oil and gas independence would allow Canada to ensure that domestic natural resource extraction and usage would be carried out more efficiently, safely, and sustainably than in countries which export oil and gas to Canada.The resolution itself asked the government to:Implement a strategy for oil and gas independence, with particular attention to: strong environmental and safety regulations, and oversight of the oil and gas sector; national job creation and economic growth; and, respect for the rights and interests of Indigenous peoples.Consult with all provinces, territories, First Nations, Metis, Inuit, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, and all other relevant stakeholders in developing acceptable infrastructure and pipelines necessary for oil and gas independence.The Liberals answer to all that is No. Their clear policy is to build no tidewater pipeline but Kinder Morgan. And they wonder why so many people feel they arent even serious about that.Don Braids column appears regularly in the HeraldTwitter: @DonBraid
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DGAP-Ad-hoc: Allgeier SE / Key word(s): Final Results

Allgeier SE: Supervisory Board approves FY 2017 financial statements and proposes dividend



24-Apr-2018 / 18:21 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.





Munich, April 23, 2018 - At its meeting today, the Supervisory Board of Allgeier SE (ISIN DE000A2GS633, WKN A2GS63) has approved the audited separate and consolidated financial statements for Allgeier SE for the 2017 financial year. The separate annual financial statements have thereby been adopted. The finalized consolidated figures essentially correspond to the preliminary figures announced in an ad hoc release on March 15, 2018.



IFRS revenue and earnings trends



The Group reports double-digit growth in terms of both total opeRating revenue and value creation in the 2017 financial year (January 1, 2017 - December 31, 2017). The Group's total operating revenue grew year-on-year to reach EUR 578.6 million in the 2017 financial year (previous year: EUR 501.0 million), representing 15 percent growth. Especially the Technology and Enterprise Services business areas contributed to this growth. Thanks to the acquisition of the business of Ciber Germany, the Enterprise Services business area achieved revenue growth exceeding 100 percent in the financial year elapsed. Consolidated value creation was up by 16 percent to EUR 156.8 million (previous year: EUR 135.9 million). Adjusted consolidated EBITDA (EBITDA before effects that qualify operationally as extraordinary or relating to other accounting periods) stood at EUR 29.3 million in the reporting period (previous year: EUR 33.8 million). As communicated in previous ad hoc announcements, the results for the first half of 2017 were particularly burdened by the costs of reorganizing the Experts business area as well as related hiring, representing an investment in future growth. Consolidated EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) amounted to EUR 26.5 million in the reporting year (previous year: EUR 31.5 million). Consolidated EBIT (earnings before interest and tax) stood at EUR 13.5 million in the year under review (previous year: EUR 17.8 million). The Group generated EUR 11.0 million of earnings before tax in the reporting year (previous year: EUR 13.9 million). The expense for income taxes amounted to EUR 6.5 million in the reporting period (previous year: EUR 7.2 million). After deducting interest, the Group consequently achieved EUR 4.5 million of net income in the period under review (previous year: EUR 6.7 million). Earnings per share (adjusted for amortization relating to acquisition activity, and with normalized taxes) amounted to EUR 1.09 during the reporting year (prior year: EUR 1.47).



Key balance sheet financials as of December 31, 2017



Equity stood at EUR 122.8 million as of the December 31, 2017 reporting date (previous year: EUR 116.9 million). The Allgeier Group had liquid assets of EUR 53.0 million at its disposal as of the 2017 year-end (previous year: EUR 71.8 million). Current and non-current financial liabilities have reduced to EUR 108.8 million as of the reporting date (previous year: EUR 113.6 million). Total assets stood at EUR 337.9 million as of December 31, 2017 (December 31, 2016: EUR 344.4 million).



Application of profits



The Supervisory Board has today, April 23, 2018, passed a resolution to propose to the Annual General Meeting to distribute a dividend of EUR 0.50 per share to the shareholders from the unappropriated net profit of EUR 27,188,374.40 as reported as of December 31, 2017 in the separate annual financial statements of Allgeier SE. The remaining unappropriated net profit is to be carried forward to a new account.



FY 2018 outlook



Current planning for the 2018 financial year reflects a continuation of the positive trend during the second half of 2017. Accordingly, Allgeier SE plans growth in its consolidated sales revenue of between 18 and 23 percent, and an EBITDA margin between 6.0 and 6.5 percent, for the 2018 financial year. These planning figures relate exclusively to the organic development of the currently existing Group, including the company Anecon, which was acquired in January 2018, and excluding other changes to the portfolio. Further acquisitions in the individual business areas can make an additional contribution to growth.



Note



The Allgeier 2017 annual report will be published on April 27, 2018, when it can be viewed at www.allgeier.com.



Contact:



Allgeier SE

Corporate Communications & Investor Relations

Dr. Christopher Groe

Wehrlestrae 12

81679 Munich

Germany

Tel.: +49 (0)89/998421-0

Fax: +49 (0)89/998421-11

e-mail: ir@allgeier.com

Web: www.allgeier.com

Allgeier SE is one of the leading IT companies for digital transformation: with a growth strategy oriented to innovations and future trends, as well as an integrative business model, Allgeier exploits the opportunities that digitalization offers. Three operating segments with individual specialist and sector-related focus areas work together for around 3,000 customers from almost all business sectors. With more than 7,000 salaried employees and around 1,400 freelance experts, Allgeier offers its customers an extensive one-stop-shop range of solutions and services. Based on a highly flexible delivery model, Allgeier covers the entire IT service spectrum from on-site through to nearshore and offshore: with a strong business pillar in India, the company secures flexibility and maximum scalability of services, as well as highly qualified high-end software development expertise. Allgeier customers include globally operating groups as well as innovative medium-size business operations that aim to secure strategic advantages through high-performance IT solutions, intelligent software and flexible personnel services. This Munich-based, fast-growing Group maintains 120 branches in the region of Germany, Austria and Switzerland, in nine further European countries, as well as in India, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, Japan, Australia, Mexico and the USA. Allgeier generated EUR 582 million of revenue in 2017. Allgeier SE ranks first in the 2017 Lunendonk(R) special analysis of "Leading German Medium-Sized IT Consultants and System Integrators". According to the Lunendonk(R) 2017 market segment study "The Market for Recruiting, Mediating and Managing IT Freelancers in Germany", Allgeier Experts ranks among Germany's top three IT personnel service providers. Allgeier SE is listed on the Regulated Market of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (WKN A2GS63, ISIN DE000A2GS633). For more information, visit: www.allgeier.com.
Shares is the leading weekly publication for retail investors. It is packed with investment ideas, news and educational material to help build and run portfolios and get more from your money.

Shares puts on free Investor Events throughout the year across the country. They provide an opportunity for investors to learn more about companies on the stock market and hear from a range of investment experts including fund managers and Shares journalists.
Cllr Jason Fojtik.

STRATFORD-ON-AVON District Council has reaffirmed its commitment to combatting anti-Semitism following concerns about a rise in anti-Jewish racism in the UK in recent years.

A motion was put forward by the districts only Labour councillor, Jason Fojtik, at a meeting of all 36 councillors on Tuesday, which asked the council to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances definition guidelines on anti-Semitism.

Cllr Fojtiks motion was seconded by Conservative councillor Robert Vaudry, and attracted cross-party support.

The Labour Party, nationally, has come under pressure from Jewish community leaders and its own backbench MPs, who have accused leader, Jeremy Corbyn, of turning a blind eye to a resurgence of anti-Semitism, something he denies.

Cllr Fojtik, who is not Jewish, said: Obviously the issue of anti-Semitism has been in the news recently and I think its important for us locally to support Jewish and non-Jewish minorities.

There have been recent headlines about antiSemitism concerning the Labour Party and its something Im horrified by.

"The Labour Party needs to make sure anti-Semitism doesnt exist within the party, one anti-Semitic Labour member is one too many.

Anti-Semitism is a wider issue in society and we need to show that it cannot be tolerated.
The Sidney Campus of Western Nebraska Community College recognized outstanding students in an Awards Ceremony April 19. The Awards Ceremony was held at the Aviation Mechanics hangar.

Graduating from school or leaving a community isn't easy, but it does have opportunities.

Thursday afternoon, Todd Holcomb, president of the Western Nebraska Community College Sidney campus, shared a story of a student he met several years ago who was feeling depressed. He realized he would not be seeing some of his friends and favorite faculty after graduating.

"You're looking at it all wrong," Holcomb recalls telling the student. "Instead of looking at the things you're losing, look at what you're gaining."

He said change is ongoing; embrace it.

"Embrace the change that happens in your life on a daily basis," he said.

Staff at Western Nebraska Community College's Sidney campus celebrated student achievements in a ceremony held at the Aviation Technology Center April 19.

"The WNCC Sidney Campus faculty selects Outstanding Students of the Years for each academic division," said Erin Huddelston in the introduction of the ceremony Thursday. "As with all of the awards presented today, this is a challenging task as there are many students that deserve recognition."

Awards included the Sidney Campus Director Encourager Award, Dean of Students Student Organization of the Year, Vice-President of Student Services Student Leadership Award, VP of Administrative Services Non-Traditional Student Award, Executive VP of Education Services Award, Presidential Award and Board of Governors' Award.

The first award presented was to the Outstanding Aviation Student of the Year by Aviation Maintenance instructors Michael Mitchell and Jon Leever. Mitchell and Leever recognized Russell Kirlin as the Outstanding Aviation Student of the Year.

Next, Michael Hausmann presented the award to the Business Student of the Year.

"The Business Division Award is given to an outstanding graduating business student," said Hausmann. "While this student has primarily taken online courses to achieve his degree, he has still been dedicated and determined to pass his courses with excellence and perseverance. Whether he goes on to receive his bachelor's or goes straight into the workforce, this student will excel and go far."

The Business Student of the Year is Cory Phillips.

Kim Dale presented the award for the Outstanding Criminal Justice Student of the Year.

"Brad Brothers brings many strengths to WNCC as one of our outstanding students. He is a proud veteran who utilizes his experience to elevate class discussions. He contributes to our communities as a Cub Scout leader and advocates for animal rescue. The WNCC Criminal Justice Program is truly better because of Brad Brothers has been a part of it."

She remained at the podium for the next award, the Outstanding English and Language Arts Student .

"A number of students are qualified to receive recognition from the Division of Language Arts at the Sidney Campus. This recipient has taken both English Composition 1 and 2 via distance learning systems. Not only did this student excel in his classes but he showed that he truly cares and is dedicated to all the work that he does for his degree. It is my pleasure to recognize Jarod Luptak as the 2018 awardee from the Division of English and Language and Arts.

Peggy Wolff presented the award for the Outstanding Health Information Management Systems Student. She recognized Stacy Thomas as the Outstanding Health Information Management Systems Student.

William Spurgeon presented the award for the Outstanding Information Technology Student of the Year.

"George Taylor takes his education seriously. He is very engaged in course discussions, answering questions and seeing the applications of a concept. He has a can-do attitude and is excited about using and applying IT concepts to business problems. It is my privilege to present the Outstanding Information Technology Student award to George Taylor," Spurgeon said.

Andrew Lensen presented the Outstanding Math Student of the Year award to Theresa Barnhart.

Kelly Dean presented the awards for Outstanding Associate Degree in Nursing and Licensed Practical Nursing Student awards.

"It is with honor that I recognize outstanding students here today," Dean said. "It takes a lot to be a nursing student. We put a new meaning to the phrase 'blood, seat and tears.' When a student takes extra time to ensure positive outcomes, people notice. When a student notices a drug interaction or missing diagnostic test and intervenes accordingly, people notice. When a student finds ways to enhance the learning experience for others, people notice. During a recent clinical experience shared with RN and PN (Practical Nursing) students, this student included the PN students in a patient's care and shared extremely valuable information and assessment skills," she said. "All of these actions are regularly displayed by Ashley Dorcey."

The Licensed Practical Nursing Student Award was presented to LeAndrew Stewart for never tiring of the question "Why".

"If we know why we are doing what we are doing, life makes more sense. If we just do what we do because we have always done it this way, then outcomes don't change and life gets boring," Dean said.

She said instructors often say there is no such thing as a dumb question, adding that Stewart's inquisitive nature challenged all of his instructors.

"Better yet, it has enhanced the classroom and clinical learning experiences and promoted inquire-based practice," she said. "Every patient he cares for will be grateful for his attention to detail, his constant search for rationale, and his accuracy."

She also said his positive attitude is contagious and his laughter lights up any room he enters.

Campus Director Paula Abbott presented the award for Outstanding Science Student of the Year on behalf of William Hanson. Abbott said Kaylee Deal has been chosen for the award. She is recognized as a student student in Hanson's Microbiology, Anatomy and Physiology courses. She is known for excelling at everything she does, including her exams, practicals and oral presentations, and for helping other students.

The Sidney campus staff also recognized non-department awards including the Sidney Campus Director Encourager Award. This award was created to recognize students who often go unnoticed, the individuals who are quiet, behind-the-scenes encouragers. This student is known for always being present to help and make sure other students are getting the lesson.

"When one of his classmates has a question, he does his best to help and explain in ways that are understandable. Students have even made the comment, 'If he was a teacher, he would be a good one,'" Abbott said.

This year's Sidney Campus Director Encourager Award goes to Tanner Speidel.

Vice President of Student Services Nina Grant presented the Dean of Students Student Organization award to the Student Senate. The Student Senate is recognized as one of the strongest organizations on campus. Its members are dedicated to crating activities and opportunities for students to get involved on campus, and are involved in community activities as well.

Grant also presented the Vice President of Student Services Student Leadership Award. The award is given to an outstanding student leader on campus, according to Grant. She said a leader is someone who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way.

"Brandi Thompson has done just this. She has not only been influential on her classmates in the RN program, but also for the PN students and for many prospective nursing students," she said.

She said Thompson has been involved in organizing a meal, planning study sessions, encouraging classmates, providing care in clinicals or completing a group task, Thompson takes the lead.

Bill Knapper presented the Vice-President of Administrative Services Non-Traditional Student of the Year award.

"This award is given to the outstanding non-traditional student is over 25 and has excelled in academics and has been an active participant in campus life," Knapper said. "This embodies an important mission of WNCC, to provide further educational opportunities to our working adults. Natosha White, a non-traditional student in the PN program, has done just this. She has has also persevered when it wasn't always easy, and has been an inspiration for those around her."

Kim Dale returned to podium, presenting the Executive Vice President of Educational Services Award. This award is for students who demonstrate perseverance and has exemplified the qualities of excellence in academics, leadership and service to the college and community, she said.

This year's recipient is Ashley Jarreau.

The presidential Award is presented to an outstanding student who best exemplifies the qualities of excellence in academics, leadership and service to the college and community, said college president Todd Holcomb.

"The student chosen has maintained very high grades throughout her time here at WNCC. This student is always willing to come up with new ways to help each organization and encourage participation on campus," Holcomb said. "It is my honor to present this award to Kristonna Kramer.

The Board of Governors' Award is the highest award conferred by the college. It is presented to the graduate who best exemplifies the qualities of excellence in academics, leadership and service to the college and the community.

"It is with great pleasure I present the Board of Governors' Award to Theresa Barnhart," said Holcomb.

The ceremony closed with recognition of Michael Hausmann. Hausmann has been teaching at WNCC since it was Western Nebraska Technical College, about 34 years. He was commended for his length of service, number of subjects taught, the number of students influenced and the kindness shown.
First Lady Susanne Shore invites Nebraska artists - professional and emerging  to design

Nebraska-shaped ornaments for the Nebraska State Capitols official holiday tree.

Nebraska artists of any age are encouraged to submit up to five design ideas/proposals (appropriate for community display) on 11 x 17 paper within a line drawing of the shape of Nebraska. Project information and an outline of the state, available for downloading purposes, can be found on ne150.org/ornament/ . Designs should depict themes of Nebraska using traditional, contemporary or abstract ideas. Themes can focus on the states diverse natural, cultural and agricultural heritage, the states vibrant history, or a depiction of Nebraska today.

Artists are encouraged to use their creative talents using paint, mosaics, glass, metal, fiber, or other artistic mediums. A title, brief written inspiration statement and the artists contact information should accompany each design idea. Proposals will be juried and selected artists will receive a white, fiberglass blank in the shape of Nebraska, measuring 10  inches wide and 4  inches tall.

Proposals are due by June 15, 2018.

Completed ornaments should be returned on or before October 15, 2018. Artists who created ornaments for the Nebraska State Capitols holiday tree will be invited to a reception in their honor at the Governors Mansion, hosted by First Lady Susanne Shore.

For more information, contact Liz Shea-McCoy, Project Director, at (402) 430-5923 or [email protected] Proposals should be mailed to: Project Director, 2700 Sheridan Blvd, Lincoln, NE 68502.
Logan County Sheriff's Deputy Jason Littlefield listens to a community member during a meeting in Peetz regarding arming specific staff. The discussion started out of concern for the town's distance from law enforcement.

The Peetz school community came together Thursday night to address how best to protect its students.

At issue is if the Peetz School District should seek staff volunteer as armed security as well as teachers or administrators.

The meeting was lead by Superintendent Mark Collard with a slide presentation of concerns and issues. One of the concerns listed is the changes in society. Many of the parents and teachers were of the age they could recall when students in rural schools could drive to school with a gun rack in the back of a pickup. It was a common occurrence because of the rural environment. Incidents involving school shootings have changed that.

Columbine High School in Colorado recently commemorated the 19th anniversary of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold staging an assault on the school. Research since the attack indicates the two students initially planned propane bombs. When the bombs failed to explode, they entered the school, killing 12 students and a teacher before it was over.

The list of schools has grown to include places like Sandy Hook, and Parkland, Fla. Thursday's meeting was an effort to not be on that list, according to Collard.

"Chances of something catastrophic happening is probably pretty slim, but you never know," he said.

The issue surrounded having the best first response if a person does enter the school building with a firearm and intent to cause injury or worse.

"We have surveyed our staff," he said. "The staff thinks its a good idea."

Some of the questions surrounding the discussion is who would do it (conceal carry) and how would the administration decide. Collard said the District is not at the point of seeking volunteers.

One of the teaching staff at Fleming, Karl Donnelson, who is also a conceal carry volunteer for the district, was present also. He said in Fleming, a staff member has to be employed by the district for at least a year before qualifying to carry. Qualifying for the program includes a psych evaluation, voice stress analysis as well as firearm qualification.

Logan County Sheriff's Deputy Jason Littlefield was present at the meeting to help answer questions.

"They (teachers who volunteer to Conceal Carry) are actually going to go through the same training as I do," Littlefield said.

Training is provided by Faculty/Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response (FASTER). The FASTER training is more intense than just Conceal Carry classes. Donnelson said in addition to firearms training, educators are trained in non-lethal restraint methods.

One member of the public asked if there are non-lethal options such as stun guns. The response was that if a person enters the school intent on causing harm it will be difficult to stop them without lethal force. The comment was made that assailants like "soft targets." Soft targets are defined by the Oxford Dictionary as "a person or thing that is relatively unprotected or vulnerable, especially to military or terrorist attack."

Collard said cost to the school will be about $3,000, less in following years.

Another member of the audience insisted the school not put this duty on teachers. She said protection of the students ought to be a community task and let teachers focus on teaching. She said the school district should be seeking volunteers from the community, or retired veterans. Donnelson said the best defense is to have responders within the building.

Deputy Littlefield said in the case of Parkland, Fla., the trained resource officer did not respond. He added that the teacher who died in the incident could have prevented the loss of life.

"If the teacher that died saving those kids, if he was trained and proficient, he would have stopped it," Littlefield said.

He added the best advise is to plan for the worst and hope for the best.

Donnelson said school staff who are authorized conceal carry are first responders only; once law enforcement enter the scene, "We're done" referring to the role of teachers as first responders.

Thursday's meeting was scheduled as a dialogue between the school district and the community. No decision was made.
Officials from Sidney Regional Medical Center spent part of an evening last week going over changes at the hospital before a group of about 30 local residents.

SRMC Chief Executive Officer Jason Petik took the lead in reviewing expansion of programs and highlighted the hospitals new providers and systems. A number of staff members were also on hand.

Petik said three new providers, Physician Assistants Steve Rolls and Jonna Beyer join Nurse Practitioner Stephanie Green on staff. Petik said the hospital and clinic plans to staff with three full time doctors, three PAs and a full time hospitalist for its front line care givers.

The hospital is also working on a new medical records system that, when in place, will make serving its patients easier. He said timing of Sidneys transition places it behind other larger hospitals who are also going to the new system, putting Sidneys completion out 12-16 months. Petik said the goal is to go live by January 1, 2020

This is one of the most important decisions and investments the board and I have made, Petik said of the new system. The hospital will have approximately $8 million in the new system.

Petik also reviewed the facilitys new Direct Access Testing, which provides blood screening to patients without a doctors orders. The limited screenings are performed once a week at a reduced cost.

A number of changes are also in store for the way patients can obtain care. Petick outlined changed to the clinic in Chappell, and also told those in attendance about two types of electronic contact with the care network. Starting in July, patients will be able to speak to providers at the walk-in clinic over the telephone to determine courses of treatment and if they should be seen in person.

Down the road, the network will also roll out an app that will allow for consultation via Facetime.

Petik also introduced team members from Medical Air Rescue Company (MARC), which earlier this year opened air ambulance operations with a Sidney base. The company has a number of other bases for both helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft and expanded to Sidney with its first flights in late February.

MARC Regional Manager Jay Johnson answered questions about the service, payment types and how the local services work. One question Johnson said he has fielded is in regard to Air MedCare Network memberships. Audience members again asked if they should keep the membership.

Johnson said he believes those holding the membership should hold onto it for the simple fact that if were not here when a flight is needed. It was explained that in critical time of need, the closest air service is contacted. If MARC is already on a flight, AirLink out of Scottsbluff or another service will be called.

While MARC does not currently have a membership program, Johnson said the company is developing one.

Petik was asked how the hospital is doing financially. He said the facility is doing well, in particular since building the new facility. He explained that in the old hospital, there was no debt for depreciation. With the new facility, there is depreciation, which raises the amount of reimbursement the facility gets from Medicare.

On the subject of the old hospital, Petik said old patient rooms have been converted to living spaces for staff and the occaisonal family in need while in town, while the remainder of the facility has been moth balled.

The hospital is the second largest critical care facility in Nebraska, and hosts 17 specialty physicians for services.
She had spent New Year's Eve at her friend Ashley's house, on the Calypso development in Mijas Costa, to help look after her younger brother. The next day, New Year's Day, they went to the Calahonda market and returned to Ashley's house. At 10pm Amy Fitzpatrick said good- bye to her friend and set off for her home in Riviera del Sol, a walk of around two kilometres on a tarmacked path (except for a 50-metre unsurfaced stretch) but that was little-used. No one has seen her since. And that was ten years ago.

The Irish teenager, who was then 15 years old, disappeared on that walk home without a trace. The Guardia Civil, who inspected the route she should have taken, found no evidence of an abduction, which is what her mother Audrey had feared had happened. Officers never ruled out that theory although they initially gave more credibility to the idea that Amy had run away of her own accord. She had apparently wanted to go and live with her father, who had stayed in Ireland when his marriage with her mother broke up. The teenager lived in Mijas with her mother, brother and her mother's partner, David Mahon.

Over the last decade the family have launched several campaigns and tributes to keep Amy's disappearance in the public eye. In 2010, her mother and her partner even offered a reward of a million euros for anyone who could provide information that would lead to the whereabouts of the young girl. The following year they started a campaign with the slogan 'Amy's Day', which took them around different towns in the province of Malaga on the first day of each month to remind people of the case.

In January 2012, the couple moved to Ireland, where Audrey's son Dean lived after moving back there a year after Amy's disappearance. But fate was to deal another huge blow to the Fitzpatrick family. Barely a year and a half later, in May 2013, Dean was fatally stabbed in a fight with his stepfather in Coolock, a district on the north side of Dublin, near the flat the family had moved into when they moved back to Ireland. He was 23.

Dave Mahon was accused of killing his stepson. At the trial, which he attended on the arm of Audrey, Dean and Amy's mother, he pleaded innocent and blamed the death on an accident or possible suicide, stating that the youth had stabbed himself. The jury cleared him of murder but found him guilty of manslaughter. In June 2016 he was sentenced to seven years in prison. His appeal was rejected.

On the tenth anniversary of Amy's disappearance, her biological father, Christopher Fitzpatrick, has broken his silence and made statements to the Irish press.

Christmas and New Year's will never be the same again. I am still devastated over the loss of my two children, Amy and Dean, he told the Sunday World.

Fitzpatrick sent out a plea to anyone with any relevant information they haven't disclosed until now to come forward.

I would like to ask people who were there 10 years ago when Amy went missing and may have information they can now share, to contact the police, he said. People went back to the UK and different parts of the world afterwards, and they should come forward.

We just want to find Amy. We know where Dean is, but to bring Amy home would be great, he added.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Syracuse police are investigating a stabbing that sent someone to a local hospital Monday night.

At 9:27 p.m., officers were called to the 100 block of Fernwood Ave. for a report of a stabbing, city police spokesman Sgt. Richard Helterline said in a news release.

When officers arrived, they found the female victim suffering from a stab wound to her shoulder, the release said.

American Medical Response (AMR) ambulance took her to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse for treatment. Her injury does not appear to be life threatening at this time, Helterline said in the release.

Investigators do not believe the Fernwood Avenue stabbing was related to a shooting that police were called to 1 1/2 miles away, a little more than an hour later.

At 10:41 p.m., police responded to a shooting and car crash in the 100 block of Hudson Street. Police said the victim was shot in one of the cars involved in the crash a short distance from the shooting scene. Unofficial police scanner reports described the victim as a female.

The shooting victim also was taken to Upstate University Hospital and was listed in critical condition, Helterline said shortly before midnight Monday.

"There is no indication that these incidents are related at this time," Helterline said in the release.

Syracuse police ask anyone with information about the stabbing or shooting to call them at (315) 442-5222 or use the "SPD Tips" app.
BORDER CITY, N.Y. -- A Geneva firefighter was airlifted to a hospital Monday night after he suffered a heart issue during a house fire in Seneca County, volunteer firefighters said.

Firefighters were battling the blaze from outside the home, at 31 Moore St. in Border City, when the Geneva firefighter started having heart issues, according to firefighters who kept the public updated on the Cayuga/Seneca Fire Wire Facebook page.

Mercy Flight airlifted the firefighter to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester. His condition was not known Monday night.



Border City, Waterloo and Geneva fire departments were at the scene.

A plumber working inside the Moore Street home smelled gas before the "house exploded," Rochester First reported. The plumber and two people who lived there escaped the fire with minor injuries, firefighters told Rochester First.

The American Red Cross is helping the family who lost their home, firefighters said.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The last of 52 suspects in a Syracuse-based drug investigation was sentenced to 10 years in prison today, putting a final nail in the coffin for what the attorney general's office said was a major drug-trafficking ring here.

Antwan Lockhart, 32, was sentenced to a decade in prison after being convicted for supplying drugs to traffickers selling in Central New York.

His mugshot sits at the very top of a chart showing the organization prosecutors said sold large quantities of heroin, cocaine and other drugs in Onondaga, Oswego, Madison, St. Lawrence and Cortland counties.

The 52 defendants in the case have all pleaded guilty, the attorney general's office said. They were accused of committing 370 crimes in all, ranging from drug possession to murder conspiracy.

Antwan Lockhart, 32

"This sentencing should send a clear message: Those who pump deadly drugs into our neighborhoods will be caught and will face the consequences," Schneiderman said in a news release.

Through the investigation, which was aided by the Syracuse Police Department, police seized:

Over 2 kilograms of cocaine

1,128 envelopes of heroin and more than 20 grams of loose heroin

Ecstasy pills and psychedelic mushrooms

a 9-mm Lorcin handgun, loaded, with a destroyed serial number

a .40-caliber Glock handgun, loaded with a 30-roun magazine

a 9-mm Sig Sauer handgun, loaded with a 15-round magazine

a .45-caliber Taurus handgun, loaded

a 12-gauge shotgun

Drug paraphernalia (including scales, packaging, cutting agents)

$3,657

One of the guns -- the 9-mm Lorcin -- was used in about 13 different shots-fired incidents in Syracuse from 2015 to 2016, officials said. This was determined by ballistics testing, officials said.

About 30 of those charged were believed to belong to the Bricktown Gang, which has operated in Syracuse for more than 10 years, Schneiderman said. The bust was called "Operation Bricktown."

Five alleged Bricktown members faced conspiracy to commit murder charges, the attorney general's office said. Another four suspects, reportedly from a different gang, also faced conspiracy to commit murder charges for allegedly planning to kill rival gang members, the AG's office has said.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A Syracuse woman spent the weekend in jail after police found materials and equipment used to make methamphetamine in her home when they went to check on her children, officials said.

Claudia Davis, 27, of 104 Roney Lane, was charged Friday with unlawful manufacturing of methamphetamine, a felony, and endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor.

City police say they received a call from someone asking officers to check on the children living at the home, police spokeswoman Sgt. Julie Shulsky said in a news release. Officers responded at 6:13 p.m. Friday.

Police said they spoke with Davis, who lives at the home with her children. They then found materials and equipment commonly used in combination for the manufacturing of methamphetamines, Shulsky said in the release.

"Due to the volatile nature and possible hazardous potential of methamphetamine manufacturing, a number of residents were evacuated from the building until it was deemed safe," Shulsky said.

Members of the New York State Police Contaminated Crime Scene Emergency Response Team also responded and worked to decontaminate the scene, police said.

Davis was sent to the Onondaga County Justice Center after police arrested her. She remained in jail Monday night. Davis is scheduled to return to court on Friday, jail records show.
UPDATE: Syracuse police: 20-year-old woman shot on Hudson Street has died

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Syracuse police say someone was critically injured Monday night in a shooting on the city's Southwest side.

The Onondaga County 911 Center received multiple calls of shots fired in front of 160 Hudson St. starting at 10:41 p.m. Three minutes later, 911 callers also reported a two-vehicle crash in front of 130 Hudson St., dispatchers said.

When officers arrived, they found "a victim suffering from a gunshot wound in one of the cars," Syracuse police spokesman Sgt. Richard Helterline said.

American Medical Response (AMR) ambulance rushed the victim to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse. The person who was shot is in critical condition Monday night, Helterline said.

Unofficial police scanner reports described the shooting victim as a female, but Helterline said, "it's very early in the investigation (and) there are not many details available yet."

Syracuse police ask anyone with information about the shooting to call them at (315) 442-5222 or use the "SPD Tips" app.
SYRACUSE, NY -- Marcial De Leon-Aguilar, the undocumented worker at the center of a disputed immigration raid on a Rome dairy farm last week, will remain in detention, a federal magistrate ruled today.

De Leon-Aguilar, a native of Guatemala charged with illegal entry into the United States, is "a serious risk of flight," Magistrate Andrew Baxter said at a detention hearing today in U.S. District Court in Syracuse. Baxter scheduled the next hearing in the case for May 3.

Baxter noted that De Leon-Aguilar has been deported three times since 1997 -- once after an aggravated assault conviction and twice after illegal re-entry to the United States. The new charge carries a recommended sentence of 30- to 37-months in prison upon conviction, and a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Those circumstances give De Leon-Aguilar "incentive to disappear into the country," Baxter said.

Baxter also noted that even had he agreed to release De Leon-Aguilar on the criminal charge of re-entering the U.S. after deportation, he would have been held "administratively" due to his immigration status.

Defense lawyer Juan Rodriguez, appointed through the federal defender's office, had argued that De Leon-Aguilar did not pose a flight risk because he is the sole supporter of his family, which includes his wife, Virginia, and 4 minor children. Virginia is seven months pregnant.

De Leon-Aguilar was arrested April 18 at a dairy farm belonging to John Collins outside Rome.

"My client is a hard-working man with a 6th-grade education who deeply cares for his family," Rodriguez said. Keeping him in detention, Rodriguez said, would "rip a father from his family."

Collins has accused agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement of storming onto his property without a warrant and without identifying themselves. Collins has said the agents roughed up De Leon-Aguilar, then handcuffed Collins and threw away his cell-phone when he tried to take video of the arrest.

Baxter, in his ruling to keep De Leon-Aguilar in detention, acknowledged that concerns had been raised about the arrest. But, he said, that "is not relevant to my decision today."

Baxter did say that despite the aggravated assault charge in De Leon-Aguilar's past, "I do not find that he constitutes a danger to the community at this time."

The court room at the Syracuse federal courthouse was filled with supporters of De Leon-Aguilar, including members of such groups as the Syracuse Peace Council, CNY Solidarity and the Workers Center of Central New York.

John Collins also attended the hearing. The outpouring of support for De Leon-Aguilar from the community, local churches and others "has been tremendous," he said.

"Unfortunately, that doesn't get him back together with his family," Collins said.

Rebecca Fuentes, who has been assisting the family as a lead organizerfor the Workers Center of Central New York, said De Leon-Aguilar's wife, Virginia, was also in Syracuse today for a hearing on her application for asylum. She is expected to return to their home on the farm today, Fuentes said.

Tuesday's hearing was conducted with the help, via telephone hook-up, of a translator familiar with a Mayan dialect of Guatemala, called Maam, which is De Leon-Aguilar's native language.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Onondaga County's decision to spend half a million dollars to avoid a threatened lawsuit could land the county in court anyway.

The low bidder for an asphalt contract would have paved Onondaga County roads this summer for about $4.1 million. But county officials threw out all the bids they got in March after a lawyer for an unnamed "potential bidder'' threatened to sue.

The lawyer, who did not identify her client, raised legal objections to county requirements for hiring minorities and women and for subcontracting work to companies owned by minorities and women.

Rather than risk a potentially costly lawsuit, county officials decided to trash the bids and exercise a renewal option on last year's contract, which is $500,000 more expensive. The renewed contract is for an estimated $4.6 million.

That doesn't sit well with the contractor who had followed the rules and submitted the low bid of $4.1 million, Cortland-based Suit-Kote Corp. Now Suit-Kote is threatening to sue.

"The rejection of all bids has no legal basis,'' the company's attorney, John Fish, wrote in an April 13 letter to the county. "The contract should be awarded to Suit-Kote as the lowest responsible bidder, as required by law.''

The company will "consider all available legal alternatives'' if the county fails to respond, Fish wrote. Litigation is one option, Fish said in an interview Friday. "It's on the table,'' he said.

It's a costly mess that could be repeated next year when the county will have to submit the contract for bids again.

Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney said county officials have no plans to revise their bid requirements in response to the dispute. But a state contractors group says its members will not let the matter drop.

The lesser of two lawsuits

County lawyers anticipated that rejecting this year's bids might spur a complaint from Suit-Kote, but they calculated that any legal challenge from Suit-Kote would be much cheaper to defend than a full-blown lawsuit, Mahoney said. The bid solicitation included a standard clause saying Onondaga County could reject any bid "in its sole discretion.'' A complaint from Suit-Kote is likely to be summarily dismissed in court, Mahoney said.

By contrast, the threatened litigation from the "potential bidder'' seemed more likely to drag out into a costly, complex legal battle, Mahoney said.

The unidentified contractor complained about what it called "improper and illegal'' county requirements to direct at least 30 percent of the work to minority- and women-owned subcontractors, and to ensure that minorities and women comprise no less that 15 percent of the work crews.

Mahoney said county lawyers were confident that the bid solicitation was legal - and they have no plans to revise the language in future solicitations -- but the litigation threatened to be expensive. She said she does not know the identity of the "potential bidder'' that complained.

"I think we're on pretty firm footing legally, but I certainly wouldn't be looking for any kind of legal battles,'' Mahoney said. "I would rather spend the money paving the roads than spend the money on attorneys fighting about who paves the roads.''

The current paving contract is held by CFR Paving, of Canastota. It was awarded in 2016, with the option of two one-year extensions.

County Legislator James Rowley, R-Clay, said county officials should have rebid this year's contract to avoid the $500,000 increase in cost. Rowley pointed out that many towns purchase paving services off the county contract, which will spread the higher price further.

Mahoney said there is not enough time for a weeks-long bidding process before the summer paving season begins.

Mahoney said the fracas over the paving contract is part of an ongoing "pushback'' the county has met -- and largely overcome - while rolling out aggressive diversity goals to "level the playing field'' for women and minorities. Similar goals in sewer contracts initially met with resistance, but contractors soon found they could comply, Mahoney said.

County officials are not contemplating any changes to the goals or the way they are worded in bid solicitations, Mahoney said. She predicted the issue would soon be forgotten.

"My guess is that in a couple years, when you look back, you'll see that people routinely meet the goals,'' she said.

But contractors don't intend to drop the issue, said Mike Elmendorf, president and CEO of Associated General Contractors of New York State. Elmendorf said his Albany-based lobbying group has complained several times over the past 15 months about Onondaga County's bid requirements related to minority contracting.

"It's not going to go away,'' Elmendorf said. "If Onondaga County wants to have their own program, they need to put it together correctly.''

'Lawsuits may ensue'

Elmendorf's group cited numerous problems with nitty-gritty details of Onondaga County's bid solicitation. But their basic assertion was that the county has no legal basis for requiring 30 percent participation by minority- and women-owned businesses.

Following a 1989 Supreme Court decision ("City of Richmond v. Croson"), municipalities must establish the need for such a program by performing a so-called "disparity study,'' Elmendorf said. Studies count the number of certified minority and women businesses, and compare that to the number of government contracts awarded, to determine evidence of discrimination.

Onondaga County has not undertaken a disparity study, Mahoney said. She said the county relies on a statewide study that incorporates information on Onondaga County.

The county has awarded several competitive contracts that had the same bid requirements as the asphalt concrete paving contract, with no complaints from bidders, Mahoney said.

But the Associated General Contractors warned county officials in early March that "lawsuits may ensue'' if the diversity program was not removed from the asphalt contract specifications.

A few days later, an Albany lawyer sent a letter on behalf of a "potential bidder'' that seemed to reinforce the risk of litigation. If the county awarded a contract based on the bid language, the contract would be "at risk for nullification,'' wrote attorney Jennifer Kavney Harvey, of the Couch White law firm in Albany.

Harvey did not identify her client. Her firm, Couch White, has represented the AGC as well as individual contractors. She declined to comment for this report.

The letter from Harvey prompted county officials to throw out all five bids opened March 13, Mahoney said.

The county executive had a highly publicized run-in with a Suit-Kote employee, Brian Renna, in December 2015. Mahoney confronted Renna at a bar and angrily threw his phone after he took her picture. That incident had no bearing on the decision to reject the bids, a Mahoney spokesman said Monday.

Indeed, Mahoney pointed out that Suit-Kote's bid not only would have saved the county money but also would have complied with the diversity workforce requirements Mahoney is promoting.

Now county taxpayers will pay a higher rate for road paving.

The bids from paving contractors are estimates. The county's actual expense is established by the county Legislature. Lawmakers have budgeted $5.9 million to pave 23 miles of road with hot mix asphalt this year, subject to approval at the May 1 meeting.

Because the county opted to take the higher-priced contract, that money won't pave as many roads as it would have under the low bid, Mahoney said.

The legal conflict over the paving bid is "costing taxpayers,'' she said. "We're not going to spend any more money than we were going to spend, but we can pave fewer roads.''

Contact reporter Tim Knauss | email | Twitter | 315-470-3023
Syracuse, N.Y. -- Tops Friendly Markets wants to close unprofitable stores, but it hasn't disclosed how many or where they are.

In a bankruptcy court filing, the Williamsville-based supermarket chain said the vast majority of its 169 stores are profitable, with strong sales and sustainable cost structures. However, it said a few have "consistently underperformed" and asked the court for approval to close them.

"Historically, these underperforming stores, among other things, are subject to above-market rent, are in regions over-saturated with supermarkets, or are too large for the debtors' needs," the company said in the filing.

Tops did not disclose how many stores it would like to close or where they are located. Instead, it asked the court to let it simply close the ones that it determines, in its business judgment, should be closed.

The company said that, in determining which stores to close, it will "carefully consider the impact of such store closures on the debtors' creditors, employees, and other constituencies."

"The remaining stores will constitute a leaner enterprise, offering greater strategic value and potential for sustainable growth," it said.

Kathy Romanowski, speaking for Tops, said no decisions have been made about potential store closings.

Burt P. Flickinger III, managing director of Strategic Resource Group, a consumer industry business consulting firm, said it is likely that the chain is looking to shut down approximately 18 to 22 stores. That's how many stores it has in markets where Tops has small market share amid stiff competition from chains such as Wegmans, Walmart, Price Chopper, Price Rite, Aldi and BJ's Wholesale Club, he said.

Flickinger said Tops stores in the Syracuse area have traditionally been strong performers but that its stores in the Rochester area, home to Wegmans, have not.

He said it is unusual for a company in bankruptcy court not to disclose the number and location of stores it wants to close. He said it is hard for creditors and potential buyers to analyze the company's request without having that information. He also noted that Tops has not yet filed interim financial reports with the court.

The supermarket chain, which employs approximately 14,000 people, filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 of U.S. Bankruptcy Code on Feb. 21. It has reported having more than $720 million in debt. The company operates 14 stores in the Syracuse area.

Contact Rick Moriarty anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-470-3148
To the Editor:



There are several sickening aspects to the Theta Tau videos posted on a private Facebook page. Certainly, the videos themselves are objectionable. But the behavior of the Syracuse University administration in the aftermath of the protests about the videos is even more worrisome. The videos showed drunken teenage frat boys saying and doing ignorant things. Sadly, they were surpassed in those categories by the actions of the presumably sober and adult SU administrators in their reaction to the videos and the protests that followed them.



The university's reactions are wrongheaded in two general categories: practical and philosophical. Regarding the practical aspect, the correct and effective way to deal with stupid and offensive ideas is to engage those very ideas and challenge them with better ones. The incorrect and ineffective way to deal with bad ideas is to suppress their expression and punish those who espouse them.



If you want to get rid of mold, you expose it to the sunlight; you don't throw a rug over it. Metaphorically, this is exactly what SU did by punishing the fraternity members and the fraternity itself. The bad ideas were not engaged, but rather censored. Actions like this drive these ideas underground where they flourish, multiply, and are never challenged. If the university administration had wanted to reduce the number of people who held these egregious ideas, they failed miserably. They may have driven some voices underground, but they didn't change a single mind.



Within the philosophical realm, SU's actions are on just as shaky a foundation. Colleges and universities are supposed to be a marketplace of ideas - all ideas, good and bad. In an open debate among these ideas, the better ones rise to the top and the worse ones sink to the bottom. People with good ideas should not fear the expression of bad ones, but rather eagerly challenge them, not censor them.



In a rather well-known case, the American Civil Liberties Union (certainly no right-wing stooge) fought for the right of neo-Nazis to march in a Midwestern city. They took this principled and courageous stand not because they had any common philosophy with these marchers. But rather because the principle of freedom of speech is foundational and essential to democracy. If only SU administrators had the principle and courage of the ACLU.



Alas, rather than taking the brave and principled stand, they sacrificed the concept of a free exchange of ideas upon the altar of political correctness. And they swallowed the censorship pill whole without bothering to examine the well-known and dire side-effects. Punishing people for what they say doesn't change minds; it hardens them.



John M. White

Syracuse

Read our continuing coverage of Theta Tau's suspension
Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar are former U.S. senators who serve on the Board of Directors of the Nuclear Threat Initiative.

By Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar | Special To The Washington Post



As the United States prepares for historic discussions between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the Trump administration and its international partners have a lot of work ahead of them. A successful summit, if it can be achieved, will be only the start of a long and complicated process.

Eliminating the nuclear threat and achieving stability and security on the Korean Peninsula will require unconventional thinking and steps that are much broader than denuclearization. Just as we should prepare for the summit to go wrong, we should also prepare for it to "go right."

The stakes are high. The Korean Peninsula is the most militarized region in the world. North Korea has nuclear weapons and long-range missiles that can reach the United States, as well as South Korea and Japan- two allies the United States has pledged to defend. The entire world has an interest in ensuring the security of North Korea's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and weapons-usable materials. The North also has thousands of artillery tubes located within 30 miles or so of Seoul, a formidable conventional threat to the South Korean capital and its population, including thousands of Americans living there.

Even if the two leaders reach an agreement, achieving security and stability and reducing catastrophic risks on the peninsula will require intensive, expert-level negotiations and comprehensive, step-by-step implementation over many months, or perhaps years. This cannot be viewed as a bilateral U.S.-North Korean discussion -- it must also include China, South Korea, Japan and Russia, and it must address regional security and the political concerns of all the parties, including economic and humanitarian matters.

A successful negotiation requires that all those involved benefit from the outcome. It means all sides must give as well as get. Economic, military and diplomatic pressure helped bring the North Koreans to the table, but reaching a successful agreement will require carrots as well as sticks. The United States has announced it will insist that nuclear dismantlement precede economic benefits. North Korea will likely insist that substantial economic benefits be upfront. Can we develop tools that incentivize dismantlement and verification, as well economic benefits, to occur concurrently? History shows the answer is yes.

As the United States and its international partners develop a negotiating strategy and tools for North Korea, there are vital lessons to be learned by looking back to the early 1990s following the breakup of the Soviet Union.

In 1991, as the Soviet Union was disintegrating, we wrote legislation to provide technical and financial assistance for the inventory, destruction, and disposal of nuclear and chemical weapons and their delivery vehicles in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. This became law as the Nunn-Lugar Soviet Nuclear Threat Reduction Act of 1991 -- also known as the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program.

The initiative also helped to fund productive, peaceful scientific work for scientists who had worked in the weapons complex, and also helped to prevent the proliferation of their know-how to other states and nonstate actors -- including the extraordinary lab-to-lab program in which Russian and American scientists worked cooperatively to secure materials usable in nuclear weapons. The United States and Russia learned to cooperate on threat reduction by working together in implementing the program from 1991 to 2012. With this valuable joint experience, if we are going to rebuild cooperation between Washington and Moscow, North Korea is a good place to start.

We believe this concept should be a critical component of any effort to verifiably and irreversibly dismantle North Korea's nuclear weapons and related programs, as well as prevent future proliferation of weapons, material or know-how. Such cooperation can also be used to engage thousands of North Korean scientists and engineers, who are now employed in making weapons of mass destruction, in peaceful scientific and technical work. This would also diminish the risk of proliferation of their deadly knowledge to other states or terrorists.

In the context of a more stable Korean Peninsula, we can look broadly to CTR as a model. A broad-based plan for cooperative activities in North Korea would provide incentives for the Kim regime to comply with the difficult commitments and strict verification and monitoring that will necessarily be part of a serious denuclearization agreement.

Though there are significant differences between North Korea in 2018 and the former Soviet Union in 1991, the cooperative threat-reduction concept could be a powerful tool to support the verifiable reduction and elimination of North Korea's nuclear arsenal, its other weapons of mass destruction, and their delivery systems. Such a program could be developed, funded and implemented jointly with our allies and other members of the international community.

There is certainly no guarantee that there will be a diplomatic breakthrough, but we must be prepared to seize the opportunity. We hope Congress and the Trump administration will use the lessons learned from Cooperative Threat Reduction to develop a more peaceful and secure future for the Korean Peninsula.
Democrats trying to force Juanita Perez Williams off the ballot in the 24th Congressional District claimed Monday that more than 2,400 signatures on her nominating petitions are not valid, and should be enough to disqualify her from a Democratic primary.

The specific objections to Perez Williams' petitions were filed at about 4 p.m. Monday with the state Board of Elections in Albany, said Diane Dwire, the Onondaga County Democratic Committee member who led the effort.

Perez Williams submitted petitions signed by more than 3,200 people on April 12, far exceeding the minimum of 1,250 needed to secure a spot on the Democratic primary ballot against Dana Balter of Syracuse.

But Dwire said more than 2,400 of those signatures should be ruled invalid. She said many of the signatures were from people who listed the wrong town or city for their address, were not registered to vote in New York, or signed petitions from canvassers who were not registered to vote in the state.

"I think we're really very close," Dwire said when asked if the objections would be enough to disqualify Perez Williams. "We've always considered it fatal errors if you don't have the correct town or city."

Dwire said canvassers for Perez Williams appear to have visited high-traffic areas such as Syracuse University, Le Moyne College, and the Central New York Regional Market in search of signatures. She said many of those who signed were not registered to vote in New York or were not registered Democrats.

The state Board of Elections will review the objections and make a preliminary ruling at their May 3 meeting. If Perez Williams is disqualified, she would still be able to challenge the decision in court.

The four Democratic county committees in the 24th Congressional District have been feuding with national party officials in Washington over Perez Williams since she made a last-minute entry into the campaign earlier this month.

Local Democratic leaders and party activists say Balter should not have to face a primary after winning the Democratic designation in a months-long process. The Democratic nominee will face Rep. John Katko in the November election.

Contact Mark Weiner: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751
Rochester, NY -- A Rochester City Court Judge who drove drunk, then made things worse by cursing police, trying to drive under the influence again and later taking off for Thailand, should be removed from office, the state's judicial watchdog ruled.

The state's Commission on Judicial Conduct did not mention Judge Leticia Astacio's attempt earlier this month to buy a shotgun from Dick's Sporting Goods. The store refused her.

But the commission did cite three on-the-job reasons to fire her:

In one case, she told a sheriff's deputy he should "tase" or "shoot" or "punch" an allegedly unruly defendant "in the face."

In another, she laughed during a sexual abuse case when a defense lawyer said that the alleged victim had "buyer's remorse," then later said she thought the comment was "freakin' hilarious" despite the prosecutor being "offended."

She also failed to disqualify herself during the arraignment of a former client. "I totally love him. I'm so sad he's in jail right now," the judge said before calling the next case.

The commission's ruling that she should be removed from the bench will go into effect unless the judge appeals to the state's highest court and that court reverses the commission.

Astacio has not worked in about eight months.

She was originally charged with drunken driving in April 2016, then using profane language to troopers and trying to invoke her judicial office to avoid the consequences of her arrest.

A trooper found her crashed vehicle about 8 a.m. Feb. 13, 2016 on Interstate 490, west of downtown Rochester. As part of the exchange, Astacio told the trooper to "go mind his own (f-ing) business" and later, "You're (f-ing) ruining my life."

She was sentenced to a conditional discharge -- meaning she had to stay out of trouble.

But Astacio then was re-arrested in November 2016 for attempting to start her vehicle after testing positive for alcohol on the ignition interlock device.

In May 2017, she skipped a court-ordered alcohol test and failed to appear, having departed for a lengthy trip to Thailand. She was sentenced to 60 days in jail and put on probation.

It appears that the proceedings began before her arrest earlier this month for trying to buy a shotgun at the sporting goods store, in violation of her probation.

The Commission noted the public's concern that Astacio was allowed to keep her title as judge -- including a $187,200 a year paycheck -- as the investigation against her commenced.

While noting that judges deserve a fair chance at being heard, the Commission did push the state legislature to broaden its power to suspend certain judges under investigation.

Read the entire decision against Astacio:

Decision removing Judge Leticia Astacio from office by Douglass Dowty on Scribd
Investigators are looking into what caused a small airplane to make an emergency landing in Perinton.

According to reports, calls to 911 reported a low-flying plane with an engine that sounded as if it were sputtering Monday evening.

The Monroe County Sheriff's Deputies and the Egypt Volunteer Fire Department arrived on a farm field around 6:40 p.m. in the area of Ayrault Road and Turk Hill Road.

Early this evening, Egypt was dispatched for a low flying single engine plane circling with possible engine problems.... Posted by Egypt Fire Department on Monday, April 23, 2018

According to the Democrat & Chronicle, the plane took off from Rochester heading to Macedon when the pilot landed in Perinton due to a possible engine failure, according to Egypt Fire Department Chief Jack DeLisio.

No injuries were reported and there were no visible damages to the plane or land.

According to the plane's registry number and online FAA records, the aircraft is a 1980 Cessna A185F owned by John A. Roessel of Webster, reported WHEC. Roessel was not the pilot.

Imagine farmer Chip Ellsworth's surprise when he saw an airplane sitting in his field. He told WHEC that the field could easily have been blocked by lots of sheep.

"The sheep will come up there," said Ellsworth. "The sheep are down there at that end. Yeah. Or two weeks later, the cows would've been out."

Luckily, the sheeps were further away.

"It's the first time in the last 20 years I've seen a plane down," DeLissio said to WHEC. "Obviously, it could have been a mess. We are glad it wasn't."

After the Federal Aviation Administration's investigation, the fire department will need to get the plane out of the field.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Syracuse University officials handling judicial proceedings against the students involved in a fraternity's offensive videos are racing against the graduation clock.

SU has filed disciplinary charges against 18 students after videos surfaced last week of Theta Tau fraternity brothers acting out a racist, anti-Semitic oath and miming the sexual assault of a person with disabilities.

This week is the last full week of classes at SU, and commencement is May 13.

Officials said today at a press conference they were hopeful the process would be complete before graduation. Chancellor Kent Syverud spoke along with several other administrators.

Officials removed the 18 students from classes out of caution and concern for them and the entire campus community. Arrangements have been made for the students to continue their coursework off-campus, officials said.

The first step in the disciplinary process is individual meetings, Senior Vice President of Enrollment and the Student Experience Dolan Evanovich said. Those meetings started today, he said.

At the initial meetings, students are given an opportunity to agree to discipline determined by administrators, or they can take the charges to a hearing before a university conduct board comprised of trained students, faculty and staff. Students also have the opportunity to appeal the outcome of the hearing.

Evanovich said the university felt it could reach an "expedited and fair" conclusion of the process in about two weeks.

"We are really trying to compress this timeline," he said.

Asked whether seniors could still graduate May 13 if the process has not been completed, Evanovich would only say a temporary "hold" has been placed on their records.

Officials have said they will not release the names of the students involved in the videos.

Today, they said they expected to be able to provide a general update on the outcome of the process without naming names.

Officials said they would consider suspension and expulsion, as well as "educational outcomes" as discipline for the students.

"We are also interested in them hopefully learning from the experience," Dean of Students Robert Hradsky said.

Read our continuing coverage of Theta Tau's suspension

Public Affairs Reporter Julie McMahon covers courts, government and other issues affecting taxpayers. She can be reached anytime: Email | Twitter | 315-412-1992
SAN FRANCISCO - Among the most challenging issues for Facebook is its role as the policeman for the free expression of its 2 billion users.

Now the social network is opening up about its decision-making over which posts it decides to take down - and why. On Tuesday the company for the first time published the 27-page guidelines, called Community Standards, that it gives to its workforce of thousands of human censors. The set of guidelines encompasses dozens of topics including hate speech, violent imagery, misrepresentation, terrorist propaganda and disinformation. Facebook said it would offer users the opportunity to appeal Facebook's decisions.

The move adds a new degree of transparency to a process that users, the public and advocates have criticized as arbitrary and opaque. The newly released guidelines offer suggestions on topics including how to determine the difference between humor, sarcasm and hate speech. They explain that images of female nipples are generally prohibited, but exceptions are made for images that promote breastfeeding or address breast cancer.

"We want people to know our standards, and we want to give people clarity," Monika Bickert, Facebook's head of global policy management, said in an interview. She added that she hoped publishing the guidelines would spark dialogue. "We are trying to strike the line between safety and giving people the ability to really express themselves."

The company's censors, called content moderators, have been chastised by civil rights groups for mistakenly removing posts by minorities who had shared stories of being the victims of racial slurs. Moderators have struggled to tell the difference between someone posting a slur as an attack and someone who was using the slur to tell the story of their own victimization.

In another instance, moderators removed an iconic Vietnam War photo of a child fleeing a napalm attack, claiming the girl's nudity violated its policies. (The photo was restored after protests from news organizations.) Moderators have deleted posts from activists and journalists in Myanmar and in disputed areas such as the Palestinian territories and Kashmir and have told pro-Trump activists Diamond and Silk they were "unsafe to the community."

The release of the guidelines is part of a wave of transparency that Facebook hopes will quell its many critics. It has also published political ads and streamlined its privacy controls after coming under fire for its lax approach to protecting consumer data.

The company is being investigated by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over the misuse of data by a Trump-connected consultancy known as Cambridge Analytica, and Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg recently testified before Congress about the issue. Bickert said discussions about sharing the guidelines started last fall and were not related to the Cambridge controversy.

The company's content policies, which began in earnest in 2005, addressed nudity and Holocaust denial in the early years. They have ballooned from a single page in 2008 to 27 pages today.

As Facebook has come to reach nearly a third of the world's population, Bickert's team has expanded significantly and is expected to grow even more in the coming year. A team of 7,500 reviewers, in places like Austin, Dublin and the Philippines, assesses posts 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in more than 40 languages. Moderators are sometimes temporary contract workers without much cultural familiarity with the content they are judging, and they make complex decisions in applying Facebook's rules.

Bickert also employs high-level experts including a human rights lawyer, a rape counselor, a counterterrorism expert from West Point and a PhD researcher with expertise in European extremist organizations as part of her content review team.

Activists and users have been particularly frustrated by the absence of an appeals process when their posts are taken down. (Facebook users are allowed to appeal the shutdown of an entire account but not individual posts.) The Washington Post previously documented how people have likened this predicament to being put into "Facebook jail" - without being given a reason why they were locked up.

Malkia Cyril, a Black Lives Matter activist in Oakland, California, who is also the executive director for the Center for Media Justice, was among a coalition of more than 70 civil rights groups that pressured Facebook in 2017 to fix its "racially-biased" content moderation system. Among the changes the coalition sought was an appeals process for posts that are taken down.

"At the time they told us they could not do it, they would not do it, and actually stopped engaging at that point," Cyril said. "They told us they would get back to us when they had something new to say."

Cyril said that Facebook's actions Tuesday, while well-intentioned, do not go far enough in terms of addressing the white supremacist groups allowed on the platform.

"This is just a drop in the bucket," she said. "What's needed now is an independent audit to ensure that the basic civil rights of users are protected, especially vulnerable users being targeted on the street by hate that's being fomented online."

Zahra Billoo, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations' office for the San Francisco Bay area, said adding an appeals process and opening up guidelines would be a "positive development" but said the social network still has a ways to go if it wants to stay a relevant and safe space.

Billoo said that at least a dozen pages representing white supremacists are still up on the platform, even though the policies forbid hate speech and Zuckerberg testified before Congress this month that Facebook does not allow hate groups.

"An ongoing question many of the Muslim community have been asking is how to get Facebook to be better at protecting users from hate speech and not to be hijacked by white supremacists, right-wing activists, Republicans or the Russians as a means of organizing against Muslim, LGBT and undocumented individuals," she said.

Billoo herself was censored by Facebook two weeks after Donald Trump's election, when she posted an image of a handwritten letter mailed to a San Jose mosque and quoted from it: "He's going to do to you Muslims what Hitler did to the Jews."

Bickert's team has been working for years to develop a software system that can classify the reasons a post was taken down so that users could receive clearer information - and so Facebook could track how many hate speech posts were put up in a given year, for example, or whether certain groups are having their posts taken down more frequently than others.

Currently, people who have their posts taken down receive a generic message that says that they have violated Facebook's community standards. After Tuesday's announcement, people will be told whether their posts violated guidelines on nudity, hate speech and graphic violence. A Facebook executive said the teams were working on building more tools. "We do want to provide more details and information for why content has been removed," said Ellen Silver, Facebook's vice president of operations. "We have more work to do there, and we are committed to making those improvements."

Though Facebook's content moderation is still very much driven by humans, the company does use technology to assist in its work. The company currently uses software to identify duplicate reports, a time-saving technique for reviewers that helps them avoid reviewing the same piece of content over and over because it was flagged by many people at once. Software also can identity the language of a post and some of the themes, helping the post get to the reviewer with the most expertise.

The company can recognize images that have been posted before but cannot recognize new images. For example, if a terrorist organization reposts a beheading video that Facebook already took down, Facebook's systems will notice it almost immediately, said Silver, but it cannot identify new beheading videos. The majority of items flagged by the community get reviewed within 24 hours, she said.

Every two weeks, employees and senior executives who make decisions about the most challenging issues around the world meet. They debate the pros and cons of potential policies. Teams who present are required to come up with research showing each side, a list of possible solutions, and a recommendation. They are required to list the organizations outside Facebook with which they consulted.

In an interview, Bickert and Silver acknowledged that Facebook would continue to make errors in its judgment. "The scale that we operate at," Silver said. "Even if were at 99 percent accuracy, that's still a lot of mistakes."
Candidates named in city and school elections

With the passing of the filing deadline for the upcoming city and school election, several area governing bodies including the City of Tama and ...
Doctors from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have performed the first full penis and scrotum transplant. The recipient is a U.S. military veteran who was injured by an improvised explosive device during his time in Afghanistan.

The penis and scrotum, along with a partial abdominal wall, were from a deceased donor.

Mind-Boggling Injury

The recipient chose to remain anonymous but was quoted in the press release by Johns Hopkins. He described the injury that he suffered as "mind-boggling." The veteran also said that, thanks to the surgery he now feels more normal than before and that his confidence has returned thanks to the surgery.

A team of nine plastic surgeons and two urological surgeons performed the 14-hour surgery on March 26. They were able to attach the entire penis, scrotum without testicles, and part of the abdominal wall. The veteran will be discharged from the hospital this week.

Penile transplants are complicated procedures. They involve connecting arteries, veins, nerves, the skin, and the urethra to the recipient. Director of plastic and reconstructive surgery at Johns Hopkins W.P. Andrew Lee says that he hopes that this procedure is able to restore near-normal urinary and sexual functions.

The donor's family sent the recipient a message, thanking him for his military service. They described the donation as a "special gift" for the recipient. Three surgeons from Johns Hopkins had to travel to the donor's state to remove the organs from his body. During the procedure, there were 25 people in the room.

To minimize the risk of rejection, nine vertebrae were removed from the donor to get stem cells from his body.

This is the second penis transplant in the United States. A team of surgeons from Massachusetts General Hospital performed the first in 2016. The recipient was a man who lost his penis due to penile cancer. This procedure didn't involve transplanting the scrotum into the recipient. The first successful penis transplant in the world occurred in South Africa in 2015.

It is possible to be able to reconstruct a penis from the tissue of other parts of the body, but that would require a prosthesis implant for the recipient to have an erection. This also comes with a higher rate of infection.

Penis transplants cost about $50,000 to $75,000. They are considered to be experimental procedures and are not covered by insurance. Johns Hopkins covered the cost of this transplant.

A 2016 report says that from 2001 to 2013, 1,367 men suffered injuries to their genitals or urinary tract in Iraq and Afghanistan. The majority of these injuries came from bomb blasts.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Despite three delays and a scaled-back bill, legislation that would authorize increases in hunting and fishing license fees failed Monday in the Louisiana House.

The vote was 54-27, 16 votes short of the minimum two-thirds required.

The tally may have killed the measure for the 2018 regular legislative session.

Jack Montoucet, secretary for the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, has said the increases are needed because his agency has lost $65 million since 2009 because of state budget problems.

+2 Wildlife, Fisheries chief: License fee hikes of up to 42 percent needed, but face 'uphill battle' License fees for basic fishing would rise by 42 percent and 33 percent for hunters under a proposal outlined Monday by the secretary for the s

Montoucet has also touted the fact that, under the plan, the number of licenses would be trimmed from 117 to 30, which backers said would bring Louisiana in line with neighboring states.

The legislation would raise $6.8 million per year for the department.

Rep. Jerome Zeringue, R-Houma, sponsor of the bill, was scheduled to bring up the legislation three times previously this month.

Hunting and fishing license increase goes to full Louisiana House An effort to increase the cost of Louisiana hunting and fishing licenses advanced Wednesday out of a House committee.

Each time a vote was delayed, apparently to give backers more time to round up the always challenging two-thirds majority needed for a fee hike  70 votes in the 105-member House.

Zeringue won House approval for his own amendment that trimmed some of the proposed increases.

The scoop on state politics in your inbox Get the Louisiana politics insider details once a week from us. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

"This is a way to create efficiencies within the department and allow the department to create a sustainable funding source," he said.

But Rep. Blake Miguez, R-Erath questioned the need and timing of the hikes.

Miguez said backers appeared to be dressing up higher costs to hunt and fish with a well-advised move to trim the number of licenses.

"Is this sort of putting lipstick on a pig?" he asked Zeringue.

Miguez said it made more sense to revamp the number of licenses now, and take a look at fee hikes in two years.

Louisiana has about 709,000 licensed fishermen and about 326,000 licensed hunters.

Under the plan, the cost of a basic fishing license for residents would rise from $9.50 to $13.50 per year.

A basic hunting license would go up from $15 to $20.

Backers hoped to pick up support for the proposal  House Bill 687  by reducing some of the proposed increases.

Under the change, a lifetime hunting and fishing license would cost $800, down from the original $1,000 in the bill.
Andrew Muhl, director of advocacy for AARP Louisiana, speaks in favor of a bill to reduce dependency on nursing homes, in the 2017 Legislature. The measure was defeated in that session.
SHELTON, CT (April 23, 2018) - Hubbell Incorporated (NYSE: HUBB) will webcast its Annual Meeting of Shareholders to begin at 9:00 AM ET on Tuesday May 1, 2018.

The live audio of the event will be available and can be accessed by visiting Hubbell's corporate website under the Events and Presentations section. You can also access this information by going to www.hubbell.com and selecting "Investors" from the options at the bottom of the page and then "Events/Presentations" from the drop-down menu. The audio will be archived 24 hours after the event by going to www.hubbell.com and selecting "Investors" from the options at the bottom of the page and then "Events/Presentations" from the drop-down menu, then selecting "Past Events".

Hubbell Incorporated is an international manufacturer of quality electrical and electronic products for a broad range of non-residential and residential construction, industrial and utility applications. With 2017 revenues of $3.7 billion, Hubbell Incorporated operates manufacturing facilities in the United States and around the world. The corporate headquarters is located in Shelton, CT.

######

Contact:

Steve BeersHubbell Incorporated40 Waterview DriveP.O Box 1000Shelton, CT 06484(475) 882-4000
if the people of Biafra want Republic of Biafra, it will be a reality during my administration. ----Donald Trump Donald Trump I wi...
CALGARY, Alberta, April 23, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Toscana Energy Income Corporation ("Toscana Energy" or the "Company") (TSX:TEI) held its extraordinary meeting (the "Meeting") of holders ("Debentureholders") of 6.75% convertible unsecured subordinated debentures of Toscana due June 30, 2018 ("Debentures") on April 23, 2018 in Calgary, Alberta. An aggregate of $10,499,000 principal amount of Debentures, representing approximately 52.50% of the issued and outstanding Debentures, were represented in person or by proxy at the Meeting.



Toscana is pleased to report that the special resolution to amend the Debentures to:

extend the maturity date of the Debentures from June 30, 2018 to June 30, 2021;



increase the interest rate of the Debentures from 6.75% to 7.25% per annum effective June 30, 2018;



reduce the conversion price in effect for each common share in the capital of the Company ("Common Share") to be issued upon the conversion of the Debentures from $19.70 per Common Share to $1.00 per Common Share;



permit the Company to redeem all or a part of the Debentures, upon notice as provided in the Indenture, at the redemption prices (expressed as percentages of principal amount set forth below, plus accrued and unpaid interest, if any, on the Debentures redeemed, to the applicable date of redemption, if redeemed during the 12-month period beginning on June 30 of the years indicated below:

Year Percentage 2018 103% 2019 102% 2020 100%

e. to make such other consequential amendments as required to give effect to the foregoing was approved as follows:

Votes For Votes Against Number Percentage Number Percentage 9,390 89.44% 1,109 10.56%

The required approvals from the holders ("Shareholders") of Common Shares were also received at the annual and special meeting of Shareholders on April 23, 2018. Toscana and Computershare Trust Company of Canada will finalize the supplemental indenture to implement the amendments to the Debentures, which will be effective as of June 30, 2018.

Current certificates representing Debentures remain valid as they are and are deemed to reflect the amended terms; however, should a Debentureholder wish to exchange such Debentureholder's current certificate for a certificate containing the amended terms, please contact Computershare Trust Company of Canada at corporatetrust.calgary@computershare.com or (403) 267-6800.

About Toscana Energy Income Corporation

Toscana Energy is a conventional oil and gas producer with the mandate to acquire high quality, long life oil and gas assets including royalties, non-operated working interests and unitized production for yield and capital appreciation.

For further information, please contact:

Joseph S. Durante, Chief Executive Officer

Tel: (403) 410-6793

Fax: (403) 444-0090

Source: Toscana Energy Income Corporation
VANCOUVER, B.C., April 23, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On behalf of its more than 1,400 members across British Columbia, the Trial Lawyers Association of B.C. (TLABC) is deeply disappointed with the Government of B.C.s decision to table legislation to put caps on what the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) refers to as minor injuries.



Time and time again in other provinces in Canada with similar legislation, weve seen people fall through the cracks of a cap system, says TLABC President Sonny Parhar. ICBC is not built to address the individual rights of those injured on B.C.s roads, but to minimize compensation for injury claims.

TLABC advocates on behalf of thousands of British Columbians who have been involved in collisions on B.C.s roads. Hundreds of these cases would have been dismissed under the newly tabled legislation as minor injuries and support for their recovery would have been capped at lesser amounts than would have meaningfully aided in their recovery.

From our perspective this is a rash and ill-conceived plan that is focused on covering up ICBCs own 'dumpster fire' and will only serve to make injury claims that much more challenging for those injured in collisions, said Parhar.

The TLABC has submitted reports to ICBC and the Government of B.C. on a number of occasions and has provided compelling evidence that capping injury claims will neither address ICBCs mismanagement nor douse the dumpster fire it created.

If ICBC cant be trusted to provide reliable estimates about its own financial position, should British Columbians really trust ICBC to decide if they have a minor injury that is worth practically nothing? asked Sonny Parhar To decide how much treatment, if any, they get for that injury?

About TLABC

The mission of the Trial Lawyers Association of BC is to support and promote the rights of individuals in British Columbia.

For media or other enquiries:

Megan Ejack, Communications Director

604.696.6520

megan@tlabc.org
Hamilton, Bermuda, 24 April 2018 - Hoegh LNG Holdings Ltd. ("Hoegh LNG" or the "Company") advises that primary insider Ragnar Wislff, Chief Development Officer, transferred 23,934 shares in the Company and 5,178 common units in Hoegh LNG Partners LP ("HMLP") on 23 April 2018 to his wholly owned company, Fri Agenda AS. The transfer price was NOK 49.50 per share in the Company and USD 17.85 per common unit in HMLP.

The total ownership interests subject to disclosure requirements held by Wislff following the above transaction are 165,600 options in Hoegh LNG and 1,514 common units and 2,667 phantom units in HMLP. In addition, Wislff owns 23,934 shares in Hoegh LNG and 5,178 common units in HMLP through his wholly owned company Fri Agenda AS.

* * *

About Hoegh LNG:



Hoegh LNG provides floating energy solutions and operates world-wide with a leading position as owner and operator of floating LNG import terminals; floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs), and is one of the most experienced operators of LNG Carriers (LNGCs). Hoegh LNG's vision is to be the industry leader of floating LNG solutions and the strategy is to continue to focus its growth plans in the FSRU market, with the objective of securing long-term contracts with strong counterparties at attractive returns. Hoegh LNG is a Bermuda based company with established presence in Norway, Singapore, the UK, USA, South Korea, Indonesia, Lithuania, Egypt, Colombia and Turkey. The company employs approximately 125 office staff and 500 seafarers.

Contacts:

Sveinung J. S. Sthle, President and Chief Executive Officer, Telephone +47 975 57 402

Steffen Freid, Chief Financial Officer, Telephone +47 975 57 406

Erik Folkeson, Head of IR, Telephone +47 414 21 769

This information is subject of the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act or the Continuing Obligations of Oslo Brs.
English French

Elis continues its growth strategy in Europe

and strengthens its footprint in Belgium

Saint Cloud, April 24, 2018 - Elis, a leading multi-services group in Europe and Latin America, specializing in the rental and maintenance of professional clothing, textile articles, hygiene and well-being appliances, announces it has closed the acquisition of 100% of Ardenne et Meuse (A&M) in Belgium.

A&M is a family business that operates one laundry near Liege. It generated revenues of c. 8 million euros in 2017, entirely in the Flat Linen market for Hospitality clients. Its plant is particularly modern and delivers remarkable productivity.

With this transaction, Elis enters the Flat Linen market in Belgium, where it previously only operated in the workwear and Hygiene & Well-being segments. The creation of this Belgian platform for Flat Linen will also enable us to reallocate volumes between Northern France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the North-West of Germany, paving the way for logistics optimization and productivity improvement in the region.

Commenting on this announcement, Xavier Martire, CEO of Elis, said:

"With the acquisition of A&M, Elis is launching its Flat Linen business in Belgium. We intend to create a dense, efficient and very profitable network in the country, similar to what the Group has already achieved in many other European geographies. We will therefore continue to invest in this segment in this region. The quick integration of the company and its approximately 80 employees, together with the transfer of know-how, should contribute to Elis' profitable growth trajectory going forward."

Contact

Nicolas Buron, Investor Relations Director - Phone: +33 1 75 49 98 30 - nicolas.buron@elis.com
English German

From January 1 to March 31, 2018, the technology company achieved net sales of CHF 161 million. Adjusted for currency effects, this equates to an increase of 8.8%. The high-volume production business grew by 6.7% without the influence of exchange rates, the capital goods segment showed very pleasing growth in net sales of 32.1%.

The ongoing positive market environment in combination with the strong positioning on the market helped the company achieve a successful first quarter in 2018. Group-wide, the Feintool Group achieved net sales of CHF 161.3 million, signifying growth in the reporting currency of 11.2%. Adjusted for currency effects, this equates to an increase of 8.8%. The effect of last year's acquisition in China amounted to 2.1%.

Business in the System Parts segment, with the high-volume production of sophisticated precision components, increased again. The segment was able to hold its ground in a difficult market environment. Net sales rose here by 9.4% to CHF 145.0 million, which, adjusted for currency effects, equates to an increase of 6.7%. The forming plant acquired in China contributed 2.3% to this growth. While business in Asia and Europe increased significantly, the American business saw a fall in net sales. The press and systems business in the Fineblanking Technology segment, on the other hand, the first quarter of 2018 saw a welcome visible upturn in net sales. Feintool recorded an increase in net sales of 31.9% or, adjusted for currency effects, 32.1% to CHF 22.6 million.

Rise in order entry in capital goods business good order backlog

The Order entry in the Fineblanking Technology segment also showed a positive result, rising by 9.1% to CHF 29.3 million. The order backlog also increased by 18.2% to a high CHF 53.0 million. The extent of the order backlog in the Fineblanking Technology capital goods business is now over eight months.

Expected releases in the high-volume parts segment achieve record values again

The expected releases for the next six months mark a new record value in Feintool's company history, rising by 22.1% to CHF 289.6 million. However, there has been increased volatility in this leading indicator of late.

Extensive new orders gained

In Asia, Feintool received various orders from renowned customers, which in future will generate annual net sales of around CHF 30 million. As a result, Asia is continuing to gain in significance in the long term as a growth market.

Confident outlook

For the 2018 financial year, we expect to continue our positive business development despite a market environment characterized by political uncertainties. Overall, we expect net sales of CHF 630 to 650 million and an EBIT margin of 7.5 to 8%.

The financial key figures at a glance





Figures in CHF



3/31/2018 in CHF m 3/31/2017 in CHF m Change in % Change adjusted for currency effects in % Consolidated net sales Feintool Group 161.3 145.0 11.2 8.8 Fineblanking Technology segment 22.6 17.1 31.9 32.1 System Parts segment 145.0 132.5 9.4 6.7 Orders received investment goods business Fineblanking Technology segment 29.3 26.9 9.1 9.3 Order backlog investment goods Fineblanking Technology segment 53.0 44.8 18.2 18.9 Expected releases high-volume parts segment System Parts segment 289.6 237.1 22.1 17.9

Profile in brief

Feintool is an internationally active technology and market leader in the field of fineblanking. This technology is distinguished by cost-effectiveness, quality and productivity. As a driver of innovation, Feintool continually pushes the boundaries of fineblanking and develops intelligent solutions for customers' ideas with two possibilities: On the one hand, our fineblanking systems and innovative tools and, on the other hand, the complete production of precise fineblanking and formed components in high outputs for demanding industrial applications. Feintool covers the entire process chain. The processes applied by Feintool support the trends of the automobile industry. Thus, Feintool is a project and development partner in the field of lightweight construction, module variations and alternative drive concepts, such as hybrid and electric.

The company, founded in 1959 and headquartered in Lyss, Switzerland, has its own production plants and technology centers in Europe, the United States, China and Japan, so it is always near its customers. Around 2,500 employees and over 80 trainees work worldwide on new solutions and create key advantages for Feintool's customers.

Feintool International Holding AG

Industriering 8

3250 Lyss

Switzerland

Spokesperson

Karin Labhart

Phone +41 32 387 51 57

Mobile +41 79 609 22 02

karin.labhart@feintool.com

www.feintool.com

The press release can be downloaded from the following link:
Ariana Grande has returned to the spotlight this week with her new music and her inspirational track "No Tears Left to Cry" has made waves among fans for bringing major feels.

Former Glee alum Kevin McHale (who played Artie Abrams) used the moment to not only fan over the song, but to officially tell the world hes gay.

McHale tweeted about Grandes song saying: #NoTearsLeftToCry is gayer than me and I ACCEPT. Though McHale hasnt spoken publicly about his sexual orientation prior to this tweet, he has previously posted photos with rumored boyfriend (and fellow actor) Austin McKenzie.
First there were the group that stole 20 tonnes worth of Nutella and Kinder Surprise, now someone's taken it to the next level.

A man in Texas has been sentenced to 50 years in prison after pleading guilty to stealing $1.2 million USD ($1.7 million NZD) worth of Fajitas.

For 9 years, 53 year old Gilberto Escamilla, had been stealing orders of Fajitas, from Labott Food Service, that were intended for his workplace without them knowing. It wasn't until the Labott Food Driver rang Gilberto's work to let them know he was delivering another 800 pound order of Fajitas that he was finally caught out.

A kitchen employee from Gilberto's work told the driver that they didn't serve fajitas but the driver told her that he'd been delivering fajitas to them for the past nine years.

Turns out over the nine years, Gilberto had managed to take $1,251,578 USD worth of fajitas and delivered them to his own customers (and keep a personal stash for himself).

While testifying in court, Gilberto said:

I feel horrible. I wish I could take this back. It was selfish. It started small and got bigger and out of control. It got to the point where I couldn't control it anymore.

Do you know anyone who loves Mexican as much as this guy?


QUIZ: How many rounds would you survive in Squid Game?

Will you be eliminated during red light green light, or are you making it out alive with the 45 billion won...?
Amsterdam, the Netherlands - 24 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 104,323 ordinary Intertrust shares at an average price of EUR 17.3800 per share in the period from 16 April 2018 up to and including 20 April 2018.

The aggregate consideration for this repurchase was EUR 1.81 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 20 April 2018 is 2,545,094 shares for a total aggregate consideration of EUR 40.41 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.
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Linkedin EDITORIAL (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 24, 2018 08:01 1259 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9e02f68d 4 Editorial #Editorial,pertamina,politics,Indonesian-politics,state-owned-enterprises,#Pertamina Free

We cannot help but suspect that short-term political interests were behind the sudden replacement of the president and four other directors of state-owned oil company Pertamina, only a year after their appointment. The oil and gas regulatory agency said the management shakeup was related to the recent oil spill in the waters off Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, public complaints over shortages of subsidized petrol and diesel in Java, Bali and several outer islands, and slow progress in the development of new refineries and the establishment of a state oil and gas holding company.

But we find it difficult to accept these reasons, because last weeks management reshuffle at Pertamina was the second in the last two months and the fourth in the last two years. How can a company operate properly if its management can be sacked after only two to three months in office?

In our view, the blame for such erratic appointments should be placed squarely on the shoulders of the stateowned enterprises minister and Pertaminas board of commissioners (supervisors). In view of the complex process and many parties involved, we believe it is unfair to blame Pertamina CEO Elia Massa Manik and its four directors for what the oil and gas director general claimed to be slow progress in constructing new refineries and in establishing the oil and gas holding company.

We understand that Manik was appointed the Pertamina CEO in March 2017 partly due to his experience in accelerating the establishment of a holding company for more than 17 state plantation firms.

We suspect, therefore, that Maniks biggest sin in the eyes of the government was his courage to stand up against its misguided order for Pertamina to increase the subsidized fuel allocation way over the quota, as the measure was simply aimed at appeasing public complaints at the expense of Pertaminas financial condition.

The government should admit the haphazard manner in which it intervened in the prices of non-subsidized fuel amid the steady rise in international oil prices. Instead of adhering to the managed-price floating mechanism introduced in early 2015, the government succumbed to the short-term interests of maintaining price stability through artificial means.

This is a populist measure in an election year, but a misguided policy that would damage the credibility of the governments oil policy and plant a fiscal time bomb for the next administration.

Many other countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and even Australia also use a managed-price floating system for their fuel, but not in such an erratic manner as Indonesia did.

Pertamina, the countrys largest company with a daily turnover of US$220 million, will never become a competitive energy company if it is still burdened with public service obligations. Managing subsidized fuels and setting their prices and quotas should be assigned to a government agency like the downstream oil and gas regulatory body (BPH Migas).
Europe is set to launch a satellite on Wednesday to keep a close eye on Earth's oceans, under siege from pollution and damage caused by humans. Dubbed Sentinel-3B, the orbiter will become the seventh to join the multi-billion-euro Copernicus Earth monitoring satellite constellation since April 2014.

With its twin Sentinel-3A launched in February 2016, the workhorse will provide data within three hours of it being captured, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, according to the European Space Agency (ESA).

Sentinels-3A and 3B will mirror each other on opposite sides of our planet at an altitude of just over 800 kilometers, on the lookout for further harm to the ocean or signs of recovery.

"The Sentinel-3 mission is essential for applications for ocean and coastal monitoring" -- including changes in sea level and surface temperature, pollution, sea ice extent and thickness, and coastal vegetation, said an ESA statement.

It will also monitor the height of rivers and lakes, and keep an eye on wildfires. About the size of a small car and weighing 1,250 kilograms -- Sentinel-3B will be hoisted into space by a Russian Rockot launcher from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the country's north. Liftoff is scheduled for 1757 GMT on Wednesday.

Fitted out with a range of state-of-the-art instruments, "Sentinel-3 is arguably the most comprehensive of all the Sentinel Missions," says the ESA.

The Copernicus project, funded by the European Union and ESA, is named for the 16th-century Polish astronomer who determined that the Earth orbited the Sun, and not the other way round as convention had it at the time. It claims to be the largest environmental-monitoring program in the world, providing data for free to anyone who wants it.

Other satellites in the constellation are dedicated to monitoring Earth's atmosphere, forest cover, and land and water pollution.

By mapping areas stricken by flood or earthquake, Copernicus will improve the response after natural disasters, helping emergency teams identify worst-hit areas and locate passable roads, rail lines and bridges. The total Copernicus budget from 2008 to 2020 is about 7.5 billions euros (US$9.2 billion).

There is some uncertainty over the impact of Brexit on the project in which Britain is invested. Britain's EU-linked participation in Copernicus should officially end when it leaves the bloc, though its role can be renegotiated.

London has said it wants to remain part of ESA, which is autonomous and includes non-EU members.

UK-based companies hold contracts worth tens of millions of euros from ESA to supply hardware for Copernicus as well as the Galileo satellite navigation project -- a rival to America's GPS.
Drinking coffee has become part of a hip, urban lifestyle in Indonesia, but this public appetite still requires a quality boost.

Hans Simanjuntak, 42, from Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, was slurping different types of coffee along with other cuppers, also known as coffee testers, at the 5758 Coffee Lab in Bandung, West Java, when he started coughing.



Hans and his fellow testers had to slurp hard and quickly in order to whet their palates with the aim of thoroughly tasting the coffees flavors in detail.



I was over zealous, Hans said, explaining his sudden coughing fit.



For the test, Hans, who owns four coffee stalls in his hometown, first joined a sensory training session in the same Coffee Lab, where he was required to recognize and define the flavors of eight types of coffee served in 32 glasses, along with three cuppers at his table and 12 others at three separate tables.



Each cupper had to clean the spoon they used for slurping with water before scooping coffee from another glass. The glasses of coffee were not to be touched, let alone raised. They had to rely on their remaining senses to describe the various tastes offered by the manually brewed coffee.



Their reactions were expressed through scores and descriptions, giving details of the roasting degree, aroma, any faults, sweetness, acidity, mouthfeel or character, flavor, after taste and balance.



The aroma alone ranges from fruit-like to flower-like, and the flavor is also complex, comprising that of grass, soils, fruits and spices.



The entire experience was meant to find the best-quality coffee.



Danny Pang, the programs instructor who is certified and has been a coffee trainer since 2009, said the scoring system followed a standardized method approved by the coffee industry.



So far, Indonesias coffee production has been limited to commercial coffee and specialty coffee; none have entered the Cup of Excellence (COE) or Presidential Award categories.



COE coffee in our definition is exemplary coffee. This means it has qualities that sets it apart from other commercial or even specialty coffee, Danny said.



Differences in quality are determined by cuppers scoring results. A COE quality coffee must score between 86 and 89 out of a scale of 100.



Anything above 90 is considered presidential coffee, said Danny, who is also Southeast Asias first authorized trainer from the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe (SCAE).



The series of cupping and scoring practices are meant to appreciate farmers in the upstream coffee industry, without overlooking the roles played by other players, from roasters to baristas.



Farmers contribute a great deal with coffee planting, maintenance, harvesting and post-harvest processing, but they rarely have the chance to promote their coffee to the global community.



So, the COE is the way to discover their coffee, to explain and bring it to the fore and tell the world, Hey, we have very good coffee here. And of course, we have to define what makes it excellent, Danny said.

Team work: Coffee cuppers are divided into groups of three during a Sensory Education Training session at 5758 Coffee Lab. (JP/Arya Dipa)

Meanwhile, Specialty Coffee Association of Indonesia (SCAI) chairman A. Syafrudin, said coffee cuppers in the archipelago were still limited to Q-graders for Arabica and R-graders for Robusta.



SCAI is deeply concerned over the COE status because the countrys coffee production is varied. Our product is still limited to commercial and specialty coffee, Syafrudin explained.



The standardization for COE, according to Syafrudin, has encouraged cuppers to define and evaluate the quality of coffee more profoundly.



The country still has many kinds of hidden coffees. Indonesias eight islands are planted with Arabica coffee, which we should be exposed to the world through the COE, Syafrudin emphasized.



COE coffee makes up less than 1 percent of the countrys entire coffee production, compared to specialty coffee at 10 percent.



If any coffee is eligible for the COE category, it can be internationally listed for open auctions at a premium price, after undergoing several stages of blind cupping by international juries. Later, the greater portion of auction proceeds will go to farmers in the upstream sector.



An example is organic coffee fair trade certification, which requires every exporter to give farmers 44 United States per kilogram of coffee exported as a show appreciation. Any violation is liable to sanctions, Syafrudin said.
Cheese is serious business for Italians, and perhaps its most famous, Parmigiano Reggiano, had its best ever year in 2017, producing a record-busting 147,000 tonnes and generating 2.2 billion euros ($2.7 billion) in sales.

That figure, released Monday by Italy's Parmigiano Reggiano consortium, represents 3.6 million wheels produced of the cheese, commonly known as parmesan in English.

Production was up five percent from 2016 and 10 percent from three years ago.

Read also: Where to savor raclette cheese in Jakarta

While Italians still eat the majority of parmesan produced, exports are also rising, increasing by nearly 4 percent from 2016 to hit 51,000 tonnes, or 38 percent of total production.

France and Germany were the top two importers.

Further ripening the picture for parmesan producers was the increase in the average price to 9.81 euros per kilo, a 14 percent gain from the previous year.

Producers hope 2018 will melt last year's record numbers, with 3.7 million wheels expected to be produced -- 100,000 more than last year -- and exports set to increase.
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Linkedin Josh Wingrove (Bloomberg) Ottawa, Canada  Tue, April 24, 2018 06:30 1259 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9e02d595 2 World #G7-summit,#ForeignDiplomacy,#KoreanPeninsula,#Russia,#USA Free

The latest Group of Seven meetings have begun with a focus on Russias actions in Ukraine, an issue Canadas foreign minister knows well.

Chrystia Freeland, a lawmaker of Ukrainian descent who is banned from Russia, kicked off the meeting of foreign ministers by hosting them for brunch -- waffles, eggs, a cake, served by her children in her Toronto home -- along with Ukraines foreign minister. Freeland, who speaks Ukrainian, is an avowed critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The issue was one of several being discussed by counterparts including the UKs Boris Johnson, Germanys Heiko Maas and Japans Taro Kono. The meetings are being held with a notable exception -- incoming US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has not yet been confirmed, so the US was represented by Acting Secretary of State John Sullivan.

Weve had excellent conversations on Russia, on Ukraine, weve spoken somewhat about China, Freeland said in brief remarks when reporters were brought into the room. And we are now about to dive into conversations about Syria, North Korea, Myanmar, Venezuela, among other issues.

The meeting came as US President Donald Trump tempered optimism on the situation in North Korea, saying on Twitter that only time will tell. Sullivan met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin on Saturday in Toronto, and reaffirmed the US support for the sovereignty and integrity of Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression, according to a statement form the US State Department.

The G-7 ministers agreed they should never accept a nuclear-armed North Korea, Toshihide Ando, deputy press secretary for Japans Minister of Foreign Affairs, said in a press briefing Monday morning in Toronto.

We are united as an international community that we need to have concrete actions on the part of North Korea for the denuclearization, more specifically dismantlement of biological and chemical weapons, other weapons of mass destruction and its missile program, he said.

On Ukraine, the ministers reaffirmed the importance of full implementation of the Minsk agreement and, on Syria, Kono stressed that the political solution through the Geneva process is the only option. The ministers noted that China has capacity to contribute to the international community, he added.

On Sunday, Freeland also held a meeting with female foreign ministers from non-G7 countries -- TV cameras captured her riding her bicycle there from the brunch -- and announced Canada would host the worlds female foreign ministers for a conference in September.

Sullivan and Freeland are scheduled to speak publicly Monday. The G-7 meeting runs until Tuesday and will also include security ministers. The G-7 leaders summit is scheduled to be held in June in Quebec.
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Linkedin Jon Afrizal (The Jakarta Post) Jambi  Tue, April 24, 2018 19:47 1258 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9e05d0de 1 National Jambi,Kerinci-Seblat,national-park,illegal-loggers,illegal-logging,mount-kerinci Free

A joint team comprising personnel of the Kerinci Police and the Kerinci Seblat National Park (TNKS) as well as forest rangers arrested on Sunday three people for illegal logging in the foothills of Mount Kerinci.

The arrests followed tip-offs from local people who reported rampant illegal logging activities in the area.

Two of the three alleged illegal loggers, identified only as MD, 49, and RD, 49, are residents of Gunung Tujuh district, Kerinci regency, while the other alleged logger, DK, 26, is a resident of Nagari Pakan Salasa in Pauh Duo district, South Solok regency, West Sumatra.

They were arrested following investigations we conducted together with TNKS officials into their illegal logging activities in Kayu Aro district, which is part of the national park, said First Insp. Edi Mardi of the Kerinci Polices criminal investigation unit on Tuesday.

During the raid, the police confiscated 168 pieces of processed wood, two motorcycles and a chainsaw.

Edi said the three loggers were charged under Article 83 of Law No.18/2013 on deforestation and forest degradation prevention and eradication, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. (hol/ebf)
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Sydney, Australia  Tue, April 24, 2018 17:23 1259 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9e054a3c 2 World bali,children,Australia,travel,Indonesia Free

Australian police were Tuesday investigating how a 12-year-old boy managed to fly alone to the Indonesian island of Bali and spend four days at a resort using his parents' credit card.

The boy ran away from his Sydney home after a row with his mother, flying first to the Western Australian city of Perth on budget airline Jetstar and then on to Bali, according to commercial broadcaster Channel Nine.

"He just doesn't like the word 'no', and that's what I got, a kid in Indonesia," his mother, Emma, told Channel Nine in a programme that aired late Monday.

"It's too easy, it's way too easy. There's a problem in our system," she said, calling for tighter controls on air travel by young people.

The family had previously visited Bali on holiday and Emma said her son had already tried to book flights there on his own but had been knocked back by airlines because he did not have a letter from her.

"We screamed, we begged for help [from Australian authorities] for weeks on end," Emma added.

"When the first attempt to Indonesia took place, we were told his passport was going to be flagged."

The boy, who "wanted to go on an adventure", said he was told by airline staff this time that he did not need permission from his parents to board the flights.

He spent four days in Bali, where he said he checked into a hotel, hired a scooter and drank beer before a friend alerted his mother to a geotagged video of himself playing in a swimming pool.

The holiday cost his parents A$8,000 (US$6,100), according to Channel Nine.

The Australian Federal Police said they were first notified that the boy might try to leave the country on March 8, before being told he might be in Bali on March 17.

The boy was found by Indonesian police the following day.

His parents then flew to Bali to take him home.

The federal police said an alert to prevent international travel had not been placed on the boy, and it did not have the power to cancel or request the cancellation of a passport if there were no suspicions of crimes committed.

"The AFP will work with partner agencies to review the circumstances of this matter and current operating procedures, to ensure this type of incident does not occur again," an AFP spokeswoman said in a statement.

Jetstar told Channel Nine the airline had since changed its procedures to prevent children over 12 from travelling without parental permission.

In general, Australian airlines do not allow children younger than five to travel alone.

Children between five and 11 must be booked on an unaccompanied minor ticket while those from 12-15 are required to have a permission slip from their parent or guardian.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 24, 2018 10:54 1259 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9e03fc75 4 Business DarminNasution,rupiah,weakening,bank-indonesia,intervention Free

Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution has called for calm over the rupiah weakening against the US dollar, saying that such a development has both a positive and negative impact.

I will say, there is such a development. But dont worry too much, Darmin said at his office in Jakarta on Monday as quoted by kontan.com.

He said the rupiah weakening was caused by the strengthening US dollar, which also affected other currencies.

On Monday morning, the rupiah was quoted at 13,890 against the US dollar at the Jakarta Interbank Spot Dollar Rate (JISDOR), the weakest figure in the last two and a half years.

Meanwhile, according to Bloomberg, the rupiah spot exchange rate was quoted at 13,921 against the US dollar at the Tuesday morning opening from 13,975 at the Monday closing position.

Darmin denied that the decline of the rupiah value was caused by internal factors, saying there was no problem with Indonesia's fundamental economy.

Meanwhile, Bank Indonesia Governor Agus Martowardojo said the central bank was taking measures to stabilize the currency.

Bank Indonesia is always open to stabilizing the rupiah so that the value will be in accordance with its fundamental, Agus said in a statement issued on Monday night.

He said the rupiah had been under pressure since Friday due to the strengthening US dollar, sparked by the increasing value of US treasury bills as well as expectations of a third increase to the Fed Fund Rate.

On Monday, the rupiah weakened by 0.12 percent from 0.70 percent on Friday, Agus added. (bbn)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 24, 2018 19:54 1258 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9e05e178 1 National #LGBT,LGBT,#LGBTRights,Muhadjir-Effendy,Education-and-Culture-Ministry,anti-LGBT Free

The Education and Culture Minister canceled on Tuesday evening an event titled "Save Indonesian Families and Children From the LGBT Movement", which was scheduled for Wednesday morning at the ministry's headquarters in South Jakarta.

LGBT stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.

Minister Muhadjir Effendy was listed as one of the speakers for the event, held by Dharma Womens Union (DWP), an organization led by the wives of government officials.

The ministers Special Staff of Policy Implementation Monitoring Alpha Amirrachman confirmed the cancellation on Tuesday. The event was simply cancelled, said Alpha in response to The Jakarta Posts question about the reason behind the cancellation.

The poster for the event has been circulating on social media and criticized by several human rights and pro-democracy activists because the topic was seen as a threat to a minority group.

Other speakers previously planned for the event include Euis Sunarti, a Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB) professor who had previously petitioned the Constitutional Court to criminalize homosexual sex, and Dewi Inong Irana, a doctor who has been outspoken about her belief that LGBT behavior spreads HIV/AIDS.

Read also: Education minister listed as speaker of anti-LGBT event

Earlier, the ministrys spokersperson, Seno Hartono, said the minister may not attend the event because he was in Papua. (evi)
24 April 2018

Acron Announces Annual General Meeting

Acron Board of Directors has resolved to convene its annual general meeting on 31 May 2018 at 9:30 am at Acron Cultural Centre (22a Lomonosov Street, Veliky Novgorod, Russian Federation).

The Board of Directors considered matters related to the annual general meeting preparation and approved its agenda as follows:

Approving Acron Annual Report for 2017 Approving Acron annual accounting (financial) statements for 2017 Distributing Acron profit and loss (including paying (declaring) dividends) for 2017 Electing Acron Board of Directors Paying compensation and reimbursement to members of Acron Board of Directors Approving Acron auditor Electing Acron Internal Audit Team Participating of Acron in joint commercial entities

The record date for the annual general meeting is 7 May 2018 (end of business day).

All the information to be provided to persons entitled to attend the shareholder meeting, including Board of Directors recommendations on dividend amount, will be made available on the corporate website and submitted to the central depositary not later than on 10 May 2018. It will also be available at the Company's offices.

Media contacts:

Sergey Dorofeev

Anastasiya Gromova

Tatiana Smirnova

Public Relations

Phone: +7 (495) 777-08-65 (ext. 5196)

Investor contacts:

Ilya Popov

Investor Relations

Phone: +7 (495) 745-77-45 (ext. 5252)

Background Information

Acron Group is a leading vertically integrated mineral fertiliser producer in Russia and globally, with chemical production facilities in Veliky Novgorod (Acron) and the Smolensk region (Dorogobuzh). The Group owns and operates a phosphate mine in Murmansk region (North-Western Phosphorous Company, NWPC) and is implementing a potash development project in Perm Krai (Verkhnekamsk Potash Company, VPC). It has a wholly owned transportation and logistics infrastructure, including three Baltic port terminals and distribution networks in Russia and China. Acron's subsidiary, North Atlantic Potash Inc. (NAP), holds mining licenses for 13 parcels of the potassium salt deposit at Prairie Evaporite, Saskatchewan, Canada. Acron also holds a minority stake (19.8%) in Polish Grupa Azoty S.A., one of the largest chemical producers in Europe.

In 2017, the Group sold 7.3 million tonnes of various products to 65 countries, with Russia, Brazil, Europe and the United States as key markets.

In 2017, the Group posted consolidated IFRS revenue of RUB 94,342 million (USD 1,617 million) and net profit of RUB 14,260 million (USD 244 million). Acron's shares are on the Level 1 quotation list of the Moscow Exchange and its global depositary receipts are traded at the London Stock Exchange (ticker AKRN). Acron employs approximately 11,000 people.

For more information about Acron Group, please visit www.acron.ru/en.
The Jakarta Corruption Court judges sentenced former House of Representatives speaker Setya Novanto to 15 years in prison on Tuesday.

Reading out the court's verdict, presiding judge Yanto said the former Golkar Party chairman had been declared guilty of rigging the Rp 5.9 trillion (US$424 million) e-ID project, which reportedly caused Rp 2.3 trillion in state losses.

The court also ordered him to pay Rp 500 million in fines and restitution amounting to the US$7.3 million he obtained in the case.

Read also: Q&A: Is the e-ID mega-scandal the end for slick House Speaker Setya?

Both Setya and prosecutors said they would wait a week before announcing whether they would file an appeal.

Prosecutors had previously demanded a 16-year prison sentence and a Rp 1 billion fine for the defendant for his role in the case, which reportedly caused Rp 2.3 trillion in state losses.

The antigraft body also rejected Setya's request for justice collaborator status, as the commission argued that Setya had not provided significant information related to the case.

Read also: Setya Novanto e-ID graft case timeline

Prosecutors indicted Setya in the case when he was still Golkars faction leader at the House.

Setya becomes the fourth defendant to be found guilty in the case after former Home Ministry senior officials Irman and Sugiharto as well as businessman Andi Agustinus or Andi Narogong. (ebf)
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Linkedin Riza Roidila Mufti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 24, 2018 20:04 1258 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9e05e2b3 1 Business government,marketplace,online-business,movement,SMEs Free

Several government institutions and six online marketplaces launched on Tuesday a national campaign to help small and medium business enterprises (SMEs) operate online.

The movement, called "Ayo UMKM Jualan Online" (Let SMEs Sell Online), is aimed at attracting and persuading SMEs across Indonesia to sell products via online marketplaces to increase profits and prosperity.

The government bodies that have taken part in the campaign include the Communications and Information Ministry, the Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Ministry and the Creative Economy Agency (Bekraf).

Online marketplaces involved include Blibli.com, Tokopedia, Bukalapak, Shopee, Lazada and Blanja.com.

Through the campaign, the government has set the goal of seeing 8 million SMEs go online by 2020, Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Ministry marketing service director Emilia Suhaemi said.

"SMEs have proven to be the backbone of the Indonesian economy, by contributing 62.5 percent to Indonesia's gross domestic product (GDP). That's why we have to support their development by helping them go online to expand their markets," she said during the campaign launch. As of 2017, a total of 59.26 million SMEs operated in Indonesia, however only 3.97 million SMEs were active online. (bbn)
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 24 2018

The alleged mastermind behind a series of ATM robberies at convenience stores in Jakarta, identified only as JA, was shot dead by the police in the early hours of Monday, after he reportedly resisted arrest.



We had to gun down one of the suspects, who was the mastermind of the crimes, because he attempted to fight us during our raid this morning, West Jakarta Police criminal unit head Adj. Sr. Comr. Edy Suranta Sitepu said on Monday at the Kramat Jati Police Hospital in East Jakarta as reported by kompas.com.



JA, who had been sought by the police for the past week, pointed a gun at officers, Edy said, adding that the group JA led consisted of five individuals, who have now been arrested.



Edy said the group had carried out 53 robberies in 28 convenience stores across the city. They collected at least Rp 700 million [US$50,190] from their crimes an...
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Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 24, 2018 13:47 1259 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9e04a844 1 Business trade-aggreement-talk,Indonesia-Australia,CEPA,negotiation Free

Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita has said negotiators of the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IA CEPA) will meet to settle the differences that could not be resolved in previous meetings.

"The negotiation team will sit together with their Australian counterpart. The team has to finalize discussion by the end of this month," the minister said after a Cabinet meeting on the economic partnership at the Vice Presidential Office in Jakarta over the weekend.

The minister did not reveal the exact date and place of the negotiations.

The negotiations were originally planned to conclude in November 2017, but the countries had failed to reach an agreement on a number of issues.

Enggartiasto said President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and Australia Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had targeted to finalize the unsolved issues, particularly in regard to taxes, in August and planned to ink the agreement in October or in November.

Indonesian-Australian trade reached US$8.46 billion in 2016, with $3.19 billion in Australian exports to Indonesia and $5.26 billion in Indonesian exports to Australia.

Enggartiasto said the government would soon start trade talks with Morocco and Kenya, particularly in trying to agree on a preferential trade agreement (PTA).

"With African countries, the agreement is a PTA, which should be completed quicker as a PTA is not as complicated as an FTA [ free trade agreement] ," he said.

Indonesia will also open talks on FTAs with Egypt and Turkey. (bbn)
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Semarang  Tue, April 24 2018

The Semarang Corruption Court has sentenced non-active Tegal Mayor Siti Masitha Soeparno to five years in prison after she was found guilty of bribery related to a construction project at Kardinah Regional General Hospital in Tegal, Central Java.



Wearing all black, Siti Masitha could not hold back her tears upon hearing the verdict that was read out in a session at the court on Monday. Her family members were seen surrounding the non-active mayor, trying to calm her down.



Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) prosecutor Joko Hermawan said his prosecutors could not yet respond to the ruling because many aspects of the judge panels decisions needed to be examined. They included the judge panels refusal to revoke the graft defendants political rights, the panels ruling, which was considered too light, and additional evidence presented by prosecutors that the...
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 24, 2018 16:04 1259 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9e04e309 1 City housing,TOD-transit-oriented-development,MRT-Jakarta,MRT,project Free

The Jakarta administration has expressed its intention to commence 13 transit-oriented development (TOD) projects that will integrate housing and public transportation along the route of the MRTs first phase, which spans from Lebak Bulus, South Jakarta, to the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta.

The plan was conveyed by Deputy Governor Sandiaga Uno recently.

PT MRT Jakarta will be responsible for the construction, he said.

There will be 13 TODs along the MRTs phase one route, Sandiaga said at City Hall on Monday, adding that the administration would coordinate with state-own firms and private companies to realize the plan.

The plan is set to commence with the construction of housing in Dukuh Atas, Setiabudi, South Jakarta, at the end of the year. The housing project which will be built where Blora Market once stood, with expected completion in 2020. (vny/iwa)
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Linkedin Shaun Tandon (Agence France-Presse) New York  Tue, April 24, 2018 21:47 1258 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9e0645e8 2 Business music,music-industry,digital,digital-music,global-market Free

The global music industry soared a record 8.1 percent last year as digital sales for the first time made up the majority of revenue thanks to the streaming boom, the industry said Tuesday.

Recorded music grossed $17.3 billion in 2017 with digital music -- until last year roughly equal to physical sales worldwide -- amounting to 54 percent of the revenue, the IFPI global body said in its annual report.

The 8.1 percent growth marks the third consecutive year of expansion and the fastest pace since the IFPI, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, began compiling data, the group's CEO, Frances Moore, told reporters on a conference call.

But the industry still is only about two-thirds of the value it was in the 1990s before the rise of the internet and the scourge of pirated music sent the music business into a 15-year slump, Moore said.

The resurgence is almost entirely due to the rapid growth of streaming services including Spotify, Deezer and Apple Music, which have given the industry a badly needed new source of revenue.

The report said that 176 million people around the world paid for streaming subscriptions by the end of 2017, with 64 million joining throughout the year -- and there is plenty of room to grow on a global level.

Physical sales tumbled again but one bright side was vinyl, which remains a sliver of the market but grew 22.3 percent as records find a renewed market among audiophiles.

Stu Bergen, the CEO for international and global commercial services at the Warner Music Group, warned that the music industry should not become "complacent" and pledged that record labels would invest their revenue to develop new talent.

"We've fought too hard to get here and, after 15 years of decline, there's still plenty of room to grow," Bergen said on the conference call.

Latin American growth

He voiced guarded optimism about China, where revenue jumped 35.3 percent as international labels increasingly penetrate the billion-plus market.

The growth, however, comes from a small base, with China only the 10th largest music market.

In one point of concern, Japan -- the world's second largest music market -- saw revenue decline by three percent.

The slump was paradoxically due to the continued strength of CD sales in Japan, where physical music makes up 72 percent of the market, with digital revenue not providing the same injection of growth as elsewhere.

"It's just a question of time. It's a traditional society and the move towards digital is slower than in some countries," Moore said.

Latin America saw the biggest growth among regions.

Revenue there jumped 17.7 percent on the back of streaming and particularly strong showings in Brazil, Chile and Peru.

The report, however, warned that more needed to be done to reach Latin American music consumers who do not have credit cards -- generally a requirement to subscribe to streaming services.

The IFPI also repeated its longstanding complaints about a structural "value gap" which allows YouTube to pay less back to artists, owing in part to laws in the United States that shield internet companies from responsibility for content uploaded by users.

The report estimated that record companies earned $20 per year from each Spotify user, while YouTube, owned by search engine giant Google, paid less than $1.

"We can't deliver the path to recovery alone. There is a structural fault in the market," Moore said.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 24, 2018 11:34 1259 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9e0420e7 4 Business pertamina,reshuffle,workers,comments Free

A workers organization has expressed its concern over the replacement of five directors at state-owned energy company Pertamina, including president director Elia Massa Manik, saying the reshuffle could negatively affect both Pertamina employees and the company.

How can Pertamina become a world-class energy company if there is a [frequent] change of directors? And there should be a rearrangement of work programs, said Federation of the United Pertamina Workers Association president Arie Gumilar in Jakarta on Monday as reported by tempo.co.

He was referring to the dismissal of Elia and four other directors during a shareholders meeting on Friday. The meeting appointed human resources director Nicke Widyawati as acting president director.

Arie speculated that the reshuffle had been sparked by the business and political interests of certain parties.

A similar concern was also expressed by Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) economist Bhima Yudhistira Adhinegara, who said that such an abrupt replacement could affect the companys performance.

It will surely affect the strategic policies of the company. The people in the company have to adjust to the new directors, he added.

The State-owned Enterprises Ministry previously revealed a number of reasons for the reshuffle, including to accelerate the establishment of an oil and gas holding company and due to a recent oil spill in Balikpapan Bay. (bbn)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 24, 2018 09:45 1259 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9e036c37 1 City Thousand-Islands-regency,boat-explosion,police-questioning Free

Thousand Islands Police have questioned 15 witnesses in their investigation into any possible signs of neglect in an explosion on a boat operated by the Jakarta Transportation Agency near the main pier of Panggang Island, which injured nine passengers.

We will investigate whether there are any possible signs of neglect that caused the explosion, or if it was purely an engine failure, Thousand Islands Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Victor Siagian said on Monday as reported by tempo.co.

Victor said the 15 witnesses were agency employees as well as the vessels crew who were attending a local festival in Panggang Island.

We have questioned 15 people. Nine people are transportation agency employees and six crew members, he said.

On Sunday at 10.20 a.m. the vessel exploded shortly after the engine was turned on. The vessel was due to transport the passengers to Pramuka Island. (ami)

An aerial view of the Thousand Islands, north of Jakarta's coast. (Shutterstock/File)
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Linkedin Rachmadea Aisyah and Stefanno Reinard Sulaiman (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 24, 2018 09:40 1259 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9e0366d7 2 National SBY,foreign-workers,Jokowi,license,warning Free

President Joko Jokowi Widodos administration is having to defend its decision to simplify the licensing process for foreign-worker recruitment, with Jokowis predecessor warning of an invasion of foreign workers.



Following its issuance in late March, Presidential Regulation No. 20/2018 on the utilization of foreign workers immediately drew strong reactions, particularly from labor unions and Jokowis political opponents who have since used the issue to attack the government.



Those who have denounced the regulation include the Confederation of Indonesian Workers Union (KSPI), lawmakers at the House of Representatives and even former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.



Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Manpower Minister Hanif Dhakiri insisted that the regulation did not remove any existing requirements for foreign workers to work in the country but merely simplified procedures.



This presidential regulation does not remove any qualitative requirements from the [permit application] process, Hanif said. It only simplifies the procedural and bureaucratic steps of the requirements.

Citing an example, the minister said the presidential regulation cut the licensing process for foreign workers to six days from the previous 20 days with some of the steps now being able to be done online.



Moreover, the validity of the Expatriate Placement Plan (RPTKA) obtained by the applicants will be more flexible, for as long as the work contract applied for instead of being valid for only one year as at present.



Hanif also gave an assurance that in addition to requiring foreign workers to pay extra fees, the regulation also limited foreign workers to managerial or higher positions, meaning that they would not take on blue-collar jobs, for which there is already an oversupply of low-skilled workers.



However, former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has questioned the rationale behind the issuance of the regulation. In his speech before hundreds of Cilegon residents in West Java, one of the countrys biggest industrial cities, over the weekend, Yudhoyono said the invasion of foreign workers could lead to social unrest.



The regulation has triggered particular controversy in the run up to Labor Day on May 1. The KSPI says it plans to deploy 1 million workers in the annual May Day demonstrations, during which KSPI head Saiq Iqbal said they would demand the President revoke the regulation.



Politician Yusril Ihza Mahendra of the Crescent Star Party (PBB) has said he will assist the KSPI in taking the regulation to the Supreme Court for a judicial review. I will act as the lawyer for the KSPI in filing for a review of the controversial regulation, Yusril said in a statement.



Outspoken lawmaker Fahri Hamzah, meanwhile, has called for the formation of a special House committee to launch an inquiry into the regulation. He claimed many Indonesians were disappointed that the government had chosen to bring in foreign workers rather than employing them.



Meanwhile, Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) head Thomas Tom Lembong said on Monday an inflow of foreign workers was inevitable as Indonesia was still highly dependent on foreign direct investment.



The investors are willing to take a chance on billions and even trillions of their money being invested [in Indonesia], so they will certainly send their people to safeguard the use of those funds, Tom said.



He claimed that the permit applications had long been an obstacle for foreign employers who wanted to bring in their own talent, thus discouraging them from maximizing their investments in the country.



Furthermore, foreign workers make up only a tiny proportion of the overall Indonesian workforce. Data from the BKPM shows, as of 2017, there were only 126,000 foreigners among the total of 121 million workers in the country.



Separately, Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) chairman Hariyadi B. Sukamdani welcomed the new presidential regulation on foreign workers, saying it gave a clear timeframe for permit issuance for workers and their employers.



The regulation benefits employers that need foreign workers, because when the process [of permit issuance] has passed the deadline, the permit is assumed to be approved, said Hariyadi.



He denied claims the regulation would lead to foreign workers stealing local workers jobs, as he believed the trend for foreign workers had declined in recent years. Employing foreign workers means greater costs, as you have to prepare accommodation, flight tickets and if he or she has family, you also have to pay for them, he said. I believe that now a company only can afford to employ [foreigners] for three years.



Hariyadi gave the example of Chinese workers, who have been subject to many complaints, but who will leave as soon as their projects are finished. Its logical that a contractor wants its trusted employees to run the projects, he said.

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CALGARY, Alberta, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bellatrix Exploration Ltd. (Bellatrix or the Company) (TSX:BXE) (NYSE:BXE) plans to release its first quarter operational and financial results after markets close on May 8, 2018. Additionally, Bellatrix will host a conference call to discuss the first quarter results on May 9, 2018 at 9:00 am MT / 11:00 am ET. To participate, please call toll-free 1-800-319-4610, or 403-351-0324, or 416-915-3239. The call can also be heard live through an internet webcast accessible via the investors section of Bellatrixs website at http://www.bxe.com/investors/presentations-events.cfm. The webcast will be archived in the investors section for approximately 30 days following the call.



Bellatrix will hold its annual general meeting on May 9, 2018 at 3:00 pm MT in the Mayfair Room of the Westin Hotel located at 320  4th Avenue SW, Calgary, Alberta.

Bellatrix Exploration Ltd. is a publicly traded Western Canadian based growth oriented oil and gas company engaged in the exploration for, and the acquisition, development and production of oil and natural gas reserves, with highly concentrated operations in west central Alberta, principally focused on profitable development of the Spirit River liquids rich natural gas play.

For further information, please contact:

Steve Toth, CFA, Vice President, Investor Relations & Corporate Development (403) 750-1270

Bellatrix Exploration Ltd.

1920, 800  5th Avenue SW

Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2P 3T6

Phone: (403) 266-8670

Fax: (403) 264-8163

www.bxe.com
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 24, 2018 14:25 1259 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9e04b2e3 1 City burglars,South-Tangerang,crime,police Free

A shoot-out between South Tangerang Police and suspected burglars resulted in the deaths of two of the suspects in front of the Esta Dana Ventura Microfinancing office on Jl. Siliwangi Raya, Pamulang, South Tangerang, Banten.

South Tangerang Police criminal unit director Adj. Comr. Alexander said the suspects had firearms and were resisting arrest when the police tried to ambush them.

We have detained five suspects. Two them were shot dead because they were resisting arrests and one ran away, Alex said on Tuesday as reported by wartakota.tribunnews.com.

Alex said police had grown suspicious of the activities of the suspects in the wee hours of Tuesday. Police reportedly saw the suspects attempting to break into a shop-house.

When one suspect was tried to break in, we tried to ambush them, Alex said.

The suspect immediately returned to a car and attempted to flee the scene with the others.

One of our members was hit and we opened fire on them, Alex said.

The remains of two of the suspected burglars were taken to Kramat Jati Police Hospital in East Jakarta.

The police have yet to identify the deceased suspects as they were not carrying identification. (ami)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Tangerang  Tue, April 24, 2018 13:37 1259 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9e049df6 1 City names,father,fatherhood,parenting,odd-names,Tangerang Free

The father of Ihsan Hadi, a noodle seller in Tangerang who recently changed his name from Kentut, which translates to Fart, has explained the story behind his sons unusual former name.

Ihsans father, Larno, told tempo.co in Javanese that it was the grandfather of his wife, Sakiyem, who gave the name to their firstborn.

[Ihsan's] great grandfather didnt mean kentut [as in fart], the 53-year-old said on Monday.

Larno admitted that he did not know the actual meaning of his sons name. He said it was the habit of Javanese elders to call a baby boy "Thut", from the word "Kenthut", and that kentut and kenthut had different meanings.

The difference in pronunciation between "kenthut" and "kentut" is similar to difference between "three" and "tree" in English.

Larno blamed Ihsans elementary school administration for allegedly misspelling his sons name as "Kentut" on a school certificate.

The head of Javanese literature at the University of Indonesia, Dwi Puspitorini, said that both kenthut and kentut were in the Javanese dictionary.

According to the Javanese-English Dictionary composed by Stuart Robson and Singgih Wibisono, "kenthut" means "muscular"or "strong".

The meaning of the word kenthut is actually good, Dwi told tempo.co on Monday.

However, Ihsans great grandfathers wish to make him strong by naming him Kenthut eventually generated negative feedback 30 years later due to someones spelling mistake.

On Monday, Kentut officially became Ihsan Hadi. Judge Elly Istianawati, who presided over the case at Tangerang District Court, read out the verdict to which Ihsan responded by performing sujud syukur (prostration of thankfulness) several times in the courtroom.

Its OK, I support my son no matter what, Larno said. (vla)
Garuda Indonesia opened a direct route between Denpasar and Mumbai on Monday, offering more options for passengers traveling to the Indian city from Balis provincial capital city, and providing ease of access for Indian tourists to Indonesia.

The new route aims to expand the national flag carrier's international network, especially in South Asia, said Garuda Indonesia president director Pahala N. Mansury in a statement. The growth of Indian tourist arrivals to the archipelago throughout 2017 was also quite significant, reaching up to 28.8 percent nationally.

"Hopefully it can also support the government's effort to increase the number of Indian tourists to Indonesia, as well as strengthen bilateral relation betweens Indonesia and India, especially since Bali has similarities in cultural and religious background," said Pahala.

Read also: Garuda Indonesia's Kartini Flight features all-female pilots, cabin crew, groundcrew

The Denpasar-Mumbai service will be available two times per week on Monday and Thursday using an Airbus A330-200, departing from Denpasar at 3:40 p.m. local time and arriving in Mumbai at 8:25 p.m. Meanwhile, the return flight will take off from Mumbai at 9:50 p.m. and land in Denpasar at 7:55 a.m.

The Airbus A330-200 itself can accommodate 36 and 186 business and economy class passengers, respectively.

"Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai is among Indian airports with the highest flight traffic rates, serving over 32 million passengers per year and more than 90 destinations around the globe," added Pahala.

Garuda Indonesia flies to more than 90 destinations across the globe, operating 600 flights every day and 202 aircraft with an average of five years of age. (kes)
Located in Sleman regency, Yogyakarta Marriott Hotel is a newcomer in the provinces hotel scene. However, it provides facilities and services that should not be underestimated.

The overview

Established in October last year, the hotel is designed to cater to both business and leisure. Offering 347 guestrooms with pools and city views, it is said to be the first Marriott branded hotel in Indonesia.

It is situated at Jl. Ringroad Utara, Condong Catur, about 20 minutes from Adisutjipto International Airport, which is known as a student area as it is relatively near to some universities, including Gajah Mada University (UGM), National Development University (UPN) Veteran and Yogyakarta State University (UNY).

Despite being mostly designed in a modern style, it also incorporates Indonesian culture into the interior, including the use of kawung batik patterns. The hotel's facilities include: a workstation, swimming pools for adults as well as kids, meeting rooms and a ballroom.

The room

The Quan Spa at Marriott Yogyakarta Hotel. (Marriott International/-)

Recently I had the opportunity to stay in the hotels deluxe room with a pool view. I especially enjoyed the rooms large space and the facilities provided, from the hair dryer to the ironing board. It also has an open bathroom that can be closed using a partition, therefore privacy should not be a problem.

Although the sound from outside the room could still be slightly heard, such as the sound of doors closing, I did not have any difficulty sleeping.

The spa

The hotel boasts a Traditional Javanese Massage service, where you can get a massage for your arms, feet, back and head (by request).

I was escorted to one of the therapy rooms, which had low lighting, with candles place in the corners. The rooms aroma was relaxing and the music was not too loud.

After changing into a brown kimono and having my feet bathed in salted hot water, I was ready to be pampered by my masseuse, Mbak Devi. I was afraid I would not enjoy the process, but Mbak Devi always asked me my preferred pressure level whenever she started massaging each body part. She also did not try to start a conversation and sometimes we enjoyed the comfortable silence.

The one-hour treatment ended with a cup of warm tea.

Read also: Where to dine like a royal in Yogyakarta, Surakarta

The cuisine

'Steak and Egg', one of the recommended breakfast dishes at Yogyakarta Kitchen restaurant at Yogyakarta Marriott hotel. (JP/Ni Nyoman Wira)

The hotel has three dining places: Yogyakarta Kitchen, Taman Sari Bar & Grill with an outdoor seating area overlooking the city of Yogyakarta, and The Lounge.

When I first arrived at the hotel, executive chef Muhammad Kamal Setiawan suggested that I try their Steak and Egg for breakfast at the Yogyakarta Kitchen. As the name suggests, Steak and Egg consists of wagyu beef steak with sauce, fried eggs, a slice of toasted bread and caramelized onion on top. The portion was enough for one person and the eggs could be cooked just how you like them. I ordered it twice during my stay there and it didn't disappoint.

Taman Sari Bar & Grill at Marriott Yogyakarta Hotel. (Marriott International/-)

The service

All of the staff at the hotel were kind, fast and helpful. They also paid attention to detail, such as putting an extra chocolate bar in my room and never hesitating to add more.

The upside

The hotels spa, spacious space and service were three memorable experiences I very much enjoyed during the stay.

The downside

The hotel is located in the north side of Yogyakarta, which is a little bit far from popular destinations such as Jl. Malioboro and the Kraton, although it is also close to Monumen Jogja Kembali (Jogja Returns Monument). (kes)
Earlier this month, there was a heartfelt reunion at Kehila Kedosha Janina, the Greek Jewish synagogue, between a Holocaust survivor and members of the Christian family who helped save his life.

Each year, the historic Lower East Side congregation observes Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Memorial Day. At least 67,000 Greek Jews were killed by the Nazis during World War II. One of the synagogues longtime leaders, Sol Kofinas, was only six-years-old when his father, mother, sister and baby brother were rounded up and sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Sol, his older brother, Zino, and their grandmother, were protected by the Hatzis family of Athens. In an act of courage that put their own lives at risk, the Orthodox Christian family hid the Kofinas brothers, even when the Gestapo came looking for them. In an emotional ceremony held April 15, Kofinas was reunited with Litsa Pantieras and Demetra Georgiou, whose parents kept him safe until the end of the war. They had not seen one another since 1955, when Kofinas came to America. Pantieras and Georgiou now live in Ottawa, Canada.

After lighting candles in memory of those who perished, the families exchanged long embraces, and shed some tears. In Athens before the German occupation, they shared a home. The sisters referred to Sol and Zino as their brothers, saying, We grew up side by side.

Were here, said Georgiou, to build understanding and strengthen our ties so that we never again have to be a witness to the hatred that led to the Holocaust.

The meeting became possible after Marcia Haddad-Ikonomopoulos, director of Kehila Kedosha Janinas museum, spotted an article about the Hatzis family in a Canadian newspaper (theres a reproduction here). Through the story, she contacted the sisters, and the reunion was set. In prepared remarks, Haddad-Ikonomopoulos said, We here at Kehila Kedosha Janina never forget the Moral Courage of Greek Orthodox Christians who risked their lives to save Jews in Greece. Without this, so many of our dear friends and relatives would not have survived.

In that Canadian newspaper story. another daughter spoke of the risks taken by Antonios Hatzis during the war, explaining, Our father never talked about what he did If someone would ask him about it, his answer was, I did what everyone could do for his neighbour, for a friend, for a human being. He was a very simple man with a lot of dignity.
TORONTO, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LSC Lithium Corporation (LSC or together with its subsidiaries, the Company) (TSXV:LSC) is pleased to announce that it has commenced advanced exploration and preliminary engineering study activities on its lead project, the Pozuelos-Pastos Grandes Project.



HIGHLIGHTS

Six pump test-well development program started on Pozuelos

Mobilized drill rig for final three resource delineation holes on Pozuelos

Additional seismic survey work on Pozuelos to start shortly

Drilling of two resource delineation drill holes started on Pastos Grandes

Pozuelos-Pastos Grandes Project Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) engineering company selection imminent

New camp build started on Pozuelos

LSCs President and CEO, Ian Stalker, noted, The fact that LSC has been in existence for approximately one year and has already delivered a NI 43-101 Mineral Resource estimates for its Rio Grande and Pozuelos projects and is now on track to deliver a Preliminary Economic Assessment for the Pozuelos-Pastos Grandes Project by year end, reflects both the high quality of the projects and the commitment from LSC to get into production by 2021.

After the summer rain period in Argentina, LSC has re-commenced advanced exploration operations on its key Pozuelos-Pastos Grandes (PPG) Project as follows:

Pozuelos Section

The drilling and development of a further six pump test wells on the Pozuelos section of the PPG Project has started with the first well, WSP18-01, being collared on April 19, 2018. This program of test wells is to augment the site specific pump test data acquired on the property to date. The pump test work is also designed to further test the already established consistency of lithium grades, well yields and other parameters. This data will be used to develop the dynamic hydrogeological model, which will support the conversion of mineral resources to reserves during the Pre-Feasibility Study.

Furthermore, mobilization to site of a drill rig and ancillary equipment to the Pozuelos section in order to drill three Mineral Resource delineation drill holes at the northern end of the salar is almost complete and drilling of these holes is about to start. As part of this drill program, a 400m exploration hole will be drilled down to the salar/basement contact to further test the mineralization at depth below the limit of the current assay data and recently announced NI 43-101 Mineral Resource estimate, which included 1,296,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) equivalent (LCE) in the Measured and Indicated Mineral Resource category at an average grade of 387mg/l Li and 497,000 tonnes LCE in the Inferred Mineral Resource category at an average grade of 340mg/l Li 1. This hole will also further test the high grade nucleus both as a step out hole and also at depth.

A further 30km line of seismic survey is planned for Pozuelos to better define the salar basal contact and confirm the hard boundary for the upgraded Mineral Resource planned for completion in Q3, 2018.

LSC will relocate its accommodation for field staff and contractors to the Pozuelos site after being temporarily located in the village of Pocitos 45 km away from the site for the first phase of exploration work. The new camp is designed to house 40 people and can be scaled up when required for the operational phase of the project.

Pastos Grandes Section

The 2018 Pastos Grandes Section development work includes additional drilling in the form of two 500m deep drill holes to complete the five hole program prior to producing a Mineral Resource estimate. The first of these two holes was collared on April 22, 2018 and is located in the eastern half of the property.

A seismic survey and a three hole pump test work program is planned for completion on the Pastos Grandes Section and the delivery of a NI 43-101 Mineral Resource is planned for Q3, 2018.

As reported recently2, a large mineralized footprint has been established on the Pastos Grandes section of the PPG Project. Drill hole SPG-2017-2B returned a peak value of 511mg/l Li with 3 main mineralized zones including 91m at 377mg/l Li from 57m, 38m at 459mg/l Li from 354m, 14m at 466mg/l Li from 466m with mineralization being present to 512m and is open at depth. Drill hole SPG-2017-4A returned a peak value of 528mg/l Li with 3 principal mineralized zones including 62m at 500mg/l Li from 342m, 110m at 388mg/l Li from 192m and 83m at 326mg/l Li from 9m. Drill hole SPG-2017-5B delivered results which included an average of 569mg/l Li over 430m and a range of between 543mg/l Li and 637mg/l Li.

Engineering work on the PPG Project has commenced with process development and discussions with energy suppliers. The Environmental Impact Statement baseline studies are nearing completion and submission to the regulator is planned for Q4, 2018.

LSC has started the process to select an engineering company, which is expected to be completed at the end of May. The PEA on the PPG Project is expected to be completed in Q4, 2018, with the PEA for Rio Grande planned for delivery in Q1, 2019.

Qualified Person

This press release is based upon information prepared and approved by Donald H. Hains, P.Geo. Mr. Hains is a qualified person, as defined in NI 43-101 and is independent of LSC.

ABOUT LSC LITHIUM CORPORATION:

LSC Lithium has amassed a large portfolio of prospective lithium rich salars and is focused on developing its tenements located in five salars: Pozuelos, Pastos Grandes, Rio Grande, Salinas Grandes, and Jama. All LSC tenements are located in the Lithium Triangle, an area at the intersection of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile where the worlds most abundant lithium brine deposits are found. LSC Lithium has a land package portfolio totaling approximately 300,000 hectares, which represents extensive lithium prospective salar holdings in Argentina.

For further information please contact:

LSC Lithium Corporation

Ian Stalker

President & Chief Executive Officer

40 University Avenue, Suite 605

Toronto ON, Canada M5J 1T1

(416) 304 9384

Email: info@lsclithium.com

Web: lsclithium.com

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward-looking information. These statements relate to future events or future performance, including statements as to the timing and expected completion of delivering a PEA for the PPG Project, results and use of data from the pump test work on Pozuelos, ability, timing and successful completion of the drill program and seismic survey at the PPG Project, timing and likelihood of relocating accommodation to Pozuelos, timing of completing engineering work on the PPG Project, LSCs overall contained lithium inventory, and ability to produce more results on the Companys properties. The use of any of the words could, anticipate, intend, expect, believe, will, projected, estimated and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based on LSC's current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. Whether actual results and developments will conform with LSC's expectations is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties including factors underlying management's assumptions, such as risks related to: title, permitting and regulatory risks; exploration and the establishment of any resources or reserves on the LSC properties; volatility in lithium prices and the market for lithium; exchange rate fluctuations; volatility in LSCs share price; the requirement for significant additional funds for development that may not be available; changes in national and local government legislation, including permitting and licensing regimes and taxation policies and the enforcement thereof; regulatory, political or economic developments in Argentina or elsewhere; litigation; title, permit or license disputes related to interests on any of the properties in which the Company holds an interest; excessive cost escalation as well as development, permitting, infrastructure, operating or technical difficulties on any of the Company's properties; risks and hazards associated with the business of development and mining on any of the Company's properties. Actual future results may differ materially. The forward-looking information contained in this release is made as of the date hereof and LSC is not obligated to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Because of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions contained herein, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The foregoing statements expressly qualify any forward-looking information contained herein. For more information, see the Company's filing statement on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange Inc. 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 TSX Venture Exchange Inc. has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.

_____________________________

1 See LSC Press Release dated February 2, 2018.

2 See LSC Press Release dated March 15, 2018.
Best Albums of 2017

Venom Prison: the British death metal stalwarts redefining their genre with a vital, feminist slant. Power Trip: the stateside thrashers whose succinct belters instantly teleport you back to the extreme music heyday of 1986. Code Orange: the band that singlehandedly made punk-inspired metalcore cool again and, in the process, opened up the door for such acclaimed youngsters as Loathe and I, the Mapmaker. And leading this parade of heavy-hitting mayhem, Trivium: an eclectic quartet whose aggressively melodic mid-2000s antics totally transformed rock n roll forever. For the heavy metal subculture, the significance of tonight cannot be understated. For one of its brightest and most popular lights to take three lauded, underground up-and-comers under its wing and place them onto a pedestal for the world to see restores faith in the next generation of this style of music. Its a beacon of hope in a saturated subgenre dominated by labels and promoters that irritatingly pride receiving a quick buck from 80s nostalgia above nurturing new acts. With the world on their shoulders,shine, as always. Opening a bill this packed with sheer talent cannot be an easy feat, however, Larissa Stupar and co. use every second of their allotted half-hour to pummel with the most visceral, maniacal and in-your-face tunes conceivable. The quintet inhabit their own, exclusive world while performing, united in a realm of aggravation and grinding meditation that escapes through the catharsis of Stupars demonic screams and the most fiery of intense rhythms. The vast majority of tonights attendees will never know what it would have been like to be in the Bay Area during the peak of original thrash, butscontroversial set allows a pretty damn good approximation. The Texans incendiary showcase is one so brutal in its consistent fury that it has to be stopped not once, but twice, due to injuries suffered in the always-active audience. The tragic accidents reduce Power Trips time onstage, but an atmosphere of concern and confusion is swiftly remedied by the muscular sing-along of Executioners Tax and the breakneck pace of Firing Squad.set the precedent for their impending madness early on, as yet another of Brixtons metalheads finds themselves hurt in the moshpit during the very first song, no less. To call these American hardcore heroes diverse would be an insult: they can shift at will from the dissonant destruction of Forever to the enchantingly melodic alternative rock of Bleeding in the Blur, thanks primarily to the triple vocal attack of Reba Meyers, Jami Morgan and Dominic Landolina. Bassist Joe Goldman, meanwhile, has the rabid energy of a man with a beehive up his arsehole, swinging wildly across the stage and encouraging a now-monumental crowd of onlookers to join in. Needless to say, there is little resistance to this notion. The ringleaders of this entire, game-changing get-together,, wrap proceedings up in a fantastically neat bow, their metalcore-meets-thrash-meets-hard rock stylings feeling like they combine the best aspects of each of their supports. The four-pieces brand new album, The Sin and the Sentence (2017), is one of their most beloved discs to date, and they definitely seem to know it as they roar to life with the dynamic title track and soon follow with the raucous Betrayer. Throes of Perditions surprisingly early appearance demands the attention of more hardened fans, with Ascendancy and Becoming the Dragon then travelling even further down that more vintage rabbit-hole. The scene-cementing tone of this truly epic concert is reaffirmed as frontman Matt Heafy takes to the microphone mid-performance to namedrop more of the UKs best metal troupes, including As Lions, Shvpes and Abhorrent Decimation (all of which you should listen to right now). A triumvirate of an encore  comprised of the grooving Shattering the Skies Above, Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr and the cataclysmic In Waves  sends Brixton home happy after what has easily been one of the most important hard rock experiences of this generation. On this day, Londons heavy metal die-hards have witnessed the future. And yes, oh, yes, that future is as promising as can be.
Three De Montfort University students who stole 19,000 from a Next shop in Leicester - which they all worked at - have been handed suspended jail sentences after pleading guilty to fraud.

Rahman Maohammed, 23, Salman Valli, 23, and Nahidur Rahman, 21, took part in what the judge called a thoroughly dishonest scheme, stealing thousands of pounds by using the companys refund system to process refunds into their own bank accounts.

During Sentencing, Recorder Geoffrey Solomons told the trio that due to their previous good characters, which theyve now lost, he would suspend their twelve month jail sentences by two years. Each of the defendants were also told they must carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and pay 2,000 towards compensation.

The student scammers helped themselves to a total of 19,063 between July 11 and August 8 last year with their scam scheme discovered when suspicion rose following the high number of refunds at the shop. An internal investigation was subsequently launched, with CCTV footage capturing Maohammed red handed, processing refunds when there werent any customers present. In total over 40 dishonest transcations were found to have been made.

Maohammed who had been working at the shop for four-and-a-half years later admitted he had come up with the scheme before recruiting Valli and Rahman, who had both worked at Next for two years.

Investigators discovered around 6,000 was paid directly into Maohammed's account, 3,000 into both of Valli and Rahmans and 7,951 in cash was removed from the till, the men frittered it away and Next have not been able to recover any of the stolen money.

As a floor coordinator who was responsible for managing other staff members, Maohammed was authorised to approve refunds, something which he used to his advantage in unscruplious ways.

Prosecutor Lynsey Knott told Leicester Crown Court: The defendants were approaching the till and refunds were being made into their own bank accounts or taken in cash  which was being authorised by Maohammed with his staff PIN."

All three students are still studying towards their respective degrees and are set to graduate from De Montfort this summer, however, the judge made it very clear their job prospects will most likely be affected by this conviction.

Youve all lost your good characters and good names and have risked your future careers, he said.

Adding: Each of you appears to be doing a degree course at the moment and are shortly to graduate, but your employment prospects, as a result of this conviction, are bound to be affected.

No doubt your families feel thoroughly ashamed of you and you should be ashamed of yourselves."

De Montfort University have been approached for comment.
This is one of the worst things Ive ever seen, with an entire fashion brand dedicated to colonizer flags with their imperialized. Thats the whole brand. This honky fash mess I cant even verbalize how absolute gag-inducing this is pic.twitter.com/5dwe7BNSNX  Vriddhi /  , PDF Plug (@scaryammu) April 22, 2018

So theres a German brand called Warwear. Its literally two flags on a sweatshirt. And not just any aestheticized pair of flags: generally the flag of a dominating colonial state and the state it victimizes. For example: pic.twitter.com/ccGg0cabOW  Zoe (@ztsamudzi) April 22, 2018

there's an online fashion label called 'warwear' where they are capitalising from war ,, 50 for a politically insensitive sweater as well ,, talk about privilege omg pic.twitter.com/CPNkAVK6tO   (@morsalsarajzada) April 22, 2018

United on a piece of cloth, flags of two opponents blithely side by side."

They recently went viral on social media after people shared pictures showing models wearing jumpers with flags of conflicting countries.The brand's Instagram and Facebook pages have been removed and their website is under construction.Their collection includes jumpers with the Palestinian and Israeli flags side by side as well as British and Indian. The two further selections are USA and Russia, Turkey and Kurdistan.The Berlin-based brand has been accused of profiting from occupation, colonialism and the Cold War.In a post, they wrote: "Countries, regions, nations... War against each other. "In what appears to be an inflammatory gesture, War Wear chose to put the opposing flags side by side on their shirts. This has caused people to question whether they deliberately tried to stir up controversy, perhaps hoping that the publicity would lead to greater profit.
Children as young as five are being encouraged to smoke in a Portuguese village, during the Epiphany festival.

The Kings Feast in Vila do Salgueiro, located in Mirandela, northern Portugal, finishes with a mass and includes traditions such as dancing around a bonfire and a group of bagpipers visiting houses to offer wine and lupins.

Everything seems acceptable and harmless - besides this quite horrendous practice of letting young children smoke as part of the tradition. A very distressing video provided by AP Archive shows parents giving their children cigarettes and helping them light them up. What is most worrying, besides the traumatic footage of seeing such young, innocent kids smoking, is how happy they look, and how care-free (and irresponsible) their parents are.

Those parents who were interviewed seemed totally relaxed about providing their own kids with cigarettes, claiming that this tradition has been going on for centuries. However, no one is really sure about what it symbolises. Jose Ribeirinha, who wrote a book about the villages traditions, explained that it might have to do with celebrating the rebirth of nature and human life. It might but, again, there is no explanation for this practice.

Jose also mentioned how the remoteness of this village helps keeping the tradition alive, for its lack of exposure reflects on the lack of attention from the media. Sure, the fact that Vila do Salgueiro isnt a tourist destination is probably why this act is still allowed. But again, that should not be used as an argument.

Guilhermina Mateus, a coffee shop owner who takes part in the feast, explains: I don't see any harm in that, because they don't really smoke, they inhale and immediately exhale, of course".

She also referred the fact that they only smoke for two days, and do not ask for cigarettes during the year. My question is: why?

Who would think that in an apparently civilised country this would be permitted? Some traditions are just not suitable anymore, and arguing that it has always been like this simply isnt a plausible justification. With many countries trying to prevent people from smoking, including Portugal, which in 2008 banned smoking in most enclosed spaces, this kind of practice makes absolutely no sense.

According to the law, the legal age to buy tobacco in Portugal is 18. However, children in this village are allowed and, even worse, are motivated by their own parents to smoke for two days, with no intervention from the police. The controversy that this practice generates for completely going against the law and the values of the country has caused a worldwide uproar and led to many international newspapers commenting.

Portugal is still relatively conservative, and religious parties are taken very seriously by most Portuguese people - but maybe it is time to question the relevance and, most importantly, the morality of some. With this kind of tradition being known of, Portugal has lost international recognition and respect. My hope is that the severe criticism this news has been receiving pressures the government to finally ban this absurd act, but my expectations are sincerely, and unfortunately, quite low.
Quebec City, Quebec, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Derby Building Products Inc., the parent company of Tando Building Products, today announced that Great Southern Wood Preserving, Incorporated (GSWP), will distribute the full line of TandoShake and TandoStone exterior cladding products from their Abbeville, Alabama location throughout Southern Georgia and Southern Alabama including Auburn, Montgomery, Birmingham, and Tuscaloosa, Alabama as well as Floridas Panhandle.

From GSWPs Buckner, Missouri location, additional coverage areas include Central and Eastern Kansas, Eastern Nebraska, Western and Central Iowa including Des Moines, Ames and Fort Dodge, and with the Glenwood, Arkansas plant covering Eastern Oklahoma, the state of Missouri and Southwest Illinois.

As a successful lumber and specialty building products distributor, GSWP will offer the full line of shake, stone and accessory products under the Tando brand, as it redefines an entirely new category of exterior cladding with a level of realism in shake and stone.

As Tando and specialty lines such as Beach House Shake and Signature Stain have made technology advances, its exciting to expand our Tando brand through Great Southerns extensive distribution network, as we take TandoShake and TandoStone further into the Southern and Midwest regions, said Ralph Bruno, CEO of Derby Building Products.

According to Jimmy Rane, CEO of Great Southern Wood Preserving, Incorporated, "We are delighted to bring Derby Building Products' Tando product lines to our Southern and Midwestern coverage areas, as the Tando brand continues to build business for our dealers.

TandoStone offers natural beauty combined with ease of installation that the industry has never seen before and an authentic, gritty texture. Both Tando product lines are impervious to moisture, with unmatched warranties and enhanced color and UV protection technologies. To learn more, visit www.tandobp.com.

About Derby Building Products  Home of Tando and Novik

Derby Building Products is the parent company of two game-changing brands in the building products category, Tando and Novik. Tando, Derbys pro channel brand, has literally changed the face of building exteriors by replicating the natural beauty and texture of wood shake and stone, with little to no upkeep. Impervious to moisture and resistant to all types of weather, new Beach House Shake created by Tando is indistinguishable from real cedar, while Tandos Signature Stain line offers the rich depth and beauty of stained wood. Perfect for todays mixed material trend in exteriors, all Tando products complement an array of siding types including fiber cement, engineered vinyl, stucco, and brick. www.tandobp.com. Novik inspires stunning mixed material exteriors including shake, clapboard, brick and stone. Novik replicates the natural beauty and texture of wood and stone and is simple to install., For more information, visit www.novik.com

About Great Southern Wood Preserving, Incorporated:

Great Southern Wood Preserving, Incorporated is a wholly owned subsidiary of Great Southern Wood Holdings, Inc. The company is headquartered in Abbeville, AL. It and its subsidiaries have plants located in Mobile and Muscle Shoals, AL; Brookhaven, MS; Glenwood, AR; Columbus, TX; Buckner, MO; Conyers and Jesup, GA; Mansura, LA; Bushnell, FL; Rocky Mount, VA; Hagerstown, MD; and Fombell, PA. For information about Great Southern, please call us at 334-585-2291 or visit our website at www.greatsouthernwood.com

Attachment
When I decided to move to Mozambique to volunteer for the Marine Megafauna Foundation (MMF) and help them to save threatened marine life, almost everyone I spoke to mentioned how inspired they were by the recent Blue Planet II. Friends and family alike were already trying to play their part in reducing single-use plastic by using reusable shopping bags or choosing loose, rather than plastic-wrapped, veggies on their grocery shop.

Elitza Germanov, Marine Megafauna Foundation

But can - and should - we be doing more? Ive learned from the MMF team that there are lots of other easy things we can do to minimise our negative impact on the ocean.

So, I caught up with Joshua Axford, MMFs CEO, to ask for his advice on what students can do to help this important issue.

Everyones talking about plastic and if you can reduce your plastic intake thats brilliant, he told me. Reusable water bottles, Ecoffee Cups and saying no to straws are all a good start. But its not just plastic thats the problem - there are lots of other ways you can make a difference too.

One of the important ways people can have a big impact is by being more thoughtful about their seafood consumption. Our oceans are facing huge problems due to both commercial and artisanal overfishing. Were eating fish more quickly than the fish stocks can replenish, which means we are basically eating some species to extinction!

And thats not to mention accidental bycatch, where millions of tonnes of turtles, dolphins, manta rays and other species are caught accidentally every year because the fishing nets are so efficient they trap everything they come into contact with.

Thankfully, there are some great organisations making it easy for us to make informed decisions about the seafood were buying from supermarkets and in restaurants. If you eat seafood, check out the Good Fish Guide app, which helps you check whether the seafood youre buying is environmentally responsible, as well as keeping an eye out for MSCs blue fish label, which can be found on the packaging of fish products that come from a sustainable source.

Elitza Germanov, Marine Megafauna Foundation

The great thing about university is that there are so many interesting societies that you can join. Your university might already have its own marine conservation society but, if it doesnt, perhaps you could create one?

Josh says: Organising fundraises and beach cleanups are a great way of meeting people and making new friends as well as doing your bit to protect the ocean. MMF would love to know if youre doing this and can help get you started so do get in touch with us.

As a student, saving the pennies to stretch out your loan is often a challenge so donating significant amounts to the organisations and NGOs you care about can be difficult. The good news is, if you cant afford to become a member or make regular donations, you can still help by keeping up to date with a charitys work, sharing interesting information and news via social media and signing petitions when theyre working towards policy change. Just look at how well the Blue Planet effect has worked in persuading UK government to take the problem of plastic pollution seriously - we can make a difference if we use our voice!

I also asked about voluntourism opportunities that students or recent graduates might be able to get involved with. Joshua said: Graduates that fit our required criteria might also want to apply for some of our volunteering opportunities, which are a great way to get interesting work experiencing whilst travelling and becoming immersed in a new culture.

Josh told me that MMFs Education Assistants in Mozambique work with an inspiring team of local instructors to teach the communitys school children about marine conservation as well as running life-saving swimming classes. Its a great way to receive training and gain education experience while helping our cause - plus, youre based in Mozambiques beautiful Tofo Beach. The dream!

Theres a big fight ahead of us but the good news is there are things we can do. Together, we can help protect our oceans.

For more information on MMFs work, check out: www.marinemegafauna.org.
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VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Contact Gold Corp. (the Company or Contact Gold) (TSXV:C) is pleased to announce the start of the Companys 2018 exploration program at the Pony Creek gold property (Pony Creek), located on the Carlin Trend in Elko County, Nevada, immediately south of Gold Standard Ventures Railroad project.



Key Points:

The drill program comprises 16,000 metres and is expected to run through November





One core drill rig and one RC drill rig will be mobilized to drill 70 holes on newly generated, high priority, previously undrilled targets, and to expand existing gold zones





The program will be 25% core and 75% reverse circulation drilling, designed to advance four priority areas (Bowl zone, North zone, West target, and the Moleen target)





Drill metres are allocated on a 50/50 basis on expanding existing zones vs. testing new targets





Drilling will start at the Bowl Zone, with drilling at the Moleen and West Targets expected to begin in May





The 2018 program is designed to:



Add additional oxidized gold mineralization at the Bowl Zone and North Zones



Discover new zones of gold mineralization at the newly generated Moleen and West targets



Generate and drill test other targets in the district



For a map of the 2018 Targets at Pony Creek  see: http://www.contactgold.com/_resources/news/2018Apr24Drill-Start_PonyTargetMap.jpg

For a location map of Pony Creek, North Star and Dixie Flats  see: http://www.contactgold.com/_resources/news/2018Apr24Drill-Start_PropertyMap.jpg

In addition to drilling, the 2018 exploration program at Pony Creek will include the collection of 3,000 new soil samples, detailed geological mapping and geophysical surveys with the objective of enhancing the geological model for Pony Creek and the generation of new drill targets across the property.

2018 Target Zones at Pony Creek

Bowl Zone: Host to a historical mineral resource estimate, the 1 km long by 1/2 km wide Bowl Zone is defined by more than 50 gold-mineralized drill holes with a significant oxide gold component, and remains open for expansion in multiple directions. The 2018 drill program is built to test high potential and open areas based upon prior, oxidized drill intercepts, mapped structures, 3D modeling of Gravity and CSAMT data, and untested gold in soil values up to 0.28 g/t Au.



Select oxide intervals from 2017 are below:



2.12 g/t Au over 22.86 metres from 64.01m to 86.87m in drill hole PC17-040



0.65 g/t Au over 65.53 metres from 62.48m to 128.02m in drill hole PC17-08



0.59 g/t Au over 32.00 metres from 25.91m to 57.91m in drill hole PC17-41

Host to a historical mineral resource estimate, the 1 km long by 1/2 km wide Bowl Zone is defined by more than 50 gold-mineralized drill holes with a significant oxide gold component, and remains open for expansion in multiple directions. The 2018 drill program is built to test high potential and open areas based upon prior, oxidized drill intercepts, mapped structures, 3D modeling of Gravity and CSAMT data, and untested gold in soil values up to 0.28 g/t Au. Select oxide intervals from 2017 are below:

West Target: The 2 km long target, which has seen no drilling on the northern half, extends north from the Bowl Zone, and is defined by NS structurally controlled gravity, CSAMT and gold in soil anomalies cutting Penn-Perm Strathearn formation clastic and carbonate rocks with gold-in-soil values as high as 0.160 g/t Au. The southern half of the target includes gold mineralization encountered in 4 of 5 very widely spaced historic drill holes. Limited rock sampling in 2017 returned up to 0.35 g/t Au.





The 2 km long target, which has seen no drilling on the northern half, extends north from the Bowl Zone, and is defined by NS structurally controlled gravity, CSAMT and gold in soil anomalies cutting Penn-Perm Strathearn formation clastic and carbonate rocks with gold-in-soil values as high as 0.160 g/t Au. The southern half of the target includes gold mineralization encountered in 4 of 5 very widely spaced historic drill holes. Limited rock sampling in 2017 returned up to 0.35 g/t Au. North Zone: The 1 km x 300 metre zone is defined by 30 gold-mineralized drill holes with localized drill intercepts up to 1.31 g/t Au (historical drill hole PC-129), including a significant oxide component. The North Zone target remains open for expansion in multiple directions. The drill holes planned for 2018 have been designed with reference to mapped structures, 3D modeling of gravity data and CSAMT anomalies, gold-in-soil values as high as 0.76 g/t Au, and rock chip samples as high as 2.7 g/t Au.



Select oxidized drill intervals from the North Zone are below:



0.34 g/t Au over 44.20 metres from 25.91 m to 70.10 m in PC17-21



0.33 g/t Au over 15.24 metres from 4.57 m to 19.81 m in PC17-43



0.32 g/t Au over 13.72 metres from 30.48 m to 44.20 m in PC17-23



0.33 g/t Au over 13.72 metres from 71.63 m to 85.35 m in PC17-25



0.47 g/t Au over 43 metres from 25.9 m to 68.6 m  Barrick Gold drill hole from 1989

The 1 km x 300 metre zone is defined by 30 gold-mineralized drill holes with localized drill intercepts up to 1.31 g/t Au (historical drill hole PC-129), including a significant oxide component. The North Zone target remains open for expansion in multiple directions. The drill holes planned for 2018 have been designed with reference to mapped structures, 3D modeling of gravity data and CSAMT anomalies, gold-in-soil values as high as 0.76 g/t Au, and rock chip samples as high as 2.7 g/t Au. Select oxidized drill intervals from the North Zone are below:

Moleen Target: The 1.5 km long target, which has never been drilled, extends WNW from the North Zone target, is defined by: WNW structurally controlled gravity and gold-in-soil anomalies cutting Penn-Perm Moleen and Strathearn formation clastic and carbonate rocks, and contains gold-in-soil values as high as 0.173 g/t Au. The Moleen Target projects to the adjacent Jasperoid Wash Target on Gold Standards project.

Drill intercepts reported at the North Zone target and Bowl Zone were calculated using a minimum thickness of 3.05 metres averaging 0.14 ppm gold and allowing inclusion of up to 4.57 metres of material averaging less than 0.14 ppm gold for low grade intervals and higher-grade intervals were calculated using a minimum thickness of 3.05 metres averaging 1.00 ppm gold and allowing inclusion of up to 4.57 metres of assays averaging less than 1.00 ppm gold. True width of drilled mineralization varies, but owing to the apparent flat lying nature of mineralization, is estimated to generally be at least 70% of drilled thickness. Quality Assurance / Quality Control consists of regular insertion of certified reference standards, blanks, and duplicates. All failures are followed up with additional investigation whenever such an event occurs. Multi-element geochemical assays are completed on composites using the MEMS 61 method. All assays are completed at ALS Chemex; an ISO 17025:2005 accredited lab. Check assays are assayed for gold by Bureau Veritas.

Some of the data presented herein, includes historic data developed by previous operators of the Pony Creek property. Historic drill intersections are reported as drilled thicknesses. True widths of individual mineralized intervals are unknown at this time, although trends in mineralization suggest that true thicknesses range between 70% and 100% of drilled thicknesses owing to the generally flat lying nature of mineralization at Pony Creek. Vance Spalding, CPG#10739, VP Exploration, Contact Gold, who is a qualified person within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (NI 43-101), has, to the extent possible, verified that the historic data herein, including the results of drilling, sampling, and assaying by previous operators, is reliable. Historic data largely predate the introduction of NI 43-101 and modern QA-QC protocols and therefore there are limitations on the level of verification that can be achieved.

North Star Project

Contact Gold also expects to complete a separate program at the North Star property, which is immediately north of Gold Standard Ventures North Dark Star deposit.

Options award and investor relations appointments

The Company also announces that it has entered into investor relations advisory agreements with O&M Partners LLC (the Agreement). Pursuant to the Agreement, O&M will provide marketing services for Contact Gold. The services will include collaborating with management on corporate communications strategies, communicating with potential institutional investors and developing and maintaining active communications networks with private investors across Canada, the United States and Europe.

The Agreement provides for a total monthly retainer of $US3,000 for an initial 6-month period, and O&M has been granted an option to purchase 100,000 common shares of Contact Gold at an option price of $0.415 which will vest in equal installments over a 3 year period, and will expire in accordance with the Plan and not later than April 17, 2023, subject to the applicable policies of the TSX Venture Exchange. The Agreement is on a monthly basis until terminated by either party.

The Company has also awarded an aggregate of 380,000 stock options at an exercise price of $0.415 per share for a period of five years to certain employees and consultants to the Company. The incentive stock options will vest 1/3 on each successive anniversary of the date of grant, and will expire in accordance with the Plan and not later than April 17, 2023.

About Pony Creek

Pony Creek is an early stage exploration property and does not contain any mineral resource estimates as defined by NI 43-101. There has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource estimate at Pony Creek. Additional information about Pony Creek is summarized in a technical report entitled Technical Report on the Pony Creek Gold Project, Elko County, Nevada, USA dated April 18, 2017, and effective March 15, 2017), prepared by Michael M. Gustin, C.P.G. of Mine Development Associates of Reno, Nevada (the Technical Report), which can be viewed under Contact Golds issuer profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com

For a table of all 2017 Pony Creek drill intervals, please click: http://www.contactgold.com/_resources/pdf/2017-Pony-Creek-Drill-Results.pdf

The scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Vance Spalding, CPG#10739, VP Exploration, Contact Gold, who is a qualified person within the meaning of NI 43-101.

About Contact Gold Corp.

Contact Gold is a gold exploration company focused on leveraging its properties, people, technology and capital to produce district scale gold discoveries in Nevada. Contact Golds extensive land holdings are on the prolific Carlin, Independence and Northern Nevada Rift gold trends which host numerous gold deposits and mines. Contact Golds land position comprises approximately 265 km2 of target-rich mineral tenure hosting numerous known gold occurrences, ranging from early- to advanced-exploration and resource definition stage.

Additional information about the Company is available at www.contactgold.com. For more information, please contact:

John Glanville

Director, Investor Relations

E-mail: glanville@contactgold.com

Telephone: +1 (604) 416-0576

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV) nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy of this release. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as "expects", or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "budget", "scheduled", "forecasts", "estimates", "believes" or "intends" or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results "may" or "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. In this news release, forward-looking statements relate, among other things, to the anticipated exploration activities of the Company on the Pony Creek and North Star properties.

These forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of the Company at the time such statements were made. Actual future results may differ materially as forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to materially differ from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors, among other things, include; business integration risks; fluctuations in general macroeconomic conditions; fluctuations in securities markets; fluctuations in spot and forward prices of gold, silver, base metals or certain other commodities; fluctuations in currency markets (such as the Canadian dollar to United States dollar exchange rate); change in national and local government, legislation, taxation, controls, regulations and political or economic developments; risks and hazards associated with the business of mineral exploration, development and mining (including environmental hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpected formations pressures, cave-ins and flooding); inability to obtain adequate insurance to cover risks and hazards; the presence of laws and regulations that may impose restrictions on mining; employee relations; relationships with and claims by local communities and indigenous populations; availability of increasing costs associated with mining inputs and labour; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development (including the risks of obtaining necessary licenses, permits and approvals from government authorities); and title to properties. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of the Company believes, or believed at the time, to be reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot assure shareholders that actual results will be consistent with such forward-looking statements, as there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. The Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law.
Get another look at the not-so-innocent crew

Source: @starwars Twitter feed

Well post production has finally wrapped for the Star Wars spin-off Solo: A Star Wars Story, so it just advertising until its release.

Thats a wrap on post production! #Solo@HanSoloStory#SkywalkerRanch Wow. What a movie-making adventure its been! Thanks to a terrific cast & extraordinary folks behind the camera as well. Youve worked so hard to fully realize this cool story. Hope fans have a blast! #May25pic.twitter.com/SeSSXZirBZ  Ron Howard (@RealRonHoward) April 22, 2018

Today, we get some new character posters for the movie. The new posters aren't that different from the initial posters, but uh some people had issues with them.

Anyway, here are the new character posters revealed via the Star Wars Twitter feed:

One crew. One shot. See Solo: A Star Wars Story, in theaters May 25. #HanSolopic.twitter.com/QAticYHpJN  Star Wars (@starwars) April 23, 2018

Here's Alden Ehrenreich as Han. You've seen the trailers so well, we'll see how it goes.

Emilia Clarke as Qi'ra

Qi'ra is Han's childhood friend. Here's how the Star Wars: Insider magazine describes her:

" clever and calculating , with a sophisticated edge and a knack for devious skullduggery. Qi'ra is a secretive woman of the shadows, but who she really is is hidden away, and visible only to those she trusts."

Donald Glover plays Lando Calrissian who will eventually betray Solo to Darth Vader, then goes on to do battle against the Empire

One crew. One shot. See Solo: A Star Wars Story, in theaters May 25. #HanSolo pic.twitter.com/1I4g8F8tRo  Star Wars (@starwars) April 23, 2018

That's not cool, they are not giving Joonas Suotamo credit for playing Chewbacca. It's hard to fill Peter Mayhew's shoes, but give the guy some love

Woody Harrelson is Tobias Beckett, who acts as a mentor to Han and recruits him to his crew.

Thandie Netwon will play Val

Val is a part of Beckett's crew and is described by Star Wars: Insider as:

" occasionally prickly Val is cool and self-assured without being flashy. Measured and methodical, she is a crack shot with a blaster rifle, and the most even-headed and capable member of the ragtag gang of rogues Beckett has recruited"

One crew. One shot. See Solo: A Star Wars Story, in theaters May 25. #HanSolo pic.twitter.com/J2CYPxQutb  Star Wars (@starwars) April 23, 2018

Paul Bettany is Dryden Vos. Little is know about this character, but it was the one Michael K. Williams originally was cast for.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge gets credit (unlike Chewie) as L3-37

Star Wars: Insider says that L3-37 is Lando's navigator who cobbled herself together from astromech and protocol droid parts. She is:

" an indignant, spirited and somewhat eccentric companion, who cares deeply about droid rights. With a mind of her own (after all, she built it) L3-37 is subservient to no one."

Jon Favreau also gets credited as Rio Durant

Little has been revealed about this character, Favreau tweeted out his association with the character:

US fans aren't the only ones to get character posters. Star Wars UK also revealed a few posters of their own

Were putting together a crew. Check out these new SOLO character posters! pic.twitter.com/NFOZ6mMhyz  Star Wars UK (@StarWarsUK) April 23, 2018

Chewbacca UK character poster

Han Solo UK character poster

Lando Calrissian UK character poster

SOLO: A Star Wars Story  out May 24th. Get ready. pic.twitter.com/6WagdvWVBq  Star Wars UK (@StarWarsUK) April 23, 2018

Tobias Beckett UK character poster

Qi'ra UK character poster

Solo: A Star Wars Story punches it May 25 (and May 24 for those jerks across the pond)
Highlights include The Agency, Constant Companion, and You Are There.

Source: Fantagraphics

I RENE TARDI PRISONER OF WAR IN STALAG 2B HC

(W) Jacques Tardi (A/CA) Jacques Tardi

In September 1939, Rene Tardi went to war. Less than a year later, the French army was defeated and he was a prisoner of war, like 1.6 million other French soldiers. After 4 years and 8 months in a POW camp, Rene returned home, bitter and ashamed. Stalag IIB is Jacques Tardi's homage to his father and a testimony to the silent suffering of a generation of men.

Based on Rene's memories, Stalag IIB - the first of two volumes - recounts brutal years of captivity under the Nazis and the POWs' attempts to reclaim moments of humanity. Rene recalls the roll calls in sub-zero temperatures, daily acts of resistance, crushing boredom - and especially the omnipresent hunger.

With four decades of cartooning and almost two dozen graphic novels behind him, Jacques Tardi masterfully recreates historical and personal details with remarkable fidelity, guided by extensive research and his father's notes. Featuring some of Tardi's most intense and meticulous drawing, punctuated by somber greys and punches of red and blue rendered beautifully by Rachel Tardi, Stalag IIB is a personal and artistic triumph.

$29.99

YOU ARE THERE HC

(W) Jean-Claude Forest (A/CA) Jacques Tardi

THE SATIRICAL MASTERPIECE THAT USHERED IN THE GRAPHIC NOVEL ERA TO EUROPEAN COMICS

One of the earliest full-length, standalone graphic novels to be published in Europe, and certainly one of the best and most original, Ici Meme was serialized in the adult French comics monthly (A suivre) in the early 1980s and then released in book form. A quarter of a century later, this dark, funny, consistently surprising masterpiece has finally been translated into English.

An unexpected yet smoothly confident collaboration between the darkly cynical Jacques Tardi and the playful fantasist Jean-Claude Forest (of Barbarella fame), You Are There is set on a small island off the coast of France, where unscrupulous landowners have succeeded in overtaking the land from the last heir of a previously wealthy family. That heir, whose domain, in a Beckettian twist, is now reduced to the walls that border these patches of land he used to own, prowls the walls all day, eking out a living by collecting tolls at each gate.

His seemingly hopeless struggle to recover his birthright becomes complicated as the government sees a way of using his plight for the sake of political expediency, and the romantic intervention of the daughter of one of the landowners (who has her own sordid history with the politician) engenders further difficulties, culminating in an apocalyptic, hallucinatory finale.

Set in Tardi?s preferred early 20th century milieu, You Are There is drawn in his crisp 1980s neo-?clear line? style, gorgeously detailed, elegantly stylized, with impossibly deep slabs of black: You Are There is a feast for both the eyes and the brain.

HC: $29.99

SC: $19.99

DISNEY ROSA DUCK LIBRARY HC VOL 09 THREE CABALLEROS RIDE

(W) Don Rosa (A/CA) Don Rosa

Eisner award-winner Don Rosa launched his Carl Barks-inspired career in 1987 and drew two decades' worth of ripping Scrooge and Donald yarns! This volume includes the title story plus "The Beagle Boys Vs. the Money Bin," where Grandpa Blackheart finds the blueprints to Scrooge's vault and "Forget It," where Magica De Spell hits Scrooge and Donald with a brainwashing spell! Presented with brilliant color with a trove of Rosa's cover art and behind-the-scenes factoids, these Duckburg epics are back at a bargain price worthy of Scrooge himself!

$29.99

DISNEY MASTERS HC VOL 03 MURRY MICKEY MOUSE VANISHING BANDIT

(W) Paul Murry (A/CA) Carl Fallberg

Classic Disney artist Paul Murry and writer Carl Fallberg created a series of Mickey and Goofy serials for Walt Disney's Comics and Stories that every Baby Boomer remembers. Join Mickey on the trail of cops-and-robbers capers - from shady doings at "The Last Resort" to Black Pete's raucous wrangles with a Rajah in "The Lost Legion!" Murry's first seven Mickey serials are all here - all newly recolored in the warm colors from the original Dell comic books!

$29.99

SONG OF AGLAIA HC

(W) Anne Simon (A/CA) Anne Simon

The Song of Aglaia is the first solo graphic novel by cartoonist Anne Simon, presenting a beautifully crafted female spin on the classic heroic myths of Greek literature, tracing the journey of a victimized and then almighty woman with a graceful understanding of human relationships and loving nods to the Bronte sisters, David Bowie, and the Beatles.

$19.99

BEST OF WITZEND HC

(W) Wallace Wood, Bill Pearson, Steve Ditko, Frank Frazetta, Various (A) Various

Fed up with the restrictions of mainstream comics, cartoonist Wallace Wood created and published witzend. witzend became a cauldron of creativity for Wood and his cartoonist friends like Frank Frazetta, Al Williamson, Gray Morrow, and Reed Crandall, Steve Ditko, Art Spiegelman, Vaughn Bode, Jim Steranko, Jeffrey Catherine Jones, Howard Chaykin, Bernie Wrightson and dozens more. Fantagraphics published the collected witzend in 2014 in a deluxe two-volume box set, selling out immediately. Now we present The Best of witzend, a 280-page distillation of that publishing milestone in a single handsome volume.

$49.99

PRINCE VALIANT HC VOL 17 1969-1970

(W) Hal Foster (A/CA) Hal Foster

In volume 17, is back in Britain, where he finds himself in the middle of a conflict between Saxon settlers and violent Viking raiders. Gawain's return journey to Camelot is fraught with romantic misadventure and Young Galan goes on a hunt to capture the fabled unicorn. Meanwhile, Arn is enslaved and held for ransom. This volume also includes a supplementary section of rarities and extras, curated by Foster historian Brian M. Kane.

$34.99

KURDLES ADVENTURE MAGAZINE #1

(W) Robert Goodin, Cathy Malkasian, Various

This ALL-NEW, ALL-AGES comic magazine will thrill kids and parents alike! Featuring 48 pages of brand-new comics by acclaimed cartoonists Robert Goodin (The Kurdles), Cathy Malkasian (Percy Gloom), and other surprises! Starring the Kurdles! Greta Grump! Howdy Pardner! Pacho Clokey! The best kids comic mag since the demise of Nickelodeon

magazine!

$10.00

AGENCY GN

(W) Katie Skelly (A/CA) Katie Skelly

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! For three grueling years, Katie Skelly gathered intelligence in the wilds of online, meticulously documenting a private universe of sass photography, fascist surgery, horny skeletons, yonic portals, thrill-seeking vegetation, and multitudinous wry glances and stammered phrases! Now the fruits of her labor may be readily plucked in the compendium of sexed-up webcomics you've been waiting for all your life!

$25.00

CONSTANT COMPANION GN

(W) Noah Van Sciver (A/CA) Noah Van Sciver

Acclaimed cartoonist Noah Van Sciver grants us exclusive access to the Artist's process through this collection of his private sketchbooks created between 2013 and 2017. Covering Noah's life, thoughts, and time in Denver, White River Junction (as a Fellow of the Center For Cartoon Studies), and Columbus, Ohio, the artist documents failed relationships, sketches of his surroundings, strange recollections from life and portraits of fellow artists. A candid look at the years in which Van Sciver climbed to the top of his game.

$25.00
He says the character has "immediate potential."

Source: TV and Movies Dot Com

While it may be years before Moon Knight comes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it'll be a lot sooner for Nova to grace the big screen, according to mastermind Kevin Feige. Talking to TV and Movies Dot Com, Feige said:

"Nova is... if we have a big board with a bunch of characters that have more immediate potential, Nova is on that board. Because of the connection to the Guardians universe, because there are more than one examples to pull from in the comics that are interesting. And you're absolutely right, he was in the earliest drafts of the [Guardians of the Galaxy]."

The original Nova, Richard Rider, was a member of the Nova Corps, an intergalactic police force, based on the planet Xandar. As a high school student, Rider was given the uniform and powers of the Nova Corps by Rhomann Dey to fight their war against the Skrulls.



The Sam Alexander version of Nova is a high school student with an abusive father who talks about his supposed life as a Nova Centurion. After injuring himself, Alexander wakes up in a hospital where Rocket Raccoon and Gamora reveal his father's true identity, inheriting his father's Nova helmet.

It's unknown which version of Nova would appear in the MCU, but with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 in the works, we'll find out sooner rather than later.
Cameron also compared Avatar to The Godfather.

Source: Vanity Fair

While promoting his new documentary series AMC Visionaries: James Cameron's Story of Science Fiction, James Cameron is hoping that the world will finally get over its love affair with superhero movies. Hopefully in time to go see Avatar 2.

"I'm hoping we'll start getting Avenger fatigue here pretty soon. Not that I don't love the movies. It's just, come on, guys, there are other stories to tell besides hyper-gonadal males without families doing death-defying things for two hours and wrecking cities in the process. It's like, oy!"

It seems that Cameron is more lenient with space-based superhero movies (surprise, surprise) as he name dropped Guardians of the Galaxy as a film he thinks is fun.

"We can see the market drives us to a sort of science fiction now that's either completely escapist and doesn't require a technical consultantan example of that would be Guardians of the Galaxy. It's just fun. We don't care how those spaceships work or any of that stuff works. And then you have scientifically responsible science fiction like The Martian or Interstellar."

Moving onto irresponsible things, Cameron then went on to compare Avatar (which is just Dances with Wolves in space) to Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather.

"I've found myself as a father of five starting to think about what would an Avatar story be like if it was a family drama. What if it was The Godfather? It's a generational family saga. That's very different than the first film. There's still the same setting and the same respect for the shock of the new. We still want to show you things that you haven't even seen or imagined, but the story is very different. It's a continuation of the same characters . . . but what happens when warriors who are willing to go on suicide charges and leap off cliffs, what happens when they grow up and have their own kids? It becomes a very different story."

Meanwhile, Avatar 2 is set to release December 18, 2020, Avatar 3 is set to release December 17, 2021, Avatar 4 is set to release December 20, 2024, and Avatar 5 is set to release December 19, 2025.
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Vodafone Americas Foundation today announced the finalists for its 10th annual Wireless Innovation ProjectTM (WIP) competition, which features the latest connected innovations designed to address critical issues facing the global community. Entrepreneurs, startups, non-government organizations (NGOs), nonprofits and university projects have entered their social good technologies for an opportunity to pitch their solutions as part of the competition. The eight finalists have been chosen for their potential to make a difference in communities around the world.



The finalists will travel to San Francisco to participate in two days of activities including pitch presentations to the Vodafone Americas Foundation panel of judges. Three winners will be selected, with first place awarded $300,000, second place $200,000, and third place $100,000, paid over a three-year period.

The Wireless Innovation Projects 2018 finalists, who will look to join the 27 previous winners who have received Foundation support through the competition over the past decade, are:

TalkingPoints  TalkingPoints helps the 12 million students from low-income, diverse, immigrant families to feel better supported by their biggest allies, their parents and teachers. We enhance and facilitate meaningful relationships between teachers and parents in a cheap, accessible but effective way through building a multilingual communication platform for empathetic communication, providing two-way machine and community translated messages and educational content.

 TalkingPoints helps the 12 million students from low-income, diverse, immigrant families to feel better supported by their biggest allies, their parents and teachers. We enhance and facilitate meaningful relationships between teachers and parents in a cheap, accessible but effective way through building a multilingual communication platform for empathetic communication, providing two-way machine and community translated messages and educational content. SAM Photo Diagnosis App Project  An integrated, image recognition system capable of diagnosing various stages of malnutrition. Through 2D imaging, the solution serves as a cost-effective early warning system for severe acute malnutrition (SAM), a condition that results in millions of preventable child deaths each year.

 An integrated, image recognition system capable of diagnosing various stages of malnutrition. Through 2D imaging, the solution serves as a cost-effective early warning system for severe acute malnutrition (SAM), a condition that results in millions of preventable child deaths each year. cerVIA  An affordable, accurate and accessible cervical cancer screening tool that improves screening accuracy through simple imaging and machine learning in an Android device. The innovation will allow healthcare workers and doctors to easily validate their screenings.

 An affordable, accurate and accessible cervical cancer screening tool that improves screening accuracy through simple imaging and machine learning in an Android device. The innovation will allow healthcare workers and doctors to easily validate their screenings. SMART  Sickle and Malaria Accurate Remote Testing is an integrated point-of-care technology platform with electronic health record systems to diagnose, track, and monitor sickle cell disease and malaria patients in low resource settings. The system will provide affordable remote testing for sickle cell disease and malaria with dashboards to help facilitate local and national responses to epidemics.

 Sickle and Malaria Accurate Remote Testing is an integrated point-of-care technology platform with electronic health record systems to diagnose, track, and monitor sickle cell disease and malaria patients in low resource settings. The system will provide affordable remote testing for sickle cell disease and malaria with dashboards to help facilitate local and national responses to epidemics. TenFour by Ushahidi  TenFour is an open source emergency check-in system for schools, NGOs, and small businesses that, during a crisis, lets people easily check-in via any communication channel and provides actionable alerts, allowing teams to triage resources, saving time and lives during disasters.

 TenFour is an open source emergency check-in system for schools, NGOs, and small businesses that, during a crisis, lets people easily check-in via any communication channel and provides actionable alerts, allowing teams to triage resources, saving time and lives during disasters. Peetsie  Teens (aged 15 to 19) who have experienced or witnessed violent trauma can receive counseling through Peetsie, a mobile-based chatbot avatar solution. Created by YTH, a youth centered health design organization, it uses AI to counsel youth 24/7 through a confidential, HIPPA compliant platform to link youth to emergency support and meets the youth where they are.

 Teens (aged 15 to 19) who have experienced or witnessed violent trauma can receive counseling through Peetsie, a mobile-based chatbot avatar solution. Created by YTH, a youth centered health design organization, it uses AI to counsel youth 24/7 through a confidential, HIPPA compliant platform to link youth to emergency support and meets the youth where they are. Air 2 Electricity Microgrid  A solution that is vital to areas with unreliable access to electricity and water, Onsite Air is a mobile microgrid that is a dual mode resource extraction solution that uses compressed air to produce electricity and to harvest air-borne moisture. This solution can be used to generate electricity in areas with an unreliable grid and can also provide water when there is a shortage during an emergency.

 A solution that is vital to areas with unreliable access to electricity and water, Onsite Air is a mobile microgrid that is a dual mode resource extraction solution that uses compressed air to produce electricity and to harvest air-borne moisture. This solution can be used to generate electricity in areas with an unreliable grid and can also provide water when there is a shortage during an emergency. ENVision mobile  A simple and intuitive accounting and business management application for financially illiterate microentrepreneurs, optimizing operation in hard-to-reach environments and poor data areas. This mobile tool helps MicroFinance Institutions assess, manage and track the performance of their portfolio, thereby extends financial inclusion for the underserved.

Since launching in 2009, the Wireless Innovation Project has awarded $5.5 million to competition winners to help develop and scale their unique solutions to ultimately address critical issues affecting people in the most vulnerable areas. WIP-supported innovations have directly impacted more than 40 million lives across 40 different countries. Past WIP winners have gone on to future success through international accolades, various industry prizes, and more than $9.5 million in additional funding.

This years WIP finalists join an inspiring group of entrepreneurs who have brought wireless-related social change projects to life through our competition over the past 10 years, said June Sugiyama, Director, Vodafone Americas Foundation. While both the technology and the competition have evolved over the past decade, year after year we continue to see truly exciting solutions through this program, and this year is no different. From technology that helps global communities stay healthy, to tools that create new ways to gain electricity or financial independence, each of this years finalists has a unique opportunity to change lives through technology.

About the Vodafone Americas Foundation

The Vodafone Americas Foundation is part of Vodafone's global network of 27 foundations. It is affiliated with Vodafone Group. In addition, the Wireless Innovation Project, the Vodafone Americas Foundation supports programs in the United States to Improve People's Lives, Support the Development Sector, Spark Innovation, and Empower Women and Girls. For more information, please visit: www.vodafone-us.com.

About Vodafone

Vodafone Group is one of the worlds largest telecommunications companies and provides a range of services including voice, messaging, data and fixed communications. Vodafone Group has mobile operations in 25 countries, partners with mobile networks in 47 more, and fixed broadband operations in 18 markets. As of 31 December 2017, Vodafone Group had 529.1 million mobile customers and 19.3 million fixed broadband customers, including India and all of the customers in Vodafones joint ventures and associates. For more information, please visit: www.vodafone.com

*Vodafone, the speechmark symbol, and Wireless Innovation Project are trademarks of Vodafone; other trademarks belong to their respective owners.

For further information, please contact:

June Sugiyama

Director, Vodafone Americas Foundation

americaswip@vodafone.com

Bob Gohn

Text100 Global Communications

bob.gohn@text100.com
Southern Pines, NC (28387)

Today

Cloudy early with peeks of sunshine expected late. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High near 85F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy skies. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low around 65F. Winds light and variable.
Collin Dingsor leaps into Watertown homecoming history, Week 7 list of top performers

Watertown High School senior Collin Dingsor is a pretty good hurdler in track and field and put those skills to use on the football field to head the Public Opinions Week 7 list of top area high school football performers.
ALBANY, New York, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to a new market report published by Transparency Market Research titled Domestic Booster Pump Market  Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2018  2026,the global domestic booster pump market is expected to reach US$ 4.69 Bn by 2026, expanding at a CAGR of 8.3% from 2018 to 2026. Asia Pacific held the dominant market share of the domestic booster pump market in 2017.

A booster pump is a single or multi-stage pump with start/stop functionalities such as a pressure switch or small control unit to start/stop the pump. The allocation of huge funds by the governments of countries such as India toward various industrialization and urbanization projects is anticipated to create huge opportunities for the pumps and booster pumps market in the near future. The number of small- and medium-sized players in the pumps market is rising rapidly. As compared to organized pump manufacturers, small and medium companies offer products at low-cost. The global consumption of pumps is very high due to continuous growth in population and residential construction. Technological advancement in product manufacturing to create a diverse product portfolio acts as a strength to the domestic booster pumps market.

Download PDF Brochure for Research Insights at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=42815

Asia Pacific is expected to have the highest growth rate during the forecast period due to continuous growth in population and residential construction in this region. The market share of domestic booster pumps in Asia Pacific was 37.2% in 2017 followed by Europe. The mass migration of rural citizens into major urban centers along with the continued development of rural areas is expected to generate high demand for booster pumps in water infrastructure, power generation, and to meet other basic needs of the growing population.

By product, multiple stage pumps have the highest growth opportunities as consumers prefer to choose multiple stage domestic booster pumps over single stage pumps as these types of pumps are used to boost water supply in tall buildings or in hilly areas for various commercial and residential applications.

Get a PDF Sample at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=42815

By application, residential homes/flats segment in the domestic booster pumps market holds the largest share and is expected to continue its dominant market position in the near future as there are more residential homes/flats as compared to farm houses and guest houses.

By distribution channel, demand for booster pumps across DIY distribution channel segment is expected to witness shift, as end users are exploring products which are easy to install and consume less time for operation of the pump. Demand for booster pumps in wholesalers segment has gone up in recent years due to rapid urbanization and in order to meet the needs of a growing population. Omni-channel strategy is expected to have a compounding impact on the growth of wholesalers. It has helped wholesalers to enlarge their customer base. Since it unifies all the channels, it effectively promotes the idea of one brand, one experience to the consumer across all touch points.

Get a Discount on this Report at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=D&rep_id=42815

Companies are focusing on achieving long-term growth through innovations in the domestic booster pumps market. Some of the major competitors in the global domestic booster pump market include Aquatec International, Inc., Dab Pumps Spa, KSB Pumps Limited, Franklin Electric Co., Inc., Grundfos, Xylem Inc., Karcher International, SyncroFlo Inc., Wilo SE, and Zodiac Pool Solutions.

By application, residential homes/flats segment in the domestic booster pumps market holds the largest share and is expected to continue its dominant market position in the near future as there are more residential homes/flats as compared to farm houses and guest houses.

Browse Press Release at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/pressrelease/domestic-booster-pump-market.htm

By distribution channel, demand for booster pumps across DIY distribution channel segment is expected to witness shift, as end users are exploring products which are easy to install and consume less time for operation of the pump. Demand for booster pumps in wholesalers segment has gone up in recent years due to rapid urbanization and in order to meet the needs of a growing population. Omni-channel strategy is expected to have a compounding impact on the growth of wholesalers. It has helped wholesalers to enlarge their customer base. Since it unifies all the channels, it effectively promotes the idea of one brand, one experience to the consumer across all touch points.

Companies are focusing on achieving long-term growth through innovations in the domestic booster pumps market. Some of the major competitors in the global domestic booster pump market include Aquatec International, Inc., Dab Pumps Spa, KSB Pumps Limited, Franklin Electric Co., Inc., Grundfos, Xylem Inc., Karcher International, SyncroFlo Inc., Wilo SE, and Zodiac Pool Solutions.

Market Segmentation:

Global Domestic booster Pump Market, by Type

Single Stage

Multiple Stage

Global Domestic Booster Pump Market, by Application

Residential Homes/Flats

Farm Houses/Cottages/Guest Houses

Global Domestic Booster Pump Market, by Distribution Channel

DIY

Wholesalers

Third Party Installers

Global Domestic Booster Pump Market, by Geography

North America U.S. Canada Rest of North America

Europe UK Germany France Rest of Europe

Asia Pacific (APAC) China India Japan Rest of Asia Pacific

Middle East & Africa (MEA) GCC South Africa Rest of MEA

South America Brazil Rest of South America



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Posted Tuesday, April 24, 2018 5:13 am

Online enrollment is now open for kindergartners who will attend Battle Ground Public Schools for the 2018-19 school year. Once enrolled, students and their families will be invited to attend a kindergarten orientation at their school.

Orientations are a time for parents and children to get to know their school and to learn more about the kindergarten program.

Any child who will be five years old before Sept. 1, 2018 is eligible to enter kindergarten in the fall. To enroll, parents will need proof of their childs birth date (such as a birth certificate) and a signed and completed Washington state Certificate of Immunization Status form.

Full-day kindergarten will be offered at all primary schools. Parents can find out which school their child will attend by using the districts online boundary map at

battlegroundps.org or by calling the district boundaries office at 360-885-6577.

School will begin next year on Wednesday, Aug. 29.

To enroll, visit battlegroundps.org/parents-and-students/k12-enrollment.

Orientations

Captain Strong Primary,

May 24, 5-7 p.m.

Daybreak Primary,

May 17, 6-7 p.m.

Glenwood Heights Primary,

May 31, 5:30-7:00 p.m.

Maple Grove K-8,

May 24, 3:30-4:30 p.m.

Pleasant Valley Primary,

May 30, 5:30-7:00 p.m.

Tukes Valley Primary,

May 31, 6:00-7:00 p.m.

Yacolt Primary,

May 31, 6:00-7:00 p.m.

 Battle Ground Public Schools
Posted Tuesday, April 24, 2018 5:32 am

The Gifford Pinchot National Forest is seeking new members on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest Resource Advisory Committees (RACs). Resource Advisory Committees are a part of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act, which was recently reauthorized for two years by Congress.

Committee members are appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture and represent a wide range of national forest interests, such as timber, recreation, American Indian Tribes, education providers, wilderness, or wildlife and hunting. Members will serve a four-year term and normally attend one or two meetings per year.

Duties include reviewing and recommending projects to improve forest health, watersheds, roads and facilities on or adjacent to the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Projects could include road and trail maintenance, watershed restoration, improvement of fish and wildlife habitat, control of invasive weeds, and improvements in forest health. Projects must be on national forest lands or directly benefit national forest resources. The committee may also be recommending changes to recreation fees on the forest.

Were looking for people with energy and interest in their public lands, said Gina Owens, Gifford Pinchot National Forest Supervisor. Serving on a committee is an opportunity to have an impact on how federal dollars are invested to benefit forest resources, and influence what changes may occur with forest recreation fees.

Citizens interested in applying for committee membership are encouraged to fill out an Advisory Committee or Research and Promotion background information form.

It must be returned to Gala Miller, RAC coordinator for Gifford Pinchot National Forest no later than May 15, 2018. The address it should be sent to is 501 E 5th Street #404, Vancouver.

Those who previously submitted an application do not need to resubmit. If unsure, call 360 -891-5014.

The form and more information is available online at: fs.usda.gov/main/giffordpinchot/workingtogether/advisorycommittees.

The Secretary of Agriculture will make appointments based on applications received. Special attention will be given to those who have demonstrated the ability to work collaboratively with others of different viewpoints. RAC members serve without compensation, but may be reimbursed for travel expenses.

 Gifford Pinchot National Forest
Posted Tuesday, April 24, 2018 5:40 am

An Oregon mans body was recovered from the North Fork of the Lewis River after a suspected drowning last week according to the Clark County Sheriffs Office.

The victim was identified as Allums Robinson, 24, of Klamath Falls, Oregon.

At about 1:15 p.m. on April 20 responders from Clark County Fire and Rescue and the Clark County Sheriffs office arrived at the confluence of Cedar Creek and the North Fork of the Lewis River, where witnesses reported seeing Robinson drowned.

According to the witness reports, a group of four individuals were on the riverbank when two of the group went for a swim.

One swimmer, Robinson, began having difficulties swimming and slipped under the water, though the second swimmer was able to return to shore.

Rescue operations found Robinson deceased in about 15 feet of water, the release stated.

The investigation was ongoing as of print. Cold water conditions are likely a contributing factor in the drowning.
Posted Tuesday, April 24, 2018 5:50 am

The City of Woodland is dreaming up traffic improvements with westside road extensions and a southbound-only interstate exit south of Horseshoe Lake chief items of consideration for a 2018-2023 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) plan.

City council had a workshop regarding the proposed plan during their April 16 meeting, which also featured some public comment regarding plan proposals.

In a presentation, Woodland Community Development Director Travis Goddard noted that as of now the plan is largely theoretical and will feature recommendations from city staff and the citys planning commission before council would approve the final plan.

The 2018-2023 TIP would include close to 20 amendments to the existing TIP as laid out in documents presented to council both at its April 16 and April 2 meetings. Many involved plans to connect roads in anticipation of coming development, especially on the East side of town, which Goddard said was a reaction to development applications coming into his office.

Goddard went on to explain how having those plans laid out would give developers ample time to work with the citys transportation vision, sooner rather than later.

Apart from what was based off of applications, Goddard also noted other projects generally deemed important, such as the East Scott Avenue and Green Mountain Road intersections with Old Pacific Highway, ones that leave something to be desired and thus should be on the plan for improvement.

One of the more noteworthy amendments was the addition for a planned southbound-only exit south of Horseshoe Lake, with traffic entering and exiting on and off of Pinkerton Road.

During public comment, Port of Woodland CEO Jennifer Keene said the proposed extension will be a huge win for Woodland.

Given the states lack of desire on the Scott Avenue Overpass, an alternative access point is key, Keene said, referencing the citys push to reconnect east and west portions of Scott Avenue over Interstate 5. She noted plans for development on the West side that would create a disastrous mix of residential and industrial traffic without effective transportation infrastructure.

Goddard referenced the numerous southward road extensions included on the proposed plan, all on the West side of the city, noting that through the process it could be determined one or several of those proposals would not be needed. To him the extension of Schurman Way made the most sense given existing development.

On the other hand there may be property owners in the way who have houses and they are not going to sell for 20 years, Goddard added, hence the four total extensions South of Guild Road and one extending southward from the North Pekin/Goerig Street intersection.

Though they have several projects proposed, the fact that it is on this list doesnt necessarily mean that it will ever get built, Goddard said. Having it indicated in the TIP will help secure grant funding, as Goddard said both him and Public Works Director Tracy Coleman have found out.

They wont even talk to you unless you have some kind of vision for whats going to happen, Goddard said.

These plans (in the TIP) are absolutely critical for the city as well as the port to access grant funds, Keene remarked during her testimony.

Coleman brought up that the infrastructure plans listed were not the only things asked for in the TIP, noting more mundane items like road milling and resurfacing which were missing from the current plan.

If you drive around your entire city there is more than one road that needs work on it, Coleman said.

Councilor Benjamin Fredricks had a question regarding the sandwich-making process, a concept he had used previously based in part by Mayor Will Finns State of the City address in February. The concept had to do with peoples desires and needs being implemented in city planning, using the analogy of schoolchildren waiting until just leaving the house before school to express their wishes to have a certain kind of sandwich, far after the fact of when the sandwiches were being made.

Finn likened the proposed TIP amendments to a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, with the following weeks as time for the public to request a turkey sandwich of their own desires that might not line up with what the city is eyeing.

The public hearing April 16 was one way of getting that public comment, with a few individuals including Keene providing insight on the plan. There was also time for public comment at the citys planning commission meeting April 19, and Goddard added the possibility of an open house on the plan in May or early June.

One thing to be determined was priority of projects, which Goddard said could be worked out through public comment and the recommendations of city staff and the planning commission all being provided to council to make that final decision down the line.

Apart from Keene, property owner Erin Thoeny also provided comment. She said she generally liked the plan though she did express concerns about a proposed Schurman/North Pekin Road bypass. She felt it was too close to the railroad which could lead to backups and even potentially a car stuck on the tracks during high-traffic times.

In related testimony not explicitly linked to the TIP, former councilor Marilee McCall voiced concerns over areas she saw as problematic moving forward. Specifically she was concerned about development near the East Scott Avenue/Lewis River Road roundabout as nullifying the effects that intersection had on traffic.

We fought and argued and spent several years to get that roundabout in and propose it to the neighborhood and everybody in the East side that it was going to be a solution, McCall said. If we arent careful with additional buildout that is happening there it wont be a solution any more.
Posted Tuesday, April 24, 2018 6:06 am

Flags lined a route through Ridgefield last Wednesday leading from the outskirts of town to the ports boat dock.

The gauntlet of red, white and blue was put together by Navy veteran Bob Ford of the American Legion Post 44 to welcome a group of around 20 soldiers.

The U.S. troops, Sailors and Marines, had arrived in Portland days earlier on the USS Portland from San Diego, where it regularly docks. The amphibious transport dock ship is 684 feet long and floats at a solid 25,000 tons; it is equipped with a 371 person crew and is able to house 500 to 800 service members. The vessel was in Portland for its official commissioning, which occured last Saturday morning.

The handful of Marines and Sailors who made the trip to Ridgefield did so after an invite from Dion Hess, a Ridgefield resident and member of the Community Military Appreciation Committee (CMAC). Teaming up with CMAC for the event was Fallen Outdoors, Veterans Outdoors and Fallen Heros.

Together they put together what one might describe as a perfect day in Ridgefield: fishing on the Columbia for Spring Chinook and/or Sturgeon then dinner with the mayor at Sportsmans Steakhouse & Saloon.

Ten small fishing skiffs were manned by Fisherman from Kalama to Camas and Hess had one-day fishing passes waiting for the U.S. troops when they arrived  all they had to do was show up and cast off.

They put their lives on the line to protect our freedoms and I think its the least we can do, Hess said.

John Kaiser, resident of Camas and 10-year Army veteran, said fishing trips like this offer a familiar but tame outing for both active-duty members and veterans, by giving them a common goal to pursue as a group.

Its therapy, he said.

Although stationed in southern California, like any Navy vessel, the USS Portland craws with U.S. troops from all across the United States.

Timothy Harrison, a sailor, hailed from Clayton, a Georgia town similar in size to that of Ridgefield, which sits just south of the Tennessee border.

Harrison said it meansa lot when communities they visit make gestures like this.

I really appreciate the fact that they appreciate the military and are willing to show us a good time, he said.
English Danish

Today, FirstFarms A/S held its annual general meeting which resulted in the following:

1. The report on the company's activities was taken into cognizance.

2. The audited annual report 2017 was approved and decharge was given to the Board of Directors.

3. The result of the year of tDKK 3,359 for FirstFarms A/S was carried forward to next year.

4. The general meeting re-elected Henrik Hougaard, Jens Bolding Jensen, Bent Juul Jensen and Asbjrn Brsting as the company's Board of Directors.

5. Pricewaterhouse Coopers was re-elected as the company's auditor.

6. Proposals from the Board of Directors:

6.a.1 The general meeting endorsed the Board of Directors proposal about change of address of the company's register of shareholders

6.a.2 The general meeting authorised the Board of Directors to issue convertible bonds.

6.a.3 The general meeting authorised the Board of Directors to issue warrants.

6.b The general meeting authorised the Board of Directors, in the period until the next annual general meeting, to let the company acquire own shares.

6.c The general meeting authorised the chairman of the meeting with substitution right to report the adopted amendments and undertake the amendments in the adopted, which the Danish Business Authority or other authorities might demand or request carried out as condition for registration or approval.

On a board meeting held immediately after the annual general meeting the Board of Directors constituted itself with Henrik Hougaard as Chairman.

Best regards

FirstFarms A/S
Posted Tuesday, April 24, 2018 4:55 am

With due respect to The Reflector Publisher Laura Venneri, there are a number of important problems concerning fireworks that are not addressed in her editorial.

The permitted use of fireworks in Battle Ground for eight days

There is nothing to celebrate about June 28, or July 5. It is understandable that people want to celebrate on the Fourth, but the other days are merely an excuse to make noise with impunity.

The use of fireworks in days/hours that are not permitted

A good number of people simply ignore the rules about when they can be used. On the 4th itself, fireworks are set off well past midnight. The 5th is often a workday, and people are trying to sleep. And, explosions can be heard at my house for several weeks past the 4th of July.

The use of illegal fireworks

Bombs serve no celebratory purpose. All they do is rattle (and sometimes break) windows, and disturb people and animals.

The fire danger

I have witnessed fires started by personal fireworks. Fortunately, they were put out quickly without having to call the fire department. However, it is notable the number of sirens that can be heard during these periods. Frankly, I worry every year about someone burning my house down.

The mess

I have seen people having to get on their roofs to clean off bottle rockets, in addition to sweep up the streets. And there is a new phenomena people driving into our neighborhood to set off their own fireworks, then leaving without cleaning their mess.

Venneris editorial naturally appeals to the best case scenario, as well as the spirit of a very worthy celebration. No harm in that. But the same can be accomplished on the Fourth of July with colorful displays set off by professionals. There are places to do that in Battle Ground that could be seen by everyone. If not that, then at least limit the personal use to the Fourth with strict enforcement against those who flaunt against the law.

Finally, Venneri admits that her neighborhood, like mine, is turned into a war zone. If personal fireworks were not a problem, why did Vancouver ban them altogether?
ZZ Top fans have something to look forward to this year, with hopefully two new albums from Billy Gibbons.

The first album will be a follow up to his 2015 solo album Perfectamundo, and the second is newly recorded music by the Moving Sidewalks, the 60's psychedelic garage-rock band Gibbons was in before forming ZZ Top.

Gibbons recorded the solo record with the BFG's, the same group that backed him on Perfectamundo. He told ABC News Radio, it will be a little closer to what's expected from him. "Following the success of Perfectamundo, which was our stab at taking a piece from the Cuban influences  they've said, 'Okay, we've done this Cuban thing, can you go back to your bluesier roots?'" he said. "And we've decided to do just that. So, hopefully summertime we'll see something BFG and blue coming out."

Source: Ultimate Classic Rock

Image: Facebook/BillyFGibbonsOfficial
SAN DIEGO, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Helping Disorders reports on new mental health facility in Orange County California. The Board of Supervisors in Orange County finally approved a $1.25M funding for the construction of a new wing dedicated for children and young adults from ages 3-17 years old dealing with anorexia, depression, molestation, and other mental health issues. For decades, the county has not built anything like this in-patient facility featuring different areas for relaxation, comfort, and recreation for both patients and parents. To find out more about mental health facilities in Orange County CA click on the link provided.



The grand opening was held at the facility which happened together when the vote was made. The facilitys construction on the new wing at CHOC is expected to be entirely built by June of 2020 with the availability of the said agreement funds. The wing is a 12,000 sq. Ft. Expanse is designed beautifully with natural light and can accommodate a total of 18 hospital beds for patients. The facility features a place wherein parents can stay overnight when necessary and a fabulous outdoor area. Officials take pride in the countys only facility that will attend to patients younger than 12 years old suffering from mental health issues and the only facility to offer parents a private room as well as accommodation for overnight stays at the hospital with their children.

Gracing the grand opening are Pastor Rick Warren and his beloved wife of the Saddleback Church, who led the facilitys construction. The couple found the drive to lead this campaign when they lost their son, Matthew, due to mental health issues that led him to take his own life. Also present in the said event ate Supervisors Todd Spitzer and Liza Bartlett who gave high praises to the couple or their initiative and dedication to see this project come through. CHOC Chief Executive Officer and President Kimberly Chavalas Cripe said, "For the first time, Orange County children younger than 12 experiencing a mental health crisis will have a place for care close to home." She also adds, "The center's completion is evidence of CHOC's commitment to ensuring that every Orange County youth receives the mental health care services they need in a safe and healing environment."

The realization of the project is made possible through joint funding from the government, grants, and philanthropists. A $7M fund was granted to start the project which would amount to a total of $13.2M to complete. As young Americans suffer from various mental health issues such as depression and anxiety, there is a vital need for treatment facilities where they can seek help and be able to cope and find ways to overcome it. Based on statistics from the DHHS- Department of Health and Human Services-, over 2 million teens are experiencing depression while 6.3 million suffer from anxiety disorder according to NIMH-National Institute of Mental Health. Visit www.helpingdisorders.com to find out more.

Media Contacts

Helping Disorders

951-395-0797

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/a3c5d294-ea83-4909-af27-43c21a0c6fb4


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DALLAS, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cherubim Interests, Inc. (OTC:CHIT) (the Company), an expansion-stage alternative construction and real estate development company, announces that it has executed definitive agreements to consolidate with Trinity Conglomerate LTD.



The companies have agreed to a convertible debt consolidation, and a stock dividend to the shareholders of record.

This consolidation will substantially eliminate debt from our books, and provide additional shareholder value as we move forward, said CEO Patrick Johnson.

Trinity Conglomerate, is a Canadian Federal Corporation that is focused on acquiring and managing assets in growth industries that contribute to developing Sustainable Environments in North America and around the Globe.

According to a report by Ameri Research Inc., the global legal cannabis market was valued at $14.3 billion in 2016 and is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 21.1% between 2017 to 2024, while reaching a value of $63.5 billion by 2024. The market is going through a period of robust growth because of increasing legalization and decriminalization of cannabis products across North America. The report specifies that the legalization trend is moving beyond the U.S. region. Data by Arcview Market Research clarifies that growth of the legal cannabis industry are expected reaccelerate in 2018, as adult use sales ramp up in Canada, California, and Massachusetts along with medical sales in Florida.

While California is the largest market, Canada is projected to show strong sales as well. According to CBC, Canada is one of only two countries, together with the Netherlands - that currently exports cannabis, allowing firms in Canada to take instant benefit of recent medical cannabis legalizations in more than 20 countries. CBC reported that the, "offerings in today's Canada medical marijuana market differ little from those used recreationally - the smokable plant and, more recently, oil extracts. More than 70 companies have licenses from the federal drug regulator, Health Canada, to cultivate, produce and sell medical marijuana, with more than half those licenses granted in 2017 or 2018."

This move is important for the brand as it allows BudCube Cultivation Systems business concept to fully expand into a producer, distributor and exporter of medical cannabis within Canada as well as to other countries outside the United States, said CEO Patrick Johnson.

About Trinity Conglomerate

Trinity Conglomerate is a holding company that is social-purpose driven. We are focused on acquiring and managing assets in growth industries that contribute to developing Sustainable Communities in North America and around the Globe. Our diverse portfolio of assets range from Traditional and Green Construction, Cannabis Industry Cultivation Technology, Real Estate, Real Estate Property Development and Management, Insurance, Telecom, and AAA Rated Securities.



We are a market-focused, process-centered organization that develops and delivers consistent value to our shareholders and provides a dynamic and challenging environment for our partner companies to thrive.

The company can be found at www.trinityconglomerate.com

About BudCube Cultivation Systems

BudCube Cultivation Systems USA (BCS) has developed a proprietary, fully portable and scalable, Controlled Environment Cultivation Technology that serves as a turnkey solution for cultivators of legal medical and recreational cannabis, as well as any other plant species. Coupled with a real estate development and property management business model, BudCube Cultivation Systems can position itself anywhere in the world where the cultivation of cannabis is legal.

BCS provides cultivation solutions for commercial application. It offers cultivators quick entry into a fast-growing market at a price point that is very attractive when compared to the traditional construction and cultivation solution. BCS features a business model unparalleled in the industry and stands to benefit greatly as more and more market participants seek to gain entry into this sector.

For more information, visit www.budcube.com

About Cherubim Interests Inc.

Cherubim Interests specializes in alternative construction projects, as well as covering the entire spectrum of real estate development: due diligence, acquisition, planning, construction, renovation, and management; providing complete beginning-to-end development programs for mixed use, single, and multifamily projects and properties.

For more information, visit www.cherubiminterests.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 and/or 27E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that are based upon assumptions that in the future may prove not to have been accurate and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties, including statements as to the future performance of the company and the risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in reports filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Statements contained in this release that are not historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain. Although the company believes that the expectations reflected in its forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations or any of its forward-looking statements will prove to be correct. Factors that could cause results to differ include, but are not limited to, the company's ability to raise necessary financing, retention of key personnel, timely delivery of inventory from the company's suppliers, timely product development, product acceptance, and the impact of competitive services and products, in addition to general economic risks and uncertainties.

For more information please contact:

Cherubim Interests, Inc.

Patrick J. Johnson

Chief Executive Officer

(844) 842-8872

pjohnson@cherubiminterests.com

Source: http://www.financialbuzz.com

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/24/us-cannabis-companies-look-to-canada-when-going-public.html
The NU-TECProject Officer will take day-to-day responsibility for a range of criticalfunctions. Key amongst these will be working collaboratively with a leadingcommercial bank, which is Mercy Corps central partner in the programme. Thisposition offers an exciting opportunity to work in a dynamic area at thecrossroads of traditional NGO development interventions and traditionalcommercially-focused financial service provision. The Project Officer will beresponsible for supporting the Team Leader in ensuring key deliverables underthe Contact are defined, tracked and completed. Vital delivery tasks include:engagement and relationship-building with the commercial bank and with the(agri-)businesses it will lend to; support to the design and delivery of marketassessments; generation of loan portfolio reports and narrative reports;collation of invoices; and the identification of, engagement with and supportto external consultants. The Project Officer will also be responsible foradherence to Mercy Corps policies, in particular PM@MC, and will contribute tolearning initiatives. The Project Officer is expected to have a high-levelunderstanding of shared value partnerships (seeing where access to financingcan unlock the potential of cash-constrained businesses) as well as experiencemanaging and developing such partnerships. S/he should understand the barrierscommonly present in the agribusiness value chain.
PORTLAND, Ore., April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PDX Partners, Inc. (OTC:PDXP) (the Company), a Telecommunications company, announces that is has executed definitive agreements to consolidate with Trinity Conglomerate LTD.



Trinity Conglomerate, is a Canadian Federal Corporation that is focused on acquiring and managing assets in growth industries that contribute to developing Sustainable Communities in North America and around the Globe.

The companies have agreed to a convertible debt consolidation, and a stock dividend to the shareholders of record.

Said CEO Patrick Johnson: "PDX Partners is excited to come into the fold and look forward to moving the prospects of business models forward. The company will be able to clean its balance sheet of outstanding convertible debt which is extremely beneficial to the company, and our shareholders of record will also greatly benefit from the dividend, he added.

The company also announces that is has rescinded its Joint Venture agreement with Telequery.Net, respectively.

About Trinity Conglomerate

Trinity Conglomerate is a holding company that is social-purpose driven. We are focused on acquiring and managing assets in growth industries that contribute to developing Sustainable Environments in North America and around the Globe. Our diverse portfolio of assets range from Traditional and Green Construction, Cannabis Industry Cultivation Technology, Real Estate, Real Estate Property Development and Management, Insurance, Telecom, and AAA Rated Securities.



We are a market-focused, process-centered organization that develops and delivers consistent value to our shareholders and provides a dynamic and challenging environment for our partner companies to thrive.

The company can be found at www.trinityconglomerate.com

About PDX Partners Inc.

PDX Partners, Inc. (OTC PINK:PDXP) is a Telecom company dedicated to creating revenue and shareholder value by marketing Telecom products and acquiring other long term growth assets. The company was founded in 1997.

For more information go to: www.pdxpartners.net

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 and/or 27E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that are based upon assumptions that in the future may prove not to have been accurate and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties, including statements as to the future performance of the company and the risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in reports filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Statements contained in this release that are not historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain. Although the company believes that the expectations reflected in its forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations or any of its forward-looking statements will prove to be correct. Factors that could cause results to differ include, but are not limited to, the company's ability to raise necessary financing, retention of key personnel, timely delivery of inventory from the company's suppliers, timely product development, product acceptance, and the impact of competitive services and products, in addition to general economic risks and uncertainties.

For more information please contact:

PDX Partners, Inc.

Patrick J. Johnson

Chief Executive Officer

(971) 258-8003 (Investor Relations)

patrick@pdxpartners.net
The Supreme Court has so far had little to say about Donald Trumps time as president, even as the nation has moved from one Trump controversy to another. Thats about to change.

The justices first deep dive into a Trump administration policy comes in a dispute over the third and latest version of the administrations ban on travel from some countries with majority Muslim populations. Opponents of the policy and some lower courts have labeled it a Muslim ban, harking back to Trumps campaign call to keep Muslims from entering the country.

The high-stakes arguments at the high court on Wednesday could offer some indication about how a court that runs on respect for traditions and precedent will deal with a president who regularly breaks with convention.

Apart from the campaign statements, Trumps presidential tweets about the travel ban and last falls retweets of inflammatory videos that stoked anti-Islam sentiment all could feature in the courts discussion of the travel bans legality.

The court could get to the right outcome without getting into the question of his tweets. But I think the president set it up so that its virtually impossible to ignore him when hes shouting from the rooftops about what his purpose was in the three versions of the ban, said Cecillia Wang, the American Civil Liberties Unions deputy legal director.

Solicitor General Noel Francisco, who will argue the administrations case, said in a court filing that the ban is well within the presidents authority and is not based on prejudice against Islam.

In a sign of heightened public interest, the court is taking the rare step of making an audio recording of the proceedings available just hours after the arguments end.

One key issue will be how the court evaluates administration actions.

Neil Eggleston, President Barack Obamas last White House counsel, suggested in an online forum last week that Trump does not merit the same measure of latitude that courts usually give presidents, especially in the areas of national security and immigration.

The court will have to wrestle with how much to defer to a President who has created this record of chaos and animus, Eggleston and co-author Amanda Elbogen wrote on justsecurity.org.

Josh Blackman, a professor at the South Texas College of Law in Houston, cautioned that the court would be breaking new ground if it were to treat Trump differently from other presidents.

The policy under review at the court applies to travelers from five countries with overwhelmingly Muslim populations  Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. It also affects two non-Muslim countries: blocking travelers from North Korea and some Venezuelan government officials and their families. A sixth majority Muslim country, Chad, was removed from the list this month after improving its identity-management and information sharing practices, Trump said in a proclamation.

Francisco said the Chad decision shows that the restrictions are premised only on national security concerns. He also said that the State Department has cleared more than 430 visa applicants from the affected countries for waivers that would allow them to enter the U.S.

But the challengers argue that the administration cannot ask the court to ignore all that has happened.

Trumps first travel ban was issued just a week after he took office in January 2017, and was aimed at seven countries. It triggered chaos and protests across the U.S. as travelers were stopped from boarding international flights and detained at airports for hours. Trump tweaked the order after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco refused to reinstate the ban.

The next version, announced in March 2017, dropped Iraq from the list of covered countries and made it clear the 90-day ban covering Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen didnt apply to those travelers who already had visas. It also eliminated language that would give priority to religious minorities. Critics said the changes didnt erase the bans legal problems.

The 9th Circuit and the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, agreed with the bans opponents. The 4th Circuit said the ban drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination. The 9th Circuit ruled that Trump violated immigration law.

The third version is indefinite, unlike the other two, and the administration said it is the product of a thorough review of how other countries screen their own citizens and share information with the U.S.

It fared no better than its predecessors in the lower courts, but the Supreme Court said in an unsigned order in December that it could take full effect while the legal dispute continues. The justices said nothing about the substance of the policy, either in December or in earlier actions involving the ban.

Now, though, they are confronted with the administrations view that Trump has broad discretion to impose limits on immigration and that the courts dont even have a role to play. The Justice Department has said throughout the course of the legal fight that the lawsuits challenging the policy should be dismissed without ever reaching the challengers claims. The administration says that foreigners have no right to enter the United States and no right to challenge their exclusion in American courts.

Supporting briefs for the bans challengers dwarf filings on the administrations side. Retired high-ranking military officers, former Republican officeholders, Catholic bishops, Amazon, Facebook and 113 other companies, the children of Japanese-Americans who were held in internment camps during World War II and more than a dozen mainly Democratic-led states are among those calling on the court to strike down the Trump policy.

The administrations supporters include roughly the same number of Republican-led states, as well as conservative groups and Jay Sekulow, one of Trumps personal lawyers.

A decision in Trump v. Hawaii, 17-965, is expected by late June.

(AP)
A grainy video of female officers from Irans morality police assaulting a young woman whose headscarf only loosely covered her hair has sparked a new public debate on the decades-long requirement for women in the Islamic Republic.

While officials of all ranks up to President Hassan Rouhani have weighed in on the incident, it has seen women in Iran not only question the rule that they must wear the hijab in the street but also their faith in the theocratic Shiite-dominated nation.

Even before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the long, flowing black robes for women known as chadors and the headscarves, or hijabs, were both a political and religious symbol in the Shiite-dominated nation.

I used to be a person who would always say her prayers and deeply believed in God, said Afrouz, 28, who like other women who spoke to The Associated Press in Tehran would only give their first name for fear of retribution. I would always say grace before having a meal. Right now, I believe in none of those things.

The video appeared online last week, with activists suggesting it was taken in Tehran, though nothing in it offers hints at its location.

It shows a young woman with a long red scarf loosely covering her head, her hair clearly showing, being surrounded by three morality policewomen wearing chadors, who grab her. One grabs her by the throat. She screams, they pick her up off her feet. She then ends up on the ground, weeping as another woman comforts her before the officers grab her again.

Why are you hitting me? You have been destroying us for 30 years, she is heard shouting at one point.

The video went viral on social media and drew an immediate reaction from officials. Irans interior minister, Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, ordered authorities on Thursday to investigate the incident soon after Masoumeh Ebtekar, a female vice president for womens affairs, condemned the polices violent approach to the situation.

Reformist lawmaker Tayebeh Siavoshi said Saturday that the policewoman seen in the video grabbing the young womans throat has been suspended pending the investigation. None of the women in the video have been identified.

Imposing (force on women) will lead nowhere, she said.

President Rouhani, a cleric who is considered a moderate within Irans political system, also criticized the morality police in a speech on Saturday. The police forces stated mandate is promoting virtue and preventing vice.

Grabbing peoples collars to promote virtue will not work, Rouhani warned. You cannot do it by being aggressive.

Hard-liners, however, have dismissed the video as a foreign plot. The hard-line Kayhan daily on Sunday described the video as strange and suspicious, noting foreign activists have promoted it. Previously, hard-liners pointed to a campaign challenging the hijab launched by a journalist at the Persian service of the Voice of America, which is funded by the U.S. government.

On Monday, judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadegh Amoli Larijani said he supported the morality police, adding that law enforcement should not withdraw a single inch.

But on the streets of Tehran, women are openly discussing the video and their own encounters with morality police.

I think that it was very unnecessary the way that the police, or the morality police, handled the situation, said Hamraz, 27, an Austrian national born to Iranian parents who is on vacation in Tehran. It was very unfortunate that it was caught on camera, but in a way it was good that everyone got to see how people are being treated: very unjust and very unfair.

Sahar, a 25-year-old university student, agreed.

I think everyone must be free to choose what they believe in and we can deal with each other more peacefully instead of trying to induce people to do what you think is right, she said. This method surely will not work.

The hijab and chador have long been parts of Persian culture. They became political symbols in 1936, when Irans pro-Western ruler Reza Shah Pahlavi banned the garments amid his efforts to rapidly modernize Iran. The ban became a source of humiliation for some pious Muslim women in the country.

As the 1979 Islamic Revolution took hold, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordered female civil servants to wear the chador. At first, thousands of women protested the decision in Tehran and Khomeini later said officials should not insult women who chose not to wear it  though he also called the chador the flag of the revolution.

The hijab and loose-fitting clothing later became mandatory for all women in Iran. And though some freedoms for women were curtailed in the years that followed, Iranian women were still allowed to drive, unlike in Saudi Arabia, and hold public office.

In Tehran today, some fashionable young women wear tighter clothes with a scarf loosely covering their head, technically meeting the requirements of the law while drawing the ire of conservatives.

Women arrested for showing their hair in public in Iran can receive jail terms of two months or less and face fines equivalent to $25.

In December, Tehrans police said they would no longer arrest women for not observing the Islamic dress code as video clips of women choosing not to wear hijabs and walking the streets with their heads uncovered spread across social media.

One image  of a young woman, head uncovered and waving her hijab like a flag in Tehrans Enghelab Street  became famous during economic protests that swept Iran later that month. Tehrans prosecutor, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, said in March that the woman had been sentenced to 24 months in prison.

The telecommunication junction box she stood on in the photograph has since been re-welded to stop women from standing on it, though protests continue.

(AP)
A Muslim civil rights group blasted President Donald Trump and his administration Monday, saying his words and policies led to a sharp increase in attacks and bias against Muslims in 2017.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations said Monday the number of reported anti-Muslim hate crimes and reported incidents of discrimination, bullying, harassment and other acts of anti-Muslim bias both jumped 15 percent last year. The group blames the increase on the president, particularly his push to ban immigrants from several Muslim-majority countries. The ban now includes Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, along with non-Muslim North Korea and some Venezuelan officials. It originally also included Iraq.

The report says Trumps xenophobic rhetoric  emboldened those who sought to express their anti-Muslim bias and provided a veneer of legitimacy to bigotry.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump has said the goal of the ban is to keep radical Islamic terrorists out.

We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country and love deeply our people, the Republican president added as he signed the order days after his January 2017 inauguration.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments Wednesday on whether the ban is constitutional.

CAIR said the number of anti-Muslim hate crimes reported jumped from 260 in 2016 to 300 in 2017 while the incidents of anti-Muslim bias rose from 2,213 to 2,599.

Wilfredo Ruiz, a CAIR spokesman, and CAIR attorney Omar Saleh conceded that some of the increase might be attributable to the Washington-based group getting better at documenting incidents and Muslims being more likely to report abuse. But they said there also has been an increase in attacks on mosques and Islamic centers since Trump began speaking about Muslims during the 2016 campaign. Such incidents have always been recorded, he said.

Targeting an entire group of people on how they worship God is contrary to our shared American values, Ruiz said. American Muslims share the same American values and freedoms all cherish and deserve the same opportunities as we are all Americans.

CAIR said many anti-Muslim attackers cite Trump during their assaults. For example, a traveler kicked and cursed a Muslim employee at New Yorks Kennedy Airport in March 2017. The employee, who was wearing a Muslim head covering, recalled him saying, Trump is here now. He will get rid of all of you. You can ask Germany, Belgium and France about these kinds of people. You see what happens. The man was apparently referring to terror attacks carried out by Muslim extremists in those countries.

In another case, a man threw rocks at a Muslim familys home near Chicago, also in March 2017, yelling, Open the door, I want to kill you. When police asked him why he did it, he told them, Thats what Trump would do.

(AP)
TORONTO, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- League Inc., the disruptive health benefits platform, and eSight, the developer of breakthrough electronic glasses that help the legally blind see, are proudly joining forces to revolutionize the workplace experience for those living with legal blindness or low vision.



League is the first health benefits provider in North America to cover eSights groundbreaking, vision-restoring technology through employer sponsored benefit packages. This partnership will break down barriers to accessing a life-changing device, while also putting employees in control of their own health and wellness.

Providing League members with the ability to purchase eSights electronic glasses through their health benefits platform demonstrates the flexibility and customization League members have come to expect, said Mike Serbinis, Founder and CEO of League. This program provides employers a unique opportunity to greatly improve the career of employees with severe vision issues.

The legally blind are often left to contend with unemployment rates as high as 70 percent, with a devastating poverty rate of 30 percent, according to the CNIB and AEBC. This partnership will be transformative - providing employers with a powerful, new disability management tool that will help them significantly enhance the performance of existing employees living with vision loss. Additionally, eSight enables employers to hire highly talented individuals from the visually impaired community, unlocking an impactful hiring option in times of historically low unemployment.

With cases of blindness set to rise dramatically, employers will now be able to proactively assure the productivity, independence, and mobility of employees who experience the harrowing effects of vision loss. Employees currently living with legal blindness, whose employers use League, will now be able to easily access eSights life-changing electronic glasses through their health benefits.

Individuals who live with vision loss continually tell us that they have to work four times as hard to get one-fourth as fara trend we find completely unacceptable. By partnering with League, we believe that we can dramatically transform the lives of the visually impaired by helping them excel in their current roles and attain new employment opportunities, said Dr. Brian Mech, CEO of eSight. We know League provides a best-in-class employee experience with a focus on personalization and, by working together, we can help more employees thrive in their everyday lives.

eSight will be available in Leagues digital benefits marketplace across North America at an exclusive price point. It will also be specifically available for employers who wish to directly purchase eSight to accommodate their employees as part of their benefits plan.

About League

League is the new digital alternative to traditional health insurance that connects employers and employees to a comprehensive network of health services and benefits, giving them unparalleled choice, convenience and value. League unlocks employee benefits to give everyone the power to act every day and live longer, healthier, happier lives. League Insurance Agency Inc. is a licensed subsidiary of League Inc.



Follow League on Twitter @JoinLeague or visit www.league.com.



About eSight

eSight was founded in 2006 for the sole purpose of allowing the visually impaired to see. A unique and patented technology, eSight 3 enables people with vision loss to actually see and independently carry out virtually all Activities of Daily Living. eSight is registered with the FDA and EUDAMED, and is inspected by Health Canada. It is available globally. Find us at www.eSightEyewear.com, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.



Contact Information:

Laura Chau

Marketing Manager

eSight

156 Front St W #601, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5J 2L6

+1 855-837-4448 ext. 565
MBABANE  The Queen of Amampondo in the Eastern Cape, Princess Lombekiso lost her cellphone worth E18 000 while inside her room at Bethel Court Vineyard Hotel.



According to her daughter Princess Wezizwe Sigcau, they were inside the hotel premises when a group of young men, who had not covered their faces pounced on them. They were in the country for the 50/50 double celebrations.



The cellphone was a Samsung Galaxy 9. Princess Wezizwe stated that the queens wedding ring and her watch were also taken by the thugs, during the robbery.



The queens money in cash of E7 000 was also stolen by the five robbers who were wielding knives.

Chief Faku from the Eastern Cape, who was also in the presence of the queen, had his cellphone to the value of E3 000 taken from him. Nikiwe Bam was also present during the robbery and she had about E300 taken from her.



In total, the thugs took money and cellphones with a total value of E29 300.

Princess Wezizwe went on to narrate the incidents on the day of the robbery, stating that they were still traumatised by the robbery and they could not leave the country as they are waiting for feedback from the police about the robbery.



When I looked into the eyes of one of the robbers, you could tell that he was high on something. He kept on asking who was inside the cottage that we were booked into and I told him it was the queen. He just went past me and went into the cottage and he took my mothers handbag, she said.
MBABANE  A bid by Ngwane Mills (Propriety) Limited to have the decision of SRA commissioner that it was liable to pay over E40 million for undeclared wheat reviewed and set aside, has hit a snag.



This comes after Judge Cyril Maphanga dismissed an application where the company was seeking an order to review and set aside the decision of the SRA commissioner general in terms of which he determined that the company was liable to pay Valued Added Tax (VAT) together with additional penalties levied thereon, amounting to E40 109 557.26.



In his judgment, Judge Maphanga stated that there was no question that in terms of Section 4 of the VAT Act the applicant (Ngwane Mills) also had an obligation or at the very least also became liable to pay VAT on the non-declared wheat imports.



The court held that the applicant had an active interest in the goods throughout the process of procurement and as such, had a beneficial interest in the merchandise to qualify it as an importer and as such, also became liable for the payment of VAT.

Judge Maphanga said the applicant also failed to show that the SRA commission general exceeded his powers in making the determination.



Ultimately, I am persuaded that the wheat imports in question were subject to the regulatory provisions requiring due entry to be made upon importation, on account of the goods being a restricted product for which no permit exempting such imports from mandatory statutory requirements for declaration, said Judge Maphanga.



The judge went on to state that, he was in agreement with SRAs lawyer that the commissioner general was entitled to invoke the provisions of Section 37, 78 and 81 of the Customs Act.



Further, I am also inclined to conclude that the circumstances of this matter, the measure of forfeiture or in lieu thereof, the imposition of the penalty as determined by the commissioner general was justified, reads part of the judgment.
English French

MONTREAL, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cogeco Inc. (Cogeco or the Company) announces today the conclusion of an agreement to acquire 10 regional radio stations owned by RNC Media inc. The stations are located in SaguenayLac-Saint-Jean (Planete 104.5 in Alma, Planete 93.5 in Chibougamau, Planete 99.5 in Roberval, Planete 100.3 in Dolbeau-Mistassini, and Radio X 95.7 in Saguenay), in Abitibi-Temiscamingue (Capitale Rock 104.3 in Val-dOr, Capitale Rock 102.1 in La Sarre, and WOW 96.5, in Val-dOr), in Lachute (Pop 104.9) and in Hawkesbury (Pop 102.1).



The total value of the transaction is $18.5 million, subject to the customary adjustments. The transaction is also subject to the usual closing conditions, including approval by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).

We are pleased to seize this opportunity to strengthen our position in the Quebec broadcasting industry, said Louis Audet, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cogeco. Radio is more than ever a relevant and connected local medium that is part of the daily lives of millions of listeners in Quebec. We will welcome these stations to the Cogeco family with great enthusiasm, and we look forward to further developing them for the benefit of these three regions, Mr. Audet added.

Richard Lachance, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cogeco subsidiary Cogeco Media, stated: On behalf of the entire Cogeco Media team, I can say that we will be very pleased with the arrival of these stations in our network and we will welcome our new colleagues with open arms. These stations are already well established in their communities and will enrich our radio offering for both listeners and broadcasters.

I would like to sincerely thank all the employees who contributed to the success of the radio stations that are part of this agreement, said Pierre R. Brosseau, Executive Chairman of the Board of RNC Media inc. I feel certain that they will continue to grow in an organization that is known in the media industry for its expertise, its efficiency, its creativity and its commitment, concluded Mr. Brosseau.

Cogeco Media owns and operates 13 radio stations across Quebec, including talk network stations 98.5 FM in Montreal, 106.9 FM in Mauricie, 107.7 FM in Estrie and 104.7 FM in Outaouais; Rhythm FM network stations 105.7 in Montreal, 100.1 in Mauricie and 93.7 in Estrie, CIME 103.9 in the Laurentians, 96.9 CKOI, The Beat 92.5 and Radio Circulation 730 AM in Montreal, as well as FM93 and M102.9 in Quebec City. Leaders in their respective markets, Cogeco Medias stations reach more than 5 million listeners each week, offering varied and relevant programming for a wide audience. It also owns Cogeco Nouvelles, the largest private news radio agency in Quebec.

About Cogeco Inc.

Cogeco Inc. is a diversified holding corporation which operates in the communications and media sectors. Through its Cogeco Communications Inc. subsidiary, Cogeco provides its residential and business customers with Internet, video and telephony services through its two-way broadband fibre networks. Cogeco Communications Inc. operates in Canada under the Cogeco Connexion name in Quebec and Ontario, and in the United States under the Atlantic Broadband name in 11 states along the East Coast, from Maine to Florida. Through Cogeco Peer 1, Cogeco Communications Inc. provides its business customers with a suite of information technology services (colocation, network connectivity, hosting, cloud and managed services), through its 16 data centres, extensive FastFiber Network and more than 50 points of presence in North America and Europe. Through its subsidiary Cogeco Media, Cogeco owns and operates 13 radio stations across most of Quebec with complementary radio formats serving a wide range of audiences as well as Cogeco News, its radio news agency. Cogeco Inc.s subordinate voting shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX:CGO). The subordinate voting shares of Cogeco Communications Inc. are also listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX:CCA).

Information and interview requests:

Cogeco Inc.

Christine Dicaire

Director of Marketing, Communications & Promotions

Cogeco Media

(514) 796-9258

christine.dicaire@cogecomedia.com

RNC Media inc.

Pierre R. Brosseau

President executif du conseil dadministration

(514) 866-8686
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- With 61.9% of mobile users and 65.1 % of mobile orders on ecommerce sites coming from iOS, the share of mobile traffic eligible to take advantage of a wide range of Progressive Web Apps (PWA) features more than double with the recent launch of Apple's iOS 11.3. According to the 2018 Q1 Mobile Commerce Insights Report from Mobify, that's because the latest version of Safari on iOS supports service workers, a key technology that is one of the foundations of a PWA, now widely recognized as the best way to create fast, seamless mobile web experiences.



Download the 2018 Q1 Mobile Commerce Insights Report from Mobify.

Well-crafted PWAs have always worked across iOS and Android, but with the latest Apple Safari release now supporting service workers, iOS users will gain an even better shopping experience, said Mobify CEO Igor Faletski.

PWA features enabled by iOS 11.03 include:

Faster subsequent page loads due to enhanced caching capabilities

Full-screen, immersive launch from home screen experience

Support for Payment Request API for Apple Pay

The ability to browse while offline

Such PWA features enable retailers to drive more engagement and revenue from the iOS audience through app-like experiences previously limited to downloaded native apps. Mobify, the #1 provider of Progressive Web Apps for ecommerce worldwide, helps innovative retailers such as Lilly Pulitzer and Lancome achieve mobile revenue increases of 33% and 36% respectively with PWAs built on the Mobify Platform. With most users and orders on iOS today, retailers can now provide the high-converting PWA experience to this larger audience.

A Progressive Web App provides a more frictionless experience for mobile shoppers looking to search, buy, and checkout quickly. Service workers are a core PWA technology that provide greater control over caching, which enables fast subsequent page loads. According to the Mobile Commerce Insights Report, the mean subsequent page load speed increase for an iOS PWA without service workers is 4.8x, while with service workers it is predicted to be 15.6x.

With support for launches from the homescreen, PWAs give retailers an icon-based launching pad that typically generates six times more revenue per user, twice as many sessions per users, and twice as many pageviews per session, according to the Mobify report. Also included in iOS 11.3 is support for the Payment Request API for Apple Pay. A vendor-agnostic standard that allows retailers to implement Apple Pay on iOS, the approach eliminates checkout forms by using a single API call to transfer payment information between the retailer and the end user. This reduces friction and errors in the checkout process, a factor Mobifys early analysis shows can cut checkout abandonment rates in half and result in a 40% faster time to checkout.

"Savvy retailers and brands have recognized that mobile is an essential part of the overall shopping experience," says Faletski. "With iOS now more fully onboard the PWA train, theres no better time to offer shoppers a customer-first experience through a Progressive Web App."

Get the 2018 Q1 Mobile Commerce Insights Report from Mobify.

About Mobify

Mobify is a digital experience platform for building modern, customer-first shopping experiences through Progressive Web Apps (PWA), Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), and native apps. Working as a seamless extension of ecommerce and IT teams, Mobify and its network of partners use the Mobify Platform to help retailers and brands drive immediate revenue with a friction-free shopping experience thats up to 43% faster than previous generation mobile sites. The platform-as-a-service (PaaS) enables leading global brands to embrace a superior PWA experience on mobile, and then extend it across desktop, tablet, and other digital touchpoints. Among Mobify's customers of digital innovators are Lancome, Debenhams, Crabtree & Evelyn, Lilly Pulitzer, Payless Shoe Source, Carnival Cruise Line, US AutoParts, Hobbycraft, and PureFormulas.

Mobify is a registered trademark of Mobify. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/3c36e339-ff56-4e01-aa80-93c04ec55741




By Wang Li





On April 21, one week after the U.S.-led airstrikes against Syria, Russian FM Lavrov said that Russia would sell S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Syria unconditionally. Since Moscow denounced the recent US-led missile strikes as an aggression against Syria and violated international law, selling S-300 missiles to Syria seems to be logical.





As it is well-known, the powerful weapon of S-300 has a range of up to 125 miles and the capability to track down and strike multiple targets simultaneously with lethal efficiency. It would mean a quantum leap in Syrias air defense capability and pose a strong challenge to any upcoming menace from airstrikes. Before U.S-led airstrikes against Syria last week, Moscow had refrained from providing Damascus with such advanced S-300. Yet, now Russia openly rejects Western demands to halt such sales.





As a matter of fact, Russia had made explicit warnings to shoot down U.S. missiles prior to the airstrikes and even to target the missile-launchers. These threats are part of a wider Russian strategy aimed at showing the entire world  and the Middle East in particular  that Moscow stands by the Assad regime no matter what horrors it unleashes. Russia was supported widely by the world with an argument for the role of the United Nations and the fieldtrip investigation of the alleged chemical-weapons sites in Syria. Meanwhile, Russia was sure to demonstrate the extent and the efficiency of its deterrent capabilities, including S-300 missiles system, which is regarded as the key to any nuclear power.





Ironically, U.S.-led airstrike against Syria aimed to damage Assads chemical-weapons program and to deter the murderous regime in Damascus from unleashing alleged chemical weapons on its own people. Yet in reality, the strikes are more of an indication of Russias success at causing Western powers to limit their actions and opt for extreme caution in their response to Assads regime. Since Russias actions are guided by a cold, hard logic, by standing firm alongside its Syrian client, it sent a message globally that any Middle Eastern state which aligns with Russia will gain the essentially unconditional backing of a great power whose overall purpose is to rebuild its global power status and boost the value of Russia as a trusted great power.





The West outfoxed ?





In diplomatic field, Russia also shows its position. On the same day of U.S.-led airstrikes against Syria, a sovereign state and also a client state of Russia, President Putin denounced the attack as the U.S. is deepening a humanitarian catastrophe. In both legal and moral terms, U.S.-led coalitions military action openly violated international law, norms and practices. As the fully-armed nuclear powers and the permanent members of UN Security Council, the U.S., Britain and France deliberately ignored the high authorities of the United Nations. Just one day ago, Secretary-General Guterres called for the creation of an independent panel that could determine who used chemical weapons in Syria, as the absence of such a body increases the risks of a military escalation in a country already driven by confrontations and proxy wars. Yet, the three powers arrogantly rejected the appealing from international community.





Why the Trio acted so? Postulating his anthropo-geographic inversion as a pattern in current international relations, professor Anis H. Bajrektarevic was predicative and accurate on the MENA dynamics:  it is an absolute imperative for the external/peripheral powers to dominate such a pivotal geo-economic and geopolitical theater by simply keeping its center soft (e.g. by pre-empting, preventing or hindering the emancipation that might come through any indigenous socio-political modernization and economic diversification). This is the very same imperative that has remained a dominant rational of inner European and Asian machtpolitik for centuries.





Professor concluded on instruments used, too: An exceptional fact that the Middle East is a cradle of all four monotheistic religions is thus turned into its own paradox. Fueled by severe socio-economic exclusions and exacerbated by exploitation of the ShiaSunni and of MuslimJewishChristian antagonism, political radicalization is surely one of the most convenient instruments of subtle control aimed at preserving local governing authorities predatory-alienated, unauthentic and weak, if not incapacitated.





The Winner takes it all  but, who is standing small ?





In summary, Russia has appeared as a winner with dual identities: one is a defender of a small country worn by the 8-year civil war; other is a strong military power which has potentials to challenge the hegemony of the United States and its key allies. Although China did not openly align with Russia militarily, Beijing and Moscow once again insured their consensus on the Syria crisis. First, Russia alongside China and many other states denounced the military strikes on Syria by the US, UK and France as a violation of the basic principle of prohibition of use of force in international law and run contrary to the UN Charter. Second, the use of force against Syria on the ground of punishing or retaliating against the use of chemical weapons does not conform to international law. In this case, we shall not forget the precedent of the Iraqi issue. That historical lesson should be learned because it is very irresponsible to launch military strikes on a sovereign state on the ground of presumption of guilt. Third, China and Russia are more convinced than ever before that they must deepen their strategic partnership of coordination in light of the latest U.S. national security report defined Beijing and Moscow as global competitors. Because of this, Russia, working with China, Iran and many other states, is definitely able to challenge the United States and its key allies globally.





About the author:
Columbia, MO, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Shippers across the United States have long pushed lawmakers to consider allowing heavier, bigger trucks on roads. After a letter from 1,000 local leaders across the nation that urged lawmakers not to consider such measures, two attorneys in Columbia remain hopeful that they wont be seeing larger trucks on Missouri roads any time soon.

Local leaders, including some in our own state, have rightfully expressed their concerns about allowing heavier trucks on our roads, said Mark Evans. They are clearly worried about the impact of these trucks on our infrastructure, but keeping existing limits intact is also in the best interest of road safety.

Missouri residents and officials have good reason to prioritize road safety. The state ranked in the bottom five in a National Safety Council report. Every year, around 100 people are killed and more than 3,000 are injured in crashes involving commercial vehicles, according to statistics from the Missouri Department of Transportation and the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

Some shippers have pushed for increasing national weight limits from 80,000 to 91,000 pounds; structural limits from a five-axle/18-wheel to a six-axle/22-wheel configuration; and a twin-trailer size increase from 28 to 33 feet. Amazon, FedEx and UPS have been advocates of size increases.

Several states already allow larger trucks on designated corridors. Bley and Evans believe that increasing those limits to include more vehicles is a step in the wrong direction for the safety of road users.

Shippers want to increase size and weight limits to improve costs, but that results in greater damage to our roads and bridges, said Wally Bley. Most importantly, the potential harm these trucks can cause in a collision with other motorists is disastrous.

The firm said that shippers are in a small minority of those who want to see an increase in truck sizes.

According to a nationwide January poll commissioned by the Coalition Against Bigger Trucks, seven out of 10 voters opposed increasing the size and weight of trucks allowed on roads. Forty-three percent of those opposed to the increases cited the potential for more crashes as their reason.

Safety advocates, such as those involved in the CABT, say that heavier trucks take longer to brake and have higher numbers of brake violations.

Bley and Evans said their strong opinions on the issue come largely from personal experience of representing clients injured in large truck crashes.

When you see the devastation that a heavy commercial vehicle can cause, you appreciate the need to keep limits on the size of large trucks, said Evans.



About Bley & Evans:

Wally Bley is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and has been a trial lawyer in Missouri for over 35 years. Mark Evans has a career that spans over 25 years, including working at one of the nations largest defense firms. Find out more about Bley & Evans by visiting their website - http://www.bleyevanslaw.com/
[April 24, 2018] Golden Leaf Holdings Signs Letter of Intent to Acquire California Cannabis Operation

TORONTO, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Golden Leaf Holdings Ltd. (Golden Leaf or the Company) (CSE:GLH) (OTCQB:GLDFF), a leading cannabis oil solutions company built around recognized brands, today announced that it has signed a letter of intent (the LOI) to acquire a cannabis dispensary currently in operation in Northern California. The transaction would include all assets, including licenses and permits covering cultivation, production/manufacturing, distribution and two retail licenses, and would represent Golden Leafs entry into the largest U.S. market for both medical and adult-use cannabis sales.

Under the terms of the LOI, Golden Leaf would pay $1.25 million USD in cash upfront and $500,000 in GLH stock, with additional earn-out payments up to $8 million USD based on future revenue thresholds. Signing this LOI is another key strategic step forward for Golden Leaf, as we continue to execute on our plan to introduce our retail brand-focused model to the largest growth markets, both in the U.S. and internationally, commented William Simpson, CEO of Golden Leaf. California clearly represents the largest market opportunity in the U.S. and we are excited by the prospect of entering this marketplace that is still in its early days for adult-use. By establishing a presence in Nevada, Canada and, we anticipate, California to complement our core Portland, Oregon commercial footprint, we are targeting key markets where we see the most potential for growth. We remain confident in our ability to expand our retail brand-focused model and to build sustainable, long-term shareholder value. To be added to the distribution list please email GLH@kcsa.com with GLH in the subject line. About Golden Leaf Holdings Golden Leaf Holdings Ltd., a Canadian company with operations in multiple jurisdictions including Oregon, Nevada and Canada, is one of the largest cannabis oil and solution providers in North America, and a leading cannabis products company built around ecognized brands. Golden Leaf cultivates, extracts and manufactures and distributes its products through its branded Chalice Farm retail dispensaries, as well as through third party dispensaries. Golden Leaf leverages a strong management team with cannabis and food industry experience to complement its expertise in extracting, refining and selling cannabis oil. Visit goldenleafholdings.com to learn more.



Company:

William Simpson

Chief Executive Officer

Golden Leaf Holdings Ltd.

503-477-7626

William@chalicefarms.com Investor Relations:

Steve Silver / Phil Carlson

KCSA Strategic Communications

GLH@kcsa.com

212-896-1220 / 212-896-1233

Media Relations:

Anne Donohoe / Nick Opich

KCSA Strategic Communications

adonohoe@kcsa.com / nopich@kcsa.com

212-896-1265 / 212-896-1206 Disclaimer: This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the Companys future business operations, the establishment of, and the future scope and scale of, the Chalice Farms retail system, the level of funding needed to establish the Chalice Farms franchise model, that the Chalice Farms franchise model will be successful and generate positive cash flows, the opinions or beliefs of management and future business goals. 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 and competitive uncertainties, regulatory risks including risks related to the expected timing of the Companys participation in the adult use market, market risks, risks inherent in manufacturing operations, difficulties of establishing a successful franchise model and other risks of the cannabis industry. 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. Forward-looking information is provided herein for the purpose of presenting information about managements current expectations relating to the future and readers are cautioned that such information may not be appropriate for other purpose. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. This press release does not constitute an offer of securities for sale in the United States, and such securities may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration or an exemption from registration.

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[April 23, 2018] BISTel and Oracle preview powerful A.I. based Predictive Maintenance (PdM) solution for Smart Connected Factory at Hannover Messe 2018

BISTel, a leading provider of intelligent manufacturing software solutions for industrial, automotive and electronics manufacturing will preview its innovative new predictive maintenance (PdM) solution with Oracle at the annual Hannover Messe (News - Alert) tradeshow in Germany. BISTel will demonstrate its new PdM solution on the Oracle cloud platform in Oracle's Smart Connected Factory stand 16, Hall 7. Oracle's (News - Alert) smart connected factory is designed to provide a 360-degree view of manufacturing operations across the world to improve visibility into costs, efficiency, and quality across factories. BISTel will make its new PdM solution available to industrial manufacturers in Q3FY18. Equipment downtime and failures due to defective or failing components is a drag on productivity, quality and profitability. Smart connected factories or industry 4.0 as it is sometimes called, addresses these challenges by deploying A.I., based advanced machine learning technologies that connect the manufacturing ecosystem to better detect, analyze, predict and adapt real-time to changing manufacturing conditions. "We are delighted to preview our new PdM solution with our long-time partner Oracle at the world's pre-eminnt industrial manufacturing tradeshow," commented W.K. Choi, President and CEO of BISTel. "PdM's ability to predict and prescribe enables manufacturers to accurately know the health of their machines at any point in time, know the remaining useful life of the machine and when to conduct the necessary maintenance. This will have a huge, positive impact on costs, quality, operational efficiency and will substantially improve the bottom line."



BISTel PdM PdM solutions determine the condition of equipment and processes to predict when maintenance should be performed. BIStel's PdM solution lets manufacturers perform real-time fault detection, uses big data analytics to quickly conduct root cause analysis, and now thanks to advanced machine learning enables manufacturers to predict equipment faults before they occur then self-heal by conducting the required maintenance before failure.

Manufacturers can now reduce costs by conducting predictive maintenance when its needed. It is no longer subjected to time-based servicing. BISTel at Hannover Fair http://www.hannovermesse.de/exhibitor/oracle-deutschland/U688263. About BISTel BISTel is a leading provider of manufacturing intelligence software solutions that enable the smart connected factory. For more information visit bistel.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180423006590/en/

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The Manitowoc Company Schedules First-quarter 2018 Earnings Announcement and Conference Call

The Manitowoc Company, Inc. (NYSE: MTW) announced today that it will release its first-quarter 2018 financial results on Monday, May 7, after the close of market. The company will discuss its first-quarter 2018 results during a live conference call for security analysts and institutional investors, at 10:00 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time on Tuesday, May 8.

Investors, media, and the general public may listen to a live Internet webcast of the conference call in the "Events & Presentation" section at http://ir.manitowoc.com. All participants are encouraged to access the webcast 10 minutes prior to the starting time. A webcast replay of the conference call will also be available on the Company's web site shortly after the live webcast is completed.







About The Manitowoc Company, Inc.

Founded in 1902, The Manitowoc Company, Inc. is a leading global manufacturer of cranes and lift solutions with manufacturing, distribution, and service facilities in 20 countries. Manitowoc is recognized as one of the premier innovators and providers of crawler cranes, tower cranes, and mobile cranes for the heavy construction industry, which are complemented by a slate of industry-leading aftermarket product support services. In 2016, Manitowoc's revenues totaled $1.6 billion, with over half of these revenues generated outside the United States.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180423006596/en/
[April 23, 2018] Data Science gone Wild in 2018

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- BIGIT announces a strategic think tank and media partnership with AsianDataScience.com, a community platform for Asia that discusses data science topics ranging from case studies and analytics, to strategy and organizational transformation. The announcement was made by Derek Bong, CEO of BIGIT and AsianDataScience's founder, Peter Kua. AsianDataScience will manage the BIGIT content that focuses on IT, technology offerings and innovation. Starting with BIGIT 2018, with its Moving beyond Big Data theme, the partnership will ensure excellent data science content creation - including big data analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning and the Internet of Things (IoT) - on both business and technology fronts. This will ensure the BIGIT conferences are good value for money and deliver an unforgettable experience to the attendees. "Since 2013, we have been the sole think tank for BIGIT events, covering every angle ofeach conference from production, operations, sales and marketing, and to final product itself. We have one primary objective - to deliver a wide range of insightful and knowledgeable speakers so that the audience who walks out from our event is well instilled with the latest IT knowledge and trends in the market. It is great but we want to make it better and unique. Inspired by how AI is progressing, we are delighted to have AsianDataScience work closely with us and allow actual data scientists to play a role in evolving the BIGIT conference content. We are excited to witness what the outcome would be," said Derek.



"We are excited to work with BIGIT because of its interest in delivering cutting-edge, technology-focused conferences in Malaysia and around the region. BIGIT displays exactly the kind of innovative- and forward-looking that is necessary in the fast-changing tech environment. We have a mutual commitment to bring high-quality data science events and content to our users to continue building out a data-driven culture in all organizations and future proofing them," said Peter Kua. AsianDataScience will also become BIGIT's media partner for its global conferences, collaborating on advertising opportunities to enable both parties to increase their reach among tech-focused audience.

BIGIT 2018 is now set to be on live 4-5th September 2018, Selangor, Malaysia. PR Newswire is the official news distribution partner of BIGIT 2018 For more info, contact us at +603 2261 4226 or enquiry@bigittechnology.com | www.bigittechnology.com | Suite 13A-3A, Q Sentral, Jln Stesen Sentral 2, 50470 Kuala Lumpur SOURCE BIGIT Sdn Bhd

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[April 24, 2018] InterGlobe Technologies Establishes 1st Global Delivery Center in Bogota, Colombia; 15th Globally

GURGAON, India, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- InterGlobe Technologies (IGT), a leading provider of integrated IT-BPM and Digital services and solutions, announced its 1st global delivery center in Bogota, Colombia, further expanding its global operations. With an initial team of 200+ travel experts, IGT will leverage the highly skilled, multi-lingual capabilities available in the region, to deliver seamless, omni-channel reservations and customer service for the global travel industry. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/680654/InterGlobe_Technologies_Logo.jpg )

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/680653/Bogota_Center.jpg ) The delivery center will be IGT's strategic LATAM center within its existing global delivery network of 15 delivery centers across 5 continents. It will serve as a regional hub offering Voice, Non-voice and Digital Services, in various local languages, to its global and domestic clients. In particular, IGT will provide omni-channel customer care to Priceline.com's air, hote, and car rental services. IGT looks to further work with Priceline.com to identify additional opportunities to leverage innovative tools developed to help streamline processes and create additional efficiencies.



The planned investment establishes IGT in Latin America with near-shore sourcing capabilities in local time zones for the U.S. and LATAM market. An industry leader with over 10,000+ travel experts, IGT is part of InterGlobe Enterprises, with its headquarters in Gurgaon, India. IGT's strategic investment takes into account Bogota's reputation as one of the fastest growing outsourcing hubs in LATAM, the time zone advantages and availability of a skilled multi-lingual workforce, to successfully cater to industry needs. Vipul Doshi, CEO, IGT said, "The launch of the IGT Bogota delivery center was a very logical extension of our global network to meet current and future delivery and service capabilities for our clients. Europe and LATAM are key regions to our business; we serve some of the largest airlines and travel companies here, and our decision to increase investment is to provide more transformational efficiencies and near-shore options to our clients. It's an exciting new chapter for IGT."

InterGlobe Technologies focused efforts have centered on elevating its global credentials with key market expansions. The Bogota delivery center launch follows closely IGT's Bucharest center launch in 2017 driving significant efficiencies of scale. IGT also recently was ranked 'Leader' for Customer Experience in Travel, Transport & Hospitality by the NelsonHall NEAT report 2018. About InterGlobe Technologies InterGlobe Technologies (IGT) is a leading provider of integrated IT-BPM and Digital services and solutions for the global travel industry. The company offers integrated IT-BPM, RPA, Application Development and Maintenance Digital Contact Center, Back Office Services and Frameworks for the travel industry. IGT is part of InterGlobe Enterprises Limited, with worldwide presence across 5 continents and 10,000+ travel experts. Visit http://www.interglobetechnologies.com.

Contact: Renee Kishore

Email: renee.kishore@interglobetechnologies.com



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[April 24, 2018] JFrog Takes DevOps to APAC, Expands to India with Its New Product

BANGALORE, India, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Following the successful acquisition of CloudMunch, JFrog continues its growth in India opening an office in Bangalore JFrog, the DevOps accelerator, today announced the establishment of a new entity. JFrog India, located in Bangalore, will be focused on developing JFrog's new product, JFrog-Insight, and supporting the local customers and community. The team in India is expected to double in size within the next year. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/659319/JFrog_Logo.jpg )

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/680916/JFrog_India.jpg )

JFrog joins an increasing number of tech companies in the region as the booming Indian economy continues to grow into one of the world's largest economies. Following last year's acquisition of CloudMunch, the universal DevOps intelligence platform, JFrog has continued to expand its product offerings for developers and grow its team globally. JFrg's fully automated solution for distributing trusted software releases, connects all developers and DevOps engineers to end devices to create a complete solution for Continuous Updates.



JFrog solves critical pieces of the DevOps toolchain, such as safely storing, managing, securing, and distributing all types of binaries, such as collecting key metrics, correlating them across diverse systems, and providing actionable information to improve software update release cycles. JFrog's products are built for companies of all sizes, including startups that want the best foundation for growth, all the way to the largest Fortune 500 enterprises, who get access to all the resources needed to operate flawlessly. "As JFrog continues its global growth, I'm very excited to announce our newest office in India. There's huge potential with the growing economy. But, as with the rest of the world, it's crucial companies fully embrace DevOps in order to succeed," said Shlomi Ben Haim, CEO and Co-Founder of JFrog. "JFrog will continue to offer leading solutions for enterprises around the globe and we're now looking for our next recruits in India who are passionate about helping companies deliver better software, faster."

About JFrog the "Database of DevOps" With more than 4,000 customers and over 3 billion downloads per month on its binaries hub, JFrog is the leading universal solution for the management and distribution of software binaries. JFrog's four products, JFrog Artifactory, the Universal Artifact Repository; JFrog Bintray, the Universal Distribution Platform; JFrog Mission Control, for Universal DevOps Flow Management; and JFrog Xray, Universal Component Analyzer, are used by Dev and DevOps engineers worldwide and are available as open-source, on-premise, and SaaS cloud solutions. Customers include some of the world's top brands, such as Amazon, Citi Bank, Credit Suisse, Google, Facebook, Uber, Netflix, Twitter, Adobe, VMware, Slack, and Spotify. The company is privately held and operated from the United States, Israel, India, China, and France. More information can be found at jfrog.com. JFrog Media Contact: Lauren Perry

Blonde 2.0 for JFrog

Lauren@blonde20.com

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[April 24, 2018] EQT to Sell E.I.S. Aircraft Group's Aviation Operations Business to QinetiQ

STOCKHOLM, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- EQT Mid Market sells airborne training services business E.I.S. Aircraft Operations, part of E.I.S. Aircraft Group, to QinetiQ

EQT Mid Market remains invested in E.I.S. Aircraft Group's light-weight aviation cabin interior products and maintenance services business E.I.S. Aircraft Products & Services

The transaction has a strong industrial fit and will benefit both parties' international growth strategies, both in terms of regional and global reach and the ability to deliver additional customer services Supported by EQT Mid Market since 2015, E.I.S. Aircraft Operations, part of portfolio company E.I.S. Aircraft Group, has strengthened its position as a leading provider of airborne training services for threat representation and operational readiness. The positive development is the result of a continuous broadening of the airborne training service offering, and the provision of aircraft modification for special missions through the integration of sensors and digital systems for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance ("ISR"). By increasing the number of airplanes operated by E.I.S. Aircraft Operations from 9 to 14, the company achieved a compound annual revenue growth rate of 17% over the past three years. The combination of E.I.S. Aircraft Operations, as a leading provider in Germany, and QinetiQ, a world leader in training, test and evaluation, makes a strong industrial fit and both parties look forward to a successful development of their partnership. "We look forward to welcoming the E.I.S. Aircraft Operations' team in Germany to QinetiQ and working with them to continue to grow the business both within their existing markets and beyond", comments Steve Wadey, CEO at QinetiQ. Christoph Otten, Head of E.I.S. Aircraft Operations, adds: "This is an important and logical next step for E.I.S. Aircraft Operations. With EQT's support and as part of E.I.S. Aircraft Group, we have become a leading player in Germany. We now look forward to entering the partnership with QinetiQ and joining forces with a world leader in training, test and evaluation". Andreas Fischer, Partner at EQT Partners and Investment Advisor to EQT Mid Market, comments: "We are proud of the high growth development of E.I.S. Aircraft Operations over the last three years and are convinced that QinetiQ is the right strategic partner for the company's next growth phase". Christoph Otten, Head of E.I.S. Aircraft Operations, as well as his team will stay with the company and continue to be responsible for the business. The transaction is subject to approval from the relevant authorities. Contacts Andreas Fischer

Partner at EQT Partners

Investment Advisor to EQT Mid Market

+49-892-55-49-906 EQT Press Contact

+46-8-506-55-334 About EQT EQT is a leading investment firm with approximately EUR 49 billion in raised capital across 26 funds. EQT funds have portfolio companies in Europe, Asia and the US with total sales of more than EUR 19 billion and approximately 110,000 employees. EQT works with portfolio companies to achieve sustainable growth, operational excellence and market leadership. More info: www.eqtpartners.com About E.I.S. Aircraft Group With 60+ years in the aviation industry, E.I.S. Aircraft Group is a well-established product & service provider for high-growth segments of the aerospace market, consisting of two business units: E.I.S. Aircraft Products & Services is a key supplier of light-weight cabin interior products, offering an array of composites & specialized thermoplastics solutions, as well as maintenance service provider. E.I.S. Aircraft Operations is a provider of mission-critical airborne services and technical solutions to the global defense community. More info: www.eis-group.de/ About QinetiQ Listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE: QQ.L), QinetiQ is a leading science and engineering company operating primarily in the defence, security and aerospace markets. Our customers are predominantly government organisations including defence departments, as well as international customers in other targeted sectors. More info: www.QinetiQ.com This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com http://news.cision.com/eqt-ab/r/eqt-to-sell-e-i-s--aircraft-group-s-aviation-operations-business-to-qinetiq,c2503454 The following files are available for download:







http://mb.cision.com/Main/87/2503454/827874.pdf Press release EQT Mid Market E.I.S. Aircraft Group_180424



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[April 24, 2018] Dialo.ga Secures Sales of 54 Million Pounds in 2018 Thanks to the Integration of WebRTC and Artificial Intelligence

LONDON, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Dialo.ga, operator of its own WebRTC platform, has informed its investors last week about its excellent prospects for 2018. The real-time communications operator has secured through orders an increase in sales of 30%, reaching a total revenue figure of 54 million in 2018, with an EBITDA slightly above 9 million, representing a growth of 47% over 2017. Dialo.ga closed its 2017 fiscal year with an EBITDA of 6.1 million. (Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/458733/Dialoga_Logo.jpg )

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/680011/Dialoga.jpg )

The 2017 sales and, above all, the 2018 contracts are largely the result of the company's commitment three years ago to develop its own real-time audio, video and messaging communications platform based on the WebRTC protocol. Furthermore, Dialo.ga's commitment to R&D in the field of Artificial Intelligence (Deep Learning) focusing on the areas of customer service and attention, has been a catalyst behind its continued growth. This articular area of its business has been developed through the group's new company called utopia.AI, in which a large team of doctors and engineers specializing in Deep Learning develop their activity.



All services are presented through its own applications or through integration into third-party applications thanks to the implementation of an integration platform called parthenon.io, where the development community has the necessary development kits to take advantage of the group's communications and Artificial Intelligence resources. Added to the excellent evolution in its different areas of action, Dialo.ga became in 2017 the only worldwide telecommunications operator with its own network in 29 countries and with a potential market of over one billion customers. The company has confirmed that it will continue with the global expansion of its services during 2018, with Eastern Europe and South America as its next targets.

This continued growth was reflected in the first quarter of 2018 with the opening of two new sales and support offices in Miami and Bordeaux as well as the announcement of a new future opening in Manchester. These three locations are key to the operator's plans to increase its physical presence in the Americas and Europe. The first steps of this new phase of expansion already took place a few months ago when the company announced the opening of a new branch in Venice. Dialo.ga Dialo.ga is the first operator with its own network in 29 countries and a platform of voice and video products based on WebRTC technology. This allows Dialo.ga not only to provide all the telephony services a business needs, but also to connect them to the WebRTC world. Dialo.ga's WebRTC services, together with its Artificial Intelligence solutions, are transforming the traditional way of conceiving communication at work, revolutionizing customer service systems through the use of Deep Learning and redefining the way companies communicate with their customers. More information: http://dialo.ga Contact information

pr@dialogagroup.com

+44(0)203-499-50-50





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[April 24, 2018] UST Global Signs MoU With The University of Oklahoma

TRIVANDRUM, India and ALISO VIEJO, California, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- For joint innovation on digital platforms to solve business problems of customers UST Global, a leading digital technology services company, today announced that it has signed an MoU with the University of Oklahoma by and through the Gallogly College of Engineering, Data Science and Analytics MS program. The MoU will enable joint innovation by UST Global Infinity Labs[TM] and the students on digital platforms to solve business problems of customers. (Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/540539/UST_Global_Logo.jpg )

UST Global Infinity Labs[TM] 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 MoU will help leverage the academic talent in solving business problems of UST Global's Global 1000 customers. The internship will be for the duration of 3-6 months. The Infinity Labs[TM] are a core ingredient of UST Global's Innovation-as-a-Service offering. It creates a confluence of Digital Technologies, Humn Centered Design, Artificial Intelligence, the company's ecosystem of partners and cutting edge R&D from academia. The Infinity Labs[TM] 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.



Sridhar Radhakrishnan, Professor and Director - School of Computer Science, University of Oklahoma, said, "We are excited to partner with UST Global so that our students have the opportunity to work in partnership. The Data Science and Analytics (DSA) MS program prepares students to be leaders in the development of solutions for large complex data science problems. Our rigorous curriculum brings together algorithmic development, programming expertise, advanced analytics, and systems thinking for to drive business decisions in technology-based industries. UST Global's partnership with the OU DSA program recognizes the critical role that corporations can have in building expertise in this rapidly growing discipline." Commenting on the MoU, Arun Narayanan, Chief Operating Officer, UST Global, said, "UST Global is truly excited to partner with the University of Oklahoma. Some of the brightest minds from both the organizations will work together on creating innovative solutions to solve key business problems. We also believe this partnership will provide the necessary industry exposure to students as they get ready to jumpstart 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:

UST Global

Divya.Singh@ust-global.com

+91-8552944004



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Denver, Colo., April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The American Indian College Fund (the College Fund) announced today a new effort to study the impact of tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) on the overall well-being of graduates from five institutions. The study will occur over two years and is funded through a $600,000 grant from Strada Education NetworkSM, a national nonprofit dedicated to strengthening pathways from education to employment.



Working with the North Dakota Association of Tribal Colleges, the College Fund will determine the statewide and individual institutional economic and social return on investment of five TCUs in North Dakota to illustrate the value of a TCU education and the importance of continued public and private investment of these dynamic institutions. Participating TCUs include Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College, Sitting Bull College, United Tribes Technical College, Turtle Mountain Community College, and Cankdeska Cikana Community College.



The project will also assess graduate employment and conduct a Gallup College Values survey of 5,000 College Fund scholars to gather information about the value of an education rooted in Native American values. A pilot study focused on how TCUs serve their communities through preservation and restoration of languages and culture and how they build strong American Indian nations will also be conducted.



Cheryl Crazy Bull, President and CEO of the American Indian College Fund, said, Since their founding in the late 1960s, tribal colleges and universities strived to describe their economic and social impact on individuals and communities. This project helps us tell the tribal college story of student success, economic contributions, and impact on society. Strada is a collaborator and partner, helping us frame our research and supporting outreach to nationally recognized experts. We appreciate their investment.



The two-year project will conclude in September 2019. Upon completion of the project, the College Fund will publish and share the results with state and federal policymakers.



Tribal colleges and universities have often been overlooked in regard to the critical role they play in serving students from our countrys Native American populations with the postsecondary education they need to advance in their careers and lives, said Bill Hansen, president and CEO of Strada Education Network. This research in partnership with Gallup will promote greater understanding of the impact tribal colleges and universities have on student success.



Tribal colleges and universities are located in communities on or near American Indian reservations and provide an accredited, affordable, and culturally relevant higher education to Native Americans and others in their communities. The first TCU was established in 1967 by the Navajo Nation. Today 35 accredited TCUs are located across the nation, often in remote, rural locations.



About the American Indian College Fund

Founded in 1989, the American Indian College Fund has been the nations largest charity supporting Native higher education for nearly 30 years. The College Fund believes Education is the answer" and provided 6,548 scholarships last year totaling $7.6 million to American Indian students, with more than 125,000 scholarships totaling more than $100 million since its inception. The College Fund also supports a variety of academic and support programs at the nations 35 accredited tribal colleges and universities, which are located on or near Indian reservations, ensuring students have the tools to graduate and succeed in their careers. The College Fund consistently receives top ratings from independent charity evaluators, and received a four-star rating from Charity Navigator and is one of the nations top 100 charities named to the Better Business Bureaus Wise Giving Alliance. For more information about the American Indian College Fund, please visit www.collegefund.org. About Strada Education Network

Strada Education Network is a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to catalyzing more direct and promising pathways between education and employment. Strada engages education, nonprofit, business and government partners to focus relentlessly on students success throughout all phases of their working lives. Together with its partners, Strada addresses critical postsecondary education and workforce challenges through a combination of strategic philanthropy, research and insights, and mission-aligned member organizations  all focused on advancing the universal right to realized potential, which Strada calls Completion With a Purpose. For more information, visit www.stradaeducation.org and follow us on Twitter @StradaEducation.



Attention editor: On second reference the American Indian College Fund is referred to in copy as the College Fund, and not AICF.
[April 24, 2018] Infobip and Rakuten Viber Enable Businesses and Banks to Reach Millions of Targeted Customers in Nepal

KATHMANDU, Nepal, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Infobip, the global communications platform company for businesses strengthens its presence in Nepal, offering Viber messaging campaigns for the region's financial institutions, enterprises and organizations. By using Infobip's OMNI solution, businesses and banks can choose the optimal communication channels for specific types of messages including SMS, number of chat app messages, email, voice and in-app push messages. Any financial institution, eCommerce or brick-and-mortar store can conveniently promote their offers to over one billion users and prospective customers in 193 countries worldwide. 59 percent of South East Asia's smartphone users have Viber installed. In Nepal close to five million people have Viber installed. ''Viber brings people together through personal connections, common passions and interests and Nepal is a key market for Viber. Using Infobip's OMNI solution creates a frictionless experience for both consumers and partners, and one where we see significant results especially in the e-commerce space,'' said Cristina Constandache, VP Global Partnerships, Viber. Rastriya Banijya Bank Limited, Nepal's largest commercial bank, recently learned more about the impactful integration of Viber and Infobip. ''We have taken part in some of the amazing ideas shared by the Infobip tem. We are positive about the OMNI Channel solution and the go-green concept truly looks promising. For a bank like ours, with such a large customer base in Nepal, the Infobip and Viber integrated platform could become a great asset and channel for several departments within our bank,'' said Riko Sthapit Head E-Banking department at Rastriya Banijya Bank Limited.



The Infobip portal offers a user-friendly web interface helping any business to easily organize its messaging campaigns. The portal provides detailed, real-time campaign reports including message delivery confirmation allowing the company to effectively monitor the progress of the campaign. ''Nepal is a growing market for Infobip where especially the fintech market is expanding and advancing with impressive pace. Viber's impactful presence in the nation enhances our partnership and platform integration where financial institutions and businesses of Nepal can reach its' instrumental customers and clients with great measures," said Silvio Kutic, CEO of Infobip.

About Infobip

Founded over a decade ago by two young developers, Infobip grew into an international business with offices on six continents offering proprietary, in-house developed messaging platform with the capacity to reach over six billion mobile devices connected to over 800 telecoms networks. Infobip innovates at the intersection of Internet and telecoms technologies, creating new ways and opportunities for businesses and their end users to interact over mobile devices. The company serves and partners with leading mobile operators, OTTs, banks, social networks, tech companies and aggregators. About Rakuten Viber

At Rakuten Viber, we connect people. No matter who they are, or where they are from. Our global user base has access to a range of features like one-on-one chats, video calls, group messaging, and updates and discussions with their favorite brands and celebrities. We ensure our users have a secure and free environment to share their emotions. Rakuten Viber is part of Rakuten Inc., a world leader in e-commerce and financial services. It is the official communication channel of FC Barcelona, and the official instant messaging and calling app partner of the Golden State Warriors. Contact

Tina Loncaric

Global Public Relations Director

Infobip : tina.loncaric@infobip.com Rakuten Viber media inquiries: media@viber.com

+385-9946-99343

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[April 24, 2018] Amazon Packages Can Now Be Delivered to More Than 7 Million Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac Vehicles

DETROIT, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- (NYSE: GM) Starting today, more than seven million owners of eligible Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac vehicles in the United States can enjoy the convenience of having Amazon packages delivered inside their vehicle using Amazon Key. In-Car Delivery comes at no extra cost for Amazon Prime members with an active OnStar account and is available in 37 U.S. cities and surrounding areas, with more cities to follow. "Partnering with Amazon to leverage our embedded in-vehicle connectivity gives Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac owners the option to conveniently receive deliveries inside their vehicle parked at home, work or near other locations in their Amazon address book," said Alan Batey, President, General Motors North America. "This is another example of how we provide customers with technologies that add value and enhance the ownership experience." With Amazon Key In-Car Delivery, packages can be delivered to a vehicle when it's parked in a publicly accessible area, such as on the street in front of an apartment building, at a workplace surface parking lot or in a home driveway. Delivery is available on tens of millions of items sold on Amazon.com and works with Same Day, Two-Day and Standard Shipping. "At Amazon, we are always working to make our customers' lives easier and starting today, we're excited to bring in-car delivery to Chevrolet Buick, GMC and Cadillac owners," said Peter Larsen, Vice President of Delivery Technology, Amazon. "Prime members now have another way to ensure their packages are safe and secureall for no additional cost."



Setting up Amazon Key In-Car Delivery is easy. Customers must download the Amazon Key App and opt in to seamlessly link their Amazon and OnStar accounts. Once the first step is complete and the delivery location has been registered, customers can shop on Amazon.com and select the "In-Car" delivery option at checkout. Additional eligible delivery addresses can be added to the Amazon address book at any time. Amazon Key In-Car Delivery leverages the existing embedded 4G LTE connectivity in Chevrolet, Buick, GMC or Cadillac vehicles and does not require an additional data plan or hardware installation. Customers receive a notification via the Amazon Key App when the delivery is on its way and after the delivery is completed and the vehicle is relocked. Deliveries are made to a stationary car parked in a publicly accessible area.

Amazon Key In-Car Delivery requires a 2015 model year or newer Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac vehicle. Visit onstar.com for coverage map, details and system limitations. To check eligibility and sign up for Amazon Key In-Car Delivery, visit www.amazon.com/keyincar. Video Assets:

How it works: https://youtu.be/uqi0ZAYPyPk ABOUT CHEVROLET

Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world's largest car brands, doing business in more than 115 countries and selling more than 4.0 million cars and trucks a year. Chevrolet provides customers with fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/amazon-packages-can-now-be-delivered-to-more-than-7-million-chevrolet-buick-gmc-and-cadillac-vehicles-300635267.html SOURCE General Motors

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[April 24, 2018] CEO Pay As Governed by Compensation Committees: The Model Works

Pay Governance, one of the largest independent board executive compensation advisory firms, asserts that the CEO pay model is working well and is a source of competitive advantage. Last year, two academic professors published articles in the Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review 1,2 criticizing the executive pay model used at U.S. companies. Their thesis was that CEO compensation has become excessive due to poor governance practices (e.g., poor disclosure, misleading performance metrics and inappropriate peer group selection) employed by Board Compensation Committees. Pay Governance refutes the assertion that Compensation Committees' decisions and governance lead to excessive CEO pay. "The CEO labor market is relatively efficient and U.S. corporate governance- Say on Pay (SOP) votes, lead directors and stock ownership guidelines, among many other enhancements-is strong and has improved over the past 20 years," said Pay Governance Managing Partner Ira T. Kay. The firm rebuts the authors' specific criticisms of CEO compensation by focusing on three counter-arguments: SOP votes indicate true shareholder support for overall corporate executive pay packages;

Measuring incentive compensation performance with non-GAAP performance metrics is well accepted by shareholders because the metrics are appropriate and meaningful; and

At the vast majority of large companies, appropriate peer groups benchmarking executive pay and company performance are determined after a rigorous process. Since 2011, shareholders have provided an advisory vote for their overall approval or disapproval of a public company's executive compensation program as disclosed in their annual proxy. Overwhelmingly, shareholders have strongly supported corporate executive pay programs by approving the CEO pay model. In fact, 98-99 percent of all filing companies have received positive votes over the past seven years, with additional support indicated in this eighth year. "The strong support and favorable shareholder voting results in favor of corporate executive pay programs occurred due to the extensive testing, demonstration and disclosure of the strong alignment between CEO pay and corporate performance," Kay said. "Shareholders are able to recognize the correlation between CEO pay and company performance, and to the extent hat shareholders experience aligned returns on their investment, they will vote in favor of the company's approach to executive compensation."



Another major criticism from the articles concerns the use of non-GAAP performance metrics to design incentive compensation plans. Pay Governance acknowledges that many companies use non-GAAP metrics such as adjusted EPS and EBITDA in their incentive plans; however, such metrics are implemented for legitimate reasons and are supported by shareholders. There are several reasons to choose non-GAAP metrics for performance measurement, including a company's desire to focus management's primary attention on core operating earnings. Another important consideration is the consistency of these incentive adjustments with those in the earnings releases. As shown in a recent Pay Governance review, academic research reports that the investment community relies on adjusted earnings and non-GAAP measures.

Another criticism of the CEO pay model is the selection of inappropriately large peer companies for the annual assessment of a company's financial performance and pay competitiveness. In the annual proxy, companies are required to disclose the peer group used for this assessment. Despite an absence of specific guidance from the SEC (News - Alert) and other regulatory authorities about what constitutes a proper peer group, U.S. companies engage in a rigorous process to select a peer composition for benchmarking. "As consultants, our experience has been that companies engage in a rigorous and analytical process each year to identify peers that properly reflect the industry sector, size, and labor markets in which the subject company competes," said John Ellerman, Pay Governance Partner. "Some critics think that certain companies are cited as peers because of the desire to skew the competitive benchmarking to higher paying companies, but the facts do not bear this out. Companies attempt to include companies that realistically reflect potential competitors for executive talent." Finally, Pay Governance has found that the CEO pay model, as practiced by the majority of U.S. companies, has been a source of strength and competitive advantage, creating significant gains for all shareholders and stakeholders. To learn more about this Pay Governance study or to schedule an interview, call Don Rountree at (770) 645-4545. Pay Governance LLC is an independent consulting firm focused on delivering advisory services to Compensation Committees. The consultancy also advises the management of companies in situations in which the firm does not serve as the independent committee advisor. Pay Governance has locations through the United States in New York, Boston, Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, St. Louis, Dallas, Cleveland, Charlotte, Atlanta, St. Petersburg, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The firm also has strategic affiliate relationships with Pay Governance Japan and Pay Governance Korea. For more information, visit www.paygovernance.com. _______________________________________

1 Robert C. Pozen and S.P. Kothari. "If the CEO is Overpaid, Blame the Compensation Committee." The Wall Street Journal. August 21, 2017. https://www.wsj.com/articles/if-the-ceo-is-overpaid-blame-the-compensation-committee-1503355104

2 Robert C. Pozen and S.P. Kothari. "Decoding CEO Pay." Harvard Business Review. August 2017. https://hbr.org/2017/07/decoding-ceo-pay View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180424005156/en/

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[April 24, 2018] MJ Biotech Inc. Current & Future Business Operations

CHEYENNE, Wyo., April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MJ Biotech, Inc. (FKA Michael James Enterprises, Inc.) (OTC:MJTV) announced that the Corporate Executives Maxine Pierson CEO of MJ Biotech, Inc. and Fernando Lopez COO of MJ Biotech, Inc. and CEO of Zen Hero Inc., DBA as Zens Tea House met in Los Angeles last week to discuss a number of topics regarding the current and future business operations. CEO Maxine Pierson & COO Fernando Lopez met with Kathy Ireland of Worldwide Business; and that meeting is expected to be broadcasted on Fox Business Channel at the end of May 2018. You can see part of the meeting with Kathy Ireland on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tvwwb/videos/999558303529299

Maxine and Fernando also visited Zens Westwood Farmers Market (https://zenstea.com/westwood-village) for a commercial shoot. The corporate executives of MJ Biotech are expecting to launch a marketing campaign that will involve Educational Base Marketing on their newly designed website. The new website is expected to be operational by the end of the 2ndquarter. For additional information and photos please go to the MJ Biotech Investor Information page (https://mjbiotech.us/investor-information/f/2018-marketing-campaign ) and Zens About Us page (https://zenstea.com/about/). You can follow the companies activities on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.



Additional information is available on the companys websites, www.mjbiotech.us and www.zenstea.com

You can also send your question to questions@zenstea.com Call in questions can be made at 1-888-866-4299 Safe Harbor Statement

This release contains forward-looking statements, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are commonly identified by words such as "would," "may," "will," "expects," and other terms with similar meaning. Forward-looking statements are based on current beliefs, assumptions and expectations and speak only as of the date of this release and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations. We assume no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether because of new information, future events or any other reason.

The above news release has been provided by the above company via the OTC Disclosure and News Service. Issuers of news releases and not OTC Markets Group Inc. are solely responsible for the accuracy of such news releases.

Contact

Fernando Lopez

Fernando@zenstea.com

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[April 24, 2018] CGS to Participate in and Sponsor Human Capital Institute Webinar Focused on the ROI of Onboarding

NEW YORK, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CGS, a global provider of business applications, enterprise learning and outsourcing services, today announced it will be sponsoring and participating in the Human Capital Institute (HCI) webinar titled, Thrifty and Nifty: Measuring Time to Productivity, Making the Most of Onboarding, on Tuesday, May 8, at 3 p.m. EDT. Doug Stephen, SVP of Learning, CGS, will be joined on the webinar panel by Heather Luczak, Employee Insights Manager, Vivint Solar, and Julie Betts, Enterprise Learning Leader, NCR Corporation.

In the latest Annual Enterprise Learning Trends Report from CGS, 82 percent of respondents chose measuring the effectiveness of Onboarding Success Rate/Time to Performance as a top priority for executives, talent management, learning, HR, strategy and operations management. The focus on onboarding success is due in part to how costly it is to ramp up a new employee, with onboarding estimates ranging from $400 to $350,000, for example, to replace a junior engineer. HCIs Measuring Time to Productivity webinar, which is sponsored by CGS, is bringing together industry leaders to discuss getting the best return on investmet in your onboarding programs. The webinar panels discussion will offer real-life stories and lessons learned. Takeaways for attendees will include measurement tips and real-world tactics to help companies fully understand the ROI of great onboarding, while reducing new hire costs in organizations.



Companies understand that employee turnover can be quite costly  in getting them ramped up and productive; yet L&D professionals have the ability to mitigate the loss through Learning programs that can efficiently bring new hires up to speed, said Stephen. I am looking forward to discussing the results of our latest Learning Trends study as well as provide insight on how to measure the ROI of corporate learning programs, helping organizations reduce new hire costs. CGS's Enterprise Learning Group serves as a trusted partner to many of the worlds most dynamic companies, delivering innovative, custom learning solutions that are essential to scaling their people, processes and performance. CGSs custom professional development solutions range from interactive game-based eLearning to transformational technology rollouts. Each solution is designed to keep clients employee-related business fundamentals strong in todays ever-changing corporate environment.

For additional information, or to register, visit: http://www.hci.org/lib/thrifty-and-nifty-measuring-time-productivity-making-most-onboarding About CGS

For nearly 35 years, CGS has enabled global enterprises, regional companies and government agencies to drive breakthrough performance through business applications, enterprise learning and outsourcing services. CGS is wholly focused on creating comprehensive solutions that meet clients' complex, multi-dimensional needs and support clients' most fundamental business activities. Headquartered in New York City, CGS has offices across North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. For more information, please visit www.cgsinc.com and follow us on Twitter at @CGSinc and @LearningCGS and on Facebook. Media Contacts: Susan Sweeney, CGS

newsroom@cgsinc.com Kate Connors (for CGS)

kconnors@pancomm.com

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[April 24, 2018] Kespry Earns Recognition as a John Deere Supplier Innovation Award Winner

MENLO PARK, Calif., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Kespry, the leading drone-based aerial intelligence solution provider, today announced it has been selected as a recipient of the John Deere Supplier Innovation Award for 2017 for the Construction and Forestry division. The Innovation awards are part of Deere & Company's Achieving Excellence Program. The California-based company received the honor for demonstrating innovation in a product or service they provide. Kespry employees accepted the recognition during formal ceremonies held on April 17, 2018 in Bettendorf, Iowa. Award selections are based on four factors, including creativity, feasibility, collaboration, and bottom-line impact. John Deere created the supplier innovation awards in 2010 to promote innovation in the company's supply base and recognize suppliers who think creatively. "Kespry and Jhn Deere share a mutual drive to transform industrial work for the better," said George Mathew, Chairman and CEO of Kespry. "Together with John Deere, we are helping companies across the construction sector boost productivity when it comes to planning, bidding and managing earthwork projects. We're also increasing worker safety by enabling drone operators to capture aerial information without having to enter hazardous environments. We're very pleased to work with a visionary company like John Deere and are honored to receive this prestigious award."



To learn more, visit: http://www.kespry.com/ About Kespry

Kespry's aerial intelligence platform is transforming how organizations capture, analyze and share insights about their business, providing the information they need to accelerate their operations. Purpose-built for industrial use yet simple enough for any user, a wide variety of industries rely on Kespry to solve business-critical problems. Delivering a fully integrated solution from drone data capture to industry-specific analytics, Kespry serves customers across North America, Europe and Australia, including John Deere, Hancock Claims Consultants, Catastrophe Response Unit (CRU), Fluor, Lehigh Hanson/Heidelberg, and Colas USA.

Media Contact:

Amanda King

kespry@matternow.com

+1.720.577.5403 View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/kespry-earns-recognition-as-a-john-deere-supplier-innovation-award-winner-300635069.html SOURCE Kespry

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[April 24, 2018] Global Pop Icon Britney Spears Partners With Epic Rights to Debut a New Line of Branded Merchandise

HOLLYWOOD, Calif., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Generated by the momentum of Britney Spears' award-winning and record-breaking Las Vegas residency, "Britney: Piece of Me," and in anticipation of her upcoming tour, the multi-platinum, Grammy Award-winning pop icon is joining forces with global brand management and licensing company Epic Rights to develop and launch a line of high quality fashion and lifestyle branded products that reflect her personal sense of style, lifestyle, artistry, and creativity. "I am excited to collaborate with Epic Rights to create a new contemporary lifestyle collection," said Britney Spears. "We see this new lifestyle collection as Britney's next step in connecting with her legions of loyal fans around the globe," added Larry Rudolph, who manages Britney Spears. "Sharing her style and fashion sense through products she has developed is a testament to her authenticity as well as her commitment to and appreciation of the fans that have made it all possible." "Britney continues to be one of the biggest pop stars in the world with numerous multi-platinum records and awards over the past 20 years. As a passionate artist, successful businesswoman and devoted mother, her strive for excellence is unparalleled," added Dell Furano, CEO of Epic Rights. With one of the bestselling fragrance lines of all time, with Elizabeth Arden, available in over 85 countries and her recent campaign starring as the face of Kenzo, Spears and Epic Rights together, will continue to expand her brand presence in the mrketplace, globally. Spears' personal involvement in all aspects of the collection will ensure authenticity across a number of targeted categories including fashion apparel, hair care, accessories, exercise and electronics. The anticipated retail launch for the Britney Spears Lifestyle program is Spring 2019.



Epic Rights will also manage Spears' e-commerce initiatives including Amazon. Spears recently announced her tour across the U.S. and Europe, following her record-breaking, four-year headlining residency, "Britney: Piece of Me," at The AXIS at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, where Spears received rave reviews from both critics and fans alike since opening in Dec. 2013. As the first contemporary superstar resident in the city, and with over 250 shows, the record-setting residency was sold out on a regular basis, generating over $140 million gross revenue and selling nearly 1 million tickets. Spears' tourwhich sold out in minutes prompting additional shows--kicks off on July 12 in National Harbor, MD and concludes on Aug. 24 in London.

About Britney Spears

Multi-platinum, Grammy Award-winning pop icon Britney Spears is one of the most successful and celebrated entertainers in pop history with nearly 150 million records worldwide. In the U.S. alone, she has sold more than 70 million albums, singles and songs, according to Nielsen Music. Born in Mississippi and raised in Louisiana, Spears became a household name as a teenager when she released her first single "Baby One More Time," a Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 smash and international hit that broke sales records with more than 20 million copies sold worldwide and is currently 14x Platinum in the U.S. Her musical career boasts countless awards and accolades, including six Billboard Music Awards and Billboard's Millennium Award, which recognizes outstanding career achievements and influence in the music industry as well as an American Music Award and the 2011 MTV Video Vanguard Award. So far, Spears has earned a total of six No.1-debuting albums on the Billboard 200 chart and 22 top 40 hit singles on the Billboard Hot 100  four of which went to No. 1. Spears has been nominated for eight Grammy Awards and won for Best Dance Recording in 2005. In 2018, Spears received GLAAD's highest honor, the GLAAD Media Awards' Vanguard Award for her support for the LGBTQ community. Her award-winning and record-breaking cutting-edge pop Las Vegas residency, "Britney: Piece of Me," at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino was voted "Best Show in Las Vegas" and "Best Bachelorette Show in Las Vegas." She also has been creating fragrances for over ten years, and currently has over 20 fragrances available in over 85 countries around the world. Spears was honored at the 2018 Hollywood Beauty Awards for Fragrance of the Year Award for Fantasy In Bloom. About Epic Rights

Epic Rights, Inc. is a leading music industry retail branding, merchandising and concert artist services company representing many top artists. Epic Rights provides a broad scope of services, including retail branding and licensing, on which they work very closely with Prominent Brand + Talent, official artist's website and social media management, official concert artists online shops, VIP ticketing, official fan communities and trademark registration consultation. Epic Rights is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. For more information, visit: www.epicrights.com Media Contacts:

Michelle Orsi

Three.Sixty Marketing & Communications

310.418.6430

193890@email4pr.com View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-pop-icon-britney-spears-partners-with-epic-rights-to-debut-a-new-line-of-branded-merchandise-300635097.html SOURCE Epic Rights

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[April 24, 2018] Standard Solar Completes 2 Megawatt Solar Project for University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Horn Point Laboratory

Standard Solar, Inc., a leading solar energy company specializing in the development and financing of solar electric systems nationwide, has completed a 2 megawatt (MW) solar array at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science's (UMCES) Horn Point Laboratory. Standard Solar and UMCES partnered to develop a solar project designed to significantly reduce UMCES' environmental footprint. ClicktoTweet "As a research institution committed to understanding and the protecting the environment, we must be a leader in efforts to manage our campuses in ways that reduce energy consumption and increase sustainability," said Peter Goodwin, president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. He also serves as Vice Chancellor for Sustainability for the 12-institution University System of Maryland.



Standard Solar financed the project through a power purchase agreement (PPA) and will maintain and operate the solar array in exchange for the use of land. In turn, UMCES will purchase the equivalent energy being generated over the next 20 years from the array. The 11,000 panel, 2 MW system has an expected first year generation exceeding 4,000 megawatt hours of solar renewable energy, offsetting the CO 2 emissions from 2,850 pounds of coal burned. Additionally, the power generated offsets approximately 12 multiple on-campus meters through Maryland's Aggregate Net Energy Metering (ANEM) policy.

"It's exciting to see UMCES join many organizations and educational institutions implementing onsite power generation further demonstrating their continued leadership to the environment and to sustainable practices" said John Finnerty, director of business development, Standard Solar. "Putting our team expertise and funds to work alongside their unwavering commitment, UMCES - Horn Point Laboratory will now operate with the benefits delivered from the clean, renewable, zero emission, and zero greenhouse gas energy." UMCES was also awarded a grant from the Maryland Energy Administration's Solar PV Canopy with EV Charger Grant Program to include four level-II electrical vehicle charging stations with a carport. Work on the carport and charging stations was done simultaneously with the ground-mount array and are currently in operation and providing parking for about 46 vehicles. About Standard Solar Standard Solar, Inc. is a leading solar energy company specializing in the development and financing of solar electric systems nationwide. Dedicated to making Distributed Generation (DG) solar more accessible to businesses, institutions, governments and utilities, the company is forging the path for clean, renewable energy development through turnkey solutions. With more than 100 megawatts installed, financed and maintained, Standard Solar is one of the most trusted and respected solar companies in the US. Owned by Energir, a leading energy provider with more than $5.8 billion US in assets, Standard Solar operates nationally and is headquartered in Rockville, Md. For more information, please visit www.standardsolar.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180424005664/en/

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[April 24, 2018] Industry Veteran Chuck Robel Joins the Sumo Logic Board of Directors

Former Chairman of McAfee and Veteran Board Member at AppDynamics, Informatica, Palo Alto Networks and Autodesk to Provide Leadership, Audit and Governance Expertise for Sustained Growth and Operational Rigor

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sumo Logic, the leading cloud-native, machine data analytics platform that delivers continuous intelligence, today announced the appointment of Chuck Robel to its board of directors as an independent board member and audit committee lead. Sumo Logic continues to benefit from the generational shift toward digital business and cloud adoption across all industries and companies of all sizes. Machine data analytics, delivered and consumed as a service, is quickly becoming a core requirement to help organizations build, run and secure their modern applications for the analytics economy, said Ramin Sayar, president and CEO of Sumo Logic. I am thrilled that Chuck has joined our team, as his expertise will help further propel our category leadership position and growth as we continue to scale our operational and governance processes required to capture the enormous opportunity in front of us. Robel brings a wide range of experience helping high-growth companies build the capability to scale and grow their people, process and systems. Over the past 18 years, he has served as a board member and/or audit chair at various enterprise software companies including Palo Alto Networks, Borland, Adaptec, Blue Coat, Jive Software and DemandTec. Robel is currently the chairman of the board of GoDaddy, and most recently he was the lead director for AppDynamics during both its IPO listing process and subsequent $3.7 billion sale to Cisco. Robel started his career with 26 years at PricewaterhouseCoopers running the software industry practice and M&A technology group. In a relatively short period of time, Sumo Logic has staked out a powerful position as SaaS machine data analytics vendor of choice to the modern, digital business, said Chuck Robel. With growth in machine data exploding, an the company scaling with a very strong culture and a platform that addresses a broad set of use cases, it is on the path to becoming one of the truly great next generation software companies, and Im very excited to join the team."



Sumo Logic, a recognized expert in building and operating massive multi-tenant, highly distributed cloud systems, is the industrys first machine data analytics platform to natively ingest, index, and analyze structured and unstructured data together in real-time. As one of the most powerful cloud-native services in the world, the Sumo Logic platform ingests and analyzes vast amounts of data and enables more 30 million searches and queries, which powers tens of millions of insights to customers who rely on this type of continuous intelligence to more effectively build, run and secure their modern applications. Recently Announced, Key Corporate Milestones for Sumo Logic in FY2018

Achieved record revenue for fiscal year 2018 - driven by continued rapid acceleration of its recurring revenue base, proving out its land and expand business model as customers continue to derive increasing value from the Sumo Logic service.

Grew customer base to more than 1,600 businesses globally and over 50,000 users.

Expanded global footprint that resulted in record growth in customers and partners in EMEA and APAC.

Increased employee headcount to more than 400 globally with significant investments in engineering and go-to-market headcount.

Enhanced its leading security analytics capabilities with the acquisition of FactorChain to further pioneer the new operating model for modernizing cybersecurity, threat and compliance requirements.

Closed $75 million round of funding, led by Sapphire Ventures, bringing total capital raised to $235 million, cementing position as the SaaS machine data analytics solution of choice.

Hosted Illuminate, the first Sumo Logic user conference, with more than 400 attendees, sponsored by Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, New Relic, Cloud Passage, MongoDB, Okta, CrowdStrike, JFrog, Fastly, Pivotal and Relus.

Continued industry recognition including Forbes Cloud 100 recipient and IDCs ITOA Innovator. In addition, Sumo Logic recently announced the appointment of BJ Jenkins, CEO of Barracuda Networks, to its board of directors. About Sumo Logic

Sumo Logic is a secure, cloud-native, machine data analytics service, delivering real-time, continuous intelligence from structured, semi-structured and unstructured data across the entire application lifecycle and stack. More than 1,600 customers around the globe rely on Sumo Logic for the analytics and insights to build, run and secure their modern applications and cloud infrastructures. With Sumo Logic, customers gain a multi-tenant, service-model advantage to accelerate their shift to continuous innovation, increasing competitive advantage, business value and growth. Founded in 2010, Sumo Logic is a privately held company based in Redwood City, Calif. and is backed by Accel Partners, DFJ, Greylock Partners, IVP, Sapphire Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Sutter Hill Ventures. For more information, visit www.sumologic.com. Media Contacts

Melissa Liton

Sumo Logic

mliton@sumologic.com

(650) 814-3882 Danielle Salvato-Earl

Offleash for Sumo Logic

sumo@offleashpr.com

(650) 922-7287

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[April 24, 2018] HP 3D Printing Drives Distributed Design, Manufacturing and Supply Chain Transformation With Jabil and Forecast 3D

News highlights: Jabil deploys 12 HP Jet Fusion 4210 systems in U.S. and Singapore for Jabil Additive Manufacturing Network

Forecast 3D expands fleet to 18 HP Jet Fusion 4210 systems; expects to produce millions of parts next year FORT WORTH, Texas, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today at RAPID + TCT, North Americas largest 3D printing conference, HP announced new agreements with industry leaders Jabil and Forecast 3D to drive the future of distributed design, manufacturing and digital supply chains leveraging the power of HP Multi Jet Fusion 3D Printing technology. As the global economy enters what many call the 4th Industrial Revolution, new technologies such as 3D printing are enabling an array of new business opportunities such as distributed design and manufacturing, supply chain services, and increasingly localized production.



From multinational design engineering and manufacturing, to localized production, industry leaders such as Jabil and Forecast 3D are demonstrating 3D printings expanding role in the digital transformation of the $12 trillion global manufacturing economy, said Stephen Nigro, President of 3D Printing, HP Inc. HP Multi Jet Fusion customers and partners represent critical links in a new value chain thats rewriting the rules of design, production, and delivery, ultimately ushering in a new era of digital manufacturing.



Design and Manufacturing Trailblazers Continue to Embrace HPs Multi Jet Fusion 3D Printing Solutions



Jabil is one of the largest product solutions companies in the world, with more than 100 facilities in 29 countries. Jabil is complementing its U.S.-based HP Multi Jet Fusion installation with six additional production-ready HP Jet Fusion 4210 3D printers in Singapore, bringing its total to a dozen HP 3D printers. The network of 3D printers underpins the new Jabil Additive Manufacturing Network, enabling design and manufacturing teams to collaborate across multiple geographies, manage incoming orders, allocate jobs across resources, and produce end-products in the locations best suited for their supply chain and distribution needs.



Currently, Jabil is using its network to unite product designers in Silicon Valley with Singapore-based manufacturing teams to accelerate the distributed manufacturing of products developed using HP Multi Jet Fusion technology, among them parts for HPs own 3D printers. More than 140 parts for HPs Jet Fusion 300/500 full-color 3D printers are being produced by Jabil in what is believed to be the most 3D printed parts for any commercial product in the world.



HP Multi Jet Fusion gives us the foundational 3D printing platform we need to deliver truly industrial-grade, production applications for our globally distributed customers, said John Dulchinos, vice president of digital manufacturing, Jabil. Our aim is to harmonie the multiple regions, technologies, materials, and manufacturing workflows of the 4th Industrial Revolution and HP is an important partner in that effort.



Forecast 3D, one of the oldest and largest privately-held 3D manufacturers in the United States, is adding six new HP Jet Fusion 4210 solutions to expand its fleet to 18 systems in response to increasing customer demand. Forecast 3D plans to produce several million end-use parts on HPs 3D printers in the coming year, delivering commercial-grade applications for clients in multiple industries including the medical, consumer goods, aerospace, defense, and auto sectors. Our customers across all industries have spoken  and they are looking for more of the speed, quality, and cost benefits for production applications unleashed by HP Multi Jet Fusion, said Corey Weber, CEO of Forecast 3D. We are investing in this important 3D printing technology platform as we scale up to meet rising demand from international and domestic clients seeking to reinvent their product lifecycle.





Unleashing a New Era of Design Possibilities in Full Color

HP is committed to democratizing 3D design and manufacturing and recently expanded its portfolio with the introduction of the Jet Fusion 300 / 500 series, the worlds first 3D printers to deliver engineering-grade, functional parts in full color, black or white in a fraction of the time1 of other solutions. HP is providing Multi Jet Fusion users the ability to prototype and produce new designs on the same platform and stay ahead with a future-ready technology for voxel control for color and beyond, enabling the design and production of previously unconceivable applications. For more information visit www.hp.com/us/en/printers/3d-printers/3dcolorprint. HP at RAPID + TCT

Attendees at RAPID + TCT can learn more about the entire HP Jet Fusion portfolio, including the new full-color HP Jet Fusion 300/500 series at HPs booth 1330. Stephen Nigro, President of 3D Printing at HP Inc,. will also speak in the General Session on Thursday April 26 at 8.30 am.



About HP

HP Inc. creates technology that makes life better for everyone, everywhere. Through our portfolio of printers, PCs, mobile devices, solutions and services, we engineer experiences that amaze. More information about HP Inc. is available at http://www.hp.com /go/3Dprinting . 1 Based on internal and third-party testing for HP Jet Fusion 580 and 540 3D Printers, printing time is a fraction of the time of the printing times of comparable plastic fused deposition modeling (FDM), stereolithography (SLA), and material jetting solutions from $20,000 USD to $120,000 USD on market as of June, 2017. Testing variables for the HP Jet Fusion 580 3D Printer: Part quantity: 1 full build chamber of parts from HP Jet Fusion 3D at 10% of packing density versus same number of parts on above-mentioned competitive devices; Part size: 30 cm3; Layer thickness: .08 mm/0.003 inches. Competitor testing variables are comparable.



Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If the risks or uncertainties ever materialize or the assumptions prove incorrect, the results of HP Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries (HP) may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions.



All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including but not limited to any projections of net revenue, margins, expenses, effective tax rates, net earnings, net earnings per share, cash flows, benefit plan funding, deferred tax assets, share repurchases, currency exchange rates or other financial items; any projections of the amount, timing or impact of cost savings or restructuring and other charges; any statements of the plans, strategies and objectives of management for future operations, including the execution of restructuring plans and any resulting cost savings, revenue or profitability improvements; any statements concerning the expected development, performance, market share or competitive performance relating to products or services; any statements regarding current or future macroeconomic trends or events and the impact of those trends and events on HP and its financial performance; any statements regarding pending investigations, claims or disputes; any statements of expectation or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing.



Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the need to address the many challenges facing HPs businesses; the competitive pressures faced by HPs businesses; risks associated with executing HPs strategy; the impact of macroeconomic and geopolitical trends and events; the need to manage third-party suppliers and the distribution of HPs products and the delivery of HPs services effectively; the protection of HPs intellectual property assets, including intellectual property licensed from third parties; risks associated with HPs international operations; the development and transition of new products and services and the enhancement of existing products and services to meet customer needs and respond to emerging technological trends; the execution and performance of contracts by HP and its suppliers, customers, clients and partners; the hiring and retention of key employees; integration and other risks associated with business combination and investment transactions; the results of the restructuring plans, including estimates and assumptions related to the cost (including any possible disruption of HPs business) and the anticipated benefits of the restructuring plans; the resolution of pending investigations, claims and disputes; and other risks that are described in HPs Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year 2017, and HPs other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. HP assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements. HPs Investor Relations website at http://www.hp.com/investor/home contains a significant amount of information about HP, including financial and other information for investors. HP encourages investors to visit its website from time to time, as information is updated, and new information is posted. Noel Hartzell, HP inc.

noel.hartzell@ hp.com





www.hp.com/go/newsroom

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TITUSVILLE, Fla., April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Apple Rush Company, Inc. (OTCPINK:APRU) (the Company) is pleased to announce to its shareholders and partners that it has partnered with Southern Eagle Distributing, Inc. in a relationship that began in a meeting in October of 2017. Southern Eagle Distributing, Inc., a licensed distributor for Anheuser-Busch, Constellation Brands and many other beverage companies, met with Tony Torgerud from the Apple Rush company to discuss the possibility of distributing & marketing their 100% sparkling fruit juices on the Treasure Coast of Florida. It was decided in November of 2017 to initiate an order and begin the national re-introduction of the 100% all natural sparkling Apple Rush. We also partnered with The Florida Brewery, Inc. in Auburndale, Florida with decades of experience in producing high end beverages and a production run of over 17,000 cases was produced with distribution beginning in late December just before the holidays. Philip A. Busch, president of Southern Eagle stated, This product was the perfect addition to our growing high end NA portfolio and has seen success in our market. We are fully on board, made a very strong investment in the Brand, and are excited to be a substantial shareholder of APRU. We were also very intrigued by APRUs diversification in the growing CBD industry as medical research continues to develop. APRU CEO Tony Torgerud stated, We are excited to have Philip and the Southern Eagle team on board and are adding staff to support this rapid expansion. We are calling on additional AB network wholesalers and will add as many as we can along with maintaining our own distribution team to get placements while negotiating with wholesalers. Southern Eagle, a wholesaler selling ~4,500,000 cases a year, which began its operation in 1984, saw a great opportunity with this new Non-Alcoholic beverage because the liquids good, it is all natural with no added sugars and contained 100% fruit juice. I made a commitment to APRU that I will do whatever necessary to ensure the success of the Apple Rush Company, have opened my rolodex to the company, and am available at any time to help lead the company forward, continued Busch.



About Apple Rush Co, Inc. (APRU)

The Apple Rush Company, Inc. through its subsidiary APRU, LLC, Alternative Products Unlimited is a manufacturer of specialty supplements including Anhydrous Hemp Oil, Kratom, Kava, and other active ingredients. The supplement format is its proprietary soft cold processed chew. The company markets its products through private label, white label, and through distributors in the United States and internationally. The company was founded in 1998 and is now based in Titusville, FL. www.aprullc.com.

Investor Relations Contact

Tony Torgerud

888-741-3777 x2
[April 24, 2018] Gies College of Business Establishes the AXIS Risk Management Academy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign today announced that it has established the AXIS Risk Management Academy in collaboration with global specialty insurer and reinsurer AXIS Capital Holdings Limited ("AXIS Capital") (NYSE: AXS). As part of a partnership agreement with Illinois, AXIS will contribute $1.5 million over the course of five years to fund the development and management of the AXIS Risk Management Academy. The naming of the academy was approved by the University's Board of Trustees at its March meeting. The AXIS Risk Management Academy will provide Illinois students who are interested in pursuing a career in risk management with research and professional development resources and experiences to support their undergraduate work. The Academy will equip students with new and exceptional sets of skills, in a culture of multidisciplinary education and student-led program discovery and problem solving. "It is with great pride that we announce the launch of the AXIS Risk Management Academy. We are proud to expand our partnership with AXIS, a company that stands for leadership - both in the specialty (re)insurance sector and as an organization committed to educating and training future risk management professionals," said Jeffrey R. Brown, Dean of Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois. "The Academy will provide our students with invaluable educational and professional experiences, and will help them prepare for the professional world while better understanding the wide range of career options within the (re)insurance industry." Housed in the Finance Department of Gies College of Business, the AXIS Risk Management Academy will work closely with the College's Office of Risk Management and Insurance Research and will cater to students from multiple disciplines across campus. The inaugural class of the Academy has been formed for the Sprng 2018 semester.



"Through the AXIS Risk Management Academy, our goal is to help students understand the rich and exciting career opportunities that can be found in the insurance and reinsurance industry. We also wish to help develop a new generation of professionals within the field in order to bring emerging ideas forward that will ensure the continual and effective management of risk in society," said Albert Benchimol, President and CEO, AXIS Capital. "We are very pleased to grow our relationship with the University of Illinois, one of the top finance and actuarial schools and a leader in (re)insurance research and education." AXIS first established a presence at the University of Illinois in 2013 through an on-campus research center. The AXIS Research Center will now work with the AXIS Risk Management Academy, providing support through mentoring and internships for students in risk management-related disciplines.

In 2017, AXIS hosted its inaugural "Future of Insurance" Symposium at Illinois. The event, which included a series of panel discussions from (re)insurance industry experts, also featured a student hackathon in which Illinois students competed to create new catastrophe risk conceptualization models while leveraging data analytics, computer programming and risk modeling technologies that are reshaping the (re)insurance industry. About the Gies College of Business The Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign provides a world-class educational experience for the next generation of business leaders. For more than 100 years, the College has delivered on the promise of innovation in business education, with a commitment to cutting-edge curriculum design and delivery, exceptional experiential learning opportunities, and unparalleled academic excellence. Today our faculty prepare more than 5,100 students, including 3,100 undergraduates, to be at the forefront of innovation and leadership in the global economy. About AXIS Capital AXIS Capital is a Bermuda-based global provider of specialty lines insurance and treaty reinsurance with total shareholders' equity at December 31, 2017 of $5.3 billion and locations in Bermuda, the United States, Europe, Singapore, Middle East, Canada, and Latin America. Its operating subsidiaries have been assigned a rating of "A+" ("Strong") by Standard & Poor's and "A+" ("Superior") by A.M. Best. For more information about AXIS Capital, visit our website at www.axiscapital.com. Follow AXIS Capital on LinkedIn and Twitter. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180424005137/en/

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[April 24, 2018] FarmLogix Launches Local Farm Boxes in Communities Across Chicago

CHICAGO, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In an effort to increase access to fresh and healthy foods in communities across Chicago, FarmLogix, a leading provider of local and sustainable food technology solutions to institutional customers, is proud to announce the launch of its Farm to Community boxes. FarmLogix's Farm to Community boxes were made possible by funding Team Leverage, a collaboration between FarmLogix, This Old Farm and Top Box Foods, after winning The Food to Market Challenge, a supply chain competition sponsored by Kinship Foundation's Food:Land:Opportunity and funded by the Searle Funds at Chicago Community Trust. With Aramark Chicago Public Schools and North Shore Hospital Systems as participating locations, the Farm to Community boxes are available for pickup at Roberto Clemente, Juarez and Dunbar Vocational high schools, as well as North Shore's Evanston, Highland Park, Skokie and Glenbrook locations. "Schools and hospitals allow us to reach a wide network of community members and bring fresh and local food directly to them," said Linda Mallers



Every week, families, employees, surrounding businesses and the community are able to purchase affordable source-identified produce, meats and side dish boxes that support local farmers, with the meat sourced from Indiana and the produce sourced from Michigan. All boxes include farm profiles, nutritional content, and recipes using the box contents. Most boxes support quick, easy meals such as slow cooked pork fajitas, pot roast and chili. Link and Snap are accepted at the Chicago Public School pick-up locations. Additionally, FarmLogix hires high school students at each location to assist with the weekly pick-ups. This initiative supports neighborhood youth and provides interpretation services for the community. Along with an hourly wage, students receive credit towards a food box to take home each shift.

FarmLogix provides similar local food boxes for Peapod, the country's leading online grocer, which have been very well received by customers over the past four years. The extension of the Farm to Community boxes is an exciting start to a much larger program to come, with future pick-up locations available across Greater Chicago and beyond. "We're supporting our farmers and tackling major institutional and structural problems including food deserts and the predominance of fast food over fresh and local food," continued Mallers. "There's a lot more work to be done but we're very encouraged by this launch." About FarmLogix FarmLogix is leading the transformation of the local and sustainable food supply chain, connecting buyers to producers with proprietary technology and sustainability expertise that leverages existing supply chains and client IT platforms. FarmLogix was founded in 2012 and is based in Evanston, IL. For more information, please visit www.farmlogix.net. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/farmlogix-launches-local-farm-boxes-in-communities-across-chicago-300635148.html SOURCE FarmLogix

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[April 24, 2018]

Persistent Systems Reports 9.7% Growth in USD Revenue for FY18, Recommends 30% Final Dividend

SANTA CLARA, California and PUNE, India, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

News Summary:

Persistent Systems (BSE: PERSISTENT) (NSE: PERSISTENT), today announced the Company's audited financial results for the quarter and year ended March 31, 2018, as approved by the Board of Directors.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/681466/Persistent_Systems_Logo.jpg )



Consolidated Financial Highlights for the Financial Year 2017-18:

FY18 FY17 YoY growth Revenue (USD Million) 470.55 429.01 9.7% EBITDA (USD Million) 72.70 67.66 7.5% PBT (USD Million) 66.58 59.72 11.5% PAT (USD Million) 50.11 44.93 11.5%

Consolidated Financial Highlights for the Quarter ended March 31,2018:

Q4FY18 YoY growth QoQ growth Revenue (USD Million) 116.95 7.3% -4.6% EBITDA (USD Million) 17.26 -3.1% -18.9% PBT (USD Million) 15.28 8.9% -15.9% PAT (USD Million) 11.45 4.9% -19.2%

Dividend:

The Board of Directors at its meeting concluded on April 24, 2018, recommended 30% final dividend taking the total dividend for FY 2017-18 to 100%. This was against 90% dividend paid in the previous year. The dividend recommended by the Board is subject to approval of the Members during the Annual General Meeting.

Management Update:

The Board of Directors, at its meeting concluded on April 24, 2018, has appointed Prof. Deepak B Phatak, recipient of Padma Shri award, who recently retired as Professor of Computer Science at IIT Bombay and Mr. Guy Eiferman who is an expert in Life Sciences and Healthcare, having held several important positions at Merck & Co., as Additional Directors (Independent Members) on the Board with immediate effect subject to the approval of the Members in the next General Meeting of the Company.

Business Highlights and Awards:

Co-organized the Software Edition of Smart India Hackathon 2018

a rel="nofollow" href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/persistent-foundation/csrcompendiumlist2017/63363729.cms" rel="nofollow">Persistent Foundation featured in The Economic Times CSR Compendium - The Enablers, 2017

Featured in HfS Blueprint Report - Internet of Things Services 2018

Inaugurated a 276 kWp Rooftop Solar Panel Plant at Persistent Systems, Hinjawadi, Pune







Anand Deshpande

"In the last two years, our focus on digital has helped us build capabilities in key technology areas and experience in helping customers as they transform to being software driven businesses. Looking ahead, we are doubling down on three industry markets - Financial Services, Healthcare & Life Sciences and Industrial IoT in addition to our strong presence in Software and Technology.

We are delighted by the grand success of the Software Edition of Smart India Hackathon 2018 and look forward to innovative solutions at the Hardware Edition in June this year."

Key Highlights and Wins during the Quarter:

Customer Highlights

Momentum around Software Product Engineering

Design, develop and accelerate the roadmap for an industry leading fin tech product in the US

Micro-services cloud architecture for advanced IoT sensor- based motion capture

Engineering partner to build AI and ML powered cloud based solutions for an industry leading software provider

Momentum in Healthcare

Engineering partner for chromatography data system, cloud, mobility and ML of a US based global healthcare and life sciences company

Enterprise class architecture to drive patient and staff satisfaction and improve cross departmental efficiency for a renowned US based children's specialty hospital

Develop mobile device automation with data lake implementation for US based IoT driven human health organization

Momentum in Financial Services

Built a BOT platform powered by AI & ML for a large US based bank

Drive critical data initiatives around regulatory compliance and risk management for a leading US based bank

Implementing API based integration for identity initiatives for a large US based banking brokerage firm

IP-led win to provide secure access to customer policy information and transactions using Neuro, providing risk based authentication for an insurance and financial organization in the US

About Persistent Systems:

Persistent Systems (BSE & NSE: PERSISTENT) builds software that drives the business of our customers; serving software product companies and enterprises with software at the core of their digital transformation.

Forward-looking and Cautionary Statements: For risks and uncertainties relating to forward-looking statements, please visit www.persistent.com/FLCS

Media Contacts:

Saviera Barretto

Text100

+91-84249-17719

saviera.barretto@text100.co.in

Isha Kulkarni

Persistent Systems

+91-86696-70068

isha_kulkarni@persistent.com

Ken Montgomery

Persistent Systems (US)

+1-949-939-5164

ken_montgomery@persistent.com



SOURCE Persistent Systems
[April 24, 2018] Titan Medical to Present at the 2018 Bloom Burton & Co. Healthcare Investor Conference

TORONTO, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Titan Medical Inc. (Titan or the Company) (TSX:TMD) (OTCQB:TITXF), a medical device company focused on the design, development and commercialization of a robotic surgical system for application in minimally invasive surgery (MIS), announces that David McNally, President and CEO of Titan Medical, will present at the Bloom Burton & Co. Healthcare Investor Conference on Wednesday, May 2 at 11:30 a.m. Eastern time. Mr. McNally will provide a corporate overview discussing the Companys SPORT Surgical System. The conference is being held May 2-3, 2018 at the Sheraton Centre Hotel in Toronto.

To access the live webcast of the presentation, please click here. Areplay will be available following the conclusion of the live presentation.



About Titan Medical Inc. Titan Medical Inc. is focused on research and development through to the planned commercialization of computer-assisted robotic surgical technologies for application in minimally invasive surgery. The Company is developing the SPORT Surgical System, a single-port robotic surgical system. The SPORT Surgical System is comprised of a surgeon-controlled patient cart that includes a 3D high-definition vision system and multi-articulating instruments for performing MIS procedures, and a surgeon workstation that provides an advanced ergonomic interface to the patient cart and a 3D endoscopic view inside the patients body. Titan intends to initially pursue focused surgical indications for the SPORT Surgical System, which may include one or more of gynecologic, urologic, colorectal or general abdominal procedures.

For more information, please visit the Companys website at www.titanmedicalinc.com. Contacts: LHA Investor Relations

Kim Sutton Golodetz

(212) 838-3777

kgolodetz@lhai.com

or

Bruce Voss

(310) 691-7100

bvoss@lhai.com

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[April 24, 2018] Altius Provides 1st Quarter 2018 Project Generation Update

Altius Minerals Corporation ("Altius") (ALS:TSX) is pleased to update its Project Generation ("PG") business activities and its public junior equities portfolio. The market value of the junior equities portfolio at the close of trading April 23, 2018 was $52.9 million. This value includes an increased shareholding in Alderon Iron Ore Corp. (IRON:TSX), as detailed in a press release dated March 23, 2018. It does not include a $10 million debenture that is convertible into Champion Iron Ore shares, various in-the-money share purchase warrants or other equities to be received in exchange for announced project transactions that remain subject to final closing. An updated list of the public equity holdings has been posted to the Altius website at http://altiusminerals.com/projects/junior-equities. Project Updates and New Agreements

Altius continued to advance the new diamond discovery at its Lynx project in Manitoba during the quarter with the execution of an Exploration Agreement with the Bunibonibee Cree (News - Alert) Nation (http://altiusminerals.com/uploads/BunibonibeePressRelease.pdf). Microdiamond analysis data received to date from 15 samples from the Eastern Bay zone has yielded 1,693 microdiamonds (+0.106 mm to +0.850 mm size fraction) from 240 kg of ultramafic host units collected over an approximately 3 km strike length. An independent NI 43-101 report will be provided in Q2 as Altius prepares to launch a new public company vehicle around the project. This is anticipated to be undertaken in partnership with certain strategic investors in order to facilitate the advancement of the project through bulk sampling programs as quickly as technically feasible. A project summary is available at http://altiusminerals.com/projects/lynx-diamond. Altius acknowledges support from the Province of Manitoba via its Mineral Exploration Assistance Program. Aethon Minerals Corporation (AET:TSX-V) ("Aethon") is expected to begin trading in the first week of May. Aethon was created when Altius vended a portfolio of copper-gold projects to Watusi Capital Corp. As a condition of the transaction, Aethon raised $7.7 million via a non-brokered private placement led by Sprott Capital Partners and affiliates. A news release detailing the completion of the transaction can be viewed at http://www.aethonminerals.com. Following the transaction Altius will hold or control approximately 19.9% of Aethon and a 2% gross sales royalty covering its current portfolio of projects.



A Letter of Intent has been executed to vend the Sail Pond silver-copper-lead-zinc project, located in northwestern Newfoundland, to New Found Gold Corp. ("NFG"). As consideration, Altius will receive 12 million common shares of NFG and will retain a 2% net smelter return ("NSR") royalty over the project. Other key conditions of the Letter of Intent include NFG listing its common shares on a recognized Canadian stock exchange and raising a minimum of $7.5 million via a private placement, of which Altius would invest a minimum of $1 million. A full summary of the deal terms are available at http://altiusminerals.com/uploads/2018-03-27-ALTIUS-LETTER-OF-INTENT-TO-SELL-SAIL-POND-PROJECT-.pdf. Altius has received 7,754,371 common shares of Sokoman Iron Corp. (SIC:TSX-V) as payment for its option of the Moosehead gold project in Central Newfoundland while retaining a 2% NSR royalty. A more detailed account of the transaction and project highlights can be viewed at http://www.sokomaniron.com/news.

Junior Equities Portfolio Highlights

In April, Adventus Zinc Corporation, in which Altius holds an approximately 27% shareholding, released infill drilling results from the El Domo VMS deposit at its Curipamba copper-lead-zinc project in Ecuador. To date Adventus has completed approximately 2,100 metres of its planned 7,500 metre program. Seven drill holes have returned significant intersections of semi-massive to massive sulphide mineralization with a highlight being drill hole CURI-250 which intersected 10.35 metres grading 3.85% copper, 5.12 g/t gold, 10.34% zinc, 139.0 g/t silver, and 0.95% lead. (See http://www.adventuszinc.com/news/122500)On April 16th, Evrim Resources Corp. (EVM:TSX-V) announced significant exploration results from its 100%-owned Cuale gold project in Mexico that included assays from a surface trench that graded 13.61 g/t gold (uncut) over 106.2 metres (http://www.evrimresources.com/s/news-releases.asp?ReportID=821574). Altius holds a 1.5% NSR royalty for precious metals on the Cuale Project and is Evrim's largest shareholder with approximately 17% of the outstanding shares of the company plus additional common share purchase warrants. On April 4th, Wolfden Resources Corp. announced results from five of the 15 holes drilled in the current 10,000 metre exploration program at its Picket Mountain Project in Maine, with the highlight being an intercept of 7.9 metres grading 14.8% Zn, 5.7% Pb, 2.4% Cu, 187.3 g/t Ag & 1.3 g/t Au from hole PM-18-007. The intent of this program is to confirm and expand upon historical drilling done in the 1980s as Wolfden works to complete a qualified mineral resource estimate by year end. (See http://www.wolfdenresources.com/files/News-Apr4-2018.pdf) Lawrence Winter, Ph.D., P.Geo., Vice-President of Exploration for Altius, a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, is responsible for the scientific and technical data presented herein and has reviewed, prepared and approved this release. More information on Altius projects can be found at www.altiusminerals.com. About Altius

Altius directly and indirectly holds diversified royalties and streams which generate revenue from 15 operating mines. These are located in Canada and Brazil and produce copper, zinc, nickel, cobalt, iron ore, potash and thermal (electrical) and metallurgical coal. The portfolio also includes numerous pre-development stage royalties covering a wide spectrum of mineral commodities and jurisdictions. It also holds a large portfolio of exploration stage projects which it has generated for deal making with industry partners that results in newly created royalties and equity and minority interests. The Altius exploration team was recently awarded the 2017 Prospector/Explorer Award from the Newfoundland Branch of the CIMM for its recent work on project generation. Altius has 43,215,026 common shares issued and outstanding that are listed on Canada's Toronto Stock Exchange. It is a member of both the S&P/TSX Small Cap and S&P/TSX Global Mining Indices. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180424005931/en/

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[April 24, 2018]

UOL BoaCompra reaches Uruguay's online market

SAO PAULO, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Aiming million online users in a country with a GDP per capita of $15,220, Uruguay was a natural choice for UOL BoaCompra's expansion in Latin America. The cross-border payments provider - specialized in emerging markets such as Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Chile and Turkey - announces its launch in Uruguayan territory this month.

"With our support, international companies can boost their sales in a country with one of the highest internet penetration rates in Latin America (83%). BoaCompra simplifies any local payments in Uruguayan Pesos (UYU) with six different local payment methods and a 24x7 Spanish speaking customer support", explains Alain Delcourt, General Manager at UOL BoaCompra.

With Redpagos, the largest payment option in Uruguay for cash payments which is present in hundreds of points of sale all over Uruguay, merchants can also reach the unbanked population.With a full coverage, international e-commerce companies can benefit from UOL BoaCompra's expertise on emerging markets, monetize their products/services with a single integration, contract and settlement.







Operating in Latin America since 2004, UOL BoaCompra has expanded its operations from Brazil to nine countries in different continents. Bringing more than 150 different local payments and working with more than 300 partners, UOL BoaCompra allows merchants to connect their digital business with more than 350 million potential online customers.

NOTE TO EDITORS

UOL BoaCompra is an online payments company specialized in monetizing for international platforms throughout Brazil, Latin America, Portugal, Spain and Turkey. With the most comprehensive portfolio of 150+ local payment methods, including BoaCompra GOLD, the company services more than 6,000 titles from over 300 partners such as Valve, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, RedFox Games, Smilegate, Bigpoint and Aeria Games.

For more information, please visit https://boacompra.com/en and keep up-to-date on the latest news at http://www.boacompra.eu/blog/.

Contacts:

Alain Delcourt  adelcourt@uolinc.com

Daniele Godoi  dgodoi@uolinc.com

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/uol-boacompra-reaches-uruguays-online-market-300634413.html

SOURCE UOL BoaCompra
[April 24, 2018] Foresters offers Emergency Assistance to members in North Carolina

Foresters Financial:







Who: Foresters Financial, an international financial services provider committed to doing more for families and communities, is offering assistance to its members affected by the tornado in North Carolina. What: Eligible members living in the affected area who are experiencing significant personal hardship as a result of the tornado can receive grants to help with immediate needs. Disaster relief assistance is one payment per household. Members who are directly affected by the tornado can contact Foresters toll-free at 800 828 1540 between the hours of 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST, Monday to Friday, or e-mail Foresters at service@foresters.com.

About Foresters Financial

Foresters Financial is an international financial services provider with more than three million clients and members in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, and total funds under management of $45.1 billion1. With a history of more than 140 years, we provide life insurance, savings, retirement and investment solutions that help families achieve their financial goals, protect their families and improve their communities. For more information, visit foresters.com. Foresters Financial and Foresters are trade names and trademarks of The Independent Order of Foresters (a fraternal benefit society, 789 Don Mills Road, Toronto, Canada M3C 1T9) and its subsidiaries. Products offered vary by country. Not all products are available for distribution in all jurisdictions. In the United States, products are offered by The Independent Order of Foresters and its subsidiaries, including Foresters Financial Services, Inc. a registered broker-dealer. Securities, life insurance and annuity products are offered through Foresters Financial Services, Inc. or independent producers. Insurance products are issued by Foresters Life Insurance and Annuity Company, New York, or The Independent Order of Foresters. Investment advisory products and services are offered through Foresters Advisory Services, LLC, a registered investment adviser. 1in Canadian dollars as of December 31, 2017 416295 US (04/18) View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180424006013/en/

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[April 24, 2018] Subaru Canada Teams with DMT Group to Launch Online Dealer Chat Platform

DIGITAL! Interview allows consumers visiting Subaru.ca to chat live with sales staff at any Subaru dealer across Canada.

Platform connects consumers with the people who know Subaru products best.

Winnipeg -based DMT Group the first in Canada to release this proprietary routing technology. MISSISSAUGA, ON, April 24, 2018 /CNW/ - Subaru Canada, Inc. (SCI) has partnered with Winnipeg-based DMT Group to launch a new digital platform allowing consumers visiting Subaru.ca to chat directly with a sales consultant at any of the more than 90 Subaru dealers across Canada in real-time when doing their research and shopping online. "The ability to have potential customers chat directly with a sales consultant from a local dealer in real time is a game changer for our business," said SCI's senior vice-president of operations, Don Durst. "It will undoubtedly change the automotive experience and our dealers are looking forward to the increase in leads and business as a result." Known as DIGITAL! Interview, the platform optimizes the online chat experience, ensuring consumers receive helpful answers to all their questions at the click of a button. It connects customers to the dealership sales staff from any device on any platform in real-time withou the nuisance of downloading an app or any software.



The intent of the DIGITAL! Interview platform is to provide consumers with a personalized, seamless experience while researching a purchase, connecting them with the people who know Subaru products best. The platform also allows consumers to have their initial questions answered before heading to the dealership, arming them with the information they need to consider purchasing a Subaru vehicle with confidence. "As more of what we do evolves in this increasingly digital world, I'm very excited to provide our customers and dealers with this additional way to connect," said SCI president, chairman and CEO Yasushi Enami. "More than a sales tool, I think this is another way for our dealers to communicate with consumers in a manner that's both comfortable and convenient."

DMT Group was the first in Canada to release this proprietary routing technology allowing customers to engage in online conversations with knowledgeable sales representatives from their preferred local dealers. "There is no other platform like this available to auto dealers," said Glen Demetrioff, president and CEO of DMT Group. "While most digital chat providers simply collect lead information for later follow up, DIGITAL! Interview connects customers to your sales team in real-time to instantly convert chats into an appointment." About DMT Group Since 1996, DMT Development Systems Group has provided the global automotive, recreational vehicle, powersport and agricultural industries with cutting-edge SaaS based solutions focused on improving businesses digital lead management practices while maximizing the customers experience across multiple digital communication touchpoints. DMT serves more than 2,500 clients in 20 languages in 30 countries. A privately held company, DMT is headquartered on the University of Manitoba campus in Winnipeg, with offices in Toronto; Paris; London; and Dallas. About Subaru Canada, Inc. Subaru Canada, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Subaru Corporation of Japan. Headquartered in Mississauga, Ont., the company markets and distributes Subaru vehicles, parts and accessories through a network of 93 authorized dealers across Canada. For more information, please visit www.subaru.ca or www.pr.subaru.ca or follow @SubaruCanada on Twitter. SOURCE Subaru Canada Inc.

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[April 24, 2018] Morgan Stanley Announces New Commitment to Finance $250Bn in Low-Carbon Solutions by 2030

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) today announced a new commitment to provide $250Bn in low-carbon financing by 2030. Contributing to this commitment are the Firm's activities in clean-tech and renewable energy financing, sustainable bonds and other transactions that enable low-carbon solutions. As companies, governments and institutions transition to a low-carbon economy, Morgan Stanley views low-carbon financing as a win-win for business and the environment. "This announcement reflects Morgan Stanley's continued commitment to enabling private sector capital to find attractive opportunities in the growing market for low-carbon solutions," said Audrey Choi, Morgan Stanley's Chief Sustainability Officer and Chief Marketing Officer. To date the Firm has financed more than $84Bn in transactions that support clean-tech and renewable energy since 2006. Since 2013, the Firm has underwritten sustainable bond transactions worth more than $27Bn, including the issuance of its own $500 million green bond in 2015. Governments andother entities will need to invest an estimated $90 trillion in infrastructure between 2015 and 2030 to achieve goals outlined by the Global Commission on Economy and Climate.



"Our Firm's businesses are uniquely positioned to drive the development of low-carbon solutions in partnership with our clients," said Jeff Holzschuh, Chairman of Institutional Securities. "Building on our experience in the space, we believe this target sets the bar for our businesses to drive impact in the growing markets for low-carbon technologies." This commitment will help drive capital to renewable energy development, sustainable bonds that allow companies and municipalities to advance their sustainability goals, clean-technologies and resilient infrastructure. In September 2017, the Firm also issued a commitment to source 100 percent of its global energy needs from renewable energy by 2022.

Morgan Stanley is a leading global financial services firm providing investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services. With offices in more than 41 countries, the Firm's employees serve clients worldwide including corporations, governments, institutions and individuals. For more information about Morgan Stanley, please visit www.morganstanley.com.  2018 Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC. Member SIPC. CRC: 2094358 04/2018 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180424006052/en/

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[April 24, 2018] Open Source Summit Japan + Automotive Linux Summit Speakers and Agenda Announced

SAN FRANCISCO and TOKYO, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, today announced the full schedule of sessions, speakers and activities for Open Source Summit Japan + Automotive Linux Summit, taking place June 20-22 in Tokyo. One registration provides access to all content at both events. Open Source Summit Japan is the leading conference in Japan connecting the open source ecosystem under one roof, providing a forum for technologists and open source industry leaders to collaborate and share information, learn about the latest in open source technologies and find out how to gain a competitive advantage by using innovative, open solutions. The event covers cornerstone open source technology areas such as Linux, cloud infrastructure, and cloud native applications and explores the newest trends including networking, blockchain, serverless, edge computing and AI. It also offers an open source leadership track covering compliance, governance and community. Automotive Linux Summit connects those driving innovation in automotive Linux from the developer community with the vendors and users providing and using the code, in order to propel the future of embedded devices in the automotive arena. Keynote speakers come from organizations actively contributing to and using open source, including: Brian Behlendorf , Executive Director, Hyperledger

, Executive Director, Hyperledger Dan Cauchy , Executive Director, Automotive Grade Linux

, Executive Director, Automotive Grade Linux Seiji Goto , Manager of IVI Advanced Development, Mazda Motor Corporation

, Manager of IVI Advanced Development, Mazda Motor Corporation Mitchell Hashimoto , Founder & CTO, HashiCorp

, Founder & CTO, HashiCorp Kelsey Hightower , Developer Advocate, Google

, Developer Advocate, Google Greg Kroah-Hartman , Linux Kernel Maintainer

, Linux Kernel Maintainer Ken-ichi Murata, Project General Manager - Connected Strategy, Connected Management Division, Connected Company & Masato Endo , Project Manager, Connected Vehicle Group, Intellectual Property Division, Toyota Motor Corporation

, Project Manager, Connected Vehicle Group, Intellectual Property Division, Toyota Motor Corporation Michelle Noorali , Senior Software Engineer, Microsoft

, Senior Software Engineer, Microsoft Linus Torvalds, Creator of Linux & Git, in conversation with Dirk Hohndel, VP & Chief Open Sorce Officer, VMware

Jim Zemlin , Executive Director, The Linux Foundation



Session highlights for Automotive Linux Summit: AGL Development Tools - What's New in FF? - Stephane Desneux , IoT.bzh

, IoT.bzh High-level API for Smartphone Connectivity on AGL - Takeshi Kanemoto , RealVNC Ltd.

, RealVNC Ltd. Beyond the AGL Virtualization Architecture - AGL Virtualization Expert Group (EG-VIRT) - Michele Paolino , Virtual Open Systems Session highlights for Open Source Summit Japan:

Building the Next Generation of IoT Applications - Dave Chen , GE Digital

, GE Digital Hitchhiker's Guide to Machine Learning with Kubernetes - Vishnu Kannan, Google

OSS Vulnerability Trends and PoC 2017-2018 - Kazuki Omo , SIOS Technology, Inc.

, SIOS Technology, Inc. Microservices, Service Mesh and CI/CD Pipelines - Making it All Work Together - Brian Redmond , Microsoft

, Microsoft Use Cases for Permissioned Blockchain Platforms - Swetha Repakula , IBM

, IBM Using Linux for Long Term - Community Status and the Way We Go - Tsugikazu Shibata, NEC The conference agenda for both Open Source Summit Japan and Automotive Linux Summit can be viewed here. Registration is discounted to USD$350 through April 28, and members of The Linux Foundation receive a 20% discount. Discounted academic and student rates are also available. Applications for diversity and needs-based scholarships are currently being accepted. For information on eligibility and how to apply, please click here. The Linux Foundation events are where the world's leading technologists meet, collaborate, learn and network in order to advance innovations that support the world's largest shared technologies. Members of the press who would like to request a press pass to attend should contact Noriko Otake at notake@linuxfoundation.org. Open Source Summit Japan is made possible thanks to Platinum Sponsors Microsoft Azure and Fujitsu. Automotive Linux Summit is made possible thanks to Diamond Sponsor Automotive Grade Linux; Platinum Sponsors Intel, Panasonic and Toyota; and Gold Sponsors Microchip, NTT Data MSE and Renesas. Additional Resources

YouTube: Why Attend Linux Foundation Events (https://youtu.be/X_rLxfmLlYY) Open Source Summit Japan 2017 Event Recap (https://events17.linuxfoundation.org/events/open-source-summit-japan) Automotive Linux Summit 2017 Event Recap (https://events17.linuxfoundation.org/events/automotive-linux-summit) 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. The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of The Linux Foundation, please see our trademark usage page: https://www.linuxfoundation.org/trademark-usage. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Media Contact:

Dan Brown

The Linux Foundation

415-420-7880

dbrown@linuxfoundation.org View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/open-source-summit-japan--automotive-linux-summit-speakers-and-agenda-announced-300635197.html SOURCE The Linux Foundation

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SAINT JOHN, New Brunswick, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Irving Pulp and Paper as well as Irving Tissue on the west side of Saint John is underway with a $40 million investment with an impact across NB. Eighty-four (84) New Brunswick companies will be working on the modernization, accounting for $29 million of the investment. These suppliers are located across New Brunswick. The project is scheduled for completion on May 14, 2018.

This project is also going to provide hands-on learning experiences for the workforce of the future  over twenty-five co-op students from the University of New Brunswick, Dalhousie University, Memorial University in Newfoundland & Labrador as well as the New Brunswick Community College (NBCC).

This new investment brings environmental benefits. Today, the pulp mill is already 95% green energy . This upgrade will improve energy use and further reduce the site's carbon footprint.

"The pulp mill is the heart of our forest products value chain - from seed to store shelf - sustaining over 9,600 direct, indirect, and induced jobs across New Brunswick," said Mark Mosher, Vice President of the Irving Pulp and Paper Division. "Every year we are growing more wood than we harvest. This wood goes to our sawmills. Chips from sawmills across the region are the primary ingredient for the pulp mill here in Saint John. The pulp is then used to produce quality tissue in Saint John, Dieppe, Toronto, New York and in 2019, Macon, Georgia. The work we are doing will improve the quality and volume of tissue made for Canadas top brands Royale and Majesta as well Scotties in US, Mosher explained.

"New Brunswick is home and our owners are focused on a strong future for these mills. Were really excited about what this modernization means for our employees, Saint John and our many suppliers across the province," said Mosher.

Watch the video here: https://vimeo.com/266154852 or https://youtu.be/7GD4rFVF0v4

Economic Impact of JDI's New Brunswick Forestry and Forest Products Operations:

This mill is at the heart of sustaining a value chain of

Over 9,600 direct, indirect, and induced jobs

Over $615 million in wages

Over 1,700 suppliers from 250+ communities

Were hiring! Over the next three years, JDI is forecasting over 5,100 for all its operations in New Brunswick: careers.jdirving.com.

Media Contact:

Mary Keith, Vice President Communications

J.D. Irving, Limited

(506) 632-5122 office

(506) 650-8209 cell

Keith.mary@jdirving.com

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at

http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/5958284c-56c3-48ef-8728-ce83adc422a9

http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/1d758c6a-089c-4643-9f13-f96dac25dd4b



An infographic accompanying this announcement is available at

http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/e896d34c-54cf-44d7-82c9-5efd24b0430f
[April 24, 2018] Insolvency Administrator Schmudde (White & Case) Accepts NorthCapital Holding's Bid for Starz Group

SCHWABHAUSEN, Germany, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Within the scope of its M&A strategy, NorthCapital Holding ApS today acquired Starz Group, the leading manufacturer of cable sets for special vehicles. In mid-January, the company had to file an insolvency petition due to, among other reasons, investments in China which required high financial advances. Operational activities in Germany are, however, still profitable. NorthCapital Holding ApS is an international investment company with its registered office in Copenhagen, Denmark. It is primarily active in the fields of gemstones, oil and gas. However, the company also invests in companies of the financial and production sector. Thus, within the scope of its merger & acquisition strategy, the company today acquired Starz Group with its registered office in Groraschen, in Brandenburg, Germany, including its foreign companies in Europe, North Africa and China. The group of companies that ran into financial difficulties manufactures and develops cable harnesses, control electronics and control panels for special vehicles, in particular for construction, agricultural and forestry machines, but also for municipal and fire-fighting vehicles. "We invest in a company that is essentially profitable. The name recognition and the excellent reputation of Starz Group with regard to well-known international industry customers, but also the attractive location near Cottbus, Germany, are a good basis to again sustainably increase the business volume and profitability. Therefore, highly attractive for financial investors who pursue a buy-and-build strategy like we do!" says Werner Schmidt, Group CEO of NorthCapital Holding ApS. Insolvency administrator Bettina Schmudde, attorney-at-law and partner of the law firm White & Case, agrees: "With NorthCapital, I found, after an intensive search for investors in Germany and abroad, an investor for Starz Group who will keep all locations of the Group. Thus, the Group and its employees get a second chance they really deserve. This is also an asset for Lusatia." Attorney-at-law Schmudde had started the international search for fnancially strong investors for Starz Group with its companies in Germany, Poland, Tunisia and China already immediately after the initiation of insolvency proceedings and her appointment as a temporary insolvency administrator.



The business of the insolvent company Starz GmbH from Groraschen, Germany, which employs approx. 170 employees, entirely continued in the meantime. The further companies of Starz Group - Starz Polska, Mecsy Tunisie, Starz Wiring System Ltd. Co. - were merely indirectly affected by the insolvency of the parent company in Germany. Starz Group which is one of the leading manufacturers of cable harnesses for special vehicles employs in total approx. 720 employees worldwide - two thirds of them work in production. In addition to its registered office in Brandenburg, Germany, the company also runs production sites abroad. In particular when establishing the Chinese subsidiary, there were high financial burdens which could no longer be compensated for by the otherwise profitable core business.

The parties involved agreed to not disclose any information with regard to the amount of the purchase price. Due to the high outflows of liquidity to China, Starz Group suffered a liquidity crisis that eventually resulted in the filing of the insolvency petition in mid-January 2018. The industry environment in which Starz Group is positioned faces structural challenges. The industry for special vehicles highly consolidated in the last few years. As a result, Starz Group generated the predominant part of its sales with its Top 10 customers. In addition, the degree of automation in the production of cable harnesses is very low and thus, personnel costs are, in particular at the location in Germany, high. In the age of digitalization, there are further challenges in the organization development with regard to structures, operational and IT processes. On the other hand, however, these framework conditions in particular offer potential for investors. "Restructuring measures regarding pricing and distribution can be quickly implemented and thus sales and profitability can be increased. Focusing again on the core business of cable packaging can then sustainably contribute to the company's success. We are confident that we will soon achieve positive results," says Werner Schmidt. With regard to the restructuring of Starz Group, the team of White & Case consisted of partner Bettina Schmudde, Counsel Dr. Tim Brune and Associate Norwin Baczako (all Restructuring & Insolvency, Dresden, Germany). The international investor process was exclusively supported by Restrukturierungspartner jwt GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin, Germany. About White & Case White & Case is one of the leading international law firms and has offices in the most important economic centers of the world at 41 locations in 30 countries. In Germany, approx. 200 attorneys-at-law, tax consultants and notary publics work for the law firm in Berlin, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt am Main and Hamburg (http://www.whitecase.com ). For more than 30 years, the law firm has had one of the most prestigious insolvency and restructuring offices in Germany (http://www.whitecaseinso.de ). About NorthCapital Holding ApS NorthCapital Holding ApS is a global investment company with its registered office in Copenhagen, Denmark. NorthCapital Holding ApS is primarily active in the fields of gemstones, oil and gas as well as investments (mergers & acquisitions) in companies of the financial and production sector. Press contact: NorthCapital Kontor GmbH

Carl-Zeiss-Strae 6

85247 Schwabhausen

Germany

info@northcapital-kontor.de

http://www.northcapital-kontor.de

Phone: +49-8138-666-15-00 SOURCE NorthCapital Kontor GmbH

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[April 24, 2018] Ministers McKenna, Bibeau, and LeBlanc respond to the Spring 2018 Reports of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development

Joint Statement

From Environment and Climate Change Canada OTTAWA, April 24, 2018 /CNW/ - Today, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Catherine McKenna; the Minister of International Development and La Francophonie, Marie-Claude Bibeau; and the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, Dominic LeBlanc, issued the following statement in response to the tabling of the Spring 2018 Reports of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development: "We would like to thank Commissioner Gelfand for her dedication as Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development. We welcome the Commissioner's recommendations, and we are taking appropriate actions to ensure they are addressed. "The Government of Canada takes its social, economic, and environmental responsibilities seriously, and we believe that a clean environment and a strong economyone that leaves no one behindare essential for peaceful, inclusive, and prosperous societies. "Together with our provincial and territorial partners, Indigenous Peoples, and stakeholders, we continue to work hard to ensure our decisions on aquaculture are transparent, based on the best available science, and clearly communicated to Canadians. Keeping our oceans healthy is a priority for our government. We have a responsibility to ensure that fish and their habitat are protected for future generations, and we take this responsibility very seriously. Since Budget 2016, our government has made significant investments in science by hring new scientists to help better manage wild Pacific and Atlantic salmon, and it has funded more than 20 projects on salmon enhancement and habitat restoration.





"Conserving Canada's biodiversity is essential to fighting climate change and ensuring healthy ecosystems, thriving communities, and a strong economy. Since biodiversity conservation is a shared responsibility, achieving Canada's biodiversity targets requires action across all levels of government and collaboration with Indigenous Peoples and many others.

"Our government has already taken successful action, working with various partners, toward achieving Canada's 2020 biodiversity targets. Last October, we met our interim target of protecting 5 percent of Canada's marine and coastal areas, by 2017. We have also committed to conserving at least 17 percent of our land and inland waters, by 2020, and we are making historic investments in conservation and supporting the recovery of species of risk. "The Government of Canada is fully committed to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), here in Canada and overseas. Many Canadian priorities, such as growing and strengthening Canada's middle class; reconciling with Indigenous Peoples; and advancing gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, including through Canada's Feminist International Assistance Policy, support Canada's and the world's progress toward the 2030 Agenda and its overarching goals. "As announced on April 17, 2018, we will reach out over the coming months to Canadians, Indigenous Peoples, civil society, other levels of government, the private sector, and our international partners to develop a national strategy to ?catalyze action on the SDGs across the country. Federal departments and agencies will work to ensure the SDGs are integrated into all of their policies and programs. We will also continue to work, through Statistics Canada, with the United Nations and Canadian partners on the global SDG-indicator framework to help Canada and the world measure progress. An SDG unit will be created to support and help coordinate all these efforts. "Through Budget 2018, our government allocated $1.3 billion over 5 years to protect our ecosystems, landscapes, and biodiversity, including species at risk. It also allocated $49.4 million over 13 years to establish a robust SDG unit to coordinate Canadian efforts to advance the SDGs and fund monitoring and reporting activities by Statistics Canada, as well as $59.8 million from existing resources for programming to support the implementation of the SDGs in Canada. "The Government of Canada will continue to take a leadership roleworking with all levels of government, international partners, and all other groups involvedto make progress on our commitments to building inclusive and sustainable communities, keeping our ecosystems healthy and diverse, strengthening our economy, and preserving Canada's natural legacy for future generations." SOURCE Environment and Climate Change Canada

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[April 24, 2018] Adents Announces Diverse Lineup of Prominent Experts for Serialization Innovation Summit, June 20-21 in Philadelphia

Adents, a leading provider of premier, versatile serialization and track & trace solutions, has announced a prominent line-up of expert presenters for its Philadelphia Serialization Innovation Summit. Featuring experts from global IT and technology leaders such as Microsoft and Siemens (News - Alert) , as well as officials from government oversight and advocacy groups such as the Healthcare Distribution Alliance, GS1, and Medicines for Europe, the event is slated for June 20-21 at Le Meridien Hotel in Philadelphia, PA. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180424005878/en/ Adents Serialization Innovation Summit - Paris 5 & 6 april 2018. (Photo: Adents) The Adents Serialization Innovation Summit is a three-continent set of events that kicked off with a very successful first edition in Paris April 5-6. Following the Philadelphia event, a subsequent gathering is scheduled for Shanghai this October. The summit will address pharma applications of various new technologies - including blockchain, augmented reality, and virtual batch record - as well as the myriad of ways that data generated by serialization can be utilized to improve production and business practicesfor beyond-compliance ROI.



During the 1-day conference, participants will meet with world-leading technologyevangelists and traceability experts to understand the future challenges faced by various pharma industry players. In Philadelphia, experts from Microsoft (News - Alert) will explore areas such as Cloud architecture, intra and inter-system connectivity, AI, and blockchain. Thought leaders from international organizations such as GS1 Healthcare will discuss efforts to standardize - and therefore simplify - serialization, and representatives from the Healthcare Distribution Alliance and Medicines for Europe will discuss the push toward regulatory compliance on both sides of the Atlantic.

The track & trace needs of pharmaceutical dispensers will also be addressed, and experts will be on hand to discuss serialization's far-reaching supply chain implications. Confirmed speakers to date include (but are not limited to): Paul Slater, Worldwide Director of Industry Strategy, Life Sciences for Microsoft , will present how the newest Microsoft technologies impact the Pharma Industry

, will present how the newest Microsoft technologies impact the Pharma Industry Greg Bylo, Vice President for GS1 US Healthcare , will present GS1 Standards for interconnected Pharmaceutical Supply Chain

, will present Perry Fri, COO & Executive VP of Industry Relations, Membership & Education for the Healthcare Distribution Alliance , presents HDA Origin and Beyond , addressing efforts toward a common, digitized serialization reporting hub for DSCSA compliance

, presents , addressing efforts toward a common, digitized serialization reporting hub for DSCSA compliance Todd Lybrook, Life Sciences Director for Siemens , will discuss various aspects of pharmaceutical digitalization

, will discuss various aspects of pharmaceutical digitalization Maarten Van Baelen, Market Access Director at Medicines for Europe , will discuss requirements for the European Hub serialization reporting network and give an update on the level of readiness in the EU.

, will discuss requirements for the European Hub serialization reporting network and give an update on the level of readiness in the EU. Jeff Denton, Senior Director, IT Global Secure Supply Chain for AmerisourceBergen, will present Serialization Challenges for Wholesalers. "Serialization and the data it generates impacts all aspects of pharmaceutical production, from packaging line configurations and production floor OEE to IT architecture, personnel allocation and supply chain procedures," said Christophe Devins, CEO & Co-Founder of Adents. "The Philadelphia Summit brings together experts from various corners of the track & trace landscape and high-level technology evangelists, in an effort to showcase serialization's significance to various business processes and niches. It's a way to tell an overarching story through several intertwined chapters." To register for the Philadelphia conference, for which seats are limited, please visit www.adents-serialization-innovation-summit.com/philadelphia/. # # # About Adents Adents is a leading provider of premier serialization solutions for unique product identification and traceability. Adents helps pharmaceutical companies, Contract Manufacturing Organizations (CMOs) and their Supply Chain Partners adapt to market changes and comply with regulations on drug traceability. Adents Seriza, a serialization solution for manufacturing sites, has been selected as a preferred solution by Siemens for its customers. Adents Prodigi, a cloud solution jointly developed with Microsoft and powered by Azure technologies, allows for secure data exchange and helps leverage the power of serialization data. Adents operates globally, with offices in the United States, Europe and Asia and with a worldwide network of solution partners. For more info, visit www.adents.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180424005878/en/

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[April 24, 2018]

Black Ink Technologies Recognized for Fourth Consecutive Year in Annual MarTech Landscape

BOSTON, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Black Ink Technologies, the leading SaaS-based customer and sales intelligence analytics platform for consumer durable goods industry, is proud to announce its recognition by Scott Brinkers 2018 MarTech Landscape super graphic.



Black Ink is now properly positioned in the Sales Automation, Enablement and Intelligence category, one of the largest and fastest-growing groups of premier software companies.

As Black Ink continues to innovate with its EyeOn product suite, so has Scott Brinker properly categorized how we provide tremendous value to our customers, said Jeff Winsper, President at Black Ink Technologies. Kudos to him and his team for another spectacular year for such a daunting but valuable assignment. We are delighted to be amongst good company with the likes of Oracle, Salesforce.com, IBM, SAP, and Microsoft.

The 2018 edition, released today, now includes 6,829 technology companies. According to Scott Brinker, he and his research lead Anand Thaker led the data research for this years landscape through his company IntelliPhi. They also relied on other resources used in our research to build this graphic: CabinetM, Capterra, G2 Crowd, Google, LUMA Partners, Siftery, and TrustRadius.







Black Ink had previously resided in the Predictive Analytics category, but this year, this category migrated into other categories due to the speed of innovation. Well, for one thing, we got rid of the category for Predictive Analytics. Its not that predictive analytics capabilities have vanished. On the contrary, due to the huge explosion of machine learning, predictive features have been added to hundreds of products, according to Scott Brinkers recent blog post.

About Black Ink Technologies

Black Ink Technologies is the leading SaaS analytics solution specifically designed for the consumer durables goods manufacturing industry in support of its independent dealers supply chain. Its EyeOn Suite helps its user sell more product faster and smarter to accelerate customer acquisition, repeat purchases and upselling growth opportunities for field sales, P&L leaders, finance, and marketing. For more product and pricing information or to request a EyeOn Suite demonstration please visit http://blackinktech.com. Contact us at @BlackInk_tech on Twitter and on LinkedIn.

Media Contact:

Seth Menacker

TallGrass Public Relations

(201) 638-7561

seth.menacker@tallgrasspr.com
[April 24, 2018]

Baton Rouge Mayor Sharon Weston Broome and Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Don Pierson Attending New Cybersecurity Office Opening in Louisiana

BATON ROUGE, La., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

WHO: Baton Rouge mayor, Sharon Weston Broome and Louisiana Economic Development Secretary, Don Pierson to commemorate the grand opening of a cybersecurity company, Twistlock's office opening in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

WHAT: Mayor, Sharon Weston Broome, Louisiana Economic Development Secretary, Don Pierson, Ben Bernstein, chief executive officer, Twistlock and John Morello, chief technology officer, Twistlock, will host local officials at the grand opening of the leading technology company's new offer at the LSU Innovation Park.

Headquartered in Portland, Oregon with operations in New York; London; and Tel Aviv, Israel, Twistlock provides cutting edge security services for some of the world's largest companies and governments, from the financial services to healthcare sectors, among many more.

The company's new office will create close to 40 new jobs and a partnership with Louisiana State University will provide training and and power hiring of new talent in cybersecurity. This office opening will highlght new economic growth in Louisiana.







"We selected Baton Rouge, Louisiana for our global engineering solution center because of the state's growing cybersecurity industry base, the business friendly climate, and the opportunity to develop a talent pipeline with a major research university in LSU," said Ben Bernstein, chief executive officer, Twistlock.

"Together with LSU, Louisiana's Digital Media and Software Development Incentive as well as the Quality Jobs program, we look forward to creating new opportunities in the state of Louisiana through the opening of our new global engineering solution center," said John Morello, chief technology officer of Twistlock.

WHEN: 2 p.m. CDT, Tuesday, April 24, 2018

WHERE: Louisiana Innovation Park in the Joint Cyber Training Lab (8000 Innovation Park Dr.

Baton Rouge, LA 70820)

About Twistlock

Twistlock is the leading provider of container and cloud native cybersecurity solutions for the modern enterprise. From precise, actionable vulnerability management to automatically deployed runtime protection and firewalls, Twistlock protects applications across the development lifecycle and into production. Purpose built for containers, serverless, and other leading technologies - Twistlock gives developers the speed they want, and CISOs the controls they need. For more information, please visit www.twistlock.com

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SHAREHOLDER ALERT: Levi & Korsinsky, LLP Notifies Investors of an Investigation Involving Possible Securities Fraud Violations by the Board of Directors Macquarie Infrastructure Corporation

Levi & Korsinsky announces it has commenced an investigation of Macquarie Infrastructure Corporation ("Macquarie" or "the Company") (NYSE:MIC) concerning possible violations of federal securities laws.

On February 21, 2018, Macquarie announced it would slash its dividend and that it had lost International-Matex Tank Terminals ("IMTT") contracts. During a conference call on February 22, 2018, CEO Christopher Frost said "a number of customers terminated contracts for a significant amount of 6 oil capacity at IMTT's facility in St. Rose. Not only did they terminate those contracts, in some cases, they shut down their operations and exited the industry. Many of these firms have been long term customers of IMTT." Shares of Macquarie fell from a close of $3.62 on February 21, 2018, to a close of $37.41 on February 22, 2018. To obtain additional information, go to:







http://www.zlkdocs.com/MIC-Info-Request-Form-6637

or contact Joseph E. Levi, Esq. either via email at jlevi@levikorsinsky.com or by telephone at (212) 363-7500, toll-free: (877) 363-5972.

Levi & Korsinsky is a national firm with offices in New York, California, Connecticut and Washington D.C. The firm's attorneys have extensive expertise in prosecuting securities litigation involving financial fraud, representing investors throughout the nation in securities and shareholder lawsuits. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180424006539/en/
[April 24, 2018] Great Ajax Corp. Schedules Its First Quarter 2018 Financial Results Release For Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Great Ajax Corp. (NYSE: AJX), a Maryland corporation that is a real estate investment trust, today announces that it intends to release its financial results for the first quarter 2018 on Tuesday, May 1, 2018 at approximately 4:05 p.m. ET. In conjunction with the release, Great Ajax will host a conference call at 5:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday, May 1, 2018 to review its financial results for the first quarter 2018. A live webcast of this conference call will be available on Great Ajax's website at www.great-ajax.com and a replay of the webcast will be archived on the website for 90 days. Listeners should login at least 20 minutes before the conference call is scheduled to begin in order to register, as well as download and install any necessary audio software. <> About Great Ajax Corp.



Great Ajax Corp. is a Maryland corporation that focuses primarily on acquiring, investing in and managing mortgage loans secured by single-family residences and, to a lesser extent, single-family properties themselves. We also invest in loans secured by multi-family residential and smaller commercial mixed use retail/residential properties, as well as in the properties directly. We are externally managed by Thetis Asset Management LLC. Our mortgage loans and other real estate assets are serviced by Gregory Funding LLC, an affiliated entity. We have elected to be taxed as a real estate investment trust under the Internal Revenue Code. Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements. Words such as "believes," "intends," "expects," "projects," "anticipates," and "future" or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to the inherent uncertainties in predicting future results and conditions, many of which are beyond the control of Great Ajax, including, without limitation, the risk factors and other matters set forth in its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "Commission") and in its other filings with the Commission, and when filed, its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March, 31, 2018. Great Ajax undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180424006298/en/

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[April 24, 2018] Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation Appoints Edmond N. Moriarty, III to its Board of Directors

Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation (NYSE: ACRE) announced today that it has appointed Edmond N. Moriarty, III to its Board of Directors as an independent Class I Director, effective immediately. Mr. Moriarty's appointment expands the Board from eight to nine members, six of whom are independent. Mr. Moriarty currently serves as the Chief Financial Officer and Head of Risk for Rockefeller Capital Management and is a member of its Executive Committee. Previously, Mr. Moriarty held various leadership positions at Morgan Stanley, including as Head of Merchant Banking and Real Estate Investing at Morgan Stanley Investment Management and as Chief Operating Officer of Investment Management. He was also a member of Morgan Stanley's Management Committee and Firm-Wide Risk Committee. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Mr. Moriarty worked at Merrill Lynch from 1987 to 2008 in various roles, including Senior Vice President and Co-Chief Risk Officer. Mr. Moriarty holds a bachelor's degree from Hamilton College and an MBA from the Darden School at the University of Virginia. "Ed brings extensive investment experience and risk management expertise to our Board of Directors," said William enjamin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of ACRE. "In addition, his deep banking and capital markets experience will also be of great value to the company as we continue to focus on efficiently managing our capital to enhance our profitability and generate value for our shareholders."



"On behalf of the management team and Board, I would like to welcome Ed to ACRE," said Jamie Henderson, President and Chief Executive Officer of ACRE. "He is joining us at an exciting time as we execute upon our strategic initiatives to grow shareholder value. He brings extensive real estate investing experience and market knowledge, which we expect will be invaluable to our Board. We look forward to his many contributions." About Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation

Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation is a specialty finance company primarily engaged in originating and investing in commercial real estate loans and related investments. Through its national direct origination platform, the Company provides a broad offering of flexible and reliable financing solutions for commercial real estate owners and operators. The Company originates senior mortgage loans, as well as subordinate financings, mezzanine debt and preferred equity, with an emphasis on providing value added financing on a variety of properties located in liquid markets across the United States. Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation elected and qualified to be taxed as a real estate investment trust and is externally managed by a subsidiary of Ares Management, L.P. For more information, please visit www.arescre.com. The contents of such website are not, and should not be deemed to be, incorporated by reference herein. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180424006222/en/

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[April 24, 2018] PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust Announces Date for 2018 Annual Meeting of Shareholders

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust (NYSE: PMT) today announced that it will hold its 2018 Annual Meeting of Shareholders at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time on Tuesday, June 5, 2018, at the Company's headquarters located at 3043 Townsgate Road, Westlake Village, CA (News - Alert) 91361. Shareholders of record as of the close of business on April 6, 2018 are entitled to receive notice of, to attend, and to vote at the annual meeting. About PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust is a mortgage real estate investment trst (REIT) that invests primarily in residential mortgage loans and mortgage-related assets. PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust common shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "PMT." PMT is externally managed by PNMAC Capital Management, LLC, a controlled subsidiary of PennyMac Financial Services, Inc. (NYSE: PFSI). Additional information about PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust is available at www.PennyMac-REIT.com.





View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180424006420/en/

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[April 24, 2018] A Resilient and Caring City of the Future

Media are invited to attend United Way of Calgary and Area's Annual General Meeting on April 25 at the Boyce Theatre. Following the fiduciary portion of the meeting, United Way will launch their exciting vision for the future which includes a new digital transformation focused on providing highly personalized experiences and a new Social Impact Lab. Dubbed Our Way Forward, United Way's 2018-2022 Strategic Plan proactively responds to a rapidly changing landscape that has significantly disrupted both the social services and not-for-profit sectors. It sets the organization's trajectory to expand reach, inspire relationships, and deepen community impact in new and innovative ways. Following a year-long research and engagement process that guided the development of Our Way Forward, United Way revamped its mission, vision, and value proposition to tell a powerful story of who they are, what they do, and why they do it.







Who: Karen Young, President and CEO, United Way of Calgary and Area Beth Gignac, Chief Operating Officer, United Way of Calgary and Area United Way of Calgary and Area Board of Directors and other special guests What: United Way of Calgary and Area Annual General Meeting Launch of 2018-2022 Strategic Plan, Our Way Forward Where: Boyce Theatre, 1410 Olympic Way SE When: Wednesday, April 25 3:30 to 4:00 p.m. - Fiduciary presentation 4:00 to 4:30 p.m. - Networking 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. - Year in Review, Our Way Forward, The Future is Now 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. - Appetizers, refreshments & networking

United Way of Calgary and Area drives social change in three focus areas: poverty, kids and communities. Since 1940, United Way has supported agencies that assist vulnerable Calgarians. Today, United Way invests in programs and collaborations that tackle root causes of social issues, connecting Calgarians with opportunities that help them thrive. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180424006614/en/

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Reno, NV, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Less than one week after constitutional rights advocacy organizations Firearms Policy Foundation (FPF) and Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) published a new guide to help protect pro-gun rights students and their First Amendment free speech rights, the groups today announced a new federal civil rights lawsuit against a Reno, Nevada public school district and principal over what they believe are serious violations of an 8th grade students First Amendment right to peacefully and non-disruptively wear pro-Second Amendment political messages at his middle school. The complaint, which includes an image of the banned tee shirt, can be downloaded at www.firearmspolicy.org/guardanapo.



The lawsuit, filed this morning in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada in Reno, claims that boy was disciplined for engaging in a respectful, silent, and peaceful expression of his political views by wearing a Firearms Policy Coalition t-shirt to school. The shirt invokes the constitution and themes dating back to the American Revolution, with the words Dont Tread On Me and a coiled rattlesnake (familiar elements of the Gadsden flag) flanked by references to the United States of America (USA) and the Second Amendment (2A). While it also includes the words Firearms Policy Coalition, there are no depictions of firearms or weapons of any kind on the shirt.



According to the plaintiffs, the students teacher, Brooke May, last month directed him to remove the FPC shirt, claiming that it violated the schools dress code. She also said that he would be subject to further discipline, including a trip to the principals office, if he wore it again. In response, the 8th grader at Kendyl Depoali Middle School told her that it was his right to express [himself] through how [he] dressed, to which the teacher responded that he could have his Second Amendment rights when he turns eighteenignoring, and violating, his First Amendment rights in the process.



Mere days after the plaintiff was disciplined for wearing FPCs pro-gun rights shirt, students at the school participated in the National School Walkout, a formal, organized protest calling for expansive new gun control measures.



Public schools may not violate the civil rights of pro-gun rights students because they dont like the Second Amendment or people who support the fundamental, individual human right to armed self-defense, said FPF Chairman and FPC President Brandon Combs. It is beyond outrageous that a friendly, peaceful young man was targeted and punished by the same school district that days later went out of its way to support gun control. This case will put the Washoe County School District and public schools across the country on notice that students peaceful, pro-Second Amendment speech is protected by the same constitution that protects their right to keep and bear arms.



The Supreme Court has affirmed since the era of Vietnam War protests that public school students have the right to express themselves so long as they dont disrupt the educational process, explained Bradley Benbrook, counsel for the plaintiff. And the First Amendment violation is all the more apparent where, as alleged here, school administrators suppress unpopular speech while allowing more politically-correct speech.



The student is represented through his parents Audrey Guardanapo, a local police dispatcher, and Shaun Guardanapo, veteran of the United States Marine Corps and former law enforcement officer, by Reno litigation attorney David OMara of the OMara Law Firm, Bradley Benbrook and Stephen Duvernay of Sacramento-based Benbrook Law Group, PC, and Eugene Volokh, a UCLA law professor who has written and taught extensively about the First and Second Amendments. Before joining the UCLA faculty 20 years ago, Volokh clerked for Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and Justice Sandra Day OConnor of the U.S. Supreme Court. He also operates the popular legal blog The Volokh Conspiracy, now hosted at Reason.



If a student or parent believes they were discriminated against, threatened or disciplined for peacefully expressing their views, punished for refusing to participate in a gun control walkout or demonstration, or threatened with law enforcement action for their pro-gun speech, they can submit a report to the FPF/FPC Legal Action Hotline at www.firearmspolicy.org/hotline or by calling (855) 252-4510.



The FPF and FPC guide to pro-gun student speech, K-12 Schools, Free Speech, and the Fundamental, Individual Right to Keep and Bear Arms: A Guide to How Students Can Use Their First Amendment Rights to Defend and Promote Second Amendment Rights, is available for free at www.k12speech.com. In addition to providing information and tools that parents and students can use to make sure they are not forced into participating in speech or demonstrations they disagree with, the guide contains materials that may help them plan counter-speech to gun control advocacy events or organize pro-gun rights demonstrations or expressive conduct. It also includes sample letters that parents could edit and use to notify schools of a students disagreement with a gun control events viewpoint, request information and policies, and help ensure that school officials respect the rights of all students.



Firearms Policy Foundation (www.firearmsfoundation.org) is a 501(c)3 grassroots, non-profit public policy organization. FPFs mission is to defend the Constitution of the United States and the Peoples rights, privileges and immunities deeply rooted in this Nations history and tradition, especially the inalienable, fundamental, and individual right to keep and bear arms. FPF conducts charitable programs including research, education, and legal action to protect and advance individual liberty.



Firearms Policy Coalition (www.firearmspolicy.org) is a 501(c)4 grassroots, non-profit public policy organization. FPCs mission is to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, especially the fundamental, individual Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. FPC protects and promotes individual liberty through programs including legal action, direct and grassroots advocacy, legislation, government oversight, research, education, and outreach.

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Sprinklr Hires Former Microsoft U.S. CMO Grad Conn as Chief Experience and Marketing Officer

Sprinklr, the world's leading Customer Experience Management (CXM) platform, today announced that Grad Conn, former GM & CMO of Microsoft (News - Alert) USA, has joined Sprinklr as Chief Experience and Marketing Officer.

Conn joins Sprinklr after 11 years at Microsoft, with the last 7 years as CMO for the Microsoft U.S. commercial business. Prior to Microsoft, Conn worked as CEO or CMO at a number of startups, and began his career at Procter & Gamble. He brings deep expertise in ABM, marketing automation, social selling, social engagement, event marketing, content marketing, and scale programs for commercial selling motions.

"We're in the midst of a marketing revolution -- the 'Third Era' of marketing -- where marketers are combining mass reach with bi-directional communications. Customers are now truly in control, and experience has become the new brand," said Conn. "While I was at Microsoft, I had the opportunity to build the largest customer experience center in the world with Sprinklr, and I'm looking forward to sharing the insights I gained to help the world's most loved brands create happy customers."

"At Microsoft, Grad wasn't just one of Sprinklr's most forward-thinking customers, he was one of the world's most forward-thinking marketers," said Ragy Thomas, Founder & CEO, Sprinklr. "With his rare combination of B2B, B2C, and startup skills, I can't think of anyone better suited to help us bring the customer-first future of marketing to life for Sprinklr and our customers."

Valued at $1.8 billion in July 2016, Sprinklr has continued to grow rapidly to meet the needs of 1,200+ enterprise brands who are investing in real-time CXM infrastructure in order to reimagine every customer-facing function, from marketing to customer care. In April 2017, Sprinklr unveiled the first CXM platform. In the months following, former Cisco (News - Alert) Executive Chairman John Chambers joined the Sprinklr Board, Luca Lazzaron was hired as Sprinklr's first Chief Revenue Officer and Diane Adams was appointed Chief Talent & Culture Officer.







About Sprinklr

Sprinklr's mission is to help the world's most loved brands create happy customers. We do this with the world's first Customer Experience Management (CXM) platform, which enables one-to-one, human connections -- at scale -- across 25 different communication channels such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Headquartered in New York City with 1,400 employees in 22 offices, Sprinklr works with more than 1,500 of the world's most valuable brands, including: Allstate, McDonald's, Lenovo, Microsoft, Nike, Philips Lighting, Procter & Gamble, Samsung, Santander, SAP, Shell, Verizon, and Visa. Sprinklr's partners include Accenture, Deloitte, IBM, Microsoft, and SAP. For more information, visit sprinklr.com or follow us at @sprinklr.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180424006687/en/
Vancouver, British Columbia, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Real Property Management (RPM) welcomes Nina Knudsen to its network of licensed property managers. Knudsen will be joining Real Property Management Central as an agent to serve North Shore, and the Sea-to-Sky Corridor, British Columbia.

Knudsen has been a licensed property manager for 8 years and is looking forward to operating under the RPM name. I chose to join RPM for the people, first and foremost. Im excited to join a team of professionals whose philosophy of property management is the same as mine explains Knudsen.

Nina is compassionate, which helps her build strong and trusting relationships with her tenants and owners, says Kap Hiroti, Managing Director of the Real Property Management group of companies. Shes been repeatedly recognized for her customer service skills, and I expect that trend to continue with RPM.

When it comes to service, Knudsen is focused on providing high quality service and appreciation for the owner or tenants circumstance. She explains that it doesnt matter if you are renting a studio apartment or a large home, everyone deserves the same quality of service and appreciation for their circumstances.

Knudsen plans to use her attention to detail and the communication skills that she has developed from over 30 years in the customer service industry. Building trust and expanding recognition are two goals at the top of Knudsens list for her first 6 months with RPM.

Knudsen will be supporting clients in Vancouver, North and West Vancouver, and the Sea to Sky Corridor. You can reach Nina Knudsen at nina.knudsen@realpropertymgt.ca or rpmcentral.ca.

About Real Property Management

Real Property Management Limited Partnership (realpropertymgt.ca) is a residential property management master franchisor with complete rights to the Real Property Management brand in Canada.

Real Property Management is the largest residential property management company in North America, managing tens of thousands of properties for individuals, investors, and institutions throughout the continent. For the past 30 years, Real Property Management has refined and streamlined the business of property management for the benefit of our clients.



With over 300 locations throughout North America, Real Property Management are the leaders in property management. Entrepreneur Magazine ranked us #1 in Property Management, and Forbes recognized Real Property Management as a Top 10 Franchise, $0-$150,000 investment. In addition, we have been ranked in the Franchise 500 for seven consecutive years, and the Inc 500 for four consecutive years. We have also earned awards for franchise worthiness for veterans and for franchisee satisfaction.

Real Property Managements purpose is to continuously elevate property management standards in a professional and consistent manner.
Your Bose speakers are a Bose home theater system not just speakers right?

You will need a DAC. If the TV can't be set to output PCM stereo then you need one that is 5.1 compatible You may have to turn the optical output on, the TV speakers off, and change the audio output type to get it working.

No reason to use HDMI-ARC. Won't sound better and you lose an HDMI input.


It happened around 8:30 a.m., in a construction area. Spire Energy confirmed that the victim was an InfraSource employee performing work for Spire.





"We are heartbroken today after an InfraSource employee performing work for Spire was shot at a Kansas City construction site," Spire said in a statement. "He later died at the hospital. Until we know more, we are working with police and InfraSource to pull crews off the streets in the Kansas City area. We ask that you hold this man, his family, his friends, InfraSource and utility workers, and in our communities in your thoughts and prayers."





Police have not said what led up to the shooting but did say a dark-complected man wearing a blue hoodie and gray sweatpants ran away from the scene of the shooting.





A KCPD K-9 officer was called to the scene to help track the suspect.





KMBC: Police said the victim was a subcontractor for the gas utility Spire. Witnesses told police they saw a man wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt running from the area.

Check the latest tragic addition to the KCMO murder count . . . An innocent man gunned down and reminder that rising Kansas City violence ultimatley thwarts local development.Check the links . . .This is the 40th homicide so far this year compared to 35 at this time last year.Developing . . .
The new boxed setThe Final Tour: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 6 documents the death knell of jazz as a form of popular music. Months after Miles Davis' sublime Kind of Blue and John Coltrane's monumental Giant Steps were released, the jazz titans toured Europe with pianist Wynton Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Jimmy Cobb.
SPECIAL THANKS TO JACKSON COUNTY DEMOCRATS FOR SHARING THIS ROUND-UP OF THE GUV GREITENS SEX SCANDAL AS WE APPROACH IMPEACHMENT!!!

Jackson County Democrats - Felony Charge Number Two for Governor Eric Greitens: How We Got Here

Today's unlikely cash prize in this sketchy political contest . . .Even better . . .You decide . . .News that Republican Gov. Eric Greitens had been charged with a felony for the second time this year dominated headlines Friday night and the question of how things move forward from this point on is still up in the air.The same evidence used by St. Louis City Prosecutor Kim Gardners office, provided by Attorney General Josh Hawley, was also given to the House special investigative committee, which could release another report concerning the allegations against Greitens and subsequently file articles of impeachment in the Missouri House of Representatives.In August 2007, Greitens founded The Mission Continues, a nonprofit organization working to assist veterans.The list in question, an Excel spreadsheet labeled All donors $1K total and up  as of 5-7-14, was created by an employee of The Mission Continues, detailing names, email addresses and phone numbers of donors who gave at least $1,000 to the organization. The list was a created on May 6, 2014, shortly before Greitens left The Mission Continues in July.After Greitens won the Republican primary, it was reported in October that of the $500,000+ raised by Greitens during an initial two-month period in 2015, roughly 85 percent came from donors who had previously given to The Mission Continues.From there, one follows the timeline to the complaint filed by former Missouri Democratic Party chairman Roy Temple, alleging that Greitens and his campaign had failed to disclose using the donor list. The subsequent investigation by the Missouri Ethics Commission in April 2017 found Gov. Greitens guilty, and he and his committee were fined $1,000. This is the first time a sitting Governor has received a fine from the MEC.Greitens campaign amended its finance reports to show the donor list as a $600 in-kind contribution received March 1, 2015, from Danny Laub, who was listed as Greitens campaign manager at the time.On Feb. 27, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports the obtaining of an email showing that a Greitens Group employee had sent the donor list to Laub and Hafner in January 2015.Attorney General Josh Hawley also confirms that his office is investigating the charity. The Mission Continues then issues a statement seeking to distance the organization from Greitens, saying they will support the attorney generals inquiry into "the misuse of our resources by the Greitens campaign."On April 17, Hawley holds a press conference stating that his office hadby Greitens in relation to the donor list. His office turned the office over to Gardner and the special House committee.On April 20, Gardner filed a second felony charge against Greitens for tampering with computer data, using the evidence provided by Hawleys office just barely meeting the deadline under the statute of limitations for this manner of crime.Why Hawley waited so long to investigate and ultimately turn the case over to the proper jurisdiction is a mystery. The fact that he has taken nearly $50,000 in campaign contributions from Greitens and much more from Greitens-alligned donors for his Senate race may answer part of that mystery.##########Developing . . .
KANSAS CITY MAYORAL CANDIDATE PHIL GLYN CURRENTLY ENJOYS GROWING GRASSROOTS SUPPORT IN THE URBAN CORE!!!

"Thanks to you, we had more individual financial supporters than any other candidate for mayor in the first quarter of 2018. Thank you for your continued support!"

"I am grateful to have the support of one of Kansas City's most prominent community leaders, the Reverend Ronald Lindsay, senior pastor of Concord Fortress of Hope Church. We share the same vision for Kansas City, one that lifts up all neighborhoods."

Proud to join the SCLC Greater Kansas City Chapter in their march and rally for peace...

Like it or not, the Kansas City Mayoral race is growing increasingly crowded and competitive. More than a few urban core politicos (rightfully) believe that Councilman Quinton Lucas is among the best & brightest leaders with a shot at becoming mayor and they fume as he puts off the decision. Growing urban core support for Phil Glynn panics hardliner 3rd District interests and has evoked a call for Councilman Lucas to make up his mind and announce his intentions or publicly step aside.

A growing number of denizens among the KCMO inner-city have grown increasingly frustrated withand his dedication to the job at hand rather than focusing on future ambitions.Meanwhile . . .A few examples . . .Chest-thumping from the social justice warrior regarding his growing coalition . . .A nice nod from one of the Revs . . .Even more faith/political community support . . .And so . . .Developing . . .
From the EditorFriday Reflections My Goodness Without God On Foolishness & the Secularist Question Tweet



April 20, 2018

First, two ministry notices: I. We have added new speakers to our upcoming fall conference program, "Patriarchy: Fatherhood & the Restoration of Culture."  Rachel Fulton Brown, a medievalist and associate professor of history at the University of Chicago, will present "Praying the 'Our Father': How Prayer Shapes Reality and What It Means for Fatherhood."  Nancy Pearcey, professor of apologetics and scholar in residence at Houston Baptist University, will present "Is There a Father in the House? The Rise and Decline of Manhood in America." For email updates on Touchstone's 2018 conference and notices about open registration, see here. II. A generous benefactor has allowed us to make this great new offer: Give your student and/or graduates what amounts to a free subscription to Salvo for a year. For only $9.98 they will receive one year of Salvo plus a free copy of our 80-page Science & Faith Issue (which normally costs $7 plus shipping). Sign up here today just in time for your spring graduates and other students!

Two questions have arisen in recent years: Can we be good without God? And, more recently, can we be conservative without God (or religion)?

I think both questions are unanswerable because they are not legitimate questions. A question, in my mind, can only have a right or wrong answer if it is asking about something real. It's more like asking can Hamlet change?

There is nothing real about, there is no reality to, the situation of being "without God." Which is why "The fool says in his heart 'there is no God'." The very concept, while thinkable, is still false.

Discussing these questions as if official atheism or agnosticism are plausible scenarios we might accept, to me, are giving away way too much. My response to "Can you be good without God" is "First, tell me, can you exist without God?" Yes? I cannot. What have in common?

More to the Christian's sitiuation, I ask, "Will I accept the offer of God's help, in Christ, to become good [righteous, that is, holy]?" "None is good, but God alone," says the Lord. There is only one Source of goodness.

The history of modern times should suggest that without God, all bets are off. Even with "God" or a "religion" man may (!) end up being very wicked.

Just as our existence, our being, must come from the Ground of All Being, so, too, must our goodness comes from the Fount of all goodness. We instinctively know that "good and evil" do exist, so we are interested and concerned enough to ask whether we can be good (or evil) without God. But is not our approach here a bit like our primal sin? That is, to desire to know the nature of both good and evil, sort of, without God, for ourselves, on our own?

One way I've thought about what secularism has become is to notice the fate of the Sabbath. There is no longer any Sabbath. Not here. Not in my neighborhood. 24/7 life goes on, more or less. If there is a rhythm to the "week" it is derivative; it feeds off a fading memory of Sabbaths past.

In a Sabbath culture, which existed in various forms-Jewish, Catholic, Calvinist, and so on-men were made to stop their secular worldly activities because Someone required it, whether for man's own good or for worship aimed at the Divinity. It came from above. Sabbath was not human: a divine hand marked the day.

The Great Sabbath of Holy Saturday is not just the best name we can think of for the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. It was the Sabbath of Sabbaths, and on that day the Son of God kept Sabbath in the fullest sense, completely and utterly submitted to the Father. It was no accident then, that after the Sabbath, the women came to the tomb and found it the sealing stone rolled away, the Savior risen.

The Sabbath marks the end, and the Beginning, as in this depiction of the Resurrection: on the left, earthly life has died. On the right, the First Day of the Sabbathnew life. Can we be good without God? Why, we can't even live without him, so why ask the question? Perhaps, like those guards, some are actually asleep, dreaming that Christ can be kept securely enclosed, the whole wide world safe from his presence. He will have none of that, for all of it belongs to Him.

Yours for Christ, Creed & Culture,



James M. Kushiner

Executive Director, The Fellowship of St. James

James M. Kushiner is Executive Editor of Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity, and Executive Director of The Fellowship of St. James.




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CALGARY, Alberta , April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Harvest Operations Corp. (Harvest or the Company) is pleased to announce that it has agreed to issue and sell U.S.$397.5 million senior unsecured notes due 2023 with a coupon rate of 4.2% (the Notes). The Notes have been rated Aa2 and AA by Moodys Investors Service and S&P Global Ratings, respectively.



The Notes will be unconditionally and irrevocably guaranteed by Harvests parent company Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC). Closing of the offering is expected on May 1, 2018.

SMBC Nikko Securities America, Inc. and Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated are acting as joint bookrunners and lead managers for the offering.

Application will be made to the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited (the Singapore Exchange) for the listing and quotation of the Notes on the Singapore Exchange.

In addition, Harvest has also received a commitment from an affiliate of SMBC Nikko Securities America, Inc. to provide a five-year term loan facility in an aggregate principal amount of up to CAD$300 million (the New Term Loan). Harvest currently expects the New Term Loan to close on or about May 11, 2018.

Harvest intends to use the net proceeds of the Notes offering and New Term Loan to repay in full Harvests outstanding approximately U.S.$630 million aggregate principal amount of 2 1/8% Senior Notes due May 14, 2018.

The Notes have not been registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the Act), and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements under the Act. The offering will be made solely by means of a private placement either to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to Rule 144A under the Act, or to certain persons outside of the United States pursuant to Regulation S under the Act. This press release is neither an offer to sell nor a solicitation of an offer to buy any security and shall not constitute an offer, solicitation or sale of any security in any jurisdiction in which such offering, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

The Singapore Exchange assumes no responsibility for the correctness of any of the statements made, opinions expressed or reports contained herein. Approval in-principle from, admission to the Official List of, and the listing and quotation of the Notes on, the Singapore Exchange are not to be taken as an indication of the merits of Harvest, KNOC or the Notes.

HARVEST CORPORATE PROFILE

Harvest is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Korea National Oil Corporation ("KNOC"). Harvest is a significant operator in Canada's energy industry offering stakeholders exposure to exploration, development and production of crude oil and natural gas (Upstream) and an oil sands project under construction and development in northern Alberta (BlackGold).

KNOC is a state owned oil and gas company engaged in the exploration and production of oil and gas along with storing petroleum resources. KNOC will fully establish itself as a global government-run petroleum company by applying ethical, sustainable and environment-friendly management and by taking corporate social responsibility seriously at all times. For more information on KNOC, please visit their website at www.knoc.co.kr/ENG/main.jsp.

ADVISORY

Certain information in this press release contains forward-looking information that involves risk and uncertainty. Forward-looking statements in this press release may include, but are not limited to, the expected date of closing of the offering and the expected use of proceeds. For this purpose, any statements that are contained in this press release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements often contain terms such as "may", "will", "should", "anticipate", "expects" and similar expressions. Such risks and uncertainties in respect of such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, risks associated with: imprecision of reserve estimates; conventional oil and natural gas operations; the volatility in commodity prices and currency exchange rates; risks associated with realizing the value of acquisitions; general economic, market and business conditions; changes in environmental legislation and regulations; the availability of sufficient capital from internal and external sources; and, such other risks and uncertainties described from time to time in Harvest's regulatory reports and filings made with securities regulators.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are based will occur. 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. Harvest assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements should circumstances or management's estimates or opinions change. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Harvest Operations Corp.

INVESTOR & MEDIA CONTACT:

Greg Foofat, Manager Investor Relations & Corporate Communications

Harvest Operations Corp.

Toll Free Investor Mailbox: (866) 666-1178

Email: investor.relations@harvestenergy.ca

Harvest Operations Corp.

1500, 700  2nd Street S.W.

Calgary, AB Canada T2P 2W1

Website: www.harvestoperations.com




Bahrain government has put in place a suitable atmosphere, as well as a legislative and technical infrastructure to support investment in the real estate and construction sector, said HRH Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa at a major industry event in Manama.



HRH Premier made the statements while patronising the opening ceremony of the Gulf Construction Expo (GC Expo 2018), the Gulf Property Show 2018 and the Gulf Interiors 2018, all of them organised by Hilal Conference and Exhibitions (HCE) at the Bahrain International Exhibition and Convention Centre.



The Prime Minister said that the government is implementing development projects in accordance with a well-thought out vision that is supported by a highly-motivated private sector, which helped Bahrain to maintain its investment-attracting potentials in this sector, despite the existing competition.



"Bahrain has maintained its leading position in the real estate sector thanks to the governments keenness to provide guarantees and protection for investors, as well as to create wider investment opportunities in this sector, which has been greatly helpful in attracting foreign investors to the country to launch development projects," said HRH Premier, stressing the importance of promoting the real estate sector in the investment process through specialised exhibitions, including the GC Expo.



About 160 regional and international companies, as well as real estate developers from many countries, including Saudi Arabia, UAE, UK, Turkey and Pakistan, are participating in the three shows.



HRH Premier cut the ribbons and declared the opening of the exhibition. He then toured the expo's pavilions and sections where he was briefed on the exhibited products in various sectors, including the projects and the industrial products used in the sectors of construction, interior design, decoration and furniture.



He expressed admiration for the quality of exhibited items and the techniques used, as well as for the distinguished organisation of the expo, which, he said, contributed to attracting mega companies to take part in it.



The Prime Minister affirmed that the construction and real estate sector in the kingdom is witnessing a continuous progress, which is reflected in the size and number of new projects being implemented in various regions of the country, noting that that this real estate and urban boom is based on an advanced legislative and legal structure that stimulates investment in this sector.



HRH Premier stressed the need to hold more specialised exhibitions, given their importance in attracting more investment opportunities to the kingdom.



Specialised expos provide opportunities to highlight Bahrains promising opportunities in various sectors, and shed light on its advanced infrastructure that encourages investors to enter the Bahraini market with confidence and success, he stated.



HRH the Prime Minister stressed that the exhibitions and conferences industry enjoys the constant interest of the government which, he said, provides all kinds of facilities that consolidate the industrys role in serving the national economy.



The government, as part of its policies to diversify the sources of income, seeks to develop the real estate fields investment atmosphere, as well as empower it in order to be able to play its role as one of the vital sectors, he noted.



HRH Premier lauded the key role played by the private sector and real estate developers in supporting the government development efforts through launching new housing and recreational projects, affirming that such co-operation has consolidated Bahrains status as one of the destinations in the field of real estate investment.



He pointed out that the current boom in the real estate projects across GCC aims to benefit the citizens of those countries, and provide more opportunities for them to steadfastly carry on the sustainable development march.



"GCC countries boast the necessary material and human resources that enable them to continue their development path on solid foundations, and to enhance their ability to provide a better life for their citizens based on ambitious visions and strategies that meet the present needs and anticipate future requirements," he added.



HRH Premier commended the efforts exerted by the private sector in organising sepcialised exhibitions, including the HCE, the annual organisers of GC Expo whose importance is growing every year as reflected in the increasing number of participants and exhibitors.



HCE Board Chairman Anwar Abdulrahman, extended sincere thanks and appreciation to HRH Premier for patronising GC Expo annually, which, he said, reflects his support for the private sector, and interest in all events that benefit the national economy, and boost the comprehensive development process the kingdom is currently witnessing.



HCE Managing Director Jubran Abdulrahman affirmed that HRH Premier's patronage of the event had encouraged companies to participate in it.-TradeArabia News Service
Commvault, a global leader in enterprise backup, recovery, archive and the cloud, showcased the advantages of HyperScale technology in the region at the first Connections Live event held in the Middle East in Dubai, UAE.



The one-day thought leadership forum took place on April 24 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Jumeriah Beach Residences.



The event brought together industry experts, analysts, Commvault customers and partners from across the globe to discuss digital business transformation. It provided hands-on perspective on how to protect, manage and use the data thats driving ongoing digital trends in the region to kickstart their strategy for innovation and industry growth. Local and regional customers attending the event included Dubai Police, Dubai Municipality and Emirates Steel.



The impact of cloud on data on the region was covered at the event, where Commvault demonstrated how IT agility can be achieved through scale-out infrastructure and HyperScale technology. This helps in ensuring businesses can use and exploit rapidly growing volumes of data, all while protecting it, keeping budgets in check and meeting service goals.



Wael Mustafa, area vice president for the Middle East, South Africa and Turkey (MESAT) for Commvault, said: Commvault Connections Live is a milestone event in which industry experts have discussed the latest trends in data protection and digital transformation with our partners and customers, advancing the discourse on using data to drive innovation and growth across local and regional businesses.



Our customers have demonstrated the advantages for organizations across multiple sectors in modernizing their data backup and recovery platforms, ensuing that their information is readily available, cost-efficient and easy to manage. We are excited to further grow our regional network alongside our partners and customers, and illustrate how Commvault can help businesses to transform their data into strategic assets, added Mustafa.



Gartners principal analyst Santhosh Rao commented on Middle East datacentre trends and how to improve the backup, recovery and management of data. Other sessions covered movement to the Cloud and how to build business foundations that accommodate the latest trends in data. Sponsoring the event were Fujitsu and Cisco, as well as Logicom, StorIT, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Huawei and CellInfo.



Commvault provides data back up and management services across the Middle East region, working with major organizations such as Emirates Steel, Dubai Municipality and STC. Commvault recently announced that it selected SETS as a strategic partner in the Levant region.  TradeArabia News Service
Best Western Hotels & Resorts has unveiled plans to launch its BW Premier Collection brand in Vietnam, with a new upscale beach resort in one of the countrys most exciting up-and-coming coastal destinations.



Saint Simeon Resort, BW Premier Collection is currently under construction in Vung Tau, the largest city in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province on Vietnams south-central coast, overlooking the East Sea. Exuding contemporary elegance with sharp lines and a sleek design, this resort will showcase the very best of modern Vietnamese hospitality.



Just 100 km or a two hour drive from Ho Chi Minh City, Vung Tau is extremely convenient for local residents wanting to escape the city, or international travellers seeking a unique Vietnamese vacation. It is also located just 60 km from the planned Long Thanh International Airport, which is set to become a major air gateway for Vietnam and the entire Asean region.



Best Western continues to expand across Asia at a rapid pace  introducing new brands and welcoming new hotels tailored to meet the needs of todays travellers, said Ron Pohl, senior vice president and chief operations officer for Best Western Hotels & Resorts. Were excited to bring the BW Premier Collection brand to Vietnam, as its hotels are known for their local flare and upscale amenities - delivering a truly unique guest experience. We look forward to Saint Simeon Resort becoming a preferred hotel for travelers visiting the beautiful port city of Vung Tau.



Upon welcoming guests in the first quarter of 2019, Saint Simeon Resort, BW Premier Collection will offer 135 rooms and suites, all equipped with upscale facilities and cutting-edge technology, including complimentary wi-fi.



Guests will have direct access to a stunning sandy beach and a wide selection of on-site facilities including a restaurant serving exquisite Vietnamese and international cuisine, a serene spa, sophisticated lounge, outdoor pool, and plenty of space to unwind and soak up the tropical ambience.



Vietnam is an important market for Best Western and we are delighted to secure yet another fantastic property in such an exciting destination - Vung Tau, said Olivier Berrivin, Best Westerns managing director of International Operations - Asia. With its prime beachfront location and close proximity to Ho Chi Minh City, we fully expect this elegant resort to become extremely popular with local and international guests alike.



BW Premier Collection is becoming a real favourite among hotel owners and developers in Asia. As one of our three new soft brands, it offers all the benefits of partnering with a global hotel group, including our extensive support and loyalty networks, whilst also retaining the hotels own unique personality. I am confident that our guests will appreciate this new era of hospitality when it arrives in Vietnam in early 2019, Berrivin added.



Saint Simeon Resort becomes the companys fourth BW Premier Collection property in Asia. This innovative upscale concept made its regional debut in 2017 with the launch of Hotel Nagasaki, BW Premier Collection in Japan. This was joined more recently by Amaranth Suvarnabhumi Airport, BW Premier Collection in Thailand. Construction is also now underway on the brands second Thai hotel, BluPhere Pattaya, BW Premier Collection, which is scheduled to open in 2019.



Best Western has identified Vietnam as one of its key areas of focus, due to its incredible natural beauty, increasing popularity as a destination, tourism-friendly government policies, and levels of rising domestic affluence. In addition to Saint Simeon Resort, BW Premier Collection, the company also has firm plans to launch an upscale resort on the idyllic southern island of Phu Quoc.



In 2017, Vietnam welcomed a record 12.92 million international visitors, up almost 30 per cent compared to the previous year. This positive trend has continued in 2018; in the first three months of this year, Vietnam has already welcomed 4.21 million arrivals, which marks a 30.9 per cent year-on-year increase and puts the country well on track for a new all-time high.



With its highly accessible location, choice of stunning sandy beaches, tropical climate, and several major new tourism projects being planned for the area, Vung Tau is expected to become one of the countrys top visitor destinations in the years to come. - TradeArabia News Service
COMFORT SUITES PARADISE ISLAND REPORTS STRONG WINTER PERFORMANCE

Newly rejuvenated pool deck offers visitors refreshed area to relax and splash

BAHAMAS (April 24, 2018) - With a focus on family travel for 2018, a popular hotel on Paradise Island in The Bahamas is reporting strong performance this winter season.

Providing an update during the recent Caribbean Travel Marketplace in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Yasmine Mills-Strachan, Director of Sales for Comfort Suites Paradise Island, reported the hotel fared especially well over the Christmas holidays and she continues to receive encouraging feedback from travel partners.

"We currently have attractive promotions in the marketplace and , as a result , have been able to consistently maintain solid ground," she added.

Tia Forbes, Director of Revenue and Informational Technology, who also was in Puerto Rico for the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association's flagship event, noted that advanced bookings are encouraging.

"We are a very unique hotel, a distinctive nugget of Paradise Island," Mills-Strachan underscored, explaining that the hotel offers all of the recognizable amenities of Choice Hotels, including free WiFi, a daily complimentary full American breakfast buffet available to all guests and free parking. Comfort Suites guests enjoying the restaurants, bars and lounges at the adjacent Atlantis Paradise Island can charge consumption to their rooms. "This puts us in a very special position," she noted.

To complement the hotel's in-house value - added amenities, guests at Comfort Suites Paradise Island also have complimentary access to Atlantis' 11 pools, three beaches and one of the largest water parks in the Caribbean. Altogether, the 141-acre Atlantis resort offers 20 spots for swimming.

At Comfort Suites Paradise Island, the ownership team has spent in excess of $11 million upgrading the product in recent years, and guests can now experience its newly rejuvenated pool deck. "The entire deck, pool and pool areas have been resurfaced, retiled and redone. We have acquired new pool furniture, new and comfortable restaurant furniture in our outdoor veranda spaces, and our pool bar has been rebranded and relaunched as the Splash Pool Bar," Mills-Strachan said, as she invited travelers to enjoy the hotel's " refurbished and relaxing pool area."

Responding to questions about new competition that Comfort Suites Paradise Island is facing from Cable Beach, she pointed to the unique value proposition of the hotel, especially for families. "Our property is well suited for family travelers because kids stay, play and eat free. Children 11 years and under are able to stay free in any of our junior suites with a paying adult," she explained. In addition to complimentary breakfast for all guests, each child enjoys complimentary lunch and dinner with a paying adult at the onsite Crusoe's Restaurant.

About Comfort Suites Paradise Island

Comfort Suites Paradise Island is an all-suite hotel located in Nassau, Paradise Island, The Bahamas. The hotel provides affordable accommodations and complete access to all amenities at the famed Atlantis Paradise Island Resort. Comfort Suites Paradise Island features 223 renovated junior suites that include flat screen cable televisions and free wireless internet access, plus complimentary full American buffet breakfast daily. For further information about one of the most family-friendly, affordable hotels on Paradise Island, visit www.comfortsuitespi.com

ENDS
Le Plaza's Melicienne Drouillard (second from left) with Henderson Wallace and Yvette Clarke of The Sandpiper in Barbados.



HAITIAN HOUSEKEEPER THANKS THE SANDPIPER IN BARBADOS FOR TRAINING OPPORTUNITY

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti (April 24, 2018) - Following a two-week training immersion in Barbados, the Caribbean spirit of collaboration has helped a hospitality professional from Haiti learn new skills to excel on the job.

Melicienne Drouillard, a long-serving member of the housekeeping team at Le Plaza Hotel in Haiti, benefited from a free internship at the highly rated Sandpiper boutique resort on the west coast of Barbados.

Drouillard, like many Caribbean professionals, did not have a visa to transit through the United States, which made her inter-regional trip complicated. It was clouded by canceled flights requiring 11th hour arrangements to transit via the French island of Guadeloupe to reach Barbados.

Thanks to the tenacity of Le Plaza's management team coupled with the assistance of Louise John and Suzanne Shillingford-Brooks of Talkabout & Earth Solutions (who were both instrumental in developing the internship opportunity), she eventually landed in Bridgetown, Barbados.

The exceptional professional training and welcome extended by The Sandpiper's Rooms Division Manager Henderson Wallace, and Yvette Clarke, Head Housekeeper, made up for her travails.

"They treated me as if I was a princess from the moment I arrived to the time I left," said Drouillard, who believes the experience will help her to manage Le Plaza Hotel's housekeeping department better.

As part of the training she learned about product safety, and how chemicals can affect guests' well-being. She was very impressed with The Sandpiper's personal touch from each housekeeper to ensure visitors feel warmly welcome. "Madame Yvette was so kind to show me around the island - in fact, everyone in Barbados was so welcoming," she commented.

Melicienne Drouillard (third from right) with The Sandpiper's housekeeping team.

Drouillard was surprised and delighted to be hosted on in-depth tours of Southern Palms, Courtyard by Marriott and Ocean Two hotels, by their general managers and head housekeepers, and said "this really was an eye-opener to see different styles of housekeeping in action."

Always a keen learner, Drouillard put herself through several Haitian housekeeping courses, gained a diploma from the Hotel School of Haiti, and has always gone above and beyond what is expected of her at Le Plaza.

Marc Pierre-Louis, General Manager of Le Plaza, warmly acknowledged the spirit and generosity of his Caribbean neighbor. "The care and openness of The Sandpiper to invest in our staff member demonstrates how Caribbean hotels can collaborate together to elevate regional hospitality," he said. He is hopeful that this experience will result in many more cross-training opportunities and cross-cultural exchanges across the region.

Russell Croney, General Manager of The Sandpiper, said it was their pleasure to assist with the professional development of a Caribbean colleague. "Melicienne was a joy to work with and we are pleased that she has benefited from her brief stay with us in Barbados and that she enjoyed it, too. We believe in standards and genuine hospitality and are pleased that Melicienne learnt from our best practices and will be taking those principles back to Le Plaza Hotel with her."

Melicienne (right) and The Sandpiper's Head Housekeeper Yvette Clarke.

The Sandpiper provides stylish comfort, excellent cuisine and top-notch customer service. Staff training is paramount to the hotel and is reflected in their guests returning year after year to enjoy an atmosphere that is friendly, relaxed and professional.

Back at Le Plaza, Melicienne Drouillard has already made a presentation to the management team about her training, had a meeting with her peers to describe her experience, and is drawing up a list of suggestions for improving the Le Plaza Hotel guest experience.

About Le Plaza Hotel

A tranquil sanctuary in the heart of Port-au-Prince, Le Plaza Hotel is tucked discreetly behind courtyard walls that conceal a lush oasis of historic trees and fragrant tropical flowers. Established 60 years ago, this 95-room hotel is soulful and stunning, an exuberant testament to the island's history and heritage. Beloved by longtime guests who delight in the hotel's exceptional cuisine, local artwork and unbeatable central location, it's a leading choice for first-time visitors who seek to explore "the real Haiti" from a home base that's both stylish and secure. For more information visit www.plazahaiti.com
NY Tenement Museum to host full day of free and open to the public New York Travel Festival Sessions



(TRAVPR.COM) UNITED STATES - April 24th, 2018 - The New York Travel Festival (NY Trav Fest) recently announced its partnership with the Tenement Museum as the location of and motivation for a day of free travel panels and workshops that are open to the general public. Located on Manhattans Lower East Side, the Tenement Museum focuses on Americas urban immigrant history, a topic that will also be tackled during the different presentations from 12-5pm on Sunday, April 29.

We are excited to partner with the New York Travel Festival to engage members of the travel community with the Tenement Museums premier cultural and education programming as well as with the vibrancy of the Lower East Side, New York Citys iconic immigrant neighborhood, said Tenement Museum Media & Communications manager, Jas Chana.

This will be the last day of the NY Trav Fest, an event for people whose lives are changed and inspired by travel, which is being held in New York City over the course of three days, from April 27 to 29, 2018. Crafted for travel professionals, the festival's first two days take place at LMHQ (150 Broadway, 20th Floor) and focus on interactive sessions and workshops encompassing best practices for promoting destinations, travel and technology, diversity, sustainability and storytelling.

The NY Trav Fest sessions at the Tenement Museum on Sunday, April 29, include but are not limited to: Your Story, Our Story: Connecting People Across Place and Time, presented by Director of Programs at the Tenement Museum, Kathryn Lloyd; Finding Your Photographic Voice, a workshop led by Director, Producer and Photographer Marco Bollinger; Traveling to Find Your Roots, guided by popular NYC travel expert Valarie DElia; and Finding Your Niche, a forum of travel professionals who, from their personal experiences, will share advice about everything from travel entrepreneurship. Forum participants are Pratik Gandhi, a growth-hacker and blockchain marketer; CEO of experience driven sustainable tourism company Curious on Tanzania, Justa Lujwangana; and Co-Founder and CEO of TravTribe, a platform that creates jobs for travelers, Shar Behzadian.

We were happily surprised when Tenement Museum was willing to host not just a session, but multiple tracks of our Inspire day of the Festival, says Founder and Organizer of the New York Travel Festival, Roni Weiss. Along with hosting us, their expert staff is part of our panels on Accessibility, What it Means to Be an American, and Historic Preservation. Were so honored to have the opportunity to work with this storied institution, continues Weiss.

A $20 donation is encouraged and goes to the festival's non-profit partner, Travel Unity, in support of their programs that teach underprivileged youth about travel as a means of personal and professional development.

For details on the Sunday, April 29, sessions, please visit: http://nytravfest.com/inspire/.

To register for Sunday sessions, please visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/new-york-travel-festival-2018-tickets-40796140354?discount=sunday.

For the complete three-day NY Trav Fest event schedule, visit http://nytravfest.com.

For the media

Also on Sunday, April 29, NY Trav Fest and Tenement Museum are hosting a press brunch and tour. Media will experience the museums Under One Roof tour, which immerses visitors in the real-life stories of modern era immigrant, refugee and migrant families from different parts of the world.

NY Trav Fest Social Media Handles

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nytravfest/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/nytravfest

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NYtravfest/

Registration is now open for all events taking place from Friday, April 27, through Sunday, April 29. For tickets visit: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/new-york-travel-festival-2018-tickets-40796140354

General Ticket Options

$125  Friday-Only Ticket (including lunch)

$125  Saturday-Only Ticket (including lunch)

$200  Friday and Saturday Ticket (including lunch both days)

For Media

If interested in covering the 2018 New York Travel Festival, please complete the application form at this link to be considered for press credentials:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdD-XQcGDK2jA97QgTzlJz_lbffcM91jEdfVos0no1pBYxMFQ/viewform

About Tenement Museum

At a time when immigration is at the center of our national conversation, the Tenement Museum is more relevant than ever. Since 1988, the Museum has forged emotional connections between visitors and immigrants past and present, through educator-led tours of its historic tenement buildings at 97 and 103 Orchard and the surrounding neighborhood, enhancing appreciation for the vital role immigrants play in shaping the American identity. The Museum has become one of New York Citys preeminent cultural and educational institutions, welcoming more than 238,000 visitors, including 55,000 students, each year. With the Museum well positioned for continued success, the Museum now aims to use every medium at its disposal to dramatically increase the impact of its programmingreaching millions not thousands-- with its message of how immigrants built and continue to build America.

About New York Travel Festival

The New York Travel Festival (NY Trav Fest) is a community of travel professionals and professional travelers. Annually, NY Trav Fests main event attracts millennial travelers (72% between the ages of 21 and 44), industry members, travel journalists, bloggers, and social media-obsessed travelers. NY Trav Fest focuses on providing professional development and networking opportunities not only during our Festival, but year-round.

###
Monterey Museum of Art will host a series of First Friday events launching on May 4 featuring fine art, fresh music and crafted cocktails, at its 599 Pacific Street location.



(TRAVPR.COM) CA - April 24th, 2018 - Monterey, CA, April 24, 2018  Monterey Museum of Art will host a series of First Friday events launching on May 4 featuring fine art, fresh music and crafted cocktails, at its 599 Pacific Street location.

The event will be held from 5-7 p.m. Friday, May 4, and feature artwork from Currents exhibit artist Robin Sawyer of Carmel Valley, FLUX artist Babs DuPont Hanneman, fresh music and special cocktails crafted from Frisco brand, an unoaked grape brandy. Admission is a pay-what-you-like donation and is for those 21 and older.

The event is part of the Museums focus on 2018 as the Year of the Woman, a full slate of exhibitions and events with a focus on notable women artists of California and the Central Coast.

Currents is one of two new spaces the Museum opened this year (along with Flux), both dedicated to California living artists, showing work from the last two years. Sawyers and Hannemans work is on display through May 13.

About the Monterey Museum of Art

The Monterey Museum of Art expands a passion for the visual arts and inspires appreciation of California Art  past, present, and future. The Monterey Museum of Art connects art and community, with an emphasis on participatory experiences built around the Museums strong collection of California and regional art. Exhibitions and programs of the highest quality are designed to engage and inspire visitors.

The Museum was established in 1959, to uphold the artistic legacy of the region by collecting, preserving and presenting the art of California and the Central Coast. Originally a chapter of the American Federation of the Arts, MMA remains the only nationally accredited art museum between San Jose and Santa Barbara. For additional information on the Museum's exhibitions, programming and events.

Monterey Museum of Art  Pacific Street

559 Pacific St., Monterey, CA 93940

Phone: (831) 372-5477

Fax: (831) 372-5680

Email: info@montereyart.org

montereyart.org

Contact:

Marci Bracco Cain

Chatterbox PR

Salinas, CA 93901

(831) 747-7455

http://www.montereyart.org

###


Search News Archive : Fast Travel News Promotion Via Search, Social Media + Email Follow Us On : THE HOUSTON TO GALVESTON SHUTTLE SERVICE THAT OFFERS EASE AND COMFORT Industry: Transport

Galveston Flyer offers the best of Shuttle from Galveston to Houston to have the best of comfort and affordability.



(TRAVPR.COM) USA - April 24th, 2018 - If you wish to have fast and friendly professional shuttle service from Houston to Galveston then you may have made a long list of such organization. But in order to have the best Shuttle from Galveston to Houston, you need to be with Galveston Flyer.



The Galveston Flyer serves the needs of residents in Galveston, Texas looking for cheap transportation to the Houston Airports or for having affordable means of transportation to Galveston Cruise port. Their faultless, hassle-free Shuttle from Houston to Galveston will take you directly to the cruise port or to your hotel in Galveston. They emphasize friendly yet professional on-time service to their customers at excellent rates. And most importantly, you can book their services online with ease.



Their Houston Shuttle to Galveston is designed in such a manner that it would help you and your group to save on transportation costs. To make transportation fulfilling - this is why they put so much into choosing the best people to join their team. Youll always have a driver who knows punctuality, safe driving and customer service inside and out.



One of the spokespersons of Galveston Flyer said that Our firm mission is to do our very best to serve the transportation needs of our customers. We aim to not only meet your needs but also exceed your expectations through our Houston to Galveston Shuttle service.



Their services are for sure to save you time and money. Their cost-effective service is less costly than any other means of transportation. You do not have to wait and search for a cab to have the transportation. As you book their Shuttle from Galveston to Houston you can expect that a friendly driver with a comfortable car would be waiting for you to transport you to your destination.



With their unbelievable 11 Passenger Shuttle Bus, youll be sure to have a smooth ride to your destination. All of their vehicles are great for any journey or any occasion and offer all necessary modern amenities to passengers.



About Galveston Flyer

Galveston Flyer has been committed to being the best at what they can do to make available affordable and comfortable shuttle service. You can expect to have the best services due to the well-maintained fleet and professional drivers. You can also expect to have cheap transportation to the Carnival, Disney, and Royal Caribbean Cruise lines departing from the Galveston Cruise port along with their regular Shuttle from Galveston to Houston services. Please be at https://www.galvestonflyer.com/ to know more about their affordable and comfortable shuttle services. ### Please contact the person or company listed above for information regarding the content of this press release. TravPR.com are not the issuers of this press release and are not responsible for the accuracy of the content. Share Release :



CONTACT INFORMATION Name: Phillip Mihatov Company: Galveston Flyer Phone: (409) 939-9521 Email: thegalvestonflyer@gmail.com Web: PRESS RELEASE TAGS
Evaldas Budvilaitis, SVP StrongPoint Technology, has today through his fully owned company UAB NV Invest, sold 40 000 shares to an average price of NOK 10,05.

After this sale Evaldas Budvilaitis owns 333 463 shares in StrongPoint ASA through his fully owned company, UAB NV Invest. This represent 0,8 per cent of the outstanding shares. The shares were sold through Oslo Brs.

For further information, please contact:

Anders Nilsen

CFO, StrongPoint ASA

Phone +47 932 59 410

About StrongPoint:

StrongPoint's mission: Driving Retailers' productivity by providing innovative integrated Technology Solutions enabling retailers to perform to their full potential.

StrongPoint has its headquarter at Rlingen, and has approximately 570 employees in Norway, Sweden, the Baltics, France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Russia and Malaysia. StrongPoint has the ticker "STRONG" on Oslo Stock Exchange.

For further information: www.strongpoint.com

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5 -12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.
BETHLEHEM, Pa., April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvanias (BFTP/NEP) Board of Directors has approved the investment of $203,855 in support of regional economic development. BFTP/NEPs goal is to help lead northeastern Pennsylvania to a better economic future by building partnerships that develop and apply technology for competitive advantage. To achieve this goal, Ben Franklin staff concentrate their efforts on three key areas:



developing and growing early-stage technology-oriented companies, helping established manufacturers creatively apply new technology and business practices to achieve industry leadership, and promoting an innovative community-wide infrastructure that fosters a favorable business environment for high-growth companies.

Since beginning operation, BFTP/NEP has helped to create 18,056 new jobs for Pennsylvania workers and to retain 31,840 existing jobs, to start 511 new companies, and to develop 1,733 new products and processes. Since 2007, BFTP/NEP clients have generated $1.5 billion in follow-on funding. The Pennsylvania Ben Franklin Technology Partners network has returned $3.60 to the state treasury for every $1.00 invested in the program. Ben Franklin Technology Partners is an initiative of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development and is funded by the Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority.

BFTP/NEP owns, manages, and is headquartered in Ben Franklin TechVentures, an award-winning business incubator/post-incubator facility on Lehigh Universitys campus in Bethlehem, PA. BFTP/NEP also manages the Bloomsburg Regional Technology Center in Bloomsburg.

Ben Franklin announces the following early-stage company investment that is provided in the form of loans with warrants.

PlanGuru, LLC, www.planguru.com, Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County

Ben Franklin Investment: $100,000

Support the release of a cloud-based solution, PlanGuru Online, at this developer of SaaS-based budgeting, forecasting and financial analytics tools. PlanGuru enables small- and medium-sized businesses to make timely and accurate financial decisions.

Ben Franklin announces the following established manufacturer company investments. Ben Franklin provides 1:1 matching funding for work with a college or university partner on technology-based manufacturing innovation in established manufacturers.

Custom Processing Services, Inc., www.customprocessingservices.com, Reading, Berks County

Ben Franklin Investment: $32,855

University Partner: Lehigh Universitys Enterprise Systems Center

Complete a comprehensive analysis of the inventory management process and begin implementation of identified recommendations for improvement. CPS provides sophisticated air-jet milling, micronizing, blending, and testing of powered materials on a contract and toll basis.

Godiva Chocolatier, Inc., www.godiva.com, Reading, Berks County

Ben Franklin Investment: $25,000

University Partner: Lehigh Universitys Enterprise Systems Center

Identify and implement process improvements in plant layout and inventory management to reduce cost of goods at this producer of chocolate candy. These savings will allow Godiva's Reading operation to compete effectively in the companys international network.

McCarthy Tire Service, www.mccarthytire.com, Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County

Ben Franklin Investment: $25,000

University Partner: Lehigh Universitys Enterprise Systems Center

Analyze and improve logistics operations and optimize staff time associated with distribution at this manufacturer of re-tread tires for commercial trucking. Improvements will address significant growth and respond to cost pressure to remain competitive.

Nazareth Pallet Company, Inc., www.nazpallet.com, Northampton, Northampton County

Ben Franklin Investment: $21,000

University Partner: Lehigh Universitys Enterprise Systems Center

Complete a thorough analysis of operations at this producer, customizer, recycler, and rebuilder of wooden pallets. The focus will be on identifying inefficiencies in process flow logistics, increasing output, and improving end-product quality.
singhking99@yahoo.com

New Delhi, April 23

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Monday breached the $100-billion mark in market valuation (m-cap), but slipped below the coveted milestone at close of session.

In the morning trade, the companys market capitalisation (m-cap) hit over $100 billion (Rs 6,80,912.10 crore), becoming the first Indian IT firm to cross this mark. At the close of trade, however, the m-cap declined to $98.8 billion (Rs 6,53,767.50 crore).

Reliance Industries had breached the $100 billion m-cap mark on October 18, 2007. The US dollar was quoted at Rs 39.59 at that time. The rupee has weakened considerably since then and was at Rs 66.16 against the US dollar in the morning trade.

Shares of the IT major rose by 4.42% to a record high of Rs 3,557 in intra-day trade on the BSE on Monday. The stock later gave up most of its early gains and ended flat at Rs 3,415.20, up 0.26%.

On the NSE, TCS shares settled at Rs 3,408.65, up 0.18%.

In terms of equity volume, 5.06 lakh shares of the company were traded on the BSE and over 75 lakh shares changed hands at the NSE during the day.

At the end of Fridays trading session, the IT major commanded a m-cap which was Rs 7,917.08 crore, just short of the $100 billion milestone at Rs 6,52,082.92 crore.

The stock has been gaining for the third straight session on Monday, rising 8% and added Rs 48,948.5 crore to its market valuation.

So far this year, shares of the company have risen by 26.5%. The IT major accounts nearly 11% of the total Sensex m-cap of Rs 6,081,286.82 crore.

TCS is the countrys most-valued firm followed by Reliance Industries Ltd with a m-cap of Rs 5,92,427.82 crore, HDFC Bank (Rs 5,01,643.92 crore), ITC (Rs 3,35,801.17 crore) and Hindustan Unilever Ltd (Rs 3,14,938.94 crore) in the top-five list.

The company on April 19 reported a 4.4% rise in March quarter net profit at Rs 6,904 crore.

The Tata Group flagship, which contributes around 85% of the groups profit, reported a revenue growth of 8.2% at Rs 32,075 crore for the three months to March. In dollar terms, the company had its highest revenue growth in 14 quarters at 11.7%.

It also announced a 1:1 bonus of shares and a dividend of Rs 29 a share, taking the total payout to shareholders at Rs 50 for the year.  PTI

Coveted milestone
editorial@tribune.com

Our Correspondent

Dera Bassi, April 23

Three persons reportedly suffered burns injuries after a series of blasts and a fire ripped through a chemical plant at Behra village here on Monday night. It was not clear if there were any casualties in the fire.

According to sources, the injured were rushed to the PGI. One of them reportedly received 76 per cent burns.

The fire broke out at the Maggu chemical plant, where a large number of chemicals were stored, around 9.30 pm. There were a series of blasts in the chemical containers, leading to high flames. The entire plant was gutted.

The cause of the fire is yet to ascertained. Workers employed at the plant ran out in panic as the fire spread to other units of the plant.

The blasts were probably triggered after a boiler containing solvent burst under high pressure. Three fire engines from the Dera Bassi fire station and nearby areas were rushed to the spot and the firefighting operation was on till the filing of this report. The fire department received information around 9.45 pm.
editorial@tribune.com

Mohit Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 23

It is not the first incident which has put PGI doctors in the dock. Bad behaviour with patients was one of the reasons behind the PGI relegated to the second spot among health institutes of the country.

Sources said the team of Union Ministry that was analysing the performance of medical institutes of the country for the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) had observed that doctors were being rude to patients. They said after receiving the award, the PGI authorities had conducted a meeting where it was conveyed to the doctors to show empathy towards patients.

Multiple complaints received by the institute from the Union Health Ministry about the patient feedback system, Mera Aspataal, also revealed that doctors behaviour was the main reason that makes patients unhappy with the services of PGIMER.

It is not the first time that patients and doctors were at loggerheads at the PGI. In 2016, the PGI doctors had staged a dharna and stalled the work over repeated incidents of assault on doctors by patients. Last month, doctors had staged a protest after kin of a young boy, who died in the hospital, manhandled the doctors and vandalised the hospital property.

Recently a junior doctor, who was abused and manhandled by a senior resident in the Emergency, had lodged a complaint with PGI Director Jagat Ram.

Behaviour classes only

on paper

It was in January this year that PGI director Prof Jagat Ram had stated that resident doctors will attend classes to improve their behaviour. A group of senior doctors were asked to teach resident doctors how to deal with patients properly. Emeritus PGI professor and renowned ophthalmologist Dr Amod Gupta was made the head of the committee which was supposed to hold orientation classes for resident doctors.

The step was taken following a spurt in the number of complaints of misbehaviour by junior doctors. It has been over four months but not a single class has been conducted so far.

**Psychiatry survey

A report published in the Indian Journal of Psychiatry recently also pointed towards the menace of rude behaviour.

Nearly 32.8 per cent doctors admitted that they had shouted at patients and their attendants and 54.4 per cent doctors admitted that they could not give sufficient time to the patients. Over 31 per cent doctors feel that their seniors were not showing empathy towards patients and 43 per cent doctors feel that they are not treated well by their seniors. Nearly 48 per cent doctors admitted that senior faculty colleagues had positive and negative biases towards particular residents.
editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 24

A three-member team of Patiala-based Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law has been adjudged champion in an international moot court competition in Sri Lanka.

About 80 participants from South Asian countries had participated in the Herbert Victor Perera Queens Council Memorial Moot Court Competition hosted by Sri Lanka Law College.

The team comprising Uday Agnihotri, Anmol Malhotra and Raghav Mudgal also received awards for the best written submissions from the claimant and respondent side.

They have been awarded Victors Shield, medals, two trophies for the best memorials and cash prize of USD 800.

The Sri Lanka Law College organised the international moot court competition based on international commercial arbitration on a global level, bringing the country on the world world mooting map.
ST. JOHN'S, NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Fortis Inc. ("Fortis" or the "Corporation") (TSX:FTS) (NYSE:FTS) will release its first quarter 2018 financial results on Tuesday, May 1, 2018. A teleconference and webcast will be held the same day at 8:30 a.m. (Eastern). Barry Perry, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Karl Smith, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, will discuss Fortis' first quarter 2018 financial results.



Analysts, members of the media and other interested parties in North America are invited to participate by calling 1.877.223.4471. International participants are invited to call 647.788.4922. Please dial in 10 minutes prior to the start of the call. No pass code is required.

A live and archived audio webcast of the teleconference will be available on the Corporation's website, www.fortisinc.com . A replay of the conference will be available two hours after the conclusion of the call until June 1, 2018. Please call 1.800.585.8367 or 416.621.4642 and enter pass code 4598586.

Fortis will hold its Annual Meeting of Shareholders on Thursday, May 3, 2018 at 9:00 a.m. (Eastern), 10:30 a.m. (Newfoundland), at the Holiday Inn St. John's, 180 Portugal Cove Road, St. John's, NL. A live video webcast of the meeting will be available on the Corporation's website, www.fortisinc.com. Participants will be able to submit questions for management during the Q&A portion of the webcast.

About Fortis

Fortis is a leader in the North American regulated electric and gas utility industry with 2017 revenue of C$8.3 billion and total assets of approximately C$48 billion. The Corporation's 8,500 employees serve utility customers in five Canadian provinces, nine U.S. states and three Caribbean countries.

Fortis shares are listed on the TSX and NYSE and trade under the symbol FTS. Additional information can be accessed at www.fortisinc.com , www.sedar.com , or www.sec.gov .

For more information please contact :

Investor Enquiries Media Enquiries Ms. Kealey Martin Ms. Karen McCarthy Director, Investor Relations Director, Communications & Corporate Affairs Fortis Inc. Fortis Inc. 709.737.2900 709.737.5323 investorrelations@fortisinc.com



media@fortisinc.com






Ranbir Singh

Ranbir Singh

VC, National Law University, Delhi

THE faith of the people in our institutions of public accountability has suffered several successive blows in the recent past. The criticism of the conduct of the Chief Justice of India from political and judicial quarters has culminated in the introduction of the motion to impeach the Chief Justice by opposition MPs in the Rajya Sabha (RS). The motion now stands rejected by the RS Chairman. The support for the Chief Justice in such testing times has also been vocal, with other SC judges rendering opinions, respecting the majesty recognising the supremacy and primacy of the office of the Chief Justice. Expectedly, the impeachment motion has been criticised for further devaluing the faith of the public in the judiciary and for disrespecting the sanctity of the seldom exercised impeachment process. It is claimed that the process is being abused as a tool for political vendetta rather than intended use for judicial accountability.

The Constitution provides only the skeletal framework for the consideration of a motion for the removal (not termed as 'impeachment') of an SC judge. Power is given to the legislature to define the process of inquiry, between the introduction of the motion by a minimum number of MPs, and its final consideration.

The Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968 and the Judges (Inquiry) Rules, 1969 provide for multi-layered procedural safeguards which protect a judge from the overwhelming political nature of this process. The Constitution and the 1968 Act do not contemplate upon the validity of reasons for the admission or rejection of such a motion by the RS Chairman, once an endorsement by at least 50 MPs is made. Only after the admission of the motion, a three-member committee has to be formed, comprising the Chief Justice himself, or, as would be appropriate in this case, a sitting judge of the Supreme Court, along with a sitting chief justice of a high court and an eminent jurist, to examine and inquire into the charges of misbehaviour against the judge. Only if this committee finds the judge guilty of any charge, can the RS pursue the determination of the motion. The inquiry by the committee is a detailed and deliberative process, in line with the honour of the office of a judge. It has no time limit and, therefore, cannot be expected to be rushed. The tenure of the current Chief Justice, however, will come to an end this year in October. However, it is not the outcome of this process which threatens the public trust in the judiciary, but the volatile and political process itself.

The elaborate procedure of impeachment has bruised the legitimacy and legacy of judges before, despite eventual resolution favourable to the judge or absence of resolution by the legislature. On the judicial side, the SC has encountered instances of allegations against judges before, some of which have led to internal disciplinary measures. The judicial precedents in the cases of Sub-Committee (1991), Sarojini Ramaswamy (1992) and Ravichandra Iyer (1995) provide for institutional observations on the process of inquiry, disciplinary action and removal of judges. Interestingly, the judgment in Ravichandra Iyer records a suggestion by Fali Nariman to contemplate upon an inhouse procedure in the case of allegations made against sitting Chief Justice (of an HC).

Thereafter, the SC devised a method of extra-constitutional innovation to deal with cases of dissatisfaction with judicial members through a resolution in 1997. In a resolution passed in the full court meeting of the SC on May 7, 1997, it was decided that an inhouse procedure would be devised by the Chief Justice of India, giving him centrestage to design the process of taking suitable remedial action against judges who may have failed to abide by the universally accepted values of judicial life, including those indicated in the 'Restatement of Values of Judicial Life'. The Restatement, a detailed code of conduct for judges of the higher judiciary, was subsequently adopted in December, 1999 by the Chief Justices' Conference. Through 16 rules of conduct, the code assisted in the enforcement of a self-regulation mechanism. It advised judges to avoid any act, whether in official or personal capacity, that can lead to the erosion of the faith of the people in the judiciary and judicial officers. However, for the peculiar situation of allegations against the highest judicial officer in the country, the inhouse procedure provides for no effective relief.

A similar contemplation of procedure in the case of allegations against a sitting Chief Justice of India may have been foregone in light of his supremacy and administrative powers, or because it was the office of the Chief Justice himself, tasked to devise an effective disciplinary mechanism for judges which renders the process of impeachment unnecessary in certain scenarios.

The legislature only has powers to further define the process of impeachment under the Constitution, and this power may not extend to creating inhouse procedures which may lead to disciplinary action such as withdrawal of judicial work. This power rests exclusively with the Chief Justice himself. The SC, it would appear, has only assumed powers to effectively inquire against sitting judges except the Chief Justice. So, we have encountered a situation that calls for reform within the judiciary, along the lines of the inhouse procedure to avoid such a situation in future.

The apex court must contemplate a more harmonious solution to inquire and to at least provide an educated opinion into allegations against the Chief Justice. The mere restatement of the supremacy of the Chief Justice by judges and politicians on one end of the aisle would not lead to the end of such controversies. It would only make perception of the rule of law, as personified by the Chief Justice, more suspect. This must be our education from the present controversy.

A judicial handshake is called for, a mechanism through which allegations and suspicions against judges, including the Chief Justice, are enquired fairly, from within the judiciary, and a conclusive opinion is put before the public. Even if unwarranted impeachment proceedings are initiated, the concrete majesty of the SC should not fall with the wavering majesty of political institutions.

Irrespective of the fate of the political controversy which will not subside in the coming days, the time is ripe to introspect on the doctrine of public trust that each judge in the court is bound to not only individually but also collectively. In Roosevelt's words, "The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith."
editorial@tribune.com

Vishal Joshi

Tribune News Service

Kurukshetra, April 23

On the eve of the pronouncement of punishment to nine convicts in the infamous Apna Ghar case, police officers recall traumatic tales of about 100 inmates at Rohtaks shelter home.

They said the guilty should get exemplary punishment.

MS Mann, who retired as the DGP (Home Guards), told The Tribune on Monday: During my visit to Apna Ghar in 2012, I found differently abled girls and women living in pathetic conditions. The shelter home was built like a jail, where the goings-on could not be known to the outside world, said Mann, who headed the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the police before the case was handed over to the CBI.

Mann said the SIT was constituted after the state authorities were not convinced with the investigation by then police officials of Rohtak district.

In May 2012, three inmates had escaped from Apna Ghar and reached New Delhi. As they shared details of sexual exploitation of inmates at the hands of shelter home caretaker Jaswanti Devi and others, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) raided the premises in Rohtaks Shri Nagar locality. About 120 inmates were rescued.

SIT member Dharna Yadav, then a newly recruited DSP, played the most important role in building confidence among abused children and women. It was only due to her and her subordinates  Laxmi, Satya and Vidyawati  the victims opened up to share their tales of sexual and mental abuse, Mann said.

He added Yadav used to play with minors and differently abled victims to gain their confidence in building the case.

Yadav, currently posted as Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) in Gurugram, said the threat of Jaswanti Devi was visible on the faces of the inmates.

It was shocking to listen to the endless tales of brutality. Inmates were subjected to exploitation at a place where they were supposed to get protection, she said.

It was my first major professional assignment. As an inexperienced cop, I found it tough to accept such a brutal face of society. After the expose, the victims got overwhelming support from the child helpline, the police, the media and volunteers. But the major relief came from the judiciary. The guilty should get exemplary punishment, she said.

Yadav recalled several of the victims were psychologically challenged and they were unable to narrate their ordeal. We had to rope in sign language exerts and special educators to understand them, she added.

QUOTES

During my visit to Apna Ghar in 2012, I found differently abled girls and women living in pathetic conditions. The shelter home was built like a jail, where the goings-on could not be known to the outside world

MS Mann

Former DGP (Home Guards)

Several of the victims were psychologically challenged and they were unable to narrate their ordeal. We had to rope in sign language exerts and special educators to understand them

Dharna Yadav

ACP, Gurugram
editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Karnal, April 23

The district administration has directed all secretaries of market committees to register cases against arhtiyas procuring wheat from other states at less rates and selling it in Haryana at the MSP and those found with fake documents of farmers.

In all, 11 licences of arhtiyas have been suspended  10 in Taraori and one in Indri grain markets  for their alleged involvement in procuring wheat from Uttar Pradesh or Rajasthan.

Notices have been served on several arhtiyas in Karnal and Gharaunda grain markets for illegal trade of wheat, said Sushil Kumar Malik, Zonal Administrator, Haryana State Agricultural Marketing Board (HSAMB).

The state government has ordered that illegal trading of wheat from UP and Rajasthan must be stopped. We have directed all market committee secretaries to keep a vigil on the trading of wheat from other states, said DC Aditya Dahiya.

It has come to the notice of the administration that some traders are bringing wheat from other states with fake documents of farmers, he added.

Sources said the illegal trade could be carried out only with the help of employees of procurement agencies.
editorial@tribune.com

Sumedha Sharma

Tribune News Service

Gurugram, April 23

Gangster Balraj Bhati, operating in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Rajasthan for almost seven years, was gunned down by the Gurugram and Uttar Pradesh special task force (STF) in a joint operation in Sector 41 of Noida on Monday.

The encounter, which included a chase and firing of around 80 rounds from both sides, left two head constables of the STF, another man and a boy injured. All four were admitted to a hospital and were in a stable condition.

Considered to be the right-hand man of jailed gangster Sunder Bhati, Balraj had been managing the gang and carried a reward of 2.5 lakh on him  Rs 1 lakh each by the Delhi Police and Haryana Police and Rs 50,000 by the Uttar Pradesh Police.

He was wanted in connection with over 30 cases of murder, extortion and robbery, including that of murder of BJP leader Vijay Pandit in Dadri in 2014. He had reportedly hatched a plan to kill the Bulandshahr jailer after he was nabbed by the Uttar Pradesh Police.

According to the police, Balraj and two other criminals arrived in Noida via Kalindi Kunj by car. He was intercepted by the STF of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh near the traffic crossing of Sectors 49 and 41. The gangsters reportedly started firing on the police car and tried to flee.

Their car jumped the footpath just ahead of the traffic light. The trio left the car and ran for cover. Balraj entered a plot behind a shop, from where he climbed a wall to reach the terrace. He was cornered by cops on the terrace and killed in firing. His accomplices managed to flee. The police recovered a 9-mm pistol from the spot.

Our team had credible information on his movement, which helped us in cornering him. It is major success as he was one of the most dreaded criminals and had been evading arrest for a long time, said Saurabh Singh, STF officer in charge.

Bhati had been cornered by the Faridabad police in Khandsa village of Gurugram in June last year. Though his accomplice was shot at and captured, he escaped. His name was then included in the list of 23 dreaded criminals wanted dead or alive issued by the Uttar Pradesh Police.
editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 23

Senior leaders of the Haryana BJP on Monday performed bhoomi pujan, an auspicious ceremony at the time of laying foundation stone of a building, for the construction of permanent party offices in 10 districts of the state.

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar performed the bhoomi pujan in Panchkula.

State BJP president Subhash Barala, Forest Minister Rao Narbir Singh and Organising Secretary Suresh Bhatt performed the ceremony in Gurugram, Women and Child Development Minister Kavita Jain in Sonepat, Industries and Commerce Minister Vipul Goel in Nuh, Food and Supplies Minister Karan Dev Kamboj in Palwal, and Transport Minister Krishan Lal Panwar in Kaithal. Senior district-level office-bearers of the party performed the ritual in Ambala, Bhiwani, Charkhi Dadri and Fatehabad.

BJP president Amit Shah has already inaugurated the partys permanent office in Jind during his visit to the district in February.

Sources say the BJP plans to organise bhoomi pujan in Hisar, Kurukshetra, Karnal, Rohtak and Rewari next month, while construction of offices in Sirsa, Panipat and Yamunanagar can begin in two months.

The site for office in Jhajjar and Panipat has been selected. The construction will begin as soon as the process of approval of site plans is completed, the sources say.

This is perhaps the biggest exercise by any political party in Haryana ever since the state came into existence in 1966.

Barala evaded questions about the expenditure on the construction of offices and the money spent on buying the land.

I dont know about the cost offhand. As for the plots, these are of different dimensions ranging from 500 sq yards to 2,000 sq yards or even more. Land was purchased at different points of time from HUDA and private parties, Barala said.

The state BJP president said the offices would have rooms for district-level office-bearers of the party as well as a meeting hall and a press conference hall.

He added expenditure on the construction would be borne from the contributions collected by the party through Aajeewan Sahyog Nidhi whereby party workers donate money annually.
editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Shimla, April 23

A high-level team from the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation will soon visit Himachal to explore the possibility for the setting up of an international airport in Himachal. This was stated by Union Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu during a meeting with Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur in New Delhi on Monday.

The Chief Minister had raised the issue of construction of an international airport in Mandi district to promote tourism in the state.

The Union Minister instructed officials of the department to send a high- level team soon to Himachal Pradesh to select a suitable site, keeping in mind technical parameters required for an international airport.

The Chief Minister apprised the Union Minister that tourism was a major contributor to the GDP of the state which had immense tourism potential. He said the state was unable to exploit full potential of tourism in the absence of an international airport and good aerial connectivity which was a must to attract the high-end tourists.

Thakur also informed the Union civil aviation minister that the three airports in the state at Shimla, Bhuntar and Gaggal could not be expanded due to unavailability of land in a hilly terrain. He added that flights to these airports were very erratic due to which tourists were unable to benefit.

The Chief Minister also urged the minister to take appropriate steps for extension of Shimla, Gaggal and Bhuntar airports so that bigger aircraft could land here. The Chief Minister said that last year 52.26 lakh tourists visited Mandi and surrounding districts including 1.57 lakh foreign tourists.

He said that due to opening of an IIT, medical colleges, engineering colleges and others educational institutions in Mandi district, there was an urgent need for construction of an airport for better connectivity. Thakur also stressed that setting up of an international airport would help the country from the strategic viewpoint as well as the Chinese border is close.

Why it is needed
editorial@tribune.com

Azhar Qadri

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, April 23

With all parameters of violence and conflict-related deaths marking a spurt in Jammu and Kashmir, 2017 has emerged as the bloodiest year of the decade, according to official data.

The number of conflict-related deaths in 2017 totalled 333, which was three times higher than the lowest number of 102 deaths recorded in 2012, the calmest year in the region in three decades.

The latest spurt in violence, most of it centred in the Valley is, however, part of the growing reversal of efforts to contain insurgency which is gaining increasing support of locals and is also becoming stronger with a steady flow of local recruits.

According to the data compiled by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in its annual report released last week, 2017 witnessed an increase in incidents of terrorist violence and casualties of civilians as compared to the last year (2016).

The 342 incidents of violence in 2017 were, however, also the highest in the state since 2010 when 488 such incidents were recorded. As many as 213 militants were killed last year, the highest since 2010 when 232 militants were killed. The 80 security forces personnel killed last year was the second highest death toll of security forces since 2007 when 110 security personnel were killed. It was, however, two short of the 2016s death toll. The 40 civilians killed in 2017 was the highest death toll since 2010 when 47 civilians were killed, according to the MHA data.

The ministry also noted that there had been a spurt in infiltration attempts during 2017 from the Pakistan side. It said 406 attempts had been recorded in 2017 and 123 militants had infiltrated. The number of attempts is highest since 2010 when 489 attempts were recorded.

The increase in violence has come in the backdrop of south Kashmir emerging as the epicentre of new-age militancy and also the once-formidable Jaish-e-Mohammed, which had remained defunct for several years, making a deadly comeback. Militancy in the state is now nearing completion of its 29th year.

Even as the most violent phases of insurgency are over, it gained ground in recent years in the aftermath of militant commander Burhan Wanis killing and the subsequent pro-militant demonstrations. The most violent phase in Kashmir lasted from 2000 to 2003 when nearly 6,500 militants and 1,700 security personnel were killed.
uttara@tribuneindia.com

Amir Karim Tantray

Tribune News Service

Jammu, April 24

Jammu and Kashmir Cabinet on Tuesday approved death sentence in rape cases involving girls up to age 12, and life sentence for those raping girls under 16.

Chief Minister Mehbooba Muftis Cabinet approved two ordinancesCriminal Law Ordinance, 2018, and J&K Protection of Children from Sexual Violence Ordinance, 2018. The state government ordinances mirrored the central government's recently passed o

Minister for Finance Syed Muhammad Altaf Bukhari and Minister for

Law and Justice Abdul Haq Khan, who addressed a joint press briefing after the cabinet meeting, said that the two new ordinances were aimed at curbing sexual violence against minor girls, and would act as deterrent for crimes against women in general.

It was a commitment made by CM Mehbooba Mufti and today, the decision has been taken, Bukhari said.

The development follows backlash and protests over the rape and murder of an 8-year-old nomad girl from the Bakerwal Muslim community in Kathua.
editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, April 23

With the Centre revoking the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from Meghalaya and parts of Arunachal Pradesh, the call for immediate revocation of the said Act from J&K has grown louder.

Moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has sought the immediate revocation of the Act from the state, saying if AFSPA could be removed from the north-eastern regions, why not this region?

For the past 30 years, draconian and oppressive #AFSPA has played havoc with our lives. Time and again we have demanded its withdrawal. If GOI can remove it from its north-eastern territories, this cruel and merciless power bestowed upon 8 lakh Indian forces in J&K should be revoked immediately! Mirwaiz tweeted.

While terming the revocation of AFSPA from the north-eastern states as a good news, public works minister and J&K Government spokesman Naeem Akhtar emphasised the need for creating conditions for its removal from the state, while also appealing to Pakistan to help in this effort.

Good news. We all need to work for creating conditions conducive for its revocation in J&K as well. No state can permanently be governed through emergency laws in a democracy. Our neighbours too have to realise and help in this effort, Naeem said in a tweet.
monicakchauhan@gmail.com

Tribune News service

Srinagar, April 24

Two security personnelincluding an Army jawan and a Jammu and Kashmir policeman of the Special Operations Groupand four Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militants were killed on Tuesday in a fierce encounter in a forest area in the Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.

Based on intelligence developed by the police about the presence of terrorists, security forces, including the Rashtriya Rifles (RR), state police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), started a joint operation against hiding militants in the Laam forest of Tral area in Pulwama district, a police official said.

A gun battle broke out when the militants opened fire at the security personnel, the official said.

In the initial exchange of fire, one soldier and a policeman sustained injuries. They were evacuated to hospitals here but succumbed to injuries, the official said.

The slain security force personnel were identified as Sepoy Ajay Kumar of 42 Rashtriya Rifles and Constable Lateef Gujri.

Ajay Kumar, who was from Panjola village in Himachals Sirmaur district, died at the Army Base Hospital here.

Four JeM militants were also killed, the official said, adding that weapons and other war-like stores were recovered from the encounter site.

While the individual identity of the slain militants is being ascertained, the official said at least two of them were believed to be foreigners. With PTI
English French

TORONTO, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CN (TSX:CNR) (NYSE:CNI) announced today that the director nominees listed in the management proxy circular dated March 6, 2018, were elected as directors of CN. The detailed results of the vote for the election of directors held at CNs Annual Meeting of Shareholders on April 24 in Toronto are set out below.



Election of Directors

On a vote by ballot, each of the following 12 nominees proposed by management was elected as a director of CN:

Nominee Votes For % For Votes Withheld % Withheld Shauneen Bruder 550,338,980 99.71 1,627,757 0.29 Donald J. Carty 545,058,421 98.75 6,908,317 1.25 Ambassador Gordon D. Giffin 532,199,296 96.42 19,767,441 3.58 Julie Godin 548,749,222 99.42 3,217,515 0.58 Edith E. Holiday 519,176,413 94.06 32,790,323 5.94 V. Maureen Kempston Darkes 525,295,489 95.17 26,671,247 4.83 The Hon. Denis Losier 529,651,751 95.96 22,314,986 4.04 The Hon. Kevin G. Lynch 548,104,947 99.30 3,861,791 0.70 James E. OConnor 549,242,946 99.51 2,723,791 0.49 Robert Pace 534,394,610 96.82 17,572,128 3.18 Robert L. Phillips 542,077,971 98.21 9,888,767 1.79 Laura Stein 547,183,471 99.13 4,783,267 0.87

Robert Pace was unanimously re-elected by the board of directors as board chair. Mr. Pace is president and chief executive officer of The Pace Group Ltd., based in Halifax, N.S., which is engaged in radio broadcasting, real estate and environmental services.

Biographical information on all directors is available at http://www.cn.ca/en/investors/regulatory-filings

Final voting results on all matters voted on at the Annual Meeting of Shareholders held earlier today will be filed with the Canadian and U.S. securities regulators.

CN is a true backbone of the economy whose team of approximately 25,000 railroaders transports more than C$250 billion worth of goods annually for a wide range of business sectors, ranging from resource products to manufactured products to consumer goods, across a rail network of approximately 20,000 route-miles spanning Canada and mid-America. CN  Canadian National Railway Company, along with its operating railway subsidiaries  serves the cities and ports of Vancouver, Prince Rupert, B.C., Montreal, Halifax, New Orleans, and Mobile, Ala., and the metropolitan areas of Toronto, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Calgary, Chicago, Memphis, Detroit, Duluth, Minn./Superior, Wis., and Jackson, Miss., with connections to all points in North America. For more information about CN, visit the Companys website at www.cn.ca.

Contacts: Media Investment Community Patrick Waldron Paul Butcher Senior Manager Vice-President Media Relations Investor Relations (514) 399-8803 (514) 399-0052




ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Amarjot Kaur

Not long ago, Oxford University press came up with a publication called The Oxford Readings in Indian Art, a book authored by Prof BN Goswamy and Vrinda Aggarwal. Inspired by the book, an intimate talk with art historian Prof BN Goswamy extended to a walk across the Government Museum and Art Gallery, Sector 10, as the conversation explored several facets of Indian art.

Complex and challenging, art in India has little documentation; and whatever exists is so widely scattered that it becomes a task in itself to locate it. The book addresses these issues through original, primary sources. The Oxford University Press describes the book as: The voices one hears in these excerpts are true and authentic, and if there are any speculations or interpretations, they come from texts or persons directly involved in the making or the understanding of the art of India. Sages speak here, in these pages, of the inter-relationships between the arts, practitioners record measurements of units of time and space, iconographers lay down rules and practices, artists record their experiences and patrons their delights. Information gathered from colophons is documented; excerpts are taken from memoirs and contemporary histories; the work of early writers on the arts is presented.

Learning curve

Some 70 people, including teachers, art enthusiasts and artists, attended Goswamys talk in the library of the museum. Organiser of the event, Medhavi Gandhi of The Heritage Lab said, We wanted to bring this book to life. This book does not have any pictures and we wanted to bring a pictorial reference to it while making people physically interact with them. Also, Prof Goswamys talk added more perspective to the book. This book mentions several details that trace the evolution of Indian art, including kings making art, like Bodhisattva; sculpting was one of bodhisattvas many skills. According to Kusa Jataka, he sculpted a statue of a woman in gold, and asked his parents to get him a girl who looks like the girl he sculpted and only then will he marry her. And we have the sculpture of Bodhisattva right here,

she smiles.

Mughal glory

The conversation then explores the Mughal era. Shah Jahan was a patron of art. Jahangirs biography mentions that when he looks at the hair of the eyebrow in a painting, he is able to identify the artist who made it and Shah Jahan, as we all know, made the Taj Mahal, says Vrinda Aggarwal, as more than 40 people listen to her.

The banter traversed through the contemporaries of Shah Jahan, who were patrons of arts, and landed at the classification of women as nayikas, which became the reference point to classify women in art form. A question was popped: Which nayika would be chosen to go with the handsome bachelor Bodhisattva? And the answer came soon after. Probably the controlling nayikas who would have him give up his singlehood, replied a doctor who worked at PGI.

amarjot@tribunemail.com

Curse of the Ajanta

Several artists of different eras were inspired by Ajanta art. Many British art academicians went on expeditions to Ajanta and Ellora. They made replicas of the art there but each time, all these paintings burnt down. John Griffiths made Ajanta replicas but they burnt down in a fire. According to the V& A Catalogue entry for one of Griffiths copies of the paintings inside the Ajanta Caves, the cave complex was discovered in 1819 and since then many attempts have been made to document the paintings inside them. In 1844, Major Robert Gill was commissioned to make copies. Unfortunately, most of the paintings he completed were destroyed in a fire in 1866. To make up for this loss, from 1872 to 1885, John Griffiths and seven Indian students from the Bombay School of Art spent every winter at the caves, producing approximately 300 paintings. In India, artists like YG Srimati and Amrita Shergill took inspiration from Ajanta art, but never made replicas.
editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, April 24

A drug addict attacked his wife with a knife in the Shimlapuri area on Tuesday morning. The victim, Kirandeep Kaur, suffered severe injuries in the back. She was rushed to the hospital.

Fed up with her husband's addiction to drugs, the woman had started living separately in Preet Nagar, Shimlapuri, along with her children.

Kirandeep told the police that she got married to Sikandar about 13 years ago. Her husband started doing drugs a few months ago. "Owing to his addiction to drugs, my husband used to beat me up in front of my children. About a month ago, I left my husbands home and started living in Shimlapuri. He had also come to my place to take me and children back to his place, but I categorically refused, she said.

The woman alleged while she was returning home after dropping her three children at school, her husband cornered her on the way and stabbed her in the back. Passersby noticed the injured woman and informed the police and the 108 ambulance service. When ambulance did not reach for more than 15 minutes, a man, Sonu Singla, took the injured woman to the hospital in his car.

The Daba SHO, Gurbinder Singh, said he reached the spot but he later realised that the incident had occurred in the Shimlapuri police station area.

A probe has been launched by the police station concerned.
rchopra@tribunemail.com

Beijing, April 24

Differences should not lead to disputes in relations between India and China, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday as she met her Chinese counterpart General Wei Fenghe in the backdrop of the strain in ties between the two countries after the Doklam standoff.

Sitharaman, who arrived here on Monday, attended the SCO defence ministers meeting on Tuesday.

During her meeting with Fenghe, Sitharaman said differences should not lead to disputes in relations between India and China, officials said.

In August last year, India and China ended their 73-day standoff between their troops in Doklam. The standoff had strained ties considerably between the two countries.

The annual summit of the SCO, in which India is the latest entrant along with Pakistan, will take place in the Chinese city of Qingdao in June.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to attend it.

The SCO, headquartered in Beijing, was founded in 2001.

Comprising China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, India and Pakistan, the SCO aims at military cooperation between the member states and involves intelligence-sharing, counter-terrorism operations in Central Asia and joint work against cyber terrorism. PTI
sanjiv@tribunemail.com

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 23

The Air Force is upgrading the older variants of its Mi-17 helicopters by equipping them with electronic warfare (EW) suite to increase their capability to operate effectively in a hostile environment.

According to IAF sources, 90 of these medium-lift helicopters  56 Mi-17 and 34 Mi-17 1V variants  will be upgraded by No.3 Base Repair Deport in Chandigarh in collaboration with state-owned Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL). The IAF approached BEL in this regard last month.

The move to upgrade the older series comes in the backdrop of a project to retrofit the latest version, the Mi-17 V5 that entered services a few years ago, with similar EW equipment. Last year, BEL was also approached to equip some Mi-17s with advanced navigational aids.

The EW suite comprises of a radar warning receiver (RWR), a missile approach warning system (MAWS) and a counter measure dispensing system (CMDS). The RWR detects radio waves emitted by radars and electronic surveillance equipment whereas the CMDS enables the crew to imitate counter measures or evasive action against enemy radars and missiles by firing chaff or flares.

The MAWS is meant to alert the crew about any incoming ground or air-launched missile and also cue the CMDS to trigger. Mi-17 helicopters are used for special operations as well as close air support, logistic supplies and troop movement, requiring them at times to operate at low altitudes and slow speeds, thereby making them vulnerable to missile attacks.

The Air Force expects the programme to upgrade the 90 helicopters to be completed in 48 months. This includes training an initial batch of pilots, flight engineers and flight gunners to operate the new systems.
harinder@tribunemail.com

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 24

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday made it official that India will participate in a multi-nation military exercise to be conducted in Russia in September this year. Notably, the exercise will involve China and also Pakistan, Indias edgy and acrimonious western neighbour.

The exercise in Russia is part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). India, China, Russia and Pakistan, among several other countries, are part of the SCO  bloc of largely Asian countries.

India is, for the first time, attending the Defence Ministers meeting at SCO being hosted in China. This will be first-ever exercise in which Indian and Pakistan militaries will fight together in mock operations to eliminate terrorists, neutralise terror networks and thwart possible attacks besides testing combat readiness.

Indian and Pakistan soldiers have operated together in the past on foreign lands while providing security or in convoy protection deployment as peacekeepers under the United Nations.

The exercise  Peace Mission 2018  is slated to be held in Russias Ural Mountains. It will begin in August-end and conclude in the first week of September.

The SCO was formed in 2001 by China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan. Now the grouping has eight full members, including India, Pakistan and Uzbekistan. Another four nations have been accorded observer status, while six others are dialogue partners.

Held once in two years, Peace Mission 2018 will be the fifth edition of the multilateral exercise. However, this will be the first time for the two neighbours as they became SCO members in June last year. Sources said India will send a 200-strong contingent to Russia.

In China, Sitharaman said: India enjoys excellent bilateral defence cooperation with a large number of SCO countries, especially with Russia, as well as with all of Indias Central Asian partners represented in the SCO.

Differences should not become disputes

We are guided in our relations with China by the consensus reached between our leaders that at the time of global uncertainty, India-China relations could be a factor of stability and that we must not allow our differences to become disputes.  Nirmala Sitharaman, Defence Minister
sanjiv@tribunemail.com

New Delhi, April 23

The AFSPA has been removed completely from Meghalaya and its area of operation in Arunachal Pradesh has been restricted to three police stations bordering Assam and three districts neighbouring Myanmar, officials said on Monday.

The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, which empowers security forces to conduct operations, arrest anyone anywhere without prior notice, has been removed from all areas of Meghalaya from March 31.

The decision has been taken due to a significant improvement of security situation in the state, a Home Ministry official said.

In Arunachal Pradesh, areas under the controversial Act have been reduced from 16 police stations areas bordering Assam to eight besides Tirap, Changlang and Longding districts, the official said.

There have been demands from various organisations in the north-east as well as in Jammu and Kashmir for repealing the Act, which, they say, gives sweeping powers to the security forces to act against civilians.

The AFSPA has been in force in Nagaland for several decades and in Assam from early 1990s.  PTI
pardeepdhull@gmail.com

Beijing, April 24

China failed to get Indias support for its ambitious Belt and Road infrastructure project at the end of a Foreign Ministers meeting of a major security bloc on Tuesday, ahead of an ice-breaking trip to China this week by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Belt and Road is Chinese President Xi Jinpings landmark scheme to build infrastructure to connect China to the rest of Asia and beyond, a giant reworking of its old Silk Road.

India has not signed up to the initiative as parts of one key project, the $57 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, runs through Pakistan-administered Kashmir that India considers its own territory.

Whether or not China will be able to bring India round to Belt and Road will likely be a key measure of the success of Modis trip to China to meet Xi for an informal meeting on Friday and Saturday.

But Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj did not express support for Belt and Road in the communique released after foreign ministers of the China and Russia-led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation met in Beijing.

India, along with Pakistan, joined the group last year.

All the other foreign ministers  from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan  reaffirmed support for Chinas Belt and Road proposal, the statement read.

It gave no further explanation.

The communique otherwise was a broad expression of unity by the ministers on issues ranging from their support for the Iran nuclear deal to the need to combat the spread of extremism.

Modi is coming to China as efforts at rapprochement gather pace following a difficult year in ties between the two neighbours.

The Asian giants were locked in a 73-day military stand-off in a remote, high-altitude stretch of their Himalayan border last year. At one point, soldiers from the two sides threw stones and punches.

The confrontation between the nuclear-armed powers underscored Indian alarm at Chinas expanding security and economic links in South Asia.

In comments carried on the Foreign Ministrys website, Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou said holding the meeting in an informal way meant the two leaders could have a deep exchange of views in a relaxed, friendly atmosphere to promote cooperation.

This not only will benefit the two countries and two peoples, but will also have an important effect on peaceful development in the region and around the world, the ministry paraphrased Kong as telling Indian media in Beijing.

Modi will visit China in June for a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

China will also have to tread carefully to avoid giving its close ally Pakistan cause for alarm. China on Monday reassured Pakistan that relations between the two countries were as firm as ever and would never rust. Reuters
editorial@tribune.com

New Delhi, April 23

The twin burning issues of Dalit rights and womens safety were at the centre of Rahul Gandhis blistering attack on Prime Minister Modi on Monday at the launch of the Congress partys Save the Constitution campaign. The Congress president asserted that constitutional values had been endangered under the Modi government and promised the people that his party would not let that happen.

Institutions such as the Supreme Court were being trampled on and Parliament had been shut down by the government, the Congress chief alleged, claiming that if he was allowed to speak for 15 minutes on a host of issues, including the Nirav Modi scam, Modi would run away.

This country belongs to each and every one of us. It is the duty of the Congress party to protect the Constitution, the institutions and every single one of our citizens, he later tweeted.

Gandhi said while Modi often claimed that Indias global standing had improved under his government, the reputation of the country built over decades of Congress rule had in fact taken a beating in the last four years.

Going full-throttle, he alleged that institutions were being packed with people who believed in the RSS ideology.

Gandhi started his address to Congress workers at the Talkatora Stadium, where the partys year-long programme was launched, by quoting from what he described as a statement by the Prime Minister. Modi saw spirituality in the sanitation work done by the Valmiki community, he said, adding, that this was the mindset of the Prime Minister.

There was no place for Dalits, weaker sections of the society and women in Modis heart, Gandhi claimed.

The entire country understands our Prime Minister is interested in only one thing. Modi ji has an interest in only Modi ji. How does Narendra Modi ji become the Prime Minister (again)? This is the only question whose answers Modi ji wants, Gandhi said.

May Dalits die, atrocities are inflicted on minorities, may the country burn, may women be raped, Narendra Modi is interested in only becoming the prime minister (again). He is interested in doing only those things which will make him PM (again), he said.  PTI
TORONTO, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Van Eck Associates Corporation (VanEck) announced today that it filed on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) the attached Early Warning Report with respect to ordinary shares of Centamin plc (the Issuer) held by certain funds managed by VanEck. This press release is being made by VanEck to report historical acquisitions in the Issuer by VanEck and the funds that it manages.



VanEck is an investment manager as defined in National Instrument 62-103 by virtue of being registered to provide investment counseling, portfolio management or similar advisory services in respect of securities under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 of the United States of America, as amended, and by providing the advisory services referred to above for valuable consideration under a contractual arrangement.

VanEck exercises control or direction, but not direct ownership, over certain ordinary shares of the Issuer held by various funds managed by VanEck. As of the date hereof, VanEck exercises control or direction over approximately 126,276,835 ordinary shares of the Issuer representing approximately 10.96% of the total issued and outstanding ordinary shares of the Issuer.

A copy of the Early Warning Report will appear with the Issuers documents on the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval and may be obtained upon request from VanEck Associates Corporation, 666 Third Avenue, 9th floor, New York, NY 10017 USA, Attention: Andrew Tilzer, Assistant Vice President (Phone: (813) 964-3645).
pardeepdhull@gmail.com

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 24

Noting that even the dead have dignity, the Supreme Court on Tuesday took exception to disclosure of identity of rape victims, including the eight-year-old girl who was raped and killed in Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir.

Think of the dignity of dead also. It (media reporting) can be done without naming or shaming them. The dead also have dignity, a headed by Justice Madan B Lokur said.

The issue was raised by senior counsel Indira Jaising who said Section 228-A of the Indian Penal Code prohibited disclosure of identity of victims of sexual offences. Jaisingwho is assisting the court as an amicus curiae on the issue of safety and security of women and use of Nirbhaya Fund, said the court should clarify the legal position on the issue.

While agreeing to examine the Section 228-A IPC, the Bench  also comprising Justice Deepak Gupta  wondered how the identity of a minor rape victim could be disclosed even after getting her parents consent.

Why should this happen, that the identity of a minor victim be disclosed just because her parents have given consent even if a person is of unsound mind, she has a right to privacy. A minor will become major. Why should this stigma be there for life? it asked.

The Bench said rape victims could not be named or shamed. Even in cases where the rape victims were alive and were either minors or of unsound mind, their identities should not be revealed as they have the right to privacy and they cannot live under such a stigma throughout their life.

Jaising, however, said there could not be a blanket ban on the media in such cases and the court would have to strike a balance between freedom of press and the rights of rape victims.

The Bench posted the matter for hearing on May 8 after the Centres counsel sought time to seek instructions.

The Delhi High Court had last week asked 12 media houses to pay a compensation of Rs 10 lakh each for revealing the identity of the Kathua rape victim. These newspapers and TV news channels had tendered apology to the HC for revealing the identity of the victim.

Section 228-A IPC provides for a jail term of up to two years along with a fine for revealing the identity of a rape victim. Section 23 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act lays prescribes certain curbs on the media with regard to reporting of cases of sexual offences against children.

It also sought details of the funds allocated to the states by the Centre from Nirbhaya Fund, set up in 2013 after the December 16, 2012, gang-rape and murder case in Delhi to support initiatives on womens safety across the country.
editorial@tribune.com

Guwahati, April 23

Opening a new chapter in air connectivity in the frontier state of Arunachal Pradesh, an Alliance aircraft  ATR 42, made successful test-landing at the civil terminal of Pasighat Advance Landing Ground (ALG) at 12.30 pm on Monday.

The aircraft with its crew reached Pasighat from Guwahati in 2 hours 20 minutes. They were accorded a warm reception at Pasighat by local legislator Kaling Moyong. Chief Minister Pema Khandu said a new chapter in the history of Arunachal Pradesh has begun with the successful test-landing of the Alliance aircraft.

Soon we would have the first civilian aircraft fly off from Pasighat and I am optimistic the same would follow in various ALGs of the state encompassing our state in the countrys flight map, Khandu said, adding that one of the greatest challenges of connectivity facing the state had been overcome.

The test-landing was overseen by officials of DGCA, BCAS, AAI and representatives of Alliance airlines in coordination with the district administration and officials of the state civil aviation department.  TNS
editorial@tribune.com

New Delhi, April 23

Facing the Opposition heat over rejection of a move to remove the Chief Justice of India, top sources in the government said on Monday the Rajya Sabha Chairman has the statutory right to reject a notice to impeach a judge.

Citing provisions in the Judges Inquiry Act, the sources pointed out that the Rajya Sabha Chairman or Lok Sabha Speaker can either admit the motion or refuse to admit the same based on consultations and material available.

Leaders of seven opposition parties had on Friday last met Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu and handed over a notice of impeachment against the Chief Justice of India, bearing signatures of 64 MPs and seven former members, who recently retired.

However, the notice was rejected on Monday morning by Naidu. "The Chairman has the statutory right to reject the motion and statutory obligation to consult before arriving at a decision," a top government functionary said.

He also asserted that "mere numbers" are not enough to "trigger" the motion. Referring to Article 124 of the Constitution, sources said the notice should have grounds of "proved misbehaviour or incapacity". "Those who complain must be sure of the grounds for removal.. In this case, the complainants were not sure," the functionary said.

"Sufficient grounds have to be proved to trigger an inquiry (by a three-member panel headed by a SC judge)...the evidence has to be contemporaneous," the functionary said.

He said if "some sanity" is not brought in the political system, the morale of the judiciary may be "hit".

Naidu rejected the notice after seeking opinion of legal and constitutional experts, including former secretary generals of Lok Sabha and other legal luminaries with whom he held extensive consultations. Naidu also took the views of top legal and constitutional experts, including former chief justices, over the past two days before taking the decision. He said the allegations emerging from the present case have a "serious tendency" of undermining the independence of judiciary.  PTI

Cong wants anarchy

Congress is adopting intimidatory tactics towards SC and its move is not an attack on the individual but an institution as it wants to create anarchy by making people lose faith in the judiciary. Meenakshi Lekhi, BJP spokesperson

Cong politicised Loya death

Congress, being defeated by the people repeatedly, cant run the country through corridors of courts based upon half-baked, false and sponsored litigations it used the death of Judge Loya as a political tool. Ravi Shankar Prasad, Law Minister

Time to impeach Cong

Its time to impeach Congress... people started the process in 2014 (General Election) which will be completed with the Karnataka results Rahul Gandhi is a failed politician. Thats why he has stooped to undermining national institutions in desperation. Sambit Patra, BJP leader

Norms not followed

I am sorry to say that about the honourable Vice-President and Chairman of RS (Naidu), but I think that the methods, that had been clearly laid down  both in the constitutional procedures and rules  have not been followed. Sitaram Yechury, CPM general secretary

Decide further move

Parties concerned will have to examine the grounds on which the motion has been rejected. We have to share our views and decide on the future course of action. We will consult all parties. D Raja, CPI leader

V-P found no merit in it

The vice president has applied his mind. He has consulted legal experts and has come to a decision. We did not want the matter hanging indefinitely. He has gone into the matter and found no merit in it. Soli Sorabjee, Eminent Jurist

Worse than Emergency

The situation created by the Modi government is even worse than the Emergency proclaimed by Indira Gandhi No community is feeling secure due to the actions of the present government at the Centre. Yashwant Sinha, Former Union Minister

Rejecting vs rescuing democracy

Its a fight between forces rejecting democracy and voices rescuing democracy Within hours of submitting notice, Arun Jaitley had shown naked prejudice by calling it a revenge petition, dictating the verdict to the RS chairman. Randeep Singh Surjewala, AICC media in-charge
pardeepdhull@gmail.com

Ahmedabad, April 23

Amreli Superintendent of Police (SP) Jagdish Patel has been detained by the Gujarat CID-Crime for questioning for his alleged role in extorting bitcoins and cash from a builder, an official said on Monday.

Jagdish Patel was taken into custody from his residence in Amreli district on Sunday night and brought to Gandhinagar by the CID-Crime, which is probing the case, he said.

Amreli SP Jagdish Patel has been detained by us for questioning. He has not been arrested yet, Gujarat CID-Crime DGP Ashish Bhatia said.

A few days back, a police inspector from Amreli district, Anant Patel, was arrested in the case. He is accused of extorting bitcoins worth crores of rupees and cash from Surat-based builder Shailesh Bhatt.

Besides Anant Patel, nine other policemen and a middleman from Amreli had been made accused in the case.

Before Anant Patel, two constables and the middleman were also arrested by the probe agency.

Notably, Jagdish Patels name does not figure in the FIR.

On April 8, the CID-Crime registered a case against Anant Patel and others for allegedly kidnapping Bhatt and extorting bitcoins, a popular crypto-currency, and some cash from him.

They were booked under IPC sections related to kidnapping, extortion, illegal detention as well as under relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Bhatt, in his compliant, had alleged he was kidnapped from near a hotel in Gandhinagar by the accused policemen on February 9.

The realtor had claimed he was taken to a farmhouse near the state capital, where Anant Patel beat him and forced him to digitally transfer 200 bitcoins worth crores of rupees.

The police had earlier said they were verifying Bhatts claim of digitally transferring 200 bitcoins to Anant Patel.

The exchange rate of one bitcoin is over Rs 5 lakh at present, as per the websites which track the prices of crypto-currencies.

Bitcoin is a type of digital money that is issued and normally controlled by its developers and used and accepted among the members of the virtual community.

The Centre has said it does not recognise bitcoin or any other crypto-currency as legal tender in India. PTI
gspannu7@gmail.com

Beijing, April 24

In a veiled attack on Pakistan, India on Tuesday asserted that arguments of political convenience to provide an alibi for terrorist organisations are no longer tolerable and the international community should identify states that provide sanctuary to terror groups.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, addressing separate meetings of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) here in the Chinese capital, underlined Indias strong opposition to cross-border terrorism and the urgent need to build a strong security architecture to combat the threat posed by it.

In her address at the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers meeting, also attended by Pakistan Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif, Swaraj raised the issue of global terrorism.

Read: UNSC 'increasingly unable' to respond to security challenges, says India at SCO



'Differences shouldnt lead to disputes in India-China ties'

There are a number of challenges that are being faced by the world today, foremost being the threat of global terrorism and the imminent need to build a strong security architecture to combat it, she said.

Terrorism is an enemy of the basic human rights  of life, peace and prosperity, Swaraj said.

The criminal terrorist militias are not impeded by borders as they seek to destroy the architecture of international stability and build walls of fear in societies that believe in pluralism, she said.

We strongly believe that our fight against terrorism should not only seek to eliminate terrorists but should also identify and take strong measures against States that encourage, support and finance terrorism and provide sanctuary to terrorists and terror groups, Swaraj said without mentioning any country.

Addressing the SCO Defence Ministers meeting, Sitharaman raised the issue of cross-border terrorism and said the world has now realised that there are no good terrorists.

Arguments of political convenience to provide an alibi for terrorist organisations that support terrorism through material support or otherwise are no longer tolerable. Indeed, as the world has now realised, there are no good terrorists, she said in the presence of Pakistan Defence Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan.

India and Afghanistan blame Pakistan for providing safe havens to terror groups such as Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, the Taliban and the Haqqani Network.

The Haqqani network has carried out a number of kidnapping and attacks against US interests in Afghanistan. The group is also blamed for several deadly attacks against Indian interests in Afghanistan, including the 2008 bombing of the Indian mission in Kabul that killed 58 people.

We must adopt an uncompromising approach towards the persisting threat of terrorism in Afghanistan. India is committed to assist Afghanistan in regaining stability, including cooperation in building capabilities of Afghan security forces, the defence minister said.

Swaraj said maiming and killing innocent lives indiscriminately, constitutes the most blatant violation of human rights.

We have to work together to wipe-out this scourge from the face of the earth. In order to realise this objective, we must unite across our differences, strengthen our resolve and script an effective strategy against terror. We welcome the clarity shown by the SCO on terrorism from its inception, she said.

The SCO, headquartered in Beijing, was founded in 2001.

Comprising China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, India and Pakistan, the SCO aims at military cooperation between the member states and involves intelligence sharing, counter-terrorism operations in Central Asia and joint work against cyber terrorism.

India and Pakistan were admitted last year into the organisation in which China plays an influential role.  PTI
sanjiv@tribunemail.com

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 23

The Congress on Monday said it would file a petition in the Supreme Court challenging Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidus order rejecting the impeachment notice.

Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal said: We will certainly file a petition in the Supreme Court against this and would want the CJI to not take any decision with respect to it, be it the listing or anything else, well accept whatever Supreme Court decides.

Sibal said: He (Naidu) shouldnt have disposed of it without constituting an inquiry committee.

The Chairmans order says the charges are unverifiable. How can you verify without conducting an inquiry, Sibal asked. Describing Naidus move as unprecedented, illegal, ill-advised and hasty, the Congress leader stressed that never before in Indias history had a motion moved by MPs been dismissed at the preliminary stage.

As per Article 124 (4) of the Indian Constitution, A Judge of the Supreme Court shall not be removed from his office except by an order of the President passed after an address by each House of Parliament supported by a majority of the total membership of that House and by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of that House present and voting has been presented to the President in the same session for such removal on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity.

Meanwhile, Supreme Court judges, including CJI Misra, initiated court proceedings on Monday at 10.45 am, instead of the scheduled 10.30 am, amid speculation that they held a brief meeting on the issue of the impeachment notice against the CJI. The usual morning meeting of judges (CJI included) lasted a bit longer leading to the delay in assembling of the Benches, sources said, adding they were understood to have discussed the notice for removal of the CJI which was rejected by Naidu.
editorial@tribune.com

Smita Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 23

Dr S Jaishankar who retired as Foreign Secretary after an extended three-year term in January will now play a major corporate role. Confirming speculation, Tata Sons on Monday announced his appointment as president, Global Corporate Affairs.

Dr Jaishankar will report to N Chandrasekaran, executive chairman of Tata Sons in his new role, said a company release.

A 1977-batch IFS (Indian Foreign Service) diplomat, Jaishankar worked closely with National Security Adviser Ajit Doval on foreign policy and security issues in the Modi government.

As per the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) norms, a retired officer of Central Service Group A cannot accept any commercial employment before the expiry of two years from the date of retirement without prior sanction of the President.

The cooling off period was relaxed for Jaishankar whose term as Foreign Secretary was extended by a year in 2017 just days before his retirement. He was known to enjoy Modis confidence as a key architect in the Prime Ministers relations with US Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump. He was central to negotiations in Delhi and Beijing during the 21-day Depsang stand-off and 73-day Doklam confrontation between the Indian and Chinese militaries.

In his new role, he will be responsible for the Tata groups global corporate affairs and international strategy development and Tata Sons international offices will report to him. Dr Jaishankar will work with Tata companies to help them strengthen their business presence and positioning in their respective geographies globally, said the company.

Aside from key career assignments, Jaishankar also served as High Commissioner to Singapore and Ambassador to China and US prior to appointment as Foreign Secretary in January 2015.

Speculation was on though if he would be accommodated in some special envoys role in the Prime Ministers Office post retirement. I look forward to being part of the Tata group and working with key stakeholders to make an impact, Dr Jaishankar was quoted as saying by the group.

While some former bureaucrats have taken up private commercial jobs, most retired Foreign Secretaries in recent years have chosen the academic and think-tank world options. Jaishankar was also on a fellowship with National University of Singapore last few months.
sanjiv@tribunemail.com

Beijing, April 23

China on Monday said President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will discuss the threat of rising protectionism and the unprecedented changes in the world in the past 100 years at their summit in Wuhan this week and the world will hear very positive voices.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Sunday announced that President Xi and PM Modi would hold an informal summit in the central Chinese city of Wuhan on April 27-28 to step up bilateral relations and discuss global issues of common concern.

Edit: Towards entente cordiale

During the meeting, the two leaders will discuss the changes that have taken place and which are unprecedented in the past 100 years to exchange views on the strategic overarching long-term issues concerning bilateral ties, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said.

This will bring positive influence to regional and world peace, stability and development and bring more benefits to the people of both countries, Lu said.

As to the background against which this meeting will be held, Lu said: I believe you are also clear that the world is now faced with rampant unilateralism as well as the rising protectionism in the process of globalisation. All these new trends in the world have to be closely followed and debated.

Against such backdrop, China and India have a lot to discuss. We are newly emerging markets as well as developing countries with big population. So we believe the two countries will continue to uphold the globalisation so that it is more inclusive. So we have a lot of shared interests, concerns and positions, the spokesman said.

At Wuhan, the two leaders will exchange views on overarching long-term strategic issues as well as the latest trends of the world so that the world will develop in a more stable way, Lu said.

I cannot make a prejudgement ahead of the meeting on what will actually be discussed at the Wuhan meeting. What I said is a general background. So it is sure that the two leaders will exchange views on these issues. But I believe you will see and hear very positive voices, he said.  PTI

Sitharaman in China too

Beijing: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman arrived in China on Monday to attend a preparatory meeting related to upcoming summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). Sitharaman is likely to meet a number of Chinese leaders. She will attend the SCO defence ministers meeting on Tuesday.
editorial@tribune.com

Beijing, April 23

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday asked Indians and Chinese to learn each others language as it would help them overcome the communication barriers, which could further strengthen relations between the two neighbours.

Swaraj, who is on a four-day China visit, made the remarks during a programme, titled Contribution of Hindi in India-China Friendship, organised by the Indian Embassy. When two friends sit together, what do they want? They want to talk their hearts out to each other, share what they feel. And for that we need a language. I should be able to understand Chinese when you speak, and you should be able to understand Hindi when I talk, Swaraj said.

If there is an interpreter sitting between two friends, he may be able to translate the words, but not the feelings with which I say something. So, it is essential that we learn a language, and understand it, she said. I want to say that the way India and Chinas relation are strengthening, trade is increasing, we are working together on international forums, it has become increasingly important that you learn Hindi and we learn Chinese, the External Affairs Minister said.

She invoked the success of Bollywood hits such as Dangal, Secret Superstar and Hindi Medium to stress that Hindi films are gaining popularity in China, but said an understanding of the language instead of subtitles could improve their experiences of watching such films. At present, around 400 students learn Hindi as a subject in about 16 universities across China, said Prof Jiang Jingkui, the Head of the Centre for South Asian Studies at Peking University in Beijing.  PTI
editorial@tribune.com

Smita Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 24

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads to Wuhan City in central China on Friday for a first informal summit meeting with President Xi Jinping, there will be no set agenda for discussions, no burden of producing a joint statement and no pre-negotiated outcome document.

Unlike in a formal summit meeting, delegations from both sides will not be seated across the table with listed items to talk about. Rather in Wuhan City, the erstwhile summer retreat of Chairman Mao Zedong located on Yangtze River, PM Modi and Xi will have a few one-on-one sessions on April 27 and 28. With no note takers, the objective for the two top leaders will be to have a political dialogue to understand each others domestic policy intentions and how it shapes the external policy.

The objective is to have communication at highest level to understand perspective that each has of the other in domestic and foreign policy. So, discussions are to be overarching, broad-based and not specific in terms of issues, said a source.

The Tribune has learnt that the major bilateral sticking points in relations, including Chinese objection to Indias membership bid of NSG (Nuclear Suppliers Group) or veto shielding of terror mastermind Masood Azhar in the Security Council, are unlikely to be raised by PM Modi during his one-on-one talks.

India also currently maintains that post-mutual disengagement between Indian and Chinese militaries at the Doklam tri-junction with Bhutan, there has been no change in face off site or vicinity contrary to media reports, and the issue will not be a spoiler in the Wuhan talks. Discussions will focus on positives in relations without avoiding differences, even as we acknowledge the irritants, the source added.

First proposed in Xiamen at the BRICS summit last September, subsequent decision was taken to hold the informal meeting separately instead of along the sidelines of upcoming SCO summit in Qingdao in June where time would be limited between sessions.

Indias stand on Dalai Lama, Tibet unchanged

India has not changed its position on Tibet and the Dalai Lama, sources said. Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhales letter to the Cabinet Secretary, advising top ministers and government faces to stay away from official functions of the Dalai Lama that got leaked in the media was not meant to be some signal to China, he said. Instead, the source stressed that main function lined up by the Central Tibetan Administration to mark 60th year of the Dalai Lamas arrival in India, had political overtones about which Delhi had certain reservations.
CINCINNATI, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Smithfield Foods, Inc. joined forces with Kroger to donate more than 39,000 pounds of protein to the Freestore Foodbank. Smithfields contribution was part of the companys 2018 Helping Hungry Homes donation tour. Now in the programs 10th year, Helping Hungry Homes is Smithfields signature hunger-relief initiative focused on alleviating hunger and helping Americans become more food secure. The donation, equivalent to more than 157,000 servings, will help families fight hunger across Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana.

At Freestore, our motto of Food-Connection-Hope is strengthened by donations from great partners like Smithfield and Kroger, said Kurt Reiber, president and CEO of the Freestore Foodbank. Smithfield and Krogers hunger relief efforts align with our mission to not only provide food, but to also create stability and further self-reliance for people in crisis. Together, we can solve hunger and help keep our communities healthy and strong.

Smithfield and Kroger representatives presented the donation to the Freestore Foodbank at an event at the food bank this morning. Members of the organizations discussed food insecurity in the local community and the significance of this donation, which will provide protein throughout the food banks service area including a network of 400 community partner agencies serving 20 counties across Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana.

Smithfield has been a longtime ally to Kroger in the fight against food insecurity, said Erin Rolfes, Cincinnati-Dayton corporate affairs manager for Kroger. As part of our Zero Hunger Zero Waste initiative, Kroger is committed to ending hunger in our region by 2025  a goal we cannot reach without strong partners like Smithfield and the Freestore Foodbank.

This is the 17th large scale protein donation made by Smithfield to food banks across the country during its 2018 Helping Hungry Homes tour. Since the programs inception in 2008, Smithfield has provided more than 100 million servings of protein to food banks, disaster relief efforts, and community outreach programs nationwide.

As a food company, Smithfield is proud to provide wholesome protein to those in need, with help from partners like Kroger and the Freestore Foodbank, said Dennis Pittman, senior director of hunger relief for Smithfield Foods. We understand and take great pride in our responsibility to help these hungry homes through nutritious donations, while also inspiring others in the community to get involved in assistance programs to support the places we all call home.

For more information about Smithfield Foods Helping Hungry Homes initiative and a list of upcoming donation events, visit helpinghungryhomes.com.

About Smithfield Foods

Smithfield Foods is a $15 billion global food company and the world's largest pork processor and hog producer. In the United States, the company is also the leader in numerous packaged meats categories with popular brands including Smithfield, Eckrich, Nathan's Famous, Farmland, Armour, Farmer John, Kretschmar, John Morrell, Cook's, Gwaltney, Carando, Margherita, Curly's, Healthy Ones, Morliny, Krakus and Berlinki. Smithfield Foods is committed to providing good food in a responsible way and maintains robust animal care, community involvement, employee safety, environmental and food safety and quality programs. For more information, visit www.smithfieldfoods.com.

About Kroger

Kroger Cincinnati/Dayton Division employs more than 20,000 associates who serve customers in 109 supermarkets (including 18 Marketplace stores), warehouses and offices in the Greater Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, Eastern Indiana, and Dayton areas. With more than 4,000 groups participating in the Divisions Community Rewards Program, $4 million was donated back to local non-profit organizations in 2017. The division focuses its charitable efforts on hunger relief, health and wellness initiatives, child welfare and grass roots organizations. For more information about Kroger, please visit www.kroger.com.

About Freestore Foodbank

The Freestore Foodbank is the largest emergency food and services provider to children and families in Greater Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky and Southeast Indiana. The organization distributes 24 million meals annually to low-income individuals and families. The Freestore Foodbank supports 400 community partners in 20 counties throughout Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana, including food kitchens, homeless shelters, emergency food pantries, social service centers and program sites. By providing emergency food distribution, the Freestore Foodbank responds to the issue of poverty and food insecurity in our community and provides an array of services (emergency clothing, housing services, SNAP assistance, Medicaid outreach and others) aimed at creating self-reliance. The Freestore Foodbank is a member of Feeding America. Visit www.freestorefoodbank.org for more information.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/c6e7aa60-6085-460a-b0c6-98892cf667cb

Media Contacts:
gspannu7@gmail.com

Smita Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 24

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads to Wuhan in central China for a first informal summit meeting with President Xi Jinping on Friday, there will be no set agenda for discussions.

As the talks are informal, there would be no burden of producing a joint statement and no pre-negotiated outcome document.

Unlike in a formal summit meeting, delegations from both sides will not be seated across the table with listed items to talk about.

Rather in Wuhan, the erstwhile summer retreat of Chairman Mao Zedong located on Yangtze river, Modi and Xi will have a few one-on-one sessions on April 27 and 28.

With no note takers, the objective for the two top leaders will be to have a political dialogue to understand each others domestic policy intentions and how it shapes the external policy perspective.

The objective is to have communication at the highest level. To understand perspective that each has of the other in domestic and foreign policy. So discussions are to be broad based and not specific in terms of issues, said a source.

The Tribune has learnt that the major sticking points in bilateral relations, including Chinese objection to Indias membership bid of NSG (Nuclear Suppliers Group) or veto shielding of terror mastermind Masood Azhar in the Security Council, are unlikely to be raised by Modi.

India also presently maintains that post mutual disengagement between Indian and Chinese militaries at the Doklam tri-junction with Bhutan, there has been no change at the face off site or vicinity contrary to media reports, and the issue will not be a spoiler in the Wuhan talks.

Discussions will be focussed on positives in relations without avoiding differences, even as we acknowledge the irritants, added the source.

First proposed in Xiamen at the BRICS summit last September, subsequent decision was taken to hold the informal meeting separately instead of along sidelines of upcoming SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation) summit in Qingdao in June where time would be limited between sessions.

One Belt One Road (OBOR), boundary disputes, and Tibetan spiritual leader in exile Dalai Lama are among other major other challenging issues in ties.

While China calls OBOR an economic connectivity project, India objects to it having CPEC (China Pak Economic Corridor), that runs through Pak occupied Kashmir, as its flagship project.

However, India feels that as a leader different from his predecessors in many ways, Xi Jinping is open to free conversations instead of reading out stiff notes, and the environment could be positive for leaders of two important Asian markets to discuss broader bilateral issues and dynamics shaping up the global agenda today.
gspannu7@gmail.com

Ahmedabad, April 24

Over 5,000 people in Gujarats Bhavnagar district, battling against the acquisition of land by a state power utility, have written letters to authorities seeking permission to die, a farmers body leader on Tuesday claimed.

A total of 5,259 people, comprising farmers and their family members from 12 affected villages, have sought icchha mrityu (right to die) as the land they cultivate is being forcibly snatched by the state government and Gujarat Power Corporation Limited (GPCL), claimed Narendrasinh Gohil, a local farmer and a member of Gujarat Khedut Samaj, an organisation fighting for farmers rights.

He claimed that the letters, signed by these farmers and their kin, have been sent to the President of India, the Prime Minister and the chief minister of Gujarat.

Harshad Patel, Collector, Bhavnagar, said the farmers had dropped these letters, in which they have demanded permission for icchha mrityu, at the registry branch of the collectorate.

The registry branch receives and dispatches all the letters of the collectorate.

In the letter, the farmers accused the state government, and GPCL, of using police force to get them to vacate the land which the farmers claimed was being tilled by them for several years now.

The farmers alleged that GPCL was trying to possess the land more than 20 years after the power firm had acquired it, adding that such a move was against the law.

As per the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, a company cannot take possession of a land which it had acquired more than five years ago. To possess such a land, it will have to initiate the process of acquisition afresh, Gohil said.

On two occasions, the police have fired teargas on a peaceful gathering of farmers. We are being threatened and bullied by the government, Gohil alleged.

He added that the district administration has imposed Section 144 of the CrPC, a provision prohibiting any assembly of persons which the authorities term unlawful, in the 12 villages since over a month now.

GPCL and Gujarat Government want to usurp our land, despite the land legally belonging to the farmers. What shall we do in such a situation? If we do not have cultivable land, we shall be as good as dead, the letter claimed.

The farmers, in their letter, said that the forcible acquisition of land was making them feel like terrorists and, therefore, they would like to be killed by bullets fired by Army personnel.

We wish for this because we have been made to feel like terrorists by the authority. So my last wish is to be killed at the hands of the Army, the farmers said in the letters.  PTI
gspannu7@gmail.com

Lahore, April 24

Pakistan has extended for six more months the visa of an Indian woman, who had embraced Islam after marrying a local man during her visit to Pakistan to attend the Baisakhi festival, according to a media report on Tuesday.

Kiran Bala, who after converting to Islam has taken the name Amna Bibi, had applied for a Pakistani citizenship and extension to her visa.

Bala, who hails from Punjabs Hoshiarpur district, had arrived in Lahore by a special train on April 12 to attend Baisakhi festival celebrations.

During her visit, she embraced Islam and married a resident of Hingerwal, Lahore, on April 16 at a ceremony held at an Islamic seminary here.

She had moved the Lahore High Court on April 21 as her visa was expiring. The high court extended her visa by 30-days and also directed the Pakistans interior ministry to decide whether she was eligible for the six-month extension as per her application.

Approval for the visa extension of the woman was granted yesterday, the Express Tribune reported.

Confirming the extension of her visa for next six months, her Pakistani husband Muhammad Azam said, I will receive the passport and other documents.

The interior ministry, acting on the orders of the Lahore High Court, had summoned Bala and her husband to Islamabad.

The couple appeared before the officer concerned yesterday but there was a delay as she was not carrying her passport, which was with the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB).

Her passport was needed for verification of the first visa. The ETPB keeps the travel documents of visiting Indian pilgrims.

The ETPB later gave Balas passport to the immigration authorities after which her visa was verified, following which, the approval for an extension of the visa for six more months was granted, the report said.

I am hopeful of getting the Pakistani nationality too, she was quoted as saying in the report.

According to the present laws in India and Pakistan, nationality is granted by both the countries after seven years, the report said.  PTI
rchopra@tribunemail.com

Mandla (MP), April 24

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday suggested funds provided under the MGNREGA scheme be used on water conservation work for three summer months to curb water shortages in villages and boost farm activities.

He also said human power available in rural areas could be harnessed to realise Mahatma Gandhis dream of a village-centric model of development.

Modi urged panchayat representatives to spend funds provided under the rural job scheme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, only on work related to water conservation during the months of April, May and June.

We should work for conserving rainwater. Panchayats should spend NREGA (MGNREGA) funds on water conservation during April, May and June, he said.

The PM was addressing a well-attended gathering of tribals and representatives of gram panchayats organised on the occasion of National Panchayat Raj Day at Ramnagar in this tribal-dominated district of Madhya Pradesh.

Every drop of rain should be conserved. This would not only save our money but also save villages from a water shortage. This would also help in agriculture, he said.

Modi said people living in rural areas should focus on Jan Dhan, Van Dhan and Gou Dhan (human resources, forest wealth and bounty of cows) to develop villages.

In 2022, when the country will celebrate the 75th anniversary of its independence, we should strive to make villages as dreamt by Mahatma Gandhi, he said.

It can be done by using manpower for developing villages, Van Dhan by collecting neem seeds for coating of urea and Gou Dhan by using cow dung for producing electricity, bio-gas and manure for becoming self-reliant, the prime minister added.

Expressing concern over the excessive use of urea which adversely affected the fertility of soil, Modi urged the people to reduce its use.

The prime minister also laid the foundation stone for a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) bottling plant at Maneri in the district.

The Rs 120-crore plant will supply LPG cylinders to Mandlas neighbouring districts such as Balaghat, Singrauli, Rewa, Shahdol and Jabalpur.

He called upon public representatives to ensure that people in their respective panchayats were fully covered under the Jan Dhan yojana and the prime ministers life insurance scheme.

At the event, Modi handed over a cheque of Rs 2 lakh under the insurance scheme to a woman who had lost her husband.

He said public representatives should serve the people with dedication.

There is no shortage of funds now in the country. But there is a problem of priorities and transparent implementation of developmental schemes. Public representatives can play a major role in it, he stressed.

Earlier, Modi launched the Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan, which seeks to strengthen the Panchayati Raj system and address the critical gaps that hinder its success.

The Central government scheme aims at making rural local bodies self-sustaining, financially stable and more efficient.

The programme seeks to address problems that confront pnchayats by enhancing their capacities and effectiveness, and to promote the devolution of powers and responsibilities.

On the occasion, Modi unveiled a roadmap for the development of tribal areas of Madhya Pradesh over the next five years. Under the plan, Rs 2 lakh crore will be spent on the development of areas under tribal panchayats.

The prime minister also honoured panchayats for their achievements in implementing the governments e-governance scheme, making villages under their jurisdiction open defecation-free (ODF) and also smokeless by switching from conventional fuel to LPG. PTI
sanjiv@tribunemail.com

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 23

Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday rejected the impeachment motion submitted by Congress-led Opposition seeking removal of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra on five grounds of misbehaviour.

I am of the firm opinion that the Notice of Motion does not deserve to be admitted, the Vice President, also the RS Chairman, said in a point-by-point appraisal of allegations against CJI Misra in the April 20 motion signed by 64 Opposition members.

He said in absence of credible and verifiable information it would be an inappropriate and irresponsible act to accept statements which have little empirical basis and that he was satisfied that admission of this Notice of Motion is neither desirable nor proper.

Naidu said he reached the conclusion after carefully examining material contained in Notice, relevant provisions of the Constitution of India, statutory provisions pertaining to the removal of judges and inputs from legal luminaries and constitutional experts.

Going through the five allegations mentioned in the notice, I am of the view that they are neither tenable nor admissible. The allegations emerging from the present case have a serious tendency of undermining the independence of judiciary, which is the basic tenet of the Constitution of India, he said.

Naidu said Members of Parliament who presented the petition were unsure of their own case. Phrases they used themselves indicate a mere suspicion, a conjecture or an assumption. The same certainly does not constitute proof beyond reasonable doubt, which is required to make out a case of proved misbehaviour under Article 124 (4), he said in a 10-page reply.

Conversations between third parties with dubious credentials, which have been extensively relied upon, cannot themselves constitute any material evidence against the holder of the office of the Chief Justice of India, he said.

All facts as stated in motion dont make out a case which can lead any reasonable mind to conclude that the CJI on these facts can be ever held guilty of misbehaviour, he added. According to Naidu, he decided to expedite the process to end needless speculation. I am also aware that there have been a spate of statements in the press that seem to vitiate the atmosphere. I thought I should, therefore, expedite my decision and end needless speculation, he said.

Notably, just two days after Opposition parties submitted the motion, Naidu on Sunday set in motion the consultation process to decide on the motion. As he rejected the notice, Naidu also took the Opposition to task for a press conference on the issue, which he said was a breach of parliamentary conventions and violation of the Rajya Sabha norms. This act of members of discussing the conduct of the CJI in the press is against propriety and parliamentary decorum as it denigrates the institution of CJI, he said.

The Congress and six other parties  CPI, CPM, NCP, SP, BSP, IUML  submitted the notice on Friday. It was signed by 71 MPs, out of whom seven members had retired before it was submitted to Naidu.
sanjiv@tribunemail.com

Naveen S Garewal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh/Gurugram, April 23

Siddhartha Vashishtas family is looking forward to seeing their son back home after 15 years jail. Sources close to the family said that Siddhartha alias Manu Sharma had completed 15 years without remissions and was entitled to be released, like other convicts as per the jail manual. At the same time they were happy that Sabrina Lall, sister of model Jessica Lall, who was shot dead by Manu, had given a no objection to the jail authorities.

On March 5, 2018, Sabrina wrote to Welfare Officer, Central Jail No 2, Tihar, that she had no objection to Manus release after serving a 15-year term during which period, I am told, he has been doing good work for charity and helping inmates, which I feel is reflection of reforms... I would like to state I have no objection to his release, owing to the fact that he has spent 15 years in jail.

Jessicas sister went public through the media, saying: In my mind, I have forgiven him. It will be like a catharsis to forgive and move on. I also need to get on with my life. I dont want to hold on to any more anger or hurt. I feel that he has served his sentence.

The letter was in response to a communication from the jail authorities regarding financial assistance from the victims welfare fund, which Sabrina declined. I requested them to give it to someone more needy, she told the media, rubbishing claims of a settlement.

A source said the jail term was aimed at reformation of the convict and the jail authorities had acknowledged the social work done by Manu, who ran a NGO in jail for the benefit of other convicts.

When The Tribune contacted sources close to Manu and his family, they expressed the hope that Manu would be released soon and that the era of darkness for both families (Jessicas and Manus) would end. They felt that Manu had served the jail sentence with repentance in his heart and that he would be able to lead a normal and peaceful life once back home.

According to the Delhi Jail Manual, a convict serving life sentence is eligible for release after 14 years without remissions and 20 years after remissions, provided the conduct of the prisoner is good and his work while in jail is appreciated.
editorial@tribune.com

Archit Watts

Tribune News Service

Muktsar, April 23

Jasnoor Kaur, who stood third in the PSEB Class XII exams, has a message for society: Daughters can achieve big in life. They just need support of their parents. People should change their old mindset towards them. She got 97.33 per cent marks in commerce stream. She wants to crack the civil services exams and become an IAS officer.

I was expecting my name on the merit list, but never dreamt of achieving the third position. I worked hard, which paid off. Tina Dabi, UPSC topper 2015-16, is my role model. Being a commerce student, I will take admission in BCom (Hons) at Modi University, Laxmangarh (Rajasthan), and prepare for competitive exams, says an excited Jasnoor.

Her father Dharmpal Singh, a well-off farmer from Mehna village in Lambi, says: I am proud of both my daughters. Four years ago, my elder daughter scored 92 per cent in the Class XII CBSE exams.
editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Ropar, April 24

Old parents wait for their son, who left for Iraq four years ago in 2013, seems to be unending as they had not received any communication from him for more than three years.

Ramesh Chander, 64-year-old father of the missing youth, is now running from pillar to post, but to no avail.

Ramesh, while talking to the media at his home, said his son Sudhir Kashyap had left for Iraq after getting a job in Mosul on October 27, 2013, through a Chandigarh-based travel. After reaching there he used to call them up on phone. However, six months after, he stopped calling, he said.

He said when he did not get any phone call from Sudhir for long he contacted the travel agent, who instead of helping him in contacting his son, denied that he had sent him to Iraq. He even did not know the name or address of the employer of Sudhir, said Ramesh Chander.

Since July last year he had requested External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj writing two letters to trace his son, still there was no reply in this regard, he added. And now his worries had increased after knowing the fate of 39 Indians, who were trapped in Mosul, said Ramesh Chander.
editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Pathankot, April 23

A bag containing three live .22 bore cartridges and a political map of Pakistan found from a locality near the Air Force station on Monday sent the Pathankot police in an overdrive.

The bag was found by Capt Sat Pal Saroch (retd) from near his residence in Prem Nagar locality. He then informed the areas councillor and the police. The cantonment is barely 500 m away from Prem Nagar.

Vivek Sheel Soni, SSP, and a team of senior officers took the bag in their possession. Initially, it was said that the bag also had an Army uniform, but the SSP denied it.

Earlier in 2009, an ISI agent was held from the Prem Nagar locality. A few days ago, two locals had reported saw three men, one with a backpack, roaming under suspicious circumstances near the airbase.

On April 17, a carjacking incident took place in Bamial near the international border. The police had suspected that it was possible that the carjackers might have been fidayeens.

The police have put the city on alert. We are not ruling out anything. A search operation is on in Prem Nagar and its adjoining localities. A dog squad has been pressed into service. Forensic experts have also been requisitioned. The Air Force and the Army authorities have been alerted too, said SSP Soni.

The terror angle is definitely ruled out going by the investigations so far, he added.
MEMPHIS, Tenn., April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- First Horizon National Corp.'s (NYSE:FHN) board of directors has approved payment of a quarterly cash dividend on its common stock of $.12 per share. The dividend is payable July 2, 2018 to the common shareholders of record on June 8, 2018.



The board also approved payment of a quarterly cash dividend of $1,550.00 per share on First Horizons Non-Cumulative Perpetual Preferred Stock, Series A ("Series A Preferred Stock"). This equates to a cash dividend of $.387500 per Depositary Share (NYSE:FHN PrA), which each represent a 1/4000th interest in a share of the Series A Preferred Stock. The dividend is payable July 10, 2018 to shareholders of record on June 25, 2018.

About First Horizon

First Horizon National Corp. (NYSE:FHN) provides financial services through its First Tennessee, Capital Bank, FTB Advisors, and FTN Financial businesses. First Horizon operates more than 300 bank locations across the southern U.S. and 28 FTN Financial offices across the entire U.S. Our banking subsidiary was founded in 1864 and has the 14th oldest national bank charter in the country. Our First Tennessee and Capital Bank brands have the largest deposit market share in Tennessee and one of the highest customer retention rates of any bank in the country. We have been ranked by American Banker as No. 5 among the Top 10 Most Reputable U.S. Banks. Our FTB Advisors wealth management group has more than 300 financial advisors and about $30 billion in assets under administration. FTN Financial is a capital markets industry leader in fixed income sales, trading and strategies for institutional customers in the U.S. and abroad. We have been recognized as one of the nations best employers by Working Mother and American Banker magazines and the National Association for Female Executives. More information is available at www.FirstHorizon.com.

FHN-G

CONTACT:

First Horizon Investor Relations, Aarti Bowman, (901) 523-4017

First Horizon Media Relations, James Dowd, (901) 523-4305
editorial@tribune.com

Our Correspondent

Fatehgarh Sahib, April 23

The district police claimed to have arrested a gangster involved in the murder of former SAD minister Teja Singh Dhillons son Sandeep Singh, alias Bobby Dhillon, besides several cases of snatchings, dacoity and kidnappings.

He had been a proclaimed offender (PO) for the last two years in nine cases registered at different police stations in Punjab. The police recovered a pistol, .12- bore gun and three live cartridges from him. Addressing mediapersons here on Monday, Alka Meena, SSP, said the CIA staff of Fatehgarh Sahib got a tip-off that gangster Raj Kumar, alias Raju, resident of Mansa district, was roaming in the district. The CIA staff immediately laid a trap and nabbed him.

She said during preliminary interrogation, he revealed his identity and said he was involved in the murder of Bobby Dhillon in 2009 and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2012. He came out on parole in 2013 and jumped the parole in that case. He was again arrested in 2014 in an NDPS case. In 2016, he fled away from the police custody while on way to the Mansa court for a hearing from the Hoshiarpur jail with the help of his accomplices.

After that he snatched a Swift car from a pesticide dealer in Maur Mandi in Bhatinda district and a Dezire car from Haryana. He kidnapped a rice miller from Bhikhi town and released him after taking ransom of Rs 5 lakh. He along with his other accomplices looted Rs 6.5 lakh from a wine contractor at a wine shop in Bhudhlada.

The SSP said after committing crime he used to travel to the Ajmer Sharif shrine to take shelter. She said to avoid police arrest he was working in a stud farm at Bara Bhai Ka village in Ferozepur district with a fake identity.
editorial@tribune.com

GS Paul

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, April 23

Amarjit Singh (24), the Sikh jatha member who had gone missing in Pakistan, was reportedly found from his "Facebook friend's" residence in Sheikhupura, about 50 km from Lahore, on Monday.

It is learnt that he had taken shelter at the house of a Pakistani national, identified as Muhammad Amir Riaz. He will be deported to India on Tuesday through the Attari-Wagah border. Spokesperson of the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) Amir Hashmi said: "On his arrival to Nankana Sahib, he had left the Sikh jatha to meet his Facebook friend. The family of Razzak contacted the board and told it about his (Amarjit's) stay at their residence," Hashmi said. It is learnt that he was aiming to move to another country.

Sources say since Amarjit had earlier went to Malaysia on work permit for a year and it was likely that he was planning to move to another country through Pakistan.

When contacted, SSP (Rural) Parampal Singh denied having any information about Amarjit's location or his deportation. Amarjit is a resident of Niranjanpur village in the district. Amarjits passport was with the ETPB, but he never came to collect it within the stipulated time.

Amarjits father Rajinder Singh and mother Gyan Kaur have sought the Centres help. They claimed that their son had no intention to violate the law. Meanwhile, Pakistan Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee general secretary Gopal Singh Chawla has asked the SGPC to be careful while recommending the names of pilgrims.

(With inputs from agencies)
editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, April 23

Vivek Rajput of Teja Singh Sutantar Memorial Senior Secondary School, Shimla Puri, Ludhiana, stood second (academic) in the PSEB Class XII exams with 97.55 per cent marks in the non-medical stream.

His mother Harshanpreet, a housewife, overwhelmed by her sons success, says: I had asked him to gift me a first-class result. I have pinned high hopes on my son. We live in a rented house but I believe my son will build a home for us.

Viveks father Surinder Rajput is a man of humble means. He is a loan agent in a private company.

Today all our problems have vanished. We are thankful to the Almighty for showering His blessings upon our son.

Vivek, whose aim is to become a web developer, says he studied for only two to three hours while preparing for his exams.

His success mantra is simple  be regular in studies and keep calm.

I have a keen interest in developing websites and for that I want to become a web developer. I have decided on engineering in computer science, he says.

Viveks parents want the state government to help their brilliant son realise his dream, expecting some financial help.
editorial@tribune.com

Our Correspondent

Hoshiarpur, April 23

The mining policy is almost ready and it will soon be handed over to the government for approval. The state will follow Telangana model and ensure cheaper sand and gravel for people and multifold revenue for the government, said Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu.

The minister visited kandi areas in the district on Monday. He said in Telangana, there was only one river passing through 350 km area and the state earned Rs 1400 crore from mining, whereas Punjab rivers passed through 1,150 km area and the revenue from mining was just Rs 40 crore. Only the Kandi area in Hoshiarpur, spread from Talwara to Hajipur and surroundings, is sufficient for more than 50 years for all requirements of sand and gravel. It just needs 3 sq km to be mined to 10 ft for Punjabs requirement of a year whereas the area in kandi is more than 500 km and that too can be mined up to 40 ft. The government can thus yield Rs 4,000 crore through mining, he said.

The previous government earned only Rs 40 crore annually leading to a huge loss to the state exchequer. The cabinet sub-committee on mining will meet in two days and hand over its report to the Cabinet, he added.
rchopra@tribunemail.com

GS Paul

Tribune News Service

Attari, April 24

Before crossing over to India, 24-year-old Amritsar man Amarjit Singh, who had gone missing in Pakistan during Baisakhi celebrations, has disclosed his real purpose behind the tour.

A video clipping had gone viral in which he said he wanted to meet his Facebook friend Amir Razzak, who lived in Sheikhupura, in the garb of a pilgrim.

Amarjit Singh, a resident of Niranjanpur village near Amritsar, had reached Pakistan along with other 1,700 Sikh pilgrims to celebrate Baisakhi on April 12.

He said he lied to his friends family that his visa was valid for a month and a half.

The real purpose of his attempting to overstay in Pakistan is still not clear. He said when Razzaks family asked for his passport, he told them that since he was part of the jatha, the passport had been deposited with the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB).

Amarjits visa was to expire on the last day of the pilgrimage, April 21. His disappearance was noticed only when the entourage he was part of embarked upon the return journey. As he didnt appear to claim his passport, the ETPB activists were alarmed and a search started.

In the video clipping, he acknowledges that he came in contact with Razzak around six months ago when he was in Malaysia. He admitted that he had dodged the security guards to see his Facebook friend.

I contacted Razzak and told him about my Pakistan visit. I asked him how far was Sheikhupura and when he told me that it was not far, I decided to see him. I dodged the security only to meet my friend, he said.

Singh, reportedly, left the jatha on April 16 on a visit to Gurdwara Janamesthan in Nankana Sahib. Sheikhupura (also located in Pakistani Punjab), is around 50 km from there.

He said when the news about his disappearance was flashed on TV, Razzak's family informed the ETPB and he was taken in custody on Monday evening.

He said he was treated nicely and was now happy to be heading back home.
sanjiv@tribunemail.com

THREE days more and the Conference will meet at Delhi. Yet up to the moment of writing we have no adequate or reliable information about the personnel of the conference. That the Conference will include all the non-official members of the Viceroy's Council as a sort of ex-officio members as well as representatives of the local Governments, has been known from the first, and an Associated Press telegram to be found on another page states who among the ruling chiefs are going to attend. But on the most important aspect of the people, apart from the non-official members of the Viceroy's Council, have been or are likely to be invited we know nothing. This is extremely regrettable, to say the least of it.
sanjiv@tribunemail.com

MYSORE has just taken a step in the right direction by modifying its press regulation. There, as in British India, the existence of the press law is a matter of just and legitimate grievance to the people who have again and again asked for its repeal. His Highness's Government have favourably considered the representations of the people and decided to alter the regulation so as to rid of one of its most objectionable features. They consider that "before action is taken against any newspaper under the regulation opportunity should be afforded to the editor or other person concerned to state his defence and explain the position with reference to the charges brought against him." They have accordingly directed that a quasi-judicial enquiry shall be held before action is taken. The enquiry shall be conducted by a judge of the Chief Court and the editor or other person concerned will be allowed to be represented by counsel.
singhking99@yahoo.com

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, April 23

Uttarakhand and Bali on Monday arrived at an agreement to cooperate in the area of health, tourism, environment and culture.

A five-point letter of intent was signed by Governor of Bali Mangku Pastika and Uttarakhand Chief Minister TS Rawat. Governor of Bali, who is on a visit to Uttarakhand, had earlier visited the state in 2007 and 2014.

During the signing of the agreement, Pastika said both Uttarakhand and Bali had several things to offer to its people. The agreement will bring us closer and open more avenues of cooperation, he said. Mangku Pastika said that Bali was a majority Hindu state with 90 per cent of resident belonging to Hindu community. More than 5,000 people from Bali visit Haridwar and Rishikesh every year. He said that Bali is an important tourist destination and 17,000 foreign tourists visit the country every day.

Chief Minister TS Rawat said Uttarakhand was keen on increased cooperation with the Indonesian island, especially in the sphere of tourism, culture and health.

Later, Pastika met Uttarakhand Governor Dr KK Paul and Uttarakhand Minister for Urban Development Madan Kaushik.
singhking99@yahoo.com

Neena Sharma

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, April 23

Citing threat to their lives, the Uttarakhand government is providing security cover to several spiritual saints or babas headquartered at Haridwar at the expense of the exchequer. Besides Uttarakhand Chief Minister, Governor and Cabinet ministers there are several former ministers whose security needs are provided for by the Uttarakhand government.

Around six babas, who are understood to have renounced worldly pleasures, figure in the list of prominent persons availing security cover fit for political representatives of the Rajya Sabha. In fact, citing state intelligence reports, the Uttarakhand has upped the security category for Bhola Ji Maharaj, his wife Mangla Devi and BJP chief Ajay Bhatt. Based on the intelligence reports, the security cover (category) has been raised to Y category along with the facility of an escort.

On the other hand, the newly elected member of the Rajya Sabha Anil Baluni has declined security cover that was offered by the Uttarakhand government for his visits to Uttarakhand. In a letter written to the government, Baluni has said he does not require Y category security cover.

Others, who are receiving Y category security cover include parents of UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Usually, it is the security under Z category that is the most sought after and aspired by politicians, business men and Babas. During a meeting to evaluate threat perception for prominent persons, the committee on security set up by the Department of Home recently added some new names. The security cover for a few was upgraded. Out of the X, Y, Z and Z plus categories in the state, 16 persons are under the Y-category security cover.

Chief Minister, Chief Justice and the judges of the Uttarakhand High Court fall under the Z plus category type of security. They are covered under two layers of security comprising approximately 55 security men, including 10 commandos. The Z-category comprises 30-32 security personnel, while the Y-category security cover comes with 11 security men. All the former ministers too are covered under Y- category security cover but they do not have the facility of an escort.

The BJP government under TS Rawat that came to power last year has shown exceptional consideration towards the spiritual Gurus or Babas by providing them top category of security cover.
pardeepdhull@gmail.com

Karachi, April 24

At least eight policemen were killed and 23 others injured on Tuesday in three separate suicide attacks within an hour targeting security personnel in Pakistans restive south-western Balochistan province.

One suicide bomber detonated his explosives near a police truck on Airport Road in the provincial capital Quetta, killing at least eight security personnel and injuring 15 others, rescue and security officials were quoted as saying by the Express Tribune.

It is a suicide attack, Balochistan police chief Moazzam Jah Ansari said.

Half an hour earlier, two suicide bombers struck a Frontier Corps (FC) check post on the outskirts of Quetta.

The FC soldiers reacted swiftly as a result of which the two suicide bombers were killed in the firing, said the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Pakistan Armys media arm.

Eight security personnel were injured in the attack.

It was a targeted attack on the security forces carried out by militants but due to the swift reaction of the FC soldiers there were no casualties, Aslam Tareen, the Director-General of Civil Defence, told the media.

He said while one suicide bomber was killed immediately the other was able to detonate himself before being gunned down.

The dead and injured were shifted to a local hospital as security forces cordoned off the area and launched search for the militants.

According to Civil Hospital spokesperson Wasim Baig, 15 injured were brought to the hospital and being treated by doctors.

Nobody took responsibility of the attacks but the Taliban militants and Baloch nationalists often target security forces in the area.

In recent weeks, the militants have also stepped up attacks on the members of the minority Christian and Shia Hazara Muslim communities in Quetta.  PTI
LUXEMBOURG, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ternium S.A. (NYSE:TX), announces that it has filed its annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2017 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The annual report can be downloaded from the SEC website at www.sec.gov and from Terniums website at http://www.ternium.com/en/investor-center/. Holders of Terniums shares and ADSs, and any other interested parties, may request a hard copy of the annual report, free of charge, through our website at http://www.ternium.com/contact/.



About Ternium

Ternium is Latin Americas leading flat steel producer, with operating facilities in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, the southern United States and Central America. The company offers a broad range of high value-added steel products for customers active in the automotive, home appliances, construction, capital goods, container, food and energy industries through its manufacturing and service center network and advanced customer integration systems. More information about Ternium is available at www.ternium.com.

Sebastian Marti

Ternium - Investor Relations

USA +1 (866) 890 0443

Argentina +54 (11) 4018 8389

www.ternium.com




rchopra@tribunemail.com

Houston, April 24

Former US president George HW Bush has been hospitalised here after contracting an infection, a day after his wifes funeral, a family spokesperson said.

Bush, 93, was admitted to Houston Methodist Hospital on Monday after contracting an infection that spread to his blood, the day after funeral was held for his wife, Barbara Bush, according to a statement from his office.

The statement from family spokesman Jim McGrath read, He is responding to treatments and appears to be recovering. We will issue additional updates as events warrant.

Barbara, the only woman to see both her husband and her son sworn in as US president, died last Tuesday and was laid to rest on Saturday.

The couple were married for 73 years.

Former presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, George W Bush and their spouses attended the ceremony along with current First Lady Melania Trump.

Bush, 41st US president, was born on June 12, 1924, in Milton, Massachusetts. He served as command in chief from 1989 to 1993, served as a congressman, CIA director and Ronald Reagans vice president.

Bush attended his wifes funeral wearing socks decorated in blue, red and yellow books--a tribute to her legacy of promoting literacy.

During Fridays public viewing of Barbaras casket, he greeted and shook hands with several people who walked through the church to pay their respects.

On Saturday morning, former president Bush also hosted a reception for the visiting dignitaries before the private service. PTI
vermaajay1968@gmail.com

Washington, April 23

French President Emmanuel Macron arrives in Washington for a state visit likely to be dominated by differences over trade and the nuclear accord with Iran.

As Macron headed west, the Iranian government urged European leaders to convince US President Donald Trump not to tear up the 2015 deal between Tehran and six world powers. Allies also spoke out in support of it.

Macron said on Sunday there was no Plan B for keeping a lid on Tehrans nuclear ambitions.

He is on something of a rescue mission for what is formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which Trump has said he will scrap unless European allies fix what he called terrible flaws by mid-May.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called on European leaders to support it.The deal reached between six powers  all of whom but Germany are nuclear-armed  and Tehran put curbs on Irans nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.

Macron said on Fox News on Sunday that it would be better to protect the deal instead of to get rid of it as there was no other plan. Is this agreement perfect and this JCPOA a perfect thing for our relationship with Iran? No. But for nuclear-what do you have? As a better option? I dont see it, he said.

Macrons visit is the first time Trump has hosted a state visit since he took power in January 2017. While the French leader has tried to develop a close relationship with Trump since he took office in May, he has so far seen little tangible results on issues from Iran to climate politics.

The two men will get a sense of their two countries shared history during an evening meal on Monday night at Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington, the first US President and Revolutionary War commander whose alliance with France was critical to victory over the British.

Working meetings will be held at the White House on Tuesday before Macron addresses Congress the following day, the anniversary of the day that French General Charles de Gaulle addressed a Joint Session of Congress in 1960.

Trump and the 40-year-old French leader began their friendship a year ago in Belgium with a jaw-clenching handshake.

While some other European leaders have kept a certain distance from Trump, Macron has worked hard to remain close to the US President and the two leaders speak frequently by phone.  Reuters

The settlement

Under Irans settlement with the US, France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China, Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear programme to satisfy the powers that it could not be used to develop atomic bombs. In exchange, Iran received relief from sanctions. Trump has given European signatories a May 12 deadline to fix the terrible flaws of the deal, or he will refuse to extend US sanctions relief.

"The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action continues to be the best way to ensure the peaceful nature of Irans nuclear programme and to realise the promised tangible economic benefits for the Iranian people." Izumi Nakamitsu, UN representative for disarmament affairs

"It is either all or nothing. European leaders should encourage US President Donald Trump not just to stay in the nuclear deal, but more important to begin implementing his part of the bargain in good faith."  Mohammad Javad Zarif, iranian foreign minister
vermaajay1968@gmail.com

London: Ex-RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan is one of the possible contenders for the top job at the Bank of England (BoE), said UK-based Financial Times. Attracting Raghuram Rajan, the highly respected Chicago-based economist and former RBI Governor, would be a coup stated an article on Sunday. It said UK Chancellor and Exchequer Philip Hammond is starting the process to select the next Governor of the BoE to replace Mark Carney in 2019. IANS

Woman fined $500 in US over apple

Washington: A woman is facing a $500 fine from the US customs agency after a free apple given as a snack on a plane was found in her bag. Crystal Tadlock, travelling to the US from Paris, said she was saving the fruit for her onward flight to Denver, Colorado, but it was revealed in a random search by US border agents after her first flight landed in Minneapolis. She was handed a $500 fine. ians
vermaajay1968@gmail.com

Seoul: South Korea halted the propaganda broadcasts it blares across the border with North Korea on Monday, aiming to set a positive tone ahead of the first summit in a decade between their leaders. The gesture came after North Korea said it would immediately suspend nuclear tests, scrap its nuclear test site and instead pursue economic growth and peace, a declaration welcomed be world leaders. Reuters

Airstrike at Yemen wedding kill 20

Sanaa: An airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition hit a wedding party in northern Yemen, killing at least 20 persons, health officials said, as harrowing images emerged on social media of the bombing the previous day. Khaled al-Nadhri, a health official, said most of the dead were women and children who were gathered in one of the tents set up for the wedding party in the district of Bani Qayis. AP

Taliban attacks kill 14 troops, policemen

Kabul: Taliban attacks in western Afghanistan killed 14 soldiers and policemen on Monday as Kabul residents prepared to bury their loved ones slain in a horrific bombing by the Islamic State group that targeted a voter registration centre. Prayer services were held for the Kabul victims as families of those killed carried the bodies of their kin and dug the graves at a cemetery in the hills above the Afghan capital. AFP
rchopra@tribunemail.com

Kabul, April 24

An Afghan official says a Taliban attack on Tuesday killed four local policemen and wounded seven in eastern Ghazni province.

Arif Noori, spokesman for the provincial governor, says the attack took place on Tuesday when the insurgents targeted a security post belonging to the local polce force in the district of Jaghatu.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Noori said the gun battle lasted several hours and that the Taliban used artillery and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

It has been a particularly deadly week in Afghanistan.

A suicide bombing by the Islamic State group targeted a voter registration centre in Kabul on Sunday, killing 57, and on Monday, Taliban attacks in western Afghanistan killed 18 soldiers and policemen, underscoring the struggles the government faces to rein in militant assaults. AP
rajivbhatia82@gmail.com

Washington, April 24

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he and French President Emmanuel Macron could have an agreement soon on the Iran nuclear deal.

"I think we really had some substantive talks on Iran. And we're looking forward to doing something," Trump told reporters after a meeting at the White House with Macron. "We could have at least an agreement among ourselves very quickly. I think we're fairly close to understanding each other."

The US leader groused that the accordinked three years ago by the United States, Iran, Europe, Russia and Chinadoes nothing to tackle Tehran's ballistic missiles program or support for militant groups across the Middle East.

Macron is in Washington, in part, to convince Trump not to walk away from the deal and scuttle years-worth of hard won diplomatic gains.

Trump faces a May 12 deadline to decide on the fate of the accord.



On Monday, Trump hosted Macron at the historic Mount Vernon on the eve of the Trump administration's First State Dinner at the White House.

.@FLOTUS has selected the dinner setting and decor for the Trump Administration's first State Visit to pay homage to the long-standing friendship between the United States and France. pic.twitter.com/vqZVxxJE3u  The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 23, 2018

Mount Vernon on the banks of the Potomac River in Virginia is the estate of first US president George Washington.

Trump's first year went without receiving a foreign leader on a state visit. The Trump administration's First State Dinner at the White House will take place tomorrow.

"We had a great dinner," Trump told reporters as the foursome left after spending a few hours at Mt Vernon.

The dinner was closed for the press, but the two leaders along with their spouses posed for pictures.

Trump and First Lady Melania Trump along with Macron and Brigitte Macron toured the mansion. They were also spotted at the back Veranda overlooking the Potomac River.

The four spent a few minutes before the start of the dinner looking at paintings with their greeters. They then went upstairs to continue their visit.

Before leaving for Mt Vernon, the two leaders planted a sapling on the White House lawns. The sapling, a gift from Macron, was a European Sessile Oak measuring approximately 4.5 feet tall with an estimated age between 5-10 years.

The tree comes from Belleau Woods, and is a historic landmark of the US engagement in the First World War.

Over 9,000 American marines died in the Belleau Wood battle in June 1918 and the forest is a memorial site and important symbol of the sacrifice the United States made to ensure peace and stability in Europe.

"France is a very special country... It's a great honour," Trump told reporters to a shouted question.

Earlier in the day, Macron and Brigitte arrived at Andrews air force base. Being the State guest, they are staying at the Blair House.

This was the sixth time when the two Presidents met, with the most notable meeting being Trump's trip to Paris for the Bastille Day parade in July last year.

Since Macron came to power, the two leaders have had around 20 phone calls together, French officials said.

In September 2017, Trump and Macron met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City.

In July 2017, Trump spent two days visiting with Macron to commemorate Bastille Day and the entry of the United States into World War I.

And in May 2017, Trump hosted Macron at the official residence of the US Ambassador to Belgium for a meeting before the NATO summit.

"This visit will celebrate the long and enduring friendship between France and the US. Discussions will include economic, diplomatic and global issues," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters at her daily news conference.  Agencies


Transervice Logistics has worked with a variety of labor unions. The company gives some tips on how best to negotiate with unions. Photos: Transervice Logistics

Dealing with labor unions strikes fear in the heart of many business owners. From collective bargaining, to wages, to benefits and working condition issues, to grievance procedures, make no mistake about it, dealing with unions can be challenging.

Yet for nearly 50 years Transervice Logistics Inc., has worked with a variety of labor unions, including The Teamsters, International Association of Machinists, AFL, Communications Workers of America and Unifor (the largest labor union in Canada), as well as managing non-union operations.

Before engaging with labor unions, it is important to understand why unions exist. One reason is to bargain on behalf of their members for wages, health and welfare benefits and pensions, and to help provide job security. Unions also serve to make certain that their rank and file members are treated fairly and in accordance with the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

Mutual trust and understanding

While you may not always agree with the union, understanding its role helps you to understand why union leadership is taking a particular position. Its not personal and union officials are not taking a stand just to be combative.

By understanding the role of unions, you are less likely to be in an antagonistic position with them. There will still be challenges to overcome, but knowing the purpose of unions helps you remain objective, stay on an even keel when conflicts do arise and deal with union officials in a businesslike manner.

In a union environment it is important to understand contract language, but the essence of a good working relationship with organized labor is developing a culture of mutual trust. This does not mean there will not be conflicts, but trust goes a long way to ensuring manageable and successful relationships.

Regardless of whether you are operating in a unionized or non-unionized environment, the way you treat your employees, your adaptability to changing circumstances, and your flexibility will ultimately determine your success. Also, where there is a CBA you should abide by its terms.

Solidifying your relationship with employees in an organized labor environment is not that much different than in a non-union situation. All employees want recognition and Transervice does that in a variety of ways from having driver and technician appreciation weeks, to giving employees gift certificates for turkeys at Thanksgiving, to providing toys for the children of all Transervice employees at Christmas. We continually strive to create a true sense of family throughout the organization.

These are not activities or outreach covered by a CBA. But they are some of the more personal ways that Transervice conducts its business. In its dealings with unionized operations, however, our company is bound by the terms of the CBAs, which it negotiates with the various local unions.

We have found that CBAs can serve the customers extremely effectively and help us cultivate excellent relationships with organized labor. These are not mutually exclusive outcomes, although some people perceive there to be an inherent contradiction in achieving those two goals.

Union and corporate goals are more aligned than many people think.

Work toward common goals

Keep in mind that all parties are trying to do their jobs and avoid taking a contentious approach during contract negotiations. If conflicts should arise, it is helpful to remind the union negotiators that there is a common goal: to protect jobs and come out of the negotiations with an agreement that is reasonable and acceptable to both parties. Unions and their members have rights and so do companies that should never forfeit the right to manage their business and serve their customers interests.

It is also good to remember that during the negotiation stage it is unlikely that either side will get everything it wants. Even so, negotiating in an open and honest manner is likely to lead to better results. Keep in mind that no two CBAs are alike and each contract must be negotiated separately and reflect the needs of both the union and the company in that particular situation.

One way to speed up contract negotiations is for companies and union officials to develop their wish lists prior to the negotiation. That allows both sides valuable time to prepare a response prior to sitting down at the bargaining table.

Even with a CBA, however, disagreements do occur. When that happens, the parties may end up in arbitration, which is where grievances are ultimately resolved. The goal for both parties should be to resolve grievances as quickly as possible, especially when an employee termination or suspension is at hand. Arbitrators will rule only on contract language and intent of the parties when negotiating a CBA and their decisions are binding. Companies should keep accurate notes during negotiations in the event their intent needs to be clarified at a later date.

Ultimately, union and corporate goals are more aligned than many people think.

The goal of a company should be to employ capable individuals, compensate them on an affordable basis, provide them with benefits and retain their service for as long as possible.

Unions advocate for their members to ensure they are gainfully employed and are given appropriate wages and benefits in order to provide job security for their dues-paying members.

Just like individuals, companies have personality traits and those that are trustworthy and operate with integrity are far more likely to build and sustain successful relationships with unions.

Yet even with the best intentions, mistakes and errors in judgement will be made. When that a mistake happens, take responsibility for the error, correct the problem, and begin enforcing the necessary steps to ensure it doesnt happen again.

Let your actions speak for your intentions.

Dennis Schneider and John Walker are the president and senior vice president of Transervice Logistics. Transervice Logistics provides customized transportation solutions including logistics, dedicated contract carriage, fleet leasing, contract maintenance, material handling, equipment leasing and maintenance.

The article was authored and edited according to the standards of HDTs editors to provide useful information to our readers.
Freightliner has launched a dedicated refuse truck called the EconicSD in North America, based on a European design. Photo: Jack Roberts

Like all trucking market segments today, the refuse industry is experiencing a technology revolution. Refuses technology revolution is happening at double-time, as the trucks that serve this market are quickly adopting advanced safety systems, autonomous control systems, telematics, and highly sophisticated hydraulics that are enabling a host of new side- and rear-loading refuse collection systems.

Until now, if you saw a Freightliner working in the refuse industry, odds are it was a medium-duty 114SD or 117SD conventional truck. But now, Daimlers premier North American truck brand is heavily leveraging its European design and engineering expertise to bring the EconicSD low-entry cabover to the refuse industry.

This truck is a game-changer, said Richard Saward, general manager government and vocational vehicle sales, Freightliner, at the EconicSDs unveiling in Las Vegas on the eve of WasteExpo 2018. With this truck, we are offering refuse fleets next-level safety, productive and uptime, both inside and out. We now have a purpose-built refuse truck for this industry with a low COE configuration optimized to accommodate side- and rear-loader bodies.

The EconicSD is a mature design that has been hauling refuse in Europe since the 1990s. In 2012, however, Daimler completely refreshed the design, adding a more ergonomic cab in terms of both entry and exit, as well as interior appointments and the latest technology to enhance safety and productivity.

For its North American debut, the EconicSD has undergone an additional updating that Saward said included 128 separate enhancement projects. The result is a thoroughly modern design that is loaded with the latest safety, telematics, and autonomous technology.

Perhaps the most eye-catching feature on the EconicSD are the cab doors, which run the entire length of the cab and look more like a transit bus door than ones normally seen on vocational trucks. The result, said DTNA officials, is a design that allows even tall drivers to enter and exit the cab easily without stooping. The EconicSDs low-entry concept is further enhanced by a kneeling and lifting cab, which further reduces the trucks already low step-in height. A pneumatic, bi-fold passenger door with full-length tinted glass is available as optional equipment.

A Robust Suite of Standard Safety Features

Inside, the EconicSDs cab design is spacious and features an intuitive digital instrument cluster and a large, panoramic windshield. A highly optimized rear-view mirror system is designed to eliminate blind spots and complement onboard safety camera systems. Electronic stability control is standard, as is active brake assistance, adaptive cruise control, and lane departure warning. The EconicSDs short wheelbase and deep wheel cuts allow for excellent maneuverability in urban working conditions.

A slew of safety options can be specd for the new truck to complement the robust suite of standard safety features. These include Daimlers proprietary Detroit Assurance, a side guard object/pedestrian warning system, as well as a built-in camera safety system with 360-degree views around the truck displayed on a flat-screen dash monitor.

Under the small doghouse mounted behind the cab interior is the standard Detroit DD8 Diesel engine and Allison 3000 Series, 6-speed automatic transmission that power the EconicSD. Power output for the DD8 is 350 horsepower and 1,050 lbs.-ft. of torque. An engine brake and Detroit Connect Virtual Technician remote diagnostic system are standard.

In an age of electric powertrains and alternate fuels, Saward said Freightliner made a strategic decision to focus on diesel power for the EconicSD right out of the box. Around 50% of refuse haulers working today are powered by diesel engines, he noted. Everything is on the table for Daimler when it comes to electric trucks and alternative fuels. However, given the strong presence of diesel in refuse today, it makes sense for us to focus on that technology first and move to alternative fuels, CNG or possibly electric drivertrains in the future.

Freightliner will begin taking orders for the EconicSD in June. EconicSD components will be shipped in from Europe and assembled in Gaffney, South Carolina, beginning in April 2019.
MIAMI, FL, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Crystal unveiled the latest design details for its upcoming expedition yacht, Crystal Endeavor for Crystal Yacht Expedition Cruises. Aboard Crystal Symphony, Crystals president and CEO, Tom Wolber, shared the first glimpse of the luxury accommodations on the yacht during Crystals 27th Annual Sales Gala celebrating the companys top producers.



At 19,800 GRT, Crystal Endeavor will be the largest, most spacious purpose-built polar class expedition yacht in the world, accommodating just 200 guests and boasting all the luxurious amenities and special touches for which Crystal is known. The yacht will feature generous public spaces, a full-service spa and salon, six restaurants including Nobu Matsuhisas Umi Uma, expedition rooms and elegant suites that contrast beautifully with the rugged adventures beyond the vessel.



Crystal Endeavors suites are an important part of the overall experience that is rooted in luxury and comfort, even while in the midst of extreme adventure, Wolber said. These suites will be private havens of relaxation and personal service welcoming travelers as they embark on journeys to the far corners of the world.



Crystal Endeavors accommodations will be industry game-changers, as the largest, most spacious suites in expedition cruising, featuring private verandahs and butler service for every suite. Luxury touches include king-sized beds; walk-in closets; heated storage for drying parkas; spa-like bathrooms with adjustable heated floors, dual vanities, anti-fog mirrors and rain-showerheads.The stylish design is matched by state-of-the-art technological amenities that will enhance the experience with fine details, like ambient lighting, interactive streaming TVs and bedside iPads in every suite that offer voyage information and numerous international daily newspapers.



The 100 suites will include two Crystal Penthouse Suites (985 sq. ft. to 1,130 sq. ft.), eight Penthouse Suites (457 sq. ft.) and 90 Deluxe Suites (304 sq. ft.). The larger of the two Crystal Penthouse Suites features a two-bedroom layout, while the other one-bedroom plan connects to an adjacent Deluxe Suite through an adjoining entry, ideal for families and friends traveling together. Both offer dedicated dining areas and butlers prep space for in-suite dining from any of Crystal Endeavors Michelin-level eateries. The Penthouse Suites and Deluxe Suites offer separated sleeping and sitting areas, private verandahs and desk vanity areas.



Crystal marked the steel cutting milestone for the 100-suite Crystal Endeavor in January, and shared initial design plans for the yachts public spaces in March. She is set to debut in 2020. Details of the vessels itineraries and on-sale date will be announced at a later date.



About Crystal

The world-renowned Crystal Experience  featuring global journeys with Crystal Cruises, Crystal River Cruises, Crystal Yacht Expedition Cruises, Crystal AirCruises and Crystal Luxury Air  continues to entice the worlds most discerning travelers with incomparable luxury and unparalleled personal service. Crystal will expand its fleet with the upcoming Crystal Ravel river ship, the Crystal Endeavor expedition yacht and an entirely new class of ocean ships over the next five years.



Celebrating 27 years of excellence, Crystal Cruises is the Worlds Most Awarded Luxury Cruise Line, having earned Worlds Best Cruise Ship in Conde Nast Travelers Reader Choice Awards for 24 years; been voted Worlds Best Large Ship Cruise Line by Travel + Leisure readers for 20 years; and the Best Luxury Cruise Line by travel professional organization Virtuoso for three consecutive years (2014, 2015 & 2016). The readers of Travel + Leisure also voted Crystal River Cruises the Worlds Best River Cruise Line and Crystal Yacht Expedition Cruises the Worlds Best Small-Ship Cruise Line in 2017. Crystal is proud to be a platinum partner of ASTA.



For more information and Crystal reservations, contact a travel professional, call 888.799.2437, or visit www.crystalcruises.com. Join the hundreds of thousands who subscribe to the Crystal Insider blog, follow Crystal Cruises Facebook page and @crystalcruises on Twitter and Instagram, and engage in the conversation with #crystalcruises.

Attachments
TORONTO, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BlackRock Asset Management Canada Limited (BlackRock Canada), an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK), today announced the final April 2018 cash distributions for the iShares Premium Money Market ETF. Unitholders of record on April 25, 2018 will receive cash distributions payable on April 30, 2018.



Details regarding the final per unit distribution amounts are as follows:

Fund Name Fund Ticker Cash Distribution Per Unit ($) iShares Premium Money Market ETF CMR 0.049

Further information on the iShares ETFs can be found at http://www.blackrock.com/ca .

About BlackRock

BlackRock helps investors build better financial futures. As a fiduciary to our clients, we provide the investment and technology solutions they need when planning for their most important goals. As of March 31, 2018, the firm manages approximately US$6.317 trillion in assets on behalf of investors worldwide. For additional information on BlackRock, please visit www.blackrock.com/ca | Twitter: @BlackRockCA | Blog: www.blackrockblog.com/can

About iShares ETFs

iShares is a global leader in exchange-traded funds (ETFs), with more than a decade of expertise and commitment to individual and institutional investors of all sizes. With over 800 funds globally across multiple asset classes and strategies and more than US$1.7 trillion in assets under management as of March 31, 2018, iShares helps clients around the world build the core of their portfolios, meet specific investment goals and implement market views. iShares funds are powered by the expert portfolio and risk management of BlackRock, trusted to manage more money than any other investment firm1.

1 Based on US$6.317 trillion in AUM as of 3/31/18

iShares ETFs are managed by BlackRock Asset Management Canada Limited.

Commissions, trailing commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with investing in iShares ETFs. Please read the relevant prospectus before investing. The funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated. Tax, investment and all other decisions should be made, as appropriate, only with guidance from a qualified professional.

Contact for Media:

Julia Koene

T  416-643-4010

Email: Julia.Koene@blackrock.com
The domain turkeytelegraph.com may be for sale. Please click here to inquire
As part of his state visit to Uzbekistan, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov held talks with his Uzbek counterpart Shavkat Mirziyoyev in Tashkent. During the one-on-one talks followed by the talks with participation of the two delegations, the sides discussed a wide range of issues relating to the Turkmen-Uzbek cooperation in the light of the agreements reached earlier and other prospects of cooperation.

The sides noted the great opportunities available for Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan for the full implementation of the potential of cooperation in the trade, economic, transport, cultural and humanitarian spheres that are of great importance for ensuring peace, stability and sustainable development of the entire region.

Economic cooperation was the focus of the talks. In this regard, the two heads of state discussed issues relating to enhancing the long-term partnership in manufacturing sectors, as well as deepening the relations between the border regions of the two countries whose potential is significant.

The sides discussed the situation in Afghanistan, as well as a number of current regional and global issues of mutual interest. In this regard, the sides agreed to continue to support each other at the UN, CIS, OIC and other international and regional organizations, noting the importance of cooperation in combating terrorism, extremism, drug trafficking, organized crime and other global challenges.

During the talks, the President of Turkmenistan proposed to establish a Consultative Council of the Heads of State of Central Asia to address the pressing problems of the region. Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov also said that Turkmenistan, as a neutral state, stands ready to provide political space for holding an intra-national Afghan dialogue under the UN auspices.

In turn, the Uzbek leader said that Uzbekistan would take part in the construction of the TAPI gas pipeline.

The President of Turkmenistan invited his Uzbek counterpart to visit Turkmenistan at his convenience. The invitation was accepted with gratitude. The dates of the visit will be agreed through diplomatic channels.

The talks concluded with the ceremony of signing bilateral documents. The sides signed the Program of Cooperation in transport for 2018-2020; the Program of Scientific and Technical Cooperation for 2019-2020; the Agreement on sanatorium recreation of children in the Avaza National Tourist Zone; the Memorandum on transit transportation of ammonium nitrate; the Agreement on interregional cooperation; the Program of Cooperation between the foreign ministries of the two countries for 2019; the Agreement on establishment of Trade Houses of Turkmenistan and the Republic of Uzbekistan; the Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in sports; the Agreement on cooperation in plant quarantine; the Agreement on establishment of the Business Council between the Chambers of Commerce and Industry of the two countries; the Protocol on approval of the Action Plan on Cooperation in the field of certification for 2018. On the outcomes of the visit, the sides also signed documents on cooperation between public associations, research institutes, higher education establishments and other institutions of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

To the applause of the ceremony participants, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed a Joint Statement. After the signing ceremony, the heads of state made statements for the mass media in which they expressed full satisfaction with the results of the talks.

In the second half of the day, the President of Turkmenistan laid flowers at the Monument of Independence and Humanism in the main square of Tashkent - Mustakillik, as well as at the Monument to the first President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov. Then, the heads of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan laid flowers at the bas-relief of Magtymguly Fragi in the center of Tashkent and took part in the opening of Ashgabat park.

 TURKMENISTAN.RU, 2021
Jordan: Rising cost of medicines puts Syrian refugee family at risk

Ahmad, 21, and Baraa, 7, have not taken their medication for two months, after Jordan introduced rules that dramatically increased the cost of accessing healthcare for Syrian refugees. The government is struggling with the financial burden of hosting more than 650,000 registered refugees from Syria's seven-year conflict.
The Finnish Refugee Council has selected Sirwa Farik, a project officer and a resident of Vantaa, as the Refugee Woman of the Year and Ahmad Hosseini, a practical nursing student living in Kaarina, as the Refugee Man of the Year. The nominations were announced on Tuesday, April 24th in Helsinki.

Successful integration of immigrants is vital both for the society and for immigrants themselves. Through my own story, I wish to give courage to those immigrants, who find integration hopelessly challenging, Sirwa Farik, 45, says.

Farik arrived in Finland as a quota refugee in the year 2000. She is from Iraq, but had to flee the country after her husband was murdered and Farik, who was active in organisations defending the rights of displaced people and women, came under threat herself. Nowadays Farik is working on an Iraqi Womens Associations project supporting the integration of immigrant women, as well as a part-time family worker. She has been active as a volunteer worker and has, among other activities, facilitated peer support groups for immigrant women.

Sirwa Farik finds it crucial that upon arrival refugees are informed not only of practical issues but also of equality and womens rights.

Many immigrant women may have lived in Europe for ten years but they still live as in Iraq, where they have no power to influence their own lives.

The Refugee Man of the Year, Ahmad Hosseini, 19, is studying to become a practical nurse at the Turku Vocational Institute. He arrived in Finland as an asylum seeker from Afghanistan in the fall of 2015. Hosseini is active in the We See You network, which advocates for a just asylum policy, and he has also participated in organising anti-racist action in Turku.

Hosseini himself has also faced prejudice due to his background. He believes that the best way to counter hateful behaviour is discussion. If some people are labeled racist, what follows is a cycle of recrimination. Theres no benefit to that whatsoever.

Hosseini encourages also other immigrants to take action for a better society.

Dont only be here physically, but also mentally. Just as we have rights in Finland and the society supports us, we also have responsibilities, he says.

Both Farik and Hosseini want to bring to light the various reasons behind displacement, and the fact that no one flees their home country unless they have to. Both find that the knowledge on the security situation of Iraq and Afghanistan in Finland is insufficient.

The Board of the Finnish Refugee Council stated Farik and Hosseinis motivation to promote the issues important to them as one of the reasons for their selection. Both Refugees of the Year also have, along their own integration, supported other immigrants in starting over.

The Finnish Refugee Council has handed out the Refugee Woman of the Year award from 1998. The Refugee Man of the Year is now awarded for the third time.
Syrian entrepreneur Yara Al Adib gestures excitedly as she issues instructions to her team. On the other side of a gleaming metal counter, four Syrian women are shaping mounds of triangular fatayer, small pastries stuffed with spinach and pine nuts.

They have their work cut out. She and the team, all female refugees from Syria, are preparing for the grand opening of their first permanent site: a kitchen and takeaway in a suburb of Antwerp.

The event is 29-year-old Yaras finest hour. In the past year, her business, 'From Syria With Love', has blossomed from a street-food market stall into a fully-fledged enterprise able to feed up to 800 people at a time.

Yara, a Syrian-born refugee who grew up in Kuwait, had the idea of a catering business while wondering how best to help the many new arrivals to Belgium in the summer of 2015. From her own experience, she knew work would be a vital ingredient in their economic and social integration.

"You are contributing, it gives you purpose.

"Working is a way to feel useful again, said Yara, whose academic background helped her land a consulting job not long after she was granted asylum in Belgium in 2014.

Its a feeling that you are contributing, it gives you purpose. That makes you feel good, that youre not just a burden but you can give back somehow.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and the OECD, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, today (April 24) launched an action plan to expand employment opportunities for refugees. The document not only identifies the challenges, opportunities and best practices in the integration of refugees to the labour market, but also offers a list of concrete actions to support the successful employment of refugees.

Yara decided to focus her efforts on housewives, who would find it hardest to adjust socially and find work. The key, she was sure, was cooking, a skill that most Syrians take for granted but which could be put to good use in a catering business.

Yara Al Adib serves a guest at the launch of her catering company's first kitchen in Antwerp, Belgium.  UNHCR/Colin Delfosse

Syrian refugees (from left) Aklam Al-Khatib, Dhyaa Ahmad and Abeek Katerji, 32, work in the kitchen run by Syrian-born entrepreneur Yara Al Adib.  UNHCR/Colin Delfosse

Yara Al Adib at the launch of her catering company's first kitchen in Antwerp, Belgium  UNHCR/Colin Delfosse

"I want to show them that we are contributing, we are giving back, just like them" -- Yara Al Adib.  UNHCR/Colin Delfosse

Guests attend the launch of Yara Al Adib's first kitchen in Antwerp, Belgium.  UNHCR/Colin Delfosse

Yara set about building her team by approaching Syrian women she spotted on the street, in trams or in supermarkets. After a successful spell at a market, the orders began rolling in: weddings, baptisms, Christmas and New Year parties, large corporate events. The scale of the new firms unexpected success surprised the team and transformed their lives.

I was sad before I had this work, said Yaras head chef, Sabah Fadhel, 47, who fled with her husband and two young children when war engulfed their home in Aleppo in 2015. Its difficult to leave your country, your memories, everything behind.

But now Im doing something I love, and I know how to do. In Syria, making this food for my family was just an everyday task. Here, when I hear people say thank you, that was delicious, I feel good.

We arent a burden, thats what I really want to emphasise.

Yara says the project, which has attracted an army of supporters, has struck a chord with Belgians keen to welcome newcomers but unsure of how to help. At the same time, it sends a strong message that refugees can help each other and contribute to their host communities.

I know Im not going to convince the sceptics just by cooking, said Yara. I want to show them that we are contributing, we are giving back, just like them. We arent a burden, thats what I really want to emphasise.

Meanwhile in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, another Syrian-led catering project is also creating jobs, speeding up integration and helping newcomers and residents get to know each other.

On a Sunday evening, it is standing room only at Mezze, the citys first Syrian restaurant. This is not unusual  on most nights the attraction of home-cooked, Middle Eastern delicacies has customers queuing for a table. Tonight, however, the crowds are not here to eat, but to listen.

Lisbon's first Syrian restaurant (Zahra Mackaoui - producer / Bruno Galan Ruiz - camera)

Portuguese co-founder Francisca Gorjao Henriques and Syrian student Alaa Al-Hariri answer questions from residents as they grill a panel of Syrian staff members about life back home. The conversation is frank. Should women work? Is inter-faith marriage acceptable? What about dating?

People arent always comfortable asking questions in a busy restaurant, said Francisca, a former journalist. These monthly discussion events are a way for the staff and locals to talk and get to know each other.

Our objective was to create job opportunities.

Mezze has always been about bringing people together around food and breaking down barriers. The restaurant, which opened last September, employs 13 Syrian refugees. Among them are seven housewives-turned-chefs who, without qualifications or experience would have otherwise struggled to find work.

The idea for the restaurant came to Francisca and fellow co-founders Rita Melo and Nuno Mesquita while chatting to Alaa, a student from Damascus, at a party. Their talk turned to the hundreds of refugees who have moved to Portugal from elsewhere in Europe.

In Portugal its hard to find work, so our objective was to create job opportunities, said Alaa, 25, who came to the country on a student visa in 2014.

See also: German school helps women refugees hone tech skills

Alaa and the others agreed that jobs were vital to successful integration, and that women, especially those who had not worked before, would struggle to find them. A restaurant, they decided, would give Syrian women a chance to use their existing skills and enter an environment that would allow them to participate in economic opportunities that exposed them to the social world around them.

Women have this wonderful experience of cooking in their houses, but that isnt recognised by employers, said Francisca. Were saying no, they have skills and we should value them.

At a discussion evening in Lisbon's Mezze restaurant, Syrian newcomers answer questions from the Portuguese public.  UNHCR/Bruno Galan Ruiz

Between shifts, Mezze chefs Fatima and her two daughters, Rana and Reem, from Syria, sit down with other staff to improve their Portuguese.  UNHCR/Bruno Galan Ruiz

Syrian waiter Rafat Dabah sets the table for service at Mezze, Lisbon's Syrian restaurant. He has joined his mother and two sisters on the staff of Mezze.  UNHCR/Bruno Galan Ruiz

Syrian chef Fatima and her daughter Reem prepare the Syrian dishes that will be on Mezze's daily menu.  UNHCR/Bruno Galan Ruiz

Alaa was entrusted with searching mosques and online forums for talented cooks among Portugals new arrivals. The team was fixed after a highly successful run in a market prompted an overwhelming response from local media and helped raise a total of 130,000 euros in donated start-up capital.

For them its not only work, its about participating.

Seven months after opening, the restaurant still buzzes every night with residents keen to sample their first taste of Syrian food. However, the project has made the biggest difference for the staff, many of whom are now self-reliant and able to make a living off their own work.

We started to feel more independent, said Fatima, a 49-year-old former housewife from Damascus who works in the restaurant, with three of her adult children. We dont need help or support from the government, were responsible for ourselves.

Yet a job at Mezze means more than just a monthly wage. Alongside a food safety qualification, staff receive mentoring from professional chefs and twice-weekly language lessons from volunteers. The team plans to build on their success with a catering service and a second restaurant, ventures they hope will provide still more newcomers with work and a chance to showcase a piece of home.

At Mezze the staff are able to integrate in their own way, by bringing something from their own culture, said Alaa. For them its not only work, its about participating.
HOUSTON, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sanchez Midstream Partners LP (NYSE American:SNMP) (SNMP or the Partnership) announced today that it will host a conference call at 10:00 a.m. Central Time (11:00 a.m. Eastern Time) on Thursday, May 10, 2018 to discuss first quarter 2018 results. The Partnership expects to release its first quarter 2018 earnings before the market opens that day.



What: SNMP First Quarter 2018 Earnings Conference Call When: Thursday, May 10, 2018 at 10:00 a.m. Central Time (11:00 a.m. Eastern Time) Dial In: 1-844-824-3837 (U.S.) 1-412-317-5161 (International) Request Sanchez Midstream Partners Conference Call Webcast: Live and rebroadcast over the Internet at: https://edge.media-server.com/m6/p/2hfdcurb Replay: A replay will be available approximately three hours after the call through May 17, 2018, at 10:59 p.m. Central Time (11:59 p.m. Eastern Time). The replay may be accessed by dialing (844) 512- 2921 (U.S.) or (412) 317-6671 (International), and referencing the replay passcode: 10119826.

ABOUT THE PARTNERSHIP

Sanchez Midstream Partners LP (NYSE American:SNMP) is a growth-oriented publicly-traded limited partnership focused on the acquisition, development, ownership and operation of midstream and other energy related assets in North America. The Partnership has ownership stakes in oil and natural gas gathering systems, natural gas pipelines, and a natural gas processing facility, all located in the Western Eagle Ford in South Texas. For more information on the Partnership, please visit our website: www.sanchezmidstream.com.

PARTNERSHIP CONTACT

Kevin Smith

VP of Investor Relations

(281) 925-4828

General Inquiries: (877) 847-0008

www.sanchezmidstream.com




GLO.ACT supports multi-disciplinary training of prosecutors and investigators in Pakistan

Lahore, Pakistan - 24 April 2018 - UNODC, under the framework of GLO.ACT (The Global Action against Trafficking in Persons and the Smuggling of Migrants), organized a two-day workshop for prosecutors and investigators from 17 to 18 April 2018. The workshop provided participants with multi-disciplinary training on issues such as victim identification in trafficking in persons (TIP) cases, financial investigation, asset recovery as well as raising awareness about the methods criminals use to launder money and finance terrorism. This training was important, as within Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), for example, the same individual is the investigator and the prosecutor of a case. In some cases, this dual role can prove to be problematic.

Thus, the two-day session focused on a broad range of topics from victim identification, financial investigations and recovery of assets.

The objectives of the training were for participants to:

gain insights and knowledge with regards to the finances involved in TIP and the smuggling of migrants (SOM);

gain insights into how the proceeds of such crimes can be laundered and used for terrorist financing;

better understand how to conduct investigations across this broad range of topics; and

better understand which channels they can use to obtain relevant information and evidence from foreign jurisdictions.

Participants included 25 law enforcement representatives from different agencies, including the FIA, the National Accountability Bureau, the Anti-Narcotics Force, the Punjab police as well as the Pakistan railway police. The organizers felt it was important to include the railway police, as one of the most common modes of transport used by criminals to move their human trafficking victims and to smuggle migrants in Pakistan are trains.

The training was highly interactive in nature, and group work was a key feature of the workshop. Participants were split into three different groups made up of the various law enforcement agencies represented. This arrangement enabled trainers to encourage participants to share their best practices with each other. In addition, each group had to pick one case to present to all the other participants.

Highlights from the training included sessions given by Mr. Sajid Aslam and Mr. Asif Jah from UNODC in Pakistan. They spoke on national and international legislation with regards to TIP and SOM, mandates of the agencies present, and the power and authority to investigate these crimes. Both stressed the need for coordination at national, regional and international levels, especially when investigating money-laundering and financing of terrorism cases. The trainers encouraged the participating agencies to review their current coordination amongst each other and to develop formal procedures, including Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) for the referral of cases.

Another highlight from the event was a presentation delivered by Mr. Ehsan Gilani, also from UNODC. During his presentation he elaborated on the basic concepts of TIP and SOM while providing insight into the United Nations Convention on Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) and its protocols on TIP and SOM.

Furthermore, UNODC e-learning modules were also used during the training sessions, in particular modules focusing money-laundering and financial investigations. Over recent years, UNODC has developed numerous online training and e-learning modules that are interactive and specifically designed for law enforcement and criminal justice practitioners.

Upon conclusion of the training, participants received training certificates and, when asked, expressed their confidence in being able to solve problems based on the new approaches and ideas introduced to them during the course. According to one participant, "the training not only increased our confidence to solve problems but also strengthened our belief in our ability to apply what we have learnt in our work going forward". Finally, there can be no doubt that the participants brought a wealth of experience to the workshop, thus helping to making the training realistic, practical and innovative.

The Global Action to Prevent and Address Trafficking in Persons and the Smuggling of Migrants (GLO.ACT) is a four-year (2015-2019), 11 million joint initiative by the European Union (EU) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The project is being implemented in partnership with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). GLO.ACT aims to provide assistance to governmental authorities and civil society organizations across 13 strategically selected countries: Belarus, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Kyrgyz Republic, Lao PDR, Mali, Morocco, Nepal, Niger, Pakistan, South Africa, Ukraine. GLO.ACT works with the 13 countries to plan and implement strategic national counter-trafficking and counter smuggling efforts through a prevention, protection, prosecution, and partnerships approach. It supports the development of more effective responses to trafficking and smuggling, including providing assistance to victims of trafficking and vulnerable migrants through the strengthening of identification, referral, and direct support mechanisms.

Links:

Railway Police committed to curbing human trafficking and migrant smuggling in Pakistan

For more information, please contact:

Ms. Shahida Gilani

Programme Officer Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling

shahida.gillani@unodc.org

www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/glo-act/

Email: glo.act@un.org

Twitter: @glo_act
FREDERICTON, New Brunswick, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Trius Investments Inc. (Trius or the Company) (TSXV:TRU) is pleased to announce the following changes to its board of directors (the Board).



Yousuf Soliman has been appointed to the Board as an independent director. Mr. Soliman is a financial analyst at Smoothwater Capital Corporation (Smoothwater), one of Canadas leading activist investors. Mr. Soliman joined Smoothwater after its founding in May 2013 and has been involved in all of its activist and proxy campaigns. Prior to joining Smoothwater, Mr. Soliman worked for a Toronto-based investment bank participating in over 20 transactions in the equity and debt capital markets. Mr. Soliman is experienced in building financial valuations and other metrics for the assessment of prospective investments.

R. Gordon Wheaton has retired as Chairman of the Board and as a director of Trius to focus on other business interests. In his place, Damian Lopez has been appointed Chairman of the Board.

Mr. Wheaton originally guided a predecessor of Trius to complete its initial public offering in 1998, raising $200,000. Under Mr. Wheatons leadership, since then Trius has executed numerous successful acquisitions and dispositions and returned approximately $6,500,000 in cash to shareholders. Mr. Wheaton, who is well-known and respected in Frederictons business community, will remain a consultant to the Company to provide strategic corporate and leadership advice, and he is currently Trius second largest shareholder.

Joel Freudman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Trius, commented on the Board changes: Gordon has been instrumental to Trius success for more than 20 years, and we wish him the best with his other endeavours. The Board will benefit greatly from his continued strategic insights in his new role, and from the direction of Damian as our new Chairman. We also welcome Yousuf to the Board and are certain his investment banking background will be invaluable as we consider our next steps.

About Trius Investments Inc.

Trius owns interests in several real estate and healthcare investments in the United States. Trius common shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol TRU.

For further information, please contact:

Joel Freudman

President and Chief Executive Officer

Trius Investments Inc.

Telephone: (647) 880-6414

Cautionary Statements

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 press release.

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements, including those regarding the Companys personnel and future plans. These statements are based on numerous assumptions believed by management to be reasonable in the circumstances, and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties described in the Companys most recent management discussion and analysis. Actual results may differ materially from results contemplated by the forward-looking statements. When considering forward-looking statements, investors and others should also carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and should not place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements made by itself or on its behalf, except as required by applicable law.
April 24 2018

Online travel agency Trip.com has unveiled its unconventional Edinburgh HQ, a 13,000sq/ft office space which seeks to upend perceptions of what a call centre should be.The interior space seeks to bring fun and excitement to the workplace by way of wacky interiors in an effort to attract and retain staff. This includes a biophilic design approach complete with a set-piece overhead planting feature playing host to 600 plants, all in the aid of reducing work related stress.Lead designer on the project, Jordan McCaffery Partner of HK Surveying and Design, said: With the war for talent becoming increasingly challenging, office design plays a crucial role in gaining a competitive advantage.While the raw industrial style has dominated the contemporary workplace in recent years, we wanted to challenge the traditional approach by adding a twist. From taxidermy that lines the training rooms walls to large rotating propeller blades and playful wallpapers, there isnt a single corner of this office space that hasnt been thoroughly considered. While the moustache and galactical themed meeting rooms contribute to the desired fun and exciting atmosphere of the office, incorporating biophilic design into the built environment aims to reduce stress-related illness and redress the diminished connection to nature.Jim Scott, joint MD of fit-out specialists Scotwood Interiors, added: So many aspects of it introduced a fun twist on tradition including a huge variety of wacky wall and floor coverings. From breakout areas to the meeting and training rooms to the open plan space, every room and area is different, with quirky features telling you that you are not in a conventional work environment.Furniture, sourced locally from Bureau, includes ply-edge desk details and graphite tops as well as black leather lounge chairs. A lactation and wellness room is also offered to support employees returning from maternity leave.
SWINDON, United Kingdom, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sensata Technologies (NYSE:ST), an industrial technology company and a leading provider of sensors, held its first annual employee volunteer day today, in recognition of the 102nd anniversary of the Companys founding in 1916.



Sensata employees across the companys largest U.S. locations in Attleboro, MA, Bloomington, MN and Thousand Oaks, CA were offered a variety of volunteer activities. Events included a shoes and clothing drive, packing meals for food pantries, hosting STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) events with local schools, and beach and nature trail clean ups. Employees were able to select an event based on what matters most to them.

Nationwide over 500 employees participated in more than 14 different service initiatives. In the Attleboro, MA area, 100 acres of trails were cleared at local parks and childrens camps, and approximately 1,400 pounds of trash was removed from a Rhode Island beach. Employees also donated clothing and shoes to benefit the Attleboro Arts Museum and the Epilepsy Foundation of New England. In addition, Sensata employess held a STEAM career fair and helped build an outdoor classroom at Our Sisters School in New Bedford, MA.

In Thousand Oaks, CA and Attleboro, MA employees helped pack 58,000 meals for local food pantries through The Outreach Program. In Bloomington, MN, employees spent nearly 50 hours stocking shelves at the non-profit Volunteers Enlisted to Assist People (VEAP).

Sensata strives to be a neighbor of choice and through the Sensata Foundation we are able to provide financial grants and meaningful service opportunities for our team, said Martha Sullivan, President and Chief Executive Officer. In 2017, the Foundation was founded to more closely support qualifying charitable entities aligned with our core initiatives. To this end, the Sensata Foundation focuses on empowering the next generation of engineers and supporting communities where we live and work. We look forward to many more successful Sensata Day of Service events in the years ahead.

About the Sensata Technologies Foundation

The Sensata Technologies Foundation, Inc., is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting communities where Sensata has operations and fostering a passion for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects and all that they can make possible in the 21st century. The Foundation will achieve these objectives by making strategic grants, forging strong community partnerships and fostering innovation through financial support and employee volunteerism. For more information, please visit the Sensata Foundations website at www.sensatafoundation.org.

About Sensata Technologies

Sensata Technologies is one of the worlds leading suppliers of sensing, electrical protection, control and power management solutions with operations and business centers in 12 countries. Sensatas products improve safety, efficiency and comfort for millions of people every day in automotive, appliance, aircraft, industrial, military, heavy vehicle, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, data, telecommunications, recreational vehicle and marine applications. For more information, please visit Sensatas website at www.sensata.com.

Contacts:

Media:

Alexia Taxiarchos

(508) 236-1761

ataxiarchos@sensata.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/b9a6dcd6-9a14-4aad-a005-9fd63506f702
Published: April 24, 2018

Three UT Students Make Top Finishes at Hedge Fund Competition

A University of Tampa MBA student received top place, and another UT team scored in the top five, at the second annual Southeastern Hedge Fund Competition in Atlanta last week.



Nick Koen won first place and a $10,000 prize. The team of UT seniors Edward Morris and Victor Philaire also finished as a top five finalist.



The objective of the competition is for university students to propose an investment strategy that is attractive to a hedge fund.



Don Flagg and Jeff Donaldson, both UT associate professors of finance, served as UTs faculty coordinators.



A total of 21 universities participated in the competition. The other finalists included teams from University of York (UK), University of Delaware and University of South Carolina. Other university teams represented Duke University, MIT, Georgia Tech, University of Central Florida and University of Chicago.



Last year, a UT team that included Koen received second place.



This years competition was held at Georgia State Universitys Buckhead Center and hosted by The Southeastern Hedge Fund Association and Georgia State University's J. Mack Robinson College of Business.



Last year, UT students from the Sykes College of Business won first place in the inaugural CFA Tampa Bay Society Ethics Competition. In the past UT students won first place at a Global Student Investment Forum, and the Tampa Bay ACG (Association for Corporate Growth) Cup competition.
UW Researchers Help Citizen Group Setting Vision for Senior-Friendly Laramie

Bernard Steinman, assistant professor in UWs Department of Family and Consumer Sciences and research director at the Wyoming Center on Aging. (UW Photo)

Baby boomers are booming, according to U.S. census data, and a citizen coalition boosted by efforts from University of Wyoming researchers wants Laramie residents opinions about what is lacking in the city for seniors.

Meetings to collect input begin this week.

Laramies 50-59 age group is growing three times faster than the general population, says Bernard Steinman, a faculty member in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences and research director at the Wyoming Center on Aging (WyCOA) at UW.

The Age-Friendly Initiative wants to create a future Laramie that meets the needs of the burgeoning older population.

Ive never told anybody about this and not have them be enthusiastic about it, he says. It really gets a good response.

Laramie Mayor Andi Summerville signed a proclamation last week supporting efforts by the group to encourage and develop paths toward a city that provides for a healthy and fulfilling senior population.

The group will collect resident opinions during its first meeting 6 p.m. Thursday, April 26, at the Feeding Laramie Valley Building, 968 N. Ninth St. Other meetings will follow in May, Steinman says.

The visioning meetings are going to be very important, Steinman says. We want to get the voice of residents, the people who are experiencing these issues now, to find out what their priorities are.

Group members include representatives of WyCOA, the Eppson Center for Seniors and Foster Grandparents of the Rockies. The effort is through AARPs Age-Friendly Community Network.

The growing older population is a national phenomenon and also true in Laramie, Steinman says.

Data from the 2010 census show a general population growth of 13.3 percent for Laramie, but the 50-59 population increased at 33.3 percent, and the age 60 and over at more than 20 percent. Newer data are not yet available. Figures for each category have shifted by now, says Steinman, meaning the age 60-plus category is probably now showing the 33 percent growth.

We really do need to start preparing the environment so people can stay in Laramie and not have to move, he says.

Steinman, an assistant professor in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and gerontologist by training, helped with a similar initiative in Boston before moving to Laramie.

The age-friendly model used by AARP was created by the World Health Organization and emphasizes:

-- Outdoor spaces and buildings.

-- Transportation.

-- Housing.

-- Social participation.

-- Respect and social inclusion.

-- Civic participation and employment.

-- Communication and information.

-- Community and health services.

Senior access is the key factor, says Steinman, who adds that Laramie has many resources -- but, if people cant get to the resources, thats troublesome.

The AARP initiative also emphasizes those who want to work or volunteer should be able to work or volunteer, he says.

There are a lot of biases against older workers due to stereotypes that sometimes arent true, Steinman says. Overcoming these barriers, too, is important.

For more information, call Steinman at (307) 766-5688 or email bsteinm1@uwyo.edu.
SAN DIEGO, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CouplesRehabs.org is known for providing information about drug treatment programs for couples. The website releases new information and statistics about drug and alcohol abuse and its effects on relationships. Substance abuse is unfortunately prevalent in the United States. According to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, approximately 40 million Americans aged 12 and over currently struggle with addiction.



An additional 80 million Americans have been categorized as risky substance users  individuals whose substance abuse habits present a threat to public safety and the user himself or herself. The ubiquity of drug abuse also suggests that millions of Americans currently have a partner who also struggles with substance abuse.

Intimate relationships depend on consistency, honesty and compromise, so its no surprise that addiction can greatly hinder the success of a romantic partnership. If one member of a relationship is currently grappling with substance abuse or if both parties are struggling with addiction, its critical to acquire assistance from an inpatient drug rehab for couples as quickly as possible.

The longer addiction is able to inflict damage on a relationship, the less likely that relationship will survive the road to recovery.

Maintaining a healthy, peaceful family life becomes extremely difficult when a partner is currently active in their addiction. According to the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT), drug and alcohol abuse in the home can contribute directly to an increase in fighting between partners. It is not uncommon for this aggression to escalate into separation, divorce or instances of domestic violence.

The problem becomes even more toxic when tension created by substance abuse encourages one or both partners to continue their drug or alcohol use. When children are in the home, the consequences of a negative spiral of substance abuse and tension can be even more devastating. To learn more about attending a couples detox and treatment program that caters to married couples or those in a relationship contact the company listed.

Contact Info:

Author: William Leonard

Organization: CouplesRehabs.org

Address: 27420 Jefferson Ave, Temecula, CA 92590

Phone: 888-325-2454

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/c273a656-34d0-413f-a9c1-531aad685ffa
Neil Walker, the United Nations Development Program Resident Representative for Ukraine considers the ongoing conflict in Ukraine to have been forgotten.

By Sr Bernadette Mary Reis, fsp

In an interview with UN News, UNDPs Ukraine representative, Neil Walker, spoke about the current situation in Ukraine. He addressed continued targeting of Ukraines water supply, the ongoing violation of the cease fire, and the reality of land mines.



Water supplies targeted

Mr Walker explained that Ukraines water supply infrastructure continues to be targeted in the eastern part of the country. In one case he told of injuries to workers who were trying to repair damage done to a pumping station. Work cannot continue unless the safety of the workers can be assured. Until then, the water supply remains shut off. This reality sadly demonstrates that civilians and civilian structures are being targeted in this conflict.



Forgotten conflict

Mr Walker also expressed his opinion that this conflict is largely forgotten. Its incredible how many people are shocked to learn that over the course of last year there were 40,000 violations of the cease fire on average every single month throughout the year, he said. Cease fire violations decreased in the beginning of 2018, but according to Mr Walker they are on the rise in April.



Land mines

Currently Ukraine has the highest casualty rates associated with anti-vehicle mines, Mr Walker reported, ranking it the third or fourth most mined country. Its a huge problem, according to Mr Walker. A contact line measuring about 460km which is heavily mined makes traveling in that area particularly dangerous. The UNDP is addressing the situation but is hampered in its efforts due to the ongoing conflict.
NEW ORLEANS, April 24, 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 June 25, 2018 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Macquarie Infrastructure Corporation (NYSE:MIC), if they purchased the Companys shares between February 22, 2016 and February 21, 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 shares of Macquarie 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-mic/ to learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in this class action, you must petition the Court by June 25, 2018.

About the Lawsuit

Macquarie and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.

On February 21, 2018, the Company disclosed negative Q4 results, including earnings per share well below analysts estimates and a substantial dividend cut, attributing the dismal performance to declining demand in a specific fuel oil product, revealing for the first time the significance of that specific product to its business segment, despite prior statements touting the stability and strong performance of that segment.

On this news, the price of Macquaries shares plummeted from $63.62 on February 21, 2018, to $37.41 on February 22, 2018.

About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

KSF, whose partners include 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:
Law enforcement and first responders on scene at Yonge St. at Finch Avenue after a van ploughs into pedestrians in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Cole Burston/Getty Images/AFP)

Ten people were killed and another 15 are injured after a 25-year-old man appeared to deliberately mow down pedestrians in north Toronto, the city's police chief said on Monday (Apr 23).

Mark Saunders said the suspect in the incident, Alek Minassian, was not known to police and his motives were still unknown.

The police chief told reporters that police did not have "anything on our files" on the suspect.

Based on witness accounts, the actions in the incident "definitely looked deliberate", he added.

The incident took place in broad daylight about 16km from a conference centre hosting a meeting of G7 ministers, but officials said they had no evidence of a link to the event.

Police arrested a suspect at the scene, but earlier said it was too soon to say whether the attack in Toronto - which has a population of about 2.8 million people - had been deliberate, and if so, what the driver's motivation might have been.

"This is going to be a complex investigation," deputy police chief Peter Yuen told reporters. "We have one person in custody and the investigation is ongoing."

At the scene, an AFP reporter saw at least three bodies under orange sheets and a long stretch of road sealed off with police incident tape.

Dan Cass of Sunnybrook hospital said 10 injured people had been brought in. Two of them were pronounced dead on arrival and five were in critical condition.

Television images showed the man and a police officer facing off, their guns drawn. The suspect eventually surrendered his weapon and was taken into custody.

Vehicle attacks have been carried out to deadly effect by extremists in a number of capitals and major cities, including London, Paris, New York and Nice, heightening fears of a deliberate ramming.

Canada's minister for public safety, Ralph Goodale was asked at the G7 meeting whether the government had received any threats or information to suggest that the talks might be targeted.

"No, not to my knowledge," he said.

Standing alongside him, Canada's foreign minister Chrystia Freeland said the G7 meeting would continue as planned into Tuesday, with officials discussing ways to secure democratic societies from foreign interference.

"The work of the ministers obviously goes on. This is a very sad day for the people of Toronto and the people of Canada," she said.

"REALLY FAST"

Officers were called to the scene - on Yonge Street at the corner with Finch Avenue - at about 1.30pm (1.30am Tuesday, Singapore time), police said.

A white rental van with a dented front bumper was stopped on the sidewalk of a major intersection, surrounded by police vehicles.

Police inspect a van involved in a collision killing at least nine people and injuring 16 others at Yonge St. and Finch Ave. in Toronto, Canada. (Cole Burston/Getty Images/AFP)

"He was going really fast," witness Alex Shaker told CTV television.

"All I could see was just people one by one getting knocked out, knocked out, one by one," Shaker said. "There are so many people lying down on the streets."

Another witness, Jamie Eopni, told local Toronto television station CP24: "It was crashing into everything. It destroyed a bench. If anybody was on that street, they would have been hit on the sidewalk."

"IT'S FRIGHTENING"

Canada has only rarely been the scene of terror attacks.

In October, a man stabbed a police officer in the western city of Edmonton before slamming his van into a group of pedestrians, injuring four people.

And in Quebec in October 2014, a Canadian man ran over two soldiers in a parking lot with his car, killing one of them. The driver was shot dead by police when he attacked them with a knife.

In March 2016, a Canadian who claimed to have radical Islamist sympathies attacked two soldiers at a military recruitment centre in Toronto.
Britain's Prince William (left), Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, show their newly-born son, their third child, to the media outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in central London. (Isabel INFANTES/AFP)

The boy, weighing 3.8kg, was born at 11.01am (6.01pm Singapore time) with William, the Duke of Cambridge, present for the birth, Kensington Palace announced.

Britain's Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, carries his newly-born son from the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in central London. (Ben STANSALL/AFP)

"The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their son will travel home to Kensington Palace," it said.

"Their Royal Highnesses would like to thank all staff at the hospital for the care and treatment they have received.

"They would also like to thank everyone for their warm wishes," the palace added in a statement.

The couple stepped out of St. Mary's Hospital in central London around 6pm to cheers from a crowd of supporters and global media outlets gathered outside.

Members of the public flock to have a look at Britain's Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge as they show their newly-born son, their third child, to the media outside St Mary's Hospital in central London. (Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP)

Their two other children - Prince George, aged four, and two-year-old Princess Charlotte - had met the latest addition to the family earlier in the afternoon, before returning home to Kensington Palace ahead of their parents.

Charlotte gave a wave to the assembled well-wishers and media as she entered the hospital after William had collected the siblings from school.

Princess Charlotte (left) turns to wave at the media as she is led in with her brother Prince George (right) by their father Prince William (centre), at St Mary's Hospital in central London to visit their mother Catherine and their new-born son. (Ben STANSALL/AFP)

Queen Elizabeth II, William's father Prince Charles, and his brother Prince Harry were said to be delighted with the news.

Prime Minister Theresa May led the messages of support saying: "My warmest congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the birth of their baby boy.

"I wish them great happiness for the future."

Kate, 36, was admitted early Monday to St Mary's private Lindo Wing, where she had given birth to George and Charlotte.

Royal fanatics, who had been camped outside the hospital wing for several days in anticipation, jumped for joy and popped open champagne.

"We're going to celebrate with fish and chips!" said John Loughrey, who was wearing a Union Jack hat and clutching a plastic doll with a crown.

Maria Scott, 46, a housewife from Newcastle in northeast England, has been in place for 15 days.

"It's really important to show support because they need to know how much they are loved by the people," she told AFP. "We're very proud of our monarchy."

The baby was born on St George's Day, England's national day.

Tony Appleton, a town-crier dressed in a flamboyant red uniform, announced the news from the steps of the hospital to a crowd of supporters and media.

The birth was also announced on the display screen atop the 189-metre BT Tower in London, with the message "It's a boy!"

Meanwhile, sailors and royal marines aboard HMS Albion lined up on the flight deck of the assault ship on operations in the Asia-Pacific region to spell out "boy!"

NAME SPECULATION

The baby boy is a sixth great-grandchild for Queen Elizabeth, who turned 92 on Saturday, and her husband Prince Philip.

He will hold the title of prince after the Queen changed the rules in 2012 to ensure that all of William's children would be entitled to the style, not just his eldest son.

As with their two other children, the royal couple did not know whether the baby was going to be a boy or a girl.

Bookmakers have Arthur, Albert, Frederick, James and Philip as their favourites for the young prince's name.

The boy does not overtake Charlotte in the line of succession due to new laws agreed across the 16 Commonwealth realms where Queen Elizabeth is the head of state, including Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

A night at the Lindo Wing costs 7,500 (US$10,500), including a delivery package and two-room suite, excluding consultants' fees.

The birth was overseen by consultant obstetrician Guy Thorpe-Beeston, who is the surgeon gynaecologist to the royal household, and consultant gynaecologist Alan Farthing, the Queen's surgeon-gynaecologist.

They were part of the trusted team who also delivered George and Charlotte.

The duchess had suffered severe morning sickness during all three pregnancies.

GUN SALUTES PLANNED

William, who is destined to become king after Charles, and Kate met at St. Andrews University in Scotland.

They tied the knot at Westminster Abbey in London on Apr 29, 2011, in a ceremony watched by up to two billion people worldwide. The marriage helped breathe new life into Britain's monarchy after years of crisis.

The Sun newspaper reported on Sunday that Kate's sister Pippa Middleton, 34, is pregnant with her first child.

The new royal baby's birth will be celebrated with a 41-gun salute in London's Hyde Park and The Tower of London will also fire 62 rounds.
Festival promotes Sri Lankan culture in Hanoi

The diplomat told a press conference in Hanoi on April 23 that the event marks the 70th anniversary of Independence Day of Sri Lanka (February 4) and the 48th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Vietnam and Sri Lanka (1970-2018).

The event will be jointly held by the Sri Lanka Embassy in Vietnam, the VWM and the Hanoi Association of Small-and Medium-sized Enterprises.

The first-ever festival is expected to serve as a bridge between small-and medium-sized enterprises of the two countries.

Visitors to the festival will have a chance to get an insight into the island nation as well as the relationship between Sri Lanka and Vietnam through sketch and photo exhibitions, booths and a fashion show.

Vietnam and Sri Lanka established diplomatic relations in 1970. The two countries are targeting 1 billion USD in two-way trade by 2020.
Vietnam vows to develop a domestic automobile industry

New factories

Truong Hai Automobile (Thaco) on March 25 opened Thaco Mazda, which is considered Mazdas biggest and most modern factory in South East Asia, with total area of 30.3 hectares and capacity of 100,000 products a year.

On the same day, Thaco opened the Japan  Chu Lai international maritime route and received APLs first ship from Hiroshima docking at the Chu Lai Port.

The cargo carried by APL included Mazda car parts and machines that serve the manufacturing and assembling of cars at Thaco Mazda and the Chu Lai  Truong Hai Automobile Mechanical Engineering Industrial Zone.

While foreign-invested manufacturers have shifted to importing cars for domestic sale, Vietnamese enterprises have increased investments and expanded production, vowing to develop a domestic automobile industry.

Prior to that, in 2017, Thaco put Bus Thaco, the biggest bus manufacturing factory in ASEAN with the capacity of 20,000 products a year, into operation. The enterprise also spent money to upgrade car parts and accessory manufacturing factories which provide components to assemblers.

The newly opened factories, analysts say, show that Thaco is strictly implementing the commitments on making investments for Thacos new development period in Chu Lai Open Economic Zone.

The automobile manufacturer made the commitment to Quang Nam provincial leaders.

Thacos president Tran Ba Duong said that Thaco is raising the localization ratio step by step, expected to reach at least 40 percent for cars.

In its plan to export cars to regional markets, Hyundai Thanh Cong is considering opening a second factory in Vietnam.

The existing factory, in Ninh Binh province, now has capacity of 60,000 products a year. It makes Hyundai SantaFe, Elantra, Grand I, Tucson and New Porter 150 models.

4.0 technologies

Anticipating the new tendencies in the 4.0 era, Thaco many years ago decided that it needs to develop the Chu Lai  Truong Hai Automobile IZ into a modern multi-purpose mechanical engineering and automobile production center.

The newly inaugurated Thaco Mazda is equipped with the most advanced automatic production lines. These include a robotic welding line with laser technology and an 80 percent automatic assembling line.

According to Thaco, the group now has 20 car part manufacturing and assembling factories using 4.0 technologies.

VinFast, another Vietnamese automobile brand, also is thinking big with its plan to become the leading automobile manufacturer in South East Asia with the capacity of 500,000 products by 2025.

To reach that goal, Vinfast has signed a contract with Siemens on building a modern digital factory similar to the factories of world famous manufacturers like Mercedes, BMW, Maserati and Volkswagen.

Vinfast plans to launch two models this year, one sedan and one SUV.
Key infrastructure developnments are a gamechanger for Haiphong city

The information was stressed at the Haiphong Investment Seminar organised by Eurocham and DEEP C Industrial Zone with the support of KPMG and Saigon New Port. The seminar gave an insight into the investment climate and potential business opportunities at Haiphong city.

The development of Haiphong International Gateway Port, also known as Lach Huyen Deep Sea Port, is a recent key infrastructure project in the city. Haiphong International Container Terminal, a joint venture between local company Saigon Tan Cang Port and its partners Mitsui OSK Lines, Wan Hai Lines, and Itochu Corporation, pioneer the deepest seaport in the north of Vietnam.

With a draft of minus 14 metres, vessels with a capacity of 14,000 TEU will be able to make calls to Haiphong, a significant improvement compared to the existing 2,000 TEU port. Once Lach Huyen Port is in action from May this year, shipping times to Europe will be substantially reduced from 30 to 23-25 days, to the US West Coast from 35 to 27-30 days, and to the US East Coast from 20 to 13-15 days, thanks to new direct routes and the omission of transshipment. Accordingly, the incoming opening of Lach Huyen Port will bring more logistics advantages for the projects in the active city.

Substantially, the Lach Huyen port project is connected to the hinterland with other mega infrastructure projects, including highway connections to Hanoi, the coastal provinces, Quang Ninh, and China, as well as Cat Bi International Airport. These projects have turned Haiphong into the main gateway of North Vietnam to regional and world markets. In particular, they lowered the barriers to Vietnams major trading partners, such as Europe, America, the ASEAN, China, turning Haiphong into the new Ho Chi Minh City in the north of Vietnam.

"DEEP C Industrial Zones lies in the heart of this infrastructure network, bringing to investors advantages not only in logistics but also international-standard utilities provision, economic zone tax incentives, and support for investors to start business," stated Hans Kerstens, international business development manager of DEEP C.

The seminar also brings practical guidelines from experts of KPMG on setting up an expansion project in the north by companies that are already present in the south, while maximising the benefits of tax incentives.

The development in the region also caught the attention of European investors. This is the reason why EuroCham started its northeastern chapter last year, said Almut Roessener, executive director of EuroCham. Investment from market leaders, such as Accor Group, Hilton, Daiwa House, Fujita, and AEON have been pouring into the city to develop facilities for business.
The palanquin and offering procession was organised by seven communes and wards surrounding the Hung Kings Temple Complex

During the last three days, a huge number of people of all ages and religions arrived in the Hung Kings Temple Complex to pay tribute to their ancestors and enjoy cultural activities held in the framework of the festival.

On April 23, a palanquin and offering procession was organised by seven communes and wards surrounding the Hung Kings Temple Complex namely Chu Hoa, Hung Lo, Kim Duc, Van Phu, Hy Cuong of Viet Tri city, and Tien Kien and Hung Son of Lam Thao district.

The procession was led by lion dancers, followed by groups carrying national flag and festive flags and others playing ritual drums and gongs.

Meanwhile, another group carried offerings of flowers, chung cakes (square glutinous rice cakes), banh day (round glutinous rice cakes) and their local specialties.

The same days morning, a chung cake and banh day (day cake) making contest was held with the involvement of 13 local teams and one team from the northern province of Thai Nguyen who each had 10 minutes to make cakes.

A book festival and a photo exhibition also opened in the square of Van Lang Park in Viet Tri city, displaying 15,000 book titles and 100 artworks highlighting Phu Thos landscapes and people.

The local authorities of Phu Tho have prepared extensively for the Hung Kings commemoration festival with both spiritual and festive ceremonies. This years event is jointly organised by the southern provinces of Binh Duong and Kien Giang, the central province of Quang Nam and Thai Nguyen. It runs from April 21  April 25 (the 6th-10th of the third lunar month).

According to the organising board, this years festival is being organised safely and efficiently, leaving generally positive impression on visitors.

The Hung Kings Temple festival has become a standout festival that attracts a throng of domestic visitors and Vietnamese expatriates every year.

Vietnamese legend has it that Lac Long Quan, whose real name was Sung Lam, the son of Kinh Duong Vuong and Than Long Nu, married the daughter of Heavens God De Lai, fairy Au Co.

Au Co then gave birth to a pouch filled with 100 eggs, which soon hatched into 100 sons, believed to be Vietnams ancestors.

The couple then decided to separate in order to populate the land. Half of the children followed their mother to the highlands, while the rest went with their father to the sea.

Their eldest son was made the king, who named the country Van Lang and set up the capital in Phong Chau (nowadays Viet Tri city), starting the 18 reigns of the Hung Kings. Ruling the country for 18 generations, the Hung Kings taught the people how to grow wet rice. They chose Nghia Linh Mountain, the highest in the region, to perform rituals devoted to rice and sun deities to pray.

To honour their great history, a complex of temples dedicated to them was built on Nghia Linh Mountain, and the tenth day of the third lunar month serves as the national commemorative anniversary for the kings.

The worshipping rituals of the Hung Kings are related to ancestral worshipping traditions of most Vietnamese families, which forms an important part of peoples spiritual lives. It was recognised by the UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2012.

The Commemoration of Lac Long Quan, Au Co and the Hung Kings is held annually at the Hung Kings Temple. Millions of people flock to the site to attend the Hung Kings Temple Festival every year.
The family of Korean Air's chairman is in the news again. (Photo: AFP/Daniel Slim)

The hot-tempered clan landed in hot water earlier this month after chairman Cho Yang-ho's second daughter was accused of throwing water into an advertising agency manager's face in a fit of rage during a business meeting.

That came after her sister made global headlines in 2014 for angrily kicking a cabin crew member off a plane after being served macadamia nuts in a bag rather than a bowl.

The incident was dubbed "nut rage", prompting the sister's case to be described as "water rage".

In the latest instalment, police said Monday they were looking into whether the sisters' mother Lee Myung-hee had herself abused employees verbally and physically.

Media reports accused Lee, who is in her late 60s, of a litany of abuse of multiple workers renovating her home and of Korean Air employees, including screaming, cursing, slapping and kicking.

"We have launched a preliminary probe into suspicions that Lee ... assaulted and verbally abused multiple people," Yonhap news agency quoted an unidentified police official as saying.

The Cho family saw their homes raided by customs officials over the weekend after media reports emerged that they had smuggled expensive liquor or luxury items using Korean Air flights to evade taxes.

Chairman Cho apologised on Sunday for the "immature" behaviour of his daughters and said they would both immediately resign from their company posts.

The move did little to assuage public fury, with nearly 90,000 people signing an online petition urging the government to ban the firm from using "Korean" in its name.

The 2014 "nut rage" incident saw the older sister Cho Hyun-ah, then the firm's vice president, force two flight personnel to kneel and beg for forgiveness on a Seoul-bound flight from New York before ejecting one of them from the plane before takeoff.

The incident was one of the most infamous cases involving the offspring of South Korea's wealthy business elite, whose arrogance and bad behaviour regularly make headlines.

Cho was jailed but returned to work as an executive at Korean Air's hotel unit in March.
The Vinh Tan 1 thermal power project in Binh Thuan province

According to the latest report of Vinh Tan 1 thermal power project, its first unit will come into commercial operation in July 2018, five months earlier than initially scheduled.

Phan Ngoc Cam Thanh, deputy director of Vinh Tan 1 told the National Steering Committee for Power Development that after 1,025 consecutive days of construction, the project is now 93 per cent complete.

We target to push forward the date of commercial operations, said Thanh.

On April 18, 2018, the first unit of Vinh Tan 1 was successfully connected to the national grid and met all standard requirements during the testing as well as operation.

Member of the National Steering Committee for Power Development Dinh The Phuc, deputy director of the Electricity Regulatory Authority of Vietnam under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said Vinh Tan 1 thermal power plants significant generation capacity will help increase energy supply in the nation.

The 1,240MW project is the first thermal power plant applying the pulverised coal combustion technology in Vietnam. It will play an important role in supplying power to the countrys southern parts, as there are concerns over power supply risks due to delays in the Song Hau 1 and Long Phu 1 thermal power plants.

The Long Phu 1 and Song Hau 1 projects in the Mekong River Delta provinces of Soc Trang and Hau Giang are designed to produce 1,200MW each annually. However, the two plants are now years behind schedule. Both of them are invested by Vietnams state-run oil and gas group PetroVietnam.

Vinh Tan 1 is expected to provide more than 7.2 billion KWh per year, increasing the southern region's electricity supply and helping reduce the region's dependence on hydropowerespecially during the dry season or droughts.

Electricity demand in Vietnam is expected to see an increase of more than 10 per cent per annum in the coming years due to rising population and accelerating economic growth.

Southern Vietnam, the countrys largest economic bloc which includes Ho Chi Minh City, faces a critical situation in relation to the current imbalance between existing supply and the increasing demand for electricity. There is therefore urgent need for the development of power generation infrastructure in the region.

The transmission lines of Vinh Tan thermal power plant

At a recent visit to the southern provinces, Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung urged the acceleration of the pace of constructing power plants, especially in the south, as well as called on investors to upgrade transmission projects as a main task in the years to come.

Tran Viet Ngai, president of the Vietnam Energy Association, is also concerned over the power supply of southern provinces. He called for synchronised solutions to minimise power shortages, including ensuring progress on schedule, operational safety, quality management of power projects, as well as environmental protection and effective power usage.
NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN, INTO OR FROM ANY JURISDICTION WHERE TO DO SO WOULD CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF THE RELEVANT LAWS OR REGULATIONS OF THAT JURISDICTION

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN ANNOUNCEMENT OF A FIRM INTENTION TO MAKE AN OFFER UNDER RULE 2.7 OF THE CITY CODE ON TAKEOVERS AND MERGERS (THE "CODE"). THERE CAN BE NO CERTAINTY THAT ANY FIRM OFFER WILL BE MADE

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION

Shire plc ("Shire" or the "Company")

24 April 2018

Shire announces revised proposal and extension of PUSU deadline to 8 May 2018

The Board of Shire (the "Board") announced earlier today that it had received a further revised proposal from Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited ("Takeda") regarding a possible offer for the Company.

The revised proposal comprises 0.839 new Takeda shares and US$30.33 in cash for each Shire ordinary share (the "Revised Proposal").

Based on Takeda's share price of 4,923 and the exchange rates of :: of 1:151.51 and :US$ of 1:1.3945 as at the close of business on 23 April 2018, the Revised Proposal implies an equivalent value of approximately 49 per Shire ordinary share comprising the equivalent of:

27.26 in new Takeda shares; and

21.75 in cash.

On this basis the Revised Proposal is equivalent to a value of approximately 46 billion for the entire issued and to be issued share capital of the Company. Shire shareholders would also be entitled to any dividends announced, declared, made or paid by Shire in the ordinary course prior to completion of the possible transaction.

At completion, Shire shareholders would own approximately 50 per cent. of the enlarged Takeda and the new Takeda shares will be listed in Japan and in the US through an ADR program.

The Board has indicated to Takeda that it would be willing to recommend the Revised Proposal to Shire shareholders subject to satisfactory resolution of the other terms of the possible offer, including completion of reciprocal due diligence by Shire on Takeda. Accordingly, the Board will engage in discussions with Takeda in relation to these terms.

The making of any firm offer by Takeda would be subject to the following matters:

agreement of certain other terms of the Revised Proposal;

satisfactory completion of a confirmatory due diligence review by Takeda;

the unanimous and unconditional recommendation of the Board of Shire; and

final approval by the Board of Takeda.

Takeda reserves the right to waive in whole or in part any of the pre-conditions to making a firm offer set out in this announcement.

With the consent of the Panel on Takeovers and Mergers (the "Takeover Panel"), the Board has agreed to an extension of the relevant deadline under Rule 2.6(c) of the Code until 5.00 p.m. (London time) on 8 May 2018 to enable the parties to conclude their ongoing discussions. This deadline may be extended further with the consent of the Takeover Panel, at Shire's request, in accordance with Rule 2.6(c) of the Code.

Takeda reserves the following rights in respect of the Revised Proposal:

to make an offer for Shire at any time on less favourable terms or to vary the mix of consideration: with the agreement or recommendation of the Board of Shire; if a third party announces a firm intention to make an offer for Shire which, at the date Takeda announces a firm intention to make an offer for Shire, is valued at a lower price than contemplated by the terms of the Revised Proposal; or following the announcement by Shire of a whitewash transaction pursuant to the Code; and

in the event that any dividend and/or other form of capital return or distribution is announced, declared, made or paid by Shire otherwise than in the ordinary course, to reduce any offer by the amount of such dividend and/or other form of capital return or distribution.

There can be no certainty that any firm offer for the Company will be made.

This announcement is made with the consent of Takeda.

Enquiries

Shire plc Christoph Brackmann (Investor Relations) +41 795 432 359 Sun Kim (Investor Relations) +1 617 588 8175 Katie Joyce (Media) +1 781 482 2779 Citigroup Global Markets Limited Chris Hite +1 212 816 6000 Cary Kochman Jan Skarbek +44 207 986 4000 Andrew Seaton (Corporate Broking) Goldman Sachs International +44 20 7774 1000 Anthony Gutman Robert King Nick Harper Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc +44 20 7425 8000 Clint Gartin Philippe Gallone David Kitterick Peter Moorhouse (Corporate Broking)

Person responsible

Stephen Williams, Deputy Company Secretary, is responsible for arranging the release of this announcement on behalf of the Company.

Publication on a website

In accordance with Rule 26.1 of the Code, a copy of this announcement will be made available, subject to certain restrictions relating to persons resident in restricted jurisdictions, on Shire's website at www.shire.com by no later than noon (London time) on the business day following this announcement. The content of this website is not incorporated into and does not form part of this announcement.

Further information

This announcement is not intended to, and does not, constitute or form part of any offer, invitation or the solicitation of an offer to purchase, otherwise acquire, subscribe for, sell or otherwise dispose of, any securities whether pursuant to this announcement or otherwise.

The distribution of this announcement in jurisdictions outside the United Kingdom may be restricted by law and therefore persons into whose possession this announcement comes should inform themselves about, and observe, such restrictions. Any failure to comply with the restrictions may constitute a violation of the securities law of any such jurisdiction.

Citigroup Global Markets Limited, which is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority in the United Kingdom, is acting for Shire and no one else in connection with the matters described in this announcement and shall not be responsible to anyone other than Shire for providing the protections afforded to clients of Citigroup Global Markets Limited, or for giving advice in connection with the matters described in this announcement or any matter referred to therein.

Goldman Sachs International, which is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority in the United Kingdom, is acting for Shire and no one else in connection with the matters described in this announcement and will not be responsible to anyone other than Shire for providing the protections afforded to clients of Goldman Sachs International, or for giving advice in connection with the matters described in this announcement or any matter referred to herein.

Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc, which is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority in the United Kingdom, is acting for Shire and no one else in connection with the matters described in this announcement and will not be responsible to anyone other than Shire for providing the protections afforded to clients of Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc, or for giving advice in connection with the matters described in this announcement or any matter referred to herein.

Disclosure requirements of the Code

Under Rule 8.3(a) of the Code, any person who is interested in 1% or more of any class of relevant securities of an offeree company or of any securities exchange offeror (being any offeror other than an offeror in respect of which it has been announced that its offer is, or is likely to be, solely in cash) must make an Opening Position Disclosure following the commencement of the offer period and, if later, following the announcement in which any securities exchange offeror is first identified. An Opening Position Disclosure must contain details of the person's interests and short positions in, and rights to subscribe for, any relevant securities of each of (i) the offeree company and (ii) any securities exchange offeror(s). An Opening Position Disclosure by a person to whom Rule 8.3(a) applies must be made by no later than 3.30 pm (London time) on the 10th business day following the commencement of the offer period and, if appropriate, by no later than 3.30 pm (London time) on the 10th business day following the announcement in which any securities exchange offeror is first identified. Relevant persons who deal in the relevant securities of the offeree company or of a securities exchange offeror prior to the deadline for making an Opening Position Disclosure must instead make a Dealing Disclosure.

Under Rule 8.3(b) of the Code, any person who is, or becomes, interested in 1% or more of any class of relevant securities of the offeree company or of any securities exchange offeror must make a Dealing Disclosure if the person deals in any relevant securities of the offeree company or of any securities exchange offeror. A Dealing Disclosure must contain details of the dealing concerned and of the person's interests and short positions in, and rights to subscribe for, any relevant securities of each of (i) the offeree company and (ii) any securities exchange offeror(s), save to the extent that these details have previously been disclosed under Rule 8. A Dealing Disclosure by a person to whom Rule 8.3(b) applies must be made by no later than 3.30 pm (London time) on the business day following the date of the relevant dealing.

If two or more persons act together pursuant to an agreement or understanding, whether formal or informal, to acquire or control an interest in relevant securities of an offeree company or a securities exchange offeror, they will be deemed to be a single person for the purpose of Rule 8.3.

Opening Position Disclosures must also be made by the offeree company and by any offeror and Dealing Disclosures must also be made by the offeree company, by any offeror and by any persons acting in concert with any of them (see Rules 8.1, 8.2 and 8.4).

Details of the offeree and offeror companies in respect of whose relevant securities Opening Position Disclosures and Dealing Disclosures must be made can be found in the Disclosure Table on the Takeover Panel's website at www.thetakeoverpanel.org.uk, including details of the number of relevant securities in issue, when the offer period commenced and when any offeror was first identified. You should contact the Panel's Market Surveillance Unit on +44 (0)20 7638 0129 if you are in any doubt as to whether you are required to make an Opening Position Disclosure or a Dealing Disclosure.

About Shire

Shire is the global leader in serving patients with rare diseases. We strive to develop best-in-class therapies across a core of rare disease areas including hematology, immunology, genetic diseases, neuroscience, and internal medicine with growing therapeutic areas in ophthalmics and oncology. Our diversified capabilities enable us to reach patients in more than 100 countries who are struggling to live their lives to the fullest.

We feel a strong sense of urgency to address unmet medical needs and work tirelessly to improve people's lives with medicines that have a meaningful impact on patients and all who support them on their journey.

www.shire.com

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements included herein that are not historical facts, including without limitation statements concerning future strategy, plans, objectives, expectations and intentions, projected revenues, the anticipated timing of clinical trials and approvals for, and the commercial potential of, inline or pipeline products, are forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties and are subject to change at any time. In the event such risks or uncertainties materialize, Shire's results could be materially adversely affected. The risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the following:

Shire's products may not be a commercial success;

increased pricing pressures and limits on patient access as a result of governmental regulations and market developments may affect Shire's future revenues, financial condition and results of operations;

Shire depends on third parties to supply certain inputs and services critical to its operations including certain inputs, services and ingredients critical to its manufacturing processes. Any disruption to the supply chain for any of Shire's products may result in Shire being unable to continue marketing or developing a product or may result in Shire being unable to do so on a commercially viable basis for some period of time;

the manufacture of Shire's products is subject to extensive oversight by various regulatory agencies. Regulatory approvals or interventions associated with changes to manufacturing sites, ingredients or manufacturing processes could lead to, among other things, significant delays, an increase in operating costs, lost product sales, an interruption of research activities or the delay of new product launches;

the nature of producing plasma-based therapies may prevent Shire from timely responding to market forces and effectively managing its production capacity;

Shire has a portfolio of products in various stages of research and development. The successful development of these products is highly uncertain and requires significant expenditures and time, and there is no guarantee that these products will receive regulatory approval;

the actions of certain customers could affect Shire's ability to sell or market products profitably. Fluctuations in buying or distribution patterns by such customers can adversely affect Shire's revenues, financial conditions or results of operations;

failure to comply with laws and regulations governing the sales and marketing of its products could materially impact Shire's revenues and profitability;

Shire's products and product candidates face substantial competition in the product markets in which it operates, including competition from generics;

Shire's patented products are subject to significant competition from generics;

adverse outcomes in legal matters, tax audits and other disputes, including Shire's ability to enforce and defend patents and other intellectual property rights required for its business, could have a material adverse effect on the Shire's revenues, financial condition or results of operations;

Shire may fail to obtain, maintain, enforce or defend the intellectual property rights required to conduct its business;

Shire faces intense competition for highly qualified personnel from other companies and organizations;

failure to successfully execute or attain strategic objectives from Shire's acquisitions and growth strategy may adversely affect the Shire's financial condition and results of operations;

Shire's growth strategy depends in part upon its ability to expand its product portfolio through external collaborations, which, if unsuccessful, may adversely affect the development and sale of its products;

a slowdown of global economic growth, or economic instability of countries in which Shire does business, could have negative consequences for Shire's business and increase the risk of non-payment by Shire's customers;

changes in foreign currency exchange rates and interest rates could have a material adverse effect on Shire's operating results and liquidity;

Shire is subject to evolving and complex tax laws, which may result in additional liabilities that may adversely affect the Shire's financial condition or results of operations;

if a marketed product fails to work effectively or causes adverse side effects, this could result in damage to Shire's reputation, the withdrawal of the product and legal action against Shire;

Shire is dependent on information technology and its systems and infrastructure face certain risks, including from service disruptions, the loss of sensitive or confidential information, cyber-attacks and other security breaches or data leakages that could have a material adverse effect on Shire's revenues, financial condition or results of operations;

Shire faces risks relating to the expected exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union;

Shire incurred substantial additional indebtedness to finance the Baxalta acquisition, which has increased its borrowing costs and may decrease its business flexibility;

Shire's ongoing strategic review of its Neuroscience franchise may distract management and employees and may not lead to improved operating performance or financial results; there can be no guarantee that, once completed, Shire's strategic review will result in any additional strategic changes beyond those that have already been announced;

the potential uncertainty resulting from the announcement by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited that it is considering making a possible offer for Shire; and

a further list and description of risks, uncertainties and other matters can be found in Shire's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and in Shire's subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, in each case including those risks outlined in "ITEM1A: Risk Factors", and in Shire's subsequent reports on Form 8-K and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings, all of which are available on Shire's website.

All forward-looking statements attributable to us or any person acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements that speak only as of the date hereof. Except to the extent otherwise required by applicable law, we do not undertake any obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Appendix

SOURCES AND BASES

The relevant sources of information and bases of calculation are provided below in the order in which such information appears in this document. Where such information is repeated in this document, the underlying sources and bases are not repeated.
Estimados amigos,

Les doy cordialmente la bienvenida a este Blog informativo con articulos, analisis y comentarios de publicaciones especializadas y especialmente seleccionadas, principalmente sobre temas economicos, financieros y politicos de actualidad, que esperamos y deseamos, sean de su maximo interes, utilidad y conveniencia.

Pensamos que solo comprendiendo cabalmente el presente, es que podemos proyectarnos acertadamente hacia el futuro.

Gonzalo Raffo de Lavalle

Las convicciones son mas peligrosos enemigos de la verdad que las mentiras.

Quien no lo ha dado todo no ha dado nada.

Helenio Herrera

History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.

Karl Marx

If you know the other and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.

Sun Tzu









We are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share.This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity.



Paulo Coelho
One week after the allied attack against Syria, very many questions remain unanswered concerning the objectives of this operation and its implementation. And the few established facts contradict the official Western declarations.

The objectives of the bombing

According to the Western version of the story, these bombing attacks were not aimed at overthrowing the Syrian Arab Republic (which they call  Bachars regime ), but to sanction the use of chemical weapons.

However, no proof of the use of such weapons has been published. Instead, the three allies each broadcast evaluations based on the original video published by the White Helmets [1]  a video which was itself later contradicted by many of the people who appear in it, as well as the personnel of the hospital where it was filmed [2].

On the contrary, we are justified in asking whether the real objective of these raids may indeed have been to overthrow the Republic. This seems to be confirmed by the fact that missiles were fired at the Presidential palace in Damascus. This is also the interpretation by Russia, for whom the real Allied objective was to counter the  success of the Syrian armed forces in the fight to liberate their territory from international terrorism .

The destruction of the pharmaceutical research centre in Barzeh remains a mystery. This installation was in no way secret. It had been created with the help of France. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons inspected it five times and found nothing that could be linked to research on chemical weapons [3]. According to officials, in the context of international sanctions, the laboratory was carrying out research on anti-cancer products. It was not guarded, and there were no victims in the collapse of the buildings. Neither did the collapse cause the dispersion of chemical agents into the atmosphere. This situation can not help but remind us of the destruction by the United States of the Al-Shifa factory in Sudan. In 1998, President Bill Clinton ordered its destruction, implemented by a salvo of four Tomahawk missiles, for a cost of one dead and ten wounded. The US intelligence services had assured that the laboratory was developing nerve gases for Oussama Ben Laden. It turned out later that it was Sudans main centre for the production of generic medicines [4]. In particular, it made anti-AIDS medicine without paying the license to Gilead Science, a company directed by Donald Rumsfeld and George Schultz [5].

The implementation of the operation

The Allies claim to have fired 105 missiles, while the Russians counted 103 [6]. The coordination between the different armies was handled by NATO, although it claimed no responsibility [7]. In conformity with its statutes, the Organisation acted with the approval of the North Atlantic Council, although this is not yet certain. Indeed, the Council had not been consulted before the bombing of Tripoli (Libya), in 2011, and no-one protested. The aim of this coordination was to ensure that all the missiles fired, whether from the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the air, would all hit their targets at the same moment. However, things did not go as planned  although the Allied operation was to have been finished within half an hour, in fact it took 1 hour and 46 minutes between the first and final shot.

Prior to the attack, Russia had announced that it would riposte if any of its soldiers were killed. The Allied armies were therefore tasked with the mission of being careful to spare them.

However, the Russian army observed the shots and transmitted the coordinates of the Allied missiles to the Syrian Arab Army in real time, in order to allow the Syrians to destroy them. Besides this, when the Syrians became swamped by the number of allied missiles, the Russian army deployed its system for inhibiting the commands and controls of NATO, which paralysed most of their launchers. This was the first time that the French were confronted with this system, which had already caused problems for the United States and the British in the Mediterranean, the Black Sea and Kaliningrad.

Besides this, two Russian ships left the port of Tartus to play cat and mouse with a British nuclear attack submarine. [8].

According to the Russian and Syrian staff, 73 missiles were destroyed in flight, a figure which is haughtily contested by the Allied staff. Yet, on the ground, everyone  including myself  could see the activity of the anti-aircraft defense, and no-one saw the impacts of the 105 allied missiles announced.

The Allies immediately specified that any more precise information was classified. However, the specialised forums proffered all sorts of unverifiable revelations about the massive failure of this operation. The most that we know for certain is that a French plane was unable to fire one of its missiles, and was obliged to jettison it out to sea without triggering it [9], and that two French multi-mission frigates suffered a computer failure and were unable to fire their naval Cruise missiles [10]  these are symptoms that are well known by anyone who has had to face up to the Russian inhibitor weapon.

The Syrian defence was over-run by the number of missiles which were fired from every direction. It therefore chose to defend in priority certain targets, like the Presidential palace, and to sacrifice others like the research centre in Bazeh. Since then, Russia has announced that it will be delivering new anti-missile batteries to Syria.

In any case, this operation is clearly the greatest military fiasco since the Second World War.

Western rhetoric

These bombings are certainly illegal from the point of view of international law  none of the three aggressors has been attacked by the Syrian Arab Republic, and their action was not authorised by the Security Council.

The Allies therefore communicated about the legality of their initiative. This was denied by the legal service of the German Bundestag. [11]. Indeed, apart from the fantastical character of the supposed attack in the Ghouta, this type of bombing in no way guarantees an end to the suffering of the civil population.

As for France, it continually stressed that it was not going to war against  Bachars regime  - comments that were immediately contradicted by Syria, which returned President el-Assads Grand Cross of the Legion dHonneur to the Romanian ambassador, who represents French interests in Damascus.  There is no honour for President Assad in wearing a decoration attributed by a slave regime of the United States which supports terrorists , declared the Presidential spokesman.

Some authors close to NATO evoke the  responsibility of protection  (R2P) proclaimed by the UNO. Once again, thats not the point. In fact, the R2P only applies in order to compensate failed states, which is clearly not the case of the Syrian Arab Republic, whose public services are still functioning after 7 years of war.

Finally, while the United States, France and the United Kingdom showed with this operation that they exist outside of international law, they also showed that their armies are not what they used to be.
GPA Attends Bunkering Conference in Jamaica

The Gibraltar Port Authority recently attended the International Bunkering Industry Association (IBIA) Caribbean Regional Bunker Conference in Jamaica, held in partnership with Maritime Authority Jamaica.

John Ghio, Deputy Captain of the Port (Acting) was invited to give a presentation on Gibraltars regulatory regime for bunkering activities as part of the conference programme.

Manuel Tirado, CEO and Captain of the Port (Acting) stated that Gibraltars reputation as the premier centre of excellence for bunkering services in the Mediterranean has once again been highlighted and he is keen that the Gibraltar Port Authority continues to promote its services and the solid reputation that the Port enjoys globally. This participation also highlights the partnership which the Gibraltar Port Authority and IBIA enjoy and continue to develop.
Ministry of Equality Holds Further Training on Learning Disabilities and Autism

The Ministry of Equality organised, for the third time due to popular demand, a repeat of the seminar titled Learning Disabilities and Autism.

This training is specific for volunteers of Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) and community groups and leaders of sporting and cultural groups. The objective of this introductory training is to learn and understand more about Autism, Learning Disabilities and Mental Health in order for the volunteer groups to be better prepared when working with their members who have learning disabilities and for those which currently do not have members with disabilities also wanted to learn so as to be ready to expand their membership.

The training was once again delivered by Colin Smith, who had previously delivered this particular training on the 11th November 2017 and on the 20th January 2018. Colin Smith, RMNH, DipMHS, BSc (Hons) is an Independent Consultant within Learning Disabilities, Autism, Mental Health and Positive Behaviour. Colin is the Managing Director, Trainer and Speaker at Care and Support (UK).

The training provided focused on the following points:

 Understanding learning disabilities, autism and mental health

 Causes associated with these diagnoses

 Understanding links between certain conditions

 Understanding behaviour within these conditions

 Positive approaches to working with people with learning disabilities.

Any volunteers or members of community groups interested in attending future sessions should register their interest with the Ministry of Equality at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The Minister for Equality, The Hon Samantha Sacramento, MP said: The enthusiasm with which the groups and their volunteers have embraced the availability of this training has been beyond our expectation. I cannot but over stress the importance of the work that these leaders and volunteers provide and the commitment that they continuously demonstrate and I am encouraged that they also wish to learn about working with people with disabilities so as to be able to provide for them better and integrate them into their respective groups. The discussion workshops highlighted their desire to learn and improve their work with their members. These seminars have also acted as a networking forum for those in attendance, it gave them the opportunity to exchange experiences and brainstorm ideas. Approximately 80 volunteers have attended these seminars and have shown their commitment to participate in future training and awareness seminars. With this in mind the Ministry of Equality has been, for the last months, planning Tier 2 of the programme, which will delve more into each of the topics.

The work undertaken by NGOs should not go unrecognised and I would therefore like to thank both leaders and volunteers for giving up more of their free time, particularly on Saturday mornings, in order to attend these seminars and form part of our holistic approach to making our community more inclusive. I would also like to acknowledge the amount of work that goes into the planning and coordination of these seminars and therefore thank my Ministry for Equality for organising them.
Kanye West in Soho on February 13, 2017. Photo: Raymond Hall/GC Images

If you thought Kanye Wests tweet over the weekend recommending the ideas of right-wing activist Candace Owens was a fluke, well, prepare to think again. Early Monday afternoon, West tweeted snippets of a 22-minute video by Scott Adams, the erstwhile Dilbert cartoonist and would-be pro-Trump thought leader, in which Adams framed Wests praise of Owens as heralding the dawn of a golden age. Wests tweet had, according to Adams, altered reality: Suddenly, the fans of Owens, a black woman whos made a career for herself calling Black Lives Matter protesters whiners, were exposed to the possibility that Kanye West was one of them, and Wests fans were doing a double take as well. To Adams and West alike, it was clear that cracks in the walls of our mental prisons had emerged: Existence was on the verge of shifting to a higher plane, and Kanye West was the catalyst of its transcendence.

Anyone online has something to promote; usually, their own selves. Adamss video, which suggests, among other things, that the Civil War was resolved within the heads of white people and that the civil-rights movement was a matter of tinkering with laws, concludes with a shout-out to his Patreon; West, meanwhile, has several forthcoming albums to promote. They have, for now, different followings on different scales. Adams has roughly 228,000 Twitter followers; West, 15 million and rising. But the ultimate social media self-promoter seems to live inside their heads. Though West excerpted only the portions of Adamss video having to do with West himself, a quick listen to the original finds it filled with fulsome praise for Donald Trump, unconventional thinker par excellence. Trumps genius, according to Adams, lies in his ability to break out of the mentalities we take for granted. Trump wasnt a politician, but he became the president; he talked about immigration despite the puny-minded finding his talk racist; hes in the midst of trade wars and negotiating with North Korea when no one said either could be done. And Kanye, for his part, is still onboard the Trump train: A recent phone argument with Ebro saw West avowing to the Hot 97 radio personality, I love Donald Trump.

Its a matter of optimism, for them, that the president is where he is and has done what he has done: to hear them and countless other alt-right personalities (like Alex Jones, who immediately extended an invitation to West to appear on his show) tell it, Trump is shattering the hidebound logic that restrains us from a true apprehension of reality, and thus deserves support and emulation. Its hard to deny that Trumps candidacy and administration have altered reality. In the crumbling of established liberal norms one can, if one is so inclined, read glimmerings of a golden age, a future paradise, the emergence of a superior order. Nowadays, the world, for Trump worshippers, is no longer what it is, but how you see it; change your mind, and you change the world.

.@kanyewest I admire your bold moves against the thought police. And if you want to see these control-freak vampires really go crazy, please join me on my broadcast!  Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) April 23, 2018

That this mentality, where the cults of self-improvement and free thinking converge with a reactionary lust for national restoration, is experienced in a manner similar to mania should come as no surprise. The emphasis on thinking conceals a distaste for the soiled body, the fantasy of individual sovereignty presupposes the pollution of the masses, and fascism promises a society cleansed of waste materials; what better state of mind to correspond to them than schizophrenia, in which the waste functions of the brain, its ability to reject its attributions of meaning after measuring them against a standard of reality, have been disabled? The only surprise is that Kanye should find himself on the edge of joining with a crowd (striking, how all those liberated minds uniformly confirm their preexisting social prejudices) that views black people as a subhuman class, and even thats only a mild surprise at best; after all, hed always had a craving for approval from white thought leaders, from Anna Wintour and Elon Musk to Scott Adams and Donald Trump.

To be clear, theres no need to label Kanye, or anyone else, as clinically manic. It is to say that, as in the case of his newfound friends on the right, attempting to correct Kanye or the YouTube rights beliefs with lectures and facts would be a losing battle on par with trying to talk a manic person out of mania. All of them are unthinkingly committed to their current course of speech and action. Theyre united in believing that their ideas will aid them in achieving new levels of significance and purity; nothing and no one can halt their ascension. The ecstasy of falling headfirst into the abyss is getting to imagine youre rising upward by your own will, and the high grows more intense the closer you approach the bottom.
Rachel Dolezal and her son Franklin. Photo: Netflix

To the extent you may have already heard of The Rachel Divide, its probably along one of two extremes of opinion. Tonight, the documentary will premiere as one of the Tribeca Film Festivals buzziest, most anticipated entries: a fine, nuanced, intimate doc that comes highly recommended by New Yorks David Edelstein. But the Netflix original film is also causing controversy, if only by dint of its much scrutinized, frequently ridiculed, always polarizing subject: Rachel Dolezal.

The former NAACP Spokane branch president triggered a firestorm of public debate and became one of the millenniums most incendiary individuals when she was outed in 2015 as a white woman, despite having passed as African-American throughout her adult life. Now, the critique goes, even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, she continues to self-identify as black, to view race as a construct or a performance rather than an external reality, and to cherry-pick from African-American identity without enduring its hardships.

The movie doesnt start streaming on Netflix until April 27, but that hasnt stopped a statistically tiny but fiercely voluble contingent from criticizing The Rachel Divide sight unseen  the film began drawing ire as soon as it was announced.

Hey @Netflix,

Rachel Dolezal doesn't need a documentary streamed on your site. She's fraudulent and problematic. Why don't you take all that money and put it towards projects made by real black women?  Breniecia (@LuxePosh) March 7, 2018

Its VERY important that we DO NOT watch @netflix #RachelDolezal doc. We cant give validity to her plight. We vote w/ our views & $, even if you want to hate watch, it would ultimately justify Netflix giving her a voice. She couldve been an ally w/o appropriating. Do better.  MixedGirlMane (@MixedGirlMane) March 8, 2018

Even actress Patricia Arquette chimed in, urging a boycott of the movie after its trailer premiered online, featuring Dolezals 13-year-old African-American son Franklin admitting he resented some of his mothers life choices. This documentary might backfire, just like everything else has backfired, he says dejectedly.

I hope people steer clear of this Rachel Dolezal thing. Her kids are clear they DON'T want any of this. For their sakes let's protect them. https://t.co/68VohKBtGt  Patricia Arquette (@PattyArquette) March 8, 2018

A corollary presumption to all the outcry is that The Rachel Divide must function as some kind of apology for the bronzer-dependent, 40-year-old civil-rights activists cultural appropriation: an implicit endorsement of the racial privilege that allows her to identify as trans-racial. But while the documentary certainly provides a penetrating character study of Dolezal (who legally changed her name to Nkechi Amare Diallo in 2016), illuminating the murky familial politics that led up to her outing and showcasing the pressures her racial identity has created for her two sons, its hardly a valentine to one of Americas foremost media pariahs. For long stretches, the movie cedes the floor to Dolezals fiercest detractors, several of whom question her sanity and label her a con artist.

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I made this movie because the story is bigger than Rachel, says director Laura Brownson, who co-directed the award-winning 2011 documentary Lemon. The strong reaction that people have to Rachel is what drew me to the story in the first place. I wanted to understand how one person can ignite and continue to fuel a national controversy. Specifically, embedded in those reactions are important issues worth discussing: white privilege, colorism, the underrepresentation of black women in our society, identity  can it be fluid? And can race be added to that list? And if not, why not? Rachel didnt start this conversation but shes a vehicle to continue it.

Through a mutual connection at the NAACP, Brownson approached Dolezal about making a documentary not long after she had become a national laughingstock, regularly lampooned on nightly talk shows, and near the apex of her infamy  around the time Dolezals parents made the rounds on television to confirm the Black Lives Matter activist/African studies instructors pure European heritage. The idea was to unpack the complex societal reactions Rachel was provoking  confusion, anger, frustration, accusations of being a race traitor  while exploring the forces that forged her identity.

But first, the filmmaker made her terms clear. Rachel was interested in putting a different narrative out into the world. But I was very clear that my film was not the place for that, Brownson says. I let it be known that the film would not in any way be an apology piece for Rachel. No one  not Rachel or her family  was paid. (Netflix grew so sensitive to the perception that Dolezal had sold the streaming platform her story, the company tweeted at pundit and MSNBC correspondent Joy Reid, To clarify one thing: Like all subjects for our documentaries, Rachel Dolezal did not receive any payment for this project.)

Flying from Los Angeles to film in and around Dolezals Spokane, Washington, home several times a month for two years, the filmmaker was granted access to a part of Dolezals life that had until then remained cordoned off from public view: her children. The Rachel Divide provides a sometimes discomfiting glimpse at how Dolezals embattled sense of self effectively turned her kids worlds upside down. When college-age Izaiah Dolezal (who is African-American, and whom Rachel adopted) is shown touring Howard University, he is mercilessly trolled on Instagram; later in the film he is shown leaving the country to escape Rachels sphere of influence. Franklin Dolezal, who was going through pubertys most awkward teenage phase during filming, is seen retreating into himself, clearly bewildered by the negative attention his mother gets everywhere she goes. All my mom did is say she was black and people started losing their minds, Franklin says in the movie.

To Rachels credit, she did not censor those kids, says Brownson. She allowed them to speak their minds unfiltered, unedited, and at times critical of her. Their inclusion in the movie was not self-aggrandizing at all. She knew they were being impacted and she wanted that to be shown for their sake.

The director was quick to recognize that the cultural limitations of her own worldview presented certain liabilities and sought out collaborators who would actively challenge her assumptions. I was extraordinarily aware that as a white woman filmmaker I have a particular lens, she says. And I worked really hard to check myself, my biases, and my privilege. I did that by surrounding myself with a team who had different points of view.

Executive producer Roger Ross Williams, for one, is an accomplished documentarian whose short-form doc Music by Prudence won an Academy Award in 2010 (his feature-length do Life, Animated was nominated for an Oscar in 2016). There were a lot of black people involved in this film, Williams says. The two producers are black women. The DP is an African-American man. Me. But I came to this project not just because Im black. Ive directed a bunch of films. I could bring experience to the project and help Laura navigate both this story and as an emerging director.

During production, the filmmakers found themselves vacillating between sympathy for Dolezal and her family and sharing in the outrage at a woman many in the black community see as not only self-deluding, but deeply offensive. At points, one of my producers was so frustrated with Rachel, she wanted to contemplate a film that didnt even have Rachel. It would be just the reactions to Rachel, Brownson says. There was an intense desire on our parts to make sure the voices of anger were loud and clear. Her fear was that in including Rachel, those voices might be dismissed.

Early on in The Rachel Divide, Dolezal remarks, I feel like Ive had this trial by the public and the jury is still out on who Rachel is, and if shes a good or bad person. And if shes white or black. All she has to do is say shes white and everythings fine. The former activist  who has found herself unemployable in her former field and makes ends meet as a self-described weavologist, operating a hair salon for a predominantly African-American clientele out of her home  has yet to publicly comment on the film. But according to Brownson, her subject hasnt exactly given the project a resounding thumbs up.

The film was hard for Rachel to watch because its highly critical of her  and nobody likes to be criticized, the director says. She did struggle at the end of it. But I feel the film humanizes Rachel and does do justice to her story and the very complicated reasons why she is who she is and what along her life journey led her to become the person she has become. The only way that any of this can be considered is for all of the criticism to be put out there. Without the criticism, the conversation is over.

The filmmakers are, of course, apprehensive that all the internet opprobrium and calls for boycott will drown out The Rachel Divides merits as a genuinely thought-provoking film (with emphasis on the provoking part). At a time when gender roles are merging and descriptors like poly/ambi/omni/other have come to redefine American lives, Dolezals continuing ability to infuriate shines a spotlight on the countrys queasy relationship with race and identity.

Brownson, for her part, remains philosophical about the knee-jerk criticism the film has received in the lead-up to its release. Its terrifying to work in such a sensitive space and still find the confidence to make the brave and meaningful artistic choices that you have to make in order to make a good film, she says. Knowing that Im making a movie that is going to push buttons has personally been really challenging. But I dont have an agenda. I believe in the importance of documentary film to tackle tough subjects  and make us think about challenging things. I just hope people will take the time to watch and see that the skepticism is there.

Rachel is an imperfect way for people to talk about other issues, Williams adds. Rachel is the most imperfect package there is. But people have discussions after watching this film. You will not walk out of this film and not talk about it. And it will be a heated discussion. Because everybody has an opinion about Rachel.
Free Meek! Photo: Picasa/WireImage

Meek Mills long, muddled legal troubles may soon be coming to an end. Both TMZ and a local Fox news affiliate are reporting that the rapper will be released from a Philadelphia prison Tuesday afternoon. Mill has been incarcerated for a probation violation since last November, when a Philadelphia judge gave him a controversial two-to-four-year sentence. Since then, Mills attorneys have fought, with the support of city officials, to have the decision overturned and the judge recused from the case, though the latest news had cast doubt on his imminent release. However, Fox reports that the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania ruled on Tuesday that the lower courts must release Mill on unsecured bail effective immediately. Mill shared the following statement to TMZ:

Id like to thank God, my family, my friends, my attorneys, my team at Roc Nation including JAY-Z, Desiree Perez, my good friend Michael Rubin, my fans, The Pennsylvania Supreme Court and all my public advocates for their love, support and encouragement during this difficult time.

While the past five months have been a nightmare, the prayers, visits, calls, letters and rallies have helped me stay positive.

To the Philadelphia District Attorneys office, Im grateful for your commitment to justice  not only for my case, but for others that have been wrongfully jailed due to police misconduct. Although Im blessed to have the resources to fight this unjust situation, I understand that many people of color across the country dont have that luxury and I plan to use my platform to shine a light on those issues. In the meantime, I plan to work closely with my legal team to overturn this unwarranted conviction and look forward to reuniting with my family and resuming my music career.

On Tuesday, Mill was visited in prison by Kevin Hart, who also shared the good news of Mills release on Instagram. 76ers co-owner Michael Rubin picked up Mill from prison in a helicopter and has said the two are en route to tonights Sixers playoffs game, where Meek will get to watch his team go for the series win at home.
Vanderpump Rules Lost Cause Season 6 Episode 20 Editors Rating 2 stars * *  Previous Next  Photo: Bravo

I cant talk about Brittany and Jaxs fake breakup anymore except, well, here we are and we have no other choice. Its like having a vodka soda at the gay bar. You know there are better options, you know that its better if you just abstain altogether, but, well, it just wouldnt be a trip to The Abbey without one, would it? Jax, as we discussed last week, is the absolute worst in this breakup and we now we know even more why he is so awful. After the breakup and Brittany storming off in a Lyft in her pajamas and sad hangover glasses, Jax goes to Tom and Katies house to talk about what happened and he tells them that he had sex with Brittany both the night before and that morning and then he broke up with her.

I wish that you could see a GIF of my face right now because it is a combination of this bucktoothed girl, this bug-eyed wolf, and every single one of Andy Warhols car crashes. He tells Tom and Katie that hed been thinking about this for a while and that he just finally had to do it. But the sex, well, he didnt even think that was a bad thing. Sometimes sex isnt about a relationship, its just about getting off, he says, adding that she initiated it. Yes, that may be true, but couldnt he stop her just long enough to be like, I think we should break up, and then go watch some realtor porn on his phone after she left the house?

This right here is everything that is wrong with Jax summed up in one little incident. He doesnt think about anyone elses emotions other than his and because of that, he leaves a trail of relationship shrapnel all over West Hollywood. He tells the Toms later that he doesnt know what to do in relationships. Thats not true. He knows that he should be faithful, respect his partner, and not bone a woman right before he cuts her loose. He just chooses not to follow any of those rules. That is what makes Jax an asshole: He makes the conscious effort to put his own happiness before everyone elses. Hes not ignorant, hes just a dick.

Consider the rationale that he gives to his shrink (who he only sees because his reiki master is out of town). He says, She deserves so much better than me. No, its not really about Brittany. Its about him. Its about him not wanting to make the sacrifice for her. Its about him wanting to be the martyr and engaging in his own self-loathing in a very personal way that is usually reserved for realtor porn. None of this has anything to do with Brittany at all, its just about Jax trying to figure out a way to not be miserable, even if making Brittany  who has repeatedly chosen to be with him no matter what he does to her  miserable is the collateral damage.

Lets talk about Tom and Ariana instead, shall we? They decide that theyre going to buy a house like actual grown-ups, mostly because when theyre on the couch about to get it on, Arianas brother Jeremie walks by wearing only his morning wood Speedo. (I am not sure why Jeremie is wearing a square-cut bathing suit around the house, especially when he is partially tumescent, but it is the highlight of this boring episode.) They go see the blandest two-bedroom bungalow in all of West Hollywood and then they disagree about whether or not they want to have children. My handbags are my children, Ariana says and, well, I decided to shut this episode off and just go watch Jeremie-as-a-realtor porn instead. Then, after that was done, I broke up with Brittany and checked out of life for good.

Ariana also gets pissed off at Tom for going to Jaxs aid after he broke up with Brittany. I get her point, that he needs to decide when its really important to leave her side to be with his friends, but it seems like Jax needs someone to tell him what an asshole he is being.

If I were Ariana, Id be more pissed off about the cocktail book. She had signed up to do a cocktail book and Tom was very jealous of her so he forced his way into the book. Then, after the deal with Lisa to start Tom Tom, he totally abandoned the book and now Ariana is left totally out in the cold on a project that she didnt even want him to be a part of in the first place. That would be enough to make me dump his ass, even if he did try to make out with me while I sat on the counter of a strangers house that we hadnt even purchased yet.

The other big event of this episode is Lalas showcase to a room full of people who already know her and not one single music executive, except maybe like an intern from Capital Records or something? I dont know. DJ James Kennedy says that you never know who is going to be in the audience and that Lala could get signed right after she walks off stage and then shell have a record contract and Boom shaka laka, mad cash yo. Oh, its so sweet that DJ James Kennedy knows so little about the music industry that he thinks that people are still getting fat paychecks from recording contracts. Isnt that adorable?

Lala isnt awful at the showcase. She wears this really sexy leotard with a cool crossover loop thing around the bosom that is both flattering and erotic while being as tasteful as a skin-tight unitard could possibly be. She is also wearing the black and white knee-high boots with red laces that Lisa bought for her because she couldnt make it to the showcase. It is a nice gesture.

The party itself is tasteful with Stassi putting out candles, flowers, and crystals in those glass and brass geodesic domes that you only see in Los Angeles or Anthropologie ads. Personally, I would have focused more on getting people there who could actually make her music career happen rather than candles and shit, but Im not in charge.

Stassi also has little portraits of Lala done that are on the tables but, strangely enough, those portraits look more like Stassi than they do like Lala. Are Stassi and Lala actually the same person? Is Lala what happened when Stassi finally reached a certain level of enlightenment, but instead of going to nirvana, she just split into two people? Its possible.

I really am a huge Lala fan and my favorite part of the whole showcase was at the end when everyone was supporting her and she and the other women on the show were getting along and they got to have a little girl-power moment and, for a minute, just a brief flash as quick as the glimmer off of a sequin as it crashes to the floor, I thought these were real actual human people and not a bunch of fire ants running from their hill as a frat boy poured a beer funnel into it.

I nearly forgot that Toms Schwartz and Sandoval went shopping for the uniforms at Tom Tom as if Lisa Vanderpump for a second would let them make that kind of design decision. They snapped pictures of each other in short-sleeved printed shirts that were exorbitantly expensive and a nice chambray shirt that cost $140 but they could probably get in a much lower quality fabric for about $25 at the J.Crew Factory website.

As Schwartz went into the dressing room and was about to undo the buttons, he felt two strong arms wrap around him and beat his fingers to the buttons. They undid the top button and nimbly traveled down, making a quick stop at each white disc, making the shirt fall farther and farther away from his chest. When all the buttons were undone, Sandovals hands grazed against his flat stomach and up to his chest, sending a flurry of sensation all over Schwartzs body. Sandoval then spun him around, put his hands on either side of his face, and kissed him deeply and passionately. I just needed to make sure this shirt is as easy to get off as you are, he said, as he pulled the fabric entirely off of Schwartzs shoulders and it landed on the floor with a sigh.
Jared Kushner's father, Charles Kushner, is shouldering the blame for the family's highest-profile miscalculation.

In 2007, Charles's firm, Kushner Companies, paid a record $1.8 billion for a New York skyscraper at 666 Fifth Avenue. The purchase was meant to elevate the family's business from its roots buying middle-income housing in the tri-state area. Jared, who is President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a senior White House adviser, was the face of the deal.

"I pushed Jared to do the deal," explained Charles, who said Jared expressed reservations about buying the office tower.

In a wide-ranging interview with CNN at his company's headquarters in midtown Manhattan, the elder Kushner didn't mince words, calling the decision "bad timing and bad judgment."

Instead of being a success, the skyscraper has been engulfed in controversy. The building is not generating enough revenue to cover its bills, and Kushner Companies faces a deadline to refinance at least $1.2 billion in debt, which comes due in less than a year. The elder Kushner said he's nearing a deal that will resolve questions about whether Kushner Companies keeps control of the gleaming office tower. He said an announcement could come any day but declined to provide additional details about potential partners or investors.

Like other real estate investors in New York City, Charles cherishes privacy. For years, he had no reason to share information about his deals. That changed when Jared left the firm to advise Trump in the White House.

On the transition to the White House, Charles, who said he speaks to Jared every day, declined to say whether he advised Jared to take the job. "Jared thought he could make a positive impact. In the end, I gave him my blessing."

Kushner Companies has made several adjustments since then.

"The question in our company today is not 'what's the best deal?'" said Charles Kushner recently in his office, which he has adorned with wall-to-wall pictures of his family. Among the photos of his parents, children and grandchildren is one of his daughter-in-law, Ivanka Trump, at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. "We shy away from anything that could have a negative impact on Jared," the elder Kushner said.

Meanwhile, Charles says his other son, Josh -- a Democrat who runs a venture capital firm in New York City -- is feeling the blowback from peers who oppose the administration.

The firm and family are known as longtime supporters of Democratic candidates. In fact, Josh attended the March for Our Lives rally in Washington, DC, last month, posted photos of his supermodel girlfriend Karlie Kloss at the march on his Instagram account and donated $50,000 to the event.

The elder Kushner believes his family and its real estate business have become convenient targets in a highly-charged political environment. Although that may be true, the lack of a clean break between Jared and his family's finances has led to allegations that the family sought to benefit from Jared's proximity to power. Jared Kushner stepped down as CEO of Kushner Companies in January 2017, sold his stakes in some of the firm's projects to a family trust and recused himself from certain policy issues.

A person close to the family says that Jared, who's now responsible for policies from prison reform to Middle East peace in the White House, never intended to go into politics. As a result, he didn't engineer his life in a way that would allow for a smooth transition from the private sphere to the public one. Jared did his best to separate himself from his family's namesake firm, said the person, stepping away from the business. He sold his stakes in many projects to a family trust that doesn't benefit him, said another source with close connections to the family.

But ethics watchdogs call his divestiture plan inadequate, and a series of missteps by the Kushners themselves has invited further scrutiny.

One of those mistakes, Charles admits, was meeting with Qatar's finance minister in 2017 after Jared joined the White House and had left Kushner Companies.

"There's no margin for error with this arrangement," said Don Fox, the former general counsel and acting director of the Office of Government Ethics. "It's human nature to be interested and concerned about assets that are put in trust for family members you love and care for."

Charles says he only accepted the invitation "out of respect" for the Qataris to tell them there was no way "we could do business." He now admits that taking the meeting was "stupid," given how it might be perceived publicly.

Charles knew the White House job would be hard on his son but underestimated the strength of what he called the "opposition" to the administration.

Political attacks

In the past two years, local Democratic officials in New York and New Jersey have either stalled or killed two Kushner Companies projects for political reasons, according to the elder Kushner.

In Jersey City, New Jersey, Kushner Companies had sought local tax breaks to develop a luxury project called One Journal Square. But City Mayor Steven Fulop, who had touted a "terrific friendship" with Jared Kushner in 2014, announced on Facebook that he would not support a tax break for the project.

"That's discrimination. That's like me telling you, I'm not giving you a loan because you're a woman or because you're Jewish," said the elder Kushner.

Charles said Kushner Companies was forced to find other ways to reduce cost to keep the project profitable. As a result, the firm will now use non-unionized construction workers to build the development instead of organized labor, which is more expensive.

But Fulop may have a different idea in mind. He recently tweeted that he hopes the project "will now move to a different partner."

Separately, in New York City, a Brooklyn council member nixed a Kushner rezoning plan to develop a vacant lot adjacent to the Gowanus Canal. The lawmaker told CNN he had concerns about Kushner Companies' conflicts of interests. Kushner Companies abandoned the project and ended up selling the land to another firm for a profit.

Despite the setbacks, Charles projects strength. He says big banks are still backing his deals. The family-owned business has secured $1.5 billion for construction, acquisitions and refinancing in the first quarter of 2018 alone, said Charles.

But a much larger obstacle looms, casting a shadow over the firm: finding fresh capital to refinance debt on 666 Fifth Avenue. Real estate industry sources say the 666 deal was an effort to raise the company's status after the family was rocked by scandal when Charles was sentenced to two years in prison for tax evasion, illegal campaign contributions and witness tampering.

Shortly after Kushner Companies bought the building in 2007, the financial crisis struck, hammering its revenue. Midtown office rents in New York plummeted below $60 a square foot -- nearly half the rate Kushner Companies had projected it would be able to charge the building's tenants. Although office rents have recovered, the building's bottom line has not. That's because Kushner Companies, anticipating an ambitious modernization of the property, had reduced the building's occupancy assuming they would find a partner to fund the reconstruction.

Their plan called for a multibillion-dollar conversion of the office space into luxury condominiums designed by the late architect Zaha Hadid. The undertaking would require a partner with deep pockets, and the Kushners targeted several foreign investors with close ties to their governments.

But the plan failed as a series of stories detailed efforts by Jared and his father to seal a deal with a large foreign investor during the home stretch of his father-in-law's presidential campaign.

In late 2016, Kushner Companies was finalizing a deal to redevelop 666 Fifth Avenue with Anbang Insurance Group, a Chinese holding company with connections to China's government. Those revelations ignited a backlash following Trump's election over potential conflicts of interest for Jared, who was then serving as the lead point of contact with foreign governments in his role as a member of the President-elect's transition team.

To safeguard against similar mistakes in the future, the firm's lawyer reminds dealmakers weekly of the company's self-imposed ban on financing from foreign governments. He hopes that will avoid accusations of conflicts or corruption for Jared.

As a father, Charles says, the last thing he wants to do is create more problems for his son.
After a man was fatally stabbed in front of his daughter and wife in an unprovoked attack while the family was dining at a beachfront eatery in Ventura, local residents were putting pressure on public officials to address homelessness issues on Monday.

Dozens of concerned citizens marched from the scene of the attack, Aloha Steakhouse at 364 S. California St., to Ventura City Hall ahead of a 6 p.m. City Council meeting, at which they planned to voice their concerns about the town's homeless population.

The man suspected of killing 35-year-old father Anthony Mele is Jamal Jackson, 49, who has a criminal record and is homeless, according to Ventura police. Jackson is accused of approaching Mele at random and stabbing him in the throat around 9:20 p.m., after the family had just finished eating and while Mele's 5-year-old daughter sat on his lap.
Huntsville Utilities crews were busy throughout Sunday night and Monday morning with several calls of obstructed roads.



Blue Spring Road was temporarily shut down after the top of a utility pole snapped off and caused power lines to fall into the roadway.

Both Bankhead Parkway and Pansy Street had trees fall across the entirety of the roadway, blocking all through traffic.

The obstruction on Drake Avenue has persisted the longest. Huntsville Police started asking drivers to steer clear of the road near Crestwood Drive SW starting around 12:45 a.m.

A broken utility pole caused power lines to lie across the roadway causing traffic in both directions to be shut down.

As of the publishing of this article, Drake Avenue had not reopened. Officers said they expect the closure to extend into the rush hour period since utilities crews need to replace the pole.

Downed trees and power lines kept Huntsville Utilities workers buy throughout the night. As of 6:30 a.m., about 1,500 customers still had no power.
BC-US--Border Patrol-Shooting

Mistrial declared for border agent charged with killing teen

Eds: APNewsNow. Will be updated.

PHOENIX (AP) - A judge in Arizona has declared a mistrial in the case of a U.S. Border Patrol agent after a jury acquitted him of a second-degree murder charge in the killing of a teenager but deadlocked on lesser counts of manslaughter.



US Supreme Court / Anthony Kennedy (MGNOnline) US Supreme Court / Anthony Kennedy (MGNOnline)

The mistrial was called Monday in Tucson by Judge Raner Collins after jurors acquitted Agent Lonnie Swartz on the murder charge in the cross-border shooting of a teenager in Mexico who was throwing rocks at authorities during a drug smuggling attempt.

The U.S. Attorney's Office says it's evaluating whether to pursue a retrial on the manslaughter charges in the 2012 death of Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez.

Prosecutors acknowledged Elena Rodriguez was lobbing rocks during a drug smuggling attempt but said he didn't deserve to die.

Defense attorneys countered Swartz shot from the U.S. side of the border in self-defense.

(Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

4/23/2018 7:08:40 PM (GMT -5:00)
HOUSTON (AP) - A family spokesman says former President George H.W. Bush has been hospitalized in Houston with an infection, just after attending the funeral of his wife Barbara.

Jim McGrath says on Twitter that the 93-year-old Bush is "responding to treatments and appears to be recovering." He says he was admitted to Houston Methodist Hospital Sunday morning after an infection spread to his blood.

Barbara Bush was laid to rest Saturday in a ceremony attended by her husband and former presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and their spouses, along with current first lady Melania Trump.
An Alabama judge on Tuesday dismissed criminal charges accusing Morgan County's former jail warden, Leon Bradley, of illegally leaking sensitive information to a blogger critical of Morgan County Sheriff Ana Franklin.

Morgan County Circuit Judge Glenn Thompson dismissed the charge of computer tampering, allowing the request of the former jail warden after two days of testimony. Al.com reports Thompson declined to hold contempt hearings against Franklin or her deputies. Prosecutors have yet to comment on the case.

Im really thankful for the law enforcement people who stood up like theyre supposed to, Bradley said after the judges ruling. Im disgusted by those who did not. It was sickening today to hear some of the actions of law enforcement.

Bradley testified under oath, not denying that he illigally disseminated infromation to Glenda Lockhart. Lockhart operates the 'Morgan County Whistleblower,' a blog dedicated to 'exposing' information that may upset local citizens.

Although the state's attorney generals office had already agreed to dismiss the case, Bradley wanted a hearing anyway to share the actions of Sheriff Franklin.

Lockhart's grandson, Daniel Lockhart, testified that Franklin threatened to arrest him and jeopardize his plans to join the Army if he did not provide information to discredit his grandmother. He also claims that Franklin bribed him with $500 to install surveillance software on his grandmas computer.

I think everything went well today, and justice will prevail, Glenda Lockhart said as she left the courthouse. Lockheart has not been charged with a crime and is currently pursuing a civil lawsuit against the sheriff's office.

Sergeant Klye Wilson, an employee of the sheriffs office, testified that Sergeant Blake Robinson and Lieutenant Robert "Bones" Wilson told him to prepare a search warrant on Bradley's home without him even knowing of the initial investigation. Wilson refused to present the affidavit for the warrant to the judge. Wilson also testified that Franklin unsuccessfully tried to convince a Madison County investigator to issue the search warrant against Bradley. Michael Salomonsky, a Madison County Sheriffs Captain, corroborated Wilson's testimony Friday.

Franklin denied any knowledge of the software in testimony Friday.

Deputy Zachary Dockery, an 11-year employee of the sheriffs office, testified that he declined to provide surveillance equipment to use on blogger Lockhart because he was worried it would amount to criminal eavesdropping. He said he also told two sheriffs office employees not to hack into Bradleys personal emails without a warrant.

Dockery testified that the sheriffs office had installed a tracking device on Bradleys county vehicle.

A news release sent from the Morgan County Sheriff's Office to WAAY 31 reads, "The Sheriffs Office is disappointed that the criminal charges against Leon Bradley have been dismissed without a full and fair opportunity for the presentation of evidence as to whether Mr. Bradley broke the law of the State of Alabama by disseminating confidential, law enforcement information to non-law enforcement personnel, which information was not subject to public disclosure."

Members of the sheriff's office were not allowed in the hearing.

The sheriff denies any improprieties in the course of the investigation of Leon Bradley.
Some homes and businesses in Limestone County are still without power. Athens Utilities last told WAAY 31 crews have restored power to all but 3 customers. Late Sunday night, thousands of customers were without power.

Last night's strong winds knocked several trees and large limbs on the power lines. Home owners on Briarwood Road said this isn't what they were expecting.

"We didn't hear a whole lot. I could hear those winds and trees over there," Ronnie Poole.

Ronnie Poole and his wife knew it would rain on Sunday, but he didn't think it'd get windy enough for trees to hit power lines.

"We at least had the flashlights where we could get to them and candles and that kind of thing," Poole said.

He said since they had no lights, they just went to sleep. Athens Utilities officials report that 6,700 customers were without power from the Sunday night and Monday morning storm. The homes were scattered throughout the county. Having working electricity is something Poole said could easily be taken for granted.

"Every time we went in the room, we flipped the switch on out of habit. Nothing happens. We dealt with it and it was fine," Poole said.

Poole is noticing a pattern of bad weather. He's thankful this time Limestone County didn't get hit as hard as the month of March

"We've been lucky, where we are. Nothing has really happened until this. It's minor compared to what people have been through," Poole said.

Neighbors told WAAY 31 with the weather not predictable when it rains, they're going to stay prepared moving forward.
(CNN) -- Alek Minassian, the man accused of steering a white rental van down a packed Toronto street killing 10 people and leaving 15 others injured, appears to have praised the killer in a 2014 attack near the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Just before the deadly incident Monday, Minassian wrote on his Facebook page: "All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger!"

Here's what we know about Minassian:

Who is he?

- Minassian is 25 years old and from Richmond Hill, Ontario, Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders said.

- He's due in court Wednesday at 10 a.m. ET, Saunders said.

- He allegedly drove for nearly a mile early Monday afternoon along Yonge Street, north of midtown Toronto, sometimes veering onto the sidewalk as he plowed a path of destruction, police said.

- In high school, "he was always smiling. It wasn't his intention; it was out of his control." That's how a neighbor who once attended Japanese class at Thornlea Secondary School in Ontario with Minassian described him.

He was odd, kept to himself and didn't socialize with other students, the neighbor said.

- He was unknown to Toronto authorities before the van incident, Saunders said, noting: "There's nothing we have ... on him right now."

However, a US law enforcement official with knowledge of the matter said Minassian had been known to authorities.

- Referring to the van rampage, his "actions definitely look deliberate," Saunders said.

What about his motive?

- His motive is not yet clear.

- He is not being called a terrorist. "There would appear to be no national security connection," said Canada's Minister of Public Safety Ralph Goodale.

- Just before the van plowed down pedestrians, it appears Minassian lauded an American mass killer on his Facebook account, CNN law enforcement analyst Josh Campbell said.

"All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger!" reads the message on the account investigators believe belongs to Minassian, Campbell said.

Rodger killed six people and injured 14 others in a stabbing, shooting and vehicle-ramming attack in 2014 near the UC Santa Barbara campus.

Investigators noted that Rodger was motivated by a personal grievance related to the extremist ideological subculture of men's rights activists propagated in online forums, such as 4Chan, Campbell said. Supporters believe women don't want gender equality and have been brainwashed by feminist propaganda.

Rodger died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

How was he caught?

- Minassian was arrested in a white rental van less than 30 minutes after police got a 911 call about the deadly rampage, Saunders said.

- He may have engaged in a tense standoff with Toronto police before his arrest. A cell phone video obtained by CNN partner CTV appears to show a man standing in front of a white van with a damaged front bumper.

The man yells and extends one arm, pointing an object at an officer standing behind a black car.

The officer, his weapon drawn, points at the man. The officer slowly steps toward him and yells "Get down, get down!"

Later in the video, the man is seen on the ground as the officer cuffs his hands behind him; the object, which Saunders denied was a gun, can be seen lying on the ground.

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AP-TN-XGR--Jack Daniel's-Tax

Tennessee lawmakers OK whiskey barrel tax exemption bill

Eds: APNewsNow.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Tennessee's Republican-led legislature has passed a proposal to exempt Jack Daniel's and other distillers from property tax on whiskey barrels, a fee the company says it hasn't had to pay at least since Prohibition ended eight decades ago.

On Monday, the House voted 78-12 for the bill by Republican Rep. David Alexander of Winchester. The Senate previously voted 30-0 for the proposal, so it heads to Republican Gov. Bill Haslam.

Additionally, an opinion by Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery said the state constitution doesn't exempt whiskey barrels from property taxes. The distillers have argued the Tennessee Constitution does shield their barrels from the tax.

A local audit recently deemed Jack Daniel's barrels taxable. A legislative analysis says the tax would cost Jack Daniel's $2.8 million this year.

(Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

4/23/2018 8:08:36 PM (GMT -5:00)
A woman walked inside the Waffle House restaurant in Antioch just hours after Sunday's shooting holding a newborn baby.

She told a division manager for the chain that she'd just given birth in the parking lot, The Tennessean reported.

The manager told the paper the woman told him she'd been involved in a minor traffic accident and the baby just couldn't wait

The manager was able to clear the baby's airway and emergency responders took them both mom and baby to the hospital.

The Tennessean tried finding out the condition of both, but privacy laws prevent the hospital from releasing patient information.
AMP's board has been warned it must take stronger action over the shock misconduct in its financial planning arm, or it faces a showdown with some of the country's largest superannuation funds at next month's annual general meeting.

The Australian Council of Superannuation Investors on Monday gave AMP an ultimatum that it would advise funds to vote against the re-election of directors and potentially reject its top executives' pay packets unless AMP this week took steps to ensure "accountability at board level."

The royal commission led by Kenneth Hayne is probing financial advice again this week. Credit:Eddie Jim

The warning came as AMP shares tumbled, but it also received some rare good news, with influential proxy advice firm CGI Glass Lewis recommending investors vote in line with the company's advice at AMP's annual general meeting, on May 10.
A rescue worker leaves the site where a garment factory building collapsed near Dhaka, Bangladesh. Credit:AP

Five years ago on Tuesday, the eight-story Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh came crashing down, burying factory workers inside. In the weeks that followed, the scale of the disaster became clear  1134 workers, mainly young women, were dead and over 2000 others injured.

Rana Plaza is often described as the garment industrys worst industrial accident, but the industry practices that led to it were far from accidental.

Western brands, including many from Australia, flocked to Bangladesh because of its rock-bottom prices. Low prices reinforced low wages and discouraged investment in factory safety.

Since the terrible event of April 24, 2013, many fashion retailers have taken steps to improve safety and working conditions in their supply chains. Many brands, including household Australian names like K-mart and Cotton On, have signed up to a union-led inspection and remediation initiative in Bangladesh that has achieved real improvements in factory safety.
Dunnin predicts wealth groups will shed their advice arms and that very clear distinctions will emerge between adviser and investment managers. Consumer demand Loading Heike van den Hoevel, wealth management analyst at consulting firm, GlobalData, says: Customers are likely to think twice about the type of provider they opt for. "This will drive growth of the independent advice market," he says.

"Even those with relatively straight-forward needs are more likely to opt for independent advice as a result of the royal commission." Claire Mackay, a planner and chartered accountant at Quantum Financial, whose firm is one of the few that is truly independent, is horrified by the revelations. "It makes me numb that this is being done by my professional peers," she says. Claire Mackay of Quantum Financial, who is horrified by the revelations, is one of the small number of independent financial advisers. Credit:Dean Sewell There will be changes, not the least because consumers will be demanding it, Mackay says.

It is estimated that two million people pay a combined $4.6 billion a year for financial advice. "Consumers are going to be asking a lot more of their advisers and demanding value for money," she says. Loading Mackay is expecting a move to more independent-advice models like hers. Despite a regulatory regime that says, as long as planners tick certain boxes, they all have equal professional standing; financial planners are not created equal.

Often it's the environment in which they work, particularly when they work for financial institutions where financial product sales targets have to be meet, that is the route of the problem. One of the problems of linking advice to product sales is that sometimes the best advice will be for the person to draw-up a budget and accelerate the repayments on their debts. It may have nothing to do with buying or investing in financial products at all. Planners can be divided roughly into two classes  those who work for independently-owned planning firms and those, the vast majority, who are aligned with one of the big financial institutions. Independence

The big banks, for example, employ salaried planners where it is highly likely you will be recommended the financial products of the bank that employs the planner. The banks also own financial planning firms that cater for those clients with more sophisticated needs, such as high-earning professionals and small business owners. Their planners will be able to recommended products from a range of institutions, not just the loans, superannuation, managed funds and insurance "manufactured" by the institution that owns the firm. Though they have a degree of independence, they are not fully independent. The use of the word "independent" by planners is restricted by regulation. Last year, the regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, cracked-down on planners terms such as "independently owned" and other similar words when they are not independent.

Only a handful of firms meet the test. They have to be independently owned, hold their own licences, have no affiliations with institutions and receive no commissions, which are already banned, but not for life insurance. Daniel Brammall, a planner and also the president of the Independent Financial Advisers Association of Australia (IFAAA), says the association has only about 40 individual planners. He is fielding many calls from advisers working for financial institutions who are thinking of working for an independent firm or setting-up shop themselves. Cost of advice Comprehensive personal financial plans can cost several thousands on dollars, depending on the circumstances of the consumer.

That cost can be subsidised in large integrated banks by product sales through planners aligned with financial institutions. There is an argument that consumers will baulk at paying an upfront fee for the advice alone. But Brammall doesn't believe that's true. "The reality is we have many clients who are paying less than than they were in a conflicted environment," he says. It is important consumers can easily distinguish between those providing independent advice and those who sell their employers' products. David Brammall He points out that advice can be "scaled", so that rather than a comprehensive financial plan, advice on just one aspect is provided.

An example of scaled personal advice is where a couple with young children want advice on life insurance cover in the event of death or disability, taking into account their current income and assets. Claire Mackay says not everyone needs a financial planner but they do need a financial plan. Mackay has one-off consultations with people who want general advice on whether they are on the right track and looking for a bit of direction and motivation. They pay for the consultation but they can do the rest on their own, she says. For people with straight-forward circumstances, it is simple things like pay-downing the mortgage as quickly as you can that often gives the biggest bang for your buck, Mackay says.

Brammall says it is important consumers can easily distinguish between those providing independent advice and those who sell their employers' products. He would like to see a change so that the latter are called "product advisers" or "product agents" to make the distinction clear. Unintended consequence Christopher Zinn, a co-founder of website, Adviser Ratings, which helps consumers find good planners, says there's a risk some people who really do need good financial advice will be put-off. Zinn says some consumers may have been putting-off getting advice and the danger is that now they will think they were right to do so, he says.
Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack is right about one thing  we need more training for doctors in the bush. What he isnt right about is the stage at which this need exists. We need more rural generalist and speciality training, but not more medical students.

Every single location proposed by Charles Sturt and LaTrobe universities for the Murray Darling Medical School already trains medical students, and in several cases hosts students from more than one university.

Country towns don't need more medical students. Credit:Erin Jonasson

As a product of the combined Melbourne-Monash Rural Clinical School in Bendigo, I can attest that the quality of education provided is excellent, and government-funded education infrastructure is already in place.

I am surprised that Nationals MP Andrew Gee is not aware of the students studying in his electorate - from the University of Sydney studying in Orange, or from Western Sydney University in Bathurst. To waste $50 million creating a new medical school and duplicating or replacing these facilities would represent economic folly.
A southern suburbs family is pleading for information after their beloved American Staffy was found dead with several arrow wounds in her head and body near the Byford town centre on Monday.

Its the second animal cruelty incident in a week following the discovery of a cat with an arrow in its head in Ellenbrook on Friday.

Roxy was found with several arrow wounds in her head and body.

Roxys owner Melissa Parry said the staffy escaped their Byford backyard during last weekends storm.

The family placed missing dog notices in local Facebook groups, and on Monday someone working near a train line in Byfords town centre notified them that they had found a dogs body matching Roxys description.
A group of young Australian and New Zealand travellers have lost all their belongings after a bus taking them to the Anzac Cove Dawn Service at Gallipoli burst into flames.

The 43 passengers were four hours into the journey in Turkey when smoke started belching from the engine and they were told to get off.

"We were driving up a hill, then everything just shut off," said Melissa Peters, who is from Christchurch but has been living in London.

"We turned around and there's smoke. Someone yelled out, 'There's a flame.' We all just bolted off the bus."
McCracken County Fiscal Court Meeting, April 23rd

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By Mike Cooper

Apr. 23, 2018 | PADUCAH, KY

By Mike Cooper Apr. 23, 2018 | 09:29 PM | PADUCAH, KY

The McCracken County Fiscal Court met in their regular session on Monday evening.



The court discussed current projects and approved the following: cash transfers to pay County bills in the amount of $283,828.52, the voucher claims register from April 9th to April 23rd showing county bills in the amount of $523,224.05, and the hiring of seven new employees. They also accepted the resignations of six, and promoted or re-assigned three.



In other court orders, they accepted the report of delinquent tax collection and distributions for March 2018 in the amount of $5,109.87, approved the Judge Executive to be authorized to enter into an agreement with the McCracken County Board of Education and St. John Catholic Church for the transportation of non-public school children to and from school, and approved paying Jim Smith Contracting $19,784.43 for the Maxon Road improvement project.



The court accepted bids from Wood Brothers Excavation for the Old Hinkleville Road project, $6,250.00, Better All Around for repair of Floral Hall, $6,800.00, and also repair and painting at the McCracken County Court House, $21,500.00, and AAA Fencing for fence work at Carson Park, $42,356.59.



They also conducted the first reading of Ordinance No. 2018-02, which creates a new employment classification of Bailiff-Grade 4, setting out the conditions precedent to qualification for the position, along with the rate of compensation.



The next scheduled meeting of the court will be May 7th.
AAA: Check vehicle battery before temperatures get too cold
By West Kentucky Star Staff Apr. 24, 2018 | 04:40 PM | GRAVES COUNTY, KY

The owners of a Marshall County funeral home pleaded guilty to fraud charges Tuesday in Graves County.

Tim and Becky King, owners of Filbeck, Cann and King Funeral Home in Benton, entered six guilty pleas Tuesday as part of a plea deal. Each pleaded guilty to two felony counts of fraudulent insurance acts over $500, a felony count of theft by unlawful taking or disposition all others between $500-$10,000, a felony count of criminal possession of a forged instrument and two misdemeanor counts of fraudulent insurance acts $500 or less.

Tim King is facing 60 days in jail, 100 hours of community service and diversion of five years. Becky King faces 30 days of home incarceration, 200 hours of community service and diversion of five years. Both must also pay restitution to all victims. Sentencing is set for Aug. 14 at 9:00 am.

The case was moved to Graves County because Marshall County Circuit Court Judge Jamie Jameson recused himself in September of last year.

Last May, Kentucky Department of Insurance investigators served search warrants at the funeral home and seized documents and electronic files. They were investigating complaints from customers who allegedly paid the funeral home to buy insurance policies that were never actually purchased.
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Shooter's Bond Revoked, Hero Honored at Capitol

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By The Associated Press

Apr. 24, 2018 | NASHVILLE, TN

By The Associated Press Apr. 24, 2018 | 02:15 PM | NASHVILLE, TN

A Nashville judge has revoked the bond of a man accused of killing four people at a Waffle House restaurant.



Court records show that a judge struck the $2 million bond for Travis Reinking until a hearing can be held Wednesday. The records did not give a reason why General Sessions Judge Michael Mondelli revoked the bond.



Reinking has been charged with four counts of criminal homicide. Police say the 29-year-old man opened fire Sunday outside the restaurant with an AR-15 rifle and then stormed the restaurant, wearing only a green jacket. Four other people were injured in the shooting.



An attorney listed as Reinking's lawyer did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.



In a brief address that drew a standing ovation, the man who snatched an AR-15 rifle away from Reinking has told state lawmakers he faced ``the true test of a man.''



As the Republican-led House honored him Tuesday, James Shaw Jr. said he acted to save his life, and saved others in the process. He said he never thought he'd be in a room with all eyes on him.



Shaw Jr. has said he made a split-second decision to challenge the suspect. He got the gun away and threw it over a counter.



His father, James Shaw Sr., and longtime friend Brennan McMurray also briefly spoke Tuesday.



The Senate will also honor Shaw Jr. Tuesday afternoon.


For more than a decade, Native American tribes in Arizona have voiced their opposition to a proposed copper mine in the southern part of the state. Now, three tribes are joining together to bring the fight to court.The Tohono O'odham Nation, and the Pascua Yaqui and Hopi tribes have filed a lawsuit in federal court over the fate of about 3,600 acres of public land in the Santa Rita Mountains. A Canadian company has plans to establish a copper mine there, but the tribes say the area is sacred.Peter Yucupicio, a vice chairman with the Pascua Yaqui tribe describes the land as not only important to his heritage but as an iconic piece of the Southwestern landscape."It's very precious and very important to preserve those mountains, those hills," he says. "And it's amazing how people don't understand that once it's gone, it's gone."The U.S. Forest Service already heard public comments and gave its final approval for the mining plan. In its decision, the Forest Service noted it was aware of the ecological concerns and tribal significance, but said federal law allows for the type of project that has been proposed.The tribes hope a federal judge might see things differently. The mine site is expected to contain nearly six billion pounds of copper. But while a mining business might create economic opportunities, Yucupicio says the price of what could be lost is too high."There was a lot of life there for a while, for some of the first inhabitants," he adds. "And it's sort of like me going to your neighborhood, your house, and destroying it and saying, 'We need it to build a mall,' or, 'We need it to build this business.' But how is that bigger than the people that were there for a long time?"The Forest Service will have until mid-June to respond to the tribes' complaint before the lawsuit moves forward.
GOVERNOR COOPER BROUGHT SCHOOL SAFETY MESSAGE TO T.C. ROBERSON ON MONDAY

IN WNC ON MONDAY

Governor Roy Cooper was joined here in western North Carolina by top cabinet representatives like Administration Secretary Machelle Sanders, who visited Safelight in Hendersonville Monday morning, and Office of State Human Resources Director Barbara Gibson, who toured Blue Ridge Community College

Cooper told a crowd of educators and students at T.C. Roberson High School about his proposed $130 million budget to help keep students and schools safe.

Gov. Cooper started by saying he is a product of public schools & grateful for education he received pic.twitter.com/M16X4YIew2

Governor says his budget includes funding for school employees to identify signs of trouble in schools. Also includes $10mil for school resource officers. pic.twitter.com/ZkcHuHP3hm

The proposed budget includes $40 million to fund 500 additional positions in public schools for nurses and counselors. The budget also included $10 million for school resource officers.

Governor says his budget includes funding for school employees to identify signs of trouble in schools. Also includes $10mil for school resource officers. pic.twitter.com/ZkcHuHP3hm

Cooper also spoke about what he called "common sense gun reform."

"No educator should ever have to stand in the way of a student and a person holding a dangerous weapon," Cooper said. "Last month, I called for common sense gun reform changes -- stronger background checks, tougher permit requirements, and age requirements," he added.

Students at the school also gave the governor a tour of their classes, including their drama, journalism, and cooking classes
Topeka's former mayor has a special place downtown.

Community members, city leaders and business owners gathered downtown Tuesday morning for a ceremony dedicating the arch spanning Kansas Avenue in honor of Larry Wolgast. A plate was cemented on the arch, thanking Wolgast for his dedication to the revitalization of downtown and his commitment to the city.

Wolgast served as mayor from 2013 to 2018. He said it is humbling to have his name forever associated with downtown.

"A downtown is a symbol of any city and we can't have a great city unless we have a great downtown and it is now being achieved," he said. "It's satisfying in many respects."

Wolgast said downtown is reforming because Topekans are working hard to make it thrive.
Assaulted and humiliated in front of his class. A five-year-old Michigan boy's parents are demanding answers after the boy said his teachers taped his mouth shut and threw away his lunch.

The incident happened at an elementary school in Dearborn Heights on March 26th.

Abdul Donau said during lunch at Highview Elementary preschool, two teachers taped his mouth shut and he didn't get to eat all day. Donau said this allegedly happened to him as many as ten times, and he has asmtha on top of it all.

"So outrageous and so absurd that you think you're sending a kid to a place - school - a place that he would be safe," said Nabih Ayad," the Donau's family attorney.

The Donau's attorney said Abdul won't consider returning to the district until the second teacher involved is also fired.

Ayad plans to file a lawsuit.

In response to what happened, the school superintendent issued a statement saying, "the substitute teacher assistant was immediately released from employment. Crestwood School District does not approve of or accept this type of behavior."

The district does deny this happened a total of ten times.

In the meantime, police said what took place could possibly result in assault charges against the substitute.
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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
Contesting the colour of a Just Transition in South Africa

Reliant on heavy industry and coal-fuelled electricity, South Africa is one of the most carbon intense economies in the world.

The Government has made commitments to reduce carbon emissions but is simultaneously promoting the expansion of coal. As resistance to coal is growing, a transformative approach to Just Transition has the potential to overcome differences that currently constrain unified action.

Two new coal-fired power stations, among the largest in the world, are being built in South Africa. Another 10 smaller ones are planned as well as 40 new coal mines, most of them in Mpumalanga, on some of the most fertile land in South Africa. This adds to the countrys 1,600 existing coal mines. At the same time, resistance to coal is growing, taking new organizational forms, tapping into new sources of power and adopting new innovative strategies and tactics. In this context, a new transformative approach towards the Just Transition has the potential to unify and strengthen a range of different struggles.

Driving a Just Transition: An incipient Red-Green alliance

The alliance between the labour and environmental movements, a so-called red-green alliance, could form a powerful driver for a transformative Just Transition. In 2010, South African labour  through the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)  and environmental justice groups attempted to establish such an alliance. Over the following five years, and with COSATU backing, efforts were made to educate the public on the social impacts of climate change (such as rising food and electricity prices, water shortages) and to push through a transformative energy policy. However, too little attention was paid to the interests of workers in the extractive sector who were most exposed to the short-term social effects of coal phase-out.

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), a COSATU affiliate, was increasingly on the defensive, arguing that mine closures, falling coal prices, mechanization, demands from environmental activists to keep the coal in the hole and the divestment movement were threatening the livelihoods of some 90,000 coal miners. Another COSATU affiliate, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), expressed the fear that the notion of a Just Transition is class-blind. In contrast to NUM, it strongly promoted the notion of energy democracy as a building block towards an alternative future.

This involved reclaiming the energy sector as part of the commons, meaning social ownership and democratic control. More generally, those from within COSATU who were involved in the alliance, were criticized for being too focused on the nature, causes and effects of climate change instead of the content and modalities of a Just Transition.
Can the Iran nuclear deal be saved?

French President Emmanuel Macron will lobby President Donald Trump to stick with the deal during a White House visit on Tuesday. German Chancellor Angela Merkel will make the case on Friday.

Their goal is to save a deal signed in 2015 under which the United States and other powers agreed to lift some economic sanctions in return for Iran agreeing to rein in its nuclear program.

Trump has vowed to rip up the agreement, which he has described as "the worst deal ever." He's now threatening to reject an extension of the agreement ahead of a May 12 deadline.

So who loses out if Trump does decide to abandon the nuclear deal?

1. Car drivers

Iran has the fourth largest crude oil reserves in the world and claims nearly one-fifth of the planet's natural gas.

The country has ramped up production since sanctions were eased to about 3.8 million barrels a day. That's about a million barrels a day more than in 2015.

New sanctions on Iranian oil exports would put a dent in global supply and could cause prices to spike higher. They've already soared 14% this year to their highest level in three years, and the price of US gas has jumped to a national average of $2.75 a gallon.

"A lot of the reason for higher prices is the president's policy on Iran," said Joe McMonigle, senior energy policy analyst at Hedgeye Risk Management last week. "You're talking about a huge amount of oil at risk. You're going to see prices spike."

Related: Surging oil prices rattle President Trump

2. Boeing and Airbus

The biggest deals signed with foreign companies so far have been for airplanes to modernize Iran's creaking fleet.

Boeing signed an $8 billion deal to sell 80 jets to Iran Air after the sanctions were lifted. The first jets are due to be delivered this year.

Boeing has said the airplane sales to Iran Air will directly support tens of thousands of US jobs. The company noted that 100,000 Boeing employees will be involved with making good on the deal.

It has also agreed to sell 30 737 MAX airplanes worth $3 billion to Aseman Airlines, another Iranian carrier.

European rival Airbus wants a share of the action too. It has agreed to sell 100 jets to Iran for about $10 billion. Those sales could be in trouble if Trump reintroduces sanctions because Airbus uses parts made in America.

3. GE, Volkswagen and Total

While many major foreign companies have remained on the sidelines because of fears over a return of sanctions, a handful have jumped in.

Total signed a $2 billion agreement to help develop Iran's giant South Pars gas field, together with Chinese state oil company CNPC. But the French company has cautioned that a tough approach from Trump could kill the deal.

"Either we can do the deal legally if there is a legal framework," CEO Patrick Pouyann- told CNNMoney last year. "If we cannot do that for legal reasons ... then we have to revisit it."

General Electric has received millions of dollars in orders from Iran in 2017, according to company filings, for its oil and gas business.

In 2017, Germany's Volkswagen announced that it will sell cars in Iran for the first time in 17 years.

4. Airlines and hotel groups

Travel operators have taken advantage of the renewed interest in Iran as a business and tourist destination since sanctions were eased.

European airlines such as British Airways and Lufthansa have resumed direct flights to the country, and Iranian authorities have relaxed visa requirements.

France's Accor was the first international hotel chain to open in Iran in 2015.

Spain's Melia and Rotana of the United Arab Emirates have also announced plans to open hotels in Iran.

5. Iran's economy

Growth has returned to Iran in recent years, but the economic recovery remains fragile.

"As the full suite of American sanctions, including penalties on importing Iranian crude oil, snap back into place, Iran's precarious economic situation will certainly deteriorate," Suzanne Maloney, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, wrote earlier this month.

There have been warning signs already.

The Iranian rial has plunged against the US dollar in recent months. The currency has lost roughly a third of its value over the past year, and media reports suggest the decline has been steeper on black market exchanges.

The fall has made imports more expensive, and some Iranians are reportedly cashing in their savings to buy dollars and euros.

Unhappiness over the economy, and the government's management of the situation, helped fuel major protests in late 2017.

-- CNN's Ivana Kottasov- and Zahraa Alkhalisi contributed to this report.
As the Supreme Court prepares to hear oral arguments on President Trump's latest travel ban on Wednesday, families wonder whether this may be a turning point in their effort to reunite with loved ones overseas.

In December, the Supreme Court temporarily allowed the current version of the ban to go into full effect. Varying degrees of restrictions are placed on foreign nationals from eight countries, five of which have Muslim-majority populations.

But even before this version of the travel ban, two previous editions had stalled immigration visa processes that were then underway, according to both immigration attorneys and US citizens trying to bring their families to America.

Even the supposed exception for people with "bona fide relationships" to US citizens was rendered meaningless in the bureaucracy they faced.

The Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling by the end of June.

Here are the stories of two families, working toward resolution.

Activist separated from husband: 'I've got due rights. I have the Constitution'

Rabyaah Althaibani is a United States citizen who became active in Yemeni issues at the beginning of the Arab Spring in 2011. She met a Yemeni journalist, and over the course of the next several years, fell in love.

Her husband's safety was at risk in Yemen, given his outspoken views against Islamic radicalism. When war broke out in 2015, he left his home country. The two were married in India in 2016.

Althaibani said after their wedding, she petitioned for him to join her in the United States. At first, the process went relatively smoothly. But in January of 2017, when President Trump rolled out his first travel ban, the process stalled.

While that ban was blocked by a federal judge, the Trump administration revealed a new ban in March of 2017.

Althaibani said that for those who were already far along in the immigration process, "it seemed liked everybody -- children, anyone, everyone -- that was already finished, completed everything, would go through what they call administrative processing, which is AP status. And this AP status is like a black hole."

She said she has constitutional rights as an American citizen to bring her husband into the country.

"These are like, really clear laws that we have," Althaibani said. "It kind of made me question also the whole idea of being an American: What does that mean anymore?"

But Althaibani is counting herself lucky now. After two and a half years of being separated from her husband, who has been waiting in safety in Malaysia, he has finally been granted a waiver.

His flight is scheduled to arrive in New York on Friday, just days after the Supreme Court hears oral arguments on the latest iteration of the travel ban.

Father of four: 'We can't lose hope'

Abdo Elfgeeh arrived in the United States six months before terrorists attacked on September 11, 2001. He remembers seeing the debris fill the air and remembers being stuck in the subway.

He also remembers the unity he felt with Americans.

"That was remarkable. We saw the beauty of the people of this country at that time. We were still new in the country and the way we went through it together was amazing. It left a lot of positive impressions in us," Elfgeeh said.

Five years later, he became a citizen.

Elfgeeh said his family is used to a long-distance relationship, because his father and his great uncle before him had also immigrated to the States while the rest of their families stayed in Yemen. He knew that eventually, he would have his wife and four children join him in the United States.

But when war broke out in Yemen in 2015, they felt the urgency to come to America. Elfgeeh began the petitioning process.

The first step in the process is for United States Customs and Immigration Services to interview the citizen. Elfgeeh got an appointment for his interview more than a year after he submitted his application, but that interview was only for his wife and one of his children.

He completed a second interview in 2017 for his other children. Three months later, Customs and Immigration approved their application, at which point the file was moved to the National Visa Center.

The NVC then processed it and moved it to an embassy. Since war-torn Yemen no longer had an embassy, the family made a costly and dangerous journey to Djibouti.

After their interview in January of 2018 at the embassy in Djibouti, they were rejected.

"It was heartbreaking," Elfgeeh said. He described his youngest daughter, age 9, who held him and wouldn't let him go.

He said they can't lose hope, no matter the outcome of the Supreme Court ruling in June.

"It's worth it. It's worth working hard to try to bring them, because we have no other choices. Either we send them back to Yemen with the war and they have no hope, or we keep trying to bring them no matter what," Elfgeeh said.
By Holly Yan and Susannah Cullinane, CNN

(CNN) -- Travis Reinking, the man accused of killing four people at a Nashville-area Waffle House on Sunday, is now in custody, Metro Nashville police said Monday.

The arrest capped a day-long manhunt for the suspect police say unloaded an assault-style rifle at the restaurant in Antioch early Sunday morning.

The tragedy sparked a cycle of shock, grief and anxiety among residents throughout Nashville.

Nashville public schools started "lock-out" procedures Monday while Reinking was on the loose. Police warned residents to keep their doors locked.

It's not clear what Reinking did during his roughly 35 hours on the run.

Tragedy and heroism

Reinking arrived at the Waffle House in Antioch, part of the metro Nashville area, just before 3:20 a.m. Sunday.

He sat in his pickup truck for 3 1/2 to 4 minutes "just looking at people inside the restaurant," Metro Nashville Police spokesman Don Aaron said.

Then, wearing only a green jacket, the gunman got out with an "assault-type rifle" and fatally shot two people outside the Waffle House, police said.

He continued his rampage inside the restaurant, killing another two people. His motive remains unclear.

The carnage stopped only because of the heroics of a customer, James Shaw Jr., who monitored the gunman's moves from afar and jumped into action when he saw an opportunity.

Shaw "saw the gunman looking at his rifle. At that point, the shots had stopped. So he decided to rush the gunman, actually wrestled that assault rifle away, tossed it over the counter. At that point, the gunman then fled," Aaron said.

Shaw denied that he was a hero, saying his actions were "a selfish act" to save himself.

Shaw has started a GoFundMe account to assist victims of the shooting, a GoFundMe spokeswoman told CNN. Within hours, the $15,000 goal had almost been met.

What we know about the suspect

Reinking is from Morton, Illinois, and police believe he moved to the Nashville area last fall.

He worked in construction but was fired from a job about three weeks ago, police said. Reinking started with another construction company last Monday, but did not show up for work Tuesday.

The 29-year-old has a history of delusions and run-ins with the law.

In May 2016, Reinking had a delusional episode and told first responders that he believed pop star Taylor Swift was stalking him, according to a police report.

Reinking's family also told police he had made comments about killing himself.

Last summer, Reinking was arrested by the Secret Service for trespassing near the White House.

Reinking said he wanted to meet with US President Donald Trump and told a Secret Service officer at the northeast entrance that he was a "sovereign citizen" who had a "right to inspect the grounds," according to a Metropolitan Police Department incident report dated July 7, 2017.

He was charged with unlawful entry, an arrest report states, but the charges were dismissed after he completed community service.

At the FBI's request, Reinking's Illinois firearms authorization was revoked, and four weapons -- including the AR-15 style rifle used in Sunday's shooting -- were seized.

Authorities in Tazewell County, Illinois, later returned the seized weapons to Reinking's father. Police said the father gave later gave them back to his son.

Shortly after the shooting Sunday, Reinking fled the scene completely naked, police said. They suspect he went to his apartment, put on a pair of pants and may have escaped into the woods.

The lives lost

The four people killed were all under 30 years old.

Two of them were fatally shot outside the restaurant: Waffle House employee Taurean C. Sanderlin, 29, of nearby Goodlettsville, and customer Joe R. Perez, 20, of Nashville.

Inside, the gunman killed two more young adults: 23-year-old Akilah Dasilva of Antioch and 21-year-old DeEbony Groves of nearby Gallatin.

Two more shooting victims, 21-year-old Shanita Waggoner and 24-year-old Sharita Henderson, were hospitalized.

(The-CNN-Wire &  2018 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.)
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - New York's governor is proposing a statewide ban on plastic shopping bags.

Democrat Andrew Cuomo announced the legislation Monday, saying the ubiquitous plastic bags are taking a "devastating" toll on the environment. If passed Cuomo's measure would also include efforts to encourage the use of reusable bags.

California and Hawaii already ban the disposable containers. So do many cities including Chicago and Seattle.

Each year New Yorkers use an estimated 23 billion plastic bags, making them a leading source of litter and plastic pollution.

The proposal will likely face significant legislative opposition. Last year lawmakers and Cuomo blocked New York City from imposing a per-bag fee.

Cuomo's new proposal came on the same day that his Democratic primary opponent Cynthia Nixon joined hundreds at an environmental rally outside the state Capitol.

(Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

____________________________________________

RELATED LOCAL COVERAGE:

Is a ban or a fee on plastic bags necessary?
By BARBARA ORTUTAY, AP Technology Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - Facebook has revealed for the first time just what, exactly, is banned on its service in a new Community Standards document released on Tuesday. It's an updated version of the internal rules the company has used to determine what's allowed and what isn't, down to granular details such as what, exactly, counts as a "credible threat" of violence. The previous public-facing version gave a broad-strokes outline of the rules, but the specifics were shrouded in secrecy for most of Facebook's 2.2 billion users.

Not anymore. Here are just some examples of what the rules ban. Note: Facebook has not changed the actual rules - it has just made them public.

CREDIBLE VIOLENCE

Is there a real-world threat? Facebook looks for "credible statements of intent to commit violence against any person, groups of people, or place (city or smaller)." Is there a bounty or demand for payment? The mention or an image of a specific weapon? A target and at least two details such as location, method or timing? A statement to commit violence against a vulnerable person or group such as "heads-of-state, witnesses and confidential informants, activists, and journalists."

Also banned: instructions on "on how to make or use weapons if the goal is to injure or kill people," unless there is "clear context that the content is for an alternative purpose (for example, shared as part of recreational self-defense activities, training by a country's military, commercial video games, or news coverage)."

HATE SPEECH

"We define hate speech as a direct attack on people based on what we call protected characteristics - race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sex, gender, gender identity, and serious disability or disease. We also provide some protections for immigration status," Facebook says. As to what counts as a direct attack, the company says it's any "violent or dehumanizing speech, statements of inferiority, or calls for exclusion or segregation." There are three tiers of severity, ranging from comparing a protected group to filth or disease to calls to "exclude or segregate" a person our group based on the protected characteristics. Facebook does note that it does "allow criticism of immigration policies and arguments for restricting those policies."

GRAPHIC VIOLENCE

Images of violence against "real people or animals" with comments or captions that contain enjoyment of suffering, humiliation and remarks that speak positively of the violence or "indicating the poster is sharing footage for sensational viewing pleasure" are prohibited. The captions and context matter in this case because Facebook does allow such images in some cases where they are condemned, or shared as news or in a medical setting. Even then, though, the post must be limited so only adults can see them and Facebook adds a warnings screen to the post.

CHILD SEXUAL EXPLOITATION

"We do not allow content that sexually exploits or endangers children. When we become aware of apparent child exploitation, we report it to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), in compliance with applicable law. We know that sometimes people share nude images of their own children with good intentions; however, we generally remove these images because of the potential for abuse by others and to help avoid the possibility of other people reusing or misappropriating the images," Facebook says. Then, it lists at least 12 specific instances of children in a sexual context, saying the ban includes, but is not limited to these examples. This includes "uncovered female nipples for children older than toddler-age."

ADULT NUDITY AND SEXUAL ACTIVITY

"We understand that nudity can be shared for a variety of reasons, including as a form of protest, to raise awareness about a cause, or for educational or medical reasons. Where such intent is clear, we make allowances for the content. For example, while we restrict some images of female breasts that include the nipple, we allow other images, including those depicting acts of protest, women actively engaged in breast-feeding, and photos of post-mastectomy scarring," Facebook says. That said, the company says it "defaults" to removing sexual imagery to prevent the sharing of non-consensual or underage content. The restrictions apply to images of real people as well as digitally created content, although art - such as drawings, paintings or sculptures - is an exception.

(Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
A Fulton County man is accused of distributing child pornography, according to U.S. Attorney Grant Jaquith of the Northern District of New York.

Charles Guyer, 59, was arrested Tuesday on a charge of distributing child pornography. According to the news release, Guyer allegedly used a file-sharing software to distribute child porn over the internet in March and April of this year.

A judge ordered that Guyer be detained pending further court proceedings.

If Guyer is ultimately convicted on the charge, he faces at least 15 years in prison and a maximum of 40 years in prison. He also faces a maximum fine of $250,000, and five years to life of post-release supervision.

This case is part of Project Safe Childhood, which was launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice.
The Guatemalan man who was arrested in an immigration raid last week in Rome will remain in detention.

At a detention hearing on Tuesday, a federal judge called Marcial DeLeon-Aguilar a flight risk and said he had been deported three times since 1997. One of those deportations came after an aggravated assault conviction, and the other two were after his illegal re-entry into the U.S.

DeLeon-Aguilar was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at John Collins farm on Thomas Road in Rome on April 18. DeLeon-Aguilar works and lives there with his pregnant wife and their four children.

A new hearing date has been scheduled for next week.

________________________________

RELATED COVERAGE:

ICE responds to detainment of Guatemalan man working on Rome farm

Rome farmer says ICE agents stormed property, detained employee


It's time to meet the newest members of our morning mug club...brought to you by Holland Farms Bakery and Deli.

On Saturday, May 5th from 5 to 8 p.m., the Ava Dorfman Senior and Community Center will be hosting a Kentucky Derby Fundraiser Soiree.

The event will be held at the Delta Lake Inn and will include food, drinks, and fun! Tickets are $75. Make checks payable to the Ava Dorfman Senior and Community Center.

Don't forget to wear your kentucky derby hat and outfit! All proceeds will benefit the senior citizens council of Rome.
U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer is asking the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to help Herkimer County officials in creating a memorial honoring Astronaut Gregory B. Jarvis.

Jarvis was a 1962 graduate of Mohawk High School who worked as a payload specialist for NASA. He was aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger when it exploded less than two minutes after launch on Jan. 28, 1986, killing Jarvis and six other crew members.

Last year, Herkimer County students and officials signed a scroll requesting NASAs help in creating a memorial to honor Jarvis.

Now, Sen. Schumer has written a letter to Johnson Space Center Director Ellen Ochoa to request that NASA help with the planning and establishment of the memorial, which would include items from his early life in Herkimer County and his career with NASA. The size and style of the memorial hasnt been determined yet, according to Schumer.

Herkimer County wants to encourage their youth to look to the future with excitement and believe that no dream is too big, Schumer wrote in his letter to Ochoa. There is no better role model to do so than Astronaut Gregory Jarvis. The entire community is enthusiastic about this project and are eager to bring it to fruition. 

Schumer says the memorial was inspired by NASAs visit to Gregory B. Jarvis Middle School in Mohawk in 2016.

Here is the text of the full letter sent by Schumer:

Dear Dr. Ochoa,

I write to request the help of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in establishing a memorial honoring Challenger Astronaut Gregory Jarvis to be located in Herkimer County, New York. Local officials are seeking to create a memorial for Mr. Jarvis, who was raised in Herkimer County, and are hoping to include official NASA artifacts and memorabilia in order to properly honor his legacy. Such support will enable Herkimer County to commemorate the life of this public servant and inspire future generations to pursue their dreams.

As you know, Astronaut Gregory Jarvis was a payload specialist who tragically lost his life along with seven other astronauts on January 28, 1986, when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after its launch. Mr. Jarvis spent most of his childhood in the town of Mohawk in Herkimer County and graduated from Mohawk High School in 1962. After acquiring a bachelors and masters degree, Astronaut Jarvis embarked on a second advanced degree through which he aspired to be the first person to get a college degree in space  a feat he was awarded posthumously  and served active duty in the United States Air Force. His legacy continues to inspire children in Herkimer County where the middle school he once attended now bears his name.

The effort to further honor Mr. Jarvis with a memorial was inspired by NASAs visit to Gregory Jarvis Middle School in Mohawk in the spring of 2016. Dignitaries from NASA visited local schools and spoke passionately about NASAs role in the journey to Mars and the importance of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). In conjunction with the visit, an art contest titled Journey to Mars  My Trip to Space, was held across county schools and Astronaut Lee Morin addressed the county legislature. A year later in May 2017, local officials and students added their signatures to a scroll supporting a memorial for Astronaut Jarvis, officially launching their effort to make this project a reality.

Specifically, officials and students are looking to create a permanent, secure display open to the public. The size and style is to be determined, but officials hope to include artifacts from both his early life in Herkimer County and his career with NASA. Potential artifacts could include, but are not limited to, flight suits, helmets, gloves, patches, pictures of missions and copies of awards/recognitions. It is my hope NASA will work with the County to deliver some of these requests and continue to honor this local and national hero.

Herkimer County wants to encourage their youth to look to the future with excitement and believe that no dream is too big. There is no better role model to do so than Astronaut Gregory Jarvis. The entire community is enthusiastic about this project and are eager to bring it to fruition.

Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me or my staff.

Sincerely

Charles E. Schumer

U.S. Senate Minority Leader
By Eric Levenson and Julia Jones, CNN

(CNN) -- Nine people are dead and 16 are injured after the driver of a van plowed into multiple pedestrians in Toronto on Monday, Acting Police Chief Peter Yuen said.

The driver, who authorities said hit pedestrians on a busy street north of downtown Toronto, was in custody after leaving a trail of destruction stretching up to a mile, officials said. The van has been located, Toronto Police media representative Gary Long said.

Authorities have not said publicly if the vehicle collisions were intentional. But a law enforcement official briefed on the situation in Toronto told CNN the incident is believed to be deliberate.

The incident happened in the North York area at the intersection of Yonge Street and Finch Avenue, police said.

The suspect covered between a half-mile and a mile in the vehicle, said Stephen Powell, district chief for Toronto Fire.

Seven patients from the incident were received at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. The hospital was unable to provide details on the severity of those injuries.

In recent years, individuals have driven vehicles into crowds of pedestrians in fatal attacks in major cities including Barcelona, New York, London and Nice.

Chelsea Luelo, who works at Capriccio Cafe, saw the incident and said she thought the driver was hitting people intentionally.

"It looked like he was going straight, halfway through the sidewalk," Luelo said.

'Pandemonium broke loose'

Mary Tan shared two photos showing people injured in the incident.

A witness, Raj Irshad, said he saw multiple bodies on the ground.

Irshad works at an Esso gas station about a block from where the van is reported to have driven onto the sidewalk. He said he did not see the initial collision but saw the aftermath. He also saw multiple emergency vehicles in front of his gas station.

One witness told CNN network partner CTV that he was out for a cigarette when he saw the van hit a man walking through the intersection.

"And then, just pandemonium broke loose, just everyone was going crazy," he said. The vehicle was going 60 to 70 kph, he estimated.

One witness, who was driving at the time, said he at first thought the driver was having a heart attack until he saw the white van speeding and striking people on the sidewalk.

"He's just hitting people one by one, going down," the witness said. "It's a nightmare."

Bersat Noorai, the manager of Taftan Kebab, said he saw the white van hit the bench in front of his restaurant. He then ran outside and saw two or three people on the ground.

One man, who appeared to be in his early 20s, was losing a lot of blood, and Noorai said he brought him a towel and water and called 911.

'She's face down on the concrete'

Another witness, Christian Ali, said he came onto the scene and saw bodies and evidence of the destruction.

He first saw a man unconscious at the side of the road and figured it was a terrible accident after he saw debris from a car.

"Two blocks over, I saw another gentleman unconscious in the middle of the road and a policeman leaning over him holding his neck," Ali said.

About a block up, he saw a woman who looked like she had died.

"She's face down on the concrete, a lot of fluid coming out of her head," Ali said.

"About 20 seconds after that, I came upon a crowd of about 30 people ... probably about five people on the ground, bleeding," he said, adding that pedestrians were performing CPR.

Prime Minister Trudeau: 'Our hearts go out to anyone affected'

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said early Monday afternoon that he was just learning about the incident.

"Our hearts go out to anyone affected. We're obviously going to have more to learn and more to say in the coming hours," he said.

Toronto Mayor John Tory said there was a tragic incident on Yonge Street.

"My thoughts are with those affected by this incident and the front-line responders who are working to help those injured," he said.

(The-CNN-Wire &  2018 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.)
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on the White House visit of French President Emmanuel Macron (all times local):

1:20 p.m.

President Donald Trump says U.S. troops will come home from Syria, but he wants to leave a "strong and lasting footprint" in the region.

Trump's comment signaled a softening in tone. Trump was insisting just a few weeks ago that he wanted to pull out U.S. troops and leave the job of rebuilding Syria to others in the region.

Asked about his timeline for bringing the troops home, Trump reiterated his desire to exit Syria. But he also said that he and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed that neither of them wants to give Iran more of an opening in the region.

Trump said "we'll see what happens but we're going to be coming home relatively soon."

He commented during a White House news conference Tuesday with Macron, who is on a state visit to the U.S.

___

1:15 p.m.

French President Emmanuel Macron says he's confident about the future of his country's trading relationship with the U.S. He says it's good when allies work together.

Macron says in a joint news conference with President Donald Trump that trade is balanced between the two countries and he's suggesting all nations follow the rules of the World Trade Organization.

The French president has been critical of Trump's protectionist moves on trade in recent weeks and has called upon the U.S. to exempt European nations from tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

___

1 p.m.

President Donald Trump is thanking French President Emmanuel Macron for his partnership on the recent missile strikes against chemical weapons in Syria and the fight against terrorism.

Trump says at a joint White House news conference that he will soon be meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. He says the U.S. won't "repeat the mistakes of past administrations" and will pressure the North Korean regime.

Macron is pointing to the need for the Iran nuclear deal. He says he wants to work on a new deal in the weeks and months ahead.

Macron says any new agreement would need to block any nuclear activity in Iran through 2025, cease any uranium activity and put an end to the country's ballistic missiles program.

___

12:16 p.m.

A pair of designers is responsible for Melania Trump's white skirt suit and matching hat.

The first lady's office says Michael Kors designed the two-piece suit that Mrs. Trump wore for Tuesday's White House arrival ceremony for President Emmanuel Macron of France and his wife, Brigitte.

Mrs. Trump also wore the suit on an outing to the National Gallery of Art in Washington with Mrs. Macron.

The first lady topped her outfit with a broad-brimmed white hat designed by Herve Pierre. Pierre designed the first lady's inaugural ball gown.

The white hat quickly became the talk of the town, as well as on Twitter. Mrs. Trump typically doesn't wear hats.

Still to come is Tuesday night's piece de resistance: the first lady's state dinner gown.

___

10:40 a.m.

President Donald Trump is warning that if Iran restarts its nuclear program it "will have bigger problems than they have ever had before."

Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron will be discussing the Iran nuclear deal Tuesday during their meetings at the White House.

Macron wants Trump to maintain the deal. Trump is undecided but has called it "a terrible deal."

Though Trump has warmly welcomed Macron to Washington, the two have disagreements to sort through, including Trump's decision to leave the multinational Paris climate change agreement.

While with Macron, Trump refused to answer a reporter's question as to whether he is considering a pardon for his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, whose office was raided by the FBI. Trump called it "a stupid question."

Cohen has not been charged.

___

9:54 a.m.

French President Emmanuel Macron is highlighting the close ties between his nation and the United States during his visit to the White House.

Macron, standing alongside President Donald Trump Tuesday, said "America represents endless possibilities for my country."

He also told Trump that "France shares with your country an ideal of freedom and peace."

Macron touted how the French fought alongside George Washington during the American Revolution, which laid the blueprint for cooperation between the nations.

The French president, who enjoys a closer relationship with Trump than many of his European peers, said that France works alongside the U.S. on challenges like terrorism, North Korea and Iran.

He is expected to lobby Trump to maintain the Iran nuclear deal and reconsider the decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement.

___

9:30 a.m.

President Donald Trump is sending prayers to the Bush family and wishing former President George H.W. Bush a "speedy recovery."

Trump is recognizing the former president as he greets French President Emmanuel Macron on the South Lawn of the White House.

Bush has been hospitalized in Houston with an infection, just days after attending the funeral of his wife, Barbara Bush.

Trump is also sending the nation's sympathies to the Canadian people following the "horrendous tragedy" in Toronto.

A driver plowed a rented van along a crowded sidewalk in Toronto, killing 10 people and injuring 15 others. Trump says the nation's hearts are with the grieving families in Canada.

___

9:25 a.m.

President Donald Trump says the "wonderful friendship" he has developed with French President Emmanuel Macron is a testament to two nations' enduring alliance.

Trump is thanking Macron for his "steadfast partnership" in responding to the recent chemical attack in Syria.

The president is speaking at an arrival ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House.

Trump and Macron are meeting Tuesday on a number of issues, including the future of the Iran nuclear deal and the crisis in Syria.

The two leaders are holding a joint news conference later in the morning and then Macron will be honored with Trump's first state dinner.

___

9 a.m.

President Donald Trump is welcoming French President Emmanuel Macron to the White House in a formal arrival ceremony.

The president and first lady are greeting Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron, on rolled-out red carpet on the South Lawn.

The arrival is heavy on pomp, with nearly 500 U.S. service-members from all five military branches participating in the ceremonial welcome, which includes a "Review of the Troops."

Vice President Mike Pence and several members of Trump's Cabinet, lawmakers, and military families are in attendance. The audience includes students from the Maya Angelou French Immersion School in Temple Hills, Maryland.

The two leaders are spending the morning in meetings and then will hold a joint news conference. On Tuesday night, Macron will be feted at Trump's first state dinner.

___

12:50 a.m.

A sit-down between President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron followed by a joint news conference highlight the business portion of the French leader's second day in Washington.

The pageantry of Macron's official state visit, the first of the Trump presidency, comes Tuesday night with a lavish state dinner at the White House. About 150 guests are expected to dine on rack of lamb and nectarine tart and enjoy an after-dinner performance by the Washington National Opera.

Monday night was more relaxed, featuring a helicopter tour of Washington landmarks and a trip to the Potomac River home of George Washington for dinner.

Pomp and ceremony aside, Trump and Macron disagree on some fundamental issues. A prime dividing point is the multinational Iran nuclear deal, which Trump wants to abandon.

(Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
BOONE COUNTY, Ind. (WISH)  The Boone County prosecutor announced that he plans on seeking the death penalty against a man charged with fatally shooting Deputy Jacob Pickett.

The Boone County Prosecutor Todd Meyer held a news conference at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday afternoon to make the announcement.

Prosecutor Meyer stated: I have given this decision considerable thought and deliberation and, after speaking with the victims family, presenting the case to the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Councils capital litigation committee and after meeting with members of the Indiana Attorney Generals Office, I have concluded that seeking a death sentence in this case is the right decision.

Prosecutor Meyer further stated: The men and women of law enforcement put their lives on the line each and every day to keep the citizens of Boone County safe and out of harms way. When someone takes the life of a police officer, by intentionally killing him/her, while he/she is acting in the line of duty, then that person should have to face the ultimate penalty, which, in the State of Indiana, is a sentence of death.

Prosecutor Meyer also said: The events surrounding Deputy Picketts murder remain under investigation and I anticipate filing additional charges against others associated with Deputy Picketts murder in the very near future. Meyer went on to state: It has always been my intention to hold any and all who are in some way responsible for Deputy Picketts murder accountable, and every day, we are getting closer to being able to do that  but it takes time. The investigators on this case and my office have been working diligently to gather the information and evidence needed to support additional charges and, as I said, we should be in a position to file those charges very soon. It is also noteworthy to point out, so that the community at large does not feel threatened in any way, that the principal targets of these additional charges are currently in custody on both related and unrelated cases, said Prosecutor Meyer.

Pickett was assisting Lebanon police with a vehicle pursuit in March when two suspects bailed from the car and ran. Pickett continued the pursuit on foot and was shot in the head by 21-year-old Anthony Baumgardt, according to Indiana State Police.

The Boone County Prosecutor officially charged Baumgardt, 21, with murder in March. He also faces two charges of possession of methamphetemine, two charges of carrying a handgun without a license, a charge of resisting law enforcement and two charges of possession of marijuana.

Meyer said then that he was leaning toward the death penalty and that Indiana law allows prosecutors to seek the death penalty for anyone accused see of murdering a police officer. Meyer's office was reviewing the case for the purpose of seeking the death penalty.

Baumgardt is being held in the Hamilton County Jail without bond and his trial date is currently scheduled for July 31, 2018. Judge Petit will conduct an initial hearing on the States request for imposition of the death sentence on Friday, April 27, 2018 at 8:30 a.m.

The other two suspects involved in the incident were John Baldwin Jr. and John Baldwin Sr. The former is currently being held in the Boone County Jail, while the latter was questioned and later released.

Baldwin Jr. was charged with resisting law enforcement, auto theft, leaving the scene if an accident, criminal recklessness and being a Habitual felony offender.
TIPPECANOE COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI)  Tippecanoe School Corporation is one of 11 to receive the state's first ever K-6 STEM Acceleration Grants.

The Indiana Department of Education recently announced the recipients of the STEM grants. The department received 136 proposals.

The grant money will be used for research that will provide Indiana leaders with evidence of impact from STEM activities.

Students at Battle Ground intermediate school participated in a STEM activity today. Principal John Pearl said this opportunity will be beneficial to student success.

"With these kits, they'll learn to communicate they'll learn to persevere, they will learn to collaborate they'll learn a little bit of resiliency and a lot of perseverance," said Pearl.

The grant is $99,000. Pearl said TSC will purchase STEM Kits for classrooms.




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After Serzh Sargsyan resigned as prime minister on April 23, thousands gathered in Republic Square to celebrate the end of Sargsyans ten-year rule. After the celebration, people decided to go and clean the square at around 11am today.

Although the garbage-removal operator did most of the job at night, dozens of citizens still got together to clean the Republic Square and its adjacent streets.

10-year-old Vahe and 8-year-old Hripsimeh are here with their father. The brother keeps the bag, and the sister sweeps the streets and pours out the garbage into the bag. They say its their parents initiative to bring them here, but they are doing the job with great pleasure. Two bags of garbage were collected in one hour. Hripsimeh agrees to clean Yerevan streets every week on a voluntary basis. Her brother joins in, saying that hes doing it to have a good country. We learnt about Sargsyans resignation. Our country is dirty right now: I want it to be clean, says Vahe.

IT specialist Narek and his wife Sharmagh, who works at an educational foundation, are cleaning the nearby Amiryan Street. The couple participated in protests. Sharmagh says that theyve continued protesting even after her husband was subjected to violence by police and taken to a police station. And now theyre here to help clean the city.

"I think this is an important initiative. Something has changed since yesterday. Perhaps, we are already starting to build Armenia of our dreams, and it seems that the country's development and stability build upon small but important actions, "says Sharmagh.
Karapetyan praises the police for its professionalism and tolerance

Acting Armenian Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan convened a special session of the Security Council today to review recent developments in the country and their impact on its security.

Karapetyan thanked the countrys armed forces for remaining alert during the past two weeks of civil unrest in Armenia, stating that there should be no doubt the countrys defenses areas prepared as ever for any eventuality.

Addressing Acting Minister of Defense Vigen Sargsyan, Karapetyan said that given recent reports that Azerbaijan was deploying additional troops and equipment along the Line of Contact it would be prudent to lessen that tension.

Karapetyan told the cabinet that he had discussed the matter with Artsakh President Bako Sahakyan, and that the two Armenian states are prepared to respond in kind to any Azerbaijani violation of the ceasefire.

Addressing Armenia Police Chief Vladimir Gasparyan, Karapetyan said the police had exhibited a high degree of professionalism and its ability to maintain public order over the past two weeks.

I thank all police officers for their dedication, for their work and tolerance, Karapetyan said, adding that while it is important for the police to exhibit tolerance during rallies and demonstrations, its equally important to exhibit alertness from a public order viewpoint.

Starting today, public law and order must be restored, Karapetyan said.

(The above was culled from an official government release)
Bruce Power signs advanced manufacturing contracts

24 April 2018

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Bruce Power has signed CAD914 million (USD712 million) in advanced manufacturing contracts for its major component replacement (MCR) that starts in 2020 and will allow the site to provide low-cost, carbon-free electricity to Ontario to 2064. Announcing the deals yesterday, Bruce Power said its Life-Extension Programme - which includes the MCRs on units 3-8 - remains on time and on budget.

The Bruce B plant (Image: Bruce Power)

The new contracts include: CAD642 million to BWXT Canada Inc for the manufacturing of 32 steam generators to be produced at BWXT's Cambridge facility; CAD144 million to Laker Energy Products for end fittings, liners and flow elements, which will be manufactured at its Oakville location; CAD62 million to Cameco Fuel Manufacturing, in Cobourg, for calandria tubes and annulus spacers for all six MCRs; and CAD66 million for Nu-Tech Precision Metals, in Arnprior, for the production of zirconium alloy pressure tubes for Units 6 and 3.

Mike Rencheck, Bruce Power's president and CEO, said that, by extending the life of Bruce Power's reactors to 2064, the company will create and sustain 22,000 jobs annually, while investing CAD4 billion a year into Ontario's economy. At the same time, Bruce Power will produce 30% of the province's electricity at almost one-third less than the average cost to generate residential power, while also producing zero-carbon emissions.

Bruce Power operates eight Candu reactors - units 1-4 at Bruce A and units 5-8 at Bruce B. Units 1 and 2 at Bruce A have already been refurbished.

In January 2016, the company launched its CAD$13 billion, multi-year Life-Extension Programme under an agreement with the Independent Electricity System Operator, the government corporation responsible for Ontario's power supply. Bruce unit 6 will be the first unit to undergo refurbishment, beginning in 2020, and the programme will take until 2053 to complete.

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

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Commitment to safety at Ghanaian research reactor

24 April 2018

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The operator of the Ghana Research Reactor, known as GHARR-1, has shown a high commitment to safety following the conversion of the reactor core to use low-enriched uranium as fuel instead of high-enriched uranium, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). It made a number of recommendations to the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC) to further enhance safety.

GHARR-1 is a low-power research reactor with a maximum thermal power level of 30kW. It is a commercial type of the Miniature Neutron Source Reactor (MNSR) designed, manufactured and constructed by the China Institute of Atomic Energy. Originally fuelled with 90.2% HEU, the reactor is designed for use in universities, hospitals and research institutes, mainly for neutron activation analysis, production of short-lived radioisotopes, education and manpower development. The GHARR-1 reactor - located at the National Nuclear Research Institute of the GAEC - started operations in December 1994. It is primarily used for trace element analysis for industrial and agricultural purposes, research, education and training.

In 2006, efforts were initiated to convert Chinese-designed MNSRs from HEU to LEU fuel. The GHARR-1 was the first of five such MNSR reactors outside of China eligible for conversion and fuel return to China. Under a project involving China and Ghana, as well as the USA and the IAEA, the HEU core was removed from the reactor in August 2016 and a new LEU core installed. This operation was completed in July 2017. The HEU fuel was returned to China the following month.

An IAEA Integrated Safety Assessment of Research Reactors (INSARR) mission is conducted at the request of an IAEA member state. It is a peer review service that assesses and evaluates the safety of research reactors based on IAEA safety standards.

A five-day INSARR mission to assess the safety of the GHARR-1 reactor concluded on 20 April. The four-member team comprised experts from France, Jamaica and the USA, as well as the IAEA. The mission covered organisational and management aspects as well as technical areas including the core conversion, safety assessment, training and qualification of operating personnel, operation and maintenance programmes, radiation protection, and emergency preparedness.

"The research reactor's operator is showing a high commitment to safety and has implemented safety improvements as part of the reactor core conversion," said team leader Deshraju Venkat Rao, nuclear safety officer at the IAEA. "There is a need for further improvements, however, particularly in areas related to organisational measures, safety documentation, and operational safety, including radiation protection aspects."

The mission team made recommendations to the GAEC for further improving safety at GHARR-1. These include completing the revision of reactor safety and operating documentation to reflect the results of the commissioning of the reactor following the fuel conversion. It also recommended GAEC enhance the training and qualification programme for operational personnel. The team said GAEC should also improve the capability for monitoring operational safety parameters under all conditions, as well as strengthening radiation protection.

GAEC Deputy Director General Shiloh Dede Osae said, "We appreciate the IAEA's continuous support, which was vital to carry out the core conversion activities safely. The INSARR mission recommended organisational and technical measures to further strengthen the safety of the GHARR-1 research reactor. We are committed to implementing the recommendations. The reactor's continuous safe operation will enhance its utilisation and support research, education and training in the nuclear field in Ghana."

The GAEC said it will request a follow-up INSARR mission by 2020.

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by World Nuclear News

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An 82-year-old Papillion man is facing charges of sexual assault of a child that occurred six years ago.

The Papillion Police Department arrested Eugene Schneekloth for 3rd Degree Sexual Assault of a Child and Child Abuse.

The arrest stems from several incidents of assault over a one to two year period dating back to 2011-2012.

It was during this time-period the juvenile victim was assaulted while helping with a daycare operated by the wife of the suspect.

The investigation is ongoing and information on the daycare, Janet Schneekloth Day Care, has been referred to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services and Child Protective Services for investigation.

Anyone with additional information regarding this incident is encouraged to contact the Papillion Police Department at 402-597-2035.

Schneekloth will have an 8 a.m. bond hearing in Sarpy County on Wednesday.
Children of the two most powerful officials in Azerbaijan  President Ilham Aliyev and Minister of Emergencies Kamaladdin Heydarov  used dozens of offshore companies as cover for investments in luxury properties, businesses, and high-end hotels across Europe and Middle East.

Their secrets were hidden in the files of Pilatus Bank, a controversial private bank in Malta thats being investigated for laundering money for its clients. The network used accounts at the bank to stash profits and funnel millions of dollars into new investments, according to three sources with knowledge of the transactions who cant be identified because of fear of retaliation. Their revelations were corroborated by public records obtained by reporters.

The previously unreported assets include one of the biggest conglomerates in Azerbaijan, a five-star hotel and more than three dozen other luxury properties in Dubai, French porcelain and linen factories, a villa in southern Spain, and a hotel development in the Republic of Georgia.

The newly revealed holdings underscore the extent to which the Aliyev family and its allies have profited personally from their dominance of Azerbaijan. The Aliyevs have run the oil-rich Caucasus state since its independence from the Soviet Union. Human rights groups and other independent observers accuse the undemocratic regime of regular abuses, including imprisoning journalists and opposition leaders.

Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia had begun reporting on the Azerbaijani ruling families and their Pilatus accounts before her death. She was murdered by a car bomb last October.

This follow-up investigation is the result of a collaboration of 18 news organizations, including the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), the Guardian, Reuters, Le Monde, and the New York Times. Led by Frances Forbidden Stories, the Daphne Project was created to continue the Maltese journalists work.

Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva, the two daughters of the Azerbaijani President, were the banks largest clients and the ultimate beneficial owners of a number of the opaque offshore companies, according to the three sources.

Tale and Nijat Heydarov, the sons of the countrys emergency minister, were the beneficial owners of other companies in the network, according to the same sources.

Kamaladdin Heydarov is a long-serving Azerbaijani official with close ties to the first family. A leaked 2010 US diplomatic cable describes him as having accrued massive wealth during his tenure as chairman of the state customs agency  an agency that is notoriously corrupt, even by Azerbaijani standards. The family is said to own more businesses than any other Azerbaijani family, which is perhaps why Heydarov is known in the country as the Minister of Everything Significant.

Lawyers for the Heydarov brothers said: Our clients are the beneficial owners of companies which hold accounts at Pilatus Bank in Malta, which have entirely legitimate and lawful business. The structure was set up to hold European property and assets, and their ownership was in many cases in the public domain. They also denied the characterization of the family in the diplomatic cables, calling it not a reliable source.

The Aliyev daughters did not respond to a request for comment.

The Russian Whistleblower

The first public revelations about Pilatus and its Azerbaijani clients came from Maria Efimova, a former employee of the bank.

In early 2017, Caruana Galizia met Efimova, a Russian national, about a year after she had been fired from the bank. Efimova had sued Pilatus for failing to pay her salary, and the bank responded by reporting her to the police for misappropriation of funds.

She told the reporter that Aliyevs eldest daughter Leyla had transferred over 1 million from a Pilatus account held by her Dubai-registered company, Sahra FZCO, to an offshore company owned by the wife of Joseph Muscat, Maltas Prime Minister.

Once published, the story immediately turned into a major corruption scandal. A local television station filmed Ali Sadr, the banks owner, and Antoniella Gauci, its risk manager, leaving the building in the middle of the same night. Ali Sadr was carrying bags of documents.

A few hours later, at about 4 am, a mysterious private jet took off from Malta International Airport, made a stop in Baku, Azerbaijan, and then proceeded to Dubai.

The Maltese prime minister vociferously rejected Caruana Galizias reporting, and the jet operator said that no one had been on board. But three days later, the reporter broke another story stating that the banks main client was Heydarov, Azerbaijans Minister for Emergency Situations.

Caruana Galizia was killed less than six months later. After her murder, Efimova, who said she feared for her life, fled the country. She was arrested in Greece in relation to the accusations Pilatus had made against her, but a court recently ruledthat she will not be extradited back to Malta.

The purpose of Aliyevas alleged payments to Muscats wife are unclear. The prime minister had made several low-key trips to Baku where he had meetings with President Aliyev that did not follow normal protocol for meetings with foreign leaders. He has also publicly praised Azerbaijans notoriously rigged elections.

While OCCRP and partners were not able to independently confirm Caruana Galizias reporting about the payment, and Efimova was not able to provide the document she claims to have seen, her assertion that the bank served the Azerbaijani ruling elite, including the presidents daughters, appears confirmed.

Independently, the Maltese government was looking at suspicious Pilatus Bank transactions.

A report by the countrys Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit found that the vast majority of the banks 150 clients were politically exposed companies or persons from Azerbaijan. It also found many of the banks activities were suspicious. For example, the bank did not collect enough evidence of the source of fortune from its politically exposed clients. Many of the banks transfers were done internally, from one account to another, with no obvious commercial interest, the report read.

Earlier last month, Seyed Ali Sadr Hasheminejad, the banks Iranian owner, was charged with money laundering and evading sanctions.

Following his arrest, Maltas banking regulator froze all of the banks assets, including those held on behalf of clients.

Multimillion Holdings in Dubai

Sahra FZCO  the company whose transaction sparked the scandal with the Prime Ministers wife  appears to have been among the banks first clients. The beneficial owners of the company, which was incorporated in Dubais Jabel Ali free zone in 2004, are President Aliyevs daughters, according to the three sources with knowledge of the companys transactions.

Sahra FZCO opened an account in Pilatus in August 2015. It was used to receive payments from the Aliyev familys real estate projects in Dubai, according to the three sources.

Property records show that Sahra FZCO owns land and a luxury resort on Palm Jumeirah, the man-made island in the shape of a palm tree off the coast of Dubai. The Sofitel Palm Resort & Spa on the east crescent features 361 rooms and suites and 182 residences. According to its advertising materials, it offers guests Polynesian design with a French flair, stunning views over Dubai, and an exclusive half-kilometer-long beach.

AccorHotels, a French multinational hotel group, operates the facility. The company refused to divulge its partner in the hotel without their agreement.

Sahra FZCO also appears to own another AccorHotels property in Dubai, the Mercure Barsha.

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Fresh appeal to trace Wrexham man who went missing five years ago

This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Apr 24th, 2018

A fresh appeal has been made to trace a Wrexham man who went missing five years ago.

David Clwyd Davies, from Acrefair, Wrexham, was last seen on April 3, 2013.

Police were alerted by a concerned neighbour after the 69-year-old failed to turn up for an appointment that day.

North Wales Police are now renewing their appeal to the public for help with any information or sightings of the pensioner.

Next week the National Missing Persons charity will be also circulating a poster in The Big Issue magazine, a street newspaper concerned with homelessness in an attempt to trace Mr Davies.

Mr Davies is described as 5ft 11 and of heavy build with a thick beard. He was last seen wearing jeans, a fleece top and woolly hat and is well known in the local community.

Sgt Gareth Roberts at Rhos police station said: It is five years since Mr Davies went missing. We occasionally get reports of sightings around the country, but these come to nothing.

Although we have no new information, the fifth anniversary of his disappearance is an opportunity to raise public awareness once again.

Anyone with any information should contact North Wales Police on 101 or alternatively Crimestoppers on 0800 555111 quoting reference iTrace 9438
Pashinyan rules out ruling party nominated prime minister

At a press conference today with the international news outlets, anti-government protest leader Nikol Pashinyan said the Velvet Revolution in Armenia isnt over.

Yes, weve achieved our first and most difficult goal, the resignation of Serzh Sargsyan as prime minister, but theres still the question of the full and smooth transition of power.

Pashinyan is referring to the movements demand that the countrys new prime minister must be a person selected by the people.

When asked how that selection would be made, Pashinyan told reporters that the people in Yerevans Republic Square, the epicenter of the protest movement, would make that choice.

Pashinyan said that if so nominated, he wouldnt refuse the wish of the masses.

Pashinyan categorically stated that the next prime minister could not be a member of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), adding that even if acting prime minister Karen Karapetyan left the party, he couldnt seek the post.

Asked what would happen if the RPA, which now controls a majority in parliament, blocked the election of the peoples choice, Pashinyan responded: The RPA no longer has authority. Its a ghost. The people of Armenia and the diaspora are our guarantee. No other power can resist us.

In a veiled threat to the Republican Party of Armenia, which holds a parliamentary majority, Pashinyan said: The real power in Armenia stems from the people gathered in Republic Square. No one should dare resist it.

Regarding tomorrows scheduled meeting with Karen Karapetyan, Pashinyan said hell be negotiating with the RPA, and not with Karapetyan the individual.

In terms of foreign policy, Pashinyan said friendly relations would be maintained with Russia and that there are no immediate plans to leave CSTO (the Collective Security Treaty Organization).

Pashinyan noted that Armenia faces security issues on two borders  with Turkey and Azerbaijan  and that Russian military bases in Armenia are seen as an asset, not a hindrance.

The new government would also implement the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) Armenia signed with the European Union in 2017.
The debate in the House of Commons on April 17 on anti-Semitism was planned as a co-ordinated attack on Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn by the partys right wing in alliance with the Conservative government.

After weeks of denouncing anyone raising the politically motivated character of the attack on Corbyn as just another form of anti-Semitism, Tory and Blairite MPs took turns in portraying him as an anti-Semite, amid an avalanche of slanders, unsubstantiated allegationssome unbelievableand misinformation.

Its political purpose was underscored by the government tabling the debate immediately after a motion on the US-led air strikes on Syria and Prime Minister Theresa Mays refusal to recall parliament beforehand.

Some 54 Labour MPs abstained on a whipped vote on Corbyns proposal that parliament take back control of military matters by passing a Military Powers Act requiring the government to seek approval before launching military action overseas.

Having lined up with the Tory war drive in the Middle East, the Blairites did the same in launching yet another vicious attack on Corbyns supporters and the left more broadly.

Opening the debate, Conservative government Communities Secretary Sajid Javid accused Corbyn of displaying a worrying lack of leadership and moral clarity on anti-Semitism.

He claimed there had been 1,346 anti-Semitic incidents in Britain in 2017, the highest on record, citing the Community Security Trust. This is an organisation whose leadership and funding were neither transparent nor accountable, according to a columnist in the Jewish Chronicle. Javid provided no information about the nature, sources or verification of the incidents. Nor did he explain how and why Corbyn should be held accountable for these.

He then drew attention to Britains adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances (IHRAs) non-legally binding working definition of anti-Semitism in December 2016. This redefinition is specifically aimed at equating criticism of the State of Israel, especially its treatment of the Palestinians, with anti-Semitism.

Targeting anti-Zionist positions held by the left, Javid declared that criticisms of the Israeli government were simply a mask for anti-Jewish, racist sentiment.

This paved the way for several MPs to focus on Corbyns support for the Palestinians and his appearances on platforms with speakers from the militant bourgeois nationalist Islamist groups, Palestinian Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah, in which he urged a negotiated settlement, as evidence of his own anti-Semitism.

Labour MP John Mann, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group against Anti-Semitism, used parliamentary privilege to accuse the pro-Corbyn group of being involved in a campaign against his family. Momentum, he said, was explicitly targeting Jewish members of the Parliamentary Labour Party because they are Jewish and implied that it was responsible for his wife receiving a dead bird through the post from a Labour Marxist anti-Semite and being threatened with rape by another leftist anti-Semite. He presented no evidence for his serious allegations. It should be noted that Momentums founder, Jon Lansman, is Jewish.

Roger Dyas-Elliott was given a restraining order for posting the dead bird to Manns wife in 2012three years before Momentum was founded and before Corbyns first run for Labour leadership. According to the Worksop Guardian, Dyas-Elliot said that he sent the package because he was bitter after his application to run as a Labour councillor was declined by the groups Bassetlaw District Applications Panel, which included Manns wife, due to his unkempt appearance.

It is not clear if charges have been sought against any individual for the rape threat.

Labour MP Luciana Berger reported that she had been subjected to a torrent of anti-Semitic abuse ever since she had been a student. But she had to acknowledge that the four people convicted since 2013 for the anti-Semitic abuse and harassment directed at her, three of whom had been imprisoned, were from the far right.

Conservative MPs again and again name-checked Corbyns Blairite opponents for their brave stand against Labours anti-Semitism. So naked was the targeting of Corbyn that Tory Andrew Percy was rebuked by the deputy speaker chairing the debate for referring to Corbyn directly as you in defiance of protocol.

Corbyn sat through much of this diatribe, but gave the right of reply to Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary. Abbott duly denied that the speeches against Labour and Corbyn concealed a broader political motive and said that the party was doing everything it could to stamp out anti-Semitism.

This grovelling before a right-wing cabal achieved nothing, as she was barracked to such a degree that the deputy speaker repeatedly had to uphold her right to speak.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd concluded the debate by claiming that the speeches were not in any way anti-Labour, adding in words dripping with hypocrisy, Labour is a noble and honourable party and it is absolutely wrong that this corner of anti-Semitism has been allowed to flourish. [Corbyn] has an obligation to take action. We expect nothing less.

No one would guess that this apparently rampantly anti-Semitic party held a leadership contest in 2010 between two people of Jewish origin.

These MPs would have you believe that British Jews face a situation akin to Hitlers Germany, whenaccording to the pollsanti-Semitism in Britain has remained consistently at around 7 percent, among the lowest in Europe.

In 2016, Corbyn commissioned a report into anti-Semitism chaired by Shami Chakrabarti, a human rights lawyer and former director of the human rights organisation Liberty, thathardly surprisinglyconcluded that the Labour Party is not overrun by anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, or other forms of racism.

At the Labour Partys annual conference last September, delegates backed a resolution that defined anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination as conduct prejudicial to the party.

Charges of anti-Semitism are a cover for the real political agenda of Corbyns opponents:

To shift Labours foreign policy even further to the rightin line with Trumps aggressive policies in the Middle East, aimed at the Assad regime in Syria and its backers Russia and Iran, in which Israel plays a key role.

To criminalise the left by equating all criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism.

To further the ongoing campaign to discredit Corbyn to the benefit of the Tories and hopefully to remove him as Labour leader.

The sickening hypocrisy involved is epitomised by Israels repeatedly used live fire and tear gas against unarmed Palestinians in Gaza, protesting to demand their right of return to their ancestral homes in Palestine from which their parents and grandparents fled or were driven out after the UN decision to partition Palestine in 1947. Israels army has killed more than 30 Palestinians and seriously injured hundreds since the start of the March of Return rallies that began on March 30. None of the MPs involved in the attack on Corbyn has a word of criticism for what is, by definition, an anti-Semitic attack directed against Arab men, women and children.

The anti-Semitism furore comes just weeks before local elections in which the Conservatives unpopularity means they face losing not just marginal boroughs like Barnet, but, in the aftermath of the Grenfell fire, even traditional strongholds such as Kensington and Chelsea and Wandsworth.

Corbyns attackers constantly refer to anti-Semitic rants and threats on social media of unknown and dubious provenance, playing into demands for censorship of the Internet and online communication channels.

Yet such is Corbyns devotion to preserving the unity of the Labour party, despite his decades of opposition to war and racism of all forms, and his support of the rights of the Palestinians, that he sat quietly through the debate instead of exposing it for what it wasa blatant attempt by right-wing scoundrels to outlaw any opposition to Britains geo-strategic interests abroad and at home.
Over the past six years, with virtually no publicity, some of Australias most prominent trade unions have pioneered a new cooperative approach to workplace bargaining to inflict mass retrenchments, wage reductions and the overturning of hard-won conditions on their members.

Supervised by the Fair Work Commission (FWC), established by the last Labor government of Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, the interest-based bargaining (IBB) system takes to a new level many decades of union collaboration with employers and governments.

The IBB regime has already been used to implement wholesale restructuring, casualisation and the demolition of basic conditions at major workplaces, including Sydney Water, News Corp, Orora Fibre Packaging, Alcoa and Patrick stevedoring.

In the forefront are prominent unions, such as the Australian Services Union (ASU), the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU), the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) and the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU).

Ever since the Keating Labor government and the unions imposed enterprise-by-enterprise bargaining during the early 1990s, unions have used enterprise bargaining agreements (EBAs) to split the working class into individual workplaces, suppress most industrial action and subordinate workers to the profit demands of their employers.

This corporatist partnership was forged between the unions, governments and the corporate elite through the Accords struck by the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) with the Hawke Labor government in the 1980s, in order to make Australian capitalism internationally competitive.

IBB goes further by junking the previous position-based bargaining approach, in which some unions still went through the motions of presenting employers with logs of claims, supposedly based on a mandate from their members, before entering closed-door talks with corporate executives behind workers backs.

IBB casts aside even the notion of employers and unions starting from different positions. Instead, it is based, from the outset of a bargaining period, on delivering collaborative transformations by exploring the common interests with management and devising means of satisfying those interests at workers expense.

What this means in practice can be seen from three IBB case studies on the Fair Work Commissions website. The first was at Sydney Water, a semi-privatised New South Wales state government utility. The ASU worked with senior executives to push through a 2012 EBA that delivered a near-20 percent cut in costs to satisfy the demands of the state government.

The EBA, which allowed Sydney Water to outsource maintenance, also amended redundancy and re-deployment provisions and rosters and shift changes. A joint ASU-management road show travelled to depots to persuade union members to accept the agreed changes, but encountered difficult discussions and hot meetings, with hot conversations.

That hostility reflected the fact that many employees in Civil Delivery saw significant declines in take-home pay because of new shift arrangements.

Beating down this opposition was just the beginning of a new cooperative relationship between the enterprise and the union, formalised by a memorandum of understanding signed by the managing director and the ASU state secretary.

New consultative mechanisms were established at different levels throughout Sydney Water. At the top, the managing director agreed to attend two meetings each year of the ASUs Committee of Management, while the ASU secretary attended two meetings each year of Sydney Waters Executive. More informally, the two leaders established a relationship that allowed them to contact each other whenever issues arose.

In other words, from the top down, the union works with management to report on and silence opposition by workers. One union official noted: Of course, they still have a blue every day, but weve really changed the culture of the workplace.

Union and company officials alike heaped praise on the facilitator of this partnership, Fair Work Commission (FWC) deputy president Anna Booth, a former national secretary of the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia and ACTU vice president.

At Orora packaging, which was demerged from Amcor in 2013, there was similar acclaim for Booth and another FWC commissioner, ex-AMWU national president Julius Roe. With their facilitation, the printing division of the AMWU partnered with Orora to shut down a plant at Somerton, near Melbourne, carry out three rounds of redundancies and impose other negative effects on the workforce, notably a reduction in take-home pay for many workers.

This process was enforced from the top. It began with a February 2013 off the record discussion at the FWC. Participants included the AMWU national secretary and the CEO of Amcor Australasia. On the shopfloor, union delegates acted as troubleshooters as required for an AMWU-management Steering Group.

Even greater job lossesup to 70 percent of the workforcewere inflicted by the AMWU and Electrical Trades Union (ETU) at Rupert Murdochs News Corp Melbourne Print Centre (MPC), during 2015 and 2016.

After a training session at the FWC, attended by union officials and delegates, and a host of senior News Corp managers, the collaborative change also featured changes to shift and roster arrangements, multi-skilling, greater use of casual staff and reduced payment of wage penalty rates.

A union official acknowledged that the process was difficult because it required many redundancies, both forced and voluntary, so there was conflict there  very emotional.

The MPC Collaboration Teama three-level hierarchy of joint management-union committeeswas headed by a Senior Steering Committee consisting of the AMWU Printing Division national secretary and News Corps national director of production.

Murdochs managers were so impressed with the outcomes that the partnership is being extended. According to the FWC case study: Beyond the MPC, the next step is to continue the collaboration to other print sites around Australia.

Among the FWCs other success stories are three involving the MUA, which has been falsely depicted by the media and various pseudo-left groups as a militant union. They relate to two rig crewing companies, Go Offshore and MMA Offshore, and Patrick, a national stevedoring business.

Patrick led a major attack on dockworkers in 1998, then worked with the MUA to halve its workforce. It joined the FWCs New Approaches program with the MUA in 2015. Since then, the parties have been able to focus on shared interests in the success of the ports and have saved millions of dollars.

At Sydneys Macquarie University, the NTEU, which postures as a progressive union, is collaborating intensively with management through IBB to try to push through an EBA that will mean a real wage cut and academics being coerced into having 80 percent of their workloads allocated to teaching.

According to the FWCs latest annual report, its New Approaches: Cooperative and productive workplaces program was in operation at 24 workplaces as at June 30, 2017, up from 17 a year earlier.

The IBB process is a new stage in the decades-long transformation of the unions into corporatist entities. They have been totally integrated into management, functioning as nothing but instruments for imposing the agenda of the corporate elite on their members.

This also exposes the reality behind the ACTUs current Change the Rules advertising blitz. Conscious of the hostility that has built up in the working class against the corporate assault that the unions have policed for decades, the ACTU is trying to divert the discontent into a campaign for the return of yet another pro-business Labor government. At the same time, the unions are using IBB and the other Fair Work rules to accelerate the dismantling of workers jobs and conditions.
Nearly four years after the murder of Eric Garner, the 43-year-old unarmed African-American man from the New York City borough of Staten Island, it remains unlikely that the cop responsible for his death will face trial.

Last week it was reported that federal prosecutors had recommended federal civil rights charges against officer Daniel Pantaleo. Pantaleo was among five cops who approached Garner on the afternoon of July 17, 2014, prepared to act on the suspicion he was selling untaxed cigarettes to passersby. The father of six was attacked by the police as they prepared to arrest him for this petty violation of the law.

Although the prosecutors have finally gotten around to recommending charges, a report in the New York Times indicates that top officials of the Justice Department, including Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, are reluctant to proceed with charges.

Garners last words were, I cant breathe, which he repeated eleven times while lying face down on the sidewalk. This was captured on a cellphone video that was viewed millions of times and galvanized mass protests across the US.

Pantaleo was accused of using an illegal chokehold, a technique that cut off Garners ability to breathe. The cop denied this, claiming he had tried a so-called seatbelt maneuver, hooking an arm underneath one of Garners arms while wrapping the other around his torso. The video disproves Pantaleos version of events. The New York City Medical Examiners office found Garners death to be a homicide resulting from compression of neck (chokehold), compression of chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police. New York City agreed to pay the Garner family a settlement of $5.9 million, in a settlement of charges announced in July, 2015.

No charges have ever been brought against Pantaleo, however, who remains on desk duty almost four years after the incident. In December 2014, a Staten Island grand jury, following the same pattern as in similar cases elsewhere, refused to indict Pantaleo. Federal prosecutors in the nearest district, in Brooklyn, did not bring civil rights charges of the sort that were used during the civil rights movement in cases where local grand juries refused to bring charges or juries failed to convict.

Pantaleo, who joined the NYPD in 2006, had already been the subject of two civil rights lawsuits, in which plaintiffs accused him of false arrest and abuse, before the application of the chokehold to Eric Garner. Records obtained last year shows seven disciplinary complaints and 14 individual allegations lodged against Pantaleo.

Jonathan C. Moore, the lawyer for Garners family, said last week, Its long overdue for some professional action against these officers who killed Eric Garner. We dont have any real confidence in the DOJ (Department of Justice), that theyll follow the recommendation of their line attorneys. We think they should, but were not hopeful.

Garners mother, Gwen Carr, expressed her own anguish over the death of her son, and the unconscionable delay in a resolution of the case. Theyre playing political games with the murder of my son, said Carr, as reported in the NY Daily News. Its been nearly four years and there still is no justiceits unacceptable.

The Garner case was among the first to attract national attention to the ongoing and increasing police violence against innocent and in most cases unarmed workers and youth. Only a month after Garners death came the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Since then the number of police killings, disproportionately but by no means exclusively or even in their majority involving African-American victims, have continued to mount, now taking place at the rate of 1,200 every year.

In the vast majority of these cases, no charges are ever brought. In some high-profile killings such as that of Eric Garner, legal proceedings are dragged out over a period of years before being dropped. In only a few instances are police officers charged with murder or manslaughter, and in the great majority of those the cops are acquitted.

Under the Trump administration the Justice Department has moved to dispense with the pretense usually adopted by the Democrats, of pursuing the issue of police abuse. Attorney General Sessions has dropped the investigation of entire police departments, as in Baltimore, supposedly to advance community policing and other reforms.

The case of Eric Garner was allowed to be dragged out throughout the Obama administration, however, including under the Justice Department supervision of both Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch. Under Democrats and Republicans alike the the provision of surplus military equipment to local agencies has been used to militarize local police departments, even as crime rates continue to fall. These policies reflect immense and ever-increasing polarization and inequality, and the preparation for repression against emerging working class struggles.
Official statement of the EU Delegation to Armenia released today

The European Union takes note of the resignation of Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan. We applaud the peaceful nature of the changes that we have been witnessing.

It remains imperative that the current situation is resolved swiftly and peacefully. A national dialogue involving all political stakeholders remains crucial.

On this important day in the history of the Armenians, the European Union looks forward to continuing working together with Armenia to implement the ambitious EU-Armenia agenda in line with the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement unanimously ratified by the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia on 11 April 2018, with a view to consolidating democracy, strengthening the rule of law and protecting human rights, as well as building a prosperous and resilient economic and social system.
Indias Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government promulgated an ordinance last weekend that sharply increases penalties for those convicted of rape, including providing the death penalty for persons found guilty of raping, or participating in the gang rape, of children aged 12 and under.

The Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2018 is a cynical and transparent attempt to divert attention from the role BJP leaders in Jammu and Kashmir, Indias only Muslim-majority state, have played in seeking to shield the perpetrators of the brutal gang rape and murder of an eight-year-old Muslim girl, Asifa Bano.

Last Januarys rape-murder of Asifa Bano wasas authorities in Jammu and Kashmir now concede a communally motivated crime directed against the Bakkarwal, the impoverished, semi-nomadic Muslim community to which Bano belonged. Its perpetrators aimed to terrorise the Bakkarwal into fleeing Kathua, a Hindu-majority district, where for decades, if not much longer, they have grazed their goats, sheep, and horses for part of the year.

With their ordinance, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his BJP government are also seeking to exploit public revulsion over Banos horrific fate and several other recent instances of brutal sexual violence to promote their reactionary law-and-order agenda. In the name of protecting Indias daughters, the BJP government is increasing the repressive powers of the state and further befouling the political climate by equating justice with state violence.

Jammu and Kashmir police have charged six peopleincluding the custodian of a Hindu temple and two police officerswith kidnapping, repeatedly raping and, after a week-long ordeal, murdering Asifa Bano. Two other police officers, those first tasked with investigating the case, are also under indictment for destroying evidence and otherwise protecting the accused.

BJP leaders in Jammu and Kashmir have mounted a communally charged agitation in defence of the Kathua rape accused. They have organised meetings and protests at which they have denounced the police investigation as biased because it included Muslim officers and have demanded that the case be turned over to the BJP central government-controlled Central Bureau of Investigation.

After the BJPs actions provoked an all-India outcry and concern in Indian ruling circles that they were undermining New Delhis shaky hold over the disputed Kashmir Valley, the BJP national leadership took action against the two most prominent BJP leaders associated with the agitation. The two were forced to resign their cabinet posts in the Jammu and Kashmir state government, in which the BJP serves as the junior partner of the Kashmiri Muslim-based Peoples Democratic Party.

Last weekends ordinance was a further attempt at political damage control.

It was approved at what was described as an emergency cabinet session last Saturday. The next day, Indian President Ram Kovind, himself a former BJP legislator, signed the ordinance into law, saying he was satisfied that circumstances exist which render it necessary for the government to take immediate action.

Ordinances are an arbitrary, anti-democratic power of Indias executive, under which the sitting government can, with the presidents approval, rewrite the countrys laws when parliament is not in session. For such laws to remain in force permanently, they must be approved by parliament within six weeks of its reconvening.

Last weekends ordinance amends the Indian Penal Code, the Evidence Act, the Code of Criminal Procedure, and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (2012).

It empowers courts to impose the death sentence on persons convicted of raping a child 12 and under and stipulates a minimum sentence of 20 years in prison. Those who participate in a gang rape of someone 12 or under are also liable to death by hanging but must receive at least a sentence of imprisonment for the rest of life.

The minimum sentences have also been increased for rapes of children aged 13 to 15 from 10 to 20 years, with a maximum penalty of imprisonment for the remainder of the convicts natural life, and for all other rapes from 7 to 10 years, with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

In addition to these legal changes, the cabinet approved a series of institutional measures. These include setting up so-called fast-track courts in consultation with the states and high courts to speedily hear rape cases, the hiring of additional public prosecutors, and the provision of special forensic kits for rape cases to all police stations and hospitals.

No one should have the slightest illusion these measures will provide justice to rape victims.

Indias police are notorious for their corruption, incompetence, use of torture and fake-encounter killings, and, last but not least their subservience to their political masters, big business and the rich.

The courts are little better. They provide only a slightly more polished veneer for a system in which there is one law for the poor and oppressed and another for the rich and powerful.

Moreover, like other institutions, Indias legal system has become increasingly communalised. The BJP, Shiv Sena and Congress Party leaders behind numerous communal atrocities from the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi, to the 1992 razing of the Babri Masjid, and the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat have gotten off scot-free. Only last week, the Gujarat High Court overturned the conviction of former BJP Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani for her well-documented role in inciting attacks on Muslims during the 2002 pogrom.

And as the BJP has trumpeted, the various saffron terror casesthat is, the prosecution of Hindu communalists charged with carrying out bombings and other terrorists attackshave apparently unraveled for lack of evidence, one after another, after years of being stalled in the courts.

In so far as they have chosen to comment on Modis rape ordinance, the political establishment has by and large been favourable.

The Congress chief minister of Punjab, Amarinder Singh, tweeted, Am all for death for Rapists [of] minor children. Such men deserve no mercy and I welcome the Ordinance passed by the Union Cabinet today. Exemplary and deterrent punishment is the need of the hour.

The Congress, it should be noted, resumed executions in India after almost 10 years during which death sentences had been held in abeyance, ordering two in the space of three months, between November 2012 and February 2013.

The secondthat of Azfal Guru, a Kashmiri Muslim who was framed up for the December 2001 terrorist attack on the Indian parliamentwas especially calculated to demonstrate that Indias then-Congress-led UPA government was prepared to act with utter ruthlessness. To prevent mass protests and a possible last minute appeal to the courts to stay the order of execution, the gove rnment carried it out in secret (see: A legal lynching: Indian government executes Afzal Guru).

The ordinance has been criticised by civil liberties organisations, some womens rights groups, and even the Delhi High Court.

Yesterday, a bench or panel composed of two Delhi High Court justices asked the government if it had conducted any scientific assessment or study before passing of your ordinance. The judges noted that the government was not even looking at the root cause of sexual violence or educating people, nor did its ordinance take account of the fact that many offenders are themselves below the age of 18 or family members.

Vrinda Grover, a prominent Delhi civil rights lawyer and outspoken opponent of the death penalty, for her part, warned that the harsh new minimum sentences and the prospect capital punishment imposed on rapists will likely dissuade victims from coming forward: Far from reporting the crime, death penalty is going to deter the victim from reporting sexual assault when the offender is from the family or is known to them. This will lead to the crime being suppressed and the victim being left completely helpless.

Indian Express columnist Shalini Nair cited a report from the National Law University in Delhi that shows the death penalty is disproportionately imposed on vulnerable persons along the axes of economic and social parameters. Based on interviews with 373 of the 385 prisoners currently on death row in India, it found that 23 percent of them had never attended school, 9.1 percent had not completed primary school, and 61.6 percent had not completed secondary school. The study also showed that more three quarters of those sentenced to death were from backward classes (i.e., Dalits and other traditional lower caste groups) or religious minorities.

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BJP leaders cover-up of rape and murder of Kashmiri Muslim girl provokes outrage across India

[20 April 2018]
Within days of announcing the elimination of an entire shift and 1,500 jobs at the giant Lordstown, Ohio assembly plant, General Motors announced that its subsidiary, known as the Lordstown GM Subsystems Manufacturing LLC, will be hiring low-paid temporary workers under an agreement the United Auto Workers signed behind the backs of rank-and-file workers.

People out here are very angry, a GM Lordstown worker with 30 years seniority told the World Socialist Web Site Autoworker Newsletter. Im going to be out the door and laid off, and they are going to bring these people in with low pay and no rights. She went on to explain that her stepson who had been working at the plant as a Temporary Part-Time worker (TPT) had received an email from the dummy company offering him a job at vastly reduced pay.

Our plant is known as a high seniority plant, she explained. This is the second shift we have lost. Echoing the widespread contempt for the UAW among workers, she added that the union and the company have been opening the contract and changing things to suit themselves for years. We dont have rights and conditions anymore.

The company and the union, she said, were seeking to drive out the older, high-paid workers and create a workforce largely made up of low-paid temps. The union is just one false move after another. When we get a profit-sharing check, the union takes out a big portion for themselves.

A retired autoworker whose son was laid off from Lake Orion told the WSWS, The union is just there to get a piece of the pie. Pensions are a thing of the past. Healthcare will soon be a thing of the past. They have been doing this for the last 20 years, bringing in workers with lower pay and no benefits."

In a failed effort to stem opposition from rank-and-file workers, UAW Vice President Cindy Estrada, who headed up the UAW 2015 contract talks, with GM issued a statement titled Regarding Local 5960 Lake Orion and Local 1112 Lordstown. In it Estrada admits that the decision to outsource jobs was agreed to by the involved local, regional, and national leadership. Everyone agrees that this situation sucks. But what would suck even more would be to have GM shut down any of our plants and devastate hundreds of our members lives and the communities where those plants exist.

In an effort to blackmail workers into submission, Estrada then lists the recent wave of job cutting that GM has carried out with the full backing of the UAW. In 2017, GMs car production was cut by over 20 percent, with the biggest impact to small cars. We saw the reduction of six shifts of assembly plant production and volume reductions at our Powertrain, Stamping and Components plants. There are currently nine open shifts of production in our assembly plants. GM is analyzing the future of many of their car products.

Estrada is only repeating the timeworn lies of the UAW that repeated concessions and handing over the gains won by autoworkers over generations of struggle will save jobs. Since the UAW first initiated its campaign of job-saving concessions at Chrysler in 1979-80 more than one million jobs have been wiped out in the auto industry, including 90 percent of the North American jobs at GM, Ford and Chrysler.

For Lordstown, local leadership and management came to Detroit, and with the region and national parties, an agreement was negotiated to make changes that we believe will put the plant in a better position to stay open, Estrada declares. At GM in Lake Orion, Michigan, Estrada admits, The national parties negotiated an Autonomous Vehicle Memorandum of Understanding (AV MOU) last summer to build developmental vehicles for testing, and then another AV MOU to build autonomous vehicles for sale at Lake Orion, which was also signed off by the UAW. Yes, the MOUs make changes that impact some jobs that our traditional members performbut we needed to get future technology into a UAW GM plantand we did.

In Lordstown, UAW 1112 Shop Chairman Dan Morgan issued a flier attempting to stem the groundswell of opposition while admitting that a recently negotiated COA (Competitive Operating Agreement) cut legacy jobs at the plant. The company gave us a commitment to an additional product or at least let us know that we would exist into the future. Such promises are worthless, as countless experiences have shown.

While workers will lose their homes, families will break up and workers will face enormous financial and psychological strain as a result of the layoffs, the job cutting does not suck for Estrada & Co. In exchange for countless concessions, the auto bosses have funneled billions of dollars into the joint job training centers, which have padded the high salaries of union executives like Estrada, who made $165,000 in 2017, not including expense accounts and whatever payments she gets for sitting on the UAW-GM Human Resource Center and as a trustee on the multibillion-dollar VEBA retiree health care fund.

Estrada is one of several UAW executives whose foundations have been investigated by the FBI. Several union officials at Fiat Chrysler have already been indicted for a corruption scheme involving the acceptance of company bribes funneled through the UAW-Chrysler National Training Center into phony charities controlled by union officials. The Cynthia Estrada Charity fund allowed its legal registration with the state to lapse in July 2017, and it is widely believed that she was passed up for the job of replacing current UAW president Dennis Williams because she is tainted by the corruption scandal.

The UAW has not lifted a finger to oppose the layoffs. On the contrary, the union has signed consecutive labor contracts that sharply increase the output of workers through 10-hour Alternative Work Schedules and which have vastly expanded the number of temporary part-time workers who are essentially a disposable workforce, hired and fired at will, whenever market conditions demand. While the Big Three have over the last few years slashed jobs at factories like Lordstown, Lake Orion and Detroit-Poletown, which make slower-selling passenger cars, rising gas and car loan costs could soon undermine sales of higher-costing SUVs and pickup trucks, leading to a new massacre of jobs.

This is part of an international job-cutting campaign by GM, which has shut plants in Europe and has halted production entirely in Russia, Australia and India. After announcing the destruction of 2,000 jobs in Gunsan, Korea, GM President Dan Ammann, who is in charge of global operations, said in an interview that the automaker could shut down production in South Korea if workers do not accept massive concessions. We have made clear we need to have a business thats sustainably profitable in order for that business to attract further investment, Ammann stated.

The outsourcing of jobs at Lordstown and Lake Orion exposes once again that the UAW is not a workers organization but a tool of corporate management and a cheap labor contractor. To defend the right to well-paying and secure jobs, to abolish the hated two-tier wage and benefit system, and win full-time positions for all TPTs, autoworkers must break with the UAW and elect rank-and-file committees in every factory. These committees must take up the functions long abandoned by the UAWaddressing workers grievances, opposing speedup, jobs cuts and the victimization of militant workers. The committees should declare that the 2015 contracts signed by corrupt UAW officials are null and void and fight to mobilize all auto and auto parts workers throughout the US and internationally in common struggle.
The Socialist Equality Group (New Zealand) and the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) at Victoria University of Wellington held a public meeting on April 19 to oppose the drive to censor the Internet and demand freedom for WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange.

The meeting, which drew an audience of students and workers, was part of an international campaign against Internet censorship led by the International Committee of the Fourth International, which includes upcoming events in Australia.

In opening the meeting, SEG member Tom Peters denounced the latest missile attack on Syria by the US, France and Britain. He pointed out that the drive towards war against Syria and its allies, Russia and Iran, went hand-in-hand with censorship of the media. Reports that discredit the pretext for the bombardmentan alleged chemical attack in Douma by Syrian government forceshave been largely blacked out in the US and European media.

The main speaker, IYSSE organiser Matt Carrington, explained how the World Socialist Web Site had exposed the systematic censorship and blacklisting of anti-war, socialist and progressive websites by Google and Facebook.

He described censorship by these corporations, in collaboration with the US and other governments, as the most significant attack on free speech since World War II  [when] warring countries shut down anti-war and socialist publications and threw many anti-war activists in jail. In the United States, the Trotskyist movement was persecuted and its leaders imprisoned.

The WSWS experienced a drop in referrals from Google searches of almost 70 percent after Google announced, in April 2017, new algorithms that promoted so-called authoritative content from the corporate media, and massively demoted the WSWS and many other websites in search results.

Carrington quoted Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerbergs statement on January 31, 2018 in which he pledged to stop what he called the spread of news that is false, sensational and polarising and to promote trusted sources like the Wall Street Journal and New York Times.

The speaker posed the question: What does this really mean? So-called polarising content, such as viral videos of the Grenfell Tower disaster in London, or police shootings in the US, is being censored from newsfeeds by Facebook, along with socialist articles.

Billions of people, especially young people who often get most of their news via Facebook, will now see what the ruling elite deems to be authoritative news sources. These are the same sources that lied about weapons of mass destruction to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq. They have been at the forefront of propaganda pushing for war against Syria and a confrontation with Russia.

Carrington stated: The Socialist Equality Group and the IYSSE join the International Committee of the Fourth International in condemning the persecution of Assange.

Assange has been forced to live inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012 to escape extradition on trumped-up allegations of sexual assault. Last month, the Ecuadorian government cut off his Internet access in a blatant act of censorship designed to appease the US. He has been silenced for his ongoing exposure of imperialist criminality.

WikiLeaks and Assange were targeted in 2010, Carrington said, for revealing the crimes of US imperialism throughout the world, including the video titled Collateral Murder, depicting the brutal killing of unarmed civilians and journalists in Iraq.

Carrington explained that Internet censorship was a response to growing opposition to war and social inequality. He noted that during the 2011 revolution in Egypt, one of the first actions the US-backed dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak took to try and stop the movement was to completely shut down access to social media.

There are demands for similar measures now in response to widespread unrest in the United States and Europe. A wave of strikes is largely developing outside of the official organisationsthe trade unions and the capitalist parties. Carrington noted how teacher strikes in Oklahoma and West Virginia had been organised largely through social media.

In New Zealand, he added, nurses and health workers were using Facebook to organise struggles for decent wages and conditions. Families of victims of the 2010 Pike River mine disaster had also used Facebook to organise protests against the failure of the government to hold anyone accountable for the deaths of 29 men.

Carrington quoted from the WSWSs January 23 open letter calling for an in ternational coalition to fight Internet censorship: The oligarchy, in total control of the world economy, fears the Internet as an arena for discussion, information sharing, and political organisation of the worldwide struggle against capitalist exploitation and imperialist wars.

He appealed to those present to support the fight against Internet censorship by joining the IYSSE and the SEG, stressing that the fight for free speech is inseparable from the mobilisation of the working class on the basis of a socialist program.

The report was followed by a wide-ranging discussion. One student asked how the IYSSE would respond to the common pretext that censorship was necessary to combat hate speech.

Carrington replied that hate speech and tribalism are symptoms of the crisis of capitalism. The demand for the censorship of hate speech, as defined by governments and corporations, was aimed at establishing a dangerous precedent for the suppression of oppositional views.

SEG member John Braddock added that one of the lessons of the 1930s was that fascist and extreme right-wing movements cannot be defeated through appeals to the state to silence them. The Trotskyists insisted that fascism could only be defeated through a political struggle to build a conscious socialist movement in the working class.

Another audience member asked how the Socialist Equality Group would build a political party.

Tom Peters from the SEG explained that the construction of a section of the Trotskyist movement required a political fight to differentiate genuine socialism from everything that, over a whole historical period, has falsely passed itself off as representing socialism, including Stalinism, the Labour Party and all the pseudo-left groups that continue to orbit around it  Our task is to raise the level of political consciousness among sections of workers, students and young people.

He added: There is a growing hostility towards capitalism thats becoming more and more conscious. As a result of the objective situation people are being driven to the left. We are confident that our socialist and internationalist program will intersect with that movement.

Jonathan, a computer science student, told the IYSSE after the meeting that he had decided to attend after watching the recent webinar on Internet censorship with WSWS editorial board chairman David North and journalist Chris Hedges.

He added: I think Julian Assange is a critical issue to focus on. His personal plight is representative of all of us on the left, I feel quite an affinity with him. New Zealand is one of few countries that could possibly put pressure on its allies to protect him, being in the Five Eyes.

I agree with a lot of what youre saying, he said. The Internet and social media have been described as the most powerful tools for people to communicate since the printing press, and thats huge, if you know anything about history. Weve reached a new turning point.
Written and directed by Stanley Tucci; based on A Giacometti Portrait (1965) by James Lord

Art interests me very much but truth interests me infinitely more. The more I work, the more I see things differently, that is, everything gains in grandeur every day, becomes more and more unknown, more and more beautiful  All that I ask is to press on wildly  Alberto Giacometti

Final Portrait, starring Geoffrey Rush as the enigmatic Swiss-Italian sculptor and painter Alberto Giacometti (19011966), premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2017. More than a year later, it is finally screening in selected US and Canadian cinemas.

Armie Hammer and Geoffrey Rush in Final Portrait

Written and directed by Stanley Tucci (Big Night, The Impostors, Joe Goulds Secret and Blind Date), the 90-minute feature is a modest but worthy homage to both Giacometti and the creative process, and a tour de force for Rush, who is currently suing the Murdoch-owned Daily Telegraph for defamation over unsubstantiated inappropriate behaviour allegations.

Tuccis film covers a three-week period in 1964, two years before Giacomettis death, and deals with just one paintinga portrait of James Lord (Armie Hammer), a young American writer and participant in the post-war Parisian art scene. Based on Lords short 1965 book about the painting, most of the film is set in Giacomettis dilapidated and chaotic studio-home at 46 Rue Hippolyte-Maindron in Paris.

Lord, who had befriended Giacometti in the 1950s, is asked to sit for the artist: No longer than two to three hours, an afternoon at most, he is told.

The portrait, after 18 sittings, numerous over-painted or destroyed canvasses and many costly re-schedulings of Lords return flight to New York, is eventually finished, but not necessarily to Giacomettis satisfaction.

Between sittings, Lord accompanies Giacometti to local restaurants and cafes and gets to know Diego (Tony Shalhoub), his stoic, artist brother, Annette (Sylvie Testud), Giacomettis long-suffering wife, and the prostitute Caroline (Clemence Poesy), the artists flighty mistress and muse.

Giacometti was born in 1901 in Switzerland to an artistic family, and was an intensely sensitive and complicated man. His life spanned immense social and political convulsionstwo world wars, the Russian Revolution, the depression, the rise of fascism across Europe, the betrayals of Stalinism, and the disoriented intellectual climate produced by the post-war boom. These events impacted on him in complex ways.

A precocious artist from an early age, Giacometti studied sculpture at the Geneva College of the Arts. In his late teens, he visited Italy several times, where he saw, and was influenced by, Tintoretto, Giotto and Cimabue.

In 1922, he moved to France, attending the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Montparnasse and studying under sculptor Antoine Bourdelle, a close associate of Auguste Rodin. Moving away from Bourdelles classical realist approach, the young artist was attracted to the revolutionary Surrealist art movement. He rejected working from human models, and during 192932 produced a number of exceptional and critically acclaimed sculptures.

By 1934, however, Giacometti had become increasingly dissatisfied with his work and fell out with the Surrealists, after he decided to return to life models. From then on, and for the rest of his life, he concentrated primarily on sculptures and paintings of the human figure, obsessively changing and revising each work. During the Nazi occupation of France, he fled from Paris, returning in 1945. His first public exhibition, after more than a decade, took place in New York City in 1948.

In a 1958 review of Giacomettis drawings, Lord wrote: However fashionable the art of Giacometti may now have become, it owes nothing to fashion. His creative effort is an obsessive attempt to resolve the classic problems of representation.

Each of his drawings exists autonomously, obeying its own rigorous laws of relativity and bound up in the sensation of space which is as essential to Giacometti as it was to Cezanne. No wilful mannerism or calligraphic caprice, no sentimentality, self-indulgence or pastiche is permitted to inhibit a sincere or explicit representation. The figures and objects are seen by the artist not as pretexts, but as ends in themselves and are to be seen similarly by us.

Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s , existentialists declared that Giacomettis gaunt and elongated sculptures and sparse portraits were the artistic embodiment of their pessimistic, dead-end philosophy i.e., an expression of humanitys social alienation, psychological angst, and the absurdity of contemporary life.

However, the artist himself, whose extraordinary and often unsettling work won him worldwide fame during this time, never publicly embraced existentialism and its demoralised outlook, which dominated intellectual circles during the early post-war years. He was totally indifferent to public opinion and financial and artistic success.

As Lord explained in his extensive 1985 book, Giacometti, a biography: Every artist, even the most mediocre, works hard. But the hardest work is that to which the entire purpose and meaning of an individuals life is committed. Such was the case with Alberto, and it didnt make living with him easy, because art came first and everything else was, if not irrelevant, very secondary.

Final Portrait does not attempt to provide a detailed overview of Giacomettis life and work, and the multiplicity of factors under pinning it. But the film perfectly captures his world and his aesthetic dilemmas. Director of photography Danny Cohen gives the movie a grey-brown desaturated look, in keeping with Giacomettis studio.

Director Tucci has a keen ear for dialogue and a good sense of comedic timing, and Rush excels. The award-winning actor effortlessly provides flesh and blood to the artists frustrations, self-doubt, anger, generosity, idiosyncratic opinions, unsettling fantasies and difficult personal behaviour.

Final Portrait

Giacometti ruminates about the dilemmas confronting 20th century artists and denounces Picasso and Chagall. His teasing of the handsome and impeccably dressed Lord during sittings is a delightFront-on, you look like a brute. Side-on, you look like a degenerate. Responding to Lords attempts to overcome Giacomettis incessant self-doubt, the chain-smoking artist drolly responds, Theres no greater breeding ground for doubt than success.

Final Portrait has generally received favourable reviews, but there have been one or two sour notes. Last September, an Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio journalist tut-tutted that Giacometti was a really flawed individual and suggested that the films portrayal of the artists humanity let him off the hook for his less than perfect personal life.

A TorontoNow review, entitled Giacometti biopic Final Portrait arrives at just the wrong time, by Susan G. Cole, echoed this sentiment, declaring: [A]t a time when theres been an increasing demand for womens stories, its hard to care about an ageing male creator who treats everyone around him as if hes the only person on the planet. Really guys. In 2018 we dont need this. Time to move onor out of the way.

Whether Final Portraits delayed release in North America had anything to do with the vicious #MeToo-style allegations, hurled against Rush last year by the Murdoch media, is not clear. Whatever the reason, US and Canadian audiences can now watch Rushs dazzling performance.

The movie also provides an opportunity to ponder the dangers and political consequences posed by the gender politics witch-hunters and their media accomplices, who demand the right to destroy the career of this talented actor, and others of his calibre, on the basis of completely unproven allegations.

If the #MeToo vigilantes have their way, one can expect that Alberto Giacometti will be denounced and scandalised over the details of his personal life, and his extraordinary work removed forever from public view.

The author also recommends:

The Force of Giacomettipainter, sculptor

[22 September 1998]
MGM Resorts is pairing with a Chicago-based company to build a massive solar array north of the valley, and when it is finished it will be one of the main power sources for the MGM's 13 Southern Nevada properties.

The array will have 360,000 panels and will take up a 640-acre space near the intersection of U.S. 93 and Interstate 15, the company said.

When the project is finished, it will produced 100 megawatts of power -- enough to provide most of the company's daytime power and nearly a third of its power overall.

MGM Resorts will be using 100 percent of the power produced by the array. MGM executives said the company is the largest energy user in the state, using 170 megawatts of electricity during peak hours.

Construction on the solar array will begin and 2019, and it is expected to be finished 2020.
Ethiopia, Africa's second most populated country, is forecast to be the fastest growing economy in Sub-Saharan Africa this year, according to new data from the IMF.

Ethiopia's economy is predicted to grow by 8.5% this year. The figures signal continued economic expansion following a long period of impressive growth. In the last decade, Ethiopia has averaged around 10% economic growth, according to the IMF.

To boost the economy, the country is pursuing a number of large-scale infrastructure projects, including the Grand Renaissance Dam and a railway network.

"(Ethiopia) has had a very high growth rate and I think that's a result in large part of a very concentrated effort by the government to boost industrial production and manufacturing," said Vijaya Ramachandran, an economist at the American think tank Center for Global Development (CGD).

Ramachandran, along with three academics, released a report suggesting Ethiopia can follow in China's footsteps, and become a destination for low-wage manufacturing jobs.

However, despite sustained economic growth, in the past few years Ethiopia has experienced increasing unrest from Oromo groups in the Oromiya region. According to human rights groups, the government has suppressed basic rights and freedoms.

New Prime Minister Abiye Ahmed was sworn at the beginning of April, signaling an intent to ease tensions.

Economic growth

Ivory Coast is expected to be the second fastest growing economy in the region at 7.4%. Rwanda's estimated economic growth is 7.2%, and the West African country Senegal is projected to have 7% growth.

The data reveals that Ghana, which was previously forecast as the fastest growing economy in Sub-Saharan Africa in October 2017, at 8.9%, slowed in its predicted growth to 6.4%. Last year, a reported surge in oil and gas production helped propel the country's economy.

Nigeria, Africa's largest economy, is predicted to grow by 2.1%, an increase from 1.9% forecast in October 2017.

"They've updated it to 2.1%. However, they have emphasized the risks. The falling commodity prices and imbalances that are to arise because of the elections," Bismarck Rewane, a Nigerian economist, told CNN.

South Africa's predicted growth stands at 1.5%.

Long term, according to a report from the World Bank in 2016, the proportion of the African population in extreme poverty has declined, but the overall number has increased as the continent's population expands.

Growth across the whole region is forecast to average 3.4%, below the total world growth figure of 3.9%.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WTVA) - The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency had issued an Emergency Missing Child Alert Monday night for a 5-year-old boy, but that child has been found and is safe.

Malachi Quintanilla had been seen at his home in Sylacauga around 3:45 p.m.



Stephen Quintanilla | Photo: Lee County Jail Stephen Quintanilla | Photo: Lee County Jail

According to the Sylacauga Police Department, the boy was recovered in Lee County, Miss.

Stephen Quintanilla, 27, was arrested by the Lee County Sheriff's Department as a result.

Lee County Sheriff Jim Johnson says a 911 call from Alabama officials led to the arrest Monday night. He says officers set up a checkpoint on the Natchez Trace after receiving a tip from Alabama law enforcement.

He says Quintanilla's car was the first to pull up at the checkpoint, matching the description given to officers.

Officers found the boy in the back seat and took Stephen Quintanilla into custody immediately. Officers in Alabama called the incident as a non-custocial abduction.

Malachi Quintanilla has been placed into the custody of Child Protective Services.

The Sylacauga Police Department says it's preparing a formal statement for release later today.
JACKSON, Miss. (AP)  Two more people filed Monday to run in a special U.S. Senate election in Mississippi, bringing the field of candidates to five.

One candidate filing Monday was state lawmaker Chris McDaniel of Ellisville, who lost a bitter 2014 Republican primary to longtime Sen. Thad Cochran and had already announced that he intended to run for the seat that Cochran left vacant. Cochran, 80, retired April 1, citing health concerns.

The other was Tobey Bartee of Gautier, who had not previously announced for the Senate race and did not immediately respond to a phone message.

Gov. Phil Bryant appointed Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith of Brookhaven, who was in her second term as Mississippi agriculture commissioner, to temporarily fill the Senate seat. She was sworn in April 9.

Hyde-Smith qualified last week for the special election, as did two Democrats  former U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy of Ridgeland and Tupelo Mayor Jason Shelton.

The qualifying deadline is Tuesday.

There are no party primaries for the special election, and party labels won't be on the Nov. 6 ballot, though candidates make their political affiliation known. If a runoff is needed, it will be Nov. 27. The winner will serve the rest of the six-year term that Cochran started. It ends in January 2021.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has already paid for two ads in the special election. One says Hyde-Smith supported putting limits on financial awards in lawsuits. The other criticizes McDaniel for his work as an attorney, saying: "McDaniel made money suing Mississippi businesses, making things harder for folks trying to just earn a living."

McDaniel has demanded that TV stations stop airing the ad, which he said makes a "blatantly false" claim about his legal career. McDaniel said his firm focuses on municipal law and "protecting corporate clients from lawsuits filed by trial lawyers."

A McDaniel fundraising email last week called Hyde-Smith a "lackey" for the Chamber of Commerce, which he said supports "amnesty" for people who enter the U.S. illegally. The McDaniel email said: "I don't need  nor want  the establishment support or their filthy money."
STARKVILLE, Miss. (AP)  Former Rhode Island Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank J. Williams will be the commencement speaker for Mississippi State's three graduation ceremonies taking place next month.

Approximately 3,200 students will receive degrees during May 3 and May 4 ceremonies at Humphrey Coliseum.

Williams, a noted historian and current president of the Ulysses S. Grant Association, has played key roles in making MSU one of the nation's leading centers for study of the American Civil War. Last year, Williams and his wife, Virginia, donated their collection of Abraham Lincoln and Civil War memorabilia, valued at nearly $3 million, to the university. Williams also was instrumental in locating the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library at MSU in 2009.

Williams and former Mississippi House Speaker Pro Tempore Robert G. Clark Jr. also will receive honorary degrees.
TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) - It's all about girl power in the capital city!

Tallahassee Woman Magazine will hold the Women on Fire Luncheon on Wednesday. Its themed as a fun, informational and networking event for business and professional women who are blazing trails in their lives.

Attendees will hear from motivational speaker Marsha Doll, a high-energy modeling/talent agent, author and image consultant.

It all kicks off this Wednesday, April 25th from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Four Points by Sheraton in Downtown Tallahassee.

Tickets are $50.

For more information, visit www.talwoman.com.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - April marks 50 years since the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and people have been honoring his legacy and involvement in the civil rights movement in Tallahassee.

On Tuesday the Museum of Florida History is welcoming all to learn about King's role here in town.

But they also plan to go into how his assassination affected the community and the work people, especially FAMU students, did to carry on his legacy after his assassination.

That will all unfold at this month's History at High Noon.

To mark the 50-year anniversary of Dr. King's assassination, FAMU professor Dr. Darius Young will discuss the rich history behind King's role here in town.

Dr. Young has spent years studying the Civil RIghts Movement, specifically right on FAMU's campus.

You can join him and others today at noon at the Museum of Florida History.
CODY A private contractor and Wyoming Department of Transportation personnel will perform temporary repairs beginning about 8 a.m. Tuesday on the Chief Joe Slide on Wyoming 296 northwest of Cody

CODY A private contractor and Wyoming Department of Transportation personnel will perform temporary repairs beginning about 8 a.m. Tuesday on the Chief Joe Slide on Wyoming 296 northwest of Cody.

The contractor will be soil nailing the remaining driving lane in place, said WYDOT resident engineer Todd Frost of Cody. Soil nailing is a remedial measure commonly used around the world to treat unstable natural soil slopes.

During the soil nailing repairs, traffic delays of 60 minutes are expected on WY296. The roadway will be cleared of traffic at the top of every hour, Frost said.

The contractor is Geological Stabilization, Inc., (GSI) of Grand Junction, Colorado. GSI was dispatched to Wind River Canyon last spring to perform soil nailing in several places.

Soil nailing is a temporary fix at best and is being done to keep the roadway as safe as possible, Frost said.

Parts of the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway (WY296) slid downhill this past Thursday (April 19), and single-lane traffic control over the slide area has been in place since then. The slide area is located in the same location as a similar slope failure last spring.

Frost said a more permanent, long-term fix is being designed for the Chief Joe Slide, and it may be constructed beginning this summer.

The Chief Joe Slide is located at milepost 26.1, about 20 miles west of Wyoming 296s intersection with Wyoming 120, northwest of Cody.

WYDOT District Engineer Pete Hallsten and District Maintenance Engineer Lyle Lamb will be available to answer questions about the Chief Joe Slide from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Chief Joseph RV Park, formerly the Painter Outpost, near the Clarks Fork River.
CHEYENNE - Motorists will soon have to move over for maintenance, construction and utilities workers and vehicles when traveling on Wyoming's interstates and highways.

COURTESY/WYDOT The new Move Over law, which goes into effect July 1, will include road and utility works working along the roadway in addition to emergency vehicles that are already in the law.

CHEYENNE - Motorists will soon have to move over for maintenance, construction and utilities workers and vehicles when traveling on Wyoming's interstates and highways.

Starting July 1, 2018, Wyoming's Move Over law will now include those workers in addition to emergency responders such as the Wyoming Highway Patrol. The state Legislature approved the changes to the Move Over law during this past legislative session.

"The Move Over bill is an important piece of legislation that will help protect our maintenance, construction and utility crews that work alongside Wyoming's highways," said Gregg Fredrick, WYDOT chief engineer. "This will help to provide a safe place to work so that they can return home to their families every day."

The new Move Over law requires motorists to do what they currently do when encountering an emergency vehicle that has pulled over.

When a construction, maintenance or utility vehicle is stopped on a road with two or more lanes in the same direction, motorists must move to the farthest lane away from the stopped vehicle.

On a two-lane road where speeds are 45 mph or greater, motorists must slow down to 20 mph below the posted speed limit. Motorists can be fined $200 for failure to move over. WYDOT is currently making signs about the new requirements as a way to help educate the public.

Tony Avila, area foreman for the Wyoming Department of Transportation, knows firsthand how vital the new Move Over law is for WYDOT workers who help keep the roads safe for the traveling public.

Over the course of his 37 and a half years at WYDOT, Avila and his crew have experienced around 40 incidents where their WYDOT vehicles were sideswiped, mirrors were damaged or vehicles rear ended. WYDOT has advanced signs alerting motorists of upcoming construction, changes in traffic patterns and reduced speed limits.

Out of the 40 incidents, 10 required medical attention for Avila's crew members and one person never returned but did not sustain life threatening injuries.

"There were a lot of near misses where I had to move quickly into the ditch or they had to," Avila said.

One near miss occurred during a past winter when Avila was helping a motorist who slid off the road into the ditch. The two were standing behind Avila's plow truck. Avila was getting information to relay to Patrol when another car lost control. The other vehicle ended up rear ending Avila's plow truck.

"I had to grab the guy's arm and yank him off the road," Avila said. "The vehicle would have crushed us. After the incident, the vehicle never stopped and went on its way."

Avila, who testified before the legislature about enhancing the Move Over law, said he's pleased it passed.

"We now have to educate people about the importance of moving over," Avila said. "It's hard when you have to call the families of crew members who were taken to the hospital for injuries. My worst nightmare is calling a family and telling them it's much worse. I want all my workers to go home safe."

Although the law has always covered emergency responders, Patrol has still experienced collisions from inattentive drivers who failed to move over.

Since 2016, vehicles have hit 12 patrol cars stopped at the roadside. As a way to help remind the public about the importance of moving over, some Patrol cars have a decal on the rear window that says "Save a Life, Move Over."

"Moving over for emergency responders and construction, maintenance and utility workers is so vital," said WHP Sgt. Momen Elazizi. "It's just a common courtesy to move over for anyone stopped at the side of the road. It ensures everyone gets home safely."

Often times, driving distracted could be the reason people don't see emergency responders or workers on the side of the road. Motorists need to put all distractions away, especially cell phones, and just concentrate on driving.

"If you're a passenger in a vehicle and the driver is not moving over, please remind them to move over," Elazizi said.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 01:08:58|Editor: yan

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DAMASCUS, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Syria's President Bashar al-Assad said on Monday that the U.S.-led missile strike on Syria will not succeed in stopping the Syrian war on the terrorist groups in Syria, according to the state news agency SANA.

Assad made the remarks during his meeting with the Assistant to Iran's Foreign Minister for Special Political Affairs Hossein Jaberi Ansari, during which the president stressed that the attack will not stop the Syrian army from eradicating the terror groups in Syria and restoring control over all Syrian areas.

The president charged that the U.S. and its Western allies have been supporting the terror groups in Syria since day one of the Syrian war.

For his part, Ansari stressed that the missile strikes by the U.S., Britain and France were motivated by the victories of the Syrian army and its allies against terrorists, adding that the three Western nations were worried about the expansion of the war on terror by Syria and its allies.

On April 14, the United States, France and Britain launched a series of missile strikes on Syrian positions over the allegations of chemical weapons' use by the Syrian forces on the formerly rebel-held area of Douma east of Damascus.

The Syrian government denied the accusations of chemical weapons' use, saying the Western and their allies on the ground in Syria fabricated the attack to justify a strike on Syria.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 02:34:23|Editor: yan

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CHONGQING, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Booklovers have been flocking to the top of a mountain in southwest China's Chongqing City, not for the breathtaking views, but to read.

On World Reading Day, which fell Monday, Nbooks Club started a two-day "spring fair" on the top of remote Nanshan Mountain in Nan'an District. The fair include books sales, reading salons, handicrafts exhibition, flowers, food and drink.

"I like this bookstore. It has a different feeling reading here, which is much better than traditional libraries or bookshops," said Tang Lingrong, who took her 10-year-old son to the bookstore Sunday. "There are spectacular views of Nanshan Mountain, coffee and a cosy sofa, creating a very comfortable environment for reading, which attracted me to come. I guess that's the secret of it's success--it's in such a remote place."

Nbooks Club opened in May 2016 by a young couple. The 700-square-meter bookstore receives many customers on both workdays and weekends, and the guesthouses run by the bookstore are always fully booked.

One year after it opened, Cheng Yusi, Che Yun and their team built a new shop near the old one, equipped with a theater, and hall for holding ceremonies, an art gallery, restaurant and rooms for parties.

Beside the success of their business, the bookshop has injected new life into the neglected mountain community. Inspired by the bookshop, several cultural enterprises followed suit and set up businesses on the mountain, which has now been developed into a cultural landmark in the district.

"Our popular culture attracts many young people, but based on its own history and culture Nanshan Mountain expects more visitors to boost the local economy," Che said, adding that cultural activities usually attracted whole families, rather than individual customers.

The local government has also provided support for the development of the bookshop, which awarded a bonus to the bookshop and introduced publishers for cooperation.

"Many entrepreneurs want to learn from our successful experience, and we are willing to share with them. We hope our success will invigorate more people to join us in the cultural and creative industry," Che said.

To inspire reading, the local government has also encouraged its public library to open private reading areas in recent years.

The district public library has cooperated with around 10 cafes, private bookshops, tea houses and a Tai Chi club, setting up more than 150 mini libraries in local villages.

"It is a win-win project as the public library sees more readers, private enterprises benefit from rent concessions and tax reductions, while a more accessible reading environment is developed for our residents," said Zhang Xiaogeng, who is in charge of the Nan'an District public library.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 02:39:26|Editor: yan

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LONDON, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Ambassador to the Great Britain said on Monday that his country has "sounded the trumpet of greater openness", pledging broader market access and more attractive investment environment.

In a signed article entitled "A more open China helps the whole world" on the Daily Telegraph, Liu Xiaoming said China will significantly broaden market access, create a more attractive investment environment, strengthen protection of intellectual property rights and expand imports.

"We are also hoping to launch the Shanghai-London Stock Connect, allowing traders in both countries to buy on each other's markets across time zones," he said. "This eagerly anticipated scheme will surely be of great mutual benefit."

Liu said that in some parts of the world, there is the rise of protectionist and egoist policies, where a belief in the "zero-sum game" is fanning chaos and danger in the international community.

"It is important that countries in the world respect each other, treat each other as equals, and choose consultation over confrontation and partnership over alliance," the senior diplomat said.

He believes that economic globalization must be made more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial to all.

"China has sounded the trumpet of greater openness, and drawn a map of how to get there," he said. "The next stop is in November with China's first ever International Import Expo in Shanghai."

Liu said China is reaffirming its intention to join hands with the UK and the world to share growth opportunities, achieve common development, and build a better future.
BERLIN, April 23 (Xinhua) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel's government wants to provide the German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) with new weapons following debate over its ability to participate in international missions, German media reported on Monday.

A spokesperson for the ministry of defense confirmed that the Federal Parliament (Bundestag) had received a comprehensive list of procurement projects but refused to provide any details with regards to its exact content. A series of recent reports has drawn attention to the inadequacy of the existing military equipment despite promises of ambitious reform first made by defense minister Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) back in 2015.

According to the newspapers "Handelsblatt" and "BILD", the list presented to parliament includes 18 individual procurement projects which are each worth more than 25 million euros (30.6 million U.S. dollars). Among others, the Armed Forces, will reportedly receive new helicopters, transport aircraft, rocket launchers and will lease Israeli "Heron TP" drones.

The spokesperson for the minister of defense told press that the Heron drones would be delivered in a state in which it could be "weaponized" but emphasized that the decision to acquire weapons was a "distinct" decision from this procurement process.

The clarification was made necessary by a clause in the current government's "coalition agreement" which states that the "procurement of weapons will be decided on its own by the German federal parliament following comprehensive discussions on the implications thereof for international law, constitutional law and ethical considerations."

The lease of Heron drones was championed as a key procurement project during the last term of von der Leyen as defense minister but ultimately failed to materialize on account of resistance from the German Social Democrats (SPD).

MINISTER: MORE FUNDS REQUIRED

Additionally, media cited information from the ministry of defense that the Armed Forces would witness an augmentation and modernization of their military equipment by 18 new rocket launchers of the "MARS II" type, seven rescue helicopters, six "Hercules" transportation aircraft, as well as 32 tractor units to transport weapons amongst others. "Handelsblatt" noted, however, that the civil servants it had spoken to still described the list as "preliminary". Ultimately, the exact volume and composition of procurement projects would depend on the new government's first federal budget which is currently being deliberated.

Von der Leyen has argued that more funds for German soldiers are urgently required to ensure the "sustainability of our Armed Forces and Germany's reliability towards our close partners." An existing budget plan by ex-finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble (CDU) forecasts a rise in Germany's annual defense spending from 37 billion euros in 2017 to 42.4 billion euros in 2021. The coalition agreement underpinning Merkel's fourth cabinet promises additional investment of 250 million euros per year for the Armed Forces.

The recently-appointed finance minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) has announced the presentation of the 2018 federal budget for the end of April. Scholz expressed confidence that the spending plan could subsequently be approved by the federal parliament in early July.
BUJUMBURA, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza on Monday signed a decree on the launch of the campaign for the constitutional referendum set for May 17.

The campaign for the referendum is open from May 1 at 6 a.m. local time up to May 14 at 6 p.m., any campaign activity made out of that period is prohibited, said the presidential decree.

The decree stipulated that only political parties and independent people registered with the National Independent Electoral Commission are allowed to hold campaign meetings.

The decree also indicated that state media can be used for the campaign during the campaign period, adding that the National Media Council will ensure that campaigners will have equal access to the state media.

Nkurunziza also indicated campaigners will have to abstain from insults and defamation.

The decree also provides sanctions against political parties or independent citizens that will commit offences during the electoral campaign.

Around 5 million Burundian citizens registered for the upcoming constitutional referendum and the general elections in the combined registration, according to the National Independent Electoral Commission of Burundi.

The central African country is expected to hold the referendum of the constitution on May 17 this year. The draft constitution, which doesn't ban the current president to run again in 2020, extends the presidential term from five years provided in the 2005 constitution to seven years and allows the president to serve two consecutive terms.

It will be passed if it is approved by over 50 percent of voters, according to the presidential decree for inviting registered voters to vote in the referendum.

Nkurunziza was elected the president of Burundi by the parliament in 2005. He was re-elected in a universal suffrage in 2010 and in 2015.

Burundi plunged into a crisis in April 2015 when Nkurunziza decided to run his controversial third term bid, which he won in July 2015. His candidature, which was opposed by the opposition and civil society groups, resulted in a wave of protests, violence and even a failed coup in May 2015.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 03:34:37|Editor: Chengcheng

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Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos speaks at the inaugurating event for Athens World Book Capital 2018 at the Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece, on April 23, 2018. Athens marked World Book Day on Monday with a celebratory event hosted at the Acropolis Museum, as it took over as World Book Capital for 2018. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos)

by Maria Spiliopoulou

ATHENS, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Athens marked World Book Day on Monday with a celebratory event hosted at the Acropolis museum, as it took over as World Book Capital for 2018.

For an entire year starting on April 23, the World Book Day organized by UNESCO since 1995, the Greek capital will be at the center of an international campaign aimed at promoting reading.

Through a rich program of more than 250 book-related events across the city, including seminars, workshops, competitions and various activities for adults and kids, Athenians and visitors, Athens aims to bring books everywhere, in every corner, and spread the joy of reading.

The Greek capital takes over from the city of Conakry in Guinea and will pass the torch to the city of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates next year, as UNESCO's World Book Capital concept becomes stronger since its launch in 2001.

"In Athens today and across the world we celebrate books. We celebrate writing, reading, publishing and sharing books. All these activities enhance human beings," Ian Denison, Unesco Publishing and Branding Chief, told the inaugurating event for Athens World Book Capital on Monday at the foot of the Acropolis hill.

"Athens is celebrating, Athens is reading books" is the main slogan of the yearlong celebration, Greek hosts said.

"Athens' journey starts. I would like to assure UNESCO that the choice of Athens was right, not only because of its history, but also thanks to its prospects," Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos said, addressing the event.

Athens today is a destination of culture which has the infrastructure and passionate people who can share their love for knowledge which helps communication between cultures, the Greek leader stressed.

"The organizing of the Athens 2018 World Book Day is one more international acknowledgment for our city. We believe that we can take up the responsibility and make the most of the opportunity," Mayor of Athens Yorgos Kaminis added, urging locals and foreigners to join the festivities.

The celebration continued on Monday with a concert by a flute quartet at the Acropolis museum and performances by the City of Athens Philharmonic Band and various artists along the pedestrian walkway at the foot of the Sacred Rock.

The Greek parliament building was also lit up on Monday evening as part of the celebration.
SAN FRANCISCO, April 23 (Xinhua) -- U.S. aircraft giant Boeing Monday announced its investment in a California-based 3D printing startup to seek greater engineering capabilities for its aerospace development.

Boeing said its investment in Morf3D, to be delivered by its investment arm HorizonX, reaffirms its commitment to a competitive ecosystem for aerospace-quality 3D-printed parts. Boeing HorizonX Ventures co-led this Series A funding round, but it did not disclose the specific amount.

As a startup company established in 2015, Morf3D mainly focused on metal additive engineering and manufacturing, a technology that enables lighter and stronger 3D-printed parts for aerospace applications.

Morf3D has produced 3D-printed titanium and aluminum components for Boeing satellites and helicopters since its establishment more than 3 years ago.

Morf3D's metallurgy experts leverage a new set of additive manufacturing design rules to advance the technology and accelerate 3D-printing capabilities for commercial use, Boeing said.

Boeing recognized the company's ability to utilize state-of-the-art software combined with engineering expertise to significantly reduce mass, and increase the performance and functionality of manufactured parts.

"Developing standard additive manufacturing processes for aerospace components benefits both companies and empowers us to fully unleash the value of this transformative technology," said Kim Smith, vice president and general manager of Fabrication for Boeing Commercial Airplanes and Boeing Additive Manufacturing leader.

Apart from Morf3D, Boeing has previously partnered with Norway's Norsk Titanium and Swiss-based Oerlikon to produce structural titanium parts and additive materials for its commercial airplanes.
WASHINGTON, April 23 (Xinhua) -- An international consortium of scientists is proposing the most ambitious project in the history of biology: sequencing the DNA of all known eukaryotic species on Earth.

The initiative, described on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is led by a coordinating council with members from the United States, the European Union, China, Brazil, Canada, Australia and some African countries.

The benefits of the monumental project promise to be a complete transformation of the scientific understanding of life on Earth and a vital new resource for global innovations in medicine, agriculture, conservation, technology and genomics.

The central goal of the Earth BioGenome Project (EBP) is to understand the evolution and organization of life on our planet by sequencing and functionally annotating the genomes of 1.5 million known species of eukaryotes, a massive group that includes plants, animals, fungi and other organisms whose cells have a nucleus that houses their chromosomal DNA.

To date, the genomes of less than 0.2 percent of eukaryotic species or fewer than 15,000 species have been sequenced, according 24 interdisciplinary authors.

The project also seeks to reveal some of the estimated 10 to 15 million unknown species of eukaryotes, most of which are single cell organisms, insects and small animals in the oceans.

Researchers estimate the proposed initiative will take 10 years and cost approximately 4.7 billion U.S. dollars.

Scientists compared it to the hugely successful precedent of the Human Genome Project. It costed roughly 4.8 billion in today's dollars and generated an estimated return-on-investment ratio of 141-to-one.

"The Earth BioGenome Project will give us insight into the history and diversity of life and help us better understand how to conserve it," said Gene Robinson, director of the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois who chairs the project.

Advances in technology have made the project feasible. The cost of whole genome sequencing has declined to about 1,000 dollars for a draft-quality sequence of human genome size and about 30,000 dollars for a reference-quality assembly of the chromosomes of an average eukaryotic genome.

With advances in high-performance computing, data storage and bioinformatics, the high throughput assembly and characterization of genomes is now feasible, according to the researchers.

The completed project is expected to require about one exabyte (one billion gigabytes) of digital storage capacity.

The working group also sees the project as being essential for developing new drugs for infectious and inherited diseases as well as creating new biological synthetic fuels, biomaterials, and food sources for growing human population.

The Earth BioGenome Project also plans to capitalize on the "citizen scientist" movement to collect specimens.

The project will likely enable the development of new technologies, such as portable genetic sequencers and instrumented drones that can go out, identify samples in the field, and bring those samples back to the laboratory.
SAN FRANCISCO, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Overseas Chinese coming from China's Hebei Province will cooperate with other communities in the San Francisco Bay Area to become a driving force behind closer exchanges between U.S. and Chinese people, a leader of the Chinese community said Monday.

Arthur Dong, chairperson of the Executive Council of the North California Hebei Association (NCHA), said he believed the association that has just celebrated its 10th anniversary will carry forward the unique tradition of Hebei Province and its neighboring areas in northern China and continue to play its role as one of the strongest Chinese communities in the Bay Area in promoting mutual understanding between China and the United States.

At an event marking the 10th anniversary of the NCHA Sunday, Chinese Consul General in San Francisco Luo Linquan said that he believed the overseas Chinese in the Bay Area will build on the strength accumulated in the past 10 years to continue working for stronger China-U.S. relations by boosting economic, trade and cultural exchanges.

Luo told an audience of hundreds that members of the association, who mostly came from Hebei Province in northern China, have always upheld the traditional spirit of patriotism shared by overseas Chinese and made tremendous contribution to the sustained friendship between China and the United States.

"Bonded by the amity among your fellow members and taking local-level exchanges as a means of communication, the NCHA has done a good job in fighting for the well-beings of the community of overseas Chinese originating from Hebei Province, and helping pushing forward the economic, trade and cultural exchanges between the Bay Area and Hebei Province," Luo said.

He spoke highly of the NCHA's efforts in promoting China's endeavor of peaceful reunification of the nation and combating "Taiwan Independence" by separatist forces in the United States.

Geng Landi, president of the NCHA, echoed Luo's remarks, saying he had led protests against Taiwan leader's transit stopover in the United States many years ago, which was aimed at sending a strong message of their vehement opposition to the separatist motives of the Taiwan authorities.

The members of the association have taken an active part in overseas memorial activities marking the anniversaries of China's resistance against Japanese aggression during World War II, Geng said.

The NCHA members have always been enthusiastic players in activities against Japan's claim for China's Diaoyu Islands and other events that helped build a closer link between the United States and China at the local level, he said.

The tremendous economic, scientific and social achievements made by China over the past years have greatly encouraged the overseas Chinese community in the Bay Area, particularly those from Hebei Province, to better integrate themselves with the American society, he said.

The association was founded in the Bay Area in 2008 and now has more than 240 active members who serve Chinese communities in the Bay Area.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a tree planting ceremony with French President Emmanuel Macron on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, U.S., April 23, 2018. (Xinhua/Reuters)

WASHINGTON, April 23 (Xinhua) -- The White House has no plan to fire special counsel Robert Mueller over the on-going probe into Russia's alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. elections and possible collusion with the Trump campaign, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday.

Her remarks came after U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted Friday that Mueller was appointed "based on an illegal act" from former FBI Director James Comey removed by the president nearly one year ago.

"As we've said many times before, we have no intention of firing the special counsel," Sanders said at the White House daily briefing.

"We've been beyond cooperative with them, we're continuing to cooperate with them," she said.

"James Comey illegally leaked classified documents to the press in order to generate a Special Council? Therefore, the Special Council was established based on an illegal act?" Trump tweeted on Friday.

In this file photo taken on June 21, 2017 former FBI Director Robert Mueller, special counsel on the Russian investigation, leaves following a meeting with members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (Xinhua/AFP PHOTO)

Trump's tweets just reiterate the president's idea that "the Trump campaign was involved in any collusion with Russia is a total witch hunt," said Sanders on Monday, "It was a false premise that this entire thing started on."

Meanwhile, she refused to make clear whether the White House would pardon Trump's longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen.

"It's hard to close a door on something that hasn't taken place. I don't like to discuss or comment on hypothetical situations that may or may not ever happen," Sanders said.

Earlier this month, FBI raided Cohen's office, home and hotel room after federal prosecutors in Manhattan received a referral from Mueller. In response, Sanders said Trump "believes he has the power" to fire Mueller.

"He certainly believes he has the power to do so," Sanders said when asked by reporters at the regular briefing.

During the raid, which is said not directly related to the Mueller's probe, the FBI seized thousands of emails, tax documents, business records and communications between Cohen and Trump.

Mueller 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 are directly related to the collusion allegation.
TRIPOLI, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Libyan navy on Monday rescued 120 illegal immigrants off the coast of Garrabulli city, some 55 km east of the capital Tripoli.

"120 illegal immigrants of different African nationalities have been rescued 50 miles off the coast of Garrabulli," Milad Abdalkarim, commander of navy patrol, told Xinhua.

"The migrants have been taken to Tripoli naval base," Abdalkarim added.

Navy spokesman on Sunday said that the bodies of 11 migrants were recovered and 283 others were rescued off the country's western coast in separate operations.

Following the 2011 uprising that toppled former leader Muammar Gaddafi, Libya became the main departure point for migrants who want to reach Europe across the Mediterranean, due to chaos in the country.

According to official statistics, more than 4,000 migrants were rescued off Libya's coast in the first quarter of 2018.
NAIROBI, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Ambassador to Comoros has hailed China's medical innovation in a project aimed at driving out malaria from the African country's two islands.

The Indian Ocean archipelago nation is mulling cooperating with China to reach its goal of being malaria-free, after a Chinese-backed anti-malaria project between 2007 and 2013 slashed malaria cases by 98 percent.

Ambassador He Yanjun described the project, which uses a Chinese-developed artemisinin-based combination therapy, as a paragon of China-Africa cooperation that features Chinese originality and the robust cooperation of the two countries.

"I see many Chinese elements in this project. We did not stick to conventional measures previously adopted by some international organizations, but instead adjusted our strategies to fit Comoros' conditions," He said.

The project asked residents on each of Comoros' relatively isolated islands to simultaneously take medicines to flush out malaria parasites. It builds on the idea that mosquitoes are just "vectors" passing parasites from person to person, so if the human source is purged, the mosquitoes will have no bugs to pass.

A deviation from traditional methods of killing mosquitoes and preventing mosquito bites, the novel project however recorded a drastic reduction in malaria cases in Comoros from over 100,000 in 2006 to about 2,000 in 2014.

A team of medical experts from Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine participated in the Comoros project, assisting in the distribution of China-donated medicines and the build-up of a local team for disease monitoring.

The ambassador praised the Chinese medical practitioners and researchers for their devotion to and empathy with the African people.

"If the Chinese medical practitioners did not care about concerns of the Comoros people, there would not be such great devotion and achievements on their sides," the diplomat said.

"This project is a good demonstration of the China-Africa friendship, partnership and brotherhood, as well as of China's African policy of sincerity, real results, affinity and good faith," He said.

He also gave credit to the efficacy of artemisinin-based medicine, a Chinese innovation. Artemisinin, now at the forefront of the global battle against malaria, was discovered by Chinese scientist Tu Youyou, who won a Nobel Prize in 2015.

He called for greater collaboration in medical training in order to build a strong troop of medical practitioners for African countries.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 09:40:59|Editor: Chengcheng

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Ambulances are seen near the site where a van struck pedestrians in Toronto, Canada, April 23, 2018. A white van struck multiple pedestrians in Toronto's northern suburbs on Monday and police have taken the driver into custody, police said on Twitter. (Xinhua/Zou Zheng)

TORONTO, April 23 (Xinhua) -- The number of people who died of injuries has increased to 10 after a van plowed into pedestrians in Toronto's northern suburb on Monday, police said.

There are still 15 wounded people who have been rushed to different hospitals across the city, Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders said.

Previous reports said at least nine people were killed and 16 others injured in the attack.

Saunders said a suspect identified as Alek Minassian, a 25-year-old from the Toronto suburb, has been detained.

However, the motive of the attack is unknown yet and Toronto police have no file record on this suspect, the police chief added.

A white van jumped over a curb and plowed into pedestrians. The driver fled briefly but was soon arrested, according to police.

Police cordoned off several city blocks and Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) has sent an alert, saying that there is no subway service between Sheppard and Finch Stations as Toronto Police are conducting investigation at Sheppard Station.

"The investigation is at a stage where no further information can be confirmed at this point. The police are conducting obviously their thorough investigation to determine what happened and why it happened, the motivations involved," Canadian Minister of Public Safety Ralph Goodale told a press conference.

At least seven people were rushed to nearby Sunnybrook Health Services Center's trauma center, the hospital said on Twitter, adding that the emergency department has been locked down as an added precaution.

The incident took place about 29 km from the city center, where foreign ministers from the G7 countries were meeting to discuss world issues.

After the tragedy, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in Ottawa: "We're just learning about the situation in Toronto. Our hearts go out to anyone affected."
YANGON, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar and South Korea have held ministerial talks on enhanced cooperation in trade and investment in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar News Agency reported Tuesday.

The Myanmar delegation was led by Minister of Commerce Than Myint, while the South Korean side was headed by visiting Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Kim Hyun-chong.

The two sides touched on matters related to establishing an industrial zone for Korean companies investing in Myanmar, establishing a Korea Desk, and increasing cooperation between the Trade Promotion Department of Myanmar Ministry of Commerce and Korea Trade and Investment Promotion Agency.

They also discussed sending government employees to South Korea for training in trade-related information sector, providing technical support on setting up a database to implement e-commerce and implementing trade and investment promotion and protection agreement already signed.

On the sideline of the talks, State Counselor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi met with Kim to exchange views on enhancing existing bilateral economic relations.

Kim expressed South Korea's interest in establishing industrial zones in Myanmar.

According to official statistics, South Korea's investment in Myanmar totaled 3.788 billion U.S. dollars as of December 2017 since late 1988, ranking as the sixth largest foreign investor in the country.

Bilateral trade between Myanmar and South Korea reached 866 million U.S. dollars in the past 2016-17 fiscal year with 510 million dollars already registered as of November in the FY 2017-18.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 10:36:16|Editor: Liangyu

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BEIJING, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Tencent Pictures, the film unit of Chinese tech giant Tencent, has set up a distribution subsidiary aiming to boost its influence on cinemas.

Tencent Pictures Distribution, with a registered capital of 50 million yuan (around 7.9 million U.S. dollars), is wholly owned by Tencent Pictures and chaired by Cheng Wu, vice president of Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Tencent Pictures CEO, according to Tencent Pictures.

Tencent has spent lavishly in acquiring and co-funding Hollywood blockbusters, including "Warcraft," "Kong: Skull Island," and "Wonder Woman," as well as in creating original content.

"Besides content creation, distribution is another core ability for the content business," said Cheng. "We want to have our own professional team."

Cheng said the new company's business will run independently and will not be limited to content backed by Tencent.
File photo taken on Jan. 29, 2018 shows a view of Gwadar port in southwest Pakistan's Gwadar. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal)

by Jamil Bhatti

ISLAMABAD, April 23 (Xinhua) -- The completion of some of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects has brought great benefits to local people, but "it is just a beginning of CPEC and a big change is taking place around," Shaukat Paracha, a senior Pakistani journalist said.

Paracha told Xinhua during his recent visit to Port Qasim Coal-fired Power Plant, the first unit of which started to generate clean and cheap electricity to the energy-thirsty country last year, marking the second of the major energy projects under CPEC.

The 1,320-megawatt power plant in full operation could provide enough power to about 4 million local families a year.

File photo taken on July 3, 2017 shows the Sahiwal coal-fired power plant in Sahiwal in Pakistan's eastern province of Punjab. The first major energy project under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was inaugurated in Sahiwal in Pakistan's eastern province of Punjab. (Xinhua/Liu Tian)

Ziaul Amin, a reporter from the Associated Press of Pakistan, has reported CPEC for a long time, but had never before visited Gwadar, another major CPEC project.

After the recent Gwadar visit organized by the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan and the country's ministry of planning and development, Amin said local people were very happy over the hospital and training center facilitated under CPEC.

"CPEC is expected to provide 800,000 jobs to Pakistani people in next few years, which would be a great contribution to relieve Pakistan's high unemployment rate," Amin added.

From a small, remote and less developed fishing village, Gwadar port now is embracing its new identity of Pakistan's "Shenzhen" with fully functional port terminal, free zone, business center and, more importantly, a visible future of development and prosperity.

According to the China Overseas Ports Holding Co., the operator of Gwadar port, some 30 companies in different businesses such as hotel, bank, logistics and fish processing have already joined the Gwadar free zone with expectations of generating 790.5 million U.S. dollars annually after full operation.

In January, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi inaugurated the first phase of Gwadar Port's Free Zone, expecting that the free zone will improve Pakistan's trade with regional and global partners under CPEC to bring dividends of free trade to Pakistani economy and betterment in people's lives.

This file photo shows people attend the inauguration ceremony of first phase of Gwadar Port's Free Zone in southwest Pakistan's Gwadar on Jan. 29, 2018. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal)

Yasir Rehman, an anchor from the official Pakistan Television, explained that "when infrastructure is developed, it brings stimulus to the economy, creates jobs and improves businesses by starting a constructive process."

"Uninterrupted power supply from CPEC energy projects will help Pakistani industries increase production creating an ideal atmosphere for Pakistan's economy. And with the functionalized Gwadar port for its regular commercial cargo, CPEC will leave significant improvements at every common Pakistani."

Rehman also appreciated the Chinese companies working on CPEC for fulfilling their corporate social responsibilities.

"I saw local girls studying in a school established with Chinese support in Gwadar, and if it would not have been established, these girls could not have any possibility to go to any other area for studies due to local taboos," said Rehman, adding that education is the right prescription to eliminate poverty.

Hospitals, schools and vocational training centers were a dream in once a small fishing town of Gwadar, but now the youngsters from Gwadar are being provided with the ideal facilities to study in and have a chance to change their lives.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 11:01:20|Editor: Chengcheng

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WASHINGTON, April 23 (Xinhua) -- The United States on Monday released both optimistic and tough messages concerning the prospect of the Korean Peninsula's denuclearization, as the meeting between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un approaches.

"A LOT OF REASONS FOR OPTIMISM"

U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis said on Monday that he was optimistic that the dialogue with the DPRK will be "fruitful."

"Right now, I think there is a lot of reasons for optimism that the negotiations will be fruitful and we'll see," Mattis said.

The statement came after Pyongyang announced on Friday to halt its nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests, and to close up a nuke test site to ensure the transparency of its test-halting effort.

When asked about the reason to be optimistic about the Peninsula denuclearization, White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders also said on a press briefing that "we've seen some steps in the right direction."

"We also have seen a major change in what has taken place in the past," she added.

"MAXIMUM PRESSURE CAMPAIGN IS GOING TO CONTINUE"

Mixed messages were released recently on the U.S. side, as Washington tried to convey a tough message to pressure Pyongyang.

Sanders said on Monday that the U.S. goal is denuclearization of the Peninsula, "and we're going to continue the maximum pressure campaign that has been ongoing to" the DPRK until "we see concrete actions taken towards complete and total denuclearization."

She added that "certainly no sanctions lifted until we see concrete actions" taken by the DPRK to denuclearize.

For his part, U.S. President Donald Trump has seemed to turn more cautious, as he tweeted on Sunday that "we are a long way from conclusion on North Korea (the DPRK), maybe things will work out, and maybe they won't. Only time will tell."

Also on Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior U.S. administration official told the media following the first day of the G7 foreign ministers' meeting in Toronto that "We are looking for substantial dismantlement" of the DPRK's nuclear programs first.

The official further explained that the U.S. side is currently using two avenues: "one, a global campaign of maximum pressure; and two, talks ... in the past, people have relaxed pressure to improve the atmospherics for talks. We are not going to repeat that mistake again."

Speaking of the DPRK's medium-range missiles, a concern for Japan, the official said that Pyongyang's ICBM programs "always accompany a military nuclear program."

"They're inseparable. So ... we are very concerned, obviously, about the nuclear and the ICBM program because they are necessarily linked," he added, hinting that Trump would discuss the issue with Kim in their meeting.

DIPLOMACY OVERRIDES

Positive momentum around the Korean Peninsula has been built up in recent months, thanks to the inter-Korean good faith unfold with the diplomacy around the PyeongChang Winter Olympics and Peninsula denuclearization, and efforts of relative countries to promote dialogue between the DPRK and South Korea, and with the United States.

Troy Stangarone, senior director at the Korea Economic Institute, a Washington-based non-profit policy research institution, told Xinhua that enormous credit should go to relative countries like China "for creating the environment needed for the upcoming inter-Korean summit."

Without these continuous efforts to push for dialogue with the DPRK, the world "might not be where we are today," he added, explaining that the participation of Pyongyang in the PyeongChang Olympics helped "shift the narrative of confrontation on the Korean Peninsula to one of dialogue."
Photo taken on April 16, 2018 shows the exterior view of the News South Wales State Library in Sydney, Australia. (Xinhua/Bai Xuefei)

SYDNEY, April 23 (Xinhua) -- The News South Wales State Library, Australia's oldest library, is making efforts to promote reading and literacy throughout the community, library officials told Xinhua recently.

A wide range of activities took place on Monday at the library to mark the World Book Day.

Held on the anniversary of William Shakespeare's death, the World Book Day is an opportunity for lovers of literature to promote reading, publishing and copyright.

"With collections of more than 6 million items including books in foreign languages, in particular Chinese, a lot of them are available to read on site, but we also lend them through our public library network," manager of research and discovery Maggie Patton told Xinhua.

"We also have some much older manuscripts and rare books in Chinese as well."

Dating back to 1826, the library located in the center of Sydney showed off some of its rarest and most iconic works of literature to the public on Monday, including Shakespeare's four folios, a first edition of Jane Austen's Emma and various editions of Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote.

Apart from holding some of the greatest works of literature, Patton said the state library is often flooded by students looking for non-fiction as well.

"We have lots of students coming in looking for books on business, economics and commerce," she said.

In order to cater for this younger market and make the most of the extraordinary collection, the library has been trying hard to keep up with the digital trends.

"We have our traditional services, where we expect people to come in and have a look at the material here, but we also have a huge online service through our website and we subscribe to numerous electronic journals and electronic books," Patton said.

"We also have a massive digitization program, where we're digitalizing some of the materials so it can be viewed online from anywhere in the world."

Photo taken on April 16, 2018 shows the public reading area of the News South Wales State Library in Sydney, Australia. (Xinhua/Bai Xuefei)

The library is also working to promote reading and literacy throughout the community.

One of the roles of the state facility is to help fund a public network of 300 libraries across New South Wales.

"Onsite in the library we have a fantastic learning services team and they do a lot of programs for young people, from kindergarten through to high school graduation," Patton said.

"They do reading, they do author talks, there are lots of activities through reading here in the library."

The good news is the effort seems to be paying off.

"I like to pop in here if I can once a week, just to have a walk and have a look around," visitor to the historic library Paul Traynor told Xinhua.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 11:11:22|Editor: Liangyu

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BEIJING, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has signed an agreement to supply its artificial intelligence technology to global automakers, assisting Mercedes-Benz, Audi, and Volvo car owners in China to control their cars from home.

The voice-activated assistant Tmall Genie, which was developed by Alibaba AI Labs, the company's artificial intelligence arm, will allow home-to-vehicle connectivity, Alibaba said Monday.

"Users will be able to turn on air conditioning, lock car doors, and open the trunk from their home," said Chen Lijuan, head of Alibaba AI Labs.

Tmall Genie could also perform functions like planning a route or controlling music.

The voice assistant will also allow car owners to perform diagnostics on the car's engine, battery, and other components and check the car's location and fuel levels in the future, according to Alibaba.

Chen said Tmall Genie uses voiceprint recognition technology to identify authorized car users.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 11:21:24|Editor: Chengcheng

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MANILA, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The population of tamaraw, the Philippines' endangered native buffalo, has increased to 523, according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) data.

Tamaraw, a wild dwarf buffalo with relatively short horns, lives in the mountains of Mindoro island.

In a Facebook page, the DENR Tamaraw Conservation Program said that it has counted at least 523 Tamaraw roaming around the Mt. Iglit-Baco National Park. The count was done from 18 vantage points within the park covering the towns of Sablayan, Calintaan and Rizal in Occidentla Mindoro province, it said.

Tamaraw is on the Red List of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and is classified as critically endangered, the highest risk rating for animal species. The IUCN Red List is the world's most comprehensive information source on the conservation status of plant and animal species.

Wildlife biologist Don Geoff Tabaranza, the project development and resource manager of Mindoro Biodiversity Conservation Foundation, said in 2016 the tamaraw population was 413.

June David, Tamaraw Conservation Program coordinator, said the intensified enforcement and patrolling activities of rangers at Mt. Iglit-Baco resulted in fewer reports of poachers, including indigenous peoples who enter the protected area.

"This is because of a stronger partnership with the local governments," David told local media.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 11:26:25|Editor: Chengcheng

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UNITED NATIONS, April 23 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council on Monday condemned "in the strongest terms the heinous and cowardly terrorist attack" that took place in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sunday, which left more than 60 people dead.

"The members of the Security Council expressed their deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims and to the Government of Afghanistan and they wished a speedy and full recovery to those who were injured," the Security Council said in a statement.

They reaffirmed that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security, said the statement.

"The members of the Security Council reiterated that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed," it said.

On Sunday, a suicide bomber attacked a voter registration center set up in a school in western Kabul, killing more than 60, including 27 women and eight children, and injuring more than 120 others.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 11:36:27|Editor: Liangyu

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SHANGHAI, April 24 (Xinhua) -- An exhibition of different versions of the Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, opened in Shanghai on Monday.

This year marks the 200th anniversary of Marx's birth as well as the 170th anniversary of the publication of the Communist Manifesto, the guiding political document for the communist movement.

The exhibit consists of eight Chinese versions and eight English versions of the work, as well as versions in 21 other languages, such as Spanish, Japanese, and Latin.

Among the displayed Chinese versions, the earliest version has no preface or annotation, while the latest version has seven prefaces and 45 annotations, according to Chen Hongjuan, associate professor at East China Normal University.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 11:51:33|Editor: Liangyu

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HAVANA, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Bolivian President Evo Morales confirmed on Monday his trust in and support for his new Cuban counterpart Miguel Diaz-Canel.

Morales held a press conference as the final activity of his first official visit to Cuba after Diaz-Canel took office on Thursday.

Before returning to La Paz, the Bolivian leader said that "Cuba is not alone" and wished Diaz-Canel the best during his administration.

He disclosed that during his meeting earlier with the president they exchanged views on new collaboration programs in sectors of education and health.

Morales added that during the meeting he appreciated the "huge coincidences" between Diaz-Canel's policies and projects and those of his predecessors Fidel and Raul Castro.

"Cuba has a lot to teach the world in issues such as health, education and citizen safety," said Morales.

Both leaders talked about the possibility of promoting a social program similar to the "Operation Miracle", which were launched by the late revolutionary leaders Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro to restore sight to millions of people without medical resources in over 30 countries.

"This time the goal could be fighting cancer," said Morales.

Referring to his visit with Diaz-Canel to the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in Havana, Morales said he was "very impressed" by the projects undertaken in the scientific institution.

"These are programs for life, not for money as some countries do," he said.

Morales is the second president to visit Cuba after the election of Diaz-Canel by the National Assembly.

Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro visited Havana this weekend and met with Diaz-Canel to set up an economic, cultural and political cooperation plan for the next 10 years.
by Charles Happell

CANBERRA, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Microplastics have been found in one of Australia's most pristine marine environments, the Great Australian Bight, leading scientists to fear the problem of plastic pollution is much greater than first thought.

Scientists from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) discovered the microplastics in ocean-floor sediments two kilometres below the surface off the South Australian coast.

The Great Australian Bight is one of Australia's most isolated marine environments, a so-called "pristine" biodiversity hotspot and marine treasure.

Conservationists and scientists have been alarmed by the findings, saying they illustrate the extent of the plastic-pollution problem which has become a key international environmental issue in the past decade.

Dr. Denise Hardesty, a principal research scientist at CSIRO and a member of the team analysing the sediments, said the discovery was "a wake-up call" and urged governments to enact legislation which tackled the growing issue of ocean pollution.

"This points to just how ubiquitous plastics are in our environment," Hardesty told the Guardian on Tuesday. "Even in deep sea sediments around Australia, which is a developed country, we still find plastic, anthropogenic waste, from the bottom of the sea to the surface.

"Wherever you are, the organisms passing through those areas will have come in contact with it, whether it was a fishing line or a plastic bag that's broken down into thousands of tiny pieces.

"This is hundreds of kilometres offshore at a couple of kilometres of depth that's pretty confronting that, even there, we find it. This stuff is everywhere."

The revelation follows similar discoveries in waterways around the world. Earlier this month, scientists in Britain revealed that the River Tame, near Manchester, carried the highest microplastic pollution of any waterway in the world - more than 500,000 microplastic particles per square metre in the top 10cm of river bed.

The British team also estimated that major floods in the area in 2015-2016 flushed more than 40 billion pieces of microplastic into the sea.

The surge of such a vast amount of microplastic from one small river catchment in a single event led the scientists to conclude that the current estimate for the number of particles in the ocean five trillion was a major underestimate.

Associate professor Jason Tanner, a marine biologist who helped lead the new research into the Great Australian Bight's biodiversity, said the range of marine life affected at this depth of two kilometres was extensive.

"There's quite a diverse fauna down there filter feeders, soft corals, sponges and lots of more mobile organisms starfish, sea cucumbers, urchins and, of course, fish. We found almost 300 new species from our sampling," he said on Tuesday.

He said that during sampling of the bight seabed even three kilometres down - "pretty much every time" they would bring up "human debris" to the surface.

"We brought up Coke cans and bits of clothing," Tanner said.

The sediments were analysed using a red dye that caused any plastics to show up fluorescent under special light. The pieces detected were at least 10 micrometres wide about the same width as very fine wool. Microplastics have been found in several less remote seabed areas around Australia and other parts of the world.

In 2017, CSIRO researchers reported they had found plastic pieces in sediments taken from Derwent River in Tasmania and plastic fibres in the digestive tract of mussels from the same river.

Dr. Jennifer Lavers, of the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania, said she was not surprised that plastic had been found in the bight "because there are multiple studies from around the world finding microplastics and even nanoplastics in sediments throughout the bottom of the world's oceans".

"Should it worry us? Absolutely," she told the Guardian on Tuesday. "The smaller the pieces, the more species there are to consume it.

"Everything that is tiny is at the base of the food web so it's not an issue of just an albatross swallowing a cigarette lighter or a sperm whale swallowing big chunk of net, you now literally have microplastics being eaten by corals, sea cucumbers, clams and mussels ..... it's everywhere."
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 12:26:40|Editor: Liangyu

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KABUL, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Water scarcity emanated from lack of precipitation in late 2017 and early this year has affected the live of 500,000 children in Afghanistan, the UNICEF warned Tuesday.

The impact on the children could be devastating in 22 of the country's 34 provinces, with 10 worst provinces across Afghanistan, where 20 percent to 30 percent water sources are reportedly dry, threatening the lives of 1 million people, said UNICEF, or the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, in a statement.

An additional 2 million people could feel its effects over the coming months, the statement said.

"These areas have pre-existing high rates of malnutrition. Without adequate nutritious food and safe water for drinking, as well as for hygiene and sanitation, children's health will only worsen," the statement reads.

The impact of the drought couldn't come at a worse time, as cases of severe acute malnutrition, or seasonal malnutrition, rise on average by about 25 percent each year in the coming summer months.

Some 1.6 million children and 443,000 pregnant and lactating women suffer from malnutrition across Afghanistan, according to the statement.

"The priority is to prevent the situation from deteriorating, by responding to the needs of children and families in the worst affected areas," said Adele Khodr, UNICEF Representative in Afghanistan, adding that children across the country already faced numerous challenges and now they have to cope with this latest threat to their lives.

Khodr called the need for making sure that children and families get the access to nutritious food, safe water and health services, as the impact of malnutrition could last a lifetime.

The UNICEF and other partners in the nutrition cluster estimate that emergency nutrition assistance is needed for 92,000 Afghan children and 8,500 pregnant and lactating women.

The children right support organization estimates also show that between July and December 2018, some 121,000 acutely malnourished children under five and 33,000 pregnant and lactating women could need life-saving nutrition services.
KATHMANDU, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Nepal and India began talks here on Tuesday to revise a Transit Treaty allowing Nepal transit facility to Nepal through the Indian waterways, Nepali officials said.

A sub-committee level meeting under the Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC), a commerce secretary level mechanism between the two countries, kicked off in Kathmandu. The commerce secretary level talks will start on Thursday.

During Nepali Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli's visit to India on April 6-8, the two countries issued a joint statement on new connectivity through inland waterways, opening the door for Nepal to reach the sea through waterways for the first time.

If Nepal establishes direct access to the sea through waterways, experts said that it would reduce the cost of doing trade for land-locked Nepal.

"The two sides are going to discuss on technicalities of incorporating the issue in the Transit Treaty," Rabi Shankar Sainju, joint secretary at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supply, told Xinhua.

"As it is the first time that two sides are discussing on adding waterway as mode of transit facility, we will basically discuss and try to finalize the content to be incorporated in the Treaty."

According to Madhav Belbase, joint secretary at the Water and Energy Commission, a body formed by the Nepali government to develop water and energy resources in an integrated way, Nepal and India might have to form joint study team to conduct the procedure as large part of waterways to the sea lies in India.

India is developing its first modern inland water transport fairway on Ganga River between Varanasi and the seaport of Haldia, Kolkata, with the assistance of the World Bank. Nepal could establish connectivity with the planned Indian waterways.
NEW YORK, April 23 (Xinhua) -- U.S. New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo introduced on Monday a bill that would ban single-use carryout plastic bags statewide.

"The blight of plastic bags takes a devastating toll on our streets, our water and our natural resources, and we need to take action to protect our environment," Cuomo said in a statement.

The bill would "ban the provision of single-use, plastic carryout bags at any point of sale," and "garment bags, trash bags and any bags used to wrap or contain certain foods" would be exempt.

If passed, the ban would go into effect on Jan. 1 of next year.

A handful of towns and cities in New York State currently ban plastic bags. California is the only entire state to have such a policy. < New York City passed a bill in 2017 to impose a five-cent fee on any paper or plastic grocery bag. However, the governor and the state Senate blocked it from taking effect.
WASHINGTON, April 23 (Xinhua) -- The White House on Monday commended the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's favorable recommendation of Secretary of State-designate Mike Pompeo.

U.S. media reported that Pompeo, the new pick of U.S. President Donald Trump to replace Rex Tillerson to be the new secretary of state, advanced out of committee earlier Monday with an 11-9 vote, winning a favorable report.

With the outcome, "the American people are one step closer to having their top diplomat in place at a critical time in our history," the White House said in an announcement.

"Pompeo is an integral part of the president's vision going forward. We look forward to the full Senate confirming him in the coming days," the White House added.

Trump announced his intention to replace Tillerson with Pompeo, chief of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), on March 13.

Pompeo, a Trump loyalist, is seen as a hawk in foreign policy. As Trump's envoy, he secretly met with Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in Pyongyang earlier this month, which has caught global attention.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 13:51:57|Editor: Chengcheng

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by Carina Lopez

MEXICO CITY, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Mexico's presidential race has given a new boost to a cottage industry of making masks imitating political figures, especially presidential candidates.

For the first time ever, independent candidates have been allowed to throw their hats in the ring, bringing the total number of presidential hopefuls to five and providing mask makers with more characters than before.

In Cuernavaca, a town located south of the Mexico City, some 300 employees at Grupo RV, a company that makes Halloween masks, are currently manufacturing handmade latex masks of the candidates.

With some 80 days to go before the July 1 elections, the company is turning out 1,000 masks of nearly all the promising candidates, including front-runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, second-placed rival Ricardo Anaya, Jose Antonio Meade from the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and independent candidate Jaime Rodriguez, the cowboy hat-wearing former governor of northern Nuevo Leon state who goes by the nickname "El Bronco."

These masks are sold at an average price of 300 pesos (about 16 U.S. dollars).

The company decided not to make masks of former first lady and independent candidate Margarita Zavala, wife of ex-president Felipe Calderon, as they were not expected to be money makers, said Juarez.

"Masks of women are very tough to sell, because a very small segment of the male population would like to dress up like women, and women don't like to wear masks," Juarez said.

Founded in 1948, the company began to include political figures in its collection of masks starting from 2000, when a former Coca Cola executive-turned-politician named Vicente Fox shook up the presidential race by taking on the PRI. Fox won, breaking the PRI's 70-year winning streak.

"We began our politician face mask production line with Fox," and the tradition continues till now, Neri Juarez, the company's head of innovation, told Xinhua.

Before producing a new mask, a creative department will carry out a market research to find the most hated and beloved personalities, Juarez added.

In 2017, Grupo RV manufactured a total of 1.2 million masks, most of which were exported to the United States, Spain, France, Denmark, Kuwait, Japan and Australia.

The company expects sales of its masks of politicians to rise as the race heats up, after the first of three scheduled debates among presidential candidates took place Sunday night.
TORONTO, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Ten people were killed and 15 others injured after a driver plowed his white rented van into a lunch-hour crowd on a sidewalk in Toronto on Monday in what was described by police as a deliberate attack.

The incident - which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called a "tragic and senseless attack" - was one of the most violent in recent Canadian history.

Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders said a suspect identified as Alek Minassian, a 25-year-old from the Toronto suburb, has been detained.

However, the motive of the attack is still unknown and Toronto police have no file record on this suspect, the police chief added.

The driver was heading south on busy Yonge Street at around 1:30 p.m. (1730 GMT) and the streets were crowded with people enjoying an unseasonably warm day when the van plowed into the pedestrians.

The incident occurred about 29 km from the city center, where foreign ministers from the G7 countries were meeting to discuss world issues.

Video broadcasts on several Canadian outlets showed police arresting the suspect, dressed in dark clothes, after officers surrounded him and his van several blocks from where the incident took place in the North York neighborhood of northern Toronto. He appeared to make some sort of gesture at the police with an object in his hand just before they ordered him to lie down on the ground and took him away.

Police cordoned off several city blocks and Toronto Transit Commission has sent an alert, saying that there is no subway service between Sheppard and Finch Stations as Toronto Police are conducting investigation at Sheppard Station.

"The actions definitely looked deliberate," Saunders told a news conference on Monday night close to the site of the incident.

Asked if there was any evidence of a connection with international terrorism, the chief said: "Based on what we have, there's nothing that has it to compromise the national security at this time."

"The investigation is at a stage where no further information can be confirmed at this point. The police are conducting obviously their thorough investigation to determine what happened and why it happened, the motivations involved," Canadian Minister of Public Safety Ralph Goodale said at the press conference.

"I can assure the public all our available resources have been brought in to investigate this tragic situation," Toronto Police Services Deputy Chief Peter Yuen said earlier.

At least seven people were rushed to nearby Sunnybrook Health Services Center's trauma center, the hospital said on Twitter, adding that the emergency department has been locked down as an added precaution.

Ryder System Inc spokeswoman Claudia Panfil confirmed that one of the company's rental vehicles had been involved and said the company was cooperating with authorities.

Goodale called the incident a "horrific attack" and said the G7 foreign ministers extended their condolences.

"We should all feel safe walking in our cities and communities," Trudeau said in a statement on Monday.

"We are monitoring this situation closely, and will continue working with our law enforcement partners around the country to ensure the safety and security of all Canadians," he added.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 14:22:03|Editor: Chengcheng

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CANBERRA, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Australian researchers have stepped up their efforts to tackle an ancient version of the HIV virus which is becoming more prevalent in remote regions and affecting indigenous communities, local media reported Tuesday.

The virus is called T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1, or HTLV-1, and Australia has the highest levels in the world, according to scientists at the Baker Institute for Heart and Diabetes in the Northern Territory (NT).

They estimate that 45 percent of Indigenous adults in central Australia carried HTLV-1.

As a distant cousin of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) which can lead over time to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), HTLV-1 is a blood-borne virus that can be sexually transmitted or passed from mother to child. The virus can lead to inflammation of the skin, eyes and lungs.

"You're also at risk of developing things like leukemia, so blood cancer, and becoming disabled through spinal cord injuries," researcher Joel Liddle told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Tuesday.

"Once your pro-viral load is high, you're at a high risk of poor health."

Researchers say leukaemia caused by the virus could be "rapidly fatal."

The Baker Institute team has been inspecting vials of blood infected with the ancient virus at their laboratory in the NT city of Alice Springs.

HTLV-1 is most common in ancient cultures, with cases being found in southern Japan, South America and Africa.

The virus is thought to have arrived in Australian from Indonesia, but it continues to affect Aboriginal communities in the heart of the country.

"In remote Australia, it's so out of sight, out of mind with a lot of things, health is just one of those things," Liddle said.

One of the difficulties with this virus is that most of those who have HTLV-1, don't know they have it, and a vast number of Aboriginal communities have never been tested.

An infectious diseases expert, Lloyd Einsiedel, told the ABC that HTLV-1 was associated with inflammatory conditions, including bronchiectasis, a chronic infection of the airways, which appears at "phenomenal" rates in central Australia among Indigenous patients.

"The risk of bronchiectasis is dramatically increased if you're HTLV-1 infected and if you've got a lot of the virus in your blood," he said on Tuesday.

"It's the most potent carcinogenic (cancer producing) virus that we know of."
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 14:27:04|Editor: Chengcheng

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GHAZNI, Afghanistan, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Ten people including six militants and four police were killed as clash erupted between Taliban and security forces in Jaghato district of Afghanistan's eastern Ghazni province on Tuesday, spokesman for provincial government Aref Nuri said.

The Taliban insurgents, according to the official, attacked security checkpoints in Qayaq village of Jaghato district at 05:30 a.m. local time, triggering heavy gun battle.

Six militants including their commander Qari Sanai were killed and two others injured.

Four police have lost their lives and three others injured in the fighting, the official said.

Security forces have been pursuing the militants to ensure lasting peace in the district and adjoining areas, the official asserted.

Taliban militants are yet to make comment.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 14:27:04|Editor: Chengcheng

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KABUL, April 24 (Xinhua) -- At least 16 Taliban militants were killed and four others injured after Afghan army waged an operation in restive southern province of Zabul, the defense ministry said Tuesday.

"The cleanup operation was launched in Shamulzay district on Monday and the initial information found that among those dead were a Taliban divisional commander and three would-be suicide bombers," the ministry said in a statement.

A weapon and ammunition cache, one vehicle and two motorcycles were also destroyed by the army personnel backed by the helicopters, the statement added.

The Afghan and NATO and U.S.-led coalition forces continued in mopping-up operations as spring and summer known as fighting season is drawing near in the mountainous country.

The Taliban insurgent group, which has been waging an insurgency of more than 17 years, has yet to make comments.
PHNOM PENH, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said on Tuesday that the Cambodia-China ties were solid and were reaching a high level.

He made the remarks during a meeting here with Chen Wu, chairman of southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, according to Eang Sophalleth, an assistant to the prime minister.

"Samdech Techo also lent his support to every Chinese investment from Guangxi to Cambodia," the assistant told reporters after the meeting.

Meanwhile, Hun Sen also supported a memorandum of understanding signed on Tuesday between Guangxi and Cambodia in the development of a sea port in southwestern Cambodia's Kampot province.

He said the port project was very important and could be an economic corridor that went in line with China's Belt and Road Initiative.

Meanwhile, the prime minister also accepted an invitation from Chen to attend the 15th China-ASEAN Expo, which will be held in Nanning city from September 12 to September 15.

For his part, Chen expressed his gratitude to Hun Sen for supporting the China-ASEAN Expo and promised to encourage more Chinese investors and tourists to Cambodia.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 15:02:08|Editor: pengying

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FARYAB, Afghanistan, April 24 (Xinhua) -- An anti-Taliban politician, together with three policemen, has been killed in a bomb attack in the country's northern province of Faryab, a provincial government spokesman said Tuesday.

"Ghulam Farooq Qate and three Afghan Local Police (ALP) personnel were killed following an improvised explosive device (IED) attack in village Sheerank, on outskirts of provincial capital Faryab city Monday night," Ahmad Jaweed Baidar told Xinhua.

The incident occurred when Qate's vehicle touched off the IED and three ALP policemen were also wounded, the spokesman added.

The deceased politician, also a member of Jamiat-e-Islami Afghanistan political party, was also leading a group of pro-government militias in the province and had a key role in the fight against militants in Faryab and neighboring provinces, Baidar added.

The government established the ALP, or community police, in 2010 to protect villages and districts across the country where army and police have limited presence.

No group has claimed responsibility for the latest targeted attack so far.

Taliban and Islamic State (IS) often target civilians and religious clerics as well as local leaders for their support to the Afghan government and the NATO-led forces stationed in the country.
DHAKA, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The trial run of the Bangladesh-Nepal bus service through India began here on Monday.

Two buses carrying delegates of the three nations and led by Fariduddin Ahmed, chairman of Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation, were flagged off from Bangladesh capital Dhaka.

The buses are scheduled to arrive in Kathmandu, Nepal, on April 26, via Shiliguri, India.

On completion of the trial run, officials of the countries will submit a report, based on which a protocol will be signed to pave the way for commercial bus services between Dhaka and Kathmandu through India that also comes under the BBIN (Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal) Motor Vehicles Agreement, which the countries signed in June 2015 to enable movement of passenger and cargo vehicles.

The driving distance between Kathmandu and Dhaka is about 1,200 km.

Operators say the proposed route, that is to cut short the journey by more than 100 km, would likely to be popular with passengers against the back drop of a recent tragedy at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, where dozens were killed when a Bangladeshi U.S.-Bangla plane crashed on landing.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 16:25:06|Editor: Li Xia

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Students of Tianjin No. 11 Middle School welcome the members of Tianjin women's volleyball team at the playground in the school in Tianjin, north China, April 23, 2018. Tianjin women's volleyball team has claimed their 11th Chinese Women's Volleyball Super League title this year. (Xinhua/Liu Dongyue)
File photo released by NASA shows a Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft blasting off from the Baikonur space center, Dec. 21, 2011. The Angolan satellite was launched at the center in Kazakhstan. (Xinhua)

LUANDA, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The first geostationary satellite of Angola (Angosat-1), is declared to be dead.

This was confirmed on Monday in Luanda in a press conference by the Angolan Minister of Telecommunications and Information Technologies, Jose Carvalho da Rocha.

In the press conference, the minister explained that there have been disturbances in its operation since the official launch.

Meanwhile, the minister also announced officially the construction of a new satellite, expected to be completed within one and half years.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 16:27:22|Editor: Liangyu

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Several local technicians look for malaria parasites on chips containing blood samples of local villagers in a lab inside Comoros' anti-malaria center, in Comoros, on April 17, 2018. (Xinhua/Lyu Shuai)

by Xinhua writers Yao Yuan and Wen Hao

NAIROBI, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Comoros, a small African country located in the Indian Ocean, is pursuing a total annihilation of malaria, five years after a Chinese-backed project drove out the lethal disease from its two islands.

The archipelago nation, which controls three islands of Grande Comore, Moheli and Anjouan and claims sovereignty over Mayotte Island under France's administration, is currently discussing collaboration to achieve that goal in three years together with Chinese scientists, who confirmed this to Xinhua ahead of the World Malaria Day that falls on Wednesday.

The Chinese team hopes that the Comoros victory, using a Chinese-developed drug and an unconventional approach, can pave a new trail for the battle against this mosquito-borne disease.

Malaria kills about half a million people every year in the world, with Africa claiming some 90 percent of the casualties. Comoros, however, is among the few African nations that now seem ready to shake off this stigma.

Song Jianping, who heads the visiting team from Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine (GZUCM) of southern China, said that they aim to help Comoros annihilate malaria by 2020. Researchers from GZUCM helped administer the 2007-2013 projects with medicines donated by China.

They will pinpoint the remaining infection areas and apply small-scale mass drug administration (MDA), said Song, director of GZUCM's Tropical Medicine Institute.

For many residents in Comoros, malaria and the horrors it invokes are already becoming a fading memory.

Nassurddine Houssen, 51, remembered how his parents used to spend every evening worrying about the cost of buying mosquito coils. Malaria kills a child every two minutes.

"During my childhood, I knew many friends (who were) killed by the mosquito disease (malaria)," said Houssen, a resident of Anjouan Island. "My younger sister nearly died from it."

"Children died, and we did not know exactly why. Many parents thought it was because of the demon," said Echat Malide, director of Anjouan's Hombo Hospital, recalling a time when malaria affected two thirds of Comoros' population of 800,000 and was the top killer disease on the islands off Africa's southeastern coast.

The tides of change began in 2007, when a team of Chinese scientists introduced an anti-malaria project to the island of Moheli before extending it to Anjouan in 2012 and Grande Comore in 2013. On the three islands, it led to a 98-percent drop in malaria cases, from over 100,000 to 1,300 a year, said Chinese Ambassador to Comoros He Yanjun.

Unlike traditional methods of killing mosquitoes and preventing mosquito bites, the project asked residents to simultaneously take medicine to flush out the malaria parasites in a procedure called MDA.

It builds on the concept that mosquitoes are vectors passing the parasites from person to person. Therefore, if the human "source" is purged, the mosquitoes will have no bugs left to pass on.

Five years after the project, Comoros' two islands of Moheli and Anjouan are today considered malaria-free. Officials said that all 16 cases in 2016 were "imported". The island of Grande Comore, where the MDA participation rate was lower than the two islands, recorded 1,641 cases in 2016.

ENDING SCOURGE

The new project, likely to be launched later this year, will build on the popularity of the previous MDA efforts, whose success in containing malaria spread have excited Comoros residents.

"In Anjouan and Moheli there is no malaria now ... There are still a few cases in Grande Comore but it has dropped a lot," said Layar Idoine, citing her experience as a doctor having worked on Grande Comore and Anjouan.

Also gone with the constant breakouts are the prevalent fears of contracting malaria and the financial burden imposed by the treatment costs on this nation, regarded as among the poorest in the world.

"(In the past) Malaria was in the minds of people. When a person is sick, everyone thought it was malaria ... Whenever someone got fever, they went out to buy nivaquine (an anti-malaria drug) and paracetamol," said Idoine.

Affane Barcar, chief of Comoros' national anti-malaria program, said that the previous project's success further motivated the Comoros people to eliminate malaria.

"Malaria caused the economy to fail. The country's productivity used to be at half mast, and the success rate of children in schools was low because of the absenteeism," he told Xinhua.

"Now we see the difference from the years past. We see an increase in success of our students, and attendance in health facilities has decreased by 40 percent."

In a 2016 report, the World Health Organization (WHO) listed Comoros as among the six African nations on course to eliminate malaria by 2020. In January this year, Comoros also won the award of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA) at an AU meeting in recognition for its efforts to tame malaria.

Africa is committed to eliminating malaria by 2030, as articulated in the continent's development agenda 2063.

The disease remains Africa's major healthcare challenge, and is estimated to rob the continent of 12 billion U.S. dollars per year in lost productivity, investment and healthcare costs, Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairperson of the AU Commission, said in January.

CHINESE WEAPON

In an interview with Xinhua, He, the Chinese ambassador to Comoros, hailed the anti-malaria project for demonstrating China's medical innovation and its robust cooperation with Africa.

"This project is a good demonstration of the China-Africa friendship, partnership and brotherhood, as well as of China's African policy of sincerity, real results, affinity and good faith," He said.

The main weapon used in the project is a Chinese-developed drug called Artequick, a new artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) that combines artemisinin, piperaquine and a small dose of primaquine.

Its main ingredient artemisinin, now at the front of the world's battle with malaria, was discovered by renowned Chinese scientist Tu Youyou, 2015 Medicine Nobel Prize winner, from sweet wormwood, a herb mostly grown in China.

"Artemisinin has a swift effect against malaria parasites, while piperaquine has a longer-lasting effect," said Deng Changsheng, a researcher at GZUCM and member of the anti-malaria team. "The combination also makes it less likely to build drug resistance."

Li Guoqiao, who led a team to administer the Moheli project, explained that by mass administering that drug in a limited period of time, the real source of the disease will be addressed.

"The MDA strategy is like a running match with mosquitoes' life circle. It requires residents to take medicines twice in two months, a period when new mosquitoes will not get parasites; It is also a period that old, infected ones cannot outlive," said the GZUCM professor.

Song said the strategy suits the island nation's conditions, including its small population and limited mobility of people. Such innovations are also needed in African nations where traditional methods of killing mosquitoes and distributing mosquito nets failed to work, he said.

"There is no fixed solution for malaria, and Comoros is just a good example of that. It tells us that seeing to the local conditions is very important," Song said.

TOWARD TOTAL ERADICATION

Going forward, the Chinese scientists said they will also strengthen cooperation with Comoros on medical personnel training and anti-malaria capacity building.

Deng said such efforts are important if Comoros hopes to maintain its victory against malaria. The good news is that the previous cooperation has helped Comoros build up its own malaria monitoring team.

In a lab inside Comoros' anti-malaria center, several local technicians were looking for malaria parasites on purple-colored chips that contained blood samples of local villagers. Beside it is another lab for sampling mosquitoes.

Kamal Said Abdullah, a technician at the center, told Xinhua that they go on field trips twice a week to collect blood and mosquito samples from different places of Comoros.

"We're closely monitoring the situation. When we detect malaria cases, we will revisit the place and distribute medicines to timely address the issue," he said.

(Xiao Sisi in China's Guangdong also contributed to the story.)

(Video editor: Zhao Yuchao)
TOKYO, April 24 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. F-35 stealth fighter jet made an emergency landing at an Air Self-Defense Force (ASDF) base in Fukuoka Prefecture, southwestern Japan, on Tuesday.

The ASDF Tsuiki base said the jet made an emergency landing at around 11:00 a.m. local time.

Personnel at the ASDF base said that no one was injured as a result of the emergency landing.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 16:27:24|Editor: pengying

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A Palestinian inspects the house demolished by Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Jenin, on April 24, 2018. Israeli forces demolished early on Tuesday the family home of a Palestinian involved in the killing of an Israeli in the West Bank in January. (Xinhua/Nidal Eshtayeh)

JERUSALEM, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Israeli forces demolished early on Tuesday the family home of a Palestinian involved in the killing of an Israeli in the West Bank in January.

The Israeli troops demolished the residence of Mohammad Qoneba in the city of Jenin in northern West Bank, the Israeli military said in a statement.

It said that Qoneba was part of a group that carried out a shooting attack near the settlement of Havat Gilad in early January, where Rabbi Raziel Shevach was murdered.

During the demolition, shots were fired and explosive devices and rocks were hurled at the forces, the statement said.

"As a result, a border policewoman was slightly injured in the leg and was taken to the hospital for medical examination," the statement said.

Since Israel seized the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967, it has demolished hundreds of Palestinian homes as a punitive measure to deter Palestinians from carrying out attacks against Israelis.

In early 2005, a Defense Ministry committee concluded that the measure is ineffective, and Israel ceased to use it.

However, the Israeli government renewed the controversial practice in 2015, in the wake of a series of street attacks launched by Palestinians.

Even the U.S. government has called the demolitions as "counterproductive," while Palestinians and human rights organizations denounce the practice as unlawful collective punishment to leave the attackers' family members homeless.
NEW DELHI, April 24 (Xinhua) -- As many as 33 left-wing Naxalite rebels have been killed in two consecutive shootouts with security forces Sunday and Monday in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, police said Tuesday.

Both the encounters took place barely 60 km apart in the state's Gadchiroli district.

"Some 16 rebels were killed in the first encounter Sunday while 11 more bodies of Naxalites, killed in that gunbattle, have been recovered during combing operations this morning, taking the toll in the first encounter to 27," local police chief Abhinav Deshmukh told the media.

In the latest encounter late Monday evening, six left-wing rebels were gunned down by security forces in the dense Rajaram Khandala jungle in Jimlagatta region of the district.

"Four of the six Naxalites killed in this gunbattle were women. This encounter took place as security forces were carrying out combing operations across the district to look for Naxalites active in the district," the police official said.

Naxalites are currently active in at least seven Indian states, including Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.

The Naxalite insurgency began in the eastern state of West Bengal in late 1960s, spreading to more than one-third of India's 600-plus administrative districts.

Though major offensives by security forces in recent years have pushed the rebels back to their forest strongholds and the levels of violence have fallen, hit-and-run attacks are still common, killing hundreds of people, mostly security personnel, every year.
HARARE, April 24 (Xinhua) -- President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Tuesday said that Zimbabwe remained committed to regional integration and urged participants at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) to tap into the business opportunities available in the country.

In a welcome message to the participants, Mnangagwa said ZITF remained an important platform for the country to promote trade and investment.

"Zimbabwe remains committed to regional integration under the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, the Southern African Development Community and the African Union, among other bilateral and regional trading arrangements," he said.

He urged industry and commerce to remain resolute and expand operations while exploring export opportunities in the region and beyond.

The trade fair, which began Tuesday and ends Saturday, is running under the theme "Sustainable Industrial Development: Inclusive-Competitive-Collaborative".

Chinese companies, together with others from Namibia, South Africa, Botswana, Brazil, Japan, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Pakistan, Russia, Turkey and Zambia, are exhibiting at the fair.

"Attracting both domestic and foreign investments, mobilizing funding for industrial development, supporting the agriculture and mining sectors, and infrastructure development, are key priority areas of focus expected to help attain sustained economic growth and development," Mnangagwa said.

ZITF remains one of the biggest trade fairs in Africa south of the Sahara.
SEOUL, April 24 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday held phone talks over the Korean Peninsula situations, the Blue House of South Korea said.

Moon and Abe had the dialogue for 40 minutes from 4:00 p.m. local time (0700 GMT), exchanging views over the "changed situations" on the peninsula, Moon's spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom told a press briefing.

It came ahead of the summit between Moon and Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), scheduled for Friday in the border village of Panmunjom.

Moon told Abe that the success of the inter-Korean summit will be of great benefit to the DPRK-U.S. summit and normalized ties between the DPRK and Japan.

The South Korean president said the successful inter-Korean summit will be an opportunity to fundamentally resolve issues between Tokyo and Pyongyang.

In response, Abe said that if the inter-Korean and DPRK-U.S. summits end successfully, talks between Japan and the DPRK will be naturally held.

Abe said the successes of the inter-Korean and DPRK-U.S. summits would mean the resolution of nuclear and missile issues as well as the abduction of Japanese people by the DPRK, noting that under such situations, Japan and the DPRK can normalize relations.

Regarding the issue to turn the current armistice agreement into a peace regime on the peninsula, Moon told Abe that the issue on declaring an end to the 1950-1953 Korean War cannot be resolved only through talks between the two Koreas.

The Korean Armistice Agreement, which halted the Korean War, was signed on July 27, 1953 by China, the DPRK, and the U.S.-led UN Command.
by Julia Pierrepont III

SACRAMENTO, the United States, April 23 (Xinhua) -- The shelves at the office of the California Center, a business match-making and consulting service in Sacramento, are crammed with a colorful array of California's homegrown and manufactured products.

Central California is America's vast vegetable belt, contributing up to 95 percent of many of the country's most popular fruits and vegetables, and the shelves groan under packages of almonds, pistachios, garlic, broccoli, raisins, fruit juices and a lot more.

A platform connecting California's businesses to China, the center has seen brisk business since its establishment in 2014 but now, its leaders worry that its fortune may change, given the current situation in U.S.-China trade.

"It has everyone concerned...We're getting calls from our growers who have spent a long time building good relationships with Chinese importers...(They) are now wondering if there's even a future for their products in China in this uncertain political climate," Gordon Hinkle, vice president of the center, said.

Trade tensions between China and the United States have been escalating in recent months as Washington threatened to slap additional duties on Chinese goods worth 100 billion U.S. dollars, after proposing steep tariffs on Chinese imports worth 50 billion dollars.

Prior to that, Washington slapped hefty tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, citing national security reasons, which have hit several major U.S. trade partners, including China.

In response, China released a list of U.S. imports that could be targeted should Washington proceed with its trade offensive.

"We had a great year last year facilitating several big deals with China for our agribusiness clients, but this U.S.-China trade war has brought a lot of these deals to a standstill," Hinkle said, lamenting that the positive momentum seems to have been washed away by the uncertainties in bilateral trade.

"We had negotiated a big deal to export 50 percent of all U.S. sorghum to China but ... a tariff was slapped on it... So those shipments aren't happening now," Lei E., the center's program director, added.

The center has been fielding calls from other California growers and companies who are concerned about the future of their businesses.

Margaret Wong, founder of the consultancy and a prolific entrepreneur once called Sacramento's "Business Empress" by local daily the Sacramento Bee, said she felt the pinch of the recent trade frictions in her LED lighting business.

"We are very big in LED lighting, and our transformers are made with steel, so with a 25-percent tariff we're dead!" she exclaimed.

"We do encourage both sides to work through these issues because so many businesses in the U.S. and China rely on trade," Hinkle said.

While some California businesses are taking a wait-and-watch attitude, others are lobbying their congressmen since they can hardly afford losing the Chinese market, now the top export destination for many of California's signature products, including nuts, fruits and wine.

Susanne Sterling, vice president of international affairs at California's Chamber of Commerce, said her agency "is always concerned about raising tariffs because they result in higher costs, fewer consumer choices, and can lead to escalation that is not good for either side or the world economy."

"The key to resolving these issues is to keep talking," she said.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 18:57:57|Editor: pengying

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BEIJING, April 24 (Xinhua) -- China Tuesday published a report on the United States' human rights situation.

The report, titled "Human Rights Record of the United States in 2017," was released by the Information Office of the State Council, China's cabinet, in response to the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2017 issued by the U.S. State Department on April 20 local time.

China's report said the United States posed once again as "the guardian of human rights" and a self-styled "human rights judge" while its own human rights record remained tarnished and showed a continued deterioration tendency.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 19:02:58|Editor: pengying

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GENEVA, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) has sought to join the consultations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) requested by China with the United States on the recent U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs, the WTO said on Monday.

The EU notified the United States, China and the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body that it wishes to join the consultations since it has substantial trade interests in the matter.

Despite opposition from business groups and trading partners around the world, U.S. President Donald Trump on March 8 signed proclamations to impose a 25-percent tariff on imported steel and a 10-percent tariff on aluminum.

Though the EU is temporarily exempt from the tariffs, "should the exclusion not continue to be in place, then the EU's exports would be impaired significantly by the U.S. measures," the EU said.

In 2017, the 28-nation bloc exported 5.99 billion U.S. dollars worth of steel products to the United States, and 1.25 billion dollars of aluminum, making it the top exporter of steel to the United States and fifth aluminum exporter.
KIGALI, April 24 (Xinhua) -- At least 18 people were killed in different parts of Rwanda due to disasters triggered by heavy rains on Monday night, the government said Tuesday.

Eight people were killed in Gasabo district, capital city of Kigali, Ministry of Disaster Management and Refugee Affairs said on its tweeter handle.

Up to seven people were killed in Northern Province's Rulindo district, while another three were killed in Gatsibo district, Eastern Province, said the ministry.

Local media reports indicated that in Rulindo district heavy rains triggered a landslide which destroyed a house, killing four family members while in Gasabo district four of the victims died after a house they were sleeping in collapsed.

The ministry earlier this month said 41 people had been killed while more than 160 others were injured across Rwanda by disasters triggered by heavy rains since March 2018.

The disasters, including floods and lightning, also killed more than 600 domestic animals, destroyed property including more than 3,000 houses, school structures and more than 1,700 hectares of plantations, the ministry said.
NAIROBI, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Somalia's electoral stakeholders are meeting in Kenyan capital, Nairobi on Tuesday to discuss electoral boundary delimitation, organizers said.

The three-day meeting organized by the Political Affairs Department of the African Union Commission and facilitated by the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) is being attended by senior officials from key ministries, the National Independent Electoral Commission (NIEC), and the federal member states.

In his opening remarks, Guy Cyrille Topiko, the acting head of the Democracy and Electoral Unit at the AU Commission who acknowledged the complexities of determining electoral boundaries, said the meeting takes place at time when Somalis are "engaging in a process of developing their constitutional legal framework for future elections.

"The African Union has the mandate to provide election support to election management bodies of member states. The electoral commission of Somalia is one of our priority institutions in terms of providing long term electoral assistance on the continent," Topiko said.

He expressed the Commission's commitment to attain free, fair and transparent elections in countries in Africa.

"For any country, the process of electoral boundary delimitation is complex and demands an inclusive participatory process in order to be successful," he added.

AMISOM said the meeting is brainstorming on the legal and institutional framework for electoral boundary delimitation, use of technology and impact of government and electoral systems, on the delimitation.

Haji Ssebirumbi Kisinziggo, AMISOM's Senior Political Affairs Officer said the workshop was in response to a request for further training by the NIEC.

"We (AMISOM) are here therefore to give that support as requested by the National Independent Electoral Commission. We are working closely with the Integrated Electoral Support Group within the UN, so that we coordinate our efforts," Kisinziggo said.

Halima Ismail Ibrahim, the Chairperson of Somalia's NIEC lauded efforts by the AU Commission to educate electoral stakeholders on the critical aspects of elections, boundaries and delimitation, which she noted were intertwined.

The NIEC was central to Somalia's choice of electoral system in the 2016/2017 electoral process.

"If the Somalis are now choosing and selecting their electoral system; it is because of the training we had here," said Halima, in reference to previous workshops organized for Somalia's electoral body, by the African Union.

She also called for cooperation from all stakeholders in preparations for Somalia's one person-one vote elections in 2020/2021.
KAMPALA, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Ugandan doctors on Tuesday opposed the government's move to hire at least 200 medical personnel from Cuba to work in public hospitals in rural areas.

Ekwaro Obuku, the Uganda Medical Association (UMA) president, told Xinhua that the conditions in the East African country do not warrant government to import Cuban medical specialists and consultants.

He said Uganda has over 1,500 specialist doctors registered with Uganda Medical and Dental Practitioners Council who are ready to work in regional, district and rural hospitals following government commitments to enhance medical personnel remuneration and improved working conditions.

"With a new enhanced salary structure, increased budget allocation to National Medical Stores and reduced harassment by Health Monitoring Group, UMA expects improved attraction and retention of specialist doctors in hospitals upcountry," Obuku said.

Sarah Opendi, Uganda's state minister for health in charge of general duties, last week said the government is in talks with Cuba to hire medical personnel who will be deployed in regional, district and rural government hospitals, shunned by local doctors.

Obuku said the comprehensive cost for importing Cuban doctors, which includes catering for their housing, transport, salary and security outweighs benefits.

"The language barrier creates the need for nurses and midwives as interpreters, which removes them from lifesaving duties merely to facilitate communication between Cuban doctor and Ugandan patient," said Obuku.

"We appeal to government to immediately advertise 500 posts for specialist doctors with the terms offered to Cuban doctors in the regional, district and rural hospitals across the country and we pledge to mobilize Ugandan doctors to fill these up," he said.

In November last year, Uganda's ministry of health mooted the idea to hire Cuban medical personnel during the doctors' strike following the government failure to respond to their calls for a salary rise and better working conditions in public hospitals.

The three-week nationwide industrial action paralyzed health service provision as doctors and medical interns stayed away from their duty stations.

The government later agreed to increase their pay and also address the concerns raised.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 19:18:03|Editor: pengying

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ROME, April 24 (Xinhua) -- A senior Italian official has told a conference presenting China's Guizhou province that Italy and China have the most number of world heritages and the two countries have great potential on the cooperation in tourism and many other sectors.

Dorina Bianchi, deputy minister of cultural heritage and activities and tourism, told the conference late Monday that the two countries were connected with each other by silk road in ancient times and Italy regards China as a very important partner. She said the two countries have much to do under the 2018 China-EU Tourism Year.

Bianchi said this year marks the 40th year of China's reform and opening-up policy, "I think there is a great prospect on the development of the tourism sector as this is an important part of the reform and opening-up policy."

Presenting her province to the audience under the title "Colorful Guizhou, Global Vision", the province's governor Shen Yiqin said Guizhou would like to enhance the province's overall cooperation with Italy, especially in the areas of tourism, culture, agriculture, environment, infrastructure and SME (Small and Medium Enterprise).

China's ambassador to Italy, Li Ruiyu, said the fast development of Guizhou province is but a microcosm of the success of China's reform and opening-up policy. Quoted the saying of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Li said "China will not close its door to the world; we will only become more and more open."

Former vice president of Italy's lower house of parliament Marina Sereni, Vice President of the Umbria Region Fabio Paparelli also attended the presentation together with hundreds of guests from all walks of life.

Although located in the inland of western China, Guizhou enjoys a special status in the process of China's opening up and historical development. Today, Guizhou is relying on the advantage of locating at the connecting line of the "Belt and Road" to become a fresh force of China's opening up strategy. Big data, macro-ecology, big tourism and other emerging industries are flourishing.
MADRID, April 24 (Xinhua) -- A 24-year-old Moroccan man was arrested Tuesday by the Spanish Civil Guard in the Basque Region of northern Spain for spreading jihadist propaganda and attempting to recruit people to fight for the Islamic State (DAESH), the Spanish Interior Ministry confirms.

The man, who is confirmed to have been born in the Morocco town of Alhucemas, was arrested in the town of Andoain with the Civil Guard searching his residence "in order to recover all of the evidence of his intense activity in internet and social networks."

The ministry says the suspect had "access to abundant audio-visual material from Syria and Iraq" and used several profiles he had created on social network sites to "maintain a multitude of contacts with individuals both inside and outside of Spain."

He used the contacts to spread jihadist propaganda and had also planned to travel to the conflict zones of Iraq and Syria to fight for DAESH himself.

This arrest follows a police operation in the city of Malaga (southern Spain) on Monday which led to the detention of a 35-year-old Moroccan accused of sending money to his wife to allow her to travel to Syria and link up with DAESH. Police report the woman is considered to be one of the "most wanted and dangerous terrorists in Europe."

A total of 280 suspected Jihadists have now been arrested in Spain since the start of 2015.
CAIRO, April 24 (Xinhua) -- An Egyptian court on Tuesday sentenced former anti-graft chief Hisham Genena to five years in prison over anti-military remarks, official news agency MENA reported.

The Military Court said that Genena's statements that some state documents have been deported abroad have harmed the armed forces.

Genena was a leading member of the presidential campaign for former Army Chief of Staff Sami Anan who was later excluded from the race.

Anan was accused of running for a political post without obtaining the permission from the military, inciting against the army, and forging election documents.

The former top auditor alleged that Anan owned documents and evidence on the country's largest events since January 25 Revolution in 2011.

He said that those documents, kept outside Egypt, will change the course of many things and convict many persons if disclosed.

Later, the armed forces said in a statement that such remarks incited doubts against the country and its institutions while Egypt is fighting a war against terrorism.
LUANDA, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The Angolan Head of State, Joao Lourenco, on Tuesday defended the expansion and consolidation of democracy and fundamental freedoms in which the southern Africa has become, in order to ensure the inclusion of all sectors of the society in the effort to develop the sub-region.

Joao Lourenco was speaking as chair of the SADC Political, Defense and Security Cooperation body at the opening ceremony of the extraordinary summit of the Heads of State and Government of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which is discussing, among others, the political situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Lesotho.

He said that, therefore, one must have the courage to face, without hesitation, the problems and their causes for the implementation of genuine solutions.

In Luanda, the SADC Double Troika Summit is being led by the Angolan President and bringing together the Heads of State of Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, DRC, King of eSwatini Kingdom, Prime Minister of Lesotho and a representative of Tanzania.

As part of the event, meetings of experts and foreign ministers also took place in the Angolan capital on April 22-23.

The political situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Lesotho is the main item on the agenda of the Double Troika Summit, which will also discuss the consolidation of democracy in the southern region of the continent.

The Kingdom of Lesotho is a SADC member country that is in political crisis, aggravated by the murder of two heads of its armed forces by subordinates in 2015 and 2017, prompting the authorities to request intervention by the regional organization that has deployed, last December, a contingent of 269 staff, including the military, police, intelligence staff and civilians.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, preparations are underway for the next elections.

Joao Lourenco had participated in a tripartite summit between Angola, Congo and DRC in February in Kinshasa, which evaluated the preparations for the DRC elections, postponed from December 31, 2017 to December 23, 2018.

The postponement of the election process led the opposition to demand the departure of President Joseph Kabila, who, in the light of the Constitution, is prevented from running for a new term.

The SADC Double Troika is also discussing the political situation in Madagascar, which is expected to hold general elections later this year. The political situation in Madagascar inspires care.

The government of that country wants to introduce changes in the Electoral Law, however, it provoked anti-government protests on April 21, which claimed two lives.
SINGAPORE, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The 32nd ASEAN Summit and related meetings will be hosted by Singapore, the Chair of ASEAN for 2018, from April 25 to 28, according to a press release issued by Singapore's Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday.

Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will chair the ASEAN Summit, which is the first gathering of the ASEAN Leaders hosted by Singapore this year.

According to the press release, the leaders will discuss ASEAN's priorities, as well as the challenges and opportunities that it faces, in line with the focus on strengthening ASEAN's resilience and innovation this year. They will also exchange views on regional and international developments.

The related meetings of the summit will include the 16th ASEAN Economic Community Council Meeting and the 17th ASEAN Political-Security Community Council Meeting.

The two meetings will be chaired by Singapore's Minister for Trade and Industry (Trade) Lim Hng Kiang and the Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan, respectively, the press release implied.
DHAKA, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of Bangladeshis participated in memorial events Tuesday for 1,136 people, mostly garment workers, who died in the country's worst-ever industrial tragedy five years ago.

Hundreds of grieving family members and injured victims gathered for an event at a memorial at the tragedy site in Savar on the outskirts of capital Dhaka on Tuesday morning.

Different social and political organizations sponsored programs, marking the 5th anniversary of the horrendous tragedy in which 1,136 were confirmed dead while more than 2,000 workers were injured as the eight-story building -- Rana Plaza -- housing five garment factories crumbled into a cement grave on April 24, 2013.

Members of various government and non-government organizations also attended the event and placed floral wreaths at the disaster site.

They also paid tributes to the victims by placing wreaths on their graves in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country.

Special prayers were offered seeking divine blessings for the peace of the departed souls.

Like previous years the National Garments Workers' Federation on Tuesday morning brought out a mourning procession in the city to commemorate the tragedy and its victims.

From the memorial events grieving family members and workers' organizations demanded appropriate compensation for victims and their relatives.

They also demanded capital punishment for the building owner, Sohel Rana who is now behind the bar.

Rana is blamed for forcing the workers to enter the factories on that day though big cracks appeared in the building a day earlier.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 19:43:12|Editor: ZD

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BEIRUT, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon's Internal Security Forces (ISF) announced Tuesday the arrest of an Islamic State (IS) militant in the northern town of Zgharta.

The militant was arrested shortly after he entered Lebanon in early April as part of the ISF operation to identify and seize cadres and militants from terrorist organizations of Syria and Lebanon, the ISF media office said in a statement.

The arrest was made before the suspect was able to carry out any actual activity or communication with IS cadres, said the statement, which identified the militant by his initials as M.Kh, a Syrian national.

During interrogation, the suspect confessed that he is an IS military cadre.

He also said that he took military training courses and has participated in several battles as a military and field commander, mainly in attacks in the Syrian city of Palmyra.

He appeared in a video footage filmed by the IS after the city fell under the IS control.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 19:53:14|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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Photo taken on April 23, 2018 shows Jan Mrosik, chief executive officer of Siemens digital factory, during Hanover Fair 2018 in Hanover, Germany. Digitalization is disruptive for industries by generating both huge opportunities and risks to companies, Jan Mrosik told Xinhua in an interview during the Hanover Fair starting on Monday. (Xinhua/Shan Yuqi)

HANOVER, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Digitalization is disruptive for industries by generating both huge opportunities and risks to companies, Jan Mrosik, chief executive officer of Siemens digital factory, told Xinhua in an interview during the Hanover Fair starting on Monday.

"Digitalization is on the one side a huge opportunity because a lot of money will be gained by digitalizing, " Mrosik said, "but on the other side it's a huge risk for companies that do not embrace it. "

He cited the data from consulting company Accenture, saying that half of the Fortune 500 companies have disappeared out of the market since 2000 because they were not embracing digitalization sufficiently.

Under the motto of "Digital Enterprise-Implement now!", Siemens is presenting its continuously enhanced Digital Enterprise portfolio for Industry 4.0 at this year's Hanover Fair.

Mrosik said, by digitalizing companies should achieve shorter time to market, greater flexibility, better quality and higher efficiency.

Besides, new business models can be developed from it. Among all the digital enterprise solutions Siemens is presenting the new version of the open, cloud-based internet of things(IoT) operating system MindSphere belongs to the key ones.

According to Siemens, connecting to MindSphere is one of the foundational aspects of new, data-driven business models for customers.

"For example, instead of buying a machine, you can lease one, " Mrosik said.

He continued that in a digitalizing world, virtual and real world are "two sides of the same coin". With the digital twin, a virtual representation of a physical object or system across its lifecycle, industrial companies can optimize and digitalize the whole value chain.

"Digitalization is a journey that never stops," Mrosik said,"we should continually update what we are doing. "

Siemens digital factory in Amberg is probably one of the shiny examples of Industry 4.0. "That's why our customers keep visiting there to see how we implement it. "

Mrosik said that continuous digitalization and implementation of MindSphere enables the smart factory in Amberg to produce 13 times more with the same number of 1300 employees as in 1989. And it can manufacture 1200 different products with the same lines. The efficiency and quality have also been improved substantially.

"It showcases what you can achieve or optimize with digitalization." Mrosik said. "And we have an exact copy of this digital factory in Chengdu, so our Chinese customers don't need to travel so far to see it in Amberg."

For the reason to ground a same digital factory in China, Mrosik explained, "Since China is such an important market for Siemens, we decided to have a lot of added value close to our customers in China."

He said companies need to produce where markets are, "we need to be close to our customers".

For now, production in Siemens Chengdu digital factory accounts for 15 percent of the company's whole electronics outputs. Besides manufacturing, Mrosik said that Siemens also invested more in R&D in China.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 19:53:14|Editor: pengying

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SAN FRANCISCO, April 23 (Xinhua) -- The unilateral trade measures against China by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration run counter to World Trade Organization (WTO) rules and procedures, a U.S. scholar said Monday at a panel discussion on U.S.-China trade relations.

Donald J. Lewis, adjunct professor of the Department of Economics, Law and International Business at the University of San Francisco, said it was a "perilous moment" with the Trump administration threatening to impose steep tariffs on billions of dollars of Chinese exports.

Addressing the panel held on the university campus, Lewis called the tariffs "clearly dangerous".

"They run counter to established WTO rules and procedures, (and) essentially violate the most favored nation clause of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade... which is very fundamental to our global trade system," he said.

"Given the U.S. and Chinese economies are essentially going to be highly interdependent, the consequences of a protracted trade war could be devastating," Lewis said.

While the two countries have divergent models of economic development, Trump's protectionist measures result from the fact that "the U.S. has been less than effectual in responding constructively to China's rise" as a global economic power, the scholar said. To some extent, Trump's reaction to China reflects Washington's concern at Beijing's possible technological lead.

That's why the U.S. tariffs are targeting items included in the "Made in China 2025" policy, he said.

The initiative seeks to upgrade 10 key hi-tech sectors that range from artificial intelligence, chips, automotives and information technology to advanced biology technology.

Calling the tariffs a means to "retard China's ability to develop these sections and compete with the U.S.", Lewis said it's not constructive strategy.

"We should be engaging more with China rather than calling ourselves off from cooperating with China," he said.

Kenneth Petrilla, managing director of ChinaVest Ltd., a 25-year-old investment and advisory company in California, said there won't be any winner in a trade war between the United States and China, which will impact not only the two countries but also the global economy as a whole, which is interwoven now.

"If we have a trade war between the U.S. and China, the EU and global economy will suffer as well," he cautioned.

One of the most dramatic changes in the last 30 years has been China becoming the largest consumer in the world from the largest exporter, he said. The middle class in China is growing and "they want quality products, they want quality healthcare and well-known products, they want quality food distribution and they want the technology that can support that," he said.

If there's a trade war, China won't be able to import the technology and the product they want from the United States but the U.S. will suffer as well because "we want exports, we want access to those market, and if there's a trade war, there would be two losers," Petrilla pointed out.

Besides, China may turn to other countries for imported products since the U.S. is not the only supplier, he said, warning that hundreds, if not thousands, of small agribusinesses in California will suffer from a trade war.

The United States and China have been locked in a major trade dispute over the past few weeks after Trump threatened to impose additional duties on Chinese goods worth 100 billion U.S. dollars, following proposing steep tariffs on Chinese imports worth 50 billion dollars.

In response, Beijing announced tariffs on major U.S. exports to China worth 50 billion dollars.
A local technician looks for malaria parasites in a lab inside Comoros' anti-malaria center, April 17, 2018. (Xinhua/Lyu Shuai)

NAIROBI, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Ambassador to Comoros has hailed China's medical innovation in a project that contained the malaria epidemic in the African country.

The Indian Ocean archipelago nation is mulling cooperating with China to reach its goal of being malaria-free, after a Chinese-backed anti-malaria project between 2007 and 2013 slashed malaria cases by 98 percent.

Ambassador He Yanjun described the project, which uses a Chinese-developed artemisinin-based combination therapy, as a paragon of China-Africa cooperation that features Chinese originality and the robust cooperation of the two countries.

"I see many Chinese elements in this project. We did not stick to conventional measures previously adopted by some international organizations, but instead adjusted our strategies to fit Comoros' conditions," He said.

The project asked residents on each of Comoros' relatively isolated islands to simultaneously take medicines to flush out malaria parasites. It builds on the idea that mosquitoes are just "vectors" passing parasites from person to person, so if the human source is purged, the mosquitoes will have no bugs to pass.

A deviation from traditional methods of killing mosquitoes and preventing mosquito bites, the novel project however recorded a drastic reduction in malaria cases in Comoros from over 100,000 in 2006 to about 2,000 in 2014.

A team of medical experts from Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine participated in the Comoros project, assisting in the distribution of China-donated medicines and the build-up of a local team for disease monitoring.

The ambassador praised the Chinese medical practitioners and researchers for their devotion to and empathy with the African people.

"If the Chinese medical practitioners did not care about concerns of the Comoros people, there would not be such great devotion and achievements on their sides," the diplomat said.

"This project is a good demonstration of the China-Africa friendship, partnership and brotherhood, as well as of China's African policy of sincerity, real results, affinity and good faith," He said.

He also gave credit to the efficacy of the artemisinin-based medicine used in the project, which is a Chinese innovation. Artemisinin, now at the forefront of the global battle against malaria, was discovered by Chinese scientist Tu Youyou, who won a Nobel Prize in 2015.
JAKARTA, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian government has arranged and prepared a lawsuit to the World Trade Organization (WTO) on U.S. high anti-dumping tariff against bio-diesel imports from Indonesia, a senior trade official said.

The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) added more duties on the already steep anti-dumping tariff and countervailing duty on biodiesel import from Indonesia to between 126.97 to 341.38 percent on April 9, essentially making it almost impossible for the Indonesian bio-diesel product to enter the U.S. market, according to the trade ministry.

Trade Director for Security of the ministry Pradnyawati Pambagyo said that Indonesian exporter companies have submitted the appeal to the U.S. court and now the Indonesian government and the firms are waiting for the decision of the U.S. court.

The ministry will also file a lawsuit to the WTO if the court decision remains seriously harming Indonesia's bio-diesel shipments to the United States, according to the official.

"Basically, the government and the companies are ready to seek justice to the highest level," Pradnyawati was quoted by Kontan media as saying.

Export of Indonesia's bio-diesel grew 47.31 percent on average from 2014 to 2016, according to the ministry.

"At present, there is no more exports of bio-diesel to the United States," said Pradnyawati.

Indonesia won a bio-diesel dispute against the European Union at the World Trade Organization, leading the EU to abolish its anti-dumping tariff on Indonesian biodiesel export to the bloc on March 16, according to director of foreign trade of the Indonesian trade ministry Oke Nurwan.

The Southeast Asia's biggest economy is the world's largest producer of crude palm oil with the country's palm oil plantation reaching 14.03 million hectares.
DAR ES SALAAM, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Tanzania's drugs watchdog on Tuesday urged local pharmaceutical manufacturers in the east African nation to produce drugs according to standards set by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Agnes Kijo, the Acting Director General of the Tanzania Food and Drugs Authority (TFDA), said the UN health organization has issued drugs production guidelines aimed at enabling manufacturers to produce drugs in accordance to the WHO standards and safety.

Opening a five-day training workshop for 30 pharmaceutical manufacturers and regulators in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam, Kijo said: "Standards and safety are two most important requirements in the production of any kind of goods."

She told the workshop organized by TFDA in collaboration with the WHO that medical inspectors should cultivate the habit of visiting pharmaceutical factories for inspection.

Kijo thanked the WHO for sponsoring the training which she said has come at the right time when Tanzania was gearing for massive production of pharmaceuticals.

For his part, Rafaat Mohamed, WHO's Consultant for Regulatory Systems Strengthening, said effective regulatory systems were an essential component of health system strengthening that contributed to better public health outcomes.

He called for the need to continue developing appropriate norms, standards and guidelines, including taking into account national, regional and international needs and initiatives, in accordance with WHO principles.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 21:04:13|Editor: pengying

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Afghan army soldiers take part in a military operation in Mizan district of Zabul province, Afghanistan, April 23, 2018. At least 16 Taliban militants were killed and four others injured after Afghan army waged an operation in restive southern province of Zabul, the defense ministry said Tuesday. (Xinhua/Sanaullah Seiam)
by Eric J. Lyman

ROME, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Already under-influential in Europe and further afield, Italy could see its sway erode further as it struggles to form a government nearly two months after an indecisive national vote.

Paolo Gentiloni, prime minister since December 2016, has been reduced to a pure caretaker role in the wake of the March 4 vote. That election saw a record number of votes cast, with four parties ending up with the support of at least 14 percent of the electorate. But no party approached the 40-percent threshold that would have paved the way for a new government by awarding bonus seats in parliament.

Instead, party representatives have met dozens of times with no apparent progress toward any party cobbling together a majority coalition. T

"With the Gentiloni government only able to conduct the day-to-day business of government, Italy runs the risk of being marginalized in European Commission discussions and in other multilateral negotiations," Marco Angelo Gervasoni, a political systems expert with Rome's LUISS University, told Xinhua. "The reforms Italy needs to make the economy more competitive will have to wait until a new government is in power."

Gervasoni said an ineffective national government could also unbalance political power toward regional governments.

"There is a theory that says the controversy around the Catalan independence referendum only rose up because of the struggles to form a national government in Spain," Gervasoni said.

Italy is a founding member of the European Union, with the fourth biggest population in western Europe and the third biggest economy in the eurozone. It is one of the world's top five tourist destinations, and is at the geographic center of the Mediterranean Sea, one of the world's most dense commercial shipping channels.

Yet because of political instability and a tradition of poor economic growth, the country has a history of punching below its weight internationally and within the European Union (EU), where fellow founding member states Germany and France are most likely to play central roles.

But Andrea Fumagalli, an economist from Italy's University of Pavia, said in an interview that because of Italy's history of political and economic problems a protracted political struggle like the one taking place now has less of an impact than it would have had in the past.

"This kind of situation would have been much more serious 20 or 30 years ago," Fumagalli said. "But now, the economy isn't that dependent on the government. Companies just go about their business."

While Fumagalli noted that Italy was in need of reform and modernization, he thought many key economic reforms had already been passed in recent years and he warned that reform for the sake of reform was not a good strategy.

"It all depends on what the reform is," Fumagalli said. "It might be better to wait until there is a stable government representing a majority of Italians before figuring out if and how things should be changed."

One impact so far stemming from the protracted government crisis is that the first draft proposal for the country's 2019 budget had been due in early April. The deadline has now been extended into May, and could be pushed back further if the political stalemate continues.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 20:43:28|Editor: Xiang Bo

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Graphics shows money politics in the United States went further in 2017, as the wealthy groups controlled the political development, said a report on U.S. human rights released on April 24, 2018. (Xinhua/Lu Zhe)

BEIJING, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Money politics in the United States went further in 2017, as the wealthy groups controlled the political development, said a report on U.S. human rights released Tuesday.

The report, titled "Human Rights Record of the United States in 2017" and released by the Information Office of the State Council, China's cabinet, said money politics made inequality worse in the United States.

The money politics has made American economic policies over the last 40 years "strongly reflect the preferences of the most affluent, but bear virtually no relationship to the preferences of poor or middle-income Americans," said the report.

It noted that democratic politics went weakening. An expert survey on American democracy showed that 89 percent of respondents believed the democratic quality in the United States had declined over the last 10 years.

The media was suppressed in the United States, said the report.

In 2017, a number of news organizations were rejected by the U.S. government in press conferences and other official activities, and the CNN and New York Times, among others, were barred from White House briefings, it said.

Press freedom in the United States is at its lowest point in 13 years, according to a CNN report in 2017.

Another survey from the Pew Research Center on April 4, 2017 showed that 73 percent of adult respondents in the country believed the tensions between the government and the news media were getting in the way of access to important national political news and information.
by Alessandra Cardone

ROME, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Several machine guns and heavy weapons were seized from a Bosnian man arrested by Italian police, local media reported on Tuesday.

The man, 52, was stopped at a check-point while driving along a highway near the northeast city of Gorizia, close to the Italian border with Slovenia.

In his car, police found at least six AK-47s (or Kalashnikovs), two Skorpion machine pistols, and one rifle, along with ammunition and other firearm components, according to Ansa news agency.

The operation was carried out last Friday by Italy's military police Carabinieri in Gorizia, which activated an Interpol firearms trafficking protocol on suspicion of international terrorism after the arrest.

The man, whose identity was not disclosed, was driving a car with a Swiss number plate.

Searching the vehicle, police recovered some items that would be subjected to further investigation, including a receipt from a club in Slovenia's capital Ljubljana, and a sketched journey map towards Barcelona, La Repubblica newspaper reported.

Such findings would suggest the final destination of the weapon load might have been Spain.
LAGOS, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Nigerian Senator Dino Melaye has been arrested by police after he was recently declared wanted for alleged arms supply to murder suspects.

The senator was arrested Monday at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport when he was stopped from travelling to Morocco by Nigeria Immigration Service operatives.

The police have been on the trail of Melaye for weeks after he was declared wanted for alleged possession of illegal firearms. A case was filed against him before the Federal High Court in Lokoja, central north Kogi State capital.

Melaye was declared wanted alongside Mohammed Audu, son of the late former governor of the state, Abubakar Audu.

After he was stopped from travelling to Morroco by the immigration personnel, the police laid seige to his residence in Abuja, the nation's capital.

A police spokesperson Monday night said that their siege to Melaye's residence was necessitated by his involvement in a case of unlawful possession of prohibited firearms.

Melaye's case on his alleged involvement in illegal procurement of firearms is scheduled to resume at the Federal High Court in Lokoja, Kogi State on May 10.

Melaye who represents Kogi West senatorial district in the National Assembly has denied the allegation which he describes as politically motivated.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 20:48:29|Editor: Xiang Bo

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Graphics shows the US-led military operations in other countries have caused heavy civilian casualties, according to the Human Rights Record of the United States in 2017 released by China on April 24, 2018. (Xinhua/Lu Zhe)

BEIJING, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The US-led military operations in other countries have caused heavy civilian casualties, according to the Human Rights Record of the United States in 2017 released by China on Tuesday.

Military operations in Syria caused a large number of civilian casualties, the report said, citing media reports.

The US-led coalition and Marines had reportedly bombed or shelled at least 12 schools, 15 mosques, 15 bridges as well as residential neighborhoods, hospitals, cultural relics and refugee camp, according to www.motherjones.com.

The Muslim Times website reported on June 24, 2017 that the US military had attacked Syrian government forces "at least four times in recent months" , including a missile strike in April against a Syrian airfield. Myles Hoenig, an American political analyst, said the United States was violating the UN Charter by conducting a war of aggression against Syria.

In a hearing of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, former Guantanamo detainee Djamel Ameziane prepared a written statement saying he was detained for 11 years, faced prolonged incommunicado detention, multiple forms of torture, and never received a judicial determination regarding the legality of his detention, the report quoted Al Jazeera website as saying.

Also, according to a report of The USA Today website, the U.N. and human rights organizations had criticized U.S. authorities for creating a "legal black hole" in Guantanamo allowing for the infinite detention of suspects without charge, and for holding many of the detainees for more than a decade.

The report released by China also said that the United States has made cyber warfare tools, citing WikiLeaks information that the U.S. National Security Agency operators had hacked into Pakistani mobile networks and had been spying on hundreds of IP addresses in the country.

The report was released by the Information Office of the State Council, China's cabinet, in response to the U.S. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2017.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 20:53:31|Editor: Xiang Bo

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WELLINGTON, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese visitors made up 11 percent of New Zealand's total visitor arrivals in the March 2018 year, the statistics department Stats NZ said on Tuesday.

A new high count of 3.82 million visitors arrived in New Zealand in the March 2018 year, up 8 percent year on year, it said.

Two-thirds of this rise were due to more visitors from Australia, China, Britain and the United States, population insights senior manager Brooke Theyers said in a statement, adding that over half of all overseas visitors were holidaymakers, and over one-quarter were visiting friends and family.

The top source of visitor arrivals in the March 2018 year was Australia, at 37 percent of all visitor arrivals. China, the U.S. and Britain were also top sources of visitor arrivals, Theyers said.

About 11 percent of the Chinese visitors were visiting friends or relatives, and 80 percent of them were holidaying, Stats NZ said.

In the March 2018 year, New Zealand residents set a new annual record of 2.89 million overseas trips for any 12-month period, with trips to China, Fiji, Britain and Australia seeing the largest rises, Theyers said.
DAR ES SALAAM, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Tanzania's leading education non-governmental organization (NGO) HakiElimu on Tuesday raised concerns over falling education standards in the east African nation and called for more funding for the sector.

In the past few years, the organization said, literacy and numeracy skills have been falling among primary school children to levels below expectations across all grades.

In a statement on the education sector's budget plan for 2018/2019 financial year, HakiElimu urged the government to pay attention to the falling allocation trend of the education sector's budget.

"We recommend the government to allocate 20 percent of its 2018/2019 national budget to the education sector," the statement said.

The statement also called on the government to address inadequacy of infrastructure in schools.

"Currently in primary schools, shortage of libraries increased from 88 percent in 2016 to 91.1 percent in 2017," said the statement.

Secondary schools face shortage of laboratories at 51.5 percent for biology, 54.3 for physics and 43.3 for chemistry.

"Shortage of toilet facilities for girls stands at 62 percent while boys face 56 percent shortage," said the statement.

Last month, former president Benjamin Mkapa said the country's education was in crisis and called for a national dialogue to save students in public schools.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 21:18:42|Editor: pengying

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GENEVA, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday called for increased investments in health to protect the lives of almost 17 million vulnerable men, women and children inside Syria and in five major neighboring countries.

As the international community comes together in Brussels to show support for Syrians and for a political solution to the conflict, critical shortages, insecurity and disrupted systems have left millions of people in need of health aid in the war-torn country.

Meanwhile, Syrians who have fled to neighboring countries find themselves just as vulnerable, with the vast majority living below the poverty line and unable to afford life-saving health care, the WHO warned.

According to WHO statistics, seven years into the crisis have left 11.3 million people inside Syria in need of life-saving and life-sustaining humanitarian health aid, while fewer than half of all public health facilities are fully operational.

Indiscriminate attacks on health care continue; in 2018 alone, there have been eight health workers killed or injured and 74 verified attacks on health facilities. Throughout the country, people are unable to obtain basic, life-saving health care services without being exposed to significant risks on a daily basis.

That includes almost 2.3 million people in hard-to-reach and besieged areas. Hundreds of seriously ill and wounded people living in besieged areas have been denied the right to leave to obtain life-saving health care. Many of them have died as a result.

Even the newly accessible areas are often contaminated with explosive hazards, and those who chose to return to their homes may be more at risk of injuries, exacerbated by the lack of basic health care services in many areas of return.

Meanwhile, the WHO revealed that for almost six million Syrian refugees across the region, the living situation continues to be extremely challenging. Many refugees face psychosocial and physical effects of war and displacement, and are in need for primary, secondary and tertiary health care.

Though national health systems across the region continue to be the primary responders to those health needs, access continues to be limited, not only due to overwhelmed and under-funded health systems, but also due to the financial limitations of the refugees themselves.

The UN health agency concluded that an additional four million host community members are also affected by the refugee crisis and in need of aid. In Turkey, where integration of Syrian health care workers into national health systems is well established, language and cultural barriers remain a challenge.

Within the context of the Brussels conference on Syria, the WHO urged that health is a human right that must be respected by all parties to the conflict, that the attacks on health workers and facilities must stop, and that there must be adequate investment in the health sector of both Syria and neighboring host countries.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 21:28:45|Editor: Xiang Bo

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Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan (R) meets with visiting Pakistani Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif in Beijing, capital of China, April 24, 2018. (Xinhua/Rao Aimin) (wyo)

BEIJING, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan on Tuesday met with visiting Pakistani Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif in Beijing, vowing to promote bilateral ties to a new high.

Wang said building a community with a shared future for humanity conforms to the trend of the times, and Pakistan is China's all-weather strategic cooperative partner.

China-Pakistan relations should take the lead in building a community with a shared future for humanity, he said, adding that China will continue to regard Pakistan as a priority in its neighboring diplomacy.

Asif said Pakistan is glad to see that China has made historic achievements under the leadership of President Xi Jinping.

Pakistan stands ready to deepen bilateral cooperation in various fields and firmly supports China on issues concerning China's core interests, Asif said.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 21:38:50|Editor: Xiang Bo

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Wang Yang (C), chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), presents memorial plates to some Standing Committee members of the 12th CPPCC National Committee, who retired in March after the 13th CPPCC National Committee was formed, in Beijing, capital of China, April 24, 2018. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei)

BEIJING, April 24 (Xinhua) -- China's national political advisory body honored its former Standing Committee members at a ceremony held Tuesday.

Wang Yang, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), attended the ceremony and expressed thanks to the Standing Committee members of the 12th CPPCC National Committee who are currently in Beijing.

The members, who retired in March after the 13th CPPCC National Committee was formed, were presented memorial plates at the ceremony.

Wang praised the contribution made by the Standing Committee members in formulating and implementing major policies and deployment of the Party and the state over the past five years.

As socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, Wang said the people's political advisory bodies will make greater contributions to realizing the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation.
ISLAMABAD, April 24 (Xinhua) -- At least eight people were injured including six security personnel when twin blasts went off in Pakistan's southwest Quetta city on Tuesday, local Urdu TV channels reported.

According to the reports, the explosions occurred in the Mian Gundi of Quetta, the provincial capital of the country's southwestern Balochistan province.

The attack happened near a security forces' camp, the reports added. The nature of the explosion has not been officially confirmed yet, but some reports said that the attack was carried out by two suicide bombers.

Security forces and rescue teams rushed to the site and shifted the injured to a nearby hospital in the city. Security forces have condoned off the area and kicked off a search operation.

No group or individual has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 21:38:50|Editor: pengying

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JUBA, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations peacekeeping mission in South Sudan said on Tuesday that it has launched investigations into allegations of sexual exploitation by a unit of Nepalese peacekeepers based in South Sudan.

The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said in a statement that four teenagers were caught on April 13 trying to enter its base in the central town of Aweil through the perimeter fence.

The UNMISS said it was alleged that one of the teenaged girls had been touched inappropriately by a member of the Nepalese contingent in exchange for money.

The UNMISS however denied earlier media allegations of rape, adding that the matter has been reported to the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), an independent body within the UN.

"The UNMISS deployed a Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Immediate Response Team (IRT) to Aweil to gather information and preserve evidence prior to the launch of an investigation by the troop-contributing country concerned," said the UN mission.

It said it has notified the Nepalese government about the allegations and that Nepal is in the process of appointing a probe team.

"The UNMISS has a zero tolerance, no excuses and no second chances approach to sexual exploitation and abuse. It is committed to putting the victims' rights and dignity first and ensuring that there is transparency and accountability for such actions," the UNMISS said.

Last February, the UNMISS recalled a unit of 46 Ghanaian police officers from the northwestern town of Wau and confined them to their base in Juba following allegations that the blue helmets engaged in sexual activity with women under their protection in a UN Protection of Civilians (POC) site.

South Sudan government spokesman Michael Makuei Lueth described the latest sexual accusations as disturbing and called for a review of the UNMISS mandate in the east African nation.

"The continuous abuse of our people by people who are supposed to protect them is serious and disturbing," Makuei told Xinhua by phone. "We want the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) we signed with the UNMISS to be reviewed so that people who commit individual offenses can face the law in South Sudan."
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 21:48:53|Editor: pengying

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RABAT, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Morocco's annual International Agriculture Fair kicked off on Tuesday in the northern city of Meknes with the participation of nearly 70 countries.

Held under the theme "Logistics and Agricultural Markets," the 13th edition of the fair covers an area of 181,000 square meters.

With the participation of some 1,400 exhibitors, the fair is expected to attract over 850,000 visitors.

The Netherlands is the guest of honor of this year's fair that runs until Sunday.

Since its inception in 2016, this fair in Morocco has been an opportunity to showcase agricultural products, promote transfer of latest agricultural technologies, and boost agricultural cooperation among countries, especially Mediterranean and African countries.

Last year, the fair attracted nearly 1 million visitors, and witnessed the signing of 22 agreements.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 21:53:55|Editor: Xiang Bo

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Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (5th L) hosts the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers in Beijing, capital of China, April 24, 2018. (Xinhua/Chen Yehua)

BEIJING, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member countries gathered in Beijing Tuesday and reached a series of consensus for the upcoming SCO Qingdao summit.

"This meeting has made political preparations for the summit and laid a solid foundation for its success," said Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who hosted the meeting of the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers.

Foreign ministers from the eight member states, namely China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, signed 14 documents, including a meeting resolution.

They also reached consensus on deepening solidarity and mutual trust, boosting security cooperation, dovetailing development strategies, increasing pragmatic cooperation, strengthening people-to-people exchanges, and expanding the international influence of the SCO.

"The Qingdao summit, with joint efforts from all sides, will be a significant meeting, setting future directions and goals for the SCO and marking a milestone in its history," Wang said.

The summit will be the first of its kind after a membership expansion last June to include India and Pakistan.

"The fundamental reason why the SCO can keep growing is that its member states have been firmly sticking to the 'Shanghai Spirit', featuring mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for cultural diversity and pursuit of common development," Wang said.

He called for taking the upcoming summit as an opportunity to review the "Shanghai Spirit," strengthen solidarity, mutual trust and all-round cooperation, and forge a closer community with a shared future.

The summit will ratify a five-year outline for the implementation of the Treaty on Long-term Good Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation to set the direction for SCO cooperation in the next phase, and approve a host of resolutions and cooperation deals covering areas including security, economy and trade, as well as people-to-people exchanges, according to Wang.

Foreign ministers from other SCO member states spoke highly of the work undertaken by China as rotating presidency of the SCO, and pledged to strengthen coordination with China for a fruitful summit.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 21:58:56|Editor: Xiang Bo

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The model of Chang'e-5 lunar probe is exhibited at the 11th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province, Nov. 3, 2016. The exhibition opened here on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Liang Xu)

HARBIN, April 24 (Xinhua) -- China plans to launch the Chang'e-5 lunar probe next year, which is expected to bring lunar samples back to the Earth, according to Pei Zhaoyu, deputy director of the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration (CNSA).

While addressing a space conference Tuesday, China's Space Day, Pei said that the Chang'e-5 lunar probe will be very complex, containing four parts: an orbiter, a returner, an ascender and a lander.

The lander will put moon samples in a vessel in the ascender after the Moon landing. Then the ascender will take off from the Moon to dock with the orbiter and the returner orbiting the Moon, and transfer the samples to the returner, Pei said.

The orbiter and returner then head back to the Earth, separating from each other when they are several thousands of kilometers from the Earth. Finally, the returner will make its way back to the Earth, according to Pei.

After fulfilling the three steps of its lunar probe program -- orbiting, landing and returning -- China will conduct further exploration of the Moon, including landing and probing the polar regions of the Moon, said Tian Yulong, secretary general of CNSA.

China will further develop its space industry after the unmanned lunar exploration is accomplished and its own space station is established around 2022.

Many experts have proposed building a scientific research base on the Moon in the future, said Wang Liheng, a senior consultant of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Manned lunar landing and exploration are a common desire for humanity and a springboard to go deeper into space. Setting up a scientific research base on the Moon would enable scientists to conduct research, gain experience and lay the foundation for future cosmic exploration, Wang said.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 22:08:59|Editor: Xiang Bo

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Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan meets with United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director Henrietta Fore in Beijing, capital of China, April 24, 2018. (Xinhua/Zhang Ling)

BEIJING, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan met with United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director Henrietta Fore in Beijing on Tuesday.

Sun spoke highly of the practical cooperation between UNICEF and the Chinese government, said that China will enhance cooperation with UNICEF in the areas of child protection, development, poverty alleviation, and the Belt and Road Initiative.

Sun also expressed the will to share experiences with other developing countries, and promote the well-being of children around the world.

Fore praised China for its achievements in the area of child development, and said the global organization will push forward cooperation with China.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 22:14:02|Editor: pengying

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BEIJING, April 24 (Xinhua) -- A symposium to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the publication of the first Chinese translation of "Red Star over China" was held in Beijing on Tuesday.

The book is an account of the battle, production and life of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in its northwest revolutionary base.

It was written by American journalist Edgar Snow, who spent years in China and interviewed many then CPC leaders including Mao Zedong.

Participants in the symposium, including representatives of publishing industry, scholars and experts, discussed why the book has been so popular over the years and the significance of the book in current times.

"Red Star over China" was first published in the United Kingdom in 1937 before its Chinese version was published in Shanghai one year later. A recent Chinese translation was published by the People's Literature Publishing House in 2016, and 3 million copies have been sold.

The book has been translated into nearly 20 languages and tens of millions of copies have been sold worldwide.
ISLAMABAD, April 24 (Xinhua) -- At least two policemen were killed and eight others injured as a suicide bomber detonated an explosive-laden vest in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta on Tuesday, local media reported.

The attack took place at the airport road of Quetta. Additional contingents of security forces and rescue teams along with a bomb disposal squad rushed to the site and shifted the bodies and the injured to the Combined Military Hospital in the city.

At least six policemen were among the injured. The death toll might further rise as four of the injured are in critical condition, according to hospital sources.

According to reports, heavy firing was also heard after the attack. Security forces have cordoned off the site and launched a search operation in the nearby areas to arrest the accomplices of the attackers.

No group has claimed the attack yet.

Meanwhile, two other suicide attackers on Tuesday tried to attack security personnel present at a camp of Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force, in the Mian Gundi area located at the outskirts of Quetta, the provincial capital of southwest Balochistan province.

The two attackers were killed on the spot and no security personnel was killed, according to the army's media wing of Inter-Services Public Relations.
MADRID, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The Director of the Spanish National Police force, German Lopez Iglesias, on Tuesday inaugurated the First Interpol World Congress on Drugs in the city of Toledo, 74 km south of the Spanish capital of Madrid.

In his speech to open the event, which brings together over 200 high ranking representatives of the police forces of over 100 countries, Lopez Iglesias highlighted the "firm commitment" Spain and its police made to eradicate drug trafficking.

"We are winning the battle against drugs bit by bit," he said, explaining that "police pressure" was growing on drug traffickers with "more seizures and more gangs being broken up."

The conference aims to look at the new tendencies in the world of drug smuggling, as well as the routes used by traffickers and the strategies Interpol needs to combat the threat on an international level.

In a recent interview with Xinhua, Spanish National Police Inspector, Felix Lopez explained that Spain is "a country where drugs such as hashish and cocaine mainly pass through on-route to other places in Europe."

Inspector Lopez also stressed the importance of organizations such as Interpol in the fight against drugs, saying international cooperation was "the most important factor" in the war on drugs and that without different police forces working together, "it would be impossible to combat drug trafficking."

Proof of the effectiveness of that cooperation in aiding Spain's battle against drug smuggling is that in 2016 authorities seized 324,379 kilos of hashish, mainly produced in Morocco and 15,629 kilos of cocaine from Latin America.
NAIROBI, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The East African Community (EAC) member states are planning to phase out all import duties on solar panels in order to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, an official said on Tuesday.

Benson Mwakina, the Director of Renewable at Kenya's Ministry of Energy, told Xinhua in Nairobi that the EAC Council of Ministers in Charge of Energy has already agreed to scrap levies on solar equipment.

"The decision will soon be sent to the EAC Heads of States who are expected to endorse the removal of all import tariffs for solar panels by the end of the year," Mwakina said.

The EAC partner states include Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan. Mwakina said that none of the countries in the regional bloc manufactures solar equipment and are therefore dependent on imports.

He said currently some countries in the trading bloc levy taxes on solar equipment, which can lead to smuggling of the products by unscrupulous traders seeking to take advantage of the different taxation regime.

Mwakina noted that under the EAC Common External Tariffs, the region is supposed to have harmonized taxes on all goods imported into the economic bloc.

He added that the region is committed to promote the use of renewable energy sources for both domestic and household needs so as to reduce emission of green house gases.

The Kenyan official noted that the bulk of the residents in the economic bloc use biomass for cooking and kerosene for household lighting needs.

"We are hoping to promote environmental protection by reducing the cost of solar products in the region," Mwakina said.
KIGALI, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA) on Tuesday announced the revocation of broadcasting license of a local radio station after airing a sermon that was perceived as discriminatory against women.

Amazing Grace Christian Radio, which is suspended for 30 days for the sermon, failed to comply with the sanctions which included making an apology to the public by correcting the aired program and paying a fine of 2 million Rwandan francs (about 2,331 U.S. dollars), the regulator said in a statement.

A letter was sent to the radio demanding an explanation for non-compliance with the sanctions but the reasons given in their response were found to be unsatisfactory, said the statement.

The regulator said the radio station is ordered to comply with the revocation decision within two working days from Tuesday.

In the sermon aired live on Jan. 29, pastor Nicolas Niyibikora said women are "source of evil."

Niyibikora's sermon, delivered in Kinyarwanda, immediately went viral on social media, igniting anger among women rights activists.

The preaching was condemned by the National Women's Association and Rwanda Women Journalists' Association who filed separate complaints to Rwanda Media Commission (RMC), the media self-regulatory body.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 22:34:08|Editor: yan

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Graphics shows China publishes a report on the United States' human rights situation on April 24, 2018. (Xinhua/Meng Lijing)

BEIJING, April 24 (Xinhua) -- China Tuesday published a report on the United States' human rights situation.

The report, titled "Human Rights Record of the United States in 2017," was released by the Information Office of the State Council, China's cabinet, in response to the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2017 issued by the U.S. State Department on April 20.

A chronology of human rights violations by the United States in 2017 was also released by the office Tuesday.

China's report said the United States posed once again as "the guardian of human rights" and a self-styled "human rights judge" while its own human rights record remained tarnished and showed continued deterioration.

The report accused the United States of serious infringement on citizens' civil rights, systematic racial discrimination, severe flaws in American-style democracy, widening rich-poor divide, and discrimination and assault against some specific groups such as women, children and people with disabilities, as well as its continued violations of human rights in other countries.

The report noted that on the evening of Oct. 1, 2017, almost 60 people were killed and more than 800 injured in a mass shooting in Las Vegas, the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

The report pointed out that American women face obvious discrimination as well as serious threats of sex harassment and infringement, while the poverty, health and safety problems for children in the United States were worrisome.

In October 2017, the scandal erupted concerning American film producer Harvey Weinstein who sexually harassed a number of female stars. The "#MeToo" campaign was initiated on social media platforms to encourage victims to protest against the widespread sex harassment and infringement, receiving active responses from more than 1 million people, according to the report.

It also quoted some reports of polls of American academics saying that the respondents believed that American democracy is "drowning in money."

Race relations in the United States continued to deteriorate in 2017, and racial discrimination exists in law enforcement and judicial organs, the report noted.

Black male offenders received sentences on average of 19.1 percent longer than those of "similarly situated" white male offenders, it said, citing a report of the U.S. Sentencing Commission released in November 2017.

The report also stressed that rich-poor divide expanded in the United States, with an increasing number of homeless people.

Official statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau showed more than 40 million American people were living in poverty. Nearly half of them, 18.5 million, were living in deep poverty.

According to the report, the U.S.-led military operations in other countries have caused heavy civilian casualties. The Guantanamo Bay detention camp continued to detain and torture foreigners. The United States also made cyber warfare tools, hacking and spying on foreign networks.

Military operations in Syria caused a large number of civilian casualties, the report said, citing media reports.

The U.S.-led coalition and U.S. Marines have reportedly bombed or shelled at least 12 schools, 15 mosques and 15 bridges as well as residential neighborhoods, hospitals, cultural relics and a refugee camp, according to www.motherjones.com.

The Muslim Times website reported on June 24, 2017 that the U.S. military had attacked Syrian government forces "at least four times in recent months," including a missile strike in April against a Syrian airfield. Myles Hoenig, an American political analyst, said the United States was violating the UN Charter by conducting a war of aggression against Syria.

Related:

Full text: Human Rights Record of the United States in 2017

Report exposes abuse of power by U.S. police

Racial discrimination aggravates social split in America: report

Report says U.S. rich-poor divide widening

U.S. women, children suffer from discrimination, safety problems: report

Report exposes flaws in American-style democracy
Imports from the United States are seen at a supermarket in Shanghai, China, April 3, 2018. (Xinhua/REUTERS)

SAN FRANCISCO, April 23 (Xinhua) -- The unilateral trade measures against China by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration run counter to World Trade Organization (WTO) rules and procedures, a U.S. scholar said Monday at a panel discussion on U.S.-China trade relations.

Donald J. Lewis, adjunct professor of the Department of Economics, Law and International Business at the University of San Francisco, said it was a "perilous moment" with the Trump administration threatening to impose steep tariffs on billions of dollars of Chinese exports.

Addressing the panel held on the university campus, Lewis called the tariffs "clearly dangerous".

"They run counter to established WTO rules and procedures, (and) essentially violate the most favored nation clause of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade... which is very fundamental to our global trade system," he said.

"Given the U.S. and Chinese economies are essentially going to be highly interdependent, the consequences of a protracted trade war could be devastating," Lewis said.

While the two countries have divergent models of economic development, Trump's protectionist measures result from the fact that "the U.S. has been less than effectual in responding constructively to China's rise" as a global economic power, the scholar said. To some extent, Trump's reaction to China reflects Washington's concern at Beijing's possible technological lead.

That's why the U.S. tariffs are targeting items included in the "Made in China 2025" policy, he said.

The initiative seeks to upgrade 10 key hi-tech sectors that range from artificial intelligence, chips, automotives and information technology to advanced biology technology.

Calling the tariffs a means to "retard China's ability to develop these sections and compete with the U.S.", Lewis said it's not constructive strategy.

"We should be engaging more with China rather than calling ourselves off from cooperating with China," he said.

Kenneth Petrilla, managing director of ChinaVest Ltd., a 25-year-old investment and advisory company in California, said there won't be any winner in a trade war between the United States and China, which will impact not only the two countries but also the global economy as a whole, which is interwoven now.

"If we have a trade war between the U.S. and China, the EU and global economy will suffer as well," he cautioned.

One of the most dramatic changes in the last 30 years has been China becoming the largest consumer in the world from the largest exporter, he said. The middle class in China is growing and "they want quality products, they want quality healthcare and well-known products, they want quality food distribution and they want the technology that can support that," he said.

If there's a trade war, China won't be able to import the technology and the product they want from the United States but the U.S. will suffer as well because "we want exports, we want access to those market, and if there's a trade war, there would be two losers," Petrilla pointed out.

Besides, China may turn to other countries for imported products since the U.S. is not the only supplier, he said, warning that hundreds, if not thousands, of small agribusinesses in California will suffer from a trade war.

The United States and China have been locked in a major trade dispute over the past few weeks after Trump threatened to impose additional duties on Chinese goods worth 100 billion U.S. dollars, following proposing steep tariffs on Chinese imports worth 50 billion dollars.

In response, Beijing announced tariffs on major U.S. exports to China worth 50 billion dollars.
BRUSSELS, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The European Union and the United Nations on Tuesday highlighted the role of civil society in bringing peace to war-torn Syria.

The EU and the UN are co-chairing a two-day international conference in Brussels starting from Tuesday, aiming to pump financial aid for Syrians and garner political support for UN-led intra-Syrian talks.

The first day's meeting focuses on dialogues with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from Syria and the region, which are expected to provide "concrete operational recommendations" to the ministerial meeting on the second day.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, speaking at a press conference with UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura following their meeting with representatives from Syrian civil society, noted that political solution starts from people.

"Syria is not a chessboard, it's not a geopolitical game. Syria belongs to the Syrian people and the Syrian people have to decide themselves about the future of their country," she said.

Hailing that the representatives from Syria civil society "show the courage to listen to each other, to respect each other, to understand and find common ground "on the first day's meeting, Mogherini said she believes "this is a great model for those that should sit around another table, the UN-led table, and find a political solution for the crisis."

"Peace is not just a document that somebody else can sign a piece of paper in a faraway capital, but it's a process that needs to be built in communities by the Syrian people themselves," she said.

Staffan de Mistura echoed Mogherini and stressed the need to" listen to the people, talk to the people."

"They were sitting around the table together today, many of them did not agree with each other in fact. We noticed it. But they were able to sit on the table, that's exactly what we want at the political level which has not yet happened, " he said.

The special envoy urged the Astana guarantors --Russia, Turkey, Iran -- to do more to de-escalate the situation, arguing that they "have a responsibility and also an interest in guaranteeing that the military situation in the ground gets calmer."

"Asking the UN to do a miracle or the EU to do a miracle when big players are not doing their part, it's asking for too much. So we are asking them to do their part," he said.

The Brussels conference on supporting Syria, the second of its kind since 2017, brings together participants from more than 85 countries and organizations at ministerial level, as well as those from more than 200 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), according to the Council of the EU.

In the aftermath of the U.S.-led airstrikes on alleged chemical weapon-related facilities in Syria earlier this month, the conference gets more international attention than the previous one on April 4-5, 2017, during which international donors pledged 5.6 billion euros (6.85 billion U.S. dollars) in aid for 2017 and 3.47 billion euros for 2018-2020.

The EU and its member states are the top donors in Syria and the region, having mobilized over 10.6 billion euros in humanitarian aid and stabilization assistance since 2011, the Council data showed.

The UN-backed intra-Syrian negotiations have been suspended since the ninth round, which was held in Vienna, Austria on Jan. 25-26, ended up with a truce between the warring sides in Eastern Ghouta countryside of Damascus.

The eighth round of the talks concluded in Geneva on Dec. 14, 2017, making little progress due to a wide rift.

According to UN data, the Syrian crisis over the past six years has caused 330,000 deaths and displaced half of the country's population, with 13.5 million people in need of humanitarian aid. (1 euro = 1.22 U.S. dollars)
JAKARTA, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia's Bali has won 3 awards in the recently-held Global Destination Marketing Summit and World Culture and Tourism Forum in China's Xian, a statement released by the Indonesian Tourism Ministry said here on Tuesday.

The awards were obtained in categories of Top 10 Overseas Destination, Top 10 Luxury Travel Destination and Top 10 Honeymoon Destination for Chinese Tourists throughout 2017.

The event was co-organized by the Chinese government and C-Trip, China's prominent travel agent, the statement said.

Assistant Deputy Minister for Greater China Marketing Development Vincensius Jemadu said the assessment to deliver the awards for each category was based on the search, booking and comment volumes on the internet and votes of 300 million global members of C-Trip.

"This year we have picked China as the most ultimate tourism market due to its huge aspects of size, sustainability and spending," Deputy Tourism Minister for International Marketing I Gde Pitana said.

About 1.9 million Chinese tourists visited Indonesia throughout last year, growing 42.2 percent from a year earlier, with total spending of 1.94 billion U.S. dollars, he said.

Other priority countries included European countries, Australia, Singapore and India, he added.

Praising the awards, Indonesian Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said that the awards have proved Indonesia's capability to compete in the international tourism sector.

"Winning some awards were important to advance national tourism as it would further expand the 3 Cs in our tourism, consisted of Confidence, Credibility and Calibration," the minister said.
NAIVASHA, Kenya, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Tuesday that there are over 10 million stateless persons in the world with African continent hosting one million.

UNHCR deputy representative in Kenya Walpurga Englbrecht said weak legal nationality laws and ignorance from the affected countries had contributed to the numbers.

Despite the high numbers, Englbrecht had expressed its commitment that it will eradicate the issue by 2024 through the global campaign dubbed 'I belong' which was started in 2014.

"We have around 10 million stateless persons globally and in Africa it's estimated that there are 1 million of the persons which include both adults and minors," she told a regional workshop in the Kenyan town of Naivasha.

Member States of the Great Lake region are meeting in the lakeside town for a three day regional strategic conference.

Englbrecht said they had increased their awareness in a bid to achieve the objectives of the global campaign. She said that they were working with governments to amend legislations on nationality and involve the affected persons.

Englbrecht noted that due to their condition, the stateless persons could not access basic rights like education, employment and marriages.

"The major challenges that we are facing in this war is failure by their respective government to recognize them or amend the law.

The UNHCR official however lauded the Kenyan government for recognizing the stateless people of Makonde community who originally came from Mozambique.

"This is a move in the right direction and we are prepared to work with the Kenyan government to address other cases of stateless persons," she said.

Benedicte Voos, UNHCR senior Regional Protection Officer identified Rohinngya in Bangladesh as the leading region in the world with the highest number of stateless persons.

Voos noted that this was an invisible problem which made it impossible to get the real figures of the number of affected persons in every country.

Laura Parker, UNHCR's Associate Legal Officer said their main focus was to identify, reduce, prevent and protect the affected persons.

"In this case the affected persons do not have legal documents like birth certificates or identity cards and this exposes them to harassment including arrests by the state," she said.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 22:59:13|Editor: Xiang Bo

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Huang Kunming (R), member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, meets with Sounthone Xayachack, head of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) Central Committee's commission for external relations, in Beijing, capital of China, April 24, 2018. (Xinhua/Zhang Ling)

BEIJING, April 24 (Xinhua) -- A senior official of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Tuesday called for enhanced exchanges and cooperation with Laos and the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP).

Huang Kunming, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, made the remarks during his meeting with Sounthone Xayachack, head of the LPRP Central Committee's commission for external relations.

Huang said General Secretary Xi Jinping of the CPC Central Committee and General Secretary Bounnhang Vorachit of the LPRP Central Committee attach great importance to bilateral ties, having provided the guidance and mapped out blueprint for the development of ties.

China is ready to make joint efforts with Laos to cement cooperation between the two parties and countries, and to boost stronger China-Laos comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership.

Sounthone Xayachack said the LPRP expects to learn from the CPC's governance experience and boost bilateral cooperation in all areas.
HELSINKI, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The Finnish economic growth is set to keep its strong path this and next year, but the upward trend will be at a standstill after a couple of years, said Nordea Bank on Tuesday.

The Finnish economy will grow by 3 percent in 2018 and 2.5 percent in 2019, said Nordea, adding that household consumption will take over the role of key growth engine from exports and investment, thanks to positive labor market developments.

However, the bank warned that the growth will start to deteriorate at the turn of the decade.

One of the major reasons is that the improved competitiveness in recent years can turn even to a deteriorating track, according to Aki Kangasharju, chief economist at Nordea Bank.

The earnings level will rise this and next year by 2 percent. At the same time, the euro will remain strong in the near future.

"During the economic cycle, Finland's productivity growth will be fast, but now, with the improvement of employment, it has faded again. It is difficult to imagine that the productivity growth will accelerate to over one percent over the next a few years," said Kangasharju.

The worsening labor shortage and the decline of exports are also risk factors to the Finnish economic growth.

Furthermore, the economy is vulnerable to a significant escalation of trade tensions, and even an increase in uncertainty may be enough to cut international investment growth, which would mean slower export growth for Finland, noted Nordea.

Following three consecutive years of negative growth, the Finnish economy finally started to show some signs of recovery in 2015. Since 2016, the economy has grown gradually and achieved a bullish growth by 3.2 percent in 2017.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 23:04:15|Editor: yan

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QINGDAO, April 24 (Xinhua) -- China's rolling-stock maker CRRC Corp. has secured a train deal for 200 cars and related parts from Argentina, the third train order won from the country, a CRRC-affiliated company said Tuesday.

The contract worth 278 million U.S. dollars was signed between CRRC Sifang Co., Ltd. and the Argentine Ministry of Transport, according to a statement from CRRC Sifang.

Delivery of the cars for the Roca Line in Buenos Aires will start mid-2019, said the statement.

The cars, which will be operated with 300 previously delivered cars, will help increase the transport capacity by 20 percent, according to the statement.

In 2013, China South Railway (CSR) won a contract worth 1 billion dollars to provide 709 carriages to renew Argentina's commuter system.

CSR and China North Rail merged to become CRRC Corp. in 2015.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 23:09:16|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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Security officials stand guard near the blast site on airport road in southwest Pakistan's Quetta on April 24, 2018. At least five policemen were killed and seven others injured in a suicide attack in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta on Tuesday, a statement from the army's Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said. (Xinhua/Irfan)

ISLAMABAD, April 24 (Xinhua) -- At least five policemen were killed and seven others injured in a suicide attack in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta on Tuesday, a statement from the army's Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.

According to the army statement, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden vest near a police van on the airport road in Quetta, the provincial capital of southwest Balochistan province, killing five policemen on the spot while injuring seven others.

The statement added that two suicide bombers were also killed by security forces in a separate suicide attack when they were trying to target a check post of Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force in the county, at Mian Ghundi near western bypass area in the city.

No causality of Frontier Corps personnel was reported in the check post attack, said the ISPR.

However, local media reported earlier that two suicide bombers attacked the Mian Ghundi camp located at the outskirts of the city and killed two security personnel. According to Geo News, at least eight others were also injured in the check post attack.

No group or individual has claimed responsible for the attacks yet.
BELGRADE, April 24 (Xinhua) -- European integration of Serbia and the region is among top priorities of Belgium, visiting Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said on Tuesday during his meeting with Serbian leaders.

The prime minister arrived in Serbia on Monday evening and separately met Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Prime Minister Ana Brnabic on Tuesday to discuss the relations between the two countries, the ties in the region as well as the European integration of Serbia.

At a press conference at the presidency building, Michel said that he sees Serbia as the key factor in the Balkans and a country of immense importance for the future of the EU, adding that he is among European leaders who put the strategic position of this region on the top of their priorities.

He continued that his visit to Serbia helped him to find possibilities for further strengthening bilateral relations, the commercial and economic cooperation between the two countries, as well as increasing the potential for new investment.

Vucic said that he told Michel that the country's biggest obstacle on the European path is achieving an agreement with the authorities in Kosovo.

Kosovo is a southern province of Serbia, which unilaterally declared independence in 2008. Serbia rejects it and considers Kosovo its own province.

He said that Serbia is ready for agreement-based-solutions and "for difficult decisions, but both sides must make compromises", and revealed that he talked with Michel about different approaches, solutions and problems in that regard.

At a press conference in the government building, Brnabic stressed that last year the trade exchange between Serbia and Belgium reached 540 million euros and estimated that there is significant space to expand the economic cooperation.

Michel and Brnabic both praised the good cooperation of Belgian and Serbian police in the fight against organized crime.

Michel said that his visit aims to strengthen bilateral ties, as well as to show Belgium's "decisiveness to play an active role in order to understand regional relations better and achieve stability and sincerity in relations with Serbia". (1 euro = 1.22 U.S. dollars)
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 23:09:16|Editor: Xiang Bo

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Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) holds talks with Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojidin Aslov in Beijing, capital of China, April 24, 2018. (Xinhua/Chen Yehua)

BEIJING, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday held separate talks with his Tajik, Uzbek, and Kazakh counterparts in Beijing.

During his meeting with Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojidin Aslov, Wang said China hopes to work with Tajikistan to facilitate cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative and build a community with a shared future for humanity.

Aslov said Tajikistan hopes to dovetail its development strategy with the Belt and Road Initiative and to facilitate cooperation with China in various fields.

During his meeting with Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov, Wang said China is ready to work with Uzbekistan to strengthen strategic dovetailing and interconnectivity of their development strategies, and explore cultural and local cooperation. Both sides agreed to create new highlights while cooperating under the framework of Belt and Road Initiative.

During Wang's meeting with Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov, both sides agreed to enhance cooperation in trade, capacity, finance, energy, and infrastructure, and make joint efforts to promote Belt and Road cooperation.
SKOPJE, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Fossil remains from an extinct elephant from about eight million years ago has been discovered near the eastern Macedonian region of Negotino, local media reported on Tuesday.

According to the preliminary results, the remains are those of a 50-year-old animal weighing about 10 tons.

"The finds date back to eight million years ago, according to the geological chart," said Biljana Garevska of the Museum of Natural Sciences in Skopje.

While visiting the site, Macedonian Culture Minister Robert Allagjozovski said this was a paleontological breakthrough discovered in cooperation with paleontologists from the Macedonian Natural Museum and their associates from Bulgaria.

"Macedonia has its share of some rare exceptional discoveries and this is one of the most spectacular discoveries that puts Macedonia on the paleontological map of Europe and the world," said Allagjosovski.

The Macedonian ministry of culture will further support the research team's work, he said.
This undated photo shows a 45-day-old Artemisia seedling. (Xinhua)

by Xinhua writers Yao Yuan and Wen Hao

NAIROBI, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Comoros, a small African country located in the Indian Ocean, is pursuing a total annihilation of malaria, five years after a Chinese-backed project drove out the lethal disease from its two islands.

The archipelago nation is currently discussing collaboration to achieve that goal in three years together with Chinese scientists, who confirmed this to Xinhua ahead of the World Malaria Day that falls on Wednesday.

The Chinese team hopes that the Comoros victory, using a Chinese-developed drug and an unconventional approach, can pave a new trail for the battle against this mosquito-borne disease.

Malaria kills about half a million people every year in the world, with Africa claiming some 90 percent of the casualties. Comoros, however, is among the few African nations that now seem ready to shake off this stigma.

Song Jianping, who heads the visiting team from Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine (GZUCM) of southern China, said that they aim to help Comoros basically annihilate malaria by 2020. Researchers from GZUCM helped administer the 2007-2013 projects with medicines donated by China.

They will pinpoint the remaining infection areas and apply small-scale mass drug administration (MDA), said Song, director of GZUCM's Tropical Medicine Institute.

For many residents in Comoros, malaria and the horrors it invokes are already becoming a fading memory.

Nassurddine Houssen, 51, remembered how his parents used to spend every evening worrying about the cost of buying mosquito coils. Malaria kills a child every two minutes.

"During my childhood, I knew many friends (who were) killed by the mosquito disease (malaria)," said Houssen, a resident of Anjouan Island. "My younger sister nearly died from it."

"Children died, and we did not know exactly why. Many parents thought it was because of the demon," said Echat Malide, director of Anjouan's Hombo Hospital, recalling a time when malaria affected two thirds of Comoros' population of 800,000 and was the top killer disease on the islands off Africa's southeastern coast.

The tides of change began in 2007, when a team of Chinese scientists introduced an anti-malaria project to the island of Moheli before extending it to Anjouan in 2012 and Grande Comore in 2013. On the three islands, it led to a 98-percent drop in malaria cases, from over 100,000 to 1,300 a year, said Chinese Ambassador to Comoros He Yanjun.

Unlike traditional methods of killing mosquitoes and preventing mosquito bites, the project asked residents to simultaneously take medicine to flush out the malaria parasites in a procedure called MDA.

It builds on the concept that mosquitoes are vectors passing the parasites from person to person. Therefore, if the human "source" is purged, the mosquitoes will have no bugs left to pass on.

Five years after the project, Comoros' two islands of Moheli and Anjouan are today considered malaria-free. Officials said that all 16 cases in 2016 were "imported". The island of Grande Comore, where the MDA participation rate was lower than the two islands, recorded 1,641 cases in 2016.

ENDING SCOURGE

The new project, likely to be launched later this year, will build on the popularity of the previous MDA efforts, whose success in containing malaria spread have excited Comoros residents.

"In Anjouan and Moheli there is no malaria now ... There are still a few cases in Grande Comore but it has dropped a lot," said Layar Idoine, citing her experience as a doctor having worked on Grande Comore and Anjouan.

Also gone with the constant breakouts are the prevalent fears of contracting malaria and the financial burden imposed by the treatment costs on this nation, regarded as among the poorest in the world.

"(In the past) Malaria was in the minds of people. When a person is sick, everyone thought it was malaria ... Whenever someone got fever, they went out to buy nivaquine (an anti-malaria drug) and paracetamol," said Idoine.

Affane Barcar, chief of Comoros' national anti-malaria program, said that the previous project's success further motivated the Comoros people to eliminate malaria.

"Malaria caused the economy to fail. The country's productivity used to be at half mast, and the success rate of children in schools was low because of the absenteeism," he told Xinhua.

"Now we see the difference from the years past. We see an increase in success of our students, and attendance in health facilities has decreased by 40 percent."

In a 2016 report, the World Health Organization (WHO) listed Comoros as among the six African nations on course to eliminate malaria by 2020. In January this year, Comoros also won the award of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA) at an AU meeting in recognition for its efforts to tame malaria.

Africa is committed to eliminating malaria by 2030, as articulated in the continent's development agenda 2063.

The disease remains Africa's major healthcare challenge, and is estimated to rob the continent of 12 billion U.S. dollars per year in lost productivity, investment and healthcare costs, Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairperson of the AU Commission, said in January.

Song Jianping (C), who heads the visiting team from Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine (GZUCM) of southern China, exchanges views with chief of Comoros' national anti-malaria program Affane Barcar (1st R) during a meeting in Comoros' anti-malaria center, in Comoros, on April 18, 2018. (Xinhua/Lyu Shuai)

CHINESE WEAPON

In an interview with Xinhua, He, the Chinese ambassador to Comoros, hailed the anti-malaria project for demonstrating China's medical innovation and its robust cooperation with Africa.

"This project is a good demonstration of the China-Africa friendship, partnership and brotherhood, as well as of China's African policy of sincerity, real results, affinity and good faith," He said.

The main weapon used in the project is a Chinese-developed drug called Artequick, a new artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) that combines artemisinin, piperaquine and a small dose of primaquine.

Its main ingredient artemisinin, now at the front of the world's battle with malaria, was discovered by renowned Chinese scientist Tu Youyou, 2015 Medicine Nobel Prize winner, from sweet wormwood, a herb mostly grown in China.

"Artemisinin has a swift effect against malaria parasites, while piperaquine has a longer-lasting effect," said Deng Changsheng, a researcher at GZUCM and member of the anti-malaria team. "The combination also makes it less likely to build drug resistance."

Li Guoqiao, who led a team to administer the Moheli project, explained that by mass administering that drug in a limited period of time, the real source of the disease will be addressed.

"The MDA strategy is like a running match with mosquitoes' life circle. It requires residents to take medicines twice in two months, a period when new mosquitoes will not get parasites; It is also a period that old, infected ones cannot outlive," said the GZUCM professor.

Song said the strategy suits the island nation's conditions, including its small population and limited mobility of people. Such innovations are also needed in African nations where traditional methods of killing mosquitoes and distributing mosquito nets failed to work, he said.

"There is no fixed solution for malaria, and Comoros is just a good example of that. It tells us that seeing to the local conditions is very important," Song said.

TOWARD TOTAL ERADICATION

Going forward, the Chinese scientists said they will also strengthen cooperation with Comoros on medical personnel training and anti-malaria capacity building.

Deng said such efforts are important if Comoros hopes to maintain its victory against malaria. The good news is that the previous cooperation has helped Comoros build up its own malaria monitoring team.

In a lab inside Comoros' anti-malaria center, several local technicians were looking for malaria parasites on purple-colored chips that contained blood samples of local villagers. Beside it is another lab for sampling mosquitoes.

Kamal Said Abdullah, a technician at the center, told Xinhua that they go on field trips twice a week to collect blood and mosquito samples from different places of Comoros.

"We're closely monitoring the situation. When we detect malaria cases, we will revisit the place and distribute medicines to timely address the issue," he said.

(Xiao Sisi in China's Guangdong also contributed to the story.)
SARAJEVO, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Members of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH)'s border police arrested some 30 people who are charged with smuggling illegal immigrants en route to the European Union, BiH border police said here Tuesday.

BiH border police organized two security operations targeting at two criminal groups that were charging immigrants 500 euros (611 U.S. dollars) to illegally take them over the border to Croatia, BiH border police spokesperson Sanela Dujkovic told reporters at a press conference.

She said the operations took place in the middle of January and late February 2018 and the smugglers transferred immigrants from BiH to Croatia, with the aim to enter Western Europe countries.

Those arrested are charged with transporting, hiding and smuggling illegal immigrants, and will be handed over to BiH prosecutors, the BiH Prosecutor's Office said.

The operations were jointly executed by BiH border police, BiH prosecution and the Croatian Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organized Crime, and Croatian internal affairs ministry.

In a report issued mid-April, the BiH border police said it had intercepted 1,036 migrants from Jan. 1 to April 15, 2018, a significant increase from last year.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 23:29:24|Editor: Xiang Bo

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Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, meets with senior officials and the prosecutor general of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) in Beijing, capital of China, April 24, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Tao)

BEIJING, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng Tuesday met with senior officials and the prosecutor general of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR), regarding the comprehensive and accurate implementation of the "one country, two systems" policy and the basic law of the SAR.

Han, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said they should unwaveringly safeguard national sovereignty, security, and development interests.

He said they should actively pursue development, advance harmony, and firmly maintain lasting prosperity and stability in Macao.

The officials should work diligently to help integrate Macao's own development into the overall development of the country, and seek benefits for the people, Han said.

Han also spoke of the achievements made by the incumbent government of Macao in pursuing long-term development while uniting and leading people from all walks of life to consolidate prosperity and stability in the region.

The Macao officials and the prosecutor general are in Beijing for training.
LUANDA, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Angolan President Joao Lourenco, also the head the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) for Political, Defense and Security Cooperation body, said Tuesday in Luanda that "there are signs" that point to a satisfactory outcome of the crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo).

Joao Lourenco was addressing the opening of the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the SADC "Double Troika", which brought together in Luanda the Presidents of South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, DR Congo, the Vice-President of Tanzania and the Prime Minister of Lesotho.

For the Angolan head of state, there is "more reason to believe" that the situation in DR Congo "is heading towards a satisfactory outcome," with the marking of the presidential elections in the country on December 23.

"These are signs that can significantly contribute to the necessary and urgent easing of internal tensions in the DRC and to strengthen mutual trust between the Government, the opposition and civil society," said Lourenco.

Meanwhile, the Angolan head of state appealed to all those involved in the process of regularizing the conflict in DR Congo to demonstrate wisdom, patriotism and maximum containment in the most critical moments.

"Looking first at national interests, so that they can overcome differences and build spaces of convergence that privilege peace, security, stability and national reconciliation," he said.

Nevertheless, the Angolan president has shown concern over the violence in some regions of the neighboring country, especially in the east, where the conflicts led to the flee of 30,000 Congolese refugees to Angola in 2017.

The permanence in power of President Joseph Kabila since 2001 is considered a root cause of the internal instability in DR Congo.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 23:34:25|Editor: yan

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SHANGHAI, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Eight people have been arrested in Shanghai for illegal fund-raising exceeding 60 billion yuan (9.5 billion U.S. dollars), police said Tuesday.

Zhou Boyun, actual controller of Shanlin Financial, and seven others, were arrested Tuesday, according to the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau.

According to Zhou, his company had been illegally raising funds from the public since 2013, and the company was unable to pay back the capital and interests of its investors.

Police investigation showed that Shanlin Financial had marketed itself in brick-and-mortar stores as well as online promotions to raise public funds. The company promised high returns for investors.

The suspects used new investors' money to pay the capital and interests of older investors, which was a typical Ponzi scheme, according to the police.

Zhou turned himself in to police on April 9.

Further investigation continues.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 23:34:26|Editor: yan

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DOHA, April 24 (Xinhua) -- International aviation agencies are working to restore the air link between Qatar and its Gulf neighbors which was severed 11 months ago, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said Tuesday.

The remarks were made by IATA senior Vice President Nick Careen on the sidelines of the 31st IATA Ground Handling Conference held in Doha, Qatari newspaper "Qatar Tribune'' reported.

Careen stressed that IATA is collaborating with United Nations' International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and other global organizations, to resolve the ongoing restrictions on air routes between Qatar and the other Arab countries since the Gulf crisis began.

"Our position on this issue has been clear from the very beginning. We want an amicable solution to this crisis, and the ongoing IATA conference in Doha would contribute to it," Careen said.

"I think the wider ban and the actual blockade is something political and does not concern aviation. Unfortunately, it is adversely impacting aviation," he added.

The conference, which is hosted by Qatar Airways in Doha from April 23-25, is the first of its kind to take place in the Middle East. More than 700 international delegates and guests are participating in the conference.

On June 5, 2017, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar, accusing Doha of supporting "terrorism" while Qatar strongly rejected the allegations.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 23:34:26|Editor: yan

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JERUSALEM, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Israel's military said on Tuesday that two armed Palestinian men from the Gaza Strip were caught while trying to infiltrate into Israel.

An Israeli military spokesperson said in a statement that the two men were arrested near the separation fence between Israel and the besieged Palestinian enclave, shortly after they crossed into Israel from southern Gaza.

They were transferred to the Shin Bet security service for further questioning, according to the statement.

"A grenade and a knife were found in their possession," the Israeli spokesperson said.

The reason for the infiltration was not immediately clear.

Despite the risk of being jailed in Israeli prisons, hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza have crossed into Israel over the past years because of the humanitarian crisis in the coastal enclave.

Since March 30, the Palestinians have been staging weekly protests against Israel's crippling 11-year blockade on Gaza, causing spiralling violence along the Gaza-Israel fence.

The mass protests, known as the "March of Return" rally, demand Palestinians' right to return to the lands Israel seized in the 1948 war, which led to the establishment of the Jewish state.

Israel has responded to the rallies with live fire, killing at least 40 people and injuring thousands of others.
RABAT, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The visiting Libyan parliament speaker said on Tuesday that Morocco could play a leading role in accelerating the process of solving the crisis in the war-torn country.

"We have officially requested Morocco take the lead in calling on the Libyan stakeholders and the UN envoy to speed up the process of solving the crisis and to introduce amendments on the Libyan Political Agreement," Akila Saleh, speaker of Libya's House of Representatives, told the press conference held in Morocco's capital Rabat.

Saleh expected an end to the crisis before the end of this year as the situation in Libya is improving.

He also thanked Morocco for its constructive role in finding a solution to the Libyan crisis.

Saleh, along with Khalid Al-Mishri, head of Libya High Council of State, concluded his official trip to Morocco on Tuesday.

In 2015, the Libyan Political Agreement was reached between conflicting parties in the UN-brokered peace talks held in Morocco's city of Skhirat.
CAPE TOWN, April 24 (Xinhua) -- A committee of South Africa's parliament on Tuesday lambasted the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) for its "sluggish manner" to remedy the Immigration Act in accordance with a court ruling.

This delay is "unacceptable," Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs Chairperson Donald Gumede said in a statement emailed to Xinhua.

On June 29 last year, the Constitutional Court confirmed a High Court ruling that declared Section 34 of the Immigration Act inconsistent with the Constitution in that the Act does not allow a detained illegal foreigner to challenge the lawfulness of his detention in person in court within 48 hours.

This declaration of constitutional invalidity was suspended for 24 months to enable a process to remedy the defect. Once the defect is remedied, the government will get rules for treatment of suspected illegal foreigners.

The judgment was hailed as a vindication of constitutional principles and human rights for everyone in South Africa, including foreigners.

The DHA, however, did not start the process until now.

"This means the department essentially took nine months to start this process," Gumede said.

Gumede said his committee had sought clarity on the matter, but the minister of home affairs, his deputy, the DHA director-general were absent from a previous parliament hearing.

The committee has unanimously resolved to call the officials to appear before it in its next meeting to account on reasons of the delay.

"Court rulings must be respected as they guide us and ensure that our constitution is adhered to," Gumede said.
LUSAKA, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Stakeholders in Zambia on Tuesday received a call by authorities to introduce aptitude testing of teachers to be recruited this year.

Stanley Mhango, Chairperson of the Teaching Service Commission, a government entity regulating the teaching profession, said recently that applicants for the 2018 teacher recruitment will be required to sit for aptitude tests.

He said the aptitude tests will be conducted in various districts of the southern African nation to ensure that only competent teachers were recruited.

The Commission, however, said the move was not meant to demean teachers but to improve standards and the quality of education in the country.

The move, he said, follows complaints from some school authorities over the caliber of some teachers deployed to various schools.

But the move, the first of its kind in teacher recruitment in the country, has received mixed reactions from stakeholders.

The Zambia Council for Social Development (ZCSD) said the move was a confirmation that the government has not been paying particular attention to provision of quality education throughout the system.

Lewis Mwape, Executive Director of the organization, said reports of failure by some recruited teachers to perform was a systemic failure by education authorities in the country to deliver quality education and introducing aptitude tests was a pedestrian manner of dealing with the problem.

"The revelation of the Teaching Service Commission must be taken seriously as it raises not just the question of quality of teacher training but also underpins the systemic failure of the entire education system," he said.

The government, he said, should increase funding to the education sector and ensure that the Ministry of General Education allocates more resources to the Directorate of Standards within the ministry in order to deal with education quality outcomes throughout the system.

"We are also of the view that the resources for aptitude testing would better be invested into providing text books and other education materials to schools who are currently struggling with teaching and learning materials due to poor funding at school level," he said.

The Zambia National Union of Teachers (ZNUT) also believes that there is need to review the education structure in order to identify the real problem.

Newman Bubala, the union's secretary general, said there were many loopholes in the recruitment process which have resulted in competently qualified teachers being left out in the recruitment exercise.

According to him, there was need to examine the recruitment system to ensure that the process was transparent and also increase the budgetary allocation to the education sector to enhance the quality of education being provided.

But other stakeholders welcomed the aptitude tests, following reports of teachers with fake qualifications being recruited.

"We need these aptitude tests because of what has been happening in the teaching profession where we had teachers with fake qualifications exposed. This will go a long way in ensuring that only qualified teachers are recruited," said Stephen Zulu, an economic and social commentator based in Lusaka, the country's capital.

Last year, over 500 teachers were found with fake qualifications during a scrutiny of their education qualifications and some of them have since been fired.

But Moses Mwali, a 54-year-old teacher, believes that aptitudes tests should be done when people were being enrolled in teacher colleges instead of waiting for them to finish their education.

"In our time, we were subjected to aptitude tests upon applying to go to college. Why should they wait until someone has finished their course?" he said.
HARARE, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe's annual premier arts and culture festival, the 2018 Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) begins next week in the capital Harare with a variety of performances lined up for the week-long event.

HIFA founder and artistic director Emmanuel Bagorro told a press conference that over 200 artists from across the globe with perform at the arts and cultural jamboree which is running under the theme: "We count."

He said apart from Africa, artists in various genres will come from such countries as the United States, the Netherlands and Israel.

"We want our people to revel and immerse themselves during the six days of HIFA in the highest quality music, theater, dance, song, visual arts, crafts and design," Bagorro said.

He said the festival will be a celebration of Zimbabwe's rich and diverse arts and culture.

"Saturday the 5th of May will be an incredible, intense day of programming. There is nowhere in the continent where you can find such kind of intense artistic opportunity. It is the most intense possibility for artistic experience," Bagorro said.

Maria Wilson, the executive director, told Xinhua that an arts and performance group from China will perform on the last day of the festival on May 6.

"It will be a fantastic family show by the Chinese group. There will be lots of acrobatics, dancing and music. The exchange of Chinese artistic interface will be so important," she said.

She added that there will be more than 80 individual shows within the festival which she said will help market the country as "open for business, investment and artists."

"This is one of the biggest chances for us to say to the world: look at us, look at Zimbabwe, look at our people, at our own artists," she said.

HIFA is a 6-day annual festival and workshop program that showcases the very best of local, regional and international arts and culture in a comprehensive festival program of theater, dance, music, circus, street performance, fashion, spoken word and visual arts.

Since its inception in 1999, the festival has received recognition for its support of arts and culture in Zimbabwe and is seen as a major contributor to development in this area. HIFA is now the largest cultural event in Zimbabwe and among the eight major festivals in Africa.

This year's HIFA is running for the 18th year after having taken a break in 2016.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 23:54:32|Editor: yan

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BEIJING, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold an informal meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi from April 27 to 28 in Wuhan, and the meeting will set new goals and break new ground for bilateral ties, a Chinese vice foreign minister said on Tuesday.

The upcoming meeting has attracted great attention from the two countries and the international community, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou said at a press briefing.

As the two largest developing countries and important emerging markets in the world, China and India each have a population of over one billion, Kong said.

As the mainstays for a multipolar world and economic globalization, China and India are important champions for regional and global peace, stability and prosperity, Kong said, noting that the strategic and global significance of bilateral ties has become more prominent.

In recent years, China-India ties have maintained a momentum of development under the strategic guidance of their leaders, and both countries have made new progress in various cooperation, Kong said, noting that bilateral ties are facing opportunities for improvement.

The two leaders will meet in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province.

Kong said Modi has visited the Chinese cities of Beijing, Guangzhou, Xi'an, Hangzhou, and Xiamen, and the upcoming visit to Wuhan will increase his understanding of China.

When the two leaders meet, they will have strategic communication on the most profound and unprecedented changes the world has seen in a century and thoroughly exchange views on the overall, long-term, and strategic issues of China-India relations, Kong said.

The meeting will enhance mutual trust, chart the course, set new goals, and break new ground for bilateral ties, Kong said, noting that it will not only benefit the two countries and two peoples, but also exert significant and positive influence on regional and global peace and development.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 23:59:34|Editor: yan

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BEIJING, April 24 (Xinhua) -- China appreciated that the top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un visited the Chinese Embassy in Pyongyang to express his condolences and visited injured Chinese citizens in hospital after a major road accident, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Tuesday.

Thirty-two Chinese tourists and four DPRK citizens were killed in the accident that occurred on Sunday evening in the DPRK.

Kim, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea, paid a visit to the Chinese Embassy in Pyongyang early Monday morning, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang told a routine press briefing.

Lu said Kim expressed his profound condolences for the casualties caused by the accident and conveyed his heartfelt sympathies to Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, to the Party and government of China, and to the victims and their families via Chinese Ambassador Li Jinjun.

Kim also visited the hospital where two injured Chinese citizens are being treated, saying that the DPRK would spare no efforts to treat the injured and work with China to make follow-up arrangements, Lu said.

"The DPRK government attaches great importance to the accident," he said, noting that relevant departments of the DPRK responded immediately, and senior Party and state leaders as well as officials of relevant departments visited the scene of the accident and the hospital to oversee the rescue efforts.

China and the DPRK are in close communication and coordination at present, Lu said, adding that any related progress will be advised without delay.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-24 23:59:35|Editor: yan

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GUIYANG, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Manbang Group, the "Uber of China's truck industry," announced on Tuesday that it raised 1.9 billion U.S. dollars in the first round of fundraising after the merger of two rivals last year.

China Reform Fund and SoftBank Vision Fund led the fundraising round, according to the company, which helps match truck drivers and people with goods to be transported.

Other investors include CapitalG, Farallon Capital, Baillie Gifford, GSR Ventures, Tencent and Sequoia Capital.

The fund will be used to improve customer experience and expand new business and markets, the company said in a statement. It will explore using new energy vehicles and automatic driving technology, expand overseas and continue to invest in logistics infrastructure.

Two rivals, Huochebang and ymm56.com, announced a strategic merger last November and the new company was named Manbang Group, also known as Full Truck Alliance Group.

More than 5 million of the 7 million trucks running on China's arterial roads and 1.2 million of the country's 1.5 million logistics firms are members of Manbang Group, the firm said.
WASHINGTON, April 24 (Xinhua) -- A new research showed that consuming dark chocolate with a high concentration of cacao had positive effects on stress levels, inflammation, mood, memory and immunity.

Presented on Tuesday at the ongoing five-day Experimental Biology 2018 meeting in San Diego, the United States, two studies revealed for the first time the impact of large amounts of cacao in doses as small as a regular-sized chocolate bar in humans over short or long periods of time.

"These studies show us that the higher the concentration of cacao, the more positive the impact on cognition, memory, mood, immunity and other beneficial effects," said Lee S. Berk, a researcher in psychoneuroimmunology and food science from Loma Linda University and principal investigator on both studies.

They focused on the impact of 70 percent cacao chocolate consumption on human immune and dendritic cell gene expression, with focus on pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines. Cacao is a major source of flavonoids.

This study assessed the electroencephalography (EEG) response to consuming 48 gram of dark chocolate (70 percent cacao) after an acute period of time (30 minutes) and after a chronic period of time (120 minutes), on modulating brain frequencies 0-40Hz, specifically beneficial gamma frequency (25-40Hz).

Study findings showed that cacao consumption up-regulated multiple intracellular signaling pathways involved in T-cell activation, cellular immune response and genes involved in neural signaling and sensory perception, the latter potentially associated with the phenomena of brain hyperplasticity.

Berk said the studies, however, require further investigation, specifically to determine the significance of these effects for immune cells and the brain in larger study populations.

According to Berk, further research is in progress to elaborate on the mechanisms that may be involved in the cause-and-effect brain-behavior relationship with cacao at this high concentration.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-25 00:24:41|Editor: yan

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BEIJING, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), met with senior military officials from Laos, Uzbekistan, and Belarus on Tuesday.

While meeting with Laotian Vice Defense Minister Vilay Lakhamfong, Zhang said the Chinese military is willing to work with its Laotian counterpart in deepening pragmatic cooperation and mutual support, so as to elevate bilateral military relations and pursue more benefits for the two peoples.

The vice minister expressed thanks for China's long-term assistance in boosting Laotian national development and military building, saying that Laos is willing to deepen pragmatic cooperation between the two militaries in various fields.

During his meeting with Uzbek Defense Minister Abdusalom Azizov, Zhang said China is ready to strengthen communication and coordination with Uzbekistan under the Shanghai Cooperation Organization framework, continuously consolidate and deepen mutual political and strategic trust, and enhance pragmatic cooperation in various fields.

Azizov said Uzbekistan is ready to seek potential cooperation with China and enable relations between the two militaries to help promote common prosperity and development.

While meeting with Defense Minister of Belarus Andrei Ravkov, Zhang said the Chinese military is willing to further deepen communication and cooperation in high-level exchanges and joint personnel training with its counterpart in Belarus.

Ravkov said Belarus is willing to work with China to improve cooperation in defense and security.
WINDHOEK, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Namibia's Minister of Mines and Energy, Tom Alweendo, said on Tuesday that the country's mineral legislation has to be sufficiently attractive to inspire new investment.

The minister made the remarks during the annual general meeting of Namibia's Chamber of Mines in Windhoek.

"It is also important to make sure that our regulatory framework is clear and comprehensive in such a manner that investors are clear as to what is required of them. Additionally it is necessary that the legal framework in place is fully enforced in an even-handed manner," he said.

According to Alweendo, the current Mining Act is under review and he believes such review should be expedited and that it should be finalized before the end of this year.

The Minister also noted the need of strengthening the value chain management in the country's mining sector.

"It is a fact that the mining sector will play an even bigger role in our socio-economic development when we strengthen the value chain management in the sector," he added.

According to him this can be done in two ways, namely to strengthen the local linkages between the mining companies and the local entrepreneurs with regards to the supply chain demand and to add as much value as possible to the minerals that Namibia are mining.

Furthermore, the minister said that the mining sector can play a bigger role in economic development with the discovery of more minerals if good governance is practiced and the industry behaves and acts in a transparent manner.

Meanwhile, Namibia's Chamber of Mines will host the 7th Namibia Mining Expo and Conference in Windhoek on Wednesday and Thursday.

The event will run under the theme, "Maximizing the multiplier effect from Namibia's mining sector."
KAKAMEGA, Kenya, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday launched two programs that will see his government inject 500 million U.S. dollars as performance-based conditional grants to boost the capacity of county governments to deliver quality services to Kenyans.

Kenyatta said the adoption of the Kenya Devolution Support Program and the Kenya Urban Support Program demonstrates his government's commitment to a devolution that truly works and serves every Kenyan.

"Both, combined, will inject 50 billion shillings (500 million dollars) into your county governments, to help you build and improve the systems that support your staff, and your delivery of services," he said in a televised address delivered during the opening of the 5th Annual Devolution Conference in Kakamega in Western Kenya.

Kenyatta lauded the success of devolution, saying more than 10 billion U.S. dollars was transferred to counties to take essential services closer to the people in the last five years.

He said the successful implementation of the devolved system of government has proved many "doubting Thomases" wrong.

The president observed that eight years ago when the country ushered in a new constitutional dispensation, few could have imagined that Kenyans would today be celebrating five transformative years of devolution.

"There are, indeed, many doubting Thomases out there, who did not expect a democracy as young as ours to so effectively manage the most fundamental change in our governance since independence," he said.

"But to the surprise of many, in a short period of five years, we have firmly established a new tier of government, and held two sets of elections to it," Kenyatta added.

Kenyatta warned against complacency even as he praised the success of devolution, saying there is still a long way to go in truly realizing the development goals set under the country's Vision 2030 blueprint.

The president underlined the need to utilize the five years of experience to build on the next phase of devolved government.

He called for close consultation, coordination and better communication between the two levels of government to ensure continued success of devolution.
ALGIERS, April 24 (Xinhua) -- An Algerian court has sentenced a Liberian national to death for "spying for Israel," the Algeria Press Service reported Tuesday.

The case was heard by the Ghardaia Court, 600 km south of the capital Algiers, where six other individuals of different sub-Saharan nationalities were sentenced to 10 years in prison with fines of up to 20 million Algerian dinars (26,000 U.S. dollars).

The defendants were charged with spying, conspiracy to seriously undermine Algeria's security, and glorifying terrorism.

They pleaded not guilty, claiming that they entered Algeria in order to reach Europe, the report said.

The seven people were arrested in January 2016 by security services in downtown Ghardaia amid a violent sectarian strife in the region.
LAGOS, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Nigeria's police in central north Benue has confirmed the killing of 16 people, including two Catholic priests, in fresh attacks on Mbalon community in the state,

Police chief Owoseni Fatai told reporters on Tuesday in Makurdi, the state capital, that unknown gunmen, suspected to be herdsmen, opened fire on Catholic worshipers during morning Mass on Tuesday.

Previously the number of people killed was thought to be 13. A government spokesperson had said two Catholic priest and 11 Parishioners were killed.

Fatai, who described the attacks as unfortunate, vowed to fish out the perpetrators and bring them to justice.

He said preliminary investigation had revealed that the herdsmen had stayed around the area for sometime before carrying out the attacks.

The police chief added that more Police personnel had been deployed to the area to forestall further attacks.

President Muhammadu Buhari has described as vile and satanic the killing of worshipers and two priests at the church in Benue.

This brings the number of people killing by suspected Fulani herdsmen to 45 since Governor Samuel Ortom proceeded on his annual leave.

Last week, killings took place in Logo, Guma, Makurdi and Naka areas of the state by suspected Fulani militia.
VILNIUS, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Lithuania's parliament on Tuesday ratified the EU-Canadian free trade agreement CETA (Comprehensive Economic and Trade agreement) alongside with adopting a separate statement as regards food safety issues.

The law was passed with 70 votes in favor, 6 against and 14 abstentions. The additional statement was supported by 53 MPs, while 22 voted against and 12 abstained.

Lawmakers opposing the treaty called for waiting for June 1 when European Court of Justice (EJC) is due to decide whether the EU-Canada trade deal is compatible with EU law.

"I am against first of all because of the reason that there will be EJC decision and we should not rush to the hell or to heaven. Everybody sees the issue differently, only eight countries have ratified the agreement so far," Algirdas Sysas, a social democrat MP, was quoted as saying during parliamentary debates by local media.

Vytautas Sinkevicius, Lithuania's minister of economy, noted that neighboring Latvia was the first in the EU to ratify the treaty and afterwards the Baltic country already arranged at least four business missions to Canada. Meanwhile, only 150 Lithuanian companies are currently active in business with Canada.

Canadian investments in Lithuania amount to marginal 150 million euros (183.46 U.S. dollars), Sinkevicius said.

CETA ratification process at the Lithuanian parliament took eight months.

The parliament also adopted a separate statement of the precautionary principle as regards regulation of GMOs and trade of meat produced using hormones. Similar statements were made by the European Commission and the European Union member states during the signing of CETA.

The EU and Canada signed the free trade agreement in October 2016. According to CETA, both trading sides will fully eliminate tariffs on more than 99 percent of all tariff lines.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-25 00:54:54|Editor: yan

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BEIJING, April 24 (Xinhua) -- China will better protect intellectual property rights (IPR) to improve the business environment and attract more foreign investors, a top IPR official said Tuesday.

China treats IPR owned by domestic and foreign companies alike, and gives them equal protection, Shen Changyu, head of the State Intellectual Property Office, said at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office.

He said China adopted the Anti-unfair Competition Law last year and the country's IPR protection has won recognition from American media and experts, who consider it a leader among middle-income countries.

In 2017, Chinese courts settled 203,000 IPR related cases, up 38.38 percent from a year earlier. A total of 7,157 people were charged. Police also investigated 17,000 cases related to IPR violation or making and selling counterfeit products, involving a combined sum of 6.46 billion yuan (about 1.02 billion U.S. dollars).

Society's approval rating of the state's stricter IPR protection rose to 76.69 out of 100 last year, Shen said, citing a survey.

In 2017, China made 1.38 million invention patent applications, leading the world for the seventh year. It made 51,000 Patent Cooperation Treaty patent applications, ranking the second in the world. It also made 4,810 Madrid Protocol trademark applications, ranking the third in the world.

Shen said China strengthened IPR protection not just because it is an international obligation but also because it is a demand of the country's own development.

He said IPR protection will improve in areas including rights authorization, administrative enforcement, judicial protection, arbitration, and sector self-regulation.
DAR ES SALAAM, April 24 (Xinhua) -- An Emirates Airline flight with 503 passengers and crew was on Tuesday diverted to Tanzania's commercial capital Dar es Salaam after it failed to land in Mauritius due to bad weather, aviation authorities said.

Hamza Johari, director general of Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA), said the Airbus 380 was allowed to land at the Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA) at around 1 p.m. local time after the crew had asked for permission.

"This is the first time for such a huge aircraft to land at the JNIA," said Johari when reached by phone.

He said the plane, flying from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, failed to touch down at Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport in Mauritius following bad weather.

"All the passengers and crew are safe. They were making arrangements to spend a night in Dar es Salaam and they are expected to proceed to Mauritius tomorrow (Wednesday)," Johari said.

Matanga Mbusi, the JNIA police commander, said the plane was diverted to Dar es Salaam after three failed attempts to land in Mauritius.
DAR ES SALAAM, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The Tanzanian government said on Tuesday it has no plans to pull out of the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC), explaining that challenges and reforms in the ICC should be fought from within.

Palamagamba Kabudi, Tanzanian Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs, told the visiting Israeli Minister for Justice, Ayelet Shaked, that Tanzania will remain a member of the ICC but it will press for reforms within the global court.

"We share concerns raised by fellow African countries that the ICC was operating in a manner that was biased against Africa," said Kabudi.

The minister said most of the African countries felt that the ICC has been biased against Africa, saying the best way to challenge the system was to fight within the ICC.

Kabudi was responding to a question raised by the visiting Israeli Justice Minister on Tanzania's position on speculations that most of the African countries were intending to pull out of the ICC.

Last year, Burundi became the first country in the world to withdraw from the ICC, while The Gambia and South Africa were also threatening to pull out.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-25 01:20:04|Editor: yan

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DAMASCUS, April 24 (Xinhua) -- A mortar shell fired by Islamic State (IS) militants from the south of Damascus hit the Naher Aysheh area on Tuesday, killing six people and injuring 25 others, Syrian State TV reported.

Footage from an emergency room in a Damascus hospital showed wounded people lying on stretchers and hospital beds, bleeding from the injuries they sustained in the mortar shelling.

The attack came amid intense battles between Syrian army and the IS mainly in the city of Hajar al-Aswad and the Yarmouk Camp area on Tuesday, as Syrian army's determination to eradicate the IS from areas in south of Damascus.

The Syrian army started a military operation against the the IS in southern Damascus six days ago, after the terror-designated group refused a deal for its evacuation to the remote eastern desert in Syria.
VILNIUS, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Norway's support for Lithuania should be addressed at solving issues of civil society and enforcing the system of justice, Norway's Crown Prince Haakon said on Tuesday during his first visit day in the Baltic country's capital.

"We want to draw the two main trends, enforcing of civil society and cooperation in the area of justice," Crown Prince Haakon said at a press conference in Vilnius.

Norway's Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit came to Lithuania on the royal couple's first official visit. On Tuesday, they met with Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite.

During the visit two bilateral memorandums on Norway's grants under the EEA (European Economic Area) financial mechanism for 2014-2021 were signed at the Presidential Palace.

Norway's support to Lithuania over this period will amount to more than 115 million euros (140 million U.S. dollars) and will be used to promote and develop social dialogue, civil society, health care, environmental protection, business, innovation, and research, the Lithuania's presidency said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite emphasized the importance of strategic partnership between Lithuania and Norway. According to Grybauskaite, the two countries maintained strong ties throughout the 28 years of Lithuanian independence, and one of the areas of close cooperation is defense.

Norwegian soldiers were among the first to join NATO's enhanced forward presence in Lithuania, the presidency said. Lithuania is buying the Nasams air defense system from Norway, while Norwegian navy ships are part of NATO's anti-missile shield, the statement reads.

During their visit to Lithuania, the royal couple are accompanied by the Norwegian defense minister and a high-level business delegation.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-25 01:25:07|Editor: yan

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CAIRO, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Three Chinese tourists were killed and eight others wounded on Tuesday in a traffic accident on Egypt's Cairo-Alexandria highway north of the country, the Chinese Embassy to Egypt told Xinhua.

A travel van carrying a group of 11 Chinese tourists overturned into a canal at the desert road, said Guo Hualong, director of the counselor affairs at the Chinese Embassy to Egypt, noting that the injured have been sent to two nearby hospitals.

Guo noted that the tourist group was in Egypt in a tour organized by a Shenzhen-based travel agency.

The Egyptian local media said the van's overturn was mainly caused by a three-wheeled motorized rickshaw, known in Egypt as "tuk-tuk."
ARUSHA, Tanzania, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian police on Tuesday announced the arrest of seven people for allegedly fuelling online campaign for countrywide demonstrations on the country's Union Day.

Union Day marks the creation of Tanzania through the union of Tanganyika and the offshore island nation of Zanzibar on April 26, 1964.

Acting Arusha Regional Police Commander Yusuph Ilembo told the media that the accused, including college students, are in police custody for using various social media platforms to mobilize the public to take part in the unlawful demonstrations.

"The seven are due to appear in court anytime from now as we continue to look for other suspects with a similar plot," he said.

Ilembo urged Arusha residents to stay away from the outlawed demonstrations, warning that whoever wishing to take part could be risking their lives.

A U.S.-based Tanzanian social media activist, Mange Kimambi, has called for nationwide anti-government demonstrations on April 26 to protest over what she terms as a diminution of political freedoms and human rights abuses.

Tanzanian President John Magufuli has warned that those who demonstrate illegally will be taught a lesson that they will never forget.

Demonstrations are allowed under Tanzanian law, but Section 44 of Police Force and Auxiliary Services Act requires a person to notify the police of his intention to convene or assemble, which police may reject if they believe that the assembly may constitute a breach of peace.
The handout images, provided by Israeli army on March 20, 2018, reportedly shows an aerial view of a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor destroyed by Israeli air raids in 2007. (Israeli Army)

TEHRAN, April 24 (Xinhua) -- A senior Iranian security official vowed Tuesday that Iran will punish Israel for killing its military advisers in an air raid on Syria.

The Islamic republic would decide on the time, place and way to respond to the Israeli "evil" move , Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani said.

"Israel has violated Syria's air space and has targeted the forces fighting terrorism," Shamkhani said, adding that Israel should wait for the consequences and retaliation.

Shamkhani made the remarks on Tuesday before leaving Tehran for an international security conference in Russia's Sochi.

On April 8, Israel reportedly launched airstrikes on Syria's T4 air base, killing 14 people including Iranian military advisers.
RIGA, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The collapse of ABLV Bank, which used to be Latvia's third largest bank by assets, has dealt a blow to the Baltic country's arts and culture sector, Latvian Culture Minister Dace Melbarde said Tuesday.

Specifically, the bank's demise has seriously affected arts and culture sponsorship in Latvia, as it has paralyzed not only the ABLV Charitable Foundation and its programs but also the Boris and Inara Teterev Foundation whose assets have been frozen in ABLV accounts, Melbarde said in an interview with RigaTV24 channel.

ABLV Bank's liquidation is affecting many cultural institutions and organizations as they have been relying on support provided by these two major foundations, the minister said.

"This year is extremely hard for the Culture Ministry, its institutions, as well as other independent organizations that have been closely working with these two foundations for years, because now they have to figure out how to compensate these losses. It is not easy at all," Melbarde said.

The minister's main concern is about the fate of such major cultural projects as the planned creation of the Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art, which is sponsored both by the ABLV Charitable Foundation and the Boris and Inara Teterev Foundation.

"What happens next with this project is hard to tell. To a large extent it depends on how the bank's liquidation goes," Melbarde said.

The culture minister is also worried about a collection of Latvian contemporary art which was supposed to exhibited at the museum but belongs to ABLV Bank.

"We, the Culture Ministry, have to closely follow what happens with the art collection, which is ABLV Bank's asset. We must not let it be auctioned off or split up," the minister said.

In February 2018, ABLV Bank's shareholders decided to wind the bank up after the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) accused the Latvian bank's management of supporting money-laundering schemes and bribing Latvian officials.
TIRANA, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The full integration of Albania and the whole region of Western Balkan is in the interest of European Union (EU), President of the European Council Donald Tusk said Tuesday at a joint press conference with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.

Rama thanked Tusk for continuously encouraging and supporting the process of Albania's transformation.

Rama said during the meeting they discussed on one of the key features of the process and main achievements of the country in this process -- justice reform and results of vetting, as well as other reforms.

"To us, European Union integration is about the future of our country, other generations and construction of European Albania," underlined Rama.

Tusk in his remarks described himself as a devoted friend of Albanian nation and congratulated the Albanian people on the European Commission (EC) recommendation for opening the accession negotiations.

According to Tusk, Albania has made great efforts and is getting ready to start one of the country's most historic projects ever.

"When my country started similar talks around 20 years ago, we all knew there was a lot to change in Poland. My dream is for Albania to feel the same path as Poland in the EU. With your proud history, with Scanderbeg that defended Europe from the Ottoman Empire, I have no doubt that you will make it," said Tusk.

Tusk's official visit to Tirana is the first stop of a weekly tour to the Balkans in the run-up to Sofia summit in May where EU is about to re-affirm the European perspective of the Western Balkans.
KIEV, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine to present its new An-77 transport aircraft at the Eurasia-2018 airshow in Turkey's southern province of Antalya, local media reported on Tuesday, citing the press service of the Ukrainian state-run aircraft producer Antonov.

The Interfax-Ukraine news agency said that An-77, which has already arrived in Turkey, will participate in the program of demonstration flights during the airshow.

The An-77 is a transport plane, which could be used for military needs. It is capable of carrying 47 tons of cargo, including heavy military equipment, helicopters and up to 300 troops.

The Eurasia-2018 airshow will be held at Antalya International Airport on April 25-29, attracting more than 500 international exhibitors.
BELGRADE, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Montenegro is making rapid progress in its EU integration process, realizes its obligations successfully and represents an example for countries of the Western Balkans, President of the European Council Donald Tusk told Prime Minister of Montenegro Dusko Markovic during their meeting Tuesday in Podgorica.

Tusk arrived in Podgorica this afternoon within his tour of the Western Balkans. He discussed with Markovic the progress of Montenegro in the process of the European integration, in the light of the latest report of the European Commission.

"Montenegro under your leadership in the integration process became a leader. There is no doubt that you are in a good negotiation position and that you represent a positive example. Your work and your achievements are not important only for Montenegro but also for the EU, because it shows that in a complex situation and in a complicated region, the progress is possible," Tusk said, according to a government press release.

Markovic told Tusk that Montenegro is aware of challenges and those segments within the EU integration where "more efficiency and effort is required". He praised the recent positive report of the European Commission as a useful document for the further improvement and acceleration of the negotiation process.

He said that Montenegro sees the EU's determination to deal with the Western Balkans as a major opportunity for the whole region, especially at the EU-Western Balkans summit to be held in Sofia, Bulgaria on May 17.

"After 15 years, once again we will be together with EU leaders. The agenda of the summit has been determined realistically and objectively. Region needs to use this opportunity," he added.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-25 02:25:26|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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Tunisian Minister of Commerce Omar Behi (C) attends African Economic Forum in Tunis, Tunisia, April 24, 2018. African Economic Forum was held in Tunisian capital Tunis on Tuesday, with more than 900 participants from 38 African countries attending this forum. (Xinhua/Adele Ezzine)

TUNIS, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Africa Economic Forum was held in Tunisian capital Tunis on Tuesday, with more than 900 participants from 38 African countries attending this forum.

The forum aims at unlocking inter-African economic and trade exchanges and strengthening the building of strong partnership between Tunisia and its continent, for the creation of common wealth, said Radhi Meddeb, Commissioner General of the forum.

The accession of Tunisia to COMESA (Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa) would be announced on the sidelines of this forum, while the formalization of this accession is planned during next COMESA Summit in June 2018.

Tunisia hopes to recover its strategic positioning in relation to African markets.

Tunisian Trade Minister Omar Bahi said new direct air lines have just been created with three countries namely Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana.

Concerning Tunisian exports to Africa, the balance sheet shows only 2.2 percent of all exports of Tunisia, while 75 percent of Tunisian exports are routed towards the Europe market.
DAR ES SALAAM, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian President John Magufuli on Tuesday urged the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) to push for a vibrant agenda aimed at making the east African region socially and economically prosperous.

Addressing members of the EALA in the capital Dodoma, President Magufuli said: "Members of the EALA should work hard in addressing challenges that are derailing efforts aimed at making the region socially and economically vibrant."

In his maiden address to the EALA members since he took power in November 2015, Magufuli mentioned the challenges that needed urgent attention as conflicts which were affecting lives of people in the region, and trade and investment barriers amongst members of the East African Community (EAC).

EAC members are Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan.

He said the EALA lawmakers should also focus on mobilizing leaders of the six-member EAC to focus on the improvement of the infrastructure and supply of electricity, saying these were the engines that could drive forward the industrialization drive.

"Studies show that transport costs in the east African region are four to five times higher than those in East Asia, the United States and Europe," said the head of state.

Magufuli added: "Electricity in the region was also erratic with all the six East African countries having a total of 6,500 megawatts. This amount is too little to support the industrialization drive."

He assured the EALA members that Tanzania will continue working closely with them in efforts aimed at making the regional bloc more energetic in all fronts.

For his part, the EALA Speaker, Martin Ngoga, praised President Magufuli for restoring discipline in the public service, leading the anti-corruption crusade and implementation of grand development projects.
BERLIN, April 24 (Xinhua) -- A downward trend in German business confidence continued in April, a study by the Ifo Institute for Economic Research showed on Tuesday.

The regular and closely-watched Business Climate Index compiled by Ifo fell by 1.2 points to 102.1 points for the current month. The findings were based on a survey of 9,000 company executives. Most economists had predicted a smaller decline to 102.7 in April.

"The high spirits among German executives are fading," a statement by Ifo president Clemens Fuest read. The index showed that managers were less upbeat about their contemporary situation as well as the prospects for the coming six months.

Nevertheless, the Munich-based institute did not believe that the findings would herald a reversal of growth in Germany. "We are still far away from a recession," Ifo expert Klaus Wohlrabe told the press. Wohlrabe argued that the renewed decline in the index was more reflective of a "normalization of the German economy."

The Ifo expert noted that Germany recorded unusually high quarterly growth rates for gross domestic product (GDP) of up to 0.9 in 2017. By contrast, growth in the first quarter (Q1) of 2018 was likely to be in the area of 0.4 percent, not least due to widespread industrial action, a severe flu season and a large number of public holidays.

"Businesses are reaching the limits of their capacity," Wohlrabe said. He explained that a lack of personnel meant that many companies could not accept new orders, creating a "barrier" to further growth.

The domestic effects of a tight labor market were also being reinforced by a perceived cooling of global economic momentum. The possibility of a trade war provoked by the protectionist policies of U.S. President Donald Trump in particular was a source of concern for German managers in this context.

Ifo highlighted that the assessment of commercial prospects for the next six months in export-dependent industries was most negative since August 2016. However, a majority if firms polled were still confident that they could increase exports again from the current level.

Commenting on the study, experts emphasized that a decline in German growth should not necessarily be seen as a sign of an inevitable end to the current economic boom.

"Although every recession was preceded by a downward trend in the Ifo Business Climate Index, not every downwards trend ended in a recession," DekaBank economist Andreas Scheuerle told the press. According to Scheuerle, the "correction" in business confidence measured in April merely amounted to a "renaissance of realism" following exaggerated expectations.

Similarly, Thomas Altmann of the wealth management firm QC Partners said that there was no reason for panic over a return to less exceptional growth rates. "The current boom has definitely reached its late phase", Altmann argued. He added that the "high point of growth" in Germany had most likely already been reached or passed.

Ifo has recently revised the methodology of the Business Climate Index to include service sector companies alongside representatives from the manufacturing, trade and construction industries. The new baseline year for comparison is 2015 instead of 2005, resulting in a numerically lower levels of business confidence than measured previously.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-25 02:35:30|Editor: yan

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FUZHOU, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Qiu Meizhen, 28, currently expecting her second child, feels at ease when walking alone in her neighborhood, as she can press an SOS button installed on smart lamp posts if there is an emergency.

In her "smart neighborhood" in Mawei District, Fuzhou, capital of east China's Fujian Province, Qiu is able to open the door of an elevator using facial recognition technology.

She will be alerted if her apartment catches fire even when she is not at home, as a smart fire detector is connected to her mobile phone.

Qiu's "smart life" is just part of China's efforts to develop information technology and digitalization.

China is the world's largest e-commerce market, accounting for more than 40 percent of the value of worldwide transactions, and in terms of mobile payments, China has a transaction value 11 times that of the United States, according to a recent report by McKinsey Global Institute.

During the first Digital China Summit, which was held in Fuzhou from Sunday to Tuesday, the latest technology such as unmanned stores, driverless vehicles, and delivery robots attracted thousands of visitors.

Customers can enter Tencent's unmanned store after scanning their face, then pick up items and head for the exit, where their face is scanned again and payment is automatically deducted from their account.

Jack Ma, founder and chairman of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, said in a speech at the summit that e-commerce is just the prelude to and a small share of digital economy, which will have a profound influence on all aspects of people's lives.

Industrial internet, 5G, and the Internet of Things were also buzzwords at the summit.

Kelvin Wu, president of 360 Enterprise Security Group, said unlike the World Internet Conference, an annual event held in east China's Wuzhen, the Digital China Summit focused more on e-governance and industrial internet as China enters a new phase of digitalization.

"For example, in recent years, China has seen an increasing number of collaborations between real economy and digital enterprises," said Wu, adding that it showed the need for more efforts in industrial internet.

Test-rides of China's first commercial driverless shuttle bus Apolong, co-developed by tech giant Baidu and automaker Kinglong, were offered to the public during the event.

With no steering wheel or driver, the vehicle made perfect turns and was able to give way to pedestrians during a two-minute drive on a 600-meter-long route.

Digitalization, networking, and the application of intelligent technology, are also modernizing China's governance system and capacity.

No counters, no queues, no paperwork -- in less than 10 minutes, Gao Pingping completed the registration of his business and obtained a license at a self-service registration machine in the city of Pingtan in Fujian.

The machine, connected to government data and supported by facial recognition technology, streamlines the application process and reduces the procedure from days to just minutes.

At the Alibaba exhibition booth, a big screen demonstrated how ambulances and fire engines in the east China city of Hangzhou avoid gridlock and all red lights turn green as they approach with the aid of "City Brain," an artificial intelligence platform aimed at improving city management.

The "brain" collects traffic and weather data, analyzes traffic flow, and adjusts traffic lights accordingly to ease traffic congestion.

Like Alibaba, several leading technology companies have rolled out "smart city" solutions.

However, progress is limited and there are several technological breakthroughs to be made, according to Guo Renzhong, member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

"For instance, existing information transmitting technology is not able to meet some requirements of smart cities," said Guo, adding, "outdated laws and regulations concerning access and use of government and citizens' information may also pose obstacles in the future."
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-25 02:40:33|Editor: yan

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TEHRAN, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Iranian steel exporters have put trades on hold until the government's policies on the currency market are settled and become operational.

"Exports are in lockdown," said Khouzestan Steel Company's (KSC) sales and marketing manager Bahman Tajalizadeh, according to Financial Tribune daily Tuesday report.

"The only exports taking place at the time are our previously-arranged obligations and we don't even know how we're going to get the money," Tajalizadeh was quoted as saying.

Iran's foreign exchange market recently went in a frenzy, with the rial losing its value against the U.S. dollar on a daily basis.

President Rouhani's government had to intervene to bring back stability by fixing U.S. dollars rates, and the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) designated the banks as the sole players in currency market.

The CBI has banned non-governmental forex market from buying, selling and transferring foreign currencies in an attempt to regulate and stabilize currency rates.

Tajalizadeh said the stabilizing act of intervention has in fact sowed confusion in market, as companies are unable to have any future plans or forecasts in the current situation.

As a matter of fact, the newly announced rate of 42,000 rials for one U.S. dollar is not attractive for exporters and its implication is far-reaching for businesses.

Besides, Khorasan Steel Company's deputy head for sales echoed the same concerns, emphasizing that the forex confusion has also put local trading on hold.

"It's simply not feasible to buy or sell at the time. Current prices are unattractive for buyers and concerns regarding the market's future and import prices keep producers from selling," Mohammad Hassan Parsa said.

Also, the downstream users have repeatedly voiced concerns about the supply shortages.

According to the report, Metal Bulletin, the London-based information provider on global steel markets, also described steel import trade in Iran as "non-existent" in the past several weeks.

"We've no idea how forex transactions are going to take place now. Banning bureaux de change from trading forex has essentially stopped the money flow," said Ali Naeemi, commercial manager of Pasargad Steel Company.

Just days after putting an end to the dual foreign exchange regime on April 9, the Central Bank of Iran announced that banks will take over forex trading and exporters are required to sell their hard currency to the banking system or deposit it in domestic banks.

In the meantime, Iran's first Vice President Es'haq Jahangiri on Monday officially inaugurated the Forex Deals Integrated System, an online system designed to address the country's currency needs and boost transparency.

"This system is a new opportunity for importers to be able to get their required foreign currency easily and for exporters to offer their proceeds to the market," said Jahangiri.

Maziar Motamedi, the financial expert, wrote that this is a potentially good move, as registering all forex trade on the system will enable the regulator to monitor the market and prevent capital flight.

"What's not good, however, is that Nima took its time to become operational. The system was still in beta testing phase", Motamedi wrote in Financial Tribune.

The exports of other metals, including lead, have not been immune from the impacts of current situation.

"Some 60 percent of Iranian exporters have adopted a wait-and-see approach because of the currency, while 40 percent are still exporting but not at the usual pace or volume," a major lead trader told the daily.
BERLIN, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The former chief executive officer of the insurance company Munich Re, Nikolaus von Bombard, will assume the position of board chairman at Deutsche Post-DHL Group, the Bonn-based postal service provider confirmed on Tuesday.

Speaking at Deutsche Post-DHL's Annual General Meeting (AGM), CEO Frank Appel told shareholders that the long-standing 71-year-old chairman Wulf von Schimmelmann would leave the company at the end of his current regular term.

Von Bombard is expected to be formally confirmed as Schimmelmann's successor at the first session of the new supervisory board.

"With a calm hand, deep understanding and a pioneering spirit, Wulf von Schimmelmann has always provided important impulses," Appel praised the departing chairman. The CEO highlighted that strong earnings figures recorded at Deutsche-Post DHL in recent years owed much to the confident stewardship of von Schimmelmann who first joined the supervisory board in 2007.

Appel expressed satisfaction that revenue had increased across all divisions of Deutsche Post-DHL Group in 2017, including its relatively poor-performing Supply Chain and Global Forwarding businesses.

Total revenue grew by 5.4 percent to 60.4 billion euros (73.9 billion U.S. dollars) in 2017, not least thanks to a booming e-commerce division. Annual earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) rose by 7.2 percent to 3.74 billion euros.

Deutsche Post-DHL Group emphasized that it would continue to invest in its package-, express businesses as well as digitalization.

Responding to questions from shareholders at the AGM, Appel was unable to "comment in any form" on rumors that Deutsche Post-DHL was considering an initial public offering (IPO) for its e-mobility unit. The CEO merely stated that he was convinced that the development of in-house car manufacturing would contribute positively to the achievement of wider corporate targets.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-25 02:55:35|Editor: Yamei

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Photo taken on April 24, 2018 shows smoke rising from the Islamic State militant's positions in the Hajar al-Aswad neighbourhood, south of Damascus, Syria. The Syrian army is advancing in the battles against the Islamic State (IS) in southern Damascus, Syrian SANA news agency reported on Sunday. The infantry units of the Syrian army are advancing in the battle against IS in Hajar al-Aswad area in southern Damascus from several directions, capturing on the outskirts of that area, according to the report. (Xinhua/Ammar Safarjalani)

DAMASCUS, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The rattling sound of shelling has a rhythm now south of the capital Damascus, as Syrian army is now completely focusing on eradicating the Islamic State (IS) from areas they control near Damascus and this battle will turn the page of war in Damascus to a peaceful and brighter one.

The artillery shelling as well as the tank fire and airstrikes have intensified on Tuesday, sending a rattling sound that ends with a huge plumes of smoke rising from the targeted areas of Hajar al-Aswad and the nearby Yarmouk Camp area, both under IS control, and considered to be the last areas out of the government forces in Damascus and its countryside.

In a trip to the outskirts of al-Qadam neighbourhood in the south of Damascus, parts of which are under IS control, reporters including Xinhua were taken to the frontline where can hear the shelling and see the action on the ground.

Tanks were rolling as warplanes roared in the sky hitting the IS positions and providing a fire cover for the infantry units moving forward on the ground toward the positions of that terror-designated group.

The destruction in the Hajar al-Aswad and nearby areas has filled the horizon and the smoke rising from those areas was a sign of the ferocity of the battles that have been raging for six days.

The War Media, the media wing of the Syrian army and its allies, said that the Syrian army is carrying out precise airstrikes and artillery fire on the positions of IS in the northwestern and southwestern parts of Yarmouk Camp and Hajar al-Aswad.

A military source told Xinhua that the military offensive on IS will continue until its fully eradicating from southern Damascus.

The Syrian army turned the focus on Hajar al-Aswad and the Yarmouk Camp, a large area where Syrians and Palestinian refugees have lived, after capturing the entire Eastern Ghouta countryside east of Damascus, as well as the eastern part of Qalamoun region after the rebels withdrew to northern Syria areas this month.

Now, the IS-held pockets south of Damascus, as well as a few areas under the al-Qaida-linked groups' control, are all that left for Damascus to be completely safe and free of any armed insurgency and terror groups.

Ahead of the beginning of the battle against IS, the terror group was offered a deal to evacuate to the remote part of the Syrian desert as the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, which controls nearby areas such as Babila and Yalada and surroundings were to evacuate to rebel-held areas in the northwestern province of Idlib.

But the IS militants thwarted the deal of evacuation, which sparked the flare of war again, and it's expected that after the defeat of IS, the al-Qaida-linked militants will be bused outside Babila and Yalda, both entwined with the Hajar al-Aswad and Yarmouk, to Idlib.

Afterwards, the entire capital will be free of rebels and the military operation is expected to move toward the southern province of Daraa, which is around 100 km from Damascus.

IS has lost its major stronghold late last year, with the Syrian army capturing the Deir al-Zour city in eastern Syria as well as large swathes of the Syrian desert near Iraqi border. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) also stripped IS of its de facto capital of Raqqa north of Syria.
KIEV, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Kiev is counting on the deployment of up to 40,000 UN peacekeeping troops in Ukraine's eastern region of Donbas, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said Tuesday in a statement.

"If we are talking about keeping the peace, then, according to our calculations, the force can consist of between 10,000 and 25,000 troops. If we are talking about enforcing the peace, the figure can be between 35,000 and 40,000 troops," Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak was quoted in the statement as saying in an interview to BBC News Ukraine.

In February, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said that the possible deployment of the UN blue helmets in Donbas will take at least six months.

The armed confrontation between Ukrainian government troops and pro-independence insurgents in Donbas region has been underway since April 2014, claiming about 10,000 lives.

On Sept. 5, 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow will ask the UN Security Council to send peacekeepers to patrol the contact line in eastern Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Kiev said it would agree to the deployment of a UN patrol only if the troops would be stationed across the whole area controlled by the rebels, including the Ukrainian-Russian border.
ABUJA, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The Nigerian parliament on Tuesday criticized President Muhammadu Buhari for purchasing warplanes from the United States without parliamentary approval.

A lot of flak followed the reading of Buhari's letter to the parliament by its leader, Yakubu Dogara, as the parliamentarians questioned the president's decision to order the release of 496 million U.S. dollars to purchase the military aircraft without the constitutionally required approval.

The delivery of the 12 Super Tucano aircraft by the United States was to be done by 2020, under a direct government-to-government arrangement. Discussion toward the purchase had been on for a number of years.

In his letter to the parliament on Tuesday, Buhari said the approval for Nigeria to take delivery of the warplanes was finally granted by the U.S. government, but with a deadline within which part payment must be made, otherwise, the contract would lapse.

The president pleaded with the parliament to accommodate the 496 million dollars expenditure as supplementary input to the country's 2018 Appropriation Bill, drawing the attention of the lawmakers to ongoing security emergencies in Nigeria.

The Nigerian leader also confirmed that the money had been paid "directly to the treasury of the U.S. government," with Buhari set to meet U.S. president Donald Trump on April 30.

The Nigerian lawmakers accused the president of breaching the Constitution, which stipulated how the nation's resources could be expended through an appropriation by the National Assembly.

Kingsley Chinda, a lawmaker representing Nigeria's oil-rich state of Rivers, said the decision of the president was "an impeachable offense," noting the Nigerian Constitution did not give room for anticipatory approval of the budget.

Another lawmaker, Sunday Karimi, accused Buhari of snubbing the parliament to make payment deposits to the U.S. treasury without due process, calling for an impeachment process against the president.

Closing the plenary, the parliament speaker ruled that "an appropriation can only be done through a bill and the House would want to operate within the ambit of the rules."

The parliament said the president's request as contained in the letter would be debated on another legislative day.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-25 03:00:37|Editor: Xiang Bo

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Chinese State Councilor and Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe presides over the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) defense ministers in Beijing, capital of China, April 24, 2018. (Xinhua/Liu Fang)

BEIJING, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe on Tuesday called on defense ministers from Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member countries to implement consensus reached by heads of state and continuously improve cooperation in defense and security.

Wei made the remarks while delivering a keynote speech at the 15th meeting of the SCO defense ministers, which was held Tuesday in Beijing.

Wei called on SCO member countries to stick to the principle of treating each other as equals, helping each other and sharing weal and woe, so as to build a security pattern of joint building and shared benefits in defense and security cooperation.

"We should continue to uphold the 'Shanghai Spirit', and strengthen pragmatic cooperation in high-level exchanges, joint exercises, military culture, education and training," Wei said, adding that joint efforts should be made to fight against terrorism and safeguard regional and world peace.

The "Shanghai Spirit" features mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for cultural diversity and pursuit of common development.

Defense ministers of SCO member countries said defense ministries and militaries should further enhance cooperation and work together to deal with threats and challenges.

They also signed notes of the meeting and a joint communique.

During the meeting, Wei met with defense ministers from Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrghyzstan and India, exchanging views on deepening bilateral military communication and cooperation.

Senior military officials from SCO member countries and representatives of SCO attended the meeting. The defense minister of Belarus was also present as a specially invited guest.
NEW YORK, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of scholars, business leaders from both the United States and China will gather on Saturday at Yale University to explore cooperative opportunities between the two largest economies in the world.

2018 Yale U.S.-China Forum, which is to be held at Yale School of Management on April 28, will discuss China's recent emphasis on global connectivity and "shared growth through collaboration" by probing key issues related to this year's theme, The China Accelerator for World Development.

With panels on macro economy, urbanization, healthcare, fintech, art and culture, and many other topics, speakers and audiences will together explore cooperative opportunities between the Untied States and China and foster ideas for coordinated development across China's economy, society, and culture.

The forum features renowned speakers from various industries and academia including Yuqiang Xiao, Chairman of ICBC U.S. Management Committee, Victor Wang, Co-Founder of Zhen Fund, Raymond Chang, managing director of NXT venture fund, and Chen Xu, President and CEO of Bank of China, U.S.A..

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, senior associate dean of Yale School of Management and Stephen Roach, Senior Fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute of Global Affairs and Senior Lecturer at Yale's School of Management, and Zhang Weiwei, best-selling author of "The China Wave" and distinguished professor of international relations and Director of the China Institute at Fudan University, and Victor Yuan, founder and Chairman of Dataway Horizon, China's leading organization in data intelligence and public policy polling, will also be present at the event.

One of the other highlights for the forum is the art panel where several prestigious artists from China were invited.

The Yale US-China Forum is a conference at Yale University that seeks to initiate discussions on forward-looking issues in China. It is jointly hosted by Yale Association of Chinese Students and Scholars at Yale(ACSSY), Yale School of Management Greater China Club (SOM GCC) and North America Chinese Cultural Foundation.
Three Chinese tourists were killed and eight others wounded on April 24 in a traffic accident on Egypt's Cairo-Alexandria highway north of the country. (Xinhua)

CAIRO, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Three Chinese tourists were killed and eight others wounded on Tuesday in a traffic accident on Egypt's Cairo-Alexandria highway north of the country, the Chinese Embassy in Egypt told Xinhua.

A travel van carrying a group of 11 Chinese tourists overturned into a ditch by the roadside, said Guo Hualong, director of the counselor affairs at the Chinese Embassy to Egypt.

The Egyptian van driver and tour guide were also wounded in the crash.

Guo noted that the group was in Egypt on a tour organized by a Shenzhen-based travel agency.

Alexandria Governor Mohamed Sultan said in a statement that the van, which carried 11 Chinese and two Egyptians, the tour guide and the driver, hit another bus at the Cairo-Alexandria desert road due to speeding.

Sultan said that he rushed to the accident scene accompanied by Xu Nanshan, consul general of China's Consulate General in Alexandria, to check on the wounded.

The governor noted the three Chinese tourists killed included two women and a man, adding that Alexandria security department has taken required legal measures and is currently investigating the collision.

"The injured tourists have been sent to Mostafa Kamel military hospital for necessary treatment," he said.
KAMPALA, April 24 (Xinhua) -- As the international community marks the World Malaria Day on Wednesday, a group of young Ugandan innovators are providing digital solutions in the fight against the disease.

Four university graduates Josiah Kavuma, Brian Gitta, Simon Lubambo and Joshua Businge developed a device dubbed Matibabu. They have been working on the device, which is still at prototype stage, for the last five years.

The kit uses a custom-made portable device called a matiscope, which is connected to a smartphone, to do a rapid diagnostic test. The user's finger is inserted into the matiscope, and the application uses a red light to penetrate the skin and detect the red blood cells.

Lubambo, the team's electrical engineer told Xinhua in a recent interview that after about two minutes, the results can be attained, beating the standard microscope which needs at least 15 minutes for a single test.

Besides, a blood sample from the patient is needed for the microscope, while with the Matibabu, you do not need to prick the patient.

"We are still doing final tests but we want the final design to give results in less than 10 seconds," Lubambo said.

"Within a year or so we shall have it ready for market use," he said.

The developers say for one to operate the device they do not have to be experienced medical people like the ones who use the microscope.

They believe that when the device hits the market, it will be much cheaper than the microscope, meaning that government would spend less money as compared to purchasing microscopes.

The kit has already won support from government and other international organizations. It was shortlisted for the Aspirin Social Innovation Award 2017. The Team also won the coveted Microsoft Imagine Cup in 2013.

Evelyn Ampiire, a laboratory technician told Xinhua that the Matibabu device is a great innovation but more studies need to be done, noting that sometimes malaria parasite are difficult to detect unless one uses a microscope.

"There are partial parasites, there are complete ones and then there are unstable ones. But you only differentiate them after microscopy. Matibabu is much better for a virus, not a parasite," she said.

MALARIA BURDEN

Ministry of health figures show that malaria is still the leading cause of death in Uganda, accounting for over 27 percent of deaths. The country has the sixth highest number of annual deaths from malaria in Africa, as well as some of the highest reported malaria transmission rates in the world. Uganda registers 478 cases per 1,000 population per year.

The ministry says malaria also imposes a heavy economic burden. A single episode of malaria costs a family an average of 9 U.S. dollars.

Government spends over 100 million dollars annually on malarial treatment, and the average number of productive days lost for an episode of malaria is 8.4 days.

OTHER INTERVENTIONS

Government has also embarked on other interventions to fight the disease. The country on April 5 launched the Mass Action Against Malaria and the Uganda Parliamentary Forum on Malaria, campaigns aimed at renewing efforts geared towards sustaining the gains achieved in reducing malaria.

The country's President Yoweri Museveni directed the ministry of health to focus on elimination of the anopheles mosquitoes which spread malaria as opposed to treating the disease.

The ministry of health said that it needs 350 billion shillings (97.2 million dollars) to carry out a countrywide outdoor spraying against the anopheles mosquito.

Ruth Aceng, the minister of health, said the money would be a major intervention in fighting the disease.

Besides the planned outdoor spraying, government with support from donor agencies is distributing treated mosquito treated nets.

The ministry says insecticide treated nets have proven to reduce child mortality by about 20 percent, decrease clinical cases of malaria by 50 percent and severe malaria by 45 percent.

Before the end of last year, the ministry said it had distributed over 23 million treated mosquito nets under its second universal coverage campaign to fight malaria.
LJUBLJANA, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar hosted a plenary meeting of prime ministers of the South-East European Cooperation Process (SEECP) on Tuesday at the mansion of Brdo pri Kranju near Ljubljana, focusing on the future of the initiative.

Addressing the press after the meeting of SEECP, the regional body, Cerar said that much of the debate focused on recent European Commission's reports on the bloc's enlargement to the Western Balkans, according to the Slovenian Press Agency STA.

The prime minister congratulateed to Macedonia and Albania, which were given the green light to start EU accession talks, during which "Slovenia has remained a very active advocate of the EU enlargement both within EU institutions and as part of our bilateral activities."

He said that Slovenia would continue to support countries on their path to the EU and NATO.

However, according to the STA, the Slovenian prime minister warned that the enlargement process was based on the implementation of the necessary reforms and meeting of the accession criteria.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-25 03:40:49|Editor: yan

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JERUSALEM, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Israel said Tuesday it has canceled a plan to forcibly deport tens of thousands of African asylum seekers and instead may incarcerate them in a prison specially built for them.

Following petitions to the Supreme Court calling to halt the deportation, the state told the court that it has decided to abandon a plan to deport the asylum seekers to a "third country."

"Forcibly deporting to a third country is not an option at this stage," the state's reply read, referring to the plan to expel the migrants to Uganda or Rwanda.

As a result, "no further decisions on third-country expulsion will be issued at this time," the state said.

A few hours later, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on his Twitter account that he instructed Internal Minister Aryeh Deri to "prepare for an immediate opening of detention facilities for the infiltrators."

Official figures released by the Interior Ministry show Israel has some 42,000 African migrants, many of whom live in the impoverished neighborhoods of southern Tel Aviv.

Israeli authorities see them as a threat to Israel's Jewish identity and employed a slew of measures against them.

On April 2, Netanyahu announced that he reached a deal with the UN to resettle the asylum seekers and allow some of them to stay in Israel as refugees only to cancel the deal a day later.

The cancelations came after a political pressure by ultra-nationalist ministers not to allow any African asylum seeker to stay in Israel.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-25 03:45:50|Editor: yan

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BAGHDAD, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Tuesday pledged to continue airstrikes on positions and headquarters of Islamic State (IS) group inside neighboring Syria, asserting that Iraq will not interfere in Syrian affairs.

"We will continue airstrikes in Syria and we will do more to eliminate Daesh (IS group). We will not allow IS militants to come back, nor establishing a similar thing (terrorist organization) to appear," Abadi told a press conference after weekly cabinet meeting.

Abadi confirmed that IS militants have not finished yet in Syria, "but doesn't mean to interfere in Syrian affairs, as the Syrian people will determine their own destiny."

"Iraq will pursue Daesh militants anywhere," Abadi said, adding that Iraq will not allow IS terrorists to regroup in Iraq, as they will not find breeding ground inside Iraq anymore.

He said that IS group has suffered fiasco in both Iraq and Syria, but the complex situation in Syria and the ongoing conflict on the ground gave a breathing chance for IS group in eastern Syria near the border with Iraq.

On April 19, Abadi, who is also the commander-in-chief of the Iraqi forces, ordered Iraqi F-16 fighter jets to carry out airstrikes on IS positions inside Syria near the border with Iraq, leaving 36 IS militants killed, including five of the group's leaders.

Previously, the Iraqi air force carried out such preemptive airstrikes against IS militants inside Syria with Iraqi F-16 fighter jets.

On Dec. 9, 2017, Abadi officially declared full liberation of Iraq from IS militants after Iraqi forces recaptured all the areas once seized by the extremist group.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-25 03:50:51|Editor: yan

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UNITED NATIONS, April 24 (Xinhua) -- With people facing unending conflict in parts of the world, a new approach was needed now more than ever, UN General Assembly President Miroslav Lajcak said on Tuesday.

"The signs were already there: rising intolerance, hate speech, escalating rhetoric and disregard for the systems that we had spent 70 years building," Lajcak said at the ongoing High-Level Meeting on Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace to assess efforts undertaken and opportunities to strengthen the UN's work.

The meeting is to run through Wednesday at the UN headquarters in New York.

Peace was at the core of the founding of the United Nations, with its Charter endeavoring to save generations from the scourge of another war, he said.

The United Nations adopted in 2016 the sustaining peace resolution, which committed to act earlier, faster and better to prevent the suffering that conflict brought, he added.

However, the challenge was to make that approach a reality, he said. The international community must assess its progress how it could do better going forward.

"Prevention needed to be prioritized, with more mediation and diplomacy at the local, regional and international levels," he said.

Prevention, emphasized by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in his first address to the Council in January last year, is at the top of the agenda.

The high-level meeting, convened by Lajcak, comes two years after the concurrent resolutions of the UN General Assembly and Security Council that adopted a new approach called "sustaining peace," which is aimed at significantly bolstering the international effort to prevent the outbreak, escalation, continuation and recurrence of conflict.

"We need a drive for diplomacy and the United Nations must be the engine room," said Lajcak, adding that the world must not allow the incentives for violence to outweigh those for peace.

He called for more coherence across the United Nations three pillars as well as partnerships to sustain peace, stressing that the United Nations must listen to national, regional and subregional actors.

Civil society was another key ingredient to sustaining peace, while innovative partnerships were also needed with the private sector and financial institutions, he said.

More broadly, the international community was not investing enough in prevention, he said, noting that the UN Peacebuilding Fund was struggling to meet its 500-million-dollar target.

He urged member states to go beyond resolutions, statements and words and to recommit to a new approach to peace.
MINSK, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Tuesday praised rapid development of bilateral relations between Belarus and China.

"The relations with China have been developing rapidly," the president said in his annual State of the Nation Address to the Belarusian people and the National Assembly.

The president stressed that the ties between the two countries have been expanding dynamically both in quantity and quality.

He recalled that in 2016, the two countries established a comprehensive strategic partnership, featuring mutual trust and mutually beneficial cooperation.

Besides, the Belarusian leader spoke highly of China's Belt and Road Initiative, saying that his country will actively participate in it. "This is a new strategy of international cooperation based on the principles of support and co-development," he added.
CAPE TOWN, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs on Tuesday unanimously adopted the terms of reference for the inquiry into the granting of citizenship to the controversial Indian Gupta family.

The inquiry follows an instruction by House Chairperson for Committees, Cedric Frolick for parliamentary committees to probe allegations of state capture involving the Gupta family.

Following various interactions with various ministers, and departmental officials, the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs resolved to institute an inquiry on the process undertaken to grant the family their naturalization status, the committee said in a statement emailed to Xinhua.

The Guptas are accused of collaborating with former president Jacob Zuma and a number of senior officials in looting from the state coffers, known as state capture.

The Guptas have been on the run since South African law enforcement agencies issued a warrant to arrest them late last year.

The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has been under fire for granting citizenship to the Guptas in the early 2000s.

The agreed terms of reference will have two phases, with the first phase to entail the committee to collect information from the DHA and relevant stakeholders, the committee said.

This phase will also include a call to the general public to provide the committee with any information the public might have in relation to the matter under inquiry, according to the committee.

This phase is already underway and should be concluded within a short time, the committee said.

It said the first phase will determine if there is need for the committee to move to the second phase, which will entail a session or sessions where the committee will interview witnesses.

Phase One will also determine if there is a need for an evidence leader to take the process forward, said the committee.

There was also unanimous agreement that the terms of reference must be broad enough to ensure that this matter is investigated thoroughly, said the committee.

As a result, the committee agreed that it will also look into foreign employees working within companies of the Gupta family to assess if they had received their work permits as per the prescripts of the law.

The committee committed itself to thoroughly investigate the matter and to leave no stone unturned.

"The primary consideration of the committee is ensuring accountability and ensuring that our laws as passed by this Parliament are respected and enforced," said Donald Gumede, Acting Committee Chairperson.

The move drew immediate applause from the ruling African National Congress (ANC).

"As the ANC, we will ensure that this inquiry is conducted thoroughly and speedily to ensure that this matter is fairly and transparently brought to finalization," the party said.

The South African people have entrusted the ANC to safeguard the laws of this country and "we shall not fall short on our mandate," said Hlomane Chauke,the Acting Whip of the ANC Study Group on Home Affairs.
BANJUL, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament opened this Tuesday a five day meeting in Banjul to discuss solutions for climate change effects on agricultural productivity in the sub-region.

The speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, Mustapha Ceesay Lowe, said the meeting will be looking into integration as well as field trips in the West African state.

"The problems of agriculture and food security remain concerns despite plans and resolutions. The problem is more than policies but also rainfall and the effects of climate change. We will be looking into challenges and discuss solutions during the meeting which can bring food security in the region," he said.

The speaker of the Gambia national assembly, Mariam Jack Denton said, the meeting on sustainable agriculture in the context of climate change is timely and crucial.

She said agricultural productivity and growth in West Africa are under threat from erratic rainfall.

"It is therefore essential that we are gathered here to brainstorm on prioritization of climate-smart options and portfolios for investment with a view to providing innovative solutions towards the complex and integrated goals of increasing yields," she said.

The Gambia has seen an uneven distribution of rainfall in 2017 farming season which officials said has hugely impacted on the crops.
MADRID, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Local authorities of Palma, a resort city and capital of Spanish island of Mallorca in the western Mediterranean, on Tuesday became the first Spanish city to forbid homeowners to rent their apartments to tourists.

The decision was taken by the town hall of the city of over 400,000 inhabitants in an attempt to check further rent increase after an accumulated rise of 40 percent since 2013, which is making it increasingly difficult for the local to rent homes in the city.

The regulation follows several studies commissioned by the local authorities, which found that there are over 11,000 holiday rentals available in the city despite the truth that only 645 properties registered. And these holiday rentals have brought problems of noise and safety in addition to rents rising.

"Palma is a bold and decisive city," said Antoni Noguera, the mayor of Palma, in the El Pais newspaper.

"We agreed on this for the general interest, and we believe that it will create a trend in other cities," he continued, adding the decision had been taken to "protect residents."
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko delivers his annual State of the Nation Address to the Belarusian people and the National Assembly in Minsk on April 24, 2018.

MINSK, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Tuesday praised rapid development of bilateral relations between Belarus and China.

"The relations with China have been developing rapidly," the president said in his annual State of the Nation Address to the Belarusian people and the National Assembly.

The president stressed that the ties between the two countries have been expanding dynamically both in quantity and quality.

He recalled that in 2016, the two countries established a comprehensive strategic partnership, featuring mutual trust and mutually beneficial cooperation.

Besides, the Belarusian leader spoke highly of China's Belt and Road Initiative, saying that his country will actively participate in it. "This is a new strategy of international cooperation based on the principles of support and co-development," he added.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-25 04:31:04|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borisov, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila, and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras (from L to R) pose for photos at a joint press conference at Victoria Palace in Bucharest, Romania, April 24, 2018. The leaders of Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia met here on Tuesday, discussing economic cooperation, concrete projects and the 16+1 cooperation format promoted by China. (Xinhua/Cristian Cristel)

BUCHAREST, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The leaders of Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia met here on Tuesday, discussing economic cooperation, concrete projects and the 16+1 cooperation format promoted by China.

"We discussed today about economic cooperation, about concrete projects that the four states can develop and about the 16+1 format," Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila told a joint press conference with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, Greek and Bulgarian Prime Ministers Alexis Tsipras and Boiko Borisov.

According to Dancila, the consultations provide a good opportunity to strengthen dialogue and identify ways of cooperation in the Southeast European region, especially in terms of economic development.

The Romanian prime minister said that "it is a great pleasure" to host the third quadrilateral meeting, which has proved "its usefulness and added value" in promoting the common objectives in the region of the four countries.

"I appreciate Serbia's role as a stability factor in the Western Balkans and a positive contribution to the process of cooperation and reconciliation, and we assure it of all our support in the negotiation process for EU membership," Dancila said.

At the same time, the Romanian prime minister assured her Bulgarian counterpart of Bucharest's support in fulfilling the objectives of Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, where the Western Balkans play a key role.

She also said that Greece is a key partner for Romania in the region and expressed her country's desire to boost bilateral relations, as well as their cooperation on a bilateral, regional and European level.

The quadrilateral meeting is the third edition in this format, after those of October 2017 in Varna and December 2017 in Belgrade.
ROME, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Italy's national coverage of vaccination among small children fell slightly short of the 95 percent threshold recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) despite an improvement in immunization with 10 vaccinations added as compulsory for school kids, data by the Health Ministry showed on Tuesday.

Considering 24-month-old children, immunization against polio across the country increased by 1.21 percentage points to 94.54 percent in 2017 against 2016, the latest statistics showed.

Among the 21 Italian areas, 11 showed levels above 95 percent. Yet, the coverage remained lower at national level because in some areas anti-vaccine groups were traditionally stronger.

Polio was used as a reference to measure the compliance with the "hexavalent" vaccine, which also includes immunization against tetanus, diphtheria, hepatitis B, pertussis, and haemophilia B, the ministry specified in its report.

The hexavalent was among the 10 vaccinations made compulsory in July 2017 for pupils aged 0-16 -- and mandatory to enroll in school for those between 3 and 6 years -- after a worrying downward trend of immunization was reported to health authorities.

The remaining four were against measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella.

The report highlighted a marked improvement with the first dose of measles vaccine among 24-month children, which overall rose by 4.42 percentage points in 2017 against the previous year.

However, immunization against this highly infectious disease remained at 91.68 percent at national level -- far below the 95 percent threshold recommended by the WHO to attain the so-called "herd immunity".

Addressing a press conference after the report was unveiled, Italy's outgoing Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin said data were encouraging, mainly for children aged 0-6.

"We expect a further improvement in 2018," Lorenzin said.

"Unfortunately, some areas still show a strong opposition and a low coverage, especially considering measles."

Indeed, Italy registered 4,991 measles cases in 2017, including four dead (three of which were children under the age of 10), the National Health Institute (ISS) stated in January.

Some 87.5 percent of those affected had not been vaccinated, and 7.2 percent had taken a first dose only, according to the ISS.

It was the second-largest outbreak of measles in the European region after Romania (5,562 cases) and before Ukraine (4,767), the WHO said.

In the same 12 months, Italy also registered 65 cases of rubella.
BERLIN, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Josef Schuster, the president for the German Central Council of Jews Tuesday urged Jewish citizens to take precautionary measures against further anti-Semitic assaults.

Speaking to the radio station "RBB Radioeins", Schuster warned individual Jews against "openly wearing a kippa (a traditional form of Jewish headwear) on the streets of major German cities." According to Schuster, the safety of adherents of the Jewish faith could no longer be guaranteed in light of recent incidents of violence motivated by antisemitism in Germany.

Nevertheless, the president of the Council of Jews expressed hope that "the broad majority of society" had now realized that Germany had reached "a certain turning point" with regards to its societal development. Given that racial and religious hatred posed a "threat to democracy" in general, nipping growing antisemitism in the bud was a matter of urgency for all Germans.

Schuster's comments were made shortly after the controversial nomination of an allegedly anti-Semitic hip-hop duo for an Echo music prize and a widely-publicized attack on an Israeli citizen wearing a kippa in Berlin.

In the attack case, a Syrian refugee was filmed lashing at a young Jew with his belt while hurling abuse at his victim in Arabic. The 19-year old suspect has since turned himself in to the police.

Joining heated debate over an apparent increase in the incidence of anti-Semitic crimes, German Chancellor and Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader Angela Merkel expressed the view that policymakers currently faced the challenge of a "different form of antisemitism" compared with the views traditionally espoused by far-right parties. Merkel hereby referred to concerns that hatred of Jews is particularly widespread within Germany's growing Muslim population.

Meanwhile, Aiman Mazyek, the president of Central Council of Muslims in Germany, has issued a statement condemning antisemitism. "Antisemitism, racism and hatred are great sins in Islam and will consequently never be tolerated," Mazyek told the newspaper "Rheinische Post".
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-25 05:01:11|Editor: Liangyu

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U.S. President Donald Trump (R) and French President Emmanuel Macron attend a joint press conference at the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, April 24, 2018. Macron is on a state visit to the United States from Monday to Wednesday. (Xinhua/Yang Chenglin)

WASHINGTON, April 24 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer will travel to China in a few days for trade talks.

"In fact, we're having Secretary Mnuchin and a couple of other folks heading over to -- Bob Lighthizer -- heading over to China," Trump said at a press conference with visiting French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House.

"They (Chinese officials) came here, as you know, last week. And we're having very substantive discussions on trade," Trump said, referring to bilateral discussions of trade on the sidelines of spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, which concluded here last week.

During the spring meetings, Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF, and other financial leaders around the world called on the United States and China to resolve trade tensions through dialogues and rules-based multilateral institutions.

"I believe the trade will work out ... hopefully it'll be good for everybody concerned," Trump said.

Trump's remarks came after Mnuchin said Saturday that he was considering a trip to Beijing to discuss trade issues with his Chinese counterparts.

"China has received the information about the U.S. side hoping to come to Beijing for consultations on economic and trade issues and we welcome it," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said on Tuesday.

"I want to stress that China-U.S. economic ties are mutually beneficial in nature and have long been delivering tangible benefits to the business communities and consumers of the two countries," Lu said.

The Trump administration has recently threatened to impose tariffs on up to 150 billion U.S. dollars of Chinese imports, while China has vowed to retaliate against U.S. exports if the Trump administration moves forward with the tariffs.

"These problems can be solved through bilateral consultations or within a commonly recognized multilateral framework. However, they can never be solved through unilateral means," said the Chinese spokesperson.

Unilateralism and trade protectionism will inevitably harm others without benefiting oneself as the global economy is deeply integrated, China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said last week.

Citing a report from the Brookings Institution, Hua said a U.S.-China trade war would result in a loss of more than 2.1 million jobs in 2,700 U.S. counties.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-25 05:01:11|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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ANKARA, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag slammed Tuesday the Council of Europe over its move regarding the country's snap elections as "interference in Turkey's internal affairs."

The call of Council of Europe on Turkey to postpone its early elections amid its state of emergency shows a "double standard," as no one made an issue of the same situation in France, Bozdag said on his Twitter account.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Monitoring Committee on Tuesday called on Turkey to postpone the early elections, adding it should abide by the fundamental values of the Council of Europe.

The move came one week after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced to hold presidential and parliamentary snap vote on June 24, over one year ahead of the scheduled date, Nov. 3, 2019.

"When France held (2017) elections during the state of emergency, PACE didn't mind election security and didn't urge France to postpone the elections, but when it comes to Turkey, it brings up the EU criteria, state of emergency and election security, which is meaningful and shows a double standard," Bozdag noted.

"PACE should mind its own business. Turkey will hold the elections, not them," Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told a news conference in Spain's capital Madrid.

Omer Celik, Turkey's EU minister, also criticized the PACE move, calling it "a completely political decision," and "an intrusion in the sovereign decision of Turkish citizens".

"Turkey knows how to decide when the elections should be. Nobody has the right to intervene except Turkish people and the institutions that represent them," he tweeted on Tuesday.

Turkey declared a state of emergency for the first time on July 20, 2016 following a deadly coup attempt.

On Wednesday, the parliament ratified motions extending the ongoing state of emergency for the seventh time for three more months, meaning the upcoming early elections on June 24 will be held under the emergency rule.
WARSAW, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The Polish-Chinese Friendship Association celebrated its 60th anniversary on Tuesday in Warsaw.

The celebrations brought together many people contributing to the constant development of friendly relations between the two countries.

In his address, the Chinese Ambassador to Poland Liu Guangyuan highly appreciated the efforts made by the association in recent years to build mutual exchanges and cooperation between the two countries and promote the development of friendly bilateral relations.

"In the past 60 years, the Friendship Association has continued to devote itself to develop friendship between the peoples of the two countries...It has built a bridge between the two nations," said the ambassador.

Marek Suski, Head of the Polish Prime Minister's Political Cabinet, emphasized that Poland attached great attention to Polish-Chinese relations and reminded that they have been lifted to a comprehensive strategic partnership. Suski expressed hope that the Association might be a platform for further development of these relations.

Within the years of 2013-2018, the association has received many delegations from China and launched joint projects with Chinese-European Partnership for Development (CEPD) Warsaw-Beijing Forum.

The association also launched the Chinese language course in cooperation with Department of Asian Studies at SWPS Warsaw University and commenced cooperation with Tianjin International Chinese College in the field of language education.

Agnieszka Wu-Skawinska, current Chairman of the association informed that such activities will be continued to enhance bilateral cooperation within the Belt and Road Initiative, as well as within the 16+1 cooperation mechanism.

The 60th anniversary celebrations were highlighted by the performance of distinguished Polish and Chinese musicians.

Polish-Chinese Friendship Association was established in 1956 and belongs to the oldest organizations of this kind operating in Poland. It is dedicated to promote cooperation and mutual understanding between Poland and China, focusing on the development of friendly relations between two countries. Currently, it has nine local branches around the country.
LISBON, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Portugal's Left Bloc (BE) party called for Altice's takeover of Media Capital to be stopped on Tuesday after the European Commission (EC) fined Altice 125 million euros for breaking antitrust rules.

"This verdict proves that Altice has consistently disregarded legal obligations," BE deputy Jose Soeiro told local journalists, after attending a meeting with Altice staff.

"Altice must now be stopped from buying out TVI, which would be another form of market concentration," Soeiro added. "The Portuguese authorities must speak out and stop the deal."

Altice is seeking to buy Media Capital, owner of television company TVI, in a deal being investigated by Portugal's Competition Authority (AdC).

The EC fined Altice earlier on Tuesday for completing its buyout of PT Portugal without waiting for Brussels approval, thus violating European Union (EU) antitrust rules. Altice immediately vowed to appeal the fine.

Altice, a French telecoms group headquartered in Holland, first notified the EC of its intentions to buy PT Portugal in February 2015, with the deal approved in April 2015.

But a subsequent investigation by the EC suggested Altice had completed the deal prior to gaining approval. Furthermore, Altice appeared to have undue influence over PT Portugal prior to the notification.

That influence included instructing PT Portugal on marketing campaigns and using sensitive information not legislated for in the confidentiality agreement.

As Soeiro pointed out, Altice has history here. In 2014 it was fined 80 million euros by the French competition authorities for a similar infraction when it acquired SFR and Virgin Mobile.

PT Portugal is a legacy company of Portugal Telecom, Portugal's sole telephone operator until 1994.

MEO is PT Portugal's main brand, a mobile phone and cable provider. MEO's rivals NOS and Vodafone believe that Altice acquiring TVI would create a monopoly.
KIGALI, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Rwanda's lower house, Chamber of Deputies, on Tuesday unanimously passed a bill approving ratification of the treaty establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

The bill also approved ratification of protocol on trade in goods, protocol on trade in services, and protocol on rules and procedures for settlement of disputes which were signed in Kigali, Rwanda, in March 2018.

All the 60 lawmakers approved the bill, which will also go to Senate for approval.

The treaty will come into effect after it is ratified by 22 countries.

The decision to form the AfCFTA was adopted in January 2012 during the 18th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the AU while AfCFTA negotiations were launched by the AU in 2015.

The AfCFTA is aimed at creating a single continental market for goods and services with free movement of businesses and investments. This, according to the AU, will pave the way for accelerating the establishment of the Continental Customs Union and the African Customs Union.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-25 06:31:29|Editor: yan

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QUITO, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Lenin Moreno, the president of Ecuador, on Tuesday vowed to eradicate violence along the Colombian border.

He made the remarks after a spate of attacks and kidnappings has left at least seven people dead.

"We will not rest until they are eradicated ... Trust in your government. We are working firmly to eradicate this scourge that makes our country mourn," he said during the opening of a policy community center in Quito.

The president said that Ecuador is facing new security challenges, with "new enemies...appearing on the horizon."

"We want to stabilize our country and they want to destabilize it, deprive us of our peace ... Ecuador has been historically an island of peace and we will remain that way," said Moreno.

He said that, since Jan. 27, areas along the Colombian border have seen a wave of terrorist attacks, perpetrated by illegal armed groups, such as the Oliver Sinisterra Front.

The dissident group, which broke away from Colombia's Revolutionary Armed Force (FARC) after it signed a peace deal with the government, is headed by Walter Patricio Arizala, also known as "Guacho."

The group has claimed responsibility for a wave of attacks, which have killed four soldiers and a press team of three staff from the El Comercio daily.

The most recent kidnapping of a couple on April 17 has not been claimed and their whereabouts are unknown.

Since last week, Ecuador and Colombia have been carrying out coordinated actions to capture "Gaucho."
WASHINGTON, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The United States on Tuesday announced to sell to the Netherlands the F-16 Training Unit and M1156 Precision Guided Kits (PGK).

According to a statement of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, the State Department approved the sales to the Netherlands of defense articles and services to support its Royal Netherlands Air Force F-16 Formal Training Unit for an estimated cost of 110 million U.S. dollars.

The Dutch government has requested to buy 27 GBU-12 Inert Paveway IIs and PGU-27 Inert training rounds, Impulse Cartridges, MJU-7/B Flares, RR-188 Chaff, BDU-33/B and BDU-50/B training munitions, fuel and air refueling support, airlift services and base operating support, among others.

This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by improving the security of a NATO ally, the statement read.

It added that this potential sale will improve the Royal Netherlands Air Force's ability to develop mission-ready and experienced pilots to support its F-16 aircraft inventory, and to continue contributions to NATO air policing operations, as well as, to possible future coalitions operations.

The Netherlands will have no difficulty absorbing this training.

Also on Tuesday, the State Department greenlighted to sell the Netherlands 3,500 M1156 Precision Guided Kits for an estimated cost of 70 million U.S. dollars.

"The Netherlands has been a consistent coalition partner supporting the United States in various coalition combat operations to include counter-ISIS, Stabilization Force in Iraq, and Afghanistan," said the statement.

The proposed sale of PGK will provide a precision guided capability to 155mm artillery projectiles and improve the Netherlands' capability to meet current and future enemy threats, said the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-25 07:16:39|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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Miroslav Lajcak (C), President of the United Nations General Assembly, gavels to open the High-Level Meeting on Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace at the UN headquarters in New York, April 24, 2018. With people facing unending conflict in parts of the world, a new approach was needed now more than ever, UN General Assembly President Miroslav Lajcak said on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

by Xinhua writer Wang Jiangang

UNITED NATIONS, April 24 (Xinhua) -- United Nations officials on Tuesday urged a gathering of world leaders and high-ranking representatives of member states and other representatives to help strengthen a new approach to sustaining peace, which aims to put prevention at the heart of UN's work.

NEW APPROACH

"The first line of the United Nations Charter commits us to saving succeeding generations from the scourge of war," UN General Assembly President Miroslav Lajcak said in his opening remarks to the High-Level Meeting on Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace, which runs through Wednesday at UN headquarters in New York.

"In a way, we have met this commitment. There has not, since, been another world war. But, in many other ways, we have not," he said, noting that a new approach is needed to save people in places of unending conflict, including Syria, South Sudan, Yemen, Libya, Somalia and Afghanistan.

Lajcak said that in 2016, the UN decided to take a new approach: the General Assembly, along with the Security Council, adopted what are now known as the "sustaining peace resolutions," which renew the world body's commitment to conflict prevention as embodied in the UN Charter.

Two years on, there are challenges in making this approach a reality, he said, calling for greater international attention to the need for scaled-up efforts to prevent conflict, achieve coherence within the UN system, and expand partnerships, financing, and inclusion.

PARTNERSHIP AND UNITY

Echoing Lajcak's view, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres highlighted the need to strengthen partnerships around all efforts, and at every stage, from conflict prevention and resolution to peacekeeping, peacebuilding and long-term development.

Key partners include governments, the UN, other international, regional and sub-regional organizations, international financial institutions, the private sector, and civil society, including women's and youth groups, he added.

"Sustaining peace will only be realized through committed, inclusive national ownership that considers the needs of the most marginalized, including women, young people, minorities and people with disabilities," he said.

The UN chief said more countries are experiencing violent conflicts than at any time in nearly three decades, and that record numbers of people are on the move, displaced by violence, war and persecution.

"Inequalities are increasing. Whole regions, countries and communities can find themselves isolated from progress and left behind by growth. These are all indications that we need greater unity and courage, to ease the fears of the people we serve, to set the world on track to a better future, and to lay the foundations of sustainable peace and development," Guterres noted.

POTENTIAL OF YOUTH

Jayathma Wickramanayake, UN Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth, called on member states to increase financing for the peacebuilding work led by youth and see young people as partners in the sustaining peace agenda.

Emphasizing the importance of tapping into the potential and creativity of youth, she noted that 408 million young people are living amid violence and armed conflicts. Greater support must be given to those working on peace and stability in their communities, often with little funding or support, and sometimes under personal threat.

She said two key issues must be immediately addressed: a growing mistrust among youth in political institutions and their exclusion from political and economic life.

Meaningful youth participation contributed to conflict prevention. For too long, young people had been calling on the United Nations to go beyond the immediate needs of war-torn countries by giving more attention to sustaining peace, she said.

"Financing for sustainable peace should be substantially increased, including the youth instrument of the Peacebuilding Fund," she said.

Concluding, she said young people must be seen as partners in peacebuilding, not as a problem to be dealt with, and reminded delegates that a generation is counting on them to make the right decisions.

FULL PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN

Speakers in the opening session included Michelle Yeoh, an actress and UN Development Programme (UNDP) Goodwill Ambassador, and Ishmael Beah, UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) Advocate for Children Affected by War.

The United Nations has begun shifting its efforts toward prevention, Yeoh said, noting that the resolution has emphasized prevention, inclusion and women's essential role in the peacebuilding process.

"Indeed, inclusive and sustained peacebuilding required the full participation of women... Gender equality contributed to durable peace and sustainable development," she said.

Looking forward, funds are needed to advance gender equality, especially in peacebuilding contexts, she said.

Building and sustaining peace is at the core of the United Nations: to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, sustainable development is needed, she said.

In fact, sustainable development and sustainable peace must be achieved in concert, she added.

In that light, the United Nations needs the time, space and resources to pursue long-term strategies that yield long-term results, she noted.
Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Former Cambridge Analytica staffer Christopher Wylie will meet with Democrats on Capitol Hill this week to discuss the company's collection of personal information from as many as 87 million Facebook accounts.

Wylie, who left the data firm in 2014, will meet with Democratic lawmakers and staff on the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday and Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, following a recent appearance before British Parliament. Democrats say Republican committee members and staffers were invited to attend but declined.

Republican aides on both committees did not respond to ABC News' request for comment.

In interviews with ABC News and other outlets, Wylie has criticized his former company's use of Facebook data and its work for Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

The New York Times and Observer in London first reported that Cambridge Analytica had scraped data from the profiles of Facebook users and their friends using an application created by Russian-American researcher Aleksandr Kogan.

Cambridge Analytica and the Trump campaign have said the data obtained at that time was not used as part of that work the data firm did on behalf of the campaign. The company said it deleted the data at Facebook's request and never shared it with another party.

Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg recently appeared before Congress and acknowledged that Facebook was too slow to address concerns about third-party groups obtaining data without permission, and said Kogan improperly obtained data.

Kogan previously told ABC News that Wylie initially asked him to retool his application to give Cambridge Analytica access to the data from millions of Facebook users, and that lawyers with Cambridge Analytica's parent company said the app would not violate Facebook's rules.

The company, which has been suspended by Facebook, has blamed Kogan for violating Facebook's terms.

Appearing on "Good Morning America" on Monday, Kogan said he regretted his role in the scandal, but called Zuckerbergs comments "misleading."

"The idea that this was a hack," Kogan said, "is flat-out wrong."

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Eurostat says the National Bank of Hungarys (NBH) foundations should be included in the national budget.

The European Unions statistics office said in a release that it had reservations concerning the quality of data in connection with the foundations as well as how they are classified. Eurostat considers that these foundations, including their subsidiaries, should be classified inside general government.

[F]or the purposes of statistical classification under ESA, the foundations are government controlled non-profit units and nonmarket producers and should ... be classified in the general government sector, Eurostat acting director Luca Ascoli wrote to the head of Hungarys Central Statistical Office (KSH).

Assets of the NBHs Pallas Athene Foundations came to 269.8 billion forints (EUR 871m) at the end of March, the foundations assets manager said earlier. The assets included 95.8 billion forints in real estate, 62.3 billion in investment fund units, 56.1 billion in corporate bonds, 30.2 billion in bank deposits and 25.3 billion in government securities.

The foundations have scaled back their holdings of government securities since 2016 after the European Central Bank warned that the portfolio could be perceived as being potentially in conflict with the monetary financing prohibition.
Mupa Budapest is once again hosting its traditional Classical Favourites May 1 concert alongside Klasszik Radio 92.1 and the Danubia Orchestra Obuda.

The title of this year's concert is "God Save the Queen - The Best of British classics, so audiences will hear works from such well known composers as Handel, Britten and Williams.



Handel: Zadok the Priest

Elgar: Enigma Variations - Nimrod

Williams: Fantasia on Greensleeves

Mendelssohn: The Hebrides - overture

J. Strauss: Fruhlingsstimmen - waltz

Haydn: Symphony in D major ("London), Hob. I:104 - fourth movement

Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro - Cherubino's aria

Britten: The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra

Rezso Ott: Pub Song Anthology (a collection of the most popular British pub songs as adapted by the composer)

At the end of the concert, the audience will be treated to a special surprise encore.

Conductor: Mate Hamori

Ticket prices HUF 3100 - 8600

Date and time: 1 May, 7:30pm

Venue: Mupa

Address: 1095 Budapest, Komor Marcell u. 1.

More information: Mupa
Commentators agree that the tens of thousands of people who attended the second Saturday demonstration against the government are still far from having clear political objectives. Otherwise, they express diametrically opposed views on this new movement.

For the second Saturday in a row after the elections, tens of thousands marched through the streets of Budapest to express their frustration over the outcome of the vote. They will hold their third rally in front of the Parliament building on May 8 when the newly elected MPs will meet for the first time.

On Pesti Sracok, Gyula T. Mate finds it absurd that while the mass rally was officially meant to demand a free press, it was broadcast live by two nationwide TV stations.

In Magyar Idok, Zsolt Bayer lambasts the leaders of Jobbik who took part in Saturdays protest along with DK leader Ferenc Gyurcsany, although Jobbik gained mass support after the riots in 2006 against Mr Gyurcsanys government.

On Reflektor, on the other hand, Szilard Veisz writes that after positioning himself at the centre for a decade, PM Orban is now trying to win over the radicals of Jobbik, even at the price of losing moderate conservatives.

He thinks that Fidesz owes its crushing superiority in the countryside to recruiting former Jobbik voters.

On 444, Daniel Acs calls Saturdays protesters the loneliest huge crowd Budapest has ever seen. The first demonstration was held against alleged electoral fraud. By now, protestors have resigned themselves to the defeat of the opposition.

But they still dont know where to move from there. In any case, Acs concludes, their speakers are amateurish, and they have no people to represent them in Parliament.

This opinion does not necessarily represent the views of this portal. Your opinion articles are welcome too, for review before possible publication, via info@xpatloop.com
Prime Minister Viktor Orban told students in vocational training schemes that Hungary strived to be a place where work is respected and all young people can master a useful profession or obtain a useful degree.

This is our goal; this is why we signed an agreement with the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and this is why we will sign another agreement with them for the coming four years as well.

Europe is put together in a way that allows richer countries with luckier histories to drain other countries of their skilled young talent, Orban said. Employers in other countries also have their sights set on you, he told the students present.

Orban said there were two ways Hungary could respond to the brain drain of its young professionals. On the one hand, we can be proud that Hungarys youth can hold their own anywhere in the world  on the other, we can build a Hungary where young people have access to jobs, respectable wages, safety and the opportunity to create their own family homes.

Eventually, all countries become like their youth, Orban said. And we, Hungarians want a competitive country that can compete successfully anywhere on the world stage.

Head of the Hungarian Chamber of Industry and Commerce Laszlo Parragh said that 43 professions are represented at this years festival. When it was first organised 11 years ago, that number was 15, he said.

Fully 67% of the companies in Hungary say there is a shortage of skilled workers, he said, adding that the force to help the nation prosper should be strengthened. Vocational students doing well in national competitions should have access to higher education, he said.

MTI Photo: Szigetvary Zsolt
IRONWOOD  The city of Ironwood will receive a $469,000 grant from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.

City Manager Scott Erickson announced the grant near the end of Mondays regular city commission meeting.

Erickson said the grant will be used for inventorying the citys water distribution system.

It was awarded through the DEQs clean drinking water program.

It will not require a city match.

Following the meeting, Erickson said the city applied for the grant about a month ago and was notified Monday that it will receive it.

Ralph Ansami

...
By JAN TUCKER

[email protected]

ONTONAGON  The Ontonagon Village Council Monday praised the work of Upper Peninsula Substance Enforcement Team-West, noting team has produced incredible results in the Western U.P. from October 1, 2016 through March 1, 2018.

Reports indicate the team investigated 158 new cases, 78 of which were closed; 62 people were arrested on a total of 136 counts. The teams drug seizures included 421 grams of heroin, 553 grams methamphetamine and 740 units of other narcotics.

The council approved spending $1,500 to help UPSET-West in its effort to reduce t...
Patna: RJD leader and former Bihar deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav on Tuesday slammed NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant's statement blaming Bihar for India's backwardness, saying the remark has exposed the mindset of 'babus' in the Modi-led government.

"Bihar and Bihari's pay equal taxes, contribute equally or more in governance and nation-building. Bihar gave 33 MPs to NDA, seven union ministers from Bihar, both state and Central governments are of same party and alliance. But still these babus say Bihar is backward," he tweeted.

Tejashwi who is the younger son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, further said that if Bihar was backward especially on social indicators as claimed by Kant, then Prime Minister Narendra Modi should grant a special category status to the state for its development.

"PM Modi has failed to grant special category status or special packages promised by him. Four years have passed, but nothing has happened so far, except 'jumlas'," he said.

Bihar & Biharis pay equal taxes, contribute equally or more in governance & Nation building. Bihar gave 33 MPs to NDA, 7 Union Ministers r frm Bihar, both State & Centre govts are of same party nd alliance But still these Babus says Bihar is backward.BJP ruling state for 10yrs https://t.co/Ii9pxjt4Xt  Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) April 24, 2018

So He means so called Bihar Model of Nitish Kumar is hoax & forged. Between in MP, Chhattisgarh & Bihar BJP/NDA ruling for last 3 terms almost 15 years. Rajasthan & UP also governed by BJP. Country run by BJP. https://t.co/Ii9pxjt4Xt  Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) April 24, 2018

While delivering the first Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan Memorial Lecture in Jamia Millia Islamia University, Kant had said, "Eastern part of India particularly states like Bihar, UP, Chattisgarh, MP, and Rajasthan are keeping India backward especially on social indicators. While we have improved on ease of doing business, we have remained backward on human development index."

He had further said that India was still 131 out of 188 countries in the Human Development Index (HDI). Kant had said that the part of southern and western India was doing well and growing speedily. "And when the country`s HDI has to improve and we have to focus on these social indicators. We are working on these things through Aspirational Districts Programme," he had said.

Later Kant had clarified tweeting:

The maximum no of Aspirational Districts are in these States. They are also our most populous States. We are focussing on health , education & nutrition indicators in these States. This is the only way we can improve in Human Development Index. https://t.co/itjTbXpfWX  Amitabh Kant (@amitabhk87) April 24, 2018

Aspirational Districts programme has identified 115 Districts across India on transparent parameters.NITI has identified 49 indicators on which these districts are being monitored on a real time basis.We are capturing incremental progress. Focus is on implementing best practices. https://t.co/yZioZOUjI6  Amitabh Kant (@amitabhk87) April 24, 2018

Stressing upon the significance of sustainable growth, the NITI Aayog CEO had added, "Education and health are vital and in these two areas India is lagging behind. Our learning outcomes are poor - a class 5 student is not able to do class 2 subtractions. Class 5 student is not able to read his mother tongue. Infant mortality rates are very high. Unless we improve on these aspects, it will be difficult to grow in a consistent way."

He had also encouraged women to participate in decision-making process. "There must be a conscious effort to frame policies to give women opportunities," Kant had said.

(With IANS and ANI inputs)
New Delhi: A massive fire broke out on the sets of Akshay Kumar's film 'Kesari' at a village in Maharashtra's Satara district on Tuesday.

The fire was brought under control, a Satara Police control room official told PTI. Nobody was hurt, he added.

The shooting for the film is taking place at Pimpode Budruk village in Wai tehsil, around 30 km from Satara, he said.

In the film, Akshay will essay the character of Havaldar Ishar Singh, the military commander of 21 Sikh regiment, who on September 12, 1897, fought bravely against Afghani invaders in the war which eventually came to be known as the battle of Saragarhi.

Actress Parineeti Chopra, who has also been roped in for the film, will be seen in the role of Eesha, daughter of Ishar Singh while television renowned actor Mohit Raina will be seen playing her fiance. Directed by Anurag Singh, 'Kesari' is slated to hit screens in March next year.

For the unversed, Salman Khan was initially a part of the film as a co-producer. But on realising that Ajay Devgn had announced a film on the same subject much earlier, the Dabangg Khan decided to walk out of the project, which would have been his first joint production with Johar, reports suggest.

Interestingly, Rajkumar Santoshi is also making a film on a similar subject with actor Randeep Hooda in the lead.

(With inputs from PTI)
CHENNAI: A 25-year-old woman who was travelling alone in the ladies compartment of a local train in Chennai was saved from the middle of a sexual assault by an alert Railway Protection Force constable.

The incident happened around 11:45 pm on Monday on an MRTS train, according to local media reports. The RPF constable, K Shivaji, heard the screams of the woman coming from the next compartment. Reports say he was unable to intervene immediately since the train was moving.

When the train stopped at the next station, he rushed into the ladies compartment to find a drunk man assaulting the woman. He overpowered the attacker and found the woman unconscious and bleeding from the mouth. He rushed her to the hospital and she was given first aid.

The assaulter, identified as 26-year-old Sathyaraj, works as a private security guard, the reports said. The victim hails from a poor family and was returning from work, the cops said.

The woman said she had fallen asleep in the empty women's compartment of the last train and had women up to find the man next to her, trying to molest her. He pushed her to the ground, at which point she seems to have lost consciousness.

"The victim is fine, and we have recorded her statement. She wants the accused to be punished. I appreciate her for the alertness she exhibited, which helped her get help and be saved from being assaulted," Pon Manickavel, Inspector General of Railway Police, told reporters on Tuesday morning. He also announced a personal reward of Rs 5,000 to Shivaji for his "brave act".

The MRTS is an elevated local train line in Chennai that runs parallel to the coast. The sexual assault happened between the Park Town and Chintadripet stations, just two stations before she would have gotten off the train.
New Delhi: The CRPF has decided to replace about 12,000 of its aged troops with young and freshly inducted recruits to bring agility and renewed strength in its anti-Naxal operations in the LWE-hit areas of Chhattisgarh.

The paramilitary, designated as the lead force against Left Wing Extremism (LWE) in the country, has recently recruited and trained about 20,000 fresh troops and has now planned to deploy the 'young blood' in these strenuous operations that require personnel to be out in jungles for days together, in harsh climatic conditions.

The first-time measure, a senior official told PTI, is part of the forces' strategy to bring renewed vigour in its operations by posting young and motivated personnel and having the least amount of causalities and injuries on its side.

"About 12,000 freshly trained young recruits, in the age group of 18-21 years, will be deployed in Chhattisgarh soon by replacing their older colleagues who are in the age-group of 45-50 years." the official said.

The aim of the exercise is to keep the combat profile of the force young, he said, adding the move has been approved by CRPF Director General (DG) R R Bhatnagar.

An analysis of casualties in the force, both fatal and non-fatal, in the past encounters reflect that a number of aged troops were victims.

"There can be no doubt that a young age profile for a fighting force will result in better successes. The older age profile of troopers will be taken out from this LWE affected region and deployed in other locations where the battle is not that tough and demanding," the official said.

Another official deployed in the anti-Naxal operations grid of the force said while this first lot of young troops will go to Chhattisgarh, especially the south Bastar region that comprises districts of Sukma and Dantewada, the next batches could be sent to other states affected by LWE violence like Jharkhand and Odisha.

"Some of these young personnel would also be sent to the Kashmir valley which is an another important theatre of operations for the CRPF," the second official said.

The about 12,000 new personnel will be deployed in such a fashion, across various units of the CRPF in Chhattisgarh, that the overall profile of the battalion remains experienced and conversant with the area they are operating in and at the same time fighting fit, the officials said.

The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has about 31 battalions deployed in the central Indian state for these operations including special teams of its jungle warfare squad - CoBRA.

Each battalion has over 1,000 personnel.

Last year, the CRPF lost 37 men in two Naxal ambushes in the state while 9 men were killed this year when the Maoists blew off their mine protected vehicle (MPV) in Sukma district last month.
New Delhi: In yet another twist in the race for Fortis Healthcare, IHH Healthcare Berhard today made a binding offer to immediately infuse Rs 650 crore in the Indian firm as part of an overall proposal to invest Rs 4,000 crore.

The revised offer of the Malaysian firm comes two days ahead of a meeting of Fortis Healthcare Ltd (FHL) board to consider recommendation by an expert advisory panel formed to finalise evaluation process of only binding offers.

IHH had earlier made a non-binding offer to invest Rs 4,000 crore in Fortis at Rs 160 per share.

Manipal-TPG combine and Munjals and Burmans were the only two groups which had made binding offers out of total of five suitors in race.

Chinese firm Fosun Health Holdings and KKR-backed Radiant Life Care had also made non-binding expression of interests in FHL.

In a regulatory filing today, Fortis Healthcare said it has received an "unsolicited binding offer" from IHH Healthcare with a proposal to invest directly into the company.

In a letter to the board of directors of FHL, IHH Healthcare Berhad MD and Group CEO Tan See Leng said the binding proposal was for an immediate primary equity infusion of Rs 650 crore in FHL by way of a preferential issue and allotment of equity shares at Rs 160 per share.

IHH has also demanded the right to appoint two directors on the board of FHL.

The Malaysian firm, however, said its binding offer is subject to it being allowed to do due diligence and receipt of relevant regulatory approvals.

In his letter, Leng further said its non-binding offer would include investment of Rs 3,350 crore through a subsequent preferential issue and allotment of equity shares subject to satisfactory completion of due diligence at a share price not exceeding Rs 160 apiece.

IHH said its revised offer would automatically withdraw on May 4.

On Monday, Hero Enterprise Investment and the Burman family had announced extension of the validity of their improved joint binding offer to invest Rs 1,500 crore in FHL till May 4.

The development followed the FHL board forming an expert panel last week to evaluate binding offers and make the final recommendation by April 26.

The advisory committee constituted by the Fortis board to oversee evaluation process and function as an advisor to the board is headed by Deepak Kapoor, former chairman and CEO of Price Waterhouse Coopers, India.

The other members of the panel are Renuka Ramnath, former MD & CEO of ICICI Venture; and Lalit Bhasin, President, Society of Indian Law Firms & Managing Partner, Bhasin & Co.

On April 18, Hero Enterprise Investment Office and Burman Family Office improved their binding offer with a proposal to invest Rs 1,500 crore directly at a valuation of Rs 161.6 per share, from the earlier Rs 1,250 crore. They had stated that their improved offer was valid for five working days.

The Manipal/TPG-led consortium had raised their offer for Fortis to Rs 155 per share by valuing the hospital business higher at Rs 6,061 crore from Rs 5,003 crore in its initial offer on March 27.

Fortis Healthcare had also received an unsolicited non-binding expression of interest from Fosun Health Holdings, an arm of Fosun International, with a proposal of primary infusion at a price up to Rs 156 per share up to a total investment of USD 350 million (over Rs 2,295 crore).

On the other hand, Radiant Life Care had offered to acquire at least 26 per cent stake in Fortis at Rs 126 per share, excluding its diagnostic business SRL.

Shares of FHL today ended 0.90 per cent up at Rs 151.55 apiece on the BSE.
Jodhpur: A day ahead of the court verdict in alleged rape case against self-styled godman Asaram, a heavy layer of security was thrown across the state with Section 144 being imposed at several places.

As per the directions of the Rajasthan High Court, the trial court will deliver its verdict in the case in Jodhpur Central Jail premises.

To maintain law and order, city police is keeping a strict vigil on vehicles coming in and out, with a special eye on Gujarat-based vehicles.

"We have made all arrangements for the judgement day. Magistrate along with court staff, Asaram and co-accused along with the defence and prosecution counsels will remain present in the courtroom in jail premises, said DIG, Jail, Vikram Singh to news agency PTI.

Section 144, which prohibits the assembly of four or more people at a spot, was imposed on April 21 and will continue till April 30.

We have imposed section 144 of CrPC in the city from April 21 and would remain effective till April 30. Besides this, we have been keeping a sharp eye on ashrams of Asaram in the city and checking all hotels and guest houses as well as the bus and railway station, DCP (East) Aman Deep Singh said.

We will also seal the jail on the day of judgment and would not allow anyone to get close to jail premises, Singh said.

The self-styled godman has been accused of sexually assaulting a minor girl over a period of nine years. If convicted, Asaram faces maximum sentence of 10 years. He is also facing a rape case in Gujarat.

The Jodhpur Police arrested Asaram on August 3, 2013. He's been inside the prison since then. Several courts have repeatedly denied his bail requests.

In 2013, a Surat-based girl filed a case against him, alleging sexual assaults between 1997 and 2006 when she was living in his ashram on the outskirts of Ahmedabad city. The girl belonging to Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh was a student at the ashram.

A chargesheet against Asaram and 4 other co-accused namely Shiva, Shilpi, Sharad and Prakash had been filed by the police on November 6, 2013 under various sections of the POSCO Act, Juvenile Justice Act and IPC.

Trial of the case had begun in the district and session court on March 19, 2017, which had been shifted to the special court for SC/ST Cases on December 16, 2016.
New Delhi: The Central Board of Secondary Education (cbse.nic.in) will conduct a re-test of Class 12 economics paper on Wednesday, nearly a month after it was leaked triggering widespread outrage and confusion among students across India.

After reports of the leak surfaced on March 28, the CBSE announced on it will re-conduct the examination on April 25. Check - cbse.nic.in.

Then, there were also reports of the CBSE's Class 10 mathematics paper being leaked, but the board decided against a re-test of the Class 10 paper, saying the examination was "largely an internal segment" of school education system.

"The candidates will appear (for the exam) from the same allotted centres using the same admit card," a board official said today.

For conducting the re-test of the economics paper, the board had said "Class 12 exams are a gateway to higher education and various professional competitive exams which have limited seats... Therefore, giving undue advantage to a handful of beneficiaries of the alleged leak of the economics paper would not be in larger interest of the students."

Earlier this month, the CBSE had said it found no impact of the Class 10 mathematics paper leak after an assessment.

The reports of leak of the CBSE papers had caused disappointment among students across the country last month.

In Delhi, students held protests, accusing the CBSE of negligence and demanded immediate action against the guilty.

Investigators made arrests in several parts of the country in connection with the case, including in Jharkhand and Himachal Pradesh.

They claimed to have arrested the main conspirators behind the leak from Una town in Himachal Pradesh. The three people were staffers at a school in the town.

The Class 12 economics paper was leaked on March 23 - three days before the scheduled date, according to Delhi Police.

The leak was exposed after an envelop containing four images of the hand-written economics paper was delivered to the CBSE Headquarters in D
SHIMLA: The 2018 Class 12 results conducted by Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education (HPBOSE) will be released on Tuesday, April 24. After the announcement, the students will be able to check their results by visiting the board's official website at hpbose.org.

The results of Class 10 examination 2018 will, however, be released later. The candidates will also be able to check their HP Board Class 12th Result 2018 on two other portals. Here are the alternative links to check HP Board examination results 2018 - examresults.net, and indiaresults.com.

According to reports, the results are expected to be declared by Tuesday evening. The HPBOSE Class 12 examination was held from March 6 to March 29, 2018.

Here's how to check HPBOSE Class 12 Exam RESULTS 2018:

1. Log on to the official website: hpbose.org

2. Now, results section and look for Class 12 results 2018 tab

3. Again, click on the results roll number and enter other required details

4. The Results will be displayed on screen

Candidates can also view their exam results via SMS:

Type HP12<space>ROLLNUMBER  and send it to 56263

The candidates are suggested to take a print out of their result and keep the same for further reference.

About the Board

The Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education, Dharamshala came into existence in 1969 as per Himachal Pradesh Act No. 14 of 1968 with its head-quarter at Shimla later shifted to Dharamshala in January 1983. The Board started with a staff of 34 officials which has subsequently increased to 643.

The Education Board prescribes syllabus, courses of instructions and text books for school education in Himachal Pradesh besides conducting examinations based on courses listed. At present, the Board conducts examination for the following classes and courses: 10th, 10+2, J.B.T and T.T.C.

As many as 5 Lakh candidates annually appear in the examination conducted by the Board. Presently more than 8000 schools are affiliated with the Board. The Board has set up 1846 Examination centres throughout the state. Board also publishes text books for class 1st to 12th.

Apart from a Liaison Office at Shimla, the Board has also established 26 Book Distribution & Guidance/Information Centres in the state to cater to the needs of students.
Senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid's comment that his party has the blood of Muslims on its hands has sent the grand old party scurrying into damage control mode. Even as the Congress sought to limit the damage, the BJP has jumped in to clobber the Congress over the issue.

Congress spokesperson PL Punia distanced his party from Khurshid's comment. "Salman Khurshid is a senior leader. The Congress Party disagrees with the statement of Shri Salman Khurshid in toto This could be his personal opinion, but the Congress Party has nothing to do with it," he said.

"Whether it was before Independence or afterwards, the Congress has always worked to take all sections of society forward. And we have always opposed to ideologies that look to practice politics by dividing society on the basis of religion and caste," Punia claimed. He refused to comment if the party would take any sort of disciplinary action against Khurshid.

Khurshid's controversial remark had come at an event at the Aligarh Muslim University. "I am a part of Congress so let me accept that we have the blood of Muslims on our hands. I am telling you this; we are ready to show the blood on our hands so that you understand that you too must not get blood on your hands."

"If you attack them, you are the ones who would get stains on your hands. Learn something from our history and don't create such situation for yourself where if you come back to AMU after 10 years you will find one like you to ask the question," he added."

Speaking to the reporters after these remarks, Khurshid said he was defending the Congress. "I am not a representative of the Congress party, I am the Congress party. I was defending Congress party. What I said I will continue to say, I made the statement as a human being," he said.

The BJP took the opportunity to launch an attack on the Congress. "Salman Khurshid has revealed the truth behind Rahul Gandhi's 'Save the Constitution' campaign. He has admitted that Congress' hand is stained with blood. It is not only stained with the blood of Muslims but also of Sikhs who were killed in 1984," BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said, reported news agency ANI.

(With inputs from ANI)
Mandla: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday said that the promulgation of an ordinance on rape demonstrated his government's determination to act on the issue. He also pitched for a social movement to ensure the safety of women and girls while addressing a rally.

"Shivraj ji (Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan) just referred to the capital punishment provided in the ordinance for rape against minors and I could see that it (the remark) received cheers from everyone present here. There is a government in Delhi which listens to your voice and takes decisions. So, the Centre has made a provision for capital punishment to the monstrous intent," he said while referring to the recent ordinance.

At the same time, PM Modi called upon the people to create an atmosphere for the safety of daughters. "Families will have to enhance the honour and respect of daughters. Families should also make their sons more responsible. In this way, the safety of daughters would not be a difficult task. We have to launch a social movement in this direction," he said.

       ,                               :    BJP (@BJP4India) April 24, 2018

The Union Cabinet on Saturday cleared the Ordinance chaired by PM Modi which provides death sentence for rapists of girls under 12 years. The minimum punishment in case of rape of women has been increased from the rigorous imprisonment of seven years to ten years, extendable to life imprisonment.

The Centre's decision came in the wake of a nationwide outrage over cases of sexual assault and murder of minors in Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir and Surat in Gujarat, and the rape of a girl in Unnao in Uttar Pradesh.

Meanwhile, PM Modi also talked about the welfare of tribals and farmers and asked the elected representatives of Panchayats to educate villagers to become self-dependent in farming. He urged the panchayat representatives to spend NREGA funds during the months of April, May and June only on works related to water conservation.

While talking about rural development, Budgets are important. But, there is a shift in the discourse in the last few years. People are now talking about the need to ensure that money allocated for a project is utilised and it is done in a timely as well as transparent manner: PM pic.twitter.com/QYn8OmIPzJ  PMO India (@PMOIndia) April 24, 2018

When our villages are transformed, India will be transformed: PM @narendramodi pic.twitter.com/MABEBrcc5Q  PMO India (@PMOIndia) April 24, 2018

"We should work for conserving rainwater. Panchayats should spend NREGA (MGNREGA) funds on water conservation during April, May and June. Every drop of rain should be conserved. This would not only save our money but also save villages from a water shortage. This would also help in agriculture," PM Modi said while addressing the National Panchayati Raj Sammelan at Ramnagar in the tribal-dominated Mandla district, PTI reported.

He added, "In 2022 when the country will celebrate the 75th anniversary of its independence, we should strive to make villages as dreamt by Mahatma Gandhi. It can be done by using manpower for developing villages, Van Dhan by collecting neem seeds for coating of urea and Gou Dhan by using cow dung for producing electricity, biogas and manure for becoming self-reliant."

As public representatives working across the villages, I appeal to you to focus on Jan Dhan, Van Dhan, Gobar Dhan. Ensure that people have Jan Dhan accounts and insurance coverage under the Government schemes : PM Modi pic.twitter.com/KhsFAjkM36  BJP (@BJP4India) April 24, 2018

Earlier, PM Modi launched the Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan, which seeks to strengthen the Panchayati Raj system and address the critical gaps that hinder its success. The Central government scheme aims at making rural local bodies self-sustaining, financially stable and more efficient.

The programme seeks to address problems that confront panchayats by enhancing their capacities and effectiveness and to promote the devolution of powers and responsibilities.

(With PTI inputs)
SHIMLA: The results of Class 12 examination 2018 conducted by Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education (HPBOSE) will be declared on Tuesday, April 24. After the announcement, the results will be available on the board's official website - hpbose.org.

The results of Class 10 examination 2018 will, however, be released later. Students will also be able to check their HP Board Class 12th Result 2018 on two other portals. Here are the alternative links to check HP Board examination results 2018 - examresults.net, and indiaresults.com.

According to reports, the results are expected to be declared by Tuesday evening. The HPBOSE Class 12 examination was held from March 6 to March 29, 2018.

Here's how to check HPBOSE Class 12 Exam RESULTS 2018:

1. Log on to the official website: hpbose.org

2. Now, results section and look for Class 12 results 2018 tab

3. Again, click on the results roll number and enter other required details

4. The Results will be displayed on screen

Candidates can also view their exam results via SMS:

Type HP12<space>ROLLNUMBER  and send it to 56263

The candidates are suggested to take a print out of their result and keep the same for further reference.

The Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education, Dharamshala came into existence in 1969 as per Himachal Pradesh Act No. 14 of 1968 with its head-quarter at Shimla later shifted to Dharamshala in January 1983. The Board started with a staff of 34 officials which has subsequently increased to 643.

The Education Board prescribes syllabus, courses of instructions and text books for school education in Himachal Pradesh besides conducting examinations based on courses listed. At present, the Board conducts examination for the following classes and courses: 10th, 10+2, J.B.T and T.T.C.

As many as 5 Lakh candidates annually appear in the examination conducted by the Board. Presently more than 8000 schools are affiliated with the Board. The Board has set up 1846 Examination centres throughout the state. Board also publishes text books for class 1st to 12th.

Apart from a Liaison Office at Shimla, the Board has also established 26 Book Distribution & Guidance/Information Centres in the state to cater to the needs of students.
New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley hit back at the Congress, saying that the misconceived motion for the 'impeachment' of the CJI was just one example of the growing tendency of lawyer-MPs to drag intra-court disputes into the Parliamentary process to help different interests.

He also said that the Parliament was supreme in its own jurisdiction and its process cannot be subjected to judicial review and 'impeachment' motion was filed on untenable grounds for a collateral purpose to intimidate the CJI and other judges.

Following is the full text of Jaitley's Facebook post titled - Why the malafide impeachment motion was bound to fail?:

Business persons and industrialists have frequently been accused of attempting to influence policy by using parliamentary processes. Some motivated questions are raised and letters are written by Members of Parliament at the behest of business interests. These were conventionally the traditional methods deployed in trying to use Parliamentary processes to help business interests. Many of these tactics stood exposed and over the years the system was able to analyse and distinguish some of these subtle and blatant attempts. The new phenomenon seems to be somewhat different. A very large number of eminent lawyers are now Members of Parliament. Most political parties have given nominations to some of them since their value, both in court and Parliamentary debates, is significant. The incidental impact of this has been a growing tendency of lawyer members to drag intra-court disputes into the parliamentary process. The misconceived motion for the impeachment of the Chief Justice of India is just one example of this.

Why misconceived?

An impeachment motion was intended to be filed in the rarest of rare cases. These cases would include those where a gross misconduct has been indulged in by a delinquent judge during his tenure as a judge. There has to be strong and hard evidence to substantiate this. Hearsay and rumours are not a substitute for evidence. The present impeachment motion has been filed on untenable grounds. It has been filed for collateral purpose to intimidate the Chief Justice of India and other judges of the highest judiciary. The Congress Party is capable of dragging the judges into an unsavoury controversy and make them controversial, should their judicial opinion not appear favourable in the cases in which the Party has an interest. To any political analyst, it was clear that the impeachment motion would never get the support of two-thirds majority in both Houses of Parliament. The Congress party knew this. Its object was not the passage of the Motion but intimidation of Indias judiciary.

A poorly drafted motion

Unquestionably the impeachment motion was poorly drafted. The level of proof required to impeach a judge of being guilty of proved misbehaviour has to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Any inquiry set up subsequent to a possible admission of a motion cannot be a fishing and roving inquiry. The inquiry does not have to search for better evidence or a better set of facts. The motion must contain a definitive case which makes out a case beyond reasonable doubt that the judge is guilty of proved misbehaviour.

Charge 1: When the 64 Members of Parliament present a best-case scenario that the Chief Justice of India may have been involved in the conspiracy of paying illegal gratification, can it be said that this makes out a possible case if accepted in totality, one of proof beyond a reasonable doubt?

Charge 2: When 64 Members of Parliament at best allege that the Chief Justice of India was likely to fall within the scope of the investigation, it is not mere conjecture or a surmise rather than a case beyond a reasonable doubt?

Charge 3: When the Members of Parliament allege that the Chief Justice of India appears to have anti-dated an administrative order, is it not mere suspicion or an assumption rather than a charge beyond a reasonable doubt?

Charge 4: Can a 33-year-old allotment of land to an advocate be a proved misbehaviour against Chief Justice of India?

Charge 5: Can a different or an alternative view on the allocation of cases by the Chief Justice of India be a case of proved misbehaviour. The Congress partys argument that they are making vague allegations which can only be proved in an inquiry is not tenable. Vague and unsubstantiated allegations can never be a basis of a roving fishing inquiry against the holder of a high office.

A suicidal future move of the Congress

The Congress party has indicated that it would now challenge the order of the Chairman, Rajya Sabha declining to admit the motion, before the Supreme Court. In parliamentary practice, several types of motions and resolutions are proposed under the Rules of Business. The Chairman/ Speaker of the either Houses of Parliament has the sole discretion whether to admit the motion or to decline to do so. The power to admit or to decline a motion is part of the legislative process of Parliament. A motion under Article 124(4) is no different from any other motion where Chair has the discretion to admit it or decline to do so. There is a conventional view that the exercise of the discretion by the Chair of either House is not justiciable in the court of law. This view gains support from the observations made in the majority opinion of Justice JS Verma in the 1992 case (Sarojini Ramaswami vs UOI) where the court held:

On initiation of the process in the prescribed manner, the Speaker/ Chairman is to decide whether the accusations require investigations. If he chooses not to act on the accusations made in the form of a motion by a minimum number of Members of Parliament, the matter ends there. For the Congress Party to carry forward its mistake of subjecting legislative processes to judicial review would be a blunder. The Parliament is supreme in its own jurisdiction. Its process cannot be subjected to judicial review.

Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday had rejected the unprecedented notice by seven Opposition parties led by the Congress to 'impeach' CJI Dipak Misra on five grounds of 'misbehaviour', saying the allegations were neither "tenable nor admissible".

PTI had quoted sources as saying that Naidu had arrived at the decision based on the opinion of top legal and constitutional experts, including former secretary generals of Lok Sabha and other legal luminaries with whom he held extensive consultations. He had also taken the views of top legal and constitutional experts, including former chief justices and judges, over the past two days before taking the decision, the news agency had further quoted sources as saying.

"I have considered the material contained in the notice of motion and reflected upon the inputs received in my interaction with legal luminaries and constitutional experts, I am of the firm opinion that the notice of motion does not deserve to be admitted," Naidu had said in the order. "I refuse to admit the Notice of Motion," he had added.

"Clearly this is an internal matter to be resolved by the SC itself. Going through the five allegations mentioned in the notice, I am of the view that they are neither tenable nor admissible," the VP had further said in his order.

Leaders of seven Opposition parties had on Friday last met the Vice President and had handed over the notice of impeachment against the CJI bearing signatures of 64 MPs and seven former members, who had recently retired.
LAHORE: A 24-year-old Indian Sikh, who had gone missing in Pakistan during Baisakhi festival celebrations, was found from his Facebook friend's home in Punjab province's Sheikhupura city and efforts are on to send him back to India, an official has said.

Amarjit Singh, a resident of Amritsar, had arrived in Pakistan along with other 1,700 Sikh pilgrims to celebrate Baisakhi festival on April 12. But his disappearance was only noticed when the Indian pilgrim group prepared to return to India.

He will be sent back to India via the Wagah border today, the Express Tribune reported.

Confirming that Singh had been traced, spokesperson of the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) Amir Hashmi said that Singh will be handed over to the Indian authorities.

"Amarjit Singh has been found and will be sent back to India today. Singh on his arrival to Nankana Sahib had left the group to meet his Facebook friend - Amir Razzak - in Sheikhupura (some 30km from Nankana Sahib).

"In fact the family of Razzak contacted the board and told it about his (Singh) stay at his residence. Both Singh and Razzak visited the ETPB office in Lahore and told it that he (Singh) had not gone missing," Hashmi told PTI.

He said, Singh told the board that he thought that he had a one month visa and he would return the country after spending a couple of weeks with his friend here.

The ETPB collects passports from the visiting pilgrims and returns them on their departure to their homeland.

A source told PTI that Pakistani intelligence agencies have quizzed Singh for 'several hours' after he went 'missing'.

"After it was established that he had not deliberately disappeared and had no links with the Indian intelligence agency, Singh was handed over to the ETPB to be deported to India," he said.

According to investigation by the ETPB, Singh separated himself on April 16 from the visiting Sikh group members on a visit to Gurdwara Janamestan in Nankana Sahib (some 80km from Lahore).

The ETB came to know about his disappearance when Singh did not turn up on April 21 along with other visiting Indian Sikhs at the Wagah railway station to leave for India.

Singh and others had a valid Pakistani visa till April 21.

Singh's disappearance came at the heels of another visiting Indian pilgrim Kiran Bala, who married a Pakistani man Mohammad Azam, a resident of Lahore, and applied for Pakistani citizenship.

She had arrived Lahore on April 12 to attend the Baisakhi festival. She has applied for Pakistan citizenship and extension to her visa.
NEW DELHI: On the National Panchayati Raj Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Tuesday visit Mandla in Madhya Pradesh. He will launch the Rashtriya Gramin Swaraj Abhiyan at a public meeting and address Panchayati Raj representatives across the country.

The Prime Minister will unveil a Road Map for overall development of tribals during the next five years, on the occasion. He will unveil a plaque to mark the laying of foundation stone of an LPG bottling plant of Indian Oil Corporation at Maneri, Mandla District. He will also launch a Local Government Directory.

In keeping up with the government's commitment towards clean, healthy, and electrified India, PM Modi would felicitate the Sarpanches of the villages which have achieved 100 percent smokeless kitchens, 100 percent vaccination under Mission Indradhanush, and 100 percent electrification under Saubhagya Scheme.

The winners of Rashtriya e-Panchayat Puraskar, and Gram Panchayat Vikas Puraskar Yojana under Sarvasreshtha Panchayat Puraskar Yojana will be felicitated on this occasion.

Later, the Prime Minister will interact with the District Collectors of the Aspirational Districts from Madhya Pradesh.
NEW DELHI: NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant on Tuesday said that the reason why India is backward is because of the states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. "Eastern part of India particularly states like Bihar, UP, Chattisgarh, MP and Rajasthan is keeping India backward especially on social indicators," he told ANI.

Kant's statement comes at the first Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan Memorial Lecture at Jamia Millia Islamia University.

The Niti Aayog CEO further said that the country has shown improvement in ease of doing business, however, remain backward on human development index.

"While we've improved on ease of doing business, we've remained backward on human development index," he added.

India is still 131 out of 188 countries in the Human Development Index (HDI), Kant said.

Reacting to 'Challenges of Transforming India' he said that the part of southern and western India was doing well and growing speedily.

"And when the country`s HDI has to improve and we have to focus on these social indicators. We are working on these things through Aspirational Districts Programme," he added.

Stressing upon the significance of sustainable growth, the NITI Aayog CEO said, "Education and health are vital and in these two areas India is lagging behind. Our learning outcomes are poor - a class 5 student is not able to do class 2 subtractions. Class 5 student is not able to read his mother tongue. Infant mortality rates are very high. Unless we improve on these aspects, it will be difficult to grow in a consistent way."

He also encouraged women to participate in decision-making process. He said, "There must be a conscious effort to frame policies to give women opportunities."Vice Chancellor of Jamia University Talat Ahmad was also present at the event.

Last month, NITI Aayog launched a baseline ranking mechanism under which 101 most underdeveloped districts of the country which have been termed as 'aspirational' would be competing with each other in terms of performance.

While announcing the launch of ranking for the "Aspirational Districts', NITI Aayog Kant had said, "India cannot grow at a high rate on a long run until these districts catch up, whatever high are the GDP number, it has no meaning until the benefit of growth percolates down to very basic level."

(With inputs from ANI)
New Delhi: Google's India-born CEO Sundar Pichai will cash in stock award of over Rs 2,524 crore ($380 million) this week, media reports have said. Pichai had received 353,939 restricted shares before a promotion in 2014, and the pay day will be handed over to him this week.

This is touted to be one of the largest single payouts to a public company executive in recent years.

Pichai's pay day comes amidst positive news in the company as Google parent Alphabet reported a surge in quarterly profits. Profit in the first three months of 2018 soared more than 70 percent from a year ago to $9.4 billion, Alphabet said in an earnings report that was well above forecasts.

Alphabet's stocks have surged 90 percent since the grant date of the shares to Pichai, thus pushing the values of the shares far more. Google has not disclosed Pichai's compensation for 2017 as yet.

Revenue at the California-based internet giant during the first three months of this year was $31.1 billion, up 26 percent from the same period last year.

Alphabet shares slipped slightly in after-market trades that followed release of the earnings report, evidently on investor concerns about growing costs.

Bright spots at Alphabet included YouTube, where executives are focusing on original video content and live streaming to mobile devices in the competitive market.

Alphabet is the first major Silicon Valley firm to report first-quarter earnings, and the report comes amid heightened concerns over how private user data is protected in light of the hijacking of data on millions of Facebook users.

With their platforms allowing targeted ads, Google and Facebook dominate the online advertising ecosystem although there have been signs the "duopoly" is weakening slightly.

($1 = 66.40 Indian rupees as per interbank foreign exchange market opening today)

With AFP Inputs
SRINAGAR: An Army jawan and a policeman died in an encounter with terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district. The gunbattle took place in Lam village of Pulwama's Tral area. Also, a terrorist has been gunned down by the security forces.

One Army jawan injured in an encounter with terrorists in Lam village of Tral in Pulwama district. Operation continues. #JammuAndKashmir (visuals deferred by unspecified time) pic.twitter.com/3uKdxRK9XQ  ANI (@ANI) April 24, 2018

Earlier in the day, gunshots were heard in Lam village.

Following the gunshots, security forces have been deployed at the spot.

The encounter comes a day after Pakistan Army violated ceasefire along the Line of Control at Krishna Ghati sector of Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district.

Four Pakistani soldiers were killed in the ceasefire. The Pakistani Army have been firing targetting the Poonch area for the last three days.

(With inputs from ANI)
Srinagar: Indian Army inflicted heavy damage to Pakistani posts along the Line of Control in Krishna Ghati of Mendhar sector in Poonch district, Jammu and Kashmir and killed at least four Pakistani soldiers on Tuesday. The Pakistani soldiers reportedly were from the Northern Light Infantry regiment.

On Monday, too, a Pakistani soldier was killed in the same area of Mendhar sector when Indian jawans retaliated to unprovoked firing from across the LoC. Some of the posts caught fire as a result of Indian firing and were completely destroyed. The firing has been going on for the last three days in the area.

Meanwhile, an Army jawan and a Jammu and Kashmir police personnel were martyred during an encounter with the terrorists in a forest area of Pulwama district. Four terrorists belonging to the Pakistani group Jaish-e-Mohammed were also killed in the encounter.

Security forces had launched an anti-militancy operation in Laam forest of Tral area in Pulwama district following information about the presence of a group of heavily armed terrorists in the area, a senior police official said.

He said a gunbattle broke out between the terrorists and security forces when the ultras opened fire. In the fierce exchange of fire, an Army soldier and a policeman sustained injuries. They were evacuated to hospitals in Srinagar but succumbed to injuries, the official said.

The martyred soldier has been identified as Sepoy Ajay Kumar of 42 Rashtriya Rifles (Assam Regiment) while police identified the slain cop as Latief Gojri.

(With PTI inputs)
BENGALURU: Karnataka has suffered badly under the BJP rule, said HD Deve Gowda, the Janata Dal (Secular) supremo and former Prime Minister of India on Tuesday.

Karnataka suffered badly under BJP rule, they had three Chief Ministers in five years.This is BJP's contribution. In five years of Congress rule though there was only one CM but look what has happened to Lokayukta. Or the Public Service Commission or even the Corporation, said Gowda.

Earlier, Gowda had said won't form a coalition government with the BJP under any circumstances.

The state has suffered so badly by the BJP rule. In five years, there were three chief ministers. That is BJP's contribution. I don't want to name the leaders who have gone to jail during BJP rule in Karnataka," the JD (S) supremo told Smita Prakash, Editor, ANI, in an exclusive interview.

Speaking on his term as the Chief Minister, the veteran politician said, From Day 1, I have stood for secularism, not for emotional politics. When I became the CM, I asked DG Ramalingam how many Muslim constables are there in the Police Department? He said 0.01%. So it was humanity which made me give reservations.

I have also to take the blame as I supported Congress (in the Corporation). Just only to protect my secular credentials, I agreed to support them. The BJP was at my doors but I said no to it. But, hereafter supporting (Congress), what is our position?, questioned Gowda.

Referring to allegations that JDS is a father-son party, Gowda said, There are 4 former ministers who belong to backward class, and five-time ministers are all in the field. If media doesn't want to take this into consideration but only harp about father and son then I can only laugh at it.

Earlier, the JDS leader had said that the masses want to see his son.

The Karnataka Assembly elections 2018 will be held in a single phase on May 12 with the counting of votes scheduled on May 15.
BADAMI, KARNATAKA: Lok Sabha MP B Sreeramulu will be the BJP's pick to take on Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in the Badami constituency for the coming Karnataka Assembly elections. Sreeramulu filed his nomination papers for the battle, within an hour of Siddaramaiah.

Siddaramaiah is presently the MLA for the Chamundeshwari seat, and is contesting from both there and from Badami. Sreeramulu is the BJP MP representing Bellary in Parliament.

The level of importance the BJP Is attaching to Sreeramulu's outing in Badami was evident from the leaders who accompanied him to file the nomination - BJP's CM candidate BS Yeddyurappa, former Karnataka CM Jagadish Shettar, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar and party general secretary Muralidhar Rao.

"As directed by @BJP4India Central Election Committee and @BJP4Karnataka President Sree @BSYBJP Ji , I will be contesting from Badami Constituency as well. Filed Nomination Papers. Urge your support and blessings," Sreeramulu tweeted after filing his nomination.

As directed by @BJP4India Central Election Committee and @BJP4Karnataka President Sree @BSYBJP Ji , I will be contesting from Badami Constituency as well. Filed Nomination Papers. Urge your support and blessings ???? pic.twitter.com/KQwZstX7jJ  B Sreeramulu (@BSreeramulu_bjp) April 24, 2018

The Karnataka BJP also went after Siddaramaiah, portraying his decision to contest from two seats as a sign of his uncertainty. "A sitting CM contesting from 2 seats confirms, 1. His pathetic performance in government for last 5 years... 2. How paranoid CM is of an imminent coup led by Parameshwar & DK Shi... CM will be effortlessly defeated by our leader Shri @BSreeramulu_bjp in Badami. #BadamiWithBJP," the state unit of the party tweeted.

A sitting CM contesting from 2 seats confirms, 1. His pathetic performance in government for last 5 years 2. How paranoid CM is of an imminent coup led by Parameshwar & DK Shi CM will be effortlessly defeated by our leader Shri @BSreeramulu_bjp in Badami.#BadamiWithBJP  BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) April 24, 2018

Other BJP leaders from the state also used the opportunity to take a shot at the CM. "Mr @siddaramaiah is being fooled by his intelligence team by asking him to contest in Badami.When 20 out of 26 Taluk Panchayat is won by BJP & majority of Grama Panchayat is with BJP. It looks like @INCIndia mislead him & wants to finish his political career," tweeted former Karnataka minister Shobha Karandlaje.

Mr @siddaramaiah is being fooled by his intelligence team by asking him to contest in Badami.When 20 out of 26 Taluk Panchayat is won by BJP & majority of Grama Panchayat is with BJP. It looks like @INCIndia mislead him & wants to finish his political career. #BadamiWithBJP  Shobha Karandlaje (@ShobhaBJP) April 24, 2018

Sreeramulu has seen ups and downs in his relationship with the BJP. He had contested elections for the first time on a BJP ticket from Bellary in the 1999 Assembly election. He contested from the same seat again and won in the 2004 and 2008 Assembly elections. In 2011, he quit the BJP and launched his own part, called the BSR Congress Party (BSRCP) and won from Bellary again in 2013. He was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Bellary constituency in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
BENGALURU: Incumbent Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is not fretting over Opposition candidate contesting against him from Badami.

Speaking to media on Tuesday, the veteran Congress leader said, I am least bothered by who will contest against me there (Badami)  whether it is Sriramal or Yeddyurappa. I have faith in the voters, they will not leave me.

Karnataka Assembly elections are set to be held on May 12, with counting on May 15.

Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah, who'll be contesting from two constituencies - Chamundeshwari and Badami, is likely to take on BJP's Sreeramulu or Yeddyurappa.

On Monday, he refuted all reports of forging a post-poll alliance with the Janata Dal (Secular) in the event of a hung assembly in the Karnataka legislative assembly elections.

"This situation does not arise at all. I am very confident that we will form the government on our own with a clear majority," ANI quoted Siddaramaiah as saying. He added that the JDS leadership of former prime minister HD Deve Gowda and his son HD Kumaraswamy were day-dreaming about playing the role of a kingmaker in Karnataka after the elections.

"Why Yeddyurappa, Amit Shah, Narendra Modi and Kumaraswamy are attacking me? Why can Kumaraswamy not attack Yeddyurappa or BJP? It's a game plan and an internal understanding of them to overthrow our government. No such thing will happen," he said.

Earlier, Janata Dal (Secular) supremo and former Prime Minister of India Gowda said that Karnataka has suffered badly under the BJP rule.

Karnataka suffered badly under BJP rule, they had three Chief Ministers in five years.This is BJP's contribution. In five years of Congress rule though there was only one CM but look what has happened to Lokayukta. Or the Public Service Commission or even the Corporation, said Gowda.
Mumbai: Bigg Boss 11 contestant and Bhojpuri actress Antara Biswas aka Monalisa was trolled and objectified after she posted a picture of hers on Instagram on Monday.

The photograph shows Monalisa wearing a red dress. Her fans admired her but trolls passed lewd remarks and even ended up objectifying her.

Most of the comments were crass and offensive.

Here's the picture that she had posted:

A post shared by MONALISA (@aslimonalisa) on Apr 22, 2018 at 4:53am PDT

Like Monalisa, a number of other actresses to become recipients of such deplorable and obscene comments from trolls every day on social media. But these don't stop them from being who they are. These women know how to give befitting responses to those who slut-shame, ridicule and objectify them.

On the work front, Monalisa is all set to sizzle as Jhuma Boudi in web-series Dupur Thakurpo season 2. She announced it on Instagram a few days ago.

Monalisa became a household name after she appeared in the tenth season of Bigg Boss hosted by Bollywood superstar Salman Khan. She married her Bhojpuri co-star Vikrant Singh Rajpoot while she was inside the house of Bigg Boss. Her wedding ceremony was aired on national television.

She is one of the highest paid actresses in the Bhojpuri film industry and is offered Rs 5-7 Lakh per film. She made her debut in a film titled Bhole Shankar in 2008 and worked in a number of films since then.
Mumbai: Actress Anushka Sharma says experimenting with roles has been a mainstay in her career from the start. Anushka spoke to the media here on Monday on the sidelines of an event organised by Standard Chartered Bank, where she was announced its brand ambassador. In a promotional campaign for her latest endorsement, Anushka plays the triple role of a daughter, mother and grandmother.

On the experience, Anushka said: "I have always tried to experiment with my roles right from the beginning.

"This year, I am doing films in which all my characters are very different from one another in terms of physical and emotional appearance. So, when you get to do that in an advertisement, you feel great.

"Playing a triple role was something which I had never done before, so I was very excited. It takes a lot of time while doing prosthetic make-up, but the end result was great. So, I was all up for it."

Anushka`s upcoming Bollywood projects include "Zero" and the biopic on Sanjay Dutt.

"I am really happy that this year, I am doing different kind of films and both films are going to release very soon. As far as the Dutt biopic is concerned, that`s one film that the audience will be very excited about and will be happy while watching it.

"I recently saw a teaser of it and I really liked it. I am doing a cameo in it. Nevertheless, I am really looking forward to watching the film."

The actress-producer also shared her thoughts on the ordinance to introduce the death penalty for rapists of children, after the nationwide uproar on Kathua and Unnao rape cases.

"I was deeply hurt and affected by the incident. Even now, when I think or talk about it, I feel disgusted and extremely emotional. I feel the most severe punishment has to be meted out to the people involved.

"The most severe punishment should be served to those who spoil something as innocent as a child because it`s the worst thing that a human being can do."
Los Angeles: Philip D'Antoni, who won an Oscar for his work on "The French Connection", has died. He was 89.

D'Antoni died April 15 of complications from kidney failure at his home in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, his son-in-law Mark Rathaus told The Hollywood Reporter.

D'Antoni was best known for the 1971 "The French Connection," which won three Golden Globes and five Oscars, including best picture. Gene Hackman won for best actor and William Friedkin for director and the film also won best-adapted screenplay and film editing. Three years earlier, he had produced the Steve McQueen action film "Bullitt," the movie won an Oscar for film editing.

Born on February 19, 1929, in the Bronx, D'Antoni attended Fordham University and served in the US Army during the occupation of Japan in World War II.

He started his show business career in television, co-producing the specials "Elizabeth Taylor in London", "Sophia Loren in Rome" and "Melina Mercouri's Greece" in 1963, '64 and '65, respectively.

After his three big films, D'Antoni produced just three little-known telefilms "Strike Force", "Shark Kill" and "The Rubber Gun Squad" from 1975-77.

D'Antoni is survived by his wife, five children, and nine grandchildren. Friedkin took to Twitter to mourn his "French Connection" partner.

"Phil D'Antoni. My friend and the great producer Of The French Connection has died. May he rest in peace," he wrote.
New Delhi: The Jammu and Kashmir government on Wednesday approved the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission stating that revised salary will be rolled out to employees with effect from April 1.

The 7th Pay Commission recommendations will be implemented retrospectively from January 2016.

The Department of Information and Public Relations, government of Jammu & Kashmir tweeted saying that all necessary notifications regarding implementation of the Pay Commission's recommendations will be issued by JK Finance Department.

All necessary notifications regarding implementation of 7th Pay Commission Recommendations to be issued by JK Finance Deptt by this evening  DIPR-J&K (@diprjk) April 24, 2018

As already announced by Govt, the employees to draw revised scales of pay from current month  DIPR-J&K (@diprjk) April 24, 2018

While presenting the budgetary proposals for 2018-19 in the Assembly in January, Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu had announced release of 1 percent Dearness Allowance for government employees retrospectively from July 1 last year. Drabu had said the government employees would now get full pensionary benefits after serving for 20 years instead of the previous 28 years and that unmarried daughters of employees would now be eligible to get family pension benefits after the employee's death.

Following the implementation of the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission, the basic pay of Central government employees went up from Rs 7,000 to Rs 18,000 per month based on the fitment factor of 2.57, and effective from January 1, 2016. The new scales of pay provide for entry-level basic pay going up from Rs 7,000 per month to Rs 18,000, while at the highest level i.e. Secretary, it would go up from Rs 90,000 to Rs 2.5 lakh. For Class 1 officers, the starting salary will be Rs 56,100.

Based on the report of Committee on Allowances (CoA) and the recommendation of E-CoS, the Cabinet had earlier approved the modifications in 34 allowances in its meeting held on 28th June 2017. All allowances are given the effect from 1st July 2017. It will benefit 34 lakh civilian employees and 14 lakh defence personnel.
Jodhpur/New Delhi: Ahead of Wednesday's trial court verdict in the alleged rape of a teenager by self-styled 'godman' Asaram, security was stepped up on Tuesday in Jodhpur where prohibitory orders have already been clamped.

As per the directions of the Rajasthan High Court, the trial court will deliver its verdict in the Jodhpur Central Jail premises where Asaram has been lodged for the past over four years. "We have made all arrangements for the judgment day," DIG Jail Vikram Singh said. The magistrate along with court staff, Asaram and the co-accused along with the defence and prosecution counsels will remain present in the courtroom in the jail premises, he added.

Meanwhile, earlier on Tuesday, Jodhpur Court dismissed the petition seeking entry of mediapersons in Central Jail for the coverage of the judgment.

Centre asks three states to tighten security

On the other hand, the Centre on Tuesday asked Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana to tighten security and deploy additional forces ahead of the verdict. In a communication, the Home Ministry told the three states to beef up security and ensure that no violence takes place after the judgment.

The three states were also told to deploy additional forces in sensitive places, PTI was quoted as saying by a Home Ministry official. Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana have a large number of followers of Asaram.

Here's a timeline of the case

Prohibitory orders have already been issued in Jodhpur. "We have imposed section 144 of CrPC in the city from April 21 and it would remain effective till April 30. Besides this, we have been keeping a sharp eye on Asaram's ashrams and checking all hotels and guest houses as well as the bus and railway stations," DCP (East) Aman Deep Singh said in Jodhpur.

"We will also seal the jail on the day of judgment and would not allow anyone to get close to the jail premises," he added.

Here's what the case is all about:

Asaram is accused of raping a teenage girl from Shahajahanpur in Uttar Pradesh, who was studying at his ashram at Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh. Asaram has denied the rape charges.

The victim has alleged that Asaram called her to his ashram in Manai area near Jodhpur and raped her on the night of August 15, 2013.

The final arguments in the case had been completed by the special court for SC/ST cases on April 7 and the court had kept the order reserved for April 25. Asaram was arrested in Indore and brought to Jodhpur on September 1, 2013. He is in judicial custody since September 2, 2013.

The chargesheet against Asaram and four other co-accused Shiva, Shilpi, Sharad and Prakash was filed by the police on November 6, 2013, under various sections of the POSCO Act, Juvenile Justice Act and IPC. If convicted, Asaram could be jailed for a minimum of 10 years or awarded a maximum life term, according to prosecution lawyers.

(With PTI inputs)
LUCKNOW: In a first, as many as 15 girls got admitted a Uttar Pradesh-based Sainik School for the academic year 2018-19. Coming from different family backgrounds, the girls took admission in Captain Manoj Kumar Pandey Uttar Pradesh Sainik School.

There were 2,500 aspirants out of which only 15 could manage to get through.

School principal Col Amit Chatterjee said the girl students will undergo a strenuous routine beginning with PT exercises at 6 AM every day and then get ready for assembly prayers at 8.15 AM.

"After classes, they will return to their hostel and after a brief rest, participate in sporting events, before taking up studies at 7 PM," he told PTI.

Asked how the girls felt in their new environment, Col Chatterjee said, "They feel very proud to be part of the institution. They aspire to become famous one day in life."

The school's registrar Lt Col Uday Pratap Singh said, "Out of the 2,500 girls who appeared in the entrance examination, 15 were selected based on the results of the written examination and interviews. All these girls have been selected for class 9 for the academic year 2018-19."

"The girls hail from different family backgrounds like doctors, teachers, police officers and even agriculturists," he said.

The proposal to include girl students was sent to the Uttar Pradesh government in 2017.

"The existing infrastructure of the school has been improved for the 15 girl students using our own resources. One of the boys hostel has been vacated to accommodate the girls," he said.

The registrar exuded confidence that other Sainik Schools in the country will also emulate this example.

(With PTI inputs)
Pratapgar: Reaching out to Dalits in villages of Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday visited Kandhaipur Madhupur village in Pratapgarh district where he held a choupal with villagers and dined with them.

Under the scheme 'Gram Swarajya Yojna,' where the state government aims to reach out over 50,000 village panchayats in Uttar Pradesh, the CM was seen meeting with the family and the locals at the village, while reviewing various development projects.

During one particular open house question-answer session, Adityanath asked villagers, Have toilets been built here?

To this, the entire village echoed in a chorus, No.

The villagers sitting in the choupal said that not a single toilet has been built.

On hearing the villagers complain, Adityanath called the local authorities in front of everyone, directing him sternly to transfer the money for toilets in their Gramin accounts within 24 hours.

He further directed authorities to make sure each villager has a ration card.

Adityanath later visited a house of a Dalit family and had dinner with them.

"I am feeling happy. My family is also happy (on meeting with Adityanath). We never thought that he (Adityanath) would come and have food with us," said the Dalit man, Dayaram.

Chief Minister Adityanath on Monday paid a surprise visit to a grain mandi and a hospital in Pratapgarh.

On Sunday, he visited Roja Gehu Mandi in Shahjahanpur and interacted with the farmers there. He also held talks with the farmers and locals at Lakhimpur and Amethi.

With agency inputs
China has for long been trying to develop stealth technology for its fighter aircraft, and the end results have been questioned by experts. However, the Asian giant seems to be taking the problem in a manner that's totally different from how the West, particularly the US. The Chinese are trying to develop materials that when used to cloak aircraft, can even make older non-stealth aircraft nearly invisible.

Reports in Chinese media have referred to it as the 'cloak of invisibility'. This approach is different from the Western methods of relying on stealthy airframes and surfaces for the aircraft. It will rely on 'metamaterials' to either absorb or deflect radio waves, theoretically making the aircraft invisible on command.

The news is likely to gain sustained interest and analysis in defence circles because it would help turn much older aircraft into stealth variants.

Stealth technology is not a single unit of technical know-how. It is more of a collection of design principles and material usage that helps an aircraft or a ship minimise its radar cross-section. That means a massive craft will show up as a much smaller object when it is picked up by a radar. The very idea of stealth is aimed at giving fighter jets more time before they are detected, cutting down on the reaction time available to the adversary.

For instance, the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, considered the pinnacle of stealth technology so far, has wings that stretch 13.56 meters from tip to tip. But it will be detected by radar as an object that's the size of a steel marble, according to some estimates. The technologies and radar-absorbent materials developed for the F-22 are presently available only to the US, and that's why the manufacturer is banned from selling the F-22 to anyone other than the US military.

The Chinese have claimed that their bid at building a stealth fighter - the Chengdu J-20 - has been successful. But defence experts have raised doubts on what they point out are design elements that are fundamentally anti-stealth - like the J-20's canards.

The Chinese are now testing the metamaterial 'cloak of invisibility' on non-stealth aircraft at a testing facility near Eastern China's Shenyang, Chinese media have reported. The metamaterials used were developed at the State Key Laboratory of Millimetre Waves at Nanjing's Southeast University.

The 'metamaterial' is a layer that features microscopic structures similar to integrated circuits. The metamaterial can alter the way radio waves bounce off its surface to create a ghost image or minimise echo on a radar.

However, the reports did note that there are significant difficulties to be surmounted before the technology can come to fruition. The team developing the material had said in 2011 that it could absorb the three most commonly used military radar waves. In 2013, they claimed to have developed a 'ghost illusion device' that render the aircraft with almost no radar signature.

But 'metamaterials' alone would not be enough to equip an aircraft with stealth. It would only be a piece of the puzzle. Metamaterials are also difficult to mass-produce, placing crushing curbs on their widespread use.

Either way, the Chinese may be doing the same things the Americans did, but time will tell whether their difference in approach will help them reach an innovative result that the world has not seen yet.
NEW DELHI: A man in the United Kingdom stabbed his boss as many as 15 times and then carved 'bully' across her forehead after killing her, a court heard.

The man is said to be possessive, controlling and jealous, reported Independent.

The accused has been identified as a university worker, David Browning. He killed his boss Jillian Howell at the latter's residence located in Brighton.

Howell was reportedly stabbed in the chest, neck and abdomen, jurors were told.

According to Prosecutor Alan Gardner, the accused had developed an 'intense attachment' towards her. This is why he had become 'possessive, controlling and jealous', Gardner told Hove Crown Court.

Since 1989, Browning had worked in the payroll department and first met Howell when she joined as a manager in 2015.

He was her deputy and at times 'expressed unhappiness' at her management style. The duo, however, became friends later and started seeing each other socially outside of work. Browning often used to buy her gifts and flowers.

In a series of text messages read to the court, Browning described her in one as 'stunning' and in another said, "I adore you personally and professionally".

In another message he asked to see her again in September or October, adding, "I think you will realise how much you mean to me as a friend".

He sent Howell another message later saying, "You are more than just my boss and I think you know that."

Howell told a friend that she had sought professional help for Browning after he demanded she 'must never leave the university or get a boyfriend as he needed her support', Gardner said.
Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland is the grandchild of Ukrainian immigrants on her mother's side. She is believed to be the worlds only foreign minister who speaks with her Ukrainian counterparts in their own language

Among the diplomats who gathered in Toronto for a meeting of the leading industrialized nations, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin was an outlier. The foreign minister of Ukraine represents a country with a gross domestic product of $93 billion, compared with envoys from countries with economies measured in the trillions of dollars.

But it was no accident that Klimkin had star billing at the meeting of top diplomats from the Group of Seven countries, known as the G-7. Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland had him and the other diplomats over to her house for a brunch of waffles and eggs that her children prepared. Or that the first working session was dedicated to Russian interference in Ukraine.

On Monday, the G-7 foreign ministers agreed to establish a working group that aims to call out Russian malign behavior in all of its manifestations, said British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, whether it is cyberwarfare, whether its disinformation, assassination attempts, whatever it happens to be.

It was Russias behavior in Ukraine in 2014 that got it ousted from the group, which was then known as the G-8. The G-7 now comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.

[Trump administration says it intends to sell antitank missiles to Ukraine]

Freeland, who has close ties to Ukraine, designed it so that the country would be front and center.

To Freeland, Ukraine is Exhibit A for Russian interference and an arena for what she calls the defining issue of our time  democracy vs. authoritarianism.

She is the grandchild of Ukrainian immigrants on her mother's side. She grew up speaking Ukrainian with her parents and now speaks it with her children. She is believed to be the worlds only foreign minister who speaks with her Ukrainian counterparts in their own language.

As a young woman, Freeland worked as a journalist in Kyiv in the early 1990s, a time of political upheaval that provided an experience she has said now permeates her work as foreign minister.

Observing the collapse of the vastest communist regime in the world and the efforts to build something in its place has shaped my thinking profoundly, she told students at the University of Toronto in early April.

It has turned her into one of the G-7s fiercest critics of the Kremlin and President Vladimir Putin. In retaliation for her barbed critiques, Moscow has banned her from visiting.

The G-7 meeting was another opportunity for Freeland to push Ukraine to the top of the agenda, even though Russia has given no hint of ever returning Crimea to Ukraine or ending its support of separatists in eastern Ukraine.The Washington Post

Largely because Russia is not showing major signs of flexibility, we need to reinforce to them and the broader international community that our support for Ukraine is not flagging, said a Canadian diplomat, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on her behalf.

In Canada, being pro-Ukraine is smart domestic politics. More than 1.3 million Canadians, about 3 percent of the population, are of Ukrainian origin, and many follow the countrys politics closely. The nation has universal support among politicians.

Ukraine is us in Canada, said John Kirton, head of the G-7 Research Group at the University of Toronto. Chrystia is from that community in a way no other member of the G-7 is.

Ukraine also fits into Freelands worldview  as a canary in a coal mine in the fight to defend liberal democracy at a time when it is under assault worldwide.

A lot of people felt in 1991 that we were part of this beautiful spread of democracy and human rights and liberal values around the world, and it was unstoppable, she said in her meeting with university students. But, she added, the spread of liberal values and democracies is not inevitable.

The Canadian diplomat, who spoke to Klimkin after he had the chance to talk with his counterparts, said his presence helped counter Russian propaganda that Ukraine is forgotten and on its own, no longer front-page news.

The broad international support of key players reiterated in this special format was significant to him, the diplomat said. Its important not just to him and the Ukrainian leadership but to the Ukrainian political class at large.

Read the original text at The Washington Post.
Three Ukrainian soldiers were injured as a result of the attacks

Open source

The militants performed 25 attacks at the Armed Forces of Ukraine positions, three Ukrainian soldiers were injured as a result, the Donbas conflict HQ reported on Facebook.

The militants used 120-mm mortar and grenade launchers near Troitske and 82-mm mortar launchers near Popasna and Novooleksandrivka.

The enemys troops fired from grenade launchers and heavy machine guns in Novozvanivka.

The militants used 120-mm mortar launchers near Vodyane in Donetsk sector. The aggressor shot from grenade launchers, heavy machine guns and small arms in Verkhnyotoretske, Vodyane and Hnutove.

The use of heavy machine guns was documented near Pavlopil, Nevelsky, Marinka, Pavlopil and Butivka mine.

Three Ukrainian defenders were wounded as a result of carrying out military attacks. The injured were taken to the hospitals where they received medical assistance, the message says.
Also, the Foreign Ministry demands to inform where the Ukrainian is being held

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine sent a note to the Russian Federation demanding to explain the detention of Ukrainian Oleksandr Steshenko. This was reported by the press secretary of the Foreign Ministry Mariana Betsa on Twitter.

"In connection with the detention of Oleksandr Steshenko at the entry to the occupied Crimea, we sent a note to the Russian Federation with a request to inform the reasons for the detention and his location," she wrote.

As it was reported earlier, at the administrative border with the occupied Crimea, the Russian law enforcers detained Kharkiv resident Oleksandr Steshenko.

The last time Oleksandr got in touch with his mother on the morning of April 11. He called her and said that the "border guards" of the Russian Federation at Chongar doubted his similarity with the photo in his passport.

There was information that the taxi driver waited for him at the border about 4 hours, after the driver came out, the law enforcer of the Russian Federation took things out of the car and told him not to wait.

Currently, Steshenko's location is not known, and the FSB refutes having detained him.

Related video:
Sources of 112.ua in the coalition faction believe that the rotation in the CEC would be postponed until the fall

Read the original text at 112.ua.

June 3, 2016, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko said that after consulting with the leaders of the factions, he submitted a list of candidates for the positions of members of the Central Election Commission (CEC) to the parliament. It seemed that the issue was already done, and finally, new people would come to replace the old ones. Two years have passed, but the cart remains there still. In addition to the list of names published by Speaker Andriy Parubiy, there was no serious progress in this matter. Our sources in the coalition faction believe that the rotation in the CEC is likely to be postponed until the fall.

As early as 2014, contracts of 12 out of 15 CEC members have expired. In 2017, the number of "overdue" CEC members increased to 13, but thanks to changes introduced in the legislation, the commission continued its work.

The first real attempt to update the composition of the Central Election Commission took place in the summer of 2016. However, then no one noted for the list, submitted by the president Poroshenko, because the factions could not share the quotas in the new composition of the commission, as well as the position of chairman.

The second call started in January this year. During the meeting with Speaker Parubiy, Poroshenko signed a letter on the dismissal of the CEC members and the appointment of the new ones. There were 13 applicants in the original list. After a while, the fourteenth surname appeared from the "Fatherland" faction, but the representatives of the "Opposition Bloc" faction were not included. As the representative of the president in the parliament Iryna Lutsenko explained, this happened, as the party representatives submitted several candidacies for the post of CEC member, although they had to file one person.

April 16, at the meeting of the Conciliation Council of Parliament, the issue of updating the Central Election Commission has raised again. Speaker Parubiy said at a briefing following the meeting of the Conciliation Council that the issue of updating the commission would be discussed on April 19.

April 17, the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko called the leaders of the factions on Bankova, where they were supposed to dot the "i" in the issue of rotation of the commission. However, it did not happen.

"National Front" decided to raise rates and claimed about a desire to take the office of the CEC chairman. They raised the issue and changes in Poroshenko's list. The president said that since the quota of "National Front" is bigger than planned, the candidate from the "Fatherland" should be removed from the list," one of the participants in the meeting at Bankova told 112.ua, adding that the parties could not reach a compromise.

There are 14 candidates on the list, while there are only 13 vacancies in the CEC.

Despite all disagreements, the Parliament's profile committee on legal policy and justice recommended the parliament to vote for the list of commission members proposed by the president. And the head of Poroshenkos faction Artur Gerasimov stated about voting for the appointment of CEC members on April 19. But April 19, the final decision was taken that there will be no voting for the appointment of a new composition of the Central Election Commission.

"They have decided to postpone consideration of the CEC members appointment since the National Front faction is against it. They are afraid that the commission's renewal would become a trigger for early parliamentary elections," our sources in Poroshenkos faction say.

In turn, one of the deputies from the National Front explains that the refusal to vote for the list of CEC candidates is connected with the PACE resolution.

"The issue has remained in the quiver, as there is the PACE resolution, according to which all factions and groups should be represented in the CEC. If we ignore it, then we risk receiving sanctions similar to those in Russia," the parliamentarian explained. The hint is clear: neither Poroshenkos faction nor the National Front want to reduce their quota in the CEC, and in this situation, a nominee from Fatherland Andriy Yevstigneyev might be excluded.

Fatherland also admits that the renewal of the CEC could become a trigger for re-elections. "There are several lines of defense of power: the resignation of PM Groysman, the renewal of the CEC. If Bankova succeeds in doing both, then the likelihood of re-election will increase significantly," said one of the deputies from the Fatherland faction.

Many deputies from different factions are inclined to think that the CEC issue would be postponed until the fall. Then the problem of early elections would not be relevant, which means that it would be easier to find consensus.

It should be noted that in accordance with the Constitution, the parliament elected in the early parliamentary elections cannot be dissolved within the last six months of the authority of the Verkhovna Rada or the president of Ukraine. And the presidential elections are scheduled for March 2019.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or 112.International and its owners.
Lukashenka also handed Russia a coded warning against "isolation" and signaled that badly strained ties between Moscow and the West will not stop Belarus from seeking closer relations with the European Union and United States

Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has used an annual address to criticize both the West and Russia, accusing Western countries of "inciting trade wars" and charging that Moscow has blocked Belarusian goods from the Russian market.

In the wide-ranging televised speech to parliament on April 24, Lukashenka also handed Russia a coded warning against "isolation" and signaled that badly strained ties between Moscow and the West will not stop Belarus from seeking closer relations with the European Union and the United States.

In "the current difficult situation the world has entered, Belarusians must stay strong to preserve unity and stability," the authoritarian leader said.

The address was in line with previous speeches in which Lukashenka, who has been president since 1994, has said that solidarity is needed in the face of what he casts as threats to Belarus from both east and west.

"The United States led by its strict protectionist interests launched [a trade war] against China. Along with that, there is a wide-scale sanctions war against Russia," Lukashenka said.

"And look at those milk, meat, and sugar wars our closest partner has launched against us in order to block our goods from entering the Russian market," he added.

Apparently referring to Russia and Western countries including the United States, Lukashenka said that "the world's leading countries" were "fighting for their places in the world's hierarchy," which "leads to increased tension and confrontation."

"National selfishness, ignoring the interests of their partners and even allies, egocentrism, violation of international norms are turning into inseparable parts of the policies of the world's leading players," Lukashenka said.

But he said that although the confrontation between bigger powers might affect Belarus, his country will remain open for cooperation with everyone, suggesting that the ongoing standoff between Russia and the West will not affect what he says are Minsk's attempts to improve ties with the EU and the United States.

"The level of our political contacts with the European Union and widening of our mutual economic interaction are visible. We have to use the constructive potential of the EU's Eastern Partnership to its maximum," Lukashenka said, talking up ties with the EU at a time when Russia has been hit by mounting sanctions amid disputes with the West over its actions in Ukraine and elsewhere.

"The sanction wars will inevitably ricochet and hit us as well. Either via trade or financial structures, we will feel it. But we will not shut ourselves off from the outer world," Lukashenka said. In a warning to Russia, he added, "No country, even one from the list of the great countries, can be successful if it becomes isolated from others."

Stuck In The Middle

An authoritarian leader who has ruled Belarus since 1994, Lukashenka has sought to strike a balance between eastern neighbor Russia, which he depicts as both an ally and a threat, and the EU to the west.

The EU eased sanctions against Belarus in 2016 after the release of several people considered political prisoners but has criticized Lukashenka's government for a violent clampdown on demonstrators protesting an unemployment tax in March 2017.

Belarus and Russia are joined in a Union State that exists mainly on paper, and their militaries have close ties - thought Lukashenka has resisted some Russian efforts to beef up its military presence in Belarus, which lies between Russia and the NATO nations.

Belarus is a member of the Eurasian Economic Union and the Collective Security Treaty Organization, regional groupings observers say Russian President Vladimir Putin uses to seek to bolster Moscow's influence in the former Soviet Union and counter the EU and NATO.

Lukashenka, who has hosted talks aimed to end the war in between Ukrainian government forces and Russia -backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, has ambitiously offered to host what he said should be "a new wide-scale dialogue between East and West."

Read the original text at Radio Liberty.
Read original article at 112.ua

Open source

In the near future, Ukraine can get into the next trade agreement, this time with Turkey. Before the end of 2018, Ukraine could sign an agreement on the establishment of a free trade zone with this country, which will fully work already in 2019, said the Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman.



While the world's leading economies are making titanic efforts to protect their commodity markets, without neglecting even the frankly protectionist methods of fighting outsiders. Ukraine seems to start creating a "fourth trading international", trying to conclude trade agreements with anyone, even with Antarctica penguins. In our profile ministry, which should primarily focus on the promotion of Ukrainian goods to foreign markets (for which it is not necessary to conclude agreements on FTZs), it seems that they were too interested in the process, not the result, making foreign voyages and memories of new accomplishments. At that time, the US announced its withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), considering that free trade with countries such as Vietnam and Malaysia is not very beneficial for the US labor market and domestic production. They would have to come out of the North American Free Trade Zone, but so far they have decided to give the Mexicans time to build a wall near their border.



Classics of the genre in this regard are the two trading hits of our officials. The first is the signing of an agreement on the establishment of FTA with Canada. In the expert environment somehow it is not customary to talk about this; apparently, the inner piety in front of the country of maple leaves is seen. Although trade is essentially a solution simple enough for those who studied econometrics and economic modeling, transport tasks, and personal feelings toward the country have nothing to do with it. Americans like voyages to Europe, but they are not in a hurry to create a single trade space with it. Personal interest above all. And the fascination with the poetry of Li Bo and Du Fu is not yet a reason to trade duty-free with China. So, following the results of 2017, that is, the period when the FTA between Ukraine and Canada operated in full growth, our exports to this country amounted to just over $ 50 million and imports  to $ 299 million, a negative balance for us reached 249 million dollars. It is easy to see that in terms of free trade Canadian imports exceeded the Ukrainian export exactly six times. Yes, now we import coal from this overseas country.



And this year Ukraine is going to sign a free trade agreement with Albania. In January 2018, our exports to this country amounted to 555 thousand dollars, and imports  to 31.7 thousand dollars. With such trade turnover, the profit will not suffice even for gifts to government delegations.



Our trading "representatives" have one more ace in a sleeve. This is Ukraine's accession to the so-called European Free Trade Association (EFTA). In the fifties and sixties of the last century, Britain vigorously competed with France and Germany for trade domination on the continent. In this regard, the British created the EFTA as a counterbalance to the continental integration efforts of the Germans and the French. Now, this commercial rudiment decreased to four countries: Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Ukraine is planning to join this four, trying to register for all semi-dormant trade associations.



In Ukrainian politics, as in a giant black cauldron, there is a constant brew of all sorts of ideas and concepts, often with the spice of private interest of big business and a pinch of personal profit of this or that official. The subject of today's article will be another trade project with Turkey. However, recently all this has become more complicated. In an appendage to private corporate interests and the wishes of bureaucrats to receive a valuable offering, an ordinary folly has been added. That is why it was much harder to analyze the plans.



What is Turkey for Ukraine? A dozen years ago, experts considered Poland, Turkey and Ukraine as the most promising leaders of the Baltic-Black Sea region, and Ukraine could make the most spectacular spurt. Now our backlog from Poland and Turkey is very big. In recent years, we have already dropped a few times in the class and almost quit the competition because of non-payment of "contributions".

Our export structure today is like Turkey's in the early nineties of the last century: the same 40-50% of agricultural raw materials in the total mass of goods sold on foreign markets. But only since then the Turks have made impressive structural changes: today in their exports up to 30% are manufactured goods and equipment with a high level of added value. We reduced the given parameter from 20% to less than 10%. In addition, in the structure of selling food products, the Turks dominate with goods with a high level of processing, while we sell simple raw materials. It would seem that the statistics of mutual trade is very favorable for us: in 2017, the export of Ukrainian goods to Turkey amounted to $ 2.5 billion, and the import of Turkish goods  to $ 1.26 billion. At first glance, we have a significant trade surplus. But as it is known, the devil is in the details, and the essence of international trade  is in its structure.



Among the indicators of our exports it is necessary to note: grain ($ 236 million), oilseeds ($ 300 million), food industry waste ($ 171 million), vegetable oil ($ 106 million), timber ($ 137 million) , ferrous metals ($ 1068 million), ore raw materials ($ 96 million).



The structure of Turkish imports includes fruit ($ 123 million), vehicles ($ 141 million), textiles, footwear ($ 93 million), reactors, boilers ($ 133 million).



In this regard, you can certainly tell about the "raw curse" that we give them raw, and they give to us goods with a high level of added value. But it will be a little manipulation because the same structure of trade we have with the EU, but this does not mean that we need to get out of the agreement with Europe. Unfortunately, the structural changes that have occurred in our economy in recent years have made Ukraine a raw material appendage, and we will have a technological imbalance with any more developed economy.



In the context of Turkey, it is important to understand another thing. This country is a unique example of maximum trade integration into the European market, which in the case of another state would be possible only with full membership in the EU. To defeat Turks in trade is like trying to make more films than India.



At the moment, Turkey makes maximum use not only of the EU markets, but also of its regional leadership and, given the objective resource constraint, "squeezes out less expansive neighbors. The Turks buy oil and process it at their petrochemical plants, supplying finished products to the European market. The same thing they do with our sunflower oil. They not only buy a Ukrainian "seed" and make a finished product out of it, but they also buy our finished oil, transported by special tankers, and then bottle it under their brands, adding "vitamins and carotenes" which even the Nobel laureate on biochemistry could not find. They export already Turkish oil, which is much more expensive than ours. The same thing happens in metallurgy: the Turks buy semi-finished products from ferrous metals in the form of slabs, rolls, square blanks, and also iron, and then produce steel and high-end products at their enterprises and sell this product in the markets of Germany, Sweden, and other European countries, but at a much higher price. In addition, Turkey is the largest consumer of scrap: last year it increased its imports by 18% - to 21 million tons worth more than $ 6 billion (data of the Turkish Iron and Steel Producers' Association).



To create an FTA with such a country means putting on the brink of survival not only our engineering industry but also the light industry, which in the last year began to show good growth rates and conquer not only the EU market but also our own. In addition, our producers of vegetables will not be able to withstand competition with the Turks - we will have to forget about Kherson tomatoes.



It is not difficult to see that almost half of our exports to Turkey are ferrous metals and ore raw materials. The creation of a free trade zone in this scenario is just another curtsey of power in front of one of the country's largest group. And for this it is not a problem to sacrifice Ukrainian machine-builders, Kherson tomatoes, seamstresses and shoemakers, turning Ukraine into an exporter of "seeds", scrap and semi-finished products from ferrous metals.

A similar sacrifice brought to the altar of the FTA's agreement with the EU was explained by the historical inevitability of the vector of European integration. And how can we explain the "dissolution" in the Turkish market? With the role of a raw appendage of Europe, Ukraine has already resigned. But to be a raw appendage of Turkey ... Its not comme il faut ...
Ukrainian top officials talk about plans to achieve 5-7% GDP growth. Poroshenko promised to do everything possible, and PM Groysman associates such growth with the development of digital technologies

Read the original text at 112.ua.

Obviously, the officials became more optimistic after improving estimates of GDP growth in 2017. State Statistics Service has revised the indicator of GDP growth in the IV quarter upward - from 1.8% to 2.2%, resulting in an annual increase of 2.5%. In turn, the National Bank (NBU) estimated the growth of real GDP in 2017 at 2.1%, although in early July 2017 it worsened its forecast from 1.9% to 1.6%. That is, there is an obvious improvement in the development of the economy in the IV quarter. The Ukrainian authorities use every chance for optimism to show at least a minimal advantage in the Ukrainian sea of the misfortunes. It should be noted that according to official estimates, 1% of GDP was "lost" as a result of the blockade of trade with Donbas.

Current forecasts of GDP growth in the current year and subsequent periods are quite optimistic, and they are close to the lower limit of expectations of the president and the prime minister. According to the forecasts of the NBU, in 2018 economic growth will accelerate to 3.4%, and in 2019-2020, it will slow down to 2.9%. According to the World Bank, Ukraine's GDP will grow by 3.5% in 2018 and by 4% in the next two years. The Cabinet expects GDP growth at 3% in 2018, 3.6% in 2019, and 4% in 2020. According to the NBU, Ukraine's real GDP in the 1st quarter of 2018 grew by 2.3%.

Experts note that it is quite possible to achieve the stated rates of development. "If we analyze GDP growth for the entire period of Ukraine's independence, it becomes clear that the 5-6% index is absolutely real. After the 2008-2009 crisis, when GDP fell by 14.8%, in 2010 and 2011 we observed growth in 4.2 and 5.2% respectively. In comparison, after the crisis of 2014-2015, when GDP fell by 6%, and then by another 10%, Ukraine managed to reach only 2.3-2.5% in 2016-2017. Now, like 9 years ago, we are also recovering from the crisis, so economic growth may well reach 5-6%," Igor Kozhevin, the chief financial officer of First Ukrainian International Bank (FUIB).

For the last 20 years, China's economy has been growing at no less than 6% of GDP per year. Even the 2008 crisis did not greatly affect the GDP growth rate, which decreased from 14.2% to 9.7%. Ethiopia, Vietnam, India, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Senegal and several other countries in Asia and Africa added more than 5% to their economies in 2017.

In turn, the GDP of the Eurozone in 2017 increased (according to preliminary data) by 2.5%, and the growth rate was the highest since 2007. While the growth of the world economy last year, according to the IMF, was 3.7%.

Concerning the rate on the digital economy, the prospects for this direction are great, but in Ukraine its development is slow. Digital measures are not a strong enough argument for the whole economy. The introduction of 3G and 4G improves the conditions for the operation of a number of businesses (e-commerce, Internet services of things, cloud technologies, fintech and agrotech, telemedicine, streaming music and video services, online broadcasts, online games and mobile advertising), but these are point improvement. Electronic document management alone can only save paper, and the introduction of electronic services has little impact on the frequency of contacts between the average Ukrainian and the official and the level of corruption, while open registries comprehensively improve the level of information in business and minimize the number of cases of forgery of documents. But this is not enough to form the prerequisites of 5-7% of GDP growth.

Of course, without sufficient grounds for that, the Ukrainian economy cannot grow significantly. The most important factors affecting the change in the parameters of the economy are changes in net exports (imports), consumer spending, and gross accumulation. According to the National Bank of Ukraine, the main factor of economic growth in 2017 was domestic demand.

Despite the fact that 5-6% growth is something usual for our economy (especially with a low base of comparison), its development is uncertain. This is due to doubts about the dynamics of revenues from the export of goods and services, as well as a sufficient level of investment.

According to Kozhevin, in order to achieve GDP growth of 5-6% or more, either external factors should be positively influenced in the form of higher prices for agricultural products and metals, or the arrival of foreign investment through improving the investment climate.

The most realistic option for accelerating economic growth may be the arrival of a large volume of foreign investment in the Ukrainian economy. If we manage to carry out real reforms, primarily anti-corruption and judicial, and pass laws on the protection of investments and creditor rights, this will allow external investors to begin to actively consider long-term investments in Ukraine. Such experience of the arrival of investments in 2006-2008 confirms that the Ukrainian economy will be subject to a significant effect even from relatively small investments. If large companies choose Ukraine to locate production facilities, this can significantly improve the economy and development of small and medium-sized companies in Ukraine.

The Cabinet associates the probability of significant economic growth with deregulation, in particular, with joining the TOP-50 rating of Doing Business in 2018. However, according to the results of rating in 2017, Ukraine took 76th place.

At the same time, it is necessary to take into account the high vulnerability of the Ukrainian economy from external factors, as well as potential additional payments in favor of creditors, which the country undertakes to carry out with a certain economic growth (terms of the restructuring of Eurobonds from 2015).

For his part, Olexander Okhrimenko, the president of the Ukrainian Analytical Center, connects economic growth with the opening of the land market. "If you start the land reform and allow large TNCs to buy up land, then the GDP growth will reach 5-6% per year. Without the land reform, there will not be growth. The economy needs drivers, and the allegedly anti-corruption or pseudo-reforms do not work," the expert assures.

The comparatively small size of our economy is a simplifying moment for achieving high rates of economic growth. In order to substantially increase the economy, we do not need any "miracles", but we need to pass the path chosen by the countries of Eastern Europe.

"As the economy of Ukraine is small, external factors are necessary to achieve rapid economic growth: for example, if conditions for the growth of prices for products exported by Ukraine (agricultural products and metals) are formed on world markets, this will lead to temporary economic growth. Only if prices for oil and gas are preserved, which make up the bulk of imports for energy supply, in this case, the situation depends on geopolitical changes and depends little on Ukraine," emphasizes Kozhevin.

Quite a fantastic option, which, however, is not meaningless is a revision of the methodology for calculating indicators. It should be noted that the latest example of the revision of the methodology showed a significant "potential". Thus, the National Bank revised the methodology for estimating the volume of remittances of labor migrants to the country in terms of proceeds through informal channels. As a result, this indicator in 2017 increased from 7.3 billion dollars to 9.3 billion dollars, and in 2016 - from 5.4 billion dollars to 7.5 billion dollars.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or 112.International and its owners.
Idea is to refer chemical weapons issue to UN general assembly, where Russias security council veto would not apply

Western nations want to end the months-long paralysis at the United Nations over Syria by referring the issue of chemical weapons use to the entire UN general assembly, where Russias security council veto would not apply.

The idea is to draw on a rarely used route first established in the cold war to transfer responsibility for aspects of the crisis to the 193-member general assembly.

Russia has used its security council veto powers 11 times to block action targeting its ally Syria. A UN mechanism to attribute responsibility for chemical weapons use came to an end in November after Russia vetoed a resolution to extend its mandate, complaining that the mechanism was prejudiced against the Syrian government.

Ian Martin, a former UN official and Amnesty International chief, said: The Russian veto need not be the end of efforts for collective action by the UN. The responsibility of asserting accountability for the use of chemical weapons, and for bringing an end to the horrors of the Syrian conflict, rests with the world community as a whole.

The proposal is known to have support among western officials.

The impasse was raised at an annual weekend closed-door retreat attended by security council ambassadors in Sweden and is now likely to be discussed further at a series of meetings this week. Western powers fear the absence of an attribution mechanism not only gives Syria free range to continue to use chemical weapons but also to deliver a severe blow to the international world order.

The US, France and the UK launched a missile attack on Syrias alleged chemical weapons sites 10 days ago in response to allegations that the Syrian government used chemical weapons in an attack on the town of Douma on 7 April.

Inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons are in Douma. But regardless of what they find, the OPCW does not have powers to attribute responsibility.

Since the strike there have been renewed diplomatic efforts, largely brokered by Sweden, to agree on a UN resolution on a new investigatory mechanism, but so far they have been fruitless.

Western governments, worried that the impasse is weakening the wider authority of the security council, want to pick up a rarely used route, first set up in the 1950 Korean crisis. Called uniting for peace, it would enable nine members of the 15-strong security council to bypass a Russian veto and refer the matter to a full vote at the general assembly. It would then require a two-thirds majority by the general assembly for an attribution mechanism to be agreed.

The 1950 uniting for peace route was explicitly designed to be used when the security council could not meet its responsibilities over maintenance of peace.

The UN secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, said at the weekend that the world had entered a new cold war era where the threat of instability was greater than the previous cold war.

In objecting to an attribution mechanism, Russia has opposed the mix of nationalities on the OPCW and the absence of routine on-site inspections. It also insists that final decisions on attribution must be made by the security council, where it can wield its veto.

The western powers have made concessions to secure a compromise UN resolution on attribution, but will not concede the principle that Russian could veto the inspection team findings.

A separate proposal for Guterres to set up a special panel on Syria, as has happened in the past over Sri Lanka, has been greeted with skepticism because it would be easy for Russia to dismiss such an ad hoc body set up on the sole authority of the secretary general.

The western missile strikes appear to have had little impact on either side, making concessions in the Syrian peace talks.

On the meeting of G7 in Canada, foreign ministers agreed that Russia needed to do more to contribute to a political settlement in Syria, but the UN special envoy, Staffan de Mistura, met Russian officials over the weekend in Moscow, and little evidence emerged that Russia was willing to force the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, to negotiate with opposition groups on a future constitution.

An EU humanitarian conference in Brussels on Tuesday and Wednesday is likely to focus on how to prepare for an expected Syrian regime attack on Idlib, in north-west Syria, one of the last remaining rebel held areas in the country.

Read the original text at The Guardian.
The territory around the bench is one of the nine objects that should be cleared

Sky News

The soldiers have begun the clean-up of the territories connected to the poisoning of ex-GRU officer Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yulia as Sky News reported.

Three army trucks have arrived in Salisbury to start the clean-up operation in the city following the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter. The convoy rolled into the city at dusk on Tuesday to begin the decontamination of nerve agent hotspots, the message said.

The soldiers unloaded two large metal containers and a mini tractor near the Maltings shopping mall, where the Skripals were found unconscious.

According to the information, the territory around the bench is one of the nine objects that should be cleared. It is noted that it can take a few months.

The process takes place under the control of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Also, the restaurant Zizzi and The Mill pub will also be cleared-up as the Skripals visited these place before they were found at the bench.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons confirmed Britains conclusions that ex-GRU officer Sergei Skripal was poisoned with the nerve agent.

Ex-colonel of Russias GRU, Chief Intelligence Department, Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yulia, poisoned in the center of Salisbury town in the evening of March 4, are still struggling for life in the intensive care unit of the local hospital. The British special services suppose that Skripals were poisoned by his ex-colleague Andrey Lugovoy, who acted on orders from Moscow.
Russia's presence and membership in the Council of Europe need to be preserved. Thorbjorn Jagland, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe said that at a press briefing, as Yevropeiska Pravda quoted him.

According to Jagland, the decision to exclude this country from the Council is within the exclusive authority of the Committee of the Ministers of the Council.

'The member country remains here until the member countries decide otherwise. European Court for Human rights matters a lot to Russian citizens. I'm frightened about the very opportunity of Russia staying beyond the authority of the European Convention', the official said.

Earlier, Ukrainian diplomat Dmytro Kuleba stated that the Ukrainian government and PACE have fundamentally different views on Russia.

He (Secretary-General of the Council of Europe Thorbjrn Jagland) confirmed that he is ready to work towards the return of Russian delegation to the assembly. I am not satisfied with his view because, on this matter, the views of Ukraine and the Secretary-General dont correspond. Although we have positive examples of cooperation, too. But as to Russia, our views are fundamentally different, he noted.
The official's decision to step down from his office due to mass riots in Yerevan is not in favor of Kremlin's foreign policy, - Deutsche Welle

Open source

The unrest in Armenia seems to have succeeded, as PM Serzh Sargsyan resigned, leaving the post of the most powerful man in the country.

Due to the constitutional reform, the government mode changed from the presidential republic to the parliamentary republic. Most of the executive power now belongs to the Prime Minister - instead of the president. Hundreds of the thousands rose against the change, demanding to cancel it and remove Sargsyan from power. Dozens of activists were arrested, the police attacked the protesters and their vehicles, trying to intimidate and disperse them.

In one of its articles, Deutsche Welle focused on the impact of such decision on Russia's foreign policy.

'For years now, Moscow has been watching the unrest in neighboring countries with concern, pointing the finger at Western intervention. Now, the familiar scenario is playing out in Armenia, a particularly close Russian ally in the post-Soviet era. "The peaceful downfall of a politician who wanted to remain in power for years to come is a slap in the face for Moscow's foreign policy," said Russian journalist Konstantin von Eggert. He believes that the Kremlin likely underestimated the strength of the Armenian people's disillusionment with Sargsyan', the German outlet wrote.

Read the full article here.
The Russian defence ministry is about to include the domestically-made UAVs in the military parade timed to the Victory Day in Moscow. According to the National Interest, it is a good time for the show of force for Russia, which almost never loses such chance.

'On April 18, 2018, Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu announced that the years military parade in Moscow, commemorating the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, will feature new and advanced weaponry.

He noted that for the first time ever, the Uran-9 combat multifunctional robotic system, the Uran-6 multipurpose mine-clearance robotic vehicle and Korsar short-range drones will appear along with other land and air weapons.

This announcement is momentous. Victory Day parades are back in fashion in Russia after a brief hiatus from the annual military pageantry of the Soviet days. The parades display new and old weaponry, from World War II-vintage tanks to the latest combat vehicles, missiles and warplanes', the outlet wrote.

Read the full story here.
Such actions threaten safety and security of navigation in the Black Sea, - Ukraine's embassy in the UK

Black Sea, off the coast Open source

Ukraine asked the member countries of the International Maritime Organization not to recognize the illegal actions of Russia in the waters of the Black Sea. The respective statement appeared on the official web page of the Ukrainian embassy in Great Britain.

During the 10th session of the Legal Committee of the IMO, Ukraine presented the document stating that Russia continues to breach the international law, taking too much authority in terms of the international navigation in these waters adjacent to Crimea.

'Russia continues to violate international law by taking over the responsibility on international shipping in the marine areas adjacent to the Crimean peninsula, which are an integral part of the territory of Ukraine. Such actions threaten safety and security of navigation in the Black Sea. It is stated in the document submitted by Ukraine for consideration of the IMO Legal Committee in London.

In its statement at the Committees session, the representative of Ukraine called upon the IMO Member States not to recognize the Russian Federations claim to implement IMO conventions on the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine.

Following consideration, the EU countries, Canada, Georgia, Norway and the United States have condemned the illegal annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation and once again called upon the IMO Member States to remain committed to fully implement policy of non-recognition of the illegal annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol', reads the statement.

After Russia annexed Crimea, the Ukrainian law has been forbidding foreign vessels the entrance into Crimean ports, considering it also as the violation of the international legal framework. Such actions are considered harmful to Ukraine's sovereignty and impose criminal responsibility in the crews of respective ships.
Totally, more than 40 people were brought to justice due to fires and explosions at the armament depots

Open source

The Defense Ministry prosecuted more than 10 people due to the fire at the armament depot in Kalynivka, Vinnytsia region that took place in September 2017. Stepan Poltorak, the Defense Minister of Ukraine claimed this as BBC News Ukraine reported.

The prosecutors office should say this (who exactly is guilty in the Kalynivka fire  112 International), there is no court decision yet. According to the investigation of the Defense Ministry, more than 10 people were prosecuted, Poltorak claimed.

Totally, more than 40 people were brought to justice due to fires and explosions at the armament depots.

More than 40 40 people were brought to justice in all cases, including senior and superior officers: generals, colonels. Some generals were dismissed, Poltorak claimed.

According to him, the inspection group of the Military Judicial Service was sent at the site after each incident and it investigated the preconditions of the incidents.

After Kalynivka incidents, all storages, bases and depots were transferred to the strengthened security. Also, the work of building of the armament depots was held, Poltorak added.

Also, he said that about $19 million is provided to support the bases in 2018.

As it was reported earlier, fire at the ammunition storages in Kalynivka of Vinnytsia region began at 22:00 on September 26. Two women suffered in the result of the incident and were hospitalized. Almost 30 000 local citizens were evacuated from the dangerous area. They explosions ceased in the morning of September 28 and the rescuers finished clearing the territory from the explosives near the depot in the afternoon. The local citizens began to return in the evening of September 28.

The Chief Military Prosecutors Office of the Central region of Ukraine opened the criminal proceeding due to sabotage. The investigators enquire four versions of the fire in Kalynivka. The President of Ukraine decided to convene a military cabinet because of the fire at military depots in Kalynivka. Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman claimed that the de-mining of the territories near the armament depot in Kalynivka region (Vinnytsia region) can last until the end of November.

According to the State Emergency Service, the explosions ceased at the arsenal only on October 3.
According to her, the G7 will also promote reforms in Ukraine

Open source

At the summit of the Foreign Ministers of the G7 countries in Toronto, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said that the G7 countries would support Ukraine during the elections in the face of Russian aggression. This was reported by Ukrinform.

"Ukraine is all too familiar with the real consequences of Russia's bad treatment, so the G7 countries will continue to support Ukraine during the next elections in the face of aggression," the report said.

She also noted that G7 members will also contribute to "carrying out the necessary anti-corruption and economic reforms" in Ukraine.

As it was reported earlier, G7 Foreign Ministers agreed to create a special group, which will observe Russias behavior, as Boris Johnson, British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, said at the G7 Foreign Ministers summit in Toronto.

It was noted that the main reasons for such G7 decision were a constant tension in the relations with Russia, its involvement in Syria and Ukraine conflicts and Moscows involvement in the poisoning of Skripal in Britain.

An outreach session on Ukraine was held on April 22 within the meeting of G7 Foreign Ministers in Toronto. Ukraine participates in the full planned G7 event first-ever. It was stressed that Ukraine was interested in G7 assistance, including its support counterworking Russias aggression, the respect of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, the de-occupation of Crimea, counterworking of the propaganda and hybrid threats, the energy security issues, anti-Russian sanctions and reformation process in Ukraine.

Related video:
G7 Foreign Ministers agreed to create a special group, which will observe Russias behavior, as Boris Johnson, British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, said at the G7 Foreign Ministers summit in Toronto, Reuters report.

"What we decided yesterday was that we were going to set up a G7 group that would look at Russian malign behavior in all its manifestations - whether its cyber warfare, whether its disinformation, assassination attempts, whatever it happens to be and collectively try to call it out, Johnson stated.

It was noted that the main reasons for such G7 decision were a constant tension in the relations with Russia, its involvement in Syria and Ukraine conflicts and Moscows involvement in the poisoning of Skripal in Britain.

As it was reported earlier, an outreach session on Ukraine was held yesterday within the meeting of G7 Foreign Ministers in Toronto. Ukraine participates in the full planned G7 event first-ever.

Pavlo Klimkin, Ukraines Foreign Minister, said that at the outreach session on Ukraine in Toronto the issues of Crimea and Donbas were discussed.
They demand to pay the ransom in the Bitcoins

Open source

The unknown cybercriminals hacked the site of the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine. They blocked the site and demand the ransom for its restoration.

Particularly, the message from the criminals published at the main page of the site (mev.gov.ua). They demand 0,1 Bitcoin (about $930) for the restoration of the portal work.

They have given 10 hours to pay the ransom.

Earlier a Russian-linked group of hackers recently attacked government websites stole documents from the German websites, including those related to Ukraine.

Also, on March 28, the Ukrainian cyberpolice have exposed a hacker who has allegedly broken into the computers of banks and hotels across the world. The man was a part of the Cobalt hacker organization, whose members have been involved in attacks on various global banks.

Also, law enforcement agents discovered online databases that were illegally entered into, where credit card details of citizens from Europe and America and other countries of the world. Along with that, traces of account on various hacker forums and different harmful software were found.
A non-resident company intends to take control over the enterprises activity in the military and defense contracts sphere

Open source

The searches at Motor Sich in Zaporizhia connected to the investigation of the criminal proceeding due to the sabotage as the press service of the Security Service (SBU) reported.

The SBU investigates the criminal proceeding due to the preparation to the actions aim for the weakening of the state by destroying the strategic enterprise Motor Sich, the message said.

The SBU noted that the representatives of the foreign company develop the modern plant on the aviation engines production and it is planned to relocate the Ukrainian production and technologies to this plant.

For the implementation of these intentions, despite the Ukrainian legislation, the foreigners made a mediated concentration of the controlling shares of Motor Sich that is registered to six offshore companies and a natural person. At the moment, the representatives of the non-resident company intends to illegally concentrate the purchased block of shares that provides the increase of 50% of the votes at the supreme governing body of the enterprise and get the complete control over its activity in the military and defense contracts sphere as the materials of the case prove this, the SBU added.

As we reported the SBU held the searches of Motor Sich company to get the additional evidence in the criminal proceeding on April 23.

Earlier Anatoly Malysh, the Head of the Supervisory Board of Motor Sich claimed that the searches are connected with the appeal of the SBU on the arrest of 41% of the shares of the company satisfied by the Kyiv Court in September 2017 to provide the state interests.

Also, it was reported that the stocks markets Ukrainian stock exchange and PFTS made a decision to stop the movement of shares of Motor Sich.

'Motor Sich' is the enterprise in Zaporizhia that develops, produces, repairs and provides the service of the aviation gas turbine engines for the planes and helicopters and the industrial gas turbine units.

The officials of the company are suspected in the embezzlement of $14 million.
Particularly, Ukraine asked to explain once more the decision on the cancelation of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis ban

Open source

Ukraine appealed to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) with a request to finally explain its Order on use of the provisional measures adopted last year. The appeal dated April 19, 2018, was filed today as Ukraines Foreign Ministry reported.

Ukraine also filed an appeal with a request to assume the proper provisional measures, taking into account that the situation is urgent.

Particularly, Ukraine asked to explain once more the decision on the cancelation of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis ban.

The ICJ obliged Russia by its Order to refrain from the making or supporting of the restrictions toward the possibility of the Crimean Tatars to keep their own representative institutions, including the Mejlis

Despite the clear meaning of this Order, an entire year has passed and Russia continues to maintain its ban of the Mejlis. It is now apparent that Russia does not consider that it must suspend its discriminatory ban on the Mejlis under the language of the ICJs Order, the Foreign Ministry claimed.

Ukraine principally does not agree on this position.

Moreover, the ICJs Order obliges Russia to provide the access to the education in the Ukrainian language and urges both sides to not assume measures that can aggravate the disputes before the Court, which encompass both discrimination in Crimea and support for terrorism in eastern Ukraine.

On February 19, 2018, Ukraine submitted its Memorial in Arbitration Proceedings against the Russian Federation under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

It is noted that since 2014, Russia has unlawfully excluded Ukraine from exercising its maritime rights; it has exploited Ukraines sovereign resources for its own ends; and it has usurped Ukraines right to regulate within its own maritime areas. Through these violations of international law, Russia is stealing Ukraines energy and fisheries resources, harming the livelihoods of Ukrainian fishermen, and blocking traffic to Ukrainian ports with its illegal bridge over the Kerch Strait, among other serious violations.
The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine has begun the main stage of the joint special operation Border-2018 on April 24. It aims to decrease a level of an illegal activity at the state border areas and regions and the Border Guard Service reported.

The special operation will last from April 24 until November 30.

The situation stabilization at the state border and in the central regions of the country will cover 15 border regions (excluding ATO zone) and Kyiv, the message said.

The sudden activity of the State Border Guard Service reserves at the most active parts of the border and checkpoints, increase of the security density of the state border by attraction of the cadets of the Khmelnytsk National Academy of the cadets and use of the joint inter-department groups at the routes of the criminals and the checkpoints are provided.

Also, the air monitoring of the border areas and border line with the use of the border aviation (including drones), joint checks of the aviation activity beyond the controlled border areas, trains that aim to the border, places of the accumulation of the smuggled goods and shipments will be held. Moreover, the joint events on the safeguarding of the border with the neighboring countries colleagues, patrolling of the sea and rivers sites will be held.

Last year, the border guards detained more than 300 illegals, 18,600 offenders of the state border and the border regime, did not allow more than 970 potential illegals to enter Ukraine.
According to him, the bloodshed is going on in Donbas region because of Russian aggression, so no use threatening with it

Ukraine is not afraid of Russia, and bloodshed is happening in the East of Ukraine because of Russia's hybrid aggression. Ukraines President Petro Poroshenko commented on Russias reaction to the possible creation of an autocephalous church in Ukraine. He said this on the air of one of the TV channels on April 23.

In reply to the comment that Russia "is threatening with bloodshed if Ukrainian church separates from the Moscow Patriarchate," Poroshenko said that Ukraine was not afraid of Russia.

"First of all, we are Ukrainians and the state of Ukraine is not afraid of Russia. We have been proving it for four years during an absolutely bloody aggression. Russia sheds blood on Ukrainian soil, and today there are thousands and thousands of Ukrainians killed and wounded as a result of the Russian armed aggression. The world calls it a hybrid war, "the Ukrainian president said.

"Therefore, we do not need to be intimidated, we are a very responsible nation and do not let the situation inside the country be shaken when they want to spill the blood," Poroshenko stressed.

He noted that Ukraine needs to show that there is freedom of conscience and freedom of belief in the country.

"And if someone wants to attend a church whose centre is outside our country in Russia, it's their right. I am absolutely convinced that the decision to get an autocephaly or independence for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will greatly raise Ukrainian national spirit," he said.

As it was reported earlier, the Holy Synod, under the chairmanship of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, at a meeting on April 20 decided to begin the procedures necessary to provide autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Earlier, on April 17, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko wrote a letter to the Ecumenical Patriarch asking to provide autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. Representatives of the UOC-Moscow Patriarchate, in turn, said that this is an excess of power and interference in church affairs.
The flooding of Yunkom mine in occupied Donbas can lead to unintended consequences for the ecology of Ukraine and other Black Sea Basin countries. Ostap Semerak, the Ecology and Natural Resources Minister claimed this as the press service of the ministry reported.

It will have the unpredictable consequences for the environment not only of Donbas and the other part of Ukraine but also for all Black Sea Basin countries. It is hard to predict the consequences. They will be either bad or very bad, the minister emphasized.

He also urged to not trust the conclusions of the Russian scientists and experts of the so-called Donetsk Peoples Republic who claim that the mine flooding does not lead to the radionuclides output on the ground surface and their contamination of the ground and surface waters.

Semerak emphasized that in the reality, the risks of the radionuclides output on the ground or water are huge.

The issue is not about usual so-called wet conservation of the mines, but about the object were the radioactive waste is stored. Ukraine always controlled both the radiation background in the explosion zone and the state of the environment. Now, we do not understand what is going on at this object, he explained.

The projects on the mine liquidation worked out earlier included the obligatory provision of the permanent drainage to preserve the mine in the dry state.

The minister expressed the confidence that the international community should interfere in the situation.

It should be control or monitoring and the regimes observance worked out by Ukraine. We demand that the international observation missions were allowed to all objects of the critical infrastructure and particularly this mine, Semerak insists.

As it was reported earlier, militants started to flood Yunkom mine in a temporarily occupied Yenakiyeve of Donetsk region. Almost 40 years ago there has been a nuclear explosion performed with an aim to relieve the tension in the mountain massif. Thus, Donbas residents are facing the danger of radiation poisoning, in particular through the poisoning of drinking water.

As it was reported earlier, out of 4 thousand dangerous objects established by Swiss experts, 17 represent a "radiation hazard". The most dangerous mine can be the Yunkom mine in Yenakiyeve, the city of steel and coal in the separatist Donetsk People's Republic, which is proud not only of its fellow countryman, Soviet cosmonaut Georgy Beregov, but also of former president Viktor Yanukovych who fled to Russia. Here in 1979, the Soviet Union tested the atomic bomb deep underground.
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!)
For anyone who has always wanted to try flamenco, these classes introduce all the basics taught by Albuquerque native, Leslie Roybal.

For anyone who has always wanted to try flamenco, these classes introduce all the basics. Or, for dancers who want to brush up on technique, this is a great opportunity to work on refining your skills. Students will learn basic movement vocabulary, technique, and short dances.

Taught by Albuquerque Native, Leslie Roybal, recently returned to Burque from New York City!

Leslie has had an extensive career as a performer and dance educator in both the Contemporary Dance and Flamenco ideologies. She is currently the Program Director for Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana in New York City and produces the Flamenco Certamen USA annually which supports the growth and exposure of up-and-coming flamenco artists throughout the United States. Leslie has toured with companies such as Murray Spalding Mandalas, Fred Darsow Dance, Neville Dance Company, The Metropolitan Opera, Pasion y Arte, A Palo Seco Flamenco, Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana and performed regularly in the New York and New Jersey tablaos. She was a scholarship recipient for the NALAC Leadership Institute in 2011, was a pioneering member of the Performers in Transition Fellowship for the BAM Professional Development Program/DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the Kennedy Center in 2012, and was named one of 12 national finalists for the 2016 Coors Light Lideres Program in honor of her work as a supporter of the Latino community.
YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS. As the Armenian protests entered the 11th day and thousands were gathered in Yerevans Republic Square, a 36- year old demonstrator suffered a heart attack while participating in the rally.

The healthcare ministry said the man, who had a cardiovascular disease, died while being rushed to a hospital.

Another incident happened April 23 involving a minor. The child reportedly fell and was injured.

The healthcare ministry said that seven people are hospitalized for protest-related injuries as of April 23, 21:30.

English translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS. In 1915, the crime perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire against the Armenians was the first genocide of 20th century. The Armenians worldwide commemorate 103rd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

On April 24, the countrys high-ranking officials and guests in Armenia will visit the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial to pay tribute to the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims.

What is the Armenian Genocide?

The extermination of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during the World War I is called the Armenian Genocide.

Those massacres were perpetrated by the government of Young Turks in various regions of the Ottoman Empire.

The first international response to the violence resulted in a joint statement by France, Russia and the Great Britain in May 24 1915, where the Turkish atrocities against the Armenians were defined as a crime against humanity and civilization. According to them, Turkish government was responsible for the implementation of the crime.

Why was the Genocide perpetrated?

When WWI erupted, the government of the Young Turks adopted the policy of Pan-Turkism, hoping to save the remains of the weakened Ottoman Empire. The plan was to create an enormous Ottoman Empire that would spread to China, include all the Turkish speaking nations of the Caucasus and Middle Asia, intending also to turkify all the ethnic minorities of the empire. The Armenian population became the main obstacle standing in the way of the realization of this policy.

The Young Turks used WWI as a suitable opportunity for the implementation of the Armenian genocide, although it was planned in 1911-1912.

How many people were killed in the Armenian Genocide?

There were an estimated two million Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire before the WWI. Approximately one and a half million Armenians were killed from 1915-1923. The remaining part was either islamized or exiled, or found shelters in different parts of the world.

The mechanism of implementation of the Genocide

A genocide is the organized extermination of a nation aiming to put an end to their collective existence. Thus, the implementation of the genocide requires oriented programming and an internal mechanism, which makes genocide a state crime, as only a state possesses all the resources that can be used to carry out this policy.

The first phase of the Armenian Genocide was the extermination of the Armenian population started on April 24, 1915 with the arrest of several hundred Armenian intellectuals and representatives of national elite (mainly in the capital of the Ottoman Empire, Constantinople) and their subsequent elimination. Hereinafter, Armenians worldwide started to commemorate the Armenian genocide on April 24.

The second phase was the conscription of about 60,000 Armenian men into the Ottoman army, their disarmament and murder by their Turkish fellow soldiers.

The third phase of the genocide is characterized with the exile of the massacres of women, children, and elderly people to the desert of Syria. Hundreds of thousands of people were murdered by Turkish soldiers, police officers, Kurdish bandits during the deportation. The others died of epidemic diseases. Thousands of women and children were subjected to violence. Tens of thousands were forcibly islamized.

The last phase is the universal and absolute denial of the Turkish government of the mass deportations and genocide carried out against Armenians in their homeland. Despite the ongoing process of international condemnation of the Armenian Genocide, Turkey fights against recognition by all means, including distortion of history, means of propaganda, lobbying activities and other measures.

On December 9, 1948 the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, according to which, genocide is defined as an international crime and the signing states are obliged to prevent, as well as punish the perpetrators of the genocide.

International recognition

The Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman government has been documented, recognized and acknowledged by eyewitness reports, laws, resolutions and the decisions of numerous states and international organizations.

There are numerous documents considering the massacres of the Armenian people as a pre-planned and thoroughly implemented act of genocide. Organizations like the Council of Europe, the European Parliament, a number of UN Committees, the World Council of Churches, MERCOSUR parliament and others acknowledged the Armenian Genocide.

Many countries have recognized the Armenian Genocide: Uruguay is the first country that acknowledged the Genocide in 1965. The following countries have condemned and recognized the massacre of Armenians as a genocide based on international law: France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Greece, Slovakia, Cyprus, Lebanon, Uruguay, Argentina (2 laws, 5 resolutions), Venezuela, Paraguay, Chile, Bolivia, Canada, Vatican, Austria, Luxembourg, Germany, Czech Republic, Australias state of New South Wales, 48 US states.
YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomes the peaceful nature of the unfolding events in Armenia and encourages all relevant actors to continue to exercise restraint and prioritize dialogue, Spokesman for the Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric said in a statement, Armenpress reports.

The Secretary-General has been following the recent developments in Armenia. He has taken note of todays resignation of Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan.

At this important time for Armenia, the Secretary-General calls for the continued respect of the rule of law and human rights, as well as for the maintenance of peace and stability in Armenia and the wider region.

The Secretary-General seizes this opportunity to echo the recent appeal by the OSCEs Minsk Group Co-Chairs urging all sides to prevent any potential escalations along the Line of Contact and to intensify efforts toward a peaceful negotiated solution to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, the statement says.

English translator/editor  Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS. The van attack in Toronto, which killed a total of 10 people and injured 15 others, could be a terror attack, but at the moment the investigation considers all versions, Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders said during a press conference, TASS reports.

We do not rule out anything, but taking into account what we have now, its still early to make conclusions. Investigation continues. We are trying to clarify the motives of the attack, Saunders said.

Reuters reports Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders identified the suspect as Alek Minassian, 25, who he said had not previously been known to authorities. Police quickly arrested Minassian.

The actions definitely looked deliberate, Saunders said.

A van struck pedestrians on Monday 13:26 local time in the Yonge Street and Finch Avenue area of North York in Toronto.

English translator/editor  Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS. Petr Mikyska, Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Armenia, expects a positive outcome from all developments taking place in Armenia.

We had two meetings with Armenias foreign minister, and I think the government is taking steps to respond to the people, and people behave themselves in a responsible way, the Czech Ambassador told Armenpress, commenting on the ongoing inner-political situation in Armenia.

Prime Minister of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan resigned on April 23. In case of the Prime Ministers resignation or incapacitation from fulfilling duties, the Prime Minister is being substituted by the First Deputy Prime Minister. Before this for over 10 days street rallies and protests were being held in Yerevan led by opposition MP Nikol Pashinyan.

English translator/editor  Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS. A commemorative event dedicated to the Armenian Genocide will be held in the Swedish Parliament on April 24. Famous Turkish historian Taner Akcam will deliver remarks during the event, reports Armenpress.

Today is April 24, the commemoration day of one of the biggest crimes in human history  the Armenian Genocide. The Swedish Parliament is hosting an official commemorative event, and I will be one of the speakers. I am going to talk about the Turkish denialism, Akcam said on Facebook.

He said in his speech he will also focus on the fact that denialism has a constructive nature, it is not limited to 1915. Nowadays this same denialism is the main element of the ongoing policy against Kurds, he said. This denialism should be compared with apartheid. As long as there is no right stance on the 1915, there cannot be a democratic approach to the Kurdish issue. This is the meaning of bowing before the memory of the victims of the great massacre.

English translator/editor  Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS. Any inner-political tension affects the economy, acting Finance Minister of Armenia Vardan Aramyan told reporters, commenting on the ongoing domestic political situation in the country, Armenpress reports. He said usually foreign investors, participants of the financial world in case of realizing a danger are trying to show caution. Domestic stability is important for the effective management of the countrys economy, the official noted.

Asked whether after these events activeness in terms of investments is possible, the official said the developments will show. Investors usually have a conservative behavior, they follow what is happening in the countrys economy, what reforms are being carried out. Lets state that we did the first step during the past 1.5 year: leading international ranking organizations gave a positive ranking to our countrys economy and government. And we recorded that we have positive developments which was the first step to transfer a positive signal to investors. Investors are more confident when there is no tension, the acting minister said, expressing hope that tension will ease in Armenia from now on and constructive discussions will be held.

Prime Minister of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan resigned on April 23. In case of the Prime Ministers resignation or incapacitation from fulfilling duties, the Prime Minister is being substituted by the First Deputy Prime Minister. Before this for over 10 days street rallies and protests were being held in Yerevan led by opposition MP Nikol Pashinyan. During this period the countrys economy has also suffered: Armenias dollar bonds recorded the lowest rate during the past 10 months.

English translator/editor  Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS. Serzh Sargsyan proved that he is an exceptional state figure and irreplaceable statesman, Vice Speaker of Parliament of Armenia Eduard Sharmazanov told reporters after visiting the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan.

Once again Serzh Sargsyan has proved that he is an exceptional state official, exceptional and irreplaceable statesman. Not every man couldve had such courage, such patriotism. And I once again am proud to have had the honor to work under his leadership, in his team. He displayed exceptional patriotism and strength, Sharmazanov said.

Reporters asked the Vice Speaker who the ruling partys candidate for Prime Minister is, but Sharmazanov refused to answer, stressing that theyve agreed to remain silent about political affairs on April 24  the Armenian Genocide commemoration day.

Life continues, tomorrow is April 25, tomorrow I will answer all of your political questions, he said.

Street demonstrations and protests began in Yerevan 12 days ago, days before Armenias third President Serzh Sargsyan was elected by Members of Parliament to serve as Prime Minister. The historic vote  first time that a PM was elected by parliament in Armenia  took place April 17.

Earlier on April 9, the country shifted to a parliamentary system of administration. On the same day, President Armen Sarkissian took office.

Opposition protests began in the Armenian capital in the form of sit-ins, marches and demonstrations.

Led by opposition MP Nikol Pashinyan, the lawmaker from the parliamentary Yelk faction which has only 9 seats in the 105-seat Armenian Parliament, the protesters launched a campaign of civil disobedience.

Demonstrations began to grow citywide, and protesters started blocking busy streets.

On April 14, the crowd sporadically charged onto the Public Radio HQ in Yerevan, breaching into the building and demanding airtime. The demand was refused and the crowd subsequently left. Protesters even intruded into educational institutions, calling for student strikes.

In the following days opposition MP Nikol Pashinyan called on his supporters to paralyze the functioning of the government by blocking not only streets and major intersections, but also governmental facilities and ministries. Protesters were seen deflating the tires of official vehicles outside ministry headquarters.

Police numerously called on the protesters to maintain public order and adhere to the law.

At one point protesters had even blocked the official vehicle of the countrys defense minister, while he was on-duty.

Many were detained in the course of events as mass public disturbances were reported.

The demonstrators would gather every evening in the Republic Square of Yerevan, where Nikol Pashinyan would address his supporters, calling for renewed demonstrations.

On April 16, a brief clash erupted between riot police and the protesters in Baghramyan Avenue  which houses major governmental buildings. Nikol Pashinyan suffered a minor injury to his hand after contacting a barbed wire. Several people were hospitalized, including three police officers.

Police declared they are entitled to disperse the rally under the Constitution, because the demonstrations are causing public disturbances and restricting the fundamental rights of others, namely the freedom of movement, and also endangering public safety.

The protesters failed to comply with police orders and resumed demonstrations.

President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian called on MP Nikol Pashinyan to immediately begin discussions around negotiations table to avoid further escalation.

On April 21, Pashinyan reacted to the Presidents call, offering to meet in their main rally site  the Republic Square. The President accepted the offer and was seen approaching the heavily overcrowded square shortly afterwards. President Sarkissian walked through hundreds ot protesters, surrounded by few bodyguards, and began talking with the MP. Although the meeting was broadcast by media, the conversation wasnt heard because no microphones were allowed near. At one point the President took off his tie, seemingly signaling that it is an informal meeting. The meeting lasted around 10-15 minutes, and the President left the area, waiving and greeting the people. The President then met with Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan.

Shortly afterwards, it was reported that the Prime Minister and the opposition leader will meet the next day, April 22, in the Marriott Hotel in Republic Square.

The highly anticipated meeting took place 10:00 Sunday morning.

Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan arrived wearing a suit without a tie, while MP Nikol Pashinyan was wearing a camouflage t-shirt and a hat. The tense meeting lasted only 3 minutes, as the lawmaker said he will only discuss the resignation of the Prime Minister, to which Sargsyan responded by slamming it as blackmailing the state. The Prime Minister told the lawmaker that if he and his followers to dont return to a legal framework the entire responsibility will fall Pashinyan.

After the meeting the opposition leader once again went out on the streets, calling for marches and demonstrations.

A few hours later, police dispersed a rally in the citys Erebuni district, and three initiators of the rally, the opposition leader himself, and two other lawmakers - Ararat Mirzoyan and Sasun Michaelyan were detained.

All actions of the initiators of the rally are illegal after the decision of the police to cease the demonstrations, and all participants of the rally are obliged to leave the location of the rally, police said.

After a couple of hours the Prosecutor Generals Office said that the three lawmakers have been placed under arrest under Article 96, Paragraph 2 of the Constitution within the framework of an ongoing criminal case with the purpose of preventing crime and in direct suspicion of deliberately organizing and holding illegal rallies.

MP Nikol Pashinyan, MP Ararat Mirzoyan and MP Sasun Michaelyan have numerously called on their followers to block city streets, block entrances of governmental buildings, breach into governmental buildings and paralyze the functioning of these buildings.

Their followers implemented the unlawful calls and blocked numerous streets and avenues, blocked the entries of state, self-governing body buildings, as well as private organizations, obstructed the normal functioning of these buildings and agencies, committed violence against police officers and others  leading to disproportionate restriction of the rights of other citizens and public interest.

As required by the Constitution, the Speaker of Parliament has been immediately notified on the arrest of the lawmakers, the Prosecutor Generals Office said in a statement.

The crowd did not disperse, and pocket demonstrations were reported citywide.

Later in the day, hundreds of protesters gathered in the Republic Square again.

On April 23, First Deputy Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan said he has asked the prosecution to retract the motion against the lawmakers.

Today weve made a decision and I have addressed the Prosecutor General to retract the motion regarding the Members of Parliament. I am now going to meet with Mr. Pashinyan in order to negotiate and find a solution. Tomorrows day is very important, and I believe that we will have enough common sense and soberness to show the whole world that regardless of how many difficult problems we have, regardless of how many unsolved issues we have, we can sit and find a reasonable solution, Karapetyan said.

Shortly afterwards, opposition MPs Nikol Pashinyan, Ararat Mirzoyan and Sasun Michaelyan were released.

Later at about 16:00, Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan stunned the country by announcing that he is stepping down from office.

Dear countrymen,

I am addressing all citizens of the Republic of Armenia

The elderly and my dearest youth,

Men and women,

I am addressing those who stood on the streets day and night with Reject Serzh calls and those who were reaching their offices with difficulty and carrying out their duty without complaining,

I am addressing those who were following live broadcast for days and those who were ensuring public order for day and night manly,

I am addressing our courageous soldiers and officers who are standing at the border, I am addressing my brothers in arms,

I am addressing my fellow party-men, all political forces and politicians,

I am addressing you for the last time as leader of the country.

Nikol Pashinyan was right. I was wrong. The situation has several solutions, but I will not take any of them. That is not mine. I am leaving office of the countrys leader, of Prime Minister.

The street movement is against my tenure. I am fulfilling your demand.

Peace, harmony and reasoning for our country.

Thank you, he said.

Later the government held an emergency meeting, and the Cabinet noted that Sargsyan is considered incapacitated from fulfilling his duties based on his own statement, thus, under the legislation the First Deputy Prime Minister steps in as acting PM.

Shortly afterwards, as required by law, the government resigned. President Armen Sarkissian accepted the resignation.

English translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS. The people and the government of the United States do not forget that 1,5 million Armenians who fell victim in the Ottoman Empire, US Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills told reporters during a visit to the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan on April 24.

I am here today on behalf of the American people, to pay tribute to those people who lost their lives during one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century. The government and the people of the United States do not forget the 1,5 million Armenians who fell victims to massacres in the Ottoman Empire, the US Ambassador said.

He said the US also remembers those who helped the victims and contributed to building the future of Armenia. The US Ambassador also mentioned the Armenians who found refuge in the United States and had their contribution and achievements in America.

Addressing the US recognition issue of the Armenian Genocide, the Ambassador said they strive and make efforts for honest and true recognition of events.

This true recognition could bring reconciliation for all parties, he said.

English translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS. As Armenians worldwide mark April 24 as Armenian Genocide commemoration day, CNN published an article about the genocide and the need and likelihood of recognition by US President Donald Trump.

For years, the Armenian-American community has called on US presidents to officially recognize the 1915 mass killings of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide. Their failure to do so has been a perennial feature of American politics for decades, CNN said.

And yet, despite his well-known disregard for facts, the one president uniquely positioned to speak the truth after so many of his predecessors have refused is Donald Trump.

This is because of two defining aspects of his approach to international relations: he doesn't care what other countries think about his foreign policy; and he wants to achieve what he believes his predecessors could not, the article continues.

It is noteworthy that when Barack Obama was running for presidency he vowed to recognize the Armenian Genocide if elected, but failed to do so for two terms in office as president.

Up to this point, the Trump administration has been following the apparent tradition of not making a declaration. President Trump's statement last year on Armenian Remembrance Day, made weeks before Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to Washington, like every other such statement before it, fell short of recognizing the Armenian genocide.

But now the time is ripe for President Trump to make the genocide declaration.

First, Turkey's recent actions go directly against our national security objectives and the resources we have put behind achieving them.

The Turkish government has taken direct military action against Syrian Kurds whom we have armed and supported, and who helped us combat ISIS and successfully remove ISIS's territorial control in Syria, the article says in part.

English translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS. The international recognition, condemnation of the Armenian Genocide and the fight against the Turkish denialism will remain in Armenias foreign policy agenda, Vice Speaker of the Parliament Eduard Sharmazanov told reporters in the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial on April 24 on the 103rd anniversary of the Genocide, Armenpress reports.

This fight is not against, but is for the sake of- for the sake of human rights, prevention of new genocides and denialism, Sharmazanov said.

He stated that on the 70th anniversary of the adoption of the UN Convention on Genocides the Armenian Parliament is organizing great exhibitions in different countries, such as in Slovakia, Cyprus, Greece, Baltic states. By this we want to once again say that the crimes against humanity have no expiry dates, they must be condemned until the perpetrator recognizes that Genocide, the senior lawmaker noted.

English translator/editor  Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS. US Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills highly appreciates the recent events in Armenia and their outcome  the demonstration of leadership and difficult decision-making by Serzh Sargsyan, Armenpress reports.

Of behalf of the US government and people I want to praise the Armenian people for peacefully and worthily conducting their protest during the past week, Ambassador Mills told reporters in the Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial on April 24.

He said the Police officers and representatives of security forces should also be praised who showed restraint and skillfulness during these ten days. There have been credible reports on some violence cases against the protesters and reporters. An investigation on this cases is necessary, and the perpetrators must be punished according to the law, the diplomat said.

Richard Mills also praised former Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan, who, according to him, listening to the voice of the Armenian people made a decision to resign.

The US Ambassador expressed their commitment and readiness to continue the work with the temporary government of Armenia and the one which will be formed in the future. Now its important for the people to come to a common ground in this peaceful environment and to be able to determine their further actions. I have a positive attitude in terms of what achievements the people can have, Richard Mills noted.

Prime Minister of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan resigned on April 23. In case of the Prime Ministers resignation or incapacitation from fulfilling duties, the Prime Minister is being substituted by the First Deputy Prime Minister. Before this for over 10 days street rallies and protests were being held in Yerevan led by opposition MP Nikol Pashinyan.

The situation has several solutions, but I will not take any of them. That is not mine. I am leaving office of the countrys leader, of Prime Minister, Serzh Sargsyan said in a statement.

English translator/editor  Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS. Acting Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan has chaired a Security Council session today in the government headquarters.

The session was attended by acting Deputy PM Armen Gevorgyan, acting defense minister Vigen Sargsyan, acting foreign minister Edward Nalbandian, director of national security service Georgy Kutoyan, Police Chief Vladimir Gasparyan and Head of the General Staff of Armed Forces Movses Hakobyan.

At the beginning of the session, acting PM Karapetyan addressed a number of urgent issues related to the domestic situation in Armenia, the governments press service told ARMENPRESS.

First,

I would like to address the armed forces and thank our soldiers, officers and especially forces on active combat duty on behalf of all of us for carrying out their mission with great sense of responsibility and pride every day regardless of any developments.

There shouldnt be any doubt and especially within our armed forces that we are alert and united.

Mr. Sargsyan, based on the latest tactical information, which was also presented through official statements, an active movement of Azerbaijani armed forces and military equipment is seen in the direction of the line of contact. The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs have already made a call against possible Azerbaijani military adventurism and escalations. We agree that the tension must immediately be de-escalated. I have also talked with President of Artsakh Mr. Sahakyan on this issue today.

Just like before, the political leadership and armed forces of the two Armenian republics are ready for adequate response and suppressive actions for any ceasefire violation or an attempt of violation. The adversary shouldnt have any illusions in this regard.

Second,

Mr. Gasparyan, during these difficult days the police showed their high professionalism and abilities of maintaining public safety. I am grateful to all police officers for their dedication, their work and tolerance.

At the same time it must be clear that as much important it is to maintain tolerance during mass gatherings or rallies, understanding that we must display alertness in terms of ensuring public order is no less important. Normal public order and rules must be restored and maintained from today.

Third,

Mr. Kutoyan, I would like to specially point out the alertness and duly implementation of duties of the national security service these days. We know that certain powers attempted to take advantage of the active processes in our country. We will continue being strict and resolute in issues of state security maintenance.

Our society must be certain that state bodies continue implemented their functions fully and in line with the letter of law, the foreign colleagues can be certain that Armenia is committed to all of its assumed partnership obligations, and remaining external powers must clearly realize that the entire complex of our abilities continues to fully ensure our national security, Karapetyan said.

English translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS. Ambassador Piotr Switalski, Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia, commented on the recent events in Armenia, stating that they showed that these important values for Armenians are at the backbone of the Armenian-EU Agreement, reports Armenpress.

We support the efforts to achieve through a dialogue the comprehensive settlement of the current political crisis. The European Union will support Armenia in deepening democracy, the rule of law, strengthening independence of judiciary, fight against corruption, the EU Ambassador told reporters.

He said the EU will be with Armenia and the Armenian people all over the way. Asked what impact the recent events will have on the implementation of the Armenia-EU Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA), Piotr Switalski said the EU believes that we have a very ambitious agenda and will continue with the implementation of the CEPA. These events showed that the values that are important for Armenians, are at the backbone of the Armenia-EU Agreement. We will work together with Armenia to implement the Agreement, even more vigorously than before, Piotr Switalski said.

Prime Minister of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan resigned on April 23. In case of the Prime Ministers resignation or incapacitation from fulfilling duties, the Prime Minister is being substituted by the First Deputy Prime Minister. Before this for over 10 days street rallies and protests were being held in Yerevan led by opposition MP Nikol Pashinyan.

English translator/editor  Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS. Acting Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan on April 24 received Police Chief Vladimir Gasparyan, the government told Armenpress.

Karen Karapetyan once again thanked all representatives of the Police for the high professionalism demonstrated during the recent mass rallies, protests and marches in Yerevan, for maintaining public safety, as well as for the conducted work and tolerance. The acting PM attached importance to the work aimed at ensuring public order and security in the Republic.

The Police Chief reported that the operative situation in the Republic is under control and stated that the Police continue fulfilling their tasks with high responsibility.

English translator/editor  Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS/ARTSAKHPRESS. Today we are here together with the people of Artsakh to remember and pay tribute to the memory of the innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide, Daur Kove, minister of foreign affairs of the Republic of Abkhazia, said while being in Artsakh on a working visit.

The minister said April 24 is a tragic day not only for the Armenian people, but also the entire humanity.

On the occasion of this day I want to again wish patience to the Armenian people. Let similar tragic events never happen in the history of the Armenian people, he said.

The Abkhaz FM also touched upon the 30th anniversary of the Artsakh movement, stating: Each nation has a right to self-determination, and in this sense the people of Artsakh have exercised that right. On this occasion I convey my congratulations and wishes to the Artsakh-Armenians. The people of Abkhazia have also passed the path of their fight for independence, and I am very happy that we are only building our free and sovereign future, the minister said.

English translator/editor  Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS. Petr Mikyska, Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Armenia, hopes one day Turkey will accept the historical fact, reports Armenpress.

On April 24 the Ambassador visited the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan to pay tribute to the memory of innocent victims.

This day is important not only for Armenians, but also for the entire humanity since we all should remember the tragedy of the Armenian people. Perhaps it will sound a bit strange, but I am happy that last year my country recognized the Genocide. We are among the countries that mourns this day with the Armenian people, the Ambassador said.

The Chamber of Deputies (lower house of the Parliament) of the Czech Republic approved on April 25, 2017, a resolution, condemning the genocide of Armenians in the Ottoman Turkey. The legislation condemns atrocities and massacres of Armenians and other religious and national minorities in the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, as well as Nazi war crimes.

The Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic condemns the crimes against humanity carried out by the Nazis during the Second World War on the Jewish, Roma and Slavic populations in the controlled territories, the genocide of Armenians and other national and religious minorities in the Ottoman Empire during World War I, reads the resolution, which passed with 104 votes.

The Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman government has been documented, recognized and acknowledged by eyewitness reports, laws, resolutions and the decisions of numerous states and international organizations.

There are numerous documents considering the massacres of the Armenian people as a pre-planned and thoroughly implemented act of genocide. Organizations like the Council of Europe, the European Parliament, a number of UN Committees, the World Council of Churches, MERCOSUR parliament and others acknowledged the Armenian Genocide.

Many countries have recognized the Armenian Genocide: Uruguay is the first country that acknowledged the Genocide in 1965. The following countries have condemned and recognized the massacre of Armenians as a genocide based on international law: France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Greece, Slovakia, Cyprus, Lebanon, Uruguay, Argentina (2 laws, 5 resolutions), Venezuela, Paraguay, Chile, Bolivia, Canada, Vatican, Austria, Luxembourg, Germany, Australias state of New South Wales, 48 US states.

The Netherlands adopted a resolution reaffirming the recognition of the Armenian Genocide on February 22, 2018 according to which a representative of the countrys government must visit Armenia every five years to participate in the Genocide commemorative events. The first official, State Secretary of Finance of the Netherlands Menno Snel this year is attending the commemorative events.

English translator/editor  Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS. On April 24 the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity Selection Committee announced three humanitarians as potential recipients of the 2018 Prize. Each individual was chosen for their exceptional courage, far-reaching impact and endless commitment to preserving human life and advancing humanitarian causes in the face of adversity, reports Armenpress.

The Aurora Prize, granted by the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative on behalf of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide and in gratitude to their saviors, named:

Mr. Kyaw Hla Aung, Lawyer and Rohingya Leader, Myanmar  A Rohingya Muslim who, despite being imprisoned for a collective 12 years for peaceful protests against systematic discrimination and violence, uses his legal expertise to fight for equality, improvements in education and human rights for his community. He has nominated international organizations that provide medical aid and assistance to refugees in Myanmar.

Fr. Hector Tomas Gonzalez Castillo, Founder of La 72, Mexico  A Franciscan friar who has provided shelter, food, water, counseling and legal assistance to more than 50,000 Central American immigrants along their often-harrowing journeys through Mexico, providing aid to all, including those who suffer traumatic attacks, attempted kidnappings and expulsions from their own countries. He has nominated organizations working to promote human rights for those living with HIV/AIDS and to provide cultural education to Mayans in Mexico.

Mrs. Sunitha Krishnan, Co-Founder of Prajwala, India  A gang rape survivor turned womens rights advocate who used her trauma as motivation to rescue, rehabilitate and reintegrate victims of sex trafficking and forced prostitution back into society, creating an organization that has positively impacted the lives of more than 17,800 women and children. She has nominated organizations that fight gender imbalance and sexual violence and trafficking throughout India.

The three humanitarians will be honored at the third annual Aurora Prize Ceremony in Yerevan, Armenia on June 9, 2018. Of the three nominated, one will be chosen as the 2018 Aurora Prize Laureate at a ceremony on June 10, 2018. The Laureate will receive a grant of US$100,000, as well as a US$1,000,000 award, giving them the unique ability to continue the cycle of giving by supporting organizations that have inspired their work.

Each humanitarian was invited to nominate up to three organizations to receive the US$1,000,000 award. Mr. Kyaw Hla Aung nominated Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) International, the Malaysian Medical Relief Society, and International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC). Fr. Hector Tomas Gonzalez Castillo nominated El Oasis San Juan de Dios and La Escuela de Agricultura Ecologica U Yits Ka'an. Mrs. Sunitha Krishnan nominated Prajwala, Stop Trafficking & Oppression of Children & Women (STOP), and Sanlaap India.

The Selection Committee, co-chaired by Academy Award-winning actor and humanitarian George Clooney, includes Nobel Laureates Oscar Arias, Shirin Ebadi and Leymah Gbowee; former president of Ireland Mary Robinson; human rights activist Hina Jilani; former foreign minister of Australia and President Emeritus of the International Crisis Group Gareth Evans; former president of Mexico Ernesto Zedillo; Director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London Lord Ara Darzi; Medecins sans Frontieres Founder Bernard Kouchner; and former United States ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power. The Committee shortlisted the three Humanitarians as finalists from 750 nominations for 509 unique candidates submitted in 12 languages from 115 countries.

The 2018 Aurora Prize Laureate will be named at the close of a weekend of events that include the annual Aurora Dialogues. The Dialogues are an international forum where leaders from the humanitarian and business communities will convene to discuss ways the global community can incite meaningful action to solve some of the worlds most pressing problems. This years Dialogues will feature conversations with the three Humanitarians who will share their passion and their personal stories.

English translator/editor  Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS. Istanbul police have banned a commemoration event dedicated to the 103rd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in the citys Sultanahmet Square, Ozguruz news agency reported.

Upon seeing people with posters saying genocide, police detained three people. Istanbul law enforcement said they will be released shortly.

Lawyer and human rights activist Erin Keskin commented on the incident to local news media. Keskin was also in attendance of the commemoration event.

Today, we will not make a statement here because our statement contains words which are banned, but without these words the statement has no sense. Officials and lawmakers from France are here today, but they will not speak either, Keskin said, stressing that no one is speaking in Turkey because of the severe restrictions on freedom of speech.

English translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS. Acting Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan held a meeting today in the government HQ in Yerevan with business tycoon Samvel Karapetyan [no relation], founder of Investors Club of Armenia and president of Tashir Group of Companies, the governments press service.

The sides discussed the domestic situation in the country and also addressed the business environment and reforms in the economic sector.

In this context the acting PM and the businessman namely discussed the process of investment projects carried out by the Investors Club of Armenia. Samvel Karapetyan reassured that all projects which were launched will be continuous.

English translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS. Russia expects that the situation in Armenia will be settled exclusively within the legal framework, Russias deputy minister of foreign affairs Grigory Karasin said at a meeting with Armenias Ambassador to Moscow Vardan Toghanyan on April 24.

The Ambassador presented information about the ongoing situation in Armenia following the resignation of Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan, TASS reported.

The Russian side underlined that Moscow is closely following the domestic developments of Armenia and wish a speedy stabilization for the welfare of the brotherly Armenian people, the Russian foreign ministry said.

We hope that all existing contradictions will be settled exclusively in the legal framework.

Urgent issues of the Armenian-Russian foreign political partnership were also discussed, as well as other issues of mutual interest, the ministry added.

English translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS. By the decision of the court of Utrecht city of the Netherlands, two Armenian children, Lily (11) and Howick (12), can be sent back to their mothers home country, Armenia, Dutch News reports.

Armina Hambartsjumian, the mother of the two kids, was sent back to Armenia in August 2017 after sending the children to a secret address. They were found a week later and have been in the care of an independent foundation which looks after child refugees since then.

The Utrecht court upheld former justice minister Klaas Dijkhoffs decision not to give the children a residency permit on the basis of temporary humanitarian grounds, clearing the way for them to be deported.

The kids were born in Russia and lived in the Netherlands for 9 years. They have never lived in Armenia and do not speak the language. However, they have not qualified for the governments amnesty for child refugees.

The Dutch child protection council Raad voor de Kinderbescherming said it is expected the childrens mother would be able to look after them.

English translator/editor  Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS. Acting Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan held a meeting April 24 with Ruben Vardanyan, co-founder of IDeA Foundation (Initiatives for Development of Armenia), and Nubar Afeyan, member of the Board of Trustees of the foundation.

At the meeting the sides touched upon the domestic situation in the country and the process of the ongoing reforms which are carried out by the government, the acting PMs office said.

Vardanyan and Afeyan presented ongoing and future projects of IDeA Foundation, including the preparation process for the upcoming Aurora humanitarian initiative event.

English translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS. The 103rd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide has been commemorated in the Anthelias Cathedral on April 24, reports Armenpress.

Hundreds of people laid wreaths at the memorial dedicated to the Genocide victims.

His Holiness Catholicos Aram I of the Great House of Cilicia addressed the event participants, stating that April 24 is a day for self-recognition and self-consciousness of each Armenian.

April 24 is not an ordinary day for Armenians on the calendar. It has become a pilgrimage, sacred day for Armenians. The national demand is the basis of the identity and existence of our people, Catholicos Aram I said, adding that Turks were unable to kill the spirit of Armenians.

He said today the Armenian people are presented to the world as a progressive people. The whole world knows the truth that in 1915 the Ottoman Turkey committed a planned genocide against the Armenian people. Today even some Turkish intellectuals are talking about the historical reality.

We remember our past. But today is not only an Armenian Genocide remembrance day, but also a day to remind the world about our demand, fair rights of our people. We cannot forget that Turkey has shed the blood of 1.5 million Armenians, His Holiness Aram I said.

In 1915, the crime perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire against the Armenians was the first genocide of 20th century. The Armenians worldwide commemorate 103rd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. On April 24, the countrys high-ranking officials and guests in Armenia visit the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial to pay tribute to the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims.

English translator/editor  Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS. Acting Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan on April 24 met with Ambassadors accredited in Armenia and heads of international organizations having a diplomatic status, Armenpress reports citing the PMs website.

Karen Karapetyan thanked for accepting the invitation to attend this meeting, expressing confidence that the Ambassadors carefully followed the recent inner-political developments in Armenia, and the Armenian foreign ministry has been in touch with them on a daily basis. The acting PM also thanked all countries and international structures which during this period made balanced calls and messages directed for easing the tension and the peaceful process of the events.

Karen Karapetyan assured that Armenia will remain committed to all its international commitments and obligations. He also responded to the questions of the meeting participants.

I want to state that our country did everything to prevent violence and create an atmosphere of national solidarity, to return the public life to its normal course. I think this is the best evidence of the maturity of democracy and state thinking in Armenia. In my opinion Armenia sent a clear signal to the world that it has created stable state institutions, formed a democracy which today is moving forward steadily.

In these processes I specifically want to highlight the high professionalism, tolerance and dedicated service of the Police and security forces to the country.

I also want to highlight the role of our bright youth. This youth is our future, and they are going to be a stable base for building Armenia we dream of.

I want to state that Armenia will remain committed to all its international obligations and commitments, and we will make the necessary efforts to normally continue the ongoing reforms and other programs by the support of our partners.

All our state institutions will uninterruptedly continue their work to ensure the security and normal life of the Armenian citizens and guests which is a key indicator for the maturity of our statehood. The Armenian Armed Forces will continue to keep firm our borders, as well as to guarantee the security of Artsakh and its people.

I am confident that all our international partners will continue carefully following that Azerbaijan will have no illusions and will not make any adventurism by trying to take an advantage of the current situation in Armenia. This message should be clear to Azerbaijan.

The stability, security of our region derives both from our and international communitys interests.

I want to thank all countries and international structures which during this period made balanced calls and messages directed for easing the tension and the peaceful process of the events.

I think you are aware that soon talks will be held with Mr. Nikol Pashinyan during which we will try to find solutions. The agenda is open, and as the talks suppose, each side can make its proposals.

Regardless of everything, I once again want to state that all solutions should be civilized and logical, within the laws and the Constitution, and I assure you that I will do everything possible to ensure our peoples solidarity and unity and I dont hide, I expect the same also from our partners, the acting PM stated.



English translator/editor  Aneta Harutyunyan




YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS. The Defense Ministry of the Republic of Artsakh has released a footage showing the mobilization of Azerbaijani forces on Artsakh-Azerbaijan contact line on April 24.

ARMENPRESS reports another footage was released on April 22.

Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian commented on April 23 on the developments. These days, amid the internal political developments in Armenia, Azerbaijan accumulates manpower, artillery and military equipment along the Line of Contact with Artsakh, which gives grounds to assume that Baku is preparing for a new adventurism.

The international community, first and foremost the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries, should undertake relevant efforts aimed at deterring Baku, make it to withdraw its military equipment, artillery and manpower from the frontline and strictly adhere to the 1994-1995 ceasefire agreements.

We continue to be convinced that there is no alternative to the peaceful negotiated settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. Use of force can have unpredictable consequences for the entire region.

Azerbaijan should not have any illusions that in the light of internal political developments in Armenia, it could embark on any actions against Artsakh and realize its aggressive intentions. People of Armenia is united when it comes to defense of Nagorno-Karabakh and would never allow any encroachments towards Artsakh.

As before, today as well, Armenia stands strong behind Artsakh and is determined to ensure its security, he said.

English translator/editor  Tigran Sirekanyan
Prolific gay performer Chris Bines will be taking an extended break from his porn career, it appears, after he was slammed with a sentence of nearly five years in a federal penitentiary, which sentence was announced on Monday by the United States Department of Justice. Bines was convicted last year as having allegedly been part of a massive marijuana distribution ring based out of Pensacola, Florida, DOJ officials said.

The 31-year-old Bines has a lengthy resume in the adult industry, first filming scenes for Pulse Distribution in 2010, and later with Raging Stallion, Randy Blue and other production companies. His most recent recorded work came in 2017, the same year he was arrested as part of a pot operation that prosecutors say soldand laundered the cash fromat least $3.5 million in illegal marijuana.

The arrests came in a state that has seen a burgeoning medical marijuana industry hampered by legal challenges and roadblocks, including a ban on consuming the drug by smoking, even if a doctor recommends smoking marijuana as the most effective way of administering it as medication.

Florida first legalized medical marijuana in 2014, but in severely limited form. Last year, the state enacted an amendment to its law, more broadly legalizing the drug for medical use.

But despite Floridas law, and laws in 28 other states legalizing cannabis for medical useas well as nine states plus Washington, D.C., where recreational pot in legalizedthe black market in weed continues to thrive. The distribution ring in which Bines took part, according to the charges against him, began operation in 2014, continuing until it was busted in a multi-agency operation spearheaded by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency last summer.

Bines pleaded guilty to, and was sentenced on, only one charge of conspiracy to distribute marijuana, in an operation that the feds said ultimately spread more than 100 kilograms of the drug throughout Florida; all things considered, a miniscule amount. Seven other defendants were sentenced on distribution and money laundering counts.

But Bines sentence of 59 months was the third-heaviest of the group, behind only a 90-month and 72-month sentence for two members of the ring who were convicted of both the money laundering and distribution charges.

Photo by Escambia County Jail
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.
Kevin Lee Moore

Sheriff Ernie Coleman

Beaufort County Sheriff's Office

On April 12, 2018 around 2:00 pm Beaufort County Deputies received a report from a teenage female, that an unknown man, knocked on her door, forced his way into her home, threatened her with a gun and accused her of stealing his marijuana. Deputies and Investigators responded to the scene to process and interview the victim about the incident.According to the victim when she arrived at home there was a package on her porch. At the time she believed the unknown package was possibly something ordered by her father. Sometime later the same day the US Postal Service Carrier who delivered the package, returned to her house to retrieve the package because it was mistakenly delivered to the wrong address. After the Carrier left with the package an unknown man knocked on her door and when she answered he forced his way inside the home. Once inside, the man armed with a gun, accused her of stealing the package contents and began ransacking the home looking for his marijuana. After his unsuccessful attempt at locating the marijuana the man left the home and the victim called 911.The victim was able to give Deputies the address, to which, the package was supposed to be delivered. She was also able to identify the suspect in a photograph shown to her by Deputies. Patrol Deputies also responded to the address where the package was supposed to be delivered and could smell the strong odor of marijuana coming from an air vent on the side of the unoccupied building.Members of the Sheriff's Office Narcotics and Criminal Investigations Units obtained and served a search warrant on 2737 Cherry Run Road, where they located an indoor marijuana grow and evidence linking Kevin Lee Moore, age 49 of Washington to that growing operation.Based on statements from the victim, the US Postal Carrier and evidence found during the execution of the search warrant, Kevin Lee Moore was charged with one count each of Felony Breaking and Entering to Terrorize, Attempted Robbery with a Dangerous Weapon, Manufacturing Marijuana, Felony Possession of Marijuana, and misdemeanor Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. Moore turned himself in to the Sheriff's Office later the same evening and was ordered held on a $250,000.00 secured bond.
The USDA is not reporting publicly the names or identities of puppy mills that have been issued a warning or found with egregious violations, including those with sick, injured and emaciated dogs. Photo by Brandon Wade/AP Images for The HSUS

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A recent article in the Washington Post took a look at the notion of irresponsible rescues  specifically, self-described pet rescue groups that purchase breeder dogs at puppy mill auctions, based on the premise that they are used up and therefore being rescued, not purchased. Reporter Kim Kavin studied the invoices from the two big dog auctions in the country over a 10-year period and found that 86 organizations identifying as rescue groups had bought about 5,700 dogs since 2009  an average of roughly 50 dogs per month.

The article caused some readers to suggest that rescues should be regulated in the same way as breeders are. In fact, the U.S. Department of Agriculture quickly sent out a reminder that it reserves the right to regulate dealers who buy and sell dogs, even if those sales are simply nonprofit adoption fees. Weve even seen a Farm Bill amendment proposed to address imports of rescued dogs from other countries.

Its pretty clear to us at the Humane Society of the United States that this kind of story is the result of a whisper-down-the-lane campaign that seeks to disparage rescue groups and shelters. Make no mistake, we are opposed to purchasing dogs at these auctions, regardless of whether the purchase is made by a breeder or a rescue. But the fact is that fewer than one percent of the rescue groups in the country are involved in patronizing dog auctions. The other 99 percent are doing the selfless work of rehoming lost, abused and abandoned animals in need.

Heres what is really going on. The puppy mill industry has attempted to focus attention on a few questionable rescues in an attempt to draw the publics scrutiny away from the horrific cruelties of puppy mills. In the context of the larger crisis related to commercial dog breeding, this issue barely registers on the radar: puppy mills collectively churn out an average of 125,000 puppies a month.

Under the circumstances, it would be odd for the USDA to get more involved in the scrutiny and regulation of pet rescues. Over the past year, the agency has backed off on shutting down the very worst puppy mills in the country. The USDA has not revoked a single pet breeder license since before May 1, 2017, compared to 2016, when it revoked at least nine dog breeder licenses.

The USDA and the puppy mill industry arent doing nearly enough to address the bad apples in the dog breeding world  in fact, theyre falling down on the job. The USDA isnt even bothering to report publicly the names or identities of puppy mills that have been issued a warning or found with egregious violations, including those with sick, injured and emaciated dogs, as our fight against its massive data purge continues. The USDA has even put forth a disastrous proposal that could allow groups like the American Kennel Club, which routinely oppose laws that would regulate puppy mills, to take over some of the USDAs inspection responsibilities.

Pet rescue groups that buy dogs at auctions should understand that they are not helping. This practice perpetuates puppy mills by putting money in the pockets of a notoriously cruel industry, effectively buying cast-off animals and helping to subsidize more cruelty.

In all of this, we see the hand of puppy millers who want to obstruct animal rescue in all of its forms, while seeking to give their own cruel industry a free skate. The Humane Society of the United States is wholly focused on eliminating the cruel mass breeding industry and were supportive of responsible breeders, as we have demonstrated repeatedly. Were also supportive of responsible animal rescue work, wherever it occurs, and through our annual conference, Animal Care Expo, and our Adopters Welcome guide, we continue to promote best practices for both shelter and rescue organizations. The folks pointing their fingers at small problems within animal rescue, or the transport of animals from state to state or from country to country, are pursuing a strategy of gaslighting the public, trying to distract and divide. Were not buying it, and neither should you.
Frida Kahlo's Family Tries to Block Frida-Themed Barbie Doll

If you don't know her work, you at least know her unibrow. Frida Kahlo's popularity has grown over the years, thanks to both her art and her outspoken views on politics and the like. And while one company wants to honor her with a Frida-themed Barbie doll (and make a few bucks in the process), her family is not happy with those efforts and is trying to block the doll in court.

Fights Over Rights

As part of an "inspiring women" series of dolls, a company associated with toymaker Mattel has been working to manufacture a Barbie doll modeled after Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. However, Kahlo's grandniece, Mara Romeo is not happy with the company's use of her great aunt's image. She says that she and her family own the rights to Kahlo's image.

Mattel has said that they had reached an agreement with Panama-based Frida Kahlo Corporation who also claims to own the trademark rights to Kahlo's image. The corporation claims that it obtained the rights more than a decade ago through Kahlo's niece, Isolda Pineda Kahlo, and that it "will continue its activities within the framework of respect for the law and in the exercise of its constitutional rights."

Frida Barbie Not Mexican Enough

Romeo also dislikes the way the company portrays the well-known artist. While Kahlo had darker skin and her famous unibrow, Frida Barbie appears to have lighter skin and two distinct eyebrows. Romeo says it should be a "much more Mexican doll," with "darker skin, a unibrow, not so thin because Frida was not that thin ... dressed in more Mexican clothing, with Mexican jewelry."

Blocked by Mexican Judge

According to The Guardian, Kahlo's family has scored at least a temporary victory against Frida Barbie as a judge in Mexico granted a temporary injunction forcing the toymaker and department stores in Mexico to stop commercializing the doll until the issue of trademark rights is resolved. The court's ruling only applies in Mexico, but the artist's family told AFP News that they plan to file a similar lawsuit in the U.S.

Related Resources:
SB18-264  AKA the Prohibit Public School Teacher Strikes Bill  was introduced by Colorado Senator Bob Gardner [R-12/303-866-4880/@senbobgardner] and Representative Paul Lundeen [R-19/303-866-2924/@paul_lundeen]; it allows school districts to seek court injunctions banning public school teachers from striking, so that they can be held in contempt should they withdraw their labor, and be imprisoned for contempt.

The bill also requires school districts to instantly fire any teacher found in contempt of court, regardless of qualification, seniority, or other factors.





It also bans any public monies being paid to striking workers.

Colorado teachers across the state are planning walkouts on April 27. The average Colorado teacher spends $656 out of their own pocket for supplies in their underfunded classrooms. Colorado ranks 46th in the nation on teacher pay. The annual education funding shortfall in Colorado exceeds $800m/year.



The bill, SB18-264, would prohibit public school teacher strikes by authorizing school districts to seek an injunction from district court. A failure to comply with the injunction would "constitute contempt of court" and teachers could face not only fines but up to six months in county jail, the bill language reads. The bill also directs school districts to fire teachers on the spot without a proper hearing if they're found in contempt of court and also bans public school teachers from getting paid "for any day which the public school teacher participates in a strike." The bill, which was introduced this past Friday, is sponsored by State Rep. Paul Lundeen and Sen. Bob Gardner, both Republicans.

SB18-264 [Colorado Legislature]

Colorado Senate bill seeks to punish teachers with jail time should they go on strike [Oscar Contreras/The Denver Channel]

(Image: William Warby, CC-BY)
The FBI interviewed Paul Manafort two times when he worked as a consultant for a political party in Ukraine aligned with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in March 2013 and July 2014that's long before Manafort teamed up with Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

Manafort stepped down as Trump's campaign chairman in August 2016 after reports that he received "more than $12 million in off-the-books payments from Viktor Yanukovych's political party."

The Washington Post reports on what a set of newly filed court documents reveal about Manafort, who is now the subject of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Trump's dirty deeds.
The U.S. Senate today confirmed President Donald Trump's selection to lead the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command. Paul Nakasone will replace Mike Rogers, who is retiring.





AP:

On a voice vote, the Senate approved Paul Nakasone for one of the nation's top intelligence posts. They also approved his military promotion to general.

Nakasone, a longtime member of the cryptologic community, has a strong background in cyber issues. He is replacing the current director, Mike Rogers, who is retiring.

During his confirmation hearing, Nakasone said China, Russia and other nations that launch cyberattacks against the United States aren't worried about retribution and see no reason to change their behavior.





"They don't fear us," he said at the hearing, adding that the U.S. must impose costs on those adversaries to make them stop.





Nakasone previously commanded the U.S. Army Cyber Command and held military intelligence positions in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Republic of Korea.
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 4; read the rest first  Eds.

Director's commentary

If this were an Avengers comic, Captain America wouldn't worry about protocol or mission objectives in order to save the kid being menaced by nazis. This is an X-Men book so Wolverine gets to be the antsy guy ready to pounce. It's immaterial regardless because Magneto handles his own business.

This page is inspired by the classic standalone issue 268 of Uncanny X-Men by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee set in 1941 with a young Captain America meeting Wolvie for the first time. There was also a great episode of the classic '90s X-Men cartoon called Old Soldiers (written by Wolverine co-creator Len Wein) that featured this dynamic duo. Both, the comic and the cartoon are equally awesome and you should check them out at any cost.

The splash panel with Cap's shield busting up the nazis is a good formal use of comics which couldn't exactly translate into other media. I don't often include sound effects but I wanted to slow the reader down enough to communicate that each smack from the shield was its own unit of time. When you look at that image as a whole, time is traveling at the speed of that star-spangled shield.

When I do use sound effects I like them to look the way Wally Wood drew them (for those keeping score at home).

I haven't talked about the unique use of white in X-Men: Grand Design. Many people are fooled into thinking the comic was printed on some kind of off-white vintage stock but in truth I just use Photoshop trickery to mimic that effect. Whenever I want to show some blinding light all that I do is omit the newsprint color from the page, thus allowing the true bleach-white color of the paper to show through. Reading the comic page after page one's eyes begin to associate the newsprint color with white but when it actually shows up it's very bright and noticeable.

In the last couple panels I wanted to play up the scale between Captain America and Logan (for those who only know the movies, Wolverine is about 5'1" when drawn correctly). Years ago when visiting the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia I remember seeing a preserved skeleton of a giant human being and thinking "If Captain America was a real guy he would be of similar stature and proportion." I'm a nerd. Can't apologize for it.

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.
Mario Stojanac, Mary Luz Mejia and 6-year-old daughter, Nathalie are still waiting for their luggage from their Sunwing flight on April 14. (submitted by Mary Luz Mejia)

Mario Stojanac and his family are still waiting for their luggage  10 days after flying home on a direct Sunwing flight from the Dominican Republic to Toronto.

"Right now, it's in an abyss," he said. "Where's my stuff and will I ever see it again, and why won't anyone tell me what's going on?"

The family landed in Toronto around 8 p.m. on Saturday, April 14, during an ice storm that lasted through the weekend. During that time, several Sunwing flights were delayed and many passengers went home without their luggage.

Some travellers still haven't received their bags. They say the long wait and lack of information about their missing luggage is unacceptable.

"I feel like they don't care," said Stojanac. "Absolute apathy."

Sunwing says its troubles that weekend were caused by a large number of absentee workers at Swissport, the company that runs the airline's baggage handling and gate operations.

Sunwing told CBC News it's "deeply disappointed" by the "customer service failures" that ensued. Both the airline and Swissport said they're now working on contingency plans to prevent this from happening again. Sunwing says it has also sent apology letters plus compensation to affected passengers.

Stojanac received his apology and compensation  a $100 travel voucher per person  hours after the publication of this article. But he's still waiting for his luggage.

"They can keep their voucher," said a frustrated Stojanac. "This situation should not be a springboard for me to spend more money with them."

Swissport told CBC News this afternoon that 86 per cent cent of the missing bags have been or are in the process of being delivered to passengers. It expects the remaining ones will arrive within the next few days.

Stojanac's saga began when he, his wife and daughter landed in Toronto and no baggage arrived from their flight.

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After waiting more than three hours, they learned from a fellow passenger that they needed to fill out a missing luggage claim form in order to get through Canadian customs without their bags.

"Why no one from Sunwing could have announced that is beyond my comprehension," said Mary Luz Mejia, Stojanac's wife. "It was like a game of broken telephone."

Around midnight, the family finally gave up on their missing luggage, handed in their form, and headed home  four hours after their arrival.

'Not acceptable'

Stojanac said he's contacted Sunwing multiple times a day for updates. On Tuesday, he says he received a call that the airline had found his bags, but it turned out they belonged to his brother's family; they had been on the same flight.

On Friday, Stojanac said Sunwing gave him the name of a courier company it said had his luggage. He called the company and says it denied having them.

"I was pretty pissed off," he said. "Nobody can tell me where the stuff is."

Meanwhile, the family has had to purchase necessities packed in their missing bags including makeup, undergarments and workout clothes.

"It's not acceptable," said Mejia.

Joe Petix in Vaughan, Ont. has been waiting nine days for his luggage after taking a Sunwing flight from Jamaica to Toronto on April 15.

He says a courier did arrive with luggage on April 22  but delivered only one of his family's three missing bags.

"When is this comedy act going to end?" he said. "This is a disaster."

Petix has also received an apology plus $100 in Sunwing travel vouchers in compensation for each family member. However, he says he has no desire to travel on the airline again.

"How they handled the situation was very bad."

'It was complete hell'

Sunwing passenger Lyndsay Burke-Sholer got her luggage back on April 22, but she said it was no thanks to Sunwing.

She was supposed to fly from Jamaica to Hamilton on April 15, but, due to a crew issue, her flight was redirected to Toronto and landed around 11:30 p.m. She says the plane sat on the tarmac for more than five hours before passenger were allowed to disembark.

"It was complete hell," she said. "I saw people hyperventilating, kids were crying. I think it was about 3 a.m. when they finally offered us a drink of water or juice."

Burke-Sholer says when she finally entered the airport, there was no sign of her luggage and no indication when it would arrive. She left empty-handed and made the hour-long journey to her home in Hagersville, Ont.

Fortunately, she says a friend travelling in her party who works at the Hamilton airport located her luggage at the airport this past weekend. Burke-Sholer was able to pick it up.

"It's ridiculous," she said. "It should have had that sent to my door immediately."

Sunwing sent her an apology plus a $300 refund for her troubles. She said it's not enough.

"It doesn't cover the way people were treated."
In the summer of 2017, the spat between the United States and North Korea took centre stage and proved a boon for precious metals prices. Geopolitical events have been a key mover not just for precious metals, but also for oil in recent weeks. Gold breached the key $1,350 threshold in early September. Prices have once again been influenced by geopolitical events in the wake of heightening tensions between the key powers involved in the Syrian Civil War.

However, prices have been subdued after North Korea announced that it would suspend its nuclear missile testing program. This was heralded as an early victory by U.S. president Donald Trump, who has signaled that North Korea is ready and willing to denuclearize. However, in statements to the Workers Party of Korea, Kim Jong-un has said that the tests are no longer needed, as North Korea had completed work on a viable nuclear deterrent.

The extent of North Koreas nuclear capabilities amount to guesswork at the current stage. Some analysts see recent ICBM tests as evidence that North Korea is capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the entire U.S. mainland. Others have expressed skepticism over the range of North Koreas ICBMs.

In the eyes of South Korean and U.S. negotiators, the suspension of the missile program has the potential to pave the way for de-nuclearization and even a normalization of relations between North and South Korea. With NAFTA talks making significant progress, could a breakthrough agreement with North Korea bury gold this spring?

Goldcorp Inc. (TSX:G)(NYSE:GG) stock has climbed 12.8% in 2018. However, the stock fell 0.88% on April 23. Gold production exceeded guidance in 2017, and Goldcorp has established itself as one of the best-performing gold miner equities on the TSX so far this year.

Alamos Gold Inc. (TSX:AGI)(NYSE:AGI) fell 1.29% on April 23, and shares have dropped 15.6% in 2018 so far. The stock has plunged 32% year over year. In 2017 Alamos gold produced a record 429,400 ounces of gold and reported record revenues of $542.8 million. The company marked the third consecutive year that guidance had been achieved.

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Barrick Gold Corp. (TSX:ABX)(NYSE:ABX) is a Toronto-based company that is engaged in the production of gold and copper. Shares are down 8.8% in 2018 so far but have climbed 2.8% month over month. In the first quarter, Barrick reported net income of $158 million, which was down from $679 million in Q1 2017. However, adjusted earnings rose to $0.15 per share, which beat analyst expectations.

Barrick has scaled back production and made an effort to dramatically cut down its debt load. Higher prices allowed the company to make up ground in spite a 20% drop in gold production in the first quarter, as revenues fell 10% year over year to $1.79 billion.

Easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula could generate downward pressure for gold ahead of what is usually a slow period in the summer months. This means gold equities are likely to be a gamble for investors as we look ahead to the month of May.

More reading

Fool contributor Ambrose O'Callaghan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned.
Kevin Michael-Gagne is thrilled to be able to get lost in IKEA and find his own way out again.

The 22-year-old developed a rare eye disorder in 2015 that blinded him. But thanks to fundraising help from the public, he has a set of $15,000 electronic glasses that have helped him regain his sight.

"It was a miracle," Michael-Gagne told CBC's Radio Active. "The first thing I really saw when I put on my glasses was my mom, and I instantly started crying because I could see again."

Michael-Gagne fell asleep after watching Netflix on his iPad one night in 2015. When he woke up, he was blind in his right eye.

Six months later, he woke up blind in his left eye.

Doctors still aren't sure what caused his blindness, but they think the arteries in his eyes leaked blood and crushed his retinas. Michael-Gagne said there are five known cases in the world.

"It's a super-rare condition that they can't heal," he said.

After he went blind in both eyes, Michael-Gagne said it wasn't only his vision that went dark.

"I lost my apartment, lost my girlfriend, lost my vehicle, lost my job, lost my dogs, lost it all," he said.

He frantically searched online for ways he could see again. He came across a set of electronic glasses called eSight and thought they might work for him.

He tried them on and found he could see again. The only problem was the glasses with all the accessories he needed would cost $15,000.

Michael-Gagne turned to the public for help.

'I can see and move again'

He was on his way home from a local media interview about his condition when he received a call from an anonymous man from Sherwood Park.

The man donated $7,000. Along with others who made contributions, Michael-Gagne was able to buy his eSight glasses.

"They donated so much and helped bring me out of the darkness I was in," he said.

The glasses are a bit limiting, as he only has about a 40-degree view, which means no peripheral vision and some limitations on the vision window.

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But the glasses have given him a chance to become independent again. He can't work as a welder anymore, but hopes to go back to school in the fall to become a general contractor.

"I plan on going to work and then I'm going to get my own apartment," he said.

Above all, the glasses have given Michael-Gagne a new lease on life.

"It brought me from the depression and the sorrow that I was in to a very happy and ecstatic guy," he said. "[There's a] smile on my face everywhere I go because I can see and move again."
SYDNEY (Reuters) - The head of Australia's competition regulator said on Monday it will scrutinize contracts between Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] and restaurants that use its food delivery app Uber Eats. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported on Sunday several restaurateurs were disgruntled with contract terms they said left them, and not Uber, responsible for late deliveries despite being charged by Uber for the service. "Certainly, we'll have a look at it," Rod Sims, head of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, told ABC radio on Monday when asked about the report. "We have three bits of the law we can deal with here. One is business to business - are they misleading the people they're dealing with? Two is: Are they engaged in unconscionable conduct, putting all the conduct together? And thirdly are the terms with which they work unfair? So, there's a lot to look at there," he said. Uber, which is backed by Japan's SoftBank Group, said Uber Eats is merely a "marketplace that connects restaurants with delivery partners" and that its terms and conditions are "consistent with Australian law". "Restaurants aren't locked in, just like delivery partners and eaters. Uber Eats is just one option. If a restaurant does not wish to use the app, they do not have to," an Uber East spokeswoman said in a statement. Uber, which is preparing for a potential initial public offering in 2019, lost $4.5 billion last year and is facing fierce competition at home in the United States as well as a regulatory crackdown in Europe where governments have been leery of the company's impact on the traditional taxi industry. (Reporting by Tom Westbrook; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Stephen Coates)
By Douglas Busvine BONN, Germany (Reuters) - That the personal data of tens of millions of Facebook users fell into the wrong hands is troubling politicians, but Germany's top competition regulator is questioning the sheer volume of information that the social network harvests. Andreas Mundt, president of the Federal Cartel Office, is awaiting Facebook's response to his findings, published in December, that it abuses its market dominance by gathering data on people without their proper consent. That includes tracking visitors to websites with an embedded Facebook 'like' or share button - and pages where it observes people even though there is no obvious sign the social network is present. Mundt's inquiry has gained new relevance since revelations that the data of 87 million Facebook users, gathered via an online personality quiz, was passed to Cambridge Analytica, a consultancy that advised Donald Trump's presidential campaign. "For Facebook to collect data when I as a user am on Facebook, that's clear. The user knows this and has to expect it," Mundt told Reuters in an interview. "What is problematic is the collection of data in places and moments where the user can't realistically expect that data is collected by Facebook." CEO Mark Zuckerberg, in testimony before the U.S. Congress, said Facebook tracked people whether they have accounts or not - something the firm said was "fundamental to how the internet works". Facebook tracks an estimated 28.6 percent of web traffic across 59.5 percent of internet sites, making it the world's fifth most prevalent behind several Google properties, according to WhoTracks.me. NOT POPULAR, BUT DOMINANT Mundt's case rests on his analysis that Facebook has a market share of social media in Germany of over 90 percent - he sees its only direct competitor as Google+ - making it dominant in anti-trust terms and not, as Facebook argues, merely popular. "If Facebook has a dominant market position, then the consent that the user gives for his data to be used is no longer voluntary," said Mundt, 57, a jurist who has headed the cartel office since 2013. "That's because he has no alternative - he has to use Facebook if he wants to use a social network." Facebook, which has more than 2 billion users worldwide, describes Mundt's view as "inaccurate" but has said it will cooperate with the investigation, which would not result in fines but could lead to some practices being banned. It is due to submit its response to Mundt's findings soon. This will then lead to a dialogue on whether Facebook should change its practices voluntarily or, possibly, be ordered to do so. Separately, the data protection commissioner for Hamburg, the city-state where Facebook has its German office, has launched a non-compliance procedure after being dissatisfied by the firm's explanation over the Cambridge Analytica leak. The scrutiny from German regulators enjoys the backing of lawmakers, reflecting broader hostility toward anything resembling surveillance that goes back to Germany's history of Nazi and Communist rule in the 20th century. Mundt pushed back against suggestions that, in taking on the case, he was encroaching on the domain of data protection authorities. He said there was a solid precedent in Germany for inappropriate terms of use to be treated as an anti-trust issue. "The competitive connection is particularly strong from our point of view, because data are intrinsic to the business model," he said. "The entire business model relies ultimately on access to data and the reach of these platforms," he said. "With the Facebook probe we are doing pioneering work - but in no way is this an experiment." (Reporting by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Keith Weir)
Reuters

Angela Merkel urged Germans on Sunday to forge a common future that draws on their diverse backgrounds, harking back to the 2015 decision to admit 1 million refugees that was a defining moment of her long chancellorship. Merkel appeared close to tears during an address to mark the 31st anniversary of reunification that may be the last before she steps down, although talks to build a new ruling coalition following last month's election could take months. She said the freedoms that came with German reunification 31 years ago had brought "so many new opportunities" for people from the former Communist East, where she grew up, but that many of them suddenly "found themselves in a dead end".


The suspected driver of a van that jumped the curb and drove through a crowd of pedestrians Monday in Toronto has been charged.

Alek Minassian, 25, faces 10 counts of first-degree murder and 13 counts of attempted murder. Due to the gravity of his alleged crimes, he will remain detained while he awaits his next court appearance scheduled for May 10.

Police say they are anticipating a 14th count of attempted murder, but that has not been made official at this time.



Minassian was arrested by Toronto police after at least 24 people were struck by a vehicle on Yonge Street near Finch Avenue in the north end of the city. Ten people are confirmed dead and 14 others are injured. Police had previously said 15 people were hurt.

During a Tuesday news conference, Det.-Sgt. Graham Gibson confirmed the accused is alleged to have posted a cryptic message on Facebook moments before the van slammed into pedestrians. That message is believed to have praised Elliot Rodger, the 22-year-old killer in a 2014 California rampage known for his reported hatred of women, but police wouldnt go into details to confirm the connection.

Gibson said the victims were predominantly female, ranging in age from their mid 20s to 80s. Injuries range from scrapes and bruises to terrible injuries, he added.

It is far too early to say whether the suspect was mentally ill, the detective told members of the media. Gibson did confirm that the van used in the attack was rented north of the city.

As for the police response, Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders said it took officers seven minutes from the first call to the moment of arrest to detain the suspect. He also spoke about police takedown of the suspect, which he called nothing short of remarkable since no gunshots were fired.

The suspects cellphone was seized by police, Saunders confirmed. Police are also appealing members of the public who witnessed or recorded the incident to come forward to authorities.





Were seeing what the city is made of today, Toronto Mayor John Tory told reporters. Everything is being done as quickly as possible.

However, Ontarios chief coroner said it will take a number of days before the names of victims are released.

The accused is from Richmond Hill, Ont., a town located just outside of Toronto. On a LinkedIn page believed to belong to him, it states he has been a student at the Toronto-based Seneca College since 2011.

Pedestrians were hit when the vehicle left the roadway and drove along the sidewalk and in the wrong lanes during a one-kilometre stretch of road, which is one of the busiest in Canadas largest city.

Saunders had previously told reporters the act appeared to be deliberate. Minassian was not known to Toronto police before the incident, Saunders said.





Victims being identified in media reports

The chief coroner for Ontario says it will be days before the identities of the victims are released, media reports are surfacing.

CBC News reports Invesco Canada president Peter Intraligi confirmed Anne Marie DAmico was one of the victims.

I can now confirm that unfortunately one of our employees has succumbed to her injuries, Intraligi told CBC News via email.

Jon Tam was one of her colleagues at the U.S.-based investment company. In an interview with CBC News, he described her as very warm, a very happy person who was always smiling. Tam added that she was known for her volunteer work.

Tennis Canada also expressed their condolences regarding DAmicos death. In an online statement, the organization said she had been working the Rogers Cup tournament since she was 12 and was voted volunteer of the year in 2016.

She was always smiling, had the biggest heart and always put other peoples needs ahead of her own, the statement said. Tournament organizers are expected to pay tribute to her this summer.

It is with deepest sorrow that Tennis Canada confirms the passing of a member of its extended family this morning.https://t.co/VyiyGrvkMM  Tennis Canada (@TennisCanada) April 24, 2018

CBC News also reports Dorothy Sewell, an 80-year-old woman, has been identified as a victim by her grandson, Elwood Delaney.

She was the foundation for all things sports here in our family, thats for sure, Elwood told CBC News. She loved her Maple Leafs, she loved her Blue Jays. I dont think she ever missed a Blue Jays game.

Global News reports Chul Min Kang has been identified as a victim by his employer, Copacabana Brazilian Steakhouses, in a letter sent to employees.

Meanwhile, Jordanian media has identified Munir Abdu Habib Al-Najjar as a victim, while the South Korean Foreign Affairs Ministry has confirmed two nationals were also killed.

Yahoo Canada has not confirmed the reports of the victims identities independently.

Alek Minassian, a 25-year-old man from Richmond Hill, Ont., is suspected of running down numerous pedestrians on a bustling stretch of Yonge Street north of downtown Toronto on Monday. Photo from LinkedIn via The Canadian Press.

The Canadian Press reports Minassian was a member of the Canadian Armed Forces from Aug. 23, 2017 until Oct. 25, 2017, according to a spokeswoman for the Department of National Defence.

He did not complete his recruit training and requested to be voluntarily released from the CAF after 16 days of recruit training, Jessica Lamirande told The Canadian Press.

The Globe and Mail reports one of the suspects former classmates, who wanted to remain anonymous, described him as a person with a significant social or mental disability. Another unnamed classmate told the newspaper Minassian never showed any signs of extremism, but was somewhat socially awkward.

Yahoo Canada has not confirmed the Globe and Mails report.

Alek Minassian first appearance Finch court, returns May 10th by video. He was assisted by duty council. He has been ordered to have no contact with list of victims. pic.twitter.com/xIxJt0Rp3q  marianne boucher (@CityCourtsTO) April 24, 2018

The charges come after high-ranking public officials weighed in on the deadly incident.

The mayor said the city is strong and resilient and we will not be thrown off course by one person or one act, no matter how horrific.

In Ottawa, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the event a senseless attack and a horrific tragedy. He praised first responders for their work at the scene.

They handled this extremely difficult situation with professionalism and bravery. They faced danger without a moment of hesitation, and there is no doubt that their courage saved lives and prevented further injuries, Trudeau said.

All Canadians stand united with Toronto today.

Both Trudeau and Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale also reassured members of the public that there does not appear to be a link between the attack and terrorism.

We have no reason to suspect that there is any national security element to this attack, the prime minister told reporters.

The investigation that is underway is still in its very early hours, but thus far, there is no discernible connection to national security in the incident last evening, based on all available information at the present time, Goodale said.

In the House of Commons in Ottawa, a moment of silent was held Tuesday afternoon to honour the victims.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale thanks Toronto police, says 'there is no discernible connection to national security' in the van attack, based on available information https://t.co/cM4BpR1icr pic.twitter.com/0A5qq1qMij  CBC Toronto (@CBCToronto) April 24, 2018

The incident also caught the attention of U.S. President Donald Trump, who spoke publicly about it for the first time on Tuesday in Washington, D.C.

I also want to express our deepest sympathies to the Canadian people following the horrendous tragedy in Toronto that claimed so many innocent lives, U.S. President Donald Trump said. Our hearts are with the grieving families in Canada.

Trump is being joined at the White House by French President Emmanuel Macron, who tweeted a message in French about the attack on Monday.

I express my profound solidarity with the Canadian people after the tragedy that has just struck the city of Toronto, Macron said.

President Trump addresses Toronto van attack: 'I also want to express our deepest sympathies to the Canadian people following the horrendous tragedy in Toronto that claimed so many innocent lives. Our hearts are with the grieving families in Canada.'  CBC News Alerts (@CBCAlerts) April 24, 2018

Jexprime ma profonde solidarite au peuple canadien apres la tragedie qui vient de frapper la ville de Toronto.  Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) April 23, 2018

A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to raise money to pay for the victims funeral expenses. Tory also said the city was teaming up with the Toronto Foundation to create the #TorontoStrong Fund to support victims and their families.

With files from Sarah Rohoman and The Canadian Press
Police used a stun gun to arrest a man aboard an American Airlines plane after he refused to move seats when accused of touching a female passenger without her permission at Miami International Airport.

Jacob Garcia began screaming insults on Sunday (local time) when airline staff tried to move him to another seat after the woman and her boyfriend accused him of touching her inappropriately, according to a Miami-Dade Police Department arrest report.

Police ordered everyone off the plane, which was about to depart for Chicago, according to the arrest report and an American Airlines statement.

Jacob A Garcia appears after his arrest at Miami International Airport. Source: Miami-Dade Corrections/Handout via Reuters

Garcia began fighting with the couple, and officers hurried aboard.

The 28-year-old from Chicago refused to budge from his seat, police said. A stun gun had little effect on him, possibly because it did not attach properly through his clothing, the arrest report said.

Eventually he stood up and walked off the plane under police escort, but continued to resist and twice attempted to grab a police officers gun.

Phone video posted online shows passengers clapping and cheering as Garcia is walked through the airport struggling against the police officers.

Police charged Garcia with battery, disorderly conduct and resisting an officer, among other charges. It was not immediately clear whether Garcia had a lawyer.

He remained in custody on Monday morning at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, according to online records.

American Airlines said in its statement it followed its normal procedures after the disagreement between passengers broke out, and said the flight departed with the remaining passengers about an hour after the scheduled time.
On Friday, Palestinians in Gaza returned for the fourth time to the border fence with Israel, in protests promoted by Hamas. The explicit purpose of Hamas leaders is to breach the fence and march on Jerusalem. Israel cannot possibly allow this  doing so would create a precedent that would encourage similar protests, and more death, along all of Israels borders  and has repeatedly used deadly force to counter it. The armchair corporals of Western punditry think this is excessive. It would be helpful if they could suggest alternative military tactics to an Israeli government dealing with an urgent crisis against an adversary sworn to its destruction. They dont. It would also be helpful if they could explain how they can insist on Israels retreat to the 1967 borders and then scold Israel when it defends those borders. They cant.

undoubtedly embodied the same kind of risk-taking, confrontational people-power ethos that has fired the revolts in many parts of the Arab world.

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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..This Ongoing War..23 April '18..In a punchycolumn published this past Friday ["Jewish Power at 70 Years"], Bret Stephens starts out talking about a hate crime - with an intriguing twist - in today's Germany. But then he heads off in the direction of the Middle East and the challenges posed to Israelis by the people on the far side of our borders.Here's a first extract:He's right. We're old enough to remember the coordinated Arab assaults on multiple Israeli borders seven years ago in conjunction with Naqba Day - May 14 and 15, 2011 and around the same time as the ill-fated and unfortunately-named Arab Spring.A BBC report at the time ["Palestinian protests: Arab spring or foreign manipulation?", BBC, May 15, 2011] said the not-so-peaceful "protestors"How did that risk-taking confrontation play out?
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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..JNS.org..23 April '18..Holocaust Remembrance Day is observed in Israel just a week before Independence Day, and for Israelis, those days are thematically as well as temporally connected: One of many reasons why a Jewish state is needed is to save Jewish lives. Young American Jews also acknowledge a thematic connection. Shockingly, however, the connection many have been taught to see is the exact opposite: that the Holocaust is why a Jewish state shouldnt existor at least, why they as Jews shouldnt care about it.Two weeks ago, I wouldnt have believed this. But then I read the columnpublished on April 11, the eve of this years Holocaust Remembrance Day.In it, Steven Davidson described the standardized Holocaust-education curriculum he teaches his sixth-grade Hebrew-school class in Brooklyn, N.Y. As he noted, he is just one of hundreds of Jewish educators across Canada and the U.S. to utilize the Holocaust curriculum developed by the nonprofit organization, Facing History & Ourselves. Since 1976, this curriculum has educated over half a million students in the U.S. and Canada about the Holocaust.So what does it teach Jewish students?
Data & Analytics

U Michigan Researchers Turn to Data Science to Understand Music

Four research teams at the University of Michigan will explore the intersection of music and data science thanks to the support of the Michigan Institute for Data Science's (MIDAS) Data Science for Music Challenge Initiative.

The challenge asked participants to propose research projects that applied data science tools such as data mining or machine learning to the study of areas such as music theory, the connection between music and words, performance and more. Possible areas of research suggested by the challenge's coordinators include algorithms and computer composition, big data-based instrument deign, music education method analysis, collaborative music making and music recommendation systems, among others.

The selected projects, each of which will receive a one-year $75,000 grant, include:

Understanding and Mining Patterns of Audience Engagement and Creative Collaboration in Large-Scale Crowdsourced Music Performances, a project that aims to develop a platform for crowdsourcing music creation and performance and applies data-mining tools to discovering patterns related to audience participation and engagement. The researchers expect their findings to be relevant to other interactive settings, according to information released by U-M, such as in the development of educational tools;

Understanding How the Brain Processes Music Through the Bach Trio Sonatas, which will use novel algorithms to analyze digitized performances of Bach's Trio Sonatas to determine what makes a performance artistic and where performers are likely to make mistakes. Researchers plan to integrate their findings into courses on brain performance and data science;

The Sound of Text, which "will develop a data science framework that will connect language and music, developing tools that can produce musical interpretations of texts based on content and emotion. The resulting tool will be able to translate any text  poetry, prose or even research papers  into music," according to information released by the university; and

A Computational Study of Patterned Melodic Structures Across Musical Cultures, a project that will compare melodies from a half-dozen cultures to find cross-cultural musical similarities.

"MIDAS is excited to catalyze innovative, interdisciplinary research at the intersection of data science and music," said Alfred Hero, co-director of MIDAS and the John H. Holland Distinguished University Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, in a prepared statement. "The four proposals selected will apply and demonstrate some of the most powerful state-of-the-art machine learning and data mining methods to empirical music theory, automated musical accompaniment of text and data-driven analysis of music performance."
Sadly only a few know the heroic story of Lt. Col. John Henry Patterson. Jerry Klinger, the President of the Jewish-American Society for Historic Preservation (www.JASHP.org) has authored a detailed account of this extraordinary man.

At a tribute in Patterson's honor Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "There is no exaggeration; Patterson was the commander of the first Jewish fighting force in nearly two millennia. And as such, he can be called the godfather of the Israeli army."

At that event Klinger was seated in the front row with the guest of honour. Of the comment by the Prime Minister, Klinger wrote: "It was a curious statement to those who knew nothing about Colonel Patterson. Patterson was a Christian. A Christian was the Godfather of the modern Israel Defense Forces, not a Jew."

The connection becomes even more intimate when we learn Patterson was the sandak (godfather) of Yonnie (Jonathan) Netanyahu, elder brother of the Prime Minister. Yonni born in 1946 was named for Patterson and for Jonathan's grandfather. Yonni like his godfather rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He was killed in the 1976 Entebbe raid.

Bridge Builder

Patterson led an adventurous life. Historians list him as an Anglo-Irish soldier, hunter, author and Zionist. He wrote 'The Man-eaters of Tsavo (1907) which detailed his bridge building assignment and a battle with hungry, man-eating lions. He was commissioned by the British to build a railway bridge over the Tsavo River (Kenya) 1988-89. The work was hindered when frequent lion attacks depleted the work crew and demoralized those who remained.

Patterson learned tiger hunting skills serving with the Brits in India. More than a hundred of his bridge-builders were killed by giant-sized lions and Patterson resolved to eliminate the problem. After a difficult campaign Patterson killed two gigantic lions.

Klinger reports: "They were incredibly huge beasts measuring over nine feet in length from their noses to the tips of their tails. The lion corpses were brought into camp for the men to see. It took eight men to carry each one."

Patterson wrote a book 'The Man-eaters of Tsavo." It was a best-seller and enjoyed numerous printings. There were three movies made from the book. The most recent, "The Ghost and the Darkness" in 1996 starred Val Klimer.

Patterson was appointed Game Warden of a reserve in East Africa in 1908. A couple on safari, Audley and Ethel Blyth were mysteriously shot. Although Patterson was investigated for the crime, no evidence led to him, nevertheless tongues wagged. He was shunned by the powers-that-be and resigned from the army in 1911. World War 1 broke out three years later.

Patterson returned to uniform and was sent to Flanders. The Turks feared the Jews would side with Britain and expelled them out of what was then Palestine. The desperate Jews fled to Egypt.

Gallipoli

The Jewish refugees, Patterson and a Russian activist Vladimir Jabotinsky would soon connect alongside a one-armed Russian Joseph Trumpeldor. Jabotinsky and Trumpeldor were avid Zionists and Patterson already a Jewish sympathizer soon embraced the cause.

The Jews wanted to fight with the Brits for 'Palestine.' They were offered a support and supply role as mule drivers. Jabotinsky offended by the offer, refused. His passionate friend Trumpeldor accepted but a problem remained. Who would lead this unusual unit? Enter Patterson, a non-Jew and a very experienced fighter. Patterson wrote about that moment in his book, "With the Zionists in Gallipoli."

"It was strange, therefore that I, so imbued with the Jewish traditions should have arrived in Egypt at the psychological moment when General Sir John Maxwell, the C-in-C in Egypt, was looking for a suitable officer to recruit a Jewish unit. A Jewish unit had been unknown for 2,000 years, since the day of the Maccabees, those heroic sons of Israel who fought so valiantly, and for a time so successfully, to wrest Jerusalem from the Roman Legions.... It is curious that General Maxwell should have chosen me (to command a Jewish unit), because he knew nothing of my knowledge of Jewish history and my sympathy for the Jewish race. When as a boy I eagerly devoured the records of the glorious deeds of the Jewish military captains, such as Joshua, Joab, Gideon, Judas Maccabee, I never dreamed that I in a small way would become a captain of a host of the Children of Israel."

Klinger wrote: "The Zion Mule Corp was organized, six hundred and fifty men strong. With the blessing of the chief Rabbi of Alexandria, they sailed for Gallipoli. They sailed with and as part of the British army opening the first step in the creation of the later Israel Defense Forces.

The tragedy and inspiration of Gallipoli followed. The Zion Mule Corp came through a wicked war with 'courage, purpose and steadfastness.'

After the torrid campaign Patterson was hospitalized. Jabotinsky who watched events closely was distraught when the British disbanded the Zion Mule Corps, ignoring promises of legitimacy, made to the Jewish refugees when they signed on.

The Jewish Legion

Furious Jabotinsky spearheaded a campaign to begin a Jewish legion but the British leadership wanted none of it. Lord Kitchener openly opposed the Jewish unit and thwarted the plan .Then on June 5, 1916 Kitchener sailed for a high level meeting with the Russians.. His ship hit a mine and Kitchener was never found.

He was replaced by Captain Amery who had served with Patterson in the Boer War and at Gallipoli. Meetings began with Jabotinsky, Patterson and Amery. It turned out Amery was keen for Jews to help Britain win control of Palestine from the Turks. The Jewish legion was approved.

When the formation of the Jewish Legion commenced the leadership was an important consideration. When the debate commenced, Jabotinsky declared: "There is only one nominee ....even though he is not a Jew, he must be our colonel; and I hope that one day he will be our general: Patterson!"

The appointment was officially confirmed July 27, 1917. "Never in Jewish history has there been in our midst a Christian friend of his penetration and devotion." Vladimir Jabotinsky said. 67 years after his death, the ashes of Lt Col John Henry Patterson were transferred for burial in Israel.

Ron Ross is a Middle East consultant for United Christian Broadcasters (Vision FM). Previously he was radio news editor for Bridges for Peace in Jerusalem, Israel.

His career started at WINTV (Email: ronandyvonne@mac.com)

Ron Ross' previous articles may be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/ron-ross.html
Something that has always stood out to me in the Bible of high importance for consideration is the mark of the beast. We are warned that in the last days before the return of Jesus Christ there will arise the antichrist called the beast who the whole world will worship (Revelation chapter 13 verse 8).

He will be attested to by a second beast who performs signs and wonders when in the presence of the first beast, including bringing fire down from the sky. He will cause the world to worship after the beast and will give life to an image of the beast that whoever would not worship the image would be killed (Revelation chapter 13 verse 15).

In accordance with the rise of this demonic world ruler, a human brand or mark will be imposed upon all of mankind, to small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and without the mark of the beast or his number which is 666 no one may buy or sell anything (Revelation chapter 13 verse 16).

The consequences of receiving the mark of the beast and worshipping the beast are severe.

A dire warning

The Word warns us clearly that any who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name (Christians included) will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, poured out full strength and be tormented with fire and brimstone with no rest day or night forever and ever (Revelation chapter 14 verses 9 to 11).

Sadly we are told in the Word that all who dwell on the earth whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb will worship the beast and receive the mark of the beast, thus receiving this judgment (Revelation chapter 13 verse 8).

Holding fast in the Lord no matter what

We are told of Christians who will refuse to worship the beast and receive his mark and are beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God and live and reign with Christ for a thousand years in the first resurrection and are called blessed and holy (Revelation chapter 20 verses 4 to 5).

We are given the example of those who will refuse the mark of the beast to the point of death by beheading, but while they die in this world they do not deny their faith in Jesus Christ and receive eternal life.

The Lord tells us a time is coming when Christians will be hated by all nations for His namesake and be delivered up to death (Matthew chapter 24 verse 9). The Lord tells us to not fear if we are to suffer but to be faithful until death and we will receive the crown of life (Revelation chapter 2 verse 10).

The Lord tells us in John chapter 12 verse 25 he who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. This verse is highly applicable to the mark of the beast.

By only focusing on physical needs (food and water, buying and selling) and the fear of death, one may gain their life for a time in the physical by accepting the mark of the beast, but will certainly lose their life for eternity in the lake of fire.

What is the mark of the beast?

The mark of the beast is a physical mark on the right hand or forehead which is required to buy and sell and will be imposed worldwide upon all at the reign of the antichrist.

There are differing views on what the mark could be but I have felt we should take seriously the advertised and promoted RFID (radio frequency identification) microchip, which is a syringe injectable rice grain sized computer chip shown as injectable in the hand.

This chip is advanced technology able to keep all manner of personal and medical information on the person including bank numbers, passwords and other digital information that can be scanned and read instantly and held in a database.

Promoted for convenience of use on popular television such as Dr. Oz, it has been demonstrated to be able to buy goods and enter buildings with a swipe of the hand over a sensor, showing its compatibility to make and receive payments in a digital economic system.

The RFID is claimed to not be GPS traceable but alarmingly it was reported that in 2009 a Saudi inventor applied for a patent over a GPS traceable RFID chip that had imbedded a small dose of cyanide that could remotely kill the user. In all but one State in Australia the microchipping of pets has become mandatory at law.

What if the same occurred for people including children during the reign of the antichrist, to be microchipped as animals (beasts) justified by convenience or safety? In Nazi Germany Jewish prisoners were stamped with codes on their wrists for identification.

The RFID will bring up all personal information when scanned and is superior in this way for identification and tracking purposes, especially for prisoners. Many Christians including myself have dreamed that the RFID microchip is the mark of the beast and I have personally seen enough to be concerned.

We live in a world of dramatic technological growth with a push towards artificial intelligence, transhumanism and merging our bodies with machines. We need to keep sight of how God made us to be.

We are made in His image and not part man part computer. Let us not lose sight of the warnings we are given in Scripture of the mark of the beast.

Christopher Harris is a 27 year old from Victoria. He confessed his faith in Jesus Christ in 2016 and has sought to set his focus on the Lord. He makes videos on his youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/JESUSisLORD and believes the world is living in those times prophesied by the Holy Bible as the last days.

A link to Christophers other articles: https://www.pressserviceinternational.org/christopher-harris.html
Casa Fernandez Cigars, the company owned and operated by Eduardo Fernandez and his son Max has a new, but familiar name. Today the company announced it was changing its name to Aganorsa Leaf. Its the first step in what is a large rebranding effort the company is undergoing.

AGANORSA is an acronym for Agricola Ganadera Nortena S.A.- the Fernandez familys growing operation in Nicaragua that grows its signature tobacco. This tobacco is used in the companys own brands as well as other brands. The operation has a reputation for producing some of the best Nicaraguan tobaccos in the business. Over the years, it has been used in the branding of some Casa Fernandez products. Now it becomes the company name.

The brands previously under the Casa Fernandez umbrella will now be under the Aganorsa Leaf umbrella. This includes JFR, Lunatic, Guardian of the Farm, and the eponymously named Casa Fernandez lines. The brand names will be the same, including the Casa Fernandez branded cigars  they will just now be under the Aganorsa Leaf company name.

There is also a new company logo that is also familiar, featuring a strong arm gripping a bunch of tobacco leaves. Its a logo that has also been used on product branding in the past and will now serve as the company logo.

Its essential cigar aficionados associate our cigars with the incredible leaf we grow. Changing our name to AGANORSA LEAF is a crucial step towards that goal, commented Terence Reilly, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Aganorsa Leaf.

Plans are for the new name to be incorporated into packaging and marketing materials as well as other proprietary brands distributed by Aganorsa Leaf.

Max Fernandez added: This is an important moment in our companys history. We are proud to rebrand our cigar company as AGANORSA LEAF and now is the right time. Since day one the leaf that we grow in Nicaragua has made our cigars distinctive in flavor and aroma. AGANORSA tobacco has always been unique. You can recognize it when you taste a cigar made by us. With AGANORSA LEAF hopefully people enjoy the same experience I have; from the early days when I walked into tobacco fermentation barns and cigar factories as a kid with my father Eduardo, Arsenio and our team of experts. The aroma and experience lingers in your memory, and it will forever stay with you. Our mission is for others to recognize the distinct flavor of our great leaf and know that skilled labour with years of experience have worked these leaves in Nicaragua, to evolve into the premium habano that you hold in your hands.

The company has also unveiled a new website at www.aganorsaleaf.com.
TUESDAY, April 24, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- A single session of meditation can lower your anxiety levels, a small new study finds.

"Our results show a clear reduction in anxiety in the first hour after the meditation session, and our preliminary results suggest that anxiety was significantly lower one week after the meditation session," said study author John Durocher. He is an assistant professor of physiology at Michigan Technological University's department of biological sciences.

Anxiety can raise the risk for heart disease: Previous studies have shown that arterial stiffness may be worsened by traumatic life events, job strain, depression and either short-term or chronic anxiety, the researchers said. Heart changes linked with anxiety can lead to high blood pressure and organ damage.

For the study, Durocher and his colleagues recruited 14 participants with normal blood pressure but high levels of anxiety. The investigators evaluated the volunteers' heart rate, blood pressure, aortic blood pressure and arterial stiffness before and after a 60-minute guided beginner mindfulness meditation session. This type of meditation focuses on breathing and awareness of one's thoughts.

"This study is different because we examined the effect of a single mindfulness meditation session on anxiety and cardiovascular outcomes, while other studies have examined the effect of several days or weeks of mindfulness meditation," Durocher explained.

The study was to be presented Monday at the American Physiological Society annual meeting, in San Diego. Research presented at meetings is considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

The research showed that a one-hour session had notable benefits. Most of the participants continued to practice mindfulness meditation and experienced even more improvements one week later.

"Participants also had reduced mechanical stress on their arteries an hour after the session. This could help to reduce stress on organs like the brain and kidneys and help prevent conditions such as high blood pressure," Durocher said in a meeting news release.

"The results suggest that a single mindfulness meditation session may help to reduce cardiovascular risk in those with moderate anxiety," he added.

More information

The U.S. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health provides more information on meditation.
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Sao Paulo, April 24, 2018Brazilian authorities should conduct a swift and credible investigation into the drive-by shooting of radio host Hamilton Alves in Rondonia state and bring his attackers to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Alves was driving from work in the city of Jaru to his hometown of Ouro Preto do Oeste on April 20 when, at approximately 2 p.m., two people on a motorcycle drove alongside him and fired at least six bullets at his Chevrolet S10 pickup, according to reports on the stations website and Valney Calixto, the police officer in charge of the investigation.

The journalist was hit at least four times in the mouth and chest before his car veered off the highway and crashed, according to reports and pictures from the scene republished on the news website Anoticiamais.

Alves underwent surgery, first in the local hospital and then at a hospital in the state capital, Proto Velho, Calixto said.

Authorities in Rondonia must conduct a thorough investigation into the attack on Hamilton Alves and bring those responsible to justice, said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna from New York. Reporters in Brazils rural states face deadly threats simply for informing their audiences, and authorities must act to show that such attempts to silence journalists will not be tolerated.

He is a very combative journalist and it is logical that we are focusing our investigation on that side of things, Calixto told CPJ. He had no personal disputes that we know of so we are focusing on issues related to his work.

The journalists colleague Rangner Andrade said his friend is known for addressing controversial themes but had never mentioned being threatened before.

Alves, who declined to speak to CPJ, told his colleagues that the attack would not cause him to alter his work.

Nothing has changed, it just gives me more energy to work, I am a guy who is not afraid of speaking the truth, he said in an interview with his employer, Nova Jaru FM, after the attack. I have talked with my family; if I die because of my work then I have fulfilled my mission as a journalist. Police are investigating and I am sure they are going to find the people who ordered the killing and carried it out and arrest them.

For the past five years, Alves worked as an anchor at the Jaru-based radio station. The journalist presented a daily talk show, Abrindo o Jogo, during which he took calls from listeners who related examples of corruption and featured news stories by Andrade.

He talks about them [corruption accusations] and says what other people wont say, Andrade told CPJ by phone.

Alves show airs from noon until 1:30 p.m. in more than 20 state municipalities.

This is the second shooting in Rondonia that CPJ has documented this year. In January, reporter Ueliton Bayer Brizon was shot and killed as he drove his wife to work in the city of Cacoal, CPJ documented at the time. CPJ is still investigating to determine whether journalism was the motive for his murder.
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New York, April 24, 2018Nicaraguan authorities should investigate journalist Angel Eduardo Gahonas death and ensure that reporters can do their work without fear of violence or censorship, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Gahona, the director of the local, independent television program El Meridiano, was fatally shot on April 21 while covering protests against pension reforms that have left at least two dozen dead including police and demonstrators, according to news reports.

The journalist was reporting via Facebook Live on a damaged ATM outside the mayors office in the eastern port city of Bluefields when he was shot and killed, according to news reports. A video of the protests shared by the Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa shows Gahona approaching the ATM and describing the damage to the glass doors before being shot and collapsing to the ground with blood on his face.

Nicaraguan authorities must immediately conduct a transparent investigation into the killing of Angel Eduardo Gahona, said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna. Independent journalists in Nicaragua should not pay the ultimate price for informing people about issues of national importance.

Ileana Lacayo Ortiz, a journalist and activist in Bluefields who helped organize the original march and was near Gahona when he was shot, told CPJ it was difficult to tell who had fired at him, but believed it was the police. I didnt see any of the youth with a gun, Lacayo told CPJ. It had to come from the police or riot police.

Suyen Sanchez, a radio reporter with the Radio Unica station in Bluefields who often worked with Gahona, told CPJ this was all speculation and that authorities had not yet released any official statement on the case.

When CPJ called the Bluefields police station, the officer who answered said there was no official police comment and she was not authorized to speak about the case.

Gahonas wife Migueliuth Sandoval, who worked with him as a reporter for El Meridiano, told CPJ that her husband left home around 5:00 p.m. on April 21 to cover protests that continued after an anti-government march organized by local activists ended.

Sandoval said that she and her husband decided he should broadcast the police and protester confrontations via Facebook Live because local television channels were being censored or disconnected by the government. Nicaraguan authorities have cracked down on coverage of the protests and independent media outlets, censoring news broadcasts and blocking television broadcasts, as multiple journalists have been injured while covering the protests, CPJ has documented.

El Meridiano, which covered news from the region, aired every weekday from 6-7 p.m. on a local television station and via social media streams, Sanchez told CPJ. She said that the program has run for more than a decade and was one of the most popular and trusted news programs in the city.

The radio reporter and Sandoval said separately that they had never heard Gahona mention any threats against him in their years of working together, but that local journalists were concerned about potential violence with the escalating protests.
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Mexico City, April 24, 2018The Committee to Protect Journalists today welcomed the arrest of a suspect in the murder case of Mexican journalist Javier Valdez Cardenas. At a press conference today, police named the alleged accomplice to the 2017 murder as 26-year-old Heriberto N, alias El Koala, and said that Valdez was killed for his reporting. His arrest was announced by Mexicos Interior Secretary Alfonso Navarrete on Twitter yesterday.

The arrest of a suspect in the murder of Javier Valdez Cardenas is a welcome step, but we urge the Mexican authorities to identify all those responsible for the killing, including the mastermind, said CPJ Mexico Representative Jan-Albert Hootsen. Too often, investigations into the murders of Mexican journalists stall after low-level suspects have been arrested, which allows impunity to thrive.

Valdez, a 2011 recipient of CPJs International Press Freedom Award, was killed on May 15, 2017, in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state, according to CPJ research. Mexico is one of the deadliest countries in the Western Hemisphere for journalists. Mexico ranked sixth on CPJs most recent Impunity Index, which spotlights countries where journalists are murdered regularly and their killers go free.
Diu Smart City has become first city in India to run on 100% renewable energy during daytime. With this, it has set new benchmark for other cities to become clean and green.

Diu was importing 73% of its power from Gujarat until last year. But now it has adopted two-pronged approach to reduce dependence on Gujarat for power requirements through renewable energy.

Key Facts

The two approaches include 9 MW solar park spread over 50 hectares rocky barren land and installing of solar panels on roof tops on 79 government buildings thereby generating 1.3 MW annually. To further enhance its solar capacity, Diu has been offering its residents subsidy of Rs 10, 000 to Rs. 50,000 for installing 1-5KW roof top solar panels.

With these renewable energy initiatives, the UT has been saving about 13,000 tonnes of carbon emissions every year. Moreover, due to low-cost solar energy, power tariffs have been cut by 10% in 2017 and 15% in 2018 in residential category.
India: China warn members against hurried negotiations on fisheries subsidies at WTO

April 24,2018 | Source: The Hindu Business Line

India and China have cautioned member countries against an immediate re-start of text-based negotiations on curbing fisheries subsidies at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) saying there is a need for deeper discussions before the drafting starts. Some members such as New Zealand, Brazil and the EU, immediately wanted to begin discussions on the text of the negotiations, especially with the negotiating group on fisheries subsidies coming up with a work programme this week which aims to adopt an agreement on the matter by the next Ministerial meet in December 2019.



India wants flexibilities in the text to protect subsidies given to its artisanal fishers. It will not be hurried into agreeing to a text which doesnt adequately take care of its concerns, a government official told BusinessLine. Both India and China said it would be better to deepen discussions so that when the drafting work actually begins, the differences between members would have narrowed.



Fishing capacity



As per the work programme, on May 14-17, members will focus on subsidies that enhance or maintain fishing capacity and subsidies contributing to overcapacity and overfishing. Special and differential treatment for developing members and least developed countries (LDCs) will also be discussed. This aspect of the negotiations is most important for India as it needs to be sure that the special and differential treatment extended to it will unambiguously exempt small and artisanal fishermen from cutting down on their subsidies, the official said. India is in great need of a special dispensation as the subsidies it provides, in the form of support for motorisation of fishing boats, fuel rebates and infrastructure support, fall under the targeted subsidies list at the WTO.



Many WTO members, however, are not in favour of extending special and differential treatment to India as it would automatically result in extension of similar treatment to China which gives a large amount of subsidies to its fishers. There are a lot of apprehensions about extending S&DT to China, too, as it heavily subsidises its fishers. Because of the China factor, India is being denied what it should normally be extended because of its developing country status. But we are going to fight it out, the official said.



The discussion on curbing fisheries subsidies is led by an informal grouping of members called Friends of Fish (including Argentina, Australia, Chile, Colombia, New Zealand, Norway, Iceland, Pakistan, Peru and the US), which argues that subsidies to the fisheries sector  estimated at $14-20.5 billion annually or 20-25 per cent of revenues  have led to over-capacity and over-fishing. At the last WTO Ministerial meet in Buenos Aires in December, one of the few things agreed upon by participants was that all would try and make available a draft agreement on fisheries subsidies by December 2019.
Sri Lanka: Over 100 fishermen arrested for illegal fishing

April 24,2018 | Source: Hiru News LK

Sri Lanka Navy arrested 101 fishermen for using illegal fishing methods in the seas close to the Trincomalee port.



The apprehensions were made during the raids carried out during the past 2 weeks. Sri Lanka Navy said the arrested fishermen, their harvest and equipment were handed over to Trincomalee fisheries authorities for necessary action.
Industrial output in Ukraine slows to 1% in March

The chemical industry demonstrated the highest growth in March 2018.

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Ukraine to ban Russian ships from entering internal waters

The move is due to a high terrorism threat level.

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Gazprom ready for talks with Ukraine on gas transit  Russian media

The termination of existing contracts with Naftogaz does not mean the halt of gas transit to the EU via Ukraine, Russia's official claims.

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The humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo is one of the worst in the world. Thirteen million people in the DRC are in need of humanitarian assistance; at least 4.5 million have been displaced; more than 7 million face severe food insecurity; and two million children are at risk of starvation.

Although the country is rich in natural resources, the causes for the catastrophic humanitarian situation are manifold, stemming from persistent insecurity driven by the activities of armed groups and ethnic tensions in several regions. The political impasse resulting from delayed elections has also undermined state authority, and risks increased violence and unrest. While elections alone will not solve the DRC's many challenges, they are critical to ensuring a democratic and peaceful transition, averting violence, and strengthening democratization, stability, and economic development.

International donors recently convened in Geneva for a United Nations conference aimed at helping to relieve the suffering of the Congolese people. The response was encouraging, with pledges offered of $528 million dollars. U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock said he was pleased with the progress made toward the $1.7 billion funding goal for DR Congo. And I am even more pleased, he said, thatthere are additional pledges that governments are working on.

The United States is providing nearly $67 million dollars in additional humanitarian assistance to provide food, shelter, heath care and other urgent aid for vulnerable Congolese and refugees. State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert noted that the United States is the largest single donor supporting this humanitarian response. With the new announcement, she said, we are providing nearly $277 million dollars since Fiscal Year 2017 in critical assistance to the people in need in the DRC and for Congolese refugees in the region.

Ms. Nauert urged more donors to provide resources to help those suffering in the DRC, and she called on the Government there to take steps to address the underlying causes of insecurity that have given rise to the displacement and conflict that have fueled the humanitarian crisis.

She welcomed the pledges from other donors at the Geneva conference, which, at a half a billion dollars, was on par with the entire amount raised in 2017. Eight countries more than doubled their support, she noted, and major pledges came in from the United States, the EU, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Sweden and Canada. So we thank those countries for their assistance.
The Belarusan National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum issued a statement on solidarity with the civil society of Armenia.

Armenian EaP CSF National Platform

Organizations and civil society activists of the Republic of Armenia

Statement

of the Coordination Committee

of the Belarusan National Platform

of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum

On solidarity with the civil society of Armenia

23 April 2018

In recent weeks, representatives of the civil society of Belarus have closely followed the development of social and political events in Armenia, where mass actions of civil disobedience, strikes and demonstrations are taking place related to the decision of the Armenian Parliament to appoint for Prime Minister post Serzh Sargsyan, who was in power as president of Armenia over the past 10 years.

On behalf of numerous civil society organizations in Belarus, we want to express our full support and solidarity with civil society and pro-democratic forces of Armenia! We are sincerely encouraged by your determination and steadfastness in upholding the norms, principles and values of democracy, good governance, and accountability of authority to citizens. With your example you once again prove that a strong civil society, with the broad support of the people, can initiate changes that until recently seemed impossible!

We urge the incumbent authorities and officials of the Republic of Armenia to immediately release all detainees during mass protests, to abandon all forms of persecution and to publicly apologize to protesters who exercise their legitimate constitutional rights to freedom of speech and assembly.

We sincerely believe that the citizens and social forces of fraternal Armenia will do their utmost to further constructive social dialogue, the development of a favorable political culture, the activation of the country's participation in the processes of the Eastern Partnership and the approximation to European norms in all areas of life.

Coordination Committee of Belarusan EaP CSF National Platform
Public joint-stock company Motor Sich (Zaporizhia) has said that there is no threat of frustration of holding a general annual meeting of shareholders scheduled for April 25 due to raids by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on Monday.

"From 7 am, the investigative group of the SBU, which has arrived from Kyiv, has been raiding the offices of the company's officials. The investigators are seizing some documents of the company," Chairman of the supervisory board of PJSC Motor Sich Anatoliy Malysh told Interfax-Ukraine on Monday.

He found it difficult to clarify, on the basis of the decision of which court, investigative actions were conducted, saying: "At the moment, I do not have this information."

"We hope that the investigative actions will not jeopardize the breakdown of the annual meeting of shareholders scheduled for April 25," the head of the supervisory board said.

On Monday the press center of the SBU reported about raids at Motor Sich under a criminal case launched under Part 1 of Article 14 and Article 113 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (sabotage).
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has demanded Russia provide reasons for the detention of Kharkiv resident Oleksandr Steshenko, the Foreign Ministry's press secretary, Maryana Betsa, has said.

"As regards the detention of Oleksandr Steshenko at the entrance to the occupied Crimea, we've sent a note to the Russian Federation with a demand to state the reasons for the detention and his location," Betsa wrote on Twitter.

Earlier, the Crimea.SOS project reported that on April 1, Russian law-enforcers detained Steshenko at the Chonhar checkpoint at the entrance to the annexed Crimea. That day, he called his mother and said that the Russian law-enforcers in Chonhar said they had doubts about his resemblance to the photo in his passport.

According to activists, on April 14, the frontier guards of the Russia Federal Security Bureau first confirmed that they held Steshenko, but then refused to let him speak with a lawyer, and then denied this information.

At present, the whereabouts of Steshenko is unknown.
Poroshenko says tomos on autocephaly of Ukrainian Orthodox Church may be confirmed by other patriarchs along with Bartholomew

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko does not rule out that a tomos on the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine will be confirmed not only by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, but by other patriarchs, including Russia's Kirill.

"The ideal scenario for me would be if along with Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, the tomos on the autocephaly is confirmed by all the Orthodox churches, including the Russian patriarch. In my opinion, this is the only way [for Russia] to at least partially wash off the atrocities and the sins that were committed on the Ukrainian territory by Russian military, Russian propagandists, and sometimes, sadly, by Russian priests. Do I believe that this is possible? The Lord does miracles. I do not rule this out," Poroshenko said in the "Freedom of Speech" talk show on the ICTV Channel on Monday evening.

He also stressed that no one can apply the right of veto to the decision of the ecumenical patriarch.

"But can Kilrill prevent them from giving us the tomos about autocephaly, the right to independence? I want to stress that no one, including Kirill has the right to veto for the decision of the ecumenical patriarch. He does not ask permission from Kirill, but holds consultations on this matter," Poroshenko said.

As reported, the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople accepted the appeal from the president of Ukraine to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew asking the patriarch to grant a tomos (an official church document) about the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, a decision was made to start the procedures necessary to grant autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

In addition, the ecumenical patriarch was handed a resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on supporting the president's appeal Ukraine.

As reported, on April 17, Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko said about his intentions to appeal to Archbishop of Constantinople, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, asking him to issue a tomos (an official church document) granting autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, and called on the Verkhovna Rada to support it. According to him, if there is a relevant resolution of the Verkhovna Rada, the president's address and the appeal of church hierarchs, this appeal will be transferred to the Ecumenical Patriarch.

On April 19, 268 MPs supported the appeal of the president of Ukraine to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to grant a tomos about the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
National Police of Ukraine has begun acting on the February 22, 2018 decision of Kyiv's Pechersky District Court to investigate the case filed by lawyers of former Georgia President and New Forces Movement Party leader Mikheil Saakashvili, who was deported to Poland on February 12.

Saakashvili's lawyer Ruslan Chernolutsky told the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news agency that the Kyiv court on February 23, 2018 ordered the case to be registered officially. A day earlier, the court ordered Ukraine's National Police to investigate Saakashvili's deportation.

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko said in December 2017 that Saakashvili had received $500,000 to finance his activities from businessman Serhiy Kurchenko, who is hiding in Russia. To uphold his claim, Lutsenko published an audio recording. Saakashvili said he was not acquainted with Kurchenko.

In late January 2018, Lutsenko confirmed reports that an analysis had confirmed the identities of the speakers in the recorded telephone conversations between Saakashvili and Kurchenko.

Saakashvili is suspected of conspiracy to commit a crime, the commission of a crime by a group of people acting in collusion or by a criminal organization, and complicity with members of criminal organizations and concealment of their criminal activities.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has proposed that the Verkhovna Rada legislatively improve the provisions determining the grounds for acquiring Ukrainian citizenship, primarily by territorial origin, through the introduction of amendments to the law on Ukrainian citizenship.

According to the explanatory note to bill No. 8297, which was submitted by Poroshenko to parliament as urgent, it "was developed with the aim of improving the provisions establishing the grounds for acquiring Ukrainian citizenship, primarily by territorial origin, additional grounds on which persons are not accepted into Ukrainian citizenship, the powers of state bodies participating in the resolution of questions of Ukrainian citizenship regarding verification of the grounds for its acquisition, agreeing and deciding on registration."

Among other things, the presidential bill foresees the introduction of changes that "limit in time the period within which the citizenship of Ukraine must be registered for persons recognized as citizens of Ukraine under clauses 1-3, Part 1, Article 3 of the law on Ukrainian citizenship.

According to the comparative table, the president proposes stating the above points in the following way: "1) all citizens of the former USSR who at the time of Ukraine's independence (August 24, 1991) permanently resided on Ukrainian territory and whose belonging to Ukrainian citizenship was established before May 1, 2018"; "2) persons irrespective of race, color, political, religious or other opinion, sex, ethnic or social origin, property, place of residence, language or other characteristics who, at the time of entry into force of the law of Ukraine on Ukrainian citizenship (November 13, 1991), lived in Ukraine and were not citizens of other states and whose belonging to the citizenship of Ukraine was established before May 1, 2018"; "3) persons who arrived in Ukraine for permanent residence after November 13, 1991 and who, in the 1974 passport of a citizen of the former Soviet Union, had the inscription 'citizen of Ukraine' made by the bodies of internal affairs of Ukraine, and the children of such persons who arrived together with their parents in Ukraine and at the time of arrival in Ukraine did not reach the age of majority, if the said persons applied for Ukrainian citizenship, and whose belonging to the citizenship of Ukraine is established (registered) before May 1, 2018."

Poroshenko in his bill also proposed narrowing the circle of persons  natives of Ukraine, in the presence of whom a person has the right to acquire Ukrainian citizenship by territorial origin.

In addition, the author of the draft law proposes introducing a provision according to which the citizenship of Ukraine by territorial origin cannot be obtained by a person who committed a crime against humanity or carried out genocide, convicted in Ukraine for committing a grave or especially grave crime (until maturity or removal of a criminal record), or who committed on the territory of another state an act that is recognized by the legislation of Ukraine as a grave or especially grave crime.
The Infrastructure Ministry of Ukraine has initiated the address to the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) about a ban of entering inland water-ways of Ukraine for Russian vessels due to a high level of terrorist threats, according to a posting on the ministry's website.

"This is unacceptable when during the Russian Federation's aggression Russian ships float the rivers of Ukraine, where critical infrastructure facilities are located. We will initiate a ban on the floating of Russian vessels along the rivers of Ukraine," Deputy Infrastructure Minister Yuriy Lavreniuk said.

He also pointed out the need to strengthen the interaction between the Defense Ministry, the Foreign Ministry, the State Border Service, the Foreign Intelligence Service, as well as the President's office in Crimea on ship calls to closed seaports of Crimea and Sevastopol, as well as on sanctions related to the construction of the bridge through the Kerch Strait.

"We need to strengthen the measures as much as to identify unauthorized calls to closed ports in Crimea and to prosecute [for this]. The Infrastructure Ministry will analyze the vessels-violators via flags of the countries and ship owners, and then take measures against these violators," Lavreniuk said.

He also said that the Infrastructure Ministry had transferred the materials of the sanctions list to the Foreign Ministry for their further attachment to the international lawsuit.
The G7 foreign ministers have called on the Ukrainian authorities to ensure the progress of reforms, including the establishment of the Anti-Corruption Court in accordance with recommendations of the Venice Commission.

"We reconfirm our support for Ukraine's reform and are encouraged by steps taken to date, especially in the areas of decentralization and economic growth. We urge the Government of Ukraine to make continued, clear progress along the reform path," reads the G7 foreign ministers' joint communique issued on April 23.

According to the document, this progress should include the formation of an anti-corruption court in line with the Venice Commission's recommendations, as well as progress in electoral reforms and the National Security Law.

The foreign ministers reiterated their enduring support for Ukrainian sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders. This includes our non-recognition of Russia's violation of Ukraine' sovereignty and territorial integrity.

"We are convinced that the only way a sustainable solution to the conflict can be reached is through the full implementation of the Minsk agreements. Given Russia's responsibility in the conflict, we urge Russia to stabilize the security situation in the Donbas without delay," the communique reads.

At the same time, the ministers said these sanctions can be rolled back only if Russia truly fulfills its commitments, "but we also stand ready to take further restrictive measures should Russia's actions so require."
Ukraine has appealed to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to not recognize Russian actions in Black Sea areas near Russia-annexed Crimea as legal, Ukraine's Embassy to the U.K. has said.

"Ukraine has called on the IMO not to recognize unilateral actions of Russia in Black Sea areas near Crimea and Sevastopol Russia continues to violate international law and disregard authorities on issues of international maritime traffic in the region. Crimea is a part of Ukraine," the embassy said following the 105th session of the IMO's legal committee.

Diplomats said Ukraine's representative at the meeting called on IMO members not to recognize Russia's attempt to implement IMO conventions on temporarily occupied areas of Ukraine.

In its June 2017 statement at the Committees session the representative of Ukraine called on the Russian Federation to take all measures to prevent internationally wrongful acts in Ukraines search and rescue region as well as to provide appropriate assurances and guarantees that they will not repeat it in the future.

The delegation of Ukraine then also drew attention of IMO Member States to the fact that at the previous session of the Maritime Safety Committee it was decided to begin monitoring of the situation with the security and safety of navigation in the northern part of the Black Sea.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has supported the amendment proposed by the Ukrainian delegation and voted to recognize the occupation of part of Donbas by Russia.

"It's a victory! An important amendment of the Ukrainian delegation to PACE has been adopted in the report "State of emergency: proportionality issues concerning derogations under Article 15 of the European Convention on Human Rights", and the Assembly voted to recognize the occupation of part of Donbas by Russia!" Head of the Ukrainian Delegation to the PACE Volodymyr Ariev of the Petro Poroshenko faction wrote on his Facebook page.

In turn, representative of the Ukrainian delegation to the PACE Oleksiy Honcharenko on the air of the 112.ua TV channel explained: "The Parliamentary Assembly has just supported the amendment by the Ukrainian delegation... to change the wording when describing the situation in the uncontrolled and occupied territory of Donbas  to replace the words non-government controlled territories' with the words territories under effective control by the Russian Federation'."
Ukraine has asked the International Court of Justice in The Hague to provide explanations on the status of implementation of the preliminary court decision as part of Ukraine's proceedings against Russia in the case concerning application of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, in particular, to restore the activities of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, the press service of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has reported.

"It is already clear that Russia is not going to terminate the effect of the discriminatory ban on the activities of the Mejlis, as directly stipulated by the ICJ's order. Ukraine fundamentally disagrees with this position. The text of the order is absolutely clear, understandable and demands the immediate lifting of the ban. In this regard, Ukraine is appealing to the International Court of Justice to fulfill its judicial powers and confirm that Russia is obliged to cancel the ban on the activity of the Mejlis in accordance with the order of the International Court of Justice of April 19, 2017 on the application of provisional measures," the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

The respective appeal was submitted on Tuesday, April 24.

The Foreign Ministry stressed that a year has passed since the court issued the relevant judgment, but Russia continues to ban and impede the activities of the Mejlis.

"Ukraine once again expresses deep concern over Russia's approaches to the interpretation of the provisions of the court's judgment on the application of provisional measures. Today, with this step Ukraine reiterates that the actions of the Russian Federation do not comply with the norms of international law," the ministry said.

It also appealed to the international community with the request to insist that Russia observe the norms of international law, including compliance with the mandatory requirements of the International Court of Justice.

As reported, on April 19, 2017, the International Court of Justice, as part of Ukraine's lawsuit against Russia, announced its judgment according to which Russia in Crimea is obliged to ensure the rights of the Crimean Tatars, permit the activities of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people and ensure the availability of education in the Ukrainian language.

The International Court of Justice ordered both sides to refrain from any actions that might aggravate the dispute in question.
Francois Nicoullaud was French Ambassador to Tehran between 2001 -2005. This is the time which Europeans began the initial negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear program. Mr. Nicoullaud has written numerous articles about Iran and specifically the nuclear case in the past years. Hannah Kaviani who covered the Nuclear talks for Radio Farda spoke to Ambassador Nicoullaud.

Why do you think France is so active, more than other Europeans to try to save the Iran nuclear deal ?
Irans hardline Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani has defended the actions of a police officer who beat a young woman in Tehran last week for insufficient hijab.

In his regular Monday address April 23, Larijani said No one should be allowed to resist a lawful action by the police, or to insult a law enforcement officer.

A video of the incident, in which a policewoman beats a young woman, apparently for not wearing her hijab properly, went viral on social media. The vast majority of commenters were outraged by the brutality of the attack.

Irans morality police enforce the dress code for women in the Islamic Republic, and have been criticized in the past for their harsh tactics.

Legal advisor to President Hassan Rouhani, Laya Joneidi, along with several members of Iranian parliament, have also criticized the officer for her conduct. Iranian media reports say she has been suspended for brutality and using swear words against the young woman.

Nevertheless, Larijani said that the police should not take even one step back, otherwise, the societys order, the polices authority, and the countrys security would be compromised.

It is unacceptable that some people resist the police and politicize a cultural or social matter, Larijani said.

Larijanis remarks can be seen as clearly linking the security and even survival of the regime with compulsory hijab. If people can resist the dress code and challenge the police, this can lead to wider disobedience and threaten a system built on use of force and interference in all kinds of private matters.

Tehran MP Tayebeh Siavashi has described the incident as regrettable, and Deputy Police Chief for Parliamentary Affairs Hamid Reza Eshraq has said the policewomans behavior was a mistake, adding that the morality police have been told to let the suspects go if they resist.

Eshraq said the officer has been suspended following the incident.

Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli has ordered an investigation into the case, but also called on women to observe Islamic standards, meaning to wear the hijab.

MP Parvaneh Salahshouri, head of the womens faction, is demanding a large-scale investigation into the actions of the morality police over the last 13 years.

Last Friday, Ahmad Alamolhoda, firebrand Friday prayer leader for the city of Mashad, criticized officials and MPs who supported the young woman. Meanwhile, hardline daily Kayhan and Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps-linked news agency Fars wrote that the incident was pre-planned and fabricated.

Do Not Question Irans Military Presence in Syria

Turning to the war in Syria later in his Monday speech, Larijani insisted no one should question Irans advisory presence in Syria.

Irans intervention in Syria has been widely criticized in Iran and abroad during recent months. Thousands of farmers protesting the mismanagement of water resources in the central province of Isfahan also chanted slogans against Irans military presence in Syria last week, as did millions of demonstrators in over 100 Iranian cities and small towns in January.
By RFE/RL

Iranian President Hassan Rohani, has warned U.S. President Donald Trump not to pull out of a landmark nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, saying that the United States will face "severe consequences" if it violates the pact.

"I am telling those in the White House that if they do not live up to their commitments, the Iranian government will firmly react," Rohani said in a speech broadcast live on state television on April 24.

Trump has given the deal's European signatories a May 12 deadline to fix what he calls its "terrible flaws," threatening to effectively withdraw the United States by refusing to extend waivers on U.S. sanctions if they do not do so.

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which Iran signed with the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France, and Germany in 2015, put curbs on Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

Aside from the United States, the other signatories of the agreement have all voiced support for the deal.

Speaking to a crowd of thousands in the northeastern city of Tabriz, Rohani said, "If anyone betrays the deal, they should know that they would face severe consequences. Iran is prepared for all possible situations."

French President Emmanuel Macron, a vocal proponent of the deal, is in the United States and is seeking to convince Trump not to torpedo the agreement.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on April 23 he had agreed with his Chinese counterpart that Moscow and Beijing would try to block any U.S. attempt to sabotage the nuclear deal.

At a UN nonproliferation conference in Geneva, Russia's delegate said on April 24 that his country and China have submitted a draft statement voicing "unwavering support" for the deal and hope the draft will receive broad backing at the meeting.



Vladimir Yermakov, the Russian Foreign Ministry's Director General for Nonproliferation and Arms Control, told the meeting that the Iran agreement was fragile and any attempt to change it it would impact on the global nonproliferation regime.



Yermakov's remarks came a day after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he had agreed with his Chinese counterpart that Moscow and Beijing would try to block any U.S. attempt to sabotage the deal.

Iran has warned that it will revive and step up its nuclear program if the deal collapses.

With reporting by Reuters and irna.ir
By RFE/RL

Iran's foreign minister said that neither Iran nor Saudi Arabia can be the dominant power in the Middle East and called on countries in the Persian Gulf region to start talking to each other.

"In an attempt to be the strongest in the region, to exclude one another from the region, we have managed to destroy the region," Mohammad Javad Zarif said in an address to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York late on April 23.

Zarif said there is "a dire need for change" and "Iran is ready for it because we are big enough, old enough, mature enough to appreciate this reality."

"None of us can become the new hegemon" in the region, he said. "The era of hegemonic influence is long gone," he said. "Neither Iran nor Saudi Arabia can be the hegemons of the region. That's a fact."

Zarif called for a new "regional dialogue forum" that would include five Gulf Cooperation Council countries along with Iran, Iraq, and Yemen. He said such a dialogue has the potential to transform the Middle East.

Zarif's visit to New York comes two weeks after a visit to Washington and New York by Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, the heir apparent to the Saudi throne who has portrayed Iran as Riyadh's biggest foe.

"Our neighbors, particularly Saudi Arabia, want to create an impression that we are an existential threat against them," Zarif said, asserting that was "one of the most important messages" conveyed by Salman to audiences in the United States.

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump signed off on the sale of more than $1.3 billion in artillery to Saudi Arabia during his visit. Zarif said other Gulf Arab countries are now trying "to compete with one another in buying more weapons."

But "security cannot be purchased," he said. Rather, he said, it requires "understanding in the region."

Saudi Arabia and Iran are engaged in proxy conflicts in Syria and Yemen, and they also back opposing groups in Lebanon, Bahrain, and Iraq.

Zarif said the region is suffering from "a dialogue deficit," and that's why he has suggested creating "a regional dialogue forum."

Such a forum should include Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and probably Yemen, he said.

To join the forum, he said, countries should agree on a number of principles: the inviolability of borders, respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, and non-intervention in each other's internal affairs.

In addition to the "dialogue deficit," Zarif said there is also "a confidence deficit."

He said Persian Gulf countries not only need to start talking but to work on confidence-building measures.

Zarif suggested joint task forces on issues ranging from nuclear safety -- because "very soon" there will be a growing number of nuclear reactors on the Persian Gulf coast --to tourism, cultural exchanges, women's empowerment, and democratic processes.

"We need to have a strong region," he said, "not to be the strongest in the region."

Unless this transformation takes place, Zarif warned that no matter how many weapons the United States sells to its Arab allies, "at the end of the day the cost for the United States will be much higher than the profits made by the weapons sold."

A day earlier, on April 22, Zarif told the Al-Monitor television network that the Saudis have not been able to help Yemen's embattled government win a war against Iranian-backed Huthi rebels despite having "beautiful U.S. weapons."

"The Saudis remain under the false assumption, which they also had in Syria, that they can achieve a military victory. This is why the war on Yemen continues," he said.

Zarif said that the only solution to the civil war in Yemen is a political settlement.

With reporting by AP and PressTV.com
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

Trend:

Over the past 24 hours, Armenias armed forces have 113 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said April 24.

The Armenian armed forces were using heavy 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 24

By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:

The UN urges the sides of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to intensify efforts toward a peaceful negotiated solution to the conflict, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in a statement posted on the organizations website April 24.

The UN secretary general in his statement joined the recent appeal by the OSCEs Minsk Group Co-Chairs urging all sides to prevent any potential escalations along the contact line between the Armenian and Azerbaijani troops.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

The resignation of Armenias prime minister Serzh Sargsyan will have a positive impact on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Rob Sobhani, director general of the Caspian Group Holdings, told Trend April 24.

I am hopeful that this resignation will have a positive impact because the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict can open the doors of trade and commerce for Armenia and its neighbors Azerbaijan and Turkey, he said. Stability that will come from the resolution of the conflict can bring long-term economic benefits to the Armenian people, which means that they will most likely pressure their leaders for resolution of this conflict.

Sobhani believes that equally important, the co-chairs (Russia, France and US) of the OSCE Minsk Group must use this historic opportunity to better guide the Armenian side towards peace and to make a strong and forceful case to the people of Armenia that with peace they can finally get economic benefits.

If the Armenian people demand from their leaders that they make peace with Azerbaijan and resolve the conflict then I am sure we shall see a constructive approach from the Armenian government, he added.

Further, Sobhani pointed out that if Azerbaijan uses international institutions to bring forth a fact-based case against individual Armenian leaders responsible for Khojaly genocide, then justice can be served.

We see many examples from history where savage behavior did not go unpunished. For example, in the Nuremberg trials former Nazi officials were tried for crimes against humanity. Or more recently we saw the conviction of Ratko Mladic by the International Criminal Tribunal and sentenced to life in prison for genocide, he added.

Sobhani noted that the resignation of Serzh Sargsyan provides insights into the mind-set of the Armenian people; namely, that they are tired of being isolated, economically disadvantaged and not part of the broader global community.

The people of Armenia look at Azerbaijan and must ask themselves a question: "Why have our leaders not delivered economic growth, reduction in poverty and political independence?" Armenians look to Azerbaijan as a successful country that has normal relations with all its neighbors and has used foreign direct investment into its economic for the betterment of its citizens, he said. We may witness some period of turmoil within Armenia due to this resignation but the message to the leaders of Armenia is clear: its people want a government that serves them not their individual politicians.

Mass rallies broke out in Yerevan and other Armenian cities on April 13 following former Armenian President Serzh Sargsyans nomination as prime minister. The opposition accused him of ineffective governance and worsening the economic situation in the country.

On April 23, Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan resigned.

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.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:

The Armenian people got rid of the Karabakh clan that has been holding them hostage for more than 20 years, depriving them of participation in all regional and international projects, and which made Armenia known in the whole world as an occupier state, Azerbaijani MP Elman Nasirov told Trend.

He said that the era of Serzh Sargsyan, who was in power in Armenia for more than ten years, has ended, the protests of the people yielded a result, and Sargsyan had to resign.

Sargsyans unconstructive position on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is one of the factors that dragged Armenia down, Nasirov noted. Thats why today a pragmatic politician that will replace Sargsyan is needed. Armenia should be ruled by a person who understands that the current hopeless situation, which the country finds itself in, is consequence of its aggressive policy, and thats why Armenia is at the dead end today.

So lets hope that the new prime minister of Armenia will pursue another policy that differs from Sargsyans policy, because the continuation of the old policy means the continuation of the existing hopeless situation, and in the future the new prime minister may suffer the same fate, Nasirov said.

He added that there should be such a politician in Armenia who would demonstrate a pragmatic position in the negotiations with Azerbaijan.

The future of Armenia is connected only with the fair settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, with the return of the occupied Azerbaijani lands, Nasirov said. In this case, that is, if the new prime minister of Armenia agrees to return the occupied territories, the issue of Armenias participation in large-scale regional projects initiated by Azerbaijan may be considered. Armenia can receive big revenues, and this is the countrys salvation.

Mass rallies broke out in Yerevan and other Armenian cities on April 13 following former Armenian President Serzh Sargsyans nomination as prime minister. The opposition accused him of ineffective governance and worsening the economic situation in the country.

On April 23, Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan resigned.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

Trend:

Full transparency will be ensured in all areas of labor and social protection of people, said Sahil Babayev, Azerbaijans newly appointed minister of Labour and Social Protection of Population

He made the remarks April 23 during his introduction to the ministrys staff.

The minister expressed gratitude for the high trust rendered by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. Babayev stressed that he will ensure the proper implementation of the tasks in the field of labor and social protection set by the head of state.

Babayev noted that full transparency will be ensured in all areas. The minister also said that legal framework and administrative proceedings will be improved in accordance with the most advanced international practices, and added that the activities of the ministry will be based on a systematic approach and the principles of social justice.
Details added (first version posted on 10:21)

Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

Trend:

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has received Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Russia Sergey Naryshkin.

During the conversation, the sides noted successful development of the Azerbaijani-Russian strategic partnership, and exchanged views on the prospects of the relations. It was noted that cooperation in the field of security, just like in all spheres, successfully continues.

At the meeting, the sides also discussed issues of regional security.

Sergey Naryshkin conveyed the greetings of Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Azerbaijani president. Naryshkin congratulated Ilham Aliyev on a landslide victory in the presidential election. Having assessed this as a great confidence of the Azerbaijani people, Naryshkin also regarded the election results as the victory of the Azerbaijani people.

President Ilham Aliyev thanked for the congratulations and touching upon the presidential elections held both in Azerbaijan and Russia noted that all this is an indicator of support of the two countries peoples for the policy implemented by the leadership of Azerbaijan and Russia.

President Ilham Aliyev thanked for the greetings of Russian President Vladimir Putin and asked Naryshkin to convey his greetings to Vladimir Putin.
Details added (first version posted on 12:41)

Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Samir Ali - Trend:

Armenias chauvinism policy poses a threat to regional development, Eldar Samadov, deputy head of the Working Group of Azerbaijans State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons, said April 24.

He was speaking at a conference titled Armenias policy of aggression and state terrorism - main threat to regional development and cooperation in Baku.

Both in the beginning and the end of the 20th century, Armenian nationalists carried out a policy of ethnic cleansing against the Azerbaijani people, and as a result, 20 percent of Azerbaijani lands were occupied, and 3,875 Azerbaijani citizens went missing during the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, he said.

The Azerbaijani Prosecutor Generals Office, the Military Prosecutors Office, Interior Ministry and the abolished Ministry of National Security initiated more than 600 criminal cases related to terrorist acts committed by Armenia against Azerbaijan, and investigative measures were carried out.

Samadov noted that in connection with the clarification of the missing Azerbaijani citizens fate, close cooperation with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is being carried out.

The work continues on collecting DNA samples from close relatives of the missing persons in order to conduct further work on exhumation and identification, and these samples are kept in the hospital of the State Security Service, he said.

Adding that the Armenian terror in general is more than 100 years old, Samadov reminded about the killings of Turkish diplomats by Armenias ASALA terrorist group in various countries.

In turn, Gasim Hajiyev, an employee of the Institute of Caucasus Studies of Azerbaijans National Academy of Sciences (ANAS), said that the Armenian state never existed in the South Caucasus region.

The Armenian state was created artificially, it is a nest of state terrorism, he stressed.
Details added (first version posted on 13:13)

Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

Trend:

Azerbaijan hopes that clear-headed political forces will come to power in Armenia after the departure of the military dictatorship regime headed by Serzh Sargsyan, spokesman of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Hikmat Hajiyev told Trend on April 24.

He made the remarks commenting on how Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan's resignation on April 23 will affect the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution.

Hajiyev said it has not been possible to achieve progress in settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict due to the policy pursued by the Sargsyan regime, who kept Armenian people under the threat of war.

"Hysterical appeals of the former Sargsyan regime's elements that allegedly the Azerbaijani side accumulates military equipment and personnel on the contact line do not reflect reality, and rely on last year's information. Their goal was to mislead public opinion," Hajiyev said.

The fact is that the presence of Armenian troops in the occupied Azerbaijani lands continues to be the main threat to regional peace and security, according to Hajiyev.

"To eliminate tensions, the Armenian troops must be withdrawn from the occupied Azerbaijani territories. Azerbaijan is ready to continue negotiations with clear-headed political forces in Armenia for early peaceful settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on basis of the norms and principles of international law and the requirements of relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council," he said.

He stressed that an early settlement of the conflict through peaceful means will restore sustainable peace and stability in the region and give opportunities for a comprehensive regional cooperation.

"Azerbaijan will ensure its territorial integrity and sovereignty within the internationally recognized borders," Hajiyev concluded.

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 24

Trend:

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy Brey has congratulated President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in connection with his victory in the April 11 presidential election.

"Dear Mr. President, I congratulate you on behalf of the Spanish government and on my own behalf on your re-election as the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan," he said.

"I wish you bigger success in the new phase of your presidency," reads the congratulatory message.

Mariano Rajoy Brey gave assurances that Spain will continue its efforts to further deepen the good and sincere relations between the two countries as well as strengthen ties between Azerbaijan and the European Union.

"Mr. President, please accept my best wishes and highest esteem," he said.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

Israel is one of the strongest partners of Azerbaijan in the region, said Azerbaijans Ambassador to the United States Elin Suleymanov during a special event on Capitol Hill to honor Azerbaijans longstanding support for Israel amid its 70th-anniversary celebrations, JNS reported.

Azerbaijan is proud of its history of inclusiveness and its vibrant Jewish community, said Suleymanov. Our strong, growing partnership with Israel has a special meaning today as Israel celebrates its 70th anniversary and Azerbaijan marks the Centennial of the first-ever democratic republic in the Muslim world. The relationship between Azerbaijan and Israel stands as a pioneering example of what is possible.

Addressing the event, President of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding Rabbi Marc Schneier said that there are 57 Muslim nations, but when it comes to their support of Israel, Azerbaijan is number one.

On the eve of Israels 70th anniversary, today we celebrate the authentic relationship between the Muslim nation of Azerbaijan and Israel, he said.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

Trend:

Czech President Milos Zeman has sent a congratulatory letter to President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.

Let me sincerely congratulate you on your reelection as the president of Azerbaijan, Zeman said in his letter. I am very glad that the relations between our countries based on the Joint Declaration on Strategic Partnership are of sincere and lasting nature and develop in a positive direction. In addition, there are good prospects for each of the sides to develop the economic sphere. Therefore, I am confident that during the period of your new mandate we will make joint contribution to the implementation of existing projects and will implement new projects.

Azerbaijan is an important partner not only in the bilateral sphere, Zeman noted in his letter. I believe that the expansion of cooperation between Azerbaijan and the EU will continue in the future. There are also prospects for cooperation as part of the Eastern Partnership initiated by the Czech Republic as well, and which we, as before, consider a friendly and useful format for the development of relations with the closest partners in our neighborhood.

With a deep sense of satisfaction, I recall my state visit to Baku in September 2015, Zeman added. Also, once again reminding you about my previous invitation, I would like to say that I am waiting for your visit to Prague. I once again congratulate you on the occasion of your victory in the election, and I wish you and your family good health and happiness.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Elchin Mehdiyev Trend:

Azerbaijan's Human Rights Commissioner (Ombudsman) Elmira Suleymanova presented an annual report for 2017 to the country's parliament on April 24.

The report covered several issues. Particularly, it was noted that a number of prisoners appealed to the Ombudsman with a request to assist them with being transferred to Azerbaijan. Requests were submitted to the relevant structures and investigations were carried out based on these appeals.

Overall, last year, 53 arrested and imprisoned Azerbaijani citizens were transferred from foreign countries to the country, while 81 arrested persons were transferred to foreign countries.

There were also appeals related to the housing and communal services. There were cases when housing cooperatives introduced utility standards, which contradict the requirements of the Tariff Council, terms of the agreement signed with residents were not observed and so on.

The Ombudsman's office considered it expedient to carry out joint monitoring of housing cooperatives by the Ministries of Economy and Taxes, the Anti-Corruption Department under Azerbaijan's Prosecutor General, and take measures under the law to prevent these violations.

The report further reads that except the cases defined in the legislation, it is not allowed to overwatch anyone without his/ her consent, take video or shoot photos, make voice recordings, and use information technology to disseminate information about personal life, religious and ethnic identity.

The Ombudsman noted the necessity of legal regulation on use of information technologies and social networks to prevent unlawful interference in private life of citizens, ensure reliable protection of their honor and dignity and prevention of violations.

The report was put to the vote and adopted.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

Trend:

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has congratulated President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in connection with his victory in the April 11 presidential election.

"His Excellency, I would like to extend to you my congratulations and best wishes on your re-election as President of the Republic of Azerbaijan," reads the congratulatory message.

"I look forward to continuing working with you, including through the United Nations Resident Coordinator and the United Nations Country Team in Azerbaijan, on matters of mutual interest," he said.

Guterres stressed that the UN counts on the continuing commitment of Azerbaijan to the values and principles of the United Nations, including in the areas of peace and security, sustainable development, and human rights.

"I trust that under your continued leadership, Azerbaijan will remain an important voice for intercultural dialogue and on issues facing the youth," he said.

"As you will recall, the United Nations has been a consistent and strong supporter of the important efforts of the Minsk Group co-chairs of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to help the sides achieve a peaceful settlement of the long-lasting Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," he said, further voicing hope that these efforts will gain greater momentum and bring positive results in the coming period to help achieve lasting peace and prosperity for all the people of the South Caucasus region.

"Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration," reads the congratulatory message.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:

The election held in Azerbaijan has led to development and strengthening of stability, while the election held in Armenia has led to political chaos and aggravation of situation, Azerbaijani MP Bakhtiyar Aliyev said.

He made the remarks commenting on Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan's resignation on April 23 amid the continuing rallies in the country.

MP Aliyev said that reason for such a result is very clear.

"Because, completely democratic processes take place in Azerbaijan, the government expresses the will of its people, there is a people-government unity, people freely make choice and show great confidence in the current government."

"However, the situation in Armenia is completely different. Everyone who came to power in Armenia killed opponents and was in conflict with the will of Armenian people, remained in power threatening people with a war. Therefore, the people have never supported these regimes and we have seen falsifications and violations of the law in the elections in Armenia, protests of Armenian people for many years, and how ruthlessly the army suppressed those protests," the MP said.

That is why, according to Aliyev, what is happening today in Armenia is natural.

"Armenian people have finally their say and remove the fascist regime from the power," he said.

"However, it is too early to talk about how long the political crisis in Armenia will last, because clashes between clans will become even more acute in Armenia," he said.

MP Aliyev stressed that Armenia, which is in a state of crisis, will not be able to recover for long.

"Today, Azerbaijan has a strong economic and political potential. Azerbaijan's stability and development are based on natural foundations, because the reforms in Azerbaijan are stable, consistent, and this serves the peace, tranquility and prosperous life of the people," the MP said.

Mass rallies broke out in Yerevan and other Armenian cities on April 13 following former Armenian President Serzh Sargsyans nomination as prime minister. The opposition accused him of ineffective governance and worsening the economic situation in the country.

On April 23, Serzh Sargsyan resigned as Armenian prime minister.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

Trend:

Two citizens of Iran were detained as they violated the state border of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan's State Border Service (SBS) said on April 24 that searches were carried out at a border post near the Sym village in the Astara district, roads to nearby settlements were blocked and taken under control.

In the course of searches, two citizens of Iran, Nasir Mahdavi (1961) and Ruzbeh Allahyar (1991), who violated the state border of Azerbaijan, were detained.

A Winchester rifle and a double-barreled shotgun were found among personal items of the violators and were confiscated.

During the investigation, it was found out that the citizens of Iran, violating the state border of Azerbaijan, had to transfer a large batch of drugs to Ayatullah Vahabov (1950), a resident of the Khamusham village of Astara.

Vahabov was detained. More than 14 kilograms of drugs (13,334 grams of heroin, 720 grams of opium) hidden by him in the yard of his house were found and seized.

At the same time, it was established that Vahabov also involved his son Mikayil (1995) into criminal activity on drug trafficking, who was arrested as well.

Regarding these facts, the Investigative Department of the SBS initiated a criminal case under a corresponding article of Criminal Code.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

Trend:

Safar Mehdiyev, who was appointed chairman of Azerbaijans State Customs Committee by the order of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev dated April 23, 2018, was introduced to the committees staff by Assistant to the Azerbaijani President for Economic Issues Ali Asadov, the committee said in a message April 24.

Ali Asadov spoke about the life of Safar Mehdiyev, about the tasks set by the Azerbaijani president before the customs authorities for more efficient organization of customs operation in the country in accordance with modern standards, expressed confidence in the successful implementation of the instructions.

Mehdiyev expressed gratitude for the high confidence rendered to him by President Ilham Aliyev, and stressed that the presidents tasks and instructions for the customs authorities will be successfully implemented.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

Trend:

Head of the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration Ramiz Mehdiyev has introduced new Education Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, appointed upon the presidents order dated April 23, 2018, to the staff of the Education Ministry, the ministry said April 24.

Bayramov expressed gratitude for the president's trust.

The minister stressed that he will exert every effort for the worthy accomplishment of the tasks set by the countrys president in the field of education.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Ilhame Isabalayeva - Trend:

In January-March, 629,400 stateless persons and foreigners arrived in Azerbaijan from 151 countries. The figure is more by 12.4 percent compared to the same period of 2017, Azerbaijan's State Statistics Committee said in a message.

According to the Statistics Committee, out of the total number of visitors, 27.4 percent accounted for citizens of the Russian Federation, 22.1 percent - for Georgia, 15.8 percent - for Iran, 11.6 percent - for Turkey, 4.7 percent - for United Arab Emirates, 1.9 percent - for Ukraine, 1.8 percent - for Iraq, 14.6 percent - for other countries, and 0.1 percent - for stateless persons.

Among them 67.9 percent are men and 32.1 percent are women.

Out of the total number of stateless persons visiting Azerbaijan, 29.6 percent came to the country in January, 26.4 percent - in February and 44 percent - in March.

In March 25.8 percent of those who came to Azerbaijan were Iranian citizens (an increase of 4.6 percent compared to March 2017).

The country recorded a rise in the number of visitors from the Gulf countries. Compared to January-March 2017, the number of Kuwaiti citizens visiting Azerbaijan increased by 7.1 percent, Bahrain and Qatar - by 2.7 percent each, Saudi citizens - 2.4 percent, Omani citizens -1.9 percent, Iraqi citizens - 1.7 percent, UAE citizens - 1.3 percent.

The number of visiting Iranian citizens decreased by 6.4 percent.

In January-March 2018, the number of visitors from the EU states decreased by 4.1 percent to 18,600, while the number of arrivals from the CIS countries increased by 6.7 percent to 204,400.

The State Statistics Committee said 63.3 percent of visiting foreigners and stateless persons used railway and automobile transport, 35.9 percent - air transport and 0.8 percent - sea transport.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Ilkin Shafiyev - Trend:

By the end of 2018, the state company AzerGold plans to export an additional 32.3 thousand ounces of gold and 63.2 thousand ounces of silver, Chairman of the Board Zakir Ibrahimov said in an exclusive interview to Trend.

April 2018 marks a year since commencement of the first export of domestic precious metals, implemented by AzerGold Company.

As Ibragimov noted, during this time 73.4 thousand ounces of gold and 102.5 thousand ounces of silver were exported. At the same time, the chairman of the board said, the total revenue from the sale of precious metals exceeded 160 million manats.

Ibrahimov also addressed the work done by AzerGold until today. In particular, the Chairman of the Board noted that as a result of the technical audit carried out by the international consulting company, construction and restoration work was carried out at the Chovdar field in Dashkasan rayon, the operation of the field was restored, the export of non-ferrous metals was established.

"It should be noted that mining factories send precious metals to specialized refineries, where ingots are produced on the basis of Good Delivery standard (Reliable delivery). In turn, refining companies apply a special legal expertise and analysis procedure for mining companies before accepting metals for refining. The activities of the AzerGold was analyzed by world-renowned refining companies based on appropriate criteria, whereby the company obtained a positive conclusion", - said the Chairman of the Board of ZAO.

CJSC AzerGold which started its activity in July 2016, is engaged in studying, research, exploration, management of deposits of precious and non-ferrous metals, their extraction, processing and sale, and also application in this sphere of new technologies, improvement of material and technical base and performance of other works connected with development of this area.

In April 2017 AzerGold signed a contract with world-famous Swiss company Argor-Heraeus SA for precious metals refining.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

In order to further develop cooperation with Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan proposes to establish a joint intergovernmental commission on water issues, State Agency of Turkmenistan Dovlet Habarlary reported.

"It is also timely to consider the possibility of elaborating a bilateral agreement on the rational use of Amudarya river waters," the information says.

As far back as 1996, the two countries signed a Treaty under which water resources flowing through the territories of the two states are divided on the principle of fifty-fifty.

It should be noted that President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov is on a state visit to Uzbekistan.

Turkmenistan borders Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iran and Afghanistan and uses water resources taken from four transboundary rivers i.e. Amu Darya, Tejen, Murgab and Atrek rivers, in accordance with agreed quotas.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

Trend:

Foreign Minister of Uzbekistan Abdulaziz Kamilov met with Foreign Minister of India Sushma Swaraj in Beijing on April 23, Uzbek media reported.

The sides discussed current issues of Uzbek-Indian agenda, noting the new dynamics and positive trends in bilateral relations. In 2017, mutual trade reached $323.6 million, which is almost twice as much as five years ago.

The ministers exchanged views on preparations for the upcoming state visit of President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev to India.

At the meeting, proposals for holding the next round of inter-MFA political consultations, sessions of the Intergovernmental Commission on Trade-Economic and Scientific-Technical Cooperation, the Joint Working Group on Combating Terrorism were considered.

The Indian External Affairs Minister congratulated the Uzbek side on the results of the high-level international conference on Afghanistan "The peace process, security cooperation and regional connectivity" held on March 26-27, 2018 in Tashkent, and confirmed the willingness of the Indian side to contribute constructively to the implementation of the final Tashkent Declaration.

The foreign ministers also discussed the agenda of the meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization opening this day, in which the Indian delegation participates as a full member of the SCO for the first time.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

Trend:

First Vice-Minister of Agriculture of Kazakhstan Arman Evniev spoke about the main advantages of the Meat and Animal Breeding Development Program proposed by the Ministry of Agriculture for 2018-2027, Kazakh media reported.

"For today, all the necessary resources for the development of this sector are sufficient, the area of pasture land is 180 million hectares, and by this indicator we hold the fifth place in the world. The area of pastures is sufficient to increase cattle by 2 times. There are water resources for irrigation of 2 million hectares of land, in rural areas there are 50% of the population. This means that most rural residents will be provided with work under the program," he said at a government meeting.

According to Evniev, the program will provide a number of advantages for the industry as a whole.

"The implementation of the program will create a new class of livestock farmers and ensure the growth of farms from 20,000 to 100,000 within the program, providing jobs from 100,000 to 500,000 rural residents, increasing cattle numbers from 7 million to 15 million, increasing lamb production and beef - from 600,000 tons to 1.6 million tons, increase in export earnings - up to $2.4 billion, increase in labor productivity per one worker - from $1,000 to $8,000," Evniev noted.

He also stressed that the farms will be the basis of the production model within the program.

"They will unite in sales, training, veterinary services. An indispensable condition for the implementation of this program is the breed improvement in livestock using the genetics of pedigree animal feed production, including the focus on fattening areas of irrigated land," the vice-minister added.

Evniev also listed factors that give confidence in the successful outcome of the program.

"First of all, we see a high potential for the development of beef cattle and sheep breeding. Our main advantages are vast pasture lands, irrigated lands and centuries-old traditions of livestock breeding," he concluded.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Ilkin Shafiyev  Trend:

In May 2018, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) plans to launch three projects under the partnership program with Azerbaijan, said Natavan Imanova, representative of FAO Coordination and Partnership Office in Azerbaijan.

She made the remarks April 24 during the final seminar on the FAO project entitled as "Development of environmentally friendly agriculture and institutional capacities".

According to Imanova, the projects will cover the sphere of livestock and crop production. Currently, she noted, two projects in the field of hazelnut growing and beekeeping are also being prepared.

Speaking about the results of the project entitled as "Development of environmentally friendly agriculture and institutional capacities", Imanova noted that a program for the development of environmentally friendly agriculture in Azerbaijan for the next seven years was prepared as part of this initiative. During the implementation of the project, work was carried out to amend the legislation, improve the skills and abilities of Azerbaijani farmers.

The "Development of environmentally friendly agriculture and institutional capacities" project was launched in Azerbaijan on January 1, 2015 and will end on April 30, 2018. The project is funded by the FAO-Turkey Partnership Program.

The aim of the project is to improve living conditions and food security in rural areas by strengthening institutional capacity and using the principles of organic agriculture in the long term.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Fikret Dolukhanov  Trend:

Production Technologies. Woodworking. Furniture and interior. - MebelExpo Uzbekistan 2018 international furniture exhibition kicked off in Tashkent on April 24, said a message on the website of the event.

The exhibition was organized by the Iteca Exhibitions (ITE Uzbekistan) international exhibition company and its partner, the ITE group of companies.

Some 126 participants from 19 countries, such as Austria, Belarus, Germany, Greece, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Pakistan, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Sweden, Uzbekistan and Japan, will present their products in the exhibition. Debutants make up more than 30 percent of the total companies.

Most traditional participants have been taking part in the event for 5 to 13 years already, confirming a high effectiveness of the event in achieving marketing goals.

According to the organizers, the exhibition is presenting the Uzbek furniture industry to potential investors and forming a positive image of local enterprises among domestic customers and foreign partners.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @FDolukhanov
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

Trend:

Equipment for the new control tower at the Dushanbe airport will be supplied by French Company Thales, Asia-Plus reported, referring to a source in the Tajik government

The source said this issue has been discussed at a meeting of Tajik Deputy Prime Minister Azim Ibrohim with Vice-President of Thales Oliver Auchan.

The equipment is expected to be supplied to Tajikistan in the first half of 2019, the source added.

A cornerstone laying ceremony for a new control tower took place at Dushanbe International Airport (DIA) on March 14, 2018.

The Ministry of Defense of France is sponsoring the construction of this significant strategic facility and French company Marc Meunier will build the control tower at the Dushanbe airport. The project is reportedly expected to be completed in 2021.

A government-to-government agreement between Tajikistan and France on construction of the control tower at the Dushanbe airport was signed in Dushanbe on July 13, 2015.

The document was inked by Minister of Transport of Tajikistan Sherali Ganjalzoda and Ambassador of France to Tajikistan Didier Leroy.

An agreement on construction of a 36-meter control tower at the Dushanbe airport was reportedly reached in Dushanbe in February 2013.

Thales Group is a French multinational company that designs and builds electrical systems and provides services for the aerospace, defense, transportation and security markets. Its headquarters is in La Defense (the business district of Paris), and its stocks are listed on the Euronext Paris.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:

The diversification policy of Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR is an instrument of real support of commodity prices, expert Gleb Gorodyankin said.

He was speaking at the 3rd SOCAR International Caspian and Central Asia Downstream Forum on Trading, Logistics, Refining and Petrochemicals in Baku April 24.

He said that since January 2016, there has been an increase in the premiums for Azeri Light crude oil in relation to Brent Crude oil.

At the same time, the demand for Urals oil fell in the European markets, and Russia cut the supply in the Western countries, he noted. The demand for oil from Iran, Iraq and the US increased in the Baltic countries. In January-April, oil supplies from the US to Europe increased almost fourfold from 1.8 million tons to 6.7 million tons, while the share of the European market in the structure of US exports increased from seven to 12 percent.

The expert added that the European market of oil products is in a difficult situation, because gasoline arbitrage to the US is almost closed.

We observe more stable situation regarding diesel fuel, the supply of distillates from Russia and Kazakhstan may increase by the end of 2018, he said. Against this backdrop, the arbitrage of oil varieties to Asia becomes particularly important, because in the medium term this will bring stability to the Caspian oil varieties. Own capacities, which allow companies to allocate raw materials for processing and give the opportunity to build their own logistics chain, also gain importance.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Maksim Tsurkov  Trend:

The Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) will contribute to the stability of energy supply in Europe and ensure additional volumes of gas from new sources, Gulmira Rzayeva, expert, senior research fellow at the Center for Strategic Studies under the president of the Republic of Azerbaijan, said.

Rzayeva made the remarks at the 3rd SOCAR International Caspian and Central Asia Downstream Forum on Trading, Logistics, Refining and Petrochemicals in Baku April 24.

Southern Gas Corridor will be a turning point in gas supplies for at least three European countries, Rzayeva said mentioning Italy, in which 38 percent of imports account for Russias Gazprom company, Greece, in which 40 percent of imports account for Russian gas, and Bulgaria, in which 36 percent of the market depends on gas imports.

"The project has a guaranteed market for 25 years in Europe and 15 years in Turkey, she said. Despite market shocks, Southern Gas Corridor is in a favorable position due to the binding agreements."

The expert also stressed that despite financial crisis in the energy market, the financing of the project is not a problem for partners and Azerbaijan.

"Turkey and Europe represent a promising market for bigger imports of pipeline gas after 2020, and this gas will be obtained from unconventional sources," Rzayeva said.

She added that gas production will reach 50 billion cubic meters per year in Azerbaijan by 2028 thanks to the development of new fields.

The Southern Gas Corridor, worth over $40 billion, is considered as one of the priority energy projects for the EU, which strives for diversification of gas sources. The project envisages the transportation of gas from the Caspian region to the European countries through Georgia and Turkey.

At an initial stage, the gas to be produced in the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor projects. Other sources can also connect to this project at a later stage.

As part of the Shah Deniz Stage 2, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).

Follow the author on Twitter: @MTsurkovTrend
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Maksim Tsurkov  Trend:

Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR will sign an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) deal on transferring the primary oil processing unit together with atmospheric and vacuum distillation units (ELOU-AVT) with capacity of two million tons from the former Azneftyag oil refinery as part of the modernization of the Heydar Aliyev Baku Oil Refinery, Teymur Aliyev, adviser of SOCAR vice president for strategic development, told reporters in Baku April 24.

He said that a part of the research conducted by the contractor, an alliance of SOCAR-Foster Wheeler Engineering and Tekfen Construction and Installation companies, has already been completed.

Following the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) phase, the EPC contract will be signed, he said. The development of the projects implementation strategy is almost completed. The FEED phase is to be completed in November 2018, and the entire project of the units transfer - in late 2020-early 2021.

In February 2018, SOCAR signed an EPC deal with Italys Maire Tecnimont company for the construction of new units at the Baku oil refinery as part of its modernization project.

The Heydar Aliyev Baku Oil Refinerys modernization will be completed in 2021. The refinerys processing capacity will increase from 6 to 8 million tons of oil per year.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

So far, 87 percent of steel pipes, or around 670 kilometers out of 765 kilometers of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) have been welded in Greece and Albania, said a message from TAP AG consortium.

Construction work continues in the Albanian mountains. Skrapar is the area hosting the highest section of TAP (around 1,800 meters), said the message.

TAP project, worth 4.5 billion euros, is one of the priority energy projects for the European Union (EU). The project envisages transportation of gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz Stage 2 to the EU countries.

Connecting with the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) at the Greek-Turkish border, TAP will cross Northern Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea before coming ashore in Southern Italy to connect to the Italian natural gas network.

The project is currently in its construction phase, which started in 2016.

Once built, TAP will offer a direct and cost-effective transportation route opening up the vital Southern Gas Corridor, a 3,500-kilometer long gas value chain stretching from the Caspian Sea to Europe.

TAP shareholders include BP (20 percent), SOCAR (20 percent), Snam S.p.A. (20 percent), Fluxys (19 percent), Enagas (16 percent) and Axpo (5 percent).

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
Gazprom does not exclude that Europe may need new gas pipelines for gas supplies from Russia, Deputy CEO of the gas holding Alexander Medvedev said on the air with Rossiya 24 TV Channel, TASS reports.

"If Europe states its needs and is ready to sign required contracts, then I do not rule out that new gas transportation projects will be needed: the Nord Stream 3, for example," Medvedev said. "The situation can evolve in such way," he added.

The demand for resources is growing among many traditional partners of Gazprom, the top manager said. For example, Austria "increased imports by 40% and continues requesting new volumes," Medvedev noted.

"We have always said we will supply as much gas to Europe as Europe requires. We have proven reserves. We have transport, we are building new transport routes," the top manager said.

Deliveries of gas to Europe and China will make it possible for Gazprom to be above the figure of 200 bln cubic meters in 2020, Medvedev said. "I am confident that we will be definitely above 200 bln [cubic meters] in exports and this will take place in 2020 already, while deliveries to China will start in 2019," he added.
Bakcell, the First Mobile Operator and Leading Mobile Internet Provider of Azerbaijan has allocated funds to help in implementation of business ideas of young persons living under the patronage of the SOS Childrens Villages Azerbaijan Association and other boarding schools. Thanks to this support, 3 young persons have gained a great opportunity to establish their own small business.

Thus, an opening ceremony was held for one of these businesses -Floristika flower shop, selected for a well-composed business plan and readiness for operation under the Youth Career and Development Center project, implemented with support of Bakcell. The opening ceremony was attended by representatives of Bakcell and the SOS Childrens Villages Azerbaijan Association, as well as various public figures and mass media representatives. Owner of the new flower shop is Kazimli Seymur, who has grown up at one of the public boarding schools and worked as an assistant in a flower shop since his youthhood. Seymur was in the flower business for 7 years, dreaming about his own business. His determination and ambitions have allowed him to become a winner of the project by composing a perfect business plan.

Bakcell successfully implements numerous projects aimed at supporting education and skill improvement of children and youth, helping them prepare for building their own business in the future and improving their well-being. We are very pleased that our long-term cooperation with SOS Childrens Villages Azerbaijan Association continues to bring great results and we are proud to see that young persons whom we support are starting to turn into successful business owners, said Head of Public Relations and Corporate Communications department of Bakcell Suheyla Jafarova.

For many years Ive had a dream of establishing my own business and open a flower shop and thanks to this fantastic project my dreams have come true. Im confident that this experience will serve as good contribution to my future life. Id like to express my deepest gratitude to Bakcell and SOS Childrens Villages who supported me in my journey, said Seymur Kazimli.

During the first stage of the project, implemented last year, 15 young persons living under the patronage of the SOS Childrens Villages have participated in the Start and improve your own business training program. After the evaluation, Bakcell has provided financial support to 3 most successful business projects, being Floristika flower shop and Tea House in Baku, and a Fruit bazaar in Ganja city.

This project shall be considered as a part of the self-employment program of the International Labour Organization, which is closely supported by our government. Im delighted to see that the initiative we have started with Bakcell is starting to bear fruit. We are planning to continue our cooperation in this area and I believe that we will be able to support more young people, said National Director of SOS Childrens Villages Azerbaijan Rashad Huseynov.

The main focus during the evaluation was on such factors as the business plan preparation, feasibility of the idea in real market conditions, experience and social status of the applicant. All 3 winners have experience in the area of proposed businesses.

Starting from the year 2009, Bakcell is providing its support to children and teenagers deprived from parental care and children from economically disadvantaged families, within the frames of cooperation with the SOS Childrens Villages Azerbaijan Association.

***

About Bakcell

Bakcell, the First Mobile Operator and Leading Mobile Internet Provider of Azerbaijan, offers a wide range of products and Services to users of modern mobile communications Services. The company provides its customers with the best-in-class 3G and 4G mobile internet.

With more than 6500 base stations, Bakcell network covers 99% of the population and 93% of the land area of the country (except for the occupied territories).

After proving itself to provide the best 3G mobile internet service in the country, Bakcell has announced the commercial launch of 4G LTE services on 5th of May 2015. 4G ensures a significant increase of mobile internet speed and is especially useful for those users who wish to stay mobile at all times, having an access to high-speed mobile internet at all locations. Currently, in addition to Baku and Absheron peninsula, residents of Ganja, Quba, Qusar, Khachmaz, Shabran and Siyazan regions are able to benefit from the high-speed 4G internet of Bakcell. In the year 2018, Bakcell continues to expand its LTE network to other regions of Azerbaijan. Bakcell became the first mobile operator in the country to launch 4G service in Baku subway. In the year 2017, Bakcell network has been recognized as the Best in Test in Azerbaijan by P3 Communications, being the international leader and most trusted independent authority in mobile benchmarking. According to tests, implemented in August 2017, Bakcell has the best score overall network experience in Azerbaijan and the best mobile internet network in test in Baku and other big cities.

For more information about Bakcell products and services, please visit www.bakcell.com or call 555. For press releases please see www.bakcell.com/az/news (or www.bakcell.com/en/news for press releases in English).

If you are not a Bakcell subscriber, but wish to find out about Bakcell and its products and services, please call 012 498 89 89
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Huseyn Veliyev  Trend:

Deputy Executive Director of the State Fund for development of information technologies under the Ministry of transport, communications and high technologies of Azerbaijan Azer Bayramov was elected Chairman of the intergovernmental expert group on e-Commerce and the digital economy of the United Nations, the State Fund told Trend April 24.

The election was held last week in Geneva during the last meeting of the intergovernmental expert group conducted on April 18-20, which, along with representatives of government agencies from more than 100 countries, was also attended by representatives of such large companies as Alibaba Group, Google, eBay and others.

Bayramov was elected Chairman of the group by an open vote and will head the office for one year.

The responsibilities of the intergovernmental group of experts on electronic commerce and digital economy were agreed upon the Trade and Development Board on April 5, 2017, and its first session was held during October 4-6, 2017 in Geneva.

Earlier, at the first plenary meeting (October 4, 2017), the intergovernmental group of experts on electronic commerce and digital economy elected Shamim Ahsan (Bangladesh) as its Chairperson and Nagva al-Shenawi (Egypt) and Taavo Lumiste (Estonia) as Vice-Chairpersons.

In the agreed policy recommendations of the first session of the intergovernmental group, it was decided that the second session would focus on enhancing the benefits of domestic and international e-commerce for development of the developing countries.

During the second session, such topics as the development of local platforms for domestic and international e-commerce were considered, the obstacles faced by the developing countries were discussed, the successful experience of developed and developing countries in this area was considered, etc.
Mobile Eye Clinic of Azercell Telecom LLC successfully continued its operation during the first quarter of 2018.

The clinic served people with various eye diseases in January, February and March. In the first month of the year, the doctors of the clinic examined IDPs settled in Nizami district, as well as the children in World of Law humanitarian public union in Ismayilli district and the children at secondary school No. 33 in Zangilan settlement of Absheron district.

In February, the clinic provided free check-up for UAFA personnel in Khurdamir, members of Russian community in Sabunchu and refugees settled in Garachukhur settlement. In addition, IDPs resided in dormitory No.1 in Khirdalan, as well as IDPs in Lokbatan settlement and Barda district benefited from this project in March. Generally, nearly 400 patients were provided free eye check-ups during the first quarter of the year.

All examination and treatment are conducted by Caspian Compassion Project public union with the support of Azercell. During its five-year operation, the clinic visited several boarding schools and orphanages in Baku. They also visited many regions in the country and supported people in need for treatment.

For more information, please contact [email protected]

The leader of the mobile communication industry, the largest taxpayer and the biggest investor of the non-oil sector of Azerbaijan Azercell Telecom LLC was founded in 1996. With 48% share of Azerbaijans mobile telecom market Azercells network covers 80% of the territory (excluding 20% of the occupied territories) and 99,8% of population of the country. Currently, 4,5 million subscribers choose Azercell services.

Azercell has pioneered an important number of innovations in Azerbaijan, including GSM technology, advance payment system, mobile internet services, Metro coverage, 24/7 call centre service, 7 day/week Front Office service, M2M services, one-stop-shopping approach Azercell Express offices, Online Customer Care and Social Media Customer Care services, Mobile Customer Care office, mobile e-signature service ASAN Imza etc.

Azercell deployed first 4G  LTE services in Azerbaijan in 2012. According to the results of mobile network quality surveys of Global Wireless Solutions company and international systems specialized in wireless coverage mapping such as Opensignal and Testmy.net, Azercells network demonstrated the best results among the mobile operators of Azerbaijan.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

Trend:

Kazakh Secretary of State Gulshara Abdykalikova met with Russian Ambassador to Kazakhstan Alexei Borodavkin on April 24, Kazakh news agency Kazinform reported.

Abdykalikova stressed that presently Kazakhstan and Russia serve as a bright example of good neighborliness based on mutual trust and understanding as well as good relations between the leaders of the two countries.

She went on to congratulate Ambassador Borodavkin on the beginning of his mission in Kazakhstan. The Secretary of State added that Kazakhstan and Russia enjoy close relations. Both countries look forward to the forthcoming meeting of presidents Nazarbayev and Putin in May.

Abdykalikova commended the intensive political dialogue, close economic ties as well as cultural and scientific cooperation between Astana and Moscow.



Astana celebrates its 20th anniversary this year and we expect colleagues from Russia to come. We've already implemented a wide range of joint projects in Moscow, Saint-Petersburg and here in Astana, she said.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

Trend:

Eurasian Book Fair 2018 in Astana will bring together publishing houses, book selling organizations, cultural and study centers of CIS member states, Europe and Asia, Kazinform news agency reported on April 24.

Over 155 publishers and book organizations from 18 countries such as Russia, Poland, Great Britain, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan Turkey, China, India, Albania and others confirmed their participation in the international book fair.

The number of participants in 2018 has almost doubled compared to 2017. There were 80 exponents from 14 countries in 2017.

A Poetry Slam, a non-formal artistic competition for young poets, will take place for the first time as part of the fair. The youngest participants will also enjoy master classes "How to write a book?" by well-known Kazakhstani writer Liliya Klaus and Russian writer, script writer and playwright Yevgeniya Dekina.

Another highlight is a contest of art designers and special events for illustrators.

The fair will run from on April 25-28.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

Trend:

A special format for interstate relations, a strategic partnership has been established between Russia and Kyrgyzstan, Kyrgyz news agency Kabar reported citing Russian Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan Andrei Krutko's message, which was read out by the first secretary of the embassy Viktor Kharchenko at the international expert platform to discuss issues of opposition to religious radicalism in Bishkek on April 24.

In his message the ambassador said that the format of strategic partnership is realized by the promotion of ties between states to a higher and qualitative level in the problem areas related to ensuring sovereignty and national security, requiring constant attention and joint solution.

"One of the factors ensuring stable multilateral ties between the Russian Federation and the Kyrgyz Republic and the sustainable development of the Central Asian region in general is the maintenance of the necessary level of security for the citizens and society, without which the forward movement, implementation of any large-scale integration projects are simply impossible," the message said.

He also said that to date, the real threats to peace, stability and interethnic harmony require equal interest of both sides in preserving and enhancing the traditions of good-neighborliness, mutual assistance and support for the practical implementation of the principles of people's diplomacy.

"I would like to support the joint efforts of the Peoples Assembly of Russia and the Peoples Assembly of Kyrgyzstan, which have undertaken a responsible and very difficult mission - to discuss the positive practices of confronting the world evil in the current turbulent international situation. The proposed topic of the discussion reaffirms that a special format of interstate relations - a strategic partnership has been established between the Russian Federation and the Kyrgyz Republic," the ambassador said.

He also noted that the discussion coincided with the event in Beijing, where the summit of foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization member countries is taking place, where the international security issues will also be considered.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend

Turkmenistan can become the venue of the Afghan national dialogue under the auspices of the United Nations, said the statement of the Turkmen government.

The president of Turkmenistan is on a state visit to Uzbekistan on April 23-24, 2018.

Turkmenistan, as a neutral state, is ready to provide political space for the organization of a nationwide Afghan dialogue under the auspices and with the leading role of the UN, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said, speaking to media representatives.

It was also said that Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan share similar views on trends in regional and international development, speak with one or close positions on key issues on the global agenda, such as the maintenance of peace and stability, countering the threats of international terrorism, extremism, disarmament issues, and settlement of the situation in Afghanistan.

During the talks in Tashkent, the parties separately focused on the situation in Afghanistan, reiterating their mutual firm commitment to peaceful, political means of resolving the situation in that country and the need to integrate it into international economic processes.

In this context, the importance of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline, the started laying of the power line and the fiber-optic communication line along the route of Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP), the construction of the railway along the Serkhetabat (Turkmenistan)  Turgundi ( Afghanistan) route was emphasized.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, April 24

By Huseyn Hasanov Trend:

In the last decade of August 2018, Ashgabat will host the summit of the founding countries of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS), the Turkmenistan State News Agency reported.

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, who is on a state visit in Uzbekistan, proposed to organize meetings of the relevant commissions of the IFAS in May-June, and, if necessary, to hold a separate meeting of the Central Asian states at the level of the leaders responsible for the use of water resources.

Turkmenistan has always stated that water and energy problems in the region should be solved on the basis of universally recognized norms of international law, consideration of the interests of each country and with the participation of international organizations, including the UN, the report said.

Turkmenistan chairs the IFAS in 2017-2019.

The IFAS, established in 1990s in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, aims at financing joint projects and programs to save the Aral Sea and improve the ecological situation there.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Farhad Daneshvar  Trend:

Iranian Minister of Economy and Financial Affairs Masoud Karbasian has said that the government's recent decision on the unification of official and free-market rates will prevent smuggling of goods into the country.

The decision has blocked the ways of goods smuggling into the country, Ibena (Iranian banks and economy news agency) quoted him as saying on Tuesday.

Speaking at a meeting with the representatives of the private sector, the minister said that the unification of the rates will bring the issue of smuggling of goods under control.

Following the recent currency fluctuations in the country, which saw the greenback trading at 62,000 rials on the unregulated market (an increase of 20 percent within two days), the government decided to increase the official rate of the national currency against the US dollar, setting the official rate at 42,000 rials on April 12.

Central Bank of Iran on Monday unveiled an online system which enables the countrys exporters to sell hard currency they obtained from international trades to the countrys banking system.

The online system named NIMA came amid the recent efforts to renovate Irans foreign currency system via managing domestic foreign currency market and reinforcing exports.

According to the Iranian Customs Administration, the country imported 38.736 million tons of goods and commodities worth of $54.302 billion during the last fiscal year, which ended on March 21.

In the meantime, the value of Irans non-oil exports witnessed a 6.6-percent growth hitting $46.93 billion.

Iranian First Vice President Es'haq Jahangiri earlier in April pledged to protect the economic stability of the country and said one of the ways to support Iranian goods is to combat smuggling.

He added that the government has drawn up a list of major contraband goods and commodities, which were smuggled into the country last year, to concentrate on fighting smuggling.

In his speech on March 20, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on the nation to dedicate efforts to promote domestic production.

Ayatollah Khamenei described domestic production as "the pivotal" issue this year, which he said is the key to resolving many of the countrys economic and social woes.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

Trend:

The representatives of France, Germany and Great Britain reconciled with the US authorities the conditions under which US President Donald Trump will agree to extend Washington's participation in the Joint comprehensive plan of action (JCPOA) on Iran's nuclear program.

This, was published overnight into April 24 in the Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, citing diplomatic sources, TASS reported.

"After five rounds of talks, the European and American parties agreed that Iran should be threatened with new sanctions because of its contradictory missile tests and aggressive regional policy. The agreement on the nuclear deal should remain the same, but some of its paragraphs will be interpreted in a new way," the newspaper writes.

The agreement reached between the countries consists of four items: the date of expiry of the nuclear deal, the limits of authority of the inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran's missile program, as well as zones of influence of Tehran in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. The agreement emphasizes that even after expiry of validity of the JCPOA, Iran will have to abandon the development of its nuclear program.

As noted by Suddeutsche Zeitung, negotiations between Western countries have not yet been completed, but the European partners have agreed that they will not follow the US if Trump decides to withdraw from the nuclear deal.

In July 2015, Iran, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (Russia, Great Britain, China, USA, and France) and Germany reached an agreement on the settlement of Tehran's nuclear issue. The JCPOA developed by them provides for the lifting of the UN and EU sanctions imposed on Iran because of its nuclear program, in exchange for Tehran's obligations to limit nuclear activities and put it under international control. In January 2016, the beginning of implementation of the transaction was announced, and Washington canceled the restrictions.

Trump has repeatedly called the deal with Iran harmful, arguing that it did not prevent Iran from creating nuclear weapons, but only delayed it. In January of this year, the US President said that the United States will cease to participate in the agreement, unless the amendments developed in negotiations with European countries, are not inserted in it.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Farhad Daneshvar  Trend:

Mehrdad Emadi, an economic expert and consultant at the UK-based Betamatrix International Consultancy, believes that the possible decision of US President Donald Trump on pulling out form Irans 2015 nuclear deal would impose serious damages on the European Union.

There will be three level effects of Trumps possible decision. Level one, which I call short-term reactions, will be seen in the oil market, captured by price movements pushing the oil price closer to $80 per barrel. However, this would be the most superficial of the effects, since other oil producing countries such as Iraq, Russia and Saudis would fill in most of the void left by Irans reduced exports of crude, he told Trend commenting on the speculations suggesting that President Trump may leave the nuclear deal on the May 12 deadline, on which he must sign a presidential waiver on sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

The second level effect, would be a substantial increase in the risk of doing any kind of business with Iran by Western firms; as we are already witnessing agreements with Boeing, Airbus and Total are experiencing a semi-freeze status, indicating uncertainty about the benefits of doing business with Iran, he added.

The third level effect, which I view as most negative for the West, especially Europe, but also significantly damaging the economic capability of Iran to become an industrial powerhouse, will be the continuation of integration of the Iranian economy into the sphere of interest and control of the Russia/China axis, where Iranian foreign trade will be based on Ruble and Yuan in almost all of its oil and gas transactions, Emadi said.

The biggest loser of this will be the European Union, where the monopoly reach of Russian energy companies becomes substantially tighter and more difficult to resist, while at the same time at least semi-permanently  will eliminate Irans ability to become a key supplier of energy to Europe, he believes so.

The real winner from this scenario will be the Russian government, whose position vis-a-vis Europe will become immeasurably more powerful, Emadi concluded.
Details added (first version posted on 13:15)

Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Farhad Daneshvar  Trend:

Secretary of Irans Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani has said that his country will quit the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) if the US leaves the nuclear deal.

The Islamic Republic of Iran will surely take a surprise reaction against the other side if it leaves the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA/nuclear deal), Iranian media quoted Shamkhani as saying on Tuesday in Tehran prior to his visit to Russia's Sochi.

Our possible option against the US exit from the JCPOA is quitting the NPT, he added.

Shamkhani further said that Iran is fully ready to resume its favorable nuclear activity.

Saying that Iran welcomes the Europeans approach towards the nuclear deal, he said that this does not mean Iran pays ransom to them.

The Islamic Republic of Iran will not allow anyone cross its redlines, the Iranian official added.

US President Donald Trump is expected to sign a presidential waiver on sanctions on the Islamic Republic on May 12.

European officials have already held several talks with Tehran, Moscow and Washington as part of a drive to salvage the nuclear deal with Iran that President Donald Trump is threatening to scuttle.

So far, Iran has adhered to the terms of the nuclear deal, as verified by International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors in previous reports since the pact was implemented in January 2016.

But the economic benefits Iran is receiving in return have fallen short of expectations, even after energy and financial sanctions were lifted. Major banks and companies have avoided engaging with Iran from fear of running afoul of remaining US restrictions or seeing a "snapback" of sanctions given Trumps threats.

Trump has told the Europeans that they must agree to "fix the terrible flaws of the Iran nuclear deal" or he would re-impose the sanctions that Washington lifted as part of the pact.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the era of zero sum games is long gone, Press TV reported.

Zarif made the remarks while addressing the Council on Foreign Relations on Monday in New York.

"In the wars of 20th and 21st centuries, there are no winners; only the degree and amount of loss will be different. In the globalized era... you cannot have security at the expense of insecurity of others," he said, adding, "The era of hegemonic influence is long gone."

He added that Saudi Arabia is trying to introduce Iran as a regional threat, while adding that more dialogue is needed among regional states.

"We need to realize and appreciate this fact, however heart breaking it maybe, none of us can become this new hegemon," he added.

Zarif noted that regional countries need to break away from the paradigm of exclusion which prevails in the region.

The Iranian foreign minister added that a dialogue deficit and confidence deficit is present in region.

While stressing that the era of zero-sum games is long gone, he added that there are no winners in modern wars and that everybody loses.

He further noted that era of hegemonic influence is over and that neither Iran, nor Saudi Arabia can be hegemonic powers in region.

Zarif also said that without mutual respect, there could be no dialogue between Tehran and Washington.

He added under present circumstances and with current tone of US government there are no prospects for dialogue between Tehran and Washington.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Farhad Daneshvar  Trend:

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has called for promoting Azerbaijani language and promised to help reviving the drying up Lake Urmia.

We are proud of Azerbaijani and Turkish language. I urge the officials to promote the centers for Turkish language and literature. [I urge officials] to publish the required books [in this regard], he said.

The president made the remarks addressing a crowd in the northwestern city of Tabriz as part of his provincial visit on April 24.

The president touched upon the situation of Lake Urmia, saying that the government has launched projects worth $240 million (one trillion toman) for reviving the lake.

Rouhani further promised that the level of water in the lake will increase by one meter by the end of his term in 2021.

The president also spoke about development projects being carried out in the province and said that 50 percent of a highway construction project connecting two cities of Ahar and Tabriz has already been completed.

Rouhani also pledged to inaugurate a railway segment linking the railways of Mianeh and Tabriz over the current year.

He noted that the government has spent $951.6 million (3.9 trillion tomans) in development projects in the province which according to the president, has significantly increased compared to four years ago.

Hassan Rouhani also touched upon the countrys row with the US and cautioned the White House that Iranian government will confront with any plots hatched by the US.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Farhad Daneshvar  Trend:

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has called for cooperation with regional countries and building up trust among them.

It is imperative for us in the Persian Gulf to change the prevailing zero-sum paradigm of exclusion and hostility, Zarif wrote on Tuesday on Twitter.

Iranian FM Mohammad Javad Zarif has arrived in New York on a six-day visit to attend a High-Level Meeting on Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace on April 24-25.
Details added (first version posted on 11:33)

Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Farhad Daneshvar  Trend:

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has called for promoting Azerbaijani language and promised to help reviving the drying up Lake Urmia.

We are proud of Azerbaijani and Turkish language. I urge the officials to promote the centers for Turkish language and literature. [I urge officials] to publish the required books [in this regard], he said.

The president made the remarks addressing a crowd in the northwestern city of Tabriz as part of his provincial visit on April 24.

The president touched upon the situation of Lake Urmia, saying that the government has launched projects worth $240 million (one trillion toman) for reviving the lake.

Rouhani further promised that the level of water in the lake will increase by one meter by the end of his term in 2021.

The president also spoke about development projects being carried out in the province and said that 50 percent of a highway construction project connecting two cities of Ahar and Tabriz has already been completed.

Rouhani also pledged to inaugurate a railway segment linking the railways of Mianeh and Tabriz over the current year.

He noted that the government has spent $951.6 (3.9 trillion tomans) in development projects in the province which according to the president, has significantly increased compared to four years ago.

Hassan Rouhani also touched upon the countrys row with the US and cautioned the White House that Iranian government will confront with any plots hatched by the US.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

In case Washington decides on sanctions against Turkey, due to the implementation of agreements between Ankara and Moscow on the purchase of Russian anti-aircraft missile systems (SAM) S-400, American companies in the defense industry will suffer the greatest losses, head of the Diplomatic center for strategic studies and head of Department for cultural diplomacy under University of Paris Najiye Celine Senocak told Trend.

Turkey should be ready for any outcome of the events and should not yield to pressure from the US, the expert said.

The expert noted that the constant threats from Washington towards Ankara due to the purchase of Russian S-400 are directed against the national security of Turkey in the run-up to the parliamentary and presidential elections.

Senocak said, there are many reasons for concern for NATO, related to the recent rapprochement between Turkey and Russia.

"One of these reasons is that the rapprochement between Turkey and Russia may lead to the weakening of the US and NATO in the region, as well as the loss of an important market for weapons," said Senocak.

The expert believes that another reason for US concern about the strengthening of Turkish-Russian relations, is due to the fact that Russian military instructors will arrive in Turkey to train Turkish colleagues to operate the S-400.

"The US fears that Russian military specialists working in Turkey will be able to obtain valuable intelligence information about NATO-owned military infrastructure in Turkey. Russian S-400 will be placed at strategic heights that will allow to freely track the NATO systems," said Senocak.

According to the expert, Turkey and Russia are carrying out joint construction of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant, and it is obvious that Ankara is purchasing Russian S-400 SAMs to ensure the safety of this nuclear power plant.

Senocak also noted that, despite the fact that Turkey is a NATO member, in recent years, such members of the Alliance as the United States and France under the pretext of fighting the terrorist organization "Islamic state" (ISIS) supplied ammunition to terrorist organizations PYD-YPG and PKK functioning in Syria and Iraq, which is contrary to the national interests of Turkey.

"In the current situation, it is difficult for Turkey to trust its allies. Given all this, Turkey is forced to look for new allies and at the same time to strengthen and develop its national defense system," the expert believes.

Shenojak said, in 2012, Turkey in order to secure its borders from the threat from Syria appealed to NATO for the purchase of the Patriot SAM, but the US refused to sell Turkey this anti-aircraft missile system.

Currently, Spain-owned Patriot SAM system is located at the Incirlik air base in the Turkish province of Adana, and the other, owned by Italy, SAMP SAM system is located in the province of Kahramanmaras.

"Some time ago, Turkey began negotiations with China on the acquisition of SAM systems, but later was forced to abandon these negotiations. I do not think that the negotiations on the purchase of Russian SAM will end the same way," - said the expert.

"The cold war ended, and relations between Turkey and Russia are rapidly developing in political and military areas," said Senocak.

Earlier, the Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman said that US sanctions against Rosoboronexport would not affect supply of the S-400 SAM to Ankara, however, later US Assistant Secretary of State, Wes Mitchell, said that Turkey could fall under sanctions if it buys these anti-aircraft missile systems from Russia.

"Ankara claims that it has agreed to purchase Russian S-400 missile systems, despite the fact that this could potentially lead to sanctions under article 231 of the CAATSA and negatively affect Turkey's participation in the F-35 program," Mitchell said, speaking before the House of Representatives of the US Congress. Earlier Pentagon Chief James Mattis said that the United States does not recommend Turkey to buy Russian anti-aircraft missile systems S-400.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Samir Ali - Trend:

The Armenian people finally drove out Serzh Sargsyan, who forcibly changed the country's Constitution and became a prime minister, Azerbaijani MP Sadagat Valiyeva told Trend.

She made the remarks commenting on Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan's resignation on April 23 amid the continuing rallies in the country.

"The Armenian people were able to overthrow the criminal junta, due to which it has experienced unprecedented disasters over the past decade," she said.

Valiyeva said that Armenians got rid of the Karabakh clan, which kept them hostage for over 20 years, deprived them of participation in all regional and international projects and presented Armenia to the world as an aggressive state.

"The Armenian people, kicking out the main culprit of the Khojaly genocide, got a chance to form their power. If now the Armenian people manage to form a legitimate government, then Armenia will get out of the current situation. However, for this, Armenia, first of all, should refuse aggression, and show interest in regional cooperation," she said.

"Moreover, Sargsyan must stand before an international tribunal for the committed crimes," Valiyeva said, reminding that Sargsyan committed huge crimes both in regards of Azerbaijanis in the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenian citizens.

"Therefore, the Armenian people can demand his punishment in an international tribunal," she noted.

Mass rallies broke out in Yerevan and other Armenian cities on April 13 following former Armenian President Serzh Sargsyans nomination as prime minister. The opposition accused him of ineffective governance and worsening the economic situation in the country.

On April 23, Serzh Sargsyan resigned as prime minister.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Farhad Daneshvar  Trend:

Ahead of the May 12 deadline, on which US President Donald Trump must sign a presidential waiver on sanctions on the Islamic Republic, Tehran appears very likely to offer huge discounts to its oil customers.

Irans top oil official on Monday implicitly confirmed the rumors that the nation may allow India a discount to confront a possible decision by US President Donald Trump to leave the 2015 nuclear deal.

"We will take any required measure to confront Trump," said Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh responding to a question on the possibility of offering discounts to India to confront Trump.

"We have not offered a special discount to India so far. However, we may adopt some policies whenever required to keep a presence in the market," ISNA news agency quoted Zanganeh as saying.

"We should wait and see Trumps decision. The Islamic Republic of Iran will use its all capacities and experiences in order to prevent Trump from inflicting harm on Iran," he added.

The minister further touched upon Irans recent deal with India on Farzad-B gas field and said India will deliver sour gas to Iran and the Islamic Republic will carry out swap operation itself.

Iran and India resolve oil row

Back on April 11, following several rounds of discussions, Zanganeh said that the disagreements between Iran and India over the development of the Farzad B gas field in the Persian Gulf were resolved.

The Indian government last year instructed state refiners to cut Iranian oil imports in a tit for tat reaction to Tehrans decision on giving the development rights of Farzad B to other companies. As a result, Indian crude imports from the Islamic Republic dropped by 15.7 percent in the fiscal 2017/18.

According to Indian sources, in the fiscal year that ended in March, the worlds third largest oil importer received about 458,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil from Iran, compared to about 543,500 bpd in the preceding year. Indias total oil imports in this period hit a record of 4.46 million bpd.

Now with the resumption of talks on Farzad B, the sides appear to be on the course of resolving the major gaps, as India has reportedly devised a plan to double Iranian oil imports in order to benefit from "freight discounts".

Zanganeh had earlier said that Indian refiners, state-owned and private, will buy about 500,000 bpd of Iranian oil in 2018/19.

Iran nuclear deal

European officials have already held several talks with Tehran, Moscow and Washington as part of a drive to salvage the nuclear deal with Iran that President Donald Trump is threatening to scuttle.

So far, Iran has adhered to the terms of the nuclear deal, as verified by International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors in previous reports since the pact was implemented in January 2016.

But the economic benefits Iran is receiving in return have fallen short of expectations, even after energy and financial sanctions were lifted. Major banks and companies have avoided engaging with Iran from fear of running afoul of remaining US restrictions or seeing a "snapback" of sanctions given Trumps threats.

Trump has told the Europeans that they must agree to "fix the terrible flaws of the Iran nuclear deal" or he would re-impose the sanctions that Washington lifted as part of the pact.

Iranian top officials have said that the country has drawn up its own options to deal with Trumps possible decision on walking away from the 2015 nuclear deal and the US will regret if its president decides to tick the nuclear deal off.

Farhad Daneshvar is the head of Iran Desk at Trend Agency, follow him on Twitter: @Farhad_Danesh
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Elchin Mehdiyev  Trend:

The protest actions in Armenia first took place in an organized form, then became spontaneous, and as a result of the events, Serzh Sargsyan was forced to resign as Prime Minister, political expert Arzu Nagiyev told Trend.

He noted that such protest actions took place during Sargsyan's rule in Armenia in 2013 and 2016.

"During the years of Sargsyan's rule, 30 percent of Armenia's population, that is, about one million people, lived below the poverty line, more than 550,000 people left for Russia. According to the statistics for 2017, the same citizens brought into the country $1.5 billion, which is about half of the state budget of Armenia. That is, it shows that Armenia's economy is in a paralyzed state, and the so-called Karabakh clan is the culprit of all these problems," Nagiyev said.

He noted that Serzh Sargsyan's government deprived his country of participation in all regional and international projects. "Armenia has no diplomatic relations with a number of states due to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. It has also stayed on the sidelines of international projects initiated by Azerbaijan."

Nagiyev stressed that Sargsyan must be held accountable for the crimes he committed during the years of his ruling.

"Sargsyan has committed grave crimes both against Azerbaijanis in Nagorno-Karabakh and against his own citizens. I believe he should be held accountable both in his country and by an international tribunal. It is possible that in the forthcoming days, the Parliament in Armenia will be dissolved, and the question of legitimacy will arise. I believe that Sargsyan's resignation does not mean the end of these events in Armenia. If they call it a "velvet revolution" and have managed to achieve it without bloodshed, it does not mean that the struggle between clans has ended in Armenia," Nagiyev stressed.

Nagiyev said the new government in Armenia should take important steps to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

"The reason is that the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is a priority issue for both Azerbaijan and Armenia. Today, no Armenian wants his child die in Nagorno-Karabakh. Therefore, the new government of Armenia should agree to normal, constructive negotiations," Nagiyev said.

Mass rallies broke out in Yerevan and other Armenian cities on April 13 following former Armenian President Serzh Sargsyans nomination as prime minister. The opposition accused him of ineffective governance and worsening the economic situation in the country.

On April 23, Serzh Sargsyan resigned as Armenian prime minister.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Azer Ahmadbayli  Trend:

The traditional torchlight procession held every year on April 24 in Yerevan and dedicated to the anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire in 1915, with the mandatory burning of the Turkish flag, will not take place this year, Youth Union of Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutyun announced yesterday.

What is this  softening of ultra-nationalist position towards Turkey, or lack of time to arrange the event due to the celebration of the velvet revolution?

Imagine there's a trial going on. Armenia is a potential plaintiff, while Turkey is a potential defendant. Subject matter of the trial is: Armenia asserts that an act of genocide was committed against Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 by the authorities of that state. That is, Armenia claims that the representatives of their people were deliberately killed on racial grounds.

Turkey denies the accusation, contending that during the deportation of Armenians from Eastern Anatolia to the south of the Ottoman Empire, due to their betrayal in the rear of Turkish troops during the WWI, there were numerous cases of cruelty and violence resulting in numerous deaths, but this can never be called genocide.

What are the sides' proposals?

The Armenian position is simple. They say that there are truths that cannot be debated because of their absolute certainty. Such an "undeniable truth", as Armenians claim, is the "genocide", and Turkey must unconditionally plead guilty.

Isnt it similar to the Red Queens "sentence first - verdict afterwards" approach from Alice in Wonderland?

Almost 30 countries recognized the events of 1915 as genocide, and, as a rule, these are the countries where there is a strong Armenian Diaspora. However, this is just a political recognition.

Legally, under international law, the final judgment to qualify the 1915 events as genocide may be made by the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

For many years, Armenia has been able to initiate the process of recognition in the International Court, but it has never done that. Why?

Maybe, because it has still doubts that Turks had the goal to eradicate Armenians as a nation? Or, there are fears that the Court may not recognize a century-old tragic event as genocide?

It is obvious that the plaintiff should be most interested in that the court had as much factual material on the suit as possible in order to prove the guilt of the defendant.

In this case, there is a kind of paradox. It is Ankara, as a potential defendant, which insists on opening archival data, both in Turkey and in Armenia as well as in some other countries, and on creating an international commission of experts, which will examine the documents and issue the final verdict. But most importantly, Turkey has announced that it will accept any decision of that international commission.

President Erdogan has several times said: If something serious comes to light after the historical examination of the past, we will be prepared to accept our history. But it is important that the Armenians are also willing to accept their history.

This has been the Turkish position.

On the contrary, Armenia, to which Ankara's proposals should be beneficial in the first place, doesnt agree to open its archives and create an international expert commission. Have you ever heard that a plaintiff, who brought a charge, was opposing evidence and testimony in the court?

Looks like going through the looking glass  a potential defendant switched sides with a potential plaintiff.

For the overwhelming majority of the worlds nations, Armenias stance is unconvincing.

Even the Holocaust-related crimes, despite thousands of living witnesses and irrefutable facts of Nazi atrocities, went through the International Military Tribunal before a final verdict was handed down.

Historical examination suggested by Turkey is undesirable for some countries, as questions may arise about their extremely impartial role in those events as inciters of the sides.

At the same time, these countries are interested in the issue of the Armenian genocide not losing its relevance. The theme is strangely updated every time when it is necessary to press Turkey on certain international affairs.

Different from Turkey, Armenia is not yet prepared to discuss exactly what happened in the Ottoman Empire 103 years ago.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

Trend:

The PACE co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Armenia, Giuseppe Galati (Italy) and Yuliya Lovochkina (Ukraine), welcome the decision of Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan to resign from his post, according to the PACE statement posted on its website.



This decision will help defuse the mounting tensions in Armenia, the statement said.

We hope that this will lead to a new and constructive dialogue between all political forces in the country with the aim of finding a lasting solution to the current situation, in line with the relevant Constitutional provisions, said the co-rapporteurs.



In the meanwhile they stressed that all who were detained while peacefully demonstrating should be released and the right to peaceful assembly should be fully respected.

Mass rallies broke out in Yerevan and other Armenian cities on April 13 following former Armenian President Serzh Sargsyans nomination as prime minister. The opposition accused him of ineffective governance and worsening the economic situation in the country.

On April 23, Serzh Sargsyan resigned as Armenian prime minister.
The Philippines on Tuesday formally apologized to Kuwait for actions the latter viewed as violation of its sovereignty after the southeast Asian nations embassy rescued several overseas workers from employers homes, the foreign secretary said, Al Arabiya reports.

Kuwait had protested over the rescue of Philippine citizens working as domestic help, summoned the Philippine ambassador to demand an explanation and arrested two embassy staff who were involved in Saturdays incidents.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said Kuwait has accepted the Philippines explanation after the Kuwaiti ambassador met President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday in southern Davao city and held talks with Cayetano on Tuesday in Manila.

Were sending a note now to my counterpart, and we are apologizing for certain incidents that Kuwait view as violation of their sovereignty, Cayetano told an impromptu news conference. He said measures had been agreed with Kuwaiti authorities to avoid a repeat of such incidents, footage of which was posted on social media.

The two countries are working on a pact to protect overseas workers after the Philippines in January banned the dispatch of contract labor to Kuwait over reports of abuse by employers that had driven many to suicide.

The ban was ordered after a Filipino migrant worker was found dead in a freezer, the latest incident in what Manila called a pattern of abuse in the Gulf state. Workers in many Gulf states are employed under a sponsorship system that gives employers the right to keep their passports and exercise full control over their stay.

Rights groups say the kafala system, as it is known, leaves millions of workers in the region open to exploitation. Cayetano said the embassy was forced to assist Filipino workers who sought help to leave employers because some situations were a matter of life and death that precluded waiting for local authorities to act.

We respect Kuwaiti sovereignty and laws, but the welfare of Filipino workers is also very important, he said, adding that domestic helpers account for more than 65 percent of the more than 260,000 Filipinos in Kuwait.

There are 600 workers in embassy-run halfway houses in Kuwait, Cayetano added, with about 120 more who have sought to be rescued from employers due to worries over tough working conditions, pay and abuse.
U.S. software company Salesforce will invest more than $2.2 billion in its French business over the next five years, it said on Tuesday, in another sign of America Incs new love affair with France since President Emmanuel Macrons election, Reuters reports.

The investment comes as Macron began a state visit to Washington, becoming the first foreign leader to be given the honor by U.S. President Donald Trump.

In the context of his state visit to the United States, Salesforce announced to President Macron an investment of more than $2.2 billion in the companys French business over the next five years, Salesforce said in a statement.

A survey by the American Chamber of Commerce last November showed that the election of Macron, who has pledged reforms to boost the French economy and help businesses, had caused American investors to take a more positive view on France, with many planning to expand.

Salesforce said it was experiencing rapid growth in France and planned to significantly increase its headcount, real estate footprint and data center capacity.

The announcement follows similar decisions to invest in France by U.S. multinationals such as Google (GOOGL.O), Facebook (FB.O) and General Mills (GIS.N).

Macron, a former investment banker, and his government are pushing through social and economic reforms to re-shape the French economy and restore Frances image among investors.

He has already made hiring and firing easier by easing labor regulations, slashed a wealth tax, introduced a flat 30 percent tax rate on capital income and scrapped the highest bracket of payroll tax for banks.
The suspect in the Toronto van attack that killed nine people and injured 16 others is a 25-year-old man named Alek Minassian, Reuters reported citing the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

CBC TV did not cite sources. A driver in a white van plowed into a crowd in north Toronto, according to police and hospital officials. The driver was in custody, police said.
Western countries are impeding the efforts to restore the destroyed monuments in Syria as they are turning down the contacts with Damascus, the Russian envoy to UNESCO, Alexander Kuznetsov told Izvestia daily, TASS reports.

"Were calling on this organization all the time to throw its shoulder in the restoration of monuments in Syria, for instance, in Palmyra and Aleppo," he said. "These sites are invaluable and their restoration acquires assistance from the international community, including financial aid."

"Unfortunately, Western countries are obstructing this work because of their reluctance to maintain contacts with official Damascus and without this its scarcely possible to hope for efficient cooperation in restoration projects," Kuznetsov said.

On the face of it, Russia has already gotten down to restoring the Syrian cultural monuments, he said.

"Russia has engaged in it already," Kuznetsov said. "We did a huge job to clear Palmyra of mines. Now our experts are about to begin restoration of the Umayyad Mosque in Aleppo, a unique monument of the 8th century A.D."
Russia expects contacts with France will put clarity into how to cooperate on the Syrian settlement, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters on Tuesday, TASS reports.

According to the top Russian diplomat, some states are pursuing a policy of destroying Syria.

"The United States pledged that its only goal was to drive terrorists out of Syria and defeat the so-called Islamic State. However, despite its pledges and statements of President [Donald] Trump, the US has been actively settling on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River and is not going to leave the area and is creating local power structures there," Lavrov said.

French President Emmanuel Macron is encouraging these steps, Lavrov noted. In his recent statement, Macron said that the US should not leave Syria and the US-led coalition should remain there until they create the rule which satisfies the Western countries. "Certainly, this is an apparent meddling in domestic affairs and violation of all norms of the international law and decency," Lavrov stressed.

"I hope after contacts with the French colleagues we will make it clear how we will cooperate on the Syrian settlement to observe all rules and norms of the international law and the United Nations Charter," Lavrov said.

Lavrov noted that on Monday, the Russian and French presidents had a phone conversation "during which Vladimir Putin outlined our stance and confirmed readiness to coordinate positions with the French partners." "We are ready for this," the foreign minister said.

On Tuesday, Lavrov attended a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Beijing.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

The Turkish opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP) and Iyi Parti (Good Party) at the end of this week may nominate the candidacy of former president of Turkey Abdullah Gul for the presidential post at the upcoming election, Turkish media reported April 24.

On April 18, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated about the need for early presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkey.

"The government welcomed the proposal of Bahceli [leader of the Nationalist Movement Party] to hold early elections. The elections will be held on June 24, 2018," he said.

Devlet Bahceli previously proposed to hold early parliamentary and presidential elections in Turkey. Bahceli said the early elections should be held on Aug. 26.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Uzbekistan in early May 2018, a source in the Turkish government told Trend on April 24.

'Presently, negotiations are underway with the Uzbek side to define date of Erdogan's visit to Uzbekistan," the source said.

During the Uzbekistan visit, President Erdogan is expected to discuss with his Uzbek counterpart Shavkat Mirziyoyev development of the bilateral economic and political relations, according to the source.

Today, 479 companies with Turkish capital, including 199 joint ventures, operate in Uzbekistan.

Only in 2016 more than 20 enterprises with Turkish investments were established in the country, and 53 companies from Turkey were accredited at the Uzbek Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations, Investments and Trade.

--

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Turkey's opposition Great Unity Party (BBP) is ready to support the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the upcoming elections, said Mahir Unal, spokesman and deputy chairman of the AKP, Turkish media reported on April 24.

Unal noted that BBP had repeatedly stated about readiness to support AKP in the parliamentary and presidential elections.

Earlier, Leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Devlet Bahceli said he supports candidacy of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the early presidential election scheduled for June 24.

On April 18, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated about the need for early presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkey.

"The government welcomed the proposal of Devlet Bahceli [leader of the Nationalist Movement Party] to hold early elections. The elections will be held on June 24, 2018," he said.

Bahceli previously proposed to hold early parliamentary and presidential elections in Turkey. Bahceli said the early elections should be held on Aug. 26.

Presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections were planned to be held in Turkey in 2019.

--

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Turkey, Russia and Iran have achieved great success in the settlement of the Syrian crisis, the Turkish media cited the countrys Prime Minister Binali Yildirim as saying April 24.

Yildirim added that Ankara hopes the three countries will be able to completely solve the problems in Syria soon.

"One of the priorities for Ankara, Tehran and Moscow is to ensure Syrias territorial integrity," Yildirim said.

He stressed that the Operation Olive Branch in Syria, which is being carried out by Turkeys Armed Forces, is aimed at ensuring security in this country.

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.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Monday approved the nomination of President Donald Trumps choice for secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, after a Republican senator who had been opposed threw his support behind the nominee, Reuters reported.

The committee approved Pompeos nomination on a party-line vote, with all 11 Republicans backing him, nine Democrats opposed and one Democrat, Chris Coons, voting present because of Senate procedural rules.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said there were enough votes in the full Senate to confirm Pompeo as secretary of state this week. That would allow Pompeo to attend a NATO summit on Friday.

Pompeo became one of Trumps most trusted advisers during his 15 months as CIA director. Most recently, he has been deeply involved in preparations for Trumps summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, including meeting with him three weeks ago.

While Democrats opposed Pompeo because they consider him too hawkish and worry about his past harsh statements about homosexuality and Islam, he has the support of at least three Democrats not on the committee, all but assuring he will be confirmed for State because no Senate Republican has announced opposition.

I dont believe that Director Pompeo will always be someone who values diplomacy over conflict, said Senator Robert Menendez, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee.

Pauls late switch meant the nominee could avoid the embarrassment of being the first person nominated for secretary of state known to fail to secure the panels endorsement.

That would have cast a cloud over Trumps push to overhaul his national security team, after firing his first secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, last month. The White House and Republican Party had thrown their weight behind the nomination, with a series of attacks on Democrats for opposing Trumps pick.

I have changed my mind. I decided to go ahead and vote for Director Pompeo, Paul said before the committee vote after announcing on Twitter he had abruptly ended weeks of opposition.

Paul has been known to threaten opposition on major policy positions staked out by Trump, including healthcare reform, only to change his mind at the last minute. Trump recently expressed confidence that the senator from Kentucky would come around to support Pompeo.
The United States is pushing other countries toward a new arms race while not showing readiness for equal cooperation even with its traditional partners, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday, TASS reports.

"Today, we are witnessing the transformation of international relations and their transition to a multipolar system, which is characterized by the redistribution of spheres of influence and toughening competition for regional and global leadership. Under these conditions, the United States wishes to preserve the role of a hegemon in international affairs, using all means, including military ones, and pushing countries toward a new arms race," Shoigu said addressing a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organizations (SCO) defense ministers.

"At the same time, Washington is not ready for equal cooperation even with its traditional partners. This is confirmed by new US doctrinal documents in the area of national security and defense, and its drive to revise the most crucial international agreements, including the United Nations decisions and basic principles of the World Trade Organization," he said.

According to the Russian defense chief, the US "without embarrassment" is declaring that the trends in world politics and economy, which it considers as unfavorable, may be "corrected" through the use of military force.
The US-led air strikes on Syria were a violation of all the international rules, Russian Defense Minister Army General Sergei Shoigu said at a meeting with Vice Chairman of Chinas Central Military Commission General Xu Qiliang on Tuesday, TASS reports.

"I am grateful to you for the support you have provided to us at the United Nations Security Council meeting dedicated to the missile attack on Syria. It undoubtedly was a violation of all the international and humanitarian rules," Shoigu said.

According to him, the strikes were carried out "in the Wests signature style - they implemented a punishment without conducting an investigation." "I would also like to thank our friend China for supporting us on the Syria issue and condemning the irresponsible behavior of some western countries that carried out a military attack on a sovereign state under a false pretense," the Russian defense minister added.

Shoigu said he was pleased to meet with Xu Qiliang once again, noting that their first meeting had taken place in 2013. "We have been able to lay serious groundwork that continues to prove helpful," he said.

"Time changes everything but fortunately it can change neither our personal relations nor relations between our countries," Shoigu stressed.

He was hopeful that Tuesdays meeting would provide the parties with the opportunity to discuss the most pressing security issues.
KYODO NEWS - Apr 24, 2018 - 19:15 | World

North Korea is scaling back and turning off its propaganda broadcasts at the border with South Korea, a South Korean source said Tuesday, a move seemingly in tandem with the South's suspension of its loudspeaker broadcasts earlier this week.

The mayor of the South Korean village of Daeseong-dong, located close to the border, separately confirmed the development to Kyodo News and other media outlets, saying, "Previously it was noisy enough to disrupt our daily lives, but it has become quiet from late afternoon Monday."

The South Korean Defense Ministry suspended its propaganda broadcasts on Monday to create a "peaceful" atmosphere ahead of Friday's inter-Korean summit talks. The speakers had been running since January 2016 in response to North Korea's fourth nuclear test.

At the border, the two Koreas have conducted propaganda broadcasts on and off for decades, with the South Korean speakers sending out K-pop music and various messages to demonstrate the superiority of the South Korean system.

Daeseong-dong is the only civilian residential area on the southern side of the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas, and residents there have long been blasted with propaganda from North Korea's loudspeakers. It is also located adjacent to Panmunjeom, the venue for the inter-Korean summit.

"We have been worried and nervous because we live near North Korea, but the atmosphere of the village has brightened up ahead of the summit talks, during which there may be discussions to change the armistice treaty (with North Korea into a peace agreement)," said Kim Dong Gu, the mayor of Daeseong-dong.

The two Koreas remain technically at war, as the 1950-1953 Korean War ended in a cease-fire rather than a peace treaty.

"I would like to visit (North Korea if the ties improve), because I have heard from the elderly that they used to visit the village on the northern side (before the two countries were separated)" Kim said.

The village has conducted evacuation drills a few times a year, according to the principal of a local elementary school.

"The children all know about the summit and they are happy about the peaceful moves," the principal said.

Tensions had been running high on the Korean Peninsula last year as North Korea continued to move ahead with its nuclear and missile development programs in defiance of international warnings and U.N. sanctions.

But inter-Korean relations have rapidly thawed following North Korea's sudden diplomatic outreach in recent months, starting from its decision to take part in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics hosted by South Korea in February.
KYODO NEWS - Apr 24, 2018 - 13:46 | World, All

South Korea's nuclear envoy Lee Do Hoon told a senior U.S. diplomat on Tuesday that the "coming several weeks and months will be critical" in terms of laying the groundwork for the denuclearization of North Korea.

The meeting in Seoul between Lee and Susan Thornton, acting U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, came just days ahead of a planned summit between South and North Korea, to be followed by the first-ever U.S.-North Korea summit talks by early June.

At the outset of the meeting, Lee and Thornton both welcomed the news that U.S. President Donald Trump's pick for secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, was approved by a U.S. Senate committee, setting the stage for him to assume the post.

Pompeo, currently director of the Central Intelligence Agency, is expected to play a key role in negotiations with North Korea over the country's denuclearization. As Trump's special envoy, he recently met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang.

Calling the senate approval "excellent news," Lee, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, told Thornton, "I'll hope that we will be able to have the consultations as closely as possible at different levels."

Thornton agreed on the importance of close coordination and consultation between the two countries and said, "We'll be keeping in close touch and watching carefully" as events unfold.

(Lee Do Hoon, left, and Susan Thornton)

The U.S. diplomat, who has been in South Korea from Sunday, met South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung Wha on Monday and agreed that it is important for Seoul and Washington to show close coordination before the two planned summits with North Korea, according to the South Korean Foreign Ministry.

North Korea's announcement last Saturday to suspend nuclear tests and intercontinental ballistic missile launches, as well as dismantle its only known nuclear test site, has been welcomed by Trump as "big progress."

But with no direct pledge to give up its nuclear arsenal, doubts linger in the White House over whether Kim is serious about North Korea's earlier reported commitment to denuclearization, or is just trying to win concessions, such as the easing of economic sanctions imposed on his country over its weapons programs.

South Korean President Moon Jae In has reacted positively to North Korea's latest decision, saying it is "a sincere step taken" ahead of the two summits.
KYODO NEWS - Apr 24, 2018 - 21:39 | Feature, All

King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden said Tuesday he hopes to maintain friendly relations with Emperor Akihito after he abdicates in April next year, the first Japanese monarch to relinquish the throne in more than 200 years.

"We have agreed to have...very good communication...in many different occasions both here and elsewhere" in the future, the king said in a press conference, a day after he and Queen Silvia had dinner with Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko.

In response to a question about his views on the emperor's abdication, the king said, "This is something that the emperor has decided and this is something...Japan has now accepted."

The emperor, who has undergone heart surgery and treatment for prostate cancer, signaled his wish to retire in a rare video message in August 2016, citing concern about his advanced age and weakening health that could prevent him from fulfilling his constitutional role as the symbol of the state.

In 1980, Sweden became the first monarchy in Europe to change its succession rules so that the first-born child of the monarch is heir to the throne, regardless of gender. Other monarchies including the Netherlands and Britain followed suit.

In Japan, meanwhile, the Imperial House Law stipulates that only males born to the male lineage of the imperial family can ascend the throne, raising concern about securing stable succession with the size of the imperial family shrinking.

The Swedish king said it was "natural" that the Scandinavian country introduced the eldest-child preference.

He said his motto has always been to reign in line with "changes of the society" and with the "expectations of the Swedish population."

(The Swedish king and queen meet with Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako)
The Kyoto Shimbun - Apr 24, 2018 - 14:24 | All, Arts, Japan

She wears her hair like a bunny, dons a kimono sash made of Nishijin silk with a lipstick motif, and uses suspenders to keep her sash up. Maria Kawahara has a unique take on tradition working as a kimono designer in Kyoto, a city all about tradition.

"Tradition is about being innovative and original," said 31-year-old Kawahara, who is based in Kyoto's Kita Ward and has more than 5,000 followers on Instagram. "Therein lies fashion in Japan."

When Kawahara, a native of Nagasaki Prefecture, was 20, she landed with a design firm in Kyoto she found through the internet, convinced that "the kimono is something Japan can be proud of to the world." She was hooked by antique kimonos in particular, and began posting photos of herself in them. "Condensed beauty and style," Kawahara said of the old look.

(Maria Kawahara)

Kawahara began catching the eye of many including photographers, making an appearance in Central Japan Railway Co.'s ad campaign for Kyoto tourism in 2014. Two years later, she crowd-funded the publication of a photo book to show a new side of kimono. "It is possible to convey the allure of kimono even in a single photo," she says.
In an absolute contradiction of his earlier stand, the CM said that no issue had been raised to instigate hatred and discord among various religious communities in Kerala.
SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- The diagnosis is one that a family never wants to hear: Your father has Alzheimer's disease. Your mother has stroke-related dementia.

A recently released study, included in a special supplement to the Journal of Gerontology, indicates that dementia's impact might be compressing a bit. That is, people might be developing dementia later and living with it for a shorter period of time.

Sudha Seshadri, M.D., professor of neurology and founding director of the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer's & Neurodegenerative Diseases at UT Health San Antonio, is the senior author on the study, which draws evidence from the Framingham Heart Study.

In data from four different time periods over a period of 30 years, the mean age at dementia onset increased, while the length of time living with dementia decreased. Is it because prevention and care of stroke today is superior compared to decades ago? Stroke is a major risk factor for dementia.

"Prevention of stroke and reduced impact of stroke are great advances, but neither completely explains the trend we are seeing," Dr. Seshadri said. "We are looking at other causes, such as lower burden of multiple infections because of vaccination, and possibly lower levels of lead or other pollutants in the atmosphere. Early education and nutrition might also play a role."

Stroke risk has decreased because of greater control of blood pressure. Dr. Seshadri again cited Framingham data: "In the past, if you had a stroke you were at 90 percent greater risk to develop dementia. Today, you have a 40 percent greater risk," she said.

###

About UT Health San Antonio

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, now called UT Health San Antonio, is one of the country's leading health sciences universities. With missions of teaching, research, healing and community engagement, its schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, health professions and graduate biomedical sciences have produced more than 33,000 alumni who are leading change, advancing their fields and renewing hope for patients and their families throughout South Texas and the world. To learn about the many ways "We make lives better," visit http://www.uthscsa.edu.
Cybersecurity

China's penetration of U.S. supply chain runs deep, says report

A new report sounds alarm bells over the extent to which China has penetrated the technology supply chain, and calls on the U.S. government and industry to develop a comprehensive strategy for securing their technology and products from foreign sabotage and espionage.

These products could be modified to fail or perform at below expectations, facilitate espionage or compromise U.S. federal and private sector networks. Software supply chain attacks could become more common as the nation collectively moves towards 5G wireless networks and connected devices become more common.

The report, authored by Interos Solutions on behalf of the U.S.-China Economic Security Review Commission, posits that Chinese leaders have executed a multi-pronged strategy over the years to put their homegrown companies at the nexus of the U.S. and global technology supply chain, incentivizing corporations to build products locally and acquire businesses with contracting footholds in other nations.

"China did not emerge as a key node on the global ICT supply chain by chance," the report's authors write. "The Chinese government considers the ICT sector a 'strategic sector' in which it has invested significant state capital and influence on behalf of state-owned ICT enterprises."

An analysis of seven major U.S. based tech companies  HP, IBM, Dell, Cisco, Unisys, Microsoft and Intel  found that more than half of the products they and their suppliers use are shipped from China. Microsoft relies on such products the most, with analysts tracing 73 percent of their shipments between 2012 and 2017 back to China.

At the same time, Bejiing has moved to prevent other countries from using similar strategies to crack the Chinese market, accelerating indigenous production of IT and communications parts and requiring outside businesses to turn over their source code store data on Chinese servers and allow the government to conduct security audits on their products before gaining access to the Chinese market.

Furthermore, the report argues that the U.S. government lacks an overall strategy to anticipate future developments in supply chain, identify potential threats and mitigate threats. The overall push for IT modernization means the government will increasingly rely on a web of complex supply chain operations that eventually originate with commercial suppliers in China. Laws like the Federal IT Acquisition Management Act and the Modernizing Government Technology Act put pressure on agencies to modernize through commercial-off-the-shelf products that are more likely to originate from China.

However, some argue that some of those actions, like inspecting source code and security audits, are part of the reality of operating within a global supply chain. John Pescatore, a former NSA cryptologist and current director of emerging security trends at SANS, told FCW that most countries distrust technology that originates from other countries.

"The Microsofts and Googles and Apples of the world have to deal with [questions about] 'are they doing the bidding of the NSA?'" said Pescatore. "It's a global economy and everybody wants to sell everywhere in the world, so you cant simply say Im not going to buy things from a certain country.'"

U.S. officials believe telecommunications infrastructure is particularly vulnerable. The Federal Communications Commission has proposed a new rule preventing any subsidies from their $8.5 billion Universal Service Fund from being spent on U.S. companies that buy equipment from foreign companies deemed to be a national security threat.

Supply chain dependences cut both ways. Last week, the U.S. government imposed export restrictions preventing U.S. companies from selling their technology to ZTE, a Chinese telecommunications firm that has been fined a collective $1.4 billion in recent years for selling communications equipment and technology to Iran and North Korea. It's estimated that the company sources 25 percent of its tech, including Qualcomm chips, from U.S. firms. Shares in ZTE lost value and Chinese investments funds are reevaluating their exposure to ZTE in light of restrictions.

National security officials have sounded similar alarms about another Chinese telecom company, Huawei, and the Department of Defense has barred products from both companies from being used on DoD networks. The moves appear to have spooked U.S. partners like Verizon and AT&T, who have both backed away from selling Huawei cellular phones in the U.S. domestic market this year.

The U.S. has also imposed restrictions on tech sourced from Chinese government-owned firms in government procurement. But unavoidably, Chinese-made tech does find its way in to U.S. government systems. At an April 18 event hosted by the Aspen Institute, William Evanina, director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism and Security Center, specifically mentioned 5G and the federal government's IT modernization initiatives as areas of the U.S. supply chain ripe for exploitation. The ability of Chinese businesses to dramatically underbid U.S. companies on subcontracting opportunities is a problem, he said, and the government doesn't always succeed getting some companies to see past the substantial cost-savings.

"When you go to a board of directors of a CEO and say 'Hey, I know you have two bids, you have Cisco or Oracle, and then you have the Chinese company which is forty percent cheaper,' it's hard to explain to them and hard for them to explain to their constituents that they're going to pay 40 percent more for a U.S.-based company because it doesnt threaten national security."

Pescatore argues that with some exceptions, like connections to terrorism or international pariahs like North Korea, it is impractical and ineffective for the government to base its IT supply chain security strategy around prohibiting the use of products based on their country of origin. Instead, he suggests federal agencies and companies are better off focusing on utilizing best practices for supply chain risk management.

"Supply chain risk management requires testing of the products you buy, and in a software world it requires testing of the software, and in global software market it requires countries to test foreign vendors and local vendors the same," said Pescatore.
Alaska Air Group, Inc. ALK was a big mover last session, as the company saw its shares rise more than 5% on the day. The move came on solid volume too with far more shares changing hands than in a normal session. This continues the recent uptrend for the company  as the stock is now up 11.2% in the past one-month time frame.



The move came after the company reported solid first-quarter 2018 results.



The company has seen nine positive estimate revisions in the past month, while the Zacks Consensus Estimate has also moved higher over the same time period, suggesting that more solid trading could be ahead for Alaska Air Group. So make sure to keep an eye on this stock going forward to see if this recent jump can turn into more strength down the road.



Alaska Air Group currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), while its Earnings ESP is 0.00%.

Alaska Air Group, Inc. Price

Alaska Air Group, Inc. Price | Alaska Air Group, Inc. Quote

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Cryptocurrency payment service provider BitPay has announced that it will allow brick-and-mortar businesses to use Bitcoin Cash for payments. Already available for Bitcoin, the new service will give customers the option to choose between paying in BTC or BCH.

BitPay Checkout, used by restaurants and other retail businesses, is currently being used in Atlanta, Toronto, St. Petersburg, Madeira Beach and Paris. BitPay has been serving these entities since Nov. 2014, which is why the company has decided to include more options for crypto payments. With 1% processing fee and integration with companies such as Shopify, 3DCart and Bitmonet, BCH users will find the new update favorable.

When customers go to pay, they can select their currency of choice, select the option to give a tip, then scan a BitPay Checkout QR code with their mobile wallets, BitPay wrote. Payments take just a swipe or a tap, and the receiving merchant gets a local currency bank settlement within one business day. Merchants get every dollar or euro they charge, minus BitPays 1% processing fee.

Last month, BitPay upgraded their system so that buyers using the platform could accept online payments in Bitcoin Cash as well as Bitcoin. After joining the crypto community in 2011, this was the first time an altcoin was included by the company. The press release stated that merchants integrating BitPay for small-scale transactions including video games and app downloads would find it easier since Bitcoin Cash costs only pennies (or less) for customers to send.

Last year, BitPay co-founder, Stephen Pair, said that after careful observation, they found out that no bitcoin alternative was innovative or compelling. Despite scaling issues, Pair concluded that Bitcoin was the best cryptocurrency till date. However, following Bitcoin Cashs launch in August, BitPay allowed users to store and spend BCH in its open source wallet, Copay. This announcement was considered as one of the reasons behind the increase in BCHs price from $313 to $431 within 24 hours in Sep. 2017. The next month, BitPay confirmed that it would begin accepting additional blockchain payment methods starting with BCH. Once again, the news caused BCH to break records by crossing the $2,000 mark.

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Bitcoin Cash, currently the fourth-largest cryptocurrency, has once again increased by almost 19% after BitPays announcement today. However, the price was already rising upwards  it is now up 100% in one week. The market cap has also doubled within these seven days, climbing from $12 billion to $24 billion.

Featured image from Shutterstock.



The post BitPay Confirms Bitcoin Cash Retail Payments as Prices Jump appeared first on CCN.


Image of circles in Arctic sea ice.

On April 14, a group of NASA scientists were flying over the Beaufort Sea, north of Alaska and the Canadian border, when they saw something puzzling: Three holes in the sea ice with what look like rings around them and some wavy ice to their left.

I dont recall seeing this sort of thing elsewhere, John Sonntag, a meteorologist with NASA who took the above photo, said in a statement.

At first glance, it may look like the frigid equivalent of crop circles, but scientists are pretty sure that in this case theres a simple explanation. My first guess is that these are seal breathing holes, says Walt Meier, an atmospheric scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center who focuses on sea ice. Harp and ring seals have been known to make these kinds of holes in thinner Arctic sea ice, and then use those holes repeatedly to come up for air.

For that theory to hold, there needs to be a good explanation for why the sea ice in this particular spot is thin enough for the seals to break through. Meier says these holes could be the result of warmer water coming in from the nearby Mackenzie delta, the shallow outpouring of the Mackenzie river from the nearby Canadian coast. According to Meier, warmer water from the river flows into the ocean, and then, because warm water is less dense than cold water, it naturally floats to the surface in plumes.

That, in turn, thins out the ice at the surface, and could have drawn seals to the spot since the sea mammals more likely to pick spots to come up for air where the ice is already thin. There are formations near the holes that look like waves, which the scientists say could be the result of water sloshing over the edgesa sign that warm water was rising up through the holes.

On their own, these holes dont tell us all that much about the Arctic sea environment. Theyre more spectacle than anything else, Meier says. But they do point to a trend in sea ice in general.

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The photo above shows ice with evidence of finger raftingwhich is when the wind pushes together two ice sheets, causing them to overlap like clasped hands. The likeliest explanation, says Meier, is higher Arctic temperatures. In the pastas recently as the 1980s, sea ice in the region would be thick enough to withstand the southern winds that begin to blow north at the start of the winter. But in recent years, thanks to warmer Arctic waters, the ice tends to be less stable and more easily blown away by the wind. Then, over the winter, the exposed water freezes but only into thin sheets.

Those thin sheets are more likely to get blown together, creating the finger rafting phenomenon, and to be susceptible to melting due to plumes of warm river water from the shores. In recent years, how often that happens and the scale of [this pattern] is much more than it used to be, Meier says.

Its impossible to directly connect this photojust one data pointto climate change or warming Arctic waters. However, the photo does suggest that future research in the region may find a trend of diminishing ice over these waters.

Read this next: The Arctic may have ice-free summers if Paris climate goals are exceeded a half-degree

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This article was originally published on ETFTrends.com.

Chinese stocks and country-specific ETFs are underperforming their global peers as high debt levels and a threat of a U.S.-China trade war fuel trader fears.

Looking at some of the largest China-related ETFs, the iShares China Large-Cap ETF (FXI) fell 12.5% over the past three months while the iShares MSCI China ETF (MCHI) dropped 11.4%, SPDR S&P China ETF (GXC) decreased 11.2% and Xtrackers CSI 300 China A-Shares ETF (NYSEArca: ASHR ) declined 13.6%.

Meanwhile, the MSCI ACWI ex-US Index was only down 5.8%, the MSCI Emerging Market Index was 7.2% lower and the S&P 500 dipped 5.5% over the same period.

Although Chinas nominal economic growth has looked OK so far, its the uncertainties about the future that have clearly weakened investors risk appetite, Zhu Chaoping, a Shanghai-based economist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, told the Wall Street Journal.

Related: Why You Should Incorporate China ETF Exposure

While China has produced solid growth numbers, the economy is showing signs of slowing. Chinese factors were producing fewer goods for foreign buyers even before the recent trade war talks with Washington. Enthusiasm over company stocks of big state-owned companies has also declined in recent months after investors jumped on them last year.

The same story of supply-side reform and consumption has been told for too long, and investors are getting a bit tired of it. Thats why a lot of them decided to cash in on these blue chips earlier this year, J.P. Morgans Zhu added.

The popularity of the China trade is waning. Daily trading in Shanghai has dipped below 200 billion yuan, or $31.7 billion, in recent sessions, compared to over 300 billion yuan in mid-January and a record 1.3 trillion yuan just before the 2015 summer market rout.

Deterring investors from the China trade, Washing and Beijing have been engaged in saber rattling that fueled fears of a potential trade war over higher tariffs. Foreign investors have since reduced holdings of Chinese stocks for a second consecutive month in March to 1.2 trillion yuan, compared to a record 1.28 trillion yuan in January.

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In China, when markets go one way, they tend to go too much in that direction, Caroline Yu Maurer, Hong Kong-based head of Greater China equities at BNP Paribas Asset Management, told the WSJ. When people sell, every investor seems to want to get out before the next one.

For more information on Chinese markets, visit our China category.

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(Maysam Behravesh is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Political Science and an Affiliated Researcher at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University, Sweden. He is also a news producer and editor at the TV channel, Iran International. The opinions expresed are his own.)

By Maysam Behravesh

April 9 (Reuters) - In a last-ditch attempt to save the Iran nuclear deal ahead of President Donald Trumps May 12 deadline, Washingtons European allies have rushed to address the U.S. administrations main objections to the historic agreement. One of the most contentious of these is the accords failure to restrict Irans ballistic missile program; critics of the deal say that allowing Tehran to continue developing non-nuclear missiles could enable it to deliver atomic warheads sooner once nuclear restrictions expire.

On March 5, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian visited the Islamic Republic in order to press Iranian leaders into negotiations over the missile program and to warn them that Europe would be obliged to accommodate Washingtons demands. Two weeks later, France, which under President Emmanuel Macron has adopted a more assertive role in the Middle East, urged the European Union to take a tougher stance on Iran over its ballistic missile activity and involvement in Syrias 7-year-long civil war. Accordingly, three European signatories to the Iran deal  namely France, Germany and Britain  have proposed new sanctions against persons and entities involved in Tehrans missile program and its Syrian war effort.

These efforts are almost certainly doomed to fail in the long run, especially since Trumps recent decision to appoint the hawkish John Bolton as his national security adviser makes it more likely that the U.S. president will withdraw from the accord.

No matter what punitive measures Europeans adopt, Iran is unlikely to agree to any restrictions on its missile program beyond a superficial cap on the range of its missiles. (Tehran has suggested that it will not develop missiles with ranges longer than 2,000 kilometers (about 1,243 miles), which already allows Iran to target the Israeli heartland  as well as U.S. bases in the region  in the event of a conflict.) From Tehrans point of view, the missile program is a question of self-preservation, particularly because decades of Western sanctions have prevented Iran from building up a powerful air force.

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Iranians have not yet forgotten how, during their long war with Iraq, Saddam Husseins air force conducted a series of systematic air raids and missile attacks against major Iranian cities, including Tehran, Tabriz, Isfahan and Shiraz. Beginning in 1984, these strategic operations against urban areas, which became notorious as the War of the Cities, killed numerous civilians. In June 1987, Saddam ordered a chemical attack on the border town of Sardasht in western Iran which killed at least 113 people and wounded many more.

Iran retaliated by deploying warplanes, but relied more heavily on its air defenses to fend off aerial bombardments. Over time, this persuaded Saddam to respond with more systematic missile attacks. Tehran, with no missiles of its own and under international sanctions, found itself helpless. In a widely-publicized response to a Japanese reporters question about the adverse effects of Tehrans missile program on its trade relations with the international community, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif says that Iran did not have a single missile to retaliate so that maybe Saddam Hussein would stop. We went, he adds, to one country after another, begging, begging, I am insisting, begging for a single Scud missile to defend our people. Begging! Now you want us to get a few dollars to Iran to abandon defending our people?

Second, Tehran believes that the Trump administration has failed to honor its end of the bargain and even actively sought, through a policy of confusion which runs contrary to both the letter and the spirit of the nuclear deal, to hinder Iran from reaping its economic benefits. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi pointed this out in a February interview with the BBC to explain Tehrans reluctance to negotiate over its missile program. In his words, We have already negotiated on our nuclear program and the deal has not become a successful story for Iran. Why Iran should negotiate on any other issue? Especially on an issue which is directly linked to our national security.

Decades of deep-rooted mistrust and institutionalized hostility between the Islamic Republic and Western powers have convinced Iranian leaders that the more they retreat and compromise, the more their rivals will advance and demand. A leitmotif of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameneis public speeches, the conviction has made its way into the political psychology of decision-making in Iran, particularly in areas of national security. This partly explains the Islamic Republics general aversion to making concessions in response to domestic dissent and foreign pressure alike. In their view, compromise paves the way for more compromise, to the extent that not just the policy issue at hand but also the whole survival of the regime may be undermined beyond redemption.

Its highly unlikely that efforts to incorporate restrictions on Irans missile program into the nuclear deal, as the United States has demanded, or even negotiating a separate missile deal, as Europe prefers, will save the nuclear accord. Irans political and military authorities have more or less unanimously ruled out negotiations over Irans missile and defense capabilities. Even if they accede to them under growing international pressure, expectations of talks that would lead to a qualitative reduction or modification of Tehrans missile program are naive and unrealistic. (By Maysam Behravesh)
HANOVER, Germany, April 24 (Reuters) - Product and brand piracy cost German manufacturers around 7.3 billion euros ($8.91 billion) and 33,000 jobs in 2017, with China being the biggest culprit, a survey by German engineering association VDMA showed on Tuesday.

Alleged intellectual property theft was one of the main issues German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed with U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron last month in a call over China's trade practices.

More than 70 percent of companies surveyed by VDMA said they were affected by product or brand piracy, the trade body said.

"Aside from the loss of revenues and jobs there are also consequences for the affected companies that are difficult to quantify, such as damage to their image, loss of competitive advantage and unjustified compensation claims," Steffen Zimmermann, the head of VDMA's Competence Center Industrial Security, said at the Hannover Messe trade fair.

The scale of damage was identical to that recorded in VDMA's survey for the previous year. But VDMA said counterfeiters were becoming more brazen, increasingly copying not only a product's technical details but also its brand and appearance.

More counterfeit products were also distributed over the internet than in the previous survey.

German shoe maker Birkenstock earlier this year stopped supplying Amazon in Europe because of counterfeit products being sold on the website.

China was both the largest manufacturer and the largest market for counterfeit products, VDMA's survey showed. Competitors from within Germany itself came second.

Almost 140 small and medium-sized engineering companies participated in the survey, which was conducted by the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied and Integrated Security in March and April this year. ($1 = 0.8195 euros) (Reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff Writing by Riham Alkousaa Editing by Maria Sheahan)
Each day, Benzinga takes a look back at a notable market-related moment that occurred on this date.

What Happened?

On this day 33 years ago, The Coca-Cola Co (NYSE: KO) replaced its long-standing Coca-Cola formula with a new formula branded as New Coke.

Where The Market Was

The Dow finished the day at 1,278.71. The S&P 500 traded at 181.88. Today, the Dow is trading at 24,411.96 and the S&P 500 is trading at 2,674.88.

What Else Was Going On In The World?

In 1985, Live Aid concerts in Philadelphia and London raised more than $50 million for famine relief in Ethiopia. The popular comic strip Calvin and Hobbes first appeared in U.S. newspapers. The average price of a new house was $89,330.

If It Aint Broke ...

When Coca-Cola unveiled New Coke, it wasnt immediately clear to customers or investors that New Coke would be replacing the highly successful classic formula. Once customers found out they would no longer be able to buy the old formula, Coca-Cola was bombarded with angry calls and letters.

In the month following the launch of New Coke, the S&P 500 traded higher by 3.8 percent, but Coca-Cola stock tanked 6 percent thanks to the backlash. On July 11, Coca-Cola announced it would be bringing back the original formula under the name Coca-Cola Classic. New Coke was renamed Coke II in 1992. Coca-Cola continued producing the drink for another decade before finally discontinuing Coke II for good in 2002.

Related Links:

This Day In Market History: The Social Security Amendments of 1983

Molson Coors Downgraded By Goldman Sachs On Weak Volume; Coca-Cola European Partners Upgraded On Growth Opportunity

See more from Benzinga

 2018 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
David Einhorn, President of Greenlight Capital, Inc., presents during the 2018 Sohn Investment Conference in New York City, U.S., April 23, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Hedge fund billionaire David Einhorn, the CEO of Greenlight Capital, is short bond-insurer Assured Guaranty (AGO).

It is a melting ice cube that is paying out the drops while it still can, Einhorn said. When regulators, auditors, or ratings agencies figure them out, I doubt there will be many more drops left for shareholders.

Einhorn presented his short thesis at the Sohn Conference in New York wearing the same brightly-colored tie he donned in 2002 when he revealed his Allied Capital short, a trade that minted him as a formidable short-seller thats chronicled in his best-selling book Fooling Some of the People All of the Time.

Today Im going to present another short of a mid-sized financial institution most of you havent heard of that has serious problems, including losses it hasnt accounted for, created its own proprietary grading system which helps hide the losses. It has fooled its sleeping auditors and regulators, and lures investors by aggressively returning capital it hasnt earned, Einhorn said. This time I hope I wont have to write a book about it.

Shares of Assured Guaranty fell more than 6% in after-hours trading.

Bond insurers guarantee the interest and principal payments when bonds default.

Major bond insurers like MBIA and Ambac crashed during the 2008 financial crisis once they suffered ratings downgrades. According to Einhorn, the reason Assured Guaranty was relatively unscathed at the time was because it had its triple-a rating downgraded by Moodys back in 1999.

This probably saved the company because without a triple-a rating, from both S&P and Moodys during the peak of the structured credit mania, it couldnt compete and it wrote less bad business, guaranteeing the toxic CDOs that brought down most bond insurers.

Following the financial crisis, Assured Guaranty wobbled, but it didnt fall down.

One big problem

Today, the company faces one big problem and several significant problems on the horizon, Einhorn said. The big problem is Puerto Rico, which Einhorn calls the wild card in the AGO story. Puerto Rico had already been a financial disaster saddled by billions in debt before Hurricane Maria devastated the island last fall.

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Hurricane Maria caused an estimated $95 billion in damage and accelerated the exodus of citizens from the territory. Meanwhile, federal aid has helped alleviate some of the problems, but not for the bondholders.

AGO has a lot of exposure to Puerto Rico. It comes in a lot of different flavors, Einhorn said, referring to the different types of bonds.

Puerto Rico may be just the tip of the iceberg, Einhorn said, pointing that there are other below investment-grade bonds the company is exposed to elsewhere including $17 billion in exposure to Illinois.

Einhorn has bought Puerto Rican bonds has a hedge, while selling Assured Guaranty shares short.

In a statement released overnight, Assured Guaranty refuted Einhorns claims.

Mr. Einhorns analysis of Assured Guaranty fails to acknowledge the positive implications of our significant financial strength and strong operating performance, and demonstrates a fundamental lack of understanding of our business model and the municipal debt markets. In the event of a municipal default, Assured Guaranty is obligated to cover shortfalls in scheduled principal and interest payments only when those payments are due. Our insurance policies do not permit acceleration of payments without our consent. Mr. Einhorns focus on total debt service ignores this lack of acceleration, as well as the strength of our balance sheet, and the highly liquid nature of our investment portfolio, which generates significant investment income over time.

Furthermore, Assured Guaranty is well reserved for its municipal exposures and, due to the non-acceleration feature, does not face liquidity risks. We have $11.5 billion of cash and investments1 with $2.8 billion of estimated excess capital over S&Ps AAA level.2 In addition, we have strong legal rights, including for Puerto Rico under PROMESA, which requires that fiscal plans must respect contractual liens and constitutional priorities established under Commonwealth law.

Throughout its history, Assured Guaranty has successfully mitigated potential losses and defended its legal rights in numerous distressed municipal situations, including Jefferson County, AL; Stockton, CA; Hartford, CT; Detroit, MI; and Harrisburg, PA.

For all these reasons and others, we strongly disagree with Mr. Einhorns assertions. We remain focused on continuing to generate long-term value for our shareholders.

Julia La Roche is a finance reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.
Brexit supporting Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg (Getty)

An EU leader has said the bloc is very pleased not to be negotiating Brexit with Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg after he warned the UK could bankrupt Ireland if theres a no deal Brexit.

Mr Rees-Mogg warned Ireland could face huge tariffs on exports to the UK following reports that the EU has rejected Theresa Mays proposals for a customs arrangement aimed at avoiding a hard border in Ireland.

EU officials gave the two options set out in the Prime Ministers Mansion House speech a systematic and forensic annihilation at recent talks, an EU source told the Telegraph last week.

The development has led to speculation that Mrs May could be forced to re-think her plan to leave the customs union after Brexit.

That is fiercely opposed by Mr Rees-Mogg, who leads the Conservatives pro-Brexit group of MPs and would prefer the UK to trade under WTO rules if no deal can be reached with the EU.

He said the EUs refusal to agree a customs arrangement was jeopardising the economic future of the Republic of Ireland.

If Britain trades on WTO terms, we could potentially slap tariffs of up to 70 per cent on Irish beef, he said.

That could bankrupt Ireland, who export 800million of beef to us every year.

The EUs Commissioner for agriculture, Irelands Phil Hogan, issued a sharp response to his comments at a press conference in Brussels today.

EU Commissioner for agriculture, Phil Hogan, speaking at a press conference today (Getty)

Mr Hogan said: Thats why were very pleased in the European Union that were dealing with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and not with Mr Rees-Mogg.

Were not going to speculate on the lot of speculative statements that he makes on a regular basis.

Earlier this month, Mr Hogan gave a speech in which he argued the UK will return to medium-sized nation status and have reduced bargaining power in global trade after Brexit.

The row came as the EU celebrated signing a trade agreement with Mexico, which will see the country cuts its tariffs on European food and drink imports.

The EU expect it to lead to a rise in exports of products like pasta, chocolate, cheese, apples, pork and poultry.

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Labour MEP David Martin said it was proof that the UK should remain in the customs union after Brexit.

Tory ministers made big claims at last weeks Commonwealth Summit that they would make progress on new trade deals, on which theyve once again failed to deliver, while the EU just gets on with it, adding Mexico to Japan and Singapore in the past few days alone, he said.

MORE: Theresa Mays plan for Irish border annihilated by EU
SINGAPORE, April 24 (Reuters) - U.S. energy major Exxon Mobil has offered a liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo from its recently restarted Papua New Guinea plant for delivery into the Japan, Korea, Taiwan (JKT) region in May, two traders with knowledge of the matter said.

Exxon Mobil has offered the cargo on a delivered ex-ship (DES) basis, they said on Tuesday, asking not to be identified.

Bids are due on April 25 and are valid until April 27. The cargo will be delivered on the Kumul LNG tanker, one of the traders said.

The PNG LNG plant was recently restarted after a major earthquake triggered a shutdown in February.

(Reporting by Jessica Jaganathan; Editing by Tom Hogue)
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian lawmakers said on Friday they had drafted legislation in response to new U.S. sanctions that would give the authorities the power to ban or restrict imports of a raft of U.S. goods and services to Russia.

Below are the goods that can be banned and cooperation areas which could be affected by the legislation:

IMPORTS OF AGRICULTURAL AND FOOD PRODUCTS

Many U.S. agricultural imports to Russia have been banned since 2014 as part of wider restrictions Moscow imposed on Western food in retaliation for international sanctions over Ukraine. The products banned include milk and dairy, beef, pork, poultry, fish, fruit, vegetables, and nuts.

New restrictions could affect food products which have not been targeted by the existing ban, such as tea, coffee, confectionery, although no detailed list was unveiled.

According to the Russian Agriculture Ministry, U.S. imports of agricultural products stood at $930 million in 2017.

IMPORTS OF ALCOHOL AND TOBACCO PRODUCTS

Russia imports U.S. spirits including whiskeys Jim Beam and Brown-Forman's Jack Daniels. U.S. cigarette brands are mostly produced locally.

U.S. imports of tobacco products and hard liquor to Russia amounted to $76 million and $53 million respectively last year, the Russian Agriculture Ministry said.

IMPORTS OF PHARMACEUTICAL PRODUCTS

The proposed measures envisage a full or partial ban on imports of U.S. pharmaceutical products, with the exception given to drugs that have no alternatives produced in Russia or elsewhere.

The lawmakers said "any other" U.S.-made products could be banned, without elaborating. The list has to be defined by the Russian government.

TECHNOLOGICAL EQUIPMENT AND SOFTWARE

Russia may ban state entities from procuring U.S. technological equipment and software, potentially targeting Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet, Cisco and others.

CONSULTING AND AUDIT

The measures include a proposed ban for U.S. companies or companies in which U.S. direct or indirect ownership exceeds 25 percent to provide consulting, audit and legal services to Russian state and municipal entities.

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RUSSIAN EXPORTS OF RARE EARTH METALS TO USA

The measures include restrictions on Russian exports of products and equipment made of rare earth metals. A Russian senator said on Friday that could mean a ban on titanium exports from VSMPO-Avisama to Boeing.

MUTUAL COOPERATION

The proposed measures suggest Russia should suspend cooperation with the United States on atomic energy, rocket engines and aircraft manufacturing.

The latter could have an impact on Irkut's MS-21 medium-range passenger plane, powered by engines supplied by Pratt & Whitney which is owned by Connecticut-based United Technologies Corp. Irkut's state-controlled parent company United Aircraft Corporation declined comment.

Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom is also a major supplier of enriched uranium to the United States. Russia supplies meet around 20 percent of U.S. uranium needs. Rosatom also cooperates with General Electric Co on turbines through GE's French subsidiary Alstom.

The new legislation could also hurt the U.S.-Russia initiative to prevent nuclear terrorism.

RUSSIAN PRIVATISATION

Russian lawmakers suggest Russia should ban U.S. companies or entities in which U.S. companies have more than 25 percent from taking part in privatisation of state and municipal assets.

Such companies also should not help arrange Russian privatisation deals - a measure likely targeting U.S. investment banks J.P.Morgan, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley

AIR NAVIGATION

The lawmakers suggested raising air navigation services charges for U.S. planes using the Russian airspace.

(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova, Polina Devitt and Gleb Stolyarov; Editing by Toby Chopra)
(Adds details, quotes)

By Andrea Shalal

BERLIN, April 14 (Reuters) - Germany will join France to push for a new international effort to achieve a lasting ceasefire in Syria, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Saturday, criticising Russia for repeatedly blocking U.N. Security Council action on the war.

Officials from Germany, France, Britain and the United States will meet in London on Sunday to discuss the next steps following coordinated Western air strikes against Syria early on Saturday, he said.

He said the initiative was also being discussed by the NATO council that met in Brussels on Saturday, and European Union foreign ministers would debate further concrete measures to address the crisis in Syria on Monday.

"We will work together with France for the creation of an international format of influential states that can provide new momentum for the political process," said Maas, a member of the Social Democrats, junior partners in Chancellor Angela Merkel's centre-left coalition government.

Germany did not participate in the air strikes, but backed them as a "necessary and appropriate" action to warn Syria against further use of chemical weapons, Merkel said on Saturday.

Maas said Germany would use all diplomatic means to seek an end to the seven-year war, and the destruction of remaining chemical weapons stockpiles.

He echoed criticism of Russia made earlier by Merkel and Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen, but said Berlin would leverage its bilateral ties with Moscow to ensure Russia adopted a "constructive" stance on the issue.

Germany, which relies on Russia for about a third of the gas it uses, has long walked a careful line with Moscow -- at once pushing for continued sanctions for its annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine, while also maintaining dialogue and trade relations.

"Whether we like it or not, without Russia, the political process will not succeed," Maas said.

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Maas has generally struck a tougher tone toward Moscow than his predecessor Sigmar Gabriel, following a poison attack in Britain on retired double agent Sergei Skripal and a cyber attack on German government networks -- two incidents that intelligence officials say emanated from Russia.

Moscow denies any involvement in either case.

Maas said it was critical to first achieve a lasting, nationwide ceasefire in Syria, along with humanitarian access, but the next step would be to negotiate a lasting solution that addresses the legitimate interests of the Syrian people.

"The key milestones will be creation of a transition government, a constitutional reform and elections," he said. (Editing by Toby Chopra and Helen Popper)
Illinois Tool Works Inc. ITW is scheduled to release first-quarter 2018 results on Apr 26, before the market opens.



The industrial products and equipment manufacturers financial performance in the last four quarters was impressive. Illinois Tool Works pulled off an average positive earnings surprise of 4.16%. In the last reported quarter, its earnings of $1.70 per share surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.62 by 4.94%.



However, its share price movements have not been impressive. In the last six months, the companys shares have declined 0.6%, below 1.2% gain recorded by the industry it belongs to.









Let us see how things are shaping up for Illinois Tool Works this quarter.



Factors to Affect Q1 Results



Based on available data for few economic indicators, we can ascertain that operating conditions were quite favorable for industrial machinery companies in the first quarter of 2018. Industrial production in the quarter grew at an annual rate of 4.5%. Also, ISM Purchasing Managers Index for March pointed toward an expanding manufacturing sector  reflecting growth in new orders, production activities, employment, new export orders and inventories. New orders of U.S.-made machinery increased roughly 9.2% year over year in the first two months of 2018.



Besides these, favorable growth in the U.S. housing markets, as well as growing domestic and world economy, might have proved beneficial for industrial machinery stocks. In the first quarter, housing starts increased roughly 4.9% compared with the previous quarter. Also, the implementation of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act in December last year will have its positive impacts in forms of lower tax rates.



Narrowing down to the company level, we believe that Illinois Tool Works greatest strength is its diversified business portfolio. It operates through seven business segments, which lowers risks of losses due to weakness in one or more segments. Rising production of cars in the U.S. in the first quarter compared with the previous quarter will support growth of the Automotive OEM segment. Also, the companys efforts to increase content per vehicle, as well as content-demand from international buyers and growing acceptance of electric vehicles globally, will be a boon.



The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the Automotive OEM segments revenues stands at $893 million for the first quarter, above $828 million and $828 million reported in the previous quarter and the year-ago quarter, respectively. Also, the segments average sales surprise for the last four quarters was a positive 2.88%.



For the Construction Products segment, the first quarter might be a surprise. Its sales in the quarter are predicted to be $434 million, above $412 million and $395 million reported in the previous and the year-ago quarter, respectively. Likewise, the Polymers & Fluids, Specialty Products and Welding segments are set for a likely sales surprise in the first quarter.



In the first quarter of 2018, Illinois Tool Works anticipates organic revenue growth to be 3-4%. Tax rate is anticipated to be 24.5-25.5%.



However, we remain cautious of the Food Equipment segment. Its sales are forecasted at $526 million, below $548 million reported in the previous quarter but above the year-ago tally of $497 million. The major concerning factor is the average sales surprise of -1.93% in the last four trailing quarters. Also, price cost headwind might be an issue, as the company predicts 30-40 basis points of price cost headwind for 2018.



Earnings Whispers



Our proven model provides some idea about the stocks that are about to release their earnings results. Per the model, a stock needs a combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for a likely earnings beat. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before theyre reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.



The case with Illinois Tool Works has been provided below.



Zacks ESP: Illinois Tool Works has an Earnings ESP of +1.02%, with the Most Accurate estimate of $1.87 exceeding the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.85.



Illinois Tool Works Inc. Price and EPS Surprise



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Illinois Tool Works Inc. Price and EPS Surprise | Illinois Tool Works Inc. Quote



Zacks Rank: Illinois Tool Works Zacks Rank #3 increases the predictive power of ESP.



Note that we caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 or 5 (Sell-rated) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing a negative estimate revisions momentum.



Other Stocks to Consider



Here are some other companies in the industry that you may want to consider, as they have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter, according to our model.



Graco Inc. GGG has an Earnings ESP of +0.67% and a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.



IDEX Corporation IEX has an Earnings ESP of +0.41% and a Zacks Rank #2.



Nordson Corporation NDSN has an Earnings ESP of +0.12% and a Zacks Rank #3.



Will You Make a Fortune on the Shift to Electric Cars?



Here's another stock idea to consider. Much like petroleum 150 years ago, lithium power may soon shake the world, creating millionaires and reshaping geo-politics. Soon electric vehicles (EVs) may be cheaper than gas guzzlers. Some are already reaching 265 miles on a single charge.



With battery prices plummeting and charging stations set to multiply, one company stands out as the #1 stock to buy according to Zacks research.



It's not the one you think.



See This Ticker Free >>



Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report



Graco Inc. (GGG) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Illinois Tool Works Inc. (ITW) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Nordson Corporation (NDSN) : Free Stock Analysis Report



IDEX Corporation (IEX) : Free Stock Analysis Report



To read this article on Zacks.com click here.



Zacks Investment Research
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh talks to reporters during the 15th International Energy Forum Ministerial (IEF15) in Algiers, Algeria September 27, 2016. REUTERS/Ramzi Boudina/Files

ANKARA (Reuters) - Iran's crude and condensate exports have recovered from a fall in March and currently stand at 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd), state TV on Monday reported Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh as saying.

"The decline in March was a temporary issue. It has increased now and currently all together we export 2.5 million barrels of oil and gas condensates," Zanganeh told state TV.

March liftings from Iran, the third-biggest producer among the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), were down 26 percent year on year.

Iran has been working to regain market share after Western sanctions over its disputed nuclear program were lifted in 2016 under a deal between the country and six major powers.

But U.S. President Donald Trump has warned European signatories of the accord to fix "the disastrous flaws" in the pact or face a U.S. exit.

On May 12, Trump will decide whether to restore U.S. economic sanctions on Tehran, which would be a severe blow to the pact.

"We have to wait for Trump's decision. But Iran will use all its capacity and experience to protect the country against the consequences of Trump's decision," Zanganeh said.

Iran has been striving to retain customers for its oil in Asia, hoping concessions will boost the appeal of its crude compared with other Middle Eastern suppliers, even as the threat looms of potential further U.S. sanctions on the country.

Zanganeh said Iran might offer discounts on oil sales, as the OPEC member is keen to preserve its market share.

"Iran will take all the necessary measures to keep its oil market share because of the political atmosphere and the American president's decision on the deal," Zanganeh said when asked about rumours on offering discounts to India on oil sales.

"We have not given a special discount to India but it is possible to make changes in our prices."

Iran used to be the second-biggest oil supplier to India before crippling oil-related sanctions were imposed by the United States and the European Union on Tehran in 2012.

Tehran is gradually raising its market share in the worlds third-biggest oil consuming nation.

(Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Jason Neely and Mark Potter)
[caption id="attachment_18528" align="aligncenter" width="621"]

Broward Circuit Judge Merrilee Ehrlich. Photo: Melanie Bell/ALM[/caption] A Broward Circuit judge on the eve of retirement has been told not to return to work in the wake of a viral video showing her denying a womans request for a breathing tube. "The chief Judge cannot remove a constitutional officer from office. Only the Florida Supreme Court can remove a judge," Chief Judge Jack Tuter wrote in the email sent to the Sun Sentinel and Daily Business Review Sunday. "In light of recent events we have decided Judge (Merrilee Ehrlich) will be told not to return to the courthouse as her retirement is effective June 30." [caption id="attachment_18510" align="alignleft" width="245"]

Chief Judge Jack Tuter. Photo: J. Albert Diaz/ALM[/caption] Ehrlich found herself in the hot seat after video surfaced on social media of her interaction with Sandra Twiggs, a 59-year-old woman who suffered from asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Twiggs died at home days after the April 15 court appearance, in which Ehrlich curtly denied her request for a breathing tube. Her cause of death has not been made public. News later broke that Ehrlich planned to retire this summer, more than two years before her term was set to expire in January 2021. The judge rose to public office after winning the November 2008 general election. She then ran unopposed in 2014 for a six-year term. Broward Circuit spokeswoman Meredith Bush said the judge's retirement plans preceded the video. She said Ehrlich announced in March that she would step down in June. It had been planned, Bush said Sunday. "She sent in her resignation letter to the governor a couple weeks ago." Gov. Rick Scott's office did not immediately respond to a request for a copy of the retirement letter. Twiggs appeared before the judge on April 15 via video from the North Broward Bureau, which houses inmates with special needs, according to its website. She faced misdemeanor domestic violence charges. She came before Ehrlich for a first appearance, or bond court, where judges hear cases within 48 hours of an inmate's arrest to determine if law enforcement officers had probable cause to jail them.

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Ehrlich was in the courthouse while Twiggs communicated with her on camera. Broward Circuit Court livestreams and records bond court proceedings.

But a YouTube account under the name South Florida Corruption uploaded the video. It showed an exasperated Ehrlich yelling at Twiggs and interrupting her as the woman attempted to answer her questions.

Twiggs, who was in a wheelchair, rested her head against her hand at one point. She coughed repeatedly during the hearing.

"Can someone there give her water as a kindness?" Ehrlich asked jail staff after one of the coughing spells. When the judge asked Twiggs if she needed water, Twiggs replied she did, and also requested a breathing tube. But Ehrlich answered, "Ma'am, I'm not here to talk about your breathing treatment."

The judge also scolded attorneys in the courtroom, instructing them not to interrupt her.

"Oh lord!" Ehrlich said after Twiggs tried to ask for the breathing tube. "Will you say something, counsel, in the microphone so that she can hear you, and you can give her instructions about propriety in court? I'm not going to spend all day with her interrupting me."

[caption id="attachment_18511" align="alignleft" width="245"]

Howard Finkelstein. Photo: Melanie Bell/ALM[/caption]

The interaction prompted Broward Public Defender Howard Finkelstein to send a letter to Tuter, calling for Ehrlich's removal from criminal court.

"What I saw ... makes me ashamed to be part of the justice system, Finkelstein told the Daily Business Review. Heres a woman who couldnt breathe. All she wanted was to breathe. But the judge was too ... busy processing a case that she couldnt see the human being in front of her, and that human being was gasping for air.

In his letter, Finkelstein described Ehrlich's behavior as "aggressive and tyrannical," and wrote it showed a "lack of emotional fitness to sit on the bench."

Ehrlich did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Everybody has a bad day, and everybody can be a little off," Finkelstein told the DBR. "That was not just a little off. That was mean, it was abusive, it was cruel and it was gratuitous. Watch the video: [falcon-embed src="embed_1"]
FILE - In this Aug. 30, 2013, file photo, Americans for Prosperity Foundation Chairman David Koch speaks in Orlando, Fla. A sure sign of policy success for the sprawling conservative network funded by the billionaire Koch brothers is Democratic pushback. With regulations being rolled back and huge tax cuts, Democrats question how far the Koch network's influence extends. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File)





WASHINGTON (AP) -- The sprawling network funded by the billionaire Koch brothers is having a very good run with President Donald Trump in the White House and Republicans in control of Congress.

Tax cuts are now signed into law. A conservative judge is seated on the Supreme Court. And many governmental regulations, including those on labor and environmental practices, are facing rollbacks.

That success is starting to get attention. Democrats are increasingly questioning how far the network's influence extends into the White House, casting the groups' backing by industrialists Charles and David Koch as puppeteers behind Trump's agenda and hoping to rouse their own donors to fight back. The network in turn is ratcheting up its focus on areas where it aligns with Democrats  most notably immigration legislation  and reviving calls for bipartisanship.

"We've come off one of the most successful years in our network's history," said James Davis, executive vice president of Koch-backed Freedom Partners and a spokesman for the Seminar Network, the broader organization of groups and donors. "And we're going to turn up the heat on both parties to drive forward."

But there's another outcome, too: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and other senators recently fired off letters to the administration asking for a detailed accounting of the network's role at various government offices including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Labor Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The senators name more than a dozen individuals working in the administration with ties to the groups. On Monday, the lawmakers will launch a series of Senate floor speeches turning a spotlight on the influence.

"Americans have a right to know if special interests are unduly influencing public policy decisions that have profound implications for public health, the environment, and the economy," wrote Whitehouse with Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass.; Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev.; Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.; Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.; and Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M.

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"There are plenty of billionaires these days, and a bunch of them do pretty good stuff," Whitehouse is expected to say in Monday's speech, according to excerpts. But he's highlighting a subset he says is "trying to quietly remake America to their ideology."

The influence of the Koch-backed groups is somewhat surprising. They are an array of organizations and include Americans for Prosperity, Freedom Partners and Concerned Veterans for America, whose donors comprise some of the wealthy attendees of the twice-a-year Seminar Network conferences.

The groups took a pass on donating to Trump's Republican presidential bid. But they have managed to influence policy through several top allies in key jobs sprinkled across the administration.

Among those in the Koch orbit with ties to the administration, perhaps the most prominent is Marc Short, the White House director of legislative affairs, who is a past president of Freedom Partners, the network's chamber of commerce-styled group. Short plays a key policymaking role and is a Capitol Hill fixture of legislative battles. The senators mention several others with top policy roles, including Kellyanne Conway, a counselor to the president.

Koch groups have been central to Trump policies Democrats oppose  among them tax cuts for the wealthy, loosening of environmental regulations and expanding private-sector health care for veterans. Trump's first-year regulatory rollbacks were drafted by one of the Koch-backed groups and became a ready blueprint for action in Congress.

The network, however, doesn't just toe the Trump line. On Monday, the group is stepping up its effort to push Congress not to let up on legislating as lawmakers turn to focus instead on campaigning for midterm elections.

Related Video: Koch Runs Pro-'Dreamer Deal' Ad

Watch news, TV and more on Yahoo View.

Two groups in the network are releasing a letter to congressional leaders of both parties, urging them to take up a bipartisan compromise to help young immigrants, known as "Dreamers," who have been living in the U.S. illegally since childhood. They want Congress to pass a deal that was on the table earlier this year  a path to citizenship for 1.8 million Dreamers and $25 billion for border security. Because most Americans want a solution that would allow the Dreamers to avoid deportation, the group says Trump and Congress should be able to come up with a solution.

"There is no reason to continue to delay action on the Dreamers," wrote officials from Freedom Partners and the LIBRE Initiative, two network groups. "What are we waiting for?" The group is also pushing Congress to take up criminal justice reform, another issue with bipartisan support that has lagged.

Republicans have little appetite to engage on big-ticket items as they struggle to keep control of their majority in the House and try to pick off Democratic incumbents up for re-election in the Senate from conservative Trump-won states.

And Democrats, while saying they are willing to engage with the Koch-backed groups, are at times envious of their operation and eager to pound on their influence, which includes chapters that mimic traditional party apparatus in many battleground states.

It doesn't help build bipartisanship when much of the advocacy the Koch groups undertake, unleashing their army of volunteers and spending sums on advertising, ends up going against Democratic senators in Missouri, Wisconsin, North Dakota and others in tough election battles.

___

Follow Lisa Mascaro on Twitter at https://twitter.com/LisaMascaro
Surging Earnings Estimates Signal Upside for Ranger Energy Services, Inc. (RNGR) Stock Ranger Energy Services, Inc. (RNGR) shares have started gaining and might continue moving higher in the near term, as indicated by solid earnings estimate revisions.

Raytheon Company RTN is scheduled to release first-quarter 2018 results on Apr 26, before the opening bell.

The companys revenues are anticipated to be primarily driven by Missile Systems business units performance in the quarter under review. Moreover, we expect the upcoming result to reflect solid cash flow numbers.

Lets take a detailed look at the factors influencing Raytheons quarterly results.

Missile Systems Unit Driving Growth

Segment-wise, Missile Systems business unit that represent more than 30% of the companys total business sales continues to be a major growth driver. Keeping this trend, Raytheon is poised to benefit from this unit in the first quarter as well.

Notably, the company won a modification contract worth $523 million for production of Advanced Medium Range Air to Air Missiles (AMRAAM) 31st Lot, and a foreign military sales contract worth $150 million for providing staffing and training services to support the Qatar Patriot Air Defense Missile Systems in the quarter under review.

Raytheon also won a $2.3 billion hybrid contract for providing engineering services to the Phased Array Tracking Radar Intercept on Target (PATRIOT) weapon systems program. Again, around the end of the quarter, it secured a $4.8 billion deal to deliver Patriot Missile Systems to Poland, which turned out to be Polands biggest arms deal till date. Surely these order flows will boost Missile Systems units top line in the quarter.

In sync with this, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for first-quarter sales is pegged at $1,909 million for the segment, reflecting year-over-year growth of 7.7%.

Raytheon Company Price and EPS Surprise

Raytheon Company Price and EPS Surprise | Raytheon Company Quote

Dividend Hike: A Solid Cash Story

In March 2018, Raytheons board of directors approved a hike in annual dividend of 8.8%, marking the 14th consecutive annual dividend increase by the company.A steady dividend payout policy primarily mirrors Raytheons robust financial position and balanced capital deployment strategy. In fact, an increase in dividend at regular intervals has been one of the characteristic features of this defense major.

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Raytheon ended fourth-quarter 2017 with operating cash flow from continuing operations of $1.6 billion, reflecting an increase of 45.4% year over year. We may expect the soon-to-be reported results to reflect similar solid cash flow performance by the company.

Other Factors at Play

Apart from winning contracts for its Missile Systems business unit, Raytheons other segments also secured notable contracts from Pentagon. As a result, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for other segments also reflected annual sales growth. Buoyed by such solid sales expectations for each of its segments, the consensus estimate for first-quarter total sales is $6.17 billion, representing an annual improvement of 2.9%.

On the bottom-line front, lower tax expenses and in-line interest expenses are expected to provide an impetus to the company. In line with this, the consensus mark for Raytheons first -quarter earnings of $2.10per share reflects a year-over-year improvement of 21.4%

What Does the Zacks Model Unveil?

Our proven model shows that Raytheon is likely to beat estimates this quarter. This is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen.

Zacks ESP: Raytheon has an Earnings ESP of +1.91%. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before theyre reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Zacks Rank: Raytheon carries a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Please note that we caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 or 5 (Sell-rated) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.

Other Stocks to Consider

Here are a few companies in the Aerospace-Defense space that have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter.

Boeing BA is expected to report first-quarter results on Apr 25. The company has an Earnings ESP of +1.70% and a Zacks Rank #2.

Embraer S.A. ERJ has an Earnings ESP of +450.00% and a Zacks Rank #3. The company is slated to release first-quarter results on Apr 27.

Rockwell Collins COL is expected to report second-quarter fiscal 2018 results on Apr 27. The company has an Earnings ESP of +0.19% and a Zacks Rank #2.

Will You Make a Fortune on the Shift to Electric Cars?

Here's another stock idea to consider. Much like petroleum 150 years ago, lithium power may soon shake the world, creating millionaires and reshaping geo-politics. Soon electric vehicles (EVs) may be cheaper than gas guzzlers. Some are already reaching 265 miles on a single charge.

With battery prices plummeting and charging stations set to multiply, one company stands out as the #1 stock to buy according to Zacks research.

It's not the one you think.

See This Ticker Free >>



Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report



Embraer-Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica (ERJ) : Free Stock Analysis Report



The Boeing Company (BA) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Rockwell Collins, Inc. (COL) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Raytheon Company (RTN) : Free Stock Analysis Report



To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
A few years ago, Netflix came to the astute realization that it needed to amass a large library of original content. The brilliance of Netflixs decision here was two-fold. For starters, original content helps Netflix bring more subscribers into the fold. Second, a vast library of original content helps lessen the companys reliance upon third-parties who  thanks to the growing influence Netflix wields  are understandably wary of the threat Netflix poses.

Consequently, Netflix has been spending insane amounts of money on developing and acquiring original content, not to mention licensing content from third-parties. In 2017 alone, Netflix spent approximately $7 billion on content. And just a few months ago, Netflix signaled that it may spend as much as $8 billion on content by the time 2018 draws to a close.

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With Netflix easily outspending most other media entities on the planet when it comes to content-based spending, the streaming-giant is now looking to raise some debt to help with its spending efforts.

The companys press release reads in part:

Netflix intends to use the net proceeds from this offering for general corporate purposes, which may include content acquisitions, production and development, capital expenditures, investments, working capital and potential acquisitions and strategic transactions.

It of course stands to reason that Netflix will use the bulk of any cash raised to fund its ambitious content goals. Notably, this isnt the first time Netflix has used debt to raise capital quickly. Over the past 18 months alone, the company has raised approximately $3.5 billion via other debt offerings.

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See the original version of this article on BGR.com
Nokia Corporation NOK is scheduled to report first-quarter 2018 financial results before the opening bell on Apr 26. The company is likely to report higher revenues backed by healthy growth dynamics.



Whether this could result in higher earnings for the quarter remains to be seen.



Factors at Play



Nokia remains poised to benefit from four strategic priorities. The first is to lead in high-performance end-to-end networks with its communication service provider customers. The second is its relentless pursuit to expand network sales. Building a strong standalone software business remains the third. The fourth is aimed at creating new business and licensing opportunities in the consumer ecosystem.



With focused approach on its strategic priorities, Nokia is likely to record higher revenues in first quarter. The companys total revenues for the quarter are expected to be $6,271 million, up from $5,730 million reported in the year-earlier quarter.



During the quarter, Nokia signed an agreement with T-Mobile and Intel on 5G network to introduce a 28 GHz outdoor 5G commercial radio system on air in Bellevue, WA. The collaboration supports the companies objective to uplift standards, facilitate the 5G ecosystem of chipsets and devices and provide the best network experience to Un-carrier customers. The company also inked a five-year contract with Tele2 to aid its enterprise customers with a smooth delivery of IoT (Internet of Things) services. The provision will be based on Nokia's worldwide IoT network grid (WING), a one-stop-shop IoT managed facility including a pre-integrated global IoT core network, connectivity management and dedicated IoT operations. Such collaborations are likely to lead to top-line growth in the quarter.



However, Nokia has significant operations outside the United States. Given its international presence, the company remains exposed to geopolitical turmoil, which might impact its profitability in the quarter.



Earnings Whispers



Our proven model does not conclusively show that Nokia is likely to beat estimates this quarter. This is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen. But that is not the case here as elaborated below.



Zacks ESP: Nokia has an Earnings ESP of -10.00%. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before theyre reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Story continues





Nokia Corporation Price and EPS Surprise

Nokia Corporation Price and EPS Surprise | Nokia Corporation Quote

Zacks Rank: Nokia has a Zacks Rank #3, which increases the predictive power of ESP. However, the companys negative ESP acts as a spoiler.



We caution against all Sell-rated stocks (#4 or 5) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.



Stocks to Consider



Here are some companies that you may want to consider, as our model shows that these have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter:



Twitter, Inc. TWTR has an Earnings ESP of +12.50% and a Zacks Rank #1. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.



The Brink's Company BCO has an Earnings ESP of +5.25% and a Zacks Rank #2.



Merit Medical Systems, Inc. MMSI has an Earnings ESP of +4.05% and a Zacks Rank #2.



Will You Make a Fortune on the Shift to Electric Cars?



Here's another stock idea to consider. Much like petroleum 150 years ago, lithium power may soon shake the world, creating millionaires and reshaping geo-politics. Soon electric vehicles (EVs) may be cheaper than gas guzzlers. Some are already reaching 265 miles on a single charge.



With battery prices plummeting and charging stations set to multiply, one company stands out as the #1 stock to buy according to Zacks research.



It's not the one you think.



See This Ticker Free >>



Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report



Twitter, Inc. (TWTR) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Nokia Corporation (NOK) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Merit Medical Systems, Inc. (MMSI) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Brink's Company (The) (BCO) : Free Stock Analysis Report



To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
Emergency personnel monitor the damaged engine of Southwest Airlines Flight 1380, which diverted to Philadelphia International Airport after the engine blew apart and shattered a window, killing one passenger, on a runway in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 17, 2018. REUTERS/Mark Makela

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Southwest Airlines Co <LUV.N> canceled more flights on Monday as it worked to complete inspections of engines like the one that failed last week in a deadly accident over Pennsylvania.

Flightaware.com, a website that tracks aviation cancellations, said Southwest canceled 129 flights on Monday, or 3 percent of its total flights, and delayed 468 other flights, or 11 percent. By contrast, other major U.S. carriers had each canceled four or fewer flights on Monday, the website said.

Southwest said the cancellations were the result of the companys announcement last Tuesday that it would begin voluntarily stepping up inspections of some CFM56-7B engines over the next 30 days. The airline said on Sunday it canceled about 40 flights.

It said on Monday it anticipated "minimal delays or cancellations each day due to the inspections."

The company added it "will continue our work to minimize flight disruptions by performing inspections overnight while aircraft are not flying, and utilizing spare aircraft, when available."

The Federal Aviation Administration and European regulators ordered emergency inspections within 20 days of nearly 700 aircraft engines similar to the one involved in the fatal Southwest engine blowout.

Southwest said the cancellations were not a result of the emergency directive. The engine explosion on Southwest flight 1380 on Tuesday was caused by a fan blade that broke off, the FAA said. The blast shattered a window, killing a passenger, in the first U.S. airline passenger fatality since 2009. Southwest has declined to answer questions about its CFM56-7B inspection program, including how many engines were inspected before the accident, and if the engine that failed had been inspected and if the new inspections turned up any problems.

The FAA said on Friday the "unsafe condition" was "likely to exist or develop in other products of the same type design." A Southwest flight in August 2016 made a safe emergency landing in Pensacola, Florida, after a fan blade separated from the same type of engine and debris ripped a hole above the left wing prompting two service bulletins from engine manufacturer CFM International, a joint venture co-owned by General Electric Co <GE.N> and Frances Safran SA <SAF.PA>.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Peter Cooney)
Former Presidents George W. Bush, left, and George H.W. Bush arrive at St. Martin's Episcopal Church for a funeral service for former first lady Barbara Bush, Saturday, April 21, 2018, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip )

HOUSTON (AP)  Former President George H.W. Bush was "responding and recovering" to treatment at a Houston hospital on Tuesday for an infection that had spread to his blood, according to a family spokesman.

Bush has been hospitalized since Sunday, a day after attending the funeral of his wife, Barbara, who died last week at age 92. The couple was married 73 years, longer than any other U.S. presidential couple.

In a brief post on Twitter, family spokesman Jim McGrath said he could "happily" echo his report from Monday that the 93-year-old former president was "responding to treatments and appears to be recovering."

George H.W. Bush had used a wheelchair and an electric scooter for mobility since developing a form of Parkinson's disease, and he has needed hospital treatment several times in recent years for respiratory problems and other infections.

McGrath wouldn't elaborate Tuesday on the specifics of Bush's condition, saying only that he would issue updates "when we have something to update." Late Monday, McGrath described Bush as eager to get well so he could get to his summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine.

"He's the most goal-oriented person on this planet," McGrath said. "I wouldn't bet against him."

A year ago this month, the nation's 41st president spent two weeks in the hospital for treatment of pneumonia and chronic bronchitis, a constant irritation of the lining of tubes that carry air to one's lungs. His doctors said chronic bronchitis is a condition more prevalent with age and can aggravate the symptoms of pneumonia. Bush was also hospitalized, for 16 days, in January 2017 for pneumonia. During that hospital stay, which included time in intensive care, doctors inserted a breathing tube and connected him to a ventilator.

He was hospitalized in 2015 in Maine after falling at home and breaking a bone in his neck. In December 2014, he was hospitalized for about a week for shortness of breath, and he spent Christmas 2012 in intensive care for a bronchitis-related cough and other issues.

Story continues

People in their 90s with Parkinson's disease are often at higher risk of pneumonia and other infections because their swallowing process can be compromised, said Dr. David Reuben, a professor of geriatric medicine at the UCLA medical school in Los Angeles.

"And the stress of losing a loved one can weaken the immune system," he said.

Bacterial infections are treated with antibiotics, he said, while viral infections require other treatments. Infections that spread to the blood usually are not viral, however, he said.

The prognosis for such a case would depend on several factors, including heart rate, blood pressure and oxygenation, Reuben said.

"The more of these parameters are abnormal, the more serious the case is," he said.

George H. W. Bush served as president from 1989 to 1993. Born on June 12, 1924, in Milton, Massachusetts, Bush also served as a Texas congressman, CIA director and Ronald Reagan's vice president.

Related Video: George H.W. Bush Hospitalized with Blood Infection

Watch news, TV and more on Yahoo View.



___

Associated Press reporter Terry Wallace contributed to this story from Dallas.
President Trump signs executive orders at the White House in Washington U.S. President Donald Trump holds up the executive order on withdrawal from the Trans Pacific Partnership after signing it as White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus stands at his side in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington January 23, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/Files

By David Chance and Tetsushi Kajimoto

WASHINGTON/TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said the United States would only join the Trans Pacific Partnership, a multinational trade deal his administration walked away from last year, if it offered "substantially better" terms than those provided under previous negotiations.

His comments, made on Twitter late Thursday, came only hours after he had unexpectedly indicated the United States might rejoin the landmark pact, and amid heightened volatility in financial markets as Washington locked horns with China in a bitter trade dispute.

Trump had told Republican senators earlier in the day that he had asked United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow to re-open negotiations.

In his Twitter post, which came during Asian trading hours, Trump said the United States would "only join TPP if the deal were substantially better than the deal offered to Pres. Obama. We already have BILATERAL deals with six of the eleven nations in TPP, and are working to make a deal with the biggest of those nations, Japan, who has hit us hard on trade for years!"

Policymakers in the Asia-Pacific region on Friday responded to the possibility of the U.S. rejoining the trade deal with scepticism.

"If it's true, I would welcome it," Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso told reporters after a cabinet meeting on Friday and before Trump's tweet. Aso added that the facts needed to be verified.

Trump "is a person who could change temperamentally, so he may say something different the next day", Aso said.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, commenting after Trump's tweet, said it would be "great" to have the U.S. back in the pact though doubted it would happen.

"Were certainly not counting on it, Turnbull told reporters in Adelaide in South Australia.

The TPP, which now comprises 11 nations, was designed to cut trade barriers in some of the fastest-growing economies of the Asia-Pacific region and to counter China's rising economic and diplomatic clout.

Story continues

Trump, who opposed multilateral trade pacts in his election campaign in 2016 and criticised the TPP as a "horrible deal", pulled the U.S. out of the pact in early 2017. He argued bilateral deals offered better terms for U.S. businesses and workers, and signalled an intention to raise trade barriers.

But Trump is struggling to get support from other countries for his recent threat to impose import tariffs on China and the U.S. farm lobby is arguing that retaliation by China would hit American agricultural exports.

Trade experts believe Trump is probably trying to placate his political base in the wake of criticism over the U.S.-China China tariff standoff.

"Well I think you have to take it seriously but I think there is an enormous chance that this is simply posturing or a tactical decision taken to placate concerned governors and senators from agricultural states that could be affected by China imposing tariffs," said Charles Finny, a Wellington-based trade consultant and a former New Zealand government trade negotiator.

"I think it's very important for people to realize, particularly given this most recent tweet, if there is a negotiation it will not be an easy one. It will take a long time and also there is huge risk around ratification."

NEW PROCESS

Even before Trump's official withdrawal last year, U.S. participation in the pact was seen as increasingly unlikely due to opposition in the U.S. Congress.

The United States entered TPP negotiations in 2008. In 2016, then President Barack Obama's administration abandoned attempts to push the pact through Congress.

The other 11 countries forged ahead with their own agreement without U.S. participation, and in the process eliminated chapters on investment, government procurement and intellectual property that were key planks of Washington's demands.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, noting the progress made by the 11 countries after Trump abandoned the deal, also flagged challenges to the Untied States rejoining the pact.

"If the United States, it turns out, do genuinely wish to rejoin, that triggers a whole new process," she told reporters in Auckland.

"There would be another process and so, at this stage we are talking hypotheticals."

The 11-member pact includes Mexico and Canada, which are in the process of re-negotiating the terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement with the United States.

A Canadian government official said on Thursday there had not been any formal outreach from the United States about the pact.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will meet Trump next week. Japan, a close U.S. ally, is a member of the TPP.

(Reporting by David Chance, Patricia Zengerle and David Brunnstrom in WASHINGTON, David Ljunggren in OTTAWA, Tetsushi Kajimoto in TOKYO and Charlotte Greenfield in WELLINGTON, Brendan O'Brien in MILWAUKEE; Writing by Shri Navaratnam; Editing by Sam Holmes)
(Updates with more details)

By Steve Holland and Marine Pennetier

WASHINGTON, April 24 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron pledged on Tuesday to seek stronger measures to contain Iran but Trump refrained from committing to staying in a 2015 nuclear deal and threatened Tehran with retaliation if it restarted its nuclear program.

At a joint news conference with Macron, Trump kept up his blistering rhetoric against the nuclear accord between Iran and world powers that the U.S. president says does not address Tehran's rising influence in the Middle East or its ballistic missile program. He called it insane, terrible and ridiculous.

"This is a deal with decayed foundations," Trump said. "It's a bad deal. It's falling down."

With a May 12 deadline looming for Trump to decide on restoring U.S. economic sanctions on Tehran, Macron said he spoke to Trump about a "new deal" in which the United States and Europe would address the outstanding concerns about Iran beyond its nuclear program.

Macron is using a three-day state visit to the United States, in a high-stakes bid to salvage the Iran nuclear deal, which many in the West see as the best hope of preventing Iran from getting a nuclear bomb and heading off a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.

Under Macron's proposal, the United States and Europe would agree to block any Iranian nuclear activity until 2025 and beyond, address Iran's ballistic missile program and generate conditions for a political solution to contain Iran in Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.

It was unclear whether Macron made substantial progress in his efforts to prevent Trump from pulling out of the 2015 deal, and Trump stressed there would be repercussions should Iran restart its nuclear program.

"If Iran threatens us in any way, they will pay a price like few countries have ever paid," Trump said.

But Trump said, "We will have a great shot at doing a much bigger, 'maybe deal, maybe not' deal." The French believe progress had been made.

Story continues

What was important and new this morning was that President Trump was OK with putting on the table, with France, the idea of a new agreement that should be proposed to and worked on with the Iranians," a French official said.

It was unclear what this would mean for the fate of the 2015 accord and whether the other countries such as China and Russia that signed it would agree to any new measures against Iran.

A source familiar with the internal debate at the White House said one option under discussion was giving Europe more time to toughen the current Iran deal's terms.

Iran has said it will ramp up its nuclear program if the deal collapses and a senior Iranian official said on Tuesday that Tehran might quit a treaty designed to stop the spread of nuclear weapons if Trump scraps the agreement.

BACK SLAPPING

Trump and Macron have developed a remarkably strong relationship at a time when many European leaders have kept a certain distance from Trump.

On Tuesday evening, the Trumps are to host the Macrons at the first state dinner conducted by Trump since he took power in January, 2017. Macron's visit will be followed by one on Friday from German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Trump, 71, and Macron, 40, were remarkably chummy, repeatedly shaking hands, slapping each other's backs and extolling each other's friendship.

At one point Trump brushed dandruff from Macron's suit coat, saying: "We have to make him perfect -- he is perfect.

Macron hopes to leverage their friendship into progress on not only Iran but exempting Europe from steel tariffs, and protecting the 2016 Paris climate accord.

Their talks also covered the U.S. presence in Syria weeks after the United States, France and Britain launched airstrikes in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack blamed on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Trump wants to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria, believing Islamic State militants are largely defeated, but Macron and other allies argue they should stay to ensure militants do not resurface and to block Iran from strengthening its foothold there.

Macron urged Trump to keep U.S. forces in Syria for the time being.

Trump did not promise to leave the troops in Syria but made clear they would not be withdrawn imminently.

"We want to come home. We'll be coming home. But we want to leave a strong and lasting footprint," Trump said.

The two leaders also discussed European calls for exemptions from Trump's plan for 25 percent tariffs on steel imports. Trump said chronic trade deficits with U.S. allies around the world are "unacceptable." (Writing by Steve Holland Additional reporting by Jeff Mason, Doina Chiacu, Makini Brice and Roberta Rampton Editing by Yara Bayoumy and Alistair Bell)
Investors in search of dividend income will quickly notice that ExxonMobil Corporation's (NYSE: XOM) 3.9% yield dwarfs the 1.8% dividend yield offered by ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP). That, however, isn't the biggest reason dividend investors should prefer Exxon stock. Here's what you need to know to understand why Exxon is a better dividend stock than ConocoPhillips.

The business models

Exxon is an integrated oil major, with operations in oil production, chemicals, and refining. The basic idea behind this diversification is that when Exxon's upstream production operations are struggling because of low oil prices, the downstream chemicals and refining businesses will be benefiting from lower input costs. Although these are smaller operations, they help to smooth out the ups and downs of the commodity cycle that has such a huge impact on the oil business.

A man writing in a notebook with an oil well in the background

Image source: Getty Images.

This was on clear display during the oil downturn that started in mid-2014. In 2015, earnings after taxes in Exxon's upstream business fell a painful 75% going from $27.5 billion in 2014 to just $7.1 billion on lower oil prices. The chemicals business held up well, growing earnings by around 2% to $4.4 billion. The star, though, was the refining business, which saw earnings double from $3.1 billion to $6.6 billion, largely due to the lower cost of oil. To be fair, the upstream business is by far the largest of this trio today and has a disproportionate impact on results, but the other operations clearly help to smooth Exxon's performance over time.

ConocoPhillips, on the other hand, just producer oil. That dates back to the 2012 spin-off of Phillips 66, which took the company's downstream assets with it. This move turned an integrated oil company into a pure-play producer. Supporting and growing the dividend are key goals of the company, but the commodity-driven oil business presents a problem on that front.

Slow and steady wins the race

Story continues

Following the spin-off of Phillips 66, ConocoPhillips was paying a quarterly dividend per share of $0.66. As oil prices started to rise into mid-2014, ConocoPhillips increased the dividend. Even after the oil price drop, the dividend continued to rise until it hit $0.74 a share in the third quarter of 2015. It held at that level until the end of the year. And then the dividend was cut 66% in the first quarter of 2016. Low oil prices simply made supporting the higher level too difficult for an oil producer without offsetting businesses to shoulder some of the burden. To give you an idea of how bad it was, revenues fell roughly 45% in 2015, with earnings dipping deep into negative territory.

COP Dividend Per Share (Quarterly) Chart

COP Dividend Per Share (Quarterly) data by YCharts.

ExxonMobil, on the other hand, remained profitable throughout the downturn despite the impact of falling oil prices, and it increased its dividend each year. Its annual dividend streak is up to an incredible 35 years. The cyclical oil industry has seen many ups and downs over that 35-year span, so the long history of rewarding investors with annual dividend increases speaks to the stability of Exxon's approach. Indeed, management is focused on running the business with a conservative approach, including a rock-solid balance sheet (even during the worst of the oil downturn, long-term debt never accounted for more than 15% of the capital structure).

The next downturn?

Oil prices have recovered and stabilized, allowing ConocoPhillips to start increasing its dividend again. It upped the payment 6% in 2017 and 7.5% in early 2018. Investors appear pleased, having pushed the stock up 36% over the past year, increasing its price to tangible book value to the high end of its historical range. That makes some sense, since it's something of a pure play on the price of oil today, and oil prices have been improving. In fact, more dividend hikes are probably in the cards for now -- at least until oil prices stumble again. At that point, investors will need to worry if oil-focused ConocoPhillips can support the dividend through the downturn.

Slow-moving ExxonMobil, on the other hand, has seen its shares stagnate over the past year despite rising oil prices. Its price to tangible book value has tumbled to levels not seen since the 1980s. With a yield at the high end of its historical range, it is a compelling dividend stock today. But what really makes it a better dividend stock than ConocoPhillips is the ability to grow the dividend even during an oil downturn, which is in no small part a function of its conservative, diversified business approach.

More From The Motley Fool

Reuben Gregg Brewer owns shares of ExxonMobil. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
So far, Atlanta's ransomware costs top $2.6 million

Atlanta has spent $2.6 million recovering from a ransomware attack that demanded a roughly $51,000 payment.

The March 22 attack encrypted data across computers in Atlanta's city government offices, affecting which affected various internal and customer facing applications, including those in the Police Department, Watershed Management, Procurement, City Planning, Public Works, Human Resources, ATL311, the Municipal Courts, Correction and Parks and Recreation.

Atlanta's procurement website showed that, as of April 24, the city's Information Management Agency, the Municipal Courts and the Department of Law had paid $2.6 million to eight vendors. SecureWorks received $650,000 for emergency incident response services; the city paid $730,000 to Fyrsoft for Microsoft cloud, Active Directory and Windows 10 support; and $600,000 went to Ernst and Young for advisory services related to cyber incident response.

And while a $2.6 million bill is enough to make any CIO queasy, it's not an exorbitant amount, according to Chris Duvall, senior director of the Chertoff Group, which specializes in risk management. The city probably had to pay not just for remediation, but also insurance claims, privacy monitoring and missed services, he told Wired. Overtime, crisis communications, legal consulting and lost productivity will have added to the bill.

The ransom was never paid, Atlanta city spokesperson Michael Smith confirmed to ZDNet in an email. Had it paid the ransom, it would like never have discovered how the attackers got in and moved through agency networks, a chief information security officer told the news site.

That stand will likely help the city bolster its overall cybersecurity posture, and the remediation costs will likely move cybersecurity -- including zero-trust policies, segmented networks, ongoing maintenance, secure storage and patch management -- to the top of the agenda in future city business meetings.

"The ROI is clear, consider the costs and material loss of your company going down for a day, versus shifting priorities to give your engineers more time to manage patches properly," Yonathan Klijnsma, a threat researcher with a digital threat management firm RiskIQ, said after the attack. "Its not a good time to roll the dice.

As bad as the attack was, the city's cloud-first strategy may have mitigated some of its effects, interim CIO Daphne Rackley said in a press conference shortly after the attack. She said the city had been migrating some of its major systems to the cloud to increase their security.

But even cloud-based systems need backup. Organizations that "leverage cloud services without backup are especially vulnerable, since they often replace redundant infrastructure, portals or data storage," said John Hodges, VP of product strategy at software vendor AvePoint.

"This underscores the need to understand the data you hold to avoid redundant storage," Hodges said. "Keeping the business going is now a matter of rollback (loss of a small amount of work), or a minor inconvenience (redirecting to a new system) and not a catastrophic loss of access, as it was in this case."
BAAR-ZUG, Switzerland, and BOSTON, April 17, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Charlesbank Capital Partners ("Charlesbank") and Partners Group, the global private markets investment manager, acting on behalf of its clients, have agreed to acquire Hearthside Food Solutions ("Hearthside" or "the Company"), the largest independent bakery in the US, in partnership with management. The Company is being acquired from Goldman Sachs and Vestar Capital Partners.



Headquartered in Downers Grove, Illinois, Hearthside produces a broad range of high-quality nutrition bars, cookies, cereals and other baked foods and snacks for some of the world's premier food brands. It operates 25 manufacturing facilities across the US and Europe and employs around 7,900 people.

Following the investment, Partners Group and Charlesbank will work closely with Hearthside's management team, led by Rich Scalise, on a number of value creation initiatives. These will be focused on promoting organic growth by providing customers with an even wider range of innovative product solutions, executing select add-on acquisitions to further expand the business into adjacent industries and geographies, and optimizing existing manufacturing processes.

Rich Scalise, Co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Hearthside, comments: "By combining flexibility and innovation with quality and scale, we have been able to achieve our vision of transforming Hearthside into one of the leading and fastest-growing companies in the food industry. Today, we are delighted to be welcoming Partners Group and Charlesbank as partners for the next chapter of our success story and would like to thank Goldman and Vestar for their valuable partnership over the last few years."

Chris Russell, Managing Director, Private Equity Americas, Partners Group, states: "Under Rich Scalise's leadership, Hearthside has revolutionized food contract manufacturing, bringing scale to the industry. We see strong potential for the Company to continue on its growth path as its business model is supported by global transformative trends, such as increased outsourcing, which show no signs of flagging. We look forward to working with Rich and the rest of the Hearthside team."

Ryan Carroll, Managing Director, Charlesbank, adds: "We are thrilled to partner with Rich and his team as they embark on the next chapter of Hearthside's growth. The track record they've established since founding the Company in 2009 is truly impressive. Further, we know from our extensive experience in the industry that Hearthside has a reputation for providing the highest levels of service and quality to its customers, many of whom have worked with the Company for years. We look forward to building on this legacy."

Ropes & Gray, Goodwin Procter and Latham & Watkins acted as legal advisors, KPMG and PwC as financial advisors and Jefferies as M&A advisor to Charlesbank and Partners Group.

Davis Polk acted as legal advisor, and Barclays and Goldman Sachs acted as financial advisors to Hearthside.

About Charlesbank Capital Partners

Based in Boston and New York, Charlesbank Capital Partners is a middle-market private equity investment firm managing more than $5 billion of capital. Charlesbank focuses on management-led buyouts and growth capital financings and also engages in opportunistic credit investments. The firm seeks to partner with strong management teams to build companies with sustainable competitive advantage and excellent prospects for growth. For more information, please visit www.charlesbank.com.

About Partners Group

Partners Group is a global private markets investment management firm with over EUR 62 billion (USD 74 billion) in investment programs under management in private equity, private real estate, private infrastructure and private debt. The firm manages a broad range of customized portfolios for an international clientele of institutional investors. Partners Group is headquartered in Zug, Switzerland and has offices in Denver, Houston, New York, Sao Paulo, London, Guernsey, Paris, Luxembourg, Milan, Munich, Dubai, Mumbai, Singapore, Manila, Shanghai, Seoul, Tokyo and Sydney. The firm employs over 1,000 people and is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (symbol: PGHN) with a major ownership by its partners and employees. www.partnersgroup.com

Partners Group investor relations contact

Philip Sauer

Phone: +41 41 784 66 60

Email: philip.sauer@partnersgroup.com

Media relations contacts

Charlesbank Capital Partners

Maura Turner

Phone: +1 617-619-5457

Email: mturner@charlesbank.com

Partners Group

Jenny Blinch

Phone: +44 207 575 2571

Email: jenny.blinch@partnersgroup.com
TORONTO, April 23, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Blockchain Power Trust (Blockchain Power or the Trust) (TSXV:BPWR.UN) is pleased to announce that it has acquired 1,550 cryptocurrency mining units from a major cryptocurrency chip manufacturer, representing an aggregate of 21.7 petahash per second (PH/s) of combined hashing power at a net purchase price of US$81,000 per petahash. The equipment has arrived in Romania and is expected to be commissioned at the beginning of May 2018. In addition, the previously acquired Hashtank H40 is currently undergoing testing by the manufacturer and is expected to be delivered to Romania and fully commissioned by the end of the second quarter of 2018, bringing the Trusts aggregate installed petahash to 27.8 PH/s.



Blockchain Power is also pleased to report that production of its renewable energy projects for the year ended December 31, 2017 was an aggregate 71,849 MWh, representing an increase of 61% and 146%, respectively, over the 44,560 MWh produced in the year ended December 31, 2016 and 29,178 MWh produced in the year ended December 31, 2015. Production for the first quarter of 2018 was 45,353 MWh compared to 19,570 MWh in the same period of 2017, an increase of 132%.

J. Colter Eadie, Chief Executive Officer of Blockchain Power commented, We are very pleased with the progress we have made so far to expand into the cryptocurrency mining space and look forward to integrating cryptocurrency mining operations with our existing renewable power generation platform to further diversify the Trusts revenues.

We are also pleased with the energy production achieved in 2017 and the first quarter of 2018, which is in line with our expectations for our portfolio of green energy assets. We look forward to leveraging our knowledge of renewable energy operations and experience with delivering large scale infrastructure projects to continue to execute our leading-edge cryptocurrency strategy. The Trust continues to survey the market for accretive acquisition opportunities for both energy and cryptocurrency assets.

For further information please contact:

Ravi Sood

Chairman

+1 647-987-7663

rsood@blockchainpower.com J. Colter Eadie

Chief Executive Officer

+351 938 810 979

jceadie@blockchainpower.com Betty Soares

Chief Financial Officer

+1 416-803-6760

bsoares@blockchainpower.com

About Blockchain Power

The Trust, through its direct and indirect subsidiaries in Canada, the Netherlands and Romania, has been formed to acquire interests in renewable energy assets in Romania, other countries in Europe and abroad that can provide stable cash flow to the Trust and a suitable risk-adjusted return on investment. The Trust seeks to provide investors with long-term, stable distributions, while preserving the capital value of its investment portfolio through investment, principally in a range of operational assets, which generate electricity from renewable energy sources, with a particular focus on solar and hydro power. The Trust intends to qualify as a mutual fund trust under the Income Tax Act (Canada) (the Tax Act). The Trust will not be a SIFT trust (as defined in the Tax Act), provided that the Trust complies at all times with its investment restriction which precludes the Trust from holding any non-portfolio property (as defined in the Tax Act). All material information about the Trust may be found under Blockchain Powers issuer profile at www.sedar.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this press release contain forward-looking information. Such forward-looking information may be identified by words such as anticipates, plans, proposes, estimates, intends, expects, believes, may and will. The forward-looking statements are founded on the basis of expectations and assumptions made by the Trust. Details of the risk factors relating to Blockchain Power and its business are discussed under the heading Risks and Uncertainties in Blockchain Powers annual managements discussion & analysis dated May 3, 2017 and Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2016, a copy of each is available on Blockchain Powers SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. Most of these factors are outside the control of the Trust. Investors are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking information. These statements speak only as of the date of this press release. Except as otherwise required by applicable securities statutes or regulation, Blockchain Power expressly disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Neither the TSXV nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
English French

2017: strong performance combining growth of both revenue and profitability

Revenue: +43% - 274.5 M

Adjusted EBITDA (1) : +46% - 25.3 M, 9.2% of revenue

Net income Group share: +51% - 12.5 M, 4.6% of revenue

2018: outlook confirmed for profitable, double-digit growth

The Supervisory Board of SOLUTIONS 30, a leader in Europe for Solutions for New Technologies and Connected Objects, met under the chairmanship of Jean-Marie Descarpentries, examining and validating the consolidated financial statements for the 2017 financial year, ended on 31 December, approved by Executive Management.

 million 31/12/2017 31/12/2016 Change Revenue 274.5 191.8 +43% Adjusted EBITDA(1) 25.3 17.3 +46% As a % of revenue 9.2% 9.0% Adjusted EBIT(2) 20.6 14.1 +46% As a % of revenue 7.5% 7.3% Net profit/(loss) from consolidated companies (3) 14.1 9.5 +48% As a % of revenue 5.1% 5.0% Net income Group share 12.5 8.3 +51% As a % of revenue 4.6% 4.3% Structural financial data 31/12/2017 31/12/2016 Change Equity 59.6 37.5 +22.1m Net debt 24.7 20.6 +4.1m Interest Coverage Ratio(4) 7.6x 11.7x -

(1) Current operating profit (*) before depreciation, amortisation and provisions, net of reversals

(2) Current operating profit before amortisation of intangible assets, including customer relations.

(3) Before amortisation of goodwill

(4) EBIT/net financial expense - Interest coverage ratio of financial expense net by EBIT

(*) Are considered non recurring transactions: income and expense, which is significant in terms of its amount, uncommon in its type or category and infrequent.

Gianbeppi Fortis, Chairman of the Executive Board, said:

"SOLUTIONS 30 will have more than doubled in size in two years, from 125m in revenue in 2015 to 274m in 2017, and growth in 2018 looks set to continue strongly. The 2017 financial year demonstrated this robust growth momentum, which is the result of an offensive strategy combining internal growth and targeted acquisitions, in order to secure quickly the positions of our Group in its markets. On the back of a strengthened financial structure and solid fundamentals, we approach 2018 with confidence and expect another record year in a market environment that remains favourable."

Karim Rachedi, Chief Operating Officer, said:

"The 2017 financial year was marked by strong growth in our business activities in France and the successful integration of our acquisitions in Germany, which is now the Group's 2nd market, and in Benelux. At the same time our profitability has improved because the larger size of our operations in certain geographies allows us to better absorb our fixed costs and improve the efficiency of our field force."

43% growth in 2017 revenue

In 2017, SOLUTIONS 30 recorded 43% growth in its revenue (27% at constant scope). Revenue ended at 274.5m versus 191.8m a year earlier. SOLUTIONS 30 continued its selective acquisitions policy with the consolidation, in Germany, of ABM Communication (January) and VKDFS (June), and, in France, of Fujitsu's field services business activities (July).

In France, revenue reached 177.9m, versus 133.4m a year earlier, i.e. growth of +33% (+30% organic). The financial year was marked by further acceleration in fibre optic installations and the deployment of a new batch of Linky metres, particularly in the last quarter.

International revenue came out at 96.6m, i.e. 35% of total revenue, and grew 66% (+22% at constant scope). This performance was particularly owing to Germany, where SOLUTIONS 30 signed three major contracts in the second half of the year, which is now the Group's 2nd region, followed by Benelux, Italy and Spain. The Group has a solid platform in Europe on which to replicate its French growth model.

46% growth in adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBIT

Adjusted EBITDA stood at 25.3m, i.e. 9.2% of revenue, up 46% versus 2016. Direct operating costs were up 43% and accounted for 79.3% of revenue in 2017, versus 79.4% a year earlier. This good management of operational expenses in a context of strong growth, shows the capability of the Group to improve continuously its efficiency. The costs of the central departments represent 11.5% of revenue in 2017 versus 11.6% in 2016 thus demonstrating the commitment of SOLUTIONS 30's management to keep central costs under control.

Adjusted EBIT ended at 20.6M, up 46%. It includes 4.7M in operating amortisation relating to the S30.net software platform and the equipment used by Group technicians.

The financial result changed from (1.2)m in 2016 to (1.6)m in 2017, including 0.2m in non recurring expense linked to the implementation, at the start of the year, of a structured financing securing the Group's external growth policy.

Tax expense ended at (1.7)m versus (1.3)m in 2016 and amortisation of goodwill at (3.9)m in 2017 versus (1.5)m in 2016. Non-recurring items of 0.7m versus 0.3m a year earlier are mainly from the recognition of customer relations in the acquisitions of the year and costs related to the reorganisation of the German subsidiaries.

Net profit reached 14.1m versus 9.5m a year earlier and net income (Group share) ended at 12.5m, up 51%.

A solid financial structure

At 31 December 2017, equity group share stood at 59.6m, versus  37.5m at 31 December 2016 and net debt stood at 24.7m (less than 1 time adjusted EBITDA) versus 20.6m a year earlier.

With a gearing (net debt to equity) of 41%, and a coverage ratio of net financial expense by adjusted EBIT of 7.6 times, the Group has the required room for manoeuvre to pursue its growth strategy.

Appointment of three new members within the Supervisory Board

At its last meeting, the Supervisory Board co-opted two new members: Paul Raguin, Chairman of the Supervisory Board for Eolane, which specialises in the design and production of connected objects and Jean-Paul Cottet, a former member of Orange's executive committee. The Supervisory Board will propose to the Shareholders Meeting of 18 May to nominate also Laurence Vanhee, a Belgian citizen, who is a human resources specialist and founder of Happyformance. Their appointments strengthen S3O's Supervisory Board's skill set and bring complementary expertise in terms of strategic marketing, human capital management and organisation.

Highly robust growth outlook remains for 2018

Thanks to a solid skill set across a range of sectors and strong leadership, SOLUTIONS 30 is in an ideal position to seize growth opportunities in its markets and continue its offensive growth strategy. The Group benefits from several growth drivers: the spread of digital across all sectors of the economy, a strong tendency towards outsourcing service activities and a highly fragmented European market in which SOLUTIONS 30 has become the natural market consolidator. At the same time, and to continue its strategy combining growth and profitability, the Group has secured its business model and its ability to execute whilst maintaining rigorous cost management to absorb the ramp-up of its contracts.

Thus, in 2018, SOLUTIONS 30 is expected to witness another excellent year of robust and profitable growth, driven by new contracts signed throughout 2017 and new projects under discussion.

Jean-Marie Descarpentries, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, concluded: "On behalf of the Supervisory Board, I would like to thank SOLUTIONS 30's customers for their continued loyalty and extend my warm congratulations to the Executive Board, the Managers and all of our Employees as well as the main referenced subcontractors for another financial year of remarkable progress."

Next key dates:

14 May 2018 Q1 2018 revenue

24 July 2018 Q2 and 1st half 2018 revenue

24 September 2018 2018 half-year results

6 November 2018 Q3 2018 revenue

Publication after the close of the Euronext Growth and XETRA markets, i.e. at 8:00pm CET.

About SOLUTIONS 30

The SOLUTIONS 30 Group is Europe's leading provider of Solutions for New Technologies. Its mission is to grant individuals and businesses alike access to technological changes that transform our daily lives: computers and the Internet in the past, today's digital changes, and future technology that will make the world ever more connected in real time. Since its founding, the Group has handled more than 10 million service calls by drawing on a network of 4,000 regional technicians. SOLUTIONS 30 currently covers the whole of France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Spain. SOLUTIONS 30 S.E.'s capital comprises 24,179,812 shares, with an identical number of theoretical and exercisable voting rights.

Solutions 30 S.E. is listed on the Alternext market (ISIN FR0013188844 - code ALS30), eligible for the PEA-PME share savings plan, and on the Frankfurt stock exchange on the Xetra electronic system (ISIN FR0013188844 - code 30L2)

Indexes: MSCI Europe Small Cap | Tech40 | CAC PME

For more information, go to www.solutions30.com

SOLUTIONS 30 CONTACTS:
SAN FRANCISCO and MUNICH, Germany, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nozomi Networks Inc., the leader in real-time cybersecurity and operational visibility for industrial control systems, (ICS) and SecureLink, the leading independent European cyber security provider, today announced they have partnered to broaden SecureLink Germanys delivery of services to customers in industrial automation, manufacturing, power and building operations industries across Germany, Austria and Switzerland. SecureLink Germany will work with and resell the Nozomi Networks solution.



With cyberthreats on the rise, our industrial enterprise customers are turning to SecureLink to address these threats head on, said SecureLink Germanys General Manager and Chief Technology Officer, Andreas Mertz. Nozomi Networks is a leader in the market when it comes to ICS cybersecurity. Their proven track record of success in some of the most complex industrial operations make them a trusted option for our customer and the strongest possible partner for SecureLink.

Deep knowledge of the complexities of ICS networks, continuous innovation and expertise in artificial intelligence have made Nozomi Networks SCADAguardian the most comprehensive, scalable, and mature product in its category. Now in its third generation of technology, Nozomi Networks is leading the ICS security market with a proven end-to-end platform for ICS cybersecurity and operational reliability. Capabilities include real-time ICS monitoring, industrial network visualization, hybrid ICS threat and anomaly detection, asset inventory and vulnerability assessment, all delivered through a single solution.

SecureLinks advanced security services and managed security services (MSS) are helping clients across Europe with their most complex security challenges across IT and OT environments. Through this reseller agreement with Nozomi Networks, SecureLink Germany is able to offer its customers a proven solution for mapping, monitoring and detecting cyber threats to ICS networks.

SecureLink has a plethora of customers across the German-speaking region of Europe - many with immediate and long-term needs for better protection against advance ICS security threats, said Chet Namboodri, Nozomi Networks vice president of alliances and business development. Weve already been working with SecureLink Germany on solutions for several key customers. This reseller agreement allows us to have an even bigger impact within the industrial and mission-critical sectors that SecureLink serves. We are proud to provide the deep expertise and OT-focused technologies that SecureLink and its customers require.

About Nozomi Networks

Nozomi Networks is leading Industrial Control System (ICS) cybersecurity with the most comprehensive platform to deliver real-time cybersecurity and operational visibility. Since 2013 the company has innovated the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence to secure critical infrastructure operations. Deployed across five continents, in hundreds of the worlds largest industrial installations, customers benefit from advanced cybersecurity, improved operational reliability and easy IT/OT integration. Amid escalating threats targeting ICS, Nozomi Networks delivers one solution with real-time ICS monitoring, hybrid threat detection, industrial network visualization, asset inventory, and vulnerability assessment. Nozomi Networks is headquartered in San Francisco, California. www.nozominetworks.com

About SecureLink

SecureLink is powered by a strong combination of artificial and human intelligence driven solutions. We combine market leading technology with years of experience by some of the industrys most talented experts to provide our customers with the services that they need to reduce their risk. The result is a range of superb benefits that together will enable their business. www.securelink.de

SecureLink Germany GMbH press contact:

Grayling Germany

Maria Kutscherow

T: 089 411123 221

E: securelink.de@grayling.com

Nozomi Networks press contact:

jil.backstrom@nozominetworks.com

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Macarthur Minerals Limited (TSX-V:MMS) (the Company or Macarthur) is pleased to provide an update to Shareholders outlining an active first quarter 2018 in the ongoing development of the Companys iron ore projects and the exploration activities across the lithium, gold and nickel/cobalt projects in Western Australia and Nevada, USA.



Mr Cameron McCall, Executive Chairman of Macarthur Minerals commented: The first quarter of 2018 has been an active and productive period for the Company. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc has announced that their Asia Pacific Iron Ore operations will close by June 30, 2018. Macarthur is in a strong position to exploit the mining, logistics and export infrastructure that may become available with the closure of those operations in the Yilgarn region of Western Australia. In preparation for this, the Company has been in discussions with key Union and Government agencies, including the Southern Ports Authority, as well as mining, infrastructure and engineering service companies to refine operational costs. In March 2018, Macarthur commissioned a London based research firm, Hallgarten & Company to complete an internal business investigation plan looking at the infrastructure that may be available from the closure of Cliffs Asia Pacific Iron Ore operations, and the Companys 2012 PFS on the Ularring Hematite Project. This plan indicates that there is potential commercial benefit for development of the Companys iron ore projects. In addition, the Company has commenced discussions with project finance groups and off-take trading partners. I assure you, the Company has been actively preparing on all fronts to ensure the successful development of its iron ore assets.

IRON ORE

Ularring Hematite and Treppo Grande Projects

Macarthurs iron ore portfolio has been expanded with the addition of the Treppo Grande Project, located centrally between the Companys Ularring Hematite Project and existing mining and transport infrastructure (refer to news release February 20, 2018). The projects are located in close proximity to the US based Cleveland-Cliffs Incs (Cliffs) Asia Pacific Iron Ore operations, which is winding down production and export activities with an announced closure date of June 30, 2018. Figure 1 shows the current and potential operations in the Yilgarn region of Western Australia.

The Company has now engaged with port and rail operators, the Western Australian Government and key stakeholders for access to infrastructure and mining services to develop the Companys iron ore assets. The Company has prepared plans for access to rail and port capacity following Cliffs departure from its operations. Gaining access to rail and port capacity has been a major hurdle to overcome before the Company could hold meaningful discussions for development and project financing.

Macarthurs previously announced plans to beneficiate the iron ore resource at its Ularring Hematite Project remains the Companys medium-term plan with initial mining and production focussing on extracting higher grade DSO material to commence production.

GOLD

Hillside Gold Project

The Company acquired 100% of granted exploration license E45/4685 covering an area of 35 km2 in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. E45/4685 forms part of the Companys Hillside Gold Project which covers an area of ~400km2. The Hillside Gold Project, where gold nuggets have been found, is highly prospective. Historical rock chip sampling on the Hillside Gold Project has returned results up to 447 grams per tonne gold and 7.8% copper. A rock chip from a recent reconnaissance visit with Artemis Resources to the Hillside Project returned 8.5 grams per tonne gold.

Geophysical data has been reviewed and a follow-up detailed VTEM geophysical survey at 150m line spacing will be conducted over the two areas covering 125km2. The aim of the survey is to define high priority targets from conductors such as clusters of massive sulphide hosted base metal deposits at depth. This program is scheduled to be completed in May 2018 with subsequent interpretation to define drill targets (Figure 2).

Panorama and Bonnie Scot Gold Projects

As previously announced, Artemis Resources Limited (ASX:ARV) is to earn-in up to 80% interest in the Panorama Project, located in the Pilbara region on Western Australia, consisting of two tenements E45/4779 and E45/4732 covering a total of 265km2. The Panorama Project sits adjacent to Macarthurs tenement E45/4764 (Bonnie Scot) covering a total of 13 km2.

Stream sediment sampling has been completed for the Companys Panorama and Bonnie Scot Gold Projects. The sampling program explored the area for conglomerate gold as mapping shows extensive outcrops of Mt Roe Basalts and Hardey Formation (Figure 3). The samples were submitted to the lab early April 2018 and assays will be available in due course.

NICKEL AND COBALT

Exploration for nickel and cobalt at Lake Giles, in the Yilgarn region, Western Australia (as announced on March 5, 2018), now moves to the next stage of geological investigation with a soil sampling program over the Snark prospect and ground EM surveys over targets prospective for nickel at Snark, Clarke Hill and Moonshine. This program will be targeting areas where nickel, cobalt and massive sulphides have been intersected by historical shallow drilling or as float material (refer to Figure 4.)

In February this year, Macarthur collected five samples of float material from the Snark prospect containing asbolite returning assays up to 2.61% cobalt and 2.01% nickel. The Company has engaged HGS Australia Exploration Services to complete a geochemical soil sampling program at Snark prospect at Lake Giles. A total of 500 samples will be collected across two target areas. Samples will be collected 200x50m spacing at area 1 and 100x50m spacing at area 2 covering a total of 4km2 (Figure 5). Previous soil sampling conducted by Macarthur across the Snark prospect was at 1x1km spacing with one sample assaying 162ppm Cobalt warranting further investigation.

In May 2018, a moving loop EM survey will be completed over identified areas at Snark and at Moonshine (Figure 6). We plan to conduct a 200m spacing ground EM survey covering an area of 3.5 km2. During a comprehensive review of all previous drilling, two holes within the target area intersected anomalous nickel. Intercepts of 128 meters @ 0.17% Ni including 1m @ 0.29% Ni in hole LGRC_0010 and 106 meters @ 0.15% Ni in hole LGRC_0015 and are in close proximity to one another (Figure 7).

Additionally, Macarthur will conduct a 200m spacing ground EM survey covering a total area of 1 km2 (Figure 8). This target area has also been identified as being prospective for nickel sulphide deposits from previous drilling. Anomalous nickel values of 1.4% nickel were detected within the first 30 meters of a 2012 EIS (co-funded) diamond drill hole. The elevated nickel values within shallow weathered zone may be an indication of a nearby sulphide deposit. It was also noted from logging, that sulphides are abundant throughout the sequence and are believed to be a product of hydrothermal convection. There is also mention of abundant sulphides within subsequent drill holes nearby. To date, there has not been adequate drilling at depth hence ground EM is recommended.

The majority of historical drilling at Snark and Moonshine has been shallow RC or Diamond and regionally, Kambalda style Nickel mineralisation has only been found at depth. The interpretation of historical aeromagnetic data suggests possible presence of lava channels and Komatiites flows which are favourable of nickel-sulphide deposits.

LITHIUM

Western Australia

Macarthurs ~1,300km2 lithium tenement portfolio in the Pilbara has now had all its exploration licences granted and the Company is actively seeking joint venture partners to advance the geological investigation of these tenements.

Reynolds Springs Project, Nevada USA

Exploration activity at Companys Reynolds Springs Project located in Railroad Valley in Nevada, USA has focused on interpretation of historical oil and gas logs drilled on and adjacent to the claims, to identify prospective lithium brine zones (refer to news release March 7, 2018). These logs contained both resistivity and often conductivity logs. Liquids high in salt minerals freely allow the passage of an electrical current and therefore record high conductivity.

On Macarthurs claims multiple spikes in conductivity were observed in six of eight logs and are interpreted as zones that may contain brines. Conductive zones were typically 30 feet thick with a maximum thickness of 120-140 feet observed in wells 15 and 12. Brine targets were observed from 860m feet to 2,685 feet below surface.

In March 2018, Macarthur applied for water rights over these claim areas.

QUALIFIED PERSONS

Mr Andrew Hawker, a member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists, is a full-time employee of Hawker Geological Services Pty Ltd and is a Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101. Mr Hawker has reviewed and approved the technical information, expect that of the Reynolds Springs Project contained in this news release.

Mr Randy Henkle, a Registered Member of the Society of Mining and Exploration and a Professional Geologist licensed in British Columbia, Canada, is a Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101. Mr Henkle has reviewed and approved the technical information in relation to the Reynolds Springs Project contained in this news release

ABOUT MACARTHUR MINERALS LIMITED (TSX-V:MMS)

Macarthur Minerals Limited is an exploration company that is focused on identifying high grade gold and lithium. Macarthur Minerals has significant gold, lithium and iron ore exploration interests in Australia and Nevada. Macarthur Minerals has three iron ore projects in Western Australia; the Ularring hematite project, the Moonshine magnetite project and the Treppo Grande iron ore project.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

MACARTHUR MINERALS LIMITED

 Cameron McCall 

Cameron McCall, Executive Chairman

Company Contact:



Joe Phillips, CEO and Director

jphillips@macarthurminerals.com

Tel: +61 448899247



www.macarthurminerals.com

THIS NEWS RELEASE IS NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

Caution Regarding Forward Looking Statements

Certain of the statements made and information contained in this press release may constitute forward-looking information and forward-looking statements (collectively, forward-looking statements) within the meaning of applicable securities laws. The forward-looking statements in this press release reflect the current expectations, assumptions or beliefs of the Company based upon information currently available to the Company. With respect to forward-looking statements contained in this press release, assumptions have been made regarding, among other things, the timely receipt of required approvals, the reliability of information, including historical mineral resource or mineral reserve estimates, prepared and/or published by third parties that are referenced in this press release or was otherwise relied upon by the Company in preparing this press release. 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 no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct as actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include fluctuations in exchange rates and certain commodity prices, uncertainties related to mineral title in the project, unforeseen technology changes that results in a reduction in iron ore demand or substitution by other metals or materials, the discovery of new large low cost deposits of iron ore, uncertainty in successfully returning the project into full operation, and the general level of global economic activity. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements due to the inherent uncertainty thereof. Such statements relate to future events and expectations and, as such, involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release and except as may otherwise be required pursuant to applicable laws, the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at

http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/e08b71c0-4b41-4ffa-bda8-08c2e0a4f6f5

http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/9065a838-6a8e-4263-aff2-84087c0fb158

http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/96aa3c46-f023-4305-bc50-171666d5000b

http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/b9f9570b-b3ce-4660-883e-e9ca730da9bd

http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/fed5479d-761a-4289-baa1-769c7c0bea32

http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/192aab80-5d69-4d82-b265-dc0f3b81e2a8

http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/c585ea2e-26bb-438d-8cda-6d93d20812ab

http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/6724588f-67da-4865-b4b7-b4fa5161c7a0




TORONTO, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lingo Media Corporation (TSX-V:LM) (OTC:LMDCF) (FSE:LIMA) (Lingo Media or the Company) a global provider of digital and print-based English Language Learning solutions, is pleased to announce that its wholly-owned subsidiary, ELL Technologies Ltd. (ELL) has secured sales contracts with two leading universities in Thailand for its Gale Lingo program, through its distribution partnership with Gale, a part of Cengage Learning.



These are the first sales contracts resulting from Lingos partnership with Gale, which provides Gale the rights to market, distribute and sell ELL Technologies Scholar program to the higher education library market under the Gale Lingo brand.

These sales contracts extend our footprint into Thailand as we expand our distribution partnership with Gale, said Gali Bar-Ziv, COO of Lingo Media. We look forward to working with these educational institutions as we implement Gale Lingo into their college and university library systems.

ELL Technologies will provide its Gale-Lingo program to Chulalongkorn University and Thammasat University, both of which are located in Bangkok, Thailand. With 19 faculties, colleges and research institutes and a current population of 38,000 students, Chulalongkorn University is ranked as a top university in Thailand. Thammasat University is ranked 5th with more than 25 faculties, colleges and research institutes, and approximately 36,000 students.

About Lingo Media

Lingo Media is a global provider of best-in-class digital and print-based English language learning solutions that are Changing the way the world learns English.

Developed for learners of English at every level, Lingo Medias ELL Technologies products combine a vast content library with proprietary technology. ELL Technologies intuitive dashboards enable students to track and manage their progress, and allow teachers to organize and interact with students, providing ongoing support. Lingo Medias Lingo Learning division is a print-based publisher of English language learning programs in China.

Lingo Medias product and program are marketed through established sales channels to key education, government and business organizations in Latin America and China and continues to extend its global reach and expand its product offerings.

Follow Lingo Media On:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LingoMedia

Twitter: @LingoMediaCorp

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/lingomedialm

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lingo-media-corporation

RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/LingoMedia

For further information, contact:

Lingo Media



Michael Kraft, President & CEO

Tel: (+1) 416-927-7000 Ext. 23

Toll Free: 1-866-927-7011

Email: mkraft@lingomedia.com

To learn more, visit us at www.lingomedia.com

Portions of this press release may include "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of securities laws. These statements are made in reliance upon Sections 21E and 27A of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties or other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results, performance, or expectations implied by these forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management's current expectations and involve certain risks and uncertainties. Actual results may vary materially from management's expectations and projections and thus readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Lingo Media has tried to identify these forward-looking statements by using words such as "may," "should," "expect," "hope," "anticipate," "believe," "intend," "plan," "estimate" and similar expressions. Lingo Medias expectations, among other things, are dependent upon general economic conditions, the continued and growth in demand for its products, retention of its key management and operating personnel, its need for and availability of additional capital as well as other uncontrollable or unknown factors. No assurance can be given that the actual results will be consistent with the forward-looking statements. Except as otherwise required by US Federal securities laws, Lingo Media undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, changed circumstances or any other reason. Certain factors that can affect the Company's ability to achieve projected results are described in the Company's filings with the Canadian and United States securities regulators available on www.sedar.com or www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml.

____________________________________________

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
PRAGUE, Czech Republic, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- This week at the industrys premier flow cytometry conference, CYTO 2018, Cytek Biosciences Inc. will be on the show floor highlighting its CytekTM Aurora flow cytometry system with enhanced features. This unique platform has been embraced by researchers around the world since making its debut at CYTO 2017, and the deployments so far have been validating the application flexibility of the Cytek Aurora. From extra-cellular vesicles to highly multiparametric applications beyond what were initially envisioned and more, the breadth of applications being performed on the Cytek Aurora continues to grow.



At this time last year, we introduced the scientific community to an all-new full spectrum flow cytometer that enables new discoveries and deeper biological insights at an affordable cost, noted Dr. Wenbin Jiang, CEO of Cytek Biosciences. Now, Cytek Aurora has been sold into four continents and is at work all over the globe. CYTO 2018 is the perfect place for us to showcase how we have expanded Cytek Auroras features and application abilities over the past year and set the stage for future innovations to come.

Cytek Aurora offers capabilities that go beyond flow cytometry systems that come with a much higher price tag. With a simplified workflow, greater flexibility, and a lower cost of ownership, the Cytek Aurora is the embodiment of Cyteks mission to make high end, high quality flow cytometry accessible to a larger number of researchers.



Cytek Aurora will be demonstrated at CYTO 2018 in Prague, Czech Republic, from April 28  May 2 at booth #33. CYTO attendees are also encouraged to learn more about the Cytek Aurora through the following CYTO events and displays:

Wednesday, May 2  Commercial Tutorial: Expanding Application Capabilities Using Full Spectrum Cytometry Poster: Minimizing the Effects of Spectral Overlap by Unmixing Versus Compensation, Program Number: 294. Poster Board Number: B289.



Please visit www.cytekbio.com for more information.

About Cytek Biosciences

Cytek Biosciences Inc. is a leading flow cytometry solution provider that provides compact, affordable instruments with high multiplexing capability and a wide range of services to support researchers and clinicians. Cytek is headquartered in Fremont, California with branch offices and distribution channels across the globe. To learn more, visit www.cytekbio.com and follow them on LinkedIn.

Media Contact:

Justine Houston-Brown

Lages & Associates

(949) 453-8080

justine@lages.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/0c0b45d4-94bf-44ef-bcd8-8c3cf3b572ad
16 Top US Business Schools Visited  Impressions [ #permalink

15 Kudos

Dear all,



A couple of months ago I happened to visit 16 top* business schools in the US. The regular visiting routine  class visit, infosession, lunch with students, campus tour. Id like to share my generalized impressions. Generalized  for the reason that in those couple of hours it is impossible to get a representative feel of the whole school with its dozens of classes and the whole student body with its hundreds of students. So I had to average out a bit the impressions.



 They do not differ that much. I mean, the schools. We, here in the forum, or with friends, or whomever else, try to find the bestest (pun inteded) of the best school for us. But Id say that one top b-school is different from another of the same league as much as a Chevrolet Corvette is different from a Dodge Viper. They ARE different, technically, but in my opinion the differences are mild (except the location and surrounding industries).



 The adcom staff at all schools underlined how unique that particular school was. If the school had a class of less than around 300 students, their advantage was tightly knit community. If the class was bigger, then diversity was the sales pitch. Oh, and all, ALL schools (students) said that they have heard that other schools have a rather competitive atmospheres. But not theirs!



 The content of the lectures. I have a bachelors degree in business administration, so may be that is why I did not find the content of the lectures interesting per se. The same models, even the same examples and one familiar case. I started to think that if there are benefits to going to a b-school after an undergrad in business, these benefits must be anything but the lecture or textbook content. Network, social skills, leadership  agreed. The same business related classes as in undergrad  Id have second thoughts about that.



 The more quant a class, the more male dominant the audience. The derivatives class, laden with moderately complex maths, had 1 in 10 female students. Only one class out of more than 20 I attended had more than 50% of women students. It was a business ethics class.



 The majority of schools allow laptops in classrooms. Though, some dont. As a visitor I was usually placed in the back of the class and hence I could see what the students were doing on their PCs. Most often it was Facebook, career sections of corporate websites. Not so often  some material to aid the class.



 Eating in classrooms in general was the norm. I dont know whether its the lack of time of MBA students, or the general culture of society, but I found it a bit awkward to see students crumpling wrappers or slurping noodles. Some classrooms had signs NO DRINKS ALLOWED, but, well, incidentally it was in that classroom that one student ran away with a coffee soaked Ipad.



 I could split the format of classes I attended into two rather neat categories: cases and lectures. Cases were mostly in the classes such as leadership and marketing, whereas lectures dominated quant classes. About each of the two:



o Cases are something to be filmed and put into a promotinal material. After any question about half the audience raise their hands and have things to say. And the students do adhere to the ground rules waiting to be called. Professors, also, are nothing less than awesome. Very animate, intelligent and with a sense of humour.



o Quant intensive lectures left a completely different impression. One example: the professor was asking whether anyone had done their homework  solving some math problem. No hands came up. All right, said the professor, So did you have any trouble with the problem? No hands. Could anyone try to calulate that value right now? No hands. At that moment I thought  come on, are these the people who wrote in their essays about leadership instances in their lives?... Later in the lecture it became obvious that no one actually had a clue about what the material was about. And they did not bother to ask the lecturer to stop, repeat, explain  nothing of the kind. The students sat with their head tucked into their laptops social networking. Felt like high-school. And it happened more than once in the very best schools so I conclude that quant classses, difficult as they are, are less fun to participate than case-studies, in which even I could have commented reasonably intelligently without reading the case.



 Campuses. More often than not, there is nothing more a reasonable person could wish for. An occasional parking problem, but then, why have a car in e.g. NY. But otherwise  great places to study or spend time otherwise.



 Number of international students, as reported by the schools, is often a misleading number. Usually it encompasses permanent residents of which there are many. The result is that people who did their undergrad in US or even have been living for 10+ years count as foreign nationals. The result is that out of the usual 25-35% international students less than half have come to US to study MBA only.



Now I want to underline that all of the above are my personal impressions from visiting the schools. They are not an insiders view. Neither they are representative of any single school. I could have participated in a poor or perfect class and hence made an incorrect conclusion. I try to accept limitations of my experience. Therefore the generalized view.



Hope you found this interesting. Any questions  Id be glad to answer.



*Stern, Columbia, Yale, HBS, Wharton, MIT, Babson, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Tuck, Kellogg, Booth, UCLA, Stanford, Haas.
WEBINAR: 4 Secrets to Maximizing Your Chances of Admission to Your Dream Business School

Date: Wednesday, May 2ndTime: 12pm ESTAre you applying to business school this year or planning to in the future? The MBA admissions landscape has never been more competitive; for example, Harvard Business Schools acceptance rate is ~11% and Stanfords is ~6%. Given such tough odds, how can you make sure that you stand out from the crowd?A graduate of Harvard Business School, an MBA admissions expert, and the Founder/CEO of Ivy Groupe , a boutique MBA admissions consulting company, Shaifali Aggarwal will share four secrets to maximizing your chances of getting into your dream business school. She will also provide actionable steps that you can take to put your best foot forward throughout the MBA application process. Through this event, you will learn what you need to do to craft the strongest and most authentic, compelling, and differentiated applications to improve your chances of gaining acceptance to the top business schools.Those who join us on the webinar will be eligible for a special offer!Click here for details on how to join._________________
Are California parents banned from pulling their kids from 'obscene' LGBT sex education classes? No, that's quite the distortion of what is actually going on, the headline is not true. It was written by a site that regularily twists the truth in order to create false headlines that are way more shocking than what is going on in reality.

The headline above an article published on April 23, 2018 by YourNewsWire read "California Bans Parents From Pulling Kids From 'Obscene' LGBT Sex Ed Classes" (archived here) and the article itself opened:

California is about to implement compulsory new abortion- and homosexualty-promoting sex education classes that encourages children as young as six to question their sexual orientation and gender identity, while teaching them how to use a range of vegetables as sex toys, and promoting anal sex as "normal". California enacted the California Healthy Youth Act in 2015, but only now are its controversial provisions starting to take effect in classrooms. Under the auspices of health, the law says it will equip students to develop "healthy attitudes" on "gender [and] sexual orientation," among other things. It also says it will inform students about the "effectiveness and safety of all FDA-approved contraceptive methods," and facilitate "objective discussion" about "parenting, adoption, and abortion."

The photo supposedly showing a teacher instructing children in the use of a strap-on sex aid as part of the Common Core curriculum was itself taken from a fake story set in Florida a few years ago:

Teacher suspended after caught showing children how to use strap-on dildo by Kayleigh Dray | 06 11 2014 Sharon Mercer, who worked as a substitute teacher in Florida, was photographed during the demonstration by an unidentified student. In the photos, which were uploaded to Imgur, the teacher is shown wearing a strap-on dildo, while fully clothed, and demonstrating how to use it to her class of sixth graders (11 to 12-year-olds).

Snopes debunked that story, pointing out that the 'teacher' was actually Canadian and doing a demonstration in front of an adult audience.

FACT CHECK: Was a Florida Teacher Suspended After a Shocking Sex Ed Demonstration? A Florida teacher gave 6th grade students an explicit sex ed lesson involving a strap-on sex toy to satisfy Common Core requirements. False On 15 September 2014, the InfoWars web site published an article about a purportedly worrisome incident in Jacksonville, Florida.

Key quote:

The photographs displayed in the original article were not in fact pictures of a Florida substitute teacher named Sharon Mercer, but rather pictures of Carlyle Jansen, the founder and owner of Good for Her (a progressive, female-friendly sex store in Toronto, Ontario), who has upon occasion been invited to give talks about sexual health at Toronto-area high schools. But Ms. Jansen told us that she also teaches sex ed classes for adult audiences, that the photographs displayed in the outrage-provoking article were snapped at a university-level (not a sixth grade) class, and that she "would not have done those positions and discussed strap-ons to that extent in a high school setting."

In addition, the central point of the article seems to revolve around a memo sent by the Orange County Department of Education general counsel Ronald Wenkart discussing how certain parts of the law that allow parents to excuse their children from sex education lessons should be interpreted.

First of all, Orange County is just a small part of California:

And the memo correctly points out that the provision to excuse children from sex-ed classes:

does not apply to instruction, materials, or programming that discusses gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, discrimination, harassment, bullying, intimidation, relationships, or family and does not discuss human reproductive organs.

It would be quite hard for California to be "teaching them how to use a range of vegetables as sex toys, and promoting anal sex" (if they did that at all) without mentioning human reproductive organs so parents would definitely be allowed to excuse their kids from that.

So on that basis alone we can say the headline from YourNewsWire is false.

And if people feel it is obscene to confront kids with the fact that same sex relationships exist they may also want to ban this book from being taught in schools for it repeatedly mentions these kinds of things happening and it is regularily being promoted for use in schools by various groups.

YourNewsWire has published several hoaxes and fake news articles in the past so anything they write or publish should be taken with a large grain of salt. Their Facebook page "The People's Voice" recently lost its verification checkmark according to a report from MMFA.

The Terms of Use of the site also make it clear they don't really stand behind the accuracy of any of their reporting:

THE PEOPLE'S VOICE, INC. AND/OR ITS SUPPLIERS MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE SUITABILITY, RELIABILITY, AVAILABILITY, TIMELINESS, AND ACCURACY OF THE INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND RELATED GRAPHICS CONTAINED ON THE SITE FOR ANY PURPOSE.

The site was profiled in the Hollywood reporter where it was described as:

Your News Wire, a 3-year-old website of murky facts and slippery spin, is published by Sean Adl-Tabatabai and Sinclair Treadway -- a Bernie Sanders supporter in 2016 -- out of an apartment in L.A.'s historic El Royale.

RationalWiki described it as:

YourNewsWire (styled as YourNewsWire.com[1]) is an Los Angeles-based clickbait fake news website known for disseminating conspiracy theories and misleading information, contrary to its claimed motto ("News. Truth. Unfiltered").[1]

A while ago we also reported that YourNewsWire had rebranded itself as NewsPunch by changing its domain name in an apparent effort to evade filtering/blocking. It appears the site has changed back to it's old name in the mean time but you can still see the NewsPunch name in the contact email address in the footer.

We wrote about yournewswire.com before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
Will the infamous Trump "pee pee" tape be available on Amazon Prime for free when it is released? No, Jeff Bezos did not make any such announcement. If you read that somewhere on the internet it most definitely was fake. The story originated from a satire column in The New Yorker.

The article was published on April 24, 2018 under the headline "Bezos Says That When Pee Tape Is Released It Will Be Free for All Amazon Prime Members" (archived here) which opened:

SEATTLE (The Borowitz Report)--Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, announced on Tuesday that when the purported "pee tape" becomes available it will be offered free to all Amazon Prime members. Speaking to reporters in Seattle, Bezos said that the pee-tape offer was "consistent with Amazon's mandate to offer the highest-quality content to our customers."

Satire is sometimes interpreted as real news by people who only see the summary on social media or who get to see a copied version that omits all the satire disclaimers. To them the humor article might have looked something like this:

Bezos Says That When Pee Tape Is Released It Will Be Free for All Amazon Prime Members The Amazon founder acknowledged that the tape had not surfaced yet, but said that the company was "working around the clock to make that happen."

The tape that is being talked about refers to unproven claims about a "Pissgate" scandal:

Pissgate (a.k.a. Watersportsgate) refers to claims that Donald Trump hired prostitutes to "perform a Golden Showers urination show" on a bed in the Moscow Ritz Carlton Hotel where Barack and Michelle Obama once slept during an official trip to Russia.

The Amazon Prime story actually appeared in the satire column of The New Yorker ("The Borowitz Report" by Andy Borowitz) which was acquired in 2012 by the magazine. Although the section with the columns and all the articles in it are clearly marked as satire the stories frequently get confused for real news by people who only see the title and summary on social media and who assume it must be real because the link goes to the actual website of The New Yorker. To them it would look somewhat like this, with an easy to miss "Not the news" being the only indication it is not real:

In part to combat this the main page of The Borowitz Report comes with a clear heading that simply states:

Satire from the Borowitz Report

To be safe, whenever you see a link that goes to any article on the "newyorker.com" website, always check if the rest of the link says "/humor/borowitz-report/" somewhere. If it does, don't believe a thing you read...

We wrote about newyorker.com and the Borowitz before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
Legally Armed People Have a

Murder Rate Similar to Japan

Dean Weingarten. April 22nd, 2018

Original Source

Michigan Concealed Pistol License holders have an extremely low Murder rate.

Japan has a very low murder rate. Japan is also a very law abiding culture.

The United States, as a whole, has a much higher murder rate than Japan. Within the United States there is a law abiding culture that has a murder rate as low as Japan's. That culture consists of gun owners who carry guns legally.

In Michigan, the State Police are tasked with compiling crimes committed by people who have the Michigan Concealed Pistol License (CPL). The State Police Reports are available from 2003 to early 2017. The state police reports list convictions of people for murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide, as well as a multitude of other offenses. From 2003 to 2017, there are 14 years of reports listing criminal convictions.

Criminal homicides are the most reliable crime statistics to track, and the most important for comparisons with other societies. While there are significant differences in definitions, reporting, and recording of crimes from nation to nation, criminal homicides are more reliable than other crime statistics.

In the 14 years of Michigan annual police reports, there are 17 criminal homicide convictions recorded by the Michigan State Police (MSP), for people who had CPLs. .......

While just an example from one state, it goes a long way to disprove the anti's common paranoia that carry of a firearm by law abiding people is a risk for more crime. Nothing could be further from the truth. 17 carry homicides by legal carry people over 14 years? Hardly an epidemic. Of course, there should still be way more states that have "Constitutional Carry" - there should be no permits required for excercizing your Constitutional rights.

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You just have to love freedom.

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Legally Armed People Have a

Murder Rate Similar to Japan

Dean Weingarten. April 22nd, 2018

Original Source

Michigan Concealed Pistol License holders have an extremely low Murder rate.

Japan has a very low murder rate. Japan is also a very law abiding culture.

The United States, as a whole, has a much higher murder rate than Japan. Within the United States there is a law abiding culture that has a murder rate as low as Japan's. That culture consists of gun owners who carry guns legally.

In Michigan, the State Police are tasked with compiling crimes committed by people who have the Michigan Concealed Pistol License (CPL). The State Police Reports are available from 2003 to early 2017. The state police reports list convictions of people for murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide, as well as a multitude of other offenses. From 2003 to 2017, there are 14 years of reports listing criminal convictions.

Criminal homicides are the most reliable crime statistics to track, and the most important for comparisons with other societies. While there are significant differences in definitions, reporting, and recording of crimes from nation to nation, criminal homicides are more reliable than other crime statistics.

In the 14 years of Michigan annual police reports, there are 17 criminal homicide convictions recorded by the Michigan State Police (MSP), for people who had CPLs.

The number of active CPLs in Michigan for each year of the 14 annual reports was a little more difficult to find. The annual reports run from October 1 to September 30 of the following year. I found numbers in each annual report period, except for the period of October 1, 2014 to September 30 of 2015. For that period I interpolated from the March, 2014 number of 430,000 to the November, 2015 number of 488,000, to obtain 459,000. The numbers for the other years used were within the period for each report. Over the fourteen year span, a variation of a few months does not make much difference.

When looking at criminal homicide rates, the standard is to look at the number of homicides per 100,000 of the population per year. The total number of CPL - years came to 3,953,944. Over the 14 year period, individual CPLs had been active for a total of 3,953,944 years. There were 17 criminal homicide convictions of CPL holders in that period, averaging .43 criminal homicides per 100,000 CPL holders per year.

The entire Michigan population, over the same period, had an average of 6.2 criminal homicides per 100,000 people, or more than 14 times as many. Over the same period 2003-2016, the Japanese criminal homicide rate was .42 per 100,000 population.

Michigan Concealed Pistol Licenses are fairly easy to obtain. The same background check is used for the CPL as is used for ordinary people to buy from federally licensed dealers in the United States. The people with Concealed Pistol Licenses are not only able to own firearms, but to legally carry them concealed and loaded with them nearly everywhere. Yet, their criminal homicide rate is as low as the highly regulated Japanese.

International comparisons are always tricky. Many countries do not keep good statistics. Some countries actively ignore some murders to make their statistics look better. Others do not have the infrastructure to report and record crimes. Countries have different definitions of what a criminal homicide is.

In cases such as Michigan, the numbers of homicides among Concealed Pistol License holders is so tiny that it can vary enormously with just a few crimes. Fourteen years gives us a better picture, but it is still a small sample. There are five years with no convictions, five years with one conviction, two years with two convictions and two years with four convictions. The convictions do not mean the CPL holder used the CPL in the crime. They mean there was a criminal homicide conviction for someone with a CPL.

While not as well documented as the Michigan CPL, the Wisconsin CCW permit holders have a similar low rate of criminal homicides. When I calculated the number in 2016, the criminal homicide rate for CCW permit holders in Wisconsin was .19 per 100,000. Wisconsin CCW permits are easier and cheaper to obtain than Michigan CPLs.

If, as those who wish a disarmed population claim, the mere presence of firearms makes criminal homicide more likely, how is it that those who not only own handguns, but can carry them loaded most places, most of the time, have a homicide rate as low as the Japanese?

The law abiding American gun culture is as responsible and law abiding as Japanese culture.

Japanese culture is much more homogeneous than American culture. American culture has a wide diversity. Some subgroups, like American legal gun carriers, are very law abiding and responsible. Other American sub-groups are not. American culture is closer to an amalgam of world culture.

The world average intentional homicide rate was about 6.2 per 100,000 in 2012, very close to the average Michigan homicide rate over 2003 to 2016. The U.S. criminal homicide rate for the same year was 4.7. There are differences between "intentional homicide rate" and "criminal homicide rate", but the numbers show the U.S. to be on the low side of the average world rate.

If someone tells you that legal American gun owners are not murderers until they are, tell them that Japanese, without guns, are as likely to murder as legal American gun owners.

Where crimes of people with carry permits are documented, that population has extremely low crime rates. Crime rates as low as the populations of those countries with the lowest crime rates in the world.

2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included. Gun Watch

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The European signatories are keen for the deal to remain in place and are taking steps to appease Trump.

Trump has never been a supporter of the deal and he has been a fierce critic of it since before his election. Last year, the US president said that his administration had come up with a comprehensive strategy to curb the threat emanating from Iran. So far, we have seen very little change in Irans behaviour, especially its aggression in the Middle East.

Despite his numerous threats to exit the agreement, we are still unsure how the US will deal with the aftermath if it does happen.

One of the most urgent issues is Irans growing influence across the region. It has become active in so many different countries in the Middle East and is working on its imperialistic missions, in particular in Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Beirut. Iran is determined to achieve its land corridor to the Mediterranean. Iran has amassed a huge number of Shiite fighters that are fighting on Irans behalf  tens of thousands.

Irans strategic strength is increasing too as it continues with its ballistic missile program. Obama omitted to address the missiles in the nuclear deal after Iran claimed it was a non-nuclear issue. Iran has also got quite a sophisticated cyber network that can launch attacks and cause international havoc.

When the Iran nuclear deal was signed, the decades of work that were put into sanctioning Iran were cancelled when Obama lifted the crippling sanctions. If the deal is to collapse, the Trump administration should make it a priority to get back to that place where the sanctions were effective and targeted. The lifting of sanctions was one of the most attractive features of the deal for Iran, so any benefits must be immediately taken away.

Furthermore, one action that must be taken is with regards to the people of Iran. For years they have been oppressed and have been denied the most basic of human rights. At the end of last year, the people took to the streets the whole way across the country to voice their discontent. They are not happy with their personal situation where they are left with terrible social services, huge financial issues and the consequences of the regimes corruption. Furthermore, the people want the regime to leave Syria and Iraq and Yemen and all the other countries where it is interfering.

Most importantly, they deserve to see freedom, democracy and human rights and the international community must support them in their quest for regime change. Not only is this to the benefit of the Iranian people, it will also benefit millions in the region and even those further afield.
James Mattis, the US Secretary of Defense, said very shortly aster the strikes began that the United States was expecting an onslaught of negativity and propaganda from those that have aligned themselves with the Assad regime.

And Iran was as predictable as ever.

The US-led strike targeted the chemical weapons infrastructure that the Syrian regime controls. The airstrikes were very precise and the leaders involved in the strike made it very clear that they were pursuing that road of action to dissuade further use of chemical weapons.

Iran, however, made out that the United States was on the same level as terrorist groups like the Islamic State (ISIS) and Al Qaeda

The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, described the American, British and French leaders as criminals and slammed them for helping pursue Americas goals in the Middle East. He also said that Iran, as it has done previously, will be present alongside resistance groups.

Irans military also commented on the strikes, with one statement again mentioning that the United States and its European allies are complicit with terrorist groups in the region.

Irans president, Hassan Rouhani, agrees with the statements and claims it is a way for the West to take pressure off the Syrian terror groups.

It is very clear that immediate diplomacy needs to be employed. Trump has already identified Iran as being the biggest threat to peace and security in the region and is very well aware of the plight of the Iranian people who are also victims of the regime.

The United States firstly needs to emphasise that it played a significant role in countering ISIS and regaining the land it had taken. The US must also ensure that Iran does not sweep in and take the land the US got back from ISIS. Essential to this is the need to put a halt to the progression of Irans many proxy groups and of course the notorious Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The US and the international community need to systematically call Iran out on its belligerence, its support of Assad, its involvement in the use of chemical weapons, its crimes at home, and so on.

Iran needs to be removed from the numerous countries where it is meddling. And most importantly, support needs to be given to the people of Iran who have also called on reime to stop its meddling outside its borders.

The Iranian regime needs to be pressured into responding to questions about its bloody involvement in Syria, Yemen, Beirut and Iraq, to name just a few. It is the Iranian regime that is acting criminally. Not those that are trying to put an end to its campaign of terror.
In a speech to Iranian Regimes President Hassan Rouhanis administration on April 21st, Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian said, 334 cities with 35 million people across Iran are currently struggling with water stress.

Ardakanian classified cities in three different categories, and explained, 165 cities with 10.5 million people are in yellow, 62 cities with 6.8 million are in orange, and 107 cities with 17.2 million residents are in a red alert situation across Iran.

For more than 50 years, Iran has been experiencing long cycles of drought, with the average precipitation dropping from 250 to 217 millimeters per decade. Ardakanian emphasized that this year will be the driest one recorded.

UN Development Program Resident Representative in Iran, Gary Lewis, has stated, The water shortage is currently Irans most important humanitarian challenge.

The provinces that will be most affected by the drought are Isfahan, Baluchestan, and Sistan. An Iranian MP described the situation in Isfahan as a danger threatening Irans national security.

According to reports, the five million people living in central Irans Isfahan Province will have no access to drinking water from July onwards. Farmers in Isfahan Province are already protesting against the governments water policies, claiming that government mismanagement has exacerbated the drought, as water is diverted from the provinces main river to neighboring Yazd Province.

As well, water experts say that across the country, the water shortage is compounded by poor management of water resources. They claim that years of mismanagement have lead to the drying up of many lakes, rivers, and wetlands, and warn that beyond the current acute crisis, Irans water shortage will have serious long-term economic and social consequences.

Ardakanian says changing water consumption practices is a key step in ending the water shortage. Revising the ways water is consumed in Iran is even more important than discovering new water resources in the country, he said, and cautioned that failing to adapt consumption practices could lead to water rationing and power outages.

A 2017 United Nations report has warned, Water shortages are acute; agricultural livelihoods no longer sufficient. This leaves many ordinary Iranian citizens being forced to leave their homes, and facing uncertain futures as migrants.

Source: radiofarda
Iran is also seeking to increase its influence in other areas using covert and under-the-radar methods. One such place is Africa where it is spending billions and billions of dollars.

One of its tried-and-tested methods is to get into medical and social systems where it provides free services under the guise of aid. It also sets up Islamic schools to gain influence in communities. It goes like this for an indefinite amount of time and, before long, the Iranian regime has quite a hold.

Last year, the Foreign Minister of Iran travelled to Uganda where he opened a clinic that his country financed. The Organization of Islamic Culture and Communications in Iran has been responsible for building a number of religious centres where it can target small minority Muslim communities. The regime will train local clerics which in turn will further influence communities.

In especially poor areas, the provision of free social and health care, as well as education, will turn many people to the regimes favour.

Foreign governments have also accepted bribes from Iran, letting the regime spread its ideology and set places up for terrorist activities.

Like in countries in the Middle East, Iran is thus able to use foreign lands to get around sanctions and to transport and manufacture arms without being detected.

Before Iran infiltrates and spreads chaos across another continent, it is essential for the international community to urgently intervene.

Africa has millions of Muslims, and the Iranian regime is determined to reach and influence them. It is not a sign of strength, rather it is another indication of the regimes desperation. The regime is losing influence in the Middle East and it is trying to make up for it elsewhere.

The location of some African countries is strategically interesting to Iran for the transfer and transport of weapons. Djibouti, for example, gave Iran access to its ports in exchange for huge sums of money that went towards the countrys trade industry and parliament buildings. Iran used Djibouti to provide arms for its important proxy Hezbollah. However, this all came to an end when the Saudi ally persuaded Djibouti to cut ties with Iran and prevent its access to strategic locations.

Bypassing sanctions is also important to Iran, especially in terms of money laundering which has previously been facilitated by Ghana. Political support also comes in exchange for services and financial aid, something that is crucial when Iran is looking for votes with regards to the United Nations.

Irans model of expansion is having success in the Middle East and now is the time to act to stop it spreading even further. The Iranian regime is losing its grip on power at home where domestic unrest and discontent is high. It is the source of all conflict in the Middle East. Lets not be responsible for it happening in another continent.
Home Minister Thapa visits acid attack victim

Home Minster Ram Bahadur Thapa visited an acid attack victim who was attacked with the dangerous chemical by a policeman at Bharatpur.
Indian PM Modi to visit Nepal on May 11

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will arrive for a two-day state visit to Nepal on May 11.
From VOA Learning English, this is the Health & Lifestyle report.

If you have been meaning to add more exercise to your daily routine, you may want to start sooner rather than later.

A 2018 study has found that a lifetime of regular exercise and activity can slow down the aging process.

Researchers at Britains University of Birmingham and King's College London say that getting older should not necessarily mean becoming more weak or sick. Their research shows that a commitment to a life of movement and exercise may help us live not only longer, but also healthier.

The study

For their study, the researchers looked at two groups.

The first group was made up of 125 non-professional cyclists between the ages of 55 to 79. This group included 84 healthy men and 41 healthy women. We will call this group the cyclists.

Researchers then found 130 people to make up a second group. Within this group, 75 people were aged 57 to 80. The other 55 were between the ages of 20 and 36. The people in this group were also healthy, but they did not exercise regularly. We will call this group the non-exercisers.

Smokers, heavy drinkers of alcohol and people with other health issues were not included in the study.

Then, researchers gave both groups a series of tests. They tested their muscle mass, muscular strength, percentage of body fat, cholesterol levels and the strength of their immune systems. And male participants had their testosterone levels checked.

Then the researchers compared the results of the two groups.

Results showed that the cyclists did not experience body changes usually equated with a normal aging process. For example, they did not lose muscle mass or strength. Also, their body fat and cholesterol levels did not increase with age.

The male cyclists testosterone levels had also remained high. Researchers say this may mean that they avoided at least one major symptom of male menopause.

Surprising find of the study

The researchers also found something they had not expected. The study showed that the immune systems of the cyclists did not seem to age either. For this, they looked at an organ called the thymus. The thymus makes immune cells called T-cells.

The University of Arizonas biology department explains on its website that T-cells are a type of white blood cell and are made in our bone marrow.*

As the article says: There are two types of T-cells in your body: Helper T-cells and Killer T-cells. Killer T-cells do the work of destroying the infected cells. The Helper T-cells coordinate the attack.

Starting at about the age of 20, the thymus of most people starts to get smaller. It also starts to make fewer T-cells.

However, in this study, the T-cell production by the thymuses of the cyclists had not slowed down with age. They were making as many T-cells as those of a young person.

Advice for us all

Janet Lord is director of the Institute of Inflammation and Ageing at the University of Birmingham. In a press statement, she offers the words of Hippocrates, often called the father of medicine.

She writes: "Hippocrates in 400 BC said that exercise is man's best medicine, but his message has been lost over time and we are an increasingly sedentary society.

Professor Stephen Harridge is director of the Centre of Human & Aerospace Physiological Sciences at King's College London. He addressed the common question of what came first -- the chicken or the egg? In this case, the question became, Which came first -- the healthy behavior or the good health?"

When talking about the findings of the study, he said the cyclists do not exercise because they are healthy, but that they are healthy because they have been exercising" for such a large portion of their lives.

The researchers advise us all to find an exercise that we like and to make physical activity a priority in our lives.

They published their findings in Aging Cell. The study is part of ongoing research by the two universities.

And thats the Health & Lifestyle report. Im Anna Matteo.

How do you get your exercise? How much do you get a week? Let us know in the Comments Section!

Anna Matteo wrote this story for VOA Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

Editor's Note: *This explanation of the production of T-cells comes from Nobel Prize.org. "T-cells come in two different types, helper cells and killer cells. They are named T cells after the thymus, an organ situated under the breastbone. T-cells are produced in the bone marrow and later move to the thymus where they mature."

_____________________________________________________________

Quiz

Quiz - Lifetime of Exercise Slows Aging Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

________________________________________

Words in This Story

commitment  n. a promise to do or give something

cyclist  n. someone who rides a bicycle

participant  n. a person who is involved in an activity or event

testosterone  n. medical : a substance (called a hormone) that occurs naturally in men and male animals

symptom  n. a change in the body or mind which indicates that a disease is present

male menopause  n. age-related changes in male hormone levels

coordinate  v. to work or cause to work together smoothly

sedentary  adj. not physically active

chicken-and-egg  adj. used to describe a situation in which it is difficult to tell which of two things happened first

portion n. a part of a larger amount, area, etc.

priority  n. something that is more important than other things and that needs to be done or dealt with first
Former United States President George Herbert Walker Bush is in a hospital in Houston, Texas. He is sick with sepsis, an infection of the blood.

A spokesman said Bush was admitted for medical treatment Sunday, the morning after the funeral of his wife, Barbara.

On Monday, spokesman Jim McGrath wrote on Twitter that the 93-year-old former president is "responding to treatments and appears to be recovering."

Barbara Bush was buried on Saturday. Mrs. Bush was 92 years old. She and her husband had been married 73 years  the longest presidential marriage in U.S. history.

Three other former presidents and their wives joined George H.W. Bush at the funeral. The three are their son, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Melania Trump, wife of President Donald Trump, also was among the mourners.

George H.W. Bush uses a wheelchair and an electric scooter to move around after he developed a form of Parkinson's disease. He has needed hospital treatment several times in recent years for breathing problems.

Monday night, McGrath would not provide details on Bush's condition. He said additional information would be provided as needed. He also said the 41st president was eager to get well so he can get to his summer home in Maine.

McGrath said Bush is firm about meeting goals.

George H.W. Bush served as president from 1989 to 1993. Born June 12, 1924, in Milton, Massachusetts, he also served as a congressman, director of the Central Intelligence Agency and Ronald Reagan's vice president.

I'm Jonathan Evans.

VOA News reported this story. Caty Weaver adapted it for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

eager - adj. feeling a strong and impatient desire to do something

respond - v. to have a good or desired reaction to something

scooter - n. a small personal vehicle used to move about
Conflicts across the Middle East have had a major effect on children.

Millions of boys and girls now live in refugee camps after escaping fighting in places such as Syria and northern Iraq. They have had to spend their early years dealing with the terrible effects of war.

An American non-profit organization, called Sesame Workshop, is trying to help these refugees. The group is sending its lovable Muppets to the Middle East to help bring laughter and build strength in the affected children.

Shari Rosenfeld works for Sesame Workshop, which produces the childrens television show Sesame Street.

She says her group is working with the International Rescue Committee to provide early education to help children and families overcome the trauma of conflict. She told VOA about a new educational broadcast that will reach 9.4 million children across Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria." Rosenfeld also spoke about plans for direct, in-person services for 1.5 million of the children most in need of help.

In December 2017, Sesame Workshop and the International Rescue Committee received a donation of $100 million to pay for the project. The money came from the MacArthur Foundation's 100&Change program.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is one of the largest private foundations in the U.S. The 100&Change program was set up to support activities that promise measurable progress in solving a problem.

Rosenfeld said the donation will pay for a Middle East version of Sesame Street. She said the goal is to provide appealing, educational messages about reading, mathematics, languages and social skills.

Character customization

Many Americans have no problem recognizing Elmo, Big Bird and other stars of Sesame Street. But these characters will have different names in the new show. They will have Arabic or Kurdish names and will speak those languages.

Rosenfeld said the shows will be made available through traditional television and on computer software programs like WhatsApp.

The Sesame Workshop project also will support children and parents at learning centers with material for play-based learning, she added. Its trained workers will give home visitation and caregiving classes to nearly 800,000 caregivers to help lessen the effects of trauma on children up to age 3.

A condition known as "toxic stress" happens when a child's brain development is affected by prolonged hardship. It can lead to problems such as self-harm, aggressive behavior and suicide attempts.

The rights group Save the Children reported last year that millions of Syrian children may now suffer from toxic stress. It said these boys and girls need help to keep the damage from becoming permanent.

The United Nations children's agency (UNICEF) estimates that 1.75 million Syrian children are not in school. It reported that 2.6 million Syrian children are refugees or are on the run for their safety.

In neighboring Iraq, UNICEF said, more than 1 million children lost their homes and 4 million are in need of aid because of fighting with the Islamic State (IS) group.

Affected children

Iraqi officials said they are concerned about children who went to IS schools. Anti-terrorism officials have listed about 2,000 children that need mental health services after having been influenced or brainwashed by the groups supporters.

Rights organizations say most children affected by extreme violence do not receive education and mental health services.

The International Rescue Committee estimates that only about two percent of all humanitarian aid is spent on education or child development.

Rosenfeld of Sesame Workshop said the group's project would help the children by showing understanding, respect, inclusion and diversity, among other social skills.

If the program is successful, the organization may try to expand it for other crises.

Sesame Workshop has created local versions of Sesame Street in other areas, such as Afghanistan, Nigeria, the Palestinian territories, Israel and Kosovo.

I'm Susan Shand.

Rikar Hussein reported this story for VOA News. Susan Shand adapted it for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

Muppet - n. a doll, or plaything, that moves by putting ones hand inside it or by pulling wires that are connected to it

trauma  n. a very difficult or unpleasant experience that causes someone to have a mental or emotional problem, usually for a long time

toxic  adj. harmful or poisonous

stress  n. something that causes strong feelings of worry or concern

brainwash  v. to cause (someone) to think or believe something by using methods that make a person unable to think normally

diversity  n. the state of having people who are different races or who have different cultures in a group or organization

character  n. a person in a story or play

foundation  n. an organization set up to provide money

workshop  n. educational program
The leaders of North and South Korea are set to meet on Friday. This will be the first meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

The world is wondering how much their talks will deal with North Koreas program for developing nuclear-armed missiles.

Over the weekend, North Korea announced it would suspend nuclear tests and testing of intercontinental ballistic missiles. The North also said it plans to close its nuclear test area. But the announcement did not say whether it would give up its nuclear weapons or stop production of missiles.

On Monday, South Korea halted broadcasts of propaganda messages and Korean pop songs across the border with the North. The South Korean Defense Ministry said in a statement it wanted to ease tensions and establish an environment for peace.

The talks between the North and South Korean leaders are expected to be followed, in May or June, by a meeting between Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump.

Failure to reach a nuclear agreement, however, would raise questions about the seriousness of Kims recent outreach to South Korea and the United States. It would also raise fears of conflict across the Korean peninsula.

Inter-Korea meeting

Although North Korea has said it wants to denuclearize the peninsula, experts are not sure whether the country will give up its nuclear weapons. In the past, the North has linked denuclearization to a demand for the withdrawal of the 28,500 U.S. troops in South Korea.

During a trip to China last month, North Korean leader Kim suggested that he wants step-by-step disarmament in return for the lifting of economic restrictions against his country.

That, critics say, could enable the North to secretly continue its weapons programs while winning badly needed aid. North Korea did just that during nuclear talks from 2003 to 2008. Observers say Kim will likely make similar offers during his talks with Moon Jae-in as a way of reaching out to the U.S. government.

Go Myong-Hyun is with the Seoul-based Asan Institute for Policy Studies. He said the North Korean leader might also offer up a rough plan for denuclearization.

Kim has an interest in making his meeting with Moon a success. Recently, representatives of both Koreas marched together at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics and South Korean pop stars performed in Pyongyang.

North Korea  U.S. meeting

North Korea has long criticized the yearly military exercises between U.S. and South Korean forces. It claims the exercises are preparing those forces to invade the North. And it says the country needs to keep its nuclear weapons for protection.

After the country tested a long-range missile in November, Kim said North Korea had finally realized the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force. But experts say the North has yet to build dependable ballistic missiles.

During his talks with Moon and Trump, Kim may demand a security guarantee for his government. He is also expected to call for the easing or lifting of international restrictions against the North. But American officials have said they want complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament by North Korea.

The U.S. president sounded hopeful after North Koreas announcement to suspend nuclear tests.

In a statement on social media, Donald Trump wrote, This is very good news for North Korea and the World - big progress! He added he is looking forward to the meeting with Kim.

But Trump wrote, We are a long way from conclusion on North Korea, maybe things will work out, and maybe they wont - only time will tell.

Trumps nominee for secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said recently no one is under any illusions that we will reach a comprehensive agreement. Pompeo currently is head of the Central Intelligence Agency. Less than a month ago, he made a secret trip to North Korea and met with Kim to prepare for his talks with Trump.

I'm Caty Weaver.

Hai Do adapted this story for VOA Learning English based on AP and other news reports. George Grow was the editor.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

peninsula - n. a piece of land that is almost surrounded by water and is attached to a larger land area.

denuclearize - v. to remove nuclear weapons from

rough - adj. done in a simple way without all the detail and will need further changes

verifiable - adj. something that can be proven or shown

irreversible - adj. impossible to change back

conclusion - n. end

illusion - n. an idea that is based on something that is not true

comprehensive - adj. including many, most, or all things
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China Hydroelectric Corporation is a developer, owner and operator of small hydroelectric power projects in China. The projects are located in Zhejiang, Fujian, Yunnan and Sichuan. As of December 31, 2012, wholly owns 22 operating hydroelectric power projects and have controlling interests in three operating hydroelectric power projects. In March 2012, the Company sold 100% of the Yuanping hydroelectric power project. In April 2013, the Company sold the Yuheng hydroelectric power project, a 30 megawatt (MW) project located in Fujian province. In July 2014, the Company announced that it has completed the merger with CPT Wyndham Sub Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of CPT Wyndham Holdings Ltd.

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Srinagar, April 24: Youth clashed with the government forces in Tral area of south Kashmirs Pulwama district on Tuesday.Reports said that youth took to streets and hurled rocks at a forces vehicle in the main town area.

The forces responded by firing tear gas, triggering clashes.

They said that forces have launched a search operation to nab the militants, believed to be three in number.

Meanwhile, a search operation is going on in the Lam forests of the area following a brief exchange of fire that left a soldier injured.

Reports said that militants opened fire on a search party in Lam forests before escaping into the thick vegetation.

They said that forces have launched a search operation to nab the militants, believed to be three in number.






There are two sets of figures thrown about for the number of visitors during the Chinese New Year week, one of the two most lucrative holidays in the Macau calendar.

First, there are the actual figures for the first week of the Chinese New Year, starting with the first day of the lunar month and ending on the seventh day, based on data collected by Macau immigration authorities and published approximately a month after the festive holiday.

Then there are preliminary figures provided by the Public Security Police Force (PSP) to the Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) for the so-called golden week, which extends usually  but not always  from the day before Chinese New Year until the sixth day of the New Year. These figures are published just as the golden week concludes.

The two sets of figures are somewhat in consensus, in that they agree that between 800,000 and 1 million tourists visit the city every Chinese New Year. But a significant discrepancy exists nonetheless, amounting to several percentage points.

In this context, recent government statements boasting a 6.3 percent year-on-year rise in tourist arrivals should be read carefully.

URGENCY VS

TRANSPARENCY

These figures are problematic for several reasons, but mostly because they lack transparency and produce distorted impressions of Macaus tourism market. Given that revisions to the preliminary figures are rarely  if ever  published, the public is left with inaccurate and outdated information, even several months later.

Furthermore, this inaccuracy is in one way or another carried forward to the following year when the revised figure is used as a point of comparison instead of the preliminary figures published earlier.

To justify its publication of the preliminary figures instead of waiting several weeks for the revised data, MGTO emphasizes the urgency of the matter given the importance of the tourism sector to the overall health of Macaus economy.

The reason why MGTO releases provisional figures [on] exceptional occasions like the Chinese New Year golden week, on a daily basis at its website and [in] a final press release, is because the Office knows that the public wants to know the numbers at an earlier stage, the government bureau told the Times last month.

However, this justification is contradicted by the fact that public revisions to the preliminary data are a very rare occurrence in Macau.

Why the preliminary figures even exist remains a mystery.

In email correspondence with the Times, three Macau government departments were unable to explain why the preliminary figures differ from the final figures released some weeks later.

All figures are provided by the PSP to the relevant government departments and presumably collected electronically by a system that is able to distinguish tourists from non-resident workers, if it is able to do so just several weeks later.

Both MGTO and the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) referred the Times to the PSP. The PSP suggested the Times should contact MGTO.

To their credit, MGTO has somewhat improved the transparency of their reporting. Last year, the bureau began to align its reporting with international standards set out by the World Tourism Organization; for the first time, it did not include non-

resident workers and foreign students in the Macau SAR in the official tourist arrival figures.

According to the tourism authority, this was made possible after a 2016 enhancement of immigration systems that granted the PSP the ability to distinguish tourists from other so-called visitors.

SOFTEN THE BLOW

The difference between the preliminary and actual figures sometimes amounts to several percentage points. From 2014 to 2018, the preliminary figure was higher than that of the actual figure every year, with the margin of error ranging from 0.5 percent in 2018 to 4.1 percent in 2015.

Accordingly, the Times concluded in an article last month that at least one government department was deliberately inflating the preliminary figures, both exaggerating the increase and softening the blow of lower-than-expected growth.

Each year, the inflated estimate is compared with the previous years revised number, which is always lower than the previous years estimate. This gives the impression of exaggerated growth.

In a recent note to the Times, MGTO protested that the figures were neither estimations, forecasts nor predictions. [] The data released by MGTO are preliminary or provisional figures [ and therefore] not overstated or inflated.

But the public remains unaware of the misinformation  deliberate or otherwise  because, again, the figures are not consistently revised or even stated as revised in the following years statement. Each year refers only to the corresponding occasion last year.

In last months report, the Times predicted that the actual growth in visitors during the 2018 Chinese New Year period was likely to fall below the advertised 6.3 percent.

It did fall below the 6.3 percent estimate, but not by much. According to the final data provided by the PSP, the 2018 Chinese New Year period (counted as per MGTOs date range) welcomed 958,545 visitors, or an actual growth of about 5.9 percent over the corresponding occasion last year.

In 2017, the discrepancy between the growth in the published preliminary figures (9.9 percent) and the unpublished revised figures (6.3 percent) was more problematic. The same was true in 2015, when the preliminary data showed an optimistic 2.4 percent contraction instead of the actual 6.5 percent contraction.

No revision of the 2018 data has yet been published on the government news portal despite the final figures having been available since March 23.

BAD NEWS IS NO NEWS

Public departments sometimes refrain from publishing official statements when there is dissapointing growth to report, especially when the number of visitors for a given period declines. No publicity is good publicity when things arent going all that well.

One recent example was the Easter holiday at the start of April, for which the PSP attached a file to the government news portal without an accompanying statement.

For the four-day period from March 30 to April 2, the number of visitors to the Macau SAR dropped 4.72 percent to 402,846 compared to the same period in the previous year.

Again, there is some uncertainty in the data as it is unclear whether the point of comparison from last year is the period of March 30 to April 2 or the actual four-day Easter holiday, which fell between April 14 and 17 in 2017.

According to the PSPs official data last year, Macau registered 427,254 tourist arrivals in the 2017 Easter period. That would represent an actual decline of 5.71 percent and not 4.72 percent.

Interestingly, according to the PSPs official data, tourists accounted for just 40 percent of the 1 million-plus arrivals recorded at Macaus border checkpoints during Easter this year.
Will North Korea give up the bomb?

The answer may start becoming clear when South Korean President Moon Jae-in meets North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Friday.

While North Korea declared over the weekend that it would stop nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests and shut down its nuclear test site, it did not indicate that it will give up its nuclear arsenal or halt its production of missiles. Moon and President Donald Trump, who is expected to meet with Kim in May or June, are still likely to find it very difficult to persuade Kim to dismantle his entire arsenal, which includes purported thermonuclear weapons and developmental ICBMs.

But other countries that developed or tried to develop nuclear weapons have agreed to abandon them in exchange for sanctions relief and compensation. None of these cases are directly applicable to North Korea, which advanced further and with greater zeal than any of the others.

A look at the past cases as Washington and its allies map out a denuclearization strategy for Pyongyang:

LIBYA

Shortly before he became Trumps national security adviser, John Bolton told Radio Free Asia that nuclear negotiations with North Korea should be similar to past discussions with Libya, which dismantled its rudimentary nuclear program in the 2000s.

Western nations lifted punitive measures and removed Libyas name from the U.S. state sponsors of terrorism after former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi fulfilled his promise to turn over his nuclear materials, weapons components and bomb designs obtained on the black market.

We should insist that if this meeting is going to take place, it will be similar to discussions we had with Libya 13 or 14 years ago  how to pack up their nuclear weapons program and take it to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which is where the Libyan nuclear program [is], Bolton said. If its anything other than a conversation about how to do that, then I think it shows its just camouflage for North Korea to continue working toward its long-sought objective of deliverable nuclear weapons.

But some analysts say bringing up Libya would risk derailing any progress in negotiations with the North. Kim Jong Un took power weeks after Gadhafis gruesome death at the hands of rebel forces amid a popular uprising in October 2011. The North has frequently used Gadhafis death to justify its own nuclear development in the face of perceived U.S. threats.

The Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq and the Gadhafi regime in Libya could not escape the fate of destruction after being deprived of their foundations for nuclear development and giving up nuclear programs of their own accord, yielding to the pressure of the U.S. and the West keen on their regime changes, the Norths official Korean Central News Agency said after the countrys fourth nuclear test, in January 2016.

IRAN

Some experts see Irans case as the best available scenario for denuclearizing North Korea. Under a 2015 deal struck with six foreign powers  the United States, Britain, Russia, France, Germany and China  Iran agreed to curb its nuclear program, long suspected of being aimed at developing weapons, in return for billions of dollars in sanctions relief.

Accepting a 10-year restriction on uranium enrichment, Iran shut down thousands of centrifuges and exported almost its entire stockpile of bomb-making material. It disabled a heavy water plant seen as potentially capable of producing plutonium usable in weapons. The country also approved a stringent monitoring regime that allows International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to access any site suspected of nuclear weapons-

related activities, including military facilities.

Aside from economic benefits, the deal allowed Tehran to save face by granting it the right to continue its atomic program for peaceful purposes, which some see as a potential selling point for Pyongyang.

Skeptics say North Koreas weapons program is too advanced to realistically expect a similar cut to near zero. While it was obvious that oil-rich Iran would gain significantly from the removal of sanctions alone, Kim, who guides a broken economy that lacks real industry, may demand bigger rewards for restraining his nuclear program.

UKRAINE AND OTHERS

Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus inherited thousands of nuclear weapons after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, but were persuaded by the United States to transfer the devices to Russia in return for economic support and security guarantees.

Analysts say the countries didnt have clear security reasons to keep the weapons and that memories of the Chernobyl disaster also influenced Ukraines decision to abandon the nukes.

South Africa, which has large uranium reserves, had built about a half-dozen nuclear warheads but voluntary gave them up and dismantled its weapons program after the end of apartheid starting in 1991. AP
A Belgian court on yesterday found 2015 Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam and an accomplice guilty of attempted murder over shots fired at police as they sought to avoid arrest in Brussels.

The court handed both Abdeslam, Europes most wanted fugitive at the time, and Sofiane Ayari the maximum 20-year sentence.

It said the terror character was clearly established in the March 2016 shooting, four months after the Paris attacks that killed 130. Abdeslam was close to being arrested in a hideout when he and Ayari fled while another man sprayed gunfire at police and was killed. Three officers were wounded.

His lawyer Sven Mary said it remains to be seen whether Abdeslam will seek to appeal his sentence. He has 30 days to decide. Mary insisted it is unclear whether Abdeslam himself had fired shots at officers trying to break into the hideout.

If there is doubt, he should have been let go, its that simple, Mary said.

Abdeslam attended the opening day of the trial in February but has refused to cooperate since. He is being held in a French prison. Ayari was also absent.

It is unclear when Abdeslam will face trial over the Paris attacks but it is expected to take several years.

The conclusion of the case at Brussels ornate palace of justice took place amid tight security set up by the armed forces and police.

As all our demands have been met we can be satisfied, said Maryse Alie, a lawyer for the police. The judgment says that firing at policemen on duty is a very serious crime.

Ayari is a Tunisian who fought with the Islamic State group for a year before heading to Europe. By the time he and Abdeslam began hiding in the upstairs apartment in central Brussels, police had raided more than a dozen locations in Belgium with little to show for it.

On the afternoon of March 15, 2016, they battered down yet another door. This time, it was to the staccato of an assault rifle. An IS fighter opened fire on the officers, who had only service weapons, while Abdeslam and Ayari darted onto a rooftop, broke into a neighboring apartment and escaped, authorities said.

The fugitives left behind a Kalashnikov, ammunition clips, a cellphone and a tunic  their DNA was everywhere, according to court testimony.

Three days after the shooting spree, Abdeslam was captured in Brussels. Four days after that, extremists struck in the Belgian capital, killing 32 people in bomb attacks at the airport and on the subway system. AP
Anantnag: With protests for justice to Kathua rape and murder victim showing no let up in this district, at least five students on Monday sustained injuries in the clashes in Anantnag town.

The students assembled at Lal Chowk area of town early morning and staged a protest. Few stones were thrown towards a paramilitary force vehicle, who in retaliation fired pellets injuring a student, witnesses said.

The student had suffered multiple pellet injuries in his chest and hand, a doctor at district hospital Anantnag told Srinagar newspaper.

Soon the protests morphed into clashes with forces resorting to intense tear gas shelling.

The students of boys degree college Khanabal also protested inside the campus.

The students later threw stones on the police personnel deployed outside the college who in turn barged inside the campus and lobbed shells to disperse them.









At least four students sustained minor injuries in the clashes and were shifted to district hospital Anantnag.

Eight policemen also suffered injuries after being hit by the stones, a police official said.

Earlier, on Wednesday dozens of students including girls were injured during daylong clashes in the town following which classwork in all the schools and colleges in Anantnag and Bjbehara towns was suspended, only to be resumed today.

The students protests over the horrific gang rape-and-murder of a minor girl in Kathua are refusing to die down despite the government appealing to the students to return to their classes.

In Shopian district, army resorted to aerial firing to disperse youth at Pinjura after their vehicle came under heavy stone pelting, sources said.

The students of GDC Shopian also took to streets at court complex and protested against the suspension of classwork in the college.

Students said that they were worried about their future and asked the government to resume the classwork in the college.

Students later pelted the forces with stones who in return lobbed tear smoke shell.

In another incident, youth pelted a survey team of army with stones in Murran area of Pulwama.

Armys Rashtriya Rifles were doing some survey when youth in large numbers assembled at Muran Chowk and pelted army soldiers with stones.

However, there were no reports of any injuries in Shopian or Pulwama.
Sands China Ltd. announced in a statement that it has been increasing the number of its guest shuttle buses fuelled by clean energy, with 25 percent of its fleet already running on compressed natural gas (CNG) technology.

According to a press release, the gaming operator became Macaus first integrated resort developer to use CNG-powered buses in September 2016 when it rolled out 30 clean energy guest shuttles for the opening of The Parisian Macao, whose entire fleet runs on clean energy.

The Venetian Macao added eight more clean energy guest shuttles to its fleet this month, bringing Sands Chinas total number of clean energy-powered buses to 38.

Sands China is very pleased to support the sustainability initiatives of the Macau SAR government, said Mark McWhinnie, the companys senior vice president of resort operations and development.

Sustainable operations are at the core of our business philosophy, and utilising clean energy vehicles is one of the many ways we work to decrease our carbon footprint and lesson our environmental impact, he added.

Wynn Cup award ceremony celebrates winners

The award ceremony for the second edition of the Wynn Cup  Macau Primary School Student National Education Drawing Competition was held at Wynn Palace yesterday.

The ceremony brought together over 500 teachers and students from more than 30 schools, along with representatives from all sectors of the community.

This years event, which featured the theme My Chinese Dream, was sponsored by Wynn and organized by the National Conditions Education (Macau) Association.

Wynn said in a press release yesterday that it hopes to strengthen local primary school students knowledge and understanding of national education; as well as enhancing cultural and educational exchanges between Macau and the mainland.

Linda Chen, Vice Chairman and Executive Director of Wynn Macau, Limited said in her speech, It is encouraging to see that the competition attracted participation from more than 30 schools and over 10,000 Macau primary school students, achieving outstanding results. It is the most popular primary school drawing competition in Macau, with the number of schools taking part up 30 percent compared to last year.
Vietnam  like many other Asian jurisdictions  is on the verge of gambling liberalization, and among the international firms simmering with optimism is Macaus own junket operator Suncity Group Holdings Ltd.

The VIP facilitator, which owns a one-third stake in an upcoming, USD4-billion development named Hoiana (along with co-investors VinaCapital and Hong Kong-based VMS Investment Group), will bring its expertise in attracting high-roller Chinese gamblers to the project.

Compared with more mature gambling jurisdictions like Macau, Cambodia and the Philippines, Vietnam remains wholly underdeveloped. There are fewer than 10 casinos across the country and only foreign passport holders are permitted to patronize them.

That is about to change with two other projects under development  one in the northern province of Quang Ninh and the other on Phu Quoc island  which will trial a program allowing Vietnamese nationals to gamble for the first time.

As the program is not being piloted in the Hoiana resort, investors will be reliant on tourists  most of them Chinese and lured into the country by Suncity expertise.

Last year, Vietnam welcomed around 4 million Chinese visitors, marking an increase of almost 50 percent from 2016.

And according to Reuters, Suncity executives are optimistic about Hoiana. They told the news agency that government backing and large-scale infrastructure works across the country were both good news for the project.

Wealthy junkets who rode the Macau gambling boom have been looking to expand their operations abroad since the industry-wide recession began in 2014. Macaus rigid concessionaire laws have proved a barrier to junkets opening their own casinos, leaving the firms as essential but somewhat sidelined market participants.

That may be about to change in the upcoming license negotiations between 2020 and 2022. Union Gamings Grant Govertsen told Reuters that Suncitys one-third stake in Hoiana may position it as a viable license contender.
One job ad for Chinese high-speed train conductors called for candidates who were fashionable and beautiful. Another ad targeting men for a job in a Chinese internet company included photos of a female employee pole-dancing.

Gender discrimination is widespread in the Chinese workforce, a human rights group said yesterday, with many hiring advertisements openly calling only for male applicants and using the attractiveness of female co-workers as a draw.

Human Rights Watch released its report, Only Men Need Apply: Gender Discrimination in Job Advertisements in China after looking at more than 36,000 job advertisements posted between 2013 and 2018 from recruiters, companies and the government.

Sexist job ads pander to the antiquated stereotypes that persist within Chinese companies, Sophie Richardson, Human Rights Watchs China director, said in a statement. These companies pride themselves on being forces of modernity and progress, yet they fall back on such [old-fashioned] recruitment strategies.

China bans discrimination in both hiring and job advertising, but enforcement is weak. Government departments are among the offenders, according to the report, with 55 percent of jobs advertised by the Ministry of Public Security last year specifying men only. The ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Discriminatory hiring practices further widen gaps in both female work participation and pay levels, according to official data, with urban female workers making just 67 percent of what men made in 2010, down from 78 percent in 1990  a time when the government was loosening control over the economy.

Its also a reflection of deeply discriminatory views about women, the report said, including that they are less capable than men, or that they are not fully committed to their jobs because some will eventually leave their positions to have a family.

In examining the tech sector, the report pointed to numerous cases where the attractiveness and availability of female workers is used as an inducement for men to apply for jobs.

In one case, online shopping giant Alibaba ran an ad on its official microblog in 2013 enumerating the attributes of its female workers, accompanied by photos of female employees in sexualized poses, including one engaged in pole dancing, the report said.

Alibaba did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

An October 2016 article on the official microblog recruitment account of tech company Tencent was even blunter, quoting a male employee as saying, The reason I joined Tencent originated from a primal impulse. It was mainly because the ladies at human resources and that interviewed me were very pretty.

Tencent apologized, saying the company values diverse backgrounds and recruits staff based on talent and ability. These incidents clearly do not reflect our values, the tech giant said in an email. We have investigated these incidents and are making immediate changes. We are sorry they occurred and we will take swift action to ensure they do not happen again.

Despite laws against it, demands are frequently made for physical attributes that have nothing to do with the requirements of the job, another form of sexual objectification. Those can include minimums and maximums for height and weight, normal facial features and particular sounding voices.

One notable ad in northern China even called for fashionable and beautiful high-speed train conductors, the report said.

The report also cited a 2014 study by the official All-China Womens Federation in which 87 percent of female college graduates said they had faced at least one form of gender discrimination when applying for jobs.

The sexism ranged from job ads stating men only or men preferred, rejecting or refusing to review female applicants resumes and having higher requirements for educational attainment from female applicants, according to the federations data.

In some instances, preference is shown for men in the civil service and among kindergarten and elementary school teachers to offset the large percentage of women in those fields, the report said.

It quoted one unidentified kindergarten principal as saying, The lack of males makes children prone to look at and solve problems according to the way women think and behave.

Beyond overcoming such attitudes, change is impeded by a lack of determination and enforcement mechanisms, along with obstacles linked to Chinas authoritarian politics, the report said.

Instead of harassing and jailing womens rights activists, the Chinese government should engage them as allies in combating gender discrimination in the job market  and beyond, Richardson said.

Gender discrimination is also reflected in the overwhelmingly masculine nature of Chinas political bodies, said Li Yinhe, a sociologist at the official Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Among the diplomatic corps, women can be excluded because duty in certain countries could be considered too dangerous for women, she said.

There is no small number of Chinese women entrepreneurs who are among the worlds richest, but its far worse in the political field, Li said. I think its because women are latecomers, so the political resources are in the hands of men and its a male-dominated society. AP
South Korea halted anti-North Korea propaganda broadcasts across their tense border yesterday as officials from the two Koreas met again to work out details of their leaders upcoming talks, expected to focus on the Norths nuclear program.

Seoul had been blasting propaganda messages and K-pop songs from border loudspeakers since the Norths fourth nuclear test in early 2016. The North quickly matched the Souths action with its own border broadcasts and launches of balloons carrying anti-South Korea leaflets across the border.

South Korea turned off its broadcasts to ease military tensions and establish an environment for peaceful talks, Seouls Defense Ministry said in a statement. It said Seoul hopes the decision will lead to both sides stopping slander and propaganda activities.

Yonhap news agency, citing an unidentified government source, said that North Korea was believed to have turned off many of its propaganda broadcasts. Yonhap earlier reported that some North Korean broadcasts were sporadically heard in the South yesterday morning. South Korean defense officials said they couldnt immediately confirm the status of the Norths broadcasts.

The move comes amid a recent thaw in animosities, with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un trying to reach out to Seoul and Washington after conducting his countrys sixth and most powerful nuclear test and three long- range missile test launches last year.

Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in are to meet at the Korean border village of Panmunjom on Friday in the countries third-ever summit talks. Kim is to hold separate talks with U.S. President Donald Trump in May or early June in what would be the first North Korea-U.S. summit.

Yesterday, the two Koreas held a third round of working-level talks at Panmunjom and agreed to conduct a joint rehearsal Wednesday of the summit, Moons office said in a statement. It said the two sides agreed that Fridays summit will include a welcoming ceremony and a banquet dinner as well as a formal meeting between Moon and Kim.

The Koreas agreed last week to allow live television broadcasts for key parts of the summit. Mondays statement said North Korea also agreed on live broadcasts by South Korean media of unspecified events at the northern side of Panmunjom.

The Korean summit is to take place at a South Korean building on the southern side of Panmunjom. This means that Kim must cross the border into South Korea in what would be the first such act by a North Korean leader since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

Kim has said he is willing to place his nuclear program up for negotiation. But it is unclear what disarmament steps he will offer during the two sets of summit talks. U.S. officials have said they want to the North to complete full nuclear disarmament.

North Korea said Saturday it will close its nuclear testing facility and suspend nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests. But it stopped short of suggesting it will give up its nuclear weapons or scale back its production of missiles and their related components.

Trump nonetheless tweeted Sunday that the North has agreed to denuclearization (so great for World), site closure, & no more testing!

Trumps pick to be the next secretary of state, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, traveled to North Korea on Easter weekend to lay the groundwork for the summit meeting. Pompeos trip was a clear indication that preparations for the North-U.S. summit are under way, though many U.S. and other foreign experts have had doubts. Hyung-Jin Kim, Seoul
After seeing an opportunity to kick off a business when Sands China Ltd. invested in its first integrated resort in the city  Sands Macao  in 2004, NCPK Company Ltd, owned by Nelson Chan was then established as a micro and young entrepreneur enterprise in the city in 2009.

Considered a modern retail store by the entrepreneur, the firm sells a series of hardware products to the construction industry.

The local firm kicked off its partnership with Sands China Ltd back in 2010, leading the company to provide a growing number of products to the gaming operator and local residents.

According to Chan, the investment by Sands China provided the city with a wake-

up call to develop a higher standard of offerings and services.

The dream to open a store actually started when Sands Macao opened in the region, Nelson shared.

I just started to think that Macau is not a small city anymore. More investors from all over the world came to invest here so we have the opportunity to think about new ways to operate a hardware business, the entrepreneur added.

Nelson grew up in a family business that retails similar hardware products, yet decided to start his own with new brands, new products and innovative services.

These are the new requirements in Macau because the casinos are here. It has changed the way people do business, said Nelson.

The standards have improved, whether in the protection of workers in the construction industry or standards of hygiene, he added.

However, as working capital remains a challenge for local entrepreneurs who aim to start a business in Macau, Nelson has appreciated the series of SME programs provided by Sands China.

The ongoing efforts of the gaming operator have assisted hundreds of local SMEs, including Nelsons company, as the programs have continued to drive procurement between Sands China and local SME suppliers.

Nelson recalled how Sands China offered substantial assistance to local suppliers following losses caused by Typhoon Hato back in August last year, noting that his store is located along Rua Ribeira do Patane, one of the areas most badly hit by the typhoon.

Typhoon Hato brought with it serious damage to our business. In the last half year, we have been trying our best to recover. We still need three to four years to recover the losses, Nelson lamented.

He noted that they had to acquire new stock as the typhoon took up 30 to 40 percent of their products. He thanked Sands China for implementing swift payment procedures.

Sands China had set up procedures to help us. One of the ways are through financial assistance, they set up a faster payment process, shared Nelson.

Since Macau lacked manpower and trucks to deliver goods during that time, Sands procurement team assisted in the swift collection and transportation of goods, he recalled.

NCPK Company Ltd supplies goods and services to Sands China almost every day, earning about 30 percent of their total income from the gaming operator.

Nelson is confident that local entrepreneurs will continue to grow with the assistance of the various SME programs that gaming operators provide, citing Sands Chinas first-of-its-kind invitational matching sessions.

These invitational matching sessions provide a platform for local SMEs to present and demonstrate their products and services to potential users and buyers at Sands Chinas properties.

The goal is to facilitate communication between vendors and users, and to improve procurement success rates.

The SME programs for SME companies are good because young entrepreneurs can access more opportunities to start their business. The barrier is no longer that high to start a business compared to years ago, said Nelson.

I can see that Macau keeps changing. If entrepreneurs want to improve their businesses, they have to look for more people, solutions or equipment to avail themselves of these opportunities to grow, the entrepreneur shared.

These SME programs look for ways to reach out to local SMEs, providing them with a platform to offer their products and services across different sectors.

Just last year, Sands China launched its new F.I.T. program for local SME suppliers, which included the first in a series of unique invitational matching sessions for SME suppliers to demonstrate their goods and services to user departments inside Sands China.

This latest initiative is the first of its kind: the F.I.T. program aims to continue driving procurement between Sands China and local SMEs, targeted at both existing and new local suppliers to Sands China, thus increasing its spend with these SMEs.

In their on-going commitment to Macaus local SMEs, Sands China continues to develop initiatives to provide different ways for SMEs to showcase their products, helping them gain experience and increase their capacity to work with large-scale international customers like Sands China.

This article was sponsored by Sands China Ltd.
Malaysian police yesterday released images of two suspects in the killing of a Palestinian engineer and said they appeared to be European or Middle Eastern, fueling suspicion that the slaying was an Israeli assassination.

Gazas ruling Hamas militant group has accused Israel of being behind Saturdays shooting of Fadi al-Batsh, an important member of Hamas. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement.

Malaysian national police chief Mohamad Fuzi Harun said the composite images were based on eyewitness descriptions. He said the suspects, clad in black jackets, were fair-

skinned, well-built and had beards, and were likely European or Middle Eastern.

Fuzi said the images have been displayed at all exit points in the country but said it was unclear if the men had fled Malaysia.

Police said al-Batsh, 34, was hit with 14 bullets by the two assailants, who shot from a motorbike as he was heading to a mosque for dawn prayers in a suburb near Kuala Lumpur. Police said security video showed the suspects had waited for him for almost 20 minutes.

Hamas initially stopped short of blaming Israel, saying only that he had been assassinated by the hand of treachery. But later its top leader accused Israels Mossad intelligence agency of killing al-Batsh and threatened retaliation.

A string of Israeli officials have neither confirmed nor denied whether Israel had a hand in the death. Several noted, however, that Israel is routinely blamed for such assassinations even when it is not involved.

Several Israeli Cabinet ministers welcomed the killing, regardless of who was responsible. Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman suggested in radio interviews Sunday that al-Batsh may have been killed as part of a rivalry between Palestinian militants.

Israel has a long history of being accused of targeting wanted Palestinian militants in daring overseas operations and has been linked to other assassinations as well, though it has rarely publicly acknowledged them.

Al-Batsh was believed to have been working on Hamas unmanned aerial vehicle program and was working on improving the accuracy of its rockets.

His brother, Rami, told Malaysian media in Kuala Lumpur that he hopes to take the body back tomorrow.

Police say al-Batsh had lived in Malaysia for more than seven years and had permanent residency status. He had a degree in electrical engineering and lectured at a local university, but police couldnt confirm reports that he was an expert in rocket making.

Al-Batsh traveled locally and abroad to speak on Palestinian issues and was scheduled to fly to Turkey for a conference when he was killed, police said. AP
A Michigan couple had a little bit of fun naming their 14th son.

Kateri and Jay Schwandt welcomed the birth of their son on Wednesday. Jay Schwandt said theyve decided to name him Finley Sheboygan Schwandt.

The name doesnt appear to have any ties with the Wisconsin city. Its inspired by a tale his father-in-law told them about a Native American chief who was the father of many boys, Jay Schwandt said. The chief believed his last child would be a girl. When the baby was a boy, the chief named him Sheboygan for she is a boy again.

Theres no chance the couple will have another child, Jay Schwandt said, though hes made similar statements before.

This realistically is the end of the road as far as making babies, he said.

Kateri Schwandt has said shes used to large families, as one of 14 children herself.

Each little one that has entered our family has brought something special to the entire makeup of the family and without anyone of them it wouldnt feel right, she said.

The couple lives in Rockford, north of Grand Rapids. They have no daughters. The couples oldest son is in his 20s.

A documentary about the family is set to be released by the Lifetime Network in June.
A local man has been charged by authorities for beating and injuring his eight-year-old son with a bamboo stick and a plastic bar, the Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesperson announced during a press conference.

According to the PJ, the incident took place on April 19 in the familys house at Avenida da Concordia in Fai Chi Kei area. The boys parents are separated and he currently lives alone with his father.

The father, a 34-year-old croupier, began beating the boy after hearing that the child had been in a fight with some classmates. He later confessed to the charges, claiming that the punishment was common in the old days when parents needed to educate their children more harshly.

The neighbors heard the sounds of the beating and the boys cries, and called the police for help.

The boy sustained injuries to the buttocks, thighs and legs.

The PJ said the case had been transferred from the Public Security Police Force (PSP) for further investigation, and that the Social Welfare Bureau and the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau had been notified to carry out future proceedings.

The father has been presented to the Public Prosecutions Office where he was charged with the crime of simple offense to physical integrity. He will either pay a fine or be imprisoned for up to three years.

In a separate announcement at the same conference by the PSP, a 20-year- old local resident was found behind the wheel of a car despite a one-year suspension of his license following a drunk-driving incident.

The resident was stopped for speeding during a police operation at Rua do Almirante Sergio in Inner Harbour area in the early hours of Monday morning. He was initially unable to provide his license, but the police eventually unearthed his identification documents.

He will be charged for driving during a penalty period as well as aggravated disobedience.

Two illegal immigrants found over the weekend

The police announced at a press conference yesterday that two illegal immigrants had been discovered over the weekend.

The first, a Vietnamese woman aged approximately 40 years old, was found by an officer on Rua 1 de Maio last Friday morning when she failed to provide documents upon the officers request. She was later discovered to have entered Macau illegally, and claimed to have entered with the help of a Chinese man in Zhuhai to whom she paid RMB14,000. She said she had come to Macau to find a job.

The second, a mainland woman in her sixties, presented herself to Police Station Number 3 in NAPE saying that she was illegally present in Macau and requesting that the police assist in her deportation to the mainland.

The woman also said she had illegally entered the MSAR with the help of an individual to whom she had paid RMB1,500.

She claimed she had come to Macau to seek a person she believed to be in the territory.

Further investigation also revealed that the woman provided a false name when presenting herself to the police station, and that she had done the same thing in the mainland to obtain a travel document for entry to Macau. When this failed, she entered the territory illegally

Both women are being charged with illegal entry in the region; the second woman is also being charged with providing a false identity to the police.
The rivalry is so notorious its been called the great cat-and-dog war. On one side towers Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Chinas e-commerce market leader, embodied by the black cat mascot of its Tmall platform. On the other is JD.com Inc., a fast-growing upstart represented by its white dog logo.

Brands now caught in the cross- fire say they were punished by Alibaba after refusing exclusive deals as the e-commerce giant tried to muscle out the competition  a charge Alibaba denies. Executives from five major consumer brands told The Associated Press that after rebuffing Alibaba, traffic to their Tmall storefronts fell, hurting sales. Three are American companies with billions in annual revenue that rely on China for growth. All spoke only on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Many brands complained about this to us, said Wang Hongbo, a consultant who helps Chinese brands sell online. Because they didnt fall in line, they faced restrictions on Tmall.

Alibaba called the charges of coercion completely false and said pursuing exclusivity is a common industry practice.

As the Trump administration pushes China to play by fair trade rules, companies in China are caught in a no less crucial struggle for rules-based access to a USD610 billion online marketplace.

The platforms that control access to Chinese consumers online wield such enormous power that even multibillion-dollar foreign brands can have trouble fighting back, the AP found in interviews with more than 30 industry players. The AP also reviewed two Alibaba contracts that contain previously unreported exclusivity clauses.

The trials of the affected companies offer a rare window onto a bruising business culture forged in China that could spread as Alibaba takes its aggressive, innovative and hugely profitable model of e-commerce global. To the extent that the products in question are manufactured in the United States  and some are  constricting China sales can also deepen the imbalance of trade between China and the U.S., a gap that has been a top concern for the Trump administration.

In a statement, Alibaba acknowledged that it offers benefits to companies that sign exclusivity contracts, in line with Chinese law, but said merchants are free to work with whatever e-commerce companies they choose.

Like many e-commerce platforms, we have exclusive partnerships with some of the merchants on Tmall, Alibaba said. The merchant decides to choose such an arrangement because of the attractive services and value Tmall brings to them.

Imagine a company twice as profitable as Amazon that each year serves more people than live in all of North America. Thats Alibaba. It claims to be the marketplace for nearly $550 billion a year in sales  more than is sold online in the entire U.S. economy. Thats just the start of Alibaba founder Jack Mas ambition. He aims to serve 2 billion consumers by 2036, roughly one in four people currently on the planet.

Alibabas aggressive recruitment of foreign brands has paid off. The company said it signed up 60,000 international brands for its massive Singles Day sale in November, up from 5,000 in 2015. Tmall, which serves as a gateway to China for large foreign brands, controlled six of every 10 dollars spent overall for business-to-consumer sales online in China during the second half of last year  and even more in sectors like apparel.

The American Apparel & Footwear Association, a Washington-

based industry group, said its members had complained about Alibabas unfair competitive tactics. We urge the authorities to quickly investigate and take steps to ensure such practices are eliminated from the growing Chinese marketplace, said Stephen Lamar, the groups executive vice-president.

JD.com is a member and sponsor of the association.

JD.com also does exclusive deals, but maintains that it doesnt strategically push merchants for exclusively. It doesnt have the market share in most categories to do much strong-arming anyway.

We support fair and open competition because greater choice is always better for brands and users, JD.com said in a statement.

JD.com chief financial officer Sidney Huang said last month the company was still trying to win back over 100 Chinese brands that defected last year under pressure.

Chinese fashion company Peacebird, which left JD.com last year, said Alibaba had not coerced them and their decision to focus entirely on Tmall was strategic.

We will centralize and develop the limited resources of our company on Tmall, said Weng Jianghong, the companys general manager of e-commerce.

Alibaba said its business practices comply with Chinese law. It is not clear whether the evidence of coercion brands have managed to collect would hold up in court.

Under Chinas anti-monopoly laws, companies with a dominant market position cannot demand exclusivity without justification. A 2015 regulation also bars e-commerce companies from restricting participation in promotions on competing platforms.

The contracts AP reviewed offered a suite of benefits designed to drive sales, in exchange for exclusivity. One specified that brands must not operate storefronts on other platforms without Tmalls permission. The other barred brands from sales promotions on rival platforms without Tmalls permission.

Executives offered different reasons for refusing such arrangements. Some said they worried cutting off JD.com would limit access to customers and hurt business. Others feared the agreement might be illegal, or felt that on principle it just wasnt the right thing to do.

Then came the stick: Executives said that after they rebuffed Alibaba, their brands banners vanished from prominent spots in Tmall sales showrooms and products stopped appearing in top search results.

Based on our sales record, we should have been in a prominent position, but we were at the bottom of the page, said the e-commerce director of a multibillion-dollar publicly traded company. Thats a clear punishment.

Two companies told AP they granted concessions to Alibaba, including exclusive product launches, raising prices on JD.com or removing ads promoting JD.com sales. Traffic to their Tmall shops rebounded. One company said it ultimately closed its JD.com flagship to salvage Tmall sales.

This is certainly a problem for the development of retail sales channels, said Zhuo Saijun, who until 2015 was a general manager of research at Analysys Ltd., a Beijing-based consultancy. It is a business ethics problem, and this is how monopolies develop. Erika Kinetz, Shanghai, AP
A new regime for Macaus street markets has drawn criticism from local vendors who describe it as unfair.

The Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM) has proposed a rule banning street market stalls from closing for more than three consecutive days, or for more than a total of 30 days in a year.

One stall operator, surnamed Chan, declared that the implementation of said regulation is impossible and that no one would support it.

It is not in accordance with the labor law. [] Even civil servants are allowed to take two days off every week, said Chan.

He said that there are a handful of stalls that operate for a few days in a single year, and suggested that IACM target that minority instead of all stalls.

Chan went on to describe IACMs mentality as unbelievable and said it would accelerate the downfall of street markets.

[IACM] handed out a book [on vendor operation instructions] for us to read. Only it [IACM] understands the articles it is talking about. It is not OK [if vendors] take a rest; it is also not OK [when we] write a poor [] proposal. [Vendors and stalls] will be eliminated sooner or later, stated Chan.

The 68-year-old local resident added that Macau government officials were more humane under Portuguese rule. JZ
Srinagar, April 23: A day after Education Minister Altaf Bukhari said that students have a right to protest in their schools and colleges, police Monday entered boys higher secondary school Baramulla and thrashed several students who were protesting against the rape and murder of 8-year old nomadic girl of Kathua.

Around 70 students, who were protesting within the school premises, were detained by the police, many of them in injured condition.

The students this morning held a demonstration in the school premises, seeking stern punishment to the persons involved in rape and murder of eight year old Kathua girl.

However, policemen in large numbers entered the school and used force on the protesting students. The police action triggered clashes between the two sides. Police also fired teargas on the agitating students.

SSP Baramulla said the detained students would be released after proper counselling.

The students priority should be education but unfortunately they are indulging in un-necessary protests, said Imtiyaz Hussain, SSP Baramulla.

Srinagar:

The activists of Peoples Freedom League led by party leader Imtiyaz Ahmad Shah also staged a protest demonstration in Srinagar Press Enclave to condemn the rape and murder of Aasifa in Kathua district. They demanded re-opening of all rape cases of Kashmir.

Shopian:

Army on Monday resorted to aerial firing to disperse youths at Pinjura in Shopian district after their vehicle came under heavy stone pelting.

Eyewitnesses said that youths hurled stones at the army vehicle in the village and the army fired bullets in the air to chase them away.

Students of degree college Shopian took to streets at court complex and lodged strong protest against the closure of the college by the government.

Some students later pelted stones on the government forces. Forces lobbed tear smoke shells to disperse the protesting youth. The clashes remained on for several hours.

Pulwama:

In another incident, youths pelted a survey team of army with stones in Murran area of Pulwama.

Armys Rashtriya Rifles were doing some survey when youths in large numbers assembled at Muran Chowk and pelted army soldiers with stones. Army fired tear smoke shells to disperse the protesting youth.

However, there was no casualty in any stone pelting incident in these districts.

Ganderbal/Kangan:

Students staged protests in Kangan and Ganderbal on Monday against the Khatua rape and murder case.

The students of degree college Ganderbal boycotted their classes in the afternoon and staged protests. They blocked the Ganderbal-Shalbugh road for some time.

The government forces tried to disperse the students, triggering clashes in the area. A policeman identified as constable Aqib Ali sustained minor injuries as a stone hit his face.

Students of boys higher secondary school Kangan also boycotted their classes and assembled for protests.

Carrying placards and chanting slogans, the students came out of the school premises and marched in main market Kangan.

Later they were joined by the students of degree college Kangan. They staged sit-in at main chowk Kangan and continued sloganeering for an hour.

Later they were chased away by the police.

Bandipora:

Hundreds of students of ML Hajin higher secondary school in Bandipora district took out a protest march in solidarity with the eight year old nomadic girl who was gang-raped and murdered in Kathua in January this year.

The students raised slogans in favor of the victim girl and were holding placards showing different messages calling for justice for her.

The students pelted stones on an army school in the area.

Reports of student protests were also received from Saderkote and Ajas areas of Bandipora district where students took out protest rallies in solidarity with Kathua rape victim.

The protesting students were demanding death penalty to the culprits.
Bahrains foreign minister has called for lawsuit to be placed against Doha-based al Jazeera as he accused the news network of spreading lies.

Bahrain and its regional allies, namely Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates plus Egypt, have severed ties with Qatar since June last year. The four, known as anti-terrorism quartet cut off sea, ground and air links with the tiny gas-rich country over claims that it sponsors terrorism.

Khalid bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa, took to Twitter to lambast the channel headquartered in Doha. The Bahraini official notes that the channel should be prosecuted for spreading lies and rumors that cause confusion in our countries.

The top diplomat also noted that the prosecution of the channel is among demands from the boycotting countries before thawing ties with the tiny Gulf country.

The list of thirteen demands also includes reduction of ties with Iran and suspension of Turkish military ramp-up in the Qatar.

Qatar rejected the demands as it had rejected the charges blaming it with supporting terrorism.
This image reveals the activity of PaVN neurons in rats that were exposed to light mimicking a longer-than-usual day that elicits stressed behaviors. Credit: UC San Diego

Five years ago, a team of University of California San Diego neurobiologists published surprising findings describing how rats' brain cells adopted new chemical codes when subjected to significant changes in natural light exposuremuch as humans suffer from "winter blues," the type of depression known as seasonal affective disorder. A new study implicates a role for light-induced electrical activity in controlling chemical codes.

In the earlier studies, the researchers showed for the first time that rats' nerve cells switched to a new chemical code when the animals were subjected to large shifts in their day and night cycles, demonstrating that adult mammalian brains are much more malleable than once believed.

At the time, the researchers were unclear about the mechanisms behind the code switching, which is mediated by chemical messengers known as neurotransmitters. How exactly does this plasticity work in the brain? Now, the scientists' results described April 23 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) identify the mechanism behind this neurotransmitter switching, with possible implications for chemical imbalances in the brain underlying mental illness.

In their PNAS study, Da Meng, Hui-quan Li, Stefan Leutgeb and Nicholas Spitzer of UC San Diego's Division of Biological Sciences, along with Karl Deisseroth of Stanford University, find that light-induced electrical activity in specific brain neurons lies at the root of the change in their neurotransmitters.

"In this paper we addressed the question of the regulatory mechanism enabling neurotransmitter switching," said Spitzer, senior author of the paper and co-director of the Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind. "We discovered that manipulating the electrical activity in the brain prevented the change in neurotransmitter identity that elicits the animals' anxious and depressed behavior. We think that this work opens the door to other studies of activity-dependent mechanisms in psychiatric disorders."

In the new findings, the researchers studied the change in neurotransmitter identity when rats, which are nocturnal, are exposed to long day lengths. This exposure led to elevated activity of paraventricular (PaVN) neurons in the hypothalamus and by consequence a loss in their expression of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that is linked with many aspects of normal behavior. When the researchers suppressed the elevation of activity that resulted from the long-day exposure, exclusively in the PaVN neurons, they blocked the transmitter switch that would have occurred under these normal light conditions.

The new studies render other mechanisms for the transmitter switch unlikely, including altered metabolism, hormonal stimulation or influence from other classes of cells.

"Because the long photoperiods are stressful to rodents (analogous to short-day photoperiods for people), the findings raise the possibility that various forms of stress may induce transmitter switching that contributes to the chemical imbalances in the brain underlying many psychiatric conditions," said Spitzer.

Implications of the findings could be relevant to autism spectrum disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder, areas the researchers are now investigating with their new results in hand.

More information: Da Meng el al., "Neuronal activity regulates neurotransmitter switching in the adult brain following light-induced stress," PNAS (2018). Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Da Meng el al., "Neuronal activity regulates neurotransmitter switching in the adult brain following light-induced stress,"(2018). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1801598115
For the first time, medical doctors and researchers could alleviate serious symptoms of Parkinson's disease, which causes shaking, muscle stiffness and slow movements in those affected. However, before these symptoms appear, and during the course of the disease, many patients experience sleep disorders, gastrointestinal problems, anxiety and depression. Unlike the symptoms in the motor system, there is no effective treatment for these more neglected symptoms.

A team of researchers from Aarhus University has now moved a step closer to understanding how the early symptoms occurand possibly also how they can be checked. In the study, which has just been published in the scientific journal EMBO Reports, the researchers show that in nerve cells with the same type of stress as Parkinson's disease, there is a marked loss of calcium. If the level of calcium decreases, cells cannot function. This is especially true for people at an early stage of Parkinson's disease, because malfunctioning nerve cells can give rise to symptoms such as sleep disorders and anxiety. According to the lead author of the study Cristine Betzer from the brain research centre DANDRITE at Aarhus University, saving calcium-depleted nerve cells indicates that the symptoms can be inhibited.

"The study indicates that the treatment of calcium disturbances is meaningful because the nerve cells are protected. This may help to prevent the disease from developing into such a disabling disease as would otherwise be the case," says Cristine Betzer.

One characteristic symptom of Parkinson's disease is the loss of fine motor control. This happens when protein structures in the brain clump together and kill off nerve cells. By examining brain tissue from mice, pigs and humans, Betzer discovered that the clumped proteins activate a calcium pump. When this happens, the cells cannot function normally and eventually die. The researchers sought to inhibit the activation of the pump in the first place.

In Aarhus, they suppressed the pump in a worm model that was modified to express human genes. "Experiments in the United States with similar models have shown that once the worms with the Parkinson's protein have lived for eight days, their nerve cells begin to die. In our study, we treated the worms with an inhibitor against the calcium pump and then counted the nerve cells in the worms. And there were many cells left, which is a sensational and encouraging result," says Betzer. She emphasises that the result cannot be directly transposed to humans, but it is a positive indication for upcoming studies with mice and rats. "It's a question of regulating calcium in the nerve cells. This is complicated, but also a promising area, as there are already a large number of medications for regulating calcium. It's possible that the knowledge that already exists about the medications can help us make progress quicker in the new area."

She hopes that the study will offer new opportunities for treating Parkinson's disease, particularly for people who suffer from severe sleep disorders and cognitive disorders. "Our study points toward the usefulness of treating patients throughout the whole course of the disease, as the calcium pump will otherwise continue to pump and thus contribute to the patient's symptoms. Perhaps the protection of nerve cells can also mean that the damage caused by Parkinson's disease in the brain does not develop as severely as it otherwise would," says Betzer.

Explore further Restless sleep may be an early sign of Parkinson's disease

More information: Cristine Betzer et al, Alphasynuclein aggregates activate calcium pump SERCA leading to calcium dysregulation, EMBO reports (2018). Journal information: EMBO Reports Cristine Betzer et al, Alphasynuclein aggregates activate calcium pump SERCA leading to calcium dysregulation,(2018). DOI: 10.15252/embr.201744617
Research shows there might be health benefits to eating certain types of dark chocolate. Credit: LLU Health

New research shows there might be health benefits to eating certain types of dark chocolate. Findings from two studies being presented today at the Experimental Biology 2018 annual meeting in San Diego show that consuming dark chocolate that has a high concentration of cacao (minimally 70% cacao, 30% organic cane sugar) has positive effects on stress levels, inflammation, mood, memory and immunity. While it is well known that cacao is a major source of flavonoids, this is the first time the effect has been studied in human subjects to determine how it can support cognitive, endocrine and cardiovascular health.

Lee S. Berk, DrPH, associate dean of research affairs, School of Allied Health Professions and a researcher in psychoneuroimmunology and food science from Loma Linda University, served as principal investigator on both studies.

"For years, we have looked at the influence of dark chocolate on neurological functions from the standpoint of sugar content - the more sugar, the happier we are," Berk said. "This is the first time that we have looked at the impact of large amounts of cacao in doses as small as a regular-sized chocolate bar in humans over short or long periods of time, and are encouraged by the findings. These studies show us that the higher the concentration of cacao, the more positive the impact on cognition, memory, mood, immunity and other beneficial effects."

The flavonoids found in cacao are extremely potent antioxidants and anti-inflammatory agents, with known mechanisms beneficial for brain and cardiovascular health. The following results will be presented in live poster sessions during the Experimental Biology 2018 meeting:

Dark Chocolate (70% Cacao) Effects Human Gene Expression: Cacao Regulates Cellular Immune Response, Neural Signaling, and Sensory Perception (Monday, April 23, 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., San Diego Convention Center, Exhibit Halls A - D)

 This pilot feasibility experimental trial examined the impact of 70 percent cacao chocolate consumption on human immune and dendritic cell gene expression, with focus on pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines. Study findings show cacao consumption up-regulates multiple intracellular signaling pathways involved in T-cell activation, cellular immune response and genes involved in neural signaling and sensory perception - the latter potentially associated with the phenomena of brain hyperplasticity.

Dark Chocolate (70% Organic Cacao) Increases Acute and Chronic EEG Power Spectral Density (v2) Response of Gamma Frequency (25-40Hz) for Brain Health: Enhancement of Neuroplasticity, Neural Synchrony, Cognitive Processing, Learning, Memory, Recall, and Mindfulness Meditation (Tuesday, April 24, 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., San Diego Convention Center, Exhibit Halls A - D)

 This study assessed the electroencephalography (EEG) response to consuming 48 g of dark chocolate (70% cacao) after an acute period of time (30 mins) and after a chronic period of time (120 mins), on modulating brain frequencies 0-40Hz, specifically beneficial gamma frequency (25-40Hz). Findings show that this superfood of 70 percent cacao enhances neuroplasticity for behavioral and brain health benefits.

Berk said the studies require further investigation, specifically to determine the significance of these effects for immune cells and the brain in larger study populations. Further research is in progress to elaborate on the mechanisms that may be involved in the cause-and-effect brain-behavior relationship with cacao at this high concentration.

Explore further Eat dark chocolate to beat the midday slump, study says

Provided by Loma Linda University Adventist Health Sciences Center
Srinagar: Four militants, 2 army men and a policeman were killed in an encounter at Tral forest area of south Kashmirs Pulwama district on Tuesday.

Official said as reported by GNS news agency that the joint team of Indian forces along with the additional reinforcement intercepted the rebel group at the upper side of the Goiytengo forests who earlier fled after a brief exchange of gunfire.

In the exchange of firing two army men and one SOG personal identified as Latif Gojri also sustained serious bullet wounds. The critically injured Latif later succumbed.

Four militants have been killed in the operation at Goiytengo forests in Laam area, a DGP police tweeted.

Police said that all the bodies of the militants have been recovered and added that the search operation is still going on.

Earlier, an army man of 42 RR who was injured in the initial exchange of gunfire succumbed to injuries at 92 Base Hospital here in Srinagar.

The gunfight broke out in the area after the joint team of Indian armys 42 RR, SOG and CRPF launched a cordon-and-search in the forest area. (with inputs from GNS)
Credit: Cindy Shebley/Flickr/University of California, Los Angeles

The number of first-time prescriptions for opioid drugs has not risen since about 2010, according to UCLA researchers. However, patients taking a class of drug known to increase the risk for overdoses were likelier to receive a first-time opioid prescriptiona combination that could be linked to the current surge in opioid-related deaths.

People with chronic pain are often prescribed a class of medications called "benzodiazepines" to treat anxiety, panic attacks and other mental conditions that can be brought on by the stress of coping with their pain. But these people also are likelier to receive new opioid prescriptions for their pain than people who don't use benzodiazepines. Used in combination, they are known to sharply increase the risk of overdose, the researchers say.

The study was published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

Previous studies have shown that people who become addicted to opioids after being co-prescribed benzodiazepines and the pain reliever have much higher overdose rates, said Dr. Joseph Ladapo, associate professor of medicine in the division of general internal medicine and health services research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the study's lead author. This is because, in part, they often obtain opioids through other means and continue using them after the initial prescription runs out.

"Rates of accidental overdose are high and rising, and we are struggling as a country to address the problem," he said. "As physicians, we have contributed to the problem, and one of the things we can do to address it is to reduce co-prescribing of benzodiazepines and opioids, and think very hard about how to effectively treat patients' pain while also reducing the risks the patient now faces from opioid therapy."

The researchers used data taken from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey and National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey from 2005 to 2015 on adults ages 20 and older who received new opioid prescriptions while concurrently using a benzodiazepine.

They analyzed a sample of 13,146 clinic and hospital visits, which extrapolate to the equivalent of 214 million visits nationally, in which patients received a new opioid prescription.

Rates of new opioid prescriptions in the United States for people on benzodiazepine increased 86 percent from 189 to 351 per 1,000 people between 2005 and 2010. But the rate of new prescriptions for these patients fell 51 percent to 172 per 1,000 U.S. people by 2015.

By contrast, new opioid prescriptions for patients who were not also taking benzodiazepines increased from 78 to 93 per 1,000 between 2005 and 2010, and dropped 15 percent to 79 per 1,000 by 2015. Naloxone, a medication used to reverse opioid overdoses, was co-prescribed in fewer than 1 percent of the visits.

Yet even with that drop in prescriptions, opioid-linked deaths increased from 5 per 100,000 people in the United States in 2005 to 11 per 100,000 in 2015and continued to rise in 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The U.S. Surgeon General recently suggested that Americans routinely keep naloxone on hand to treat opioid overdose victims.

"We were surprised by how much higher the probability is of new opioid prescriptions to patients using benzodiazepines, considering that these patients face such an increased risk of overdose," said senior author Dr. John Mafi, assistant professor of medicine in the division of general internal medicine and health services research at the Geffen School. "We were also surprised by how rapidly co-prescription rates fell after peaking around 2010. Such a rapid change suggests that a substantial portion of the initial opioid prescriptions were potentially avoidable."

But doctors continue to bear responsibility, he added. "Opioid and benzodiazepine co-prescriptions remain very high and continue to place patients at heightened risk of opioid overdose."

Other factors that could be driving these increased deaths include the easy availability of heroin and other opioid variants through family members, friends and dealers; and socioeconomic disparities putting health care and drug rehabilitation out of the reach of some low-income, racial and ethnic groups.

Factors affecting the findings include a limited amount of clinical information available for the patients; lack of access to pharmacy data and dosage information that would have a bearing on overdose risk; and a lack of some community health center and outpatient hospital department data from 2012 through 2015.

Explore further Doctors curbing first-time prescriptions for opioids

More information: Joseph A. Ladapo et al. Physician Prescribing of Opioids to Patients at Increased Risk of Overdose From Benzodiazepine Use in the United States, JAMA Psychiatry (2018). Journal information: JAMA Psychiatry Joseph A. Ladapo et al. Physician Prescribing of Opioids to Patients at Increased Risk of Overdose From Benzodiazepine Use in the United States,(2018). DOI: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2018.0544
Early childhood interventions may have some efficacy in boosting measures of child health and development in low income countries, but more work is needed to sort out how to implement these interventions. Credit: Lt. Col. Leslie Pratt, US AFRICOM

Early childhood interventions may have some efficacy in boosting measures of child health and development in low income countries, but more work is needed to sort out how to implement these interventions, according to a new set of studies published this week in PLOS Medicine.

Previous work has suggested that early childhood interventionsthose focused on the first 1000 days of lifehave the potential to offset some negative impacts of adversity on child development. In one new study, Peter Rockers of Boston University, USA, and colleagues followed 526 pairs of children and caregivers in a cluster-randomized trial done in Southern Province, Zambia. All children were 6 to 12 months of age at the start of the study. 258 pairs received no intervention, while the other 268 were visited twice a month by a Child Development Agent, to monitor the child's health, and invited to attend twice monthly parenting group meetings, where they learned a diverse parenting curriculum.

After two years, children who had been in the intervention group were less likely to show signs of stunting and scored higher on measures of language, but the intervention did not significantly impact cognition, motor skills, or adaptive behavior. "In settings like Zambia, where optimal child nutrition and stimulation are often lacking, parenting groups hold promise for improving child health and welfare," the authors say. "However, improvements in child development may not be immediate and continued and sustained efforts are likely needed."

In a second paper, Alison Andrew of University College London, UK, and colleagues randomized 1419 children aged 12-24 months, living in 96 towns in Colombia, to receive either no intervention, participation in a home visit program, micronutrient supplementation, or both of the latter interventions. Home visits followed a structured curriculum, with an emphasis on cognition and language, and the goal of increasing maternal-child interactions. After two years, the researchers found no effect on cognition, behavior, or home stimulation. "It is possible that the initial effects on child development were too small to be sustained or that the lack of continued impact on home stimulation contributed to fade out," the authors write.

In an accompanying Perspective, Mark Tomlinson of Stellenbosch University, South Africa, discusses the challenge of determining why the effects of early interventions may fade out by middle childhood. "In contexts of high risk and adversity the impact of early interventions may be more durable when they are built upon by interventions during later years," he writes. Scaling up these interventions also requires more work, he adds, noting that some interventions are not scalable in their current form. "Looking to the future, the early childhood development field requires rigorous implementation science research that examines the best models... to achieve impact."

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More information: Rockers PC, Zanolini A, Banda B, Chipili MM, Hughes RC, Hamer DH, et al. (2018) Two-year impact of community-based health screening and parenting groups on child development in Zambia: Follow-up to a cluster-randomized controlled trial. PLoS Med 15(4): e1002555. Journal information: PLoS Medicine Rockers PC, Zanolini A, Banda B, Chipili MM, Hughes RC, Hamer DH, et al. (2018) Two-year impact of community-based health screening and parenting groups on child development in Zambia: Follow-up to a cluster-randomized controlled trial.15(4): e1002555. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002555
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

An international team including researchers from King's College London have found physical activity can protect against the emergence of depression, regardless of age and geographical region.

The researchers from Brazil, Belgium, Australia, USA, UK and Sweden pooled data from 49 unique cohort studies of people free from mental illness that examined if physical activity is associated with a decreased risk of developing depression.

In total, 266,939 individuals were included, with a gender distribution of 47% males, and on average the individuals were followed up after 7.4 years.

Once the data were extracted they found that compared with people with low levels of physical activity, those with high levels had lower odds of developing depression in the future.

Furthermore, physical activity had a protective effect against the emergence of depression in youths, in adults, and in the elderly and across geographical regions, (in Europe, North America, and Oceania).

Lead author Professor Dr Felipe Barreto Schuch, Universidade La Salle (Brazil), said, 'This is the first global meta-analysis to establish that engaging in physical activity is beneficial for protecting the general population from developing depression.'

'The evidence is clear that people that are more active have a lesser risk of developing depression. We have looked at whether these effects happen at different age groups and across different continents and the results are clear. Regardless your age or where you live, physical activity can reduce the risk of having depression later in life.'

Co-author Dr Brendon Stubbs, Post-doctoral research physiotherapist, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London and Head of Physiotherapy, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, said,

'Our robust analysis of over a quarter of a million people found consistent evidence that people who are more active are less likely to develop depression in the future.

We found that higher levels of physical activity were protective from future depression in children, adults and older adults, across every continent and after taking into account other important factors such as body mass index, smoking and physical health conditions.

'Given the multitude of other health benefits of physical activity, our data add to the pressing calls to prioritise physical activity across the lifespan.'

Co-author Dr Simon Rosenbaum, Senior Research Fellow at UNSW Sydney and the Black Dog Institute, said, 'The challenge ahead is ensuring that this overwhelming evidence is translated into meaningful policy change that creates environments and opportunities to help everyone, including vulnerable members of our society, engage in physical activity'.

Co-author Dr Joseph Firth, Research Fellow at NICM Health Research Institute at Western Sydney University said, 'The compelling evidence presented here provides an even stronger case for engaging all people in regular physical activity; through schools, workplaces, leisure programs and elsewhere, in order to reduce the risk of depression across the lifespan.'

Further studies are warranted to evaluate the minimum physical activity levels required and the effects of different types of activity and 'dosages' on subsequent risk for depression.

The findings have been published today in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Explore further Study: Get moving to get happier
Assistant Professor Yvonne Tay (left), Principal Investigator at the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore at the National University of Singapore and Dr Chan Jia Jia (right), a Research Fellow in Asst Prof Tays group uncovered new biomarkers and therapeutic targets for prostate cancer linked to the FTH1 iron storage gene. Credit: National University of Singapore

An abnormally high level of iron in the body is associated with prostate cancer, and researchers from the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore (CSI Singapore) at the National University of Singapore may have uncovered the mechanism to explain this link. They have found the role of the iron storage gene, FTH1, and its pseudogenes in regulating iron levels in cells and slowing down prostate cancer growth. The new findings could pave the way for future developments in prostate cancer diagnostics and therapeutics.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death in men worldwide. The survival rate for prostate cancer is high if diagnosed early but it falls significantly at advanced stages. Currently, there is no available drug to treat aggressive or late-stage prostate cancer, and the accuracy of current screening techniques remain relatively low at 20 to 30%. With global prostate cancer incidence rising rapidly, accounting for 9.6% of all newly diagnosed cancer cases in 2017, there is a need to attain better understanding of the underlying biological mechanisms leading to the disease in order to build more robust diagnostic tools and efficacious therapies against it.

In the study published in the scientific journal, Nucleic Acids Research, earlier this year, researchers from CSI Singapore focused their investigation on the iron storage gene, FTH1, noting the link between iron level in cells and the development of prostate cancer. It was found that the function of FTH1 is highly influenced by its pseudogenes, a set of genes originating from their parental gene, which were previously thought to be non-functional and were classified as 'genomic junk'. FTH1 and its pseudogenes are often suppressed in prostate cancer, and expression of both FTH1 and its pseudogenes are required to reduce iron levels in cells and slow down prostate cancer growth.

Further experiments showed that FTH1 and its pseudogenes are linked by a shared pool of microRNAs that are often highly expressed in prostate cancer, and these microRNAs inhibit the regulation of iron levels by the genes. As such, isolating and manipulating the pool of microRNAs can therefore relieve the inhibition, restore the iron regulatory functions of FTH1 and its pseudogenes and their tumour suppressive effects.

"Our study presents an interesting finding in the form of the multicomponent, tumour suppressive FTH1 gene:pseudogene network which can be harnessed for future diagnostic and drug development. The highly expressed microRNAs that link FTH1 and the pseudogenes are attractive biomarkers, as well as therapeutic targets for prostate cancer. Targeting or restoring proper iron storage could also be a potential avenue for therapeutic development," said Assistant Professor Yvonne Tay, Principal Investigator at CSI Singapore who led the study.

High iron levels in cells is also linked to various types of cancer apart from prostate cancer. As such, the research team will further explore and delineate this regulatory network, not only in prostate cancer, but also other cancer types to uncover more potential biomarkers and druggable targets for more effective cancer treatment.

Explore further Proteins reveal new mechanisms in prostate cancer
Attacks on health facilities and health workers in Syria are likely more common than previously reported, and local data collectors can help researchers more accurately measure the extent and frequency of these attacks, according to a new study published this week in PLOS Medicine.

Violent attacks on hospitals, ambulances, health workers, and patients in conflict areas are grave violations of international humanitarian law and can cripple health systems during the time they are needed most. Documenting these attacks is important to identify strategies to keep patients and healthcare workers safe, influence policy, and promote justice. However, a systematic and consistent method for verifying and quantifying these acts has been lacking.

In this new study, Rohini Haar of the School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, USA, Leonard Rubenstein of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, USA and colleagues at the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) developed a standardized reporting tool available on mobile phones to verify field reports and count attacks on medical providers and facilities. Data collectors used the tool to record basic information on attacks on hospitals, transports, healthcare workers, and patients and report the information to data managers through a secure messaging system. They found more than 200 attacks on healthcare in 2016 in four northern governorates of Syria. In total, 112 health workers and 185 patients were killed in these incidents, and 176 of the attacks were on hospitals and other healthcare facilities. A separate database of healthcare attacks, developed by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and based primarily on media reports, counted incidents at health facilities independently. Among 90 facility attacks verified by PHR and 177 by SAMS, there were 60 that could be matched to each other, demonstrating that no one methodology is capturing all the incidents that have occurred.

The authors note that not all data collectors used the mobile phone app, and that complexities of data collection in conflict settings will limit accuracy of the data. Still, they note that this study "... demonstrates the capacity of locally based organizations and data collectors, in collaboration with physicians and other health staff, to contribute to documentation of attacks on health using a mobile systematic data collection application and act as potent agents to report and chronicle this violence."

In an accompanying Perspective, Michael Spagat of the Royal Holloway University of London, discusses the difficulties of conflict research, and stresses the need to continue developing accurate measures of violent acts.

Explore further Research needed on approaches to prevent attacks on health care during armed conflict

More information: Haar RJ, Risko CB, Singh S, Rayes D, Albaik A, Alnajar M, et al. (2018) Determining the scope of attacks on health in four governorates of Syria in 2016: Results of a field surveillance program. PLoS Med 15(4): e1002559. Journal information: PLoS Medicine Haar RJ, Risko CB, Singh S, Rayes D, Albaik A, Alnajar M, et al. (2018) Determining the scope of attacks on health in four governorates of Syria in 2016: Results of a field surveillance program.15(4): e1002559. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002559
(HealthDay)There is a linear correlation for physical activity (PA) with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), according to a study published online April 23 in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.

Anne E. Visser, M.D., from the University Medical Center in Utrecht, Netherlands, and colleagues recruited patients with incident ALS and controls from five population-based registers in three European countries (Ireland, Italy, and the Netherlands) to examine the correlation between PA and ALS. Data were included for 1,557 patients and 2,922 controls.

The researchers identified linear correlations for ALS and PA in leisure time, occupational activities, and all activities combined (odds ratios, 1.07, 1.06, and 1.06, respectively), with some heterogeneity identified between regions. The most evident association was seen in the cohorts from Ireland and Italy. The odds ratios remained similar after adjustment for other occupational exposures or exclusion of patients with a C9orf72 mutation.

"We provide new class I evidence for a positive association between PA and risk of ALS in a large multicenter study using harmonized methodology to objectively quantify PA levels," the authors write.

Several authors disclosed financial ties to the biopharmaceutical industry.

Explore further Hydrochlorothiazide may up basal, squamous cell cancer risk

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Figure 1: HMGB1 induces SCF and VEGF production via interaction with differential signalling receptors. Credit: Yasinska et al., OncoImmunology 2018, in press

Two recent studies conducted at the Circular Dichroism beamline (B23) at Diamond Light Source have shed light on the way in which a subtype of leukaemia can proliferate in the body. The studies published in OncoImmunology and Nanoscale not only identified a number of key proteins that are involved in leukaemia progression, but showed that they could be used as docking points to deliver targeted therapy.

Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is a form of cancer that originates from white blood cells known as granulocytes or monocytes in the bone marrow. It is usually treated using chemotherapy, but some patients also require stem cell transplantation. Although the most common type of acute leukaemia in adults, the cellular mechanisms employed by AML cells to survive and proliferate are still being elucidated.

A large collaborative team led by researchers at the University of Kent, previously found that a protein known as high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) triggers AML progression. To explore the effect of HMGB1 in greater detail, they used B23 to find out how it interacts with other proteins.

They saw that HMGB1 triggered the release of renowned cancer mediators: tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and with the aid of B23 saw that it also acted as a ligand for T-cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain 3 (Tim-3). In parallel with this study, they targeted Tim-3 on the surface of AML cells with bespoke gold nanoparticles loaded with a cytotoxic drug called rapamycin. They saw that the drug was internalised within the cell and it perturbed signalling pathways. These insights not only offer immense potential for future AML therapeutics, but they might also have a role in the rapid diagnosis of leukaemia.

Evade immune attack

Leukaemia is a cancer of the blood and bone marrow, of which AML is just one of four main sub-types. AML is treated aggressively with chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation, and some novel targeted therapies are currently undergoing clinical trial. Interestingly, our immune systems also have the capability of killing cancer cells, but cancer cells such as AML implement mechanisms to deactivate immune cells and evade immune attack.

When AML develops in the bone marrow the growing number of abnormal cells creates a stressful environment that encourages the noncancerous surrounding cells to release a protein known as HMGB1. HMGB1 is sometimes referred to as an 'alarmin' (danger signal) because it acts as a danger signal to trigger signalling pathways and promote proliferation; however, it was unclear how leukaemia exploited this "alarmin".

A European collaboration between scientists from the University of Kent, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (Germany), University of Oldenburg (Germany), Universita della Svizzera Italiana (Switzerland), University of Bern (Switzerland) and Diamond Light Source set out to study HMGB1 in more detail.

Dr. Vadim Sumbayev from Medway School of Pharmacy, University of Kent, the principal investigator, explained their motivation: "We were interested in the mechanisms of malignant blood cells to escape host immune surveillance. Our long terms goals are finding out how to disable these mechanisms in cancer cells, so that immune cells can work as normal and thus do their job and kill cancer cells. This would avoid the need to use harsh treatments such as chemotherapy or bone marrow transplantation."

Stem cell factor

The team treated blood samples from AML patients with HMGB1 to see which proteins were upregulated. They also used circular dichrosim at B23, which was equipped with a highly collimated microbeam, to find out which proteins interacted with HMGB1 and to characterise their secondary structures.

The assays showed that HMGB1 could induce the release of TNF- in AML cells, which triggered the production of stem cell factor (SCF). "Under normal conditions, SCF is needed for stem cell division and differentiation of white blood cells. However in AML, SCF becomes oncogenic, and the cancer cells encourage healthy cells to produce this for them," clarified Dr. Sumbayev.

Figure 2: Nanoconjugate containing 5 nm AuNPs coupled with anti-Tim-3 single chain antibody and 1000 rapamycin via GSH. Credit: Diamond Light Source

B23 demonstrated that HMGB1 interacted with an immune receptor called Tim-3. This receptor mediated the release of a well-known cancer growth factor called the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which plays a key role in angiogenesis.

"Our work demonstrates additional insights that the HMGB1 protein could be considered as a possible therapeutic target for anti-AML therapy. And actually it further confirms the efficiency of targeting the immune receptor Tim-3 for anti-AML therapy," concluded Dr. Sumbayev.

Drug delivery

The knowledge gained from the insights into Tim-3 and HMGB1 was used to devise a novel drug delivery approach in a parallel study in AML cells.

Researchers from the same institutions, led by Dr. Sumbayev, created 5 nm gold nanoparticles that were functionalised using single chain antibodies against Tim-3. Prior studies conducted by the team had demonstrated that the nanoparticles were biocompatible and displayed anti-inflammatory properties.

As well as containing the Tim-3 antibody, the remaining gold surfaces were covered with a cytotoxic drug called rapamycin. B23 was used to characterise the nanomaterials and to check their conformations. Dr. Sumbayev explained: "When you use nanomaterials, it is important to see what happens to the protein and the reactive components when they are attached to the surface. Firstly, you need confirmation that they have attached to the nanomaterial surface and secondly, you need to see how this changes the active molecules."

When the functionalised gold nanoparticles were added to AML cell lines or AML samples derived from patients, the drug became internalised and successfully blocked survival translational pathway in the cells.

Despite their apparent therapeutic potential, Dr. Sumbayev was humble in his analysis: "These nanomaterials might be more applicable for diagnosis rather than treatment  it could be too hard to deliver the nanomaterials to the bone marrow. The nanomaterials could quickly detect abnormal cells, which is really important as this type of cancer is common in children and the elderly. Early diagnosis means that treatment can be initiated without delay."

Return to B23

The team have also found a new biomarker on the surface of AML cells, known as latrophilin 1. Since it is not found on the surface of healthy blood cells it could be a very reliable marker for cancer diagnosis, and as such it has been patented by the University of Kent.

But the journey doesn't end here for HMGB1: "We are going to further discover the mechanisms of regulation of the pathways that allow malignant cells to escape immune attack. We also are looking to find out whether the pathways are specific only to leukaemia cells or whether they exist normally and are just hijacked by the cancer cells," explained Dr. Sumbayev.

For this forthcoming work Dr. Sumbayev intends to return to Diamond, and he has already submitted joint grant applications with the team at B23.

Senior Beamline Scientist in Diamond's Soft Condensed Matter Group, Dr. Rohanah Hussain was excited with the results: "The use of the micro-collimated beam of B23 was essential for limited sample availability to gather structural information on the interaction between the system, which was crucial not only towards the understanding of how these proteins work in AML, but also the development of potential diagnostic or therapeutic compounds."

Explore further Cell mechanism discovery could lead to 'fundamental' change in leukaemia treatment

More information: Inna M. Yasinska et al. High mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) acts as an "alarmin" to promote acute myeloid leukaemia progression, OncoImmunology (2018). Inna M. Yasinska et al. High mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) acts as an "alarmin" to promote acute myeloid leukaemia progression,(2018). DOI: 10.1080/2162402X.2018.1438109 Inna M. Yasinska et al. Highly specific targeting of human acute myeloid leukaemia cells using pharmacologically active nanoconjugates, Nanoscale (2018). DOI: 10.1039/C7NR09436A Journal information: OncoImmunology , Nanoscale
Low "mental energy" may affect walking patterns in older adults more than physical fatigue. New research about the relationship between walking ability and self-reported mood will be presented today at the American Physiological Society (APS) annual meeting at Experimental Biology 2018 in San Diego.

Researchers from Clarkson University in New York observed a group of older adults (average age 75) while they performed physically and mentally tiring tasks. The volunteers performed the physical taska timed walking test at normal speed for six minutesbefore and after the cognitive components. LED sensors embedded in the five-meter walking track captured gait speed and stride length. The cognitive portion of the test consisted of several math subtraction activities and visually identifying specific numbers and sequences on a computer screen. The volunteers reported their mood, motivation and energy levels after both the physical and cognitive tests. Vocabulary used to capture the participants' mood included "a list of mood components such as tense, worn out, energetic, confused [and] lively," explained Abigail Avolio, first author of the study.

The research team used a well-known correlation formula (Pearson correlation coefficient) to determine the relationship between self-reported mood and physical performance. There was no change in gait in relation to mental fatigue in the first 30 seconds of the follow-up walking test. However, walking speed and stride length later in the test period decreased significantly in people who reported more cognitive fatigue, but not in response to lagging physical energy levels.

More study is needed "to further evaluate why feelings of physical energy and fatigue are not related to gait," the researchers wrote.

Abigail Avolio, an undergraduate student at Clarkson University, will present "Impact of mood after cognitive fatigue on gait in older adults" on Tuesday, April 24, in the Exhibit Hall of the San Diego Convention Center.

Explore further Drinking water may help exercising seniors stay mentally sharp

Provided by Experimental Biology 2018
The studys findings suggest an association between habitual midday napping and neurocognitive function in early adolescents  especially in China, where midday napping is a cultural practice. Credit: University of Delaware

Teenagers and sleep. It's certainly a passionate subject for many American parents, and those in China. University of Delaware's Xiaopeng Ji is investigating the relationship between midday-napping behaviors and neurocognitive function in early adolescents. In a study funded by the National Institutes of Health, the School of Nursing assistant professor and principal investigator Jianghong Liu (University of Pennsylvania) turned to the Chinese classroom. With participants from schools in Jintan, she measured midday napping, nighttime sleep duration and sleep quality, and performance on multiple neurocognitive tasks.

Ji is interested in the relationship between sleep and cognition. Because of the intensive learning and education demands, the adolescent population is key. Neurocognitive functioning is essential for learning, emotion and behavior control. Her findings suggest that an association between habitual midday napping and neurocognitive function, especially in China, where midday napping is a cultural practice.

"Daytime napping is quite controversial in the United States. In Western culture, the monophasic sleep pattern is considered a marker of brain maturation," Ji said. "In China, time for napping is built into the post-lunch schedule for many adults in work settings and students at schools."

Ji has studied the circadian rhythm of sleep (a person's 24-hour cycle). A developmental change takes place in circadian rhythm during adolescence; teenagers' rhythm shifts one to two hours later than the preadolescent period.

"This phase delay is biologically driven in adolescents," Ji said. "Think about that in a school schedule. Teenagers have to get up early for school. And, with this phase delay of going to bed later, they are at-risk for chronic sleep deprivation."

Ji explained that these adolescents may experience impaired neurocognitive function, which makes paying attention in school even more difficult. Memory and reasoning ability also suffer.

A circadian dip occurs daily from 12 to 2 p.m. During that period, adolescents are more likely to fall asleep. In a U.S. school, a student does not have a formal opportunity to do so.

"Throughout childhood, U.S. kids experience decreases in napping tendencies. Kids are trained to remove their midday napping behavior," said Ji. "Conversely in China, the school schedule allows children to maintain it."

Researchers have taken a friend or foe mentality towards napping. Many consider a midday snooze as needed compensation for nighttime sleep deprivation; another faction believes daytime napping continually interferes with nighttime sleep. Many studies invite people to a lab settingexperimentally imposing the napand find the aforementioned cognitive benefits. But Ji said that's difficult to correlate with habitual sleep at home.

"The results from lab studies may be different from what the population is habitually doing at homesleeping in their own bed," Ji said.

Lots of research exists on adults, but that's not the case for adolescents. This lack of literature motivated Ji to take on the task. And since the American school schedule was a barrier to finding more information, researchers used Chinese data in the University of Delaware and University of Pennsylvania collaborative study.

Ji investigated two dimensions of nap behaviorfrequency and duration. Routine nappers, who napped five to seven days in a week, had sustained attention, better nonverbal reasoning ability and spatial memory. How long to nap is also an important question? The sweet spot is between 30 to 60 minutes. A nap longer than one hour interferes with circadian rhythm. Participants who slept between 30 to 60 minutes produced better accuracy in attention tasks as well as faster speed. She recommends not to nap after 4 p.m., nor over-nap.

Researchers were surprised to find a positive relationship between midday napping and nighttime sleep, which is different than the literature. Habitual nappers (who napped more often) tended to have a better nighttime sleep.

"That's different than the findings in the United States, where napping may serve as a function to replace sleep lost from the previous night. Consequently, that may interfere with the following night's sleep," Ji said. "In China, a midday nap is considered a healthy lifestyle. Routine nappers are more likely to experience healthy nighttime sleep. So routine nappers are essentially trained to sleep well and sleep more at night."

Ji was clear that this study was observational. At this point, she cannot conclude causality. She hopes this line of research can inform future studies and public health policy.

Explore further How to get the most out of napping

More information: Xiaopeng Ji et al. The Relationship Between Midday Napping And Neurocognitive Function in Early Adolescents, Behavioral Sleep Medicine (2018). Xiaopeng Ji et al. The Relationship Between Midday Napping And Neurocognitive Function in Early Adolescents,(2018). DOI: 10.1080/15402002.2018.1425868
Credit: Marina Shemesh/public domain

Scientists at King's College London are encouraging parents and carers to ensure even more rigorous protection of children against the harmful effects of the sun. The comments follow a study which has suggested that children may experience much more significant DNA damage from small amounts of sun exposure than adults.

Published in the British Journal of Dermatology, the new study of 32 children under the age of 10 was undertaken at a 12-day summer camp in Poland. Children's skin types ranged from pale white skin that burns easily to olive skin that burns minimally. Researchers, led by Professor Antony Young at King's College London, measured levels of vitamin D alongside a urine biomarker of DNA damage that can lead to skin cancer, known as CPD, which is produced as a result of the skin repairing this damage.

The scientists, in an EU funded collaboration with Professor Joanna Narbutt of the Medical University of Lodz, Poland and Dr Peter Philipsen of the Bispebjerg University Hospital in Copenhagen, measured exposure to UV rays via an electronic device on the wrist that absorbed the rays. Children filled in diaries with information about sunbathing, sunscreen use and sunburn.

The study, found a 25% increase in average vitamin D concentrations in blood but measured nearly thirteen times more CPD on average at the end of the 12-day beach holiday in comparison to levels at the start.

The final levels of CPD in the children were similar to those measured in Danish adults as part of a different study conducted by the same researchers which looked at sun exposure on a shorter holiday in Tenerife, despite the fact that the weather was not particularly sunny during the course of the children's summer camp.

The NIHR-supported researchers think the results may suggest that either children are more sensitive to the damaging effects of the sun than even previously thought, or that they could be better at repairing the damage.

Sun exposure is the main source of vitamin D, which is absolutely essential for healthy bone development in children. However, sunburn in childhood is a recognised risk factor for skin cancer in older age so researchers suggest that the findings support the need for a better understanding of the impact of UV rays on children, even in less sunny conditions. This is of concern because the incidence of skin cancer is increasing in most Western countries.

'Many parents are already very careful about protecting their children from the harmful impact of the sun,' commented the study's senior author, Professor Antony Young from the St John's Institute of Dermatology at King's College London, 'but it can be a confusing message when trying to balance this with the need for children to be healthy, exercise, play outside and produce sufficient levels of vitamin D.'

'Our study suggests that only small amounts of exposure to the sun are needed to ensure vitamin D sufficiency so we should make sure that children always have ample sun protection when playing outside for long periods. This should be in the form of sunscreen, clothing and hats and the use of shade, even when you may not judge the weather to be that sunny.'

Nina Goad of the British Association of Dermatologists said: 'We would recommend that parents use a number of methods to prevent sun damage. The first line of defence for children should be protective clothing, such as hats, t-shirts, and sunglasses. In addition to this, it's important to make good use of shade between 11am and 3pm.

'You should bolster this protection with sunscreen. Look for one with a minimum SPF of 30 and good UVA protection. It should be applied 15 minutes before going outside and then again shortly after heading outdoors to cover any missed patches. Reapply it at least every two hours, and immediately after swimming, perspiring and towel drying or if it has rubbed off.

'If you are concerned about maintaining your family's vitamin D levels then the answer isn't to stop using sun protection, but consider options such as vitamin D supplements.'

Another recent study by Professor Young's team, led by Dr Damilola Fajuyigbe from King's College London, suggested that people with very fair skin should be routinely using sunscreen products with a protection factor (SPF) of around 60 or more in order to reduce skin cancer incidence to the very low levels usually seen in people with dark brown or black skin.

The scientists were examining the way in which melanin is distributed in different skin types and found that 70-80% of melanin in the skin was concentrated in the deepest layer (the basal layer that contains the crucial stem cells). For participants with black skin, who have higher overall concentrations of melanin, this equated to protection from DNA damage that was the equivalent of around SPF 60.

Explore further Smart steps for sun protection

More information: 'Children sustain high levels of skin DNA photodamage, with a modest increase of serum 25(OH)D3 after a summer holiday in Northern Europe' is published on 25 April 2018 in the British Journal of Dermatology. Journal information: British Journal of Dermatology 'Children sustain high levels of skin DNA photodamage, with a modest increase of serum 25(OH)D3 after a summer holiday in Northern Europe' is published on 25 April 2018 in the
2 students attacked with knife

Two students of Purwanchal Engineering Campus in Dharan were injured in knife attack on Monday night.
A new report by leading academics has today urged healthcare providers to radically improve the way they support carers of people approaching the end of their life.

The document, by Dr. Gail Ewing from The University of Cambridge and Professor Gunn Grande from The University of Manchester, argues a major cultural shift among staff is desperately needed to help carers.

Improvements in structures and internal processes are also among the 10 recommendations in the National Institute for Health Research and Hospice UK funded report to improve the way healthcare organisationssuch as hospices, hospitals, community nursing and General Practice  to support carers' needs.

Other recommendations include:

Training staff in carer assessment and support

Making more time available for staff to support carers

Setting up a system to record carer information

Consistent identification of carers

Routine identification of carers' needs.

The report, which was written following work with carers and clinical staff, highlights how family members often play a pivotal role in supporting their loved ones at the end of their life.

And that, say the academics, provides more care at home and easing pressure on hospitals.

One of the carers in the report told how it never occurred for him to ask the doctor about his own problems.

Another carer said: "I needed some sort of human support, one-to-one support, somebody to come round and say, 'I've come to see you, how are you getting on?' and just to make you feel that you are needed and that somebody is looking out for you."

And a clinician described how sections in medical notes for carers' details were not being completed.

The report's publication is to be followed by a national survey of hospice providers to establish what is currently in place to assess and support carers, compared against these recommendations.

Dr. Sarah Russell, Head of Research at Hospice UK and a member of the expert advisory group for the report, said:

"The needs of carers of people approaching the end of life, which are distinct from other types of carers, have long been overlooked. While there have been positive developments in policy in recent years, these have not translated into service delivery. This report aims to tackle that gap and provide healthcare organisations with practical guidance on what needs to change.

"With an ageing population and rising pressures on health and social care services, more people will be called upon to care at home for older relatives with complex, multiple conditions. It is vital they get the person-centred support they need so they can fulfil their caring role effectively and also maintain their own physical and mental health and wellbeing."

Professor Gunn Grande said: "As we say in our report, if we don't support carers, carers aren't going to support the patients, and then we're all going to be struggling. Indeed, professionals who work in palliative care will subscribe to the ethos of being there for the family, not just the patient. But it's very sad that this strong philosophy is not being consistently put into practice."

Dr. Gail Ewing said: "Perhaps the more difficult challenge is resolving where carers 'fit' within end of life care: whose responsibility are they? "That means we really must answer the question of whether or not carers are to be viewed as true clients of palliative care services, so that we can legitimise their assessment and support. Ultimately this needs to be reflected in commissioning, specific funding for carer assessment and support in end of life care."

Explore further Research highlights the need to support family carers when discharging dying patients
Westcon-Comstor has appointed Tidiane Lo as its new Director of Westcon Sub-Saharan Africa.

The appointment aims to provide additional leadership to the company and help it become the premier value-added distributor in Africa.

Lo took up the position from 1 April, reporting to Westcon-Comstor Sub-Saharan Africa CEO Rakesh Parbhoo.

Lo will have have oversight of Westcons day-to-day sales, customer service, partner relationships, and services operations.

Lo joined Westcon in 2011 in the position of regional sales manager, before which he worked at distribution company Tech/Data Azlan.

As someone who is passionate about distribution and sales, I am eager to embrace my new role and work with the management team to help consolidate the business in Sub-Saharan Africa, said Lo.
Just as beauty is more than skin deep, so become our beauty products.

Thats the message Cindy OBrien wants women to understand as they choose their skincare.

OBrien, a holistic aesthetician, has launched LIV + GRACE SKINCARE by Cindy OBrien, a natural skincare line that she has carefully crafted to be nontoxic.

Within a minute of applying something topically, the body absorbs about 70 percent of those chemicals into your bloodstream, OBrien explained.

Some of those chemicals are hormone disruptors, known carcinogens, DNA mutagens or have other ill-effects on our bodies, she said.

We are all told that we should put all this stuff all over ourselves to be beautiful, she said.

I feel like my job is to educate women on what is healthy for them in regards to what theyre ingesting topically.

She said her goal is not to spread fear, but to encourage people to look carefully at what they are using and try to swap out even one or two items for cleaner choices, she said.

There are only 11 personal care product ingredients banned in the United States, while there are 1,300 banned in the European Union.
Napa and Solano County officials said last week the counties were willing to help the Area Agency on Aging of Napa and Solano continue its work. But that commitment lacked the details  and the money  that the nonprofit board members wanted.

Is the CDA, is the county serious? board member Michael Donnellan said. Put your money where your mouth is. I havent seen it yet.

But any actions by the counties in this regard would have to be approved by the respective board of supervisors, which takes time. The Area Agency on Aging didnt want to wait for a solution that might or might not materialize.

Solano County Supervisor Monica Brown and others at Tuesdays meeting urged the group to give the counties 30 days to address the issue.

Please dont give up, Brown said. Let us work with the CDA. Let us work with nonprofits. Let us work together. I think we can come out and have a really good outcome. But please dont throw in the towel.

Stanton favored having the nonprofit decide its future that day, rather than waiting another 30 days.
The unemployment rate in the Napa County dropped to 3.2 percent in March, down from a revised 3.5 percent in February, and below the year-ago estimate of 4 percent.

This compares with an unadjusted unemployment rate of 4.2 percent for California and 4.1 percent for the nation for March. The data was reported on Friday by the Employment Development Department.

There were 2,300 job seekers in Napa County last month, compared to 3,000 one year ago, reported the EDD. Thats a 23 percent decline.

Industries in Napa County that added jobs include farm, construction, beverage manufacturing, leisure and hospitality and government.

Jobs in transportation, warehousing and utilities, retail trade and administrative and support and waste services declined in Napa County.

Napa County has the 10th lowest unemployment rate in the state. The lowest was San Mateo County.

Employers with the most job ads were St. Joseph Health, Napa Valley Unified School District, Auberge du Soleil, Target, Wyndham Worldwide, Meritage Resort and Spa, Constellation Brands, Marriott, Robert Half International and Las Alcobas.

Occupations with the most job ads included registered nurses, food prep and servers, retail sales, housekeeping, cooks and desk clerks.
The metal roof and the opaque, unprotected skylights on the roof were the same color and made out of corrugated material, so it was difficult to distinguish between the two, according to the suit. There were no screens or railings around the skylights nor were they marked in any way to alert workers of their presence, alleges the suit.

Cal/OSHA reported that the fiberglass panels were dirty and were the same shape as the corrugated steel roofing that surrounded the workers.

The day before the incident, project managers with Sutter Home Winery Inc. and Process Cooling International, doing business as Applied Process Cooling Corporation, discussed project details including potential hazards to workers, according to Cal/OSHA.

The project foreman with Process Cooling International told Sutter Home that they were going to take care of covering the skylight panels, according to Cal/OSHA. Colombo and two other employees were instead told to be careful while working around the skylight panels.

Both companies were cited for failing to implement methods to protect employees from falling through the skylight. According to Cal/OSHA, the fall could have been prevented by installing skylight screens above or below the skylight, installing proper guardrails, installing covers over skylights or skylight openings, installing skylight nets or by having employees use a personal fall protection system.

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SACRAMENTO  Suspected drug overdoses at a Northern California prison over the weekend left an inmate dead and sent 11 others for treatment, authorities said Monday.

An inmate was found unresponsive in his cell Sunday at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione and despite lifesaving efforts was pronounced dead later that evening, according to a statement from the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Another inmate was treated at the prison and 10 others were taken to hospitals, although eight have since returned to the lockup.

Authorities didn't say what drug they suspect caused the overdoses. However, the cells where they occurred have been sealed and are being cleaned by a hazardous materials team.

Authorities are trying to determine how the drugs were smuggled into the prison. Prison officials are limiting the movements of prisoners and medical and prison staff members are conducting wellness checks throughout the facility every 30 minutes, according to the statement.
The Federated Women of Upper Napa Valley will be meeting at 1 p.m. Wednesday, May 2, at the First Presbyterian Church, 1428 Spring St. in St. Helena. The speaker for this meeting will be Andres Cantera, Independent Living Program Case Manager, from VOICES in Napa.

VOICES, a nonprofit organization, was created by former foster youth to provide housing, education, employment and wellness to youth transitioning from foster care to independent living. VOICES now serves about 2,000 local foster kids from ages 16-24.

Robyn Orsini of the League of Women Voters will also do a short presentation. Anyone interested is welcome to come and learn about VOICES and other local programs supported by FWUNV.
Upvalley residents looking for enriching experiences and a way to make a difference are welcome to attend a Volunteer Fair from 10 a.m. to noon Friday, May 11, at Rianda House, 1475 Main St. in St. Helena.

Representatives from 12 local nonprofit organizations will discuss their programs and various volunteer opportunities. Prospective volunteers can find roles that fit their interests, skills and availability.

Community members of all ages are encouraged to stop by and make connections. Light refreshments will be provided.

The event is sponsored by UpValley Village and Rianda House. The nonprofits participating include American Red Cross, Collabria Care, HICAP, Meals on Wheels, Mollys Angels, Napa Valley State Parks Association, Rianda House Senior Activity Center, St. Helena Historical Society, St. Helena Police Department, St. Helena Recreation Department, UpValley Family Centers and UpValley Village.

For more information, contact Myrna David at the UpValley Village at (707) 244-5042 or Elizabeth Cobb-Bruno at Rianda House at (707) 963-8555, ext. 103.
30pc tunnel work completed at Bheri Babai, thanks to TBM

The Bheri Babai Diversion Multipurpose Project has finished digging 30 percent of a 12-km tunnel in five months using a tunnel boring machine (TBM), the first use of the technology in Nepal.
A memorial service for environmentalist, activist and Napa Valley community legend Duane Cronk was held Sunday, April 22 at the Scales Chapel of the Pacific Union College Church in Angwin. Friends and family gathered to remember the life and times of one of Angwins cherished citizens.

Cronk, who died on Feb. 20 at the age of 93, was remembered by many with stories of his life, for his friendly nature, his keen photographic eye, and his commitments to community and conservation.

He was a Renaissance man, said John Tully as he retold Cronks history of growing up in hard times in Wisconsin with anecdotes about Cronk and his sister walking along the railroad tracks, looking for potatoes to bring to the supper table. Tully also told a story about a young Cronk who split the cost of his first bicycle with his parents at the age 12.

He recalled Cronks service in the Army Air Corps near the end of World War II, his college career, and his substantial accomplishments in public relations in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco.

But it was his personal work after his retirement from his award winning career in public relations that the attendees remembered most vividly at the memorial.

For instance, between 1993 and 2015 Cronk and his wife Mary compiled and published the much appreciated Angwin Telephone Book which one attendee said she still cherished. Others remembered that Cronk would often greet them with Ive got a story for you, and that although the actual stories could no longer be recalled, Cronks style and friendliness always made every encounter memorable.

A slideshow of snapshots taken of Cronk during his life was accompanied by music played by Kendra Cronk. This was followed by tributes from members of the community.

Cronks community activism was legendary. Neighbor Kelly Anderson recalled Duane was a fantastic communicator, writing ceaseless white papers which he sent onto the Napa County Board of Supervisors.

Napa County Assessor John Tuteur recalled that during the Save Rural Angwin campaign  of which Cronk was a founding organizer  Cronk was most encouraging to the members when things looked darkest. He had a steady hand in hard times, Tuteur remarked and had a long history in support of conservation efforts.

These efforts included the Napa County Land Trust, Angwin parks, Napas Kennedy Park, as well as the Save Rural Angwin 2012 Measure U campaign which ultimately failed voter approval.

One of Cronks five sons, several other attendees and Tuteur also speculated that Cronk would support todays Measure C, and he connected his fathers zest for conservation to their familys Saturday Sabbath Walks through the forests of Angwin. According to the younger Cronk, it was his fathers familiar lesson that, You can be for something without being against something else.

After the memorial service, a reception was held in the Fireside Room where many photographs taken by Cronk were on display. Cronk and his wife, Mary, moved with their five sons, Clifford, Bruce, Brent, Loren and Andrew, to Angwin in 1962.

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Retail Revival Workshop planned for St. Helena businesses

Local retail businesses are invited to attend a Tuesday, May 1 Retail Revival Workshop, designed to provide strategies to help retail thrive in St. Helena.

The workshop is presented by Marc Wilson, retail strategist and founder of the Small Town and Merchants Program. Wilson has visited more than 2,000 communities bringing his expertise from the Virginia Small Business Development Center to help independent retailers out maneuver the competition.

The workshop is from 8:30 to 10 a.m., Tuesday, May 1 at Napa Valley College, Upper Valley Campus, 1088 College Ave. in St. Helena.

This event is co-sponsored by U.S. Bank, and local Chambers of Commerce in American Canyon, Calistoga, Napa, St. Helena and Yountville. Cost is $20 or $10 for chamber members.

To register go to www.napasonomasbdc.org or call 707-256-7250.
The event will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 5, at the Cameo Cinema. Tickets are $65 per person. There will be a contest for best hat and best male derby style, a silent auction, and lots of Southern food. And, of course, the Kentucky Derby will be shown on the big screen.

New families who want to receive a scholarship work side-by-side with families who are currently in the program. Olguin said after families have qualified for the scholarship program, they are placed in a lottery to determine who gets to choose a preschool first.

The lottery is based on family participation in our program, which includes volunteering at fundraising events and attending monthly meetings prior to receiving the scholarship. The program has found that families who participate early on are the families who are most involved and enthusiastic once they are officially in the program. We wanted a fair system to decide which family would choose first, since our preschool spots are limited each year. As the director I want all my families to be happy with the preschool they have selected, and sometimes they dont get their first pick, but all the families are grateful for the opportunity their children and family are receiving.
Ardem Patapoutian, David Julius win Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Iran says has good ties with Azerbaijan, Armenia

Armenia Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Ministry on Russia widening road near Lars checkpoint

Armenia deputy minister on amendments to law on financial equalization and subsidies for communities

Robert Kocharyan on Armenia being entangled in processes and Iran's perception of the country

Armenia Parliament Speaker in Moscow pays tribute to those who fell in the Great Patriotic War

Russian FM: Russia and Armenia will resume interparliamentary cooperation soon

Cmilyte-Nielsen: Lithuania ready to support democratic reforms in Armenia

Armenia premier, Lithuania President speak about processes in South Caucasus

Ex-president: Armenian authorities are ready to cooperate even with Pakistan - if it helps to stay in power

California oil spill kills animals

Simonyte: I hope Karabakh conflict will be settled under OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs auspices

Pashinyan to Lithuania PM: Armenia will continue taking decisive steps to strengthen democracy

Kocharyan speaks on sale of arms to Azerbaijan by Russia: The question is more on a moral plane

Armenia ex-Prosecutor General, Investigative Committee former chief to remain in custody

Drills kick off in Tbilisi with participation of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia

Pashinyan: Lithuania can play important role in promoting Armenia-EU cooperation

Armenia ex-president says he never 'disrespected' Azerbaijani ex-president

Lithuania premier: Vilnius, Yerevan will soon be connected by direct flights

Azerbaijan MFA announces 'positive signals' from Armenia regarding border delimitation

Ex-president: I can't imagine the delimitation process in the interests of Armenia

Pashinyan: Karabakh conflict settlement should be based on OSCE Minsk Group-supported principles

Armenia premier announces condition for starting border delimitation, demarcation with Azerbaijan

Armenia ex-president: OSCE MG never had a mandate to enforce peace

Kabul: 95% of libraries, bookstores, and publishing houses closed in 2 months

Paris mayor: France may recognize Nagorno-Karabakh Republic

Kocharyan: Armenian authorities are not responsible for Aliyev, as there may be something unknown behind this

Armenias Pashinyan: No time, place restrictions on meeting with Azerbaijans Aliyev

Putin bestows order upon Russian Armenian historian

Armenia PM: I hope we will make progress with Azerbaijan in opening of roads, railways

627 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Lithuania PM: European organizations play very important role in Armenia

Armenia FM meeting with Iran counterpart

World gold prices increase somewhat

Prophet Muhammad sketchs creator dies in Sweden road accident

Armenia parliament speaker travels to Russia on 3-day official visit

Japan parliament elects new PM

Armenia FM heading for Iran Monday on working visit

Aging Japanese decide to pay for early retirement pension

More than 10,000 children fallen victim to pedophile clergy in France since 1950

Drone video records storm from inside for first time

Planet with 3 suns discovered

Erdogan shares basketball video after rumors of serious illness

Armenia will never be involved in a conspiracy against Iran, PM says

Plane crashes on building in Italy

Media: Kabul explosion leaves 12 people killed

European companies file for bankruptcy over record gas prices

Nikol Pashinyan arrives in Lithuania on official visit

Azerbaijan and Turkey to hold exercises near Armenian border

Ali Sayyid Khamenei: Events in Northwest Iran must be resolved without foreign interference

Iranian Foreign Minister expresses concern over Israel's provocations near Iran-Azerbaijan border

19th century bridge partially collapsed due to fire in southern Rome

China sends dozens of military aircraft to Taiwan's air defense identification zone

Nikol Pashinyan sends congratulatory message to Angela Merkel

Armenian President congratulates his German counterpart on the day of German unity

Algeria recalls ambassador from France due to Macron's irresponsible statements

Artsakh Defense Army blesses khachkar in memory of those killed in 44-day Karabakh war (PHOTOS)

907 COVID-19 new cases reported in Armenia per day

Georgian CEC: Ruling party leads local elections with 48.56% of votes

Armenia PM to pay official visit to Lithuania

Armenia pavilion opens at Expo 2020 Dubai

FM warns Azerbaijan ambassador: Iran does not tolerate Israel's presence near its borders

Catholicos of All Armenians receives new Ambassador of Sweden

3 persons serving life sentence in Armenia on hunger strike

Aliyev promises appropriate response if Armenia provides clear maps of minefields

168.am: Why Turkey private plane lands in Yerevan?

Turkey, Russia play important role in stability and security in the region, says Azerbaijan president

Azerbaijans Aliyev ready to meet with Armenias Pashinyan at any time when latter is ready

Armenia deputy PM, Czech Rep. FM discuss regional developments

Petition filed with court to arrest Armenia army general staff deputy chief

Armenia ex-ruling party official: Inadmissible to start substantive talks with Turkey, Azerbaijan today

Armenia official: Corridors or roads may be opened which Azerbaijanis or Turkey will be able to use

Man, 55, found dead hanging from tree in Armenias Vayots Dzor Province village forest

1,152 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Yerevan hosts CIS Tourism Council regular meeting

Lukashenko says ready to become 'one military base' with Russia in case of threat

Georgia ex-President Saakashvili was preparing coup after local elections, says ruling party leader

Armenia Security Council chief: Pashinyan-Aliyev meeting may take place in possible near future

US, Turkey top defense officials discuss military cooperation

Georgia local elections kick off

Newspaper: Azerbaijanis impose another restriction at Vorotan section of Armenias Goris-Kapan motorway

China air force sends 38 warplanes off Taiwan coast

Newspaper: Armenia arrested ex-defense minister refuses to testify

Bloomberg: Eurozone records record inflation of past 13 years in September

Biden, Armenia ambassador exchange messages in writing

Serzh Sargsyan to Aliyev: If there was no shift of power in Armenia, you would never see Shushi and Hadrut

Georgia President says she won't grant pardon to Saakashvili

Armenia's Prime Minister and President meet

Georgia Prosecutor General's Office: Verdicts against Saakashvili are not subject to appeal

GeoProMining Armenia obtained 60% of Zangezur Copper Molybdenum Combine on Sep. 30, 2021

Saakashvili has new wife, sensational news announced on day of his arrest

Armenia PM receives Czech FM

Armenian Turkologist: Russia and Turkey are compelled to cooperate, and this is in Moscow's favor

Saakashvili's United National Movement political party announces preparation for large-scale demonstration

ANCA: Israel sending descendant of Armenian Genocide survivors as its ambassador to Azerbaijan

Armenia Armed Forces General Staff's deputy chief Stepan Galstyan is detained

Georgian presses report that Saakashvili is in a prison in Tbilisi

Armenian and Russian FMs hold phone talks

Garibashvili: Saakashvili is apprehended in Georgia

Digest: Azerbaijan declares Armenians wanted, Armenia arms supplier to be arrested
Bardiya National Park fails to combat fire

Bardiya National Park (BNP) authority admitted on Monday their failure to douse fire raging in the park since the last three weeks.Park officials said they could not douse the fire despite the best efforts of security staff, employees and residents.
YEREVAN.  U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills commended the Armenian people for the peaceful and dignified way in which they carried out the protests last week.

I also want to commend the police and security forces for the general level of restraint and the professionalism they showed during the last week. There were credible reports of some violence directed at demonstrators and especially journalists, and it is important that those reports be investigated and those responsible be held accountable under law, Mills said during his visit to the Armenian Genocide Memorial on Tuesday. I also want to commend former PM Sargsyan for his leadership and listening to the Armenian people and making the difficult decision to resign.

The Ambassador said they look forward to working together with the acting PM in the week to come, and will continue close working relationship with the Armenian government.

Whats important now is for all Armenians to come together in the spirit of peaceful democratic protest and dialogue and find common ground on what the future of this country will be. I am very positive about what the Armenian people can achieve together in the future, he emphasized.
Kandel appointed NPC Vice-Chairman

The government has decided to appoint Pushpa Kandel as the Vice-Chairperson of the National Planning Commission (NPC).
Armenian opposition leader, MP Nikol Pashinyan called for snap parliamentary elections. Speaking during the rally following PM Serzh Sargsyans resignation, Pashinyan said snap parliamentary elections are needed.

Acting Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan and Nikol Pashinyan are expected to hold a meeting on Wednesday. Pashinyan will continue talks with the incumbent authorities toward achieving a smooth transfer of power in Armenia.

Senior officials of Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh on Tuesday visited the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan on the 103rd anniversary of this tragedy.

Dutch State Secretary of Finance Menno Snel attended the commemoration of the Armenian Genocide in Yerevan for the first time after the Dutch parliament approved the motion recognizing the Armenian Genocide earlier this year.

Later in the day participants in the movement that carried out widespread protests demanding Serzh Sargsyans resignation and led by Nikol Pashinyan marched to the Armenian Genocide Memorial.

A man died during the opposition rally at Republic Square on Monday.

According to the Armenia's Health Ministry, a 36-year-old man, who had heart disease, was hospitalized with a heart attack, but the doctors were not able to save his life.

OSCE Minsk Group called on the parties to the Karabakh conflict to respect the ceasefire at this delicate time and, in particular, keep heavy equipment positioned in the rear of the frontlines.

The Co-Chairs call on the sides to take immediate measures to reduce tensions, and look forward to meeting with the parties as soon as possible to renew intensified negotiations to find a lasting and peaceful solution to the conflict.

Earlier in the day the Artsakh Defense Army reported about accumulation and movement of the Azerbaijani troops.

Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev had a phone conversation with acting Armenian PM Karen Karapetyan. According to the statement, they discussed issues of the Russian-Armenian relations and the developments in Armenia.

On Tuesday spokesperson for Russian president Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin is satisfied with the situation in Armenia, which is not going along the path of destabilization,

According to him, everything that happens in Yerevan is an internal affair of the Armenian people. Peskov also urged not to draw parallels between Armenia and Ukraine.

The United States and the European Union expressed willingness to work with Armenia.

U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills said they look forward to working together with the acting PM in the week to come, and will continue close working relationship with the Armenian government.

Head of the EU delegation to Armenia Piotr Switalski said that Brussels will support Armenia in deepening democracy and assured that they will work together to implement the EU-Armenia agreement, and even more vigorously than before.
YEREVAN.  The Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity Selection Committee announced three humanitarians as potential recipients of the 2018 Prize. Each individual was chosen for their exceptional courage, far-reaching impact and endless commitment to preserving human life and advancing humanitarian causes in the face of adversity. The Aurora Prize, granted by the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative on behalf of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide and in gratitude to their saviors, named:

Mr. Kyaw Hla Aung, Lawyer and Rohingya Leader, Myanmar  A Rohingya Muslim who, despite being imprisoned for a collective 12 years for peaceful protests against systematic discrimination and violence, uses his legal expertise to fight for equality, improvements in education and human rights for his community. He has nominated international organizations that provide medical aid and assistance to refugees in Myanmar.

Fr. Hector Tomas Gonzalez Castillo, Founder of La 72, Mexico  A Franciscan friar who has provided shelter, food, water, counseling and legal assistance to more than 50,000 Central American immigrants along their often-harrowing journeys through Mexico, providing aid to all, including those who suffer traumatic attacks, attempted kidnappings and expulsions from their own countries. He has nominated organizations working to promote human rights for those living with HIV/AIDS and to provide cultural education to Mayans in Mexico.

Mrs. Sunitha Krishnan, Co-Founder of Prajwala, India  A gang rape survivor turned womens rights advocate who used her trauma as motivation to rescue, rehabilitate and reintegrate victims of sex trafficking and forced prostitution back into society, creating an organization that has positively impacted the lives of more than 17,800 women and children. She has nominated organizations that fight gender imbalance and sexual violence and trafficking throughout India.

The three humanitarians will be honored at the third annual Aurora Prize Ceremony in Yerevan, Armenia on June 9, 2018. Of the three nominated, one will be chosen as the 2018 Aurora Prize Laureate at a ceremony on June 10, 2018. The Laureate will receive a grant of US$100,000, as well as a US$1,000,000 award, giving them the unique ability to continue the cycle of giving by supporting organizations that have inspired their work.

Each humanitarian was invited to nominate up to three organizations to receive the US$1,000,000 award. Mr. Kyaw Hla Aung nominated Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) International, the Malaysian Medical Relief Society, and International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC). Fr. Hector Tomas Gonzalez Castillo nominated El Oasis San Juan de Dios and La Escuela de Agricultura Ecologica U Yits Ka'an. Mrs. Sunitha Krishnan nominated Prajwala, Stop Trafficking & Oppression of Children & Women (STOP), and Sanlaap India.

The Selection Committee, co-chaired by Academy Award-winning actor and humanitarian George Clooney, includes Nobel Laureates Oscar Arias, Shirin Ebadi and Leymah Gbowee; former president of Ireland Mary Robinson; human rights activist Hina Jilani; former foreign minister of Australia and President Emeritus of the International Crisis Group Gareth Evans; former president of Mexico Ernesto Zedillo; Director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London Lord Ara Darzi; Medecins sans Frontieres Founder Bernard Kouchner; and former United States ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power. The Committee shortlisted the three Humanitarians as finalists from 750 nominations for 509 unique candidates submitted in 12 languages from 115 countries.

These are Humanitarians who sacrifice so much on the front lines of todays most desperate humanitarian crises, said Vartan Gregorian, Selection Committee Member, President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and co-founder of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, speaking on behalf of the Selection Committee. Although from vastly differing circumstances and locations, these Aurora Humanitarians exemplify a universal capacity to protect the most vulnerable. Armenians suffering in the Genocide one hundred years ago were the beneficiaries of the ultimate expression of this universal capacity. Auroras goal is to recognize that expression, to commend these risk-takers and to honor their commitments, so that as we pay tribute to their journeys, we continue the cycle of gratitude and giving.

The 2017 Aurora Prize was awarded to Dr. Tom Catena, an American Catholic missionary working as the sole surgeon in the war-ravaged Nuba Mountains in Southern Sudan where humanitarian aid is restricted. Dr. Tom, as he is known locally, has been on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week at the Mother of Mercy Catholic Hospital serving a community of more than 750,000 people in the 500-bed hospital. On any given day, Dr. Tom treats patients for ailments ranging from bombing attack injuries to malaria, malnourishment, leprosy and beyond.

I am eternally grateful to the Aurora Prize for the recognition of our efforts and for providing Laureates with much-needed resources to advance our field work, said Dr. Tom about being honored as the second annual Aurora Prize Laureate. Perhaps most importantly, the Prize also helps draw international attention to the problems many see every day that arent reported. Thanks to the Prize, we are able to explain the situation in Nuba, and I look forward to the light the Prize can shine on the remarkable issues this years Humanitarians are confronting around the world.

Marguerite Barankitse from Maison Shalom and REMA Hospital in Burundi was named the first Aurora Prize Laureate in 2016. Ms. Barankitse has spent the last 20 years providing safe haven for orphans and refugees escaping violence and abuse during her countrys civil war. Since becoming the inaugural Laureate, she has supported 11 initiatives across five countries, advancing education for Burundian refugees, empowering women, girls and victims of sexual assault, and rehabilitating refugees and victims of human trafficking.

The 2018 Aurora Prize Laureate will be named at the close of a weekend of events that include the annual Aurora Dialogues. The Dialogues are an international forum where leaders from the humanitarian and business communities will convene to discuss ways the global community can incite meaningful action to solve some of the worlds most pressing problems. This years Dialogues will feature conversations with the three Humanitarians who will share their passion and their personal stories.
Chinese woman arrested in 22 kg gold smuggling case

A Chinese citizen has been arrested in connection with the 22 kg gold smuggling case from the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) on Tuesday.
US President Donald Trump warned Iran on Tuesday that it will 'have big problems' if it restarts its nuclear program with or without an agreement providing sanctions relief in exchange for its cooperation, Daily Mail reported.

Trump brushed off an assertion that Tehran would seek to become nuclear capable if he he ditches the nuclear agreement that the U.S. entered into with the rogue nation, saying it 'won't be so easy to restart it.'

The president railed against Barack Obama's administration for signing onto the pact as he held court with French President Emmanuel Macron in the Oval Office.

He said that Obama was wrong to send Iran 'barrels of cash' as part of the deal that Trump signaled he would rip up.

Macron had just said that the U.S. and France share the goal of nuclear non-proliferation.

'The Iran deal is an important issue but we have to take a far broader picture which is security in the overall region,' he said. 'What we want to do is to contain Iran an its presence in the region.'

Trump chimed in, having already delivered his own remarks to press to begin their meeting, and tore into Iran.

'The Iran deal is a disaster. Theyre testing missiles. Whats that all about?' he griped. 'What kind of a deal is it when you dont talk about Yemen and you dont talk about all the other problems that we have with respect to Iran?'
Kazakhstan's Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev had a telephone conversation with acting Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan at the initiative of Kazakh side, the press service of the Government of Armenia reported.

The interlocutors discussed issues of bilateral agenda, as well as partnership in the sidelines of the EAEU.

The sides also talked about the developments in Armenia and in this context PM Bakytzhan Sagintayev expressed support to the friendly Armenian people.

At the initiative of the Belarusian side, a telephone conversation took place between the Prime Minister of Belarus Andrei Kobyakov and acting Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan.

The Heads of Executives of the two countries discussed the prospects of developing the Armenian-Belarusian relations. The sides also talked about the developments in Armenia and in this context PM Andrei Kobyakov expressed support to the friendly Armenian people.
YEREVAN.- No member of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) can become the Prime Minister of the country, the leader of Civil Contract Party, MP Nikol Pashinyan stated at a press conference with foreign journalists on Tuesday.

According to him, ex-PM Serzh Sargsyan said that force, that gained 7% in the election can not win.

"Now Armenians joke that 7% is more than 93%. Our movement was supported by 90% of the population of Armenia, as well as support for the diaspora. The candidate of RPA won't be nominated for the prime minister's post. The era of RPA rule ended in Armenia. In Armenia the era of board of RPA has ended. Attempts to revive this force won't be crowned with success," Pashinyan said.

Asked about his nomination for the PM's post, Pashinyan said: "If the people put such responsibility on me, I will not refuse. I think it will be so. We must ensure free elections in Armenia. The political crisis began at the time when people totally stopped trusting elections. The first thing we need to do is reform the election code."

To the question whether there was any guarantee that the RPA will not head the government, he replied: "The RPA does not exist, only its ghost remains. I do not need any guarantees from the RPA. We have a stronger guarantee, a guarantee of the people and the Diaspora. I do not see any force that can resist the people of Armenia. "

Asked whether Karen Karapetyan's nomination is possible if he leaves the Republican Party, Pashinyan replied: "No!"
YEREVAN.- There is no doubt that Armenia and Russia are fraternal friendly states, but that does not mean there are no problems. MP Nikol Pashinyan said at a press conference with foreign journalists.

He noted that their goals do not include criticizing these issues but solving them through negotiations. The problems are first of all related to our region, to the interests of Armenian citizens in Russia.

Pashinyan also noted that the Russian arms sale to Azerbaijan is a great problem.

"I think the correlation of the Armenian and Azerbaijani forces has been violated. Russia's arms sales have contributed to the deepening of the conflict, "he said.

According to the MP, there are no unsolvable problems, it is necessary to be patient and solve these problems.
YEREVAN.- We can not allow the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) to retain its power by sacrificing its leader, the Civil Contract party leader, MP Nikol Pashinyan noted on his Facebook page.

According to him, it was planned to continue negotiations with the Republican Party of Armenia.

"Today I suggested the acting Prime Minister, the parliament speaker and the head of the RPA faction to hold negotiations in 3+3 format. I offered to hold talks in the presence of journalists, I noted that dialogue would be conducted over our four requirements," Pashinyan said, reminding that only one of the requirements was fulfilled - the resignation of Serzh Sargsyan.

"However, developments force us to think that the RPA considers that they can use Serzh Sargsyan's resignation in order to retain its power. The issue is not in the person of Serzh Sargsyan, but in the system. And we can not accept that a RPA representative will become the prime minister. There is every reason to suppose that the RPA is trying to use the euphoria of the society in connection with the resignation of Serzh Sargsyan in order to retain its power. The RPA can not remain in power. The people won, and victory must be secured," he said.

Pashinyan urged to resume protest actions at Republic Square at 11 am on Wednesday.
YEREVAN.- Armenia's Acting Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan issued a statement over on cancellation of the meeting with the opposition leader, MP Nikol Pashinyan.

The statement notes:

"Dear citizens,

As you know, a meeting between Nikol Pashinyan and me was to be held tomorrow to discuss the situation and look for solutions.

I would like to inform that the pre-announced meeting will not take place as Nikol Pashinyan has unilaterally put forward new conditions, in particular with respect to the format, the agenda and covering of the meeting. He proposed a list of participants from our side, and also stated that he would discuss exclusively his agenda. This does not mean negotiation or dialogue, but presentation of own agenda and own point of view.

Having certain experience in negotiating, I've never heard of such a format.

Being concerned about the current situation, as the head of the executive power I appeal to the President of the Republic of Armenia to organize a meeting with a board range of parliamentary and extra-parliamentary political forces to discuss the current internal political situation and find possible ways out of it," said Karapetyan.
Driver kills 10, injures 15 plowing van into Toronto sidewalk crowd

A driver deliberately plowed his white Ryder rental van into a lunch-hour crowd in Toronto on Monday, killing 10 people and injuring 15 along a roughly mile-long (1.6-km) stretch of sidewalk thronged with pedestrians, police said, Reuters reported.
Law school bar passage rates above Illinois, Missouri averages

CARBONDALE, Ill.  New results from February 2018 bar exams in Illinois and Missouri show a higher percentage of recent SIU School of Law graduates are passing than state averages.

In Missouri, all five SIU School of Law graduates who took the exam for the first time passed for a 100 percent mark. This was the highest passing rate of any law schools in Missouri or Kansas. The states average was 75.9 percent for first-time takers.

In Illinois, nine of 12 law school graduates taking the test for the first time passed. SIUs 75 percent average is above the 69 percent state average.

Changes in law school culture, devoting additional resources to academic support, and a recently implemented Bar Improvement Project contributed to the increase, said Christopher W. Behan, acting law school dean. Increased faculty and staff resources include a dedicated bar preparation specialist, an academic support specialist and a legal writing specialist.

Our faculty, staff and students have all worked very hard to identify and implement best practices for teaching, assessment and bar preparation itself, he said. Were proud of the good work everyone has done and pleased that weve shown improvement in our bar passage rates for July 2017 and February 2018.

In late 2016, the faculty passed a comprehensive Bar Improvement Project designed to improve bar passage outcomes. This initiative includes curricular changes and a greater focus on formative assessment, including bar-style questions in most classes. The school pilot-tested some aspects of the program during the spring of 2017, with full implementation beginning in fall 2017.

The project implemented various teaching, assessment and grading requirements. The requirements included:
SIU hosting 2018 Sustainability Celebration on April 27

by Christi Mathis

CARBONDALE, Ill.  Southern Illinois University Carbondale is hosting a Sustainability Celebration this week to recognize people for their commitment to sustainability, award grants to further enhance the green campus and encourage everyone to learn more and get involved in making more sustainable daily choices.

Free reception Friday; all are welcome

The celebration will take place from 9:30 to 11 a.m. Friday at Morris Library. There is no cost to attend and the campus community and public are invited.

The festivities begin with an awards presentation and ceremony in the John C. Guyon Auditorium. Afterward, there will be a variety of special activities and displays in the library rotunda along with prizes and refreshments.

Sustainability recognition planned

Chancellor Carlo Montemagno will speak, highlighting SIUs longstanding commitment to sustainability and green initiatives, to kick things off.

The ceremony will feature the presentation of awards to the campus Environmental Ambassadors. The Chancellor and Sustainability Council present the awards annually to students who have donated at least 30 hours of community service to environmentally related endeavors.

Geory Kurtzhals, SIUs sustainability coordinator, will recognize the campus Sustainability Collaborators as well. These include campus faculty, staff, organizations and units which contribute to making SIU a more environmentally friendly university.

Green Fund grants will be announced

The tone will switch from recognizing people for what theyve done in the past year or longer to promoting further campus enhancements when the winners of the 2018 Green Fund grants are announced. Funding for the grants comes from a $10-per-semeter Green Fee, adopted in 2009 as the result of a student-led initiative.

Since that time, the Green Fund Committee, which includes a faculty member, a staff member, and three student members of the Sustainability Council, has awarded more than $2.1 million for 169 diverse sustainability projects. The committee has been carefully reviewing dozens of project proposals and the 2018 winners will claim nearly $90,000 for their proposals.

Experience Sustainability

Students, faculty, staff and community members will then enjoy the opportunity to experience SIU sustainability for themselves through a variety of interactive displays, games and activities.

Visitors can enjoy a showcase highlighting some of the projects that previously received Green Fund monies.

Learn more about:

The campus compost facility.

The Sustainable Eco-Recreation project, an initiative to create recreational activities that would also preserve the recently reclaimed Campus Lake.

The Great Cardboard Boat Regatta, taking place Saturday on Campus Lake.

Sustainable meals.

Other projects and initiatives.

Check out the environmental studies programs plastic bag display and find out more about textile waste and SIUs Sustainability Office. Join the Saluki Green Action Team, comprised of students, faculty and staff who are committed to making the community more sustainable.

A variety of special games and activities, offering the chance to win great prizes, and much more are also on tap. Light refreshments will be served.

The Sustainability Celebration wraps up SIUs month-long Earth Month.
Home | Showtime | #BBNaija: See The Moment Cee-C Was Presented With The Cheque Of N2million By Her Fans (Photos)

Photos have shown the moment the controversial former Big Brother Naija housemate, Cee-C was presented with the cheque of N2 million.

Shortly after her arrival in Nigeria last night, Cee-C, the first runner-up of the 2018 Big Brother Naija reality show, was presented with a cheque of N2m from her fans after missing out on the grand prize.

New photos have shown the moment this happened.

It will be recalled that fans gave Cee-C the cheque at the airport after she landed in Lagos from South Africa to rousing welcome from her many fans as well as her family members.

The young ladys father was also on ground to receive her upon her arrival.

See more photos below:

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Home | News | General | NYSC director-general speaks on proposed increment of corps members monthly allowances

- The director general of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brig-Gen Sulaiman Kazaure, says the N18,000 monthly allowance to corps members is now too small

- Kazaure believes the proposed minimum wage will determine the increment on the allowances to corps members

- Governor Ganduje of Kano wants corps members to shun anything that would dent the image of the scheme

The director general of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brig-Gen Sulaiman Kazaure, says the increase in corps members monthly allowance would be determined by the new national minimum wage when it takes effect.

Kazaure stated this on Monday, April 23, while fielding questions from newsmen shortly after the swearing-in ceremony of the 2018 Batch A corps members at the NYSC orientation camp in Kusalla, Karaye Local Government Area of Kano state.

"Our efforts to ensure that the monthly allowance of the corps members is increased have yielded a very good result following series of discussion with the minister of labour and productivity, Chris Ngige," he said.

READ ALSO: Npower finally releases names of successful 2017 applicants

The NYSC DG added that the N18, 800 paid to them is grossly inadequate to carter for their needs during the mandatory one year service to the nation.

The federal government had set-up a committee to look into the upward review of the minimum wage which he said will also determine the increase of the corps members allowance.

We have been assured that when the new minimum wage takes effect, also the corps members allowance will be reviewed upward, Kazaure assured.

He also disclosed that 82,000 corps members were deployed nationwide for the 2018 Batch A orientation course across various states except those with security challenges.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that in his remarks, the Kano state governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, urged the corps members to shun all acts capable of denting the image of the scheme or which would sour their relationship with the camp officials.

You are to be guided by the sense of duty and discipline at all times, that would undoubtedly lead you to succeed in your entire life, Ganduje said.

In his welcome address earlier, the NYSC coordinator in Kano, Alhaji Ladan Baba, said no fewer than 2,487 corps members were registered in the camp, comprising 1,289 males and 1,198 females.

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According to Baba added that the corps members since the beginning of the three -week orientation had been adapting to the various activities in the camp and have behaved well.

He further commended the state government and the entire people of the state especially the stakeholders for their unflinching support to the scheme.

NAIJ.com earlier reported that prospective corps members were told by the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to start printing their call-up letters from its online platform beginning from Monday, April 16.

According to a statement by the management of NYSC, corps members are expected to report to their orientation camps with the required documents.

African Drum Festival: Nigerian youths show Buhari that they are not lazy | NAIJ.com TV

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Home | News | General | In a matter of days, major PDP players will defect to our party - APC chieftain

- A source in the APC claimed some PDP bigwigs will soon join the party

- The source said they were in alliance with some members of the opposition party

- The APC spokesperson said it would not be a surprise to have PDP members defect

A source in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has reportedly said that some bigwigs of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will soon defect to the party, New Telegraph reports.

It was reported that the source who is a member of the APCs National Working Committee (NWC), claimed that they were in alliance with some members of the PDP and that they will soon move to the party.

READ ALSO: Armed policemen lay siege to Dino Melayes Abuja residence

He said: We are going to have a better coalition and watch out, half of PDP will soon join the APC. I am not talking about weeks; it will be in a matter of days.

It is quite possible that some APC members will move to the PDP because there is always movement, but we are going to get major players in the PDP in the APC.

Bolaji Abdullahi who is the spokesperson of the APC said he will not be surprised if members of the opposition begin to move to the party.

He said: I dont have such information, I must say, but I wont be surprised if there is such movement because those involved would be looking at the interest of their respective constituencies.

Again, it is not a new thing that PDP members will be joining our party, but anybody who is ready to join the APC must be ready to play by the rules.

The question on whether the would be defectors will be granted waivers is not something that would be given as a pre-condition before they join the party as whatever we do in APC is guided by our constitution.

You will recall that even recently, when waiver was granted to members of the executive to contest for positions at the forthcoming national convention, the decision was based on the partys constitution.

And, if you look at Article 13 of the APC constitution, it says that the NWC can grant waiver to anyone, who is not qualified to contest election under the partys constitution. So, we will welcome whoever is interested to join our party, but they must play by the rules.

Meanwhile, Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa state condemned the recent looters list released by the federal government.

According to a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Francis Ottah Agbo, Dickson condemned the list during a live media interview in his office in Yenagoa, the state capital.

The governor who reiterated his belief in the existence of two dominant parties in the country, however, regretted that the ruling APC is grossly fragmented, a development he noted has made the party disorganised.

The EFCC stage a walk against corruption - on NAIJ.com TV

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Home | News | General | Time of reckoning for this 50-year-old man who molested, impregnated his 21-year-old daughter (photos)

- The commissioner of police in Lagos, Imohimi Edgal, paraded some arrested suspects terrorising the state

- Among those paraded is 50-year-old Taiwo Oyelabi, who allegedly impregnated his daughter

- The commissioner also displayed arms recovered from some of the suspects

Commissioner Imohimi Edgal of the Lagos state command of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has paraded Taiwo Oyelabi, a 50-year-old man for allegedly molesting, abusing and impregnating his 21-year-old daughter.

Oyelabi was paraded among other suspects on Monday, April 23, at the police headquarters where Edgal revealed some successes recorded recently by the law enforcement agency.

The police commissioner said five armed robbery gang members disturbing residents of state were arrested while his men recovered many locally made cut to size guns and cartridges.

READ ALSO: Npower finally releases names of successful 2017 applicants

The suspect who impregnated his daughter. Credit: RRS

According to the police, Oyelabi lived on Community Road, Badore, Iba.

The command also said it recovered fake foreign currencies from one Chukwu Emeka Okafor and Oyemuchi Nwoko.

The fake currencies. Credit: RRS

The commissioner said the suspects confessed they belong to a 419 syndicated headed by one Kapo Alhaji in Mushin.

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NAIJ.com earlier reported that some armed robbers terrorising the Ipaja Ayobo area of Lagos state were apprehended by operatives of the Rapid Response Squad.

According to report, the gang which specialised in breaking into innocent peoples homes in Lagos, stole vehicles and personal belongings before selling the cars to a dealer in Onitsha.

The gang members confessed that they have been carrying out the operation for more than two years.

Lagos Police Commissioner parades suspected criminals (Nigeria News) | Naij.com TV

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Home | News | General | 80,000 barrels of crude lost as protesters shutdown flow stations

BY JIMITOTA ONOYUME

WARRI  Nigeria Monday lost over 80,000 barrels of crude as protesting women and youths shut down two major flow stations in Erhoike and Olomoro, insisting that they would not discuss review of the Memorandum of Understanding , MoU with operators of the flow stations, through a non governmental organization or any third party.

Protesting women at Olomoro flow station

As early as 9am Monday the protesting women took over the main gate leading to the flow stations , chanting solidarity songs. They also accused the operator of the flow station of allegedly failing to implement portions of the MoU it went into with the communities when it took over operation of the flow stations.

We want the company, Heritage Energy to discuss with our community. No negotiation wit any third party. We have taken a joint resolution as the 111 host communities to OML 30 that the operators of the oil fields in the area meet with us within 7 days Secretary of Cluster 4 Mr Andy Adese said in Erhoike flow station.

Mrs Angela Michael who also spoke at Erhoike flow station during the protest accused the firm operating the flow station of allegedly failing to implement the scholarship deal it had with the community for youths in the area, adding that the firm should employ youths from the area as staff.

Our youths want to go to school. The scholarship they promised us we have not seen. Our youths are not employed in the company. We want all the issues to be addressed. , she said .

Chief Benneth Abafe, Chairman Community Development Committee, CDC, Orogu also lashed at operators of the flow station for allegedly shortchanging the communities.

Chief EKokobe Obaro , Chairman CDC Oleh who spoke to newsmen at Olomoro flow station also called for addition of the name Oleh in the flow station, adding that operators of the oil field should discuss directly with the communities under OML 30

To employ indigenes of the community as staff of the company this has not been done. The entire field has about 40 wells, Oleh alone has about 23 oil wells. Among the 12 clusters in OML 30 this field produces about 80,000 barrels per day. This flow station is the one feeding the entire OML 30.

From all indication the moment the women are here once the place is barricaded nobody goes in and nobody comes out, he said.

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Home | News | General | El-Zakzaky: 2 feared killed in fresh police, Shiites clash at NHRC hqtrs

By Luminous Jannamike

ABUJA  Officers of the FCT Police Command, Monday, resumed clash with members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) also known as Shiites over agitations for the release of their leader, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, who has been unlawfully detained for over two years.

Face off between Police and Members of Islamic Movement of Nigeria (El-Zakzaky) in Abuja yesterday .Photo by Gbemiga Olamikan

The protesters, Monday afternoon, converged at the head office of the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, with the remains of a member of the sect who died last Thursday at the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital Kano from gunshot injuries he sustained in the head during last weeks clash.

Vanguard gathered that their aim was to prevail on the Commission to receive the corpses for purposes of an independent autopsy and documentation.

However, as they were been addressed by the Acting-Executive Secretary of the Commission, Mrs. Oti Ovrawah, a team of security agents stormed the NHRC headquarters demanding that the protesters depart immediately.

Few minutes later, the security agents, citing orders from above began to teargas the protesters as well as officials of the Commission including the Executive Secretary.

In the ensuing fiasco, the security agents released live ammunition on the protesters leaving two persons feared killed and many others severely injured as members of the sect threw stones and other objects at the police water cannon vehicle deployed to disperse them.

The Secretary, Academic Forum of IMN, decried the use of force on the sect but maintained that they would not relent in agitating for El-Zakzakys release.

As at the time of filing this report, the Spokesman of the FCT Police Command, DSP Anjuguri Manzah, said that he had not gotten details of the incident.

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EC asks govt to ensure safety of commissioners

The Election Commission (EC) on Monday asked the government to ensure safety of the chief election commissioner and commissioners after the house of CEC Ayodhee Prasad Yadav was damaged in bomb blast.
Home | News | General | Police, DSS take over residence of Senator Dino Melaye

By Henry Umoru

ABUJA- THE Police and men of the Department of State Services, DSS, Tuesday laid siege and took over the Maitama residence of the Chairman, Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Senator Dino Melaye, APC, Kogi West.

Senator Dino Melaye

My house under police siege  Senator Dino Melaye My house under police siege  Senator Dino Melaye

Speaking with Vanguard on telephone when the security agents surrounded his No11 Sangha Street, off Mississippi, Maitama, Senator Melaye who spoke in a very lone tune, said,  the Police have sorry under my house.

Melaye had earlier tweeted about the incident, saying that over 30 armed security personnel had surrounded his residence, adding, Over 30 heavily armed fierce looking mobile police men have just stormed My residence in Maitama, Abuja.

On the street Monday, there was vehicular movement from the beginning and end of the road for all passers- by and other residents of the area as the place was condoned off, just as the mobile police men blocked both sides of the road with Police Pick, buses and other cars.

The policemen were led to the residence by an Assistant Commissioner of Police, John who despite pressure from Journalists refused to give reasons for the action, but only said that the instruction was from above.

They prevented Senator Melayes colleagues who trooped to the place to sympathise with him from entering into Melayes house, even when the spoke with the leader of the police.

Dino Melaye arrested on his way to Morocco

Senators who were at the place were Biodun Olujimi, PDP, Ekiti South; Philip Adudu, PDP, FCT; Rafiu Ibrahim, APC, Kwara South; Isa Hamman Misau, APC, Bauchi Central and Atai Aidoko, PDP, Kogi East. Also at the place, but not allowed to see Melaye was a former Senator, Mohammed Ohiare, Kogi Central.

The number of the police was increased with more than ten at 4.0pm, this time, Mobile Police men who came in a police Van with registration number NPF 3637 D and inscription on the sides written donated by CBN and body of Banks CEOs.

Also, Protesters from Internally Displaced Camp (IDP), Kuchigoro, Airport Road, Abuja, stormed Senator Dino Melayes residence where they vowed not to allow the Police to arrest Melaye whom they described as their benefactor who has been assisting them.

It will be recalled that Senator Melaye was yesterday morning arrested by the Police at the International wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport.

Senator Melaye was picked at the airport on his way to Morocco for an official engagement sponsored by the Federal Government after checking in.

Melaye had written his Facebook account in the morning, saying,  I have just been arrested at the International wing of of the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport on my way to Morocco for an official engagement sponsored by the Federal Government after checking in.

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Home | News | General | Buharis APC promised to create 3m jobs but 3years after no job has been provided  Fayose

Okada riders endorses Kolapo for governor

Jonathan to Commission Ekiti first flyover

The Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has called on Nigerian youths to vote for only those who share their believes, aspirations and concerns and vote out the President who believe they are good-for-nothing and lazy as President in 2019 election.

The Commercial Motorcycle Operators in Ekiti State holding a rally to support the candidature of Professor Olubunmi Olusola Eleka as the next state governor in Ado Ekiti today

The Governor said that the youths and women in the country remain the highest voting population, wondering why a president seeking reelection in 2019 would deride and cast aspersion on the young people.

Fayose stated this Monday when the Okada (Motorcycle) riders drawn from the 16 local governments areas stormed Ado Ekiti, the state capital, for a solidarity rally to drum support for the governorship ambition of his deputy, Professor Kolapo Olusola.

He noted that the President Mohammadu Buhari led All Progressives Congress (APC) promised to create three million jobs but added that, three years after, no job has been provided for the teeming unemployed youths that have become object of ridicule by the president.

The governor also dropped the hint that former President Goodluck Jonathan will be in Ekiti state on Wednesday to commission the first flyover in the state which was constructed by his (Fayoses) administration.

He said, When you stand here, we see the category of people here, they are mostly young people. Our President went abroad and said that Nigerian youth are lazy. By 2019, we have to vote against the President. You must vote for people who believe in Nigerian youth, not the people who condemn and call Nigerian youth lazy.

Elections are won by youth and women in Nigeria. How can our president go out of the country and condemn our youths. They promised three million jobs every year, they did not provide one. Therefore, anybody that calls you lazy must be removed from office.

We believe in you, we will stand by you and support you. We will commission the fly over on April 25. Jonathan will come to commission the bridge. Jonathan is my own President.

In his remark, Kolapo said that if he emerge governor, nobody can ban the motorcycle rider in Ekiti State.  I will not ban okada from plying Ekiti roads if I become governor. Those who will chase you away from the roads must not become governor. When they were in government they messed up our economy and left a huge debt for us.

We must not let them come back. APC is cancerous, and we must not allow their cancer to infect us. They have dismissed the flyover but is has not only beautify Ado Ekiti but it will herald development, he said.

The Chairman of the Okada (motorcycle) riders in Ekiti State, Mr Olaniyi Dahunsi who led the riders who are drawn from the 16 local government areas of the state said that his union held the rally in support of the Deputy Governor because they did not want the landmark achievement of the current administration to be truncated.

He said that Ekiti has witnessed unprecedented achievement that has not been rivaled by any previous government since the creation of the state in 1996, saying that we have tasted other governments but none have done remarkably like this one. This is why we are not ashamed to troop to the street in solidarity with Olusola Eleka.

All the over 10,000 Motocycle riders who are mostly youths, have therefore resolved to support the deputy governor, so that he can continue where governor Fayose stopped.

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Home | News | General | Liberias success is important to us  Osinbajo

Nigeria will continue to extend a full range of diplomatic and other forms of assistance to Liberia as the country progresses with a new administration, according to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, while receiving his Liberian counterpart, Dr. Jewel Howard Taylor at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, earlier today.

Vice President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo presides over Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting

Nigeria is committed to working with Liberia, we are certainly committed; the success of Liberia is important to us, the Vice President noted.

Liberian Vice President Taylor commended the Federal Government for its support for Liberia during the immediate past administration of Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, while also urging that such kind of support should be maintained under the new presidency of George Weah.

Like you pointed out, we have invested considerably in Liberia and our support for the Sirleaf administration is also in that respect. You can expect that we shall continue to support and even do much more for Liberia, Prof. Osinbajo stated.

Both Vice Presidents also spoke on the significance of their youth population, the role of technology in development and the need for greater intracontinental trade among African countries.

The Liberian VP, who arrived Nigeria few days ago, spoke on Friday at the Inaugural African Women Summit for Peace and Development.

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Home | News | General | If I ask you to rig election for me, say no - Fayose charges new corps members

- Governor Fayose personally advises the corps members ahead of elections in his state and the country

- Fayose vows not to ask any of the corps member to rig elections for him

- He reminds the corps members that their parents expect them to return home alive and healthy

The governor of Ekiti state, Ayodele Fayose, has advised newly sworn-in members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) not to allow politicians use them to rig elections especially as the country gets into political activities.

The Punch reports that the governor said this when he spoke to the 2,300 corp members deployed to the state during the swearing-in ceremony at Ise-Ekiti orientation camp on Monday, April 23.

READ ALSO: 50-year-old man faces police after molesting, impregnating his 21-year-old daughter

A press statement by Idowu Adelusi, his chief press secretary, quoted the governor as saying the need to advise the corps members and identify with them made him to personally grace the occasion.

I will never ask you to do anything that is unbecoming of Nigerian youths, the country looks up to you in the coming elections. Please dont allow any politicians to influence you to rig including myself.

Run away from inducement and politicians that would call your attention to do evil. You will be remembered for whatever you do.

The youths should not allow themselves to be used for thuggery or to rig elections by the politicians.

If I Ayo Fayose asks you to rig election for me, you should decline. Your parents have spent fortunes on you to be a graduate, you should not disappoint them.

Those politicians will never call out their children to die. Dont allow yourselves to be used.

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Those of you that are being sworn in today will be around when the governorship election will hold in July, dont allow yourselves to be used.

Your parents expect you to return home alive, hale and hearty. The lord will keep all of you for me, the statement said.

NAIJ.com earlier reported that the director general of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brig-Gen Sulaiman Kazaure, says the increase in corps members monthly allowance would be determined by the new national minimum wage when it takes effect.

Kazaure stated this on Monday, April 23, while fielding questions from newsmen shortly after the swearing-in ceremony of the 2018 Batch A corps members at the NYSC orientation camp in Kusalla, Karaye Local Government Area of Kano state.

African Drum Festival: Nigerian youths show Buhari that they are not lazy | NAIJ.com TV

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Home | News | General | Why I was not in the UK and not US - Minister Kachikwu replies Emir Sanusi

- Ibe Kachikwu, the petroleum minister, agrees he was not in the United States

- Kachikwu says he was not billed to be in the US in the first instance

- He reveals he was in the UK for an investment deal

The minister of state for petroleum resources, Ibe Kachikwu, on Monday, April 23, refuted reports that he was absent at an intended meeting with investors in the United States alongside other ministers of the Nigerian government.

A statement in Abuja released by the spokesperson for the ministry, Idang Alibi, said Kachikwu was at another investors meeting in the UK.

READ ALSO: 50-year-old man faces police after molesting, impregnating his 21-year-old daughter

The office of the minister has recently been beleaguered with various media reports concerning the absence of the minister of state at the recent US-Nigeria Investment Summit held in Washington, DC.

It is important to note that Dr Kachikwu was not in the United States of America as reported and was not billed to attend the summit.

He was in the United Kingdom where he had just concluded the facilitation of a key investment meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and the Royal Dutch Shell Plc led by the CEO, Bernardus Van Beurden, in London.

He is committed to delivering the major aspirations of the #7BigWins of which business and investment drive is a key theme, the statement said in reaction to reports linked to Emir Sanusi Lamido Sanusi of Kano criticizing the ministers who were reportedly expected to attend the investment summit, but were absent.

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Only the ministerof transportation, Rotimi Amaechi reportedly attended the investors meeting.

NAIJ.com earlier reported that Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II reportedly lashed out at ministers for failing to turn up at a meeting with investors saying this is not how the country should treat them.

The report said Sanusi made this observation on Saturday, April 21 at an investment programme organised by the Nigerian Embassy.

Nigerian youths reply to President Buhari over 'lazy' comment | NAIJ.com TV

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Home | News | General | I am contesting for governorship because people are suffering - Senator Adeleke

Senator Nurudeen Ademola Adelekehas said that he wants to run for governorship seat because many people are suffering.

Daily Trust reports that the senator representing Osun West senatorial district claimed he was seeking to position to serve his people.

READ ALSO: There is a plan to kill me, police have arrested by brother - Dino Melaye cries out

The Peoples Democratic Party senator said he would not steal the money of the people as he achieved everything he needed.

He said: "Yes. I will contest for Governor. I have submitted my letter of expression of interest to contest to the party. I'm contesting because of the people. Our people are suffering and we need to liberate them.

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If I become governor, I cannot steal money that belong to people. I have achieved everything that I could need money for in life. I have built houses, I have cars, I have everything. So, what would I do with stolen money. So, I won't steal as a governor. I only want to serve

Senator Ademola Adeleke, an uncle to a Nigerian prominent hip-hop artist, David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, declared his interest to contest the September 22 governorship election.

The Cable reports that Adeleke, who represents Osun west senatorial district, made this known in a letter he addressed to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

NAIJ.com gathered that the senator, who has spent barely a year in the senate, replaced Isiaka, his elder brother, who died in April 2017.

PDP's Magnificent 7 for 2019 - on NAIJ.com TV

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Home | News | General | All my policemen taken away - Dino raises alarm as reason for siege given

- The police insisted that the siege in front of Dino Melayes house was in order

- The Kogi senator claimed all his security men have been withdrawn

- The police said Melaye failed to honour their invitation

The Nigerian police has explained that the siege in front of the residence of Senator Dino Melaye was necessary due to his alleged involvement in a case of unlawful possession of prohibited firearms.

Melaye also claimed that all the policemen providing security have been withdrawn.

READ ALSO: There is a plan to kill me, police have arrested by brother - Dino Melaye cries out

The Nation reports that Adeniran Aremu who is the force spokesperson said the Kogi senators refusal to honour polices invitation necessitated the siege.

He said: Our action was prompted by the fact that he was invited in a case of unlawful possession of firearms and other crimes.

The police had invited him on more than two or three occasions but he failed to honour the invitations. That is why we are there right now.

You know when a case is in court, there is no law that stops you from further questioning if you need to answer question on the suspects.

There is no law that stops the police from further inviting him or asking question about the case.

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had reported that wanted Senator Dino Melaye reported that he was stopped from boarding a flight to Morocco this morning, after checking in.

The voluble Senator who had been declared wanted by the Nigerian police for alleged arming of some thugs posted the information on his Instagram and Twitter accounts this morning.

He said it was an arrest.

The police and DSS have not confirmed the veracity of the claim.

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Stopped from traveling and under arrest. No retreat no surrender. Talk we must, Dino said on both his Instagram and Twitter accounts.

I have just been arrested at the international wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe airport on my way to Morocco for an official engagement sponsored by the Federal Govt after checking in, his earlier tweet read.

Kogi West senatorial district to recall senator Dino Melaye from the Nigerian Senate on NAIJ.com TV.

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Source: Naija.ng

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Home | News | General | Convention: APC south-south chieftains divided over Oyegun, Oshiomole aspirations

- Crisis seems to be brewing among chieftains of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) from the south-south region

- Four out of the six state chairmen of the party from the zone have distanced themselves from a recent comment by the Edo state governor, Godwin Obaseki

- Obaseki had purportedly endorsed his predecessor, Comrade Adams Oshiomole for the position of the party's national chairman

Ahead of the national convention of the ruling APC which is in exactly three weeks time, four out of the six state chairmen of the party from the south-south region have distanced themselves with the purported endorsement of the former Edo state governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

The chairmen who distanced themselves from the endorsement are the Rivers state APC chairman, Chief Davies Ikanya, his Bayelsa state counterpart, Deacon Joseph Fafi, Cross River state APC chairman, Mr. Etim John and the Akwa Ibom state APC chairman, Dr. Amadu Attai as well as the APC deputy national secretary, Honourable Victor Giadom.

The APC south-south chairmen insists that Chief Oyegun has the first right of refusal regarding the chairmanship position. Photo source: Twitter

READ ALSO: APC national convention: Forum promises to buy chairmanship form, mobilise delegates for Timi Frank

The five party leaders had stormed out of the south-south zonal caucus meeting held at the Edo state Government House today, Monday, April 23 in protest for what they said were plans by the Edo state governor, Godwin Obaseki and the zonal vice chairman of the party, Hilliard Eta to adopt Oshiomhole as the south-south zone's candidate for the partys national chairman.

Speaking to journalists, the chairmen said they were ambushed with Oshiomholes adoption agenda at the meeting, insisting that the APC national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun should be given a right of first refusal to seek re-election for the position.

Chief Ikanya said: We were here for a meeting only to be ambushed by the national vice chairman of the party (Hilliard Eta) to adopt a preconceived candidate.

Yesterday (Sunday), we held a meeting which he attended, only for him to come and manipulate, sort out every suggestion and he is trying to say he has come out with a resolution.

First, I want us to know that the Zonal Executive Committee does not have the power to elect, nominate or to adopt candidates for national offices. It is the national convention that can do that.

Secondly, there are very senior members in the zone that were shut out of this meeting purposely. number one, the national chairman of the party who is from this zone and the national vice chairman of the party ought to sought the permission of the national chairman of the party even to convene this meeting because the constitution states that the national vice chairman shall assist the national chairman.

So, in this zone where we have a sitting chairman and he is not invited to a meeting, you have six ministers, you have former governors, you have very senior citizens of this zone and they were shut out of the meeting only for the national vice chairman to ambush everybody, ignore every motion that was moved, even when somebody moved a motion that he should disqualify himself having shown bias from the beginning in this meeting, he still sat there and he is saying to the public that there was a resolution.

We want you to know that out of the states of the zone, four states are saying that this was an ambush, it was not acceptable, there was no resolution. We have said that every person is free to run in the election. We stand by the resolution of the National Executive Committee (NEC) that there is waiver.

The national chairman can recontest if he wants to recontest, any other person from the zone can recontest if they want to recontest. What has happened in this meeting is a farce, is not binding on anybody, it is null and void.

Four states are saying no, whereas just two states - Edo and some parts of Delta are the people that are saying that they have a resolution. This is not how democracy should be practiced. Arising from this meeting today, the majority view is that there is no consensus on any candidate.

Similarly, Honourable Giadom said the resolution at the Edo state Government House is not the party's position, stressing that every resolution of the party must come back to the NWC.

His words: First, the south-south zonal headquarters of this party is in Port Harcourt. Two, this zone does not have the power to sit in government house to decide or take a decision against any candidate. This decision was not put to a vote.

It was smuggled by the national vice chairman of this zone and without allowing the people who were in the meeting to have input or for us to have an election as the case may be. I want to put it on record that out of the six state chairmen of our party, we have the chairmen of Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Rivers and Bayelsa here, that is, four state chairmen are here. So, it is a decision of the Edo state government not the decision of the party and cannot stand.

In the same vein, Deacon Fafi said what took place at the Edo state Government House was undemocratic, unexpected and a complete fraud.

Adding his voice to the position, Cross River APC chairman, Etim John said, whatever decision they reach there, if at all, is completely null and void, also bias and has no stand. It is undemocratic and it is inconsequential.

On his part, Dr. Attai said: We from Akwa Ibom state do not support any decision that is taken today in this meeting, any resolution that was reached is null and void because we were not allowed to vote.

READ ALSO: CSO faults non-participation of political parties in voters' register cleanup

Meanwhile, the APC today, Monday, April 23 inaugurated its national convention planning committee.

The 68-member national convention committee is chaired by the governor of Jigawa state, Alhaji Mohammed Badaru Abubakar.

The committee was inaugurated at the APC national secretariat in Abuja by the national chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.

APC chieftains in Benue state say PDP has nothing to offer on NAIJ.com TV

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Home | News | General | Kalu calls for unity in Abia APC

By Ugochukwu Alaribe

ABAFORMER Abia State Governor, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, has urged members of the APC in the state to work together to ensure the party wins the governorship position in the 2019 general election.

Orji Uzor Kalu

Kalu who stated this at an APC stakeholders meeting in Umuahia decried the infighting and disunity among members of the APC in Abia and called for change, stressing that the party must put its house together to defeat the ruling PDP in the state.

He alleged that some members of the party in the state had been hobnobbing with the Governor Okezie Ikpeazu administration to undermine the APCs resolve to win the governorship position in 2019.

He said: We need to save the APC in Abia and give it a direction. We want to have one strong APC in Abia. We want to see one APC that belongs to all of us. If anyone goes against the party, he must be punished. Let there be peace in Abia APC. I dont want us to be going to Abuja and reporting ourselves. Because of the time we are entering, we wont allow this party to disintegrate in Abia.

We made a promise to our leaders that we will win all the positions in Abia in 2019. But we cant return APC when we are quarrelling. We cant win when we say this man is for Nyerere Anyim, this one is for Ikechi Emenike.

You cant take over when you are quarreling. The APC doesnt belong to anyone; we must join hands to strengthen the party.

The APC will win Abia in But we must do the right thing. If you want to be in APC, dont be in APC and put your leg in PDP. Some APC members are hobnobbing with the governor. Some of these people are planning to field a weak governorship candidate for Okezie Ikpeazu to win again, but it wont happen. Anybody who is a member of APC should be steady or leave the party.

The former governor inaugurated a 3 man panel headed by Chief Acho Obioma to reach out to the Chief Ikechi Emenike faction to ensure that peace reigns in the party.

A cross section party leaders who spoke at the occasion including Senator Chris Adighije, Dr. Nyerere Anyim , Senator Nkechi Nwaogu as well as the state chairman of the party, Chief Donatus Nwankpa, said the party is committed to sack the ruling PDP in the state in 2019 and urged members to be steadfast.

On the forthcoming congresses to elect new executives for the party, the leaders vowed that there will be no imposition of candidates.

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Home | News | General | 2000 A-Ibom residents benefit from Edmarks skills acquisition scheme

By Chioma Onuegbu

AKA ITIAMOVER 2000 Akwa Ibom residents have been trained and equipped with right skills to create business ventures and become independent and successful entrepreneurs by Edmark Group of Companies.

A skills acquisition and vocational training centre

Mr. Samuel Ogbonna, Marketing-Officer-in-charge of Edmark, who made this known to Niger-Delta Voice, NDV, during the 2018 Edmark Expo held at Helema Event Centre, Aka Itiam, Uyo, explained that all distributors of Edmark products are trained to enable them become self-reliant and successful.

Once you register as a distributor of Edmark healthy living products, you must undergo one month training to equip you with the right skills and knowledge to become better network marketers. So far, we have approximately 2,180 trained distributors in Uyo.

Financial liberty

And with the initial success of the first Edmark Expo in Uyo in November 2015, coupled with overwhelming demand for an encore, the Expo finally returned to Uyo. Edmark Expo is a concept of exhibiting the opportunity the company offers to all Nigerians to reclaim and maintain their health through weight loss, a path towards financial freedom and a means to better their lives, he said.

A beneficiary of the business opportunity offered by the company and primary school teacher from Ibiono Ibom Local Government Area, Mr. Moses Akpan in his testimony at the event said since he joined Edmark, his standard of living has changed positively.

Tough past

I was struggling as a classroom teacher to make a better living. I did not have a house of my own; I could not afford money to buy my own car. I had a motorcycle but sometimes I trek to work because I cannot afford N500 to fuel the tank because my salary was not enough.

But in 2011 when the former governor, Godswill Akpabio, banned the use of motorcycle within Uyo, I cried because that was my means of transportation to work even though it was taking half of my salary every month. My house was quite a long distance from where I teach.

Along the line, somebody introduced me to business opportunities offered by the company and after I saw that it is a genuine company, I decided to join. When I joined, my friends were laughing at me.

Change of fortune

I joined the business with N18, 000, as at that time. In fact, I did not have that amount then because things were hard, so I had to borrow from three different people.

I joined as a distributor and later qualified as a manager after six months. In the 7th month, I bought my first car and now I am waiting for my official house from the company which I am working hard to merit.

All you need to be successful is hard work, commitment and honesty. I do the business on part time so it does not disturb my teaching job. You will agree with me that things are very tough today, but if you have extra income from somewhere else to complement your salary, you make your life better. I can tell you that even this part-time business gives me better income than my salary, he said.

Discontinue hunt for white collar job

Continuing, he expressed worry that many unemployed Akwa Ibom youths these days prefer politicking which does not improve their living condition instead of embracing such business opportunities.

I dont know why people go into politics where they will make enemies. In fact, when I see young people roaming the streets, I feel for them. They are looking for white collar jobs that are not there. Even low income earners can make a difference by having additional business to what they are doing because your salary cannot take you anywhere, Akpan advised.

A participant at the Expo, who identified herself as Miss Uduak said: This is my first time of attending this product and business awareness programme. A friend informed me about it. Since I graduated from school three years ago, I am yet to get a job so when I heard about the business opportunities, I decided to attend today.

And from what I have seen here today, I think I am excited, I am encouraged to become a distributor of the companys products. I enjoy doing business. I am tired of staying idle.

When I listened to some peoples testimonies today on how they started with small money and where they are today, I am encouraged. You can see that I am already dancing.

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Govt unveils wish list for IGC meeting

Nepal will be raising issues related to quarantine, technical barriers to trade (TBT), transshipment modality, bulk cargo movement and inland waterways at the Nepal-India Intergovernmental Committee (IGC) meeting slated to start Thursday in Kathmandu.
Home | News | General | PDP govs doing well, says Obi

ASABAThe former Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi has thrown his support to the recent endorsement of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State by the people of Anioma, describing it as a welcome development.

Ex-governor of Anambra state, Mr. Peter Obi

Speaking to Journalists over the weekend at Benin Airport, Obi said he was particularly happy that the endorsement was on the strength of his performance.

I am happy about his endorsement which was manifestly on the strength of his performance. I live in Onitsha and visit Delta State regularly. I also interact with so many of our people that live in Delta. Okowa is really a silent performer and conducts himself with dignity befitting his position.

Speaking further, Obi said that not just Okowa, but also other PDP governors were doing well.

Whenever I visit any state, I take time to move around and see what is happening and most importantly, interact with the people.

This year alone, I have been to Rivers State where the people are pleased with Wikes outstanding performance which even the blind can see. I have been to Akwa Ibom State, Bayelsa State, Ebonyi State,Enugu State, the story and interactions were the same.

Obi said he was in Aba on Saturday and visited one Chinese Company that built steel rolling mill and was developing an industrial cluster.

On his interactions with the management, Obi said when I asked the managing director about their relationship with Government of Abia state, he told me that the Governor has visited twice.

This shows his commitment to turning around Aba. I moved around Aba and saw evidence of on going construction and commitment.

Commenting on debt situation in the country, Obi said that PDP states were doing better relative to their revenue.

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Home | News | General | Our President is right Northern youths do not want to work

President Buharis comment on Nigerian youths? (2)

Our President is right to some extent. Obviously, some Northern youths do not want to work. Perhaps, the President was referring to the Northern youths. The onus is on Nigerian youths to determine their future by voting President Muhammadu Buhari out as Nigerias President

*Waheed Kareem, Transporter

Scores of youths marching on Ikorodu Road on Saturday, March 31, 2018 to endorse Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State for a second term.

He is trying to classify Nigerian youths according to his reasoning. The only way to prove him wrong is by using our Permanent Voters Card ,PVC, in the right way so that incoming leaders will mind their statements especially on sensitive issues.

*Mr Emeka Okereke, Worker

Nigerian youths are very hardworking.

I think Mr. President needs Gods intervention to govern our dear nation . It is only through devine intervention that we can survive in this country.

*Mr. Olabanji Arolejesu, Gospel Artist

President Buhari outrightly goofed on this. He should show to us the lazy Nigerian youths, so that Nigerian youths will accept culpability of being lazy. We want to know the lazy youths in Nigeria.

*Mr. Usman Kazeem, Youth Leader

President Buharis statement is an insult to the largest wing of the Nigerian society. We havent forgotten how he once described us as indisciplined during his days in the military. He became President based on the massive support the same lazy youths gave him. With that statement, he is only reminding us to assist him pack his luggage out of Aso Rock in 2019.

*Mr. Patrick Benjamin, Youth Leader

If he truly said Nigerian youths are lazy, he is right to some extent depend-ing on how he perceives the youths. One of the ills in this country is the high level of hardship unleashed on the people by our leaders. Some of the youths are graduates with no jobs. Some who are into businesses are battling with poor electricity and bad governance among other issues. The President does not know what an average Nigerian youth faces. Youths can only prove him wrong by being strong.

*Oseni Abraham, Worker

By Bose Adelaja, Ebun Sessou & Frederick Okopie

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PARLIAMENTS all over the world are known for their penchant for dramatic episodes. Here in Nigeria, we have seen bags of dirty naira notes upturned in the hallowed chamber (which is anything but hallowed judging from the way its distinguished and honourable members misbehave there). The money was allegedly meant to be a bribe for the legislators to do former President Obasanjos bidding.

Thugs going with the Mace Photo by Gbemiga Olamikan

We also saw Hon. Aminu Safana, a medical doctor, die in a fight in October 2007 during the Ettehgate crisis in the House of Reps. We have seen clothes torn to shreds and an arm of a House of Reps member, Hon. Chinyere Igwe, broken. In the Second Republic, a House of Reps member, Hon. Sidi H. Ali, was reported to have pulled out a gun and threatened to go on a shooting spree if the call for the recognition of full sharia law was not passed into law.

At the Senate, we have also seen a Senate President, the late Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, take the Mace to the Oyi River in his village where a python was asked to keep watch over it to prevent it from being used to impeach Okadigbo! Okadigbo reported this to the media himself, though some took it as a mere humour. It did not stop him from being impeached through the manipulation of former President Obasanjo. Hmmm, Obasanjo really poured a lot of sand in the eyes of our democracy!

Talk about pouring sand in the eyes of our democracy. What took place in the Senate on Wednesday, 18th April 2018, confounded every common-sense and logic. A suspended Senator, Ovie Omo-Agege (Delta Central) brought hoodlums to the heart of the Red Chamber while it was in session. How they were able to storm through a fortress of multiple security posts, invade the plenary, beat up everyone who dared to stand in their way, snatch the Mace, abduct (and later dumped off) Senator Solomon Adeola representing Lagos West and escaped scot-free, is something difficult to rationalise.

We should be deeply worried at the frequency which, under this Muhammadu Buhari regime, our army, police, DSS and the gamut of security apparatus, appear to fail when they are needed most. In spite of the deployments of the army, police and security agencies on operations this and that all over the country, armed Fulani bandits continue to massacre our people while their bosses and top Federal Government officials appear unconcerned. Boko Haram strolled unhindered into Dapchi to abduct 110 girls from the Government Girls Technical College. They also brought most of them back in broad daylight.

Senator Omo-Ageges ability to successfully invade the Senate and abduct the Mace while the security agencies looked the other way seems to fall into line with the growing perception of naked partiality by these agencies paid to protect all Nigerians without fear or favour. If they could be so lousy and fail to prevent the Senate invasion just because the invaders were going to confront those fighting the President over the 2019 order of elections, what more would they do during the impending electoral process itself? Can they be trusted to be neutral and ensure that the expressed will of Nigerians prevail? Is there anything in their body language to assure us they can protect our vote?

Why was it that the police and other security agencies materialised from nowhere only after the Mace thieves had completed their treasonable assault on the most senior symbol of our democracy, the Nigerian Senate? Assuming those hoodlums came to kill, they would have done so and escaped. After this episode, how will members of the National Assembly feel safe while at work? If Omo-Agege and his cohort, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, were not (ostensibly) fighting for President Buharis political interest, would they succeed in railroading thugs in and out of the Senate? The police merely went through the motion of arresting Senator Omo-Agege but released him shortly after.

At the heart of this imbroglio is a fight for selfish political interests between the Presidency and the National Assembly. This fight had been there even before Day One. The National Assembly leadership emerged against the wishes of some All Progressives Congress, APC, leaders. The rivalry has gone through many phases, but the order of the 2019 general elections is the major trigger for this latest episode.

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, which is run by people linked to Buhari at family level, unveiled an election sequence that would enable the President to enjoy a bandwagon effect if he wins the first set of elections. This will make it possible for his party to be so dominant in the event that he wins his re-election bid that he would be in a position to pocket the National Assembly, which will promote civilian dictatorship.

The National Assembly led by Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the House of Reps, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, rather prefers a bottom-up approach which will give the electorate a level field to make genuine choices. It will also give the lawmakers a fair chance to win their re-election bids irrespective of their political relationship with the president. President Buhari vetoed the Electoral Bill containing this and other items, and the National Assembly was poised to override the veto. Suddenly, a group of Senators self-styled as Buhari Support Group, with Omo-Agege and Adamu as its most vocal, openly threw its weight behind INECs top-down arrangement which Buhari favours, thus pitching themselves against the core political interests of the Senate. A disciplinary committee set up to look into their activities found Omo-Agege guilty and he was suspended from the Senate for 90 legislative days. He went to court to stop this action but was ignored on the age-old rule that the courts cannot interfere in legislative affairs.

Omo-Agege and his cohort could have continued to fight their battles through lawful means, including protests and demonstrations to win public sympathy. The resort to the use of hoodlums to desecrate the same Senate he wishes to continue to be part of, is preposterous and treasonable. This action could easily ensure that he never participates in the activities of the Senate for the rest of the current session. Senator Ali Ndume and Hon. Abdulmumin Jibril were suspended for prolonged periods for acts capable of betraying the National Assembly to the Presidency by undermining the solidarity of its members.

People say that the NASS has no right to suspend any of its members from representing their constituencies. I take that with a pinch of salt because no organisation can survive if it cannot effectively discipline its members. The NASS has been empowered by the constitution and its byelaws to be able to discipline its members. Unless the Saraki-led NASS protects itself, it will fall prey to the Presidencys predatory instincts. We saw it during the Obasanjo regime. I stand firmly for the independence of the Legislature because it is the biggest symbol of our democracy. If the NASS loses its battle of independence, the little that is left of Buharian Nigeria will be gone. Whatever it lawfully takes to assert that independence must be applied. Omo-Agege, Adamu and others were elected to represent their people and not to become lackeys of the Executive. They are the ones who betrayed their constituents by pursuing issues irrelevant to their mandates and should be sanctioned with recalls by their constituents.

Talking about coups; shortly after the invasion took place, Mr. Great Ogboru, an APC leader from Omo-Ageges constituency, issued a statement supporting his action. Ogboru was the financier of the April 22, 1990 Major Gideon Orkar coup. He is accustomed to April and coups, so no one should be surprised.

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Home | News | General | African Alliance claims settlement hits N8bn in 2017

By Providence Emmanuel

MANAGEMENT of African Alliance Insurance Plc, yesterday, announced payment of N8.69 billion in claims settlement in 2017, reiterating commitment to corporate governance.

From left: Dr. Sola Afolabi, Team Leader, Accelerated Trade in West Africa, Dr. Peter Jack, Director, National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA and Dr. Jonson Olufuye and Waudo Signanga, Chairman, Kenyan Computer Society in Abuja at the just concluded African ICT Alliance, (AfICTA) Chief Executive Officer Round Table in partnership with Internet Corporation Assigned Names and Numbers, ICANN. Photo by Emeka Aginam.

Managing Director, African Alliance Insurance, Mrs Funmi Omo, gave the figure in a statement, saying that the figure increased by 32.5 percent from N6.56billion paid in 2016, recording a gross premium income of N6.29billion in the year under review.

Omo said, Our shareholders and customers have been satisfied with our level of transparency and commitment to them. Last year 2017, we paid N8 billion in claims settlement as a testament to our good faith and goodwill and we specifically pledged to continue to uphold our integrity and maintain the highest level of corporate governance.

She hinted that the company recently engaged the services of foremost accounting and auditing firm, Deloitte & Touche to ensure that all remittances, policies and regulations are strictly adhered to.

She said, the moves were necessary in line with the companys new strategy which highlights maintaining a high level of corporate governance as one of its strategic goals.

Recall reports that the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) imposed a fine of N46.1 million on the company for breaking its rule on account submission, while the NSE X-Compliance Report, released on April 12, 2018, explains that the fine is for late submission of its 2015 and 2016 audited accounts.

According to the NSE, the company filed its audited and interim financial statements after the regulatory due date, this applied sanctions in accordance with the rules for filing of accounts and treatment of default filing under the Rulebook of the Exchange.

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Home | News | General | UBA shareholders approve N22.23bn dividend for 2017

United Bank for Africa (UBA), on Monday endorsed the payment of N22.23 billion final dividend declared by the board for the financial year ended Dec. 31, 2017.

From left: Group Managing Director/CEO, United Bank for Africa(UBA) Plc, Mr. Kennedy Uzoka; Group Chairman, Mr. Tony Elumelu; Company Secretary, Mr. Bili Odum and Group Deputy Managing Director, Mr. Victor Osadolor, at the 56th Annual General Meeting of the bank held in Lagos,

The shareholders gave the approval at the banks 56th Annual General Meeting held in Lagos.

The final dividend translated to 65k per share when compared with final dividend of 55k paid in the corresponding period of 2016.

The dividend was in addition to the 20k per share paid as interim dividend earlier.

Speaking at the meeting, Mr Boniface Okezie, the National Chairman, Progressive Shareholders Association of Nigeria (PSAN), commended the board and management for the dividend in spite of unfriendly operating environment.

Okezie lauded the bank for the enhanced dividend and its great work as well as achievements in the continent.

He said that the bank had showed that good things could come from Africa, noting that the bank would continue to showcase the strength of Africa.

The shareholder activist urged the board and management of the bank to live up to the desired expectation.

Okezie , however, called on the shareholders to leverage on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) e-dividend initiative in order to bring down the banks unclaimed dividend totaling about N7 billion.

Mr Nona Awo, a shareholder urged the banks management on investors enlightenment on the benefits of e-dividend.

Awo said that the bank should engage the company secretary and the registrars to tackle the unclaimed dividend figure.

He also commended the banks subsidiaries for improved contribution to the companys performance indicators.

Mr Timothy Adesiyan, Grand Patron, Nigerian Shareholders Solidarity Association, appreciated the bank for the dividend and achievement during the year under review.

Adesiyan said that the bank should conform to regulatory rules and regulations to avoid payment of unnecessary fines.

Responding, Mr Tony Elumelu, the banks Chairman, assured the shareholders of enhanced returns in the years ahead.

Elumelu said the bank had opened a banking license few months ago to operate UBA London, noting that it would continue to increase its footprint across the globe.

On unclaimed dividends, he said that the bank would continue to create e-dividend awareness in partnership with APR Registrars to reduce the figure.

Mr Kennedy Uzoka, the banks Group Managing Director, said that the bank would leverage its Pan-African platform to deepen and formalise intra-Africa trade through cross border synergies across its group operation.

Uzoka said that the bank would focus on growing its market share and would remain committed to sustainable banking principles and risk management practices.

Notwithstanding the ever increasing competition from traditional peers and emerging Fintechs, we are approaching 2018 with strong optimism, he said.

Uzoka said that the bank had made a lot of investment in technology to drive business operations.

He assured the shareholders that the bank would ensure efficient service delivery in its operations.

NAN reports that the company posted profit before tax of N105.26 billion during the period compared to N90.64 billion in the previous year.

Its profit after tax stood at N78.59 billion in contrast with N72.26 billion in the comparative period of 2016.

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Home | News | General | Court awards N5m against Police for arresting Elombah brothers

By Charles Kumolu

ABUJAA FEDERAL High Court sitting in Abuja has awarded N5 million against the Nigeria Police Force for the arrest and detention of two journalists, Messrs. Daniel Elombah and Izuchukwu Elombah.

Daniel Elombah

Operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, had arrested the brothers in Nnewi, Anambra State on January 1, 2018, on allegations that they published an article critical of Mr. Ibrahim Idris, Inspector General of Police, who immediately deployed officers to track them down.

The police said the brothers published the article on their website.

In the judgment, delivered by Justice Jude Okeke, the court granted an injunction restraining respondents from further arresting and restraining the movement of the applicants.

It further ordered the release of property in the custody of the respondents, even as it rejected the prayer by the applicants for public apology on the grounds that it would amount to double punishment for the respondents having granted monetary compensation.

Counsel to the respondents, Ifeanyi Nrialike had prayed for an order for an extention of time to file their counter-affidavit .

The grounds for the application were that: due to administrative challenges, the substantive counsel could not access the file on time.

Counsel for the applicant, in opposition, filed a 9 paragraphs counter-affidavit and a written address.

In his remarks, Mr. Ephraim Shiho, who argued the application, prayed the court to dismiss and strike out the respondents application for lacking in merit and being grossly incompetent.

Agreeing, the court held that the application was grossly incompetent as stated by Ephraim Shiho.

On the other grounds, counsel for the Applicant argued that the application of the respondents amounts to arresting the judgment of the Court, as the respondents waited until date was fixed for the delivery of the judgment before they brought the application in bad faith to arrest the delivery of the judgment of the court.

Also, the court held that the application amounted to arresting the judgment of the court.

On the grounds of whether the respondents will be denied fair hearing if their application is refused, the court held the changes in the defendants position that a party cannot sleep on his right at the same time stay away from trial having been served with the substantive suit and hearing notice.

The Court consequently dismissed the application to arrest the judgment and proceeded to deliver the judgment.

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Home | News | General | Van runs over Toronto pedestrians, up to 10 hurt: police

A man drove a white rental van into a crowd of pedestrians in the center of Canadas biggest city Toronto on Monday, injuring as many as 10 people, police said.

* Bullion vans

Canadian media reported at least four fatalities, but that was not yet confirmed by police.

The vehicle fled the scene, but the driver was later arrested.

Update: unknown of extent of injuries, possible 8  10 pedestrians struck, Toronto police wrote on Twitter.

Police then said it was too early to confirm the number of pedestrians struck or their injuries.

Officers were called to the scene  on Yonge Street at the corner with Finch Avenue  at 1:27 pm (1727 GMT), police said, without specifying whether or not the incident was deliberate.

A white rental van with a dented front bumper was stopped on the sidewalk of a major intersection, surrounded by police vehicles.

Our hearts go to anyone affected, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the House of Commons.

We are going to have more to learn and more to say in the coming hours, he said.

 Really fast 

The incident occurred as Toronto was hosting a meeting of public security ministers from the G7 leading industrialized nations, and on the heels of a weekend gathering in the city for the foreign ministers from the same seven countries  the United States, Japan, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Canada.

Vehicle attacks have been carried out to deadly effect by extremists in a number of capitals and major cities, including London, Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, New York, Nice and Barcelona.

Torontos police had not stated what they believe the drivers motives may have been in Mondays incident.

He was going really fast, one witness, Alex Shaker, told CTV television.

All I could see was just people one by one getting knocked out, knocked out, one by one, Shaker said. There are so many people lying down on the streets.

Canada has largely been spared the violence of Islamist extremists, although it has not been entirely immune.

Last October, a man stabbed a police officer in the western city of Edmonton before slamming his van into a group of pedestrians, injuring four people.

And in Quebec in October 2014, a Canadian man ran over two soldiers in a parking lot with his car, killing one of them. The driver was shot dead by police when he attacked them with a knife.

And in March 2016, a Canadian who claimed to have radical Islamist sympathies attacked two soldiers at a military recruitment center in Toronto.

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Home | News | General | Offa bank robbery suspects were arrested through girlfriends

The 12 suspects currently being interrogated by Police operatives in Kwara State over the recent bank robbery in Offa were arrested through the tracking of mobile phones the robbers collected from victims and gave their girlfriends, police has said.

According to Vanguard, after the Offa bank robbery operation, the suspects took away the handsets of the victims, which they later gave out to their girlfriends.

Police officials of the robbed banks were also said to have given the police all handsets found within their premises after the robbery. It was gathered that the interrogation of the girlfriends with whom the phones were found, led to the arrest of the suspects in Ibadan, Lagos and Abeokuta.

Further checks revealed that the suspects had been in and out of jail several times and that they regrouped for that operation.

There are reports that policemen who would have prevented the deadly attack on Offa community compromised.

According to the proprietor of the hotel where the bandits lodged a day before they struck, he had informed the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, in the town over alleged discoveries of some incriminating materials on the bandits while they were checking into his hotel.

The DPO and Divisional Crime Officer, DCO, immediately sent some officers to the hotel.

A source said instead of arresting the suspects, the police officers negotiated with the bandits, and the bandits offered the officers N400,000.

When the policemen returned to the station, they told the DPO and DCO that the bandits were Yahoo boys and not robbers as claimed by the hotel owner.

Vanguard says a source told them:

It was not surprising that the robbers visited the police station the following day and killed about nine policemen in retaliation for collecting N400,000 from them.

It was further gathered that the bandits were said to have taken the decision to kill the policemen during the attack with the notion that if they didnt kill them, they might recognise them during their operation and this might spell doom for them at the end.

Although, the Police has arraigned the proprietor of the hotel before a magistrate court in Ilorin last week for alleged conspiracy in the attack, sources told Vanguard the proprietor challenged the DPO and DCO in Offa to deny if he had not informed them about the bandits when they lodged in his hotel before the attacks on the banks.

Also arraigned alongside the hotelier last week were the accountant, a receptionist, a room keeper and a club house operator of the hotel.

They were arraigned on a two-count charge of criminal conspiracy and causing disappearance of evidence and giving false information to screen an offender.

The Police said the offences contravened Sections 97 and 167 of the Penal Code.

After taking submissions from the Police and defence counsel, the magistrate, Mrs. M. B. Folorunso adjourned the case till May 3 for further hearing.

Meanwhile, spokesman of Kwara State Police Command, Ajayi Okasanmi, told Vanguard yesterday that he was not aware of such information. His words:

If the hotelier actually gave the Police information about the suspects in his hotel, why didnt he deny them lodging? To me, it is an afterthought.

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Home | News | General | S-African Police look on as mob burns Nigerian

By Victoria Ojeme

A Nigerian has been burnt alive by a mob, while the Police looked on, in the latest xenophobic attack in South Africa, just as 14 Nigerians, who protested the killing of a fellow citizen in that countrys North West Province in February are still in detention.

From left: Group Managing Director/CEO, United Bank for Africa(UBA) Plc, Mr. Kennedy Uzoka; Group Chairman, Mr. Tony Elumelu; Company Secretary, Mr. Bili Odum and Group Deputy Managing Director, Mr. Victor Osadolor, at the 56th Annual General Meeting of the bank held in Lagos,

The incident happened on Sunday.

This came as the Federal Government, yesterday,described the development as unfortunate and called on the South African authorities to find a lasting solution to the incessant killing of Nigerians in that country.

The Nigerian, Clement Nwaogu, who was burnt alive by a mob, according to the Nigerian Community in South Africa, said the victim, from Njikoka in Anambra State, was attacked and killed by a mob in Rustenburg, North-West Province.

Secretary of the Nigerian Union in South Africa, Habib Miller, in a statement said the victim was murdered in cold blood over his accent, which the mobsters supposedly found offensive.

He said: The mob descended on him like a common criminal with all sorts of dangerous weapons in the presence of South African Police officers. Eye-witnesses said the victim beckoned for help from the Police, but they turned a blind eye. When Nwaogu could no longer persevere, he ran for safety. The mob chased and caught him, poured petrol on him and set him ablaze.

He said the mob left Nwaogu when they thought he was dead.

The spokesman said shortly after the mob left Nwaogu, some passers-by called emergency personnel, who took his charred body to the hospital. The eye-witnesses, feeling that the victim was still alive called for help. Unfortunately, Nwaogu could not survive the ordeal and died at Job Shimankane Hospital in Rustenburg, he added. Miller added that 14 Nigerians, who protested the killing of a fellow citizen in that countrys North-West Province in February are still in detention.

He said the Police officers murdered the Nigerian in cold blood on December 17, 2017, after failing to extort money from the victim.

Miller said that the Police officers had since been released on bail while those who protested the killing are still languishing in detention.

Meanwhile, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Mrs. Abike DabiriErewa has described the latest killing as unfortunate.

Dabiri-Erewa called on the South African authorities to find a lasting solution to the incessant killing of Nigerians.

She said: No fewer than 14 Nigerians, who protested the killing of a fellow citizen in that countrys North-West Province some months ago are still in detention. Though a bailable offence, the judge has been threatened not to release them.

If they are released and returned to the community, all houses of Nigerians living there will be burnt down. There was so much tension that even the Nigerian lawyers representing Nigerians had to be escorted to court by Diplomatic Police.

The community has vowed to deal with anyone who plays a positive role in getting the accused Nigerians return to Rustenburg. The latest incident is apparently a reaction to their threat of dealing with any Nigerian that they find in their community.

Speaking on the incident, Consul-General to Nigerian Mission in South Africa, said: The incident is unfortunate. The group of Nigerians who were reacting to the incident who marched to the Police station were arrested and some of them were arrested after they had left police station and thirteen of them were arrested and charged to court for public disturbance. We went to court over the case three times and it is coming up again this week, so the town has been tense over this matter.

The erroneous belief is that all Nigerians are involved in drugs; unfortunately this particular guy that was attacked was not involved in drugs; he had his genuine business. They went to his shop on that fateful day, told him to bring the drug he was keeping. The guy said there was no drug in his shop, that he was a genuine businessman but they ignored him. They attacked him, beat him to a coma and set him ablaze but was taken to the hospital where he died later.

So it was going to generate a lot of issues with Nigerians, so the mission intervened, particularly the High Commission, because each district is under the supervision of the High Commission in Pretoria, so the High Commissioner has been on top of the situation. He has spoken with the Nigerian community, sent officers to calm down the situation. Tomorrow morning, we are meeting on the matter. In fact, he has written a letter of protest to the South African authorities and waiting for their reaction.

The two misions are on the same page on the issue.

South Africa as we know is a very volatile country. We need to be very careful in the way we behave , so that we will be able to avoid this type of violence. It is not an easy thing to control but we are hoping that with a new government in place, it will take appropriate measures and meet with the relevant authorities to address this issue.

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Home | News | General | 2019 Senate : Uduaghan most suitable person for the job now  Ijaw group

By Adekunle Aliyu

More and more support is coming the way of Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan, the immediate past governor of Delta State who is gearing up to represent Delta South Senatorial District in the upper legislative chamber of the National Assembly. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan

A group, Ijaw Liberation Movement (ILM) in Ijaw land, one of the three major ethnic groups in Delta South Senatorial District where Senator James Manager, the incumbent senator representing the district, comes from has thrown its full weight behind Dr. Uduaghan.

In an interview recently, the leader of the group, Mr. Peremotebi Simeon expressed his kinsmens desire to have Dr. Uduaghan represent them this time around.

The leader, who said they were excited having their son Senator James Manager serve out four tenures of 16 years in the senate, however said it was a bittersweet feeling because Ijaw was not the only ethnic group in Delta South.

According to him, The only dynamic thing is change; where there is no change, the people are not happy. There is no doubt in our minds that it is the turn of another section to represent us. That is fair game.

I am not saying our brother did not do well, or is not doing well, but I believe a fresh candidate will bring something fresh to the table for our own benefit.

We had followed Dr. Uduaghans painstaking effort to develop our area, nay the whole state, while he was governor of Delta State. We are also aware that he stepped down for our son to continue a few years ago, so he is the most suitable person for the job now.

Above all, we the Ijaws benefitted so much from his government. He did so much to make life comfortable for us through his development plans then. Now its payback time as one good turn deserves another.

The leader said they were not in the know of any candidate developing interest in the position at the moment aside from the former governor.

Uduaghan is the only person seeking for the office who has ever told us why he is going there. The reasons are quite important to the Ijaw people and we shall put him there. We shall hold him accountable thereafter.

From all indications, Dr. Uduaghan seems to be having a smooth sail to the senate. His legacies while ruling as governor of Delta State is paving way for him to continue serving his people as a senator. The Itsekiri-born medical doctor who is yet to declare his intention to contest for the senate seat, has however hinted of his desire to grab the position. Many youths in Delta South, elders as well as the entire Niger Delta believe he has something to offer to the region.

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Learn the lesson

Govt must be serious about building an international airport in Nijgadh
Home | News | General | APC group gives Okorocha 21-day ultimatum to end support for son-in-law

OWERRITHE All Progressives Congress, APC, Restoration Coalition in Imo State, yesterday, gave Governor Rochas Okorocha, a 21-day ultimatum, to discontinue his support for his son-in-law, Mr. Uche Nwosu, to be the next governor of the state.

Okorocha

The group spoke through its leader, Mr Theodore Ekechi, after a meeting in Ehime Mbano Local Government Area of the state.

The group also threatened to begin a recall process of the Imo lawmakers who endorsed Nwosu.

This was as Governor Rochas Okorochas Chief Press Secretary, Mr Sam Onwuemeodo said there is no coalition in Imo APC. He also said none of the contenders for the APC ticket and aspirants from other parties can defeat Nwosu in 2019.

APC Restoration Coalition leader, Ekechi, who is the former Commissioner for Information under Okorocha, said: We call on Governor Rochas Okorocha to withdraw, stop, as well as redress all manner of blackmail, muzzling, intimidation, harassments and threats to life currently being used on our members and other dissenting persons and groups in various forms and capacities.

He should also rescind his desperate sponsorship of his son-in-law as governorship aspirant, a project which in our modest estimation has gulped billions of naira.

If the governor and his agents fail to heed our ultimatum, we shall take him up on accountability challenge and that includes : to henceforth inscribe the governors name, image and entire identity in our well-meaning fight to stop Nwosus 2019 governorship ambition; to take all legal means to demand account for the finances of the state namely: monthly allocations for seven years; LGA allocations for seven years; ISOPADEC 13 per cent derivation funds for seven years; 2015 bailout funds and Paris Club refunds (twice).

We shall start a recall process of some Imo State House of Assembly members, including the Speaker who without consultations with their constituencies, went against the wishes of their constituents to join the shameless leprous endorsements saga.

Finally, we are calling on the state security agents notably the police, DSS as well as human rights groups, to be at alert as the harassment of our members means that our blood is on Governor Okorochas hand!

However, in his reaction, Okorochas spokesman, Onwuemeodo said: There is nothing like coalition in Imo APC. There is only one APC in the state with Governor Rochas Okorocha as the leader.

This so-called coalition people in APC were not there when Governor Okorocha became part of the merger that gave birth to APC and delivered the state to the party. These are food is ready politicians.

None of them won his booth in the last elections. They are at best, attention-seeking, little-minded politicians paid to disturb the peace of APC in the state.

And for their information, Uche Nwosu will win the ticket of the party and win the election proper in 2019.

If the coalition has the capacity, let them file behind a candidate and lets see how far they can go. Why are they bothered about Uche Nwosus aspiration?

Their problem is that, of all the aspirants in APC and other parties in the state, none can defeat Uche Nwosu. That is their headache.

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Home | News | General | Army troops arrest suspected kidnappers in Kaduna

* Restores peace in Otukpo

By Joseph Erunke

ABUJA-THE Nigerian Army has said its troops of Mobile Strike Team II in Kaduna, yesterday, arrested two notorious kidnappers terrorising people in the state.

Army deploys troops to Benue, 5 other states

This was even as it said its troops of 72 Special Force Battalion have restored peace in Otukpo, Benue State following an altercations that ensued after suspected cultists invaded a political meeting and opened fire on the gathering.

The Director of Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Texas Chukwu, in a statement Sunday night, said the troops while on patrol around Rijana apprehended two suspected kidnappers.

According to him, the suspects were still in the custody of the Nigerian Army while investigation was ongoing.

Chukwu said the troops of the 72 Special Force Battalion have restored peace in Otukpo, Benue State following an altercations that ensued after suspected cultists invaded a political meeting and opened fire.

The statement read further: Members of the All Progressive Congress were holding a meeting in a hotel along Old Otukpo road when the armed men reportedly stormed the venue and started shooting sporadically. Two persons were killed and another was wounded.

Troops have dominated the general area with patrol to avert any breakdown of law and order.

In similar circumstances, the Nigerian Army spokesman, also said troops of 101 Special Force Battalion on clearance operation in Taraba State have continued to patrol Suntai and environs to deny armed bandits any freedom of action.

The Nigerian Army continue to appeal to members of the public to report any suspicious persons or movement to the nearest security forces for prompt action, the statement added.

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Home | News | General | Apapa traffic gridlock: FG, truck owners on firing line

By Godfrey Bivbere and Ebun Sessou

THE worsening traffic situation in Apapa was brought to the front burner by a foreigner, Mr. Kazuma Anatolia, who claims to have been a resident in Apapa for over 30 years. He told Governor Akinwunmi Ambode during his recent visit to the area that Apapa is sick and need a doctor to fix it, from both the Federal and state governments.

GRIDLOCKThe traffic gridlock at the Mile 2 end of Apapa-Oshodi Expressway, Lagos ,yesterday. Photo: Joe Akintola, Photo Editor.

According to him, due to the current situation in Apapa, over 12,000 jobs had been lost, while over 2,000 houses are vacant as owners have abandoned their properties.

But the blame game over who takes responsibility for the prevailing traffic lockdown in Apapa seem to have intensified as the situation gets out of hand by the day. Efforts by both the Federal and Lagos State governments to address the traffic situation have so far yielded no significant or far-reaching result.

Temporary relief

As the blame game rages over the deteriorating situation, the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers Council, NSC, Mr Hassan Bello, who spoke with Vanguard, has pointed accusing fingers at truck drivers who he said have no business coming to park along the road and congesting the area, before proceeding to the port. Bello explained that a study carried out recently showed that the ports are only supposed to accommodate about 2,000 trucks, but that presently about 5,000 of trucks come to the port daily.

He stressed that there is need to regulate the activities of truckers to ensure that only those that need to go to the port do so. One of the ways of achieving this is to ask truckers to form bigger units rather than the present one-man-one-truck system.

But for former Chairman of the Council for Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria, CRFFN, Alhaji Olarenwaju Hakeem, road reconstruction and activities of truck drivers alone are not responsible for the gridlock. According to him: Ive been in this environment for a very long time. I schooled in Apapa. Ive been living in Apapa for many years.

When you look at the structure of the port, no matter how the road is constructed today, it will not ease congestion; it will only reduce it to 20 percent. Go and write it down. We are still coming back there. Based on the way the port is designed, together with the road there, it is not meant for all these fuel tankers.

We should be talking about the railway. We have Dangote cement factory packaging cement inside there. The trucks are moving. That is additional to what is on the existence on that road. Number two, the way the Flour Mill was designed was not to bring trucks there. They are to use trains. That is why we have those warehouses in Iddo, Oyingbo and towards Yaba.

The trains those days were to move imports to Iddo; and that is why we find lorries there. So, when you move your containers there, the one going to Onitsha, Maiduguri offload from there and return the empty containers back to the port. Then you will only see trucks going to industrial areas, either Agbara or Ikeja. That is why you dont see traffic jams in those days. But now the railway has collapsed, everybody comes to the road.

Return of empty containers

That is why we started having congestion. Then the tank farms came from nowhere. Before then they were producing cement there in those days. They usually come to take cement in batches. I remember the Flour Mill, even when the congestion was trying to build up; Flour Mill quickly arrested the situation by loading in the night.

Their trucks would come in the night around 10; before 4am they have distributed what they needed to deliver for that day. So you wont know what has happened. But now, that programme is not working.

The congestion started from there. Then Dangote Cement wanted to do its own with other companies that are springing up. Nobody thought about the waterways; today nobody is thinking about the movement by barges. When you go to Port Harcourt, go to Onne, 50 percent of what is coming to Onne moves by barges to various locations.

When you see trucks moving from Onne, they are the ones going to known riverine areas and even Aba and other traders zones. But all the oil services companies go by badges. So if the government wants to do something now, it must quickly work on the railway.

That is the solution. The road is not our solution. If they like they should repair the road. I give it another two, three years it will depreciate again. It will only reduce gridlock by 20 percent because what is coming in here is much. Even all these tank farms, they should do something about them.

They can create their own road. Im praying Dangote refinery starts soon. Thats another solution that can reduce the congestion here, he concluded.

Tank farms should be relocated  Jimoh

The Deputy Majority Leader in the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mr. Olumuyiwa Jimoh, while speaking with Vanguard, did not sound optimistic about an early end to the lingering problem. According to him: Unfortunately, all the solutions that have been proffered in terms of traffic in Apapa may not yield result. The first thing is that when the former President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo did the concession of the Port to AP Muller, especially the Lilly-pond container terminal, nobody thought it was a wrong concept.

Lillypond as a terminal within Apapa geographical area contains more than 10,000 containers. How can such terminal be given to a German firm which cannot operate it, thereby depriving others from using that facility?

And when tank farms were being located in Apapa, the rail was still functioning and there were less tankers; a train can move more than 500 tankers in one day.

Problem debated in the House

Continuing, he said: The value of properties is dropping in Apapa. I am a representative of the people, but I am incapacitated as one individual; I cannot help the situation. We have brought it on the floor of the House and it has been debated severally. This is not the first time. It was debated during the 7th Assembly too. The National Assembly also debated it.

Decentralising the port

The Federal Government is just doing the palliative measure; this will not reduce vehicular movement on that axis. Therefore, the best option is a radical step which is to decentralise the port and reduce the number of tank farms in Apapa.

Traffic law on movement of trucks and tankers at night

On the traffic law enacted to restrict the movement of trucks and tankers at night, the lawmaker said it could not function because the Federal Government created the impression that the designated axes are Federal Government roads.

The railway option revisited

As a possible long term solution to the problem, Jimoh is considering proposing multiple options, including a resuscitation of the railway system. According to him: The railway systems need to be resuscitated. The road construction is also a problem. Tank farms in that axis need to be relocated because they are too much.

I think, it is necessary for tank farms in Apapa to be relocated so as to reduce the number of articulated vehicles that are plying that road.

There are about three ports in that axis: the Tincan Island port, the Apapa port and the Kirikiri ports, among others. In Port Harcourt, there is only one port is the entire state. But, in Lagos the greatest number of ports in Nigeria, if not West Africa, is concentrated in Apapa. So, there is need for decentralisation of either the ports or the tank farms should be relocated. Although, it might be costly but there must be a solution. Another alternative is that some vessels should be diverted to either Ibeju Lekki or Epe.

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Home | News | General | Egyptian diplomat appeals to Nigeria over African Free Trade Treaty

By Josephine Agbonkhese, reporting from Cairo, Egypt

Former Assistant Secretary-General, Organisation of Africa Union, OAU, and Secretary-General, Africa Society, Ambassador Ahmed Haggag, has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently reconsider, favourably, the African Continental Free Trade Area Treaty.

Similarly, Head, Egyptian Council and Supreme Court of Media Regulations, Makram Ahmed, has emphasised the commitment of the Republic of Egypt towards correcting the negative image of the African continent before the world, particularly via the training and reorientation of young African journalists.

They spoke to Vanguard in separate interviews at the opening ceremony of the 51st Training Course for Young African Journalists, put together by the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and African Union of Journalists, AUJ, a three-week event ongoing in Cairo, Egypt, with over 22 journalists from different African countries participating.

Haggag, speaking on behalf of AUJ Secretary-General, Mahfouz El Ansary, urged Buhari to urgently prevail on all sectors of the Nigerian economy to consent to the treaty, saying the nation has a lot to benefit from it.

He said: Nigeria is a big country and in fact, the richest on the African continent. We cannot conceive a treaty for free trade zone in Africa without Nigeria. Between Europe and Nigeria, there are free trades, how come among African countries we do not have free trade? Nigeria stands to gain a lot from this.

Meanwhile, National Secretary, Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Shuaibu Leman, urged journalists participating in the training to maximise the opportunity, saying: The training borders on issues of development in Africa; from the issue of African commercial free zone to cultural diversification, rotation of political power, political and security challenges, empowerment of women in Africa, yellow press, and education in Africa, among others.

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A Nigerian has been burnt alive by a mob, while the Police looked on, in the latest xenophobic attack in South Africa, just as 14 Nigerians, who protested the killing of a fellow citizen in that countrys North West Province in February are still in detention.

The incident happened on Sunday. This came as the Federal Government, yesterday,described the development as unfortunate and called on the South African authorities to find a lasting solution to the incessant killing of Nigerians in that country.

The Nigerian, Clement Nwaogu, who was burnt alive by a mob, according to the Nigerian Community in South Africa, said the victim, from Njikoka in Anambra State, was attacked and killed by a mob in Rustenburg, North-West Province.

Secretary of the Nigerian Union in South Africa, Habib Miller, in a statement said the victim was murdered in cold blood over his accent, which the mobsters supposedly found offensive.

He said: The mob descended on him like a common criminal with all sorts of dangerous weapons in the presence of South African Police officers. Eye-witnesses said the victim beckoned for help from the Police, but they turned a blind eye. When Nwaogu could no longer persevere, he ran for safety.

The mob chased and caught him, poured petrol on him and set him ablaze. He said the mob left Nwaogu when they thought he was dead. The spokesman said shortly after the mob left Nwaogu, some passers-by called emergency personnel, who took his charred body to the hospital. The eye-witnesses, feeling that the victim was still alive called for help. Unfortunately, Nwaogu could not survive the ordeal and died at Job Shimankane Hospital in Rustenburg, he added.

Miller added that 14 Nigerians, who protested the killing of a fellow citizen in that countrys North-West Province in February are still in detention. He said the Police officers murdered the Nigerian in cold blood on December 17, 2017, after failing to extort money from the victim. Miller said that the Police officers had since been released on bail while those who protested the killing are still languishing in detention.

Meanwhile, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Mrs. Abike DabiriErewa has described the latest killing as unfortunate. Dabiri-Erewa called on the South African authorities to find a lasting solution to the incessant killing of Nigerians. She said: No fewer than 14 Nigerians, who protested the killing of a fellow citizen in that countrys North-West Province some months ago are still in detention. Though a bailable offence, the judge has been threatened not to release them.

If they are released and returned to the community, all houses of Nigerians living there will be burnt down. There was so much tension that even the Nigerian lawyers representing Nigerians had to be escorted to court by Diplomatic Police.

The community has vowed to deal with anyone who plays a positive role in getting the accused Nigerians return to Rustenburg. The latest incident is apparently a reaction to their threat of dealing with any Nigerian that they find in their community. Speaking on the incident, Consul-General to Nigerian Mission in South Africa, said: The incident is unfortunate. The group of Nigerians who were reacting to the incident who marched to the Police station were arrested and some of them were arrested after they had left police station and thirteen of them were arrested and charged to court for public disturbance. We went to court over the case three times and it is coming up again this week, so the town has been tense over this matter.

The erroneous belief is that all Nigerians are involved in drugs; unfortunately this particular guy that was attacked was not involved in drugs; he had his genuine business. They went to his shop on that fateful day, told him to bring the drug he was keeping.

The guy said there was no drug in his shop, that he was a genuine businessman but they ignored him. They attacked him, beat him to a coma and set him ablaze but was taken to the hospital where he died later. So it was going to generate a lot of issues with Nigerians, so the mission intervened, particularly the High Commission, because each district is under the supervision of the High Commission in Pretoria, so the High Commissioner has been on top of the situation. He has spoken with the Nigerian community, sent officers to calm down the situation. Tomorrow morning, we are meeting on the matter.

In fact, he has written a letter of protest to the South African authorities and waiting for their reaction. The two misions are on the same page on the issue.

South Africa as we know is a very volatile country. We need to be very careful in the way we behave , so that we will be able to avoid this type of violence. It is not an easy thing to control but we are hoping that with a new government in place, it will take appropriate measures and meet with the relevant authorities to address this issue.
Following a threat to ban Nigerian pilgrims from performing this years Hajj over Lassa fever epidemic, the Federal Government has summoned Commissioners for health to a session with top officials of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON).

The meeting will be chaired by Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Boss Mustapha.

The Saudi Arabian government has given Nigeria about 95,000 pilgrims slots for 2018 made up of 80,000 regular pilgrims and 15,000 by tour operators.

But the government was jolted yesterday by alleged threats by Saudi Arabia to impose a ban on Nigerrian pilgrims over Lassa fever outbreak.

A source, who spoke in confidence, said: I think Saudi Arabia has been a bit worried about the outbreak of Lassa Fever in some states in the country. Its concern was suspected that it might lead to a ban of Nigerian pilgrims from this years Hajj.

Although no official diplomatic communication has been relayed to the Federal Government but Saudi Arabia has informally said it was bothered about the Lassa fever epidemic.

To ally the fears of Saudi Arabia, the Federal Government has invited all the commissioners for health and NAHCON officials for a meeting in Abuja today.

The session will take stock of the extent of the spread of the Lassa Fever and what has been done to curb it.

The collation of the facts and figures at the meeting will enable Nigeria to relate with Saudi Arabia with verifiable evidence.

A government official said: We have not received a formal complaint from Saudi Arabia but the government is taking preemptive measures to make sure that the pilgrimage is not hampered.

We are doing this to support NAHCON which is noted for placing premium to health safety. If you look at NAHCON service so far, it has performed creditably with emphasis on the health of pilgrims through adequate immunization. The present leadership of NAHCON is the best the nation has ever had with its scientific operation and premium on healthcare for pilgrims.
Home | News | General | Traders threaten NDDC over continued closure of Bomadi ultra-modern market project

By Chancel Sunday

BOMADITRADERS at the Bomadi-Overside Market in Bomadi Local Government Area of Delta State have threatened to embark on protest to the Niger- Delta Development Commission, NDDC, office in Port Harcourt, Rivers State over the continued failure of the commission to inaugurate the ultra-modern motor park/market project in the community, two years after its completion.

*Traders doing business in front of the completed project that is under lock and key

The traders weekend at Bomadi, headquarters of the council, issued a two-week ultimatum to the commission, to as a matter of urgency open the facility for use, failure of which they would carry out their threat.

Traders frustration

Led by Mrs Bridget Kosin, the aggrieved traders noted that the planned protest march to NDDC office in Port-Harcourt is not only to highlight their sufferings but also compel the commission to explain the reason for its refusal to inaugurate the facility.

Wasting Asset

We are prepared to charter buses to go to the NDDC office in Port Harcourt for a protest, in order for them to explain to us why they have refused to commission the market for our use.

The long delay in opening the market has impacted negatively on our businesses. All our efforts over the years to open this place for business activities had been fruitless. So, we have decided to embark on a protest to know why the market has remained locked till date and why NDDC refused to commission it for us since its completion two years ago, she said.

Time to act

The Bomadi town executive, speaking through the vice- chairman of the community, Mr Senator Ebikeme, backed the market traders decision, saying that it had become necessary for beneficiaries of the project to take action.

We have made all kinds of efforts to make sure this park is open for business activities but to no avail. This time around, we have taken a decision: the market women, the youths and the community have decided to proceed to NDDC office in Port Harcourt to protest.

We want to know why this beautifully completed project is locked and dormant for over two years without commissioning. We are going for a major protest after two weeks of this publication. We need this place because it is our business hub.

Community seeks Reps intervention

We know that our representative, Hon. Nicholas Mutu, is the House Committee chairman on NDDC in the House of Representatives. I know he is a very nice man, but I want to know if he is not aware of our predicament in this issue.

He has been coming home often and I think he has been seeing this completed project under key and lock.

Let him use his good offices to solve this situation. We are appealing to him that his constituents are suffering, market traders are suffering and he should intervene to do the needful to get us out of this ugly situation, he said.

NDDC should stand on side of progressBishop

However, the Bishop of Bomadi Diocese of the Catholic Church, Most Rev. Hyacinth Egbebo, MSP, has urged the commission to be on the side of progress.

He said: I would like to advise very strongly that the NDDC should be on the side of progress. Leaving a facility of this kind unused wouldnt be the initiative of government. The project has been done and the people are ready to use it.

Unless they come clean with explanations that will justify this delay, it is casting a cloud over their integrity as a government agency.

Im advising strongly that they dont justify peoples speculations that are not really awesome. I stay in this place and this project is beneficial to all of us.

NDDC should be up and doing and make sure they are on the side of progress. Trading on roadsides and on the bridge is dangerous for our women. We want economic activities to boom here, NDDC should do what is right for the people.

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Home | News | General | Creativity and Innovation Day: CSOs urge FG to appreciate youths resilience

By Gabriel Ewepu

ABUJA- AS Nigeria joins rest of the world to celebrate the maiden World Creativity and Innovation Day on April 22, 2018 as approved by the United Nations, UN, Civil Society Organisations, CSOs, have urged the federal government to appreciate youths resilience in nation building.

This was the central message during the commemoration of the day on Sunday in Abuja, which was organised by The Arts and Civics Table Organisation, TACT, where the convener, Not Too Young to Run advocacy group, Mr Samson Itodo, said Nigerian youths are celebrated across the world as very hard working with entrepreneur abilities.

According to Itodo young Nigerians has been on the vanguard of economic growth and development based on their intelligence and creativity that has been built on strong determination and hard work to weather through the storms of all forms of challenges they come across.

Following the recent statement attributed to President Muhammadu Buhari over the attitude of young people in the country he (Itodo) maintained that young people were not lazy, rather creative and innovative, pledged that they will continue to be creative, because that was the true Nigerian spirit, which made them to fight the colonial masters, up against imperialism, to gain independence, and with that same energy and strength kicked out military dictators back to the barracks, eventually that strength restored democratisation and deepening of democracy.

He said: It is the World Creative and Innovation Day, Nigerian youths are celebrated across the world as very hard working with entrepreneur abilities even though the we got a political leadership that doesnt recognise the fact that youth people has what it takes to drive economic development.

And this is attributed to the comment made by the President of Nigeria that young people are lazy and this event is coming at a auspicious moment to inspire young people and give them hope even though the President said that we are lazy by demonstrating that we are indeed not lazy and that there are young people who are doing excellently well and are very hard working in different sectors of our national live be it in agriculture, technology, housing, politics, health you have got a lot of young people there who are performing very well.

He also noted that the government has not done much, but could do better by deliberately giving the desired attention and creating the enabling environment to harness the huge potential of young people to drive sustainable development that leads to wealth creation.

In her remarks, the Publicity Secretary of Society of Nigerian Artist, Dr Nwankwo Chidinma, said more need to be done to be to create political awareness and spark up interest in young people to be main players in the political space as some do not really understand their part in politics.

Speaking and explaining the essence of organizing and conveying the maiden World Creativity and Innovative Day, the co-founder, The Arts and Civics Table Organisation, TACT, Ose Anenih, said as not being an active player in any particular field, all the organization does is to create a platform where conversation can happen between citizens and government and that is what they did on marking the day.

Today is World Innovation and Creativity Day and it is the first time it is celebrated by the United Nations and personally we feel that Nigerians are the most creative and innovative people on earth so we felt that we should take the lead.

I think it juxtaposes the fact that we live in one of the most challenging environment on earth and we still manage to thrive and succeed and excel in everywhere that we find ourselves.

According to him Nigerian youth are patient and tolerant in everything, and added that in the whole sphere of creativity and innovation in agriculture, science, politics, technology, education, young people in Nigeria are excelling.

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Home | News | General | I can not be silenced, says Dino Melaye as Police, DSS lay siege to his residence

Stop senators from entering Melayes residence

By Henry Umoru

ABUJAPolice and men of Department of State Services, DSS, yesterday, laid siege to Maitama residence of the Chairman, Senate Committee on Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Senator Dino Melaye (APC, Kogi West).

Senator Dino Meleye : Policemen barricaded Senator Dino Meleyes House at Maitama

Speaking with Vanguard on telephone when the security agents surrounded his 11, Sangha Street, off Mississippi, Maitama, Senator Melaye said: The Police have surrounded my house.

Melaye had earlier tweeted about the incident, saying over 30 armed security personnel had surrounded his residence.

See photos of Protesters, Policemen at Dino Meleyes house at Maitama

On the street on which he house is situated, yesterday, there was no vehicular movement from the beginning and end of the road for all passers- by and other residents of the area as the place was condoned off, just as the mobile police men blocked both sides of the road with pick-up vans, buses and other cars.

The policemen were led to the residence by an Assistant Commissioner of Police, John, who despite pressure from journalists refused to give reasons for the action only said the instruction was from above.

Stop Senators from entering Melayes residence

They prevented Senator Melayes colleagues who trooped to the place to sympathise with him from entering into Melayes house, even when they spoke with the leader of the police team.

Senator Dino Meleye : Policemen barricaded Senator Dino Meleye House at Maitama yesterday . Photo by Gbemiga Olamikan.

Some Senators who were at the place, include Biodun Olujimi (PDP, Ekiti South), Philip Adudu (PDP, FCT), Rafiu Ibrahim (APC, Kwara South), Isa Hamman Misau (APC, Bauchi Central) and Atai Aidoko (PDP, Kogi East).

Also at the place, but not allowed to see Melaye was a former Senator, Mohammed Ohiare (Kogi Central).

The number of the police was increased to more than 10 at about 4p.m., this time, Mobile Police men who came in a police van with registration number NPF 3637 D and donated by CBN and body of Banks CEOs, inscribed on both sides of the van.

Also, protesters from Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, camp, Kuchigoro, Airport Road, Abuja, stormed Senator Melayes residence where they vowed not to allow the Police to arrest him, whom they described as their benefactor who has been assisting them.

The arrest

Melaye was earlier, yesterday, arrested by the Police at the International Wing of Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport.

Senator Dino Melaye

He was picked up at the airport on his way to Morocco for an official engagement sponsored by the Federal Government after checking in.

Melaye had written his Facebook account in the morning, saying: I have just been arrested at the International Wing of Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport on my way to Morocco for an official engagement sponsored by the Federal Government after checking in.

Meanwhile, Melaye, who was arrested by Immigration officials, escaped moves by the police to secure his arrest.

It was gathered that Melaye was picked up and detained by Immigration officials at the airport, following a directive to that effect by the Nigeria Police.

Vanguard also gathered that the Immigration officials told Melaye that the Police had written the service requesting his arrest as he was not allowed to travel out of the country since his name was on the watchlist.

Senator Dino Meleye : Policemen barricaded Senator Dino Meleyes House at Maitama

At this point, the lawmaker was said to have challenged the officials demanding to know at what point his name was published as a wanted person on INTERPOLs watchlist.

Unable to provide answers to Melayes question, the Immigration officials, nevertheless, kept Melaye in detention awaiting the arrival of the police that gave the directive for his arrest.

But in between the time of Melayes arrest and detention by Immigration officials, the attention of INTERPOLs Commissioner of Police was sought in a bid to solicit his immediate intervention, before the police chief could arrive at the international airport, a vehicle was already on standby and whisked the lawmaker away to an unknown destination, which apparently was his house where the police later surrounded.

Briefing journalists, yesterday, in front of Melayes residence, Executive Director, Citizens Advocacy for Social and Economic Rights, CASER, Frank Tiete, who condemned in very strong terms, the action of the police, said the police carried out the action without appropriate legal instrument.

[ d=0 65 f3 d7f-98b4-4fed-8f0d-14d0a56eaa6e ginger_software_uiphraseguid=a24251d5-953b-414b-8d7e-f0bfa6e46bb6 class=GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark> a hre f=// s/g s>torify.com/Adekunle2/dino-melaye-s-account-of-his-arres t- and target=_blank>View the story Dino Melayes account of his arrest and . on St orify]

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Home | News | General | Farmers/herders clashes: PDP, Adeniran, others fault Presidencys claims

By Peter Duru, Makurdi, Marie-Therese Nanlong & Dirisu Yakubu

ABUJAPolitical stakeholders led by Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday, flayed claims by the presidency that politicians were responsible for the spate of killings in the Middle-Belt region of the country.

herdsmen

The politicians who reacted to the presidency claims were of the opinion that the presidency should raise its game in order to check the killings.

An exception to the near unanimity came from former Commissioner of Police in Lagos State, Alhaji Abubakar Tsav, who agreed with the presidency in laying the blame for the killings on the door of those he described as desperate politicians.

Former Minister of Education and a chieftain of Social Democratic Party, SDP, Professor Tunde Adeniran, in condemning the presidencys claim said: The Federal Government has been shamelessly shifting blames for its failures to fulfil its number one responsibility to the people.

Any government that cannot secure citizens life and property has lost the legitimacy to govern. It should be voted out of office before more damages are done.

The PDP, which responded through its spokesman, Mr. Kola Ologbondinyan in a statement said: The allegation by the Buhari presidency that the opposition is responsible for the failure of APC-led Federal Government to stem the killings by marauders in the North Central has further confirmed that the Buhari administration is completely confused, incompetent and lacks the capacity to secure our nation.

Minority Leader of Plateau State House of Assembly, Daniel Dem, in his reaction, challenged the presidency to name those it claimed were responsible.

Alhaji Tsav, however, concurred to the claim of the presidency, saying: I will not be surprised at all because I believe that if we are all united in this country that God gave us as one, these attacks would have been brought to an end or eased.

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Man injured in Madhes movement feels betrayed

Nagina Paswan, who was injured during the Madhes movement in February, 2006, has not received any help from the government or the political parties. The 42-two-year-old father of four has been living with a bullet lodged inside his head for the last 12 years. He works as a painter in the town of Birgunj, Parsa, to support his family.
Home | News | General | ANTI-GRAFT WAR: We dont torture suspects, EFCC tells Court

By Onozure Dania

LagosAn Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, operative, Usman Zakari, yesterday, told the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos that the commission does not torture suspects.

EFCC operatives

He was testifying in a trial within a trial to determine if statements made by former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Ms. Jumoke Akinjide and her co-accused were voluntary.

Akinjide disowned five extrajudicial statements which she allegedly made at the EFCC.

The other defendants  a former Senator representing Oyo Central Senatorial District Ayo Adeseun, and a Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, leader in Oyo State Chief Olarenwaju Otiti, also claimed they did not make their statements voluntarily.

Akinjides lawyer Mr. Olusegun Williams opposed moves by EFCCs counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo to tender the statements in evidence on the basis that they were obtained under duress.

Led in evidence by prosecuting counsel, Nnaemeka Omenwa, who stood in for Oyedepo, Zakari, who heads the commissions Special Task Force 4, said the defendants were not forced to make a statement.

He said when Adeseun reported at the commission on May 11, 2016, he agreed to make a statement only in his lawyers presence.

Zakari said: We had to wait for his lawyer to come before he made statements. The following day, the second defendant made a statement voluntarily in the presence of his lawyer.

The witness said Adeseun was granted bail but could not fulfill the conditions, following which EFCC obtained a remand order from a Magistrates Court.

At the expiration of the remand warrant, he was released to his nephew, a pharmacist who bore the same surname.

Zakari said Otiti reported at EFCC on December 1, 2016, during which she was interviewed and cautioned.

After the interview, she volunteered her statement in the presence of her friend. She was granted bail on self-cognisance. She asked to be allowed to go home so she could come up with a list of people she disbursed part of the N650million to. She was not detained.

In her next reporting date, she came with a list of beneficiaries to whom she disbursed over N90million. The second and third defendants statements were devoid of any promise, threat or duress.

The statements were made in the Conference room. Its a big hall, not a torture chamber. We dont torture, we dont threaten. We investigate economic and financial crimes, not violent crimes, he said.

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Home | News | General | FGs list of looters, laughable  Methodist Church

By Anayo Okoli & Eric Ugbor

UMUAHIATHE Methodist Church of Nigeria has described as laughable, the list of looters recently released by the Federal Government, saying that the list portrays the commitment of the present administrations fight against corruption as a mirage.

Looters

This was contained in a communique of the 57th Annual Diocesan Synod of the Diocese of Umuahia (AKA Living Spring) presided over by the Archbishop of Umuahia Archdiocese and the Bishop of Umuahia Diocese, His Grace Most Rev. Dr. Chibuzo Raphael Opoko with the theme Strive for Peace and Holiness (Heb. 12:14).

The communique read: The synod commended the president and commander -in- chief of the Armed Forces, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari on his commitment to zero corruption in Nigeria and wondered if there are no sacred cows. The Synod notes that the recent list of corrupt officials by the Minister of Information is laughable and portrays the governments commitment as a mirage.

The Synod therefore advised that there should not be any sacred cows, as many in both political parties could be culpable.

War against corruption therefore should be total and comprehensive, the church stated.

The church decried the insecurity existing in the country today saying Day after day, week after week, month after month, many citizens of Nigeria are killed, slaughtered, maimed and their property destroyed by Boko Haram and herdsmen.

The Church frowned at the lack of synergy in the response to the security situation by the Inspector General of Police and the Minister of Defence who gave varying accounts for the cause of the fracas between Herdsmen and the communities. The Synod stated that it was indeed insensitive on the part of the Chief Security Officers.

Furthermore, the Church called on the Federal Government to fish out the militia men and women who carry AK47 and other sophisticated weapons and masquerade as Fulani Herdsmen without further delay in order to halt decisively the wanton destruction of lives and property by these evil and heartless men.

The Church noted with delight some developmental efforts of the government of Abia State on the areas of security of lives and property, infrastructural development especially in Aba and the promotion of made-in-Aba products. The synod commended and encouraged the government to do more. The Synod also noted the initiative of the Governor of Abia State in sending some young people to China to learn new skills, competence and knowledge in the leather works and commended him for this technological transfer.

The Church however called on the Abia State government to intensify effort in payment of salaries and pension of workers and retirees respectively in order to improve the living standard of the people.

Reflecting on the theme of the Synod, the Church enjoined all and sundry in the society to pursue peace primarily in our own homes as every society is the reflection of the families that comprise it. Achieving peace would require some deliberate and conscious effort hence the wordStrive in the theme. Therefore, we must intentionally do things that promote peace when and where there is peace, progress and prosperity abound.

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Home | News | General | Withdrawal of $496m tucano aircraft : Outraged senators head for showdown with Buhari

By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor, Henry Umoru & Dirisu Yakubu

ABUJASenators are headed for a stormy session today, outraged, over the anticipatory approval and payment of $496 million to the United States Government by President Muhammadu Buhari for the purchase of 12 A29 Super Tucano aircraft.

Super Tucano

The approval for the payment was made without appropriation by the National Assembly, and in direct conflict with the provisions of the constitution, National Assembly members fumed, yesterday.

Todays stormy session is expected to be further aggravated by plans to use the newly amended Legislative Houses and Privileges Act to clamp an indefinite suspension on Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, APC, Delta Central over his alleged role in the invasion of the chambers by thugs, last Wednesday. The amended act signed into law by President Buhari last January, among others, gives the Senate the powers to ban until the end of the session.

Meanwhile, the Senate leadership, last night, met on how to direct todays proceedings with heightened feelings by the legislators on alleged encroachment of their power over the purse.

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has called on National Assembly members to immediately commence constitutional processes against President Buhari for allegedly violating his oath of office by the withdrawals.

The senators, Vanguard learned yesterday, are angry over the withdrawal of the funds which they alleged was a continuation of the seeming disregard of the role of the National Assembly in the nations democracy.

You can see he even stated it on paper that he did what he is not supposed to do, a source privy to the development in the Senate said, yesterday.

A senator who spoke to Vanguard on the issue, yesterday, said the report of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, which investigated the issue, is expected to be tabled today. The Senate source said the showdown and debate on the issue might be shifted to tomorrow after consideration of the presidents letter in which he acknowledged making the anticipatory approval.

Buahris letter to NASS

In the letter to the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, President Buhari had said: In the expectation that the National Assembly would have no objection to the purchase of this highly specialised aircraft, which is critical to national security, I granted anticipatory approval for the release of US$496,374,470.00. This was paid directly to the treasury of the United States Government.

I am therefore writing, seeking approval of this House for the sum of US$496,374,470.00 (equivalent to N151,394,421,335.00) to be included in the 2018 Appropriation Bill, which the National Assembly is currently finalising. The balance of the requirements for critical operational equipment is still being collated from the different security services and will be presented in the form of a Supplementary Appropriation Bill, in due course.

A Senator, who spoke with Vanguard said: Yes, the issues will come and as expected, there will be sharp division among us, but at the end of the day, there will certainly be a common ground for all of us.

Besides the issue of the anticipatory approval, another issue to surface tomorrow is the matter of Senator Omo-Agege. Vanguard gathered of a plan by some senators to ensure that Omo-Agege was permanently locked out of the 8th Senate. This will likely be resisted by his collaborators in the Buhari Parliamentary Support Group.

However, his antagonists in the Senate Vanguard learned, last night, have fetched the Legislative Houses (Powers and Privileges) Act as their weapon to put him out of the Senate..Though the law gives the Senate the right to suspend an errant member up to the end of a legislative session, Vanguard gathered that the angst against the Delta senator was fuelling momentum to put the suspension till the end of the life of the 8th Senate.

You can be assured of it that he will not enter the Senate again till 2019, one source close to the Senate leadership said at the weekend.

On Omo-Agege

Vanguard gathered, yesterday, that the major instrument to be used in dealing with Omo-Agege would be the Legislative Houses (Powers and Privileges) Act of 1957, as amended and signed into law by President Buhari in January 2018.

Section 20 of the act relating to acceptance of bribes by members, reads: Any member of a Legislative House who accepts or agrees to accept or obtains or attempts to obtain for himself or for any other person any bribe, fee, compensation, reward or benefit of any kind for speaking, voting or acting as such member or for refraining from spoken, voted or acted or having so refrained shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine of four hundred naira (N400) or to imprisonment for two years or both such fine and imprisonment.

Section 21 pertaining to Contempt of a Legislative House by members reads: Any member of a Legislative House who  being a member of a committee in the House, publishes to any person not being a member of such committee any evidence taken by the committee before it has been reported to the House; or assaults or obstructs a member of the Legislative House within the Chamber or precinct of the House; or is convicted of any offence under the Act, shall be guilty of contempt of the Legislative House.

Where any member is guilty of contempt of a Legislative House, the House, may by resolution, reprimand such member or suspend him from the service of the House for such period as it may determine: Provided that such period shall not extend beyond the last day of the meeting next following that in which the resolution is passed, or of the session in which the resolution was passed, whichever shall occur.

No salary or allowance payable to a member of a Legislative House for his service as such shall be paid in respect of any period during which he is suspended from the service of the House under the provisions of this section.

Nothing in this section contained shall be construed to preclude the bringing of the proceedings, civil or criminal, against any member in respect of any act or thing done contrary to paragraphs (b) or (c) of subsection (1) of this section.

The Legislative Houses Act section 22 relating to a suspended member excluded from the chamber and precincts, reads: A member of a Legislative House who has been suspended from the services of that House shall not enter or remain within the Chamber or precincts of the House while such suspension remains in force, and, if any such member is found within the Chamber or precincts of the House in contravention of this section, he may be forcibly removed there-from by any officer of the House and no proceedings shall lie in any court against such officer in respect of such removal.

The arrest and release of Senator Dino Melaye, APC, Kogi West is also likely to be raised on the Senate floor today in a sitting that is likely to see senators vent anger at the executive arm of government.

PDP seeks sanction against Buhari

Meanwhile, the PDP yesterday, flayed the president for the anticipatory approval and expenditure of $496 million. The party through its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan in a statement said the lack of legislative approval rendered the spending of the money illegal and unconstitutional.

We charge the National Assembly to investigate the whereabouts of the balance from the $1bn ECA fund and the purposes for which it has been taken, as well as save our democracy and constitutional order by invoking appropriate legislative processes against President Buhari for this violation before it becomes too late.

President Buhari is aware that his unilateral spending of $496 million (N151.374 billion) from the ECA, without recourse to the legislative approval of the National Assembly, is a gross violation of the laws and constitution of Nigeria and a direct affront to our statutory order as a democratic state.

By this action, President Buhari has technically suspended the 1999 Constitution (as amended), plundered the inherent powers of the National Assembly as the principal institution of democratic rule, while re-enacting a sole administratorship in governance as if our nation is operating a military regime, the party stated.

The party alleged that the approval of the huge sum of money by Buhari was a move intended to procure the support of his US counterpart, Donald Trump for his 2019 re-election bid.

More disturbing is the revelation that President Buhari paid $496 million for the purchase of military aircraft from the United States; ignoring allegations of overprice and issues concerning due process, just to achieve a political expediency of currying President Donald Trumps support for his 2019 re-election bid.

President Buharis action amounts to a gross misconduct and betrayal of public trust because, in the bid to push a personal agenda, he deliberately side-stepped statutory legislative scrutiny and acted in clear breach of section 80 (3) (4) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

While section 80 (3) states that no moneys shall be withdrawn from any public fund of the Federation, other than the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the federation unless the issues of those moneys has (sic) been authorized by an act of the National Assembly, section 80 (4) provides that 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.

It is shocking that President Buhari, whose administration prides on claims of transparency and zero tolerance for corruption, elected on a platform that lay claims to the height of progressivism (sic), who boasts of the highest standards of integrity, can mundanely resort to a violent abuse of our constitution just to suit a desperate passion of seeking re-election, the statement noted, adding that the resort to falsehood, deception, and secrecy in the withdrawal from the ECA and the reported $469 million payment for the military aircraft raises very serious issues regarding the integrity of the Buhari Presidency.

Its a constitutional aberration Ozekhome

Reacting to the development yesterday, Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, condemned the withdrawal describing it as a constitutional aberration capable of calling into question the checks and balances expected in a presidential democracy.

He said: The seal and approval of the Presidency on $1bn funds earmarked to allegedly combat insurgency without due and prior legislative authorization which cloaks the appropriation with the aura of legitimacy, constitutes a brazen demonstration of constitutional contempt and an indefensible arrogation, usurpation, and encroachment on the premier legislative function of the National Assembly.

It is a constitutional aberration; an affront on the ideals of our constitutional democracy, the values of democracy itself and the hallowed doctrine of separation of powers that characterize our constitutional philosophy, noting that appropriation by any governmental authority must comply with the blueprint set out in the relevant sections of the Constitution. Any other thing, act or omission done outside of the express contemplations of the framers of our constitution is illegal, unconstitutional and constitutes an anathema smirking of embarrassing contempt for the countrys grund-norm, he added.

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Home | News | General | Presidency reacts to killing of Nigerian in South Africa, claims policemen involved are in court

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Abike dabiri Erewa, on Monday described the killing of Clement Nwaogu, another Nigerian in Rustenburg, South Africa as unfortunate.

Mrs Dabiri-Erewa, in a statement in Abuja condemned the burning of Mr Nwaogu to death by a mob in the latest xenophobia attack in South Africa.

She called on South African authorities to find a lasting solution to the incessant killing of Nigerians in that country.

She also urged Nigerians living abroad to obey the laws of countries where they lived, and avoid crime and criminality to avoid unwarranted attacks and killings.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the killing of the Mr Nwaogu comes less than 10 days after another Nigerian, ThankGod Okoro, 30.

READ ALSO: EFCC confirms arrest of Senator Nwaoboshi

The presidential aide said Rustenburg, where the incident happened was a particularly hostile and a volatile community.

She noted that 14 Nigerians who protested the killing of a fellow citizen in that countrys North West Province some months ago were still in detention.

She said though a bailable offence, the judge had been threatened not to release them.

Just a few days ago, on April 17, the case came up in court. There was so much tension that even the Nigerian lawyers representing the Nigerians had to be escorted to court by Diplomatic police.

The community has vowed to deal with anyone who plays a positive role in getting the accused Nigerians return to Rustenberg, she said.

She said the Nigerian mission in Pretoria and the consulate in Johannesburg had done everything possible, in the recent past, to get justice for Nigerians in South Africa.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app

Four South African policemen are currently in court for allegedly killing and maltreating Nigerians with embassy officials constantly present in court for the hearings. This is the first time this will be happening.

However, the early warning signals put in place by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Interiors of both countries need to be reviewed.

NAIJ.com earlier reported that the Nigerian community in South Africa was again thrown into mourning, following the latest extra-judicial killing of a Nigerian in that country.

The killing of Mr ThankGod Okoro, 30, from Ogbaku in the Awgu local government area of Enugu state, is the latest in what has been described as recurring pre-meditated murders of young Nigerians in South Africa.

Records show that no fewer than 117 Nigerians have been killed in South Africa since February, 2016.

Nigerians protest against Xenophobia on NAIJ.com TV:

[embedded content]

Source: Naija.ng

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Home | News | General | Bola Tinubu sends congratulatory message to APC ahead of partys congress

- APC national leader, Bola Tinubu, describes Governor Abubakar Badaru of Jigawa state as a man reputed to be of high character and integrity

- He expresses the hopes that the party will conduct a hitch-free congresses

- Obasanjos CNM, APC faction, PDP to form new party

The All Progressives Congress (APC) national leader, Bola Tinubu, on Monday, April 23, congratulated his party for embarking on congresses against all odds, saying that it is the way to go in building and upholding a truly democratic political party.

Tinubu said this in a congratulatory message to the newly inaugurated APC national convention committee.

The message was released by his media officer, Tunde Rahman, in Lagos, The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

READ ALSO: Why we are laying siege in Dino Melayes house - Police gives explanation

A 68-member national convention committee headed by Governor Abubakar Badaru, was inaugurated in Abuja at the national secretariat of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

The committee was inaugurated to take charge of the conduct of the forthcoming congresses and national convention.

I congratulate the chairman and members of the congresses/convention committee of our party.

Governor Abubakar Badaru of Jigawa state, who is the chairman of the committee, is a man reputed to be of high character and integrity.

Working with other members of the committee, Im persuaded that our party would conduct hitch-free congresses at all levels and the national convention.

I also congratulate our party for embarking on the congresses against all odds. This is the way to go if we are desirous of building and upholding a truly democratic political party.

Our ultimate goal should be the greater interest of the party.

I believe that all members of our party are high in expectation that the committee would perform its assignment without fear or favour through which our party can be great again,  he said.

The APC on April 18, announced that its national convention to elect officers for a new term in the partys leadership would hold on May 14.

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According to schedule of activities released by the organising secretary, Osita Izunaso, in Abuja, the partys ward congresses will hold on May 2, while appeal that may arise from the conduct will be entertained on May 3.

The schedule showed that local government area congresses would hold on May 5, with appeal arising from the exercise fixed for May 7.

It indicated that May 9 is the date for congress at states level to elect executive committees of the party in all states in the country.

It fixed May 10 for hearing of appeal that may arise from the conduct of the state congresses.

Meanwhile, there are reports that some political parties including the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), certain leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM) formed by Olusegun Obasanjo are in talks toward forming a coalition ahead of the 2019 election.

The Tribune reports that the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and about 23 other smaller parties are also said to be part of the new coalition which could be unveiled in the next few weeks in a move designed to wrestle power from the ruling party in the next general election.

A key figure in the coalition said there are not less than eight brand new political parties taking party in the talks.

Nigerian youths reply to President Buhari over 'lazy' comment | NAIJ.com TV

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Home | News | General | Saudi Arabia moves to stop Nigerian pilgrims from attending Hajj 2018

- The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria says the federal government is taking seriously threats by Saudi authorities to block Nigerian pilgrims from attending the 2018 Hajj exercise

- A spokesperson for the commission states that there will be an expanded meeting of all officials from the 36 states and the federal government to discuss the matter

- Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says Lassa fever has killed 142 people in Nigeria since the start of 2018

The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) has disclosed that the Saudi Arabian authorities are threatening to block Nigerian pilgrims from attending the 2018 Hajj exercise.

NAHCON on Monday, April 23, said the threats by the Saudi authorities followed reports of Lassa fever outbreak in Nigeria, Premium Times stated.

However, Mousa Ubandawaki, one of the spokespersons of the Hajj commission said the Nigerian authorities are taking the threat from the Saudi Arabian authorities seriously.

READ ALSO: Why we are laying siege in Dino Melayes house - Police gives explanation

There will be an expanded meeting of all officials from the 36 states, the Commission and officials of the Federal Government to discuss the matter tomorrow, Ubandawaki said.

The NAHCON official said the meeting will hold at the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).

In a related report, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) recently stated that Lassa fever has killed 142 people in Nigeria since the start of 2018.

The agency said this on Thursday, April 5, reporting a rise of 32 fatalities in one month. It reported: Since the onset of the 2018 outbreak, there have been 142 deaths. Cases have been recorded in 20 of Nigerias 36 states."

Eight states have exited the active phase of the outbreak while 12 states remain active, it said. On March 6, the NCDC reported 110 deaths in 18 states."

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The World Health Organisation (WHO) has also stated that 1081 suspected cases and 90 deaths have been reported from 18 states namely: Anambra, Bauchi, Benue, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekite, Federal Capital Territory, Gombe, Imo, Kogi, Lagos, Nasarawa, Ondo, Osun, Plateau, Rivers, and Taraba, between January 1 through February 25 this year.

The name of the disease comes from the town of Lassa in northern Nigeria where it was first identified in 1969. The virus is spread through contact with food or household items contaminated with rats urine or faeces or after coming into direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person.

Monkeypox has no known cure, Nigerians should be careful - Doctor warns on NAIJ.com TV

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Home | News | General | EFCC detains Senator Nwaoboshi for days over alleged fraud

- The EFCC has confirmed the arrest of Senator Peter Nwaoboshi

- The anti-graft agency did not say wheter Nwaoboshi submitted itself to the agency

- The senator has reportedly been in the custody of the EFCC for days

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has confirmed that Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, representing Delta North Senatorial District, has been in its custody for days.

Premium Times reports that the EFCC spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, failed to say if Nwaoboshi submitted himself to the anti-graft agency.

The anti-graft body is also yet to give reason why the senator is being detained.

READ ALSO: Saudi authorities threaten to block Nigerian pilgrims from attending 2018 Hajj

Nwaoboshis travails with EFCC dates back to 2017 when he was accused of diverting a N1.2 billion loan from NEXIM Bank as a member of its board of directors.

The loan was granted to him by NEXIM Bank under the local industrial growth scheme in 2014.

The money meant for the purchase of equipment and electrical materials was allegedly diverted to acquire properties in Lagos by the Senator.

Earlier in 2017, a Federal High Court in Lagos had ordered the temporary forfeiture of a 12-storey building belonging to the senator over an alleged contract scam of N1.5bn.

The EFCC told the judge that Nwaoboshi, through his company, Bilderberg Enterprises Limited, got N1.580bn contract to supply some construction equipment to the Delta State Direct Labour Agency in 2010.

The EFCC, however, said Nwaoboshis company supplied used equipment to the agency while he collected money to supply new equipment, thereby short-changing the agency.

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The EFCC said Nwaoboshi later used the proceeds to bid for and purchase the 12-storey building, formerly known as Guinea House, for N805 million in the name of his company, Golden Touch Construction Project Limited.

NAIJ.com earlier reported that Nwaoboshi in 2017 raised an alarm over the activities of the EFCC.

In an interview with select journalists, the lawmaker stated that he is being hounded by the EFCC for not supporting the nomination of the anti-graft commission boss, Ibrahim Magu, and this backing of Senate president, Bukola Saraki.

The EFCC stage a walk against corruption - on NAIJ.com TV

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Home | News | General | We Can Answer The Questions You Have About Studying In The UK! Meet Sheffield Hallam Representatives In Ibadan & Lagos For Face-To-Face Conversations

Can a UK education help you get ahead in life, career and business? How do you apply for admission into a UK University? What do you need to apply for a visa to study in the UK? How much does it cost to study in the UK? Are there available scholarships? Can you work while studying? Can you stay back to work in the UK after studying?

Our office in Nigeria is dedicated to helping you, before and throughout your studies. We can offer help and guidance to answer any questions about applying to study at Sheffield Hallam University. This could be in relation to your fees, travel, visa, application or accommodation. The office arranges pre-arrival events so you feel fully prepared for your travel to the UK.

We are experienced at supporting Nigerian students to study in the UK so we can advise about the easiest way to pay deposits and tuition fees. We have seen students experience difficulties in recent intakes as a result of the lack of easy access to foreign transfer payments but it is now very straightforward so its possible to pay tuition fee deposits and tuition fees very easily.

Opeyemi Ojo, studying MSc Logistics and Supply Chain Management, said:

I was in contact with the office in Lagos regularly. I attended a pre-arrival event organised by the office at a hotel in Lagos and spoke to alumni. It was really good to know what I was getting into!

Eniola Ololade, studying MSc Information Technology Professional said:

The communication from the university was superb. The Lagos office helped me greatly. A seminar was organized a month before my departure. The seminar was full of details to aid my arrival into the UK. I also received extraordinary assistance from the office during the course of my visa application.

The office in Nigeria is here to help you. If you would like advice on the course options available or help with your application, please contact us.

We are also offering a Vice Chancellors Award (a 3,000 automatic tuition fee bursary) to Nigeria-domiciled applicants for full-time taught undergraduate or postgraduate courses starting in September 2018 and January 2019. Terms and conditions apply.

You can also meet us for an information session in Ibadan and Lagos next week!

IBADAN

Thursday, 26th April

10:00am  4:00pm

UKEAS

No 1, Shell Close, Ile Oridetu, Onireke, Ibadan

08074094970, 08074094965

Attendance is free!

LAGOS

Mondays to Fridays

8am to 5pm

Sheffield Hallam University

Nigeria Office

3rd Floor, 76 Opebi Road

Ikeja, Lagos

08074094965, 08074094970

africa@shu.ac.uk

www.shu.ac.uk/international

*Full terms and conditions apply to both Sheffield Hallam scholarships and discounts, visit www.shu.ac.uk/international/scholarships-bursaries for more details.

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Home | News | General | Peterside describes Wike as cry-baby over comments on soot, 2019 election

By Gbenga Oke

Director- General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, has described Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State as a cry-baby for accusing the Federal Government of depopula-ting the state through soot and also plotting to rig the 2019 general election in favour of All Progressives Congress, APC, in the state.

Wike and Peterside

He also asked Governor Wike to face governance rather than engaging in playing politics with everything.

Governor Wike had accused the Federal Government of using soot, currently pervading the state, to kill Rivers people and reduce its population, while also stating that APC had concluded plans to rig election in 2019.

Peterside, who spoke with reporters yesterday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, described Wike as a crying baby, who rather than face challenges confronting the state has been busy playing politics with the lives of Rivers people.

His words: The governor enjoys lying and plays politics with everything. It is laughable that the governor will accuse the FG of using soot to kill Rivers people.

Wike has not created any job, neither has he offered Rivers youth any tangible agenda to make them fulfill their aspirations. He is busy encouraging crime.

A large number of youths involved in the illegal refinery is an indication of the governors inability to engage them.

Did the Federal Government create the situation that made youths take to illegal refining?

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Home | News | General | JOHESU strike paralyses UCH

By Ola Ajayi

IBADANAS the strike embarked upon by members of the Joint Health Sector Unions, JOHESU, entered one week, the University College Hospital, UCH, Ibadan was a ghost of itself, yesterday, as patients who came for treatment lamented feeling the impact of the strike.

UCH Ibadan

JOHESU began the strike following the Federal Governments alleged failure to honour past agreement reached with the union.

Though Medical Doctors and some senior nurses were seen carrying out skeletal services, Vanguard observed that the administrative offices in the hospital were under lock.

Speaking with Vanguard, Public Relations Officer of the institution, Mr. Deji Bobade said: The strike is really taking its toll on the hospital and the management. As you can see, only the doctors are on skeletal duty because nurses, who are to assist them, are on strike. We only have some senior nurses on ground dressed in mufti to carry out some essential duties.

The laboratories are shut. Even our administrative offices are shut. I am around to do some assessment and report to the Chief Medical Director, Professor Temitope Longe, who will be going to Abuja tomorrow for a meeting on this issue.

He added that: Emergency cases brought in are attended to by treating and stabilising the patients and subsequently discharging them. They cannot be admitted. Current record today has shown that of the 1,000 bed-space available in the hospital, only 116 are being occupied. The doctors have been discharging the remaining patients on admission once their conditions are found to be stable.

Commenting on the strike, the JOHESU Chairman of the hospital, Dr. Olusegun Sotiloye, said: The level of compliance is very high. It is the same story all over the country. The Health Minister is yet to invite us to a meeting. The Chairmen of Board of Teaching Institutions and the CMDs will be meeting with the Minister in Abuja tomorrow (today). However, we learned that the Minister has sent a circular that the CMD should engage the services of local officers to replace us. If the CMD should accede to this directive, it would only worsen the situation. Any right-thinking government would not allow such to happen.

It is going to continue. There had been sensitisation programme before the strike. Despite all this, they dont care about the welfare of the patients. If they want it to continue until one year, we will go on to ensure our demands are met.

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Nepal on course to reap record cereal harvest

Nepals 2017-18 grain harvest is expected to hit a record high despite a projected fall in paddy output. According to the latest statistics of the Ministry of Agricultural Development, the countrys paddy, maize, wheat, millet, buckwheat and barley output is projected to grow 2.43 percent to 10 million tonnes this fiscal year ending mid-July.
Home | News | General | 60% of cases in Ebonyi hospitals caused by malaria  Govt

By Peter Okutu

ABAKALIKIEBONYI State government yesterday, said 60 per cent of hospital attendance in the state was caused by malaria and its negative effects on the people of the state.

File photo

The Commissioner for Health, Dr. Daniel Umezurike, who stated this in Abakaliki, while briefing newsmen on activities mapped out to mark the 2018 World Malaria Day in the state added that the dreaded disease was also responsible for morbidity in pregnant women and children less than five years old.

In Nigeria and Ebonyi, over 60 per cent of hospital attendance is caused by malaria and a major cause of morbidity in pregnant women and children less than five years, he said.

According to him, the theme of the years celebration: Ready to Beat Malaria has the key objective to increase awareness on malaria disease, encourage the use of proven intervention measures for malaria control and sensitise the government towards increased political will and support to roll back malaria interventions.

Umezurike called on pregnant women to ensure they visit health care facilities across the state as the state government through the States Ministry of Health had provided some anti-malaria drugs free of charge to the entire populace especially pregnant women and children in the State.

He said: Provision of free anti-malaria drugs like Sulphadoxine-Pyrithamine, SP for the prevention of malaria in pregnancy resulting to a coverage level of 44 per cent of pregnant women accessing SP, a second to the highest position in the South East zone in 2015.

Provision of regular government cash contribution and enabling policies and environment to attract more donor support to malaria and other health programs. Ensuring an informed budget line and release for malaria control activities of the state and LGAs estimates; creation of additional funding opportunity for malaria controls activities in the state through the saving-one-million lives program for result.

The celebration offers an opportunity for malaria-endemic and malaria-free countries to recount and learn about the devastating consequences of the disease and for new donors to join the Global partnership against malaria. Its also a chance for countries in malaria affected regions to increase awareness on the malaria disease and hence win more political will and support from Government towards the disease.

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Home | News | General | Our youths best in the world, Fayose tells Buhari

By Rotimi Ojomoyela

ADO-EKITIGOVERNOR Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State, yesterday, described Nigerian youths as the best in the world, lamenting that the underprivileged among them have had to struggle hard to make it in an environment without viable and equal opportunities.

Governor Fayose and President Buhari

This is just as the Okada riders association across the state endorsed the deputy governor of the state, Prof. Kolapo Olusola for governor ahead of the July 14 governorship election.

Fayose reacted to statements credited to President Muhammadu Buhari who said many Nigeria youths below the age of 30 are lazy and only wait for an easy way out.

He said this when the motorcycle operators (Okada riders) drawn from the 16 local government areas stormed Ado Ekiti to drum support for the governorship ambition of his deputy, Professor Kolapo Olusola.

The governor also dropped the hint that former President Goodluck Jonathan will be in Ekiti State on Wednesday (tomorrow) to commission the first flyover in the state which was constructed by his administration.

The Commercial Motorcycle Operators in Ekiti State holding a rally to support the candidature of Professor Olubunmi Olusola Eleka as the next state governor in Ado Ekiti

Fayose said: I will never ask you to do anything that is unbecoming of Nigerian youths, the country looks up to you in the coming elections. Please dont allow politicians to influence you to rig, including myself.

Run away from inducement and politicians, who would call your attention to do evil. You will be remembered for whatever you did.

When you stand here, we see the category of people here, they are mostly young people. Our President went abroad and said that Nigerian youths are lazy. By 2019, we have to vote against the President. You must vote for people, who believe in Nigerian youths, not the people who condemn and call Nigerian youths lazy.

Elections are won by youths and women in Nigeria. How can our president go out of the country and condemn our youths? They promised three million jobs every year, they did not provide one. Therefore, anybody that calls you lazy must be removed from office.

We believe in you, we will stand by you and support you. We will commission the flyover on April 25. Jonathan will come to commission the bridge. Jonathan is my own President.

Ill not ban Okada  Kolapo

In his remark, Professor Kolapo said that if elected governor of Ekiti State, I will not ban Okada from plying Ekiti roads if I become governor. Those who will chase you away from the roads must not become governor. When they were in government they messed up our economy and left a huge debt for us.

On his part, state chairman of the association, Mr Olaniyi Dahunsi who led the riders said: All the over 10,000 motorcycle riders who are mostly youths, have therefore resolved to support the deputy governor, so that he can continue where governor Fayose stopped.

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Home | News | General | LUC waiver: LASG moves against conversion of residential buildings to religious centres

By Olasunkanmi Akoni & Monsuru Olowoopejo

LagosLagos State Government yesterday warned religious organizations converting residential building to worship centres without approval to immediately stop or face appropriate sanctions.

Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode

This came as it informed that N4.5 billion was saved in the last three years following Governor Akinwunmi Ambode stoppage of thesponsorship pilgrims to Israel and Saudi Arabia.

At a ministerial briefing to mark the third year in office of Governor Ambodes administration, Commissioner for Home Affairs, Abdulhakeem Abdullateef said governments position on conversion of residential buildings to religious centres came amid insinuations that some property owners in the state have started converting their residential buildings to worship centres, to avoid paying the new Land Use Charge, LUC.

It will be recalled that buildings used as worship centres are exempted from paying LUC in the new amended law of the state.

According to Abdullateef, It is a violation of the state regulations for residential buildings to be converted into religious centres. When a building is approved for a purpose, it is an aberration for you to now convert it into something else without the approval of the Ministry of Physical Planning. As for those who are combining their residences with mosque or church, we are not going to demolish, but what we said is that all residential premises are subject to Land Use Charge and so when officials of government come, dont claim there is a mosque on the ground floor.

Do not convert your residential premises to religious premises. Many do that for the sake of being protected from paying their Land Use Charge and that will not be tolerated. Whatever we want to do, let us keep ourselves within the ambit of the law.

The commissioner recalled that his counterpart in the ministry of Physical Planning recently, met with the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) to devise new means of engaging religious leaders so that they will not unnecessarily violate the state building regulations.

He said the government, through the two ministries had commenced moves to address the conversion of residential buildings to religious centres via engagement.

Speaking, on noise pollution, he said the State Environmental Protection Agency, LASEPA, was addressing the menace, especially, through engagement with religious leaders and warned religious leaders not to make nuisance of religion.

On the N4.5 billion saved, Abdullateef said it had been diverted into construction of roads and other amenities.

He explained: You see, yearly in the past before the present administration came on board, the state government spent an average of N1.5 billion to sponsor people to pilgrimage free of charge. But since Governor Ambode decided to stop the sponsorship of pilgrimage, we have saved N4.5 billion in the last three years and the Governor has not changed his mind with regard to sponsorship of pilgrimages.

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Home | News | General | Conductor becomes talk of the town after he returned N108k to passenger who misplaced wallet (photos)

- Daniel Mwaura came across the lost items of a passenger in the Matau while on the Gachie-Nairobi road

- He reported the incident to a savings organisation office at Gachie trading centre

- After the third day, the owner visited the office to collect his property

A Nairobi conductor is the talk of town after returning a lost wallet with KSh 30,000 (N108,000) plus other personal documents to the rightful owner, ending a two-week search.

The conductor identified as Daniel Mwaura who worked in Matatu christened Fagal Maggy under Ganaki Sacco (Savings and credit cooperative organization) has wowed the online community with his deed.

This is after Mwaura's story of rare honesty in a city where such cases are unheard of, was shared online by Harrison Mungai.

A Nairobi tout is the talk of town after returning a lost wallet with KSh 30,000 plus other personal documents to the rightful owner ending a two-week search. Photo: Harrison Mungai/Facebook.

READ ALSO: Lady welcomes twin baby girls after suffering 4 miscarriages (photos)

According to Mungai, the Matatu conductor was on a normal routine on Wednesday, April 11, when he came across the lost item while enroute the Gachie-Nairobi road.

Worried the owner could be in dire need of the money, the straightforward man reported the incident to the Sacco offices at Gachie trading centre.

He then asked the Sacco linesman Joseph Muniu to direct anyone who might be looking for lost documents to him.

Mwaura had said: "If someone ask for lost money plus documents, please direct them to me."

The tout reported the incident to their Sacco offices upon which he asked the Sacco linesman to direct anyone who might be looking for lost document to him. Photo: Harrison Mungai/Facebook.

On the third day, a man who introduced himself as Stanley Kaberi went to Ganaki offices and reported about his lost documents.

He said he was from Ndumberi within Kiambu county but did not even mention anything to do with the money as he suspected it could have been taken by whoever came across the wallet.

The KSh 30,000 was meant to take care of his sick child's hospital bill. That is the time that Mwaura the conductor who found the items plus the money was connected to Stanley through phone and they correctly verified indeed that the wallet was Stanley's.

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As a token of appreciation, Stanley wanted to give Mwaura some money but he turned itdown asking him to sort out the hospital bills first.

Internet users have hailed Mwaura for his unique attribute.

Victor Kiruma: "This is marvelous, he really is a son of God.I know if He trust's in God,God will sustain him and he will never lack because of his faithfulness."

Gabu De Bilionaire: "Honesty is the most precious gift one can have."

Beth Rose Wangui: "This is not normal, the man is God fearing for sure and this is rare. Congratulations Daniel."

Rose Gitau: "This are the conductors who will not do this work forever but them that are petty and overcharge ata na ten bob will do that job till the end of time...a little honesty can unlock the windows n doors of heaven."

JB Lish: "God will favour you .It's your season now your time now God has remembered you by your faithfulness.God bless you abundantly."

Jared Nyamweya: "We have nice pple in this world. Thanks Men."

Douglas Mbeshia: "May God Bless you abundantly bro...Big up you are one in a million in this young generation."

Emanuella Asking Mark Angel Tricky Questions - Street Gist | NAIJ.com TV

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Home | News | General | 2019: From what I have seen on ground, I think I should go for second term - Ganduje

- The governor of Kano state, Abdullahi Ganduje, has unofficially said that he would be seeking re-election in 2019

- The governor said a term is not enough for any government to make a concrete development in Nigeria

- Ganduje said that he had been receiving calls from his supporters to seek re-election, adding that this also informed his decision

As Nigerians await the forthcoming general elections, the governor of Kano state, Abdullahi Ganduje, has revealed his plan to seek re-election in the next gubernatorial election in the state.

The governor disclosed this during Chanels Television programme, Roadmap 2019, aired on Monday, April 23, Channels reports.

NAIJ.com notes that the governor said: From what I have seen on the ground, from what I believe development should be, and to help a state that is focused on a particular line of development, I think I should go for second term.

READ ALSO: Newspaper review: PDP urges National Assembly to sanction Buhari over $1bn

I believe the projects that we have started, the ones that we have completed; it will be a better opportunity if one can have more than four years (if one can have eight years).

According to Ganduje, part of the reasons for his decision to seek re-election was as a result of the call from his supporters that he should run for a second term.

He stated that a tenure is not enough for any government to make a concrete development under the normal political condition in the country.

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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that the lawmaker representing Kano Central in the Senate, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, vowed to retire Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje from active politics during 2019 general elections and anybody who tries to help him.

In an audio voice message aired on a private radio station in Kano (Express FM) on Wednesday, March 21, Kwankwaso declared that no amount of persuasion would make him change his mind over the stance to change Ganduje.

How workaholic Governor Ganduje is transforming Kano state - on NAIJ.com TV

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Home | News | General | Again, Police foiled three suicide attacks in Bama

By Ndahi Marama, Maiduguri

Borno state Police Command has confirmed that security Operatives have foiled an attempted suicide attacks by three members of dreadedaram sect on Bama Local Government Area of Borno state.

Suicide bombers

The Command said that three of the suicide bombers were neutralized by troops before reaching their targets on Monday night.

This is coming barely 24 hours when two suicide bombers, male and female attacked worshippers in a Bama mosque which left 7 people dead including the bombers, with 10 other people injured.

Bama is about 70 kilometers drive from Maiduguri, the state capital where many of its Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who spent not less than four years in resettlement camps in Maiduguri relocated back early this month (April) and starts picking up their pieces after massive reconstruction and rehabilitation of destroyed houses and infrastructures by Government.

In a Press statement signed by the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Edet Okon on Tuesday said Yesterday being 23/04/18 at about 10pm, three suicide bombers who attempted to infiltrate Bama town through Ajilari area were sighted and challenged by security operatives at guard location.

The bombers hurriedly detonated the Improvised Explosive Devices, IEDs strapped to their bodies killing themselves only.

The area has been rendered safe by Police Mobile Force, PMF and Explosive Ordinance Department, EOD personnel of the Nigeria Police Force.

Normalcy has also been restored.

The Commissioner of Police Borno State, CP Damian Chukwu thereby urges residents to go about their lawful activities without fear as the police will continue to do their best to protect lives and properties. Okons statement concluded. End

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Home | News | General | Herdsmen killings: The world is watching a repeat of Rwanda  Middle Belt group

By Chris Ochayi

May head to ICC, ECOWAS Court

ABUJAWORRIED by the high rate at which ethnic nationalities are being cleansed by suspected herdsmen in the Middle Belt region, a socio-economic group, the Middle Belt Forum, MDF, said it is considering the option of taking the pogrom to the International Court of Justice, ICC, The Hague, to avert a repeat of the Rwandan genocide in Nigeria.

The forum, which expressed grave concerns over the ongoing killings of natives by herdsmen in the region, especially in Adamawa, Taraba, Benue, Plateau and Kogi states, regretted that the world is watching while the situation is gradually snowballing into another Rwanda.

Speaking in Abuja, the President of Middle Belt forum, Dr. Bala Takaya, said the next line of action if the killings continue unabated might be to go to ICC, ECOWAS Court, or to other areas of redress.

According to him, That is part of our dealings and I dont think I have to go into detail as to what we are doing about that right now. But we are concerned that this thing is in public, worldwide, just like it happened in Rwanda, the world was watching and killings were going on until the whole thing came to a point where hundreds of thousands of lives were lost before the world woke up to realise that they could have done something to stop the killings in Rwanda. And similarly, this is happening in Nigeria.

It started gradually in Rwanda. And it is starting gradually here in Nigeria. Probably, even at a higher speed in Nigeria. But the world is watching. Newspapers are reporting, you have embassies in Nigeria, of the metropolitan countries, I believe they are filing reports to their principals in their countries and the world is doing nothing.

Must we be wiped out like mosquitoes before they wake up and realise that our people have gone? That is the point that we are making. As to go to ICC, ECOWAS Court, or other areas of redress, leave that one for us; maybe it is next thing we will address.

The Forum, however, blamed the ongoing pogrom and wanton destruction of lives and property of Middle Belt aborigines by Fulani herdsmen on lopsided appointments of security chiefs, and urged President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately restructure the security architecture to reflect the Federal character as stipulated in the Nigerian constitution.

Dr. Takaya said the killer Fulani herdsmen are now a law onto themselves, adding, They kill, maim and rape at will. They even brag that in this (Middle Belt) region they (the killer Fulani) have immunity that is superior even to those of our governors and their deputies.

He continued: As such, in the Middle Belt region, lives of human beings are now cheaper than those of cows. Hundreds of lives are being lost in Adamawa, Taraba, Benue, Southern Kaduna, Plateau and recently, Kogi State. There is virtually no part of the Middle Belt of Nigeria that is peaceful, making even feeding a major problem. On another side, we do not consider it amusing that the killer Fulani militias demonstrate their power or influence over this government by always choosing to strike as soon as the President rounds off a tour of the despoiled states with even greater viciousness.

President Buhari should proscribe and declare Fulani herdsmen militia a terrorist organisation immediately. He should remember that even the Global Terrorist index Fulani herdsmen as the fourth most dangerous group in the world.

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Home | News | General | Breaking: SARS Operatives arrest Dino Melaye

By Henry Umoru

ABUJA- CHAIRMAN, Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Senator Dino Melaye, APC, Kogi West has been arrested by operatives of the Special Anti Robbery Squad, SARS.

Senator Dino Melaye

Vanguard gathered that Senator Melaye was this morning, taken to the SARS detention facility located just opposite the old Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN junction along the Area 1 expressway.

The SARS detention facility is reputed for imprisoning hardened criminals arrested for theft, murder, cultism and other criminal acts.

It was gathered that the Nigeria Police Force forcefully carried out the arrest of Melaye without arrest warrant or court order.

In a telephone conversation this morning, Senator Mekaye however sounded rattled, as background conversation suggested a struggle between himself and some of the operatives after which his mobile lines were switched off.

Recall that initial attempts were made by the police to arrest Senator Melaye after immigration officials disembarked him from a flight to Morocco on Monday morning.

Following his release after three hours detention at the immigration office at the airport, the lawmakers house was besieged by over 80 armed police men from noon yesterday until the early hours of Tuesday.

Details later

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Home | News | General | If I were God, Id cut Nigerias blessing  Apostle Alile

Born on Sunday, April 24, 1938, Apostle Hayford Ikponmwonsa Alile, OFR, B.A. MBA (Hon) D.Sc., attended briefly the University of Ibadan as a State Scholar in Physics and thereafter proceeded to Howard University, Washington D.C. where he earned his B.A. degree in Economics and Mathematics. He later attended Rutgers Graduate School of Management, New Jersey, USA for his MBA and the Harvard Business School for AMP.

Apostle Alile

Apostle Aliles rich working history began as an economic and financial Consultant to Louis Berger Inc, East Orange, New Jersey, USA in 1968. Between 1969 and 1972, he served as Assistant Director, Rutgers University Entrepreneurial Development Center, New Jersey and Rutgers Minority Investment Co Inc. He worked as an Investment Adviser/Broker with Investors Diversified Services Inc, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, 1972-1973.

In 1973, he returned to Nigeria to head the Management Consulting Department of the Centre for Management Development, Lagos where he was responsible for the establishment of the Institute of Management Consultants (IMCON) and the Nigerian Association of Management Consultants (NAMCON).

Thereafter, he was appointed in 1976 as the Executive Director/CEO of the then Lagos Stock Exchange (LSE). He became the Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of The Nigeria Stock Exchange in 1979 from where he retired in 1999.

Apostle Alile has authored several books in management development in Nigerian and on the capital market. He is a philanthropist and has mentored several corporate executives. he is the founder of The Hayford Alile Foundation (THAF).

He is happily married with children and currently the Spiritual Leader of St. Josephs Chosen Church of God International.

Asked how he managed to remain incorruptible at the Nigerian Stock Exchange, the soft-talking Spiritual leader said: Well, you know that people would always want you to do the wrong thing but from the very beginning I read out all the rules and regulations of the institution and spent much time educating them that the good that they would derive from corrupt doings will not be as big as the loss that society will gain from it. To a certain extent, I believe God was always speaking through me and guided me to pay deaf ears to corrupt discussions.

How do you feel today with reports of monumental corruption in the nation?

God means well for us and He should make His presence much more felt today than yesterday. And God can always do that for us. That God loves us and one of the great books that we read as Christians stated clear that God created man in His own image and likeness so that we can think like God. Thought of love for others, that we can speak and act like He does. He is ever ready to come and say this is the path. And this starts as an example of what the relationship between you as a person and God is right. Most of them who have followed that path, always find it very easy. You see somebody who makes a few thousand naira a month is able to pay school fees for children in the university, and you begin to wonder how come. You will find out that three out four children are on scholarship; they are able to subsidize the feeding of their parents, the clothing, the movements. And this is a joy that you can always testify to. And people will emulate you.

Will you say the Nigerian Church is winning the war against immorality?

I wont say so. We are praying that more and more holy people come out and God is anxious. God says I cant come from heaven above to come and help you, but if He identifies you as a good instrument, He will pump His goodness through you to others. Hopefully if you are that instrument, you have learnt a little bit to be able to multiply the goodness of God in your community. Im very hopeful though that some people that God has used me to touch will be able to do better than I did.

How will you assess the current administration after three years on the saddle?

I believe they are trying. They inherited a very serious matter. A lot of corruption that man has been revealed, a lot have not been dealt with seriously, and more and more are still hidden. If I were God, theres no need giving these people more because what Ive given to them, they have not been able to spread it out to the people they are supervising. Until they are able to cleanse the environment, why should I go and continue to endow them? This is the problem we are having. And I pray that since you and I voted for them, we should go on our knees and continue to ask God to empower them to remember that they pledged to do certain things for us when we put them in power. The Lord opened their eyes and they found where corruption and dirtiness are and they have not been able to muster the energies to wash clean those dirtiness. The ones that are covered up, they have not revealed them because revelations of badness are not being dealt with. And until those are dealt with, if I were God, I will not pump into that environment that is enjoying corruption. I will not give them more prosperity.

Given an opportunity to score this government from 1 to 10, what will your score be?

Thats one thing that a Christian should avoid because none of us is perfect. Let the judgment be done by God. My role is to identify what is not good, and ask God to cleanse and empower them and turn us around to be on the right path. Thats my score because none of us is perfect.

What will you say about the Nigerian economy today?

Certainly it should have done better. A lot of us who are leaders see the good man that can be used but throws him aside and take bad characters to do what he claims. So a lot of things have gone wrong and we need to love ourselves. A lot of our leaders dont love themselves. The word of God which is God Himself says man should learn to love himself. He should use the way he loves himself to love his neighbors and to love God as he loves himself. Unfortunately a lot of us dont love ourselves.

Certain informed economists have blamed President Buhari for the downturn in the economy, arguing that when he vowed to probe everybody, foreign investors were scared and withdrew huge funds from the society Is there any hope of recovery for the Nigerian economy soon?

I will like to correct the statement you made that the problem we are facing now is exclusively as a result of the way the new administration handled the environment. No! They inherited a lot of wrongs, a lot of corruption by previous administrations, and some of them they put under their beds. The problem that this administration is having is that a lot of wrongs have been made manifest to them and they didnt take action on them. If you see your child wanting to eat a raw chicken in the fridge and goes to turn on the fire and tries to roast the chicken with his hands and he sees that his hands are also burning and he quickly takes them off, will he eat the chicken raw? No. He will find a way of roasting or boiling the chicken to eat. If he says he will do it the way hes doing it, his hands will be equally burnt then hes a foolish child. Thats the problem.

Our leaders see the things that have held back this country and they want to cover them up and continue that way. My prayers and a lot of Holy Spirit driven characters are praying for our political leaders to know where the mistakes are, manifest same. Those who are insisting on continuing to steal our God given prosperity, it will not work for them at all. A lot of our political leaders equally go to bed at night not sleeping. May God come down and assist us to recover ourselves from this foolishness. My prayer is for God to answer them and empower them to do as much as they can before 2019 because a lot of people know that they cannot sit on this horse before 2019; they will not vote for that horse or sit on it. And thats what is going to happen. By Gods grace, we will continue with this democracy that guarantees certain freedom for people to make choices. And we see the reason why we are not prospering individually and collectively is because we are not ready to obey Gods command. I pray God that more and more of us from whom we will choose our leaders, learn to obey and listen to the voice of God and that voice of God is not exclusively to spiritual leaders. You and I are created by God and are His instruments, and Hes prepared to direct us sometimes in a very loud voice, but most times, in a soft voice. Im sure with time we will continue.

Will you say that the Government has diligently fought the corruption war?

I dont know the size of the corruption but the little I have seen of the corruption, we need to talk of people hiding and not only under their mattresses but in buildings of governments seized, using such as a warehouse for currencies in billions. Its worrisome, and the figures are too big which shows that God had it in mind to bless and prosper us. You give a little child five naira now, he looks at it and throws it away, until you give him N1,000, he ridicules all the other currencies. Theres something wrong. We dont like to appreciate the little that God has given to us and its too much. May God redeem us from that imprisonment. Parents are not able to tell their children how many pieces of plantain or yam you can give him to be satisfied. Its a very serious matter. The more I look at it, the more I know that God loves us.

There are characters within this government perceived to be corrupt while the government is focusing its attention on opposition leaders. Do you also see it that way?

It cuts across. We also hear of Christians whose names are being mentioned.these are people who ought to be carrying the shining light of God. Our prayer is for God Almighty to open our eyes and empower us to do the right things and we will identify the thieves of the land, the corrupt people who are in the process of corrupting others, that will make it difficult for them to do. And the way to do that is when you catch all these big thieves, apply the law and deal with them.

Transparency International and some other international groups have emphatically rated Nigeria lower this year. Whats your response?

Well it depends on how they look at it. Theres no doubt when you see these figures, you will count thousands of children who are crawling on the ground. Here are our leaders being revealed who are hiding our $10 million somewhere. I dont those who are doing the index arithmetic and say we are very bad and corrupt. We should be very careful that the name that God wanted to give us as His sons and daughters, wed have done it in such a way that other observers now can write and say our corruption index that used to be at level 7 is now on level 21. Thats what we are doing to ourselves. Its not good at all.

It appears that the security situation of this country is getting worse. The violence is growing by the day and it looks like we dont have a solution to it. Whats your take on this?

The problem again depends on disobedience. God says I have created man in my own image and likeness. Its your duty to fight hard to be in oneness with God. Because of the corruption, they are all tied together, leading to poverty and hunger. A lot of the people who are making us insecure, its because they claim they have reached a level where if he dies now its better for him, and before he dies, let him see if he can use some force to maintain himself or herself, create insecurity in our environment. And they use guns, bows and arrows, pebbles and stones to cart away what does not belong to them.

Thats the logic. And a lot of the little laws that we have been passing, its very good to create equality in wealth ownership so that, at least, you are satisfied with what you have. A lot are coming on but the eyes of the jealous one that says your son has just left school and got a job, mine has not even left school even though they started at the same time. Inequality is a part of the corruption. And laws that are there are not applied properly. So it creates the inequality that makes people to think that they are deliberately created to be poor and must fight with what they have to get to the same level with their so-called equal in age and education and so on. Thats why we have to make sure that the little or plenty that God has given to us are fairly distributed otherwise the way I look at you will always be that you have acquired more than I in the same environment and with the same qualities. We always encourage insecurity.

Four years ago, Boko Haram stormed Chibok and carted away over 200 schoolgirls; since then weve been playing politics with them. A few weeks ago, tragically, a similar thing played again when 110 schoolgirls were taken away from Dapchi in Yobe State. What does this portend for this nation in terms of security?

Its very bad. I dont know whether we want to turn ourselves into animals. Lively children who have not done anything unto us are being stolen from school and from the cover of their parents. My duty and yours is to be on our knees and pray for God to release those children. The situation we find ourselves, we are not the cause. May God help all of us and what motivates people to go to their parents and steal children from them. May God forgive us.

The Fulani herdsmen are becoming a nuisance in the country yet the government appears to be helpless over the issue. Whats your take on this?

The herdsmen feel they are bringing up cattle that society can eat from. That is a private business. And government should allow anybody who says he wants to use his money to buy material to put in to nuclear energy, into gas energy, that is business. But for government to say whether we like it or not, we must pass laws to provide them with land, I dont think we are developed to that stage yet. Countries like India and China whose population is about 10 times our own, I didnt hear government providing them and supporting them when they go to a village to kill people out of that place and replace them with cattle. Thats a new track of civilization. Its something we have to take a serious look at. If a cattle rearer comes to this place and sees green leaves that his cattle can eat here and people like us say we planted this to give us oxygen and some beauty, please dont do so. Lets arrange for workers to come with you and whatever is going to be the cost of production of that cattle meat, you add it to the price at which you sell. Its a private business and the laws are there to provide support for anybody who wants to develop anything. For people like us who may be foolish, I think its time for government to come up with educative programs that will convert my thoughts. As it is, if we were to support the way things are going, I will not support it. Its not good.

Do you therefore support those calling on government to pronounce the Herdsmen as a terrorist group?

Not to that stage, no. They should be charged for killing and destroying properties because the victims and their properties have not provoked them. To be sitting at home and be overwhelmed by this action is not good and government must rise to the occasion. Government should look on how to develop that sector of the economy from the way its being portrayed to us today.

Some people have predicted a revolution in this country. I dont know if you also foresee something like that

There are a lot of programs that are aimed at converting young people into entrepreneurs, and all sorts of social revolutions that will make them create jobs and wealth. Unfortunately some who came into power and government, when they made promises to the electorate, never fulfill them. That is the problem.

The army of Nigerian youths can be deployed to the agriculture sector. Is there any effort in the agric sector that is encouraging enough?

A lot is going to that palm fruits and palm trees. A lot is going on around nuts, tomatoes. A lot is going on. Associations are being formed around like association of rice producers, they came out yesterday and said within this year they will be able to produce sufficient for local consumption and thereafter for exportation. A lot are now talking about tomatoes, groundnuts for exports. The Agriculture Ministry has made some mistakes with the purported yam export. I now know that some of them have corrected the mistakes like the yam, potatoes and so on that will be accepted by exporters or importers. I thank God that Hes answering our prayers. I spent a whole day recently with some friends who have over the years been working on biofuel. Listening to them, exchanging views with potential partners. Potential partners have managed to put together about $300 million to invest in that project and these are very serious people. Not only those to sell those biofuel products locally but also to export. So we are getting there. We will get there and I pray God to help us in the area of leadership. Theres a song in Benin that says that prayer is much more powerful than cutlass. Lets continue to pray, God will answer us.

How does it feel being 80 sir?

The figure looks big but for me, Im very light inside. I still look like a school boy. I believe theres God and He created man. And for some of us who have let themselves to be led by an inner spirit, know that God who created man has a purpose for him and we all have different reasons why we are created and for what we are created. Once you are able to understand the reason why you are created and ask for empowerment and be humble about it that you are not the one, but it is the purpose for which God created you that you are able to recognize and ask God for empowerment to execute for His glory and for your happiness and happiness of people around you. Thats really my driving spirit, to make sure that people around me are very happy.

The purpose as I see it is to make sure that the environment is good and nobody impose himself on somebody else. The purpose for which I stand is to support that scheme that nobody forces action on you that you feel within yourself that this is not the direction that God wants me to go but somebody directly by his force or because he has the privilege to sit and impose uncomfortable laws on you, I will not stand for that. In whatever ways, you ask through prayers to redirect actions. If I find myself in a seat that can change you from taking actions that will be unfavorable to our neighbors, Ill do accordingly.

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Home | News | General | How a single sealed brown enveloped ended my 20yrs ulcer suffering and how you can also end yours today, Former Ulcer Sufferer Revealed

I know Most Doctors will hate me for this revelation I am about to make to the whole public

Believe me, I know what its like to suffer from the pain, discomfort and embarrassment ulcer.

I know what its like to live with constant occasional tummy aches, to have difficulty sleeping, and to have people unnecessarily feel sorry for you when the ulcer drama starts in public!

I know what its like to be genuinely hungry, but lack the urge to eat, or feel sick to your stomach after eating that you feel like throwing up  this was how serious mine was.

You would hate your doctor after reading my story.

I FINALLY Found the Solution to My Ulcer Nightmare

CLICK HERE TO SEE HOW TO GET THIS SOLUTION =>> http://totalcure.info/cured/



Let me share with you how I discovered what cured my stomach ulcer permanently

My name is Umoh Ekpo, 49yrs of age, I was diagnosed with ulcer in the year 1996 then as a young man in Akwa Ibom State, I had ulcer before I moved to Abuja in 2002 but before then, there was nothing I didnt try call it western and local herbal drugs. Some of those drugs reduced the pain I was feeling but it didnt last longer than 6months before the pain resurfaced , When I got to Abuja I visited different hospitals searching for permanent solution some Doctors gave me hope while some told me ulcer does not have cure that I should manage it like that till the day I die. Only those suffering ulcer will understand the pains, sleepless nights, gnawing or burning pain in the abdomen, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, bloating, weight loss, headaches, diarrhea or constipation, feeling sick, dizziness, rashes etc.

Sometimes it subsides, but becomes more painful later on; I was always open to suggestions from my Doctors and close friends who knew what I was passing through.

Below where natural remedies I tried

1 Honey

2 Garlic

3 Ripped bananas

4 Soaking unripe plantain

TILL I FOUND THIS SOLUTION >>> http://totalcure.info/cured/

The above were the local remedy that worked for me but for a short period; I remember how I ate ripped banana that I almost turned to a monkey lol

I spent so much money purchasing different kinds of drugs online and offline because I was desperate for cure, but did any work? NO there didnt though some will start promising but never lasted 3months before the pains resurfaced.

During these years of my agony I learnt a lot,

If you are suffering from, or just think you may have, stomach ulcer then you should get to know all the facts about stomach ulcers. This important information could save you from months of unnecessary stress and suffering, by putting you on the right track  right now!

This disease seems nonthreatening but if it is left unchecked for an extended period of time, it can lead to bleeding in your digestive system and even death.

Let me tell you how I discovered this wonder working treatment that has made me a happy man today, my jumping from one hospital to another made me friends and one of them was Dr Yusuf Ali who works in Primus hospital in karu site, Abuja.

It was one of those troubled days for me when I was going through a very serious pain, I met with Dr Ali, he was assigned to do some check up on me then we began conversing on how long I have had the ulcer, the kind of medication I have taken and if there have been an improvement since I took the medication. I opened up to him on how I have spent so much money but no lasting solution gotten yet.

There he told me something, before I met him I already met with over 50 doctors on same issue but they were not open as Dr Ali Maybe because he wasnt a Nigerian, sad thing. He gave me one example; if one has malaria there would be symptoms like headache or fever right? I nodded my head yeah! He asked again, to make the headache and fever go away what is the best thing to do, take Panadol for the headache and fever to go away?

I answered him No, best thing is to treat malaria then the fever and headache will vanish.

He went ahead to explain to me that pharmaceutical industries only promote drugs that will resolve symptoms to ulcer not the main cure to ulcer because they know once you are cure they would be out of business. That is why they keep feeding us with drugs that will stop the symptoms for sometimes not cure. He made me to understand that most doctors and pharmaceutical industries are after profit not really giving total cure so a patient will remain in their bondage as long as they want

Sadly I asked him, are there really permanent cure for ulcer? He answered me yes. I said to myself so there is cure all these years but my doctors refused to opened up to me, tears ran down my cheeks. I summoned courage to continue the conversation, I asked him Dr is it that the drug is too expensive or we cannot find it here in Nigeria?

He answered and said not really about it being expensive but those drugs are not popular, like he said earlier pharmaceutical industries only promote what will give them money continuously not what will cure people completely. He saw the sadness in my face and promised to help me but I must promise to keep it secret that no other ear should hear in that hospital.

I was shocked and WOW to hear that!

He further went on to say that the solution is being imported by his unit from China for some special patients, and been administered to top hospital in the USA, China, Canada and some African Countries having same issue, The sad thing is that its not common in the market.

He asked me to see him in a week time, I went back to meet with him as scheduled

He handed me a brown sealed envelope

These where his words, He said to me, Mr Umoh, This package came in yesterday because I had to ordered it from china since I didnt have access to the special packs here in this hospital, this is for you. Total cost plus shipping is $400 dollars, Do not open here, do it when you get home.I was so curious to say something He went ahead to say, I have written the prescriptions and duration you will have to take it for final healing. I busted out with questions

Dr Ali you said $400? At then dollar was 200 naira per dollar.

He Replied yes it worth it I challenge you to finish this drugs within fixed time then get back he said.

I wasnt with amount up to 80,000 naira with me but I was ready to pay in fact anything that will safe me from years of pains. Surprisely, Dr Ali said to me, Mr Umoh do not worry about the money because it came to me as a challenge to help you. I was short of words but I still insisted on paying even when I didnt see the content in the sealed envelope.

Dr Ali threatens to take back the package if I insist on paying him immediately.

These where his last words to me Mr Umoh please come back with payment once you are done taking this medications and you must come back with empty packs to prove to me that you did finish it, go now!

What I found in the envelope changed my life for good till this minute.

I want you to benefit from this my great discovery

This will shock you

SEE WHAT I FOUND >>> http://totalcure.info/ulcer/

Read very few Testimonies below

Testimony 1, I am writing to let you know that 4 weeks after completing the course of Solution, my husband had another stool test for h.pylori, and the results read normal. What a welcome result, after almost two years, and seven different combinations of antibiotics. We can only put this down to your revelation. Thank you. Amaka, From Owerri Imo state

Testimony 2, I did have the HPSA performed and the results for H. Pylori were negative. Thank you for this wonderful supplements capsules. I really appreciate that I didnt have to take other drugs to eradicate this problem. I am happy IshaAllah. Mustapha, From Kano

Testimony 3, Just a quick thank you. I bought your product this Year Jan, in hopes I could be ulcer free by march. In a little over three weeks, the pains and symptoms were all gone! What a relief!! Thank you doesnt feel sufficient enough. Please use this testimony as my sincere gratitude. Garba Ade, University of Ibadan.

Testimony 4, I had 3 treatments from different doctors and they didnt know what was wrong with me. Then I went to a natural therapist for treatment last year. For the past years I have been taking different natural remedies, it made a huge improvement but took a lot longer than the natural therapist thought. I have never been tested for Ulcer, as no one ever told me about it, A friend of mine told me about how you were helping people get rid of ulcer with your discovered solution, I am happy I took the action to order from you. Thank you and remain blessed. Edidiong Etuk From Cross River state

SEE MORE TESTIMONIES HERE >> http://totalcure.info/ulcer/

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Nepali UN peacekeepers accused of child rape in South Sudan

The United Nations (UN) peacekeepers from Nepal serving in South Sudan are facing allegations of child rape, reported AFP.
Home | News | General | APC Convention: South South Chairmen reject Oshiomholes candidacy

.Say, Odigie-Oyegun has a Right of First Refusal

By Omeiza Ajayi

ABUJA  Ahead of the May 14 national convention of the ruling All Progressives Congress APC, four out of the six state chairmen of the party have distanced themselves from the purported endorsement of the former Governor of Edo state, Adams Oshiomhole.

Oshiomhole

They are the Rivers State APC Chairman, Chief Davies Ikanya, Bayelsa State APC Chairman, Deacon Joseph Fafi, Cross River State APC Chairman, Mr. Etim John and the Akwa Ibom State APC Chairman, Dr. Amadu Attai as well as the APC Deputy National Secretary, Hon. Victor Giadom.

They had stormed out of the south south zonal caucus meeting at the Edo state Government House in protest at what they said were plans by the Edo state Governor, Godwin Obaseki and the zonal Vice Chairman of the party, Hilliard Eta to bar the incumbent national Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun from standing for reelection in favour of Mr Oshiomhole.

We were here for a meeting only to be ambushed by the national vice chairman of the party to adopt a preconceived candidate. Somebody that he had already made up his mind on. Whatever was his arrangement with the person.we do not know, Mr Ikanya begun.

He said; Yesterday, we held a meeting and we were all in that meeting, only for him to come and manipulate, sort out every suggestion and he is trying to say he has come out with a resolution. First, I want us to know that the zonal executive committee does not have the power to elect or to nominate or to adopt candidates for national offices. It is the national convention that can do that.

Secondly, there are very senior members in the zone that were shut out of this meeting purposely. Number one, the national chairman of the party is from this zone and the national vice chairman of the party ought to seek the permission of the national chairman of the party even to convene this meeting because the constitution states that the national vice chairman shall assist the national chairman.

So, in this zone where we have a sitting chairman and he is not invited to a meeting, you have six ministers, you have former governors, you have very senior citizens of this zone and they were shut out of the meeting only for the national vice chairman to ambush everybody, ignore every motion that was moved, even when somebody moved a motion that he should disqualify himself having shown bias from the beginning in this meeting, he still sat there and he is saying to the public that there was a resolution.

We want you to know that out of the states of the zone, four states are saying that this was an ambush, it was not acceptable, there was no resolution. We have said that every person is free to run in the election. We stand by the resolution of the NEC that there is waiver.

The national chairman can recontest if he wants to recontest, any other person from the zone can recontest if they want to recontest. What has happened in this meeting is a farce, is not binding on anybody, is null and void because four of us, four states are saying no, whereas just two states, in fact one and a half, maybe Edo and some parts of Delta are the people that are saying that they have a resolution. This is not how democracy should be practiced. Arising from this meeting today, the majority view is that there is no consensus on any candidate.

On his part, the deputy national secretary of the APC, Mr Giadom said: I am a member of the NWC of this party. Every resolution of this party must come back to the nwc where I am a member. What we have done here today is the Edo state Government House position. It is not the partys position. First, the zonal headquarters of this party is in Port Harcourt.

Two, this zone does not have the power to sit in Government House to decide or take a decision against any candidate. This decision was not put to a vote. It was smuggled by the national vice chairman of this zone and without allowing the people who were in the meeting to have input or for us to have an election as the case may be. I want to put it on record that out of the six state chairmen of our party, we have the chairman of Cross Rivers state here, Akwa Ibom, Rivers and Bayelsa, that is, four state chairmen are here.

So, it is a decision of the Edo state government not the decision of the party and cannot stand. I have spoken with the national chairman of the party who still presides over this party up till this afternoon. It was when I got to this hall that I put a call across to him. I said, National Chairman sir, are you aware of this meeting, and he said no, I am not aware.

So, I want to put it on record that this decision is not that of the party, it is that of the Edo state government and that is why it is being held at the Edo state government house.

Bayelsa state chairman, Joseph Fafi on his part said; I want to also align myself with my colleagues from other states that they are not aware of what happened here. It is undemocratic, unexpected and a complete fraud and we dissociate ourselves from what has happened here and we believe that the election should be open to any interested candidate from the south south and the people will decide who to vote for and not the decision of Edo state.

Cross Rivers state chairman, Mr Etim John also dissociated himself from the decision to endorse Oshiomhole. He said; I align myself with my colleagues. As far as the meeting today is concerned, I completely dissociate myself from it and so are my members from Cross Rivers state.

This is not our decision. It is not APC decision. It is the personal decision of the vice chairman south south and the Edo state governor. It is on this note that I am saying that whatever decision they reach there, if at all, is completely null and void, also bias and has no stand. It is undemocratic and it is inconsequential. I so state.

On his part the state chairman, Akwa Ibom, Dr Amadu Attai said they were ambushed at the Government House, describing the outcome of the meeting as null and void.

We came here and we were ambushed by the Edo state Government House to take decisions that are not in line with the workings of the party. We give respect to the national chairman of this party, and we believe Edo people should respect him and give him the right of first refusal and that is democracy.

We from Akwa Ibom state do not support any decision that is taken today in this meeting, any resolution that was reached is null and void because we were not allowed to vote. We stand by my colleagues in this unanimous decision that whatever was arrived at is out of context, he declared.

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Home | News | General | Militants urge Army to stop militia from wiping out Nigerians

By Emma Amaize

YENAGOANIGER Delta agitators, yesterday, urged the Nigerian Army, renowned worldwide for its professionalism, to use its expertise to deal with the militia causing carnage daily in the country, which President Muhammadu Buhari identified as mercenaries trained and armed by former Libyan leader, late Muammar Gaddafi.

File: Militants

The campaigners, under the auspices of 21st Century Youth of the Niger Delta and Agitators with Conscience, in a statement by the leader, W. O. I. Izon-Ebi, said: We stridently appeal to the Chief of Army staff, Gen Tukur Brutai, and other intelligence and military organisations in the country to do the needful by adhering to their core mandate of protecting lives, properties and the territorial integrity of Nigeria.

The President and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, President Buhari, was emphatic recently that the people killing Nigerians and destroying properties on a daily basis are mercenaries trained and armed by late Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi.

The Nigerian Army known and applauded worldwide for its professionalism is by this statement greatly indicted for gross ineptitude for not being able to protect the territorial integrity of the country, which happens to be its core mandate.

The onus is now on the leadership and men of the Army to prove their non-partisanship and neutrality in fighting this rampaging Islamic mercenaries masquerading as herdsmen killing and slaughtering innocent and hard-working Nigerian farmers and citizens like chickens in their fatherland with impunity.

The Nigerian Army must stand up to justify the trust of Nigerians by putting a stop to this wanton carnage, devilish act and barbarism in the name of political interests because doomsday is approaching.

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Home | News | General | Well recover all looted funds, assets, private investigator assures

By Omeiza Ajayi

ABUJA Private investigator to Special Presidential Panel for the Recovery of Public Property, Evangelist Victor Uwajeh, has promised to recover all looted funds and property, no matter where they are hidden.

Uwajeh in a statement, yesterday, in Abuja, however, asked for the cooperation of National Assembly and judiciary in this regard.

The international private investigator said: President Muhammadu Buharis relentless efforts have yielded great success in curbing corruption and impunity in Nigeria. It is no longer business as usual. The government has made looting unattractive and the indication is that the rate of acquisition of foreign assets has dropped drastically.

I wish to state that we will recover all foreign property and funds of politically exposed persons, their allies and cronies no matter the jurisdiction. We will trace and return all tax payers funds and ill gotten property stolen from the commonwealth of Nigeria.

The war on corruption is a collective one. We seek the cooperation of the judiciary and National Assembly in this arduous task. The war against corruption is a tough one, but we are tested professionals that are immune to blackmail and intimidation.

Uwajeh thanked President Buhari and Okoi Obono Obla, Chairman, Special Presidential Investigation Panel for Recovery of Public Property, for the opportunity given him (Uwajeh) to serve his fatherland.

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Home | News | General | OAU lecturer scandal: Group reacts as panel denies female student's lawyer attendance at sitting

- The lawyers of Monica Osagie, the OAU female student involved in a scandal with Professor Richard Akindele have been denied entry to at a sitting

- One of the members denied entry to the venue was a representative of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi

- Afolabi said that so far the venue for the sitting is not known

The investigative panel set up by the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, to probe the alleged scandal involving The investigative panel set up by the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, to probe the alleged scandal involving Monica Osagie and Professor Richard Akindele, on Tuesday, April 24, prevented the victim from using any legal representation.

One of the members denied entry to the venue was a representative of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). While the venue for the sitting was still kept secret, the panel insisted that Osagie's lawyers would not be allowed entry, the Punch reports.

READ ALSO: NASS leadership hold meeting over invasion of Senate chamber

But lawyers to Osagie led by Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, a gender activist and executive director of women advocates, research and documentation centre, protested that they must be allowed inside the venue.

She said: The Secretary of the panel came to meet us in front of the OAU Amphitheatre and did not want to disclose the venue. For now, we dont know where the venue will be and the panel is insisting that lawyers should not follow Monica Osagie into the venue as they dont want any lawyer to be with them.

The NHRC is also well represented here as an independent observer. But I have insisted that she wont go there without her lawyers. But after our protest, they have now agreed that two lawyers from our end should be there. But we dont know where they are going to sit.

A letter of invitation dated Thursday, April 19, from the office of the secretary, post-graduate college, said Osagie should appear before the panel.

The letter with Ref. No: ADP 15/16/H/1424 entitled: Re: Investigative panel on alleged harassment of a female student: Detailed audio recording: Request for the presentation of Miss Osagie Monica Oselode, was signed by the OAU Deputy Registrar and Post-Graduate College Secretary, A.O. Fadeyibi.

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The letter read: I write at the instance of the Provost, Post-Graduate College to invite you to appear before the investigative panel on alleged harassment of a female student detailed in audio recording at its meeting which will come up at 10:00am on Tuesday April 24 2018.

Please be informed that on arrival, you are required to call the Secretary to the panel to facilitate your appearance before the panel. Thank you.

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com reported that the congress of university academics at OAU and the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) had called for a thorough investigation into the case of Akindele, the lecturer who allegedly demanded gratification from his student for marks.

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Home | News | General | Find out about Nigerian Army ranks and salaries

The military forces are essential for every country. They have different functions and often divided into three parts - army, navy and air force. Knowing the rankings and symbols of the forces is necessary whether you want to become a part of the military or just to understand the role of the army in general.

What is military in Nigeria?

Before discussing the army ranks, it is important to know what the military is and its primary task. The military is the armed forces.

The military is authorised to apply deadly force and weapons in order to protect the interests of the state and its citizens. It has to defend the citizens and the country in case of threat or declared war from another country. The military also may have other other functions in the country, for example:

READ ALSO: Nigerian Army destroys Boko Haram camp, rescues hostages

- Controlling the population within the country;

- Taking part in case of an emergency;

- Guarding critical areas;

- Promoting political agenda.

READ ALSO: Nigerian Navy ranks and salary

Sometimes the military may function as a subculture within a larger society. It means that the military has its infrastructure in a certain area. They may have:

- Schools;

- Banks;

- Different utilities;

- Logistics;

- Food production;

- Health and medical services.

Types of military forces in Nigeria

As we mentioned before the Nigerian forces are divided into three categories that have different functions and obligations:

Navy

The Navy is the water-focused military force. It is designed for naval and sea-related warfare. Most of the Naval Headquarters of Nigeria are based in Abuja, Bayelsa, Calabar and Lagos. Besides that, there are naval bases and training facilities throughout Nigeria. The primary responsibilities of the Navy are:

- Medical support;

- Regional security;

- Marine cleanups;

- Training missions at sea;

- Rescue operations at sea, etc.

The Air Force

The Nigerian Air Force is one of the largest in Africa. This is not surprising as there are about 10,000 active personnel at any given time. There are also a lot of helicopters, military transport aircraft, trainers, and fighters.

Their responsibilities include:

- Rescue operations;

- Cargo transportation;

- Bombing runs;

- Airborne mapping;

- Air-support (mostly for on-land operations);

- Medical assistance;

- Target monitoring;

The Nigerian Army

The last but not least. In fact, it is the largest component of the Nigerian Military Forces. In 2016 there were more than 100,000 soldiers of different ranks. In addition to being large, it is also one of the best equipped armed forces in Africa. Some of the obligations of the Nigerian Army are:

- Law enforcement;

- Base security;

- Humanitarian missions;

- Enemy targets engaging;

- Supplies and troops transportations.

The ranks of the Nigerian Army

Now we know more about the army and its obligations, it is time to talk about the ranks in the Nigerian Army.

The force is divided into two categories:

- The Non-Commissioned officers;

- The Commissioned officers.

The non-commissioned officers are those who have not earned a commission (a formal document that appoints one to a commissioned officer).

There are eight ranks of the non-commissioned officers in the Nigerian Army. From highest to lowest:

1. Master Warrant Officer

2. Warrant Officer

3. Staff Sergeant

4. Sergeant

5. Corporal

6. Lance Corporal

7. Private

8. Recruit

The commissioned officers earned a commission. There are 11 ranks of commissioned officers. From highest to lowest:

1. Field Marshal: The highest rank in the military. However, there is no written evidence that there were field marshals in the history of Nigeria. It has a five-star rank.

2. General: The highest rank that was in fact achieved by a Nigerian. A four-star rank in Nigeria and ranked as nine by NATO.

3. Lieutenant General: The high commissioned officer. A three-star rank in Nigeria and indicated as eight by NATO.

4. Major General: The medium commissioned officer. In Nigeria, it is ranked with two stars while NATO indicates it by seven.

READ ALSO: Nigerian Air Force Short Service requirements

5. Brigadier General: A one star rank in Nigeria. NATO indicates the rank by number six.

6. Colonel: The lower lever commissioned officer by the highest field officer. NATO gives it a five.

7. Lieutenant Colonel: The deputy to Colonel. He is the field officer of the middle level with rank four from NATO.

8. Major. The lower category of the field officer. NATO indicates it by three.

9. Captain. The highest rank in the tactical troops. It is indicated by NATO as two.

10. First Lieutenant. He is the deputy of the Captain. The immediate superior rank. NATO states it by one.

11. Second Lieutenant: He is subordinate to the First Lieutenant but has the same NATO ranking.

Salary structure of the Nigerian Army

The salary depends on the rank of the officer. The salaries of non-commissioned officers are:

- Master Warrant Officer - N90,000;

- Warrant Officer - N80,000;

- Staff Sergeant - N68,000;

- Sergeant - N63,000;

- Corporal - N58,000;

- Lance Corporal earns about N54-55,000;

- Private Soldier earns about N48-49,000.

The salaries of commissioned officers are:

- General - N1.5 million;

- Lieutenant General - N1 million;

- Major General - N950,000;

- Brigadier General- N750,000;

- Colonel - N550,000;

- Lieutenant Colonel - N350,000;

- Major - N300,000;

- Captain - N220,000;

- Lieutenant - N180,000;

- Second Lieutenant - N120,000.

Now you know more about the Nigerian Military Forces. Each type has its obligations and the ranks are different, but all of them are equally important. If you want to have a career in the Army, then knowing the ranks is essential for the interview at the Nigerian Military School or Nigerian Defence Academy.

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Home | News | General | Senate Invasion: Read how Senator Omo-Agege breached NASS Powers and Privileges Act

- Thugs stormed the Nigerian Senate chamber on Wednesday, April 18, and stole the mace

- The thugs sponsored by suspended senator, Ovie Omo-Agege later dumped the Senate's symbol of authority by the road side

- A look at Omo-Agege's action showed he breached the Legislative Houses (Powers and Privileges) Act of 2018

Reactions trailing the invasion of the Nigerian Senate chambers during plenary on Wednesday, April 18, is yet to die down.

Condemnations continue to pour in from prominent Nigerians over the action of All Progressives Congress (APC) senator, Ovie Omo-Agege from Delta state.

Omo-Agege, who is currently on suspension, defied the authority of the Senate, and stormed the hallowed chambers with thugs who made away with the mace - the red chamber's symbol of authority.

A look at the Legislative Houses (Powers and Privileges) Act of 2018 shows that Omo-Agege broke the law and should as a matter of fact, be heavily punished for his actions.

The Act under 'Conduct of Members' clearly states that the

Any member of a legislative house who assaults or obstructs a member of the legislative house within the chamber or precincts of the house; or assaults or obstructs any officer of the legislative house while on execution of his duty....shall be guilty of contempt of the legislative house.

The Act also stated the punishment that should be meted out to such a person.

See evidence below:

Excerpts from the Legislative Houses (Powers and Privileges) Act of 2018

Interestingly, President Muhammadu Buhari signed it into law earlier this year.

Senator Omo-Agege had openly opposed the red chamber's elections reordering bill and subsequently instituted a case against the Senate in court to avoid being punished for his actions.

The Senate ethics committee had earlier recommended that Omo-Agege be suspended for 181 days but the Senate reduced it after pleas from his colleagues.

TOP-4 Over-the-top Reactions of Nigerian Lawmakers to Certain Circumstances | NAIJ.com TV

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Home | News | General | Ogbono can improve efficacy of Anti-Malaria drugs  Researcher

Lagos  A Pharmacist, Dr Chukwuma Agubata, says that taking Irvingia Fat from nuts of Irvingia Gabonensis Var Excelsa, known as Ogbono soup has helped to improve the efficacy of anti-malarial drugs.



Agubata, a researcher and lecturer in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, made the assertion when he spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Lagos.

He said that eating Ogbono soup while administering Artemether, an Anti-Malaria drug would improve the efficacy of the drug.

He said that Ogbono would assist the drug to pass through all the barriers to get to its destination in the body and start working properly.

According to him, the finding came out of a research work entitled Novel Lipid Microparticles for Effective Delivery of Artemether Anti-Malaria Drug Using a Locally-Sourced Irvingia Fat from Nuts of Irvingia Gabonensis Var Excelsa (Ogbono).

Malaria is an endemic disease and is a major cause of morbidity and mortality, and we also know that most malaria drugs are administered by mouth  the Artemether Anti-Malaria drugs.

But there is a major challenge which is the low water solubility of the drug which limits it dissolution and absorption into the blood stream; all this also affect the efficacy of the drug.

So, what we have done in this research is to improve the anti-malaria efficacy of Artemether drugs by formulating with Irvingia Fat (Ogbono) which is locally sourced so that there could be improved delivery and efficacy.

In our research, we got very good result and this shows that our local materials can actually improve the efficacy of some drugs that already exist, he told NAN.

The Ogbono was formulated as microparticles, where the fat from it was used to entrap the drug and it became a carrier for the drug to the blood stream.

So, if you take Ogbono soup while administering or taking Artemether, there should be an improvement as it will assist the drug to pass through all the barriers to get to its destination in the body and start working properly.

Agubata called for support from the government and private organisations to take the research to the next level.

We intend to take this research to the next level with the support of corporate organisations and the government.

We will be able to do local mobilisation and mass produce the locally sourced materials so that Nigerians will benefit.

Going forward, there is hope in reducing the burden of malaria with this research, he said.

NAN reports that Irvingia is a genius of African and Southeat Asian trees in the family Irvingiaceae, sometimes known by the common names wild mango, African mango, bush mango, dika or Ogbono.

They bear edible mango-like fruits, and are especially valued for their fat- and protein-rich nuts.

The fruit is a large drupe, with fibrous flesh. The subtly aromatic nuts are typically dried in the sun for preservation, and are sold whole or in powder form.

They may be ground to a paste known variously as dika bread or Gabon chocolate. Their high content of mucilage enables them to be used as thickening agents for dishes such as Ogbono soup.

The nuts may also be pressed for vegetable oil and the trees yield a hard wood useful in construction.

Irvingia was described as a genus in 1860 and is named in honour of Edward George Irving, a Royal Navy surgeon.

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Home | News | General | Order Saraki, Melaye, others to refund illegal N13.5m allowance with interest, SERAP asks court

By Adekunle Aliyu

Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has asked the Federal High Court in Lagos to order the Senate President Bukola Saraki, Senator Dino Melaye and 107 other senators to refund illegal and unconstitutional N13.5 monthly allowance receives by each senator with interest, and to stop the lawmakers from receiving such unjustified allowances.

Saraki

SERAP is also asking the court to order an investigation by appropriate agencies as to how the public funds that have so far been received by each senator have been spent and for the findings of any such investigation to be made public.

In the Suit Number FHC/L/CS/630/18 filed yesterday, SERAP argues that, The defence put forward by the Senators that the said sum is contained in the Appropriations Act with different headings like medicals, travelling, etc holds no water. This is because the Schedule of the Remuneration Act clearly makes provision for medicals, travelling etc. The argument that the running cost is for such medicals etc has no legal fount.

SERAP also argues that, There is no doubt that the Senate herein represented by the Senate President acted ultra vires in its powers by allotting to themselves the said sum of N13.5 Million monthly as running cost. It is trite law that when the word shall is employed in a statute, the primary meaning that the court will assign to it is that such provision is mandatory and leaves no room for discretionary or arbitrary exercise of power except a congruence reading if the statute intends otherwise.

Joined in the suit as Defendants are the Senate President and the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami SAN.

SERAP is asking the court to determine Whether the sum of N13.5 Million allowance allotted to each senator monthly as running cost aside their salaries and other emoluments is not in breach of the provisions of section 70 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and the provisions of the Certain Political, Public and Judicial Office Holders (Salaries and Allowances) (Amendments) Act 2008.

SERAP also wants the court to determine Whether the sum of N13.5 Million monthly allowance allotted to each senator is not illegal, unconstitutional and unjustified having regards to the provisions sections 70 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), the Certain Political, Public and Judicial Office Holders Act 2008 and the Appropriations Act.

The suit filed on SERAPs behalf by Ms Bamisope Adeyanju read in part: The sum of N13.5 Million shared by the Senate President and other senators monthly is neither part of their salaries and allowances as approved for them by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) nor contained in the Appropriations Act. This is further strengthened by the declaration of the RMAFC that the said sum is not known to the RMAFC and therefore illegal.

Furthermore the provisions of the Certain Political, Public and Judicial Office Holders (Salaries and Allowances) (Amendments) Act 2008 (hereinafter referred to as the Remuneration Act) do not contain the said running cost enjoyed by the Senate President and other senators.

Section 70 of the Constitution is mandatory and makes no room for discretionary act. When such provision is breached as in the instant case there is no other option than to hold that the Defendants action is illegal, unconstitutional and unjustified having contravened the sacrosanct provisions of the grundnorm and other relevant statutes herein cited.

The Senate President and his colleagues in the Senate allot to themselves the sum of N13.5 Million monthly aside their monthly salaries and allowances as running cost since assuming office. SERAP learnt of this illegal act Sen. Shehu Sani, the senator representing Kaduna Central revealed that he and his colleagues receive N13.5 Million monthly aside their salaries and allowances. The Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), the constitutional body responsible for fixing public officials salaries and allowances, has declared the said sum of N13.5 Million running cost of the Senate President and other senators as illegal.

The Senate President and other senators allotting to themselves the sum of N13.5 Million monthly runs afoul of the law and as such their act amounts to illegality, and is unconstitutional and unjustified.

Section 70 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) (hereinafter referred to as the Constitution) clearly provides that: A member of the Senate or the House of Representatives shall receive such salary and other allowances as the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission may determine.

SERAP is seeking the following reliefs:

A DECLARATION that the sum of N13.5 Million allotted to each senator per month as running cost aside their salaries and allowances is in breach of the provisions of section 70 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), and the Certain Political, Public and Judicial Office Holders Act.

A DECLARATION that the sum of N13.5 Million allotted to senators per month as running cost is illegal, unconstitutional and unjustified having regards to section 70 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), and the Certain Political, Public and Judicial Office Holders Act 2008 and the Appropriations Act.

AN ORDER directing the Defendants to stop allotting the sum of N13.5 Million to each senator per month as running cost, the said sum being illegal and unconstitutional.

AN ORDER compelling the 2nd Defendant to call for immediate investigation by the appropriate federal agency on the use to which the said sum was put to by the 1st Defendant and his colleagues.

AN ORDER directing the Defendants to make public the findings of the investigation by publishing same in at least two national dailies.

ANY ORDER(S) that the Honourable Court may deem fit to make in the circumstance of this suit.

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Home | News | General | Mission protests burning of Nigerian to death in South Africa

The Nigerian Mission in South Africa has written a letter of protest to South African Authority over the killing of another Nigerian, Mr. Clement Nwaogu, in Rustenburg, South Africa.

The Nigeria Consul General in Johannesburg, South Africa, Mr Godwin Adama, told Newsmen on telephone from Johannesburg, that the mission had waded into issues surrounding renewed xenophobic attacks on Nigerians

Adama who condemned the act of burning Nwaogu to death by a mob in the latest xenophobia attack in that country said that the Nigerian Mission in South Africa was on top of the situation

The High Commissioner has been on top of the situation, he has spoken with the Nigerian community sent the officers to calm down the situation.

Tomorrow morning we are meeting on the matter with him. In fact, he had written a letter of protest to the South African Authority and he is waiting for their response to see the next action to be taken on the matter.

We are working collectively as the two missions in the country so as to be on the same page over the incident, in reacting to the issues, he said.

He explained that the community, Rustenburg, had been a hot spot in recent time.

Adama said that 13 Nigerians, who protested the killing of a fellow citizen in Rustenburg in February, were arrested and charged to court for public disturbance.

He said that the mission had been going to court over the matter and had to be escorted by security due to threat

The community has vowed to deal with anyone who plays a positive role in getting the accused Nigerians return to Rustenberg, he said .

According to him the latest incident is apparently a reaction to their threat of dealing with any Nigerian that they find in their community.

They were having erroneous belief that some Nigerians were involved in drugs unfortunately the particular guy that was attacked was not involved in drugs he had his genuine business.

They went to his shop on that fateful day told him to bring the drug he was keeping, the guy said there was no drug in his shop that he was a genuine business man but they did not listen to him.

They attacked the guy, beat him to coma and set him ablaze but was taken to the hospital where he died later.

So it was going to generate a lot of issues and the mission had to intervened particularly the High commissioner, because each district is under the supervision of the high commission in Pretoria, he said.

While explaining that South Africa has been a very volatile country, he said that there was the need for Nigerians living in the country to be very careful and behave themselves so as not to fall victim

He expressed the hope that the new government in that country would take appropriate measure and meet with the relevant authorities to address the issue once and for all

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Home | News | General | Why does your Twitter bio begin with 'wife' - Adichie questions Hillary Clinton

- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has asked Hillary Clinton why her Twitter bio starts with 'wife'

- Adichie wondered why Clinton's husband's Twitter bio did not begin with 'husband'

- Clinton's response to this was that women should be able to celebrate both their accomplishments and their relationships

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the famous Nigerian novelist interviewed Hillary Clinton, the former United States presidential aspirant at a Pen World Voices Festival lecture at the Cooper Union in Manhattan on Sunday, April 22.

During the session, Adichie interrogated Clinton as to why she has her Twitter biodata beginning with the word 'wife', The Slot reports.

READ ALSO: Nigeria key to Africas prosperity, stability - US

Adichie said: In your Twitter account, the first word that describes you is Wife. And then I think its Mom, and then its Grandmother'. And when I saw that, I have to confess that I felt just a little bit upset.

And then I went and I looked at your husbands Twitter account, and the first word was not husband. "

To this, Clinton replied that women should be able to celebrate both their accomplishments and their relationships. She remarked: You know, at the end of the day, it wont matter if you got a raise, it wont matter if you wrote a great book, if you are not also someone who values relationships.

"It shouldnt be either/or. It should be that if you are someone who is defining yourself by what you do and what you accomplish, and that is satisfying, then more power to you. That is how you should be thinking about your life, and living it.

"If you are someone who primarily defines your life in relationship to others, then more power to you, and live that life the way Barbara Bush lived that life, and how proud she was to do it.

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"But I think most of us as women in todays world end up in the middle. Wanting to have relationships, wanting to invest in them, nurture them, but also pursuing our own interests."

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com reported that Adichie had dismissed quotes attributed to her concerning the Biafran agitation in some news websites.

On her Facebook page on Saturday, September 3, the famed writer stated that she did not say or write the words attributed to her.

Top 5 reasons Nigerian women are special - On NAIJ.com TV

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One killed, 19 injured in bustruck collision

One person was killed and 19 passengers were injured in a bus  truck collision at Syauli Bazaar along the NarayangadhMuglin route on Tuesday.
Home | News | General | Saraki's foundation launches Nigeria's first independent national research on cancer

- A report tagged 'Rapid Assessment of the Prevention and Control of Cancer in Nigeria' has been released

- The report was an initiative of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA)

- The report is the first independent national research on cancer provisions in Nigeria

The Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA) has released its ground-breaking Rapid Assessment of the Prevention and Control of Cancer in Nigeria report, the first independent national research on cancer provisions.

The study, led by the WBFA with support from an Amref Health Africa research grant and Takeda Pharmaceuti*al Company, comes on the heels of the launch of Nigerias Cancer Control Plan (NCCP) by the Federal Government earlier this month.

Cancer is responsible for 72,000 deaths in Nigeria every year, with an estimated 102,000 new cases annually.

Founder/President of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, Mrs Toyin Saraki at the event. Photo credit: WBFA

READ ALSO: Toyin Saraki calls for action on health policy at World Bank/IMF meetings in Washington

The WBFA, launching the report in Abuja last week, has provided a critical assessment of the needs and capacity of actors and stakeholders in the Nigerian health system to prevent and control cancers, while determining the specific gaps for cancer prevention and control. The report also presents recommendations to urgently transform cancer treatment in Nigeria.

The WBFAs findings highlight the challenge facing the battle against cancer in Nigeria, which has a severe shortage of health personnel for cancer care; a dearth of specialists in particular in rural communities; and a lack a well-coordinated chain of supply of drug and the requisite infrastructure.

The rate of 80% of patients who are at a stage of advanced disease at time of presentation leaves little hope for many, especially given the lack of functional radiotherapy machines and other tools for diagnosis and treatment.

Founder-President of the WBFA, Mrs Toyin Saraki, commented at the launch of the rapid assessment report:

This report provides all stakeholders with evidence for efficient frontline actions to prevent, detect, and treat cancer, across Nigeria.

It will allow stakeholders to harness our wealth of knowledge to key into the recently announced government policy for prompt actions across the nation.

We can also teach our people, and intensify citizen engagement in reducing high-risk behaviours, to be best positioned to detect cancers at an early stage when they are most successful and cost-effective to treat."

Receiving the report on behalf of the Federal Government, the minister of state for health Dr Osagie Ehanire noted: The research report's findings and stakeholders meeting aligns with the government's plans to strengthen the training of cancer-related health workers, improve infrastructure and service delivery for cancer prevention, treatment and palliative care.

We welcome the WBFA-Amref inter-sectoral collaboration, alongside its partnerships with local and global stakeholders in order to improve awareness and information on preventive practices, encouraging early diagnosis and management of all cancers."

NAIJ.com gathered that the research took place in 12 focal states, comprised of 6 geo-political zones, and at the 12 tertiary centres.

READ ALSO: Toyin Saraki calls for improved education and opportunities for girls, young women

Mrs Saraki is Founder-President of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA), special adviser to the Independent Advisory Group (IAG) of the World Health Organizations (WHO) Regional Office for Africa (AFRO), and Global Goodwill Ambassador for the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM).

As wife of Nigeria's Senate President, and in recognition of her longstanding high-level global health advocacy, Mrs Saraki is also chair of Nigerias Primary Health Care Revitalisation Support Group, which is co-chaired by House of Representatives members Honourable Chike Okafor and Honourable Mohammed Usman.

N1,500 for health of Nigerians on NAIJ.com TV

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Home | News | General | You can never attain Hillary Clintons level of achievement - Daddy Freeze tells Chimamanda

- Earlier on, Chimamanda Adichie caused quite a ruckus on social media after her interview with former first lady, Hilary Clinton, surfaced online

- According to reports, she expressed her disappointment at the fact that Hilary described herself as wife and mother on her Twitter bio

- Well, Daddy Freeze has more than a few words for her and they are not pretty

Decorated Nigerian author, Chimamanda Adichie, is back in the news and not for a book but for her strong feminist views. At the PEN World Voices Festival lecture, Chimamanda questioned Hilary Clinton's motive behind her Twitter bio. The renowned writer revealed she was upset by former US Presidential candidate usage of `wife on her Twitter bio.

Well, this caused quite a stir on social media as some people thought it was intrusive of her to question the woman's preferred choice of words to describe herself. One of such people who disagree with the Americanah writer is popular OAP and president of the 'Free the Sheeple' movement, Daddy Freeze.

In a very detailed letter directed at Chimamanda, he expressed his disappointment at her remarks and stated that she had no right to question how Hilary Clinton chose to describe herself, adding that she can never achieve what Hilary Clinton has achieved.

READ ALSO: Ex-BBNaija housemates: I cant be Miracles girlfriend - Nina reveals in new video interview

Sharing a screenshot of Barack Obama's Twitter bio in which he described himself as a father and husband, Daddy Freeze wrote: "Dear Chimamanda, I used to be a huge fan until I read your interview with Hillary Clinton. Now Im somewhere in the vesica pisces, torn between the enormous respect I had for the quality of your work and anger for what you are beginning to brandish.

Let me set the record straight, I am not a fan of Hillary Clinton, so Im not jumping in as her guardian angel. As a matter of fact, I completely disagree with most of the decisions she took while in office. Besides this however, woman to woman, what Hillary has achieved, in my opinion, you NEVER CAN, no be beans, so you suggesting how she should be addressed is what we Yorubas call Iwosi.

Even Obama refers to himself as a dad first, husband second, so whats your point exactly? Why cant Hillary be addressed as wife first, if she so chooses? Could your utterances be stemming from inadequacies you need to attend to? You might consider investigating this.Now, let me warn you, there are no dividing forces greater than color, race, gender and tribe. These factors continue to ensure humanity remains segregated. This table you are shaking has vast consequences even you didnt bargain for.

READ ALSO: 32-year-old man invents 20W machine that can charge mobile phones with just a bucket of water

People have been over the last two years, urging me to preach about Jesus being black and I never have, do you know why? Because I DONT CARE ABOUT HIS COLOR, its irrelevant, I care about HIS MESSAGE! In the same vein, I follow you simple because of your message, NOT BECAUSE OF YOUR GENDER OR COLOR OR TRIBE. So kindly keep the focus on the message, which in my opinion is excellent. Dont mar it by demarcating yourself into a gender, unless of course you are employing this as a marketing tool, which, please be warned, has its own repercussions! ~FRZ"

See post below:

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Home | News | General | We met on Instagram - Gbenga Daniels physically challenged sons fiancee shares their love story

NAIJ.com earlier reported that physically challenged son of ex-governor of Ogun state, Debola Irede Daniels, got engaged to his longtime lover and best friend Natasha.

According to Gistreel, Natasha disclosed that she attended the same university with Debola. That was not all, the beautiful Jamaican young lady also disclosed that she is so happy to be spending the rest of her life with her best friend.

Otunba Gbenga Daniels daughter-in-law to be also disclosed that although they met on social media but their friendship will soon metamorphose into a lasting union by the first quarter of 2019.

READ ALSO: Gbenga Daniel's son makes beautiful marriage proposal to his best friend

Read excerpts of the interview below:

Being Otunba Gbenga Daniels sons girlfriend, how does that make you feel?

To be sincere Im very nervous about the position. Im very new to seeing people, important guests coming around, its nice. It is amazing and an unbelievable experience, but Im sure Im going to get used to it.

Tell us how you guys met?

We went to the same University. We actually met on Instagram but we went to the same University, so we knew about each other. We became very good friends, we went to church together, play together, then it developed into something.

So what can you say about Debola?

Debola is the sweetest, kindest, most caring guy. Hes like an Angel, he stands out, hes funny, hes the best man Ive ever met in my life, hes lovely and hes my best friend.

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What should we expect from your relationship soon?

Well, he said, an Engagement is coming very soon. I thought that was meant to be a surprise because Debola told me you didnt know about it? I dont know, Im always surprised every day, every day he wakes up and he surprises me by saying something amazing.

How can you describe your father-in-law to be, Otunba Gbenga Daniel?

Hes very inspirational, hes kind, hes always happy, hes a family man and he has a large heart. Hes lovely. I cant wait to be part of the family. Debolas Mum too is lovely, I love her so much. I call her my mum.

Congratulations!

Omoni Oboli Interview: About the Nigerian Movie Industry | Star Chat - on NAIJ.com TV.

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Home | News | General | APC governorship aspirant, Babafemi Ojudu's campaign posters destroyed in Ekiti (photos)

The campaign posters and billboards of an APC Ekiti governorship aspirant, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, were destroyed in the early hours of Monday, April 23.

The posters were allegedly destroyed by one Abayomi Ogundipe, aka Agarawu, who is reportedly a follower of Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, a perceived friend of Ojudu and also a leader in the All Progressives Congress ( APC).

In a statement made available on Facebook, Chief Ranti Adebisi, the director general of Ekiti Rebirth Organisation, condemned the act which left billboards and posters costing several thousands of naira wickedly vandalized and destroyed.

READ ALSO: Breaking: Gunmen reportedly storm Benue church, kill 15 worshippers, burn 50 houses

He said: This is callous and unexpected from the camp of a perceived friend and a fellow party man.

Senator Babafemi Ojudu's campaign poster defaced. Credit: Facebook/Babafemi Ojudu

This is another campaign poster of the APC Ekiti governorship aspirant, Babafemi Ojudu, completely destroyed. Credit: Facebook/Babafemi Ojudu

The campaign billboard of Senator Babafemi Ojudu vandalised. Credit: Facebook/Babafemi Ojudu

Two campaign billboards of Senator Babafemi Ojudu destroyed and thrown on the ground. Credit: Facebook/Babafemi Ojudu

NAIJ.com gathered that Senator Ojudu is currently on tour of the 16 local government councils in Ekiti state to sensitise party loyalists for the pending party primaries slated for May 5, 2018.

Adebisi further warned the perpetrators of the act to stop or face reprisal act from Ojudu supporters.

His words: We have supporters, loyalists who believe so much in our course to the point of seeking reprisal. They are seeing MOBs posters littering all nooks and crannies of Ado Ekiti, the hometown of our Lead Compatriot (Ojudu). They know where his campaign office is located in the town. We are not afraid of battles.

We shall not be deterred. We will not do anything capable of bringing our dear party to ridicule. We will be civil, we will remain matured. We canvass our agenda and allow Ekiti people to decide.

But we have taken enough insults and we are not ready to take more. We will resist every action suggesting attempt to gag or intimidate us. We will not fold our arms and allow our energy, our hope for a better Ekiti, to be cut short by people pregnant with hate and aggrandisement. We will fight back if further troubled.

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However, we are calling on all aspirants to let us eschew bitterness and embrace peace in the ongoing struggle to liberate our state from the painful grip of our common oppressor. Ekiti people are looking unto us to liberate them from the current mess and take them to the Promised Land. We should show more commitment to the people and be selfless. It is in doing these that we can return leadership to our party and move on to develop our state.

NAIJ.com previously reported that Ojudu, who is also the special adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on political matters, promised to probe the administration of Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state, if he is elected governor.

Ojudu, who described the government of Fayose as a useless government, made the statement while declaring his interest in the governorship race.

During his declaration rally that was held in Ado Ekiti, Ojudu promised to touch many lives.

APC official tells why his party could be voted out in 2019 - on NAIJ.com TV

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Home | News | General | BREAKING: UI Senate advises 408 students to withdraw from institution

- The Senate of the University of Ibadan has advised 408 students of the institution to withdraw from the school

- The students were advised to withdraw for failing to meet the minimum academic requirements

- The deputy vice chancellor of the institution (academic) Professor Adeyinka Aderinto, said the school would not lower its academic standards

For failing to meet the minimum academic requirements, 408 of the University of Ibadan have been advised to withdraw from the institution by the Senate of the school.

The withdrawal of the students was ratified by the Senate at its meeting where results of graduating and no-graduating students were considered and approved, Punch reports.

NAIJ.com notes that most of the affected students were admitted to the school when the post-UTME test was not conducted because of opposition to the exercise in the 2016/2017 session.

READ ALSO: VIO operative reportedly brutalised by suspected Okada riders in Abuja

The deputy vice chancellor of the institution (academic) Professor Adeyinka Aderinto, said: The University of Ibadan will continue to uphold its standards despite dwindling funding to the university, by adhering to global standards.

I call on parents to monitor their children to ensure that those who have been asked to withdraw from the university do not lie and continue to extort money in the name of being a student at the university.

The conduct of UI Model of Post-UTME screening has helped to separate men from boys and helped the institution in maintaining its historical standards as a global brand. Being admitted to the UI is a privilege that requires students to be up and doing in their studies.

There are minimum academic requirements a student must meet at the end of the session and those who fall short of that would have to leave the university.

UI has been able to invent its own model of screening applicants and it has shown that those who we screened performed far better than those not subjected to our screening after taking JAMB.

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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that the University of Ibadan (UI) increased its fees for tuition and accommodation, for undergraduates at the institution.

The development was made public in a communique announcing the new fee schedule for the 2018/19 academic session, which was released on the schools website.

Parents advice government over ASUU strike - on NAIJ.com TV

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Home | News | General | We are doing everything to support human rights in Nigeria - US

- The United States Consul General, F. John Bray said Nigeria is the key of Africa's prosperity

- Bray also said the US would continue to support Nigerias democratic process

- He maintained that the US is doing everything to support human rights in Nigeria

The United States Consul General, F. John Bray, on Tuesday, April 24, said his countrys would continue to support Nigerias democratic process adding that the country is key to Africas prosperity and stability.

Punch reports that Bray said it is the belief of the US that If it does not happen in Nigeria, it does not happen anywhere on the African continent. If Nigeria waivers, everyone else will waiver.''

He said in his welcome remarks during the public presentation of Know Your Rights Nigeria, a user-friendly mobile application detailing the fundamental rights of Nigerians in English, pidgin, Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo languages.

READ ALSO: Identity of Nigerian man burnt to death in South Africa revealed as Ebuka Nwaogu

Bray said funding the application, which would make Nigerians know their rights, was an example of what the US is doing to support human rights in Nigeria. These inputs on human rights is a natural outgrowth of our natural values as Americans.''

The Leader of Constitutional Rights Awareness and Liberty Initiative, the designer of the application, Adeola Oyinlade, said the initiative was part of his pro bono efforts as a lawyer.

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Oyinlade noted that when he first conceived the idea, people told him he could make a lot of money from it, but he decided it should be a public-interest initiative.

He explained that not only will the application equip Nigerians with the knowledge of their rights, it also offers the services of 50 lawyers, who upon being contacted through the application, will render free legal advice.

He added that there is a section containing a list of agencies such as the National Human Rights Commission, Federal Road Safety Corps, Legal Aid Council, Nigerian Army Human Rights Desk, etc, which citizens could contact to lodge complaints about abuse of their rights.

In his keynote address, a senior advocate of Nigeria, Dapo Olanipekun, said fundamental human rights are not limited to those in Chapter 4 of the 1999 Constitution, but also the socio-economic rights enshrined in Chapter 2.

Olanipekun said, therefore, whenever citizens see a schools without chairs, and the like, they should regard it as violation of human rights.

According to him, ''If you have a right to live but cannot live well, theres no point living. Dont get carried away in the circus of advocacy but bring in policies that will make a change.''

Also present on the occasion was a former Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Lagos, Prof Oyelowo Oyewo.

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had reported that the United States said it is pleased with the way President Buhari is governing Nigeria.

The US said on Tuesday, May 9 that the agenda being pursued by the current administration were in line with its expectations.

Nathan Holt, the Deputy Director of Office of West African Affairs in the Bureau of African Affairs at the U.S. Department of State made the remarks on Tuesday from Washington, D.C. via teleconference on: Nigeria, a critical U.S. partner.

Buhari 2019 posters have flooded the streets; too early or too bad? - on NAIJ.com TV:

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Home | News | General | Plateau attacks: LG chairman advises IDPs to return home

Mr Tamai Simon, Chairman, Bokkos Local Government in Plateau, has advised people displaced by the recent attacks on villages in Daffo District, to return home.

Simon said on Tuesday in Bokkos that security men had been deployed to the affected areas to protect its inhabitants.

Thirty people were confirmed killed by gunmen that also burnt down many villages between March 8 and March 10, 2018.

Reports had indicated that thousands of people were displaced in the wake of the violence that hit Hotom, Maidunna, Ganda, Mborok, Farunhai, Ngakudung, Josho and Warrem villages.

While some of the fear-stricken villagers fled to Daffo, others ran to Bokkos where they took refuge in schools, Churches, uncompleted buildings or relations houses.

Last week, hundreds of women from the area protested alleged neglect of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), by the Plateau government, and described the conditions in the camps as horrible.

But Simon, who described the attacks as unfortunate, said that more security operatives, mostly anti-riot Policemen, had been deployed to the area to beef up the security.

Simon said that he had initiated monthly security meetings where stakeholders would discuss security matters so as to tackle emerging issues before they snowballed into a crisis.

He said that government had purchased some relief items to cushion the effect of the violence on the victims and assist them to settle down.

Mr Mallo Dauda, the District Head of Daffo, who also spoke, confirmed that relative peace had returned to the area, and advised the IDPs to return to their homes.

It has been difficult to convince the IDPs to return to their homes because they are still afraid, but we are doing our best to lure them back home and to their farms, he said.

Mr Terna Tyopev, spokesman of the Police Command in Plateau, who confirmed the deployment of some Mobile Police units to the area, equally advised the IDPs to return home.

We hope that with the deployment of more security men to the affected communities, the people will return home to continue their usual activities, Tyopev said. (NAN)

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Home | News | General | Row in House of Reps over $496m Super Tucano fighter jets

The House of Representatives plenary became a rowdy session this morning over calls for impeachment of President Muhammadu Buhari by a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, Kingsley Chinda.

House of Representatives: row over Super Tucano jets

The row was over the payment of $496 million to the United States Government by the Buhari administration for the much needed 12 Super Tucano fighter jets.

It followed the reading of President Buharis letter to the House of Representatives, by Speaker Yakubu Dogara.

Members of the both chambers of the National Assembly have been spoiling for a fight over the payment, which they contended was done in breach of the constitution.

The Pentagon last year August notified the U.S. Congress of the sale to Nigeria of the 12 Super Tucano A-29 planes and weapons worth $593 million, needed for the fight against the militant group, Boko Haram.

The package included thousands of bombs and rockets.

The sale was originally agreed by former President Barack Obamas administration but was put off by the Obama administration after incidents including the Nigerian Air Forces bombing of a refugee camp in January that killed 90 to 170 civilians.

But on 2 August, the deadlock was broken by the Pentagons Defense Security Cooperation Agency, when it announced that the sale would go ahead.

The Super Tucano A-29, an agile, propeller-driven plane with reconnaissance and surveillance as well as attack capabilities, is made by Brazils Embraer. A second production line is in Florida, in a partnership between Embraer and privately held Sierra Nevada Corp of Sparks, Nevada.

The Super Tucano costs more than $10 million each and the price can go much higher depending on the configuration.

It is powered by a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT 6 engine

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Home | News | General | Onnoghen updates President Buhari on activities of judiciary

Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Justice Walter Onnoghen, on Tuesday, updated President Muhammadu Buhari on activities of the nations judiciary.

Justice Walter Onnoghen and President Buhari

Onnoghen, who spoke to State House correspondents on the outcome of the closed door meeting with the President, said he kept the president abreast of latest developments in the judiciary.

He added that I am here to felicitate with Mr President.

As you are aware, he has just returned from the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting as head of Federal Government delegation and there is the need for regular interaction to keep him abreast of latest developments in the judiciary.

The CJN, who expressed satisfaction over the performance of judges in the fight against corruption, said the setting up of Commission for the Prevention of Corruption (COMPRECO) had assisted in this direction.

Onnoghen added that judges should not be blamed for the delay in dispensation of justice in the country.

He said: l believe that you know, with your experience of many years of practice that there has never been situation in which any case was taken to court and decided upon and the judge was not there to listen to the case or having finished hearing, he refused to deliver judgment.

So, when cases are not tried expeditiously and the judge is there, ready to listen to the case, you come and for one reason or the other, you take a date to adjourn the case, and the court grants the adjournment which is normal during proceedings, you cannot turn round and blame the judge for that.

These are basic things that everybody must know. We must all work together, cooperate for the system to move forward. But if you keep thinking that the judiciary is the culprit in this delay process, you are not telling the whole story.

It is not the judiciary that would go and arrest someone before looking for evidence; it is not the judiciary that would go into investigations.

We do not operate the inquisitional mode of justice as it is practiced by the French. Our own is that an independent body must investigate, prosecute, while the judge decides.

On creation of special courts for speedy dispensation of justice in the country, Onnoghen said it was not the responsibility of the office of the CJN or the judiciary to set up such courts.

According to him, it is the executive in conjunction with the legislature that has the prerogative of setting up special courts.

He, however, expressed the readiness of the judiciary to provide the necessary manpower and logistics for smooth running of such courts when established. (NAN)

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Home | News | General | Judges not cause of cases delay in courts  CJN

Says Executive, Legislature have right to establish special courts

By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen,

ABUJA  CHIEF Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Walter Onnoghen has exonerated Judges of being the sole cause of delay in court cases, saying that the responsibility of investigation and prosecution rest squarely with independent bodies.

The CJN who said that the responsibility of the judges was to decide on cases brought them also said that the establishment of special courts for speedy adjudication of special cases was the prerogative of the executive in conjunction with the legislature while the judiciary only provides the manpower to handle the special courts.

Onnoghen who fielded questions from the State House correspondents after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari under closed-doors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Tuesday, said it was unfair to blame judges for not expeditiously trying cases when judges were always seated and ready to listen to cases brought before them.

He explained that he was at the State House to facilitate with the President who had returned from the Commonwealth of Heads of Government Meeting, CHOGM, in London and also inform him on developments in the judiciary arm of government.

He said, I am here to felicitate with Mr. President. As you are aware, he has just returned from the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting at the head of federal government delegation and there is also the need for regular interaction to keep him abreast of latest development in the Judiciary.

On the claim that the Judiciary was not doing enough to ensure speedy trial of cases, the CJN said, Now, l believe that you know, with your experience of many years of practice that there has never been situation in which any case was taken to court and decided upon and the Judge was not there to listen to the case. , or having finished hearing, he refused to deliver judgement.

So, when cases are not tried expeditiously and the Judge is there, ready to listen to the case, you come and for one reason or the other, you take a date to adjourn the case, and the courts grants the adjournment which is normal during proceedings, you cannot turn round and blame the Judge for that.

These are the basic things that everybody must know. We must all work together, cooperate for the system to move forward. But if you keep thinking that the Judiciary is the culprit in this delay process, you are not telling the whole story.

It is not the judiciary that would go and arrest someone before looking for evidence, it is not the judiciary that would go into investigations. No, we do not operate the Inquisitional mode of justice as it is practiced by the French. Our own is that an independent body must investigate, prosecute while the judge decides.

He commended the judges for doing good jobs despite some pockets of blames, saying, So far, so good. Under the circumstances, l must admit that so far, so good.

It is in order to enable you know the workings of the system that l set up the COMPRECO ( Commission for the Prevention of Corruption) committee. All along, everybody is passing buck, left, right and centre. The prosecutor is saying, no it is not our responsibility, we are not the cause of the delay, the investigator is saying l am not the cause, the Judge will say, l am not the cause.

So, the people must know who is actually causing the delay, that is why l set up that committee. And it is made up of both the defense counsel, the prosecutor and the Judiciary under the NJC.

On the claims in some quarters that the judiciary was not on the same page with the executive in the ongoing fight against corruption, he said that the judiciary has good working relationship with other arms of government especially the executive in the fight against corruption.

He said, I have answered that before and l still say the same thing. We are on the same page with the Executive as well as the legislature. There are three arms of government and these three arms constitute the government. The government is not only the Executive neither is it the legislature but it is the embodiment of the three.

Also asked when special courts would be set up to try corruption cases, the CJN said, It is the Executive that has the prerogative in conjunction with the Legislature to establish courts under our constitution.

It is not the duty of the judiciary nor that of the Chief Justice of Nigeria. If a special court or any court for that matter the powers that decides to establish them, the Judiciary will run it by providing the manpower required to run it.

He said the judiciary was working hard to decongest the nations prisons in its prisons reforms even as he noted that the prisons were populated by awaiting trials inmates.

He said, You are seeing everything being done on the issue. Next week, we are continuing with our action. But there is something you should know about prison decongestion. Now there is the aspect about the constraints by the physical constraints in respect of the prison itself, how many people were to be contained in one prison, how many were there and how many are there now.

Secondly, you should also know that the actual prisoners are fewer compared with the total number you see there which is mainly awaiting trial and that is where the aspect where prison decongestion is working on and l can assure you that this is being handled.

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Police apprehend five men for attacking Mayur driver

Police have arrested five workers of Kavre Minibus Sewa Samitee for attacking the driver of a Mayur Yatayat bus in Kavre on Sunday evening.Deputy Superintendent of Police Mahendra Prasad Marasaini said the attackers were apprehended at the scene by the bus passengers and Sanga locals and handed over to the police.
Home | News | General | Breaking: Police move Melaye to Lokoja

*To be paraded among other arrested criminals today

By Joseph Erunke

ABUJA-SENATOR Dino Melaye, who was arrested Tuesday morning by operatives of the Nigeria Police drawn from its Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS,is at present being moved to Lokoja.

Senator Dino Melaye

The embattled senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District under the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, is expected to be paraded later this evening among other hardened criminals who implicated him in the crime that necessitated his arrest.

Vanguard learnt that the senator who was taken into SARS detention facility, located opposite the old Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN junction along the Area 1 expressway, Abuja, was moved out around 12 noon today in police vehicle heavily manned by SARS operatives.

The detention facility is where hardened criminals arrested for theft, murder, cultism and other criminal acts are kept.

Vanguard source in the police said the parade of Melaye and other criminal suspects among them the re-arrested suspects who had escaped from prison cell, is to be conducted by the Deputy Force Public Relations Officer, Aremu Adediran, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, DSP.

He is to carry out the parade assignment on behalf of his immediate boss, Jimoh Moshood, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, ACP, who is currently in China on a course.

Our source said before being moved out into the waiting vehicle for onward journey to his home state, Melaye was handcuffed to avoid possible escape from the security operatives.

Attempts for inquiry from the Force Headquarters deputy image maker were not successful as he refused to pick calls made to his known telephone lines.

Recall that the men of the Nigeria Police Force reportedly forcefully carried out the arrest of Melaye without arrest warrant or court order in the early hours of Tuesday.

Initial attempts were made by the police to arrest the senator after immigration officials disembarked him from a flight to Morocco on Monday morning.

Following his release after three hours detention at the immigration office at the airport, the lawmakers house was besieged by over 80 armed police men from Monday noon until the early hours of Tuesday.

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Home | News | General | 2019 Election: Why Im Not Desperate To Be Nigerias President  Atiku Opens Up To BBC

Chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, who will on Wednesday in London unveil his plans for Nigeria, has opened up to the upcoming 2019 general election.

While speaking in an exclusive interview during BBC Hausa morning programme on Tuesday, former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, said he is not desperate to become Nigerias president, come 2019, as some Nigerians have said.

If I am desperate, I wouldnt have stepped down for M.K.O Abiola in 1993 presidential race, he said, adding that if Nigerians could follow his political antecedent, they would not see him as a desperate politician.

He said further that In 1993, I contested with M.K.O Abiola. I later withdrew from the race. In 1999, I was elected a governor of Adamawa state, then invited to be Nigerias vice president, under Olusegun Obasanjo.

The influential politician and chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party said in 2007, he contested against former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, to show the world that I have the right to contest and I did that to satisfy my conscience.

All the times I have been contesting for the presidency, I have been opportune only once to be presented to Nigerians as a candidate, he said, adding that the remaining times, he ended up only at the primary election.

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I could have become Nigerias president in 2003 when virtually, all the state governors then, rallied support for me to contest which I declined. I am not desperate to be president as some Nigerians view it.

As a former vice president, I am opportune to know things. If I am opportune to be elected as a president, I will accomplish my mission by reviving the economy, by making Nigeria an investors haven.

The present administration discouraged investors into the country, because the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) exchange rate policies is too tedious for investors. CBN has three different exchange rate policies, which is not supposed to be.

If elected Nigerias president, I will expand the nations source of wealth to cater for the growing youth population in the country. Nigeria can justify my claims, going by the number of youth that are working in my industries across the country, he said.

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The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen, has stated that the judiciary is not to be blamed for the perceived slow dispensation of justice in the country.

Onnoghen, speaking with State House correspondents after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday, said the adjournment of cases is responsible for the delay in delivering judgement in cases.

He said, Now, l believe that you know, with your experience of many years of practice that there has never been situation in which any case was taken to court and decided upon and the Judge was not there to listen to the case, or having finished hearing, he refused to deliver judgement.

So, when cases are not tried expeditiously and the Judge is there, ready to listen to the case, you come and for one reason or the other, you take a date to adjourn the case, and the court grants the adjournment which is normal during proceedings, you cannot turn round and blame the Judge for that. These are the basic things that everybody must know. We must all work together, cooperate for the system to move forward.

But if you keep thinking that the Judiciary is the culprit in this delay process, you are not telling the whole story.

It is not the judiciary that would go and arrest someone before looking for evidence. It is not the judiciary that would go into investigations. No, we do not operate the inquisitional mode of justice as it is practised by the French. Our own is that an independent body must investigate, prosecute while the judge decides.

Justice Onnoghen, who said he was at the presidential villa to felicitate with President Buhari on his return from the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), expressed joy with the performance of judges.

The Commission for the Prevention of Corruption (COMPRECO) has enhanced the process of justice dispensation.

It is in order to enable you to know the workings of the system that I set up the COMPRECO (Commission for the Prevention of Corruption) committee.

All along, everybody is passing the buck. The prosecution will say it is not our responsibility, we are not the cause of the delay; the investigator will say I am not the cause; the Judge will say, I am not the cause. So, the people must know who is the cause of the delay. That was why I set up that committee. And it is made up of both the defence counsel, the prosecutor and the Judiciary under the NJC.

On whether the judiciary is on the same page with the Executive in the fight against corruption, he said: I have answered that before and I still say the same thing. We are on the same page with the Executive. There are three arms of government and these three arms constitute the government. The government is not only the Executive.

The CJN also spoke on the idea of setting up of special courts for corruption cases and congestion of prisons.

According to him, It is the Executive in conjunction with the Legislature that has the prerogatives of setting up Courts, including the Special Courts, under our Constitution and not the Judiciary. Once the Executive set up such Courts, the Judiciary will provide the manpower.

You are seeing everything being done on the issue of decongesting prisons. Next week, we are continuing with our action. But there is one thing you need to know. There is the physical constraint about the congestion itself.

How many were to be contained in a prison room and how many are there now.

Secondly, you should also know that the actual prisoners are fewer compared with the total number you see there.

This is where the issue of awaiting trial comes in and that is the aspect where prison decongestion is working on and l can assure you that this is being handled.
Gunmen suspected to be herdsmen have killed two priests at St. Ignatius Catholic Church, Ayar, Gwer east local government area of Benue state.

Moses Iorapuu, director of the Catholic archdiocese of Makurdi, confirmed the attack, blaming it on Jihadists.

The gunmen were said to have opened fire on the worshipers after invading the church around 5am on Tuesday.

Some worshipers were also killed in the attack while many sustained injuries.

The deceased priests were identified as Joseph Gor and Felix Tyolaha.

A witness told revealed that a mammoth crowd thronged the Bishop Murray Medical Centre, Makurdi, to witness the depositing of the remains of those killed.

He added that many houses were burnt by the attackers.

They (those killed) were brought in amid much wailing and sorrow from the crowd of mourners, he said.

The remains of the slain priests were an ugly sight to behold. Their killers butchered and mutilated their bodies hideously.

Some of the locals who escaped the attack and fled to Makurdi were among the crowd at the hospital. There is war right here in Benue.

Confirming the incident, Moses Iorapuu, Director of Communications, Catholic Diocese of Makurdi in a statement, called on the federal government to end the senseless killings in the state and the country at large.

He said the deceased were until their demise, serving at St. Ignatius Quasi Parish Ukpor-Mbalom.

In their classic style, they burntdown homes, destroy food items and kill. The police seem to know nothing of the attacks which have been going on in other villages within Benue State since the Anti-Open Grazing Law came into effect last year, Iorapuu said.

Moses Yamu, spokesman of Benue police command, could not be reached as of the time this report was filed as he neither responded to calls or text message.

The high rate of insecurity in Benue has been a source of concern to residents and the government.

All efforts to bring attacks under control have not yielded the desired result as there is hardly any week that killings are not recorded across the state.
Home | News | General | JUST IN: Saraki announces special panel to strengthen security in National Assembly

- Thugs stormed the Nigerian Senate chamber on Wednesday, April 18, and stole the mace

- The thugs allegedly sponsored by suspended senator, Ovie Omo-Agege, later dumped the Senate's symbol of authority by the road side

- Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, has constituted a panel to look into the invasion

Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, today, Tuesday, Monday, April 24, announced that the National Assembly will be constituting a joint committee of the Senate and the House of Representatives to investigate the invasion of the Nigerian Senate.

NAIJ.com gathered that the committee will also be tasked with coming up with recommendations that will ensure that such security breaches do not reoccur in both the Senate and the House.

Saraki urged security agencies to strengthen security in National Assembly. Photo credit: SP media team

READ ALSO: Senate Invasion: How Senator Omo-Agege breached NASS Powers and Privileges Act

We have also directed our security agencies, head of services and the Inspector General of Police to look at how to strengthen the security of the National Assembly to ensure that this kind of security lapses never occur again, Saraki said.

Saraki also commended the chamber staff of the National Assembly for their gallantry and courage during last Wednesdays invasion of the Senate by sponsored thugs.

His words: My Distinguished colleagues and I would like to thank the chamber staff for their gallantry courage during the invasion of the Senate Chamber on Wednesday, 18th April 2018.

We want to thank you immensely, particularly two of your colleagues, Chuks and Sandra, who have been admitted due to the invasion  we are happy to see them recovering and we wish them a speedy recovery.

We also want to thank everybody for the role that they played in defending the democracy in the country. We have also resolved to tighten the security of the National Assembly and we need the co-operation of all members of the public to please co-operate with us as we do this.

Saraki had last weekend visited the home of a female sergeant-at-arms officer, Sandra Davou, who got injured during the scuffle that occurred when the Senate was invaded.

READ ALSO: Saraki explains why Senator Omo-Agege was suspended

Saraki commended Davou and her colleagues who had put up a spirited fight to prevent the invaders from gaining access to the Senate chambers.

The Senate presidentwas accompanied on the visit by his deputy, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, Senator Isa Hamma Misau and Senator Baba Kaka Garbai.

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Home | News | General | OAU student appears before universitys panel, testifies against alleged randy professor

- Monica Osagie appears before a panel constituted by the Obafemi Awolowo University to investigate the allegation against Prof Richard Akindele

- Security operatives barred journalists and students from entering the venue of the sitting

- Nkechi Obiagbaoso says she and two other lawyers are standing for Monica

Monica Osagie, the student who alleged that Prof Richard Akindele at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun, demanded to sleep with her for marks has appeared before an investigative committee of the institution.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Osagie, a postgraduate student in the masters of business programme, had released a recorded telephone conversation, which went viral, in which the lecturer allegedly made the demand in return for marks.

The committee, which held its session at the pro-chancellors lodge on the campus, allowed only Osagie and her lawyer into the venue.

The report said journalists, students and some members of the National Human Right Commission who came to witness the sitting were not allowed into the venue of the sitting by security personnel of the institution who manned the entrance.

READ ALSO: Breaking: Again, SARS team reportedly arrests Senator Dino Melaye

The vice-chancellor of the university, Prof Eyitope Ogunnbodede, confirmed to journalists that Osagie was appearing before the committee.

Ogunnbodede, who spoke as though he was not aware that newsmen were already outside the venue, said that he could not disclose the venue of the sitting.

The lady is appearing before the committee. Members of the committee told me that the lady came and she is appearing before them but I cannot disclose the venue to you, the vice chancellor said.

Nkechi Obiagbaoso, a legal officer for Women Advocate Research and Documentation Centre, Abuja, said she and two other lawyers were present to represent Osagie.

NAN reports that Obiagbaoso, who spoke with newsmen outside the venue of the sitting, said that two of the lawyers were allowed into the venue of panel sitting while she was asked to stay outside adding that the former venue used for the investigation was changed because of the crowd that might be interested in the case.

Ogunnbodede had earlier confirmed the suspension of Akindele adding that he had received and considered the interim report of the committee set up to investigate the allegation of harassment revealed in the audio recording.

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Ogunnbodede also said that the female voice in the audio had been identified as that of Monica Osetobe Osagie, a postgraduate student in the Master of Business Administration regular programme.

The vice chancellor said that though the investigative committee invited both Akindele and Osagie, only the don had appeared before the committee.

The university is making efforts to ensure that Osagie appears before the investigative committee so that it can hear her side of the case and promptly submit its final report, he had said.

NAIJ.com earlier reported that Monica Osagie enied shunning an invitation by the panel probing the audio tapes of her conversation with Professor Richard Akindele, who allegedly demanded to sleep with her.

Osagie reportedly made the denial via her proxy, Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, the founder of Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre, a non-profit organisation.

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Home | News | General | Police move senator Melaye to Lokoja

- Dino Melaye, has been moved to Lokoja, Kogi state by the operatives of the Nigeria Police drawn from its Special Anti-Robbery Squad

- Melaye was moved to Abuja after being arrested by operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad

- There is a speculation that the senator is expected to be paraded among other hardened criminals

The embattled senator representing Kogi west senatorial district under the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Dino Melaye, has been moved to Lokoja, by the operatives of the Nigeria police drawn from its Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS)

Vanguard reports that senator Melaye who was taken into SARS detention facility, located opposite the old Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN junction along the Area 1 expressway, Abuja, was moved out around 12 noon today in police vehicle heavily manned by SARS operatives.

NAIJ.com gathered that the senator is expected to be paraded later this evening among other hardened criminals who implicated him in the crime that necessitated his arrest.

READ ALSO: Gunmen storm Benue church, reportedly kill 15 worshippers

According to a report from the police, the parade of Melaye and other criminal suspects among them the re-arrested suspects who had escaped from prison cell, is to be conducted by the Deputy Force Public Relations Officer, Aremu Adediran, a Deputy Superintendent of Police DSP)

He is to carry out the parade assignment on behalf of his immediate boss, Jimoh Moshood, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, ACP, who is currently in China on a course.

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The report also stated that before being moved out into the waiting vehicle for onward journey to his home state, Melaye was handcuffed to avoid possible escape from the security operatives.

Attempts for inquiry from the Force Headquarters deputy image maker were not successful as he refused to pick calls made to his known telephone lines.

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had reported that Melaye has been arrested by operatives of the SARS.

Melaye was arrested early Tuesday, April 24 and moved to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) Headquarters, Guzape, Abuja.

Melaye spoke in a telephone conversation sounding rattled, as background conversation suggested a struggle between him and some of the operatives after which his mobile lines were switched off.

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Melaye was said to have immediately jumped out of the vehicle, sustaining injuries in the process.

There was confusion and palpable power play on Tuesday afternoon in Lokoja, the Kogi state capital, following the arrest and possible arraignment of Senator Dino Melaye representing Kogi west senatorial district at the National Assembly.

At the police headquarters in Lokoja, the Deputy Police Public Relations Officer, Aremu Adeniran, who invited journalist said Melaye had been evading police arrest in the past weeks following his indictment by two suspects who implicated him on alleged gun running.

Consequent upon this, the DPPRO said the police declared him wanted but he, by himself, walked into the Police Force headquarters on Tuesday following the condoning off of his house by armed police men.

According to him, the lawmaker will be arraigned in court on Wednesday with other suspects to answer to charges leveled against him.

However, few minutes after the address of the DPPRO, a certain police legal officer told some journalists that Melaye had been arraigned and remanded by a Magistrate court.

When journalist made inquiries on which court he was arraigned, the officer gave a conflicting reports.

Meanwhile, Alex Izinyon SAN, who was cited at the police headquarters was approached by journalists for his reaction to know the whereabouts of Dino Melaye but he refused to make any comment and quickly rushed into the office of the Commissioner of Police.

We learnt that Mike Ozokheme SAN, one of Dino Melayes counsel, was on his way from Abuja to join Izinyon, who is rumoured to be the counsel to Mohammed Audu, who was also indicted in the alleged gun running saga.

After waiting endlessly for the senators arrival, newsmen visited some courts in Lokoja to ascertain whether he was secretly arraigned.

Meanwhile, it was observed that well-armed police men condoned major streets along the police headquarters and popular magistrates courts in Lokoja.
Home | News | General | 2019: Why President Buhari will win easily - Lai Mohammed

- Lai Mohammed said President Buhari will win 2019 election

- The minister of information said he is not worried out 2019

- He said the fight against Boko Haram insurgency has been difficult

The minister of information, Lai Mohammed has expressed optimism that President Muhammadu Buhari will win the 2019 elections.

The minister was quoted as saying this in an interview with Bloomberg, a software and media company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan

READ ALSO: .Senator Dino Melaye reportedly jumps off police van, lands in hospital

Mohammed said President Buhari was strong politically and will win easily.

He (Buhari) is very strong and well. I have never lost sleep over the re-election. Buhari will easily win.

On the fight against Boko Haram, the minister said the fight has been difficult because the insurgents were divided into factions.

He said: We are using third parties, including foreign parties, through backdoor channels. But the challenge is that there are many factions.

The talks are looking good. Some people will criticize this and say how about all those people they killed. But we cannot continue to be stranded in the past forever. We should think about the future, and want a peaceful future.

The issue is not ethnic or religious, but a problem of diminishing resources, a growing population and climate change thats dramatically reduced the size of Lake Chad and disrupted the economy in the region.

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Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari is to declare open the 61st meeting of the United Nations World Tourism Organization/Commission for Africa (UNWTO/CAF), scheduled for 4-6 June 2018 in Abuja, minister Lai Mohammed has said.

Mohammed, the information and culture minister, announced this in Abuja on Tuesday, April 10, when he paid an advocacy visit to his counterpart and head the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Mohammed Musa Bello, to intimate him with details of the forthcoming international event.

The honourable minister of the FCT is the minister of the host city. That makes it imperative for us to make his office our first port of call.

2019: Ahmed Buhari tells Nigerians he is the best option for president. Naij.com TV

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Home | News | General | Senator Dino Melaye hurts self as he jumps out of Polilce vehicle

SENATOR Dino Melaye, who was arrested Tuesday morning by operatives of the Nigeria Police drawn from its Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, reportedly jumped out of the moving police vehicle while he was being taken to Lokoja in Kogi state.

Dino Melaye jumped out of moving police vehicle conveying him to Lokoja.

Sources said police gave him the impression that he was being taken to Kuje prisons but the vehicle made a detour and headed for Lokoja

Dino Melaye in hospital

Dino Melaye after injuring himself was taken to Zanklin Hospital in Abuja.

Vanguard had reported that the police was to parade Melaye and other criminal suspects, among them the re-arrested suspects who had escaped from prison cell.

The Deputy Force Public Relations Officer, Aremu Adediran, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, DSP was supposed carry out the parade assignment on behalf of his immediate boss, Jimoh Moshood, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, ACP, who is currently in China on a course.

Our source said before being moved out into the waiting vehicle for onward journey to his home state, Melaye was handcuffed to avoid possible escape from the security operatives.

Attempts for inquiry from the Force Headquarters deputy image maker were not successful as he refused to pick calls made to his known telephone lines.

Also recall that the men of the Nigeria Police Force reportedly forcefully carried out the arrest of Melaye without arrest warrant or court order in the early hours of Tuesday.

But the police in a statement on Tuesday said that Senator Dino Melaye has surrendered himself to police to answer to criminal indictments levelled against him in a case of criminal conspiracy and unlawful possession of prohibited firearms, kidnapping, armed robbery, murder, political thuggery and other violent crimes in Kogi state.

The Police statement signed by SP Aremu Adeniran Deputy force public relations officer Force headquarters reads thus Senator Dino Melaye surrenders self to police to answer to criminal indictments levelled against him in a case of criminal conspiracy and unlawful possession of prohibited firearms, kidnapping, armed robbery, murder, political thuggery and other violent crimes in Kogi State

It would be recalled that working on actionable intelligence, the Kogi State Police Command personnel and Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad trailed and arrested two suspects KABIRU SAIDU a.k.a OSAMA 31 YRS and NUHU SALISU a.k.a SMALL 25 YRS on the 19th January, 2018 at Ogojueje in Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi State. During investigation, they confessed to the various criminal roles they played in the commission of several kidnappings and armed robbery in different towns across Kogi State and its environs for which they have been on the wanted list of the Police for more than two years now.

The gang leader KABIRU SAIDU a.k.a OSAMA revealed that he and his gang have been working as political thugs for one Alh. Mohammed Audu a Politician in the State and that Alh. Mohammed Audu invited him to Abuja and introduced him to Senator Dino Melaye and they met on Airport road, Abuja inside the Senator Dino Melayes Car in the month of December, 2017.

He further revealed that Senator Dino Melaye handed over a bag containing one (1) AK47 rifle, two (2) Pump Action guns and the sum of four hundred and thirty thousand naira N430, 000.00 to share with his boys.

Consequent on this indictment on the Senator, The Nigeria Police Force, sent a letter of investigation activities/invitation dated and acknowledged on 2nd March, 2018 addressed to the Senate President, Federal Republic of Nigeria informing and requesting him to release Senator Dino Melaye to report to the Police on the 7th March, 2018 to answer to criminal offences of Conspiracy and Unlawful Possession of Prohibited Firearms levelled against him, and another separate letter was equally written in this regard, this was to enable the Police Investigation Team carryout a discreet and thorough investigation into the case. But Senator Dino Melaye refused to honour the Police invitations.

Sequel to his refusal to honour Police invitations, he was therefore watch listed through the Nigeria Police INTERPOL Office and in compliance to the INTERPOLs Watch List, the officers of the Nigerian Immigration Service intercepted and collected his International Passport from him at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja. While this was on, he snatched the Passport from the officers at the Airport and bolted away to his house.

In furtherance to this, the Police obtained a warrant of arrest and trailed him to his house at Maitama, Abuja and cordon off the place. He however surrendered himself to the Police this morning, 24th April, 2018 for investigation on the allegations against him.

The Nigeria Police Force will continue to sustain the Rule of Law and maintain Law and Order throughout the Country.

Details later

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Preps begin for Modis visit starting May 11

Reciprocating high-level visits from Nepal and aiming to reset ties with Kathmandu, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is arriving here on May 11, his third time after taking office in 2014.
Home | News | General | Aregbesola has kept his promises- Ooni of Ife

The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II has commended Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun state for keeping his campaign promises to the people of Ife and the entire state in the past seven and half years.

Oba Ogunwusi described Aregbesola as someone who has the fear of God, hence the achievements that he has recorded.

The Ife monarch urged politicians to eschew politics of bitterness as the nation enters electioneering mode, beginning from elections in Ekiti and Osun this year and the general election next year.

The Ooni spoke on Wednesday when Governor Rauf Aregbesola and his team visited him ahead of the governors meeting with members of the All Progressives Congress (APC)in Ife Central/ East/ North/ South Federal Constituency.

The monarch commended the governor for the giant strides he has made in developing the state.

He asked him not to relent in developing the state until his last day in office.

Oba Ogunwusi called on members of the APC in the state to close ranks. He also called on Osun residents to embrace peace and ensure a violent free politicking.

Aregbesola has been faithful to his promises to the people of Osun and this is because he is a God fearing man and I commend him for this. Osun has no doubt thrived and developed under the administration of Aregbesola and this I am so proud of.

Aregbesola said all hands must be on deck at ensuring that there is continuity in the state by the succeeding administration in November to consolidate the developmental foundation that has been laid by his administration.

Aregbesola told APC members that he came to sensitise them ahead of the September 22 election in the state.

He urged members to remain firm when the party eventually picks its candidate for the election.

We are in the present situation due to the 16 years misrule of the PDP government. PDP bastardised every facet of our economy. It put a lot of burden on our nation which the present government has been working to tackle.

Nigerians are not surprised that PDP is not destined for good things and it can never do good things, no matter what, because it is characterised with bad people who do not have interest of the people at heart, he added.

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Home | News | General | FG to train indigent Ogonis on agro-business HYPREP

Dr Marvin Dekil, the Coordinator of Hydrocarbon Pollution and Remediation Project (HYPREP), says the Federal Government is to train indigent Ogoni women and youths on agro-business.

Dekil made the disclosure on Tuesday on the sidelines of a medical outreach held by HYPREP for indigent Ogonis in Ogale, Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers.

According to Dekil, the training exercise will be anchored and certified by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).

The Livelihood Restoration Programme (training) is a key recommendation of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Report on restoration of livelihoods of communities affected by hydrocarbon pollution.

We want to have world class training that would be certified by UNITAR. We are looking at a situation whereby the certification is valid in Nigeria and the world all over, he said.

Dekil also said that HYPREP had inspected Songhai Farm in Tai Local Government Area and other agricultural facilities to serve as training ground for the exercise.

The training is going to be under the framework of UNITAR. It will mainly be agro-based while we are also diversifying into other aspects.

Recently, the ambassadors of Norway and United States visited and we spoke at length about livelihood restoration. So, we are in active communication with the international community, he said.

Dekil said the exercise would commence in August in the four local government areas that make up Ogoniland.

He debunked claims that ongoing collation of data for disease trend in the area was politically motivated, saying that the exercise was part of recommendations of the UNEP Report.

Earlier, the Paramount Ruler of Ogale community in Eleme, Godwin Okpabi, expressed delight over the health outreach programme in the area.

Okpabi, who is a member of the cleanup Board of Trustees, said the current administration had shown commitment to the remediation of hydrocarbon impacted communities in Ogoniland.

I assure critics of the Federal Government that they will begin to see action now. People should be patient as the cleanup would soon commence, he said. (NAN)

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Home | News | General | Killing of Catholic Priests, worshippers satanic, despicable  Buhari

By Johnbosco Agbakwuru with agency report

ABUJA  PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has described as despicable and satanic the gruesome murder of Catholic Priests and worshippers at St. Ignatius Catholic Church in Ukpor -Mbalom community in Gwer East Local Government of Benue State.

President Buhari who also said the action of the murderers was sacrilegious in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Chief Femi Adesina in Abuja on Tuesday, said that those behind the act would be fished out to face the consequences of their wicked act.

He said, I extend my sincere condolences to the government and people of Benue State, the Mbalom community, and especially the Bishop, priests and members of the St Ignatius Catholic Church, whose premises was the unfortunate venue of the heinous killings by gunmen.

. Joseph Gor in white

This latest assault on innocent persons is particularly despicable. Violating a place of worship, killing priests and worshippers is not only vile, evil and satanic, it is clearly calculated to stoke up religious conflict and plunge our communities into endless bloodletting.

Stressing that the country will not bow to the machinations of evildoers, President Buhari vowed that the assailants would be hunted down and made to pay for the sacrilege committed

The Catholic Diocese of Makurdi confirmed the killing of two of its priests, Rev Fathers Joseph Gor and Felix Tyolaha, in an early hour attack on St Ignatius Quasi Parish, Ukpor, Mbalom in Gwer West Local Government Council of Benue.

A statement by its Director of Communications, Rev Fr Moses Iorapuu, said that the attacks were perpetrated by herdsmen who stormed the Mbalom community and killed the two priests during the morning mass at the church.

The Diocese expressed regret at the nonchalant attitude of the security agencies in containing the killings.

It said the herdsmen, who stormed the community, burnt down houses, destroyed crops and killed people.

The church, therefore, urged the relevant authorities to stop the killings in the Benue valley.

Iorapuu said the Diocese had been active in providing food and relief materials to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) since the onset of hostilities in the state and wondered why it could be marked as a target of attacks.

The attack on the priests is an attack on everything that we ever stood for and believed in.

Meanwhile, concerted efforts to get reaction from the Benue Police Command failed as its Public Relations Officer, ASP Moses Yamu, was not forthcoming with remarks.

Rev. Fr. Gor had before the attack written on Facebook; Living in fear. The fulani herdsmen are still around us in Mbalom. They refuse to go. They still go grazing around us. No weapons to depend on ourselves.

Herdsmen in the early hours of the morning attacked a Catholic Church and parishioners who went for 5.30 a.m. mass.

Reports say the bodies of the dead have been taken to St. Theresas Hospital Makurdi.

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Home | News | General | Killing of worshippers in Benue is vile, evil and satanic - President Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed condolence over the reported killing of 15 worshippers and two religious leaders by gunmen in Benue state.

The presidents condolence was published via his official Facebook page on Tuesday, April 24.

The government described the killing as despicable and unfortunate.

He noted that some persons were trying to stoke up religious crises.

He assured the people that the assailants will be caught and brought to justice

I extend my sincere condolences to the Govt and people of Benue State, the Mbalom community, and especially the Bishop, priests and members of the St Ignatius' Catholic Church, whose premises was the unfortunate venue of the heinous killings of worshippers and two priests by gunmen. This latest assault on innocent persons is particularly despicable.

Violating a place of worship, killing priests and worshippers is not only vile, evil and satanic, it is clearly calculated to stoke up religious conflict and plunge our communities into endless bloodletting.

I want to assure the people of Benue, and all Nigerians, that we will ensure that the assailants are apprehended and brought to justice for this vile and sacrilegious act.

NAIJ.com had reported that Suspected herdsmen have reportedly killed 15 people in an early morning attack on a Catholic Church in Benue state, on Tuesday, April 24.

The attack occurred in Ayar-Mbalom, a community in Gwer East local government area.

Terver Akase, a spokesperson to Governor Samuel Ortom, told Premium Times that the attackers also burnt 50 houses and sacked the entire community.

NAIJ.com gathered that the name of the church is St. Ignatius Catholic Church.

Confirming the attack, the Catholic Diocese of Makurdi said two of its priests, Rev Fathers Joseph Gor and Felix Tyolaha, were killed.

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Home | News | General | Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed appoints special assistant on Fulani affairs

- Kwara state governor has appointed a special assistant on Fulani affairs

- The SSG said the appointment was driven by Kwara governors commitment to ensure harmonious relationship between herdsmen and farmers

- He said the decision to appoint a special assistant on Fulani Affairs was reached at the enlarged meeting of the state Security Committee

The appointment of Abdul-Azeez Muhammad as special assistant, Fulani affairs, to represent Miyetti-Allah Breeders Association has been approved by the Kwara state governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed.

Premium Times reports that Isiaka Gold, Secretary to the State Government (SSG), disclosed this in a statement issued on Tuesday, April 24, in Ilorin.

Gold claimed that the appointment was driven by the governors commitment to ensure harmonious relationship between herdsmen, farmers and other segments of the society.

"Many states across the country have been ravaged by bloodletting in the wake of unending clashes between farmers and suspected armed herdsmen," he said.

READ ALSO: President Buhari reacts to killing of 15 worshippers in Benue church

The SSG also submitted that the appointment would also serve to ease communication between members of the umbrella body of herders, the Miyetti-Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), the government and local farmers in the state.

He also noted that the decision to appoint a special assistant on Fulani Affairs was reached at the enlarged meeting of the state Security Committee held recently, the news outlet reported further.

Going further, he congratulated the new special assistant, urging him to approach his new assignment with the diligence and dedication.

NAIJ.com had reported that the Kwara state government on Saturday, April 7, announced a reward of N5 million for anyone with useful information that can lead to the arrest of robbers who attacked five banks in Offa on Thursday, April 5.

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The governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, in a statement by his senior special assistant on media and communications, Muyideen Akorede, called on anyone with useful information on the incident to contact the state police command.

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Home | News | General | Breaking: Buhari approves appointments of 2 deputy DG for NIA

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday, April 24, approved the appointments of Ambassador Apollonius Demenongu Agev and Kio Solomon Benibo Amieyeofori as Deputy Directors-General (DDGs) at the National Intelligence Agency (NIA).

A statement by Olusegun Adekunle, permanent secretary (General Services) in the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), said the appointments are with immediate effect.

Adekunle added that the appointments are in fulfillment of Para. 4 (1) & (2) of the relevant Instrument establishing the NIA.

READ ALSO: President Buhari reacts to killing of 15 worshippers in Benue church

The Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (DGNIA), in line with the provisions of the Instrument under reference, will assign areas of responsibilities to the DDGs who will assist him in carrying out his functions as Director-General, he added.

Agev is from Benue state while Amieyeofori is from Rivers state.

NAIJ.com previously reported that President Muhammadu Buhari approved the appointment of Ahmed Rufai Abubakar as substantive director-general of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Punch reports.

The president approved the appointment on Wednesday, January 10, and the development was made public by Femi Adesina, his special adviser on media and publicity.

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In a statement released, Adesina stated that the appointment takes effect immediately.

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Home | News | General | This is an impeachable offence - PDP Reps member reacts to withdrawal of $462m for fighter jet

- Kingsley Chinda called for the impeachment of President Buhari

- The PDP reps member said the action of the president was against the law

- It led to a rowdy session and the Speaker had to intervene

Kingsley Chinda, the Chairman House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts has said that President Muhammadu Buhari has committed an impeachable offense by approving the withdrawal of $462 million to pay for 12 Super Tucano jets.

The president had approved the withdrawal of the fund from the Excess Crude Oil account to be paid to the United States government.

READ ALSO: President Buhari reacts to killing of 15 worshippers in Benue church

He later sent a letter to the National Assembly that the decision was taken without their approval because the deadline given would have elapsed.

The Punch reports that Chinda said the action of the president was unacceptable and impeachable.

He said: This matter ($462m) came up last week. Today, Mr. President has admitted that the expenditure has already been incurred.

We are supposed to be a watchdog, but as it is, we cannot bite. This is an impeachable offence and there is no misconduct that is more serious than this.

I propose that we commence the impeachment of Mr. President, based on this infraction.

This reportedly caused a rowdy session and Speaker Yakubu Dogara had to intervene.

NAIJ.com had reported that President Buhari wrote a letter to the National Assembly, explaining why he approved the withdrawal of $462 million from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) for the procurement of 12 Super Tucano aircraft from the United States government without getting approval from NASS.

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However, the letter also exposed false claims by a presidential aide who said Buhari had not ordered the withdrawal of $1 billion from the ECA to procure arms to tackle Boko Haram insurgents in the northeast and that until he got approval from NASS, he would not take such action. The aide made the claim on April 9.

NAIJ.com gathers that Buharis letter was only written on April 13, and received in the Office of the speaker of the House on April 17; and showed that the president had already given anticipatory approval for the withdrawal of the sum of $496,374,470 (N151,394,421,355) from the ECA for the purchase of 12 Tucano aircraft from the U.S.

He is also requesting that the amount be included in the 2018 Appropriation Bill currently being finalized by NASS.

Nigeria is practicing Oligarchy (Nigerian Street Interview) - on NAIJ.com TV:

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Home | News | General | Fayoses brother defects from PDP to Action Democratic Party

- Olanipekun Oluwayose, the half brother to Governor Ayo Fayose has defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the Action Democratic Party

- Oluwayose said he was leaving PDP due to the alleged failure of his brother during his tenure

- He also described Fayoses continuity of endorsing his deputy, Prof. Kolapo Olusola, as an attempt to prolong the sufferings of Ekiti people

Governor Ayo Fayoses half brother, Olanipekun Oluwayose, on Tuesday, April 24, defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the Action Democratic Party (ADP).

He said he was quitting the PDP due to the alleged failure of his brother during his tenure, adding that the state was now poorer.

Oluwayose, who shares the same father with the governor, formally announced his defection in his hometown, Afao-Ekiti, Irepodun-Ifelodun Local Government Area, as ADBs governorship aspirant, Segun Adewale, visited the community.

READ ALSO: President Buhari reacts to killing of 15 worshippers in Benue church

Oluwayose also described Fayoses continuity agenda of endorsing his deputy, Prof. Kolapo Olusola, as an attempt to prolong the sufferings of Ekiti people and hold them in serv*tude.

He said his conscience could not be reconciled with the directionless situation facing the state.

How can I ignore the pains that unpaid wages have brought on our people? If we want a better society, we must not let our relationship allow us to hold us back from standing by what is right.

My decision to dump PDP for ADP is borne out of my patriotism for an Ekiti that works for everyone.

 Ekiti is in shambles and we must embrace the right ideas that can take us out of the current economic and social doldrums.

Let me make something clear here, I think today is the first time Im meeting him (Adewale) but I have heard a lot about his capacity and resolve to turn a hopeless situation into an endless opportunity.

We need someone of his standing to bring to bear his experience and discipline to the resuscitation of our social and economic values, he said.

Oluwayose also pledged his commitment to the success of Adewales aspiration in Afao-Ekiti and the state as a whole during the July 14 poll, vowing to resist any attempt to manipulate the votes of the people.

Welcoming the defector and his supporters to ADP, Adewale said the party would provide good governance, create jobs and attract investment to Ekiti while making it a model state.

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NAIJ.com previously reported that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) special ward congress to elect delegates to vote at the governorship primary which was conducted in Ekiti state on Saturday, April 21, was marred by violence and malpractices.

Vanguard reports that some hoodlums allegedly beat up former Ikere local government chairman, Banji Aluko.

Aluko was accused of working against Ikere Agenda by the thugs who reportedly flogged him with canes and sticks that were loaded inside a mini bus parked opposite the election venue at Odo Oja area of the town.

Governor Fayose warns Nigerian youths ahead of 2019, tells them what to do - on NAIJ.com TV

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Home | News | General | Tension in Abia as coalition commences recall of Senator Abaribe

- The recall process for Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe has reportedly commenced

- This was announced by a group under the aegis of Coalition of Abia South Senatorial Movement (CASSM)

- The group said the senator who represents Abia South senatorial district, has failed in his duties

A group under the aegis of Coalition of Abia South Senatorial Movement (CASSM) has announced that it has commenced the recall process for the senator representing Abia South senatorial district, Enyinnaya Abaribe, for failing in his duties as a senator.

Speaking to members of the group at Osusu hall in Aba, the commercial city of Abia state, the leader of the group, Prince Paul Ikonne stated that as a group, they have the right to vote for whoever they choose and be voted for in any election.

He lamented that because of the inept representation of the Senator Abaribe who have not done well since he became a senator representing them, the process of his recall begins now.

Senator Abaribe has been very vocal recently in the Senate. Photo credit: The Guardian

READ ALSO: Saraki announces special panel to strengthen security in National Assembly

His words: Senator Abaribe was sent to the Senate by us to make good laws and attract projects that will help to improve both lives and infrastructural development of our area but what we are getting is a total and colossal failure from him.

In that regard, we have no other option than to commence his recall process as all necessary forms will be filled by everyone needed to do that and as a law abiding citizens we are following due process to do what we are doing.

This is not a political party or organization though political parties which its members are from the zone are here with us as it is a project that concerns all, we have PDP, APC, APDP among others are with us in this recall process.

Ikonne who distributed the recall process forms to party and ward leaders urged them to take the forms home and give same to their people, expressing confidence that once the people see the forms, they will key into the process.

Enough is enough as all the six local government areas that make up Abia South senatorial district are in support of the recall process, they are Aba North, Aba South, Obingwa, Ugwunagbo, Ukwa East and Ukwa West council areas, he added.

Also commenting, Chima Enwereuzo a PDP member from Ukwa West council area, said they are recalling Senator Abaribe because he has not being representing them well at the Senate.

On his part, a member of Advance People Democratic Party (APDP), Nwobodo Nwanganga, said they were at the meeting to commence the recall process for Abaribe for failing to make good laws and attract projects to their district.

Nwanganga noted that after going to other senatorial districts in the state and seeing what his colleagues have done for their people, I feel ashamed and short changed which is the reason for my support for his recall.

He said that he has made many efforts to call the senator on phone, but he has this ugly habit of not picking your calls and when you persist in calling, he will switch off his phone probably to avoid being disturbed.

Similarly, an APC member from Obingwa where Abaribe hails from, Barrister Daniel Nweze said the senator needs to be recalled as they did not send him (Abaribe) to the Senate to insult President Muhammadu Buhari.

He however added that they will follow due process in recalling Senator Abaribe.

READ ALSO: Court gives Abaribe, others 7 days to account for Kanus whereabouts

Two weeks ago, the plenary session of the Nigerian Senate became rowdy after Senator Abaribe described President Muhammadu Buhari as incompetent.

Abaribe made the comment when he raised a point of order citing Order 43 to make reference to the conflicting reasons given by high security personnel in the current administration for the herdsmen/farmers clashes.

Kogi West senatorial district to recall senator Dino Melaye from the Nigerian Senate on NAIJ.com TV

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Home | News | General | Nigeria police fail to parade Dino Melaye as Senator jumps out of moving vehicle

- Despite initial speculation, the police have failed to parade Senator Dino Melaye who was alleged supply to have supplied arms to two criminals

- Senator Dino Melaye who had earlier today submitted himself to the police had already been declared wanted by the police

- This was said to have followed his refusal to honour police invitation to defend allegations against him

- He was also alleged to have jumped out of a moving police vehicle when armed policemen were taking him to Lokoja to face trial

The Kogi state police command has on Tuesday, April 24, failed to parade Dino Melaye, the embattled Senator representing Kogi West over allegation of supplying arms to criminals.

Mr Aremu, the deputy force public relations officer, force headquarters, Abuja, told journalists in Lokoja that the senator was in police custody in Abuja, The Nation reports.

This came after allegation that Dino Melaye jumped out of a moving police vehicle when armed policemen were taking him to Lokoja to face trial for supplying arms to two thugs.

READ ALSO: President Buhari reacts to killing of 15 worshippers in Benue church

Recall that Senator Dino Melaye was declared wanted by the police following his alleged refusal to honour police invitation to defend allegations of illegal arms possession leveled against him by two suspected criminals.

The duo were paraded by the police in Lokoja.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) had reported that Nigerian Police on Tuesday in an earlier statement had broken their silence on Melaye, since his arrest and release on Monday by the Nigerian Immigration Service at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport and the police later cordoning off his Maitama home in Abuja.

READ ALSO: President Buhari reacts to killing of 15 worshippers in Benue church

In a statement, the police said they obtained a warrant of arrest and trailed Melaye to his house at Maitama, Abuja, which they cordoned off.

He however surrendered himself to the police this morning, April 24, for investigation on the allegations against him, the statement read.

It would be recalled that working on actionable intelligence, the Kogi state police command personnel and federal special anti-robbery squad trailed and arrested two suspects Kabiru Saidu (Osama) and Nuhu Salisu (Small) on January 19, at Ogojueje in Dekina local government area of Kogi state.

"During investigation, they confessed to the various criminal roles they played in the commission of several kidnappings and armed robbery in different towns across Kogi state and its environs for which they have been on the wanted list of the Police for more than two years now.

The gang leader Kabiru Saidu (Osama) revealed that he and his gang have been working as a political thug for one Alh. Mohammed Audu a politician in the state and that Alh. Mohammed Audu invited him to Abuja and introduced him to Senator Dino Melaye and they met on Airport road, Abuja inside the Senator Dino Melayes car in the month of December, 2017.

He further revealed that Senator Dino Melaye handed over a bag containing one (1) AK47 rifle, two (2) pump action guns and the sum of four hundred and thirty thousand naira N430, 000.00 to share with his boys.

Consequent on this indictment on the senator, the Nigeria police force, sent a letter of investigation activities/invitation dated and acknowledged on March 2, addressed to the Senate president, Federal Republic of Nigeria informing and requesting him to release Senator Dino Melaye to report to the police on the March 7, to answer to criminal offences of conspiracy and unlawful possession of prohibited firearms levelled against him, and another separate letter was equally written in this regard, this was to enable the police investigation team carryout a discreet and thorough investigation into the case. But Senator Dino Melaye refused to honour the police invitations.

Sequel to his refusal to honour police invitations, he was therefore watch listed through the Nigeria Police Interpol Office and in compliance to the Interpol s watch list, the officers of the Nigerian Immigration Service intercepted and collected his International Passport from him at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja. While this was on, he snatched the Passport from the officers at the Airport and bolted away to his house.

NAIJ.com had reported that Melaye was arrested by operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).

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Melaye whose residence was besieged on Monday, April 23, by security agents was again arrested early Tuesday, April 24 and moved to the SARS Headquarters, Guzape, Abuja, which Vanguard says is located just opposite the old Central Bank of Nigeria junction along the Area 1 expressway.

Kogi West senatorial district to recall senator Dino Melaye from the Nigerian Senate on NAIJ.com TV.

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RPP central member Paudel arrested for fraud

Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) central member and an operator of networking company has been arrested on the charge of fraud.
Home | News | General | Edo tech-based teaching: Pilot teachers applaud scheme

Special Adviser to Edo State Governor on Basic Education and Acting Chairperson, State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Dr. Joan Osa-Oviawe, has said teachers in the pilot technology-based teaching method were picked after a rigorous selection process before their deployment to schools for Information Communication Technology (ICT) enabled learning.

Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, with primary school teachers who were trained on the use of Information and Communication Technology for teaching, during the launch of Edo Basic Education Sector Transformation (Edo-BEST) programme in Benin City, recently.

Speaking with journalists in Benin City, she said teachers, who were trained in the first phase of Edo Basic Education Sector Transformation BEST (Edo BEST) programme, were selected from 300 primary schools across the state, noting, These include teachers who demonstrated competence and ability in deploying new method of classroom management and techniques using the devices.

Some of the teachers who participated in the training applauded the scheme and described it as world class and an opportunity to refresh their skills set.

Mr. Omonghibo Precious, a teacher from Ujielu Primary School, Ewossa in Igueben Local Government Area, said the training was timely as the education sector was overripe for overhauling, noting, The scheme will improve the basic education sector for children.

Mr. Ogbeide Sunday from Ogiesomwan Primary School in Uhunmwonde Local Government Area, said the two weeks training afforded him the chance to be part of the transformation of the basic sector of education. He said the scheme will improve teaching and learning outcomes in classrooms.

Mrs. Oriakhi Irene, from Iyenuroho Primary School in Ikpoba-Okha Local Government Area, said the scheme has prepared her to contribute to advancing the quality of basic education in the state.

Osa-Oviawe said, At the end of the training session, teachers were shared into three categories. The first category includes those who displayed competence and ability to use the devices for teaching and were given the devices. The second category include teachers who are yet to master the use of the devices for teaching. This set of teachers will be retrained, at a date to be announced later.

The third category includes teachers who are competent but are the only ones from their schools. They will be merged with other schools where the devices would be deployed for teaching.

She said, The devices will be used in primary one, two and three in the pilot schools, where the devices would be deployed. Schools where the devices will be used must have three or more teachers including the head teacher who must have participated in the training.

Explaining that no form of competency test was conducted for teachers, Osa-Oviawe said, Teachers deployed represent those who were certified by the trainers to be competent to participate in the pilot phase of Edo-BEST programme. There was no competency test for teachers who participated in the Edo-BEST training workshop. The method of evaluation was micro-teaching where the teachers used the devices to display what they learnt during the two weeks training session.

Dr. Osa-Oviawe assured participants in the training will be paid by the state government.

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Home | News | General | Melaye never avoided arrest  Melayes aide

Mr Gideon Ayodele, the Special Adviser (Media) to embattled senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District, Sen. Dino Melaye, said the lawmaker never evaded arrest by the police.

Melaye

Ayodele in statement in Abuja on Tuesday said: for the avoidance of doubt, Sen. Melaye had never evaded police invitation before now because there was none extended to him in the first place.

Rather, what the Police Force Public Relations Officer Mr Jimoh Moshood had been doing was to summon the senator through media briefings, a practice unconventional.

Newsmen report that the Nigeria Police had on Monday laid siege at residence of the lawmaker.

However, a statement earlier on Tuesday quoted the police as saying that Melaye as law-abiding citizen voluntarily submitted himself to operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) who laid siege to his private residence since around 3.35 p.m. of Monday, April 23, 2018.

The statement added that he (Melaye), along with his lawyers and personal aides, were driven in his private car to the SARS office in Guzape district of Abuja, among numerous police vehicles earlier deployed to his house.

With the media hype the whole saga generated especially his unwarranted travails in the hands of Immigration officials at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja on Monday and the attendant but dramatic police siege to his private residence thereafter, it became necessary for Melaye to end the drama, hence his choice to appear before the police.

Melayes aide said we are constrained to make the record straight sequel to avalanche of calls by well-meaning Nigerians and supporters.

NAN

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Home | News | General | How Dino Melaye escaped and how we rearrested him - Police

- Explanation has been given by the police on the tactics employed by Senator Dino Melaye to escape from lawful custody

- Hoodlums and miscreants are said to have orchestrated the Kogi senator's escape

- He was traced to an Abuja hospital where he was subsequently rearrested, the police said

The Nigerian police have have explained how embattled senator, Dino Melaye, escaped from police custody and how he was rearrested immediately.

In a press statement made available to NAIJ.com, Force public relations officer, ACP Jimoh Moshood said the senator representing Kogi west escaped from a lawful custody when hoodlums and miscreants in two Toyota Hilux vehicles blocked the police vehicle conveying him around Area 1 Round About, Abuja.

READ ALSO: President Buhari reacts to killing of 15 worshippers in Benue church

He said the senator jumped out of the vehicle in the process and was traced to an Abuja hospital where he was rearrested.

"At about 1200Hrs of today Sen. Dino Melaye while in lawful custody of the Nigeria Police Force and being taken for arraignment in Federal High Court, Lokoja from Abuja, escaped from lawful custody when hoodlums and miscreants in two Toyota Hilux vehicles blocked the police vehicle conveying Senator Dino Melaye around Area 1 Round About, Abuja and in the process the senator jumped out of the police vehicle through the window and was rescued from the police men by hoodlums and miscreants to an unknown destination.

"The police team re-enforced and trailed Senator Dino Melaye to Zankli Hospital, Abuja where he was re-arrested. The senator would be arraigned in court without further delay.

"Meanwhile, one of the Toyota Hilux vehicles used by the hoodlums and miscreants in aiding the escape of the senator has been recovered by the police investigation team.

"The inspector general of police has therefore directed a thorough investigation into the circumstances leading to the rescue and escape of Senator Dino Melaye from lawful custody," the statement read.

NAIJ.com had earlier reported that the Kogi state police command on Tuesday, April 24, failed to parade Dino Melaye, the embattled Senator representing Kogi west over allegation of supplying arms to criminals.

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Mr Aremu, the deputy force public relations officer, force headquarters, Abuja, told journalists in Lokoja that the senator was in police custody in Abuja.

Kogi West senatorial district to recall senator Dino Melaye from the Nigerian Senate on NAIJ.com TV.

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Home | News | General | Dino Melaye did not evade arrest - Aide reveals what happened

- Senator Dino Melaye was re-arrested by police after he reportedly tried to escape

- His aide however said he did not evade arrest in the first place

- He claimed the police has been inviting him via press releases

Gideon Ayodele, the special adviser (Media) to embattled senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District, Senator Dino Melaye, said the lawmaker never evaded arrest by the police.

Ayodele in statement in Abuja on Tuesday, April 24 said: for the avoidance of doubt, Sen. Melaye had never evaded police invitation before now because there was none extended to him in the first place.

READ ALSO: President Buhari reacts to killing of 15 worshippers in Benue church

Rather, what the Police Force Public Relations Officer Mr Jimoh Moshood had been doing was to summon the senator through media briefings, a practice unconventional.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Nigeria Police had on Monday laid siege at residence of the lawmaker.

However, a statement earlier on Tuesday quoted the police as saying that Melaye as law-abiding citizen voluntarily submitted himself to operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) who laid siege to his private residence since around 3.35 p.m. of Monday, April 23, 2018.

The statement added that he (Melaye), along with his lawyers and personal aides, were driven in his private car to the SARS office in Guzape district of Abuja, among numerous police vehicles earlier deployed to his house.

With the media hype the whole saga generated especially his unwarranted travails in the hands of Immigration officials at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja on Monday and the attendant but dramatic police siege to his private residence thereafter, it became necessary for Melaye to end the drama, hence his choice to appear before the police.

Melayes aide said we are constrained to make the record straight sequel to avalanche of calls by well-meaning Nigerians and supporters."

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Meanwhile, the Nigerian police have explained how embattled senator, Dino , escaped from police custody and how he was rearrested immediately.

In a press statement made available to NAIJ.com, Force public relations officer, ACP Jimoh Moshood said the senator representing Kogi west escaped from a lawful custody when hoodlums and miscreants in two Toyota Hilux vehicles blocked the police vehicle conveying him around Area 1 Round About, Abuja.

He said the senator jumped out of the vehicle in the process and was traced to an Abuja hospital where he was rearrested.

Kogi West senatorial district to recall senator Dino Melaye from the Nigerian Senate on NAIJ.com TV.

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Home | News | General | Modular refineries will create massive jobs in Niger Delta says Ex-PENGASSAN

BY JIMITOTA ONOYUME

Former national president, Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN Dr Brown Ogbeifun in this interview encouraged the quick take off of modular refineries in the Niger Delta , saying it would create over twenty jobs across the region. According to him, before the refineries would take off Excravos, Koko, Sapele, Burutu ports in Delta state would be dredged, noting that this would step up employment opportunities for teeming youths in the region .

Excerpt:

Brown Ogbeifun

Lets here your take on modular refineries and its impact in the Niger Delta region

The reason I support modular is because of the devastatng effect of vandalism, stealing of crude from pipelines that stretches through kilometers to get to their end points which it would redress. . Modular refineries will come closer to the source of raw materials, you are not likely to use long stretch of pipelines that will be vandalized. But this will require federal government to ensure our waterways, ports are back because you will need to do a lot of dredging. Modular refineries are small refineries to provide few stock to a dedicated target. When the waterways and ports are back the vessels can come closer to the refineries. When you refurbish Koko, Gelegele, Ports, Warri ports this will enhance the refineries. And the dredging will mean thousand of job opportunities for youths in the region.

When we have modular refineries in an area it will create jobs for people around. people will be trained in the art of refining , the local content law that encourages engagement of locals for certain jobs will come in force. It will also help us deal with the environmental hazards from attack on oil facilities, illegal bunkering activities

Vice President, Prof Yemi Osibanjo during a tour of the region as Acting President said international oil companies should relocate their headquarters to the region. Any word for the region?

There are so many factors for the pronouncement of the Vice President, Professor Osibanjo to IOCs when he toured the region to come on stream . The governments of states in the region need to also see what they can do to be more friendly, these companies are in business. Any oil and gas person is in business to make money. They go through a lot of unsecured environment. If you want to pull people back to the region you must be ready to guaranty security.

Again the companies are facing multiple taxation, from the local government to the states it is not something that is easy for the multinationals, that is why we are talking of the Petroleum Indusry Bill, to harmonize the taxes, so it is not about a marching order from the presidency. You must have an environment that is safe , economically viable and conducive for their operations.

Government at all levels must go beyond lip service. Warri used to be the hub of activities for shell. Government must go beyond lip service. When they were divesting from shallow waters, land, I am sure more than sixty percent of their assets were given out. What would stop the governor of the state from intervening. If they are here our children will have job. This would have made the economy of the state bubble. This would reduce the level of unemployment, insecurity in the region. We lost it because they just folded their arms and allowed it to happen.

Lets hear your assessment of the amnesty program for ex militants in the Niger delta

Let us go the memory lane and ask how militancy started, it may be my own opinion with all I have read and seen and from the angle of the oil and gas sector. Militancy has three dimensions we need to look at them so we dont get wrong answers.

Militancy started with agitations for a better Niger delta, here is a region that is underdeveloped yet you have most of the resources of the nation from the region. The boys in the creeks are seeing what the elites are doing with their wealth from the region through illegal bunkering . it is not a poor man who could afford badges and military excorts for the badges on the waterways for illicit oil deals. The people in the communities were seeing it so the boys were relatively angry.

Also you look at the political elites that have used some of the boys for electioneering purposes abandoning the boys without means of livelihood. So they go back to the creeks. The third aspects is that there are those that are into criminality but powdered as militancy. You can see the genuine agitation for resource control, those used and dumped by politicians and the criminals in the system. It became a little bit more difficult as they progressed to identify who is who

Whether we like it or not the region has suffered a lot of underdevelopment because the money that is taken from the region is not commensurate with the development in the region. Go to Norway they have a museum, that has become a tourist attraction on how they started, the money has been used to improve education, heath in the country as a whole, the area where the oil is from has become a tourist attraction.

You talked about the amnesty, I think it was President Musa Yar Adua that came up with it. The very bad state of having assets of companies destroyed in the region. The creek is not where you can use military operations. Dialogue becomes the appropriate approach. In all states in the world with similar problems you do a lot of mediation. Amnesty in this sense was not a bad concept. When it started you saw the mop of arms , it reduced the level of criminality in the region. Our oil production went up.

However, the implementation became a little bit faulty. The real resource control foot solders that were there in the creeks could not be said to have formerly benefited as a whole, people who did not know why and where militancy started became the beneficiaries , relatives were brought in. it became cumbersome, suddenly the budgets could not carter for those it should , that is the truth . I believe that scrapping the amnesty program is not a solution, , we have to define it properly. Again I do not believe that amnesty is forever. Today we have youths who graduated from aviation schools that are pilots and several other programs in the Universities it shows that the guys are intelligent.

If we do the amnesty program well and concentrate on the militants , I am sure today we would have had just a few left. Because most of them would have been empowered to work. We have not been able to deal with the militancy because of the sharp practices mentioned.

Any word for the youths as a labour leader?.

Militancy or resource agitations should not connote destruction of national assets because the more you do the more you deploy money needed for other developmental purpose to fix the assets. For example three or four times the Excravos line that supplies crude to refineries are blown this happens almost yearly. The money to repair it should go to other areas. The only way is to have platforms were people can bare their minds. So our youths should embrace dialogue to arrive at solution to issues of underdevelopment in the region.

The environment is badly hampered by exploration activities, you talk of black sooth it is real,. You have your first rain of the year in the region, you can see the hydrocarbons as black as they are in your buckets and people inhale this on a daily basis. Dr Brown Ogbeifun The thing we need to do as a nation is to have a regulatory framework to reduce gas flare. We have paid too much lip service to ending gas flare. The people dont have water to fish any more. We should also discourage attack on oil facilities, the region is suffering it. The environment suffers.

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Home | News | General | IGP orders probe of Dino Melayes escape from Police custody, re-arrest

The Inspector-General of Police Ibrahim Idris has ordered probe of escape and re arrest from custody Senator Dino Melaye.

Melaye-being-taken-into-Zankli-Hospital-Mabushi-Abuja

ACP Jimoh Moshood Force PRO, Force HQ, Abuja in a statement said the Inspector General of Police has directed a thorough investigation into the circumstances leading to the rescue and escape of Senator Dino Melaye from lawful custody. 

He said that Dino Melaye on Tuesday at about 12 noon while in lawful custody of the Nigeria Police Force and being taken for arraignment in Federal High Court, Lokoja from Abuja, escaped from lawful custody when hoodlums and miscreants in Two (2) Toyota Hilux Vehicles blocked the Police vehicle conveying Senator Dino Melaye around Area 1 Round About, Abuja and in the process the Senator jumped out of the Police vehicle through the window and was rescued from the Police men by hoodlums and miscreants to an unknown destination.

He further said that the Police team re-enforced and trailed Senator Dino Melaye to Zankli Hospital, Abuja where he was re-arrested.

The he said would be arraigned in court without further delay.

Meanwhile, one of the Toyota Hilux vehicles used by the hoodlums and miscreants in aiding the escape of the Senator has been recovered by the Police investigation team

On Monday no fewer than 15 armed policemen on Monday, laid siege to the Abuja residence of Sen. Dino Melaye.

The armed men who barricaded the street leading to the lawmakers house on Sangha Street, Maitama, Abuja were strategically positioned in and around the premises.

Addressing journalists at the venue, the Senate Minority Whip, Sen. Philip Aduda, condemned the development.

He said he had visited the house in order to report back to the presiding and principal officers of the Senate.

Aduda said, some of us came here with a view to reporting to the presiding officers and principal officers on what we have seen.

I will report appropriately on what I saw, but I dont believe this should happen.

Also speaking to newsmen, Mr Frank Tiete, a lawyer and Executive Director of Citizens Advocacy for Social and Economic Rights, condemned the siege.

Why insist that he should go to Kogi . Interestingly, the element of the allegations against him was more in Abuja, so what is the interest in taking this man to kogi.

As far as I am concerned, we have only one Nigeria Police. If he is willing to go to the Force Headquarters, why fault that. Allow him to go and submit himself.

He does not believe he must be taken to kogi where his life is not guaranteed and that is the first fundamental right of a man. He

wants to be sure he is protected, he said.

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Home | News | General | 2019: Im not desperate to be Nigerias president  Atiku

Former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has said he is not desperate to become Nigerias president, come 2019, as some Nigerians have said.

Atiku-Abubakar

If I am desperate, I wouldnt have stepped down for M.K.O, Abiola in 1993 presidential race, he said.

Abubakar, who stated this in an interview with BBC Hausa morning programme, yesterday, said if Nigerians could follow his political antecedent, they would not see him as a desperate politician.

In 1993, I contested with M.K.O. Abiola. I later withdrew from the race. In 1999, I was elected a governor of Adamawa State, then invited to be Nigerias vice president, under Olusegun Obasanjo, he said.

The former vice president said in 2007, he contested against former President Olusegun Obasanjo, to show the world that he had the right to contest, stressing that he did that to satisfy his conscience.

He said: All the times I have been contesting for the presidency, I have been opportune only once to be presented to Nigerians as a candidate, he said, adding that the remaining times, he ended up only at the primary election.

I could have become Nigerias president in 2003 when virtually, all the state governors then, rallied support for me to contest which I declined. I am not desperate to be president as some Nigerians view it.

As a former vice president, I am opportune to know things. If I am opportune to be elected as a president, I will accomplish my mission by reviving the economy, by making Nigeria an investors haven.

The present administration discouraged investors into the country, because the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) exchange rate policies is too tedious for investors. CBN has three different exchange rate policies, which is not supposed to be.

If elected Nigerias president, I will expand the nations source of wealth to cater for the growing youth population in the country. Nigeria can justify my claims, going by the number of youth that are working in my industries across the country.

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Home | News | General | Disgraced OAU professor failed me for rejecting sex demands  Monica Osagie

Miss Monica Osagie, the victim in the sex-for-marks scandal at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, has told an investigative panel that the disgraced Professor Richard Akindele deliberately failed her because she refused his sexual demand.

Monica Osagie

She said she did not score 33 per cent as the lecturer claimed, but was failed so that she could bow to his sexual demand.

Monica said this today when she appeared before the panel, her lawyer Dr Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi told newsmen.

Osagie had appeared before the committee set up by the institutions authorities in company of her counsel.

Osagie, a student in the Masters of Business programme, released a recorded telephone conversation, which went viral, in which the lecturer identified as Akindele, demanded five rounds of sex to enhance her marks.

The committee, which held its session at the Pro -Chancellors Lodge on the campus, allowed only Osagie and her counsel into the venue.

Journalists, students and some members of the National Human Rights Commission who came to witness the sitting were not allowed into the venue by security personnel of the institution who blocked the entrance.

Akiyode-Afolabi, who spoke with newsmen after the closed door session which lasted more than seven hours, said Osagie told the panel that she passed the course but was later failed by the don because of her refusal to sleep with him.

She said that Osagie narrated in details what transpired between her and the don, adding that lawyers present at the meeting were not allowed to make any contribution.

Akiyode-Afolabi , who is the Executive Director for Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre, Abuja, said that Osagie also informed the panel that she recorded the conversation between her and the professor as an evidence.

She said Osagie also informed the panel that she reported the sexual harassment by the don to some lecturers in the university, adding that no action was taken by them.

Akiyode-Afolabi said some lawyers who represented the lecturers to whom Osagie claimed she reported the case, also appeared before the panel.

She said that Osagie also told the panel that she did not score 33 per cent as alleged but was failed so that she could bow to the sexual demands of the don.

Akiyode-Afolabi said she was optimistic that the outcome of the investigative panel would serve as a lesson to other lecturers who also engage in such act.

She, however, urged the panel to ensure that justice prevailed on the issue so as to maintain the integrity of the institution.

Akiyode-Afolabi, who did not allow Osagie to talk to newsmen, said her client would always be available to give evidence whenever she was called upon.

Members of the panel did not also speak with newsmen after the meeting.

NAN recalls that a recorded audio conversation of the don demanding for sex to increase the marks of the female postgraduate student had gone viral.

The audio recording generated reactions from a cross-section of the public, making the university authorities to set up an investigative panel.

NAN also recalls that the vice chancellor, Professor Eyitope Ogunbodede on Friday confirmed the suspension of Akindele.

Ogunbodede, in a statement, said he had received and considered the interim report of the committee set up to investigate the allegation of sexual harassment revealed in the audio recording.

The vice chancellor said that though the investigative committee invited both Akindele and Osagie, only the don had appeared before the committee

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Home | Politics | Breaking: Senator Dino Melaye reportedly jumps off police van, lands in hospital (photos)

Senator Dino Melaye has reportedly been rushed to the hospital after allegedly jumping off a moving police van that was conveying him to a court in Lokoja, Kogi state.

According to an eyewitness, this incident happened around Area 1 roundabout in Abuja on Tuesday, April 24.

READ ALSO: Breaking: Gunmen storm Benue church, reportedly kill 15 worshippers

Senator Dino Melaye in hospital. Credit: Facebook, Sumner Shagari Sambo

It was reported that the Kogi senator was injured from the impact and was rushed to Zankli hospital in the Mabushi district of Abuja

Dino Melye being attended to by medical personnel. Credit: Facebook, Sumner Shagari Sambo

Daily Trust however in their own report claimed Senator Melaye escaped police custody after some thugs loyal to the Kogi senator allegedly whisked him away.

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They claimed the suspected thugs in two Hilux pick up double-crossing the police escort jerked up Melaye and threw him into one of the van and speed off.

NAIJ.com had reported that Melaye was arrested by operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that it received information that Melaye whose residence was besieged on Monday, April 23, by security agents was again arrested early Tuesday, April 24 and moved to the SARS Headquarters, Guzape, Abuja, which Vanguard says is located just opposite the old Central Bank of Nigeria junction along the Area 1 expressway.

Nigeria Breaking news: 50-year-old man inseminates daughter, blames the devil | Naij.com TV

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Source: Naija.ng

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Traffic police officer throws acid on woman

Ratnanagar police have arrested a traffic police officer in Chitwan district for stalking and throwing acid on a married woman he desperately wanted to marry.Sub-Inspector (SI) Ramchandra Khaniya, posted at temporary traffic police post in Ratnanagar, threw acid on Kalpana Shrestha, 28, in Bharatpur Metropolitan City-10 on Sunday.
As a parliamentarian, he was an effective prolific debater second to non. Those who worked with him in parliament will attest that he had a way of persuading people without causing conflict. A gentlemen, a good man and a kind heart, and always used logic of the questions of "how and why'. He always made people feel like they came up with the idea and yet never took credit for it." Patrick Zhuwao even stated in one his WhatsApps messages. "He is too too loyal to MDC" He summed him up.

He is man who loves the people, the country and the MDC. He even called twice for Morgan to resign because Morgan had lost his way, indecisiveness, chauvinism and overstaying in office. A brave feat no one dared to do. To him, Morgan was a fighter but he was not braver than all others in the movement. Controversially, he didn't kiss ass and stated that Morgan left the struggle and ran away to Botswana leaving supporters to languish. Chamisa and Mafa Sibanda were the only two that called an action to the streets when Mugabe was refusing to release the 2008 election results. Tsvangirayi wanted to wait and give Mugabe a chance and two months later, MDC got rigged. Morgan allowed Mugabe to run unopposed thereafter. This made Sibanda very passionately angry, and the party had already fractured once after 2005 and he wanted it to stay intact.

Sibanda also detested the personalization of the MDC logos with Tsvangirai's face. "A movement is for all people!" he wrote an opinion why Morgan had to go after 18 years of leadership. Hate him, love him, He was right. Morgan was in office surpassing five British premiers. Khupe 15 years followed suit and yet these great leaders lacked that final push needed to dislodge Zanu PF; yet they clinged to power as if it was God given and not people driven.

The more he pushed, Morgan relegated him to the province far away from the presidium. Then the plot thickened with grand plans to do away with Sibanda altogether. At that time, Sibanda was now pushing for young blood, specifically that of Chamisa be placed at the top leadership. Sibanda saw a Machiavelli in Chamisa, Chamisa didn't see Sibanda that way. In 2013, Chamisa and Khupe teamed up and removed Sibanda from the Magwegwe MP post by using fraud and busing people from other districts to vote in Magwegwe primary. Sibanda still won when the results were announced. Gabuzo and Komichi where there, snatched the trays and ran to Khupe's office and announced in the dark that Sibanda had lost to Annele Ndebele, an implant from another district. Sibanda remained loyal to the movement, he was not done.

This year, 2018, he is back with his mentee, Machiavelli, Pastor Chamisa. He is running for re-election after handing Bulawayo favorably, being the only one to bravely announce it to Chamisa over Khupe. Yes, all others were scared to do that and many were still in Khupe's camp. Had the plot failed, Mafa Sibanda was going to be in the back kitchen washing dishes again.

"Has Chamisa talked to you after all this help to him in ascending to the top office?", I asked. "Not much. He is a busy man" Honestly, I do not think Chamisa thinks much of Sibanda other than an old man who needs to be retired. Chamisa wants his friend to be VP and he will likely wait to announce till after the elections and that way he won't face any backlash from the Bulawayo and matabeleland family that are demanding Sibanda for VP.

The Matebeland people always feel used by MDC-T and they get the most seats and still get no recognition, especially the hardest workers like Sibanda. Last week article on Zimeye and BYO 24 detailed how Sibanda made the 7th April White City rally a reality but was never even allowed to seat at the stage. He was with the people in the crowd. Recently, we have witnessed Zanu PF erstwhile rivals like Baskiti get seats at the table and lately, the absconder, Tafadzwa Musekiwa who ran away from Zimbabwe and spent 15 years from the struggle into the cushy life of UK and now always being given 10 minutes rally speaking time on all campaign stages. Mafa Sibanda, a well known orrator in all Zimbabwean languages being forced to retire at 67? I wonder. This MDC is all about positions and not skill.

Musekiwas is now an imposed constituent MP slatted to compete without having a primary. Meanwhile Sibanda is battling it out in Magwegwe constituency with Anele Ndebele and Eric Gono who where spotted with Khupe and Bhepe at back door meeting at Cape to Cairo Pub on 7th April 2018 at 7 PM. What were they doing with Khupe if they're with the MDC Chamisa movement? "How do you feel about all this sir" I asked. "I will win because I have the whole city behind me." He shrugged it off

'Will you run for president at the 2019 congress ass people are demanding if Chamisa does not name you VP?" I asked. He laughed and asked back, "You are kidding me right?"

Who is Felix ?

Let's start here - https://soundcloud.com//oral-history-trade-unionism-felix-

Felix Magagela Mafa Sibanda is a name synonymous with the struggle for freedom in post independent Zimbabwe. He is indeed a man who has royalty in his blood, a trade unionists, a teacher, a politician, human rights activist and a unifier par excellence.

Felix's lineage starts in Zululand where his great great grandfather Masonginyoka traveled with king Mzlikazi as his personal doctor. His grandfather Tshokomela was also king Lobengula's personal doctor. Tshokomela then gave birth to Felix's father I Maphahla who was nicknamed Mafa Sigodo meaning the heir. Thus Felix Mafa or Ilifa became the heir. This royalty propelled him into doing outstanding things for his community and country at large.

Felix Magagela Mafa Sibanda was a trade unionist who became the first black Zimbabwean to organize a national Civil service strike in independent Zimbabwe. In 1981 Felix organized a strike which was aimed at better wages and working conditions including fighting for the right to pensions and medical services.

In an Oral testimony making rounds being recounted by a Gogo Makhubhe a radio and TV host who is a retired teacher, she almost comes to tears narrating her testimony on how Felix offered his life as a sacrifice to the riot and police instead of arresting and killing pregnant and civil servants. "Mr. Mafa told everyone to lie down in their bellies. He climbed the tree and shouted to the police to leave them alone and kill him instead for he was responsible for all that was happening". According to Gogo, 181000 civil servants attended from rural areas and as far as from Bulawayo, Karoi and many places using busses. Many were arrayed and some died after tear gassing and beating. The prisons were filled up and up to thousands detained for two days. The strike was joined by miners and sanitary workers halting the cities forcing the government increase pay from $68.00 to $128.00.



Felix continued to press government for better working conditions. He was president of Zimbabwe Teachers Union for many years. The strike was declared illegal and Felix was arrested and fired from the Civil service for organizing the strike even though he was later reinstated and charges dropped.

Teachers are not made but they are born. Felix was born a teacher and he is a holder of a diploma in education and a bachelor of education degree both from the University of Zimbabwe. He also holds a masters degree in political sciences from UNISA, Law and human rights (paralegal) certificate, conflict resolution management, by the legal resources foundation(LRF) He taught in many schools and even managed to groom politicians also.

Felix Magagela Mafa Sibanda is a politician who stood for the Glen View constituency in 1985 under a PF ZAPU ticket after being asked to do so by Joshua Nkomo himself. His Glen View house went on to be burnt by ZANU PF thugs. He was chased from Harare to Bulawayo. In Bulawayo Felix under the MDC ticket became a Member of Parliament of Magwegwe constituency in the seventh Parliament of Zimbabwe. He assumed this political office in September 2008. His involvement with MDC has never faulted since its formation and has been a very loyal Cadre.

In 1987 Felix's eldest son Canaan Mafa, a former ZIPRA combatant was abduct by ZANU PF Fifth Brigade and drowned in the might Zambezi River. This drove Felix to become an outspoken human rights activist advocating for the stopping of Gukurahundi atrocities. He eventually founded the Post Independence Survivors Trust, a pressure group to find justice against Gukurahundi perpetrators and healing for the victims.

Having walked a long journey filled with challenges and upheavals Felix Magagela Mafa Sibanda sibanda has remained focused and continues to for a better Zimbabwe for everyone regardless of race and origin. It is indeed befitting for him to be considered for the vice presidency of the MDC. This appointment would fuse youth and old age into the leadership of this political organization.

MDC as an organization would benefit a lot from Felix Magagela Mafa Sibanda's wisdom, experience and age and help to stabilize this party and make it a party for the future and of all ages. He has has held several deputy posts including NCA, ZimRights and Advocacy chair. Mafa enjoys overwhelming support and respect in the rural Matebeleland. A key ingredient for drinking out the vote in the watershed election.

Mafa Sibanda has a rural home in Membesi, 45 km from Bulawayo.

"Mafa sibanda's heart is genuinely to do what's right for the people and he is incorruptible" summed Gogo Makubhe.

henerimadiro@gmail.com. He writes in his own opinion based on his research on the iconic Felix Magalela Mafa Sibanda's life.
Home | World | Africa | Shamu accused of attempting to destabilise Zanu-PF

Emotions ran high during the Zanu-PF Mashonaland West Provincial Coordinating Committee (PCC) meeting in Chinhoyi, with Provincial Minister of State, Webster Shamu being accused of attempts to destabilise the party.

Shamu however did not attend the meeting, where members sought explanations on how the Commissariat Department confirmed some individuals deemed ineligible to participate in the intra-party elections set for this coming Sunday.

The meeting also called for the censure of Provincial Affairs Minister, Webster Shamu, whom the house accused of destabilising the party by allegedly setting up candidates to contest against the Chief Advisor to the President, Chris Mutsvangwa in Norton Constituency and Provincial Chairperson, Ziyambi Ziyambi in Zvimba West Constituency.

The meeting also sought an explanation from Minister Shamu why Ziyambi was on Independence Day barred from sitting at the high table yet he was the only cabinet minister attending the celebrations at Chinhoyi Stadium.

"He is the one fighting the entire Chegutu, in Norton, he is giving people cash amounting to $100 per person. The Provincial Chairperson was victimised four days ago. What is so special about Shamu," queried Rickson Zuze.

"Mutendereki has two years and three months in the party but is being allowed to contest in Norton while the constitution clearly states that a candidate should have served the party for at least five years in the district level. What is really happening?" asked Sheila Mabasa.

Both Mutsvangwa and Ziyambi made a commitment to engage the Commissariat Department and even the Politburo over the issues raised during the PCC.

Mutsvagwa further dug into Minister Shamu, accusing him of misleading the President in Kariba on 28 march , after allegedly advising him that there were no people to address at Nyamhunga Stadium, yet the stadium was full.

The president however went ahead to address the party supporters at the venue.

"We will carry your concerns to the Commissariat and the Politburo. I don't know why the resident minister is not here with us. In Kariba, Minister Shamu lied to the President that there were no people in the stadium, while it was full," said Mutsvangwa.

"We will take your concerns forward,'' said Ziyambi.

Zanu-PF holds its primary elections next Sunday ahead of the harmonised polls set for July or August.

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Home | World | Africa | Charumbira vies for PAP presidency

SADC has endorsed the candidature of Senator Chief Fortune Charumbira for the Pan African Parliament (PAP) presidency, amid calls for member states from the Central African region to adhere to the principle of rotational leadership and swerve away from dictatorial tendencies.

The elections are due next month and Central Africa region has held the presidency on several occasions and the current President, Roger Nkodo Dang of Cameroon has been at the helm of the organisation since 2015.

Speaking in Harare during the presentation of the SADC candidate, Chief Charumbira, SADC Regional Caucus Campaign Manager, Mr McHenry Venaani, said it time the PAP presidency goes to either SADC or North Africa, in line with the AU principles of rotational leadership.

"Looking at the last two presidents, one is from Nigeria and the incumbent from Cameroon, meaning that if the AU principles are to be followed, it SADC's turn," said Mr Venaani, adding that SADC is fully behind the candidature of Chief Charumbira.

The decision by SADC resonates with a deliberate push for the upholding of the AU regional leadership rotational system which is threatened by the attempt to have Mr Nkodo Dang re-elected yet SADC and the Northern African region are still to have a bite of the cherry.

The Speaker of the National Assembly, Advocate Jacob Mudenda said the government is equally in support of Chief Charumbira's candidature and has set aside financial support for the campaign.

Chief Charumbira comes with a wealth of experience having been within the PAP since its inception in 2004.

He has extensive experience working for large multinational institutions such as the World Bank and Price Waterhouse and Coopers and has for the past 17 years been a member of Zimbabwean Parliament.

Meanwhile, African diplomats accredited to Zimbabwe have been implored to rally behind Chief Charumbira as he will be able to transform the institution into a viable organisation.

The call was made in the capital by the Chairperson of the Southern African Region Caucus and Zimbabwe's First Lady, Auxillia Mnangagwa as the nation canvasses for SADC's turn at the helm of PAP.

Dean of the Diplomatic Community, Ambassador Mwanananga Mawapanga said Chief Charumbira's strengths over and above educational and professional qualifications as a traditional leader brings with him a wealth of experience which will benefit the continent as it seeks to retain its originality.

PAP was supposed to have attained legislative powers five years after inception, but has not achieved that.

Instead, it exercises oversight and has advisory and consultative powers lasting for tenures of five years in office.

It is headquartered in Midrand, South Africa and has not been very visible.

Among its functions, PAP must implement policies and objectives of the AU, cultivate human rights and democracy in Africa and engender peace, security and stability on the continent.

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Home | World | Africa | Chiwenga threatens 'war' and 'violence'?

NURSES dismissed by the government last Tuesday for striking have accused Vice President Constantino Chiwenga of threatening them with "violence and war" before ejecting their leaders from a negotiation meeting, NewZimbabwe.com reported.

This is according to an urgent High Court chamber application seeking an interdict to stop the Vice President from terminating nurses' contracts and recruiting new nurses to replace them.

In an application filed Friday, the Zimbabwe Nurses Association said Chiwenga had threatened their leadership with violence and war during a meeting and ejected the union's president from the meeting.

The nurses want the High Court to restrain and interdict the HSB, Parirenyatwa and Chiwenga from terminating their services at state-run hospitals; and in the event that the respondents proceed with the termination of the employment contracts, the termination be declared null and void.

The nurses, represented by Precious Chakasikwa and Bernard Chidziva of Kantor and Immerman Legal Practitioners, also cited the Health Services Board, Health and Child Care Minister David Parirenyatwa, along with the Vice President, who signed the dismissal letter in his capacity as chairperson of the cabinet cluster on social services.

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The 77-year-old grandmother of Nikita Lewis, Hilda Rhoda Isaacs, says she has forgiven the man accused of murdering her granddaughter.

An emotional Isaacs testified in the Cape High Court this week about her granddaughter's last days before she was killed, allegedly by her Zimbabwean boyfriend Lloyd Simbarashe.

Isaacs told the court of her last interaction with Lewis who had acid thrown in her face on August 19 and was then stabbed 18 times to death on October 9, 2015.

Lewis, then 24, had been hiding out at the Saartjie Baartman Centre for Women and Children in Athlone when the alleged murder took place.

According to witness testimony, 45-year-old Simbarashe stabbed Lewis 18 times in full view of shocked onlookers inside a shop in Du Noon.

The Bangladeshi shopkeeper of the Pick '* Save Superette, Ahmed Mohamed Jahid, testified that he managed to keep Simbarashe from fleeing the crime scene.

Isaacs told the court that she had spoken to her granddaughter days before her death and asked her: "Why are you on the streets? You must stay at the centre."

Isaacs also recalled an incident on August 21, 2015 when Simbarashe stormed into the kitchen of her Kensington home and fought with her and Lewis's mother Bonita when they tried to prevent him from reaching into the kitchen drawers for "something".

"He kept hitting the deceased's mom against the ear. She had to have stitches in her ear and I had to have my arm put in plaster," said Isaacs.

According to Isaacs, the accused pushed her so hard that she fell to the floor and injured her arm.

Simbarashe denied that he had been to Isaac's house and does not recall the altercation with Lewis's mother and grandmother.

"That's not true. It was him. He came to our house to hurt us," said Isaacs.

Lewis had a seven-year-old son who was five at the time of the incident. Isaacs testified that the Grade 3 learner was now experiencing problems at school and added he had not spoken to any of the family about his mother's death.

Isaacs said on the day Lewis died, the family received a call that they needed to rush to the shop. "When they came back I asked them where she was. They just said she didn't make it and I fainted. I just asked Almighty God to keep me strong," said Isaacs as her tears flowed.

She denied claims in Simbarashe's plea that the couple had planned to marry and had been living together for two years and eight months.

"I don't know how far their relationship went but I do know the deceased was in and out of his place," said Isaacs.

She also denied claims by the accused that he visited Lewis at the centre.

"Men are not allowed at the centre," Isaacs stressed.

Simbarashe, through his attorney, Sheriff Mahomed, apologised to the family, asked for forgiveness and added that he was not "well" at the time.

The court heard that he had spent five years in a psychiatric institution in Zimbabwe from 2005 to 2010 but the judge objected to his psychiatric history being entered as evidence if a psychiatrist was not going to be brought in to testify.

Simbarashe looked disengaged from this week's proceedings and sat with a permanent frown. The case continues on Tuesday
Home | World | Africa | 'Zim needs political will to realise democracy'

Zimbabwe needs the political will, and has a long way to go to achieve the requirements and guidelines for creating a democratic society as set out in the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (ACDEG) signed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Mnangagwa appended his signature to the Charter on March 21 on the sidelines of the extra-ordinary summit of the African Union (AU) held in Kigali, Rwanda.

The Charter outlaws unconstitutional change of governments.

Ironically, following the events of November 15, 2017, which resulted in Mnangagwa's ascendancy to power, the change of government in Zimbabwe has become a topical issue in the country and beyond its borders with former president Robert Mugabe alleging his removal was unconstitutional.

Political analysts have said it takes more than words for Zimbabwe to meet the ACDEG guidelines.

Political analyst Maxwell Saungweme told the Daily News that Mnangagwa was displaying some deceitful political shrewdness by making all the right moves, saying the right things, signing the right agreements, charters and conventions but going ahead to do what he wants.

"No one should read too much into his signing of that Charter," he said.

Among some of the items that Zimbabwe has to meet in terms of the Charter, is to promote and protect the independence of the judiciary, nurture, support and consolidate good governance by promoting democratic culture and practice, building and strengthening governance institutions and inculcating political pluralism and tolerance, promote the fight against corruption, promote gender balance, promote best practices in the management of elections and promote the holding of free and fair elections.

All these have been a thorny issue in the Zimbabwean political and economic sphere, as the country, still struggles to provide "free and fair" elections through implementing the necessary electoral reforms, combating corruption, having an independent judiciary and promoting political tolerance among a host of other issues.

Mnangagwa has, however, been preaching peace claiming the forthcoming harmonised elections expected in July this year, will be free, fair and credible.

He has even gone further to invite regional and international observers, something that has not been happening during his predecessor's rule.

Saungweme opined that the incumbent was doing that to remain in power, adding he will do anything including direct violations to that Charter to remain in power.

"He learns a lot from Mugabe who goes to international fora and talk about dialogue and tolerance while killing human rights defenders and opposition supporters or keeping on holding elections every five years under the pseudo veneer of democracy while rigging the same elections," he said.

"Mnangagwa's military State age stance on corruption should make those hopeful about reforms from this man think twice. Just like he has accepted international observers to monitor elections yet he is not allowing transparency around printing of ballot papers or deployment of soldiers to villages.

"He masters the act of political acting, where in political theatre he plays different characters depending on the audience.

"He learnt from the grandmaster of doublespeak, Mugabe," Saungweme said.

Mnangagwa, even though he has allowed other political players minimum space on national broadcasting stations, he has said airwaves will be freed after elections.

This also comes at a time when people are saying his will to fight corruption still leaves a lot to be desired.

Some claim he has been targeting his political opponents, leaving his "friends" who have a tainted record.

Political analyst Rashweat Mukundu, said: "It takes political will and a changed political culture away from the cameras and PR (public relations) objectives to adhere to principles stated in that document (ACDEG).

"I want to give ED (Mnangagwa) the benefit of doubt and see how he walks the signature going forward.

"Respect for rights is more than an issue of documents and signatures but a changed attitude and supporting institutions that make rights achievable and enjoyable to the ordinary citizen."

Other civil society organisations have since called for Mnangagwa to ratify the Charter to provide a conducive, free, fair and credible election, premised on democratic principles.

Action Aid Zimbabwe has since launched a three-year project on African Governance Architecture (Aga), which focuses on creating awareness and enhancing the understanding of ACDEG by citizens.

In line with this initiative, it held a workshop for journalists in Kadoma last week, to enable them to conscientise members of the public on the Charter.

Another political analyst Shakespeare Hamauswa, said there are chances Mnangagwa can be able to implement some of the key tenets captured in the Charter, which include electoral reforms.

"However, I see two biggest challenges standing in the way for real democratisation in Zimbabwe: lack of political will and fear of the unknown future especially by the military junta which recently joined politics.

"The army in politics will not allow a situation that will see them getting out of power plus one which does not guarantee their continued access to their ill-gotten businesses especially in the mines.

"So the issue as it stands goes beyond legal requirements because political guarantees should be given through open discussions," Hamauswa said.

Mines and Minerals Bill sidelines prospectors'

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Home | World | Africa | Mnangagwa sucked into Chivayo's mess

Angry members of Parliament plan to summon President Emmerson Mnangagwa to explain his government's contentious decision to retain controversial "tenderpreneur" Wicknell Chivayo on the $200 million Gwanda solar project - all this despite damning allegations of corruption and fierce objections from many quarters.

This comes as the Zimbabwe Power Company which awarded Chivayo's Intratek company the tender, last month told Parliament that it had finished its internal probe on how the businessman's firm had got the lucrative project  in addition to revealing that it had since reported him to both the police and Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission.

Meanwhile, Parliament heard yesterday that controversial businessman Wicknell Chivayo was back on the site earmarked for the Gwanda solar project at a time legislators were still investigating circumstances leading to his awarding of the multi-million-dollar job without going to tender.

Chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Energy, Temba Mliswa, expressed shock at the development and threatened to summon President Emmerson Mnangagwa to shed light over the matter.

Mliswa was left seething with anger during a hearing attended by senior Zesa Holdings executives, workers as well as former Energy deputy minister Munacho Mutezo and blew his top after Energy ministry secretary Patson Mbiriri confirmed that Chivayo's company, Intratrek, was back on site clearing land for the project launch.

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Home | World | Africa | MDC-T President Khupe lash out at cowards

MDC president Thokozani Khupe has lashed out at her political male rivals saying their criticism of the elected leaders of her new formation border on cowardice.

Khupe, the newly-elected leader of the latest breakaway MDC faction, has said she has no regrets for cutting ties with Nelson Chamisa, whom she accused of hijacking the labour-backed party.

As had been widely expected, Khupe was elected leader of the faction at an extraordinary congress of the party held in the second city on Saturday.

Obert Gutu, Harare lawyer Nixon Nyikadzino and Abedinico Bhebhe were elected vice president, secretary-general and national chair respectively.

Academic Samukele Hadebe will deputise Nyikadzino.

South African-based Chief Ndlovu got the treasurer-general post while activist Yvonne Msarurwa - who is being deputised by Alfred Ncube - earned the national organising secretary post.

Activist Linda Masarira was elected party national spokesperson, a move that infuriated some party members who felt that she had been imposed as she was not in the party structures.

Dorothy Ncube and Fungai Masaiti were elected to the women's chair and youth chair posts respectively, while Douglas Mwonzora who had been anticipated to join the congress, he did not turn up.

Her daughter Isabel Mwonzora landed the youth secretary general post.

"The MDC-T president Thokozani Khupe, is not surprised by the avalanche of comments, most of them from people who are afraid of women who chose to congregate around principle, constitutionalism, and to engage in politics that puts the people of Zimbabwe first," Khupe said through her spokesperson Witness Dube.

"She is equally unfazed by the usual ganging up of some self-misguiding and cowardly men who become uneasy at the sight of women whose coming together results in gender mainstreaming in decision making.

"On the contrary, ... Khupe is unreservedly proud that ... Masarira satisfied all the constitutional requirements in her entry into the MDC-T main body politics of the party, and is part of the women contingent which has seen our party being the only one in Zimbabwe with a 50-50 gender representation in its standing committee."

Khupe singled out Masarira saying she joined MDC in 2000, and became active in the Bulawayo South District before going dormant from party politics after she grew increasingly dissatisfied with what she viewed as a deviation of the party from its founding values.

"... Masarira is a credible and unapologetic social, economic, political and feminist activist who needs no introduction to the Zimbabwean political arena. It was therefore not a difficult decision for the party to allow her to subject herself to congress for election to the position of secretary for Information and Publicity, which position she was unanimously elected for," Dube added.

Following Morgan Tsvangirai's death, the opposition picked Chamisa as its new leader and presidential candidate, but Khupe and her allies accused the 40-year-old of a power grab, and have also refused to recognise his leadership.

Chamisa then approached the High Court in Bulawayo seeking an interdict to stop Khupe and her allies from continuing to infringe on the MDC trademark, passing off as the party leader, and using the MDC name without the authority of the opposition party.

Judgment in the Bulawayo High Court was reserved to today while deputy Chief Justice Elizabeth Gwaunza conducted a hearing last week that determined Khupe's Con-Court case as urgent.

The case in the Bulawayo High Court is important in that Zimbabwe Electoral Commission chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba made it clear that she will not be entertaining confusion where more than one party uses the same name and symbols and that any such dispute must be resolved by the courts before nomination day.

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Home | World | Africa | Mnangagwa's nephew barred from Zanu-PF primaries

Supporters of President Emmerson Mnangagwa's nephew, Tongai yesterday staged a demonstration in Harare South after he failed to make it onto the list of candidates selected to contest primary elections to represent the ruling party in the National Assembly polls.

On Saturday, Zanu-PF secretary for the commissariat Engelbert Rugeje announced the names of people who would be representing the ruling party in the forthcoming elections set for July this year and much to the chagrin of his supporters, Tongai's name was missing.

Eleven people, including Tongai's bitter rival, war veterans leader Douglas Mahiya, qualified for the primary elections that will be held this Sunday. Zanu-PF supporters in the area, backing the president's relative, swiftly poured into the streets demonstrating their anger.

Contacted for comment, Tongai repeated his uncle's popular refrain, "the voice of the people is the voice of God" and said he will listen to the people of Harare South.

"I have been away for a few days only to hear unconfirmed reports on social media platforms that my CV was rejected by the national commissariat. I have not received any official communication regarding this issue," Tongai told the Daily News.

"If it's true that my CV was rejected, it would be a sad day for Zanu-PF and democracy especially when ... Mnangagwa has been stressing that the people's voice should be heard.

"Am ready to present my manifesto to the people of Harare South like any other candidate and if awarded the opportunity to serve, am willing to be a servant leader to them.

"I believe I have served the party well and I have been a committed cadre for over 20 years. I pray and hope that it's not true that am not in the race," said Tongai.

But he is not in the race, with the list - apart from Mahiya - also including Peter Mathambo, Reclif Chikwenhure, Tonderayi Nkomo, Monday Mugwisi, Leonard Tarwirei, Henry Ziwerere, Kingston Gudyanga, Paul Mafinini, Maxwell Munondo, Nyasha Madzamba.

Yesterday some of the Zanu-PF supporters said if their candidate is not in the primary elections race, then there is no need to hold them.

"Harare South, we are going to be used as a case study for rebellion. Bhora musango, mark my words," said one of the fuming demonstrators.

Another one quipped, "Takamira namudhara wake gore riya zvakaoma tikafamba nema passport muhomwe (We stood by his uncle when odds were against him and we are going to stand by him)."

Mnangagwa was hounded from Zimbabwe and jumped the Mozambican border after claims he had been marked for assassination by former president Robert Mugabe, who had fired him.

With the help of the military, Mnangagwa went on to turn the tables against his tormentors, making a triumphant return to be president after a military takeover.

Another supporter of Tongai said since they now have a listening president, they will launch cyber appeals to ensure the decision to block their preferred candidate was overturned.

"The good thing now is that we have a listening president, there is no going back, let us go to his Facebook page and lay our grievances, he will listen to us.

"He has told us to use the social media, so let us do that," said another protestor.

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Home | World | Africa | Tuku and Mukanya were never enemies

US BASED Chimurenga guru Thomas Mapfumo, who is back in the country for the first time in 14 years, says there is no bad blood between him and superstar Oliver "Tuku" Mtukudzi.

During his short stint in the country, Mukanya has also commented and cleared the air on a number of issues and debates that have been raging during his time in exile.

These range from the new political dispensation ushered by President Mnangagwa in November last year, his wish to the President, arts regulatory chiefs and of course his relationship with Oliver "Tuku" Mtukudzi.

The 72-year-old, who paid Arts, Sport and Recreation Minister Kazembe Kazembe a courtesy call at his offices in the capital yesterday, has also made the call for Zimbabweans to unite.

Prior to Mukanya's visit to Minister Kazembe's office, he also cleared the air on their perceived 'tiff' with Tuku, which has been raging for years.

"Uyu ane maitiro ake, ini ndine maitito anguwo, takasiyana siyana. Music yakasiyana nebhora rekuti Dynamos vs Caps, tiri vamwe chete.

"Music doesn't work that like, we have to work together as artistes, and I can work with anyone.

"Ndikada kuimba rwiyo rwangu naOliver tinonoita, saka musada kutipesanisa," said Mukanya who has been preaching the gospel of peace since his arrival last week.

The Blacks Unlimited founder said plans were underway for them to record a much-anticipated duet with Tuku.

Mukanya's handlers also confirmed that they were set to record duet project at Tuku's Pakare Paye Studios, an indication there is no bad blood between them.

Tuku, who has also appeared at the same press conference with Mukanya for the first time in their careers in Zimbabwe, said he was always in touch with the Chimurenga guru.

"We were never enemies as was said by the fans over the years. Vanhu vaitaura ndivo vaivengana, ueye kavakwanisi kuti paradzanisa," he said.

Tuku said they have never competed with each over the years as was perceived.

"Mukanya ane twu twake twekudzidza rake and hakuna anokwanisa kumukunda.

"Together, togona kukufadzai mese, we have been in touch and there is something coming."

Tuku said he has been longing for Mukanya's return since they used to meet in foreign lands.

"When I got the news that these guys (promoters) wanted to organise a show featuring Mukanya, I gave them the greenlight to do so.

"Thomas Mafumo has been our ambassador and he still remains one of us. Now that he is back home, this visit is important because of his influence that we all know.

"This is the right time that he meets our political leaders and air his grievances since he has been away for a while," he added.

Besides Tuku, Mukanya is billed to share the stage with Winky D, Suluman Chimbetu, Andy Muridzo and Gary Tight.

It's show where the best of both generations are set to give fans real value for their money.

But it should be mentioned that all the attention would be on Mukanya who has been away for 14 years in exile.

In Mukanya's absence, Chimurenga artiste-cum-sculptor Bryn Taurai Mteki has been the sole contender to fill his big shoes.

Other artistes like Evans "Vanso" Sekete and Jairos Chabvonga who used to be Mukanya's runner prior to him moving to the US, have also made great efforts to keep the genre relevant.

Mteki is also one of the several local acts who have booked Mukanya for a number of collaborations.

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Unhealed wounds

The Transitional Justice Act must be amended to make fair investigation possible
Home | World | Africa | Sibusiso Moyo backtracks on allowing diaspora vote

Zimbabwe doesn't have enough time before this year's general elections to make the constitutional changes necessary to allow people living outside the country to vote, Foreign Minister Sibusiso Moyo said, backtracking on a statement he made a week ago.

Zimbabweans living abroad should return home and register to vote in an election that will probably take place in July, Moyo told a conference in London on Tuesday. Last week he said in an interview with Bloomberg Television that the government was working on logistics to allow people outside the southern African nation to vote in parliamentary and presidential elections and that it was their constitutional right to do so.

"It is the desire of the current establishment to ensure everyone participates," Moyo said at the London conference. "Unfortunately, legally and logistically this is not possible."

The refusal of former President Robert Mugabe's government to allow members of the diaspora to vote sparked disputes with the opposition over the past two decades as the country's economic collapse prompted a quarter of its population to emigrate. Elections were marred regularly by violence and irregularities.

Moyo said allowing Zimbabweans abroad to vote would require amending the constitution because right now only the president has the power to declare constituencies.

His statement was disputed by former Finance Minister Tendai Biti, the leader of the opposition People's Democratic Party and a constitutional lawyer.

"It's not correct," Biti said by phone from Harare, the capital.

"The diaspora people, if they want to vote, could easily vote in the presidential election, which is not seated in any constituency. If government wanted to now, they could be allowed to register at any embassies as the registration process is still ongoing."

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New California law would CRIMINALIZE book stores for selling the Bible

Even though weve known for decades that the liberals are typically hostile to anything having to do with the Christian faith, most of us never thought wed see the day when the legality of the Bible itself was put in jeopardy. Yet in the socialist state of California, thats exactly what appears to be happening.

Assembly Bill 2943 would make it an unlawful business practice to engage in a transaction intended to result or that results in the sale or lease of goods or services to any consumer that either advertises or engages in sexual orientation change efforts with an individual. In the bill, the phrase sexual orientations change efforts is defined as any practices that seek to change an individuals sexual orientation. This includes efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions, or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same sex.

It would appear that this definition would include the Bible, since the Bible explicitly condemns homosexual behavior and defines marriage as being between one man and one woman. That means that if Assembly Bill 2943 is officially signed into law, it could ban the sale of the Bible in the state of California, which, for obvious reasons, would be an assault on not just the Constitution but on the very fabric of America.

First and foremost, the First Amendment guarantees that each citizen is endowed with the inalienable right to freely practice their religion without interference from the government. This includes not only the reading of the Bible, but also the private sale of the Bible from individuals or companies looking to spread the Christian faith. Banning the Bible, which Assembly Bill 2943 would likely do, is a clear violation of the freedom of religion as outlined in the Constitution.

Second, as a matter of free-market economics, since when does the government have the authority to control which products are sold by businesses and which are not? If California can legally declare that the sale of the Bible is prohibited, does this mean that they can ban any book that doesnt subscribe to the progressive ideology? Can they ban the sale of the Dont Tread on Me flag? Can they ban the sale of Make America Great Again hats? Can they ban the sale of pro-Trump and pro-conservative bumper stickers? Where does this end? Clearly, Assembly Bill 2943 would open up a can of worms, so to speak, and would ultimately lead to the state government having unprecedented authority over which products businesses can and cant sell to the people of California, regardless of how harmless those products might be.

Sadly, this is hardly the first time that the freedom of religion and the Christian faith have come under attack in this country. Indeed, there seems to be a nationwide effort underway (perpetuated by the liberals) to drag America away from its Christian roots in the name of tolerance and progress.

Back in 2015, for instance, contractors in the state of Oklahoma began taking down a 2,400-pound monument depicting the Ten Commandments from the grounds of the states Capitol building. The decision to remove the monument came after the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled earlier that summer that its presence violated the states constitution.

And thats just one example out of dozens  in state after state, this war on Christianity continues, whether its in the form of dissuading people from saying the phrase Merry Christmas, removing religious monuments like crosses and the Ten Commandments from public grounds, or, in the case of California, proposing legislation that would ban the sale of the Bible. The longer this war is allowed to go on, the further America seems to get from its founding principles.

See Antichrist.news for more coverage of the Lefts attacks on Christianity.

Sources include:

WorldEventsAndTheBible.com

CNSNews.com
Shakya is the founder CEO of beed, an international management consulting and advisory firm. He is the author of Unleashing Nepal and Unleashing The Vajra.
This won't flop because of the Star War fans, but oh, boy, it looks like shit.

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this looks like shit. should have had a Leia movie instead.



also justice for Sana Starros



Edited at 2018-04-24 01:58 am (UTC)

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I really want to see this because of Donald but all of the promo is so embarrassing lmao

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i... did not know paul bettany was in this movie. i musta skimmed the casting news or something. the supporting cast seems strong enough that this might be an entertaining mess so i'm still gonna see it.

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Emilia actually looks cute

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Im not a fan of her acting but Ill see her posts on Instagram and just... awww

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the bangs in this movie are a weird design choice that's for sure. she's cute enough that it overpowers them though.

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She's so adorable <3

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Except for those weird clip-on bangs, ia

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She's such a terrible actress, but she makes up for it in adorableness irl!

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i think her hair looks awful. the bangs are a bad choice and it looks like her ponytail is falling out

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lmao @ just 'CHEWBACCA'

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Justice for Joonas Suotamo tbh!

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I want to root for Alden so badly considering what happened when he was a young kid, but even if he does well he's always going to be compared to Harrison Ford. Maybe we'll be surprised in a good way when the Cannes premiere hits.

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Chewbacca looks fab, forget the rest.

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lmao the marketing for this movie...lord

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Man this looks bad lmao



L3-37 is already my favorite. The droids are consistently the best thing about these movies, except for the unnecessary BB-8 who took over R2's role. [/unpopular opinion] Justice for R2. >:(



Alden looks goofy but Harrison Ford's a bad actor and Han Solo is the worst so idc... [/unpopular opinion x2]

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Yeah mte. I didn't like him in TFA either but they really ran him into the ground in the sequel...



Idk his "charm" to me just comes off as him being a smug asshole. But he's one of the most popular SW characters so it seems to be working for everyone else lol.

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Bish I was with you about the droids being the best until you dissed my queen BB-8. And then you dissed Han so now we are doubly enemies!

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I don't care about Han that much and imho Harrison Ford is a poor actor, so i'm with you on that.



But I never cared about the droids until Queen BB-8 came on the scene... so YOU TAKE THAT SLANDER BACK.

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Why am I suddenly living in a world where people don't love Han Solo?

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The cast for this still kind of fucks me up a little bit.

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Idk I like the cast for the movie, even though I am still so salty about the fact the Michael K. Williams got cut from the movie and I wish that Sana was in the movie (unless they reveal that Val= Sana). It's just blowing my mind that I'm seeing Donald and Alden in a SW movie lmao.





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should have been a chewbacca movie and only had wookies tbh

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Sis, does the classic Star Wars Christmas story ring a bell?

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Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in Hello! Your entry got to top-25 of the most popular entries in LiveJournal!Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in FAQ

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I don't care about this at all but I unexpectedly love these posters.



Thandie is an underrated sci-fi queen.

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Chronicles of Riddick too.

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I received a comment yesterday from a comment I made in 2007. And it wasn't a bot.

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Im always worried Ill do this when someone links to an old post and I forget where I am

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same lol

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lol me too

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Lmaoooo same

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i've done this before and it felt as mortifying as accidentally calling one of my teachers mom

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I've def done this lmao

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whaaat

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Lmao I get comments on fics I wrote a long time ago. It's weird.

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i hope u reply in 2026

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lmao i get those on yt sometimes. i get people arguing with me about things i wrote as a teenager that i don't even believe any more haha

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Wal-Mart has mini peanut butter cups that are just as good as Reece's.

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and then i have another final i haven't even begun due in 6d and i'm just...losing it.



i tried doing some yoga to calm down but i'm still super nauseous and headachey and upset. but i have to finish this tonight.



chomping ondansetron, excedrin migaine, magnesium and b2



i'm so stressed. vomit and migraine and tears. i don't even know why i'm getting so stressed about this, it's only worth 47.5% of my grade. but i just want to do well so badly.and then i have another final i haven't even begun due in 6d and i'm just...losing it.i tried doing some yoga to calm down but i'm still super nauseous and headachey and upset. but i have to finish this tonight.chomping ondansetron, excedrin migaine, magnesium and b2

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awwww nooo. hugs!!

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I'm sorry you're so stressed!! Good luck to you, bb. <3 <3 <3

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Give yourself a big reward when this is all over, you deserve it

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Youve got this, bb!!! Hugs 

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don't stress bb! <3<3<3

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Dw bb, you'll pull through!! 

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my mom sent me a few job listings for waitressing that pay well, which I appreciate but tbh the last time I tried to waitress I didnt last a week lol. I'm not cut out for that kind of job, I admire those who can do it well (and that like it).

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lmao mte i'm not cut out for serving. kudos to those who can!

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What happened yesterday in Toronto is starting to sink in and I'm just so fucking furious.

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Idek how to feel right now :(

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It's just so shocking and unexpected.

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it's so unbelievably horrifying and senseless, just saw this morning that they confirmed the Facebook incel posts were real too.

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i have several friends who work in the area and trying to contact them all was...it was a lot

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Anyone else allergies bad? I thought I was dealing with a cold.

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SO BAD

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Yes I'm dying

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Allergy fog is so annoying.

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last year mine didn't get really bad until may so i'm bracing myself D:

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WOOOORST. I have been living for Xyzal which honestly helps.

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Not that bad but I end up coughing every night cause of post nasal drip. It's definitely worse in the evening for me.

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Yep. I can't breathe EVERY DAMN morning now for the past week! I want to die.

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#DeadRaccoonTO , onto bigger and better things

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Rip conrad

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Cant stop laughing

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Never forget.

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Lmao

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It's so goooood! I love The Onion.

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Home from my mini vacay. I nearly spent 8 dollars on Wifi yesterday because I was on a plane with an old guy who wouldn't stop talking to me and I was 100% ready to complain to you guys in roundup yesterday (my flight was right around when it posted). Sadly, I wouldn't remember my rapid rewards number for Southwest.



Instead, I read and gave myself a headache because I can't read in motion. It was the only way the old guy would stop talking to me so much.

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He was in front of me in line and he walked SO SLOW because he had back problems so he let me go ahead. MY MISTAKE. It's like he imprinted on me because he could have sat anywhere on that plane and chose to sit next to me. Thankfully there was a seat between us but ugh.

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YIKES. OBVIOUSLY, the woman on the left is the mother.

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Its not even close! Lol.



Like... yall are wearing the same outfit and hairstyle and its still 100% obvious.

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I'd be pissed if I was the kid lol

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lmaoo omg

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omfggggggg

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nnnnnn i watched this on tv.



embarrassing.

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lmfaooo

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LMAO BYE

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Lmfaooo

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LMAOOOO I love black twitter for shit like this

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l m a o I was NOT expecting that omg

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lmaooo, this has to be a joke, like seriously?? it's so so obvious who is the mom.

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LOLLLLLL the daughter looks SO uncomfortable. Poor thing.

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I'm know I'm devoted to Trash Beauty but has anyone made post about how there ain't no damn pigment in JLo's Inglot collection?!?!?!?!?! It's all fucking nudes to begin with and sis was pressing hard to deliver a swatch.



No ma'am!

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Whats everyone having

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my boring trying not to waste money lunch



peanut butter sandwich

lil bag of doritos

can of coke

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loool my eyes read the last 2 lines together as "lil bag of coke"



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leftover baked potato and steak

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instant ramen.

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mac & cheese

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I made a tomato sauce filled with garbanzo beans and veggies and put it over couscous with some cheese. it's delicious

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Trader Joes lamb vindaloo

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i had tomato soup with toast and cheese on the side

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chicken tendies and side salad

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about those Infinity War spoilers



Like, they real? Not real? Do I unexpectedly care now? My emotions I'm feelingabout those Infinity War spoilersLike, they real? Not real? Do I unexpectedly care now? My emotions

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Don't read them! I'm not reading them. I'm staying OUT of those posts.

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lmao

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Finally peeped some Beyond Burgers and they're LEGIT





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So good. I'm going to WF this weekend to see if they have the sausages that came out.

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I'm gonna go grab some at lunch!



My cousin is trying to go vegan but is a suuuuuuuper picky eater so I'm hoping she likes them as well.

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Cute retro style bikini tops with underwire?

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Maybe Modcloth?

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Thanks for replying! Guess I'll go take a look there :)

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late but i'm looking for similar, there are some on asos and they have a decent size range

also check figleaves.com

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Akata Witch (Nnedi Okorafor)

The Ghost Bride (Yangsze Choo)

A Wizard of Earthsea (Ursula K Le Guin)

Redemption in Indigo is a reworking of the

Deathless (Catherynne M. Valente)

Assassin's Apprentice (Robin Hobb)

The Fifth Season (N.K. Jemisin)

Jade City (Fonda Lee)

Gather round, ONTD: this May, the theme of theis. Since this iconic ONTD tag/catchphrase is derived from a scene in Lord of the Rings, our task is to- wait for it -. Luckily, there are so many amazing books to choose from. Here is a small selection (as always, these are just suggestions. A bigger list of eligible titles and authors can be found on our Goodreads group ).This book has been called "the Nigerian Harry Potter". Akata Witch is about a young albino girl who's always felt like an outsider learning she has magical abilities and fighting villains. Despite technically being YA fantasy, it touches on many complex themes and can be enjoyed by everyone. Nnedi Okorafor's books are extremely popular among fantasy authors, and. Be prepared to hear her name a lot in the future, as her book Who Fears Death is going to be adapted into an HBO series by Martin himself.This gorgeous fantasy set in, with Chinese characters, has been compared to Miyazaki's Spirited Away. It may start simply, but subverts expectations and gets progressively darker as. Will she ever be able to come back to the world of the living? This book kept me up all night reading, but is so underrated.Ursula Le Guin's ICONIQUE Earthseaand Terry Pratchett wrote a book that is essentially Earthsea fanfiction (Equal Rites). Directly or indirectly. The Earthsea series (originally a trilogy, then expanded) still enchants readers of all ages with the story of Ged, a simple goat-heard who becomes the greatest wizard of all time, and the many dark adventures he faces during his life.by a Barbadian author and was nominated for Best Novel in the World Fantasy Awards. When Paama leaves her gluttonous and foolish husband, she attracts the attention of the undying onesthe djombi who present her with a gift: the Chaos Stick, which allows her to manipulate the subtle forces of the world. Unfortunately, a wrathful djombi with indigo skin believes this power should be his and his alone.The Golem and the Jinni is a really unique blend of folkore and historical fiction. It is the story of Chava, a golem (a being created from clay, from Jewish folklore), and Ahmad, a jinni (a supernatural creature from Arabic mythology), who find themselves away from their old countries of Poland and Syria, and find each other in. Nominated for Best Novel in the Nebula Awards.Deathless. The novel follows the life of Marya Morevna as she transforms from a young child witnessing the revolution to bride of Koschei, Tsar of Life. Valente is a very unusual writer and Deathless is is lyrical, beautiful and simply devastating.Hobb is one of the best fantasy writers today, and the amazing Assassin's Apprentice is the doorway to the incredibly intricate universe of the Realms of the Elderlings.(which borrowed several elements of her story, as you'll notice right away), so if you already like ASOIAF and other "adult" fantasy, you will definitely like this.The Fifth Season takes place on a planet with a single supercontinent called the Stillness. Every few centuries, its inhabitants endure what they call a "Fifth Season" of catastrophic climate change.She's of course a heavy-hitter in today's fantasy landscape, and her other books/series are also very critically acclaimed.Jade City is a uniquein a universe where magical jade grants special abilities to warriors. Lee is a martial artist herself, so you know those fight scenes are going to be badass. This release was quite a sensation last year and, and is currently nominated for a Nebula Award (Best Novel).
disown your cousin, Lois.

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God I loved her in smallville

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wtf, this psychopath is released ?





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unfortunate. I wanted her to rot in jail awaiting her trial.

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what does bail even mean maybe that money could've been spent idunno saving people?

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I was being sarcastic... but also infuriated that 5 million is being wasted on this woman

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I do lol sorry. What is collateral like do they have to sell the house now?

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I would like an actual explanation if you don't mind.

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lol what?

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You think the second-in-command of a sex cult branding women would be spending her savings on a legitimate charitable cause?

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Shit, those allegations are disgusting. Preying on people looking for self-help and empowerment groups. That's the lowest of the low.

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I get the law and all that blah blah blah but I am sick knowing this piece of shit was released on bond or that piece of shit in Tennessee had a $2 million bond but was revoked a few hours ago thankfully. Kill 4 black people and you still get that opportunity. I want them to release her mugshot bc I am tired of seeing her smiling red carpet photos in articles. I wish they would for Bruce McArthur too but in Canada it's different. I am tired of seeing his smiling face on vacation next to deeply disturbing articles. /sorry ugh

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I can't believe he had a two million dollar bail omg, white men get away with everything especially if the victims are black people

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smh the fact that they even gave a known murderer bail and they need to put his dad in jail too for giving him the weapon. I would charge his ass with murder as well idc

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Friday afternoon, wearing a denim shirt and jeans, with tissues in hand, Mack appeared before a judge. afaik this artist's rendition for the news is all that's been released.

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lmao she's so OTT. her cult bliss face was so creepy. i wonder if she's a sociopath. i also want to hear smallville ppl spill on how weird she must have been



Edited at 2018-04-24 09:55 pm (UTC)

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omfg

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even that would do for now. tired of those damn red carpet photos

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lmao

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Was Justin McElroy her lawyer?

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Agreeing with everything you said, just want to add that one victim was actually Latino.

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if I were her parents I'd be like "nah you can stay" jfc

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maybe they consider her a victim too? one news story i watched said that the leader forced women to watch hours of videos of female bodies being dismembered or murdered...i wonder if she was brain washed.

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What if the leader was also brainwashed into becoming the monster that he is and abusing women the way both he and Alex did? Would that change anything and would he also be considered a victim? I doubt it, but I wonder if people would feel the same way...

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''Allison's parents sold their house as well as some property owned by Allison and her savings/retirement to post collateral for bail''



Hell no. If that was my kid, he or she could rot. Love has its limits

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Smh Im surprised they didnt sell all of Allisons property first before even considering touching their house and savings

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Right? Liquidating their assets to bail out someone who needs to be rotting in prison.

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ikr

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Imagine what her parents must be like for their daughter to end up sex trafficking for a cult

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mte

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I wonder if they're in denial. They have to had known though that something was wrong with her.

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For real. Who got 5mil laying around

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They probably think they can still save her or something I don't know.

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Especially if she was willing to use her nephews' happiness as collateral. Fuck that. I'd let her sit in prison.

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Can you imagine if this was your kid? 9 months of pregnancy + labour + the financial burden and physical toll spent just keeping it alive and this is the disappointment you end up with? Kids aren't worth the risk tbh.

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Especially when you thought she was set as an actress.

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this is a reason I don't want kids. I am too scared of bringing a total monster into this world. sometimes no matter how you raise someone or how much you give them in love or opportunity...they're just bad apples.

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one of my fav pieces of literary criticism is germaine greer arguing against a dumb theory a dude REALLY wrote Frankenstein (apparently no way could a teenage girl have written such an important work), her main argument being the whole book is about the specifically female fear of bringing a monster into the world

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Yup, this is one of my biggest concerns.

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I feel the same way. Like I couldn't forgive myself if my kid turned out to be a rapist.

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that's why after reading "we need to talk about kevin" in high school i swore off having kids lol

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ia, and you don't know if they will be so mentally ill as to resist all treatment and meds and then they're just out there trying to ruin your lives. or they're pure evil. pass.

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I just wrote a paper on anti-natalism and negative utilitarianism, and it definitely seems that from a "reduction of harm" framework, having kids is not a good idea.



I'm just gonna foster dogs and garden, that is all the tending to life I need to do.





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most disappointing kids are things like alcoholics, addicts, and general shitbags. i dont think leader of a sex trafficking cult is a common problem

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agreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeed

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MTE, it is just too much unnecessary stress and bullshit tbh. And besides, this world of ours is fucked up as it is. I would not want to bring a child into this world.

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right? like, to know that after everything you did (assuming you attempted to be a good parent) you end up with a goddamn maniac of a child. id be so angry.

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Hey Allison, what are you up to now?

Nothing, just managing a sex cult in Albany NY.

Albany?!?

Thats what you found wrong with that sentence?



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Lmao for real. I love this comment so much

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for real

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lmaoooooo fuck

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such jam

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Listen

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classic

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LMFAOOO comment of the year tbh!

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Curse your comment making me laugh and nearly spit out my drink. But at least this is a light moment in a heavy post (plus a great song), so kudos, bb.

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oh my godsndnajanxnsj

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Fuck omg HAHAHAHAHA ONTD, y'all ain't shit

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i can't breathe

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nnn goodbye!

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Who would've thought two of the kids from Camp Nowhere would grow up to be cult leaders

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yes to this Andrew Keegan reference I often wonder how that pursuit is working out for him lmao.

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I can't believe I'm just finding out about this now

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Is this really the best idea? Come on.



I know she was a victim at some point, but I think that stopped being the case when she had the idea to brand these poor women.



Also, I'm ignorant on these things but how long is she on bail then? I'd go crazy if I had to stay in a house without internet.



Edited at 2018-04-24 09:49 pm (UTC)

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As long as she doesn't violate any terms of release, she's out on bail until found guilty in a court of law.



Speaking from experience, she will violate terms of release. Her parents will be out all that money. She will either cut the monitor and try to run, or more likely, she'll have contact with someone she shouldn't.

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So does this mean there is a trial or is this just open ended unless she breaks one of the conditions?

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damn her parents got ha back

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My parents would let me sit and rot tbh, as they should if I was being accused of such heinous crimes including BRANDING WOMEN WITH MY GODDAMN INTIALS.

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French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday proposed a "new deal" to address President Donald Trump's many concerns about the existing nuclear pact with Iran. Here is a look at what may be in the works, and the challenges a new deal could entail. - Macron's proposal - In a press conference at the White House, Macron said the 2015 Iran nuclear deal did not go far enough, while crediting it for allowing the international community "some control" over Iran's nuclear activities. Other areas still need addressing, he said, namely: Iran's nuclear activities after 2025 when so-called sunset clauses in the current deal kick in; Iran's ballistic missile activities; and a political means to limit Iran's activities in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon. Iran is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, supports Hezbollah militias in Lebanon and backs Yemen's Huthi rebels, who are locked in a war with a Saudi-led coalition. "It's not about tearing apart an agreement and having nothing, but it's about building something new that will cover all of our concerns," Macron said. The French president said France and its allies want "sustainable stability," following months of Trump anger at the original Iran deal and threats to back out of it. "I believe that the discussions we've had together make it possible to ... pave the way for a new agreement, an agreement on which we will work, and beyond our European partners, we would like to involve the regional powers, and of course, Russia and Turkey," he said. Macron indicated his suggestion was for a separate accord that would run alongside the current deal. "I'm not saying that we move from one agreement to another," he said. The proposal appears to repackage a solution previously floated by the Europeans to meet Trump's demands, by taking a tougher line on Iranian missile activity and Tehran's regional influence, but without ripping up the existing nuclear deal. - What's at stake - With a hollowed-out State Department, even a transatlantic deal could prove an epic undertaking for the Trump administration, and Iran has already signalled that any talk of curbing its missile program is off limits. Further, Trump has shown little appetite for international deal-making. The existing nuclear deal was struck in 2015 after 21 months of grueling diplomacy. In return for the lifting of punishing international sanctions, Iran froze its nuclear program, ending a 12-year standoff with the West, which worried it was developing a nuclear bomb. Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany signed off on the deal that, among other things, requires Iran to slash the amount of uranium it can enrich. - Trump's view - Trump has continually lambasted the accord signed by his predecessor Barack Obama, calling it at one point the "worst deal ever." On Tuesday, he described it as "insane," and in October he refused to certify that Iran was respecting its commitments on the pact -- though he stopped short of walking away altogether. At least on first blush, the US leader appeared receptive to trying to reach some sort of grand bargain. "I think we will have a great shot at doing a much bigger, maybe, deal," said Trump, stressing that any new accord would have to be built on "solid foundations." "They should have made a deal that covered Yemen, that covered Syria, that covered other parts of the Middle East," said Trump. The next decision deadline for Trump on the Iran deal is May 12. "We're going to see what happens," he said.
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte greets Ambassador of Kuwait to the Philippines Saleh Ahmad Althwaikh who met with the President at the Malacanan Palace on February 7, 2018. Also in the photo is Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre Bello III. ACE MORANDANTE/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday met with the Ambassador of Kuwait, Saleh Ahmad Althwaikh, in Davao City days after the Kuwait government protested the Philippine governments action to rescue distressed overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the Gulf state.

In a statement, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) relayed the commitment of the Kuwaiti government which transpired during the meeting to protect and ensure the welfare of our more than 250,000 kababayans working there.

The statement added that for its part, the Philippines gave renewed assurances of our respect for the sovereignty of the State of Kuwait and the dignity of the Kuwaiti people.

We also agreed to continue to work together to address matters of mutual concern and will update the public of developments, DFA added.

The agency also appealed for the publics kind understanding as we ask for some diplomatic space to allow us to continue our engagement with our Kuwaiti counterparts.

DFA said it is optimistic that the remaining issues between the Philippines and Kuwait will be resolved.  Rosalie Coz | UNTV News & Rescue

The post Duterte meets Kuwait ambassador in Davao City appeared first on UNTV News.
Billionaire French industrialist Vincent Bollore was charged Wednesday as part of a probe into allegations his company helped two African leaders win elections in return for lucrative contracts, after two days of questioning by police. The 66-year-old head of the Bollore Group was taken into custody Tuesday in the Paris suburb of Nanterre after authorities launched an investigation into how its African logistics subsidiary secured contracts to run Lome port in Togo and Conakry port in Guinea. Prosecutors are looking at whether Bollore Group's communications arm, Havas, undercharged Guinean President Alpha Conde and Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe for work on their campaigns as a sweetener for the contracts, Le Monde newspaper reported. After questioning, Bollore and two senior executives -- group chief executive Gilles Alix, and the head of the international division of Havas, Jean-Philippe Dorent -- were presented to magistrates. A spokesman confirmed that the tycoon had been charged as part of the investigation. A judicial source said he had been charged with bribing a foreign national, breach of trust and forgery and use of fake documents. "Vincent Bollore, who remains presumed innocent, will finally now be able to access this file and respond to the allegations against him," the spokesman said in a statement. Bollore, one of France's most powerful businessmen, was allowed to leave court once the hearing finished. He sits at the head of a tentacular empire with revenues of 18.3 billion euros ($22.4 billion) in 2017 and interests in everything from construction and logistics to media, advertising and agriculture. The group is heavily invested in Africa, where it operates 10 container ports and has stakes in several others, as well as three railway concessions and interests in palm oil production. The company has insisted that it won the port tenders on the basis of its expertise and more than two billion euros of investment in Africa over the past eight years. "Attempting to link the attribution of a port concession with communication services" was "a great misunderstanding of this economic sector and economic activity in general," it said in a statement. - Togo, Guinea campaigns - Havas worked on the campaign that brought Alpha Conde to power in Guinea in 2010, as the country's first freely elected president. Months after taking office, Conde summarily terminated the contract of Conakry's port operator -- a subsidiary of French shipping company Necotrans -- and gave it to rival Bollore. Opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo, who has lost two elections to Conde, told AFP that the decision had "surprised many." "It is due to the ongoing inquiry in France that Guineans discover the true motive of this unjust and illegal move taken by Alpha Conde in the wake of his taking power," he said. A French court in 2013 ordered the Bollore Group to pay Necotrans two million euros in compensation, but Bollore took over the company shortly afterwards. Havas also worked on the communications strategy of Togo's Gnassingbe, who succeeded his father Gnassingbe Eyadema upon his death in 2005. After Gnassingbe's re-election to a second term in 2010, the Bollore Group won the 35-year Lome port contract -- a decision also challenged by a rival. The French investigation was triggered by a complaint from a former Bollore associate, Jacques Dupuydauby, who is appealing a Spanish jail sentence for misappropriation of company assets. In 2016, police searched Bollore Group's headquarters in the Paris suburb of Puteaux. The probe is one of several in recent years over the dealings of French groups in former African colonies. - Paper for Bibles - Others to have been investigated include oil company Elf Aquitaine, now part of Total, which the French state was accused of using to funnel millions in bribes to African leaders in the 1990s, and nuclear giant Areva, which is under scrutiny over a controversial uranium deal in Niger. Bollore's empire began life in 1822 as a family-run manufacturer of paper for cigarettes and Bibles. He revived its flagging fortunes after taking the helm in the early 1980s and embarked on a blitz of acquisitions, earning a reputation as a formidable businessman. The group owns a majority stake in telecom conglomerate Vivendi, owner of the Canal+ Group which is headed by Vincent Bollore's son Yannick.
A defence lawyer for Beate Zschaepe, the only surviving member of a German neo-Nazi trio, Tuesday launched final arguments, signalling the end phase of a mammoth murder and terrorism trial. Five years after Zschaepe, 43, first entered the dock, her lawyer Hermann Borchert called the case against her "inadequate" and insisted she was not involved in a string of racist murders, bombings and bank robberies committed by the clandestine cell. Prosecutors accused Zschaepe of complicity in the bloody crimes carried out by Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Boehnhardt, the two gunmen of the self-styled National Socialist Underground (NSU) who died in an apparent 2011 murder-suicide. Borchert placed the sole blame on the two men, who had been in a love triangle with Zschaepe since their teenage years and who between 2000 and 2007 shot dead eight men with Turkish roots, a Greek migrant and a German policewoman. Zschaepe, who faces a maximum term of life in jail, has claimed she was an unwilling and horrified bystander to the crimes, not a strong-willed and active participant as charged by prosecutors in the Munich trial. Borchert told the court that the two men had been the NSU's dominant force and that the particularly volatile Boehnhardt had been described by his own father as "a ticking timebomb". The lawyer said it was "absurd to believe that the two Uwes cowered before my client", given that they were cold-blooded enough "to simply shoot people in the face". - Macabre video - The NSU case deeply shocked Germany, where security services had previously only associated terrorism with far-left and Islamist militants and believed far-right thugs mainly committed random acts of street violence and arson. It was only after the two men's deaths in 2011 that Germany awoke to the news that the killings, long blamed on migrant crime gangs and dubbed the "doner (kebab) murders" by police and media, were in fact committed by organised fascists. Also in the dock are four men accused of having supported the NSU with weapons, identity papers, cash or other support during their string of 10 murders, two bombings and 15 bank robberies that helped finance their underground lives. Zschaepe, when she learnt of the two Uwes' deaths after a bungled bank heist, torched their common home, dropped her two cats with a neighbour and fled. While on the run, she mailed to media and Muslim community groups DVDs in which the NSU bragged about the murders in a macabre confession video set to a Pink Panther cartoon theme. The NSU's discovery embarrassed German security services, exposing institutional biases and mistakes and raising uncomfortable questions about how the cell went undetected for 13 years. Federal and state-level parliamentary committees spent years trying to understand what went wrong, including the murky role of paid undercover informants inside the rightwing extremist subculture. In the Munich trial, prosecutors have focused on Zschaepe, charging she was an active NSU member who aided the crimes by covering the men's tracks, handling finances and providing a safe retreat. Zschaepe has insisted that she was involved "neither in the planning nor the execution" and had only stayed with the two men because was financially and emotionally dependent on them and feared going to jail. Describing their shared teenage days in the neo-Nazi youth scene of their post-reunification east German home town of Jena, she told the court that "those two were my family".
Woman dies in elephant attack

A woman died when she was attacked by an elephant from Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve in Saptari district on Tuesday morning.
Indonesia's former parliament speaker was given a 15-year prison term on Tuesday in one of the country's toughest sentences for graft, marking a victory in a continuing clampdown on widespread corruption. Setya Novanto, once among the country's most influential politicians, had been accused of taking millions of dollars in kickbacks and bribes linked to the national roll-out of government ID cards. "We have found defendant Setya Novanto, beyond reasonable doubt, guilty of violating anti-corruption law," presiding Judge Yanto told the packed Jakarta courtroom. Novanto -- once praised by Donald Trump as one Indonesia's most powerful figures -- said he would need time to consider an appeal. His months-long trial came after a string of manoeuvres -- including allegedly faking an injury in a car crash -- which critics say the 62-year-old used to dodge serious charges. Prosecutors had demanded a 16-year sentence. Judge Yanto, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, also fined Novanto 500 million rupiah ($36,000), far less than the $7.4 million prosecutors had wanted him to pay as restitution to the state. Novanto, who had managed to sidestep corruption allegations in the past, was accused of playing a key role in embezzlement from the $440 million ID card project, with some $170 million disappearing from state coffers. Several other politicians, government officials and businessmen have been charged in the scandal. The scale of the graft shocked many Indonesians even in one of the world's most corrupt countries. Payoffs and bribes are rife at all levels of society and endemic in many state agencies, including the police force. - Grappling with graft- Indonesia ranked 96th out of 180 countries on Transparency International's corruption index last year, while it scored a lowly 37 on a scale of perceived public corruption with 100 seen as "very clean" and zero "highly corrupt". The war on graft has come with a high price for some. A top investigator for Indonesia's powerful Corruption Eradication Commission was partially blinded in a 2017 acid attack as he was heading the probe into the case involving Novanto and others. No one has yet been arrested. The verdict comes several years after the former chief justice of Indonesia's constitutional court, Akil Mochtar, was jailed for life for accepting bribes to issue favourable decisions in local election disputes. It was the country's heaviest-ever sentence for corruption. Novanto, who dodged questioning by the anti-corruption agency for months, was arrested in hospital in November after he claimed to have been injured in a car crash. The reported accident came shortly after a failed raid on his palatial estate. Indonesia's graft buster subsequently charged Novanto's then-lawyer and doctor with obstructing justice over allegations they booked a hospital room for the supposedly injured politician before his purported car accident happened. Novanto had been forced to quit as speaker in 2015 after he was caught on tape trying to extort a stake in the Indonesian unit of US mining giant Freeport-McMoRan in exchange for extending the company's right to operate in the archipelago. He was later cleared and reappointed as speaker in 2016. He quit again last year after the most recent charges were laid.
At least six policemen were killed and 15 security personnel were wounded Tuesday when three suicide bombers blew themselves up in quick succession in southwest Pakistan, officials said. The attacks hit the city of Quetta in the southwestern province of Balochistan, where police and troops have been fighting Islamist militants and separatist groups for more than a decade. "The first suicide bomber blew himself up outside a paramilitary frontier corps checkpost in the outskirts of Quetta city after he was spotted by the guards," Ghulam Ali Baloch, home secretary of Balochistan told AFP. "Just in the next moments, another bomber who was covering the first attacker exchanged fire with the security forces and later blew himself up." Some eight paramilitary officials were wounded in this attack, he said. Around half an hour later a third bomber drove his motorcycle into a police truck on a road leading to the airport, killing at least six policemen, Baloch added. Moazam Jah Ansari, Quetta's police chief, confirmed the attacks and said the bombing of the police truck was so powerful that the vehicle overturned. It was not clear whether the third bomber was wearing an explosive vest or if the bike was filled with explosives. "Seven policemen were injured in this attack," he said, adding that the three blasts may have been coordinated. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks. Islamist militants and separatist groups have waged violence in mineral-rich Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, for more than a decade. Balochistan is the largest of Pakistan's four provinces but its roughly seven million people have long argued they do not get a fair share of its vast gas and mineral wealth.
Malaysian police have found the motorbike allegedly used in the drive-by shooting of a Palestinian scientist in Kuala Lumpur, the national police chief said Tuesday. Fadi Mohammad al-Batsh, 35, was killed in a hail of bullets by two attackers Saturday as he walked to a mosque for dawn prayers. The family of Batsh, a member of Islamist militant group Hamas who was said to be a rocket-making expert, has accused Israel's Mossad spy agency of carrying out the killing. Israel has denied the claims. Kuala Lumpur police have launched a manhunt for the pair and have released photofits of the two suspects, who are light-skinned, bearded men. National police chief Mohamad Fuzi Harun said that the motorbike allegedly used by the assailants had been found in the Setapak area of Kuala Lumpur. "The motorcycle is in good condition," he told reporters, without giving further details Police previously said they believed either a BMW or a Kawasaki was used in the attack. Mossad is believed to have assassinated Palestinian militants and scientists in the past, but rarely confirms such operations. Batsh's expertise in making weapons could have made him a target -- militants in Hamas-ruled Gaza regularly fire rockets at southern Israel, usually without causing casualties. But Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman Sunday denied claims of the Jewish state's involvement, suggesting instead that it was a "settling of accounts" between factions of a terror group. It was the second high-profile killing of a foreigner in Malaysia in just over a year. In February 2017 assassins smeared the banned VX nerve agent on the face of Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korea's leader, at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, killing him within minutes.
Police with assault rifles patrolled entry points to Boracay island on Tuesday just days before a six-month shutdown and clean-up of one of the Philippines' top tourist attractions. President Rodrigo Duterte had branded the renowned white-sand resort a "cesspool" fouled by dumped sewage and imposed the temporary ban on visitors that is due to take effect Thursday. Authorities on Tuesday held a practice run of security measures, asking residents of the tiny island to present identification cards at the gateway port of Caticlan to be allowed entry. In Boracay, police conducted exercises simulating clashes with protesters, terrorist attacks and a hostage incident even as they said there was no specific threat. "In any plan we need maximum contingency. We will have an assessment if we need to add or reduce our forces but we now have enough forces," local police official Jesus Cambay told AFP. Once hailed as one of the world's top holiday destinations by travel magazines, Boracay is among Southeast Asian destinations reeling from decades of unchecked tourism and environmental degradation. Officials have warned the island's drainage system is being used to send untreated sewage from hotels and restaurants into its turquoise waters. Duterte has threatened to arrest people who try to block government efforts to rehabilitate the sewage system and demolish illegal structures. With no sign in sight of resistance to the clean-up, some residents were surprised by the presence of more than 600 policemen. "I think it's excessive. Why does Boracay have so many policemen?" tour promoter Jessie Ibon told AFP. "It might scare the tourists, seeing soldiers with long firearms." Workers said they did not mind security checks, adding they were more worried about their jobs. The closure threatens the livelihood of 17,000 hotel, restaurant and other tourism workers, plus about 11,000 construction workers. "There's no problem with presenting IDs. It's no hassle. But the income is the huge problem. Of the 100 percent income we used to get, it's now down to 15 percent," resort housekeeper Ernida Jimenez told AFP. The last remaining tourists went swimming despite the algae-tined waters near shore, which the government said was due to sewage being dumped into the waters. "I heard that this beach is supposed to be the most amazing, the most beautiful beach in the world and then when it was all green, it was a bit disappointing," Swedish tourist Malin Palm, 19, told AFP.
Following the success of our recent trial, Soi Dog Foundation has extended visitor times at one of Phukets most popular attractions, The Gill Dalley Sanctuary in Mai Khao to Saturday mornings providing the opportunity to visitors, who are unable to go during the week, to meet and mingle with the small dogs, cats and kittens.

From April 28 onward, visitors are welcome every Saturday from 9.00 am  to 12.00pm. Tours start at 9.30 am and 10.30 am, with the English and Thai speaking Soi Dog volunteer coordinators showing the puppy runs, small dog runs and cat lovers the chance to sit and socialise with the cats and kittens in the cat residence. All activities are free of charge with drinks and refreshments available on-site.

Visitors will have an opportunity to play with the dogs and pups and should you meet your future best friend, the adoptions team will be on hand to give advice about adopting a dog or cat. Giving one of these lovely characters a home would be the perfect gift and change their lives forever. Your future best friend forever may be right here, waiting for you.

Soi Dog Foundation relies completely on volunteers to socialise and walk the 500 dogs in our care, along with socialising the 100 cats also at our shelter. Whether you are based in Phuket or currently on vacation, you are welcome to join the team. For more information on volunteering please contact volunteering@soidog.org. Volunteering hours are usually from 9 am  4 pm (lunch break from midday  1 pm), Monday  Friday, however any help within those hours is much appreciated. There is also a free pick up service from a few locations in Nai Yang each day at 8.40 am, returning at 4.00 pm each afternoon.
The scatterplots display how the polarization on the topic of Obamacare content is distributed among Twitter users. Blue dots represent Democrats, and red Republicans. Credit: Kiran Garimella and Michael Mathioudakis

A recent study of more than 2.7 billion tweets between 2009 and 2016 confirms that Twitter users are exposed mainly to political opinions that agree with their own. It is the largest study to characterise echo chambers by both the content in them and the networks they comprise. The findings indicate a strong correlation between biases in the content people both produce and consume. In other words, echo chambers are very real on Twitter.

'An echo chamber exists if the leaning of the content received by Twitter users is in par with the leaning of the content they share. An opinion echoes back to the user when it is being shared by others in the chamber, the social network around the user,' explains professor Aristides Gionis from Aalto University.

The study identifies three essential roles for Twitter users. Partisan users both consume and produce content with only a one-sided leaning and enjoy high appreciation measured by both network centrality and content endorsement. Gatekeepers have a central role in the formation of echo chambers because they consume content with diverse leanings but choose to produce only content with a one-sided leaning. Bipartisan users produce content with both leanings and make an effort to bridge the echo chambers, but they are less valued in their networks than their partisan counterparts.

The researchers from Aalto University, University of Helsinki and Qatar Computing Research Institute have created machine learning algorithms to predict the roles of users in several datasets. They were able to predict partisan users with nearly 80% accuracy and gatekeepers with 70% accuracy based on their tweets and network. Network centrality was measured in the underlying social network of Twitter users, and endorsement was measured in terms of the number of times a user's message is either re-posted or rated positively by other users in the network.

'Gatekeepers are a small group of users who have higher than average network centrality. However, the users that gatekeepers follow are not always connected with each other; instead, they belong to opposing sides. Finding and connecting the gatekeepers would help spread information to both sides, even though they are more challenging to identify than partisan users,' explains postdoctoral researcher Kiran Garimella, currently working at EPFL in Lausanne.

The price to pay for being bipartisan was studied for the first time on social networks. Producing content that expresses opinions aligned with both sides of a political divide has a price in terms of various aspects including network position, community connections, and content endorsement.

'In other words, the content produced by bipartisan users receives less attention  their tweets are re-posted less frequently by other users,' says professor Michael Mathioudakis from the University of Helsinki.

For all the datasets, in order to ensure that bot accounts were not included in the study, the researchers removed accounts with less than one year of activity at the time of data collection or with any abnormal features, such as suspiciously high number of connections.

'The study was aimed at understanding the interplay between the structure of echo chambers and the role of Twitter users on a scale larger than ever before,' adds Garimella.

'Our motivation was to understand how the social media users perceive the world through their Twitter feed. In future work, we are going to look more closely into different user roles and try to understand who are the users that shape online debates and how, adds Mathioudakis.

The study is presented at this year's international Web Conference (WWW2018) in Lyon, France.

Explore further Conflicting views on social media balanced by an algorithm

More information: Political Discourse on Social Media: Echo Chambers, Gatekeepers, and the Price of Bipartisanship. Political Discourse on Social Media: Echo Chambers, Gatekeepers, and the Price of Bipartisanship. arxiv.org/abs/1801.01665
The UK government has blurred the line by failing to adequately safeguard human rights with its investigatory powers law. Credit: Shutterstock

In light of the Facebook data scandal more people are beginning to challenge the web's pervasive surveillance culture. But few British citizens seem to be aware of the government's own online surveillance regime  significant parts of which have been deemed unlawful.

The UK government broke EU law under the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act (DRIPA), the Court of Appeal ruled in January.

The regime  colloquially known as the Snoopers' Charter  had allowed public bodies to have access to the records of British citizens' web activity and phone records, without any suspicion that a serious crime had been committed. This activity took place without any independent oversight.

DRIPA was rushed through parliament in 2014 by the then Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government after the European Court of Justice (CJEU) ruled that the EU-wide Data Retention Directive (DRD) was "invalid", due to the disproportionate levels of mass online surveillance it had allowed countries within the bloc to exploit.

The DRD had required communications service providers to retain subscriber data of their customer base for two years. But the CJEU declared that it seriously interfered with fundamental rights to privacy and data protection in a way that wasn't strictly necessary.

The UK government had justified the swift enactment of DRIPA to patch up what it said was a capability gap, after the DRD was ripped up by the EU, to allow Britain to continue to fight terrorism and other serious crime.

DRIPA allowed secretaries of state to compel telephone companies, internet service providers and web-based services to continue to retain communications data, which concerns the "where, when, with whom and how".

It works like this, according to the Home Office:

A person sends an email or text message to someone, the "with whom";

It reveals "where", in other words the sender's location;

A time stamp is also provided for "when" the message was sent;

The communications data also reveals "how" the message was sent, by revealing which messaging service was used;

It doesn't reveal the content of a message.

In late 2016, DRIPA was replaced by the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA), with many of the same provisions folded into the new law. Then in November 2017 the government acknowledged that, in light of the CJEU's earlier ruling on DRIPA, it would need to amend the IPA to ensure its surveillance regime could be deemed lawful by the EU.

Notably, however, the Court of Appeal's recent ruling on DRIPA took a markedly different approach to the CJEU. It stressed that, while DRIPA had broken EU law, it had not permitted blanket indiscriminate data retention. But my research shows that it is still possible for UK-based operators to be required to retain all data of users and subscribers.

The Court of Appeal also declined to rule specifically on DRIPA because a separate challenge to its successor  the IPA  is underway, even though the government has already conceded that some parts of that legislation are unlawful.

Under the IPA, companies such as BT, Google and Facebook are required to retain communications data on the web activity of anyone for 12 months to allow police, security services and public authorities to access the information. The Home Office has proposed a series of measures to attempt to fall in to line with EU law, including independent authorisation to approve communications data requests and restricting data retention to "serious crime".

But these apparent concessions have been criticised by campaigners, who argue it is "half-baked".

Human rights law shouldn't be sidestepped

Europe's top courts have made it clear time and again that the continued retention of communications data is a form of mass surveillance.

My research scrutinises the important social ramifications of this surveillance regime now that internet usage is the daily norm for so many people. Communications data can reveal a great deal about online activity: it arguably acts as a kind of internal CCTV.

The mere storage of communications data primarily affects citizens' right to privacy, which is guaranteed by Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Article 7 of the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights. This essentially prevents the state from unlawfully, arbitrarily, unfairly, unnecessarily or disproportionately invading a person's privacy.

Privacy is not just an individual right, it has social value, too. According to Alan Westin, who was a professor of public law, privacy "is a prerequisite for liberal democracies because it sets limits on surveillance by acting as a shield for groups and individuals".

Research shows that an inability to protect privacy may result in the failure to defend a democratic state where invasive techniques can swing elections by influencing behaviour.

Privacy also underpins other rights such as freedom of expression, association and religion which are protected by the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Court of Appeal had the opportunity to consistently apply human rights law to the UK's surveillance practices, but instead chose to sidestep the most important issue: whether blanket indiscriminate data retention is human rights compliant  it isn't.

Explore further EU court rules against UK data retention laws

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
The formation of the subsidence basin within parts of East Finley Township Park resulted in significant ponding (before picture). To restore Templeton Fork required the stream gradient to be re-established to pre-mining conditions. The re-grading of stream is accomplished with a method known as 'gate cutting." Credit: Anthony Iannacchione/University of Pittsburgh

Although Pennsylvania's vast coal resources have been mined since before the creation of the United States, protection of the environment from the effects of mining have slowly evolved and expanded since the Surface Mining Conservation and Reclamation Act of 1945. Act 54 of 1994 amended the Commonwealth's mining statutes to include a new set of repair and compensation provisions for structures and water supplies impacted by underground mining.

Under the Act 54 amendments, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is required to assess the implementation of the new repair and compensation provisions every five years. Since 2009 the University of Pittsburgh has helped to mine the data that shapes how the Commonwealth conducts this assessment and responds to the concerns of individuals and industry.

Funded by DEP and the U.S. Department of the Interior, an interdisciplinary team of researchers led by the University of Pittsburgh has begun the fifth report on "The Effects of Subsidence Resulting from Underground Bituminous Coal Mining on Surface Structures and Features and on Water Resources: Fifth Act 54 Five-year Report." The $794,205 contract includes a comprehensive review of the built and natural environments impacted by long- wall, room-and-pillar, and retreat mining methods from August 21, 2013 - August 20, 2018.

Principal investigator for the fifth report is Daniel Bain, assistant professor of geography and environmental engineering at Pitt and Faculty Fellow in Sustainability, and co-PI is Anthony Iannacchione, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering in Pitt's Swanson School of Engineering. Investigators from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History are Stephen Tonsor, director of science and research, as well as John Wenzel, director of the museum's Powdermill Nature Center, and Powdermill's aquatic entomologist Andrea Kautz.

Subsidence can sometime result in planned ponding of streams. The permit process requires that these events be identified prior to mining and that interventions be developed to mitigate the ponding events. For example, the ponding of water in the field was mitigated by draining the water, followed by re-grading. After these mitigation efforts, the field is returned to its pre-mining condition. Credit: Anthony Iannacchione/University of Pittsburgh

"This project is an ideal wedding of the expertise in two schools at Pitt and Carnegie Museum of Natural History, providing vital information to the citizens of the Commonwealth," Dr. Tonsor said. "The project also trains students in working with government and business, applying scientific knowledge to improve management of this economically and environmentally impactful industry."

"Thanks to this regular review, the DEP has adjusted assessment focus to evolve from basic structures to water, then streams, then wetlands, taking a deeper look at the watershed as a whole," Dr. Bain said. "The challenge is collecting sometimes limited data from various resources, as well as new types of data such as the interaction between groundwater and streams. This process is an evolving territory for everyone involved, from the Commonwealth and mining companies to public interest groups and NGOs, but it is vital research that has a tremendous impact on environmental remediation and restoration."

The fifth report, due August 20, 2019, will include sections on impacts to structures, water supplies, groundwater, streams, wetlands, and a list of recommendations presented to the Governor, General Assembly and Citizens Advisory Council, as well as through public hearings in Harrisburg and California, Pa.

"For this study we're a combination of auditors and researchers," Dr. Iannacchione explained. "But since the first assessment was completed in 1999, the process has not only given industry, government and non-government organizations a greater look at the impact of underground mining, but how the Commonwealth can better identify and address problems, and improve the DEP process as a whole."

As part of the DEP research, Pitt biology faculty and students conduct field work to determine the total biological scores (TBS) of undermined streams, evaluating conditions including stream flow and species recovery. Approximately eight hours of laboratory work to identify the genus and species of life forms is needed for every one hour of field work. Credit: Anthony Iannacchione/University of Pittsburgh

Explore further Coal mining reduces abundance, richness of aquatic life
UCR researchers have turned to experimental economics to address Mexican water scarcity. Credit: Thawatchai Kurunun Via iStock

Ariel Dinar considers himself transformed.

Prior to joining the University of California, Riverside as a professor of environmental economics and policy, Dinar spent 15 years working for the World Bank, where he spearheaded research and policy interventions related to water management and climate change.

Yet over the past 10 years, he has increasingly gravitated toward a new strategy for testing the efficacy of environmental policy options: experimental economics.

Training his sights on Mexico, Dinar sought approaches to address the country's severely depleted aquifers, one of the consequences of a pervasive national electricity subsidy given in the early 1990s to farmers pumping groundwater for agricultural irrigation.

"In the case of Mexico, a tariff granting an electricity subsidy to farmers was implemented after the signing of NAFTA, or the North American Free Trade Agreement, between Mexico, the United States, and Canada," Dinar said.

"At the time, the Mexican government felt Mexican farmers wouldn't be able to compete in the free market because their farms tend to be smaller and they have access to less advanced technology," he added. "Therefore, by providing Mexican farmers with a subsidy, the government thought it'd be able to help them compete more efficiently."

The tariff gave farmers a volumetric subsidy per unit of electricity consumed to pump groundwater for irrigation. But, Dinar explained, it quickly proved inequitable; large-scale farmers used more water, thus benefiting unfairly from the subsidy.

"The distribution was skewed," Dinar said, resulting in an unsustainable system that led to 101 of the country's 188 major aquifers being exploited to the point of overdraft. The tariff, he added, remains a salient example of a perverse policy, or a policy that fails to achieve its intended consequences and instead creates damage.

Reform is essential for water conservation, but making that reform strong enough to weather the inevitable political pushback from Mexico's agricultural sector requires a creative approach.

With that in mind, Dinar proposed and tested three potential policy interventions aimed to address the negative consequences of the electricity subsidy.

Joining him were two colleagues: Amnon Rapoport, distinguished professor of management in the School of Business Administration, and Edgar Tellez Foster, a senior environmental engineer at Chino Basin Watermaster who received his doctorate in environmental and natural resource economics and policy at UCR.

They first presented the reform tracks to UCR undergraduate students in a laboratory setting, publishing their findings in the Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics in June 2017.

The researchers then verified the results of the lab study by conducting a field experiment with 84 farmers from Leon in the Mexican state of Guanajuato, the results of which were published online last week in the Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy.

Both experiments used a digital model to test a set of three policy interventions: the outright elimination of the subsidy, reduction of the subsidy's level, and a process called decoupling.

"With decoupling, we approached participants and told them: 'Suppose we have an account of how much money you received in subsidies over the years. Let's make a deal: From now on, you're not going to get a subsidy. You'll be paying the real price of electricity used to pump groundwater, but at the end of the year we're going to compensate you fully for the average of the annual subsidy sum you received over a period of several years,'" Dinar said, likening the process to a system of delayed gratification.

"We wanted to see whether behavior would change, leading to eventual increased conservation of water via reduced pumping and the preservation of the aquifers for future generations," he added.

To assist with coordinating both studies, Dinar and Rapoport depended on Tellez Foster, a former exchange student from the National Autonomous University of Mexico who first came to UCR in 2009.

"I used to teach 'Introduction to Environmental Economics' at UCR," Dinar said. "Edgar would come to every class and sit right in front, raising his hand and answering questions. I knew I had to talk to him and figure out a way to work together."

A Mexico City native, Tellez Foster said many of Mexico's water issues stem from the disparity between where most of the country's water is located and where most of its economic activity occurs.

"The southern part of Mexico has a lot of water, but only about 10 percent of the country's economic activity occurs there," he said. "Most people live in the northern part of the country, which is a lot drier, so they rely on groundwater, which has become a source of a lot of problems."

Tellez Foster noted the clear difference between the two pools of participantsfarmers were likely to have more awareness of, and personal interest in, the impacts of Mexican groundwater subsidiesbut emphasized both pools were placed in identical simulations by the researchers.

After being divided into smaller groups of six, participants were asked to digitally "withdraw" groundwater from a shared aquifer under the conditions of elimination, reduction, and decoupling.

The researchers found all three policy interventions (elimination, reduction, and decoupling) had positive implications for conservation, with both pools of participants opting to withdraw less water.

Elimination of the subsidy resulted in the largest reduction in requests for groundwater, although decoupling presented similar effects and, if implemented, could better shield reform efforts from political pushback, the researchers posited.

Comparing the behavioral patterns of students and farmers, Dinar said the two groups demonstrated similar trends but students quickly recognized the potential for "freeriding."

"If someone in the group pumped more than the average consistently, then that student was freeriding," Tellez Foster said. "We found students demonstrated freeriding more than farmers; still, the experiment tells us that overall, there's willingness to cooperate within groups."

Going forward, Dinar plans to apply a similar experimental model to solve complex water management challenges in places like Spain and basins of Southeast Asia.

As for Tellez Foster? He now teaches "Introduction to Environmental Economics" at UCR.

"Things have really come full circle," he said. "I took 'Introduction to Environmental Economics' with Professor Dinar as an exchange student, and now I'm in my third year teaching it as the course lecturer. It's an introductory class, so it's not too heavy on theory, which gives me the opportunity show students how current events relate to what we're studying."

Explore further Water conservation policy effectiveness depends on farmer economics

More information: Edgar Tellez Foster et al. Groundwater and electricity consumption under alternative subsidies: Evidence from laboratory experiments, Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (2017). Edgar Tellez Foster et al. Groundwater and electricity consumption under alternative subsidies: Evidence from laboratory experiments,(2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2017.03.003
Coal seam gas extraction has increased social stress in Darling Downs. Credit: University of Queensland, Author provided

The question of opening the Northern Territory and South Australia to fracking has re-ignited concerns about environmental and health impacts.

Receiving less attention are the social and economic changes affecting nearby rural communities from this natural gas development and the social stress that can result.

From 2012, I led a team analysing trends in key social and economic indicators over the past 15 years in Queensland's largely agricultural Darling Downs, where over A$20 billion has been invested in coal seam gas (CSG) development since 2011. We also interviewed and talked with over 200 residents and business owners. Social stress emerged as the most visible health impact of this coal seam gas development.

Social consequences

Staff in both government and the gas industry agree that stress is an important impact. Our findings are reinforced by studies in the Darling Downs by numerous researchers and research students as well as extensive work in North America on resource boomtowns.

One resident said that the region had been "hit by three significant events  extended drought, local government amalgamation, and coal seam gas development."

Residents in community meetings expressed concern about potential effects of coal seam gas development on the amount and quality of groundwater and about possible health impacts.

Their concerns were compounded by low levels of trust in the oil and gas industry and a mix of distrust and trust in the government regulator's ability to manage the industry. This lack of confidence can contribute to psycho-social stress.

Population

The coal seam gas construction phase in the Darling Downs brought migration and an increased pace of work. That made informal emotional support harder to find as "social capital" had declined.

We were told of older, stalwart residents selling their homes at the premium prices brought by the development boom. Grandparents who had provided temporary childcare left as more women entered the workforce. At the same time, the number of childcare staff fell when the Commonwealth government boosted the required qualifications.

Population turnover increased, according to ABS statistics, from 10-15% per year before the CSG boom to 15-20% per year during the boom. The number of nonresident workers peaked in 2014 at over 9,000 for the Western Downs local government area, which has 30,000 residents.

Arguments about whether the CSG development was good or bad for the community exacerbated a decline in the number and strength of bonds among residents. Interviews suggest that these arguments  both in the gasfield towns and within Aboriginal groups along the gas pipeline route  split neighbours and families.

Business

Business and employment opportunities with the resource industry reduced financial stress for some but increased it for others. Tax statistics show that net business income in Chinchilla outside the agricultural sector grew from A$5.8 million in 2011-2012 to A$29 million in 2012-2013. Wage and salary earnings for the town's 7,000-plus residents rose from A$132 million in 2010-2011 to A$213 million in 2012-2013.

Many business owners faced longer opening hours, a need to pay higher wages, greater turnover among staff and uncertainties about whether to invest in more capacity.

Resource sector incomes were seen to be significantly higher than those in agriculture, education, police, health and social services. There is a two-speed economy here, residents noted. Studies in organisations suggest that this sort of sense of unfairness contributes to psycho-social stress.

Housing costs

The construction phase for coal seam gas development resulted in a surge in housing costs. Rents rose dramatically in Chinchilla, where 20-30% of residents live in rental housing. Median rent on a three-bedroom house went from A$280 per week in 2011 to A$400 per week in 2013. That is despite most industry staff and tier-one contractors living in camps outside the town. Lower-income families moved away.

The rate of construction of new housing climbed. Chinchilla had 106 residential building approvals in 2011. That more than doubled to 252 in 2014, just as the CSG construction phase ended.

Overbuilding caused rents to plummet. Median rent on a three-bedroom house fell below where the historic trend said it should be, to A$200 per week in 2016. Low rents attracted families on government support. Their numbers increased 65% in a two-year period, according to Centrelink statistics.

Drug arrests

Drug arrests had bottomed out at 4.3 per thousand population in 2012 during the coal seam gas construction boom. By 2016, this figure climbed to 35 arrests per 1,000, well above the Queensland trend. The number of police on the street heightened concern among Chinchilla's residents, interviews revealed.

So, one can see a distribution of economic benefits but also a distribution of social stresses accompanying development of this resource infrastructure. Psycho-social stress can accumulate when changes cause a drop in "social capital," reducing informal support, and when there is less access to, or use of, mental health services. Prolonged stress can contribute to cardiovascular disease and decreased immune function.

Further investigation can identify how best to provide the needed duty of care for rural communities near such resource development.

Explore further Australian gasbetween a fracked rock and a socially hard place

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A University of Cambridge researcher is calling for the voices of women to be given a fairer platform at a leading scientific conference.

Dr Heather Ford and her colleagues analysed data from the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting and found that, overall; female scientists are offered fewer opportunities than men to present their research.

The team examined the gender, career stage and type of presentation delivered by each participant from 2014 to 2016. They found that female members are at a disadvantage because the majority of them are students or in the early stages of their careers, groups whose members are typically given fewer chances to present their research. The results are reported in the journal Nature Communications.

Conference speakers are often at more senior stages of their careers, where there are usually fewer women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) fields. A further problem is that men are more likely to provide speaking opportunities to other men, potentially limiting women's career prospects.

"The burden of representation often falls on under-represented groups. We need the majority groups to think about representation, otherwise minority voices will continue to be drowned out," said Ford, who is a NERC Independent Research Fellow in Cambridge's Department of Earth Sciences.

However, the research showed some positive signs, as women were invited at a much higher rate than men in the early and mid-career stages.

The researchers are calling for more students and early career researchers to have opportunities to speak at future conferences, in a bid to help some of the many female members who are at the beginning of their careers. They also want to see more women selecting the conference speakers, and suggest that all members may benefit from diversity training before they can invite speakers and assign conference presentations.

Attending and presenting at conferences helps academics at every stage of their careers to build their network, meet potential collaborators and share their research.

Conferences are important for career progression and can be key in helping researchers to find funding and receive job offers. Presenting at academic conferences can also help researchers to gain recognition and awards for their work.

Ford says she and her co-author Petra Dekens from San Francisco State University were motivated to look into this topic after sitting in "too many conference sessions" with either no female speakers, or a single female speaker.

The global context is also an important issue for Ford, particular the ongoing campaign for gender equality. She said; "A lot of women have been motivated to speak out about gender inequality in the past year - people are much more vocal about how they've been treated. I wanted to find a productive way to channel my frustrations."

The AGU Fall Meeting is the world's largest geoscience conference, with more than 22,000 presentation proposals each year. The AGU has more than 60,000 members in 137 countries, and around a third of its members are women. Geoscience is one of the least diverse STEM fields.

Explore further Race and gender still an issue at academic conferences

More information: Heather L. Ford et al, Gender inequity in speaking opportunities at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, Nature Communications (2018). Journal information: Nature Communications Heather L. Ford et al, Gender inequity in speaking opportunities at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03809-5
An AWI scientist is preparing an Arctic sea-ice core for a microplastic analysis in a lab at the AWI Helgoland. Credit: Alfred-Wegener-Institut/Tristan Vankann

Experts at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) have recently found higher amounts of microplastic in Arctic sea ice than ever before. However, the majority of particles were microscopically small. Ice samples from five regions throughout the Arctic Ocean contained up to 12,000 microplastic particles per litre of sea ice. Further, the types of plastic showed a unique footprint in the ice, allowing the researchers to trace them back to possible sources. This involves the massive garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean; the high percentage of paint and nylon particles pointed to intensified shipping and fishing activities in some parts of the Arctic Ocean. The new study has just been released in the journal Nature Communications.

"During our work, we realised that more than half of the microplastic particles trapped in the ice were less than a twentieth of a millimetre wide, which means they could easily be ingested by Arctic microorganisms like ciliates, but also by copepods," says AWI biologist and first author Dr. Ilka Peeken. The observation is a very troubling one because, as she explains, "No one can say for certain how harmful these tiny plastic particles are for marine life, or ultimately also for human beings."

The AWI researcher team had gathered the ice samples in the course of three expeditions to the Arctic Ocean on board the research icebreaker Polarstern in the spring of 2014 and summer of 2015. They hail from five regions along the Transpolar Drift and the Fram Strait, which transports sea ice from the Central Arctic to the North Atlantic.

Infrared spectrometer reveals heavy contamination with microparticles

Microplastic refers to plastic particles, fibres, pellets and other fragments with a length, width or diameter ranging from only a few micrometresthousandths of a millimetreto under five millimetres. A considerable amount of microplastic is released directly into the ocean by the gradual deterioration of larger pieces of plastic. But microplastic can also be created on lande.g., by laundering synthetic textiles or abrasion of car tires. The plastic initially floats through the air as dust, and is then blown to the ocean by the wind, or finds its way there through sewer networks.

In order to determine the exact amount and distribution of microplastic in sea ice, the AWI researchers were the first to analyse the ice cores layer by layer using a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR), a device that bombards microparticles with infrared light and uses a special mathematical method to analyse the radiation they reflect back. Depending on their makeup, the particles absorb and reflect different wavelengths, allowing every substance to be identified by its optic fingerprint.

"Using this approach, we also discovered plastic particles that were only 11 micrometres across. That's roughly one-sixth the diameter of a human hair, and also explains why we found concentrations of over 12,000 particles per litre of sea icewhich is two to three time higher than what we'd found in past measurements," says Gunnar Gerdts, in whose laboratory the measurements were carried out. Surprisingly, the researchers found that 67 percent of the particles detected in the ice belonged to the smallest-scale category of 50 micrometres and smaller.

Germany's research icebreaker POLARSTERN above the Lomonossov Ridge in the central Arctic Ocean. Credit: Alfred-Wegener-Institut/Ruediger Stein

Ice drift and the chemical fingerprint offer clues to pollutants' regions of origin

The particle density and composition varied significantly from sample to sample. The researchers determined that the plastic particles were not uniformly distributed throughout the ice core. "We traced back the journey of the ice floes we sampled and can now safely say that both the region in which the sea ice is initially formed and the water masses in which the floes drift through the Arctic while growing, have an enormous influence on the composition and layering of the encased plastic particles," relates Ilka Peeken.

The researchers also learned that ice floes, which are driven in the Pacific water masses of the Canadian Basin, contain particularly high concentrations of polyethylene particles. Polyethylene is used in packaging material. As the experts write in their study, "Accordingly, we assume that these fragments represent remains of the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and are pushed along the Bering Strait and into the Arctic Ocean by the Pacific inflow."

In contrast, the scientists predominantly found particles from ship's paint and nylon waste from fishing nets in ice from the shallow marginal seas of Siberia. "These findings suggest that both the expanding shipping and fishing activities in the Arctic are leaving their mark. The high microplastic concentrations in the sea ice can thus not only be attributed to sources outside the Arctic Ocean. Instead, they also point to local pollution in the Arctic," says Ilka Peeken.

The researchers found a total of 17 different types of plastic in the sea ice, including packaging materials like polyethylene and polypropylene, but also paints, nylon, polyester, and cellulose acetate, the latter primarily used in the manufacture of cigarette filters. Taken together, these six materials accounted for roughly half of all the microplastic particles detected.

According to Ilka Peeken, "The sea ice binds all this plastic litter for two to a maximum of 11 yearsthe time it takes for ice floes from the marginal seas of Siberia or the North American Arctic to reach the Fram Strait, where they melt." But conversely, this also means that sea ice transports large quantities of microplastic to the waters off the northeast coast of Greenland.

The researchers can't yet say whether the released plastic particles subsequently remain in the Arctic or are transported farther south; in fact, it seems likely that the plastic litter begins sinking into deeper waters relatively quickly. "Free-floating microplastic particles are often colonised by bacteria and algae, which makes them heavier and heavier. Sometimes they clump together with algae, which makes them drift down to the seafloor much faster," explains AWI biologist and co-author Dr. Melanie Bergmann.

The observations made by researchers at the AWI's deep-sea network HAUSGARTEN in the Fram Strait lend additional weight to this thesis. As Melanie Bergmann relates, "We recently recorded microplastic concentrations of up to 6500 plastic particles per kilogram of seafloor; those are extremely high values."

Explore further Microplastic particles threaten fish larvae

More information: Ilka Peeken et al, Arctic sea ice is an important temporal sink and means of transport for microplastic, Nature Communications (2018). Journal information: Nature Communications Ilka Peeken et al, Arctic sea ice is an important temporal sink and means of transport for microplastic,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03825-5
Credit: PLOS Blogs

The other day, through no fault of my own, I found myself looking at the courses required by our molecular biology undergraduate degree program. I discovered a requirement for a 5 credit hour physics course, and a recommendation that this course be taken in the students' senior year  a point in their studies when most have already completed their required biology courses. Befuddlement struck me, what was the point of requiring an introductory physics course in the context of a molecular biology major? Was this an example of time-travel (via wormholes or some other esoteric imagining) in which a physics course in the future impacts a students' understanding of molecular biology in the past? I was also struck by the possibility that requiring such a course in the students' senior year would measurably impact their time to degree.

In a search for clarity and possible enlightenment, I reflected back on my own experiences in an undergraduate biology degree program  as a practicing cell and molecular biologist, I was somewhat confused. I could not put my finger on the purpose of our physics requirement, except perhaps the admirable goal of supporting physics graduate students. But then, after feverish reflections on the responsibilities of faculty in the design of the courses and curricula they prescribe for their students and the more general concepts of instructional (best) practice and malpractice, my mind calmed, perhaps because I was distracted by an article on Oxford Nanopore's MinION () "portable real-time device for DNA and RNA sequencing", a device that plugs into the USB port on one's laptop! Distracted from the potentially quixotic problem of how to achieve effective educational reform at the undergraduate level, I found myself driven on by an insatiable curiosity (or a deep-seated insecurity) to ensure that I actually understood how this latest generation of DNA sequencers worked. This led me to a paper by Meni Wanunu (2012. Nanopores: A journey towards DNA sequencing). On reading the paper, I found myself returning to my original belief, yes, understanding physics is critical to developing a molecular-level understanding of how biological systems work, BUT it was just not the physics normally inflicted upon (required of) students. Certainly this was no new idea. Bruce Alberts had written on this topic a number of times, most dramatically in his 1989 paper "The cell as a collection of molecular machines". Rather sadly, and not withstanding much handwringing about the importance of expanding student interest in, and understanding of, STEM disciplines, not much of substance in this area has occurred. While (some minority of) physics courses may have adopted active engagement pedagogies, in the meaning of Hake, most insist on teaching macroscopic physics, rather than to focus on, or even to consider, the molecular level physics relevant to biological systems, explicitly the physics of protein machines in a cellular (biological) context. Why sadly? Because conventional, that is non-biologically relevant introductory physics and chemistry courses, all too often serve the role of a hazing ritual, driving many students out of the biological sciences, in part I suspect because they often seem irrelevant to students' interests in the workings of biological systems.

Nanopore's sequencer and Wanunu's article got me thinking again about biological machines, of which there are a great number, ranging from pumps, propellers, and oars to various types of transporters, molecular truckers that move chromosomes, membrane vesicles, and parts of cells with respect to one another, to DNA detanglers, protein unfolders, and molecular recyclers (). The Nanopore sequencer works because as a single strand of DNA (or RNA) moves through a narrow pore, the different bases (A,C,T,G) occlude the pore to different extents, allowing different numbers of ions, different amounts of current, to pass through the pore. These current differences can be detected, and allows for nucleotide sequence to be read as the nucleic acid strand moves through the pore. Understanding the process involves understanding how molecules move, that is the physics of molecular collisions and energy transfer, how proteins and membranes allow and restrict ion movement, and the impact of chemical gradients and electrical fields across a membrane on molecular movements  all physical concepts of widespread significance in biological systems. Such ideas can be extended to the more general questions of how molecules move within the cell, and the effects of molecular size and inter-molecular interactions within a concentrated solution of proteins, protein polymers, lipid membranes, and nucleic acids, such as described in Oliverira et al., Increased cytoplasm viscosity hampers aggregate polar segregation in Escherichia coli . At the molecular level the processes, while biased by electric fields (potentials) and concentration gradients, are stochastic (noisy). Understanding of stochastic processes is difficult for students, but critical to developing an appreciation of how such processes can lead to phenotypic differences between cells with the same genotypes (previous post) and how such noisy processes are managed by the cell and within a multicellular organism.

As path leads on to path, I found myself considering the ( adapted from Joshi et al., 2017) spear-chucking protein machine present in the pathogenic bacteria Vibrio cholerae; this molecular machine is used to inject toxins into neighbors that the bacterium happens to bump into (see Joshi et al., 2017. Rules of Engagement: The Type VI Secretion System in Vibrio cholerae). The system is complex and acts much like a spring-loaded and rather "inhumane" mouse trap. This is one of a number of bacterial type VI systems, and "has structural and functional homology to the T4 bacteriophage tail spike and tube"  the molecular machine that injects bacterial cells with the virus's genetic material, its DNA.

Building the bacterium's spear-based injection system is controlled by a social (quorum sensing) system (previous post). One of the ways that such organisms determine whether they are alone or living in an environment crowded with other organisms. During the process of assembly, potential energy, derived from various chemically coupled, thermodynamically favorable reactions, is stored in both type VI "spears" and the contractile (nucleic acid injecting) tails of the bacterial viruses (phage). Understanding the energetics of this process, for example, how coupling thermodynamically favorable chemical reactions, such as ATP hydrolysis, or physico-chemical reactions such as the diffusion of ions down an electrochemical gradient, can be used to set these "mouse traps", and understanding where the energy goes when the traps are sprung is central to students' understanding of these and a wide range of other molecular machines.

Energy stored in such molecular machines during their assembly can be used to move the cell. As an example, another bacterial system generates contractile (type IV pili) filaments; the contraction of such a filament can allow "the bacterium to move 10 000 times its own body weight, which results in rapid movement" (see Berry & Belicic 2015. Exceptionally widespread nanomachines composed of type IV pilins: the prokaryotic Swiss Army knives). The contraction of such a filament has also been found to be used to import DNA into the cell, the first step in the process of horizontal gene transfer. In other situations (other molecular machines) such protein filaments access thermodynamically favorable processes to rotate, acting like a propeller, driving cellular movement.

During my biased random walk through the literature, I came across another, but molecularly distinct, machine used to import DNA into Vibrio (see Matthey & Blokesch 2016. The DNA-Uptake Process of Naturally Competent Vibrio cholerae). This molecular machine enables the bacterium to import DNA from the environment, released, perhaps, from a neighbor killed by its spear. In this system (adapted from Matthey & Bioesch et al., 2017 ), the double stranded DNA molecule is first transported through the bacterium's outer membrane ("OM"); the DNA's two strands are then separated, and one strand passes through a channel protein through the inner (plasma) membrane, and into the cytoplasm, where it can interact with the bacterium's genomic DNA.

The value of introducing students to the idea of molecular machines is that it can be used to demystify how biological systems work, how such machines carry out specific functions, whether moving the cell or recognizing and repairing damaged DNA. If physics matters in biological curriculum, it matters for this reason  it establishes th e core premise of biology that organisms are not driven by "vital" forces, but by prosaic physiochemical ones. At the same time, the molecular mechanisms behind evolution, such as mutation, gene duplication, and genomic reorganization, provide the means by which new structures emerge from pre-existing ones, yet many is the molecular biology degree program that does not include an introduction to evolutionary mechanisms in its required course sequence  imagine that, requiring physics but not evolution?

One final point regarding requiring students to take a biologically relevant physics course early in their degree program is that it can be used to reinforce what I think is a critical and often misunderstood point. While biological systems rely on molecular machines, we (and by we I mean all organisms) are NOT machines, no matter what physicists might postulate  see We Are All Machines That Think. We are something different and distinct. Our behaviors and our feelings, whether ultimately understandable or not, emerge from the interaction of genetically encoded, stochastically driven non-equilibrium systems, modified through evolutionary, environmental, social, and a range of unpredictable events occurring in an uninterrupted, and basically undirected fashion for ~3.5 billion years. While we are constrained, we are more, in some weird and probably ultimately incomprehensible way.

Explore further Proteins that move DNA around in a bacterium are surprisingly similar to those in our own cells

This story is republished courtesy of PLOS Blogs: blogs.plos.org.
Recorded music grossed $17.3 billion in 2017 with digital music amounting to 54 percent of the revenue

The global music industry soared a record 8.1 percent last year as digital sales for the first time made up the majority of revenue thanks to the streaming boom, the industry said Tuesday.

Recorded music grossed $17.3 billion in 2017 with digital musicuntil last year roughly equal to physical sales worldwideamounting to 54 percent of the revenue, the IFPI global body said in its annual report.

The 8.1 percent growth marks the third consecutive year of expansion and the fastest pace since the IFPI, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, began compiling data, the group's CEO, Frances Moore, told reporters on a conference call.

But the industry still is only about two-thirds of the value it was in the 1990s before the rise of the internet and the scourge of pirated music sent the music business into a 15-year slump, Moore said.

The resurgence is almost entirely due to the rapid growth of streaming services including Spotify, Deezer and Apple Music, which have given the industry a badly needed new source of revenue.

The report said that 176 million people around the world paid for streaming subscriptions by the end of 2017, with 64 million joining throughout the yearand there is plenty of room to grow on a global level.

Physical sales tumbled again but one bright side was vinyl, which remains a sliver of the market but grew 22.3 percent as records find a renewed market among audiophiles.

Stu Bergen, the CEO for international and global commercial services at the Warner Music Group, warned that the music industry should not become "complacent" and pledged that record labels would invest their revenue to develop new talent.

"We've fought too hard to get here and, after 15 years of decline, there's still plenty of room to grow," Bergen said on the conference call.

IFPI's 10 best-sellling artists in the world in 2017 as sales soar led by digital

Latin American growth

He voiced guarded optimism about China, where revenue jumped 35.3 percent as international labels increasingly penetrate the billion-plus market.

The growth, however, comes from a small base, with China only the 10th largest music market.

In one point of concern, Japanthe world's second largest music marketsaw revenue decline by three percent.

The slump was paradoxically due to the continued strength of CD sales in Japan, where physical music makes up 72 percent of the market, with digital revenue not providing the same injection of growth as elsewhere.

"It's just a question of time. It's a traditional society and the move towards digital is slower than in some countries," Moore said.

Latin America saw the biggest growth among regions.

Revenue there jumped 17.7 percent on the back of streaming and particularly strong showings in Brazil, Chile and Peru.

The report, however, warned that more needed to be done to reach Latin American music consumers who do not have credit cardsgenerally a requirement to subscribe to streaming services.

The IFPI also repeated its longstanding complaints about a structural "value gap" which allows YouTube to pay less back to artists, owing in part to laws in the United States that shield internet companies from responsibility for content uploaded by users.

The report estimated that record companies earned $20 per year from each Spotify user, while YouTube, owned by search engine giant Google, paid less than $1.

"We can't deliver the path to recovery alone. There is a structural fault in the market," Moore said.

 2018 AFP
PSA's results were doped by the inclusion of Opel Vauxhall in its books

French carmarker PSA Peugeot Citroen said Tuesday its acquisition of the Opel and Vauxhall brands last year helped drive sales up more than 42 percent in the first quarter.

The auto giant said it had seen a growth in sales volume around the world, "with a record 1.05 million cars sold".

As such the company is likely to surpass its expectations of selling four million cars in 2018, as announced by CEO Carlos Tavares in March.

PSA last year became Europe's second biggest carmaker after Volkswagen when it bought Vauxhall and German brand Opel from US giant General Motors.

It said revenue jumped 42.1 percent to 18.2 billion euros ($22.2 billion) from January to March this year.

Excluding last summer's acquisition of Opel Vauxhall, Peugeot, Citroen and premium brand DS saw revenue surge 13.3 percent to 10.2 billion euros in the first quarter.

Tavares had also promised better sales on the Chinese market, which had been PSA's weak spot and where sales had dipped 37 percent last year.

In the first three months of 2018, the company's fortunes in China began to shift, with a slight increase in sales of 1.8 percent.

Of the company's brands, Citroen was the best performing in China, the world's biggest car market, while DS sales dropped nearly 58 percent in the Asian giant.

In Europe, which is by far the company's biggest market, sales jumped 8.7 percent, thanks mainly to Peugeot.

Taking into account the figures for Opel Vauxhall in Europe, sales jumped 65.7 percent to over 770,000 units.

Opel Vauxhall continues to weigh on profitability, however, even as PSA presses on with a major plan to turn around its results.

"Push to Pass strategic plan and Opel Vauxhall turnaround plan are on track to make this strong performance a solid basis for the future," chief financial officer Jean-Baptiste de Chatillon said.

Explore further French carmaker PSA says global sales up 15% in 2017

 2018 AFP
PhD student Miguel Nobre Castro with the award-winning CXD joint. Credit: Jakob Brodersen

Aalborg researchers have developed a new type of mechanical joint that can support shoulders and hips smarter than ever before. The joint which is compact enough to be worn hidden under clothing, has already won international honors and will likely be the standard in future wearable exoskeletons

A compact joint that can be pulled out in an arc around a sphere. This may not sound like much, but it is nothing less than a sensation. The joint is called CXD (Compact X-scissors Device) and was developed by researchers at Aalborg University (AAU). It is the world's first retractable joint that can move freely in all directions around a sphere  for example, as support for the shoulder or hip.

The CXD was originally designed to help children who have lost the use of an arm or shoulder due to illness or an accident. They need support in the form of an exoskeleton  a supporting structure that is securely fastened to the body, in order to regain normal function.

"Mechanical joints such as for the shoulders are large and bulky mechanisms. And unfortunately there are a lot of restrictions on what movements they can make. For example, in a particular use scenario, you cannot keep your arm stretched out in front of you and then turn it to the side. This is a major obstacle for those wearing the exoskeleton," explains PhD student Miguel Castro.

He is part of the Biomechanics research group at AAU and one of the main researchers behind the invention.

The CXD joint is the first joint in the world that can be pulled freely around a sphere. It provides freedom of movement to the shoulders or other of the bodys ball-and-socket joints. Credit: Jakob Brodersen

"The new joint we developed is just as versatile as a ball-and-socket joint, but very compact. Because of this compactness, you can create an exoskeleton that can be worn discreetly under clothing. That means a lot, especially for the kids who have to use it at home and in public," he says.

International attention

Bulky and heavy joints have always been a Gordian knot in wearable robotics  body-worn robotic solutions, including exoskeletons. The researchers' invention has already created international attention.

In March, the CXD joint won first place in the Wearable Robotics Association Innovation Challenge (WeaRAcon18), an award that was presented at the industry's most important conference in Arizona, USA.

"The people on the awards committee were either directors or deputy directors of the major exoskeleton producers. They thought that our joint was the most interesting invention at the conference. This is of course good market validation," says Lars Halkjr, special consultant in technology transfer and part of the research team behind the CXD.

Exoskeletons are coming

The research group is convinced that exoskeletons will become widespread in society because they have so many uses. The new CXD joint will help boost this development so things will move even faster.

In a few years, exoskeletons will be a more common sight in everyday life, says Lars Halkjr, for instance, in industrial companies with tasks that require strength and precision but that are not suited to being performed by robots.

Flexible exoskeletons will also help senior citizens to be self-reliant for longer and have less need for physical assistance.

"Ten years ago drone technology was new and exotic, says Lars Halkjr. Today, they are used for a wide variety of solutions in transport, inspection and more. I think we are going to see the same trend with exoskeletons," he says.

Explore further For heavy lifting, use exoskeletons with caution
A small group of companies are offering an alternative to the traditional options that follow death: preserving corpses by freezing your body for future scientists to revive. But is this even possible?

In the depth of winter, many animals hibernatethey sleep it off. But a few others, especially in places where winter gets really cold, have evolved a more extreme strategylike the Arctic ground squirrel, found in Alaska.

When snow comes, this little animal literally freezes over. It remains frozen for up to 9 months.

A few other species have this amazing ability, like some insects and frogs that are known to withstand freezing cold temperatures. The wood frog, for example, is well known for being able to survive frozen at subarctic temperatures for several months too.

But, could humans too survive freezing cold temperatures? The short answer is no, not if you just go ahead and freeze yourself like a squirrel or a frog. The water inside you will break your cellsliterally.

"One of the big problems with low temperatures is that the water in our cells can freeze and thereby rupture the cells, so we are left with the option of adding an agent that will lower the freezing point (supercooling point) or in some other way prevent ice crystallisation within the cell," explains David Denlinger, an entomologist at Ohio State University in Columbus.

Despite the challenges, some people believe that freezing humans is a way to go once you die. What's the big idea? Simple. They say that, maybe, just maybe, sometime in the future, scientists will be able to revive you.

So how do animals do it?

Well, first of all, their body produces a special antifreeze protein, which allows the insides to remain unfrozen during the super cold temperature. This prevents the cells from bursting open.

"We add antifreeze to our car radiators to lower the supercooling point, and many insects do the same thing by synthesising glycerol or some other sort of polyol that lowers the freezing point," David explains.

They also have special genes that allow them not to feel the cold. A recent study found that the ground squirrels have evolved cold-sensing neurons that have a diminished ability to detect cold temperatures.

"If these animals were to feel cold, they would not be able to hibernate because their sensory system would tell the rest of the body that they need to warm up first," says Elena Gracheva, a physiologist and neuroscientist at Yale University in a 2017 press release.

These crafty animals also have a specialised enzyme that allows them to burn fats instead of carbohydratesa trick that seems to have protective effects while hibernating, according to a recent study.

Other insects have an even simpler solution. They just get rid of the water!

"An insect that I work with in Antarctica, the Antarctic midge Belgica antarctica, exploits another strategy. Rather than making an antifreeze compound, it simply gets rid of much of its body water. Many insects can survive a loss of 20% body water, but this midge can survive a loss of up to 70% of its body water, making it look like a little dried up raisin," says David.

All these little tricks squirrels and frog use give us some hints on how to survive at extremely low temperatures. But, can humans do it too?

Freezing humans?

Current research in this field is mostly devoted to organ transplant, focused on preservation of individual organs at cold temperatures. The field has seen some significant advances in recent years, giving hope to transplant patients who currently need to rely only on freshly harvested organs.

But preserving something more than single organs, sperm, eggs or embryos is a whole other story. The field of cryonics seeks to preserve whole human bodies at ultra-low temperatures. The idea is that, in the future, medicine will be able to revive people from this frozen state.

The idea sounds a bit like science fiction, and in fact, many scientists even refrain from calling it a scientific field.

"It is one thing to freeze and thaw a few lower organisms like nematodes or insectsorganisms that have an open circulatory system that freely bathes the organsbut the challenge of bringing back a complete human is formidable and unlikely attainable," says David.

"A few cells or perhaps even an organ might be thawed and functional, but the task of a whole organism is really beyond possibility", he adds.

Many scientists even call it a false sciencesnake oil sold to hopeful or desperate people who believe one day science will be able to revive them, despite no evidence supporting such a possibility.

Despite the uncertainty of this process, there are currently cryonics facilities operating in the US and Russia. For example, in the US, the company Alcor currently hosts 156 people that have been cryopreserved, while in Russia, the company KrioRus has frozen 58 people.

Australia may soon join this list of countries with cryonic facilities. While not yet operational, Southern Cryonics plans to open a cryonic facility in Dover Heights, NSW.

Cryonics: the basics

So how does it work? In a nutshell, first you need to be declared legally dead. Only then can a cryonics company start working on you. As soon as you expire, doctors should place your body in ice until the cryonic technicians arrive.

From this point on, blood will be drained from your body and replaced by an organ preservation solution, followed by a cryoprotectant solution. These solutions are a concoction of different chemicals aimed at protecting your cells from the damaging effects of cold temperatures. The basic idea is that the solution will prevent crystals from forming and damaging cells and tissue when you are frozen.

Much like the wood frog, this solution aims to keep the water in your insides unfrozen. But the challenge is formidable, according to experts, as it involves a lot of organs and complex structures. "All sorts of organs must be thawed without injurybrain and nervous connections must all be functional as well as all other systems such as the circulatory and excretory systemsreally, an impossible task in my view!" says David.

And the big question is, do the solutions work that are currently used in people who are frozen by cryonics companies? According to proponents of cryonics, their solutions work, but experts doubt it. "The solutions are ineffective to prevent freezing damage. The solutions do not penetrate the cells or 'solve' damage. Frozen cells/tissues/organs cannot be fixed. They are hella-dead and scrambled," says Dr. Kenneth Storey, a physiologist at Carleton University who works with wood frogs.

Science aside, what if it works?

For the sake of argument, let's assume scientists are able to revive a person frozen for hundreds of years. Then what? This is one of many questions raised recently in the case of a 14-year-old girl, called JS, who died of a rare form of cancer.

JS made the news in 2016 when she won a court battle that allowed her to be cryopreserved after her demise. Her parents are betting on the long shot that, someday, science may be able to revive her and cure her cancer.

But, what if it works? What world would JS wake up to? Who will look after her then? Will she have family then? Or funds in the bank to support her? These questions are impossible to answer accurately, as anything could happen in a few hundred years.

Also, you could imagine a more pessimistic outcome. What if, after hundreds of years frozen, there is some neurological damage. Then you would wake up trapped in an unresponsive body, in a coma or in an otherwise disabled condition.

This precedent also raises the concern that other families will look into cryonics as a viable option for their dying child.

However, right now, the science behind cryonics is basically non-existent. So unlike the nifty wood frog, the most likely outcome is that none of these frozen individuals will ever wake up.

Explore further Will we ever be able to bring cryogenically frozen corpses back to life? A cryobiologist explains

This article first appeared on Particle, a science news website based at Scitech, Perth, Australia. Read the original article.
The academic behind the app that allowed consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to farm the data of some 87 million Facebook users said Tuesday he was being scapegoated while the social network was being "mined left and right by thousands" of companies.

Aleksandr Kogan, who teaches at Cambridge University, told a British parliamentary committee that criticism of his work by Facebook showed the US social media giant was in "PR crisis mode".

"I don't believe they actually think these things because I think they realise that their platform has been mined left and right by thousands of others," said the Russian-American scientist, who is now banned from Facebook.

"I was just the unlucky person that ended up somehow linked to the Trump campaign. It's convenient to point the finger at a single entity," he said, playing down his own work as of little political value.

Kogan created a personality prediction app through his company Global Science Research (GSR), which offered a small financial payment in return for users filling out a personality test.

Facebook says it was downloaded by 270,000 people, but it also gave Kogan access to their friends, giving him a wealth of information on 90 million users, according to the social media giant's boss Mark Zuckerberg.

The data was sold to Cambridge Analytica's parent company. Cambridge Analytica went on to work on Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

However, Kogan told MPs on Tuesday that the data was too imprecise to build up accurate profiles that could be used to effectively target political Facebook ads.

"One of the biggest points of confusion has been how accurate the personality scores we provided to SCL (CA's parent company) were," he said.

"The scores were highly inaccurate. We found that the scores were more accurate than a random guess, but less accurate than assuming everyone is average on every trait."

Facebook's own tools "provide companies a far more effective pathway to target people based on their personalities than using scores from users from our work," he added.

Kogan said that CA assured him that what he was doing was "perfectly legal and within the terms of service" of the social media giant.

CA's former chief executive Alexander Nix has denied using data collected by GSR, but Kogan called the claim "a fabrication".

'No Bond villain'

Clarence Mitchell, a CA spokesman told a press conference Tuesday that Kogan's data "was shown to be virtually useless in that it was only just above random guessing".

He reiterated CA did not use any of it on the Trump campaign and had broken no laws, while mistakes had been acknowledged.

"The company has been portrayed in some quarters as almost some Bond villain," he said.

"Cambridge Analytica is no Bond villain."

Kogan also accused Facebook of feigning ignorance of how their users' data was being used, saying it was "well documented that Facebook collaborates with researchers.

"They gave me the data set without any agreement signed," he explained. "Sometime later they came and we did have a signed agreement."

When asked why Facebook would be so accommodating, Kogan replied that "this was something they gave their employees to stimulate them."

Committee chairman Damien Collins asked if that meant Facebook let its employees give data to academics "and let them play with it?", to which Kogan responded; "Yes".

The scientist claimed in an earlier interview that "tens of thousands" of apps will have taken advantage of Facebook data rules.

It was, however, not part of Facebook's terms for Kogan to sell data.

Born in Moldova and raised in Russia, before emigrating to the United States at the age of seven, Kogan studied at the University of California, Berkeley, and obtained his doctorate at the University of Hong Kong.

He joined the University of Cambridge's Department of Psychology as a lecturer in 2012.

He has also conducted work funded by the Russian government with St Petersburg University, but said that was irrelevant to the Facebook scandal.

The scientist also goes by the name Aleksandr Spectre, which he took when he married his Singaporean bride.

When an MP pointed out that the name was also the evil organisation in James Bond films, Kogan said this was just an "unfortunate coincidence".

Explore further Scientist at centre of Facebook data scandal faces MPs

 2018 AFP
TEM images of 2-D cadmium telluride sheers. Left: initial flat sheets. Right: sheets after folding. Upper right corner: a scheme of a folded sheet Credit: Roman Vasiliev

A team of scientists from the Faculty of Chemistry and the Faculty of Materials Science, MSU, together with foreign colleagues, discovered that two-dimensional sheets of cadmium telluride can spontaneously fold into nanoscrolls. This effect may be used in electronics and photonics. The results of the study were published in Chemistry of Materials.

In the course of the study, the team focused on 2-D semiconductor materials. These include graphene, phosphorene, 2-D layers of molybdenum disulfide, and 2-D perovskites that have recently attracted lots of attention from scientists. These materials are one atom thick crystals with 2-D electronic properties. Researchers believe that they may be used for the development of new devices.

"We studied 2-D cadmium telluride CdTe and discovered an unexpected effect of spontaneous folding of its ultrathin (only 1 nm) sheets that are also called colloidal quantum wells," said Roman Vasiliev, a co-author of the work, Ph.D. of Chemical Sciences, and Associate Professor of the Faculty of Chemistry and the Faculty of Materials Science, MSU.

Colloidal quantum wells are a new generation of colloidal quantum dots. Quantum dots are distinguished by their luminescent properties and are used in commercial devices, such as TV sets. Quantum wells, a 2-D type of quantum dots, are being studied today, but we already know that they possess very narrow luminescence bands, which is important for bright color rendering in light-emitting devices.

The team studied the properties of 2-D sheets of cadmium telluride by exchanging organic molecules attached to their surface and securing the stability of nanoparticles. In order to synthesize 2-D cadmium telluride, the scientists used the colloidal method and obtained them in a flask. The scientists obtained cadmium telluride nanoparticles in an organic solvent in the presence of surfactants. By changing the conditions of the reaction, they grew the particles into one-nanometer-thick sheets.

At first, the authors of the work grew flat 2-D sheets covered with oleic acid as a stabilizer. They managed to obtain sheets with a length reaching hundreds of nanometers and a thickness of one nanometer. The team started replacing the molecules of oleic acid with other organic molecules and analyzing sizes and shapes of the obtained nanoparticles, as well as their composition and crystal structure. At this stage, they used a transmission electron microscope.

In the course of the study, the team discovered that when a specific type of stabilizer (thiols) is used, flat sheets of cadmium telluride suddenly fold into perfect scrolls. When attached to the surface of a sheet, thiol molecules increase its thickness by one monolayer (0.15 nm) and cause mechanical stresses, making the sheet fold in a certain crystallographic direction. The folding takes place for all nanoparticles at once, and the radius of the fold is the same for all nanostructures.

"The study opens new prospects for manipulations of 2-D materials and nanoparticles. The folding effect came as a surprise for us. It resembles the process of making origami, but in this case, the sheets are one nanometer thick. Knowing how to change spatial shape of nanoparticles, we could use them in the manufacturing of optic materials with anisotropic behavior and polarized luminescence. We could create active light-emitting matrices for displays that would reduce energy consumption and increase brightness and intensity of various devices. Perhaps, we could also develop new nano-devices, for example, tube-shaped transistors. These interesting properties may be of use in new generations of light-emitting and sensor devices, as well as in optic and optoelectronic technologies and nanotechnologies," concluded the scientist.

Explore further Researchers developing 2-D materials similar to graphene

More information: Roman B. Vasiliev et al, Spontaneous Folding of CdTe Nanosheets Induced by Ligand Exchange, Chemistry of Materials (2018). Journal information: Chemistry of Materials Roman B. Vasiliev et al, Spontaneous Folding of CdTe Nanosheets Induced by Ligand Exchange,(2018). DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.7b05324
At its meeting in Medellin (Colombia), the World Biodiversity Council (IPBES) presented its studies on biodiversity and ecosystem services in various regions of the world. They show that the increasing intensity of conventional agriculture and forestry is leading to a decline in biodiversity. Findings concerning Europe and Central Asia indicate that the appropriation of nature for human needs, such as the production of food and energy, goes at the expense of important ecosystem functions, such as pollination or soil formation. One of the main authors for this region is the sustainability expert Prof. Berta Martin-Lopez from Leuphana University of Luneburg.

"Unsustainable food consumption in Central and Western Europe makes these regions dependent on food and fodder imports corresponding to the annual harvest of 35 million hectares of arable land, an area the size of Germany," says Prof. Berta Martin-Lopez.

The authors of the study are convinced that future economic growth can only be sustainable if it does not lead to a further deterioration of biological diversity. However, up until now, there are no guarantees that this can be achieved, as this would require far-reaching political changes and tax reforms at global and national level.

In Europe and Central Asia, traditional land use systems are increasingly being abandoned, which results in a loss of regional knowledge and practices. Production-based subsidies, which drive growth in agriculture, forestry and raw material extraction, also exacerbate the problems associated with land use. Economically viable concepts for the conservation of traditional land use and lifestyles are scarce.

Scientists consider a short-term decrease on the pressure on biological diversity unlikely to happen. A scenario analysis for the coming decades shows that, if the current trend continues, it will rather hinder the achievement of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These goals will only be reached by applying balance in transferring nature's yields to humanity and regard for a number of values.

The authors see a range of opportunities for governments and companies to protect biodiversity while ensuring nature's contribution to human well-being. They highlight particularly integrated approaches, for which national well-being is more than a high Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

More information: Studies on individual regions are available here: Studies on individual regions are available here: www.ipbes.net/outcomes

Provided by Leuphana Universitat Luneburg
A system of currents known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation typically carries warm water from the tropics into the North Atlantic. It can have a big impact on the weather in Western Europe. Credit: R. Curry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution/Science/USGCRP

A study published today in Nature Communications investigates how the strong cooling of the North Atlantic Ocean impacted the European climate around 12,000 years ago. The findings could help scientists predict how climate change will exacerbate European heat waves and droughts in the future.

Ordinarily, an ocean current system called the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) steers warm tropical waters into the North Atlantic, helping to keep Western Europe warm. But about 12,000 years ago, during a chilly period known as the Younger Dryas, the AMOC slowed down, which meant the North Atlantic cooled; climate models and reconstructions based on pollen and insect records suggest that Europe cooled, too. However, plant fossils and new simulations, collected and created by a team of researchers from nine institutions, including Columbia University, indicate that this picture isn't entirely correct. The study was led by paleoclimate researcher Frederik Schenk from Stockholm University.

The authors modelled the global climate of the Younger Dryas cooling with at least four times higher spatial resolution than previous simulations. Their findings confirm Europe's frigid conditions in the winter and spring during this period. However, they also found that Europe's summers actually warmed up by 0.4 to 1.5 degrees Kelvin (about 0.9 to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), rather than cooling by several degrees. Plant fossils in lake sediment cores across Europe confirmed these findings.

But how did summers keep warming despite strong oceanic cooling? The Fennoscandian Ice Sheet, which covered much of northern Europe in up to two kilometers (1.2 miles) of ice during the Younger Dryas, may have played a role. The team's climate simulations indicate that the cold air over the ice sheet created a high pressure system that blocked the cool winds coming off the North Atlantic from reaching the continent. In addition, the sunny, cloudless skies that came along with the high pressure system helped to make European summers warmer, says Francesco Muschitiello, a co-author on the paper and adjunct at Columbia's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

The simulations suggest that this high-pressure blocking system can arise naturally whenever the North Atlantic Ocean is very coldand the colder the ocean, the more intensely the land warms.

The findings support the relatively new idea that a cooling down of the North Atlantic could be an important driver of European heat waves and droughts even today. Nowadays, as the Greenland Ice Sheet melts, the influx of meltwater is once again slowing the AMOC and cooling the North Atlantic. Previously, researchers suspected that a weaker AMOC would make Europe colder in the future.

The team's simulations are more robust for studying the Younger Dryas period, but they suggest that further slowing down of the AMOC could instead make heat waves more common in Europe's future.

"There's a growing concern about how AMOC weakening is going to affect regional climate and weather extremes," says Muschitiello. "This study has important implications for our ability to predict heat waves and drought in Europe, as the models we use for climate predictions strongly underestimate blocking circulation, and therefore may under-estimate the impact of a weaker AMOC on European climate and water resources."

Explore further Climate change is slowing Atlantic currents that warm Europe and the Atlantic Seaboard

More information: Frederik Schenk et al. Warm summers during the Younger Dryas cold reversal, Nature Communications (2018). Journal information: Nature Communications Frederik Schenk et al. Warm summers during the Younger Dryas cold reversal,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-04071-5

Provided by Earth Institute, Columbia University

This story is republished courtesy of Earth Institute, Columbia University http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu.
Dark matter map of KiDS survey region (region G12). Credit: KiDS survey

What if the universe we know is just one runty part of a larger, mostly invisible universe, and the only way we can interact is via gravity?

This is just one of the ideas that physicists are pursuing in the quest to solve the mystery of dark matter.

I love the idea of dark matter. For me, it's the ultimate enigma. I mean, our universe contains protons and neutrons and electrons, and that's great. All this 'normal' matter is the basic ingredient for everything from Brad Pitt to intergalactic gas clouds. Normal matter also exerts a gravitational force, and this is also great. Gravity stops my coffee from floating away and prevents galaxies from spinning apart.

Grave shortfall

But when you add up all the particles in all the galaxies in the universe, there just isn't enough to produce all the gravity in the universe. There's way too much gravitational force and way not enough matter.

For our universe to make sense, it needs a whole load of something extra to make up the gravitational shortfall.

That something extra turns out to be up to 80% of the matter in our universe. We call it 'dark' matter: particles we can't see and don't understand but that bring enough gravitational force to balance the books.

The hunt for missing matter

We've been searching for direct evidence of dark matter for years but found nothing. Not to worry: we knew it would be tricky. Researchers believe dark matter pretty much ignores normal matter and light.

"Dark matter particles could be everywhere around us, but they just don't interact electromagnetically," says Vid Irsic, a University of Washington researcher and dark matter expert. "They could only interact gravitationally."

Watch out! Neutrinos passing through

Though it sounds strange, there's already precedent for particles that don't play well with others. They're called neutrinos.

"Neutrinos are very, very light particles that interact very weakly," says Vid. "They come from the stars. Neutrinos from our Sun pass through Earth in their billions every second, across every square centimetre."

These particles are passing through you right now, but their interactions are so mild you don't feel a thing. Yet neutrinos are like big brass bands compared to dark matter.

So what are dark matter particles?

There are loads of theories and experiments searching for many different particles in the race to solve the dark matter mystery. Below we outline Vid's personal top five dark matter candidates, from most likely to least likely. Thinking caps on.

Candidate #1: Weakly interacting massive particles (or WIMPs)

Weakly interacting massive particle is a catch-all term for a bunch of particles that fit that description. 'Weakly interacting' means they don't interact much with normal matter or light. 'Massive' means they're larger than the mass of a proton.

WIMPs are popular because they've been independently predicted by a few different particle physics theories. And because of the WIMP miracle. The miracle is that these theories also predict the total mass of WIMPs, and it's approximately the same mass as that required to explain all the extra gravitational force. Coincidence? Perhaps not.

Candidate #2: Axions

Axions are a theoretical particle we dreamed up to solve an unsolved problem in quantum dynamics. Specifically, their existence would help explain quirks in our understanding of quarks and how they stick together to form protons and neutrons. But that's a whole different story 

If axions do exist, they'd also tick some dark matter boxes. They're predicted to interact only weakly with ordinary matter and light. And they'd be just the right size for us to have missed them (so far). (That size, in case you're wondering, is somewhere between 2 and 100 micro-electron-volts (and a micro-electron-volt is 1.7810-42 kilograms).

Axions are also super-amazing. One axion decays into two photons. Plus you can make an axion by combining two photons. We're hoping this will help us detect them some time soon. In April, Vid's university announced it can now search more sensitively than ever before for signs of axion decay.

Candidate #3: Ultralight scalar dark matter

This candidate is a relatively new kid on the block. It's also known as ultralight axions, fuzzy dark matter or wave dark matter.

If it exists, it's super-duper light, something like 10-22 electron-volts. And because it's so light, it behaves in a way that suits string theory and quantum mechanics. The idea is that, when you get a whole galaxy-load of these particles together, they behave more like a wave than a spinning ball.

You end up with miniscule particles that combine into a wave that spans thousands of light years. No wonder they're tricky to find.

Candidate #4: Sterile neutrinos

Dark matter could also be a special form of neutrino, which is tricky, because neutrinos are already special. They come in different flavours (electron, muon and tau), and they can shift between flavours as they travel through space. Plus, they're minimally interactive and super-light.

Dark matter neutrinos, if they exist, are the neutrino's much heavier cousin. Called sterile neutrinos, they're predicted to interact with normal matter only when they flip between flavours.

Candidate #5: Self-interacting dark matter

This is an increasingly popular option. What if there isn't just one type of dark matter particle, but many?

Just as normal matter has a whole bunch of different particles, so too could dark matter. But because normal particles and dark particles don't interact much, we may never know. Perhaps the only way we could observe these particles would be indirectly, through their gravitational effect on the evolution of the cosmos. Thinking caps exploding.

"This is quite fascinating," says Vid, in what could just be the world's biggest understatement.

"More and more people believe that dark matter is not just one particle but a collection of particles, perhaps in a mirror image of the world we know. The standard particles that we know, but disconnected from us except for gravity and not interacting with us in any other way."

Invisible mystery

Will we ever discover what dark matter is really made of? Well, we're going to give it our best shot. Thousands of scientists around the world are searching for signs, trialling new ideas and developing mind-blowing technologies.

We used to think the world was flat. And that our universe was visible. What will the next decades bring?

Explore further Crystals could help uncover mysteries of dark matter

This article first appeared on Particle, a science news website based at Scitech, Perth, Australia. Read the original article.
Perth's coolest spiders, the woman on a mission to protect them and her 89-year-old inspiration.

As an undergraduate biology student, spider enthusiast Leanda Mason wanted to spend more time studying animals without backbones.

"I was complaining  as petulant undergrads do about how there was a lack of invertebrate stuff," she says.

So, one of the professors introduced Leanda to an octogenarian who would shape her career and life forever.

That "little old lady", as Leanda first refers to her, was Adjunct Professor Barbara York Main, a biologist and writer who has dedicated her life to studying trapdoor spiders.

"As a very excited and overly enthusiastic student, I badgered Barbara," Leanda says.

"She was very patient with me and taught me a lot of what I know now. I was very lucky to meet her."

Leanda was hooked.

She went on to do a Ph.D. at Curtin University and last week (14 April) submitted her thesis on the impact of urbanisation on trapdoors in Perth for examination.

OPEN, SHUT THEM

If you've never seen a trapdoor spider open and shut its door, you should watch one (or two) now.

The spiders are famous for their carefully camouflaged burrowssome with lids or 'trapdoors' from which they launch themselves to catch their prey.

Leanda says trapdoor spiders can generally only live in uncleared bushland.

She says, in Perth, this means large urban remnants such as Kings Park, Bold Park, Star Swamp, Trigg and Koondoola, as well as smaller patches of bush including Underwood Ave, Marangaroo, Shenton Park and Paloma Park.

As they do not need a lot of space, they can even be found on some verges that haven't been cleared.

HOMEBODIES

Leanda says trapdoor spiders do everything in their burrows, with the males leaving only to mate and then dying shortly afterwards.

She says females stay inside their entire lives.

And their lives can be long.

"We've got a paper about to be published saying that one of them has lived until they're 43," Leanda says.

She says that trapdoor spider, a matriarch first tagged by Dr. Main in 1974 and known simply as #16, is the oldest spider ever recorded.

Leanda says the current Guinness World Record holder was either a 28-year-old pet tarantula or Tasmanian cave spiders, which are thought to live up to 40 years.

Sadly, #16 died after being parasitised by a spider wasp in October last year.

ON BURROWED TIME

While she couldn't save #16, Leanda is on a mission to protect #16's eight-legged kin.

She says they are "on burrowed time" and started the Facebook page Trapdoor spiders of Perth to help educate people.

Along with habitat loss, one of the biggest threats to trapdoor spiders in Perth is invasive veldt grass, Leanda says.

"Trapdoor spiders tend to specialise in microhabitats," she says.

"There's some species that rely heavily on allocasuarinawhich is the sheoak leaf litterand then there's some adapted to the banksia leaf litter or open ground.

"But then the veldt grass comes through and it's such a monoculture, it's all the same.

Leanda also appeals to people not to kill spiders in their backyards, arguing that no one has died from spider venom in Australia for more than 30 years and spiders control potentially deadly pest species such as mosquitoes.

She says there are economic benefits to conserving spiders too, with spider venom being used for medical treatments and targeted insecticides and spider silk used for advances in biotechnology.

Explore further Lifelong study suits spiderwoman

This article first appeared on Particle, a science news website based at Scitech, Perth, Australia. Read the original article.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Undocumented immigrants reduce the rate of violent crime in the United States, according to a new study, despite immigrants struggling with many socioeconomic factors shared by people who are more likely to commit crimes.

University of WisconsinMadison sociology professor Michael Light undertook the comparison of undocumented immigration and violence in an effort to examine the relationship between two notable recent shifts in American society. His findings are published in the journal Criminology.

"Since 1990, the undocumented immigrant population in the United States has tripled. It's part of the largest wave of immigration the country has ever experienced," says Light. "In that same time, the violent crime rate has halved."

And the impact of undocumented immigrationespecially on public safetyremains a contentious topic of discussion in the United States.

"This is one of those rare areas everyone is talking about, but the conversations are occurring in a vacuum of data," Light says. "A lot of research has looked at immigration and crime, but most of those conversations have been limited to the overall foreign-born population or the Latino foreign-born population, not the undocumented population."

Light and Purdue University sociology graduate student Ty Miller used state-level immigration data from the Center for Migration Studies and the Pew Research Center spanning 1990 to 2014, comparing undocumented immigration rates to an index of violent crimeshomicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assaultkept by the FBI. They also examined the impact of undocumented immigration on violent victimization rates from the National Crime Victimization Survey.

All told, the researchers examined annual rates of migration and crime-related factors such as unemployment, age, gun availability and drug activity for each of the 50 states and Washington, D.C., over the course of 24 yearsmore than 1,000 discreet time periods with which to weigh the effect of undocumented immigration.

"The direction of the relationship is fairly clear," says Light. "They're all negative."

More undocumented immigration meant less violent crime. According to the study, a 1 percent increase in the proportion of the population that is undocumented is associated with 49 fewer violent crimes per 100,000 people.

That immigration waxed while crime waned didn't necessarily mean undocumented immigrants helped the country reduce violent crime. In fact, Light says, there are cases to be made that undocumented immigrants would contribute to more crime.

"By definition, these people are on the margin of society," Light says. "It's hard for them to get steady employment, hard to find solid footing in terms of housing. Poverty rates are higher and educational attainment is lower. Those are all risk factors that we typically associate with high-crime populations. But we can also think of a host of other reasons why that would not be the casewhy increased undocumented immigrants would not increase crime."

For example, Latino immigrant communities in particular seem to provide informal social and economic support that insulates their members against alcohol and drug problems and other criminal activity.

Another potential crime-confounding factor is the selective nature of undocumented immigration.

"The idea is, immigrants are driven by pursuit of education and economic opportunities for themselves or their families," Light says. "Moreover, migrationespecially undocumented migrationrequires a lot of motivation and planning. Those are characteristics that aren't highly correlated with a high crime-prone disposition."

Light and Miller published a similar study in 2017 showing undocumented immigrants reduce drug and alcohol arrests and deaths, and Light hopes the new findings make for more informed public policy discussion.

"I think public debate divorced entirely from data is problematic," Light says. "There are reasons to think undocumented immigrants would increase crime, but the data doesn't support those arguments. It's telling us that has not been the case."
A new study from Cass Business School examines the failures of Western Internet Firms (WIFs) in China and why this phenomenon is singularly prevalent in this region.

"Government censorship and control, plus cultural differences between China and the West are often cited as the main reasons for such failures," said Professor Feng Li, the study's author. "But similar conditions existed in other countries such as Indonesia, Thailand and Saudi Arabia, that did not prevent western internet firms such as Google from dominating 90 per cent of the search market in these regions."

What is a Western Internet Firm?

By definition Western Internet Firms (WIFs), also known as digital firms, are organisations that from inception focus on digital services enabled by the Internet and related technologies including mobile.

These firms were born digital, particularly the so-called dot.com and e-Commerce firms, such as search engines, online content providers and retail platforms. Typical examples include Google, eBay and Amazon. It does not include traditional IT firms, such as Microsoft, Intel or IBM, which rely on sales of hardware and software as their main sources of revenue.

Why digital firms fail in China

The reasons for these systematic failures are complex, and existing international business theory could not fully explain why the perceived competitive advantages for western multinational firms failed to translate into sustainable operational success for WIFs in China.

In answer to this, Professor Li took a different approach by using phenomenon-based research looking at a broad spectrum of participants such as senior executives from WIFs and their Chinese competitors, and a large number of business, political, and professional groups with a deep knowledge of China.

1. Perceptions of aggressive competition

Most WIFs entered China to dominate the Chinese market. However, competition is relative. What is considered aggressive by western standards is often seen as mild in China. Due to the sheer number of internet firms and the huge size of the Chinese market, competition is often extremely fierce, and to survive, all Chinese Internet Firms (CIFs) have to compete with a far greater pool of local competitors than any WIFs have ever encountered.

Professor Li said, "This is known as the 'huge crowd strategy' (???? - Ren hai zhan shu), which gives CIFs an implicit advantage. If western internet behemoths such as Amazon and Google succeeded in the US by beating hundreds of competitors, then Alibaba and Baidu would have to beat tens of thousands of competitors in China to get where they are."

2. Failure to follow cultural strategies

CIFs have, explicitly and implicitly, drawn inspirations from ancient Chinese military strategies and tactics to change the nature of competition. Such strategies, taken from texts like the 'The Art of War' to 'The Thirty Six Stratagems', are deeply ingrained in Chinese history and culture and widely used in everyday language, which enables more effective strategy making and communication by CIFs.

3. Beaten by more determined competitors

All WIFs acquired, or made attempts to acquire the market leaders in China. However, in subsequent competitions, CIFs simply showed stronger determination to survive at any costs.

"In the case of Uber, it was not simply a matter of what Uber did wrong, but what Didi Chuxing did better," said Professor Li.

When Uber entered China, Didi already had a head start. Despite the perceived competitive advantages for Uber, Didi was simply more determined, with more cash reserves than Uber for a prolonged price war. In many ways, the competition between them was reminiscent of the reckless land grabbing during the early dot.com era, but the difference is that both firms have the resources and long term visions to capture market shares first before making profits. In the end, Uber blinked first and lost.

4. New digital rules: differences between internet and traditional businesses

Some fundamental differences between internet and traditional businesses contributed to the failure of WIFs in China, and this factor was only identified by the outside view. Internet services usually have a much shorter lifecycle compared with traditional industries; and WIFs only have 2-3 years rather than decades to fine-tune their business models and educate customers. This limited the build-up of any sustainable advantages by WIFs and gives Chinese internet firms a much better chance to compete with them than in traditional industries.

"Car engines are far more difficult to imitate than search engines," commented Professor Li.

Unlike aerospace or pharmaceuticals, most internet firms do not rely on cutting edge technologies so the entry barriers are relatively low. Ancillary assets and tacit knowledge embedded in production processes and supply chains in traditional industries also serve as major entry barriers. As a result, WIFs have fewer competitive advantages and face far more competitors than western firms from other sectors.

5. Failing to be embedded in China

All the WIFs studied showed a lack of deep understanding of the Chinese market. They found it difficult to compete with Chinese entrepreneurs in serving the local market. This is not only reflected in understanding users and customers, but also internally within the firms. Senior expatriates sent from the western head office often lacked cultural sensitivity, thus damaging relations without realising it.

6. Innovating by experimenting

Unlike WIFs which have established procedures for developing and implementing innovations, Chinese Internet Firms (CIFs) are often more result-oriented and more prepared to innovate by experimenting. Li added, "If a new idea works, then scale it up rapidly; if not, move onto other ideas".

Chinese consumers are generally more tolerant of such product development processes than in the West, which enable CIFs to test and refine many new ideas very quickly at low cost, with significant cumulative effects.

Success in the future?

WIFs have underperformed compared to their Chinese competitors in nearly every aspect inChina, but their disadvantages are not insurmountable. To succeed in China, WIFs need to bringgenuine technological and other advantages in order to overcome, or compensate for, their disadvantages.

Professor Li concluded, "As CIFs grow bigger and more confident, they are actively pursuing new opportunities in other markets - from India, South East Asia, Africa to the USA and Europe - so the clashes between digital firms in each market are likely to escalate both in China and internationally."

'Why have all western internet firms (WIFS) failed in china? A phenomenon-based research' and has been published in the Academy of Management Discoveries.

Explore further China closed to outside Internet firms: eBay chief

More information: Feng Li, Why Have All Western Internet Firms (WIFs) Failed in China? A Phenomenon-based study., Academy of Management Discoveries (2018). Feng Li, Why Have All Western Internet Firms (WIFs) Failed in China? A Phenomenon-based study.,(2018). DOI: 10.5465/amd.2017.0102
In many ways, the Allegheny River is the centerpiece of our region. It traverses landscapes from wilderness to urban and provides recreational opportunities in many different places along its course. One of the most spectacular parts of the river is the free-flowing 125 miles of the middle Allegheny from the Kinzua Dam in Warren County to Bradys Bend in Armstrong County.

The middle stretch of the Allegheny flows through a region that includes a wealth of public lands, including hundreds of thousands of acres of the Allegheny National Forest, state forest, game lands and state parks. Here the remote river corridor is interspersed with lumber heritage towns. The public lands include many miles of hiking trails. However, a unique experience also awaits you on the river itself.

Eighty-seven miles of the Kinzua-to-Emlenton section of the middle Allegheny is federally designated as a National Wild and Scenic River. This section includes numerous islandsseven of which comprise the Allegheny River Islands Wilderness protected under the National Wilderness Preservation System. Islands are intriguing features, where each braid of the river channel exhibits its own character. Some islands are available for wilderness-style camping.

A canoe trip down the middle Allegheny does not require extensive expertise. Paddling and silently drifting as the current carries you downstream is best for wildlife watching. The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commissions Middle Allegheny River Trail Guide provides several canoe access points along the river: pfbc.pa.gov/watertrails/alleg/trailmap.htm. You can also find information online about outfitters who assist with gear and transportation.

The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy has been working to protect islands, shoreline and other lands in the Allegheny River watershed for many years, with nearly 100,000 acres in the watershed acquired to date.

To learn about the Conservancy, visit WaterLandLife.org.
Katharine Eagan Kelleman is the CEO of the Port Authority of Allegheny County, succeeding Ellen McLean. Kelleman comes to Pittsburgh from Tampa, Fla., where she led the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority and won that regions 2016 Businesswoman of the Year Award for economic development.

She has previously worked in transit agencies in Baltimore, Dallas and San Angelo, Texas. A native of Colorado Springs, she graduated cum laude from the University of Colorado and has a masters degree of public administration from Angelo State University, San Angelo, Texas.

Scott Fech will become the head of school of Winchester Thurston School July 1, succeeding Gary Niels, who is retiring after the school year. He comes to Pittsburgh from Davis, Fla., where he is Upper School director of the NSU University School. Previously, he was high school director of educational programs at The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. A native of Griffith, Ind., he has an undergraduate degree in education and French from Indiana University, a masters degree in education from Purdue and a Ph.D. in educational administration and supervision from Loyola University (Chicago).

Marya Sea Kaminski will become the new artistic director of the Pittsburgh Public Theater in June, succeeding Ted Pappas, who retires after this season. She comes to Pittsburgh from Seattle where she was associate artistic director of Seattle Repertory Theatre. She is also a founding member and former co-artistic director of the Washington Ensemble Theatre. A native of Rochester, N.Y., she has an undergraduate degree in English and theater arts from the University of Pennsylvania and an MFA from the University of Washingtons School of Drama.

Liza Prijatel Thors is vice president of communications for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, leading the PSOs communications team overseeing national and regional initiatives and media and social relations. She comes to Pittsburgh from Los Angeles, where she was a partner at Rebecca Davis Public Relations. Previously, in New York City, she worked in public relations with Universal Music Group and Susan Blond Inc. A native of Dayton, Ohio, Thors has an undergraduate degree from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and a graduate certificate from Mike Nichols New Actors Workshop in New York City.

C.B. Bhattacharya is the H.J. Zoffer Chair in Sustainability and Ethics at the Katz Graduate School of Business, at the University of Pittsburgh. He comes to Pittsburgh from Berlin, Germany, where he is on leave from the European School of Management and Technology. Previously, he was a professor of marketing at the School of Management at Boston University. A native of Kolkata, India, he has an undergraduate degree with honors in economics from St. Stephens College, Delhi, an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management and a Ph.D in marketing from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Marcia Crawley is vice president of advancement and community engagement for the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, succeeding Dolly Ellenberg who is retiring. She comes to Pittsburgh from Detroit, where she was vice president of development for the Detroit Institute of Arts. Previously, she was senior director of development for Michigan State University in East Lansing. And following a 12-year stint as a broadcast journalist, she also was director of development for the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Fla. A native of the Tampa Bay area, she has an undergraduate degree in business management from the University of South Florida, Tampa.

Jayne Miller is the second president and CEO of the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, succeeding Conservancy founder Meg Cheever, who retires at the end of March. Miller comes to Pittsburgh from Minneapolis, where she has been superintendent of the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. Previously, she was director of the Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority, a five-county regional park system in southeast Michigan. Before that, she spent 22 years in a variety of positions with the city of Ann Arbor. A native of upstate New York, she has a bachelors degree from Midland University in Nebraska and a masters degree in recreation administration from the University of Maryland.
" " Voyager 2 snapped this photo of the seventh planet from the sun back in 1986. Much of what we know about the planet has come from ground-based observations. NASA/JPL-Caltech

Uranus stinks. And we're not joking.

The enigmatic outer solar system planet has long had a credibility problem, what with it being the butt of countless immature jokes. Now, astronomers have just discovered a gas in Uranus' clouds that does nothing to curtail the giggles. At all.

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The new study, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, has discovered the chemical signature of hydrogen sulfide, a compound that gives rotten eggs their distinctive stench, in the planet's clouds. Besides launching a thousand new smelly planet puns, this finding could transform our understanding of how our solar system evolved. It also may help us to understand the atmospheres of massive planets orbiting other stars.

First, a bit of background: Uranus has only been visited by a spacecraft once, when NASA's Voyager 2 zipped past the planet in 1986. The flyby produced many beautiful and iconic views of the almost featureless, light-blue world. Astronomers have made countless ground-based observations of Uranus, too, in the hopes of better understanding the composition of its atmosphere. Despite these efforts, however, we know surprisingly little about this enigmatic planet. But the discovery of hydrogen sulfide is a big step forward, and it could only be done using one of the planet's most powerful observatories.

Using the Near-Infrared Integral Field Spectrometer (NIFS) that is attached to the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii, astronomers were able to detect the very slight spectroscopic signature of hydrogen sulfide in the uppermost layers of Uranus' clouds. This whiff of hydrogen sulfide is only the tip of the odoriferous iceberg, however; the presence of this gas is indicative of a huge reservoir below the obscuring cloud deck.

"Only a tiny amount [of hydrogen sulfide] remains above the clouds as a saturated vapour," said co-investigator Leigh Fletcher, of the University of Leicester, U.K., in a Gemini North statement. "And this is why it is so challenging to capture the signatures of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide above cloud decks of Uranus. The superior capabilities of Gemini finally gave us that lucky break."

Astronomers have long argued over whether hydrogen sulfide or ammonia dominate Uranus' clouds. It is well-known that the inner massive planets, Jupiter and Saturn, have atmospheres dominated by ammonia ice, whereas Uranus (and presumably Neptune) do not. It's those very differences in atmospheric compositions that place Jupiter and Saturn in the "gas giant" category and Uranus and Neptune in the "ice giant" category, and these differences reveal an insight as to where the planets formed.

"During our Solar System's formation the balance between nitrogen and sulphur (and hence ammonia and Uranus's newly-detected hydrogen sulfide) was determined by the temperature and location of planet's formation," said Fletcher.

The thought is that early in our solar system's history, the massive planets migrated from where they initially formed, eventually settling into the stable orbits we see them in today. Through the analysis of the chemicals in their clouds, astronomers can now formulate theories as to how far away from the sun these giant worlds formed and where they migrated from. With this information in mind, astronomers can then look to other stars and gain an insight as to how and where giant exoplanets formed.

This is all very interesting, but the biggest question scientists are likely answering right now is: If we could smell Uranus' atmosphere, would it kill us?

"If an unfortunate human were ever to descend through Uranus's clouds, they would be met with very unpleasant and odiferous conditions," said lead author Patrick Irwin, of the University of Oxford, U.K., also in the accompanying release. But it's not the stench that will kill you.

"Suffocation and exposure in the negative 200 degrees Celsius atmosphere made of mostly hydrogen, helium, and methane would take its toll long before the smell," he concluded.

Now That's Interesting Here's another wonky thing about Uranus: Its axis of rotation is nearly level with its orbital path. That means that Uranus' poles get more sunshine than its equator does.
Top row (left to right): S Iswaran, Ng Chee Meng, Chan Chun Sing, Ong Ye Kung. Bottom row (left to right): Amrin Amin, Indranee Rajah, Josephine Teo and Baey Yam Keng. (PHOTOS: Reuters, Getty Images, Yahoo News Singapore file photos, YouTube screengrabs)

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Tuesday (24 April) announced new roles for Singapores fourth-generation (4G) leaders as he unveiled the closely watched Cabinet reshuffle and other political appointments.

A statement from the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) indicates the following changes:

Chan Chun Sing, 48, will be the Minister for Trade and Industry and relinquish his post as Minister in the PMO.

S Iswaran, 55, will be Minister for Communications and Information. He will continue to be in the Ministry of Trade and Industry in his new role as Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations.

Ng Chee Meng, 49, will be appointed Minister in the PMO and relinquish his posts of Minister for Education (Schools) and Second Minister for Transport.

Ong Ye Kung, 48, will continue to be in the Ministry of Education as Minister for Education. He will relinquish his post of Second Minister for Defence.

Josephine Teo, 49, will be appointed Manpower Minister and continue as Second Minister for Home Affairs. She will relinquish her post in the PMO.



Promotions and Retirements

Indranee Rajah, 55, will be promoted to full Minister. She will be Minister in the PMO, Second Minister for Finance and Second Minister for Education. She will also be Second Minister for Law until 30 June.

Baey Yam Keng, 47, and Amrin Amin, 40, will be promoted to Senior Parliamentary Secretary. Baey will hold a new role in the Ministry of Transport and continue in the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth while Amrin will continue in both the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Home Affairs.

Trade Minister Lim Hng Kiang, 64; Manpower Minister Lim Swee Say, 63; and Communications and Information Minister Yaacob Ibrahim, 62, will step down from their Cabinet roles.

Several ministers will also be given additional responsibilities.

Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat, 57, will take over responsibility for assisting PM Lee on National Research Foundation matters from Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, 63.

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Chan will take over the Public Service Division from Teo and will continue to be Deputy Chairman of the Peoples Association.

Masagos Zulkifli, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, 55, will also be in charge of Muslim Affairs, taking over from Dr Yaacob.

The reshuffle has been eagerly observed by political analysts for hints of the person in the new Cabinet who would be chosen to become Singapores next prime minister.

Lee had said previously that his successor would be selected among the 4G ministers. In a joint statement released in January, 16 of Singapores younger leaders said that they would work closely to pick a candidate among them to head the government, according to media reports.

Related stories:

PM Lee asks Chan Chun Sing to return to the government, NTUC unveils changes at top

PM Lee says choosing his potential successor will take a bit longer: reports

COMMENT: Singapores political succession in a disruptive world
Armenian opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan on Tuesday said he was ready to lead the country after the shock resignation of Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian following eleven days of protests against his rule. "Yes of course we are ready to lead our country," Pashinyan said at a news conference in Yerevan, after being asked whether he was willing to steer the government of the ex-Soviet South Caucasus country. "If people will bestow on me this responsibility, I'll assume the responsibility," Pashinyan said. Sarkisian stunned the country on Monday by standing down from his new post as prime minister. He had previously spent a decade in power as president and was accused of a blatant power grab by the opposition, who staged days of rallies in protest. According to Armenian law, lawmakers in the parliament, where Sarkisian's Republican Party have a majority, have a week to propose new candidates for PM and could hold a vote on May 2. A meeting due to take place Wednesday between Pashinyan and acting head of government Karen Karapetyan to discuss the transfer of power was cancelled, a spokesman for Pashinyan said Tuesday night without giving further details. Pashinyan, the 42-year-old leader of the Civil Contract party, had earlier said that he was not ready to "negotiate" with Karapetyan and insisted that the only topic for talks was a "full and peaceful transfer of power." The new prime minister must be a "people's candidate" and not a member of Sarkisian's ruling Republican Party, he stressed. "Early parliamentary elections will be held with the shortest possible delay," Pashinyan said, promising that they must be "absolutely free and democratic." Earlier Tuesday, tens of thousands of Armenians marched in honour of 1.5 million of their kin killed by Ottoman forces during World War I in commemorations that are a hugely emotional event. Clutching a purple rose, the bearded Pashinyan, 42, led a huge crowd of supporters to the hilltop Tsitsernakaberd memorial, wearing his trademark khaki-coloured T-shirt, where he held official commemorations. - 'Difficult phase' - Karapetyan appealed for unity after the wrenching political turmoil in a country locked in a simmering territorial conflict with Azerbaijan. "We are going through a difficult new phase in our history," he said in a statement. "Today we show the world that despite difficulties and unresolved domestic issues we are together and united. This is our duty to the genocide's innocent victims." Russia -- which has a military base in Armenia -- appealed for stability but said it would not interfere. Pashinyan on Tuesday said that Russia and Armenia are "friendly, brotherly countries, but that doesn't mean there are no problems between us." "If someone names me a pro-Western or pro-Russian it will be a misunderstanding. I am pro-Armenian," he said. - 'New shocks?' - Many Armenians said they felt mixed emotions because the impoverished country's future was uncertain. "I've been thinking from the start of the day that everything is just beginning," said Asya Bagdasaryan, 43. "What awaits us in the future? Will there be new shocks?" Armenia -- which depends on investment and aid from Russia -- has been hit hard by economic troubles in its former Soviet master. Unemployment stood at 18 percent last year. The opposition says some 290,000 people have left the country since Sarkisian came to power in 2008. Political turmoil enveloped the landlocked country of 2.9 million people after Sarkisian was elected prime minister by lawmakers after serving two successive presidential terms. The opposition charged that the 63-year-old wanted to extend his grip on power under a new parliamentary system of government, saying he failed to tackle poverty and corruption. Protests broke out several days before his expected election, with tens of thousands of people eventually taking to the streets of Yerevan and other cities in largely peaceful protests. Sarkisian initially refused to resign but quit on the 11th day of demonstrations after a number of serving servicemen joined the marches. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov expressed hope that the country's new leader would suit "all forces representing the Armenian people". A spokesman for Azerbaijan's foreign ministry said he hoped that new Armenian authorities would adopt a "constructive" approach over the breakaway region of Nagorny Karabakh.
The Echelon TOP100 team heads over to Cambodia to witness 21 startups rile up both judges and fans. Prepare for a showdown!



Cambodia is no longer the reclusive hermit kingdom we once know it to be. With the opening up of the economy to neighbouring countries and integrating itself into ASEAN, the country is shifting from their traditional source of domestic production of textile to become the next tech powerhouse.

There is no doubt that the 21 shortlisted startups would be able to sweep the judges off their feet at our TOP100 Qualifier Roadshow.

They will pitch in front of panels of judges April 25, Wednesday to determine which of them will emerge as the qualifier winner to represent the country on the regional stage.

They will battle it out to be crowned the Judges Choice and Fan Favourite  get fast-tracked to the Finals at Echelon Asia Summit in Singapore this June amongst the shortlisted 100  and ultimately vie for prizes from WeWork, STSP, Web in Travel and SPRING Singapore!

In sequential order for the pitching segment, these are the ones to watch:

CryptoAsia

Clik

Bayonia

KHhits

Healthogo

Last2Ticket Asia

Sousdey

InfiniFab

The DApact

Goama

CamboTicket

EDUQUEST HUB CO. LTD

People and people

Wapatoa

Reservo Indonesia

Demine Robotics

SAHAKA Coworking

Spare

MustAir

BookMeBus

DNAK AI Hotel

Got you curious? Join the community at a Qualifier Roadshow

near you!





TOP100, presented by WeWork, is a programme powered by e27 that empowers insights, connections, talent and funding opportunities for early-stage tech startups in Asia. In order to shine a spotlight on the chosen 100, we travel through 23 APAC cities in 2 months, span 7 market categories, and partner with community leaders and ecosystem expertise to curate the ones to keep an eye out for. Learn more or apply now at e27.co/echelon/top100

TOP100 Qualifier Roadshows begin across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar from March 6th, 2018, before taking on the rest of APAC. The TOP100 2018 Official Startup Application Round for joining the Qualifier Roadshow has ended, but we are still accepting applications for Discretionary Admission.

The post Bumper crop of 21 startups to present at TOP100 Cambodia Qualifier Roadshow appeared first on e27.
Monark Equipment Corporation, the official dealer and importer of Caterpillar machines to the Philippines, launched its newest ground-breaking offerings; the Next Generation Cat Excavators 320 and 320GC.

The 320 excavator boasts the industrys highest level of standard factory-equipped technology to boost productivity, efficiency, and safety. These excavators aim to help various industries in the Philippines who depend on heavy equipment, such as excavators, for their projects and daily production.

And for them to have a better understanding and appreciation of this new equipments features and its capacity to do more with less, heres a list of some key features packed in the Next Generation Cat Excavators 320.

Cat 2D Grade with Assist

These smart excavators are equipped with Cat 2D Grade with Assist Technology which offers precision and automation in achieving target depth, slope and horizontal distance to grade. It also helps operators to reach its desired grade quickly and efficiently without the need for stakes and job inspectors.

The Bucket and Boom Assist automates boom, stick and bucket movements, so operators stay on grade simply and effortlessly.

Cat E-fence Technology

The equipments E-fence feature is programed using an advance on-board touch display inside the operators cabin. The technology enables the machine to work safely under confined structures such as working in between building walls, under electric posts or even on highways near moving vehicles by preventing any part of the excavator from moving outside the operators defined working space.

Cat Payload Technology

Cat Payload offers real-time on-board weighing, integrated on the Cat 320 at the factory. The technology delivers precise load targets and increased loading efficiency with on-the-go weighing and real-time payload measurements thus increasing the operators efficiency and eliminating costly repairs or breakdown of dump trucks due to overloading.

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Cat LINK Technology

Cat LINK connects the jobsites to the office thus providing customers with real-time equipment operating information such as current location, fuel consumption, working hours, alerts for critical-fault codes for efficient and effective equipment maintenance.

Smart mode

The new Smart mode operation automatically matches engine and hydraulic power to digging conditions, optimizing both fuel consumption and performance. Engine speed is automatically lowered when there is no hydraulic demand to further reduce fuel usage, which obviously equates to more savings for the company.

New Cooling system

More efficient than single-fan systems, the new cooling system employs multiple electric fans, which independently monitor hydraulic oil, radiator and air-to- air aftercooler temperatures to deliver the exact airflow required.

Improved Filters

Featuring higher dirt capacity, the new Cat hydraulic return filter boasts a 3,000-hour service life, a 50-percent increase over previous filters. A new Cat air filter with integrated pre-cleaner and primary and secondary filters extends service life to 1,000 hours, a 100 percent increase over previous designs, while a new fuel tank cap filter extends service life to 2,000 hours. The three fuel system filters each offer a 500-hour service interval. All daily maintenance checks for engine oil, fuel water separator, fuel tank water and sediment, and cooling system level are performed from ground level, making the routine faster, easier and safer. Consolidated filter locations also reduce service time.

In addition, the Next Generation Excavators are also equipped with standard features like keyless push-button start, large standard 203-mm touchscreen monitor with jog dial keys for control and sound-suppressed rollover protective structures (ROPS) to offer the next level of operator comfort, safety and quiet operation.

Given all these features, the Cat 320 is expected to be the next big thing for Nation-building. Companies in general construction, mining, quarrying and agriculture can now use the equipment and experience its unique features that were made to do work more efficiently and productively. It will also help operators to deliver more work with less resourcesin terms of time, money and labor forcespent. These revolutionary equipment are sure to positively impact your business and contribute greatly to continuous growth of the Philippines.

The post Caterpillar PH Launches Next-Gen Caterpillar Excavators appeared first on Carmudi Philippines.
Chinese woman seriously injured after being struck on head by falling dog

A woman was seriously injured after she was hit by a dog that fell out of a building in southern China, according to a newspaper report.

The accident happened as the woman was walking in the street in Guangzhou in Guangdong province, The Beijing News reported.

Surveillance camera footage shows the woman was struck on the head as a small white dog fell from above.

Dog dies after crashing through car sunroof in Wan Chai

She immediately slumped unconscious to the ground.

Another woman was walking next to her, carrying a child. She tried to revive the woman, but without success.

She was taken to hospital and treated for serious injuries, according to the article.

She remains in hospital after the accident on Sunday, the newspaper said.

The dog walked away seemingly unscathed after the animals fall was broken by the woman.

It is not clear why or how the dog fell from the building.

Police are investigating.

The woman remains under observation in hospital, according to the article.

This article Chinese woman seriously injured after being struck on head by falling dog first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018.
By James Oliphant and Marine Pennetier

MOUNT VERNON, Va./WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron emphasized pomp and ceremony on Monday as Macron began a state visit to Washington likely to be dominated by differences with the United States over trade and the nuclear accord with Iran.

As Macron headed to the United States, the Iranian government urged European leaders to convince Trump not to tear up the 2015 deal between Tehran and six world powers.

The French president said on Sunday there was no "Plan B" for keeping a lid on Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

He is on something of a rescue mission for what is formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which Trump has said he would scrap unless European allies fix by mid-May what he calls "terrible flaws."

"This visit is very important in our current context, with so many uncertainties, troubles and at times threats," Macron said in French remarks as he arrived in Washington.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called on European leaders to support the agreement.

"It is either all or nothing. European leaders should encourage Trump not just to stay in the nuclear deal, but more important to begin implementing his part of the bargain in good faith," Zarif wrote on Twitter.

The deal reached between six powers - all of whom but Germany are nuclear-armed - and Tehran put curbs on Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.

Minutes after Macron touched down in the United States, the White House said it had no announcements on the Iran deal.

"The president has been extremely clear that he thinks it's a bad deal. That certainly has not changed," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.

Macron said on "Fox News Sunday" it would be better to protect the deal instead of getting rid of it. "Is this agreement perfect and this JCPOA a perfect thing for our relationship with Iran? No. But for nuclear, what do you have as a better option? I don't see it," he said.

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CHARM OFFENSIVE

Macron's visit is the first time Trump has hosted a state visit since he took power in January 2017. While the French leader has tried to develop a close relationship with Trump since he took office last May, he has so far seen few tangible results on issues from Iran to climate politics.

Macron and his wife, Brigitte, shortly after their arrival at the Blair House residence, took quickly to the streets of Washington, walking past the White House complex to the Lincoln Memorial and greeting tourists.

Macron brought with him an oak tree sapling for planting on the South Lawn of the White House. The tree came from the Belleau Woods, site of a World War One battle in 1918 where 9,000 Americans died. Trump and Macron shovelled dirt on the freshly planted tree as the cameras clicked. "France is a very special country," said Trump. "It's a great honour."

Trump and his wife, Melania, and the Macrons then flew aboard Trump's Marine One helicopter to dine at Mount Vernon, the Virginia home of George Washington, the first U.S. president and Revolutionary War commander whose alliance with France was critical to victory over the British.

The Trumps and Macrons spent about two hours at Mount Vernon. "We had a great dinner," President Trump told reporters as they boarded the helicopter for the return trip to the White House.

Working meetings will be held at the White House on Tuesday before Macron addresses the U.S. Congress the following day, the anniversary of the day French General Charles de Gaulle addressed a joint session of Congress in 1960.

Trump and Macron began their friendship a year ago in Belgium with a jaw-clenching handshake. While some other European leaders have kept a distance from Trump, Macron has worked hard to remain close to the U.S. president. The two leaders speak frequently by phone.

TRADE TALKS

Iran has long maintained that its nuclear programme was for peaceful purposes.

Macron also wants to persuade Trump to exempt European nations from metal tariffs that are part of the U.S. president's plan to reduce chronic trade deficits with countries around the world, chiefly China.

His visit comes at a time of mounting alarm in Europe over the effect that U.S. sanctions on Russia will have on their own manufacturing industries.

French officials said Paris and other European governments were coordinating efforts to persuade Trump to ease sanctions on Russia, including measures against Russian aluminium producers.

"There are concerns raised by the extraterritoriality effects of the new sets of sanctions," a French finance ministry source said. "Europeans ... have jointly warned the U.S. administration about the economic impact and consequences and the need to find solutions."

The official said France, Germany, Italy and Ireland were working together on the matter. German Chancellor Angela Merkel will hold talks with Trump in Washington later in the week.

Macron and Trump are also due to discuss Syria less than two weeks after the United States, France and Britain launched air strikes there in retaliation for a suspected chemical weapons attack that killed dozens.

Macron said last week he believed he had persuaded Trump to keep U.S. troops in Syria, though Trump has been insistent on bringing them home.

(Reporting by James Oliphant, Marine Penettier and Steve Holland, Additional reporting by Michel Rose and Richard Lough in Paris, Tom Miles in Geneva and Parisa Hafezi in Ankara; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Tom Brown)
(PHOTO: Getty Images)

A gang member who hid in Malaysia for nearly 18 years after stabbing an innocent bystander to death in 1998 was sentenced to 10 years jail and 12 strokes of the cane at the High Court on Tuesday (April 24).

Gopikanan Balakrishnan, now 43, had mistaken the victim for a rival gang member while he and four others were out seeking revenge for an attack on a member of their own gang a few weeks earlier.

Gopikanan pleaded guilty to a single charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. He was arrested by the Malaysian authorities on 16 March 2016 and was repatriated the next day.

Court documents show that on the night of 20 August 1998, Gopi met four friends at a pub along Madras Street for a drink.

While there, his friend Ilango Venayagam, now 46, told the group to prepare for a fight with a rival gang. Ilango had wanted revenge for an attack that landed him in hospital a few weeks back. In anticipation of the fight, Ilango prepared a lorry loaded with wooden poles that had been parked outside the pub.

Around midnight, the quintet got wind that the rival gang members were supposedly nearby. Soon after, they saw a group of Indian men walk past the pub. The five friends followed the group in the lorry, arming themselves with the wooden poles. Gopi had also brought along a knife to the confrontation.

The three Indian men soon realised they were being followed and tried to escape by running in different directions. Gopi and his four friends eventually caught up with them somewhere near Dunlop Street and Upper Dickson Road and attacked them, weapons in hand.

The commotion woke up P. Magalingam Pattu Thevar, who was sleeping in a public space nearby. The Indian national, then 42, saw the fight and ran. This caught Gopis attention. He gave chase thinking that Magalingam was a rival gang member.

Gopi managed to grab Magalingam by his collar and stabbed him in the back once. Magalingam broke free and continued to run. Undeterred, Gopi continued chasing and caught him again.

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This time Magalingam was stabbed in the back at least three times, which left two fatal wounds more than 10cm deep. The knife, which was never found by the police, had a 15.5cm blade according to Gopi.

Gopi and his friends spent the night at a nearby hotel and went their separate ways at about 4am. A few days later Gopi used someone elses passport and fled to Malaysia.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Wen Hsien asked the court for 10 years jail and 12 strokes of the cane.

Gopi had no qualms using violence against persons unknown to him, said Tan. The premeditated attack involved a deadly weapon and was vicious and unrelenting.

The fact that it was gang related also mattered because group violence feeds on itself and causes more violence, added Tan.

In mitigation, Senior Counsel Thio Shen Yi argued that his client did not meet his friends with the intention of getting into a fight; he had only found out about the clash after his arrival. Hes not a leader, but a follower who was influenced by Ilango, said Thio who asked for a sentence of eight years and six strokes.

Thio also pointed out that while Gopi knew right from wrong, he also has a below-average intelligence. Tan countered that intelligence tests showed Gopi only underperformed in one area of the test, but was average in all other aspects.

Court documents stated that Gopi had also undergone psychiatric assessments and was found to not have been suffering from any mental disorders  nor was he of unsound mind  at the time of offence.

Judge Hoo Sheau Peng agreed with the prosecution. Hoo said she was particularly troubled by the nature of the attack.

Gopis sentence has been backdated to 17 March 2016 when he was arrested. For culpable homicide not amounting to murder, he could have been jailed for life, caned and fined.

More Singapore stories:

3 men arrested for cheating using counterfeit mobile phones

American jailed one year for money-laundering offences in Singapore

Maid on trial for stealing over $50,000 in items from Changi Airport Group chairman
Hyundai Asia Resources, Inc. (HARI), the official Philippine distributor of Hyundai vehicles, inaugurated the Hyundai Dream Centre Philippines (HDCP), a world-class training and education hub for underprivileged Filipino youth on Tuesday, April 10, 2018 at the Hyundai Logistics Center (HLC) in Calamba, Laguna.

The HDCP is the fruit of the partnership between HARI, Hyundai Motor Group (HMG), and global humanitarian organization Plan International. It aims to elevate the level of vocational-technical skills in the Philippine automotive industry by providing bright, young Filipinos with training scholarships on vehicle repair and maintenance. Hyundai has established Dream Centres in collaboration with local vocational schools over the past five years in Ghana, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

This is the first time Hyundai has partnered with a distributor to design and implement the training courses for a Dream Centre.

Hyundai Dream Centre Philippines

The launch event was attended by representatives and board members from the three partner institutions, officials from the national, provincial, and local government, as well as by the first batch of HDCP scholars. The program commenced with a short backgrounder on the Hyundai Dream Centre program, followed by the unveiling of the Centres marker by HARI President and CEO Maria Fe Perez-Agudo, Hyundai Motor Company Asia-Pacific Regional Headquarters Head Yong Suk Lee, and Plan International Deputy Country Director for Operations Patrick Kirwan.

In her opening message, Agudo said, When you dream alone, chances are you will stay dreaming. But when you dream a dream together and pursue it, then that dream becomes a reality. Built on the pillars of commitment, inclusiveness, and human capital, the big idea comes alive before our very own eyesHyundai Dream Centre Philippines!

After the three officials delivered their remarks, representatives from the government congratulated Hyundai and Plan International for the successful launch.

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On behalf of Laguna Governor Ramil Hernandez, Provincial Public Employment Service Office Manager Mary Jane Corcuera expressed support for the Centre, as well as for Hyundais future undertakings in the province. Mylene Somera, Supervising Specialist for the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) Womens Center, commended HARI for its culture of service excellence, and expressed TESDAs willingness to work with Hyundai in providing equal opportunities to women.

Finally, Calamba Mayor Justin Marc Chipeco thanked Hyundai and Plan International for choosing Calamba to be part of their development programs and exhorted the HDCP scholars to make the most of their scholarships.

Also in attendance to congratulate Hyundai and Plan International was Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Assistant Secretary for Legal and International Affairs Joji V. Aragon.

Hyundai Dream Centre Philippines

HDCP scholars capped off the program by creating a colorful mural of handprints, representing their dreams for the future and their contributions to the program as members of the pioneering batch. HDCP partners and guests responded with the symbolic release of butterflies into the HLC campus, signifying Hyundai and Plan Internationals objective to provide Filipinos with the tools they need to seek out new careers and opportunities. The Mandaluyong Childrens Choir enlivened the program with rousing renditions of songs about shared dreams.

HDCP symbolizes not just our commitment to contribute to human capital development in the automotive industry, but our dream of improving the lives of Filipinos as well. We are especially proud that our partners could meet the first batch of scholars and witness their progress firsthand, concluded Ms. Agudo.

The post Hyundai PH Inaugurates World-Class Training, Education Hub appeared first on Carmudi Philippines.
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Hundreds of Indonesian motorcycle taxi drivers working for start-ups Grab and Go-Jek called on Monday for an end to low online fares and demanded tighter regulation of ride-hailing companies.

Around 1,500 drivers - wearing the green jackets and helmets associated with Singapore-based Grab and Indonesia's Go-Jek - briefly disrupted traffic outside parliament in the capital Jakarta.

"There must be legal and social protection for online 'ojek' drivers as part of the national workforce," a group of drivers for both companies said in a statement that used the Indonesian word for motorcycle taxi.

Startups like Grab and Go-Jek have been locked in price wars to capture market share in Indonesia, Southeast Asia's biggest economy. The firms have slashed prices for car rides, motorcycle trips and a raft of other services.

The transport ministry moved last month to classify Grab and Go-Jek as transportation instead of technology companies. That means they would be subject to the same regulations as regular taxi and bus companies and could potentially face higher costs and scrutiny.

But there were no plans yet to apply the regulations to motorcycle taxis, said Budi Setyadi, director general of land transportation at the transport ministry.

"With regard to tariffs, it depends on the goodwill of the companies," Setyadi told Reuters on Monday.

The drivers said on Monday they want a standard fare of 3,000 to 4,000 rupiah (22 cents to 29 cents) per kilometer.

Both Grab and Go-Jek have yet to make significant changes to their tariff structure.

Grab has said it preferred to maintain current rates because "Grab has other programs to improve the livelihood of its drivers".

(Reporting by Darren Whiteside and Tabita Diela; Writing by Kanupriya Kapoor; editing by Darren Schuettler)
Singapores State Courts. (Yahoo News Singapore file photo)

Parti Liyani, the former maid of Changi Airport Group chairman Liew Mun Leong, had allegedly attempted to have the chairmans son ship the valuables she took from the Liew family back to Indonesia after she was fired.

This was revealed by the Liews son, Karl Liew Kai Ling, who took the stand in the State Courts on Tuesday (24 April)  the second day of Partis trial.

Parti, 43, is contesting four charges of theft for allegedly stealing valuables from Karl, his wife Heather Lim Mei Ern, his sister May Liew Cheng, and Liew himself.

The allegedly stolen items include include a DVD player valued at $1,000, two Longchamp bags worth $400, a Gerald Genta watch worth $25,000, two white iPhone 4 smartphones with accessories valued at $2,056, 120 pieces of male clothing valued at $150 each, and a $500 blanket.

Karl testified on Tuesday that his father had tasked him to let Parti go on 28 October 2016. Karl then went to the familys home at Chancery Lane with a staff member from Partis employment agency to convey the news to Parti, who initially resisted and screamed that Allah would punish him.

The reason for Partis dismissal was not revealed in court. She had worked for the family for eight years prior to being fired.

The maid finally agreed to leave and Karl gave her two to three hours to pack. Upon returning, he found that Liyani had three sealed boxes with her that she insisted Karl ship back to Indonesia for her. Karl said Liyani turned violent after he denied her request, added a the employment agency staff member had to restrain Parti as she had been struggling a lot.

In order not have the matter drag on, Karl agreed to ship the boxes to Indonesia. Shortly after, the staff member led her out of the house.

Karl related the incident to Lim and the latter said that they could not ship the three boxes to Indonesia without first inspecting their contents. The next day, Karl, Lim and Karls mother opened the boxes and allegedly discovered some of their possessions inside.

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I discovered that there were items we had not seen for many years I got emotional as for me some items have sentimental value, said Karl.

Lim decided to note down the items from the unpacked boxes. Video footage played in court showed heaps of clothes strewn about the floor.

In the video, Karls mother suggests that they give the items to the rag-and-bone man and added that the jewellery found in the boxes was fake. Lim then suggests that some of the jewellery appear to be real.

Karl accompanied his father to make a police report the following day on 30 October 2016. An arrest warrant was put out for Parti and she was arrested upon her return to Singapore on 2 December.

When asked by the prosecution about his relationship with Liyani, Karl replied that it was not pleasant. He described Liyani as a fierce person who would not listen to his instructions.

I think she had very bad mood swings and she wasnt very good with taking instructions from me, he said.

By way of example, Karl said he would ask Parti if she had seen his lost items as she was the general housekeeper but she would simply ask him to look for the things himself.

Karl noted, however, that his wife and mother shared a good relationship with Parti. He said that his mother would defend Parti when the other family members suggested firing her and even loaned her money when the maid asked for it.

He said that Liew started suspecting Liyani of stealing from the family some two to three years before sending her home.

He thought he was absent-minded but things went missing more frequently, said Karl, adding that the missing items were of increasing prominence.

Karl said that while he came to share his fathers suspicions, he did not discuss the matter with Liew as there was no concrete evidence.

Karl also described the whole encounter with Parti on 28 October as having been traumatic.

I didnt want to give the reason why I want to let her go. I said, I compensated you more than enough and she turns around and says Allah is going to punish me and that made me a little upset I dont want to deal with her, he said.

The trial resumes tomorrow.

Related story:

Maid on trial for stealing over $50,000 in items from Changi Airport Group chairman
Award-winning Mexican journalist Javier Valdez was murdered for his investigative reporting on drug trafficking, the national security commissioner said Tuesday after a suspect was arrested in the high-profile case. Valdez, a long-time AFP collaborator and the founder of the newsweekly Riodoce, was shot dead in broad daylight on May 15 outside the paper's offices in Culiacan, the capital of his native Sinaloa state, a crime that drew international condemnation. Confirming what was long suspected by many, Mexican Security Commissioner Renato Sales said investigators found that the murder was "linked to (Valdez's) investigative reporting on subjects such as drug trafficking and organized crime." Speaking a day after police made their first arrest in the case, Sales identified the suspect as 26-year-old Heriberto N -- suspects' surnames are withheld under Mexican law -- and said he was "linked to a drug trafficking group that operates in the region." Speaking at a press conference, he said more arrest warrants have been issued, but did not specify how many. Valdez was one of the most prominent chroniclers of Mexico's deadly drug war in a state where Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, now imprisoned in the United States, once ruled. In 2011, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists honored Valdez for his work with the prestigious Freedom of Expression Award. Valdez, 50, was among at least 11 journalists murdered in Mexico last year, making it the deadliest country in the world for the press after Syria, according to watchdog group Reporters Without Borders. The arrest came as the first anniversary of Valdez's murder approaches, and just before the United Nations and AFP present a journalism prize named for Valdez and another renowned Mexican journalist murdered last year, Miroslava Breach. The first annual Breach-Valdez prize will be awarded on May 3, World Press Freedom Day. President Enrique Pena Nieto's government has come in for criticism over the widespread impunity for such cases -- more than 90 percent of journalist murders remain unpunished. "I would have liked it if (the arrest) had been made sooner," said the director of Valdez's newspaper, Ismael Bojorquez. "The investigation has been very slow. But the fact they've arrested someone... means things are moving forward," he told AFP.
Pakistan's powerful military, long accused by outsiders of backing Islamist militant groups, is facing an unexpected challenge -- a charismatic young Pashtun man who won't keep quiet. Fellow Pashtuns have rallied behind Manzoor Pashteen in a dramatic outpouring of frustration over accusations of discrimination and extrajudicial killings at the hands of men in uniform. Hundreds of thousands of them have had to leave their homes near the border with Afghanistan in the last decade, fleeing fighting that erupted when the army began what the Pashtun Protection Movement (PTM) says was a selective clampdown on the militants that took refuge there after the 2001 US-led ousting of the Taliban. Echoing accusations by Washington and Kabul, PTM activists say the military continues to allow these extremists a safe haven from which to launch attacks in Afghanistan, while targeting insurgents that have turned their guns on Pakistan. "This policy... it's very dangerous for us," Pashteen, the movement's 26-year-old leader, told AFP during a recent interview. The strategy, he says, has upended traditional Pashtun tribal society, as civilians are harassed, killed or abducted by security forces and insurgents in the ensuing crossfire. Pashteen's movement poses a unique challenge to the military's narrative about its war on militants, says analyst Michael Semple, because it has given a voice to previously marginal accounts. "It remains one of the weak points of the double game approach -- real people live there and see what you're doing," said Semple, a professor at Queens University Belfast. "This movement is spilling the beans." At a rally on Sunday in Lahore, Pakistan's second-largest city, thousands came to chant the PTM slogan: "The uniforms are behind the terrorists". It was a remarkable scene, with such accusations against the security establishment viewed as a dangerous red line that few have dared to cross. The Lahore rally was held in defiance of local authorities, who had denied the PTM formal permission to stage the protest and detained some of its supporters. - 'Good Taliban' - For years, Pakistan has been accused by the US and others of using militants such as the Afghan Taliban as proxies, allowing them safe haven in the tribal areas. Islamabad has repeatedly denied the claims. It says it has carried out multiple operations in the region, and taken steps to harden the porous border, while pointing to the thousands killed by militants as evidence of Pakistan's sacrifices. "No army can support terrorists against whom they have fought so relentlessly," Major General Asif Ghafoor, the military spokesman, told AFP. But the allegations persist. In January, the White House suspended security assistance to Pakistan over the issue. Despite a dramatic improvement in security in recent years, the tribal districts remain largely out of bounds to foreigners and journalists, making claims difficult to verify. The PTM's Pashteen says at least 40 of his family members and friends have been killed in the chaos unleashed by the war since 2001. Another 30 have been abducted, he claims. Fellow activists tell of similar losses. "You can call someone 'Good Taliban' but he's not good for us... he's killed us," Pashteen explained, referring to a euphemism for alleged Pakistan-backed insurgents that fight in Afghanistan. - Tipping point - Pashtuns hold a complicated place in Pakistan, where they number roughly 30 million, accounting for 15 percent of the population. Lauded for their martial abilities since Alexander the Great, both militants and the military have turned to them for decades to fight their wars. Both the Afghan and the Pakistani Taliban, two separate militant entities, are dominated by Pashtuns. As a result, ordinary Pashtun civilians are often stereotyped as backward tribesmen in league with terrorists, harassed in cities, hassled by landlords and denied hotel rooms. "We have fought for our own country. Then why has this been done to us?" asked PTM supporter Sher Bahadar Afridi. In the beginning, Pashteen's aims were humble. When he and a small group of friends started on the "Pashtun Long March" to Islamabad in January, they carried a list of just 150 names allegedly abducted by security forces, hoping to present it to authorities. The demand was not new -- rights activists have been demanding an end to enforced disappearances for years in Pakistan. But the murder of a Pashtun social media star in an alleged extrajudicial killing by the police in January proved to be a tipping point, with thousands rallying behind Pashteen leading to the PTM's creation. "The biggest thing (the movement) achieved was removing that atmosphere of fear," explained analyst Rafiullah Kakar. But their reception in the mainstream media has been muted. A far-reaching media blackout has kept news and images of the rallies off TV screens nationwide. Despite the pushback, PTM is demanding action -- including investigations into disappearances and extrajudicial killings and an end to what it says is undue harassment of Pashtuns at security checkpoints. The military, meanwhile, has accused them of collusion with Pakistan's enemies. "They are young and simple Pashtuns who are being exploited by inimical forces," said Ghafoor, the military spokesman.
People march during a protest against the appointment of ex-president Serzh Sarksyan as the new prime minister in Yerevan, Armenia April 23, 2018. REUTERS/Vahram Baghdasaryan/Photolure

By Hasmik Mkrtchyan

YEREVAN (Reuters) - Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sarksyan resigned on Monday after almost two weeks of mass street protests that have plunged the ex-Soviet republic into political crisis.

Sarksyan, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, had served as Armenia's president for a decade until this month and had faced accusations of clinging to power when parliament elected him as prime minister last week.

Under a revised constitution, the prime minister now holds most power in the southern Caucasus nation, while the presidency has become largely ceremonial.

Pressure on the 63-year-old to quit had increased sharply on Monday when unarmed soldiers in the capital Yerevan joined the anti-government protests, which first erupted on April 13.

Though peaceful, the tumult has threatened to destabilise Armenia, a Russian ally in a volatile region riven by its decades-long, low-level conflict with Azerbaijan. Moscow, which has two military bases in Armenia, was closely watching events.

"I got it wrong," Sarksyan said in a statement.

"In the current situation there are several solutions, but I won't choose any of them. It's not my style. I am quitting the country's leadership and the post of prime minister of Armenia."

He said he was bowing to protesters' demands and wanted his country to remain peaceful.

Former Armenian prime minister Karen Karapetyan, an ally of Sarksyan from his ruling pro-Russian Republican Party, was named as acting prime minister, the government said in a statement.

President Armen Sarkissian accepted the prime minister's and the government's resignation.

Armenia's political parties in parliament now have seven days to put forward the name of a new prime minister. Sarksyan's allies remain in key positions in the government and it remains unclear whether his resignation will herald any real change.

CELEBRATIONS

Protesters loudly celebrated Sarksyan's resignation.

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Some hugged policemen in the street amid cheers, others beeped car horns, and some danced and drank.

"It's the happiest day in my life," said 20-year-old student Karine Stepanyan. "We showed to the entire world that our country's destiny is in hands of Armenian people."

Tens of thousands filled the capital's central Republic Square, waving national flags, blowing vuvuzelas and chanting:"Victory!"

"The first stage of our revolution is over - prime minister has resigned," Nikol Pashinyan, a lawmaker regarded as the main opposition leader, said to loud applause from the crowd.

On Sunday police had detained him, two other opposition leaders and nearly 200 protesters, drawing a rebuke from the European Union. Police released Pashinyan and others on Monday.

Pashinyan said he would hold talks with Karapetyan to discuss what happens next.

"We are ready to continue talks with acting prime minister Karen Karapetyan on Wednesday to ensure a transfer of power to the people," Pashinyan told tens of thousands of supporters.

"I hope that the high echelons of the (ruling) Republican Party will unequivocally recognise the popular velvet and non-violent revolution," he said.

Early parliamentary elections should be held, he said.

The protests which toppled Sarksyan lasted for 11 days and saw tens of thousands of protesters march through Yerevan and other towns, blocking streets and staging sit-ins that disrupted daily life.

Asked about the crisis on Monday before Sarksyan's resignation, the Kremlin called Armenia an "extraordinarily important country" for Russia, but dismissed the idea it might intervene, calling the crisis a domestic matter.

Last week Putin rang Sarksyan to congratulate him on becoming premier. As president, Sarksyan took Armenia, a country of about three million people, into a Russia-backed economic bloc and bought weapons from Moscow.

The protesters' complaints were mainly domestic and focused on pervasive corruption and poverty in a country that won independence from Moscow in 1991 but has been hampered by its conflict with Azerbaijan over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh and other issues.

But critics have also accused Sarkasyan of moving landlocked Armenia too close to Russia at the expense of better ties with the West and increased prosperity, and it was unclear whether his political demise could lead to a change in foreign policy.

Armenia's 2025 dollar-denominated bond fell 0.83 cents after Sarksyan said he would resign, hitting a one-year low.

(Additional reporting by Margarita Antidze in Yerevan, Writing by Andrew Osborn and Margarita Antidze, Editing by Gareth Jones and Angus MacSwan)
Shares in Russian aluminum giant Rusal soared more than 40 percent in Hong Kong on Tuesday after the US Treasury said it would consider lifting sanctions if tycoon Oleg Deripaska gives up control of the company. US President Donald Trump on April 6 imposed restrictions on Russian oligarchs close to President Vladimir Putin following the diplomatic crisis sparked by the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal. Washington accused Deripaska of operating for the Russian government. Other magnates hit by sanctions include the director of state-owned energy giant Gazprom, Alexei Miller. The announcement saw Rusal's share price collapse by about two-thirds over the next week, wiping billions of dollars off its market capitalisation on fears about its ability to service huge debt obligations. However, the US Treasury said Monday it could lift the measures "through divestment and relinquishment of control of Rusal by Oleg Deripaska". It also said it would give companies more time to comply with the sanctions. The Hong Kong-listed firm piled on 43.42 percent to end at HK$2.18. Soon after the announcement aluminium prices sank more than seven percent on the London Metals exchange, having soared to seven-year highs in response to the measures. Rusal accounts for about seven percent of the world's aluminum production. Other metals including gold, nickel and palladium also fell sharply. "The market is clearly taking this as light at the end of the tunnel for Rusal," Oliver Nugent, a metals analyst at Dutch bank ING, told Bloomberg News. Deripaska is seen as close to Putin, and also had dealings with Paul Manafort, the former chairman of President Trump's election campaign who is under federal indictment in part over those dealings.
Rugby fan Fraser Jamieson is looking forward to wearing his Scotsman in a kilt fancy dress costume and taking his two daughters to the Singapore Sevens this weekend.

He told Singapore media that the only time he expected to see his daughters at the National Stadium is when they run out of money for food. If it were the Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens, he might have substituted food with booze.

Not only that, but Jamieson said he and his mates would actually watch the rugby.

Singapore is more family-oriented, while Hong Kong is more of a party and is pretty hard core. I probably dont remember half of those 19 times I was there, Jamieson was quoted as saying.

He and his kids will be among some 52,000 fans who are expected to attend what is being billed as the HSBC World Series Family Sevens.

This represents a 53 per cent increase over last year  with all tickets valid over two days  and 12,000 more than the capacity of the Hong Kong Stadium.

Just days earlier, World Rugby CEO Brett Gosper said that the Singapore Sevens had the potential to match the Hong Kong Sevens in terms of atmosphere and they will use families, rather than booze, to achieve their goal.

Few would dispute the fact that the atmosphere at the Hong Kong Stadium is unique and unmatched. Singapore, though, is making great strides to raise the popularity of its tournament by portraying a cleaner image  much like the city itself.

While tickets for the Hong Kong Sevens are for individuals and can be bought for each day or in three-day packages, the Singapore Sevens are offering a range of choices with families and friends in mind.

Family packages for both days for two adults and two youths (four to 18 years old) represent 20 per cent of the tickets sold so far, say organisers.

There are two family packages, the most expensive costing HK$1,000 (S$170), while there are also group tickets for four friends as well as individual tickets.

The family theme is supported by the appearances of three of the most popular Hasbro brands  The Transformers, Nerf and My Little Pony  as well as Strider Bikes and Spartan Singapore activities.

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This years Hong Kong Sevens looms as the worst in decades but no one cares about the rugby, right?

There will also be performances by The Superdudes at a FunZone created just for kids while parents can focus on the rugby.

Like in Hong Kong, there will be after-event music, with the famous Clarke Quay providing the stage while American band Village People, who have played in Hong Kong before and is famous for YMCA and In The Navy, will perform on the field.

With off-pitch activities like the Music After 7s and other in-stadia offerings that appeal to fans of all ages, spectators can look forward to a complete family-friendly experience that goes beyond the sporting action, said Melissa Ow, deputy chief executive of the Singapore Tourism Board.

Singapore Sevens has facilities Hong Kong could only dream of, but where are all the people?

On the field, Singapore can expect to see a stronger line-up of players than two weeks ago in Hong Kong, where many of the leading countries fielded weaker sides to focus on the Commonwealth Games.

Another boost is the fact that this year there is a three-week gap between Hong Kong and Singapore, which means teams are likely to be in better form. Last years event was won by Canada with Kenya taking the 2016 title.

This article Can squeaky clean Singapore use its Family Sevens theme to surpass the Hong Kong Sevens booze-fest? first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018.
Three flatmates accused of murder considered eating their victim before finally settling on encasing his body in cement, a Hong Kong court heard on Monday.

One of the defendants, Tsang Cheung-yan, also claimed his co-accused, Keith Lau, was the mastermind of the crime, from conceiving a plan to rob their victim  who Lau considered a foe  to choosing the method of disposal of the remains and planning an escape to Taiwan.

The revelations were contained in a video interview police conducted with Tsang after his arrest on April 12, 2016. It was played before a High Court jury of seven for the first time on Monday.

The mastermind is Keith Lau. I only dealt with the corpse, Tsang told a police officer after he was arrested, the video showed.

The three men, Tsang, 28, Lau, 23, and Cheung Sin-hang, 25, denied murdering Cheung Man-li, 28, alias Ah J, in their flat in Tsuen Wan on March 4, 2016. But they pleaded guilty to preventing the lawful burial of Cheungs body.

Prosecutors allege that they attacked Ah J with chloroform and that Tsang injected alcohol into his body at Flat 9D of the DAN6 industrial building that day. Subsequently, they buried him in a block of cement, the prosecutors said.

In Tsangs police interview, he said that after Ah Js death, the trio began to talk about ways to dispose of his body. Cutting up, draining blood, refrigerating, and cooking him up and eating him, he said.

All these sick ideas came up.

They also talked about throwing him into the sea or burying him in the woods, Tsang said, but the trio eventually settled on burying him in cement.

Tsang said Lau considered Ah J a foe because Tsang and Ah J had once made Lau borrow money from financial institutions without giving him the promised monetary returns.

Tsang also said he introduced Lau and Cheung Sin-hang to Ah J on February 28, just days before the alleged murder.

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Although prosecutors claimed Tsang owed the victim money, Tsang said that around late February and early March, it was Ah J, his friend and business partner for almost a decade, who approached him over a loan for a HK$6 million (US$769,000) Australian property project.

Tsang said they had owed each other money, and they were partners in that they would conduct scams together.

Around that time, according to Tsang, Lau floated the idea that they should just rob Ah J as Lau said he was in need of money. Do whatever you want, Tsang had thought.

On March 4, Tsang and Cheung Sin-hang invited Ah J to their flat to talk about the project. Tsang said he went upstairs to take a nap, leaving Cheung Sin-hang downstairs to read the documents. Lau also went downstairs.

But soon after, he heard Lau call him for help. He said when he went downstairs, he saw Lau lying on top of Ah J and covering his mouth with one hand, while Cheung Sin-hang was under the victim.

He said Ah J soon lost signs of life while Cheung Sin-hang tried to resuscitate him.

Lau, meanwhile, repeatedly told him to inject alcohol into the victims body.

I just pretended to walk up and down, he said about bringing a syringe from upstairs. But he claimed he had not injected Ah J.

He claimed Lau then told them to deal with Cheungs property, saying for them to sell his watch and phones.

Tsang said after Lau returned from a trip to Singapore, when it appeared that the cement was too heavy to move, Lau suggested removing the body and cutting it into pieces. He said Lau broke Ah Js arm and foot.

He said it was Laus idea to later flee to Taiwan because he had friends there.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Patrick Li Hon-leung on Tuesday.

This article Suspects talked about eating murder victim, Hong Kong body-in-cement trial hears first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018.
President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that top US trade officials would soon travel to China as Washington and Beijing seek to resolve a trade dispute that has roiled markets and left exporters on edge. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and other officials will make the trip at Beijing's behest, the president told reporters. "The Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin, will be going to China in a few days to negotiate on trade," he said. "I think China is very serious; we're very serious." "So we're going to have a delegation, at their request, go to China. They came here recently, and we're going there. And that'll be good." He said the two sides had a "very good chance" of reaching an agreement. Trump has authorized tariffs on about $50 billion in Chinese exports in response to China's alleged theft of American intellectual property. Beijing has responded by immediately slapping duties on key US agricultural exports, in measures intended to target the American president's support base -- and could do likewise for the sensitive US soybean industry. Trump accuses China of driving up a yawning, $337 billion trade deficit with the United States through unfair trade practices which he believes undermine the American industrial base and workforce. But in remarks that helped calm markets, Xi recently vowed to open China, including its auto and financial sectors, to more foreign trade and investment. And on Tuesday Trump described his relations with Chinese President Xi Jinping as "excellent." "I believe the trade will work out but I also think China has never treated us with more respect than they have over the last short period of time that I'm president," Trump said. Mnuchin told reporters over the weekend he was considering a trip, prompting Beijing to announce Sunday that China "welcomes" the move. Senior Trump economic aide Peter Navarro, a trade hawk and fierce China critic, as well as National Economic Director Larry Kudlow, will travel with Mnuchin and Lighthizer for a trip which is likely to occur on May 3-4, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing an anonymous source.
FILE PHOTO: Singapores Prime Minister and Secretary-General of the Peoples Action Party Lee Hsien Loong (C) celebrates with supporters after the general election results at a stadium in Singapore September 12, 2015. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said younger ministers will progressively take over more responsibility for governing Singapore after he unveiled his more extensive than usual Cabinet reshuffle on Tuesday (24 April).

In a post on his Facebook page, Lee said that he has decided to stretch the younger ones by giving many of them two ministries and more responsibilities. After the reshuffle, the younger ministers will head two thirds of the ministries except for Transport, Health, Defence, Home Affairs and Law, he pointed out.

The leadership transition taking place in the next few years is well underway, Lee added.

Among the younger ministers who will be assuming new roles as head of various ministries are Chan Chun Sing, 48, who will be the Minister for Trade and Industry; S Iswaran, 55, who will be Minister for Communications and Information and Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations; Ong Ye Kung, 48, who will be Minister for Education, and Josephine Teo, 49, who will be Manpower Minister and continue as Second Minister for Home Affairs.

Related stories:

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PM Lee asks Chan Chun Sing to return to the government, NTUC unveils changes at top

PM Lee says choosing his potential successor will take a bit longer: reports

COMMENT: Singapores political succession in a disruptive world
Thousands of Zimbabwean nurses returned to work on Monday after ending a strike, their union said, adding that fresh negotiations were expected in their stand-off with the government. Some 15,000 nurses fighting for better work conditions walked out of public hospitals a week ago. They were rapidly sacked in a hardline response from the government as it tries to prevent the spread of industrial action in the public sector. "Nurses have gone back to work today although their grievances still stand," Enoch Dongo, spokesman for the Zimbabwe Nurses Association, told AFP. "Some were asked to first fill in dismissal forms and then sign forms for resumption of duty. We haven't heard of any who have been turned back. Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, who issued the mass sackings accused the nurses of being "politically motivated." At Parirenyatwa, the largest state hospital in the capital, nurses were back at work with long queues from a backlog of patients. The nurses are demanding better wages and complaining about lack of basics in government hospitals, including drugs and equipment. The strike came shortly after a similar protest by junior doctors demanding a raise in allowances, while teachers are also threatening to strike. After Robert Mugabe's 37-year rule, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has vowed to revive the moribund economy and attract foreign investment to fund better public services.
Kamran Jebreili

INTERNACIONAL.- A fire broke out atop a prominent skyscraper in Dubai, sending smoke billowing from its roof and those inside fleeing into the streets before firefighters extinguished the blaze. No injuries were reported.

An Associated Press journalist saw smoke pour out of the spire that crowns the Almas Tower in Dubais Jumeirah Lake Towers neighborhood as ambulances and fire trucks arrived at the scene. The governments Dubai Media Office later described the blaze as a minor fire. The building was evacuated safely, the agency wrote on Twitter. No injuries have been reported.

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Authorities offered no cause for the blaze. The 68-story Almas Tower, 360-meters (1,180-feet) tall, is home to the Dubai Multi Commodities Center, which is also an economic free zone. The DMCC had hosted a conference earlier Sunday in partnership with Asia House called The New Global Trade Order.

The DMCC later wrote on Twitter that the fires epicenter was in the towers mast. Dubai, a skyscraper-studded city in the United Arab Emirates, has suffered a spate of fires in its high-rises. Dubai passed new fire safety rules last year requiring that quickburning side paneling on buildings be replaced with more fire-resistant cladding.

Authorities have previously acknowledged that at least 30,000 buildings across the UAE have cladding or paneling that safety experts have said accelerates the rapid spread of fires.
AP

Washington, US | April 22

The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank repeatedly warned at their meetings this week that intensifying trade tensions could jeopardize a healthy global economic expansion.

But U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin expressed cautious optimism Saturday that countries could settle their differences without a trade war.

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Mnuchin met during the past three days with financial officials from China, Japan and Europe over a series of punitive tariffs unveiled by the Trump administration against China and other trading partners.

In a session with reporters, Mnuchin refused to say how close the United States was to resolving the various trade disputes, but he did say progress had been made.

The United States and China are on the brink of what would be the biggest trade dispute since World War II.

The United States and China are on the brink of what would be the biggest trade dispute since World War II. Each has proposed imposing tariffs of $50 billion on each others products; President Donald Trump is looking to impose tariffs up to $100 billion more on Chinese goods.

In a speech earlier this month, Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed to open Chinas market wider to foreign companies, raising hopes the dispute with Washington could be resolved. Mnuchin said he discussed Xis proposals with Chinese officials. We are cautiously optimistic, Mnuchin told reporters, saying that he may soon travel to Beijing for further talks.

The Commerce Ministry in Beijing said Sunday that China welcomes a visit from the U.S. to Beijing to discuss trade issues and confirms it has received information regarding Washingtons interest in such a trip.

Trade tensions dominated the three days of talks among top finance officials attending meetings of the Group of 20 major economies, the 189-nation International Monetary Fund and its sister lending agency, the World Bank.
Sheila Burke

TENNESSE.- The suspect in a quadruple homicide at a Nashville Waffle House was taken into custody Monday, police said. Authorities had mounted a massive manhunt for 29-year-old Travis Reinking, after the Sunday morning attacks. Authorities announced the arrest Monday afternoon on Twitter, but did not immediately give details.

More than 100 Nashville police officers had been going door-todoor and searching wooded areas, joined by dozens of agents with the FBI, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and troopers with the Tennessee Highway Patrol. Police said he had stolen a BMW days before the attack. The car was quickly recovered, but authorities did not immediately link it to Reinking.

Reinking, described as a white man with brown hair, opened fire with an AR-15 in the Waffle House parking lot and then stormed the restaurant shortly after 3 a.m. Sunday, police say. Four people were killed and four others were injured before a quick-thinking customer wrestled the assault weapon away, preventing more bloodshed. Reinking then disappeared, police said. Police say about 20 people were in the Waffle House at the time of the shootings.

They in cluded people of different races and ethnicities, but the four people killed were minorities_three black and one Hispanic. Its not clear why Reinking opened fire on restaurant patrons, though he may have mental issues, Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief Steve Anderson said earlier.

Hes considered armed and dangerous, because he was known to have owned a handgun authorities have not recovered. Meanwhile, authorities in Illinois shared past reports suggesting multiple red flags about a disturbed young man with paranoid delusions.

In May 2016, Reinking told deputies from Tazewell County, Illinois, that music superstar Taylor Swift was stalking him and hacking his phone, and that his family was also involved, according to a report released Sunday. Reinking agreed to go to a local hospital for an evaluation after repeatedly resisting the request, the sheriffs report said.
As modern conversations about cultural representation expand and evolve, whitewashing continues to be a hot topic. The racist phenomenon, in which a white actor is cast to play a person of color, stretches from The Birth of a Nation through Mickey Rooneys Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffanys to last years megaflop Ghost in the Shell. On Monday, Broadway actress Sierra Boggess decided not to join that offensive legacy when she withdrew from a West Side Story concert performance in which she would play Maria.

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Four days ago announcements stated that Boggess, who got her start as Ariel in Broadways The Little Mermaid in 2007 before joining the casts of Phantom of the Opera and School of Rock, would play Maria in a Royal Albert Hall concert performance of West Side Story.

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Boggess said in 2015 that although Maria was a dream role she was glad she had played in past, she would not again, because Im not Puerto Rican. (The part was played in the 1961 movie by Natalie Wood, but casting calls for Steven Spielbergs upcoming remake have emphasized the characters ethnic backgrounds.) In a statement published to her Facebook page, Boggess says she signed onto the Royal Albert Hall event Because it was a concert presentation and not the show proper. But after public criticism, she has withdrawn.

After much reflection, Ive realized that if I were to do this concert, it would once again deny Latinas the opportunity to sing this score, as well as deny the IMPORTANCE of seeing themselves represented onstage, Boggess wrote. And that would be a huge mistake.

Her full statement is as follows:
This recipe originally appeared on Food52.

Ndujapronounced en-DOO-yais a spicy, spreadable salami. It comes from the Calabria region of Italy, often shows up on olive oily bread, has become increasingly popular over the past decade-plus, and yet rarely appears in a non-Italian article or recipe sans explainer. Maybe next year. Or the year after that.

A little background: In 2009, Julia Moskin at the New York Times described nduja as: the spicy underground taste that went mass market, making it the Lady Gaga of pork products. Somewhat ironically, this was right before Lady Gaga wore a meat dress to the VMAs. Of course, that was beef, not pork, and raw, not cured. Anyway, also in 2009, in The Guardian, Tim Hayward declared nduja the single most exciting ingredient Ive come across in ages.

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Seven years later, though, headlines like this still appear: What Is Nduja and Why Is It Suddenly on Every Menu? Recently, I was wondering the same thing, or almost the same thing: Why is nduja suddenly in every publication?

In just the past few years, there has been: nduja-smeared chicken wings from Saveur; a very nduja Christmas from The Kitchn; Calabrian carbonara from Food & Wine; and nduja flatbreads from Bon Appetit. You know, just to name a few. And then theres us!

Just one, teeny, tiny catch: Where do you find nduja? While its popularity has increased its accessibilityif youre near a well-stocked Italian grocery, youre probably in lucknduja is still missing from many, if not most, mainstream supermarkets. As Food52 contributor and nduja enthusiast EmilyC noted:

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Italian nduja cant be imported to the U.S. unless its pasteurized, which means youll find imported nduja packed in jars, not casings. Artisan producers in the states have their own versions, each with a distinct blend of pork and chiles. An Italian market near me sells nduja from Iowa-based La Quercia; instead of salami, its made from finely ground prosciutto and speck.

So, whats an aspiring nduja fiend to do? Its simple: Just make your own. Well, almost. You could literally make your own ndujabreak out the hog casings and curing saltbut were going for less, not more, work here. If nduja is a spicy, spreadable salami, why not just make salami spicy and spreadable?

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I call it Almost Nduja. Spread it on bread. Toss it with pasta. Tuck it into an omelet. Turn it into a vinaigrette. Become the nduja you want to see in your supermarket. Here are the components to get you there:

Soppressata

Soppressata is salamispicy, like nduja, but instead of being spreadable, its dry and hard.

You can buy this in a log or sliced at a deli counter. If you go the former route, you can remove the casing, or not; removing yields a slightly smoother end result. If you cant find soppressata, zero worries: Just replace with whatever salami you can get your hands on, then amp up the Calabrian chiles accordingly.

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Crushed Calabrian Chiles

Different from Calabrian chile pasteanother great ingredient that Giada De Laurentiis told us to keep stocked in our pantry at all times. (Adds to grocery list.) Here, we want oil-packed, finely minced Calabrian chiles, sort of like hoagie spread (is my New Jersey showing?). I found this jar at Whole Foods. If you can only find whole chiles, just mince em up! And if youre thinking, But Emma, I have to buy a whole jar, only to use a couple tablespoons, its less, how will you use the rest of the jar, and more, how will you not buy another jar? Start with scrambled eggs or avocado toast.

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Oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes

Disclaimer: These are not traditional to nduja. I add (and love) them in here for a few reasons. One, texture; well drain the tomatoes, but their plump oiliness brings lots of richness and silkiness. Two, flavor; sun-dried tomatoes are rich in umami, a welcome boost for a meaty spread. And three, color; these get us even closer to ndujas classically crimson hue.

Extra-virgin Olive Oil

Nduja is super fattythats how its so luscious and spreadable. Olive oil helps your food processor take this recipe from soppressata spread to nduja doppelganger. If you happen to have some pork fat hanging around (admiring you!), you can use an equal amount of that.

Makes 1 heaping cup

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1 cup finely diced soppressata (127 grams)

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (42 grams)

2 tablespoons crushed/minced Calabrian chiles (36 grams)

2 tablespoons minced sun-dried tomatoes (36 grams)

See the full recipe on Food52.

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On this weeks episode of my podcast, I Have to Ask, I spoke to Adam Davidson, a staff writer at the New Yorker. Prior to joining the magazine, he co-hosted NPRs Planet Money, which he helped found. At the New Yorker, he has been focusing on President Trumps tangled business empire, which may now be in the crosshairs of federal law enforcement. Below is an edited excerpt from the show. In it, we discuss why people still dont understand how Trump functions as a businessman, the real role Michael Cohen plays in Trumpworld, and why the Russia story and the Trump Organization story might really be the same story.

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You can find links to every episode here; the entire audio interview is below. Please subscribe to I Have to Ask wherever you get your podcasts.

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Isaac Chotiner: You have a new piece in which you mention the Iraq war and the financial crisis, both of which you covered, and write, I thought of these earlier experiences this week as I began to feel a familiar clarity about what will unfold next in the Trump presidency. There are lots of details and surprises to come, but the end game of this presidency seems as clear now as those of Iraq and the financial crisis did months before they unfolded. Then you add, We are now in the end stages of the Trump presidency. What is it thats gone on in the last few weeks or months thats made you think this?

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Adam Davidson: For a year and a half now, Im one of several reporters whove been studying intently Donald Trumps businesses, his relationships with people around the world. And as a rule, this group of reporters finds it increasingly shocking just how flagrant the Trump Organization was in dealing with some of the shadiestfrankly, in cases, purely evilpeople who made their money in wildly illegal and corrupt ways.

I do think most Americans, including Trumps hardcore supporters, have a general sense that this is a guy who isnt going to be a stickler for the rules, and has probably done some sort of technically illegal things or shady things. But I dont think the full lawless and also kind of pathetic and lame nature of the Trump business has entered the national narrative in the way I think it should.

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Before the Department of Justice announced that they were going to be seriously investigating Michael Cohen, it seemed at least possible that [Robert] Muellers investigation would end sort of in a draw, that he clearly would be able to showbecause he already hasthat there was collusion between some parts of the Trump world and some parts of the Kremlin. But I could imagine a situation where he says, Well, we couldnt really nail Donald Trump himself. Theres no evidence that he himself directed or participated in this, and Trumps supporters and Fox News would declare a victory, and wed enter a new phase of the Trump presidency: a post-crisis phase.

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Once we got to Michael Cohen and the raid and information that theyve been monitoring his email and, presumably, his phone traffic for months, that told me that there is no post-crisis phase of the Trump presidency, that we now have two investigations. And this new onethe one that involves Cohenis going to get a lot closer to the core of who Trump is and that much like earlier caseslike the Iraq war, like the financial crisisI think it takes a long time for national narratives to shift and change. But they do eventually shift and change. I think this one will shift to a very different understanding of who this Donald Trump guy is.

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If youre correct that the national narrative is going to shift in some way, I think the tougher question is how that manifests itself politically. In terms of ending the Trump presidency, it would require a political act, like impeachment and removal from office, and its hard to see, even if the national narrative shifted, exactly how we would get that.

Yeah, and its certainly an uphill battle, and if you wanted to make a smart bet, the bet would be hes not removed from office. But I have been in this situation before: On the day that George W. Bush landed on the aircraft carrier with Mission Accomplished, support for the Iraq war and for George W. Bush was 70 percent.

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I think that the political problem is a public opinion problem. I guess thats the prediction Im makingthat public opinion will change enough that it will fundamentally alter the political dynamics. Now there will, of course, be districts that are firm Trump districts, and those congresspeople or even senators are not going be able to shift.

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But I think that a thorough accounting of the people Trump did business with, what the business was, and especially if we do findand Im suspecting, but I cant say for surethat Michael Cohen will have recordings or emails that show that the Trump Organization knew they were basically helping fairly evil people continue their crimes by putting the Trump brand on their projects so as to make them less suspicious, I think were going find it very hard for an awful lot of Republicans to support.

Thats a prediction.

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Do you think Donald Trump is a good businessman, as a businessman, setting aside ethics?

No, definitely not.

Why?

He has, in sort of financial terms, either lost money or certainly barely made money over the course of his career. So if you start with control of $200 million of your fathers money, and one alternative is you just invest that safely in the stock market, and the other alternative is you do whatever business you do, he has lost compared to that sort of benchmark, at least for much of the time frame that hes been in business.

So that is just a sign of, OK, hes a rich man, but its different to start as a rich man and end up as sort of roughly exactly as rich. Thats less impressive to real business people.

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The other thing is, especially in the real estate industry, you want to see someone amassing wealththat over time, their holdings, their empire, is bigger, not smaller, and theyre not going to be taking as wild a risk as they were when they were younger because theyve been able to amass a kind of sustainable wealth, a bundle of assets that are really worth something.

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We certainly see that. Theres certainly plenty of people in New York real estate who, over the course of Trumps career, have done exactly that. He hasnt. Hes this brash guy doing big, loud projects in the 1970s, and hes a brash guy doing less big, less loud projects in the 2000s, and by 2010, hes basically a failed real estate guy who then starts a new career as, basically, a pitchman.

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So given where he comes from, given the industry hes in, given the places that hes been along that journey, hes richer than I am, and I know his followers seem to see that as really relevant. But if you look at his peers, if you look at any sensible benchmark, this is not a guy whos really impressing a lot of people.

Regardless of how many bankruptcies he had, or how hes compared to other real estate developers, he made himself into a universally recognized brand. It seems to me that even most of us who were given $200 million of our fathers money could not do that, so Im wondering what you think that is and how you think that fits or doesnt fit with what you say is his not-very-good business sense.

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Over the course of Donald Trumps life, branding has become much more central to how American businesses strategize, how they measure their success, etc. To say the obvious thing that everyone points to, Coca-Cola is sugar water that has the Coca-Cola brand on it. But even Boeing and others are very aware of the brand as a central part of their value, and weve learned a lot about how to manage brand.

Brands are a new thing. Theyre commonly understood to have started probably with Ivory soap, maybe 130 years ago1879, I thinkand have developed into one of the central tools of American business. I think theres been a dramatic sea-change over the course of the 70s and 80s and how we manage brands, how we think about brands.

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If the test is simply, Have people heard of it? then I guess a lot of people have heard of him. But if the test is, Has he been able to monetize that brand? Has he been able to turn that into real brand value and sustaining brand value and growing brand value, so that each year the brand itself is worth more? that is not the case.

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There are, I think, 14 Trump hotels in the world, and thats a fairly stable number. When you look at the projects that hes been doing over the last decade, there was an attempt at a Trump Baku, Azerbaijan, an attempt at a Trump Mumbai, an attempt at a Trump Uruguay. Its nothing like the incredible expansion of Four Seasons or Ritz-Carlton.

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From a branding standpoint, its a pretty pathetic business, and we saw that in the just throwing his name on anything, no matter how peripheral or lousy the product is. I think one of the many things we can learn from Trump support is that a lot of people conflate fame with success, and trappings of wealth with actual wealth.

I think most people think of Michael Cohen, essentially, as Trumps fixer who pays off women who Trump has slept with or God knows what, and thats the role he plays. Do you have a sense of the larger role Michael Cohen may play in Trump business dealings or what he means to the Trump empire?

Im pretty sympathetic to the argument that this really was not a presidential run. This was an effort to burnish his brand.  Adam Davidson

His main job was not as a lawyer of any kind. His main job was as a deal-maker, as a guy who would travel the country and the world looking for possible projects, looking for partners who might want to get the Trump name on their hotel or buildings.

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Within the Trump Organization, that was a very clearly distinct rolethe deal-maker versus the lawyer roleand that was his primary role. So the reason I think hes so significant is theres this period of very rapid expansion into these overseas licensing deals. Its sort of remarkable. Between 2006 and then really speeding up in 2010, 11, 12, into 2016, theyre just going all over the world. By they, I mean three peopleDon Jr., Ivanka, and Michael Cohenand they are signing deals with really famously corrupt people in famously corrupt parts of the world, doing virtually no due diligence that we can tell or that they can claim, and taking some enormous legal risks, all the while saying, Well, we didnt know they were bad. We didnt know the details, etc., etc.

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So he will have the email traffic that will tell us what, exactly, is happening. What, exactly, did they know about these partners? How aware were they of these partners illegality? Or how careful were they to not know? Because in an American law, being deliberately  its called willful blindness. So if I do business with you, and you constantly show up with all the telltale signs of a notorious criminal, and I never ask you, and I ask everyone not to tell me, thats deliberate ignorance. Thats willful blindness and thats, essentially, legally the same as actually knowing.

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So I think were going to learn an awful lot about this very troubling business operation.

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We know the role Michael Cohen played in trying to get a Trump Tower built in Moscow several years ago. Youve been looking at the Russia story and at the Trump business story, and earlier you referred to journalists who are on the beat of the Trump business story. To what degree do you think that these are going to eventually meld and become the same story?

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I think the bigger story is the Trump business story, and the Russia stuff is a subset of that. Look, Donald Trump is somebody whos been trying to score big through business since the 1970s or 1960s. Hes a guy whos been trying to make it politically for a couple years. So Im pretty sympathetic to the argument that this really was not a presidential run. This was an effort to burnish his brand, to sell more properties around the world, and specifically to get a Trump Tower Moscow. I think that was a major, major goal for Donald Trump for reasons that still dont quite make a lot of sense.

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I think thats the key lesson of this Cohen investigation: that were not stopping with Russia. The Justice Department, I strongly believe, is going to have to keep looking, keep studying, keep learning about this global operation.

You said that you thought it was weird that he was so interested in Trump Tower Moscow. Why was that weird?

I can understand why he would want it. Why he seemed obsessed with it is a little confusing. Theres been some good reporting that his deal in Georgia that Michael Cohen managed was part of an attempt to create what they were calling a ring of Trump properties around Moscowso Michael Cohen brought the Georgia deal, but promised Donald Trump that would be the first of many in the former Soviet Union.

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I can understand why he might want it. I dont understand why its such an obsession compared to, say, I dont know, China or India. He does also have a lot of business in India, and, frankly, hes been much, much more successful in India than in Russia by far. So why he just remained obsessed with, like, Why cant I get Russia? Why cant I get Russia?

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When the Paul Manafort charges broke and it became clear how much illegal activity he was engaged in, separately from his work on the Trump campaign, it was pretty striking that a guy like this could go around, and commit this many financial crimes overseas, and still be a lobbyist and work in Washington. Have you been shocked at how much white-collar crime seems to go unprosecuted or investigated until it is closely examined?

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Yeah. Its been really upsetting. I think one of the key lessons of all of this is just how little we prosecute white-collar crime in general, and particularly international white-collar crime. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is the law that outlaws Americans bribing foreign officials, and theres a couple dozen cases a year. Most of those are self-reports, meaning some big American company says, Oh, one of our low-down affiliates did this bad thing. Were turning that person in so that we dont have any corporate responsibility, and well pay a fine.

The greatest analysis of money laundering is that its something like 10 percent of the economy. Its widely understood to be a central pillar of the real-estate business in New York and L.A. and Miami, and its very rare for money laundering to be prosecuted. Even terror financing, even sanctions violations, we do remarkably little, and that is very upsetting. I think that it is a reminder of our two-tiered legal system. Almost by definition, people doing large financial crime are people with large amounts of money, and they are able to operate with some degree of impunity.

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I will say, even in that Trump is an outlier, that the Trump Organization took risks, did work with partners that very few Americans would ever consider working with. So I dont want to give the impression that hes just run-of-the-mill, hes just like everybody else, because thats something I hear a lot, and that always drives me crazy. Hes not.

Thats not because, necessarily, all business people are moral. Its because business people are supposed to be good at balancing risk and return. Take the Mammadovs that he did this deal in Azerbaijan with. As far as we can tell, Trump made $5 million or so from that deal. If he had done his due diligence and if he had learned, as he would have, that they were likely to be money laundering partners of Irans Revolutionary Guard, he faced a life-changing amount of fines and potential criminal liability. If youre a billionaire, as he claims, then you shouldnt do that for $5 million. Its an absurd risk to take. It makes no sense at all, and we see him taking such risks again and again and again. So he really is an outlier. Hes not like everybody.

When I think this is all over, Ill quit journalism and just go into international money laundering.

You didnt even get paid for coming on this podcast. When Trump is in his second term, gliding along with 70 percent approval, well have you on and ask what went wrong.

Sounds great. I said its the end stage of his presidency. I didnt tell you that the end stage is seven years long.
WHEELING, West VirginiaAt a primary debate here on Monday night, six Republicans vying to represent West Virginia in the U.S. Senate were asked if there is any issue where they disagree with President Donald Trump.

No, said Jack Newbrough, a trucker whose immediate reply was quickly matched by the next four candidates.

Rep. Evan Jenkins, the GOP establishments preferred candidate, mentioned, for neither the first nor the last time in the evening, that he had been a proud supporter of Trump from the beginning and would never join the chorus of those picking on him. Not to be outdone, the states attorney general, Patrick Morrisey, who has the backing of many conservative groups, described the pride he felt as an Electoral College member in 2016 when he cast his ballot for the president and made sure to mention a personal meeting with the presidentno big dealnoting that this guys a prankster.

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Only the sixth and final candidatethe quiet one with no tie, whose mere presence in the race strikes fear into the heart of Mitch McConnellwas left to disagree.

Actually, I disagree with the president on a lot of things, said Don Blankenship, the convicted coal baron, in a soft, drawling voice, but I love him to deathto think that we were very lucky to dodge the bullet of Hillary Clinton.

Now, Republicans are trying to dodge the bullet of Don Blankenship. Blankenship was in prison this time last year, nearing the end of a one-year sentence for misdemeanor conspiracy to violate mining safety standards. As CEO of Massey Energy, he presided over the 2010 Upper Big Branch explosion in which 29 coal miners lost their lives. He has argued that his prosecution was political, coming at the hands of both President Barack Obamas federal government and then-Gov. Joe Manchins state government. Blankenships campaign is an opportunity for revenge against Manchin, who now holds the Senate seat, and his supposed martyrdom at the hands of Obama has helped make Blankenship a top contender. After blanketing the airwaves with adspaid for out of his own pocketpolling in March showed him right in the thick of it alongside Morrisey and Jenkins.

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The fear within the GOP establishment is that they could squander a prime pickup opportunity in a blood-red statewhere Trump won with 68 percent of the vote on a candidate fresh out of jail for mining safety violations that led to the deaths of 29 people. So, theyve sent in the cavalry. An independent-expenditures group called Mountain Families PACorganized by the usual assortment of Washington and Northern Virginia GOP operativeshas been running ads against Blankenship. The attacks might be working, too: A poll released during Monday nights debate showed Blankenships position faltering.

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With two weeks to go until the May 8 primary, Democrats have countered by bolstering Blankenship. A Democratic-aligned group, Duty and Country PAC, has begun spending hundreds of thousands of dollars aimed at bringing down Morrisey and Jenkinsthough theyve mostly focused on Jenkins. The Federal Election Commissionlisted treasurer for the group is Booth Goodwin, who oversaw the prosecution of Blankenship during his tenure as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia. In other words, the man who put Blankenship behind bars is now aiding his primary campaign. In a strategy that has never backfired spectacularly for the party, Democrats hope to usher Blankenship through the primary so that Manchin can waltz through the general election.

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If the attacks are bothering Blankenship, he didnt show it on Monday night. As his competitors fake-smiled at each other, Blankenship barely shot anyone a glance. When it wasnt his turn to speak, Blankenship would put on his reading glasses and take notes. He seemed oblivious, at times, that others were even with him, or that he wasnt supposed to touch Donald Trump with even the mildest of critiques.

I dont agree with his personal behavior at times, he said. I sometimes worry that we still have this tendency to police the world, which is very expensive for American taxpayers. I agree with Comey that his ties a little too long. I think he tweets too much.

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Jenkins, for his part, is trying to use the Democratic attacks as a rallying cry, arguing that Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are trying to destroy him because they know he has the best chance to beat Manchin. Its always a boring, establishment move to argue that primary voters should choose you because youre the most electable, so Jenkins is trying to reframe the same basic idea into a tale of how national Democrats fear his nomination. (Jenkins also reiterated several times what he saw as the stakes of the election, too, warning that Democrats would pursue impeachment should they retake control of Congress.)

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Jenkins pitch is complicated by the presence of Morrisey, the state attorney general, who checks all the boxes for hard-right conservative voters, like endorsements from pro-life groups and all the gun groups, as well as a long-record of lawsuits filed against the Obama administration. He described how hes working with the president to bring an end to these awful sanctuary cities. During a discussion on guns, which immediately became a competition about who loves guns the mostIm carrying, Newbrough saidMorrisey described how he had just partnered with the NRA at a local middle school to do a physical assessment of how to prevent mass shootings.

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But rank-and-file Republicans have shown a willingness to reject anyone affiliated not just with the party establishment, but with electoral politics in general. Just as Roy Moore was the spoiler to Luther Strange and Mo Brooks in Alabama, and Donald Trump was the spoiler to Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, there just has to be that wild card upending the plot who doesnt say all of the right things but thrives on harvesting anti-establishment antipathy.

On the gun question, Blankenship quickly got it out of the way that he obviously wouldnt touch the Second Amendment. But then he made my favorite segue, in a night overflowing with self-aggrandizing segues.

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Its not just the Second Amendment thats under assault, he said. The First Amendments under assault. I expected a digression about the free-speech culture of college campusesand he would eventually get to thatbut Blankenship first turned instead to his own experience. They put a gag order on me shortly after I was indicted, he said, positioning himself a free speech martyr, too.

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When he returned to the Second Amendment, Blankenship made another remark that qualifies as surprising in a West Virginia GOP primary.

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Guns are a problem in this country, because theres a lot of em, he said. But I think  that if we ban guns at this point, given as many as there are, that only the criminals will have guns, and I dont want to go there.

Im not sure Id heard a Republican politician so straightforwardly concede that the countrys gun supply is the cause of its unique gun violence, even if he didnt arrive at a very radical solution. It was far more notable than the other candidates canned responses, whether Morriseys tale of casing out a middle school with the NRA or Jenkins describing how, when the House Republican conference reads aloud the Constitution on the floor at the beginning of each Congress, he gets to read the Second Amendment.

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Blankenship had another moment like this, too, when the candidates were asked about whether they would cut federal entitlements in a poor state that relies so heavily on them. Jenkins, in one of his bits, addressed West Virginians and pledged never to privatize Social Security or to cut Medicare. (He didnt mention Medicaid, for good reason.) Morrisey likewise said he wouldnt touch those programs for current recipients and would only go after the waste and fraud within Medicaid.

When it was Blankenships turn, he looked up from his notes.

At some point were going to have to be a little bit older when we get Social Security, he said. The entitlement programs need to be addressed, he said, if you call them that. I dont think theyre really entitled to them. And then the conversation moved on.

If Blankenship is playing the role of a Roy Moore or a Donald Trump, its an understated performance. His personality is nothing like theirswhere Trump and Moore seemed to breathe publicity, Blankenship eschews the spotlight. During the debate, Blankenship seemed like hed rather be locked in a basement hideaway, alone, double-checking the math on a corporate accounting filing. If Blankenship wants his revenge against Joe Manchin, hell need to give people a reason to watch.
Fifteen months into his presidency, Donald Trump has been a failure in all but one area: the appointment of judges to the federal judiciary. The Senate has already confirmed 33 of Trumps nominees to the bench; at this point in his first term, President Barack Obama had secured just 21 confirmations. These judges have life tenure, and if history is a guide, some of Trumps judicial appointees will still be serving in 2070. No matter who controls Congress or the White House, these judges will be shaping the law for decades to come.

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Given those stakes, its telling to look at a pair of opinions handed down by federal appeals court judges last weekone by a Trump judge, the other by a nominee of President Ronald Reagan. The first involves campaign finance, the second abortion. Yet both share a similar tone: flagrantly political, arrogant, self-righteous, and condescending. Taken together, these opinions illustrate the consequences of stacking the courts with ideologues.

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Start with last Wednesdays opinion from Judge James Ho, whom Trump placed on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Unlike many of Trumps judicial nominees, Ho is qualified for the job, with a long career in the law capped off by a stint as Texas solicitor general. If I were a senator, I wouldve voted for him. He was confirmed in December by a 5343 vote.

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Ho issued his very first ruling last Wednesday in Zimmerman v. City of Austin, which involves a challenge to Austins campaign finance law. The city prohibits individuals from donating more than $350 per election to mayoral and city council candidates. In February, a three-judge panel for the 5th Circuit ruled that this limit does not violate the First Amendment. The plaintiffs asked the full court to rehear the case en banc; by a 122 vote, it declined. Ho wrote a dissent from this decision, asserting that the court should have granted rehearing en banc and held that the Austin contribution limit violates the First Amendment.

That position is no surprise since Ho has previously argued that the United States should abolish all restrictions on campaign finance. What was startling was the petulant partisan tone of his opinion. Ho began by complaining about the unfortunate trend in modern constitutional law to create rights that appear nowhere in the Constitution, but also to disfavor rights expressly enumerated by our Founders. To prove this point, he cited Justice Clarence Thomas peevish opinion decrying the Supreme Courts refusal to strike down a California law that requires a cooling-off period between gun purchases. Thomas complained that the courts are more eager to protect abortion access and same-sex marriagewhich according to Thomas, deserve no constitutional protectionthan they are to defend the Second Amendment. Right off the bat, then, Ho telegraphed his agreement with Thomas that gays and women have no constitutional right to individual autonomy.

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It got worse from there. Toward the end of his opinion, Ho threw in a strange rant. To be sure, he wrote, many Americans of good faith bemoan the amount of money spent on campaign contributions and political speech.

But if you dont like big money in politics, then you should oppose big government in our lives. Because the former is a necessary consequence of the latter. When government grows larger, when regulators pick more and more economic winners and losers, participation in the political process ceases to be merely a citizens prerogativeit becomes a human necessity. This is the inevitable result of a government that would be unrecognizable to our Founders.  So if there is too much money in politics, its because theres too much government. The size and scope of government makes such spending essential.

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This exaltation of money in politics is remarkably cynical. While the Supreme Court typically describes political spending as part of the right to participate in the public debate through political expression, Hos conception of campaign finance is transactional: He believes rich people may need to buy elections to protect themselves from regulations promulgated through the peoples representatives. While the Supreme Court describes campaign contributions as participation in the democratic process, Ho sees them as fundamentally anti-democratica tool the wealthy can deploy to buy off regulators. And if you dont like sky-high political spending, Ho suggests, you should support deregulation, so powerful people and corporations dont have to go through the trouble of purchasing elections in the first place.

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Manion isnt interested in facts. Like Ho, he wanted to editorialize about precedents he dislikes but has no power to change.

This reasoning is drawn not from Supreme Court precedent or the Constitution, but rather Hos own views about the evil of regulations. When Ho does cite precedent, he uses it capriciously. To bolster his claim about the modern government being unrecognizable to our Founders, he cited the first Obamacare case, in which Chief Justice John Roberts voted to uphold the law. Ho seemed to ding Roberts for this movea strange and irrelevant point to shoehorn into his ruling. Notably, Judge Edith Jones, who signed onto most of Hos opinion, declined to join this bit.

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A day after Ho handed down his Zimmerman dissental, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued its decision in Planned Parenthood v. Indiana State Department of Health. That case involved Indiana regulations that barred women from terminating a pregnancy on the basis of the fetus sex, race, color, national origin, ancestry, or disability, including Down syndrome. Indiana compelled the abortion providers to tell women about this prohibition and required them to bury, cremate, or entomb all fetal remains.

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Predictably, the 7th Circuit struck down these rules as a violation of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which forbid abortion restrictions that place an undue burden on women seeking to terminate. Judge Daniel Manion, a Reagan appointee, wrote separately to dissent from part of the ruling and bemoan the entire decision. To put it mildly, this is an unfortunate case, Manion began, declaring that it is regrettable than Indiana cannot protect especially vulnerable unborn children. He then urged the Supreme Court to overturn Roe and Casey, complaining that these precedents make abortion the only true super-right protected by the federal courts today. Manion also criticized Democratic California Sen. Dianne Feinstein for calling Roe a super-precedent, citing a National Review article to rebut her. Then he attacked Planned Parenthood directly, writing:

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Planned Parenthood and other supporters of abortion rights say that they are pro-choice. Yet they often challenge legislation simply intended to inform a womans choice. For example, the plaintiff in this case also obtained a preliminary injunction prohibiting Indiana from enforcing its requirement that a woman view an ultrasound at least hours before an abortion is performed unless she elects in writing not to do so.  Indeed, Planned Parenthood and its allies have gone as far as to support Californias effort to force pro-life pregnancy centers to advertise for abortion.  If Planned Parenthood were really pro-choice (and not just pro-abortion), it would encourage a client who had initially been happy to be pregnant to seek counseling elsewhere when she discovered that her unborn child had Down syndrome or another disability. Such counseling with an informed advocate for the living fetus would benefit both the woman and her unborn child.

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During oral arguments in the case, Manion acknowledged he got those ideas from observing his wifes work running crisis pregnancy centers that attempt to talk women out of getting abortions. Later in his opinion, Manion cited studies showing that people with Down syndrome and their parents and siblings are quite happy and lead fulfilling lives. This proves, he wrote, that Indiana has a compelling interest in forcing all women whose fetuses have Down syndrome to carry these pregnancies to term.

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The most frustrating aspect of Manions opinion is its dishonesty. He wrote that, currently, abortion is more ironclad even than the rights enumerated in the Bill of Rightsin fact, the most favored right in American law. That is nonsense. Dozens of states still force women to undergo anti-abortion counseling and an invasive ultrasound before terminating their pregnancies. States compel women to wait up to six days before obtaining the procedure and require providers to lie to their patients about fetal pain and the nonexistent link between abortion and breast cancer. Abortion is, in reality, one of the most excessively regulated constitutional rights in Americahardly the most favored of all the Constitutions guarantees.

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But Manion isnt interested in facts. Like Ho, he wanted to editorialize about precedents he dislikes but has no power to change. And like Ho, he has virtually nothing to lose by doing so. Manion was confirmed in 1986 by a 5049 vote, with thenVice President George H.W. Bush breaking a tie. He will remain on the bench for as long as he wants. And he answers to no one.

Manion is 76 years old. Ho is just 45, and other Trump judicial nominees are in their 30s. These men and women (but mostly men) will be subjecting us to gratuitous screeds for much of the rest of our lives. They wont always be in dissent: As Trump tips more federal appeals courts to the right, Ho and Manion will increasingly find themselves in the majority, turning their biases into law. For now, all Senate Democrats can do is take Ronald Klains advice: Read Hos Zimmerman jeremiad to every judicial nominee and ask them one simple questionis this really how judges are supposed to behave?
Did French President Emmanuel Macron successfully convince President Trump to preserve the Iran nuclear deal? Its impossible to saybut judging by their joint press conference Tuesday, it seems like Macron thinks he did.

Trump repeated his standard litany of attacks on the deal, saying it should have never been made but also held open the possibility of doing something to improve the agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Referring to the May 12 certification deadline, by which Trump says he will pull the U.S. out of the agreement unless European countries take steps to address what he sees as its flaws, Trump said, nobody knows what Im going to do on the 12th, although Mr. Presidentmeaning Macronyou have a pretty good idea.

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This implies that Trump has made his intentions known to Macron, and thats probably good news for the deals survival given that Macron seemed optimistic that Tuesdays discussion had led to a convergence of views. He went as far as to call this a new deal with Iran, adding, we have a disagreement regarding the JCPOA, but I think we are overcoming it by deciding to work towards a deal, an overall deal.

It seems unlikely Macron would speak so confidently, and go so far to portray himself as in sync with Trump on larger Middle East issues, if he had the impression that Trump was hell-bent on blowing the deal up, no matter what. After todays remarks, if the U.S. does pull out of the deal next month, it would be much worse politically for Macron back in France, where Trump is deeply unpopular, and detract from whatever political capital he has left with the Iranians. Of course, this doesnt mean Trump wont still blow up the JCPOA. He has a habit of taking one position in meetings and then quickly reversing it. But he did seem to like what the French president was telling him.

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Macron suggested that while preserving the JCPOA and its restrictions on Iranian nuclear activity until 2025, further measures could be taken to address Irans nuclear activity indefinitely, as well as its ballistic missile program and its wider range of activities in the Middle East.

In another telling moment, Trump answered a question about when U.S. troops would leave Syria and seemed to imply that it was tied to Macrons new Iran deal.

I do want to come home, but I want to come home also with having accomplished what we have to accomplish, Trump said. So we are discussing Syria as part of an overall deal. When they made the Iran deal, what they should have done is included Syria.

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Trump also referred twice to the often-heard geopolitical argument that having pro-Iranian regimes in Iraq and Syria gives Tehran an unobstructed pathway to the sea. Emmanuel and myself have discussed the fact that we dont want to give Iran open season to the Mediterranean, especially since we really control it to a large extent, he said. There was also an odd reference later to the importance of maintaining a strong blockage to the Mediterranean. Trump was a little fuzzy on how exactly we control the Mediterranean or what this blockage would look like, but it sounds as if Macron had convincingly made this point to Trump.

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Macron has been pressing Trump to keep U.S. troops in Syria. He even got a little ahead of himself last week by implying he had been the one to convince the U.S. president to do so, which the White House denied. Macron had said before the meeting that he and Trump would look at the Iran deal in a wider regional context including Syria. It seems likely that Macron is trying to get what he wants on both issues by tying them together: convincing Trump that the best way to be tough on Iran is not to kill the deal but to double down on the war in Syria.

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In another noteworthy comment Trump made while discussing troop levels, he turned to U.S. allies in the region, saying, The countries that are there, that you all know very well, are immensely wealthy. Theyre going to have to pay for this. They will pay for it. Weve spoken to them. They will pay for it. They will also put soldiers on the ground, which theyre not doing.

We will in fact bring lots of people home.

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The implication of this is that he wants Sunni Arab statesthe immensely wealthy countries in questionto send their own troops into Syria, for a war that he now seems to view as an attempt to maintain a blockage between Iran and the Mediterranean. This sounds like a recipe for turning the Sunni-Shiite cold war into a hot one very quickly.

So, next month, either Trump will risk setting off an entirely manufactured nuclear weapons crisis with Iran by scuttling the JCPOA, or he could follow Macrons suggestion and stay in the deal while pouring more resources into a strategically dubious mission in Syria and pushing Sunni allies to more directly confront Iran, exacerbating the wider sectarian tensions that the deal was never able to address. Since Trump might have done the latter anyway, Macron deserves some credit for at least trying to preserve the JCPOA, but its still something of a lose-lose.
Meek Mill was released from prison on Tuesday after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overrode his trial judges stubborn resolution to keep the hip-hop star behind bars. Judge Genece Brinkley had previously sentenced Mill to two to four years for alleged probation violations, with Mills defenders accusing the judge of punishing him out of a personal vendetta.

Soon after the decision, Mill tweeted his gratitude toward the current Philadelphia district attorneys office, which backed Mills appeal, while also pledging this: I understand that many people of color across the country dont have [the] luxury [I did] and I plan to use my platform to shine a light on those issues.

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He also noted that this is not the end of his legal saga. Mill, whose legal name is Robert Williams, will remain on probation unless his underlying case is overturned. A key piece of evidence recently made public lends a good amount of weight to Mills case to clear his name: His arresting officer, and a key witness in his case, Reginald Graham, was found to be corrupt by an internal police investigation before he ever cuffed a 19-year-old Mill on a Philadelphia corner. Last week, three other Graham cases were tossed out by Judge Sheila Woods-Skipper because of issues with the officers credibility.

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Indeed, Mills understanding that other people of color across country have faced the same sort of corruption that landed him in prison hits a lot closer to home than even his statement indicated.

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Two of the men accused by Graham, siblings then in their 40s, were convicted of drug and gun charges from 2005 that hinged on a search of their home by the officer. The other was convicted for allegedly peddling cocaine. One of these men was sentenced to two and a half years in prison, another to a year on probation, and all three racked up hundreds of dollars in court fines and fees. (None of the defendants could be reached for comment.)

These three are among 105 people that defense lawyers are arguing were wrongfully convicted because of Grahams involvement. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, known for suing cops in his civil rights days, has attorneys reviewing all of these cases. The next hearing for a local judge to hear petitions to overturn these old convictions is scheduled for late June.

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The scope of the convictions secured by these corrupt officers is jarring.

Mills case isnt in this cohort for purely administrative reasons: His lawyers filed a petition for a retrial before the mass investigation proved Grahams wrongdoing, so it stayed under Brinkleys purview. That the other three cases were tossed is significant to Mill, however, because they predate his. So a local judge and Phillys prosecutor have each agreed that Graham should have been sidelined years before he arrested Mill. This broader review was catalyzed by the March release of a do not call lista dossier of bad cops compiled by the previous district attorneybut the initial review had previously cited a 2013 incident. Since the list was released, the DAs office has obtained and reviewed files from a 2005 internal police investigation that allegedly found Graham to have stolen drugs on the job and lied about it, says Ben Waxman, Krasners spokesperson. Evidence revealed last week could push the date of proven corruption even further back to 2002.

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Graham was one of 29 flagged officers on the do not call list, and so these overturned convictions represent the beginning of a wide-spanning case purge in Philadelphia. Brad Bridge, the public defender in charge of the review, said that he has marked about 5,000 potentially tainted files. He is negotiating with the judge to be allowed more than the 60 days that would normally be allotted by Pennsylvania law to present these cases to the court and expects an extensionbut there is a clock running, he says.

The scope of the convictions secured by these allegedly corrupt officers is jarring, and it raises a larger issue: Why were these officers on the street and in the courtroom in the first place? Their higher-ups knew about the misconduct, and if the DAs office did not, it could have found out.

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Maintaining a do not call list is one way to increase transparency in criminal casesso long as its not kept internal. This is a practice that is uncommon, but not unprecedented. But this doesnt mean that prosecutors are in the dark about corruption even in places where these lists dont exist. Its an open secret in most urban court systems prosecutors know that there are certain officers that will stretch the truth if not give an outright lie, says David Harris, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law who studies police behavior.

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The argument against maintaining such a list is that minor indiscretions or debatable accusations, if officially documented and disclosed, could have very negative consequences on an officers career. In Baltimore, for example, the states attorney used to keep such a list but stopped because it became controversial for this reason. A subsequent states attorney candidate promised to abolish the citys list, which he promptly did after taking office in 2011.

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Harris is doubtful that wrongly accused officers have actually been marked in Philadelphia, though. If an officers name is on that list and it doesnt belong there it would be terrible, he told me. But prosecutors and police work hand in hand every dayif they have a reputation of not being trustworthy its bigger than one incident.

Harris continued, The bigger question is: If prosecutors dont trust them to give testimony, why are those officers still in that business?

In the case of Meek Mill, its one that should have been asked a long time ago.
This video is from Season 2 of Whos Afraid of Aymann Ismail?, a series featuring Slates Aymann Ismail investigating fears about Islam in America. Watch the entire series.

On a recent Sunday, not long after I landed in Iowa for the first time, I found myself at my first-ever Catholic Mass. Its fair to say I was the only Muslim there. But I was with someone whos had a deep connection to Islam for longer than Ive been alive.

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In 1985, Laura Fendt fell in love with a Muslim immigrant from Egypt named Kamal Hammouda. They spontaneously got married that fall. Then they got married again that winter, this time by a priest. It began more than three decades of an interfaith union that many people, Muslim and non-Muslim, still dont think should exist.

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What happens when a devout Muslim and devout Christian commit to each other to build something newand neither have any intention of converting? Laura and Kamal invited me here to their restaurant and home in small-town Iowa, where they raised grown three boys, to tell me how they did it. Aymann Ismail

This series is written and produced by Aymann Ismail and Jeffrey Bloomer, and edited by Aymann Ismail.

Watch more:

Who Says a Muslim Cant Celebrate Christmas?

Wearing a Hijab Is Complicated. So Is Deciding to Take One Off.

Fox News Claimed a Sharia Law Court Is Enforcing Islamic Law in Texas. So I Went to See It.
Before his Pulitzer-winning investigation into Harvey Weinsteins alleged sexual abuse, Ronan Farrow worked in President Obamas State Department. His new book, War on Peace, documents the departments loss of personnel and prestige under every recent presidentespecially the current one.

On Mondays the Gist, Mike Pesca talked with Farrow about how every president warms up slowly to the value of diplomacy, the damage left in former Secretary of State Rex Tillersons wake, and journalism in the Trump era.

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Read an edited version of their conversation below, or stream or download the full discussion via iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, the Google Play store, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Mike Pesca: Howd they woo you to go into that line of work [at the State Department]?

Ronan Farrow: I came to the government, and Afghanistan and Pakistan specifically, to work for Richard Holbrooke, who was this larger-than-life character who had made peace in Bosnia and died, as it turned out, trying to make peace in Afghanistan and Pakistan, while I worked for him.

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It was an interesting, as you describe it, interview process that included you in an anteroom while he was taking a shower. This is like Robert Caro stuff.

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There are some colorful anecdotes that I think will turn peoples heads as they read this, one of which is Richard Holbrooke was famous for doing meetings in bathrooms. This was not a #MeToo thing. He was a scatterbrained and oblivious kind of guy when it came to other human beings at times, but incredibly brilliant, incredibly loyal. So in the case of my job interview at the State Department, I interviewed with Hillary [Clinton] briefly in her antechamber. And there was me and a CIA guy that he was putting on his team. In the eyes of Richard Holbrooke, every hire was a momentous thing.

Or he made you feel like that.

Right, tremendous showmanship. I was just a little rookie guy at the bottom of the totem poleI had no business meeting with the secretary of state, but he did this very gracious thing. Then, lobbing hardball policy questions about Taliban negotiations and assistance to Pakistan and Afghanistan, brought me from the State Department to his townhouse in Georgetown, to the upstairs of his townhouse and proceeded to get in the shower. The door was sort of closed-ish but ajar. Did not break the flow of questions, just poked his head out and said, Oh Im just going to take a shower. There we were, and it did lead to those years at the State Department.

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What was your brief?

My brief was just talk to people on the ground.

But live in Afghanistan.

Well, no. We went back-and-forth. The process of being an American official and visiting these countries is not a process of immersing in the culture and understanding what it is to live in Afghanistan or Pakistan, particularly when youre in Kabul, in the U.S. Embassy. You aint living in Kabul.

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Every embassy that even wants to be outreaching has a fortress or a moat, and in Kabul, it has the fortress.

A fortress. My job was made doubly difficult by the fact that there were all these barriers. You couldnt just talk to people. You go from point A to point B, and its a security detail, and what they call a rhino, which is this steel box you travel in that has little holes on the side that say, Break glass and insert rifle here in case you come under fire.

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We dont have negotiators and peacemakers anymore, and were  giving the work that they once did to soldiers and spies.  Ronan Farrow

Just that alone, the vision of that, gets in the way of diplomacy. It also ties into your overall theme that weve essentially militarized our diplomats.

Right. Strikingly, actually, in the last few months, there has been a push to have diplomats engage in arms-sale transactions. This is a formal initiative by the White House. Thats part and parcel with the decimation of the State Department right now. We just dont have negotiators and peacemakers anymore, and were shuffling them out as fast as we can and giving the work that they once did to nonsubject matter expertsand honestly, as often as possible, soldiers and spies.

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When Trump went to Saudi Arabia, his first foreign trip, which was unusual, the evidence of our great diplomatic relationship was this record-setting arms sale.

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In a sense, we have the benefit of historical lessons that we are refusing to learn. A lot of the book is devoted to that. The pattern you see is in the first terms of a lot of these administrations: There is this absence of diplomacy, and then almost invariably, theres a realization, too late, that you need diplomacy. The quote from Condoleezza Rice was, We realized we needed a few diplomats in the second term. [Bill] Clinton slashed the State Department budget and the USAID budget by 30 percent. That had disastrous results. Its one of the reasons why we didnt have adequate diplomatic capacity after 9/11. We closed all these embassies, and we shut down two government agencies that were related to very important foreign policy priorities, and you heard in Barack Obamas rhetoric a commitment to that idea. I quote him over and over again, talking about how our might is not through our military.

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The speech in Egypt.

Sure. A lot of people remember his legacy that way, and I think its instructive to realize that even in his administration, there was this phenomenon of the militarization of foreign policy and then an acknowledgement that that had been a mistake.

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As you point out, he was as reliant on generalsor almost as reliantas Trump was. I think he was deferential. I just dont think he was confident early on.

Very few politicians are confident in the face of the military-industrial complex. Its viewed as a political win to support our generals in a way that it is not to support our dusty bureaucrats at the State Department. Thats a fundamental misperception. There are huge problems with the State Department. It needs reform, it needs fixing, but this is a job of self-sacrifice. Like our men and women in uniform, they are working very often in the most dangerous places on Earth, but theyre not coming home to ticker-tape parades.

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Im careful in this book not to make it as black-and-white as Pentagon bad and State Department good. These are both systems that have strengths and are necessary, and I think every sober-minded person says, We need both. Probably necessarily, the Pentagon has got to be a good deal larger, but what those people also say is, This is way out of whack. This is way, way out of proportion, and we just dont have the capacity left on the civilian side anymore.

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One thing that I see that was made clear in the book is that our very best, or sharpest, or at least most opportunistic generals have seen and sensed that there is this maw, that there is no diplomacy. So they have crafted themselves as not just a general, but a diplomat-general. This is something [David] Petraeus does, and [Defense Secretary James] Mattis as the warrior-monk. This is not to impugn their motives. Theres a lot of what they do, because there is no diplomacy, that were relying on the military to do it, but it also could lull the rest of us into a false sense of securitywere getting our diplomacy from the Army, and the Army is now social workers. As you point out, no, theyre not. They have guns.

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Right. Its a completely different skill set. What you lose when you shuffle off the diplomats is any kind of subject-matter expertise. Theres a chapter in this book about North Korea. Thats been a long-fraught diplomatic journey with a lot of failures along the way but also a lot of institutional knowledge gained. We are not relying on our experts there or anywhere else. The Afghanistan situation, when I was there, is really instructive about this. We had a period of maximum military leverage where what the Pentagon was doing could have catalyzed talks. Now, years later, I think theres much more acceptance in the foreign policy establishment of the idea that youre not going to win militarily in Afghanistan. Youve got to talk to the Taliban. Theres got to be a political settlement, but at the time, it was verboten to even say that. We werent allowed to say it publicly. You couldnt suggest it in meetings. Everything had to be done in secret.

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You extracted a Taliban-affiliated guy nicknamed A-Rod. He could be a very useful guy to you, and he turned out to be, but he had to be very careful about publicly associating, or embracing, or even letting it be known that he was affiliated with this operation.

The nexus of the Pentagon and the White House really put the kibosh on numerous attempts to jump-start that process faster. What a lot of the people involved say, in retrospect, is, We squandered the biggest window of opportunity we had to have a political settlement. No one is suggesting that Richard Holbrooke could have waltzed in and fixed Afghanistan, but you could have had talks earlier, and you could have maybe saved some lives. It could have had a tangible difference for the current situation in Afghanistan, which is yet more military escalation.

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President Trump talked about withholding funding from Pakistan. What will that do other than embolden the Chinese?

The Chinese are nipping at our heels. Actually, I think that the lesson about that the world over is we are ceding this space to China. Because as we are eviscerating our State Department, China is year-on-year spending more and more on diplomacy. There was this stereotype for a long time in American foreign policy of, China is rapacious, and they dont give a damn about human rights. Theres a lot of truth to that, but also what were seeing is in places where China was the rapacious interloper who aided and abetted the bad guys, like Sudan for instance, now youve got a Chinese special envoy doing shuttle diplomacy and wanting big, splashy PR gains from brokering a political settlement. They are filling our space really fast.

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As we are eviscerating our State Department, China is year-on-year spending more and more on diplomacy.  Ronan Farrow

Heres the thing that surprised me about Tillerson, and your reporting bears this out: I assessed that his actual worldview is within the normal range. He correctly regards Russia as a potential enemy, and he is against terrorism, and he probably has some misgivings about United States excess in terms of torture, lets say. But I was really shocked by how motivated he was to cut staff at the State Department. That seemed to be the reason he got up in the morning, rather than actually direct the State Department to achieve any policy goals.

That seems to be the source of bafflement for just about everyone. George P. Shultz, a former secretary of state who had also been in the private sector for years and years before stepping into that job, said, I dont know if that was an order he got or what, but you can turn down a job. No one can quite figure out what he thought he was doing. Theres the call to service. I spent a fair amount of time with Rex Tillerson, and I believe that he sincerely wanted to serve his country, but I cant imagine what he thought he was accomplishing, so faithfully executing those orders.

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Hes more candid than hes ever been, in these pages. He says that he pushed back behind closed doors. He says that he was inexperienced and maybe should have known, but didnt, early in his brief tenure in the job, that you dont go to the Hill and say, Hey, senators and congressmen, dont give me money. To whatever extent he realized that that was the wrong approach, it obviously happened too late.

Every secretary of state fights with every secretary of defense. Colin Powell talked about fighting with [Donald] Rumsfeld. Tillerson pretty clearly points to not the secretary of defense but [Jared] Kushner as his major adversary. You illustrate this by talking about a dispute that saw Saudi Arabia and a number of Gulf states cut off relations with Qatar, an important military ally. Trump issued a vociferous takedown of Qatar. Thats a contradiction of Tillerson that Tillerson tried to correct.

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How much of Kushners decisions or motivations might be influenced by the fact that he was applying for a loan with Qatar?

A fellow reporter once said to me in the last couple weeks, Were not working on multiple stories. Its all one big story.

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Its all a kleptocracy.

Ive been reporting on these secret election-season payments through the National Enquirer to silence stories. The Times recently reported onand weve done some reporting at the New Yorker onthe meetings between David Pecker of the National Enquirer and the Saudis and the Kushner- and Trump-adjacent intermediaries who helped broker those introductions. This is all connected. I think the questions being asked right now about corruption and Kushners affinity for the Saudis and other foreign interests are merited.

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How much worse has the Trump presidency and Rex Tillersons tenure at the State Department made what youre describing in the book?

A lot worse. I dont think this would be the same book if Hillary Clinton were in office. This book is not always kind to Hillary Clinton, either, but certainly she had a nominal commitment to the importance of having some diplomatic capacity. We are at a time right now where the State Department is simply being wiped out. This set of events is not unprecedented in the sense that weve never toyed with sidelining our diplomats. We have, and I gave those precedents of under Clinton, under Bush, under Obama. The lesson has been clear each time. Its a disaster for us, but we have never seen the kind of nosedive that were seeing now. Weve never had this purge of the diplomatic workforce and this complete surrendering of any effort to recruit the next generation of ambassadors. You have Colin Powell in this book saying, Were mortgaging our future. This is going to be hard to turn back. I think we still can, but weve got to do it before its too late. There is a lot of power in Mike Pompeos hands right now as he steps into that job.
Bad year: Drew Littman thinks Trump wont fire Bob Mueller because hes terrified of his party losing the 2018 midterms, which would leave him exposed to Democratic oversight in the House. Here are at least 10 reasons why his fear is justified.

Its the environment: Shania Twain is getting it from all sides after saying she likes Trumpa notorious liar!because hes no bullshit. Yascha Mounk finds her attitude, which flourishes where people dont trust their government, to be very familiar.

Bad online: We bid farewell to Justin Peters YouTube blog with a meditation on a loss: YouTubes bigger platform, Peters writes, has made dudes doing fun dude pranks into jerks.

Someones got to do it: Brigid Schulte and Tom Bowman have One Fight: Shes worrying; hes floating down a (metaphorical) stream in an inner tube, beer in hand.

For fun: You cant hack a vending machine.

Probably?

Rebecca
In his most recent piece for New York magazine, columnist Jonathan Chait argues that Sens. Kamala Harris and Kirsten Gillibrand should stop portraying themselves as victims of sexism if they ever want to win the presidency. Chaits argument echoes his concern about the many disparaging cardswoman, racethat politicians have supposedly played, with some frequency, over the past two decades of U.S. politics. But Chait brings one new claim to the mix: that female victimhood is a particular currency on the political left that could make a candidate popular among progressives, even as it makes her appear unpresidential to everyone else.

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Chait suggests Harris and Gillibrand have leaned into this victimization, even though the framing was not dreamed up by them, their staffs, or even the Democratic Party, but by an internet clickscape that creates and amplifies outrage. The exasperated headlines Chait bemoans (e.g. Once Again, Kamala Harris Is Interrupted at a Senate Hearing) tell us more about the perverse incentives of online media than about any strategy Harris has employed. Yes, the internet flattens complex gendered and raced slights into bite-size wafers of indignation that flare up and die down with equal speed. More people are interested in clicking on a video of someone doing something sexist to a beloved public figure than in watching a beloved public figure make a series of good points in a Senate hearing. That may very well be a failure of the public intellect, but its inaccurate to ascribe that failure to Harris.

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Chait assigns similar blame to Gillibrand for a recent GQ profile that touched on her fight against sexual harassment in Congress. Chait writes that much of the story hews to the theme of sexual harassment, including Gillibrands own experiences as a target of such harassment. (She says male colleagues have grabbed her waist and made sexualized comments about her weight.) But less than a quarter of the GQ piece actually relates to Gillibrand and harassment, and much of it focuses on her moves to hold Sen. Al Franken accountable for his alleged sexual harassment and her legislative efforts to reform sexual harassment and assault policy. Chait argues that discussing a woman in relation to harassmentas a person men do things tostrips her of agency, making it hard to envision her as a possible president. But the actions described in the GQ profilebeing the first Senate Democrat to call for Frankens resignation, starting a nationwide conversation on military sexual assaultdont really fit this profile; they are nothing if not evidence of Gillibrands agency and power to effect change. If Chait and his intellectual peers dismiss everything a woman says or does that relates to sexual harassment as indicative of victimhood, that is a logical slip of their own making.

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Its not clear why Gillibrands personal experience as a victim of harassment shouldnt be regarded as relevant to her proactive political work on the subject. When a male politician loses a family member to cancer, then uses his platform to advocate for more funding for cancer research, we dont brush it off as the pleadings of a helpless victim. When a male congressman who served in the military tries to improve veterans medical benefits after a bad experience at a VA hospital, we dont scoff as he brings up his military background. Anyone can advocate for greater accountability for sexual abuses, better-funded research into cancer treatments, or a renewed commitment to American veterans, but if an advocate has personal experience in the matter, its both politically and practically smart to use it to inform her work.

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Rather than see sexism as a legitimate barrier that takes disproportionate grit, thick skin, social diplomacy, and emotional fortitude to overcomeall qualities befitting of a good presidentChait sees that struggle as a liability.

Politicians of both parties have built entire political campaigns on the fetishization of victimhood, and the general publicbacked by Chait-like columnists across the political spectrumhas applauded them. These victims arent women or people of color, though. They are the working classa phrase that usually means white, U.S.-born men. When politicians invoke the working class, they explain that working-class people are victimized by predatory banks, by overprescribed opioids, by overregulated corporations, by poisoned air and water, by an influx of immigrants, by rising health care costs, by organized labor or the lack thereof. At every years State of the Union, alongside heroes and superachievers, working-class people attend at the invite of the president, serving as conveniently located rhetorical devices: the sympathetic victim in the audience, nodding along.

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But presidents and those whod like to be presidents dont stop at praising these working-class victimsthey claim to be them. CNN has a great roundup of the humble backgrounds claimed by the 2016 presidential candidates. Bernie Sanders: My father worked for almost his entire life as a paint salesman and we were solidly lower middle class. As a kid I learned, in many, many ways, what lack of money means to a family. Thats a lesson I have never forgotten. Ted Cruz, on working two jobs and taking out more than $100,000 in student loans: Loans, I suspect a lot of yall can relate to. Loans that I will point out I just paid off a few years ago. John Kasich, to Whirlpool employees: My father carried mail on his back for 29 years. Growing up the way I did, Im really one of you. I understand what it all means. I understand the struggles. No one accused him of playing the son-of-a-mail-carrier card.

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These statements serve a dual purpose: to convince working-class voters that politicians understand their struggles, and to position the candidates as people who overcame obstacles to achieve success. What Chait fails to realize is that for female politicians, a public airing of their experiences with sexism can also prove that they have triumphed over obstacles to their success. If the son of a paint salesman has to work twice as hard as the son of a real estate tycoon to land that first big job, a woman has to work twice as hard as a man to be heard and taken seriously in the Senate.

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Rather than see sexism as a legitimate barrier that takes disproportionate grit, thick skin, social diplomacy, and emotional fortitude to overcomeall qualities befitting of a good presidentChait sees that struggle as a liability. To the extent that Gillibrand and Harris actually talk about getting interrupted and sexually harassed on the job, its not to complain or seek pity. Its to point out that they didnt float to the top on the winds of some inborn privilege, but fought their way there in the face of social and economic forces that would have beat back a less-determined candidate. Female voters, who make up more than half of the electorate, are more likely to relate to this struggle than if Gillibrand or Harris had insisted that theyd never been treated differently because of their gender.

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The art on Chaits column includes photos of Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Tammy Duckworth, neither of whom he mentions in the piece. Its a shame, because Warren, in particular, offers an example for how sexism can be recast to a candidates benefit. Warren was the recipient of some famously infantilizing remarks from Mitch McConnell in February of 2017, when he interrupted her midsentence during a debate over Jeff Sessions nomination to invoke a rule preventing senators from ascribing unbecoming conduct to one another. She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted, McConnell said. Warren now sells merchandise emblazoned with that last sentence, and the DNC has used it on fundraising mailers.

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The idea that a candidate is fighting back has always been a powerful motivator. The RNC fundraises with claims that Donald Trump is the victim of a lying mainstream media, and Trump sells shirts that proudly reclaim the word deplorable, an insult Hillary Clinton launched at Trump supporters. Trump has styled himself a victim at every turn, and while its neither a great look nor particularly honest, it sure didnt cost him the election. Warren, at least, has emphasized one positive characteristic underlying her victimhood at the hands of a man: persistence. Its there in the stories of Gillibrand and Harris too. Men just have to be willing to see it.
Two weeks ago, the Illinois Senate voted to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. If it passes in the state House of Representatives, Illinois would become the 37th state to approve the ERA, just one short of the 38 needed to pass the constitutional amendment. Given that the deadline Congress established to push it through expired in 1982, and some states have since rescinded ratification, its unclear what would happen if it crossed the 38-state threshold. Regardless, it would be a mistake to see the ERA as a relic of a time thats long since passed. In this era of #MeToo and nondisclosure agreements, it seems like a refreshingly modern document. Last week, the New York Times editorial board called for the ratification of the ERA as a fitting rebuke to the Trump presidency.

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I recently spoke with Jen Deaderick, who is writing a history of the ERA and runs the Equal Rights Amendment page on Facebook. During the course of our conversation, which has been edited and condensed for clarity, we discussed why this is the perfect political moment for women organizers and candidates to mobilize around passage of the ERA.

Dahlia Lithwick: I know this is absurd because everyone should know this, but could you sketch out a brief history of the ERA and explain how it failed to pass in the United States?

Jen Deaderick: Passing a constitutional amendment is super complicated, on purpose, so it makes sense that people dont know all the details. Youd be surprised how many people who were adults in the 1970s think it actually made it into the Constitution because they remember all the hoopla about it. But, no, it did not.



The ERA was first officially introduced in 1923. It was written by Alice Paul, who had been a major force in the last stretch of getting the 19th Amendment ratified, which is the one that removed sex as a barrier to voting. That had been a goal since, well, at least 1776. Paul hoped that in the giddy wake of ratification, with all these new female voters, she could remove sex as a barrier completely when it came to citizenship. The ERA called for full equality: Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

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Unfortunately, the United States had had enough change, and the proposed amendment was mostly mothballed, though a male politician would occasionally nod to it as an appeal to female voters.

This nodding even extended to the Republican Party putting the ERA ratification in its party platform in 1940 and the Democrats doing the same in 1944, though neither party took much action on it. The GOP took it out of their platform in 1980, for reasons I will explain in a moment. The Democrats have had it in their platform this whole timemostly. They actually removed it from their platform in 2004 when Kerry was running against Bush then put it back in 2008, in part to please disappointed Hillary Clinton supporters.

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There was a glorious time when basically everyone thought the ERA was the coolest thing in the world: the early 70s. It actually passed the House and Senate by big majorities and was signed by the noted feminist radical President Nixon. A bunch of states jockeyed to be the first to ratify, with Hawaii being the lucky one. Then the states seemed to be falling like dominos, with one ratifying after another.

Then, a rather fierce opposition rose up among right-wing evangelicals. The primary figurehead of the opposition was Phyllis Schlafly, but she had a significant organization behind her. Schlafly toured the country telling women they should be staying home and wouldnt be allowed to if the ERA was ratified. She warned everyone about shared bathrooms and homosexual marriage and women being drafted and managed to convince enough people that she was right that the ERA began to stall.

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It was the only amendment that had ever been given a deadline for ratification, which didnt seem like it would be an obstacle when it first passed in the House and Senate, but then even with an extension it fell short by three states by the time the deadline rolled around in 1982. Thats where its been since then.

You founded the Facebook page devoted to re-energizing the discussion in 2008. What was happening then that moved you to mobilize?

It was a combination of watching the incredibly sexist reactions to Hillary Clintons candidacy in that years primary and the Supreme Courts ruling in the Lilly Ledbetter case. My mom had been very active with the League of Women Voters in the early 70s, and had been very focused on their work to pass the ERA, and those memories floated to the surface in my brain. I realized I had no idea what had become of the ERA. I did a little research, and it was pretty depressing. I had already done some other Facebook pages, and found them pretty effective at gathering communities, so when I saw there wasnt one for the ERA already, I started one up. It was super tiny at first, but now there are more than 56,000 members, which is kind of nutty.

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As a legal proposition, the ERA is treated like some dusty historical artifact, a relic of some sepia-toned photos from the 70s. Why havent we been talking about the ERA as a meaningful constitutional remedy for the ongoing and systemic disparities that women still experience every day?

There has been some action. The ERA has been reintroduced in the House and Senate basically every year since the deadline passed, and there have been bills to overturn the deadline occasionally, too. A bill to allow for ratification after three more states ratified was introduced just a couple of years after I started the page. Theres also the film Equal Means Equal, and Jessica Neuwirth published her book on the ERA and started the ERA Coalition.

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It still did seem like everyone was just spinning their wheels for a while. But then the Womens March happened last year, and in its wake Nevada suddenly ratified the ERA. So, we went from needing three more states to ratify to only needing two. In recent months theres been a lot of activity in Virginia and some in North Carolina, Florida, and Arizona. Even more exciting, the Illinois Senate just passed the ERA, which now leaves it to the Illinois House.

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When I first saw all the activity happening in Illinois, I reached out to some of the groups that were working on it. Incredibly, a lot of them didnt know about each other, so I introduced some of the players and then amplified their calls to action on the page. Sometimes, I would spend a few bucks on promoted ads targeted at women in Illinois.

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Still, it was amazing when it actually passed in the state Senate. Illinois is kind of symbolic because it was the loss there that officially put the amendment in mothballs in the 80s. In the lead-up to the vote in 1982, women chained themselves to a doorway in the statehouse and went on hunger strikes. It was a big deal.

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The Illinois House is scheduled to vote on the ERA in November, but local activists tell me theres an effort to push the vote to next month while theres momentum.

So, what happens if the Illinois House votes to ratify?

That would just leave one more state to hit the minimum. Then the fun would start. There have been bills introduced at the national level over the years to overturn the 1982 deadline, or at least retroactively extend it. One of those would have to pass the House and Senate, and then be signed or pass by enough to override a veto. Obviously, this would be more likely to happen if the Democrats took the majority in the midterms.

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There are also a few states that have rescinded their ratification. Those would have to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, because sometimes it was done by a governor, and sometimes by the legislature itself. Its also unclear if states are even allowed to rescind ratification in the first placethats something the courts would have to decide.

So, yeah, theres a lot of work still to be done, though all of it could happen quickly if the midterms go the way I hope. The question is whether its worth it.

In the 70s, the ERA was part of the second-wave agenda. Womens advocacy groups like NOW pushed through all sorts of laws and won lots of court cases that helped even the playing field for women. Theres also been a tremendous cultural change, so it can be hard to imagine going backwards. But the thing about laws and judicial rulings is that they can be repealed and overturned. Enshrining equality for the sexes in the Constitution wouldnt immediately solve every issue, and might not even make all that much difference initially in our laws and courts, but it would provide an important bulwark against backward movement. We cant count on Ruth Bader Ginsburg living forever.
It might sound strange to say that when I was a child in Kabul, Afghanistan, I was lucky. There was a war, there were armed militias stopping families and raping women. There were rockets and blackouts. In the end, though, my family was able to get out before it was too late. We came to the U.S. and were granted asylum. We settled in California, and 10 years later my parents earned their U.S. citizenship.

Ultimately, I was lucky, and Im grateful. But I cant help but compare my story to the stories of thousands of refugee children on whom we have turned our back as a nation. Children are being gassed in Syria, drowning in the Mediterranean, and being pulled out of the rubble while our president is on the record demonizing them as security threats.

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The United States has resettled 44 Syrian refugees since October and just 11 since the start of this calendar year. During the same 3 month period in 2016, that number was 790.

Against this troubling backdrop, it is chilling to confront the reality that the highest court in our nation, the gatekeeper of justice and equal treatment before the law, may move to uphold a ban based on religious animus in a country that claims to aspire to uphold religious liberty.

The shamefully low refugee intake numbers over the past year demonstrate that refugees are already suffering the devastating effects of Trumps xenophobia and anti-Muslim prejudice. I work for one of the nine refugee-resettlement agencies in the U.S.Church World Serviceand I have witnessed this firsthand.

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I think of a client who spent most of his lifemore than two decadesin a refugee camp in Kenya. After being registered with UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, he was cleared to come to the United States. His caseworkers advised him that he should go to the U.S. without his wife because revising her application to reflect their newlywed status would mean having to start over for both of them. Shortly after he left, his wife told him she was pregnant. Nearly a year later, she and their son were cleared to join him. But the White House blocked their entry. My clients son is now 2 years old, and he has never seen his father except through FaceTime. How this toddler might be a national security threat to the United States has never been explained.

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For the average citizen, its very difficult to envision the real human suffering that attaches itself to our disgraceful refugee policy. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the Muslim travel ban. Our leaders have been closing the countrys doors on the international community since Trump took office, and if our highest court upholds the Muslim ban, those doors will slam shut.

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It is hard to look at that stomach-turning discrepancy and not see transparent prejudice.

The travel ban has barred U.S. entry for foreigners, immigrants, and refugees from Muslim-majority countries for months now, with the devastating drop in refugee entry as perhaps the most startling example of this. The U.S. is now on track to resettle less than half of the 45,000 ceiling Trump promised this fiscal year. This is 63,000 fewer people than the almost 85,000 that were resettled in the final year of Obamas presidency.

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According to the Niskanen Center, of the already low number of refugee resettlements, Trumps State Department is resettling European refugees at more than four times the rate as refugees from Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean; more than twice the rate as refugees from East Asia; and more than five times the rate as refugees from the Near East/South Asia. It is hard to look at that stomach-turning discrepancy and not see transparent prejudice.

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Not only is our nation turning its back on refugees, but the current administration is selectively closing our borders to refugees of primarily African and Middle Eastern majority-Muslim nations. The only plausible explanation is racial and religious discrimination: If those numbers arent definitive proof of this administrations xenophobic agenda, I dont know what is.

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Ultimately, its important to remember that Trumps discrimination has always been overt. During his campaign he shared lies about the American Muslim community in New Jersey, and called for a total and complete shutdown of Muslim immigration to this country. Upon taking the presidency, he shared anti-Muslim tweets from an avowed hate group in the U.K.

While a ruling against the Muslim ban wouldnt magically increase our refugee intake numbers, it would allow already vetted refugees and immigrants their right to entry. It would unite separated families. It would underscore our constitutional commitments to freedom of opportunity no matter someones religion, race, or ethnicity.

As a nation, were now faced with a moral choice. As Americans, we can tell our Muslim, refugee, and immigrant neighbors that they belong, and affirm our belief in freedom of religion and equality of opportunity. Or we can turn them away and reject the very promise of our own Constitution. The Supreme Court has a checkered history on these issues, but it must stand on the right side of historyor be rightfully remembered for this moment in lasting shame.
The alt-right in this country has been reeling since August, when the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, erupted in violence that ended with the death of one young counterprotester. Since then, nearly every week brings another obituary for the reactionary wave that carried Richard Spencer and Milo Yiannopoulos to national prominence. But the ideologically adjacent infrastructure of new voices on the cultural right is still thriving and growing. Jordan Peterson, a Canadian psychologist and a glorified motivational speaker given to babbling about dragons of chaos and tangents about how wearing makeup is an invitation to be sexually pestered, is one of the years biggest publishing successes and is currently on a cross-country lecture tour that will put him in venues that more typically host major rock acts. But the Peterson juggernaut may soon have megawatt competition. Over the weekend, Kanye West wrote a series of elliptical tweets on his current mindset.

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all you have to be is yourself  ye (@kanyewest) April 20, 2018

everything is so planned these days. People appreciate spontaneity and honesty.  ye (@kanyewest) April 20, 2018

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strive for universal consciousness not segregated consciousness  ye (@kanyewest) April 20, 2018

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West later tweeted that he is a fan of Turning Point USAs Candace Owens, who made a protested appearance at UCLA on Friday, and offered some evidence that he agrees with her commentary.

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I love the way Candace Owens thinks  ye (@kanyewest) April 21, 2018

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Constantly bringing up the past keeps you stuck there  ye (@kanyewest) April 22, 2018

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there was a time when slavery was the trend and apparently that time is still upon us. But now it's a mentality.  ye (@kanyewest) April 22, 2018

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self victimization is a disease  ye (@kanyewest) April 22, 2018

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Turning Point USA is a conservative youth group dedicated to fighting back against the purportedly perpetual crisis of liberal indoctrination and political correctness on American college campuses. It is perhaps best known for a protest of safe spaces conceived by their chapter at Kent State, in which one memberin a diaper and sucking on a pacifierromped around campus to make a point that probably seemed clearer on paper. The diaper was presumably high-endthe group takes in many millions in donations. Much of that funding has recently gone toward helping conservative students win campus elections.

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Candace Owens is one of the groups leading activists and speakers. Most of her material is shopworn conservative rhetoric on black Americans: Black people with concerns about how racism past and present shapes their realitiesthe kind of black people who might have been troubled by TPUSAs national field director texting to a colleague I HATE BLACK PEOPLE  fuck them allare backward. Black people who dismiss and ignore racismthose who argue that racism in America is largely over, anywayare, by contrast, real go-getters. There is an ideological civil war happening, she said at the UCLA event. Black people that are focused on their past and shouting about slavery, and black people that are focused on their futures, OK? Thats really what it comes down to.

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The episode is yet another example of how far we are through the looking glass: A man who criticized the thensitting president by saying he doesnt care about black people on national television in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is, in the topsy-turvy world of 2018, a cheerleader for a pundit who thinks black people ought to quit whining. This has been distressing to many of his fans. It has thrilled all the wrong people. It is hard to put into words how significant and powerful this endorsement from Kanye is!! a weekend email from TPUSA read. When pop icons like Kayne start to compliment leaders like Candace, you know there is a sea change happening in America. Please consider a tax deductible gift today to help us WIN THE FIGHT!!!

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TPUSA head Charlie Kirk took the gushing to social media.

Today @kanyewest had some incredible words to say about the amazing @RealCandaceO pic.twitter.com/5Ys6BaZkts  Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) April 21, 2018

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And this is why I call @RealCandaceO the chosen one https://t.co/70wPdrfnXS  Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) April 21, 2018

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West has also been applauded by Infowars Paul Joseph Watson and Alex Jones himself. Hes gotten kind words too from Pizzagate conspiracy theorist and Gorilla Mindset author Mike Cernovich, who actually began tweeting praise for a tangent about breaking free of a simulation well before West mentioned Owens.

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Kanye on the Simulation, told you, people are waking up, Energy is changing. https://t.co/B8mF1NAImq  Mike Cernovich  (@Cernovich) April 18, 2018

On Monday, West, presumably beaming, tweeted clips of a laudatory Periscope broadcast about him from Dilbert creator Scott Adams, who generally busies himself these days with mens rights activism and attempts to hypnotize readers of his blog to orgasm. It feels like theres something big happening, he said. And I think a framework to see this big happening stuff is that people are breaking out of what I call their mental prisons.

The business of helping right-curious folks break out of their mental prisons is booming. Hacks and quacks have long been central to right-wing politics, as the historian Rick Perlstein documented in his 2012 piece for the Baffler, The Long Con. But the cast of grifters peddling everything from vitality supplements to idiot mysticism is expanding. However dubious the political fortunes of the new far right might be, it clearly has legs as a subcultureone sizable enough, now, to have captured the attention of one of the most important figures in superstardom.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will, at long last, hear arguments on the legality of President Donald Trumps travel ban. In its current iteration, the executive order prohibits almost 150 million people, almost all of them Muslim, from entering the United States on the basis of their nationalities. Opponents of the ban argue it exceeds the presidents authority under immigration law and violates the Constitutions bar on religious discrimination. Lower courts have repeatedly blocked the order and its predecessors, though the Supreme Court has indicated it may well uphold the current version in its entirety. No matter how the justices rule, their decision in Trump v. Hawaii will have sweeping consequences for presidential power, judicial review, and constitutional equality.

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This weeks showdown at the Supreme Court has been inevitable since the president issued his first travel ban on Jan. 27, 2017, a week after he took office. That executive order suspended refugee resettlement and temporarily prohibited citizens of seven Muslim-majority countriesIran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemenfrom entering the United States. The hastily crafted, poorly drafted order took effect immediately, and federal agents promptly canceled tens of thousands of visas and even took aim at green card holders, though the administration later attempted to exempt them.

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The ban spawned chaos across the country and the world. Customs and Border Protection agents detained, deported, and abused immigrants at airports, many of whom were midflight to the U.S. when the ban came down. Multiple federal courts swiftly began freezing parts of the ban, though a report issued by the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security later found that CBP agents violated court orders in their zeal to enforce it.

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On Feb. 3, 2017, a federal judge blocked the whole order, and an appeals court affirmed its decision. The administration then issued a new, very similar travel ban, which the lower courts froze before it could take effect. In June, the Supreme Court allowed the government to implement this order but exempted individuals who had a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the U.S.

In September, the government issued its third iteration of the ban, which permanently excluded citizens of Chad, Libya, Iran, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, and North Korea, as well as government officials from Venezuela. (Chad was included for an astoundingly silly reasonit ran out of passport paperand was dropped from the list in April.) Predictably, the lower courts froze this third ban. But in December, by a 72 vote, SCOTUS let the order fully take effect while its challengers fought against it in court. That means citizens from those countries cannot currently enter the U.S. unless they obtain waivers, which are essentially impossible to acquire. Even those with close personal ties to the U.S. cannot get in.

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Trumps various efforts to prevent millions of immigrants from entering the country have run afoul of the law in a multitude of ways. The January 2017 order was particularly troubling because it took effect without warning and seemed to ensnare lawful permanent residents. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals relied upon this flaw to block the policy, explaining that the lack of notice and a hearing for those affected infringed upon due process.

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Trumps subsequent travel ban remedied its predecessors most glaring due process defects, as the White House delayed its implementation to avoid a repeat of airport detentions and deportations. This time around, the bans opponents raised two key arguments. First, they argued that Trumps order exceeded his authority under the Immigration and Nationality Act. That law allows the president to exclude a class of aliens, but only after finding that their admission would be detrimental to the interests of the United States. It also declares that no person shall  be discriminated against in the issuance of an immigrant visa because of  nationality. The plaintiffs argued that Trump failed to find that citizens of the blacklisted countries would harm the U.S. and that his ban openly denies them visas on the basis of their nationality.

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Second, the plaintiffs claimed that the new travel ban ran afoul of the First Amendments Establishment Clause. The Supreme Court has held that the clearest command of this clause is that one religious denomination cannot be officially preferred over another, requiring government neutrality with regard to religion. Opponents of the ban argue that it impermissibly disfavors one religion, Islam. To support this claim, the plaintiffs cite Trumps promise throughout his presidential campaign to implement a Muslim ban. They also point to his comments in office, promulgated mostly through Twitter, disparaging Islam and complaining that the ban isnt discriminatory enough. These words and actions, they assert, taint the order with anti-Muslim animus.

Trump may have dressed up the latest ban in sufficient pretext to persuade at least Roberts and Kennedy that it complies with the law.

The second travel ban was litigated in two federal appeals courts: the 9th Circuit and the 4th Circuit. In May, the 4th Circuit blocked the ban on constitutional grounds, ruling that it drips with religious intolerance, animus, and discrimination. The next month, the 9th Circuit blocked the same ban on statutory grounds, holding that Trump had exceeded the scope of the authority delegated to him by Congress through the INA.

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In September, the administration issued its third stab at the order, and both federal appeals courts again weighed in. This time, the 4th Circuit froze it as an Establishment Clause violation, while the 9th Circuit struck it as a transgression of the INA. Now the Supreme Court will weigh in to decide whether the order, in its current form, passes legal muster. It will also consider whether district court judges injunctions, which proscribed the government from implementing the various bans anywhere, were too broad.

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While opponents of the travel ban have enjoyed a lengthy winning streak in the lower courts, the smart money has the Supreme Court upholding most or all of the current order.

There are several reasons to doubt that a majority of the justices are willing to invalidate Trumps policy. First, a head count yields bleak results for the plaintiffs. When the Supreme Court allowed the second ban to take effect only in part last June, three justices dissented: Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch. In his dissent, Thomas asserted that the governments compelling need to provide for the Nations security justified implementing the ban. Those three justices dissented again when the court swatted down the governments effort to narrow the scope of the bans exemptions.

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These two decisions suggested Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Anthony Kennedy had brokered a compromise with the liberal wing, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan. But this compromise appeared to fall apart after Trump issued his third travel ban. When the court let that order take effect, only Ginsburg and Sotomayor dissented. Whatever agreement the justices had reached over the second travel ban seemed to have collapsed.

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Theres a second reason to doubt a majority of the court will strike down Trumps order: His administration may have dressed it up in sufficient pretext to persuade at least Roberts and Kennedy that it complies with the law.

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As Elie Mystal has explained, the third ban presents itself as an evenhanded, carefully devised executive policy instead of a dashed-off memo that emerged from the fever swamps of Stephen Millers mind. Executive order No. 3 was purportedly reviewed by multiple federal agencies, which determined, in tandem with Trump, that the individuals affected may be detrimental to the interests of the United States. It adds Venezuela and North Koreawhich do not have Muslim majoritiesto the list of banned countries, even though neither addition has any practical effect. And it allegedly allows countries to get off the list by complying with U.S. standards. Those changes, combined with the ostensible deliberation process, may undermine the plaintiffs statutory and constitutional objections.

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Finally, there is a small but real chance that the Supreme Court could conclude that the travel ban isnt subject to meaningful judicial scrutiny. From the start, Trumps Department of Justice has argued that the courts have exceeded their authority by closely examining the bans purpose and effect. It claims the presidents broad constitutional authority in matters of national security precludes the judiciary from questioning, let alone invalidating, the executive branchs exclusion of certain immigrants. That argument might be too radical for Roberts and Kennedy, but its on the table, and the troika of far-right conservative justices may push for it.

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If the Supreme Court strikes down Travel Ban 3.0 on statutory grounds, the rulings immediate effect will be to bolster the separation of powers. After all, its Congress, not the president, that holds plenary power over immigration law; the president is only tasked with enforcing it. If SCOTUS reads the INA narrowly and finds it does not permit Trump to exclude 150 million immigrants on the basis of rather suspect classifications, it will enforce Congress authority to make policy in this field.

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On the other hand, if the Supreme Court rules that Travel Ban 3.0 violates the Establishment Clause, it will deliver a stinging rebuke to the president and his defenders. The justices cant reach this conclusion without finding that Trump tainted the policy with anti-Muslim animus. Never before has the court accused a sitting president of malign discriminatory intent. Such a ruling would dramatically strengthen the First Amendments guarantee of religious neutrality, preventing government officialsfrom the president on downfrom disfavoring religions under the pretense of impartial lawmaking.

And if the court upholds the ban? No matter its reasoning, its decision would be devastating for the millions of people, mostly Muslims, who are now indefinitely barred from entering the U.S. It would also indicate that a majority of the court is too credulous to see Trumps bigoted motivation for the ban, or too timid to acknowledge it. And it would empower Trump to continue revising immigration law via executive order without serious fear of judicial intervention. In short, a Supreme Court decision in favor of Trump would telegraph to the world that our highest court is unwilling to protect the constitutional command of religious equality when millions of Muslims have nowhere else to turn.
Facebook for the first time on Tuesday released the internal guidelines it uses to moderate content on the platform. The company also announced that it will begin allowing users to appeal content removal decisions.

Monika Bickert, Facebooks vice president of global policy management, explained the decision to publish the guidelines in a press release:

First, the guidelines will help people understand where we draw the line on nuanced issues. Second, providing these details makes it easier for everyone, including experts in different fields, to give us feedback so that we can improve the guidelinesand the decisions we makeover time.

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Over the course of 27 pages, the policy document covers a wide range of offensive content, including hate speech, nudity, and terrorist propaganda. The guidelines themselves are fairly nuanced and specific, with a litany of exceptions and examples accompanying each prohibition. In the section addressing graphic violence, the guidelines refer to images of cannibalism and visible internal organs as particular markers of objectionable content. In the section addressing the promotion of crime, the guidelines prohibiting animal abuse content come with a list of exceptions such as hunting, fishing, food preparation, and religious sacrifice.

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Some of the stipulations point to recent issues that Facebook and other platforms have had with misinformation and harassment in the wake of high-profile tragedies, such as the Parkland, Florida, shooting. The company clarifies in the section focusing on misinformation that Facebook wont remove false news but rather stymie its distribution and lower its ranking in the news feed. There are also guidelines that ban lying about being a victim of an event and generally harassing survivors.

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Users have long contested that Facebooks enforcement policies are inconsistent and opaque, and moderators have had to reverse controversial decisions to remove content because of public uproar. In 2016, thousands of users posted the famous photograph of a naked 9-year-old girl fleeing from napalm during the Vietnam War after Facebook initially took down a Norwegian authors post about it. Facebook soon restored the banned posts because of the photos historical significance. Shortly after the incident, the company took down a screenshot that Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King had posted of an email he received calling him the N-word. Facebook reversed that decision as well.

Scrutiny over content moderation has been magnified in recent months. When CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress in early April, multiple senators and House members questioned him about ads for opioids appearing on the platform, as well as content that may have incited racial violence in Myanmar. Republican lawmakers also grilled the CEO on allegations that moderators unfairly target conservative users of the site.

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In fact, the House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on Thursday on social media filtering and policing practices, which will in part examine how particular viewpoints may face censorship on digital platforms. Among the guests invited to testify are Diamond and Silk, pro-Trump pundits whose videos were labeled unsafe on Facebook. Zuckerberg told Congress that the enforcement action was a mistake, though the incident further convinced many conservatives that social media companies discriminate against right-leaning content.

Facebook for its part says that it will be holding a series of public events around the world to get direct feedback from people on how to improve its moderation practices. Countries involved in the initiative include Germany, France, the U.K., India, Singapore, and the U.S.
On Oct. 22, 2012, three days before she slaughtered two of the three children she cared for as a nanny, Yoselyn Ortega visited a psychologist, Dr. Thomas A. Caffrey, on New York Citys Upper West Side. He was the kind of guy youd hope a person on the verge of committing murder would go to see: He had a doctorate in clinical psychology, more than 40 years of clinical experience, and a specialty in forensic psychologythe psychology of criminals. Hed worked for years within the prison system and was a former president of the New York State Psychological Associations forensic division.

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According to the testimony Caffrey gave in the trial that found Ortega guilty of murder just last week, after the perhaps 40-minute session (length remains controversial), he wrote down Prognosis: good. (His notes went into evidence.) He did not record having a follow-up appointment, although he says he expected one. He charged her $200 for the visit.

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We now know that Ortegas prognosis was anything but good. Eighty hours later, she would fatally stab 6-year-old Lucia Krim and 2-year-old Leo Krim before attempting suicide in the bathroom of the familys apartment. Hindsight makes perfectly clear that this woman, who reached out for professional help, was descending into a suicidal and homicidal state, probably in need of hospitalization. The jury may have found her legally saneshe likely did not suffer psychosis or dissociation during the crime and was conscious of what she was doingbut her prognosis when she left Caffreys office could not have been worse.

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Just as we would consider someone seeing a pulmonologist, getting an all-clear, and then dying three days later of lung cancer a medical failure, we are obligated to explore how the system failed this patient so that we may prevent identical mistakes. It is even more important to look at how we triage mental health care in this age of monthly mass shootings, particularly when basic treatments may easily change these outcomes. So how was this clinician unable to see how serious Ortegas case was, and how was he not able to help her in any way that would have prevented the tragedy that was about to occur?

Just as we would consider someone seeing a pulmonologist, getting an all-clear, and then dying three days later of lung cancer a medical failure, we are obligated to explore how the system failed this patient.

Theres not much point in sandbagging this therapist and painting him as a villainpresumably he wishes he would have conducted the session differently, and surely in the past he has guided clients to wellness. (Caffrey did not want to breach the confidentiality of the client and refrained from commenting for this article.) But it is useful to place this episode in the larger context of the problems with mental health care. Too often we assert that mental health cases are fundamentally more abstract than physical diseasetrickier to assess or diagnose, fundamentally outside of the medical framework. But we now know Ortega would be a danger to others and to herself, and as far as symptoms go, thats standard stuff when it comes to mental health assessment. So what happened, and what can we learn from it?

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Ortega was pointed to the psychologist by her health insurance company, possibly via their website. When she called, he said he could not see her because his schedule was full that day, but she repeatedly insisted she needed to see him immediately, so he fit her in at his lunch hour. She arrived well before the appointed time and simply remained outside his office, waiting, with a friend who had accompanied her. He saw her at 12:20 p.m. His next appointment was at 1:30 p.m. He had seven patients scheduled after her.

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She complained of a racing heart and anxiety. The therapist noticed her obvious anxiety and observed her speaking fast and having pressured speech. He said she seemed to have the world on her shoulders. She spoke mostly about her son, who had been separated from her since he was 4, when she sent him to live with a sister in the Dominican Republic, and then reunited with her recently, when he moved back to the United States. He was doing well in school in New York City, but she had to move back into an apartment with her family, and they were now in a crowded situation. She was under extreme financial stress. She felt like she had let her son down, now and for most of his life.

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By the end of the session, Caffrey diagnosed her with generalized anxiety disorder, for insurance purposes, and dysthymic disorder, which is a mild but pervasive and chronic depression, in his own records. He recorded her anxieties about money* and her feelings of guilt around not having done as well as she could have for her son.

At trial, defense lawyer Valerie Van Leer-Greenberg* went after the psychologist in typical courtroom-drama fashion, raising her voice with a tone of astonishment during pointed questioning.

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In fact, you never asked Ms. Ortega, Did you ever hear any voices? 

He replied with a simple, No.

Never asked her medical history?

No.

Did you ever ask Ms. Ortega how long shed been feeling sad?

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No.

Did you ask about her family history?

No.

Ask about her sleep?

No.

Her appetite?

No.

Onset, persistence, duration of symptoms. You never ascertained how long?

I didnt specifically ask about it.

You did not ask about her hurting herself?

Not that I recall.

Hurting others?

No.

You never once asked her what she does every day, did you?

It seems that instead, the psychologist had let Ms. Ortega lead the session with thoughts at the forefront of her mind.

For Caffrey, this seemed by design. As he said on the stand, Im not looking for symptoms. Im looking for understanding.

And yet, according to the defense team in his notes for the medical insurance company, he did list at least 10 presenting symptoms, a seemingly thorough assessment. He was required to list these symptoms, because the insurance company assumes his job is to assess for themits the most basic requirement of professionals in our health care system.* When staring down the difference between what Caffrey actually did and what he said he did so he could bill for the appointment via medical insurance, we see a conflict that may represent a global problem with our already rickety-as-hell mental health system. Its still a wild west of rules and protocols, much of it disconnected from the mainstream health care system in which it is embedded. Mental health care is still inchoate in its process, protocol, and triage.

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Imagine if Ortega had, instead of going to a psychotherapist, gone to any medical doctor for any reason at all: achy feet, skin rash, pounding heart. As soon as she would have walked in, she would have been handed a clipboard and asked to fill out an intake form. Before setting foot in the office, she would have been required to describe her current symptoms (as she saw them), her medical history, her current medications, and perhaps much more: recreational alcohol and drug use, occupation, and a request to tick off boxes next to a long list of symptoms and ailments.

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While psychiatric symptoms can be especially difficult for the typical patient to discern, a psychiatric intake form, with its questions designed for mental health issues, would have forced her to consider objectively her sleep issues, appetite issues, level of sadness and anxiety, delusions and hallucinations, and feelings of self-harm. Some intake forms have a suicide-assessment checklist and even ask about access to guns. There had been a suicide in her family, and this would be an important indication of the possibility of suicidal depression. Her intake form would have then provided a guide for the appointment.

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And the point of the intake form and initial consultation would be, as in any medical profession, deducing symptoms. What are they, how severe are they, what may be causing them, and is there anything we can do relieve them, both immediately and in the long term? But the field of mental health is still not wholly placed within the field of medicine, and that means patients are not treated as systematically as is required in medical practice.

The idea that this therapist didnt look for symptoms means, OK, Im not in the mental illness business, Im in the dealing-with-peoples-personalities-and-relationships business,  says Jeffrey Lieberman, chairman of psychiatry at Columbia University.

For anything beyond routine life stressors, an initial mental health evaluation should be medical, performed by a psychiatric specialist.

This is not to say that the psychologists who are interested in dealing with peoples personalities and relationships are not doing valid work, just that patients who are seeking treatment for mental health issues deserve to be assessed in a standardized manner that helps them access the right level of care for the problems they are facing before they begin treatment. Currently, people are expected to make the right choice of what kind of mental health care professional they need when they first make contact with the system. Its a Chinese menu of treatment options even when we are at our most clear-headed, never mind when we are in urgent need of help. And mental health care is almost entirely made up of varieties of psychotherapists, which could refer to anything from a barely trained New Age spiritualist who sets up practice in her living room to a person with the many degrees and decades of experience as Dr. Caffrey. What they both have in common is that there is no real health protocol in their duties, as there is in the field of medicine.

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It is a grave mistake to think of mental health care issues or, better put, psychiatric issues as outside of the field of medicine. Mental health issues often stem from environmental stress, but they manifest as very real physiological conditions, including imbalances of nervous-system chemicals and missed neurological connections that result in feelings of extreme and uncontrollable depression, or manifestations of nervous-system overload, like panic attacks.

The panoply of nonmedical psychotherapists are essential to mental health care. Indeed, the good ones, who follow evidence-based treatment protocols, are the heart and soul of the profession. Most psychotherapists are caregivers with the best of intentions, and for most people, upon consultation and with regular visits, symptoms are relieved and the client is set on a path for a more fulfilling life. But these psychotherapists should not be tasked with catching patients like Ortega who could be a harm to themselves or others. The point is that, for anything beyond routine life stressors, an initial mental health evaluation should be medical, performed by a psychiatric specialist.

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A psychiatrist is trained more extensively, has a broader scope of knowledge with which to define potential diagnoses, and can deliver treatment more expeditiously, says Lieberman. They can then refer them to psychotherapy, group or family therapy, or anyone else. Theres no question the place to start is with a psychiatrist, however, the practice pattern is not in place.

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Not only is the pattern not in place, there are, in fact, enormous hurdles between the average person and a visit to a psychiatrists office. They are the highest proportion of medical care practitioners who do not accept insurance, and they often charge hundreds for a single appointment. There is also a shortage of psychiatrists in practice. Although there are estimates that 1 in 5 people have a mental health condition, a 2017 study found that not a single psychiatrist could be found in 60 percent of U.S. counties.

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This is all to say that transforming the mental health care system to center around psychiatrist-conducted intakes is by no means a simple fix. It would take an extraordinary overhaul, and in the United States, these problems are part of the larger frustrations of our entire health care systemit still costs too much, resources are still short in supply, and service to low-income communities remains uneven.

But as we continue to discuss how failure to access proper mental health care may have contributed to mass public violence, we must also consider how those who do make contact with the system can be failed by it, and we must examine those failures to improve the system. If mental health care were better understood by the public, and if access to psychiatrists as first point of contact were a standard, the most serious cases would have a much better chance of ending in treatment, not tragedy.

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If Yoselyn Ortega had been handed a simple intake form and asked the right questions by a doctor looking for common, clear-cut symptoms, such as suicidal ideation, she may have been hospitalized on the spot. If she was less than forthcoming about her suicidal (much less homicidal) feelings, she may have at least been given medication for her debilitating anxiety, medicines that could have diffused the fury building in her mind. Its impossible to say how that would have changed what ended up happening, but it is essential that we reconsider how the system worked, and how it didnt work. Its the best chance we have of improving it for the next patient who ends up searching through an insurance companys protracted list of mental health professionals, in need of psychiatric help.

*Correction, April 24, 2018: This post originally misspelled Valerie Van Leer-Greenbergs first name.
Facebook may not be able to ride out its bad news cycle scot-free after all. On Tuesday, Sens. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, and John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana, released a sweeping new bill that, if passed, would impose strong new regulations on companies like Facebook and Google that collect data on users.

The Social Media Privacy Protection and Consumer Rights Act of 2018 (you can read the whole thing here) would require that websites provide users a copy of the data thats being collected on them, free of charge, as well as a list of who has had access to their data, either through a sale or simply by it being made available. The new bill also proposes that companies disclose how personal data collected about users is leveragedfor example, through targeted advertisingand how employees of the company have access to it. And if a website does mishandle users personal data, the internet company would be required to alert users within 72 hoursa far tinier window than what happened after Facebook learned user data bad been improperly obtained by the voter analytics firm Cambridge Analytica. When Facebook learned in 2015 that tens of millions of its users had their data harvested by app developers who later transferred that data to Cambridge Analytica for use in voter targeting on Sen. Ted Cruzs presidential campaign, the company decided not to alert users about what happened until more than two years later, when the Guardian and the New York Times reported on the incident and reportedly learned that the firm had not deleted the data even though it had previously said it did.

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The proposed legislation comes two weeks after the House and Senate grilled Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in two hearings on how the company treats the personal data of the Americans who trust it. Republicans and Democrats were unhappy with the CEO, who spent the hearings promising to clean up his companys act. But Facebook has made promises about respecting user privacy beforea troubled history that gives lawmakers good reason to push for regulation now.

Until 2014, Facebook allowed developers to extract data not only from people who downloaded their apps but from all their friends, tooa practice that Cambridge Analyticas partners were far from alone in pursuing. And it wasnt until last month that Facebook admitted that it believes that most users have had their public profile information harvested by third parties via a Facebook feature that allowed users to search for other users via someones phone number or email address, which Facebook says has been abused by malicious hackers that would scour Facebook using lists of emails and phone numbers they already had.

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Facebook already has a tool that lets users download some of the data that the company collects on them, like photos and videos uploaded, facial recognition data, and history of searchesit even includes what advertising categories Facebook has put you in. Still, the current download doesnt include your browsing data or what information about you an advertiser may have uploaded months ago, as Wired points out. The new proposal would require companies like Facebook to hand over a copy of the personal data it processes on peopleFacebook wouldnt get to pick and choose which bits it wants to share.

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Theres currently no comprehensive digital privacy law in the United States, unlike in Europe, where a new sweeping suite of online privacy rules is slated to go into effect at the end of May. Companies arent currently required by federal law to alert users if their data had been stolen or improperly removed from a platform, nor are they required to share what information they collect on people or how its used.

The momentum in Congress to do something to rein in the sprawling online data collection industry appears to have some support on both sides of the aisle, though its yet unclear how deep it goes on either side. The next move belongs to constituents, activists, and advocates.
OLAF began investigating the alleged abuse of EU funds in Slovakia

European Anti-fraud Office will look into fraud involving EU funds for Slovak agriculture first revealed by murdered Slovak journalist Jan Kuciak

The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) announced on April 19 that it has launched the investigation on the alleged abuse of European Union funds in Slovakia, first discovered by Slovak journalist Jan Kuciak, the TASR newswire wrote, citing the Politico weekly website.

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Read also: Prosecutor orders NAKA to launch investigation into farm subsidy fraud Read more

In mid-February, Kuciak was murdered along with his fiancee Martina Kusnirova.

In his last stories  published after his death  he wrote about the alleged connections between the Italian mafia, Slovak politicians and subsidies involving the drawing of EU agricultural subsidies in Slovakia.

Wrongdoing unveiled by murdered journalist

We can confirm that after a preliminary scrutinising of the available information, OLAF has now started the administrative investigation of possible abuse of EU funds in Slovak agriculture, OLAF wrote in a press statement, cited by TASR. The investigation is connected to issues that recently surfaced thanks to the work of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak, the office added through its spokesman.

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Read also: Slovakia investigated for alleged EU funds abuse Read more

OLAF decided to launch the investigation after it arrived at sufficient suspicion of law violations during a preliminary study".

Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini (Smer) is not concerned about OLAF launching this investigation, he told TASR on April 20. Pellegrini maintains that the Anti-Fraud Office takes action in every country as soon as it receives a complaint.

Read also:

Read also: Antonino Vadala charged with subsidy fraud Read more

24. Apr 2018 at 15:39 | Compiled by Spectator staff
Bahraini journalist: You cannot build a real public opinion without journalism

In 2011, Nazeeha Saeed was beaten and tortured by authorities for covering pro-democracy protests. Now, shes fighting back.

The year is 2011 and Bahrain is teaming with protestors. The opposition is fueling the fire ignited by citizens, international media have taken notice, and the Bahraini government, labelled as a constitutional monarchy but functioning in a much more oppressive manner, is clambering to regain control. The people of Bahrain, inspired by their neighbours in Tunisia and Egypt, are fighting for more freedom in a country where freedom is conditional and those who oppose these conditions are labelled as terrorists and vandals.

Nazeeha Saeed, a young journalist working for a French publication in Bahrain, is amazed by the burst of civic activity in her country.

All their fears were broken; they were free of their fear, recounts Saeed during a discussion on press freedom and human rights on April 20. The event, sponsored by literaryclub.sk, was part of Bratislavas festival Fjuzn, a multicultural festival that aims to build trust between natives and foreigners.

Advocacy work

Nazeeha Saeeds work is diverse. She holds discussions and writes about the importance of press freedom but also teaches international journalists how to protect themselves when they are questioned by authorities. She suggests, for example, that journalists working under oppressive governments write their lawyers name and number on their wrists so that when they are interrogated, they can quickly access legal help.

Bahrain currently ranks 164th out of 180 countries on the 2017 World Press Freedom index. Slovakia ranks 17th but that number is expected to drop following the murders of investigative reporter Jan Kuciak and his fiancee, Martina Kusnirova.

Saeed said she was saddened and angered to hear about the murders of Kuciak and Kusnirova.

Journalists should not be punished for doing their job. You cant build a real public opinion without journalism.

24. Apr 2018 at 9:32 | Anna Fay
Former Kalinak deputy to become interior minister

The ruling Smer chooses Denisa Sakova as the replacement for Tomas Drucker. Her name creates concern among transparency watchdogs.

Denisa Sakova will be the new interior minister.

The leadership of the ruling Smer party agreed on her name and Peter Pellegrini will propose her appointment to President Andrej Kiska. Sakova is an insider at the Interior Ministry, serving there as state secretary (deputy minister) since 2016, when Robert Kalinak chose her for the post and assigned her the agenda of public administration reform, ESO.

Sakova's name also came up among the potential candidates for the post in March, when Peter Pellegrini was first looking for ministers to take the vacant seats in his newly-formed cabinet. At that time, transparency watchdogs expressed concerns about the state secretary taking the top post at the ministry, calling her the right hand of the former minister, Robert Kalinak, who resigned following the murder of a journalist and his fiancee. During his career in the post, he has faced serious allegations of involvement in embezzlement schemes, most notably the Basternak scandal that surfaced shortly after he started his third term in the post in 2016.

"We demand that the new minister be more than just a jacket of Robert Kalinak," Zuzana Wienk of the Fair Play Alliance political fairness watchdog told the crowd at the March 16 protest gathering in Bratislava, clearly hinting at Sakova since "sako" is the word for jacket in Slovak.

Smer wanted an insider

The ruling Smer, on the other hand, made it clear that they wanted an insider to take up the interior minister post this time. The first minister whom PM Peter Pellegrini nominated and President Andrej Kiska appointed, Tomas Drucker, decided to resign after a mere 26 days in office on April 18.

"After the experiment with an external crisis manager that did not work out, I would prefer a person able to immediately manage the ministry from day one," Pellegrini told the April 23 press conference. At that point, he was still unwilling to comment on any names.

24. Apr 2018 at 13:44 | Michaela Terenzani
New lookout for plane spotters and photographers

The lookout at the Bratislava airport is accessible from the Vrakuna (borough of Bratislava) side.

More information about travelling in Slovakia

Please see our Please see our Spectacular Slovakia travel guide

Fans of aviation (plane spotters) and the wider public can watch landings and takeoffs at M.R. Stefanik Airport in Bratislava (BTS) from a new lookout. It was ceremonially opened on April 20 by airport representatives and enthusiasts.

The airport lookout lies behind the fencing, close to runway 31, accessible to people from Vrakuna, a borough of Bratislava, the TASR newswire wrote.

We have availed a space we had prepared for public, for people who enjoy photographing airplanes, families with children  simply for anyone who will walk past the airport runways, BTS spokesperson Veronika Sevcikova said, as quoted by TASR.

The lookout with stairs and a bench is 1.5 metres tall and constructed so that an adult can take photographs of planes over the airport fencing.

It will be open non-stop, 24 hours a day, Sevcikova added.

Necessary licences

It was mainly fans of airplane photographing, so-called plane spotters, who for a long time sought the building of such a lookout.

We have been discussing this project with the airport for several years, Juraj Ondrus of the Airliners.sk civic association uniting aviation enthusiasts told TASR.

Constructing such a lookout is not technically demanding, according to him, but it is rather complicated because many licences and permissions are necessary for it to be operated.

Now we do have everything we really wanted, Ondrus described, as cited by the newswire. I am very happy for the entire spotters community and aviation fans that it has been arranged.

video //www.youtube.com/embed/sRmQLJAwOYA

The planes to be watched include the Boeing 737-800 (189 passengers  Ryanair, Pobeda, Smartwings, flydubai  174 passengers) as well as the Airbus A320 (Wizz Air, Air Cairo), Airbus A321 and ATR 42 (Czech airlines), and Embraer E90 (Georgian Airways), the Bratislava airport wrote.

The map can be found at the www.bts.aero website, BTS informed.

24. Apr 2018 at 13:50 | Compiled by Spectator staff
Measles still a threat for Slovakia

Due to decreasing levels of vaccination, the outbreak of measles may be threatening the country. Two new cases of measles in Slovaks working in Austria have been reported recently.

Two Slovaks working in Austria are suffering from measles: a 40-year-old woman and 46-year-old man, both from the Bratislava Region and working in Austria.

The data of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control suggest that a total of 29 cases of measles were reported in Austria between the beginning of this year and April 6, of which 14 were in Vienna, Slovak media wrote on April 24.

Slovakia still has not got rid of the threat of measles epidemic that killed dozens of people only in Romania last year, the Sme daily wrote. Public health officials reported two newly infected people from Slovakia and they warn against the outbreak of small epidemics with mainly small children being threatened.

Problems with vaccination

Collective immunity has disappeared due to a low vaccination rate, the daily wrote, adding that in Bratislava, this rate is less than 93 percent. If vaccination is to also protect those who have not been vaccinated, the rate has to achieve at least 95 percent. When the rate is lower, local epidemics can break out, the Pravda daily wrote.

The vaccination rate in Slovakia increased, however, following last years measles epidemic in Europe. Babies are first vaccinated against measles at 15-18 months of age. Those who refuse to get their children vaccinated can be fined with 331.

"Epidemiologists of the Public Healthcare Regional Office of Bratislava Capital have carried out due anti-epidemic measures to prevent the spreading of measles, the main public health official in the country, Jan Mikas, told Pravda. He reminds doctors that when seeing similar symptoms, they should consider this ailment.

The situation in Slovakia and surrounding countries is being monitored by healthcare offices.

Measles is among the most serious childhood illnesses. It is very infectious, with the virus spreading by air. It leads to frequent complications, bronchitis, pneumonia, and the inflammation of nervous system. The ailment can be even fatal.

Vaccination is the most effective prevention against measles  and it is obligatory, performed in the 16th month or 18th (at the latest) month of age, and in the 11th year.

24. Apr 2018 at 14:03 | Compiled by Spectator staff
Young Slovaks struggle with verifying information

The average scores of people completing IT-related tasks are dropping. But the reasons may differ.

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When it comes to critical evaluation or even verification of information on the internet, primary and secondary school pupils still struggle. This is one of the main findings of the IT Fitness Test carried out in 2017.

Apart from the Internet category, the pupils scored poorly in all tested categories, Mario Lelovsky of ITAS told The Slovak Spectator.

Average scores are dropping

The IT Fitness Test was first introduced in 2009 to find out whether the graduates of secondary schools and universities have the IT skills required by employers. The organisers later expanded it, encouraging primary and secondary schools to attend so they could learn more about the skills of their pupils and the areas they should focus on in the curricula.

The tasks are divided into six categories: Internet, Security, Comprehensive Tasks, Office Tools, Collaborative Tools, and Online Marketing.

The 2017 edition was completed by 14,541 people older than 15 and 10,097 pupils aged 7-16. The average success rate of the former was 42.59 percent, while the latter scored 36.72 percent. The participants scored the worst in Office Tools and Security categories.

Though ITAS says it is hard to compare the results from previous years due to differing composition of participants, it admits that the average scores in both groups are worsening.

While in 2010, the above 15 group scored 54.5 percent on average, five years later they only scored 42.59 percent, and in 2017, the number was even lower. The scores of the age 7-16 group are bad too, as in 2014 the average score was 46.68 percent, and one year later only 41.27 percent.

We think that one of the reasons for the lower success rate is higher participation, ITAS wrote in the study.

Pupils fail to analyse texts

Unlike in previous years, the primary school pupils scored the worst in the Office Tools category. The success rate accounted for only 21.79 percent, which is a drop by nearly 20 percentage points, according to Lelovsky.

A reason for this might be the increase in its difficultness, according to the report.

As for the Security category, the pupils have problems with critical evaluation, text analysis and verifying the trustworthiness of information.

The success rate was the lowest in tasks where they were asked to evaluate the trustworthiness of the report, and decide on given statements on secure passwords or malicious software, Lelovsky said, adding that they scored better in privacy settings of their mobile apps.

Pupils also scored poorly in a new category, Online Marketing. It is possible that the results will not increase in the future as the schools probably do not deal with this topic, ITAS opines.

Critical thinking needed

To improve the IT skills of the pupils, teachers should deal with comprehensive tasks and projects in which pupils need to use knowledge from various areas in a broader context. They should learn to analyse, verify and create, and search for mistakes as well.

It is also necessary for pupils to deal with less traditional and problematic assignments, ITAs wrote in the report.

Apart from solving the problems, they should also analyse the solutions and try to learn more about its principles, identify the systems behaviour and its rules.

More attention should be devoted to the development of critical thinking, the assessment of information and its quality, trustworthiness and veracity, ITAS said.

24. Apr 2018 at 23:39 | Radka Minarechova
Slovak film awards handed out, architects appraised

Six of 17 possible awards went to block-buster The Line (Ciara), followed by The Little Habrour (Piata Lod). The Film Institute decided to celebrate lesser known film professions, and this year architects and set designers were hailed for their contribution to Slovak cinematography.

Peetr Bebjak receives the Sun in a Net award for The Line (the film got six prizes in total). (Source: TASR)

Sun in a Net, the awards of the Slovak Film- and Television Academy, were dominated by the film The Line (Ciara) of director Peter Bebjak. It received six suns for Best Movie, Best Director, Best Editor (Marek Kralovsky), Best Sound (Viktor Krivosudsky), Best Film Music (Slavo Solovic), and Best Actor in a Leading Role (Tomas Mastalir), the organisers wrote.

The second most awarded film, receiving three prizes on April 6, was Little Harbour (Piata Lod) of Iveta Grofova. It received Best Script (Grofova/Marek Lescak), Best Cinematography (Denisa Buranova) and Best Architect/Set Designer (Grofova, Buranova, Miroslav Kral, Iva Nemcova).

Five more movies received one prize each: Katarina Strbova Bielikova received the Sun in a Net for Best Costumes in The Little Crusader (Krizacek); Martin Jankovic and Zuzana Paulini for Best Masks in The Kidnapping (Unos); Zuzana Kronerova for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Ice Mother; Judit Bardos for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in Out, and Robert Roth for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in the movie Nina.

The Best Documentary is Hole in the Head by Robert Kirchhoff, about the widely ignored issue of the Roma Holocaust. Best Animated Film went to Hero Dady (Ocko Hrdina) of The Websters series (director Katarina Kerekesova). The Audience Prize went to the musical family comedy Spievankovo and Queen Harmonia (director Diana Novotna), the Slovak Film Institute reported.

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Read also: Special festival: Meet Slovak films Read more

Overall, the Sun in a Net was awarded in 17 categories for the best feats and best achievements of 2017. The eighth year of the event awarded nine of 16 nominated films, with the ceremony taking place on April 6 in the Old Market-hall in Bratislava.

Special prizes of Slovak cinematography

The Sun for Special Contribution to Slovak Cinematography went to film architects Viliam J. Gruska and Roman Rjachovsky. As well, the doyen of Slovak film reviewers, film theoretician, reviewer, historian, journalist and translator Pavel Branko, aged 97, received the Peter Mihalik Award at the opening of the Week of Slovak Film which followed several days after the Sun in a Net ceremony.

Pavel Brank oreceived the award for lifelong contribution. (Source: Courtesy of SFU)

Although almost all of the films awarded were already screened, audiences had another chance to enjoy them during the week.

Some of them may still be playing at various cinemas and many have English subtitles at the Lumiere cinema in downtown Bratislava.

For the first time, the award-bestowing ceremony preceded the week full of Slovak (and Slovak-coproduction) movies, the Slovak Film Institute (SFU) wrote.

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24. Apr 2018 at 17:03 | Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovska
Simulated Mars mission stopped

The crew members struggled with several problems, including serious injury and one member's decision to leave.

The simulated Mars mission organised by NASA and the University of Hawaii ended much earlier than planned.

Intended to last eight months, the sixth simulated mission started on February 15 on the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii, at an altitude of 2,500 metres. Slovak scientist Michaela Musilova was part of the five-member crew.

She is currently working for the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. She left the mission because her visa would have forfeited and she would not be allowed to return in the next two years, according to a press release sent to media on April 23.

Problems from the very beginning

The mission was preceded by a 15-month selection procedure that took place in several rounds before the final testing crew was selected. Apart from the Slovak scientist, there was one Korean, one British and two Australians.

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The mission started as planned, and the crew had to undergo difficult training nine days beforehand.

The mission organisers prepared many activities for us, I had nearly no sleep before the mission started, Musilova said, as quoted in the press release, adding she barely had a chance to say goodbye to her closest friends. As soon as we entered the habitat and stayed close, we hugged one another and had faith in what was awaiting us for the next eight months.

They had to a lot of hard work and had nearly no time to relax. In addition, problems started occurring. Their toilet broke and since there were storms, they were unable to charge the solar panels batteries and could not communicate with Earth for 20 hours, she described.

As a result of several critical situations, one crew member got seriously injured and had to be taken to the hospital. Subsequently, the mission was suspended. At the time, NASA and the University of Hawaii launched an investigation into what had happened.

After the crew member was released from the hospital, the preparations for restoring the mission started. However, in the meantime, another crew member decided to leave.

This ended the mission as it could not continue with only three members.

What was the aim?

Musilova was selected to be in charge of the geological and biological research. To help her with the former, she was given a rover, designed by the Slovak company RoboTech Vision. Apart from carrying samples and heavy items, it was expected to collect and save data from various sensors and cameras that could be later used by the company and provided to university students.

The aim was to test the psychological aspects of life and work in a closed space without privacy on a different planet. It was expected that the crew would face various problems that could have occurred during a mission on Mars, including limited communication with Earth.

Another mission is planned to start later this year.

24. Apr 2018 at 23:30 | Compiled by Spectator staff
EU funds will be allocated according to different criteria

Slovakia has benefited greatly from EU subsidies in the past but that may change in the future.

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Slovakia belongs among the biggest beneficiaries of money from European Union funds. During the past seven years, the country could have used up to 14 billion from the cohesion funds, the Dennik N daily wrote on April 24. The impact on the Slovak economy was huge; more than 2 percent of Slovakia's GDP was created from these funds. However, this may change in the future.

The EU is currently discussing its budget for 2021-2027, and an important part of the debate concerns the redistribution of approximately 350 billion for the so-called cohesion policy.

The European Commission plans to change the criteria for redistributing the funds significantly, with more funding going to southern-European countries like Greece and Italy, according to a proposal The Financial Times daily has at its disposal. Conversely, new member states, including Slovakia, should receive less.

According to the EC proposal, to be published in May, the member states impacted by the migration wave and economic crisis, including Greece, Italy, Spain and even some French regions, should receive more finances.

The new member states, including the Visegrad Group (i.e. Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia), which joined the EU in 2004, shall get less, according to the Financial Times.

In proportion to the overall amount of the budget, Slovakia will, with all probability, get less money, Euractiv.sk analyst Radovan Geist explained for Dennik N. The financing of politics will shrink, and it can be expected that this redistribution will happen based on different criteria.

What will change with EU funds

So far, the cohesion funds, which aim to remove the difference between richer and poorer regions of the European Union, have been distributed almost exclusively based on GDP per capita, so the majority of these funds go to the new, and poorer, countries.

The new mechanism could be more complex, with the criteria covering issues like youth unemployment rate, education, environment, migration and innovations. Thus, it could also reflect the countries stance on migration and willingness to accept migrants.

I suppose that within the cohesion policy, the budget will be divided into parts meant to finance different things, Geist told Dennik N, adding that each of them will be allocated due to some criterion.

Rule of law

Another frequently discussed issue is the rule of law of individual member states regarding the allocation of EU funds. Poland and Hungary have long been considered black sheep of the union, receiving the biggest subsidies in relation to GDP.

This is the most complex negotiation this year, and there will surely be some conditioning (for the drawing of EU funds), Slovak analyst Milan Nic said after the recent Hungarian election, adding that the election had boosted the winners  PM Viktor Orbans  negotiating position.

Everything will depend on the negotiation of country representatives in the European Council, Geist opined.

The hardest negotiations

The EU budgetary negotiations tend to be the hardest: last time, they lasted for 29 months, and this time, it may get even more difficult. The UK is leaving the union next year, and thus, there will be funds missing in the common coffers.

It is not realistic to expect the negotiations to be concluded before the European Parliament elections in 2019, Geist told Dennik N.

24. Apr 2018 at 22:57 | Compiled by Spectator staff
Bratislava Autosalon car show has begun

More than 80 Slovak premieres and 50 car brands are involved in the popular car show in Incheba, Bratislava.

The 28th year of the Bratislava Autosalon car show attracts virtually all famous brands, including four car makers active in Slovakia, which present the creme de la creme of the automotive industry between April 24 and 29.

In a space greater than 40,000 square metres, car makers show their best models through expositions or dealers, the TASR newswire wrote on April 24, adding that Autosalon has developed into one of the most prestigious events in Slovakia, and central Europe. This year, the Asian e-mobiles ZhiDou premiered their brand, and Abarth, Dodge, Isuzu and RAM reappeared after being gone for a long time.

The luxury vehicles show has been part of the Bratislava car show for 8 years now. In the Exclusive Salon category of this edition, models by the brands Aston Martin, Bentley, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, McLaren and Rolls Royce are presented.

The caravans, trailers and other similar products are well represented, too.

More than 80 Slovak premieres, 50 car brands and an accompanying programme are offered in the Incheba fair complex. Test rides of Hyundais, Nissans and Opels are even available.

Autosalon is open to the public between April 25 and 28 from 9:00 till 19:00, and on April 29 from 9:00 till 18:00, the TASR wrote.

24. Apr 2018 at 23:08 | Compiled by Spectator staff
Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior, S.A., a multinational bank, primarily engages in the financing of foreign trade in Latin America and the Caribbean. The company operates through two segments, Commercial and Treasury. It offers short and medium-term bilateral, structured and syndicated credits, and loan commitments; financial guarantee contracts, such as issued and confirmed letters of credit, and stand-by letters of credit; and guarantees covering commercial risk and other assets, as well as co-financing arrangements, underwriting of syndicated credit facilities, structured trade financing in the form of factoring and vendor financing, and financial leasing. The company also provides treasury solutions, which include term deposits and private placements. It primarily serves financial institutions, corporations, and sovereigns and state-owned entities. The company was formerly known as Banco Latinoamericano de Exportaciones, S.A. and changed its name to Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior, S.A. in June 2009. Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior, S.A. was founded in 1977 and is headquartered in Panama City, the Republic of Panama.

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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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The cost of living in New Zealand is the cause of a new wave of poverty, say senior officers from The Salvation Army.

Last year, The Salvation Army saw 336 new families every week, raising alarm and putting strain on the ability to keep up with demand.

Rents, petrol prices and basic food costs continue to rise, with those with the most pressing needs worst affected, says head of welfare services Major Pam Waugh.

"Its fast becoming a national crisis."

In the past calendar year, 60 per cent of families requesting help with basics from the Army were new to the organisation - an average of 336 families every week.

"These are people who have never before used our services, and part of the 120,000 New Zealanders we already help every year," says Pam.

Compounding this, one in five New Zealand children live in poverty and half of them-about 100,000 children-live in severe poverty, meaning they lack the basics required to grow up safe, healthy and happy.

Pam says there are misconceptions about people living in poverty in this country - that they are all on benefits, have large families and are often solo parents - but the stats disprove this misunderstanding.

"In 40 per cent of families in poverty in New Zealand, at least one person is in full time employment."

Pam says poverty in New Zealand is often behind closed doors, which makes it not always easy to see.

"We havent seen this level of need since the recession. We are not a third world nation, but we have the highest levels of homelessness in the OECD.

"The trouble is were not always confronted with this poverty. Families may not look hungry, but 40 per cent of Kiwi families skip meals or cut back on food, because they cant afford enough for the week.

The Salvation Army is asking New Zealanders to join it in helping to end poverty for these families by supporting its annual Red Shield Appeal starting next week.

"We see these people, we hear their stories and we help them to make meaningful change. Giving to the Red Shield Appeal is a way to directly help these families thrive," Major Waugh says.

To support The Salvation Army Red Shield Appeal:

- Visit www.salvationarmy.org.nz

- Give to a Salvation Army street collector between 30 April - 6 May
Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
A facility in Dak Nong made headlines last Tuesday after police discovered that it had been using dirty and harmful materials in production.

The facility owner, Nguyen Thi Thanh Loan, admitted to having bought rejected coffee beans and the pulp of coffee cherries at a cheap price, grinding and mixing them with ingredients such as dirt and rock dust, before using a black powder found inside D batteries to dye the mixture to produce finished products.

The battery material is actually manganese dioxide, a highly oxidant compound that can cause serious poisoning in humans and damage organs with consumption of as little as 0.5 milligrams of the chemical.

Initial reports suggested products from the facility had been sold as coffee, allegedly to street-side coffee shops in the southern province of Binh Phuoc, but police announced on Monday that it was not the case.

Nguyen Thi Thanh Loan, owner of a facility caught using dirty and harmful materials in food production in Dak Nong Province in the Central Highlands region of Vietnam. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Le Vinh Quy, deputy police chief of Dak Nong, said Loan had confessed to selling the dirty products as human food, but not as coffee.

Questioning and investigation are ongoing to determine which kind of food the products have been sold as, Quy said, pledging to keep the public posted on any further findings.

Dak Nong police officers on Monday also launched legal proceedings and detained six suspects, including Loan, on suspicion of violating food safety laws.

Police had earlier been scrambling for grounds on which to charge the violators. With Loans latest confession that her products were sold as food, it is enough to constitute a criminal offense even if the food may not be coffee.

Among the detainees were Loans husband Nguyen Xuan Bao, their employee Ngo Ngoc Son, and three others not identified by name by police officers.

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WASHINGTON, April 24 - U.S. President Donald Trump warned Iran on Tuesday not to follow through with threats to restart its nuclear program, as he and French President Emmanuel Macron tried to find common ground on saving an international agreement on Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Meeting Macron in the Oval Office, Trump heaped scorn on the 2015 nuclear accord negotiated by his predecessor, former president Barack Obama, and aimed at stopping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.

Iran has said it will ramp up its nuclear program if the deal collapses and a senior Iranian official said on Tuesday that Tehran might quit a treaty designed to stop the spread of nuclear weapons if Trump scraps the agreement.

"If they restart their nuclear program, they will have bigger problems than they have ever had before," Trump said without explaining what he meant.

Under the deal, Iran agreed to curb its nuclear ambitions in return for relief from economic sanctions. Tehran says its nuclear program is only for peaceful means.

A source close to the French presidency said Trump's remarks were an articulation of strongly-held positions. We knew that its a sensitive topic and, (its) among the priorities for this state visit. We are seeking to defend the French and European positions, which are not incompatible, in our view, with Americas concerns.

Trump said he and Macron could have an agreement soon on the Iran deal. "We could have at least an agreement among ourselves very quickly. I think we're fairly close to understanding each other."

Trump called the Iran agreement, struck between Iran and world powers, a "terrible deal" that was "insane" and "ridiculous" because it did not deal with ballistic missiles or Iran's involvement in conflicts such as those in Yemen or Syria.

Regional tension

A U.S. withdrawal from the Iran agreement would raise tensions in an already volatile region, possibly prompting an arms race involving Saudi Arabia.

Pulling out of the Iran agreement would also raise questions over how Trump could coerce North Korea into giving up its nuclear weapons. Trump is trying to arrange a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in late May or early June.

Macron came to Washington hoping to persuade Trump to keep the United States in the Iran agreement, saying it offered the best chance to constrain Tehran, imperfect as it may be.

The French president has forged an improbable bond with the volatile Trump, and hopes to leverage their friendship into progress on not only Iran but exempting Europe from steel tariffs, and protecting the 2016 Paris climate accord.

He told Trump the Iran accord is part of a "broader picture" of security in region.

"On Iran, we must contextualize this subject within the challenges of the region. There is the situation in Syria, there is security in the entire region and I think, in any case, we share a common goal of avoiding an escalation and proliferation of nuclear weapons in the region. So the question is what is the best path," Macron said.

European calls for exemptions from Trump's plan for 25 percent tariffs on steel imports are also on their agenda, as well as the U.S. president's desire to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria.

Trump said chronic trade deficits with U.S. allies around the world are "unacceptable."

Macron, whose visit will be followed by one on Friday from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, has called on Trump to keep troops in Syria for the time being to ensure the defeat of Islamic State militants.

A 21-gun salute echoed across the South Lawn and a flute-playing fife and drum corps, in red-coated uniforms and tri-corner hats, marched by Trump and Macron and their wives, MelaniaTrump and Brigitte Macron in a welcoming ceremony on Tuesday.

In the evening, the Trumps are to host the Macrons at the first state dinner conducted by Trumpsince he took power.

Trump thanked France for joining with the United States and Britain in launching airstrikes in Syria earlier this month in response to a chemical weapons attack blamed on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

He said he and Macron had developed over the past year "a wonderful friendship" that is "a testament to the enduring friendship that binds our two nations."
A senior official in the Vietnamese government has declared null and void Chinas temporary ban on fishing in Vietnams waters and proposed steps to be taken for the time to come.

Vu Van Tam, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, made the affirmation in a document he sent the local administrations in Vietnams coastal provinces and cities on Monday.

Tam suggested that the authorities encourage fishermen to continue catching fish in Vietnams waters and organize their boats in groups to enable mutual help in case of problems.

Vietnamese fishing vessels licensed to work in the Common Fishery Zone between Vietnam and China must not cross the border running through this area to reach the eastern part nearer to China, he said.

The Common Fishery Zone, where both Vietnamese and Chinese fishing boats can travel, is a body of water in the Gulf of Tonkin  which is off the coast of northern Vietnam and southern China.

He also required Vietnamese fishing boats entering and leaving docks to be strictly controlled, the vessels activities closely monitored, and reports on any possible unexpected sea incidents involving them promptly made.

The above statement came amidst dissatisfaction from the state-founded Vietnam Fisheries Society with Chinas prohibition of fishing in part of the East Vietnam Sea, including the Gulf of Tonkin and Vietnams waters.

The restriction would be effective from May 1 to August 8, China said.

Rejecting the ban as valueless, the society said its introduction militates against Vietnamese fishers livelihood, violates Vietnams sovereignty and legal rights, infringes international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and runs counter to the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in East Vietnam Sea, of which both countries are signatories.

More patrol vessels are needed in order to bolster the protection of fishermen, making them feel safe while working in Vietnams waters, the society said in a document to Vietnamese bodies in late March.

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Here are todays leading news stories:

Society

-- Vietnams Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung has announced a plan to raise retirement ages of both men and women in the country, which is expected to be presented during the upcoming conference of the Central Party Committee.

-- Vice-chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Peoples Committee Le Van Khoa has tendered his resignation due to health issues. The request is set to be reviewed during the regular meeting of the administration on Tuesday.

-- Police in the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong have arrested six suspects to assist their investigation into the production of coffee from dirty and harmful materials, including manganese dioxide taken from used D batteries.

-- A fire broke out at the Mat Troi Vang Kindergarten in Thanh Xuan District, Hanoi at around 11:00 am on Monday. No students were harmed thanks to the quick reactions of the teachers.

-- A 26-year-old math teacher at a high school in Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City was stabbed to death by her colleague, who teaches physical education at the school, in the middle of a street on Monday morning over love affairs.

-- Unseasonal rain accompanied by potential thunderstorms is forecast in southern Vietnam, including Ho Chi Minh City during the first two to three days of this week.

-- Tran Van Tien, an English teacher at an elementary school in the southern province of Binh Duong, was dismissed on Monday for being accused of molesting many schoolgirls.

Business

-- From April 25, MobiFone, one of the largest mobile carriers in Vietnam, will allow their subscribers to send their photos and information online via its website and mobile app to complete account registration.

-- The Ministry of Industry and Trade hosted a national teleconference discussing comprehensive measures to boost export on Monday, with the attendance of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

-- The Department of Natural Resources and Environment in the north-central province of Quang Binh has imposed a VND70 million (US$3,080) fine upon a cattle farm for causing serious environmental pollution.

Lifestyle

-- The World Press Photo Exhibition is scheduled to be organized at the Vietnam Fine Arts University in Hanoi from June 16 to July 6. Visiting hours are from 9:00 am to 7:00 pm daily.

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The operator of a cow farm in the north-central Vietnamese province of Quang Binh has been fined VND70 million (US$3,080) and required to make a public apology for causing serious pollution in a residential area.

The provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment has imposed the penalty upon Doan Ket Phu Quy Company, which operates the cattle farm in Quang Long Ward, Ba Don Town.

Aside from the fine, the firm was required to publicly apologize to local residents for causing environmental pollution in the neighborhood.

In order to resolve the contamination, the company will have to coordinate with the provincial Preventive Medicine Center to eliminate flies inside and outside the farm, as well as in the affected zones within the residential area.

It will also have to cease bringing new cows into the farm while dealing with the pollution.

The existing cattle are required to be consumed or moved out of the venue prior to April 27.

Residents in Quang Long Ward previously complained to competent authorities that the operations of the cow farm had brought foul smells and flies to the neighborhood.

The provincial environmental department later carried out an inspection of the facility and discovered the violations.

Results of the inspection showed that the wastewater treatment system of the farm had not been completed.

The operations of the venue did not follow some of the content stated in its environmental impact assessment (EIA) report, which was previously approved by local authorities.

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A hospital in Ho Chi Minh City has rebuked several of its doctors who were unwilling to treat or transfer a young patient to another infirmary, drawing the ire of her family.

Around noon on April 14, the Hoc Mon Regional Hospital, located in the metropolis suburban district of Hoc Mon, received a child named Nguyen Ngoc Bao Han, who suffered from an injury in the chin and a chipped tooth following a fall down the stairs at her home.

She was still very conscious at the time, administered with a painkiller.

Doctors judged that the patient needed an X-ray scan, but she had to wait for an hour before the scanners maintenance was completed.

Hans family, who had not paid hospital fees in advance as a common practice there, required a type of facial suture for the wound, which doctors said was unavailable at the infirmary.

Medical workers also refused to sign a document allowing her to be transferred to another health care facility, which caused the family to do that of their own accord.

The relatives angrily shot a video of the situation, which was posted on social media.

The hospitals management board on April 16 offered an apology for failing to give a clear explanation to the family, who also felt chastened for publishing the film.

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health, which promptly verified the incident, attributed the anger to the doctors verbal incompetence in dealing with the family.

The department thus required the hospital to redress the misstep by punishing the doctors involved and spreading the lesson drawn from the case throughout the organization.

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A macaque raised in captivity by a resident for nearly two decades in southern Vietnam has been handed over to local authorities who plan to free it to the natural environment.

Nguyen Thi Be Thi, in Giong Trom District, Ben Tre Province, said on Monday that she had given the stump-tailed macaque she cared for in a cage for 17 years to the provincial Department of Forest Management.

The male animal, which had been kept since it was a baby, weighs around seven kilograms, she said.

Bearing the scientific name of Macaca arctoides, it has thick dark brown bodily fur and a hairless red face.

Vietnams Red Data Book lists the species as threatened and rare.

Weve kept the macaque because we didnt recognize it is a rare animal. Though we wanted to have him released to the wild, we didnt know who can handle that, Thi said.

Thats why weve raised him until now.

The animal is known to be well cared for and very friendly to humans.

The department persuaded the owner to free it after receiving information about the captivity.

The macaque will be sent to its natural home in Bu Gia Map National Park in Binh Phuoc Province, to the north of Ho Chi Minh City.

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A high school math teacher in Ho Chi Minh City has been stabbed to death in the middle of a street allegedly by her colleague, who was also her fiance, over their love affairs.

The victim, 26-year-old N.T.T., taught math at Vo Thi Sau High School in Binh Thanh District, the districts police unit confirmed on Monday afternoon.

The suspect, 27-year-old Vo Minh Thang, who is a physical education teacher at the same school, is being held in custody for murder.

According to initial information, T. was riding her motorbike along Truong Sa Street on Monday morning when she was forced to pull over by Thang.

Their conversation quickly turned into an argument, before Thang stabbed the female teacher to death and fled the scene.

The promenade where N.T.T.s body was found. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Following reports from local residents, police officers arrived at the scene and found T.s body on the sidewalk with 12 stab wounds, 10 of which were in her neck.

Thang turned himself in later the same day, claiming he had murdered the woman due to conflicts in their romantic relationship.

According to Le Van Phuoc, principal of Vo Thi Sau High School, Thang has been teaching at the institution for two years, while T. started working here about a year ago.

They are both good teachers, kind and friendly to others. We are very shocked to hear about the incident, Phuoc continued.

The campus of Vo Thi Sau High School in Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tuoi Tre

The two have been in love and were supposed to get married on April 25.

However, T. postponed the wedding after discovering some secrets about Thang during the photo shoot of their pre-wedding album, the headmaster stated.

Prior to the murder, T. and Thang were in charge of supervising students during their examinations.

They got into an argument before leaving the school, Phuoc added.

Further investigation is ongoing.

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Another problem has occurred to the one of Vietnams essential submarine cable systems, resulting in sluggish Internet connection in the upcoming days.

The Asia Pacific Gateway (APG) communications cable system suffered an error at around 11:50 pm on Monday, slowing down international connectivity in Vietnam.

The issue was detected at the station in Chongming, China.

Following the incident, Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT), a major Internet service provider in Vietnam, has redirected international traffic to other working cables that Vietnam is connected to as a temporary measure.

VNPT is now working with its global partners to fix the problem, which is expected to take about two to three weeks.

An error previously happened to the same cable system on February 27, affecting international connectivity in the Southeast Asian country.

It broke down at a spot 125 kilometers away from Hong Kong.

As of April 1, about 95 percent of the systems capacity had been recovered.

APG, which runs about 10,400 kilometers underwater across the Pacific Ocean, connects Vietnam with mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, and Singapore.

It can deliver a capacity of up to 54Tbps, the greatest of all networks in Asia.

This is the fifth problem that has occurred to the cable system since it was launched in 2016.

The other systems that are vital to Vietnams international connectivity are the Asia America Gateway (AAG), South-East Asia - Middle East - Western Europe 3 (SMW-3), and Intra-Asia (IA).

AAG is a 20,000-km submarine communications cable system connecting Southeast Asia with the U.S. mainland across the Pacific Ocean via Guam and Hawaii. It strikes land in Vietnam in the southern beach city of Vung Tau.

SMW-3 is the worlds longest cable system, which is 39,000 kilometers long, connecting Vietnam and 39 other countries through the landing point in central Da Nang City.

With a total length of 6,800 km, IA links Internet users in Vietnam, Singapore, the Philippines, Hong Kong and Japan.

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Dang Anh Tuan, also known by his pen name Anh Thoa, was accused of rape by a female contributor at Tuoi Tre who worked under his supervision.

A contributor works his/her way up over the time to become a full-time reporter at the newspaper as a rule.

The papers editorial board received her letter denouncing Tuan on April 19 and immediately suspended the man from all duties while an internal investigation was launched into the accusation.

The same evening, Tuoi Tre published an article on its Vietnamese-language online edition informing readers of Tuans suspension, promising a fair probe into the allegation.

Rumor that the woman had been admitted to hospital following a failed suicide attempt was also found to be untrue, as she had been hospitalized over exhaustion.

On April 20, a meeting was held among Tuoi Tres editorial board, the accuser and her alleged rapist to hear statements from both sides.

The next day, April 21, Tuan submitted a letter of resignation from his post as head of Tuoi Tre TV, a department responsible for producing videos for sale and the newspapers digital platforms.

While denying all allegations against him, Tuan said he had to take responsibility for allowing such a scandal to happen under his supervision.

Whether the accusation is true or false, Ive still failed to fulfill my duty as the department head, Tuan wrote in his resignation letter.

In an article published the same afternoon, Tuoi Tres editorial board said it had accepted Tuans resignation and requested police investigation into the allegation against its journalist, after finding claims from both sides to be conflicting with each other.

Both Tuan and his accuser have agreed to let authorities take over the investigation to find justice.

As their employer, Tuoi Tre pledges to work closely with police officers and relevant agencies in upcoming probes in the spirit of upholding justice and protecting the safety and dignity of its employees.

The editorial board wishes to extend their sincere apologies to readers of Tuoi Tre for the upsetting event and hopes for continued support from the valued readers.

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ABCs Media Watch last night won its slot at 573,000 ahead of The Mentor debut (489,000), Lip Sync Battle (350,000) and a 1990 movie on TEN (309,000 from 8:30pm).

But in the all-important reality battle it was again My Kitchen Rules in front on 1.33m viewers up on last Mondays 1.25m. The Voice averaged 911,000, down on last Mondays 930,000 and Bachelor in Paradise at 666,000 was down slightly on 676,000. Nines talent show is still travelling third in the demos behind its competition.

A Current Affair had a strong night with a tale of a 12 year old on the loose in Bali. At 950,000 it was the second highest episode this year.

7:30 was best for ABC outside of its 7pm news, and a royal doco scored best for SBS.

Seven network won Monday with 31.5% then Nine 26.3%, TEN 17.8%, ABC 17.2% and SBS 7.2%.

My Kitchen Rules was #1 for Seven with 1.33m then Seven News (1.06m / 1.04m), Home and Away (765,000), The Chase (572,000 / 342,000), The Mentor (489,000).

Nine News (980,000/ 966,000), A Current Affair (950,000), The Voice (911,000), Hot Seat (496,000 / 295,000) and Lip Sync Battle (350,000).

Bachelor in Paradise (666,000) was best for TEN then The Project (575,000 / 376,000), TEN Eyewitness News (452,000), Family Feud (327,000) and movie: Pretty Woman (309,000).

ABC News (753,000), 7:30 (593,000), Australian Story (576,000), Media Watch (573,000), Four Corners (513,000), Q&A (385,000) and Think Tank (231,000) comprised ABCs night.

On SBS it was Elizabeth (275,000), Michael Mosley: Trust Me Im a Doctor (220,000), 24 Hours in Emergency (206,000) and SBS World News (135,000).

ABC KIDS Peter Rabbit hopped multichannels with 201,000.

Sunrise: 265,000

Today: 242,000

News Breakfast: 91,000 / 49,000

OzTAM Overnights: Monday 23 April 2018
After countless hours waiting, the word and the baby was finally out. It was reported earlier that Kate and the Royal Family was already in the hospital which caused chaos outside the hospital. There were more than hundreds in attendance waiting for any news regarding Kates delivery. Exactly 1101 hours, the Duchess of Cambridge gave birth to a healthy boy weighing 8 lbs and 7 oz.

Baby name

Regarding the name of the new born baby, it is still in discussion. There was a poll created prior to The Duchess giving birth and the two names on the list are Albert and Arthur.

According to the British oddsmakers, this name is tied to history and it is only fitting that these are the top two choices. So who was exactly present at the hospital? The lovely Queen Elizabeth, The ever charming Prince of Wales, The Duke of Edinburgh, and other family members were all present.

More babies to come?

People report that Prince William is ecstatic about Kates delivery. This will be their third baby in their ever-growing family. The Prince was asked before about possibly having more babies. He just laughed about the question but he also hinted that it could be a possibility. April 23 now marks not only the birthday of their third baby but also made a mark in history. So whats next for the royal family?

For now, they are taking a rest after a day full of surprises.

The royal wedding

Then theres the royal wedding of Prince Williams brother. Currently, the wedding of the year is on schedule. Everything is already set in place. Actually, prior to Kate giving birth, it was reported that the security bill for the wedding is now at 6 million.

Kate Middleton and Prince William's wedding was more formal, and cost an estimated $26 million, (18 million pounds), according to the List.

How about the wedding dress?

Of course, the most talked-about dress in the world right now is Meghan's. How will Meghan Markle look like in her dress? Who designed the dress? How much does it cost?

Well, theyve been pretty good at keeping that information close to their chests.

However, there are rumors that Spice Girls member Victoria Beckham is on top of that project. On "The Late Late Show with James Corden," the excellent host tried to make Victoria spill some beans. He wasnt successful with his attempt but, there was key information that was leaked in correlation to his question.

This year is all about the royal family with their new baby and newlyweds. What a time to be alive, indeed. Lastly, regarding the place and the expected crowd at the wedding, it will be special as some members of the public have also been invited.
The government is trying to draw a line under the Windrush generation scandal. After apologies from the Prime Minister, Amber Rudd has promised to make citizenship available free of charge. According to the Guardian, the Windrush generation and their children will be able to obtain citizenship quickly without having to pass a knowledge test.

The Home Office is set to accelerate the application process to ensure that the Windrush generation can obtain citizenship easily and speedily. This move follows relentless pressure on the government. In recent weeks, countless heartbreaking stories about the Windrush generation have highlighted the detrimental effects of blunt immigration-curbing drives.

Apart from families of Caribbean migrants who arrived in the UK between 1948 and 1973, the free citizenship offer will also be available to Commonwealth nationals who entered the UK during the same period. This offer will come as a great relief to the Windrush generation, many of whom were threatened with deportation.

Unable to work or avail of NHS-services, the Windrush generation has suffered grave injustice. Many were of them were never issued with the paperwork they were later asked to produce. After the scandal broke, Theresa May apologized, however, as the current Home Secretary Amber Rudd came into the firing line. In the House of Commons, she told MPs that she was committed to resolving the situation urgently and purposefully, adding that an apology was just the first step of righting the wrongs the Windrush generation have suffered.

Will the Windrush generation get compensation?

Speaking at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting last week, Prime Minister Theresa May said that the UK would do whatever was necessary, including paying compensation, where appropriate, to resolve the problems and ease the anxieties suffered by the Windrush generation.

According to the Guardian, details have not been worked out yet.

Speaking to the Guardian, Sarah O'Connor who arrived over fifty years ago at the age of six, explained that she was told she was an illegal immigrant last year, even though she had been working and paying taxes in the UK her whole life.

Visibly angry, she wondered how the compensation scheme would be run.Will it go to everyone or just a select few?

I am so angry. Theresa May introduced this when she was home secretary, and all our problems were just swept under carpet. This is all a bit late.

Mixed reaction to Rudd's free citizenship offer

Although opposition MPs and human rights groups have welcomed the Amber Rudd's offer, the overall reaction has been mixed. According to the Guardian, David Lammy asked for the offer to be extended to people from places like India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, pointing out that "British citizenship was theirs all along."

Broadening the Commons debate, the chair of the home affairs select committee, Yvette Cooper, asked for an end to immigration targets, seeing as they were at the root of the wider immigration problems.

Chief Executive of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants Satbir Singh welcomed the measures as a first step. However, she added, "we need to see a root-and-branch reform of the Home Office if we are to avoid another Windrush. Windrush generation campaigners have pointed out that changes to be introduced to the data protection bill may make it impossible for applicants to access files about themselves. A letter to David Lammy clearly illustrates that divisions in British society remain.
Theresa May has been dealt several blows to her plans for Brexit in recent days and this has led to mounting pressure on the PM to remain within the customs union at the very least. However, if she were to U-turn on this decision, there is a chance it could lead to a leadership challenge. But there is significant conjecture to suggest that ambitious Conservatives may not challenge Mrs May and her position is relatively safe.

The House of Lords have been busy in the last 7 days as they have blocked the withdrawal bill so far but last night they voted in favour of some amendments to be made to the bill or 3 occasions.

What has been deemed necessary by the Lords.

Brexit means?

They include votes in favour of the bill including the European Charter of Fundamental Rights (ECFR), the Charter protects the political, social and economic rights of every EU citizen. They also lost other votes that could have given ministers the power to restrict when citizens could use principles of EU law to challenge the Government. Prior to the votes on Monday evening, the peers also passed an amendment calling on ministers to negotiate a post-Brexit customs union with the EU and they voted to limit the use of secondary legislation that could be used to transpose EU workers and consumer rights on to the UK statute book. The changes made by the laws will have to be passed by MPs in the Commons but this is a blow to Theresa May.

The government are expected to table amendments on Wednesday that relate to the devolved powers, this could provoke a revolt in early May when it is due to come to a vote. The defeats also came not long after downing street were playing down claims over a split within the government over the customs union. The Express suggested that Theresa May could face a leadership challenge if she U-turns on the customs union.

However, there is an argument against the idea that she could face a leadership challenge, even if she U-turns on the decision over a customs union. Theresa May has taken on a quite frankly thankless task, irrespective of what the government was planning, she had half the population against her from outset. But at the moment, May, who campaigned for remain but is taking a hard-line leave stance in her negotiations, could possibly be the only person who can keep the Conservatives together as a whole party.

Leadership challenge?

The real hard-line leavers such as Jacob Rees-Mogg have been vying for overall control of the party but Mrs May has strategically placed those who campaigned for leave in important positions for Brexit negotiations and remainers working closely with herself. Furthermore, she has constantly had to try and keep the hard-line elements at bay with tough talking on a clean break and the more centre-minded members with talk on negotiating a close relationship with the EU. Furthermore, since her disastrous election call, she has had the fanatics of the DUP to contend with over Northern Ireland, an issue she conjured herself granted but nonetheless, it is something on top of everything else.

If May is challenged to a leadership bid, it risks bringing down the government itself because there are many within the party who would see Jacob Rees-Mogg as a step backwards for them and Boris Johnson, a step off the cliff. There is no one else that has public favourability, although Johnsons is waning since he has become an MP again. But this puts the party in a quandary because the government have been an omnishambles, especially over Brexit and whilst it is understandably difficult, there has been little coherence thus far and if someone else wants to take the reins, they will have a year to plan what they need to with Brexit and deal with the storm in a teacup that is currently brewing within the government over Windrush and other multiple scandals.
The Government announced that a national day of commemoration for murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence will take place on 22 April every year. The act is nice but it is nothing more than a PR stunt by the government to take the pressure off them for the Windrush scandal. It is also a clear attempt to steer people away from the conversation the public are finally beginning to have about the inherent racist nature of British Culture.

Stephen Lawrence was 18-years-old when he was stabbed to death in a racially motivated attack in Eltham, south London, in 1993.

Three of his attackers walked free and have never paid for their abhorrent crime.

Culture of racism

What we do know is that modern British culture is built on the oppression and murder of people around the world, the British Empire peaked in the early 20th century and its naval power was always kept at 10% greater than its nearest two rivals. This allowed Britain to dominate the global markets by using force, the epitome of the British Empire. This allowed the idea of Great Britain to thrive throughout the population whilst careful media manipulation help sow the seeds of superiority within the minds of the public. But the violence and oppression of peoples across the globe show that Britain has an inherent racial problem that still persists today.

Whilst the day is good to remember why Stephen Lawrence was killed and it will help keep the idea of inherent racism fresh in the publics psyche, the timing makes it seem more like a PR stunt because the government have been reeling from the mass realisation over how their policies since 2010 have been racially targeting minority groups.

In 2013, the Home Office authorised AdVans to drive around 6 London boroughs, which read Go Home or Face Arrest on the side. The vans stirred up a lot of resentment within minority communities, creating a hostile environment.

Former advisor, Nick Timothy wrote in the Telegraph that Theresa May, who was Home Secretary at the time, had blocked the scheme initially and she was on holiday when it was revived.

However, n 2016, the immigration minister, Robert Goodwill, said the pilot scheme, which ran between July and August 2013, had been approved by the prime minister when she was at the Home Office. Just a few months after the pilot scheme had finished, Theresa May said in speech about immigration policy, we can deport first and hear appeals later, this was if the individual would not be in serious harm but that judgement would come from the Home Office.

Windrush has been one of the highlights in the last week or so but it has emerged that the Home Office did know about the problems legal immigrants were facing due to a hostile environment created by the governments immigration policies. In a report published in 2014 by Legal Action Group, warning that thousands of migrants had been falling victim to these policies even after living in Britain legally for decades.
Avicii, the Swedish DJ Famous for his electronic dance music, was found dead at the age of 28 on Friday 20 April in Muscat, Oman. His publicist Diana Baron confirmed the sad news and asked everyone to respect his family's need for privacy during this difficult time, TMZ reported.

Famous DJ had a successful music career

Avicii, real name Tim Burgling, was a Swedish DJ, musician, remixer and record producer. He was born in Stockholm, Sweden on 8 September 1989. He started his music career in 2006 and quickly became a world-renown artist with his work in electronic dance music (EDM).

The superstar's most known songs include "Wake Me Up," "Hey Brother," "Levels" and "Waiting for Love."

During his career, Avicii was nominated for many music awards and won some of them, such as MTV Europe Music Awards and World Music Awards. He was nominated for a Grammy award twice: once with his collaboration with David Guetta on "Sunshine" in 2012 and once with "Levels" in 2013.

Avicii's health problems caused early retirement

In 2016, Avicii announced his retirement from live-touring through an emotional letter from his official website, partly due to his health problems. He was known to have acute pancreatitis, with one of the reasons for it being his excessive alcohol use. This problem became public when he spent 11 days in hospital in January 2012.

However, the Swedish DJ's problems continued during 2013. In 2014, he went through an appendix and gallbladder operation, which made him miss his show at Miami's Ultra Music Festival.

Avicii's older brother David Bergling travelled to Oman's capital city Muskat a few hours after the sad news, in hopes to find the reason that caused his death.

David Bergling checked into a hotel close to Muscat Hills, where the DJ was vacationing. The DJ had checked in the resort some time last week and even posed with some of his fans during this vacation.

It is announced that two autopsies were carried out and that it showed no criminal suspicion in the death and Tim Burgling's body was being taken to his home country, Sweden.

A day where we lost a hero of ours, an inspiration and friend. There will never ever be another like him and for that reason we cry and will never forget. We posted this video cause it is a reminder of what this brilliant amazing guy did for all of us. And now he is gone. pic.twitter.com/ObfvoSgceh  THE CHAINSMOKERS (@TheChainsmokers) 20 Nisan 2018

People worldwide pay their tributes to the DJ

Tim Burgling - professionally known as Avicii's - death has shaken up the music industry and many artists have sent their condolences to his family and friends. People all around the world, and especially in his homeland Sweden, have reacted to the sad news by honoring his music and his memory.

Thousands of fans gathered in Sergels torn in Stockholm, Sweden on Saturday 21 April afternoon to pay their tributes.

After a minute of silence, the place was filled with Avicii's music as well as crying fans. In the Netherlands, the tallest church tower played three of his songs ("Wake Me Up," "Without You" and "Hey Brother") through its bells at 11 AM on Sunday 22 April in tribute to the DJ.

The EDM superstar had affected many people with his work and will be missed by his family, friends, and fans.

No words can describe the sadness Im feeling right now, hearing about Avicii passing away....

Thoughts go out to his family and friends...  Zedd (@Zedd) 20 Nisan 2018

At a loss for words...Rest easy brother  @Avicii  marshmello (@marshmellomusic) 20 Nisan 2018

Devastating news about Avicii, a beautiful soul, passionate and extremely talented with so much more to do. My heart goes out to his family. God bless you Tim x  Calvin Harris (@CalvinHarris) 20 Nisan 2018
By Kumerra Gemechu

ADDIS ABABA, April 23 (Reuters) - Britain must permanently return all artefacts from Ethiopia held by the Victoria and Albert Museum and Addis Ababa will not accept them on loan, an Ethiopian government official said.

The call comes after the museum, one of London's most popular tourist attractions, put Ethiopian treasures plundered by British forces on display.

"Well, it would be exciting if the items held at the V&A could be part of a long-term loan with a cultural institution in Ethiopia," museum director Tristram Hunt said.

"These items have never been on a long-term loan in Ethiopia, but as we look to the future I think what we're interested in are partnerships around conservation, interpretation, heritage management, and these need to be supported by government assistance so that institutions like the V&A can support sister institutions in Ethiopia."

Among the items on display are sacred manuscripts and gold taken from the Battle of Maqdala 150 years ago, when British troops ransacked the fortress of Emperor Tewodros II.

The offer of a loan did not go far enough for Ethiopia.

"What we have asked (for) was the restitution of our heritage, our Maqdala heritage, looted from Maqdala 150 years ago. We presented our request in 2007 and we are waiting for it," said government minister Hirut Woldemariam said.

Ephrem Amare, Ethiopian National Museum director, added: "It is clearly known where these treasures came from and whom they belong to. Our main demand has never been to borrow them. Ethiopias demand has always been the restoration of those illegally looted treasures. Not to borrow them.

The V&A could not immediately be reached for further comment on Monday.

In launching the Maqdala 1868 exhibition of what Hunt called "stunning pieces with a complex history" this month, he said the display had been organised in consultation with the Ethiopian community in London.

"As custodians of these Ethiopian treasures, we have a responsibility to celebrate the beauty of their craftsmanship, shine a light on their cultural and religious significance and reflect on their living meaning, while being open about how they came to Britain," he said in a blog on the museum website. (Writing by George Obulutsa Editing by Alison Williams)
Moscow will equip Syria's armed forces with S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems, Russian officials have reportedly said, raising the prospect of fresh tensions in the region.

The Kremlin, which in previous years had bowed to Israeli pressure to not supply the systems to Damascus, has threatened to change its stance after U.S. and U.K.-led attacks on Syria earlier this month, in reaction to an alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma.

Military officials told the newspaper Kommersant that Russia would give air defense systems to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad free of charge, adding that Israel would suffer catastrophic consequences if it targeted them.

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If the sources are correct, Syria will get the S-300 PMU-2 version, which gives long-range protection from high altitude missiles and aircraft and has the potential to upset the balance of the power in the regionwhere Israel holds air superiority.

RTS1AJCH

REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Two military sources told Kommersant that the S-300 PMU-2 versions of the systems will be given to Syria very soon and that Moscow was expecting Israel to respond rapidly by bombing the area where the missile systems would be deployed.

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It is assumed that components of the S-300 [radar stations, transport-loading machines, control posts, launchers, etc.] will soon be delivered to the [Syrian] republic either by air transport aircraft or by the Russian Navy, the newspaper reported.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov denied the Kremlin had made any final decision. On a visit to China Monday, according to the TASS news agency, he said: We'll have to wait to see what specific decisions the Russian leadership and representatives of Syria will take.

Story continues

Israeli military analyst and journalist Ron Ben-Yishai said there are risks for Russias reputation in supplying Syria with the S-300s because it may take a long time to train Syrians to operate them.

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Its a large system that cannot be easily hidden or moved. So although the Russians have upgraded the system several times in recent years, it is no longer seen as a threat that cannot be overcome, as it was more than 10 years ago.

The Americans intimate knowledge of the systems features, and likely the Israelis knowledge too, has made it possible for Western countries to develop ways of disrupting and neutralizing the systems abilities, he wrote in Ynet News.

It comes amid a spike in bellicose rhetoric on all sides in the conflict. Last week, the commander-in-chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Brigadier General Hossein Salami, said his country was ready to retaliate if Israel attacked Iran and its allies in Syria.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from Newsweek
The 12-year-old used his parents credit card to book a flight to Bali (Picture: Getty)

An investigation is underway after a 12-year-old Australian boy flew alone to Bali after a row with his parents.

The boy, from Sydney, reportedly used his parents credit card to book flights and accommodation online and managed to fly to Bali via Perth alone, presenting only his passport and school ID.

According to the Nine Network, he used a self-service check-in machine in Sydney.

He told the channels A Current Affair programme: They just asked for my student ID and passport to prove that I am over 12 and that I am in secondary school.

The boy then apparently told immigration in Bali that his mum was waiting outside before checking into his hotel room by telling staff he was waiting for his sister.

Row  the 12-year-old flew from Sydney to Bali, via Perth, alone after a row with his parents (Picture: Google Maps)

According to Nine, he spent four days in Bali including even hiring a motorbike, and was tracked down thanks to a photo and video he posted that helped authorities find him.

He was found in Bali on March 17, with authorities in Australia apparently confirming that he had been reported missing nine days earlier.

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He has now been united with his parents and an investigation is reportedly underway into how he managed to fly overseas alone.

In an interview with the family the 12-year-old explained his actions by saying: I wanted to go on an adventure.
Armenia's prime minister has resigned after mass protests at his appointment following 10 years as president.

Our Senior News Correspondent David Bowden spoke to people celebrating in the capital Yerevan about their hopes for the country's future.

It's as if a huge weight has been lifted from their shoulders in the warm spring sunshine in Yerevan's Republic Square.

The young demonstrators, who the day before had brought down their prime minister and his government, were out in force to clean up after Monday night's victory celebrations.

One by one, in broken English, they explained why they had taken to the streets and what the new Armenia must look like.

Vahe, a 21-year-old student, told me it was a "new beginning" for his country, where true democracy would replace the autocracy of the past decade or so under Serzh Sargsyan.

Alexandra, another student protester, said she sat and cried for two hours when she heard their demonstrations had succeeded and Mr Sargsyan had stepped down.

This "revolution" achieved its goal, largely because of the mobilisation of thousands of young activists.

But it was not just the youth of Armenia that claimed victory.

Sokrat, a sprightly 81-year-old, kissed my hand and beamed with delight as he explained through a translator that, before today, he had spent most of his life living as a prisoner in his own country.

Young and old were basking in the warm glow of expectation and hope. All this on the most poignant day in the Armenian calendar.

April the 24th is Armenian Genocide Memorial Day, a public holiday to commemorate the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Armenians by the Turks a century ago.

Simultaneously remembering the horrors of the past and staring optimistically into a new future. This truly is a red letter day for Armenia and her people.
A British woman has been rescued after being kept as a sex slave in Italy and raped repeatedly.

The woman had reportedly met Mamadou Jallow, from Mali, on Facebook while she was living in Germany because of her job.

He persuaded her to travel with him to Italy but when they arrived her bank account was emptied and she was kept captive in a room and allegedly raped repeatedly for two weeks by him and two other men.

Arrested  Suspect Mamadou Jallow has been arrested after the woman was allegedly kept as a sex slave (Pictures: Polizia di Stato)

The woman only escaped when she managed to secretly use a mobile phone to call her family, who had informed police after they hadnt heard from her for two weeks.

The signal was traced to an isolated house in Rosarno, southern Italy and police helped the woman to escape.

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Jallow and two other suspects have been arrested.

The woman, who a police spokesman said was in a terrible state, is recovering in hospital.
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Dozens of Chinese have been arrested in Cambodia on suspicion of extorting money from people in China via a telecoms scam, police said on Monday.

The arrests at two locations in Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh on Sunday are the latest in an ongoing battle Cambodia has waged with China's help against criminal call centers.

Last month police arrested 100 Chinese at a seven-storey condominium in the capital.

Uk Haiseila, chief of the Immigration Investigation Bureau, said the raids followed a request for help from Chinese police and an investigation that lasted several months.

Chinese scammers often enter Cambodia on tourist visas, according to immigration police.

Despite the frequent arrests of Chinese and Taiwanese suspected scammers, Heisela said he believed Cambodia was able to keep a lid on the scams.

"We could control this. It is not very serious", he said.

The scams have become a headache for both China and Taiwan, bringing cooperation between them, but also objections from Taiwan because of the deportation of suspects from the self-ruled island to face trial on the mainland.

(Reporting by Chansy Chhorn; Editing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Michael Perry)

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An international team of scientists has found evidence of hydrogen sulfidethe gas that gives rotten eggs their unpleasant smellthroughout the upper atmosphere of Uranus, something that has been predicted by researchers but never proven.

Using the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii, the team discovered large quantities of the foul gas in the cloud tops of the planet. The findings, which are published in the journal Nature Astronomy, shine new light on the composition of Uranuss cloudsone of the Solar Systems long-standing mysteries.

The gas was identified with the help of an extremely sensitive instrument, known as the Near-Infrared Integral Field Spectrometer (NIFS), which the scientists used to detect reflected sunlight from a region immediately above the main visible cloud layer on Uranus. Normally, the instrument is used to study objects such as black holes at the center of galaxies.

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Scientists have long debated whether hydrogen sulfide or ammonia dominate the cloud tops of Uranus but have lacked the evidence to make a definitive conclusion. Detecting either of these substances has been tricky because when these cloud layers form by condensation, the cloud-forming gas is hidden away deep in an internal reservoir, with only tiny quantities remaining above the clouds.

But the capabilities of the NIFSin addition to newly available data regarding the wavelengths at which different gases absorb lightenabled the researchers, for the first time, to identity even these faint traces, planetary physicist Patrick Irwin from the University of Oxford told Newsweek.

PIA01391

NASA/JPL

Story continues

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The new results demonstrate how the atmospheric compositions of the outer gas giants differ from those of the inner gas giantsJupiter and Saturnshining a light on the formation and evolution of planets in the Solar System.

The implications of this are that during the formation of the solar system, Uranus (and probably Neptune) formed at a greater distance from the sun where it was cold enough that both ammonia and hydrogen sulfide were in condensed icy form and thus easily incorporated into the growing planetary embryos that would eventually become Uranus (and Neptune), Irwin said.

Closer to the sun, ammonia would be preferentially in gas form and thus less easily incorporated into the planetary embryos that became Jupiter and Saturn. When scientists model planetary formation they find that in some circumstances the planetary embryos can move towards/away from the sun, a process called migration, and, in some cases can even swap positions, he added. "What this study shows is that while we cannot rule out some migration, it would seem very unlikely that the embryos swapped position.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP)  A prominent human rights lawyer demanded Monday that Qatar compensate Dutch-based victims of an al-Qaida-linked Syrian extremist group, saying the Al Nusra group was financed by Qatar-based funding networks.

In a letter sent to Qatar's ruling emir that was seen by The Associated Press, lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld accused the wealthy Gulf state of failing to take action against the al-Nusra Front and said: "Qatar is therefore liable for the damages suffered by the victims."

Qatar denies funding extremist groups. Qatari authorities did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment on Zegveld's claims and her demand for compensation.

In her letter to Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Zegveld alleged that one of the victims was taken hostage by members of al-Nusra near Damascus in December 2012.

The man, whose identity was not released out of safety concerns, was repeatedly tortured, forced to watch the executions of two other hostages and subjected to a mock execution. The militants demanded nearly $2 million for his release.

He eventually escaped and fled Syria, and has since been granted asylum in the Netherlands, Zegveld said.

Qatar, which hosts some 10,000 U.S. troops and the forward operating base of the U.S. military's Central Command, is a peninsular nation that juts out like a thumb into the Persian Gulf. It has the world's highest per-capita income due to its massive natural gas reserves.

While the country denies funding extremist groups, it remains a key patron of the Islamic Hamas movement, which rules the Gaza Strip. Western officials also have accused Qatar of allowing or encouraging funding of Sunni extremists like the Nusra Front. It also has hosted members of the Afghan Taliban.

However, those ties have been useful to Western governments. Qatar helped negotiate the release of captives held by the Nusra Front in the past. It also helped negotiate the 2014 release of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for five Taliban prisoners.

Story continues

Qatar also has backed members of the Muslim Brotherhood, a pan-Arab Islamist organization that the Gulf's hereditary Arab rulers view as a threat to their sheikhdoms. That has been at the heart of the ongoing boycott of Qatar by four Arab nations.

The Nusra Front "was only able to arise and maintain its terrorist activities due to the financing provided by Qatar," Zegveld said in her letter. "Qatar supports and facilitates the terrorist organization in various ways."

Zegveld said that if Qatar fails to establish a compensation fund, she will launch legal proceedings against the country, state officials and "other individuals and organizations residing in Qatar that are involved in the financing of terrorism."

She gave Qatar six weeks to respond.

____

Associated Press correspondent Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

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By Kumerra Gemechu

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Britain must permanently return all artefacts from Ethiopia held by the Victoria and Albert Museum and Addis Ababa will not accept them on loan, an Ethiopian government official said.

The call comes after the museum, one of London's most popular tourist attractions, put Ethiopian treasures plundered by British forces on display.

"Well, it would be exciting if the items held at the V&A could be part of a long-term loan with a cultural institution in Ethiopia," museum director Tristram Hunt said.

"These items have never been on a long-term loan in Ethiopia, but as we look to the future I think what we're interested in are partnerships around conservation, interpretation, heritage management, and these need to be supported by government assistance so that institutions like the V&A can support sister institutions in Ethiopia."

Among the items on display are sacred manuscripts and gold taken from the Battle of Maqdala 150 years ago, when British troops ransacked the fortress of Emperor Tewodros II.

The offer of a loan did not go far enough for Ethiopia.

"What we have asked (for) was the restitution of our heritage, our Maqdala heritage, looted from Maqdala 150 years ago. We presented our request in 2007 and we are waiting for it," said government minister Hirut Woldemariam said.

Ephrem Amare, Ethiopian National Museum director, added: "It is clearly known where these treasures came from and whom they belong to. Our main demand has never been to borrow them. Ethiopias demand has always been the restoration of those illegally looted treasures. Not to borrow them.

The V&A could not immediately be reached for further comment on Monday.

In launching the Maqdala 1868 exhibition of what Hunt called "stunning pieces with a complex history" this month, he said the display had been organised in consultation with the Ethiopian community in London.

"As custodians of these Ethiopian treasures, we have a responsibility to celebrate the beauty of their craftsmanship, shine a light on their cultural and religious significance and reflect on their living meaning, while being open about how they came to Britain," he said in a blog on the museum website.

(Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Alison Williams)
By David Ljunggren and Lesley Wroughton

TORONTO (Reuters) - Foreign ministers from Group of Seven leading industrialized nations on Monday united to condemn Russia for what they called "a pattern of irresponsible and destabilising" behaviour and urged Moscow to help resolve the conflict in Syria.

The ministers agreed to create a working group to study Russia's "malign behaviour" and said they were working on a plan to improve coordination to push back against foreign interference in elections.

"We call on Russia to cease this behaviour, which is highly detrimental to prospects for constructive cooperation," the G7 foreign ministers said in a joint statement.

The two-day meeting in Toronto was meant to prepare for a G7 leaders' summit in Charlevoix, Quebec on June 7-8.

U.S. intelligence agencies have said Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign, and Russia is also blamed for a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Britain last month, which the G7 statement strongly condemned. Moscow has denied involvement in either event.

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said G7 ministers expressed deep concern about Russia's efforts to destabilise democracies by interfering in elections.

"The G7 countries are committed to preventing, stopping and responding to foreign interference," she told a news conference at the end of talks.

"There are consequences for those who seek to undermine our democracies," she said, adding there was clear unity among G7 allies on Russia.

Later, Freeland told reporters the G7 would soon detail a plan on improved coordination among member states when faced with foreign interference.

"Coordinated action and cooperation are needed to build resilience and reinforce our democratic institutions and process against foreign interference by state and non-state actors," Freeland told reporters.

"There is a concern within the G7 countries that authoritarian states are actively working to undermine democratic systems ... today we said 'enough is enough'," she added.

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The challenge for the G7 is that it also needs Moscow's help to resolve the crisis in Syria, where Russia and Iran are backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Acting U.S. Secretary of State John Sullivan called on Moscow to stop creating impediments to peace in Syria and to play a role in ending the seven-year-long conflict.

"Russia must be a constructive partner in Syria or will be held accountable," he told reporters.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, speaking to reporters on the margins of the meeting, said G7 ministers had agreed on the need to be vigilant about Russia.

"What we decided ... was that we were going to set up a G7 group that would look at Russian malign behaviour in all its manifestations - whether it's cyber warfare, whether it's disinformation, assassination attempts, whatever it happens to be, and collectively try to call it out," he told reporters.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the meeting established "again that there will be no political solution in Syria without Russia ... and that Russia has to contribute its share to such a solution."

The G7 meeting is the first high-level gathering of the allies since the United States, France and Britain launched 105 missiles targeting chemical weapons facilities in Syria in retaliation for a suspected poison gas attack on April 7.

The Western countries blame Assad for the attack that killed dozens of people. The Syrian government and its Russian ally deny involvement or using poison gas on April 7.

While supporting the air strikes, the G7 statement said they were "limited, proportionate and necessary - and taken only after exhausting every possible diplomatic option to uphold the international norm against the use of chemical weapons."

Maas also said the leaders of France and Germany would urge U.S. President Donald Trump in separate meetings this week not to pull out of an Iran nuclear deal with major powers.

Trump has given the European signatories of the deal a May 12 deadline to "fix the terrible flaws" of the 2015 nuclear agreement, or he will refuse to extend U.S. sanctions relief on Iran.

The agreement offered Tehran relief from sanctions in exchange for curbing its nuclear programme.

"We accept that Iranian behaviour has been disruptive in the region, we accept the president has some valid points that need to be addressed, but we believe they are capable of being addressed (inside the deal)," said Johnson.

The G7 meeting took place several miles from where the driver of a van killed at least nine people and injured 16 when he ploughed through a busy Toronto sidewalk on Monday, according to police, hospital officials and a Reuters witness.

(Additional reporting by Sabine Siebold, Matt Scuffham and Anna Mehler Paperny; Editing by Frances Kerry and James Dalgleish)
FILE PHOTO: A Chevron gas station sign is shown in Cardiff, California, January 25, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

Thomson Reuters

By Marianna Parraga and Alexandra Ulmer

HOUSTON/CARACAS (Reuters) - Two Chevron Corp. employees detained in Venezuela last week could be charged with treason for refusing to sign a parts contract for a joint venture with state-owned oil company PDVSA, according to two sources familiar with draft charges against the U.S. firm's executives.

The arrests, by national intelligence agents, marked the first at a Western oil firm in Venezuela and represent a dramatic escalation of growing tensions between PDVSA and foreign companies over control of supply contracts, the sources told Reuters.

The widening dispute could worsen operational chaos that has caused the OPEC nation's oil output to plunge by 23 percent, or 450,000 barrels per day, since October.

"These detentions are going to accelerate the operational crisis," another source with knowledge of Chevron's operations told Reuters. "Procurement could end up in paralysis if nobody wants to take the risk of signing or authorizing anything."

The draft treason charges - seen by Chevron lawyers last week, the two sources said - raised concern that the oil major could get caught in the crossfire between Washington and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who accuses the U.S. government of sabotaging the economy to topple his administration. The United States has imposed sanctions on senior members of Maduro's government and PDVSA.

The two Chevron employees were jailed when they refused to sign a supply contract written by PDVSA executives under an emergency decree - which skips the competitive bidding process, according to a half dozen sources close to the case. Such decrees have been cited by Venezuela prosecutors as a means of extracting bribes in some recent PDVSA corruption cases.

The Chevron employees balked when the parts were listed at more than double their market price in a contract worth several million dollars, one of the sources told Reuters. The workers oversaw operations and procurement at Petropiar, an oil upgrading project co-owned by PDVSA and Chevron to transform Orinoco Belt's extra heavy crude into an exportable product.

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Venezuela's national intelligence service, Sebin, arrested the Chevron workers, Carlos Algarra and Rene Vasquez, in front of stunned co-workers in a raid of Chevron's office in Puerto La Cruz and the upgrader on April 16.

Venezuelan authorities have yet to comment on the arrest of the men, both Venezuelans, and no charges against them have been made public.

The Venezuela public prosecutor's office declined to comment, and PDVSA did not respond to several requests for comment.

The arrests follow a purge that has seen more than 80 executives at PDVSA and its suppliers jailed for alleged corruption as the state firm's new chief, Major General Manuel Quevedo, has sought to stamp his authority on the sector - the financial lifeblood of Venezuela's unraveling socialist government.

Tensions between PDVSA and foreign oil companies have steadily risen since Quevedo took charge in November and appointed military officers who had little or no oil industry experience to senior jobs.

Foreign firms have pushed for a greater say in procurement to combat inefficiencies and graft, oil industry sources said, but disputes over governance standards have caused operational delays, raising tensions over Venezuela's falling oil output.

In February, the Petropiar upgrader had been temporarily halted because of problems scheduling its exports, and PDVSA executives were concerned it could be forced to stop again due to lack of spare parts, one of the sources said.

When the imported furnace parts did not arrive on time, PDVSA executives blamed the Chevron employees for the delays, according to the two sources familiar with the draft charges.

The men are being represented by Chevron lawyers. The charges against them have not been formalized and could change, the two sources said.

A spokesman for Chevron declined to comment.

Venezuela defines treason as conspiring with foreign enemies against the state and proscribes punishment of up to 30 years in prison. Defendants are not entitled to due process protections afforded to those accused of other crimes, according to the statute.

As of Sunday, the two men were being held in the offices of the intelligence services in the coastal city of Barcelona, according to the two sources with knowledge of the draft charges.

CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE

The detentions highlight the growing difficulties for foreign oil firms amid a deepening economic crisis in Venezuela, allegations of rampant corruption, a power struggle within PDVSA and an increasingly authoritarian government.

Reuters reported earlier this month that Maduro had granted extra powers to Quevedo to "create, annul or modify" deals involving state energy company PDVSA and its subsidiaries.

Foreign oil firms, at a meeting in Caracas this month to discuss how to tackle production problems at joint ventures, expressed their concerns over procurement and governance to Quevedo, according to documents seen by Reuters.

PDVSA has a minimum 60 percent stake in joint ventures and has been slow to share operational control, despite large-scale staff resignations in recent months.

About 25,000 PDVSA workers resigned between the start of January 2017 and the end of January 2018, out of a workforce last officially reported at 146,000, Reuters reported last week. The resignations - including high-level professionals that are now almost impossible to replace - have only accelerated since Quevedo arrived, two dozen industry sources told Reuters.

Oil majors such as Chevron and Eni SpA, Total SA and Repsol SA still operate in Venezuela, home to the world's largest oil reserves. Although no foreign workers have been detained in the purge of the sector until last week, some companies have previously withdrawn expatriate workers over security concerns.

Many foreign workers' families are reluctant to stay in Venezuela for long periods, one executive from a company operating in the Orinoco Belt told Reuters.

"We no longer have any guarantee that expatriates will not be sent to jail," the executive said.

(Reporting by Marianna Parraga in Houston and Alexandra Ulmer in Caracas; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Brian Thevenot)

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DUBAI (Reuters) - With Ethiopia signalling it may start filling its towering $4 billion (2.86 billion pounds) Grand Renaissance Dam this year, safeguarding scarce Nile water resources has surged to the top of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's policy agenda as he begins a second term.

The two countries have been locked in contentious negotiations for years and have yet to come to a comprehensive water-sharing agreement.

Egypt, which relies almost exclusively on the Nile for farming, industry and drinking water, has sought assurances that the dam will not significantly cut the river's flow to its rapidly growing population.

Ethiopia, the source of the Blue Nile which joins the White Nile in Khartoum and runs on to Egypt, has said the dam will not disrupt the flow and hopes the project will transform it into a power hub for the electricity-hungry region.

Following are some of the frameworks governing the use of Nile river waters:

THE 1929 NILE WATERS AGREEMENT

This agreement was signed between Egypt and Great Britain, which represented at the time Uganda, Kenya, Tanganyika (now Tanzania) and Sudan. The document gave Cairo the right to veto projects higher up the Nile that would affect its water share.

THE 1959 AGREEMENT BETWEEN EGYPT AND SUDAN

This accord between Egypt and Sudan, supplementing the previous agreement, gave Egypt the right to 55.5 billion cubic meters of Nile water a year and Sudan 18.5 billion cubic meters per year.

Both the 1929 and 1959 agreements have created resentment among other Nile states and calls for changes to the pact, resisted by Egypt.

THE NILE BASIN INITIATIVE

Formed in 1999, the initiative brought together the then nine Nile Basin countries to develop the river in a cooperative manner, share substantial socioeconomic benefits, and promote regional peace and security.

The nine Nile Basin Initiative countries were Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Since then South Sudan has been added to the initiative.

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ENTEBBE AGREEMENT

Egypt froze its membership in the Nile Basin Initiative in 2010 after some upstream countries signed the Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA). Egypt has argued that the deal reallocated water shares without its approval.

The CFA, also known as the Entebbe Agreement, has been signed by six out of the 10 Nile Basin Initiative states. The signatories are Uganda, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya and Burundi.

Egypt wants an alternative to the agreement, which now allows other Nile basin countries to conduct projects along the river without its prior consent.

THE 2015 DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES

Leaders from Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan signed a cooperation deal in 2015 over the Grand Renaissance Dam in a bid to ease tensions. The deal was meant to pave the way for further diplomatic cooperation. The main principles in the agreement include giving priority to downstream countries for electricity generated by the dam, a mechanism for resolving conflicts, and providing compensation for damages.

(Reporting by Maha El Dahan; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
Finland is to scrap a pioneering universal wage scheme that paid people a flat monthly fee rather than unemployment benefits.

The Finnish Social Insurance Institute - known as Kela - introduced a two-year trial of Universal Basic Income (UBI) in January last year , which saw the government pay citizens a monthly stipend of 560 (490).

The trial was heralded as a possible solution to a future in which there will be increasing amounts of automation and rising inequality.

Across the country, 2,000 unemployed people between the ages of 25 and 58 were randomly selected for the experiment, which received international recognition for its potential impact on social security and was a European first.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his Tesla and SpaceX counterpart Elon Musk were among the high-profile supporters of UBI, but the Finnish government has announced it intends to scrap the project.

Under a full roll-out of UBI, all citizens - not just those looking for a job - would have been guaranteed the same monthly payment.

Its backers say it would help tackle poverty and inequality as people would not have to worry about making ends meet - and it would encourage the unemployed to find work.

But the government has rejected a request from Kela for additional funding to expand the trial to encompass a selection of people currently in work, and has decided to cancel the project once the trial ends in January 2019.

Miska Simanainen, a researcher at Kela, told Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet that the government would now pursue changes that would "take the system further away from a basic income".

His colleague, Olli Kangas, told the Finnish broadcaster YLE that the scheme required a longer trial before any final decision was made.

"Two years is too short a period to be able to draw extensive conclusions from such a big experiment," he said.

"We should have had extra time and more money to achieve reliable results."

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In December, Finnish MPs voted through legislation to make some unemployment benefits contingent on people taking part in training or some form of work for at least 18 hours over the course of three months.

Finance Minister Petteri Orpo has told Swedish newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet that he was considering a number of alternatives to UBI, including a universal credit system similar to the one introduced in the UK .

In the meantime, Kela has pledged to remain in touch with the 2,000 people involved in the UBI trial to analyse its long-term impacts.
A pair of Florida detectives visited a funeral home last month in an attempt to unlock a cellphone belonging to a deceased man by using his fingerprint.

Investigators arrived at Sylvan Abbey Funeral Home in Clearwater within 72 hours of the death of suspect Linus F. Phillip, 30, who was shot and killed during an altercation with two Largo patrol officers on March 23 at a Wawa gas station.

They gained access to the corpse and held his fingerprint to the phones sensor but, according to the Tampa Bay Times, which first reported the case, the move was ultimately unsuccessful. Largo police lieutenant Randall Chaney said that the two detectives needed access in order to preserve data stored on the handset that was potentially tied to a separate drug inquiry involving the deceased suspect.

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Chaney told the Tampa Bay Times there is typically a 48 to 72-hour period to open a cellphone that has been locked using a fingerprint. While Largo police officers got the device back within that period, Phillips body had already been transferred from state custody to the funeral home. Detectives believed a warrant was not needed because the suspect had little expectation of privacy, Chaney added.

Smartphone

REUTERS/Jason Lee

Phillip was pronounced dead at Largo Medical Center last month after being shot four times following an incident with patrol officers Matthew Steiner and Prentice Ables. The pair said they had attempted to detain Phillip after smelling marijuana coming from a vehicle he was driving, a Nissan Altima that initially caught their attention for allegedly having illegally tinted windows.

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Steiner said he fired his weapon in self-defense after the suspect attempted to flee the scene by reversing with him still halfway in the car. While the funeral home search was allowed under Florida law, Phillips fiance Victoria Armstrong, 28, said the incident had left her feeling disrespected and violated.

Biometric and fingerprint locking is now commonplace on modern phones and tablets. They can pose a challenge for investigators and U.S. law enforcement has warned that such technology is helping criminals to evade detection. In 2016, the FBI led a high-profile case against Apple over its use of strong encryption.

Charles Rose, director of the Center for Excellence in Advocacy at Stetson University College of Law, told the Tampa Bay Times that the case raises ethical concerns. "While the deceased person doesnt have a vested interest in the remains of their body, the family sure does, so it really doesnt pass the smell test. Theres a ghoulish component to it thats troubling.

Reports indicate that using dead suspects hands to unlock smart-devices is now becoming a popular tactic for U.S. investigators. Last month, Forbes reported that an FBI agent had previously tried it two years ago after obtaining an Apple iPhone belonging to Abdul Razak Ali Artan, the man responsible for a stabbing attack at Ohio State University in November 2016. That attempt was also unsuccessful.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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By Andrew Hay and Bernie Woodall

(Reuters) - Illinois lawmakers on Tuesday were trying to close a legal loophole that allowed a confiscated AR-15 semiautomatic rifle to be given back to the man accused of a shooting at a Waffle House restaurant in Tennessee that killed four and wounded four.

The legislation, which should be made public later on Tuesday, is meant to deter a family member from returning a firearm to a relative whose gun licence has been revoked, Illinois State Senator Julie Morrison told Reuters.

Illinois state police revoked the gun licence of Travis Reinking and his firearms were transferred to his father after U.S. Secret Service agents arrested him last year for being in a restricted area near the White House. The 29-year-old Reinking, who had a troubled past, said he wanted to meet President Donald Trump.

Reinking's father subsequently gave the guns back to him.

"This legislation is going to make sure the guns do not go back into the hands of the person who shouldnt have them," said Morrison, a Democrat.

The Illinois legislature is also working on a separate bill to permit families of troubled individuals who are a danger to themselves or others to have guns removed temporarily from that persons home.

Illinois is one of the few U.S. states that requires residents to have a licence or permit to own a gun and is among a minority of U.S. states that requires gun owners to give up firearms if their rights to own them are revoked.

FELONY TO GIVE IT BACK

Morrison's legislation would require a person taking possession of guns to sign an affidavit acknowledging that it is a felony to give a firearm to a person who does not have a valid Firearm Owner's Identification (FOID) gun permit.

The proposed legislation goes some way towards closing a loophole identified by gun control groups.

"We think it is risky for the law to allow a third party, including a family member, to hold onto firearms when a person loses his or her gun eligibility," said Hannah Shearer, staff attorney at the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. "It can be far too easy for the person to retake possession of the guns and perpetrate a shooting."

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Gun rights advocates said the problem lay with Travis' father, who may have knowingly broken Illinois state law and federal law by giving guns to someone not allowed to have them.

"Certain people commit crimes," said California attorney Chuck Michel, who litigates for the National Rifle Association. "Thats the problem with gun control laws, they never stop people committing the crimes."

The NRA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

For survivors of gun violence like Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Cameron Kasky, it made little sense to keep a firearm within a family if one of its members was judged unfit to have it.

"If its with your family, theres a very good chance you can get it from them," said Kasky.

After seeing so much gun violence in his hometown and state, Chicago criminal defence lawyer Michael O'Meara wanted lawmakers to ensure that firearms taken from people never returned to them.

"A guy was able to get his hands on the very guns he was told were revoked and thats concerning," O'Meara said.

(Reporting By Andrew Hay in New Mexico and Bernie Woodall in Florida; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
By Francesco Guarascio

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Increased European scrutiny of a police investigation into the killing of a journalist in Malta reveals the degree of international concern about the rule of law on the Mediterranean island, one of the journalist's sons said on Tuesday.

Anti-corruption blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb in October near her house. Maltese authorities have charged three men with carrying out the murder but have not identified those who ordered it.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), a pan-European body with 47 member states, appointed on Monday Dutch parliamentarian Pieter Omtzigt to monitor and report on the Maltese police investigation.

The Council of Europe, a rights watchdog, is distinct from the 28-nation European Union. Malta is a member of both.

"This monitoring is unprecedented for an EU member state. It shows the extent of the worry in Europe about the situation in Malta," said Andrew Caruana Galizia, the journalist's son.

The EU's justice commissioner said on Monday she would visit Malta soon to see how the investigation is progressing and to look at its anti-money laundering moves.

Omtzigt has a mandate to ensure that the murder is "thoroughly and impartially investigated... without political interference," according to a PACE motion presented earlier this year that paved the way for his appointment.

A press officer for the Council of Europe said it would be "the first time that the Assembly has prepared a report on the issue of an individual murder in an EU member state".

The body has so far monitored murder investigations in only two cases, both in Russia, which is not in the European Union though it is a member of the Council of Europe.

The move came as a group of local and international media groups, including Reuters, began following up stories covered by Caruana Galizia, in an initiative called the Daphne Project.

Maltese authorities say they do not know the motive for the crime. A one million euro reward offered by the government for information remains unclaimed.

(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Gareth Jones)
First lady Melania Trump has chosen china for the state dinner shes hosting for French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday that may not be pleasing to her husband President Donald Trump.

Much of the food will be served on plates from former President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton, who was Donald Trumps opponent in the 2016 presidential election and whom he has continued to attack.

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The color scheme is cream and gold and the china settings consist of the Clinton china for the baseplate, along with both Bush (43) and Clinton china for the dinner service, according to details released by the White House Monday.

In a video Melania Trump tweeted on her months of preparations for the state dinner, the base plates are gold-trimmed and appear to resemble the Clinton plates.

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In 2000, then-first lady Hillary Clinton approved commissioning the china to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the White House. It was the first service plate to feature an image of the White House in the center.

Using Clinton china appears to be Melania Trumps personal choice. She did not seek out an event planner for her first state dinner as most administrations in the recent past have, and instead took it in her own hands.

She has amazing taste, which makes things very, very easy, social secretary Rickie Niceta, who is helping Melania Trump, told The Washington Post.

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A rack of lamb will be the main course to be served at the dinner, while a goat cheese gateau will be among the appetizers. It will be the first state dinner hosted by the Trumps, after the president became the first in almost a century not to hold one during his first year in office.

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President Trump has repeatedly called his presidential election opponent Crooked Hillary and continued to criticize her long after his victory. On Tuesday, however, he will be forced to eat on a plate that Hillary Clinton commissioned, thanks to his wife.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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As protests against Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan entered their 11th day on Monday, April 23, residents of the resort town of Sevan took to the streets to demonstrate. The protests had largely been centered on the capital Yerevan.

Sargsyan, who served as president from 2008 to early 2018, was elected as prime minister by parliament on April 17. Critics have said the election was anti-democratic and have branded it a power grab. In 2015, Armenia held a constitutional referendum that lessened the power of the president and gave greater power to the parliament.

This video shows protesters marching in Sevan. Credit: ArmenianWriter via Storyful
The Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, is in the early stages of labor and has been taken to hospital, Kensington Palace has said.

She was due to give birth to her third child in April and had been on maternity leave since March 22, when she attended a charity lunch at the Olympic Park for a SportAid event.

She was driven to the hospital from Kensington Palace with her husband, Prince William, and has been admitted to the Lindo Wing at St Marys Hospital, Paddington, the palace said.

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GettyImages-931007524

Paul Grover/AFP/Getty Images

The exclusive wing of the hospital is where Kate's first two children, Prince George, four, and Princess Charlotte, two, were born as were their father, the Duke of Cambridge, and uncle, Prince Harry.

As with her previous pregnancies the duchess suffered from severe morning sickness, known as hyperemesis gravidarum.

The child will be the Queens sixth great grandchild and will be fifth in line to the throne.

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If her previous children are anything to go by, royal watchers expect a relatively swift delivery, with George being born 10 hours after she was admitted to hospital and Charlotte, only two and a half hours after Kate arrived at the Lindo wing.

The Mirror reported that consultant obstetrician Guy Thorpe-Beeston, who is the surgeon-gynecologist to the Royal Household, would be overseeing the delivery. For her previous children she had a 23-strong medical team working or on stand-by from Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.

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Clare Livingstone, professional policy adviser at the Royal College of Midwives, said, according to The Guardian: "Some women report a quicker labour with their third baby but not everyone. It seems to be though that they do go more quickly. Its a very individual thing."

The latest odds for the name of the new royal baby put Alice (4/1) and Mary (11/2) top the the list with popular possibilities also including Elizabeth and Victoria (both at 6/1), according to bookmakers William Hill.

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When Prince William once slipped up that the baby could be a boy, odds were slashed and William Hill has put odds on Arthur (5/1), Albert on (9/1), and Jack (9/1).

Betway previously said: "Alice is a popular early front-runner to be the chosen name of Will and Kates third baby at 4/1."

The baby's will be known as HRH Prince or Princess of Cambridge. After the birth, the Duchess will take a long time off to recover but is expected to attend the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on May 19.

Royal watchers and the media have started to camp at the front of the hospital in anticipation of the birth which will be announced via email to the press, and a tweet on the Kensington Palace Twitter feed.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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By Daria Sito-Sucic

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - NATO enlargement to take in members from the Balkan countries is undermining security and stability in the region, a senior Russian parliamentarian said on Monday.

Valentina Matviyenko, speaking in the upper house of Bosnia's parliament, singled out neighboring Montenegro which recently became a NATO member, but also criticized Macedonia's aspirations to join the U.S.-led military alliance.

"Montenegro's joining NATO against the will practically of half of its citizens has become the harshest violation of the basic principles of modern democracy," Matviyenko, speaker of the Russian parliament's upper house, said.

Macedonia was also trying the "same dangerous experiment", she said, adding: "This step is leading only towards further destabilization of the situation in the region. It undermines the system of European security."

Western governments see NATO and European Union membership as the best way of preserving the peace and stability in the Balkans after a decade of wars with the break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

Montenegro joined the military alliance last year and hopes to join the European Union in 2025 at the same time as Serbia. Croatia, another former Yugoslav republic, joined in April 2009.

Both Montenegro and Macedonia have expelled Russian diplomats over the nerve toxin poisoning of a former Russian double agent. The British government has blamed the attack on Moscow, though Russia denies any involvement. The Kremlin then expelled a Montenegrin diplomat and summoned embassy officials from Macedonia.

Montenegrin prosecutors say a group of Serb nationalists and Russian agents plotted to kill then Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic during a coup attempt at the 2016 election to prevent Montenegro from joining NATO. The Kremlin dismissed such allegations as absurd.

Bosnia hopes to activate a NATO pre-accession Membership Action Plan but its plans for the membership of the alliance are blocked by Bosnian Serbs who see Russia as their main ally.

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Last month, Bosnia's security agencies banned leaders of the Russian Night Wolves motorcycle club from entering the country because of security concerns. The club is under U.S. sanctions for its role in a pro-Russian separatist insurgency in Ukraine.

(Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

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A high-ranking Russian official claims Sergei and Yulia Skripal may be dead (Rex)

Russia is promoting the idea that Sergei and Yulia Skripal could be dead, as the fallout from the Salisbury spy poisoning continues.

With numerous conspiracy theories promoted by Russia about what exactly happened in the nerve agent attack on the streets of Britain, a high-ranking official has suggested the Skripals may not have even been poisoned.

Vladimir Chizhov, the Russian Ambassador to the EU, made the extraordinary claim as he stated that the British Government has been more successful in dividing the EU than we would have ever been.

He told Euractiv: The Brits have effectively prevented any evidence from becoming public.

Can somebody say if the Skripals are alive today? We only have statements from the British side.

Vladimir Chizhov suggested the Skripals may not have even been poisoned (Wikipedia)

Do we really know if they have actually been poisoned?

Chizhov, who was previously Russias Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, also said Mr Skripals cat had been assassinated.

He said: The inconsistencies in the few details that have been made public are so obvious.

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Where is the second cat? Skripal had two cats. One was murdered, because ostensibly it was suffering from depression.

The police came to the house, had a thorough search, and didnt see the pets, and they left them, the two Guinea pigs that died from dehydration and were cremated, the cat that was assassinated, whereas the second cat managed to escape.

And nobody is looking after it. Its a piece of evidence on the run.

A high concentration of Novichok was found at Mr Skripals Salisbury home (Rex)

The Government stated earlier this month that the highest concentration of the nerve agent Novichok was found on the front door of Mr Skripals home in Christie Miller Road, in Salisbury.

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They said that the nerve agent had been delivered in a liquid form but Chizhov appeared to dismiss the claims  because of Britains WEATHER.

He added: In the beginning they were saying  it was a gas. So Novichok is a gas.

Well, gas doesnt really stick to a door handle, does it? Then it was a gel. Now they say it was a liquid. And the area is one of the rainiest in Britain.

Russia insists it has nothing to do with the attack on the Skripals (Rex)

So, before the door handle was taken off with the door, it was exposed to rain, and dozens of people walked through the door, using the handle, no gloves, and now the technical team of OPCW went to Britain and they were asked by the British authorities to inspect the hot points that the British authorities indicated to them, not an all-around search

I wouldnt call that a very thorough investigation.

Sergei and Yulia Skripal were discovered unconscious on a bench in Salisbury on 4 March.

Ms Skripal, 33, left hospital earlier this month, while her 66-year-old father is said to be slowly recovering.

The Government has blamed Russia for the poisoning, but Moscow denies having anything to do with the attack.
china livestreaming women

Thomas Peter/Reuters

Many job ads in China openly discriminate against women according to r esearch from Human Rights Watch, which analyzed 36,000 job ads from the last five years and found ads regularly list a preference for men or put unfair demands on female applicants.

While many jobs state "men only" or "men preferred," jobs open to women were found to list height, weight, facial appearance, marital status, motherhood, and manly demeanor as requirements.

Tech giants Alibaba and Baidu posted ads that excluded women from applying.



Job ads in China openly discriminate against women, regularly stating employers' preference for male applicants.

Some ads list a preference for men, others try to lure male applicants by describing the attractiveness of future female co-workers, while many more place unfair and unequal demands on women applicants.

Analyzing more than 36,000 job ads from the last five years, Human Rights Watch released a new report on Monday detailing the extent of discriminatory job ads in China.

"Nearly one in five job ads for Chinas 2018 national civil service called for men only or men preferred, while major companies like Alibaba have published recruitment ads promising applicants beautiful girls as co-workers," Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch, said.

In the past, Alibaba has repeatedly advertised "beautiful girls" or "goddesses" that work for the company in its job ads, and described them as "late night benefits."

But even in January this year, Alibaba advertised three roles primarily for men. An ad for a government affairs senior specialist stated "men preferred," as did an ad for restaurant operations support, while the ad for a crowd-sourcing delivery manager said "men only."

Last year, advertisements for feed reviewers at Baidu, who were likely being hired for censorship-related work, listed "men" alongside other job requirements such as an associate's degree. In 2016, a job ad for the company's filming program manager job ad stated the role required "strong logical reasoning ability, effective execution skills  men and manly women [need apply]."

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In response to the new report, Baidu told AFP its the job ads have been removed while Alibaba said it would conduct "stricter reviews" of its ads going forwards but the ads referred to in the report were outdated.

"Sexist job ads pander to the antiquated stereotypes that persist within Chinese companies," Richardson said. "These companies pride themselves on being forces of modernity and progress, yet they fall back on such recruitment strategies, which shows how deeply entrenched discrimination against women remains in China."

Performance by government departments were no better

Out of all national civil service jobs that were reviewed so far this year, 19% included the terms "men only," "men preferred," or "suitable for men." There was just one instance of a job ad that required the applicant to be a woman.

Last year, 55% of jobs advertised by the Ministry of Public Security specified "men only."

These ads typically state working conditions such as "frequent overtime," "heavy workload," and "frequent travel" that appear to be the reason for excluding women. One ad in the ministry's news department listed "need to work overtime frequently, high intensity work, only men need apply."

One job ad site has attempted to stop the sexist ads by banning gender discrimination phrases, but there are easy workarounds. Human Rights Watch found numerous uses of Chinese characters that sound like "man," use a Romanized version, or swap "man" out for other colloquial terms.

Sexist job ads in China are not a recent problem.

Research from 2013 found gender-targeted ads are common in China, and that an employer's preference for a women workers is often related to their age, height and beauty rather than skill.

There are often gender-specific criteria for women hires

Chinese women

REUTERS/Stringer

If organizations do try to hire women, Human Rights Watch found employers often add in strict, gender-specific criteria regarding appearance, marital status, motherhood, or even alter educational requirements.

In Shaanxi province, researchers found the actual job title for female train conductors was "fashionable and beautiful high-speed train conductors."

Another ad for train conductors in Hebei required women to weigh "below 65 kilograms," be between "162 centimeters to 173 centimeters" tall, and have "normal facial features, no tattoos, no obvious scars on face, neck or arms, good skin tone, no incurable skin conditions."

At Alibaba, the sole job available in January that included the Chinese character for "woman" required the applicant to "possess fine personal image."

Other ads appear to indicate employers would prefer to avoid the hassle of maternity leave, particularly under China's new two-child policy.

One job ad listed "[Applicants must be] women married with children or men." Another, for a senior manager position at an internet company, required a "female, married with children, excellent image and temperament."

Even Beijing court assistants, who were required to be female, needed to have "proper looks."

In a number of instances women were able to apply for jobs only if they had higher qualifications than their male counterparts. In one city looking to hire management assistants, 47 positions were open to men who had high school diplomas. Two of the three same positions open to women required an associate's degree.

China is still battling gender inequality

When China ended its one-child policy, state media declared women could now return to the home in order to "better raise children."

This belief closely aligns with what appears to be the state's desire for women to marry and remain in the home. In 2015, Beijing's office of marriage registration caused an uproar when one of its posters saying: "Being a good wife and good mother is the biggest achievement of a woman," began circulating online.

The pressure for women to marry is so great that those who are unmarried after 27 are considered "leftover women" and "spoiled goods."

When measured for gender equality, China ranks 100 out of 144 countries.

NOW WATCH: A North Korean defector's harrowing story of escape

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SEE ALSO: China's 'Great Firewall' is taller than ever under 'president-for-life' Xi Jinping
Policemen and locals gather near a destroyed police truck, after three suicide bomb attacks in southwestern city of Quetta Policemen and locals gather near a destroyed police truck, after three suicide bomb attacks in southwestern city of Quetta, Pakistan April 24, 2018. REUTERS/Naseer Ahmed

By Gul Yousafzai

QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Three suicide bombers attacked Pakistani police and paramilitary soldiers in the southwestern city of Quetta on Tuesday, killing six police and wounding 15 members of the security forces, officials said.

One bomber detonated his explosives near a police truck, provincial police chief Moazzam Jah Ansari said. Seven police officers were wounded in that attack.

"It is a suicide attack, and we have a confirmation that six of our police officials are dead," Ansari told Reuters.

Half an hour earlier, two suicide bombers tried to attack a paramilitary checkpoint on the city's outskirts, but troops deployed there engaged them, a paramilitary officer said.

He said the troops had opened fire at the attackers, who detonated their explosives, wounding eight soldiers. Both the suicide bombers died, he said on condition of anonymity because the army was due to issue an official statement.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Quetta is the capital city of the southwestern province of Baluchistan, which has been plagued by violence.

Islamist militants linked to the Taliban, al Qaeda and Islamic State have been operating in the province, which borders Iran as well as Afghanistan. It also has an indigenous ethnic Baloch insurgency fighting the central government.

Islamic State has created a branch in Pakistan and Afghanistan, mostly by recruiting among break away factions of other established militant groups. Its followers have claimed some of Pakistan's most deadly recent attacks.

Six members of Pakistan's tiny Christian minority community, four of them from the same family, and two people from the Shi'ite Muslim minority were gunned down in Quetta this month.

In December two suicide bombers stormed a packed church in southwestern Pakistan, killing at least 10 people and wounding up to 56.

Pakistan a nuclear armed nation of 208 million people has for some time seen a decrease in militant violence, but the Islamists, who want to install their own harsh brand of Islamic law, remain potent.

(Writing by Asif Shahzad; Editing by Alison Williams)
The Toronto van attack suspect has been charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder and 13 cases of attempted murder.

Alek Minassian, 25, is suspected of driving a rented van that mounted the pavement on a busy street at lunchtime, killing 10 people. Another 15 are believed to have been injured.

Minassian, who was arrested shortly after the attack on Monday, made his first court appearance. He wore a white jail jumpsuit and had his hands handcuffed. He showed little emotion.

He was asked to say his name and if he understood an order not to have any contact with anyone injured in the attack.

He did not enter a plea to the charges and was ordered to return to court on 10 May.

The judge ordered that he be detained without bond.

Minassian, of Richmond Hill, an area close to the attack, was captured in a tense but brief confrontation with officers a few streets away from where the van mounted the pavement and continued for a mile, leaving people bloodied and dead.

A number of witness accounts suggest the incident was carried out on purpose, with the police chief agreeing that the behaviour was intentional.

"The incident definitely looked deliberate," police chief Mark Saunders told reporters.

The identities of the victims are slowly emerging, with two South Koreans believed to be among the dead.

Officials have said that although the attack has the hallmarks of other deadly vehicle assaults by Islamic State supporters in the US and Europe, it did not represent a threat to national security.

Asked if there was any evidence of a terrorist link, Mr Saunders said: "Based on what we have there's nothing that has it to compromise the national security at this time."

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged the nation not to live in fear after the "senseless attack."

Police, who have descended on Mianassian's home, said the suspect was not previously known to them and are trying to establish a motive for the worst mass killing in Canada in decades.

Story continues

A Facebook post which was made by Minassian' social media account shortly before the attack said: "The Incel Rebellion has already begun! We will overthrow all the Chads and Stacys"

'Incel' is an abbreviation of the term 'involuntarily celibate', which was largely coined by men online who say they are unable to find women who will have sexual relationships with them.

The term is sometimes used by those not from this group to accuse a person of having a combination of a bad personality, being unattractive, treating women as sexual objects and blaming women for their supposed poor sex life.

'Chads and Stacys' are terms used by this same group to refer to men and women who are sexually prolific.

The post also praised Elliot Roger, calling him a "Supreme Gentleman". Roger killed six people and himself as well as injuring 14 in California in 2014 after uploading a YouTube video in which he explained he wanted to punish women for rejecting him.

Facebook have said the account the post was sent from did not appear to be fake.

Students who attended a Toronto vocational school with Minassian described him as withdrawn and a bit awkward.

The police officer who arrested the suspect has been praised for refusing to shoot him.

The suspect is thought to have been seeking "suicide by cop".

As the suspect shouted, "Kill me," the officer replied, "No, get down."

He went on to say: "I have a gun in my pocket." The officer replied: "I don't care. Get down" before edging forward to get in a position to arrest him.
Thousands of protesters marched on Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, on Monday, April 23, to call for the resignation of President Daniel Ortega over a violent crackdown on protests against scrapped plans to overhaul the countrys welfare system.

These videos show protesters marching through Managua. The protesters walked from the Metrocentro roundabout towards the Universidad Politecnica de Nicaragua (Upoli), where one student was shot in clashes with police on Sunday, El Nuevo Diario reported.

There have been widespread demonstrations across the country since last Wednesday, April 18, prompted by President Ortegas plan to reform Nicaraguas social security system. President Daniel Ortega has since scrapped the unpopular welfare plan, but broader anti-government protests have continued with violence against students and journalists serving as a flashpoint for public anger. The US State Department warned against travel to Nicaragua and ordered family members of embassy staff to withdraw from the country on Monday. Credit: Bayardo A. Aguilar via Storyful
Uranus smells like farts (Getty)

Its the headline that every giggling school child has wanted to read  scientists have finally conceded that Uranus absolutely stinks.

Better still, it actually does smell like an eggy fart  thanks to hydrogen sulfide gas, the same chemical which makes human wind smell unpleasant.

Thats according to a group of very serious researchers at the University of Oxfords Department of Physics, led by Professor Patrick Irwin from the University of Oxford.

Professor Urwin said, If an unfortunate human were ever to descend through Uranus clouds, they would be met with very unpleasant and odiferous conditions.

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Professor Irwin and his team examined the infrared light from Uranus captured by the eight-meter Gemini North telescope on Hawaiis Maunakea.

Astronomers have long debated the composition of Uranuss clouds and whether hydrogen sulfide or ammonia dominates.

Professor Irwin said: Now, thanks to improved hydrogen sulfide absorption-line data and the wonderful Gemini spectra, we have the fingerprint which caught the culprit.

The detection of hydrogen sulfide high in Uranuss cloud deck (and presumably Neptunes) contrasts sharply with the inner gas giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn, where no hydrogen sulfide is seen above the clouds, but instead ammonia is observed.

These differences in atmospheric composition shed light on questions about the planets formation and history.
Nascent broadband network developer CityFibre has agreed to a 538m takeover by a consortium backed by Goldman Sachs , it was revealed on Tuesday, with the company claiming going private would make it easier for it to pay for its plans to build full fibre-optic infrastructure to a fifth of the UK market.

It came on a busy news day for the AIM-traded firm, which posted a set of positive results, and also gave a solid update on its fibre project being developed in conjunction with Vodafone, adding another four English and Scottish cities to those being connected.

The consortium, a joint venture between Sachs West Street Infrastructure and the Antin private equity vehicle, would pay 81p per share for CityFibre - a 93% premium to the companys closing price on Monday.

CityFibre, which already had a number of smaller networks designed for schools, public facilities and commercial operations, signed a deal with Vodafone last year to build a gigabit fibre-optic network to 12 towns and cities in Britain, with Vodafone marketing the service.

Under private ownership, CityFibre will be able to gain alternative and potentially easier access to the financing required for its announced fibre-to-the-home deployment, said CityFibre chairman Chris Stone.

This will strengthen the companys ability to deliver on its vision to provide full fiber infrastructure to 20 percent of the UK market.

Both Goldman Sachs and Antin reportedly said they were keen to support CityFibres current plans to extend fibre-optic networks across the country.
Alternative capital solutions provider Duke Royalty has entered into a royalty financing agreement of up to 7.5m, with 6.5m drawn down immediately, with Brownhills Investments.

The AIM-traded firm said Brownhills is the holding company for a UK-based group, which represents one of the UK's leading independent glass merchants and processors, established in the 1970s, Brownhills Glass.

It said that, as Duke's fourth European royalty partner, the deal broadened its revenue base and demonstrated its value proposition as a viable alternative finance solution for well established, profitable businesses in the UK and Europe.

Initial cash-on-cash yield would be more than 13% per annum, via monthly payments immediately post investment.

The deal consisted of a 30 year term of secured financing, with distributions to be adjusted annually to reflect Brownhills' revenue growth.

Duke closed on an initial commitment of 6.5m, with a further option for up to 1m until 31 December 2019.

Brownhills had already drawn down the funds and used the proceeds to refinance most of its outstanding debt, and to complete the buyout of the remaining 70% equity stake, from its current 30% stake, of an operating subsidiary, Tufwell Glass.

That transaction was said to have been immediately earnings accretive for Brownhills.

Brownhills has 130 employees across three UK plants, and remained majority owned and managed by the same family for a number of years.

We are delighted that yet another private, successful industrial company, also based in the UK, has chosen Duke to be a capital partner over other options, said CEO Neil Johnson.

This underpins our plan to bring an alternative finance solution, which represents a 50bn sector in North America and does not carry refinancing risk and is non-dilutive for owners, to UK and European businesses.

Johnson said that, in terms of Dukes investors, the deal provided access to a well-run private company.

Mark and Nick Harrison's proven business acumen and increased equity ownership means that they are aligned with us to deliver continued growth over the long term.

With four royalty agreements now in place, and more in the pipeline via our relationship with our Fortune 500 partner, Oliver Wyman, investors stand to benefit from the robust, predictable, long term returns and a strong associated yield, delivered by Duke Royalty.
OptiBiotix Health said on Tuesday that it has signed a non-exclusive UK distribution agreement for its SlimBiome weight management technology with Cambridge Commodities Limited (CCL).

CCL is a prominent distributor of nutritional ingredients to the sports, health & wellbeing, animal nutrition and food & beverage industries, and has 10 sales offices covering the UK, Europe, the United States and South Africa.

Stephen O'Hara, chief executive of OptiBiotix, said: "We are pleased to announce the signing of a distribution agreement with CCL. We chose them due to their leading market position and expertise in commercialising value added speciality ingredients like SlimBiome to sports, health & wellbeing industries and major UK retailers."

SlimBiome, a combination of natural ingredients designed to help with hunger-free weight loss, will be purchased from OptiBiotix and distributed by CCL.

According to OptiBiotix, the new agreement expands on and complements the deal that OptiBiotix signed with Knighton Food, who specialise in supplying supermarkets and high street coffee chains, in November.

"This agreement is another step in our low cost approach to growing revenues by building manufacturing, formulation/application and distribution partnerships which provide revenues across the whole value chain in multiple industry sectors," said OHara.

As of 0911 BST, OptiBiotix Healths shares were down 1.68% at 58.50p.
North Africa focused oil and gas company SDX Energy has made a new oil discovery at its Rabul 4 well in the West Gharib Concession of Egypt.

SDX drilled the well to a total depth of 5,250 feet and encountered approximately 43 feet of net heavy oil pay across the Yusr and Bakr formations, with an average porosity of 16%.

The AIM-quoted group highlighted that after ongoing evaluation of the asset was complete, the well was expected to be completed as a producer and connected to its central processing facilities at Meseda.

Paul Welch, president and chief executive of SDX, said, "The four successful wells drilled to date in the Rabul structure will contribute significantly to our production volumes in 2018. The Rabul 5 well was recently put on production, using an ESP completion, and came on at just over 2,000 barrels of oil per day from the Bakr sand."

"The development activity in the Rabul area has been both rapid and successful for SDX and our partners and we are now looking forward to drilling the two development locations in Meseda which we believe will also be significant contributors to our production growth in 2018," he added.

SDX holds a 50% working interest in the West Gharib concession as its joint operator.

As of 1020 BST, shares had picked up 1.82% to 67.30p.
The announcement follows the release of DAs KeyScaler 5.8 platform which allows for identity and access management in IoT products and, when combined with the Microsoft Azure IoT Hub, will allow customers to access life-cycle management features and delegated security management models.

'Internet of things' is the term ascribed the interconnection of computing devices embedded in everyday objects like cars and home appliances, which allows them to send and receive data.

The Keyscaler platform will also allow for the automation of security protocols and "adds the benefits of both functionality and audit, and logging for compliance purposes," according to Tern.

Tern holds a 56.8% interest in IoT security firm DA.

Al Sisto, chief executive of Tern PLC, said: "It is great to see DA supporting Microsoft Azure IoT in such a way to enable a more secure and robust solution. Utilising DA's KeyScaler 5.8 in a way which complements the capabilities of the Microsoft Azure IoT Hub allows both technologies to grow together and improve customer experiences."

As of 1217 BST, Tern PLCs shares were up 19.53% at 15.39p.
CCTV and surveillance firm UniVision Engineering said on Tuesday that, courtesy of a "transformational" year, expected revenue and profits for the year ended 31 March to outstrip those of the previous year.

Throughout the year the Hong Kong based company won a major contract with the autonomous territory's railway company, MTR Corporation (MTRC), for 36.4m at current conversion rates spread over a six year period.

A statement from UniVision said: "The MTRC contract will lead to a step-change in both revenue and profitability of the Group in the short to medium term. Whilst we have seen some benefit in the last three months of the year ended 31 March 2018, it is the current financial year which should be the first to see the full effect."

In the year ended 31 March, the company invoiced HK$5.1m, leaving a remaining HK$407.3m to be paid over the remaining five and a half years.

"Our existing business, coupled with the long term MTRC installation contract, provides a solid base from which the Group can develop over the next few years; and one which is significantly better than in previous years," said UniVision.

Further expansion of the business is to be funded by an HK$45m invoice discounting/factoring facility and a HK$8m trade facility from HSBC.

Thus far this additional capital has allowed works on the MTRC contract the run smoothly alongside UniVisions other operations.

The company will release its full financial results for the year at the end of July.

As of 1503 BST, UniVision Engineering Ltds shares were up 30.30% at 2.15p.
Digital media and events business Vitesse Media warned investors on Tuesday that annual losses would be bigger than hoped and that its finance director was leaving.

The AIM-quoted publisher of What Investment and Information Age and organiser of the Quoted Company Awards and Women in IT Awards said it had failed to generate enough higher-margin media sales, particularly in the final quarter of the 12 months to 31 March.

This, plus a heightened level of investment poured into strengthening the company's "infrastructure", will mean Vitesse will report a loss before exceptionals of approximately 380,000 for the year, a significant widening of the 11,700 loss posted for the 14 months ended 31 March 2017.

Exceptional costs will add roughly another 125,000 to total losses as a result of restructuring and certain professional fees and costs incurred in exploring potential acquisitions, some of which the company said still remain active.

Vitesse has continued to invest in the improvement of its websites, all of which will be relaunched in the next six months, and supplementing its senior management team, including hiring a new head of media sales who joins on 24 April.

Simon Stilwell, the co-founder of broker Liberum who joined as chief executive of Vitesse in August last year, said, "The company continues to make substantial operational progress as we put in place the managerial and technical platform to enable us to significantly scale the business. We are in good shape to execute on our ambitious growth plans; developing new revenue streams and building the business both organically and through acquisition."

Separately, given the changing nature and scale of the business, Edward Riddell, the group's finance director, will resign as a director of Vitesse to "pursue other business interests" following the publication of the company's audited full-year financial statements.

As of 0910 BST, shares had tanked 28.92% to 2.31p.
AIM-listed Zamano said on Thursday that it will look to make bolt-on acquisitions as it repositions the business into higher added-value, growth orientated activities.

In a statement ahead of its annual general meeting, Zamano said a strategic review carried out on behalf of the company found it needed to focus its acquisition programme on the mobile advertising, social and billing areas.

Zamano, which provides interactive applications and services to mobile devices, said the strategic review identified a small number of potential acquisitions in these three sectors which it is currently evaluating.

The group also announced the appointment of Edmond Murphy, the technology entrepreneur who led the strategic review, as a non-executive director of Zamano.

Chairman Colin Tucker said: We are delighted to welcome Eddie to the board of Zamano. His extensive experience in payments, social media and advertising will be of considerable benefit to Zamano as we actively pursue the re-positioning of the business.

Murphy is founder and shareholder of Irish payments company, Continuum Commerce Ltd and is a director of US Social Media company, SoHalo, US Marketing agency, The Campus Agency and US advertising distribution business, Speed Media Inc.

He also co-founded the Irish web development business Labryinth which was subsequently acquired by BT.

At 1232 BST, Zamano shares were down 16.2% to 10.06p.
Having underperformed its spirits peers so far this year, analysts at Morgan Stanley spied a buying opportunity in drinks-maker Diageo given its track record of solid organic sales growth and strong cash generation.

Morgan Stanley's proprietary US spirits wholesalers survey reassured the broker in regards to Diageo's potential for further market growth and for that of its brands, leading the analysts to reiterate their 'overweight' rating on the shares.

Among US distributors covered in the broker's survey, 50% of respondents were "optimistic" about the next six months, somewhat similar to its November survey, with the majority of distributors expecting low-single digit volume growth, with further improvement in the on-trade.

Morgan Stanley identified a solid outlook for premiumisation, driven principally by dark spirits, which it said implied a further positive mix and was, in its view, a bellwether for the market's overall health.

"The outlook for key Diageo brands (Johnnie Walker and Bulleit) remains strong, has improved for Crown Royal and Captain Morgan, and deteriorated for only Ketel One," said MS when discussing the outlook for Diageo's brands.

Morgan Stanley tapped organic sales growth to accelerate throughout the current trading year, driven by a 3.2% increase in the US , India and Emerging Markets.

Diageo could plausibly close the gap with the market within the next twelve months on the back of brown spirits and tequila, while the drag from Ketel One and Ciroc vodka was seen as likely to fade, the broker said.

Also, considering its strong cash flow generation, Morgan Stanley expected Diageo to undertake a similar share buyback to its 1.5bn purchase back in March before the end of next year, which was not yet factored into the consensus' expectations.

No, it would not keep the company from being able to carry out further bolt-on acquisitions, Morgan Stanley said.

"With no sign of US slowdown, India growth bouncing back and the possibility of a further share buyback, we believe the valuation discount to peers offers a compelling buying opportunity," the analysts concluded.

In addition to the 'overweight' rating, Morgan Stanley had a price target of 2,900p on Diageo's shares.
Weaker energy quotes weighed on the wider commodities complex after French president Emmanuel Macron proposed negotiating a new deal with Tehran, in order to help contain its nuclear programme and in a bid to keep Washington on board.

In a press conference during the second day of his state visit to Washington, Macron said he had discussed "a new deal" with Trump aimed at addressing Iran's expansion in the Middle East and its ballistic missile programme.

Against that backdrop, as of 2025 BST West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures were 1.25% lower at $67.79 a barrel on the ICE.

The tone in crude oil futures trading on Tuesday had been generally weak throughout the session, after Iranian oil minister Bijan Zanganeh reportedly said there was no need to extend OPEC and Russia's current oil output curbs beyond 2018.

That was despite remarks from Iranian president Hassan Rouhani warning the White House not to pull-out from the deal negotiated with Russia, China, Germany, Britain and France.

"I am telling those in the White House that if they do not live up to their commitments, the Iranian government will react firmly," Rouhani said, going on to warn of "severe consequences" if the US pulled out.

As of 2025 BST, the Bloomberg commodity index was edging lower by 0.13% to 89.08, alongside a dip of 0.205 to 90.76 for the US dollar spot index.

Nevertheless, in the background traders were waiting on weekly oil inventory data from the American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday evening, which would be followed by those from the US Department of Energy the next day.

To take note of as well, analysts at StanChart bumped up its 2018 price forecast for Brent by $10 a barrel to $71 and that for 2019 by $13 to $75, highlighting the degree of compliance between OPEC and non-OPEC countries with their agreement to cut their combined output by 1.8m barrels a day until the end of 2018.

Bulk metals prices were mostly on the back foot as well, although copper was wanted on reports that talks between Chile and workers at La Escondida mine had achieved scant progress.

Commodities were strong outside of energy and metals, with fresh gains for July 2018 ICE cocoa standing out as the contract added 3.26% to $2,815 per metric tonne.

Similarly-dated CBoT wheat was also putting in a big advance, rising 2.05% to $4.8425 a bushel.

Precious metals were higher too, with June 2018 gold on COMEX rising 0.72% to $1,333.50/oz..
Google owner Alphabet shrugged off mounting concerns over privacy on Monday to report an 84% rise in profits for the last quarter. The results eased concerns that investment in new ventures beyond its core search business was undermining Alphabets outlook. There also were no immediate signs that rising global privacy concerns would affect profits.  Guardian

The government has dealt a blow to the Daily Mirror publishers 200m takeover of the Express and Star titles by signalling its intent to launch an investigation into the deal over issues including editorial independence. The culture secretary, Matt Hancock, said on Monday he was minded to issue a public interest intervention notice for an in-depth inquiry and would come to a final decision shortly. The move follows the decision by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) this month to open an initial investigation into the deal.  Guardian

One of Europes biggest investment managers is preparing to name and shame companies which behave unsustainably  and to ditch billions of pounds of investment in their shares. Legal and General Investment Management (LGIM), which manages assets worth almost 1 trillion, has stepped up efforts to push the firms in which it invests to clean up their act with a "climate change pledge".  Telegraph

British companies must set up internal reporting channels to bosses and the media under new EU laws to strengthen whistleblower protection brought forward after the "dieselgate" and Cambridge Analytica scandals. Britain has one of the most advanced systems of protection in place but the European Commissions proposed legislation will require some businesses to take further steps.  Telegraph

Neil Woodfords investment funds suffered a paper loss of nearly $290 million on their holding in Prothena last night after the American biotechnology company scrapped a drug. Funds controlled by Woodford Investment Management own just under 30 per cent of Prothena, which surprised investors yesterday by abandoning its treatment for AL amyloidosis, a rare disease that can lead to organ failure, after it failed in late-stage trials.  The Times

Victory in the battle to print the next generation of British passports has not stopped the war of words between the Franco-Dutch winner of the contract and its beaten UK rival. Gemalto attacked De La Rue yesterday, insisting that it would never complain if it lost a tender and expressing surprise at the short-lived campaign to overturn the decision launched by its Basingstoke-based rival.  The Times
Despite facing "significant" exchange rate headwinds, language and localisation provider RWS has "performed well" throughout the first half of its trading year.

RWS' revenues soared 82% to 139.6m, broadly in line with its expectations; however, adjusted pre-tax profits of around 30m on a constant currency basis were held back by an average exchange rate of $1.37, compared to an average of $1.24 during the prior year, which dragged that figure down to approximately 28.3m.

While RWS will "continue to monitor exchange rates", if the current rates prevail, the firm expects its profits to fall to "slightly below" market consensus.

RWS' patent translation and filing division saw a "steady performance" following its record performance a year earlier, thanks to strong growth in its Chinese operations and the firm's life sciences wing improved after the successful integration of its two US acquisitions delivered "very positive results" that enabled the business to grow revenue.

The group's acquisition of Moravia, which completed in November for a total cash consideration of $320m, saw RWS add operations in the Czech Republic, USA, Japan, China, Argentina and Ireland, providing further geographic diversification and adding an additional profitable, cash generative division of scale to its operations.

Following recent US tax reform legislation, RWS' Federal tax rate dropped from 35% to 21%, meaning the group was now on a lower than previously expected effective tax rate of roughly 23%, resulting in a beneficial impact on its earnings per share and cash generation.

Andrew Brode, chairman of RWS, said, "Notwithstanding the foreign exchange headwinds, we have seen strong performances from several of our divisions. We are also already realising the benefits of synergies and cross-selling across our successfully integrated Life Sciences activities, which are now able to provide a full-service offering to their clients."

"Following the recent acquisition of Moravia, the group now operates from five clear divisions and we are seeing good momentum and a strong sales pipeline going into the second half. While FX may continue to have an impact, we expect to make continued underlying progress in both revenues and profits over the second half of the year," he added.

Digital media and events business Vitesse Media warned investors on Tuesday that annual losses would be bigger than hoped and that its finance director was leaving.

The AIM-quoted publisher of What Investment and Information Age and organiser of the Quoted Company Awards and Women in IT Awards said it had failed to generate enough higher-margin media sales, particularly in the final quarter of the 12 months to 31 March.

This, plus a heightened level of investment poured into strengthening the company's "infrastructure", will mean Vitesse will report a loss before exceptionals of approximately 380,000 for the year, a significant widening of the 11,700 loss posted for the 14 months ended 31 March 2017.

Exceptional costs will add roughly another 125,000 to total losses as a result of restructuring and certain professional fees and costs incurred in exploring potential acquisitions, some of which the company said still remain active.

Vitesse has continued to invest in the improvement of its websites, all of which will be relaunched in the next six months, and supplementing its senior management team, including hiring a new head of media sales who joins on 24 April.

Simon Stilwell, the co-founder of broker Liberum who joined as chief executive of Vitesse in August last year, said, "The company continues to make substantial operational progress as we put in place the managerial and technical platform to enable us to significantly scale the business. We are in good shape to execute on our ambitious growth plans; developing new revenue streams and building the business both organically and through acquisition."

Separately, given the changing nature and scale of the business, Edward Riddell, the group's finance director, will resign as a director of Vitesse to "pursue other business interests" following the publication of the company's audited full-year financial statements.
As their organization has grown, Gainesville, Georgia-based accounting firm Rushton has hired a number of University of North Georgia (UNG) alumni. And, with such immense growth, their hiring needs have grown as well.

"At Rushton, weve seen significant growth in the past few years," said Perry Barnett, a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) at Rushton. "We hire a number of UNG alumni to support our growth and both our organization and our clients constantly need new CPA-qualified individuals to help their organizations thrive."

On April 17 the University System of Georgia Board of Regents approved UNG's Master of Accountancy degree program (MAcc) at their monthly meeting.

The Master of Accountancy addresses students needs to acquire additional accounting knowledge desired by employers, to demonstrate a commitment to success in the field of accounting, and for additional education to meet the requirements for licensure as a CPA.

The Georgia State Board of Accountancy requires CPAs to have 150 semester hours of education to pursue a CPA license. Students receive a minimum of 120 semester hours of education by pursuing an undergraduate degree in accounting, but must complete an additional 30 semester hours by either choosing to double-major in another discipline or by completing a masters degree.

"UNG supports the educational needs of the entirety of the north Georgia region," said Barnett. "Many of those individuals working in the area have not had meaningful access to a MAcc program until now."

Dr. Donna Mayo, dean of the Mike Cottrell College of Business, agreed.

"We are delighted to deliver this program to our students." said Dr. Donna Mayo, dean of the Mike Cottrell College of Business. "Double-majoring in another business discipline or leaving UNG to pursue a masters degree elsewhere are not the best solutions for our students who want or need to stay in our region. Now, we can meet the needs of our students and those that employ our students post-graduation."

Steven Kronenberg, director of graduate programs for the Mike Cottrell College of Business at UNG, said students will be able to advance seamlessly from a bachelor's degree in accounting to the MAcc.

"Almost all of the students taking the MAcc are doing so to become CPAs," Kronenberg said. "We started recruiting students for the program as soon as the Board of Regents announcement was made."

Plans are to offer courses for the new MAcc program only on UNG's Gainesville Campus in classroom sessions, with classes on two afternoons and nights per week. There are six required core courses and four elective courses necessary to complete the 30 hours for the degree.

A full-time student could finish the degree in one year by taking four courses in the fall semester, four in the spring, and the remaining two courses in the summer. Students may also be part of the program as a part-time student, allowing working professionals to also pursue a MAcc degree.

The spring semester schedule will be flexible enough to allow students to be employed during the busy tax season while still making progress toward summer completion.

Upon completion of the program, graduates will have satisfied all educational requirements for the CPA license in the state of Georgia. A CPA certificate is an essential element for a career in public accounting and is highly beneficial in other accounting careers.

"The MAcc will be offered on the Gainesville campus due to its proximity to students with accounting degrees working in the Gainesville and north metro Atlanta area," said Dr. Ann Duke, associate dean of faculty and graduate programs. "We have a number of faculty and are in the process of hiring others on the Gainesville campus to teach the first cohort of students."

Currently, the Mike Cottrell College of Business offers one graduate degree program, a Master's of Business Administration (MBA), as well as three graduate certificate programs in cybersecurity, entrepreneurship and innovation and technology leadership.

"To attract the best and brightest students who desire a career as a CPA, it is critical for UNG to offer the MAcc," said Martha Merritt, assistant professor of accounting. "More accounting firms are increasing educational standards by requiring a master's degree. Our students are less competitive in that regard, not because they don't have the professional and technical skills, but because they didn't have access to a MAcc at UNG. Now, they do."

For more information on the Master of Accountancy program at UNG, contact Steven Kronenberg at 470-239-3123.
University of North Georgia (UNG) student Caroline Browns love for scientific research is paying off.

Brown, a junior majoring in chemistry with a biochemistry focus, is the first UNG student to earn a Goldwater Honorable Mention. It is the highest award given to college students in the natural sciences, engineering and mathematics in the United States.

This year, 1,280 students from 455 institutions were nominated for a Goldwater scholarship. Each institution is limited to nominating four students. The Goldwater Trust named 211 new Goldwater Scholars and identified 281 students as Honorable Mentions.

"Simply being a university nominee is an honor," said Dr. Anastasia Lin, assistant vice president of research and engagement and associate professor of English.

She said Brown is deserving of the honor. Brown completed a Faculty Undergraduate Summer Engagement (FUSE) grant with Dr. Yu Wang last summer and continued that research forward into a scholarly, peer-reviewed publication.

"Caroline has consistently demonstrated the characteristics required of a successful Goldwater, including a commitment to research and the clear potential to contribute to her field," Lin said.

Only six scholars and seven honorable mentions were selected from Georgia this year.

Brown was also selected for the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) at the University of Minnesota (UM) in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota. She is the third UNG student to receive a REU this year.

Stefen Gray, a junior majoring in environmental spatial analysis with a specialization in geographic information systems (GIS), was the first student selected for an REU this year. He earned a National Science Foundation (NSF) REU at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York.

UNG sophomore Simeon Salia, who is majoring in physics and engineering, earned an REU at Alabama A&M University in Huntsville, Alabama. The city is home to the U.S. Army's Redstone Arsenal, which houses NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

UNG sophomore Simeon Salia, who is majoring in physics and engineering, was second. The 20-year-old Atlanta native earned an REU at Alabama A&M University in Huntsville, Alabama. The city is home to the U.S. Army's Redstone Arsenal, which houses NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

"I was excited," Salia said after being notified of the honor last month. "My professors hung my letter up in the office. They each wrote a recommendation for me."

Salia and Brown, who are members of the NSF Scholarship in the STEM program, will spend 10 weeks at their assigned institutions.

Brown will be based at UM, which is ranked eighth among U.S. public research universities and 10th among all U.S. universities in the 2009 National Science Foundation Survey of Research and Development Expenditures at Universities and Colleges. More than 25 individuals who were students or faculty at the school have won a Nobel Prize, including four in chemistry, according to the UM website.

"When I first applied I didn't realize the caliber of the institution, because I was not familiar with it," Brown said. "Then I started researching the school and learned their primary focus is in research."

She is looking forward to learning from the researchers at UM.

"I haven't gotten my lab placement yet, but it will be in biochemistry," the 20-year-old from Carrollton, Georgia said.

Salia said he has not received his placement either, but is looking forward to conducting research in physics. It will add to his already busy summer schedule.

Salia is a member of the Georgia National Guard and will be on duty from April 27 to May 25.

"As soon as I come back, I will have to go to Alabama," he said.

Salia will return to UNG for one more year before transferring to Georgia Tech as part of the Regents' Engineering Transfer Program (RETP). Students in RETP attend UNG at the Dahlonega or Gainesville campuses to take their math, science and some engineering courses required in the first two years. When they successfully complete the classes, the students transfer to Georgia Tech to complete the requirements for an engineering degree.

After Salia finishes his degree at Georgia Tech, he plans to attend graduate school. Salia said the REU will help give him the research experience he needs to get into graduate school and succeed. Brown agreed.

"If you have an REU, it makes your chances of getting into grad school better," she said. "It shows that you are used to the rigors of research and you can handle the pressure. That makes you a great candidate."

Students interested in learning more about REUs, email Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities.
It's a boy! As of Monday morning (April 23), news has arrived that Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince William welcomed their third child to the family. It is the second boy for the couple, giving Kate and William another son to go along with their one daughter. While the newest baby has yet to be named, or at least yet to be officially announced, he'll be a sibling to Prince George and Princess Charlotte. Here are more details about Kate Middleton's latest special delivery for the royal family.

Royal baby update, details

A tweet was sent out by the Kensington Palace account on Monday morning to announce the birth of Kate and William's new baby.

The announcement indicated that the birth occurred at "1101 hours" and that the newborn baby boy weighed in at 8 lbs and 7 ounces. It also gave the news that Kate Middleton and her newest child were doing well after the birth with no health complications to report.

Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge was safely delivered of a son at 1101hrs.



The baby weighs 8lbs 7oz.



The Duke of Cambridge was present for the birth.



Her Royal Highness and her child are both doing well.  Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) April 23, 2018

It was first announced that Middleton was pregnant back in September of last year. Reportedly, she arrived at the hospital on Monday morning "in the early stages of labor." The delivery of the couple's third child occurred in the Lindo Wing at St.

Mary's Hospital located in London. That's also is the site where Middleton gave birth to their first two children as well. While there has not been any name announced, a report from BBC News suggests a few options. They speculate that Arthur, Albert, or Phillip may be the favorites. However, the name may be chosen by using a more traditional route which William And Kate have used with their first two children's names.

That means it will likely be a popular boy's name with some links to the family.

Fifth in line for the throne

While Prince William and Kate's new baby boy has yet to receive a name, he will be the fifth in line for the British throne. The newest boy follows a line in the royal family that includes his grandfather Prince Charles and his dad Prince William.

There's also his older siblings, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, in line for the throne. Prince George is currently four and Princess Charlotte is three. Of the two children, Prince George just began attending school, and Princess Charlotte will be doing so in the next year. Both children are rarely seen in public due to the couple's strict attempts to keep them out of the sights of the paparazzi.

The newest addition will have several weeks to make headlines until the royal family's next big event. Actress Meghan Markle and Prince Harry will get married on May 19. They'll probably steal just a bit of the new baby boy's spotlight, although if he's there, he might just grab some more attention.
Josh Duggar filed a lawsuit in March against the city of Springdale, Arkansas, as well as against Washington County (in the same state). Central to his legal complaint is the claim that he suffered financial loss.

He also contends that he has been plagued with severe emotional distress, coupled with mental anguish, according to Radar Online and PopCulture. The TLC network booted Josh when fans rejected the potential of viewing a self-admitted molester on 19 Kids and Counting.

Arkansas officials reject claims Josh made in lawsuit

Neither city nor county officials have facilitated Josh in projecting blame, however.

The defendants cited in his complaint actually refute that they are at fault for releasing documentation, which resulted in Josh being outed as a sexual molester.

The effect of authorities flat-out denying that they are responsible for any setbacks that Josh has experienced after he was fired is that he will not receive any relief right now, Radar noted.

The city and county would rather a trial be held, allowing a jury to determine the outcome of Joshs complaint. The authorities Josh is suing further assert that the former reality show cast member has not stated a claim for which relief can be granted, PopCulture reported.

Arkansas Officials Deny Any Relief To Josh Duggar In Sex Molestation Lawsuit

The disgraced TLC star was formerly accused of molesting his sisters years ago. https://t.co/OB3to3Pdup  Formerly Brightly5 (@Brightly50) April 23, 2018 Mirror suit filed and kicked from federal court

When Josh filed a near-mirror suit in federal court in 2017, the complaint was kicked to the curb by a judge.

Whether it helped or hindered Josh, it now seems two of Joshs sisters appeared on Megyn Kelly's show and spoke about Joshs unlawful conduct toward them. No one made them speak out in media. Above all, too, no one faults his sisters. It sure appeared, though, that a spin was taking place, but the public didnt take the bait.

Nor did TLC.

Many fans turned away from the show and stopped viewing any program with a Duggar family member. More fans demanded that Josh be booted from TLC. And, still, there are fans who do want to see Counting On, but not see anything about Josh on social media. They have been quite vocal online -- and disgusted by Joshs previous actions and the fact that Michelle Duggar and Jim Bob Duggar took a spiritual rather than a legal path to address and remedy their sons behavior.

Duggars have strong detractors following Joshs molestation admission

That TLC dumped 19 Kids and Counting, and cut Josh and his own family from appearing on Counting On with frequency, pleases many fans. For even more, however, they are now Duggar detractors.

They tend to overrun discussions on social media and saturate any back-and-forth discourse with their personal views about the family, which are based on the Duggars fundamentalist values and lifestyle. Their negativity drowns out what would otherwise be on-topic discussion about recent events, pregnancies, babies being born, courtship rituals, and the like.

Impact if jury rules for defendants will be that Josh is responsible for fallout in his life

Interestingly, with the defendants named in Joshs March lawsuit filing holding firm to their assertion that they are not responsible, it will mean that Josh will be held as the party responsible for his lifes woes if jurors rule in favor of the defendants.

The apex of the problem will still remain, though: Some people will not view the Duggars as they once had before the molestation revelation.

Whether others agree with them, individual fans have their opinions, as do former viewers. The consensus remains just the same. Many people feel concern for the safety of Joshs children, since his behavior in his younger years and the outing are what led to him being thought of (by many) as once a child molester, always a child molester. Fans cannot be faulted for standing their ground or for their refusal to look at anything that depicts Josh Duggar with other members of the Duggar Family  and, now, their children.

Josh acted inappropriately

At the end of the day, Josh Duggar is the one who acted inappropriately on his feelings.

His conduct sure appears to be something that he hoped would remain closeted and swept far away from the public  as long as he wanted to remain on TLC and make bank. Viewers werent buying it.

Be sure to follow Blasting News for updates and the latest information.
First Lady Melania Trump attended the funeral of Barbara Bush on April 21 without her husband Donald Trump. Everyone knew that the former U.S. President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle will be at the funeral, and fans were already thrilled that they would be rubbing shoulders again with the current FLOTUS. Photos of them smiling at each other at the funeral made their way online, creating excitement among all fans. What's more is that the Slovenia native actually likes the Obamas, something that's way opposite to her husband's taste.

Melania Trump is grateful

An unnamed source close to Melania Trump recently told Hollywood Life that the First Lady is grateful that Michelle and Barack Obama are really nice and kind to her. According to the insider, the FLOTUS can't forget how incredible and nice the Obamas were to her during the Inauguration Day of Donald Trump in January 2017. The source went on to claim that their kindness "really meant a lot to her.

The First Lady likes Barack Obama

What's more interesting is that the insider also said that Melania Trump thinks that the former U.S. President Barack Obama is warm, charming and funny. It is alleged that The First Lady was very stressed during the Inauguration Day having been bombarded with protocols that she needed to follow.

However, the Obama's were there and helped her feel less worried and more comfortable. The First Lady cannot avoid the world's glare, and she's been careful not to make any mistake in public, but having the Obamas made her feel at ease.

"But, the Obamas immediately put her at ease, they were so incredibly gracious to her, and for that alone she will always be grateful, the source said.

Donald Trump is annoyed

President Donald Trump is known for his notorious criticism of Barack Obama, and the source also said that when Melania Trump admitted that she finds the Obamas warm and nice, the POTUS got annoyed. People can't help but notice how the First Lady reacts whenever she's with her husband. According to some fans, the Slovenia native always shows a very serious aura.

However, when she was with the Obamas at the funeral of Barbara Bush, people noticed how comfortable she was with them.

Twitter reacts

When photos of Melania Trump smiling at Barack Obama at the funeral came out, Twitter immediately reacted to it. According to Teen Vogue, the First Lady's photo of her smiling at the former president has become a meme. On Twitter, people tweeted the photo with the FLOTUS smiling and concluded that the former U.S. leader is still graceful with his sense of humor that made the 47-year-old former model smile.

add "make Melania smile" to the long list of things Obama can do that Trump can't  Jeff Tiedrich (@jefftiedrich) April 21, 2018

Yo! Did anyone else see the real smile of @FLOTUS ? hanging with @BarackObama . @realDonaldTrump WAS NEVER able to even do that lol smh still can't measure up #barbarabushfuneral pic.twitter.com/ZdG2lAgneV  Mahogany Sweets (@MahoganySweets) April 21, 2018

Nothing said class like Obama making Melania smile and feel welcome...knowing she supported her husbands birther movement and asked on national television to see Obamas birth certificate. pic.twitter.com/fPbgLr4Mpy  Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) April 21, 2018

Find someone who smiles like Melania Trump does when she's talking to Obama & far away from Donald pic.twitter.com/ERtErw1DZZ  Adam Blickstein (@AdamBlickstein) April 21, 2018

Others though, were only retweeting the photo in an attempt to make Donald Trump angry.
Michelle Obama looked peeved at the funeral of Barbara Bush when Barack Obama, who was seated next to Melania Trump, started chatting with the first lady. A lot has been read into the video of both Barack and Melania smiling while engaged in conversation and Michelle looking like she has a scowl on her face.

Many of the reports suggest that Michelle was upset over Barack talking to Melania, but there could be another reason Michelle looked so uneasy. Don't forget they were at a funeral and all cameras were on the front row group, which made for some very strange bedfellows.

Strange bedfellows in the church pew

There was Melania Trump sitting next to Barack Obama, with Michelle seated next to him on the other side of the church pew. As you move down this row, there's Bill Clinton sitting next to Michelle with Hillary Clinton on the other side of Bill. The only two who were the least bit animated looking were Melania Trump and Barack Obama.

It is not as if this is a cocktail party or state dinner, they were at a funeral, one that had many eyes from across the globe watching via television. Maybe Michelle wasn't scowling because her husband was talking to Melania Trump, maybe she felt this wasn't the time or place for idle chit-chat.

Social media picked up on Michelle Obama not looking too happy at the funeral while her husband, who was sitting beside her, was awful gabby with Melania Trump.

You can see one example of this in the post below.

Michelle Obama looks very pissed while Barack and Melania Trump are smirking at her jealousy #barbarabushfuneral #MAGA pic.twitter.com/nXG4dqU0eZ  New American Media (@NAILandRT) April 21, 2018

Michelle Obama's scowl-like glare

Again, it could be Michelle was perturbed that her husband was chatting during the funeral, more so than being concerned about who he was chatting with.

Hollywood Life has a different take on this. They see both Barack and Michelle Obama as being very friendly with Melania Trump. They've pulled posts from social media that suggest Melania doesn't care about what her husband thinks or says about her White House predecessors, she is going to be friendly anyway. Some on social media are comparing Trump vs.

Obama and who Melania sees as the better man, like the post below.

Yo! Did anyone else see the real smile of @FLOTUS ? hanging with @BarackObama . @realDonaldTrump WAS NEVER able to even do that lol smh still can't measure up #barbarabushfuneral pic.twitter.com/ZdG2lAgneV  Mahogany Sweets (@MahoganySweets) April 21, 2018

Anti-Trump folks are having a field day online about Melania and Barack's chatting session at the Bush funeral, as seen in another tweet below.

Im certain demented #dumpsterfire @potus would hate if we made this picture of a solo @FLOTUS glowing and looking happier than shes never been next to the great @BarackObama at #BarbaraBushFuneral go viral. pic.twitter.com/ois8g67Mg1  Lesley Abravanel (@lesleyabravanel) April 21, 2018

What really happened?

So was Michelle Obama angry over her husband extending a friendly attitude toward Melania Trump, who was without a doubt odd man out when it came to the people she shared that church pew with?

Or was Michelle just a bit taken back that her husband wasn't focusing on the service? Maybe it didn't matter who he was talking to, it was just that he was talking during a time that wasn't appropriate that may have aggravated her.

Melania sat in that church pew as her husband's representative. She was surrounded by people her husband has lambasted and continues to lambaste. If anyone had a right to be uncomfortable, it would have been Melania. It looks as though maybe the former president recognized how awkward this must have been for her and extended an olive branch for the event.
The latest updates and spoilers for the "Spider-Man: Homecoming" sequel reveals the film will have multiple locations across the globe. Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige told io9 that the second Spider-Man movie will be shot in different parts of the world as Peter Parker will embark on a journey overseas.

The events of the film will take place after "Avenger 4" and it will be the first movie to be shown in the studio's phase 4 projects alongside "Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3" and "Black Panther 2." There are also rumors that Peter will have a new suit in the movie as a concept art for Disneyland Resort revealed what Peter's new suit will look like.

Spidey on a world tour

According to Kevin Feige, the production crew of the "Spider-Man: Homecoming" sequel will begin shooting in July and they will head first to London. Of course, there will be shots in New York, but the studio plans to expand Peter's reach beyond New York and make a world tour out of it.

This is because of The way Civil War and the fact that he went to Leipzig Airport and then has to go back to school, informed Homecoming, the two Avengers films that precede [the sequel] will greatly inform, probably even more so, the next movie.

This will also support the details about Gwen Stacy being a European student as two audition tapes for the role were leaked online. Gwen Stacy will likely be Peter's love interest in the sequel, and she was previously portrayed by Bryce Dallas Howard in Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man 3" and Emma Stone in "The Amazing Spider-Man" films.

The Hashtag Show also teased that Spidey's possible main villain in the movie and it could be Green Goblin, Kraven the Hunter, Doctor Octopus, or the Jackal. The first film already introduced audiences to Vulture, Shocker, and Scorpion, leading to the possibility that the Sinister Six will be formed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

New suit leaked?

The new design for Spider-Man's suit was first hinted at in the Disneyland Resort's concept art. The design is similar to his original costume, but with a bigger spider emblem. The black outlines are more spaced out and appear to be regulated by the black bands on his wrist, which appears to be his new web-shooters.

The classic red and blue scheme is still present, but a soft hue on the blue lines are expanded on the dark blue portions of the suit. While Marvel Studios is yet to confirm if this is the next suit for the "Homecoming" sequel, future updates will be announced soon once production has started.
The French president arrived for a state visit in the United States. As part of a three-day tour, Macron arrived on Monday in Washington D.C to discuss trade and the nuclear accord with American President Donald Trump.

This first-ever visit by President Macron will test the relationship between France and the U.S. According to Reuters, the discussions will be dominated by differences on several topics, but the most pressing matter is the iran deal.

As stated in the Reuters news release, the Iranian government was urging European leaders to persuade Trump from derailing the 2015 deal with Tehran, which involved other six world powers.

If Iran deal fails there is no alternative solution

Prior to Macron's scheduled arrival, he confirmed on Sunday there is no alternative route or even a "Plan B." In addition, this can be characterized as sort of a rescue mission to try and salvage the accord. The deal is called the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action.

Upon arriving, Macron explained to the media that his visit is paramount for their context. Also, there are numerous threats and uncertainties during our current times.

JUST IN: Upon arrival in the US, French President Macron says he will discuss bilateral and multilateral issues, security and trade during his visit with President Trump. pic.twitter.com/j5lu75qWKd  MSNBC (@MSNBC) April 23, 2018

The Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif urged European government officials to endorse the accord.

Zarif wrote on Twitter that it was an all or nothing situation. He called on European leaders to not just urge Trump to remain in the deal, but begin implementing it in good faith.

JUST IN: French President Macron arrives in the US for his first official state visit with President Trump. pic.twitter.com/j8TpAUCIfm  MSNBC (@MSNBC) April 23, 2018

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was reached on July 14, 2015.

It involved a number of countries (China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States), and the European Union.

Once the deal was accomplished it would mean curbing Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

Moments after Macron landed, the White House had not made any statements in regards to the Iran accord.

The White House spokeswoman, Sarah Sanders, reiterated that President Trump still considered the deal to be bad.

Other European Leaders to arrive following Macron's visit

President Trump will host a series of high profile visits. After Macron departs, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, will be landing on Friday. The goal is to urge the U.S president to not walk away from the deal.

Macron arrived first to capitalize on what he considers to have an understanding with Trump. As reported by the New York Times, Macron will utilize his unusual bond with the American president and make the case on why the deals must be preserved for the-year-old nuclear agreement.

How the negotiations will go is still uncertain. Can the Europeans knock some consensus into President Trump? In the end, it will be entirely up to him to decide the fate of the agreement.
Online course and collection exhibits make teaching and learning resources shareable worldwide, turning historical and academic achievements into evergreen digital content. In the University Libraries at Virginia Tech, digitizing educational materials offers learning engagement outside of the classroom to anyone connected to the internet.

The Active Learning Curation Program is a showcase of innovative teaching methods  an exhibit series of digital artifacts, said Alice Rogers, the program manager for the University Libraries digital exhibit initiative. The first project is comprised of videos, but I would like to expand future projects by creating entire websites. That way, people can interact with exhibit content when they visit the page.

Seeking Sustainability is the University Libraries latest online exhibit that showcases the instruction of geography assistant professor Timothy Bairds course, Geography 1115: Seeking Sustainability.

Rogers begins the exhibit process by first finding which university courses use innovative teaching methods. While working in the New Classroom Building in October 2017, Rogers noticed Bairds course in action; the room facilitated group discussion and interactive technology, similar to how the University Libraries SCALE-UP and Athenaeum spaces encourage classroom interactivity.

When I saw Dr. Bairds engagement in the classroom, I wanted to emphasize why it was effective, Rogers added. I decided to interview him and his students so I could make videos explaining his methods and student responses to them.

This exhibit consists of seven YouTube videos that tell the Seeking Sustainability story, a course on local sustainability taught through open conversation, group participation, interdisciplinary engagement, multimedia learning, and critical thinking.

General education classes can be a bit tricky because students come from such a diversity of majors and educational experiences, explained Rogers. Seeking Sustainability brings students together to discover how a topic can be applicable across all disciplines. It focuses on social networks, justice, economics, and other aspects of life people normally do not think are relevant to sustainability, but are nonetheless dependent on it.

Similarly, the University Libraries Special Collections has produced several online exhibits that aim to bring the diverse Hokie community together to learn about the schools history, social impact, and research.

One of these exhibits, Black History at Virginia Tech, was first developed in 2000 and is now under construction for a 2018 re-release. This exhibit features the pioneers, events, outstanding achievements, and newspaper articles about the universitys black community. It also describes the many firsts for black students, including the first 100 black graduates and the first black women to enroll.

The LGBTQ History at Virginia Tech exhibit, which went live in 2015, is an ongoing exhibit that chronicles the efforts of LGBTQ students on campus from the early 1970s onward.

We have patrons and researchers scattered all over the world, so digital collections and exhibits are a great way to share some of our materials with people that might not come to campus, said Adrienne Serra, University Libraries technical archivist. Digital exhibits offer the advantage of being able to pull together media in a variety of formats and allow users to interact with the exhibit in more interesting ways.

Several of our other exhibits also incorporate mapping tools, said Serra. We're able to plot geographical locations on the map and connect them to some of our digital objects, such as architectural projects or transcribed entries from Civil War diaries. Online exhibits allow patrons to interact with our collections in new and interesting ways that simply aren't possible with the traditional format of items sitting in a display case.

The Seeking Sustainability exhibit will be featured at the ICAT Creativity and Innovation Day on April 30 from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. in the Moss Arts Center. For more information about online course or collections exhibits, contact Alice Rogers ( rogersa@vt.edu), Scott Fralin (safralin@vt.edu), or Adrienne Serra (aserra@vt.edu) at the University Libraries.

Written by Alec Masella
COMMENTARY

How soon will AI be more than the next big thing?

For a long time, the term artificial intelligence was a sci-fi concept perceived as nothing more than Isaac Asimov stories and farfetched robotic advances.

But with stronger processing speeds and more in-depth analytics, AI has been making headway in the IT sector for system operations, cloud computing and cybersecurity. Spending on AI and machine learning, which helps make AI possible, will grow from $12 billion in 2017 to $57.6 billion by 2021, according to IDC. And its starting to get the attention of federal and state and local government IT personnel who see it as a way to increase and optimize automation for enhanced judgment and cost reduction.

The largest opportunity for AI is cybersecurity. Government agencies spend significant resources and people hours adapting to cyber threats while hacker technology becomes even more persistent and evolving. This is the wild west with cybersecurity and the trick is to stay one step ahead of malware, spyware and viruses that aim to corrupt and compromise sensitive processes and data. One area of concern is the Internet of Things, where AI integration can improve security measures to prevent infiltration at the many nodes that comprise the large node and sensor-heavy edge. The benefit would be that people wouldnt have to reprogram its many layers.

Federal IT managers see cybersecurity as the largest growth area for AI across the government. But not quite yet. In the first quarter of fiscal 2018, only 21 percent of leaders surveyed by Meritalk are confident the technology is mature enough to be considered safe. Only 46 percent want the technology adopted in current form.

This isnt surprising as the technology is still rather new in its application to government machines. And like most new IT, its met with a healthy dose of skepticism at first. But the number of influencers is likely to rise as success stories emerge. On the other hand, 79 percent of those polled by Meritalk agree that AI and machine learning have a place within government if done correctly.

The Department of Defense and intelligence agencies are significantly further along in adopting the technology than their civilian counterpartsover 12 percent more stakeholders are discussing it in their CIO offices. Chris Lynch, director of the Defense Digital Service, a technology shop within the White House, recently said he would like to see machine learning incorporated into the massive Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud, which would make it revolutionary and set it apart as a key differentiator.

Theres also activity on the civilian side. Groups like the Department of Homeland Securitys Science and Technology Directorate and the National Biosurveillance Integration Center have begun early pilots of machine learning to spot disease outbreaks. However, its a bit more like advanced predictive analytics and automation than true machine learning, which raises the issue of when does a system become AI and what are the levels of maturity. Some of this has been answered for robotics but government entities will define them differently until policy is written and public nomenclature is formed.

State and local governments are also taking a close look at AI and machine learning. Stu Davis, Ohios chief information officer, said in October that the state will be looking at data analytics and machine learning language to be incorporated into requests for proposals. The state has machine learning pilot programs underway for primitive helpdesk functions but Davis said hed like the IT industry to provide more guidance in how the state should be utilizing machine learning. His agencies are struggling to find areas where machine learning would help.

Simply put, AI is not just a buzzword, its an up and coming technology thats finding its way into government. While we dont yet know how much the government AI market is worth, the private sector has a tremendous opportunity thats in its infancy. Now is the time for companies to start targeting DOD and intel agencies with AI and machine learning solutions that address cybersecurity challenges. Those early success stories can then help bring the technology into civilian agencies.
The following companies are subsidiares of Lloyds Banking Group: A G Finance Ltd, A.C.L. Ltd, ACL Autolease Holdings Ltd, ADF No.1 Pty Ltd, Addison Social Housing Holdings Ltd, Alex Lawrie Factors Ltd, Alex. Lawrie Receivables Financing Ltd, Amberdate Ltd, Anglo Scottish Utilities Partnership 1, Aquilus Ltd, Automobile Association Personal Finance Ltd, BOS (Ireland) Property Services 2 Ltd, BOS (Ireland) Property Services Ltd, BOS (Shared Appreciation Mortgages (Scotland) No. 2) Ltd, BOS (Shared Appreciation Mortgages (Scotland) No. 3) Ltd, BOS (Shared Appreciation Mortgages (Scotland)) Ltd, BOS (Shared Appreciation Mortgages) No. 1 plc, BOS (Shared Appreciation Mortgages) No. 2 plc, BOS (Shared Appreciation Mortgages) No. 3 plc, BOS (Shared Appreciation Mortgages) No. 4 plc, BOS (Shared Appreciation Mortgages) No. 5 plc, BOS (Shared Appreciation Mortgages) No. 6 plc, BOS (USA) Fund Investments Inc., BOS (USA) Inc., BOS Edinburgh No 1 Ltd, BOS Mistral Ltd, BOS Personal Lending Ltd, BOSSAF Rail Ltd, Bank of Scotland (B G S) Nominees Ltd, Bank of Scotland (Stanlife) London Nominees Ltd, Bank of Scotland Branch Nominees Ltd, Bank of Scotland Central Nominees Ltd, Bank of Scotland Edinburgh Nominees Ltd, Bank of Scotland Equipment Finance Ltd, Bank of Scotland Foundation, Bank of Scotland LNG Leasing (No 1) Ltd, Bank of Scotland London Nominees Ltd, Bank of Scotland Nominees (Unit Trusts) Ltd, Bank of Scotland P.E.P. Nominees Ltd, Bank of Scotland Structured Asset Finance Ltd, Bank of Scotland Transport Finance 1 Ltd, Bank of Scotland plc, Bank of Wales Ltd, Barents Leasing Ltd, Barnwood Mortgages Ltd, Birchcrown Finance Ltd, Birmingham Midshires Financial Services Ltd, Birmingham Midshires Land Development Ltd, Birmingham Midshires Mortgage Services Ltd, Black Horse (TRF) Ltd, Black Horse Executive Mortgages Ltd, Black Horse Finance Holdings Ltd, Black Horse Finance Management Ltd, Black Horse Group Ltd, Black Horse Ltd, Black Horse Offshore Ltd, Black Horse Property Services Ltd, Boltro Nominees Ltd, British Linen Leasing (London) Ltd, British Linen Leasing Ltd, British Linen Shipping Ltd, C.T.S.B. Leasing Ltd, CBRail S.A.R.L., CF Asset Finance Ltd, CF1 Ltd, CM Venture Investments Ltd, Cancara Asset Securitisation Ltd, Capital 1945 Ltd, Capital Bank Leasing 12 Ltd, Capital Bank Leasing 3 Ltd, Capital Bank Leasing 5 Ltd, Capital Bank Leasing 9 Ltd, Capital Bank Property Investments (3) Ltd, Capital Personal Finance Ltd, Cardiff Auto Receivables Securitisation 2018-1 Plc, Cardiff Auto Receivables Securitisation 2019-1 Plc, Cardiff Auto Receivables Securitisation Holdings Ltd, Cardnet Merchant Services Ltd, Cashfriday Ltd, Cashpoint Ltd, Caveminster Ltd, Cedar Holdings Ltd, Celsius European Lux 2 S.A.R.L., Central Mortgage Finance Ltd, Chariot Finance Ltd, Cheltenham & Gloucester plc, Cheltenham II Securities 2020 DAC, Cheltenham Securities 2017 Ltd, Chepstow Blue Holdings Ltd, Chepstow Blue plc, Chester Asset Options No.2 Ltd, Chester Asset Options No.3 Ltd, Chester Asset Receivables Dealings Issuer Ltd, Chester Asset Securitisation Holdings Ltd, Chester Asset Securitisation Holdings No.2 Ltd, Chiswell Stockbrokers Ltd, Clerical Medical Finance plc, Clerical Medical Financial Services Ltd, Clerical Medical International Holdings B.V., Clerical Medical Investment Fund Managers Ltd, Clerical Medical Managed Funds Ltd, Clerical Medical Non Sterling Guadalix Hold Co BV, Clerical Medical Non Sterling Guadalix Spanish Prop Co SL, Clerical Medical Non Sterling Megapark Hold Co BV, Clerical Medical Non Sterling Megapark Prop Co SA, Clerical Medical Non Sterling Property Company S.A.R.L., Cloak Lane Funding S.A.R.L., Cloak Lane Investments S.A.R.L., Conquest Securities Ltd, Corbiere Asset Investments Ltd, Create Services Ltd, Credit Card Securitisation Europe Ltd, Dalkeith Corporation, Deva Financing Holdings Ltd, Deva Financing plc, Deva One Ltd, Deva Three Ltd, Deva Two Ltd, Dunstan Investments (UK) Ltd, Edgbaston RMBS 2010-1 plc, Edgbaston RMBS Holdings Ltd, Elland RMBS 2018 plc, Elland RMBS Holdings Ltd, Eurolead Services Holdings Ltd, First Retail Finance (Chester) Ltd, Fontwell Securities 2016 Ltd, Forthright Finance Ltd, France Industrial Premises Holding Company, General Leasing (No. 12) Ltd, General Reversionary and Investment Company, Gresham Nominee 1 Ltd, Gresham Nominee 2 Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 1) Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 10) Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 11) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 12) Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 13) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 14) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 15) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 16) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 19) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 20) Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 21) Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 22) Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 23) Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 24) Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 25) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 26) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 27) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 28) Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 29) Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 3) Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 30) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 31) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 32) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 33) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 34) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 35) Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 36) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 37) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 38) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 39) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 40) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 41) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 44) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 45) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 46) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 47) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 48) UK Ltd, Guildhall Asset Purchasing Company (No 3) Ltd, Guildhall Asset Purchasing Company (No.11) UK Ltd, HBOS Covered Bonds LLP, HBOS Final Salary Trust Ltd, HBOS Financial Services Ltd, HBOS Insurance & Investment Group Ltd, HBOS International Financial Services Holdings Ltd, HBOS Investment Fund Managers Ltd, HBOS Social Housing Covered Bonds LLP, HBOS UK Ltd, HBOS plc, HSDL Nominees Ltd, HVF Ltd, Halifax Credit Card Ltd, Halifax Financial Brokers Ltd, Halifax Financial Services (Holdings) Ltd, Halifax Financial Services Ltd, Halifax General Insurance Services Ltd, Halifax Group Ltd, Halifax Investment Services Ltd, Halifax Leasing (June) Ltd, Halifax Leasing (March No.2) Ltd, Halifax Leasing (September) Ltd, Halifax Life Ltd, Halifax Loans Ltd, Halifax Ltd, Halifax Mortgage Services Ltd, Halifax Nominees Ltd, Halifax Pension Nominees Ltd, Halifax Premises Ltd, Halifax Share Dealing Ltd, Halifax Vehicle Leasing (1998) Ltd, Heidi Finance Holdings (UK) Ltd, Hill Samuel Bank Ltd, Hill Samuel Finance Ltd, Hill Samuel Leasing Co. Ltd, Home Shopping Personal Finance Ltd, Horizon Capital 2000 Ltd, Housing Association Risk Transfer 2019 DAC, Housing Growth Partnership GP LLP, Housing Growth Partnership LP, Housing Growth Partnership Ltd, Housing Growth Partnership Manager Ltd, Hyundai Car Finance Ltd, IBOS Finance Ltd, ICC Enterprise Partners Ltd, ICC Equity Partners Ltd, ICC Holdings Unlimited Company, Inchcape Financial Services Ltd, Intelligent Finance Financial Services Ltd, Intelligent Finance Software Ltd, International Motors Finance Ltd, Kanaalstraat Funding C.V., Katrine Leasing Ltd, LB Healthcare Trustee Ltd, LB Motorent Ltd, LB Quest Ltd, LB Share Schemes Trustees Ltd, LBCF Ltd, LBG Brasil Administracao LTDA, LBG Capital Holdings Ltd, LBG Equity Investments Ltd, LBI Leasing Ltd, LDC (General Partner) Ltd, LDC (Managers) Ltd, LDC (Nominees) Ltd, LDC GP LLP, LDC I LP, LDC II LP, LDC III LP, LDC IV LP, LDC Parallel (Nominees) Ltd, LDC V LP, LDC VI LP, LDC VII LP, LDC VIII LP, LTGP Limited Partnership Incorporated, Legacy Renewal Company Ltd, Leicester Securities 2014 Ltd, Lex Autolease (CH) Ltd, Lex Autolease (VC) Ltd, Lex Autolease Carselect Ltd, Lex Autolease Ltd, Lex Vehicle Finance 2 Ltd, Lex Vehicle Leasing (Holdings) Ltd, Lex Vehicle Leasing Ltd, Lime Street (Funding) Ltd, Lingfield 2014 I Holdings Ltd, Lingfield 2014 I plc, Lloyds (Gresham) Ltd, Lloyds (Gresham) No. 1 Ltd, Lloyds (Nimrod) Specialist Finance Ltd, Lloyds America Securities Corporation1, Lloyds Asset Leasing Ltd, Lloyds Bank (Branches) Nominees Ltd, Lloyds Bank (Colonial & Foreign) Nominees Ltd, Lloyds Bank (Fountainbridge 1) Ltd, Lloyds Bank (Fountainbridge 2) Ltd, Lloyds Bank (I.D.) Nominees Ltd, Lloyds Bank (International Services) Ltd, Lloyds Bank (Stock Exchange Branch) Nominees Ltd, Lloyds Bank Asset Finance Ltd, Lloyds Bank Commercial Finance Ltd, Lloyds Bank Commercial Finance Scotland Ltd, Lloyds Bank Corporate Asset Finance (HP) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Corporate Asset Finance (No.1) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Corporate Asset Finance (No.2) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Corporate Asset Finance (No.3) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Corporate Asset Finance (No.4) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets Wertpapierhandelsbank GmbH, Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets plc, Lloyds Bank Covered Bonds (Holdings) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Covered Bonds (LM) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Covered Bonds LLP, Lloyds Bank Equipment Leasing (No. 1) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Equipment Leasing (No. 7) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Equipment Leasing (No. 9) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Financial Services (Holdings) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Foundation for England & Wales, Lloyds Bank Foundation for the Channel Islands, Lloyds Bank General Insurance Holdings Ltd, Lloyds Bank General Insurance Ltd, Lloyds Bank General Leasing (No. 11) Ltd, Lloyds Bank General Leasing (No. 17) Ltd, Lloyds Bank General Leasing (No. 20) Ltd, Lloyds Bank General Leasing (No. 3) Ltd, Lloyds Bank General Leasing (No. 5) Ltd, Lloyds Bank GmbH, Lloyds Bank Hill Samuel Holding Company Ltd, Lloyds Bank Insurance Services Ltd, Lloyds Bank International Ltd, Lloyds Bank Leasing (No. 6) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Leasing (No. 8) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Leasing Ltd, Lloyds Bank MTCH Ltd, Lloyds Bank Maritime Leasing (No. 10) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Maritime Leasing (No. 13) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Maritime Leasing (No. 17) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Maritime Leasing (No.16) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Nominees Ltd, Lloyds Bank Offshore Pension Trust Ltd, Lloyds Bank Pension ABCS (No. 1) LLP, Lloyds Bank Pension ABCS (No. 2) LLP, Lloyds Bank Pension Trust (No. 1) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Pension Trust (No. 2) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Pensions Property (Guernsey) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Properties Ltd, Lloyds Bank Property Company Ltd, Lloyds Bank S.F. Nominees Ltd, Lloyds Bank Subsidiaries Ltd, Lloyds Bank Trustee Services Ltd, Lloyds Bank plc, Lloyds Banking Group Pensions Trustees Ltd, Lloyds Capital GP Ltd, Lloyds Commercial Leasing Ltd, Lloyds Commercial Properties Ltd, Lloyds Commercial Property Investments Ltd, Lloyds Corporate Services (Jersey) Ltd, Lloyds Development Capital (Holdings) Ltd, Lloyds Engine Capital (No.1) U.S LLC, Lloyds Far East S.A.R.L., Lloyds General Leasing Ltd, Lloyds Group Holdings (Jersey) Ltd, Lloyds Holdings (Jersey) Ltd, Lloyds Hypotheken B.V., Lloyds Industrial Leasing Ltd, Lloyds International Pty Ltd, Lloyds Investment Bonds Ltd, Lloyds Investment Fund Managers Ltd, Lloyds Investment Securities No.5 Ltd, Lloyds Leasing (North Sea Transport) Ltd1, Lloyds Leasing Developments Ltd, Lloyds Nominees (Guernsey) Ltd, Lloyds Offshore Global Services Private Ltd, Lloyds Plant Leasing Ltd, Lloyds Portfolio Leasing Ltd, Lloyds Premises Investments Ltd, Lloyds Project Leasing Ltd, Lloyds Property Investment Company No. 3 Ltd, Lloyds Property Investment Company No. 4 Ltd, Lloyds Property Investment Company No.5 Ltd, Lloyds Secretaries Ltd, Lloyds Securities Inc., Lloyds TSB Pacific Ltd, Lloyds UDT Asset Leasing Ltd, Lloyds UDT Asset Rentals Ltd, Lloyds UDT Hiring Ltd, Lloyds UDT Leasing Ltd, Lloyds UDT Ltd, Lloyds Your Tomorrow Trustee Ltd, Loans.co.uk Ltd, London Taxi Finance Ltd, London Uberior (L.A.S. Group) Nominees Ltd, Lotus Finance Ltd, MBNA, MBNA Direct Ltd, MBNA Europe Finance Ltd, MBNA Europe Holdings Ltd, MBNA General Foundation, MBNA Global Services Ltd, MBNA Indian Services Private Ltd, MBNA Ltd, MBNA R & L S.A.R.L., MBNA Receivables Ltd, Mainsearch Company Ltd, Maritime Leasing (No. 19) Ltd, Membership Services Finance Ltd, Mitre Street Funding S.A.R.L., Molineux RMBS 2016-1 plc, Molineux RMBS Holdings Ltd, Moor Lane Holdings Ltd, NFU Mutual Finance Ltd, NWS Trust Ltd, Nominees (Jersey) Ltd, Nordic Leasing Ltd, Ocean Leasing (July) Ltd, Oystercatcher Nominees Ltd, Oystercatcher Residential Ltd, PIPS Asset Investments Ltd, Pacific Leasing Ltd, Penarth Asset Securitisation Holdings Ltd, Penarth Funding 1 Ltd, Penarth Funding 2 Ltd, Penarth Master Issuer plc, Penarth Receivables Trustee Ltd, Pensions Management (S.W.F.) Ltd, Peony Eastern Leasing Ltd, Peony Leasing Ltd, Peony Western Leasing Ltd, Permanent Funding (No. 1) Ltd, Permanent Funding (No. 2) Ltd, Permanent Holdings Ltd, Permanent Master Issuer plc, Permanent Mortgages Trustee Ltd, Permanent PECOH Holdings Ltd, Permanent PECOH Ltd, Perry Nominees Ltd, Prestonfield Investments Ltd, Proton Finance Ltd, R.F. Spencer And Company Ltd, Ranelagh Nominees Ltd, Retail Revival (Burgess Hill) Investments Ltd, SARL Coliseum, SARL Hiram, SAS Compagnie Fonciere De France, SCI Astoria Invest, SCI De LHorloge, SCI Equinoxe, SCI Rambuteau CFF, SW Funding plc, SW No.1 Ltd, SWAMF (GP) Ltd, SWAMF Nominee (1) Ltd, SWAMF Nominee (2) Ltd, Saint Michel Holding Company No1, Saint Michel Investment Property, Saint Witz 2 Holding Company No1, Saint Witz 2 Investment Property, Salisbury II Securities 2016 Ltd, Salisbury II-A Securities 2017 Ltd, Salisbury III Securities 2019 DAC, Salisbury Securities 2015 Ltd, Sandown 2012-2 Holdings Ltd, Sandown 2012-2 plc, Sandown Gold 2012-1 Holdings Ltd, Sandown Gold 2012-1 plc, Savban Leasing Ltd, Scotland International Finance B.V., Scottish Widows Administration Services (Nominees) Ltd, Scottish Widows Administration Services Ltd, Scottish Widows Annuities Ltd, Scottish Widows Auto Enrolment Services Ltd, Scottish Widows Europe, Scottish Widows Financial Services Holdings, Scottish Widows Group Ltd, Scottish Widows Industrial Properties Europe B.V., Scottish Widows Ltd, Scottish Widows Pension Trustees Ltd, Scottish Widows Property Management Ltd, Scottish Widows Schroder Personal Wealth (ACD) Ltd, Scottish Widows Schroder Personal Wealth Ltd, Scottish Widows Schroder Wealth Holdings Ltd, Scottish Widows Services Ltd, Scottish Widows Trustees Ltd, Scottish Widows Unit Funds Ltd, Scottish Widows Unit Trust Managers Ltd, Scottish Widows Fund and Life Assurance Society, Seabreeze Leasing Ltd, Seaspirit Leasing Ltd, Share Dealing Nominees Ltd, Shogun Finance Ltd, Silentdale Ltd, St Andrews Group Ltd, St Andrews Insurance plc, St Andrews Life Assurance plc, St. Marys Court Investments, Standard Property Investment (1987) Ltd, Standard Property Investment Ltd, Sussex County Homes Ltd, Suzuki Financial Services Ltd, Swan Funding 2 Ltd, Syon Securities 2019 DAC, The Agricultural Mortgage Corporation Plc, The British Linen Company Ltd, The Halifax Foundation for Northern Ireland, The Mortgage Business plc, Thistle Financing Holdings Ltd, Thistle Investments (AMC) Ltd, Thistle Investments (ERM) Ltd, Thistle Leasing, Three Copthall Avenue Ltd, Tower Hill Property Investments (10) Ltd, Tower Hill Property Investments (7) Ltd, Tranquility Leasing Ltd, Trinity Financing plc, UDT Budget Leasing Ltd, UDT Sales Finance Ltd, Uberior (Moorfield) Ltd, Uberior Co-Investments Ltd, Uberior ENA Ltd, Uberior Equity Ltd, Uberior Europe Ltd, Uberior Fund Investments Ltd, Uberior Infrastructure Investments (No.2) Ltd, Uberior Infrastructure Investments Ltd, Uberior Investments Ltd, Uberior Nominees Ltd, Uberior Trading Ltd, Uberior Trustees Ltd, Uberior Ventures Australia Pty Ltd, Uberior Ventures Ltd, United Dominions Leasing Ltd, United Dominions Trust Ltd, Universe The CMI Global Network Fund, Upsaala Ltd, Vine Street IX LP, WCS Ltd, Ward Nominees (Abingdon) Ltd, Ward Nominees (Birmingham) Ltd 1, Ward Nominees (Bristol) Ltd 1, Ward Nominees Ltd 1, Waverley  Fund II Investor LLC, Waverley  Fund III Investor LLC, Waymark Asset Investments Ltd, West Craigs Ltd, Wetherby II Securities 2018 DAC, Wetherby III Securities 2019 DAC, Wetherby Securities 2017 Ltd, Wood Street Leasing Ltd, and Zurich Insurance Group - UK Workplace Pensions and Savings Business.
1. Yes. There should be absolute certainty that the election was free and fair.

2. Yes. The audit could and should lead to stronger laws governing elections in the state.

3. No. Former President Trump wants the audit to further cast doubt on the 2020 vote.

4. No. Its a waste of money, an attempt by Abbott to gain favor among Trump backers.

5. Unsure. It seems unnecessary but it may provide some worthwhile findings.

Vote

View Results
The following companies are subsidiares of InterContinental Hotels Group: 2250 Blake Street Hotel LLC, 24th Street Operator Sub LLC, 36th Street IHG Sub LLC, 426 Main Ave LLC, 46 Nevins Street Associates LLC, Allegro Management LLC, Alpha Kimball Hotel LLC, American Commonwealth Assurance Co. Ltd., Asia Pacific Holdings Limited, BHMC Canada Inc., BHR Holdings B.V., BHR Luxembourg SARL, BHR Pacific Holdings Inc., BHTC Canada Inc., BOC Barclay Sub LLC, Barclay Operating Corp., Bristol Oakbrook Tenant Company, Cafe Biarritz, Cambridge Lodging LLC, Capital Lodging LLC, Compania Inter-Continental De Hoteles El Salvador SA, Crowne Plaza Amsterdam (Management) B.V., Crowne Plaza LLC, Cumberland Akers Hotel LLC, Dunwoody Operations Inc., EVEN Real Estate Holding LLC, Edinburgh IC Limited, General Innkeeping Acceptance Corporation, Guangzhou SC Hotels Services Ltd., H.I. (Ireland) Limited, H.I. Soaltee Management Company Ltd, HC International Holdings Inc., HH France Holdings SAS, HH Hotels (EMEA) B.V., HH Hotels (Romania) SRL, HI Sugarloaf LLC, HIM (Aruba) NV, Hale International Ltd., Hoft Properties LLC, Holiday Hospitality Franchising LLC, Holiday Inn Mexicana S.A. de C.V., Holiday Inns (China) Ltd, Holiday Inns (Chongqing) Inc., Holiday Inns (Courtalin) Holdings SAS, Holiday Inns (Courtalin) SAS, Holiday Inns (England) Ltd., Holiday Inns (Germany) LLC, Holiday Inns (Guangzhou) Inc., Holiday Inns (Jamaica) Inc., Holiday Inns (Malaysia) Ltd., Holiday Inns (Middle East) Ltd., Holiday Inns (Philippines) Inc., Holiday Inns (Saudi Arabia) Inc., Holiday Inns (South East Asia) Inc., Holiday Inns (Thailand) Ltd., Holiday Inns (UK) Inc., Holiday Inns Crowne Plaza (Hong Kong) Inc., Holiday Inns Holdings (Australia) Pty Ltd, Holiday Inns Inc., Holiday Inns Investment (Nepal) Ltd., Holiday Inns of America (UK) Ltd., Holiday Inns of Belgium N.V., Holiday Pacific Equity Corporation, Holiday Pacific LLC, Holiday Pacific Partners LP, Hotel Inter-Continental London Limited, Hotel InterContinental London (Holdings) Limited, Hoteles Y Turismo HIH SRL, IC Hotelbetriebsfuhrungs GmbH, IC Hotels Management (Portugal) Unipessoal Lda, IC International Hotels Limited Liability Company, IHC (Thailand) Limited, IHC Buckhead LLC, IHC Edinburgh (Holdings), IHC Hopkins (Holdings) Corp., IHC Hotel Limited, IHC Inter-Continental (Holdings) Corp., IHC London (Holdings), IHC M-H (Holdings) Corp., IHC May Fair (Holdings) Limited, IHC May Fair Hotel Limited, IHC Overseas (U.K.) Limited, IHC UK (Holdings) Limited, IHC United States (Holdings) Corp., IHC Willard (Holdings) Corp., IHG (Australasia) Limited, IHG (Marseille) SAS, IHG (Thailand) Limited, IHG ANA Hotels Group Japan LLC, IHG ANA Hotels Holdings Co. Ltd., IHG Bangkok Ltd, IHG Brasil Administracao de Hoteis e Servicos Ltda, IHG Commission Services SRL, IHG Community Development LLC, IHG Cyprus Limited, IHG ECS (Barbados) SRL, IHG Franchising Brasil Ltda, IHG Franchising DR Corporation, IHG Franchising LLC, IHG Hotels (New Zealand) Limited, IHG Hotels Limited, IHG Hotels Management (Australia) Pty Limited, IHG Hotels Nigeria Limited, IHG Hotels South Africa (Pty) Ltd, IHG International Partnership, IHG Istanbul Otel Yonetim Limited Sirketi, IHG Japan (Management) LLC, IHG Japan (Osaka) LLC, IHG Management (Maryland) LLC, IHG Management (Netherlands) B.V., IHG Management MD Barclay Sub LLC, IHG Management SL d.o.o, IHG Management d.o.o. Beograd, IHG Orchard Street Member LLC, IHG PS Nominees Limited, IHG Systems Pty Ltd, IHG Szalloda Budapest Szolgaltato Kft., IHG de Argentina SA, IND East Village SD Holdings LLC, Inter-Continental D.C. Operating Corp., Inter-Continental Florida Investment Corp., Inter-Continental Florida Partner Corp., Inter-Continental Hospitality Corporation, Inter-Continental Hoteleira Limitada, Inter-Continental Hotels (Montreal) Operating Corp., Inter-Continental Hotels (Montreal) Owning Corp., Inter-Continental Hotels (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Inter-Continental Hotels Corporation, Inter-Continental Hotels Corporation de Venezuela C.A., Inter-Continental Hotels of San Francisco Inc., Inter-Continental IOHC (Mauritius) Limited, Inter-Continental Management (Australia) Pty Limited, InterContinental (Branston) 1 Limited, InterContinental (PB) 1, InterContinental (PB) 2, InterContinental (PB) 3 Limited, InterContinental Berlin Service Company GmbH, InterContinental Brasil Administracao de Hoteis Ltda, InterContinental Gestion Hotelera S.L., InterContinental Hotel Berlin GmbH, InterContinental Hotel Dusseldorf GmbH (Germany), InterContinental Hotels (Puerto Rico) Inc., InterContinental Hotels Group (Asia Pacific) Pte Ltd, InterContinental Hotels Group (Australia) Pty Limited, InterContinental Hotels Group (Canada) Inc., InterContinental Hotels Group (Espana) SA, InterContinental Hotels Group (Greater China) Limited, InterContinental Hotels Group (India) Pvt. Ltd, InterContinental Hotels Group (Japan) Inc., InterContinental Hotels Group (New Zealand) Limited, InterContinental Hotels Group (Shanghai) Ltd., InterContinental Hotels Group Customer Services Ltd., InterContinental Hotels Group Healthcare Trustee Limited, InterContinental Hotels Group Operating Corp., InterContinental Hotels Group Resources Inc., InterContinental Hotels Group Services Company, InterContinental Hotels Group do Brasil Limitada, InterContinental Hotels Italia S.r.L., InterContinental Hotels Limited, InterContinental Hotels Management GmbH, InterContinental Hotels Nevada Corporation, InterContinental Management AM LLC, InterContinental Management Bulgaria EOOD, InterContinental Management France SAS, InterContinental Management Poland sp. z.o.o, InterContinental Overseas Holding Corporation, Intercontinental Hotels Corporation Limited, KG Benefits LLC, KG Gift Card Inc., KG Liability LLC, KG Technology LLC, KHP Washington Operator LLC, KHRG 11th Avenue Hotel LLC, KHRG 851 LLC, KHRG Aertson LLC, KHRG Alexandria LLC, KHRG Alexis LLC, KHRG Allegro LLC, KHRG Argyle LLC, KHRG Austin Beverage Company LLC, KHRG Baltimore LLC, KHRG Born LLC, KHRG Boston Hotel LLC, KHRG Canary LLC, KHRG Cayman Employer Ltd., KHRG Cayman LLC, KHRG DC 1731 LLC, KHRG DC 2505 LLC, KHRG Donovan LLC, KHRG Employer LLC, KHRG Goleta LLC, KHRG Gray LLC, KHRG Gray U2 LLC, KHRG Hillcrest LLC, KHRG Huntington Beach LLC, KHRG King Street LLC, KHRG La Peer LLC, KHRG Miami Beach LLC, KHRG Muse LLC, KHRG NPC LLC, KHRG Onyx LLC, KHRG Palladian LLC, KHRG Palomar Phoenix LLC, KHRG Philly Monaco LLC, KHRG Pittsburgh LLC, KHRG Reynolds LLC, KHRG Riverplace LLC, KHRG SFD LLC, KHRG Sacramento LLC, KHRG Savannah LLC, KHRG Schofield LLC, KHRG Sedona LLC, KHRG State Street LLC, KHRG Sutter LLC, KHRG Sutter Union LLC, KHRG Taconic LLC, KHRG Tariff LLC, KHRG Texas Hospitality LLC, KHRG Texas Operations LLC, KHRG Tryon LLC, KHRG VZ Austin LLC, KHRG Vero Beach LLC, KHRG Vintage Park LLC, KHRG WPB LLC, KHRG Wabash LLC, KHRG Westwood LLC, KHRG Wilshire LLC, KHRG Zamora LLC, Kimpton Hollywood Licenses LLC, Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group, Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group LLC, Kimpton Phoenix Licenses Holdings LLC, Kimpton Sedona Licenses LLC, Louisiana Acquisitions Corp., MH Lodging LLC, Mercer Fairview Holdings LLC, PML Services LLC, PT SC Hotels & Resorts Indonesia, Pollstrong Limited, Powell Pine Inc., Priscilla Holiday of Texas Inc., RM Lodging LLC, Regent Hotels and Resorts, Resort Services International (Cayo Largo) L.P., SBS Maryland Beverage Company LLC, SC Cellars Limited, SC Hotels International Services Inc., SC Leisure Group Limited, SC NAS 2 Limited, SC Quest Limited, SC Reservations (Philippines) Inc., SCH Insurance Company, SCIH Branston 3, SF MH Acquisition LLC, SPHC Group Pty Ltd., SPHC Management Ltd., Semiramis for training of Hotel Personnel and Hotel Management SAE, Six Continents Corporate Services, Six Continents Holdings Limited, Six Continents Hotels Inc., Six Continents Hotels International Limited, Six Continents Hotels de Colombia SA, Six Continents International Holdings B.V., Six Continents Investments Limited, Six Continents Limited, Six Continents Overseas Holdings Limited, Six Continents Restaurants Limited, SixCo North America Inc., Solamar Lodging LLC, Southern Pacific Hotel Corporation (BVI) Ltd., Southern Pacific Hotels Properties Limited, Universal de Hoteles SA, White Shield Insurance Company Limited, and World Trade Centre Montreal Hotel Corporation.
Voters in Arizona's 8th congressional district will go to the polls today to elect a new congressional representative. The polls are open until 7:00 PM Mountain Time (10:00 PM Eastern Time; Arizona doesn't participate in Daylight Savings Time). The 8th district is entirely within Maricopa County*, and includes portions of the Phoenix metropolitan area.

The election pits Republican Debbie Lesko, a former state Senator, against Democrat Hiral Tipirneni, a physician.

FiveThirtyEight has a good overview of the election, including why a repeat of last month's Democratic win in the PA-18 special election is unlikely despite the fact that Donald Trump won both districts by about 20% in 2016.

Much of the voting for today's election was cast during early voting. For those that are interested, the state provides a nice level of detail on the composition of those that voted during this period. While it doesn't tell us how people voted, about 75% of the returned ballots were from those over 55; the median age of all early voters is 67. Just under half the early voters are registered Republicans, compared to about 28% Democrats and 23% independents.

According to the Arizona Secretary of State, the early vote counts will be released at 8:00 PM (11:00 PM ET), after which there will be a lull for an hour or more before counts from today's vote begin to be posted.

* Although Maricopa County encompasses just 8% of the state's geographic area, portions of it are included in all but one of the state's eight congressional districts.
A lot of people ask me what I do between races. Sometimes I read, but more often I do crafts. One Sunday afternoon I made my son a Max costume from Where the Wild Things Are, including a tail and a little hood.

When theres no live racing, I visit a lot of schools and I do a lot of charitable events. And I go to a lot of cities with the Louisville Convention and Visitors Bureau when they are promoting tourism, and I play My Old Kentucky Home and the national anthem. Plus, Im also the track bugler at Keeneland Racecourse in Lexington.

Derby week is a different animal. It starts off slow on Tuesday, and then people start showing up from the television network. Then more press Thursday, and by Friday its controlled chaos. And suddenly its Saturday  Derby day. You feel like you have opened an enormous wing of your house to guests, and you want each one to have a great time.

One year trumpeter Wynton Marsalis was here to give a master class at the University of Louisville, and he came to the Derby to play My Old Kentucky Home with the university band. It was early in my tenure and I didnt have permission, but I asked him to come to the pagoda behind the winners circle, which I come out of to play, and then to watch the Derby from the roof. Hes very gracious and down to earth, and its just awesome to have that memory!

Theres an hour between the previous race and the Derby. Thats when I start to get nervous. What Ive been doing for a long time is taking a walk on the turf track. I go all the way up to the top of the stretch, and when I turn around to go back, I see all the people having a great time, and the twin spires. Its generally sunny  even if its been raining all day, for that hour its sunny. And I just think how lucky I am to be the guy who gets to play for the Kentucky Derby.

As told to Susan Reigler
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AARP is partnering with Politico Magazine to demonstrate through polling, news articles and events how important the 50-plus voter will be in deciding the results of this years congressional midterm elections as well as state races across the country.

With the future of such critical programs as Medicare and Social Security on the line and issues like the affordability of prescription drugs and the role of caregivers, AARP and Politicos work together is designed to show candidates, their staffs, political influencers and the media why they need to pay attention to older voters. The stories and polls will also reveal what motivates older voters beyond these hot-button issues and their ideological preferences. Americans over age 50 span the generations, from Gen Xers and boomers to the Silent Generation and the Greatest Generation, and they care about a wide range of topics, issues and policies.

The role of 50-plus voters in deciding elections should not be understated  especially with critical issues on the line this year, says Nancy LeaMond, AARPs executive vice president and chief advocacy and engagement officer. We are excited to partner with Politico to showcase the important role older Americans play in the upcoming election.

As part of this collaboration, Politico will produce a series called The Deciders, which will debut in June. The series will combine polling analysis, demographic profiles of the 50-plus electorate and stories capturing voter attitudes in battleground states such as Florida, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Ohio. Politico will also hold forums in key states featuring candidates from both parties.

We are just over six months out from a monumental election, and we are thrilled to partner with AARP to focus on the voters who will likely determine its outcome, says Patrick Steel, CEO of Politico. "No one does politics better than Politico, and no one does grassroots organizing better than AARP, making this a natural partnership."
Sen. John Thune once again raises retirement question

Local columnist Tom Lawrence takes a look back at Al Franken's career as a Minnesota senator as Franken speculates a return to politics.
Travis Reinking exhibited multiple warning signs that he was mentally unstable: He talked openly about delusions that he was being stalked by Taylor Swift. He insisted unknown people were making barking noises outside his home. He even went to the White House on a mission to talk to the president.

Reinkings behavior resulted in the revocation of his Illinois firearms license, and his weapons were turned over to his father. But authorities say his father simply returned the three rifles and a handgun to his son when he decided to move out of state. The son now stands accused of opening fire Sunday at a Waffle House in Tennessee using an AR-15 that had been among the firearms seized. Four people were killed in the attack.

The case illustrates the difficulty of keeping guns away from mentally disturbed people and shows how easy it is for them to retrieve confiscated weapons.

Its a story of a highly effective law that then has a really dangerous loophole, said Jonas Oransky, deputy legal director for Everytown for Gun Safety, which works to tighten gun laws.

Reinking was disarmed by a man at the restaurant and fled. He was captured Monday.

Under federal law, a gun owners weapons can be seized if that person is convicted of a felony or involuntarily committed for mental health treatment. Illinois is one of the few states with a mechanism to allow firearms to be seized if someones behavior constitutes a clear and present danger but does not necessarily rise to the level of a felony conviction or an involuntary commitment.

Police reports describe Reinking as unstable but not violent. He was well known by local law enforcement, and his troubles were not a mystery to his relatives, who told authorities that he had been having delusions since 2014.

In May 2016, Reinking told deputies from Tazewell County, Illinois, that Swift was stalking him and hacking his phone, and that his family was also involved. He agreed to go to a hospital for an evaluation after repeatedly resisting the request, a sheriffs report said.

Another sheriffs report said Reinking barged into a community pool in Tremont, Illinois, last June, and jumped into the water wearing a pink womans coat over his underwear. Investigators believed he had an AR-15 rifle in his car trunk, but it was never displayed. No charges were filed.

Last July, Reinking was arrested by the Secret Service after he crossed into a restricted area near the White House and refused to leave, saying he wanted to meet President Donald Trump. Reinking was not armed at the time, but at the FBIs request, state police in Illinois revoked his state firearms card and seized four guns from him, authorities said.

It seems like they were proactive and effective at suspending this dangerous persons access to guns in the first place, particularly since thats not something they couldve done in most states, said Ari Freilich, a staff attorney at the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. But they did not foresee the father being so irresponsible and dangerous in returning the guns to this person.

The father could face charges for returning the guns, according to Marcus Watson, an agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who spoke Monday at a news conference.

Reinking told police last August that he wanted to file a report about 20 to 30 people tapping into his computer and phone and people barking like dogs outside his residence, according to a report.

Theres certainly evidence that theres some sort of mental health issues involved, Tazewell County Sheriff Robert Huston said Sunday.

The sheriff said his department never took formal custody of Reinkings guns. But Reinkings father, who has an Illinois firearm owners card, was allowed to take them and agreed to keep the weapons secure and out of the possession of Travis.

Jeffrey Reinking has now acknowledged giving them back to his son, Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron said. Phone calls to a number listed for the father went unanswered.

It is not clear why Reinking moved away from Morton, Illinois, or if he lived elsewhere before settling in Nashville. Its also unclear if the move had anything to do with being near Swift, who has a home in Nashville. Police say he was employed in construction for a while, and there would have been enough work in the booming city for him.

Several states have so-called red flag laws that allow relatives, friends or others to go to a court expressing concern about someone being a danger to themselves or others and seeking a court-ordered emergency hearing to consider seizing firearms. But the laws are still rare. After the Parkland shooting, Florida and Vermont  both traditionally gun-friendly states  enacted laws to allow firearms to be confiscated before someone commits an act of violence.

States vary in what they do with firearms that are seized. Some states give the option of selling or transferring the guns to a licensed dealer or law enforcement. Others allow the person to give them to a friend, relative or some other third party. Experts caution about the danger of allowing relatives or friends to take possession of the firearms.

Family dynamics are unusual. And heres a situation where the family knew of his danger and still gave him a gun, said Adam Winkler, a professor at the University of California Los Angeles School of Law and gun industry expert.

Reinkings move to Tennessee  which has considerably more lax gun laws than Illinois  exposes another loophole with the laws, experts say.

That safety net in Illinois that works so well  evaporated when he moved to Tennessee, said Everytowns Oransky.

___

Associated Press Writer Ed White in Detroit contributed to this report.
Copyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

New Mexico Supreme Court justices on Monday offered additional guidance to judges tasked with deciding whether first-degree murder suspects should be detained pending trial.

The opinion essentially instructs judges to evaluate first-degree murder suspects for dangerousness as they would any other felony defendant, rather than ordering pre-trial detention based on the seriousness of the charge alone.

It deals with two separate provisions under the state constitution that address the circumstances in which a defendant can be held without bond.

The first, approved by voters in 2016, allows judges to hold felony defendants if they determine that no other conditions of release will ensure the safety of the community. The second, a clause that has existed since New Mexico became a state, says that defendants accused of capital offenses can be held without bail.

The opinion comes in response to an appeal filed in the first-degree murder case against Muhammad Ameer, who is accused of robbing and stabbing Aaron Sieben near a gas station on Lomas east of Eubank in Albuquerque last year.

Prosecutors in the case sought to detain Ameer under the new amendment, but 2nd Judicial District Judge Brett Loveless opted instead to deny him bail under that older constitutional provision, because he was charged with a capital felony offense.

In an earlier order in the same case, the Supreme Court reversed the decision, finding that the older provision could be used only in cases in which capital punishment may be imposed upon conviction.

And in the 47-page opinion filed Monday, the court said that because the death penalty was repealed in 2009, first-degree murder is no longer a capital offense, so the older provision would not apply.

Our holding does not mean the district court lacks authority to deny pretrial release of a defendant charged with a crime that is no longer a capital offense, Justice Charles Daniels wrote. In fact, our district courts now have a much broader evidence-based detention authority applicable in both capital and noncapital felony offenses.

Public defender Jon Ibarra said the opinion gives judges the ability to release people accused of murder in cases where theres no reason to think the person is otherwise dangerous. He said detaining individuals solely because theyre accused of first-degree murder is contrary to established law.

From our perspective, people charged with murder should be treated like any other person who may or may not be dangerous, Ibarra said.

The older provision, he said, was rarely used in Bernalillo County.

The 2nd Judicial District Attorneys Office did not respond to a request seeking comment.
Copyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

The University of New Mexico on Monday earned the last OK it needed to build an on-campus taproom when it cleared the state Board of Finance, getting support from a board member who is also now a UNM regent.

Michael Brasher, in his first Board of Finance meeting since assuming a seat on the UNM Board of Regents, cast a vote in support of the taproom en route to its 4-0 passage.

UNM now can move forward with construction in the southeast corner of the Student Union Building. Officials have said they expect to have the $650,000 taproom open by this fall.

Brashers service on both high-profile boards has raised questions about conflict of interest since the powerful Board of Finance has final say on many of the states higher education projects.

Gov. Susana Martinez appointed Brasher to the BOF  over which she serves as president  in 2012. Last month, she gave him another prominent role by naming him to a vacant seat on UNMs seven-member Board of Regents.

Multiple lawmakers and government ethics advocates have told the Journal previously they think Brasher should recuse himself from any BOF vote involving UNM.

Some, including Senate Finance Committee Chairman John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, contend that Brasher should sit out votes on every higher education project, even those that dont involve UNM.

New Mexico State University Chancellor Garrey Carruthers echoed others concerns Monday upon hearing that Brasher voted on a UNM matter while serving in his BOF capacity.

Carruthers noted that prior to being appointed a UNM regent, Brasher had voted against NMSUs request to issue bonds for dormitory projects.

I really think he probably ought to recuse himself from higher education issues because were competitive with one another, he said of the institutions.

Neither Brasher nor Martinezs office previously answered Journal questions about how Brasher would handle his dual roles.

Monday offered the first public indication.

Brasher presided over the meeting, as Martinez was absent. Lt. Gov. John Sanchez and State Treasurer Tim Eichenberg werent there either, meaning just four of the boards seven members were present.

Brasher said he disclosed his role as a UNM regent at the beginning of the meeting, and no one asked him to recuse himself. He said he also asked for a legal opinion from an assistant attorney general who staffs the Board of Finance meetings.

Based on that opinion, there wasnt a reason to recuse myself, Brasher said in a brief interview after the meeting.

James Hallinan, spokesman for Attorney General Hector Balderas, said the offices representative who attended issued no opinion but advised that technically Mr. Brasher could serve in both roles.

Attorney General Balderas believes that all efforts must be made to remove even the appearance of a conflict of interest by those serving in fiduciary roles involving taxpayer dollars, Hallinan said via email. Even in this instance, a legal technicality should still be vetted against the slightest appearance of impropriety,

Journal Staff Writer Dan McKay contributed to this report.
If Republicans arent losing their congressional majority this coming fall, they are doing a good job of acting like it.

Dozens of Republicans are leaving the House, and last week Paul Ryan said he is resigning as House speaker at the end of this Congress, and will not even run for his congressional seat again.

If the high-water mark of Republican power came on the day last December that congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump celebrated the passage of the tax bill on the White House lawn, Ryans announcement is a clear sign that Republican clout is receding.

We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy is Ta-Nehisi Coates lament over what he considers the lost opportunity of the Barack Obama years. The story of unified GOP control of Washington might someday deserve to be written as We Were Two Years in Power: A Tragicomedy.

In a gift for the ages, Republicans won all elected branches of the federal government in 2016. But the initial ecstasy over Trump signing their stuff has given way to the reality that they dont have stuff to send him.

Republicans couldnt roll back Obamacare, in part because the party hadnt thought through what the Republican alternative was.

They passed a tax cut that included important reforms that even the Democratic repeal bills dont want to completely undo and that are boosting the economy.

Thats all to the good. But tax cuts arent a magic political elixir. First, Trump is right, as he said at an event a couple of weeks ago when he tossed away his script, that they are boring. They dont have the emotive appeal of issues like trade and immigration. Second, there are limits to how effectively you can run on the one thing you accomplished last year. This is the truly extraordinary aspect of the current situation. Republicans are content not to do anything else of significance in Congress this year. They passed an omnibus spending bill that was rightly denounced as a disgrace by Trump even as he signed it, and the Senate is working to confirm Trump nominees. Thats pretty much it.

They arent trying to wring every last ounce of what could be their waning months of unified control of Washington  for years to come. They arent determined to give their voters some other reasons to support them in November. They arent attempting to create action in Washington besides Trumps feuds with James Comey and Stormy Daniels.

Republicans are resting on their laurels when they dont deserve any laurels. They are suffering from political exhaustion when they havent truly exerted themselves. They are acting like they are lost in the wilderness when they still occupy the commanding heights of American politics.

The Democratic majority in the run-up to 1994 had this autumnal feel, but it had been in power for decades. The Republican majority, held at bay for six years under President Barack Obama, should be feeling its oats rather than stumbling toward the exits.

This is, in large part, a result of the bizarre circumstances of the GOP sweep in 2016. The party showed every sign of being on the verge of defeat amid a major identity crisis. Its establishment was ineffectual, its old verities in doubt, and its voters in revolt. But instead of losing, the party won despite  or maybe because of  its identity crisis.

That ongoing crisis hasnt been conducive to governing. The old Republican limited-government congressional agenda has less purchase in the era of Trump, while the presidents populist-nationalist impulse hasnt come close to being refined into an actionable legislative program. Instead, it has been expressed almost exclusively through executive actions and in his speeches and Twitter feed.

Maybe Republicans somehow hold on to the House this fall  the generic ballot is encouraging lately, if nothing else is. At the very least, though, Republicans are going to lose their functional majority. The question at this juncture is, How would anyone notice?

Rich Lowry can be reached via e-mail: comments.lowry @nationalreview.com.  2017 by King Features Syndicate.
With less than 50 days until the primary election, Albuquerque-area congressional candidates are hitting the airwaves.

Former Democratic Party Chairwoman Debra Haaland was the first candidate to launch a TV ad in the six-way Democratic primary race, but two rival candidates wont be far behind with ads of their own.

Ex-U.S. Attorney Damon Martinez so far has spent $34,384 to air his TV ad  starting today and running into next week  on several network channels, according to public station files.

His ad riffs on The Apprentice, a reality television show featuring Donald Trump, and ends with Martinez vowing to help fire Trump. The Trump administration asked Martinez and 45 other U.S. attorneys to resign in March 2017.

Former law school associate dean Antoinette Sedillo Lopez is spending roughly $42,000 to begin airing her 30-second spot on cable and network channels this week, a campaign spokesman said. The upbeat ad includes a reference to a high school guidance counselor telling Sedillo Lopez women could not be lawyers.

The TV ad blitz come as candidates are trying to distinguish themselves in a crowded race with no clear front-runner.

Haaland, who is seeking to become the first Native American woman in Congress, began airing her TV ad Monday on several Albuquerque-area stations. It features Haaland hiking in the Sandia Mountains and begins with the line, I dont look like most people in Congress.

Haalands campaign is spending roughly $117,000 to run the ad through May 13, a campaign spokesman said.

The other Democrats running in the 1st Congressional District race are Albuquerque City Councilor Pat Davis, New Mexico Hispanic Bar Association President Damian Lara and Paul Moya, the CEO of Millennial Labs.

The winner of the June 5 primary election will face Republican Janice Arnold-Jones and Libertarian Lloyd Princeton in the fall.

New caucus: New Mexico Democratic Party insiders have signed off on the formation of a new progressive caucus.

The Adelante Progressive Caucus, which is similar to the progressive caucuses in more than a dozen other states, will focus on transparency and accountability issues, and will work to recruit candidates from under-represented communities, according to its interim chairwoman Pia Gallegos.

Already, more than 250 party members have joined the caucus, which will host a candidate forum for Democratic land commissioner candidates on May 12 in Albuquerque.

Dan Boyd: dboyd@abqjournal.com
Copyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  Gov. Susana Martinezs administration  after failing to win legislative approval  is moving ahead with a proposal that would direct New Mexico public schools to hold back students who cant read proficiently, in some circumstances.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers, in turn, questioned the Martinez administrations authority to carry out the rule change.

It seems to be going around the will of the Legislature in a very deliberate manner, Sen. William Soules, D-Las Cruces, said in a committee hearing Monday.

The state Public Education Department, in turn, said the proposal is built on language thats already in state law, allowing the mandatory retention of students, even if a parent objects, in some cases.

State education chief Christopher Ruszkowski called Mondays criticism a political hit job and pointed out that much of the proposal focuses on requiring additional, early help and services for children who cannot read at grade level.

There were a number of inaccurate, incomplete, intellectually inconsistent assertions made about the proposed early literacy rule at todays (committee) meeting, he said in a written statement.

Proposals to end social promotion in New Mexico  by requiring third graders to be proficient in reading before moving on  have repeatedly failed to make it through the Legislature. Martinez, first elected governor in 2010, leaves office at the end of this year.

State law, nonetheless, already allows for mandatory retention of students who  for two years in a row  arent academically proficient. But the measuring stick under the current law includes the students grades and other standards identified by the school district.

The rule proposed by the Martinez administration this year focuses on reading proficiency, based on a state assessment. Proposed legislation focusing on reading skills  not the broader criteria mentioned in state law  have failed to win approval from lawmakers.

Rep. Linda Trujillo, D-Santa Fe, said state law, as it stands now, grants districts some measure of control over how to handle retention of students.

The proposed change is just really disturbing, she said.

Rep. Monica Youngblood, an Albuquerque Republican who has pushed to end social promotion, said the state Public Education Department is simply responding to the alarming number of young people who cant read at grade level.

I think theyre doing what they think they need to do to help our students be successful, she said.

Just 26 percent of third grade students were proficient in reading in the 2017 fiscal year, according to a legislative analysis released earlier this year. And New Mexico ranked 50th in the nation in reading proficiency, according to a January report released by New Mexico Voices for Children.

The proposed rule change would apply to schools teaching students in kindergarten through third grade, and it covers more than just retention. The proposal also calls for a variety of steps to help students who struggle with reading  including the creation of an individual plan to help each youngster who isnt proficient on a midyear assessment.

But it would also require schools to retain students who fail to reach proficiency in reading, based on a state assessment.

Parents could sign a waiver allowing the student to move on to the next grade the first time. But retention would be mandatory if the student fails to read proficiently at the end of the next year. The proposal would allow some exemptions.

It seeks to codify that which is already found in state statute  which already includes language requiring additional instruction for students who cant read, Ruszkowski said.

Soules, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said the proposed rule change is similar to legislation that lawmakers have rejected.

Opponents of the bills have said it isnt fair to base a retention decision on one test on a single subject.

Charles Goodmacher, a lobbyist for the National Education Association New Mexico, said the PED is once again demonstrating its top-down approach to education issues in the state.

The conflict surfaced Monday in a meeting of the Legislative Education Study Committee, a nine-member panel that meets between legislative sessions.

Lawmakers were split on whether the proposal is good policy. But there was no opposition to sending a letter to the Public Education Department, questioning the departments authority to act on its own.

In any case, it wouldnt be the first time the Martinez administration has taken action through an administrative rule, even after legislation failed to pass. New Mexicos teacher evaluation system was established by rule in 2012 after a bill stalled in the Legislature.

The Public Education Department is now accepting public comment, with a hearing scheduled May 17 in Santa Fe.

If approved, the proposal would go into effect July 1.
PHOENIX  A mistrial was declared Monday in the case of a U.S. Border Patrol agent after an Arizona jury acquitted him of a second-degree murder charge in the killing of a teen from Mexico but deadlocked on lesser counts of manslaughter.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Raner Collins means prosecutors could seek another trial for Agent Lonnie Swartz on the manslaughter charges in the 2012 death of Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, who was fatally shot as he threw rocks at authorities during a drug smuggling attempt. Prosecutors say they were evaluating whether to pursue a retrial.

Jurors had deliberated about 18 hours over five days in what human rights attorneys say was the first prosecution of a Border Patrol agent in a fatal shooting across the border.

Swartz fired 16 shots late on Oct. 10, 2012, through a 20-foot (6-meter) fence that sits on an embankment above Mexicos Calle Internacional, a Nogales street lined with homes and small businesses.

Prosecutors acknowledged during the monthlong trial that Elena Rodriguez was lobbing rocks across the border during a drug smuggling attempt. But they say he did not deserve to die.

Defense attorneys countered that Swartz was justified in using lethal force against rock-throwers and shot from the U.S. side of the border in self-defense.

Defense attorneys Sean Chapman and Jim Calle didnt immediately return a phone call seeking comment late Monday afternoon.

Art Del Cueto, head of the Tucson union for Border Patrol officers, said: I believe that justice was properly served. The jurors took their time, and were pretty happy with it.

Prosecutor Elizabeth Strange said her office respects the jurys decision. I am proud of our offices work in presenting this difficult case to the jury, Strange said.

The Border Patrol came under close scrutiny during the Obama administration for allegations involving excessive use of force. Customs and Border Protection, its parent agency, reported 55 incidents in which employees used firearms from Oct. 1, 2011, to Sept. 30, 2012. The number of incidents fell to 17 for the same period five years later.

Swartz initially was charged with second-degree murder in the shooting of Elena Rodriguez in Nogales, Mexico.

Collins told the jury in his instructions that they could consider a lesser charge of voluntary or involuntary manslaughter if they had trouble reaching a verdict on the more serious charge.

During closing arguments, Assistant U.S. Attorney Wallace Heath Kleindienst said Swartz was fed up with being rocked after being targeted in at least six other attacks.

He was angry with those people who had been throwing rocks against the fence, Kleindienst said.

It was not about eliminating a threat, because there was no threat, he said. It was about eliminating a human being.

Defense attorney Sean Chapman argued there was not a scintilla of evidence that Swartz was angry or fed up.

He said Swartz shot because he was trying to protect himself and his fellow agents during a drug operation.

From his first day in the Border Patrol, it had been ingrained in him that rocks were dangerous, Chapman said.

The trial played out as President Donald Trump called for National Guard troops to be sent to the Mexican border to free Border Patrol agents to concentrate on stopping drugs and people from illegally entering the United States.

Trump has made his crackdown on illegal immigration and building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border a cornerstone of his presidency.

The killing of Elena Rodriguez was felt deeply in the twin communities of Nogales, where about 20,000 people live on the Arizona side and about 300,000 in Mexico. The communities are linked by family members, trade and culture and have long been referred to locally as Ambos Nogales  Both Nogales in Spanish.

During the trial, jurors visited the border area at night to get a better idea of what Swartz was facing.

The agent, who has been on administrative leave pending the trials outcome, testified that he remembered little of what happened.

The Border Patrol has not said if he was receiving his salary.

A parallel civil case filed by the teens mother against Swartz seeking monetary damages is pending before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

___

Follow Jacques Billeaud at twitter.com/jacquesbilleaud. His work can be found at https://bit.ly/2GGWEPO.
FARMINGTON  The Farmington Police Department is revisiting a cold case and seeking assistance about a homicide which occurred about eight and a half years ago.

Nathaniel Robert Morgan, 37, was found dead in the area west of the Auburn Trailer Park at 951 N. Auburn Ave. on Oct. 21, 2009, according to a Farmington police press release.

The release states Morgan was found partially submerged in a shallow brook on the west side of the trailer park.

The initial investigation and exam revealed Morgan sustained injuries, which led investigators to believe he was the victim of a homicide, according to The Daily Times archives.

Morgans death was later ruled a homicide by the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator and it was apparent he had been involved in a physical altercation, according to the press release.

Farmington police spokeswoman Georgette Allen said Morgans case is one of the cold cases the department is revisiting.

The department in December started to revisit a case of Lynn R. Goldin, a missing 83-year-old Washington man who visited the Four Corners region to hunt for treasure.

Morgan was last seen alive on the afternoon of Oct. 20, 2009.

He was observed sitting on a lawn chair drinking with an unidentified friend by the shallow brook in the trailer park, according to the press release.

The friend is described as a male about 25 to 35 years in age, 170 pounds, who had a shaved head and stood about five feet, seven inches tall.

Police did not receive any information initially from the public on the case, and there were no tips received by the San Juan County Crime Stoppers, according to the Daily Times archives.

Police released a composite sketch of the friend on Nov. 12, 2009. It was drawn and released after a forensic artist met with witnesses.

Numerous tips were given to detectives after the sketch was released. But those leads have been exhausted.

Anyone with information about Nathaniel Robert Morgan, including those who recognize the person in the sketch or witnessed the altercation, is asked to contact non-emergency dispatch at 505-334-6622 or Detective Heather Chavez at 505-566-2370.

An anonymous tip can be made by contacting the San Juan County Crime Stoppers at 505-334-8477.

Joshua Kellogg covers crime, courts and social issues for The Daily Times. He can be reached at 505-564-4627 or via email at jkellogg@daily-times.com.



2018 The Daily Times (Farmington, N.M.)

Visit The Daily Times (Farmington, N.M.) at www.daily-times.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

_____
WASHINGTON  Members of the cast of TVs Homeland call it spy camp. Its when they travel to Washington to pick the brains of top U.S. intelligence officials.

And its where Hollywood meets real-world intelligence and both sides realize that not everything is as it seems. The two worlds blur and its hard to tell where todays national security and political events stop and the fictional drama begins.

I guess the challenge of the show is that it is constantly adapting to whats happening in real-time, said actress Claire Danes, who plays Carrie Mathison, a former CIA operative turned senior national security adviser who suffers from a bipolar disorder.

Danes and other members of the cast and crew of Homeland appeared Monday night at the National Press Club to talk about espionage in popular culture. Several hundred people attended the event, which was sponsored by the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy and International Security at George Mason University. Its namesake, the former CIA director and National Security Agency director, served as moderator.

In the Showtime series, Russians manipulate the news. In real life, Moscow meddled in the presidential election. In the show, the president axes employees. In real life, President Donald Trump shuffles his Cabinet and threatens to fire folks.

Early in its seven-season run, the show portrayed a U.S. serviceman who was held captive by al-Qaida, released and then turned against his country and planned an attack on U.S. soil. Militant-inspired attacks have been carried out in U.S. cities in recent years.

Actor Mandy Patinkin, who plays Saul Berenson, a career official at the CIA who becomes national security adviser to the president, remembered one spy camp where they had a video conference with Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who leaked documents revealing extensive government surveillance. The experience was a letdown, Patinkin said.

We were all on pins and needles, Patinkin said. It was the least interesting person who ever came through the door. Im all for the truth. A lie is a cancer to my soul. But that guy was just proselytizing his manifesto.

Patinkin said that during the video conference, the cast kept passing notes to each other under the table, urging one another to try to get Snowden to talk about something personal. Patinkin said he looks to spy camp for information about what makes intelligence officers human so he can replicate their private soul-searching on camera.

Im looking for their heartbeat, he said. How they deal with terror in their own lives. Who do they talk to when they are frightened?

Spies in popular culture are not new. British author Rudyard Kipling wrote one of the first spy novels, Kim, at the turn of the 20th century, Vince Houghton, historian at the International Spy Museum in Washington, said in an interview earlier Monday. A lot of fiction about espionage was written during World War I and even more was published during World War II and the Cold War. British agent James Bond has appeared in published fiction since 1953 and on movie screens in more than two dozen films since 1962.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, the spy genre exploded and today there are multiple television dramas, feeding a seemingly insatiable demand for all things related to spying.

With the number of intelligence stories in the news, there are an abundance of plot lines. WikiLeaks. Intelligence leaks. Insider threats. Cyber warfare. Black sites. Russia accused of poisoning ex-double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter with a nerve agent.

I dont think we can compete with the reality, said Lesli Link Glatter, executive producer and director of Homeland, who meets regularly with intelligence professionals. I dont want to say its fact-based. Its a story.

She admitted the show sometimes doesnt mirror reality. CIA operatives, for instance, operate abroad, not in the United States as they have done on the show. The staff, however, regularly confers with intelligence pros.

Laurence Pfeiffer, who had a three-decade career in intelligence and directs the Hayden Center, said he watches the show with his wife, who also worked in intelligence. We say, Well, that would never happen. Or, Oh my god, wed get shot if we did that.'

At the International Spy Museum, Houghton said Hollywood has a responsibility to portray the spy world as honestly as it can because few people get a look at the real one cloaked in secrecy.

No one takes Bond seriously, right? People realize that the suave secret agent jumping out of a perfectly good airplane with a cocktail in one hand and a stupidly named blonde in the other is not reality, he said.

Houghton spent two years writing a weekly column for The Wall Street Journal, highlighting what in Homeland was authentic and what probably would never have happened in the real world.

Homeland comes across as being closer to reality so people get really wrong ideas about the intelligence world by watching shows like that, he said.
COCONUT CREEK, Fla.  Faulty classroom design and failures in the police radio and 911 systems contributed to the chaos and deaths during the recent Florida high school massacre, a commission investigating the shooting was told at its first meeting Tuesday.

Broward Sheriffs Office Detective Zachary Scott told the Marjory Stoneman High School Public Safety Commission that teachers trying to lock down their students as the gunman began his attack couldnt lock classroom doors from the inside, but had to grab a key, open the door and turn the lock from the outside.

Thats messed up, no matter how you slice it, said Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, chairman of the 16-member commission that will prepare a report looking at the actions of state officials before and after the shooting and make recommendations. Fourteen students and three staff members died in the Feb. 14 shooting and 17 others were wounded.

The doors also had small windows that allowed the suspect, whom police have identified as former student Nikolas Cruz, to fire into classrooms that had been locked, leading to several deaths, Scott told the commission. Members include law enforcement administrators from throughout Florida, education officials, a state senator, a mental health counselor and the fathers of victims Alex Schachter, Meadow Pollack and Alaina Petty. The members were appointed by Gov. Rick Scott, state House Speaker Richard Corcoran and Senate President Joe Negron.

The commission also learned the Broward sheriffs office and Coral Springs police department, the two primary agencies responding to the shooting, had different radio systems that prevented authorities from exchanging information  and that attempts to merge the channels failed.

Also, the city of Parkland, where the school is located, has a bifurcated 911 system. Calls from cellular phones go to the Coral Springs 911 center, while calls from landlines go to the Broward sheriff. As most calls from campus were from cellphones, Broward dispatchers were getting second-hand information from Coral Springs.

Scott played a rudimentary computer animation showing the gunmans actions as he moved through the three-story freshman building during his six-minute attack. The suspect and the victims were represented by dots, with the victims dots changing colors when they were fatally wounded. The specific victims were not identified. The audience that filled the auditorium at Broward Colleges north campus remained silent as Scott talked through the animation.

Gualtieri told the members their goal should be to prevent any more mass shootings.

Nobody else should have to endure what those children had to endure that day, he said.

The commission will also examine the Broward Sheriffs Offices conduct before, during and after the shooting. Deputy Scot Peterson, the schools security officer, retired after Sheriff Scott Israel criticized him and planned to suspend him for not rushing into the building to confront and kill Cruz. The commission also will consider the conduct of other deputies who arrived at the school but remained outside.

School counselors and mental health officials will appear before the commission to talk about their contact with Cruz. He spent time at a school for emotionally and mentally disturbed students before being allowed to transfer briefly to Stoneman Douglas. He was kicked out later. Cruzs attorneys have said he would plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

The commission could also examine other Florida mass shootings, including a 2016 massacre at Orlandos Pulse nightclub that killed 49, and a 2017 shooting at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport that left six dead. Gualtieri suggested that it focus solely on school shootings, however.

The commissions final report is due Jan. 1.

___

This story has been edited to correct the spelling of one of the victims names to Alaina, not Aliana.
MINNEAPOLIS  There was no doctor in the house when Sam Talbot arrived at his clinic for a recent physical, but then that was the plan.

The 30-year-old ecology researcher chose for his primary care the states first clinic staffed solely by nurse practitioners  who have the training beyond registered nurses to diagnose patients, order tests, prescribe drugs, stitch wounds, and perform most tasks traditionally ascribed to family doctors.

I dont particularly like going to the doctor, Talbot said. Nurse practitioners feel a little bit less threatening.

Nurse practitioners, or NPs, are becoming vital to Minnesotas medical system, which is seeing the demands of an aging patient population outpace the existing supply of doctors. Since the state Legislature in 2014 enacted the first state licensing standards for advanced practice registered nurses, the number of licensed NPs has increased by more than a third from 3,864 to 5,619.

The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development lists nurse practitioner as the seventh fastest growing profession in the state  based on a 10-year projection that the supply of NPs will increase 26 percent.

We really havent seen an initiative that has caught on this broadly in the nursing profession, probably ever, said Connie Delaney, dean of the University of Minnesotas School of Nursing, which based on full-time student enrollment has the nations largest doctoral training program for nurse practitioners.

The University of Minnesota Nurse Practitioners Clinic on South Third Street, Minneapolis.

This is all about continuing to build the workforce, she said. In about another dozen years, 20 percent of Minnesotans are going to be over 65. Thats scary.

Clinic groups have incentives to advance the NP trend. State economic data show that nurse practitioners make $108,000 per year on average, while family and general practitioners make $190,000  a 76 percent difference. But insurance companies typically pay only 15 percent less to clinics when basic care is provided by NPs instead of doctors.

Patients seem happy as well, as multiple studies in the U.S. have shown higher satisfaction ratings when primary care is provided by NPs instead of doctors.

Nurses by training and experience tend to be empathetic and look beyond patients initial complaints to their broader health and happiness, said Jane Anderson, who directs the universitys NP clinic and was the first NP hired to the Fairview system 27 years ago.

Once (patients) understand what we do, they tend to come back, she said.

Safety debate

The transition has raised safety concerns to some, because doctors complete five to 10 times more hours of clinical practice during their education than nurse practitioners. The Minnesota Medical Association, which represents the states doctors, opposed the legislation giving independent practice rights to NPs, though a spokesman said the organization has softened its stance.

Two recent, high-profile medical errors both involved NPs. One reused syringes at an Allina dermatology clinic and put hundreds of patients at risk of disease transmission. The other missed signs of sepsis in a woman who returned to a hospital ER after childbirth and died from the infection.

While many NPs are excellent, the sepsis case is one example of why the state should reconsider the autonomy it granted to them, said Dr. Julie Anderson, who practices family medicine in St. Cloud, Minn.

They should have more, not less, oversight, she said. I can say with confidence that if an ER physician would have seen the patient, she would have had a better chance of surviving her sepsis.

NPs are thought to be able to handle more than 80 percent of the primary care usually provided by doctors. Several studies have found they provide equivalent levels of care, but a few have shown poorer outcomes, including a 2013 Mayo Clinic report that NPs sent more patients unnecessarily to hospitals.

A study published last week showed that elderly Medicare recipients were actually less likely to need hospital readmissions if NPs provided their primary care, but more likely to receive good chronic disease management if doctors were in charge.

The takeaway is that NPs and doctors are different, and that medical groups should employ them to complement one another, said Peter Buerhaus, the lead author and director of the Montana-based Center for Interdisciplinary Health Workforce Studies.

You can have the best diagnosis and the best prescription, but if you dont understand why patients may not be taking their medications or may not be doing things that are important to their health, then that expertise gets wasted, he said. NPs are good at figuring out those issues.

Nursing leaders in Minnesota said the debate over independence is academic, because NPs  like doctors  are responsible for understanding the scopes of their practices and not exceeding them. And in most cases, especially in Minnesota where most clinics are operated by large medical groups, doctors and NPs collaborate.

We understand where our scope starts and stops and where we need to be in partnership with another profession, said Judith Pechacek, who directs the universitys doctor of nursing practice program. None of us can live in isolation.

At the university clinic, for example, a nurse practitioner might manage a patients underlying hypertension, but refer related heart problems to a doctor.

Practical preparation

Talbot said convenience motivated him to go to the universitys NP clinic, just off 35W near U.S. Bank Stadium. He also gets nervous around doctors and ends up with elevated blood pressure readings, so he opted for something that could be more comforting.

Half my family are nurses, he said.

The demographics of students entering NP programs at the university, or a dozen other Minnesota schools, are changing. More than one in 10 are now men. But the typical profile is a woman who has worked in clinics or hospitals as a registered nurse for years. While that doesnt count as official training, advocates said that balances out the lack of residency training that doctors complete.

Michele Anderson sought her NP degree after years of working as a hospital nurse and seeing patients struggle with mental illness because they couldnt get appointments with psychiatrists to get medications refilled. After graduating from the U in May, she will join a mental health counseling practice in Minneapolis.

I know that I cant necessarily make the wait list go down just by being one nurse practitioner, she said, but I can at least add to the volume of providers out there.

Anne Rodekuhr said NP training is more focused, whereas doctors rotate through multiple specialties that might not apply to their practices.

The nurse will graduate with her doctorate in May and hopes to practice in family medicine or oncology in the Twin Cities or Rochester, where she has already worked in hospitals and clinics.

Nursing education is valuable in other ways, she said. You learn to deal with different patients and to form clinical relationships. Yes, I didnt complete a surgery rotation, but then Im not going to be doing surgery.

Nurse practitioners

25.8 percent Projected 10-year growth

$108,221 Median income

1,000-3,000 Clinical training hours

Physicians

7.1 percent Projected 10-year growth (family practice)

$190,791 Median income (family practice)

12,000-16,000 Clinical training hours



2018 Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

Visit the Star Tribune (Minneapolis) at www.startribune.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Ernie Pyle Middle School, Kit Carson Elementary School and the New America School, near Arenal and Isleta SW, were put on lockdown Tuesday morning while deputies investigated reports of a person with a gun.

The Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office received an anonymous call regarding a possible armed subject in the area, said deputy Felicia Maggard, a BCSO spokeswoman.

She said deputies responded to the schools and didnt find anyone who was armed. She said the school campuses have been cleared.

The lockdowns were lifted around 12:45 a.m.
TORONTO  Details have begun to emerge about Alek Minassian, who was charged Tuesday with 10 counts of first-degree murder and 13 of attempted murder for driving a van into a crowded sidewalk in Toronto. Here is a look at the 25-year-old suspect in one of the worst mass killings in Canadas modern history.

___

A YOUNG MAN FROM SUBURBAN TORONTO, AND A STUNNED FAMILY

Minassian lived with his family in the Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill, on a street of sizeable, well-tended brick homes. Police say he had no criminal record before Monday.

His father, Vahe Minassian, wept and seemed stunned as he watched as his son, showing little emotion, make a brief court appearance Tuesday and be ordered held without bail.

When his father was asked later whether he had any message for the families of the people killed and injured, he said quietly: Im sorry.

____

A SOCIALLY AWKWARD STUDENT

Minassian attended Seneca College, according to his LinkedIn profile; a spokeswoman for the Toronto-area school didnt immediately respond to an inquiry about him Tuesday. Another student, Joseph Pham, told The Toronto Star that Minassian was in a computer programming class with him just last week.

Pham described Minassian as a socially awkward student who kept to himself: He didnt really talk to anyone.

Before college, Minassian attended Thornlea Secondary School in Richmond Hill, graduating in 2011. A Thornlea classmate, Ari Blaff, told CBC News he recalls Minassian was sort of in the background, not the center of any particular group of friends.

He wasnt overly social, Blaff told the news broadcaster.

Both Thornlea and Seneca declined to discuss him Tuesday.

____

A STINT IN THE MILITARY

Minassian joined the Canadian Armed Forces last year, but his stay was brief.

The Department of National Defence says he was a member of the military from Aug. 23 to Oct. 25, but didnt complete his recruit training. He asked to be voluntarily released after 16 days, the department said.

___

A BITTERNESS TOWARD WOMEN?

Shortly before Mondays attack on a crowded Toronto street, a chilling post appeared on Minassians now-deleted Facebook account saluting Elliot Rodger, a community college student who killed six people and wounded 13 in shooting and stabbing attacks near the University of California, Santa Barbara, before apparently shooting himself to death in 2014.

Calling Rodger the Supreme Gentleman, the Facebook post declared: The Incel Rebellion has already begun! We will overthrow all the Chads and Stacys!

The 22-year-old Rodger had used the term incel  for involuntarily celibate  in online posts raging at women for rejecting him romantically. Like-minded people in internet forums sometimes use Chad and Stacy as dismissive slang for men and women with more robust sex lives.

Mondays Facebook post mentions that Private (Recruit) Minassian is speaking, and Facebook confirmed that the post was on an account that belonged to the suspect. The social networking site took down his account after the attack, saying in a statement Tuesday, There is absolutely no place on our platform for people who commit such horrendous acts.
Campaigns for BT Sport, JetBlue, KFC, Snickers, M&Ms, Pampers and PlayStation are among the 20 campaigns that have been shortlisted for the WARC Awards Effective Social Strategy category  a search for marketing initiatives that link social strategy to business success.

A jury panel of 15 industry experts from both agency and client-side chaired by Elizabeth Windram, Director, Brand and Advertising, JetBlue Airways, has shortlisted campaigns covering a broad range of brands and categories from around the world  Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Middle East, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam.

The shortlisted entries are:

Crossing The Line  Fleggaard  UncleGrey  Denmark

#HUNGEREPLY  Snickers  Mars  BBDO Japan  Japan

Finding the Female Gaze in Fart Jokes  Gas-X  GSK  Weber Shandwick NY  United States

Office Souvenirs  JetBlue  MullenLowe US  United States

Little Tickets  JetBlue  MullenLowe US  MullenLowe Group  United States

#InMyFamilyWeSay  Hepar  Nestle Waters  Marcel  France

Condom or Denim?  Durex Jeans  Reckitt Benckiser  Havas Worldwide India  India

Time With Mum  Road Safety Commission  303 MullenLowe  Australia

Nudging people out of compassion fatigue and into action  UNICEF  Bohemia Group  Australia

Full-heart support during Gaokao  McDonalds  BBDO China  China

Ole Ole Hour!  KFC  QSR Stores SdnBhd  Ensemble Worldwide, UM Malaysia  Malaysia

Like my addiction  Addict'Aide  BETC  France

Justice Bao and The Missing Travel Insurance  Singapore Tourism Board  TBWASingapore  Singapore

Play Everything  PlayStation  Sony Interactive Entertainment Singapore  TBWASingapore  Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand

Positive  Pampers  Procter & Gamble  Leo Burnett Vietnam, Saatchi & Saatchi Vietnam, MSL Group Vietnam  Vietnam

It's not cricket, it's the ashes  BT Sport  BT  AMVBBDO  United Kingdom

GeoStories: How Instagram turned millennials onto geology  Geological Survey of Canada History Committee  McMillan  Canada

For the sake of M&Ms, do not watch Game of Thrones! M&Ms  Mars  ALMAP BBDO  Brazil

Not another Tide ad. But probably, the dullest content in history for the least active kids in history  OMO  Unilever  FP7/DXB  Middle East

Futbot  Beko  Arcelik  FP7/McCann Istanbul  Turkey

The annual WARC Awards is a global search for next-generation marketing effectiveness. The final shortlist, Effective Content Strategy, will be announced next week.
London International Awards (LIA), in partnership with Gorilla Doctors, has initiated a global competition that is open to all creatives between the ages of 21 and 30 years. The aim is to nurture the next generation of creative talent.

This competition is free to enter and will be judged by top creative names in the industry from Advertising, Production and Digital, together with representatives from Gorilla Doctors and the Creative LIAisons attendees. The winning work will be commissioned by Gorilla Doctors and will be produced professionally. On top of that, the winning team will win a once-in-a-lifetime experience to see the mountain gorillas in Rwanda, as well as a ticket to Creative LIAisons 2019 in Las Vegas.

To Read More Visit Here.

Our focus has always been to invest in young talent. Thats why we started Creative LIAisons as our way of giving back to the industry. When we learned of the plight of the mountain gorillas through our association with Gorilla Doctors, we felt that this was the perfect platform to galvanise young talent from all over the world to help save these gorillas through a competition to find the best idea, elaborated Barbara Levy, President of LIA.

There are currently fewer than 900 mountain gorillas left on earth. Their numbers have dwindled to such a dangerously low level because of habitat loss, poaching and disease. But, thanks largely to the life-saving veterinary medicine and a One Health approach of a group of veterinarians known as Gorilla Doctors, their numbers are rising. These doctors operate across the gorilla territories of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Mountain gorillas are the only great ape population in the world that is increasing, and 50 per cent of that growth is due to the veterinary care of Gorilla Doctors. Gorilla Doctors hope to be able to do the same for the eastern lowland gorillas when unrest in their region settles down. We take a one health approach which is based on the understanding that the health of the gorillas is only possible when, their environment, other wildlife sharing the parks and the human populations with their domestic animals are healthy, explained Dr Mike Cranfield. Through this competition, we hope to expose the world to the plight of the gorillas and other highly endangered wildlife with a call to action to help our team and others save these animals from extinction.

We know that the name Gorilla Doctors is not familiar to most people. We want to challenge brilliant young minds and talent to build brand awareness for this very important yet low key organisation, Barbara Levy went on to say. Its not just about saving a species. Its about saving mankind.

The competition is now open for entries.

To Read More Visit Here.
Merkle, a global data-driven performance-marketing agency from the house of Dentsu Aegis Network, launched the Merkle Innovation Cloud (MIC) 2.0 that is powered by Adobe Experience Cloud technology.

MIC 2.0 is a solution that integrates people-based data and intelligence with leading marketing cloud technologies to drive personalized customer experiences. It leverages capabilities that are powered by Adobe Sensei, Adobes artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning framework, including Smart Tags for automatic understanding of images and content in Adobe Experience Manager, anomaly detection in Adobe Analytics Cloud, and automated, real-time personalization in Adobe Target.

MIC 2.0 builds a powerful digital foundation. It allows testable real-time use cases that closely represent the ideal current and future-state environments needed to create personalised and meaningful brand interactions. MIC 2.0 reveals proof of concepts in a lab environment. This allows companies to see the prototype results of their customised integration model even before making full investment and deployment of resources. This, in turn, eliminates the risk of any form of uncertainty and change.

Commenting on the partnership, Santosh Gannavarapu, Chief Growth Officer at Merkle Sokrati said, As an Adobe Global Alliance Solution Partner, Merkle enables brands to turn their Adobe Experience Cloud investments into precisely tailored customer experiences.

To demonstrate the work of Merkles MIC 2.0, the agency has decided to sponsor the 2018 Adobe Symposium, taking place in Mumbai on April 26.

Please join us at the Merkle Sokrati booth at the Adobe Symposium, where we will be showcasing MIC 2.0 demos live. The demo will provide attendees with a customized Adobe Symposium experience, including recommendations on the sessions to attend, where to eat, and the event activities based on their personal profile, Santosh said.

To Read More Visit Here.
MSL, Publicis Groupes strategic communications and engagement firm has announced the appointment of Cijo Mathew as General Manager at 20:20 MSL in Bangalore.

With over 12 years of experience across multiple sectors and markets, Cijo has superior knowledge of technology brands. Prior to this appointment, Cijo held the position of Vice President, responsible for southern operations at Ketchum. He has also held the position of National Head, Technology Practice at Perfect Relations and served in a directorial capacity with Lewis PR.

Commenting on the appointment, Viju George, Managing Director, 20:20 MSL said, Cijos depth of experience will complement the teams abilities to serve our client needs in Bengaluru, where several leading technology clients are based. Cijo is also a passionate team builder who will continue to inspire and develop our talent in Bengaluru. I am confident that he will be a great fit and I wish him the best.

For more related stories visit here.
Standard Chartered Bank today announced the launch of its retail digital banking initiatives which will empower customers to avail of a seamless digital experience across various banking services - from opening accounts real time to interacting digitally with relationship managers (RMs). The Bank today launched the instant digital account opening capability which enables customers to instantly open a savings account using their AADHAR details through online or mobile interfaces.

Launching a suite of digital banking capabilities, the Bank announced that customers can now also make investments in mutual funds and initiate payments through Unified Payment Interface (UPI) and Bharat QR. Additionally, customers can chat online for their service requests and Priority and Premium Banking clients can seek advice or resolutions much quicker through video conferencing with RMs.

To Read More Visit Here.

The banking landscape is changing rapidly with digital platforms becoming a dominant form of interaction between banks and their clients. Consumers, particularly millennials, expect banking services to be faster and seamless on the back of smart digital interfaces. The launch will help the Bank take its rich product-suite to the young and emerging affluent customers, even as it reinforces its strong position with the affluent audience.

To create a strong connect with this ever increasing young working audience, the Bank is bringing on board actor Anushka Sharma as its brand ambassador. Anushka, as one of Indias top actors and youth icon, personifies the affluent youth and their upwardly mobile aspirations while representing the values and ethos of the Bank.

Speaking on the occasion, Zarin Daruwala, CEO, India, Standard Chartered Bank, said, Recognising the rapid adoption of technology in a young and aspirational India, we had embarked on a journey of Retail transformation, with the clear intent to use technology with a human touch, transforming the entire client experience; making it digitally capable and seamless, but keeping customer centricity at the core of all we do.

Today is an important milestone of this journey. We are launching a suite of digitally powered banking services across account opening, UPI transactions and virtual RMs and are delighted to partner with youth icon, Anushka Sharma on this. The freshness, positivity and ambition she reflects is a great match with our digital initiatives and our ambition to be the preferred digital bank for the youth, Zarin Daruwala added.

Anushka Sharma said, I am glad to partner with Standard Chartered - a Bank which combines great vintage of 160 years in India and the drive to stay contemporary and cutting-edge. I was impressed with the spirit of continuous digital innovation at Standard Chartered coexisting alongside great trust and solidity. As an artist, I strive to challenge myself through my choice of roles and the films I produce through my production house Clean Slate Films. The subtext of never settling in this campaign was the reason I identified with and became the brand ambassador for their products and services.

To Read More Visit Here.
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The Iranian media erupted April 23 with news of the discovery of a mummy that seems to be the remains of Reza Shah Pahlavi, the founder of the Pahlavi dynasty (1925-79) in Iran.

Reza Shah, who is also commonly known in Iran as Reza Khan, ruled the country from 1925 until 1941. As the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union invaded and occupied Iran during the Second World War, he was forced to abdicate in favor of his son Mohammad Reza over his suspected Nazi sympathies. The younger shah was toppled in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, ending the monarchy in Iran.

After his abdication, Reza Shah was exiled to South Africa and passed away in Johannesburg in 1944. After his death, his remains were mummified and taken to Egypt, where they were kept until being taken to Iran and buried in Shahr-e-Rey in the south of Tehran, close to the Shah Abdul Azim shrine.

After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, revolutionary figure Sadegh Khalkhali destroyed Reza Shahs tomb, but according to Khalkhalis memoir, no remains were found at the site. Khalkhalis book posits that before leaving Iran in 1979, Mohammad Reza Shah had dug up his fathers body and taken it to Cairo and then on to Los Angeles.

According to an April 23 report by the semi-official ISNA news agency, workers found a mummified body at the site of the ruined tomb of Reza Shah during an excavation to renovate the shrine. Officials reacted to the report with doubt that the body belongs to Reza Shah or was even mummified, stating, The area around the Shah Abdul Azim shrine was a cemetery before, so discovering a corpse in this area  is a natural thing.

In contrast, Hassan Khalilabadi, a member of the Reformist-dominated Tehran City Council, confirmed on April 23 that the corpse had indeed been mummified. Khalilabadi, who is the head of the city councils cultural heritage and tourism committee, added, Some have speculated that the body belongs to the first Pahlavi [who] had been transferred to Tehran mummified and was buried in Shah Abdul Azim shrine. He continued, Whoever the mummy belongs to, it should be preserved as it is considered heritage.

In reaction to the reports, Dr. Ahmad Shojai, head of the Iranian Forensic Medicine Organization, stated April 24 that the identification of mummified bodies is possible but difficult and time-consuming.

Meanwhile, unverified pictures of a mummified body claimed to be the one found by the shrine circulated in the Iranian media and social networks paired with a picture of Reza Shah in a coffin.

Historian Abdollah Shahbazi wrote on his channel on the popular smartphone messaging app Telegram on April 24 that the published pictures do not appear to be Reza Shah, who was buried in only a burial shroud in accordance with Islamic tradition. He also said that while the mummy was discovered in a cemetery on the western side of the Shah Abdul Azim shrine, the former kings burial place was situated elsewhere and is now under the shrine's seminary.

However, a number of other historians do believe the mummified body is that of Reza Shah. Ahmad Abou-Hamze, an expert on the history of Shahr-e-Rey, told the Reformist Shahrvand April 24, No other body was buried in the area where the [excavation] operation was underway.  Therefore, if the found corpse is mummified, it 100% belongs to the first Pahlavi. That place has never been a burial site for [other] mummies.
The Israel Prize is generally considered the states highest cultural honor, and the televised award ceremony is traditionally watched by a large number of Israelis. This year, however, with Miriam Peretz, a bereaved mother, among the winners, the ceremony generated even greater interest. Indeed, the speech Peretz delivered at the ceremony on April 19, concluding Independence Day events, touched many hearts.

Ongoing discussion about the speech days after its delivery and the idea gaining momentum that she should be appointed president of Israel suggest how much Israelis long for leaders who can heal the nations wounds. The simple messages of her speech  among them unity, dedication and love of the other  succeeded in breaking through the walls of cynicism standing today. People on the left and the right came together to shed a tear and share a sense of common destiny.

Near the end of the speech, Peretz touched wisely on the dangers posed by venomous political polarization, which has already led to one political assassination: No single side has an exclusive claim to love of the people and the homeland.  There is room for everyone in the State of Israel, from across the spectrum.  If you miss one piece of the puzzle, the picture will not be complete, so I will not give up any part of my people.

It is hard not to compare the text of Peretzs speech to the speech delivered the preceding evening by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the ceremony of the lighting of the torches on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem at the Independence Day opening ceremony. His speech  the result of an ugly feud between Netanyahu and Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein and encouraged by Culture Minister Miri Regev  left nothing more than a sour taste. Edelstein had rejected the request that Netanyahu speak at the ceremony, where traditionally only the Knesset speaker delivers an address.

Netanyahu treated Edelstein brutally, just so he could speak, even though it ignored protocol. He wanted to harness the 70th Independence Day celebrations to turn them into an election campaign. This only made Peretz stand out more for her wise and inclusive language. With that alone, she overshadowed Netanyahu, who is normally a master rhetorician.

Born in Morocco, Miriam Peretz is a veteran educator. She became a familiar public figure in Israel in 2010, when she lost her son Eliraz, an officer in the Golani Brigade, during a run-in with terrorists in Gaza. In 1998, she had lost her eldest son, Uriel, in an incident in southern Lebanon during his military service. Her husband died a short time later of a broken heart. Peretz rose from these losses and began visiting soldiers and schoolchildren around the country to share her messages of Zionism and love of the land.

Over the past few years, the triple tragedy that marked Peretz's life combined with inner strength, sense of mission, and innate leadership skills to turn her into a symbol of victory over bereavement and loss. The decision by Education Minister Naftali Bennett to grant her the Israel Prize for her lifetimes work of Strengthening the Jewish and Israeli Spirit of the country came under criticism in certain circles. It entailed creating a new category for the prestigious prize, which is usually given to such people as scientists, artists and writers who have made breakthroughs in their fields. Peretz admitted as much in her speech, confessing that she has never come up with anything new.

I stand humbly before my colleagues, she began, honorable people who created, wrote, studies and invented, people of vision, creation and faith. I am not worthy, I dont have a creation. I cant point to a revelation I made or a formula I cracked. ... I have a heart that was broken three times with terrible announcements.  With that heart I came to my nation and in simple words, in the language of a broken heart, I spoke of this land and its legacy.

Bennetts unconventional choice turned out to be a stroke of genius. If anything is remembered from Israels 70th Independence Day celebrations apart from Netanyahus contentious speech, it will be the speech delivered by Peretz. It surpassed even the address given by President Reuven Rivlin, another Israeli icon.

Peretz is a religious woman who lives in a right-wing community. That is what made her speech more powerful, consequential and inspiring than the speeches of all the other national leaders who addressed the country on Independence Day. She managed to redefine the common vision that Israelis once shared but have since been lost in an endless barrage of toxic squabbles between the left and the right, the wounds of the Elor Azaria incident, incitement against the military chief of staff and the transformation of the left into traitors.

Peretz simply reminded Israelis that they share a common narrative and common goals for the future, stating, I came to a ready-made country and didnt know that there would come a day when I would give my dearest to the country  my sons Uriel and Eliraz. But a homeland isnt only built with pain and tears, but also with labor and continued generosity.

Regardless of whether Peretz's address becomes part of the mandatory curriculum in Israel schools, as Bennett announced, it still holds a place of distinction among the speeches of this era. Most of all, it shows that there is a dearth of leaders in Israel who promote unity and hope instead of fear-mongering.

There can be no doubt that Netanyahu is a powerful political figure with a phenomenal ability to unite right-wing voters around him. In doing so, however, he leaves in his wake scorched earth, divided society and deep anxiety about Israels continued existence. Netanyahu is a master of putting forth the threats, near and far, facing Israel. He is a genius at describing the countrys strength in terms of defense, diplomacy and the economy. The state of Israel has all that, but what characterized Israel in the past and made it such a cohesive society is the Zionist narrative, which has since begun to fade.

It is quite possible that Peretz opposes the partition of the land, but at the same time, she was able to recall the one thing that everyone else seems to have forgotten. She managed to show that she and David Grossman, the Israel Prize-laureate for Literature who also lost a son in war, have much more in common than their bereavement. That is why the sight of the two of them sharing a bold embrace at the ceremony brought a tear to so many peoples eyes.

Although it is really not a bad idea, the chances of Peretz being elected president are slim at best. Peretz is not a politician, and in most cases, the position is reserved for some member of the Knesset or another as part of a larger political struggle. Yet even if Peretz assumes some official public position, she has managed to show that the people really do long for a leader who can unite them.
US President Donald Trumps March 29 declaration that he is leaving the crisis in Syria to other people, and the summit of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani just a few days later, on April 4, vividly demonstrate the grave changes taking place in the region  for Israel as for others.

Following the new situation in Syria and the American inclination to withdraw from the region, Israel needs to take in the very near future several security steps. With or without American backing, Israel must prevent at all cost Iranian entrenchment in Syria: no bases for the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps, for Hezbollah or for Shiite militias, and the zone west of the Suwayda-Damascus highway should be strictly demilitarized.

Indeed, these necessary military steps by Israel may bring about escalation. But past experience teaches us that acquiescence to Irans presence will bring far more costly results.

A war on Israels northern fronts may inflict heavy damage on its civilian population. That's why it is better to prevent such an escalation. This could be achieved only by abandoning the old, inefficient equation, in favor of a new deterrence equation. Israel's warnings that it would destroy Lebanese infrastructure if Hezbollah rains down missiles on its cities do not deter anyone in Tehran. No one in the ayatollah regime cares if Lebanese Sunnis, Christians or even Shiites go without water or electricity. Hence, Israel must make it clear that if its cities are attacked, it will retaliate by targeting Irans oil export installations. There are ways to give this equation credibility. Hollow deterrence does not work.

The roots of Washingtons inclination for withdrawal from the Middle East run far deeper than the anti-intervention mood at home, or the US tendency to focus on internal problems. Oil shale extraction turned the United States from oil importer to exporter, and by 2020 it is even expected to become the No. 1 oil producer globally. And so its fundamental interest in the Middle East  securing the free flow of oil  no longer exists.

Apparently, the alliance between Israel and the United States is as tight and intimate as ever. However, it is a political-religious alliance, not a strategic one  between the religious Christian right wing of American politics and the religious Jewish right wing of Israeli politics. A political bridge is solid but very narrow. Unfortunately, Israel is losing the sympathy and support of the younger and more liberal America, and the bipartisanship that once cemented US-Israel friendship tragically dissipated during the end-of-term of President Barack Obama.

Moreover, Israels excellent relations with the Trump administration do not mitigate Israel's diplomatic isolation. No matter how much they admire our technological and scientific innovation, our friends abroad do not accept our occupation of the West Bank, our control over the lives of 5 million Palestinians or our thwarting of the two-state solution by constantly establishing and expanding settlements. The massive majority of the international community rejects Israels occupation policy. Only nine United Nations members voted for Trump's Dec. 6 declaration on Jerusalem; 128 opposed it despite the blunt US threat to cut American aid to them.

In any future military conflict in the Gaza Strip or on Israels northern front, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will need time to attain the objectives of the campaign. But it would be mainly the UN Security Council that would determine the length of such a campaign, by deciding when a cease-fire is declared. Even the current US administration will not be able to give Israel carte blanche to act without a time limit, and its UN Ambassador Nikki Haley would probably not veto such a resolution but join a broad international decision. Consequently, the IDF could be stopped before completing its mission. Simply put, Israel cannot win the wars it has to fight while carrying the burden of occupation.

But the gravest change in the region is not the withdrawal of the United States per se, but who replaces it. Russias might, which filled the vacuum left by Trump, does not stem from net military strength in the region. Rather, Russias power derives from lack of any inhibition to brutally use it. This is the essence of Russia's threat.

Russia really does not consider Israel an enemy. But Moscow made a strategic decision to prefer Iranian interests in Syria over Israeli ones. When the fate of Syria is decided in Sochi, and Israel, Syria's strongest neighbor, is not at the table, Israel gets weaker. The most dangerous event manifesting this weakness is the Trump-Putin agreement on Syria, which legitimized Iran's military presence in Syria. No responsible government in Jerusalem can accept this presence of Iranian strategic installations, plus three Shiite militias, an Iran-Lebanon corridor and Irans access to the Jordanian border.

To guarantee Israels security in this changing environment, Israel must adopt several measures.

Most important is to establish a new regional alliance, based on the Arab Peace Initiative first proposed by Saudi Arabia in 2002 that is still valid until today. It would actually be a defense treaty between Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Israel. Its strategic goal would be building a military and technological shield against Iran. It would develop and produce a Star Wars-like project much like President Ronald Reagan's to forestall and pre-empt the Iranian ballistic nuclear arsenal; this would be the result of scientific and financial cooperation among the member states. This new alliance will have additional defensive tasks in thwarting terrorism and subversion in the Middle East.

To be clear, this indispensable alliance will never be built if the two-state solution is not fully implemented. A clear conclusion from all my meetings across the region in recent years is that there is no Arab leader  no matter how fearful of Iran  who would agree to stand under a defense umbrella with Israel absent this solution, thereby abandoning the Palestinian cause. The solution is a Palestinian sovereign state, in the approximate 1967 borders, demilitarized, with East Jerusalem as its capital. This solution has a price known to all, but we need to remind ourselves of it again. The territory west of the Jordan River should be divided: 78% for Israel, 22% for Palestine. Some 120,000 Israeli settlers would have to move to those settlements that would be annexed to Israel (where the majority of settlers already live), or to other parts of Israel. There cannot be a final agreement without it.

But the economic rewards and benefits to Israel would be enormous. The integration with the Gulf economies would give the Israeli economy a giant leap forward. All costs of settlements evacuation and their resettlement would be covered by these benefits.

This new alliance has to be coupled with another regional one in the eastern Mediterranean. A partnership of the three democracies  Greece, Cyprus and Israel  would offer a huge potential for economic and energetic cooperation, linked to Europe and Egypt.

Integration with our Arab neighbors, a joint resistance to Iranian aggression and peace with the Palestinians  this is how Israel could react to the regional changes. Then Israel could build an economy that would keep its society cohesive and remain the strongest power between the Caspian Sea and Gibraltar. Without such superiority, Israel has no existence.
Alarm rang throughout Israels corridors of power April 20. The deputy head of Irans Revolutionary Guard Corps, Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami, threatened rocket attacks on strategic targets deep within Israel. He said, You are surrounded on all sides and you have nowhere to run other than to fall into the sea. The all-clear sounded two days later, when Irans Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif minimized the option of regional war in a CBS interview, reacting with moderation to the Israeli-attributed airstrike on an Iranian base in Syria earlier this month. However, he added that Israelis should expect that if they continue to violate territorial integrity of other states, there'll be consequences.

There are two ways to interpret the gap between the attitudes of senior Iranians. Zarifs pragmatism could be intended to distract attention from Irans growing aggression toward Israel on the borders of Syria and Lebanon. If this reading is correct, Israel has no choice but to increase its military efforts to destroy Iranian bases in these neighboring states. It's also possible that the contradictory messages reflect a deepening domestic struggle between two camps: the zealous traditionalist camp of Irans Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the Revolutionary Guard versus the pragmatic Reformist camp led by President Hassan Rouhani.

Khamenei and his loyalists are unhappy with the 2015 agreement between Iran and world powers over the countrys nuclear program. They are seeking to expand Shiite hegemony in the region, even at the cost of soldiers lives and the well-being of Irans civilian population. Rouhani, on the other hand, is working to promote social and economic reforms, even at the cost of giving up Irans nuclear programs and supporting the 2002 peace plan that the Arab League is offering Israel. One need not be a diehard supporter of the Israeli NGO Peace Now to hope that the second camp will emerge with the upper hand in this domestic standoff. Paradoxically, however, Israeli government policy, backed by the military, is actually strengthening the hand of the extremists; every destruction of an Iranian facility attributed to the Zionist army invites a popular demand for a fitting response. Every funeral of an Iranian officer killed in such a strike generates calls for revenge.

As strange as it seems, Israel has an interest in Irans continued wallowing in the Syrian mud and its ongoing investment of precious resources in Lebanon and Yemen. A recent position paper by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center notes, A manifestation of the growing public displeasure with the heavy financial toll Iran has paid for its military involvement in the region could be found in the wave of protests that swept across Iran in late December 2017 and early January 2018. This toll includes a sharp 35% drop in the value of the Iranian rial over the past year and restrictions on the purchase of foreign currency for travel abroad. The increase in production recorded after the nuclear agreement was signed has since ground to a virtual halt and tens of thousands of families have lost their livelihoods.

The Meir Amit Center researchers, most of them veterans of Israels intelligence community, also explain that the protests spurred by Irans economic slump have heightened tensions within the Iranian leadership, especially between Khamenei and Rouhani, regarding the countrys national priorities. If President Donald Trump makes good on his threat to pull out of the nuclear deal on May 12 and restore US sanctions on Iran, the economic downturn could deteriorate further. Sanctions could result in stronger opposition to spendthrift foreign adventures given the emptying public coffers.

As expected, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prefers the pessimistic interpretation of the discord between Zarifs conciliatory message and the aggressive rhetoric of the Revolutionary Guard, saying, There is a huge gap between his words and the actions of the Revolutionary Guard, who are advancing an army against Israel with the stated aim of destroying Israel. In order to dislodge the Iranian presence from Syria, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman are willing to entangle Israel in a missile war, with the resulting deaths of thousands of civilians and tremendous damage to the Israeli economy. There is no guarantee of international support for Israel in such a scenario.

Trump has gone back on plans to impose sanctions on Russia for its involvement in the war in Syria, rejecting them with the same vehemence with which he turned down Netanyahus request to delay the pullout of US troops from Syria. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump has asked Arab states, Saudi Arabia chief among them, to send forces to replace the Americans in Syria. Trump also opted for a symbolic strike on Syrian targets of (relatively) negligible importance in response to the April 7 chemical attack on Douma. He is now placing his diplomatic and public relations cards on the table of future discussions with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

While Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is competing with Iran over control of northern Syria, there is no doubt whose side he would take in a head-on clash between the Jewish state and the Islamic Republic. The European signatories of the deal with Iran have made no bones about their displeasure with Netanyahus efforts to convince Trump to abandon the agreement.

The fact that the Russian military fired not a single missile during the American, French and British strikes on Syrian installations on April 14 suggests President Vladimir Putin is not keen on being dragged by the Iranians into a confrontation with the West and Israel. Instead of playing with fire in the Syrian skies and flexing his muscles vis-a-vis Iran on social media, Netanyahu should be seeking to forge a quiet agreement with Syria on the disengagement of Iranian and Israeli ground and air forces. Hopefully, the international community will punish the Iranian regime for its support of the Syrian president in his crimes against humanity.
In Washington, sometimes what doesnt happen is as significant as what does.

For example, every March for the past several decades, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee  the powerful pro-Israel lobby best known by its acronym, AIPAC  holds its annual convention in Washington, drawing thousands of supporters, lawmakers and top administration officials in a boisterous display of support for the Jewish state and the US-Israel relationship. In the lead-up to the convention, the lobby traditionally garners nearly unanimous support in Congress for some form of pro-Israel legislation so AIPAC can showcase its influence on both sides of the aisle.

In advance of this years gathering, AIPAC  which dutifully supports the right-wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu  wanted Congress to approve a measure that would expand existing prohibitions against anti-Israel boycotts by punishing anyone who blacklists products made in Israels West Bank settlements. It also sought broad bipartisan endorsements in the Senate for a letter to then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, backing his efforts to win European support to toughen the terms of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

But those efforts drew fire from J Street, a much smaller lobby with progressive views on Israel. According to Democratic congressional aides, the group lobbied lawmakers to oppose the anti-boycott measure, arguing it not only blurred the line between Israel proper and the occupied West Bank but stifled constitutionally protected free speech as well. J Street lobbyists also urged senators to shun the Iran letter, bringing Israeli security experts to Capitol Hill to warn that the Trump administrations efforts to alter the nuclear deal were endangering both the agreement and Israeli security.

The result is that most Democrats now oppose the anti-boycott bill, which remains bottled up in committee. And the Iran letter, also lacking Democratic support, was never sent.

The thwarting of the two initiatives was the latest in a series of political victories claimed by J Street in recent years that have bolstered its standing as a key player when it comes to influencing congressional Democrats on Israel-related issues. Behind those victories is not only J Streets lobbying prowess but also its political action committee, which provides the sweetener of campaign money for Democratic incumbents and first-time candidates. As a result, J Street has gained recognition as one of the most effective voices among progressive Jewish groups in favor of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Iran nuclear agreement and a return to a more balanced US Middle East policy.

You have changed the conversation, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the second-highest ranking Democrat in the Senate, told J Streets annual convention earlier this month. You have moved us forward in a new dialogue as a nation  a nation in support of Israel, but a nation that is dedicated to a vision of a two-state solution.

To be sure, even as J Street marks its 10th anniversary, the dovish lobby still isnt in the same league as AIPAC, with its legions of wealthy donors, its influence over which candidates receive hefty donations from pro-Israel political action committees and its long list of legislative achievements. And unlike the White House access that J Street enjoyed during the Barack Obama administration, the organization appears to have little influence with President Donald Trump, who recently upended decades of US policy by recognizing Jerusalem as Israels capital and announcing plans to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May. In yet another reversal of long-standing US policy, the State Departments annual human rights report, released on April 20, no longer uses the phrase Occupied Territories to describe the legal status of the West Bank, Gaza Strip or Golan Heights, which Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East war.

J.J. Goldberg, editor-at-large of The Forward, the Jewish weekly, and an authority on American Jewish politics, said that during the same 10 years that it took for J Street to grow into a viable voice on the left of the American Jewish community, Netanyahus policies have moved many American Jews to the right. In these quarters, Goldberg told Al-Monitor, J Street is seen as an enemy of Israel, or at least a member of the tribe whos pissing inside the tent.

Thats fine with J Street president Jeremy Ben-Ami, who welcomes his organizations reputation as a force that has succeeded in disrupting the earlier political dynamic in Washington, whereby AIPAC and other large Jewish defense organizations were able to rule almost any criticism of Israel out of bounds.

We created this space to allow meaningful debate, not only about Israels policies but also around the notion that there are different ways to be legitimately pro-Israel, Ben-Ami told Al-Monitor. To be pro-Israel no longer means supporting the policies of the government of Israel, right or wrong. You can be against settlements and in favor of a two-state solution even when the Israeli government supports settlements and no longer favors two states.

In a J Street panel discussion last year, Stephanie Schriock, the president of Emilys List  an organization that recruits Democratic women to run for office  described how much the political landscape had shifted since J Street arrived on the scene in 2008.

Working in the 1990s as a finance director for several Democratic candidates running for Congress, Schriock said she regularly sought donations from the Jewish community. But before you went to the Jewish community, you had a conversation with the lead AIPAC person in your state, she recalled, adding that the AIPAC representative told her that her candidates needed a position paper on Israel, which AIPAC then provided. And we made that [the candidates position] paper, she said. AIPAC "cornered the market" on candidates positions on Israel until Ben-Ami founded J Street to challenge AIPACs control over the Israel debate, Schriock said.

Even then, she added, many Democratic candidates initially were reluctant to seek J Streets endorsement, fearing pro-Israel PAC money would dry up. But over the years, the organization steadily drew support from Democrats and younger American Jews who had grown increasingly uneasy over Israels hard-line policies toward the Palestinians.

A major turning point for J Street came in March 2015 when Netanyahu, in an address to Congress, urged US lawmakers to side with Israel against Obama and oppose the Iran nuclear agreement. While Republicans fell in line behind Netanyahu, outraged Democrats rallied behind Obama and the nuclear deal, shattering the bipartisan support that Israel always had enjoyed in Congress until then.

That was the critical moment in breaking the decadeslong pattern of Israel politics in Washington, DC, Ben-Ami said. That will go down in history as the moment when Israel became a partisan domestic issue.

Public opinion surveys show the partisan divide in sympathies for Israel and Palestinians is now the widest it has been in 40 years. According to a Pew Research poll conducted in January, 79% of Republicans say they sympathize more with Israel than the Palestinians, compared with just 27% of Democrats.

In a major test of J Streets influence following the signing of the Iran deal, the lobbys political fundraising arm contributed $3.6 million to its preferred candidates in the 2016 elections, helping all Democratic incumbents who supported the pact win re-election in 2016. Congressional aides credit J Street with convincing Senate Democrats to block draft legislation from Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker that would have changed presidential certification requirements for the Iran deal and made it easier for Congress to reinstate sanctions.

But J Street has had some major setbacks as well. In 2016, the organization was caught off guard when lawmakers, apparently acting at the behest of several right-wing pro-Israel groups, took a controversial trade bill that drew no distinction between products made in Israel and those made in the occupied West Bank and attached it to must-pass legislation in the dead of night. The legislation passed, further weakening the West Banks legal status as an occupied territory.

The biggest challenge that J Street faces, however, is the worsening climate on the ground for any Israeli-Palestinian peace accord. Violent confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli troops on the Gaza Strip border have left nearly 40 Palestinians dead so far from Israeli gunfire. At the same time, the Netanyahu government is ignoring a call by two-thirds of Israels retired generals to embrace the 2002 Arab League peace plan, which offers Israel peace, recognition and normalized relations with the entire Arab and Muslim worlds in exchange for a two-state solution. Trump claims his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is in the final stages of crafting a blueprint for an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord, but no details of the alleged plan have emerged. Meanwhile, a poll taken earlier this year shows declining support among both Israelis and Palestinians for a two-state solution.

The fact that J Street has become a viable voice and that everyone now knows their name speaks to their success over the past 10 years, The Forwards Goldberg said. But theyre trying to do something thats much bigger than anybody realizes, which is to change the reality on the ground both in Israel and America, and to get Washington to become more active in pushing Israel toward peace.

With no foreseeable access to the White House, J Street is focusing now on preventing Congress from passing any more legislation that could further undermine the chances of a two-state solution. After all, Trump has noted that by relocating the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, he will be the first president to implement a 1995 law passed overwhelmingly by Congress that ordered the move. Previous presidents all invoked national security to put off the embassy move, which they saw as prejudging the legal status of Jerusalem  claimed by both Israelis and Palestinians as their capital.

To that end, J Street has raised some $2 million so far to re-elect more than half of the Democratic incumbents in the House and Senate in the 2018 midterms and to help elect more progressive first-time candidates. The organization, which has grown tenfold over the past decade, is now a $10 million operation with a 60-member staff, seven regional offices around the country and a nationwide membership of 200,000, said J Street spokeswoman Jessica Rosenblum.

Were now in a period of unprecedented [foreign policy] chaos, Ben-Ami said. Eventually, however, well have another president of some flavor who is going to try to do something [to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict] the old-fashioned way, with diplomacy. Thats what were waiting for.
RAMALLAH, West Bank  Israel will allow 15 stores to reopen in an area of Hebron that has been closed to everyone but residents since 2000, and it is relaxing  a bit  its restrictions on automobiles there.

The Palestinian Civil Affairs Committee announced the decision April 11. Five of the stores opened the next day.

The reopening of 15 stores could be considered a goodwill gesture, but it represents only a fraction of businesses that were economically devastated when Israeli forces closed stores in two stages: The first followed the Hebron massacre in 1994, and the second came in 2000 with the outbreak of the second intifada. The military ordered 512 shops to close in the areas of Al-Shuhada Street, Tel Rumeida neighborhood and the Old City area, all of which are in the center of Hebron.

Moreover, Israel imposed military checkpoints that dried up the flow of customers, leading owners to cut their losses and close some 1,300 shops in the area.

What used to be the main area of commerce resembles a big prison.

In another significant imposition, Israeli forces limit access to Tel Rumeida strictly to residents: no journalists, doctors, visitors or even residents' relatives are allowed in. Israel has classified the area as a closed military zone for security reasons. The citizens of Tel Rumeida are even prevented from driving to and from their homes: They must park at the military checkpoint that blocks the street and enter the area by foot.

In another "gesture," 12 out of 800 citizens will now be allowed to enter the neighborhood using their private cars, including two vehicles for people with special needs.

Residents of Tel Rumeida, Shuhada Street and the Old City of Hebron live a very harsh life. Bassam Abu Eisha, a resident of Tel Rumeida and a taxi driver, commented on the announcement that 15 stores are opening.

"The Civil Affairs Committee ought to remove barriers that block movement and cripple all aspects of life instead of promoting a false achievement, he told Al-Monitor. We are not allowed to use vehicles inside the neighborhood. I have been walking 400 meters [a quarter-mile] every morning for 18 years now to the checkpoint at the Tel Rumeida entrance to get to my car. When I finish work, I also have to leave my car at the checkpoint and walk back home.

He added, Just like the [other] 800 people residing in the neighborhood, I am not allowed to receive visitors. The Palestinian Authority [PA] has not done anything to [help] us. Now, the PA is pulling a media stunt, claiming it managed to open 15 shops  while in Tel Rumeida, hundreds of shops [remain] closed by a military order."

The restrictions are unjust, he said.

"Life in prisons is better than our lives. Prisoners get visits from their friends and relatives, but we are not allowed such privilege," Abu Eisha said.

Walid Hawdan, the spokesman for the Palestinian Civil Affairs Committee, told Al-Monitor the decision to open the stores is a first step to capitalize on in order to reopen other stores and blocked streets in the old town in Hebron.

Tarek al-Tamimi, the director of the Hebron Chamber of Commerce, told Al-Monitor, The agreement between the Palestinian Civil Affairs Committee and its Israeli counterpart reached April 11 includes paving the street where the stores are located and reopening the stores after their restoration, as they have been closed 20 years. Tamimi added, After the restoration work ends, we will ask Israel to ensure all citizens access to the area despite the military checkpoints.

At least one official isn't as optimistic. Tayseer Abu Esnina, head of the municipality of Hebron, told Al-Monitor, Opening stores has no value because they are located on a street blocked from both sides with military checkpoints that prevent citizens entry. The checkpoints should be removed.

Some shopkeepers and residents also reacted with skepticism to the announcement that some stores will reopen. They find the decision confusing.

Bassel Sultan owned a spare-parts store on the street leading to Tel Rumeida that he decided to close 18 years ago. I didn't open my store after the announcement. There never was a military decision to shut it. I closed my store [myself] because of the checkpoints that ban citizens entry.

After he closed that shop in 2000, Sultan said, he rented a place outside Tel Rumeida to open a minimarket. He told Al-Monitor that recently, The Civil Affairs Committee in Hebron asked me to open a minimarket [in the Tel Rumeida area] and photograph it to show people that an achievement was made, but I refused because this wasn't true."

Shaker Sultan, an English teacher in Hebron, said his family closed a television repair shop in 2000 near the area the military had blocked. The family reopened it in 2006 as a grocery store, but soon closed it, "as only a small number of people could access it." If the military barriers are lifted, he said, "Traders would automatically reopen their businesses.

Yasser Abu Markhiya, another resident of Tel Rumeida, owned an ice cream store in the area. He told Al-Monitor, After the Hebron massacre, a military decision to shut my store was issued, and I have not opened it since.
RAMALLAH, West Bank  The annual Palestinian Prisoners Day observed April 17 focused on a boycott of Israeli courts by Palestinians whose lives are on hold while they are jailed indefinitely under administrative detention orders.

The boycott began on Feb. 13 when 500 administrative detainees announced an indefinite boycott of the Israeli justice system, including the courts of first instance, the court of appeals and the Supreme Court. Administrative detainees are prisoners arrested and held without charge, based on confidential information that neither prisoners nor their lawyers have the right to examine. Often, the administrative detention order is renewed several times. The Israeli Prison Service has threatened to force the detainees to appear in court.

We believe that the key to facing this unjust policy is boycotting the Israeli judicial body, which always tries to justify the ugly occupation. We will not let them promote their lies about their commitment to international law and about the presence of independent judicial supervision," the detainees said in a statement.

Qaddoura Fares, the chairman of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, told Al-Monitor the boycott is a stance rather than a step, and it shouldn't stop as long as even one prisoner remains under administrative detention.

He said, Detainees will not benefit from stopping the boycott, and it will not hurt them to keep it up. It might even force Israel to cave and eliminate this detention [practice] once and for all."

Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association director Sahar Francis agrees that the boycott should continue and said that local and international public and official support is crucial. She told Al-Monitor, Unfortunately, supportive action has not been taken yet, at least not the way it should be, as several issues are distracting the international and local public, like the Gaza Strip events, the return marches and confrontations in the West Bank."

Francis spoke about attempts to foil the boycott with renewed detention orders and threats to force administrative detainees to appear in court and to lodge complaints against lawyers with the bar association if they fail to cooperate. She acknowledged the boycott probably won't be enough to force Israel to halt such detentions entirely, but added, We are realistic in setting our goal, which is to curb administrative detention."

Some detainees, however, believe the boycott is futile and say they're running out of options. Bilal Diab, who has spent a total of three and a half years in prison, said, This is not the first time we've boycotted the courts, but each time, the detainees [gave in]."

Diab is free now but has been held in administrative detention numerous times, including once in 2011 when he went on a hunger strike for 78 days and pressured the Israeli authorities to release him. He told Al-Monitor, This boycott is pointless, as it actually relieves Israel. The best solution is turning to the Supreme Court because this bothers Israel more and would reduce the number of administrative detentions.

Fouad al-Khafesh, the director of the Ahrar Center for Prisoners Studies, concurred. He told Al-Monitor, The enormous momentum involved in invoking the Supreme Court exhausts the Israeli security and judicial institutions. It also forces the Israeli public prosecutor to reveal the confidential files of detainees and to specify the charges on which they are detained."

He add, The boycott would benefit the prisoners if there were support inside and outside. But in the absence of such support, the best that can happen is an agreement on some pending cases related to administrative arrest.

For now, the confidential files of 500 Palestinian detainees remain stashed away in the drawers of Israeli prisons and prosecutors.
MOSCOW  Russia is replacing its ambassador to Syria. Many believe that Alexander Kinshak, 56, who has served in the Damascus post since 2014, will be appointed next month to lead Russias Foreign Ministry Department for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Alexander Efimov, 59, Russias current ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), will take over as ambassador to Syria. The shift comes amid bigger swaps in the MENA department that have been taking place this year.

On March 27, MENA Department director Sergey Vershinin, 64, was appointed deputy foreign minister  a position that became vacant when Gennady Gatilov, 68, was appointed to be Russias permanent representative to the UN Office and other international organizations in Geneva. The Geneva post had been previously occupied for seven years by Alexey Borodavkin, 68, whom President Vladimir Putin appointed as ambassador to Kazakhstan in February.

Some Russian media outlets titled their reports on the coming appointment of Efimov as Lavrov lobbies for a peace-making ambassador to Syria, stressing Moscow's need for a comprehensive postwar approach in its Syria policies. (Sergey Lavrov is Russia's foreign minister.) The departing ambassador has long been a troubleshooter type of diplomat for Russia in the region. Having started his diplomatic career in 1988, from 2002-2004 Kinshak served as minister counselor of the Russian diplomatic mission to Iraq and then led the embassy in the country as charge d'affaires; Putin honored Kinshak with the Order of Courage for his service in Iraq. From 2004-2008 Kinshak served as deputy director for the MENA Department in Moscow, and then was designated back to the region as ambassador to Kuwait from 2008-2013 before moving to Syria in 2014.

As ambassador to Syria, Kinshak was instrumental in conducting Russias diplomatic efforts on the Syrian track, including talks with Damascus over arms supplies for Assad and Russian military facilities in Khmeimim and Tartus, as well as negotiations with Kurds and Americans. In February, he warned of an impending US attack on Syria in order to undermine efforts on political settlement [in the country]."

Recently, the issue of Syrian government use of chlorine and sarin in eastern Ghouta and Idlib has been spun [in the media]. Given the notorious experience of the [April 2017] Khan Sheikhoun incident, we cannot rule out that this is an effort to launch a new military attack on Syria to prop up losing militants and undermine political settlement, he said in February.

For his distinguished service in Syria, Kinshak was honored with another state award  the Order of Honor. But as the situation on the ground has been changing, his public profile gradually decreased. His successor in Syria brings a different background and toolkit. Efimov, who started in the Foreign Ministry in 1980, also previously followed in Kinshaks footsteps when he served as deputy director for the Foreign Ministrys MENA Department from 2010-2013 before becoming ambassador to the UAE. From 2004-2008 he was Russias minister counselor in Jordan.

Efimovs focus in Abu Dhabi was primarily on economic cooperation between Russia and the UAE and he helped establish a $7 billion joint bilateral investment fund. Thus, his experiences and contacts may come in handy now that Russia seeks regional and international funding for the restoration of Syria. Russia and Syria are also developing a road map on economic and trade cooperation to boost Syrias economy and development in the postwar stage. All of this will require the design of multiple projects and obtaining financing for them. A shift in the ambassador's role in Damascus from being a war manager (as Kinshak was seen) to being an economic manager (as Efimov is seen) is a move in that direction.

The shifts in the apparatus come as Russia eyes its next steps in Syria, particularly the supply of S-300 systems to create a layered air defense system. Lavrov said the decision had been triggered by the US-led strikes on Syria.

Now, we have no moral obligations. We had the moral obligations, we had promised not to do it some 10 years ago, I think, upon the request of our known partners, said the Russian foreign minister, alluding to his country's agreements with Israel, the latest in 2010, when Israel asked Russia to annul an existing supply contract with Syria.

A source in the Russian Foreign Ministry who agreed to comment on the issue of diplomatic changes on condition of anonymity dismissed the idea there are bigger policy goals behind the chain of new appointments.

Its just technical procedure. People come, people go, no one got fired or anything, people instead got promoted, which may mean the Kremlin appreciates their performance.

Another source with insight into the issue who spoke to Al-Monitor not for attribution said that if any policy changes involving Syria do occur, they won't be due to new appointments within Russia's Foreign Ministry.

The Syria file is a prerogative of the Russian Defense Ministry, not the Foreign Ministry. It would be [Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail] Bogdanov, Vershinin, Gatilov, and [now, possibly, Kinshak] who would be important diplomatic go-tos on the Syria track but the actual policymaking wouldnt come from them.
King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud and his son are pursuing the most virulent anti-Iran and anti-Shiite policy in modern Saudi history. This approach has deep roots in Wahhabi history. Mixed with Irans expansive regional meddling, the combination is dangerous and explosive. Washington needs to exercise great care and not inflame the situation.

Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, the founder of the kingdoms unique form of Islam, spent time in Basra in the middle of the 18th century. His exposure to Iraqs most Shiite city was formative to his ideas, according to Michael Crawford, the premier Western biographer of Wahhab. He became an extreme critic of Shiism, branding them polytheists and infidels. Saudi armies sacked Shiite cities in Iraq, destroyed Shiite shrines in Mecca and invaded Yemen to try to defeat its Zaydi Shiite tribes.

Modern Saudi monarchs have had antagonistic relationships with Iran, both with the shah and the ayatollahs, but they have avoided direct confrontation and always kept communication channels open. King Faysal (who ruled from 1964-1975) detested the shah as an egomaniac, but worked with him to create the Organization of the Islamic Conference (now known as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation). King Fahd (who ruled from 1982-2005) backed Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq War, but he used the Saudi power of the purse to force Saddam to accept a cease-fire to end the war. King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud (who ruled from 2005-2015) appointed a Saudi Shiite as ambassador to Tehran and kept open dialogue even as he sent troops across the King Fahd causeway to smash Shiite majority dissent in Bahrain seven years ago. The troops are still there.

King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman have followed a much more confrontational approach. Their signature foreign policy initiative is the 3-year-old war in Yemen, which they portray as a necessary war to prevent the Iranians from taking over Yemen with the Zaydi Houthi rebels. The war has been marked by humanitarian disasters, like the bombing of a wedding party by the Saudi coalition April 22 and the mass starvation of the Yemeni people by the Saudi blockade. It is a sectarian conflict overplayed by a regional struggle for power by the Saudis and Iranians. The war costs the kingdom a fortune and the ayatollahs a pittance, but its very popular with the Wahhabi establishment.

At home, King Salman and Prince Mohammed have led a ruthless crackdown on Saudi Shiite dissidents in the Eastern Province of the kingdom. The city of Awamiyah has been pounded into rubble by the Saudi authorities. Satellite imagery shows whole neighborhoods destroyed. The execution of prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr led to the Saudis breaking of diplomatic relations with Iran. This, too, is popular with the Wahhabi clerical establishment.

In Syria and Lebanon, the Saudis have sought to weaken the Bashar al-Assad regime and Hezbollah, but neither effort has worked. Iran is more firmly embedded in both states than ever before. The determination of the Donald Trump administration to pull America out of Syria has alarmed Riyadh. Its offer to send Saudi and other Arab troops, an old proposal repackaged, is hollow given the performance of Saudi ground forces in Yemen.

Iraq is the exception that proves the rule. For a decade after the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq in 2003, Saudi Arabia backed Sunni Arab resistance to the elected Shiite majority governments. The Wahhabi clerical establishment enthusiastically backed this approach, even as it benefited al-Qaeda in Iraq and ultimately the Islamic State. It was a bankrupt and counterproductive policy. It also became increasingly irrelevant, as the Sunni Arab community in Iraq lost its power and influence.

So now the Saudis are trying to develop a positive relationship with Iraqs Shiites. The Saudis have belatedly opened an embassy in Baghdad, and they seek to open consulates in Basra and Najaf to add to one in Erbil. There is talk of the crown prince visiting Iraq. The border is opening up for trade; sporting events are underway. The Saudi policy initiative is a bright spot for Iraq and the kingdom.

But there are still limits. Iraq is not a member of the Saudi-led Islamic Military Alliance, which is intended to confront Iran by the Saudis. The Iranians have many more assets in Iraq than the Saudis, and they are determined to maintain their hegemony. The Saudis have no counter to the Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The optimal solution to de-escalate the sectarian conflict in the region is to start in Yemen. The existing United Nations process is a nonstarter because it is based on a UN Security Council resolution that is tilted deliberately toward Riyadh. Washington, London and Paris have tremendous influence as the suppliers of arms to Saudi Arabia. They should work together to help find a face-saving way for the king and crown prince to end the war. It will take tough love.

Iran is unlikely to help. The war in Yemen is a major strategic advantage for Tehran. It bogs the Saudis down at little cost to Iran. But it is also dangerous, especially now that the Iranians have helped the Houthis missile capabilities. Riyadh is literally under fire. This is playing arsonist during a wildfire.

The Iranians are particularly eager to humiliate Prince Mohammed, who has called Ayatollah Ali Khamenei a 21st-century Hitler. Iran calls the crown prince infantile.

In this toxic environment, it makes no sense for the Trump administration to jettison the multinational nuclear agreement with Iran. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action can be criticized for its shortcomings, but it is keeping Iran from becoming a nuclear weapons state. Prince Mohammed has made it publicly clear that if Iran returns to active development of a nuclear arsenal, Saudi Arabia will do the same. The United States should not add gasoline to the fire in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia is considering investing in 2.5 million acres of agricultural land in Iraq's western province of Anbar, which has suffered both economically and otherwise after the bitter war to regain control of the province from the Islamic State. If such an investment is made, it would be facilitated by the Saudi-Iraqi Coordination Council, which was formed in October.

The Iraqi Ministry of Commerce announced the potential investment in a brief statement to the press April 4, but did not disclose any further details on the matter.

Iraqi-Saudi relations have remarkably improved since mid-2017, particularly after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi visited Riyadh in October. During that visit, an announcement was made on establishing the Saudi-Iraqi Coordination Council, in the presence of Abadi, Saudi King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud and then US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

The council aims to develop economic relations at all levels between Iraq and Saudi Arabia after nearly three decades of estrangement. It also seeks to open land borders, encourage investments, review the customs cooperation agreement and study the establishment of a trade zone.

The Ministry of Commerces media office declined to provide Al-Monitor with any details on the potential Saudi investment in Anbar.

However, Yahya al-Mohammadi, a member of the Anbar provincial council, told Al-Monitor that officials in Anbar were indeed in contact with the Saudi Embassy in Baghdad, adding, Provincial officials have noticed a Saudi desire to broadly invest in Anbar.

Meanwhile, Salman al-Ansari, chairman of the Washington-based Saudi American Public Relation Affairs Committee, told Al-Monitor that the investment project in Anbar will be launched soon.

A Iraqi political source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity about the nature of the investment project in Anbar, its economic feasibility, and all related security and political aspects.

The source said the prospective investment will largely be "in the area of Nukhayb, which lies on the borders of the province of Karbala and is also adjacent to the Saudi border. The project "aims to build fields for breeding calves, as well as producing dairy products and drinking water. Large dairy companies will likely be established, mimicking a number of successful projects in Saudi Arabia.

The source did not deny the security objectives behind the project. This area is lacking in security," he said. "It is located on Saudi Arabia's border, and the two countries are trying to turn it into a labor-intensive business center, which brings stability to it rather than it posing a permanent threat to both countries.

He said that, politically, Saudi Arabia certainly seeks to expand in Iraq, but will not follow the Iranian example, which occupies the Iraqi market without employing the labor force in Iraq. Saudi Arabia, he said, "seeks soft dominance in Iraq by creating jobs for Iraqis," which will make its "presence and influence in the political scene acceptable within the Iraqi society."

Nukhayb has long been a disputed area between Anbar and Karbala. Nukhayb is administratively affiliated with Anbar province, but Karbala demands that it be annexed to its administrative borders. Security tension is common there, but the area has been relatively stable for nearly two years now.

Mohammadi denied an actual start of investment operations in Anbar. He said, Saudi Arabia and Iraq only discussed the projects put forward, noting that this is due to the security and political instability in Iraq.

In fact, not many political forces and Shiite factions welcome the idea of Saudi Arabia coming to Iraq and establishing business operations there. This rejection was demonstrated in March, when the media reported an upcoming visit to Iraq by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and, in response, Shiite factions and parties organized protests in a number of cities in Iraq.

Some Iraqi parliamentarians from Shiite blocs are seeking to pass a law similar to the American Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act to sue Saudi Arabia for allegedly allowing its citizens to enter Iraq and commit acts of terrorism on its territory.

Mohammadi ruled out the possibility that this would intimidate Saudi Arabia and stop it from launching projects in Anbar. The Iranian-Saudi conflict has a wide impact on the countries of the region," he said, "but Iraqs neutral policy has been boding well so far, and I hope it continues to achieve what is in the interest of Iraq.

Addressing whether Saudi Arabia fears for its investments in Iraq from pro-Iranian factions, Ansari said, Saudi Arabia does not fear anyone and is capable of protecting its interests by all means, be it in the region or anywhere in the world.

Iraq needs a very balanced policy in dealing with its conflicting neighbors Iran and Saudi Arabia, a fact that ought to be taken into account when either of these two countries wants to invest in Iraq, especially since both Iran and Saudi Arabia believe that investments are also a gateway to influence Iraq's political situation.
With heat from the United States, France and even Russia, Turkey is being discouraged from pursuing further action right now in northern Syria and is instead focusing on Iraq in its fight against Kurdish militants. In addition, with the Kurdish groups pulling out of Iraq's Sinjar region, Turkey no longer has an excuse to launch a military operation there  so Ankara for now has to be content with conducting low-profile military missions around other parts of Iraqi Kurdistan.

Since the end of March, Turkish commandos have been quietly putting up military outposts in the mountainous Sidekan area of Iraq, north of Hakurk, which is adjacent to the Qandil Mountains, where the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has its main headquarters. Turkey and other countries, including the United States, consider the PKK a terrorist organization.

Turkish warplanes in the past six months have frequently attacked Sidekan, where the PKK has many temporary and fixed bases south of Turkeys Semdinli that the PKK uses to infiltrate Turkey.

Turkey plans to place temporary military bases along and inside the boundary of Iraqi Kurdistan. "Turkey has now entered 20 kilometers [12 miles] deep into the Kurdistan Region, Iraqi Kurdistan-based Rudaw news reported April 6.

Turkeys pro-government daily Yeni Safak on April 8 confirmed the Rudaw report and said Turkey has been conducting discreet operations in northern Iraq for two months. Turkey controls "a corridor from Silopi-Cukurca-Hakkari" in Turkey into northern Iraq, the newspaper report said.

Yeni Safak claimed these are sweeping actions potentially leading up to an "Operation Tigris Shield against the PKK; so far Turkey has set up six new military outposts in Iraq.

In recent days, Turkish commandos have advanced toward the Soran area under [Kurdistan Regional Government Prime Minister Nechirvan] Barzanis control and reached Sidekan town. Turkish troops that have asserted their control on all points north of Erbil-Dahuk have also imposed control over many villages in the region, the newspaper said.

The Sidekan region is mountainous terrain just south of the Turkish border town of Semdinli and in the northern Choman district on the Iranian border, overlooking the Barazgir and Dooramolk plains. Sidekan is a critical passage to Turkey from the PKK-controlled Qandil and Hakurk regions.

Ankara has two military objectives in deploying commando units in Sidekan and establishing temporary military bases there. The first objective is to eliminate the PKKs setup at Sidekan that allow its fighters to infiltrate Turkey. The other goal is to ensure 24/7 domination of this area by using the temporary military bases until fall.

This is how the Turkish army is filling the empty region between its units nearby in Turkey, on northern Iraqs Diyala-Amedi-Bamarni line, and its armored and command units at Kanimasi.

The operational map indicates that the Turkish army plans to use the corridor it opened to Sidekan to surround the Hakurk area and isolate Qandil from west to south. In other words, without saying it in so many words, Ankara wants to use this military corridor to reach Qandil.

Military engineering works by Turkish troops at Sidekan suggest they intend to stay in the area a long time. Turkish commandos who deployed at Siro Mountain and Geliya Resh hill control mobile bridges placed at Sidekan on the river that splits the Haci Beg area. Construction work opening roads to the positions built on dominating land features continues at full pace.

While the KRG at Erbil maintains its silence on Turkish military activities and doesnt react to statements from Ankara warning that there may be operations against the PKK in northern Iraq, the central Iraqi government in Baghdad voices occasional reactions. In general, when Turkeys potential intervention in Iraq to take on the PKK is mentioned, the public doesnt think of Sidekan, but Sinjar, which is a critical location when it comes to connecting with Syria.

The PKK announced it had evacuated Sinjar on March 23 after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey may suddenly arrive in Sinjar one night.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari responded to Erdogans statement by saying Iraq rejects the idea of a Turkish cross-border operation.

After the PKK withdraws, foreign forces cannot come and occupy any part of Iraq, Iraqi President Fuad Masum said April 14. He also expressed his concerns over an operation in Sinjar similar to the one in Syrias Afrin.

Ankara is aware that its military actions against the PKK have no legitimate reason to continue in northern Syria. Moscow obviously isn't keen on Turkey expanding its Afrin offensive toward Tel Rifaat and wants Ankara to give priority to erecting de-escalation outposts around Idlib. Meanwhile, Washington and Paris are signaling that they are against Turkey stepping up the offensive first toward Manbij and then east of the Euphrates. Not to be overlooked is Iraqs posturing against a Turkish military intervention at Sinjar.

But Turkey is now at fever pitch over the snap presidential and parliamentary elections set for June 24. Public opinion polls on Turkey's Operation Euphrates Shield and the Afrin offensive concluded that when a cross-border operation targets the PKK, the Turkish public's approval never goes below 70%. Of course, Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party are perfectly aware of this; hence Ankara is likely to continue such operations against the PKK in the coming weeks.

However, as emphasized above, it is not easy for Ankara to maintain its military actions against the PKK-linked People's Protection Units, given Syria's current state of affairs. Since the PKK announced its withdrawal from Iraq's Sinjar, Turkey has no pretext that would allow it to insist on an operation there.

Ankara is thus left only with the option of operating in northern Iraq and the Sidekan region; this could mean it will step up its efforts to open a military corridor to Qandil.

Ankara has been trying to persuade Iran to conduct a joint operation against Qandil for the past two years. So far, Tehran has refrained from any military action against the PKK-linked Kurdish groups in Iran and across the border in Iraq, and has not signaled it will comply with Turkeys request. Baghdad is also unwilling to risk an operation at Qandil because of its general elections set for May. The KRGs capital of Erbil is keeping mum while trying to soften Turkeys anger over the Kurdish independence referendum last year. Barzani can even offer military support to Ankara to disrupt the growing political profile of the PKK in Sulaimaniyah, as Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party sees the PKK as a rival.

The bottom line in all this activity is that we are likely to hear much more of Turkeys military actions in northern Iraq, rather than in Syria.
Turkeys waning enthusiasm for some 3.5 million-plus Syrian refugees is a compelling topic as millions of Turks prepare to cast their votes in snap polls due to be held on June 24.

Rights groups say the desperate plight of the rising wave of Afghan refugees in Turkey, however, has received scant attention as thousands are unlawfully deported by Turkish authorities to face incalculable risks back home.

In a press release issued today, Amnesty International condemned Turkish authorities for the way they're handling Turkey's swelling population of Afghan refugees, currently estimated at 145,000, who for the most part live in appalling conditions. The London-based watchdog said some 2,000 Afghans who fled to Turkey to escape conflict and the worst excesses of the Taliban are in detention and at imminent risk of being forced back to danger. The group added that the Turkish authorities appeared to be ramping up what it called "a deportation spree that has seen 7,100 Afghans rounded up and returned to Afghanistan since early April." The Afghans are being treated, it read, more like criminals than people fleeing conflict and persecution."

Violence in the conflict-wracked Central Asian state has escalated in recent months. At least 57 people were killed on April 22 when a suicide bomb attack claimed by the Islamic State targeted a voter registration center in the capital, Kabul. Over 120 civilians and 322 others were injured in separate attacks in March alone.

Since the start of 2018, Turkish authorities have apprehended at least 27,000 Afghans at the Iranian border, more than half the total 47,000 Afghans apprehended for the whole of last year. The recent deportations were reportedly agreed upon between Afghanistan and Turkey during Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirims official trip to Kabul in early April.

Some 102 Afghans who were dumped by smugglers in a forest in the Mediterranean province of Antalya after being assured they had arrived in Istanbul will likely join their ranks if they havent already. The victims had paid between $3,000 and $9,000 for their aborted attempt at freedom, Hurriyet reported.

Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak raised the alarm last year, claiming that 3 million refugees in neighboring Iran were seeking to come to Turkey and many were Afghans. Irans Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif denied the claim as "bizarre." Kaynak then retracted his statement, insisting that his words had been misinterpreted, though he had spoken them clearly to CNNTurk. Western diplomats speculated that Kaynaks scaremongering might be intended to extract further funding from the European Union. Turkey has since been erecting a wall much like the one along its 900-kilometer (560-mile) border with Syria on its mountainous frontier with the Islamic Republic to keep illegal migrants at bay. The 144-kilometer (90-mile) cinderblock barrier is expected to be completed this year.

Anna Shea, Amnestys researcher for refugee and migrant rights, told Al-Monitor, The number of deportations is staggering. The Interior Ministry declared yesterday it intended to reach 10,000 deportations by the end of the week. Amnesty insists the legal basis for the deportations is fuzzy, though Turkish authorities told the group all the returns were voluntary, and authorities seem keen on advertising their actions.

The Twitter feed of Turkeys Migration Authority, the Goc Idaresi, which is attached to the Ministry of Interior, brims with photographs of Afghan deportees waving merrily inside charter planes carrying them back to Afghanistan.

It's very unusual for a government to advertise such deportations so blatantly. These are usually conducted in a confidential way," said Shea. "The Turkish authorities apparently want to send a message."

The message may be directed at the EU. Under the terms of a controversial deal struck in 2015, the European bloc agreed to fork out billions of dollars in cash in exchange for Turkey serving as a gatekeeper for millions of refugees seeking a better life inside its borders. It could either be Look, we are doing our job, or Look, there are millions more heading your way. You rely on us to stop them, so beware, said a spokesperson who works on refugee affairs for an Istanbul-based nonprofit. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Al-Monitor, I could go to jail for saying these things, but we have credible reports of Afghan refugees being tortured in detention centers.

Turkey has one of the largest refugee populations in the world. The World Health Organization said the cost of health services offered to refugees in Turkey has surpassed $10 billion, putting it at the top of the list of countries offering relief to refugees.

Turkey has been globally commended for this generosity. But it retains a geographic limitation on its ratification of the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees, saying that only those fleeing events occurring in Europe can be formally recognized as refugees. In practice, this grants Turkey impunity in its handling of non-European asylum seekers. In 2013, it passed an asylum law and another in October 2014 that lets refugees apply for work in Turkey, among other things. Syrians, however, remain the primary beneficiaries of the new measures, rights groups say.
Ankaras already strained relations with the West are heading for heightened tensions following President Recep Tayyip Erdogans call for snap presidential and parliamentary elections to be held June 24. At issue are bans in Austria, Germany and the Netherlands prohibiting Turkish politicians from canvassing expatriate Turks there and the possibility that other EU members might follow suit.

The stances by Austria, Germany and the Netherlands are significant, as they host most of the more than 3.5 million Turks living in Europe. Ankaras ties with them took a nosedive last year after they prevented members of the Turkish government, including by force in the Netherlands, from holding rallies prior to the highly controversial Turkish constitutional referendum in April 2017. The government-proposed referendum resulted in a slim majority, with overwhelming support by expatriate Turks, overturning Turkeys parliamentary democracy in favor of an executive presidency.

Critics in Turkey and Europe point to the lack of checks and balances on the executive under the presidential system, arguing that it represents a move toward paternalistic one-man rule. The new system was to be introduced next year following presidential and parliamentary elections planned for 2019. Erdogans call for snap elections means Turkeys transition to the new and contentious system of government will happen much sooner.

Erdogan seems confident about winning the elections. The support of millions of Turks in Europe remains crucial, however, because he needs to emerge with a majority that lends moral legitimacy to his claim to being the leader of the entire nation.

Tensions over the elections are not limited to Europe. Ankara has also fumed at Washington for suggesting that fair elections cannot be held under the prevailing conditions. At the April 19 daily news briefing, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters, It would be difficult to hold a completely free, fair, and transparent election  during this type of state of emergency.

The state of emergency has been in force since the failed coup against Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) in July 2016, and there appears to be no intention on the part of the government to lift it anytime soon. Nauert emphasized, We would certainly like to see free and fair elections, but theres a concern here.

Meanwhile, the recent release of annual reports by the EU Commission and US State Department on Turkey added to Ankaras anger. Both reports, which Ankara rejected out of hand, underline the continuing deterioration of Turkeys democracy.

Pro-government commentators in the media have begun a campaign aimed at vilifying the West for its position on the June elections. Erdogans supporters have little doubt who the Europeans are targeting when imposing restrictions on Turkish politicians. Erdogan sent shockwaves across Europe last year after he accused European leaders of behaving like Nazis by preventing Turkish government ministers from addressing expatriate Turks about the constitutional referendum.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who is campaigning to keep Turkey out of the EU, wasted no time spelling out his countrys position after the announcement of snap elections. In an April 21 radio interview, Kurz said that changes introduced last year in Austria to the law on public gatherings could be invoked to prevent Turkish politicians from holding rallies there. Kurz charged that Erdogan had instrumentalized Turkish communities in Europe for years, adding that he did not want Turkeys inflamed atmosphere brought to Austria because of the damage it did to coexistence in that country.

Speaking a day after Kurz, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte made it clear that Turkish politicians would not be welcome in the Netherlands either. Rutte cited a threat to public order as the reason. The Dutch government caused outrage in Turkey last year when it used mounted policemen and police dogs to disperse demonstrators after the government prevented a Turkish minister from meeting with Erdogan supporters.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas joined the chorus on April 23, indicating that Turkish politicians would also not be allowed to canvass in Germany. Our stance in this regard is firm, Maas told reporters during a meeting of G-7 foreign ministers in Toronto. Campaigning for a foreign countrys elections in Germany is not allowed after three months are left before the elections.

Erdogan remains nonetheless defiant. He told Turkeys NTV on April 22 that preparations for him to address 10,000-11,000 Turks in Europe before the votes had been finalized. He said it would take place during the meeting of an international organization, but declined to name the country where it would happen.

Ankara is also trying to turn the tables on Austria, Germany and the Netherlands by accusing them of undermining democratic values with the bans on Turkish politicians. Blasting Austria and the Netherlands, Turkish EU Minister Omer Celik called them undemocratic and hypocritical. Celik also accused Kurz and Rutte of contributing to the growth in their countries of racist groups that reject European values.

Ilnur Cevik, a foreign policy adviser to Erdogan, believes that the West is trying to interfere in the Turkish elections.

It all boils down to the fact that the Western leaders see clearly that the democratic elections in Turkey will produce yet another Erdogan administration, and they simply do not want to stomach this, Cevik wrote in an article for the pro-government Daily Sabah. These are the same leaders and administrations that actively rallied against the changing of the constitution in 2017 that ushered Turkey into a presidential system of government.

Cevik also argued, The Western leaders have declared states of emergency in their own countries and have gone to elections under such rule, like in France. So it is hardly a valid argument accusing Turkey of holding elections under a state of emergency.

Bercan Tutar, another pro-government commentator from Sabah, wrote that by bringing forward the presidential and parliamentary elections, Erdogan [has] caught Turkeys enemies in the West totally off guard. According to Tutar, Erdogans well-planned move has disarmed the axis of evil, foiling its plans to engage in sabotage and provocations in Turkey in the lead up to 2019 [elections].

Fatih Cekirge, a Hurriyet columnist who supports Erdogans presidency, wrote that the most important things to guard against in the elections will be external voices and interferences. Cekirge wrote, This countrys faith in democracy is there to be seen. It is also evident that it doesnt need anyone to bring it democracy the way they did in Iraq or Syria.

Such remarks suggest the narrative Erdogan and the AKP plan to deploy. The potential for more trouble in Turkeys ties with Europe is apparent. Erdogans priority, however, is decisive electoral victory, not improving ties with Europe.

Many commentators believe that the impression of Erdogan being unfairly victimized by Europe will work to his electoral advantage. It will prompt most Turks in Europe, they argue, to vote for him in a repeat of the dynamics surrounding last years referendum.

Europes dilemma is that if Erdogan emerges from the elections stronger and more empowered, there is little it can do to express its disappointment given its geopolitical and economic interests in Turkey.

The West has to start looking into the prospects of living with Erdogan instead of trying to get rid of him, Cevik remarked.
CAIRO  Over a period of 12 years, 650,000 copies of Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouzs books have been sold  a figure that has spurred a heated debate whether this signifies a commercial success or a failure to promote the countrys Nobel Prize in Literature laureate, particularly among the youth.

According to Dar El-Shorouk, the publishing house that owns the exclusive publishing rights to Mahfouzs works in Arabic, the number of books sold is a success. The publisher said in a March 15 statement that the works of Mahfouz have been published in unprecedented numbers and in several editions for each book.

It continued, Some books had more than 16 editions, and we published around 650,000 copies in 12 years. We hope we will reach 1 million [sold copies] of Mahfouzs books in the coming months due to the interest of our readers. This is a unique achievement for Arabic-language literature.

Egyptian novelist Hassan Abdel-Mawgoud believes just the opposite. The number of books sold is dissatisfactory and it does not match Mahfouzs status [as one of Egypt's best-known authors]. Mahfouzs 54 novels and short story collections were printed in 54,000 copies per year, which means 1,000 copies for each book, in a country with a population of more than 100 million people, 74 million of whom can read. These low rates are not due to Mahfouzs books or classics in general, he told Al-Monitor.

For Abdel-Mawgoud, the crisis of reading classics is simply caused by the policies of the publishing houses that have obtained the sole publishing rights of Egypts classics writers such as Yusuf Sibai, Ihsan Abdel Quddus, Yusuf Idris and Tawfiq al-Hakim. He attributed the decline to the publishers failure to develop policies that would enable those writers works to reach a larger audience, either through making more copies available or lowering prices. On the contrary, he pointed out, the publishing houses stop printing copies of a book altogether if they think the profit margins are low.

Abdel-Mawgoud's opinion triggered a debate when he posted some of his views on the monopoly of publishing houses on his Facebook page March 12, accusing Dar El-Shorouk of maintaining a monopoly over Mahfouzs books.

The post, which many novelists and authors supported by likes, said, We, the Egyptian intellectuals, call on the Ministry of Culture to take action against Dar El-Shorouk publishing house to take away their rights to publish Mahfouzs books  given [Mahfouzs works] international importance, Egyptians have the right to strip the [company] of this monopoly.

Novelist Ashraf El Sabbagh agreed with Abdel-Mawgoud that there is a problem of distribution and availability of classics in Egypt. He told Al-Monitor that many literature students, who head to the branches of the Dar El-Shorouk publishing house to buy classics, often return empty-handed as the books are not available.

Youssef al-Kaeed, another Egyptian novelist and currently a member of parliament, believes that it is not the publishing houses but the changing reading habits of the new generation that causes the fall in the sales of classic novels.

Most readers in Egypt are young and prefer to read Ahmed Mourad, Ahmed Khaled Tawfik and other novelists who focus on writing youth stories, he told Al-Monitor. "Each generation has its own best-selling novelists. In the 1960s and 1970s, the young generation preferred to buy and read the novels of Mahfouz and Sibai, thus causing the distribution of older, more classic books like those of Taha Hussein, Zaki Naguib Mahmoud and Mahmoud Taymour to drop."

Mohammad al-Chahat, a professor of literary criticism at the University of Cairo, told Al-Monitor, Although many people can read and write, the market of modern and classic novels has witnessed a decline, putting this down to the increased time young people spend in front of a screen. After the January 25 Revolution, the attention of the youth shifted back to the importance of reading and its value in spreading awareness and social and political culture. Perhaps the distribution of printed classics dropped because they were available online."

For Mohammad Khedr, the director of distribution at Dar El-Shorouk, cinema and TV may serve to rekindle interest in the classics. He told Al-Monitor that the distribution of Mahfouz's novel Afrah al-Qobba ("Wedding Song") soared after a TV series based on the book was produced and broadcast in 2016. Khedr noted that those accusing Dar El-Shorouk of slackening in promoting Mahfouzs work and that of other classics novelists overlook the fact that the publishing house contributed to producing several successful series based on novels, mainly Afrah al-Qobba.

Amira Abu al-Majd, the director of publications at Dar El-Shorouk, agreed that the January 25 Revolution contributed to increasing readership in Egypt in general and specifically in classical literature. She told Al-Monitor, The declining rates of distribution were common during the political recession when young people were not interested in culture. Publishing houses cannot control this aspect, and they suffer losses."

She added, "Currently the publishing houses are benefitting from young peoples interest in reading, and the proof is that the people working in cinema and TV production are realizing the value of classics. Some productions such as 'Afrah al-Qobba' were created by young drama producers.
Fatma Naib undertook a journey to understand why so many communities continue to subject their daughters to female genital mutilation and what it would take for them to stop.

Editors note: Al Jazeera has won a Peabody Award for the documentary The Cut.

Talking about female genital mutilation (FGM) makes people uncomfortable. I get that. Who wants to think about vaginas  particularly those of young girls  being cut?

But here is what I learned from making a film about FGM: We need to feel uncomfortable and we need to feel outraged if we are to do anything about it.

FGM and me

I am originally from Eritrea but moved to Sweden when I was 11 years old. Although it has been banned in Eritrea since 2007, the country still has one of the highest rates of FGM in the world. According to UNICEF, around 83 percent of Eritrean women and girls are subjected to it.

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I remember when I first became aware of FGM. I was about eight years old and we were at a relatives house. It was full of women and children. Food was being shared and the atmosphere was festive. It felt like a celebration.

Then, I entered another room, where my female relative  a girl of three or four  was laying in bed, covered with a white sheet, clearly in agony.

I asked my mother what was wrong with her. She had been circumcised or purified, my mother explained. It was the same terminology we used for male circumcision, so I understood that something had been done to her private parts and that it had involved some form of cutting.

I asked my mother whether I had been cut? She told me I hadnt, and we left it at that. I never thought to ask her why.

The percentage, types of cutting and reasons vary but the end result is the same: Girls and women lose a part of their body. Fatma Naib, journalist

As I grew up, I didnt think much more about FGM. It wasnt something we talked about. It never became a page in my book of childhood memories.

But as I approached adulthood and my friends began to think about marriage and childbirth, the topic started to creep into our conversations. It was only then that I realised how many of them had undergone FGM. There were no stories of their pain and suffering because most were too young when it happened to remember it, but there was plenty of anxiety and fear about what it would mean when the time came to have sex or give birth.

Still, it felt like something that happened to others; something I couldnt quite relate to.

Then, I went to Senegal to make a web documentary about FGM for Al Jazeera. Coming face to face with young children affected by it, witnessing their pain and the way it impacted entire communities there, made me wonder more about my own  and why my immediate family had chosen not to follow a practice so widely followed there.

Coming face to face with young children affected by FGM, witnessing their pain and the way it impacted entire communities, made me wonder more about my own [Al Jazeera]

A journey to understand FGM

In our documentary film, The Cut: Exploring FGM, I travel to Somaliland, Kenya and Sweden in search of answers that might bring me closer to an understanding of that.

I wanted to understand why different cultures do it and what it would take for them to stop. I went armed with the numbers, the statistics, the facts. But those numbers on a page are nothing compared with hearing first-hand accounts of having your clitoris removed  often without anaesthesia, with a razor, a knife or, in some cases, with scissors.

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In Kenya, I met Domtila, an anti-FGM activist who told me how shed witnessed her cousin being held down while her clitoris was sliced at, bit by bit, leaving her vagina brutally mutilated.

There was Khadan, a young midwife in Somaliland who had just had a baby and explained how many women like her who have undergone FGM have to be cut open before their wedding night, and again, when they give birth.

In Somaliland, I met Nura, a cutter who estimates that she has performed FGM on around 100,000 girls. As part of the procedure, the girls vaginas are often sown closed, leaving just a small opening for urine to pass through. I was shocked when Nura showed me just how small that opening can be.

That is what most worried 18-year-old mother-to-be Shaartu, when Anab, a midwife in Somaliland who has made it her mission to eradicate FGM there, met her.

I was stitched when I was 10 years old. And then, when I was getting married, I was cut open, Shaartu told Anabs group of outreach nurses. I have seen girls who have been circumcised like me and could not give birth, who died  So, its possible that I cant give birth and I die.

I also met 23-year-old Kadar in a trendy cafe in Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, who explained that hed prefer to marry a woman who had been subjected to FGM. Culture is stronger than womens opinions and views, he told me with a broad smile that revealed shiny braces.

In Kenya, I was moved by the story of 18-year-old Elly, a member of the Pokot tribe, where girls typically undergo FGM between the ages of 13 and 18, despite the practice being illegal in Kenya. She refused and ran away from home. Her family responded by shunning her and refusing to pay for her education.

A member of the Maasai, 26-year-old Nice persuaded the 7,000 people in her village to end the practice. One of the ways she approached this was to show the men of the community what it entailed and one of the tools she used was a video clip of a two-year-old girl undergoing the procedure. I turned away, unable to watch it, but that babys screams stay with me  as does the memory of Jackson, a Maasai warrior who upon watching the video declared that he would kill anyone who tried to do that to his daughter.

As much as inspiring women like Domtila, Anab and Nice are needed to end FGM, so, too, are men like Jackson.

Learning to talk about FGM

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 200 million women and girls alive today have been subjected to FGM.

It happens all over the world  in Asia, Africa, the Middle East but also in Latin America, North America, Asia-Pacific and Europe. It takes place in peoples homes, on the floor of a cutters mud hut in remote villages and in hospitals.

How widespread the practice is, the form to which girls and women are subjected and the justifications their communities give may vary from one place and culture to another, but the end result is the same: girls and women lose a part of their body.

INTERACTIVE: Breaking the cycle of FGM

It is a violation of human  and often, childrens  rights.

To change this, we must change attitudes. And to do that we must take into consideration the different cultures, traditions and socioeconomic issues that are intertwined with the practice.

This needs to be led by people like Domtila, Anab, Nice and others we talked to in this film.

But to help them, we must talk openly about FGM. Not bristle at its mention.

I remember an editor once telling me that FGM wasnt an interesting topic.

And, perhaps, in this digital click-chasing world, it doesnt capture peoples attention in the way that an exercise selfie or a picture of food on Instagram might.

It makes people uncomfortable. I understand that. But we need to keep talking about FGM until no more women and girls are subjected to it.
Sexual assault of schoolgirls is commonplace on Japans public transportation, but now more girls are speaking out.

Additional reporting by Shiori Ito.

Tokyo, Japan  Tamaka Ogawa was about 10 years old when she was sexually assaulted for the first time. It was a public holiday and she was on the subway. A man standing behind her pulled down the band of her culottes and underwear, touched her bare bottom, then pressed himself against her. She recalls feeling shocked and physically sickened. When she reached home, she repeatedly washed the spot where he had pressed himself against her, although she was conscious of not spending too long in the toilet, in case her family noticed that something was wrong.

Some years later, on her first day of senior high school, she was groped on the commute home. After that, the groping and sexual assaults  men would often stick their hands inside her underwear  became a regular occurrence as she made her way to or from school in her uniform. Each time, she would run away, unsure of what to do.

I thought of myself as a child, she reflects. I could not understand that adults were excited by touching me.



It would be improper to express anger towards an adult, she thought, and she worried about attracting attention. Besides, her parents had never spoken to her about such things and how she ought to handle them.

She recalls one incident particularly clearly. She was about 15 and on her way to school. A man began to touch her, putting his hand inside her underwear. He was aggressive and it hurt, she remembers. When the train stopped, she got off. But he grabbed her hand and told her: Follow me. Ogawa ran away. She believes that people saw what was going on, but nobody helped.

She felt ashamed and complicit, she says.

He seems to have thought that I was pleased with his act, the now 36-year-old reflects.

When I was in high school, every [girl] was a victim, says Ogawa. [We] didnt think we could do anything about it.

Today, Ogawa, a writer and cofounder of Press Labo, a small digital content production company in Shimokitazawa, an inner-city Tokyo neighbourhood, often writes about Japans gender inequality and sexual violence issues.

In 2015, she began writing about the countrys long-standing problem with groping  or chikan, in Japanese  often experienced by schoolgirls on public transportation. Many victims stay silent, unable to talk about their experiences in a society which, by many accounts, trivialises this phenomenon.

But, in the past two years, that has begun to change as more people speak up against it.





An intervention

Yayoi Matsunaga is one of those people.

One morning in late January, the 51-year-old arrived at a coffee shop in the bustling neighbourhood of Shibuya with a suitcase of badges.

The round badges, designed to deter gropers, feature illustrations such as a schoolgirl peering angrily from between her legs, or a crowd of stern-looking rabbits and include the messages, Groping is a crime and Dont do it. Each comes with a leaflet instructing the wearer to clearly display the badges on their bags, to stand confidently and to be vigilant.

Matsunaga began her Osaka-based organisation, Groping Prevention Activities Centre, in 2015 after her friends daughter was regularly molested while taking the train to school.

Takako Tonooka, the pseudonym she has used in interviews with the Japan Times, confided in her mother, and the two tried various solutions to stop the attacks. They bought a stuffed toy which says Dont do it when pulled. They spoke to the police and the railway authorities, who said they would act if it was the same perpetrator  but it never was. Tonooka even wore her school skirt shorter and found that she was harassed less.

Matsunaga says trains display posters telling groping victims to be brave and to speak up. Tonooka started practising saying Stop it and No at home. She began to confront offenders, who would then angrily deny touching her. Onlookers did not help. Eventually, she and her mother created a label to attach to her bag, which says, Groping is a crime. Im not going to give up and features a picture of policemen catching perpetrators. It worked.

But the label made Tonooka self-conscious, and Matsunaga says boys teased her.

Matsunaga decided that Tonooka should not have to fight on her own, so she came up with an idea to involve others by crowdsourcing ideas for anti-groping badges.

High school girls are really into this kawaii culture so they had to be cute, she says.

Yayoi Matsunaga, 51, began her Osaka-based organisation, Groping Prevention Activities Centre, in 2015 after her friends daughter was regularly groped on the train [Shiori Ito/Al Jazeera]

In November 2015 she launched a crowdfunding campaign that attracted 334 donors and raised 2.12 million yen (about $19,000). Then, she ran a badge design crowdsourcing contest.

High school pupils, art school students, and freelance designers  many telling her it was the first time theyd thought about the issue  submitted 441 designs from which Matsunaga selected five. Her organisation gave away about 500 and three police stations handed out more. She now sells them online, for 410 yen ($3.70) each. From March, 11 department stores will stock them and shes aiming to secure more distributors near train stations.

Apart from making the badges more widely available, Matsunaga also wants offenders to see them and think: The world is changing, some people have started talking about it.

By involving students, Matsunaga believes shes encouraging them to talk about this issue from a young age.

The badges have had a direct effect. Data collected from 70 students at a high school in Saitama prefecture, just north of Tokyo, between April and December 2016, showed that 61.4 percent of respondents said they had not been touched since using the badges, while 4.3 percent reported no change.

Railway police have also started holding awareness-raising lectures with high schools which have enabled students to feel more comfortable speaking about the issue, Matsunga says.

In Ogawas opinion, the badges are an important intervention because they do not label anyone a victim or perpetrator, and they prompt discussion. You need courage to wear these badges, she says. [Theyre] cute but the message is strong.

Groping is often normalised as something that happens on the crowded city subway lines, according to Tamaka Ogawa [Shiori Ito/Al Jazeera]

What people mean when they say groping

Despite such initiatives, experts say Japanese society remains willfully oblivious or unaware of how widespread this problem is and how often girls are assaulted.

Hiroko Goto, a feminist, professor of criminal law at Chiba University and vice president of Japan-headquartered NGO Human Rights Now, believes many people do not consider groping to be a crime. [For] society at large, its not a big problem; thats the kind of double standard [between] the victims viewpoint and the social viewpoint.

In Ogawas opinion, society normalises groping as something that just happens.

There are no accurate figures on the number of victims; only a fraction are believed to report incidents.

One key problem when it comes to talking about groping is that people have very different ideas about what that entails; the term itself fails to adequately describe the range of violations. The widely held assumption is that groping is non-consensual touching over clothing, something deemed a minor crime and punishable under Japans prefecture-level Anti-Nuisance Ordinance. Under the ordinance, the sentence is usually six months in jail or a 500,000 yen ($4,500) fine.

I hear many girls telling me that they have experienced mens hands under their skirt, and the gropers fingers in their vagina, Matsunaga says. It is rape.

Men ejaculated on Ogawas friends. Often, she says, the perpetrators put their hands inside her underwear. Many times, the abuse involved being penetrated by mens fingers.

Police officers usually decide whether more serious groping-related cases, where the violations include penetration, should be filed under Article 176 of the Penal Code, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. But just a tiny proportion of the total reported cases get filed under this article. Article 177, which pertains to rape, carries harsher penalties, but its legal definition is extremely narrow and only considers rape to be forced sexual intercourse.

According to Ogawa, groping-related violations are too often downplayed by society as a nuisance. It was only when she started writing about these crimes, she says, that she discovered that what she had experienced was sexual assault. What was shocking me the most is that I didnt realise that I was experiencing indecent assault, Ogawa says.

Japanese society focuses on telling women to be careful, how to dress and to travel in women-only carriages  which are mainly available during peak hours on weekday mornings  Ogawa says. They are telling women to protect themselves, to be careful, but no one tells the men not to do it, she says.

Even the rail authorities anti-groping posters are too cute and miss the point, Ogawa argues.

They dont talk to the perpetrators. I wish there would be posters saying, If you want to grope, you need to see a doctor, she says. Ogawa would also like to see more CCTV cameras installed on trains, something she believes Japan can do as it shores up surveillance for the 2020 Olympics.

Ogawa believes that a collective understanding of what actually happens on public transport is crucial. But for that to happen, more victims must speak up. I think if women dont talk about what is happening, then it will be always invisible, she says.

It was only when Tamaka Ogawa started writing about sexual violence in Japan that she realised the gravity of what she had experienced as a schoolgirl [Shiori Ito/Al Jazeera]

False accusations

Convincing society that theres a problem is further complicated by a dominant narrative about men being falsely accused. Ogawa and others who write about sexual violence say much of the online backlash they receive comes from men who say this is the real problem.

If we talk about sexual violence, especially if the topic is about groping, the main  concern is about false accusation, Ogawa says.

The media always blames  the victims, explains Goto, who points to the fact that Japans mainstream and social media is male-dominated.

The media [is] overly focused on this topic [of false accusations], says Ogawa  who believes that false accusations and convictions are rare as compared to actual instances of sexual assault.

She points to the widely reported story of Koji Yatabe, whom a district court found guilty of forcing a young girl to touch his penis in 2000. Yatabe, who fought his conviction and eventually had it overturned by a high court judge, co-wrote a book with his wife about his case. That was then turned into a film called I Just Didnt Do It.

Ogawa believes the media over-reported Yatabes side of the story, instilling fear about false accusations and creating a distraction from the problem of sexual violence. Worse, she says, it discouraged victims from being able to talk about it [groping]  and thats a problem.

That absence of victims perspectives, is why Aiko Tabusa, a non-fiction manga artist, started blogging about groping in 2011. There was either groping porn or innocent gropers stories, the 38-year-old explains.

She is currently working on a manga book about groping on trains, an idea she tried to pursue six years ago with three publishers, who all turned her down.

They were like, Whos going to read that? Theres no demand, Tabusa recalls. For me, groping was like a daily life story.

Each of the badges sold by Matsunagas organisation comes with instructions for girls on how to prevent or respond to groping on trains [Shiori Ito/Al Jazeera]

WATCH: Off the Rails  A Journey Through Japan

Patriarchy

Many Japanese women say they stopped experiencing groping when they graduated from high school and no longer wore school uniforms.

[It] never happened [again] since I took off my uniform, says 20-year-old Kotomi Araki, an economics undergraduate student and waitress, who says she was groped on crowded trains throughout high school.

When asked about the perception of schoolgirls, Araki and others refer to the archetype of Lolita.

According to Goto, this idea is borrowed from the Russian American novelist Vladimir Nabokov, but in Japan is largely understood as a young girl who is the image of obedience, subservience, and is reinforced in widely read manga.

Japanese society is highly patriarchal, says Goto, explaining that this has roots in the Confucian ideals which originated in China and became widespread after the end of the Meiji imperial era in 1912. [Theres a] strong belief men should be superior to women.

Pre-modern Japan was traditionally less patriarchal, according to Emiko Ochiai, a sociologist and historian at Kyoto University. In the ancient period, Japan had female kings, but it became rare in the later period. In the medieval period, there were female warriors or generals, Ochiai says.

Confucianism influenced the declining status of women in [Japan], she says. That ideology was spread by popular stories and dramas and was reinforced in the process of modernisation under the impact from the West.

Today, To be a woman is a caste in this society, Ochiai says. You cannot get out of that destiny. [Only] if you are very successful in education and business, you can be a man.

But from the womens movement in the 1970s to, more recently, Prime Minister Shinzo Abes agenda to boost womens participation in the workforce as part of an economic growth plan, mens power has been challenged, according to Goto.

One reason to do groping is to show their power to women and the younger girls, Goto says. She believes offenders carefully target vulnerable-looking schoolgirls. She worries that as older schoolgirls begin to speak up, perpetrators will begin to target even younger girls.

Ogawa says many people believe men target schoolgirls because they are child molesters. I think thats true, too, she says. But she also believes: People want to target these kids and girls because they havent been touched; because no one has conquered them.

Sociologist Kazue Muta agrees. Some men are aroused by schoolgirls because they represent innocent and pure figures, to whom patriarchy should prohibit sexual access, says Muta, a professor of sociology and gender studies at Osaka University, over email.

However, the offenders are not always or necessarily sexually driven; rather, what drives them is the desire to control and dominate a target. The more she seems embarrassed, troubled, or perplexed, the [more the] offender would be satisfied, because it means he is controlling and dominating her. Schoolgirls are young and oftentimes docile and obedient to grown-up men, Muta adds.

A uniformed girl stands outside a JK Cafe in Ikebukuro [Shiori Ito/Al Jazeera]

Schoolgirls

This sexualisation of schoolgirls extends to themed bars in red-light districts and exploitative JK cafes (JK stands for joshi kosei or high school girl) where adult men pay to chat to teenage girls, have their fortunes told or have their ears cleaned. Manga pornography depicting schoolgirls is also widely and openly available. It was only in 2014 that Japan criminalised the possession of child pornography.

Within walking distance of Ikebukuro train station, among the lanes of restaurants, are a number of mostly unsigned JK cafes. One innocuous-looking sandwich board with pink bubble font, lists, with blue heart bullet points, the range of available services. There are also themed bars for male-only customers who pay about $200 an hour to grope the women working there.

One 38-year-old man, who declined to give his name, explains that he has been to these bars in Ikebukuro  paying 15,000 yen ($133) to enter  including a bar furnished to look like the inside of a subway carriage. Customers choose what kind of woman theyd like to grope  often, the choice is between someone dressed up like a schoolgirl or an office worker. He says he believes the women working there are over the age of 18.

They [Japanese men] love cute, pure, young; thats what [they] find sexually attractive, he says.

I just go there to have fun, he adds. In his opinion, these bars can prevent someone from groping in public.

Akira Wada, who spoke to Al Jazeera under a pseudonym, said he goes to these bars out of curiosity and has never groped anyone in public. The first bar he visited was high school-themed and while the 35-year-old says hes not into uniforms, he says he likes young women. His company dinners sometimes end up at these bars.

Hes terrified, however, of being falsely accused of groping in public and says he always takes the precaution of finding a seat on the train. He says even if his bag accidentally bumps into a girl, hes worried about being accused of touching her. In the packed train car, anyone can be [a] victim or perpetrator, he says.

In his opinion, men who grope on trains are motivated both by the public nature of the act and the fact that it is non-consensual.

Matsunaga worries such bars could condone this behaviour in public.

I wish groping bars would say: This is something you cant do outside, Ogawa says.

Groping and rape are categories in Japanese pornography, says Ogawa, who adds that if she speaks out against rape or groping, commenters tell her she does not understand sex. People mix up these things, she explains.

When women talk about sex in Japan, she says, furrowing her brow, we either get attention from perverts or people who are against sex. For the next 30 years, I feel like I have to keep saying sex and sexual violence are two different things, she adds.

A girl in school uniform stands on the street to gather customers for a JK cafe, while two men look at the price and service list [Shiori Ito/Al Jazeera]

Dissuaded from reporting

For older women whove experienced sexual assault, speaking out is just as hard.

Last year, Japans labour ministry released findings from an unprecedented study, in which, of nearly 10,000 female respondents aged 25 to 44, almost one-third of women said they had been sexually harassed at work, with inappropriate touching being one of the most common problems. Fewer than 40 percent of women took action.

A 52-year-old woman, who did not want to disclose her name or workplace, explained that she was recently sexually assaulted by someone, whose face she did not see, at her workplace in Tokyo. When she reported the incident to her employers, she says they were sympathetic but deterred her from going to the police, telling her to think about the companys reputation and the trauma she would have to relive. She felt they simply did not want any trouble for the company.

But she also did not want to go to the police and does not want anyone to know. I cant talk about this  to anyone, she says.

Its shameful, she adds. I thought, if I just forget, I can go back to a normal life.

ALSO READ: A lesson from Americas Japanese internment camps

Speaking up

Tabusa, the manga artist, is heartened that the problem is increasingly being talked about, but says, I dont think theres enough discussion yet.

It needs to be taken seriously and more people need to be aware because the groping victims are often children, she says.

Women also make light of the issue, she reflects. People just think this happens every day, so they have to laugh about it.

Society also conflates groping with desirability. I feel like people have this mindset that, if you are an old lady, you should appreciate that men still look at you like that or want to grope you, she says.

When it comes to groping and sexual assault, Ogawa and Tabusa believe a real cultural shift will only come when more victims speak out.

First of all, women have to talk about their experience and speak up, Ogawa says.

But at every turn, society tries to stop them.

The reason they cant say [anything] is because theyre ashamed, Ogawa says. And sometimes, if they talk about it, some people think they are just bragging: Ive been groped.

Theyre told its their fault, Ogawa says, theyre accused of looking for sympathy, or, simply silenced by the words: It happens to everyone.
Thousands of Yemeni-American families have been stranded in Djibouti or forced back to Yemen due to Trumps travel ban.

This article has been updated for clarity. Al-Omari visited the US Embassy in Djibouti twice in January, and the translation of what happened in the embassy has been refined. After his familys visa was rejected, there was no appeal. The lawyer that al-Omari approached quoted him $12,000 to take on the entire case.

Nageeb al-Omaris eyebrows are furrowed as he sits on the front steps of his home in the province of Ibb in central Yemen, describing how his daughter, who has a severe mental health condition, had recently been denied a visa to the United States.

Al-Omari, a US citizen, has been trying to get visas for his 11-year-old daughter Shaima  whose severe mental and physical disabilities have been compounded by Yemens civil war  his wife Asma, and two other daughters, Salma, aged 8 and Lamiya, aged 6.

I did all I can; sold everything Ive got and knocked on every door I know, al-Omari says, holding Shaima on his lap, her mouth slightly ajar as she looks up at the morning sun.

The ban has left us with no hope, he tells Al Jazeera in a video call.

Were completely helpless in the middle of this war, he adds, pausing to move the tip of his checkered headdress to shade her eyes from the sun.

Al-Omaris family is among thousands of Yemeni-Americans who have been stranded in Djibouti for months or forced back into war-torn Yemen after being denied visas to travel to the US due to controversial travel restrictions  often referred to as the Muslim ban  implemented by US President Donald Trump.

Unveiled in September, the third version of the ban was allowed to come into full force on December 8, even as it was challenged in courts. It restricts travel for nationals of five Muslim-majority countries  Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen  as well as some individuals from Venezuela and North Korea.

The Trump administration maintains that the restrictions are intended to target countries that inadequately vet prospective migrants to the US and therefore represent a threat to US security. Human rights groups and others argue, however, that it disproportionately targets Muslims.

This week, the Supreme Court will hear final arguments in a challenge to the ban, with a ruling expected in June.

The ban's left us with no hope. We're completely helpless in the middle of this war Nageeb al-Omari, US-Yemeni citizen

For those trying to flee Yemen, these restrictions have come at a considerable cost.

While many families face prolonged waiting times, most visa applications have been rejected, according to families and lawyers who have worked on the applications.

Only about 100 waivers  which allows for case by case assessments of applications that need urgent medical care, or ones where denial would cause undue hardship  were granted between December 2017 and January 2018, according State Department data provided to Reuters news agency.

Al-Omaris family was not one them.

Journey to Djibouti

The 39-year-old father was dividing his time between California, where he worked at a petrol station, and Ibb, where his wife and three daughters had been living, since 2010 when he was granted US citizenship, 13 years after moving to the US.

I was happy for the girls to grow up in Yemen; Shaimas condition was stable and everything was fine, al-Omari tells Al Jazeera.

But after a Saudi-led coalition of Arab states launched a military campaign in 2015 to defeat the Houthi rebels who had taken over Sanaa in 2014, al-Omari decided it was time to bring his family to the US.

Providing Shaima with the healthcare she needed was becoming increasingly difficult. So many doctors had left Yemen, and the medication she depended on was no longer readily available, he explains.

With the US embassy in Sanaa closed since February 2015 because of fighting between Houthi rebels and Saudi-backed forces, al-Omari had to take his family to Djibouti to apply for their visas.





Like many Yemenis who planned to make the journey, al-Omari sold everything he owned and took out loans in the US, incurring thousands of dollars in costs.

I knew I needed a good sum of money for the lawyers and the travelling. I worked day and night to save all I could, he says, recalling that a well-known American lawyer based in Djibouti had quoted him $12,000 to take on his entire case.

Instead, al-Omari sought the help of an immigration advisor based in New York.

Mosheer Fittahey had set up a Facebook page to advise Yemeni migrants to the US on how to proceed.

We were getting thousands of inquiries every day from Yemenis needing help with their visa applications, so I set up this page to help guide as many people as I could, Fittahey tells Al Jazeera by telephone.

When he [al-Omari] reached out, I informed him of the waiver package and told him his chance at getting a visa for his family was higher than others because of Shaimas medical condition.

To get to Djibouti, the family of five first endured a 10-hour journey involving multiple military checkpoints to reach Aden. But the night they arrived on November 5, a Houthi missile launched at Riyadh led to the airport being closed and direct flights from Aden to Djibouti cancelled.

They instead flew to two other destinations  Khartoum, Sudan, and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia  before reaching Djibouti. Each stop added a week to a journey which would have normally involved a mere two-hour flight.

But for al-Omari, Fittaheys words had given him the push he needed: He gave me hope, and all I needed to do is give it my all for the sake of Shaima.

Shaimas medical condition deteriorated dramatically due to the lack of adequate healthcare facilities in Djibouti [Courtesy of Nageeb al-Omari]

Rejection and disappointment

The small Horn of Africa state of Djibouti is now home to more than 40,000 Yemenis who have fled their war-torn country.

Despite Djiboutis own economic struggle, the people and government are making a sincere effort to welcome Yemenis and to consider them a group that could drive significant economic growth for the country.

But with the cost of living in Djibouti extremely high  averaging $4,000 to $5,000 a month for a familys basic needs  many Yemenis have been forced to return to their war-torn country.

When we got to Djibouti, everything became even harder, al-Omari says, recalling renting an empty flat for $1,000 a month and having to furnish it from scratch.

But, according to al-Omari, the most difficult part of Djibouti was the heat coupled with a lack in medical care for Shaima. The extreme heat and lack of medical facilities for Shaima made our lives 10 times harder.

Al-Omaris wife Asma told Al Jazeera that while they were able to smuggle in some of Shaimas medication when it ran out in Yemen, in Djibouti, there was no way to get some of the things she needed.

Shaima had to go for a whole month in Djibouti without one of her medicines, Asma tells Al Jazeera. Her seizures got worse every day. It broke my heart to see her suffer.

Al-Omari visited the US embassy for a second time in January. By then, Shaima had developed an infection in her esophagus and her overall health had deteriorated dramatically.

Shaima was so unwell, she couldnt even eat. We were feeding her through a drip or giving her sips of milk, al-Omari says.

Still, however, in our [al-Omari and his wife] minds, this was the last push before we could provide her with the healthcare she needed.

But the day of the visa interview brought no relief. Although al-Omari had expected the visas to be approved because of Shaimas condition, he was rejected without much deliberation.

Taking into account the provisions of the Proclamation, a waiver will not be granted in your case, the rejection document, seen by Al Jazeera, read.

As soon as I walked through the door of the interview room with Shaima in my arms, the embassy worker returned my papers and informed me the application had been rejected, al-Omari says.

He didnt even take a glance at us. I felt no mercy in him.

When contacted about the case of al-Omari and his family, a US Department of State official told Al Jazeera that it could not comment on individual cases.

The official said consular officers can grant waivers and authorize the issuance of a visa on a case-by-case basis when the applicant demonstrates to the officers satisfaction that: a) denying entry during the suspension period would cause undue hardship; b) his or her entry would not pose a threat to national security or public safety of the United States; and c) his or her entry would be in the national interest.

The ban restricts immigration from countries, which according to the Trump administration, inadequately vet prospective migrants to the US [Ali Owidha/Reuters]

Random selection

According to Fittahey, only a handful of Yemenis have been granted visas in recent months.

After another applicant got rejected, I emailed the consulate on their behalf. One person prepared a 39-page waiver package which the embassy didnt even look at, Fittahey says, explaining that waiver packages could cost up to $6,000 to prepare.

But accordingto Fittahey, the consulate had told him that applicants with medical cases would be the only ones they would consider. He told Omari he had a good chance because of Shaimas situation.

Despite this, Omaris case, whose daughter is ill and disabled, wasnt even considered, I know of cases whove been given visas through the waiver package without qualifying for any of its routes, he adds.

It seems as though the process is quite random and arbitrary.

According to the Department of State, consular officers carefully review each case to determine if the applicant is affected by the Proclamation and, if so, whether the case qualifies for a waiver.

After a few more weeks of waiting in Djibouti after the rejection, it became apparent that al-Omari would have to return to Yemen.

Shaima was slipping away from us. Id spent all the money I had and more. We had no choice but to go back to the war and destruction we tried to escape, he says.

Al-Omaris case was used in briefs to support legal arguments in the case of Hawaii v Trump before the Supreme Court this week.

For Shaimas mother, the expected Supreme Court decision on the ban is the final straw of hope her family can clutch at.

I wish with all my heart that we can get to the US and provide Shaima with the care and attention she needs, Asma says.
IRGC staff changes and talk of the merits of a military president suggest that a coup might be under consideration.

Since the beginning of the year, Iran has witnessed persistent protests. In January, massive demonstrations against the government spread to more than 80 cities in 29 provinces in which at least in 21 people were killed. In early February, dozens of women were arrested for taking off their head scarves and protesting against mandatory veiling in Tehran.

Later the same month, police clashed with members of the Gonabadi Sufi order, which led to five deaths, according to Gonabadi activists, and hundreds arrested. In late March, Arabs staged protests in Khuzestan province after a the national TV excluded their community from a programme about Irans ethnic diversity. Then in April, the security forces cracked down on water shortage protests in Isfahan province. Labour strikes in various cities across the country have also persisted.

Apart from these protests, the Islamic Republic has been facing numerous social-economic and political problems, including a rapidly depreciating currency, worsening droughts and deepening military involvement in Syria. At the same time, the government has not been able to alleviate many of the root causes of these issues.

It is amid these heightened tensions that the possibility of a coup against the current government, whose term expires in 2021, has arisen. There are already some signs that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) could be moving in that direction if Ayatollah Khamenei orders them to do so.

A government losing political capital

There is a growing consensus among Iranian political elites who believe implementing radical reforms is the only solution to these crises. But reforms seem very unlikely since Irans dual political structure is in deadlock.

The elected bodies of the regime, including the president and the parliament are incapable of creating any meaningful change because their powers are limited by the system in place. At the same time, the unelected bodies, including the supreme leader, the judiciary, and security forces, which enjoy vast political powers, believe that it is the governments incompetency that is causing the current problems.

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Any serious reform of the system could undermine the supreme leaders position of power. Since Ayatollah Khamenei was selected as the new supreme leader in 1989, he has had sporadically tumultuous relationships with all the presidents who have served during his tenure, regardless of their ideological leanings. He has shown a deep desire to monopolise power and maintain the status quo. It is a common belief among Iranian observers that as long as Ayatollah Khamenei is in the power, change is unlikely.

At the same time, the political capital Iranian President Hassan Rouhani used to enjoy with the supreme leader has seriously declined. Back in 2013, Ayatollah Khamenei found Rouhani an acceptable candidate for the presidential post because he needed a moderate political figure to reach an agreement with the West over Irans nuclear programme and have the sanctions dropped.

But the escalating political hostility coming out of Washington is hurting the Iranian government, which risks losing its credibility if the US exits the nuclear deal and imposes a new round of sanctions on Iran. Also, Rouhani has gradually become unpopular among Iranians who have lost hope for the possibility of meaningful changes. His new liberal economic policies have already hurt the Iranian poor and lower middle classes.

If the situation gets worse and the stability of the clerical regime is endangered, Ayatollah Khamenei has the power to overthrow Rouhanis administration. Hardliners in the Iranian regime believe that self-reliance and resistance against the hegemonic powers of the West can solve Irans problems. Ayatollah Khamenei could decide that the best plan of action at this time is to remove moderates from power and install hardliners.

Changes in the IRGC and the idea of a military president

As commander-in-chief, Ayatollah Khamenei controls all of Irans armed forces, including the IRGC, the volunteer militia Basij, and Irans military. The IRGC and the Basij are especially loyal to the supreme leader, who has massively invested in them since 1989, when he took office.

In recent months, there have been quite a few unusual changes in the political leadership of these institutions that suggest that Ayatollah Khamenei is preparing the IRGC for a possible mission.

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In early March, Hojjat al-Islam Ali Saidi, who served as Ayatollah Khameneis representative to the IRGC, was appointed as his representative to Irans armed forces. The main functions of the representative is not only to work as the eyes and ears of the supreme leader, but also to justify his orders among military personnel and ensure they will blindly obey them. In his new position, Saidi will control all the ideological and political bureaus in all branches of Irans armed forces. His deputy in the IRGC, Abdullah Haji Sadeghi, a radical cleric and very loyal to the supreme leader, took over his previous position.

Also in March, General Yadollah Javani, another Khamenei loyalist who was previously Saidis adviser, was appointed as the political deputy of the IRGC. Both Saidi and Javani played a key role in the suppression of the 2009 mass protests known as the Green Movement.

What these appointments mean is that Ayatollah Khamenei is strengthening his political grip over the Iranian military so if the time comes for action to be taken, he has the complete obedience of the officer corps.

He seems to be getting the IRGC ready for one of two scenarios: one, in the short term, if the crisis gets worse, the Guard would overthrow Rouhanis administration; two, if the situation stabilises, Rouhani will be allowed to finish his term and thereafter the IRGC would install a military president.

At the same time, over the past few months, a number of outspoken hardliners have started talking about how having a military president could resolve Irans domestic and regional problems. Some have gone as far as suggesting Qassem Suleimani for the position, as well as other IRGC leaders. In 2016, Suleimani rejected suggestions that he would run in the presidential vote of that year; this year, however, polls show he is more popular than Rouhani.

These discussions of the possibility of a military president may aim not only to gauge public opinions towards this idea but perhaps also break its taboo among Iranians.

While it is impossible to predict Ayatollah Khameneis decisions, it is quite likely that in the coming months the crisis in Iran will deepen due to both international and domestic factors, which could prompt the supreme leader to take action against the government.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
Who gave permission to the New York Times to remove thousands of ISIL files from Iraq?

Sinan Antoon is an Iraqi poet and novelist. His latest novel is The Book of Collateral Damage.

Many of the precious objects displayed in the global norths major museums were plundered from their home in the global south. The dubious itinerary and the illegal and unethical practices that facilitated the plunder cannot be found in the laconic texts accompanying these exhibited objects.

The narratives that frame the objects and collections and erase the plunder are usually those of saving and recovering. Oceans away from their homeland, these treasures are often represented as being more at home in their exile in these metropolitan centres of the global north. They are safe and sound here and housed in reputable institutions where scholars and experts, who appreciate and understand their value and history, tend to them and curate popular and very profitable exhibits for the benefit of metropolitan audiences. As if the natives, the rightful owners of these objects, do not deserve them.

Some governments in the global south have been lobbying for years to retrieve some of these cultural treasures, but the process is not so easy and the balance of power is skewed. The tragic irony is that these plundered treasures are at times loaned back to their rightful owners in countries of origin.

The practise of plunder extends beyond archeological treasures and pre-modern relics. Entire archives and collections of important documents are still plundered by foreign institutions (or individuals working with them) and states.

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Iraq is the most salient example, particularly after the Anglo-American invasion of 2003. The United States plundered millions of documents and moved them out of Iraq during its occupation of the country. With the exception of the Iraqi Jewish Archive, which is set to be returned to Iraq in two years, there are no plans to return any of the other collections.

In fact, in the past two years, more documents have been removed from the country, continuing this decades-long plunder. In a recent piece, the New York Times bragged about taking to the US thousands of ISIL documents its journalists snatched from liberated areas in Iraq.

Perhaps one should not be surprised that the newspaper that participated in justifying the 2003 invasion of Iraq does not consider these actions unethical.

A history of plunder

I have written before about the Bath Party Archive (consisting of three million pages) which was plundered by Kanan Makiya, who supported the 2003 invasion, and his Iraq Memory Foundation, which, despite its name, is a Washington-based organisation with no actual presence in Iraq outside the heavily guarded and privileged Green Zone of Baghdad.

In 2005, the US army helped Makiya ship the documents to the US. Despite calls from Saad Eskander, the then Director General of Iraqs National Library and Archive, to return these documents to Iraq, the Iraq Memory Foundation decided otherwise.

In January 2008, the foundation signed an agreement with the Hoover Institution to transfer the documents there. Three months later, the Society of American Archivist (SAA) and the Association of Canadian Archivists (ACA), the worlds largest organisation of archivists , wrote in a statement of its deep concern about [these] records and others obtained by the United States  in actions [that] may be considered an act of pillage, which is specifically forbidden by the 1907 Hague Convention.

The letter stressed that these records must be returned to Iraq to be maintained as part of the official records in the National Library and Archives. But this plundered archive was not returned and sits at the Hoover Institution to this day. Iraqi citizens and Iraqi scholars have no access to this important collection.

The ISIS files

The most recent episode of plunder comes courtesy of the New York Times. On April 4, Rukmini Callimachi, a correspondent for the paper who has been covering the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) and was embedded with Iraqi military units, published a piece called The ISIS files. The piece describes how Callimachi and her team took thousands of ISIL documents that were left behind after its forces were pushed out.

On five trips to battle-scarred Iraq, journalists for The New York Times scoured old Islamic State offices, gathering thousands of files abandoned by the militants as their caliphate crumbled, the article claims.

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Callimachi writes that Iraqi security forces led the way and gave permission to take the documents. However, there is no record, oral or written, of any official permission from the Iraqi army or defence ministry to give these documents away.

The documents are crucial for the countrys history and its future and they belong to the Iraqis. Their removal from Iraq, irrespective of any justification, is a violation of the 1907 Hague Convention.

Iraqis across areas formerly held by ISIL are struggling to rebuild their destroyed cities and to reconstruct their shattered lives. Why have they been deprived of troves of documents containing evidence of crimes committed against them?

It is noteworthy and ironic that the NYT inserted the following into the ISIS files story under the heading Sharing the records:

The New York Times is working to make the trove of ISIS documents publicly available to researchers, scholars, Iraqi officials and anyone else looking to better understand the Islamic State.

How generous of them!

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
Syrian poet Adunis may be at the heart of modern Arabic poetry, yet the Arab Spring has consigned him to irrelevance.
Al Jazeera Media Network has won a Peabody Award for its documentary The Cut, which explores the dangerous and painful practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) in many countries around the world.

Journalist Fatma Naib explored the subject of FGM  the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia  which is also known as cutting. The practice is most prevalent in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, but it also happens in Europe, the United States and Latin America.

It was while making an online documentary for Al Jazeera about female genital mutilation that Naib realised how deeply rooted it is in many cultures.

At least 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone FGM. Besides causing severe pain, it has serious immediate and long-term health consequences, including complications during childbirth and can even lead to death.

Naib welcomed the award and paid homage to all the women in the world affected by FGM.

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I am honoured and humbled to accept this Peabody Award and to join past recipients whom I have long admired. I would like to express my gratitude to the Peabody Award committee for selecting our film and to salute Al Jazeera for giving me the opportunity to cover a topic that is so often ignored and misunderstood, she said.

At the heart of our film was a desire to approach this topic in a deeply personal and non-judgmental way. In Somaliland, Kenya and Sweden, they shared their stories with us. Some showed great bravery by simply talking about a topic widely considered taboo. Others are at the forefront of the grassroots movements leading the fight against female genital mutilation. This award is dedicated to each of them.

Behind the scenes

The production team behind The Cut consisted of Director Lynn Ferguson, Executive Producer Farid Barsoum, Director of Photography Petra Graaf, and Sound Operators Nadine Richardson and Linda Nasstrom. Barkhad Kaariye, a local producer in Somaliland, Gladys Njoroge in Kenya, and Bothina Nasser in Sweden also participated in the project.

Giles Trendle, managing director of Al Jazeera English, said: We are honoured and delighted to receive this leading, prestigious and coveted award for our courageous journalism. As ever, such work is highly collaborative and I wish to congratulate Fatma Naib, our correspondent, for bringing this documentary forward; the executive producer who recognised the importance of tackling this sensitive topic; the filmmaker, the local producers, crew and the film editor who helped bring the story to the screen.

And last but not least, I would like to thank the women we filmed in different countries telling their stories with such courage and candour, said Trendle.

The Peabody Awards honour some of the most influential, illuminating and powerful stories in media. Each year, more than 1,000 entries are evaluated by some 30 committees.

Founded in 1941 and administered by the University of Georgias Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, the Peabody is the oldest award in electronic media and recognises achievements and public service in television, radio and online.

It was the eighth time Al Jazeera English has won a Peabody Award.

Past wins include Faultlines for Haiti in a Time of Cholera and Made in Bangladesh, Sheikh Jarrah, My Neighbourhood, and the networks news coverage of the Arab Spring in 2012.
President Joao Lourenco dismissed the two leaders in connection with ongoing corruption investigation.

Angolan President Joao Lourenco has sacked his countrys army chief and the head of the foreign intelligence agency over corruption allegations.

The move by Lourenco on Monday is the latest against government officials tainted by corruption accusations and those perceived to have close links to former President Jose Eduardo dos Santos.

Last month, General Geraldo Sachipengo Nunda was named by prosecutors as a suspect in an investigation of a scheme to negotiate a fraudulent international credit line of $50bn.

Andre de Oliveira Sango has been the head of the southern African countrys foreign intelligence agency for more than a decade under Dos Santos.

Their sackings were announced in a presidential decree broadcast on the state radio station.

The latest purge comes weeks after the Angolan finance ministry said Jose Filomeno dos Santos, the son of Jose Eduardo dos Santos, planned to siphon off $1.5bn when he ran the oil-rich countrys sovereign wealth fund.

The $1.5bn figure is three times the sum Filomeno dos Santos was initially accused of illegally transferring to a British bank.

The finance ministry said that Filomeno dos Santos disguised the transfer as a project aimed at attracting investment in Angola with the help of a fake guarantee from Credit Suisse.

Luanda said $500m had been transferred to a London bank and that Angola was supposed to make two more such payments.

The first transfer was blocked by UK authorities who suspected foul play.

Filomeno dos Santos was appointed to head the $5bn oil-fuelled sovereign fund by his father in 2013 but was sacked by President Joao Lourenco, who took power in January this year.

Former central bank governor Valter Filipe da Silva, who has been charged alongside Filomeno dos Santos, has promised to cooperate with the authorities.

Filomenos half-sister, Isabel dos Santos, was also sacked from her job as the head of state-owned oil giant Sonangol. Thought to be Africas richest woman, she has denied all allegations against her.

Jose Eduardo dos Santos ruled Angola for 38 years with an iron grip. During his rule, he was accused of running the countrys economy to enrich himself and those around him.
Russia, which build the defective AngoSat-1, will construct a new satellite, scheduled to be launched in 2020.

Angolas first satellite has been officially declared defunct by Russia, which had partially funded the West African nations space project.

The AngoSat-1, a communications satellite built for almost $300m, was launched late December from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Shortly after launch, communication with the device was lost.

Despite restoring contact several days later, the project had several technical issues in the following months, eventually leading to the announcement of its official loss on Monday.

Russia, who built the AngoSat-1 on behalf of Angola, said it would start building a more powerful follow-up satellite at no cost, as per AngoSat-1s insurance policy.

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The new satellite will take about 18 months to build and will launch in 2020, Russias space agency said.

AngoSat-1, Angolas first space project, was scheduled to work for 15 years and was made to improve telecommunications in the African country.

About 50 Angolan aerospace engineers were trained around the world and were supposed to oversee the mission from a control centre in Angola.

In 2017, Angola made public its long-term plans for its space programme, showing ambition for a steady expansion in the coming years.

It is unclear how the failure of AngoSat-1 will affect that multiyear plan.

Angola is one of few sub-Saharan countries with a space programme.

Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa already have several satellites in orbit, for communications to educational projects, as well as satellites tracking the movements of armed groups.
State media report suspect had blocked the sole entrance of the lounge with a motorbike before setting it ablaze.

Police in southern China have arrested a man suspected of starting a blaze in a karaoke lounge that killed 18 people

The suspects arrest on Tuesday came shortly after authorities offered a reward for information on his whereabouts.

The fire in the city of Qingyuan in southeastern China broke out just after midnight in a three-storey building, police said on their official account on Chinas Weibo platform, adding that five people were injured.

The suspect in the arson case, Liu Chunlu  has been successfully captured, the police wrote on Weibo.

A reward of 200,000 yuan (about $31,676) had been offered to anyone who provided information leading to the capture.

The man had blocked the sole entrance of the KTV lounge with a motorbike before setting it ablaze, state broadcaster CCTV said in a Weibo post.

The public security bureau of Qingyuan City said the man had burns on his hips.

It did not provide a motive for the arson, but state broadcaster CCTV reported the suspect had set fire to a karaoke parlour after an argument with others.

Police, fire, health and other departments sent rescuers to the site after receiving a call around half-past midnight about the fire, the Qingyuan police said.

The fire was put out about an hour later, and the injured had been sent to the hospital, the bureau said on its official account on the microblogging site, Sina Weibo.

China frequently suffers deadly fires and industrial accidents, often blamed on negligence.

Authorities in Beijing, the capital, launched a 40-day special operation targeting fire code and building safety violations after an apartment fire last November killed 19 people, almost all migrants.

Last year, police arrested a man suspected of setting fire to a two-storey house in eastern China, killing 22 people. At that time, investigators discovered traces of petrol at the scene of the predawn fire in Jiangsu province and found all the doors of the house locked.

In 2013, a fire at a poultry processing plant in the northeastern province of Jilin led to 121 deaths.
Deadly attacks on Afghan voting centres diminish hope for change

The series of attacks have further dampened hopes for a brighter future and an end to the countrys prolonged conflict.
The sentence comes after Genena claimed to be in possession of documents that could incriminate senior army officials.

An Egyptian military court has sentenced Hisham Genena, the countrys former top auditor, to five years in prison for spreading news that harms the armed forces.

Genena, a top campaign aide to former presidential hopeful Sami Anan, was arrested on February 13 after allegedly threatening in an interview to release documents and evidence of corruption in the armys higher ranks if Anan was harmed in detention.

Anan, a retired army general, had been detained in January, just three days after announcing his short-lived presidential bid.

The trial on Wednesday was contested by Genenas lawyers who argued the case did not fall under the military courts jurisdiction.

According to local media, Anans son accused Genena of slander and was looking to take legal measures against the former chief auditor.

A journalist who interviewed Genena, Moataz Wadnan, was also detained on February 23.

Wadnan  who admitted to conducting the interview  is accused of fabricating statements and belonging to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, charges he has denied.

Military leader

Genena was sacked by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in 2016 for allegedly overstating the extent of corruption in Egypt.

Before his arrest, Genena was attacked on January 27 during a suspected kidnapping attempt, his lawyers said.

Last month, el-Sisi won the presidential elections with 97 percent of the votes, in a vote criticised as a one-man show with no credible opposition.

At least six other candidates pulled out, were prosecuted, or jailed, while only other opponent who ran against el-Sisi was little-known Mousa Mostafa Mousa, who entered the race hours before the deadline and whose party had previously endorsed the president.

El-Sisi is by law the military leader of Egypt, which in 2015 expanded the jurisdiction of army courts to try civilians accused of acts ranging from attacking state facilities to blocking roads.

The practice is seen by critics as another clampdown on dissent by a government that has jailed thousands of Muslim Brotherhood supporters and targeted other activists.
Ex-speaker of parliament Setya Novanto sentenced to 15 years for his role in stealing $170m from public funds.

An Indonesian court has sentenced a former speaker of parliament to 15 years in prison for his role in the theft of $170m from public funds, a victory for anti-corruption police fighting the countrys rampant corruption.

Setya Novanto, who also served as the chairman of the Golkar party, sat impassively as the guilty verdict and sentence were announced at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Tuesday.

Prosecutors said Novanto was among about 80 officials who used the introduction of a $440m electronic identity card system in 2011 and 2012 to steal more than a third of the funds.

During the trial, Novanto denied any wrongdoing while also using his knowledge of the conspiracy to accuse other senior politicians in an unsuccessful attempt to gain leniency as an informant.

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The head of a panel of five judges said Novanto would be fined 500 million rupiah ($36,000) and barred from public office for five years after serving his sentence.

Novanto said he would consider whether to launch an appeal.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has called on US President Donald Trump to uphold the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers, or face severe consequences.

In a televised speech, Rouhani said the Iranian government will react firmly if the White House fails to live up to their commitments under the agreement.

The warning comes weeks in advance of a May 12 deadline for Trump to renew the deal.

The US president has previously said he would scrap the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which he has called the worst deal in history, unless a better option is presented to him.

International leaders have called on Trump to uphold the agreement. On Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron said there was no Plan B if Trump decided to pull out.

Is this agreement perfect and this JCPOA a perfect thing for our relationship with Iran? No. But for nuclear  what do you have? As a better option? I dont see it, Macron said.

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In an interview with US broadcaster CBS aired on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that Iran could consider resuming at much greater speed their nuclear activities if the US were to pull out.

The landmark deal reached in Lausanne, Switzerland in April 2015 with China, Russia, France, Great Britain, Germany and the US offered Iran more than $110bn a year in sanctions relief and a return to the global economy in exchange for halting its drive for a nuclear weapon.

Iran said in the past that it will stay in the deal in case of US withdrawal.
Rome  Italys Supreme Court has rejected an appeal against the seizure of an NGO rescue ship, the Iuventa, impounded in August 2017 following an investigation initiated by the Italian authorities into NGOs in the Mediterranean.

Evidence collected as part of that investigation led to the pre-emptive seizure of the vessel  the only one operated by the small German non-profit Jugend Rettet (youth rescue)  under accusations of abetting illegal migration and collusion with smugglers.

The Iuventa has been held in the port of Trapani since a judge in the western Sicilian city ruled in favour of the prosecutions request for pre-emptive seizure, based on an anti-mafia law and done in order to prevent the alleged crimes from being committed again.

The Iuventa had become the primary target of an investigation, which included the use of an undercover agent, bugging devices, tapped phone calls as well as informant testimonies, into rescue operations in the Mediterranean.

Lawyers filed an appeal against the seizure, questioning the nature of the accusations, as well as Italys jurisdiction on incidents that took place in international waters.

Aiding and abetting illegal migration can carry a prison sentence ranging from five to 15 years, and a fine of 15,000 euros (about $18,300) for each person who has been let in the country. Prosecutors, however, have yet to file official charges against individuals involved in the events in question.

Italys Supreme Court of Cassation will publish an explanatory statement in the coming weeks.

A spokesperson declined Al Jazeeras request for further comment until then.

Members of the Libyan coastguard are seen on their boat after they approached and boarded German NGO Jugend Rettets ship Iuventa during a patrol in September 2016 [Zohra Bensemra/Reuters]

We take note of the decision, but we are waiting for the end of the investigation and have to evaluate possible further action after the court publishes the reasoning behind it, Isabel Grahn, a spokesperson for Jugend Rettet, told Al Jazeera.

We can only speculate, Grahn added.

Its possible there will be accusations. We dont know where the Italian prosecutor stands.

We are devastated by the Courts ruling of today: The IUVENTA will not be free! But we will fight for the right to rescue of people in distress at sea. #freeIUVENTA #Right2Rescue pic.twitter.com/fV03LmATui  Jugend RETTET  IUVENTA (@jugendrettet) April 24, 2018

Tuesdays ruling is a renewed blow for NGOs operating sea rescues in the Mediterranean, after a court in Sicily last week ordered the release of another NGO boat, the Open Arms  one of two vessels run by the Spanish NGO Proactiva. The Open Arms vessel was allowed to leave the port of Pozzallo a month after its crew refused to hand 218 rescued migrants over to the EU and Italy-funded Libyan coastguard.

Italys deal with Libya, aimed at curbing migration across the central Mediterranean route, has been criticised by human rights groups for allowing migrants and refugees to be brought back to a country where they face human rights violations.

NGOs, which filled a gap left at the end of 2014 when Italy and the EU pulled back from sea rescue arguing it encouraged people to risk the crossing, have been accused of facilitating illegal migration. The Italian media and right-wing proponents call the rescue boats sea taxis.

Critics of this argument say that it doesnt consider the push-factors out of Libya  a country that has been marred by a power vacuum and political instability since the fall of Gaddafi in 2011. Numerous reports have emerged of migrants and refugees suffering systematic abuse in Libya, including detention, extortion and forced labour.

While arrivals have decreased  181,436 in 2016 to 119,130 in 2017  data shows that the mortality rate of those who cross from Libya to Italy has risen. According to UNHCR, one in 14 people died crossing from Libya to Italy this year, compared with one in 29 in the same period last year.

A shipwreck last Sunday left 11 dead, bringing to more than 500 the number of people that have died or disappeared while trying to reach Europe this year.

Days before the confiscation of the Iuventa, Jugend Rettet, alongside other rescue organisations, had refused to sign a Code of Conduct passed by the Italian government for NGOs performing rescues in the Mediterranean. The Code, which is not legally binding, included allowing armed judicial police agents onboard.

The number of NGOs operating in the central Mediterranean has decreased dramatically since then.

Allegations and counterinvestigation

The seizure of the Iuventa was ordered based principally on three episodes that took place on September 10, 2016, and in June 18 and 26, 2017.

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According to the Trapani judiciary, these incidents demonstrate that Iuventa crew members had direct contact with Libyan smugglers and operated in coordination with them.

The motivation behind their actions, the prosecutors themselves point out, remained essentially of a humanitarian nature as the crew did not receive money. The preliminary investigation also alleges the crew neglected to destroy the dinghies used by refugees after their rescue, instead, leaving them for smugglers to reuse.

London-based research organisation Forensic Architecture conducted a counterinvestigation and published video reconstructions of the incidents based on photos and videos released by crew members and journalists on board of other vessels that intervened in the rescues in question, as well as taped conversations with the central command and logbooks. The group refuted some of the claims made by the Italian prosecutors, arguing the images that had been circulated by the media had been taken out of context.

What the Italian authorities are doing is completely excessive and doesnt have any legal basis in international law, Violeta Moreno-Lax, told Al Jazeera.

Rescue is not only not a crime, but is necessary under international law. The obligation is to perform rescue, not to abstain from it.

{articleGUID}

Moreno-Lax added that If you analyse the different cases in which the Iuventa has been accused of collusion with traffickers, not only there is no base in the law to qualify that as not being rescue, but you will see that every time they follow the instruction of the IMRCC (Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, making the charges of) facilitation of irregular entry completely illusory.

It banalises what criminal behaviour means, if you call anything and everything migrant smuggling and human trafficking.
Kuwaiti Deputy FM Khaled al-Jarallah says the crisis will destroy the hopes and dreams of the GCC if left unresolved.

Kuwaits deputy foreign minister said the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member-states were determined to resolve the ongoing crisis in the Gulf because not doing so would be destructive to the region, the official KUNA news agency reported on Tuesday.

Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled al-Jarallah who met Qatars foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, on Tuesday discussed the means of solving the crisis.

Everybody realises the longer this division the deeper the wound will be in the Gulf body, he said.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar on June 5, 2017, accusing Doha of supporting terrorism. Qatar rejected the allegations as baseless.

Al-Jarallah warned that the crisis threatened to derail the work of numerous initiatives by the GCC.

This disagreement, if not resolved, will destroy the hopes, dreams and aspirations of the members of the GCC countries in cohesion, unity, harmony and joint GCC action for the benefit of GCC countries, he said.

Unfortunately, since this dispute broke out, several GCC mechanisms have been disrupted with meetings and proposals stalled, al-Jarallah said before adding that the repercussions that can be caused by the continuation of the dispute could affect security in the region, as well as the councils economic ties with other trade blocs around the world.

Al-Jarallah commended the US for its mediation efforts, adding that the circumstances were such that it would be better to wait before holding a joint US-GCC summit.

A Gulf summit that was supposed to take place at the beginning of April in Washington, DC, has been postponed to September.
Authorities announce the arrest of a suspect over the killing of prominent crime journalist Javier Valdez.

Mexican police have detained a suspect in the murder of an internationally acclaimed journalist who reported on the countrys drug trade and organised crime.

Javier Valdez was shot in May 2017 in broad daylight outside the offices of his publication, Riodoce, in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state.

On Monday, the weekly newspaper co-founded by Valdez reported that authorities had arrested 26 year-old male, Heriberto N, whose alias is Koala.

Riodoce also said that Heriberto N was arrested in Tijuana, in the northern-state of Baja California, whilst driving the car used by the gunman in Valdezs killing.

Heriberto N was also described as being tied to organised crime by Riodoce.

Alfonso Prida, secretary of the interior, took to Twitter to congratulate the state forces for the arrest.

He said that federal agents in a joint operation had arrested the presumed (person) responsible for the killing, but provided no details.

Jan-Albert Hootsen, Mexican representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), described the arrest as a welcome step.

In a statement, he also urged the Mexican authorities to identify all those responsible for the killing, including the mastermind.

Too often, investigations into the murders of Mexican journalists stall after low-level suspects have beenarrested, which allows impunity to thrive, said Hootsen.

If they can demonstrate that this is really the killer  well need to know why he did it, what the motive was and who gave the order, Valdezs widow, Griselda told AFP news agency.

In 2011, the New York-based CPJ recognised Valdezs work by presenting him the the Freedom of Expression Award.

In March 2018, the United Nations and AFP launched a new award to recognise journalists who lost their lives to cover human rights abuses in Mexico.

Since 2000, more than 100 journalists have been murdered in Mexico, which was considered the most dangerous place to be a journalist in 2017  ahead of Iraq and Syria  with 14 deaths, according to the International Press Institute.
Unrest in Nicaragua continues with thousands marching against President Ortega a day after he scrapped pension reforms.

Tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in the capital of Nicaragua demanding the resignation of President Daniel Ortega after days of demonstrations in which nearly 30 were killed.

The demonstrators marched in Managua on Monday evening, a day after Ortega backed down on controversial pension reforms that sparked the deadly protests.

Protests broke out on Wednesday, two days after the Nicaraguan government approved a resolution that would increase contributions by workers and employers into the Nicaraguan Institute for Social Security (INSS), while reducing payouts by five percent.

Police were criticised for their heavy-handed response to the protests, and accused of using live ammunition against demonstrators. Hundreds were injured, while dozens of shops in Managua were looted amid the unrest.

In a televised meeting on Sunday evening, Ortega cancelled the reforms. But people continued their protests which for many have now grown into demonstrations against Ortega himself, as well as last weeks crackdown.

On Monday police were kept back from demonstrators, who reportedly shouted Murderers! Murderers! and called for the release of the more than 100 protesters who had been arrested in the days prior.

The protests are the biggest since Ortega, 72, was re-elected in 2007.

The leftist leader is on his third consecutive term and has been accused of nepotism  his wife Rosario Murillo is the vice president  and for undermining democratic institutions to tighten his grip on power.
Activists describe scenes of besieged camp in southern Damascus as Syrian forces attempt to drive ISIL out.

Theres only one thought that comes to Rami al-Sayeds mind when asked to describe an ongoing Syrian government offensive against an ISIL pocket south of the capital, Damascus.

Doomsday, says the 35-year-old. Its like Judgement Day.

Al-Sayed is a former resident of Hajar al-Aswad, one of the neighbourhoods of the besieged Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk which is currently under attack by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russian fighter jets.

Activists say at least 15 civilians have been killed and more than 100 wounded since the fierce push to retake Hajar al-Aswad, Tadamun and Beit Sahem  which make up a considerable chunk of Yarmouk  began on April 19.

Before the Syrian war started in 2011, the camp was home to Syrias largest Palestinian refugee population.

In the years that followed, most of its residents fled to other parts of Syria or neighbouring countries seeking refuge. In 2015 Yarmouk came under the control of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group.

The six-day operation by Syrian government forces and their allies to drive out ISIL fighters has now turned the camp into a ghost town, al-Sayed, who is currently based in the nearby rebel-held town of Yalda, told Al Jazeera on Monday.

No clinics, no doctors, no supplies  its pretty much empty, he added.

People are not able to leave to purchase things they need. If they leave, they have to walk miles before seeing another person in the street; it is that uncommon to see people outside.

Bigger siege

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) estimates that over the past few days some 5,000 Palestinians from Yarmouk have been displaced to Yalda. The agency, which cited reports for the figure, has not been able to provide assistance to the camp since 2015.

Local activists say there have been no formal evacuations, and those who managed to make it to neighbouring Yalda did so under a rebel-brokered agreement.

UNRWA spokesperson Chris Gunness told Al Jazeera that only 1,200 people remain inside Yarmouk, while activists in nearby towns held by rebel factions have given a similar figure.

Yarmouk residents have had little access to the outside world, owing to a lack of cell service and a government-imposed siege in place since 2012. Activists in the area say these obstacles have made documenting the number of people killed and wounded in the camp a daunting task.

The humanitarian situation in Yarmouk is simply indescribable, Ammar al-Midani, one of several Yalda-based activists who work on compiling information from Hajar al-Aswad through their communication with trapped civilians, told Al Jazeera on Monday.

From surface-to-surface missiles to barrel and cluster bombs and mortar fire, simply disastrous, al-Midani said.

At times, al-Midani says activists like him are unable to reach residents who are hiding underground, other times, he says, they manage to get through to their friends and family in the area.

People are terrified, mostly hiding in man-made bunkers. No one is able to reach those in the heart of the camp because of ISILs control of the area  its a new kind of siege.

Since last week, Syrian government forces and their allies have intensified efforts to regain all ground near Damascus.

Besides Yarmouk, their goal is to also drive out fighters from rebel groups Jaish al-Islam and Hayet Tahrir al-Sham, which remain in control of pockets such as the towns of Yalda, Babbila, and al-Qadam  all of which lie south of Damascus and only one kilometre away from Yarmouk.

Palestinian leaderships silence

On Tuesday, government forces launched air raids in Yalda, killing 10 fighters from Jaish al-Islam, according to activists.

Meanwhile, state-news agency SANA said on Tuesday that government forces were targeting ISIL tunnels and trenches in Yarmouk.

According to activists, more than 580 air raids struck Hajar al-Aswad and Tadamun since Thursday evening, the majority of which targeted civilian basements.

On Sunday, Yarmouks only hospital was totally put out of service after being destroyed in an air raid.

Both al-Midani and al-Sayed said the toll of 15 victims so far included only those whose deaths were able to be documented, while others remain unfound, and unaccounted for under the rubble.

Residents of the besieged camp have called on Palestinian leaders, including the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO)  an umbrella of major Palestinian political parties  to help bring relief to the people of Yarmouk.

A journalist based in neighbouring Babbila, who identified himself only as Youssef, said people in the camp are puzzled as to why no one from the Palestinian leadership has spoken out about recent events affecting thousands of Palestinian refugees.

A war on stomachs

The escalation is the latest in a series of devastating episodes to have hit civilians in Yarmouk.

The camp was home to 160,000 Palestinian refugees before 2011. But as Syria slid into war, fighting between rebels and Syrian forces quickly extended to Yarmouk too, with residents paying the price of a deteriorating humanitarian situation.

Residents in Yarmouk line up to receive food supplies in 2014 [AP/UNRWA]

Over the years, the lack of food and medicine amid the siege, coupled with heavy battles  including between rebel groups  and the seizure of the camp by ISIL in 2015, pushed many to negotiate evacuation deals.

Among those forced to leave was Majd al-Masry. Born in the camp, the Palestinian former paramedic is now based in Yalda and among those documenting violations taking place in Yarmouk.

The closure of the camps only lifeline, a corridor that led to Yalda, during the siege was one of the cruelest war tactics, al-Masry said.

A war on stomachs; a war on health; and a psychological war, he said, summarising the three years he witnessed at the camp before leaving in 2015.

Managing attacks from multiple fronts, and diseases like salmonella, kidney failure, typhoid fever, and more  this was my life, al-Masry said.

Annihilation

The Syrian government has since 2015 regained control of the majority of Syria, with opposition groups now restricted to the northern part of the country, namely Idlib province.

It has thus far managed to regain large swaths of land through a series of evacuation deals that usually come amid a military offensive.

On Monday, Syrian state TV reported that government forces were moving to encircle ISIL fighters from the nearby rebel-held suburbs in an attempt to land an evacuation deal or a withdrawal.

Activists Al Jazeera spoke to said the destruction campaign in Yarmouk was a classic tactic employed by the government before such a deal.

Amid similar circumstances earlier this month, the government regained control of Eastern Ghouta, a major Damascus suburb that was once home to 400,000 people.

With the offensive in southern Damascus likely to mark the latest rebel defeat, the balance of power in Syrias war now in its eighth year, keeps tilting in favour of Assad and his allies.

However, activists say the situation in Yarmouk cannot be described as a war.

We cant say this is a war. In war, there are emergency medical teams, hospitals, shelters, a chance for a truce and for safe corridors, al-Sayed said.

But here, its annihilation.
After meeting Trump, a fierce 2015 deal critic, French leader advocates for agreement that will build on current pact.

French President Emmanuel Macron has called for a new Iran nuclear deal that will build on the current agreement with Tehran, following talks with US President Donald Trump.

Macron, speaking on Tuesday at a White House press conference alongside Trump, said the pair held frank discussions on the landmark 2015 pact, which the United States president has previously described as insane.

The agreement between world powers and Tehran, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), eased sanctions on Iran in return for it agreeing that it would not develop nuclear weapons.

We wish from now on to work on a new deal with Iran, Macron, who is on a three-day state visit to the US, said.

Together, and with the powers of the region and Iranian leaders, we need to find a deal. This is the only way to bring about stability.

Any new deal must block all Iranian nuclear activity to 2025, prevent Iran from ever developing nuclear weapons, and contain Tehrans influence in countries throughout the Middle East, including Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, Macron added.

Under the terms of the current agreement, Iran would be able to restart part of its nuclear programme from 2025 onwards as part of a so-called sunset clause.

Al Jazeeras Kimberley Halkett, reporting from Washington, DC, suggested Trump and Macron appeared to have agreed upon a need to expand the initial 2015 agreement.

In the words of Emmanuel Macron, the 2015 agreement would be one pillar of a new and broader deal that would address security concerns beyond 2025, Halkett said.

It would also address the issue that has been of concern for the Trump administration, which they typically refer to as Irans destabilising activity, in other words the influence that Iran has in places such as Lebanon, Yemen and Syria.

Decayed foundations

Trump, who has repeatedly criticised the JCPOA, faces a May 12 deadline to decide whether or not to renew sanctions relief for Iran.

On Tuesday, he said the existing deal has decayed foundations and warned Iran will face big problems if it resumes its suspended nuclear programme.

France and the US agree that Iran cannot be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon and that the regime [in Tehran] must end its support of terrorism, Trump said.

All over, no matter where you go in the Middle East, you see the finger prints of Iran behind problems.

Under US law, the president is required to renew the waiver on sanctions every 120 days. Trump last issued a waiver in January.

In October 2017, Trump refused to recertify that Iran was in compliance with the agreement. This put the fate of the deal in the hands of the US Congress, which had 60 days to decide whether to re-impose sanctions that would have likely killed the deal. The Congress, however, took no action.

Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly certified Irans compliance with the deal.

Iranian reaction

Speaking earlier on Tuesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called on Trump to uphold the deal, or face severe consequences.

In a televised speech, Rouhani said the Iranian government will react firmly if the White House fails to live up to their commitments under the agreement.

Mohammad Javad Zarif, Irans foreign minister, told AP news agency on Tuesday that an American withdrawal from the JCPOA would likely prompt Tehran to take similar action.

If the United States were to withdraw from the nuclear deal, the immediate consequence in all likelihood would be that Iran would reciprocate and withdraw, Zarif said.

There wont be any deal for Iran to stay in.
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To survive the fast-spreading cancerous metastases of the Political Islamic movement, liberal democracies must adopt a wide range of immunotherapeutic methods to inoculate their national cultural, political, and economic systems to withstand aggressive assaults on freedom.

Supporters of the Political Islamic movement invade societies, much like cancerous cells invade the human body. Like cancer, they deceive a nations ill-informed secular liberal vulnerable democratic system by mimicking a society's traditional factions. These stealthy strategies allow them to remain hidden for a long time until, as with cancer, they are difficult to eradicate.

Liberal democratic societies, like normal body cells, fail to recognize the distinction between the healthy, politically different factions of society, and the parasitic Political Islamic invaders, who mimic other civil groups, pretending to be equally harmless elements of the national system. Emulating exceptionally parasitic biological cells, Political Islam's sinister operatives employ a variety of tactics to invade their targets, to undermine social norms, and convert and lure non-Muslims to their cause.

Their disinformation campaigns are often joined by progressive leftist "Human Rights," "Transparency," and "Social Justice" organizations enabled by sympathetic media and politicians. These dangerous campaigns typically are carried out by nongovernmental local and international organizations, such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR); Human Rights Watch; the Muslim Council of Britain, Muslims for Progressive Values; the American Muslim Association; Muslim Advocates; the Islamic Circle of North America; and the Muslim Students Association, to mention but a few. They relentlessly undermine the existing system by decrying and often suing anyone who dares to criticize their activities and expose their agenda to replace tolerant, free societies with Political Islams intolerant, repressive sharia.

Such organizations, like cancerous cells attacking a human body, are tricking liberal democratic societies into thinking that sharia is harmless and compatible with democratic values. Their goal is to force target societies to accept new policies that, if unchallenged, lead to submission, and to a no-border, sharia-ruled global Caliphate.

Unfortunately, political leaders in liberal democracies have promoted the lies of such groups.

For example:

Addressing the Islamic Society of Baltimore on February 3, 2016, former U.S. president Barack Obama declared, it is possible to be faithful to Islam and to be part of a pluralistic society and to believe in democracy.

Also, in 2016, on two occasions, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau insisted on Canadian television: we need to demonstrate that Islam is not incompatible with free and open Western societies." That Islam is not incompatible with the Western secular democracy, a free place like Canada."

Even more insidious indoctrination is taking place in Britain, where the public education system is using the Oxford Teacher Handbook -- compiled by Muslim community leaders -- to advocate sharia and force educational specialists into misleading students. The handbook is used for General Certificate of Secondary Education Religious Studies, which, as the Gatestone Institute revealed, influenced more than 3.5 million students last year.

In Sweden, where there are reportedly some 62 no-go zones -- areas experiencing an alarming rise of violent crimes, including rape and murder, committed mostly by Muslim refugees -- a former Minister of Justice insisted, "Yes, Islam is definitely compatible with democracy.

The willful blindness of those making such absurd claims is mindboggling. Especially when Muslim Leaders are taking steps to contain Islamic rule and separate the Mosque from the State. Why? Because their countries have been terrorized by radical Islamic groups, and their economies and societies have been oppressed by sharia imposed by members of the global subversive Political Islamic movement.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was the first Muslim leader to stand up to the Muslim Brotherhood, which since 1928 has opposed separation between State and Islamic rule, and has done more to spread the lie of Islamic Democracy than any other group. The clear and present threat of Political Islam has been recognized by numerous other Muslim countries. That threat is heightened by the Brotherhood friendly Iranian Islamic regimes subversive activities in Muslim majority countries.

To counter and mitigate sharia influence in Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has adopted dramatic, historic changes in the country: Public music concerts and the screening of movies -- where men and women are allowed to sit together -- are now encouraged by the government. Women are allowed to drive and to own businesses, and oppressive sharia dictates are being purged from school curriculums and books to prevent radical Islamic indoctrination.

The Crown Prince knows his nations enemy. Moreover, he openly warned that Political Islamic groups intend to radicalize Muslim communities in Europe They hope that Europe in 30 years will turn into a Muslim Brotherhood continent, he told the Times, on April 5, 2018.

Using the civil legal system to conduct lawfare by filing frivolous lawsuits to beat entire societies into submission has become an especially useful tool in Political Islams strategic arsenal. And intimidating opponents through economic warfare, or financial jihad, has been quite effective.

Islamist groups are using lawfare to bully and extort a full spectrum of Western industries, institutions, and private companies. Masquerading as civil rights activists in Europe and the United States, they are using lawfare as a powerful tool for financial shakedowns. Their goals are to severely undermine freedom of speech, security standards, and to intimidate citizens. Consequently, people fearing public backlash and false accusations aired by a complicit media often choose not to speak up or resist, even when their own and their customers safety is imperiled. Lawfare has proven to be a useful weapon of extortion for radicals.

To counter this, Congress should adopt a law to combat the wave of frivolous lawsuits by fake civil rights and Islamist organizations.

In addition to levying reimbursement for expenses, including attorney fees, and to give teeth to the law, it should also require a hefty penalty such against such litigants.
The Russians say he did, and while some might say, well, these are the same Russians who helped put together the Steele dossier filled with "salacious and unverified" material, and may once again be playing with us, there is evidence that Brennan, the man who voted for communist Gus Hall for president, did make the trip in March 2016 for purposes unknown:

"It's no secret that Brennan was here," claimed Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov. "But he didn't visit the Foreign Ministry. I know for sure that he met with the Federal Security Service (the successor agency to the Soviet KGB), and someone else." No further remarks clarify what Brennan was allegedly doing in Moscow or what he discussed with the FSB. Syromolotov insists it had nothing to do with Russia's withdrawal from Syria. Sputnik News, a Kremlin-controlled propaganda outlet, quotes CIA Director of Public Affairs Dean Boyd as affirming that Brennan did, in fact, discuss Syria during the visit. "Director Brennan," he allegedly said, "reiterated the US government's consistent support for a genuine political transition in Syria, and the need for [President Bashar] Assad's departure in order to facilitate a transition that reflects the will of the Syrian people."

The website GlobalSecurity.Org goes into somewhat more detail about Brennan's Moscow trip without clearing up confusion about what the purpose of the trip might have been:

News of the CIA chief's visit to the Russian capital was first made public on Monday by a Russian foreign ministry spokesman and subsequently confirmed by the CIA.

"It's no secret that Brennan was here," the Interfax news agency quoted foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Syromolotov as telling journalists in Moscow. He added that the visit was not linked to Moscow's decision to start withdrawing military forces from Syria, which President Vladimir Putin announced on March 14. Dean Boyd, director of the CIA's Office of Public Affairs, confirmed Monday that Brennan visited Moscow. "Director Brennan traveled to Russia in early March to emphasize with Russian officials the importance of Russia and the Assad regime following through on their agreements to implement the cessation of hostilities in Syria," said Boyd. He added that Brennan "also reiterated the U.S. government's consistent support for a genuine political transition in Syria, and the need for Assad's departure in order to facilitate a transition that reflects the will of the Syrian people."

Now, there are plenty of legitimate reasons for a CIA director to make a trip to Moscow, but when a Russian deputy foreign minister says he didn't visit the Foreign Ministry itself but did visit the KGB's successor, the Federal Security Service (FSB), it raises some eyebrows.

Consider that John Brennan is a Trump-hating perjurer who lied to Congress about secret surveillance. He is the crown prince of a Deep State fiefdom that has its own agenda. The end justifies the means in their world, and Brennan may have been up to his eyeballs in developing that "insurance policy" against a Trump victory.

Certainly, he ruthlessly defended his CIA turf. The mind hearkens back to the day when an op-ed in the Washington Post, that right-wing rag, called for Brennan to be fired for conducting illegal surveillance of the Senate Intelligence Committee and then lying about it:

Brennan was asked by NBC's Andrea Mitchell whether the CIA had illegally accessed Senate Intelligence Committee staff computers "to thwart an investigation by the committee into" the agency's past interrogation techniques. The accusation had been made earlier that day by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who said the CIA had "violated the separation-of-powers principles embodied in the United States Constitution." Brennan answered: As far as the allegations of, you know, CIA hacking into, you know, Senate computers, nothing could be further from the truth. I mean, we wouldn't do that. I mean, that's  that's just beyond the  you know, the scope of reason in terms of what we would do. ... And, you know, when the facts come out on this, I think a lot of people who are claiming that there has been this tremendous sort of spying and monitoring and hacking will be proved wrong. (You can see the video of Brennan's answer here.) Now we know that the truth was far different. The Post's Greg Miller reports: CIA Director John O. Brennan has apologized to leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee after an agency investigation determined that its employees improperly searched computers used by committee staff to review classified files on interrogations of prisoners. ... A statement released by the CIA on Tuesday acknowledged that agency employees had searched areas of that computer network that were supposed to be accessible only to committee investigators. Agency employees were attempting to discover how congressional aides had obtained a secret CIA internal report on the interrogation program.

Brennan once proudly admitted that he voted for Communist Party leader Gus Hall and openly supports liars and perjurers like Andrew McCabe, James Clapper, and James Comey. The possibility that he went to Moscow to personally obtain a copy of the dossier and similar material is real. As I wrote here recently, Brennan may have colluded with foreign spies to help Hillary Clinton.

There is another scenario as plausible as the one asserting that Team Trump, and perhaps President Trump himself, colluded with the Russians. It is that John Brennan himself colluded with the Russians to help Hillary win to guarantee his continued tenure as CIA director. It involves the infamous anti-Trump dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele, used by Brenan and others as a pretext for a Trump investigation bonanza. As the American Spectator reported:

An article in the Guardian last week provides more confirmation that John Brennan was the American progenitor of political espionage aimed at defeating Donald Trump. One side did collude with foreign powers to tip the election  Hillary's. Seeking to retain his position as CIA director under Hillary, Brennan teamed up with British spies and Estonian spies to cripple Trump's candidacy. He used their phony intelligence as a pretext for a multi-agency investigation into Trump, which led the FBI to probe a computer server connected to Trump Tower and gave cover to Susan Rice, among other Hillary supporters, to spy on Trump and his people[.] ... The Guardian story is written in a style designed to flatter its sources (they are cast as high-minded whistleblowers), but the upshot of it is devastating for them, nonetheless, and explains why all the criminal leaks against Trump first originated in the British press. According to the story, Brennan got his anti-Trump tips primarily from British spies but also Estonian spies and others. The story confirms that the seed of the espionage into Trump was planted by Estonia. The BBC's Paul Wood reported last year that the intelligence agency of an unnamed Baltic State had tipped Brennan off in April 2016 to a conversation purporting to show that the Kremlin was funneling cash into the Trump campaign. Any other CIA director would have disregarded such a flaky tip, recognizing that Estonia was eager to see Trump lose (its officials had bought into Hillary's propaganda that Trump was going to pull out of NATO and leave Baltic countries exposed to Putin). But Brennan opportunistically seized on it, as he later that summer seized on the half-baked intelligence of British spy agencies (also full of officials who wanted to see Trump lose). The Guardian says that British spy head Robert Hannigan "passed material in summer 2016 to the CIA chief, John Brennan." To ensure that these flaky tips leaked out, Brennan disseminated them on Capitol Hill. In August and September of 2016, he gave briefings to the "Gang of Eight" about them, which then turned up on the front page of the New York Times.

Could it be that Brennan himself is the leaker of classified information and is up to his eyeballs in using foreign sources to gather dirt on President Trump for the purpose of keeping him out of the White House? Brennan's briefing of Sen. Harry Reid, which included information from the Steele dossier, certainly is a key indicator of his participation in the campaign to keep or kick Donald Trump out of the White House:

According to "Russian Roulette," by Yahoo! News chief investigative correspondent Michael Isikoff and David Corn, the Washington bureau chief of the left-wing Mother Jones magazine, Brennan contacted Reid on Aug. 25, 2016, to brief him on the state of Russia's interference in the presidential campaign. Brennan briefed other members of the so-called Gang of Eight, but Reid is the only who took direct action. Two days after the briefing, Reid wrote a letter to then-FBI Director James Comey asserting that "evidence of a direct connection between the Russian government and Donald Trump's presidential campaign continues to mount.

Reid's letter referred to some public reporting about Trump campaign associates' links to the Kremlin, but he also included a reference to information that may not have been made public at the time. He cited allegations that were included in the infamous Steele dossier about Carter Page, an adviser to the Trump campaign at the time.

It would seem that the trip to Russia we should be investigating is not Carter Page's, but rather John Brennan's.

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.

News of the CIA chief's visit to the Russian capital was first made public on Monday by a Russian foreign ministry spokesman and subsequently confirmed by the CIA. "It's no secret that Brennan was here," the Interfax news agency quoted foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Syromolotov as telling journalists in Moscow. He added that the visit was not linked to Moscow's decision to start withdrawing military forces from Syria, which President Vladimir Putin announced on March 14. Dean Boyd, director of the CIA's Office of Public Affairs, confirmed Monday that Brennan visited Moscow. "Director Brennan traveled to Russia in early March to emphasize with Russian officials the importance of Russia and the Assad regime following through on their agreements to implement the cessation of hostilities in Syria," said Boyd. He added that Brennan "also reiterated the U.S. government's consistent support for a genuine political transition in Syria, and the need for Assad's departure in order to facilitate a transition that reflects the will of the Syrian people."

Now, there are plenty of legitimate reasons for a CIA director to make a trip to Moscow, but when a Russian deputy foreign minister says he didn't visit the Foreign Ministry itself but did visit the KGB's successor, the Federal Security Service (FSB), it raises some eyebrows.

Consider that John Brennan is a Trump-hating perjurer who lied to Congress about secret surveillance. He is the crown prince of a Deep State fiefdom that has its own agenda. The end justifies the means in their world, and Brennan may have been up to his eyeballs in developing that "insurance policy" against a Trump victory.

Certainly, he ruthlessly defended his CIA turf. The mind hearkens back to the day when an op-ed in the Washington Post, that right-wing rag, called for Brennan to be fired for conducting illegal surveillance of the Senate Intelligence Committee and then lying about it:

Brennan was asked by NBC's Andrea Mitchell whether the CIA had illegally accessed Senate Intelligence Committee staff computers "to thwart an investigation by the committee into" the agency's past interrogation techniques. The accusation had been made earlier that day by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who said the CIA had "violated the separation-of-powers principles embodied in the United States Constitution." Brennan answered: As far as the allegations of, you know, CIA hacking into, you know, Senate computers, nothing could be further from the truth. I mean, we wouldn't do that. I mean, that's  that's just beyond the  you know, the scope of reason in terms of what we would do. ... And, you know, when the facts come out on this, I think a lot of people who are claiming that there has been this tremendous sort of spying and monitoring and hacking will be proved wrong. (You can see the video of Brennan's answer here.) Now we know that the truth was far different. The Post's Greg Miller reports: CIA Director John O. Brennan has apologized to leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee after an agency investigation determined that its employees improperly searched computers used by committee staff to review classified files on interrogations of prisoners. ... A statement released by the CIA on Tuesday acknowledged that agency employees had searched areas of that computer network that were supposed to be accessible only to committee investigators. Agency employees were attempting to discover how congressional aides had obtained a secret CIA internal report on the interrogation program.

Brennan once proudly admitted that he voted for Communist Party leader Gus Hall and openly supports liars and perjurers like Andrew McCabe, James Clapper, and James Comey. The possibility that he went to Moscow to personally obtain a copy of the dossier and similar material is real. As I wrote here recently, Brennan may have colluded with foreign spies to help Hillary Clinton.

There is another scenario as plausible as the one asserting that Team Trump, and perhaps President Trump himself, colluded with the Russians. It is that John Brennan himself colluded with the Russians to help Hillary win to guarantee his continued tenure as CIA director. It involves the infamous anti-Trump dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele, used by Brenan and others as a pretext for a Trump investigation bonanza. As the American Spectator reported:

An article in the Guardian last week provides more confirmation that John Brennan was the American progenitor of political espionage aimed at defeating Donald Trump. One side did collude with foreign powers to tip the election  Hillary's. Seeking to retain his position as CIA director under Hillary, Brennan teamed up with British spies and Estonian spies to cripple Trump's candidacy. He used their phony intelligence as a pretext for a multi-agency investigation into Trump, which led the FBI to probe a computer server connected to Trump Tower and gave cover to Susan Rice, among other Hillary supporters, to spy on Trump and his people[.] ... The Guardian story is written in a style designed to flatter its sources (they are cast as high-minded whistleblowers), but the upshot of it is devastating for them, nonetheless, and explains why all the criminal leaks against Trump first originated in the British press. According to the story, Brennan got his anti-Trump tips primarily from British spies but also Estonian spies and others. The story confirms that the seed of the espionage into Trump was planted by Estonia. The BBC's Paul Wood reported last year that the intelligence agency of an unnamed Baltic State had tipped Brennan off in April 2016 to a conversation purporting to show that the Kremlin was funneling cash into the Trump campaign. Any other CIA director would have disregarded such a flaky tip, recognizing that Estonia was eager to see Trump lose (its officials had bought into Hillary's propaganda that Trump was going to pull out of NATO and leave Baltic countries exposed to Putin). But Brennan opportunistically seized on it, as he later that summer seized on the half-baked intelligence of British spy agencies (also full of officials who wanted to see Trump lose). The Guardian says that British spy head Robert Hannigan "passed material in summer 2016 to the CIA chief, John Brennan." To ensure that these flaky tips leaked out, Brennan disseminated them on Capitol Hill. In August and September of 2016, he gave briefings to the "Gang of Eight" about them, which then turned up on the front page of the New York Times.

Could it be that Brennan himself is the leaker of classified information and is up to his eyeballs in using foreign sources to gather dirt on President Trump for the purpose of keeping him out of the White House? Brennan's briefing of Sen. Harry Reid, which included information from the Steele dossier, certainly is a key indicator of his participation in the campaign to keep or kick Donald Trump out of the White House:

According to "Russian Roulette," by Yahoo! News chief investigative correspondent Michael Isikoff and David Corn, the Washington bureau chief of the left-wing Mother Jones magazine, Brennan contacted Reid on Aug. 25, 2016, to brief him on the state of Russia's interference in the presidential campaign. Brennan briefed other members of the so-called Gang of Eight, but Reid is the only who took direct action. Two days after the briefing, Reid wrote a letter to then-FBI Director James Comey asserting that "evidence of a direct connection between the Russian government and Donald Trump's presidential campaign continues to mount.

Reid's letter referred to some public reporting about Trump campaign associates' links to the Kremlin, but he also included a reference to information that may not have been made public at the time. He cited allegations that were included in the infamous Steele dossier about Carter Page, an adviser to the Trump campaign at the time.

It would seem that the trip to Russia we should be investigating is not Carter Page's, but rather John Brennan's.

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.
To me, the iconic image of last week was the shot of the black activist yelling through a bullhorn at a pajama-boy Starbucks barista in center city Philadelphia.

There's your white privilege in a nutshell, pal.

But I am worried for our black American friends. See, back in the day, when the race thing was a black and white issue, black Americans were positioned front and center in the liberal morality play of Social Injustice. But now? Well, here in Seattle, we have Brahmin Kshama Sawant from Puna on the City Council and Pramila Jayapal from Chennai, Singapore, and Indonesia taking Baghdad Jim McDermott's seat in Congress. And if you believe this concerned citizen, they have been taking electoral offices away from deserving black Americans.

Don't you black chaps realize that snooty browns are coming in, calling themselves "people of color," and they already ate your breakfast? In fact, the day is clearly coming when the "activist community" is going to dump black Americans by the side of the road as an embarrassment, a vague echo of the past that has nothing to do with today's urgent demand for planet-saving intersectional global justice. That is the fate of all "little darlings" of the ruling class.

What does Enoch Powell have to do with all this? I'm glad you asked. In his "Rivers of Blood" speech, now celebrating its 50th anniversary, Powell told two sob stories. One was the World War II widow running a boarding house in a neighborhood that had now become non-white. The other was the guy who told Powell:

I have three children, all of them been through grammar school and two of them married now, with family. I shan't be satisfied till I have seen them all settled overseas. In this country in 15 or 20 years' time the black man will have the whip hand over the white man.

Oh, Lord, how wrong can a racist sexist homophobe be? It wasn't the black man who would take over, but the Muslim mayor of London and the "South Asian" rape gangs of Rotherham.

By the way, really, nothing has changed. When I was a white-privileged upper-middle-class brat in Britain in the '50s, I certainly understood that the "East End" of London was a no-go area for the likes of me, because of the well known toughs of the white working class. Then, in the sixties, it was the "Mods and Rockers" who terrified all respectable people. Now it's the knife-wielding members of Muslim gangs that are provoking all right-thinking people to call for knife control.

But back to Starbucks. What I get from reading good safe conservative voices like Christopher DeGroot is that the young black Americans in question were asked numerous times to leave, even by the cops, but refused to do so. This, along with everything else wrong with America today, I blame on liberals.

By now, young black males would have integrated into the great American economy and gained the self-respect that all city people  citizens, bourgeois, Burger, call them what you will  develop as they work their way up into the responsible middle class. But they didn't, because liberals taught them "activism," the moral necessity of not taking any racist guff from The Man. So when a young black male finds himself in a center city Starbucks in Philadelphia and asked by some prissy white feminist Starbucks manager to buy something or get out, what do you think he feels honor-bound to do? All that gangsta stuff about "dissin'" and "bitches" and "hos" ain't for nothing, bro.

Meanwhile, the Sawants and the Jayapals of liberal America are cutting into the front of the "activist" line, the Chinese are quietly buying their "just-in-case" homes and businesses in the U.S. and who knows what besides, and the friendly Mexican construction workers are everywhere driving trucks and brandishing power tools like any self-respecting all-American male since the dawn of time.

All I can say to my black American friends is that if you wait fifty years to vote for Trump after the liberals leave you by the side of the road, as the white working class did, you are probably not long for this world.

But where shall blacks go; what shall they do? Whatever the liberals are telling you to do, forget it. Do the opposite.

So if liberals are telling you to yell at the local Starbucks barista through a bullhorn, like Rush Limbaugh's Justice Brothers, don't do it. If liberals tell you to stick it to The Man, don't do it. Or anything else they recommend.

Instead, be like Candace Owen. Or Kanye West.

Christopher Chantrill (@chrischantrill) runs the go-to site on U.S. government finances, usgovernmentspending.com. Also get his American Manifesto and his Road to the Middle Class.
Some people like to posit conspiracy theories: Elvis is still alive; Princess Diana was murdered by British intelligence; the Moon landing was a hoax; Protocols of the Elders of Zion is genuine, not a tsarist forgery. And Adolf Hitler did not kill himself and Eva Braun in his bunker on April 30, 1945, but escaped through a set of secret tunnels and was flown to Denmark, then to Spain, where he was protected by General Francisco Franco, and finally to Argentina.

The world was told by Josef Stalin at the Potsdam Conference of July-August 1945, attended by the Soviet Union, the U.S. (Harry Truman), and the U.K. (Winston Churchill and then Clement Attlee), that Hitler was not dead. This was reinforced by Marshall Georgy Zhukov, at the time commander and military governor of the Soviet Zone in Germany, who declared on June 9, 1945 that "[w]e have found no corpse that could be Hitler's."

Throughout the years after World War II conspiracy theories in German and in English abounded, and various people have claimed to have sighted Hitler, as many claim to have seen the eternal Elvis. They have persisted despite refutation by many reputable historians such as Hugh Trevor Roper (The Last Days of Hitler), Alan Bullock (Hitler: A Study in Tyranny), and Ian Kershaw (Hitler: A Biography). They agree on the daily events. At midnight on April 28, 1945, Hitler married his mistress, Eva Braun, and the register was signed by Joseph Goebbels and Martin Bormann.

The next day, Hitler dictated his political testament on the war: "it will go down in history as the most glorious and heroic manifestation of the people's will to live." A day later, Hitler ended his will to live. He shot himself in the mouth, and Braun took cyanide. Goebbels and his family all committed suicide. Bormann probably killed himself when trapped by Soviet troops while trying to escape, his body unidentified until years later. One important inference from this narrative is that Germany had not been "stabbed in the back," an allegation that had been used by Hitler and others to explain Germany's defeat in World War I. In fact, the Soviet group SMERSH (Death to Spies, three counterintelligence agencies in the Red Army, later fictionalized as the evil opposition in James Bond movies) searched for the body of Hitler, which was found.

A personal version of the truth is now revealed in a remarkable book published in English, The Memories of a War-Time Interpreter, by Yelena Rzhevskaya (original name Kagan), who died on April 1, 2017, aged 97. She was in Berlin, aged 25, at the time when the city was in ruins at the end of the war, while the Red Army was tracking down die-hard Nazi fighters. Her nominal role in counterintelligence was interrogating captured Germans.

To her surprise, she was given by her commanding officer a box that was said to contain Hitler's teeth. A burnt body, thought to be that of Hitler but unrecognizable, had been found by a Red Army soldier, and the jawbone had been removed to provide possible identification. Yelena was given the task, she said, because she was a woman and less likely to get drunk in the heady atmosphere of Berlin and lose the items.

Yelena recounts what is akin to a detective story, examining the fragments of Hitler's jaw to match it with dental records and x-rays. She began tracking down Germans who had information about Hitler's teeth, first one dentist, then a clinic, and then another dentist whose office was in fashionable Kurfurstendamm, where she found the dental records but not the X-rays. Then she finally found the X-rays in another surgery, compared the records with the teeth she had, and concluded they were the same.

In this search, she was helped by a woman named Kathe Heusermann, an assistant in dental surgery to Hitler's dentist, Dr. Hugo Blaschke. Josef Stalin's cruelty needs no further illustration, but this innocent and helpful woman was arrested and deported to the Soviet Union. She was sentenced to a prison term of ten years in a Gulag, six in solitary confinement, because she "voluntarily helped a bourgeois state prolong the war."

Yelena had proved that Hitler had not escaped and was sure that "in a few days the whole world will know we had found the corpse," but she was unaware of the political machinations. The Soviet press spread reports that Hitler was missing. Stalin would not allow the truth of Hitler's death to be known, and it was only at an exhibition in Moscow in 2000, the 55th anniversary of the end of World War II, that Hitler's teeth were put on display.

Stalin was opposed to a policy of detente, thought the Soviet Union "remained in capitalist encirclement," and believed there would be less pressure on the Soviet Union if people thought Hitler was still alive. One implication was that Hitler was hidden in Bavaria, which was part of the U.S. zone of occupation in Germany, and that the U.S. had used Hitler to get in touch with remaining Nazis.

One reason for this belief was Russian suspicion of Operation Sunrise. The Nazis had a plan that after the fall of Berlin, they would continue the war from fortresses in Bavaria where Hitler and other leaders lived. The area had miles of tunnels built in the mountains. Operation Sunrise consisted of negotiations between Allen Dulles and Waffen general Karl Wolff over the surrender of a Germany Army group of about a million located in northern Italy and western Austria. Stalin believed that the plan indicated an anti-Soviet alliance and that the allies had made an agreement to give Hitler safe passage.

The argument still continues, with some believers in the conspiracy that Hitler did not die in the Berlin bunker and even that the dental records may have been faked. But anyone reading Yelena's fascinating and honest book will reject the view that in some way and for some reason the U.S. and allies helped Hitler escape. There was no Western version of the infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939.
Lately, we have been seeing lots of stories about how voters who supported President Trump are moving away from supporting Republicans because of Trump's policies and that they are going to vote for Democrats in the midterm elections. Isn't it amazing that as Trump's approval ratings gradually go up, we get these stories of Republicans running away?

A huge majority of the journalists writing these stories don't like Republicans or Republican policies, and the purpose of the stories is to push Republicans to change their votes instead of inform.

The latest theme is that Republicans are going to lose big, and one of the major storylines being repeated over and over again is that Midwestern farmers will vote against Republicans because of Trump's trade policies.

Are farmers going to go back to Democrats and have their top income tax rate on their farm income raised to 39.6% from 29.6%? Are they going to embrace the party of endless regulations? Would they really give up the tax cuts and the reduced regulations because of temporary tariffs meant to finally pressure China? My guess is most farmers recognize the long-term benefit of Trump's policies and will vote accordingly.

I believe that worldwide demand for soybeans and corn will be the same, and somehow the product will be shipped to other countries and then shipped to China without the tariffs. Have Democrats traditionally been free traders? Here is what the press is reporting:

From his dairy farm in southeastern Nebraska, lifelong Republican Ben Steffen believed Donald Trump meant what he said on the campaign trail about ripping up U.S. trade agreements. So Steffen, who produces milk, beef, soybeans, corn and wheat, wasn't shocked when Trump pulled America out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership pact, began renegotiating NAFTA or announced his intent to impose aluminum and steel tariffs on China that have drawn the threat of retaliatory sanctions on American products. But he is alarmed about the potential costs of Trump's trade agenda to his own operation and the state's economy.

Of course, blue-collar workers will also go back to the party that thought manufacturing jobs were leaving for good with higher regulations and taxes as well as run from the additional jobs created, right?

My guess is some blacks, Hispanics, and women may also move Republican because of more jobs and more money in their pockets. I wonder why the journalists haven't located them for their articles. Instead, they are reporting this sort of thing:

A massive new source of public-opinion research offers fresh insights into the fault lines emerging in Donald Trump's foundation of support. Previously unpublished results from the nonpartisan online-polling firm SurveyMonkey show Trump losing ground over his tumultuous first year not only with the younger voters and white-collar whites who have always been skeptical of him, but also with the blue-collar whites central to his coalition.

Meanwhile Fox News's left-wing commentator, Juan Williams, seems confused about evangelicals standing behind Trump. Does he really believe they should support the party that is for abortion on demand, that wholeheartedly supports with taxpayer money a baby-crunching organization, that rarely supports Israel, that wouldn't move the embassy, that tries to get prayer out of schools and elsewhere, and that doesn't seem to want people to see the Ten Commandments? Democrats also support boys and men in women's restroom and locker facilities and suing the Little Sisters of the Poor for daring to believe that the First Amendment allows them freedom of religion.

Juan Williams talks about evangelicals losing their souls when they support Trump. I believe they are much more likely to lose their souls when they wholeheartedly support politicians who give huge taxpayer subsidies to an organization founded by a woman who believed in eugenics and who wanted abortion to kill mentally and physically disabled babies along with babies of certain races to build a better race.

When it comes to the Stormy Daniels story, it is hard for me to understand the silence from evangelical Christians.

Among endless articles about how Republicans are losing votes from different factions, rarely are there any articles about Democrats losing votes from some of their groups. My guess is that reporters could find quite a few former Democrats who actually like smaller government and capitalism. Since journalists almost uniformly support Democrats' liberal policies, they can't understand anyone being against them.

Democrats should run on their real stances: high taxes, massive regulations, no freedom of choice on health care, abortion on demand, coddling of illegal aliens, sanctuary cities, opposition to voter ID laws, transport of manufacturing jobs overseas, bankrupting of coal companies, blocking of pipelines, and blocking of drilling. They should brag about how strong Democrats have made Washington, D.C. and how many people they have made dependent on government.

They should also brag about giving Russia 20% of America's uranium and not helping Ukraine, as well as building up Iran and coddling Russia so they could help Assad. Red lines are meaningless to Democrats.

Yet Democrats will pretend they are moderates to win seats.

We have been hearing for years how Republicans will need to move left to win, but in the last eight years, they have won over 1,000 seats nationwide while moving generally to more conservative policies.

I look forward to many new Republicans taking over from retiring Republicans. I have always been for turnover and new blood, so change is good. The swamp needs to be drained. The party will not be hurt when congressional leaders such as Jeff Flake, Bob Corker, and others retire. Democrats would be helped if some of their dinosaurs retired instead.

Image: Durbed, Creative Commons SA 3.0.
The leftists at New York magazine are marveling at Bernie Sanders's success at building a media empire. He's getting millions of viewers to his verbally delivered screeds extolling socialism on social media, with no concern for offending advertisers. It's nonsense. What we are seeing is taxpayer-subsidized propaganda to...spread socialism.

Here's how New York reported it:

The Vermont senator, who's been comparing corporate television programming to drugs and accusing it of creating a "nation of morons" since at least 1979  and musing to friends about creating an alternative news outlet for at least as long  has spent the last year and a half building something close to a small network out of his office in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill.

Sanders described it to New York magazine like this:

"My point of view is a very, very different one. My point of view is the corporate media, by definition, is owned by large multinational corporations: their bottom line is to make as much money as they can. They are part of the Establishment. There are issues, there are conflicts of interest in terms of fossil fuel advertising  how they have been very, very weak, in terms of climate change." Needless to say, the content he produces is not sponsored by advertisers.

Now, on the surface, that gushy portrait of Bernie's supposed media wizardry is nothing new. In the past, washed up politicians often would start new careers after a big electoral defeat by taking to the airwaves, sometimes doing better in the press than in politics. Sarah Palin is one such example; Mike Huckabee is another; and there have likely been some Democrats, too.

But none of those people did it at the same time he retained office in politics, and none of them used public funds to do it. Sanders is doing both.

And what he's spreading is socialist propaganda, presumably to eager Millennials and other naifs, whipping them up, getting press time when in the past, his socialist ideas would not have gotten press beyond the Daily Worker.

His claims about not having any concern for advertisers and corporate concerns rings hollow, given that he's not doing his work on zero dollars, only on public dollars, meaning, yours. Like that? It's astonishing that he could be advocating any socialist ideas using public resources, while other political leaders go unheard, but it certainly does express a socialist mentality. Is it any wonder Millennials think Sanders is the cat's meow when all they hear is social media propaganda that spreads socialism?

Why haven't the Senate rule-makers put a stop to this?
The socialist senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, will propose a federal program that would guarantee a job to any American who "needs or wants one."

The proposal would include funding for hundreds of federal programs that would pay $15 an hour and include health benefits.

Fox News:

The Post reported that an early draft of Sanders' plan calls for the government to fund hundreds of projects in categories such as infrastructure, education and the environment. Americans would be entitled to receive a job with one of those projects or receive job training to do so. Sanders, who ran a surprisingly strong campaign for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination and is rumored to be running again in 2020, joins two other rumored presidential contenders who have supported a jobs guarantee or offered guarantee plans of their own. Last week, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. tweeted support for a jobs guarantee, saying it would help "regular Americans who are unemployed and willing to work to better their local community." On Friday, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. announced the Federal Jobs Guarantee Development Act, which would call for the Department of Labor to select up to 15 areas to institute a job guarantee. According to Vox, which first reported on Booker's plan, those jobs would pay the higher of $15 per hour or the prevailing wage and offer paid family leave and health benefits. "The federal jobs guarantee is an idea that demands to be taken seriously," Booker said in a statement. "Creating an employment guarantee would give all Americans a shot at a days work and, by introducing competition into the labor market, raise wages and improve benefits for all workers."

Bernie is going full socialist this time around. He and other leading Democratic contenders for president will not even bother hiding their radicalism.

I'd like to say this would lead to their certain defeat, but the fact that they have come out in the open with these proposals means they have a sense that the time for socialism in America may be coming. Those under the age of 30 would vote for a candidate espousing this program in a minute, largely because they have been conditioned from the beginning of their schooling to accept it. They are too ignorant to know what this means for their personal liberty, and they don't care if it radically alters the character of America.

Are there still enough people who care about what America stands for? I know there are. The problem is that most people have become so cynical about politics that they see no need and have no desire to vote.

So those who would destroy what America has stood for have a distinct advantage. What sounds like "reform" would actually permanently alter the relationship between the governed and the governors. We'd be little better than serfs, wholly dependent on government for our survival.

Sanders, Booker, and Gillibrand are not novice legislators. They are all experienced pols who are thinking seriously about running for president. That they are seriously proposing a federal jobs guarantee indicates that they believe they will get enough votes to win by pushing this plan.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.
In the wake of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting of last February, when the Broward Sheriff's Department stood to one side in fear and trembling while the demented Nikolas Cruz shot up the school (killing 17 people), Broward deputies have found someone they feel secure in trying to intimidate.

This past weekend, Stoneman Douglas student Kyle Kashuv visited a gun range with his father, who wanted to teach him how to shoot. If that name sounds familiar, it should  Kashuv was the odd man out among the shooting survivors, the one who remained pro-Second Amendment despite all pressures to do otherwise. While David Hogg postured in his 1984 Inner Party member suit and the others read their replies from cue cards, Kashuv gave thoughtful, informed replies to leading media questions.

As is typical of the moment, Kashuv memorialized his outing on social media, putting up a number of photos on Twitter. All well and good until he reported to school yesterday.

There he was ordered to the principal's office, where he was met by an armed "school resource officer" (read: school cop), who escorted him to his office and, with the aid of another cop, one sitting behind Kashuv, the other in front (can't be too careful about these 2nd Amendment types, y'know), subjected him to an interrogation regarding why he'd gone shooting, whom he'd gone with, what gun they'd used, and so on. Eventually, yet a third officer appeared, to engage in the customary police practice of asking the exact same questions all over again, interspersed with jeers about Kashuv's support for gun rights. Apparently, no thought was given to the policy that no student should be questioned without a parent present.

The school, along with the "school resource officer collective," or whatever they call it, will claim to be engaged in "zero tolerance," "taking no chances," and "going the extra mile." This is nonsense  what happened with Kashuv is simply virtue-posturing crossed with the ancient cop routine of sandbagging a third party to cover up a mistake. In February, the Broward County force collapsed on the job, cowering as a maniac stalked innocents, and now they seriously think they can make up for it with an elaborate kabuki theater ritual.

We need not worry about Kyle Kashuv, who obviously can handle himself under any circumstances. The police are another matter. As the Nashville Waffle House shooting demonstrated this same weekend, there exists no level of policing in this country, from local to federal, that can adequately differentiate a demented shooter from a law-abiding citizen or show any sign that police know what to do when they find one.

Nor do they care, as long as they have a compliant media and a fanatic liberal establishment to cover for them. And so the long black sabbath rolls on.
At present, James Comey is under DOJ investigation for obstruction of justice, theft of records, and revealing classified information, at the very least.

Against this backdrop, former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe is insisting that Comey knew of his leaks and that there are email and phone records that prove it.

Deputy A.G. Rod Rosenstein is saying history will prove he did the right thing by firing Comey and that the American people do not have all the facts.

Former attorney general Loretta Lynch is asserting that Comey never raised objections regarding the handling of the Hillary Clinton email probe, likely in response to Comey, who referred to "a development still unknown to the American public" regarding Lynch and the probe.

Indeed, Comey's legal woes are dire and likely to get far worse.

So what does Comey do? He decides to channel his inner Weinstein.

When Harvey Weinstein was accused of raping a multitude of women last year, he responded by saying he was going to do three things: 1) give the NRA his full attention, 2) organize a foundation to give scholarships to female directors, and 3) make a movie about Trump.

By responding in this way, Weinstein was signaling to the left, "I am 100% on your side. I will do anything to make up for my past transgressions. Please don't abandon me."

Just like Weinstein last year, Comey is doing the same thing, only with a book instead of a movie.

In his book, Comey likens Trump to a mob boss and says he is morally unfit for office. Comey writes that Trump is shorter than he expected, has smaller hands than him, is orange from tanning beds, and wears ties that are too big. He may even have pee parties with prostitutes, Comey writes.

Then, in an ABC interview posted last Wednesday, Comey announced that he is no longer a Republican. The party's values, you see, aren't in line with his. Comey also disclosed that his wife and four daughters all supported Clinton and then participated in the Women's March after Trump's inauguration.

In effect, Comey is motioning to the left, "I am 100% on your side. I too will happily cover my beautiful brown hair with a vagina hat at any pro-Clinton march. Whatever you want, I will do; just don't abandon me."

Sadly, Comey destroyed himself the second he adopted his Harvey Weinstein Defense.

Comey had one job, just one: to be the "objective" Republican who always saw things the Democrats' way. He was supposed to be the David Brooks of law enforcement, and now he has ruined it all with his pettiness and partisanship.

The left is now mad at Comey because his actions destroyed the credibility of the Mueller investigation, and all because he wanted to get rich. The Clintonites in particular are furious because they still blame him for Hillary's loss.

Finally, the left's social justice warriors are especially indignant that Comey would even consider criticizing an African-American woman.

It's too late. Not even a vagina hat can save Comey now.
n the last millennium, Democrats faked up a controversy designed to discredit Reagan's election that was similar in nature to the whole Russian collusion story Democrats are using today to overturn the last election.

It was called the "October Surprise," and the gist of it was that George Bush had flown in an Air Force SR-71 jet  which could travel more than three times faster than the speed of sound  to Paris to conspire with the Iranians. In return for weapons, the Iranians would hold on to their American hostages until after Reagan was elected.

The Democrats admitted there wasn't a shred of evidence supporting the theory (shades of the whole collusion story), but Democrat Tom Foley said, "Even though there is no evidence, the seriousness of the charge is what matters. The seriousness of the charge mandates that we investigate this."

Bipartisan congressional groups investigated the charge and found no evidence that it was true.

What this tells us is that when modern Democrats lose an election, they will always make up a lie in order to change the election results.

When Reagan won, they came up with the insane idea he'd conspired with the Iranians. The reality was that just as North Korea is now being friendly because it fears Trump but didn't fear Obama, the Iranians released the hostages because they knew that unlike Carter, Reagan would make them pay if they didn't.

When Bush won in 2000, we were told that the election was stolen and that Al Gore had really won Florida  even though all the evidence showed that Al was selectively recounting only Democratic-leaning districts, along with a deliberate effort to exclude ballots from our troops overseas.

For Trump, the Democrats are desperately pushing a fake collusion story. We know it's fake because the congressional investigation said so, because Mueller hasn't found any sign of collusion  which is why he's constantly investigating other things  and because Nunes has told us that there was no actual intelligence about collusion  including no report from Australia  to justify the FISA warrant.

The fact that making up horrendous charges against Republicans when Democrats lose is something they've been doing since the 1980s is even more reason to doubt the absurd charges against Trump.

This is just one more indication that the Democrat politicians and talking heads in the media are fascists at heart. To them, elections count only if they win. If the people reject them, it's okay to lie in order to discredit the will of the people.

You can read more of Tom's rants at his blog, Conversations about the obvious, and feel free to follow him on Twitter.
The past few days have revealed yet more evidence of the failure of one of Vladimir Putin's world-beating whiz-bangs  the S-400 Triumf anti-aircraft system.

The S-400 is a supposedly state-of-the-art SAM system capable of knocking down either aircraft or missiles from treetop level to high altitude. It's a multilayered system featuring four distinct missile types with a maximum range of nearly 250 miles, which means that it dominates the airspace of the eastern Mediterranean littoral. It is considered best in its class, the missile system to beat. Some observers have gone so far to assert that the S-400 threatens to eliminate use of air power over the battlefield.

Russia deployed two S-400s to Syria, the first in late 2015 after a Turkish fighter shot down a Russian SU-24, the second in January of this year. This was generally interpreted as Moscow laying down a marker as to how seriously it took its Syrian alliance. The Russians played this to the hilt, periodically threatening to unleash the S-400 on all comers while utilizing the system as a shield for the activities of forces loyal to Bashar Assad.

The deployment of the S-400 led to serious misgivings and sleepless nights among Western nations, particularly in Israel. This ended with the April 13 strike against Assad's nerve gas industry, when the U.S., Britain, and France fired 105 missiles against targets in Syria. Every last missile hit its target while the mighty S-400, Slayer of Missiles, failed to launch so much as a single SAM in response. (The Syrians fired a number of missiles  perhaps as few as two  after the strike occurred. They hit nothing.)

The immediate Russian reaction was telling  a claim that the S-400 had shot down no fewer than 70 of the attacking missiles, including all of the U.S. models. (Evidently, this line is still being pushed by domestic Russian media.)

Since this claim fell apart under the weight of its own absurdity, a number of other excuses have popped up: that the U.S. cheated by flying missiles over Lebanon (this is something widely known as "tactics") or that the Russians failed to carry out any interceptions out of politeness. Both of these, needless to say, contradict the original Russian claim.

Western think-tank spokesmen have rushed to support these claims:

The logic tree suggests we should avoid any hard conclusions, or be a little too triumphal about our ability to penetrate the S-400.

All the same, further evidence of the failure of the S-400 has appeared with the news that the Russians have rushed a shipment of the S-300 anti-aircraft system to Syria. While the media are playing this up as a potential delivery to the Assad government, the logic tree here suggests that it's an effort by the Russians to bolster their own anti-aircraft assets in the wake of the collapse of the S-400.

The S-300 is a precursor system to the S-400, first deployed in 1979 and nowhere near as advanced, but at least it's known to be able to shoot down targets. While the Russians may have vague notions of turning the system over to the Syrians eventually  where it will shortly be bombed out of existence by Israel  there's little doubt that its primary purpose is to take over from the S-400  one of a long line of Russian super-weapons that somehow just didn't work out.
Like everyone else I know, I grossly underestimated Donald Trump. He was so radically different from any man I'd ever seen in politics, he broke the mold so completely, that I figured he couldn't possibly know what he was doing. He was so strange that I didn't even attempt to get inside his head.

Then not only did he win, but so far he's had the most successful administration since James K. Polk. So I've been trying hard to figure him out for over a year now, and the idea that he'd run for a second term at the age of 74 has always seemed to me to make no sense. I'm only nine months older than he is, and I got to see him up close at a rally in Reno during the campaign. Running for office, and serving as president, is wearing him out. No one understands this better than his wife. His welfare is her chief concern. But the man is a mystery, so who knows?

Today, I finally got a tell. He won't admit it yet, but he will not seek re-election.

Nancy Reagan, like Melania Trump, was the guardian of her husband and his place in history. She did a great job, except in her 1985 choice of a presidential biographer. She picked Edmund Morris, based on his wonderful biography of Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Rex. Her misjudgement resulted in Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan, the worst presidential "biography" ever written.

Melania Trump is determined not to repeat Nancy's mistake, and with a little more than a thousand days left in his term, she has chosen Ronald Kessler* as the official biographer of President Donald Trump. She wants a sympathetic treatment of her husband, herself, and her whole family. President Trump has agreed. This will be a fascinating book, whenever it appears.

Kessler spills the beans to the Daily Caller in this article, "The Real Donald Trump." None of us knew, until now, that Trump was such a nice guy! Or that Melania exercises so much control over him. Kessler's not stupid, and he knows that this is the opportunity of his professional career. Melania had to have loved it. Kessler knows whom he reports to.

In order to avoid weakening himself by becoming a lame duck, Trump will insist that he's running for a second term until the last minute. Don't believe him. It makes no sense, and Melania's actions speak louder than his words.

So our next president might be Mike Pence, or Mike Pompeo, or some other Trump loyalist. But it won't be Donald Trump. We can all get ready for the most interesting post-presidency in American history. Because Donald Trump is one of a kind  an American original.

Fritz Pettyjohn is a retired Alaska state senator who blogs at the Reagan Project and promotes the Mason Amendment to the Constitution.

*An earlier version mis-identified the author of the coming biography, apologies to Glenn Kessler.
When the story broke that the police removed two young black men from a Philadelphia Starbucks, I decided to ignore it. It was just the sort of misunderstanding that happens often enough to be a non-news evident. Well, the part where a proprietor says restrooms are for customers only and asks a non-customer to leave happens fairly often. Usually, the customer  actually, the non-customer  leaves when asked. It is unusual for the police to be involved. But still, not a big deal.

Then Starbucks fired the manager of the store and announced a day of sensitivity training. Nothing out of the ordinary here  it is an unusual day when Starbucks isn't engaged in some form of social sensitivity training. The only interesting question that leaps to my mind is how a company in Washington State knows so much about race relations in the rest of the country. Black Americans are 13.3% of the U.S. population. They are 4.1% in Washington. To be fair, Washington has almost as high a percentage as morally upright California and has twice the percentage of really upright Oregon. How do the folks on the West Coast develop so much sensitivity from so little interpersonal experience?

It's not really a shock that many members of the black community refused to honor Starbucks's contrition. It is no surprise that this unjust discrimination will be monetized. 'The actions of the Starbucks corporation are totally unacceptable," Philadelphia councilman Kenyatta Johnson told protesters Sunday. "We know they said theyre going to move forward and specifically focus on a training that deals with unconscious bias, but thats a one-day training." Johnson added that these young men should not have been the target of "racial profiling."

The lawyer for the young men announced that the company must do more and that there will be mediation between Starbucks and the aggrieved victims. Wish I had thought of that during several similar adventures.

At its heart, this is an opportunity to attack President Trump for similar past transgressions. I'm writing to remind the world of a heartbreaking story: how the company owned by the man who is now our president callously denied bathroom access. This distressing story happened at Trump International Hotel in New York, and it happened to a paying customer. "'I asked them where the bathroom was and he said, 'Right this way, sir,'' ... 'Right this way, sir.' He walked me outside, pointed down the road and said, 'Good luck.'' The man escorted to the exit was Jase Robertson from Duck Dynasty. Jase called it a case of facial profiling.

The event took place in 2013. There were no demonstrations or talk of mediation. In 2018, that would all be different. Today, Jase would be fully briefed on all the benefits of his white privilege.
Like an awful novel, the one about Venezuela is one horrific chapter after another.

The latest is the one about kids and schools. We remind you that the Chavez-Maduro regime, like the Castro dictatorship, has always boasted about free education.

Unfortunately, free education matters little when kids have to worry about eating and surviving.

This is from Reuters:

Thousands of Venezuelan children in Cucuta are not going to school, spending their days alone, following their parents, selling items on the streets or begging. Every day more arrive. About 40,000 Venezuelans were legally entering Colombia each month at the end of 2017, according to Colombian authorities, with thousands more thought to enter illegally. All along the Venezuelan border, towns are struggling to cope. Last week, leaders of Brazil's state of Roraima asked the Supreme Court for permission to close its border temporarily to halt the mass arrival. While many Venezuelans with the means to migrate legally fled years ago, those leaving today are often seeking jobs to send money to families back home. Few seek political asylum. Aid groups and authorities warn poverty plus lack of schooling or daily supervision will push children into the ranks of Colombia's organized crime groups. "If you don't educate a child, you can't correct that. You totally change the trajectory of their life," said Yadira Galeano, Norwegian Refugee Council manager for Colombia's border areas. "Many kids end up being easy subjects for criminal or armed groups."

This story confirms the humanitarian crisis underway in Venezuela, a country with huge oil reserves that was once rather prosperous and stable.

PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
The eSIM collusion probe thats presently said to be targeting Verizon and AT&T is bad news for T-Mobile and Sprint, i.e. their newly renewed merger talks, JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts believe, as reported by Bloomberg. Between the Department of Justice trying to block AT&Ts proposed acquisition of Time Warner as part of an unprecedented antitrust push and the recently disclosed investigation into possibly illegal practices meant to make carrier switching more difficult for consumers, it appears that the United States government is cracking down on the wireless industry harder than ever. T-Mobile and Sprint could hence experience higher scrutiny if they have truly revived their merger talks earlier this month, the analysts wrote in a recent report.

Sprint and T-Mobile have been discussing a tie-up on three separate occasions over the last four years, with their latest talks ending after their parent companies Deutsche Telekom and SoftBank found themselves at a standstill, with both refusing to give up the control of a hypothetical entity that a consolidation would create. Its still unclear what changed in the last five months to prompt them to revive their talks, though the discussions themselves are still said to be in an early phase of development and arent likely to progress in a significant manner until summer.

The concerns about the prospects of a merger attempt expressed by JPMorgans industry watchers have already been raised earlier this month, with the current national consensus being that any tie-up attempt on the part of T-Mobile and Sprint would evolve into a prolonged affair subject to heavy scrutiny from numerous government agencies, including the DOJ, FCC, and the FTC. A merger would allow both companies to continue growing despite the increasingly saturated state of the U.S. wireless market and provide them with more consolidated financial firepower that would allow them to do a better job at matching the investments made by Verizon and AT&T, both of whom still have more subscribers than T-Mobile and Sprint combined.
Facebook started verifying the identities of all parties interested in running political ads through its platform in the United States, the company said Monday, some three weeks after pledging to implement the procedure meant to make sponsored political content on its service more transparent and authentic as the fight against fake news wages on. Page administrators looking to be authorized to run political ads on Facebook will have to present the company with a government-issued ID, as well as their residential mailing address. Every submission will be verified manually, with interested advertisers being mailed a unique access code theyll have to input into Facebook in order to complete the procedure. Advertisers will also have to disclose whos paying for any promotions theyre pushing to Facebook, the company said, without clarifying whether those disclosures will be verified.

The authorization process is initially debuting in the U.S. but is planned to be available on a global level in the future. Advertisers looking to ensure theyre complying with all of Facebooks requirements are encouraged to take a Blueprint Training Course which the company designed specifically for them, with the online service being accessible through the banner below. The overall move is a continuation of Facebooks fight against misinformation started following the 2016 presidential election in the U.S. which saw certain foreign agents attempting to meddle with the countrys democratic process through a systematic proliferation of fake news. This February, U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted thirteen Russian individuals and three Russian entities for seeking to target Americans with foreign propaganda aimed against then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Facebooks issues with misinformation recently took a back seat to the revelation of the Cambridge Analytica scandal which saw an American political consulting firm improperly harvest data of up to 87 million Facebook users in 2014, having later been accused of using that information to aid the Trump campaign during the same election, though it repeatedly dismissed such accusations. Besides verifying political advertisers, Facebook is presently also relying on fact checkers to combat fake news, albeit with limited success, as per its own admission.
Google Search in India has expanded its scope to include job listings from a number of local job portals. A section dedicated to jobs will now appear in the search results of related queries across all platforms Google Search works on, including Search apps for Android and iOS, as well as the actual website. At a recent event in Delhi, Google announced it partnered with dedicated job search engines like Aasaanjobs, LinkedIn, Freshersworld, Headhonchos, and IBM Talent Management Solutions on the initiative. Google Search will aggregate and display all relevant job listings from these organizations to provide job seekers with easier access to such postings without having to visit each website separately. Using its powerful search tool, Google will be able to provide fitting job postings for queries as generic as jobs near me and jobs for freshers, the company said.

With all of its new partners combined, the tech giant has access to over ninety thousand employers in India who currently have over a million job postings. Google has opened its job search platform for all companies, big or small, in the country, ensuring a continuous flow of new listings accessible via Google Search. Job seekers can save listings for later evaluation using the included option and can even enable alerts to get an email update whenever a new relevant job is posted on any of the supported portals. A basic set of information about the job is provided within the search results and clicking on each opens a new window showing detailed information about the selected posting. Numerous filters have also been provided to help users narrow down their search queries and show only the most apposite results. Google vowed to improve the search experience by including more filters and job details in the future, if required.

The company saw a 45-percent surge in job search queries in Q4 2017 and expects the online job market in India to grow significantly over the coming years. The feature was first introduced at Google I/O 2017 but hasnt made its way to the South Asian country until now. Presently, Google wont let users apply for jobs from search results but will redirect them to websites of participating platforms in order to have them complete the process.
Huawei had big plans for the U.S. this year but it all ended up falling apart fairly quickly; instead of celebrating a retail partnership with AT&T that its been planning for the better part of 2017, the firm was met with yet another stateside defeat after the wireless carrier dropped it due to pressure from Washington that still considers the company a national security threat due to its close ties to Beijing. While the development was far from the first sign of U.S. troubles for Huawei, its notable due to how badly Huawei has taken it. Its consumer electronics CEO Richard Yu has been ranting about unfair treatment of the company for months now, both at major trade shows such as CES and MWC and in every media interview in between. At one point, Huaweis communications chief had to step in to distance the firm from Yus comments and try to downplay his little meltdowns as good ol executive passion, albeit with limited success. While one could argue Uncle Sams paranoia is now preventing an ambitious company and a global technology leader from bringing its products and services to the country and benefitting American consumers, a question still worth asking is whether Huawei truly is the blameless victim of American protectionism its painting itself to be?

The U.S. and China arent that different when it comes to networking strategy

To answer that, we first ought to look at why the United States is so opposed to the idea of having the firm run a large-scale business in the country in the first place. While the AT&T episode has been widely reported about and it all comes down to spying accusations, most industry watchers agree that the political efforts to block Huawei from operating in the U.S. have little to do with phones and everything to do with its ambitions to enter the stateside wireless infrastructure market. Right now, the next big thing in the industry is 5G, but Huawei also faced congressional grillings in 2012 when 5G was but a distant idea. Naturally, the fact that a global superpower doesnt want to let a company with ties to one of its main international rivals anywhere near its critical infrastructure is far from unprecedented. Actually, the very reason Huawei managed to grow as much as it did since 1987 is because China had a similar thought  it wanted to stop importing network switches from foreign entities. While Washington isnt that radical and simply wants to limit the wireless equipment used by American companies and agencies to hardware from countries it considers allies, the basic sentiment is the same, and its hypocritical to cry about the government going against the notion of a free market when it comes to systems that could jeopardize the entire country if compromised.

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A nation without its own network infrastructure is like one that lacks its own military, Huawei founder says

Huaweis initial business model was to sell network switches imported from Hong Kong while simultaneously reverse-engineering such solutions, with its business goals hence perfectly aligning with Beijings networking ambitions in the late 20th century. While Chinas researchers usually partnered with foreign experts on trying to develop such technologies, Huawei was largely reverse-engineering them on their own, according to 2006 findings of one Peilei Fan. Its unclear when Huawei and Beijing started actively collaborating, with researcher Eric Harwit claiming a firm communication line between the two was established no later than 1994. That year, Huaweis founder Ren Zhengfei met with Jiang Zemin, then-Chinese President and Secretary General of Chinas Communist Party, having told the political leader that a nation that did not have its own [telephone network] switching equipment was like one that lacked its own military, Mr. Harwit wrote in his 2007 journal article. The head of China is said to have agreed with him, but Beijing and Huawei have already been collaborating at that point, with the Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER) claiming the country received its first state contract in the early 1990s after the Peoples Liberation Army commissioned it to deploy a national telecom network it desperately sought to build a modern military. The PLA didnt want to rely on imported equipment because it considered doing so a national security risk, as per the same source. If that sounds familiar, thats because its pretty much the same reason that U.S. intelligence communities have been citing as the justification for opposing Huaweis U.S. entry even if they lack firm evidence of the company doing anything wrong. It appears the East and the West arent that different after all, at least when it comes to buying critical telecom infrastructure from one another, so why is Huawei crying foul play in the U.S. while enjoying its near-monopoly back home? Simple  hypocrisy.

As to how Huawei managed to win lucrative PLA contracts over state-run Zhongxing Telecom, later known as Zhongxing New Telecommunications Equipment and todays ZTE, nobody ever managed to get to the bottom of that story, with most speculation on the matter coming down to one thing  the fact that Ren used to be a deputy director of the PLAs engineering corp. Regardless, Huaweis status of a national telecom champion was undisputed starting from the second half of the 1990s, with Beijing being open about the fact that the company enjoyed its support, both in terms of loans and contracts. By 1999, Huawei was by far the most profitable telecom company in China, boasting a bottom line of $182 million on nearly $1 billion of revenue. In the meantime, the company started its international expansion, having won its first foreign contract in 1997, a year before it was contracted by IBM for consulting and unspecified network management services, Bloomberg reported more than a decade later. Huawei ended up launching four R&D institutes in the U.S. in 2001 and was generating $552 million from overseas sales in 2002, as per its own disclosure (archived page, original removed between July 9 and October 11 of 2016). After fifteen years of importing network equipment and relying on foreign tech for its critical communications infrastructure, China finally got what it wanted in the early 21st century  its very own telecom giant. Technically not state-run, but domestic, and if later criticism is to be believed, the difference between the two isnt that significant, which is an idea that Huawei has been fighting for twenty years now with limited success, and rightfully so.

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Why collective ownership doesnt really mean anything when you use it as proof you arent a state puppet

The latter point is particularly important given how Huawei still refers to itself as a collective and not a privately owned company, which is misleading at best and alarmingly suspicious at worst. The specifics of its ownership structure remain largely undisclosed, which is one of the main reasons why the U.S. has been repeatedly criticizing it for a lack of transparency; the easiest way to find where ones loyalties lie is to look at who owns them, yet Huawei remains reluctant to discuss such matters. In 2014, the company allowed Financial Times to go through some of its books in an effort to prove its truly owned by its employees, yet the inspection only confirmed that its workers arent actually controlling the firm even though theyre eligible for some cash bonuses based on their holdings and annual profits. While this may sound similar to stock options in the West, it isnt because if you leave Huawei, you also lose all shares of the company, and you cant own any stake in the firm if you arent a Chinese national and an employee in the first place. So, who really owns and controls Huawei? Well, werent you paying attention? Employees do some employees kind of at least so long as they stay with the company and agree to participate in its controlled and never-ending game of would-be capitalism because they arent allowed to go play outside. Confused? So is every U.S. official that ever tried to make sense of this ownership mess. Even if Huawei isnt being controlled by Beijing, its sure doing its best to hide whomever or whatever is behind it.

Huaweis ownership structure is significantly less transparent than even that of ZTE, which is a publicly traded company whose majority stake is held by the Peoples Republic of China. This lack of clarity is notable because the state-owned firm had far fewer issues with selling its devices through U.S. carriers than Huawei did until now. ZTE is still likely done with smartphones in the U.S., though not over spying concerns but whats being described as a systematic lack of respect for the American institutions overseeing its operations. Hmm, where have we heard that before?

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The case of Cisco, or how a patent infringement settlement doesnt mean not guilty

The skepticism about Huaweis trustworthiness isnt exclusive to the government, as numerous U.S. companies also clashed with the Chinese tech giant in the past, most notably due to accusations of intellectual property theft. The first such case was recorded in 2003 when Cisco sued the firm for misappropriating its router source code. The dispute was settled out of court a year later, with Huawei SVP Charles Ding reflecting on the case in 2012 by boldly concluding no infringement was ever found. Cisco SVP General Counsel Mark Chandler didnt take well to that statement, to say the least, having effectively said Ding is lying while publicizing certain parts of the settlement corroborating his claim and calling for the Chinese firm to publish the full neutral expert opinion on the matter that prompted it to settle, with the implication being that the report clearly proves IP theft. Unsurprisingly, Huawei never responded to his request but at least it never tried downplaying the affair as a misunderstanding again and has learned its lesson. Well, for that year, at least.

That time when T-Mobile agreed to sell Huawei phones but ended up filing a trade secret theft lawsuit instead

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While you could write off such an incident to a one-time slip-up, an oops-didnt-mean-to-steal-your-legally-protected-code mistake that we were all surely guilty of at some point, a similar move saw Huawei burn bridges with the only U.S. carrier that was willing to sell its phones in the past several years back  T-Mobile. The Bellevue, Washington-based telecom giant sued the firm in 2014 over trade secret theft, having accused it of stealing designs and even components of its touchscreen testing robot Tappy. While the plaintiff never managed to prove malicious intent, it won the lawsuit last year, with Huawei being found guilty of trade secret theft and ordered to pay $4.8 million in damages. Its difficult to argue theres not a pattern to be observed here, and thats not even accounting for Huaweis IP infringement clashes in other parts of the world such as the Unwired Planet dispute in the United Kingdom that saw the telecom equipment maker win a FRAND injunction against the Chinese company last year.

Given its history of such disputes, the T-Mobile episode appears to be a case of Huawei shooting itself in the foot and destroying its relations with the one U.S. carrier that seems like a perfect fit for its products, with T-Mobiles whole shtick being about surpassing consumer expectations in courageous defiance of other telecoms. What better way to do so than with aggressively priced flagships that are exclusive to your network? If only T-Mobile could find a partner capable of delivering such devices while also not sending unauthorized employees to take pictures of its protected technologies with the goal of reverse-engineering them to develop rivaling solutions while thinking no ones looking, Legere would surely be thrilled.

At least Huaweis product practices are sound, except not really

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Disregarding Huaweis decades-long efforts to obfuscate its ownership structure and the firms many infringement disputes, the companys general product practices were also criticized on numerous occasions, most recently after the revelation that the OEM was soliciting fake reviews of the Mate 10 Pro flagship, asking consumers to leave them on Best Buys online storefront. Following public backlash, Huawei attributed the development to an internal miscommunication, yet Best Buy is now understood to be done with the company entirely. Another year, another bridge burned. Some twelve months back, the company was caught falsely advertising all P10 models as featuring UFS 2.1 memory while also selling models with significantly slower UFS 2.0 and even eMMC 5.1 storage. Huawei first avoided the allegations, then said it was arrogant to do so, then also went back on that mea culpa response and claimed it didnt cheap out on its Android flagship lineup but simply opted to use worse-than-advertised storage in some devices in an effort to  wait for it  diversify its supply chain and make it more reliable. Too bad no one told its marketing department that reliability is what they should have been aiming for that year. While none of these product controversies are any reason for the U.S. to block the firm from doing business in the country and are mostly just ammunition for consumer protection groups and bodies, they do cast doubts over Huaweis repeated claims that its being treated unfairly by the government and lawmakers given how the tech giant itself appears to have a rather distorted understanding of the concept of fair play.

Huawei simply cant win because it all comes down to what if scenarios

Likewise, the last decade revealed a largely unanimous, bipartisan opposition to Huaweis stateside business ambitions on the part of legislators and two radically different administrations. In 2012, Ding testified in front of the House Intelligence Committee about a month before Ciscos top attorney accused him of lying about the aforementioned source code infringement dispute. On that occasion, he said that even if Beijing asked Huawei to provide it with information on some U.S. customer(s), complying with such a request would be corporate suicide. Huaweis more recent statements on the matter suggest its still sticking with that stance, which is rather curious given how it implies that a Chinese company that decides to defy its authoritarian government, a government thats now literally moving to start rating the trustworthiness of its citizens, would, in fact, not be committing corporate suicide.

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At the end of the day, while Huaweis U.S. story is a lengthy and complicated one, the consistent opposition its been facing from stateside lawmakers and regulators for nearly a decade now comes down to one relatively simple notion: its not that Washington is absolutely certain Huawei is actively spying for China given how it cant even figure out who formally owns the company, its that theres no reason to believe Huawei would be able to refuse to spy for China if asked to. With the advent of 5G and the increasingly important role telecommunications are playing in every aspect of our lives, allowing Huawei to do large-scale business in the U.S. is a risk that the government simply doesnt want to even consider, and its not like the firm gave it a lot of reasons to doubt its decision given the countless slip-ups it made and dubious practices it resorted to in recent times.

Ultimately, and as evidenced by the actions of several different American administrations, intelligence communities, and lawmakers from all sides of the political spectrum, Washington doesnt want to enable Huawei because it doesnt want to see the tech giant being forced to choose between the U.S. and China given how a Shenzhen-based company simply cant afford to refuse Beijing, regardless of who owns it and how sincere its global expansion plans are. Cynics would say that even if everything previously claimed about Huawei is true, it ultimately doesnt matter whos allowed to spy on you as an individual consumer  Washington or Beijing  but the U.S. government unsurprisingly isnt basing its domestic and foreign policies based on such stances.
With Huaweis troubles in the U.S. being essentially neverending, so is this recollection of those clashes, disputes, scandals, and controversies. The last update to this archive was made on May 21st, 2019.

Huaweis issues with Washington and its inability to launch a large-scale business in the United States have been widely reported in recent months, but the Chinese tech giants stateside troubles started long before AT&T was pressured to drop its intentions to carry the Mate 10 Pro early this year. Huawei has been on the federal governments radar for nearly a decade now, but to understand what its latest defeat in the U.S. means, one has to look at the past, as the Huawei has been present in the States since 2001 and has been clashing with lawmakers, regulators, and other companies for the majority of its time here.

First legal troubles and the NSAs Operation Shotgiant

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Shortly after Huawei started collaborating with U.S. companies at the turn of the century, the now-telecom giant found itself in legal troubles. In 2003, Cisco Systems accused it of copying its router and network switch source code, thus infringing on its patents. The lawsuit in question was dropped in mid-2004 as part of a settlement that some interpreted as Huaweis de facto admission of guilt, with the defendant agreeing to modify the source code of its devices. Almost nine years later, Huawei reflected on that episode as a non-story, with its SVP Charles Ding saying that at that time, Huawei provided our source code of our products to Cisco for review and the results were that there was not any infringement found and in the end, Cisco withdrew the case. That claim didnt sit well with Cisco SVP General Counsel Mark Chandler who referred to it as a false interpretation, having said he wont even bother with trying to explain the case on his own but will simply present relevant excerpts from the 2004 settlement. The redacted parts of the document he ended up publishing directly point to Huawei being found guilty of infringement during the investigation of Ciscos claims, not in the context of some obscure patents but in the sense that it literally used copy-pasted source code from Ciscos routers. Huawei never responded to Chandlers request to set the record straight and publish the final report of a neutral expert commissioned during the probe that prompted it to settle the lawsuit instead of going to court. The development also made Huawei a powerful enemy which ended up committing significant resources to lobbying against the company with both U.S. regulators and legislators, the Washington Post reported in late 2012.

The NSA started spying on Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei and Chairwoman Sun Yafang in early 2009 as part of Operation Shotgiant, according to a 2014 report from Der Spiegel, with the outlet citing unpublicized documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden. An NSA unit is said to have infiltrated Huaweis network and obtained a list of 1,400 of the companys customers and a broad range of documentation detailing its internal practices such as engineering training and even protected product source code, as well as an extensive email archive, with the spying teams ultimate conclusion being that Huawei poses a unique threat to the U.S. Among the harvested emails were those from Ren and Sun, as per the same report. We currently have good access and so much data that we dont know what to do with it, one NSA official wrote in the leaked document. The NSAs hack was aimed at determining whether Huawei is already capable of intercepting communications as part of so-called SIGINT (signals intelligence) activities but the leak didnt clarify whether any firm evidence of the thereof was found.

Even if Huawei wasnt actively working on spying on its customers through its equipment, the NSA wanted to determine if it would be able to discover backdoors into its devices on its own. Many of our targets communicate over Huawei produced [sic] products, we want to make sure that we know how to exploit these products, one leaked memo reads. The FBI and a White House intelligence coordinator are said to have supported the operation. At the time, Huawei spokesman Bill Plummer said that if the report was true, the irony is that exactly what they are doing to us is what they have always charged that the Chinese are doing through us. The official also added that if such spying activities took place, it should be clear that Huawei is independent and has no unusual ties to any government and that knowledge should be relayed publicly to put an end to an era of mis- and disinformation.

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Capitol Hill-backed accusations of ties to Saddams regime

In mid-August of 2010, eight Republican Senators including current U.S. Attorney General Jefferson Sessions authored a letter addressed to the offices of the Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of Commerce, Director of National Intelligence, and Administrator of General Services, arguing against Huaweis reported bid to become one of Sprint Nextels network equipment suppliers. Allowing that project would have posed substantial risk for U.S. companies and possibly undermine U.S. national security, the lawmakers wrote, pointing to the firms concerning history. Among other things, the Senators referenced reports that Huawei used to supply telecom equipment to Saddam Husseins regime in Iraq, thus possibly conducting a violation of UN trade sanctions. That same network gear may have been used by the regimes armed forces which routinely fired on U.S. military aircraft, the letter reads, concluding that Huawei should be prohibited from doing any kind of business with Washington and other public entities in the U.S.

The Senators said they have been informed of Huaweis preferential status in China, claiming that the company is the preferred provider of products and services of the Peoples Liberation Army, thus being extremely close to Beijing even though it technically isnt a state-run firm, albeit one that was founded by a former deputy director of the PLAs engineering corp. Huawei enjoyed a similar privileged status with Chinas embassies around the world, as per the same letter citing unnamed sources. The communication itself marks one of the first official acknowledgments of Huaweis IP issues on the part of stateside officials, specifically referencing the 2003 episode with Cisco described above as evidence that the Chinese firm has little regard for international law and patents, a sentiment thats still nurtured by the U.S. government to this date.

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The Senators also described Huaweis PLA ties as worrying in the context of Chinas well documented [sic] focus on developing cyber warfare capabilities, citing numerous media and intelligence reports from Australia, India, France, and the United Kingdom. The widely reported loans Huawei was given by the Chinese government allowed it to undercut its competitors and may have even been the basis for the companys Sprint Nextel bid, the letter reads, calling for added regulatory scrutiny of the technology giants operations and  once again  a concentrated effort aimed at preventing Huawei from doing business in the U.S. on any significant scale. Following the agreement of the $20.1 billion SoftBank merger in 2013, Sprint and its new Japanese parent vowed not to use any Huawei-made equipment going forward, House Intelligence Committee chief Mike Rogers told The Washington Post in late March of the same year.

Update [April 25, 2018]: As one source pointed out to AndroidHeadlines, the accusations laid out against Huawei in regards to its alleged imports to Iraq were most likely false and possibly even purposefully misrepresented in the public; As explained in the findings of Sydney-based academic Colin Hawes, the company that was actually involved in supplying the Iraqi regime with telecom equipment was called Hua-Mei (translates to China-America) and was a joint venture of one American firm and China-based Galaxy New Technology controlled by Chinese military personnel which wasnt related to Huawei in any manner. The confusion appears to be stemming from a reporting error first committed by The Wall Street Journal Asia nine years prior to the aforementioned allegations being laid out by U.S. lawmakers in an official capacity.

The 2011 investigation request that backfired, Abraham Lincoln quotes, and 2012 suicide analogies

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In early February of 2011, Huawei USA Chairman Ken Hu sent an open letter to the U.S. government in which it denied all previous spying and security allegations made against the firm, having invited a comprehensive investigation of its corporate operations in order to clear its name. The letter itself was sent in response to Huaweis blocked acquisition of American server company 3Leaf and was written in a narrative style unconventional for corporate communications, citing everyone from Barack Obama to Abraham Lincoln. The values of democracy, freedom, rule of law and human rights in the U.S. are the very values that we at Huawei respect, advocate, and live by, Hu wrote, without clarifying whether he speaks in the name of Huawei USA or Huaweis global operations given how he was also serving as Deputy Chairman of Huawei Technologies at the time, which is a role that he still fills as of today.

At the time, the Chinese company said that a Washington-led and extremely thorough review of its business is the only way to get the federal administration to trust it, a notion which a Capitol Hill committee later referred to as correct as part of a report detailing the findings of the investigation in question. Those findings were published in early October of 2012, having been disclosed in a congressional report that still pointed to Huawei as a potential national security threat and also encompassed ZTE to which it attached the same label. The Committee remains unsatisfied with the level of cooperation and candor provided by each company, U.S. regulators wrote, having said Huawei wasnt forthcoming when it came to providing evidence it isnt controlled by the Chinese government which the U.S. has never considered an ally, at least not in the context of the communist Peoples Republic of China which was only recognized by President Jimmy Carter on January 1, 1979.

The same report also mentioned accusations that the company isnt adhering to U.S. legal obligations or international standards of business behavior, citing interviews with current and former Huawei employees. The legislators said they will refer those concerns to the government for further investigation. The congressional committee acknowledged its findings arent concrete evidence of any wrongdoing on ZTE or Huaweis part but concluded that the risks associated with Huaweis and ZTEs provision of equipment to U.S. critical

infrastructure could undermine core U.S. national-security [sic] interests. As a result, U.S. legislators recommended the government to continue viewing Huaweis network equipment with suspicion and strongly encouraged private companies to keep long-term security risks in mind when considering purchasing its network equipment. Huawei, in particular, must become more transparent and responsive to U.S. legal obligations if it hopes to have any chance of doing large-scale business in the country, the report concluded. Huaweis 2011 investigation request meant to clear its name in the eyes of the U.S. government hence largely backfired. The 3Leaf deal was never completed and the Santa Clara, California-based company immediately went out of business after filing for bankruptcy.

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This was a small deal, but it was a way to teach Huawei a big lesson, CKGSB Professor of Strategy Teng Bingsheng said at the time, adding that 3Leafs technology Huawei was interested in wasnt particularly sensitive but that Washington wanted to clearly communicate the telecom giant has to play by the rules if it wants to do any business in the country, regardless of the scale its aiming for. Huawei said its disappointed with the development at that time, pointing to the September congressional hearing of its SVP Charles Ding who said accepting and Beijing-issued request to provide China with information on its U.S. customers would be nothing short of a corporate suicide. Committee Chairman Mike Rogers wasnt convinced by that and other answers provided by Ding, having said hes also a little disappointed with the outcome of the hearing due to numerous inconsistencies, concluding that he was hoping for a little more transparency on Huaweis part.

A week after the publication of the October 2012 report that claimed Huawei remains a national security threat, Reuters reported that the 18-month investigation ordered by President Obamas White House yielded no clear evidence that Huawei is in any way spying on behalf of Beijing or has done so in the past, having provided previously undisclosed details on the matter. The probe labeled the company as a security threat due to a number of vulnerabilities discovered in its networking gear, as per the same source. The report didnt clarify where the security flaws discovered by investigators were thought to exist by design, i.e. were intentionally left in the infrastructure for someone like China to exploit, or if their presence was simply an oversight. We knew certain parts of government really wanted [Huawei to be found guilty of spying] we would have found it [the evidence] if it were there, one source involved in the investigation told Reuters at the time. Regardless of Huaweis intentions, the reviewers were highly concerned about the aforementioned security flaws, of which there were said to be many. We found it [Huaweis source code] riddled with holes, one insider who participated in the investigation said, adding that Huaweis programming appeared to have been much more vulnerable than network device software from the firms rivals. The Chinese company repeatedly denied such accusations, claiming its offerings arent more susceptible to hacking attacks than those of competing vendors and adding that any security flaws discovered in its solutions are always addressed in a timely manner and will continue being handled as such in the future.

The White House-ordered probe is understood to have encompassed exhaustive interviews with representatives of close to 1,000 companies who purchased networking equipment from Huawei in the past, with two sources cited by Reuters claiming Washington wasnt as concerned about Huawei spying for China in the past as much as it was worried about the companys ability to do so in the future, undetected and undisturbed. If the Chinese government approached them, why would they say no [to spying for Beijing], given their system, rhetorically asked ex-CIA analyst Chris Johnson at the time. That sentiment combined with Huaweis past dealings with Beijing outlined above didnt just carry over to the coming years but arguably became more pronounced as time went on, with the U.S. becoming more adamant to take concrete legislative measures preventing Huaweis stateside growth ever since.

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Obamas 2013 bill and that time when Huawei told a four-star general its time to put up or shut up

One such move was made in late March of 2013, less than half a year after the publication of the congressional report which labeled Huawei as a national security threat despite discovering no evidence of foul play. Back then, President Barack Obama signed a funding bill that both prevented a government shutdown and introduced a provision requiring an in-depth review of any Chinese technology that any given federal agency considers purchasing. Such probes would be aimed at determining the risk of cyber-espionage or sabotage posed by systems from companies that are owned, directed, or subsidized by China. According to Stewart Baker, former Department of Homeland Security official who served under President George Bush, the provision was aimed at fighting off Chinas growing influence in the tech segment and was targeting all companies from the Far Eastern country, Huawei included.

In the summer of the same year, former CIA and NSA chief Michael Hayden told the Australian Financial Review (archived version of the page, original deleted between March 13 and April 1 of 2015 for unknown reasons, AFR hasnt responded to a clarification request) that Huawei poses a significant security risk to both the U.S. and Australia, adding that intelligence agencies in the West have evidence that the company already provided Beijing with sensitive information regarding foreign telecommunications systems in whose deployment it participated. The comments given in mid-July of 2013 marked the first occasion on which any Western government official  former or current  said theres hard evidence implicating Huawei as one of Chinas spies. Huawei Global Security Officer John Suffolk dismissed the remarks as defamatory and called for Hayden and anyone else who agrees with him to present the supposed spying evidence publicly. Its time to put up or shut up, Suffolk said in a statement provided to Chinas Sina.

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General Hayden remained adamant its simply not acceptable for Huawei to be creating the backbone of the domestic telecommunications network, period. The four-star General was leading the NSA over a six-year period ending in 2005, after which he had a three-year stint as the head of the CIA. He wasnt with the Maryland-based agency at the time it allegedly conducted Operation Shotgiant. Australia itself blocked Huawei from bidding for its national broadband network buildout contract in 2011, with Haydens AFR interview implying that decision was a wise move on Canberras part.

Corporate espionage lawsuit from T-Mobile

T-Mobile sued Huawei in 2014 over alleged misappropriation of its trade secrets stemming from corporate espionage, having accused the company of stealing the design for Tappy, a robot it created in 2007 to test touchscreen performance of smartphones. The wireless carrier said the theft happened in 2012 and 2013, with two Huawei employees taking pictures and components of the robot while visiting one of the firms facilities in Bellevue, Washington. The case saw T-Mobile drop all Huawei-made devices from its portfolio, went to trial a year later, and ultimately resulted in a loss for Huawei, with the company being found guilty of misappropriation in mid-2017, albeit without any malicious intent being proven. As a result, Huawei ended up paying only $4.8 million in damages instead of half a billion dollars T-Mobile originally demanded.

2017, the year of behind-the-scenes work

Save for the resolution of the T-Mobile lawsuit, Huawei had no direct U.S. confrontations in 2017, but last year was important for the companys stateside operations in the context of how it was meant to set the stage for its grand American smartphone launch of 2018, the one that never ended up happening; after offering some value-oriented models through Amazon and Best Buy, and its subsidiary Honor doing the same in previous years, the company introduced its first Android flagship officially aimed at the U.S., having unveiled it in the form of the Mate 9 in early 2017 (the international model was announced in late 2016). Without backing from a major wireless carrier, the handset didnt set any sales records in the States and is still being offered by both Best Buy and Amazon as of April 2018. Still, a quiet U.S. year didnt necessarily mean a bad one for Huawei, a company that at this point endured close to a decade of questionings and fending off what it repeatedly deemed were groundless allegations about its ties to China. That state of affairs is likely what prompted it to make a bold move and come closer than ever to agreeing to a retail partnership with a major mobile service provider in the country; while 2017 was a relatively quiet year for Huawei in terms of consumer-facing announcements in the U.S., it was one of its busiest to date in regards to behind-the-scenes work that went into funneling its stateside ambitions.

AT&T and Huawei agreed to collaborate on a smartphone launch in principle no later than early August of 2017, The Information reported at the time, citing sources that claimed the duo will finalize their retail agreement once they address all technical hurdles and specify the commercial terms of releasing the upcoming Mate 10 series through the second-largest wireless carrier in the U.S. The partnership would have given Huawei a major entry point in the country where two-thirds of all annual smartphone sales go through mobile service providers. Later that month, Huawei said its cutting its U.S. workforce by approximately two-percent, which amounted to some 20 positions, though the move isnt believed to have been related to its rocky relationship with Washington. The OEM said as much, having confirmed its stateside business isnt going anywhere despite a small number of reports speculating the opposite.

While the negotiations with AT&T reportedly dragged on longer than expected and were still described as being in early stages as of mid-December, Huaweis bold attempt may have given courage to Xiaomi, another ambitious OEM from China with less Beijing-related baggage, Bloomberg reported in late 2017, claiming the Chinese startup also approached AT&T regarding a potential retail partnership and adding that both Huawei and Xiaomi are also in the process of negotiating a similar agreement with Verizon, the nations largest wireless carrier. Later that same month, Huawei Consumer Business Group Yu Chengdong (Richard Yu) told ABC News that the company will launch its 2018 Android flagships through U.S. carriers, implying talks with numerous operators arent just in the works but have essentially progressed to the point of no backing down. For the first time in a long while and following nearly a decade of enduring hostilities from Washington, Huaweis stateside prospects were finally looking up

So close, yet so far away in 2018

 and then 2018 came. While no new reports on a potential Verizon partnership emerged in the meantime, the AT&T deal was widely expected to be officially announced at CES 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Reports from January suggested thats precisely what was to be the case, except the January 9 announcement never happened because AT&T backed off at the last minute, The Wall Street Journal reported, leaving Huaweis Yu on its own on to give what some perceived as one of the most emotional speeches made in the history of the 50-year-old trade show, also the worlds largest happening of its kind. On January 9, Yu spent some 25 minutes detailing the new Mate 10 lineup on stage at CES 2018, then ended up going off script for the next five minutes, effectively confirming reports about the unexpected collapse of the AT&T deal, referring to the development as a big loss for both Huawei and the American people. Consumers dont have the best choice following early 2018 developments because everybody knows that in the U.S. market over-90 percent of smartphones are sold by carrier channels, Yu said in Las Vegas.

In the immediate aftermath of the AT&T episode, Republican House Representatives Michael Conaway and Liz Cheney introduced a bill meant to block the U.S. government from using Huawei and ZTE-made network equipment. Less than a month later, another two Republicans  Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton and Florida Senator Marco Rubio  presented a similar bill, with their initial draft being aimed at preventing all federal agencies from procuring or obtaining, renewing or extending a contract to obtain or procure, or entering into a contract with any telecom company that uses any kind of technology from Huawei and ZTE, as well as any entity believed to be owned or otherwise controlled by China. The Defending U.S. Government Communications Act has yet to be voted on by the Senate, after which it will also have to pass through the House of Representatives, both of which presently have a Republican majority. China hasnt reacted to the February bill but said the January one will harm Beijing-Washington relations,

A week following CES 2018, Reuters reported that Capitol Hill is still pushing AT&T to cut all of its other ties to Huawei, signaling it isnt pleased with just preventing the firm from selling its smartphones to American consumers on a significant scale. Shortly afterward, Verizon ended all talks over a potential partnership with Huawei as well, Bloomberg reported in late January, claiming the countrys largest wireless carrier also caved in to pressure from Washington.

This February, six U.S. intelligence chiefs including directors of the FBI, NSA, and the CIA warned the American public against buying Huawei devices, claiming the firms smartphones could be used for spying. FBI Director Chris Wray testified that any company or entity that is beholden to foreign governments that dont share our values shouldnt be allowed to play an important role in the stateside telecom sector, especially at a time when contemporary communications are gradually being integrated into every aspect of peoples everyday lives as is now the case with the advent of 5G. The top intelligence officials said they personally wouldnt use Huawei devices nor would they recommend them to anyone, having reiterated those claims in the context of ZTE-made products.

Later that same month, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull received warnings from both the FBI and NSA not to use Huaweis equipment for deploying 5G networks in the country less Canberra risks having its critical infrastructure breached, AFR reported. While Australias aforementioned decision to block Huaweis NBN tender offer in 2011 stood, the countrys second-largest telecom firm Optus said it will collaborate with the Chinese firm on 5G deployment in early February, having later dismissed the security concerns about Huawei by stating it rigorously tests all equipment provided to it. As things stand right now, the companys experimental 5G network will launch in Australia in early 2019 despite the protests from the U.S. intelligence community. Besides Australia, the U.S. has recently been warning its other allies such as South Korea and Canada to stay clear of Huaweis equipment, whereas Bell Canada, Orange, and even the Christian Democratic Union of Germany came in Huaweis defense several weeks prior to that development, joining the company in its claims that the U.S. never presented the global public with any credible evidence that Huawei does Chinas bidding and spies for Beijing.

In the meantime, Yu took to Barcelona, Spain-based MWC 2018 to once again criticize Washington for blocking Huawei due to what he believes is fear that the company is technologically superior to its U.S. rivals, with the OEMs SVP and communications head Chen Lifang distancing the firm from its CEOs comments following that episode. Its not right to blame the other party for not accepting us, we can only try harder, maintain our openness and transparency and wait until the other party is willing to communicate, Chen said in a statement provided to South China Morning Post in late February, indicating the tech giant may be looking to change its approach to handling the issue and begin that transition by having Yu tone down his comments of the matter. Regardless of whether that was the plan, the CEOs silence didnt last for long.

Following those developments, Best Buy decided to give up on Huawei-made products in their entirety, according to reports from late March, with industry sources claiming the retailer will only continue selling the firms offerings while its existing stock lasts, adding that its Huawei inventory is likely to be depleted by the end of spring, if not sooner. While some industry watchers interpreted the alleged decision as Best Buys attempt to score some PR points while dropping Huawei is supposedly seen as a patriotic thing to do in the United States, the development may have also been related to accusations that the Chinese phone maker solicited fake reviews of the Mate 10 Pro on Best Buys website a month earlier. The phone maker firmly denied that notion and attributed it to an internal miscommunication, having claimed that one of its community managers wrongly asked for Best Buy reviews from beta testers as part of a post published in a private Facebook group instead of asking for direct feedback on the device. Huawei-made products can still be purchased from Best Buy as of early April and neither party has confirmed the widespread claims about their relationship ending that were separately reported by Reuters, CNET, and CNN, with all three citing sources familiar with the situation.

In an emailed statement provided to CNET in late March, Yu said Huawei remains committed to earning the trust of U.S. consumers and regulators in spite of groundless accusations, having once again delivered a more aggressive corporate message than the one his colleague Chen sent in late February. All suspicions raised by the U.S. in this and previous years are quite frankly unfair, Yu said. According to the firms consolidated financial report for 2017, its Americas unit shrunk by 10.9-percent over the course of the last year, and while Huawei largely attributed that decline to a spending decrease in Latin America, it would have presumably been able to combat it if the U.S. was more acceptive of its wireless offerings. Its inability to enter the stateside smartphone market with a high-end product sold by a carrier is a massive blow to its global ambitions, with recent research from GfK noting that despite the fact North America accounted for less than 14-percent of global phone sales in 2017 in terms of moved units, its share of global revenue was closer to 18-percent over the same period. In other words, the average selling price of handsets in North America is significantly larger than in most other markets, amounting to $417, only behind Western Europe ($446) and Developed Asia ($645). For added context, the population of developed parts of Asia amounts to just over 243 million, whereas Western Europe has just under 400 million people, as per 2016 data. With close to 326 million nationals as of last year, the United States is hence one of the worlds largest flagship smartphone markets, hence representing one of the most attractive opportunities for Huaweis P and Mate lineups if it wasnt for regulatory issues.

The Federal Communications Commission is now looking to limit the use of its Universal Service Fund with the goal of avoiding any scenario in which such resources are utilized to support companies which may pose a national security risk to either the U.S. communications networks or its telecom supply chain, the agency said late last month as part of a release that was widely interpreted as targeting Huawei and ZTE despite the fact that it directly references neither. Earlier this year, Congress is already said to have asked the FCC to investigate Huaweis stateside ambitions but its presently unclear whether the regulators March proposal is related to that request which was initially reported by Bloomberg but never confirmed.

Some analysts are now speculating Huaweis recent statements about not giving up on the U.S. wont amount to much in practice, predicting the company will almost certainly shift its resources to Europe which has historically been much more receptive of its products. As the Shenzhen-based tech juggernaut already pledged to invest over $4 billion in the UK, those predictions are already standing on some factual ground. A Reuters-conducted analysis of Huaweis recent financial disclosures also shows the tech giant is apparently rethinking its U.S. lobbying efforts and is now looking to promote its brand in a less direct manner, i.e. by lowering the amount of cash it spends on actual lobbyists and refocusing on sponsoring telecom events, competitions, and similar happenings. While that strategy shift may not result in decreased spending on corporate promotions and could even have an opposite effect, it should and already is lowering Huaweis financial commitments that must be disclosed as lobbying in accordance with applicable laws. Huaweis U.S. future now appears to be less clear than ever, especially as the firm is now understood to be conducting layoffs across the board in the country and has even parted ways with its long-time Washington-based advocate and external affairs chief William Plummer.

Update [December 6, 2018]: Huawei CFO was arrested in Canada based on a U.S. warrant stemming from an investigation into an alleged banking scheme devised as part of a conspiracy to violate stateside trade sanctions imposed on Iran.

Update [January 8, 2019]: Meng Wanzhou, Huaweis 46-year-old CFO and one of Mr. Rens three children, is reportedly accused of misrepresenting the firms relations with two companies operating in the Middle East, both of which are defunct as of today and are believed to have essentially acted as the conglomerates fronts. Shes been released on bail amounting to the equivalent of around $7.5 million and is already fighting her extradition attempt even though the Justice Department has yet to formally file it.

Update [January 11, 2019]: A Huawei executive has been arrested in Poland along with a Warsaw official, with the duo being accused of international espionage on behalf of Beijing.

Update [January 24, 2019]: Amid all of these controversies, one of the companys marketing teams decided its a good idea to try stealing a copyrighted song for a globally aired advertisement. The ad aired backed by the EDM track in question, with Huawei getting caught immediately.

Update [January 28, 2019]: The DOJ charged Ms. Meng, several Huawei officials, an two of its subsidiaries on thirteen counts of criminal activity. She is facing decades in prison if extradited.

Update [January 30, 2019]: The newly filed lawsuit comes with materials yielding some truly incredible insight into select Huawei employees. The federal prosecution prepared countless documents while building the case against one of the worlds richest firms. The assets include a lengthy set of ridiculously incriminating e-mails proving select management structures at the company were truly pushing for T-Mobiles robot Tappy to be stolen, copied, or memorized for subsequent copying by any means necessary.

Update [February 6, 2019]: Germany is moving to stop Huawei in its 5G tracks by following the Australian model, local media reports, adding that the plan is still being considered but generally speaking, Berlin doesnt want Huawei anywhere near its critical 5G infrastructure.

Update [February 8, 2019]: Huawei is trying to resolve the incident in Poland with money, having publicly offered cybersecurity investments in exchange for the situation to be resolved. The arrested official in question has been fired, with the firm insisting it had no knowledge of his actions and has no evidence of any wrongdoing on his part.

Update [February 13, 2019]: The sheer volume of cybersecurity accusations against Huawei reached unprecedented heights; the company now published an FAQ page detailing how it, in fact, is not a national security threat to anyone. A week beforehand, Huawei Chairman Liang Hua claimed the company would and could never share any customer data with the Chinese government, without substantiating those claims or remarking on how can the company even prove its not doing so already given its extremely opaque structure.

Update [February 27, 2019]: Huawei and Samsung settled a mysterious patent dispute thats been troubling both sides for two years now, redacted court documents indicate. The original clash revolved around telecom IP and Samsungs supposedly illegal efforts aimed at curbing Huaweis international growth.

Update [March 1, 2019]: Canada allowed Ms. Mengs extradition to the U.S. Shes now facing up to 30 years in federal prison based on charges of fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud, and several others. The industry veteran maintains her innocence.

Update [April 29th-May 1st, 2019]: A high-profile leak from the British government revealing to what extent is London willing to give Huawei the benefit of the doubt when it comes to its national 5G project led to added tensions between the United Kingdom and the U.S. and also saw former resort to a surprise firing of a top security official, hence somehow overshadowing the debacle called Theresa Mays Brexit negotiation plan, or lack thereof. In the meantime, Washingtons threats meant to pressure its allies into toeing the global wireless line are becoming more intense  to no avail, at that.

Update [May 9th, 2019]: Ms. Meng is now opposing her extradition request on the basis of what she and her legal team perceives are direct threats from Trump. Canadian prosecutors are trying to fast-track the hearings but the attorneys representing the Chinese executive have been successful in stopping those efforts. The case is consequently extremely unlikely to be concluded with a first-instance verdict prior to 2020.

Update [May 15th-May 21st, 2019]: President Trump signed an executive order effectively banning Huawei from the U.S. The White House issued a decree forbidding American companies from working with any firm deemed a national security threat in the cyberspace. The Wednesday order did not name Huawei directly but the top office in the country blacklisted the conglomerate just two days later.

By the end of the week, Google, Intel, Qualcomm, Broadcom, and a number of other tech juggernauts in the U.S. already complied with the majority or entirety of the order. Industry analysts are now predicting Huaweis supply chain could crumble in record time if the situation is now handled just as swiftly. The company vowed to continue serving its existing customers with no after-sales service interruptions, specifically pointing out how that promise also encompasses security patches.

Huawei has been given a temporary license to continue operating as it were on May 21st; the move essentially amounts to an extremely shaky suspended sentence and doesnt really solve anything but the most immediate of its woes.

AndroidHeadlines reached out to Huawei for comment on its long history of issues in the U.S. detailed above and will update this timeline with any response it receives.
A new complaint filed with the U.S. District Court in Central California has pitted at least eight major media companies against SET TV, alleging that the service is a breeding ground for piracy. Piracy cases and reports have become fairly commonplace over recent months but this case may be among the biggest yet. Thats because, among the plaintiffs in the case, this one has been brought by Amazon, Netflix, Disney, 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Universal, and Warner Bros. Those companies have accused SET TV of knowingly and deliberately distributing pirated material alongside the legitimate content on offer. For those who may not be aware, SET TV is a cord-cutting service that streams media from over 500 live channels and other content.

The most prominent point of contention in the case, however, seems to be that the service is a blend of legitimate media and content for which licensed use hasnt been properly paid for. That creates a usability and reliability that gives an impression of legitimacy. In the shortest terms possible, it blurs the lines between piracy and legitimate streaming, making it difficult for viewers to know which is which. More directly, the suit claims that the service streams selected content from third-party sources that are illegitimately capturing and streaming live transmissions. For on-demand content, the companies claim, SET TV relies on third-parties that are illegally reproducing copyrighted works including movies that are still exclusively in theaters. In response, the companies are seeking $150,000 per work infringed, in any case where the company knowingly or willfully materially contributed to the piracy of the media in question.

Whether or not this case moves forward and ultimately sides with the plaintiffs, each of the companies involved in the case is in direct competition with one another. That could be seen as a substantial bolster to the allegations but the ruling in this will most likely come down to whether or not there is any pirated content being offered by SET TV. That does not mean that the companies will receive the compensation they are asking for but piracy rulings can be much harsher than monetary fines or restitution. In the meantime, the streaming service provider has not, as of this writing, responded to the allegations.
The OnePlus 6 is likely to be officially announced on May 21, GSMArena reports, citing a company email sent to one of its The Lab participants chosen to review the upcoming Android flagship. Almost simultaneously with the new information emerging online, OnePlus took to Chinese social media network Weibo to share yet another promotional render of the device that can be seen above. The teaser shows a matte black variant of the handset that has already been confirmed as featuring a glass back as the phone makers pursuit of premium design continues, though its presently unclear whether that choice of material will also amount to wireless charging support.

While a May 21 debut would mark the earliest first-half product launch OnePlus did in years, it would also denote the end of the firms longest teasing campaign to date. So far, the Chinese original equipment manufacturer teased its upcoming devices up to a month before their official unveiling, yet the OnePlus 6 is presently entering its fourth week of teasers, with the new development indicating its announcement is still nearly a month away. The firm hence already disclosed many details about the upcoming handset, including its system-on-chip of choice thats unsurprisingly Qualcomms Snapdragon 845. Not accounting for a limited-edition model themed after Marvels Avengers: Infinity War blockbuster, the OnePlus 6 will be offered in two or three variants, with the most premium member of the product family boasting 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage space.

The OnePlus 6 will also have a display notch that the company opted to include so as to retain the overall physical footprint of the OnePlus 5T while pushing its screen-to-body ratio to some 90-percent, thus delivering the largest mobile display panel in its history. A dual-camera setup is expected to make a return with the OnePlus 6, together with support for face unlock and a rear-mounted fingerprint reader. The handset will also support navigation gestures reminiscent of Apples iPhone X, OnePlus said earlier this month.
After a recent surge in its shares, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) crossed the $100 billion market capitalization milestone, a first for any Indian company in the last decade. The IT giant ended its last week at a valuation of around $99 billion with its share prices surging 4.6 percent to hit an all-time high of Rs. 3,557.90 soon after the market opened on Monday. This achievement made the company a part of the esteemed group of the worlds 100 most valued organizations with it holding the 97th spot, according to a report. However, the coveted figure didnt last for long as the share prices of TCS reduced to Rs. 3,415.20 as the Mumbai-based stock exchange closed later in the day, bringing down the valuation to $99 billion.

Tata Group-backed TCS maintained a consistent performance in the past few years with its market capitalization now being higher than the combined valuation of all its peers, which includes some prominent names like Infosys, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, and HCL Technologies. The timely adoption of newer technologies to cater its global customers is believed to be a reason to back TCS success story that allowed it to outperform its rivals, which were once much ahead of it. The last Indian company to have crossed the $100 billion mark back in 2008 was Reliance Industries, which is now valued at $89 billion. Owned by Indias richest man Mukesh Ambani, the conglomerate is better known for its extensive work in the petroleum industry, while it recently ventured into the telecom space with its subsidiary Reliance Jio.

Established over 50 years ago, Tata Consultancy Services is a part of Tata Group, which itself is a 150-year-old Indian conglomerate. TCS is Indias largest IT services provider and is also the largest private sector employer in the country with close to 400,000 employees spread across its offices in 46 countries. The company also has a strong presence in the U.S. and it is also one of the largest job creators in the IT industry of the country. It is now looking to expand its business in certain European markets where it has managed to achieve a double-digit growth rate in the past few quarters.
Indian smartphone market being dominated by Chinese brands isnt a new piece of information and the latest report released by a research firm reaffirms this claim. Counterpoints analysis of mobile phone shipments in Q1 2018 reveals that a major portion of the smartphone market is captured by China-based smartphone vendors with Xiaomi topping the list. For the first time Honor, Huaweis sub-brand, found a place in the list of top five smartphone vendors in India with an overall market share of 3.4 percent. Three of the Chinese brands  Xiaomi, Honor, and OnePlus  managed to hit a triple-digit YoY growth rate at 134 percent, 146 percent, and 112 percent respectively in India. Vivo and OPPO, on the other hand, found their market share in India almost halving in Q1 2018 when compared to the same period last calendar year.

Xiaomi now holds a market share of 31.1 percent in the smartphone segment up from 13.1 percent in Q1 2017. Though, Samsung marginally grew its share from 25.9 percent to 26.2 percent in the same period, the company has been pushed to the second spot with Xiaomi now holding the polar position. The South Korean conglomerate has been on the top spot for several years and has stayed mostly unrivalled until the advent of Chinese players in the recent years. Similar figures were also provided by IDCs report released last February, but Samsung disregarded them stating itself the leader of the Indian smartphone market. While the individual brands may have gained or lost some market share, the overall smartphone shipments in Q1 2018 didnt change YoY, according to the report. The mobile phone market in general, however, grew by 48 percent YoY last quarter, majorly because of the staggering growth in the feature phone segment.

Counterpoints report adds that there was a close competition between Honor, Lava, Micromax, Nokia, and Lenovo (including Motorola) to grab the fifth spot in the smartphone segment, which ultimately went to Honor. In the premium segment, i.e. above Rs. 30,000 ($452), Samsung has maintained its lead with a 50-percent share, thanks to the recent release of the Galaxy S9 and A8 series. OnePlus closely follows Samsung to hold the second spot with about a 25-percent share of the market. For the feature phone segment, the home-grown brand Reliance Jio captured a 35.8-percent share in Q1 2018. Companies like Samsung, Itel, and Lava have lost significant portions of their respective market share to the JioPhone that became an instant hit soon after its release. Nokia is another brand having a market share of 7.3 percent with the launch of its Nokia 3310.
Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- French president Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte arrived at the White House Monday evening to the pomp and circumstance typical of a state visit, the choreography of which he is expected to balance against a delicate diplomatic effort to persuade President Donald Trump to remain in the Iran nuclear deal.



Macron, along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel are making back-to-back visits with the president this week in a last-minute lobbying push to prevent the president from potentially sabotaging the agreement.



While Trump turned on a major charm offensive with lavish pageantry as soon as the Macrons touched down in Washington for Trump's first state visit, it's unclear if that will result in any movement in his commitment not to sign an upcoming May 12 waiver of sanctions against Iran without significant changes implemented by Congress.



In an interview over the weekend on CBS' "Face the Nation," Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif warned that if the sanctions are implemented against Iran's economy, then the country would be forced to consider a number of "not pleasant" options.



"We have put a number of options for ourselves," Zarif said. "And those options are ready, including options that would involve resuming at much greater speed our nuclear activities."



Macron separately appeared on Fox News over the weekend where he said the president runs the risk of Iran rebooting its nuclear program in a manner comparable to North Korea's own activity which over the past year has thrown the region to the brink of crisis.



"I don't have any plan B for nuclear against Iran," Macron said. "That's why I just want to say, on nuclear, let's preserve a framework because it's better than a North Korean type of situation."



The intricacies of the Iran deal seemed far from the agenda Monday evening, with the Macrons pulling up a White House north driveway lined with military members and flags of every state. The Trumps greeted them at the entrance to the West Wing, Macron trying to give the president the standard French double air-kiss while Trump appeared to try to make conversation.



The foursome then made their way to the South Lawn, where the two leaders ceremoniously planted a sapling, a gift from the Macrons, that according to the first lady's office was grown in Belleau Wood, the site of a landmark battle during World War I in which more than 9,000 American Marines perished.



As they posed with the tree, shovels in hand, President Trump could be heard responding to a pool reporter's repeated shouts of "Pompeo?" by thanking Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who hours earlier had announced that he would drop his opposition and vote in favor of CIA director Mike Pompeo to become secretary of state, despite his concerns about Pompeo's positions on U.S. involvement in foreign wars.



"He never let me down," Trump said of Paul over the drone of the Marine One presidential helicopter, which then whisked the leaders and their spouses to George Washington's Mount Vernon plantation in nearby Virginia for a private dinner.



Before they departed the White House, the president gave the Macrons a tour of the Oval Office, which Macron then posted on his Facebook page. Trump can be heard on the video expressing disbelief that the French president had not previously visited the Oval Office. He also showed off the office's Resolute Desk, noting that it was the same desk John F. Kennedy, Jr., peered out of in an iconic photo with his father, President John F. Kennedy.



The president also noted the secure phone which he pointed out he uses to call Macron.



"Its supposed to be the latest and greatest but who knows nowadays?" Trump said.



After his two days of meetings with President Trump, Macron will have the opportunity to make a similar pitch on the Iran deal to lawmakers as he makes an address to a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday.



Even as both U.S. and French officials say there's no expectation that a final decision will be reached on the Iran deal during the visit, Macron's own lobbying effort will soon be followed up on with a one-day visit by Merkel on Friday.



Merkel and Trump have clashed on issues such as trade and the United States' plans to move its Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, so it's unclear what additional pressure she might be able to put on President Trump to back away from his commitment the last time he signed off on the Iran sanctions waiver.



Merkel said in a recent interview with an Israeli TV channel that she understood the concerns from the U.S. and Israel regarding the agreement but that she would push vigorously for the continuation of the accord.



"We believe it's better to have this agreement, even if it is not perfect, than to have no agreement," Merkel said. "We will continue to discuss this, but Germany will watch very closely to ensure that this agreement will be fulfilled."



In January, President Trump delivered remarks announcing he would not sign a waiver of sanctions for Iran if Congress did not pass new legislation including series of "fixes" to the nuclear deal, but ahead of the May 12 deadline there's no real indication that any such legislation could pass in time.



"This is a last chance," Trump said. "In the absence of such an agreement, the United States will not again waive sanctions in order to stay in the Iran nuclear deal. And if at any time I judge that such an agreement is not within reach, I will withdraw from the deal immediately."

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
BarcelonaThis year, more than ever before, Sant Jordi's day was synonymous with freedom. Now that freedom of expression is again under threat here in Catalonia, now that the winds of freedom are not blowing either here or in the wider world, World Book Day -a celebration rooted in Catalonia- is an opportunity to remember that neither ideas, nor fiction, nor imagination can be persecuted. We have the right -and the duty- to dream up other realities, to think of alternate worlds, to invent for ourselves the present and the future. And books are a natural terrain to do so with total, unlimited, freedom.

This Sant Jordi was, once again, a civic and cultural celebration of books and roses. As the front page of ARA reads every April 23rd, this is a country to "read and love". A festival that represents an ideal, at the same time a reality and an aspiration: to make Catalonia a cultured country, welcoming and free. A country that, based on its diversity of imagination and languages and its political and ideological projects, can decide its own future without fear or confrontation, but with dialogue. But this country has come face to face with the dragon of intolerance. It has come up against the inability of Spanish democracy to face the political challenge presented to it by a significant part of Catalan society. The response has been police repression, legal persecution, and financial penalties. With political prisoners and politicians in exile. For all of them, and especially for Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sanchez, it is not just one more day of celebration, but one less. Far from their loved ones.

We will find a way out of the legal conflict between Catalonia and Spain by respecting the opinion of others. Not by locking away ideas behind bars, which is akin to putting books in prison

If Sant Jordi has traditionally been an alternative national holiday in which politics played second fiddle to culture, this year it was a festival that returned to the basics of what lies behind a book: a festival to call for freedom. Any book is always an open window on the world. The best that we could do and did on this Sant Jordis day was to feel free, act with liberty, and show once again the true nature of our society: civility, pacifism, culture, harmony, and tolerance. That is, books and roses for everyone, regardless of their views. This is how we will find a way out of the legal conflict between Catalonia and Spain. With dialogue, with words that are not weapons, but only tools to express arguments and feelings. By respecting the opinion of others. Not by locking away ideas behind bars, which is akin to putting books in prison.

Any outside observer, while walking the streets of Catalan cities and towns yesterday, would have found it very hard to believe that this is a fractured, divided country. They would have found it very hard to swallow the lie invented by the judicial apparatus of the State and by the Madrid-based press that we are a violent people. It would be truly difficult to think that half of Catalan citizens are a band of xenophobic nationalists. On the contrary: they would have seen a people, despite the political harshness of the moment, enjoying a civic celebration shared by all, with emotion and conviction. They would have seen how the Catalan way is through dialogue and inclusion; they would have seen the maturity of a people who are simply demanding the right to decide their future in peace and liberty. Is this so hard to understand? Is it so hard to see this reality?
COP26 may be a cop-out in the making COP26 is just about a month away. Delayed for a year by the Covid-19 pandemic, the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference has built up even more expectations and momentum during the intervening months
The Watch Snob's Take On Diving Watches

A Watch Strap Fit For Diving? The Watch Snob Shares His Advice

The AskMen editorial team thoroughly researches & reviews the best gear, services and staples for life. AskMen may get paid if you click a link in this article and buy a product or service.

A Strap Fit For Scuba Diving

This is probably not the usual type of question you get asked, but it is watch related so I am hoping you can point me in the right direction.

My wife recently bought me an Omega Seamaster 300 Master Co-Axial as a late engagement present. I have it on the steel bracelet, but as someone who scuba dives I want to wear it while diving. The problem I have is that even with the push button to extend the strap it will not fit over a dry suit and I am also wary of wearing a bracelet while diving  in case the clasp pops open. With this in mind, I am looking to purchase a high-quality NATO strap. I have looked at the official Omega ones, however, they appear to be rather expensive for what they are. Is the Snob aware of any high-quality watch strap makers that supply NATO straps? Or should I just purchase an Omega one?

Having never dived, I feel ill-equipped to advise you on what might be your best alternative to the supplied bracelet, but I do understand your unease  Omega makes some excellent bracelets, but the one that comes with the Seamaster 300 Master Co-axial was designed to complement the appearance of this vintage-inspired divers watch, and indeed it does not seem to be quite as state-of-the-art as some of Omegas other bracelets (moreover, a cursory reading of some of the online coverage of this watch reveals that you are not the only diver to have found the OEM bracelet a bit on the short side).

There are indeed several sources of good quality NATO straps, but if you dont find the cost prohibitive, Id suggest the Omega NATO  at least that way, if theres a failure, and your watch ends up in Davy Jones Locker, you can go back to Omega and demand restitution.

In Search Of An Everyday Watch

I am 30 years old, but only a baby in this world of watches. I have owned a Seiko SKX 013 for the past 20 months and never had any other watch since a Casio calculator-watch from my childhood.

I would like to make an upgrade and I have a budget of 5000-6000 euros. From what I understand of myself I am not planning on becoming a collector (I guess). So, to make things straight and stop wasting your precious time, I want a watch to be with me every single second of every day. From the office to the beach, back to business meetings and so on.

My criteria would be water resistance no less than 100m, so that I wouldnt have to take it off in any water activities (not diving), a case diameter of 38mm, or less, and a bracelet, as I think it is more versatile and sturdy. Also, I want a simple clean dial, no complications or chronographs.

Regarding all the above I have narrowed my research to the following options: Rolex OP 34-36mm, Blancpain Leman Ultra Slim 2100 (used), Cartier Santos Galbee (used, also I am not so sure about the water resistance or the toughness) and an Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra.

I would like to add, that I really love Grand Seiko and JLC, but I could not find any with sufficient water resistance and under 38mm. Hopefully, in the years to come, they will be on my dress watch list, for which youll find me again asking for your consultation.

So, what do you think of my options? Is there anything else in this budget that may be worth looking at? Is there anything that may be worth saving more?

Thanks in advance and please forgive me for my English, it is not my native language.

English may not be your native language, but you have certainly expressed yourself with sufficient clarity, and the problem you have is shared by many who prefer to acquire ( rather than collect) one or possibly two watches that can see them through all situations. In this instance, the answer is an easy one, albeit predictable: Rolex. The Blancpain and Cartier are both good watches in their own way, but they will not give you nearly the level of reliability and toughness as the Rolex.

The Seamaster Aqua Terra 150 meter wristwatch is a strong alternative to the Rolex (I assume youre looking at the 38mm model) and if Im honest, it has in some respects a more technically advanced movement; certainly, it trumps the Rolex in terms of resistance to magnetism. However in real-world terms, resistance to magnetic fields of up to 15,000 gauss is technically admirable but not, in general, relevant to daily life and I think that ultimately you will find the Rolex more versatile  certainly, it will do you for a dress watch, in terms of design, much better than the Omega.

Breguet, Daniel Roth or Omega Speedmaster?

Greetings from Russia! I hope the sanctions will not prevent you from answering my question.

Here in Russia, one can buy high-class watches at rather low prices, thanks to the pawnshops or Lombards as they are called here. While many of these are shady affairs, some have established reputations that one can trust.

This allows for choices that would otherwise be prohibited. For example, I can buy a pre-owned Breguet Type XX with papers and in excellent condition for the same price as the pre-owned Daniel Roth Master Chronograph. Both will still be cheaper than a new Omega Speedmaster Professional.

I know that your golden measure of value is the Speedmaster. However, if you were to choose between the three watches I mentioned, which would you pick? Imagine that condition is excellent and the provenance is clean.

Privyet, good sir, and long may the common love of watches unite us across the obstacles placed in our paths by individuals in positions of power  who do not have at heart the best interests of their constituencies. The pawn shop is an interesting institution  I was not aware that they were called Lombards in Russia but apparently, the name was an early one in Europe for these establishments.

I wish that I could in good conscience recommend the Daniel Roth; it was an interesting brand and the watchmaker who began it, is one of great talent. Alas, the running of a successful watch business seems rather more difficult than the making of good watches, and Daniel Roth, the man, has not been part of the company that bore his name for many years; it was acquired by Bulgari some time ago. You would be buying a watch made by a company that no longer exists and should the watch ever need repair, parts might easily be an issue (perhaps less for the movement than for things like crowns, chronograph pushers and the crystal).

One can never go wrong with a Speedmaster, in general, but if youve a hankering for something different a Breguet Type XX is a very good and most interesting wristwatch, with a fine history of its own (albeit not one that involves manned space flight, but still respectable). A Type XX also has a wonderful air of stick and rudder aviation which the Speedmaster does not. Close your eyes and imagine yourself, successively, doing a spacewalk, or looping the loop in (say) a 1950s-era French Dassault Mystere  if the prospect of whacking one of the worlds first jet-propelled fighters around the sky puts a bigger smile on your face, by all means, go for the Breguet.

Send the Watch Snob your questions at [email protected] or ask a question on Instagram with the #watchsnob hashtag.

Watches Mentioned In This Article: Omega Nato Straps ($160), Rolex Oyster Perpetual ($5,000), Omega Seamaster Aqua ($5,500), Breguet Type XX ($6,995), Omega Speedmaster ($5,250)

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Corrs Chambers Westgarth has welcomed partner Carol Daicic, who has been named the firms head of environment and planning.

Daicic returns to the firm after a stint at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, where she was a full-time member. She is based in Corrs Melbourne office.

Carol has extensive advisory, transactional and contentious environmental and planning experience, with deep relationships with government and private-sector developers, said John W.H. Denton AO, Corrs CEO and partner.
For years, the courts in Australia have taken a proactive approach to codifying the requirements and parameters for the use of technology. In fact, much of the development and innovation has stemmed from the requirements of practice notes issued by the courts. As far back as 2002, the Supreme Court of Victoria issued a practice note[1] providing guidelines for the use of technology in civil litigation. The approach was driven by the recognition that the use of technology can reduce cost, increase access to justice and streamline the courts workload. For example, practice note CM6[2] from the Federal Court of Australia provides that the court expects the parties to a proceeding and their legal representatives to consider, at as early a stage in the proceeding as practicable, the use of technology in the management of documents and conduct of the proceeding.

In 2015, The Hon. Marilyn Warren AC, then chief justice of Victoria, gave a speech titled Embracing Technology: The Way Forward for the Courts. She referred to many of the recent advancements in technology, discussed their practical impact in terms of the courts workload, and posited a scenario where an entire hearing could take place on virtually. She also outlined some of the more advanced options, picturing a court hearing that is entirely virtual: a judge presiding via Skype from chambers; barristers presenting arguments remotely; witnesses giving evidence from their offices anywhere in the world, and jurors watching it all play out from another venue; or a prosecutor taking a judge and jurors on a virtual tour of a crime scene, as if they were actually in the accuseds shoes.

Her vision of a court system where nobody need attend court at all and where all documents are filed, served and viewed online at anytime from anywhere  a paperless, people-less court -may in the future bring dramatic changes to the way that court hearings are run.

Digital audio and video recording

Since the 1950s, most courts in Australia have had some way of recording proceedings, beginning with analogue tapes, then moving to digital audio recording in the 1990s. Currently, almost every courtroom in Australia is equipped with the ability to create a multi-channel digital audio recording. Some of these courts are monitored and logged in person; some via closed-circuit television or digital video camera on a centralised basis (i.e. from a control room within the building) and many now being monitored and logged remotely. For instance, the Fair Work Commission, a national federal agency with 40 courtrooms across Australia, is recorded and monitored from a central location in Melbourne. A team of monitors ensures that the recordings are up to the required standard and that notes or annotations are created.
Rumors regarding the A1 Cabriolet were circulating on the Internet ever since the metroproject quattro Concept was unveiled at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show. But as you already know, the droptop never saw the light of day. On the other hand, the Q1 trademark from 2014 suggests that a sub-Q2 crossover could materialize in 2020 In the same story, Auto Bild makes a case for the A4 Cabriolet. Replaced in 2008 by the A5, S5, and RS5, the newcomer is expected to arrive in 2023 as a response to sluggish sales. The German motoring publication refers to the TT Roadster and A5/S5/RS5 lineup of soft tops. A spin-off in the guise of the A4 Coupe is also rumored, but not confirmed by Audi or any other verifiable source.Truth be told, sales of the A5 Cabriolet have been steadily declining since 2011. In 2017, Audi delivered 7,404 examples in Europe compared to 14,470 A5 Coupe models. The TT Roadster , on the other hand, sold 3,971 units in the Old Continent in 2017.Although 2019 is one year away, prototypes of the A1 Cabriolet have yet to be photographed by the carparazzi. The A4 Cabriolet and A4 Coupe are too far away to mention photographic evidence in the same sentence, which is why the Auto Bild report should be taken with a grain of salt. Actually, make that a spoonful.The A1 hatchback, meanwhile, is confirmed to debut in the first half of 2018, with sales kicking off by years end. Theres still no confirmation of the three-door body style, but the A1 Sportback spied time and again by the carparazzi doesnt look half bad.
Even though Mitsubishi CEO Osamu Masuko said that the Lancer will be no more, it looks like the name will be here to stay, albeit as a completely different vehicle.

Mitsubishi Motors chief operating officer Trevor Mann and chief designer Tsunehiro Kunimoto are said to be currently working on the new car. Mann then told correspondents from Auto Express the new direction the Lancer will be taking, which will be a crossover.

Mann said that the design of the next-generation Lancer is close to being finalized. The executive added that they will be replacing the ASX and the Outlander with just one model and he specifically mentioned the Lancer. Given that Mitsubishi turned the Eclipse into a crossover, perhaps it was inevitable that the Lancer would follow suit.

On the design front, Kunimoto mentioned that the future Lancer's looks will be based on the e-Evolution concept shown during the Tokyo Motor Show late last year. While it's unlikely the radical styling could reach production, it is likely we will see a toned-down version of it in a few years time. Kunimoto also said that it won't be a conventional hatchback, possibly hinting it may well be a crossover. He added that they are going also 'radical' with the new look. The next Lancer could compete against the likes of the Toyota C-HR and Subaru XV.

For now, these are the only pieces of information Mitsubishi is willing to give to the public surrounding the next-generation Lancer. As Nissan now owns a large chunk of Mitsubishi Motors, it is possible that the platform that could be used will be shared with both Nissan and Renault. Hybrids and all-wheels drive versions are a possibility as well, says Auto Express.

Source: Auto Express
After GA advocates had breathed a sigh of relief, believing that the ATC privatization battle was won for this year, House Transportation Committee chairman Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa, introduced a last-minute amendment to the FAA funding bill on Tuesday that raised alarm. Section 5 of the amendment calls for moving the FAA Air Traffic Organization, the entity inside the FAA tasked with managing air traffic control, to instead report to the Department of Transportation, AOPA reported. The amendment also would appoint a 13-member board to advise the DOT on how to run the system. That board, which would not be subject to any public input, resembles the same airline-influenced board Shuster had in the bill he withdrew in February, AOPA says. This potentially creates a real safety issue for all of aviation and the general public, said Jim Coon, AOPAs senior vice president of government affairs. There is no entity other than the FAA with the expertise, knowledge and experience to run the largest, most complex air traffic system in the world. The House is expected to vote on the bill as soon as Wednesday.

EAA Chairman Jack Pelton also responded quickly to the amendment, calling on EAA members Tuesday afternoon to contact their congressional representatives immediately, to oppose the plan. This is a devious, backroom maneuver after public and congressional opinion showed to be solidly against ATC privatization and caused the withdrawal of the original bill, said Pelton. This is reckless, punitive policymaking that circumvents any public input. We believe that was exactly the intent of this amendment at this time. The provision would set the stage for airline domination of the ATC system, EAA said. Aviation advocacy groups sent a letter on Tuesday to House leadership and members, urging them to drop Section 5 of Shusters amendment to H.R. 4. The groups urged their members to contact their representatives immediately. Click here for the full text of the proposed amendment, with the FAA Organizational Reform section starting on Page 30.
The FAA funding bill now under consideration in Congress includes allocations for research into single-piloted commercial aircraft, and several pilot advocacy groups are lobbying hard against it, citing safety and security concerns. The desire by some in the industry to pursue single-piloted or autonomously piloted cargo aircraft seriously places the American public and the flight crews of these aircraft in a tenuous position, says a joint statement issued by the cargo pilots of the Air Line Pilots Association, the Independent Pilots Association and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Airline Division. By endorsing language that promotes single-operator commercial cargo aircraft, Congress will undermine years of safety and security measures currently in place and put lives at risk, the pilot groups said.

The bill specifies that the research and development program would be conducted by the FAA, in consultation with NASA and other relevant agencies. The program would study the technology needed for a single pilot to fly a cargo aircraft, assisted by remote piloting and computers. With the increasing frequency and severity of reports regarding computer hacking, accidents in current military and civilian drone operations, and mounting reports of autonomous vehicle accidents, we think any serious consideration of this technology is premature at best, the pilot groups said.
Al Gore predicted at an Axios event Tuesday that President Trump wont reverse course about withdrawing America from the Paris climate deal.

Why it matters: The insight from the former vice president and long-time climate activist offers a blunt state-of-play almost a year after Trump announced he would withdraw the U.S. from the Paris deal.

At the time, and sporadically since then, Trump said he would re-enter the accord if he could get a better deal, but that prospect is much less likely now than it was then given key staff departures and administration priorities elsewhere.

I dont think hes going to change on that."

 Former Vice President Al Gore

Gore added that he stopped talking to Trump after his announcement last June. "I never give up on anybody, Gore told Axios Mike Allen on stage to a packed audience. Ive come closest as I ever have with President Trump."

Other highlights from this mornings interview with Gore:

How pushing for action on climate change is like other social movements:

"Every great morally based movement that has advanced the prospects for humanity has been led in significant measure by young people. I see this climate movement in the context of these previous movements, [such as the] abolition of slavery."

His climate optimism despite Trumps Paris withdrawal:

"The good news is were seeing tremendous policy changes  Paris agreement a couple years ago committed every nation in the world.  I know what youre thinking, President Trump made his statement, but the first day on which the U.S. could legally withdraw from the Paris agreement happens to be the day after the next president election.  If there is a new president, a new president could simply give 30 days notice and the US is right back in the agreement.

On whether politicians have to acknowledge climate change to make progress addressing it.

"Well, yes, however, the economics of renewable energy and increasingly electric vehicles  are now driving changes even among those who do not want to acknowledge the reality of what were facing."
Trade disputes rarely escalate as quickly and intensely as the current U.S.China spat, which has resulted in tariff volleys and vehement rhetoric from each side. But recent statements from both countries suggest that tensions may now be falling.

What's next: Trump indicated on Tuesday that he would send Treasury Secretary Mnuchin to China next week. As both sides have softened their stances, the stage is set for the two sides to consider returning to the negotiating table.

After President Xi first met President Trump at Mar-a-Lago in April 2017, the Chinese thought they could handle Trump as they had his predecessors, and didn't take his trade-related threats  many of them issued on Twitter  seriously.

But as tariff threats were followed by counter-threats, the atmosphere turned increasingly somber in Beijing, especially because Trumps objections extended beyond Chinas trade surplus to Chinese industrial policies.

Trumps escalations struck raw nerves in China, and the already-strident rhetoric emanating from Beijing reached a crescendo earlier this month, when the Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesman declared that China was prepared to pay any cost to respond to the American threats.

It turned out, however, that staring into the precipice pushed leaders in both countries to look for solutions. On April 10, Xi announced that he would further open the Chinese economy by lowering tariffs on cars and other products and by strengthening foreign IP protections. The government lifted tariffs on cancer drugs two days later. President Trump got the signals, tweeting that he was very thankful for Xis statement and that We will make great progress together.

What to watch: Mnuchin will be accompanied next week by Trump's hardline trade representative Robert Lighthizer and adviser Peter Navarro. But even as tensions have started to ease, they're unlikely to be resolved in a single visit.

Dali L. Yang is the William C. Reavis Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago and a senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs
At a joint news conference today, French President Emmanuel Macron said he and President Trump had agreed to work on a new deal that includes the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran but incorporates additional measures.

What to watch: The enlarged deal would contain three more pillars: assurances that Iran cannot reconstitute a large nuclear program after certain JCPOA restrictions expire in 2025; limits on Irans ballistic missile development and transfers of weapons to regional proxies; and diplomacy to resolve the conflicts in Syria and Yemen.

Trump did not confirm that he would renew sanctions waivers when the next deadline comes on May 12. He again excoriated the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) as a bad deal  [that] should never have been made." He would not commit to any course of action, saying well know fairly soon what his decision will be. But he nodded as Macron spoke about a broader agreement and said that we have very much in common and that leadership required being flexible. The French president, who has developed the best rapport with Trump of any foreign leader, repeatedly put his hand on Trumps arm as he outlined this broader approach.

Trump appears to be developing a new appreciation for allies in diplomatic and military affairs even if he continues to see U.S. regional intervention in largely transactional terms. Both Macron and Trump referred to Frances participation in rocket strikes against Syria after the regime there again used chemical weapons. This has helped cement a growing alliance with the United States.

Why it matters: Iran has threatened to leave the JCPOA and aggressively resume its uranium enrichment program if the U.S. does not renew sanctions waivers. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has also bitterly complained about what he sees as European efforts to appease a mercurial U.S. leader. But if the Macron charm offensive  augmented by German Chancellor Angela Merkel at week's end  works, Iran may also benefit.

Barbara Slavin directs the Future of Iran Initiative at the Atlantic Council.
At an Axios event in Chicago yesterday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel told me midterm Democratic candidates are unwise to rely on the allure of impeaching President Trump as an issue in November's races.

His advice: "I lived through the Clinton White House. This is a serious legal and constitutional, not political, issue. ... I couldn't be angrier at Donald Trump. ... That said, you don't just flippantly say: We're for [impeachment]."

"When we get to it, we collectively as a country will know it  as we did with, like, Richard Nixon."

we collectively as a country will know it  as we did with, like, Richard Nixon." "[Y]ou don't just treat ... the policy standard of impeachment ... as a political tool. It's a constitutional standard and, when that standard has been met, we'll know about it. ... This is a case where the best politics is good policy."

The backdrop: The N.Y. Times reported that Republicans are trying to energize their base and lure moderate voters by warning that Dems "will immediately move to impeach President Trump if they capture the House."

Liberal N.Y. Times columnist Charles Blow bluntly spells out the politics of impeachment: "It is quite possible that trying to impeach and remove Trump could have the opposite effect than the one desired: It could boost rather than diminish his popularity and an acquittal by the Senate would leave an even more popular president in office."

P.S. Rahm's big idea for governments ... One of the most common complaints to Chicago's 311 hotline is streetlights being out, and Mayor Emanuel told me the city is converting 270,000 sodium bulbs, one by one, to an LED smart grid model:
Democrats and advocates pushing for big climate investments in reconciliation legislation will likely need to scale down their ambitions even as they emphasize the global stakes of the fluid Capitol Hill talks.

The big picture: Democrats and the White House face the tricky task of crafting a social spending and clean energy plan that will be significantly smaller than progressives have envisioned.
U.S. Ambassador Richard Mills on Tuesday praised the Armenian police and anti-government protesters led by Nikol Pashinian for avoiding bloodshed during their 11-day standoff that led to the resignation of Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian.

This is a day to commend, Mills told RFE/RLs Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). The protesters, the demonstrators, the Armenian people came out in a peaceful and orderly way under the leadership of Mr. Pashinian.

He noted the professionalism of Armenian security forces shown during the sustained protests against Sarkisian, while urging the authorities to investigate instances of violence against some protesters and journalists.

This is a great moment for the Armenian people and the spirit of democracy in this country, stressed the envoy.

Mills also commended Sarkisian, saying that the former president acted like a real leader and listened to the voice of the Armenian people when he stepped down on Monday.

A statement by the U.S. State Department thanked Sarkisian for helping to strengthen U.S.-Armenian relations during his ten-year rule. It expressed hope that his successor will be chosen in a transparent and constitutional manner. The statement also called on Armenias leading political groups to avoid an escalation of the situation and any violent actions.

Karen Karapetian, who took over as Armenias acting prime minister, is due to start crisis talks with Pashinian on Wednesday. The opposition leader has publicly voiced a number of political demands, including the holding of snap general elections.

We look forward to working with Mr. Karapetian, the acting prime minister, in the days ahead, said Mills. All sides should resume their dialogue to agree on the steps forward, he added.
By Rashid Shirinov

Armenia disregards proposals of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) regarding the closure of the Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), Chairman of Azerbaijans National Nuclear Research Center Adil Garibov told Trend on April 23.

He noted that after the disaster at Fukushima, the IAEA sent proposals to all countries on the closure of all the reactors whose service life had expired.

The activity of a NPP must correspond to local conditions. It is necessary to develop scenarios in the event of any cataclysms. Unfortunately, the document of the first importance in this sphere depends on the decision of each state, Garibov said.

He noted that in 2015 Armenias Cabinet of Ministers issued an order to extend the life of the Metsamor NPP and sent it to the IAEA. Therefore, the agency has no legal rights to challenge this decision. The IAEA can only propose, and it did so, but Armenia disregards these proposals, Garibov added.

He supposes that Armenia will never close the Metsamor NPP, as it is a strategic facility and a source of energy. In addition, having the NPP, Armenia gets the status of a nuclear country, which it can use in conflict situations.

Furthermore, Armenia possesses technologies for handling nuclear and radioactive materials, their storage and transportation. This is Armenias strategic goal, and it will never give up the existing technologies, Garibov said, adding that Armenia and Russia are planning to build a new nuclear power plant with a capacity of 1,060 megawatts.

He further mentioned that Azerbaijan should continue to inform the world community about the fact that the Metsamor NPP is a threat to the region.

It is very important that our executive bodies raise this issue at all international meetings. It remains in question whether Armenia will react to it, given that this country does not comply with the UN resolutions, Garibov added.

The construction of the Metsamor NPP started in 1970. The plant was shut down after a devastating earthquake of 1988 in the town of Spitak. However, in 1995, despite numerous protests of international community, the Armenian government resumed the operation of the NPP, and moreover, the second reactor was launched.

A number of international experts have repeatedly urged that due to its deplorable state, the Armenian Metsamor NPP could repeat the fate of the Chernobyl NPP, thus threatening the lives of the Armenians and inhabitants of the adjacent countries. The possible tragedy will also jeopardize the environmental state of the region. Moreover, its consequences will be felt in Europe and the Middle East.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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By Rashid Shirinov

The population of Armenia has finally achieved what they wanted  Serzh Sargsyan resigned as the Prime Minister of the country.

The former president of Armenia did not manage to prolong his stay in power due to the huge popular discontent with the authorities. The mass protests that started in Yerevan and other cities of the country on April 13 showed the extent of hatred, contempt and disrespect of the people to their leadership and the ruling party.

Many cultural figures began to give up their high titles and awards received from Sargsyan and took the side of the protesters, as well as the clergy and soldiers, who were marching together with thousands of other Armenian citizens. As a result, Sargsyan realized that he could not continue to manage the society that hates him so fiercely, he realized that his team remained all alone and that further resistance could lead to fatal consequences for him.

What happened in Armenia was not a surprise. This was to be expected, given the doleful situation the country has come to over a quarter of a century of its independence. It is noteworthy that the most unsuccessful years for Armenias population started with the presidency of Sargsyan in 2008.

Over the ten years of ruling the country, he did nothing that could be put to his credit. In addition, upon taking office, Sargsyan openly announced that he does not promise a paradise for the Armenian citizens. The population could no longer suffer and the time bomb has finally exploded.

The Armenian society rightly connects the collapse of all hopes with Sargsyan. The catastrophic economic situation, mass unemployment, impoverishment of the population, huge emigration, failed foreign policy, looting of the treasury, terrible state of the Armenian army  these are the main reasons that made the Armenian population take to the streets. Fortunately, they managed to get rid of the annoying tyrant.

However, the Armenians should not forget that the new Armenia will be able to develop only if an important condition is met  resolution of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. While the countries of the region have successfully developed political ties and economic cooperation, Armenia remained left out of all regional projects. The country has long turned into an outcast due to the aggression against Azerbaijan and occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijani lands.

In his recent interview with Trend, Spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Hikmat Hajiyev noted that Azerbaijan hopes that clear-headed political forces will come to power in Armenia after the departure of the military dictatorship regime headed by Sargsyan.

It has not been possible to achieve progress in settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict due to the policy pursued by the Sargsyan regime, who kept Armenian people under the threat of war, Hajiyev stressed.

The new Armenian leadership should bear in mind that no serious improvement in the countrys economy and social sphere is possible if the Karabakh problem remains relevant. Therefore, the fair resolution of the conflict by peaceful means must be among the priority tasks of the Armenian government.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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Trend:

Deputy Executive Director of the State Fund for development of information technologies under the Ministry of transport, communications and high technologies of Azerbaijan Azer Bayramov was elected Chairman of the intergovernmental expert group on e-Commerce and the digital economy of the United Nations, the State Fund told Trend April 24.

The election was held last week in Geneva during the last meeting of the intergovernmental expert group conducted on April 18-20, which, along with representatives of government agencies from more than 100 countries, was also attended by representatives of such large companies as Alibaba Group, Google, eBay and others.

Bayramov was elected Chairman of the group by an open vote and will head the office for one year.

The responsibilities of the intergovernmental group of experts on electronic commerce and digital economy were agreed upon the Trade and Development Board on April 5, 2017, and its first session was held during October 4-6, 2017 in Geneva.

Earlier, at the first plenary meeting (October 4, 2017), the intergovernmental group of experts on electronic commerce and digital economy elected Shamim Ahsan (Bangladesh) as its Chairperson and Nagva al-Shenawi (Egypt) and Taavo Lumiste (Estonia) as Vice-Chairpersons.

In the agreed policy recommendations of the first session of the intergovernmental group, it was decided that the second session would focus on enhancing the benefits of domestic and international e-commerce for development of the developing countries.

During the second session, such topics as the development of local platforms for domestic and international e-commerce were considered, the obstacles faced by the developing countries were discussed, the successful experience of developed and developing countries in this area was considered, etc.

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By Kamila Aliyeva

A project Defile through Time: Canons of the Women's Fashion of Azerbaijan was presented in the Azerbaijani Culture Museum named after Mirza Fatali Akhundov in Tbilisi.

The photo project by the Azerbaijani photographer Rustam Huseynov is dedicated to the peculiarities of traditional women's costumes and a show of women's clothing collection of Azerbaijani designer Natavan Aliyeva Neo Classic Love, visualizing the modern perception of traditional women's costumes in the context of the actual fashion in everyday clothes.

A show of the modern collection of women's clothing of Azerbaijani designer Natavan Aliyeva Neo Classic Love, visualizing the modern perception of traditional women's costumes in the context of the actual fashion in everyday clothes, was held there within the framework of the project.

The event was prepared and organized by the Azerbaijani Culture Museum named after Mirza Fatali Akhundov together with the Initiative Association of Curators (ICU). The curator of the event is Konul Rafiyeva.

The event was opened by the director of the Azerbaijani Culture Museum Leyla Aliyeva who noted that this is the first exhibition in Tbilisi dedicated to Azerbaijani women's clothes.

The author of the photo project, Rustam, emphasized the importance of preserving and synthesizing images of traditional culture with modernity, creating an uninterrupted line for the transfer of historical and cultural heritage in the field of clothing design and traditional art.

The event began with the show of Natavan Aliyeva's collection Neo Classic Love. Recalling the author's photos of the traditional image of the Azerbaijani woman made by Rustam Huseynov, the collection of Natavan Aliyeva, modern in cut and shape, but accentuating the viewer's attention on the colors and patterns of 19th-century national clothes, also uses elements of the national wardrobe - kelagayi and knitted socks.

Recalling the author's photographs of the traditional image of the Azerbaijani woman, fashion collection, modern in cut and shape, but accentuating the viewer's attention on the colors of 19th-century national clothes such as claret, blue, turquoise, uses elements of the national wardrobe - kelagayi and knitted socks. The motifs of the national embroidery dominate in hand-crafted accessories created with the scrupulousness, inherent in the designer. This collection links the historical past of the Azerbaijani women's costume with modern fashion trends.

The photo-exhibition was visited by a huge number of guests, including representatives of the Azerbaijani Embassy in Georgia and their foreign colleagues. The greatest interest of the guests was caused by the bright original images of the Azerbaijani traditional design, carefully thought out reconstruction of which is an important stage in saving the national cultural heritage and recognizing the national image in the mass consciousness.

In his works, Huseynov pays special attention to the interpretation of traditional headdresses of women of Azerbaijan, emphasizing age and social differences. The delicate silk handkerchiefs - kelagayi combined with diadems and arahchin  attach a special charm to a woman's appearance.

Rustams works presented at the exhibition are dedicated to the beauty and variety of traditional women's clothing. The exhibition consists of photo portraits of girls in traditional clothes grouped by regions of Azerbaijan, demonstrating the versatility of customs and life of the country. During the preparation of works, samples of clothes from the personal historical collection of designer clothes and clothing collector Natavan Aliyeva were used.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

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By Trend

Russia had better to bet on Azerbaijan in the South Caucasus, including in the issue of resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict under conditions of Armenia's possible coming under influence of the US and its transformation into an extremely unreliable ally, Director of the Institute for Political Studies, Russian presidents confidant Sergey Markov told Trend.

He made the remarks commenting on Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan's resignation on April 23 amid the continuing rallies in the country.

Markov said the departure of Serzh Sargsyan and the Karabakh clan will seriously impact resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, but it is not yet clear how.

"The matter is that it is not only Sargsyan's removal, it is the victory of the pro-American, Armenian 'maidan'. Nikol Pashinyan [leader of the protest rallies in Armenia] heads the "Elk", which in Armenian means 'Exit'. He repeatedly said that Armenia should withdraw from the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). However, it is unlikely that Armenia can start withdrawing from the EEU, which it did not completely join," he said.

According to Markov, clashes may begin in Armenia, since it is not yet known how peaceful this coup will end. "However, the Karabakh clan's removal from the power gives Azerbaijan a serious chance in resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict."

"Not all Armenians want to continue suffering in the blockade due to, particularly, keeping under occupation the regions around Nagorno-Karabakh, and not returning them to Azerbaijan. Therefore, possibility of a peaceful resolution on the basis of the Kazan formula, under which areas around Nagorno-Karabakh are returned [to Azerbaijan], and Armenia's blockade is removed in response, increases," Markov said.

As for the change in the socio-economic and political course of Armenia amid the changes in the country's leadership, Markov said he does not view the leaders of the protest movement as independent.

"They are sufficiently pro-American, and their main task will be to separate Armenia from Russia and redirect organizations such as the Dashnaktsutyun, which is widely known in the history for their terrorist acts, against Russia. And pro-American occupation regimes will always find something to tell to convince the people," he said.

Mass rallies broke out in Yerevan and other Armenian cities on April 13 following former Armenian President Serzh Sargsyans nomination as prime minister. The opposition accused him of ineffective governance and worsening the economic situation in the country.

On April 23, Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan resigned.

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By Rashid Shirinov

After the latest political events in Armenia, where the Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan has resigned after the public dissatisfaction, the OSCE Minsk Group and the UN have issued statements where the organizations call on Azerbaijan and Armenia to avoid escalation in the region.

In light of recent political developments in the region and the possibility of escalation along the line of contact, the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict underscore the critical importance of the sides respecting the ceasefire at this delicate time and, in particular, keeping heavy equipment positioned in the rear of the frontlines, reads a statement by the OSCE Minsk Group on April 23.

It further says that the co-chairs call on the sides to take immediate measures to reduce tensions, and look forward to meeting with the parties as soon as possible to renew intensified negotiations to find a lasting and peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in his statement joined the appeal by the OSCEs Minsk Group. Guterres urged all sides to prevent any potential escalations along the line of contact and to intensify efforts toward a peaceful negotiated solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. Since the war, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

While the OSCE Minsk Group acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, the occupation of the territory of the sovereign state with its internationally recognized boundaries has been left out of due attention of the international community for years.

Until now, Armenia ignores four UN Security Council resolutions on immediate withdrawal from the occupied territory of Azerbaijan, thus keeping tension high in the region.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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Trend:

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev expressed condolences to President of Afghanistan Mohammad Ashraf Ghani on April 23.

"We are deeply saddened by the news of numerous human casualties and injuries as a result of the powerful explosion in Kabul, President Aliyev said. We are extremely outraged by this brutal terrorist attack. We think it important to conduct a more resolute and consistent struggle against all forms of terrorism."

On behalf of the people of Azerbaijan and on my own behalf, I extend deep condolences to you, families and the loved ones of those who died, and wish the injured swiftest possible recovery, he added.

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At the time when for the first time the glorious and worthy son of the ation Emomali Rahmon was elected the leader of our country, our homeland  the newly independent Tajikistan was experiencing difficult times. Bloody wars and inter-Tajik conflict, which led to the loss of many lives and property, were a great threat to the countrys unity and the existence of the Tajik nation.
By Trend

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has today signed an order appointing Mukhtar Babayev as the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan.

Babayev was appointed to this post under President Aliyev's order making additions to the presidential decree dated April 21, 2018 "On the new composition of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Azerbaijan".

Prior to this appointment, Babayev headed the Azerikimya Production Association.

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Trend:

Azerbaijan's newly-appointed Agriculture Minister Inam Karimov has named key principles for his Ministry's future activity.

Karimov, addressing the ministry's staff, said that good and efficient management, being closer to farmers, and application of (transparency, efficiency, accountability) innovations will be the key principles in the Ministry's future activity, the Agriculture Ministry told Trend on April 23.

The minister further stressed that problems faced by farmers will be studied and relevant solutions will be defined.

Furthermore, there will be measures to expand the application of the Electronic Agriculture project.

President Ilham Aliyev signed an order on April 21 appointing Inam Karimov as the Minister of Agriculture.

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Trend:

Corruption allegations against Azerbaijan in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) collapsed, Azerbaijani MP and PACE member Elkhan Suleymanov told Trend on April 23.

Suleymanov said that the Independent External Investigation Body (IBAC) looking into allegations of corruption in PACE presented its report to the Bureau of the Assembly in Strasbourg.

The Investigation Body has not found any fact concerning the allegations of corruption against Azerbaijan and consequently concluded that the requirements of neutrality in the work of PACE MPs, in particular the rapporteurs concerning the activities of PACE on Azerbaijan, have not been breached, according to Suleymanov.

"For the last two years pumped-up headlines in Western European media, created by certain circles, in particular Soros-financed NGOs and media groups, spreading and supporting false allegations against Azerbaijan have paralyzed the normal activities of PACE. Whilst during recent years the already not good international reputation of the PACE was severely damaged by these repeated non-serious explanations, it becomes clear now that allegations eventually were groundless, false, and biased," he said.

The Investigation Body, according to him, confirmed that all PACE reports on Azerbaijan since 2008, including all election observation mission reports and the 2013 Strasser report on political prisoners, which became the discussion point for power centers and anti-Azerbaijan forces who were not willing to admit defeat, were adopted without the neutrality of MPs being affected, thus all these reports and their political contents remaining fully valid.

"In its report, the Investigation Body initially just repeated previous allegations by some biased NGOs, but it was not able, after thorough investigation, to provide any solid fact and proof. They were, of course, not able to deliver what cannot be delivered, but what was on the other hand highly expected by the enemies of Azerbaijan," the MP said.

Suleymanov further voiced regret that the IBAC focused entirely on Azerbaijan, while similar allegations against six other member states were treated by IBAC in total on one page only, out of the 200-page report.

This report does not serve objectivity and neutrality, he added.

"Finally, this superfluous show aiming at damaging Azerbaijans image in international arena resulted in a waste of 200,000 Euro taxpayer money, being the cost of this investigation, at a moment when PACE is suffering from serious budgetary problems," he noted.

Suleymanov said that instead of attempting to intimidate Azerbaijan with slanders, PACE should deal with to address important challenges at a moment when Europe is suffering from huge problems such as migration, common security and budgetary issues.

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Trend:

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev has today signed an order to appoint Jeyhun Bayramov as the Education Minister of Azerbaijan.

He was appointed to this post under President Aliyev's order making additions to the presidential decree dated April 21, 2018 "On the new composition of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Azerbaijan".

Prior to this appointment, Bayramov served as the deputy education minister of Azerbaijan.

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Trend:

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev has signed a decree approving a Memorandum of Understanding between the Azerbaijani Energy Ministry and the Iranian Oil Ministry on joint development of blocks in the Caspian Sea.

The memorandum was signed on March 28, 2018 in Baku.

Azerbaijan's Energy Ministry and state oil company SOCAR were instructed to implement the Memorandum's provisions after it takes effect.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry was instructed to inform the Iranian government about implementation of the necessary internal procedures for the entry into force of the Memorandum.

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Trend:

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has called for promoting Azerbaijani language and promised to help reviving the drying up Lake Urmia.

We are proud of Azerbaijani and Turkish language. I urge the officials to promote the centers for Turkish language and literature. [I urge officials] to publish the required books [in this regard], he said.

The president made the remarks addressing a crowd in the northwestern city of Tabriz as part of his provincial visit on April 24.

The president touched upon the situation of Lake Urmia, saying that the government has launched projects worth $240 million (one trillion toman) for reviving the lake.

Rouhani further promised that the level of water in the lake will increase by one meter by the end of his term in 2021.

The president also spoke about development projects being carried out in the province and said that 50 percent of a highway construction project connecting two cities of Ahar and Tabriz has already been completed.

Rouhani also pledged to inaugurate a railway segment linking the railways of Mianeh and Tabriz over the current year.

He noted that the government has spent $951.6 million (3.9 trillion tomans) in development projects in the province which according to the president, has significantly increased compared to four years ago.

Hassan Rouhani also touched upon the countrys row with the US and cautioned the White House that Iranian government will confront with any plots hatched by the US.

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Trend:

Azerbaijans new Ecology and Natural Resources Minister Mukhtar Babayev was introduced to the ministrys staff by Assistant to the Azerbaijani President for Economic Issues Ali Asadov, the countrys Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources said in a message April 24.

The new minister was appointed in accordance with the order of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev dated April 23, 2018.

Ali Asadov informed about the life and work experience of Mukhtar Babayev. Asadov noted that the use of natural resources for improving the welfare of the Azerbaijani people is in the spotlight of President Ilham Aliyev.

Asadov gave the relevant recommendations to the ministrys staff on the implementation of the tasks assigned to them in the field of ecology and environment.

Babayev expressed gratitude for the high trust rendered by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

He underlined that the implementation of the tasks set by the head of state on ecology and the environment will be adequately ensured. Babayev said that transparency will be further fully ensured in all activity areas of the ministry, principles of systematic approach and social justice will be followed.

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By Rashid Shirinov

During the recent years, Azerbaijan has become a destination that millions of tourists worldwide have chosen for their travel, and their number continues to grow with every passing year. However, the country does not stand still in this field  relevant state agencies are trying to find new ways of attracting even more tourists to Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan needs to attract Chinese and Indian tourists to develop mass tourism, Adviser of the chairman of Azerbaijan Tourism Association (AzTA) Muzaffar Agakarimov told Trend on April 20. Reminding that most of the worlds population lives in these countries, he noted that if Chinese and Indian tourists come to Azerbaijan, the country will earn a huge income.

First of all, he offers to open direct flights at relatively low prices, as well as to organize info tours to Azerbaijan for the leading travel companies of these two countries.

By attracting Chinese and Indian tourists it is possible to develop the tourism sector of Azerbaijan to such an extent that the country will be able to welcome more than 10 million tourists a year, Agakarimov said.

The adviser added that it is necessary to approach the development of mass tourism in Azerbaijan in a comprehensive way and to increase the number of hotels.

There are 150-200 hotels on Absheron, but there are not enough rooms in them. Therefore, it is necessary to build new hotels. Moreover, it is necessary to build a five-star hotel in Gusar, which has been enjoying great interest among tourists in recent years, Agakerimov noted.

Statistics show that 4,853 Indian tourists came to Azerbaijan in 2014, but last year their number amounted to 14,173. The number of Chinese tourists has also increased during the four years. In 2014, as many as 5,930 Chinese tourists visited Azerbaijan, but in 2017 the figure increased to 10,258.

Developing health tourism

By the way, the National Bureau for Tourism Promotion intends to attract more Chinese tourists to Azerbaijan. Spokesman of the Bureau Kanan Guluzade told Trend that an agreement between Azerbaijani and Chinese tourism companies was signed on April 19 with the support of the Bureau. Within the agreement, 2,000 Chinese tourists will visit Azerbaijan.

The agreement was signed between a private Azerbaijani travel company and two Chinese travel companies. These Chinese companies specialize in health tourism, Guluzade said.

The two companies conducted a market research in Azerbaijan and determined that Naftalan is the most priority direction for Chinese tourists. It is expected that during the year, with the help of partner airlines operating in China and the Asian market, 2,000 Chinese tourists will be sent to Azerbaijan. They will stay three days in Baku and seven days in Naftalan.

We are confident that the potential of Naftalan will be able to meet the needs of Chinese tourists, Guluzade noted.

Located some 360 km west of Baku, Naftalan city is famous around the world for its crude oil, renowned for its curative properties for a human health. This center of medical tourism in Azerbaijan has unique natural treatments that cannot be seen anywhere else in the world. Naftalan oil is used for therapeutic baths to treat over 70 illnesses.

Guluzade added that the Bureau intends to continue working in this direction and holds consultations with Chinese companies to this end.

These are just the first steps. We plan to attract more Chinese tourists, and not only to health resorts such as Naftalan or Duzdag. Previously, Chinese tourists came to Azerbaijan only as part of general tours to the South Caucasus. The new agreement provides for a visit directly to Azerbaijan, the Bureau spokesman said.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan intends to further improve its field of health tourism. Ruslan Guliyev, Chairman of the Azerbaijan Health and Thermal Tourism Support Association and the President of the Global Healthcare Travel Council, said at a press conference in Baku on April 20 that the Action plan for the development of health tourism designed for 2018-2020 will be presented in the country in the near future.

In particular, the action plan will touch upon the issues of branding and obtaining international certificates.

Guliyev also reminded that it is also planned to launch the State Register of Tourism in Azerbaijan this year. He further noted that Azerbaijans taking over the presidency in the Global Healthcare Travel Council will contribute to an even greater development of tourism in the country.

The health tourism in Azerbaijan has been noticeably improved after the adoption of the state program on development of resorts in 2009-2018. The Association to support the health and thermal tourism in Azerbaijan was established in order to boost the health tourism, and modern medical and health centers were opened in Baku, Naftalan, Nakhchivan, Galaalti, Gabala, Lankaran and other regions of the country. It is noteworthy that Azerbaijan was named among Top five countries in the category of Wellness Holiday, according to the results of the Internet voting of National Geographic Traveler Awards 2017.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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Struggling retailer Sears Holdings Corp. intends to sell its Beaumont store and 16 other profitable locations in Texas, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan in an online auction next month.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the stores, 15 of which are attached to malls, are being marketed for sale and lease-back, which means the Beaumont store could remain open after the sale.

However, "some properties with agreements that allow modifications could be turned into self-storage, hotel or residential space," said the Journal, which first reported the story.

Real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield is partnering with auction site Real Insight Marketplace to sell the stores.

> > RELATED: 15 retailers that could declare bankruptcy in 2018

The sale is part of Sears' ongoing efforts to wring money from its real estate and "protect its financial liquidity amid chronic and deep sales declines," according to Forbes magazine.

Forbes said that though Sears, which also operates the Kmart chain, "has closed hundreds of stores in recent years, in many cases it has also simply sold a store and then leased it back to continue operating a store, or shrunk the space it occupies in a store and renting out the rest to a tenant, which have included retailers like Whole Foods Market."

The Journal said nearly 200 groups, including "developers, retailers and real-estate investment funds," have told Cushman & Wakefield they are interested in the 16 stores. The deadline to join the auction is May 1. Later next month, interested buyers can bid on one store or more in a real-time online auction, according to Real Insight Marketplace.

> > MORE: Read more about the sale-and-leaseback deals

In addition to the Sears store in Parkdale Mall, the other Texas locations up for sale include stores at Dear-brook Mall in Humble, San Jacinto Mall in Baytown, Rolling Oaks Mall in San Antonio and Plaza Paseo Mall in Pasadena.

> > RELATED: These Texas businesses have laid off the most employees so far this year

Forbes said on Monday that "Sears' struggles have been such that it is on credit ratings agency Moody's 'watch list' of distressed retailers."

Sears announced earlier this month it would close 166 stores by mid-July. On Monday, the company added two dozen stores in 17 states to that list of closures.

Also on Monday, Private equity firm ESL Investment  Sears' biggest shareholder  suggested the company sell its popular Kenmore brand, offering itself as a potential buyer, according to the Associated Press.

In an attempt to stay in the black, Sears has already sold off other major brands, including Craftsman tools.

ESL Investment is headed by Sears chairman and CEO Edward Lampert.

Lampert, according to the Associated Press, said ESL "might buy" Sears' assets  Kenmore, Sears Home Services' home improvement business and the company's Parts Direct business  "if the company is willing to sell."

"Lampert, who combined Sears and Kmart in 2005 after helping bring Kmart out of bankruptcy, has long pledged to turn the company's fortunes around," the Associated Press reported. "He said the retailer would find ways to capitalize on its best-known brands like Kenmore appliances and Die-Hard car batteries, as well as its vast holdings of land."

The Associated Press said in Lampert's letter to the Sears board, he wrote "Sears has been trying to sell the Kenmore businesses for nearly two years, but it has been unable to do so."

"Kenmore could have substantial value," the Associated Press reported."Amazon.com began selling Kenmore appliances on its site almost a year ago. ESL has not placed a potential value on Kenmore, but said its non-binding proposal gives the services and home improvement units an enterprise value of $500 million."

According to Lampert's letter, "ESL said it also would be open to making an offer for Sears' real estate, including the assumption of $1.2 billion in debt."


Investigators are probing possible links between two macabre discoveries 150 miles apart, one on Lake Houston and the other near Calcasieu Lake in Louisiana, where the severed heads of two women were found in plastic bags near lakes and RV parks.

The unidentified victims, both white women with reddish hair and good teeth, are thought to be within the same age range and were found in similar surroundings about three weeks apart, investigators said.

In the Lake Houston case, two clean-up volunteers found a severed head in a large black plastic bag on March 24. They were working along FM 1960 East in Huffman and found the human head on rocks in a portion of the lake patrolled by the Houston Police Department. The Lake Houston Marina, an open access recreational vehicle park with residents and visitors alike, is adjacent to where the womans head was recovered.

The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences released an anthropological profile on April 5 that showed the Lake Houston victim was a woman between young adulthood and middle age, who was either white or Hispanic. She had reddish brown or auburn shoulder-length hair with 3 to 4 inches of very dark brown roots, and her eyebrows and eyelashes had either been permanently or semi-permanently tattooed, according to the MEs profile.

Cameron Parish Sheriffs Office investigator Jake McCain and HPD homicide investigator Michael Perez have acknowledged the similarities in the cases and victims, and agreed to keep each other updated on their respective findings.

The description of the remains found near Calcasieu Lake in Cameron Parish sounds real similar" to the Lake Houston case, Perez said earlier this month in a text message to the Houston Chronicle. But he added he "cant say much without actually meeting with detectives and seeing their crime scene photos.

Perez noted that dental records could potentially help identify the Lake Houston woman because she had really good teeth, a condition that likely ruled out drug abuse.

Perez and his partner, Andrew Barr, released information about a person of interest on April 6.

The officers are looking for a man in his early to mid-20s who was seen about 2:30 to 3 p.m. throwing a black plastic bag off the bridge near where the head was found, two weeks prior to the discovery.

The man, described as having short dark brown hair with long bangs, was seen getting out of the front passenger side of a teal or a bluish green Chevrolet Silverado extended cab truck. He is about 5-foot-4 to 5-foot-8 tall and has light skin. The truck was rusted and appeared to have been in several wrecks. The back left passenger window was missing and was covered by what looked like cardboard.

While HPD has already released a description of a person and vehicle of interest, a forensic artists sketch and an anthropological profile, Cameron Parish is waiting on forensics from Louisiana State Universitys forensics lab to determine more about the victim whose decomposition was more advanced. The analysis could take up to six months to complete, McCain said.

In the Cameron Parish case, a prison inmate doing clean-up labor found the severed head on March 1 in a small grocery bag in a grassy marsh next to Louisiana Highway 27, a couple of miles north of the Sabine National Wildlife Park headquarters. The site is about a mile south of a community of recreational vehicle parks in Hackberry, La., and less than a mile from Calcasieu Lake, whose tributaries appear to reach out to the marshes where the head was found.

Based on Louisiana state highway maintenance records, McCain said the last date the lawn was mowed in that spot was Nov. 30. Had the bag been there at the time, mowers would have probably noticed, he said.

Different agencies in Texas have contacted the Cameron Parish Sheriffs Office to determine if the head belongs to a missing person they are investigating, but the dates fail to fit the timeline of this person, according to McCain.

Preliminary forensic analysis determined the victim in Cameron Parish to be white, between 25 and 40, with auburn or brown hair 10 to 12 inches long. The advanced stage of decomposition bars visually determining any facial features, according to the Cameron Parish Sheriffs Office. She had no apparent trauma to her skull.

The condition of the teeth of the woman found in Cameron Parish was good, but were beginning to be affected from deterioration. McCain said X-rays determined the woman had undergone obvious dental work which included a couple of cavity fillings. He said the condition of her teeth made it unlikely she was a transient, but a missing persons dental records would have to first be submitted for cross referencing to be done.

Cameron Parish has no persons who have been reported missing.

McCain said the medical examiner in neighboring Calcasieu Parish has determined the womans remains were not consistent with the profiles of any of about a half dozen people reported missing there.

jose.gonzalez@chron.com

twitter.com/jrgzztx
At this point it's not even clear that Andrew White will prevail over former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez in the May 22 runoff for the Democratic nomination for governor. And candidates of both parties will say a lot during campaigns to get attention or fire up their base.

Even with those qualifications, however, White has done something worthwhile for Democrats ... and Republicans. He has put forth several interesting proposals on improving public education in Texas. Unless Texans are satisfied with the status quo - and we don't see how they could be - these ideas should be part of the campaign for governor - and the next session of the Legislature.

Ironically, a key part of White's proposal might be a non-starter - legalizing casino gambling in Texas to raise more money for education.

Lots of Texans would support the second part of that but not the first. More gambling of any kind probably won't get through the Legislature as long as Republicans control both chambers.

In all, White wants to devote $6.5 billion more to education and cut local property taxes by an additional $2.5 billion. To help pay for the $9 billion plan, he wants to divert $1 billion from border security (which he maintains the federal government is paying for now) and close a $5 billion loophole in commercial property taxes.

Even if casino gambling is not in the future, members of both parties seem to understand that Texas has to spend more on public education - or at least halt the continuing erosion of state aid that forces local taxpayers to spend more.

State aid has dropped from 48 percent in 2008 to 38 percent now. That's an unfunded mandate if there ever was one, and it's hard to imagine better schools if that trend continues.

Gov. Greg Abbott has his own ideas on education, from more pre-K to fewer bureaucratic restrictions on local school districts. When Abbott debates either White or Valdez this fall, Texans deserve to hear serious, realistic ways to improve a public education system that must at least meet national averages, if not exceed them.

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This is our opinion; what is yours? Email us a letter to the editor at opinions@beaumontenterprise.com Make sure to include your name, mailing address and phone number so we can contact you to verify the letter, but only your name and city of residence will be published. You can also mail letters to The Enterprise, P.O. Box 3071, Beaumont, TX, 77704. The limit on letters is 200 words.
When it was opened by a private physicians group in 1988, Surgery Center of Rome (Ga.) had three ORs and about 12 physicians, according to Hometown Headlines.

The ASC now has four operating rooms and a team of 45 physicians  including surgeons, anesthesiologists and pathologists  and 43 nurses, scrub techs, administrative staff and other support staff.

Here are six things to know about the ASC, which is celebrating its 30th birthday.

1. Upon opening, Surgery Center of Rome was one of about 1,000 ASCs in the U.S. It was the first ASC in Northwest Georgia.

2. The ASC offers tonsillectomies, cataract extractions and other minor surgeries. An estimated 125,000 procedures have been performed at the center since it was established.

3. Recently retired Registered Nurse Diane Jones helped open the ASC. She was a recovery room nurse at Redmond Park and agreed to help set up the ASC's recovery room on a "temporary" basis. She worked at the facility for 10 years.

"It was an efficiently run place and an exciting time to be here," she said.

4. The Rome-based Redmond Park Hospital, which is now Redmond Regional Medical Center, acquired the facility shortly after it opened.

5. A 2001 building renovation added a fourth surgical suite and more storage space.

6. The ASC became part of HCA Tri-Star's Ambulatory Surgery Division in 2004.
Burnsville, Minn.-based Ridges Surgery Center, a strategic partnership between 16 independent physicians, Surgical Care Affiliates and a major health system, was able to build a strong foundation for success and break even five months after opening, according to a case study.

Here are four key points on the center.

1. The ASC attributes its success to finding the right strategic alignment partners to develop the successful de novo center. SCA facilitated the development of the multispecialty center and led syndication of 16 additional independent physicians.

2. With 25 physician partners now and more than 70 credentialed physicians using the center, Ridges Surgery Center hosts a variety of procedures including total joint replacements.

3. The physicians and health system partners were looking for value-based options for patients, and SCA was able to foster the partnership. The physicians were able to remain independent while strengthening their relationship with the health system and better coordinating care.

4. The facility increased equity value by 125 percent and physician partners received their first quarterly distributions one year after opening.
Michael Chmell, MD, an orthopedic surgeon with OrthoIllinois, discusses outpatient total joint replacements in ASCs and where he sees the biggest opportunities in the future.

Is a total joint ASC in your future? Learn more about developing a successful program in this upcoming webinar on May 22, 2018. Click here to learn more and register.

Question: What is the biggest challenge for total joint replacements in ASCs?

Dr. Michael Chmell: The first big challenge is achieving insurance contracting and fee schedule for outpatient total joints. Medicare hasn't covered them yet and a lot of insurers typically cover a percentage of Medicare. One of the things we had to do over the past year was get in front of our major private insurance companies to tell them what we can do. Having a track record to demonstrate to the insurance company that total joints in ASCs can be done safety was important. We showed we could do it at the hospital before taking those cases to the ASC.

The other challenge in launching total joints in our ASC has been organizing everyone and making sure we were all on the same page. We have done outpatient total joints now for two years, but early on we had to get organized with our DME, walkers and other supplies patients needed. If the cases were in the hospital, the hospital would have that equipment ready for them, but we didn't have that already in the ASC. We also had to make sure the patients had physical therapy and home health services after surgery.

All of that had to be set up 10 days preoperatively or the case couldn't be done. I did several cases at the hospital outpatient, but I hadn't thought of everything that had to happen on the day of surgery.

All of our patients now see a therapist preoperatively to get the walker and learn how to use it before the procedure.

Q: Were there any supply issues in adding total joints?

CM: Total joints are much bigger cases than the knee arthroscopy and other outpatient procedures, so having space for sterilization and storage of implants has become an issue. One way we've handled that is going through the single vendor model where all specialties in orthopedics go through a single vendor. We use 80 percent of our products from one vendor and think that's important for us to optimize space and cost.

The same people are there for every case with our products and the staff are all very familiar with those products.

Q: How does patient education factor into successful total joints at ASCs?

MC: The ideal patient is educatable and has support at home. Patients need good health and low risk; we do a risk assessment protocol where our team of case managers conducts interviews with patients about their health status and whether they have assistance at home. We learn about their bad habits and identify their risk assessment score as to whether they would be a good candidate for surgery at the ASC. An ASC doesn't want to start doing total joints for a private insurer and then have readmissions to the hospital.

The other essential element is a high quality staff. The staff are contacting the patients the night of surgery and patients always need to have someone to call when they have difficulties.

Q: How do you see total joints in ASCs growing in the future?

MC: Right now we are looking at bundled payments with private insurers. We have been doing BPCI since it started for the whole 90-day experience from the day of surgery to preop management to home health and physical therapy with one patient. We started the risk assessments because we didn't want those patients to be readmitted under the bundle.

Hopefully Medicare will allow us to transition outpatient total joint replacements to ASCs. I have many patient who would qualify for outpatient total joints at the ASC and want to go there but can't because Medicare doesn't allow it. We are considering a 23-hour stay right now; we've done around 200 total hips and knees combined and all have gone home the day of surgery. We don't have the physical space for it yet, but that's something we are considering.
Earlier in 2018 , the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services and the Illinois Department of Human Services mailed 4,136 individuals notices that contained their personal information to incorrect addresses, a department spokesperson confirmed to Becker's Hospital Review.

The mailings  which listed the right individuals but the wrong addresses  were sent in February. They could have included some health insurance, medical and financial information, as well as dates of birth. However, detailed medical records and Social Security numbers were not exposed and the risk of identity theft is believed to be "very low," according to an agency news release.

The department could not confirm whether any of the notices had been opened. Additionally, the department reconfigured its system to prevent future incidents.

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Orlando-based Florida Hospital, part of Altamonte Springs, Fla.-based Adventist Health System, plans to invest $600 million in acquisitions and renovations over the next three years, according to the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

Here are eight projects Florida Hospital will invest in.

1. The biggest project underway is Florida Hospital Tampa's new patient tower, which will cost $300 million. The tower will feature additional beds, operating rooms and parking.

2. The hospital also plans to revamp its emergency department at Tarpon Springs-based Florida Hospital North Pinellas for $30 million. It will also spend $17.5 million to expand Tampa-based Florida Hospital Carrollwood's ED, which will add 15 private rooms, effectively doubling the number of patients who can receive healthcare services.

3. Florida Hospital is also embarking on a network expansion into Lakeland, Fla., where it recently purchased 103 acres for $14.5 million. A freestanding emergency room and a hospital are proposed for the site.

4. Land O' Lakes-based Florida Hospital Connerton Long Term Acute Care will begin an expansion May 31 to add 25 beds and an intensive care unit.

5. Adventist's Florida Hospital also recently leasedMonroeRegionalMedicalCenter, a 421-bed facility in Ocala, Fla.

6. Florida Hospital's three-year capital investment plan also includes expanding its ambulatory care network. Currently, the hospital plans to construct three freestanding emergency rooms in Westchase, Fla., and two in Brandon, Fla. Further, it aims to increase the number of urgent care clinics from six to 10.

7. In the past year, Florida Hospital also opened a $31.5 million facility at Florida Hospital Wauchula with 25 inpatient rooms and Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel opened a 24-bed ED.

8. "Tampa is a growing market and one of the staples of a growing community is healthcare," Florida Hospital CEO Michael Schultz told the Tampa Bay Business Journal.
Board members of the shuttered Tulare (Calif.) Regional Medical Center are considering selling the hospital's gym and surrounding land to help the hospital reopen nearly six months after closing, according to a Visalia Times Delta report.

Tulare hospital's gym, Evolutions Fitness and Rehabilitation Center, closed for a month after the hospital shuttered in late October 2017. A group of individuals later reopened the gym, as it doesn't need a medical license to operate. In doing so, the gym became the only profitable asset for Tulare.



However, hospital board President Kevin Northcraft said during a recent board meeting members discussed selling the gym and its adjoining 3.9 acres of underdeveloped land, which together are worth about $10.5 million.

The possible sale could bring in necessary cash for the hospital, but it would still be short of the roughly $15 million board members predict the hospital needs to reopen. Tulare's CFO Dan Heckathorne told the Visalia Times Delta should the hospital reopen, it could take about three months for it to reel in steady revenue and longer to become profitable, in addition to refilling the 500-plus positions eliminated during the closure.

Other hospital administrators are concerned selling the gym will mean losing the hospital's only source of steady income. For now, the possible sale is held up by a $5.9 million lien on Evolutions Fitness and Rehabilitation Center. However, a bankruptcy attorney told the publication a lawsuit is challenging the lien.
The Department of Veterans Affairs named Adam Robinson, MD, acting director of the Washington D.C. VA Medical Center, according to a Stars and Stripes report.

Here are five notes:

1. Dr. Robinson, who is slated to serve in the role for four months, is the director of Baltimore-based VA Maryland Health Care System.

2. He has 30-plus years of leadership experience in the Falls Church, Va.-based U.S. Military Health System, winning numerous honors, including the Distinguished Service Medal.

3. He served as the 36th Surgeon General of the United States Navy.

4. Dr. Robinson takes over a few weeks after the departure of retired Army Col. Lawrence Connell.

5. It was intended that Mr. Connell would continue as director permanently, however "issues regarding technical aspects of his initial appointment" made it impossible for him to do so.
The Hospitals of Providence in El Paso, Texas, selected Nicholas Tejeda to serve as market CEO, according to an El Paso Herald report.

Here are four things to know:

1. Mr. Tejeda most recently served as CEO for The Hospitals of Providence Transmountain Campus and Sierra Campus, both in El Paso.

2. He has worked at The Hospitals of Providence since 2015.

3. During his time with the organization, he helped establish an affiliation with Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso.

4. Mr. Tejeda will work with Monica Vargas-Mahar, market COO and CEO of The Hospitals of Providence East Campus in El Paso, to oversee the El Paso market.
The Communications Workers of America has brought a complaint to the Department of Labor against General Dynamics Information Technology, the contactor that operates ACA call centers, alleging the company has been underpaying its workers, according to The Hill.

The company employs 10,000 workers at its 11 call centers that assist customers attempting to sign up for programs such as the ACA and Medicare. The complaint alleges GDIT underpaid its workers more than $100 million by misclassifying them in a lower pay category that does not correspond to the work they perform.

"These complaints provide further evidence that thousands of workers at a majority of GDIT call centers across the nation are systemically underpaid," CWA President Chris Shelton said in a statement, according to The Hill. "That's why we are calling on the Department of Labor to conduct an enterprisewide investigation at GDIT."

GDIT officials responded by saying the union filing does not represent the company's employees.

"The company takes seriously our obligations under the Fair Labor Standards Act and Service Contract Act," GDIT said in a statement, according to The Hill. "Our call center employees are not represented by the Communications Workers of America. Similar to other federal contractors, the company is subject to routine compliance reviews and as with any notice received it will engage with the relevant parties including our employees and the Department of Labor."
The CEO of St. Mary-Corwin Medical Center in Pueblo, Colo., said two-thirds of the estimated 300 employees affected by the hospital's restructuring plan will have new jobs in the near future, according to KOAA.

Mike Cafasso, CEO of St. Mary-Corwin Medical Center, said those two-thirds employees will either have a new job or offers for a new job by the end of May, according to the report. He noted the hospital will continue to try to help the remaining affected workers.

St. Mary-Corwin Medical Center, part of Centennial, Colo.-based Centura Health, in March revealed plans to lay off about 300 employees and scale back its telemetry and intensive care unit.

Efforts have since been ongoing to help affected employees in various ways, including job fairs, according to the report.

Mr. Cafasso estimated "nearly two-thirds of our people or a little over two-thirds of our people" have offers in employment, either with Centura or somewhere else.

The hospital's restructuring plan  which also includes expanding the surgical unit, hiring more staff, growing cancer care and increasing orthopedics and joint replacement services  is expected to begin in May.

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It's no secret that value-based care is here to stay. Value-based care has already proven effective for achieving better care, smarter spending and healthier people. Now we are challenged to implement strategies to achieve the desired outcomes for our patients as well as our providers and associates.

Historically, health systems have designed a sort of clinical hierarchy where everyone else played a supporting role. One of many changes the shift to value has brought about is an examination of these long-held conventions, which require us to ask how everyone can listen, collaborate and learn as an integrated team.

According to research by Bain & Company, physicians who feel engaged in the decision-making process within their organizations are more likely to participate in value-based payment models, which makes building integrated, collegial relationships between providers and administrators all the more important. Research also shows that nurses and other personnel who report being proud of their organization and believe in its commitment to quality and safety perform better on outcome metrics such as patient experience and safety.

Provider engagement  coupled with efforts to establish clear career paths and learning opportunities  is not only a means to attract and retain top talent; it's also an important strategy to drive better patient outcomes. We anticipate this approach will accelerate our progress toward another outcome objective: restoring the joy of our providers practice.

That's why Ascension recently embarked on an effort to re-imagine the clinical learning experience across our 2,600 sites of care in 22 states and the District of Columbia . This included the development of a plan for a nationally aligned clinical education community  a coordinated, structured approach to eliminate professional development disparities, increase care efficiencies, and empower our clinicians to practice at the top of licensure.

After taking a hard look at the significant variability in learning quality across our network, we realized it was time to leverage the size of our ministry and our commitment to innovation. This new design has allowed us to unlock quality learning and career progression opportunities for our clinical providers. It has also allowed us to harness the untapped expertise of individuals across our national clinical education community, resulting in a robust pipeline of clinical talent across the care continuum that helps us achieve exceptional health outcomes for patients at a lower cost.

We recognize that nurses are the lifeblood of our organization. Through a new national onboarding program that originated in one of our Detroit hospitals, we have begun to integrate experiential learning simulation and deliberate practice from the start. The intention is to develop more confident associates that will in turn increase satisfaction, decrease orientation time, increase retention and improve patient outcomes. The holistic program aims to bridge the gap between nursing school and clinical practice for newly licensed nurses and caregivers by listening, taking action and learning together. We have discovered that a coordinated and structured approach increases our effectiveness and efficiency.

But it's not enough to produce and support experts in each component along the care continuum. To truly achieve care excellence, system leaders must also be in the business of creating exceptional experiences for the people they serve and the people they employ. We think of the people we serve as just that: people, not just as patients, so that we can connect with and care for them  mind, body and spirit. We must also extend that same reverence and care to our providers, associates and partners who help people and communities all across the country. That's why we work hard to create a culture in which every person who walks through our doors  patient and provider alike  feels valued and understood, who knows that Ascension is where productive, inclusive connections are made.

We can achieve this transformational shift to value only if we invest in the talent of our people and partner with them on their professional journey  one that requires a commitment to lifelong learning, an aptitude for innovation and openness to new approaches. We have room to improve, but many health systems are on their way to realizing care excellence by empowering their providers, associates and partners to do what they do best: to deliver compassionate, personalized care to all.

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While congressional Republicans are shying away from healthcare ahead of midterm elections, conservative leaders outside of government are pushing again for ACA repeal.

In an open letter published by conservative political news source The Daily Signal, former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., and 35 other conservatives called for the revival of the Graham-Cassidy bill, a failed ACA repeal bill that would have ended Medicaid expansion, installed Medicaid block grants, eliminated cost-sharing subsidies and tax credits, and ended the mandates to buy health insurance.

"Obamacare is broken and cannot be fixed, and there is a better way forward," the letter reads. The letter outlines the signatories' three main goals for healthcare: to lower costs and increase choices, give states more flexibility, and create guidelines so patients have more private coverage options.

"We believe this path could get majority support in Congress and show the American people that members understand their distress. We are inspired by the willingness of so many to work creatively toward providing this down payment solution to begin addressing Obamacare's problems," the letter states.

Read more here.

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Medical groups are calling on CMS to lessen the reporting period for the Merit-based Incentive Payment System in 2018 and future years.

In an April 16 letter to CMS Administrator Seema Verma, nearly 50 medical associations  including the American Medical Association, Association of American Medical Colleges and the Medical Group Management Association  called for a reduction in the reporting period due to CMS delays and the administrative burden associated with reporting.

Physicians eligible for MIPS are responsible for reporting data beginning Jan. 1; however, eligibility information wasn't posted until April 6. Due to changes to the program in late 2017 and early 2018, it was difficult for physicians to self-determine if they were subject to MIPS, the groups claimed. Furthermore, CMS posted eligibility information on their website and did not send letters directly to physicians informing them of their status as they have for programs prior, the medical groups wrote.

The website also currently has 2017 program information and will not be updated until the summer, causing additional hardship for clinicians in the program.

Because of the delayed eligibility determination, lack of direct notification and "severe delay" in updating the program website with 2018 information, CMS should reduce the reporting period for 2018 from 365 days to a minimum of 90 days, the groups wrote. They also called for CMS to reduce the reporting period in subsequent years to stay "consistent with CMS' efforts to reduce clinician burden and put patients over paperwork." The program will require an estimated 7.6 million hours of recordkeeping, costing roughly $700 million.

Access the full letter here.

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Three Native American tribes revealed plans to assume control of Sioux San Hospital, a nine-bed facility in Rapid City, S.D., from the U.S. Indian Health Service, according to the Rapid City Journal.

The Oglala Sioux, Cheyenne River Sioux and Rosebud Sioux tribes each passed a resolution allowing the Great Plains Tribal Chairmen's Health Board to manage daily operations at the hospital, according to a news release from the board obtained by the Rapid City Journal. The hospital would continue to be funded by the federal government.

Tribal officials cited a recent history of poor care delivery at Sioux San Hospital and the IHS' decision to close the hospital's emergency department, among other reasons, to attempt to assume management of the hospital.

Tribal officials said the formal transition process may last between three and six months.

"The IHS recognizes that Tribes are in the best position to understand and address their own healthcare needs and priorities and supports tribal leaders and members' rights to self-determination and self-governance. The IHS looks forward to working with the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, the Oglala Sioux Tribe, and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe as they explore available options under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act for the Sioux San Hospital, including planning activities, meeting eligibility requirements, providing technical assistance, and more," a spokesperson for the IHS told the Rapid City Journal April 20.
Registered nurses and nurse practitioners at northern and central California facilities owned by Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente ratified a labor deal with the healthcare giant.

The five-year contract covers 19,000 Kaiser Permanente registered nurses and nurse practitioners represented by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United. It includes an agreement from Kaiser to hire 150 new registered nurses to help ensure a smooth transition from Kaiser's existing GRASP patient classification system to Epic Acuity, according to a union news release. Most of those new hires (106) are expected to take place within the next 90 days.

"We made very positive strides towards safer care by achieving the addition of new RN resource positions as part of this agreement," said Diane McClure, RN, Kaiser South Sacramento. "We know that the care of our patients will benefit with the addition of these nurses who can supplement the current staffing levels with an extra set of hands to help in busy and difficult situations."

The contract also includes an across-the-board 12 percent pay increase and 3 percent lump sum over the course of the contract, according to a separate union news release. Additionally, it includes about 600 patient care coordinator RNs, who help coordinate patients' care following discharge. PCCs voted to unionize last year.

Zenei Cortez, RN, Kaiser South San Francisco, CNA co-president, and chair of the nurse negotiating team said with the PCCs, "all Kaiser nurses will be better able to advocate for our patients from admission to discharge, resulting in better care and safer outcomes."

Debora Catsavas, senior vice president of human resources at Kaiser Permanente Northern California, was also pleased with the contract.

"The contract reflects our respect for Kaiser Permanente nurses and the excellent care they provide to our members and patients," she said in a statement to Becker's Hospital Review.

"The new contract represents our shared commitment to high quality, safe patient care, and demonstrates our agreement on common goals that support the best interests of our members, employees, and our entire organization. We are excited about moving forward and working together with our nurses to implement the new contract and further our mission of high quality, affordable care and service for our members and patients."

Healthcare workers approved a tentative labor deal in March.

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As lawmakers and White House officials wrestle with how to fight the opioid crisis, the Trump administration extended its opioid public health emergency for the second time, according to an HHS spokesperson cited by The Hill.

President Donald Trump initially announced the national public health emergency in October 2017. The first order lasted 90 days, as does each extension by the HHS secretary. "We can be the generation that ends the opioid epidemic," President Trump said in the October declaration.

However, addiction advocates have critiqued the country's actions to address the opioid crisis, arguing the country had not done enough to prevent it.

President Trump released a plan to fight the opioid crisis in March, which contained several ideas that received approval from public health advocates. However, the plan faced criticism because it included pursuing the death penalty for certain drug traffickers.

Lawmakers are working on legislation to fight the epidemic. The Senate Health Committee is set to mark up its bipartisan bill April 24, and the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee will vote on more than 60 bills starting April 25.
Seattle-based UW Medicine will simultaneously close the inpatient psychiatric unit at University of Washington Medical Center and open a new 12-bed voluntary psychiatric inpatient unit at Northwest Hospital and Medical Center.

Here are five things to know about the plans.

1. Both moves are slated for fall 2019.

2. Closure of the 10-bed psychiatric unit at UW Medical Center comes after UW Medicine considered various options for the unit, including closure, due to a variety of factors, including the older space at UW Medical Center's current unit and the cost of meeting CMS' new requirements about ligature risk in such units.

3. Since the unit at UW Medical Center will not meet CMS' new requirements, the new unit at Northwest Hospital "will allow us to serve more patients in a state-of-the-art facility," said Jurgen Unutzer, MD, chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Seattle-based University of Washington School of Medicine.

He added: "Patients will also benefit from the therapeutic and support systems at Northwest Hospital's existing 27-bed geriatric psychiatry unit, which will also undergo facility improvements."

4. After the unit closes, psychiatric patients will be evaluated in the emergency department or in a medical or surgical unit of UW Medical Center, according to UW Medicine. Inpatient psychiatric patients will be able to go to Harborview Medical Center or Northwest Hospital, both in Seattle. UW Medicine said some outpatient psychiatric patients may also be referred to outpatient mental health services offered at UW Medical Center, Harborview, Hall Health or the UW neighborhood clinics.

5. The 10-bed psychiatric unit at UW Medical Center typically serves nine voluntary patients per day, and admits on average 430 patients annually, according to hospital officials. A total of 26 employees, including an attending physician, staff the unit. The current inpatient psychiatric unit at Northwest Hospital has 27 geriatric beds.

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11 recent hospital ward, unit closures and service terminations

Texas hospital to shutter labor and delivery unit
Atlanta-based Piedmont Healthcare and Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia signed a three-year contract April 20, three days after announcing a handshake agreement.

Here are three things to know about the deal.



1. The new agreement will allow Anthem BCBS members to seek treatment from Piedmont physicians and at the system's facilities at in-network rates through 2021. It also considers visits and services delivered since the parties' April 1 contract lapse as in network.



2. Piedmont will begin calling patients, especially those who canceled appointments for hospital-based services because of the dispute, to notify them of the change. Piedmont encourages all patients who canceled or delayed care during the lapsed contract to reschedule with their Piedmont physician.

3. The pen and paper agreement comes after Republican Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal threatened executive actions if the two sides didn't reach an agreement by April 17. Piedmont and Anthem BCBS shook hands on an agreement that same day.
Danbury-based Western Connecticut State University shut down its campus April 23 after 100 students were sickened with norovirus, according to the NewsTimes.

Dozens of students suddenly fell ill April 20, complaining of symptoms including vomiting and diarrhea. Fourteen students were admitted to Danbury Hospital and five tested positive for norovirus, which is a highly contagious illness that can lead to severe dehydration.

University officials canceled classes and closed the campus April 23 as a precaution while state and county health departments found the source of the outbreak.

Since norovirus is not spread through the air, the university reopened April 24 because officials said they could safety hold classes if students wash their hands and sick students stay home for 72 hours after their symptoms have subsided.

WCSU staff spent the weekend cleaning in the cafeteria and common areas to help stop the spread of the illness.
St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital is significantly cutting the number of operations performed at the facility and halting certain complicated surgeries after physicians discharged a baby with a suture needle in her heart from a surgery in 2016, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Here are five things to know.

1. The patient, Katelynn Whipple, was born with an interrupted aortic arch in July 2016. The needle was found in her heart during a follow-up visit later that month, and Katelynn's parents returned to All Children's to have the needle removed. However, the surgeon who operated on her told her parents the needle did not exist. Ten days later, Katelynn's parents took her to a different hospital for emergency operation unrelated to the needle. Within 30 minutes, that surgeon found the needle lodged in her aorta.

2. Although the needle left in Katelynn's chest did not cause any overall damage, All Children's later settled with her family for about $50,000, the majority of which will be paid to Katelynn when she is an adult. Tom Karl, MD, the lead surgeon who performed the initial operation on Katelynn, is not currently practicing at the hospital, but is on its medical staff "and could be called on upon if there was an emergency," Jonathan Ellen, MD, the hospital's CEO, told the Tampa Bay Times.

3. When asked about Katelynn's case and widespread issues with the hospital's Heart Institute, All Children's leaders informed the Tampa Bay Times of numerous issues not previously publicized, including a rising mortality rate for heart surgery patients and at least one top surgeon who has ceased operating. All Children's also acknowledged needles were left in two children since 2016.

"If I said to you we didn't have challenges, I'd be lying," Dr. Ellen told the Tampa Bay Times.

4. In response to these issues, the institute cut its number of operations and stopped performing some complicated surgeries, according to Dr. Ellen. He told the Tampa Bay Times the Heart Institute is working to improve patient care and prevent pediatric patients from being harmed. "If we found something that went wrong, we would notify our board, we would notify the right regulatory agencies, we would look at our processes," Dr. Ellen said.

5. The hospital is also referring certain complex cases to other heart programs. "We don't think we necessarily at this point are the best for some of the highly complex cases," he said. However, Dr. Ellen is still optimistic about the future of the Heart Institute and is searching for a surgeon to lead the department.
Health officials from two western Wisconsin counties issued a warning of a potential measles exposure April 23, according to KMSP.

The health departments of La Crosse and Trempleau, Wis., counties, were informed that a patient with a confirmed case of measles visited several hotels and businesses, including a retail store and restaurants.

The Wisconsin report follows an announcement from New York health officials, who issued a warning April 22 about possible measles exposures across New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Health officials are requesting people experiencing potential measles symptoms, including high fever, cough and rash, to call ahead to a healthcare facility before arriving to limit possible exposure.

"If someone has been potentially exposed and has signs consistent with measles, it is important they stay isolated from others to keep from spreading it," said La Crosse County Health Department Director, Jennifer Rombalski, RN, in a press release, according to KMSP.
High drug costs were a major topic of discussion at the National Business Group on Health's conference April 18-20 in Washington, D.C., according to CNBC health reporter Christina Farr.

Ms. Farr attended the conference alongside executives who oversee benefits for major U.S. companies like Amazon and IBM.

During an April 20 session, the National Business Group on Health's president and CEO Brian Marcotte asked attendees to submit one word to describe the pharmaceutical supply chain. He posted the results as a word cloud, which included words like "convoluted," "confusing," "expensive," "a mess" and "no transparency."

Ms. Farr noted some companies are teaming up to address the underlying issues driving high drug costs, such as the joint venture Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan announced in January.

"I got a general sense at the conference that employers were unsatisfied," Ms. Farr concluded. "They asked tough questions, held companies in the drug supply chain to task and seemed eager to learn about its complexities. Let's hope they use their collective power for good."
Advanced practice nurses and physician assistants are playing increasingly important roles in patient care and organized leadership, stirring up a new set of challenges and opportunities for hospitals and health systems.

A growing workforce of advanced practice professionals is countering physician shortages across the U.S., and more of these clinicians are stepping into medical staff leadership positions. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates the NP and PA workforce will increase 36 percent and 37 percent, respectively, by 2026, compared to just 13 percent growth in the physician workforce.

This article was sponsored by The Greeley Company.

With so much growth in the APP workforce, it's no wonder these clinicians are increasingly engaged in governance, management and leadership positions at hospitals and systems.

"APPs are engaged in all clinical aspects of healthcare delivery and provide the opportunity for a well-rounded, collaborative medical staff leadership team," says Sally Pelletier, chief credentialing officer at The Greeley Company, a national healthcare consulting and professional services firm in the greater Boston area.

The Greeley Company coined the term APP in 2008 after recognizing the industry's need to identify non-physician healthcare professionals who provide medical care and need to be privileged through the medical staff process, according to Ms. Pelletier. "At the time, there was a lot of confusion in the field due to the term 'allied health professional' being used to define both privileged and nonprivileged healthcare professionals," she says.

Physician assistants and advanced practice nurses  including certified registered nurse anesthetists, certified nurse midwives, nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists  fall under the umbrella of APP, which is now a widely used term in healthcare credentialing.

This article discusses the expanding role of APPs and identifies regulatory considerations and internal governance changes hospitals and health systems can implement to support these medical leaders as they step into leadership roles.

Then and now: How and why the APP role is expanding

APPs entered healthcare in the mid-1960s as a creative solution to fill care gaps and manage capacity issues created by physician shortages, particularly in the primary care area.

University of Colorado in Denver launched the first nurse practitioner program in 1965. By 1980, there were more than 200 NP programs available for students in the U.S, according to American Association of Nurse Practitioners.

The growth of APP positions throughout the past 50 years reflects the value hospitals and health systems see in deploying these individuals to support patient care. Yet because APPs first emerged to supplement the physician workforce, these clinicians initially lacked autonomy in healthcare settings, thus undercutting the benefits of their roles.

"APPs' initial scope of practice within the hospital setting was often limited with strict rules for co-signatures and/or requirements for the physician to also round the same day  essentially negating the benefit of the NP or PA," says Ms. Pelletier.

Fast forward four decades, and APPs are now gaining more autonomy and prominence than ever before, stepping into medical staff leadership roles traditionally held by physicians. These roles include medical staff officer and department chair positions, as well as chair or member positions on the hospital's credentials committee or medical executive committee with full voting rights.

"We are seeing this change in increasing numbers across the country," says Ms. Pelletier. She identified four major trends driving this role change for APPs.

1. A national physician shortage. The Association of American Medical Colleges projects the U.S. will face a shortage of up to 120,000 physicians by 2030. This deficit is due in part to an aging physician workforce; about 43 percent of physicians in the U.S. are 55 years or older, meaning a retirement wave is looming, according to a 2017 report from Merritt Hawkins. The healthcare industry will rely on APPs to fill these absences in the healthcare setting.

2. Increasing demands on physicians. Today's physician workforce is stretched thin  and getting thinner. A 2016 survey of 17,000 physicians conducted by Merritt Hawkins found 81 percent of primary care physicians were at capacity or overextended, and only about 19 percent said they had time to see more patients. These demands not only contribute to physician burnout but also increase wait times and decrease patients' face time with their providers. Hospitals are realizing APPs can help manage this demand and take some of the workload off physicians to create a more positive healthcare experience for both patients and providers.

3. A booming APP workforce. While the U.S. physician workforce shrinks, the APP workforce continues to exhibit tremendous growth. The number of nurse practitioners licensed to practice in the U.S. skyrocketed from 120,000 in 2007 to more than 248,000 in March 2017, representing a record-high total, according to data from the AANP. By the end of 2016, there were 115,547 certified PAs practicing in the U.S., up from approximately 108,000 in 2015, according to a report from the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants. The abundance of APPs will prove useful for hospitals that hire these clinicians and give them more responsibilities to support physicians.

4. A growing and aging patient population. The AAMC expects the U.S. population to grow 11 percent by 2030, with the number of Americans 65 and older growing 50 percent during the same period. This demographic shift will drive greater need for preventive and geriatric care that a physician workforce alone cannot accommodate. APPs, credentialed and capable of meeting most patients' preventive and chronic care needs, have a crucial role to play in meeting the demands of an aging population amid the intensifying physician shortage.

Hospitals must adapt as the roles of APPs change

APPs help hospitals and health systems address the physician shortage head on  whatever that deficit looks like for a specific health system or individual market. At the same time, updating bylaws and internal policies and ensuring continued regulatory compliance when APPs join the organized medical staff can prove to be a real headache.

To build a culture that is truly inclusive of APPs participating in the organized medical staff, hospitals and health systems need to revise medical staff guidelines, according to Ms. Pelletier. "Key areas that will need to be addressed are medical staff categories, including voting rights and other prerogatives, committee composition and fair hearing rights," she says. "And of course, the definition of who is included in the organized medical staff will need to be revised."

Healthcare organizations may need to update other accessory documents, such as rules and regulations and advanced practice policies, as applicable.

Hospitals and health systems must also understand the current regulatory landscape surrounding APPs, which is constantly changing. Each state has a different policy regarding NPs' and PAs' practice and prescriptive authority. While most states still require PAs to practice medicine through a supervisory relationship with a physician, some are moving toward looser regulations, according to Scope of Practice Policy, a collaborative project providing information on practice policy for various APP roles.

In December 2016, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs granted full practice authority to advanced practice registered nurses working in VA facilities, regardless of state restrictions. NPs can practice independent of physician oversight in 21 states and Washington, D.C., as of 2018, according to Stat News. Another six states have pending legislation to allow NPs to practice independently, according to Scope of Practice Policy's legislative database. PAs  once universally required to practice under physician supervision  are now also allowed to practice under a collaborative agreement in a handful of states with more legislation proposed to reduce restrictions, according to Ms. Pelletier.

If hospitals do not stay up-to-date with current regulatory restrictions and accreditation requirements, they may miss rules prohibiting or limiting APPs from specific leadership roles within the organized medical staff. Furthermore, a potential conflict of interest may occur if an APP is allowed to hold a leadership position within the medical staff, but still held internally to the requirement of having a supervisory relationship with a physician.

"It would be very awkward to have a supervised APP in a position of oversight for their supervisor," says Ms. Pelletier. "So while an organization wouldn't have to allow for a more independent practice for the APP (as allowed by state law) to align with increasing responsibilities and inclusivity into the medical staff, practicality indicates these two design decisions should align."

Conclusion

The medical staff of the future will look different from what hospitals are accustomed to due to changing healthcare demands and a transitioning medical workforce. The organized medical staff's transformation is already underway, and the inclusion of APPs in leadership roles is just one example, according to Ms. Pelletier. She cited additional innovative leadership models, such as service line co-management and other hybrid models, in which non-physician leaders directly oversee physicians.

Hospitals and health systems can be proactive by updating bylaws and ensuring regulatory compliance to achieve a smooth transition for APPs stepping into medical staff leadership roles. While these efforts can prove complicated and time-consuming, implementing proper protocols and regulatory considerations will translate into greater success for APPs on the medical staff and, ultimately, greater efficiency for hospitals and health systems.
There will be no hard border, that bit is agreed or is it? Sadly, the search to avoid a hard border is an ambition whose meaning varies depending on who advocates it.

It may even be necessary to introduce partial, or selective, borders to meet differing needs and to gain political agreement. Critically, a reminder is needed that avoiding a hard border is not the same as having no border.

The drafting of the Brexit treaty would be easiest if frictionless trade between the UK and the EU could remain as at present. That points to a sensible recommendation.

Supposing that the UK government sustains two conditions. First, the UK will leave the Single Market and the freedoms that gives to intra-EU-UK trade. Second, the UK government persists in the constitutional condition that the UK cannot have internal customs borders separating different parts of the UK. Now, solutions that avoid a hard border on this island are wanted.

There is little value in pointing out that there are already, in many differing forms, borders within the UK. Scotland has recently added new fiscal borders with the extended devolution of some income tax decision making. Rating of property, domestic and commercial, differs across local authority boundaries. Licensing for the sale of alcohol varies. A separate rate of corporation tax for Northern Ireland, as is proposed, is specifically designed to create a fiscal border between GB and NI as well as minimise or reduce the differences on this island.

Fluctuating exchange rates and national differences in VAT add to all-island complications.

The multiplicity of existing regulatory, fiscal, animal health or environmental rules means that the Brexit negotiations do not start with a seamless business environment. None of the existing man-made 'borders' is enforced with comprehensive compulsory inspection or declarations at the 'border'.

Sequential policing following notification of actions taken is adequate. Of course, it is not fool-proof. Cheating or smuggling at an acceptable, or nearly acceptable, level will take place.

In this context, the Brexit negotiators must prepare arrangements avoiding a hard border, but not pretending that in constitutional terms a border does not exist: it does.

Solving the operational problems is more demanding than it might appear at first glance. There is a range of interested parties. The arrangements for the Irish/Northern Irish border will be examined and tested by the UK government, the Irish government, the EU Commission on behalf of the collective interest of the EU-27, and then the Northern Ireland interests who, at present, lack a collective negotiating voice. There will also be active interests and lobbying by a number of others (such as the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands) not excluding the parallel interest from Gibraltar and Spain. The Brexit question dealing with the Irish border is more than a small local problem.

From the Northern Ireland perspective, a significant suggestion is that cross-border trade N/S or S/N should be seamless and free of customs duty. To reduce any incentive to abuse duty free arrangements, the agreement should specify that it would apply only to goods whose country (or region) of origin (as assessed by normal customs conventions) was on the island of Ireland, N+S.

From the Irish government perspective a parallel deal could be agreed. However, would it be too generous to agree that Irish goods could use this concession to enter the GB market? Logically, the Irish government should ask the UK to give duty-free customs access for all goods of Irish origin and the UK might use this as a constructive special arrangement.

The trading principles need to be clearly stated: then the regulatory rules, using rules on authorised economic operators, should follow.

The end result should be duty-free trade in goods of local origin across this island and a generous regime for Irish goods going to GB. Crossing the Irish Sea would be incentivised, not deterred, by a trade border.
A consulting firm has created 22 new jobs in Belfast.

Excelledia Quality Consulting, based in Doha, has opened an innovation centre in the city to help to grow across Europe.

The Qatar business specialises in helping organisations become more efficient, effective and financially profitable.

With offices in the Middle East and India, the company provides process improvement initiatives to over 300 customers across government and the private sector.

Steve Harper, Invest NI executive director of international business, said: "I am delighted to welcome Excelledia to Northern Ireland, our first inward investment from Qatar.

"The technology innovation centre will focus on business performance management.

"Using artificial intelligence and business analytics, the team will develop technology innovations and solutions to help companies implement process and technology improvements.

"The information that the company works with will be new to Northern Ireland so there is real potential for knowledge transfer with our universities and wider technology sector.

"Doha is one of our 10 new international office locations so I am hopeful we will see other investors from this region in the future."

Invest NI has offered 97,500 of support towards 15 of the 22 jobs the company aims to create by early 2019.

Muhamed Farooque, chief executive of Excelledia, said: "We began exploring locations for a new centre late last year.

"We wanted to be based somewhere that would enable us to offer our consulting, training and technology solution services to potential clients across the globe.

"We were very impressed by the knowledge and experience in the local universities and hope to work with them as part of the process of developing innovative technology solutions, particularly in addressing the compliance issues surrounding ISO, GDPR and other major business frameworks.

"The culture of close links between academia, business and government agencies in Northern Ireland is particularly attractive and added to our decision to choose to locate here."
The latest phase of Newtownards housing development Rivenwood sold out in 10 minutes, it has emerged.

The new Rivenwood development at Movilla Road in Newtownards was launched early last year and has already sold 80 properties.

And, as the New England style village development launched its latest phase last week, home buyers camped out three days in advance to snap up a property.

The Fraser Houses development is home to Northern Ireland's only designer show village which has already welcomed around 3,000 visitors since opening in February 2017.

The site, which has homes ranging in price from 145,000 for a two-bedroom property to 200,000 for a four-bed detached house, may be due for expansion as the developer has submitted a further planning application for a second phase for which work could begin in a matter of months.

Simon Brien from Simon Brien Residential, selling agents for Rivenwood, said: "The show village at Rivenwood opened in February 2017 and was one of the most successful show house launches ever in Northern Ireland with several thousand people attending in the first two months. The show village incorporates four different house types being offered for sale."

The demand for new builds across NI is further supported by the launch of two other housing projects to build nearly 100 homes in Comber and Dundonald.

Last week the Belfast Telegraph revealed that Banbridge-based Lotus Homes launched an application for 70 new homes at a new development in Comber which will be called The Founders.

And Ballyclare-based family firm Hagan Homes also announced that it will build 28 apartments and create 50 jobs in a 3.5m development nearby.

The firm, which is one of Northern Ireland's biggest housebuilders, is starting work on 28 two-bed apartments at Loughan Hall on Comber Road in Dundonald.

Eden Contractors, led by Arthur King, is to carry out the work on Loughan Hall, while Rodgers & Finney has been appointed estate agents to sell the homes.

The Founders in Comber is the latest housebuilding project from Lotus Homes and would be located at Ballygowan Road.

A pre-application consultation event takes place in Comber on Thursday.
Belfast International Airport has been sold to Vinci Airports in what is thought to be a multi-billion pound deal.

Infrastructure investment manager OMERS has sold its interests in Airports Worldwide, whose portfolio includes Belfast International Airport.

As part of the deal, Vinci has bought the airport outright and has acquired a 90% stake in Skavsta Airport near Stockholm.

The transaction will close later this year.

Belfast International Airport welcomed 5.8 million passengers in 2017.

Law firm Pinsent Masons said it had led advice to Vinci Airport about the purchase of the airport.

Vinci Airports has 36 facilities across the worlds in locations including Cambodia, Portugal, France and Japan.

South Antrim Ulster Unionist MLA Steve Aiken hailed the sale the airport as offering the prospect of continuing its recent growth and expansion.

He said: The sale of Belfast International Airport to a major worldwide airport operator, Vinci, is to be welcomed as it opens the way for further investment in the facility.

"Belfast International has enjoyed impressive passenger growth over the past three years. This year, it is expected to exceed 6 million passengers for the first time ever.

"Hundreds of new jobs and significant investment in on-site facilities have taken place, and my hope is that that level of activity will be maintained.

Vinci is buying into a winner. It is now time to abolish Air Passenger Duty (APD) and build a dual carriageway to the airport and help ensure that under its focused and committed senior management team, the airport continues to break new ground and expand.

In fact, the team is currently attending Routes Europe 2018 in Bilbao seeking to convince airlines, offering new international destinations, to consider Belfast International Airport as a base.

Belfast International Airport is of vital importance to the Northern Ireland economy and I am confident that it will continue to play a full and active role in developing our international links and inbound tourism offering in the years to come.
Peep Show actor Robert Webb has apologised to broadcaster Julia Hartley-Brewer after he referred to her as a thick Oxford twat.

The TV star had responded to the radio presenters claims that she didnt go to Oxford because I was privileged. I went to Oxford because I was clever, as part of a debate about Oxbridge admissions and class privilege.

I didnt go to Oxford because I was privileged. I went to Oxford because I was clever.  Julia Hartley-Brewer (@JuliaHB1) April 20, 2018

In a post that has since been deleted on Twitter, Webb said: I didnt go to Cambridge because I was clever. I went because I was a white male from a stable family who encouraged me to work hard at an excellent state school.

Thats all privilege. All of it. You thick Oxford twat.

He later tweeted to Hartley-Brewer: Obviously the target of a rude joke isnt always going to enjoy it.

I wont tell you how to feel Julia but if my intention was just abuse then Id have tagged you in. The RTs got out of hand which is why I deleted it.

The broadcaster responded: Yes, because as long as you dont actually tweet me directly, its absolutely fine to call me a thick twat @arobertwebb.

I mean, what were the odds Id find out? You could always just say sorry, you know. Us thickies are easily pleased.

I apologise. Sorry, Julia.  Robert Webb (@arobertwebb) April 24, 2018

The comedian replied on Twitter: I apologise. Sorry Julia.
The artist's two studio albums True and Stories are on course to return to the Top 40 of the album chart (Yui Mok/PA)

DJ Avicii looks set to return to the charts following his death at the age of 28.

The Swedish producer, real name Tim Bergling, was found dead in Oman on Friday.

Three of his hit songs are now heading back to the UK chart, the Official Charts Company said.

Wake Me Up, a three week chart-topper in 2013, is currently inside the Top 20 at number 13.

Aviciis global breakthrough track Levels, originally a number four hit in 2011, is at 24, and 2013 single Hey Brother re-enters midweek at 32.

The artists two studio albums True and Stories are on course to return to the Top 40 of the album chart, and are currently at 15 and 21. Remix album True  Avicii by Avicii is at 23.

Elsewhere in the singles chart, Ariana Grande is battling Calvin Harris and Dua Lipa for the top spot.

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Just a handful of sales and streams are separating the top two at the mid-week stage of the chart week.

The UKs current chart-topper, Harris and Lipas One Kiss, is leading the way but Grandes brand new single No Tears Left To Cry is close behind by less than 1,000 combined sales.

No Tears Left To Cry is as the lead single from Grandes upcoming fourth studio album.

It is also her first new music since the terrorist attack at her Manchester Arena concert last May.
Titanic Belfast is on the look out for its newest explorers (Picture by Darren Kidd / Press Eye)

Titanic Belfast is on the lookout for its latest recruits  two child reviewers for the 2018/19 year of events.

As part of the site's Maritime May celebrations, two lucky winners will not only find gainful employment, but they'll also get to experience all Titanic Belfast has to offer for free for an entire year, along with their parents and siblings.

The new recruits will also be tasked with casting their eye over Titanic Belfast's child friendly offering to ensure it remains world-class.

Parents and siblings get to tag along to the worlds largest Titanic Experience too, which has now welcomed over 4.4 million visitors from all over the world.

Titanic Belfast are looking for a child who is:

inquisitive

enthusiast

over the age of 5 and under the age of 13 (as of June 2018)

has a nose for a story

has an interest in Belfasts history, the sea or Titanics story

The lucky winners will get to review the experience, its family trail, meet its mascots, hop on board SS Nomadic, enjoy Afternoon Tea and be the first to experience its Magical Christmas Experience.

To enter, visit Titanic Belfast or download the form from www.titanicbelfast.com, getting your child or you (depending on age) to specify why they should be the Junior Explorer and return it by email to competitions@titanicbelfast.com or by post to Junior Explorer, Titanic Belfast, 1 Olympic Way, Queens Road, Belfast, BT39EP before 18th May 2018.

The winners will be announced just in time for their first assignment in June.

Titanic Belfast and SS Nomadic will also hosting Maritime May, celebrating Belfasts maritime heritage, including:

May Day Bank Holiday Weekend (5th  7th May)

Meet the mascots, join a period writing workshop and follow Titanic Belfasts Explorer Trail, which enables children to experience the shipyard, walk the decks, travel to the depths of the ocean and uncover the true legend of Titanic and SS Nomadic.

Titanic Maritime Festival (19th  20th May)

From a Big Titanic Pop-up Picnic, an artisan street food market to live music, games, interactive exhibits and roving performers along the new Maritime mile, Titanic Foundation and Titanic Belfast has lots planned.

BBC Musics The Biggest Weekend and Bank Holiday Fun (25th  28th May)

Titanic Belfast, hosts of the BBC Biggest Weekend, will be getting into the festival spirit with festival flag and badge making for kids.

Launch Day (31st May  4th June)

Hop aboard SS Nomadic to celebrate the anniversary of RMS Titanics launch and the day SS Nomadic left Belfast, when over 100,000 spectators lined the Lagan. Mark the occasion in true party style with face-painting, games, postcard and badge making as well as meet characters from that era on board.

Local History Month Trail (May)

For adults, there will also be local history trail throughout the month, which will help unearth unknown stories of Belfasts maritime heritage.
Anne Heraty, chief executive of CPL Resources plc and chairperson of the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year judging panel, Michael Carey, East Coast Bakehouse, EY Entrepreneur Of The Year judge and Kevin McLoughlin, partner lead for the EY Entrepreneur of The Year programme

Anne Heraty, chief executive of CPL Resources Plc and chairperson of the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year judging panel, Michael Carey, East Coast Bakehouse, EY Entrepreneur Of The Year judge and Kevin McLoughlin, partner lead for the EY Entrepreneur of The Year programme

Five businesses from Northern Ireland are among 24 shortlisted Irish entrepreneurs in the EY Entrepreneur of the Year competition.

The global programme - which includes candidates across 145 cities and 60 countries - has selected employers from hospitality, IT and media here.

They are FinTrU, Boojum, The Irish News, Around Noon Ltd and Beannchor who will compete across three categories and for the EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2018 title.

In total there were 24 finalists, collectively employing 2,700 people and generating over 130m chosen from the island of Ireland.

This year's finalists will also join more than 70 EY Entrepreneur Of The Year alumi for a week in Oxford and London in May which will focus on development of the candidates.

Rob Heron, partner lead for the EY Entrepreneur of The Year programme in Northern Ireland, said: "I am delighted that we have five exceptional finalists from Northern Ireland. We look forward not only to getting to know each of the finalists, but also to seeing the impact they make in the EOY community and their continued impact on the all-island economy.

"This year's finalists represent a broad spectrum of industries clearly demonstrating that entrepreneurship continues to flourish in Northern Ireland."
It's 8am in Los Angeles and Claire McGowan is not a morning person, by the sounds of her. The Newry-born thriller writer has left her home and creative writing job in London for six months of training for screen writing with Nickelodeon, the American cable and satellite television network, while putting the finishing touches to a new novel.

Writing for television is one of her goals and her LA experience will mean she could write her own screenplays for her compelling Paula Maguire novels -about a brilliant forensic psychologist - which have been optioned by the BBC.

"That was ages ago, there's been nothing so far," she says, sleepily. "I'd like to write for TV. It's very different to novel writing and this is one of the best places to learn.

"The climate is very dry, though, and the public transport is bad - you have to drive everywhere."

From Rostrevor originally, the 35-year-old Oxford University graduate is sharing an apartment in Burbank, close to the film studios, with three others from her course. She doesn't seem disappointed not to have spotted any celebrities yet. In fact, she's more enthusiastic about a recent trip to the very unstarry Carlingford village in Co Louth and concerned about the impact of Brexit on that stretch of the border.

"Carlingford's great - I went over on the new ferry at the new year," she says. "I am very worried about Brexit and the border, since my parents live right along it on Carlingford Lough. I really worry it will bring us back to the bad old days.

"It's also a worry that the Assembly has been suspended for so long. Living in London, I'm very aware that people outside Ireland have pretty much no idea what's going on there, and don't seem to grasp the importance of the border issue."

The Paula Maguire novels are set in a fictional border town, based on Newry, where the author was born in 1981, to a doctor (Barbara) and a teacher (Peter), who always had plenty of books in the house.

"It was one of the worst years of the Troubles," she remarks. "Even though not much happened in Newry, there'd be soldiers on the streets and we'd be terrified at checkpoints, getting searched.

"My writing deals with the aftermath of the Troubles. I don't have characters as villains, as such. They're ordinary people; they've been usually pushed to do what they do."

Her five-book Paula Maguire series now complete, Claire is delving into new territory with her next novel, due for publication in 2019. A psychological thriller, it's set "in the UK" and focuses on what she describes as a domestic war.

Claire has had her own fair share of conflict at home, having gone through a 'car crash' divorce, after unsuccessful marriage counselling in 2013, which meant she had to move out of the marital home she loved, a turn-of-the-century country outside London, and into a shabby flat on the outskirts of the city.

Her writing not yet proving lucrative, she found herself broke and physically sick with stress, which was compounded by the fact her ex was now living with a close mutual friend in the house she still part-owned. Depressed and under financial pressure, she took a low-level office job with a charity, only to be sacked for "not smiling enough" and making a typo in a tweet.

She admits she drank too much in the aftermath, during a renewed social life with her friends and a new boyfriend. He didn't last, but the support of her family and friends never wavered.

As she wrote in her blog: "Everyone in my Irish Catholic family - where divorce just didn't happen - was also gentle with me, when I'd been terrified to tell them my marriage wasn't working. I learned that even if I wasn't married any more, I was cared for. People loved me. They were kind to me and suddenly kindness mattered more than I'd ever realised."

She refers to the disastrous year of 2013 as her 'catastropiphany', in which she realised she didn't want to be married and living in the suburbs - "the fancy wedding and the matching china mean nothing if you aren't happy". The personal watershed led to her writing lighter 'women's fiction' under a pseudonym, Eva Woods, culminating in How To Be Happy, published last autumn in the UK and the US, courtesy of a healthy American publishing deal.

About friendship, the book was inspired by the #100HappyDays social media challenge Claire completed, which involved reading and writing (above all), and swimming outdoors, seeing friends and trying new food.

"I did have a tough year in 2013 but got through it mostly by writing, which really helped me and led to my second writing career as Eva Woods," she recalls. "I was probably pretty unhappy when I was doing that charity job - I'm better suited to being freelance, I think.

"I'd like to be able to afford never to have to get a job again. I gave up my job with the charity when I got my first advance in 2011, instead of buying the nice handbag I'd promised myself. And I gave up teaching creative writing to come here. American deals are pretty good."

Should her books ever make it to the big screen, the author has definite ideas for the casting.

"The two friends in How To Be Happy are very different. I'd have Emily Blunt - she was great in The Girl On The Train - and Karen Gillan from Dr Who.

"For Paula Maguire? I'd choose Valene Kane, from Newry (who recently starred in The Fall). It would be great to have someone from Newry."

Busy in LA, she's unaware of the countless allegations of sexual and physical abuse against Fr Malachy Finnegan, former principal of Newry's St Coleman's College. But she recalls the joyless nuns who taught her and the Catholic guilt instilled by the church.

"I remember being excited when it started to snow one day at school and a nun telling me I should be thinking about the homeless in the snow," she says. "There was this sense of pessimism. My great-aunt, who's now passed away, would never say anything might happen in the future without saying or writing: 'If god spares us'!

"Growing up in the Eighties meant a lot of anxiety about the Troubles, which I suppose I've put into the books. But we were always comfortable. I spent a lot of time in my auntie's house, and I've based the home of one of my character's on it. I try not to base any character on people in real life, however, because it doesn't feel creative to do that."

Nowadays, home for Claire and her freelance musician boyfriend Scott Bramley (36) - currently visiting her in LA - is an end-of-terrace in south London. The couple met three years ago on the online dating app OKCupid.

"I had a mad rush to make it liveable before I came to LA - it was a bit of a state," she says.

"I bought some lovely mid-century modern furniture, which was often cheaper than Ikea and didn't need assembling; although we did have to take the wardrobe apart because it wouldn't fit up the stairs.

"Unlike in the past, when I sometimes only had a hazy idea of our finances, I now make sure I'm always on top of my money. I work hard so I can avoid having to take another office job - smiling more is just not in my skill set"
Theresa May has insisted that the UK must leave the customs union after Brexit in order to strike trade deals around the world.

The Prime Minister is facing a series of parliamentary battles in the coming weeks over the UK's future customs arrangements with the EU.

After a massive defeat on the issue in the House of Lords, pro-European Tory MPs are set to voice their concerns over withdrawal from the customs union on Thursday.

But speaking on a local election campaign visit, Mrs May insisted that she would not change course. She said arrangements which are as "frictionless as possible" with the EU and the ability to strike trade deals around the world were both achievable under the proposals set out by the government.

On a visit to a firm in the West Midlands, she told the BBC: "Coming out of the customs union means that we will be free to have those deals, deals that suit the UK.

"But I also recognise the importance to businesses like this of being able to have as frictionless a border as possible into the European Union."

Downing Street insisted the government's position had not changed since Mrs May delivered her Mansion House speech in March.

Those plans included two options, either a "customs partnership" effectively collecting duties for Brussels for goods arriving in the UK but intended for EU markets or a "highly streamlined" arrangement making use of technology and regulatory co-operation.

But Mrs May is set to face calls from leading Brexiteers Boris Johnson, David Davis and Liam Fox to abandon her preferred form of customs deal, according to The Times.

A showdown is expected to come at a meeting of the Cabinet Brexit committee scheduled for Wednesday when the trio will tell the PM that the "customs partnership" would be unworkable, the report said.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "We have put forward two options. They were set out in the Mansion House speech. Those are still the two options we are moving forward with."

He added: "We think both of the two options which we have put forward can provide solutions to the Irish border and to having a smooth customs arrangement with the EU."

Mrs May will be given an indication of the scale of the opposition she faces from pro-EU Tories over her customs union plan in a Commons debate on Thursday.

Though the looming Commons vote on a pro-customs union motion would be a symbolic, non-binding one, it has the potential to deepen Tory wounds on Brexit.

The Prime Minister's spokesman played down its significance, saying Thursday's event was a "routine backbench business debate".

But binding Commons votes on a customs union during debates on the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Bill and European Union (Withdrawal) Bill will prove harder for Downing Street to dismiss.

Downing Street rejected BBC reports that the issue could be treated as a motion of confidence in Mrs May's government.

"That report was an absolute mystery to me and I note that it quickly disappeared from the bulletins," the spokesman said.

Many Remain-supporting MPs believe that keeping a customs union with the EU would limit the economic difficulties caused by Brexit and would help provide a solution to the Irish border issue. But Eurosceptic former Cabinet minister John Redwood told the BBC the customs union was a "protection racket" and it was "extremely good news" that the Prime Minister was not softening her position.

Communities Secretary Sajid Javid tweeted that the referendum gave "clear instructions" to leave the customs union and accused some of seeing it as a "kind of post-Brexit comfort blanket".

The Housing and Communities Secretary's comments were rebuked by the CBI president Paul Drechsler, who tweeted in reply: "An MP of your talent should rise above ideology and lead based of fact, analysis and evidence - all of which favours a customs union. Always happy to discuss."
A judge has ordered that David 'Dee' Coleman (32) is to stand trial on terror offences.

An alleged Ulster Defence Association boss is to stand trial on terrorist charges, a judge ordered on Tuesday.

David 'Dee' Coleman is accused of holding a high-ranking position within a loyalist unit based in the Lower Shankill area of west Belfast.

The 32-year-old appeared before the city's Magistrates' Court for a hearing to determine if he has a case to answer.

He faces charges of belonging to a proscribed organisation and possession of documents likely to be useful to terrorism.

The alleged offences, which include having an oath of membership of the UDA, were committed between November 2016 and October 2017.

Coleman, with a previous address at Hopewell Crescent in Belfast, was arrested during a major operation by detectives from the PSNI's Paramilitary Crime Taskforce.

Nearly 30 suspected members of the UDA's C Company battalion are under investigation, a previous court was told.

The unit is allegedly involved in extorting local businesses, punishment beatings, intimidation, drugs and loan sharking.

According to the police and prosecution case Coleman held a position of second in command, with telephone evidence allegedly linking him to the gathering of membership money for the outlawed organisation.

He was brought into the dock for the preliminary enquiry a day after his latest bail application was refused.

Coleman confirmed that he understood the charges against him and declined to call witnesses or give evidence at this stage.

His solicitor did not contest submissions that he has a case to answer.

District Judge Fiona Bagnall then granted a prosecution application to have Coleman returned for Crown Court trial.

He was returned to custody until his arraignment on a date to be fixed.

Mrs Bagnall also granted a request for Coleman to have two counsel at trial, based on the evidence against him.

It followed defence submissions that a novel legal point has been raised.

"The police supposition is that he's the leader of a criminal gang, and one of the key parts of evidence is the text messages," Coleman's lawyer told the court.

"Police say they can connect him to various other people who received the messages.

"Yet there's been a deliberate decision taken to separate him out and not prosecute others."
A report on the huge success of the 2017 European Capital of Culture, the danish city of Aarhus, has dealt a "bitter blow" to Northern Ireland.

In a joint bid, Belfast, Londonderry, and Strabane had been in the running to secure the coveted title for 2023 - before the bid was scuppered by the UK's planned exit from the European Union.

Speaking about the success of Aarhus, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said Northern Ireland was "missing out" on a major opportunitiy.

A new report on the success of the Aarhus shows it enjoyed a major boost to culture, tourism, and its economy.

In the course of the year, overnight stays in the region hit a record high, businesses saw their turnover surge by 159.1m, and the creation of 2,000 jobs.

The investment in culture saw 442 creative collaboration carried out during the year, bringing together Danish and international artists.

"The report released about Aarhus, the European Capital of Culture for 2017, speaks volumes. The positive cultural, social and economic opportunities that being the European Capital of Culture can bring are immeasurable," said SDLP leader Eastwood.

An immense amount of preparatory work went into developing the joint bid to bring the European Capital of Culture title to Derry and Belfast but due to the onslaught of Brexit, this bid was stopped in its tracks. This represents yet another bitter blow for people in the North, missing out on opportunities for economic growth and a chance to advance our cities.

The people of the North voted to remain, they voted to protect their socio-economic needs but so far all Brexit has brought to the North is missed opportunities and uncertainty for the future.

Speaking about the success of holding the European Capital of Culture, CEO of Aerhus's successful bid Rebecca Matthews spoke about how the results would continue to be seen in years to come.

The seeds we have planted in our year as European Capital of Culture will continue to grow in the rich soil of the new collaborations and partnerships formed, the emboldened cultural organisations and creative workers, the vision shared among municipal councils, and the citizens energised by the cultural experience, she said.
Thomas Corrigan at the inquest into the death of girlfriend Marian Brown yesterday

The former boyfriend of a teenager who was carrying their child when she was shot dead by soldiers says the feeling that he should have died, rather than her, has haunted him for over 40 years.

Thomas Corrigan from the Falls Road was just 16 and planning his future with Marian Brown (17) and their unborn child when his world was turned upside down on June 10, 1972.

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Just minutes before the shooting, they had broken the news of the pregnancy to Marian's family and that they planned to wed.

Thomas, now 62, told the Belfast Telegraph that despite moving to England to start a new life, he could never shake the feeling that it should have been him, not Marian who died on Roden Street.

"There are quite a lot of times that I really so wished it had've been me and not her. The fact that she had our baby, that she could have lived on with the baby and brought it up with the support of her family," he said.

"I would much prefer that it had been me who died than her.

"That was the hard bit to come to terms with, that I survived and she didn't."

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The couple first met eight months previously, at a dance hall in Clonard, after Thomas spotted Marian dancing and plucked up the courage to approach her for the last song of the night.

"It was a typical disco - guys standing on the side, girls dancing, and then of course comes the last dance you went up and danced with a girl," he said.

"She was quite an incredible girl. The old adage that only the good die young... she was really good, she was a really good girl and it is so sad that she lost her life so early."

Thomas was around a year younger than Marian and recalled evenings walking her home to where she had lived at Unity Flats.

He said neither of them had much money, he had a part-time job at the Chip and Chicken where he had worked since he was 11, while Marian worked as a stitcher.

"I used to walk her home, which was a long walk to Unity Flats. That's how you got to know someone, spending so much time walking and talking," he said.

"Neither of us were in any way political, we were into dancing and stuff like that - dancing and dating. We were just enjoying our lives."

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The couple had found out around three weeks before Marian's death that she was pregnant and on June 10 they had been to her mother's house to tell her family their news.

"Marian and I decided we wanted a life together and to bring up the child. We chose that night to tell her mum that she was pregnant," he said.

"Her mum was very upset, but realised we were both serious about it and were going to get married which was reassurance for her.

"After that, Marian decided she wanted to stay with her sister that night so we were walking with her sister to her house.

"We had actually parted, but we hadn't made arrangements for the next night so I heard Marian call me, I walked back across the road, Marian walked towards me and we started talking about where we would meet the next night.

"Then all hell broke loose."

Thomas and Marian were both hit by bullets, with Thomas suffering serious injuries from gunshot wounds to his arm, chest and face, which left him permanently deaf in one ear.

"We heard the shots first, I grabbed Marian's hand and dragged her towards the wall," he said.

"I didn't know Marian had been shot until I came to. I remember getting put into the ambulance and asking, 'Where is Marian, is Marian okay?'

"I remember seeing the lights as I was on a trolley and my clothes being cut off, I was fairly conscious but I wasn't there, it's a hard thing to describe, I felt like my mind was somewhere else, looking in on myself. I had difficulty breathing, my body went into shock, and that's all I remember until I came to.

"Members of my family told me what had happened."

Around a year later, Thomas moved to England to start a new life.

"I needed to move away," he said. "My personality changed, from an ordinary placid guy, I'd fight with anyone, I became really aggressive. The shooting caused it - the scars on my face, people would look at me, I felt like the Elephant Man."

He moved to London where he worked on building sites initially, before working his way up to becoming a business analyst for a major IT company.

"I didn't have to justify what had happened to my face because no-one really looks at you in England," he said.

Thomas went on to marry and start a family.

"Funnily enough, her surname was Brown too. She had black hair and she was quite like Marian in a sense," he said.

"Sharon and I were married for 20 years, before I lost her to breast cancer. My daughter Erin was 11 and my son Francis was 14 when their mum passed away.

"I told my children (about Marian) as soon as they were able to understand. I have never kept what I experienced a secret from my family."

The loss of Marian has stayed with him throughout his life.

"There has never been a time when I haven't thought of Marian and the circumstances. Every time I wake up, get out of bed and look in the mirror, I am reminded because of the scars, what happened to me and the loss of Marian," he said.

"It's not something you can forget."

In terms of the possibility of ever seeing anyone brought to justice, Thomas added: "It's up to the court to decide what happens, that's not for me. They can deal with their own conscience."
A two-year-old boy from Londonderry is thriving and meeting his milestones despite battling a rare form of cancer that has robbed him of most of his vision.

Caleb Williamson was diagnosed with Retinoblastoma, which causes tumours to grow behind the eyes, shortly after he was born.

Doting mum-of-six Jacqueline describes her youngest child as a "crazy, loving, cheeky monkey" who enjoys the "rough and tumble" of life, something Caleb has had more than his fair share of.

"With his happy-go-lucky personality and beaming smile you'd be forgiven for thinking he doesn't have a care in the world, but he has been through more in 24 months than most of us will ever face in a lifetime," she said.

Jacqueline, who is also visually impaired, knew there was a chance her son might also be affected but remained optimistic - her hopes were shattered just two days after Caleb was born when doctors discovered a problem with his eyesight.

Tests revealed the cause was cancer which has required chemotherapy, laser and cryotherapy treatment.

Regular check-ups are required to track the progress of the disease which could become life-threatening if it spreads - the family have met with specialists in Belfast, Dublin, Birmingham and Switzerland in their desperate effort to cure him.

"Sadly the treatments also have an impact on Caleb's sight and it's thought he has no vision in his left eye," his mum explained. "He has a visual acuity of just 6/76 in his right eye - that means an object that someone with perfect vision can see clearly from 76 metres away, Caleb would need to be six metres away."

But his life has been transformed by the Guide Dog's Children and Young People's team, whose rehabilitation specialist Sarah Cleary has been helping him reach ambitious milestones through a specially developed programme designed to teach skills to enable independence.

"She has taught him to track objects with his eyes, and introduced him to lots of different textures to build his confidence," Jacqueline said. "In January, he also got his very first long cane and he's learning to tap it on the floor to understand different surfaces and distances."

Sarah said she has loved getting to know Caleb and his family despite the challenges involved: "His vision is changing all the time and he can't verbalise what he can see to us, but he's right where he should be for his age and he does everything with such enthusiasm."

Mum Jacqueline is also delighted at his progress despite having reservations at the beginning. "I was so panicky at the start but now I let him batter on - I just want a normal life for him," she said.

She is urging other parents of visually impaired children not to be anxious. "I freaked out initially but you just have to get on and take whatever life throws at you - right now we're looking forward to our first family holiday together in the sun," she added. "We can't wait."
Ulster Unionist MLA Andy Allen - who is a double amputee after being wounded with the Royal Irish in Afghanistan - has won a national award for his work helping other veterans.

Mr Allen said he felt humbled after being honoured with the Inspiration gong at the 2018 Soldiering On Awards, which aim to celebrate achievements among serving and past members of the armed forces.

Mr Allen lost both legs and was left visually impaired after an IED blast in Afghanistan when he was still a teenager.

On his recovery, he helped to establish AA Veterans Support, a charity to help others who have served, and has also moved into politics, representing east Belfast.

"I am truly humbled to win the Soldiering On award - it really means a lot to me - especially looking back on how far I have come, after being injured," he said.

"I would like to take this opportunity to thank my family, friends and the wider public for their unwavering support, through not only the good, but also the difficult times.

"Without them, I would not have been able to achieve all that I have.

"I would also like to pay tribute to each of my fellow finalists, whose stories have further inspired me. They have each achieved a lot, and helped many others in their time of need."

His fellow UUP MLA and veteran Doug Beattie also extended his congratulations.

"I knew Andy Allen when he still had his legs and was a young fierce Ranger in 1 R IRISH willing to do his part for his country," he said.

"Andy was seriously wounded in action in 2008 but that has not stopped him striving to be the best he possibly can be. At the same time he has helped veterans through the charity he set up and his constituents as an MLA.

"I am not surprised he has won the Inspiration category at the Soldier On Awards because Andy is an inspiration.

"I am proud to say I served with him in Afghanistan, work alongside him as an Ulster Unionist MLA and can genuinely call him a friend."

Prime Minister Theresa May sent a message of congratulations to the ceremony, which took place in London on Friday night.

"I am delighted to send a message of support for this year's Soldiering On Awards," she said. "The event provides a fantastic platform to give recognition to the extraordinary achievements of our Service personnel, veterans and the groups, businesses and charities that support the Armed Forces community. Their efforts are invaluable and it is only right that their work is appreciated and celebrated."

There were 12 award categories in all, celebrating achievements from sporting excellence to business enterprise and healthcare and rehabilitation.
McConnells in Doagh, where a man was attacked by a gang

Five men have been ordered to stand trial accused of a bar room attack on a former leading loyalist.

Aaron Cahoon, 28, David Rush, 35, David Gibson, 45, Robert Campbell, 33, and Joshua Wylie, 20, were allegedly part of a group who beat Darren Moore with a hammer and bats at a pub in Doagh, Co Antrim in March 2017.

They appeared together at Belfast Magistrates' Court jointly charged with intentionally causing him grievous bodily harm, possessing offensive weapons with intent to commit an indictable offence, and affray.

Moore, in his forties and formerly from the Mount Vernon area of Belfast, was said to have been attacked inside McConnell's Bar.

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He sustained multiple head fractures, facial lacerations and a puncture wound to his stomach in an assault carried out while he was under threat from loyalists, detectives disclosed previously.

Up to ten men were said to have launched the attack before escaping in a number of cars.

Cahoon, of Cherrymount; Rush, from Ballyvesey Green; Gibson, of Milewater Drive - all in Newtownabbey; Campbell, from Clareville Avenue in Ballyclare; and Wylie, of Galgorm Road in Ballymena, all deny the charges.

During the preliminary enquiry hearing all five men nodded to confirm they understood the allegations against them.

None of them called witnesses or gave evidence at this stage in the proceedings.

Backing prosecution submissions that each of the accused has a case to answer, District Judge Fiona Bagnall returned them all for Crown Court trial.

She then released them on continuing bail until their arraignment on a date to be fixed.
Hundreds of Ulster Bank customers in the Irish Republic had money vanish from their accounts this week. Northern Ireland customers are not said to be affected.

Hundreds of Ulster Bank customers in the Republic have reported money vanishing from their account since the weekend, including monthly salaries.

Independent.ie reports the bank has offered emergency cash of up to 500 for those who need it.

An urgent investigation is underway with IT staff working through the night to resolve the problems by Wednesday morning.

A spokesman for Ulster Bank said no customers had been affected in Northern Ireland.

Startled customers took to social media to complain after the money disappeared, many of them left unable to pay direct debits.

Others had their cards declined when trying to make purchases.

One customer commented: My April salary was paid last Friday but today it has disappeared.

I have just had my card declined. I am getting no answer on the phone, every penny gone from both accounts. Ulster bank did not reach out to customers, I have direct debits due today and no money at all... as soon as this is sorted I am changing banks.

Another stated: My salary has disappeared from my account today and my wife had her card declined when trying to pay for a GP visit and medication. Extraordinary how often this kind of issue happens with this bank. Time to change to a competitor I think.

An Ulster Bank spokesperson said some transactions previously applied to customers accounts since April 20 are no longer showing.

"We are investigating this issue as a matter of urgency and apologise for any inconvenience caused.

The bank also promised that no customers would be left "out of pocket".

In 2012 a major technical glitch left large numbers of Ulster Bank customers in the Republic with no access to their money for weeks.

The IT failure resulted in a 5 million fine from the Central Bank of Ireland at the time.

Its parent group, Royal Bank of Scotland, was also fined 64m by UK regulators.

Further IT outages from Ulster Bank have been reported since then, with unions blaming some of the problems on under-investment in its systems and the outsourcing of some tasks to Asia.
Hundreds of mourners have gathered for the funeral of the mother-of-two Lisa Gow who was struck by a stolen car in north Belfast.

Ms Gow, aged in her 30s, died last Thursday after being hit by an Audi A4 on the Ballysillan Road at around 11am. It had been reported stolen from the Cavehill Road a short time earlier.

Rev Colin Duncan told those who packed into the pews at St Andrews Church that it was a solemn moment to give thanks for the life of Ms Gow and to pray for her family, including her two young children.

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We pray for the family for whom her loss will be most keenly felt, he said.

For Agnes and Peter who have lost a daughter. For Olivia and Riley who have lost a mum, for John as he comes to terms with the loss of a partner. For Kellyann and Becca as they learn to live without their sister.

The clergyman described the circumstances of Lisas death as cruel and said it had darkened many hearts.

But he also said it had brought out the best in people and described the many messages of support the family has received from around the world.

The outpouring of support from communities across Northern Ireland and even from a round the world has been tremendous, he said.

All sorts of people have reached out, but particularly young mothers.

Expand Expand Previous Next Close Funeral of Lisa Gow at St Andrew's Church in the Glencairn, west Belfast. The mother-of-two was knocked down and killed by a stolen car which was being pursued by the police, last Thursday in north Belfast. Family and friends follow her coffin as it leaves the church after the funeral service. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye Funeral of Lisa Gow at St Andrew's Church in the Glencairn, west Belfast. The mother-of-two was knocked down and killed by a stolen car which was being pursued by the police, last Thursday in north Belfast. Family and friends follow her coffin as it leaves the church after the funeral service. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye / Facebook

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Whatsapp Funeral of Lisa Gow at St Andrew's Church in the Glencairn, west Belfast. The mother-of-two was knocked down and killed by a stolen car which was being pursued by the police, last Thursday in north Belfast. Family and friends follow her coffin as it leaves the church after the funeral service. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye

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Lisas sister Kellyann was able to compose herself to read a tribute to our angel which she had written with Becca who stood beside her.

Her number one priority was her two absolutely beautiful kids, she said.

She made sure Olivia and Riley wanted for nothing and we as a family will make sure that carries on.

Ms Gow's family has been left angered following revelations that the driver, Martin Alexander Nelson, was freed on bail just 24 hours earlier.

Nelson was released on bail after he admitted being unlawfully at large from Magilligan Prison between October 30 and November 3, 2017.

He also admitted resisting a police officer in the execution of his duty on November 2 while he was on the run.

Police Ombudsman investigators probing the police pursuit of Nelson have said the lead police pursuits car was a matter of seconds behind the suspect vehicle when Ms Gow was hit by the car.
Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald has announced that her party will be supporting a unionist in the upcoming Seanad by-election.

Ian Marshall, a former President of the Ulster Farmers Union currently owns a farm near Markethill in Co Armagh.

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He has also worked at Queen's University Belfast as Business Development Manager.

The Seanad is the upper house of the legislature of the Republic of Ireland and is not directly elected.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar nominated Mr Marshall for the seat, left vacant by the resignation of Labour Senator Denis Landy.

To be elected Mr Marshall will require support from current members of the Dail (TDs) and senators.

The by-election is due to take place on Friday.

I am pleased to confirm that Sinn Fein will be supporting Ian Marshall in the upcoming Seanad by-election," Ms McDonald said.

I have met with Ian on a number of occasions in recent weeks and I have been impressed by his views on Brexit and the potential impact Brexit will have on the island, north and south.

I believe Ian will be a strong Independent voice in the Seanad; providing an anti-Brexit unionist perspective, which is a welcome addition to the political discourse surrounding the issue in the Oireachtas. Brexit affects people from all backgrounds and ways of life; nationalist, unionists and everyone in between."

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Mr Marshall opposed Brexit and has been outspoken on the issue.

From his time as a farmer, as President of the Ulster Farmers Union, and his current position at Queens University, Ian is particularly qualified and experienced to advocate on behalf of farmers and the Agri-sector; which faces massive challenges in the time ahead," the Sinn Fein President said.

Ian is a unionist. I am an Irish Republican. As I have stated repeatedly, the Ireland I want to see is one where one can comfortably be Irish or British, both or neither. I believe Ian can bring a new and interesting voice to the discussion surrounding a New Ireland.

I want to wish him the very best of luck when the votes are counted on Friday.

Mr Marshall is being challenged for one of two seats on the Seanad's agriculture panel by the sister of sitting TD Kate O'Connell, who is a member of Mr Varadkar's Fine Gael party.

He will also have to defeat Mary Newman, a long-time Fine Gael member and Tipperary vet, to become a senator.

The Markethill man will face further competition from Kerry County Councillor and Fine Gael stalwart Bobby O'Connell.

We have decided to support Ian Marshall, former UFU President in the upcoming Seanad election. This is a positive decision. This island is collectively ours and we all have a job of work to do to make it somewhere where we all feel we belong...good luck @IanMarshall_ https://t.co/JJd31WU8Hi  Michelle ONeill (@moneillsf) April 24, 2018
The DUP has rejected a report which claims Brexit has caused "substantial damage" to devolution and the government is largely ignoring Northern Ireland.

MP Sammy Wilson last night said the damage was being done by "those who harp on about the vote" and London had actually paid "far too much attention" to the border issue.

A research paper by Dr Katy Hayward of Queen's University Belfast and Edinburgh-based Dr Kirsty Hughes argues that Brexit has "deepened political divisions" in both Northern Ireland and Scotland.

They warned these tensions could be "further exacerbated" if Britain fails to reach a deal with the EU over its departure.

"Overall, Brexit has already done substantial damage to the UK's political system as far as devolution is concerned," the two experts said in a blog published alongside the research paper.

"While the UK government continues to prioritise keeping its cabinet of rebels united and its majority in parliament via the support of the DUP, the democratic and policy concerns of the majority view in both Scotland and Northern Ireland has been largely ignored," they stated.

Dr Hughes and Dr Hayward said throughout the Brexit process the Tory government had chosen "emphasis on the unitary and centralised nature of UK politics" - highlighting Westminster's insistence that some powers returning from Brussels return to it rather than the devolved administrations as an example.

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"Devolution has been seen more as an irritation than as a central concern in planning Brexit," they said.

Their paper forecast Northern Ireland will secure a differentiated deal "that keeps it closer to the EU than any other part of the UK".

Dr Hayward said: "Brexit has brought the Irish border back to the centre of politics in Northern Ireland and the consequences of this are impossible to manage from Westminster alone."

Responding to the paper, Mr Wilson said: "The facts are that we had a national referendum.

"Different parts of the country voted in different ways.

"Even in Northern Ireland there was a starkly different outcome in each constituency. Variations in outcome doesn't mean there will be substantial damage, it simply reflects different opinions."

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He said Northern Ireland MPs had enjoyed "ample opportunities through debates, votes and committees" in Parliament to raise issues.

He added: "Given the amount of effort put into the Northern Ireland/Republic of Ireland border, it is totally incredible to claim the government has ignored Northern Ireland.

"The truth is it has given far too much attention to what should be a non-issue given the minuscule levels of trade across the border."

Bur Alliance deputy leader Stephen Farry said Brexit would clearly create "new divisions, barriers and friction" and threaten the concept of a shared Northern Ireland.

"It will have not only a major impact upon our economy but also our political cohesion," he said.

"It is already a major factor behind the current talks impasse.

"However, it is possible to craft a pragmatic way forward in which special arrangements for this region can be put in place, based around remaining in the single market."

Ulster Unionist MLA Steve Aiken said: "It is obvious that at this critical juncture in the negotiations between the UK and EU, there are obvious concerns about how the future relationships on these islands will develop.

"While there are tensions between broad nationalism in Scotland and Northern Ireland and unionism, there is the opportunity for a pragmatic and sensible solution that works for everyone across these islands to be developed.

"Now is not the time to be ratcheting up tension, but instead we look to see the key stakeholders working behind the scenes to get a workable solution."

A government spokesman revealed it was working "to secure the best and most ambitious deal for the whole of the UK, including Scotland and Northern Ireland".

He added: "As the Prime Minister made clear - having seized the opportunities provided by Brexit, the UK will thrive as a strong and united country that works for everyone, no matter whether you voted Leave or Remain.

"The UK's departure from the EU will happen in a manner that respects and strengthens Scotland and Northern Ireland's devolution settlements.

"We have always been clear there will be a significant increase in powers for the devolved administrations of the UK."
Two Catholic Churches in Northern Ireland have been daubed with anti-abortion graffiti in the run up to a referendum on the issue in the Republic.

Carrickmore Chapel in Co Tyrone and St Patrick's Cathedral in Co Armagh were both targeted by vandals.

The graffiti in both attacks explicitly mentioned Sinn Fein and their support for repealing the Eighth Amendment of the Irish Constitution, which, with conditions, affords equal protections to the mother and the unborn child.

Carrickmore Chapel is the local place of worship for Sinn Fein's candidate in the upcoming West-Tyrone by-election Orfhlaith Begley.

The Carrickmore Chapel wall was daubed with graffiti saying "Begley, S.F Irish Baby Killer" while St Patrick's Cathedral was targeted with a number of messages including "The New Reformation Is Here", "Save the 8th, Save Ireland" and "Sinn Fein Irish Baby Killers, Speak Up".

Orfhlaith Begley condemned the attack on Carrickmore Chapel.

First and foremost this is a sectarian hate crime and those responsible should be brought to book," she said.

This disgraceful graffiti attack on Carrickmore Chapel is the second such attack on a church property in 24 hours.

I have visited Carrickmore Chapel this morning, I have spoken to Father ONeill and parishioners and people are incensed by this blatant sectarian vandalism.

Anyone with any information on this hate crime should bring it forward to the PSNI.

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Police have confirmed they received a report of criminal damage in the Creggan Road area of Carrickmore at 8.47am on Tuesday April 24.

It is believed the incident occurred sometime between 9.40pm on April 23 and 8.05am on April 24.

They also confirmed police are investigating a report of criminal damage on the Cathedral Road in Armagh sometime between 11pm on April 22 and 8am on Monday April 23.

Enquiries into both incidents are ongoing.

Citizens in the Republic of Ireland will be asked on May 25 whether they want to repeal the Eighth Amendment of Irelands Constitution, a provision that makes abortion illegal in all but exceptional circumstances.

If the public votes to repeal the constitutional provision, the Irish Government intends to table legislation that would permit abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

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Police arrested three men following the discovery.

Police arrested three men on Tuesday after discovering 30k worth of a steroids at a property in east Belfast.

They recovered a quantity of class C drugs following a search at a property in Castlereagh Street.

Three men aged 32, 47 and 63 were arrested at the scene and have been taken into custody for questioning.

Neighbourhood Team Inspector Keith Hutchinson said intelligence led to police conducting the search.

Our proactive intelligence led search took place on Tuesday afternoon. Officers from the Titanic Neighbourhood Team acting upon information received, entered the premises and recovered steroids with a value of approximately 30,000.

This shows our commitment to address the issue of illegal drug use and supply in the east Belfast area, and I would encourage anyone with any information which could assist us to contact police in Strandtown on 101.

"Alternatively, information can also be provided to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 which is 100% anonymous and gives people the power to speak up and stop crime.
Denis Naughten making a statement on claims around Independent News and Media in the Dail (Oireachtas TV/PA)

Pressure is continuing to mount on Irelands communications minister Denis Naughten.

The Taoiseach was again forced to defend his Cabinet colleague over claims he tipped off a lobbyist about a decision on a proposed media takeover.

Answering questions in the Dail, Leo Varadkar said: Minister Naughten didnt do any favours for anyone. He didnt do any favours for Independent News and Media (INM), he didnt do any favours for Denis OBrien.

In fact his action was to delay the merger  delay the proposed merger between INM and Celtic Media by referring it to the Broadcasting Authority.

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Last week Mr Naughten made an unscheduled statement to the Dail responding to claims that a PR firm passed details of a telephone call with the minister to a senior figure within INM, two months before his referral to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) was officially announced.

Mr Varadkar added: In relation to the phone call with the lobbyist, Mr Naughten indicated that he would follow the law and be guided by official advice and that is of course what any official would do.

I am not sure if that constitutes confidential information or not but in my mind it doesnt because that is what ministers will do  they will follow the law and be guided by official advice.

He has said that he regrets he ever took the phone call. He has said that he regards it as a political mistake on his behalf and he has apologised for it today.

Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin said he believed a serious error of judgment had been made.

He said: It is clear to me and most people that the minister made a serious error of judgment and his defence to date has been very poor in relation to that very serious error.

Later, he added: When you give that commercially sensitive information to one party you are actually responsible for what happens with it down the line because you shouldnt give it in the first place because by giving it you know there are consequences in giving it.

I find it difficult that you find it difficult to find the words to say that this was a wrong thing to do.
A legal challenge by one of Irelands richest men risks destroying parliamentary speech, a lawyer has said.

The action taken by telecoms billionaire Denis OBrien after two politicians disclosed details of his banking affairs is not the business of even the Republics highest court, barrister Michael Collins added.

Mr OBrien appealed to Irelands Supreme Court after a failed attempt to sue the legislature following statements made by two TDs (MPs) three years ago which rendered his previous court injunction almost pointless.

The lawyer for the Oireachtas parliament, senior counsel Mr Collins, said the court should not scrutinise its elected members comments.

He added: That is ultimately destructive of parliamentary speech because unless you can speak knowing that you are not going to be subject to some form of oversight other than the oversight provided for in the constitution, that you can be made answerable to a court  even if indirectly  then (free speech)  is effectively undermined.

He said it was not judges role to scrutinise speech in the Oireachtas in Dublin based on how bad, incompetent or erroneous it was.

This appeal avowedly seeks the court to circumscribe parliamentary speech and involves the substitution of the court ... as the ultimate arbiter of parliamentary speech in this jurisdictionMichael Collins, lawyer for the Oireachtas parliament

This appeal avowedly seeks the court to circumscribe parliamentary speech and involves the substitution of the court, and this court as the final court in this jurisdiction, as the ultimate arbiter of parliamentary speech in this jurisdiction.

Parliamentary speech is privileged in Ireland under the countrys constitution and the separation of powers between lawmakers and the judiciary is closely guarded.

The High Court decided it had no power to rule on issues raised by Mr OBrien concerning how the Oireachtas Committee on Procedure and Privileges dealt with the statements about his financial matters and his complaints.

Media tycoon Mr OBrien is appealing against that decision but did not attend the hearing before seven judges in Dublin on Tuesday.

Mr Collins added: To get the court to accede to the application here it would inevitably be drawn into a consideration of what occurred on the floor of the House, which I say simply stands completely outside the function of this court.

Mr OBrien had obtained an injunction in 2015 preventing Irish broadcaster RTE from reporting on what he claimed were stolen files of his banking records with the state-owned IBRC, formerly rogue lender Anglo Irish Bank.

He said Independent TD Catherine Murphy and Sinn Fein TD Pearse Doherty knew exactly what they were doing when they later read details of the file into the public record.

But a High Court judge upheld parliamentary freedom of speech and the separation of state powers.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their newborn son outside the Lindo Wing (Dominic Lipinksi/PA)

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are settling into life as a family of five after bringing their new baby son home from hospital.

William and Kate have retreated to the sanctuary of Kensington Palace after introducing their third child to the world on the steps of the exclusive maternity unit, the Lindo Wing.

The name of the baby prince of Cambridge, who was born on Monday at 11.01am weighing 8lb 7oz, has yet to be unveiled.

The new royal baby in his car seat pic.twitter.com/UxATU8AIpH  PA Royal Reporters (@PARoyal) April 23, 2018

Royals traditionally keep the public guessing before revealing their choice.

William and Kate will want to share the name with the Queen and the rest of their family before making it public.

Kensington Palace said the name would be announced in due course but the favourite at the bookies is currently Arthur, followed by James, Philip and Albert.

Visitors will be expected at William and Kates west London residence as close family members call in to meet the Cambridges newest addition  a younger brother to Prince George and Princess Charlotte.

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The new baby princes great-grandmother the Queen, 92, is still at Windsor Castle for Easter Court, with the Duke of Edinburgh who is recuperating following a hip operation.

Born fifth in line, the baby is the Queen and Philips sixth great-grandchild and Kensington Palace said the couple, along with the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Harry, and the Middletons, were delighted with the news of the new arrival.

Welcome to the family. pic.twitter.com/nKSd5kh5bZ  The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) April 23, 2018

George and Charlotte, who visited their new sibling at St Marys Hospital in Paddington, London, on Monday afternoon, are likely to be at school and nursery.

A confident, excited Charlotte, who turns three on May 2, turned to wave at the photographers outside the hospital as she led the way up the steps holding Williams hand.

Princess Charlotte and Prince George arrive with the Duke of Cambridge to meet their new baby brother #RoyalBaby pic.twitter.com/Lo8lGornqr  PA Royal Reporters (@PARoyal) April 23, 2018

Four-year-old George, in his school uniform, appeared more wary of the huge crowds of media.

During his first photocall, the baby, who was wrapped in a white lace shawl with a matching bonnet, could be seen moving his fingers as he was cradled by Kate.

Smiling broadly, the duchess was dressed in a vibrant red Jenny Packham dress with a white lace collar, reminiscent of Williams late mother Diana, Princess of Wales  who wore red and white outside the Lindo Wing after Prince Harry was born in 1984.

As William and Kate headed home after appearing in front of the banks of cameras with their seven-hour-old son, the duke said they were very happy and very delighted.

He joked, holding up three fingers, that he had thrice the worry now, adding: We didnt keep you waiting too long this time.

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Quizzed on whether they had decided on a name, the duke added: Youll find out soon enough.

The duke and duchess thanked the hospital for their care and the public for their wishes.

Kensington Palace said: Their Royal Highnesses would like to thank all staff at the hospital for the care and treatment they have received.

They would also like to thank everyone for their warm wishes.

Their Royal Highnesses would like to thank all staff at the hospital for the care and treatment they have received. They would also like to thank everyone for their warm wishes.  The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) April 23, 2018

By welcoming a baby prince, William and Kate are following the birth pattern of the Queen and Philips children  a son, a daughter and then another son.

The Queen and the duke had Prince Charles, then Princess Anne, followed by, after a gap of 10 years, Prince Andrew, with a fourth child, Prince Edward, born four years later.
The Duchess with her new son

Prince George and Charlotte arrive with their father Prince William to meet their new brother at the Lindo Wing at St Marys Hospital

Prince George and Charlotte arrive with their father Prince William to meet their new brother at the Lindo Wing at St Marys Hospital

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with their newborn son outside the Lindo Wing at St Marys Hospital, London

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with their newborn baby boy outside the Lindo Wing of St Marys Hospital in London, England

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with their newborn baby boy outside the Lindo Wing of St Marys Hospital in London, England

Prince William leaving the Lindo Wing of St Marys Hospital after the birth

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with their newborn baby boy outside the Lindo Wing of St Marys Hospital in London, England

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge yesterday showed their newborn son - fifth in line to the throne - off to the world on the steps of the Lindo Wing maternity unit.

Proud parents William and Kate introduced the baby prince of Cambridge - their third child - to the hundreds of cameras gathered in front of the private hospital in Paddington, London.

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The duchess gave birth to the 8lb 7oz baby boy at 11.01am on patriotic St George's Day after being admitted before 6am yesterday. She was home just hours afterwards.

During his first photocall, the baby, a younger brother to Prince George and Princess Charlotte, was wrapped in a white lace shawl with a matching hat. Only just under seven hours old, he was carried in his mother's arms.

Smiling broadly, Kate, who was dressed in a vibrant red Jenny Packham dress with a white lace collar, adjusted the baby's shawl amid windy conditions outside the hospital. The baby could be seen moving his fingers as he was cradled by Kate.

Minutes after the brief photocall, the couple headed home to the sanctuary of Kensington Palace, with William emerging from the hospital carrying his son in a car seat, and holding Kate's hand.

The duke said they were "very happy" and "very delighted" and joked, holding up three fingers, that he now had "thrice the worry now".

He added: "We didn't keep you waiting too long this time."

Quizzed on whether they had decided on a name, the duke added: "You'll find out soon enough."

George and Charlotte earlier met the newest addition to the Cambridge family after being brought to St Mary's Hospital by William.

A confident Charlotte, who turns three on May 2, turned to wave at the photographers as she led the way up the steps holding the duke's hand, while four-year-old George appeared more wary of the huge crowds of media.

William and Kate thanked the hospital for their care and the public for their warm wishes.

Kensington Palace said: "Their Royal Highnesses would like to thank all staff at the hospital for the care and treatment they have received. They would also like to thank everyone for their warm wishes."

The palace said the baby's name would be "announced in due course", but Arthur is already the favourite with punters, according to the bookies.

Other predictions include Philip, after the Duke of Edinburgh, as well as James, Frederick and Albert.

The new prince is the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh's sixth great-grandchild.

He is an HRH and a Prince of Cambridge.

By welcoming a baby prince, William and Kate are following in the footsteps of the Queen and Philip.

Emulating the birth pattern of the Queen and the duke's first three children, William and Kate have had a son, a daughter and now another son.

The Queen and Philip had Prince Charles, then Princess Anne, followed by, after a gap of 10 years, Prince Andrew, with Prince Edward born four years later.

Kensington Palace announced the baby's arrival in a statement shortly after 1pm and said the Queen, the royals and Kate's family were thrilled at the news.

"The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Harry and members of both families have been informed and are delighted with the news," the palace said.

A formal notice of the birth was placed in the forecourt of Buckingham Palace on an ornate golden stand, and a celebratory over-sized Union Flag was raised from the roof of the Queen's London home.

Prime Minister Theresa May led the messages of support for William and Kate, saying: "My warmest congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the birth of their baby boy.

"I wish them great happiness for the future."
Jeremy Corbyns attempt to build bridges with Jewish community leaders have received another setback after they accused him of failing to take action to tackle anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.

After more than two hours of talks with the Labour leader at Westminster, the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) said their meeting was a disappointing missed opportunity to address the issue.

In a joint statement, the boards president, Jonathan Arkush, and JLC chair Jonathan Goldstein said Mr Corbyn had failed to adopt any of the measures they had proposed following last months demonstration outside Parliament against anti-Semitism in Labour.

JLC & BoardofDeputies statement following our meeting with Jeremy Corbyn: pic.twitter.com/gMXCwqopPG  Board of Deputies of British Jews (@BoardofDeputies) April 24, 2018

Our sole objective from this meeting was to build trust with Mr Corbyn, but this will not be possible until and unless he and the party turn their many strong words against anti-Semitism into equally strong actions in order to bring about a deep cultural change in his supporters attitude to Jews, they said.

In response, Mr Corbyn said he was absolutely committed to rooting out anti-Semitism in the party and had instructed new general secretary Jennie Formby to overhaul its disciplinary procedures to ensure complaints were dealt with swiftly and fairly.

We will lay out the further steps we are taking in the coming weeks. We will continue to engage and work with Jewish community organisations to deal with this issue. Our party will not fail our Jewish brothers and sisters, he said.

I am grateful to the Board of Deputies, the Jewish Leadership Council and the Community Security Trust for a positive and constructive meeting about tackling antisemitism.



My full statement here: https://t.co/WF7QILhzEO  Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) April 24, 2018

The meeting leaves relations between Labour and the mainstream Jewish organisations at a low ebb, amid claims that some of the most vitriolic anti-Semitic abuse has come from hard left supporters of Mr Corbyn.

Ahead of the meeting, Mr Corbyn used an article for Londons Evening Standard to again apologise for the partys failure to fully to get to grips with the problem.

My party and I are sorry for the hurt and distress caused, he said.

However, Mr Arkush and Mr Goldstein said that after two years of inactivity by the Labour leadership, such statements were no longer enough.

They said the proposals they had put forward  which included a fixed timetable for dealing with outstanding case of anti-Semitism, , expediting long-standing case like that of Ken Livingstone, and the transparent oversight of the partys disciplinary process  was the minimum level of action they expected.

Board of Deputies President Jonathan Arkush and @JLC_uk chair Jonathan Goldstein tell media of a disappointing meeting with Jeremy Corbyn today pic.twitter.com/Tht6f6jBD2  Board of Deputies of British Jews (@BoardofDeputies) April 24, 2018

Words in letters and newspaper articles will never be enough. We welcome the fact that Mr Corbyns words have changed but it is action by which the Jewish community will judge him and the Labour Party, they said.

Thousands of British Jews did not demonstrate outside Parliament just for a few lawyers and another newspaper article; they demanded action and so do we.

We will hold the Labour Party to account for any future failures and continue to represent the interests of British Jews with clarity and resolve. We also commit to do our utmost to work with all those within Labour who want to help make it a safe and equal space for all of its members.

Despite the harsh criticism, Mr Corbyn insisted that it had been a positive and constructive meeting and he rejected complaints by some on the left that accusations of ant-Semitism were simply smears to undermine his leadership.

I am absolutely committed to rooting out anti-Semitism from our party and our society, he said.

When members of Jewish communities express genuine anxieties, we must recognise them as we would those of any other community.

Their concerns are not smears. Jews belong in the Labour Party and we are utterly committed to making it a safe and welcoming place for them.
The Windrush scandal has exposed one of the cruellest examples of unaccountable state power targeting the vulnerable, MPs heard, as ministers faced fresh calls to provide legal aid to victims.

Shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon took to the despatch box to demand free legal advice be offered as he branded current immigration law complex and unintelligible.

Justice Secretary David Gauke, speaking in the Commons, refused to commit to fund legal advice for those affected  instead telling MPs that a compensation scheme had been set up which would go to those who deserve it.

The demands follow revelations that long-term residents who settled in the UK from the late 1940s to early 1970s had wrongly been identified as illegal immigrants.

People who had arrived in the UK before 1973 were automatically granted indefinite leave to remain but the Home Office did not keep a record of those allowed to stay or any documentation confirming their status.

While many of those who arrived have taken British citizenship or have official documents proving their status, others have struggled to source paperwork demonstrating they are lawfully resident.

In Parliament Amber Rudd has just responded to the appalling Windrush scandal by telling Parliament that she will be developing a new communications strategy. Absolutely pathetic. It doesnt even get near to the hurt and anguish that has been caused to our fellow citizens. pic.twitter.com/ZAZTOmD339  Richard Burgon MP (@RichardBurgon) April 23, 2018

Mr Burgon, speaking during justice questions, said: The Windrush scandal is one of the cruellest examples of unaccountable state power targeting the vulnerable, the defenceless and the innocent that I can ever remember.

He added: I was disappointed yesterday to hear the Home Secretary say that people affected by the Windrush scandal will have no need for lawyers. Im sure the Justice Secretary will understand why the words the Home Secretary used wont do.

So, will the Justice Secretary guarantee today that all those put in this kind of situation will have access to the necessary legal advice to help them when they most need it?

Mr Gauke responded: The Home Secretary set out a comprehensive plan yesterday about how we will make this process much easier for those who have been affected by this issue.

They are going to be able to obtain British citizenship for example much more easily, those who have retired back to another country are able to come here without great difficulties with visas, and so on.

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The Home Secretary has also set out how were going put in place a compensation arrangement to ensure that there is compensation for those who deserve it.

On Monday, Home Secretary Amber Rudd announced an emergency package of measures designed to resolve the crisis.

Under the plans, thousands of people who arrived from the Commonwealth will be offered the chance to obtain British citizenship free of charge and without the requirement to take language tests.

A major exercise has also been launched the check no-one has been wrongly deported, and the Home Office is preparing a compensation scheme for those affected by the failings.
Mike Pompeo, US president Donald Trumps choice for secretary of state, has avoided a rare rebuke as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee narrowly recommended him.

But the vote served as a warning shot to the White House as nominees to lead the CIA and Veterans Affairs (VA) are hitting stiff resistance.

Mr Pompeo, who is now CIA director, received the panels approval only after Mr Trumps last-minute overtures to Senator Rand Paul.

Mr Pompeos nomination now goes to the full Senate, where votes are tallying in his favour and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he looks forward to voting to confirm him later this week.

Mr Trump has been quick to fire his top cabinet secretaries, but Senate Democrats are not so fast to confirm replacements. A grilling is expected on Wednesday of Ronny Jackson, the White House physician nominated to head the VA, and Mr Pompeos potential replacement at the CIA, Gina Haspel, is also facing scrutiny.

Hard to believe, Mr Trump tweeted Monday about the obstruction. The Dems will not approve hundreds of good people They are maxing out the time on approval process for all, never happened before. Need more Republicans!

Republicans hold just a slim Senate majority, 50-49, with the prolonged absence of Senator John McCain.

Mr Pompeos bid to become the nations top diplomat was in the hands of a few senators, but received a boost Monday when two Democrats, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Senator Joe Donnelly of Indiana, announced their support.

Pressure is mounting on senators from all sides. White House allies are unloading ad campaigns against Democrats from Trump-won states, but progressive groups are pounding senators offices in opposition. As soon as Senator Heidi Heitkamp announced her support for Mr Pompeo, one group called on her to switch.

Ahead of the Foreign Relations Committees vote, chairman Bob Corker said of the full Senate, It does appear Mike Pompeo has the votes to be secretary of state.

Supporters point to Mr Pompeos resume as a West Point and Harvard Law School graduate who has the presidents confidence, particularly on North Korea. Opponents are focusing on his hawkish foreign policy views and negative comments about gay marriage and Muslims.

Mike Pompeos CIA successes come from proven experience. He has been a U.S. Cavalry officer, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, an entrepreneur, and graduated first in his class at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. https://t.co/cIOr4j6tZr  The White House 45 Archived (@WhiteHouse45) April 23, 2018

Mr Pauls earlier objections to Mr Pompeo, along with overwhelming opposition from Democrats, had set the secretary of state nominee on track to be the first since 1925, when the committee started keeping records, not to receive a favourable recommendation.

But Mr Trump and Mr Paul talked repeatedly, including a chat just moments before the vote.

I have changed my mind, Mr Paul said, explaining he received reassurances that Mr Pompeo agrees with the president that the Iraq war was a mistake and that it is time for US troops to leave Afghanistan.

Mr Pauls office said he got a win  the promise that Mr Pompeo sides with Mr Trump on those issues  out of the situation, but declined to provide details.

I want Trump to be Trump, Mr Paul said.

Asked about Mr Pauls change of heart, Mr Trump said, Hes a good man.

Senators are anxious to have Mr Pompeo in place before international meetings scheduled for later this week and ahead of North Korea talks.

Republicans blamed partisan politics for opposition, saying Mr Pompeo is just as qualified as past secretaries of state nominees Hillary Clinton or John Kerry, both of whom received overwhelming support.

A majority of Democrats continue their pointless obstruction to score cheap political points with their base as a wilful attempt to undermine American diplomacy, said White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

But Democrats resisted easy confirmation of the nations top diplomat, and support peeled.

Senator Maggie Hassan, who had been among more than a dozen Democrats who supported Mr Pompeo for CIA director, announced her no vote on Monday.

I am concerned that Mr Pompeo has not demonstrated an understanding that the Secretary of State has an obligation to the American people to stand up for our core values, she said.

Senator Chris Coons, who was among the last Democrats on the foreign relations panel to announce his no vote, said he is concerned that Mr Pompeo will embolden, rather than moderate or restrain Mr Trumps most belligerent and dangerous instincts.

In a late setback on Monday, the panel was short one Republican vote needed for a favourable recommendation because Senator Johnny Isakson was delivering a eulogy in his home state of Georgia.

Rather than postpone voting until his return very late on Monday, Mr Coons agreed to allowed his vote to be recorded as present so the committee could finish its work.
Smoke rises after Syrian government air strikes and shelling in southern Damascus (AP)

Syrian government forces have launched a new operation targeting underground tunnels used by the Islamic State group in the capital Damascus, according to state TV.

The aim of the operation is to destroy trenches and tunnels in the Hajar al-Aswad neighbourhood and the nearby Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk that is also mostly controlled by IS, it was reported.

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A group of journalists taken to the adjacent neighbourhood of Qadam witnessed intense shelling and air strikes on IS positions in the camp and Hajar al-Aswad.

The area in southern Damascus is the last part of the capital not controlled by President Bashar Assads forces.

Other insurgents in the area, including an al Qaida-linked group, have said they would relocate to rebel-held regions in northern Syria.

Meanwhile, UN Syria envoy Staffan De Mistura warned that the northern rebel-held province of Idlib could become the conflict-ravaged countrys newest humanitarian crisis area.

His warning came as international donors gathered in Brussels to drum up emergency support.

Mr De Mistura said that Idlib is the big new challenge  2.5 million people.

He told reporters that there are women, children, civilians, and this is looming up there.

Mr De Mistura hopes the two-day donor conference will be an occasion for also making sure that Idlib doesnt become the new Aleppo, the new eastern Ghouta, because the dimensions are completely different.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 177,000 people have fled combat in eastern Ghouta since February. The rest  including about 12,000 fighters  relocated to Idlib.
At the height of the conflict, security was understandably tight when government ministers came to Northern Ireland. A trip to the border posed even greater challenges.

But visits were not completely shrouded in secrecy on the day and media access was granted. Dissident republicans are incapable of mounting an attack on a visiting VIP.

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So there were no legitimate security reasons for keeping the press - and therefore the public - in the dark about David Davis's visit to the Co Armagh border yesterday.

The government may have been keen to avoid protesters greeting the Brexit Secretary. But if the plan was to avoid negative publicity, it backfired big-time.

The image of Mr Davis being secretly parachuted in and out has led to a deluge of criticism. It has reinforced the belief - rightly or wrongly - that London knows little, and cares less, about Brexit's effect here. Mr Davis's presence was publicly known only when he tweeted a photo of himself in Middletown.

Remainers will contrast his visit with that of the European Parliament's Brexit negotiator, Guy Verhofstadt, who met farmers, business and transport representatives and community groups in a heavily publicised visit to the same border area last autumn. The Brexit Secretary's avoidance of the media has handed those opposed to leaving the EU a PR victory.

Sinn Fein Senator Niall O Donnghaile tweeted: "David Davis inflicting his reckless Brexit on the people of Ireland against our expressed democratic will. Now he won't do people or even the media the courtesy of letting them know he's in town (I wonder why?!). Who does he think he is, Teresa May?!"

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Whatsapp Brexit Secretary David Davis (right) with Peter Sheridan of Co-operation Ireland in south Armagh yesterday

Former Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt was also critical. He tweeted: "How on earth can the Brexit Secretary make his first visit to the border without informing the media, or talking to anyone beyond the head of the Autism Centre in Middletown? Open, Transparent, Confident in his stance? Not!"
Malaysian police appealed for public help Monday as they released images of two suspects in the killing of a Palestinian engineer in Kuala Lumpur.



The militant group Hamas has accused Israel of involvement in the killing of Fadi Al Batsh, who was gunned down by two motorbike-riding men Saturday as he walked to a mosque near his home for dawn prayers. Israel has neither denied nor confirmed the claims.



Malaysia Inspector General of Police Mohamad Fuzi Harun said the computer-generated sketches were based on witnesses description of the shooters who were seen on security video waiting for the victim for almost 20 minutes outside a residential complex.



The sketches distributed to all police stations and border patrols nationwide showed bearded, light-skinned men of European or Middle Eastern heritage, investigators said.



One of them has quite prominent facial features and  [is] heavily built, Fuzi said.

The police chief said investigators narrowed down the type of motorcycle used by the suspects to either a BMW GS or a Kawasaki Versys. He urged anyone who might have information to come forward, but acknowledged police were not sure if the gunmen were still in the country.

A hospital post-mortem report showed Al Batsh, 35, was shot 14 times in his body and head, Fuzi told reporters, adding the suspects fired at least 20 rounds.



Al Batsh, a father of three, had been in Malaysia for more than seven years and held a Malaysian permanent resident status, officials said.



The University of Kuala Lumpur, which has more than 30,000 local and foreign students, said in a statement that Al Batsh was one of its senior lecturers and had joined its staff in 2016.



It said Al Batsh had a doctorate in electrical engineering and power electronics from the University of Malaya and received his masters and bachelors degrees in electrical engineering from the Islamic University of Gaza, an independent school in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Hamas and Al Batshs relatives had accused Mossad, Israels intelligence agency, of having a hand in the killing, according to reports.

On Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said his country had no reason to shed a tear over Al Batshs killing, according to the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz. He commented the killing may have been the result of a settling of scores among terrorist organizations.

Armed men in camo

Hamas did not disclose Al Batshs role in the Islamist militant group, but described him as a member.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that when Al Batshs family and dozens of others gathered in Gaza on Sunday, a sign outside a tent read: Qassam Brigades mourns its martyred leader. The engineer Fadi Mohammed al-Batsh.

The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades is Hamas military wing and armed members of the group dressed in camouflage attended the gathering, WSJ said.

Malaysia Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told state news agency Bernama on Saturday that Al Batsh was active in pro-Palestinian non-governmental organizations and was an expert in electrical engineering and rocket-building.

Zahid said he suspected foreign intelligence could have been responsible for the killing but did not provide any evidence to support his claim.

Hafidzi Mohd Noor, chairman of the Malaysian Islamist NGO MyCare, rejected Zahids claims.

He was an electrical engineer and expert in power and electronics. Never a rocket scientist or drone expert, Hafidzi, who worked with Al Batsh, told BenarNews on Saturday.



Fauziah Mohd Hasan, a representative of the Rose2Rose, an NGO that works with Palestinian women, told BenarNews she visited Enaas, the widow of Al Batsh, at their home in Kuala Lumpur hours after the killing.



Tell me its just a nightmare when I wake up, Fauziah quoted Enaas as saying.

She said the 30-year-old mother of three was inconsolable despite being surrounded by family and friends.

Anwar Al Agha, the Palestinian ambassador to Malaysia, told BenarNews on Monday that Kuala Lumpur has approved his request to fly Al Batshs body to Palestinian territories through Egypt.



Preparations are being done. Maybe in two to three days. All we need is the approval from the Egyptian government to allow us to pass through, Anwar said.

Malaysia, a Muslim-majority nation of 32 million people, has no formal diplomatic relations with Israel. It hosts a Palestinian envoy and about 3,000 Palestinians, mostly university students.

Malaysian officials have in recent years denied allegations by Israeli security services that Hamas operatives were training on Malaysian soil to carry out military operations against Israel.
Regional public safety personnel man a checkpoint along a road in La Union, a remote northern Philippine province, after communist New Peoples Army guerrillas attacked a mine in the area, Feb. 10, 2017.

The exiled leader of the long-running Philippine communist insurgency told BenarNews he was reluctant to accept an invitation from President Rodrigo Duterte to come home to negotiate peace, saying this could put his life at risk from saboteurs.

In a statement sent late Monday from the Netherlands, where he has lived in self-imposed exile since 1987, Jose Maria Sison said he welcomed guarantees for his safety from Duterte, but the offer exposed him to dangers from certain quarters, which he declined to name.

Going home now would only expose not only myself, but also the entire peace process to extremely high risks of violent sabotage and termination by spoilers who are out to terminate the peace process once and for all, Sison said.

He would return only after peace negotiations had made a significant advance and when his comrades and lawyers were satisfied with security precautions, he said.

During a speech in the eastern city of Legazpi earlier on Monday, the president had invited Sison  his one-time university professor  to return to the Philippines, promising that the government would pay for all his expenses.

I will give you complete freedom to move. I will not harass anyone and I will order the military and the police to be nice to you, Duterte said.

He also guaranteed Sison freedom of movement on condition that he and his aides left their weapons inside a military camp.

At the same time, Duterte said, he would set a 60-day window for the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) to restore peace negotiations with the government. When that window would begin was not clear.

When he took office in 2016, the president, a self-described leftist, made one of his first official acts to engage the communist rebels in talks aimed at ending one of Asias longest running insurgencies. He also freed detained top CPP officials to join talks held in Europe.

But late last year, the president terminated negotiations and accused CPPs armed wing, the New Peoples Army (NPA), of violating a ceasefire pact by staging attacks.

He had also asked the Justice Department to designate the CPP-NPA a terrorist organization, complicating a resumption of talks because the state has a policy of not negotiating with terrorists.

I declare that I will certainly return home when a significant advance in the peace negotiations has been achieved, Sison told BenarNews, adding he was confident that back-channel negotiations would make headway.

Rebels captured

Meanwhile, government security forces said they had captured a communist rebel leader and two of his followers after a gunbattle in the southern town of Massim.

The suspects were captured on Monday night and Tuesday after resisting troops who were responding to information about the presence of NPA guerrillas in the area, regional army spokesman Maj. Ezra Balagtey said. The suspects in custody were identified as Pablito Torno, an NPA unit leader, and Sarah Balabang and Bactira Masalon.

The NPA has been waging a guerrilla campaign in the countryside since 1969.

Military estimates placed the NPA strength at more than 5,000 men scattered in more than 60 guerrilla fronts throughout the Philippines.
Soldiers use a road roller to destroy weapons confiscated during the siege of Marawi, southern Philippines, Dec. 13, 2018.

Nearly two dozen pro-Islamic State groups are actively recruiting members in the southern Philippines, six months after Isnilon Hapilon and his group were defeated in the battle of Marawi, military intelligence sources told BenarNews on Monday.

Immediately after the Marawi siege ended, fighters were believed to have escaped and splintered into smaller groups scattered across the main southern island of Mindanao, they said.

They are now aggressively reorganizing, recruiting and retraining to re-establish their desire to have a foothold in Southeast Asian region, according to one intelligence brief seen by BenarNews.

Isnilon Hapilon, the leader of Islamic State militants in the Philippines, aided by fighters from the local Maute group and from the Middle East and Southeast Asia, took over the Islamic city of Marawi in May 2017 with the aim of establishing a caliphate.

They kidnapped women and children, beheaded Christians and fought running gun battles with the military for five months, reducing the city to a wasteland of pockmarked and ruined homes. At least 200,000 people fled during the worst conflict the south has seen in recent years.

The battle ended in October after Filipino forces finally killed Hapilon and leaders of the Maute gang, but President Rodrigo Duterte said up to 200 other militants had escaped.

Under the black flag

The intelligence sources said several high-ranking suspects had been captured recently, including Indonesian Mushalah Somina Rasim (alias Abu Omar).

The 32-year-old militant was arrested last month as he was allegedly recruiting for Ansarul Khilafa Philippines (AKP), also called Khalifa Islamiyah Mindanao, an IS-sympathizer group in the south whose members are mostly trained in bomb making, the sources said.

Rasim was believed to have had meetings with the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a group that splintered from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which signed a peace deal with the government in 2014.

The intelligence brief said the BIFF group has three factions, but only one of them, led by Abu Turaipe, openly declared support for IS. His groups has been engaged in hit-and-run attacks with the military. In clashes two weeks ago, troops killed 15 militants.

MILF spokesman Von al Haq told BenarNews he is aware that certain groups are believed to have allied under the black flag of the IS, ostensibly to avenge their loss in Marawi. He said at least 23 groups had sprouted across Mindanao, but whether they have the capacity to carry out deadly attacks remains to be seen.

We are not discounting the 23 IS-linked groups in Mindanao but we are looking into that matter. As of now we dont have full authority to take any action on this problem, al Haq said.

He said that MILF fighters could eliminate these militant groups once the autonomy law is passed in May under the groups peace deal with Manila.

The 12,000-member MILF dropped its bid for self-rule to settle for an expanded autonomy when it signed a peace deal with Manila in 2014.

The law, called the Bangsamoro Basic Law, outlines the basic structure of the proposed autonomy in Mindanao, the countrys mineral-rich southern third where many areas remain mired in poverty because of the insurgency.

Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Bienvenido Datuin said troops were not discounting the possibility of another Marawi-like siege in the region.

We are trying to confirm the veracity of that information. Informal reports came in regarding the matter and I referred it to our intelligence community and operations and people on the ground. We are trying to confirm that, he said.

The intelligence brief seen by BenarNews said the 23 groups are:

1. Ansar Dawlah Fi Filibbin (ADFF)

2. Rajah Solaiman Islamic Movement (RSIM)

3. Al Warakarul Islamiyah Battalion

4. Jamaat Ansar Khilafa

5. Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF)

6. Ansharul Khilafa Philippines Battalion

7. Bangsamoro Justice Movement

8. Khilafa Islamiya Mindanao (KIM)

9. Abu Sayyaf Group (Hapilon faction)

10. Syuful Khilafa Fi Luzon

11. Jamaatul Tawheed Wal Jihad (IS Lanao in Butig)

12. Marakah al-Ansar Battalion

13. Dawla Islamiyyah Cotabato

14. Dawlat al Islamiya Waliyatul Masrik

15. Ansar al-Shariah Battalion

16. Jamaah al-Tawhid wal Jihad Philippines

17. Jundul-Tawhid Battalion (ASG Sulu)

18. Abu Dujanah battalion

19. Abu Khubayn battalion

20. Jundallah battalion

21. Abu Sadr battalion

22. Jamaah al Muhajirin Wal Anshor (Philipina)

23. Islamic State of Marawi

Jeoffrey Maitem in Cotabato, Philippines contributed to this report.
Thai inmates walk back to their prison cells after meeting family members at Bang Kwang Central Prison in Nonthaburi province, north of Bangkok, May 15, 2013.

Thailand's prison authorities have pledged to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of an inmate after being disciplined by guards for allegedly smuggling drugs, in a case which a human rights group said underscored a "culture of impunity in prisons" in the country.

Pattanachirapong Boonyasema was pronounced dead at Bang Bor Hospital on April 18 after he was brought in with bruises on his body from Samut Prakarn prison, where he had served a two-year sentence on drug-related offenses.

The initial autopsy result by the institute of Forensic Medicine at the police general hospital showed he died from choking and from wounds.

This is unnatural death, Narat Sawettanan, the Justice Ministrys Corrections Department chief, told reporters.

The chief of Sumut Prakan Prison and four other guards have been transferred to inactive positions to facilitate investigations into the death, according to the authorities.

Anyone found guilty in the case would face discipline and legal action, Narat said.

According to the Corrections Department, Pattanachirapong was injured when he was put through what the guards at Sumut Prakarn Prison described as disciplinary punishment together with other 18 inmates allegedly for smuggling drugs into the prison. He then collapsed.

Pattanachirapong's family has filed a formal complaint with police, saying his death was a result of excessive corporal punishment by prison guards.

Although the prison chief and guards were transferred to pave the way for the investigation, the family is still not satisfied because they believe there are many people involved, Chutipong Boonkerd, the family's lawyer, told BenarNews over the phone.

Wanicha Ouyub, Pattanachirapongs widow, posted pictures on her Facebook page showing severe bruises on her husband's body. She also wrote that she visited her husband on April 17 and that everything was normal and he looked happy as he was about to be released soon.

But, the next day, she was informed that her husband had died of unknown causes.

I was shocked when I saw his body. My question is how could prison guards do this to prisoners? Wanicha said on Facebook.

I will call for justice for my husband till the end," she said, vowing to delay his funeral until the case was investigated.

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) slammed the government, particularly the Corrections Department, over the death, saying authorities should "urgently act to end these barbaric practices and the culture of impunity that has meant no punishment for abusive officials.

Another prisoner died from a brutal beating yet Thai authorities still fail to address this problem, said Brad Adams, HRW's Asia director.

HRW said that while the Correction Department chief Narat had emphasized that corporal punishment and torture  as well as inhumane and degrading treatment  were strictly forbidden in all prison facilities, he failed to explain why the department still faces a "chronic inability" to end these abuses.

The Corrections Department is responsible for more than 280,000 inmates across Thailand, but seems unable to implement effective safeguards against torture and other human rights violations committed by prison officials and guards, HRW said.

It also said that Thai Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-ochas repeated pledges to make torture a criminal offense under Thai law "remain unfulfilled."

Last year, the National Legislative Assembly suspended its consideration of the Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Bill, and the government still has not clarified whether the bill will be reintroduced, HRW said.

The Thai government needs to take action now to show that there will be no place for those who believe they have unchecked powers to abuse prisoners and get away with the crimes, Adams said. The government should ensure that Pattanachirapongs death will be the last case of prison brutality in Thailand.
Rick Dennis of Bonneau, right, placed first in the state in the National Corn Yield Contest in the Irrigated Class with a yield of 283.5439 bushels per acre.
To voice their opposition to a proposed sand/clay mining operation along Old Dam and Zion roads, nearby residents erected a sign last year alerting the public to a petition against the project.
Hezekiah: Sunday School Lesson Intro

Spiritual renewal is often associated with the present concept of "revival." It was in the nineteenth century that Cotton Mather first used the word to describe a great awakening in the early Americas. The word derives from the Latin revivere, "to live again," and was typically used to describe an old play that was brought back to a new generation of theater audiences. The concept is closest to the Old Testament idea of renewal or restoration, found especially in the work of leaders such as Hezekiah and Josiah.

The story of King Josiah is probably the best illustration of revival in the Old Testament (2 Chronicles 34). Judah had fallen away from God, almost exclusively serving the idols of surrounding peoples. When the Pentateuch is suddenly rediscovered, Josiah immediately calls the people back to this covenant, and institutes sweeping reforms throughout every institution in Israel. Revival was possible because the lines were so clear-cut. Judah had a past relationship with God it could return to, with the spiritual and political mechanisms in place to quickly restore this relationship to a central place in Israelite life. They rebuilt what had decayed.

The reign of Hezekiah some 70 years earlier is one example that Josiah was likely aware of. Through Hezekiah's devout commitment to God, a legacy of devotion was passed on.

Jumping forward seven centuries to the empowering of the Church in Acts 2, we see the ultimate spiritual renewal. As a nation, Israel was proven guilty by their treatment of the Messiah, but His death became their atonement for sin - a concept Jews would have readily understood, given their tradition of sacrificing animals. The fact that God raised Jesus from the dead becomes the pivot point from which Jews are called to return to God so that the spirituality seen in Hezekiah's day might be actualized once again.

I. Call for sanctification (2 Chron. 28:1-4, 22-27; 29:1-11)

The name Hezekiah in Hebrew means "God has strengthened." This is appropriate, given the story of this uncommon king's life and reign. As we will see, he emerges from the most unlikely background to rule with persistent godliness. The thirteenth king of Judah since the northern and southern lands of Israel have been divided, Hezekiah stands in the Gospel of Matthew's lineage of Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:9-10 NKJV). A careful study of Hezekiah's life will show us why God graced him with a messianic lineage. His commitment to spiritual renewal in Israel makes him an appropriate predecessor to Christ.

A. A wicked father

"And Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God, and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God, and shut up the doors of the house of the Lord, and he made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem. And in every several city of Judah he made high places to burn incense unto other gods, and provoked to anger the Lord God of his fathers. And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, even in Jerusalem: but they brought him not into the sepulchres of the kings of Israel: and Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead" (2 Chron. 28:24-25, 27).

Surprisingly, the reign of Hezekiah begins with a father of unparalleled wickedness. Ahaz never makes any effort at all to put Yahweh first in his life or in the administration of the kingdom (v. 1). He boldly serves foreign gods, to the extent of calling for the manufacturing of Baal idols and the execution of child sacrifice (vv. 2-3). This means that Hezekiah once had siblings whose lives were given over to pagan cults, most likely Molech, the god of death. The ensuing chaos in the land leads Ahaz to make a treaty with Assyria - an aggressive nation that is quickly becoming a regional empire (v. 16). This pressure fails to cause Ahaz to turn to Yahweh. Instead, he sacrifices all the more to the various gods of Damascus in Syria (v. 23). He crosses a sacred line, however, when he incorporates the Temple's furnishings into these pagan rituals of worship (v. 24).

What would cause a man with Ahaz's history in Judah to become so stiff-necked? We are left to guess. Determined that Yahweh will do them no good, that these other gods are the saviors of Judah, he closes the Temple completely after ransacking it for its sacred vessels. This is explicit religious syncretism - utilizing Yahweh's temple's furnishings in the worship of other gods. For the worshipers of Yahweh still left, it was a ghastly crime.

Ahaz sees to it that this pagan worship takes place all over the city of Jerusalem, then moves outward with his campaign of sorcery (v. 25). The text stops just short of insinuating that Ahaz purposefully attempts to anger Yahweh. "High places" were altars built on cliffs and mountains that were considered sacred space due to their usage for various forms of worship, including incense and sometimes sacrifice. These high places were often dedicated to the worship of Yahweh, but apparently not in Ahaz's lifetime. As a result of his betrayal of the God of his fathers, including his own father, Jotham, Ahaz's burial is a disgrace. Though laid to rest in Jerusalem, he will not receive the honor of a burial with previous kings (v. 27). Judah seeks to forget him entirely, and Hezekiah is the perfect ruler to help them do so and to move forward with God.

B. The new David

"Hezekiah began to reign when he was five and twenty years old, and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done. He in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the Lord, and repaired them. Now it is in mine heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel, that his fierce wrath may turn away from us" (2 Chron. 29:1-3, 10).

Because Hezekiah has reached adulthood, his reign will be characterized by getting things ordered in a hurry. His father long forgotten, in verse 2 Hezekiah is identified with David - the greatest spiritual and political leader to ever emerge from the hills of Judah.

The language in verse 2 is deliberate as usual. Other kings accomplished righteousness before the Lord in part, or for a historical segment of their reign. Hezekiah, however, achieves righteousness in full. Everything good about David is found in Hezekiah. This connection to David is especially important. It was the goal of every king after David to be identified with David. In fact, even King Herod in the time of Jesus took pains to identify himself as the new ruler in the line and spirit of David. We will see that this is an appropriate moniker for Hezekiah.

A king's first action is indicative of his priorities. The business of leading a nation is multifaceted, so we can guess that kings ordered their time with care and precision, just like leaders today. Therefore, the text wastes no time in letting us know what Hezekiah is passionate about. He "opened the doors of the house of the Lord, and repaired them" (v. 3).

These doors will be very important to Hezekiah's conflict with Sennacherib later on in his reign, but that is not in view here (2 Kings 18:13-16). Hezekiah breaks with his father by reopening the doors to God's temple in Jerusalem - the same doors his father had tried to close for good. This statement rang out to the kingdom of Judah loud and clear. God would be the national priority again. In the spirit of David, they were to put their trust in Yahweh.

Hezekiah, like several kings before him, is passionate about proper order in the Temple. He does not commence the work of restoration himself, as if he has rights to administrate the Temple's operation. We know from King Uzziah that this is dangerous territory (2 Chronicles 26:19). So Hezekiah readies the Levites to take over the Temple once more (2 Chronicles 29:5). It has been a long time, however, since the house of the Lord has been open for business. Given that Ahaz reigned sixteen years, many of the Levites have never served in the Temple, even though they are from the priestly tribe. Hezekiah, then, leads the charge to get the Levites and the Temple consecrated. He takes pains to ensure that everything is done according to God's law. All the while, he keeps his eyes on Judah's history. To Hezekiah, this history clearly shows that dedication to Yahweh is demanded from Judah. Therefore, he plans to call the nation back to the covenant (v. 10).

Initially, making a covenant seems strange. Didn't God forge an eternal covenant with Israel, and especially with David (2 Samuel 7:15-16)? Yes, so what is needed is not a new covenant, but a renewed covenant. God's offer to bless Judah still stands; it is still based on covenant. And this covenant still costs Judah something. It costs unabashed and singular devotion to Yahweh, the one true God.

Hezekiah has now solidified his focus on the Temple. The accomplishments of his dynasty will therefore be in tandem with the work of the priests and Levites in Jerusalem. This close relationship is often established by the faithful and successful kings of Judah. Again, Hezekiah realizes that he cannot effect spiritual renewal in Judah on his own. It will be a national effort, led by those who care most for Yahweh and His temple. Such leadership is always communal, and never individual. It starts with the ruler's heart and extends outward to his followers.

A. A period of consecration

"And they gathered their brethren, and sanctified themselves, and came, according to the commandment of the king, by the words of the Lord, to cleanse the house of the Lord. And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord, to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the Lord into the court of the house of the Lord. And the Levites took it, to carry it out abroad into the brook Kidron. Now they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month came they to the porch of the Lord: so they sanctified the house of the Lord in eight days; and in the sixteenth day of the first month they made an end" (2 Chron. 29:15-17).

One remarkable characteristic of the reign of Hezekiah is that he never sacrifices care and quality for speed, even as he races ahead to make God's temple in Jerusalem ready for worship. Indeed, the pace of the work was amazing. He has carefully apportioned the various ethnic groups descended from Levi to accomplish their respective work on the Temple. But first, they ritually consecrate themselves in accordance with God's law. These laws are explicitly laid out in Leviticus 21 and Leviticus 22, which depict the high standard for God's priests. After all, they intercede with God on behalf of the people. They cannot do so flippantly, but must remain reverent.

Once they have consecrated themselves and their garments, the consecration of the Temple itself begins. They work from the inside out, moving into the dilapidated inner court to make it ready to serve God and the people of Judah again. We can imagine the emotion of the priests' duty, walking into the Temple, some of them perhaps for the first time. Disgustingly, they find the Temple full of unclean things, all of which they haul to the Kidron Valley, probably for ceremonial burning or to drown in the Kidron River. The work takes sixteen days: washing, praying, singing, and cleaning. After the work is done, they joyfully report their progress to Hezekiah, who wants to know everything. They explain each facet of the cleansing with him, ensuring that everything has been done properly and in order. This purification even included the utensils for sacrifice - forks, bowls, bread plates, and the like. Unsurprisingly, they mention wicked old Ahaz in their explanation to Hezekiah. They have undone all that he did, providing a new day for Hezekiah and the kingdom of Judah. Without Hezekiah's bold willingness to break from his father, spiritual renewal would not have been possible.

B. Yom Kippur

"Then Hezekiah the king rose early, and gathered the rulers of the city, and went up to the house of the Lord. And they brought seven bullocks, and seven rams, and seven lambs, and seven he goats, for a sin offering for the kingdom, and for the sanctuary, and for Judah. And he commanded the priests the sons of Aaron to offer them on the altar of the Lord. And the priests killed them, and they made reconciliation with their blood upon the altar, to make an atonement for all Israel: for the king commanded that the burnt offering and the sin offering should be made for all Israel" (2 Chron. 29:20-21, 24).

The festival of Yom Kippur represents the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, yet Hezekiah realizes the nation has failed to celebrate it during the reign of Ahaz his father. The holiday means "Day of Atonement," and it refers to a single sacrifice which God accepts to atone for the sins of the entire nation. This sacrifice does not preclude individuals who come on a regular basis to honor God with the firstfruits of their livestock and crops. It is of a corporate nature, meant to enact God's peace upon the entire kingdom.

From what we know, King Hezekiah has kept his plan secretive. He plods along in the reconsecration of the Temple, and surely the people expect some kind of celebration at its grand reopening. Hezekiah, however, knows that too much is at stake to simply open the doors and stand back. He takes the lead in reinstating this important holiday into Judah's national and spiritual life by creating an elaborate program. However, it will be a slightly different kind of Yom Kippur, in that Hezekiah brings seven of each of the sacrifices before the Lord.

The number seven represents the number of God's completion. Through this act of atonement, Hezekiah proclaims that God is completely restoring Judah to her covenant with Him. The emphasis is on the word "all Israel" (v. 24), foreshadowing the restoration of the divided kingdom. Remember, Israel has been separated from and in conflict with Judah for thirteen Judean kings now. Hezekiah boldly makes the sacrifice for the united kingdom, signifying an important day in the future.

The text has built tension by keeping the reader wondering what will come next. Will the nation respond to Hezekiah's leadership? After all, in some respects he is unproven. He has yet to lead them into battle or to preside over an economic boom period. He has focused on getting God's temple back into shape. Even an elaborately staged ceremony of dedication to Yahweh does not mean the people will cease following the gods of Ahaz - gods they have grown used to over the years. Hezekiah's daring leadership shows its true colors when the people respond with overwhelming affirmation to his sweeping spiritual reforms.

A. Order in the temple

"Then Hezekiah answered and said, Now ye have consecrated yourselves unto the Lord, come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings into the house of the Lord. And the congregation brought in sacrifices and thank offerings; and as many as were of a free heart burnt offerings. And also the burnt offerings were in abundance, with the fat of the peace offerings, and the drink offerings for every burnt offering. So the service of the house of the Lord was set in order. And Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people, that God had prepared the people: for the thing was done suddenly" (2 Chron. 29:31, 35-36).

After the sacrifices are completed, the heartfelt celebration begins (vv. 25-30). Hezekiah has stationed skilled musicians in the places appointed by King David himself. Obeying the prophets of old, the psalms of David are reintroduced to the nation. The people once again learn the story of Israel through David's psalms. They learn about the character and attributes of God. Equally important, they learn the heart of David, which is a template for God-honoring service.

In a final burnt offering, Hezekiah gives the nod and the choir erupts into rapturous praise. In response, the nation gathered there fall on their faces before God. This continues for the entire sacrifice, perhaps fifteen minutes of overwhelming jubilance before the Lord. Now Hezekiah will open the floodgates for the people to express their individual praise to Yahweh, saying, "Come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings" (v. 31).

Verse 31 gives us a glimpse into the communal nature of sacrifices. That is, they were meant to be eaten by the family, tribe, or the community which brought them. We sometimes have this idea that the sacrifice is only about the death of the animal. This is a part of God's plan for atonement, but the sacrifice is equally about the consumption of the animal. Through eating the animal together, a group remembered the goodness of Yahweh who had nourished them. They also remembered the covenant they had with God and with one another as the people of God, since they ate as one from the same animal.

The sacrifices brought by the people were too much for the freshly trained priests to handle. As a result, the Levites put in overtime as an emergency consecration service was held for unconsecrated priests (v. 34). Verse 35 provides a key insight to spiritual renewal. The text does not say that worship in the Temple simply recommenced. Instead, it emphasizes the priestly order ("the service of the house of the Lord") which allowed the Temple to be reestablished in the first place. This shows us that order in God's house tends to flow from the top down. Hezekiah chooses to become a righteous king, so righteousness has a way of filtering downward to the priests through the king's faithfulness.

The last verse in the chapter marvels that Hezekiah is able to get so much done so fast, and clearly attributes this success to God. Yet God would likely not have overridden Hezekiah had he been lazy. It is the urgency of Hezekiah that God uses for His glory. He embodies the maxim that motivated Dr. Martin Luther King - "the fierce urgency of now."

B. A Passover like no other

"So they established a decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep the passover unto the Lord God of Israel at Jerusalem: for they had not done it of a long time in such sort as it was written. And there assembled at Jerusalem much people to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the second month, a very great congregation. And they arose and took away the altars that were in Jerusalem, and all the altars for incense took they away, and cast them into the brook Kidron. Then they killed the passover on the fourteenth day of the second month: and the priests and the Levites were ashamed, and sanctified themselves, and brought in the burnt offerings into the house of the Lord. And all the congregation of Judah, with the priests and the Levites, and all the congregation that came out of Israel, and the strangers that came out of the land of Israel, and that dwelt in Judah, rejoiced. So there was great joy in Jerusalem: for since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there was not the like in Jerusalem. Then the priests the Levites arose and blessed the people: and their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to his holy dwelling place, even unto heaven" (2 Chron. 30:5, 13-15, 25-27).

After the Temple is gloriously reestablished, Hezekiah moves onto the daily business of governing. However, he maintains his sense of priorities. In his first recorded royal edict, he issues an invitation to the entire kingdom, including the northern land of Israel, to reconstitute the Passover celebration (v. 1). This is an especially bold move since the official time for Passover has already expired. Hezekiah had hoped that the nation could be ready at the appointed time, but his plans prove overly ambitious. There are simply not enough consecrated priests to serve the people at the first of the year (v. 3). But Hezekiah refuses to let his dream sit still for the remainder of the year. He lays out a plan to celebrate the festival that year anyway, so the proclamation goes out "from Beersheba . . . to Dan" (v. 5).

Hezekiah's edict is especially meaningful to the northern kingdom of Israel. By this time, Assyria has sacked Israel and led many of its inhabitants into exile. Nonetheless, there are some that remain, and these Hezekiah invites to return to the God of the patriarchs. Unfortunately, some of the regions of the northern kingdom are hostile to Hezekiah's edict. They probably wondered what there was to celebrate, as they had already been defeated by the pagan Assyrians (v. 10). How could God help them now? Nonetheless, some Israelites make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem (v. 11), while all of Judah attends (v. 12).

The "very great" (v. 13) crowd that gathers once again has some work cut out for them, for some unofficial altars have emerged around the city. It is only when these are destroyed that the Passover lamb can be sacrificed and the festival celebrated.

Once again, Hezekiah's dedication to God's order results in a well-run festival centered on the Temple. For those citizens who are unconsecrated, the Levites are ready to step in and make their sacrifice for them (v. 17). But there are simply too many sacrifices to keep up. As a result, Hezekiah offers a prayer to God that the physically unconsecrated will be forgiven if their hearts are consecrated (vv. 18-19). God hears (v. 20), and the festival is full of such meaning, rejoicing, and worship that the entire assembly agrees to extend it another week (v. 23). These are agricultural people with much to attend to back home, but they are caught up in the moment.

In response, Hezekiah blesses the assembly with an enormous donation from his royal treasury, providing food for the second week of Passover (v. 24). Because of this, everyone is reminded of Solomon and David (v. 26), and the people are tremendously blessed before God (v. 27).

Hezekiah: Sunday School Lesson Conclusion

The reign of Hezekiah proves the tremendous work that goes into spiritual renewal for a corporate body of people. He approaches every aspect of the nation's spirituality with intentionality and care. He gets the right people in place. He centers on the right biblical texts. In so doing, Hezekiah is allowed to see some of the greatest miracles God performs for the divided kingdom. He also stands as an example for us of the cost and the benefits of spiritual renewal.

Golden Text Challenge

"Now ye have consecrated yourselves unto the Lord, come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings into the House of the Lord" (2 Chron. 29:31).

After the central burnt offering, Hezekiah exhorted the people to personal acts of devotion and thanksgiving. Even though there had been a burnt offering expressing the devotion of the entire congregation, individual commitment and thanksgiving were necessary.

Revival must not only reflect the unity and corporate strength of a congregation, it must also touch individual hearts. Without personal application, revival will have no effect on an individual's life. A revival may fall greatly upon the gathering of a congregation. However, each person is responsible for his individual responsiveness to the Lord.

In the last part of the verse, the expression "free heart" in the Hebrew text emphasized a person's willingness and personal motivation. In other words, the people were not forced to bring thanksgiving and offerings. Personal motivation and willingness are essential for revival. Hezekiah knew that the revival would not be genuine if the people were forced to worship. They had to come to the Lord of their own will and personal motivation. So must we.

Photo credit: Thinkstock

[To learn more about the annual Evangelical Sunday School Lesson Commentary, visit www.pathwaybookstore.com.]
Last week, Sunil Munjal and the Burmans revised their offer of Rs 12.5 billion to Rs 15 billion

Sunil Munjal-backed Hero Enterprise and the Burman's of Dabur group have extended the validity of their revised Rs 15-billion offer for the Fortis Healthcare till May 4.

The move comes in the backdrop of Fortis Healthcare Boards decision to select new investors on Thursday.

The Board has appointed an expert advisory committee headed by former PWC India Chief Executive Officer Deepak Kapoor to advise it on multiple offers.

Hero Enterprise and Burmans and Manipal-TPG combine have submitted binding bids, while three others including IHH, Fosun, and Radiant Life Care have sent non-binding offers to Fortis Healthcare.

Fortis Healthcare informed about the Hero-Burman offer to extend their bid validity, all other bid conditions remain unchanged.

Last week, Sunil Munjal and the Burmans revised their offer of Rs 12.5 billion to Rs 15 billion. The revised offer includes an investment of Rs 5 billion through preferential issue of equity shares and Rs 10 billion through preferential issue of warrants, based on current business and financial position of the firm as reflected in the companys various public filings.

While Munjal and Burmans have waived off their demand for due diligence, they have demanded two Board seats.

The Fortis Board has decided it will accept the binding offers only and this has led to displeasure among some of the potential investors and shareholder advisory firms.
The expansion will take advantage of the Thermo Fisher bioproduction eco-system for bioreactors, consumables and factory automation.

Thermo Fisher Scientific is planning to invest $50 million in its St. Louis, Missouri site which is one of the company's Centers of Excellence (COE) for Biological Commercial Manufacturing. The investment is part of a deliberate strategy to continue expansion of the company's global network of biologic drug substance capabilities for clinical and commercial supply.

The project includes expansion to the existing manufacturing building #2 by 64,000 square feet, which will double its manufacturing capacity and will be operational in 2019. The expansion will take advantage of the Thermo Fisher bioproduction eco-system for bioreactors, consumables and factory automation. With this capacity expansion, Thermo Fisher will have the second largest base of single-use bioproduction capacity at a Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) in the world. The investment will also allow for further expansion in the future. Approximately 80 new technical jobs are expected to be added.

The St Louis site currently provides process development, clinical cGMP manufacturing and commercial manufacturing using both fed batch and perfusion processes. The St. Louis COE, with more than a decade of manufacturing experience, has in-house analytical capabilities for Quality Assurance and Quality Control.
The company hopes to provide customised healthcare options to the residents of Kolkata

SRL Diagnostics will nearly double its pathology centre network in Kolkata over the next three months.

The company is in the process of opening new centres across Kolkata including Kankurgachi, Kasba and Ranikuthi. The first centre in Kolkata will come up on Maniktala main road.

With the launch of these flagship centres, SRL Diagnostics would have eight company-owned pathology centres in the city.

The expansion in Kolkata is part of the companys plans to improve its focus on patient care and will also involve new centres opening up across the country in the near future, the company release stated.

The newly launched spacious pathology centres serve a comprehensive menu of more than 3500 tests, performed under the supervision of highly experienced pathologists, the release added.

Presently, SRL carries out around 1.25 lakh tests a day across a network of 376 laboratories and a footprint spanning more than 6300 collection points. The company also has large labs in the UAE, Sri Lanka and Nepal, and about 70 collection points in various countries outside India.

The company hopes to provide customised healthcare options to the residents of Kolkata.
This Look Of Manushi Proves That She Is The Legit Beauty Queen Bollywood Wardrobe Staff

Ever since Manushi Chhillar has won the Miss World crown, she has been globetrotting and breaking the internet with her sartorial statements. Her attires are definitely giving us major wardrobe goals and she has become quite a style icon in a short span.

Poised and sophisticated, Manushi recently donned a Sunaina Khera creation at the Brazilian Parliament, where she was praised for her menstrual hygiene project in India. Her ongoing visit was a part of her "Beauty with a Purpose" initiative.

The 20-year-old beauty looked breathtaking in her floral-motif-adorned attire. Normally, Manushi chooses to dress conservatively when attending events for a cause or representing India abroad.

But this time, Chhillar, broke the usual phenomenon and wore a fairly revealing, spaghetti strap blouse to go with her long-tailed skirt.

The sheer dupatta that hung from her shoulder added to the panache of the dress. This design by Khera not only accentuated her svelte frame but also did not compromise with the prestigious title and position she holds.

Styled by Sheefa Gilani, she accessorized her outfit with delicate danglers and kept her makeup minimal and demure. Her glittering tiara completed the stunning look, as Manushi cheerfully posed for shutterbugs.

Miss World 2017, has yet again proved that her fashion sense is aww-worthy and she knows how to dress relevantly.

What do you think about her look?
World Immunization Day: Important Facts About Immunization Wellness oi-Neha Ghosh

10 November is observed as World Immunisation Day is celebrated every year. This day is observed to make people aware of the importance of getting timely vaccinations against vaccine-preventable diseases.

According to reports, India has one of the largest Universal Immunisation Programs (UIP) in the world in terms of the quantities of vaccines used, number of beneficiaries covered, geographical spread and human resources involved.

Vaccination is one of the most effective and important methods to prevent diseases and death occurring from infectious pathogens that could cause bronchitis, pneumonia, invasive pneumococcal disease, bacteremic pneumonia and meningitis caused by Streptococcus pneumonia [1].

Have a look at some of the important facts about immunization, as stated by the World Health Organisation.

Currently, immunization prevents between 2-3 million deaths every year. It prevents vaccine-preventable diseases, including diphtheria, hepatitis B, measles, mumps, pertussis (whooping cough), pneumonia, polio, rotavirus diarrhoea, cervical cancer, rubella and tetanus.

In 2016, an estimated 116.5 million, about 86 per cent children worldwide under the age of one year received three doses of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP3) vaccine. They are protected against infectious diseases that can cause serious illness or disability [2].

All vaccines are carefully tested before they are approved for use, as well as regularly reassessed and constantly monitored for side effects.

A new vaccine against dengue has been licensed in several countries. This year, the first vaccine to protect children against malaria will be piloted in three African countries.

Vaccines provide better immunity, although the immune response to a vaccine is similar to the one produced by a natural infection. Vaccines are less risky, as they do not put individuals at risk of the disease's potential complications.

Measles is a highly contagious disease caused by a virus, which results in high fever and rash, and can lead to blindness, encephalitis or death. Globally, measles death has decreased by 84 per cent from an estimated 5,50,000 deaths in 2000 to 89,780 in 2016 [3].

Global vaccination coverage has stalled at 86 per cent, with no significant changes during the past year. An estimated 19.5 million infants worldwide are still missing the basic diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP3) vaccine.

Due to vaccination, polio cases have decreased by over 99 per cent since 1988, and meningitis A has been nearly eliminated in 26 African countries.

In the year 2016, the WHO region in the US became the first in the world to have eliminated measles. This involves mass vaccination against measles, mumps and rubella throughout America.

In the year 2016, very few children were paralysed by polio than in any other year, with the virus restricted to a few areas in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.

India and the entire WHO South-East Asia region have been declared polio-free [4].

Vaccines can help limit the spread of antibiotic resistance. The global increase in disease caused by drug-resistant bacteria, due to misuse and overuse of antibiotics is a major public health concern, according to WHO. Vaccinating is a very effective way to stop people from getting infected and thereby in preventing the need for antibiotics.

Given below are some of the myths and facts about vaccines.

1. Myth: Too Many Shots Weaken The Immune System

Fact: Each dose of vaccine allows the body to mount an immune response and make antibodies so that the body can fight off a real infection. Children are provided multiple vaccinations to give them as much as protection as early as possible [5].

2. Myth: Vaccines Are For Kids Only

Fact: There are numerous vaccines that can aid in keeping adolescents and adults healthy too. The most common vaccination is the flu shot, which is given annually. Adolescents should receive a meningitis vaccine and elderly adults can benefit from pneumonia vaccines. Adults also require boosters for tetanus and pertussis [6].

3. Myth: Natural Immunity Is Better

Fact: Natural immunity can increase the risk of complications. Chickenpox can lead to encephalitis and pneumonia. A polio infection can cause permanent paralysis, mumps, deafness, and Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), and brain damage. That's why vaccines are very much necessary, as they will trigger lifelong immunity.

4. Myth: Vaccines Aren't Necessary Because The Disease Has Been Eradicated

Fact: According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the only infectious disease that has been eradicated worldwide is smallpox. Today, worldwide there are outbreaks of diseases like measles, mumps and pertussis. Vaccines can protect you when you are around people who are vaccinated.

Share this article to create awareness!
BOISSEVAIN This weeks grand opening of a yoga studio in Boissevain was pre-empted by the distribution of an anonymous letter warning residents of its anti-Christian properties.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 24/4/2018 (1259 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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BOISSEVAIN This weeks grand opening of a yoga studio in Boissevain was pre-empted by the distribution of an anonymous letter warning residents of its anti-Christian properties.

Signed by "Marie," the letter warns Christians that yogas spirituality runs counter to their faith, and that yogas Hindu origins could be disruptive to Christianity.

Although the letter addresses the practice of yoga in general, the author cites "the opening of a yoga studio in town" as being their motivation for moving forward with their caution at this time.

At mid-afternoon yesterday, Soul Worx Yoga & Fitness owner Lindsay Alvis joined a handful of family volunteers in putting the finishing touches on her business space, at 320 Railway St.

Large mirrors were being unwrapped by some participants, while others circled the space with paintbrushes touching up whatever imperfections remained.

Alviss goal is to open up her yoga studio by the end of the week, and to hold a public open house shortly thereafter in order to help clarify what yoga is all about and to help put peoples minds at ease.

Born and raised in Boissevain, Alvis said that both the anti-yoga letter and the community buzz it has created have been both surprising and confusing.

Although yogas origins are in India, shes a practitioner of Budi Yoga, which was developed in the United States and is about as far removed from religion as the various subcategories of yoga can be.

"It seriously has nothing to do with religion," she said, throwing her hands up in confusion.

Alvis learned the ins and outs of yoga during her time in Alberta, returning to her home community two years ago when her husband, Todd, took over his familys farm.

Working as a nurse full-time in Brandon, Alvis said that she has been instructing yoga groups as a fun side job for the past couple years, only to up the ante by taking possession of 320 Railway St. last month.

Received by a "very supportive" community so far, Alvis said that she was taken aback by the letter, which she believes to represent only a small, albeit vocal, segment of the population.

This support included front-page coverage in the Boissevain Recorder when she acquired the vacant building last month, which editor Lorraine Houston said she was enthusiastic to provide.

TIM SMITH/THE BRANDON SUN Lindsay Alvis is the owner of Soul Worx, a new yoga studio opening in Boissevain.

"The addition of a yoga and fitness studio is just one more anchor for our vibrant town," she said, adding that she looks forward to participating in future yoga classes herself.

The Municipality of Boissevain Morton helped promote Alviss earlier classes. Recreation director Samantha Dyck said yesterday that she has never heard of the anti-Christian parallel, nor has she received any opposition to yoga during her past year in the position.

Turtle Mountain Yoga and Wellness instructor Wendy Giesbrecht said that she heard about the letter through various sources, and has even had a few members drop out of yoga classes as a result of it.

Giesbrecht said that the anti-yoga message has been percolating in Boissevain for some time, prompting her to hold a few public information nights during the past few months at a local coffee shop to help clarify what its all about.

"In a small town like this, the letter spread pretty quickly and has a large impact," she said.

Giesbrecht said that she was disappointed that no local church leaders showed up for these meetings, including those she believes have been sharing an anti-yoga message in their sermons.

Boissevain-based Family Worship Centre pastor Bob Wilson said that although yoga has never come up in his congregation of approximately 50 Pentecostal Assembly of Canada churchgoers, he agrees with the letters message.

"I have been taught that its roots come from Hinduism and should not be practised by Christians," he said. "Thats always been my understanding."

Mennonite Brethren Church pastor Geoff Unrau declined comment on this topic, including whether the practice of yoga has been addressed in his sermons.

"I dont want to make enemies in my own community," he said.

Several people polled along Boissevains main street yesterday echoed this sentiment, with the vast majority either refusing comment or declining to share their names.

Even so, those who did share their views were unanimous in supporting yoga, with some laughing at the idea of it carrying an anti-Christian message.

Among those who laughed at the notion that yoga should not be practised by Christians was Penny Olson, who said that she has enjoyed yoga in the past, and used the words "relaxing" and "soothing" to describe it.

St. Matthews Anglican Church Rev. Michael Canning said that while he doesnt practise yoga himself, his understanding is that yoga is not anti-Christian, and could in fact bolster Christianity.

TIM SMITH/THE BRANDON SUN Judy Stobbe and Wendy Giesbrecht, right, strike yoga poses at Turtle Mountain Yoga and Wellness in Boissevain on Monday. Giesbrecht runs Turtle Mountain Yoga and Wellness in town.

"Its what you take to it," he said. "Its about being centred and looking at your body."

While she disagrees with the assertion that it runs counter to Christianity, Giesbrecht said that the religious parallel isnt without merit.

In addition to the plethora of stretches involved in yoga, it all encourages its practitioners to connect "to a higher consciousness."

Christians might view this as being God, while those who follow other religions, or no religion at all, carrying their own interpretation of a "higher consciousness."

"Its an individual journey based on your own experience," Giesbrecht said.

Judy Stobbe said that she doesnt see any contradiction between her Christian beliefs and her interest in yoga.

A regular attendee of Giesbrechts classes, Stobbe said that yoga has allowed her to stretch out parts of her body she might not otherwise stretch, which she said has allowed her to age without a lot of the aches and pains that others might experience.

While a spiritual component can accompany yoga, she said that Giesbrecht has always steered clear of it.

Instead, she ends each session by encouraging people to consider how they might make the rest of their day enjoyable.

"Whats wrong with that?" she asked.

Although technically competition, Giesbrecht said that she wishes Alvis well with her upcoming yoga studio, and that the prospect of more people practising yoga in Boissevain is nothing but positive.

While the anti-yoga letter has stripped a few members form the local yoga community, Giesbrecht said that she expects to see people fill their places as greater awareness about yoga spreads.

Alvis is of a similar mindset, shrugging off the letter as a small bump on an otherwise positive road.

 tclarke@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @TylerClarkeMB
After clinching the top spots in each of their events at Skills Manitoba, six students from Crocus Plains Regional Secondary School will have the chance to compete at the national level in Edmonton this summer.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 23/4/2018 (1260 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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After clinching the top spots in each of their events at Skills Manitoba, six students from Crocus Plains Regional Secondary School will have the chance to compete at the national level in Edmonton this summer.

More than 500 secondary, post-secondary and apprenticeship students descended on Winnipeg on April 12 for the 21st annual Skills Manitoba competition, which was held at Red River College, the Manitoba Institute of Trades and the Technical Vocational High School.

Twenty-three students from Crocus participated in 15 competitions, bringing in six gold medals, three silver and three bronze.

All gold medal winners will be given the opportunity to compete at the 24th Skills Canada National Competition on June 4 and 5.

"Im very nervous," said Jolene Osztian, 18, who won a Skills Manitoba gold medal in photography. "Ive never gone to a national competition like Roman (Osztian) has."

Her brother Roman, 16, along with his partners Bryce Parnetta Mohit Patel, won bronze at nationals last year in Winnipeg for their ball-launching robot Scorpio.

This time, he and his partner Raleigh Unger spent the past six months constructing a pipeline-building robot for the mobile robotics event that could use cradles to lay down a pipeline.

Once the course was built, the pair had to make sure a ball bearing could travel through the piping. The two would go on to win Skills Manitoba gold.

"Before I got there, it was very stressful, but it ended up being the same sort of thing as last year," Roman said about provincials.

Jolene, meanwhile, was given three hours to shoot three pictures  two of the other trades competitions and one using a mystery item, a glow stick.

Jolene initially received a silver medal, but after a re-evaluation, she was bumped up to gold.

"I didnt think Id actually place at all," she said.

Both Jolene and Roman credit their teachers Jim Atkinson and Lionel Ogg for helping them get to this point and Crocus vice-principal Veronica Adams said it was amazing to see so many kids do well at the provincial level.

"I think its wonderful that it shows the diversity of Crocus and the high level of students we have here," she said.

"To have the ability to do well in a provincial, and then a national level, competition shows how well our students are getting a great education and were very proud of all of them for what theyre doing."

Jolene, who has a part-time business called Jolene Osztian Photography, has been taking photos for almost two years. The Grade 12 student hopes to continue photography as a hobby or side job, while she attends Brandon University to study psychology.

Going into nationals this June, Jolene said she mostly wants to use the event as a chance to get some experience. "I dont necessarily even want to place," she said.

Roman, on the other hand, has his eyes set on a top place finish. The winners at Junes national competition in Edmonton will have the opportunity to go to Kazan, Russia, for the WorldSkills competition in August 2019.

"I hope to get another medal," he said.

 mlee@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @mtaylorlee

FINALISTS

Ten other students from Crocus Plains Regional Secondary School came out as finalists in this years Skills Manitoba competition:

 Evan Simard (gold, mechanical CAD)

 Raleigh Unger (gold, mobile robotics)

 Alicia Ramirez (gold, public speaking)

 Jared Bridges (gold, welding)

 Garry Gibons (silver, autobody repair)

 Oludayo Alebiosu (silver, car painting)

 Yi Hong Cai (silver, cooking)

 Amanda Charles (bronze, baking)

 Jeff Neufeld (bronze, cooking)

 Nash Martin (bronze, outdoor power and rec equipment)
Following an extensive investigation the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) today announced that they have cleared the proposed transaction whereby 'The Irish Times Designated Activity Company' (which publishes The Irish Times) would acquire sole control of Sappho Limited (which publishes the Irish Examiner) from Landmark Media Investments Limited.

The CCPC also announced that the extensive phase two investigation had found the proposed transaction would not substantially lessen competition in the relevant markets.

The CCPC went on to reveal that all parties must now submit a separate notification to the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment for assessment on grounds relating to media plurality.

The CCPCs extensive investigation analysed the likely competitive impact in the State of the proposed transaction in the following three potential markets: (i) the publication and sale of daily national newspapers; (ii) the sale of daily national newspaper advertising; and (iii) the sale of online advertising.

In addition, the CCPCs investigation found that there is no overlap between the parties activities in relation to the provision of radio broadcasting services and the sale of radio advertising.

As part of its investigation, information was gathered by the CCPC from a range of third parties, including competitors, advertising customers and industry representative bodies.

During its investigation, the CCPC found no evidence that The Irish Times and the Irish Examiner are each others closest competitor in the publication and sale of daily national newspapers or in the sale of advertising (whether in daily national newspapers or online) in the State.

The CCPCs analysis also found that, while sales of The Irish Times are predominantly made in Leinster, the vast majority of sales of the Irish Examiner are made in Munster.

In addition, the CCPC found that, post-transaction, both publications would continue to face competition from a number of newspaper publishers in all three potential markets identified by the CCPC.

Based on an extensive analysis, the CCPC concluded that the proposed transaction will not lead to a substantial lessening of competition in any relevant market in the State. Further details of the CCPCs announcement are available on ccpc.ie.

Following the issuing of the CCPCs determination, the parties must submit a separate notification to the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment.

Section 28 of the Competition Act 2002 sets out the process by which the Minister for Communications will assess the merger separately in relation to media plurality.
By Ann O'Loughlin

A judge has made rulings governing access by various parties to documents and other material to be used for an application by the States corporate watchdog for appointment of inspectors to Independent News and Media plc.

INM opposes any such appointment and is seeking judicial review, to be heard on May 9, of the decision to seek inspectors.

The President of the High Court, Mr Justice Peter Kelly, today approved an arrangement agreed by INM and the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) for access to sworn documents and exhibits for the ODCE application.

He reserved the position concerning use of discovered documents.

The judge also made directions aimed at speedily progressing the ODCE application, which will proceed only if INM loses its judicial review. The ODCE will be listed for mention 48 hours after the judicial review decision is given.

That ODCE/INM arrangement concerning access to documents provides affidavits and other material will be edited in the context of a previous agreement between them concerning treatment of legally privileged material.

Both sides have reserved their position concerning how the privilege agreement should be interpreted and the ODCE disputes claims by INM he breached that agreement by including certain content in his sworn affidavit.

In his ruling today, Mr Justice Kelly said, what is most unusual about the ODCE application is that, before it came before the court last week, there was extraordinary publicity about the ODCE;s affidavit and, as a result, a lot of people were concerned to be fully apprised of the materials before the court.

He said there was discussion about their legal entitlement to that material but the issue did not have to be decided because the ODCE was not objecting to those persons having access, subject to the privilege issue.

At todays hearing, former INM company secretary Andrew Donagher also sought access as did the Irish Times. The latter application fell into a different category and would be addressed this afternoon, the judge said.

The judge said the access matter was further complicated because INM had now filed 12 replying affidavits.

He said INM had alleged last week that legally privileged material, provided by INM to the ODCE on foot of what is known as a Fyffes agreement concerning its treatment, had been included in the ODCE affidavit. Because of that, he had said he would make no orders concerning access until todays hearing.

However, since last week, the ODCE and INM had reached an agreement as to how to deal with the material at issue, he noted.

He made directions for access in line with that agreement, including access by parties concerned about the data interrogation to those portions of the ODCE affidavit dealing with data interrogation issues. All those parties could also apply if they believe they are entitled to additional material.

Journalist Sam Smyth and former INM company secretary Andrew Donagher, who are among 19 persons concerned their personal data may have been accessed by third parties when INM data was taken off site for interrogation in October 2014, are among those entitled to access in line with the INM/ODCE agreement.

Journalist Sam Smyth at a previous court sitting

Solicitor Simon McAleese, who is representing Mr Smyth, said he had learned from media reports he himself may feature in documents and also wanted access to them on his own behalf. He has been given access on the same terms.

Former INM Chairman Leslie Buckley argued, through his counsel Sean Guerin SC, he is directly affected by the ODCE application and was entitled to be served with all documents . Mr Guerin said the precise position of his client did not appear to have been raised by the ODCE with the court at a previous hearing despite Mr Buckleys understanding it would be.

Neil Steen SC, for the ODCE, said his side had fairly presented Mr Buckleys request for documents and had not understood at that stage Mr Buckley was asserting an entitlement to service of all material. Mr Buckley has the ODCEs affidavit, will get most of the exhibits and replying affidavits, the criticism of the ODCE were entirely unfounded, he said.

The only entity directly affected by the application for inspectors is INM itself and the ODCE would object to the papers being served on Mr Buckley.

The ODCE was not objecting to Mr Buckley being provided with access to the papers but would object to any application to join him to the case. Mr Justice Kelly said Mr Buckley had liberty to bring any such motion but, in the interim, he would be treated in a similar manner to other parties seeking access in that he would be provided with the edited material.

Former INM chairman, Leslie Buckley

Others seeking access to documents included former INM CEO Gavin OReilly and Karl Brophy, also formerly of INM, their company, Red Flag Consulting and Mandy Scott, who had worked as a personal assistant to both men.

The Data Protection Commissioner, on the agreement of both the ODCE and INM, is to receive all material related to an alleged data breach at INM in October 2014 and, along with many of the applicants for access to documents, reserved her position concerning access to other material.

Former INM CEO Robert Pitt and INM CFO Ryan Preston will also get access to the documents.
The US has softened its position on sanctions against Russian metals company Rusal, easing the fears over jobs at the huge Co Limerick Aughinish smelting plant, and sparking a record plunge in aluminium prices.

For the first time, the US Treasury has discussed a path for lifting the sanctions on Rusal, saying it would provide relief if Oleg Deripaska relinquished control.

It also extended the deadline for companies to wind down dealings with the Russian aluminium producer by almost five months.

Rusal petitioned to be removed from the sanctions list and the US government granted the extension while it considers the appeal, according to a statement from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Rusal has felt the impact of US sanctions because of its entanglement with Oleg Deripaska, but the US government is not targeting the hardworking people who depend on Rusal and its subsidiaries, Mr Mnuchin said.

Some 450 jobs and 200 agency positions in Limerick were under threat because Aughinish Alumina is owned by Rusal. The Limerick site is the largest alumina refinery in Europe but US sanctions have had a severe impact on its owner as the US sanctions froze its metal out of western markets.

Rusal produces about 6% of the worlds aluminium and operates mines, smelters and refineries across the world from Ireland to Guinea, Russia to Jamaica. The new stance by the US sent aluminium plunging as traders speculated that supply disruptions could ease. Prices fell up to 9.4%, the most ever.

Shares in Alcoa slid 12%. Washingtons clarification follows two weeks of chaos in global metal markets. Aluminium shot to multi-year highs as manufacturers scrambled to secure supply.

A German lobbying group said European plants may be forced to close and carmakers could face supply shortages.

The US statement also adds pressure on Mr Deripaska as he tries to save the company without surrendering control. He owns 48% of Rusal and controls it through a shareholder agreement with others including Glencore Plc and Viktor Vekselberg, who is also under sanctions.

If there were previously doubts if Rusal will remain sanctioned if Deripaska sells out, now we have a clear answer, Oleg Petropavlovskiy, an analyst at BCS Global Markets, said.

Changing ownership structure would be a solution for the company. It should calm things down. It looks as if there was a lot of pressure from the US aluminium downstream industry, said Daniel Briesemann, of Commerzbank.

- Bloomberg and Irish Examiner staff
Ministers in the UK have received a new warning not to allow Britain's withdrawal from the European Union to jeopardise the Good Friday Agreement.

The Elders - a group of senior world figures originally brought together by Nelson Mandela - have expressed concern that the return of a "hard" border between Ireland and the North could undermine the peace process.
By Gordon Deegan

The spectacular west Clare cliffs where a farmer dumped 12 animal carcasses is mentioned in the Lonely Planet guide to Ireland, a court has heard.

At Ennis Circuit Court, Det Garda Oliver Downes also told the court that it took two days for a pyre to cremate the remains of the eight horse and four cattle carcasses to burn itself out at Baltard, Doonbeg in April 2014.

Det Downes said that the authorities took the decision to cremate the remains and organise the pyre as it was not practical to remove the carcasses from the base of the 300 ft cliffs.

Det Downes that the pyre required two tonnes of coal, 90 bags of timber and 90 bags of kindle to help cremate the animal remains.

Det Downes said that the cremation of the carcasses and disposing of the remains cost the Council 7,372.

In the case, Martin Gerald Foley (65) of Lislanihan, Kilkee pleaded guilty to disposing of waste in a manner that is likely to cause environmental pollution on dates unknown between April 20th 2013 and March 13th 2014 contrary to Section 32 (1) of the Waste Management Act.

In court, Patrick Whyms BL confirmed that his client will be pleading guilty to sample counts from 193 animal welfare charges brought against Mr Foley in a separate prosecution.

Mr Whyms said: That case will not trouble the court as far as a jury trial is concerned.

In that case, the animal welfare charges relate to cattle and horses at locations in west Clare at Lisdeen, Lislanihan, Donoghboy, Dough and Baltard between March 2014 and 2016.

Mr Whyms said that he would make his plea of mitigation in relation to the two cases at a later date.

In the dumping case, the court heard that the State authorities carried out a painstaking investigation to identify the remains and pinpoint the culprit through DNA matching of the animals in the face of denials from Mr Foley when he first questioned on the dumping.

In evidence, Det Downes said that a walker contacted Gardai on March 31st 2014 in a very distressed state and informed them of the carcasses she found dumped.

Det Downes said that the cliffs are 'spectacular', very popular with tourists and walkers and are part of a Special Area of Conservation (SAC).

He said that the carcasses were in various states of decomposition and that the cattle had their ear ID tags removed.

Det Downes said at the time, there was no requirement for horses to be tagged.

He said that a multi-agency investigation was launched involving the Dept of Agriculture and Clare Co Council.

Det Downes said that four muscle samples were taken from the four bovine carcasses.

The detective said that an inspection was made of Mr Foleys herd on April 1st and 4th and 13 cattle were found to be missing from the herd.

Det Downes said that tissue samples from five of the 13 were retained at a lab and they matched with two of the bovine samples that were taken at the scene.

Counsel for the State, Lorcan Connolly BL said that the technology in place to preserve the integrity of the national herd helped identify the cattle as belonging to Martin Gerald Foley.

Det Downes said that Mr Foley also put forward the theory that the animals were washed up by the sea.

However, an oceanographer employed by the State to comment on the theory said that this was very unlikely due to the motion of the sea and the wave action.

Mr Whyms said that there is no suggestion that the animals were anything other than dead when disposed of at the Cliffs.

He said: The court will hear that Mr Foleys herd had a problem with mortality. It wasnt a case that he was routinely dumping animals. In the space of three months, 32 dead animals died on his farm and were disposed of in the correct manner.

Mr Whyms said that Mr Foley was also poor at record keeping. Det Downes agreed with Mr Whyms said Mr Foley was not making any financial from the farm.

Mr Connolly said that the penalties for the offence are fined up to 15m and prison terms up 10 years in jail.

Judge Gerald Keys remanded Mr Foley on continuing bail to appear before court on May 21st when the animal neglect case is also listed.
Health Minister Simon Harris is to seek Cabinet approval today for a proposal to ban smoking in outdoor areas where food is served.

The idea was first tabled as a private members motion by Fine Gael Senators, including James Reilly, who introduced anti-tobacco measures during his time as Minister for Health.

"While our smoking ban was a really progressive move and lauded internationally," he stated previously.

"Unfortunately one of the unintended consequences has been the prevalence of smokers in the outdoor areas of bars, cafes and restaurants.

"This means that nobody can enjoy a meal outdoors on a sunny day in this country, without having to inhale other peoples smoke.

"Anyone spending their hard earned money in a restaurant or cafe should be entitled to enjoy their meal in a smoke-free environment."

Campaigners have condemned the move. John Mallon, spokesman for the smokers' group Forest Ireland, said: "The war on smoking is going too far. There is no justification for banning smoking outside, even where food is served.

"Smoking in the open air poses no risk to third parties and although it may occasionally be annoying for non-smokers this is a matter for the individual establishment, not the Government.

"If this proposal is in response to an unintended consequence of the smoking ban, which forced smokers outside, the obvious solution is to allow comfortable, well-ventilated smoking rooms indoors."

"There has been no public debate about this issue and, to the best of our knowledge, no consultation with the hospitality industry.

"A large number of pubs closed following the smoking ban in 2004. This proposal could have a similar impact on cafes and restaurants because many more smokers could decide to stay at home."
Homeowners in Dublin apartment complex have been given 21 days to pay for remedial works or face legal action.

They have each been hit with a 5,000 bill for repair works, after Dublin Fire Brigade identified safety issues at Beacon South Quarter in Sandyford.
The Social Democrats have today published reform proposals to make lobbying activities and government decisions more open and accountable.

The party said the initiative was in direct response to the recent controversy over contacts between Communications Minister Denis Naughten and a professional lobbyist in relation to Independent News and Media's proposed takeover of Celtic Media.

Speaking at the launch of the proposals today, party co-leader Roisin Shortall TD said recent events have shown "that cronyism and old-style politics are alive and well."

She went on: "The INM saga once again puts the spotlight on a cosy circle of influence where government insiders enjoy advantages far beyond ordinary citizens who contact their public representatives.

Last week the Social Democrats called for Minister Naughten to be relieved of responsibility for media regulation. We are still waiting a response from the Minister and the Taoiseach to our call, which has the backing of the National Union of Journalists.

But the problem doesnt stop here. The fact is that this government has shown zero enthusiasm for reforms to promote ethical lobbying and deter undue influence in government.

Ms Shortall went on to say that when the Regulation of Lobbying Act 2015 was reviewed after one year in operation, the Standards in Public Office Commission made 23 recommendations to strengthen the law.

"The government did not accept a single one of these. Whats the point in asking our ethics watchdog for ideas on how to strengthen lobbying laws, and then simply ignoring them?

Unfortunately, this official indifference to reform is not a new phenomenon. It has been obvious for years that it suits the powers that be for our ethics watchdog to be all bark and no bite.

We see similar government foot-dragging when it comes to the long-promised overhaul of our ethics laws to implement the recommendations of successive Tribunals. The Public Sector Standards Bill 2015 is going nowhere fast because there is simply no political will behind it.

No system of regulation is perfect and our laws will always struggle to capture unethical behaviour that is intended to stay under the radar.

"Thats why the reforms we propose today are about instilling a climate and a culture where lobbyists and public officials including Ministers act with integrity and high ethical standards in their interactions.

- Digital Desk
By Gordon Deegan

A judge has issued a jail threat against a mother of a 20-month-old baby if she does not provide the child's father with proper access to the child.

At the Family Law court in Ennis, Judge Patrick Durcan said that the woman is flagrantly breaching the order of the court.

The father's solicitor told the court: There have been 13 access visits since a court order over access has been put in place.

He said: Every single one has been frustrated in some manner by the mother with her family members being there, her family members intimidating my client and her family members following my client."

In response, Judge Durcan told the mother's solicitor: If there is evidence of that, then your clients family members will be spending their time going down to Limerick prison.

Mr Doherty told the court that his client has problems relating to previous access visits and this related to the 20-month-old being fed chips by her father.

Mr Doherty said that his client also had concerns over the childs father giving the child the wrong medication when he gave the child a double dose of Nurofen.

Judge Durcan told the court that if there isnt proper access on the next occasion I will make an order for imprisonment.
By Ann O'Loughlin

The President of the High Court has approved arrangements governing access to documents to be used for an application by the States corporate watchdog for appointment of inspectors to Independent News and Media plc.

INM opposes any such appointment and is seeking a judicial review, to be heard on May 9, aimed at quashing the decision of Director of Corporate Enforcement Ian Drennan (ODCE) to seek inspectors.

Today, Mr Justice Peter Kelly (pictured below) approved an arrangement agreed in recent days by INM and ODCE governing access by various parties to sworn documents and exhibits for the ODCE application. Some of the documents will be redacted, subject to any further order made in the context of INM's claims of legal privilege over some material.

If the various applicants believe they are entitled to see additional material, they can bring further applications.

The judge also directed that the ODCE and INM should resolve between themselves INM's concerns about making available commercially sensitive information.

The ODCE has filed a lengthy grounding affidavit and some supplemental affidavits. INM non-executive director and member of the Board Dr Len O'Hagan has filed the main replying affidavit for INM with 11 other affidavits for INM described as "confirmatory".

Under the arrangements for access, documents will be provided to the Data Protection Commissioner, former INM Chairman Leslie Buckley, journalist Sam Smyth, former head of INM's Irish operations Joe Webb and former INM Company Secretary Andrew Donogher.

The ODCE has expressed concerns that data of 19 people, including Mr Smyth, Mr Webb and Mr Donogher, may have been accessed by third parties when back-up tapes were removed from INM's Talbot Street premises over a period from October 2014. That matter is being investigated by the DPC and is among the grounds for the ODCE's application for inspectors.

Mr Buckley, through his counsel Sean Guerin SC, argued he was entitled to be served with all documents but Neil Steen SC, for the ODCE, maintained Mr Buckley's entitlement was to access only as he is not a party to the case. The judge said Mr Buckley had liberty to bring a motion to be joined to the proceedings.

Other parties who will get documents are Red Flag Consulting and Karl Brophy and Gavin O'Reilly, now with Red Flag but former senior employees of INM, and Mandy Scott, a personal assistant to both men. Red Flag, Mr Brophy and Mr O'Reilly are defendants in long-running litigation taken against them by businessman Denis O'Brien, INM's major shareholder.

Former INM CEO Robert Pitt and INM Chief Financial Officer, Ryan Preston, will also get access to documents.

The ODCE application for inspectors arose from protected disclosures made by both men on dates in 2016 and 2017.

Solicitor Simon McAleese, representing Mr Smyth, also secured access to documents on his own behalf arising from his having been referred to in media reports concerning the ODCE application. Mr McAleese signalled he may also apply to see the minutes of an INM board meeting which appeared to have been held around the time of discovery of the alleged data breach.

Also on Tuesday, the judge made directions aimed at speedily progressing the ODCE application, which will proceed only if INM loses its judicial review. The ODCE matter will be listed for mention 48 hours after the judicial review decision is given.

Mr Justice Kelly also granted liberty to lawyers for the Irish Times and Times UK to bring applications on May 3, if necessary, concerning access to documents.

Mr Steen said the ODCE believes a motion for access would be the best approach in the context of complaints, including by INM's major shareholder Denis O'Brien, of material having been "leaked". The ODCE was not responsible for that, counsel said.

Shane Murphy SC, for INM, said the issue of media access was for the court. INM would not oppose the media having the ODCE's grounding affidavit and INM's main replying affidavit but would object to access to exhibits and was not keen on "wholesale disclosure". There had been references in court to the main affidavits and it may be considered those references permit access, he said.

Earlier, the court heard the ODCE/INM arrangement concerning access of various parties to documents provides affidavits and other material will be redacted in the context of a previous agreement between the ODCE/INM concerning treatment of legally privileged material.

Both sides have reserved their position concerning how the privilege agreement should be interpreted and the ODCE disputes claims by INM he (the Director) breached that agreement by including certain content in his sworn affidavit.
By Eoin Reynolds

A jury will decide if a man who denies attempting to murder his partner by stuffing underwear in her mouth and beating her with a hammer should be found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Prosecution barrister Paul Burns SC in his closing speech told the six men and six women that the accused man was high on cannabis and does not qualify for the special verdict. The accused man's barrister Ronan Munro SC said his client was suffering from a mental disorder at the time and was unable to refrain from his actions.

Tomas Gajowniczek (37) of The Ice Rink Apartments, Dolphin's Barn, Dublin 8 has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to the attempted murder of Alicja Kalinowska (30) at their home on June 16, 2016. He also pleaded notguilty to intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm to Ms Kalinowska on the same date at the same location.

Mr Burns told the jury that the accused revealed his intention when he told Ms Kalinowska, during the alleged assault: "It would be better to go to jail for life than a bitch like you stay alive."

Mr Burns also referred to the evidence of Ms Kalinowska who said the accused pinned her down, punched her repeatedly, shoved underwear in her mouth and pinched her nose to stop her breathing, and beat her with a hammer. He then took a bottle and poured the contents into her mouth to make her choke. He added: "You can infer that his intention was to kill her. The natural and probable consequences of cutting off someone's air supply is that they will die."

Addressing the issue of insanity Mr Burns reminded the jury of the evidence of Professor Damian Mohan of the Central Mental Hospital who said the accused man was regularly using cannabis at the time, was "acutely intoxicated" and suffering from a drug-induced psychosis. Under the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act 2006 intoxication is not a mental disorder, he said.

Dr Mohan's opinion was in part based on the fact that the accused stopped being delusional about one year after being placed on a drug-free unit of Cloverhill Prison where he did not have access to cannabis. A psychiatrist called by the defence, Dr Conor O'Neill, said he believes the accused was suffering from a mental disorder at the time and that he did not believe it would have taken him a year to stop showing symptoms if his psychosis were drug-induced.

As well as being intoxicated, Mr Burns said the accused was angry at Ms Kalinowska because she had cheated on him. This was not a delusion but the truth, counsel said, adding: "In his anger and fury he lashed out". He said the cannabis had made him lose control over his anger and led to the "brutal attack" on Alicja in which "he clearly tried to take her life".

Mr Munro said the issue in the trial is whether his client should be found not guilty by reason of insanity. He described the injuries to Ms Kalinowska, captured in photographs shown to the jury, as "very distressing" and said it is clear that the offence of assault causing harm took place.

He accused the prosecution of taking a narrow and superficial view by focusing on Ms Kalinowska's infidelity. By looking at all of the evidence, he said the jury will see that the accused was "acting crazy", that he believed Ms Kalinowska was drugging him and their baby and he was worried about a fraud relating to his taxes.

He said his client had a range of issues on his mind and that he clearly had a disease of the mind.

Counsel added that there is no basis for Professor Mohan's claim that his client was "acutely intoxicated" at the time. He pointed to the fact that when arrested gardai noted there was no evidence he had been drinking or was under the influence of drugs and a doctor who assessed him said he needed sleep but said nothing about drugs. Ms Kalinowska also did not say that he was intoxicated. Mr Munro told the jury there is evidence only of intermittent cannabis use and nobody who saw him that night said he was intoxicated.

Ms Kalinowska gave the background to the offence, counsel said, saying they had a happy family but things went downhill after Mr Gajowniczek was tied up and locked in a toilet by thieves at the Maxol garage where he worked. He never returned to work. His grandfather died around Christmas 2015 and he was upset that he didn't have enough money to go to Poland. "Bizarre things" started happening after that as Mr Gajowniczek became suspicious about everything, leading to an episode on June 12 when he locked Alicja out of their apartment, only allowing her in when gardai arrived. The garda who spoke to him was so concerned at what Mr Gajowniczek told him that he arrested him under the Mental Health Act. He was later released after being assessed by a doctor. The alleged assault took place four days later.

Mr Munro said it would be superficial to say that he "just got angry one night and beat her up" but that there was evidence of psychosis and a disease of the mind. He urged the jury to find his client not guilty by reason of insanity.

Justice Patrick McCarthy will complete his charge to the jury of six men and six women tomorrow.
Update 4.40pm: Ulster Bank says an issue with money disappearing from some customers' accounts was caused by human error.

Customers have been reporting problems with their bank balance since last Friday.

In some cases money had disappeared, others were reporting their cards had been declined.

In an update, the bank says there is no connection to an IT system issue in 2012 and this problem was caused by human error after a payment file was not processed.

It also hopes to have the issue rectified overnight.

In the meantime, the bank says no customer will be left out of pocket and emergency cash of up to 500 can be accessed in branch or over the phone.

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe says the situation must be frustrating for people.

"Look, it is a real worry for anybody. To be pretty sure how much money is your bank account - check your phone, use your ATM, use your debit card - and find out the money is not there.

"It can really worry people. Cause a lot of panic to people. It is really important now the Ulster Bank give the assurance which they have given. They are saying that nobody will be out of pocket."

Update 3.00pm: TDs call on Ulster Bank to explain why money is 'no longer showing' in customers' accounts

TDs have called on Ulster Bank to explain why money has disappeared from some bank accounts.

The bank has confirmed some money lodged after Friday isn't showing up in accounts and some customers are incorrectly overdrawn.

Ulster Bank say emergency cash is available to customers and they are trying to fix the issue.

Sinn Fein TD Pearse Doherty says it is not the first time Ulster Bank customers have had issues.

"We now hear stories of individuals getting text messages from Ulster Bank to inform them that they're overdrawn despite the fact that it was the bank themselves that have disappeared their own customers own money.

"This comes on the back of a series of events that have happened in recent weeks in terms of IT glitches within the bank. "

Fianna Fail's spokesperson for finance, Michael McGrath, feels the Central Bank must conduct a comprehensive review of the IT systems used by retail banks in Ireland.

"It is very distressing for Ulster Bank customers to discover that money has gone missing from their bank account or that they may have had debit card transactions declined," said Mr McGrath.

"In some cases, customers may well have missed vital payments as a result of the banks failure.

"Ulster Bank now needs to put its customers first. The banks immediate focus must be on fixing this problem and ensure that affected customers will not have their credit rating adversely affected in any way.

"These IT failures are happening all too often at Ulster Bank and the question has to be asked if it is the result of a lack of investment by the bank. It is every banks responsibility to ensure that their IT systems are fit for purpose."

Mr McGrath added: "The Central Bank needs to assess the state of the IT systems in retail banks operating here and ensure that banks prioritise investment in this area."

Update 12.40am: Ulster Bank makes emergency cash available after some transactions 'no longer showing' in customers' accounts

Ulster Bank customers who are incorrectly overdrawn are being advised that emergency cash is available.

It emerged today that transactions made since last Friday disappeared from some customers' accounts. Some people have reported that their cards have been declined, while other have said that lodgments are not showing up.

The bank said that emergency cash of up to 500 is available via branches and telephone, adding that not all customers are affected by the issue.

It also insisted that no customers will be left out of pocket.

No customer will be left out of pocket and should any external expenses be incurred these can be looked at on an individual basis LH  Ulster Bank Help (@UlsterBank_Help) April 24, 2018

Anyone with issues is being asked to contact the bank's customer service team online or on 1850-424-365.

Update 12.40pm: Ulster Bank apologises as some transactions 'no longer showing' in customers' accounts

Ulster Bank has said this morning that it is aware that money is not showing in some customers' accounts.

Some of the bank's customers have reported that their salaries have disappeared from their accounts, and that direct debits have not been paid.

Other customers say that their cards are being declined and their balances are not correct.

Hi Loretto, we are aware of some issues with transactions. We are working hard to fix this. If you need access to funds please give us a call or visit a branch. Sorry and thanks for your patience. NG  Ulster Bank Help (@UlsterBank_Help) April 24, 2018

Morning Padraig, we are aware of some issues with transactions. we are working hard to fix this. If you need access to funds please give us a call or visit a branch. Sorry and thanks for your patience. Thanks, DC  Ulster Bank Help (@UlsterBank_Help) April 24, 2018

I am afraid we cannot confirm as of yet if direct debits will be paid or not at this precise moment. CJ  Ulster Bank Help (@UlsterBank_Help) April 24, 2018

Ulster Bank says it is working hard to fix the issue "as a matter of urgency".

"We are aware that some transactions previously applied to accounts for ROI customers since 20/04 are no longer showing," a statement read.

"We are working hard to fix this issue and apologise for any inconvenience."

- Digital desk
By Ruaidhri Giblin

A Dublin man who spent 11 months in jail for his role in a violent bookmakers attack has had his conviction quashed after another man allegedly came forward.

Declan Tynan (28), of Vincent Street Flats, Dublin 8, had always maintained his innocence in relation to alleged violent disorder at Ladbrokes bookmakers in Killinarden, Tallaght on December 13, 2012.

The prosecution's case was that Tynan was one of three men who burst into the bookmakers on the day in question and set upon a customer standing in the middle of the shop.

One of the attackers had a short blade and began stabbing the man repeatedly. When the victim's brother tried to intervene, the group of men turned on him. Neither this person nor his brother were willing to cooperate with the investigation and there was never any medical reports obtained, nor a victim impact report produced.

One worker told gardai that she continued to serve customers while the incident unfolded.

Two of the attackers had pleaded guilty by the time Tynan faced trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

In what was described by Tynans barrister, Eoghan Cole BL, as a one witness case in which the only evidence against his client was the purported visual identification of him by a garda from the bookies CCTV, a jury found Tynan guilty and he was sentenced to four years imprisonment with the final year suspended by Judge Patricia Ryan on January 13, 2017.

Tynan then sought to appeal his conviction focusing on the perils of visual identification. However, the three-judge court dismissed his appeal and affirmed his conviction.

A number of months later, Tynans senior counsel, Michael OHiggins, told the Court of Appeal that someone else had "come forward in relation to the attack.

This person, a Mr Luke Hickey, had provided a statement claiming he was the third person involved in the attack, Mr OHiggins said.

Tynan was granted bail pending an investigation. The court heard that the matter was referred to experts in the UK who looked at the question of visual identification.

The case returned to the Court of Appeal today where Tynans conviction was quashed under Section 2 of the Criminal Procedure Act 1993.

The Director of Public Prosecutions did not oppose the application, brought by Tynans lawyers. However, Michael Delaney SC, for the DPP, said the Director was not making any concessions on a factual basis.

Mr Justice George Birmingham, who sat with Mr Justice Alan Mahon and Mr Justice John Hedigan, ordered that Tynans conviction be quashed with liberty to apply later for a declaration that the conviction was a miscarriage of justice.

In his unsuccessful appeal against conviction, Mr OHiggins said a garda from Kevin Street station had been asked to look at the CCTV footage of the bookmakers attack. Of all the gards, in all the stations, Mr O'Higgins said, the path to Kevin Street was never explained.

A few weeks later the Garda made a statement to say he was 100% sure it was Tynan.

Mr O'Higgins said the circumstances in which video identification is made are vital and it was "very unfair" on Tynan that no record was kept of what happened.

There was no log, no history of how the tape was played and no record of what the surrounding circumstances were.

The failure to do that lead to an unfairness on Tynan and ought to have excluded the testimony.

There could have been clear and cogent steps taken to test, for example, whether the viewing was alone or with others, was it part of a mass circulation, the time it was viewed, how the viewing was controlled, whether the person viewing it was familiar with the location, what features of the image triggered the recognition and were there any expressions of doubt.

Mr O'Higgins said a police officer asked to view CCTV is not the same as a witness to a crime. The mischief is that the police officer may merely make an assertion without an objective means of testing the accuracy. It was dangerous territory, he said.

He submitted that the admissibility of such evidence should be governed by an assessment of whether the process by which the evidence had been garnered was adequate to ensure its probative value is not diminished or outweighed by the prejudicial effect. It must ensure the defence had an adequate opportunity to test the identification evidence, Tynan's lawyers submitted.

Dismissing the appeal, Mr Justice Birmingham said the court was not persuaded by any argument in relation to the recognition issue.

What occurred in this case differed from what is usually at issue in cases involving visual identification or voice identification, Mr Justice Birmingham said.

What ordinarily happens is that a witness, at a time after a crime is committed, is asked to view an identification parade with a view to seeing whether they can pick out someone and say they are viewing the same person they saw commit the crime.

Here, what happened was quite different. There was footage actually showing the crime being committed. It showed those involved present at the crime scene and the person viewing the footage was doing so to see if he could identify anyone on screen as someone previously known to him.

It was a fundamental difference, Mr Justice Birmingham said.

That high quality images are often now available, as opposed to blurred or grainy images which were the norm until recent years, should not be lost sight of and meant that earlier cases require to be treated with a degree of caution.
Pope Francis could be set to visit the West of Ireland as part of his two-day trip here in August, it has been reported.

The Irish Independent reports that the Pontiff may fly into Ireland West airport in Knock on Saturday, August 25, raising the possibility of a mass at the Marian Shrine.
Pressure is continuing to mount on communications minister Denis Naughten.

The Taoiseach was again forced to defend his Cabinet colleague over claims he tipped off a lobbyist about a decision on a proposed media takeover.

Answering questions in the Dail, Leo Varadkar said: "Minister Naughten didn't do any favours for anyone. He didn't do any favours for Independent News and Media (INM), he didn't do any favours for Denis O'Brien.

"In fact his action was to delay the merger - delay the proposed merger between INM and Celtic Media by referring it to the Broadcasting Authority."

Last week Mr Naughten made an unscheduled statement to the Dail responding to claims that a PR firm passed details of a telephone call with the minister to a senior figure within INM, two months before his referral to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) was officially announced.

Mr Varadkar added: "In relation to the phone call with the lobbyist, Mr Naughten indicated that he would follow the law and be guided by official advice and that is of course what any official would do.

"I am not sure if that constitutes confidential information or not but in my mind it doesn't because that is what ministers will do - they will follow the law and be guided by official advice.

"He has said that he regrets he ever took the phone call. He has said that he regards it as a political mistake on his behalf and he has apologised for it today."

Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin said he believed a "serious error of judgment" had been made.

He said: "It is clear to me and most people that the minister made a serious error of judgment and his defence to date has been very poor in relation to that very serious error."

Later, he added: "When you give that commercially sensitive information to one party you are actually responsible for what happens with it down the line because you shouldn't give it in the first place because by giving it you know there are consequences in giving it.

"I find it difficult that you find it difficult to find the words to say that this was a wrong thing to do."

- PA
Denis Naughten should excuse himself from anything to do with the Irish Times bid to buy the Irish Examiner, according to the Social Democrats.

Following the controversy over Minister Naughten's contact with representatives of INM last week, the party says he should step back from other mergers.
One in five second-level Irish teachers hired on year-long contracts do not have a qualification in the language, it has emerged.

The Association of Community and Comprehensive Secondary Schools also said that some schools may have to consider dropping subjects like French, Spanish and German due to a shortage of teachers.
By Ann O'Loughlin

A Supreme Court judgment could have positive implications for the rights of thousands of people from outside the European Economic Area who came here as students before 2011 and stayed on to work.

In a unanimous ruling today, the seven-judge court found the Minister for Justice, before deciding "change of status" applications by two applicants from outside the EEA who came here on student visas, must consider their rights to private and family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Mr Justice John MacMenamin stressed the court's judgement was based on the facts of the two appeals and requires only that consideration be given by the Minister to their Article 8 rights. The State and Minister are entitled to impose conditions on entry here but the Minister must lawfully determine whether or not there has been compliance with conditions, he said.

An estimated 400 cases were awaiting the Supreme Court ruling which was welcomed by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, involved in both cases as an assistant to the court on legal issues.

The judgment has implications for non-EEA people who came here as students before the Government introduced a new study policy in 2011 that non-EEA students can only live here for a maximum seven years.

After the new policy was introduced, a transitional arrangement provided that those who came here before January 2011 and who wished to stay beyond seven years, were given a brief extension of their permission to apply for a work permit.

The State appealed findings of the Court of Appeal that, before determining change of status applications by the applicants, the Minister must consider their rights to private and family life under the Constitution and Article 8 of the ECHR. A proposed refusal of the applicants permission to remain, made under Section 4.7 of the Immigration Act 2004 which provides for renewl or variaiton of a permission, potentially interferes with their right to respect for private and family life under Article 8, the COA said.

Both applicants applied under Section 4.7 for permission to remain on the basis of "change of status". They sought permission to change to Stamp 4 status, entitling them to work and to social welfare payments.

The first appeal concerned Danibye Luximon, a dental practice co-ordinator, who was registered from 2006 on "Stamp 2" conditions allowing her study and work on a limited basis. Her two daughters joined her here later in 2006. After her permission to remain on Stamp 2 expired in 2012, the Minister refused to let her remain on Stamp 4 conditions.

The second appeal concerns Taswin Balchand who came here in 2006 and registered to study. He married Chandrika Gopee in 2008. She came here from Mauritius shortly afterwards and their son was born here in 2009. The couple's "Stamp 2" permissions were regularly renewed until 2013 after which they were refused a Stamp 4 permission.

Mr Justice MacMenamin found the manner in which the Minister sought to apply Article 4.7 in both cases was unlawful.

These applicants lawfully came here a number of years ago and remained without objection until 2011, when the law changed, he noted. Their long-term residence here, although conditional, required their Article 8 rights should have been considered when the Minister was considering their applications for variation or renewal of their entitlements.

There was no statutory basis for how the Minister used Section 4.7 in refusing their applications, he ruled.

The Minister's decisons in these cases had the effect of expulsion orders and his interpretation of Section 4.7, and its consequences, would be contrary to public policy and might well necessitate that applicants under the Section would be constrained to act in an unlawful manner, the judge held.
Update 4.20pm: The family of a young woman, who took her own life after being bullied online, has held a vigil outside Leinster House.

21-year-old Nicole Fox Fenlon from Clondalkin in Dublin died by suicide in January.

Her mum Jackie wants cyberbullying to be made an offence and for online bullies to be held to account.

She says Nicole was bullied for years through social media.

"She was told 'to go die, we're going to put you on life support machines, we're going to kill you, we're going to beat you up'," said Ms Fox.

"They all joined in on group chats and all said what they had to say about her - but it's not an offence.

"It's not an offence in Ireland. It is in loads of other countries but it's not an offence in Ireland to threaten someone's life on social media."

Well done Jackie Fox. A familys devastation at the loss of a wonderful daughter- Coco. Legislate now for Digital harassment as a major deterrent to cyber bullying. pic.twitter.com/fbzGRseMYs  Maire Devine (@mairedev) April 24, 2018

Earlier: Dublin mother whose daughter died by suicide campaigns for new anti-bullying legislation

A Dublin mother whose daughter died by suicide is campaigning to make online bullying a criminal offence.

Nicole Fox Fenlon, 21, from Clondalkin took her own life in January, after years of abuse on social media and in person.

Speaking to 98FM's Dublin Talks, her mother Jackie said that she was told that the people who bullied Nicole have not broken any laws.

"We're meeting outside the Dail today to try and get a law passed," she said.

"If it's physical abuse, yeah, we can do something about it, [but] if it's online, there is no law against it whatsoever to make anybody accountable for bullying online."

- Digital desk
Update 16.53pm: Three people have been taken to hospital after a serious crash on the South Quays in Dublin.

A large section of the route is still closed to traffic, after four vehicles were involved in the collision this afternoon.

It has emerged that a Garda car was one of four vehicles involved in the collision.

Chris Jones from AA Roadwatch says car users are being warned to avoid the area.

Mr Jones said gardai are directing motorists and the College Green traffic ban heading outbound has been lifted temporarily.

Earlier: Part of Dublin's South Quays closed after crash

A large section of the South Quays in Dublin has been closed to traffic after a serious crash.

Pictures appear to show a taxi, car and truck involved in the collision at Wellington Quay, close to Parliament Street.

AA Roadwatch reports that the South Quays are now closed between Burgh Quay and Grattan Bridge due to the collision.

Motorists are being advised to avoid the area altogether as traffic is heavy.

Drivers are advised that they can divert via D'Olier St and Dame St.

- Digital Desk
US President Donald Trump has said North Korea wants to hold a high-stakes meeting "as soon as possible" as he praised Kim Jong Un as "very open" and "very honourable".

Mr Trump was addressing his upcoming plans to meet with the North Korean leader during his discussions at the White House with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Update 3.55pm: A 25-year-old who allegedly ploughed a van into people on a crowded Toronto pavement has been ordered to be held on 10 counts of murder and 13 of attempted murder.

Alek Minassian appeared in court as Canadian authorities and the public sought to make sense of what appeared to be one of the deadliest mass murders in the country's modern history.

Minassian showed little overt emotion as he made a brief appearance in a Toronto courtroom in a white jumpsuit and handcuffs. The judge ordered him detained without bond and scheduled the next hearing for May 10.

Police, meanwhile, still appeared to be gathering evidence. About 20 officers made their way down the van's deadly path on Yonge Street searching for any evidence. Nearby, mourners had put together a makeshift memorial to the victims.

"It was like he was playing a video game, trying to kill as many people as possible," said Panna Patel, 42, who stopped by the memorial and had been at the scene a day earlier, getting cash from an ATM as it occurred.

He was looking people directly in the eye, making eye contact, it was so scary. He wasn't remorseful at all.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau dismissed the possibility of terrorism, saying that authorities see no national security element in the case.

He told a news conference that the incident "hasn't changed the overall threat level in Canada", though it occurred as Cabinet ministers from the G7 nations were meeting in Toronto.

Authorities so far had not disclosed a possible motive or cause, though "the incident definitely looked deliberate," Police Chief Mark Saunders told reporters at a late-night news conference.

Saunders said Minassian, who lives in the Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill, had not been known to police previously. An online social media profile described him as a college student.

Authorities released few details in the case, saying the investigation was still under way, with witnesses being interviewed and surveillance video being examined.

Earlier: 'I've got a gun in my pocket' - Video shows confrontation between Toronto suspect and police

Latest 9.30am: Police in Toronto are trying to find the motive of a driver who ploughed into pedestrians on a crowded footpath, killing 10 people and injuring 15.

A 25-year-old suspect was captured in a tense but brief confrontation with officers a few streets away from where his van mounted the pavement and continued for a mile, leaving people bloodied and dead.

This video shows the moment the suspected driver of a van the killed 10 people in Toronto faced off with police, shouting "kill me" and "I've got a gun in my pocket" pic.twitter.com/oEdeUpr3ZH  Sky News (@SkyNews) April 24, 2018

Authorities are piecing together witness accounts and surveillance video but have not yet disclosed a possible motive or cause, even as the police chief agreed with witnesses that it seemed intentional.

"The incident definitely looked deliberate," police chief Mark Saunders told reporters.

Mr Saunders said the suspect, Alek Minassian, who lives in the Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill, had not been known to police previously. An online social media profile described him as a college student.

Officials would not comment on a possible motive except to play down a possible connection to terrorism after the incident had several similarities to a series of attacks involving vehicles and pedestrians in Europe, and the presence in Toronto this week of cabinet ministers from the G7 nations.

Asked if there was any evidence of a terrorist link, Mr Saunders said: "Based on what we have there's nothing that has it to compromise the national security at this time."

Earlier: Police identify man suspected of killing 10 by driving through crowded Toronto pavement

A rented van ploughed down a crowded Toronto pavement, killing 10 people and injuring 15 yesterday before the driver fled and was quickly arrested in a confrontation with police, Canadian authorities have said.

Witnesses said the driver was moving fast and appeared to be acting deliberately, but police officials would not comment on the cause or any possible motive.

Speaking at a news conference last night, Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders raised the initial death toll of nine to 10, saying another victim had died at a hospital. He said 15 others were still in hospital.

Mr Saunders identified the man detained after the incident as Alek Minassian, 25, a resident of the Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill.

Authorities released few details in the case, saying the investigation was still underway, with witnesses being interviewed and surveillance video being examined.

"I can assure the public all our available resources have been brought in to investigate this tragic situation," Toronto Police Services Deputy Chief Peter Yuen said earlier.

The incident occurred as Cabinet ministers from the major industrial countries were gathered in Canada to discuss a range of international issues in the run-up to the G7 meeting near Quebec City in June.

Minister of Public Safety Ralph Goodale said that it was too soon to say whether the crash was a case of international terrorism and that the government had not raised its terrorism alert.

A senior national government official later said that authorities had not turned over the investigation to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a sign that investigators believed it unlikely terrorism was the motive.

The driver was heading south on busy Yonge Street around 1.30pm local time and the streets were crowded with people enjoying an unseasonably warm day when the van jumped on to the pavement.

Ali Shaker, who was driving near the van at the time, told Canadian broadcast outlet CP24 that the driver appeared to be moving deliberately through the crowd at more than 30mph, adding: "He just went on the sidewalk. He just started hitting everybody, man. He hit every single person on the sidewalk. Anybody in his way he would hit."

Witness Peter Kang told CTV News that the driver did not seem to make any effort to stop.

"If it was an accident he would have stopped," Mr Kang said. "But the person just went through the sidewalk. He could have stopped."

Video broadcast on several Canadian outlets showed police arresting the driver, dressed in dark clothes, after officers surrounded him and his rental Ryder van several blocks from where the incident occurred in the North York neighbourhood of northern Toronto.

Video from Yonge and Finch at Toronto pic.twitter.com/YvS8GcJ8pg  Vince (@vce7) April 23, 2018

He appeared to make some sort of gesture at the police with an object in his hand just before they ordered him to lie down on the ground and took him away.

#BREAKING Police arrested the driver of the white van that hit multiple pedestrians in Toronto.

Police say 8-10 injured or killed.

Multiple ambulances taking ppl to area hospitals.#TorontoAttack @CTVNews pic.twitter.com/DlXTGi27jA  Peter Akman  (@PeterAkman) April 23, 2018

Witness Phil Zullo told Canadian Press that he saw police arresting the suspect and people "strewn all over the road" where the incident occurred.

"I must have seen about five, six people being resuscitated by bystanders and by ambulance drivers," Mr Zullo said. "It was awful. Brutal."

Police shut down the Yonge and Finch intersection following the incident and Toronto's transit agency said it had suspended service on the subway line running through the area.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed his sympathies for those involved. "Our hearts go out to everyone affected," Trudeau said in Ottawa.

"We are going to have more to learn and more to say in the coming hours."

- PA
Newspaper headlines have helped to create an Islamophobic sentiment in the UK, the new boss at the Daily and Sunday Express has told MPs.

At a probe into hate crime, Gary Jones admitted he felt "very uncomfortable" looking through previous Express front pages, and said some were "downright offensive".

The editor-in-chief was one of a number of senior journalists who faced a grilling by MPs on the treatment of people from minority groups by the press.

Mr Jones, who took over the role in March, told the committee:

"Each and every editor has a responsibility for every single word that is published in the newspaper and yes, cumulatively, some of the headlines that have appeared in the past have created an Islamophobic sentiment, which I find uncomfortable."

Gary Jones. Photos: PA Wire

Mr Jones said he was making changes at the newspapers.

"I've gone through a lot of former Express front pages and I have felt very uncomfortable looking at them," he said.

"Individually they may not present specific issues. There have been accuracy issues on some of them and some of them are just downright offensive.

I wouldn't want to be party to any newspaper that will publish such material.

"I have to accept as a newspaper editor that people have different views to my own and that the newspaper is there to represent the broader section of views, but I think there are limits as to how far you should go into an honest and fair-minded society."

The House of Commons Home Affairs Committee is investigating hate crime and its violent consequences.

Paul Clarkson, managing editor of The Sun, said he apologised for errors in a story that said one in five British Muslims had sympathy for jihadis.

He added: "We are sorry if we offended anyone."

Paul Clarkson

The executive declined to apologise for a "cut out and keep" guide to what terrorists look like.

Mr Clarkson said The Sun, which has run a number of stories on transgender men and women, had an "excellent" relationship with trans groups.

Associated Newspapers editor emeritus Peter Wright told the committee that the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday try to report difficult issues in an even-handed and sensible way.

He said: "We go to great lengths to avoid any articles that could possibly contribute to Islamophobia.

"But, you still have to report difficult issues. There have been claims of Islamophobia surrounding the reporting of sex grooming gangs in Rotherham and elsewhere.

You can't, I'm afraid, ignore the fact that these crimes appear to have a cultural background to them. We try to report them in a way that is even-handed and sensible.

Mr Wright defended the Daily Mail's controversial story on the decision by judges that Brexit could not be triggered without a Westminster vote.

Peter Wright

A profile of the judges that ran with the article, headlined Enemies of the People, included references to the sexuality of one of the trio, Sir Terence Etherton, who had recently been appointed Master of the Rolls.

"If you Google him the first story which comes up is the Guardian's report on his appointment," Mr Wright said.

The headline is Britain's first openly gay judge becomes Master of the Rolls.

He told the committee that Associated titles received complaints, including to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso), that needed investigation on 348 stories last year.

Of those, 30 involved discrimination and none of those were upheld by Ipso.

Trinity Mirror editor-in-chief Lloyd Embley said he would be "committing commercial suicide" if he carried some of the "more offensive, insulting articles" that other newspapers have carried.

"But, I still would defend their right to carry them," he added.

Lloyd Embley

Ian Brunskill, assistant editor of The Times, told the committee he did not accept suggestions of "intentional, deliberate Islamophobia" in the British press.

"There are news stories that tackle difficult subjects and there will be problems around those," he said. "There will be opinion columns that will offend, there are misunderstandings, misjudgments and mistakes.

But I don't recognise the picture of deliberate, dishonest manipulation of information in order to stoke Islamophobia.

Metro editor Ted Young showed the committee a series of front pages in which he said the free newspaper had made an effort to ease racial tensions after terror attacks.

Mr Young said:

Mistakes happen but we definitely as a paper try to be proactive in promoting racial harmony and a sense of national togetherness, especially in times of crisis.

Committee member Stephen Doughty attacked examples of newspapers "jumping on the anti-trans bandwagon", including a Times column with the headline "Children sacrificed to appease trans lobby" and a Telegraph article about a "transgender explosion".

Mr Brunskill defended the headline as a "fair reflection" of the views expressed by columnist Janice Turner, in what he said was a "fierce debate" over transgender issues.

Telegraph editor emeritus Ian MacGregor told Mr Doughty: "We take the coverage of these issues so seriously. We are very careful about the wording we use. We treat these issues with great sensitivity."

Mr Doughty also challenged Mr MacGregor over the Telegraph's decision to put images of 15 Conservative MPs on its front page under the headline "The Brexit Mutineers".

"Do you stand by that front page, given some of the attacks and threats that have been made to public figures and the hate crime some politicians have experienced?" asked the Labour MP.

Mr MacGregor, the president of the Society of Editors, responded: "We stand by that story 100%.

"That was a fair characterisation of how senior Conservatives saw what they perceived as the rebels who were not going to support them on the date for Brexit. That's how we were being guided as to how they were perceived.

To put something on the front page like that, I think, is totally justified.

PA
A UN prosecution lawyer has urged appeal judges to convict former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic on a second genocide count and increase his 40-year sentence for overseeing Serb atrocities during the Bosnian war to a life term.

Prosecutor Katrina Gustafson told a five-judge appellate panel at the UN Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals that Karadzic "abused his immense power to spill the blood of countless victims", adding: "Justice requires that he receive the highest possible sentence - a life sentence."

As a two-day appeals hearing concluded, Karadzic's lawyers said that not only should he not be convicted of a second genocide count, but the genocide conviction imposed by trial judges in 2016 for Karadzic's role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre should be overturned on appeal.

Judges will probably take months to issue their appeals judgment.

Karadzic, 72, was convicted in March 2016 on 10 counts including genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes as the political mastermind behind Serb crimes in the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

However, he was acquitted of one genocide charge relating to a 1992 campaign to drive Croats and Muslims out of Serb-claimed areas in Bosnia.

Ms Gustafson said that crimes during the campaign - including murders, deportations and imprisoning people in inhumane conditions - were committed with genocidal intent by Karadzic and his forces who wanted to permanently remove non-Serbs.

Judges at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal repeatedly stopped short of convicting Serbs of genocide for their involvement in the campaign, most recently acquitting ex-Bosnian Serb military chief General Ratko Mladic, saying that the horrors do not amount to genocide.

Karadzic's lawyer, Peter Robinson, urged the appeals judges not to depart from the jurisprudence.

Mr Robinson argued that all of Karadzic's convictions should be overturned because of legal and procedural errors by trial judges and a new trial ordered.

"What happened in Prijedor, as well as the other municipalities, was horrible," Mr Robinson said. "Crimes against humanity and war crimes were committed there but... it didn't amount to genocide."

The northern Bosnian municipality of Prijedor was the scene of some of the worst mistreatment of Muslims and Croats by Serbs in 1992.

Thousands were forced from their homes and many were imprisoned in camps where torture and killings were commonplace. Several Serbs have been convicted of crimes in the region.

PA
Update 7.15pm: Iran's Foreign Minister has warned the Trump administration that pulling out from a nuclear deal would undermine talks with North Korea by proving that America reneges on its promises.

Mohammad Javad Zarif (below) said that if President Donald Trump withdraws, Iran would "most likely" abandon the deal as well.

Mr Zarif said Iran would no longer be bound by the deal's international obligations.

That would free up Iran to resume enrichment activity beyond the limits imposed by the 2015 nuclear accord.

In an interview, Mr Zarif said Iran would welcome reduced tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

But he said President Trump is showing that the US "is not a trustworthy, reliable negotiating partner".

Mr Zarif added that makes the US "a rather unlikely partner" for any other global agreements.

Earlier: Warning of grave consequences if US pulls out of Iran nuclear deal

Iran's president has reiterated his warning against a US pullout from the landmark nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.

Hassan Rouhani said the US will face "grave" consequences if Washington decides to withdraw from the 2015 agreement that curbed Iran's controversial nuclear enrichment programme in exchange for lifting international sanctions on the nation.

"If someone wants to betray our nation and the deal, grave consequences will affect them," Mr Rouhani told supporters in the city of Tabriz during a visit to the area.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Photo: Iranian Presidency Office via AP

The Iranian nation and government will "strongly resist" any plots by those who sit in the White House, he added but did not elaborate, only saying that Iran has prepared for "various scenarios" while it abided by its commitments under the deal.

Also on Tuesday, Ali Shamkahni, the secretary of the country's Supreme National Security Council, signalled that one option for Tehran would be to quit the nuclear non-proliferation treaty if US President Donald Trump scraps the nuclear deal.

"Signatory countries have a right to quit if they feel their national interests are not safeguarded," Mr Shamkhani said before leaving for a visit to Moscow. "This is one of the choices Iran has."

He added that Tehran would consider any move by the US to pull out of the accord or attempts to modify it as a "collapse" of the deal.

Mr Trump did not re-certify the deal in January but extended the main sanctions waivers and gave the Europeans until the next waiver deadline on May 12 to come up with fixes to the deal.

PA
Thousands of National Australia Bank customers have had their planner falsify documents relating to their finances, a senior executive has told the banking royal commission, admitting that the practice was a "social norm" within the bank.

But the banks crackdown on planners falsifying death beneficiary forms led to senior executives warning the bank it was acting unfairly towards to senior staff by trying to hold them responsible for the unlawful behaviour.

Andrew Hagger, chief customer officer of the National Australia Bank's wealth and consumer division in the witness box at The Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Credit:Fairfax Media

Other documents presented to the royal commission showed a litany of issues within NAB's wealth arms and how the bank was yet to provide full funding for any broad compensation plan for customers affected by inappropiate advice or misconduct by planners.
The newly merged construction and maritime super union has been fined more than half a million dollars for a series of unlawful strikes on nine Brisbane sites.

The Federal Court of Australia fined the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMMEU) $432,000 and seven of its officials $90,000 in total.

The court ruled in favour of the the Australian Building and Construction Commissioner which took legal action over a series of strikes at nine Hutchinson Builders construction projects between August 25, 2016 and September 27, 2016 in the Brisbane metropolitan area.

Leaders of the merged construction and maritime unions, Michael O\'Connor and Paddy Crumlin Credit:Nick Moir

The ABCC alleged there had been elements of intimidation, threat and coercion involved in the industrial disruptions which were related to the company's use of subcontractors. Justice Berna Collier said there had been no expression of contrition by any of the union officials.
Boral is looking to its property division to help boost earnings, after warning that the US operations face operational issues caused by bad weather.

In an earnings and trading update, Boral said it had sold its Prospect Masonry site at Clunies Ross Street, Greystanes in Sydney to ISPT, which it estimates will boost earnings by about $56 million.

Boral's property sales tipped to boost earnings. Credit:Chris Pearce

The report said the sales will help to offset weaker than expected conditions in its North American business.

Investors were sceptical, with the share price down 8.8 per cent to $6.86.
Sydney-based businessman Robert Christie has offloaded a Collins Street building occupied by his flexible workspace business Christie Spaces to a Macau-based investor for $40.1 million.

The 11-storey office at 454 Collins Street on the corner of William Street was fully leased to Christie Spaces for 10 years and sold on a 4.24 per cent yield.

The Christie Spaces building at 454 Collins Street.

Mr Christie paid $17.8 million for the building at an auction in December 2007 at the height of the last property cycle.

We dont part with our real estate lightly as we know how hard these properties are to find, but the offers brought forward during the campaign were simply too good to refuse.
Monopoly electronic lodgement operator Property Exchange Australia (PEXA) has apologised to the nations conveyancers for launching a now-axed pilot program that was perceived as an attempt to steal their clients and cut them out of the settlement process.

Called SettleAssist, the botched program offered firms the option of outsourcing the lodgement and exchanging of documents, or the conveyancing process from end to end.

When engaging SettleAssist on behalf of your client, they become a client of SettleAssist and a client authorisation form will need to be executed between SettleAssist and the client, a brochure promoting the service says.

The flyer cites a fee of $520 (plus GST and disbursements) and the standard PEXA fee of $110.55, where SettleAssist also prepares or reviews contracts if required.

The pilot program aimed to handle up to 30 files. But after an outcry from the Australian Institute of Conveyancers the program was curtailed with only four cases completed and two in progress.
Much of the company's solid performance was due to its continued strong growth in Asia and Mr Henfrey said the Indonesian market had great potential.

Sales to China were up 21 per cent in the March quarter. Credit:Ryan Stuart

Chief executive Richard Henfrey said sales in China topped $100 million for the first nine months of fiscal 2018 as the company reported its second highest net profit and group revenue.

Tensions between China and Australia have created a "little bit of noise" but will not affect Blackmores sales in Asia despite them being below expectations in the March quarter, says the head of the vitamins company.

I do see Indonesia as our future growth platform. It has the potential to be an enormous market, but its very much less mature today than for example the China market. We launched in that market about 18 months ago, so obviously the growth rates that were seeing are really, really strong," he said.

When asked if the diplomatic tensions between Australia and China could be a risk to his company, Mr Henfrey said: "I guess it creates a little bit of noise. But I look at it like this, the Chinese and Australian governments have both been really consistent about their support for opening up trade between the countries."

"We see a really strong alignment between the positions of Australia and China," he said, adding that he was optimistic about the ongoing relationship between the two nations.

Blackmores also revealed on Tuesday that it had agreed to buy a large-scale factory able to produce soft-gel tablets and capsules in a $43.2 million deal.

Mr Henfrey said the deal would give the company increased control and agility, and help future-proof our Asian business.
Flexible workspace provider Spaces is set to open four new offices in Melbourne this year as it undertakes a rapid expansion across the Asia Pacific region.

Spaces will open a 2,500 square metre co-working space in July at the western end of Collins Street in the landmark Rialto building, a skyscraper jointly owned by the Grollo family and Kuwaiti-controlled St Martins group.

The flexible workplace provider also confirmed plans, first mooted in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, to open a larger 10,500 sq m office in September at the eastern end of Collins Street in US property group Pembroke Real Estates T&G Building.

The Dutch-founded firm has an existing co-working office in inner-city Richmond which it opened three years ago, a space it quickly followed with another in Surry Hills in Sydney.

Asia Pacific brand manager Margot Van Der Poel said Spaces was also planning to open two co-working hubs across 3,600 sq m in suburban Melbourne locations during the second half of this year.
What is it with real estate agencies that go public? Having left John McGrath's busines post its listing and sold their shares out of escrow, The Agency mob, formerly Ausnet based in Perth, has lost their underwriter for the proposed 550 million share issue - at 2. The company conveniently announced it had lost the underwriter late last Friday afternoon after trading closed.

The proposed raising of $10 million was to be used to assist the acquisition of Top Level Real Estate, trading under licence as the The Agency East Coast and run by Matt Lahood, Ben Collier, Shad Hassen and Stephen Chen, all formerly of McGrath. The Agency managing director is Paul Niardone.

Top Level's Matt Lahood with The Agency's Paul Niardone

But investors have not responded well to the news, smashing the shares on Tuesday by close by 12 per cent to 1.5 - pointing to future raising involving many millions of more shares being issued.

Over the last month, as the issue of shares was open, the Agency's boss Lahood also announced a six-figure partnership with the Australian Turf Club to sponsor the George Ryder Stakes, held on March 24 and won by the mare Winx.
It was the emergency that stopped My Kitchen Rules in its tracks. Or was it?

Fans of Seven's top-rating cooking show found out who was carted off to hospital on Monday night after weeks of dramatic promos.

Melbourne contestant Suong Pham was wheeled into an ambulance after leaving the kitchen table due to intense stomach cramps.

"I'm so sorry," she said as she was taken away by the paramedics. "Make sure you give Alex and Emily a good score, OK?"
The media landscape is currently saturated with giddy pleasure over the birth of the third child of the Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William. It seems that for the next week or so at least, Kate will have found favour with the public again  for producing another heir to the crown.

Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, appeared before well-wishers just six hours after giving birth. Credit:AP

Let's not forget that this is a monarchy.

The recent obsession with American actress turned prospective duchess Meghan Markle is a testament to our unthinking forgetfulness, whereby the history of British colonialism is all but a footnote to the anticipated emergence of feminist royal characters, and their celebrated offspring.

This is a mentality where self-identified feminist admirers of the royal family have taken it upon themselves to become body language experts and mind-readers in order to justify fantasies about a deeply patriarchal and colonial institution being in any way feminist.
The catalyst for that is going to come from a change in sentiment which is more than likely going to be signposted by some broker somewhere upgrading the stocks earnings numbers and with it their recommendation.

And all the other brokers will follow. You will only spot this in the research, which can often be the catalyst for a sentiment resurrection. One of the best websites for tracking broker recommendations is FN Arena.

Fund Managers

One of my brothers-in-law started his broking career sitting next to a Melbourne legend. That broker told him that the way to stockbroking success was to find a company with half an idea that is trading below one cent, buy millions of shares, and spend the rest of your career marketing it. In the same way, there is a game that has been played in the stock market since time began which involves people buying shares and then telling everybody else all about it. And why not.

If you think its a good idea it makes sense, having bought it, to tell everybody else. This is now routine behaviour for midcap, small cap and micro-cap fund managers. Buying something and telling everybody else about it. More often than not when a fund manager buys a small stock they have to take a long-term view because the liquidity isnt there to allow them to trade in and out. So, when you hear them talking a stock up, more likely than not they genuinely believe it is a good investment in the long-term and, having just bought it, and having just started to tell everybody about it, it is probably still early in the piece.
There are no quick fixes to curb recurrences of the shocking revelations at the banking royal commission concerning financial advice.

But there is a move you'd think would be obvious: licence planners individually.

The authorities have told consumers to only seek advice from those who meet certain requirements, promoting the fiction that advisers are created equal.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) ran a campaign for years urging consumers to invest as they swim - "between the flags".
It's been 70 years since World War II veteran Les Cook first marched on Anzac Day, and time has changed the Canberra man in ways he never expected.

"Your hearing, your eyesight ... all your senses get weaker as you get older, but all your emotions get stronger," the 95-year-old says.

World War II veteran Les Cook, who will march in Canberra on Anzac Day, 70 years after his first march. Credit:Sitthixay Ditthavong

"At the very least, your ability to resist them gets weaker. Something like bugle calls would never have affected me 10 years ago, but now, standing there and listening to the Last Post, it's hard to stay in control."

Mr Cook enlisted in the army in May 1940, when he was just 17. He was four years too young to enlist, while his father Ernest, who had already served in World War I, was four years too old.
New suburbs like Moncrieff and Coombs have recorded the largest population increases in the ACT, but the inner suburb of Kingston is also one of the city's boom areas.

According to new Bureau of Statistics data, Moncrieff on Canberra's northern fringe recorded the largest population increase in the ACT in 2016-17, finishing the year with 965 residents - an increase of 866 from just 99 one year earlier, or 874.7 per cent.

Coombs, Wright and Kingston were Canberra's fastest-growing suburbs in 2016-17. Credit:Australian Bureau of Statistics

Kingston is the suburb that doesn't fit the pattern in a list that also includes outer suburbs Coombs, Lawson, Harrison, Franklin, Wright, Ngunnawal, Casey and Crace. Apartment developments along Lake Burley Griffin contributed to an increase of 666 people, or 14.3 per cent, in the inner south suburb.

Coombs in the Molonglo Valley topped the list of the fastest growing suburbs with 34.4 per cent growth, it was also the second fastest growing suburb in Australia. Moncrieff and Lawson were excluded from the list of fastest growth suburbs across the country because they had starting populations of fewer than 1000 people. Lawson increased from a population of 145 people to 691 people in one year - an increase of 376.6 per cent.
In her speech in Canberra, she will explore the role of women in the Australian Defence Force, touching on her own experiences in the military and what Anzac Day means to her.

Since retiring ranked colonel in 2010, Dr Neuhaus has researched and written extensively on women in the Australian Defence Force, including the experiences of mothers on deployment, the female military surgeons of World War I and the health needs of servicewomen and female veterans.

The distinguished ex-Army officer's more than 20-year career included service in Cambodia, Bougainville and Afghanistan across roles including staff officer, commander and clinician.

Susan Neuhaus wants to give a voice to the "often completely overlooked" servicewomen of the past century.

"You dont often hear [women's] stories because its often the very stereotyped narrative of the male soldier in the slouch hat and the horse that we hear about," Dr Neuhaus said.

"[I hope to] be able to give [women] a voice and have a new generation understand theres a whole lot more complex story around Anzac, that theres lots and lots of layers around it, not just this one story but how its affected all of us and how its created our society."

Dr Neuhaus said she was "really, really sad" to speak with people ahead of Anzac Day about what the dawn service meant to them, only for them to tell her they felt it wasn't their day because they had no direct connection with military history.

She said Australia should reexamine how it engaged with Anzac Day, taking note of the contributions of Indigenous and multinational Australians as well as women.

I think that people need to understand its not just a singular narrative, that there is so much around that of what people have done - lots of people have done, not just 100 years ago but in all the years since," she said.
Today the eyes of the nation will be on Canberra as the Australian War Memorial forecourt hosts one of the most significant Anzac Day celebrations in recent history.

2018 marks the centenary year of the end of the "war to end all wars", the brutal and avoidable conflict that claimed more than 20 million lives, toppled three monarchies and brought about the downfall of four empires.

Australia, at the time a nation of just under five million people, was forever changed by the experience. Of the 416,809 men who enlisted 60,000 were killed and another 156,000 were shot, blown up, gassed or taken prisoner.

It is their service, and that of the gallant women who volunteered as nurses to staff many of the field hospitals to which the wounded of all nations were taken, that is remembered today.
An Adelaide woman who licked the bloodied knife she used to drunkenly stab a man to death will spend at least 20 years in jail.

Leanne Prak was last year found guilty of the murder of Michael McEvoy at his unit at suburban Holden Hill in 2016.

In the South Australian Supreme Court on Tuesday, Justice David Peek said Prak had been drinking wine before she started arguing with Mr McEvoy over whether her ex-boyfriend should be allowed into his home.

Leanne Prak. Credit:Nine News

Prak picked up a kitchen knife and lunged at the 65-year-old, stabbing him through the chest before licking the knife and saying "now you know what I'm capable of".
A large investigation has been launched into a brazen, "targeted" attack on a western Sydney home, in which a 13-year-old was shot in the leg on Tuesday night.

It is believed at least two people were travelling in a silver SUV when it pulled up near the driveway of a home on Constance Street, Guildford, about 9.45pm.

Within seconds, multiple shots were fired from the passenger side of the vehicle and into the home's open garage, where a group of young girls were gathered.

The SUV then drove away, although the direction in which it travelled remains unknown.
A technical issue affected the transfer of more than 100 court-ordered banning notices to Queenslands ID scanner network over seven months, police say.

It comes after a Nine News report revealed in February Caleb Maraku, who was handed a year's probation over a one-punch attack on the Gold Coast in February and restricted from entering Safe Night Precincts, was not on any banned lists.

On Tuesday, police said they had resolved the technical issue which affected 133 court-ordered banning notices and 48 current bail conditions from July to February.

The scanners are managed by the Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation.
The chief executive of a Canberra organisation contracted to support people leaving the greyhound racing industry has apologised after he was accused of mocking an owner who asked for advice on rehoming his dogs.

The Barr government has a $100,000 contract with Woden Community Service to provide short-term financial aid, free counselling and opportunities to retrain in a different industry for people affected by the ACT's incoming ban on greyhound racing.

Greyhound racing will become illegal in Canberra on Monday.

However, when an owner - using the pseudonym Peter Jones - reached out to the organisation, he received an unexpected response from chief executive Chris Redmond.

"Im just wondering who [sic] qualifies for you to do rehoming, and if I drop my dogs off to you for rehoming at your office or somewhere else. If you could let me know the process it would be much appreciated," Mr Jones wrote.
ACT Greens Minister Shane Rattenbury has refuted claims he left last Friday's COAG meeting during critical energy discussions to do a doorstop with his federal party colleagues.

Mr Rattenbury has been an outspoken critic of the proposed National Energy Guarantee, saying the overall emissions target was weak and there were unresolved questions around how offsets could be used.

ACT Climate Change Minister Shane Rattenbury has been the most vocal opponent of the NEG.

But Victorian Labor Energy Minister Lily D'Ambrosio took to Twitter to lash Mr Rattenbury for "going missing during 40 minutes of COAG and not once opposing the NEG when you were in the room".
One of the architects of Australia's financial system has expressed doubts about the policing power given to one of the corporate regulators now under fire for failing to prevent fraud and deception by the banks.

Professor Ian Harper was a member of the Wallis committee of inquiry into the financial system which in 1997 recommended the creation of a specialist organisation to regulate financial markets and financial institutions known as the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, or ASIC.

He later chaired the Harper Competition Review for the Abbott and Turnbull governments, and is a Reserve Bank of Australia board member.

Professor Ian Harper helped establish the Australian financial system. Credit:Wayne Taylor

Critically, the Wallis recommendations allowed ASIC to take over responsibility for policing consumer laws previously conducted by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
By Ruth Anderah.

Former Bubulo West Constituency Member of Parliament Tony Kipoi is this morning expected to re-appear before the General Court Martial to know the stage of investigations in his cases.

Kipoi who is currently on remand at Makindye Military Barracks is expected to appear before a seven- member court chaired by Lt. Gen.Andrew Gutti.

Kipoi is charged with offenses relating to security where prosecution says between November 2012 and December 2013, while in diverse districts in Uganda, he convened meetings to recruit soldiers with an intention of undermining the security of defence forces.

He is jointly charged with 5 UPDF soldiers including Sgt. Yunus Lemeriga, CPL Rogers Mwiru, Sgt. Adams Mawa, Sgt. Albino Okenge and Private DdodolaIjosiga.

Kipoi is also accused of attempting to traffic 20 people from Bukedea district to the DR. Congo.

Kipoi was extradited from Botswana at the end of February 2018 where he had fled up on jumping bail in earlier treason case.

In Botswana authorities apprehended him for pretending to be a witch doctor and defrauding natives of millions of money.
Commonwealth funding to arrest declining water quality on the Great Barrier Reef has dropped by more than $11 million a year, internal government figures suggest, despite growing concerns over threats to the reef.

The figures have emerged weeks out from the federal budget, which critics last year said ignored the coral bleaching crisis that has severely damaged the reef, as well as other environmental problems that are expected to hurt tourism and jobs.

Federal government funding to improve reef water quality has declined, figures show.

Flight Centre founder Graham Turner said more Commonwealth funding is needed to protect the reef, and former government official Adam Smith said current funding levels were probably not adequate.

After climate change, poor water quality is the most pressing problem facing the reef. It is largely caused by nutrient, pesticide and sediment run-off from agriculture and coastal development. It can cause algal growth at the expense of coral, block light and smother corals, as well as exacerbate outbreaks of the venomous crown-of-thorns starfish, which are a major cause of coral loss.
Qantas has delivered a rebuke of Australia's big banks, warning they have become a distraction to the Turnbull government's increasingly troubled $35.6 billion plan to cut company taxes.

A string of damaging revelations from the banking royal commission have derailed hopes of an impending deal with the two Senate crossbenchers blocking the Coalition's flagship economic package.

Despite government warnings that a failure to pass the measure would put billions of dollars of investment at risk, independent Tim Storer remain unconvinced of the economic benefits of a reduction in the corporate tax rate, while Derryn Hinch wants the banks excluded from the package entirely. One Nation has suggested the banks should be made to use their share of the tax cut to compensate victims.

Business Council of Australia chief Jennifer Westacott was due to argue the case for the company tax cuts at a Senate inquiry on Tuesday but instead had to condemn the actions of the banks as "egregious."
Berlin: Malcolm Turnbull has honoured the thousands of fallen Australians who served in the First World War, opening a new centre outside the French village of Villers-Bretonneux to tell their story.

A century after the final year of the war, the Prime Minister prepared for Anzac Day on the western front by opening a new historical centre named after acclaimed Australian general Sir John Monash.

The $99.6 million centre was officially opened on Tuesday after years of work to build an interpretive centre behind the monument that records the names of 11,000 Australian soldiers whose bodies were never found.

A display at the Sir John Monash Centre. Credit:Nick Miller

The centre tells the story of the Australian experience in the trench warfare of the western front, including the battles where Monash led troops to a series of victories that helped cut short the war.
The Greens candidate for lord mayor may reject Melbourne's City Council's plan to challenge a controversial heritage ruling on the Queen Victoria Market if he wins Town Hall.

The councils ambitious plans were thrown into disarray last month when Heritage Victoria rejected its application to refurbish four of the market's 140-year-old sheds.

And Rohan Leppert, who has previously backed some of former lord mayor Robert Doyles plans for the market, said he still wanted the current open-air car park turned into a park.

But this should only happen if support could be garnered from traders and the public, he said.
Victorias Coalition has promised to return passenger trains to the Mildura line, 25 years after former Liberal premier Jeff Kennett killed them off.

But the opposition stopped short of promising a complete revival of the line, which is now used solely by freight trains.

V/Line VLocity trains could return to Donald in north-west Victoria under a Coalition pledge. Credit:Craig Abraham

On Tuesday it promised if elected to extend V/Line rail services from Maryborough to the Mallee town of Donald, a lengthening of about 115 kilometres but still well short of the 400-kilometre journey to Mildura.

Instead, the Mildura line would be upgraded at a cost of $80 million, in an investment the Coalition said would pave the way for the potential return of passenger rail to Victorias most remote regional city one day.
Washington: Weighing withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, US President Donald Trump declared on Tuesday that if the Iranians "restart their nuclear program, they will have bigger problems than they've ever had before".

Trump issued his warning alongside French President Emmanuel Macron in the Oval Office, where the two allies were meeting to discuss the multinational nuclear accord, the war in Syria and other issues during a day of meetings at the White House. It will be followed by a state dinner, the first one held by Trump and his wife Melania.

In a lighter moment, Trump and Macron demonstrated some of the chemistry that has marked their relationship. Trump brushed something off Macron's suit jacket, saying: "We have a very special relationship, in fact I'll get that little piece of dandruff off". Trump added: "We have to make him perfect - he is perfect".

The pair shook hands several times during public appearances, including an awkward handshake that morphed into a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
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They want to bury this controversy once and for all.

The top brass at a local graveyard will meet with critics seething over a plan to adorn the necropolis with a polarizing statue that city officials banished from public display.

A Green-Wood Cemetery rep said its leaders organized the meeting to ensure they are good neighbors to residents who blasted them for welcoming the likeness of 19th-century gynecologist J. Marion Sims  who conducted experiments on black female slaves  which the mayor proposed banishing from a Manhattan park as part of the citywide monument review he staged last year after protests over the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from a park in Charlottesville, Va. turned deadly.

The sit-down will be the first time bigwigs at the privately run boneyard directly address the issue with its neighbors, many of whom complained that their opinions werent sought in the decision to bring the statue to the bucolic burial ground, according to a civic honcho.

What I find disconcerting is we werent consulted, and I think we should have been, said Community Board 7 chairman Cesar Zuniga, whose district includes Green-Wood Cemetery.

Members of the citys Public Design Commission officially signed off on the monuments move to the graveyard at an April 16 meeting where several people spoke in favor of ousting it from its home in Central Park  but no CB7 members appeared to oppose its transfer to Green-Wood, where it is currently being stored after arriving there later last week.

And two days later, Zuniga put forth a motion urging Green-Wood leaders to reconsider taking the statue at a meeting of his civic panel, but quickly withdrew it after multiple members  including a former chairman  said the board should focus its attention elsewhere.

We are wasting our time shaking our fists and clucking our tongues at a statue, said Daniel Murphy.

One former CB7 member, however, accused those who supported the sculptures relocation of being a bunch of clueless white guys.

They were all white men saying these things, said Malissa del Valle Ortiz, who is black. It was very offensive, and if youre not a woman  a woman of color  you dont know where Im speaking from.

Zuniga ultimately told the boards district manager to reach out to the cemetery after Greenwood Heights Councilman Carlos Menchaca washed his hands of the matter at the meeting, telling attendees a solution must come from you.

Graveyard honchos have yet to set a date for the Sims summit with residents, whose opposition to the statue likely wont die any time soon, according to Zuniga.

Well have a range of conversations, including what can we do to be responsive to women of color who say this is a very historical figure, and we dont want him in our community, he said.

Cemetery officials previously vowed to use the effigy as a learning device, promising to display it along with informational material that explains the dastardly medical practices of the so-called father of modern gynecology, who himself is buried in one of the sites roughly 500,000 graves.

But Ortiz said she would rather see the statue destroyed, and its metal reshaped into a new monument honoring women.

It would be great if they could recycle and repurpose it as a positive image, she said.

Anyone interested in attending the meeting with Green-Wood Cemetery leaders can contact Community Board 7 at (718) 8540003 for more information.
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Cops are searching for an alleged exhibitionist who revealed his genitals to a woman while aboard a subway in Prospect Heights.

The 33-year-old victim told police she was riding a Manhattan-bound Q train near Flatbush Avenue and Seventh Avenue at 9:10 pm on March 14, when the flasher unzipped his pants and started masturbating.

Investigators released video footage a commuter captured of the suspect, who authorities described as a man in his early 20s and around five-feet-nine-inches tall.

Anyone with information regarding the incident is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 5778477. The public can also submit tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or by texting tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then entering TIP577. All tips are strictly confidential.
The race for cash-strapped Fortis Healthcare is getting fiercer by the day. After China's Fosun Health Holdings, the latest to throw the ring in the hat is Malasia's IHH Healthcare, again. The company, after earlier making a non-binding offer to invest Rs 4,000 crore at Rs 160 per share, has now made a binding offer to immediately invest Rs 650 crore as part of its earlier proposal of the total infusion of Rs 4,000 crore. China's Fosun Health Holdings, TPG-Manipal combine, and Munjal-Burman family combine have also made their offers to buy Fortis. The latest revised offer gives the Fortis board one more option to look at when it meets on Thursday.

In a regulatory filing on Tuesday, Fortis Healtahcre said: "The Board of Directors of Fortis Healthcare has received an unsolicited binding offer from IHH Healthcare Berhand with a proposal to invest in the company. The company has received an improved offer from IHH to invest directly in the company."

In its proposal to Fortis, IHH has said it is committed to investing in the company. "Our revised proposal is based on our assessment that the company needs Rs 4,000 crore to meet immediate liquidity requirements for working capital and other near-term funding requirements."

The company has now made a binding proposal without any due diligence for an immediate injection of primary equity of Rs 650 crore by way of a preferential issue and allotment of equity shares at a price of Rs 160 per share, for which the IHH would be given immediate access to appoint two directors in the Fortis board.

The non-binding proposal to infuse up to Rs 3,500 crore through a subsequent preferential issue and the allotment of equity shares will be done after the satisfactory completion of the due diligence, said the company. It added that the due diligence will be completed in three weeks from the day it is granted access.

On April 18, Fortis had received an unsolicited non-binding expression of interest from China's Fosun Health Holdings, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fosun International Limited, which proposed to infuse up to $350 million (around Rs 2,295 crore) at a share price of Rs 156 in the company.

Earlier, IHH had proposed to acquire Fortis Healthcare by offering to buy its shares at Rs 160 apiece, higher than Manipal's offer of Rs 155 per share that had valued the company at Rs 6,061 crore. Manipal Health had raised its offer from Rs 155 per share after the initial valuation of Rs 5,003 crore. Besides, Sunil Kant Munjal-led Hero Enterprise Investment Office and Burman Family Office had also offered to invest Rs 1,250 crore in Fortis at up to Rs 156 per share. On Monday, they also decided to extend the validity of their improved joint binding offer to invest Rs 1,500 crore at a valuation of Rs 161.6 per share in Fortis till May 4. Their revised offer is valid for five working days only.

Considering offers from different companies, the Fortis board had decided to form an expert panel last week to evaluate binding offers before it makes the final decision on April 26. The committee, headed by Deepak Kapoor, former chairman and CEO of Price Waterhouse Coopers, India, will act as an adviser to the board.
Promoters of Hero and Dabur groups have extended the validity of their improved, joint binding offer to invest Rs 1,500 crore in troubled healthcare chain Fortis Healthcare till May 4.

The two partners said in a letter to the Fortis board that they were extending their deadline in the wake of the Fortis board setting up an advisory panel to evaluate binding offers and make the final recommendation by April 26.

In a regulatory filing, Fortis Healthcare Ltd (FHL) said it has received a letter from Hero Enterprise Investment Office led by Hero group's Sunil Kant Munjal and Burman Family Office, promoters of Dabur group, extending the validity of their binding offer.

"We are hereby extending the validity period till May 4, 2018, or as otherwise extended by us in writing and the term of validity period in the improved offer letter should be construed accordingly," the letter said.

On April 18, Hero Enterprise Investment Office and Burman Family Office improved their binding offer with a proposal to invest Rs 1,500 crore directly at a valuation of Rs 161.6 per share, from the earlier Rs 1,250 crore.

They had stated that their improved offer was valid for five working days. Last week, Fortis board formed an expert panel, headed by former chairman and CEO of Price Waterhouse Coopers India, Deepak Kapoor. The other members of the panel are former MD & CEO of ICICI Venture Renuka Ramnath, and Society of Indian Law Firms president Lalit Bhasin.

Fortis Healthcare has become the target of a takeover battle with Malaysia's IHH Healthcare Bhd, Manipal Health Enterprises, Burmans and Munjals (jointly), Chinese firm Fosun Health Holdings and KKR-backed Radiant Life Care in the race to buy the cash-strapped company's hospital business.

It had received binding offers from Manipal/TPG consortium, and Munjal and Burman family offices. It received non-binding expression of interests from Malaysia's IHH Healthcare Berhad, Chinese firm Fosun Health Holdings and KKR-backed Radiant Life Care.

The Manipal/TPG-led consortium had raised their offer for Fortis to Rs 155 per share by valuing the hospital business higher at Rs 6,061 crore from Rs 5,003 crore in its initial offer on March 27.

Malaysia's IHH Healthcare had offered to acquire stake in the Indian firm at Rs 160 per share and also upped the ante by proposing to infuse Rs 4,000 crore through a preferential allotment of equity shares at a price not exceeding its offer share price.

Fortis Healthcare had also received an unsolicited nonbinding expression of interest from Fosun Health Holdings, an arm of Fosun International, with a proposal of primary infusion at a price up to Rs 156 per share up to a total investment of USD 350 million (over Rs 2,295 crore).

On the other hand, Radiant Life Care had offered to acquire at least 26 per cent stake in Fortis at Rs 126 per share, excluding its diagnostic business SRL.
NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant on Monday blamed Bihar, UP and Chhattisgarh for keeping the country backward. He was speaking at the first Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan Memorial Lecture at Jamia Millia Islamia University. Kant said that the states in India's southern and western region were growing rapidly, but Eastern states were lagging behind on social indicators.

The Niti Aayog chief said: "Eastern part of India particularly states like Bihar, UP, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan is keeping India backward especially on social indicators. While we have improved on ease of doing business, we have remained backward on human development index. We are still 131 out of 188 countries in HDI."

The HDI is a composite index which assess the social and economic development levels of a country. This ranks the country in four principal areas: mean years of schooling, expected years of schooling, life expectancy and per capita income. The latest HDI report, which was released in 2017, placed India at 131st position among the 188 countries.

The Niti Aayog chief said that the government was working on these social indicators through Aspirational Districts Programme to improve country's development index.

He said: "Education and health are critical and these are areas in which India is lagging behind. Our learning outcomes are poor - a class 5 student is not able to do class 2 substraction. Class 5 student is not able to read his mother tongue. Infant mortality rates are very high. Unless we improve on these aspects, it will be difficult to grow in a consistent way."

Various reports in past have revealed that Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have poor literacy rates. According to Census 2011, Bihar had a literacy rate of 61.8 per cent, Uttar Pradesh of 67.7 per cent, Rajasthan of 67.1 per cent and Madhya Pradesh of 70.6 per cent.

Last year, IndiaSpend came out with an analysis which claimed that in Madhya Pradesh, as few as 34.1 per cent of children in class 5 could read a class 2 text book and in Rajasthan, only 45.9 per cent of children in class 5 could subtract.
In 2016, remittances to developing countries had dipped 2.4 per cent year-on-year - a second consecutive year of decline, which was a trend not seen in three decades. But according to the World Bank's latest Migration and Development Brief, last year saw a stronger-than-expected recovery in remittances, driven by growth in Europe, Russia and the US.

Global remittances, including flows to high-income countries, grew 7 per cent to $613 billion in 2017, while officially recorded remittances to low-and middle-income countries jumped up 8.5 per cent to reach $466 billion. The rebound was also helped by higher oil prices and a strengthening of the Euro and the Ruble, added the report.

But dip or no dip, the Indian diaspora tops the charts when it comes to sending money home. Remittances to India picked up sharply by 9.9 per cent in 2017 to reach about $69 billion, reversing the previous year's dip. In fact, India, the world's largest remittance recipient, had led the decline with remittance inflows amounting to $62.7 billion in 2016, a decrease of 8.9 per cent over $68.9 billion in 2015. The bad news is that we are still short of the $70.4 billion received in 2014. The World Bank has previously noted that although remittances as a share of GDP was not particularly significant for India - averaging around 2 per cent - there were subnational variations in the impact of remittances. For Kerala, as it had pointed out, remittances were estimated at 36.3 per cent of the net state domestic product and contributed significantly to household consumption.

The South Asia region at large posted a moderate 5.8 per cent jump in remittances last year, amounting to $117 billion. "Robust growth in South Asia mainly reflects strengthening growth in India as the effects of temporary policy driven disruptions (demonetization and a new tax on goods and services) fade," said the report. However, flows to Pakistan and Bangladesh were both largely flat in 2017, and Sri Lanka saw a small decline of less than 1 per cent. Meanwhile, the biggest rebound in remittances last year was seen in in Europe and Central Asia region (20.9 per cent).

The other countries that ranked high in the Top 5 in receiving remittances are China ($64 billion), the Philippines ($33 billion), Mexico ($31 billion) and Nigeria ($22 billion). However, as a share of GDP for 2017, the top recipients were the smaller countries - the Kyrgyz Republic, Tonga, Tajikistan, Haiti and Nepal.

The projections for 2018 are broadly optimistic. The upsurge in remittances are expected to continue on the back of stronger economic conditions in advanced economies (particularly the US) and an increase in oil prices that should have a positive impact on the Gulf Cooperation Council nations - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman. Remittances to the South Asia region are pegged to grow by 2.5 per cent to $120 billion. Global remittances are expected to post a better growth of 4.6 per cent to $642 billion in 2018.

"While remittances are growing, countries, institutions, and development agencies must continue to chip away at high costs of remitting so that families receive more of the money," said Dilip Ratha, lead author of the Brief and head of Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD).

According to the World Bank, the global average cost of sending home $200 was 7.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2018, more than twice as high as the Sustainable Development Goal target of 3 per cent. South Asia had the lowest average remittance costs of any world region (at 5.2 percent) in the first quarter of 2018. On the other hand, sub-Saharan Africa remains the most expensive place to send money to, with an average cost of 9.4 per cent. The factors contributing to high costs include de-risking measures taken by commercial banks and exclusive partnerships between national post office systems and a single money transfer operator. The World Bank added that these factors constrain the introduction of technologies, such as mobile apps and the use of cryptocurrency and blockchain, in remittance services. "Eliminating exclusivity contracts to improve market competition and introducing more efficient technology are high-priority issues," said Ratha.

The report significantly points out that despite the rebound in remittances, there are a few long-term risks. "In many remittance-source countries, anti-immigration sentiments are on the rise. Immigration policies are becoming stricter. Also, structural constraints, such as the de-risking behavior of international correspondent banks and increased regulatory burdens on money transfer operators, continue to hinder the growth of formal remittances," it said.

With agency inputs
This summer if you are bored of your daily routine and want to indulge in something to remember forever, may we suggest this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity offered by a budget Icelandic airline? It might require some careful consideration and some time but what good thing doesn't? Keeping up with that spirit, Icelandic airline Wow Air is offering what they are aptly calling the best summer job ever.

The job is to move to the gorgeous country of Iceland for three months, and then travel the world from there to explore and document 38 of Wow Air's destinations. The applicant can apply alone or bring a friend along or two friends can take up the job together. Wow Air will also pay the two employees 3,300 euro each every month for sustenance in addition to accommodation, transportation and other tours in Iceland.

The successful candidates would eventually move to Iceland on June 1 and would continue their term till it gets over on August 15. They would also be put up by the airline in downtown Reykjavik.

Once the candidates are well settled, they would be required to travel to other countries and create a complete travel guide for Wow Air. The candidates would have to explore the food, culture, nightlife, nature destinations, and the best ways to travel and discover ways to travel on a budget of the countries they explore. They would also need to photograph their experiences, maintain a vlog and an Instagram account and any other means of maintaining a digital travel guide. The content would be hosted on Wow Air's site Travel Guide.

All the applicants need to do to apply is shoot a video travel guide of their hometown, fill up the form and submit the video. The video needs to be shorter than 2 minutes. Wow Air started accepting applications on April 23 and will continue till May 14. The winners would be judged by a panel and announced on May 18.

The candidates would eventually explore Wow Air's 38 destinations including Barcelona, New York, Los Angeles and Stockholm.
Ireland gained EU approval on Tuesday for a tax on sugary drinks after regulators said the levy would help the country tackle health and obesity issues.

The ruling could help head off any challenges to taxes in other EU countries, including Britain, France, Hungary, which have also imposed some form of tax on drinks with added sugar to cut consumption for health reasons.

Britain imposed its new sugar tax on soft drinks earlier this month, and such measures appear to be growing in popularity with policy makers in other countries.

Such measures have the backing of the World Health Organisation, which in a 2016 study said obesity more than doubled worldwide between 1980 and 2014 to more than 500 million people. It said a 20% price hike could cut consumption by the same proportion.

The European Commission, which is in charge of ensuring a level playing in the 28 country EU, said the Irish tax does not constitute state aid.

"The measure's scope and design are consistent with the health objectives pursued by Ireland, namely tackling obesity and other sugar related diseases," the EU competition enforcer said in a statement.

It said soft drinks were a particular concern compared with other sweet products because they lacked nutritional value and were especially liable to over-consumption and considered to pose a greater risk of causing obesity. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie
BDO Ireland has today launched a new consulting business in Ireland following the merger of its existing management consulting unit with the boutique Irish management consulting firm, Eaton Square.

Operating as BDO Eaton Square, the new business unit will create up to 100 new management consultant jobs and aims to deliver 30% year on year growth for the next 3 years and 20m in annual revenues.

Following the merger of Eaton Square and BDO Consulting, the combined BDO Eaton Square team will have 45 consultants, rising to 145 in three years.

The new unit will service clients globally and locally, with a senior led service and an entrepreneurial state of mind that is materially different from the standard management consulting offering. The new jobs will be located across BDO Eaton Squares four locations in Ireland - Dublin, Belfast, Limerick and Cork.

Irelands newest management consulting company is focused on helping Irish and global companies who are seeking a fresh alternative. With the promise of Consulting Disrupted, BDO Eaton Square aims to challenge the traditional consulting models by bringing an entrepreneurial and client centric approach to the industry.

Welcoming the announcement today, Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys said, "It is a great pleasure to join BDO Eaton Square at the announcement of their newly formed partnership and the creation of 100 new jobs which will be based in Dublin, Belfast, Limerick and Cork. BDO and Eaton Square have built an extremely impressive track record supporting companies in Ireland and globally in realising significant growth."

She added, "This announcement, and the resulting jobs created, is another tangible indication that Irelands professional services industry is going from strength to strength. I have no doubt BDO Eaton Square has a bright future ahead of them and I wish them well in their future endeavours."

Source: www.businessworld.ie
It was announced on Sunday that a 35 year old former Connacht Rugby star from Athlone was named Irelands Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE) for 2018 at the National Final in Dublin.

The programme, which is run by the network of Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) nationwide and supported by the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation and Enterprise Ireland, attracted over 1,400 applicants in 2018 with an investment fund of 2million. Already through the programme this year, 185 entrants have secured investments of between 3,000 and 15,000.

Conor OLoughlin and his company Glofox took home the top award at todays event after also winning his national category, Best Established Business, and securing a total investment fund of 40,000. OLoughlin, representing Local Enterprise Office Dun Laoghaire Rathdown, played 97 times for Connacht, including a Challenge Cup Final against Harlequins and appearances for Ireland A and U-21, before retiring at 28 due to a hip injury.



The former scrum half went on to set up Glofox, a gym management software system, in 2014. The business, which allows both gym members and gym owners to access usage, payment and service information, now has over 1,000 customers spread across 23 countries. OLoughlin is in the process of setting up a base out of New York in 2018 with the United States the companys main focus.

The other IBYE National Final category winners were Brendan Boland of Loci Orthopaedics representing Local Enterprise Office Galway who won Best Business Idea and Alan Hickey of WeBringg representing Local Enterprise Office Fingal who won Best Start-Up Business.



The runners-up in each of the categories were Joe Perrott of Remote Signals and Kevin Kelleher of Ostoform in the Best Business Idea category with both securing a 4,000 investment fund. In the Best Start-Up Business the runners up were Ciaran Gorman of BevCraft and Jessica Kavanagh of Olann who both secured a 5,000 investment fund. In the Best Established Business the runners up were Paddy Finn of Electricity Exchange and Robbie Skuse of Kollect.ie. They will both receive an investment fund of 5,000.



The winner of the Google Award for Best Online Promotion of a Business Award went to Matthew McCann and Access Earth. He receives 1,000 worth of Google Ad Words Credit and 13 weeks in a Google mentoring programme.

Congratulating the winners, Minister for Trade, Employment, Business, EU Digital Single Market and Data Protection, Pat Breen said, "Irelands strong entrepreneurial culture is in safe hands for the future. It is particularly encouraging to see the wide breadth of ideas and sectors covered, reflecting the Governments support for all areas of innovation and enterprise development."

He added, "Over 1,400 young entrepreneurs aged between 18 and 35 took part in Irelands Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE) competition in 2018, bringing the total number of applications to over 5,700 since the programme commenced in 2014. We now have hundreds of businesses across every county created by IBYE entrepreneurs that are thriving and contributing positively to Irelands economic development."

Source: www.businessworld.ie
After winning a costly battle with Uber, Didi is coming under pressure again from new competitors. Photo: VCG

*Several competitors have emerged to challenge Didi, including Meituan Dianping, which claims to have a third of the ride-hailing market in Shanghai

*Analysts warn that domestic competition heating up may hamper Didis drive to expand into overseas markets

After a cutthroat price war with dozens of other domestic players and a merger with Ubers China business in August 2016, Didi Chuxing Technology Co. was crowned Chinas undisputed ride-hailing leader.

But the companys monopoly  currently 90% of the market share  now looks increasingly uncertain as a slew of other competitors ramp up efforts to get into this business.

Investors and industry experts said the ride-hailing market still has low barriers to entry, where Didi has yet to work out a stable business model and those willing to burn cash can launch an attack.

But given an increasingly tightening environment, even a second price war would be widely expected to be much smaller than the first.

The No. 2 player?

A serious new Didi rival is Meituan Dianping, the countrys largest on-demand online service platform, which in March officially launched its ride-hailing service in Shanghai.

After a one-week rollout that waived its drivers commission fees, Meituan declared that it had acquired a third of the citys market share with 300,000 daily transactions on its platform.

Meituans foray into car-hailing has been praised by investors, who said the company  which has already offered online services that include food delivery, ticket-booking and restaurant-reviewing  is on its way to complete its goal of becoming a mega-platform for everything.

Many of Meituans users are very likely to hail a car before heading to a restaurant and ordering a meal according to reviews on the companys platform, said Xu Xin of Capital Today, who has invested in the Chinese ride-hailing sector.

Already, in Nanjing, where Meituan rolled out a trial project early last year, the company has handed out massive subsidies to both drivers and consumers. Meituan charged drivers in the city an 8% commission fee, compared with Didis 22%.

Joining Meituan in the ride-hailing field is a long list of old and new contenders.

Yidao Yongche, which secured new funding from Taoyun Capital in July following a cash crisis, has made a comeback since early this year and is set to expand services in more than 40 Chinese cities, where it said drivers commission fees will be as low as 5%. Meanwhile, Dida Pinche, which previously focused on car-pooling, said it will expand into the service with a push to subsidize both drivers and consumers. Similarly, state-owned Shouqi Yueche also plans to widen its core business as a high-end chauffeur platform.

Even internet companies like travel platform Ctrip.com International Ltd. are jumping on the bandwagon, with Ctrip saying it has obtained an online ride-hailing license from the transport authority in Tianjin in April. Ctrips move came after AutoNavi Holdings Ltd., an Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. mapping affiliate, debuted its carpooling business at the end of March.

Fighting back

Didi, which claims to serve 450 million people with its 21 million drivers, has responded with quid pro quo tactics in a bid to fend off contenders.

Caixin learned that Didi has quietly launched a subsidy program in seven Chinese cities, including Shanghai and Beijing, which allows selected drivers to purchase a new membership card that qualifies them to receive a higher monthly pay.

Apart from keeping those drivers who use their own cars, Didi also aims at expanding its own vehicle fleet by partnering with car-rental operators. In Month, the company said it plans to raise 10 billion yuan ($1.55 billion) through an asset-backed security project for new-vehicle procurement in order to expand the transportation capacity of Didis platform.

In addition, Didi has surprised market-watchers by entering the unfamiliar business of food delivery  a move that is directly aimed at Meituan. Early this month, Didi officially launched the takeout service in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, and plans to enter other major Chinese cities soon.

But as Didi faces growing pressure in its home market, the companys international expansion plans may become jeopardized, industry experts warned.

Already, the company has built up a global network through investments and partnerships with ride-hailing businesses that operate on five continents.

In January, Didi acquired Brazilian peer 99 in a deal believed to be worth $600 million. Previously, Didi took stakes in Singapore-based Grab, Indias Ola, Dubai-based Careem, and Estonias Taxify. In the U.S., Didi invested $100 million in Lyft, Ubers main rival in the American market.

Being too busy fending off competitors at home would mean its international business would be affected, at least in the short term, said Ding Daoshi, an industry expert and columnist.

Not the same

However, even as the talk of a price war makes the rounds in Chinas ride-hailing sector these days, market-watchers dont expect that it could be the same as it was years ago.

Since July 2016, China has begun to issue permits to car-hailing platforms, when it rolled out rules to legalize the sector, which mandated the use of locally registered cars and local drivers.

For example, even on the first day of its rollout in Shanghai, Meituan was summoned by the citys regulator, which demanded the company obey rules for ride-hailing platforms and not disturb the market with a price war.

With the government now more likely to intervene, all the new and old players, including Meituan are actually dancing with shackles on, one industry executive who declined to be named told Caixin.

Contact reporter Mo Yelin (yelinmo@caixin.com)
Didi Chuxing brings its own app-based ride-hailing service to Mexico, the first such expansion outside Asia. Photo: Didi

*Didi for the first time takes its own app-based ride-service outside Asia.

*The Mexico launch will again put Didi against Uber, which is a leading player in the country.

Chinese ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing Technology Co. rolled out services in Mexico as part of its global expansion strategy, the Beijing-based company said Monday.

Didi introduced a local version of its car-hailing service app  Didi Express  in Toluca, a city about 60 kilometers (37 miles) west of Mexico City. Didi said it hopes to launch ride-hailing services to other major cities in Mexico later this year.

The move gives Didi another foothold in Latin America, the worlds third-largest ride-hailing market behind the U.S. and China. In January, Didi took over a ride-hailing service in Brazil called 99.

Mexico is the latest step in the Chinese ride-hailing giants global expansion. With 70 million internet users, the country is a key part of the fast-growing market. Through investments and partnerships, Didi has forged links with seven major international players and extended its business network to more than 1,000 cities, according to the company.

The Mexico venture marks a significant departure from Didis strategy of relying on local partners for foreign growth, however. This is the first time that Didi is taking its own app-based ride-service outside Asia.

Didi Mexico will introduce some of Didis key product innovations to Latin America for the first time. These include a real-time SOS system, dynamic safety monitoring, multi-person itinerary sharing, 24x7 user support, and a multivariable driver rating system, the company said in a statement.

Didi became the dominant player in Chinas ride-hailing market after it beat and took over the China unit of Uber Technologies Inc. in 2016. Didi currently provides as many as 30 million rides daily to more than 450 million passengers, working with more than 21 million drivers, according to the company.

The Mexico launch will again put Didi against rival Uber, which is a leading player in the Mexico ride-hailing market. California-based Uber operates in 36 cities in Mexico with a client base of 7 million users, accounting 87% of the countrys ride-hailing market, according to the market research firm Dalia Research.

Didi started driver recruitment in Toluca in early April and has received an enthusiastic response from drivers and passengers, said the company.

Didi will not charge drivers commission fees during the first eight weeks of the service, Caixin learned from a Didi source. After that, the company will charge drivers 20%, compared with Ubers 25%, the source said.

Didis overseas foray is partly fueled by heated competition at home with emerging rivals. Several Chinese companies  including the Alibaba-backed mapping business AutoNavi, the deep-pocketed food-delivery provider Meituan-Dianping and Ctrip.com International, Chinas largest online travel service  have launched their own competing ride-hailing platforms.

Last month, Meituan said it has taken one-third of the ride-hailing market in Shanghai and Nanjing. The new threat has pushed Didi to reintroduced subsidies for drivers, a sign that the sector could be headed into a new price war.

In January, Didi acquired Brazilian peer 99 in a deal believed to be worth $600 million. Previously, Didi took stakes in Southeast Asias Grab, Indias Ola, the Middle Easts Careem and Estonias Taxify, whose key market is Eastern Europe. In the U.S., Didi invested $100 million in Lyft, Ubers main rival in the American market.

The company has also actively expanded beyond its core business into auto services and new-energy vehicle development. Last month, Didi said it formed a strategic partnership with Beijing-based automaker BAIC Group in electric vehicle operations, big-data applications, mobility services, customized vehicle design and electric vehicle charging services.

After a December fundraising, Didi is now valued at $56 billion, making it one of the most valuable tech startups in China.

Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com)
Mobile-based truck-hailing services have boomed in China, offering more efficient solutions for cargo transport. Photo: VCG

Manbang Group, operator of a market-leading mobile app that matches truck drivers with shippers, closed a funding round of $1.9 billion from a group of investors led by China Reform Fund and Japans SoftBank Group Corp.

SoftBanks Vision Fund invested $1 billion, Caixin learned from Manbang. Other investors include Google parent Alphabet Inc.s venture capital fund CapitalG, Hong Kong-based investment firm Ward Ferry, Farallon Capital Management, Baillie Gifford, and a number of the companys existing backers such as social media giant Tencent Holdings, Manbang said.

Investors valued the Uber-like truck-hailing company at $6 billion, according to Wang Gang, chief executive of Manbang. The valuation rose from $4.3 billion about a half-year ago, reflecting investors upbeat view of its leading position in the worlds busiest markets for goods transport.

Mobile-based truck-hailing services have boomed in China in recent years. They have helped to eliminate independent contractors and delays as drivers no longer need to waste hours in parking lots in search of the next dispatch. Chinas trucking industry handles 5 trillion yuan ($757 billion) of business every year and carries 75% of the nations commercial cargo.

Around 5.2 million of Chinas 7 million trunk line trucks are members of Manbang, according to the company. Its platform handles goods transport of 13.6 billion ton-kilometers every day, out of the average daily turnover of 18.3 billion ton-kilometers of road freight transport in China.

In an interview with Caixin, Wang said the company will use two-thirds of the new funds to recruit managers and professionals. The company also plans to expand its business reach from platform operation to driver services, logistics, property and financial services.

Wang said Manbang is planning to set up eight divisions covering the entire cargo transport business chain and connect truck transport with railway, shipping and aviation services. The company will also adopt new-energy vehicles and automatic driving technologies and will seek overseas expansion.

Manbang recently acquired truck operator Guangzhou Zhihong Logistics as part of the effort to build its own cargo transport capacity, Wang said.

While Manbang has no immediate plan to make an initial public offering, the company is likely to turn a profit this year, Wang said.

Manbang was formed by the merger in November of Chinas two biggest truck-hailing companies  Yunmanman and Huochebang  after years of bitter rivalry.

Jiangsu province-based Yunmanman was established in 2013 and backed by Sequoia Capital and Yunfeng Capital, a private equity firm co-founded by Alibaba Groups Jack Ma. Guizhou province-based Huochebangs investors include All-Stars Investment Ltd., Baidu Capital and Tencent Holdings.

Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com)
Modified On Apr 24, 2018 01:56 PM By Raunak

Hyundai will provide a 20-point safety check-up at its 1300 workshops across India between April 23 - 30, 2018

Hyundai Motor India has announced pan-India initiatives observing the national road safety week (April 23 - 30, 2018). Existing customers of the South Korean automaker can avail a free 20-point safety check-up at its authorised workshops across the country. Hyundai will also be promoting its #BeTheBetterGuy campaign that was announced at the 2018 Indian Auto Expo and spread awareness among people for road safety.

Check out Hyundais official press release below for more info:

Hyundai Motor India Observes Road Safety Week 2018 across Pan India Service Network

Inspire millions of customers and youth to follow safe driving practices

Over 1300 workshops across India to promote safe driving habits among various segments of people

#BeTheBetterGuy campaign to promote Road Safety

New Delhi, April 23, 2018: Hyundai Motor India Ltd. (HMIL), the countrys second largest car manufacturer and the number one car exporter since inception, today announced pan-India initiatives observing the Road Safety Week starting April 23rd- April 30th, 2018. Hyundais road safety initiatives are aimed at promoting traffic rules and safe driving practices. Hyundais activities during the Road Safety Week 2018 will provide awareness to its customers at all dealerships through 1300 workshops across India. The initiative will offer 20-point safety check up for Hyundai vehicles at all dealerships. During the weekend, sales and service camps will be organized in Resident Welfare Associations and residential societies, inviting children for drawing and slogan competition on the Traffic Safety theme. This will help children understand the importance of road safety, leading to a better tomorrow. The #BeTheBetterGuy video will be played at all dealerships and the customers visiting the dealership outlets during the Road Safety Week will be encouraged to take safety pledge to #BeTheBetterGuy and abide by key areas of road safety like- Avoid Under Age Driving, Dont Drink & Drive, Avoid Usage of Mobile Phone while driving, Over Speeding & Violation of Traffic Signal. The activities will also be promoted through SMS, Whatsapp and on Facebook to create mass awareness.

Mr. Y K Koo, Managing Director & CEO, Hyundai Motor India Ltd. said, As a Socially Responsible Corporate, Hyundai has always been committed to advocating Road safety and safe driving. We have been working in the area of road safety through our Safe Move campaign since 2015. Road safety knowledge is a key life skill and we want to educate everyone, including children from a very young age, the good road and driving behavior. We are doing multiple activities through our extensive pan India network to engage with communities to make road safety a mass movement. When everyone observes road safety, every drive becomes a brilliant drive.

Hyundai Road Safety Campaign has reached over 200,000 students, over 35,000 Mall visitors and 23,000 residents across 292 schools, 146 RWAs and 14 malls across India and also to over 35,000 visitors during the Krakerjack Karnival in New Delhi.
Our Promise: Welcome to Care2, the world's largest community for good. Here, you'll find over 45 million like-minded people working towards progress, kindness, and lasting impact.

Care2 Stands Against: bigots, racists, bullies, science deniers, misogynists, gun lobbyists, xenophobes, the willfully ignorant, animal abusers, frackers, and other mean people. If you find yourself aligning with any of those folks, you can move along, nothing to see here.

Care2 Stands With: humanitarians, animal lovers, feminists, rabble-rousers, nature-buffs, creatives, the naturally curious, and people who really love to do the right thing.

You are our people. You Care. We Care2.
Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited has released an employment notification calling out for aspirants to apply for the posts of Chief Engineer and Superintending Engineer. 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 88800. The last date to apply for the government job is May 5, 2018.

Bharat Electronics Limited Recruitment 2018 For Deputy Engineer

Maharashtra Engineers Recruitment 2018 Vacancy Details

CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Chief Engineer and Superintending Engineer Organisation Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited Educational Qualification BE or BTech in electrical engineering Age Limit 50 years Skills Required Engineering skills Salary Scale INR 45900 to INR 88800 for Chief Engineer and INR 35875 to INR 79510 for Superintending Engineer Job Location Maharashtra Industry Electricity Experience 12 to 15 years Application Start Date Apr 24, 2018 Application End Date May 5, 2018

Also Read: Railway Jobs 2018: Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation Limited Is Hiring Engineers

How To Apply For Maharashtra Engineers Recruitment 2018

In order to apply for Maharashtra Engineers Recruitment 2018, follow these steps:

Step 1: Click on the MAHADISCOM Recruitment detailed advertisement link.

Step 2: The details of the recruitment will be displayed on the screen. Read them carefully.

Step 3: Scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the application form.

Step 4: Send the application covered in an envelope to MAHADISCOM.

Maharashtra Engineers Recruitment 2018 Application Format And Mailing Address

Superscribe on the envelope the name of the post for which you are applying for and send it to the General Manager (HR-Planning), MSEDCL, Ground Floor, Estrella Batteries Expansion Compound, Dharavi Road, Matunga, Mumbai - 400019.
Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation Limited has released an employment notification calling out for aspirants to apply for the post of Project Engineer. 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 140000. The last date to apply for the government job is May 10, 2018. The project is for a period of five years and selected candidates are subjected to a bond period of two years.

Indian Railways Recruitment 2018 For 140 Act Apprentices

Railway Recruitment 2018 Vacancy Details

CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Post Project Engineer Organisation Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation Limited Educational Qualification Engineering degree in civil, electrical or electronics and communication Number Of Vacancies 34 Maximum Age Limit 30 years Skills Required Engineering skills Salary Scale INR 40000 to INR 140000 Job Location Mumbai Industry Railways Experience Not required Selection Process Based on GATE scores Application Start Date Apr 24, 2018 Application End Date May 10, 2018

Also Read: Indian Railways Recruitment 2018 For Various Railway Jobs

How To Apply For Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation Limited Recruitment 2018

In order to apply for Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation Limited Recruitment 2018, follow these steps:

Step 1: Log on to the Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation Limited official website.

Step 2: The online application form will be displayed on the screen. Enter your details in the fields provided.

Step 3: Enter your GATE scores.

Step 4: Upload your marksheets, photo and signature.

Step 5: Read the declaration statement and click on the checkbox to agree to it.

Step 6: Click Next Step and follow the subsequent pages to complete the application process.
Odisha Public Service Commission has released an employment notification calling out for aspirants to apply for the post of Psychiatric Social Worker. 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 45000. The last date to apply for the government job is May 23, 2018.

Bharat Electronics Limited Recruitment 2018 For Deputy Engineer

Odisha Public Service Commission Recruitment 2018 Vacancy Details

CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Post Psychiatric Social Worker Organisation Odisha Public Service Commission Number Of Vacancies 14

Educational Qualification MPhil in psychiatric social work from a recognised university Age Limit 21 to 32 years Application Fees INR 200 Salary Scale INR 45000 Job Location Odisha Industry Civil Services Experience Freshers can apply Application Start Date Apr 24, 2018 Application End Date May 23, 2018

Also Read: RBI Recruitment 2018 For Legal Consultants: Earn Up To INR 54.63 Lakhs

How To Apply For Odisha Public Service Commission Recruitment 2018

In order to apply for Odisha Public Service Commission Recruitment 2018, follow these steps:

Step 1: Log on to the OPSC official website.

Step 2: Click Apply Online link against Associate Professor in Psychiatric Social Work examination.

Step 3: The declarations will be displayed on the screen. Read them carefully.

Step 4: Enter the captcha code.

Step 5: Click on the button to agree and apply.

Step 6: The application form will be displayed on the screen. Enter your details in the fields provided.

Step 7: Upload your photo and signature.

Step 8: Click Submit and complete the registration process.

Click here to read the detailed official notification.
The Israeli company Kovrr launched a new predictive cyber risk modeling platform designed to help P/C insurers underwriter cyber risk more efficiently.

Kovrr analyzes millions of emerging cyber threat signals daily, collected from a wide range of proprietary intelligence sources. Its AI engine fuses structured and unstructured data sources into actionable risk insights in real time. The platform lets Kovrrs customers confidently assess, quantify and manage their cyber risk exposures while providing their clients preventative risk advices.

Kovrr equips insurers with advanced cyber risk modeling capabilities, relying on its actionable global threat intelligence stream, advanced machine learning, artificial intelligence and real-time risk modeling.

Three veterans of the Israeli intelligence corps founded the company, all with multidisciplinary experience and unique cyber-related experience.

Kovrr recently graduated successfully from Accentures Fintech Innovation Lab London program.

Kovrr is among at least two new cyber risk modeling initiatives that debuted in recent weeks and months.

In March, CyberCube Analytics debuted, a cyber risk analytics firm developed by Symantec Corp. with investment from Trident Capital Cyber Security, a $300 million venture fund focused exclusively on cybersecurity companies.

Last September, Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE paired with Silicon Valley startup Cyence (now owned by Guidewire) to boost its ability to perform global cyber risk analysis in multiple ways.

Source: Kovrr
Photo: Kelowna RCMP

UPDATE: 3:05 p.m.

RCMP are searching for a bank robber in Kelowna.



Police flooded downtown Kelowna about 12:15 p.m. after reports were received of a robbery just committed at the Scotia Bank on Bernard Avenue.



This investigation remains in its early stages, as investigators continue to gather evidence and interview witnesses, says Cpl. Jesse ODonaghey. However, police can confirm that a male suspect entered the financial institution, demanded money from a teller and fled the bank with an undisclosed amount of cash.



The suspect is described as a Caucasian male, about six feet tall, 25-30 years of age, with a scruffy face, brown hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a red and white jacket with a hood.



Anyone with information is asked to contact Const. Steve McBride at 250-762-3300 or CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-8477, www.crimestoppers.net or by texting CRIMES (274637) ktown.

UPDATE: 1:55 p.m.

Numerous downtown Kelowna Bank of Nova Scotia customers are being turned away from the bank after being told there was a daring daylight robbery.

No word on how much money was taken. The bank itself is closed and a sign on the door indicates the "we advise this branch has been involved in a robbery emergency situation. We will be closed until the completion of the police investigation."

Police in bulletproof vests could be seen in the vicinity of the bank on Bernard Avenue and Ellis Street.

ORIGINAL: 1:33 p.m.

A caller to the Castanet newsroom says he was trying to make a deposit at the Bank of Nova Scotia downtown on Bernard Avenue when he saw the building surrounded by police and a sign on the bank saying closed due to robbery.

The incident is alleged to have happened Just before 12:30 p.m. Monday afternoon.

More coming....
Photo: wikimedia commons

Administrators at Princeton Secondary School confiscated a starter pistol from a student on Monday.

SD 58 Supt. Stephen McNiven said the pistol was taken from a student that was reportedly showing it off to classmates.

It was during break time, so the student was approached by administration and the item was produced and confiscated, he said, explaining another student reported the situation.

McNiven says the RCMP has been notified and a letter has gone home to parents explaining the situation.

There wasnt a direct threat to students made by anyone, and the administration reacted. We are going to follow through with our processes so we can keep everyone safe at school, he said.

He declined to provide the age or grade of the student who brought the pistol to school. It's not clear if the school principal was aware the firearm was only a starter pistol when he approached the student.

A starter or dog training pistol is a firearm that can only fire blank rounds, but can still be dangerous at very close range. Some can be indistinguishable from a real firearm at a distance.
Photo: The Canadian Press

The NDP is hoping MPs from other parties will join them in issuing a formal invitation to Pope Francis to apologize to residential school survivors.

NDP MP Charlie Angus said an opposition day motion to be debated Thursday is meant to appeal straight to the pontiff himself.

"We are asking him to work with us, to walk with us as Canadians," Angus said Monday.

"We're not telling the Catholic bishops to do anything," he said. "We are asking the Pope, given his incredible reputation as a social justice leader, to join Canada and to close this chapter."

A papal apology delivered on Canadian soil was one of 94 recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Bishop Lionel Gendron, who is president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, issued a letter to Indigenous Peoples in Canada late last month to say that after carefully considering the request, Pope Francis felt he could not personally respond.

The conference of bishops has since clarified that an apology from the Pope would be inappropriate given the structure of the Roman Catholic Church, and that Canadian bishops would be best placed to keep engaging in reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples.

They also did not rule out an apology coming sometime in the future.

Last week, the NDP and the Liberals asked the House of Commons for unanimous consent to pass a motion that would have asked the conference of bishops to invite Pope Francis to deliver the apology.

It was opposed by Conservative MP Garnett Genuis, who said he did so because he believes in the separation of church and state.

"It is quite unprecedented that Parliament would tell the church how to undertake its reconciliation efforts here," Genuis said at the time.

Angus, however, suggested there was irony in that argument.

"I don't know why we're talking about a division of church and state when the residential schools were the creation of church and state, with the expressed intent of destroying Indigenous identity," Angus said.
Photo: BC Transit

BC Transit is getting ready to roll out its much-anticipated real-time bus location technology.

But, Kelowna transit riders will have to wait until the fall to take advantage of the new tracking system.

The system, known as NextRide, will roll out in Nanaimo next month then the Comox Valley in June.

Transit systems in Squamish and Whistler will get the system in the summer, followed by Kelowna and Kamloops in the fall.

Victoria will be the last market to gain the system late this year, or early in 2019.

NextRide uses technology which will allow transit users to track the location of their bus in real time.

Riders will be able to plan their trip from an internet-connected mobile device or desktop computer.

Customers already on-board a bus will be able to use their mobile device to see, and hear, upcoming stop information.

These service upgrades will be hugely helpful for people who already ride the bus, and a great incentive for more people to start, said Claire Trevena, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure.

We are committed to making BC Transit service more convenient and accessible, and I expect transit users will be thrilled with these improvements.

Customers will also receive alerts in case of detours, accidents, or other events that could delay regular service.
Photo: RCMP It has been almost 10 months since 13-year-old Melissa Shen was murdered.

It has been has been almost 10 months since the body of 13-year-old Marrisa Shen was found in a Lower Mainland Park and police are still looking for her killer.

On July 18, 2017, Shen was reported missing by her family and was later found dead in Burnabys Central Park.

Her death was deemed a homicide and a random act.

IHIT (Integrated Homicide Investigation Team) investigators consulted with the RCMP Behavioural Sciences Group to develop a criminal profile of the person believed to be responsible for Miss Shens murder, said Cpl. Frank Jang.

Jan said criminal profilers believe the unknown offender may have lived near Central Park on July 18, 2017 and may have demonstrated any of the following behaviours after Miss Shens death:

Unexpectedly moved (permanently or temporarily);

Uncharacteristically avoided the Central Park area;

Withdrew from social or family activities;

Missed work or scheduled appointments;

Showed suicidal gestures or attempts;

Showed interest or special attention to the media coverage related to Marrisa Shen`s death; and/or

Increased or decreased his or her drug and/or alcohol use.

IHIT continues to work closely with its partners including the Burnaby RCMP. There continues to be a high-degree of public interest in the homicide of Miss Shen, said Jang. I strongly urge anyone with information or anyone who may recognize these characteristics and behaviours in someone they know, to please come forward and speak with IHIT.



Anyone with information is asked to contact the IHIT Information Line at 1-877-551-IHIT (4448), or by email at [email protected]

To remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers by phone at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
Photo: BC Legislature

The former head of multiple community organizations has been sworn in as British Columbia's newest lieutenant governor.

Janet Austin officially took on the role of the Queen's representative in B.C. on Tuesday with a ceremony in Victoria.

Following the event, the new lieutenant governor inspected a 100-person guard of honour and received a 15-gun salute.

Austin previously worked as the CEO of the Metro Vancouver YMCA, the executive director of Big Sisters of B.C. Lower Mainland, and for B.C. Housing.

Premier John Horgan says she brings an "extraordinary list of accomplishments and tireless advocacy" to the appointment.

Austin is the province's 30th lieutenant governor and follows Judith Guichon, who held the post for six years.

Guichon praised her successor when the appointment was announced earlier this year.

"As someone who has dedicated her career to championing women's equality and social change, she is a wonderful choice to represent Her Majesty the Queen in this great province,'' Guichon said in a news release. "Ms. Austin will continue to inspire and connect British Columbians in this role.''
CIROM: Romanian cement market growth muted at 2%

ICR Newsroom By 24 April 2018

Romanias cement association, CIROM, expects the countrys cement market to show only modest growth in 2018.



"We are not very optimistic about the cement market in 2018. We estimate an increase of about two per cent, because the non-residential works are few and the infrastructure, if some of the work is done is good," says Mihai Rohan, president of CIROM.



In 2017 Romanias cement demand expanded by 6.6 per cent to 8.4Mt. The country has seven cement plants, operated by Holcim, HeidelbergCement and CRH Romania. Local output is supplemented by imports, mainly from Turkey and Ukraine.





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What can medical marijuana do for you? That mostly depends on the health condition you hope to treat. Already, several million Americans already qualify as medical cannabis patients as of 2018.

According to Americans for Safe Access, a nonprofit that aims to improve medical cannabis policy, over 50 conditions may be treated with marijuana. Meanwhile, in states where its legal to use the drug, a 25% drop in opiate-related deaths has been reported.

However, since federal law has stalled on the issue, it definitely matters where you live. Thats where the grades Americans for Safe Access assigned states will help. Places with reasonable pricing, easy patient access, and solid consumer protections in 2018 scored a B or better; those that make it difficult or forbid cannabis use (mostly in the South) scored an F.

Here are the 15 states with the best medical marijuana policy in America.

15. Colorado

Grade: B

You might know of Colorado as one of the friendliest states for recreational marijuana use, but it didnt crack the top 10 for medicinal purposes. Americans for Safe Access found the states weak spot to be general protections for driving as well as housing and parental rights.

Still, Colorado scored high marks for patient access. Theres not a lot of red tape if you need medical marijuana treatment.

Next: The only bright spot in the deep South

14. Arkansas

Grade: B

Whether you live in South Carolina (F), Alabama (F), or anywhere else in the South, you wont have much access to medicinal marijuana. The lone exception is Arkansas, which allows patients experiencing chronic pain to legally access cannabis.

Overall, Arkansass strength is in civil protections. Patients approved to use marijuana here dont have to worry about being arrested for treating pain with the drug.

Next: The nations capital has a strong medical marijuana policy.

13. Washington, D.C.

Grade: B

In a place known for legislative gridlock, the D.C. City Council has done well for patients looking to access medical marijuana. Americans for Safe Access applauded the Districts list of qualifying conditions and reasonable requirements for doctors with respect to the drug.

Though D.C. is still an awkward place for recreational weed, its doing much better in the health care department.

Next: Just outside of D.C., this small state made huge leaps forward in late 2017.

12. Maryland

Grade: B

While it took several years to implement marijuana laws, Maryland finally got it done in December 2017. Since that date, 21 dispensaries have provided patients hoping to treat conditions with a number of options.

As far as areas for improvement go, Maryland could do better at protecting patients parental rights and employment situation.

Next: After cutting through some red tape, Massachusetts is on the right track with medical marijuana.

11. Massachusetts

Grade: B

Though it may surprise people, a campaign opposing legal marijuana has come out of New England, and several prominent Democrats have joined the fight. That might explain the slow roll-out of medical marijuana access in the state.

However, Massachusetts has come on strong for patients. As of 2018, people looking for treatment can access cannabis through nurse practitioners. Meanwhile, employees treating the elderly in nursing homes and hospices may also administer the drug.

Next: In New Mexico, evidence of marijuanas impact on opioid abuse could spur even more progress.

10. New Mexico

Grade: B

Western states do far more for residents than places in the South, and New Mexico is a good example. Here, patients can access medical marijuana for a variety of conditions and do so at reasonable prices.

Likewise, you can receive delivery of cannabis products and medicate in a number of places. Overall, that made Nex Mexico a top 10 state with a score of 85 out of 100.

Next: Up in Maine, patient protections and access outweigh the negatives.

9. Maine

Grade: B

Patients suffering from a variety of conditions can access medical marijuana in Maine. Overall, the states doing best when it comes to protecting patients and making it easy to access cannabis.

Like many other states, Maine has not yet figured out how to handle DUI policy with respect to marijuana. But that should change when data becomes available.

Next: In New Hampshire, experts hope a 2017 change in marijuana policy can help combat the opioid epidemic.

8. New Hampshire

Grade: B

To help ease access, New Hampshire now allows a support person to go get medical marijuana for a patient from a dispensary. This 2017 upgrade encouraged Americans for Safe Access.

Another improvement came when the state added PTSD to the list of qualifying conditions. In a state with the second-highest rate of opioid overdoses, this should help.

Next: This is the first of seven states with a B+ grade.

7. Nevada

Grade: B+

While Nevada has legal recreational weed, the state scored high for keeping its medical program separate. A high number of qualifying conditions and minimal red tape boosted the states grade.

Meanwhile, patient protections are strong here.

Next: Overall, Ohio scored high marks for access to medical marijuana and consumer protections.

6. Ohio

Grade: B+

In a state where opioid deaths have soared, Americans for Safe Access would like to see better policies to combat the epidemic. Nonetheless, Ohio received excellent scores for consumer protections and general access.

Distribution and supply concerns are minimal here as well.

Next: Illinois cannabis law is functional and easy to navigate.

5. Illinois

Grade: B+

In terms of consumer safety and legal protections, few states outdo Illinois for medical marijuana policy. The same goes for supply, distribution, and overall user-friendliness.

Still, Illinois has a weak spot in not allowing chronic pain as a qualifying condition. Overall, the state scored 88 out of 100 and made the top five, so theres plenty to like here.

Next: Michigan is best in the Midwest.

4. Michigan

Grade: B+

While Illinois is strong, Michigan performed even better in the 2018 study. Overall, the state is doing an excellent job in moving medical cannabis laws through the legislature and making access easier for patients.

Areas for improvement include better opioid epidemic policy and adding protections for patients who use the drug for treatment.

Next: Major progress in 2017 and a generally strong program landed Hawaii in third place for 2018.

3. Hawaii

Grade: B+

In Hawaii, medical marijuana patients dont face a great deal of red tape. State laws allow quick access at dispensaries and multiple ways to consume the drug while keeping costs reasonable.

Chronic pain should certainly be on the list of qualifying conditions here, but Hawaii will get there.

Next: Major improvements in 2017 made Oregons strong program even better.

2. Oregon

Grade: B+

In Oregon, people suffering from a high number of conditions qualify for access to medical marijuana. Meanwhile, strong patient protections and easy access ensured its place near the top of this list.

To make things even better, Oregonians can grow up to four marijuana plants on their property and purchase the drug without a doctor recommendation due to recreational use laws. For those suffering from chronic pain, it would seem to be the loophole you need.

Next: It doesnt get better than Californias medical marijuana policy in 2018.

1. California

Grade: B+

Out of all 50 states and D.C., no place topped 90%, but California came closest with a score of 89.55 and grade of B+. Its hard to do better than the state has done with respect to patient access and treatment options.

Like everywhere else, California has room to improve, but for now Americans for Safe Access call it the best in America for medical marijuana. If theres a condition residents hope to treat, legal cannabis options abound.

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The American Lung Association estimates 234,000 Americans will be diagnosed with lung cancer in 2018. Meanwhile, one in four of all cancer deaths will be attributed to this form of the disease. That makes lung cancer the deadliest type of cancer in the U.S.

Yet not everyone faces the same level of risk: Statistics show a huge swing in diagnoses from state to state. For example, youll find 29 new cases of lung cancer for every 100,000 people in Utah  the lowest rate in the country.

Meanwhile, in the state with the most diagnoses, statistics show more than three times that amount (97 cases) per 100,000 people. Everything from the amount of toxins in the air to cigarette smoking contributes to these numbers, and both come in abundance in the No. 1 place. Here are the 15 states with the most lung cancer diagnoses every year.

15. Rhode Island

While the rate of diagnosis is high, Rhode Islanders have a higher rate of survival.

With 70 cases per 100,000 people, the Rhode Island populations rate of new lung cancer diagnoses is more than 10% higher than the average. American Lung Association shows state officials are doing a good job here with strong tobacco control policies.

Meanwhile, Rhode Island ranked fifth in America with a 22.4% five-year survival rate for patients.

Next: In the heart of Tobacco Country, this state is failing on reducing smoking in the population.

14. North Carolina

Its no surprise finding the home of Tobacco Road on this list.

In a state where the most prestigious university (Duke) was built on tobacco money, its no surprise finding North Carolina on the list. The Tar Heel State had 71 new diagnoses of lung cancer per 100,000 people.

By American Lung Association standards, the states tobacco control policy received an F grade for 2018. Five-year survival rates are about average.

Next: A high smoking rate and low number of screening centers likely landed Ohio in 12th place.

13. Ohio

In Ohio, the smoking rate is 30% above the national average.

Youll find a higher-than-average smoking rate (21.6%) and low number of cancer screening centers in Ohio. Both factors likely contributed to the states place on this list.

Overall, Ohio gets 71.1 new lung cancer diagnoses per 100,000 people.

Next: High smoking rates helped put Oklahoma on this list, too.

12. Oklahoma

Over 22% of Oklahoma adults are smokers.

Much like the statistics showed in Ohio, a high rate of smokers and a very low number of cancer-screening centers ensured Oklahomas place on this list. At 71.6 diagnoses per 100,000 people, the state is among the worst in America.

Since Oklahoma does not track this metric, five-year survival rates for lung cancer patients were unavailable.

Next: Youll find one of the lowest five-year survival rates for lung cancer patients here.

11. Alabama

Only one state had a lower survival rate than Alabama.

At 71.7 new diagnoses per 100,000 people, Alabamas lung cancer rate nearly made the 10 worst. As far as five-year survival rates go, Alabama had the second-worst percentage (16.3%) among states where data was available.

Like many other places on this list, Alabamas higher-than-average smoking rate contributed to the numbers.

Next: This Mid-Atlantic state stands out on the list.

10. Delaware

In Delaware, normal smoking rates and abundant screening centers did not help.

No place in America has more lung cancer screening centers per person (21.1) than Delaware. Meanwhile, the state had a normal smoking rate and generally low radon levels.

Nonetheless, it ended up at No. 10 with 71.8 diagnoses per 100,000 people.

Next: This state has the lowest five-year survival rate for lung cancer patients.

9. Louisiana

Fewer than 16% of Louisiana lung cancer patients lived five years beyond diagnosis.

In terms of five-year survival rate, Louisiana is the worst state among the 31 where data was available. Just 15.9% of those diagnosed here survived beyond that span.

Overall, Louisiana was eighth with 71.8 lung cancer diagnoses per 100,000 people.

Next: Poor air quality had on impact on the numbers in Indiana.

8. Indiana

Higher-than-average smoking rates and poor air quality lead to more lung cancer diagnoses here.

If you check the annual reports on air quality, youll find several Indianapolis cities on the list. In 2018, both the Indianapolis and South Bend metro areas turned up among the most polluted places in America.

Those stats, along with a high smoking rate, help account for the 74.5 new lung cancer diagnoses per 100,000 people in the state.

Next: No numbers jump out at you in Maine, other than diagnosis rates.

7. Maine

Above-average smoking rates likely account for Maines place on the list.

At 75 new lung cancer diagnoses per 100,000 people, Maine ranks seventh among the worst for this form of the disease. Outside of the higher-than-average smoking rate, no numbers stick out in the American Lung Association data on the state.

Five-year survival rates and the number of screening centers are around the average in Maine.

Next: This state has more than 20% the average rate of lung cancer diagnoses.

6. Missouri

In Missouri, you find 76.2 diagnoses per 100,000 people, far higher than the national average.

With 20% more new lung cancer cases than the average, Missouri qualifies as a high-risk environment. Above-average smoking rates and high radon levels in buildings contribute to these numbers.

In terms of screening centers, Missouri ranked around the national average.

Next: Only a few states have more smokers than Mississippi.

5. Mississippi

The high smoking rate does the most damage.

With smoking the leading cause of lung cancer in America, its no mystery why states with the highest rates of tobacco use also have the most lung cancer patients per capita. In Mississippis case, the number every year hits 76.8 cases per 100,000 people.

The states five-year survival rate (16.8%) also ranked among Americas worst.

Next: Poor air quality and a lot of smoking put Tennessee in the top four.

4. Tennessee

Smoking rates in Tennessee were 30% above the national average.

You find many more smokers than the national average in Tennessee. Combined with the dangerous air quality in Memphis and other cities, that adds up to a higher likelihood for a lung cancer diagnosis.

For every 100,000 people, Tennessee has 77.2 new lung cancer cases every year.

Next: Smoking rates in Arkansas are about 50% higher than the national average.

3. Arkansas

You can blame smoking for most new lung cancer cases in Arkansas.

Only two U.S. state had higher smoking rates than youll find in Arkansas (24.9%). That alone would explain the high rate of new lung cancer diagnoses (77.5 per 100,000 people).

However, air quality in Arkansas is also poor, which likely contributed to these numbers.

Next: Coal Country claims the two highest rates of new lung cancer diagnoses.

2. West Virginia

The 25.7% smoking rate proves lethal in Coal Country, but poor air quality also was a factor.

More than one in four adult West Virginians smokes. Meanwhile, the remaining coal jobs and high levels of toxins in the air spell exposure to poor air quality for state residents.

It all adds up to 81.6 new cases of lung cancer per 100,000 people, about 30% above the national average.

Next: The numbers in Kentucky are way beyond anywhere else in America.

1. Kentucky

Combine Americas highest smoking rate and toxic air quality and you get Kentucky lung cancer rates.

With 96.8 new lung cancer diagnoses per 100,000 people, the annual numbers in Kentucky go way above and beyond what exists anywhere else in America. Louisville, the states most populous city, has some of the worst air quality in the country.

Meanwhile, the 26% smoking rate and prevalence of back lung among coal workers adds up to a public health crisis. Compared to Utah, where new lung cancer rates are lowest, Kentucky has more than three times the number of diagnoses every year.

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Many critics call President Donald Trump a big risk for both domestic and foreign interests, but how does he stack up against his predecessors? At least one former president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, saw risks as positive. He called risk, Bold, persistent experimentation and did a lot of it. Lets compare our former presidents riskiest moves, including Trump (page 10).

1. Barack Obama taking out Osama bin Laden

Obama took a lot of foreign policy risks during his two terms. His biggest may have come when he authorized a Navy SEAL raid to capture or kill Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. The president authorized the move against the advice of Vice President Joe Biden and then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. If that operation went wrong, it could have torpedoed his presidency.

Next: This war also came as a calculated gamble.

2. George W. Bush and the war in Iraq

The Sept. 11 attacks transformed Bush from a peace president to a wartime leader who made it his top priority to defend America against insurgent terrorism. He is not afraid of risk and he is confident obviously in what he believes, and it has kind of shaped his political career, said White House communications director Dan Bartlett.

Invading Iraq and Afghanistan kicked off a war that the country still fights to this day. It also later revealed some questionable motives. In retrospect, it fell right in line with the presidents risky reputation.

Next: This president entered a war without Congressional approval.

3. Harry S. Truman and Korea

Trumans response to the Soviet threat included the decision to engage in a conflict with Korea without a Congressional declaration of war. Truman described the deployment as police action taken in conjunction with the United Nations, sidestepping Congress. But that risk had its blowback  after the Korean War reached a stalemate, his approval ratings plummeted.

Next: This presidents response to Soviet aggression could have really backfired.

4. John F. Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs

Even though JFK did not have full confidence he could bring down Fidel Castros regime, he invaded Cuba at the Bay of Pigs in 1961. He feared that Castro represented an advance wave of a Communist assault on democracy. He also thought that if he did not invade, it would make him look politically weak.

Subsequently, Kennedy also initiated a marine quarantine of Cuba. U.S. ships would intercept vessels suspected of delivering weapons. That created a tense atmosphere and fear of nuclear retaliation. After 13 days, the Soviets agreed to remove their missiles from Cuba. In exchange, the U.S. agreed to respect the sovereign island. That risk could have literally blown up in JFKs face.

Next: The following president also committed to war without backing.

5. Lyndon Johnsons Vietnam decision

Johnson initiated a bombing campaign against North Vietnam in March 1965 and then committed 100,000 U.S. troops. All of that without ever consulting Congress or even taking the temperature of the country. In addition, when he sent an additional 120,000 troops, he did so monthly, to make it seem less extreme.

Subsequently, the war turned into a long-term battle that cost thousands of U.S. lives. It also permanently damaged the countrys confidence in Johnson as a leader. Some risks, it turns out, could have used more forethought.

Next: This presidents risk also led to his losing the office.

6. Richard Nixon and Watergate

Although Nixon made other impacts during his time in office, the Watergate scandal destroyed his presidency. But that actually does not even register as his biggest risk. During his 1968 presidential campaign, he secretly advised South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu to resist peace overtures until after the U.S. election. He hoped to get a better deal, once elected.

Those negotiations violated the Logan Act, which forbids private citizens from interfering in official affairs. Nixons actions also showed he believed that a president could conduct foreign affairs without Congressional, media, or public knowledge.

Next: This legendarily stoic president took an unconventional approach, as well.

7. Abraham Lincoln and his team of adversaries

Lincoln famously appointed a team of rivals, to work with him because he valued differing opinions. As Donald Phillips points out in Lincoln on Leadership, the presidents constant and regular attention to hearing them eventually worked in his benefit.

Phillips describes how Lincoln also practiced the technique of management by walking around. He dropped in on Cabinet officials without warning, visited the troops and his generals, and talked with his citizens. That calculated risk left him open to direct and damaging criticism, but it also made him more approachable. In 1861, he spent more time out of the White House than in it. His personal secretaries reported that he spent 75% of his time meeting with people.

Next: The following president went against his word, and changed the world.

8. Woodrow Wilson and entering World War I

Despite running for re-election on his promise not to go to war, Wilson did just that during WWI. That risk basically launched a new chapter in U.S. foreign policy. The resulting League of Nations ended up having no real power, and it did not stop World War II.

However, it did show that European affairs can have a strong effect on the U.S. It also introduced the idea that world powers all influence each other. That led to the creation of the United Nations. We could say Wilsons risk, while it had its downsides, eventually paid off.

Next: This legendary risk-taker also revolutionized the presidency.

9. Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal

Roosevelt not only ran for president during the Great Depression, but instituted the New Deal to fix the economy. His first action as president involved closing all banks, after Black Tuesday. When banks lost peoples money, he shut them down to keep it safe. During his first 100 days, he also proposed the New Deal, and many of its programs still exist today.

He also served as commander-in-chief when the surprise Pearl Harbor Attack took place. During the ensuing World War II, Roosevelt asked congress to enact laws that allowed the U.S. to sell military equipment. He additionally directed the making of atomic bombs. For all of these reasons, he may rank as our riskiest president ever.

Next: So how does Donald Trump compare?

10. Trump takes many risks  and not all of them are calculated

The 45th president seems poised to give all of these a run for their money, with a bombastic style and unpredictable policy. His meeting with North Koreas Kim Jong Un has many world leaders nervous, as does his consistent baiting. He seems to act without thinking and uses Twitter to speak his mind without reserve.

Trump also alienates other world leaders with his lack of propriety and disregard for convention. All of these add up to an unpredictable leader who takes risks just for the heck of it. But does that make him the riskiest of all? For that, only time will tell.

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'Revenge Porn' Law Violates Freedom of Speech, Texas Appeals Court Rules 23 April, 2018 by Leonardo Blair , |

Texas' 12th Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that a 2015 state law that criminalized the practice of posting intimate photos and videos from a previous or current relationship, popularly known "revenge porn," is unconstitutional.

The court said the Relationship Privacy Act which made revenge porn a misdemeanor punishable with up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine, violated the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment by restricting expression based on the content of photographs and video shared online. The court also said the law was vague and infringed on the rights of third parties who might unknowingly share intimate images that were intended to be private.

"We have concluded that Section 21.16(b) is an invalid content-based restriction and overbroad in the sense that it violates rights of too many third parties by restricting more speech than the Constitution permits," Chief Justice James T. Worthen wrote in a summation of the ruling. "Accordingly, we hold that Texas Penal Code, Section 21.16(b), to the extent it proscribes the disclosure of visual material, is unconstitutional on its face in violation of the Free Speech clause of the First Amendment."

The ruling resulted from an appeal lodged with the court by Jordan Bartlett Jones who was charged with unlawful disclosure of intimate visual material in violation of Texas' revenge porn statute.

Texas' revenge porn law was partly inspired by the 2012 experience of Hollie Toups of Nederland, Texas, who learned through a friend that 10-year-old naked photos had been made available online, according to Austin American-Statesman.

"When I opened the website, I was completely horrified. There were hundreds of pictures of women, and one of the first ones that I saw was actually a photo of myself," Toups said of her discovery.

She said when she contacted the website to complain, she was told it would cost $500 to remove the images of her. When she refused to pay, the website added a map showing her home address causing her to fear for her safety, she explained.

"I feared for my family. I was being harassed online. These were perverts and scary people, and they were approaching me (in public), they were sending me emails. So I was very fearful," Toups said of the ordeal.

She was later shocked to discover that posting the intimate photos against her wishes was not a crime at the time

Stacey Soule, head of the Office of State Prosecuting Attorney is expected to take the lead in responding to the ruling by asking the appeals court to reconsider its decision, Austin American-Statesman reported. If that effort is unsuccessful the agency plans to ask the Court of Criminal Appeals to invalidate the ruling.

Before it was struck down, prosecutors had argued that the government had an interest in protecting people who have a reasonable expectation that their intimate photos and videos would remain private, Austin American-Statesman noted.

Read more about revenge porn on The Christian Post.
Rohingya Crisis: Babies Chopped in Half, Mothers and Daughters Gang Raped 23 April, 2018 by Samuel Smith/CP , |

Buddhist, Christian, Jewish and Muslim clergy recently traveled to Bangladesh and spoke with dozens of the Rohingya Muslim refugees who were among the estimated 700,000 who fled genocidal violence committed by the Myanmar government last year and are now sharing the horrors that innocent families have faced.

Sixteen members of the recently founded Faith Coalition to End Genocide in Burma (also known as Myanmar) took part in the multi-day trip to learn more about the dire situation and spread awareness within their spheres of influence in the United States.

The United Nations estimates that over 670,000 Rohingya refugees have fled to Bangladesh from the Rakhine state since August 2017, when Burmese military forces attacked and destroyed their jungle villages, killed thousands of men and babies and systematically gang-raped the women.

Muslim imam Malik Mujahid, one of the coalition's organizers, told The Christian Post on Thursday that there are still as many as 500 to 600 Rohingya refugees per week who are making their way to Bangladeshi refugee camps in the border town of Cox's Bazar.

Although the refugees are living in small huts held up by thin strips of bamboo, have to bathe in water pumps, and have a lack of access to jobs, money, education and medicine, they, at the very least, feel safe in their new temporary living situations.

"I asked people multiple times why they came," Mujahid said, adding that he and the coalition members spoke with over 60 refugees at five different camps.

"They said, 'Well, they shot us.' In some cases, the village chair told them to leave or they heard that neighboring villages are being attacked. Women say that their neighbors were raped, so they left."

As the government in the majority-Buddhist nation has worked for years to strip the citizenship and rights away from the indigenous Rohingya community, trip attendee Nicolee Ambrose told CP that the military onslaught against the Rohingya community that began last August was simply "the final stage" of a mission to eradicate the minority from their ancestral homelands.

"The Burmese military clearly viewed that there would not be repercussions if they did this and they did it," Ambrose said.

What the government troops did, Ambrose said, was systematically surround Rohingya villages in their ancestral homeland and attack.

Ambrose said that many of the stories she heard were similar. In most situations, the military would go into the village, kill all the men, separate the women and brutalize them.

On separate occasions she was told of how the Rohingya women would be split up into groups of five or six and gang-raped by as many as 10 different men.

According to Ambrose, the U.N.'s figures show that about 52 percent of the women who survived also reported having been raped.

Ambrose, a Christian who serves as the Republican National Committeewoman for Maryland, recently wrote about her experiences in Bangladesh.

She told the story of one refugee child named Moriom, whom she said was dressed in a Princess Aurora-like pink dress when she met her. Despite the child's innocence, Ambrose would later learn that the 13 year old had been gang-raped along with her mother by 10 men.

Read more about the Rohingya crisis on The Christian Post.
Sex 'Assigned at Birth,' One of Nation's Largest School Systems Plans to Teach Middle Schoolers CP Reporter | 24 April, 2018 by Brandon Showalter

The idea that biological sex is "assigned" at birth is being enshrined in the official curriculum of one of the nation's largest public school districts. Medical doctors and feminists maintain this is a case of an ideology endangering women and girls and an affront to science.

In Fairfax County, Virginia, which neighbors Washington, D.C., and is home to more than 1 million people, ongoing controversy has surrounded the public school board's push to advance a family life education curriculum that includes 80 hours of sex ed for every public school child.

Last month, "biological sex" had been declared "essentially meaningless" by Dan Press, one of the most liberal members of the 26-member board, and the phrase was removed from the lessons. Students will now be told that sex is "assigned at birth." The entire medical establishment was behind this idea of doctor-assigned sex, he said at the time.

In opposition, Laura Murphy, who serves on the Family Life Education Curriculum Advisory Committee, presented a three-minute response to the notion that sex is assigned and not determined by genetics, at the last meeting on April 12, as reported by The Stream. She cited numerous sources to make the case that "biological sex" should be placed back in the curriculum.

"We discussed this last time. Let's move on," Press reportedly said of Murphy's objections. The committee did indeed move on, voting 24-2 to proceed.

The proposed revisions to the sex ed lessons also currently suggest that if a student has "concerns" with sexual orientation and gender identity, he or she should speak with a trusted adult, removing "clergy" from the list of trusted adults.

In a Sunday letter to the editor in the Fairfax County Times, Robert Rigby Jr., president of FCPS Pride, insisted that they were not attempting to eliminate biology, echoing Press, and deferred to medical "experts" on the semantics of sexuality.

"[T]he term we used to use, 'biological sex,' is broader and less well defined that what we used to think" and that "we are learning through scientific studies that there are genetic, hormonal and developmental (that is, biological) components of gender identity," he wrote, listing the support of 19 medical and professional associations.

"When a child is born, the attendant (doctor or midwife) looks at the child's visible anatomy, makes a determination (assigns) and puts that on the birth certificate. This is the gender with which the child grows up in their early years."

He continued saying that he expects a "brief learning curve" in teaching that sex is assigned at birth, arguing that it should be taught starting in 7th grade and children will soon understand it and he hopes no one feels "erased" by it.

Medical doctors who spoke with The Christian Post Monday noted that this is a case of ideology overtaking science.

"Sex is established at fertilization. It always has been and always will be. Every physician in every medical organization knows this, and yet, it seems virtually every 'mainstream' medical organization now denies it  backing the verbiage 'sex assigned at birth,'" commented Michelle Cretella, president of the American College of Pediatricians.

"How can so many large medical organizations turn their backs on science? Maybe science really has changed? Rest assured, 'sex assigned at birth' is still political agenda trumping science.'"

She went on to explain that one of the reasons this occurs is because official positions of these medical guilds are determined by a tiny fraction of their membership, a fraction largely self-selected into various specialty committees.

"For example, the [American Academy of Pediatrics] policies on LGBT issues are determined by a maximum of 30 pediatricians. None of AAP's other 66,000 members have any input whatsoever," she said.

Dr. Joseph Zanga, founder of ACP, said in an email to CP Monday that although the idea that sex is assigned a birth is "insane" it is in line with the public approach of many professional organizations.

"The majority of them exist and are financially supported by commercial interests who in turn, as do the organizations themselves, fear the most vociferous groups," Zanga said.

"Some of their members also are paid to prescribe hormones, do sex change surgery, etc. I've watched this play out for decades in the American Academy of Pediatrics," he explained.

Read more about biological sex on The Christian Post.
Top 8 Countries With Most Horrific Human Rights Records, Abuse, Rape Listed by US State Dept. Christian Post Contributor | 23 April, 2018 by Stoyan Zaimov

The U.S. State Department has released its 2017 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices document, shedding light on various governments around the world, and eight in particular, which it says are committing horrific human rights abuse against their own people.

John J. Sullivan, the acting Secretary of State, introduced the report on Friday in Washington D.C., explaining that it will help America formulate policies to combat global crises.

"This year, we have sharpened the focus of the report to be more responsive to statutory reporting requirements and more focused on government action or inaction with regard to the promotion and protection of human rights," Sullivan began.

"For example, each executive summary includes a paragraph to note the most egregious abuses that occurred in a particular country, including those against women, LGBT persons, persons with disabilities, indigenous persons, and members of religious minorities."

Although the extensive report analyzes abuses from every country and region in the world, Sullivan said that he wanted to focus on eight in particular that have been engaged in some of the worst atrocities.

Syria

Sullivan began his list with Syria, which has been devastated by an ongoing civil war that started in 2011. The U.S. and other Western allies have accused the government of President Bashar al-Assad of using chemical weapons on his own people while fighting rebel groups, which have killed thousands of men, women and children.

"The entire world is aware of the horrendous human rights abuses in Syria, including barrel bombing of civilians, attacks on hospitals, widespread reports of rape and abuse by Syrian government personnel," the acting Secretary of State said.

Myanmar (Burma)

Next, he focused on the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslims in Burma.

"More than 670,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh in recent months. Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been internally displaced. Those responsible for the violations, abuses, and attacks must be held accountable," he pointed out.

North Korea

Third, he turned his attention to North Korea, which he called "one of the most repressive and abusive regimes in the world."

"As the report makes clear, the Kim regime systematically neglects the well-being of its people to underwrite and fund its illicit weapons programs via forced labor, child labor, and the export of North Korean workers," he said.

North Korea has also been listed by persecution watchdog groups such as Open Doors USA as the worst place in the world for Christians, where simply owning a Bible can get one sent to a forced labor camp, or even executed.

Read more about human rights on The Christian Post.
All Americans should be alarmed, and I mean increasingly so, about the California Assemblys increasing disregard for the First Amendment.

After all, its the California Assembly that attempted to require pro-life pregnancy centers to advertise the states free or low-cost abortion services, the subject of a recent Supreme Court oral argument.

Even liberal Justice Sotomayor called that law burdensome and wrong.

But now, the California Assembly has voted to add what it calls conversion therapy to the list of deceptive business practices prohibited by state law. California already banned conversion therapy, at least for minors, in 2012. This new bill, AB 2943, not only extends that ban to adults, it also makes the sale of all goods and services involving sexual orientation change efforts an unlawful business practice.

Thus, according to this bill, you can talk to a psychotherapist about your same-sex attraction as long as the goal is acceptance, support, and understanding and avoiding unlawful conduct or unsafe sexual practices.

But if the goal is to somehow to alter or even rein in those attractions or associated behaviors, its against the law.

Now by itself, this level of state interference with patient-doctor relationships raises significant constitutional issues. Its forgotten that an important part of the rationale behind Roe v. Wade was that the right to privacy included doctors and patients being able to decide on a course of treatment without undue government interference.

But what makes matters worse is that AB 2943 is so broadly and vaguely worded. Its hard to predict where this thing will reach. Words like goods, acceptance, support and understanding are the legal equivalent of minefields waiting to blow up.

For example, if a psychotherapist doesnt try to change a persons sexual orientation or gender identity but is, in the patients eyes, insufficiently accepting, supportive, and understanding, has he run afoul of AB 2943?

And what constitutes a good? Does an academic field of study count as a good or service? The implications for Christian colleges and universities are dire. Will a Summit Ministries conference, which teaches students they dont need to act on same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria, be illegal in California?

What about books, particularly those that endorse historic Christian teaching on sexuality and marriage, like my book with Sean McDowell? Would it be banned under this law?

Its absurd that under AB 2943, a California bookstore could sell Mein Kampf without legal repercussion, but not a book on changing, or even curbing the acting upon, sexual orientation. Nor is it clear which books would run afoul of AB 2943. Theres no spelled-out difference between a how to manual for conversion therapy and a legal and cultural analysis of the issues, like, for example, When Harry Became Sally by Ryan Anderson.

The bottom line is that AB 2943 is a textbook example of viewpoint discrimination.

David French of National Review is right when he calls the bill extraordinarily radical. It should alarm us all that the obvious constitutional problems werent obvious to the sponsors and supporting legislators.

The California Senate will now take up the bill. If you live in California, you need to let your senator know that stifling free speech under the guise of consumer protection is beyond unacceptable. If you dont live in California but have friends and relatives who do, send them this commentary and urge them to contact their state senator.

And for all of us: We need to pray that they will find wisdom and courage to do the right thing.

BreakPoint is a Christian worldview ministry that seeks to build and resource a movement of Christians committed to living and defending Christian worldview in all areas of life. Begun by Chuck Colson in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on todays news and trends via radio, interactive media, and print. Today BreakPoint commentaries, co-hosted by Eric Metaxas and John Stonestreet, air daily on more than 1,200 outlets with an estimated weekly listening audience of eight million people. Feel free to contact us at BreakPoint.org where you can read and search answers to common questions.

John Stonestreet, the host of The Point, a daily national radio program, provides thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.

Publication date: April 24, 2018
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The Guinness Book of World Records recently identified Masazo Nonakaas of Japan as the oldest living man. He is over 112 years old. Japan has the highest life expectancy in the world, and some contribute this longevity to a Japanese concept known as "Ikigai," roughly translated from two words: "iki" which means "life," and "gai" which means "worth." While it's difficult to translate precisely, it refers to those activities and pursuits that give us a "reason to live" or "make life worth living". In one recent article, Ikigai was described as the intersection between "what you love, what you care about, what the world needs, and what you can get paid for." Many people believe this Japanese strategy for success and fulfillment is the new secret to happiness.

It isn't. "Ikigai" isn't new and it isn't even Japanese. The principles described in "Ikigai" are ancient Judeo-Christian values:

Doing What You Love and Care About:

We are generally happiest when working within our strengths. A popular assessment tool acknowledges this fact and helps applicants discover their assets and interests. Each of us is wired differently with strengths and weaknesses. We find the greatest joy and achieve the greatest success when we are allowed to work in disciplines that maximize our strengths. This truth is not new; it was described by the ancient, Biblical writers. According to Scripture, we have been gifted by God with specific talents and interests (1 Peter 4:10), and we find joy when we exercise our gifts (Romans 12:7-11).

Responding to What the World Needs:

It's a well-accepted truth (across political and philosophical spectrums) that serving the needs of others is perhaps the single most meaningful activity in which humans can participate. As Winston Churchill once said, "We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give." It may seem counterintuitive, but the more we do for others, the more satisfied we become. This is another ancient truth reflecting our God-given design. According to the Bible, Jesus came to serve rather than to be served (Mark 10:45), and He taught His followers that the "servant of all" would "be first" (Mark 9:35). Our greatest satisfaction is achieved when we meet the needs of others.

Doing What You Can Get Paid For:

It's gratifying to get paid for doing what you love and find satisfying. Financial compensation can act both as a reward and an incentive. While the singular, isolated pursuit of money can be incredibly destructive, a balanced understanding of the relationship between work and reward often leads to fulfilment. Once again, this concept is ancient and Biblical. The Scripture writers encouraged hard work (Proverbs 14:23) and celebrated the financial reward of honest labor (2 Timothy 2:6).

The desire to find purpose and meaning is part of the human condition. We long for more than temporary happiness. We desire and seek lasting joy, even though most of us never seem to find it. "Ikigai" is yet another expression of this innate desire to establish a "reason to live" and to "make a life worth living". This modern formula for purposeful, joyous living is becoming increasingly popular because this kind of life seems illusive.

We want to live a life of purpose and meaning, even though we find it difficult to achieve our hopes and aspirations in this lifetime. C. S. Lewis, the novelist and Christian apologist, argued that these common human desires were given to us  by God - to lead us to Him:

"Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for these desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." (from Mere Christianity)

So while the Guinness Book of World Records celebrates the long life of Masazo Nonakaas and the incredible longevity of people living in Japan, I'm also celebrating the continuing desire all of us have to find purpose and meaning  including those who employ the principles of "Ikigai." May their desires to find satisfaction eventually lead them to the God who satisfies.
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Because he will be away from home in June, and knowing my love for old books, my son recently gave me my Father's Day gift early. It's a first edition copy of Joseph Angus' Bible Handbook: An Introduction to the Study of Sacred Scripture, dated 1856.

As I thumbed through its tender pages, I came across Angus' beautiful description of Christ and his ministry. It reads:

"He [Christ] is himself, in truth, the gospel. His coming and work, apart even from all he directly taught, constitute the glad tidings of great joy unto all people. Did men need a real sacrifice for sin, in which the rites of the law should find their explanation and end? That sacrifice he offered. Did men need a perfect rule of life? That rule he gave when he dwelt among us; and immortality he brings to light, not so much by teaching it, or promising it, as by the actual fact of himself rising from the dead in our nature, and on our behalf. There is, indeed, no question in religion which it is essential for us to know, which the life of Christ has not solved."

How marvelously succinct are Angus' words! They are so eloquently stated that it seems almost sacrilege to say that they reminded me of the bumper sticker I placed on my car not long after giving my life to Christ as a teenager. It simply read, "Jesus is the Answer." For me, Christ had addressed every issue of the human condition. My conviction then has in no way diminished through the years.

What is it that Christ has not touched for the better? What problems does his person or purpose not solve? Did he not say, "Behold, I make all things new"? (Revelation 21:5)

Before Christ, human life was exceedingly cheap. But it was Christ who gave it dignity  dignity for men and women; dignity for children; dignity for every race, red, yellow, black, and white; dignity for the slave; dignity for the poor; and dignity for the elderly.

Poverty has been a part of every era, but it was Christ that inspired relief for the impoverished as no one before him or since. Were you aware that before Christ there was hardly a trace of an organized charitable effort? But when he came, and the Bible was spread throughout the world, charity began to thrive.

Education is something that has always been around, but it was almost exclusively for the elites in society. But because of Christ and the interest manifested by him for all men, there developed the motive for providing education to the masses.

It was because of the Savior that the concept of civil liberties was born. Noah Webster put it this way:

"Almost all the civil liberty now enjoyed in the world owes its origin to the principles of the Christian religion...The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and his apostles, which enjoins humility, piety, and benevolence; which acknowledges in every person a brother, or a sister, and a citizen with equal rights. This is genuine Christianity, and to this, we owe our free constitutions of government..."

I suggest the issue of civil liberties has never belonged to the ACLU but instead is really the domain of Christ who gave rise to civil liberty.

It might even be argued modern science would have never existed were it not for Christ. The American Evangelical Theologian and Philosopher, Francis Schaeffer, writes about this and rightly contends:

"Both Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) and J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967) have stressed that modern science was born out of a Christian worldview. Whitehead was a widely respected mathematician and philosopher, and Oppenheimer, after he became director of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton in 1947, wrote on a wide-range of subjects related to science....Whitehead [in his 1925 book, Science and the Modern World] said that Christianity is the mother of science because of the medieval insistence on the rationality of God."

So many other proofs of the incomparable impact of Christ on the world might also be given.

But Robert J. Hutchinson, a veteran religion writer, eloquently summarizes the question, saying:

"What is undeniable to the honest historian is that this one man's life, teaching, and symbolic acts eventually created a social and cultural revolution that reverberated far beyond Palestine and altered almost every institution on earth  and is still felt today.

"In short, Jesus changed everything: politics, art, science, law, the rules of warfare, philosophy, sexual life, the family.

"Even Napoleon was amazed: 'Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and myself founded empires; but upon what foundation did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded an empire upon love, and at this hour millions of men would die for him.'"

Think of it. If Christ changed the whole world in this manner, how much more could he change your little life if you were to personally trust him for the forgiveness of sins? Think of what he could do if you were to completely turn everything over to him.

Yes, Jesus solves every dilemma  every problem  every challenge.

Jesus is still the answer.

Perhaps that message would make a great new bumper sticker.

Rev. Mark H. Creech is executive director of the Raleigh-based Christian Action League of North Carolina Inc.
3 things every church member should know about their pastors and church workers

Churchgoers tend to look up to and treat church ministers and workers with respect. They also have high expectations from such workers, knowing that these men and women in service are serving a great God.

While church workers do indeed serve God to the best of their abilities and capacities, we need to temper our expectations with a few truths that many of us tend to ignore.

Here are some things we should know about our pastors and church workers

1) They are humans with imperfections and limitations

Many of us make the mistake of thinking that church ministers and workers are people who can handle pretty much anything and everything thrown at them.

They can't.

They're just like us, people who have shortcomings and limitations. They need food, shelter and clothing; they need encouragement and prayers; they need to be protected from temptation and harassment; and they need friends as much as any of us do.

2) They are "closer" to God than us

Another grave mistake many Christians commit is thinking of church workers, especially ministers, as the only people who can be "close" to God and "receive His favor."

Some Christians who think like this approach their pastor or church workers to ask for prayer requests, thinking that if their pastor or church worker prays for them, God will answer quicker than He does when they personally pray.

This is wrong.

The Bible tells us that we who are in Christ are all God's children. As God's children, we are all beloved. As God's beloved, we are all precious to Him.

No one is more important than another

The thing is, our ability to hear God and have an intimate relationship with Him depends on our personal efforts.

Yes, our pastors and church workers might be "close" or "intimate" with God, but that's because they spend significant amounts of time seeking Him in prayer, fasting, and obedience to His word.

We can also grow intimate with God just as much as any minister. We've been given a relationship with our Father in heaven; why not cultivate it?

3) They need time to spend with God

As mentioned above, our pastors and church workers need to spend time seeking God and spiritually re-charging as well. As such, we must understand that we can't have all their time for ourselves!

Many Christians make the mistake of demanding that church workers be present at all times, for whatever reason. They ask for constant prayers, counsel, fellowship, among other things, to the detriment of the church worker's personal life.

Some pastors are unable to spend time with their spouses and kids due to ministry. Some church workers fail in aspects outside the church because the church demands too much from them.

Friends, it's time we understand that our church workers need to spend time with God as well. We need to give them time to pray, read their Bibles, spend time at spiritual retreats, and go on sabbaticals.
From Nazi uniform to the Stephen Lawrence memorial: Prince Harry's impressive journey to maturity

The last VIP guests to arrive yesterday afternoon at the memorial service at St Martin-in-the-Fields church in Trafalgar Square, central London, marking 25 years since the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence, were Prince Harry and his fiancee Meghan Markle.

The prince stopped at the entrance to the church and chatted for a few moments with Doreen Lawrence, Stephen's mother, before reading a message of support from his father, the Prince of Wales, during the service.

The appearance marked the culmination of an impressive journey for the 33-year-old, who in 2005 caused a major royal racism row when an image emerged of him wearing a Nazi uniform to a fancy dress birthday party.

Back then, Clarence House issued a statement saying: 'Prince Harry has apologised for any offence or embarrassment he has caused. He realises it was a poor choice of costume.'

But that was not the end of allegations of racism against the young man who is now fifth in line to the throne. In 2009, Harry apologised for using offensive language to describe an Asian member of his Army platoon after video footage of the incident emerged.

St James's Palace said the prince was 'extremely sorry for any offence his words might cause' but said he had 'used the term without any malice and as a nickname about a highly popular member of his platoon'.

Nonetheless, it is said to have been his experiences in the armed forces that matured Harry, who strayed into wild partying including smoking cannabis and excessive drinking during his teenage years following the traumatic and extremely public death of his mother, Princess Diana.

Now, it would be hard to make accusations of racism against Harry who, after all, is marrying the mixed-race Markle.

Instead, with his charity work  especially focused on mental health and the disabled, as well as backing the Halo Trust's work in clearing landmines and helping children affected by HIV and Aids  Harry can be said to have grown into a prize asset for the royal family.

Yesterday, his older brother Prince William and wife Katherine Middleton briefly stole the limelight with the birth of their third child, a boy.

But it is Harry  whose wedding is in less than a month  who seems most to capture the public's imagination and empathy these days.

Harry spent a total of 10 years in the armed forces, during which he saw action in Afghanistan twice, including as an Apache helicopter co-pilot and gunner.

He was reportedly disappointed in May 2007 when army chiefs decided not to send him to Iraq because of 'unacceptable risks', but  becoming the first royal in 25 years to serve in a war zone  he then spent 10 weeks serving in Afghanistan in 2008, before having to pull out amid concerns for his safety after news leaked of his unpublicised deployment.

However, he returned to Afghanistan as an Apache helicopter pilot from September 2012 to January 2013, before qualifying as an Apache commander in July 2013.

Harry later described how he had shot at Taliban insurgents, adding that being in Afghanistan was 'as normal as it's going to get' for him.

The prince has said of his military career, which came to an end in 2015, that it will 'stay with me for the rest of my life'.

Indeed, the most notable part of Harry's charity work has been his founding, in 2014, and chairing of the Invictus Games, a Paralympic-style international competition for injured ex-service personnel.

It was at the 2017 Games in Toronto, Canada where Harry was first seen in public with Markle, holding hands and fuelling speculation about their relationship.

Now, the pair embody a very modern royal couple. And as Harry walked up the steps of St-Martin-in-the-Fields yesterday to be greeted by Doreen Lawrence, that Nazi uniform controversy seemed truly to be a thing of the past.
Islam on Lewis: Why the church should support Muslims' right to build mosques

Recently it was announced that the first mosque is about to be built on the Western Isles  a bastion of conservative evangelical Calvinism, dominated by the Free Church of Scotland (colloquially and somewhat pejoratively known as 'the Wee Frees'). The press sniffed blood  surely this would outrage the Free Church and create civil war? The old headlines 'Wee Free Outrage' were dusted down and in some cases used by the tabloids, broadsheets and broadcast media. And with some justification, because a small breakaway group from the Free Church known as the Free Church Continuing had issued a press statement condemning the proposal.

Perhaps it is expecting too much to expect the secular press to keep up with the various smaller Christian denominations. But The Guardian, demonstrating a degree of journalistic integrity, actually did some investigation and produced a more balanced report that included the news that the Free Church supported the right of the Muslims on the island to build their own mosque. Rev James MacIver, minister of the largest church in Stornoway, the main town of the island, is quoted as saying: 'Muslims have always been regarded by the local community as people who've contributed to the local economy and integrated well. I don't remember any animosity towards them. Outsiders may have got the impression that the Christian community here have resisted the mosque, but that's not the case...I have no right to come between someone's conscience and their god...I come at this from the point of view of liberty of conscience, freedom of religion. I don't personally see Islam as the way to salvation, but they have a civil right to a place of worship. I have no right to come between someone's conscience and their god.'

Let me declare a personal interest here. I am a minister of the Free Church. I married a woman from Stornoway and know the people involved well. I, like my colleagues, am committed to the Bible as the infallible word of God and I agree with the theology summed up in our subordinate standard of the Westminster Confession of Faith. So what is going on when the Free Church does not oppose the building of a mosque in what was our heartland? Have we gone soft? Given into political correctness? Are we really opposed and just engaged in a game of political spin? Allow me to explain.

The Free Church would prefer that there was no need for a mosque to be built in Stornoway, because we would love everyone, including Muslims, to come to a saving knowledge of Christ. But we also believe that there is no coercion in real Christianity and that people have the right to reject, or to worship as they see fit. It is for God to judge, not the State. We defend the freedom to preach the gospel as we also defend the freedom of others. The Christian message is pleading and persuasion, not force and coercion. In a world where religious and secular groups alike are seeking to use the power of the state to impose their beliefs, we must not go the way of the world.

The FC has a catholic, Christian, traditional Scottish Reformed view of religious liberty. This is what is at stake for us here. We don't agree with Islam and maintain that Jesus Christ is the only way. But equally we don't believe that our beliefs can be imposed upon other people by denying them the religious liberty that we demand for ourselves.

This is not a new position. When one of the early Free Church leaders, Dr Thomas Guthrie, appeared to give evidence before a select committee of the House of Commons in 1847, about the Free Church being granted sites to build churches, he was asked if he would grant a site to any group other than Christians. He said, 'I would grant a site to any man who desired to worship God according to his conscience'. The committee then asked, 'To a Jew, or a Muslim, or even an idolater?' He said, 'Yes, I have no right to stand between a man and his conscience.'

This was the position of the Free Church in the 19th century and it still is in the 21st. We live in a world where we are told if we disagree with someone, we are disrespecting them, hurting them or taking them out of their safe space. Apparently people need to be protected from having their views, cultures or lifestyles challenged (unless they are biblical Christians). In many of our secular institutions, having a different view about the fundamental beliefs of the secular elites is considered to be grounds sufficient for banning or excluding from public space. Our society also seems to struggle with the concept that it is possible to have civil disagreement and to support the religious liberties of others. Maybe our society could learn from the church something about what real tolerance, equality and diversity is?

Maybe the wider church also has something to learn from this small biblical Presbyterian denomination as well? In the church there are some who seem to think that campaigning against Islam, and giving implicit, if not explicit, support to far right groups, who wish to ban Islam, is somehow the Christian thing to do. It is not. Indeed, it is the very opposite and shows a blasphemous lack of faith in the power of the gospel and the Holy Spirit.

If we really wish to see the spread of Islam limited, if we are really concerned about the glory of God and the spread of the gospel, then we need to move away from the fear of Islam (the real Islamophobia) which seeks to prevent Muslims coming to our shores or having freedom of worship when they do. When Thomas Guthrie was asked if supporting the building of mosques would be a deterrence to conversion amongst Muslims, Guthrie answered that he thought refusing permission to build a mosque would be a means of preventing conversion, rather than hindering it.

One Muslim was interviewed on the BBC and stated that since coming to the Island of Lewis in the 1950s he had never experienced one incident of racism or Islamophobia. Rather than be surprised that this should happen in the most evangelical church-going area of the UK, we should surely expect that to be the case. In the UK I suspect that the less Christian an area, the more likely you are to get fear of Muslims. It's the secularists who seem to be afraid of everything that does not fit their paradigm.

This is illustrated by another story from the Western Isles. Recently there has been a fuss on Lewis about the island's tradition of keeping Sunday special. The failed attempt to change this has been driven by a small group called the Western Isles Secular Society (who were nominated by the National Secular Society for their award of Secularist of the Year). While the militant secularists couldn't contemplate a culture where their views were not the law, the Muslims have been supportive and accepting of local custom.

The whole story is another reminder that the world is not as black and white as our soundbite culture portrays it. Thank the Lord that we live in a diverse and multi-coloured culture in which we still have freedom to preach the gospel to all.

David Robertson is associate director of Solas CPC in Dundee and minister at St Peter's Free Church. Follow him on Twitter @TheWeeFlea
Israel at 70: 5 stories, from Haifa to Jerusalem

Israel is now 70 years old. Throughout her history the media have emphasised Israel's wars and conflicts. However, Israel is actually a very human country which continues to absorb immigrants from all over the world. So this week and next I will be giving you a more personal story about what makes Israel tick, based on encounters with extraordinary human beings who have turned Israel into the wonderful country it is. We start with the 40-year period from 19642003.

1. Kfar Saba: The Sabra cousin, 1964

In 1964 I visited Israel for the first and only time with my parents and brother, arriving by boat in Haifa. I was 13 and this was before the reunification of Jerusalem.

In a tiny, spotlessly clean apartment in Kfar Saba we were warmly greeted by children, our cousins, on the steps, cleaning all the shoes. Inside, the prize piece of furniture was the piano, and my older cousin and I sat down without words and played duets together.

There was no TV or other normal western amenity. And I knew in that moment that my brother and I were indulged and pampered (a word unknown to Israel aged 16, the same age as my cousin) and that life in Israel was better and somehow purer than in England.

2. Herzlia: The Moroccan neighbour, April 1982

In April 1982 I visited Israel for the second time, this time for Pesach with my husband and daughter. The flat found for us in Herzliya by a friend of my husband's was in a state, so I spent a large part of the stay trying to clean it out.

I also travelled by bus with my daughter, aged seven, to the beach and encountered a number of German tourists complaining about the lack of bread in this 'G-d-forsaken country'. Didn't they know it was Pesach? Probably not. On return to the flat, the door flew open and a lady appeared. 'You are at war!' she exclaimed in French. I had never met her before. 'Come into my apartment and watch it all on TV.'

So I went into her apartment with my daughter, and there it all was on her TV. I saw the beginning of the Falklands War from Israeli eyes, bearing in mind all those Argentinian Jews fleeing to Israel because of the junta. My neighbour was Moroccan  the first I had met. No messing around  straight to the point  and what an elegant, chic apartment she had. And this Moroccan stranger plied me with delicious food and drink and asked me to call on her at any time during our stay. At the Seder in Herzlia I was sat next to the Argentinian son-in-law of the host and we didn't have to say it: Argentina and England paled into insignificance in comparison with our mutual joint home, the State of Israel, even if my apartment had been filthy and the host rushed through the Seder as if there were no tomorrow.

3. Jerusalem: The Moroccan child minder, April 1984

From 1983-4 our family was on sabbatical in Jerusalem. I decided that despite the new baby and the incredibly hot weather I would get myself a proper Jewish education. So I found a childminder who lived next door, and was also Moroccan like the lovely neighbour in Herzlia.

Maria was perfect  loved children, possessed all the amenities (most importantly a phone) and her apartment was on the same electrical circuit as the famed Sharei Tzedek Hospital. This meant that unlike everyone else in our neighbourhood she was never cut off. These factors would prove crucial. In addition, Maria was a marvellous cook, taught baby Esther Hebrew songs, and was generally amazing. Every day I would take our elder daughter to school and then two or three mornings a week would attend theological colleges where I gained the equivalent of a rabbinic education. I deliberately chose two completely contrasting colleges. One was Haredi and I joined the Hebrew language section. The other was Zionist and intellectual and there I learned about Rav Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of Israel under the British Mandate.

I also attended Modern Hebrew classes in the centre of town, joining a class for journalists from the Jerusalem Post and Israeli TV and radio  mostly American.

The teacher was a retiree who volunteered this service and threw me straight in. Then the teacher asked where I lived, and it was in the same street as him, so he took me home. I owe everything to all these teachers, but most of all to Maria, the childminder, without whom I couldn't have done it. Then I got ill and ignored the symptoms, but then it got so bad and my husband wasn't around, so I called Maria, who immediately commandeered her husband's taxi and took me to the Hadassah hospital, where I fainted. When I came round I had lost half my blood and would have died and that extraordinary hospital saved my life. But if not for Maria...

4. The most regal person I have ever met (Israeli first lady Aura Herzog, 1983)

In autumn of the same year, during the Sukkot festival, it is customary for Israeli citizens and visitors to meet the president and first lady in their residence. At that time the president was the legendary Chaim Herzog, born in Ireland, where his father was Chief Rabbi. The president had attended a Methodist school and fought with the British army. There he was, ramrod straight, like the soldier he was, with his wife Aura from Egypt via South Africa by his side. She immediately engaged our elder daughter, aged eight: 'Where are you from?' 'Liverpool.' And then Aura waxed lyrical. 'I adore Liverpool and have visited often from Ireland' she said. 'How lovely to meet you. You have made my day.' No wonder our daughter dreamed of living in Israel and made Aliyah in her twenties.

5. Jerusalem, 2003: The world's greatest antisemitism expert, born in Kazakhstan but brought up in England

In August 2003, Yad Vashem invited me to a seminar for educationalists. On arrival I was asked to interpret for a government minister from Lithuania who spoke German. And then Professor Robert Wistrich arrived to give his lecture on contemporary antisemitism. As soon as he saw four people from England in the room, he altered his intended lecture to concentrate on England. He outlined four areas of concern: the unions, the media, the churches and the universities. After the seminar, he invited me to have coffee with him. 'You have to get involved' he said. 'You must tackle these four groups.'

I told him that the unions were beyond my reach and the universities were beyond the pale, but I'd have a go at the churches and the media. 'By the way, he said, 'the effort will probably kill you  you will die young (he himself died prematurely aged 70 a couple of years ago), but what are we put on this earth to do?

Dr Irene Lancaster is a Jewish academic, author and translator who has established university courses on Jewish history, Jewish studies and the Hebrew Bible.
Nigerian priest freed after being kidnapped and held for 4 days

A Nigerian priest who was held for four days in captivity has been freed.

Fr Edwin Omoregbe, who had been kidnapped last week in Nigeria's Edo state, was released on Sunday, the Catholic News Agency (CNA) reported.

'With great joy in our heart, we want to inform you all that our priest, Rev Fr Edwin Omorogbe has been released from the hands of kidnappers,' said a statement from the Archdiocese of Benin City, according to the Guardian of Lagos.

'We thank you all for your prayers and pray that God continues to grant all our heart desires,' the statement added.

Fr Omorogbe, who is a parish priest at St Paul's Catholic Church in Benin City, was abducted on April 18 by unidentified gunmen near Egba, on the way from Uromi to Benin City.

Babatunde Kokumo, the Edo State commissioner of police, and others led a search for Omorogbe in the bushes of the Uhumwonde Local Government Area after his kidnapping, according to CNA.

The motive behind the kidnapping is unknown, and those responsible have not been identified.

Fr Omoregbe was ordained in 2003, and has studied in Canada.

CNA recounted that in recent months, several priests and religious have been abducted in southern Nigeria.

Six female religious were held for two months after being taken from Iguoriakhi near Uromi, also in Edo state, before they were released by a police operation in January.

An Italian missionary priest, Fr Maurizio Pallu, was kidnapped in Edo state for a week in October 2017, and in Imo state, Fr. Cyriacus Onunkwo was kidnapped and killed in September last year.
'The Middle' actress Patricia Heaton asks for prayers as she joins World Vision's humanitarian efforts in Uganda

As soon as actress and TV mom Patricia Heaton finished filming the final season of the comedy series "The Middle" on ABC, she and co-star Jen Ray boarded a plane to join World Vision's humanitarian efforts in Uganda.

On her Facebook page last Saturday, Heaton, a Christian conservative, posted a video which showed her reading the prayers that she collected from her fans for a 14-year-old refugee named Victor.

Victor left his home country of South Sudan in 2016 together with his three siblings. They lost touch with their parents amid a brutal war that first erupted in the country in 2013. World Vision took them in and provided for their safety, care and education through a foster family.

Before leaving for the African country, Heaton asked her followers on social media to send in their prayers for the refugees she would be visiting and helping in Sudan. According to reports, Heaton received over 700 prayers in just 24 hours.

"I pray for the healing of Victor and his family's hearts, as well as the hearts of the leaders of his country," said one of the prayers that Heaton read aloud with Victor. Another prayer stated, "God, please let Victor know that you are with him. You will never leave him."

Heaton also shared videos with Ray, who played her neighbor in the long-running family comedy series, as they prepared meals for the refugees and played with the kids.

In 2016, World Vision asked Heaton to become a celebrity ambassador and spokesperson. The actress has supported the organization for years and has actively devoted her time to its fundraising and disaster relief efforts. In 2015, the actress and her son traveled with World Vision to Zambia where they visited health centers and helped assemble bicycles for children.

World Vision, established over 60 years ago, channels most of its relief efforts on the refugee children's health, education and protection. A Christian organization, World Vision also aids in the strengthening of a family's social, economic and physical progress.
A new collectors guide to Iznik pottery

With their bold colours and strong lines, these wares produced chiefly between the 15th and 17th centuries have been collectable almost since the day they were first produced, says our specialist Sara Plumbly

1

Does all Iznik pottery come from Iznik? Yes. Iznik is in fact the name of a town previously known as Nicaea which lies some 90 kilometres southeast of Istanbul, and was the site of the potteries of the Ottoman Empire. A group of Iznik ceramics, purchased between 1865 and 1878 on the Greek Island of Rhodes by the Cluny Museum in Paris, led to a lasting misattribution of these wares to the island. Indeed, some of the earliest examples of Iznik sold at Christie's in the 19th century and early 20th century were catalogued Rhodian! Excavations of the kilns at Iznik have since righted this misattribution, but many older publications will still refer to Rhodian ceramics.

2

What sorts of objects were produced? Are any rarer than others?

Iznik vessels of all shapes and sizes were produced  for eating and serving food, and for functions relating to religious worship. Of these, dishes, followed by jugs, are the most commonly found. Other forms occasionally come up for auction, but are rarer. Tiles were also produced in great quantities  particularly in the second half of the 16th century, as decoration for the walls of the monumental structures being commissioned by the Sultans of the era. The tiles we see coming to market are likely to have been the surplus of this large-scale production.

3

Whats the difference between 15th, 16th and 17th-century pieces? Iznik can be dated quite precisely, largely on the basis of the colours and designs of specific works. Sixteenth-century pieces are generally more coveted than those made in the 17th century. 1480-1520: This early phase in Iznik production saw impressive vessels, usually painted in a bold cobalt-blue and white, and often with patterns reserved in white on the blue ground. The decoration is heavily informed by that of other media, such as manuscript illumination, although many designs are also borrowed from the Chinese porcelains that were prized at the Ottoman court.

1520-1540: Turquoise blue is introduced, and decoration is largely painted on a white ground. Designs become simpler, but still frequently take Chinese motifs for inspiration. One rare group, which developed in this period, uses delicate spiralling scrolls with tiny leaves and flowers  known as Golden Horn ware, because of where it was first found. The period also saw the production of Potters Style pieces, whose designs tended to feature central compositions, containing realistic representations of flowers in vases, or jugs on small tables.

End of the 1530s: Manganese purple and olive-green are added to the palette of blue and turquoise. Iznik of this period is often referred to as Damascus ware because of the similarity that the colours bear to wares produced in Syria. Often large, round motifs with scale-like patterning are used in the decoration, which sometimes represents pomegranates or artichokes. Increasingly, one sees the naturalistic design that comes to dominate production. 1560-1600: This is the phase under which Iznik reaches its highest point. Artists combine a rich repertoire of often naturalistic motifs. The Ottoman Empire is at its height and enormous quantities of Iznik are commissioned, including large numbers of tiles destined to cover the walls of the buildings built by the chief court architect, Sinan. A strong turquoise, emerald-green, black and deep-red are added to the spectrum of colours, and outlines are often drawn in black.

The 17th century: Due largely to economic difficulties, there was a decrease in demand for Iznik in the early years of the 17th century, and quality began to fall. Coarser versions of the productions of the previous century were produced, the colours of works deteriorated  with red often appearing slightly brown  and decoration became less detailed, more obviously executed freehand. During this period, the quality of the paste and glaze also deteriorates, with the glaze taking on a bluish tone and becoming more prone to craquelure. Designs did, however, become freer, with the artists imagination often conjuring up unusual designs  sometimes with quirky figural representations.

An Iznik pottery dish, Ottoman Turkey, circa 1600. 16 in (41.5 cm) diam. Sold for 6,875 on 19 March 2020 at Christies in London

4

Intact pieces are worth more Because Iznik was produced in relatively large quantities, condition plays a big part in value. Intact pieces can make significantly more than similar examples with repaired breaks. If a piece is repaired, the less loss of the original body, the better. Often you will find small holes in the foot of a dish, drilled so that it could be hung. Dont worry about these, they wont affect the value.

5

Colour is key Good Iznik has strong colours well-contained within their outlines and a very clean, clear white. The red colour, made with Armenian bole (an earthy clay) should be thick and proud of the surface. Beware! Photographs can often misrepresent colours, particularly the white which is so crucial  ask for further images which may be taken in different light or, ideally, go and see a piece in person.

6

Stickers offer clues Ask questions about a pieces history before you buy. A known or old collection can add to the attraction of a piece. Stickers or numbers on the underside of a piece often hold clues to the history. The old stickers on the back of the dish pictured above meant that we could trace its history all the way back to an auction held in Paris in March 1919.

7

European wares inspired by Iznik are also highly collectable Look out for 19th-century European interpretations of Iznik. In the 19th century a trend for collecting Islamic works of art developed which in turn also became a source of inspiration for European craftsmen. Iznik pottery was one of the types that was most frequently copied by makers such as Samson, Theodore Deck and Cantagalli. Look at pieces closely: most of these makers signed the base of their works  Cantagalli usually with a small cockerel, Deck with a THDECK and Samson with a playful variety of takes on the letter s or its equivalent in Arabic. Also highly collectable is Kutahya pottery, which was produced from the 15th century in a town close to Iznik. Production peaked when Iznik declined, and it is still produced today. Its wares are characteristically decorated in bright colours, including yellows and browns not familiar in Iznik. Kutahya had a large Armenian community, so the pottery produced there often incorporates Christian motifs.
Ikea is under contract to buy 160 acres as the site of a new distribution center in Generation Park, a master-planned project of McCord Development in northeast Houston, according to a news report.

The Houston Business Journal, which cited unnamed sources, said the home furnishings retailer eventually will build between 1.2 million square feet and 1.5 million square feet of distribution space on the land.

Calls to Ikea and Generation Park have not been returned.

Last year, Ikea moved into a 1 million-square-foot distribution center in the Cedar Port Industrial Park in Baytown.

Ikea signed a 5-year lease for the buildings, which are owned by Canada-based Pure Industrial Real Estate Trust.

RELATED: Pontikes sets groundbreaking date for massive Baytown industrial park

Clay Development & Construction developed the Cedar Port buildings, which were initially part of a speculative project. Early on, Ikea committed to taking two of the three buildings there.

The buildings were constructed for Ikea's use, but could easily be adapted for other companies, said Robert Clay, president of Clay Development & Construction.

The Baytown distribution center employs about 200 people and distributes products to the company's stores in Houston, Round Rock, Dallas, Memphis and Merriam, Kansas., according to Port Houston. It's also designed to fulfill online orders in six states.

RELATED: San Antonio-area IKEA groundbreaking set for spring 2018

If the deal in Generation Park goes through, Ikea would likely leave Baytown at the end of its lease, Clay said.

"It will take time to build it and get all the plans put together," Clay said. "I'm sure they're planning on leaving the site at the end of their lease."

The Baytown location, 30 miles east of downtown Houston near Port Houston, is not served by rail. It is closer to where goods are shipped in.

"The port would seem like a better location for them," Clay said.

Located about 20 miles from downtown, Generation Park is a 4,000-acre development of Houston-based McCord Development at Beltway 8 and North Lake Houston Parkway. It's home to TechnipFMC's 173-acre campus, Stolt-Nielsen's future corporate campus and GHX Industrial's headquarters.

Ikea recently broke ground on its fifth Texas store in Live Oak near San Antonio. Founded in Sweden, IKEA has 414 stores in 49 countries, including 47 in the U.S. and one in Houston.
LONDON  Like everything to do with Britains royal family, a mix of tradition and modernity governed the birth of Prince William and Kates third child on Monday. Here are five things to know about Britains royal births:

FROM PALACE TO HOSPITAL

For generations, it was the custom among royals  as among commoners  to give birth at home. Queen Elizabeth II was born at her grandfathers London house and gave birth to her sons Charles, Andrew and Edward at Buckingham Palace. Her only daughter, Princess Anne, was born at Clarence House, another royal residence.

That changed by the 1980s, when Princess Diana had sons William and Harry at the private Lindo Wing of St. Marys Hospital in London. William and Kates first two children, George and Charlotte, were born at the same hospital in 2013 and 2015. Kate gave birth to their third child, a son, there on Monday.

DELIVERY-ROOM INTERLOPERS

For decades, and for reasons that remain unclear, custom dictated that government officials should be present when a royal was born. Some believe it was to verify that there was no switching at birth or other shenanigans. When the queen was born in 1926, Britains home secretary was present among the doctors. The custom was eliminated before the birth of the queens first child, Prince Charles, in 1948.

Until recently, it was not usual for fathers to attend births. However, Prince Charles was present when sons William and Harry were born, and William was at his wifes side for the birth of their first two children. He was in attendance again on Monday for the birth of baby number three.

A FORMAL ANNOUNCEMENT

News of the newborn princes birth was announced by Kensington Palace by email and on Twitter, but it also involved a tradition dating back at least to the 19th century.

A messenger traveled by car from the hospital to Buckingham Palace, carrying a piece of paper signed by doctors detailing the infants gender, weight and time of birth. Two uniformed palace staff placed the framed notice on a ceremonial easel in the palace forecourt, where it will stay for about 24 hours.

MULTIPLE NAMES

The name of the new prince has not been announced; the palace says it will be revealed in due course.

When William was born, it took a full week before his name was announced, but the names of George and Charlotte were announced within two days of their births.

Arthur, James and Albert are among bookmakers favorites, and there is speculation the baby might be given Philip as a middle name in honor of his great-grandfather Prince Philip.

Most royals have three to four first names, usually in a combination that honors previous monarchs or relatives. William and Kates firstborn is named George Alexander Louis and his sister is Charlotte Elizabeth Diana  honoring both her great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth II and her late grandmother, Princess Diana.

The babys full title will be His Royal Highness Prince (Name) of Cambridge.

LINE OF SUCCESSION

Until recently, the rules of succession favored male heirs, so a younger brother would jump ahead of an elder sister in the line for the throne. But the rules were changed before Prince George was born to give royal daughters the same rights as sons.

That means Princess Charlotte remains fourth in line to the throne, with the new baby fifth. Williams younger brother, Prince Harry, drops down to sixth place.
Gary Coronado/Staff

Gov. Greg Abbott tapped two new regents to join Texas Southern University's board on Monday. His office also reappointed an existing regent.

Attorney Hasan Mack of Austin and businessman Kenny Koncaba of Friendswood will join the board at the regents' next meeting from June 14-15. Businessman Oliver J. Bell of Cleveland will remain on the board.
Harris County property owners who believe there is an error in the market value set by the appraisal district have until Tuesday, May 15, to protest the value of their property.

The Texas Legislature moved the protest deadline to May 15 during the last legislative session. The previous deadline had been May 31.

Because of property damage from Hurricane Harvey, some property owners will not receive their value notice until later this month. If that is the case, they will still have 30 days to file their protest, and that later protest deadline will be listed on their value notice.

A green protest form is included in the property value notice the Harris County Appraisal District (HCAD) is sending to each property owner. A Notice of Protest form may be downloaded from the districts web site at www.hcad.org under the FORMS heading. It is easily found under Popular Forms. The Notice of Protest is the second form on that list and is form number 41-44.

Instructions for filing are located in the upper left corner of the Notice of Protest form. Protests may be filed online through the iFile system, brought to HCADs office at 13013 Northwest Freeway, or mailed to P.O. Box 922004, Houston, TX 77292-2004, but must be postmarked by May 15.

Chief Appraiser Roland Altinger encouraged property owners to use HCADs online iFile system to submit their protest. The chief appraiser noted that unique iFile numbers are printed on the face of the 2018 value notices near the property account number in the upper right. For security reasons, the iFile system cannot be used for filing a protest without this iFile number unless the property owner has an existing electronic owners account.

Owners who have misplaced their value notice can use HCADs free iPhone app to quickly retrieve their iFile number by scanning their Texas drivers license. The name and address on the license must match the property address in the HCAD system.

Homeowners who file their protest through the Internet using iFile may also have an opportunity to settle their value online with HCADs iSettle system. Property owners who have opted in to iSettle may choose to upload evidence through the owners website. Property owners will have five days to submit their documentation, such as a closing statement, deed or photos, electronically from the date they filed their protest electronically. Questions concerning iSettle may be directed to isettle@hcad.org.

If a settlement through the online system isnt possible once HCAD makes an offer, the homeowner will be scheduled for a hearing with the Appraisal Review Board. A video explaining how to file an online protest and use the residential iSettle system is available on the districts website at www.hcad.org under the HELP heading.

Business personal property and some real property accounts may have later protest deadlines. If a later deadline applies to a particular account, the property owner will be mailed an official HCAD value notice on which the later protest deadline will be listed.

If you have any questions concerning protesting your market value, call the appraisal districts information center at 713.957.7800 or email help@hcad.org.
For generations of investors, Exxon Mobil Corp. has been a cornerstone of fund managers' portfolios alongside the biggest names in corporate America. Not so much any more.

From leading the S&P 500 Index a decade ago, the company has dropped to the ninth-largest in a top 10 now dominated by technology giants. Its rivals Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Chevron Corp. aren't faring much better, with investors demanding unusually high dividend yields to hold the stocks.

At fault, a toxic troika that combines gushing supply with fears that long-term demand will flat-line as electric vehicles and renewable energies grow, and climate change policies proliferate. And while cash flow for oil's majors in 2018 is likely to be the highest in 12 years, investors are largely unmoved.

"Earnings have started to come through but no one believes it's sustainable," said Kevin Holt, who helps manage $934 billion at Invesco Ltd. in Houston. "That's why the stocks haven't worked even though the commodity has gone up. Everyone's saying they don't believe it."

Years of elevated spending on mega projects worldwide caused costs to soar. That kept drillers from taking full advantage when oil prices were averaging about $95 a barrel in 2011-2014, and it left them exposed when a stubborn two-plus year rout took hold. In February, the weighting of energy stocks in the S&P 500 dropped to 5.5 percent, the lowest in 14 years.

Beyond the S&P, Big Oil's weighting in global equity indices is now at a 50-year low, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said in a March report. Of the MSCI World Index's 100 biggest stocks, only six are oil producers.

The tepid interest in oil "is reflective of a significant paradigm shift in the global energy landscape," Paul Cheng, an oil equities analyst at Barclays Plc in New York, said in a note to clients. "Investors, particularly generalists, seem to be growing increasingly skeptical of the long-term value of oil and gas assets given the supply and demand risks posed by shale oil and EVs."

Big Oil's top executives will attempt to combat these concerns this week, when they announce first-quarter results. Crude prices have climbed 51 percent in the last 10 months costs have been cut by so much that some companies are earning more at $65 a barrel than when oil was worth more than $100. The first quarter earnings reporting season starts April 25 with Statoil ASA.

In theory, the surge in cash flow should encourage institutional investors to buy shares, as it all but guarantees future dividends. Yet, there's a strong sense among some investors that companies will use the recovery to boost capital spending in new projects, over time squeezing their cash generation.

Oil executives acknowledge that it's too soon to win back investors. Shell CEO Ben van Beurden has openly talked about a "credibility and track record gap" between the major oil companies and its shareholder base.

"We need to show a little bit longer we mean what we say in terms of capital discipline," he told reporters last week. "This newfound religion and confidence is, to say the least, fragile."
Hurricane Harvey's floods were largely concentrated in areas that were developed before the adoption of modern detention regulations and prior to the release of national flood plain maps, according to a new analysis focusing on Municipal Utility Districts.

The study was commissioned by the Association of Water Board Directors  Texas, a statewide educational and advocacy group for utility districts, to document flood damage to properties in MUDs across the Houston area and analyze their financial health.

The findings included:

Fewer than 8 percent of houses in local MUDs experienced flooding.

Fewer than 3 percent of the houses identified as flooded were built after 2009 and complied with the drainage and detention regulations adopted after Tropical Storm Allison.

Fewer than two dozen MUDs reported damage to district-owned infrastructure and the vast majority of that damage was almost immediately repaired.

MUDs, which have been used for decades to build large subdivisions, can be created either through the legislature or the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

They provide water, wastewater, drainage and other services in unincorporated areas.

Land developers and home builders have long argued that MUDs have allowed housing to remain affordable.

Yet critics have questioned their transparency, their authority to sell tax-exempt bonds and the ways they are formed.

In the Timarron Lakes neighborhood in The Woodlands, 100 homes flooded during Harvey, and residents blamed a faulty drainage system they had asked the MUD to fix.

There are 857 municipal utility districts in the Houston area.

As many as 190,000 houses  9 percent of the Houston area's housing stock  experienced flooding in Harvey, the study found. Less than 20 percent of those flooded properties were within utility districts.

The analysis was conducted by Meyers Research, a national market research and consulting firm specializing in the real estate industry, and Municipal Information Services, a firm specializing in the bond performance of municipal utility districts.

The groups used reports from district officials and operators for portions of the report, and government data sources, including the U.S. Census Bureau, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Texas General Land Office, the TCEQ, the City of Houston, Harris County, and the Harris County Flood Control District.
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.
Construction is expected to start in June on an 80,000-square-foot academic building, the first for the University of Houston at Katy campus at Interstate 10 and the Grand Parkway.

Tellespen Builders set an April 17 deadline for bids for the estimated $33 million building. According to the bid specifications, the three-story building will include general purpose classrooms, engineering studios and a nursing simulation center. Plans call for 400 parking spaces. Students now are attending classes in rental space.

In late 2016, the UH purchased 46 acres at the northeast corner of I-10 and Texas 99 from Parkside Capital. The purchase is the result of work done by a Katy Task Force formed in 2015. But the Katy area was considered for a larger UH presence even before then.

READ ALSO: The Ballard House expands in Katy

State Sen. Glenn Hegar and state Rep. Bill Callegari started a Katy community task force in or around 2008 to consider an expanded UH role in Katy, said Chris Stipes, director of media relations, University of Houston.

UH had operated a campus in Cinco Ranch since 1998 at 4242 S. Mason Road. That campus recently was sold.

The UH Katy academic building will be used by UH Victoria, UH Nursing and UH Engineering and is set to open in the fall 2019.

READ ALSO: George Ranch Historical Park plans first Sensory-Friendly Day

The plan is to then grow enrollment in the nursing and engineering programs that will be housed there, said Stipes.

Groundbreaking is set for May 23 for the Katy academic building, said Jay Neal, associate vice president and chief operating officer for University of Houston at Sugar Land and University of Houston at Katy.

Neal called the building beautiful and said Were very mindful this will be the first building, so were setting the tone for where we want to go. The building was designed by SmithGroup JJR + Harrison Kornberg Architects.

Groundbreaking occurred March 23 for the UH College of Technology in Sugar Land. The $54 million, three-story, 100,000-square-foot building will house 10 research labs and programs in construction management and engineering technology. Labs will include a fabrications lab, materials lab, rapid prototype lab and a 3D-printing lab.

In 2012, UH moved its digital media program to UH Sugar Land. That was followed in 2016 by its biotechnology program. The campus is located at 14000 University Blvd.

Tellepsen Builders also is constructing the Sugar Land building, which was designed by Page Architects.

Both the Katy academic and Sugar Land College of Technology buildings are scheduled to open in the fall of 2019. Both also are funded by a 2015 allocation from the 84th Texas Legislature.

Neal anticipates enrollment increases at both campuses after the buildings are completed. This years enrollment at Sugar Land already increased by 16 percent over spring of 2017 to more than 2,000 students, he added.

As to Katy, Neal talks about UHs relationship with the community. The Katy Area Economic Development Council identifies business needs which the university works to meet with its programs. Because of the nearness of the Energy Corridor, the curriculum includes engineering studies.

Neal talks, too, of the nursing program with a bachelor of science degree as another example of the college offering curriculum to target the needs of the nearby population.

karen.zurawski@chron.com
Montgomery County commissioners approved a $3.3 million contract with Houston-based Dannenbaum Engineering Company for the design work on a project to widen Texas 242 from two lanes to four lanes between FM 1314 and U.S. 59.

The project, according to Precinct 4 Commissioner Jim Clark, is a partnership with the Texas Department of Transportation. According to information on the TxDOT website, the project is estimated to cost about $40.6 million. The amount the county will pay of that was not available from Clark.

"It's going to allow us to move the project forward a lot faster," Clark said of awarding the contract. He said the rights of way already had been purchased saving time on the project.

The widening, Clark said, is a critical mobility project for the county.

"When (Texas 242) was complete, it was undersized, but we were glad to get it," he said. "But it should have been four lanes to begin with."

For the Texas 242 overpass, the construction is expected to start in two months instead of in 2023. The construction of four lanes from Interstate 45 to FM 1314 also will begin in 2019 with an estimated completion date of late 2019/early 2020.

Along with the road construction projects, TxDOT is planning to upgrade the traffic signals at Texas 242 and FM 1485.

The Texas 242 project is one of Clark's projects to be funded by the $280 million November 2015 road bond.

The county sold bonds in 2016 totaling $140.4 million, leaving another $139.6 million still on the table from the 2015 road bond referendum. Out of the $140.4 million, Precinct 1 received $25 million of its allotted $64 million; Precinct 2 received $30 million of its $64 million; Precinct 3 received $65 million of its $84 million; and Precinct 4 received $20 million of its $68 million, according to a report from the Montgomery County Auditor's Office.

During the court's March 20 meeting, it agreed to move forward with the potential sale of an additional $50 million bonds.

cdominguez@hcnonline.com
Austin-based Yeti has come under fire from the National Rifle Association after a lobbyist for the pro-gun organization claims the outdoor company dropped the NRA without a reason.

Yeti clarified on Monday that they've never dropped the NRA. Instead, Yeti said it was eliminating "a group of outdated discounting programs" and called the NRA's statement was "inaccurate."

SEVERED TIES: More companies end ties with NRA as pressure mounts

The rumors of Yeti severing ties with the NRA started on Saturday, when lobbyist Marion Hammer wrote a letter claiming Yeti was no longer going to be a vendor for organization.

"Suddenly, without prior notice, YETI has declined to do business with The NRA Foundation saying they no longer wish to be an NRA vendor, and refused to say why," Marrion said in her letter. "They will only say they will no longer sell products to The NRA Foundation. That certainly isn't sportsmanlike. In fact, YETI should be ashamed. They have declined to continue helping America's young people enjoy outdoor recreational activities."

Marion ended her letter with a link to Yeti's contact information and the sentence, "In this day and age, information is power. We thought you needed this information."

Yeti released a statement on Twitter Monday, denying that it was severing ties with the NRA.

NRA IN MEDIA: Woman becomes NRA's new face

"A few weeks ago, Yeti notified the NRA Foundation, as well as a number of other organizations, that we were eliminating a group of outdated discounting programs," Yeti said in the statement. "When we notified the NRA Foundation and the other organizations of this change, Yeti explained that we were offering them an alternative customization program broadly available to consumers and organizations, including the NRA Foundation. These facts directly contradict the inaccurate statement the NRA-ILA distributed on April 20."

To further put out any rumors that Yeti doesn't support gun rights, the company ended its release by saying, "Moreover, Yeti is unwavering in our belief in commitment to the Constitution of the United States and its Second Amendment."

BUSTED: Yeti reportedly sues three companies over similar designs

A slew of companies have decided to end business ties with the NRA. First National Bank of Omaha chose not to renew its contract to issue an NRA Visa card in February due to customer. Delta and United airlines, Best Western and other companies have also cut ties with the NRA.

Companies that have cut ties with the NRA are not always so clear as to why they chose to end the relationship.

The Washington Post notes that there is continued public outrage for the shooting at Marjory Stonemason Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Police said a former student killed 17 people with a legally purchased semi-automatic rifle. The NRA has become a target for some of the outrage.

Will Axford is a digital reporter for Chron.com and HoustonChronicle.com. Follow him on Twitter.
According to the Houston Coalition for the Homeless, there are 3,412 homeless individuals in Houston, Harris County and Fort Bend County, on any given night.

In order to combat this issue, New Hope Housing partnered with CORT, a part of Warren Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway, to open its eighth apartment community for local adults living alone on a limited income. New Hope Housing at Harrisburg is a 175-unit single room occupancy (SRO) development with retail and commercial office space in Houstons historic East End located at 3315 Harrisburg Blvd.

CORT provided furnishings for the entire community at Harrisburg in an effort to turn hope into home for some of Houstons most vulnerable individuals. Each apartment is a fully furnished efficiency, including a private bathroom and kitchenette, equipped with a microwave and refrigerator. Residents also have access to shared spaces such as a kitchen, business center, library, theatre and dining room, and social service rooms for life skills programs. CORT created an atmosphere of community and engagement in each space to ensure residents feel safe, comfortable and at home.

Affordable and supportive housing is essential in Houston as rental prices continue to increase, said Todd Shell, regional manager of supportive housing and treatment facilities at CORT. CORT is very active in supporting local supportive housing initiatives, and this is just another opportunity for us to lend a helping hand to a community in need.

New Hope Housing has helped more than 9,500 individuals live in high-quality, affordable housing with access to life-enhancing support services. Residents at the organizations eight housing developments include the working poor, formerly homeless, veterans, the elderly, the chronically ill, people with cognitive and physical impairments and individuals overcoming substance abuse. As a company dedicated to supporting local causes, CORT jumped at the opportunity to join forces with New Hope Housing in order to make a substantial impact in Houston and address the issue of homelessness, especially as the city copes with rebuilding after Hurricane Harvey, which destroyed many affordable housing apartments.

Our goal in working with New Hope Housing was to provide an atmosphere where residents feel at home and comfortable to pursue a fresh start in life, said Shell. Its a wonderful experience to be a part of a company like CORT that advocates for issues in local communities. Hopefully this partnership will inspire other companies to help combat homelessness.

All of New Hope Housings properties offer essential on-site support and recovery services to help residents maintain a safe, healthy lifestyle. Available services include case management, primary and mental health care, legal aid, health and nutrition counseling, financial education, life-skills training, and occasionally rental support.

To learn more about how to get involved, visit newhopehousing.com/get-involved.
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.
Houston Methodist Primary Care Group has announced that Sudha Nagaraj, M.D. is now seeing patients in Sugar Land at 4660 Sweetwater Blvd., Suite 210.

Nagaraj adds another board-certified internal medicine specialist to the team of primary care providers serving the Sweetwater community.

Nagaraj has a broad range of clinical expertise, including prevention and wellness, diagnosis and management of acute and chronic illnesses, health screenings, routine immunizations, hypertension, high cholesterol and diabetes.

Prior to joining Houston Methodist Primary Care Group, Nagaraj served as an assistant professor at the Baylor College of Medicine and was consistently recognized for excellence in patient care.

She attended medical school in Chennai, India and, in addition to English, is also fluent in Tamil and Hindi. After receiving her medical degree from the Madras Medical College, Nagaraj went on to complete the University of California-Los Angeles Internal Medicine Residency Training Program at West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center in California.

In the sick room, 10 cents worth of human understanding equals 10 dollars worth of medical science - this quote has been my guiding mantra as a physician over the years, Nagaraj said. Im excited to form trusting partnerships with my patients in an effort to improve their overall health.

To schedule an appointment with Sudha Nagaraj, M.D. or another Houston Methodist Primary Care Group physician, visit houstonmethodist.org/pcg/sweetwater or call 281-930-6639.
A Fort Worth man on Texas death row was denied clemency and a late-stage federal appeal on Monday, barely 48 hours before he is scheduled for execution in the Huntsville death chamber.

Erick Davila was convicted of killing a rival gang member's mother and a 5-year-old girl at a Hannah Montana-themed children's birthday party in 2008.

He was sentenced to death in 2009 but his lawyers have since argued that Annette and Queshawn Stevenson were not his intended victims, according to court filings. Instead, attorney Seth Kretzer alleged that Davila was high at the time of the slayings, and also that he only meant to one person, rival gang member Jerry Stevenson. Killing one person is not necessarily a death-eligible crime.

READ MORE: Express lane to death: Texas seeks approval to speed up death penalty appeals, execute more quickly

"The jury never learned that at the time of the shooting Davila was heavily intoxicated, likely to the degree that it would have rendered him temporarily insane," Kretzer wrote in a court filing earlier this month.



Kretzer said prosecutors of withheld knowledge that Davila was on a combination of PCP, ecstasy and marijuana - an alleged oversight that he said would violate a Supreme Court decision known as Brady v. Maryland, which requires prosecutors to turn over evidence favorable to the defense.

But the U.S. Fifth Circuit, in a Monday decision, wrote that defense lawyers could have already known about Davila's heavy drug use the night of the crime.

READ ALSO: New Texas prisons inspector general to take the helm in June

"We are unpersuaded that his counsel was not also reasonably on notice about the relation between drugs and the events of the shooting," the court wrote.

Now, Davila's lawyer is pursuing his claims in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Davila is scheduled to die by lethal injection Wednesday at 6 p.m. If everything continues as planned, he will be the fifth Texas inmate to be executed in 2018.
Two teams of lawyers are caught up in last-minute courtroom wrangling over who will represent an intellectually disabled and schizophrenic Texas death row inmate just weeks before his scheduled execution in June.

The Houston office of law firm Hogan Lovells on Monday filed a request to let Maryland-based attorney Lee Kovarsky take over and bump the current lawyers off the case of Clifton Williams, claiming the existing legal team abandoned their client when they allegedly stopped visiting him or working on his appeals in 2015.

The East Texas man was convicted of robbing 93-year-old Cecilia Schneider before stabbing her and setting her body on fire. Now, lawyers say he may be too mentally impaired to be put to death.

"With his execution fewer than 65 days away, Mr. Williams is effectively without counsel," Kovarsky's team wrote in a motion asking to substitute as Williams' defense counsel in place of Wes Volberding and Houston-based attorney Seth Kretzer.

Kretzer pushed back, highlighting his role in winning a stay of execution before a 2015 death date and adding that he'd already begun work on an appeal and was open to outside help.

"The only question is how many people wanna get on that boat and row with us," he said.

To anyone following the Texas death penalty closely, this may sound a bit familiar. Kovarsky squared off with Kretzer and Volberding in a 2015 legal fight involving death row prisoner Robert Leslie Roberson, an Anderson County man convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter.

At first, the courts refused to let Kovarsky and the Texas Defender Service take over that case. Later, Kovarsky stepped in with an execution on the horizon and Roberson was granted a stay and the case sent back to a lower court over so-called junk science.

This time around, Kretzer and Volberding initiated the request to let the other legal team take over the case earlier this month.

Less than a week later a federal court denied that request, and that same day a Hogan Lovells attorney visited Williams on death row and asked him to weigh in.

"I thought Seth and West (sic) were off my case since 2015. I haven't heard from them since then. They didn't tell me when I got an excution (sic) date, not in 2015, and not this time. I don't want them to represent me now," Williams scrawled in a hand-written note. "I would like help getting new lawyers for my case and I would like Hogan Lovells and Lee Kovarsky to repersent (sic) me."

Having a lawyer on the case, Kovarsky and his team argue, is especially important given the possibility that Williams' low IQ and schizophrenia could render him ineligible for the death penalty. In addition to filing their request to take over the case Monday, the lawyers filed a motion requesting a stay of execution.

Also Monday, Kretzer and Volberding entered filings rebutting the other legal team's claims, pointing out that they visited their client on April 13.

"It is true we have had no reason to visit Williams since 2015, as nothing had happened since 2015 in his federal case in which we were involved," they wrote. Instead, the case was tied up for a time in state court over DNA analysis issues - and another lawyer handled that part of the legal process. Those proceedings ended in fall 2017.

"It is simply untrue that Williams was ever abandoned or left without counsel," Kretzer wrote. Reached by phone Tuesday, he questioned why Hogan Lovells was interested in taking on the case.

"If I were Hogan Lovells, I would not go moonlighting in death cases," he said.

Though Kretzer and Volberding objected to the other legal team's description of their handling of the case, they wrote in filings that they would be willing to work together.

"If the Court wishes for us to continue representation, we are willing and able to do so," they wrote. "What we do not wish, is to do our best for Mr. Williams while defending our work against Hogan Lovells and Professor Kovarsky at each level."

Williams is scheduled to die by lethal injection June 21 in Huntsville.

Texas already has executed four men this year. The next, Erick Davila, is scheduled to die Wednesday. He also is represented by Kretzer, who argued the case in front of the Supreme Court last year.
Houston First Corp. and city planners announced an ambitious project Tuesday to again turn the Theater District's Jones Plaza into a destination and bring it further into the 21st century by redeveloping it with fundraising dollars.

Words like "underutilized" have been used to describe the plaza, bounded by Smith, Louisiana, Texas and Capitol. There is a struggle for the large concrete outpost to be exciting, as design tastes have changed. Redesigning the plaza was a part of a 2015 Theater District Master Plan.

OUT WEST: Houston's Party on the Plaza makes a return

Astros owner Jim Crane and his wife, Whitney, announced Tuesday that they are donating $1 million to revitalize the downtown plaza. Just blocks from Minute Maid Park, it could be a destination for Astros fans after games.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner spoke of his support for the project. He obviously has high hopes for the 1.5 acres on the west end of downtown.

"I believe what Discovery Green has done for the east side of downtown with its great diversity of performances and public art, the redesign of Jones Plaza will do not only for the Theater District but for the west side of downtown. It will be a game changer," he said.

JAM ON: Houston's favorite long-gone, but not forgotten, live music venues

A projected budget of $25 million will turn it into a public green space. A $20 million fundraising campaign is underway. Rios Clementi Hale Studios has been picked to handle the redesign process.

Expect more shade, more food options and private event spaces that can be rented out for events.

"Rios Clementi Hale Studios is thrilled to work with the Houston First Corporation, the city of Houston, and Theater District stakeholders on the redesign of Jones Plaza. For us, this is a remarkable opportunity to bring together the two things  public open space and venues for the performing arts  which have been at the heart of our most rewarding work," said Nate Cormier in a statement.

Jones Plaza, at 600 Louisiana in the Theater District, was constructed in 1966 alongside Jones Hall just to its west. It opened in 1967, built over a busy theater district parking garage. For about two decades it wasn't exactly a hot spot of activity.

In the late 1980s and '90s the square-block plaza sprung to life. It was the place to be for free concerts and citywide parties. Then-Mayor Bob Lanier even threw a campaign bash there.

These days, that role as a community area is more than likely filled by the family friendly Discovery Green and Market Square Park.

According to Houston First, the project will get underway in 2019 with an eye for a November 2020 debut for the public, hopefully in time for Thanksgiving festivities.

HOU FAQ: Frequently asked questions that tourists might have about Houston

The popular Party on the Plaza concert series debuted in 1987 and acts like John Mayall, Joe Ely, Reverend Horton Heat, Marcia Ball, The Hunger, and Cracker were on various bills. PACE Concerts took over booking musical acts for the plaza concerts in 1994.

Party on the Plaza turned into "Seinfeld on the Plaza" on May 12, 1998, as fans of the NBC sitcom were able to watch the show's finale on four 60-inch screens before and after Soul Hat played.

The Party on the Plaza brand has since been revived and moved the Avenida Houston area in front of the George R. Brown Convention Center.

Scattered festivals and events are still held at Jones Plaza, but for the most part it has become unused, even with additions like extra bathrooms, pedestrian ramps, canopies and a permanent stage over the years.

The current - albeit perpetual - move to bring nightlife to downtown a revitalized Jones Plaza doesn't seem like a bad idea.

Craig Hlavaty is a reporter for Chron.com and HoustonChronicle.com.
A long-running feud between Near Northside residents and White Oak Music Hall has been settled, with the venue management installing new sound-monitoring equipment, capping the number of outdoor concerts and limiting the number and length of shows on school nights.

The residents, who have objected to the outdoor shows since the music complex opened two years ago, in turn dropped a lawsuit that sought to prevent window-rattling noise they say blared from amplified concerts in those early weeks. The lawsuit claimed the racket disturbed the quiet, threatened property values and distracted children who need to study.

The case also called into question city officials' ability to settle the high-profile public nuisance case in the transitioning neighborhood near downtown.

"The real issue that came out of all of this is the utter failure of the city of Houston to show leadership in resolving a community problem," attorney Cris Feldman said in announcing the settlement on Tuesday. He called the lawsuit "a very imperfect way to approach the issue because really it was a political issue that the city showed no leadership in whatsoever."

READ MORE: Neighbors of White Oak Music Hall target City Hall in lawsuit

Under the terms of the deal, the music hall at 2915 N. Main will hold no more than 40 amplified outdoor shows per year and a maximum of 20 on evenings before a regular school day. Shows scheduled on nights before State of Texas Assessment of Academic Resources, or STAAR, testing for grades 5-8 must end at 9:30 p.m.

In addition, the venue owners have installed sound monitoring equipment that transmits noise data online that neighbors can access. The equipment was used during a show on Saturday night.

Violations could lead to fines of up to $15,000.

"We think it is the quintessential definition of a compromise, with both groups agreeing on a middle-ground that addresses the plaintiffs' concerns regarding outdoor event frequency, outdoor event volume, and even such things as school testing schedules," White Oak Music Hall managing partner Johnny So said in a statement.

The management team did not elaborate.

From the outset, the music hall generated controversy over noise. Neighbors bombarded Houston police with more than a dozen complaints during the first outdoor show in April 2016. They later obtained a temporary restraining order against the venue.

Residents Jack Hart and Jeff Trevino say they both called the city numerous times over the noise and voiced their objections at city council meetings. Following a news conference announcing the settlement, they echoed Feldman's frustration.

Hart said Councilwoman Karla Cisneros and Mayor Sylvester Turner's office should have helped mediate the concerns of both the venue developers and residents early on. Not doing so, he said, left residents with no option but the courthouse.

"We wouldn't have been here had the city done their job," Hart said.

In a Tuesday afternoon statement, Cisneros noted that the music hall was already under construction when she took office and that the developers and neighborhood had a memorandum of understanding in place. She said she "proactively worked to ensure that the process of engagement was fair and that all sides were heard."

Cisneros also said such disputes are partly a consequence of not having zoning and that, regardless, the filling of the lawsuit made it impossible for her to "continue to mediate a resolution."

"This has been a long and tedious and drawn-out process," the statement read. "I am grateful that the parties have been able to reach a mutually acceptable settlement and congratulate them on finding a way to work together and move forward as good neighbors."

Turner spokesman Alan Bernstein said the city "is glad that the residents who went to court have dropped their lawsuit against the city and that the issue has been resolved."

Hart said he now believes the White Oak team will abide by the new terms set in the agreement, and that they two parties can become better neighbors moving forward.

ileana.najarro@chron.com

fernando.alfonso@chron.com
There were two dog bowls, two dog leashes, duct tape and condoms in Clarence McNatt's car when the former Houston police officer was arrested in November 2016 on two charges of solicitation of capital murder, accused of hiring two men to kidnap, sexually assault and kill his estranged wife and her friend.

The would-be hitmen were undercover officers from the Pasadena police department.

The implements were part of a cache of tools that 64-year-old McNatt wanted them to use to interrogate and torture the two women in an elaborate plan he detailed in a letter, prosecutors said Tuesday in opening statements of McNatt's trial.

"His hatred runs so deep," Assistant Harris County District Attorney Samantha Knecht told jurors. "You can see that from his letter to kidnap, sexually assault and kill his wife and her friend."

READ ALSO: Date set for Clara Harris release

Defense attorney Tommy LaFon is expected to argue that McNatt was going through a painful divorce with his younger wife and was encouraged by a neighbor to hire someone to pose as a Border Patrol agent to convince her that she was going to be deported.

"The solicitation of capital murder case just didn't happen," LaFon said outside of visiting state District Judge Reagan Clark's courtroom.

That neighbor, Robert Kent, was the second witness to testify and said he contacted Pasadena police after being approached repeatedly by McNatt. The two retirees lived near each other and spent their days working on cars, Kent said.

"At first, I thought it was a joke," Kent said on the witness said. "Then I figured out he was serious about it."

Kent testified that McNatt said he wanted his wife and her friend, a co-worker at the daycare where they worked, kidnapped, tortured and killed.

Because Kent went to the police during the Thanksgiving holiday and undercover officers were not immediately available, detectives advised him to get McNatt to write out the plan.

READ ALSO: Judge denies request to move murder case of deputy and husband accused of choking man at Denny's

That letter, read in court Tuesday, detailed an elaborate plan to kidnap the women together, interrogate them about their sexual history, then convince McNatt's estranged wife that she was facing deportation and kill her friend. In the letter, McNatt appears to concede that it may be easier for kidnappers to kill both women to cover their tracks, and that result would be fine with him.

McNatt allegedly offered the investigators $500, but eventually paid just $100 cash and three gold rings containing various stones. He has been in jail in lieu of $250,000 bail since his arrest on Nov. 30, 2016.

The allegations arose 30 years after McNatt was fired from HPD.

He began working as a police officer in July 1982 when he joined the Houston police department, according to Texas Commission on Law Enforcement records.

After being fired in 1986, McNatt allegedly threatened to kill the supervisor who investigated him.

No charges were filed and he went on to seek work at other police departments in the area, according to personnel records obtained by the Chronicle.

In March 1987, McNatt joined the police force of Ames, a small town in Liberty County and spent 16 months there.

In 1992, McNatt worked 30 months for the Galveston County town of Clear Lake Shores, where he obtained an Advanced Peace Officer certification before leaving police work in January 1995.

His peace officer license lapsed on Aug. 31, 2012.

The weeklong trial before Judge Clark is being held in a substitute courtroom in the federal courthouse in downtown Houston. The 20-story Harris County Criminal Justice Center remains closed after being damaged last year in Hurricane Harvey.

If convicted, McNatt faces the possibility of life in prison.

brian.rogers@chron.com

twitter.com/brianjrogers
Like it or not, Houstonians share the city with a lot of alligators.

As our Chamber of Commerce-friendly spring weather finally begins to give way to the warmer summer months those sizable four-legged creatures will start making their presence known.

UNLEASH THE BATS: After Harvey, how the bat colony is faring at Waugh bridge

According to Houston-based Texas Parks and Wildlife urban wildlife biologist Diana Foss, the armored reptiles have a good and very biological reason for being out and about right now.

"Now through May is peak breeding season for alligators here," Foss says. Nesting takes place in June and July, and the hatching usually occurs in late August and early September. From October until March they largely stay out of sight.

"In the spring, young male alligators tend to travel away from a dominant large male's territory to new habitat, in search of habitat to call their own territory," Foss says. "Males also have larger territories encompassing several female territories. We often see them when they're crossing the road that we've placed in their path."

MOVE ALONG: Police, parks officials relocate aggressive alligator in Atascocita

Sheldon Lake State Park, Brazos Bend State Park (you've seen the selfies), and several city and county parks are hot spots for gators in Houston, Foss says. Along with the stray garage in suburbia, naturally.

The largest gator recorded at Sheldon Park was a 13-footer. Back in 1890, a 19-foot gator was recorded in Louisiana, still a U.S. record.

Houston-area alligators also frequently find themselves temporarily displaced from traditional habitats in the wake of major flooding events.

There are three "top" predators in the greater Houston area: the alligator, coyotes and bobcats.

This makes the gator an important part of the freshwater marsh/wetland ecosystem we have going on here.

HOU FAQ: Frequently asked questions that tourists might have about Houston

"They specialize in eating smaller prey, so they keep mesocarnivore (think mid-tier critters like raccoons and opossums) populations in check, as well as other smaller gators, beaver, red-eared turtles, egrets, Muscovy ducks and other species that are often considered nuisance species to land managers," Foss says.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department website is a great resource for gator facts and figures.

While they can be fearsome, they have a role here in Houston. So don't get too frightened if you see one out on the prowl. It's best to call local authorities if one is found in the road lounging. He or she just needs to be relocated.

Major Chad Norvell / Twitter

Nuisance gators, ones that are a little too forward with people, should be reported immediately as they could be a threat to safety. If they have lost a fear of people they can be a big problem. While they are frightening to some people it should be reiterated that they do have a place in our ecosystem and coexistence is possible.

TPWD also has a helpful tip for estimating a gator's length. Observers can guess the distance between the eyes and nose in inches. For each of those inches, add one foot of length. So, four inches from eye to nose might equal four feet in length.

Craig Hlavaty is a reporter for Chron.com and HoustonChronicle.com.
AUSTIN -- Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew White, who faced pushback from his church for his political positions on abortion and gay marriage, says he has resigned as an elder in that church.

But in confirming his resignation to the Houston Chronicle, the 45-year-old Houston entrepreneur took a shot at Republican leaders who he said worship "a Jesus who is judgmental, revengeful and fear mongering."

"That's the Republican Party view of Jesus. I don't recognize that at all," he said, identifying those GOP leaders as "our new president and his favorite governor and his favorite lieutenant governor here in Texas."

In an interview, White said he has quit as an elder in the conservative Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) after his political positions that differed from the church's position generated controversy earlier this year.

Aides said he resigned quietly, without an announcement, on Jan. 30, several days after the news broke.

"The first job as an elder is not to create controversy in my church ... and that's what this was doing: creating controversy," White said in an interview. "I've resigned as an elder."

White, who holds a degree in religious studies from the University of Virginia, said he remains a member of Christ the King Presbyterian Church in Houston, a part of PCA.

The church where he was an elder may be steadfastly opposed to gay marriage, and considers homosexuality a sin. But White said he supports abortion rights and same-sex marriage as mandated by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In a May 22 runoff election, White faces Lupe Valdez, a former Dallas County sheriff who is lesbian.

"It's a church-state issue and there is a separation in my mind," White told the Houston Chronicle in January. "My personal faith is personal to me, but I will not let it interfere with how I govern."

White's church-and-state position became an issue in January, before the primary, after he Tweeted: "I'm for marriage equality and everyone deserves to be treated equally under the law."

Democratic loyalists quickly questioned his position of being personally against abortion, while recognizing that abortion remains legal and saying he would not try to change that if elected governor.

Within days church officials and PCA theologians piled on, criticizing his stand and calling for him to repent and follow PCA doctrine. He stuck to his position, saying he saw no divergence between his church's policy and how he would govern if elected governor.

In fact, at one point he noted that Republican leaders in Austin have been criticized for letting their church-going religious beliefs bleed over into their official state policy on various issues -- as he was separating his personal and political beliefs.

According to online policy papers, PCA opposes same-sex marriage and "does not regard it to be in keeping with God's intentions for marriage.

"We hope that the recent Supreme Court ruling does not become the occasion for limiting the religious and free-speech rights of believers and churches who, like others for thousands of years, sincerely believe in traditional marriage," states a church statement from 2015.

"The PCA, like other evangelical, conservative, orthodox, and traditional Christians from many denominations, believes that from creation God ordained the marriage covenant to be a bond only between one man and one woman. That understanding is what the Church has always believed, taught, and confessed. It is based upon the teachings of the Holy Scriptures and is clearly stated in the doctrinal standards of the PCA."

On homosexuality, the PCA holds a hard-line position.

"Given the serious threat that sexual perversion generally, and homosexuality in particular, represents to young people in our society, the congregations of PCA are encouraged to study the Scriptures, to pray for God's mercy and truth to triumph in the lives of people involved or affected by homosexuality" ... and encourage church leaders "to warn parents of the homosexual agenda being promoted through the agency of government schools."

"God has plainly spoken of homosexuality in his Word, denouncing both the act and the desire as a sin, condemning this perversion as unnatural, a degrading passion, an indecent act, an error, an abomination, and hence worthy of death," a scriptural reference that is excerpted in the PCA's position on the "homosexual agenda" from 1999.

In contrast, the Texas Democratic Party platform calls for Democrats to "denounce efforts to not comply with the U.S Supreme Court court decisions which guaranteed marriage equality to all couples, (and) to support municipal, state, and federal nondiscrimination laws which protect LGBTQ individuals in all aspects of their lives including housing, employment, adoption, education, commerce, and public accommodation."

It also calls for Democrats to "support the factual inclusion of the LGBTQ movement and individuals in history and social studies classes.

White earlier this year said he saw no divergence between his church's policy and how he would govern if elected governor.

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. Follow him on Twitter @ChronicleMike and send him story tips at Mike.Ward@Chron.com.
In new television ads, Republican Kevin Roberts is making the case that he is the best candidate running for the 2nd Congressional District to deal with persistent flooding problems.

In the 30-second ad, Roberts flashes scenes from Hurricane Harvey and calls the lingering impacts on the region a "failure of leadership." A narrator then tells viewers that Roberts is working with President Donald Trump to prevent another disaster.

Roberts is a state representative and has been at meetings with federal officials who have been responding to the flooding.

He has said in interviews with the Chronicle, that one of the benefits of his one term in the Legislature is his early introduction to dealing with bureaucracies and the persistent flooding issue around the region. He's been calling for the construction of a third reservoir and dredging of the San Jacinto River to prevent future flooding around Lake Houston and other parts of the 2nd Congressional District.

Roberts is battling Republican Dan Crenshaw in the GOP run off election on May 22. The two Republicans were the top vote-getters in the crowded nine-candidate field on March 6.

Crenshaw has also been trying to convince voters he is best able to fight for the region on flooding issues on Capitol Hill. On his website he also advocates for third reservoir and detention ponds along the tributaries leading into Lake Houston.

Roberts, the CEO of the Lanier Law Firm, has been in the state Legislature since winning his first election in 2016. Crenshaw is a retired Navy SEAL who has never run for office before.

Jeremy Wallace writes about state politics and government for the Chronicle. Follow him on Twitter at @JeremySWallace.
AUSTIN  The Texas Education Agency plans to spend nearly $212 million over the next five years in an attempt to fix systemic problems with special education in Texas schools, according to a final action plan released Tuesday.

Finding funds for new programs is likely to be a major challenge when lawmakers return in January, but officials are confident theyve already found the money to launch the program.

TEA officials acknowledged that students with special needs lag far behind their peers in reading and math skills, and say their plan includes efforts to boost academic achievement as well as address corrective actions required by the U.S. Department of Education. The federal agency determined that the state illegally set up an 8.5 percent benchmark  some critics considered it a de facto cap  on the number of students receiving special education services, well below the national average of 13 percent.

A 2016 Houston Chronicle investigation found that the practice led school districts to deny access to special education services to tens of thousands of students with disabilities.

The final version of the plan comes after months of draft proposals and feedback sessions with parents, educators, education advocates and students. The state is aiming to repair a decade-old practice that drastically reduced the number of students receiving special education services. TEA officials have repeatedly said the 8.5 percent benchmark was not a cap but an indicator of performance. But in practice, districts used the number as a cap, the Department of Education found, and denied or delayed services for children across the state.

TEA eliminated the policy two months after the Chronicles investigation. In May, Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law prohibiting the use of performance indicators based solely on the number of students receiving special education services.

The state will now increase school monitoring to ensure districts are meeting special education laws, train teachers and staff, increase family engagement and identify previously unidentified students who may be eligible for special education services. While the plan will require millions of dollars in funding, TEA officials said they have the money needed to put the plan in place. The agency does plan to ask the Legislature for more money in 2019 to cover costs associated with evaluating students who may need special education and offering compensatory services.

The Texas Education Agency is committed to providing the quality of support needed to improve outcomes for students with disabilities, said Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath. This strategic action plan provides a solid foundation for our state to make meaningful, lasting change in how we educate and support children with special needs.

Significant steps

Gov. Greg Abbott, who issued a scathing letter after the federal investigation, praised TEAs plan.

I am pleased with the urgency and commitment from the Texas Education Agency and Commissioner Morath to take significant steps to reform the special education system in Texas, Abbott said in a statement. Going forward, we will continue to work with parents and educators to ensure our students with special needs receive the services they deserve.

In the next five years, the state plans to spend $90 million on professional development, $65 million on compensatory services, and nearly $20 million on new monitoring staff. Penny Schwinn, the states Deputy Commissioner of Academics, said the corrective action plan is only a starting point in overhauling special education in Texas. She said TEA will continue to meet with parents, advocacy groups and students to ensure schools are meeting their academic needs.

Its step one, Schwinn said. The really hard work, and the test for the agency, happens moving forward.

Steven Aleman, a policy specialist with Disability Rights Texas, said the funding for the corrective action plan is only a down payment for meeting the needs of special education students. He also said the state needs to work with colleges and universities to ensure there are enough qualified special education teachers.

Its encouraging that there is a tremendous opportunity to make changes in the system, he said. But so many of the details are left to be determined that it is still unclear whether or at, at the end of th day, systems will improve and be more responsive for students.

alejandra.matos@chron.com

twitter.com/amatos12
AUSTIN  The University of Texas System is ready to sell 300 acres once envisioned as a new data research campus in Houston that sparked opposition from the University of Houston, Gov. Greg Abbott and local lawmakers.

But at least one state senator is concerned with how the system is going about getting its money back.

The UT System released a request for qualifications last week, asking buyers to submit bids for all, or large portions of, the land near the Texas Medical Center. Developers must provide a project concept for the site, which the system describes as potentially the largest contiguous developable property in the central part of Houston.

But state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, said hes concerned that the system didnt just put up a for sale sign like most people do.

My initial reaction, even after talking to some real-estate professionals, is its a strange way to do something, Whitmire said. I am very cynical and have earned a right to be about that investment.

The initiation of the sale is the latest step in a yearslong controversy that has plagued the UT System since it purchased the land in 2015 for $215 million. A task force tapped by the system pitched developing the land into a data analytics institute that would transform the energy industry, health care delivery and education systems. Some regents argued that the development was part of a broader vision to expand the UT system, rather than sticking to its mission of supporting its academic and health institutions.

The vision for expansion caught many by surprise, including University of Houston officials who feared UT would steal top faculty and siphon research funding. UH boosters went as far as to call the land purchase an invasion. Whitmire has also been critical of the land purchase.

By 2017, Chancellor William McRaven called off the development after opposition mounted from UT regents and lawmakers, who objected to the process by which UT obtained the land. Gov. Greg Abbott also opposed the land purchase.

In its request for qualifications for the sale, UT says the board of regents authorized the purchase and then commissioned a blue-ribbon task force that recommended the data research campus. UT envisioned the campus would house major companies, universities and national laboratories.

However, external forces led to the cancellation of the project, the document said. UT systems now plans to sell the Land pursuant to the RFQ.

The property is less than 3 miles from the Texas Medical Center and surrounds the intersection of Buffalo Speedway and Willowbend Boulevard, south of Loop 610. Whitmire doesnt think the UT System will ever recoup the money it paid for the land.

They paid a premium for some very poor land, said Whitmire, noting that some of the land is environmentally unsafe and contaminated. Theres a reason why in Houston, Texas, you have 300 acres, undeveloped and untouched by the private sector.

McRaven, who acknowledged the land was an abandoned oil field, said before calling off the project that no environmental conditions would prevent full development of the property.

After McRaven scrapped the development, regents put together a task force to decide how the system would unload the land it purchased. The RFQ was prepared at the direction of the task force, which is chaired by Houstonian Jeffery Hildebrand.

The Board of Regents has not authorized any building or programs on the property and ultimately expects to sell all of the land, the system said in a statement. Its goal is to maximize the financial value of the land to benefit the UT System and its institutions.

Responses are due May 21, after which the UT System will issue a second request to a select group of respondents who meet qualifications to be potential buyers.

alejandra.matos@chron.com

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Data and analytics remain top priorities for organizations in the digital era, with 37 percent of IT leaders saying that data analytics will drive the biggest chunk of their IT investments this year, ahead of security and risk management, according to CIO.coms 2020 State of the CIO survey.

And with that level of spending going toward analytics, the pressure is on to deliver results. Yet experts in this space say CIOs and their executive colleagues are falling short. There are challenges in getting these initiatives across the goal line, says Brad Fisher, a partner and the U.S. leader for data and analytics at KPMG.

Following are four key areas that are hindering analytics success:

Poor data foundations

Statistics from research and advisory firm Gartner confirm that most organizations believe data is critical, with nearly 80 percent of executives stating in a 2019 survey that their companies will lose competitive advantage if they dont effectively use data. Yet Gartner also found that more than half of organizations dont have a formal data governance framework and a dedicated budget.

The lack of such foundational elements can stymie organizational ambitions.

You need to be very intentional. And if youre not being intentional, you might not see value, says Roy Singh, a partner at Bain & Co. and a member of the firms Advanced Analytics and Enterprise Technology practices.

Without a fully implemented data governance program, organizations cant expect to have sound data hygiene practices in place. They cant access or integrate the data they have, as it remains locked away in departmental siloes. They might not even know what data they need to be effective.

They have islands of information, and they have parts of their companies doing some of the same types of things. Others have missed the mark because they have dirty data or theyre grabbing the wrong data sets or feeding it to their dashboards incorrectly, says Edward Matthews, an instructor at Boston Universitys Metropolitan College and a senior IT security engineer at Partners HealthCare. These companies think they have decent programs until they look at frameworks and they realize they dont.

Moreover, many organizations dont have the right foundational technologies to enable their objectives, as they chase tools that might promise big dividends yet arent good fits for their own needs, Matthews says. Or, conversely, they stick with tools that dont enable growth because they didnt devise a solid strategy from the start.

By creating a strategy for their data programsor, better still, a center of excellenceIT leaders can address the foundational pieces needed for success, including data governance, accountability, ownership of the various data program components, needed infrastructure, training requirements, strategic objectives and leadership.

Matthews points to the approach taken by a charity he once worked for as a good example. The organization committed to appropriately funding its analytics program, created an analytics team and assigned a senior vice president to lead it.

They were ahead of the curve, constantly researching what capabilities were out there, providing information to the company, which demonstrated their worth. The team grew and adapted; they didnt lock into particular data sets and ignore other data but were constantly thinking of new ways to check their data, and they were always considering new technologies, Matthews says. In this case, the CIO had the foresight to get the team created and hire the right person to lead the team.

The wrong strategy

On the other hand, organizations shouldnt view analytics as a monolithic undertaking, either. Experienced analytics leaders say theyve seen CIOs go big all at oncebuilding data lakes and implementing high-priced infrastructure, for exampleto jump-start analytics projects. They deliver their projects but then find the technology is underutilized or ignored.

Like any other tech-driven proposition, its better to implement targeted solutions that can demonstrate value to the users. Make sure youre solving business problems, says Dinanath (Dina) Kholkar, vice president and global head of the business process services and analytics units at Tata Consultancy Services.

Kholkar started his own firms data journey by targeting an area where a data project would deliver value and then moved to implement it. This approach allowed the team to clearly define objectives as well as identify the data and tools needed to meet them. In other words, this approach created manageable, achievable goals capable of generating measurable value. That then could become a showcase for the rest of the organization, Kholkar says.

[The business units] want to see results. They dont have the patience to wait for large transformational projects, he adds. And theyre OK not getting 100 percent results. If theyre getting 60 to 70 percent of outcomes to start, theyre OK, and then they can get incremental improvements from there. Because when you deliver outcomes, it gets easier to get the next wave of investments. Thats very important to keep in mind.

Similarly, experts advise CIOs to bring an iterative approach to their analytics program rather than going in with a big bang tech project.

It needs to be an interactive and experimental exercise where IT, business and data all work together in an agile mode, where theres high-velocity interaction between those three groups, where theyre able to run experiments and test hypotheses, Singh says.

Brian Hopkins, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, points to a retailer that created a three-year data strategy built on adding investments every year rather than leaping into the program with a single upfront investmentan approach that recognized the need to continually add and improve.

[This company] discovered that, like digital, once you start on an analytics program you shouldnt stop. You invest every year in advancing your data strategy, Hopkins adds.

Moreover, these iterative investments need to be driven by evolving business needsand not by new technology capabilities as they come onto the market. Organizations should build analytics capabilities business case by business case, incrementally expanding their data program by adopting more advanced tools and enabling more users to tackle increasingly complex problems.

The CIO needs to think of it as an iteration, in fact, many iterations. Theyre going to have to continually check [their data program] against the market and what their company is trying to accomplish, try new tools in parallel to what theyre using to test them out and then to be able to jump into a new tool if they think it can provide new information, Matthews says.

Failure to balance freedom and control

Despite big investments in analytics initiatives, executives say theyre still falling short in reaping benefits. In its Big Data and AI Executive Survey 2020, NewVantage Partners found that 74 percent of the 70 companies polled see business adoption of big data as a continuing struggle.

Failure to recognize and respect different user needs is one factor driving that high figure, according to Singh, who sees some data leaders allowing every business unit within their organizations to pursue its own data strategy without establishing organization-wide standardsan approach that creates inefficiencies and leaves many user groups floundering without any support.

Other organizations go to the opposite extreme by centralizing everything, which prevents savvy business users from scaling up quickly and the organization as a whole from reaching the programs full potential, Singh says.

But IT leaders who recognize the need to create an analytics program balanced between those two extremesand that can adjust to users differing needs within their organizationare the most successful, Singh explains.

You need a hybrid of being completely centralized and completely decentralized, and the balance between the two will change over time, maybe starting more centralized at first, he adds.

Singh points to the approach taken by one particular utility company. As its leaders invested in analytics capabilities, they recognized that the energy trading group had extensive experience with data science, so they built a self-service platform that adhered to the organizations data governance standards and technology requirements. But they also recognized its safety division was less experienced with analytics, so they crafted a strategy for those users that featured more centralized support.

Shortchanging the need for culture change

Still, executives need to devise more than just a holistic data program thats aligned with strategic goals. They also need to change the culture of their organizations so that users embrace the use of real-time data-driven insights and actually view engagement with data as the norm.

This is a shift in the entire business paradigm, and organizations need to plan for that change, says Tata Consultancys Kholkar.

Most organizations arent doing that. According to the NewVantage Partners report, only 38 percent of surveyed companies have created a data-driven organization and only 27 percent believe theyve built a data culture within their firms. Further, 91 percent said people and process challenges are their biggest barriers to becoming a data-driven organization.

Nassar Nizami, executive vice president and CIO at Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health in Philadelphia, has been maturing the data program at his institution by addressing technology needs, such as standardizing data and analytics tools and managing the data warehouse, and aligning the data programs priorities with the organizations overall strategy.

But he went further, driving the required cultural shifts in part through the creation of a training program called Jefferson Analytics Community (JAC). Its tagline is, Trouble getting data? You dont know JAC.

In creating JAC, our vision was to create a federated model of governed self-service analytics driven by operational owners, Nizami says. He adds that the objectives were to increase user adoption of analytics tools, transition from a data-rich organization to a data-driven one and promote self-service datagoals meant to increase productivity and decrease turnaround time.

Fisher says other CIOs and their executive partners need to follow suit by moving their analytics program from a great standalone effort that generates insights into something thats integrated in processes so that users see it as business as usual.

Users dont know or care what all the data sources are or how cool the data science is, Fisher says. They need to walk into their office or punch it into their phone and get the information they need to do their job. So it needs to look and feel like an application. That is something that the CIO uniquely understands.
Rapper Kanye West committed an act of cultural heresy over the weekend when he tweeted, I love the way Candace Owens thinks. Donald Trump supporters like Owens have little standing in the hip-hop world, much less in the mainstream black political consensus. Reactions to Wests tweet ranged from dismissive to contemptuous. To his credit, West stood by his original comment, tweeting, Constantly bringing up the past keeps you stuck there, self-victimization is a disease, and demonization is metastasizing.

The essence of Owenss (and Wests) message is that the obsessive focus on historical racism as the determining factor in the lives of American blacks today victimizes them by stripping them of individual agency. Candace Owens is certainly not the first black thinker to express such ideas. Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele, Walter E. Williams, and my Manhattan Institute colleague, Jason Riley, have made similar arguments. As Jason D. Hill wrote in Commentary, in a response to Ta-Nahesi Coatess victimhood opus, Between the World and Me:

I am saddened by your conviction that white people wield such a great deal of metaphysical power over the exercise of your own agency. In making an enemy of the Dream that is a constitutive feature of American identity, you have irrevocably alienated yourself from the redemptive hope, the inclusive unity, and the faith and charity that are necessary for America to move ever closer to achieving moral excellence. Sadder still, you have condemned the unyielding confidence in self that the Dream inspires.

Wests rejection of such a worldview represents a threat to the ideological monopoly that social justice warriors and Black Lives Matter advocates have enjoyed in the hip-hop universe. From its inception, the genre has generally reflected the left-wing consensus that minority communities are hapless victims of institutionalized racism and that individuals have no say in their destiny. For example, Big Puns Capital Punishment lays the woes of the ghetto at the feet of a government system so organized, theyll get to you and who you runnin with. In Murder to Excellence, West himself asserts that the lower life expectancy for black guys reflects that the systems working effectively.

But hip-hop artists have also expressed frustration with their communities for playing a role in perpetuating negative social conditions that define much of black America. In The Story of O.J., Jay-Z argues that young blacks reject bourgeois values like financial literacy and personal discipline to the detriment of themselves and future generations. You wanna know whats more important than throwin away money at a strip club? Jay-Z asks. Credit./ You ever wonder why Jewish people own all the property in America? This how they did it. In 44 More, Logic chastises rappers for their glorification of frivolous spending: You in the club throwin dollars/ but Im savin mine so my kids go to college. And in The Blacker the Berry, Kendrick Lamar highlights the hypocrisy of those who over-identify with official martyrs while ignoring the fact that most murdered young black men die at the hands of their fellows. So why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street? Lamar asks, when gang banging make me kill a nigga blacker than me?/ Hypocrite.

Conservatives and others who reject the liberal narrative of what it means to be black in America should be heartened by Wests tweets and by other examples of prominent hip-hop artists who have recognized the importance of individual initiative in uplifting minority communities. Wests tweets could expose his vast audience to conservative arguments with which it is largely unfamiliar. West may be dismissed as an eccentricand his newfound rhetoric may or may not prove short-livedbut if even only a few of his many fans reject the victimhood narrative as a result and accept that personal responsibility illuminates the path to excellence, then it will be to the good.

Photo by Jonathan Leibson/Getty Images
Years before the rise of online retailing, states tried to force out-of-state merchants who sold goods via catalogs to levy sales taxes on their residents. The Supreme Court, citing the principle that a state can require tax collection only from firms with a physical presence in their jurisdiction, struck down those efforts. But now South Dakota, encouraged by an opinion from Justice Anthony Kennedy, is urging the Court to allow it to collect sales taxes from online retailers. If the Court agrees in South Dakota v. Wayfair, many e-commerce firms could face unprecedented new burdens requiring them to track and file taxes in up to 45 states and potentially exposing them to audits in any of them. For some small firms, such changes could be fatal.

Even more troubling, though, is the role of the Trump administrations Justice Department, which intervened with a brief in support of South Dakota, in which the Solicitor General argues that the Court should expand the definition of what constitutes tax nexusthat is, the authority to levy taxesfrom physical presence in a state to virtual presence. The Justice Department brief is so vague and inexact on what virtual means that were the court to follow its advice, it might subject almost any enterprise that does business onlinein other words, just about any businessnot only to sales tax obligations but also, possibly, to corporate income taxes in places where these businesses dont operate. Its difficult to imagine a more unwise, uninformed approach to a complex issue.

The Supreme Court has interpreted the Constitutions Commerce Clausewhich gives the federal government the right to regulate interstate tradeas limiting the ability of states to tax businesses from other jurisdictions. A business must have a physical presencea local sales office, a distribution facility, a warehousein a state to establish tax nexus. States have long tried to get around the courts rulings, for instance by declaring that any firm trying to sell goods to in-state customers was automatically present in the state, even if the seller was located out of state. To clarify the issue, in 1959 Congress passed the Interstate Income Act, prohibiting states from applying their corporate taxes to firms if those businesses only activity was to solicit orders in a state.

As catalog retailing expanded, local governments also tried forcing out-of-state firms to collect sales tax. The court swatted these efforts down several times, most recently in 1992, when North Dakota claimed that Quill, an Illinois cataloger, had established a physical presence in the state when it sent floppy disks with product listings to in-state customers. The court ruled against North Dakota but noted that as technology changed the terms on which firms were doing business, Congress should intervene with new laws clarifying what constituted in-state presence.

Ironically, the Quill decision created an opening for states because it applied only to taxes that out-of-state firms might be required to pay on transactionsit said nothing about taxes on earnings or revenues, such as corporate income and gross-receipts levies. As technology evolved, states expanded the definition of what they considered physical presence for the purpose of grabbing corporate taxes from firms. Several dozen states now say that if a companys website is hosted on a server in-state, even if the firm has no other presence there, then that constitutes enough nexus to levy income taxes on the firm. Similarly, because the Interstate Income Act applies only to tangible goods, states are trying to dun out-of-state businesses that sell intangible products, like software and cloud-computing services, to residents or businesses in their jurisdictions. In testimony before Congress, for instance, the owner of South Carolina firm ProHelp Systems described how New Jersey forced it to pay corporate income tax for licensing a software program to an in-state firm. The fee that the software firm earned was less than the minimum corporate income tax; when other states began doing the same thing, the small firm decided to go out of business.

Meanwhile, as e-commerce has exploded, states complain that theyre losing sales tax to remote sellers. Though Amazon and other big online retailers now collect and pay sales tax because they have physical operations in many places, states saw an opportunity to grab revenue from smaller firms after Justice Kennedy wrote in a 2015 opinion that the Court should reevaluate the Quill decision. President Trumps selection of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court also buoyed states because Gorsuch had expressed similar sentiments while serving on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. Several states, including South Dakota, passed new laws requiring out-of-state e-commerce firms to collect taxes with the express purpose of generating a court challenge. The parties argued the case last week.

Settling this matter through the courts, however, is a recipe for trouble, because the justices cant possibly deal with all the nuances of the issue, which require legislation. The chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Robert Goodlatte, along with other members of Congress, has urged the court in an amicus brief to deny South Dakotas petition because it is Congresss job to sort this out. Acknowledging that Congress has struggled to find an answer, Goodlatte nonetheless observes that the Court should recognize that a lasting solution will require compromise, and respect and accommodate the ongoing, diligent efforts of Congress to find a fair solution consistent with Constitutional norms. Of course, the White House would participate in any legislative negotiations, and the president would have to sign a new bill into law. Why, instead, the Justice Department seems willing to hand over to the court a responsibility that the Constitution gives to Congress and the executive branch is baffling.

Even worse, the administrations brief urges the court to set a new definition for physical presence that could rewrite the rules of tax nexus dramatically. The brief begins by alleging that e-commerce firms create ubiquitous virtual existences online and then urges the court to use virtual presence as a way of defining whom a state can tax. Internet retailers can establish a pervasive and continuous presenceincluding by maintaining virtual storefronts that seek to replicate the experience of shopping in a physical store, available to every state resident 24 hours a dayeven in States where they have no employees or physical property, the brief declares. But the Solicitor General never explains how Wayfair (an ecommerce retailer of home goods) might be specifically targeting South Dakota residents. It is merely the businesss general web presence, accessible to any American with a computer and online connection, that makes it vulnerable to the tax man. While the Solicitor Generals brief concerns itself only with the sales taxes at issue in this case, the notion of physical presence applies to a much broader range of taxes. The Trump administrations argument, then, not only opens up small firms to assessing and collecting sales tax in dozens of states but also serves as an invitation to states to extend their hands into the pockets of distant firms via business levies like the corporate income tax or gross receipts tax. The bureaucratic burdens alone are daunting to imagine.

Its not easy to understand what would prompt an administration that bills itself as business-friendly and anti-bureaucratic to take such a position on something as central as the federal governments role in interstate commerce. One can only hope that cooler headsTrump economic adviser Larry Kudlow, say, or Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, or Treasury Under-Secretary David Malpasswill talk some sense into the Justice Department, if it isnt already too late.

Photo: AndreyPopov/iStock
The former head of finance at Welsh community regeneration charity NSA Afan has been jailed after stealing 54,000 from the organisation.

Wales Online reported that Gemma Ellen Mason was sentenced to 12 months in prison, and will serve half that time in custody before being released on licence.

It said that Swansea Crown Court heard last week that for three-and-a-half years Mason was using the charitys bank cards to buy things for herself - in total spending some 53,673 of the charitys money.

The website reported that Mason had spent the money on items including fake tan, designer clothes and shoes, handbags, make-up, a diamante-studded headboard, a sofa, novelty penis-shaped drinking straws, cocktail umbrellas, champagne buckets and a tablet computer.

Repayment demands

NSA Afan said it is seeking recovery of more than 500,000 from Mason after it received notices and invoices from the Welsh government in January for the amount.

The charity said it is required to repay 565,873-worth of grant funding wrongly claimed between 2010 and 2015 to the Welsh government.

This money comprises 496,340 from the Wales European Funding Office between 2010 and 2015 and 69,532 from the Welsh Government Communities First Funding between 2013 and 2015.

Ian Isaac, chief executive of NSA Afan, said: We are of the firm view that in each case Gemma Mason was seeking to unilaterally bring income into the organisation as part of deception to cover up here credit card fraud and theft of project cash sales which was taking place at the same time.

Commission inquiry

The Charity Commission launched an inquiry into the charity in July 2017 after its funding was suspended by the Welsh government.

At the time, the charity claimed it had been victimised by the Welsh government after theft by a single employee left 90,000 unaccounted for.
Some 20 financial services companies have signed up to an industry taskforce that aims to help boost social impact investing in the UK.

In November last year, an independent advisory group commissioned by the government, Allianz Global Investors, published a report with 53 recommendations for government, industry and umbrella organisations to help grow the social impact investing market.

Last month, Prime Minister Theresa May asked Elizabeth Corley, vice chair of Allianz, to lead an industry taskforce to progress recommendations from the report. The government is also said it would publish a policy response to the report in the summer.

Now, some 20 firms have pledged their support for the taskforce including Big Society Capital, Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and Big Issue Invest.

As part of the taskforce, the firms will aim to:

 Improve deal flow and the ability to invest at scale;

 Strengthen competence and confidence within the financial services industry;

 Develop better reporting of non-financial outcomes;

 Make it easier for people to invest;

 Maintain momentum and build cohesion across initiatives.

Corley said: To already have twenty firms on-board, with more in the pipeline, will help us accelerate our work and turn our advice into actions.

With research showing that more than half of people in the UK are interested in purchasing social impact investment products but that only nine per cent have done so, this is a market with enormous potential, waiting to be unlocked.

The firms that have pledged their commitment so far are:

 Aberdeen Standard Investments

 Albion Capital

 Allianz Global Investors

 Architas

 Barclays

 Big Issue Invest

 Big Society Capital

 CFA UK

 CFA Institute

 Columbia Threadneedle Investments

 Esmee Fairbairn Foundation

 Hermes Investment Management

 Janus Henderson

 Legal & General Group / LGIM

 M&S Bank

 M&G Investments

 Social Finance

 St. James's Place

 Triodos Bank UK

 Virgin Money

Social Investment Business, which is providing secretariat and project management support to the taskforce, says two more organisations are in the process of signing up.
Investigative reporters preach the gospel of the Freedom of Information Act. But too often, documents obtained through FOIA are redacted beyond practical use.

Stuart Wexler, a high school civics and government teacher from Hightstown, New Jersey, knows this struggle well. In 2015, while working on a book about religious terrorism, he filed several FOIA requests for documents that, Wexler tells CJR, would show how radical Christianity was connected to past racist crimes and white supremacy. The impossibility of obtaining full access to such records started him on a quest: designing a legislative fix that would fill the gaps left by FOIA law.

In particular, Wexler was chasing down a lead on Henry Alexander, a Ku Klux Klan member from Alabama who had been involved in the 1957 death of Willie Edwards, a black, 23-year old truck driver who had been forced to jump to his death by Alexander and Klan members near Montgomery. Before Alexander died, he confessed to his wifewhom Wexler has interviewedand there was talk that his role as an alleged FBI informant may have helped shield him from prosecution. Wexler filed a request with the FBI for documents related to a 1993 probe on the matter spearheaded by former director Louis Freeh.

I got everything but the Freeh-mandated investigation. I got nothing on their internal investigation into Henry Alexander, says Wexler. Hed run into the problem before, so much so that multiple chapters in his book include a disclosure about how the governments refusal to release documents had caused a new line of inquiry to fizzle and die.

[This happens] time and time again, and I am by no means the only person who has these problems, says Wexler, and reporters are among the most familiar with the frustration. Im getting denied in full. Plenty of people get materials but the redactions are so pronounced theres no way you can make heads or tails of it.

Frustrated, Wexler decided to ask his high school students to give it a try. They worked in pairs to write and submit FOIA requests to the FBI.

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The vast majority [of students] either didnt receive a response at all, or didnt for a very long time, says Abigail Nickerson, 19, who was in Wexlers class at the time. Now a sophomore at Vanderbilt University, Nickerson says the experience gave the students proof of a problem. [It showed us] how reluctant the government seemedto be in providing these files. Whether that was because of the complications in the system or administrative procedure, that got us going.

Wexlers students worked that year to write the Cold Case Records Collection Act, a bill that, if passed, could fill the holes left by the existing FOIA lawsuch as long wait times and agencies ability to redact large parts of documents. It would establish an independent review board to make decisions about the release of unredacted FBI and other government records on Civil Rightsera crimes, including those that remain unsolved. The class modeled its bill primarily after the John F. Kennedy Records Collection Act of 1992, which mandated that all assassination records be stored by the National Archives and Records Administration, and the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act of 2007, which established unsolved Civil Rights crimes divisions at both the FBI and the Department of Justice (the latter was reauthorized in 2016).

Wexlers students worked to write the Cold Case Records Collection Act, a bill that, if passed, could fill the holes left by the existing FOIA law.

Since then, three generations of students in Wexlers AP US government class have worked to write, lobby, and secure Congressional support for the bill. In 2017, the bill was introduced in the House by Illinois Representative Bobby Rush. Wexler says it has attracted support from the likes of Bill Baxleythe former attorney general from Alabama who famously told a KKK grand dragon to kiss my ass after the organization threatened him for reopening the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing case in the early 1970s. The bill also has support from Bobby DeLaughter, the Mississippi prosecutor who convicted Medgar Everss killer, and Democratic Senator Doug Jones, who beat Roy Moore in Alabamas special election last year. (Jones prosecuted Thomas Blanton, Jr. and Bobby Frank Cherry for the 16th Street bombing in 2001 and 2002, respectively.) The Southern Poverty Law Center, the New Jersey chapter of the NAACP and the Emmett Till Justice Project also support the bill, according to Wexler.

For Stanley Nelson, a reporter at the Concordia Sentinel in Ferriday, Louisiana, the bill could prove instrumental. Nelson started reporting on cold cases from the Civil Rightsera in 2007, when the FBI reopened dozens of previously unsolved cases, including that of Frank Morris. Morris, a black shoe-shop owner with a racially diverse clientele in Ferriday, was murdered in 1964 after white men doused the storeand Morrisin gasoline and set it on fire.

Nelson got his hands on 150 pages of redacted records, supplied to him by the SPLC, that allowed him to write the first story in 2007. Soon after, he joined the Center for Investigative Reportings Civil Rights Cold Case Project, a coalition of investigative reporters working on projects related to unsolved cases. The Morris case and many of the more than 200 cold-case articles hes written since have been significantly delayed because of the time it takes to decipher intensely redacted files. For cases that are decades old, this can come with devastating consequences.

One suspect from the 1960s died six months after the Morris case was reopened in 2007, says Nelson. Had I been able to get my hands on the file, I would have went and talked to him. I never knew who he was [because his name was removed from documents]. The more time that passes, witnesses and suspects are dying. If you can get that document with names, your work has been jump started.

Nelson, who is a vocal supporter the Cold Case Records Collection Act, says journalists play an important role in unearthing the full truth of this painful era in American history that could help readers understand the history behind law enforcements fragile relationship with communities of color.

We cannot begin to address those things honestly until we truly know what happened in our communities. We have to know the truth. Our ability to get to the truth is slowly dying because witnesses and suspects are dying, says Nelson. The documents, for journalists, are the pathway to finding the truth so it isnt hidden in some FBI vault.

Nelson keeps a folder of the obituaries of witnesses and suspects involved in cold cases he is investigating. Its now an inch and a half thick. The Cold Case Records Collection bill, he says, would make his work much faster, enabling him to reach people before they die, taking the truth with them. I think well be amazed at what we see. The bill is a great idea and is exactly what we need, he says.

With the help of the Morris documents, Nelson was able to investigate the cold case over 29 months, generating 122 stories on the murder. Giving reporters more efficient access to these kinds of documents could speed up the work of people like Nelson. Nelson was able to disprove a longstanding town rumor in Ferriday that said the violent act against Morris had stemmed from his facilitation of sexual encounters between black men and white women, a familiar excuse for racist violence in the South. It was a lie, spread by the KKK after his death in an attempt to diminish his reputation in the town. More of this kind of corrective work could be doneand much fasterif reporters like Nelson had easier access to cold-case documents.

The rumor about Morris was that he was involved in these illicit activities at night. [In fact], he was killed because he had gotten into an argument with a Concordia Parish deputy over [services rendered to his] cowboy boots, and [the deputy] not wanting to pay his bill, says Nelson. The deputy was going to teach him a lesson and it happened that Frank was in the shop in the middle of the night when they came. It had nothing to do with Frank being an immoral man. Thats truth.

Nelson heard from the granddaughter of Morris, who had seen his initial story. She told him that shed learned more about what happened to her grandfather in his story than shed ever known before.

For Wexlers students, the Cold Case Records Collection Act is about more than an attempt to reveal the difficulties of the FOIA process and to push the government to live up to its ideals about transparency. Its about closure for families and about correcting the historical record on an arearacethat we as a country, including the media, have handled miserably.

The idea that hopefully we could get some of these cases solved, especially for families that are still living without knowing what happened is the first primary goal, says Nickerson, the student from Wexlers original class. In all the ways our political system seems broken, to show that even a group of high schoolers without a lot of experience can call and email our representatives and get a bill introduced addressing an issue that we think is important shows that in some ways, our government is still capable of working in the ways its supposed to. I think itd be important to show people my age that changes can actually be made.

ICYMI: One legal case could open a can of worms for defamation suits against writers

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Alexandria Neason was CJRs staff writer and Senior Delacorte Fellow. Recently, she became an editor and producer at WNYCs Radiolab.
A week after the publication of James Comeys A Higher Loyalty kicked off a frenzied news cycle, a quartet of political books out today offer additional fodder for political junkies. The books are Amy Chozicks Chasing Hillary, a memoir of her decade covering two Clinton campaigns; Ronan Farrows War on Peace, his look at the changing face of American diplomacy; Jonah Goldbergs Suicide of the West, an effort by the conservative writer to account for the problems facing western societies; and Jake Tappers The Hellfire Club, a fictional account of a deadly conspiracy set in 1954 Washington, DC, with echoes in the present. Farrow (#27), Goldberg (#57), and Chozick (#73) are all in the top 100 bestsellers on Amazon as of this morning (Comeys remains in the top spot).

Given the endless interest in the 2016 election, Chozicks memoir of her time on the trail with Hillary Clinton will likely make the most news. Chozick served as The New York Timess lead reporter on the Clinton campaign, and also covered her 2008 effort during the Democratic primaries. The Washington Posts book critic Carlos Lozada describes Chasing Hillary as a buffet-style bookmedia criticism here, trail reminiscences there, political analysis and assorted recollections from Chozicks own past tossed throughout. Media watchers over the weekend quickly picked out Chozicks reckoning with the role her own papers coverage of Clintons email scandal played in the closing month of the most recent campaign. She expresses regret for focusing on emails hacked from John Podestas account, allowing, in her view, Times reporters to become puppets in Vladimir Putins master plan. Chozicks colleague Nick Confessore, who shared a byline with her on several of those stories, pushed back against that idea on Twitter.

The other books out today offer broader perspectives on the current political environment. Farrow, fresh off a Pulitzer win for his Harvey Weinstein bombshell, is promoting his look at the State Department in a time of waning influence and budget cuts. He tells NPR that the crisis didnt start under Trump: Its not unprecedented. This is something that has been a long time coming. Goldberg, a mainstay at National Review, earned plaudits from The New York Timess David Brooks, who calls Suicide of the West a debate-shifting book. Tappers fictional effort is a departure from his role as a CNN anchor, but BuzzFeeds Ben Smith writes that his thriller has the best qualities of this sort of historical fiction, which include the winking perspective of the present.

TRENDING: Meet the journalism student who found out she won a Pulitzer in class

None of these books will have the impact of Comeys look back at his time in the FBI and interactions with Donald Trump, but each offers a window into the state of politics in an era in which interest has never been higher. Below, excerpts from the books that offer a peak at their contents.

Chasing Hillary : The New York Times published an adaptation from Chozicks book with the provocative headline, They were never going to let me be president.

The New York Times published an adaptation from Chozicks book with the provocative headline, They were never going to let me be president. War on Peace : In The New Yorker, Farrow looks at the final days of Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State.

In The New Yorker, Farrow looks at the final days of Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State. Suicide of the West : National Review published an excerpt from Goldbergs book laying out his thesis of society at the precipice.

National Review published an excerpt from Goldbergs book laying out his thesis of society at the precipice. The Hellfire Club: Entertainment Weekly has the first chapter of Tappers thriller.

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Pete Vernon is a former CJR staff writer. Follow him on Twitter @ByPeteVernon.
One of the biggest U.S. online gun markets can be held liable for negligence for the private sale of a weapon used in a fatal shooting spree, a Wisconsin appeals court said in the first decision of its kind.

Armslist.com isnt protected by the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which largely immunizes online service providers from responsibility for posts by third-parties, the court said in reversing a lower courts ruling.

The act provides immunity to website operators, such as Armslist, only when the allegations treat the website as the publisher or speaker of third-party content, the court said Thursday in its unanimous ruling. The act does not protect a website operator from liability that arises from its own conduct in facilitating user activity.

The ruling is a setback to gun-rights activists and follows a number of deadly mass shootings, including a recent attack on a Florida high school that led to a curb on gun sales to younger buyers in that state. Armslists attorney, Joshua Maggard, didnt respond to a request for comment.

Online Sales

The lawsuit was filed after a domestic-violence abuser used a weapon he purchased on the site to murder his estranged wife, Zina Haughton, and several co-workers in a 2012 attack on a spa in Brookfield. The ruling, which removed a key defense for Armslist, means the case filed by Haughtons daughter will proceed to determine if the company is responsible.

Armsists website includes a notice at the bottom of the homepage telling users to always comply with local, state, federal and international law and says the company does not become involved in transactions between parties.

The shooter was prohibited from buying guns but evaded the background check through a private sale, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which represented the plaintiff, said in a statement. Armslist allegedly entered the online gun business after Amazon.com and other sites barred gun sales.

This court decision puts sites like Armslist on notice that they can and will be held accountable, said Kris Brown, co-president of the Brady Center.

The gun control organization has filed numerous lawsuits across the U.S. in which it seeks to hold brick-and-mortar stores liable for sales of weapons that were used in crimes. In such cases, the retailers are often accused of violating state laws by ignoring clues about dangerous or fraudulent buyers.

In one of the Brady Centers more high-profile cases, the group sued a maker of bump stocks  which allow semiautomatic weapons to emulate automatic fire  over the October 2017 massacre at a Las Vegas concert. Such a device was used to spray bullets at thousands of concert goers from the upper floor of a hotel. Fifty-eight people were killed and more than 700 injured.

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.
Southwest has sent a letter of apology, a $5,000 check and a $1,000 travel voucher to passengers who were on a flight that made an emergency landing in Philadelphia after an engine exploded.

Please accept our deepest apologies, Chairman Gary Kelly wrote in a letter dated April 18, a day after the accident.

An engine on a Southwest jet exploded Tuesday while the plane was flying from New York to Dallas, and debris hit it, causing extensive damage. Banking executive Jennifer Riordan, 43, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, was fatally injured when she was sucked partway through a shattered window, sending passengers scrambling to help her as the aircraft shook violently and went into a rapid descent.

We value you as our customer and hope you will allow us another opportunity to restore your confidence in Southwest as the airline you can count on for your travel needs, Kelly wrote in his letter. In this spirit, we are sending you a check in the amount of $5,000 to cover any of your immediate financial needs.

As a tangible gesture of our heartfelt sincerity, we are also sending you a $1,000 travel voucher, he wrote.

Passenger Marty Martinez of Dallas said he has no immediate plan to cash the check. He wants to talk to a lawyer.

I didnt feel any sort of sincerity in the email whatsoever, and the $6,000 total that they gave to each passenger I dont think comes even remotely close to the price that many of us will have to pay for a lifetime, he said Friday as he prepared to board a Southwest flight from New York.

Eric Zilbert of Davis, California, said he did not have a problem with the letter. He said he appreciated he would not have to file claim forms.

After checking with his attorney, he decided he would cash his check.

I just wanted to make sure I didnt preclude anything by taking the voucher or the check, he said.

The plane was carrying 144 passengers. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the engine explosion.

A public memorial service for Riordan is set for Sunday in Albuquerque.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis has released a top 10 list of most wanted insurance fraud criminals and called on local communities to help find the individuals.

According to a statement from the Florida Department of Financial Services, each of the following individuals is wanted for various insurance-fraud related crimes:

Anthony Fitzgerald Phillips, last known address Fullerton, Calf.: Grand theft.

Huberto Del Sol Puerto, last known address Hialeah/Miami, Fla.: Organized fraud ($50,000 or More), false and fraudulent insurance claims, grand theft (3rd Degree), money laundering, false statement (Jurisdiction of Department of State).

Gabriel Sanchez, last known address Miami, Fla.: Racketeering.

William Brenes, last known address Hillsborough County: Fraudulently presenting a false statement ($100,000 or more).

Jose Alexis Orellana Ramos, last known address North Lauderdale, Fla.: Organized fraud ($50,000 or more), grand theft (1st Degree, $100,000 or more), workers compensation fraud (Over $100,000).

Joseph J. Beckford, last known address Carrollton, Ga.: False and fraudulent insurance claim.

Bernardo Romero-Ortiz, last known address Orlando, Fla.: Workers compensation fraud ($100,000 or more); organized fraud.

Roland Terencio Delgado, last known address Coral Gables, Fla.: Racketeering, grand theft (2 Counts).

Paul Emmanuel Pierre, last known address Orlando, Fla.: Racketeering, false and fraudulent insurance claim.

Javier Lopez Rivero, last known address Miami, Fla.: Racketeering, grand theft, false and fraudulent insurance claims.

Insurance fraud drives up the cost of insurance on all Florida families and businesses and the criminals behind this type of activity need to be put in jail, said Patronis. An aware and engaged community bolsters our fraud-fighting forces. Insurance fraud is not a victimless crime and its important we, as a community, protect each other from those who engage in fraudulent behavior.

Members of the community are urged to assist with fraud-fighting efforts by reporting any suspicious behavior to authorities. To report suspected insurance fraud, call 1-800-378-0445. Callers can choose to remain anonymous and callers who provide information that leads to a successful prosecution are eligible for a cash reward.

Source: Florida Department of Financial Services
The San Francisco Bay Area is falling behind on efforts to retrofit buildings that are vulnerable to collapse during a major earthquake, according to a newspaper analysis.

The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday that there are up to 3,000 brittle concrete structures in San Francisco, yet the city doesnt have a list of where they are located. The building type is one of the deadliest in quakes.

Across the bay in Oakland, there are nearly 2,000 possibly vulnerable wood-frame apartment buildings at risk of collapse in a seismic event  and there is no law to require them to be fixed. And San Jose doesnt even have a list of its more than 1,000 apartment blocks thought to be at risk, the newspaper said.

Five years ago, San Francisco made history by becoming the first of Californias largest cities to require property owners to retrofit wood-frame apartments at serious risk of collapse in a major quake, like the one that destroyed much of the city in 1906.

Since then, new efforts have stalled in San Francisco and surrounding cities, while communities in Southern California have expanded mandatory seismic retrofitting efforts, according to the Times.

Across the Bay Area, there are an estimated 18,000 vulnerable wood-frame soft-story buildings that can collapse when upper stories fall on the flimsy ground floor holding parking or stores. Sixteen people died when a similar-type apartment structure crumbled in the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

The Bay Area has become rather complacent about quake risks, said Arrietta Chakos, policy adviser to the resilience program at the Association of Bay Area Governments. Its a deep concern for me that people arent saying, `We just have to do this. 

Some Bay Area cities acknowledged to the Times that theyre behind and are hoping to catch up. Others defended their approach, saying theyre moving in a thoughtful, methodical manner needed to painstakingly gather political consensus.

Dont be too impressed by starting quickly. The question is when you finish, said David Bonowitz, a structural engineer consulting with the Applied Technology Council, which is assisting San Francisco on seismic safety issues.

In recent years, Los Angeles and a few Southern California cities have taken the lead in seismic safety requirements. Los Angeles, Santa Monica and West Hollywood require fixes to wood-frame apartments and concrete buildings. Vulnerable steel-frame buildings in West Hollywood and Santa Monica are also now required to be retrofitted.

The Southern California Association of Governments is assisting cities interested in following LAs lead.

A landmark study by the U.S. Geological Survey unveiled last week showed how the Hayward fault in the East Bay is potentially more dangerous than the San Andreas fault in the Bay Area.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Next time you order take out, take a moment to register the delivery driver  they could just be kind of a big deal. At least, that's the case at Deliveroo, where co-founder and CEO Will Shu still regularly delivers food to customers near his home in Notting Hill, London. What started out as necessity for the former Morgan Stanley investment banker-turned-entrepreneur has now become an important part of his strategy, Shu told CNBC Make It in Singapore. "At first, I didn't really have a choice; it wasn't like I decided to do it," Shu said, referring to the eight months he spent as a delivery driver when he and childhood friend, Greg Orlowski, first launched Deliveroo back in 2013.

Will Shu, co-founder and CEO of Deliveroo Deliveroo

"I funded it with my own money in the beginning, so you just do everything." But, five years on, Shu still delivers once every two weeks despite sitting at the helm of the $2 billion company. "I still do deliveries once every two weeks. You get to really understand what restaurateurs are thinking, what customers are thinking, what drivers are thinking. I've done every job in the company. I think it's invaluable," explained Shu. "No one recognizes me, so I'm always just talking to riders going 'what do you think of this thing?'" That's an important consideration for Deliveroo, which alongside Uber is one of several so-called gig economy companies under continued scrutiny over their employer responsibilities.

User trials the app for Deliveroo's new Editions site in Lavender, Singapore Deliveroo

Shu said his experience on the ground allows him to "know what riders want better than anyone else,"  namely flexibility  and he continues to work with governments to find a balance in the "trade-off" between flexibility, pay and benefits. But he certainly doesn't expect a celebrity reception when he drops off an order. An American of Chinese descent, 38-year-old Shu says he still enjoys a degree of anonymity despite the company's quick international expansion to more than 150 cities in 12 countries. "There's one lesson I learned that was completely unexpected," Shu said of his delivery practice. "I've learned that no one ever wants to talk to you when they're hungry. They just shut the door and that's about it." He doesn't mind. He didn't launch Deliveroo to become a famous entrepreneur, he said he simply wanted to satisfy his passion  food  and recommended other hopefuls follow the same tack. "My biggest piece of advice is do something that you actually care about personally," said Shu. "Literally, I just wanted to create a company to deliver great food quickly," said Shu. "That was really it. I didn't have any other ideas."

Rider trials the site for Deliveroo's new Editions site in Lavender, Singapore Deliveroo
CNBC's John Harwood spoke with Stephanie Schriock, president of Emily's List, about the importance of the Me Too movement in politics  and the challenges it presents. Here is an edited excerpt of their conversation.

Harwood: How much do you see Me Too as part of this moment?

Schriock: I think it is a big part. This whole moment started November of 2016, that night where Hillary lost and he won. And then those women marched. Millions of women marched. Empowerment and community came together in that march.

Me Too comes out of that that recognition that I can speak my truth and not get shamed for it 'cause they're gonna be with me. And that's exactly what happened here. It is the beginning of a sea change.

Harwood: You got Al Franken elected to the Senate in 2008. Do you think that the Me Too movement went too far in his case? And do you worry about it going too far in other cases?

Schriock: This is a time of beginning a cultural change. Women feel that they're able to say what happened to them. And for decades, if not for centuries, they weren't allowed to do that  or if they did, they were ashamed to do it. So I think we have to continue hearing, and listening, and ensuring that women are taken seriously.

Harwood: Did Franken get a raw deal?

Schriock: I think he got caught up in a moment with some women who stood up and had experiences, real experiences.
Barriers into the pharmaceutical business might be too high even for Amazon, said billionaire hedge-fund manager Larry Robbins.

Last fall, a report surfaced that the e-commerce giant had obtained wholesale pharmacy licenses in multiple states in an attempt to enter the pharmaceutical market and decrease rising health-care costs.

While Robbins acknowledged Amazon will likely try in some form to enter the market, the odds are stacked against the company.

"You need separate custody, pick, pack, and ship facilities around the United States," Robbins told CNBC's David Faber during the Sohn Conference in New York on Monday. "You can't commingle opioids or narcotics with other general merchandise goods. You need cold storage through the entire chain. Plus, you need to connect all the suppliers with all the customers. The customers aren't necessarily Amazon's consumers, but the customers are places where pharmacy actually happens."

Health-care costs are rising not because of the delivery model, Robbins added, but rather because the U.S. population is aging and because the U.S. is a "compassionate nation."

"We spend a lot in end-of-life care," he said. "I don't think any of those companies or any of us are going to change those facts and circumstances."

Robbins, who is the CEO and founder of Glenview Capital Management, a firm that has more than $16 billion in assets under management, pointed out that UPS tried unsuccessfully to enter the pharmaceutical distribution business in 2006.

Most of the 4 billion prescriptions dispensed in the U.S. each year are filled at one of 60,000 retail pharmacy locations.

In January, a report from the financial research firm Leerink said Amazon had expanded its team exploring entry into the pharmaceutical business to as many as 40 people.

Then earlier this month Amazon Business, which sells in bulk to businesses, put the brakes on its plan to sell and distribute pharmaceutical products after it failed to persuade big hospitals to alter the way they purchase supplies. Typically, hospitals buy supplies in bulk through a series of middlemen and long-standing relationships.

And nothing beats an in-person pharmacist, Robbins said.

"Unlike many businesses that Amazon has appropriately automated, there's always going to be a human pharmacist that has a role both regulatorily as well as consumer preference because we're dealing with life-saving medical issues," he said.

However, Robbins remains bullish on health-care stocks and made his pitch for companies to watch. His picks include the Express Scripts-Cigna and CVS-Aetna mergers and McKesson.

"In this market where everyone keeps telling us where the market's so expensive, everything's picked over, we've now talked about five or six or seven stocks that all seem to be trading around 10 times earnings," he said.
The 2017 pay for the CEO of United Airlines was nearly half that of the year before, as the airline faced a number of public relations disasters, including the violent dragging of a passenger off one of its flights last April.

Oscar Munoz took home $9.56 million last year, nearly half of compensation in 2016, the company said in a filing on Monday. Munoz told employees that he suggested that the company's compensation committee not give him a bonus.

In the letter to employees, which was seen by CNBC, Munoz said: "I felt it was important to send a message about the culture of accountability and integrity that we are building here as a United team."

"We had some incredible successes in 2017, but also some setbacks," he said.

United Continental Holdings, the airline's parent, is set have a new chairman, as well. Current chairman, Robert Milton, the former CEO of Air Canada, will not seek reelection, the company said in the filing. Another board member, Laurence Simmons, is also not seeking reelection and the board will be reduced from 16 to 14 members.

The airline has faced numerous challenges since the dragging of passenger David Dao off a flight in April 2017 after he refused to deplane to make room for a commuting crew member. Several pets died aboard its planes, including a French bulldog puppy that had been placed in an overhead bin last month. The airline's aggressive expansion plan also spooked investors earlier this year.

But better-than-expected profits last week appeared to assuage some of those concerns. The company's stock is up more than 4 percent so far this year, compared with a more than 10 percent drop in American Airlines' share price and 2.5 percent drop in Delta Air Lines' stock.
A central force behind this year's midterm election campaign is neither a political party nor a candidate. It's Emily's List, which for the last three decades has worked to assist Democratic women in politics. Originally organized around fundraising  Emily is an acronym for Early Money Is Like Yeast  the group now recruits and trains as well as finances women candidates. Its only litmus-test issue is support for abortion rights. What makes the organization loom so large in 2018 is the combination of Hillary Clinton's 2016 defeat and Donald Trump's provocations from the White House. More than 300 women  a record  are now running for Congress. Thousands more have stepped forward for offices at all levels of government. Speakeasy podcast: Listen to John Harwood's discussion with Stephanie Schriock here That the emergent Me Too movement has also propelled women into the 2018 arena adds a special irony. Before becoming president of Emily's List, Stephanie Schriock managed the winning 2008 Senate campaign of Al Franken  whose resignation last year made him the highest-profile Democratic casualty of the movement. I talked with Schriock at Emily's List headquarters in downtown Washington about prospects for women fueling a Democratic takeover of Congress. What follows is a condensed, edited transcript of our conversation. Harwood: Tell me what these people are doing. Schriock: So to the right of us, we've got the digital team that oversees all of our social media, as well as our online fundraising and web presence, and then our communications team. To the left, you've got training and recruitment. These are the folks who work day to day with the candidates themselves. Harwood: Now, you mentioned that the carpet color changes. What does that signify? Schriock: This is a big change. So right here, just last June, was a wall. And we have expanded the organization, physically tore down walls, to handle this. Harwood: How many people did you add? Schriock: We have added over 30 more people. And usually we downsize after a major election like 2016. We kept everybody on and just kept growing. So we're over 100 staff now. Harwood: How many donors do you have? Schriock: Hundreds of thousands. And growing rapidly. This election cycle, why I think it is a sea change moment, is that we have had now over 36,000 women come to Emily's List, raise their hand, and say, "I want to run." Harwood: At all levels? Schriock: At all levels. And the truth is most of them don't know what they're running for yet. They maybe don't know when they're running, but have gotten over that first major obstacle, which is just that desire, interest, belief that they could do it. That's a massive change. And when more of them run, others will see them run. Young girls will see more women in their legislatures, in their government. It will be a massive change.

CNBC's John Harwood speaks with Stephanie Schriock the President of Emilys List. Pat Anastasi | CNBC

Harwood: Tell me how much of this moment that we're in, the sea change moment you were describing, is about Clinton and what happened to Clinton in 2016, and how much of it is about Trump. Schriock: I think it is the one-two punch of those two things. There was, going into November '16, so much pent up energy and emotion among women whose dreams were wrapped up in Hillary Clinton winning that election. I saw it all over the country when I traveled. Women would well up with tears in their eyes going, "Do you think this is going to happen?" And so afraid to show the emotion for fear that it wasn't going to happen. So that was already built in. And then it didn't happen. And then she lost to THAT guy  of all people  who is not qualified, who said such disgusting things about women, who clearly disrespects women. That one-two punch really did cause this ignition of energy across the country. And that's what we're seeing. That's what we're seeing right now. Harwood: You have a reputation for being pretty tough minded. Tell me about the process that you go through with a potential woman candidate. How do you vet how viable that person is, whether she's worth supporting by Emily's List. And you have to say, "No, sorry. Can't do it." Schriock: The hard part comes in one, does the candidate have a story to tell and an understanding of the district? We'll take the long shots. We've got to know that there's something there that's going to get us to a potential win. And that's when the endorsement comes. If we see that that candidate's not doing the work, she's not doing the call time to do the fundraising, or she's not going to all of the events in the evening to talk to folks, then we may not get in that race. Harwood: I'm looking at these pictures of Emily's List-backed candidates who became governors of their states. When you look back on the history of the organization is there an example or two of women who you guys made the tough decision not to support and they made it anyway? Schriock: We have supported every one of those pro-choice Democratic women who serve, oddly, except for one in her first race. Harwood: Who was that? Schriock: And that was Nancy Pelosi. Because she came in right before we started doing House races. Harwood: What do you advise people as a matter of strategy to do about situations like Conor Lamb found himself in when he was running? You want a Democratic majority. He's trying to win a very Trumpy district. And he says in the campaign, "I don't support Pelosi for speaker." How do you feel about that and what do you advise women candidates in more conservative districts to say to that question? Schriock: We need to win. So if you feel like you're in a district that you need other make those types of positions, you've got to [do] what you've got to do to win. Harwood: You don't care? Schriock: We just have to win. We have to take back the majority, and that's really critically important. Harwood: Do you have any women candidates right now who are saying that they don't support Pelosi as speaker?
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has decided not recuse himself from the ongoing criminal investigation of President Donald Trump's long-time personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, according to Bloomberg News.

But Sessions will consider not handling specific questions related to that investigation of Cohen, the report said.

Sessions' decision contrasts with his recusal from any probes related to Trump's presidential campaign, including the one led by special counsel Robert Mueller.

It also contrasts with the recusal from the Cohen investigation by Geoffrey Berman, the interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. The Cohen probe is being handled in that office by Berman's deputy, Robert Khuzami.

Because Trump had personally interviewed Berman for the job, concerns were raised about Berman's independence. But it is not known if that played a role in his decision to recuse himself in Cohen's case.

By not recusing himself, Sessions can be briefed about the status of the Cohen probe and participate in decisions on how to handle the case.
Alibaba is "fighting actively" against fakes, but that isn't something Amazon is doing well, according to Swatch Group CEO Nick Hayek. Commenting on whether Amazon is delivering added value for consumers, Hayek conceded that "in a way, yes, they deliver a product." But Chinese companies like Alibaba are doing better, he told CNBC's Geoff Cutmore. "If I look what Alibaba is doing and all these they are trying to make a service to the consumer and to earn money. And they are fighting actively against fakes. This Amazon is not doing," he said. "They refuse to enter into discussion because they have, I think, 10,000 of lawyers that say, 'Please, we at Amazon, we should not enter into anything that should force us to fight against fakes.' The Chinese are doing it. They fight against it," the CEO said.

Getty Images

CNBC reported in 2016 that Amazon had been facing a counterfeiting problem following the e-commerce giant's effort to openly court Chinese manufacturers. Critics said Amazon hadn't put the necessary checks in place to manage the influx of counterfeits. In an email to CNBC, an Amazon spokesperson said the company invests "tremendous resources" into systems that protect customers from inauthentic goods. "We quickly investigate reports of suspected infringement and we hold bad actors accountable. Our efforts are even more effective when brands work collaboratively with us, which happens every day," said the spokesperson, who added that the company "welcomed the opportunity to work with Swatch" in its Brand Registry. That initiative aims to reduce intellectual property violations, and more than 40,000 brands are registered under this scheme, according to the company. "Brands in Brand Registry, on average, report 99% fewer suspected infringements compared with before the launch of Brand Registry, and Amazon took action on 93% of all notices of potential infringement received from Brand Registry within four hours," the spokesperson said. Amazon's anti-counterfeiting policy, as stated on its website, maintains that the "sale of counterfeit products is strictly prohibited" and the "failure to abide by this policy may result in loss of selling privileges, funds being withheld, and destruction of inventory in our possession." "We stand behind the products sold on our site with our A-to-z Guarantee, and we encourage rights owners who have product authenticity concerns to notify us. We will promptly investigate and take all appropriate actions to protect customers, sellers, and rights holders," the company says on its website.

Workers distribute express parcels at a logistics centre of China Post during Alibaba Group's Singles' Day global shopping festival on November 11, 2016 in Ganyu, China. VCG | Getty Images

But some corners of Alibaba's offerings have long been regarded as a haven for counterfeit products. Its Taobao e-commerce platform was blacklisted by the U.S. Trade Representative for a second consecutive time this year for selling suspected fakes. That move drew protests from Alibaba, which said it did not reflect the company's intellectual property protection efforts. China's commerce ministry had responded with doubts over the "objectivity" of the annual U.S. blacklist.

Chinese politics doing 'the right things'
Just because some people don't want Facebook using their data to make a profit doesn't mean they wouldn't be willing to do so themselves.

The typical American even has an asking price for their social media data: Around $2,160.

But residents in some states value their information more than others. For example, people in Vermont say they won't take less than $4,000 for their data, while West Virginians would give access to their personal details for just $375.

That's all according to a new survey from consumer information website Security Baron. The site polled 3,000 people to find out what price they would set for their social media data if someone was willing to buy it.
Marc Andreessen, co-founder and general partner of Andreessen Horowitz, speaks during the TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco 2016 Summit in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2016.

Leading venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is adding new roles for cryptocurrency that suggest the launch of a new fund focused on buying and selling crypto assets.

The two jobs posted on the company's website, which Recode first reported, are for a "separately managed fund focusing on crypto assets."

The shop, based in Menlo Park, California, has invested in well-known companies in the space, including Ripple and Coinbase, as well as crypto-only funds such as Polychain Capital. It has also invested in initial coin offerings, but this would mark the firm's first move into publicly trading assets such as bitcoin.

Andreessen Horowitz is looking for a new manager to handle "all financial operations relating to a separately managed fund focusing on crypto assets," according to the job posting. The company is also looking for legal counsel to handle all regulatory aspects of the new fund, the job posting said.

While the posts don't spell out what crypto "assets" might include, the legal job gives hints. This lawyer would focus on SEC compliance and would be operating in an area where the "regulatory, legal and business climate remains largely unsettled."

That area sounds like the cryptocurrency space, where regulators have been working out the details of compliance and have cracked down on initial coin offering, or ICO, fraud this year.

Andreessen Horowitz's fifth and most recent fund, announced in June, raised $1.5 billion, according to a company blog post. That fund is focused on early-stage and mid-stage-growth tech companies, the firm said.

Andreessen Horowitz did not immediately respond to CNBC's requests for comment.

Bitcoin is recovering from its worst quarter in history after surging more than 1,300 percent in 2017. Bitcoin hit its highest level in more than a month Tuesday after the cryptocurrency fell 48 percent in the first three months of 2018.
In this photo taken April 19, 2018, campaign signs from both CD8 candidates adorn the main entrance sign to the city of Glendale in Glendale, Ariz. A special election is being held Tuesday to fill the seat left open by Republican Rep. Trent Franks, as Republican Debbie Lesko and Democratic candidate Dr. Hiral Tipirneni square off.

Democrats aim for another special election upset in a red area, this time in Arizona, but Republicans appear poised to avoid their second national debacle in two months.

Even if Republicans on Tuesday hold on to the House seat outside of Phoenix, Democrats hope they can add to a string of races in which they outperformed 2016 results in GOP-leaning pockets of the country. The ability to improve in red regions is critical for Democrats as they try to win the 23 GOP-held House seats needed to take a majority in the chamber in November.

Demographics and strong Republican leanings give the GOP a strong cushion in its effort to hold on to Arizona's 8th District House seat. The office was vacated when Republican Rep. Trent Franks  who held it since 2003  resigned amid a sexual harassment scandal.

The election pits GOP state Sen. Debbie Lesko against Democratic former physician Hiral Tipirneni. Polling of the race has been limited and results have varied, but early voting patterns appear to favor Lesko.

While Tipirneni had raised more money and had more cash on hand than Lesko as of earlier this month, the Republican got a boost from national GOP groups trying to avoid another upset. Sensing a possible threat following a Democratic special election win in Pennsylvania, national Republicans injected some cash into the race.

Outside organizations including the National Republican Congressional Committee have spent about $740,000 supporting Lesko, while groups have put just under $50,000 toward opposing her, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Meanwhile, outside groups have dropped more than $500,000 in anti-Tipirneni spending, compared with only about $230,000 spent to back her campaign. National Democratic Party groups have not gotten involved.
Artyom Geodakyan | TASS

Armenia's prime minister stepped down Monday after nearly two weeks of anti-government protests, in a surprise victory for tens of thousands of peaceful demonstrators. The ex-Soviet republic of about 3 million, sandwiched in the mountainous Caucasus region between Europe and Asia, relies heavily on Russia, both militarily and economically. A change in government could threaten Russia's level of influence in the country  meaning the Kremlin will be watching closely as developments unfold.

What happened in Armenia?

Serzh Sargsyan, who served as the country's prime minister for 10 years, is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and was accused of clinging to power by followers of the protest movement led by opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan. Constitutional changes made under Sargsyan's government enabled a concentration of power in the hands of the prime minister. "I got it wrong," Sargsyan said in a statement following the release of Pashinyan, who had been arrested, and nearly 200 detained protesters, most of whom were young people and students. "I am quitting the country's leadership and the post of prime minister of Armenia." Former Armenian PM Karen Karapetyan, an ally of the ousted leader, has assumed the position for the time being, and the parliament must put forward the name of a new prime minister within seven days. Sargsyan's allies remain in the government, but the opposition parties are likely to push for greater recognition of the protest movement. This may be a challenge considering they form a tiny minority in parliament  Pashinyan's opposition coalition, the "Way Out", has just nine seats out of 105 in the Armenian National Assembly.

Russia watching closely

Still, any potential changes  particularly one triggered by a grassroots-led popular effort  is anathema to nearby Russia, which considers Armenia strategically important. "Moscow is definitely nervous, and watching how this plays out with great interest as it sees Armenia as its backyard and within its strategic umbrella," said Timothy Ash, senior emerging markets strategist at Bluebay Asset Management. "Putin also despises so-called colored revolutions where grassroots, people power, grasp power from established authorities." Armenia is a member of the Moscow-led Eurasian Union, a sort of counter to the European Union (EU), which it joined at the expense of potential memberships in EU partnership projects. It benefits from cheap financing, energy and investment from Russia, and has 5,000 Russian troops defending its borders. It also relies on Russia as a strategic ally in its long-standing ethnic and territorial dispute with neighbor Azerbaijan over the district of Nagorno Karabakh, which has been the scene of numerous firefights, mortar and tank warfare, with around 200 soldiers and civilians killed since 2008.

Russian former President Dmitry Medvedev (L) and his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarksyan (R) attend a news conference in Yerevan on August 20, 2010, when Armenia and Russia signed a deal extending the presence of Russian forces in the ex-Soviet republic by decades, bolstering Moscow's military clout in the strategic South Caucasus region. AFP PHOTO | RIA NOVOSTI | KREMLIN POOL | MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV

While the current acting prime minister is trusted by Moscow, "I think they would be nervous at any scenario which saw the current administration ousted and a completely new government created, e.g. around Pashinyan, whom I don't think they trust," Ash said.

The government's future 'completely unknown'
President Donald Trump on Tuesday batted away the question of whether he will pardon his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, who is facing an investigation into potential financial crimes.

The curt exchange came in the midst of French President Emmanuel Macron, who is making his first official state visit to the U.S. this week.

Asked if he plans to pardon Cohen, whose residence and office were raided by the FBI in April, Trump said it was a "stupid question."

Trump's response came amid a flurry of speculation about Cohen's future in light of the aggressive raids, which were reportedly sparked by a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating the links between Trump's campaign and Russia.

Trump also recently pardoned Lewis "Scooter" Libby, chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, who was convicted of lying to investigators and obstructing justice in the infamous Valerie Plame scandal. Trump suggested in a later tweet that more pardons could be forthcoming.

Trump tweet

The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment on Trump's remark.

Cohen, as well as a lawyer for Trump, attended a Manhattan court hearing last week to argue that they should be the first to review the documents that were seized in the raids. Lawyers for both Trump and Cohen have argued that swaths of the materials should be protected by attorney-client confidentiality privileges.

Some of the seized materials are reportedly related to porn star Stormy Daniels, who is suing Trump and Cohen to void a contract she signed before the election barring her from discussing an alleged affair, as well as the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape in which Trump is heard making sexual and lewd remarks about women.

Cohen brokered Daniels' contract, and paid her $130,000 as part of the agreement, which was signed just a few weeks before the 2016 election.

Trump and Macron were slated to address reporters at the White House during a joint press conference later Tuesday morning as part of Macron's three-day visit to the U.S.
Bangladeshi garment-makers continue to face "life-threatening" conditions in thousands of factories, five years after the collapse of a workshop that killed 1,134 people.

That's according to a study by New York University's Centre for Business and Human Rights, which found that 3,000 of Bangladesh's 7,000 factories endanger the lives of their low-wage garment workers.

The majority of larger factories have complied with safety standards introduced by global fashion brands in the wake of the 2013 Rana Plaza tragedy.

NYU said addressing dangerous factories could cost up to $1.2 billion.

In a report marking the fifth anniversary of the disaster, international firms and government organizations were warned that they must take "shared responsibility" to improve the lives of those working in supply chains.

"Those who benefit from the Bangladeshi garment industry's low-cost, high-volume model, also have an obligation to do more," said Michael Posner, professor of ethics and finance at New York University's Stern School of Business.

The Rana Plaza collapse sparked international condemnation and scrutiny of an industry notorious for its hazardous workplaces and poor wages.

Major Western clothing brands and retailers, including H&M and Primark, joined trade unions to create the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh in 2013.

The accord is a legally-binding agreement by which brands must shoulder the costs of improving health and safety in Bangladeshi factories. But joining it is a voluntary act.

The current agreement expires in May, with 154 brands signed up to the renewed 2018 accord.

The majority of signatories are German brands, including sportswear giants Adidas and Puma. Twenty U.S brands have signed up to the 2018 accord.

However, smaller factories are more likely to pose a higher risk to life than larger factories, as many are not covered by the accord and often receive subcontracted work.
Billionaire Tom Steyer, one of the leading Democratic megadonors in the 2018 election cycle, suggested he could get involved in a Senate battle brewing in the red state of Texas.

In an exclusive interview with CNBC, the founder of nonprofit group NextGen America said he has not ruled out backing Rep. Beto O'Rourke, a Democrat, running against conservative Republican incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz.

"We are intrigued by Texas, and we are aware what we have to do in order to have an impact on a state that big. We need a lot of resources, but we have not made a decision to be involved with it," Steyer said.

The billionaire donor's consideration about jumping into the fray is the latest bit of intrigue in the race. O'Rourke is starting to creep up in the polls while raking in cash in his bid to defeat Cruz, who had sought the 2016 GOP presidential nomination. A Democrat hasn't held a U.S. Senate seat from Texas since 1993.

"The idea that Texas is even in play is sort of mind boggling," Steyer said.

A Quinnipiac poll from last week showed Cruz with a 3-point lead over O'Rourke, a difference that's within the margin of error. However, 53 percent of respondents said they did not yet know enough about the underdog Democrat to form an opinion of him.

O'Rourke has been winning in the fundraising battle.

He more than doubled the amount Cruz raised in the first quarter of 2018, bringing in $6.7 million. The Republican raised $3.2 million during that period.
California's secession movement will get a second try as the state's "war" against the Trump administration rages on several fronts. On Monday, the California Secretary of State's Office announced that a secession ballot proposal has been cleared to begin gathering needed signatures. It comes amid other efforts that seek to split up California. "Calexit is left  we are progressive, and that's why we don't like Trump," said Marcus Ruiz Evans, one of the leaders of the Yes California campaign seeking California independence. "But there are some very hardcore Republican concepts to Calexit, including the group saying don't waste our tax money." Evans said the group's membership has risen by "about four times" to roughly 44,000 members since the election of President Donald Trump.

A similar effort by the backers of Calexit failed last year after negative fallout emerged following the disclosure that its leader, Louis J. Marinelli, was living in Russia. Marinelli, who is still listed as one of the backers of the measure, said in an interview he "travels to Russia and has worked there from time to time but is still a resident of California." If the current Calexit measure gets enough signatures to qualify, it would result in a special election in 2021 to ask California voters whether the state should become an independent country. The backers have until mid-October to get almost 366,000 signatures of registered voters to qualify it for the ballot.

Long-shot effort

However, some analysts suggest the secession effort has a long shot passing. A Berkeley IGS Poll released in March 2017 found Californians oppose independence from the U.S. by more than 2-to-1. "They'll be a lot of notoriety, there will be a lot of publicity but I think in practical terms it's going to fizzle out," said Seth Kaplowitz, a finance lecturer at San Diego State University. "It would be ridiculous to secede from the union. The only person who would probably be happy about that is probably Donald Trump." There have been more than 200 attempts throughout California's history to split up the state.

Fifth-largest economy in the world

Some argue that California, the fifth-largest economy in the world, already has essentially acted like a separate country by signing agreements, or memorandums of understanding, with nations on issues as well as climate change. For example, Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown signed an agreement last year to work with China to fight climate change. That move came a week after Trump announced his intention for the U.S. to withdraw from the Paris climate accord. California's state leaders also have taken a different view from the Trump administration when it comes to issues including offshore oil drilling, undocumented immigration, health care, federal lands.

'War' with the Trump administration

Earlier this month, the Trump administration filed a lawsuit against California's so-called sanctuary state laws aimed at protecting undocumented immigrants. In response, Brown said, "This is basically going to war against the state of California, the engine of the American economy."

More than 30 lawsuits have been filed between California and the federal government since Trump was sworn into office in January 2017. Trump, who has called California "out of control," sought to cut law enforcement funds over the sanctuary policies in the state last year but a court ruled against the administration.

Getting shortchanged

Regardless, Evans contends that Californians don't get their fair share of federal spending for the money paid by taxpayers in the Golden State. Figures from the conservative Tax Foundation show California got back an estimated 78 cents on each dollar paid in 2005 to the federal government while Alabama received $1.66 and Kentucky got $1.51. Evans maintains that if California were an independent nation, it could eliminate bureaucracy by half and cut overall taxes for businesses and individuals. Kaplowitz doesn't buy the argument that an independent California would necessarily help business. "Everybody is leaving California because they're overtaxed by the state," he said. "Businesses are leaving, people are moving to Washington state and Texas and the other states that don't have [an] income tax."

Splitting California in three

Meantime, there's also a measure backed by Silicon Valley billionaire Tim Draper to split California into three separate states.

Draper's plan would create a Northern California state that includes San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Sacramento, a Southern California state with San Diego, the Inland Empire counties and portions of the state's southern Central Valley. A third state would retain the name California and include Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and several other counties along the coast. "All this is basically saying is that we're really not one state  we're so large and we really have three different personalities," said Kaplowitz. "Therefore, each personality should be its own state. The reality is that you can say that about virtually any state."

November ballot

Draper, chairman of the so-called "CAL 3" campaign, announced earlier this month his group planned to submit more than 600,000 signatures, or nearly twice the amount required by law, to qualify for the Nov. 6 ballot. "CAL 3 is committed to solving California's most pressing issues, including the state's failing school systems that impact more than 6 million kids, highest-in-the-nation taxes, deteriorating infrastructure and strained government," the group said recently. "Partitioning California into three states would empower regional communities to make better, fairer and more sensible decisions for their citizens." This isn't the first time Draper has sought to split up California. He backed a 2014 effort to break up California into six states, but despite spending more than $5 million on the measure it failed to qualify for the ballot. Even if Draper's group gets enough signatures this time, though, it still won't be easy to split up the state, which joined the union in 1850. The Legislature would need to give its consent along with Congress.

Creating a 'New California'
A bill before the California Senate would seek to create limited-service banks and credit unions for the cannabis industry, which is largely banned from using the regular banking system.

Senate Bill 930, which would allow marijuana businesses to write special checks to pay some of their businesses expenses, was approved on a unanimous vote by the Senate Bank and Financial Institutions Committee on Wednesday. The legislation was introduced in January by Sen. Robert Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys.

Under the bill, the state would allow for the creation of limited-charter licenses for bank and credit unions overseen by the Department of Business Oversight, the state's financial regulator. The special-charter institutions would be allowed to issue special checks that could be used to pay state or local fees and taxes, rent on property associated with cannabis businesses and vendors of the pot businesses, or to buy state or local bonds or warrants.

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Bill would provide workplace discrimination protection for medical cannabis users

Women-owned cannabis law firm to open office in Sacramento

2 River Labs to open cannabis testing facility in North Sacramento

"The idea is to not have these businesses show up at state offices with suitcases of cash to pay their taxes," said Katie Hanzlik, press officer with Hertzberg's office.

The limited-use checks would not be in the traditional federal checking system, known as the automated clearinghouse, or ACH.

Even though California has legalized the use of cannabis by adults, it is still illegal under federal law. That means when cannabis-related money touches the federal money transfer system, it poses legal risks for federally chartered or federally insured banks or credit unions. Nearly all banks and credit unions are federally insured or chartered.

That federal-versus-state conflict has kept the majority of recreational marijuana transactions in cash, and prevents cannabis businesses from using electronic payments or direct deposits.

The California Department of Business Oversight has not taken a position on the legislation, "but we are trying to be helpful to the author," said Thomas Dresslar, deputy commissioner for the department.

He said the department has been working for years to solve the problem of the cannabis industry being stuck largely in cash.

"It's a public safety and worker safety problem," Dresslar said. "It's a real issue and it's a real problem."

The California Bankers Association has not taken a position on the legislation, said Beth Mills, a spokeswoman for the trade group.

"From the industry's perspective, the solution has to come from the federal government," she said.

The California State Treasurer's Office, likewise, has no position on Senate Bill 930, said spokesman Marc Lifsher.

The Treasurer's Office has been studying the potential creation of a state bank that could serve cannabis businesses.

"Nothing is going to change until the federal government takes (cannabis) off of being a Schedule 1 drug," Lifsher said. The Schedule 1 designation, under the federal Controlled Substances Act, puts marijuana in the same category as powerful drugs such as heroin, peyote and ecstasy.

Bankers can be prosecuted criminally for knowingly banking cannabis businesses under the Bank Secrecy Act, the USA Patriot Act, and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, Act.
Caterpillar's stock tumbled lower Tuesday after opening higher as investors reacted to comments from the company on its earnings conference call that first-quarter earnings would be the "high-water mark" for 2018.

Shares of Caterpillar opened solidly in the green following a first-quarter earnings report that handily beat analysts' expectations.

But Caterpillar shares reversed lower during the call, when Chief Financial Officer Brad Halverson said first-quarter adjusted profits per share will be the highest for the year because of increased investment later in 2018.

"We expect the targeted investments for future growth to be higher over the remaining three quarters," Halverson said. "The outlook assumes that first-quarter adjusted profit per share will be the high-water mark for the year."

By 12 p.m. ET, the stock had fallen more than 4 percent, and was down more than 6 percent at session lows. Traders seized on the comment, taking the rest of the industrial sector down with Caterpillar.

In the earnings report, the Illinois-based machinery manufacturer raised its 2018 profit outlook by $2 a share over the previous quarter, to a range of $10.25 to $11.25 per share. The rosier guidance exceeds a Reuters analyst survey that expected a range of $8.39 to $10.60 a share. The company cited better-than-expected sales volume as the main driver of its improved full-year guidance.

Increased volume also drove the company's total sales up 38 percent from the year-earlier quarter, to $5.7 billion. Caterpillar also repurchased $500 million of common stock in the first quarter of 2018.
View of Abu Dhabi's skyline at sunset from Dhow Harbour in the UAE.

China is on the brink of opening an international exchange alongside the United Arab Emirates to cater for its mammoth Belt and Road Initiative.

The Asian giant's Shanghai Stock Exchange agreed a deal in principle with the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) on Monday. The partners signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to develop the platform in Abu Dhabi.

"We are very excited and pleased to enter into this MoU with Shanghai Exchange to establish a Belt and Road Exchange," Richard Teng, chief executive of ADGM's Financial Services Regulatory Authority, told CNBC on Tuesday.

The joint exchange is poised to support businesses and investors along the Belt and Road. This Beijing-backed scheme plans to link the world's second-largest economy to the west via a vast land and maritime infrastructure network across Eurasia.
Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing is holding talks about an initial public offering (IPO), according to a report.

Didi Chuxing was last valued at more than $50 billion in December, after raising $4 billion from investors including Japanese conglomerate SoftBank. It now wants to reach a valuation of between $70 and $80 billion through an IPO, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources.

The company could go public as early as the second half of 2018, sources told the WSJ, but as talks are in the early stages a set date for the listing is not entirely clear.

Didi Chuxing declined to comment on the report when contacted by CNBC.
A Sikorsky helicopter lands near Marines with Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, Regimental Combat Team 7, and Afghan National Security Forces provide security during Operation Nightmare in Nowzad, Afghanistan, June 6, 2013.

Top defense companies' shares declined Tuesday, erasing earlier gains, amid a broader market sell-off.

The S&P 500 Aerospace & Defense index, comprised of 13 manufacturers, closed down more than 3 percent.

The declines came while President Donald Trump discussed fraught international issues with French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House, such as the Iran nuclear deal, which faces a key deadline next month.

Trump also praised North Korea dictator Kim Jong Un as "honorable" and "open" as the two leaders pursue an unprecedented summit in May or June. Trump is seeking denuclearization of the hermit regime. The two delegations also discussed the recent strike on Syrian chemical facilities.

Individually, Lockheed Martin, the Pentagon's top weapons supplier, beat analysts' earnings expectations earlier in the day but closed down more than 6 percent at $336.49. Shares of Raytheon, meanwhile, hit an all-time high earlier Tuesday, but closed down more than 4 percent at $218.80.

"I would say that it is more market-oriented and maybe a little bit of industry weakness," Peter Arment, an aerospace and defense industry analyst at Baird, told CNBC. "We are not seeing anything in the earnings reports that warrants this kind of weakness."

Baird has assigned outperform ratings on Lockheed and Raytheon. The firm's price target for Lockheed was $410 a share as of Jan. 30, and $237 for Raytheon as of Jan. 26.

Boeing, the world's largest plane manufacturer, tumbled nearly 4 percent putting the defense giant well on the way to its worst day since April 6, when the company lost 3.06 percent.

Meanwhile, Northrop Grumman fell more than 3 percent while General Dynamics slipped 1.7 percent.

Arment said he expects positive earnings reports from Boeing, Raytheon and Northrop this week.

General Dynamics is also scheduled to report quarterly earnings later this week.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt. Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt reports to Capitol Hill on Thursday for a pair of hearings on his agency's 2019 budget proposal, but the embattled Trump deputy is likely to face as many questions about his personal conduct as EPA's spending priorities. Since the hearings were announced, revelations about Pruitt's rental of a Washington apartment linked to an energy lobbyist have sparked a near-daily trickle of reports detailing alleged ethics abuses and lavish spending that have put the EPA chief's political future in peril. In just the last few weeks, Pruitt has been accused of retaliating against EPA staff, arranging official trips to fulfill his personal travel whims and orchestrating pay raises for aides in defiance of the White House. The number of investigations into his conduct has expanded to five, and the government's top watchdog determined last week that the agency violated the law by installing a $43,000 soundproof phone booth in Pruitt's office. The hearings could be a make-or-break moment for Pruitt, who has already sat through a combative Fox News interview that reportedly bruised his standing in the administration. Pruitt goes before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce's subcommittee on Environment in the morning and the Committee on Appropriation's subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies in the afternoon. The appearances present a rare opportunity for Democrats, who vilify Pruitt for leading President Donald Trump's efforts to roll back Obama-era environmental regulations and casting doubt on the scale of humanity's role in climate change.

Democrats on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce plan to use much of their time to grill the administrator on the recent accusations. "Again and again, Administrator Pruitt has abused his position for personal and political gain, including a sweetheart apartment rental from a lobbyist and a litany of wasteful taxpayer-funded indulgences in first-class flights, personal security, office and official vehicle upgrades, and massive raises for his political friends," said New York Democrat Rep. Paul Tonko, ranking member of the Environment subcommittee. "His subsequent denials and attempts to justify some of these ethics violations seem to have been complete fabrications," he told CNBC in an email. Tonko was among four Democratic Congress members who requested that Pruitt be put under oath during the testimony in a letter to Republicans, who hold the majority.

Republicans are the wild card

For Republicans, the hearings present something of a tightrope walk. The GOP rails against government waste but also views Pruitt as a key figure in Trump's deregulation agenda. Conservative lawmakers are also likely loathe to see the administration's reputation sullied by another spending scandal ahead of midterm elections. The White House may have made that balancing act less perilous. It has reportedly instructed conservatives not to defend Pruitt too stridently. Just five House Republicans have joined 170 Democrats in calling on Pruitt to step down, but there are other signs that GOP support is eroding for the EPA chief. Three Senate Republicans on Monday called for hearings on Pruitt's conduct. Trump has oscillated between non-committal statements  at one point saying, "I hope he's going to be great"  to an adamant defense of Pruitt on Twitter. @realDonaldTrump: 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! Still, the White House is leading its own investigation into Pruitt. Another probe has been opened by Trey Gowdy, the Republican chair of the House Oversight Committee. On Monday, Democratic lawmakers sent new evidence to Gowdy showing the head of Pruitt's security tapped a business associate to conduct a security sweep of Pruitt's office, which was found by an internal review to have been "very basic and cursory" and inadequate to clear the office for discussing or transmitting classified information.

Mounting ethics questions

Questions about EPA spending under Pruitt date back to last fall and resurfaced this winter, but have gained seemingly unstoppable momentum in recent weeks. At the heart of the investigations is whether Pruitt violated federal rules by renting a Capitol Hill condo owned by the wife of prominent energy lobbyist Steven Hart. An EPA watchdog initially determined the arrangement did not violate federal gift-giving rules, but he later clarified that he did not have enough information to clear Pruitt of wrong-doing. This past weekend, Politico revealed Hart and Pruitt met in an official capacity while Pruitt was still occupying the apartment, despite their earlier assertions to the contrary. Hart's firm, Williams & Jensen, also had business before the EPA. Pruitt's claim in the Fox News interview that he did not know who went behind the White House's back to approve pay hikes for two of his long-time aides is also contested. EPA chief of staff Ryan Jackson has since taken responsibility, but Republican whistleblower Kevin Chmielewski told lawmakers the decision was "100% Pruitt himself." Chmielewski, a former Trump campaign staffer, is one of several EPA employees Pruitt allegedly pushed out for challenging his spending habits. Multiple investigations are looking into expenses accrued by Pruitt for first-class flights, trips home to Oklahoma and his unusually large private security detail.

WATCH: Trump's fight against 'fake news' has been a boon for media companies
Europe's first national experiment to give citizens free cash will be scrapped next year, after Finland decided to discontinue its pioneering basic income trial.

The Finnish Social Insurance Institute, often referred to as Kela, introduced a two-year trial of Universal Basic Income (UBI) in January 2017. The scheme saw its government pay a random sample of 2,000 unemployed citizens aged 25 to 58 a monthly payment of 560 euros ($684).

Kela's trial did not require the recipients of basic income to seek or accept employment, while those who took a job during this period would still continue to receive the same amount of cash.

However, Kela's request for extra funding to expand the two-year pilot to a group of employees this year was rejected by the government on Monday. Instead, the Finnish administration said it would prioritize other schemes in an effort to reform the Scandinavian country's social security system.

"The government is making changes taking the system away from basic income," Kela's Miska Simanainen told Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet.
Greece is in a hurry to sell some of its state assets, in what is one of the most critical issues for the country as it races to end a bailout program in August. Greece is set to hit lower-than-expected proceeds under a privatization program this year, after it failed to reach its 2017 target. The country's massive privatization program is a condition of its third bailout. In 2015, Greece received a 86 billion euro program ($105.04 billion) and is obliged to sell several state-owned enterprises to boost its economy. But this financial assistance is set to end this summer. Previously, Greece requested two financial assistance programs after its debt pile became too big to control. The problems in the country became evident in the fallout of the global financial crisis in 2008. The first assistance was requested in 2010 and creditors provided more than 100 billion euros in financing. The second program in 2012 began with 130 billion euros in funding. The latter program ended up not being concluded and Greece requested a third rescue. CNBC takes a look at how far Greece has yet to go to carry all the privatizations requested by creditors.

Why the delays?

"Overall the picture is mixed with progress in some areas being offset by delays elsewhere," a report from the European Commission in March said. In 2017, privatization proceeds reached 1.4 billion euros ($1.73 billion), which fell short by 0.5 billion euros from the target that the country had agreed with European creditors in July of that year.

Drone images of The Port of Thessaloniki one of the Largest Greek seaports with annual traffic capacity of 16 million tonnes. It is a major gateway for the Balkans and southeast Europe. There are warehouses, container terminal, cargo terminal, oil and gas terminal. The port also has a passenger terminal. Nicolas Economou | NurPhoto | Getty Images

"This was due to delays (mainly on the side of the preferred bidder) in the financial closing of the sale of 67 percent of the share capital of the Port of Thessaloniki and delays in the launching of the process for the sale of 5 percent of OTE (telecom company)," the same report said. There were several stumbling blocks delaying the sale of the port, which is one of the largest Greek seaports and based in the north of the country. In October, for example, the preferred bidder  the consortium of Deutsche Invest Equity Partners, Belterra Investments and Terminal Link  hadn't yet presented to the Greek authorities the company that would be managing the port. As a result, the Greek State Audit Council couldn't approve the deal. The sale, which was supposed to be finished in 2017, only concluded last month. The deal was worth 1.1 billion euros.

Privatizations are key to conclude the program, but they are not a make-it-or-break-it issue to determine a clean exit. Danae Kyriakopoulou Chief economist at OMFIF

Meanwhile, Greece's privatization agency HRADF launched an international tender to sell 5 percent of the telecom firm OTE in February. "We're now in April, the program ends in August, it will be critical to see if the government hits its privatization target," Danae Kyriakopoulou, chief economist at the think tank OMFIF (Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum), told CNBC over the phone. In total, the bailout program includes 19 privatizations. These include the sale of 10 port authorities, real estate assets, the Hellenic Post and the Athens water supply, to name just a few. According to Kyriakopoulou, privatizations are "key" to conclude the program, but they are "not a make-it-or-break-it issue" to determine a clean exit. The Greek government does not want any extra financial help or surveillance after August  in what they describe as a "clean exit." This would mean that Greece would be at the mercy of financial markets to finance itself. However, several policymakers and analysts believe that Greece should consider extra help from abroad to avoid suffering from market turbulence, which would raise its borrowing costs.

What's in the pipeline?

"Based on the current state of play, the proceeds for the first half of 2018 are estimated at around 1 billion euro and are also subject to the financial closing of Hellinikon (the former airport of Athens)," the European Commission report also said. The redevelopment of the site of the former airport of Athens, Hellinikon, has faced several impediments, including forestry and archaeological issues. Greece has to close the transaction before June, in about two months' time. According to a report following the third bailout program review, these are the main actions Greece needs to take before June:

Asset Task DESFA (natural gas operator) The sale of 66 percent of the company has to be closed by June 2018. Hellenikon Airport The agreements to redevelop the site of the former airport need to be closed by June. Egnatia motorway Implementing a new pricing toll needs to be done by April 2018. HELPE (Hellenic Petroleum) There is a 51 percent stake of the company to be sold. The transaction should be completed by end-July 2018. PPC (Public Power Corporation) The sale of 17 percent of PPC needs to be concluded by June. AIA (Athens International Airport) The extension of the concession agreement will be ratified in parliament by April 2018

A process into the future

Given the delays in 2017 and the complexity of the process, Greece could continue with privatizations into 2019. "Aggregate proceeds during the entire ESM (European Stability Mechanism  the bailout fund) program period are estimated at 3.2 billion euros ($3.96 billion)," the Commission report said in March. "Additional proceeds of around 1 billion euros are expected in the second half of 2018," the same report added. In some of the privatizations, what the creditors ask is for some key milestones to be completed before August, not to fully close the transaction. This means that the proceeds of such deals will only come after Greece concludes the program. Kyriakopoulou from OMFIF said that "it's possible (the government will hit the privatizations target) but much will depend on the risk returns, market environment, geopolitical tensions,"

Kostas Tsironis | Bloomberg | Getty Images
SALT LAKE CITY  The restaurant Mo' Bettahs is a ballad to beach life. Surfing movies play on TV screens in a continuous loop. Paddles and surfboards that have all touched Hawaiian waters adorn the walls. Reggae music by the Hawaiian band Natural Vibrations pulses through the speakers.

It's nearly enough to make you forget you're in a dry, landlocked city where the sights include snow-capped mountains and the occasional blizzard.

That this restaurant exists at all is improbable. The brothers Kalani and Kimo Mack, who hail from Kaneohe on the coast of Oahu, opened the Hawaiian-style fast-casual place in 2008, in the depths of the Great Recession, with no experience, no business plan and only the money they had saved from driving buses in Honolulu.

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A decade later, Mo' Bettahs has six perennially packed locations in Utah, an aggressive plan to expand to other states and a loyal customer base that dotes on the restaurant's specialties: crisp, golden-brown chicken katsu dipped in ketchup-laced Mo' Bettahs sauce, and steak glossed with a sweet, almost maltlike homemade teriyaki.

A large measure of that success, though, derives not from any particular dish, but from the very specific appeal the restaurant holds for Utah's dominant religious group: Mormons.

As the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Utah is home to two million Mormons, the largest number in any state. And the Mormon Church has long had strong ties to Polynesian island groups like Hawaii, Tonga and Samoa.

That Pacific region was one of the church's first overseas destinations, in the 1840s, for its missions  an essential Mormon tradition in which young members spend one and a half to two years in a single place to try converting locals to the faith. As a result, Mormons number in the hundreds of thousands in Polynesia, which has six Mormon temples and several church-sponsored schools.

The Mack brothers, Kimo, 48, and Kalani, 49  relaxed, slow-talking and clad in Hawaiian shirts and flip-flops regardless of the weather  never considered any of this when they moved to Salt Lake City and set out to open Mo' Bettahs, even though both are lifelong members of the Mormon Church.

Growing up in Hawaii  their mother was Hawaiian-Korean, and their father was Caucasian  they were beach bums who barely graduated from high school, and eventually became city bus drivers. Kalani moved to Salt Lake City in 1998 because his wife's family was from there, as was his father; Kimo followed in 2008 to escape the high cost of living in Honolulu.

"The Mormon thing wasn't really a draw," Kalani said. "I thought that everyone in Utah kind of takes for granted the fact that everyone's Mormon. It doesn't feel as special as it does in Hawaii."

With no other job prospects, the brothers brainstormed and wrote down 10 ideas for businesses they could start together  including a tent company, and creating kiosks for loading songs onto an iPod. They settled on option No. 3: opening a restaurant.

They had no clue about the logistics of running a restaurant, but no doubt that it would center on their favorite food, the Hawaiian plate lunch  a multicultural meal of meat, rice and macaroni salad, a staple of 19th-century sugar-plantation workers who came to Hawaii from countries like Japan and China. The name, Mo' Bettahs, is Hawaiian Pidgin, a Creole language from the plantations.

The Macks' main source of culinary education was Zippy's  the popular Hawaii-based fast-casual chain where they worked making plate lunches for two years  as well as their mother, an avid home cook who "fried everything," Kimo recalled.

The brothers worked tirelessly to ensure that their new restaurant looked and felt like their island home. They bought 200 gallons of their favorite soy sauce, Aloha Shoyu, from Hawaii for their teriyaki; they installed a tin roof in one corner and decorated it with surfboards and Hawaii license plates to mimic the look of their grandparents' house in Kauai. Kalani cooked pound after pound of elbow pasta to perfect the restaurant's creamy macaroni salad (or "crack salad," as customers have taken to calling it).

But when Mo' Bettahs opened in the summer of 2008, with the economic downturn in full swing, the brothers were making only $500 a day in sales. "I remember so vividly telling Kimo, 'How long do you think we can go until we have to pull the plug and cut our losses?'" Kalani said.

Around the same time, Facebook was gaining traction, and Kalani's 15-year-old daughter, Malia, had just created a profile for herself. "I quickly realized, holy smokes, you can reach a lot of people through this," he said.

So Kalani made a profile for Mo' Bettahs, and soon noticed that there were many Facebook groups for Mormons who had served missions in Polynesia. He started promoting the restaurant through those channels.

Mo' Bettahs was suddenly mobbed with former missionaries eager to give their families and friends a taste of the place where they had spent their most formative years. Mormons, the Macks quickly realized, were their greatest marketing tool.

"Mormons are all about supporting their neighbors, and seeing their community succeed," Kimo said. "I would go as far as to say: You want to be a successful business person here? You need to join the church."

One of those fans is Vince Vernon, who sells commercial insurance and served his mission in Hawaii from 2000 to 2002. Mo' Bettahs, he said, "took the environment in Hawaii  where everyone is happy to see you, where people are constantly feeding you, where there's so much food that you cannot see the bottom of the table  and they brought that here."

At one point, Mr. Vernon said, he visited the restaurant every day for six weeks because it reminded him so strongly of his mission experience. "And it's the best food I have ever had in my life," he said. "I can't even begin to describe the endorphin release from that chicken katsu."

Todd Bangerter, a plumber, served his mission in Kaneohe from 2002 to 2004. "I am a redneck hunting guy from Utah, and by the time I left Hawaii, I felt so much like part of the culture," Mr. Bangerter said. "I really grew up there."

To have a place as true to his memories as Mo' Bettahs, he said, "all the way in Utah, where the biggest body of water close to the ocean is the Great Salt Lake  it's amazing." From his first taste of the macaroni salad, he said, it was like he was back in Hawaii.

The Macks quickly became celebrities in local Mormon circles. "It got to the point that when I changed congregations, I walked in and everyone knew who I was," Kimo said. "They were like, 'You're the Mo' Bettahs guy!'"

There is one subset of the local Mormon population that the brothers acknowledge they have not been as successful in wooing: people of Polynesian descent.

On a recent afternoon at the original restaurant, a table of teenage Samoan-American girls agreed that the food didn't have the depth of seasoning they were used to.

"It's good for Utah, but I've had Hawaiian barbecue with a lot more flavor," said one, Charlotte McFarland. "A lot of the cooks here are white, so they don't know how to season because they didn't grow up cooking this food. This chicken katsu just tastes fried."

A local Lyft driver from the Philippines who has spent much of his life in Hawaii said the food at Mo' Bettahs was "not sweet enough" for his tastes.

This response doesn't surprise the Macks. Polynesia has people of so many backgrounds that "everyone makes their food a little differently," Kalani said. "That's why we don't want to rely on that Polynesian audience, because I think so few of them actually eat with us, and those that do are our harshest critics."

Still, business continues to look up. Mo' Bettahs has opened five more locations in Utah, and the brothers say they are one opening away from making $1 million in sales each month."I'm an island boy who didn't go to school, so that's like, whoa!" Kimo said.

In 2017, the Macks entered into a partnership with the Utah restaurant development company Four Foods Group to standardize their business operations and grow the brand nationally. (Four Foods says it holds a 50.1 percent stake in the chain.)

Andrew and Shauna Smith, the group's founders, said they were impressed by the economics of the restaurant. "You get so much food for your money, but the food cost is lower than average in the industry," Mr. Smith said. There are also not many Hawaiian restaurants in Utah to compete with Mo' Bettahs.

The plan is to open six more Utah locations starting this summer, with a branch in Idaho  which also has a large Mormon population  to follow next year. After that, Mo' Bettahs plans to expand to states like Nevada and Missouri, in cities where housing costs are low and incomes are high.

Four Foods has gotten Mo' Bettahs onto Instagram and Twitter, and expanded its presence on Facebook, which the Mack brothers had all but stopped using once they realized their fellow Mormons provided a much more powerful social platform.

"We've got this network of people from all over the world just because of the connectivity of the church," Kimo said. "They have become our customers, our business partners, our insurance guys, our graphic design team."

It helps that the teriyaki steak inspires devotion, too.

"This food is the next big thing," said Mr. Vernon. "It's going to be better than Chipotle and Panda Express."
Technology company Nvidia, which manufactures high-end graphics processors and chips, sits at the crossroads of several trendy industries, including gaming, cryptocurrency and autonomous driving, and was recently named one of Bank of America Merrill Lynch's favorite stocks.

In a note to clients early this month, analyst Vivek Arya wrote that the company represents "one of the more unique investments" in technology.

And, if you had invested in Nvidia in 2008, that bet would have paid off. According to CNBC calculations, a $1,000 investment would be worth more than $11,200 as of Tuesday, or over 11 times as much, including price appreciation and dividend gains reinvested.

In the charts below, all data splits are adjusted and gain-loss figures do not include dividends, interest, distributions or fees except on cash accounts. The portfolio value represents current holdings and the comparison charts represent current and historical prices of individual benchmarks, stocks or exchange-traded funds.
After making a fortune from businesses ranging from health care to financial services, Abu Dhabi-based billionaire Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty is venturing into education.

Opportunities in the education sector are growing because of an expanding expatriate community the United Arab Emirates, according to the Indian tycoon, who Forbes says has a net worth of around $4.3 billion.

The UAE is home to more than 200 nationalities, Shetty told CNBC's Hadley Gamble, adding that a growing number of expatriate parents want their children to grow up there.

"Now, I'm into education," said Shetty, the founder and chairman of BRS Ventures. "We need the facilities to provide education to the expatriate children."

BRS Ventures is a holding company for the tycoon's businesses such as hospital chain NMC Health and financial services firms UAE Exchange and Travelex Group.

The holding company earlier this year signed an agreement with the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad to set up a campus in Dubai. But his hope is to establish a medical school in the UAE, the businessman said.

"The regulators so far have not given their permission, which I'm pursuing. Hopefully they'll give it," he said.
Senators are discussing plans to delay the confirmation hearing for President Donald Trump's pick to be Veteran Affairs secretary over growing questions about the nominee's ability to manage the government's second-largest department.

The hearing for Ronny Jackson, Trump's White House doctor and a Navy rear admiral, was scheduled for Wednesday.

Two sources told NBC News that the hearing would be postponed due to as-yet unspecified concerns about Jackson's background.

A White House official said the scope of the allegations are not yet clear, and an aide to a Republican senator on the committee told NBC that members are continuing to dig into Jackson's recent history.

Some Republican colleagues have told me that they think the hearing should be postponed, which certainly deserves consideration," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.

"I think there may well be a need for more time, in fairness to Admiral Jackson, so he and the administration have an opportunity to answer these questions fully and fairly," he said.

Blumenthal declined to discuss why more time might be needed.

White House and VA officials were also discussing a delay with key allies outside the administration.

A spokeswoman for Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., the committee's chairman, did not return requests for comment.

Trump selected Jackson to head the VA last month after firing former Obama administration official David Shulkin following an ethics scandal and mounting rebellion within the agency. But Jackson has since faced numerous questions from Republican and Democratic lawmakers as well as veterans groups about whether he has the experience to manage the massive department of 360,000 employees serving 9 million veterans.

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., and a committee member, said Jackson's small staff at the White House will be an issue as he prepares to lead the VA.

"We've got 360,000 people there," he said. "Are they going to manage the secretary or is the secretary going to manage the VA? That's a good question to ask, and he needs to answer it. He needs to be the leader. A lot of folks want to be led and managed."

Rounds said the committee still needs more paperwork from the White House on Jackson before the nomination can go forward.

 CNBC contributed to this report.
The Trump administration, which has already increased scrutiny on employers, is planning to roll out new proposals that would change the kind of jobs H-1B workers can do as well as what their relationship with employers must look like. (Axios)

A Senate panel narrowly endorsed secretary of State nominee Mike Pompeo, all but guaranteeing that he will be confirmed by the full Senate later this week. Trump's nominee had seemed unlikely to secure a majority of the panel's support. (Washington Post)

CNBC has learned that Fox News host Sean Hannity took out $2.5 million in loans last year secured by his sprawling mansion on Long Island, New York. Hannity was identified recently as a client of Michael Cohen, the long-time personal lawyer for Trump.

Prosecutors from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office defended the legality of searches the FBI conducted last year of Paul Manafort's condo and storage locker. Manafort asked a federal judge to rule the searches illegal and exclude the evidence. (Politico)

The man suspected of running down numerous pedestrians, killing 10 people, in downtown Toronto is scheduled to appear in court this morning. No motive is known yet but officials played down possible connections to terrorism. (AP)



* What we know about Toronto van attack suspect Alek Minassian (USA Today)

One passenger aboard an American Airlines (AAL) flight endured multiple tasings by police officers after allegedly groping a woman on the plane in Miami. Passengers can be seen chanting in a YouTube video "Get him off! Get him off!" (USA Today)

United Airlines (UAL) CEO Oscar Munoz took home $9.56 million in 2017, nearly half of his compensation in 2016, according to a company filing. Munoz told employees that he suggested that the company's compensation committee not give him a bonus. (CNBC)

Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing is holding talks about an initial public offering, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources. Didi reportedly wants to reach a valuation of between $70 and $80 billion through an IPO.

Facebook (FB) released a rule book this morning for the types of posts it allows on its social network, giving the public more detail than ever before on what is permitted on subjects ranging from drug use to inciting violence. (Reuters)

It's been revealed that George H.W. Bush, 93, was admitted to Houston Methodist Hospital on Sunday, a day after a funeral was held for his wife, Barbara Bush. The former president has an infection that spread to his blood. He's said to be responding to treatment and appears to be recovering. (Reuters)
Check out the companies making headlines before the bell:

3M  The maker of a wide variety of consumer products matched forecasts, with quarterly profit of $2.50 per share. Revenue topped forecasts. CEO Inge Thulin said the company saw broad-based organic growth during the quarter.

Coca-Cola  The beverage giant came in a penny a share ahead of estimates with quarterly profit of 47 cents per share. Revenue also came in above forecasts. Organic growth was up by 5 percent, and the company's biggest growth came in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa regions.

Caterpillar  The heavy equipment maker earned an adjusted $2.82 per share for the first quarter, well above the $2.13 a share consensus estimate. Revenue also beat forecasts, and the company raised its full-year outlook.

Travelers  The insurance company earned an adjusted $2.46 per share for the first quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.68 a share. Revenue beat forecasts, but the bottom line was impacted by a variety of natural disasters during the quarter. Travelers increased its quarterly dividend to 77 cents per share from 72 cents.

Verizon  Verizon came in 7 cents a share ahead of forecasts, with adjusted quarterly earnings of $1.17 per share. Revenue beat forecasts, as well. Verizon also saw wireless postpaid net additions of 260,000, exceeding estimates of 165,000.

United Technologies  The conglomerate beat estimates by 25 cents a share, with adjusted quarterly profit of $1.77 per share. Revenue beat forecasts as organic growth saw its strongest first quarter performance in seven years. The company also raised its full-year outlook.

Centene  The health insurer reported adjusted quarterly profit of $2.17 per share, beating the consensus estimate of $1.93 a share. Revenue also topped forecasts, helped by a boost in managed care membership, among other factors. Centene also raised its full-year forecast.

PulteGroup  The homebuilder earned 59 cents per share for its latest quarter, beating estimates by 14 cents a share. Revenue also beat estimates, powered by an 18 percent jump in new orders.

Harley-Davidson  The motorcycle maker beat Street forecasts on both the top and bottom lines, and also maintained its full-year forecast for motorcycle shipments.

Alphabet  Alphabet reported adjusted quarterly profit of $9.93 per share, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.28 a share. The Google parent's revenue also came in above Street forecasts. Results were helped by strong advertising sales.

Eli Lilly  The drugmaker came in 21 cents above estimates with first-quarter profit of $1.34 per share. Revenue also exceeded expectations. Separately, a Food and Drug Administration panel recommended that an experimental rheumatoid arthritis drug developed by Lilly and Incyte should only be approved at a lower dose.

Facebook  Facebook released its rule book regarding its posting rules, in more detail than it ever has previously.

Home Depot, Lowe's  Both home improvement retailers were rated "outperform" in new coverage at Wells Fargo, which sees tailwinds for the home improvement industry overall. It also sees an opportunity for Lowe's to take more market share, and an attractive entry point for Home Depot after a 15 percent drop from a late January high.

Sanofi  Sanofi's drug to treat epilepsy and bipolar disorder, valproate, was banned by U.K. regulators for women of child-bearing age, unless they are on a special pregnancy prevention program.

Whirlpool  Whirlpool reported adjusted quarterly profit of $2.81 per share, falling short of the $2.96 a share consensus estimate. Revenue was also slightly short of forecasts, and the appliance maker said it expected pressure this year from lower sales and higher costs. Separately, Whirlpool sold its Embraco compressor unit to Japan's Nidec for nearly $1.1 billion in cash.

SAP  SAP reported better than expected quarterly earnings, and the business software company said it was gaining cloud-based market share compared to competitors Salesforce.com and Oracle.

Wells Fargo  The bank holds its annual meeting in Des Moines, Iowa, today. CEO Tim Sloan told shareholders in his annual letter that rebuilding trust after recent scandals is the bank's top priority.

Trimble  Trimble bought privately held Viewpoint from Bain Capital for $1.2 billion in cash, and the software company also raised its revenue outlook. Viewpoint specializes in software for the construction industry.

Zions Bancorp  Zions reported quarterly profit of $1.09 per share, beating the 82 cent consensus estimate. The regional bank's revenue also came in above analyst forecasts.
"We saw an end of the year that was very strong, double-digit growth, and now it continues, so every month is a record month for us," Nick Hayek Jr., CEO of Swatch, told CNBC's Geoff Cutmore.

The currency, which is seen as a safe haven investment, dropped for four consecutive days last week and the spot rate is down about six percent since it hit 1,0303 in November of 2015. Much of the depreciation has been supported by the accommodative stance set by the Swiss National Bank. And exporters welcome that.

"And of course, big advantage, the Swiss franc has begun again to be at the levels it has been three, four years ago," Hayek said.

A stronger currency makes the exported goods more expensive outside the country, making them less attractive to foreign consumers. Or, the exporters might decide to bear the costs of the currency appreciation and see their margins reduced. Swatch opted to do the latter.

As a result, Hayek told CNBC he hopes the currency will remain at the current, more depreciated level.

"I hope, but with exchange rates and exchange money and what's happening in the stock market, you know it is full of manipulation, left and right, but here we are on a more realistic level," he said, recognizing that it's impossible for a company to control the fluctuation in exchange rates.
Tim Hortons signage is displayed in the window of a restaurant in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Tim Hortons' owner is not happy with its performance.

Traditionally tight-lipped Restaurant Brands International, which also owns Burger King and Popeye's, told investors Tuesday it's about to make major changes at its Canadian-based coffee chain.

"We're not happy with sales growth and overall results at Tim Hortons," CEO Daniel Schwartz said during an earnings conference call.

Shares of Restaurant Brands were up more than 4 percent Tuesday.

While the company reported better-than-expected earnings Tuesday because more diners visited its fast-food restaurants, sales at its coffee chain lagged.

Same-store sales at Tim Hortons fell 0.3 percent during the first quarter. Analysts had expected the brand to post same-store sales growth of 0.7 percent, according to StreetAccount.

Schwartz blamed increased competition in the coffee space as well as negative media coverage of Tim Hortons' reported tensions with some franchisees in Canada over management practices for the slip. The coffee brand has shown softness for several quarters, raising red flags for investors.

Restaurant Brands is facing steep competition from McDonald's, which has been aggressively adding to its dollar menu and offering discounted coffee beverages. Dunkin' Donuts has also doubled down on its value offers, including $2 drinks in the afternoon, and Starbucks has been innovative in its beverage line up in an attempt to lure in customers.

Not to mention, Restaurant Brands has been notoriously media shy.

"We have not historically dedicated much time to media relations to tell our story," Schwartz said on the call. "Unfortunately, this has resulted in the publication of several articles particularly related to Tim Hortons in Canada that mischaracterize our intentions, that often cite inaccurate information and that usually reflect a purposely negative tone dictated by a group of dissident franchisees."

Restaurant Brands has been feuding with some Tim Hortons' franchisees over cost-cutting measures, cash register outages and a 700 million Canadian dollar ($546 million) plan to revamp its restaurants, according to several media reports. The news has hurt guests' perception of the brand, weakening sales, Schwartz said.

To combat this narrative, Schwartz said the company will be looking to be more proactive with its marketing and media relations.

It also hopes to boost sales by improving its mobile app and the quality of its lunch offerings, revamp some locations, and bring in new management.

In December, Restaurant Brands appointed Alex Macedo to the post of president of Tim Hortons. Macedo previously was Burger King's North America president, helping to lead a turnaround of the chain's business.

Burger King reported same-store sales growth of 3.8 percent for the first quarter, higher than the 3.5 percent analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected.

During Macedo's stint with BK, the brand was known for delivering quirky menu items, like mac 'n cheese bites and a variety of flavored chicken fries. Schwartz said Tim Hortons plans to introduce new espresso-based beverages and sandwiches. It recently revamped its turkey bacon club and added an artisan grilled cheese sandwich.

Over the next four years, Restaurant Brands will roll out a new restaurant design at Tim Hortons to provide a more natural and modern feel, with Canadian maple tables and new artwork. The company has already opened 10 of these restaurants in Canada.

Schwartz said that response to the new design has been positive, with 75 percent of customers who visited one saying they would be more likely to become repeat visitors.

"I want to re-emphasize that we don't think the current challenges at Tim Hortons can be addressed with a series of short easy fixes," Schwartz said on the call.

Despite Tim Hortons, Restaurant Brands topped analysts' estimates, thanks in part to strength at Burger King and continued growth at Popeye's, which it acquired in February 2017.

Restaurant Brands said it changed its accounting standards at the start of the year to reflect a change in the timing of franchise fee revenue and other items. Under the new standards, the company's net income was $147.8 million, or 59 cents a share, for the three months ended March 31.

Excluding items, Restaurant Brands earned 66 cents per share, beating analysts' average estimate of 56 cents in a Thomson Reuters survey.
number of high school guidance counselors available to students has been steadily dwindling for years.

Students walking to classes at Princeton University, Princeton, NJ Barry Winiker | Getty Images

You can't put a price tag on getting into your top college. Or maybe you can. With competition among college applicants as fierce as it has ever been, some students are doing whatever they can to get a leg up  no matter the cost. That's where private help comes in. A growing number of college counselors offer their expertise  for a price  and promise results. When Christopher Rim, now 23, was the only graduating senior at his high school in Bergen County, New Jersey, to get accepted to Yale, underclassmen immediately reached out to ask him how he did it. (This year, Yale's acceptance rate hit 6.31 percent, near an all-time low. Princeton University offered admission to just 5.5 percent of a record 35,370 applicants and at Harvard, the admission rate fell below 5 percent for the first time ever, to a record-low 4.59 percent of applicants securing spots in the Class of 2022.) Rim started his own college consulting firm from his dorm room to help other Ivy hopefuls. He is now the president and CEO of Command Education in New York, with offices in Chicago, Los Angeles and Seoul. Rim charges $950 an hour.

Christopher Rim, the president and CEO of Command Education. Source: Sophia Sinclair

The goal, he said, is "inspiring and motivating students to figure out what their hobbies are and how to take that to the next level." The counselors at Command Education are all very recent graduates of the nation's most competitive schools. The oldest senior counselor is 26. "We're non-parental," Rim said. "Because of that, students trust us." And as a result, 96 percent of students they have worked with were accepted into one or more of their top choices, according to Rim's own account. Mimi Doe, a co-president and founder of Top Tier Admissions in Concord, Massachusetts, starts working with students as early as the 8th grade. Clients come from all over the world. The prices range from $2,500 for five hours of essay guidance to $16,000 for a summer bootcamp and significantly more for private tutoring. "There's more demand for private counseling than anything" Doe said, in part because they only work with a limited number of students each year. Similarly to Rim, Doe and her team help students develop one area where they can shine. "One hundred hours of random community service hours is a colossal waste of time," Doe said. "They should be doing something they are passionate about." "Colleges don't want a well-rounded student, they want a well-rounded class." "We give kids a streamlined approach for what really matters," she said of their successful track record (94 percent of their private clients have been accepted to their first-choice school, according to Doe's unverified tally).

Colleges don't want a well-rounded student, they want a well-rounded class. Mimi Doe co-president and founder of Top Tier Admissions

But don't think paying for counseling is a cure-all. "Nobody should hire an educational consultant because they think they will get them in to a particular college," said Mark Sklarow, the CEO of the Independent Educational Consultants Association. "Kids get in because of hard work, effort and brains; they don't get in because someone knows a secret handshake or anything like that." The better way to use an independent consultant is to find the schools that would be the best match, he added. "If kids begin to focus on more appropriate choices they will improve their odds of getting in." Of course, many high schools have guidance counselors who serve the same purpose at no cost at all. But depending on the number of students in a class, it can be difficult to get personalized advice about college planning. Plus, the number of counselors available to students has been steadily dwindling for years. Currently, the national student-to-counselor ratio is 482 to 1, according to the National Association for College Admission Counseling. However, in some cases, that one counselor will more than suffice. Ronny Anderson, 68, is a college counselor at Southland College Prep Charter High School in suburban Chicago with 30 years of experience. He said his approach has resulted in a 100 percent college acceptance rate for the school, including getting graduates into top universities like Harvard, Stanford and Yale.

Ron Anderson Source: Ron Anderson
While some of the rhetoric around trade tariffs on China has died down over the last couple of weeks, the prospect of a trade war has not. On April 18, China imposed preliminary antidumping tariffs of 178.6 percent on sorghum, a crop used to make alcohol and biofuels, while President Donald Trump's threat to impose tariffs on $150 billion worth of goods on everything from solar panels to aircraft to cars remains on the table. If an actual U.S. trade war ensues, then China's economic growth prospects could be negatively impacted in a significant way. While the country's economy has shifted inward over the last few years, relying on its own citizens to fuel growth, it still exports billions of dollars in goods and services every year. Last year it sold $506 billion in exports to the United States  nearly 20 percent of its exports go to America  while the United States sold just $130 billion to the Chinese. In January the International Monetary Fund said China's economic growth would top 6.6 percent in 2018, but it could now drop by as much as 0.5 percent if these tariffs are imposed  and it could slow even further if a global trade war truly heats up. China's economy can likely weather a small decline in growth, in part because of its increased reliance on domestic spending, but this isn't the only potentially GDP-destroying situation it's dealing with.

Over the last few years, China's debt-to-GDP has ballooned to more than 300 percent from 160 percent a decade ago, causing many people, including Chinese officials, to warn of a financial-sector debt bubble that's waiting to burst. More from Global Investing Hot Spots:

China's weapon that can be used in a trade war with US

Tesla and China trade war

Apple's China situation is an albatross "If you look at classic indicators like debt-to-GDP or corporate-debt-to-GDP and how that's risen over time, then there are flashing yellow lights," said David Dollar, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute's John L. Thornton China Center. How did it get so bad? After the recession, the country spent trillions on infrastructure projects, with many banks, including unregulated or "shadow" banks, loaning money to companies that have been unable to pay back their debts. According to a Chinese news outlet, Lai Xiaoming, chairman of China Huarong Asset Management, one of the country's biggest asset management firms, said that total volume of nonperforming loans could hit a record $476 billion by 2020. Non-performing loans are loans made by banks or shadow banks to companies or citizens that haven't been paid back, or where interest payments haven't been made. The risk is that these loans never get paid back and banks start losing money in droves, said Peter Pauly, an economics professor at Toronto's Rotman School of Management. Many of these loans were made to finance infrastructure projects, which did help the economy. China's GDP growth hovered between 9.5 percent and 10.5 percent between 2008 and 2011, but it's become clear that the spending was done at a cost. "Leaps and bounds the infrastructure in China has improved, but the other side is that investment was done through a very underdeveloped monetary system," said Pauly "It was a wild west kind of expansion and the overleveraging has been a result of the lack of control over that process."

Bigger than the financial crisis

It's nonperforming loan problem may be even worse than people think, said Pauly. China's communist party is dealing with an underdeveloped banking sector with little regulation, at least compared to America's. Dealing with this kind of system and the bad loans that have been made because of it, present a formidable challenge for the government, he said. The biggest issue? Its $20 trillion shadow banking industry, which is nearly impossible to figure out. In fact, the value of nonperforming loans could get even worse, if only people knew just what was happening inside of this murky shadow banking sector. "No one knows who owes what to whom or how much," said Pauly. "Only when it starts to go bankrupt will things start falling apart." The shadow banking system may be the most worrisome financial issue in decades, added Pauly, even more problematic than the sub-prime mortgage meltdown that fueled America's financial crisis.

Mark Ralston | AFP | Getty Images

Many of these nonbank institutions have financed risky infrastructure operations, like copper and coal mines or other poorly constructed buildings, by using a variety of unusual financial instruments, said Louis Lau, director of Brandes Investment Partners' investments group. Traditional banks have also sold their bad loans to these nonbank companies, which have then packaged them up in products for sale to consumers and, also, back to the banks. Having trillions in unregulated wealth management products floating around is "huge risk" for the economy, said Lau. If these loans don't get paid back then banks could start going bust, while local governments, some of which have been a beneficiary of these loans, and other companies could find themselves underwater, too. Ultimately, China went too far in propping up its economy after the recession. "The global crisis was a big shock to them and they responded with a lot of infrastructure investment," said Dollar. "They overdid it and got into investments with low returns." If China's banks start failing, then that will certainly cause markets to panic. With most of these debts being held by Chinese entities, it's unlikely we'll see a banking crisis in the same way we could have seen if Greece or Spain went belly up, said Lau  many foreign banks hold European bonds  but we've seen markets panic on far less worrisome Chinese news in the past.

China's making reforms

Despite its massive debt-to-GDP numbers, the chance of China going belly up is minuscule, said Lau. The government is taking measures to reduce the number of bad loans. In November it set up the financial stability and development committee, a regulatory body to create and enforce tougher banking rules and coordinate financial reform. One of the things the government has told banks to do is to stop offering guaranteed investments  many banks made guarantees, which has forced the government to bail out the holders of these products when guarantees haven't been met  and it's also trying to bring off balance debts back onto balance sheets, said Lau. As well, the four biggest banks in China, which are considered high-quality operations, account for 70 percent of the banking system, said Lau. These four companies haven't been engaged in the same kind of financial tomfoolery that others have partaken in. "More than half the banking system is not participating in these wealth management products," said Lau. "They're largely safe." China's also has other ways it can prop up its banking system if need be. If can pay the interest on nonperforming loans, or create "bad banks," says Pauly, that hold bad loans. At least then everyone knows that the bad loans are contained at one institution. "They have so many domestic levers they can pull," said Pauly. "They can prop these banks up as long as is necessary."

Trade war pressures
Trade tensions between the world's two largest economies have escalated in the last several weeks. Both countries proposed tariffs on the other, after the Trump administration's "Section 301" investigation into China's business practices.

A trip to the Asian country was "under consideration ," Mnuchin said Saturday during a news conference. "China welcomes this," the country's Ministry of Commerce responded, in a statement.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is headed to China in "a few days" to negotiate on trade, President Donald Trump said Tuesday.

"We view the openness to negotiations as a positive first step that could move the two sides to potential solutions on some issues," Ed Mills, Washington policy analyst at Raymond James, said in a Tuesday note. "But there are many issues to resolve and plenty of potential pitfalls along the way."

Last week, the U.S. also banned domestic companies from providing components or software to Chinese technology giant ZTE. The move comes amid the Trump administration's broader efforts to curb Chinese investments in U.S. technology companies and limit intellectual property transfer.

"The most likely scenario for the Section 301 dispute is one round of tariffs on each side, followed by a settlement," Michael Hirson, director, Asia, at consulting firm Eurasia Group, and a team of analysts said in a Tuesday note. "But the U.S.-China economic relationship will be marked by persistent tensions that increasingly center on technology rivalry and investment restrictions."

In addition, Mnuchin's visit "may not carry sufficient weight with Beijing or with Trump to break the impasse," Hirson said. He noted resolution may require more personal involvement from Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The trade dispute cooled slightly earlier this month after Xi gave a wide-ranging speech that discussed plans to open up the country further to foreign businesses. Xi also said Beijing will reduce tariffs on imports of U.S. automobiles. In response, Trump said in a tweet he is "very thankful" for Xi's "kind words on tariffs and automobile barriers."
President Donald Trump on Tuesday said the United States could soon reach an agreement with France that would preserve the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Trump made his comments during a news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron, who is trying to dissuade his American counterpart from pulling out of the accord. The push appeared to bear fruit on Tuesday as the leaders suggested a deal could be announced ahead of a crucial deadline in just under three weeks. "We understand each other, and we'll see how that comes out," Trump told reporters on Tuesday. "We could have at least an agreement among ourselves fairly quickly. I think we're fairly close to understanding each other, and I think our meeting, our one-on-one, went very, very well." Macron on Tuesday outlined a three-point plan that addresses several  but not all  of Trump's complaints about the nuclear accord. The plan, which is short on details, presumably forms the basis for ongoing negotiations between the United States and Europe. The deal in question is the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, an agreement reached between Iran and six world powers in 2015 that placed limits on Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

Trump has called the accord the worst deal ever. Earlier this year, he said he would withdraw the United States from the pact and restore sanctions on Iran if he could not reach a deal to toughen the terms of the agreement with France, Germany and the U.K., all of which support the accord. By May 12, Trump must decide whether to waive or restore sanctions on Iran. On Tuesday, he suggested Macron knows where he stands. "Nobody knows what I'm going to do on the 12th," Trump said before turning to Macron and saying, "Although Mr. President, you have a pretty good idea, but we'll see." The Trump administration and congressional Republicans are seeking several changes to the deal, which was negotiated by the Obama administration. They want to prohibit Iran from testing ballistic missiles, expand international inspectors' access to Iranian military facilities and prevent key aspects of the deal from expiring. Trump also wants to tie the fate of the nuclear deal to a plan to address Iran's role in several conflicts in the Middle East, including in Iraq, Syria and Yemen. On Tuesday, Macron said France now wants to build on the progress of the 2015 nuclear deal, which he called the first of four pillars to stabilize the Middle East. The plan he presented overlaps with Trump's priorities.

Moving forward, Macron wants the international community to begin addressing potential restrictions on Iran's nuclear program beyond 2025, when key aspects of the deal expire. However, he was careful not to commit to making these so-called sunset clauses permanent  something Trump wants and Iran fiercely opposes. The fate of the sunset clauses has been a major sticking point in negotiations between the United States and Europe. Macron also said future negotiations must tackle Iran's ballistic missile program and its support for the Syrian regime, Houthi rebels in Yemen and the Lebanese political and militant group Hezbollah. James Rubin, former U.S. assistant secretary of State for public affairs, said the outcome of the meeting is vague, but it appears Macron is trying to overcome a diplomatic spat by enlarging the issue. "What Macron has done is essentially try to hide the agreement among a lot of diplomatic terminology that suggests there's going to be a larger agreement that has four pieces to it," he told CNBC. "There's one old agreement that's going to be down at the bottom, and then we're going to build all this new great stuff on top of it." However, he said none of that stuff is likely to get built soon because Iran opposes altering the deal.
We must be clear-eyed, however, about the path ahead and remain grounded in reality. A lot could happen to derail the currently positive trends.

Kim could ask for immediate sanctions relief as the price for simply continuing to talk, which Trump has emphatically said he would not do. Trump could demand that Kim agree to a complete, verifiable, and irreversible disarmament before agreeing to any relief, which Kim is not likely to accept.

The North Korean leader may ask a high price for giving up his nuclear weapons. He may, for example, seek not just an ultimate peace treaty, but try to demand the early withdraw of the U.S. nuclear umbrella from South Korea and removal of all U.S. troops from the peninsula as signs of the "goodwill" Kim said he wanted to see from the U.S. and South Korea.

If Trump enters negotiations with the explicit intent on denuclearizing North Korea in the near term, then the talks will collapse and the risk of war will return to late-2017 levels. This outcome is not in America's interests, however, and not necessary for U.S. security.

Many pundits argue that Kim has no intention of actually giving up his nuclear weapons. Kim fed this belief himself when he said in his 2018 New Year's speech that "our republic has at last come to possess a powerful and reliable war deterrent, which no force and nothing can reverse."
While many car services in the UK legally employ workers such as this one, some could be exploiting modern day slaves

British lawmakers are to investigate hand car washes amid concerns that they are hubs for slavery and human trafficking.

The U.K.'s anti-slavery watchdog, the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, said it is worried that "endemic exploitation" is rife at car wash services.

It is estimated that there are up to 20,000 hand car washes active in the U.K., operating in petrol stations, shopping malls and outside grocery stores.

The Global Slavery Index estimates that up to 45.8 million people live in slavery globally, while over 151 million children are victims of child labor. The British government estimated in 2014 that 13,000 potential victims of slavery lived in the country.

Lawmakers added concerns that chemicals and dirt removed from cars could be polluting water systems in the U.K.

"Oil, dirt and cleaning products are often not disposed of correctly, which could be having a significant impact on local water sources and wildlife," said Environmental Committee Chairman Mary Creagh.

"The Independent Anti-Slavery Commission has also expressed concerns around the exploitation of the workforce at hand car washes. We are concerned about the cost to the public purse of tackling criminality, including trafficking, tax evasion and enforcement of minimum wage law."
Google has more information on users than Facebook, notes one venture capitalist.

"If you think Facebook knows a lot about you, try Google," Kevin Landis, CEO and chief investment officer of Firsthand Capital Management, told CNBC's "Closing Bell" on Monday. "They know every search you've ever made and everywhere your Android phone has ever been."

Despite people's fear of privacy disclosures after the Facebook data scandal, users and investors alike don't seem to mind Google harvesting their data. Google's parent company Alphabet on Monday reported first-quarter earnings that beat expectations on earnings per share, revenue and operating income.

"People trust Google more than Facebook," Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, a former data scientist at Google, told CNBC's Kelly Evans at the Sohn Conference on Monday.

"People are more honest to Google," Stephens-Davidowitz said. "They tend to tell things to Google that they don't tell Facebook, about what they're really thinking, their health conditions."

That's not necessarily a bad thing, said Stephens-Davidowitz, who is also author of a book on big data, "Everybody Lies."

"It helps to make the product better," he said.

If users were to "freak out" and become more cautious about the amount of data they're sharing with the search engine, that could be "really, really bad for Google," he said.

Increased regulation in the technology sector is still a concern, said Landis, who owns shares of Alphabet through his mutual funds.

"That could actually be a bit of a cloud over the stock," he said.
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President Donald Trump is slated to host a joint press conference at the White House Tuesday alongside French President Emmanuel Macron.

The allied leaders will take questions from reporters during the second of Macron's three-day tour  his first official state visit to the U.S.

Both men and their wives dined at Mount Vernon, George Washington's historic estate, on Monday evening. Macron is scheduled to address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday.

Trump and Macron were expected to hash out their stances on a number of international issues during the visit, including the Iran nuclear deal and global trade policy.

But Trump may be confronted with questions about domestic issues as well.

On Tuesday, the nomination for Trump's pick to replace David Shulkin as secretary of veterans' affairs, White House physician Ronny Jackson, was postponed indefinitely by the Senate committee on veterans. The New York Times reported that Jackson allegedly permitted the overprescription of drugs and drank excessive alcohol on the job.

Meanwhile, Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt faces mounting scrutiny over his spending and leadership in the Trump administration.
The dispute between Abu Dhabi-based investment fund Goldilocks Investment and commodity trader Noble Group shows no signs of ending soon, but one fund manager at Goldilocks said he hoped for a resolution.

"All of the stakeholders need to work together to make sure the company survives and the value is preserved," Ajit Vijay Joshi, fund manager at Goldilocks Investment, told CNBC's Capital Connection.

Joshi's comments come amid an ongoing dispute between Noble and Goldilocks which started earlier this year as Noble started a restructuring process. That led Goldilocks, which holds a 8.1 percent stake in the group, to question the stake that the firm's management will have in the restructured firm.

In March, Goldilocks filed a lawsuit with the Singapore High Court against the commodities trader and some of its former and current senior executives, alleging the company inflated its assets, Reuters reported.

The dispute between the groups deepened when Noble rejected Goldilocks' attempt to nominate five non-executive directors  including Joshi  for the company.

Noble said it had rejected the attempt because Goldilocks is not a member of the company since it holds its substantial stake through a depository agent. Goldilocks responded by saying the rejection was "an act of utmost bad faith."
Depending on your plan, you may have a range of options. Be aware of fees and risk.

About the same roll their nest egg into an IRA and 25 percent keep it in the 401(k).

Three in 10 workers have no idea what they'll do with the money in their 401(k) plan when they retire, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

Here's a question: You've built up a massive nest egg at your job, and you're about to retire. What are your plans for your hard-earned savings? For nearly a third of workers, the answer is "I don't know." Those were the findings from a recent survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a research group that focuses on health, savings and retirement. EBRI conducted an online poll of 2,042 adults in January. "In most cases, you would expect people to do a couple of things: You wouldn't use all of it to buy lifetime income and you'd want to keep some of it for emergencies," said Craig Copeland, a senior research associated at EBRI. "It's troubling that they can't recognize what they think they'd be doing," he said. Here's why it makes sense to develop an end-game for your 401(k) savings.

IRA versus 401(k)

Three in 10 workers said they would roll their 401(k) savings into an IRA, according to EBRI. About a quarter said they would keep their money at work.

EBRI also found that 1 in 3 retirees moved money out of their retirement plan because a financial professional told them to do so. Most employees expect their retirement savings to be a major component of their income once they've left the workplace. And moving that money could be risky and expensive.

Money held in a 401(k) is protected by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act or ERISA. This federal law requires individuals who manage the plan to act as fiduciaries and operate in the best interest of the participants. Further, ERISA protects your 401(k) savings from seizure by creditors. You don't have these same protections in IRAs. Though the Labor Department had released a rule that would require financial advisors to operate in your best interest when handling your retirement savings, the agency has backed off on enforcing the regulation.

That means the advisors who roll over your assets may or may not be working in your best interest. They might recommend investments that are inappropriate for your circumstances or products that are too costly. Further, once you roll your money out of your 401(k), the extent to which your IRA is protected from creditors will vary based on the state in which you reside.

Funds and fees

When it comes to investments, you likely have access to a broader array of investments in an IRA. In a 401(k), you're limited to what your employer selects for the plan's fund menu. The average large 401(k) plan in 2015 offered 29 investment options, according to data from the Investment Company Institute. Finally, expenses are worth considering when you decide what to do with your savings. Moving your money could save you money, or cost you big. Overall, retirement plan costs are falling.

While advisors can charge approximately 1 percent to manage your rollover assets, some small retirement plans have fees that exceed that amount. For instance, a study from America's Best 401k, a Scottsdale, Arizona-based firm that works with retirement plans, reviewed fee disclosures for 11 insurers and payroll companies that specialize in plans with less than $10 million in assets. Fees for those plans were as high as 1.19 percent to 1.95 percent, according to the analysis.

Where to start

Pascal Broze | Getty Images
To appreciate the way so many of us feel about Google today, we need only remember the words of perfectly adequate 80s rock band Great White: Once bitten, twice shy. (Go ahead, watch the music video. It's hilarious.)

Those bleach-haired biker boys may have been writing about groupies and rock 'n' roll cliches, but they also tapped into a feeling all too common in our current mobile tech landscape: You never know when a service you love is going to go away. And so after a while, it gets tough to feel comfortable enough to commit.

You know what I'm getting at here, right? Google makes some really great apps and services. It also isn't afraid to kill off said apps and services when it sees fit, regardless of how users may react. The inevitable question, then, is always: What's next? Which Google app or service will be given a death sentence that'll send its dedicated users into a tizzy?

Right now, a lot of folks seem to be placing their bets on Inbox  the alternative Gmail interface that made its official public debut nearly three years ago. It's easy to see why Inbox could look like a target: First, a major Gmail redesign is essentially now confirmed to be looming  and leaked screenshots show the app adopting one of Inbox's key distinguishing features: native email snoozing. Gmail also got the Inbox-initiated Smart Reply feature a year ago.

Then there's the fact that progress on Inbox seems to have slowed down somewhat as of late. Google hasn't made any splashy Inbox-specific update announcements in some time, and  as my Twitter stream reminds me 17,000 times a day  the Inbox iOS app has yet to be updated to support the iPhone X's magical and revolutionary notch, despite numerous other Google apps receiving such support.

[Get fresh tips and insight in your inbox every Friday with JR's new Android Intelligence insider's newsletter. Exclusive extras await!]

All combined, it's enough to make you think about Inbox's future  especially after last week's word that Allo was basically being moved to "life support" status just a year and a half after its debut (one of the more ironic Google product pivots of recent memory).

According to Google, though, all the fretting over Inbox's future is much ado about nothing.

"With respect to the upcoming Gmail announcement, there are no changes to Inbox by Gmail," a Google spokesperson tells me. "It remains a great product for users with specific workflows and one in which we test innovative features for email."

Now, all of this isn't to say Inbox is eternally safe from the graveyard. (Is anything, ever, in life?) But it does give us some important perspective on where things actually stand with the service as of right now. And that perspective lets us know we can all stand down and breathe easy, at least for the moment.

A bit of Inbox balance

Beyond that official assurance, there's something to be said for balance. And I can't help but notice that for every point in the column of the "Inbox must be doomed" argument we've been hearing for the past several weeks, there's a point in an opposing column that overtly suggests otherwise.

Just last week, for instance, I started seeing a new A.I.-powered Highlights section in Inbox on both mobile and web. (Some people started seeing signs of the feature last fall; it appears to have been rolling out slowly since then.)

A few months ago, Inbox started giving me suggestions for unsubscribing from recurring emails I hadn't opened in a long time. (The first signs of that new feature showed up in mid-December.)

Not long before that, another new Inbox feature appeared that uses artificial intelligence to find and suggest emails that might require a follow-up or reply.

Outside of showing up in the Inbox app and website, none of these features was shown off or announced  no tweets, no official Google blog posts, no broad promotions  so it's understandably easy to overlook them. But they illustrate that at least to some degree, development has been continuing on Inbox over these past several months. The service may not be getting the same level of attention it once enjoyed, particularly in terms of promotion, but saying it's all but dead seems a tad melodramatic.

Inbox and Gmail: Differences remain

Even more broadly, the notion that all of Inbox's distinguishing features are now moving into Gmail is fairly misguided. Inbox continues to have a meaningfully different interface and system for sorting and managing messages than Gmail, with an emphasis on automatically organized bundles that appear in your inbox only at certain times  thus streamlining when and how you deal with them.

That system is connected to numerous other still-Inbox-exclusive features  like the service's automatic organization and presentation of trip-related bundles for travel, for instance, and its ability to pull out and present key details from messages right within the main inbox view.

Inbox also integrates seamlessly with Google's cross-service reminders system in a way no other app does, by collecting all of your reminders (set via Inbox, Assistant, Keep, or even just the Google search box) in a single place and allowing you to manage them. And it lets you attach specific reminders to emails in a clever and incredibly helpful way  a feature I've come to appreciate and depend upon for my own inbox organization.

The bigger Google email picture

If we look back to the time of Inbox's launch, we can get a good reminder of Google's initial commitment to the product and its hope for how things would progress.

"We think this is the inbox designed for the problems we're going to see in the next 10 years, and that's how we're going to build on this," then-product-director Alex Gawley told Mashable in 2014.

"We also know there's a whole bunch of things that people are doing inside Gmail that we want them to be continuing to be able to do as well," he continued. "We hope, in the long run, that most of our users will be on Inbox."

Jason Cornwell, Inbox's lead designer, expressed similar sentiments in an AMA ("Ask Me Anything") hosted by the Inbox team on Reddit that December. He also set some more specific parameters, in response to a question about whether Inbox might replace Gmail down the road:

In the short term, no. In the very long term, we hope so. Inbox is something new  thats why were launching it as a separate product. We care deeply about Gmail and Gmail users, but in the long run, as we add more features to Inbox and respond to user feedback, we hope that everyone will want to use Inbox instead of Gmail. Ultimately, our users will decide.

It's hard to say for sure if that goal has evolved over time  or even how many users are actually using Inbox at this point. That sort of data isn't something a company is likely to divulge. I think we'd all agree it seems pretty unlikely that the majority of Gmail users are now using Inbox, but that doesn't necessarily mean the number of Inbox users is completely insignificant. The most recent clue I found dates back to October of 2016, when former Inbox product manager Vijay Umapathy responded to a question on Quora about Inbox's usage and whether an organization would be wise to focus its efforts on Inbox or on Gmail:

Let's just say Inbox has a non-trivial number of users and is growing, so you would be wise to support both.

The Inbox Android app, meanwhile, currently shows as having 10 million installs on Google Play, for whatever that's worth. It was last updated on April 5.

So, yes: Google may be giving Gmail some long overdue attention right now  but all considered, it sure doesn't look like Inbox is unused, abandoned, or set to be sunsetted anytime soon.

"But what company would be crazy enough to maintain overlapping products that compete for the same set of users?" one might ask.

At this point, I think you and I both know the answer.

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[Android Intelligence videos at Computerworld]
Reports of tech support scams jumped by 24% last year, Microsoft said, with losses by the bilked averaging between $200 and $400 each.

"Scammers continue to capitalize on the proven effectiveness of social engineering to perpetrate tech support scams," Erik Wahlstrom, Windows Defender research project manager, wrote in a post last week to a Microsoft blog. "These scams are designed to trick users into believing their devices are compromised or broken. They do this to scare or coerce victims into purchasing unnecessary support services."

Wahlstrom's post accompanied a presentation on tech support schemes that he gave the same day at the RSA Conference in San Francisco.

According to company data, Microsoft received 153,000 reports from customers who had encountered or fallen for tech support scams in 2017, an increase of nearly a quarter over the year prior. Of that number, approximately 15,000 - or about 1 in 10 - admitted that they'd lost money from such scams. With the range of losses Wahlstrom described, that meant Microsoft's customers paid out between $3 million and $6 million to criminals.

And that was only what was reported, and only to Microsoft. "As with many social engineering attacks, it's tricky to put an absolute number to the problem," Wahlstrom said. "The problem is so much bigger [than just Microsoft], given that tech support scams target customers of various other devices, platforms, or software."

Traditionally, support scams have relied on cold calls, where phony "technicians" dial numbers hoping to get someone to answer. But as they have outworn that tactic due to repetition and the ensuing attention, scammers have taken to other approaches, including email, malicious sites that pose as legitimate security services, malware whose purpose is to fleece individuals, and ransomware attackers.

All those vectors were designed to lead a potential victim to a call center. There, the supposed tech representative, often self-identifying as with Microsoft, Symantec or another easily-recognized technology company, tries to trick victims into believing that their computer is infected. At that point, the sale pitch starts, with the call center scammer trying to convince the consumer or business worker to download software or let the "technician" remotely access the PC.

Then the fraudsters charge for their worthless one-time "help," sell subscriptions to useless services or install code while they have the machines under their control.

It's a lucrative crime.

According to a late March bulletin from the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center, complaints last year cited losses of nearly $15 million, an 86% increase of the year before.

And, said the FBI, the crooks have continued to expand into virgin territories. "Criminals have started to pose as government agents, even offering to recover supposed losses related to tech support fraud schemes," the agency said. "Some recent complaints involve criminals posing as technical support representatives for GPS, printer, or cable companies, or support for virtual currency exchangers."

That last could be especially profitable for the scammers. When victims dialed a virtual currency support number - obtained through general web searches - they actually reached a call center, where a representative asked for access to the caller's "wallet," then transferred the digital-currency to another wallet, said the FBI, "for temporary holding during maintenance." Of course, that would be the last time the victim saw that money.

Microsoft All vectors in tech scams lead to a call center sooner or later. That's where pushy "technicians" try to trick people out of their treasure.

In a PowerPoint slide deck that Wahlstrom used for his RSA talk - video of his presentation was not available - he argued that although Microsoft can detect signals that a scamming cold call is in progress, including JavaScript tricks the current site may use or the offering of online payment, warning the potential victim, at least at that point, may not be the solution.

"Ramping up notifications is exactly the wrong thing to do," "people don't want to be informed" and "We can block but should we?" stated one of the PowerPoint slides.

Instead, Wahlstrom contended in his blog post, the problem is one that requires attention from many players. "Beyond customer education, the scale and complexity of tech support scams require cooperation and broad partnerships across the industry," he said. "It's high time for the industry to come together and put an end to the tech support scam problem."
Late last night  on a Monday, mind you  Microsoft released its second big cumulative update for Win10 version 1709. This completes the triumvirate of second cumulative updates, since last week, on the third Tuesday of the month, Microsoft released second cumulative updates for Win10 1703 and 1607.

Theres a pattern emerging. Microsoft is now showering Win10 customers with two (sometimes more) cumulative updates a month, and theyre big. The first cumulative update contains security patches and a big hodgepodge of additional bug fixes. The first one is (usually) released on the second Tuesday of the month. The second cumulative update arrives, uh, whenever, and it contains massive amounts of bug fixes in addition to those in the first  including, if were lucky, fixes for the bugs introduced by the months first cumulative update.

Last night, Microsoft released KB 4093105, which has a list of bug fixes that goes on and on and on. It brings the build number up to 16299.402.

Three fixes of note:

For those of you who had to put up with the pen drags the canvas bug I mentioned two weeks ago  the one where beta testers liked the feature so much Microsoft dropped it, unannounced, into this months first cumulative update  there should be a fix:

Addresses an issue that might cause some users to experience unexpected panning or scrolling in certain apps while using the pen.

For those of you who just love to delete Candy Crush Soda Saga every time you upgrade Win10, over and over again, theres some respite:

Addresses an issue that causes modern applications to reappear after upgrading the OS version even though those applications have been deprovisioned using remove-AppXProvisionedPackages-Online.

And for those who rely on Outlook 2013s User Experience Virtualization feature:

Addresses an issue that prevents Autodiscover in Microsoft Outlook 2013 from being used to set up email accounts when UE-V is enabled.

Many people report that the patch isnt yet available through Windows Update. Martin Brinkman on ghacks says:

Windows Update failed to pick up the new update on a Windows 10 Pro machine. It returned KB4093112 instead which Microsoft released on the April 2018 Patch Tuesday; that update was installed on the machine already, however. Manual download from the Microsoft Update Catalog site and installation worked, however.

My (sole) bare-metal 1709 machine isn't picking up the update either.

The sheer volume of patches these days boggles my mind. My list of updated Knowledge Base articles shows there have been mods to 7,679 KB articles so far this month.

Gotta gripe about the pace of patches? Join us on the AskWoody Lounge.
Rudd promises Windrush generation British citizenship and a change of culture at the Home Office

Amber Rudd has vowed to change the culture of the Home Office amid concerns that the Windrush immigration scandal could fuel an exodus of ethnic minority support for the Tories. The home secretary unveiled an emergency package of measures designed to end the crisis yesterday. Every citizen from the Commonwealth who arrived in the UK between 1948 and 1988 will be offered citizenship or settled status, with officials told to take a generous approach to applications. Ms Rudd admitted that the treatment of immigration cases needed to change, telling MPs that the controversy had shown we need to give a human face to how we work and exercise greater discretion when it is justified. Her comments were seen as critical of the Home Office becoming too focused on strategy and policy under Theresa May as it tried to tackle illegal immigration and cut net migration to under 100,000. It is about a change of culture that I will be trying to trickle down the department, Ms Rudd said. I am not blaming anyone.  The Times

>Today: Andrew Green on Comment: We need to see the Governments planned post-Brexit immigration framework

>Yesterday: ToryDiary: Why an inquiry into the treatment of the Windrush children is needed (reprise)

Brexit 1) The EU admits its own backstop plan for the Irish border does not work

European Union negotiators have admitted that their controversial backstop plan to prevent a hard border in Ireland after Brexit will not work and could undermine the single market. In a confidential diplomatic note seen by The Times, the European Commission and other EU negotiators expressed fears that because the plan covers only customs checks on goods entering Northern Ireland from Britain, the province could still become a lucrative loophole in the single marketA solution for the Irish border does not solve problems related to necessary alignment with the whole EU acquis [body of single market law], the diplomatic note said. Many goods have a considerable services component and a level playing field is not covered by alignment with relevant EU rules as foreseen in the backstop. In a letter to The Times today the CBI and TUC have accused the government of treating the Good Friday agreement as an inconvenience. Carolyn Fairbairn, director-general of the CBI, and Frances OGrady, general secretary of the TUC, said Theresa May needed to confirm categorically that a hard border is off the table and to explain exactly how this will happen.  The Times

Brexit 2) Wallace: Customs Union would be a failure to take back control  a betrayal that harms British democracy

Take back control neatly encapsulated complex ideas, combing popular frustration with an unaccountable EU and a sense of offering a positive alternative to rule by the dreary grey men of BrusselsVoting Leave did not mean dictating one post-Brexit policy or another, it meant choosing for the UK to make its own decisions democraticallyThis, at heart, is why the idea of staying in the Customs Union  the latest straw grasped by those who still hope to block Brexit  ought to be rejected. Outsourcing trade policy to Brussels would be the opposite of taking back controlWe would go from being Junckers cash-cow to his bargaining chipImagine for a moment what it felt like for people who believed themselves to be powerless to find out that over 17 million others were on their side. Now consider their emotions when they saw the most powerful politicians in the land compelled to do what they had instructed them to do through the ballot boxAside from everything else, that makes fulfilling Brexit a crucial responsibility for democratic engagement in this country.  Mark Wallace, the i paper

>Today: The Moggcast. Completely idiotic customs partnership idea should be knocked on the head

Hammond accepts case to limit betting machine stakes

The maximum stake for crack cocaine gambling machines is set to be slashed to just 2, following a deal between the Treasury and Downing Street. Whitehall sources last night said the Chancellor Philip Hammond had accepted the case for taking dramatic action against fixed odds betting terminals  FOBTs  which currently allow gamblers to stake 100 every 20 seconds. Mr Hammond is still in talks with Culture Secretary Matt Hancock and Number 10 about how to fill the 400million hole in the public finances which cutting the stake to 2 would produceThe measure has been delayed by the local elections on May 3, but is due to be announced in the coming weeks, pending an agreement on plugging the resulting shortfall in tax revenue. One source yesterday said the new maximum bet would be under 10. Another said ministers had agreed in principle to cut the maximum stake to just 2  a 98 per cent reduction.  Daily Mail

Williamson: Russia is a far greater threat to Britain than insurgents in Iraq or Afghanistan were

Armenians unseat Putinist president  Washington Post

Probing into bullying of Commons staff will not investigate individual allegations (including against Bercow)

Russia poses a far greater threat to Britain than insurgents did in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Defence Secretary has said. In a fresh attack on the Russian regime, Gavin Williamson said that the security threat Britain faces has considerably escalated in the last three years, and acknowledged that returning to Cold War-levels of defence spending was tempting. He told the Commons on Monday: We have to be realistic about the challenges. The challenges that are posed by Russia are far greater than the challenges that were presented as an insurgency in terms of Iraq and Afghanistan, and how do we get the right mix of military equipment and capability to deal with that increased threat.  Daily Telegraph

The Commons authorities are facing a backlash after it emerged an official inquiry into claims of bullying and harassment will not investigate allegations against John Bercow and other MPs. Ex-High Court judge Dame Laura Cox has been appointed to lead the probe in the wake of a slew of allegations about the culture at parliament. But Dame Laura will not be tasked with investigating any individual complaints or reopening past cases  instead examining the nature and extent of the problem. Unions warned that the tight restrictions on the probe risked repeating the mistakes of the past. Dame Laura, who retired from the High Court in 2016, will also consider what options are available for resolving current or historical allegations and the support available to those affected.  Daily Mail

ConservativeHome exposes (yet another) anti-semitic Labour candidate

A Labour council candidate was revealed to have criticised the protest against anti-Semitism in the party as Tories after Jewish money.ConservativeHome reported that Themba Msika posted a series of sick messages after apparently becoming incensed by the Enough is Enough demonstration outside Parliament last week.He declared that Real Jews dont buy it, and claimed any Jewish people who support the Tory party were not real Jews.  The Sun

>Yesterday: LeftWatch: Exclusive: Labour council candidate attacks #EnoughIsEnough protests as Tories after jewish money and not real Jews

Its a Royal boy!

British flags will be flown at full mast from all Government buildings for 12 hours to celebrate the birth of the new Royal baby, it was confirmed last night. It came as the Prime Minister sent her warmest congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the birth of their baby boy yesterday wishing them great happiness for the future. Theresa May tweeted her best wishes after Kensington Palace made the happy announcement yesterday. She wrote: My warmest congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the birth of their baby boy. I wish them great happiness for the future. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson also tweeted his congratulations, saying: Huge congratulations to Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the safe delivery of their baby boy today!  The Sun

The world awaits news of his name  Daily Telegraph

They could call him Arthur Edward(s)  The Sun Says

Republicans should stop snarling  Stephen Daisley, The Spectator

Hale backs no-fault divorce

Scores of couples might unknowingly still be married after official errors  Daily Mail

A thousand students join class action to get strike compensation

The UKs most senior judge has called for changes to divorce laws, arguing that rules assigning fault can trigger unnecessary conflict and encourage people to accept unfair blame. In comments that echoed calls by a Times campaign, Baroness Hale of Richmond, president of the Supreme Court, said that no-fault divorce and other reforms should be welcomed as they strengthened family responsibilities. At a conference of family law specialists in Bristol, Lady Hale tackled critics who insist that removing fault from divorces would undermine marriage. It may seem paradoxical to suggest that no-fault divorce is aimed at strengthening responsibility, but I believe that it is, she said. The contents of the [divorce] petition can trigger or exacerbate family conflict entirely unnecessarily. Respondents are encouraged by their lawyers to suck it up even though the allegations are unfair. There is no evidence at all that having to give a reason for the breakdown makes people think twice.  The Times

More than a thousand university students have joined a class action to claim compensation for teaching that they missed during the lecturers strike. Lawyers running the case say that reaching the threshold of 1,000 means they can apply for a Group Litigation Order (GLO). The class action is being organised by Asserson, a law firm that specialises in high-value litigation. Shimon Goldwater, a senior solicitor, believes that the case is very strong and warned that it could mean multimillion-pound payouts. No other service provider would get away with charging for 25 weeks of a service and cutting that to 22 with no price reduction, he said. There is no question that universities owe students fair compensation. More than 20,000 undergraduates attend each large UK university. Paying approximately 500 compensation to each would cost 10 million.  The Times

Macron urges Trump to stay in Syria

News in Brief

Emmanuel Macron will urge Donald Trump to keep America engaged in Syria for the long run on Tuesday as the pair meet for face-to-face talks in the White House. The French president is expected to warn that new terrorist threats could emerge if the US disengages from the country as it remains locked in civil war. The White House has confirmed a way ahead in Syria will be discussed in what officials predicted will be a full and free airing of points of view with Mr Macron. Americas Syrian policy is up in the air as Mr Trump balances his instinctive opposition to foreign intervention with a determination to police a red line over chemical weapons use. Mr Trump said last month that US troops would withdraw from Syria very soon, only to be convinced by advisers to stay for the time being.  Daily Telegraph
Those of us willing to take the small amount of time and trouble involved to switch our energy suppliers have found we can size a significant amount of money by getting a better deal. But how much effort do local authorities make to shop around?

Bulb, a new challenger energy supplier, submitted Freedom of Information requests to find out how much councils are paying and who their suppliers are. Of course they have a vested interest in being able to pitch for this work. But the results they have obtained are of interest. They are available in full here. Most councils use the big six. There is also a suggestion that some are getting a much better deal than others. This is according to the measure of how much a Council is spending divided by the number of households living in the area it covers. That is a pretty rough and ready measure  some councils will have more street lighting required per household than others, some include the energy supply for their council housing while others do not.

Also, of course, it is possible that the big firms will sometimes provide the best deals. Often local authorities and the NHS go through a joint purchasing body called Laser Energy to secure a bulk discount. But that doesnt give the challenger firms a chance to pitch.

The research for Bulb found that local authorities are handing over 863 million of taxpayers money to the Big Six, or big oil and gas companies, every year.

So far a fifth of British households have switched to cheaper challenger energy companies  yet very few town halls have done so.

Its not just the money  there is also the issue of the environment. No local authority in Britain has switched to a fully renewable supplier.

Bulb Co-founder Hayden Wood said:

Theres a huge opportunity for councils across the country to lead from the front and show that they are committed to a renewable future.

Sadly, our research reveals that councils  including some who have expressed vocal support for renewables  are currently missing out on the chance to go green. A change would benefit the environment, while opening up opportunities to cut publicly-funded energy bills.

Thats why we are encouraging people to write to their local councils and call on them to commit to switching to a renewable energy provider. Wed love to see councils help protect the planet, and save some money for residents too.

One curiosity is that some Labour councils have been involved in setting up their own not for profit energy companies which they encourage their residents to use  yet the Councils themselves wont do so.

Cllr Peter Rankin, the Labour Leader of Preston Council, tweets about taking on the big six. But his Council uses British Gas and EDF.

Labour-run Nottingham City Council has set up Robin Hood Energy. Yet the Council uses EDF.

Another Labour council, Doncaster, has set up its own firm Great Northern Energy  for others to use. The Councils supplier is Npower.

Islington Council has set up its own fairer energy company Angelic Energy. But the Councils supplier is SSE  one of the big six.

The research by Bulb is a good start. But the transparency rules should be extended so that Council Taxpayers get full information about how much of their money is being spent on gas and electricity  and seek an explanation if other local authorities are getting a better deal.
Lord Green is Chairman of MigrationWatch UK and a cross-bench peer.

The Conservatives seem to be having a nervous breakdown over immigration as, yet again, the race card is being played with the clear intention of closing down the debate on immigration. As for the Windrush affair, it was certainly a serious mistake in the execution of a policy designed to reduce illegal overstaying rather than to reduce immigration, but the row led to the Home Secretary attacking her own staff in unprecedented and, frankly, indefensible terms.

She was followed by Messrs Johnson and Gove declaring their undying attachment to a liberal immigration policy. Nothing to do with numbers, they tell us. Actually, it is. Numbers are at the heart of the issue. A YouGov poll last August found that 41 per cent of UK voters saw immigration as the top priority in the Brexit negotiations. Furthermore, a poll for the Migration Observatory in November 2016 found that three quarters of the public want to see reductions in immigration, including 50 per cent who want them to be significant.

Now we have learned, over the weekend, that our chief Brexit negotiator has told his EU counterparts that we are prepared to negotiate on a labour mobility and immigration regime. Not a word of warning or explanation to the British public, yet this marks a move onto what could prove to be extremely dangerous ground.

It need not be thus. There is a way forward, but it requires the Government to set out now the immigration framework that they envisage after Brexit. They have been dithering for months about when to do so. At present the White Paper has been put off until the late autumn, yet without that firm base we risk being pushed around by the EU Commission, as we have been since the outset of these negotiations.

The key will be to focus on immigration for work and, especially, on the less highly-skilled. The crucial number is that, over the past ten years, 80 per cent of EU migrants for work would not have qualified for a non-EU work permit. It follows that the simplest and best solution would be to incorporate EU workers in the existing Tier 2 work permit scheme. This regime, in particular the salary threshold of 30,000 a year, would cut out most of the lower-skilled EU nationals who might wish to work in the UK. Whether or not a quota is also desirable is an open question; it might be necessary both to be seen to treat EU and non-EU workers on a similar basis while also allowing a negotiation on its size. Access to Britain on the basis of a job offer only, as some have suggested, would be no control at all  it would simply be a bonanza for employment agencies.

Any proposal for work permits is bound to trigger intense pressures from those industries that have benefitted hugely from a virtually unlimited pool of competent workers willing to work for very low pay. The Government has handed this hot potato to their Migration Advisory Committee for advice but that, too, will not be available until the autumn.

There may also be a need for lower-skilled EU staff such as construction workers, for whom a temporary scheme of three-year non-renewable visas would allow time for British workers to be trained.

Another special case is agricultural workers. There could be short-term admission for agricultural workers who would be admitted for a maximum of six months, with no benefits but with a guarantee of the minimum wage. Employers should be required to register and ensure the departure of their workers.

It is urgent that we should have such an outline of an effective framework for our future immigration system. It could and should be presented to the EU in a positive way. Both sides will want to see ease of access for tourists and visitors, including business visitors. It would also be very much in all our interests to encourage young Europeans to experience life in the UK for a while. This could be achieved by expanding the present Youth Mobility Scheme which applies to Australians and others, and allows young adults to come to Britain and work for up to two years but with no possibility of extension and no access to the benefit system. It would also be right to introduce measures to encourage EU students to study in British universities.

I return to my central point that the key will be numbers and the risk is that, in a negotiation linked to trade, concessions will be made that will be unacceptable to a wide spectrum of public opinion. Whatever Johnson and Gove may now say, control meant reduction for a very large number of Brexit voters. This is especially true of those who are also Conservatives. The economic liberals in the Government may feel that, given the present state of both the Labour Party and UKIP, their supporters have nowhere else to go. They do. They could well stay at home at the next election.
Nick King was a special adviser from 2012-2017. He is now a freelance consultant and the Head of Business for the CPS.

On this site two weeks ago, Robert Colvile, the director of the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS), wrote of the urgent need for a more positive and appealing Conservative message, alongside a compelling set of policies explicitly focused on making peoples lives better. In that piece he talked about some of those he had recruited to the CPS in recent weeks to lead efforts in that regard  in key policy areas such as taxation, welfare and housing. I feel privileged to be the latest name to be added to the team sheet, leading the CPS work on business and enterprise.

Its a crucial area of policy that I am excited by, and a topic with which I have unfinished business, if youll excuse the pun. I joined the Department for Business in May 2015  one of the three Departments in which I worked as a special adviser to Sajid Javid  but had to leave in the wake of the referendum some 14 months later. I know from my time in government that, even working with a radical and intelligent minister like Sajid, it can be hard pushing the Government machine to think big, and to ensure that smaller businesses and entreprenuers get the focus they deserve. Consequently, organisations like the CPS, and people like the extremely talented backbench MPs with whom were working on the New Generation programme, can help ministers by both setting the weather and supporting Government by formulating exciting new policies

The CPSs position is unapologetically pro-capitalist and free-marketeer; these principles have led to unprecedented economic growth and prosperity in the recent past and are our best bet for the future. Both the CPS and the Conservative Party have proud records of standing up for enterprise, and advocating policies which have started and sustained businesses, created jobs, and improved millions of lives as a result.

But with the rise in popularity of a Labour leader who considers socialism and nationalisation to be his watchwords, it now falls upon us to make the case for enterprise, free trade and capitalism anew. And to support us in that endeavour we must craft original, eye-catching policies which will support businesses, and provide the jobs, opportunities and rising incomes that people crave.

This need is all the more starkly felt in the midst of the Brexit negotiations and with the inevitable uncertainty that currently affects some British business. But Brexit also gives us an opportunity to think again about how we do things, and to reaffirm Britains position as a leading economy  innovative, creative and entrepreneurial, with high skills and low taxes, and trading with the world.

These notions will be the ones we abide by and argue for at the CPS. We will focus on how we can best support those who have started, or want to start, a new business, believing that this countrys economic success is built on the back of our entrepreneurs. We will make recommendations to tackle the iniquities and inefficiencies which currently exist in business taxation. We will craft policies to get new companies exporting and current exporters exporting more. We will look again at regulation to ensure its proportionate and relevant. We will develop ideas to encourage, and commercialise, research and innovation.

And, whilst doing all this, we will continue to defend capitalism as the single best economic system that exists  and the one which will help the very poorest in society  whilst identifying the means by which we can take on monopolies, vested interests and crony capitalism.

It is by showing that capitalism is inherently fair and works in all our interests that we can advance the front in the battle of ideas. This is important in political terms but it is even more important in policy terms  because as a country we cannot afford, economically or socially, to go back to the 1970s.

But if were going to win that argument we must also this also ensure we have policies which aim at those parts of the country that feel, with some vindication, left behind. There are too many places in the UK where the local economy is stagnant and where poverty of opportunity is all too prevalent. These regional disparities need to be taken on through tax and other economic incentives, through a wider commitment to devolution, through targeted infrastructure investment and through intelligent use of other government resources, such as the Shared Prosperity Fund.

Taken together these policy ambitions reflect a bold programme of action for both the CPS and for the Government. If we get the right answers and the right ideas, we can take the fight to Corbyns radical left-wing agenda, win over a new generation of voters, and secure Britains social and economic future. If we fail, the price we will pay doesnt bear thinking about.
Robin Gwynn was the Conservative candidate for Jarrow in the 2017 General Election.

Im an optimist, and still believe our underlying national strengths will pull us through Brexit  hopefully at the clean-break end of the spectrum. That includes our capacity to absorb a depth of public debate that none of the EU and other countries currently shaking their heads over us would even remotely consider launching, let alone withstand themselves.

But  however we emerge on the other side  as a Party we cannot afford to ignore the extent to which the Conservative brand has been trashed in recent years. Anyone who is posting on social media or knocking on doors with a blue rosette knows this  not just in opposition heartlands, but on traditionally friendlier turf too. The pervasive gap between statistical reality and public perception in so many policy areas is painfully telling, and should be ringing much louder alarm bells.

Virtually everything we currently plan or achieve, at local or national level, bounces off the received wisdom that Conservatives have suspect motives which put us on the wrong side of every argument. I am saddened that sensible acquaintances increasingly seem to think of me differently once they realise Im a Tory activist, pigeon-holing me into various categories. A floundering opposition, or piecemeal excellent policy making (take a bow, Michael Gove), are not sufficient in themselves to reset the balance.

Any Brexit poll bounce (dream on) at the next general election could still be wiped out by such perceptions of toxic Toryism. We must now face up to taking sufficiently robust steps to tackle that head on. Please read the rest of this article with that context up-front in your mind. The problem really is that deep-seated and urgent.

Fortunately, there are steps we can take to save the day  and which are in line with Conservative thinking, if we look hard enough. The nature of such an exercise may involve surprising people  including, no doubt, some Party members. But creative thinking, without surrendering our principles, is exactly whats needed to uproot the widespread perception of what current Conservative policy and behaviour looks like.

So here is my main proposal:

We should launch a process to achieve national agreement on how much funding the NHS needs over at least the next parliament  with parties having to show how they would provide it. Versions of this idea are circulating, whether called a Royal Commission or anything else. I believe it is critical for Conservatives to get behind this and drive it, with polling and anecdotal evidence suggesting that voter suspicions about Tory designs on the NHS are our core problem. If we dont convince people that we are not out to dismantle the NHS  however much funding we announce unilaterally  we may as well conduct our next election campaign in a vacuum chamber.

Of course, this doesnt mean writing a huge blank cheque: that is where the politics comes in. Much of the costing information is already available, and the subject of public debate. But consider the following advantageous angles for Conservatives that could follow agreement of an overall NHS funding envelope:

Once the cost has been set out and agreed, each Party has to show how it would find the money  including in their election manifesto. That returns NHS funding squarely to the arena of political debate, but without the emotional factors about overall commitment, where we are seen on less solid ground. It also helps us around another perceived weakness in our approach towards the electorate  the risk of seeming to take them for fools. Properly presented, I believe voters would value a clear choice between the parties on how to fund the NHS, which they themselves have deemed to be the top priority. So if we believe we can only find the given sum by affecting other ring-fenced budgets and netting-off efficiency savings, we should say so. And if Labour are only prepared to tax and borrow to find the money, with no commitment to efficiency, let them say so too. The voters are well able to work out what they prefer, once they know the Tories are behind the NHS as much as the opposition claim to be.

Talking about efficiency and cost saving within given budgets at last becomes acceptable. Hands up any Party activist brave or foolhardy enough to raise NHS reform at present? Only if you want to be pilloried as the latest media example of a cruel Tory, bent on privatising the NHS and/or selling it across the Atlantic. But common sense shows that any organisation spending over 100 billion per year has scope for making savings and running more efficiently, if only to distribute funding internally to harder-pressed areas. Agreeing the overall budget needs first allows the reform debate finally to get a proper hearing too  since we start by removing the main charge against us, that we want reform instead of adequate funding.

If we can reset the NHS debate in that way, I see opportunities for further work on national reunification and progress built on Conservative values. For example, how about convening a national Jobs and Growth Summit or similar process aimed at turning deep-seated and inter-locking social and economic problems into post-Brexit growth and hope? I am thinking of the complex mix we face at present of entrenched NEET-ism in some areas  especially for working class young white men  alongside skills shortages including in building and other key industries, plus low productivity, training and investment across many sectors (yes, throw in under-recruitment to whats left of our armed forces; and access to post-school and tertiary education opportunities).

While many ministers and officials across Whitehall are addressing elements of these issues, I see no overall plan or senior driving point to bring it all together into a strategic coherent whole. To do so should however be within our national capability and vision, and bring together both the Prime Ministers aspirations for our country with the heady opportunities for global Britain if we get Brexit right.
Five years ago, the TaxPayers Alliance reported that in the last year, five times more Labour people were appointed to public bodies than Tories.

Since then, the figures have varied, and some Conservative members or supporters have been selected to fill important posts.

Nonetheless, it remains the case that, since it took office in 2010, our Party has punched beneath its weight when it comes to public appointments. One of the reasons seems to be that Tories simply dont apply in the same number as Labour supporters.

To help remedy this, every week we put up links to some of the main public appointments vacancies, so that qualified Conservatives might be aware of the opportunities presented.

         

National Citizen Service Trust  Chair

Government is committed to the continued development of the NCS programme, with around 1 billion of funding available between 2016/17 and 2019/20. The management of NCS is moving from the existing Community Interest Company to a new Royal Chartered public sector body, with an expected launch date later in 2018. This new organisation will be overseen by a new Board. We are seeking a Chair and non-executive directors to join this new Board. This is an extraordinary opportunity. The successful individual will have the chance to lead NCS through a period of organisational change and beyond, to advocate and communicate with energy and commitment, to achieve great value for money for the taxpayer, and to be responsible for transforming the lives of future generations.

Time: One or two days per week.

Remuneration: 400 per diem, up to 40,000 per annum.

Closes: 25 April

         

NHS Counter-Fraud Authority  Chair

On 1 November 2017 the NHSCFA, a new special health authority, took over responsibility for tackling fraud and corruption in the NHS in England. The NHSCFA replaced NHS Protect and has been created as a standalone body to provide the independence required to counter fraud and protect resources intended for patient care. The DHSCAFU has overall responsibility for the scope, strategy and direction of all counter fraud activity across the health service. It is also the DHSC sponsor for the NHSCFA. Aligned with the DHSC Health Group Counter Fraud strategy, the NHSCFA acts as the principal lead for the NHS and wider health group in counter fraud intelligence work.

Time: 2-3 days per month.

Remuneration: 14,450 per annum.

Closes: 25 April

         

Ministry of Justice  Prisons and Probation Ombudsman

The Ombudsman is responsible for: providing independent and effective investigation of complaints falling within the Ombudsmans Terms of Reference; investigating all fatal incidents occurring in the services in remit, and producing a written report of every investigation; making recommendations to the services in remit and the appropriate Secretary of State; providing more general findings to the services in remit and the public at large; building effective working partnerships with other independent scrutiny bodies and other relevant agencies; leadership and management of the Ombudsmans Office; producing an annual report, to be laid before Parliament by the Secretary of State for Justice; and responding to recommendations from the Harris Review into self-inflicted deaths in custody of 18-24 year olds.

Time: 37 hours per week.

Remuneration: 100,000 per annum.

Closes: 30 April

         

Independent Commission for Aid Impact  Chief Commissioner

The role of Chief Commissioner for the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) is an exciting opportunity for a self-motivated individual with strong experience in international development to lead ICAI in providing independent scrutiny of all UK government aid provision (totalling around 13bn a year), supporting Parliament to hold the government to account for its impact and value for money. A successful Chief Commissioner will demonstrate the ability to influence and improve the effectiveness of UK aid while remaining independent from government. The Chief Commissioner will lead a board of three commissioners to develop thematic reviews on strategic issues faced by the UK Governments aid provision, supported by a service provider and secretariat.

Time: Full time.

Remuneration: >92,776 per annum plus benefits and pension package.

Closes: 08 May

         

NHS England  Chair

The primary objective of the Chair is to ensure the strategic direction of NHS England, the body responsible for arranging the provision of health services in England, is aligned to wider Government healthcare policy and that members of the NHS England Board, the senior decision making structure of the organisation, are accountable to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Parliament and ultimately patients, for organisational performance. In order to deliver this objective the Chair will be required to: provide leadership and strategic oversight throughout the Boards decision making processes, ensuring affairs are conducted with probity, and that policies and actions support the Board to discharge its functions and duties effectively, in the interests of patients, so that they meet the requirements of the NHS England Mandate and Five Year Forward View

Time: 2-3 days per week.

Remuneration: 63,000 per annum.

Closes: 10 May

         

Single Financial Guidance Body  Chief Executive

As Chief Executive and Accounting Officer you will be responsible for the overall efficiency and effectiveness of a large, new and significant guidance body responsible for merging the services of three respected organisations. The successful candidate will be able to demonstrate the exceptional leadership and management skills required throughout the design and development phase of the new organisation, and for the successful and seamless delivery of key services to consumers during the transitional period. As Chief Executive you will be responsible for working closely with the SFGB Board to provide the vision, direction and leadership in the formulation and achievement of SFGBs strategies and objectives.

Time: Full time.

Remuneration: 175,000 per annum.

Closes: 13 May

         

Prison Service Pay Review Body  Chair

As Chair of the Review Body you will have responsibility for working corporately with members to advise the government annually on the pay of Governors, Operational Managers, Prison Officers and support grades in England and Wales and equivalent posts in Northern Ireland. This role represents an influential, worthwhile and intellectually stimulating challenge. We are looking for a new Chair with senior management level experience, and a strategic/senior level understanding of unionised environments and employee relations. To help you decide if you have the qualities and skills required for this post, we have listed below the criteria that we will apply when assessing candidates.

Time: Circa 35 days per annum.

Remuneration: 350 per diem.

Closes: 17 May
The LSU College of Engineering celebrated the grand opening of the Patrick F. Taylor Hall with a ribbon-cutting ceremony followed by building tours and engineering student demonstrations.

The facility now measures more than 400,000 sq ft and is the largest academic building in Louisiana and one of the largest freestanding engineering academic buildings in the United States. It was designed by the architectural firms Perkins+Will and Coleman Partners and was constructed by The Lemoine Company.

It includes a 110,000-sq-ft chemical engineering building addition; state-of-the-art labs and gathering spaces like the driving simulation lab and Commons area; the William Brookshire Student Services Suite; the 250-seat RoyOMartin Auditorium; and the MMR Building Information Modeling (BIM) Lab, where students utilize virtual reality to analyze construction projects, make site assessments, etc.

"The resources we provide help ensure that, not only do our students receive the best engineering education possible, but that we prepare them for life after graduation and in the workforce," said Judy Wornat, dean of the College of Engineering. "I cannot wait to see how our students make the most of everything we have to offer."

"This is an exciting day for our engineering students, faculty, staff, and alumni and for LSU as a whole," said LSU president F. King Alexander. "I believe it shows the investment that we as a university and the state of Louisiana have made in our students and their future success, and it demonstrates LSUs ongoing commitment to solving the biggest challenges facing our state, many of which can be solved through the education and research taking place in Patrick F. Taylor Hall."

As part of the Breaking New Ground campaign, $114 million was raised  $57 million from private contributions and a matching $57 million from the state. It is one of the largest public-private partnerships in Louisiana and the most successful fundraising effort by LSU to date.

"This success would not have been possible without the vision, the passion, the leadership and the persistence of our committee co-chairs, Phyllis Taylor and Harry Longwell, and that of Ron Cambre," said LSU executive vice president and provost Rick Koubek. "Their enthusiasm and energy, along with the other steering committee members and our donors, were resolute."

 Edited from a Louisiana State University (LSU) press release by CFE Media. See more Control Engineering education and training stories.
CORNWALL, Ontario  Local Freemasons came together to help a Cornwall man and his family with their fight with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).

The Masons were working this past weekend to install a chairlift at the entrance of the home of Mike Labelle, who suffers from ALS.

The project was done at no cost to the family through donations from Free Masons and from Fence Depot an David Brown Construction.

Steven Davies, the Worshipal Master of the Freemasons Lodge of the Lost Villages said that it was a part of the tradition of the Freemasons to build projects that benefitted those in need.

We are trying to get back to the Masons of old, said Davies.

In all, eight to 10 Freemasons helped out with the project.

Davies estimated that in total, the project probably cost around $4,000.

It is amazing, said Labelle. It was totally unexpected and very touching.

Labelle was diagnosed with ALS on Oct. 31 of 2017.

Labelle, 51, was born and raised in Cornwall and worked as a machinist for 30 years. Labelles family hopes to help form a local support group for people suffering from ALS in Cornwall and SD&G.

Labelle said that his disease leaves him sore, in pain, fatigued and depressed, but that he greatly appreciates the support he has received from his family and the community.

For those who would like to support Mike Labelle and his family, consider donating to the family through their GoFundMe page.
Every single day without fail, a historic photo of Cornwall or a surrounding county is posted on my public Facebook page. However, on Saturday, April 14, no pictures were posted, only words.

On June 1, 2017, I submitted a petition to the Canadian government asking them to recognize April 14 of every year as Poor House Commemoration Day in Canada. I had 120 days to gather, at minimum, 500 signatures of support. In total, 648 signatures were received. On November 8, 2017, the petition was presented and tabled in the House of Commons by local MP Guy Lauzon. On January 29, 2018, I was informed of the governments response: The Government of Canada does not have any current plans to officially designate the aforementioned date [as Poor House Commemoration Day in Canada.]

On April 14, I wanted to remember and celebrate each and every Canadian Citizen and Immigrant that lived or died in an Asylum, a House of Refuge facility, or a Poor House on Canadian soil. Many of these people were buried in unmarked graves, with no family living to surround them and celebrate their lives. Some of the female inmates were shunned by their families for being pregnant and unmarried. Many of these people were just too poor, and could not afford any means to get by. Many inmates were crippled, unable to work or fend for themselves, and some of them suffered from mental illnesses.

By April 14, 1937, Canadians and Immigrants who suffered from mental illnesses were entirely stripped of their property, managing their economic affairs, and their ability to reproduce. Not only had they lost their belongings, the right to own properties, but they were stripped of their right to have children. By April 14, they lost control of everything, including control over their own body.

On April 14, 1937, the Act respecting the Mentally Incompetent Persons and their Estates was passed in Alberta. This Act marked a growing intrusion of the state into the lives of those they deemed mentally incompetent or unfit. Canadian citizens in an asylum were no longer capable of managing their economic affairs. The government stripped these people of their own property. Nine years prior to this act, the government of Alberta stripped their citizens of the ability to reproduce. On March 21, 1928, the Legislative Assembly of Alberta passed the Sexual Sterilization Act. This legislation authorized sexual sterilization to individuals living in designated state institutions (Asylums) deemed to have undesirable traits. The impact of the Sexual Sterilization Act was substantial. Under this Act, over 4,800 people were sterilized. More than 2,800 persons were sterilized under its two amendments in 1937 and 1942.

Although you are reading this a few days after the fact, I hope you will take time to remember Canadian citizens that lived in Asylums, a Houses of Refuge, and Poor Houses. I remembered them, I know you will remember them, and one day, Canada will remember them too. Poor House Commemoration Day is not an official day in Canada yet.
CORNWALL, Ontario  Businesses dont yet realize the impact of marijuana in the workplace, once it has been legalized. Thats according to the Cornwall Chamber of Commerce.

This is one of the most significant changes in the workplace in recent years, states Executive Manager, Lezlie Strasser. The Chamber is concerned about how businesses will be able to adjust and its important we help them to address the issue.

The Chamber, in conjunction with the Community Futures Development Corporation and the Cornwall Business Enterprise Centre, will host a luncheon on May 9 to highlight the impact of marijuana in the workplace and help businesses to understand how it can affect them. Special guest presenter will be Ivan Ross, widely recognized as an industry expert in the field of medical marijuana and the emerging environment of legalized marijuana.

Strasser made reference to a marijuana workshop delivered last fall at the Alberta Health and Safety Conference. Workshop presenter, Patrick J. Delaney, noted some of the acute effects of the drug, she says. The effects included, euphoria, changes in perception, time distortion, attention deficits, and impaired motor functioning.

She continued. Delaney also spoke of impairment effects that can linger for well beyond 24 hours after a single use and up to 20 days for chronic users. Health Canada has reported that cannabis use is associated with a sevenfold estimated risk of being involved in a fatal accident.

Businesses and HR professionals will want to attend the luncheon seminar, says Strasser. Presenter Ross will walk delegates through the implications of marijuana in the workplace and how they will have to adjust their management practices.

The luncheon will be held at Ramada Cornwall on Wednesday, May 9 beginning at 12:00 noon. Tickets are $20.00 + HST and may be purchased by contacting Lyette Montford at the Chamber office: 613-933-4004 or, on line at:

http://cornwallchamber.chambermaster.com/events/details/marijuana-in-the-workplace-353
CORNWALL, Ontario  Jacques Periard, 35, of Cornwall was arrested on April 23, 2018 and charged with possession of property obtained by crime, obstruct police, and breach of probation for failing to keep the peace.

It is alleged during a traffic stop on April 23, 2018 the man gave a false name to police and was found operating a stolen motorcycle. The man was taken into custody, was charged accordingly and released to appear in court on May 31, 2018.

ASSAULT WITH A WEAPON, POSSESSION OF A WEAPON FOR A DANGEROUS PURPOSE, BREACH

CORNWALL, Ontario  Frederick Renshaw, 53, of Cornwall was arrested on April 23, 2018 and charged with assault with a weapon and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose. It is alleged during an altercation on April 23, 2018 the man assaulted a man known to him with a knife and police were contacted to investigate. On April 23, 2018 the man attended police headquarters to deal with the matter. He was taken into custody, charged accordingly and held for a bail hearing.

BREACH, POSSESSION OF A CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE

CORNWALL, Ontario  A 19-year-old Cornwall man was arrested on April 24, 2018 and charged with breach of youth probation for not abiding by his curfew and failing to keep the peace. It is alleged on April 24, 2018, while investigating another matter, police found the man to be in breach of his conditions and an investigation ensued. During the investigation he was taken into custody and found to be in possession of a quantity of marijuana. He was charged accordingly and released to appear in court at a later date. His name was not released as the conditions stem from when the man was a youth and is protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

ASSAULT, POSSESSION OF A CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE, BREACH

CORNWALL, Ontario  Christopher Beaulieu, 43, of Rockland and Mathieu Lamarche, 35, of Cornwall were both arrested on April 24, 2018 and charged with the following:

Christopher Beaulieu

 Assault

 Possession of cocaine

 Breach of undertaking

Mathieu Lamarche

 Assault

 Possession of cocaine

 Breach of probation

It is alleged on April 24, 2018 both men assaulted a man known to them and police were contacted to investigate. During the investigation police located both men and found them to be in possession of a quantity of cocaine. They were taken into custody, charged accordingly and held for a bail hearing.

BREACH

CORNWALL, Ontario  A 25-year-old Cornwall man was arrested on April 24, 2018 and charged with breach of recognizance for communicating with his ex-girlfriend and consuming alcohol outside of his residence. It is alleged on April 24, 2018 the intoxicated man had an argument with his ex-girlfriend and police were contacted to investigate. During the investigation, he was taken into custody, charged accordingly and held for a bail hearing. His name was not released as the conditions stem from a domestic incident and would identify the victim in the matter.

There were 57 calls for service in the City of Cornwall in the last 24 hours (8 a.m. the previous day to 8 a.m. the day of the release). To see whats happening in your neighbourhood visit our Crime Plot Map. CCPS reserves the right not to post all calls for service in order to protect the identity of the victims.
LONG SAULT, Ontario  Over the weekend, a Facebook group formed called Save Long Sault Park and Forest. Members are concerned about the proposed development on the plot of land next to the Long Sault fire hall.

The Township of South Stormont has seen it fit to sell off a the most beautiful historical park in Long Sault for development, said Michael Szymkowiak, an administrator of the Facebook group in a post on Facebook. This park has mature trees for shade as well as a forested portion where kids love to adventure and build forts. Our community does not want or need this land to be developed and feels as though this has been done underhandedly by counsel, without adequate public knowledge or consultation.

According to Jim Bancroft, the Mayor of the Township of South Stormont, this land was never designated as a park and its sale has been advertised since December 2015. An ad from the Township of South Stormont for a Request for Proposal to develop the land behind the fire hall, referred to as the Barnhart property, was placed in the Seaway News on Dec. 10, 2015.

Bancroft explained that some of the proceeds from the sale of the land are going to be used to build a park next to the Long Sault arena.

The land next to the fire hall has been purchased by JF Markell Homes Ltd. and John Markell explained that the sale of the land closed early in 2018. Markell also explained that it was his wish to preserve as many trees as possible.

Any tree that will not be in the way of the sewer or the road will be kept, Markell said.

Markell went on to say that he is very passionate about trees and that his company is not interested in clear cutting.

According to Markell, the swing set and many of the trees on the land are actually on land still owned by the Township and the Township will be moving the swing set to make room for a future planned expansion of the fire hall.

Markell said that before any development is done on the land his company now owns, an Environment Assessment will be done which will include an endangered species count of local flora and fauna.

Markell says that he and his company plans on building residential homes on the site.
Qlik is adding a Managed Service Provider track to its channel program as it looks to expand opportunities for partners to sell its data analytics software as a cloud service.

The company is also taking a partner-led strategy for about 90 percent of its potential market, streamlining the structure of its partner program and simplifying partner revenue requirements.

The additions and changes to the Qlik Partner Program were announced at Qlik Qonnections, the vendor's customer and partner conference taking place this week in Orlando.

[Related: Qlik Taps Former Infoblox Channel Chief Chris Jones To Be Its New Global Sales VP ]

The new MSP initiative is in response to growing demand from customers who want to use Qlik's data analytics software on a service/subscription basis, said Chris Moore, Qlik's senior vice president of partners and alliances, in an interview with CRN.

"This is the future of analytics delivery and how customers want to consume analytics," Moore said, noting that market researcher Gartner predicts that 14 percent of analytics technology consumption will be delivered through the cloud this year.

"It's going to grow at an extraordinary rate and be one of the primary routes to market," Moore said.

The program provides "an opportunity for partners to grow their sales and profitability in services. The partners really want to deliver their own services," Moore said. (Moore, who previously managed Qlik's Americas channel operations, was just elevated to the channel chief position at the start of this year, replacing Toni Adams who left the company in late 2017.)

Qlik started an MSP pilot program last year with about two dozen global and regional systems integrators participating. Moore said it has been very successful and the company is now ready to expand it to more partners.

Under the MSP track partners will purchase Qlik licenses and then provide the software on an as-a-service basis for their customers, either by hosting it themselves or using a third-party hosting provider such as Amazon Web Services. Partners will purchase the licenses according to a tiered pricing structure with cumulative discounts as MSPs buy more licenses.

Partners can provide other services and products around the Qlik software, including business analytics consulting and data management services.

"Qlik's program is extending our business opportunities by helping us deploy solutions and services in a way never before possible," said Alejandro Martinez, U.S. and Canada CEO at SDG Group, a Milan, Italy-based management consulting firm with a business analytics practice, in a statement.

"The MSP offering will accelerate the deployment of Qlik to customers and enable us to bring customers 'analytics as a service' by combining business, application, data and infrastructure services in a modern and scalable way," Martinez said.

Moore emphasized that under the program partners will own the customer relationship and environment.

The channel executive said some partners are already providing managed services and will join the new program while others have been considering expanding into managed services and this program will help ease that expansion. Moore said he expects some of the industry's larger cloud and telecommunications companies to join.

"We've leveraged the Qlik platform to build several industry-leading analytic applications on a 'next-generation' architecture that provides our clients with access to their data where it exists," said Scott Barnes, a managing director at Deloitte Consulting, in a statement. "This gives us the opportunity to offer our Qlik-powered solutions as a hosted service through a subscription model that is flexible and cost-effective, and matches the way that many clients are buying," he said.

Qlik already provides a cloud-based version of its Qlik software. But that is largely positioned as a "try before you buy" product for small and mid-size customers and partners do not resell it, according to Moore.

The launch of the MSP program is one of a number of changes to the Qlik Partner Program that Moore said are designed to drive Qlik into the broader analytics software market while at the same time making the partner program simpler and more predictable to work with.

Going forward Qlik's strategy will be to focus its direct sales efforts on the largest companies that make up the top 10 percent of the potential market, although Moore noted that even there the company can pursue a co-sell model with partner participation.

Qlik will follow a "partner-led" strategy to cover the other 90 percent of the potential market, relying on partners to identify new customer prospects with assistance from Qlik's sales and marketing operations. (Moore said the direct and partner-led split is closer to 50-50 today.)

The software vendor is simplifying its revenue requirements and discount structures, making it easier for partners to combine sales from different types of Qlik engagements to count toward their discounts and partner tier status.

Qlik is providing lower deal registration and sales performance discount thresholds, giving partners more flexibility in customer negotiations. And it is providing incentives to recruit new customers and offering subscription licensing combined with volume-based pricing.

Finally, the company is combining its Resell and Influencer tracks into a single Solution provider track to streamline the Qlik Partner program's structure.

All the changes are slated to take effect May 9.
Amazon Web Services professionals can now validate their skills in protecting data and securing workloads deployed on the world's leading public cloud.

The AWS Certified SecuritySpecialty exam went live Monday to test partners' abilities around incident response, logging and monitoring, infrastructure security, identity and access management, and data protection. Applicants must hold an AWS Associate or Cloud Practitioner certification and are recommended to have at least five years of experience with security solutions, with two years securing AWS workloads.

Amazon also Monday introduced the Industrial Software Competency Program for validating third-party industrial applications built on its platform. That program will launch later this year.

[Related: 25 Hot Certifications For Cloud Professionals]

To achieve the security specialty, AWS professionals must demonstrate knowledge of specialized data classifications and AWS data protection mechanisms, data encryption methods and implementation mechanisms, secure internet protocols, and a working knowledge of Amazon's security services and features that secure production environments.

The test also evaluates familiarity with compliance regulations across different regions and countries, as well as an understanding of the trade-offs among cost, security and deployment complexity.

Because the security exam helps partners prove the expertise of their engineers, the team at TriNimbus, an Amazon partner based in Vancouver, Canada, will pursue that accreditation, Jarrod Levitan, TriNimbus' chief cloud officer, told CRN.

"Security has a large footprint on AWS and its a requirement of every system, especially with the increasing scrutiny and regulations on privacy," Levitan said. "Many organizations require compliance."

At Hannover Messe 2018, the world's largest industrial technology trade show that kicked off Monday in Germany, AWS announced the industrial competency for Amazon Partner Network (APN) technology partners delivering software that drives manufacturing processes.

"To receive the AWS Competency designation, APN partners must undergo rigorous technical validation related to industry-specific technology, as well as an assessment of the security, performance and reliability of their AWS solutions," Renata Melnyk, partner program manager for vertical and business applications, wrote on an AWS blog.

The coming program will be divided into sub-verticals around product design, production design and production/operations.

In validating those technology partners, Amazon hopes to give customers greater confidence in choosing solutions from the tens of thousands of developers in the AWS Partner Network, Melnyk said.

Amazon is also delivering new services focused on industrial Internet of Things and machine learning to complement those solutions.

In 2016, Amazon introduced an IoT competency for partners developing and implementing applications powering intelligent factories and other use cases for edge devices.

That program helps partners differentiate their products and services with a dedicated brand and logo they can use in marketing materials, and preferred access to market development funds and other business, technical and marketing resources.
Google's six-year-old cloud operations became a $1 billion per quarter business in the final quarter of 2017. That momentum has continued into 2018 with the market momentum around Google's cloud properties continuing to grow, said Google CEO Sundar Pichai said during parent company Alphabet's 2018 first-quarter earnings call Monday.

Google's cloud division, which includes the Google Cloud Platform and G-Suite, its portfolio of cloud applications that includes Gmail, Drive, Docs and Calendar - all of which are sold by channel partners - is growing across the board, Pichai said. Google is also consistently landing bigger deals with enterprise customers, he added.

"We are signing significantly larger, more strategic deals in cloud," he said. "Our security capabilities, easy-to-use data analytics, the industry-leading collaboration platform, G-Suite, are really winning customers over."

[Related: Google's Billion-Dollar Cloud Business Takes On AWS, Azure With AI, Machine Learning]

Google doesn't specifically break out financials for the Google Cloud Platform. However, its "other revenues" category, which is fueled by cloud service and applications, Google Play, and hardware (including Nest), rose 36 percent to $4.35 billion in the quarter, up 36 percent from $3.20 billion in the same year-ago period.

During 2018's Q1, Google Cloud announced AutoML, an engine that developers with limited machine learning expertise can use to easily build machine learning models. The division has also revealed 20 new security products so far this year.

Google cloud adoption is being driven by the company's leadership in security, A.I., and machine learning, Pichai said.

"We are hearing from customers that we have an advantage in data analytics  and the fact that we really support an open, agile framework," he explained. "Security is also becoming a big differentiator for us, and it's something we have been leading for a while."

Ruth Porat, CFO of Alphabet Inc. and Google LLC, said the strong revenues from the "other revenues" category, and particularly cloud, "continues to highlight the growing contribution of non-ads opportunities" for Google.

Google's headcount grew by 4,940 during the quarter, with the most sizable group of new hires serving in technical and sales roles for its cloud division, Porat said.

Google is actively expanding its cloud infrastructure to meet increased demand, the company said. Google unveiled new regions in Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, and Saudi Arabia for its cloud offerings, bringing the company's total number of recently launched or upcoming regions to 20, Pichai said.

Parent company Alphabet reported revenue of $31.15 billion for the first quarter of fiscal 2018 (ended March 31), up about 26 percent from the $24.75 billion the company reported for the same year-ago quarter.

Alphabet's net income was $9.40 billion, or $13.33 diluted earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, up from $5.43 billion, or $7.73 EPS, during the same period last year.

The Internet giant bested Wall Street's expectations of $9.28 EPS and revenues of $30.29 for the quarter.
Apple apparently isn't giving up on its quest to reduce the pricing for its upcoming iPhone lineup.

After a report emerged last week saying that Apple may be unable to lock down LG as a second supplier of OLED displays for the next iPhones, a new report says that Apple is pushing Samsung -- it's current display supplier -- to reduce the cost of the display panels.

The Digitimes report says that Apple is negotiating to reduce the cost of an OLED panel to $100, from $110.

[Related: Apple Struggling To Cut Back On Use Of Samsung Displays In iPhone]

The move may be part of an attempt to help the upcoming iPhone releases, expected this fall, to grab more consumer appeal with a lower price than the $999 iPhone X.

Analyst Neil Campling of Mirabaud Securities last week predicted that the iPhone X will be taken off the market this year, as many consumers have been staying away due to its high price. "The iPhone X is dead," Campling wrote in a note to investors, according to CNBC.

The Digitimes report estimates that the OLED panel represents roughly a third of the total cost of producing an iPhone X.

Released in November, the iPhone X is the first Apple smartphone to feature an OLED display, which provides more-vibrant colors than the standard LCD. But Apple has had to rely on rival Samsung to provide the display panels.

Apple had been seeking to make LG a second OLED supplier to reduce dependence on Samsung. But a report in the Wall Street Journal last week indicated that LG has fallen behind schedule, leading to mixed opinions inside Apple about whether LG will be able to provide OLED displays for the fall 2018 iPhones.

Separate reports suggest that Apple will abandon the traditional top-and-bottom display bezel design with this fall's iPhone launch, and fully embrace the nearly edge-to-edge design of the iPhone X.

Two new iPhone models, in 5.8-inch and 6.5-inch sizes, will use OLED display technology, according to previous notes from well-known Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities. The Digitimes report, citing industry sources, also points to these two sizes as the upcoming OLED iPhone models that Apple has in the works for the fall launch.
The governor of Georgia, Nathan Deal, has vetoed SB 315, the controversial bill that would have criminalized many forms of routine security research, and legalized vigilante action by victims of cybercrime (so-called "hack back").

In a statement, the governor wrote, "while intending to protect against online breaches and hacks, SB 315 may inadvertently hinder the ability of government and private industries to do so."

The veto sends the bill back to the Georgia legislature, which may try to override Deal's veto. "It is my hope that legislators will work with the cyber security and law enforcement communities moving forward to develop a comprehensive policy that promotes national security, protects online information, and continues to advance Georgias position as a leader in the technology industry," the governor added.

Electronic Frontiers Georgia welcomed the veto, writing in a tweet, "Although we are delighted and very thankful, we recognize there is much work to do with our legislature and law enforcement going forward."

SB-315 opposed by the cybersecurity industry

The state of Georgia's attempt to ban good-faith cybersecurity research left the state's cybersecurity businesses are hoppin' mad. SB 315, The Unauthorized Computer Access Bill, threatened to outlaw good-faith security research and enable "hack back" vigilante action.

Georgia is one of the top cybersecurity hubs in the country, with more than 115 cybersecurity businesses generating more than $4.7 billion in revenue, according to the state of Georgia. The bill, if signed into law, would hurt the state's economy and drive jobs and talent out of state, Robert Graham, a Georgia-based security researcher, tells CSO.

"I can tell you as the former chief scientist of ISS (Internet Security Systems), the dot-com era startup that created the vibrant cybersecurity community in Georgia, that [jobs leaving the state] will be the long-term effect," Graham says. "The first time they prosecute a cybersecurity researcher, companies will rethink their location in Georgia."

Passed by large margins of both houses of the Georgia legislature, the new law would make it a crime, punishable by a $5,000 fine and a year in jail, to access a computer without authorization. The bill is so vague that that it would outlaw reporting security vulnerabilities in good faith, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) senior staff attorney Nate Cardozo warns.

"A legitimate reading of this law could criminalize independent security research and vulnerability disclosure, and that's not good for anybody," Cardozo says.

SB 315 reads:

"Any person who intentionally accesses a computer or computer network with knowledge that such access is without authority shall be guilty of the crime of unauthorized computer access."

Bill a reaction to 2016 election data snafu

The bill comes in response to the embarrassment the Georgia state government suffered in 2016 when Georgia security researcher Logan Lamb discovered "6.7 million voters, PDFs with passwords for election workers, software files for devices used by poll workers to verify a voter is registered, and what appears to be databases used to tabulate votes," according to WABE Atlanta.

"The office that is in charge of the voting machines sent [Kennesaw State University (KSU)] this data to do some contract research for them, and [KSU] didn't secure the machines properly," Keith Watson, information security manager at Georgia Tech's College of Computing, tells CSO.

The data was publicly available for download on KSU's web server without any form of authentication or access control. Alarmed by the large amount of sensitive voter information published on KSU's web site, Lamb notified KSU and made a good-faith effort to responsibly disclose the security issue.

In 2017, a second Georgia security researcher, Christopher Grayson, discovered that KSU botched their response to Lamb's initial report, and the voter data remained publicly available for download on KSU's web server. KSU responded in 2017 by reporting both researchers to the FBI, who promptly cleared both Lamb and Grayson of any wrongdoing, noting that the two had broken no federal or state laws.

EF Georgia head Scott Jones believes the law is payback for the political embarrassment the government suffered. Since the state cannot retroactively go after Lamb and Grayson, SB 315 is designed to prevent similar embarrassment in the future. "They created a law that you can essentially violate with a web browser," Jones said. "You don't even need an attack tool."

Governor's veto had been uncertain

The governor, whose term ends this year and who cannot run again because of term limits, had until July 1 to sign the bill into law or to veto it. The governor could have done nothing, in which case the bill becomes law automatically on July 1. In the event of a veto, a two-thirds majority of both houses is required to override the veto--a plausible, even likely, scenario, given the large majorities that passed SB 315 in the first place.

Numerous high-profile security experts had written to the governor, urging him to veto the bill. "S.B. 315, as written, creates barriers to cybersecurity research that can damage the state's information security industry and ultimately make its citizens less safe," one letter read.

IBM, whose X-Force Command Center in Atlanta employs some of IBM's 8,000 security researchers, also publicly called on the Georgia state government to reconsider the bill, writing, "We are very concerned that the exemptions within SB315 for unauthorized computer access are both too broad and too narrow and will create more uncertainty and inefficiency by deviating from the federal standard, Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) by which we currently operate."

The EFF has also questioned the wisdom of letting victims of computer crime retaliate. "From our perspective, the hack-back provision authorizes vigilante action," Cardozo tells CSO. "That would be a first in American computer crime law."

The Georgia government is scapegoating security researchers, many sources said. "This looks like it's trying to shift the blame on Georgia's election security failings to the people who pointed out those systems' failings," Cardozo added.

If the bill becomes law with an override of the veto, pre-emptive legal action to prevent enforcement seems likely. For his part, Graham is itching for a fight. "I'm the sort of guy who would love to get prosecuted under the law (it's a misdemeanor and I can handle the fine and year in jail) for the fame it would create," he tells CSO. "So, I'm just as likely to start looking at Georgia computers and poke the bear."
If you care about privacy and human rights, then information from a new report about secret global surveillance networks and the sharing of intelligence between governments is not good at all. In fact, the sharing of surveillance with intelligence and other governments is so alarmingly under-regulated that it is ripe for human right abuses.

Not that youd imagine anything having to do with secret surveillance networks would be good news for privacy, but as Privacy International pointed out, its not just your government potentially holding sensitive information about you, but other governments scattered across the globe.

Most intelligence sharing agreements are kept secret, not just from the public, but also from some countries oversight bodies. Without proper safeguards in place, states can use intelligence sharing as a way of outsourcing surveillance to each other, bypassing any constraints and limits on their own intelligence gathering  in effect, [they're saying,] 'Ill spy for you, if you spy for me.

Five Eyes surveillance

Here are a few disturbing facts about Five Eyes surveillance that Privacy International obtained via U.S. Freedom of Information Act requests. The Five Eyes is an intelligence alliance that includes Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.K and the U.S.

The U.S. conducts surveillance while based in secret facilities in partner countries, parts of which are not even accessible to the host countries own governments  including their oversight bodies.

Those Five Eyes sharing arrangements were enhanced during the 2000s. Records disclosed by the U.S. State Department suggested that the intelligence sharing agreement between the Five Eyes was amended and enhanced in the 2000s, although the details of any such agreement remain firmly outside of public view and public scrutiny.

The NSA also disclosed new appendices to the intelligence sharing agreement between the Five Eyes. These records date from 1959-61 and update our understanding of the agreement by several years but nonetheless remain decades out of date.

And just think how much intelligence gathering has evolved since the 1960s! Surveillance tech makes it possible for governments to collect, store, and share vast troves of personal information, including data collected via mass surveillance techniques. Yet theres no clear legal obligation to even inform most oversight bodies about intelligence sharing agreements.

Lawfare also took a hard look at the newly disclosed Five Eyes documents and explained what that they really say about intelligence-sharing agreements.

The authors wrote, When the Five Eyes first agreed to this exchange of intelligence  before the first transatlantic telephone cable was laid  they could hardly have anticipated the technological advances that awaited them. Yet, we remain in the dark about the current legal framework governing intelligence sharing among the Five Eyes, including the types of information that the U.S. government accesses and the rules that govern U.S. intelligence agencies access to and dissemination of Americans private communications and data.

Little to no oversight of intelligence sharing

In 2017, Privacy International sent national oversight bodies in 42 countries a series of questions related to intelligence sharing and oversight. Of those 42, 21 sent responses.

Oversight bodies for nine of 21 countries said theres no clear legal obligation to loop the oversight committees into intelligence sharing arrangements.

Nine also said they had full or broad access to information about intelligence sharing.

The oversight body in France indicated that it was prohibited from accessing such information and several others left ambiguous the level of access that they have.

Only the oversight body of Canada indicated that the intelligence agencies are required by law to provide them access to intelligence sharing arrangements.

Not even one of the oversight bodies indicated that they actually had the power to authorize decisions to share intelligence.

The new report, Secret Global Surveillance Networks: Intelligence Sharing Between Governments and the Need for Safeguards, emphasizes the dangerous lack of oversight.

Privacy International wrote:

The findings have significant implications for human rights. As discussed in the report, intelligence sharing constitutes an interference with the right to privacy and must therefore be subject to safeguards well-established in international human rights law, including adequate oversight. Without appropriate safeguards, states can use intelligence sharing as a way to outsource surveillance, bypassing domestic constraints on their surveillance activities. Unregulated intelligence sharing can also contribute to or facilitate serious human rights abuses, such as unlawful arrest or detention, or torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

Calling for greater transparency and oversight, Privacy International made a plethora of urgent recommendations about intelligence sharing arrangements.
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld an administrative review system that has helped Google, Apple and other companies invalidate hundreds of issued patents.

The justices, voting 7-2, said Tuesday a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office review board that critics call a patent "death squad" wasn't unconstitutionally wielding powers that belong to the courts.

Silicon Valley companies have used the system as a less-expensive way to ward off demands for royalties, particularly from patent owners derided as "trolls" because they don't use their patents to make products. Drugmakers and independent inventors complain that it unfairly upends what they thought were established property rights.

"It came down to this: Is the patent office fixing its own mistakes or is the government taking property?" said Wayne Stacy, a patent lawyer with Baker Botts. "They came down on the side of the patent office fixing its own mistakes."

The ruling caused shares to drop in companies whose main source of revenue -- their patents -- are under threat from challenges. VirnetX Holding, which is trying to protect almost $1 billion in damages it won against Apple, dropped as much as 12 percent. The patent office has said its patents are invalid in a case currently before an appeals court.

The court's ruling "will reassure, if not embolden, patent challengers," said Christopher Bruno, a patent lawyer with Schiff Hardin. Patent owners are likely to turn their focus to asking courts to scrutinize some of the procedures used by the board, he said.

Drugmakers, research companies and independent inventors criticized the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, saying its rules unfairly lean toward challengers and make it harder to fend off competitors and protect their ideas from copycats. Congress set up the system in 2011.

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the court's majority opinion, rejecting contentions that issued patents are the type of rights that must be adjudicated only in the federal courts.

"The decision to grant a patent is a matter involving public rights -- specifically, the grant of a public franchise," Thomas wrote. The review system "is simply a reconsideration of that grant, and Congress has permissibly reserved the PTO's authority to conduct that reconsideration."

The ruling addressed only whether the reviews are constitutional and doesn't limit arguments in other contexts that patents are property, Thomas wrote.

"It's common sense -- we trust them to make these decisions in the first place," said lawyer Andrew Pincus of Mayer Brown, who submitted legal arguments on behalf of BSA - The Software Alliance. "There are costs to having patents that are overbroad or shouldn't have been granted. We want to do as much as we can to make sure the experts got it right."

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Neil Gorsuch dissented. "Just because you give a gift doesn't mean you forever enjoy the right to reclaim it," Gorsuch wrote for the two.

The Supreme Court also issued a ruling Tuesday in a separate case involving proceedings at the patent review board. In that 5-4 decision, Gorsuch wrote for the court that the board must issue final written decisions on all parts of a patent that are questioned in a challenge, even if the board decides to review only some of them. The effect will force patent owners' challenges filed at the agency to be more targeted, because they aren't allowed to raise issues decided by the review board if they go to court later.

Since the reviews began in 2012, more than 7,000 petitions have been filed, primarily on computer and high-tech patents. Former patent office Director Michelle Lee said changes have been made to the process to make it more fair and clear, and more are being considered by the agency.

She said the reviews were "never a death squad" that critics called it, and were set up as a lower-cost alternative to litigation.

The review system was created in response to business complaints about what they considered abusive patent litigation. Other court rulings and changes in how lawsuits are filed have made it easier for accused infringers to fend off lawsuits and demand payment for legal costs when they win.

"People could disagree about the numbers or the cost, but it was an issue clearly faced by a number of companies," Lee said. "Most abusive patent litigation, that there was a lot of concern about, has been mitigated. At the same time, we want to make sure patent owners and inventors have enough incentive. It's all a balance."

The decision was called a "disgrace" by members of U.S. Inventor, a group of independent inventors that protested outside the Supreme Court when arguments were heard in November.

"Inventors, aspiring inventors, and patriots of all kinds are devastated by today's Supreme Court ruling," said Josh Malone, inventor of the Bunch O Balloons toy who has seen his patents challenged at the agency and upheld in court. "Now if a big corporation wants your patents or your land, they only need to convince their friends in the administrative tribunal or city council to do the job. No judge, no jury, no America."

Paul Fucito, a spokesman for the patent office, said it is "carefully considering the Supreme Court's decisions and determining their impact on various proceedings at the PTAB."
Sophie Donelson, House Beautiful magazines editor in chief, discusses a small, but significant rooms design.

Q: Were finally adding a powder room off the kitchen and were overwhelmed by the number of design choices. Wheres a smart place to begin?

A: Work backwards from the sink. If you have cramped quarters, a pedestal sinks slim profile keeps a tiny WC from feeling claustrophobic. Ironically, an old-fashioned pedestal sink can also feel more modern than a cabinet base, but companies like Robern and others offer enviable bases with drawers, not doors, making it truly useful storage. Stashing necessities under the sink isnt your only option  a shallow shelf mounted over the door can hold rolls of tissue, and a hand towel can rest on a wall-mounted loop or knob. Since the powder room is not a primary, workhorse bathroom, you wont need much else, but if you do, try a medicine cabinet mirror before going for a vanity.

Q: Are there different considerations for a powder room than a full bathroom?

A: Thankfully, fewer. The lack of a shower means you wont have to address humidity or ventilation  a big pl us. The dryer environment allows for wall coverings, such as a wallpaper or grasscloth, and designers often employ exuberant patterns here. The powder room is the place to have a great surprise, says Atlanta designer Suzanne Kasler. I love a big, bold-patterned wallcovering that ties in a color that you might have somewhere else in the house, but even stronger. Shes one of many designers who treat the powder room as a place to really have fun.

Q: When it comes to hardware, whats better, nickel or chrome? Are there any new or trending metals?

A: Brass is both classic and an enduring trend, but the real stuff will cost you. A silver to metal is most popular, with nickel and platinum at the top of the list. Nickel, which is typically nickel-plated brass, appears warmer and deeper than chrome, which has a cool cast and a sleeker look. The former is favored by many designers as feeling luxurious and having more nuanced color, though chrome is whats available at entry-level price points. Recently, matte-black faucets has stolen the spotlight. Consider investing in hardware, advises designer and Greenwich shop owner Patrick Mele. Spend as much as you can on fixtures because nothing feels better than pulling the lever of a great faucet; its small but imperative.

Q: Are there any fast tricks for rehabbing a dated bathroom?

A: Hang a big beautiful mirror over the sink, recommends Mele, who says people too often skimp on size here. An over-scaled mirror makes space feel larger by reflecting light around the room. Mele loves the unexpected appeal of an antique chinoiserie-style gilt or gold-painted mirror, which he says he sees at local antique shops for under a few hundred dollars. At House Beautiful, we once published a smart way to hide outdated tilework  the homeowner mounted a curtain track or bar at the ceiling and hung simple striped cotton panels to the floor (parting them around the sink) and skirted the vanity in the same fabric. Tile can also be painted.

Q: What will make the biggest impact?

A: Atlantas Kasler echoes Meles sentiment of putting energy into the hardware. The powder room is a chance to do something special, she says. Only in a powder room can the faucet look like jewelry. She favors the brand THG made in France as offering over-the-top special pieces, but her mainstay is fixtures from Waterworks. And dont forget to decorate. Mele recently installed a series of framed architectural prints in a deep-purple painted powder room in Rowayton. It came out so sexy, he says. Not bad for a bathroom.
Kristen Jensen pauses in a doorframe of her Bethel home.

It never feels comfortable when you get your picture taken, she says on a recent afternoon, as she makes the subtle adjustments she asks of her clients. With a slight turn of her head, her wavy blond hair moves a fraction of an inch along her collarbone. As she crosses her arms and slowly crosses her legs, she leans into the antique wood beam with her left shoulder. Ill say, Just watch me. Im going to go through a couple of things I want you to do, real subtle movements. Everything should be very smooth and fluid.

In her long white sweater, skinny jeans and brown suede boots, she looks casual, comfortable and confident  a look that would cause her to click her camera. That this 5-foot, 11-inch beauty is as composed in front of the camera as she is behind it is no surprise. After decades as an international fashion model, Jensen has steadily built up her new gig  that of professional photographer.

Her secret? Treat the photo sessions like modeling shoots. She looks for interesting backgrounds and natural light, oodles of which she finds in her 1792 home and her backyard barn, which was built in the 1930s and was recently renovated into a year-round studio. She encourages her clients to act natural, even if it all feels anything but, and she shares lessons on how to stand, sit, walk and move like a model. She has a hair and makeup team and works with clients on their wardrobe.

The bulk of my career as a model was doing catalog shots, she says. It could be anywhere from six to 30 shots (each shoot)  so they mostly used natural light, reflectors and a long lens, so I really adopted that style, she says. She calls it lifestyle photography, a more modern, candid and editorial approach that reveals the personality she is trying to coax out with her lens.

Before Jensen set up shop in Connecticut, she was a shy, lanky California girl. Her mother saw potential and entered her daughter in a beauty pageant. Jensen didnt win, but one of the judges, a photographer, urged her to model. I went to an agency, and within months, I was scouted by an agent in Paris. She began at 17.

They wanted me to do runway shows. I went (to Europe) and basically never came home, says the former Ford model. She touched down in more than 30 countries through the late 1980s and 90s, working in print ads for major department stores.

Through the 1990s, in between draping herself with the latest ready-to-wear fashions, she honed the skills for her next chapter.

I have always seen things in pictures, like one sees a snapshot, even as a kid, she says. Once in the presence of photographers and art directors, she indulged her curiosity, questioning them about technique, art direction and lighting. Even now, when lighting a scene, she needs to feel the light on her face. I cant even describe it, she says. I just have to go and do it. When I feel the light on my face, I just know its right.

By the late 1990s, she bought her first camera, a Nikon F-100, and began shooting. She stole moments at each location, capturing her fellow models between takes. As opposed to the fairly scripted scenes and locales of her modeling work, Jensen was more spontaneous, spotting backgrounds on the fly, such as the Winnebago where the models got ready.

Thats how I started to build my portfolio, she says. By 2002, she was a single mom, living in the suburbs. A year later, Kristen Jensen Productions was in business.

In the ensuing 15 years, Jensen has linked up with Panasonic to become an ambassador for LUMIX cameras and has incorporated image strategy and videography into her services. She still goes on location, but now she totes the camera, capturing clients in their environment, including several luminaries such as Harvey Fierstein, Chazz Palminteri and Demi Moore.

Jensen is supremely attuned to the concept of personal brand, and knows the importance of creating one for todays digital world. You have to create that image and make sure it is consistent across all social media, she says. Among her most popular offerings is a $600 package of portraits one can use on professional and personal networking sites. Her sessions run about two hours.

Perhaps one of her greatest skills is having walked many, many miles in her clients shoes. She remembers those long assignments. (The photographers) would take Polaroid after Polaroid and I would be standing in the same position for I dont know how long. Even then, I was looking at it from a technical standpoint and thinking, What are they doing?

Photography is about making a decision, she says. Its really how I see someone, thats what makes the picture different. My eye. Yes, there is technique and you can have the best equipment, but you have to have a strong point of view. I see the best in people, and that is what I work to capture.

chennessy@hearstmediact.com; Twitter: @xtinahennessy
A portrait of Jennings Beach in Fairfield by a world-famous photographer is about to join a geographic gallery that already includes the Vatican, the Eiffel Tower and the Grand Canyon.

Jennings wont be the first beach in the gallery, but it will be the humblest, given the others are Rios Impanema, New Yorks Coney Island and Californias Santa Monica Pier. The Jennings unveiling will be close to home, too. A gala preview is planned for Saturday evening, April 28, at the Fairfield Museum and History Center. So how did a town beach get elevated to such iconic status? The answer is local connections years in the making.

The photographer is Stephen Wilkes, who wasnt as celebrated when he moved to Westport 25 years ago. But in 1998, a one-day assignment on Ellis Island led to a five-year project documenting its abandoned medical buildings and an acclaimed 2006 book, Ellis Island: Ghosts of Freedom.

In the meantime, Wilkes, who has an A-list of corporate clients, began to have solo shows around the country. In 2009, the Fairfield Museum featured some of his Ellis Island work in its inaugural IMAGES exhibition. By important coincidence, it also introduced Wilkes to Marcia Saft, a newer museum board member who was serving on the exhibition committee. After her death in 2016, the family approached Wilkes and museum director Michael Jehle about commissioning a beach photograph in her memory to be displayed at the museum. Stephen Saft, her husband for 46 years, says she had always been excited about Wilkes work and considered the Fairfield museum a gem.

The Safts had a home on Fairfield Beach, but the choice of location was left to Wilkes. He says he picked Jennings partly because of its natural sweep and focal points provided by the Penfield Reef Lighthouse and sandbar, which is exposed at low tide. But Wilkes also wanted a busy beach, because he intended to make Jennings part of the Day to Night series that has become his defining project.

He calls it Day to Night because it involves recording changes in a landscape, either natural or man-made, over 24 hours or more. The final image only appears to be a static picture of a single moment. His first subject was New York Citys then-new High Line park in 2009. Since then hes done almost 60. All require not just one long day, but months of work.

Alex von Kleydorff / Hearst Connecticut Media

Theres nothing automated about what I do, Wilkes says. This is not time lapse. People think Im merging a whole day into a single photograph that I set up the camera and go have a few cappuccinos and come back. Its actually a very traditional process.

Wilkes says the Jennings shoot proceeded like any other despite being so close to home. If anything, it was more work, he says. Any beach photograph that I do, where you have water and people, creates challenges.

Wilkes wanted Jennings in peak season at its most active. He began the shoot Aug. 11, a Friday, when the beach shows outdoor movies in the evening. He worked from a 20-foot scaffold set up toward the eastern end of the beach, just above the high-tide line. He needed the height so his stationary camera could gain separation; at ground level the beach-goers would have obscured one another. Wilkes has described himself as a street photographer working in the air, and as someone trying to compress time.

The camera stays in a locked position. I start early in the day and go into the night. You get the stars in the sky and the low early morning sun. You get the calmness of the surf. If you look closely you can see the tide come up (in the Jennings image), he says.

But he also catches the human rhythms that overlap with the natural cycle: of people who arrive early to meditate, of walkers who come at low tide for the firmer sand, of parents who come with children, of sun bathers who come alone. At Jennings, Wilkes guesses he took 1,500 or more individual shots, clicking the shutter for each one. From those he chose 50 to use in what would become the master photograph.

Essentially, Im capturing the best moments from day to night as I remember them. Im re-creating the memory of what was intriguing about that day, he says. Its very much like editing a movie. Its also like writing a book. Theres a narrative I create. I use time as my guide, but theres a story going on.

Elements of the story may reveal themselves as he sifts through the individual frames, a process that can take weeks. My work is very micro-detailed. So even though I see a certain moment and am conscious of that moment (when shooting it), I miss a lot of things that my eyes arent focused on, he says.

As Wilkes spoke, he was on his way to Washington, D.C., to discuss a new project for National Geographic related to the Day to Night series. An exhibit of Day to Night photographs documenting bird migration had been open since February at the National Geographics museum.

At the Fairfield Museum, the arrival of the Jennings Beach photograph will be marked by an exhibit running through June 3 of a half-dozen others from the Day to Night series. Expected to be included were the 2016 Easter Mass at the Vatican, the 2013 Americas Cup race in San Francisco, the 2015 Regata Storica in Venice and a 2015 image of animals at a Serengeti National Park water hole.

For Fairfield to join that distinguished portfolio is incredibly exciting, says museum director Jehle.

Joel Lang is a frequent contributor to Sunday Arts & Style.
TRUMBULL  The Kennedy Center now operates 17 group homes in Connecticut, with its recent acquiring of a new one in Hamden.

In early April, the center acquired a group home in Hamden from the state as part of a cost-savings plan. The home represents one of the 10 conversion homes the Department of Developmental Services is transitioning to private non-profit providers.

The Kennedy Center, headquartered in Trumbull, is a non-profit organization that provides support to individuals using vocational, residential, therapeutic, social, education and recreational services and programs.

With this new group home, The Kennedy Center now operates 17 throughout Fairfield and New Haven counties.

The Kennedy Center, as a leading rehabilitation organization and private provider in Connecticut, is fully committed to the conversion of DDS group homes, said Richard E. Sebastian, Jr., president and CEO of The Kennedy Center. We have the ability as well as capability to manage former DDS group homes.

There are currently three males and three females living in the new Hamden group home.

All the individuals in the home have adjusted well and the staff is very excited to work with the residents, said Mary Pat DeCarlo of New Haven, The Kennedy Center vice president of residential services.

Fourteen residential services staff members have been hired for the new Hamden group home.

Residential services at the center started more than 45 years ago. It provides community living support services to adults with intellectual disabilities. Now, residential services works with group homes, family support and supportive living.

Community living arrangements range from three to eight individuals. The group homes provide program plans that enhance personal growth and competency, leisure time planning, ongoing support and community access and integration.

All Kennedy Center residential programs are licensed and/or monitored by DDS.

More information about the center can be found at www.TheKennedyCenterInc.org.
TRUMBULL  Town police are partnering with the Drug Enforcement Administration to host a prescription drug take-back day on April 28.

From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., residents can drop off expired, unwanted or unused prescription drugs at Middlebrook School, 220 Middlebrooks Ave.

Only pills or patches can be dropped off, as the DEA cannot accept needles or liquids, police said. The event, which is being assisted by Trumbull Police Cadets and the Trumbull Partnership Against Underage Drinking and Drugs, is free and anonymous with no questions asked, police said.

At last Aprils National Prescription Drug Take Back Day, people across the country turned in 450 tons of prescription drugs at nearly 5,500 sites operated by the DEA and more than 4,200 of the agencys state and local partners in the United States.
WILTON  A Wilton woman is accused of stealing over $150,000 from a nonprofit she worked for, using the funds to take a trip to Disney World and buy a puppy, according to a news release.

Michelle Foley, a former employee of a Manhattan-based nonprofit organization was arrested and charged Tuesday, said Geoffrey S. Berman, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Foley was the finance director for an organization that provided arts and mentoring programs to low-income, homeless and neglected children, Berman said.

Foley, 45, of Wilton, was charged with one count of bank fraud, one count of wire fraud and one count of access device fraud.

Michelle Foley allegedly used her position at a nonprofit to steal funds intended for disadvantaged youth. Rather than directing the organizations funds to those in need, Foley allegedly used over $150,000 for her own selfish gain, including a trip to Disney World and a puppy, Berman said.

From roughly July 2017 to Feb. 2018, Foley is accused of stealing more than $150,000 from the organization by issuing unauthorized checks to herself from the organization. Foley allegedly made out checks totaling more than $56,000 and used two corporate credit cards to make personal, unauthorized purchases totaling over $100,000.

Those credit card payments included making payments for a puppy, home furnishings and appliances, and expenses associated with a trip to Disney World, Berman said.

Foley formerly served as the director of finance and operations for Free Arts NYC, a Manhattan-based nonprofit. Representatives of Free Arts NYC declined to comment.

The 45-year-old fugitive of justice was captured by Wilton police as she awaited for an outstanding package at the local post office after spending months on the lam.

Prior to her arrest, police said Foley, who has criminal history in at least four states, had been moving from state to state frequently to avoid capture.

The bank fraud charge carries a maximum 30-year sentence. The wire fraud charge carries a maximum 20-year sentence and the access device fraud charge carries a maximum 10-year sentence.
WASHINGTON  Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, questioned the continued viability of Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson as President Trumps nominee to head the VA, amid allegations of a drinking problem and overprescribing pills.

The allegations against Jackson, who serves as Trumps White House physician and has no major administrative experience, prompted the Veterans Affairs Committee chairman, Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., to postpone Jacksons confirmation hearing indefinitely.

It had been scheduled for Wednesday.

There are significant and serious questions that need to be addressed, and the administration so far has failed to be forthcoming with answers, said Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat who had expressed cautious optimism about Jackson last week before questions about his background arose. The longer they allow questions to fester and deepen, the more difficult confirmation will be.

Blumenthal said the Trump administration would provide a look at the FBI background check on Jackson only to Isakson and the committees senior Democrat, Sen. Jon Tester, D-Montana, a move he called unacceptable.

Allowing this nomination to proceed without answering these fundamental questions is a real disservice to our nations veterans, Blumenthal said.

As a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, Blumenthal would get to ask questions during the confirmation hearing. And he would get a vote in committee on the nomination, which is often a crucial precursor to a nominees success or failure on the Senate floor.

The allegations against Jackson, 50, an aw-shucks veteran Navy doctor who also treated Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, remain hazy. The New York Times reported they concern Jacksons participation in a toxic work environment, presumably among the White House staff, plus freely dispensing prescription medications.

Another allegation involved drinking while on duty.

Before the allegations surfaced, the primary issues surrounding the nomination had to do with Jacksons lack of administrative experience, especially given the VAs long history of mismanagement, plus its massive $185 billion budget and 375,000 employees.

Jackson himself on Tuesday continued his round of visits in uniform to senators who, like Blumenthal, will vote on confirmation if the nomination gets to the Senate floor.

Jackson told NBC news in a brief hallway interview that he was disappointed the hearing had been postponed. But Im looking forward to the hearing being rescheduled so I can explain everything to everybody, he said.

At the White House, Trump said he fully supports Jackson but hinted he might want to walk away from the nomination.

Admiral Jackson is a wonderful man, Trump said in response to a question at a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron.

But I told him  I said, You know what, Doc? Youre too fine a person,  Trump said. I said, What do you need it for? So ... its totally his decision  but hell be making a decision.

Blumenthal said that beyond Jacksons particular qualifications or lack of them, the nomination is emblematic of what he views as lackadaisical vetting of nominees. He ticked through a list of about 20 nominees whose names had to be withdrawn.

Among them are Matthew Peterson, a judicial nominee who could not answer basic questions about courtroom procedures, and fast-food executive Andrew Puzder, nominee for secretary of labor, whose belittling of workers turned off Democrats while hiring of an undocumented-immigrant housekeeper did the same for Republicans.

Yes, there have been vetting failures in past administrations, but they were aberrations, Blumenthal said. Here (in the Trump White House) it is a pattern.

dan@hearstdc.com
Its easy to mistake the 4.1 percent unemployment rate in the United States for a job market that is entirely in good shape. Look further and you find 40 percent of American employers report difficulties finding the skills they need in prospective employees. Sixty percent note a lack of preparation for even entry-level jobs. Beyond the current skills gap issue, the long-term prospects for many jobs is uncertain. According to McKinsey and Co, by 2030, 75 million to 375 million workers (3 to 14 percent of the global workforce) will need to switch occupational categories.

Businesses need employees with the right talent and skills to continue to grow and prosper. Skill set development and preparation come down to how we educate our current and future workforce. We also must look at the system surrounding education, and it absolutely must include the structure around student loans. College debt is an anchor that, unlike consumer spending or a home mortgage, neither spurs the economy nor addresses crucial housing needs for Americans.

Related: How Student Loans Are Crushing Millennial Entrepreneurialism

Democratize the building blocks.

The internal combustion engine was patented in 1794, but the U.S. automobile industry didn't get started until the Model Ts release in 1908. It took more than a century before the mass implementation of the technology that ultimately spawned a huge number of job opportunities. Today, an innovation can create an industry and fold it up in a span of months. That innovation is likely to eliminate many jobs while creating a few.

Look no further than the World Economic Forums Jobs report to see the impact of innovation. The report predicted that by 2020 creativity, not a specific programming language and certainly not mastery of any particulur tool, will be among the top three job requirements. The same hard skills weve previously considered to be good indicators for professional success are simply less valuable in an age of data inundation joining with new technologies around AI, automation and robotics.

But how do we allow human creativity to shine through? It starts with a foundation of skills and knowledge for workers. Democratizing access to skills creates an environment for softer skills to shine through, ultimately allowing more to utilize their inherent humanity to suit a broad range of businesses needs.

Related: The 10 Unique Soft Skills Employers Desire in New Hires

Community colleges

Eloy Ortiz Oakley wrote in the Los Angeles Times that community colleges are the tip of the spear when it comes to recognizing the shift to skilled service-based industries. They are an affordable option for prospective students to develop the foundational elements that add up to a good income today and a path toward future education in the future.

In California, community college tuition averages $1,430 including fees, the lowest in the country, reflecting the emphasis on affordable education in some states. Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill into law in October of last year that created free first-year community college tuition for as many as 19,000 more Californians as well. Community college policy changes and affordable tuition are often a reflection of the needs and economic levels of the communities they are a part of, just like the kinds of courses offered. Oakley notes one example at Rio Hondo Community College in Whittier, where students are enrolled in a program to learn how components function within electric cars.

Related: Community Colleges and the Creation of Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

Online learning platforms

Broad education platforms like Udemy and Skillshare offer a truly democratized, affordable skill-specific education that can be accessed anywhere theres an internet connection. Their wide range of courses gives everyone the opportunity to uplevel their knowledge base for future professional demands. They also can shorten the time between getting an education and turning it into economic opportunity. This is partly because of their skill specificity, but it also has a lot to do with limiting the long-term financial commitment that befalls traditional higher education.

However, many online platforms provide a skill but not necessarily a certification or degree. These avenues may be more suited for upleveling a skill within a profession as opposed to raising employment prospects. For that, many future workers turn to four-year education.

Related: Obama Puts Down $600 Million to Train Up Your Future Employees

More education means more income but also big debts

The argument to seek education couldnt be more compelling when it comes to the raw numbers. People with an associates degree earn, on average, $6,000 more annually than those with only a high school diploma and have the lowest unemployment across all education levels. A bachelors degree creates even more opportunity, with graduates making nearly $60,000 annually.

Even in an age of robots, the benefits of more education are compelling, but for many there is an impossible trade-off: It brings both world-opening opportunities and financially crippling student debt. The average college student graduates with more than $37,000 in debt. The 44 million Americans dealing with it cumulatively owe an astounding $1.48 trillion. Thats enough to make credit card debt blush, accounting for an additional $620 billion.

Those numbers alone are shocking, but what also must be recognized is the financial ripple effects that student loan debt can create. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 30-year-olds with student loan debt are less likely to buy homes and cars -- a trend thats new and mirrors the jump in total student loan debt and defaults.

The financial handcuffs that come with education have led more than a few people to suggest avoiding college altogether. That is wrong. Building up hard skills and having a chance to develop soft skills will create workers who are far more flexible and adaptable in the workplace.

Related: 8 Hugely Successful People Who Didn't Graduate College

The United States should be pumping money and energy into creating more approachable and affordable education opportunities, from investments in community colleges and vocational programs that provide the skills human workers need to rethinking the student loan industrial complex to avoid saddling the next generation of workers with a lifelong weight of debt. Aside from benefiting workers, the uptick in skilled workers will drastically benefit those looking to hire them -- a boon to growing businesses across the country.

Making education more affordable and accessible is not the direction we're headed. The president, for his part, offered a 40 percent cut to workforce education programs, kneecapping some of the most accessible types of education in many communities, including community colleges.

Congress has offered few answers when it comes to student loan debt, but there are models out there that suggest potential solutions. Graduates in Australia repay loans automatically with payroll deductions based on income. Most Australians are out from underneath the loans within nine years. That is significant. Unlike the U.S. system, there are few middlemen involved, and loans are repaid on a sliding scale. Lower-earning graduates arent stung by a loan thats tethered to market rates instead of his or her earnings. This in turn keeps defaults down and keeps those graduates contributing to the economy both as consumers and earners.

Creating a future-proof economy and workforce will always be a work in progress. The most sensible approach is an educational system that supports a nimble workforce and doesnt saddle its population and the economy with a massive disincentive to seek that education in the first place.

Related:

College Debt Relief and Affordable Lifetime Learning Are Essential for a Thriving Economy

Make Your Employees Feel Like the Founder

8 Reasons Why Millennials Are More Productive than Any Other Generation



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
A 12-year-old Freedom of Information request came back to haunt Supreme Court Justice Andrew J. McDonald, and is more evidence that two former members of the high court were aligned against him, Democrats said Tuesday.

Within hours of McDonalds nomination to be chief justice on January 8, State Sen. Michael A. McLachlan, R-Danbury, sent him a request for specific documents and records from his time on the court.

If the letter seemed familiar to McDonald, it might have been because it was nearly identical, word for word, to a letter he had sent to then-Supreme Court Justice Peter T. Zarella in 2006 when Zarella was nominated to be chief justice. McDonald was a state Senator at the time and co-chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

We would be happy to meet with you to discuss your nomination and potential questions regarding your plans for the Judicial Branch, said the April 4, 2006 letter from McDonald and his committee co-chairman, then-Rep. Michael P. Lawlor. I would be happy to meet with you to discuss your nomination and potential questions regarding your plans for the Judicial Branch, Sen. McLachlan wrote on January 8.

Both letters have nearly identical opening and closing paragraphs and identical requests for material related to the state Criminal Justice Commission, as well as their speeches and seminars.

Democrats say its more than a coincidence that a letter from McDonald to Zarella, whose nomination to chief justice was unsuccessful, was sent back to McDonald at the start of his confirmation process.

State Senate President Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, said Tuesday that its clear that Republicans, with the aid of Zarella and another former justice, C. Ian McLachlan, assisted in the near-unified Republican opposition to McDonald.

It is also additional evidence that there was a concerted effort among Republicans, from the very beginning, with side support from two former justices, Looney said. It gives more credence to the argument that the decision was made to oppose Andrew McDonalds nomination, and reasons were developed after the fact to support that decision. Its word-for-word except one missing paragraph, (on the Rules Committee) but Justice McDonald was not on the Rules Committee.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said the interference of politics in the judicial branch should offend fair-minded people everywhere.

It is now undeniable that Senator McLachlan and his Republican colleagues never had any intention of fairly considering Justice Andrew McDonalds nomination, Malloy said. We need look no further than the completely different treatment they gave this week to another well-qualified nominee.

Zarella was nominated by Gov. M. Jodi Rell who later withdrew the nomination after then-Chief Justice William J. Sullivan admitted to delaying the release of a controversial decision to possibly assist Zarellas candidacy.

The 2006 letter was released to Hearst Connecticut Media on Tuesday morning by the state Judicial Branch under an open-records request. Both McDonald and Lawlor declined to comment on the letters.

Senator McLachlan, a real estate agent, said Tuesday his FOIA request was intentionally written to mirror the 2006 request. Republican staff requested the 2006 letter from the Judiciary Committee, he said, using it as a model to direct to McDonald on the day of his nomination.

The information sought is customarily and routinely requested as evidenced by the letter written by then Senator McDonald and Representative Lawlor, McLachlan said of the 2006 request. Although the letters were extremely similar, the responses to each were markedly different, with Peter Zarella providing numerous bankers boxes worth of information, and Justice McDonald providing a three ring binder.

McDonalds candidacy for chief justice was opposed by every Republican in the Senate and the House but one. It failed 19-16 in a Senate vote last month. One Senate Democrat voted against him and another recused herself from voting. Hearst reported on Sunday that emails obtained under the states open-records laws indicate that C. Ian McLachlan and Peter T. Zarella, former Supreme Court justices now in senior positions with the firm of McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter, received emails related to the nomination from Sen. McLachlan and the legislative lawyer for Senate Republicans.

In addition, Ian McLachlan, the senators cousin, advised him on the nomination, as he has about other legal issues during his 10 years in the General Assembly and his tenure on the Judicicary Committee.

The senator said that while he met with Zarella and his cousin, he did not speak with Zarella about the McDonald nomination. Late Saturday night, Zarella issued a statement via email that said he never contacted legislators about the McDonald candidacy. Ian McLachlan has not returned requests for comment.

Zarella, a former chairman of the West Hartford Republican Town Committee, was named to the high court in 2001 by then-Gov. John G. Rowland, and served with McDonald for three years before leaving the court in 2016. Rowland named Ian McLachlan to the Appellate in 2003 and was elevated to the Supreme Court by Rell in 2009. He retired to 2012, a year before the nomination of McDonald, who still serves on the Supreme Court.

Suzanne E. Baldasare, a partner in McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenters Fairfield office said the law firm was neither aware of, nor involved in, this matter. The Firm has been and remains non-partisan, and does not endorse, or seek to defeat, any candidate for any office.

McDonald sat for a 13-hour Judiciary Committee hearing in February that focused mostly on his legal writings that sparked a charge from supporters that Republicans were politicizing the nomination. On Monday, Justice Richard Robinsons three-hour hearing  and confirmation vote  centered on questions from lawmakers on what his goals might be as chief justice.

kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT
WEST HAVEN  Old-fashioned milk shakes, ice cream sodas, burgers, hot dogs and fries have returned to the area just off the Interstate 95 Sawmill Road exit  along with frothy Stewarts root beer floats  with the opening of Stewarts All American Grill.

Stewarts All American, which also serves breakfasts, ribs, salads and wraps, held a grand opening celebration Monday, three days after its soft opening Friday.

The West Haven location  Stewarts first full-service restaurant in Connecticut  opened in the fully renovated building at 340 Sawmill Road that once was Friendlys and more recently the short-lived A-1 Diner. Its distinctive orange LED exterior lights can be seen from I-95.

There also is a Stewarts express location in the Westfield Trumbull Mall, officials said.

Stewarts nostalgic motif was tailored for the local market with photographs of West Havens old Savin Rock amusement park, which hang on the walls.

This is Stewart All Americans third opening this year and 39th location overall. President Jim LaGanke and Vice President - Franchise Development & Marketing Gerry Pelissier both said the company plans to open additional Connecticut locations over time.

Stewarts plans to open 12 to 15 additional restaurants before the end of the year in locations ranging from Edison, New Jersey, to Massachusetts to Staten Island, New York, to south Florida, said LaGanke, who came up from Stewarts Rutherford, New Jersey headquarters for the occasion.

LaGanke is part of a new ownership group that bought the company several years ago and has experience in franchising and ambitious growth plans that include taking the company public. He was joined Monday by Stewarts Director of Business Development Bill Rose and Manager of Technological Operations Ben LeFebvre.

Local government was represented by Mayor Nancy Rossi, state Reps. Charles Ferraro, R-West Haven, and Dorinda Borer, D-West Haven, city Commissioner of Development Fred A. Messore and City Council members Tracy Morrissey, D-8, and Richard DePalma, R-At Large.

Stewarts landlords, Isabel Tartaglia and Lorraine Tartaglia of Tartaglia Commercial Properties in Monroe also attended.

LaGanke said Stewarts, which is a separate company from the one that produces the Stewarts root beer and other soft drinks that it serves, has designed the West Haven location  which is larger than most  to also be Stewarts national franchise training location.

The West Haven restaurant, which Stewarts described in a Feb. 28 post on its Facebook page as our flagship restaurant, is 4,300 square feet, compared to a normal size for new Stewarts All American Grill locations of 2,500 to 3,000 square feet, he said.

Our main offices are in Rutherford, but there are no good training facilities nearby and its less expensive to put trainees up in hotels in Connecticut than in northern New Jersey, he said.

Stewarts is looking to become a part of the West Haven community, LaGanke said.

Rossi welcomed Stewarts All American and said she was pleased to see a new business open in West Haven.

I think its very exciting news, she said. I think its a great fit for West Haven.

Rossi also thanked Stewarts for inviting City Hall employees and their families to eat for free last Wednesday and Thursday as they were getting the staff trained and up-to-speed for Fridays soft opening.

Stewarts gives us a great ... community business and, just as importantly, it gives people another reason to get off the highway in West Haven, she said.

Stewarts All American features 1/2-pound and 1/3-pound burgers, hot dogs, Philadelphia-style cheesesteaks and a full soda fountain, among other treats.

The West Haven location, which is a corporate store, not operated by a franchisee, is a full-service restaurant that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner.

While many of Stewarts existing locations are left over from the car hop drive-ins that the company  which has been around since 1924  opened in the 1950s, the newer ones, including the West Haven restaurant, are based on a new design and concept, Pelissier has said.

The Sawmill Road location was one that Stewarts strongly wanted to get into in large part because of its visibility from I-95 and the accompanying 100-foot pylon sign that comes with it, which is very visible from both travel directions, he has said.

The location is adjacent to the relatively new development that includes a Starbucks, a Chipotle Mexican Grill and an Aspen Dental office on the former site of the American Steakhouse.

The Stewarts property was recently purchased by an affiliate of Tartaglia Commercial Properties, owned by the family that used to own the steakhouse.

While Stewarts All American Grill is a new concept, Stewarts restaurants have been around since 1924.

Thats when Frank Stewart set out to create the worlds creamiest, best tasting root beer, working with a chemist, blending 20 different extracts of roots, herbs, and berries, according to a company history on the Stewarts website.

To supplement his teachers salary, Frank opened his first restaurant in Mansfield, Ohio, and over the years, juicy hamburgers, frankfurters, tasty french fries with toppings, local specialties and desserts were added to the menu, it says.

The half of the original company that makes and bottles Stewarts soda is still owned by the former owner of the restaurant. The sodas are bottled by Dr. Pepper, LaGanke said.
WESTPORT  Wearing red in a show of solidarity, more than 100 town teachers showed up at the school board meeting Monday to protest proposed budget cuts that could have 160 losing their jobs.

One hundred and sixty pink slips were issued by the schools to non-tenured school staff last Friday after the Board of Finance requested the schools make $2.05 million in cuts to their proposed budget.

During our long-standing, generally good relationships with the board, we have never been subject to such heavy-handed attempts to bully us into an agreement, said Westport Education Association (WEA), the union representing Westport teachers, Co-President John Horrigan Monday. We started this whole process with the belief we could have a few friendly discussions that would quickly result in an agreement. Instead, we received disrespect, ultimatums and unnecessary high drama.

In part, to save money next year the schools are seeking to reach an agreement with WEA on switching from the current high deductible health savings account plan to the state partnership health insurance plan, which the board estimated would save roughly $1.3 million. The two sides have yet to come to an agreement.

Horrigans comments were met with loud applause from the educators.

Of the seven negotiating bodies the Board of Education hoped to transfer to the state health plan as a cost-saving measure, the teachers are the only group holding out. Because they represent the largest share of the districts employees (62 percent), the board has seen only a fraction of the savings it hoped to secure from the health care shift this budget season.

According to Horrigan and WEA co-president Karen DeFelice, WEA employees contribute 21 percent of their premium cost in their current high deductible plan, higher than the contribution of teachers in most other Fairfield County towns. When WEA leadership was approached about the potential switch to the state plan, and learned that the board stood to save roughly $1.3 million, Horrigan, DeFelice and their membership asked for relief and sought a reduction of 3 percent in contribution.

Each year they have an obligation to put money into our health savings account thats part of this high deductible structure, and that costs them $1.25 million. So the way we saw it, they were going to save even giving us the $450,000. Theyd still have the $800,000,  said Horrigan. But they figured other things that they had to spend all that money on.

We were asking just for more of a sharing in the cost savings. Thats our point. Were not opposed to going to the plan, we want to help. But we want to be partners, DeFelice added.

The schools, however, declined the offer and, on Thursday, sent out an email to staff claiming that the WEA was not willing to compromise. The following day, Palmer sent out the pink slips.

It is a strategy thats used as a business approach when there's times of great uncertainty. It gives flexibility to the district until a budget can settle out until the district has a chance to look at things, Superintendent Colleen Palmer said, of the pink slips. The tactic was last employed in 2012 and, Palmer said, was necessary because of a state statute that necessitates that the non-renewal of any non-tenured staff be done before May 1 and because of the uncertainty surrounding the upcoming years budget.

Most of those teachers will be called back, Palmer said, noting that the extent of cuts will depend on the Board of Finances response to a $1.5 million restoration requested by the Board of Education on Monday.

The board had approved a revised $118 million budget on April 2 that represented a 3.36 percent year-over-year increase. With the $2.05 million in recent Board of Finance cuts, the Board of Education is looking at a $116 million budget, or a 1.57 percent increase.

The cut that we got far exceeded anything that we anticipated, Palmer explained.

Palmer suggested possible cuts to staffing that included eliminating one elementary school teacher, two Coleytown Middle School full-time teachers and two associated half-time special teachers, two Instructional Technology Leaders (ITLs) in the district, one Staples teacher, two paraprofessionals in the district and one member of the secretarial staff. Palmer also suggested postponing the appointment of a District Pre-K through 5 Math Coordinator, a new position created by the board earlier this year. In total, the personnel savings laid out by Palmer would be roughly $900,000, though she said she hoped not all measures would be necessary.

I did not go further. These shifts are pretty severe. I wanted to bring them further to give you an idea of where we are, our best thinking as a team, given the newness of the reduction of last Wednesday night.

The Board of Education will meet again on April 30 to further discuss the budget.

justin.papp@scni.com; @justinjpapp1; 203-842-2586
Like any other organization, credit unions are constantly trying to figure out how to get the right people in the right jobs at the right time.

With baby boomers approaching retirement and the amount of churn taking place as more employees switch jobs, that task has never been more front of mind for human resource (HR) professionals.

Workforce planning is a tool credit unions can use to determine how to allocate employees in the most efficient way possible.

Its the intentional union of strategy and people, says Jo Ann Romero, president of StrategyWorks Inc. She addressed a preconference session at the CUNA HR & Organizational Development Council Conference Sunday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Weve been doing workforce planning for years, she says. The only thing thats different is we have a fairly systematic way of doing it.
A North Carolina federal grand jury on Friday indicted Saundra Torrence, a 27-year president/CEO of the $32 million First Legacy Community Credit Union, for allegedly embezzling more than $375,000 from the Charlotte-based cooperative.

The indictment alleges that Torrence, who served as CEO from 1985 to August 2012, made false entries in the credit unions books and records, stole funds, and used the identity of at least one third party victim to obtain a FLCCU loan.

Torrences alleged fraud caused FLCCU to suffer significant financial losses while she personally received more than $110,000 from her misconduct, exposed the credit union to the risk of additional losses, and caused regulatory action against credit union, said R. Andrew Murray U.S. Attorney for the western district of North Carolina.
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Poetry has been a powerful medium of expression, be it for conveying love or disappointment, for spreading general cheer, or for voicing dissent. In 1959, a year after General Ayub Khan (the second president of Pakistan) had imposed martial law on Pakistan and the state machinery was bowing to his rules, radio waves were under his control and rosy pictures of the country were being painted, a young man participating in a mushaira that was aired live from Rawalpindi studio of Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation voiced his dissent against military dictatorship in his country.

Kahin gas ka dhuan hai kahin goliyon ki barish

Shab-e-ahd-e-kamnigahi tujhe kis tarah sarahen

The air is thick with teargas and the sound of raining bullets

How can I praise thee O night of the era of short sightedness

The mushaira had to be taken off air. That man was Habib Jalib (1928-1993), who had migrated from India to Pakistan with his family during Partition. He had been educated in Delhi at the Anglo-Arabic School and had taken his penname from Jalib Dehlvi. Jalib means attractive.

In 1962, when Ayub Khan enforced his constitution upon Pakistans people, Jalib wrote his famous poem Dastoor (Constitution):

deep jis ka mahallat hi mein jale

chand logon ki Khushiyon ko le kar chale

wo jo saye mein har maslahat ke pale

aise dastur ko subh-e-be-nur ko

main nahin manta main nahin jaanta

That which only lights up palaces

That which only takes the happiness of a few into account

That which is nurtured in the shade of compromise

That constitution of a dark dawn

I do not accept, I do not recognise

Not surprisingly, he spent many years in jail, first under the regime of Ayub Khan, then under General Zia ul Haqs government. However, his revolutionary fervour wasnt dimmed. The peoples poet, as he was called, continued fighting for his principles, for his right to speak and for his people against repressive regimes and the stranglehold of capitalism and religion over his country.

He used his pen to support Fatima Jinnah, who stood for presidential elections against General Yahya Khan in 1964, and her rallies drew large crowds. She didnt succeed, but his verses remain undefeated even today. Theres a famous anecdote about a time when he was imprisoned and the jailor taunted him saying he will ensure he is deprived of pen and paper.

Habib Jalib famously said that he would recite it before the guard, who would then recite it before the town square, before the people of Lahore. Another military ruler, General Yahya Khan (the third president of Pakistan), succeeded Ayub Khan as head of state. At a mushaira in Muree, Habib Jalib looked at the general's photograph, which was prominently displayed, and recited one of his iconic verses:

Tum se pehle woh jo ik shakhs yahan takht nasheen tha

Us ko bhi apne khuda honay pe itna hi yaqeen tha

The one who was enthroned before you

He too was convinced he is God.

Later, under Zai ul Haq's regime, he wrote his famous nazm:

zulmat ko ziya sarsar ko saba bande ko Khuda kya likhna

patthar ko guhar diwar ko dar kargas ko huma kya likhna

How can I describe darkness as light, a storm as a zephyr or a man as God?

How can I describe a stone as a gem, a wall as a door or a vulture as a phoenix?

His fight was against dictatorship, against authoritarian regime. He criticised Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and his daughter Benazir Bhutto for their anti-people policies. His fight was against injustice of every kind, and the clergymen  who he felt were busy misleading people in the name of religion  got a tongue-lashing in verse too:

Bahut mein ne suni hai aap ki taqreer Maulana

Magar badli nahin ab tak meri taqdeer Maulana

Khudara Shukr ki talqeen apne pass hi rakhen

Yeh lagti hai mere seene pe ban kar teeer Maulana

Ive heard your speeches long enough, Maulana,

But theres still no change in my fate, Maulana

For Gods sake keep your preachings of gratefulness to yourself

They pierce my heart like an arrow, Maulana

Since time immemorial, religion has been used as a tool to legitimise dictatorship and Jalib led the fight against it from the forefront. Those who think religion is in danger, would do well to read his verse:

Khatra hai zar daron ko

Girti hui diwaron ko

Sadiyon ke bimaron ko

Khatre mein Islam nahin

Sari zamin ko ghere hue hain aakhir chand gharane kyon

Naam nabi ka lene wale ulfat se begane kyon

The rich landlords are endangered

Crumbling walls are endangered

Revolting customs perpetuated on people [in name of religion] for centuries are endangered

Islam is not in danger

Why is our wealth concentrated in the hands of a few families?

Why are those who love the prophet bereft of joy?

When the slogan Pakistan ka matlab kia, La Ilaha Illilah was used to combat Pakistan Peoples Party under Zulfiqar Ali bhutto, Jalib responded with:

Khet waderon se le lo, millen looteron se le lo

Koi rahe na Aali-jah,

Pakistan ka matlab kia, La Ilaha Illilah

Take the land away from the landlords, take the mills from the exploiters,

No one should remain a priveleged lot

Thats the real meaning of Pakistan, La Ilaha Illilah

Jalib died on March 12, 1993 and his verses are still as popular the world over. Perhaps, every democratic country facing a challenge to its democracy, liberty and freedom needs such a poet.

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Apart from its bilateral aspect, Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to the UK was also significant in the context of Britain urging India to play a larger role in the Commonwealth (CW) and Indias receptiveness to the idea.

Little attention

The CW gets very little attention internationally and India too has neglected it in recent years, with the Indian prime minister absenting himself from the last few summits.

India gives new forums like BRICS and now the SCO far more political attention. The UK itself has discounted the CW after joining the European Union (EU).

Now that it has decided to untether itself from the EU, it needs other platforms and partners, and India stands out prominently.

If other countries such as Japan and the US are seeking to build partnerships with India in Africa because of its positive image there and good understanding of Africas developmental needs, the UK would also have reason to work more closely with India in Africa.

But should India assume a more prominent role in the CW and to what end? India has built strong ties with African countries independently of its CW membership.

It has significant bilateral assistance programmes including in West African francophone countries, in areas such as education, health, IT, human resource development, capacity building using Indian expertise and so on.

Strong energy ties with African countries covering oil, natural gas as well as uranium have been built. The India-Africa Summit Forum in October 2015 gathered 51 leaders including 42 heads of state and government. Our total trade with Africa has reached $70 billion (Rs 464 thousand crore) and major expansion is possible because of rising economic graphs on both sides.

Many CW countries have large populations of Indian origin as a legacy of the British empire, of course. But India traditionally underplayed this community link with these countries. Today, India cultivates the diaspora assiduously for economic and cultural reasons. The annual Pravasi Bharatiya Divas testifies to the value we place on this connection.

With the white CW countries such as the UK, Canada or Australia the robust expansion of our ties has not needed the CW platform either. Indeed, the CW bond did not alleviate past difficulties with these countries over non-proliferation or human rights questions. It is because of Indias economic rise and its growing international status that partnership with India has gained value in their eyes.

The argument that the absence of China from the CW gives India a congenial platform to gain more influence on the international stage, is thin. China has made major strides in Africa very rapidly, with its trade volume with it at $200 billion (Rs 13,28,000 crore) far surpassing that of India.

It has its own China-Africa Cooperation Forum. South Africa is Chinas largest economic partner, and it was China that pushed for South Africas membership of BRICS. China is engaged in massive infrastructure projects in Africa; it is very active in the Pacific.

Chinese challenge

Its economic relationship with countries like Australia and Canada outclasses ours. If, however, the argument of shared values and democracy now gets play in our dialogue with the West it is because of Chinas aggressive rise, its repudiation of Western values and democracy and its offer of Chinas authoritarian and state-controlled political and economic governance as an alternative model for developing countries to follow.

We should evaluate our future role in the CW keeping in mind the total picture. The CW has transcended its colonial moorings  countries like Mozambique, Cameroon, Namibia, Sierra Leone and Rwanda were never part of the British empire.

Indias bilateral cooperation with CW countries will not be hindered by our stepped-up role in the organisation; it can actually be supplemented. Our ambition to be a leading power can only be facilitated by leveraging diverse multilateral platforms. A large number of CW countries are members of the International Solar Alliance, in the building of which we have played a leadership role.

Common concern

Climate change issues are a common concern, and so are the mounting threats of religious radicalism and international terrorism. The international situation is becoming more uncertain because of anti-globalisation and protectionist trends.

The WTOs developmental agenda has been discarded; indeed, the WTO itself is being sought to be weakened as the cornerstone of international trade governance.

The CW consists of 30 small states that could benefit from the guidance and help India can provide in finding solutions to their problems in the area of clean energy, digital solutions, building trade capacity, broadband connectivity and so on. We are already giving lines of credit to 10 of these states.

The challenge is how to prepare these states for the 21st century. The world is getting more complicated and competitive and India needs to be active on all international platforms and build supportive relationships. More engagement with the CW could help in this.

Our aim should be to put together a package for the small states and work through the CW to achieve our bilateral objectives with them. The India-UK joint statement commits the two countries to reinvigorate the CW and increase its relevance to small and vulnerable states.

Building cybersecurity capacity and help member states to implement the WTOs Trade Facilitation Agreement by providing technical assistance have been identified as priorities. For India to play an enhanced role, its institutional position in the CW has to be upgraded, and it is expected it will.

(Courtesy of Mail Today)

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On April 23, I witnessed an encounter on my way to work.

Around 11.30am at home, I was staring at my phone and grumbling  the cab was taking far longer than the promised four minutes to come. When it did arrive, the driver delivered a long sermon before I could give him the OTP (Ola cabs require it): There is a lot of police, madam, at that Baraula batti. An encounter is about to happen. Do you still want to go that way?

Retweeted Piyush Rai (@PiyushRaiTOI):Big one! Dreaded Gangster Balraj Bhati, undoubtedly among Top 10 criminals in UP, was killed in an encounter in PS Sector 49 Noida by STF UP. He was a rewarded criminal of Sundar Bhati Gang, wanted in several heinous cases. @UPpolice  NOIDA POLICE (@noidapolice) April 23, 2018

The encounter in which inter state gangster Balraj Bhati was gunned down in Noida. pic.twitter.com/9szcOta5IC  Raj Shekhar Jha (@rajshekharTOI) April 23, 2018

I was confused, I was also getting late. I assumed the police might have gathered for another reason. I told the driver there couldnt be an encounter on a busy street, and that we could go. As we sped off, he warned me about heavy police presence. He had heard a big gangster had come to the area in a large cavalcade, and the police were going to apprehend him and bump him off.

The Baraula batti (traffic signal) is in Sector 49, Noida. It is a busy two-lane road, with shops and dhabas on one side and houses on the other. I was still not taking the driver (he didn't wish to be named in the story) seriously, but by now, we had reached the main road, and there was indeed a police vehicle going the same way as us.

A crowd had gathered at the signal. On the other side of the road, where my cab was stuck, is a Bikaner Sweets store. Upon seeing the heavy police presence and two police vehicles parked at the spot, my main worry was that I was getting late for work. The shop was the centre of everyones attention. Suddenly, there was commotion, someone ran, three shots rang out and someone fell down.

I did not see who fired or who fell down. But I couldnt believe what I had just witnessed. The Ola driver, a genteel person, didnt say I told you so. He asked me if I was okay. But they cant kill someone like that, I mumbled. Does anyone know who was shot? Shouldnt we call an ambulance?

They were criminals, he said. The police are doing their job. Someone in the crowd said, Mar gaya, mar gaya (hes dead). I looked around frantically and was struck by how unfazed everyone else around me looked. On one side of the road, people had emerged on the verandahs of their houses.

I overheard a man telling his neighbour: The policeman did not use the service revolver. It is a different gun, the kind security guards carry.

Another declared, There are 15 gangsters here, two have been killed. They are going to kill 13 more.

I craned my neck to see if the person who had fallen down had been hauled up. But through the road divider railings and the huddled bodies, I could not make out much. There was remarkably little activity at the site of the encounter.

My cab driver had, meanwhile, been trying to slowly manoeuvre his way out of the crowd. As soon as we took a right turn, life looked rather normal again on the tree-lined, not very crowded road I take to work every day.

The driver kept asking me if I was okay. I asked him if he was. "Murders are unpleasant business," he said. "Encounters are necessary." As he dropped me off at work, he mused how the government only goes after the small fish. Not big goons who can get ministers assassinated from inside the jail.

My office has TV screens on almost every wall. The first thing I saw was the ticker: Gangster with Rs 2 lakh reward on his head shot."

Twitter was abuzz, too. The person I had just witnessed being killed was none other than dreaded gangster Balraj Bhati. He had rewards announced on his head by the UP police, the Delhi Police and the Gurugram Police. Both UP Police and Gurugram police were involved in the encounter.

Bhati was accused of kidnappings, murders, gang-wars. He was allegedly a contract killer, the right-hand man of gangster Sundar Bhati, whose operations he ran when the latter was in jail.

Originally a Bulandshahr resident, Balraj Bhati reportedly served in the police force once. After he lost his job over his involvement in a murder case, he took to crime and was reportedly trained by Sundar, whom he met in jail.

I now also know that the person I saw fall was not Bhati, but a bystander. Bhati had purportedly run inside the restaurants kitchen, where he was shot on sight. According to Gurugram Police, two constables, a seven-year-old child, and a civilian were injured in the firing by the criminals.

Attention please:In a major success STF Gurugram team killed dreaded gangster Balraj Bhati in an encounter in Noida.https://t.co/3thLKVEGKv  Gurugram Police (@gurgaonpolice) April 23, 2018

The police have hailed his killing as a major success.

There has been a lot of news about the encounters by the police in Uttar Pradesh recently. According to official data, 1,144 encounters took place in the state between March 20, 2017, and January 31, 2018, in which 34 criminals have been killed and 2,744 arrested.

A few days ago, a police officer was dismissed from service after an audio clip in which he is purportedly tipping off a gangster about an encounter and asking him to manage two BJP leaders came to light. The leaders named are Rajeev Singh Parichha, BJP MLA from Jhansi, and Sanjay Dubey, BJP district president.

The Ola driver phrased the irony in perhaps the best possible way when he said: Bataiye madam, murder rokne ke liye murder karna padta hai (must say, murders are needed to stop murders).

Also read: A man declaring on Twitter he cancelled the cab over Muslim driver shows bigots are enjoying a free ride today
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Sony Corporation designs, develops, produces, and sells electronic equipment, instruments, and devices for the consumer, professional, and industrial markets worldwide. The company distributes software titles and add-on content through digital networks by Sony Interactive Entertainment; network services related to game, video, and music content; and home and portable game consoles, packaged software, and peripheral devices. It also develops, produces, markets, and distributes recorded music; publishes music; and produces and distributes animation titles, game applications based on animation titles, and various services for music and visual products. In addition, the company offers live-action and animated motion pictures, as well as scripted and unscripted series, daytime serials, game shows, animated series, television movies, and miniseries and other television programs; operates a visual effects and animation unit; manages a studio facility; and operates television and digital networks. Further, it researches, develops, designs, produces, markets, distributes, sells, and services video and sound products; interchangeable lens, compact digital, and consumer and professional video cameras; display products, such as projectors and medical equipment; mobile phones, tablets, accessories, and applications; and metal oxide semiconductor image sensors, charge-coupled devices, large-scale integration systems, and other semiconductors. Additionally, it offers Internet broadband network services; creates and distributes content for various electronics product platforms, such as PCs and mobile phones; and provides life and non-life insurance, banking, and other services, as well as batteries, recording media, and storage media products. It has collaboration with The UNOPS. The company was formerly known as Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha and changed its name to Sony Corporation in January 1958. The company was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

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The following companies are subsidiares of SYNNEX: 2117974 Ontario Inc., Administrative Services and Technologies to Enterprises Ltda., Afina Peru S.A.C., Afina S.R.L., Afina Sistemas Informaticos Limitada, Afina Sistemas Informaticos S.L, Afina Sistemas Sociedade Ltda., Afina Venezuela C.A., Afinasis S.A. de C.V., Asset Ohio Fourth Street LLC, BPO Holdco Cooperatief U.A., Beijing Jumeng Technology Development Ltd., Brazil HoldCo Limited, CNX Services Jamaica Limited, Chongqing Jumeng Technologies Development Ltd., ComputerLand Corporation, Comstor Colombia S.A.S., Concentrix (Canada) Limited, Concentrix (Suzhou) Information Consulting Co. Limited, Concentrix Beteiligungen GmbH, Concentrix Brazil Outsourcing of Processes , Concentrix Business Services UK Limited, Concentrix CMG Canada ULC, Concentrix CMG Insurance Services LLC, Concentrix CRM Services Germany GmbH, Concentrix CRM Services Germany GmbH Belgium Branch, Concentrix CRM Services Germany GmbH Greece Branch, Concentrix CRM Services Germany GmbH Merkezi Almanya Istanbul Merkez Subesi, Concentrix CRM Services Germany GmbH Netherlands Branch, Concentrix CRM Services Germany GmbH Netherlands Branch , Concentrix CRM Services Germany GmbH Russelsheim Switzerland Branch Zug, Concentrix CRM Services Germany GmbH Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia Oddzia w Polsce, Concentrix CRM Services Germany GmbH Sucursal en Espana, Concentrix CRM Services Hungary Kft, Concentrix CRM Services RO S.R.L., Concentrix CRM Services UK Limited, Concentrix CVG (Mauritius) Ltd, Concentrix CVG Brite Voice Systems LLC, Concentrix CVG CMG UK Limited, Concentrix CVG Contact Tunisie S.A.R.L., Concentrix CVG Corporation, Concentrix CVG Customer Management Australia Pty. Ltd., Concentrix CVG Customer Management Delaware LLC, Concentrix CVG Customer Management Group Inc., Concentrix CVG Customer Management Group Inc. Costa Rica Branch, Concentrix CVG Delaware Inc., Concentrix CVG Delaware International Inc., Concentrix CVG Delaware International Inc. French Branch, Concentrix CVG Egypt Limited Liability Company, Concentrix CVG France S.A.R.L., Concentrix CVG Funding Inc., Concentrix CVG Global Services AZ Inc., Concentrix CVG Global Services El Salvador S.A. de C.V., Concentrix CVG Global Services Honduras S.A., Concentrix CVG Global Services Hong Kong Limited, Concentrix CVG Government Solutions LLC, Concentrix CVG Group Limited, Concentrix CVG Group Servicios de Apoyo Informatico S.L., Concentrix CVG Holding LLC, Concentrix CVG Intelligent Contact Limited, Concentrix CVG International Bulgaria EOOD, Concentrix CVG International Holding Ltd., Concentrix CVG International Holding Ltd. Dominican Republic Branch, Concentrix CVG International Sp. Z.o.o., Concentrix CVG Italy S.R.L., Concentrix CVG LLC, Concentrix CVG Learning Solutions LLC, Concentrix CVG Malaysia (Philippines) SDN. BHD. Philippine Branch, Concentrix CVG Malaysia (Phillipines) Sdn. Bhd., Concentrix CVG Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Concentrix CVG Nicaragua S.A., Concentrix CVG Philippines Inc., Concentrix CVG Pte. Ltd., Concentrix CVG Services Singapore Pte. Ltd., Concentrix CVG Services Singapore Pte. Ltd. ROHQ, Concentrix CVG Singapore Holdings Pte. Ltd., Concentrix CVG Singapore Holdings Pte. Ltd. ROHQ, Concentrix CVG Tunisie BPO S.A.R.L., Concentrix CVG Tunisie S.A.R.L., Concentrix Coop Holdco Limited, Concentrix Corporation, Concentrix Costa Rica S.A., Concentrix Daksh Services India Private Limited, Concentrix Daksh Services Philippines Corporation, Concentrix Digital Services Limited, Concentrix Duisburg GmbH, Concentrix Dusseldorf GmbH, Concentrix Europe Limited, Concentrix Frankfurt a. M. GmbH, Concentrix Free Trade Zone S.A., Concentrix GBS Limited, Concentrix Gera GmbH, Concentrix Global Holdings Inc., Concentrix Global Services GmbH, Concentrix Gmbh, Concentrix HK Limited, Concentrix Halle GmbH, Concentrix Insurance Administration Solutions Corporation, Concentrix International Europe B.V., Concentrix International GmbH, Concentrix International Services Europe B.V., Concentrix Investment Holdings Corporation, Concentrix Investment Holdings Singapore 1 Pte. Ltd, Concentrix Investment Holdings Singapore 2 Pte. Ltd, Concentrix Investment Holdings Singapore 3 Pte. Ltd, Concentrix Investments Europe B.V., Concentrix Ireland Contact Services Limited, Concentrix Ireland Limited, Concentrix Leipzig GmbH, Concentrix Logistics Corporation, Concentrix Management Holding GmbH & Co. KG, Concentrix Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V, Concentrix Munster GmbH, Concentrix New (BVI) Corporation, Concentrix NewHK Limited, Concentrix Nicaragua S.A., Concentrix Osnabruck GmbH, Concentrix Rechenzentrum GmbH, Concentrix Romania S.R.L., Concentrix Schwerin GmbH, Concentrix Service Hungary KFT, Concentrix Services (Colombia) S.A.S., Concentrix Services (Dalian) Co. Ltd., Concentrix Services (Dalian) Co. Ltd. Beijing Branch, Concentrix Services (Dalian) Co. Ltd. Shanghai Branch, Concentrix Services (Germany) GmbH, Concentrix Services (Ireland) Limited, Concentrix Services (Netherlands) B.V., Concentrix Services (New Zealand) Limited, Concentrix Services (Poland) spolka z o.o., Concentrix Services (Saudi Arabia) Corporation LLC, Concentrix Services (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Concentrix Services (Thailand) Co. Ltd, Concentrix Services (Uruguay) S.A., Concentrix Services Bulgaria EOOD, Concentrix Services Corporation, Concentrix Services Corporation Philippines Branch, Concentrix Services Germany GmbH Sverige filial, Concentrix Services GmbH, Concentrix Services Holdco (Netherlands) B.V., Concentrix Services India Private Limited, Concentrix Services Korea Limited, Concentrix Services Mexico S.A. de C.V., Concentrix Services Philippines Inc., Concentrix Services Portugal Sociedade Unipessoal LDA, Concentrix Services Pty Ltd, Concentrix Services Pty Ltd ROHQ, Concentrix Services Slovakia s.r.o., Concentrix Services Spain S.L.U., Concentrix Services UK Limited, Concentrix Services US Inc., Concentrix Technologies (India) Private Limited, Concentrix Technologies Limited, Concentrix Technologies Services (Canada) Limited, Concentrix Technology FZ-LLC, Concentrix VN Technologies Services Company Limited, Concentrix Verwaltungs GmbH, Concentrix Wismar GmbH, Concentrix Wuppertal GmbH, Convergys, Convergys Customer Management Colombia S.A.S., Convergys Customer Management Group Canada Holding Inc., Convergys Customer Management Group Inc. Philippines Branch, Convergys Customer Management International Inc., Convergys Customer Management International Inc. - Regional Operating Headquarters, Convergys Customer Management Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Convergys France S.A.R.L. (Mauritius Branch), Convergys Holdings (GB) Limited, Convergys Holdings (UK) Limited, Convergys Hungary Kft., Convergys India Services Private Limited, Convergys International Inc., Convergys International Nordic AB, Convergys Netherlands Investments B.V., Convergys Services Denmark ApS, Convergys Software Service (Beijing) Ltd., Convergys South Africa (Pty) Ltd., CyberLogistics Corporation, Dalian Jumeng Information Services Ltd., Dalian Jumeng Technology Development Ltd., EMJ America Inc., Encore Receivable Management Inc., Encore Receivable Management Inc. Philippines Branch, Foshan Jumeng Information Technology Service Co. Ltd, GLS Software S. de R.L., Guiyang Jumeng Technology Development Ltd., Hyve IT Solutions Israel Ltd, Hyve IT Solutions South Africa (PTY) Ltd., Hyve SNX Solutions Ireland Limited, Hyve Solutions (Taiwan) Corporation, Hyve Solutions Canada Limited, Hyve Solutions China Limited, Hyve Solutions Corporation, Hyve Solutions Europe Limited, Hyve Solutions HK Limited, Hyve Solutions Holding Company Limited, Hyve Solutions India LLP, Hyve Solutions Japan K.K., Hyve Solutions Korea Limited, Hyve Solutions Malaysia SDN.BHD., Hyve Solutions New Zealand Limited, Hyve Solutions Singapore Pte. Ltd, Hyve Solutions US Global Holding Corporation, IBM World Wide Customer Care, Intervoice Acquisition Subsidiary Inc., Intervoice Colombia Ltda., Intervoice GP Inc., Intervoice GmbH, Intervoice LLC Canada Branch, Intervoice LP Inc., Intervoice Limited, Intervoice Limited Partnership, Intervoice do Brasil Comercio Servicos e Participacoes Ltda., Jack Of All Games Inc., Japan Concentrix KK, LATAM HoldCo Limited, Lasting Holdings Corporation, License Online Inc, Minacs, Minacs Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., PT Concentrix Services Indonesia, PT Convergys Customer Management Indonesia, Pegasus Telecom LLC, SCGS (Malaysia) SDN. BHD., SGS Holdings Inc., SGS Tunisie S.A.R.L., SIT Funding Corporation, SYNNEX Canada Limited, SYNNEX Finance Hybrid II LLC, SYNNEX Information Technologies (Beijing) Ltd., SYNNEX Information Technologies (Chengdu) Ltd., SYNNEX Information Technologies (China) Ltd., SYNNEX Japan Corporation, SYNNEX Japan Holdings K.K., SYNNEX Servicios S.A. de C.V., SYNNEX Software Technologies (HK) Limited, SYNNEX de Mexico S.A. de C.V., SYNNEX-Concentrix UK Limited, Sennex Enterprises Limited, Servicios Afinasis S.A. de C.V., Shenzhen Shunrong Telecommunication Technologies Ltd., Shenzhen Shunrong Telecommunication Technologies Ltd. Foshan Branch, Sichuan 86Bridge Information Technology Ltd., Stream Business Process Outsourcing South Africa (Proprietary) Ltd., Stream Florida Inc., Stream Global Services - US Inc., Stream Global Services Danmark ApS, Stream Global Services Inc., Stream Holdings Corporation, Suzhou Ke Wei Xun Information Services Co. Ltd., Tech Data, The Global Email Trustee Limited, Tigerspike Co. Ltd, Tigerspike FZ LLC Rep. Office, Tigerspike FZ-LLC, Tigerspike Holdings Pty Ltd, Tigerspike Inc., Tigerspike Ltd, Tigerspike Products Pte. Ltd., Tigerspike Pte. Ltd., Tigerspike Pty Ltd, Velami Holdings Corporation, Vietnam Concentrix Services Company Limited, VisionMAX, WG-UK Holding Company Limited, WG-US HoldCo Inc, Westcon Brasil Ltda., Westcon CALA Inc., Westcon Canada Systems (WCSI) Inc., Westcon Corporation Ecuador WCE Cia. Ltda, Westcon Group Colombia Limitada, Westcon Group Costa Rica S.A., Westcon Group El Salvador S.A. de C.V., Westcon Group Inc., Westcon Group North America Inc., Westcon Group Panama S.A., Westcon Mexico S.A. de C.V., Westcon-Comstor, Xi'an Jumeng Technologies Development Ltd, and eTelecare Philippines Inc..
Validus Holdings, Ltd. provides reinsurance coverage, insurance coverage, and insurance linked securities management services worldwide. It operates through three segments: Reinsurance, Insurance, and Asset Management. The Reinsurance segment underwrites property reinsurance products on a catastrophe excess of loss, per risk excess of loss and proportional basis; and aerospace and aviation, agriculture, composite, marine, technical lines, terrorism, trade credit, workers' compensation, and other specialty lines, as well as casualty and financial lines. The Insurance segment underwrites property, accident and health, agriculture, aviation, contingency, marine, and political lines insurance products; bankers blanket bond, commercial crime, computer crime, cyber- crime, professional indemnity, and directors' and officers' insurance products for various financial institutions and other companies; and commercial and institutional risks comprising general, professional, and product liability, as well as miscellaneous malpractice insurance products. This segment also underwrites marine and energy liability, and political risk insurance products, as well as insurance products for repair, maintenance, and upkeep of aircrafts and premises for small companies. The Asset Management segment manages capital for third parties through insurance-linked securities, and other property catastrophe and specialty reinsurance investments. Validus Holdings, Ltd. was founded in 2005 and is based in Pembroke, Bermuda.

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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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Bayer Aktiengesellschaft operates as a life science company worldwide. It operates through Pharmaceuticals, Consumer Health, and Crop Science segments. The Pharmaceuticals segment offers prescription products primarily for cardiology and women's health care; specialty therapeutics in the areas of oncology, hematology, and ophthalmology; and diagnostic imaging equipment and contrast agents, as well as cell and gene therapy. The Consumer Health segment markets nonprescription over-the-counter medicines, medical products, medicated skincare products, nutritional supplements, and self-care solutions in dermatology, nutritional supplements, pain and cardiovascular risk prevention, digestive health, allergy, and cold and cough. The Crop Science segment offers chemical and biological crop protection products, improved plant traits, seeds, digital solution, and pest and weed control products, as well as customer service for agriculture. This segment also provides breeding, propagation, and production/processing of seeds, including seed dressing. Bayer Aktiengesellschaft has a collaboration agreement with MD Anderson Cancer Center to develop oncology drugs; research and license agreement with Dewpoint Therapeutics, Inc. for the development of new treatments for cardiovascular and gynecological diseases; collaboration agreement with Exscientia Ltd, Foundation Medicine Inc., and Evotec AG; research collaboration with Arvinas Inc. and Forschungszentrum JAlich GmbH; strategic research partnership with University of Oxford to develop novel gynecological therapies; and research collaboration agreements with Haplogen GmbH and Kyoto University to identify new drugs candidates for the treatment of pulmonary diseases. The company distributes its products through wholesalers, pharmacies and pharmacy chains, supermarkets, online and other retailers, and hospitals, as well as directly to farmers. Bayer Aktiengesellschaft was founded in 1863 and is headquartered in Leverkusen, Germany.

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USG Corporation, through its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells building materials worldwide. The company's Gypsum division manufactures and markets gypsum and related products to construct walls and ceilings of residential, nonresidential, and institutional buildings; and agricultural and industrial customers. This segment offers gypsum wallboards and compound portfolios, as well as corner beads, joint tapes, and plasters under the USG Sheetrock brand; glass mat sheathing portfolios under the Securock brand; construction plaster products under the Red Top, Imperial, Diamond, and Supremo brands; and lightweight gypsum panels under the USG Sheetrock brand, as well as ultralight panels, USG Sheetrock brand ecosmart panels, and industrial gypsum. Its Performance Materials division manufactures and markets products for interior and exterior building applications of residential and nonresidential buildings, as well as industrial applications. This segment provides cement boards, backer boards, shower systems, performance floorings, air barrier systems, roof board portfolios, and structural panels under the USG Durock, Fiberock, Levelrock, Securock, ExoAir, Securock, and USG brands. The company's Ceilings division manufactures and markets ceiling tiles under the Radar, Eclipse, Mars, and Halcyon brands; ceiling grids under the Donn, DX, Fineline, Centricitee, and Identitee DXI brands; specialty ceilings under the Curvatura, Compasso, Radians, Illusions, Multiples, Runways, Barz, Planx, Mirra, Corniche, Wallforms, and Parti brands; and acoustical drywall ceilings under the Ensemble brand. Its USG Boral Building Products division manufactures, distributes, and sells building products, mines raw gypsum, and sells natural and synthetic gypsum under the USG Boral Sheetrock, USG Boral NextGen, Elephant, Jayaboard, Durock, and Donn DX brands. The company was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

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The following companies are subsidiares of BorgWarner: B80 Italia S.r.l., BERU AG, BW El Salto S.A. De C.V., BWA Receivables Corporation, BWA Turbo Systems Holding LLC, Borg Warner Europe Holdings (PDS) B. V., BorgWarner (China) Investment Co. Ltd., BorgWarner (Reman) Holdings L.L.C., BorgWarner (Thailand) Limited, BorgWarner Aftermarket Europe GmbH, BorgWarner Alternators Inc., BorgWarner Arden LLC, BorgWarner Arnstadt RE GmbH & Co. KG, BorgWarner Asia Inc., BorgWarner Automotive Asia Limited, BorgWarner Automotive Components (Beijing) Co. Ltd., BorgWarner Automotive Components (Jiangsu) Co. Ltd., BorgWarner Automotive Components (Ningbo) Co. Ltd., BorgWarner Automotive Components (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., BorgWarner Automotive Components (Wuhan) Co. Ltd., BorgWarner Brasil Ltda., BorgWarner Chungju Co. LLC, BorgWarner Comercial e Distribuidora de Pecas para Veiculos Automotores Ltda., BorgWarner Comercializadora PDS S. de R.L. de C.V., BorgWarner Componentes PDS S. de R.L. de C.V., BorgWarner Cooling Systems (India) Private Limited, BorgWarner Cooling Systems GmbH, BorgWarner Diversified Transmission Products Services Inc., BorgWarner Drivetrain Engineering GmbH, BorgWarner Drivetrain Management Services de Mexico S.A. de C.V., BorgWarner Drivetrain de Mexico S.A. de C.V., BorgWarner Electric Motors L.L.C., BorgWarner Emissions Systems (Ningbo) Co. Ltd., BorgWarner Emissions Systems (Ningbo) Co. Ltd., BorgWarner Emissions Systems Holding LLC, BorgWarner Emissions Systems India Private Limited, BorgWarner Emissions Systems LLC, BorgWarner Emissions Systems Portugal Unipessoal LDA, BorgWarner Emissions Systems Spain S.L.U., BorgWarner Emissions Systems of Michigan Inc., BorgWarner Emissions Talegaon Private Limited, BorgWarner Engineering Ketsch RE GmbH & Co. KG, BorgWarner Engineering Kibo RE GmbH & Co. KG, BorgWarner Esslingen GmbH, BorgWarner Europe GmbH, BorgWarner Europe Holding S.a. r. l., BorgWarner Gateshead Limited, BorgWarner Germany Holding GmbH, BorgWarner Germany Holding Services GmbH, BorgWarner Germany REH GmbH, BorgWarner Germany REM GmbH, BorgWarner Germany Verwaltungs GmbH, BorgWarner Global Holding S.a. r. l., BorgWarner Heidelberg I RE GmbH & Co. KG, BorgWarner Heidelberg II RE GmbH & Co. KG, BorgWarner Heidelberg REH GmbH, BorgWarner Heidelberg REM GmbH, BorgWarner Holding Inc., BorgWarner Holdings Limited, BorgWarner Hungary Kft., BorgWarner IT Services Europe GmbH, BorgWarner India Holdings Inc., BorgWarner Investment Holding Inc., BorgWarner Ithaca LLC, BorgWarner Ketsch Plant RE GmbH & Co. KG, BorgWarner Ketsch REH GmbH, BorgWarner Ketsch REM GmbH, BorgWarner Kft., BorgWarner Kibo RE GmbH & Co. KG, BorgWarner Korea Holdings (PDS) B.V., BorgWarner Korea Holdings LLC, BorgWarner Korea LLC, BorgWarner Limited, BorgWarner Ludwigsburg GmbH, BorgWarner Ludwigsburg RE GmbH & Co. KG, BorgWarner Markdorf Plant RE GmbH & Co. KG, BorgWarner Markdorf REH GmbH, BorgWarner Markdorf REM GmbH, BorgWarner Massachusetts Inc., BorgWarner Mauritius Holdings Ltd., BorgWarner Mexico Holding BV, BorgWarner Mexico Holdings II LLC, BorgWarner Mexico Holdings LLC, BorgWarner Morse Systems India Private Limited, BorgWarner Morse Systems Italy S.r.l., BorgWarner Morse Systems Japan K.K., BorgWarner Morse Systems Mexico S.A. de C.V., BorgWarner Muggendorf RE GmbH & Co. KG, BorgWarner NW Inc., BorgWarner Netherlands Holdings (PDS) B.V., BorgWarner Oroszlany Kft., BorgWarner PDS (Anderson) L.L.C., BorgWarner PDS (Changnyeong) LLC, BorgWarner PDS (Indiana) Inc., BorgWarner PDS (Livonia) Inc., BorgWarner PDS (Ochang) LLC, BorgWarner PDS (Thailand) Limited, BorgWarner PDS (USA) Inc., BorgWarner PDS Brasil Produtos Automotivos Ltda., BorgWarner PDS Irapuato S. de R.L. de C.V., BorgWarner PDS Mexico Holdings S. de R.L. de C.V., BorgWarner PDS Technologies L.L.C., BorgWarner Poland Sp. z o.o., BorgWarner Pyongtaek LLC, BorgWarner Romeo Power LLC, BorgWarner Rzeszow Sp. z o.o., BorgWarner Shenglong (Ningbo) Co. Ltd., BorgWarner South Asia LLC, BorgWarner Southborough Inc., BorgWarner Spain Holding S.L.U, BorgWarner Sweden AB, BorgWarner Systems Lugo S.r.l., BorgWarner Thermal Systems Inc., BorgWarner Thermal Systems of Michigan Inc., BorgWarner TorqTransfer Systems Beijing Co. Ltd., BorgWarner Tralee Ltd., BorgWarner Transmission Products LLC, BorgWarner Transmission Systems Arnstadt GmbH, BorgWarner Transmission Systems GmbH, BorgWarner Transmission Systems Korea LLC, BorgWarner Transmission Systems Tulle S.A.S., BorgWarner Trustees Limited, BorgWarner Turbo & Emissions Systems France S.A.S., BorgWarner Turbo Systems Engineering GmbH, BorgWarner Turbo Systems GmbH, BorgWarner Turbo Systems LLC, BorgWarner Turbo Systems Worldwide Headquarters GmbH, BorgWarner Turbo Systems of Michigan Inc., BorgWarner Turbo and Emissions Systems de Mexico S.A. de C.V., BorgWarner UK Financing Ltd., BorgWarner UK Holding and Services Ltd., BorgWarner US Holding LLC, BorgWarner USA Industries L.L.C., BorgWarner United Transmission Systems Co. Ltd., BorgWarner Waterloo Inc., BorgWarner Wrexham Limited, Cascadia Motion LLC, Creon Insurance Agency Limited, Delphi Technologies, Dytech ENSA, Gustav Wahler GmbH u. Co. KG, Haldex, Kuhlman LLC, Kysor Europe Limited, M. & M. Knopf Auto Parts L.L.C., NSK-Warner (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., NSK-Warner K.K., NSK-Warner Mexico S.A. de C.V, NSK-Warner U.S.A. Inc., New PDS Corp., Old Remco Holdings L.L.C., Old Remco International Holdings L.L.C., Remy International, SeohanWarner Turbo Systems LLC, Sevcon, Sevcon New Energy Technology (Hubei) Company Limited, and Transmission Systems AutoForm LLC.
InnovAge Holding Corp. manages and provides a range of medical and ancillary services for seniors in need of care and support to live independently in their homes and communities. It manages its business through Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) approach. The company offers in-home care services consisting of skilled, unskilled, and personal care; in-center services, such as primary care, dental, mental health and psychiatric, meals, and activities, as well as physical, occupational, and speech therapy; transportation to the PACE center and third-party medical appointments; and care management. It serves approximately 6,600 PACE participants in the United States of America; and operates seventeen PACE centers in Colorado, California, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. The company was formerly known as TCO Group Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to InnovAge Holding Corp. in January 2021. InnovAge Holding Corp. was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado.

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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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Wall Street analysts have given Dream Global REIT 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 Dream Global REIT 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 The Sherwin-Williams: Acquire Sourcing LLC, CTS National Corporation, Comex North America Inc., Compania Sherwin-Williams S.A. de C.V., Contract Transportation Systems Co., Deep Pride Limited, Dongguan Lilly Paint Industries Ltd, Duron, EPS (Shanghai) Trading Co. Ltd., EPS B.V., EPS Polidrox Industria e Comercio de Resinas Ltda, Geocel Holdings, Geocel Limited, Guangdong Valspar Paints Manufacturing Co Ltd., Guangdong Yuegang Dadi Paints Company Limited, Guardsman Australia Pty Limited, Guardsman Industries Limited, Inver East Med S.A., Inver France SAS, Inver GmbH, Inver Industrial Coating SRL, Inver Polska Spoka Z O.O, Inver Spa, Invercolor Bologna Srl, Invercolor Ltd, Invercolor Roma Srl, Invercolor Torino Srl, Invercolor Toscana Srl, Isocoat Tintas e Vernizes Ltda, Isva Vernici Srl, Jiangsu Pulanna Coating Co. Ltd., Leighs Paints, M.A. Bruder & Sons, Omega Specialty Products & Services LLC, Oy Sherwin-Williams Finland Ab, PT Sherwin-Williams Indonesia, PT Valspar Indonesia, Paint Sundry Brands, Pinturas Condor S.A., Pinturas Industriales S.A., Plasti-Kote Co. Inc., Plasti-kote Limited, Productos Quimicos y Pinturas S.A. de C.V., Quest Automotive Products UK Limited, Quetzal Pinturas S.A. de C.V., Resin Surfaces Limited, Ronseal (Ireland) Limited, SWIMC LLC, SWIPCO  Sherwin Williams do Brasil Propriedade, Sayerlack, Sherwin Williams Colombia S.A.S., Sherwin-Williams (Australia) Pty. Ltd., Sherwin-Williams (Belize) Limited, Sherwin-Williams (Caribbean) N.V., Sherwin-Williams (Ireland) Limited, Sherwin-Williams (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Sherwin-Williams (Nantong) Company Limited, Sherwin-Williams (S) Pte. Ltd., Sherwin-Williams (Shanghai) Limited, Sherwin-Williams (South China) Co. Ltd., Sherwin-Williams (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Sherwin-Williams (Vietnam) Limited, Sherwin-Williams (West Indies) Limited, Sherwin-Williams Argentina I.y C.S.A., Sherwin-Williams Aruba VBA, Sherwin-Williams Automotive Mexico S.de R.L.de C.V., Sherwin-Williams Balkan S.R.L., Sherwin-Williams Bel, Sherwin-Williams Benelux NV, Sherwin-Williams Canada Inc., Sherwin-Williams Cayman Islands Limited, Sherwin-Williams Chile S.A., Sherwin-Williams Coatings India Private Limited, Sherwin-Williams Coatings S.a r.l., Sherwin-Williams Czech Republic spol. s r.o, Sherwin-Williams Denmark A/S, Sherwin-Williams Deutschland GmbH, Sherwin-Williams Diversified Brands (Australia) Pty Ltd, Sherwin-Williams Diversified Brands Limited, Sherwin-Williams France Finishes SAS, Sherwin-Williams Italy S.r.l., Sherwin-Williams Luxembourg Investment Management Company S.a r.l., Sherwin-Williams Norway AS, Sherwin-Williams Paints Limited Liability Company, Sherwin-Williams Peru S.R.L., Sherwin-Williams Pinturas de Venezuela S.A., Sherwin-Williams Poland Sp. z o.o, Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine Coatings, Sherwin-Williams Realty Holdings Inc., Sherwin-Williams Services (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Sherwin-Williams Spain Coatings S.L., Sherwin-Williams Sweden AB, Sherwin-Williams Uruguay S.A., Sherwin-Williams do Brasil Industria e Comercio Ltda., Spanyc Paints Joint Stock Company, Syntema I Vaggeryd AB, TOB Becker Acroma Ukraine, Taiwan Valspar Co. Ltd., The Sherwin-Williams Acceptance Corporation, The Sherwin-Williams Headquarters Company, The Sherwin-Williams Manufacturing Company, The Sherwin-Williams US Licensing Company, The Valspar (Asia) Corporation Limited, The Valspar (Australia) Corporation Pty. Ltd., The Valspar (Finland) Corporation Oy, The Valspar (France) Corporation S.A.S., The Valspar (France) Research Corporation SAS, The Valspar (Germany) GmbH, The Valspar (Malaysia) Corporation Sdn Bhd, The Valspar (Nantes) Corporation S.A.S., The Valspar (Singapore) Corporation Pte. Ltd, The Valspar (South Africa) Corporation (Pty) Ltd, The Valspar (Spain) Corporation S.R.L., The Valspar (Switzerland) Corporation AG, The Valspar (Thailand) Corporation Ltd., The Valspar (UK) Corporation Limited, The Valspar (Vietnam) Corporation Ltd., The Valspar Corporation, The Valspar Corporation Limitada, UAB Sherwin-Williams Baltic, Valspar (India) Coatings Corporation Private Limited, Valspar (Shanghai) Management Co. Ltd., Valspar (Uruguay) Corporation S.A., Valspar (WPC) Pty Ltd, Valspar Aries Coatings S. de R.L. de C.V., Valspar Automotive (UK) Corporation Limited, Valspar Automotive Australia Pty Limited, Valspar B.V., Valspar Coatings (Guangdong) Co. Ltd., Valspar Coatings (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Valspar Coatings (Tianjin) Co. Ltd, Valspar D.o.o Beograd, Valspar Inc., Valspar Industries (Ireland) Ltd., Valspar Industries (Italy) S.r.l., Valspar Industries GmbH, Valspar LLC, Valspar Mexicana S.A. de C.V., Valspar Paint (Australia) Pty Ltd, Valspar Paint (NZ) Limited, Valspar Powder Coatings Limited, Valspar Rock Company Limited, Valspar Specialty Paints LLC, Vantaco Oy, and ZAO Sherwin-Williams.
The following companies are subsidiares of Tenet Healthcare: 1 Subsidiaries of this entity in which Tenet Healthcare Corporation directly and indirectly held a 95% ownership interest at December 31 2020 are set forth in the table below., 25 East Same Day Surgery L.L.C., 300 PBL Development LLC, 45th Street MOB LLC, 601 N 30th Street I L.L.C., 601 N 30th Street II L.L.C., 601 N 30th Street III Inc., AHM Acquisition Co. Inc., AIG Holdings LLC, AIGB Global LLC, AIGB Group Inc., AIGB Holdings Inc., AIGB Management Services LLC, AMC/North Fulton Urgent Care #1 L.L.C., AMC/North Fulton Urgent Care #2 L.L.C., AMC/North Fulton Urgent Care #3 L.L.C., AMC/North Fulton Urgent Care #4 L.L.C., AMC/North Fulton Urgent Care #5 L.L.C., AMI Information Systems Group Inc., AMI/HTI Tarzana Encino Joint Venture, APN, ARC Worcester Center L.P., ASC Old Co. LP, ASC of New Jersey LLC, ASJH Joint Venture LLC, Abrazo Health Network EP Clinical Services LLC, Abrazo Surgical Outpatient Center LLC, Advanced Ambulatory Surgical Care L.P., Advanced Center for Surgery  Vero Beach LLC, Advanced Regional Surgery Center LLC, Advanced Surgery Center of Metairie LLC, Advanced Surgery Center of Sarasota LLC, Advanced Surgery Center of Tampa LLC, Advanced Surgical Care of St Louis LLC, Advanced Surgical Concepts LLC, Advantage Health Care Management Company LLC, Advantage Health Network Inc., AdventHealth Surgery Center Celebration LLC, AdventHealth Surgery Center Mills Park LLC, AdventHealth Surgery Center Wellswood LLC, AdventHealth Surgery Center Winter Garden LLC, AdventHealth Surgery Centers Central Florida LLC, AdventHealth Surgery Centers West Florida LLC, Adventist Midwest Health/USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., Alabama Cardiovascular Associates L.L.C., Alabama Digestive Health Endoscopy Center L.L.C., Alabama Hand and Sports Medicine L.L.C., Alamo Heights Surgicare L.P., All Star MOB LLC, Allegian Insurance Company, Alliance Surgery Birmingham LLC, Alliance Surgery Inc., Alvarado Hospital Medical Center Inc., Ambulatory Surgical Associates LLC, Ambulatory Surgical Center of Somerville LLC, American Institute of Gastric Banding Ltd., American Institute of Gastric Banding Phoenix Limited Partnership, American Medical (Central) Inc., Amisub (Heights) Inc., Amisub (Hilton Head) Inc., Amisub (North Ridge Hospital) Inc., Amisub (SFH) Inc., Amisub (Twelve Oaks) Inc., Amisub of California Inc., Amisub of North Carolina Inc., Amisub of South Carolina Inc., Amisub of Texas Inc., Anaheim Hills Medical Imaging L.L.C., Anaheim MRI Holding Inc., Anesthesia Partners of Gallatin LLC, Arizona Care Network  Next L.L.C., Arizona Health Partners LLC, Arlington Orthopedic and Spine Hospital LLC, Arrowhead Endoscopy and Pain Management Center LLC, Asia Outsourcing US Inc., Aspen Healthcare, Atlanta Medical Center Inc., Atlanta Medical Center Interventional Neurology Associates L.L.C., Atlanta Medical Center Neurosurgical & Spine Specialists L.L.C., Atlanta Medical Center Physician Group L.L.C., Atlantic Coast Surgical Suites LLC, Atlantic Health-USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., Avita/USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., BBH BMC LLC, BBH CBMC LLC, BBH DevelopmentCo LLC, BBH Imaging Jasper LLC, BBH NP Clinicians Inc., BBH PBMC LLC, BBH SBMC LLC, BBH WBMC LLC, BCDC EmployeeCO LLC, BHC-Talladega Pediatrics LLC, BHS Accountable Care LLC, BHS Affinity LLC, BHS Integrated Physician Partners LLC, BHS Physician Performance Network LLC, BHS Physicians Alliance for ACE LLC, BHS Physicians Network Inc., BHS Specialty Network Inc., BT East Dallas JV LLP, BW Cardiology LLC, BW Cyberknife LLC, BW Hand Practice LLC, BW Office Buildings LLC, BW Parking Decks LLC, BW Physician Practices LLC, BW Retail Pharmacy LLC, BW Sports Practice LLC, Bagley Holdings LLC, Baptist Accountable Care LLC, Baptist Diagnostics LLC, Baptist Health Centers LLC, Baptist Physician Alliance ACO LLC, Baptist Physician Alliance LLC, Baptist Plaza Surgicare L.P., Baptist Surgery Center L.P., Baptist Womens Health Center LLC, Baptist/USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., Bartlett ASC LLC, Baylor Surgicare at Baylor Plano LLC, Baylor Surgicare at Blue Star LLC, Baylor Surgicare at Granbury LLC, Baylor Surgicare at Mansfield LLC, Baylor Surgicare at North Dallas LLC, Baylor Surgicare at Plano LLC, Baylor Surgicare at Plano Parkway LLC, Bear Creek Surgery Center LLC, Beaumont Surgical Affiliates Ltd., Bellaire Outpatient Surgery Center L.L.P., Berkshire Eye LLC, Bloomington ASC LLC, Blue Ridge/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Bluffton Okatie Primary Care L.L.C., Bluffton Okatie Surgery Center L.L.C., Bon Secours Surgery Center at Harbour View LLC, Bon Secours Surgery Center at Virginia Beach LLC, Bozeman Health/USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., Bozeman MOB LLC, Briarcliff Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Bristol Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Broad River Primary Care L.L.C., Brookwood - Maternal Fetal Medicine L.L.C., Brookwood Ancillary Holdings Inc., Brookwood Baptist Health 1 LLC, Brookwood Baptist Health 2 LLC, Brookwood Baptist Health 3 LLC, Brookwood Baptist Imaging LLC, Brookwood Center Development Corporation, Brookwood Development Inc., Brookwood Diagnostic Imaging Center LLC, Brookwood Garages L.L.C., Brookwood Health Services Inc., Brookwood Home Health LLC, Brookwood Occupational Health Clinic L.L.C., Brookwood Parking Associates Ltd., Brookwood Primary Care - Homewood L.L.C., Brookwood Primary Care - Inverness L.L.C., Brookwood Primary Care - Mountain Brook L.L.C., Brookwood Primary Care - Oak Mountain L.L.C., Brookwood Primary Care - Vestavia L.L.C., Brookwood Primary Care Cahaba Heights L.L.C., Brookwood Primary Care Hoover L.L.C., Brookwood Primary Care The Narrows L.L.C., Brookwood Primary Network Care Inc., Brookwood Specialty Care - Endocrinology L.L.C., Brookwood Sports and Orthopedics L.L.C., Brookwood Womens Care L.L.C., Brookwood Womens Diagnostic Center LLC, C7 Technologies LLC, CGH Hospital Ltd., CHIC/USP Surgery Centers LLC, CHN Holdings LLC, CHRISTUS Cabrini Surgery Center L.L.C., CHVI Tucson Holdings LLC, CML-Chicago Market Labs Inc., CRNAs of Michigan, CS/USP General Partner LLC, CS/USP Surgery Centers LP, California Joint & Spine LLC, Camp Creek Urgent Care L.L.C., Camp Lowell Surgery Center L.L.C., Captive Insurance Services Inc., Cardiology Physicians Associates L.L.C., Cardiology Physicians Corporation L.L.C., Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgery Associates L.L.C., Cardiovascular Clinical Excellence at Sierra Providence LLC, CareSpot of Austin LLC, CareSpot of Memphis LLC, CareSpot of Orlando/HSI Urgent Care LLC, Carmel Specialty Surgery Center LLC, Carondelet St. Marys-Northwest L.L.C., Cascade Spine Center LLC, Castle Rock Surgery Center LLC, Catawba-Piedmont Cardiothoracic Surgery L.L.C., Cedar Hill Primary Care L.L.C., Cedar Park Surgery Center L.L.P., Centennial ASC LLC, Center for Advanced Research Excellence L.L.C., Center for the Urban Child Inc., Central California Healthcare Holdings LLC, Central Carolina Physicians - Sandhills L.L.C., Central Carolina-IMA L.L.C., Central Jersey Surgery Center LLC, Central Texas Corridor Hospital Company LLC, Central Valley Quality Alliance LLC, Central Virginia Surgi-Center L.P., Centura Ventures Surgery Centers LLC, Centura/USP Colorado Springs Surgery Centers L.L.C., Chalon Living Inc., Chandler Endoscopy Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Charlotte Endoscopic Surgery Center LLC, Chattanooga Pain Management Center LLC, Chesterfield Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Chesterfield Anesthesia Associates of Missouri LLC, Chico Surgery Center L.P., Childrens Hospital of Michigan Premier Network Inc., Citrus Heights ASC RE LLC, Clarkston ASC Partners LLC, Clarksville Surgery Center LLC, Coast Healthcare Management LLC, Coast Surgery Center L.P., Coastal Carolina Medical Center, Coastal Carolina Medical Center Inc., Coastal Carolina Physician Practices LLC, Coastal Carolina Pro Fee Billing L.L.C., Coastal Endo LLC, Colorado GI Centers LLC, Commonwealth Continental Health Care Inc., Community Connection Health Plan Inc., Community Hospital LLC, Community Hospital of Los Gatos Inc., Conifer Care Continuum Solutions LLC, Conifer Ethics and Compliance Inc., Conifer Global Business Center Inc., Conifer Global Holdings Inc., Conifer Health Solutions LLC, Conifer Holdings Inc., Conifer Patient Communications LLC, Conifer Physician Services Holdings Inc., Conifer Physician Services Inc., Conifer Revenue Cycle Solutions LLC, Conifer Value-Based Care LLC, Conroe Surgery Center 2 LLC, Coral Gables Hospital Inc., Coral Ridge Outpatient Center LLC, Corpus Christi Surgicare Ltd., Covenant/USP Surgery Centers LLC, CreAtiv Management Company Inc., Creekwood Investors LLC, Creekwood Surgery Center L.P., Crown Point Surgery Center LLC, DH/USP SJOSC Investment Company L.L.C., DH/USP Sacramento Pain GP LLC, DMC Detroit Receiving Hospital Premier Clinical Co-Management Services LLC, DMC Education & Research, DMC Harper University Hospital Premier Clinical Co-Management Services LLC, DMC Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital Premier Clinical Management Services LLC, DMC Imaging L.L.C., Dallas Surgical Partners LLC, DeTar/USP Surgery Center LLC, Delray Beach ASC LLC, Delray Medical Center Inc., Delray Medical Physician Services L.L.C., Denton Surgicare Partners Ltd., Denton Surgicare Real Estate Ltd., Denville Surgery Center LLC, Des Peres Physician Network LLC, Desert Cove MOB LLC, Desert Regional Medical Center Inc., Desert Ridge Outpatient Surgery LLC, Desoto Surgicare Partners Ltd., Destin ASC RE LLC, Destin Surgery Center LLC, Detroit Education & Research, DigitalMed Inc., Dignity/Abrazo Health Network LLC, Dignity/USP Folsom GP LLC, Dignity/USP Grass Valley GP LLC, Dignity/USP Las Vegas Surgery Centers LLC, Dignity/USP Metro Surgery Center LLC, Dignity/USP NorCal Surgery Centers LLC, Dignity/USP Phoenix Surgery Centers II LLC, Dignity/USP Phoenix Surgery Centers LLC, Dignity/USP Redding GP LLC, Dignity/USP Roseville GP LLC, Dignity/USP/John Muir East Bay Surgery Centers LLC, Doctors Hospital of Manteca Inc., Doctors Medical Center Neurosciences Clinical Co-Management LLC, Doctors Medical Center Orthopedics Clinical Co-Management LLC, Doctors Medical Center of Modesto Inc., Doctors Outpatient Center for Surgery LLC, Doctors Outpatient Surgery Center of Jupiter L.L.C., EPHC Inc., EPIC ASC LLC, East Atlanta Endoscopy Centers LLC, East Cobb Urgent Care LLC, East Cooper Coastal Family Physicians L.L.C., East Cooper Community Hospital Inc., East Cooper Hyperbarics L.L.C., East Cooper OB/GYN L.L.C., East Cooper Physician Network LLC, East Cooper Primary Care Physicians L.L.C., East Portland Surgery Center LLC, East West Surgery Center L.P., Eastgate Building Center L.L.C., Effingham Surgical Partners LLC, Einstein Montgomery Surgery Center LLC, Einstein/USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., El Mirador Surgery Center L.L.C., El Paso Center for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy LLC, El Paso Day Surgery LLC, El Paso Urology Surgery Center Curie LLC, Emanate/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Emanuel Medical Center, Emerson Surgery Center LLC, Encinitas Endoscopy Center LLC, Endoscopy Center of Hackensack LLC, Endoscopy Center of South Sacramento LLC, Endoscopy Consultants LLC, European Surgical Partners Ltd., Eye Center of Nashville UAP LLC, Eye Surgery Center of Nashville LLC, FMC Medical Inc., FMCC Network Contracting L.L.C., FPN  Frisco Physicians Network, FREH Real Estate L.L.C., FRS Imaging Services L.L.C., FSC Hospital LLC, FSH IT Services LP, First Choice Physician Partners, Flatirons Surgery Center LLC, Folsom Outpatient Surgery Center L.P., Fort Bend Clinical Services Inc., Fort Worth Hospital Real Estate LP, Fort Worth Surgicare Partners Ltd., Foundation Bariatric Hospital of San Antonio LLC, Foundation San Antonio Borrower Sub LLC, Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center, Fountain Valley Surgery Center LLC, Franklin Endo UAP LLC, Franklin Endoscopy Center LLC, Fresno Surgery Center L.P., Frisco Medical Center L.L.P., Frontenac Ambulatory Surgery & Spine Care Center L.P., Frye Regional Medical Center Inc., FryeCare Boone L.L.C., FryeCare Morganton L.L.C., FryeCare Physicians L.L.C., FryeCare Valdese L.L.C., FryeCare Watauga L.L.C., FryeCare Womens Services L.L.C., GCSA Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Gamma Surgery Center LLC, Gardendale Surgical Associates LLC, Garland Surgicare Partners Ltd., Gastric Health Institute L.L.C., Genesis ASC Partners LLC, Geneva Surgical Suites LLC, Georgia Endoscopy Center LLC, Georgia Gifts From Grace L.L.C., Georgia Musculoskeletal Network Inc., Georgia North Fulton Healthcare Associates L.L.C., Georgia Northside Ear Nose and Throat L.L.C., Georgia Physicians of Cardiology L.L.C., Georgia Spectrum Neurosurgical Specialists L.L.C., Georgia Spine Surgery Center LLC, Glen Echo Surgery Center LLC, Golden Ridge ASC LLC, Good Samaritan Medical Center Inc., Good Samaritan Surgery L.L.C., Grapevine Surgicare Partners Ltd., Grass Valley Outpatient Surgery Center L.P., Graystone Family Healthcare - Tenet North Carolina L.L.C., Great Lakes Surgical Suites LLC, Greater Dallas Healthcare Enterprises, Greater Northwest Houston Enterprises, Greenville Physicians Surgery Center LLP, Greenwood ASC LLC, Greystone Internal Medicine - Brookwood L.L.C., Gulf Coast Community Hospital Inc., HCH Tucson Holdings LLC, HCN Emerus Management Sub LLC, HCN Emerus Texas LLC, HCN Laboratories Inc., HCN Physicians Inc., HCN Sunnyvale Holdings LLC, HCN Surgery Center Holdings Inc., HDMC Holdings L.L.C., HMA/Solantic Joint Venture LLC, HMH-USP Surgery Centers LLC, HMHP/USP Surgery Centers LLC, HNMC Inc., HNW GP Inc., HNW LP Inc., HPI Holdings LLC, HPI North LLC, HPI Physicians LLC, HSRM International Inc., HSS Palm Beach Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, HSS/USP Surgery Center LLC, HUG Services Inc., HUMC/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Hacienda Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, Hagerstown Surgery Center LLC, Hardeeville Medical Group L.L.C., Hardeeville Primary Care L.L.C., Harlingen Physician Network Inc., Harper-Hutzel AHP Services Inc., Harvard Park Surgery Center LLC, Haymarket Surgery Center LLC, Hazelwood Endoscopy Center LLC, Health & Wellness Surgery Center L.P., Health Horizons of Kansas City Inc., Health Horizons of Murfreesboro Inc., Health Horizons/Piedmont Joint Venture LLC, Health Services CFMC Inc., Health Services HNMC Inc., Health Services Network Care Inc., Health Services Network Hospitals Inc., Health Services Network Texas Inc., HealthCorp Network Inc., Healthcare Compliance LLC, Healthcare Network Alabama Inc., Healthcare Network CFMC Inc., Healthcare Network DPH Inc., Healthcare Network Georgia Inc., Healthcare Network Holdings Inc., Healthcare Network Hospitals (Dallas) Inc., Healthcare Network Hospitals Inc., Healthcare Network Louisiana Inc., Healthcare Network Missouri Inc., Healthcare Network North Carolina Inc., Healthcare Network South Carolina Inc., Healthcare Network Tennessee Inc., Healthcare Network Texas Inc., Healthcare Partners Investments LLC, Healthmark Partners Inc., Healthpoint of North Carolina L.L.C., Heart and Vascular Institute of Michigan, Heritage Park Surgical Hospital LLC, Hershey Outpatient Surgery Center L.P., Hialeah Hospital Inc., Hialeah Real Properties Inc., Hickory Family Practice Associates - Tenet North Carolina L.L.C., Hill Country ASC Partners LLC, Hill Country Surgery Center LLC, Hilton Head Health System L.P., Hilton Head Regional Healthcare L.L.C., Hilton Head Regional OB/GYN Partners L.L.C., Hilton Head Regional Physician Network LLC, Hilton Head Regional Physician Network  Georgia L.L.C., Hinsdale Surgical Center LLC, Hitchcock State Street Real Estate Inc., Holston Valley Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Holy Cross Hospital Inc., Home Health Partners of San Antonio LLC, Hoover Doctors Group Inc., Hoover Land LLC, Horizon Ridge Surgery Center LLC, Hospital Development of West Phoenix Inc., Hospital RCM Services LLC, Hospital Underwriting Group Inc., Houston Northwest Partners Ltd., Houston PSC L.P., Houston Specialty Hospital Inc., Houston Sunrise Investors Inc., Hyde Park Surgery Center LLC, ICNU Rockford LLC, Imaging Center at Baxter Village L.L.C., InforMed Insurance Services LLC, Integris/USP Health Ventures LLC, International Health and Wellness Inc., Irving-Coppell Surgical Hospital L.L.P., JFK Memorial Hospital Inc., JFP UAP Sugarland LLC, Jackson Surgical Center LLC, Jacksonville Endoscopy Centers LLC, Journey Home Healthcare of San Antonio LLC, KHS Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, KHS/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Kingsport Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Laguna Medical Systems Inc., Lake Endoscopy Center LLC, Lake Health Care Facilities Inc., Lake Lansing ASC Partners LLC, Lake Surgical Hospital Slidell LLC, LakeFront Medical Associates LLC, Lakewood Regional Medical Center Inc., Lakewood Surgery Center LLC, Lancaster Specialty Surgery Center LLC, Lansing ASC Partners LLC, Lawrenceville Surgery Center L.L.C., Lebanon Endoscopy Center LLC, Legacy Warren Partners L.P., Legacy/USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., Leonardtown Surgery Center LLC, Liberty Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Lifemark Hospitals Inc., Lifemark Hospitals of Florida Inc., Lifemark Hospitals of Louisiana Inc., Lone Star Endoscopy Center LLC, Longleaf Surgery Center LLC, Los Alamitos Medical Center Inc., Lubbock ASC Holding Co LLC, MASC Partners LLC, MCSH Real Estate Investors Ltd., MH Memorial City Surgery LLC, MH/USP Bay Area LLC, MH/USP Brazoria LLC, MH/USP Kingsland LLC, MH/USP Kingwood LLC, MH/USP Kirby LLC, MH/USP Main Street LLC, MH/USP North Freeway LLC, MH/USP North Houston LLC, MH/USP Richmond LLC, MH/USP Sugar Land LLC, MH/USP TMC Endoscopy LLC, MH/USP West Houston L.L.C., MH/USP Woodlands Parkway LLC, MSH Partners LLC, MSV Health/USP Surgery Centers LLC, MVH/USP Surgery Centers LLC, MacNeal Management Services Inc., MacNeal Medical Records Inc., MacNeal Physicians Group LLC, Magnetic Resonance Imaging of San Luis Obispo Inc., Magnolia Surgery Center Limited Partnership, Manchester Ambulatory Surgery Center LP, Maple Lawn Surgery Center LLC, Marion Surgery Center LLC, Mary Immaculate Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Mason Ridge Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Mayfield Spine Surgery Center LLC, McLaren ASC of Flint LLC, Meadowcrest Hospital LLC, Medical House Staffing LLC, Medical Park Tower Surgery Center LLC, Medplex Outpatient Medical Centers Inc., Medplex Outpatient Surgery Center Ltd., Memorial Hermann Bay Area Endoscopy Center LLC, Memorial Hermann Endoscopy & Surgery Center North Houston L.L.C., Memorial Hermann Endoscopy Center North Freeway LLC, Memorial Hermann Specialty Hospital Kingwood L.L.C., Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Surgical Hospital L.L.P., Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Brazoria LLC, Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Cypress LLC, Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Katy LLP, Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Kingsland L.L.C., Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Kirby LLC, Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Main Street LLC, Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Memorial City L.L.C., Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Northwest LLP, Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Pinecroft LLC, Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Preston Road Ltd., Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Richmond LLC, Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Southwest L.L.P., Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Sugar Land LLP, Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Texas Medical Center LLP, Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Woodlands Parkway LLC, Memorial Hermann Surgery Center  The Woodlands LLP, Memorial Hermann Texas International Endoscopy Center LLC, Memorial Hermann West Houston Surgery Center LLC, Memorial Hermann/USP Surgery Centers II L.P., Memorial Hermann/USP Surgery Centers III LLP, Memorial Hermann/USP Surgery Centers IV LLP, Memorial Surgery Center LLC, Memphis Urgent Care #1 L.L.C., Memphis Urgent Care #2 L.L.C., Merced Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Mercy/USP Health Ventures L.L.C., Metro Specialty Surgery Center LLC, Metro Surgery Center LLC, MetroWest HomeCare & Hospice LLC, Metrocrest Surgery Center L.P., Metropolitan New Jersey LLC, Michigan ASC Partners L.L.C., Michigan Pioneer ACO LLC, Michigan Regional Imaging LLC, Mid Rivers Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Mid State Endo UAP LLC, Mid-State Endoscopy Center LLC, Mid-TSC Development LP, Middle Tennessee Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Midland Memorial/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Midland Texas Surgical Center LLC, Midwest Digestive Health Center LLC, Midwest Pharmacies Inc., Midwest Specialty Surgery Center LLC, Millennium Surgical Center LLC, Mobile Imaging Management LLC, Mobile Technology Management LLC, Modesto Radiology Imaging Inc., Monocacy Surgery Center LLC, Mountain Empire Surgery Center L.P., Munster Specialty Surgery Center LLC, Murdock Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, NHSC Holdings LLC, NICH GP Holdings LLC, NKCH/USP Briarcliff GP LLC, NKCH/USP Liberty GP LLC, NKCH/USP Surgery Centers II L.L.C., NKCH/USP Surgery Centers LLC, NMC Lessor L.P., NMC Surgery Center L.P., NME Headquarters Inc., NME Properties Corp., NME Properties Inc., NME Property Holding Co. Inc., NME Psychiatric Hospitals Inc., NME Rehabilitation Properties Inc., NSCH GP Holdings LLC, NSCH/USP Desert Surgery Centers L.L.C., NUCH of Georgia L.L.C., NUCH of Massachusetts LLC, NUCH of Michigan Inc., NUCH of Texas, Nacogdoches ASC-LP Inc., Name of Entity, National ASC Inc., National Ancillary Inc., National Diagnostic Imaging Centers Inc., National HHC Inc., National Home Health Holdings Inc., National ICN Inc., National Imaging Center Holdings Inc., National Medical Services II Inc., National Outpatient Services Holdings Inc., National Surgery Center Holdings Inc., National Urgent Care Holdings Inc., National Urgent Care Inc., Network Management Associates Inc., New Dimensions LLC, New England Physician Performance Network LLC, New H Acute Inc., New Horizons Surgery Center LLC, New Medical Horizons II Ltd., New Mexico Orthopaedic Surgery Center LLC, New Salem ASC RE LLC, Newhope Imaging Center Inc., North Anaheim Surgery Center LLC, North Atlantic Surgical Suites LLC, North Campus Surgery Center LLC, North Carolina Community Family Medicine L.L.C., North Central Surgical Center L.L.P., North Denver Musculoskeletal Surgical Partners LLC, North Fulton Cardiovascular Medicine L.L.C., North Fulton Hospitalist Group L.L.C., North Fulton Medical Center Inc., North Fulton Primary Care - Willeo Rd. L.L.C., North Fulton Primary Care - Windward Parkway L.L.C., North Fulton Primary Care - Wylie Bridge L.L.C., North Fulton Primary Care Associates L.L.C., North Fulton Pulmonary Specialists L.L.C., North Fulton Womens Consultants L.L.C., North Garland Surgery Center L.L.P., North Haven Surgery Center LLC, North Miami Medical Center Ltd., North Shore Medical Billing Center L.L.C., North Shore Medical Center Inc., North Shore Same Day Surgery L.L.C., North Shore Surgical Suites LLC, North State Surgery Centers L.P., NorthPointe Surgical Suites LLC, NorthShore/USP Surgery Centers II L.L.C., Northern Monmouth Regional Surgery Center L.L.C., Northridge ASC RE LLC, Northridge Surgery Center L.P., Northwest Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Northwest Georgia Orthopaedic Surgery Center LLC, Northwest Regional ASC LLC, Northwest Regional Surgery Center LLC, Northwest Surgery Center LLP, Northwest Surgery Center Ltd., Novant Health/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Novant/UVA/USP Surgery Centers LLC, OCOMS Imaging LLC, OCOMS Professional Services LLC, OLOL/USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., Okatie Surgical Partners L.L.C., Oklahoma Center for Orthopedic and Multi-Specialty Surgery LLC, Old Tesson Surgery Center L.P., Olive Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Olive Branch Urgent Care #1 LLC, Ophthalmology Anesthesia Services LLC, Ophthalmology Surgery Center of Orlando LLC, Optimum Spine Center LLC, OrNda Healthcorp, OrNda Hospital Corporation, Orlando Health/USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., OrthoArizona Surgery Center Gilbert LLC, OrthoLink ASC Corporation, OrthoLink Physicians Corporation, OrthoLink Radiology Services Corporation, OrthoLink/ Georgia ASC Inc., OrthoLink/Baptist ASC LLC, OrthoLink/New Mexico ASC Inc., Orthopedic Associates of the Lowcountry L.L.C., Orthopedic South Surgical Partners LLC, Orthopedic and Surgical Specialty Company LLC, PAHS/USP Surgery Centers LLC, PDN L.L.C., PHPS Inc., PHPS-CHM Acquisition Inc., PHS/USP Health Ventures LLC, PM CyFair Land Partners LLC, PMC Physician Network L.L.C., PPRE LLC, PSS Patient Solution Services LLC, Pacific Endo-Surgical Center L.P., Pacific Endoscopy and Surgery Center LLC, Pain Diagnostic and Treatment Center L.P., Paley Institute Global LLC, Palm Beach Gardens Community Hospital Inc., Palm Beach International Surgery Center LLC, Palm Valley Medical Center Campus Association, Palos Health Surgery Center LLC, Paramus Endoscopy LLC, Park Cities Surgery Center LLC, Park Plaza Hospital Billing Center L.L.C., ParkCreek ASC LLC, Parkway Recovery Care Center LLC, Parkwest Surgery Center L.P., Patient Partners LLC, Peak Gastroenterology ASC LLC, Pediatric Surgery Center  Odessa LLC, Pediatric Surgery Centers LLC, Physician Performance Network L.L.C., Physician Performance Network of Arizona LLC, Physician Performance Network of Detroit, Physician Performance Network of South Carolina LLC, Physician Performance Network of Tucson LLC, Physicians Performance Network of Houston, Physicians Performance Network of North Texas, Physicians Surgery Center at Good Samaritan LLC, Physicians Surgery Center of Tempe LLC, Physicians Surgical Center of Ft. Worth LLP, Physicians Surgery Center of Chattanooga L.L.C., Physicians Surgery Center of Knoxville LLC, Piccard Surgery Center LLC, Piedmont ASC LLC, Piedmont Behavioral Medicine Associates LLC, Piedmont Cardiovascular Physicians L.L.C., Piedmont Carolina OB/GYN of York County L.L.C., Piedmont Carolina Vascular Surgery L.L.C., Piedmont East Urgent Care Center L.L.C., Piedmont Express Care at Sutton Road L.L.C., Piedmont Family Practice at Baxter Village L.L.C., Piedmont Family Practice at Rock Hill L.L.C., Piedmont Family Practice at Tega Cay L.L.C., Piedmont General Surgery Associates L.L.C., Piedmont Internal Medicine at Baxter Village L.L.C., Piedmont Physician Network LLC, Piedmont Pulmonology L.L.C., Piedmont Surgical Specialists L.L.C., Piedmont Urgent Care Center at Baxter Village L.L.C., Piedmont Urgent Care and Industrial Health Centers Inc., Piedmont/Carolinas Radiation Therapy LLC, Placentia-Linda Hospital Inc., Pleasanton Diagnostic Imaging Inc., Point of Rocks Surgery Center LLC, Practice Partners Management L.P., Premier ACO Physicians Network LLC, Premier ASC LLC, Premier Adult and Childrens Surgery Center LLC, Premier Endoscopy ASC LLC, Premier Health Plan Services Inc., Premier Medical Specialists L.L.C., Prince William Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Professional Anesthesia Services LLC, Professional Liability Insurance Company, Pros Temporary Staffing Inc., Providence/UCLA/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Providence/USP Santa Clarita GP LLC, Providence/USP South Bay Surgery Centers L.L.C., Providence/USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., Pueblo Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, R.H.S.C. El Paso Inc., RE Plano Med Inc., RHC Parkway Inc., RLC LLC, Reading Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Reading Endoscopy Center LLC, Reagan Street Surgery Center LLC, Redmond Surgery Center LLC, Renaissance Surgery Center LLC, Republic Health Corporation of Rockwall County, Resolute Health Physicians Network Inc., Resolute Hospital Company LLC, Resurgens East Surgery Center LLC, Resurgens Fayette Surgery Center LLC, Resurgens Surgery Center LLC, Rheumatology Associates of Atlanta Medical Center L.L.C., Richmond ASC Leasing Company LLC, Rio Grande Valley Indigent Health Care Corporation, River North Same Day Surgery L.L.C., Riverside Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Rock Bridge Surgical Institute L.L.C., Rock Hill Surgery Center LLC, Rockwall Ambulatory Surgery Center L.L.P., Rocky Mountain Endoscopy Centers LLC, Roseville Surgery Center L.P., Roswell Surgery Center L.L.C., SCNRE LLC, SFMP Inc., SFMPE - Crittenden L.L.C., SL-HLC Inc., SLH Physicians L.L.C., SLH Vista Inc., SLPA ACO LLC, SLUH Anesthesia Physicians L.L.C., SMSJ Imaging Company LLC, SMSJ Tucson Holdings LLC, SPC at the Star LLC, SRRMC Management Inc., SSI Holdings Inc., Sacramento Midtown Endoscopy Center LLC, Safety Harbor ASC Company LLC, Saint Agnes/Dignity/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Saint Agnes/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Saint Francis Cardiology Associates L.L.C., Saint Francis Cardiovascular Surgery L.L.C., Saint Francis Center for Surgical Weight Loss L.L.C., Saint Francis Hospital Billing Center L.L.C., Saint Francis Hospital Medicare ACO LLC, Saint Francis Hospital Pro Fee Billing L.L.C., Saint Francis Hospital-Bartlett Inc., Saint Francis Medical Partners East L.L.C., Saint Francis Medical Partners General Surgery L.L.C., Saint Francis Physician Network LLC, Saint Francis Quality Alliance LLC, Saint Francis Surgery Center L.L.C., Saint Francis Surgical Associates L.L.C., Saint Francis-Arkansas Physician Network LLC, Saint Francis-Bartlett Physician Network LLC, Saint Thomas Campus Surgicare L.P., Saint Thomas Surgery Center New Salem LLC, Saint Thomas/USP Surgery Centers II L.L.C., Saint Thomas/USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., Saint Thomas/USP  Baptist Plaza L.L.C., Saint Vincent Physician Services Inc., Salmon Surgery Center LLC, Same Day Management L.L.C., Same Day SC of Central NJ LLC, Same Day Surgery L.L.C., San Antonio Endoscopy L.P., San Fernando Valley Surgery Center L.P., San Gabriel Valley Surgical Center L.P., San Martin Surgery Center LLC, San Ramon ASC L. P., San Ramon Ambulatory Care LLC, San Ramon Network Joint Venture LLC, San Ramon Regional Medical Center LLC, San Ramon Surgery Center L.L.C., Santa Barbara Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, Santa Clarita Surgery Center L.P., Savannah Endoscopy Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Schertz Surgery Center LLC, Scripps Encinitas Surgery Center LLC, Scripps/USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., Seaside Surgery Center LLC, Shands/Solantic Joint Venture LLC, Shelby Baptist Affinity LLC, Shelby Baptist Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Shore Outpatient Surgicenter L.L.C., Shoreline Real Estate Partnership LLP, Shoreline Surgery Center LLP, Shrewsbury Surgery Center LLC, Sierra Pacific Surgery Center LLC, Sierra Providence Health Network Inc., Sierra Providence Healthcare Enterprises, Sierra Vista Hospital Inc., Silicon Valley Outpatient Surgery Centers LLC, Silver Cross Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Silver Cross/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Sinai-Grace Premier Clinical Management Services LLC, Siouxland Surgery Center Limited Liability Partnership, Solantic Corporation, Solantic Development LLC, Solantic Holdings Corporation, Solantic of Jacksonville LLC, Solantic of Orlando LLC, Solantic/South Florida LLC, South Carolina East Cooper Surgical Specialists L.L.C., South Carolina Health Services Inc., South Carolina SeWee Family Medicine L.L.C., South County Outpatient Endoscopy Services L.P., South Denver Musculoskeletal Surgical Partners LLC, South Florida Ambulatory Surgical Center LLC, South Fulton Health Care Centers Inc., SouthCare Physicians Group Neurology L.L.C., SouthCare Physicians Group Obstetrics & Gynecology L.L.C., Southeast Ohio Surgical Suites LLC, Southern Orthopedics and Sports Medicine L.L.C., Southern States Physician Operations Inc., Southwest Ambulatory Surgery Center L.L.C., Southwest Childrens Hospital LLC, Southwest Endoscopy LLC, Southwest Orthopedic and Spine Hospital LLC, Southwest Orthopedic and Spine Hospital Real Estate LLC, Southwestern Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Spalding Regional Medical Center Inc., Spalding Regional OB/GYN L.L.C., Spalding Regional Physician Services L.L.C., Specialty Surgery Center of Fort Worth L.P., Specialty Surgicenters Inc., Spinal Diagnostics and Treatment Centers L.L.C., Spine & Joint Physician Associates, Springfield Service Holding Corporation, St. Augustine Endoscopy Center LLC, St. Christophers Pediatric Urgent Care Center - Allentown L.L.C, St. Josephs Hospital Surgical Co-Management LLC, St. Josephs Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, St. Josephs Surgery Center L.P., St. Louis Physician Alliance LLC, St. Louis Surgical Center LLC, St. Louis Urology Center LLC, St. Lukes/USP Surgery Centers LLC, St. Marys Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, St. Marys Hospital Cardiovascular Co-Management LLC, St. Marys Hospital Surgical Co-Management LLC, St. Marys Levee Company LLC, St. Marys Medical Center Inc., St. Vincent Health/USP LLC, St. Vincent/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Stockton Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, Subsidiaries of USPI Holding Company Inc., Suburban Endoscopy Center LLC, Summit View Surgery Center LLC, Sun View Imaging L.L.C., Sunrise Medical Group I L.L.C., Sunrise Medical Group II L.L.C., Sunrise Medical Group IV L.L.C., SurgCenter Camelback LLC, SurgCenter Northeast LLC, SurgCenter Pinellas LLC, SurgCenter Tucson LLC, SurgCenter at Paradise Valley LLC, SurgCenter of Deer Valley LLC, SurgCenter of Glen Burnie LLC, SurgCenter of Palm Beach Gardens LLC, SurgCenter of Plano LLC, SurgCenter of Southern Maryland LLC, SurgCenter of St. Lucie LLC, SurgCenter of White Marsh LLC, Surgery Affiliate of El Paso LLC, Surgery Center at Mount Pleasant LLC, Surgery Center at University Park LLC, Surgery Center of Atlanta LLC, Surgery Center of Canfield LLC, Surgery Center of Columbia L.P., Surgery Center of Coral Gables LLC, Surgery Center of Okeechobee LLC, Surgery Center of Pembroke Pines L.L.C., Surgery Center of Peoria L.L.C., Surgery Center of Richardson Physician Partnership L.P., Surgery Center of Santa Barbara LLC, Surgery Center of Scottsdale LLC, Surgery Center of Tempe Real Estate II L.L.C., Surgery Center of Tempe Real Estate L.L.C., Surgery Centers of America II L.L.C., Surgery Centre of SW Florida LLC, Surgical & Bariatric Associates of Atlanta Medical Center L.L.C., Surgical Clinical Excellence at Desert Regional LLC, Surgical Elite of Avondale L.L.C., Surgical Health Partners LLC, Surgical Institute Management LLC, Surgical Institute of Reading LLC, Surgical Specialists at Princeton LLC, Surgicare of Miramar L.L.C., Surginet Inc., Surgis Inc., Surgis Management Services Inc., Surgis of Chico Inc., Surgis of Phoenix Inc., Surgis of Redding Inc., Surgis of Victoria Inc., Sutton Road Pediatrics L.L.C., Sylvan Grove Hospital Inc., TENN SM LLC, TFPS IV L.L.C., TH Healthcare Ltd., TH International Services Florida LLC, THV Park Cities LLC, THVG Arlington GP LLC, THVG Bariatric GP LLC, THVG Bariatric L.L.C., THVG Bedford GP LLC, THVG Bellaire GP LLC, THVG DSP GP LLC, THVG DeSoto GP LLC, THVG Denton GP LLC, THVG Fort Worth GP LLC, THVG Frisco GP LLC, THVG Garland GP LLC, THVG Grapevine GP LLC, THVG Irving-Coppell GP LLC, THVG Lewisville GP LLC, THVG North Garland GP LLC, THVG Park Cities/Trophy Club GP LLC, THVG Rockwall 2 GP LLC, THVG Valley View GP LLC, TLC ASC LLC, TMC Holding Company LLC, TOPS Specialty Hospital Ltd., TPG Hospital LLC, TPR Practice Management LLC, TPS VI of PA L.L.C., TRMC Holdings LLC, TSPE LLC, Tamarac Surgery Center LLC, Tempe New Day Surgery Center LP, Templeton Imaging Inc., Tenet Business Services Corporation, Tenet California Inc., Tenet Central Carolina Physicians Inc., Tenet EKG Inc., Tenet El Paso Ltd., Tenet Employment Inc., Tenet Finance Corp., Tenet Florida Inc., Tenet Florida Physician Services II L.L.C., Tenet Florida Physician Services III L.L.C., Tenet Florida Physician Services L.L.C., Tenet Fort Mill Inc., Tenet Global Business Center Inc., Tenet HealthSystem Bucks County L.L.C., Tenet HealthSystem Graduate L.L.C., Tenet HealthSystem Hahnemann L.L.C., Tenet HealthSystem Medical Inc., Tenet HealthSystem Nacogdoches ASC GP Inc., Tenet HealthSystem Philadelphia Inc., Tenet HealthSystem Roxborough LLC, Tenet HealthSystem St. Christophers Hospital for Children L.L.C., Tenet Hilton Head Heart L.L.C., Tenet Hospitals Limited, Tenet Network Management Inc., Tenet Patient Safety Organization LLC, Tenet Physician Resources LLC, Tenet Physician Services - Hilton Head Inc., Tenet Rehab Piedmont Inc., Tenet Relocation Services L.L.C., Tenet SC East Cooper Hospitalists L.L.C., Tenet South Carolina Gastrointestinal Surgical Specialists L.L.C., Tenet South Carolina Island Medical L.L.C., Tenet South Carolina Lowcountry OB/GYN L.L.C., Tenet South Carolina Mt. Pleasant OB/GYN L.L.C., Tenet Unifour Urgent Care Center L.L.C., Tenet Ventures Inc., TenetCare Frisco Inc., Terre Haute Surgical Center LLC, Teton Outpatient Services LLC, Texan Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Texas Endoscopy Centers LLC, Texas Health Venture Arlington Hospital LLC, Texas Health Venture Baylor Plano LLC, Texas Health Venture Carrollton LLC, Texas Health Venture Centennial LLC, Texas Health Venture Ennis LLC, Texas Health Venture Fort Worth L.L.C., Texas Health Venture Granbury LLC, Texas Health Venture Heritage Park LLC, Texas Health Venture Keller LLC, Texas Health Venture Las Colinas LLC, Texas Health Venture Mansfield LLC, Texas Health Venture Plano Endo LLC, Texas Health Venture Plano LLC, Texas Health Venture Plano Parkway LLC, Texas Health Venture Texas Spine LLC, Texas Health Ventures Group L.L.C., Texas Orthopedics Surgery Center LLC, Texas Regional Medical Center LLC, Texas Regional Medical in Sunnyvale, Texas Spine and Joint Hospital LLC, The 6300 West Roosevelt Partnership, The Ambulatory Surgical Center of St. Louis L.P., The Healthcare Insurance Corporation, The Healthcare Underwriting Company a Risk Retention Group, The Huron Corporation, The Outpatient Center LLC, The Southeastern Spine Institute Ambulatory Surgery Center L.L.C., The Surgery Center at Jensen Beach LLC, The Surgery Center at Williamson LLC, The Tresanti Surgical Center LLC, Theda Oaks Gastroenterology & Endoscopy Center LLC, Titan Health Corporation, Titan Health of Chattanooga Inc., Titan Health of Hershey Inc., Titan Health of Mount Laurel LLC, Titan Health of North Haven Inc., Titan Health of Pittsburgh Inc., Titan Health of Pleasant Hills Inc., Titan Health of Princeton Inc., Titan Health of Sacramento Inc., Titan Health of Saginaw Inc., Titan Health of Titusville Inc., Titan Health of West Penn Inc., Titan Health of Westminster Inc., Titan Management Corporation, Titusville Center for Surgical Excellence LLC, Toms River Surgery Center L.L.C., Total Joint Center of the Northland LLC, Tower Road Real Estate LLC, Tower/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Treasure Coast ASC LLC, Trophy Club Medical Center L.P., True Medical Weight Loss L.P., True Medical Wellness LP, True Results Georgia Inc., True Results HoldCo LLC, True Results Missouri LLC, Tucson Digestive Institute LLC, Tucson Hospital Holdings Inc., Tucson Physician Group Holdings LLC, Turlock Imaging Services LLC, Turlock Land Company LLC, Tuscan Surgery Center at Las Colinas LLC, Twin Cities Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Twin Cities Community Hospital Inc., UAP Las Colinas Endo LLC, UAP Lebanon Endo LLC, UAP Nashville Endoscopy LLC, UAP Scopes LLC, UAP of Arizona Inc., UAP of California Inc., UAP of Missouri Inc., UAP of New Jersey Inc., UAP of Oklahoma Inc., UAP of Tennessee Inc., UAP of Texas Inc., UCC Tucson Holdings LLC, UMC Surgery Center Lubbock LLC, UMC-USP Surgery Centers LLC, USC/Norris Cancer Hospital, USP 12th Ave Real Estate Inc., USP Acquisition Corporation, USP Alexandria Inc., USP Assurance Company, USP Athens Inc., USP Atlanta Inc., USP Austin Inc., USP Bariatric LLC, USP Beaumont Inc., USP Bergen Inc., USP Bloomington Inc., USP Bridgeton Inc., USP Cedar Park Inc., USP Chesterfield Inc., USP Chicago Inc., USP Cincinnati Inc., USP Coast Inc., USP Columbia Inc., USP Connecticut Inc., USP Corpus Christi Inc., USP Creve Coeur Inc., USP Denver Inc., USP Des Peres Inc., USP Destin Inc., USP Domestic Holdings Inc., USP Effingham Inc., USP Encinitas Endoscopy Inc., USP Fenton Inc., USP Festus Inc., USP Florissant Inc., USP Fort Lauderdale Inc., USP Fort Worth Hospital Real Estate Inc., USP Fredericksburg Inc., USP Fresno Inc., USP Frontenac Inc., USP Gateway Inc., USP HMH Surgery Center at Shore LLC, USP Harbour View Inc., USP Houston Inc., USP Indiana Inc., USP International Holdings Inc., USP Jersey City Inc., USP Kansas City Inc., USP Knoxville Inc., USP Little Rock Inc., USP Long Island Inc., USP Louisiana Inc., USP Lubbock Inc., USP Maryland Inc., USP Mason Ridge Inc., USP Mattis Inc., USP Michigan Inc., USP Midland Inc., USP Midland Real Estate Inc., USP Midwest Inc., USP Mission Hills Inc., USP Montana Inc., USP Morris Inc., USP Mt. Vernon Inc., USP Nevada Holdings LLC, USP Nevada Inc., USP New Hampshire Inc., USP New Jersey Inc., USP Newport News Inc., USP North Carolina Inc., USP North Kansas City Inc., USP North Texas Inc., USP Northwest Arkansas Inc., USP OKC Inc., USP OKC Manager Inc., USP Office Parkway Inc., USP Ohio RE Inc., USP Oklahoma Inc., USP Olive Inc., USP Orlando Inc., USP Philadelphia Inc., USP Phoenix Inc., USP Portland Inc., USP Reading Inc., USP Richmond II Inc., USP Richmond Inc., USP Sacramento Inc., USP San Antonio Inc., USP Santa Barbara Surgery Centers Inc., USP Securities Corporation, USP Silver Cross Inc., USP Siouxland Inc., USP Somerset Inc., USP South Carolina Inc., USP Southlake RE Inc., USP St. Louis Inc., USP St. Louis Urology Inc., USP St. Peters Inc., USP Sunset Hills Inc., USP TJ STL Inc., USP Tennessee Inc., USP Texas Air L.L.C., USP Texas L.P., USP Torrance Inc., USP Tucson Inc., USP Turnersville Inc., USP Virginia Beach Inc., USP Washington Inc., USP Waxahachie Management L.L.C., USP Webster Groves Inc., USP West Covina Inc., USP Westwood Inc., USP Winter Park Inc., USP Wisconsin Inc., USP-HMH Surgery Center at Central Jersey LLC, USP/Carondelet Tucson Surgery Centers LLC, USP/SOS Joint Venture LLC, USPI Group Holdings Inc., USPI Holding Company Inc.1, USPI Holdings Inc., USPI Physician Strategy Group LLC, USPI San Diego Inc., USPI Stockton Inc., USPI Surgical Services Inc., Ulysses True Results NewCo LLC, Underwood Surgery Center LLC, United Anesthesia Partners Inc., United Real Estate Development Inc., United Real Estate Holdings Inc., United Surgical Partners Holdings Inc., United Surgical Partners International, United Surgical Partners International Inc., Universal Medical Care Center L.L.C., University Surgery Center Ltd., University Surgical Partners of Dallas L.L.P., Upper Bay Surgery Center LLC, Upper Cumberland Physicians Surgery Center LLC, Urgent Care Centers of Arizona LLC, Utica ASC Partners LLC, Utica/USP Tulsa L.L.C., VB Brownsville LTACH LLC, VBOA ASC GP LLC, VBOA ASC Partners L.L.C., VHM Services Inc., VHS Acquisition Corporation, VHS Acquisition Partnership Number 1 L.P, VHS Acquisition Subsidiary Number 1 Inc., VHS Acquisition Subsidiary Number 11 Inc., VHS Acquisition Subsidiary Number 12 Inc., VHS Acquisition Subsidiary Number 3 Inc., VHS Acquisition Subsidiary Number 4 Inc., VHS Acquisition Subsidiary Number 5 Inc., VHS Acquisition Subsidiary Number 6 Inc., VHS Acquisition Subsidiary Number 7 Inc., VHS Acquisition Subsidiary Number 8 Inc., VHS Acquisition Subsidiary Number 9 Inc., VHS Arizona Heart Institute Inc., VHS Brownsville Hospital Company LLC, VHS Chicago Market Procurement LLC, VHS Childrens Hospital of Michigan Inc., VHS Detroit Businesses Inc., VHS Detroit Receiving Hospital Inc., VHS Detroit Ventures Inc., VHS Harlingen Hospital Company LLC, VHS Harper-Hutzel Hospital Inc., VHS Holding Company Inc., VHS Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital Inc., VHS Imaging Centers Inc., VHS New England Holding Company I Inc., VHS Outpatient Clinics Inc., VHS Phoenix Health Plan Inc., VHS Physicians of Michigan, VHS Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan Inc., VHS San Antonio Imaging Partners L.P., VHS San Antonio Partners LLC, VHS Sinai-Grace Hospital Inc., VHS University Laboratories Inc., VHS Valley Health System LLC, VHS Valley Holdings LLC, VHS Valley Management Company Inc., VHS West Suburban Medical Center Inc., VHS Westlake Hospital Inc., VHS of Anaheim Inc., VHS of Arrowhead Inc., VHS of Huntington Beach Inc., VHS of Illinois Inc., VHS of Michigan Inc., VHS of Michigan Staffing Inc., VHS of Orange County Inc., VHS of Phoenix Inc., VHS of South Phoenix Inc., Valley Baptist Lab Services LLC, Valley Baptist Physician Performance Network, Valley Baptist Realty Company LLC, Valley Baptist Wellness Center LLC, Valley Health Care Network, Vanguard ASC LLC, Vanguard Health Financial Company LLC, Vanguard Health Holding Company I LLC, Vanguard Health Holding Company II LLC, Vanguard Health Management Inc., Vanguard Health Systems, Vanguard Health Systems Inc., Vanguard Holding Company I Inc., Vanguard Holding Company II Inc., Vanguard Medical Specialists LLC, Vanguard Physician Services LLC, Ventana Surgical Center LLC, Veroscan Inc., Victoria Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Virtua-USP Princeton LLC, WHASA L.C., Walker Baptist Affinity LLC, Walker Street Imaging Care Inc., Warner Park Surgery Center LLC, Watermark Physician Services Inc., Webster Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Wellington Endo LLC, Wellstar/USP Joint Venture I LLC, Wellstar/USP Joint Venture II LLC, West Boca Health Services L.L.C., West Boca Medical Center Inc., West Boynton Urgent Care L.L.C., West Bozeman Surgery Center LLC, West Palm Healthcare Real Estate Inc., West Suburban Radiation Therapy Center LLC, Westgate Surgery Center LLC, Westlake Hospital LLC, Westlawn Surgery Center LLC, Westminster Surgery Center LLC, Westminster Surgery Centers LLC, White Fence Surgical Suites LLC, Willamette Spine Center Ambulatory Surgery LLC, Wilmington Endoscopy Center LLC, Wilshire Rental Corp., Winter Haven Ambulatory Surgical Center L.L.C., Wisconsin Specialty Surgery Center LLC, Wymark Surgery Center LLC, and YNHHSC/USP Surgery Centers LLC.
The Williams Cos., Inc. operates as an energy infrastructure company, which explores, produces, transports, sells and processes natural gas and petroleum products. It operates through the following segments: Transmission and Gulf of Mexico; Northeast G&P; and West. The Transmission and Gulf of Mexico segment comprises of interstate natural gas pipelines, Transco and Northwest Pipeline, as well as natural gas gathering and processing and crude oil production handling and transportation assets in the Gulf Coast region. The Northeast G&P segment includes midstream gathering, processing, and fractionation businesses in the Marcellus Shale region primarily in Pennsylvania and New York, and the Utica Shale region of eastern Ohio. The West segment consists of gas gathering, processing, and treating operations in the Rocky Mountain region of Colorado and Wyoming, the Barnett Shale region of north-central Texas, the Eagle Ford Shale region of south Texas, the Haynesville Shale region of northwest Louisiana, and the Mid-Continent region which includes the Anadarko, Arkoma, and Permian basins. The company was founded by David Williams and Miller Williams in 1908 and is headquartered in Tulsa,

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With the Tata Nexon gaining good traction in the country, the homegrown automaker has decided to give buyers the convenience of an automated manual transmission (AMT). Termed as the Tata Nexon HyprDrive S-SG (self-shift gear), the sub-4m SUV can be booked with an advance payment of Rs 11,000. It will be the first diesel compact SUV to feature an automatic transmission in India.

It is expected to be launched in the coming weeks and is likely to come at a premium of Rs 40,000 - 45,000 over the existing manual variants. The Tata Nexon, for instance, is priced in the range of Rs 6.15 lakh - 9.89 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).

Mumbai, 23rd April 2018: Catering to the growing popularity of the AMT vehicles in India, Tata Motors is all set introduce another product intervention - NEXON with HyprDrive Self-Shift Gears (S-SG). Riding strong on a sporty drive performance, the NEXON HyprDrive Self-SG is the first AMT in India to have Multi-Drive modes (3 modes  ECO, CITY, SPORT) in automatic transmission. The bookings for the car commences today, across all its authorized dealerships, in India, at an amount of INR 11,000 only.

With the introduction of NEXON Hyprdrive S-SG, Tata Motors has branded all its 2 pedal transmission cars as Hyprdrive while all the AMT variants from the Company will be now termed as Self-Shift Gears (S-SG).Nexon Hyprdrive with S-SG will be available in both Petrol and Diesel option.

According to Mr. Mayank Pareek, President, Passenger Vehicle Business Unit, Tata Motors, Since its launch in 2017, the Tata NEXON has set new benchmarks in Indias fastest growing SUV segment and has been one of the most appreciated products from the house of Tata Motors. With the AMT market in India thriving, we are all set to leverage this opportunity by introducing our LEVEL NEX star player on the pitch - the NEXON with HyprDrive Self-Shift Gears. This car has been one of the most awaited products in the AMT segment and we are confident that this product will not only be high on convenience but will also thrill the customers with its sporty drive performance. We look forward to introducing many more such path breaking products in the near future.

Source: CarDekho.com
British iconic motorcycle brand Triumph is eyeing 10 per cent rise in sales during the next financial year, a top official said on Tuesday.

Chennai: British iconic motorcycle brand Triumph is eyeing 10 per cent rise in sales during the next financial year, a top official said on Tuesday.

Triumph Motorcycles India, a subsidiary of Triumph Motorcycles, has about 5,000 customers since it entered India in 2014. The company follows June-July as financial year and expects to sell 1,300 units by May, Triumph Motorcycles India managing director Vimal Sumbly said here.

"We are expecting to sell around 1,300 units. For the next financial 2018-19, we are looking at 10 per cent growth" he said.

Sumbly and senior company officials were here for unveiling new-generation classic cruiser 1200cc Bonneville Speedmaster priced at Rs 11.11 lakh (ex-showroom Chennai). The company currently has 15 outlets across the country and would be opening the 16th in Mangaluru later this week, he said.

Responding to a query, he said, in the last four years, the overall motorcycle sales grew by two per cent while Triumph Motorcycles posted 63 per cent growth with majority of sales contributing from Classic range.

The company has tied up with private sector HDFC Bank to offer financial schemes which cover 75 per cent of the customers. Stating that the company would be rolling out various new models in the next financial year, he said 90 per cent of the motorcycles were "assembled" at the company's factory in Manesar, Haryana.

The company has several models with prices ranging from Rs 7.05 lakh to Rs 23 lakh (ex-showroom Chennai), he added. To a query, Sumbly said, the company plans to have 25 retail outlets in next two-three years across the country.
As per the decision of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, the e-way bill system for all inter-state movement of goods was rolled out from April 1. (Photo: ANI)

New Delhi: The Centre on Monday stated that the e-way bill system for intra-state movement of goods will be rolled out in four more states and one union territory on Wednesday.

As per the Ministry of Finance, the e-way bill system is being introduced to four states starting April 25, namely Arunachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, and Sikkim, and will also be rolled out in Puducherry.

It also noted that as on April 22, more than 1,84,000 e-way bills have been successfully generated, which includes more than 22,00,000 e-way bills for intra-state movement of goods.

With the rollout of e-way bill system in these states/Union Territory, the ministry said trade and industry would be further facilitated insofar as the transport of goods is concerned, thereby eventually paving the way for a nationwide single bill system.

As per the decision of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, the e-way bill system for all inter-state movement of goods was rolled out from April 1, along with that for intra-state movement of goods in Karnataka.

The new system was implemented from April 15 in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh.

On Tuesday, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi stated that the e-way bill mechanism for intra-state movement of goods would be rolled out on April 20 in six states, namely Bihar, Jharkhand, Haryana, Tripura, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
India has signed a USD 210 million loan agreement with the World Bank to improve rural connectivity in Madhya Pradesh.

New Delhi: India has signed a USD 210 million loan agreement with the World Bank to improve rural connectivity in Madhya Pradesh, the finance ministry said on Tuesday.

The project will cover 10,510 km stretch of rural roads in Madhya Pradesh that fall under the Chief Minister's Gram Sadak Yojana (CMGSY) programme. Of this 10,000 km will be upgraded from existing gravel to bituminous surface roads, while 510 km of new roads will be built to the same bituminous surface standard.

"The Government of India, the Government of Madhya Pradesh and the World Bank on Tuesday signed a USD 210 million loan agreement for the Madhya Pradesh Rural Connectivity Project," the finance ministry said in a statement.

The project is expected to improve the durability, resilience and safety of the gravel surfaced rural roads and enhance the capacity of the state to manage its rural roads network, it added. Joint Secretary in the Ministry Sameer Kumar Khare said the Madhya Pradesh roads project will enhance rural road connectivity in the state and open up opportunities for economic development.

"This project will leverage resources to support innovations in road construction, improve road safety, and reduce carbon footprint in the transport sector by mainstreaming climate resilient technology in road design and construction," said Hisham Abdo, Acting Country Director, World Bank India.

The project will undertake resilience measures such as surface sealing of roads, embankment pitching, and balancing culverts to prevent damages caused by extreme flood events.
New Delhi: Former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan may be among some of the worlds leading economists in the running for the post of Bank of England (BoE) governor as the UK government hunts for a candidate to take charge from next year, according to a media report.

Canada-born Mark Carney, the current governor of Englands central bank, is set to step down at the end of his term in June 2019. He had become the first foreigner in the post in three centuries when he took up the role in 2013.

UK Chancellor Philip Hammond has now indicated that his global hunt for Carneys successor is ongoing, indicating the next governor could well be a foreigner too.

Attracting Raghuram Rajan, the highly-respected Chicago-based economist and former Reserve Bank of India governor, would be a coup, writes The Financial Times.

In its own analysis of the pros and cons of Rajans candidacy for the post, the newspaper notes the Katherine Dusak Miller distinguished service professor of finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business would bring with him impeccable international economics and central banking experience.

55-year-old Rajan also has significant achievements at the Reserve Bank of India, the newspaper notes. The con, in its view, would be that he has thus far shown no indication that he would want the job at the BoE.

On the newspapers list of prospective candidates is another Indian-origin contender in Shriti Vadera, the chair of Santander UK and a former UK government business minister.

Having been a key government figure in the financial crisis, Baroness Vadera is also credited with doing a good job in chairing a committee of City [of London] grandees, and later in helping to frame the UKs position on Brexit and financial services, the newspaper notes.

The UKs Treasury department wants an open competition for the post and is seeking applications from well-qualified candidates from around the world.

The formal process has not yet started but I, and many other people I am sure, may have cast their eye around various rooms to see if any likely looking candidates hove into view, Hammond told reporters on the sidelines of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) meeting in Washington recently.

The Treasury is expected to advertise the post by July this year, a year before a new incumbent as the Bank of England chief is due to take charge.
Sandalwood stars Rachita Ram and Amulya surprised everyone by jumping into the election campaign recently. But a Sandalwood stars brush with politics is not new. While it is only in the recent years that a large number of them are coming to the fore in electoral politics, they have always been a part of it. The 2018 Assembly Elections will see the maximum participation by Kannada actors in the election process. Bengaluru Chronicle reports on such star endeavours towards politics.

Actors who are contesting this time include legends and veterans of the industry like Umashree and Jaggesh. Even producers are towing the line, which include Muniratna and CR Manohar. Those who opted out or failed to get nominations include Ambareesh, Ramya, Shashikumar, Saikumar and Bhavana.

Sudeep

The more curious development this time is the open support of many actors without contesting themselves. Prominent among them are Rachita Ram and Amulya. Both of whom are canvassing for JDS.

After Rachita Ram made a request to all her fans and supporters through a selfie video asking them to vote, she also clarified saying, I have nowhere insisted to anyone that they should vote for JD(S). I have only made a plea to cast votes, judiciously. For me, the 20-month old regime under Kumaranna was by far the better rule in the state which looked into the most crucial and basic aspects of every sector, including farmers. Hence, I urged to make the right choice for a better tomorrow under Kumaranna.

Upendra Rao

Even actress Pooja Gandhi who had contested last time, returns to JDS to campaign. The veteran actress Malashree and Mukyamantri Chandru have turned out to be the star campaigners for Congress this time. The BJP too has a wealth of actors in its ranks.

There are a few others who are indulging in political commentary openly though not as a part of any party. Chief among them are Prakash Raj and Chethan Ahimsa. While Prakash Raj is touring Karnataka expressing his political views through #justasking campaign, Chetan has been making issue-based arguments.

However film critic Subramanaya feels that movie stars are always used as star campaigners, and only a few end up taking political matters seriously by competing for the elections. Almost every star actor in the industry is eventually drawn into politics but many choose not to plunge into unknown waters for various reasons. Karnataka voters have always been cautious when it comes to choosing political leaders unlike neighbouring states like Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, where actors have gone onto lead the state politically, too, he says.

What everyone can otherwise make out is the subtle and pertinent distance superstars are maintaining. Shivarajkumar, Sudeep, Darshan, Puneeth and Yash have predictably kept away. If anyone, it is these superstars who can make an impact. Much was expected of Upendras entry into politics. But the launch of his party turned out to be a failure, and the actor has suddenly become inactive just before the elections roll.

I would not caste my vote just because the candidate is an actor or he or she is supporting a party. Such qualities do not automatically make him or her a good leader. Politics is different from movies, says director Santhosh. The complicated relationship between the stars and politicians is at its maximum best this election season.
Meghan Markle arrives at the Australian High Commission in London with Britain's Prince Harry to attend a reception celebrating the forthcoming Invictus Games Sydney 2018, Saturday April 21, 2018. (Photo: AP)

LONDON: A dramatic ball gown, or a classic, simple silhouette? Sleeves, or bare shoulders?

With less than a month to go until she marries Prince Harry at Windsor Castle on May 19, Meghan Markle most likely has already chosen her wedding dress  though what it looks like is expected to remain a top secret until the last minute.

Whoever the designer might be, Markles shopping experience is sure to be vastly different from most brides out there. Londons most upscale bridal retailers explain what it really takes to create a luxury gown fit for a royal wedding, and weigh in on whether Markle will go classic or embrace one of 2018s popular bridal trends.

THE SKYS THE LIMIT

Royal brides dont generally pick ready-made dresses off the rail. Instead, Markle is likely to have commissioned an exclusive designer dress tailored to her shape and tastes  and chances are it will be handmade in Britain.

A luxury couture dress like that typically takes months of painstaking preparation and a small army of fitters and seamstresses, and can easily cost hundreds of thousands of pounds.

If you were to commission a couture made dress, you need to have a lot of trust in the designer and a lot of money. Because the cost of the labor involved in making your dress is tremendous. You should expect to start from 30,000 pounds ($42,000) and keep going up to as much as 300,000 pounds, said Caroline Burstein, owner of Londons Browns Bride, which sells some of the most exclusive and stylish bridal wear in the capital.

It all adds up: Silks are very expensive, as are British labor costs. A top-quality bespoke dress typically starts with a consultation to explore what styles fit the bride, followed by precise measurements and several initial fittings done in a mock-up fabric, according to leading London bridal designer Phillipa Lepley.

If it were a royal wedding wed do maybe three fittings to make sure everythings to the millimeter, absolutely right, she said.

Then comes the labor-intensive part: When seamstresses work on the embroidery artwork and lace. More fittings follow to decide details such as where exactly the neckline sits and how many layers of petticoats are needed.

For a really exclusive dress it could take 60 hours plus (of labor), it depends on the embroidery. If its embroidered all over were talking hundreds of hours. The skys the limit, Lepley said. It really is very old-fashioned and all done by hand. Its unbelievable how many hours things take.



3-D PETALS OR CLEAN AND SIMPLE?

Romantic, soft and whimsical styles with 3-D details like petals are popular with many brides right now, experts say. But traditional shapes like a ball gown or a column silhouette never go out of style, and many who have watched Markles style have a hunch she might go for something unfussy and streamlined.

Ball gowns are forever popular, because they look so incredibly dramatic. If you cant make an entrance on your wedding day when can you? Burstein said. Lace is always a strong trend and at the moment youll see a lot of 3-D petals that give the dresses so much life.

Lepley said that she hoped Markle would choose something not too over-designed. She showed off one of her luxury duchess satin gowns with no embellishments, with just a striking picture collar framing the brides face. This would be amazing, she said.

I got a feeling shed probably like to go quite straight and simple, but she might end up going much bigger because of the drama, the size of the venue, Lepley said. Shes got to hit it just right hasnt she? Not too ornate, not the dress wearing her. She still needs to shine.

Susan Courter, who runs WhatMeghanWore.net, a popular website identifying Markles choice of apparel in each public appearance, agreed.

Im thinking therell be clean lines, a tailored look, very chic. Thats who she is, Courter said. I dont think there will be a lot of lace, maybe a little bit of whimsical touches to represent her personality.

THE ROYAL EFFECT

Theres no denying the huge effect royal weddings have on what brides everywhere want to wear.

Princess Dianas 1981 wedding gown, with its puff sleeves, romantic ruffles and dramatic train, defined the 1980s fairytale bridal look. More recently, when Kate Middleton married Prince William in 2011, the long-sleeved lace gown she chose sparked a trend for more covered-up, traditional bridal dresses that lasted for years.

I think people tend to be, Yes I want to follow that through, or I totally dont want to be like that at all, Lepley said of the royal effect. You get a double reaction.

Markle has already set herself apart from traditional royal style, ditching classic frocks for trousers on several royal engagements. If she picks something similarly bold for her wedding, its sure to make a fashion statement, Burstein said.

She may not go for a long dress at all, but a beautifully tailored dress and coat. That would send a huge message and no doubt there would be a dramatic shift in what a bride would choose after this wedding, she said.

And as an established actress known for her love of fashion, Markles wedding style will appeal to a broad audience  likely surpassing the Kate effect, Courter said.

Weve seen the frenzy with what she wears for all these engagements, she said. I can really see these brides are going to be running out and saying I want that look, how can I get it?
Arthur supposedly lived in the 5th or 6th century and is said to have unified the country and set up his court at Camelot before being killed in a final epic battle. (Photo: AP)

While the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are celebrating the safe arrival of their third child after Kate gave birth to a baby boy, one wonders what will the Queens great-grandchild be named?

If bookies are to be believed, the baby son of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge could be named after the mythical King Arthur.

Bookmakers have seen a flurry of bets placed on William and Kate's infant boy being given the moniker of the famous leader of the Knights of the Round Table.

Speaking to MailOnline, William Hill's Rupert Adams said they had a very busy day with bets totally almost 100,000 placed by punters, with the 2-1 favourite Arthur and second place James 4-1, best backed.

The moniker has a strong royal pedigree as it is one of the middle names of both Charles and William.

Arthur supposedly lived in the 5th or 6th century and is said to have unified the country and set up his court at Camelot before being killed in a final epic battle.

Once popular, the name fell out of fashion but has had a revival in recent years.

Notably, former prime minister David Cameron too has a son named Arthur.

While experts are generally of the opinion that the royal family will choose a traditional name, theres a possibility the choice may reflect the Middleton side of the family.

For their other two children, the duke and duchess chose traditional options, seen as a tribute to previous royals.

One female customer asked to put some 5,000 on Arthur - currently leading as the favourite name - at bookmakers in Cheltenham.

Other popular names that are being bet upon include Albert, Frederick, James and Philip.

Kensington Palace, announced the baby was born at 11:01 on the morning of April 23.

Just as they waited two days to share the names of Prince George and Princess Charlotte after their births, Prince William and Kate Middleton are expected to share their new sons name within the next couple of days.

But that hasnt stopped British oddsmakers from making predictions! Albert and Arthur are tied as the most popular names for a boy  at 5-1 and 9-1, respectively, according to Ladbrokes.

The royal parents were all smiles as they left the hospital with their baby prince. When asked about the babys name, William smiled and said, Youll find out soon enough, adding that the couple was very happy, delighted, after their sons birth.
Man gets 50 years in prison for stealing $1.2 million worth of fajitas. (Photo: Pixabay)

BROWNSVILLE, Texas: A Texas man has been sentenced to 50 years in prison for stealing $1.2 million worth of fajitas over nine years.

Fifty-three-year-old Gilberto Escamilla was sentenced Friday after pleading guilty to theft by a public servant. The Brownsville Herald reports he told the court the fajita scheme spun out of control.

Escamilla had been intercepting fajitas that he ordered through the Cameron County juvenile center where he worked and delivering them to his own customers.

His scam was uncovered when he missed work for a medical appointment and an 800-pound (360-kilogram) fajita delivery arrived at the center, which doesnt serve fajitas.

Escamilla was fired in August and arrested after authorities checked vendor invoices and obtained a search warrant that uncovered county-funded fajitas in his refrigerator.
Kensington Palace, announced that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge welcomed a baby boy at 11:01 on the morning of April 23. (Photo: AP)

Kensington Palace, announced that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge welcomed a baby boy at 11:01 on the morning of April 23.

While speculations are rife as to what the name of the third child may be, one cannot help but look back at all the other third-borns in the royal family, none of whom, unfortunately, had a very happy life.

It turns out that being born third child to a monarch or future monarch has rarely meant a trouble-free life. Here are instances:

Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood: Third child to George V, she was born in 1897, before the law of primogeniture was changed, so there was never a chance she would ascend the throne. Her two older brothers were Edward VIII and George VI.

As the only girl among five higher-profile brothers, even though two of them were younger than her, Mary was consigned to the role of royal adornment.

While her brothers wanted to marry swiftly to escape their bullying father, Princess Mary clung to spinsterhood. This was partly because her mother wanted her at home, and partly because it was difficult to find the right kind of man to marry a kings daughter.

However, at the age of 24 she married the 6th Earl of Harewood, aged 39, who was said to have proposed marriage to her only for a bet. She died of a heart attack while out walking in 1965, aged 67.

Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife: Born in 1867, Princess Louise, third child of Edward VII, was granted the title of Princess Royal. She, too, grew up at Sandringham  in the main house, not the cottage  and when the time came for husband-hunting she chose an obscure Scottish aristocrat, the Earl of Fife.

Fife was 40 to her 22 when they married, and Queen Victoria balked at the idea of someone of so lowly a rank being married to her grand-daughter  so she promptly made him a duke.

However, Luise did not lead a happy life. Her first child was stillborn and at the age of 34, she was shipwrecked off the coast of Morocco while sailing with her family to Egypt. Though all aboard were rescued, her husband died soon afterwards from pleurisy. She returned home to find that her daughter Alexandra wanted to marry her mothers first cousin, Prince Arthur of Connaught. After being a widow for more than half her life, she died aged 63 after suffering a gastric haemorrhage.

Alice, Princess of the United Kingdom, Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine: Princess Alice, the third child of Queen Victoria, born in 1843, at the age of 17 had to nurse her dying father, Prince Albert, then spent the next year consoling her grief-stricken mother.

While she did escape to marry a German princeling, Louis of Hesse, but two of her daughters met awful deaths. Both Alexandra, who had married Tsar Nicholas II and became an empress, and Elisabeth, who had married Grand Duke Sergei of Russia, were murdered in 1918 by the Bolsheviks after the Russian Revolution of the previous year.

Alice herself died soon afterwards, never having forgiven her nephew, George V, for failing to rescue her children in Russia.

Sophia, Baroness De LIsle and Dudley: Sophia, daughter of William IV born in 1795, never carried the title of Princess because she was illegitimate. The king lived for many years with the Anglo-Irish actress Jordan, who bore him ten children after having already given birth to four others by other men. Eventually abandoned by the king when he wanted a legitimate heir, Jordan died in poverty when her daughter was 19. Sophia died in childbirth at the age of just 36.

William IV: William IV himself was a third child (of the mad George III). Born in 1765, he was arguably the biggest buffoon to sit on the throne. He was nicknamed Sailor Bill, having served in the Royal Navy and later been given the job of Lord High Admiral by George Canning, the prime minister, in 1827. He ascended the throne three years later, as his two deceased brothers failed to leave a legitimate heir. Crowned at the age of 64, he remains the oldest person to inherit the throne.

Even though he later married Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen in the hope of producing a legitimate heir, their only offspring were two daughters.

Prince Andrew, Duke of York: Prince Andrews birth in 1960 came as something of a surprise, considering Anne had arrived ten years earlier and many believed the Queen had decided to have no more children.

However, from second in line to the throne, he has gradually drifted out in the royal pecking order to the position he holds today: seventh in line to the throne.

After tasting glory as a helicopter co-pilot in the Falklands conflict, his life has been dogged by divorce, a scandal over his close friendship with the US billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and the overuse of perks that led him to be nicknamed Air Miles Andy.

Diana, Princess of Wales: There is one more third baby to mention: Princess Diana. Yes, the new babys own grandmum. Although she was born the daughter of an earl, Diana was wife to and mother of future kings, and left the greatest legacy of them all. But behind the magic lay tragedy  a child of a broken home, disappointed in love, and an unhappy death.
When the murder took place, her husband was at work, while her children were at their grandparents house.

Bengaluru: The Chikkajala police have arrested a 33-year-old man for murdering his friend's wife to rob her valuables while she was alone at home on April 19.

The accused, Ramesh N., is a cook from Doddaballapur taluk. The deceased, Chandrakala a homemaker, stayed at Hunasamaranahalli in Bharathi Nagar along with her husband, Srinivas, who is a barber, and their two children. When the murder took place, her husband was at work, while her children were at their grandparents house.

Ramesh knew Chandrakala and her family through her brother Jagadishwara alias Jaggi, a resident of Bharathi Nagar. He also knew Srinivas well and visited their house often. Recently, Srinivas had bragged to his friends about buying new gold jewellery to his wife and he had also told them that he was going to gift her some more jewellery. Ramesh immediately planned the robbery to pay off his huge debts.

On April 19 around 3.30 pm, he snuck into Srinivas house to carry out his plan, but Chandrakala caught him red handed. As she was about to raise an alarm, Ramesh gagged her and strangled her to death. He took away her gold chain and earrings, locked the door from out and fled the place.

Around 5 pm, Chandrakalas mother came to the house and found her daughter lying unconscious inside. She immediately rushed Chandrakala to a nearby hospital, where she was declared brought dead. Srinivas later filed a complaint with the Chikkajala police.

Ramesh, after stealing the jewellery, had pawned it for Rs 1.2 lakh and was planning to return the money to his lenders when the police got a crucial tipoff in the case. They were informed that Ramesh had visited Chandrakalas house on the day of the crime, and picked him up. During the interrogation, Ramesh sang like a canary and confessed to the murder. The Chikkajala police, who had registered a case, arrested the accused on Saturday.
As celebrities and the media continue to malign the IDFs activities in defense of Israels borders and its citizens, the PR battle on Israels behalf is intensifying. This is especially pronounced on the American university campus, the incubator of the anti-Israel BDS movement.

Chabad on Campus and Belev Echad, an organization established to advocate for wounded IDF soldiers and assist them in their recovery and reintegration into civilian life, have formed a partnership. Together they are bringing IDF veterans to visit campuses across the country and share their stories with faculty and students.

Shay Zach, himself an IDF veteran who now serves on the Belev Echad Board shares, the goal of this tour is to combat the BDS message, by inviting students to engage with real soldiers and to hear their experiences firsthand.

In this first tour, Matan Roettger and Or Porat, both IDF veterans, wounded in the line of duty, are visiting seven campuses across Arizona and California during the next six weeks. Through, talks, presentations, shared Shabbat Services and luncheons, students have a chance to interact with them on a personal level.

I have never felt so proud to be Jewish and thankful for those who defend our country, said Sarah Winkleman, a PoliSci and Global Studies major after attending Matan and Ors audio visual presentation hosted by Chabad at Arizona State University. She declared it the most significant event Ive been a part of, at ASU.

By connecting the Jewish student communities wherever we go from with the Land of Israel, we will bring a confidence for the students to be proud to advocate on Israels behalf, says Or.

Chabad on Campus and Belev Echad are working with Chabad Campus chapters to expand this tour during the upcoming academic year.

For more about Chabad on Campus or Belev Echad: http://www.chabad.edu/, https://belevechad.nyc/

Discussing their story of terror and bravery with students at Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ).

Matan and Or spend Shabbat with Rabbis Dovie Shapiro and Shmulik Moscowitz at Northern Arizona University (Flagstaff).
UIDAI asserted in the Supreme Court that Aadhaar law is very sound and it provides for proper and adequate safeguards against data breach. (Photo: File/Representational)

New Delhi: The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Tuesday asserted in the Supreme Court that Aadhaar law is very sound and it provides for proper and adequate safeguards against data breach.

Senior counsel Rakesh Diwedi, appearing for UIDAI made this assertion before a Constitution Bench of the Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AK Sikri, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, hearing a batch of petitions challenging the legal validity of Aadhaar law.

Diwedi said this in response to a query from Justice Chandrachud as to what are the safeguards in the Aadhaar law and whether any prosecution or penalty is provided for data breach. He also dispelled the apprehensions that UIDAI is collecting and storing personal information in meta data.

He said prosecution is provided under Aadhaar law and penalty is provided under the Information Technology Act, which can be used for prosecution and penalty. He however, made it clear that there is no sharing of information. He said the Justice Srikrishna committee is working on a law, which would ensure protection of data as well as balance the rights of privacy of an individual.

When Justice Chandrachud wanted to know as to what details are retained in Meta data, Diwedi said no information about personal biographic details are received from the authenticating agencies.

We do not know the location or the purpose for which authentication is sought. Meta data contains only unique device code to ensure that the authentication agency conforms to the prescribed standards, he added.

Diwedi reiterated that no sharing of biometric information is possible as the moment the data is registered it becomes encrypted and stored in the repository.

Counsel quoting the common identity card law applicable to the European Union (EU) said ensures free flow of personal information between States within the EU and compared to this law, Aadhaar Act provides much more protection. He agreed that rapid technological advances was posing challenges in protection of data and Srikrishna committee is taking this into consideration to put in place a robust data protection law.

He said Aadhaar seeks to secure the poor and deprived sections of society to live their life and exercise their liberty by providing them a nationally acceptable identity, which gives them pride, dignity and self respect that they are part of the society. The object of the law is to ensure to the people adequate food at affordable prices so that people live with dignity. It ensures integration of social and economic rights to the marginalised sections of society, he said and added that the court must strike a balance between economic rights and right to privacy of few individuals.

Arguments will continue on Wednesday.
Calcutta High Court's ruling came after CPI-ML Red Star leader Sharmishtha Chowdhury filed a petition complaining of facing resistance to file nominations even on Monday which was the extended day for filing nominations. (Photo: File/PTI)

Kolkata: In a rare instance on the use of social networking platforms in the elections, the Calcutta High Court has directed the West Bengal State Election Commission (WBSEC) to accept the nominations of 11 candidates contesting the Panchayat polls at Bhangar in South 24 Parganas through popular messenger service: WhatsApp.

While passing the order, Justice Subrata Talukdar cautioned the state poll panel that the high court may even stall the poll process if the directive was not followed. According to the judge, the 11 candidates should be allowed to fight the polls.

The high court's ruling came after CPI-ML Red Star leader Sharmishtha Chowdhury filed a petition complaining of facing resistance to file nominations even on Monday which was the extended day for filing nominations.

She claimed that 11 candidates could not file their nominations for the polls of Polerhat gram panchayat II in Bhangar which witnessed massive unrest over the construction of a power grid in wake of allegations of forcible land acquisition in 2017.

Chowdhury added that nine of the candidates later sent their nominations through WhatsApp to the block development officer to keep it as a 'record.'

The judge ordered the WBSEC to look into Chowdhury's complaint.

On Tuesday, the state poll panel submitted a report to the judge.

Chowdhury said, "The high court directed the WBSEC to accept the nominations of those 11 candidates through WhatsApp apart from making it sure that their names should feature in the candidates' list. It also asked the state poll panel to submit a report on April 30."

Hailing the high court's order state Congress president Adhir Chowdhury said, "The high court tried to protect the democratic rights of the people of West Bengal in its orders so far. Nothing can be more positive than this ruling in which the judge ordered for the acceptance of the nominations by willing candidates in Bhangar. The judges want the people should get opportunity to participate in the elections contrary to the Trinamool Congress and the state police which have created a reign of terror."

Welcoming the ruling state BJP president Dilip Ghosh said, "It is a very good news. After this order I assume that at least 50,000 more nominations can be filed by WhatsApp and mail altogether."
Dalits visiting the War Memorial at Bhima-Koregaon for commemorating the bicentenary of an 1818 victory of the East India Company over the Peshwa's forces came under attack on January 1, 2018. (Photo: File/PTI)

Pune: A 19-year-old Dalit woman, whose house was burnt down during the violence at Bhima-Koregaon in Pune district earlier this year, was found dead, with Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh leader Prakash Ambedkar on Monday claiming it appeared to be a "murder".

A senior police officer said that a case of abetment of suicide was registered against nine people, and two of them have been arrested.

The body of Pooja Sakat was found in a well near her house in Bhima-Koregaon area on Sunday morning. The day before, her family had registered a complaint that she was missing, a police officer had said earlier on Monday.

Her family alleged that some persons, whom she had named as accused in her statement to the police after her house was torched on January 1, were threatening and pressurising her to withdraw her statement, which drove her to suicide.

The police registered a case of abetment of suicide under IPC section 306 and offences under the Scheduled Castes And Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

There were no injury marks on her body, the police officer said. No suicide note was recovered, and further probe was underway, he added.

Pune Rural Superintendent of Police Suvez Haq told news agency PTI there was a property dispute between the victim's family and some of the accused persons, and police were probing all angles.

A case has been registered against nine people and two of them have been arrested, he said.

Speaking to reporters in Nagpur, Prakash Ambedkar, the grandson of Dr BR Ambedkar, said it seemed to be a case of murder.

"The firsthand report that I have got indicates that she was murdered. The autopsy report is awaited. All the people who have been named in the family's complaint should be arrested immediately," he said.

The police were reluctant to register the offence initially, he alleged, while rubbishing the theory that the death was related to the property dispute.

Dalits visiting the War Memorial at Bhima-Koregaon for commemorating the bicentenary of an 1818 victory of the East India Company over the Peshwa's forces came under attack on January 1, 2018. One person was killed and property worth crores of rupees was damaged.

Sakat family's house was burnt on January 2, and they are living in a rented house since then.

Dalit groups commemorate the 1818 battle as the East India Company's army consisted of Mahars, a Dalit community, who defeated the upper-caste Peshwa's forces. However, some Hindutva organisations had opposed the commemoration this time.

Following the incidents of January 1, Ambedkar had given a call for state-wide shut-down on January 3, which too witnessed violence in Mumbai and elsewhere in Maharashtra.
Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu on Monday rejected the notice submitted by the Congress and six other parties seeking the impeachment of the Chief Justice citing lack of substantial merit in it. (Photo: File/ANI)

New Delhi: Responding to oppositions allegations over the speed at which he dismissed a notice for the impeachment of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday said that the decision was not hasty and came after over a month of due diligence.

Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu on Monday rejected the notice submitted by the Congress and six other parties seeking the impeachment of the Chief Justice citing lack of substantial merit in it.

Read: Venkaiah Naidu rejects Oppn notice to impeach Chief Justice Dipak Misra

Naidu further said that the decision to reject the notice is in strict conformity with provisions of the Constitution and the Judges Inquiry Act of 1968.

I had responsibility cast on me. I have done my job and am satisfied with it, the Vice President added.

Following the rejection of the impeachment notice, the Congress on Monday lashed out at Naidu and said it would move the Supreme Court to challenge the illegal order which had shattered the confidence of people.

Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal told reporters in New Delhi that Naidu's order jeopardised the country's legal system and said the government was not keen to see a probe into the case.

Also Read: Illegal, hasty order: Cong to move SC over rejection of impeachment notice

"The order is unprecedented, illegal, ill-advised and hasty," Sibal said, adding that it had been passed without a full-fledged enquiry.

"We will certainly move a petition in the Supreme Court to challenge this order," Sibal said.

(With PTI inputs)
The negligence happened as the doctor, a senior resident at Sushruta Trauma Centre in Civil Lines area, mistook the patient with head injury for another patient admitted there with a fractured leg. (Photo: ANI)

New Delhi: A senior doctor at a Delhi government-run hospital, a dedicated facility for providing critical trauma services, wrongly performed a procedure on the leg of a patient who was admitted there with a head injury.

The negligence happened as the doctor, a senior resident at Sushruta Trauma Centre in Civil Lines area, mistook the patient with head injury for another patient admitted there with a fractured leg.

On Thursday, the doctor made a hole on the patients right leg to put a pin inside. The patient was admitted to the hospital with injuries on his head and face following an accident.

As the senior resident performed the procedure on the patient after putting him on anaesthesia, the patient could not realise or object to it, said Ajay Bahl, medical superintendent at the hospital.

After the negligence was brought to the attention of the authorities, a corrective procedure was done on the patient.

The doctor has been barred from conducting surgeries without supervision after a hospital panel found him at fault.

A committee constituted to look into the matter found the senior resident was at fault. He has been barred from conducting surgeries without supervision with immediate effect, Bahl added.

In another case of medical negligence recently, a senior doctor at All India Institutes of Medical Sciences allegedly performed a procedure required for dialysis treatment on a 30-year-old woman, who had complained of abdominal pain.

The doctor also tampered with case documents to cover up his fault.
Mandla (MP): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said sons have to be made more responsible for a safe environment for daughters and asserted that the promulgation of an ordinance on rape showed the Centre acted on people's outrage on sexual crimes against minors.

Days after the government approved the ordinance allowing courts to award the death penalty to those convicted of raping girls below the age of 12 years, Modi also called for a social movement to ensure the safety of girls.

"Shivraj ji (Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan) just referred to the capital punishment provided in the ordinance for rape against minors and I could see that it (the remark) received cheers from everyone present here," Modi said while addressing a rally in Madhya Pradeshs Mandla.

"There is a government in Delhi which listens to your voice and takes decisions. So, the Centre has made a provision for capital punishment to the monstrous intent," he said. The Union Cabinet had on April 21 okayed the ordinance amid a nation-wide uproar over the rape and murder of minors in Kathua and Surat and the rape of a teenager in Unnao. Those who commit such ghastly crimes will hang," the Prime Minister said.

Modi, while addressing the National Panchayati Raj Sammelan at Ramnagar in Madhya Pradesh's Mandla district, also pitched for creating an atmosphere for daughters' safety within the family.

"Families will have to enhance the honour and respect of daughters. Families should also make their sons more responsible. In this way, the safety of daughters would not be a difficult task. We have to launch a social movement in this direction," Modi said. He also mentioned measures taken by the government for the welfare of tribals and farmers and asked the elected representatives of panchayats to ensure that these steps were implemented.

"Earlier, bamboo was considered a tree and it was hard for the villagers to use bamboo (wood). Now the government has categorised it as grass. Farmers can grow bamboo on the boundaries of their farmland and have an additional income," Modi said.

The country imports bamboos worth Rs 12,000-15,000 crores every year, he said.

The Prime Minister also urged panchayat representatives to spend NREGA funds during the summer months of April, May and June only on works related to water conservation.

"We should work for saving rain water. Panchayats should spend NREGA funds on water conservation during April, May and June. Every drop of rain should be conserved. This would not only save our money but also save villages from water shortages and help in agriculture," he said.

In his speech at the rally in the tribal-dominated district, Modi also referred to the role of members of tribal communities and others in India's freedom struggle, and said it was unfortunate that only the contribution of a few families was mentioned in its history.

"To highlight the contribution of those people who have played a major role in the freedom struggle since 1857, a museum will be set up in every state to remember those who sacrificed their lives for the country's independence so that new generations will come to know about their sacrifice," he said.

On the occasion of National Panchayati Raj Day, Modi also urged people in rural areas to focus on "Jan Dhan, Van Dhan and Gou Dhan" (human wealth, forest resources and the bounty of cows) to develop villages as envisaged by the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi.

"By 2022, when the country celebrates the 75th anniversary of its independence, we should strive to make villages as envisioned by Mahatma Gandhi. It can be done by using villages' manpower for developing villages, Van Dhan by collecting neem seeds for coating urea and Gou Dhan by using cow dung for producing electricity, bio-gas and manure for becoming self-reliant," Modi said.

He also called upon them to opt for bamboo farming and honey cultivation to raise their earnings. During his visit here, the prime minister also laid the foundation stone for an LPG bottling plant at Maneri in the district. The Rs 120-crore plant will supply LPG cylinders to all neighboring districts including Balaghat, Singrauli, Rewa, Shahdol and Jabalpur.

He called upon the public representatives to ensure that people in their respective panchayats were fully covered under the Jan-Dhan programme and the Prime Minister's Insurance Scheme which only needed a premium of 90 paise. Even the poor, who could be smoking a beedi which cost more than that every day, could afford 90 paise, he said.

Modi also handed over a cheque of Rs 2 lakh to a woman who lost her husband as a beneficiary of the insurance scheme.

"There is no problem of a budget. But there is a problem of priorities and transparent implementation of the developmental schemes. Public representatives can play a major role in it," he added.

Earlier, Modi launched a scheme that seeks to strengthen the country's Panchayati Raj system and address the critical gaps that hinder its success. The Central government's Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan aims at making rural local bodies self-sustaining, financially stable and more efficient.

Modi also unveiled a roadmap for the development of tribal areas of Madhya Pradesh over the next five years. Under the plan, Rs 2 lakh crore will be spent for the development of areas under tribal panchayats.
Convention demands that the CJI doesnt hear the case himself and the next senior most judge  who is in this case is Justice J Chelameswar  gets to hear it. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: The Congress on Monday lashed out at Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu for rejecting an impeachment notice filed by opposition parties against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and said it would move the Supreme Court to challenge the illegal order which had shattered the confidence of people.

Convention demands that the CJI doesnt hear the case himself and the next senior most judge  who is in this case is Justice J Chelameswar  gets to hear it.

Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal told reporters in New Delhi that Naidu's order jeopardised the country's legal system and said the government was not keen to see a probe into the case.

"The order is unprecedented, illegal, ill-advised and hasty," Sibal said, adding that it had been passed without a full-fledged enquiry.

"We will certainly move a petition in the Supreme Court to challenge this order," Sibal said.

The Congress leader stressed that never before in India's history had a motion moved by members of parliament been dismissed at the preliminary stage.

The order shattered the confidence of the people and jeopardised the legal system, he added.

We will ensure the CJI would have nothing to do with this petition, Mr Sibal said.

Earlier in on Monday, AICC media-in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala had also criticised the decision and said it was a fight between forces "rejecting democracy" and voices "rescuing democracy".

Surjewala said within hours of 64 MPs submitting the impeachment notice, Leader of the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley had shown "naked prejudice" by calling it a revenge petition, "virtually dictating the verdict" to the Rajya Sabha chairman.

In a tweet, Congress spokesperson and lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi said Mr Naidu "expectedly" rejected the impeachment motion against Chief Justice Misra and that too within a day of his return to Delhi.

Indian judiciary on Monday entered uncharted territory when Rajya Sabha chairperson M Venkaiah Naidu rejected the impeachment motion against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra submitted by seven Opposition parties.

Also Read: Venkaiah Naidu rejects Oppn notice to impeach Chief Justice Dipak Misra
Bhupendra Singh noted that his government is considering banning porn in Madhya Pradesh. (Photo: ANI/Twitter)

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Bhupendra Singh on Tuesday blamed pornographic websites for the rising number of child rape and molestation cases in India.

Singh further noted that his government is considering banning porn in Madhya Pradesh.

"We think the reason for rising number of child rape and molestation cases are porn. We are contemplating banning porn in Madhya Pradesh, will approach Centre in the matter," Singh said.

According to media reports, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Madhya Pradesh has blocked 25 porn sites.

Singh's statement comes after the horrific rape and murder of an infant baby girl in Indore on April 19. The infant was recovered from the basement of a building.

Reportedly, the police have identified the accused as Sunil Bheel, 21, claiming that he was seen in CCTV footage, around 4.45 am on Friday, carrying the infant on his shoulder.
Gowda spoke with fondness about the Left parties who supported him in steps that he took as Prime Minister. (Photo: PTI/File)

Bengaluru: Janata Dal (Secular) supremo HD Deve Gowda on Monday said that his only regret was not completing full terms as Prime Minister of India and Chief Minister of Karnataka.

Deve Gowda stormed to power in 1994 and served two years as the Chief Minister of Karnataka. He resigned from his post after he became the country's accidental Prime Minister in 1996.

In an exclusive interview with ANI, Deve Gowda said, "Yes, as a chief minister, I have not completed full term. As prime minister, I have not completed the full term. You go through the book written by TSR Subramaniam. In 10 months, all policies were framed. Telecom policy, national highways, Metro policy and how to fund it, Kashmir issue."

He added that during his tenure, he had visited the North-East extensively - something which no other Prime Minister had done before - and that there was no communal violence in any part of the country, including in Jammu and Kashmir during his 10-month tenure.

"Northeastern states, no prime minister visited all the seven states; I visited. Show me one communal rift, either in Kashmir or any part of the country. I want the dream, my country should live peacefully," he told Smita Prakash.

On being asked about the regrets that the JD(S) supremo couldn't do when he was the prime minister, Deve Gowda said, "Yes, there are several policies which have been formed in my government. Still, they have not modified; they are going on the same line. Delhi Metro, the issue is going on extending now. It is more than 12 years in cold storage. I asked my urban development secretary, bring it; I'll clear that."

When asked whether the country gave due credit to his prime ministership, Deve Gowda added, "The media, first (laughs). No, I am not going to blame because I was not able to cultivate the media because I am (was) worried about the administration. Frequently meeting media, pampering and manoeuvring; I didn't do that."

Gowda spoke with fondness about the Left parties who supported him in steps that he took as Prime Minister but he says that he did not project his achievements as much as he should have. He wasn't clever by half because it is not in his nature to be such, he says.

What he could have done, in hindsight, he says is appointed more media savvy people. But with a wave of his hand he dismisses the thought as if it pains him too much to think of the past.

He also ruled out a come back to Parliament in 2019, as he said he had no further political ambitions. Gowda says that his grandson will take the place that he had in national politics.

"If I was 75 or 78 then I could have done something now but it is too late."

The 84-year old says that he has been betrayed by many of his political friends in the past. He mentions Ramakrishna Hegde several times in the conversation. It remains a regret that he couldn't iron out differences with the other tall leader from Karnataka politics.

Admitting that he had lost a lot of friends during his time in politics and life, the octogenarian said, "Hegde was a leader. I don't call Siddaramiah as my (state's) leader. J.H. Patel, (S.) Nijalingappa jee. See there are many, (former Vice-President B.D) Jatti, they are all gone. My political guru is A.G.

Ramachandra Rao, who was a Cabinet minister in (K.) Hanumanthaiah ji's government. Hanumanthaiah is a good administrator. I have seen all these people." In the evening of his life, Gowda recalls many of his colleagues works in the present tense. As if they are still around. But at the end of the sentence....he sighs and says "they are all gone."

"(Former Prime Minister) Chandrasekhar. I am not going to (sighs) I don't have any reservation on that. Harkishan Singh Surjit is (was) very great in 10 months. Let me be honest, if Karnataka people have voted 10 MPs, I would have become Prime Minister again. I. K. Gujral was my foreign minister. We are (were) very good friends. Even Chandrababu (Naidu) has not harmed me. Left parties were near to me," Deve Gowda added. He has no happy memories of interactions with any of the leaders of the Congress party other than Mr P.V. Narasimha Rao.

"He was alright" is the only thing that Gowda could muster up. About Rahul Gandhi, Gowda says that the Congress president has no idea about what the Congress party's links are with other parties and he tends to shoot his mouth.

Speaking about Rahul as if he is a teenager, Gowda says that Rahul has a tendency to mouth whatever is told to him. He has a long way to go before he can mature into a leader, says Gowda.

Commenting on the four-year rule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the former Prime Minister said, "Only one thing I have to say. The graph that was there (up) when he took charge of the prime minister, it is slowly going down and he also knows it. That is all I can comment. The euphoria he has created is slowly coming down."

When asked if he would have got a huge mandate as that of Prime Minister Modi, Deve Gowda said, "I have already done what I can with the 13-party coalition. Who went to Kashmir? In 10 months and 10 days, five times I have gone there (Kashmir). What are all the facilities that are created? infrastructure, power projects, highways, railways, universities, loan waiver. Was there any trouble in the Valley or anywhere when I conducted the elections? When the parliament election was conducted (in Valley), it was 2 percent votes, and when the assembly election was conducted, it was 52-58 percent votes."

Asked whether if Prime Minister Modi asked him to join in the coalition, the JD(S) supremo replied that he had no political ambitions, adding that he doesn't want to be part of any anti-BJP or anti-Congress front.

He would certainly meet anyone who came to him for guidance on how to go about forming political coalitions but he wants to be no part of any, he says.

He further underscored that the issue of polarisation of communities in the upcoming Karnataka assembly elections would remain to some extent.

He feels that successive governments have not empowered communities and castes through legislations which have been pending, as a result there is discrimination and discontent in the state.

Dismissing claims that the patriarch is working on permutations and calculations to make his son H.D. Kumaraswamy as chief minister of Karnataka in the event of his party being the deciding factor in a hung assembly, the JD (S) supremo said that he wanted his 'regional' party to survive and that is his biggest goal. If Kumaraswamy becomes Chief Minister it would be his luck says Deve Gowda.

Speaking on the language issue, Deve Gowda explained, "Hindi is a national language and we must accept it. There are 14-15 languages recognized. There is nothing to hide. I am proud to be a Kannadiga, but the point is when we are going to decide on the several issues in the parliament. See more than 60 percent of people speak in Hindi and South Indian people, we have own language and there is English, the communicative language. Even Hindi, we are not resisting. Three language formula was already accepted. The primary school and middle school curriculum is already there. Even Hindi, it's not compulsory. The student themselves choose to learn Hindi."

On being asked about his concerns for Karnataka and the country, he noted, "Kaveri issue is pending. The fight is going on. Hunger strike; ministers and chief minister. People's issues still worry me 100 percent."

The assembly election will be held in Karnataka on May 12, 2018, in all 224 constituencies of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly. The counting of votes and announcement of result will take place on May 15, 2018.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd to file status report on the implementation of safety stadards in Kudankulam power plant in TN.

In May 2013 the apex court while giving its nod for the functioning of the Kudankulam power plant granted five years for implementation of 17 recommendations on safeguarding the NPP. With five years coming to an end, an application was filed seeking extension of time.

A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Kanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud after hearing counsel Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner G. Sundarrajan, who voiced concern that the directions were not implemented. Mr. Bhushan pointed out that the nuclear accident that happened in Fukushima in Japan had destroyed life on a radius of 20 km. Mr. Bhushan submitted that safety on spent fuels to prevent environment hazard had not been implemented and the AERB is yet to give its final clearance.

Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted that spent fuel water fills are safe and the concrete tanks are designed to withstand maximum earthquake.

The CJI asked the ASG to file status report on reprocessing plan and posted the matter for further hearing in July.

In 2013 the court said maintaining safety is an ongoing process not only at the design level, but also during the operation for the nuclear plant. Safeguarding NPP, radioactive materials, ensuring physical security of the NSF are of paramount importance. NPCIL, AERB, the regulatory authority, should maintain constant vigil and make periodical inspection of the plant at least once in three months and if any defect is noticed, the same has to be rectified forthwith.

NPCIL shall send periodical reports to AERB and the AERB shall take prompt action on those reports, if any fallacy is noticed in the reports; Spent Nuclear Fuel generated needs to be managed in a safe manner to ensure protection of human health and environment from the undue effect of ionizing radiation now and future, for which sufficient surveillance and monitoring programme have to be evolved and implemented; AERB should periodically review the design-safety aspects of AFR feasibly at KKNPP so that there will be no adverse impact on the environment due to such storage which may also allay the fears and apprehensions expressed by the people.

It said Deep Geological Repository has to be set up at the earliest so that SNF could be transported from the nuclear plant to DGR. NPCIL says the same would be done within a period of five years. Effective steps should be taken by the Union of India, NPCIL, AERB, AEC, DAE etc. to have a permanent DGR at the earliest so that apprehension voiced by the people of keeping the NSF at the site of Kudankulam NPP could be dispelled; NPCIL should ensure that the radioactive discharges to the environmental aquatic atmosphere and terrestrial route shall not cross the limits prescribed by the Regulatory Body; The Union of India, AERB and NPCIL should take steps at the earliest to comply with rest of the 17 recommendations in five years.
Swaraj, during her address at the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers, raised the issue of global terrorism and protectionism. (Photo: ANI)

New Delhi/Beijing: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday said that terrorism is an enemy of the basic human rights and the fight against it should also identify States that encourage, support and finance the menace and provide sanctuary to terror groups.

Swaraj, during her address at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers here, raised the issue of global terrorism and protectionism.

There are a number of challenges that are being faced by the world today, foremost being the threat of global terrorism and the imminent need to build a strong security architecture to combat it, the minister said.

"Terrorism is an enemy of the basic human rights: of life, peace and prosperity," Swaraj said.

"Protectionism in all its forms should be rejected and efforts should be made to discipline measures that constitute barriers to trade. India is committed to working with the SCO to strengthen our economic and investment ties," she said.

We believe that economic globalization should be more open, inclusive, equitable and balanced for mutual benefits," Swaraj added.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday was welcomed by China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) ministerial meeting.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also landed in Beijing earlier on Tuesday to attend preparatory meetings with the External Affairs Minister on the sidelines of the SCO meeting.

On Monday Swaraj met China's President Xi Jinping along with the Foreign Ministers of various other countries who had come to attend the SCO summit.
Experts feel the Aadhaar leak can be misused for such activities as religious profiling, which is a potential security nightmare.

Hyderabad: Sensitive data containing such details as religion and caste of 1.34 lakh Aadhaar card holders has been leaked from the Andhra Pradesh State Housing Corporation website, ostensibly originating from a list titled Beneficiary Details belonging to Entry Report for Scheme Hudhud on the site.

With this latest leak, Andhra Pradesh has compromised data regarding nearly two crore Aadhaar card holders, out of a population of five crore. Experts feel the leak can be misused for such activities as religious profiling, which is a potential security nightmare. Telangana government websites have not reported any such leak thus far.

The data leak was reported by security researcher Srinivas Kodali, who identified details that include Aadhaar number, bank branch, IFSC code, account number, fathers name, address, Panchayat, mobile number, ration card number, occupation, religion and caste, on a live website that is yet to be shut down.

It has been the view among many experts that Aadhaar is being linked to religion and caste information, apart from occupation.

The UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) may not be doing it, but other government departments are. And the AP housing corporation website is proof. The UIDAI has no idea what information is being linked to the unique ID,Kodali said.

The UIDAI has informed the Supreme Court that no data regarding religion or caste is collected through Aadhaar, which is partly true. Instead,it is allowing states to collect sensitive data. It is not illegal to collect data under the act but making it public is prohibited. Such data can be misused to know a voters profile, and more. Also, at the bottom of the website, the AP government has put in a disclaimer, which says, nobody is responsible if data is leaked, and no official can be penalised. The government says it will only use Aadhaar to track beneficiaries of government programmes. That means they will track everyone. How can anyone not use government services? he said.
Hyderabad: Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday directed the Telangana Government to explain the reasons for constructing a Collectorate Complex in Suryapet district by acquiring private lands between Kudakuda and Bebigudem villages, near Suryapet town.

A Division Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice K. Vijaya Lakshmi was dealing with a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by one Chakilam Rajeswara Rao seeking to declare the action of the government in constructing the Collectorate by acquiring the private land, despite the availability of government land in Suryapet town, as illegal.

Earlier, the Bench had directed the State Government to place the note file and other related correspondence related to acquiring the private land for construction of the Collectorate Complex.

The Bench on Tuesday adjourned the case for a week.
New Delhi: India is worried that any US sanctions on Russian military exports will affect Indian interests.

New Delhi will therefore try to convince Washington that India is acquiring defence supplies from several countries including the US, that India will not act against fundamental US interests, but that acquisition of certain military platforms from Russia is essential for the country. India is interested in acquiring the lethal S-400 missile systems from Russia.

India is expected to tell the United States that any restrictions on India buying the weapon systems it needs from Russia will affect the capacity of India to cooperate with the US. Delhis interests converge with that of Washington in crucial areas such as Afghanistan and Indo-Pacific region. New Delhi is expected to assure Washington that it will not act against fundamental American interests.

Sources said it is a no-brainer that some of it (the sanctions) would affect Indian interests. India will ask the US to look at the trend of Indian defence purchases in the past 10 years which will prove that India has diversified the acquisition of arms and has bought them from countries that include the United States. Washington will also be told that some of the weapon systems that India wants to acquire from Russia are crucial in ensuring Indian defence preparedness and that India is dependent on certain defence platforms from Russia to ensure this preparedness.

India appears increasingly stuck in the middle in the nasty battle of nerves between the US and Russia. US-Russia ties have sunk to a new low following their divergent interests in Crimea and Syria. Allegations of Russian interference in the US elections of 2016 have impacted US-Russia ties and the recent nerve agent attack on a former Russian intelligence operative in the UK further worsened ties.
New Delhi: The forthcoming informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Chinas Wuhan city on April 27 and 28 was planned with the objective of strategic communication between the two countries at top leadership levels, sources said on Tuesday.

Specific issues, however, will not be discussed and there will be no joint statement or communique at the end of the discussions. There will be no issue-based discussions nor any resolution of individual problems between the two countries, sources made it clear.

They added that the objective was to have a communication at the highest level for the perspective that each leader has of the others domestic and international policies and to understand each others vision. The vision that each leader will outline to the other will be of their respective domestic policies and how it affects the external environment.

It was decided by the two countries that the two leaders would meet informally ahead of a formal meeting of the multilateral Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the Chinas Qingdao city in June where several other heads of government and state are also expected to be present.

An informal summit where the two leaders will hold informal discussions with their interpreters being the only other persons present was decided upon instead of a regular formal summit which would have had a very structured format with delegations accompanying the leaders.

The informal summit comes at a time when the two giant neighbours are trying to put their ties back on tracks after the bitterness of the Sino-Indian military stand-off last year at Doklam in Bhutanese territory.

This will be the first time that the Chinese side is holding such an informal summit in their country between the Chinese President and another world leader. It is also possible that there could be more such meetings in future, sources indicated. The informal summit will also be a signal to other countries that India and China can directly engage with each other as and when the need arises.
Schools in the state have washed their hands of the matter by saying that it is not feasible for them to reserve seats unless state reimburses them.

HYDERABAD: The State Education Board has issued notices asking schools about their reservation policies after facing flak for the dissatisfactory implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act in the state.

According to Section 12 (1) (c) of the RTE Act, 25 percent of the seats at private and unaided schools are to be reserved for students from economically weaker sections of society. Such students are to be educated for free until the age of 14.

While most other states have ensured that the act is implemented, experts say that private and unaided schools in Telangana continue to exclusively admit only children from families that are relatively well-to-do.

In Karnataka, nearly one lakh seats at private schools have been filled by students from economically weaker sections of society. Meanwhile, schools in the state have washed their hands of the matter by saying that it is not feasible for them to reserve seats and offer free education unless the government reimburses them.

Usha Reddy, the principal of Meridian School, says, We cannot follow the RTE Act unless the government comes up with a way to reimburse the fees that are waived for students from backward sections.

Some schools are implementing the reservation policy as outlined in the constitution, but not as it is outlined in the RTE Act. Narasimha Reddy, the principal of Hyderabad Public School, Ramanthapur, says, About 22 per cent of our seats are reserved for SC and ST students, and students from other backward classes. We cannot afford to reserve another 25 per cent of our seats as per the RTE unless the government funds the programme, or else we will have to hike the fees of our other students, which will be unfair to them.

Other schools offer students from economically-backward classes scholarships and subsidies. We have scholarships for underprivileged students. We offer them subsidies for the purchase of books and uniforms. Though we are not implementing the RTE Act, we are trying to do our bit. We cannot afford to provide free education, says Deepthi Divakar, a teacher.

Meanwhile, activists say that schools and the government are blaming each other for failures in the implementation of the RTE Act.

Educational expert Laxmi Rao says, The Act was created with the intention of ensuring that all children had access to quality education, free of cost. But it has not been implemented properly in the country. The government should develop a financial arrangement so that the RTE Act is implemented.

N. Narayana, the president of the Telangana Parents Association, says that they have staged several protests demanding the implementation of the RTE Act. GO No. 44, which deals with the RTE, is pending in the High Court. Meanwhile, parents are forced to shell out exorbitant fees, which many of them cannot afford, to ensure that their children receive quality education.

RTE too big a burden for schools

Schools say that inclusive education imposes a burden that is too big for them to bear alone. They also seek clarity regarding the implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act. They want to know whether fees other than tuition fees are also to be waived for students who occupy reserved seats.

Maya Suresh, a member of a parent association asks, When middle-class parents are forced to avail of loans to pay their childrens tuition fees, how can we expect parents from economically weaker sections of society to pay the fees for extracurricular activities and school events?

Members of the Telang-ana Progressive Teachers Federation believe that the RTE Act will remain a failed attempt at making education inclusive unless its implementation is strictly monitored. M. Ravinder, the president of the organisation, says, Malpractices will continue if the Act is implemented without careful consideration. Many fake applications are received for admission under the RTE. Other states have set up elected bodies to peruse the applications. We have also heard of students admitted under the RTE being allotted under-qualified faculty and poor accommodation facilities. We should be able to ensure that they are treated as equal to other students throughout their schooling.

The RTE has been implemented effectively in Odisha, where 25 per cent of the seats in all schools are reserved for students from economically weaker sections of society. Parents in Telangana say that we have something to learn from our neighbours.

N. Narayana, the president of the Telangana Parents Association, says, The government needs to act to ensure that the benefits of the RTE Act reach rural areas as well, especially in light of recent decisions to shut down government schools. Where will our children study if the doors of government schools shut, and we cannot afford private schools?
Chennai: A special sub-inspector from Korukkupet reportedly committed suicide on Tuesday morning. His body was found hanging from a tree in Kasimedu fishing harbour.

In the early hours, when fishermen were on their usual walk in the harbour, they found the body and immediately informed the police who later identified him to be Joseph (54), special sub-inspector, crime, Korukkupet.

He is a resident of Tondiarpet police headquarters and was missing for the past three days. Police say the victim's family last saw him on Saturday night.

Harbour police have filed a case and are investigating whether the cause of his death is due to extensive workload or some other personal issue.

His body has been sent to the nearest government hospital for autopsy.

Joseph is survived by his wife and two children. Further investigations are on.

The city has been witnessing continuous police suicides. Most of the policemen and women, especially those from constable to sub-inspector posts complain of high work pressure.
It was reportedly said that Siddaramaiah, who is going to face a tough battle in Chamundeshwari, had asked the Congress for a safe seat as a backup. (Photo: ANI)

Mumbai: The BJP has decided to field Ballari MP B Sriramulu against Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah at Badami constituency in North Karnataka for the May 12 Assembly elections.

The development came after Siddaramaiah announced that he will be contesting from a second seat in Badami, along with Chamundeshwari, from where has won five times since 1983.

It was reportedly said that Siddaramaiah, who is going to face a tough battle in Chamundeshwari, had asked the Congress for a safe seat as a 'backup'.

But with the BJP fielding Sriramulu from there, the Chief Minister has been forced into another high-stakes battle.

However, Siddaramaiah expressed his faith in the voters and said that he was least bothered as to who will contest against him.

"I am least bothered by who will contest against me there (Badami). Whether it is Sriramulu or Yeddyurappa. I have faith in the voters, they will not leave me," Siddaramaiah said.

Badami is a stronghold of the Chief Minister's Kuruba community. The constituency has 2.5 lakh voters - 55,000 from the Kuruba community and the rest from the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes and 25,000 are Muslim.

Sriramulu, who is a close associate of the Bellary Reddy brothers, is known to be highly influential with Scheduled Tribe voters. He has already secured a ticket from Molakalmuru, Chitradurga bordering Ballari district, known to have a high ST population.
The good news for the incumbent government is that a little over one fourth of the respondents are fully satisfied with the performance of the government. Another four of every ten are somewhat satisfied with its performance. Three of every ten respondents were dissatisfied with the government, with those being somewhat dissatisfied and fully dissatisfied being equally divided.

In fact, there was a higher degree of satisfaction with the state government as compared to the central government by five percentage points. However, as this is a poll at the state level, the public perception of the record of the state government becomes more critical. It must be said that in the past a mere satisfaction with the government in power is no guarantee for it to come back to power. If satisfaction with government were linked to intention to vote, only those fully satisfied with the government stated that they would vote for the Congress. More than half of those who were somewhat satisfied were not keen to give a second chance to the ruling party.

When one focuses attention on specifics, the trends are clearly visible. Close to two thirds of the respondents felt that the conditions of roads and supply of electricity to their area had improved in the past five years. Close to six of every ten respondents felt that on supply of drinking water in their locality the situation was much better. However, farmers did not demonstrate the same positive response when it came to irrigation facilities in their area. People also felt that enough had not happened to ensure religious harmony in their region. What is striking to note is that about one-thirds of respondents of Coastal Karnataka feel that religious harmony had worsened under the present government.

On three critical indicators, the respondents appeared to be displeased with the record of the government and could explain the broader trends that are emerging from the pre poll survey. More than three fourths of the respondents felt that the prices of essential commodities had increased. One-third felt that employment opportunities in the past five years had decreased, while four of every ten felt that there had been no change in the employment scene.

PERCEPTION OF CORRUPTION HIGH

Of critical significance is the perception among more than half the respondents that corruption had increased in the last five years. One has noticed in the past, both in Karnataka and in the rest of the country, that negative perceptions on matters that impact the day-to-day life of people can be a matter of concern and alarm for the ruling dispensation, especially if the opposition is able to effectively capitalize on the same.

The survey also asked the question whether the Siddaramaiah government should be given another chance. Half the respondents felt that the government should not get another chance while four of every ten felt that it deserved another opportunity. This trend is closely aligned to the voting intention as expressed by the respondents a month prior to the election.

Close to four of every five of those who wanted the government to get another chance said that they would vote for the Congress. More than half of those who said that the government should not get another chance stated that they would vote for the BJP. Close to one thirds of those who did not favour giving the present government another chance, expressed a desire to vote for the JD(S). Clearly, the anti-incumbency vote is getting split between the BJP and the JDS.

The assessment by the citizen of the government is clearly reflected in their voting intentions and thus it is clear that for the citizens the governments performance record is critical in any decision making on who to vote for.
Far from winning over Lingayat votes for his party in the state assembly election, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiahs recent move to propose separate religious minority status to the Lingayat-Veerashaiva community could well end up boomeranging on him and the Congress.

Even as a majority of Karnatakas Lingayats support the decision in principle, they seem to be in no mood to reward the ruling party for it by casting their votes in its favour. A pre-poll survey conducted by JAIN and Lokniti in the state has found that although over three in every five Lingayats support the idea of granting the minority religion tag to their community, barely one in four are planning to vote for the Congress. Whats even worse for the Congress is that this current support for the party among Lingayats is three percentage points less than what was recorded by a Lokniti survey during the 2013 assembly election. This implies that instead of adding Lingayat votes to the Congresss kitty, the separate religion status move seems to have resulted in turning some of them away from it. The pre-poll survey finds that the Lingayat voters, continue to be solidly behind their traditional voting choice, the Bharatiya Janata Party. Three in every five said they will vote for the BJP. If this level of suppo

rt persists right up to voting day- about three weeks from now, then it would not only be an improvement compared to the 2013 assembly elections, it would also nearly equal the BJPs record performance among Lingayats in the 2014 Lok Sabha election

In the pre-poll survey, about 14 percent of all Lingayat respondents spontaneously reported Lingayatism (and not Hinduism) as their religion. Given that move by the Chief Minister, one would have expected such voters to be far more likely to vote for the Congress as compared to other Lingayats. Paradoxically,, the survey finds the exact opposite. Lingayats who reported Lingayatism as their religion in the survey were found to be three percentage points less likely to vote for the ruling party than Lingayats who reported Hinduism as their religion (21% as opposed to 24%).

A similar counter-intuitive pattern can also been seen when we look at the voting preference of Lingayats who support the move to make Lingayats a separate religion vis-a-vis those who oppose it. The BJP, surprisingly, is getting far more support among those who are in favour of the Congress governments decision than those who are opposed to it (63% to 57%). This clearly shows that while the issue of getting an independent religion status may well be important for Lingayats, it is not being viewed as electorally significant that will determine their voting choices.

Much of the print and online media commentary in the run up to and soon after Chief Minister Siddaramaiahs decision to propose a separate religion for Lingayats has focused on the Ishta-Linga versus Shiva-Linga division within the Lingayats arguing that a sizeable section among Lingayats who follow the teachings of Basavanna have rejected the phallic linga symbol of Shiva and opted for Ishta Linga (a symbolic representation of aformless god to be worn on the body). The pre-poll survey however finds little evidence of this. Merely one in every ten of the Lingayat respondents reported being only Ishta-Linga worshippers. A little over half said they were exclusively Shiva-Linga worshippers and close to three in every ten said that they believed in both the Ishta Linga and the Shiva Linga. Moreover, even though the survey finds the Congress to be doing fairly well among Ishta Linga followers (getting 35% of their support), it is not enough to make up for its poor performance among the much larger community of

Shiva Linga followers and mixed followers.

Not only is the Congress unable to win Lingayat support, the other dominant OBC community in the state, the Vokkaligas, are not showing much inclination towards it either. The survey finds only 24 percent (one in four) of the Vokkaligas opting for the Congress over other parties at the moment. This is three points less than the support for the Congress in the previous assembly election. For a plurality of Vokkaligas, the Janata Dal Secular (JDS) continues to be the number one voting choice. A little less than half of them (46%) are planning to vote for the JDS in the coming election. This current support level for the JDS among Vokkaligas is in fact greater than in the 2013 election when two in every five had voted for the party. The BJP too seems to be making gains with the party presently netting 27 percent Vokkaliga votes as opposed to 20 percent last time around.

Despite its poor showing among Lingayats and Vokkaligas, the survey finds the Congress to be currently slightly ahead of its nearest competitor, the BJP, in overall terms, and this is largely due to the support it is receiving among its traditional voting bloc of backward classes, Dalits and minorities or AHINDA as it is known. According to the survey, the Congress is presently securing about three-fourths of the Kuruba vote (the community to which Siddaramaiah belongs), three-fifths of the Muslim vote, nearly half of the Dalit vote (who are about 17 percent of the total electorate) and two-fifths of the tribal vote. But here too the incumbent party has reasons to worry since the survey finds a united BJP to have also made gains among nearly all these communities compared to the last assembly election. Having failed in its bid to encroach upon the Lingayat voter base of the BJP, the challenge before the Congress in the days ahead is to somehow stall a creeping advance of the BJP into its own territory.

(Shreyas Sardesai is a Research Associate at Lokniti)
Hyderabad: With only two weeks left for campaigning to end in the Karnataka Assembly elections, it is still not clear whether various Telugu leaders from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh would campaign in that state, especially in areas with significant Telugu population, or not. Though several speculative statements have been aired by various sources, nothing has been finalized yet.

The Telugu Desam (TD) party said that it would campaign against the BJP in the Karnataka State elections, whereas the Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had announced that he was ready to campaign in support of the Janata Dal (S) led by Deve Gowda, if requested by that party. Sources in TRS said Mr Rao has not received any call from the JD (S) leadership.

The JD (S) has, meanwhile, requested Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan to campaign in favour of their party candidates, who it is reported, has agreed. A few days ago, senior JD (S) leader and party spokesperson Ramesh Babu said, Pawan Kalyan has agreed to campaign for our party candidates. His presence will certainly help us.

Jana Sena leaders, however, say that they have not yet discussed or finalized Mr Kalyans Karnataka tour programme.

The AICC has named former Union Minister and actor K Chiranjeevi as a campaigner for the Karnataka Assembly elections as part of its list released with names of campaigners from across the country. Mr Chiranjeevi had campaigned in the previous Karnataka Assembly elections also in several constituencies with significant Telugu people. The AP State Congress sources said that the tour schedule of Chiranjeevi was not yet finalized, but APCC president Raghuveera Reddy too would campaign in Karnataka.

After breaking its alliance with the BJP in protest against the denial of the Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh, the TD leaders said that the party leaders would campaign against the BJP in Karnataka. Deputy Chief Minister KE Krishna Murthy had appealed to Telugu speaking people of Karnataka to vote against the BJP recently in Bengaluru. Yet, no other Telugu Desam leader has yet formally visited Karnataka to campaign against their former ally.

To prove the seriousness of their anti-saffron party credentials, TD sources say that they have started vigorous online campaign against the BJP targeting Telugu people living in Karnataka. TD is voicing its anger to them against the injustices done by the BJP. But the party has not announced a specific campaign programme by any major leader.
Rajahmundry: Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu made serious comments about Governor E.S.L. Narasimhans controversial behaviour.

The Governor is bringing all Opposition parties against the Telugu Desam, this has been reported in newspapers. It is not correct for a Governor to behave like this, Mr Naidu said.

He said that it was not correct for a Governor to behave in a partisan manner. Mr Naidus comments against the Governor came after a two-hour discussion between them two days ago, after which the Governor left for Delhi to submit a report on AP affairs to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Addressing a public meeting held to mark the National Panchayat Raj Day celebrations at Dwarapudi village in east Godavari district on Tuesday, Mr Naidu said the Telugu Desam had been opposing the practice of making Governors as agents of the Centre from a long time, as it results in abuse of office.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was still in London when British Prime Minister Theresa May gave what is described as a secret intelligence briefing to the Prime Ministers of Australia, Canada and New Zealand, the only countries left in the Commonwealth that can still be called white, at the National Cyber Security Centre.

One understandable reason for excluding the Indian PM from this highly sensitive event could have been Mr Modis refusal to explicitly blame Russia for using chemical weapons in Syria and Salisbury, as the three Caucasian premiers did with Cold War gusto. Another could be the insistence on more work visas for Indians. Ms May must resent the attempt to burden her with the problem of people whom India educates but cant find jobs for.

The over-arching reason is that despite gullible Indians imagining the Prime Minister was treated to special privileges during the recent Commonwealth summit, he is not family for her the way Malcolm Turnbull, Justin Trudeau and Jacinda Ardern (leaders of Australia, Canada and New Zealand respectively) are.

Ms Mays ideal would probably be the plan for a two-tier Commonwealth attributed to Sir Robert Menzies, Australian Prime Minister from 1939 to 1941 and 1949 to 1966, and the last defender of the White Australia policy. According to Menzies the real Commonwealth would be an inner group of White dominions. In those days that meant not only Australia, Canada and New Zealand, but also South Africa and the two Rhodesias.

Ms May seems to go through the motions of universalism pleasantly enough. She wouldnt quarrel with the lead editorial in the Times which urged her last week to woo India to buy the British goods that cant be exported to the European Union after the divorce.

On the eve of the summit she apologised to Caribbean politicians (whom she had earlier refused to meet) for her governments monstrous treatment of the children of West Indians who were welcomed in 1948 when Britain was desperately short of manpower.

A cartoon in the rival Daily Telegraph showed her saying Stay as long as you like to an assembly of Africans, Asians and West Indians, while the prompter on the lectern before her read Now Clear Out. It appeared on the 92nd birthday of Queen Elizabeth who has never been accused of the slightest whiff of racism. Robust turban-wearing Indian dancers performed at Her Majestys birthday party at the Royal Albert Hall, reminding watchers of Boris Johnsons acid comment that the Queen loves nothing better than cheering crowds of flag- waving piccaninnies.

One interpretation of the Telegraph cartoon could be the muted tussle between migrants from the EU and the Commonwealth. Ms May has reiterated that the Conservatives have not changed their target of cutting the number of immigrants to less than one lakh a year by 2022. What no one knows for sure is whether this will mean slashing the EU or Commonwealth quota.

Ms Mays government speaks in so many voices that everyone is confused. Perhaps this is intentional. Both Michael Gove and Priti Patel, present and former members of her government, have hinted immigrants from the Commonwealth will be given priority. But the minister in charge of exiting the EU, David Davis, seems to want exactly the opposite. Employers are assured they neednt worry about the prospect of losing European plumbers, electricians, handymen and other workers. Bangladeshi restaurant owners were similarly given to understand that immigration curbs would not starve the curry industry of skilled chefs from the subcontinent. Uncertainty threatens to continue till the end of the year for that is when home minister Amber Rudd has promised a white paper on the governments immigration policy.

Confusion Dissimulation?  has a long lineage. The 1948 West Indians came on the back of the British Nationality Act 1948 which conferred United Kingdom citizenship on colonial subjects. Then came the 1961 immigration law which was colour blind in its wording but was intended to operate on coloured people almost exclusively, according to R.A. Butler, whom some called the best Prime Minister Britain never had. The so-called working holidaymaker rules Edward Heath introduced in 1973 benefited mostly those who are White members of the Commonwealth, from Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The Labour Opposition at the time denounced the rules as cruel and brutal anti-colour legislation.

Ms Mays avowed aim in 2012, when she was home minister, of creating a really hostile environment for illegal migration inevitably ensured the atmosphere was really hostile for all Afro-Asian-Caribbean visitors. It still is. It often seems as if immigration officials are specially instructed to be unpleasant to all Asians and Africans. Even some White EU citizens find the environment hostile.

The Commonwealth caravan was packing its tents when the 1959 star-studded film version of John Osbornes Look Back in Anger was screened on British TV.

Since India was a living reality for the English in 1956 when Osborne wrote the

play, some of the references are not at all surprising. The Indian stall-holder Kapoor (played by S.P. Kapoor), for instance, says he believes in justice but doesnt expect it for himself. When Jimmy Porter (Richard Burton) asks why he came to Britain to be insulted and humiliated, Kapoor replies simply that as an Untouchable, he was beyond the pale in India.

Some might object Kapoor doesnt sound like a dalit name. Others will claim that Indian conditions have changed since Osborne wrote the play. But the fundamentals remain unchanged. If Ms May is guilty of duplicity over Afro-Asian immigrants, Mr Modi is guilty of exposing his people to her wiles. Someone should advise him its demeaning for Indias Prime Minister to plead cap-in-hand with his British colleague for jobs for Indians whom India cant feed.
The Prime Minister Narendra Modis gag order on ruling party legislators may be aimed to serve or save his partys image but it is commonsensical enough for everyone in public life. Too many ruling party members have been struck by the foot-in-the-mouth disease to such an extent as to sully not only their partys image but also that of the country itself. For instance, the comment saying brouhaha should not be made over one or two rapes in a big country like India by the Union minister of labour could go as far as to smear the countrys image at a time when crimes against women constitute the hottest topic in the public domain, internationally too. The PMs assessment that his legislators are providing masala to the media is not far from the truth as they seem somewhat overeager to respond to queries on every topic without seeming to give any matter deep thought.

The problem is the ruling party members are the ones more likely to fall to the seductive presence of the electronic media microphone that beats a path to their door every day. Not everyone is eligible to orchestrate events and interviews that the top political leaders of the country manage. The responsibility then is theirs but they seem unaware of the possible consequences of speaking without thinking. For instance, the existence of the Internet in the time of the Mahabharata may sound silly when uttered by anyone. However, such bizarre theories gain currency when legislators air them and, appropriately enough, they invite ridicule while not a pip is heard from a few motormouths who have been out of power for a while now. The PMs acceptance that the media is not to blame for all this makes sense too because too often shooting the messenger has been the approach of most politicians. The realisation that all this is their creation should be a good beginning for the reappearance of commonsense.
The CPI(M), which had been relegated to the margins after crippling defeats in West Bengal and Tripura, has emerged with some focus from its 22nd Party Congress that concluded in Hyderabad on Sunday. A clear sign of this is the re-election of party general secretary Sitaram Yechury for a new three-year term.

Even as the deliberations went on at the Left partys triennial assembly to decide on the political tactical line, there were suggestions that the CPI(M) would seek to fight two enemies at the same time  the communal ruling BJP-RSS, as well as the Congress Party, a shadow of its old self even in the Opposition ranks but still the principal all-India Opposition party.

Ideologically, politically and strategically, this would have been an extraordinary exercise at navel-gazing. Former general secretary Prakash Karat was pushing this line.

Mr Karat has hewed to the traditional anti-Congress line of the communists formulated to defeat Jawaharlal Nehrus Congress. Eventually, the Communist Party of India split in 1964 on the question of the attitude toward the Congress, throwing up the CPI(Marxist), of which belief Mr Karat is the last prominent remnant.

It is said his line enjoyed the majority in the CPI(M) central committee, and had tied the hands of general secretary Sitaram Yechury, who was first elected three years ago.

But for the delegates at the Hyderabad Congress, comprising the partys rank-and-file, who demanded secret voting (never done before) on the political document forwarded for the consideration of the Party Congress by the central committee, Mr Karats position, backed by Pinarayi Vijayan, the chief minister of Kerala (the only state where the CPI(M) matters enough to form a government) would have prevailed. Its defeat has far-reaching political significance. It signals a re-think for the first time of the broad position adopted by the CPI(M) since 1964. That makes the Hyderabad Congress historic. Mr Yechury has announced that the main immediate aim of his party will be to work for the defeat of the BJP-RSS in the next Lok Sabha election. He now has the freedom to strike any sort of electoral working arrangement with any bourgeois party, including the Congress, in order to achieve this goal. The situation is always dynamic in politics and where this leads is a matter of guesswork. But it is clear that the rank-and-file of the CPI(M) has defied the party elite in order to wrest a new tactical line.

It will be surprising if the new position of the CPI(M) does not leave a mark on the CPI, whose own Party Congress is coming up shortly. The CPI has been fine with tactically aligning electoral and political positions with the Congress in order to push back the big bourgeoisie, but in recent times it had begun to tail the CPI(M). The two parties may now reach a better understanding.
We have been asked to double our prayers with deeper fervour for peace in the world, announced the organiser during the social gathering of senior citizens of the church where I serve as priest last Friday. There is a strange sort of disturbance in the world that needs addressing, she added. Though she meant the likes of war in Syria where even children suffered due to poisonous gas, my thoughts inadvertently flew farther away from my current location in Austria, to Kathua, Surat, Indore and so on. The organiser having no idea whatsoever of the horrific incidents that shook the nation, causing widespread disturbance to the conscience of more than a billion people, was so right. Besides the endless questions that God fearing people raise, along with candle light marches for the ghastly incidents, there is also a strong sense of losing hope in the future  losing faith in human goodness that finds its origin in Gods benevolence.

Reflecting on such distressing situations Christian mystics and theologians contend that God too suffers and feels as much, if not more, helpless as we do. It is such incidents that throw some people out of balance leading them often to abandon their faith in God. Where indeed is God in such earth-shattering inhuman events, they ask. And would anyone blame them? Certainly not I! Until of course I am led to the incident that took place 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem with a man named Jesus.

Analysing that whole event from the biblical perspective, the Christian mystics believe that God too writhed in pain when He saw His own son crucified. With all His might and power, He did not intervene to save Jesus. He remained silent and seemingly ignored Jesus plea, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Completely abandoned by God and by his friends Jesus died a lonely death much like the children in our cruel world.

Suddenly then a new hope dawned as the doubts of the disciples began to slowly change into faith when they saw and heard Jesus in their midst greeting them each time with, Peace be with you. God did transform that suffering into such abundant joy and hope that his disciples simply started taking on the world with love and forgiveness. Their hope was converted into concrete good humanitarian deeds. The belief in Jesus resurrection actually changed that defeat, that darkness and hopelessness into a new Hope. While God suffers painfully with us, He gives us hope and courage to meet such challenges head on.
February 28 is celebrated in India as the National Science Day (NSD). The date itself pays tribute to the discovery of Raman Effect which brought a Nobel Prize to C.V. Raman.

February 28 is celebrated in India as the National Science Day (NSD). The date itself pays tribute to the discovery of Raman Effect which brought a Nobel Prize to C.V. Raman. Apart from speeches and films highlighting the role of science and its importance to the common citizen, various programmes on National Science Day highlight the scientific temper  the scientific temper owes its origin to the way science proceeds to expand its role in understanding nature, it is an attitude of mind which we should all cultivate that aims at being rational in our action and overall behaviour.

But scientific temper has a wider role to play, which takes it well beyond the highways and byways of science. Science progressed over the years by admitting new facts and ideas to its fold by demanding their critical appraisal. Do not accept a statement as factual until you have evidence to support iteven if it comes from a distinguished or important personage. So says the scientific temper.

Jawaharlal Nehru had greatly supported the scientific temper and had written about its importance for India which he saw as bound up in many

superstitions. Writing in his Discovery of India he had expressed the hope that after the country gains independence its citizens would learn to adopt the scientific temper.

Of the many age-old beliefs they would learn to discard those which have ceased to be relevant and retain only those which have stood the test of time. Unfortunately this has not happened. The majority of our countrymen still continue to have superstitions.

The NSD therefore has a role to play. On this day there are talks and presentations debunking superstitions of various kind, as well as programmes presenting highlights of science so as to make people appreciate science and be science-friendly. In particular, children are an ideal target group for NSD.

Arvind Gupta, a science populariser has created a niche for himself through his science toys. Made mostly out of discarded material with minimal additions of equipment bought outside, these toys are very cheap to make but are remarkable in what they do. To a superficial observer they look magical until their secrets are explained. The secret of each toy is based on some law of science, the same law that appeared in the school textbook. But whereas the textbook version was presented in the class in a dry and uninteresting form, the toy version is of great interest to the student since it is manifest through the law in action.

Indeed, Guptas creations show that practical demonstration is the best way of learning science. Of course, there are many ways of demonstrating to the uninitiated, how science works. The important thing is that the demonstration is in some action-oriented mode.

Famous scientist Michael Faraday had realised this and stressed the importance of practicals in teaching science. He had set up the Royal Institution of Great Britain back in the 19th century. Even today, this venerable organisation has been following Faradays practice of presenting basic science to the layperson through lecture demonstrations.

And the response of the general public has been overwhelming. It is said that the crowds caused such traffic jams that the Albemarle Street where the Institute is located had to be declared a one-way street. It is in fact the first one-way street in the world!

It is said that when he carried out a demonstration of electric motor in front of Queen Victoria, she asked as to what was the use of that exercise. Faraday is believed to have replied: Your Majesty, you do not ask what is the use of a new born baby! In short, when studying basic sciences one should enjoy them as additions to human understanding. They may turn out to have practical applications but that issue is secondary.

The Royal Institution has had distinguished scientists heading it. But despite their work at very advanced level of science, they have all shown great interest in bringing science to the masses. Here is an anecdote about Sir Lawrence Bragg, Nobel Laureate head of the Royal Institution, showing how seriously he took that activity.

Bragg had been making a film for use in a lecture demonstration to schoolchildren. When the film was complete and was seen by Bragg and the film director, the latter was not too happy with some parts of the film. Two portions needed to be re-shot. Somewhat hesitantly he brought the matter to Braggs attention, being afraid that Bragg may be too busy to spend more time on the film. But Bragg readily agreed to redo the portions. The film director asked him to wear the same suit that he had worn in the film.

However, when Bragg looked for the suit he could not find it. The suit was getting old so his wife gave it to their maid servant to sell it at the charity auction in her village. Bragg realised that unless that suit was found he would have to re-shoot the whole film.

Let us find that suit! he said and decided to trace it in the village of the servant. So the Bragg couple drove to that village and called on the organiser of the auction. That lady recalled who had bought the suit and directed the Braggs to that buyers house in the village. That person confirmed his participation in the auction but said that he had only bid for the jacket: the trousers were sold in another lot.

So borrowing the jacket for the shooting, the Braggs tried to trace the buyer of the trousers. Alas, that could not be done as the buyer was not locally known. So the Braggs returned to London with the jacket only. And Bragg asked the filmmaker to shoot the revised shots such that only the jacket should be visible. This the filmmaker could do and thus the problem was resolved. This example illustrates the importance attached to teaching science to schoolchildren by a distinguished scientist.
Waiting at the door, the US president smiled and held out his hand for Macron to shake, and the French leader kissed him on both cheeks. (Photo: AP)

Washington: French President Emanuel macron is on a three-day state visit to the United States. He met US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump upon his arrival in Washington on Monday.

Before getting the full red carpet treatment at the White House on Monday  payback for wooing Trump with military parades and a dazzling Eiffel Tower dinner in Paris last July  Macron took an impromptu stroll to the Lincoln Memorial with his wife Brigitte.

Hailing the "very important" visit, Macron then rolled into the West Wing from Lafayette Square  named after the storied French general who fought in America's war for independence  beneath dozens of fluttering tricolour French flags and before the full US military colour guard.

Waiting at the door, the US president smiled and held out his hand for Macron to shake, and the French leader kissed him on both cheeks. Later, the first couples had dinner at Mount Vernon, the mansion that was the home of George Washington, the first US president.

They talked about the state of the US economy, Trump's approval rating, the mid-term elections in November in the US, internet regulation and the fight against Islamist terror, according to the French leader's office.

Trump is deeply unpopular in France and Macron, like other world leaders  from Japan's Shinzo Abe to Britain's Theresa May  is under growing pressure to show voters the benefits of his courtship with the 71-year-old Republican.

Looming over it all are two May deadlines that have the potential to wreck already fragile trans-Atlantic relations. Biting trade sanctions on European steel and aluminium will enter into force on 1 May unless Trump agrees to sign a waiver. If he refuses, there are fears of a full-fledged trade war.

Meanwhile, France and other European nations are battling to save a complex nuclear deal with Iran, which Trump will scuttle if he refuses to waive sanctions against Tehran by a 12 May deadline. Iran says it is ready to relaunch its nuclear program  which the West suspect is designed to produce a bomb  if Trump kills the deal. European officials say Trump's demand to reopen the deal is impossible, and are scrambling to address his concerns on Tehran's missile testing, inspections and the regime's behaviour in the region. There is growing frustration in European capitals that Trump's stubbornness over the Obama-era agreement is diverting attention away from other pressing issues.

In an interview broadcast on the eve of his arrival, Macron went on Trump's favourite television channel, Fox News, to make his pitch. "If you make war against everybody," Macron said, "trade war against Europe, the war in Syria, war against Iran  come on  it doesn't work. You need allies. We are the allies."

Macron will also be keen to temper Trump's instinct to precipitously pull the US military out of Syria, amid cooperation in fighting the Islamic State group and coordinated strikes on chemical weapons installations operated by Damascus. "I think the US role is very important to play," he said. "Why? I will be very blunt. The day we will have finished this war against ISIS, if we leave, definitely and totally, even from a political point of view, we will leave the floor to the Iranian regime, Bashar al-Assad and these guys."

In public, both countries are keen to emphasize their historic relationship  recalling that France was the first ally of American revolutionaries fighting for independence. Macron brought with him an oak sapling that he and Trump planted at the White House on Monday as a symbol of friendship. It comes from near the site of the Battle of Belleau Woods in northern France, where 2,000 US Marines perished at the end of World War I. The pair, clearly relaxed, also briefly visited the Oval Office before heading to Mount Vernon.

On a personal level, despite sharp differences in political background, age and lifestyle, the presidents seem to have struck up a bond as fellow outsiders who outwitted the establishment to gain power. "We have a very special relationship because both of us are probably the maverick of the systems on both sides," Macron told Fox News.

Trump himself told Macron their "friendship" was "unbreakable" during his trip to Paris last year. When asked about their first encounter  a much-scrutinized six-second handshake during a NATO summit in May  Macron acknowledged it had was a "very direct, lucid moment" that had set the tone for them. "And a very friendly moment," he added. "It was to say now, we will work together."

On Wednesday, the centrist leader will demonstrate his English-language skills  a rarity for a French president  in an address to a joint session of Congress.
An exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 'The Train: RFKs Last Journey,' displays 21 of the 1,000 unique colour slides made by photographer Paul Fusco on June 8, 1968. (Photo: AP)

San Francisco: The assassination of Robert F Kennedy Jr 50 years ago this June fractured the nation just two months after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr and five years after his brother John F Kennedy was killed.

But RFKs funeral, particularly the train that took his body from a memorial service in New York City to his resting place at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, brought the country together in a new, unprecedented way: An estimated 2 million ordinary Americans spontaneously gathered beside railroad tracks to honour him as the train passed by.

An exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Train: RFKs Last Journey, displays 21 of the 1,000 unique colour slides made by photographer Paul Fusco on June 8, 1968.

The images captured Americas grief in a way that was unusual in photography, by seeing the events through the eyes of ordinary people.

The photos show Americans of all colours and classes. Catholic schoolgirls, field hands, firemen, blue-collar workers and housewives in their bonnets create a tableau of those who came to say farewell to the man many knew simply as Bobby.

Some climbed fence posts to get a better view. Some saluted. Others stood rock-ribbed straight. Some waved American flags or handmade posters, So Long Bobby.

(Photo: AP)

Others turned from work to see what all the fuss was about as the maroon train car holding his coffin rolled by.

Fusco, at the time a staffer for Look magazine, made the images from his unique position aboard the funeral train en route to Arlington. He said he was astonished when the train emerged from a New York City tunnel to see hundreds of people gathering beside the tracks. At times he used a panning motion to isolate certain people and scenes, creating a blur around the edges of the images.

The exhibit also shows the importance of the day for those who were there, through a collection of personal images sought out by Dutch artist Rein Jelle Terpstra, who became fascinated with Fuscos photos and launched a research project in 2014 to collect pictures and films from the observers who watched the funeral procession go by. Among the most striking is a carefully labelled photo album collage decorated with red, white and blue construction paper.

The moving exhibit also includes a 70 mm film reconstruction of the day by French artist Philippe Parreno, complete with the haunting sound of a train clacking through fields and cities.

So many people came to say goodbye to Bobby Kennedy on June 8, 1968, that the train slowed and the journey took nearly twice as long as usual, nearly eight hours to travel a typically four-hour route.

Kennedy, a US senator from New York, was running for president and had just won the California primary when he was shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles by Sirhan Sirhan. Kennedy died on June 6, 1968.

RFKs Last Journey is on display at the museum through June 10.
The mistake is particularly sensitive given suspicions about the extent of British involvement in India's deadly 1984 raid on the temple to evict Sikh separatists. (Photo: File)

London: The top civil servant in Britain's Foreign Office has apologized for calling one of India's holiest Sikh temples a mosque.

At QBP in Chandigarh @SinghLions presented @DHCAndrewAyre with picture of HM The Queen at Golden Mosque in Amritsar in 1997, a permanent memento for Deputy High Commissions wall @UKinIndia pic.twitter.com/GFkBT0GcRU  Sir Simon McDonald (@SMcDonaldFCO) April 23, 2018

Simon McDonald referred to the Golden Temple in Amritsar as the "Golden Mosque" in a tweet. On Tuesday he tweeted: "I was wrong: I am sorry. I should of course have said the Golden Temple or, better, Sri Harmandir Sahib."

I was wrong: I am sorry. I should of course have said the Golden Temple or, better, Sri Harmandir Sahib. https://t.co/4rJ4mwOdCJ  Sir Simon McDonald (@SMcDonaldFCO) April 24, 2018

Bhai Amrik Singh, chairman of Britain's Sikh Federation, said the gaffe "demonstrates a remarkable level of ignorance from someone in his position."

The mistake is particularly sensitive given suspicions about the extent of British involvement in India's deadly 1984 raid on the temple to evict Sikh separatists.

In 2014 Britain acknowledged that a UK military officer advised the Indian army before the raid, though it said his advice was ignored.
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US president Donald Trump has accepted an invitation of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for a summit meeting. (Photo: AP)

Washington: The United States will continue its "maximum pressure" campaign against North Korea, the White House has said, ruling out any possibility of lifting of sanctions till Pyongyang takes "concrete action" to denuclearise.

"Certainly, the goal is denuclearisation of the peninsula. And we're going to continue the maximum pressure campaign that has been ongoing to North Korea until we see concrete actions taken toward complete and total denuclearisation," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters at her daily news conference on Monday.

US president Donald Trump has accepted an invitation of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for a summit meeting. The meeting is expected to be held later this summer. At least five non-US venues are being looked at for the summit.

Trump's pick to be the next secretary of state, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, was in Pyongyang three weeks ago to hold high level preparatory talks with the North Korean leaders.

Defence Secretary Jim Mattis, in an interaction with reporters at the Pentagon, exuded confidence that the summit meeting would yield results.

"Right now, I think there is a lot of reasons for optimism that the negotiations will be fruitful and we'll see," he said.

Sanders said North Korean leaders had agreed to denuclearise.

"Certainly in a number of conversations, including the comments I'd refer you back to. Also South Korea president Moon Jae-in, who has said that North Korea has expressed a will for complete denuclearisation. That's the focus of any conversation and negotiation that the United States will have with North Korea," she added.

The Trump administration wants action from Pyongyang. Sanders said the US wouldn't make the mistake of past administrations in taking the North Koreans "simply at their word."

"We've seen some steps in the right direction, but we have a long way to go. We also have seen a major change in what has taken place in the past, by having our allies and partners in the region step up and do much more than they have in the past," she said.

China has taken a more active role in putting pressure on North Korea, Sanders said, adding that they could certainly do more.

"We hope they will, and will continue working with us. That's all at the direction and because of the relationship that the president has built with President Xi Jinping of China," she said.
The Belt and Road is Chinese President Xi Jinping's landmark scheme to build infrastructure to connect China to the rest of Asia and beyond, a giant reworking of its old Silk Road. (Photo: PTI | Representational)

Beijing: China failed to get India's support for its Belt and Road infrastructure project at the end of a foreign ministers' meeting of a major security bloc on Tuesday, ahead of an ice-breaking trip to China this week by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Belt and Road is Chinese President Xi Jinping's landmark scheme to build infrastructure to connect China to the rest of Asia and beyond, a giant reworking of its old Silk Road.

India has not signed up to the initiative as parts of one key project, the USD 57 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor or CPEC, run through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Whether or not China will be able to win India round to the Belt and Road will likely be a key measure of the success of Modi's trip to China to meet Xi for an informal meeting on Friday and Saturday.

But Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj did not express support for Belt and Road in the communique released after foreign ministers of the China and Russia-led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) met in Beijing.

India, along with Pakistan, joined the SCO in 2017.

All the other foreign ministers -- from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan -- "reaffirmed support for China's Belt and Road proposal", the statement read.

It gave no further explanation.

The communique otherwise was a broad expression of unity by the ministers on issues ranging from their support for the Iran nuclear deal to the need to combat the spread of extremism.

Modi is going to China as efforts at rapprochement gather pace following a testing year in ties between the two neighbours. The two nations were locked in a 73-day military stand-off in the high-altitude Doklam plateau, in 2017.

Speaking at a daily news briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said both countries had agreed holding a more relaxed informal meeting was a good idea.

"It can provide a comfortable atmosphere for the two countries' leaders to have full and deep exchanges on important issues of mutual concern," Lu said.

China believes the meeting, in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, will reach important new consensus and promote the continued healthy development of ties going forward, he added.

Modi will again visit China in June for a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

China will also have to tread carefully to avoid giving its close ally Pakistan cause for alarm. China on Monday reassured Pakistan that relations between the two countries were as firm as ever and would "never rust".
Civilian drones will also participate in the drill for the first time to conduct surveillance and mark targets, while civilian telecom service providers will assist in maintaining communication and control, the ministry said. (Photo: Representational | AP)

Taipei: Taiwan will practise thwarting a Chinese "invasion" in annual live-fire drills in June, simulating surprise coastal assaults to reflect increased military threats from Beijing, officials said on Tuesday. China's growing military is increasingly flexing its muscles and held live-fire drills last week in the Taiwan Straitthe narrow waterway separating the Chinese mainland from Taiwan -- following weeks of naval manoeuvres in the area.

Chinese officials said their drills were to safeguard Beijing's territorial sovereignty, a major priority for President Xi Jinping. Although Taiwan is a self-ruling democracy, it has never formally declared independence from the mainland and Beijing still sees it as a renegade province to be brought back into the fold, by force if necessary.

Cross-strait relations have steadily deteriorated since 2016 when President Tsai Ing-wen took office, largely because she refuses to accept that Taiwan is part of "one China", and because Beijing is deeply suspicious of her traditionally pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party. Taiwan's five-day drill, codenamed "Han Kuang", which means "Han Glory", will start from 4 June.

"Simply put, the main goal of the drill is to make any Chinese communist military mission to invade Taiwan fail," defence ministry spokesman Chen Chung-chi told reporters. "It simulates this year's situation and we are taking into consideration China's air and naval movements in the region," he added. This year's drill will enlist the coastguard and National Airborne Service Corps, which handles rescue flights, for the first time for "comprehensive defence", Chen said.

Civilian drones will also participate in the drill for the first time to conduct surveillance and mark targets, while civilian telecom service providers will assist in maintaining communication and control, the ministry said.

"It's not just soldiers' duties to protect the country. Everyone has the responsibility since our defence budget is limited," Chen said. Taipei dismissed China's military exercises in the Taiwan Strait last week as "routine" after expected large-scale naval manoeuvres failed to materialise and called it the "cheapest way of verbal intimidation and sabre-rattling". Chinese state media reported Tuesday that a flotilla of Chinese naval vessels held a "live combat drill" in the East China Sea, the latest show of force in disputed waters that have riled neighbours.

Earlier this month Chinese president Xi inspected the convoy as it conducted exercises in the disputed South China Sea. The flotilla then held two separate drills last week in waters on either side of Taiwan, infuriating the government in Taipei.
Rouhani spoke to a crowd of supporters in the city of Tabriz on Tuesday. (Photo: AFP)

Tehran: Irans president has issued another warning as meetings between President Donald Trump and Frances Emmanuel Macron are underway in Washington. Hassan Rouhani says the United States will face grave consequences if Washington decides to withdraw from the landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.

Rouhani spoke to a crowd of supporters in the city of Tabriz on Tuesday. State TV broadcast the speech.

He said the Iranian nation and government will strongly resist any plots by those who sit in the White House. He didnt elaborate except to say Tehran has abided by commitments.

Trump did not re-certify the deal in January but extended the main sanctions waivers and gave the Europeans until the next waiver deadline on May 12 to come up with fixes to the deal.
Indias second largest IT services provider Infosys on Monday said it will recruit more fresh talent from IITs, foreign universities and colleges as part of its digital transformation strategy.

We are diversifying our talent mix by hiring graduates from design school, liberal arts and humanities in India as well as in the US, U B Pravin Rao, chief operating officer, Infosys said.

Addressing analysts in Mumbai, Rao said the company has been revamping its hiring process to cope up with talent gap arising out of a changing technology scenario.

As you have seen, we have had an exponential increase in our new services in the past four years. There is a wide skill gap and focusing on the entire people supply chain like hiring, training and deploying, he said.

The digital space contributed over Rs 18,000 crore ($2.79 billion) to the companys topline in 2017-18, which is 25.5% of its total revenues.

As part of hiring strategy, he said Infosys has started recruiting talent depending on the customers requirements with relevant skill sets.

Rao said the company is entering into a strategic partnership with third parties including universities to enhance its talent pool.

He said reskilling is important as the company is embracing new technology in a digital environment.

The company has also carved a learning map. We have made our own learning platform and learning app. We profile our employees in adjacent areas and can upskill on digital, cloud and Dev-ops technologies as per the clients needs, he said.

Infosys had a total headcount of 2,04,107 at the end of March 31, 2018.
China failed to get India's support for its ambitious Belt and Road infrastructure project at the end of a foreign ministers' meeting of a major security bloc on Tuesday, ahead of an ice-breaking trip to China this week by India's Prime Minister.

The Belt and Road is Chinese President Xi Jinping's landmark scheme to build infrastructure to connect China to the rest of Asia and beyond, a giant reworking of its old Silk Road.

India has not signed up to the initiative as parts of one key project, the $57 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, run through Pakistan-administered Kashmir that India considers its own territory.

Whether or not China will be able to win India round to the Belt and Road will likely be a key measure of the success of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's trip to China to meet Xi for an informal meeting on Friday and Saturday.

But India's Foreign Minister did not express support for Belt and Road in the communique released after foreign ministers of the China and Russia-led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation met in Beijing.

India, along with Pakistan, joined the group last year.

All the other Foreign Ministers - from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan - "reaffirmed support for China's Belt and Road proposal", the statement read.

It gave no further explanation.

Modi is coming to China as efforts at rapprochement gather pace following a testing year in ties between the two neighbours.

The Asian giants were locked in a 73-day military stand-off in a remote, high-altitude stretch of that boundary last year. At one point, soldiers from the two sides threw stones and punches.

The confrontation between the nuclear-armed powers in the Himalayas underscored Indian alarm at China's expanding security and economic links in South Asia.

Modi will come again to China in June for a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

China will also have to tread carefully to avoid giving its close ally Pakistan cause for alarm. China on Monday reassured Pakistan that relations between the two countries were as firm as ever and would "never rust".
The BJP on Tuesday fielded Thothadappa Basavaraju, a former district (rural) vice president, as its candidate from the high-profile Varuna Assembly segment. Basavaraju is at present a party media coordinator.

Earlier in the day, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar announced that B Y Vijayendra would be nominated as the state Yuva Morcha general secretary, considering his organising skills and popularity among the youth. Vijayendra is the son of state BJP president B S Yeddyurappa.

The announcement came as BJP workers continued with their protests in Mysuru, Nanjangud, T Narsipur, Varuna and Vajamangala seeking Vijayendra's candidature from Varuna Assembly segment for the May 12 elections.

Basavaraju completed the process of filing his papers at Nanjangud Taluk Office on Tuesday, the last day for filing the nomination. A resident of T Narsipur, he had filed his nomination on April 17 but without the 'B' form. On Tuesday, he added the 'B' form.

Varuna is at present represented by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his son Dr Yathindra will contest on a Congress ticket from the segment in the upcoming polls.

The constituency caught the limelight after Vijayendra started touring villages, projecting himself as the BJP's prospective candidate and had also rented a house in Varuna village.

Vijayendra was born and brought up in Shikaripura, Shivamogga district, while Yeddyurappa was born and raised in Bookanakere in K R Pet taluk of Mandya district.

The BJP's Karnataka in-charge Muralidhar Rao and Javadekar rushed to Mysuru on Monday night to hold discussions with the leaders concerned on the issue.

While the BJP candidates had warned of withdrawing their nominations if Vijayendra does not get a ticket, some supporters had threatened to commit suicide. Some party leaders had warned of resigning from their posts in local bodies.

Meanwhile, Yeddyurappa said Vijayendra will stay in Mysuru region and support the BJP candidates in the elections.

He apologised to the BJP supporters in Varuna and also across the state for the unsavoury episode, which caused inconvenience to party workers.

Vijayendra thanked the people of Varuna for accepting and supporting him.
SALT LAKE CITY  Mitt Romney will again face a Kennedy in an election with a U.S. Senate seat on the line.

Not one of those Kennedys. (Romney lost to Ted Kennedy in the 1994 Senate race in Massachusetts.)

This is Mike Kennedy, a conservative state legislator from Alpine who outgunned Romney at the Utah Republican Party's state convention over the weekend, getting himself into a primary election June 26. Romney had already qualified for the ballot through signature gathering.

But who is this guy?

In short, Kennedy is a married father of eight children who works as a family doctor in Lindon. He said he grew up in poverty in a single-parent home. He earned an undergraduate degree from BYU and a medical degree at Michigan State University. He also has a law degree from BYU.

He has served in the Utah House since 2013, but decided in March to not seek re-election.

"As a physician, I'm a trained listener. As an attorney, I'm a trained advocate. And as a legislator, I found that by working together we can solve even our biggest problems," Kennedy said at Saturday's convention.

Kennedy, 49, sponsored and passed one bill and one resolution in the 2018 Legislature. The bill requires the Utah Driver License Division and the State Board of Education to provide information to student drivers on ways to improve air quality and the harmful effects of vehicle emissions. The resolution permits the Utah State Developmental Center to sell or lease land for a connector road.

House Speaker Greg Hughes, R-Draper, also asked Kennedy to organize the Utah School Safety Commission, created in the wake of recent school shootings to consider ways to make schools safer.

Romney and Kennedy exchanged well wishes in text messages before the convention and said hello to each other during the event, but haven't really spoken.

"I don't know Mike Kennedy terribly well in terms of his posture on issues. I think we're probably pretty similar," Romney said, noting both endorsed the Utah Republican Party platform.

Kennedy said the national debt is the biggest risk to the country's future. He said he opposed continuing resolutions and "pork-filled" omnibus bills to fund government. He said he would never vote for legislation lawmakers try to slip by in the middle of the night.

He favors a strong military and national defense, education decisions at the local level, judges like the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and legal immigration. He said he supports President Donald Trump "doing what's necessary" to protect the borders and enforce immigration laws.

"I'm tired of business as usual in Washington, D.C.," he told delegates. "If you want things to change, you need to vote for change."

Romney, 71, said his business experience, work with the 2002 Winter Games, term as Massachusetts governor and runs for president gives him associations in Washington to get things done.

"Everybody can talk a good game. We're all for the same policies, but who actually can get the job done?" he said after the convention.

Romney has a sizeable money advantage over Kennedy. His Federal Election Commission report filed earlier this month shows a nearly $1.7 million war chest, including $1 million from his presidential account.

Kennedy reported total contributions of $289,000, including a $250,000 loan from himself.

Kennedy isn't the first Republican to get himself into a primary with a popular politician in Utah. GOP delegates clearly held signature gathering against Romney, while Kennedy vowed to only take the caucus/convention route.

While that plays well with at the convention, it has yet to propel an underdog to a primary victory.

Jonathan Johnson pushed Gov. Gary Herbert into a primary election but lost big when rank-and-file Republicans went to the polls.

U.S. Rep. John Curtis, R-Utah, also did poorly at the convention after collecting signatures but easily won the special election primary in a three-way race with Tanner Ainge and former state lawmaker Chris Herrod last year. Herrod narrowly forced a primary against Curtis again this year.

The winner of the Kennedy-Romney matchup would likely take on Salt Lake County Councilwoman Jenny Wilson, the Democratic front-runner heading into the Utah Democratic Party state convention Saturday.

They are vying to replace Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who is retiring after seven terms at the end of the year.
I was struck by a recent address from LDS general authority Elder Lynn G. Robbins. In his talk, titled Until Seventy Times Seven, Elder Robbins spoke with gratitude for his Brigham Young University physics professor Jae Ballif. Ballif's unique grading policy was such that if a student wished to improve a grade on a test, he or she could retake a modified version numerous times to earn a better score. The effect of this policy on Elder Robbins was profound:

By allowing me numerous second chances, he helped me excel and finally earn an A in his class. He was an uncommonly wise professor who inspired his students to keep trying  to consider failure as a tutor... (rather than)... a tragedy, and to not fear failure, but to learn from it. Recently ... I asked him why he was willing to allow students unlimited attempts to improve their grade. His response was 'I wanted to be on the same side as the students.'"

As a first-generation graduate student and native of Tonga, this was a powerful example to me of changes that need to happen within our higher education system. If every professor and instructor at Utah colleges and universities considered himself or herself on the same side as the students, so much would change for the better.

Fewer students may drop out of college. Currently, 50 percent of doctoral students nationwide fail to finish graduate school. More students like me, who had no idea what is expected at graduate school, would have the tools to thrive. Fewer students would fall prey to anxiety, depression and other mental health issues. More students would be able to weave themselves into the fabric of a university community  to feel they belong there. Knowing that their teachers are on their side would change their lives.

Students need to know that they are valued in all the diversity of their experiences. They need to know they can succeed. They need to know that universities are places with practices they can learn. They need to know those practices might be flexible with respect to their real-world struggles. They need to know universities want them there. They need to know that student success and engagement is the highest virtue by which their teachers will be judged. This is vitally important for everyone, but particularly for minority students, first-generation students, poor students or for anyone who stands outside the majority.

In another address, Elder Gary E. Stevenson, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, described the impact another gifted teacher, President Russell M. Nelson, had on one of his students:

He shared that the operating room environment under certain faculty surgeons was chaotic, competitive, pressure filled, and even ego driven. This man described it as a difficult environment, sometimes even demeaning.... He then explained the unique environment found in President Nelsons operating room. It was peaceful, calm and dignified. Residents were treated with deep respect. However, following the demonstration of a procedure, Dr. Nelson expected the highest standard of performance from each of the residents. This man further described how the best patient outcomes and the best surgeons came out of Dr. Nelsons operating room.

Professors who show they are on the side of their students will see those outcomes in every field, not just medicine. I urge our states public and private universities to adopt a simple philosophy: Do whatever you can to show you are on the student's side. There is no higher action you could take to fulfill your mission as teachers.
SALT LAKE CITY  Buckled into a seat on a vintage World War II-era B-17 bomber, Richard Stucki looked equal parts the excited passenger and contented former aviator the soon-to-be centenarian actually was.

Stucki was enjoying a VIP flight Monday aboard the Madras Maiden  one of only a dozen B-17 aircraft still flying today  as an early birthday present from his family. He turns 100 on July 19.

The flight was arranged by one of his grandchildren who contacted the Liberty Foundation, which owns and tours the muscular, four-propeller airplane that will be on display this weekend at the Salt Lake City International Airport. Public tours will be available Saturday and Sunday at TAC Air, 303 N. 2370 West.

During World War II, the Cedar City native transferred from the Army to the Air Forces, where he became a flight instructor at Hobbs Army Air Base in New Mexico. It was there he became familiar with the mighty B-17 by making daily flights in the aircraft, he said.

"We started at six in the morning and flew till noon," he explained. "We flew all the time and always had four students."

Flash forward to current day and he was complimentary of the pilots manning the cockpit of the B-17 on this sun-drenched spring day.

"This was nice. (I) didn't have quite the view I use to have sitting up front," he joked. "It was a nice ride. They did a good job taking off and landing both."

Recalling his days as an instructor, Stucki said the B-17 just took some experience to learn to fly effectively, but was a capable flying machine.

Dubbed the "flying fortress" because of its offensive firepower, the Boeing B-17 was among the most famous war-era aircraft of its time. Throughout the war, the B-17 was produced in larger quantities than any other previous model. The aircraft was equipped with 13, .50-caliber machine guns and three revolving gun turrets, along with waist and cheek guns.

Madras Maiden was built toward the end of the war and never saw any combat, a press released stated. The aircraft is now being used as a "flying museum" that pays homage to the men and women who fought in the war.

"Our primary goal is to honor the veterans of World War II and all veterans," said David Lyon, pilot for the Liberty Foundation, a Claremore, Oklahoma, organization dedicated to recognizing the legacy of service in WWII. "And also to educate the younger generation that really doesn't know that much about the sacrifices that were made by the young warriors back in the '40s that fought in World War II and were successful."

The B-17 was an airplane that earned the respect of enemy combatants, Lyon said. The flight crews lauded the B-17 for its ability to take and withstand heavy combat damage and return safely home, he said.

The group is touring the Madras Maiden, formerly known as Chuckie. The aircraft is painted in the markings of the 381st Bomb Group that participated in nearly 300 missions during WWII, dropped 22,000 tons of bombs and shot down 223 enemy aircraft.

The B-17's mission today is to teach the American people about the courageous WWII veterans, and honor those brave aircrew who never made it home, Lyon reiterated.

Along with media members, Stucki and a few of his great-grandchildren were allowed to take a short flight in the skies above the Salt Lake Valley. Great-granddaughter Aspen Holdlmair, 15, of South Jordan, said being on the flight was a special moment she was able to share with her great-grandfather.

"Right now in history class, we're learning about the world wars," she said. "It's cool to be able to get on this plane and fly (while) learning some history with it, too. It was quite a cool experience."

"I definitely felt a connection (with him)," she added. "It was very sweet and I definitely will remember this."

While the Madras Maiden has been operational for 73 years, the aircraft has been "gently flown" over those many decades, said Jon Eads, mechanic for the Liberty Foundation. The aircraft has about 6,000 flying hours on it, which is about what a current jet flies in a couple of years, he said. Because of that and the fact that engine parts are pretty easy to come by, keeping the B-17 properly maintained is not a problem.

"A lot of people had bought up all these (B-17) parts from the government after the war, (keeping) them in warehouses figuring that the airlines were going to still use those engines," he said. "(Then) the jet came out and all the airlines went to jets, leaving (the old) parts just sitting there."

He has a ready supply of parts at this disposal and when something comes up, he is able to find what he needs in a few days, he said. However, the cost of maintaining a WWII-era aircraft is not at all cheap, Lyon said.

"It costs about $4,500 an hour," he said. The annual cost to maintain the aircraft is in the $1.5 million range, he added.

Despite the expense and hours of 'blood, sweat and tears,' it's still worth it, he said.

"It's fun and touring the country  meeting the veterans and meeting the people who come out is fascinating," Lyon said. "Seeing the interest being sparked in the younger generation gives you hope that others are going to follow along in our footsteps and get involved in an operation like this."

Correction: An earlier version indicated the Madras Maiden had logged 6,000 flying miles during its lifetime. The plane has logged 6,000 flying hours.
SALT LAKE CITY  Thanks to the sweeping transportation bill passed by the Utah Legislature this year, counties have the power to resurrect the Proposition 1 tax sales tax hike.

But Salt Lake County leaders might hand off that power to cities.

The Salt Lake County Council is scheduled to consider and perhaps vote on a new ordinance Tuesday that would automatically enact the $58 million tax hike if city councils representing a supermajority of the county pass resolutions in support of the hike.

Council Chairwoman Aimee Winder Newton said Monday she's supporting the ordinance as a way to empower cities  and she expects the ordinance to pass.

"It sounds like most of the council really likes this approach, so I anticipate that it will pass," Newton said. "But we'll see. You never know."

The ordinance would enact the 0.25 sales tax increase  which would raise taxes by roughly 1 penny for every $4 spent  if cities, towns and metro townships representing 67 percent of Salt Lake County's population adopt resolutions supporting the tax hike.

"The thing I like about this is it puts it in the hands of cities," Newton said. "To me, it makes the most sense to let our city (leaders) make those decisions and trust they're in touch with their communities and know what their transportation needs are."

Despite the push to fund local road and transit projects, Salt Lake County voters in 2015 shot down the Proposition 1 sales tax hike, 51 percent to 49 percent, causing Utah's most populous county to lag behind in transportation funding.

Proposition 1's downfall was largely attributed to distrust with the Utah Transit Authority and its scandal-tainted past  but state lawmakers hoped to provide a clean slate for the agency through its transportation bill, SB136, by restructuring the agency's management and eventually changing its name to the Transit District of Utah.

If not enough city or town councils adopt resolutions by June 22, 2018, the tax would not be imposed under the Salt Lake County ordinance.

But legally, the County Council would still have the ability to implement the tax. Under SB136, the council could still vote on a tax increase and collect 100 percent of its revenue up until June 30, 2019  though Newton said county leaders likely wouldn't be willing to do that if enough city leaders oppose the tax hike.

"If this passes tomorrow, I think we're sending a pretty clear message that we're letting our cities dictate whether they need these funds," Newton said. "I don't see any reason why the county would turn around and implement it."

Newton noted that if enough cities support the tax hike, the county would use the revenue collected until June 2019 to help pay down regional transportation project debt, which Newton said would largely benefit municipalities rather than unincorporated roads.

Once the June 2019 deadline passes, the revenue would be split as if the tax hike had been passed under Proposition 1 with 40 percent to UTA, 40 percent to cities, and 20 percent to counties. If counties don't act, the sales tax option has an expiration date of June 2022.

If counties do not impose the tax by June 2020, however, individual cities can choose to act on their own. Cities with transit service would have the option to enact it through a vote of their councils, with 50 percent of its revenue to go directly to cities and 50 percent to UTA.

Additionally, SB136 allows a new 0.2 percent sales tax option that would be available to counties for transit service beginning in July 2019. But counties would not be able to impose it if they haven't already imposed other sales tax hikes, including Proposition 1.

The Salt Lake County Council is scheduled to discuss the proposed ordinance during its 1:30 p.m. meeting Tuesday at the Salt Lake County Government Center, 2001 S. State.
WEST JORDAN  A former Utah corrections officer convicted of forcible sex abuse more than a decade ago before going into hiding to avoid sentencing was sent to prison on Monday.

Even though William Lawrence, 41, has not committed any new crimes while on the run and the sentencing guidelines called for jail time, 3rd District Judge Heather Brereton said the fact he ran and hid using a false identity for a decade was troubling. And it victimized the real victim in the case a second time, she said.

Because of that, Brereton sentenced Lawrence to up to five years at the Utah State Prison rather than giving him another year at the Salt Lake County Jail.

Lawrence pleaded guilty to forcible sex abuse, a third-degree felony, on Dec. 6, 2007. He had been with the Utah Department of Corrections for a short time when he handcuffed a woman in his apartment near 9300 S. Redwood Road and demanded sex acts.

In exchange for his guilty plea, a charge of forcible sodomy was dismissed.

But when it came time for sentencing on April 7, 2008, Lawrence didn't show up for court and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

It wasn't until last November, after nearly 10 years on the run while living under a fake identity, Lawrence was arrested by U.S. marshals at a McDonald's restaurant in Hawaii. The break in the case came when the home of Lawrence's girlfriend was burglarized, and while searching the home for fingerprints, investigators ran a pair of Lawrence's prints and discovered his true identity.

Lawrence ran off with his girlfriend and her young daughter to Kauai after being convicted in Utah so they could raise the girl together. The girl is now almost 13 and Lawrence has full custody of her.

In court on Monday, Lawrence was apologetic to both his victim for his actions, and to the court for running away.

"I've regretted my actions every day for nearly 12 years," he said, while expressing his desire to someday apologize in person to the woman he assaulted. "I feel terrible for how I hurt her and how the situation went way too far."

But he knew, "Once I made the move, I couldn't undo what I'd done."

Still, as Lawrence stood before the judge, he acknowledged, "I knew this day would come."

Lawrence said it has been "truly heart-wrenching" knowing he hurt another person. He said watching his own stepdaughter grow up has changed him and how he interacts with women.

Lawrence explained to the court that his first attorney  who has since had his license to practice suspended by the Utah Bar  gave him bad information.

"I believed I would be sent to prison for five years with little to zero chance of survival," he said.

Lawrence's current attorney even drafted a motion for him to withdraw his guilty plea after he was returned to Utah because of problems with the orignal plea deal.

But Lawrence said he didn't want to do that. He said he wanted to accept responsibility for what he had done and help his victim find closure.

Before being sentenced, Adam Elmore, Lawrence's attorney, pointed out to the court that since fleeing from Utah, Lawrence has had no other arrests, has opened his own business in Kauai and participates with nonprofit groups. He urged the judge to make his client pay his dues by sentencing him to one more year in jail followed by automatically being placed on the sex offender registry for 10 years.

"He's low risk because he's not a risk. And I think his actions over the past 10 years shows that," Elmore said. "This is a person who did not violate the law, not once."

"I'm not a bad person," Lawrence said. "I'm eager to be part of the community again."

But the woman who was assaulted by Lawrence pleaded with the court in tears to not give him any special treatment.

While Lawrence has been able to avoid incarceration for a decade, "I've been in prison since this happened," she told the court.

The woman, whom the Deseret News has opted not to name, said Lawrence threatened her young son when the assault happened years ago. Ever since then, she has been afraid to even drive through the area where the attack happened for fear Lawrence would find her.

"Now he's crying because he wants to be put in protective custody," the woman said in disbelief and disgust. "It's not OK."

For the past 10 years, she said she has had to worry about where Lawrence was, and whether he would come after her again.

"I don't think he's sorry. I don't think he cares. I think he's sorry he got caught. I think he's sorry he's back here," she said.

Lawrence looked away as the woman tearfully asked the judge to sentence him to prison.

Ultimately, Brereton sided with the state, telling Lawrence that his fleeing was very telling, and resulted in "double victimization."

"Obviously we're disappointed. We felt like this was a difficult case. He's clearly done really well over the past 10 years. And he obviously broke the law and there's consequnces for that," Elmore said after the sentencing.

Prosecutors declined comment after the hearing. The woman who was assaulted by Lawrence left the courthouse through an alternate door to avoid reporters waiting outside the courtroom.
SALT LAKE CITY  Utah's tech-o-polis is continuing its high-performance growth cycle, but a new report finds while the rate of imported tech employees is keeping about even with those we export, the state is losing the fight to keep the best educated homegrown talent here.

And the simple answer as to why may just boil down to money.

On Tuesday, the Utah Department of Workforce Services released a report focused on one of the tech industry's core occupations  computer coding. Industry experts say data gathered in the report is overwhelmingly positive and the education disparity between those who move to Utah to work in tech, versus those who leave Utah to work in tech, isn't a red flag yet, but should be monitored.

But compensation for tech industry professionals, while helping power Utah's surging economy, isn't keeping up with wages in other locales with booming tech sectors.

"In the end, even with the cost-of-living adjustment, some of the other cities with a big tech presence are just doing better than we are," said Mark Knold, the Utah Department of Workforce Services' supervising economist. "The higher wages come with more purchasing power."

The average Utah tech worker is earning nearly double the $46,000 average that non-tech employees earn, but from the outside looking in, Beehive State tech salaries are lagging.

The Department of Workforce Service report notes that Utah tech wages are simply not holding their own, even when adjusted for cost-of-living differences, against what can be earned in other markets like San Francisco and San Jose in California; Raleigh, North Carolina; Austin, Texas; Seattle; or New York.

One example: A tech worker in Utah with a science-focused degree is likely to accumulate about $92,000 in annual purchasing power, whereas, after adjustments, a similar professional in Raleigh will have over $110,000 each year to spend, and a Seattle-based analog would be enjoying over $126,000.

"Salt Lake/Provo wages rank low in nearly every education category when placed against our comparative areas," the report reads. "(Data) suggests that greater compensation for higher-educated IT workers is often found elsewhere."

While Utah is currently losing the wage game, Knold, who's been crunching numbers on the state's tech industries for almost 30 years, doesn't see it as a major red flag, though he does believe a wage increase could help close the gap on the current 5,000 unfilled tech openings in the state.

"It's not an epidemic or a situation where we see a need to change the model," Knold said. "The tech industry is growing faster, 5 or 6 percent, than most other industries in the state. Obviously, there's great success there, but it could be the case that the growth could be even bigger, with a smaller gap in the labor market."

Utah Technology Council CEO John Knotwell, whose trade group assisted in reviewing the report, said the findings are, overall, very encouraging. He said there's been a feeling among tech community leaders that Utah was performing very poorly in terms of the in-migration versus out-migration equation.

"I think if I were to characterize my reaction, it's that we're doing much better than we thought," Knotwell said. "The general feeling has been that we were losing the battle to keep, and attract, tech professionals to the state."

Knotwell said the education imbalance in outbound tech workers was a data point worthy of keeping an eye on, but suggested it may simply be a matter of market-based differences with other areas.

"I think we'd be foolish if we said it wasn't concerning to us," Knotwell said. "But, I think it may also reflect the relative maturity levels of tech ecosystems in other locations compared to Utah's."

While those with tech degrees can likely find higher fiscal rewards outside the state, the department's report also highlighted how well Utah tech workers without four-year degrees are doing. Also, those with certificates or associate-level degrees represent a larger segment of the Utah's tech sector employment base than in other markets.

"Most places see about 70 percent of their IT sector with bachelor's or higher degrees," Knold said. "Here in Utah, we're at about 50-50 between bachelor's or better and those with less than a four-year degree."

And those additional entry points are a net positive both for the continued work to bridge Utah's gap between industry needs and the labor market, and having positive impacts on the state's wage growth.

"Not every high school grad is college degree-bound," Knold said. "In the state of Utah, this is a high-paying industry, and these opportunities to get into the industry without having to reach a bachelor's degree level of education is a very positive thing."

Both Knold and Knotwell agree the state's multiple efforts to build interest and engagement in the education pipeline leading to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) certificates and degrees is essential to maintaining the tech sector's vibrance.

"This report provides an excellent evaluative opportunity for us to assess what we're doing right and what we need to improve upon," Knotwell said. "Seeing that more of our talent is staying in-state than we expected is great news and, obviously, there is also data here that shows the work is ongoing.

"Utah tech is thriving and we're going to keep the pedal-to-the-metal on continuing its growth."
SALT LAKE CITY  A judge has sentenced a Ferron man to up to life in prison for shooting and killing his mom and brother, over protest from defense attorneys who said a jury's split verdict in the case makes no sense.

Jurors in December found the death of Seth Gordon Peterson's mother was manslaughter, a second-degree felony, but when Peterson killed his brother 30 seconds to a minute later, it was aggravated murder, a more severe first-degree felony.

Peterson's attorney has said he believes the same standard regarding Peterson's state of mind at the time should apply to both killings and the harsher conviction should not be allowed to stand.

But at a sentencing hearing Wednesday in 7th District Court in Price, Judge George Harmond sentenced Peterson, 26, to serve at least 25 years and up to life in prison for his brother's murder, with a sentence of one to 15 years running concurrently for his mother's death.

Peterson was originally charged with two counts of aggravated murder, a first-degree felony and potential capital offense, for the deaths of his mother, Susan Peterson, 45, and his brother, James Peterson, 23. Prosecutors determined earlier in the case they would not pursue the death penalty.

Prior to the sentencing, prosecutors said evidence in the case supported the distinct verdicts, arguing in court documents that the way Peterson behaved was "consistent with someone who had become angry, committed crimes, tried to eliminate witnesses and then tried not to get caught by police."

In February, Peterson's attorney, Rudy Bautista filed a motion arguing the jury's determinations were too inconsistent for slayings that took place less than a minute apart. He wrote that "this verdict makes no sense and is an extremely improbable finding," and questioned whether the jury understood its role.

But Jeremiah Humes, deputy Carbon County attorney, wrote in a response that there were several "rational, within reason and not inconsistent" ways the jury could have reached the different verdicts, including the possibility they found that Peterson was hallucinating while killing his mom but the hallucination halted after that and he realized what he'd done, or that the jury thought some leniency was appropriate.

Peterson was experiencing "meth psychosis" and believed he was facing two "demons" when he killed the two family members on Nov. 2, 2016, in a field near a farmhouse outside Hiawatha, Carbon County, according to his attorneys.

A search warrant revealed he was paranoid in the days before the killings, believing police were following him and his phone was bugged.

Susan Peterson was shot dead when she went to the farmhouse to pick him up, according to prosecutors. When James Peterson got out of the truck to check on his mother, he was killed as well.

After the shootings, Seth Peterson drove off in the truck and approached the man who owned it, telling him he had killed two demons and saying "you have to help me hide two bodies," while pushing a rifle into the man's chest, the charges state. When the man resisted, Peterson hit him with a crowbar, injuring his arm.

Peterson's uncle also testified that he believed Peterson was possessed by Satan the day of the shootings, his attorney wrote in court documents.

Last week, the judge also issued concurrent sentences for Peterson's other convictions, including attempted aggravated murder and aggravated robbery, both first-degree felonies, and failure to stop at the command of police, a third-degree felony.

He recommended Peterson be considered for substance abuse treatment.

Correction: An earlier version of this story stated Seth Peterson hit his uncle with a crowbar. The man he hit was not his uncle, but the owner of a truck Peterson was driving.
SALT LAKE CITY  Utah is obsessed with Marvel.

A new report from CableTV.com found that Utah out-geeks the rest of America when it comes to searching for Marvel Cinematic Universe movies on Google.

The report revealed which MCU movie each state Googled the most often. In Utah, 14 different MCU movies were tied for most-Googled, showing that Beehive State residents are constantly Googling the MCU films.

The report said, when it comes to having a divided heart, Utah cant be beat.

Only four MCU movies didnt wind up in the tie, including The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 3, Thor: Ragnarok and Black Partner.

But were betting if we give Utah a few more months to comb Google for new Marvel content, Thor: Ragnarok and Black Panther will be just as big in the Beehive State as practically every other Marvel movie is, the report said.

Overall, the report found that Iron Man 2 was the most-searched film in 16 states, followed by The Incredible Hulk in 15 states. Avengers: Age of Ultron topped the search list in six states.

The report comes a week ahead of Avengers: Infinity War, that hits theaters April 27.

Earlier this year, a report from UDish.com found that Batman and Captain America were Utahs two favorite superheroes, based on Google Trends and search data, according to the Deseret News. Utah was the only state in the country where a DC Comics and Marvel character topped the list.

One state, Utah, celebrates both sides of the universe, with Captain America and Batman ranking as residents favorite superheroes from either universe. Utahns rejoice every time they spot any Marvel or DC superhero, the report said.

In 2017, a study from Decluttr found that Wonder Woman led the list of Utahs favorite superheroes. Wonder Woman tended to be a favorite among West Coast states.
SALT LAKE CITY  President Donald Trump wants to work with Russian President Vladimir Putin to achieve "detente," the U.S. envoy to Russia said Tuesday.

"I dont know what the proper diplomatic term for it is, but my president has said repeatedly that he wants a better relationship with Russia. Repeatedly," Ambassador Jon Huntsman Jr., said Tuesday at media roundtable in Vladivostok, Russia. "You can call it a desire for detente or a desire for a healthier relationship."

Trump has said clearly that he would like to engage personally with Putin, he said.

Huntsman, the former Utah governor, also weighed in on a possible meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to a transcript of the discussion posted on the U.S. Embassy website.

Trump is "very sincere" when he says he wants a stable, predictable and manageable U.S.-Russia relationship, Huntsman said. And, he said, Putin wants the same thing.

"So, we have both presidents that want to move in that direction. And I think, Im hoping, and Ive said this before and I hope Im not proven wrong, that despite the events that weve experienced, the ups and downs, that we will end 2018 in a better place," Huntsman said. "And I still believe that to be the case."

Americans apparently don't share that optimism.

An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll last week showed 56 percent think the relationship between the U.S. and Russia will get worse over the next year, while just 13 percent think it will improve.

Even among Republicans, more expect the relationship with Russia to get worse than better, 40 percent to 20 percent, though another 40 percent expect it to stay about the same.

Trump congratulated Putin on his election victory in a phone call last month and afterward said the two leaders would soon meet in person. Huntsman, too, suggested early this year that Trump and Putin were headed toward a summit. So far, no plans for a meeting have been announced.

Meantime, the U.S. has imposed the toughest economic sanctions yet on Russia, expelled dozens of Russian intelligence officers and closed Russia's consulate in Seattle, deeming it a counterintelligence threat. Russia kicked out dozens of U.S. diplomats and closed the U.S. consulate in St. Petersburg in response.

Tensions also rose after Trump ordered airstrikes on Syria earlier this month in retaliation for an alleged chemical weapons attack.

A reporter at the roundtable also asked Huntsman about a possible meeting between Trump and Kim Jong Un, noting Vladivostok as one of several possible summit sites.

"Is your visit considered to be an advance visit in order to prepare the potential summit?" Huntsman was asked.

"You should read nothing more into my visit other than that which was stated initially: to conduct business as United States ambassador," Huntsman replied, adding he'll let the White House make that announcement "in due course."

What is significant is that Trump has stated a desire to meet with Kim, he said.

"This has never happened in history," Huntsman said. "Im not sure that anyone could have predicted this six months ago."

Trump on Tuesday said Kim has been "very open" and "very honorable," and wants a historic, high-stakes meeting as soon as possible, according to the Associated Press. It is a sharp break from Trump's previous denunciations of the North Korean leader as "Little Rocket Man."

The United States and North Korea have been negotiating a summit between Trump and Kim to be held in May or June to broker a deal on Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.
SALT LAKE CITY  A national threat to wildlife is being eased somewhat, thanks to an innovative effort dubbed the "Poo-Poo Project," which prevents cavity-nesting birds from entering vault toilet ventilation pipes and becoming trapped.

Employees with the U.S. Forest Service will install 350 of the "poo-poo screens" on the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache and Dixie National Forests.

The Forest Service says that each year, thousands of cavity-nesters, animals that prefer dark, narrow spaces for nesting and roosting, become trapped in vertical open pipes such as ventilation pipes, claim stakes and chimneys.

Vault toilets, the self-contained restrooms found in many of Americas wild areas, feature vertical ventilation pipes that mimic the natural cavities preferred by various bird species for nesting and roosting.

The screens first came about in a pilot project carried out by the Teton Raptor Center in Wyoming after employees saw a photo of an owl trapped in a vault toilet in 2010.

They purchased 100 screens in a community supported project and installed them on public lands in Teton County. The center ultimately developed its own screen, cutting the cost by 70 percent and increasing their accessibility.

"We are proud of the success of the Poo-Poo Project, made possible through our many partnerships with public lands managers, volunteers and conservationists. The USDA Forest Service is our largest Poo-Poo Project partner in the country which, includes 155 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The agency has installed over 7,000 poo-poo screens to prevent accidental bird entrapment in vault toilets, said David Watson, Teton Raptor Centers Poo-Poo Project coordinator.

The Forest Service's largest purchase was the 800 screens that were distributed to eight national forests in Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Colorado in a launch of the project in 2013.

While weve hit the 12,000-mark for poo-poo screens sold, we know theres so much work left to do to elevate awareness and understanding of the hazards of open pipes on both public and private lands, Watson said.
SALT LAKE CITY  A Native American advocacy group is appealing to an independent expert with the United Nations Human Rights Council to order the United States to respond to ongoing human right violations it says are happening at Bears Ears National Monument.

Utah Dine Bikeyah leaders say ongoing grave robbing and looting of cultural artifacts merit action and intervention, particularly by the United Nations' Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

Leaders traveled to New York to present testimony on the issue of Bears Ears before the United Nations.

That group is the "proper body" to relay to the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management that the federal agencies should halt their monument management planning for the Shash Jaa and Indian Creek units at the Bears Ears National Monument, Utah Dine Bikeyah leaders say.

"We recommend to this body that the expedited management planning process, which is currently moving forward for the smaller area, be halted while the courts decide upon the legality of President (Donald) Trump's proclamation," wrote Honor Keeler, assistant director of Utah Dine Bikeyah.

Keeler submitted an official statement April 19 to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and to Special Rapporteur Victoria Tauli-Corpuz.

"This expedited management planning process cannot adequately address protecting the vast number of cultural, social, sacred and environmental resources in these smaller units, nor across the broader Bears Ears region," her statement continues.

Utah Dine Bikeyah wants the independent expert to direct the United States to respond to the human rights violations and to formally adopt the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into law.

Angelo Baca, Utah Dine Bikeyah's cultural resources coordinator, submitted a statement but was also able to testify verbally about Native American access at Bears Ears.

The advocacy organization is one of many at the center of a fight over changes to monument's boundaries in southeast Utah.

A lawsuit against the Trump administration is challenging the 85 percent reductions in Bears Ears' size in San Juan County, which was designated in 2016 by President Barack Obama.

Utah's congressional delegation, Gov. Gary Herbert, the San Juan County Commission joined by other counties all pushed for a reversal of the monument designation or a reduction in its size.

Trump traveled to Utah last December to announce the boundary changes. Federal land agencies are now crafting new management plans for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, which was also reduced in size.

Correction: In an earlier version of this story, Honor Keeler was identified as a man. She is a woman.
I Did This Film For Ammamma: Naga Shaurya

Naga Shaurya is all set to release his upcoming film Ammamma Gari Illu. The teaser of the movie was recently launched at the event and Shaurya seemed nostalgic speaking about the film. The movie is directed by Sundar Surya and featuring Shamili alongside Shaurya.

During the teaser launch event of his upcoming film Ammamma Gari Illu, he recounted his earlier days. He said, A few years back, my Ammamma (grandmother) passed away and when the director came up with this film, I readily accepted it for her. He added that the film revolves around a grandmother and that all the roles in the film are positive. Moreover, actress Sumitra is playing the role of the grandmother in the movie.

Director V.V. Vinayak being the chief guest said, When I saw the poster and the teaser of the film, my grandmothers village came to my mind. Further the event was also attended by Shamili. The other cast and crew of the film include Rao Ramesh, Sivaji Raja and Hema also attended the event.

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Page: 1 2 3 4 5 ... 8 California to secede gets go-ahead to start collecting signatures The Ghost Of LOP

Registered User

User ID: kaput

04-25-2018 12:10 AM



Posts: 41,660









Post: #1 California to secede gets go-ahead to start collecting signatures

Advertisement





Advocates who want California to secede from the rest of the United States were given the green light Monday to begin collecting signatures for their initiative.



Californias Secretary of State Alex Padilla announced the ballot proposal had been cleared.



The latest measure would ask voters in 2020 to decide whether to open up a secession discussion. If passed, a second election would be held a year later asking voters to affirm the decision and become an independent country.



Advocates have until mid-October to gather 365,880 signatures of registered voters to get it on the ballot.



Marcus Ruiz Evans and Louis J. Marinelli, co-founders of the group Yes California, said the second vote would show that Californians are serious about secession and would strengthen the case for foreign governments to recognize the states independence.



read more:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/04/...tures.html I am so confused !!! Advocates who want California to secede from the rest of the United States were given the green light Monday to begin collecting signatures for their initiative.Californias Secretary of State Alex Padilla announced the ballot proposal had been cleared.The latest measure would ask voters in 2020 to decide whether to open up a secession discussion. If passed, a second election would be held a year later asking voters to affirm the decision and become an independent country.Advocates have until mid-October to gather 365,880 signatures of registered voters to get it on the ballot.Marcus Ruiz Evans and Louis J. Marinelli, co-founders of the group Yes California, said the second vote would show that Californians are serious about secession and would strengthen the case for foreign governments to recognize the states independence.read more:I am so confused !!! (This post was last modified: 04-25-2018 12:11 AM by The Ghost Of LOP .) LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

04-25-2018 12:12 AM











Post: #2 RE: California to secede gets go-ahead to start collecting signatures

That would make a parent a "foreigner". We get to ship them out of our states and back to their new country right? LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

04-25-2018 12:12 AM











Post: #3 RE: California to secede gets go-ahead to start collecting signatures

Immediately after seceding they will join with Mexico.



We're gonna need a longer wall. The Ghost Of LOP

Registered User

User ID: 1337

04-25-2018 12:13 AM



Posts: 41,660









Post: #4 RE: California to secede gets go-ahead to start collecting signatures

LoP Guest Wrote: (04-25-2018 12:12 AM) Immediately after seceding they will join with Mexico.



We're gonna need a longer wall.

I am so confused !!! LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

04-25-2018 12:14 AM











Post: #5 RE: California to secede gets go-ahead to start collecting signatures

I hope Texas is next! LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

04-25-2018 12:17 AM











Post: #6 RE: California to secede gets go-ahead to start collecting signatures

LoP Guest Wrote: (04-25-2018 12:14 AM) I hope Texas is next!

Then Texas can kick out all the other 49ers! Yay! Not born in Texas? - You're an illegal alien. Out you go. Then Texas can kick out all the other 49ers! Yay! Not born in Texas? - You're an illegal alien. Out you go. She Man

lop guest

User ID: 1337

04-25-2018 12:20 AM











Post: #7 RE: California to secede gets go-ahead to start collecting signatures

As I understand it they have enough signatures to put on the ballot, a weeks or months late in the news. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

04-25-2018 12:23 AM











Post: #8 RE: California to secede gets go-ahead to start collecting signatures

The few people who are married now - will be having their spouses extradicted to their states of birth. There will be 50 different state/countries - and lots more inbreeding! LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

04-25-2018 12:26 AM











Post: #9 RE: California to secede gets go-ahead to start collecting signatures

Good! I hope that they succeed. Less federal funding for that pinko state and more for the rest. Make them show passports if they want to visit the USA. Upside Down

I'm hot

User ID: 1337

04-25-2018 12:27 AM



Posts: 50,462









Post: #10 RE: California to secede gets go-ahead to start collecting signatures

Interesting thought. I don't think that the US will ever let any territory go.



I have been an advocate of expanding. We should have made Iraq our 51'st state after the war, built a Disneyland there, and defended it.



We should have taken Mexico and most of central America by now.



Jefferson would be disapointed. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

04-25-2018 12:27 AM











Post: #11 RE: California to secede gets go-ahead to start collecting signatures

The Ghost Of LOP Wrote: (04-25-2018 12:10 AM) link to image: http://a57.foxnews.com/hp.foxnews.com/im...?tl=1&ve=1





Advocates who want California to secede from the rest of the United States were given the green light Monday to begin collecting signatures for their initiative.



Californias Secretary of State Alex Padilla announced the ballot proposal had been cleared.



The latest measure would ask voters in 2020 to decide whether to open up a secession discussion. If passed, a second election would be held a year later asking voters to affirm the decision and become an independent country.



Advocates have until mid-October to gather 365,880 signatures of registered voters to get it on the ballot.



Marcus Ruiz Evans and Louis J. Marinelli, co-founders of the group Yes California, said the second vote would show that Californians are serious about secession and would strengthen the case for foreign governments to recognize the states independence.



read more:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/04/...tures.html

there is already a ballot initiative scheduled to be on the ballot in Nov to divide ca into 3 states. there is already a ballot initiative scheduled to be on the ballot in Nov to divide ca into 3 states. Upside Down

I'm hot

User ID: 1337

04-25-2018 12:28 AM



Posts: 50,462









Post: #12 RE: California to secede gets go-ahead to start collecting signatures

LoP Guest Wrote: (04-25-2018 12:26 AM) Good! I hope that they succeed. Less federal funding for that pinko state and more for the rest. Make them show passports if they want to visit the USA.

ahem, they pay more into the GOV then they take.



they are the brains and economic engine of the US. ahem, they pay more into the GOV then they take.they are the brains and economic engine of the US. BlackCat

Every day is an extra day

User ID: 1337

04-25-2018 12:28 AM



Posts: 13,470









Post: #13 RE: California to secede gets go-ahead to start collecting signatures

I could see, along with California: Oregon, Washington, British Columbia and maybe Mexico combining into a West Coast Union .



No Pacific for You. Do not grow old no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the great mystery into which we were born.



~ Albert Einstein (This post was last modified: 04-25-2018 12:30 AM by BlackCat .) Hamburgerwagon

lop guest

User ID: 1337

04-25-2018 12:28 AM











Post: #14 RE: California to secede gets go-ahead to start collecting signatures

How did this work out for South Carolina? LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

04-25-2018 12:29 AM











Post: #15 RE: California to secede gets go-ahead to start collecting signatures

2am Breathe Wrote: (04-25-2018 12:27 AM) Interesting thought. I don't think that the US will ever let any territory go.



I have been an advocate of expanding. We should have made Iraq our 51'st state after the war, built a Disneyland there, and defended it.



We should have taken Mexico and most of central America by now.



Jefferson would be disapointed.

California is 99% body jumpers. Don't go there. California is 99% body jumpers. Don't go there. Advertisement


















Samantha Starts Second Schedule Of Her Upcoming Movie U-Turn

South actress Samantha has started the second schedule shooting of her upcoming film titled U-Turn. The movie is the Telugu remake of Kannada super hit of the same name. U-Turn is directed by 'Lucia' fame director Pawan Kumar. The remake is also featuring Aadhi Pinisetty and Rahul Ravindran in key roles.





As per the original version, this is the story of a young and dynamic journalist who investigates the mysterious deaths of motorists on a particular highway in Bengaluru. It is said that the Telugu version will have several changes in the script. The second schedule will reportedly be completed by the next weekend.





Moreover, Samantha will be playing the role of an investigative journalist in the. The movie is bankrolled by Srinivas Chitturi under his banner Srinivasa Silver Screen film. Apart from Telugu, the movie will also release in Tamil. U-Turn is expected to release by the end of this year.





For latest movie reviews, ratings and trailers, download the Desimartini App.





Source: regional.pinkvilla.com




Google has unveiled a new job Search experience in India to make it easier for users to find jobs in the country. The company aims to make the task hassle-free and quicker by allowing users to find job listing aggregated from various online career portals, and classifieds on the Google Search platform. The new Job Search experience also allows users to filter the listings as per their requirements. Users can also share job listings and save them for later or sign-up for email based alerts. Google Search users can access the experience in English through the Search app on Android and iOS, or through Google Search on both the desktop and mobile. It should be noted that the feature is currently not available while using Google Search in any other regional language.

Now, when a user searches for jobs near me, jobs for freshers, or any other similar job-related query, Google Search displays a special module that can be expanded for a more interactive experience. One can click on a job listing in Search to read a summary of the profile and view other relevant information such as job title, location, full-time or part-time, and more. Google will also constantly update the listings and remove jobs that have been filled or are no longer available. After viewing the listings, users can proceed to apply for their selected job by visiting the source website of the job listing. There is no option for applying for a job from within the search result and there never will be such an option. As mentioned earlier, to make the job search experience faster and more relevant, users can apply smart filters within Search. These will enable users to filter job listings on the basis of job title, location, type and more. When searching for a query, users can turn-on email alerts and tweak them to receive instantly, daily or once a week. When a job listing is saved, it will be shown under a separate tab for easy tracking.

Google has roped in various partners to provide these job listings in Search, including - IBM Talent Management Solutions, LinkedIn, Aasaanjobs, Freshersworld, Headhonchos, Quezx, QuikrJobs, Shine.com, T-Jobs, TimesJobs, and Wisdomjobs. Job listings from Naukri.com are not yet available directly via Google Search, but from what we were told, the two companies are in talks for the integration.

Google will also impose penalties on the job rankings of the aforementioned partner sites if they display expired jobs. However, the penalised partner site will have an option to inform Google that it has removed said expired job listings to restore its Search rankings. This move is essentially to make sure that the partner sites keep their job listings updated and users don't end up applying for expired jobs.

The company has also released an open documentation in order for companies, both large and small, to make their job openings discoverable on the new Search experience. The open documentation is based upon structured schema.org web markup standards, which are supported by Google.

Commenting on the launch, Rajan Anandan, Vice President India and Southeast Asia, Google, said, We know that people turn to Search while looking for a job. In Q4 last year, we saw more than a 45% increase in the number of job search queries, and this number is continuously growing. However today, the job search experience is not always effective. On the other hand companies -- especially SMEs -- that are the largest job creators are often unable to make their listings discoverable. This new job search experience powered by our partners and our open platform approach attempts to bridge this gap.

Achint Srivastava from the Google's Search Engineering team said, From a fresher looking for her first job, to a seasoned professional seeking out better prospects, finding the right job opportunity can be challenging. By working with our many partners to integrate their comprehensive listing of jobs, and offering an open platform where any third-party job search board or direct employer and can now surface their jobs to a broader audience, we hope this new experience on Google will help make the job search simpler and more effective.
Two detectives in Florida reportedly visited a funeral home to unlock the deceased man's smartphone by using his fingerprint, a move which has been claimed as disrespectful and a violation of rights, the media reported. Linus F. Phillip, 30, was shot and killed on March 23 at a Wawa gas station in Florida, after police said he tried to drive away when an officer was about to search him, the Tampa Bay Times reported late on Monday.

Investigators arrived at Sylvan Abbey Funeral Home in Clearwater within 72 hours of the death, to take the deceased's fingerprints. However, the attempt was unsuccessful. Lt. Randall Chaney said it was done to access and preserve data on the phone to aid in the investigation into Phillip's death and a separate inquiry into drugs that involved him.

Chaney said detectives didn't think they would need a warrant because there is no expectation of privacy after death and this was affirmed by several other legal experts. However, Phillip's family said it was unethical. "I just felt so disrespected and violated," Victoria Armstrong, Phillip's fiance, was quoted as saying. "While the deceased person doesn't have a vested interest in the remains of their body, the family sure does, so it really doesn't pass the smell test," Charles Rose, Professor at the Stetson University College of Law, was quoted by the newspaper.

"There's a ghoulish component to it that's troubling to most people," Rose added. While it is not clear what type of smartphone is at issue, Apple is the most widely-adopted phone that features fingerprint-unlocking technology. Other companies including models from Google's Pixel and Samsung's Galaxy lines also offer similar biometric security.
Essar sells Equinox Business Parks to Brookfield for Rs 2,400 crore

Essar Group has sold Equinox Business Parks, its commercial property in Mumbais Bandra-Kurla Complex, to global asset manager Brookfield Asset Management for an enterprise value of Rs2,400 crore.

Spread across nearly 10 acres, Equinox Business Park comprises four towers, with a leasable office space of about 1.25 million sq ft.

I am happy that we have been able to conclude a marquee deal with a quality investor, Brookfield, who has an enviable track record of highly strategic and well-considered acquisitions. This is among the largest transactions in Indias commercial real estate sector, and demonstrates the value we have been able to create in our Equinox investment," Anshuman Ruia, Essar, said.

In 2006, Essar was a licensee in the Park. Later, realising the potential of BKC in the commercial real estate space, it acquired the towers and ultimately the entire Park in the period between 2008 and 2012. Over time, Essar developed the Park as among the few corporate parks in Mumbai with campus-like facilities.

These facilities include a commerce centre, club house, food court, cafeteria, banquet hall and parking. Some of the companies that occupy space in the park are Tata Communications, Experian, Crompton Greaves and Lafarge.

It has been a pleasure working with the Essar Group to complete this transaction. We are excited to bring Brookfields place-making capabilities to Mumbais main business district. We will invest significant capital, introduce more F&B and modern amenities, and establish Equinox as a high-quality office destination," Ankur Gupta, Brookfields Real Estate Head (India), said.

Brookfield Asset Management is a global alternative asset manager with about $285 billion of assets under management.
Salil Parekh sets 3-year consolidation, growth plan for Infosys

On a day when Indias information technology leader Tata Consultancy Services became the first Indian IT company to cross $100 billion in market cap, top leaders of former IT bellwether Infosys, led by newly appointed chief executive officer and managing director Salil Parekh, were busy convincing investors in Mumbai that they are trying to get their act together.

Parekh said the company has set a three-year transformation strategy that would start showing faster growth by financial year 2020-21. Part of the strategy will be for the company to invest in sales to win the kind of large deals TCS is bagging.

This is a three-year transformation plan. In year one, we will stabilise the company and invest. In year two, we will begin to show momentum and in year three, we will accelerate growth, Parekh, who took over in January, told investors at a meeting held in Mumbai.=

Unlike his predecessor Vishal Sikka, Parekh stayed away from giving out specific numbers for growth, though he said the new Infosys which is investing in future technologies, building the digital workforce of tomorrow and making strategic acquisitions to strengthen digital capabilities.

The company made it clear that protecting margins at the cost of growth is not a priority, at least in the short to medium term.

According to The Economic Times, Infosys three-year plan has analysts worried that the company will lag its peers in growth. Infosys FY19 revenue forecast of 6-8 per cent is already below the 7-9 per cent target issued by industry body Nasscom.

Given where we stand today as far as the transformation journey is concerned and the changes that happened (at Infosys) in the last 12-18 months, 2018-19 will be the year of stabilisation for us, Parekh told analysts, adding that the company is making sure all the elements are in place to tap into a higher share of clients budgets.

Infosys said it is looking at the digital space to accelerate growth. It has already made strong inroads, closing 2017-18 with revenue of $2.79 billion from this segment. This translates to 25.5 per cent of the companys overall revenue. Parekh said there is a huge potential to grow it further as the overall opportunities in the digital space stands at around $160 billion, but growing at a rate of 15 per cent year-on-year, much higher than growth in traditional IT services.

So for us it is an exciting market and that is why the first pillar for us is to scale our digital business  this is a business where all of our clients are moving knowing that the core is the key to driving digital change, said Parekh. So for us, the real definition of digital is a fast-growing market where we ourselves are growing very well, and we want to invest in this pillar to make sure we become more and more relevant for our clients future.

Infosys, Parekh said, is focused on growing five different dimensions in the digital space, including experience, insight, innovate, accelerate and assure. These five elements comprise all the digital activity that we are doing today and reflects how we are thinking of our company and what our clients journey is as we look at digital, he said.

Infosys said most of its dollars will be invested in human resources, both onshore and offshore, and in driving localisation. It would also look at acquiring niche technology companies while at the same time ensuring that shareholders are rewarded adequately, for which it has spelt out a disciplined capital allocation policy.

U B Pravin Rao, president and COO of Infosys, also emphasised the need for hiring local talent in every market it operates in and said the company has now revamped its talent sourcing strategy by hiring of freshers in the US through campus selection. The company last year hired around 800 graduates in the US through campus recruitment and plans to replicate the model in Europe and the UK, he added.

Other than localisation and upskilling, Infosys said a huge amount of its focus is also going to be on the sales team so that they participate and win more large deals.

The company is investing to build a team of deal directors, multi-tier architects and client partners whose focus would be on ensuring better (deal) originations and better win rates, said Mohit Joshi, president and head - banking, financial services & insurance (BFSI), healthcare and life sciences, at Infosys. Large deals are a very important engine of growth for us and we have identified six specific areas where we are going to invest our dollars, he added.

At the end of 2017-18, Infosys had 1,204 active clients, including 20 clients that fetch the company annual revenue of $100 million or more.
Walmart close to buying majority stake in Flipkart for at least $12 bn: report

US retail giant Walmart Inc is close to buying a majority stake in Indian e-commerce company Flipkart for at least $12 billion and is likely to close the deal in the next two weeks, Bloomberg yesterday reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The Arkansas-based company, the worlds largest retailer, has been in talks with all the major investors in Flipkart, which includes JSE-listed Naspers, which holds 13 per cent, Tiger Global Management and SoftBank Group hold around 20 per cent each, venture capital firm Accel Partners 6.4 per cent, while Flipkart founders Sachin and Binny Bansal hold 5 per cent.

Walmart is likely to buy between 60 per cent to 80 per cent of Flipkart at a total valuation of around $20 billion, the report added.

One of the major issues still to be resolved is whether Flipkarts founders will lead the business after the deal and how much each existing investor sells and what Walmarts final stake will be.

SoftBank, which hold the stake through its Vision Fund, was unwilling to sell a part of its stake since Walmart was offering to buy at a valuation of $12 billion, which it considered low, but is now willing to sell some of its stake, Reuters had earlier reported.

Flipkarts board had considered taking on Walmart and Amazon as potential partners, but decided that Walmart could close a deal more easily, since it would face fewer regulatory since it has no online retail presence in the country, while Amazon is Flipkarts main rival in India.

The US, China and India are the worlds biggest market place for online commerce and Amazon has found it very difficult to compete with Alibaba Group in China.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has already committed $5.5 billion to its Indian division and the companys local CEO Amit Agarwal, has adapting the site to local conditions.

A successful deal for Walmart would give it access to an emerging market of 1.3 billion people where e-commerce is expected to grow to $200 billion in the next 10 years.

Bengaluru-based Flipkart was founded in 2007 by former Amazon employees Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal.
AFSPA revoked in Meghalaya, partially lifted in Arunachal

The centre has withdrawn the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) totally from Meghalaya as well as from 8 police stations in Arunachal following a substantial drop in insurgency.

The decision was taken following an 85 per cent drop in insurgency-related incidents in the North East compared to levels recorded at the peak of militancy two decades ago, according to home ministry figures.

Accordingly, the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) stands totally withdrawn from Meghalaya as well as from eight out of 16 police stations in Arunachal Pradesh, with effect from 31 March 2018.

AFSPA, which was in force in Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh for the past 27 years, empowered armed forces special powers and provided immunity to forces deployed in areas declared disturbed.

AFSPA was originally enforced in Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh in order to avoid a spillover from Assam which was declared disturbed in 1991, amidst a spike in insurgency by outfits like the United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa), according to the home ministry.

Until 30 September 2017, all areas falling within a 20-km belt in Meghalaya bordering Assam were notified as disturbed areas. Effective 1 October 2017, this was reduced to a 10-km belt.

However, on 31 March 2018, with an improvement in the ground situation, it was decided AFSPA need no longer be in force even within the 10-km stretch.

The Tripura government had lifted AFSPA from the state in 2015, after 18 years.

The Armed Forces Special Powers Act will now be in force in the whole of Assam and Nagaland, all of Manipur (except Imphal municipal area) and in three districts and eight police station areas of Arunachal Pradesh. Nagaland has been under AFSPA for almost six decades. Other than the northeast, AFSPA is applicable in J&K.

While the review for Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland is still handled by the centre, Assam and Manipur governments have been notifying disturbed areas  a prerequisite for imposing the law  on their own since last year.

Sources said the review of disturbed areas list under AFSPA is part of a larger process to curtail the area of enforcement of the law  seen by many as draconian.

With insurgency levels in Assam too at a record low, the state government is expected to decide soon on withdrawal of AFSPA from some districts.

Simultaneously, the cabinet committee on security has approved a home ministry proposal for enhancement in overall cost from Rs138.95 crore to Rs212.85 crore for strengthening of police establishments, infrastructure development for 11 new police stations and upgradation of nine police stations in Tirap, Changlang and Longding in order to improve security situation in areas adjoining Myanmar.
Duty-free shops at airports to charge GST

Duty-free shops at airports in Dubai, Singapore, Bangkok and other places selling alcohol and electronics can heave a sigh of relief as the number of Indians patronising their facilities will go up now with a new tax ruling in India.

The Delhi bench of the Authority for Advance Ruling (AAR) has said that goods sold at duty-free shops at the IGI airport are not exempt from duties under the tax regime.

While an estimated 25 million Indians travel abroad every year, a growing number have of late been buying alcohol, electronics and other gadgets from duty-free shops at Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and other international airports, as they do not have to carry the stuff with them from overseas.

A passenger has to make payment in foreign currency at any of these airports and gets a receipt entitling her / him to collect the duty-free package on returning home within a few days or a few weeks.

Many Indian visitors have noticed the competitive prices at which alcohol and other products are sold at these Indian airports; in many cases they are cheaper than the products sold even in Dubai or Singapore.

Carrying two or three bagfuls of duty-free products from cities abroad entails a lot of adjustments in personal cabin baggage, so Indian tourists have so far been preferring to pay for the stuff in advance in foreign currency at Indian airports and take deliveries while returning home.

Even the GST rules that were rolled out last July exempted duty-free shops at Indian airports from levying central sales tax and value-added tax as these were considered export sales and the supply was occurring outside the customs frontiers of the country.

However, the Delhi bench of the AAR has now ruled that the duty-free shops are within India under the GST Act and buyers have to pay the applicable GST.

And since most of the items that are purchased by Indians travelling abroad are considered luxury products, the duties will also be much higher.
Global semiconductyor revenues rise to $420 bn in 2017

Driven by strong growth in the memory market, global semiconductor revenues rose 21.6 per cent to $420.4 billion in 2017 from $345.9 billion recorded during the year-ago period, according to a study by Gartner Inc.

"2017 saw two semiconductor industry milestones  revenue surpassed $400 billion, and Intel, the No 1 vendor for the last 25 years, was pushed into second place by Samsung Electronics," said George Brocklehurst, research director at Gartner.

"Both milestones happened due to rapid growth in the memory market as undersupply drove pricing for Dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) and NAND flash higher."

The memory market surged nearly $50 billion to reach $130 billion in 2017, a 61.8-per cent rise from 2016. Samsung's memory revenue alone increased nearly $20 billion in 2017, moving the company into the top spot in 2017.

However, Gartner predicts that the company's lead will be short-lived and will disappear when the memory market goes into its bust cycle, most likely in late 2019.

The booming memory segment over-shadowed strong growth in other categories in 2017.

Non-memory semiconductors grew $24.8 billion to reach $290 billion, representing a growth rate of 9.3 per cent. Many of the broadline suppliers in the top 25 semiconductor vendors, including Texas Instruments, STMicroelectronics and Infineon, posted high growth as two key markets, industrial and automotive, continued double-digit growth, buoyed by broad-based growth across most other end markets.

The combined revenue of the top 10 semiconductor vendors rose by 30.6 per cent during 2017 and accounted for 58 per cent of the total market, outperforming the rest of the market, which saw a milder 11.0 per cent revenue increase.

M&As are taking longer

The year 2017 was a slower for closing mergers and acquisitions (M&As), with roughly half the deal value and number of deals compared with 2016. However, the semiconductor industry continues to see escalating deal sizes with greater complexity, which are becoming more challenging to close.

Avago set a record in its acquisition of Broadcom for $37 billion in 2016, and this record should soon be broken by Qualcomm's acquisition of NXP Semiconductors for $44 billion.

Growth in the Internet of Things (IoT) is having a significant impact on the semiconductor market, with application-specific standard products (ASSPs) for consumer applications up by 14.3 per cent and industrial Application-Specific Standard Products (ASSPs) rising by 19.1 per cent in 2017. Semi-conductors for wireless connectivity showed the highest growth with 19.3 per cent in 2017, and topping $10 billion for the first time, despite reduced component prices and the static smartphone industry.

Table 1. Top 10 Semiconductor Vendors by Revenue, Worldwide, 2017 (Millions of U.S. Dollars)
by Matt Koesters

513-556-5279

Photos by Joseph Fuqua II, Andrew Higley, Lisa Ventre and Jay Yocis/UC Creative Services

April 24, 2018

Just two years after setting a new spring graduation record, the University of Cincinnati appears poised to once again rewrite the record books. UC is set to confer 6,578 degrees to 6,496 students during its spring commencement ceremonies on Friday and Saturday, April 27 and 28.

Knowing that our spring commencement is slated to be our largest graduating class in the University of Cincinnatis history makes a very joyous time for our campus even more jubilant. We are delighted to generate more college graduates than ever to meet workforce needs, said President Neville Pinto.

The 2018 Spring class represents one of the largest communities of creative artists, thinkers and innovators the University of Cincinnati has ever before graduated, added UC Provost Kristi A. Nelson. This achievement is a testament not only to the hard work of our students, but to the transformational opportunities and academic support services provided by our faculty, staff and community partners. The real-world experiences these students earned as Bearcats have prepared them for careers and life-long learning.

All undergraduate commencement exercises and the masters degree recognition ceremony will be held at Nippert Stadium, while the doctoral hooding ceremony will be held in the UC Campus Recreation Center. Each ceremony is expected to last between two and three hours. Doors open one hour prior to the ceremonies. The doctoral hooding ceremony is a ticketed event.

Learn more about the spring 2018 graduating class.
Raghuram Rajan tipped as strong contender for Bank of England head

Former Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan is one of the top contenders for the job of Bank of England Governor when incumbent Mark Carneys term ends next year, according to a report in the Financial Times.

This is at least the second time that Rajans name has been mentioned as a candidate for a top central bank. In October, financial magazine Barrons had said Rajan would be the ideal choice to chair the US Federal Reserve, a job that eventually went to Jerome Powell.

Financial Times said in the article on Sunday that attracting Rajan would be a coup for Bank of England.

In its analysis of the pros and cons of 55-year-old Rajan's candidacy for the post, the newspaper notes that the Katherine Dusak Miller distinguished service professor of finance at the University of Chicagos Booth School of Business would bring with him "impeccable international economics and central banking experience" as well as "significant achievements at the Reserve Bank of India".

The con, in its view, is that he has thus far shown "no indication that he would want the job at the BoE".

On the newspaper's list of prospective candidates is another Indian-origin contender in Shriti Vadera, the chair of Santander UK and a former UK government business minister. The treasury is expected to advertise the post by July this year, a year before a new incumbent as the Bank of England chief is due to take charge.

The article said that UKs Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond is starting the process to select the next governor of the BoE to replace Canada-born Carney in 2019.

Hammond has already said he has begun looking for candidates in forums such as the International Monetary Fund spring meetings in Washington.

Rajans career has been global. He worked as chief economist at the International Monetary Fund from October 2003 to December 2006  the first non-westerner to be chief economist and director of research at the IMF.

Rajan went back to academia after a three-year term as RBI governor in 2016, when the Narendra Modi government failed to give him an extension.

Rajan shot to prominence on the global stage in 2008 when the US sub-prime crisis started unravelling. Three years earlier, speaking at the US Federal Reserves annual Jackson Hole conference, he had warned about growing risks to financial system and called for putting in place policies to mitigate these risks.
Found: A new form of DNA in our cells

It's DNA, but not as we know it.



This is an artist's impression of the i-motif DNA structure inside cells, along with the antibody-based tool used to detect it

In a world first, Australian researchers have identified a new DNA structure - called the i-motif - inside cells. A twisted 'knot' of DNA, the i-motif has never before been directly seen inside living cells.

The new findings, from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, are published today, tuesday 24 April, in the journal Nature Chemistry.

Deep inside the cells in our body lies our DNA. The information in the DNA code  all 6 billion A, C, G and T letters  provides precise instructions for how our bodies are built, and how they work.

The iconic 'double helix' shape of DNA has captured the public imagination since 1953, when James Watson and Francis Crick famously uncovered the structure of DNA.

However, it's now known that short stretches of DNA can exist in other shapes, in the laboratory at least  and scientists suspect that these different shapes might play an important role in how and when the DNA code is 'read'.

The new shape looks entirely different to the double-stranded DNA double helix.

"When most of us think of DNA, we think of the double helix," says associate professor Daniel Christ (Head, Antibody Therapeutics Lab, Garvan) who co-led the research. "This new research reminds us that totally different DNA structures exist - and could well be important for our cells."

"The i-motif is a four-stranded 'knot' of DNA," says Associate Professor Marcel Dinger, head, Kinghorn Centre for Clinical Genomics, Garvan, who co-led the research with associate professor Christ.

"In the knot structure, C letters on the same strand of DNA bind to each other  so this is very different from a double helix, where 'letters' on opposite strands recognise each other, and where Cs bind to Gs [guanines]."

Although researchers have seen the i-motif before and have studied it in detail, it has only been witnessed in vitro  that is, under artificial conditions in the laboratory, and not inside cells.

In fact, scientists in the field have debated whether i-motif 'knots' would exist at all inside living things  a question that is resolved by the new findings.

To detect the i-motifs inside cells, the researchers developed a precise new tool  a fragment of an antibody molecule  that could specifically recognise and attach to i-motifs with a very high affinity. Until now, the lack of an antibody that is specific for i-motifs has severely hampered the understanding of their role.

Crucially, the antibody fragment didn't detect DNA in helical form, nor did it recognise 'G-quadruplex structures' (a structurally similar four-stranded DNA arrangement).

With the new tool, researchers uncovered the location of 'i-motifs' in a range of human cell lines. Using fluorescence techniques to pinpoint where the i-motifs were located, they identified numerous spots of green within the nucleus, which indicate the position of i-motifs.

"What excited us most is that we could see the green spots  the i-motifs  appearing and disappearing over time, so we know that they are forming, dissolving and forming again," says Dr Mahdi Zeraati, whose research underpins the study's findings.

The researchers showed that i-motifs mostly form at a particular point in the cell's 'life cycle'  the late G1 phase, when DNA is being actively 'read'. They also showed that i-motifs appear in some promoter regions (areas of DNA that control whether genes are switched on or off) and in telomeres, 'end sections' of chromosomes that are important in the aging process.

Dr Zeraati says, "We think the coming and going of the i-motifs is a clue to what they do. It seems likely that they are there to help switch genes on or off, and to affect whether a gene is actively read or not."

"We also think the transient nature of the i-motifs explains why they have been so very difficult to track down in cells until now," adds A/Prof Christ.

Associate professor Dinger says, "It's exciting to uncover a whole new form of DNA in cells - and these findings will set the stage for a whole new push to understand what this new DNA shape is really for, and whether it will impact on health and disease."
Fight against Zika, dengue gets boost from reliable spread of bacteria

A Vanderbilt team took the next leap forward in using a little-known bacteria to stop the spread of deadly mosquito-borne viruses such as Zika and dengue.

Wolbachia are bacteria that occur widely in insects and, once they do, inhibit certain pathogenic viruses the insects carry. The problem with using Wolbachia broadly to protect humans is that the bacteria do not normally occur in mosquitoes that transmit Zika and dengue.

So success in modifying mosquitoes relies on the bacteria's cunning ability to spread like wildfire into mosquito populations.

Wolbachia do so by hijacking the insect reproductive system in a process called cytoplasmic incompatibility, or CI.

This makes the sperm of infected fathers lethal to eggs of uninfected mothers. However, if infected fathers mate with infected mothers, the eggs live, and the infected mothers carrying Wolbachia will also infect all her offspring with it.

Then those offspring pass on Wolbachia to the next generation, and so on, until they eventually replace all of the resident mosquitoes. As Wolbachia spreads in the population, the risk of dengue and Zika virus transmission drops.

How that sperm and egg hijacking worked in infected fathers and mothers remained a mystery for decades, until Associate Professor of Biological Sciences Seth Bordenstein and his team helped solve it.

They set out to dissect the number and types of genes that Wolbachiause to spread with the long-term goal of harnessing that genetic ability for protecting humans against diseases transmission.

"In this new study, we've dissected a simple set of Wolbachia genes that replicate how Wolbachia change sperm and egg" Bordenstein said. "There are two genes that cause the incompatibility, and one of those same genes rescues the incompatibility. Engineering mosquitoes or Wolbachia for expression of these two genes could enhance or cause the spread of Wolbachia through target mosquito populations."

Their achievement is based on inserting genes into the genome of fruit flies. It is described in a paper appearing today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, "A single prophage WO gene rescues cytoplasmic incompatibility in Drosophila melanogaster."

In a previous study last year, the team identified the two genes in Wolbachia  named cytoplasmic incompatibility factors cifA and cifB  and learned that they modify the sperm to kill eggs. Now they solved the other half of the genetic mystery: cifA single-handedly can protect embryos from death.

"It's a microbial encryption and de-encryptyion system that ensures Wolbachia spread through insect populations so they can adequately block the transmission of viruses and ultimately save lives" Bordenstein said.
What will it look like?

Seven years on from its original debut, the new design is expected to keep the chiselled side proportions and raked rear roof structure while adopting most of the Velars fascia elements front and rear. However, the features have been modified to fit, and the Velars large grille has been shrunken while the lower air vents and fins enlarged. Helping extinguish the old look, the Evoques side inserts and bonnet vents appear to have been removed and overall it gives the new model a squarer front and boxier jaw that matches the most contemporary models in the marques line-up.

The test mule has been spotted riding on large black alloy wheels and a camo-clad exterior that weve removed here.

Around back, the taillights mimic the bigger SUV and the rear-upper quarter past the C-pillar has been re-sculpted with an acute Hoffmeister-style kink. But from the photos it appears the bigger siblings cool pop-out handles will remain exclusive to that model.

Whats new?

It will be built on a modified version of the same D8 platform the current model sits on but with better ride and handling, including tuned adaptive suspension and better noise dampening.

The latest Ingenium engine family will make a similar appearance as in the new E-Pace line-up with a range of 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol and diesel engine options variying in performance from economic to sporty, and mated to a ZF nine-speed automatic transmission.

A limited range of hybrid models are likely to appear with the first variant being a mild 48-volt battery-electric system assisting a smaller 1.5-litre Ingenium petrol motor. More powerful petrol, as well as diesel hybrid engines, are reported by Autocar to arrive after 2020.

Bringing more luxury and technology then before, the new car might also take on the Velars gadget-filled centre console with a twin display stack moulded around items such as the climate control dials and volume buttons. Further enhancing its technology backbone could be new safety and driver assistance aids such as adaptive cruise control and automatic lane keeping assist.

Whats on the wish list?

An Evoque SVR with extra power and torque and more aggressive body styling would round out Range Rovers expanding SVR line-up, that will soon include a V8-powered Velar.

More adventurous would be an off-road focused Evoque - like the Discovery SVX - with higher clearance via air suspension and diff locks for gripping up all-terrain tyres... though highly unlikely to happen in this High Street tractor.

When is it coming?

The new Evoque is tipped to debut in September at the 2018 Paris motor show but the British establishment might reveal the new SUV before then. Following its debut in France, the Evoque will hit roads in 2019 including its local launch in Australia.
Infiniti is joining the electric revolution.

The Japanese luxury off-shoot has announced that it will develop a new electric vehicle platform based on the Q Inspiration concept car that was revealed at the 2018 Detroit motor show.

And according to the brand's chairman, Roland Krueger, the electric vehicle will be made with China as the focus.

"Infiniti is developing a new platform for electrified vehicles inspired by the Q Inspiration concept car, which shows the new design language for the age of autonomy and electrification. We very much had China in mind when designing the Q Inspiration, which shows a very sporty, performance-oriented electric concept, with a much bigger interior space," said Krueger.
Mercedes-Benz has lifted the covers on the definitive production version of its A-Class sedan at the 2018 Beijing motor show ahead of a start to Australian sales for the new four-door model in 2019.

The sixth member of Mercedes-Benzs compact car line-up, which goes under the internal codename Z177, draws heavily on the earlier Concept A sedan unveiled at last years Shanghai motor show, with an appearance that combines the distinctive front-end styling of the recently introduced fourth-generation A-Class hatchback with a rear-end reminiscent of the latest third-generation CLS.

Although the A-Class sedan revealed in China, the A-class L saloon as it is officially named, receives a 60mm longer wheelbase than the standard wheelbase model planned for sale in Australia, officials confirm the two boast the same styling.

Theyre the same model but in different lengths. The added length of the Chinese version is concentrated wholly within the rear door, which is longer than that of the A-Class sedan to be sold in other world markets to ease entry to the rear, Mercedes-Benzs chief design officer, Gorden Wagener, revealed to Drive.
The new images suggest that the deliveries of the Tata Safari Storme Army Edition have begun. The Tata Safari Army Edition was spotted at a Tata Motors yard in New Delhi when the Army-spec SUV was being unloaded. Indian Army's Central Vehicle Depot (CVD) is also located in Delhi.

The new images reveal more details about the Tata Safari Storme Army Edition. The interior of the SUV features a beige and black theme. Other features include reading lamps for the front and middle rows, Subros air conditioning system, ABS 9.1 and dual airbags.

On the design front, the Tata Safari Army Edition gets a matte green paint scheme which is common among the Army vehicles. The SUV also gets heavy-duty tow hook at the rear, jerry can holder on the rear left side and blacked out front and rear lamps.

Another prominent highlight of the Army-spec Safari Storme is that it does not get any chrome bits. All the body panels are either blacked out or painted with the matte green body colour. The SUV is also equipped with roof rails finished in black colour. The wheels are also painted in matte green.

The Tata Safari Storme Army Edition draws power from the existing 2.2-litre four-cylinder, turbocharged, Varicor diesel engine. On the standard model, the engine produces 154bhp and 400Nm of torque. The engine is coupled to a 6-speed manual gearbox with 4x4 low-range box as standard.

The Tata Safari Storme was selected for the Indian Army after undergoing a 15-month trial period. As per Army requirements, the vehicle should be capable of carrying an 800kg payload and equipped with a hard roof, air conditioning and four-wheel-drive. The Safari Storme will replace the iconic Maruti Gypsy which has been in service since 1991.

Thoughts On The Tata Safari Storme Army Edition

The Tata Safari Storme Army Edition will replace the iconic Maruti Gypsy in the Indian Army. The Safari Storme is a very capable vehicle and will fit the needs of the Army. The Safari Storme Army Edition is expected to be used as a personnel carrier and on reconnaissance missions. With the new matte green colour scheme, the Tata Safari looks menacing.
Garda Tony Golden died of multiple gunshot wounds and was fatally wounded when he was shot in the back, an inquest in Dundalk was told on Monday before the jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing.

Garda Golden had accompanied Siobhan Phillips to collect her belongings from the home she had shared with the gunman Adrian Crevan Mackin in Omeath, after she made a statement of complaint, in which she outlined how the County Down native had repeatedly assaulted her over a number of hours on the weekend of the killing.

The jury heard how paramedics sent to Mullach Alainn, Knocknagoran, Omeath around 6.20pm on Sunday October 11th 2015 following a report of a stabbing or shooting, had found three Gardai trying to resuscitate Garda Golden when they arrived at the house.

In the upstairs area, the body of Crevan Mackin was found on the landing and Siobhan Phillips was discovered critically injured in a bedroom.

Deputy State Pathologist Dr. Michael Curtis gave evidence that the father of three had died of multiple gunshot wounds.

He said he had been shot four times while facing the gunman and the fatal wound, which occurred when the father of three was shot in the back, would have been rapidly or instantaneously fatal.

In her statement which was made to Garda Golden between 4pm and 6pm on the day of the shooting and was read out in her absence as she was too unwell to attend the inquest, Ms Phillips outlined how Crevan Mackin had tried to choke her and had beaten her over a number of hours. She concluded by saying Im afraid of what Crevan Mackin will do to me and my family.

Her father Sean Phillips estimated that he heard the first three of six shots being fired, within a minute of his daughter and Garda Golden entering the house a Mullach Alainn. He said he always had concerns about Siobhans relationship with Mackin and claimed that at no stage would he have taken her or the guard to the house, if hed been aware Crevan Mackin had weapons.

He described him as a monster, and said his family want to know why he was on bail, after he was charged with Offences Against the State. Mr. Phillips said he was unaware the charge was membership of the I.R.A.

He said the PSNI had raided Mackins home about five years before the shooting as part of an investigation into acts of bestiality and had taken computers away. Crevan Mackin was subsequently charged with possession of porn including images of bestiality.

Mr. Phillips claimed that social services had become involved with Mackin at an early age. He had had been involved in bestiality with a sheep when he was 16 years old and had taken also a knife to his mother who had emigrated to Australia.

A Garda who was station orderly in Dundalk on the evening before Garda Goldens murder, when Siobhan Phillips attended to report the assault the night before between Friday 8pm and 9am on the Saturday, told how he had declined to take a statement as she had informed him she was feeling dizzy.

The Garda said after she said she would attend hospital in Newry, he had advised Ms. Phillips not to return to her home in Omeath, and to attend Dundalk District Court to seek a domestic violence order.

During questioning by James MacGuill solicitor for Nicola Golden  Garda Goldens widow, the witness said Ms. Phillips had not told him that a gun had been used to injure her weeks previously. The Garda also confirmed that the Garda computer system does not show if a suspect is a confidential informant.

Supt. Brian Mohan, who had formally identified Garda Goldens body to the Deputy State Pathologist later told the hearing it was not possible to know if Crevan Mackin was acting as an informant saying That information is not even available to me.

The jury heard Ms. Phillips had allegedly cheated while Mackin was in custody. He had been texting other women in front of her and had told his sister Sinead Hynes that he was going to have unprotected sex with them to punish her. He had also claimed that one of them was pregnant.

Crevan Mackin also told his sister that he had accessed the Dark Net to buy component parts for guns using Siobhan Phillips credit card and to get someone to hack her Facebook account so he could read her messages.

Sinead Hynes said her brother was a difficult child and never seemed to be aware of the consequences of his actions. He was subsequently diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome and ADHD. She told how his behaviour got worse as a teenager when he broke into houses in the area where they lived and crashed cars.

The hearing was told he self-admitted himself to a psychiatric unit in Craigavon after a relationship ended and had improved but Ms. Hynes said that when he started living with the Simon Community her brother fell in with the wrong crowd  republicans. She said his views were getting very political and he had never been like that beforehand.

During questioning by Mr. MacGuill, Sean Phillips wife Norma agreed that her step daughter had withheld information about Mackin possessing firearms from the various officers she had interactions with in the month before the murder.

Mrs. Phillips replied She withheld it from everyone.

Siobhan Phillips mother Bronagh told the hearing that her daughter was 16 when the relationship began with Crevan Mackin and Siobhan became pregnant aged 17. She said Mackin had denied having a criminal record before telling her he had convictions for motoring offences.

The witness said she thought Crevan Mackin was a caring father and would never harm his children and while shed witnessed verbal rows between the couple she had not seen any physical violence.

A member of the Garda National Technical Bureau who examined the scene gave evidence of finding Garda Goldens garda notebook on the fourth step of the stairs in the house. He said nine bullets were accounted for there and a tenth one was recovered from Siobhan Phillips.

The hearing was also told that the gun found beside Crevan Mackin a Glock 17 9mm semi automatic pistol was capable of holding 18 rounds in total. Another Glock was recovered from Mr.Mackins Ford Focus.

The jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing. Louth County Coroner Ronan Maguire said he remembered the shock at the time of Garda Goldens killing saying The entire community was devastated.

Mr. MacGuill thanked the jurors saying the hearing had been helpful for the family that some things that were misunderstood had been clarified. Stephen Byrne for the Chief State Solicitors Office on behalf of the Garda Commissioner said it was a stark reminder that members of An Garda Siochana on duty put their lives at risk and that should not be forgotten.


Dredging company Van Oord, assisted by the publicly owned Mozambique company Emodraga, recently completed the dredging of the access channel and the manoeuvring basins of the port of Beira, Mozambique.

The dredging project was ordered by Mozambican Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Mocambique (CFM) and started six months ago. Now ships up to 60.000 tonnes can dock in the port at any time of the day. Previously this was only possible for ships up to 30.000 tonnes.

Original depth

The main goal of the dredging is to broaden the width of the 27 kilometre long Beira access channel from 135 to 25 metres. The depth of the channel is now fixed at eight metres for the straight stretches, and at 9.2 metres on the stretch known as the Macuti curve.

Van Oord used its trailing suction hopper dredger Volvox Atalanta to dredge the port access channel to its original width and depth.

It has been assisted and by Emodragas Sagar Manthan for bed-levelling operations.

Multi-modal hinterland network

According to Augusto Abudo, the executive director of the central division of the Mozambican ports and rail company (CFM-Centro), the dredging will significantly increase the amount of cargo handled by Beira, particularly cargo to and from Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and even the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The seaport of Beira is regaining its status as most important transport gateway to these land-locked countries, offering a network of different modes, such as river, roads and railways.

Continuous maintenance dredging

Abudo said that, later this year, the port will be subject to maintenance dredging, because of the large amounts of silt that the Pungue river deposits in the harbour.

It has been the second time in less than a decade that the port has undergone emergency dredging. In 2012 Van Oord also completed a dredging contract for CFM, having removed a total of 8 million cubic metres of sand and clay.

This news item was originally published on the website of Noticias Online (in Portuguese only).

Read also on this website

 Celebration 150th anniversary of Van Oord starts with the naming of the first LNG vessel, 16 April 2018

 Van Oord awarded dredging contract to improve access to port Benoa, Indonesia, 5 March 2018

 Van Oord completes Kaohsiung port expansion eight months ahead of schedule, 12 December 2017

 Expertise: Enabling delta life

 Country: Mozambique



More information

Van Oord

Rotterdam, the Netherlands

+31 88 826 00 00

www.vanoord.com


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Building a community around a brand is an important and often-overlooked part of being successful in e-commerce.

"Community solidifies the relationship between your brand and your customer," said e-commerce consultant Ian Rhodes.

"It creates loyalty. Whilst the majority of retail brands are seeking people to buy from them, the community-minded brand invites people to buy into their brand," he told the E-Commerce Times.

What are the best ways to build this community? What kinds of community are most effective? How can they be sustained? We talked with experts in the field to bring you some of the following tips to help you get started in the process of community-building.

1. Invite Customers on Your Journey

The more customers get behind-the-scenes glimpses of your company and hear about stories that make you who you are, the more they'll want to join you.

"Acknowledge that your brand is on a journey," said Rhodes. "Invite your customer to come along for the ride. This will provide purpose to the content you create and share. You'll share the inner workings of your brand -- your brand's perspective and purpose."

2. Make It More About Them Than You

It's easy to forget that the world doesn't revolve around your company -- particularly when you're working to build brand identity and awareness. The fact is, though, if you come across as a pushy salesperson all the time, no one will want to hang out with you.

"The biggest mistakes companies make with engagement are about vanity, narcissism, self-centeredness," said consultant Brian Carter.

"We're talking about smart people who would never walk into a mixer and talk about themselves for 15 minutes straight," he told the E-Commerce Times. "Hopefully, they're smart enough to know that people like people who focus on them -- not on themselves. They ask others about their lives and family and hobbies, and they make a friend."

Similarly, brands must engage customers around their interests and concerns and not always try to sell them something.

"You have to just be with them without selling, sometimes, or you're not building a relationship -- you're just an annoying salesperson, and that's not a likable approach," explained Carter.

"You have to go a level beyond your product into the customer's life and emotions, and live with them and talk about other things, and have faith that this creates a relationship that makes them love you so much that -- of course, they want to buy your products."

3. Create and Foster Online Spaces

Digital spaces are key to creating a sense of community around your brand, allowing customers to meet, talk, share ideas, and interact with you and other customers. Whether they're social media groups or privately branded sites, such spaces can be integral in fostering and nurturing community.

The most effective way to attract a loyal online audience is to "build a welcoming space for all members," said Maxim Schram, CEO of CMNTY.

"A community platform allows customers to share stories, ideas and experiences," he told the E-Commerce Times. "It can be a forum, a chat room, idea contests. Any of these could come in handy."

As customers engage with each other and with your business, they also can provide helpful information about ways to enhance and improve your business.

"By utilizing branded communities, a business can genuinely communicate with their audience and receive useful feedback," said Schram.

4. Be Mobile-Friendly

The best communities form where people already gather, and that increasingly means mobile spaces. As you begin to foster communities, therefore, consider ways to make them mobile-friendly.

"If you want to go a step further, you can adapt your platform to be mobile-friendly," said Schram. "As mobile marketing is getting bigger, the on-the-go audience is increasing. You can use that as an additional gateway. All these channels serve to gather insights and feedback, which in turn can be implemented into broader business strategies."

5. Invite Customers to Share Their Own Content

Communities revolve around sharing photos, videos and experiences, so you'll want to encourage that in the communities you create for your customers.

"As people feel part of something, they will be naturally incentivized to share their own content and imagery that focuses upon your products and your brand," said Rhodes. "These strategies work because they offer openness and transparency. When you make great products, people take ownership and pride from that ownership."

The best communities are ones where customers want to connect and interact. They're there because they want to be there, and your goal is, simply, to hold space for them -- encouraging engagement, communication and sharing.

Vivian Wagner has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2008. Her main areas of focus are technology, business, CRM, e-commerce, privacy, security, arts, culture and diversity. She has extensive experience reporting on business and technology for a variety of outlets, including The Atlantic, The Establishment and O, The Oprah Magazine. She holds a PhD in English with a specialty in modern American literature and culture. She received a first-place feature reporting award from the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists. Email Vivian.




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President Trump on Thursday tweeted criticism of Amazon, implying that the administration may be mulling some type of regulatory action.

I have stated my concerns with Amazon long before the Election. Unlike others, they pay little or no taxes to state & local governments, use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy (causing tremendous loss to the U.S.), and are putting many thousands of retailers out of business!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2018

Amazon's founder, CEO Jeff Bezos, is also the owner of The Washington Post, one of the top newspapers in the United States and a major thorn in the president's side since his administration came to power.

The president recently has been "obsessing" over the company and exploring different regulatory possibilities, Axios reported on Wednesday.

Asked during the White House press briefing on Wednesday whether the president wanted to go after Amazon, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the White House had "no announcements and no specific policies or actions" regarding the company.

When asked about Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin's earlier comments regarding the potential for creating an Internet sales tax, Sanders provided some additional context.

"Look, the president has said many times before he's always looking to create a level playing field for all businesses, and this is no different," she said at the briefing. "And he's always going to look at different ways, but there aren't specific policies on the table at this time."

It's more likely that the president's tweet reflects his issues with Bezos over politics than serious concerns about Amazon's business model, Paula Rosenblum, managing partner at RSR Research, told the E-Commerce Times.

Trump's concerns have more to do with politics and The Washington Post than e-commerce, Rick Edmonds, media business analyst at Poynter, also told the E-Commerce Times.

Echoes on Main Street

Concerns over Amazon taking business away from brick-and-mortar retailers have led to efforts in local state legislatures and in Congress to find ways to make sure e-commerce can thrive without breaking the back of local retail operations.

States could gain anywhere from US$8.5 billion to $13.4 billion in additional revenue if they were allowed to mandate sales tax collection from all remote sellers, including B2B and B2C companies, according to a Government Accountability Office study released last fall.

The U.S. Postal Service generated about $19.5 billion in revenue in 2017. Although the amount that Amazon accounted for is unknown, the Postal Regulatory Commission sees Amazon's arrangement with the service as profitable, according to a source familiar with the relationship.

However, "Amazon is continuing to drag its feet rather than collecting taxes on the 'marketplace' portion of its business, where it partners with third-party sellers," said Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

"Amazon has all the information it needs to begin charging those taxes right now, but it is delaying doing so in most states so that it can keep a price advantage over most businesses," he told the E-Commerce Times.

Amazon doesn't have to pay sales taxes in many cities, Davis noted, but that is due to flaws in state and local laws rather than to Amazon flouting tax regulations.

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule later this year on South Dakota v. Wayfair, which could give local and state governments more authority to mandate sales tax collection by online retailers, Davis said.

"This is essential to leveling the playing field between traditional retailers and Internet retailers," he added. "States are increasingly frustrated that out-of-state businesses are not collecting the same amount of sales taxes that local businesses have been collecting for decades."

Court Precedent

The Wayfair ruling effectively could overturn the 1992 Quill v. North Dakota ruling, which found that only retailers with a physical presence in a state were required to collect sales taxes, observed Joyce Beebe, a fellow in public finance at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy.

At the end of the day, Trump's comments are unlikely to have a major impact on Amazon's bottom line, said Thad Peterson, senior analyst with the Aite Group.

"If there is an economic impact on Amazon.com from Mr. Trump's comments, I don't believe it will have a significant impact on their business," he told the E-Commerce Times. "The value that Amazon delivers is variety and convenience ahead of price."

Ultimately, that proposition won't change, said Peterson, and it's unlikely that Amazon Prime members, who are considered the best and most loyal Amazon customers, will change their buying habits.

As for the e-commerce world at large, even if all online retailers ultimately have to collect the same taxes that local retailers do for physical transactions at the checkout counter, customers are unlikely to balk, he argued, because online commerce in general is more about convenience and variety over price.

David Jones has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2015. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, e-commerce, open source, gaming, artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles. He has written for numerous media outlets, including Reuters, Bloomberg, Crain's New York Business and The New York Times. Email David.




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Users of Google's Gmail have been receiving spam that appears to have been sent from their own accounts, according to reports.

Google said it was aware of a spam campaign impacting a "small subset of Gmail users" and was taking measures to protect against it.

The attackers used forged email headers to make it appear that users were sending emails to themselves, which led to those emails erroneously appearing in their sent folders, Google said.

The company has identified the offending emails and is reclassifying them as spam, and it has no reason to believe any accounts were compromised as a result of the operation.

Telus has identified spam emails that were disguised to make it appear it had sent them, spokesperson Francois Gaboury said.

"We are aware of the issue and can confirm the messages are not being generated by Telus, nor are they being sent from our server," he said.

Telus has been working with third-party vendors to resolve the problem, Gaboury said, adding that customers should not respond to any suspicious emails.

Spoof This

The attack is an example of a business impersonation attack combined with spoofing, said Kevin O'Brien, CEO of GreatHorn.

In these types of attacks, the hackers manipulate email metadata or directly impersonate the sending domain, which allows them to bypass pre-delivery filters, he told the E-Commerce Times.

"While cloud-native email providers are more secure than their on-premises counterparts, these types of attacks highlight how messages send within those providers' own environment," O'Brien said. "That is, emails that are sent from one cloud email box to another never leave the infrastructure that Google or Microsoft provides [and] can pose threats that traditional security models cannot help stop."

Google last year announced new machine learning technology designed to help combat spam, phishing and other types of cybercrime.

However, GreatHorn has tracked a large number of attacks that were able to get around the machine learning technology, O'Brien said.

GreatHorn recently stopped an attack that used the attack vector "emailaddress2018@company.com" across multiple clients that run on the Gmail platform, he said. Google eventually caught it, but only after GreatHorn detected dozens of emails.

"In that example, organizations running G Suite without SPF (Sender Policy Framework) set to its most strict level were receiving impersonation attacks, similar to the Telus attack, where the only sign was 2018 attached to the email address," O'Brien noted.

Google's machine learning is "eventually secure," he remarked, but it often lags behind individual consumer protection, leaving organizations vulnerable.

Conduct a Self-Check

Gmail users can check for a potentially spoofed message, said James Lerud, head of the Verodin behavioral research team.

Click the down arrow next to the reply button and select "show original." Then look at the SPF section. If it does not say "pass," then the email is spoofed, he told the E-Commerce Times. The SPF system keeps track of which IP addresses are authorized to send email on behalf of a domain.

If users suspect a Gmail account has been compromised, they should monitor account activity by clicking "details" at the bottom of the Gmail page under "Last Account Activity," said Lerud. Users should periodically review third-party access to check which apps have access to their account.

David Jones has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2015. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, e-commerce, open source, gaming, artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles. He has written for numerous media outlets, including Reuters, Bloomberg, Crain's New York Business and The New York Times. Email David.




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Facebook has introduced a set of changes designed to empower members to protect their account information. The company has been at the center of an unrelenting firestorm following revelations that it allowed Cambridge Analytica to mine private data belonging to 50 million of its users without permission, which Cambridge Analytica then leveraged for political purposes.

Facebook on Wednesday outlined new ways for users to adjust privacy settings on their accounts in an online post written by Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan and General Counsel Ashlie Beringer.

Privacy Controls

Facebook's redesigned privacy settings for mobile devices allow users to make changes on a single screen. The company's new privacy shortcuts menu lets users add two-factor authentication, quickly review and delete shared information, manage ad preferences, and manage who can see profile information and posts.

Facebook also introduced Access Your Information, a feature that allows users to go through their timeline or profile information and delete anything they don't want on the site.

Further, Facebook has made it easy for users to download their information securely and even move it to another service. The downloadable info includes photos posted by users, posts made by users, and contacts added to user accounts.

Facebook will propose updates to its terms of service during the next few weeks and make changes to its data policy to clarify what it shares, Egan and Beringer wrote.

Both U.S. and European authorities have announced investigations into Facebook's data sharing. Tom Pahl, acting director of the FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection earlier this week took the rare step of publicly announcing that it was investigating Facebook over the data disclosures.

Companies that reach settlements with the FTC must comply with FTC order provisions that impose privacy and data security requirements, he noted.

Facebook in 2011 entered into a data privacy agreement with the FTC as part of a consent order, and the commission should enforce the terms of that deal, according to the Electronic Privacy Information Center and other privacy advocates.

European Data Probes

The UK Information Commissioner's office raided Cambridge Analytica offices over the weekend and removed documents, computers and other information from the site as part of an investigation into the use of data for political campaigns.

Cambridge Analytica has been linked not only to the 2016 Trump campaign, but also to activities related to Brexit.

Whistleblower Chris Wylie, a former Cambridge Analytica employee, testified on Tuesday that the Brexit vote outcome may have been altered through "cheating."

Cambridge Analytica denied Wylie's allegations in a statement released Tuesday, claiming that they were based on unfounded conspiracy theories. Cambridge Analytica further denied using GSR data on behalf of the Trump campaign.

Suspended Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix has been scheduled for a return visit to the House of Commons next month. He will face questions from the Digital, Sport, Media and Commerce committee in connection with its investigation of the use of fake news in various campaigns.

Facebook Chief Product Officer Chris Cox has been tentatively scheduled to appear before the committee next month.

The EU has stepped up its investigation into whether Facebook violated European privacy laws.

"Justice Commissioner [Vera] Jourova sent a letter to Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg Monday evening asking for clarifications within the next two weeks, including on whether data on EU citizens have been affected by the recent scandal," said spokesperson Melanie Voin.

Jourova also reminded the company of the upcoming EU data protection rules and called on Facebook to fully cooperate with the European Data Protection Authorities in the context of the investigation, Voin added.

No similar letter has been sent to Cambridge Analytica, she said.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has agreed to testify before the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, which last week sent a written request to Facebook, asking that it address the data privacy scandal directly.

Facebook staffers have met with committee staff, said a source familiar with the talks, but arrangements had not yet been fixed for a live appearance.

"Facebook, who reinvented social networking for the masses, now has to backtrack and reinvent the data security that people believed they had," said Wayne Kurtzman, research director for social and experiential solutions at IDC.

"That's a hard standard to meet, especially when trust is the currency," he told the E-Commerce Times.

"Facebook has a unique opportunity to reinvent a business model that improves relevant engagements, minimizes misleading news, and connects relevant content from advertisers," Kurtzman said.

"Ideally, this new model will have user privacy as the core, and perhaps result in even more relevant ad targeting for a premium price," he suggested. "They then have to sell that model to start building back the trust that was lost."

David Jones has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2015. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, e-commerce, open source, gaming, artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles. He has written for numerous media outlets, including Reuters, Bloomberg, Crain's New York Business and The New York Times. Email David.




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Mozilla on Tuesday announced Facebook Container, a Firefox browser extension that is designed to segregate users' activity on Facebook from their other Web activity, limiting Facebook's ability to track them and gather personal data.

Mozilla recently has engaged in an aggressive strategy to counter Facebook data management policies that many see as intrusive.

The extension is the culmination of more than two years of research into developing a more private browsing experience, Mozilla said. However, the organization accelerated its development after the Cambridge Analytica data scandal came to light.

"We recently created the Facebook Container as a result of what we saw as a growing need and user demand for tools to help users control their online data," said Jeff Griffiths, product lead, at Firefox.

"We wanted to help our users better protect their browsing activity," he told LinuxInsider.

Facebook Container will shield Facebook users' non-Facebook activity from data tracking, thus making it harder for Facebook to send targeted ads and messages based on members' off-site Web activity, Mozilla said.

However, the Firefox extension would not affect the type of data access and analytics activities associated with the Cambridge Analytica controversy, the organization said.

How Facebook Container Works

The Firefox browser extension works by isolating the user's identity in a separate container, Mozilla explained.

Mozilla does not collect data from customers who use the Facebook Container -- it only tracks how often the extension is installed and removed.

Installation of the extension results in removal of the user's Facebook cookies and logout from Facebook. The next time the user opens Facebook, it will load in a blue-colored tab where the user can navigate the site as usual. If the user clicks on a non-Facebook link, that site will open outside the container.

Clicking on Facebook share buttons will cause browser tabs to load within the container. In those cases Facebook will get info about the sites whose content users shared.

Mozilla warned that The extension may prevent users from logging into other accounts with their Facebook credentials, Mozilla warned.

Also embedded Facebook comments or likes will not work outside the FB container tab, to make sure Facebook can't use that information to track users' off-site habits.

Aggressive Steps

The Facebook Container add-on is one of several steps Mozilla has taken to distance itself from Facebook following the disclosures that Cambridge Analytica gained access to 50 million users' data without permission during the 2016 presidential campaign. Last week Mozilla halted advertising on Facebook.

"Mozilla's new browser extension for Facebook offers an intriguing solution for a seemingly insoluble problem,' said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.

Facebook's central business model relies on the selling of user data to advertisers and other interested parties, he told LinuxInsider.

The Mozilla browser extension is analogous to one of Mozilla's original features in Firefox, King recalled. The browser omitted support for Active X, which was the technology Microsoft used to support early pop-up ads. That feature, along with Mozilla's quick performance and customization, led to Firefox becoming an early favorite among browser users.

Vivaldi, a relatively recent entry in the browser scene, last week launched a new version in collaboration with DuckDuckGo, making it the default search engine in private windows mode.

Vivaldi's approach is much different from Mozilla's, but the objectives are similar, said Vivaldi CEO Jon von Tetzchner.

"It is important and noteworthy that browser companies are coming forward in their unique ways to provide privacy, and moreover educate users about the threats of privacy erosion through data tracking and collection," he told LinuxInsider.

The Mozilla extension has some helpful elements that can make it easier for users to avoid some Facebook tracking, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which last week advised users to disable all platform apps by changing their privacy settings.

However, the Facebook Container's usefulness is limited, spokesperson Karen Gullo told LinuxInsider. It doesn't take the place of dedicated tracking blockers, which are the best defense against marketers' tracking and targeting efforts.

David Jones has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2015. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, e-commerce, open source, gaming, artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles. He has written for numerous media outlets, including Reuters, Bloomberg, Crain's New York Business and The New York Times. Email David.


A new study of the melting patterns of glaciers in Antarctica provides real-world evidence for one of the more troubling model-based climate change predictions, The Washington Post reported Monday.

The study, published April 18 in Science Advances, found that fresh water melting off of glaciers in some regions of Antarctica caused a layer of cold, fresh water to float above warmer, saltier water, both slowing ocean circulation and melting lower parts of the ice sheets.

Alessandro Silvano, the study's lead author and a Ph.D. student with the University of Tasmania's Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), explained the mechanism in everyday terms.

"This process is similar to what happens when you put oil and water in a container, with the oil floating on top because it's lighter and less dense," Silvano said in an IMAS press release.

But unlike mixing oil and water, this mechanism has global implications as the warmer, denser water leads to more melting.

"We found that in this way increased glacial meltwater can cause a positive feedback, driving further melt of ice shelves and hence an increase in sea level rise," Silvano said.

The process also slows the circulation of ocean currents because it prevents the sinking of dense, cold water called "Dense Shelf Water." The study found that the formation of Dense Shelf Water had stopped off of East Antarctica's Sabrina Coast and in the Amundsen Sea in West Antarctica.

"The cold glacial meltwaters flowing from the Antarctic cause a slowing of the currents which enable the ocean to draw down carbon dioxide and heat from the atmosphere. In combination, the two processes we identified feed off each other to further accelerate climate change," Silvano said.

As The Washington Post pointed out, Silvano's research backs up a study co-authored by early climate change alarm-sounder Dr. James Hansen in 2016, which used computer models to predict that melting ice in Antarctica and Greenland would warm the oceans below the surface and increase the rate of melting, increasing storms and leading to sea level rise of "several meters over a timescale of 50 to 150 years," according to the abstract.

"Our study shows for the first time actual evidence of this mechanism. Our study shows that it is already happening," Silvano told The Washington Post.

Hansen himself also commented, saying "this study provides a nice small-scale example of processes that we talk about in our paper," the Post reported.

"On the large-scale issue, it is too early to say how these feedback processes will play out, based on empirical evidence," Hansen told the Post by email. "If we stay on business-as-usual [greenhouse gas] emissions rates, so that global warming continues to increase, I expect that the freshwater injection rate will increase (mainly via ice faster ice shelf breakup and underwater melt) and sea ice area will increase. This experiment will be playing out over the next years and decades."

This study comes days after reports that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), which brings warm water from the tropics and moves cool water south, is weaker than at any point in the last thousand years.

"Of those two key areas of deep water formation, the northern Atlantic one has been widely considered more vulnerable to global warming," Stefan Rahmstorf, a scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, told The Washington Post. "It is therefore of some concern that we now see increasing signs that the deep water formation around Antarctica is already being affected."

Because the study's authors do not have measurements for Dense Shelf Water formation in the regions studied going back far enough, they cannot be certain that the current changes are due to climate change, though the melting of fresh water from glaciers would still impact the process going forward, The Washington Post reported.
California has had a rough eight years. From 2010 to 2016, it endured the worst drought in its recorded history. Then, massive rainfall in 2016 and 2017 forced 18,000 Californians to evacuate their homes as the emergency spillway of the Oroville Dam was threatened due to erosion. Summer 2017 also saw the worst wildfire in the state's history.

But research published in Nature Climate Change Monday found that, if humans don't act to halt climate change, California's recent sequence of catastrophes could become the new normal.

Researchers used the Community Earth System Model Large Ensemble of climate models and found that, if carbon dioxide emissions continue to rise through 2100, extreme dry-to-wet transitions could double, AFP reported Monday.

Researchers referred to a transition like 2016's as a "precipitation whiplash" and found that such whiplashes would be two times more common in southern California and 1.25 times more common in northern California, CNN reported.

According to CNN, while precipitation averages were not projected to change, individual extremely wet years would be 2.5 times more likely by 2100 and the number of dry sequences would increase from 80 to 140 percent during the same time.

But researchers said it was the "whiplash" between extremes that was particularly dangerous. This is partly because infrastructures such as dams and reservoirs, which California uses to safeguard against droughts, "become a liability during very wet years, when we need as much room to spare in reservoirs to maintain flood control," study lead author and University of California, Los Angeles climate scientist Daniel Swain told CNN.

"In a place like California, we really need to be thinking about both risks [drought and flood] simultaneously," Swain said.

The study indicates more disasters to come for the beleaguered state. It calculated the chance that California would see another incident like the Great Flood of 1862, in which 40 days of rainfall filled the Central Valley with enough water to submerge the millions of homes now located in Los Angeles, Orange County, the Bay Area and Sacramento Valley. The study found that equally intense storms would be five times more likely by the end of the century and that at least one such event was likely to impact major cities by 2060.

On the other extreme, "whiplash" transitions from wet to dry make wildfires more likely, as the vegetation increased by heavy rainfall dries out. Dry-to-wet transition years can also increase the risk of mudslides, CNN reported.

"This is a very important step forward in the climate community," University of Oklahoma assistant meteorology professor Jason Furtado, who was not involved with the research, told CNN.

"We are recognizing that the impacts of climate change are not just on long time scales but are also present in short-term, high-impact weather events," Furtado said.
The Earth could use some climate-change-fighting superheroes right about now. And according to a new comic series by the nonprofit Amplifier, there are a few real-life ones in our midst.

Thirteen of them, actually.

On Earth Day, April 22, Amplifier released the comic art series #MyClimateHero, portraying leaders of the modern climate justice movement. Amplifier is a Seattle-based art design lab that facilitates art aimed at "amplifying the voices of social change," according to its website.

"#MyClimateHero tells the story of modern climate leaders building unprecedented cooperation, driving action and creating space for those most impacted to share their knowledge and perspectives," said Amplifier chief of staff Tamara Power-Drutis.

Comic artists designed the series, which also features interviews and excerpts of the superheroes. Amplifer released all artwork for free download on its website.

Here is a look at the series.

1. Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright

Social and climate justice advocate

Jeremy Packer

"Leadership in itself must come from frontline communities, which includes Native American, Black, Brown and low-wealth folk," said Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright. "Leaders and everyone in this work understand that it takes a lot of work to better understand the needs of these communities and the need to support them more.  The frontlines are also our First Line of defense in the climate fight, [and] they are and must be the foundation. The Environmental community is also realizing, albeit slowly, the need to establish the nexus between racial justice and the climate struggle, and this is a good thing."

2. Angel Hsu

Founder and director of Data-Driven Yale

Pia Guerra

"Modern climate heroes are needed now more than ever because climate change is worsening and accelerating," said Angel Hsu. "In my field of work, modern climate heroes are those individuals, companies, organizations and governments who take actions to slow climate change while transparently sharing what it is they are doing. We don't have a good sense, collectively, of how well policies and initiatives designed to tackle climate change are working because there is not enough available data to assess these efforts."

3. Neil deGrasse Tyson

Director of the Hayden Planetarium

Gan Golan

"As a voter, as a citizen, scientific issues will come before you," said Neil deGrasse Tyson in the film Science in America."And isn't it worth it to say, 'Alright, let me at least become scientifically literate, so that I can think about these issues and act intelligently upon them.' Recognize what science is, and allow it to be what it can and should be: in the service of civilization. It's in our hands."

4. Adrianna Quintero

Executive Director of Voces Verdes

Dan Goldman

"An open and inclusive movement with people of all types working together, not because we call ourselves environmentalists, but because we have a shared vision for a healthy environment and a better future for everyone is stronger than any polluter," said Adrianna Quintero. We just need to believe in ourselves and stand strong to fight for what's right. Our future depends on it."

5. Patricia Espinosa Cantellano

Executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Pia Guerra

"When it comes to climate change, we need women at the negotiating tables, in boardrooms and as the heads of businesses, in the streets and in the fields," said Patricia Espinosa at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn on November 13, 2017. "After all, we know that gender equality and empowerment of women and girls is key to successfully meet our climate and sustainable development goals. So, it is important that we work together to make sure that women's voices are heard, but furthermore, that women are involved in making the key decisions that will lead to a better tomorrow for all."

6. Pope Francis

Supreme Pontiff

Marty Two BULLS

"Particular appreciation is owed to those who tirelessly seek to resolve the tragic effects of environmental degradation on the lives of the world's poorest," said Pope Francis in the Encyclical Letter Laudato Si' of the Holy Father Francis on the Care for Our Common Home, published June 2015.

"Young people demand change. They wonder how anyone can claim to be building a better future without thinking of the environmental crisis and the sufferings of the excluded. I urgently appeal, then, for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet. We need a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all."

7. Jane Kleeb

Founder of Bold Alliance

Dan Goldman

"Environmentalists are not only living on the coasts of our country or in big cities. Ranchers, farmers, Native Americans in rural states work every day to protect the land and water for future generations," said Jane Kleeb. "Some people think those of us that live in rural communities are 'backwards,' or don't care about climate change. However, the reality is, if we don't take care of the land and protect the water, we also can't grow crops or raise cattle. Pipelines are threatening not only climate change, but the very way of life in rural and small towns."

8. The Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr.

President and CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus

Pia Guerra

"I also think of all the various efforts within the climate and environmental movement that are meant to broaden and grow the movement in numbers and diversity," said Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr. for HuffPost. "And I think, all those efforts will not be as successful as they should be until there is true recognition of what it means to march for climate as a person of color, and until there are meaningful things put in place to create a multicultural movement that accounts for the different experiences we have even at the same climate march, let alone in the same country, and certainly on the same planet."

9. Nathaniel Stinnett

Founder and executive director of the Environmental Voter Project

Valentine De Landro

"The environmental movement's biggest enemy is complacency," said Nathaniel Stinnett. "We already know the solutions to most of humanity's great environmental problems (even climate change), but we're not yet implementing those solutions.  Without political leadership, we're never going to address the climate crisis. And we're never going to get political leadership on climate change unless voters force it to happen. So, every environmentalist needs to vote. You can no longer care about climate change and claim that voting doesn't matter.

10. Rogue Scientists

Who saved environmental data

Valentine DeLandro

"Data Refuge launched November 2016 in Philadelphia to draw attention to how climate denial endangers federal environmental data," excerpted from the Data Refuge website. "With the help of thousands of civic partners and volunteers, the project has rapidly spread to over fifty cities and towns across the country."

11. Paul Nicklen

Expedition lead and co-founder of SeaLegacy

Jeremy Packer

"At SeaLegacy, and through my own platforms, we can engage with millions of people, in real time, every day," said Paul Nicklen. "That is something that was unheard of even just two years ago. With this huge distribution channel comes an even greater responsibility to merge science with art and storytelling so that we can maximize this unprecedented opportunity to make the change we need to ensure this planet is going to survivechange that the majority of people want and know is necessary."

12. 21 Kids v. Gov

Juliana v. United States of America

Gan Golan

"I'm grateful that my fellow plaintiffs and I can have our voices heard, and that climate science can have its day in court," said Victoria Barrett, plaintiff from White Plains, New York, in a March 7, 2018 news release by Our Children's Trust. "The Trump administration tried to avoid trial, but they can't ignore us. Our future is our choice and I believe the courts will stand with our constitutional rights."

13. James Balog

Founder and president, Earth Vision Institute and Extreme Ice Survey

Mark5

"I have found repeatedly that no matter what somebody's preconception was about climate change, if I could get them in the room and show them in a gentle and impartial way what our team has observed in the world, they realize through their intellect and their hearts that this is real," said James Balog in an interview by Stephen Lacey for ThinkProgress. "And I've had many audiences with climate skeptics or climate deniers in the roomin many cases the majorityand I still have wound up with standing ovations from those crowds. The witnessing that we've done is powerful and it seems to inspire people to know that there are others who risk their lives and their careers for this cause."

Reposted with permission from our media associate YES! Magazine.
The world's largest and most powerful offshore wind turbine will test its wings at an innovative facility in northeast England.

The 12-megawatt Haliade-X, developed by GE Renewable Energy, stands 853 feet tall, or about three times the height of the Flat Iron building in New York City. Its massive rotor diameter of 722 feet is roughly the tower height of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge above water.

GE touts that a single one of these turbines can generate enough power to supply 16,000 European households. A 750-megawatt wind farm configuration could produce enough power for up to 1 million homes.

GE Renewable Energy and the British government-funded Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult signed a five-year agreement to test the massive machine at a power train test facility at the National Renewable Energy Centre in Blyth, Northumberland.

"This is an important agreement because it will enable us to prove Haliade-X in a faster way by putting it under controlled and extreme conditions," John Lavelle, president and CEO of GE's Offshore Wind business said in a statement.

Lavelle also noted, "Traditional testing methods rely on local wind conditions and therefore have limited repeatability for testing. By using ORE Catapult's facilities and expertise, we will be in a better position to adapt our technology in a shortened time, reduce unplanned maintenance, increase availability and power output, while introducing new features to meet customers' demands."

Once installed, GE's turbine will surpass MHI Vestas' 9-megawatt turbines at Vattenfall's offshore wind farm off the coast of Aberdeen, Scotland. One rotation of those turbines is sufficient to power the average UK home for an entire day, the developers boasted.

As EcoWatch mentioned previously, companies are making larger and larger offshore turbines that can capture more wind and produce more power. This is appealing for wind farm operators because fewer turbines can simplify operations and lower maintenance costs.

GreenTech Media reported in March that more than $400 million will be invested over the next three to five years to develop the Haliade-X. The company aims to supply its first nacelle, or power generating unit, for demonstration in 2019 and ship the first units in 2021.

Britain's Energy and Clean Growth Minister Claire Perry welcomed the collaboration between GE and ORE Catapult.

"We are making the UK a global leader in renewables, including offshore wind, with more support available than any other country in the world," Perry said in a statement, noting that 22 percent of all investment in European wind projects are coming to the UK.

Check out more of the specs below:
The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled Monday that four climate activists facing criminal charges may use an unusual "necessity defense" over their efforts to shut down a pair of tar sands pipelines owned by Enbridge Energy.

"Valve turners" Emily Johnston and Annette Klapstein were charged after shutting off the emergency valves on the two pipelines in October 2016. Johnston and Klapstein, and the two defendants who filmed them, argue their actions to stop the flow of the polluting bitumen were justified due to the threat of climate change.

The action was part of Climate Direct Action's plan to shut down five pipelines across the U.S. that deliver tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada.

The pipelines targeted were Enbridge line 4 and 67 in Leonard, Minnesota; TransCanada's Keystone pipeline in Walhalla, North Dakota; Spectra Energy's Express pipeline at Coal Banks Landing, Montana; and Kinder Morgan's Trans-Mountain pipeline in Anacortes, Washington.

The case now heads to trial in Clearwater County later this year. This court's decision allows the defense to call on climate scientists and other experts to explain the threat of climate change during the trial.

"The Minnesota Court of Appeals has upheld our right to present the facts on the ongoing climate catastrophe, caused largely by the fossil fuel industry, to a Minnesota jury," Klapstein told the Associated Press in a statement. "As a retired attorney, I am encouraged to see that courts across the country seem increasingly willing to allow the necessity defense in climate cases."

The activists face felony charges of criminal damage to property and other counts.

In October, a district court judge ruled that he will allow the pipeline protesters to present the necessity defense for the charges. State prosecutors challenged the decision and the Minnesota Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in February.

According to the Associated Press, the three-judge appeals panel ruled 2-1 Monday that the prosecutor failed to show that allowing the necessity defense will have a "critical impact" on the outcome of the protesters' trials.

However, Appeals Judge Francis Connolly wrote in a dissenting opinion that the necessity defense does not apply "because there is no direct, causal connection between respondents' criminal trespass and the prevention of global warming."

"This case is about whether respondents have committed the crimes of damage to property and trespass. It is not about global warming," Connolly wrote.

This is not the first time a court has dismissed charges against a group of protesters using the defense. Last month, a Boston judge sided with 13 climate activists who were arrested for protesting the West Roxbury Mass Lateral Pipeline. The protestors argued the threat of climate change necessitated their civil disobedience.
The arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture known as Wildlife Services killed more than 1.3 million native animals during 2017, according to new data released by the agency last week.

The multimillion-dollar federal wildlife-killing program targets wolves, coyotes, cougars, birds and other wild animals for destructionprimarily to benefit the agriculture industry. Of the 2.3 million animals killed in total last year, more than 1.3 million were native wildlife species.

"The Department of Agriculture needs to get out of the wildlife-slaughter business," said Collette Adkins, a biologist and attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. "There's just no scientific basis for continuing to shoot, poison and strangle more than a million animals every year. Even pets and endangered species are being killed by mistake, as collateral damage."

According to the latest report, the federal program last year killed 357 gray wolves; 69,041 adult coyotes, plus an unknown number of coyote pups in 393 destroyed dens; 624,845 red-winged blackbirds; 552 black bears; 319 mountain lions; 1,001 bobcats; 675 river otters, including 587 killed "unintentionally"; 3,827 foxes, plus an unknown number of fox pups in 128 dens; and 23,646 beavers.

The program also killed 15,933 prairie dogs outright, as well as an unknown number killed in more than 38,452 burrows that were destroyed or fumigated. These figures almost certainly underestimate the actual number of animals killed, as program insiders have revealed that Wildlife Services kills many more animals than it reports.

According to the new data, the wildlife-killing program unintentionally killed nearly 3,000 animals last year, including wolves, badgers, bears, bobcats, foxes, muskrats, otters, porcupines, raccoons and turtles. Its killing of nontarget birds included chickadees, bluebirds, cardinals, ducks, eagles, grouse, hawks, herons, swans and owls. Dozens of domestic animals, including pets and livestock, were also killed. Such data reveals the indiscriminate nature of painful leghold traps, strangulation snares, poisons and other methods used by federal agents.

"The barbaric, outdated tactics Wildlife Services uses to destroy America's animals need to end," Adkins added. "Wolves, bears and other carnivores help balance the web of life where they live. Our government needs to end its pointless cycle of violence."

The wildlife-killing program contributed to the decline of gray wolves, Mexican wolves, black-footed ferrets, black-tailed prairie dogs and other imperiled species during the first half of the 1900s and continues to impede their recovery today.
High school Principal Dwight Carter used to be gung-ho about the deluge of ed-tech devices coming to education. He worked hard to expand the reach of digital tools in his Ohio school to personalize learning for students.

But in the last few years, Carter has taken a step back. Educational technology can help make differentiation more efficient for teachers, he said, but it isnt the technology itself that individualizes the learning process for the 1,500 students at New Albany High School.

Technology can free teachers up to do more one-on-one instruction, he said. Thats where the personalization happens.

Across the country, principals like Carter are embracing the idea of personalized learning, but not always putting it front and center in their schools. They think the ideaand the technology that supports itholds promise when it comes to engaging students and allowing teachers to focus on whats important. But they remain concerned about the negative impact that ed tech, in the guise of personalized learning, can have on a students ability to think deeply and connect with their peers.

The notion of personalized learning as a single cohesive movement isnt quite accurate, said Jason Dougal, the CEO of the National Institute for School Leadership . Is it a tool to truly enhance the learning experience? There are disparate views.

Principals are definitely thinking about personalized learning, whether that means adaptive-learning software in some schools or student-led education in others. In an Education Week survey of 500 principals, assistant principals, and school deans, only 9 percent said it wasnt on their radar screens. The majority of those surveyed54 percenthewed more to Carters line of thinking: personalized learning was a promising idea or one of many school improvement strategies available.

At Carters school, the idea of differentiating and engaging students on their own terms is central to some classes and projects. Nearly every student has a device, thanks to school-issued Chromebooks and a bring-your-own-device initiative.

Those devices are crucial for math-intervention classes designed to help struggling students, he said. Data pulled from digital assessments help teachers pinpoint problem areas for students, and adaptive software from APEX Learning meets each student at his or her math level.

But in other ways, technology is beside the point. As a graduation requirement, every student does a senior-seminar project on a topic of their choosing, anything from personal development or art to literature or science. Students decide the timing of the project (some complete it over the summer, while others work on it during the school year) and how to present what they learned. Teacher advisers and mentors work with students over extended periods of time, Carter said.

Technology provides the platform for accountability and the community for students to demonstrate their learning, he said. But it has to be more than just a repository of information: Kids have to be able to create something.

Those examples reflect a wider view. The Education Week survey found that 57 percent of principals said digital technology is an important supplemental resource in their school to personalize education, and 24 percent said it was an occasional add-on. But only 16 percent said ed-tech tools were central to their schools mission and operation.

How does the use of technology affect the role of the teacher? Ninety-seven percent of principals agreedeither some, quite a lot, or a great deal"that technology supports teachers in their efforts to customize instruction.

At the 370-student Whitwell Middle School, just west of Chattanooga, Tenn., Principal Kim R. Headrick said the school uses a blended-learning model for personalization. She believes that the technology allows students to communicate more often with teachers, dig further into subjects theyre interested in, and demonstrate learning in ways that make sense to them.

In fact, most principals seem to agree, with 92 percent of those surveyed saying digital technology improved student engagement some, quite a lot, or a great deal.

Even though Whitwell has a 1-to-1 computing initiative using Chromebooks, and teachers craft lessons relying heavily on digital resources, instructors play a central role in the personalization process, Headrick said. In fact, as part of her outreach when establishing the Marion County districts only 1-to-1 program three years ago, Headrick said she had to reassure parents that technology would not diminish instructors roles.

My rule is use the technology when it will enhance student learning, but dont let it replace the teacher, she said. Were not just putting kids on computersthats not the way we do things here.

In the Education Week survey, principals reported they were not as concerned that ed tech used to personalize learning would weaken the role of the teacher. More than 60 percent said they had no concerns or very little concern that would happen.

But Scott McCleod, an associate professor of educational leadership at the University of Colorado Denver and the founding director of the Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education , said he detects growing worries about how technology affects students learning processes.

Principals see the ability to help with student engagement and motivation, but theyre less certain about the ability to improve student-learning outcomes, he said. There are a whole bunch of concerns helping to flavor their thinking on this topic.

Indeed, 85 percent of those surveyed said they worried that digital technologies for personalized learning contribute to students spending too much time on screens. A similar number77 percentsaid they worried that such technologies lead to students working alone too often, and 73 percent said digital tools do nothing or very little to improve students social-emotional skills.

Lets just acknowledge the fact that we have kids who do not know how to speak to one another, Headrick said. They text or sit with a device in front of them all day long, and thats not just in school.

Jeffrey J. Thoenes, the principal of Williamston High School in Michigan, said he is so concerned about screen time that in some of the schools classes, students are required to put their cellphones in phone pockets for storage, when technology is not being used. Thats even though his school has a BYOD policy, and technology plays an integral role in customizing the curricula for students.

Technology has definitely helped us to personalize learning, but its not a zero-sum paradigm, he said. There are lots of ways to personalize education that have nothing to do with technology.

While most principals are embracing the idea of personalized learning in some aspects of their schools, where is the pressure to do so coming from? The student body is one place: 31 percent of the principals surveyed said pressure to welcome personalized learning came from students.

But even more pressure came from technology companies: 55 percent of principals reported that they felt strong or mild pressure from technology companies and vendors to accept personalized learning.

Craig Blower, the principal of Swan Valley High School in Saginaw, Mich., said his school has a 1-to-1 computing initiative that uses iPads. He said he is constantly fielding sales pitches from vendors.

They call continuously saying, Use our product,  or suggesting that their product is the best thing since sliced bread, he said.

The survey data reveal that principals continue to be intrigued by the idea of personalized learning but remain conflicted about its benefits versus its drawbacks, and how it should be implemented. Carter, the New Albany principal, said personalized learning and the digital tools used to facilitate it are important advances in education, but they dont represent a reversal of strategies educators have used for decades.

Personalized learning is nothing but another way of differentiating education, he said. Were just calling it something thats new and trendy.
New York

Researchers and civil rights experts from across the country highlighted potential ways to build more equitable systems for students who are disproportionately disciplined at school, in a series of findings presented last week during the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association here.

The study topic has become increasingly urgent. While many states and districts are working to discipline students more fairly, few have made significant progress in doing so.

So far, weve found no intervention has evidence of significantly reducing disproportionate discipline and bias,  and this problem has been around 50, 60 years, said Michael Pullman, a research associate professor at the University of Washington in Seattle, who studies interventions intended to reduce racial disparities in schools. There hasnt been a sense of, what do you do about this; being aware of it isnt enough. Its really led to some random acts of intervention.

In the past five years, the research arms of both the federal Departments of Education and Justice have invested in new research programs aimed at improving school safety and reducing discipline disparities, according to Nadine Frederique, a social-science analyst at the National Institute of Justices office of research and evaluation. Education systems push to address discipline disparities accelerated after the Education and Justice departments jointly issued guidance under President Barack Obamas administration suggesting policies that lead to disproportionate discipline for one racial group could violate civil rights laws. (U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has since suggested she wants to roll back that guidance.)

By 2015, 22 states and [the District of Columbia] revised laws limiting the use of exclusionary [discipline] practices, noted Chris Curran, an assistant professor of public policy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

He said Maryland became an early mover in this area following a lawsuit over racial disparities in school suspensions and expulsions. The state changed its discipline policy, using a five-tier framework for gauging the severity of a students behavior and finding appropriate responses.

Curran and Maida Finch of Salisbury University examined the discipline codes of the states 20 districts in 2013-14, just before the state guidance, and in 2015-16, a year after the new guidance.

Five Options

The researchers found that after the state changed its discipline policy, school districts added more than five options to respond to the average offense for students of all races, with the most new options offered for serious offenses, such as property destruction, arson, and drug-related behaviors. School administrators became significantly more likely, for example, to refer special education students to their student-support team or have misbehaving students enter into a behavior contract rather than suspend them out of school.

Changes in what we put in schools codes of conduct can have very real effects on students, Curran said. Instead of saying, Well, a fight automatically goes to a suspension because thats the only option listed there, they may have four or five options to respond.

The researchers also found that the changes cut across school demographics: Districts with majority-white and majority-black and -Hispanic students were equally likely to provide more options for dealing with student misbehavior.

A separate study previewed at the conference zeroed in on disparities in discipline meted out to students with disabilities.

The Center for Civil Rights Remedies at the University of California, Los Angeles, Civil Rights Project, and the Houston Institute for Race and Justice analyzed federal data on out-of-school suspensions for special education students, who historically have experienced exclusionary discipline at disproportionate rates.

While under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, students should not face that sort of discipline for behaviors associated with their disability, they can still be suspended for up to 10 days without additional due process.

All those less than 10 days can add up to be a big difference, said Daniel Losen, the director of the UCLA civil rights center, who led the study. For kids with disabilities, they are getting a lot more in terms of supports and service when they are in school,  so when they are missing school because they are suspended, they lose more.

Looking at national data, Losen found that while students of all races with disabilities showed higher rates of discipline than those for nondisabled students, some massive gaps remained between white and black students in the total number of days lost to suspension. In both the 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years, black students with disabilities lost roughly three times as much instruction from discipline as their white peers did. In 2015-16, for every 100 students with special needs, the amount of lost school from suspensions was 121 days on average for black students, compared with 43 days of school lost for white students with disabilities.

In Nevada, you have 153 days more missed instruction if you are black and have a disability than if you are white and have a disability, Losen said. This is not necessarily legal proof of discrimination, but when we see numbers like this, there is something broken here.

Identifying Successful Districts

Like his conference colleagues, Losen is trying to find and learn from schools and districts with more equitable discipline practices.

He and Russell Skiba, the director of the Equity Project at Indiana University Bloomington, analyzed federal civil rights data on 6,000 districts to identify those that had showed more equitable discipline, while also improving academic achievement for minority students and the school population overall.

Each district selected had to have: a significant population of poor and minority students, high school graduation rates above 60 percent, and no schools identified as low-achieving under their states accountability system. The district also had to have out-of-school suspension rates for black students, low-income students, and those with disabilities below 5 percent in elementary school and below 10 percent in middle and high schoolboth significantly below national averages. The researchers selected three districts for in-depth case studies.

In those three districts, all of which significantly lowered suspension rates while maintaining good test scores, the focus was on the well-being of the kids and achieving strong academic outcomes, and the discipline [reform] was embedded in that.

The researchers found that all three worked closely with their teachers unions and provided time, training, and resources to teachers on alternatives to suspension, such as restorative justice or positive behavioral interventions and supports. The districts also made clear changes to their board policies and regularly used data to identify and address discipline and academic gaps in schools.

In a separate study, a Florida district partnered with researchers from the Center for Policing Equity at UCLA to figure out why racial disparities remained even after it halved the overall rates of suspensions and expulsions.

R. Nicole Johnson-Ahorlu, the director for education and juvenile-justice research at the center, found discipline involved a series of staff decisions about whether misbehavior had occurred and whether and how the school responded.

Its a process of decisions, and if those decisions can be confounded in any way by prejudices, biases, or anything else, we want to be thinking about it, she said.

The team identified three issues that can raise the risk of conscious or unconscious bias in school discipline:

 Ambiguity: when a rule or situation is open to multiple interpretations.

 Discretion: when staff or administrators have significant freedom to decide how to respond.

 Accountability structure: when the district relies on the disciplined student or his parents to complain to identify inequitable school discipline, rather than identifying problematic patterns in its own data.

The center and the district are now exploring how differences in the ways students experience school, the social climate in different buildings, and other factors can also affect discipline rates.
Carrollton, Ky.

At this small, rural school in Northern Kentucky, five women are trying to lift the arc of young peoples lives with the wonkiest of weapons: labor-market data.

The staff of the iLEAD Academy knows which jobs are in demand statewide and in the five-county region their students call home and which ones will still be hot a decade from now. Theyve bookmarked the websites that list the salaries of those jobs for each tier of certification or degree earned. And theyre talking about this stuff with students. All the time.

As a result, most of the teenagers here understand the nuts and bolts of the regional job market. They know which communities are clamoring for registered nurses and which ones want licensed practical nurses. They can tell you how much theyll make as an entry-level robotics technician and whether the pay differential between an associate degree and a bachelors degree in that field justifies a four-year-college investment.

That kind of knowledge marks iLEAD and its students as a rarity. Policymakers are putting increasing pressure on schools to prepare students for the world of work, but few teachers or administrators know how to findand uselabor-market information that could help them shape their programs and the way they guide students.

Nationally, counselors handle the lions share of career planning, but few are trained to incorporate workforce trends into their advising. And their caseloads are so heavy that they typically lack the time to dive deeply into career planning with students. That leaves young people in a vulnerable place as the national economy shifts.

High schools run the risk of building a bridge to nowhere for students if they advise them about careers without important nuances grounded in data, said Anthony P. Carnevale, who studies labor-market trends as the director of the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce.

A Changing Picture

For many years, schools have urged all students to earn bachelors degrees because, overall, they carry higher lifetime earnings. But economic changesand the cost of collegehave made that picture more complex.

Young workers in some occupations can anticipate higher earnings with an industry credential or associate degree than they can with a bachelors, Carnevales research has shown. Coupled with projections about which jobs will be in demand in the coming years, that kind of information is crucial for students as they imagine their futures, he said.

See Also: Check out the latest news coverage on the way schools are preparing students for tomorrows workforce: Schools and the Future Workforce

The iLEAD program opened three years ago to help teenagers answer those questions. The leaders of five school districts here, near the Indiana state line, wanted to provide better career preparation than any of them could offer individually and to do it with a keen eye for what their local employers needed.

The superintendents began with workforce data. They saw that half the jobs in their region required less than a bachelors degree. They noted the need for skilled employees in advanced manufacturing and engineering, health care, and technology.

They knew that the big chemical, steel, and glass manufacturers along the nearby Ohio River were hungry for engineers, chemists, and technicians. From surveys, they knew that students worried that theyd go through high school without a single adult offering career advice.

With all that in mind, the districts grabbed a sunny space in a strip mall and opened an early college academy that allows students to graduate in four years with a high school diploma in one hand and an associate degree in the other. Some in iLEADs first graduating class, in 2019, will also have earned industry-specific credentials.

Students arent admitted to iLEAD based on test scores or grades. What matters is their motivation and willingness to work well independently, since iLEAD is a blended-learning environment, with a lot of self-paced, online coursework.

By focusing only on high-wage, high-demand fields, iLEAD aims to do two things at once: feed the regional jobs pipeline and power students out of poverty.

In these communities, median household income hovers around $45,000, well below the national average of $59,000. Only 1 in 10 adults has a bachelors degree. Some iLEAD students grapple with periods of homelessness or hunger. Others work to support unemployed or drug-addicted parents. Teachers report that when some students share their college dreams with their parents, they are scolded for acting above their raisin.

Students need [career] pathways that will be cycle-breaking for them, said iLEAD director Larisa McKinney, referring to the cycle of poverty and low educational attainment that can bleed from one generation into the next.

Individualized Planning

Plans to break those cycles begin with the ILP. Thats the individualized learning plan all Kentucky students must compose in 8th grade and revise as they move through school. It blends an interest inventory with career planning and course scheduling.

In many schools, updating the ILP is a quick, check-the-box exercise. At iLEAD, its a turbocharged examination of each students latest career ideas, with their attendant salaries, degree requirements, and job prospects.

See Also: Author Q&A: Looking Beyond College For All

On a recent afternoon in iLEADs big, sunny, main room, McKinney and Aubrey New, an 11th grader, reviewed Aubreys ILP. She came to iLEAD thinking about engineering, but quickly soured on it, and is now exploring the medical field.

Side by side on their laptops, she and McKinney follow links built into the ILP to explore labor-market data on how much nurses, physical therapists, radiologists, and pediatricians earn, and what degrees each job requires.

McKinney, who serves as iLEADs director and its biology teacher, replicates this process with all 97 students in the school twice a year.

Otilio Flores wants a job managing high-tech equipment on the manufacturing line at nearby Dow Chemical or North American Stainless. The 16-year-old knows from labor-market numbers that with an industry certificationwhich he proudly whips out of his walletand an associate degree, in a few years hell earn more than his parents, Mexican immigrants who work at a local warehouse.

Storm Mitchell, 17, is studying robotics and has her sights on a job with a company that dispatches technicians all over the world to solve manufacturing-line problems. I love to see how I can get things to work when I code them right, she said with a grin. The daughter of a mechanic and a cleaning lady, Storm knows robotics expertise is in demand, and shes happy that she can anticipate earning $50,000 or more when she enters the field.

How Numbers Shape a School

Job-market data dont only inform students career planning at iLEAD. They shape the entire school. They help McKinney and her staff decide what courses to teach, which job-shadows to arrange for students, which businesspeople to invite as class speakers.

Procuring much of the data is Alicia Sells, the director of innovation for the Ohio Valley Education Cooperative, the education-service agency that helped launch iLEAD. She spends much of her time on websites crammed with information about the earnings and education required in Kentucky for each job type and whereand whetherits in demand.

On a recent afternoon, she hunted down information to help her decide whether iLEAD should offer a course of study in aerospace engineering. Some students had lobbied for it. But online, Sells doesnt find encouragement.

Photo Gallery: Using Job Data to Guide Student Career Choices

The numbers show promising earnings: $90,000 to $110,000 annually. But demand lags. Data projections show likely openings for only 38 aerospace engineers in Northern Kentucky in the next three months. By contrast, 321 mechanical engineers will be needed.

That 38 makes me nervous when I think about adding an aerospace pathway, Sells said. But it makes me feel good that we have a pathway in mechanical engineering.

The schools obsession with labor-market data is well known 50 miles away, in the state capital of Frankfort.

We hear from maybe a few schools in the state, but theyre the most aggressive about it, and I mean that in a good way, said Kate Akers, the executive director of the state-run Kentucky Center for Education and Workforce Statistics. Akers said Sells calls and emails her frequently to make sense of the data.

A vital piece of iLEADs work is making sure that students chosen career pathways translate into college degrees. That job falls to Erica Klimchak, the schools student advocate.

She serves as the liaison to Jefferson Community and Technical College, where iLEAD students study full time once theyre juniors. She makes sure students are getting the courses they need to earn associate degrees. She works out agreements with state universities so students credits transfer to four-year programs. Klimchak also builds the schools network of business partnerships and sets up work-based-learning opportunities for students.

Nationally, some advocates have voiced concern that as policymakers push for one- and two-year training programs to build the workforce, studentsespecially low-income and minority studentscould lose out on the value of a bachelors degree.

Sen. Michael Bennet, a former superintendent of the Denver schools, sounded this cautionary note at a meeting of CEOs from the Business Roundtable to promote the promise of apprenticeships in the District of Columbia last year.

Theres a lot of cheap talk about how not everyone has to go to college, and usually theyre talking about someone elses kid, Bennet said.

McKinney and Sells, at iLEAD, feel theyre on solid ground in not pushing every student to earn a bachelors degree. Why encourage a student to earn a bachelors degree to work as a computer-network specialist, they argue, when Kentucky data show that they can earn nearly as much with only an associate degree?

On the other hand, some jobs offer a huge pay differential with a four-year degree, and students need to know that as well.

The difference between what were doing here and the old days of tracking is that adults are using good data to help students understand what works for them, Sells said. Those choices arent being made for them based on their skin color or family background.

Information is power for these students.
Health Minister attends BIC meeting

The Island's Health Minsiter represented the Isle of Man at a British-Irish Council meeting in Scotland.

David Ashford was one of a number of ministers from around the British Isles to attend the meeting on social inclusion and the role of carers in Edinburgh.

Discussions included finding ways to support carers of all ages while praising the contribution made by voluntary organisations.

The Ministers agreed to explore the potential of social enterprises to tackle the issues.

The BIC was established as part of the Good Friday peace agreement to encourage positive links between the different Governments of the British Isles.
Abortion, EU, rates to be discussed in House of Keys



Ramsey MHK Dr Alex Allinson's Abortion Reform Bill will be discussed today.

The Abortion Bill, EU compliance and rates reforms will all be discussed in today's sitting of the House of Keys.

MHKs will continue to work through the considerations of clauses stage of the Abortion Reform Bill, with a number of new clauses included on the order paper.

Meanwhile, Douglas South MHK Kate Beecroft is seeking details about the Government's work to avoid being blacklisted by the European Union.

Government advice to pregnant women travelling off Island and the cost of maintaining the old Castletown Police Station will also feature.

The sitting gets underway at 10am.
Experts at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) have recently found higher amounts of microplastic in arctic sea ice than ever before. However, the majority of particles were microscopically small. The ice samples from five regions throughout the Arctic Ocean contained up to 12,000 microplastic particles per litre of sea ice. Further, the different types of plastic showed a unique footprint in the ice allowing the researchers to trace them back to possible sources. This involves the massive garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean, while in turn, the high percentage of paint and nylon particles pointed to the intensified shipping and fishing activities in some parts of the Arctic Ocean. The new study has just been released in the journal Nature Communications.

"During our work, we realised that more than half of the microplastic particles trapped in the ice were less than a twentieth of a millimetre wide, which means they could easily be ingested by arctic microorganisms like ciliates, but also by copepods," says AWI biologist and first author Dr Ilka Peeken. The observation is a very troubling one because, as she explains, "No one can say for certain how harmful these tiny plastic particles are for marine life, or ultimately also for human beings."

The AWI researcher team had gathered the ice samples in the course of three expeditions to the Arctic Ocean on board the research icebreaker Polarstern in the spring of 2014 and summer of 2015. They hail from five regions along the Transpolar Drift and the Fram Strait, which transports sea ice from the Central Arctic to the North Atlantic.

Infrared spectrometer reveals heavy contamination with microparticles

The term microplastic refers to plastic particles, fibres, pellets and other fragments with a length, width or diameter ranging from only a few micrometres - thousandths of a millimetre - to under five millimetres. A considerable amount of microplastic is released directly into the ocean by the gradual deterioration of larger pieces of plastic. But microplastic can also be created on land - e.g. by laundering synthetic textiles or abrasion of car tyres, which initially floats through the air as dust, and is then blown to the ocean by the wind, or finds its way there through sewer networks.

In order to determine the exact amount and distribution of microplastic in the sea ice, the AWI researchers were the first to analyse the ice cores layer by layer using a Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer (FTIR), a device that bombards microparticles with infrared light and uses a special mathematical method to analyse the radiation they reflect back. Depending on their makeup, the particles absorb and reflect different wavelengths, allowing every substance to be identified by its optic fingerprint.

"Using this approach, we also discovered plastic particles that were only 11 micrometres across. That's roughly one-sixth the diameter of a human hair, and also explains why we found concentrations of over 12,000 particles per litre of sea ice - which is two to three time higher than what we'd found in past measurements," says Gunnar Gerdts, in whose laboratory the measurements were carried out. Surprisingly, the researchers found that 67 percent of the particles detected in the ice belonged to the smallest-scale category "50 micrometres and smaller".

Ice drift and the chemical fingerprint offer clues to pollutants' regions of origin

The particle density and composition varied significantly from sample to sample. At the same time, the researchers determined that the plastic particles were not uniformly distributed throughout the ice core. "We traced back the journey of the ice floes we sampled and can now safely say that both the region in which the sea ice is initially formed and the water masses in which the floes drift through the Arctic while growing, have an enormous influence on the composition and layering of the encased plastic particles," relates Ilka Peeken.

The team of researchers also learned e.g. that ice floes, which are driven in the pacific water masses of the Canadian Basin, contain particularly high concentrations of polyethylene particles. Polyethylene is above all used in packaging material. As the experts write in their study, "Accordingly, we assume that these fragments represent remains of the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch and are pushed along the Bering Strait and into the Arctic Ocean by the Pacific inflow."

In contrast, the scientists predominantly found paint particles from ship's paint and nylon waste from fishing nets in ice from the shallow marginal seas of Siberia. "These findings suggest that both the expanding shipping and fishing activities in the Arctic are leaving their mark. The high microplastic concentrations in the sea ice can thus not only be attributed to sources outside the Arctic Ocean. Instead, they also point to local pollution in the Arctic," says Ilka Peeken.

The researchers found a total of 17 different types of plastic in the sea ice, including packaging materials like polyethylene and polypropylene, but also paints, nylon, polyester, and cellulose acetate, the latter is primarily used in the manufacture of cigarette filters. Taken together, these six materials accounted for roughly half of all the microplastic particles detected.

According to Ilka Peeken, "The sea ice binds all this plastic litter for two to a maximum of eleven years - the time it takes for ice floes from the marginal seas of Siberia or the North American Arctic to reach the Fram Strait, where they melt." But conversely, this also means that sea ice transports large quantities of microplastic to the waters off the northeast coast of Greenland.

The researchers can't yet say whether the released plastic particles subsequently remain in the Arctic or are transported farther south; in fact, it seems likely that the plastic litter begins sinking into deeper waters relatively quickly. "Free-floating microplastic particles are often colonised by bacteria and algae, which makes them heavier and heavier. Sometimes they clump together with algae, which makes them drift down to the seafloor much faster," explains AWI biologist and co-author Dr Melanie Bergmann.

The observations made by researchers at the AWI's deep-sea network HAUSGARTEN in the Fram Strait lend additional weight to this thesis. As Melanie Bergmann relates, "We recently recorded microplastic concentrations of up to 6500 plastic particles per kilogram of seafloor; those are extremely high values."

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The Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) conducts research in the Arctic, Antarctic and oceans of the high and mid-latitudes. It coordinates polar research in Germany and provides major infrastructure to the international scientific community, such as the research icebreaker Polarstern and stations in the Arctic and Antarctica. The Alfred Wegener Institute is one of the 18 research centres of the Helmholtz Association, the largest scientific organisation in Germany.
Whites in multiracial congregations have more diverse friendship networks and are more comfortable with minorities -- but that is more because of the impact of neighbors and friends of other races than due to congregations' influence, a Baylor University study has found.

"Solving America's racial problems may be hoping too much from religious congregations," said Kevin D. Dougherty, Ph.D., associate professor of sociology in Baylor's College of Arts & Sciences and study co-author. "Where people live is more influential than where they worship in shaping racial attitudes."

While a small but growing number of congregations are gathering attendees across racial lines and counting diversity as a central part of their mission, most Americans who attend worship do so mainly with those of their own racial or ethnic line. That is the case in nearly nine of 10 congregations, researchers said.

"The responsibility for moving toward racial integration still rests considerably with the majority group," wrote authors Dougherty and Edward C. Polson, Ph.D., assistant professor in Baylor's Diana R. Garland School of Social Work.

The study -- "Worshiping across the Color Line: The Influence of Congregational Composition on Whites' Friendship Networks and Racial Attitudes" -- is published in the American Sociological Association's journal Sociology of Race and Ethnicity. Researchers analyzed data from Baylor Religion Survey's second wave, collected in fall 2007. The survey was administered by the Gallup Organization to 1,648 respondents in a national random sample of English-speaking adults.

Researchers found that the presence of African-Americans, Hispanic and Asian people in neighborhoods had a more significant impact on white attenders' friendship networks than worshiping together. They also found that the influence of worshiping with another race/ethnicity seems to be most pronounced for whites in congregations with Hispanics.

"For white attenders, worshiping in a congregation with a larger percentage of Hispanic worshipers was related to having more friendships with Hispanic people," Polson said. "This was not the case, however, for friendships between whites and African-Americans or Asian people. Only for white and Hispanic people did worshiping together seem to significantly increase the prevalence of cross-group friendships.

"This is likely the result of both a long-standing pattern of segregation between whites and African-Americans in the U.S. and there being a smaller number of Asian-Americans in many U.S. communities," he said.

White non-Hispanics make up the largest racial group in the country, and the number and cultural prominence of white Americans continue to give this group a position of power, Dougherty said.

The study found that:

Religious whites, on average, report the most comfort with Asians; a comparable level of comfort with Hispanics; and noticeably less comfort with blacks.

Older respondents and those who are married report having fewer non-white friends.

Men, regular religious attendees and more liberal respondents report having more nonwhite friends.

Respondents living in the East and the Midwest reported having fewer non-white friends than those in the South, while people living in the West report having more.

Whites in mainline Protestant churches report fewer cross-racial friendships than whites in evangelical churches.

Older respondents, men and those who view Scripture as literally true are less comfortable with non-whites.

Education, higher income, worship attendance and liberalism are positively related to comfort with non-whites.

Southern whites are significantly less comfortable with non-whites than are non-whites in any other U.S. region.

For much of the United States' history, people of color were excluded from institutions and social life controlled by white Americans - including congregations and denominations, Polson said. When there weren't separate congregations, black and white congregants were often required to worship separately; white congregants in the main sanctuary and black congregants in balconies or meeting at separate times.

Eventually, many groups excluded from full participation in mainstream groups established their own congregations and denominations, such as the African Methodist Episcopal Church and congregations identified with Greek and Russian Orthodox churches.

Today, that legacy, combined with Americans' freedom to choose their place of worship, tends to reinforce the color line in American religion, "often without much serious thought or reflection on the part of worshipers and religious leaders," Polson said.

"At the most intimate levels of people's lives -- family, friends and faith -- the United States remains a racially divided nation," Dougherty said. "When people choose a congregation, they commonly choose to be with others they see as similar to themselves. The outcome is congregations segregated by race, social class and now increasingly by politics."

In a multiracial congregation -- defined as one in which the majority group represents less than 80 percent of the whole congregation and other groups make up greater than 20 percent -- research shows that contact between attenders of different racial and ethnic groups is more likely to occur, Polson said. Regular and sustained contacts between attenders in worship services, small groups and Bible studies are likely to affect attenders' friendship networks and influence their attitudes and opinions about other groups.

But previous research shows that multiracial congregations tend to become less diverse over time, the researchers said.

"This is one of the most challenging realities facing diverse congregations or those that hope to become more diverse," Polson said. "We know that congregational growth typically occurs as a result of individuals inviting friends, neighbors and co-workers. We also know that those networks tend to be patterned by race. As a result, the majority group in a congregation grows more quickly. The minority group doesn't grow at the same rate and over time tends to become a smaller and smaller percentage of the congregation."

Eventually, minority attenders may feel marginalized and seek a different place of worship.

"Our study suggests that congregations do have a role to play improving race-relations in the U.S.," Polson said. "Positive contact in local congregations seems to contribute to improved cross-group relations generally. However, our findings also highlight the reality that healing long-standing divisions between white Americans and people of color, especially African-Americans, will require more than simply worshiping together. It will likely require continued structural and policy changes in American life - changes that decrease racial segregation in other areas of life."

Congregations hoping to cross the color line and improve race-relations may do well to consider tangible ways they can support such changes and foster connections between racial and ethnic groups, researchers said.

"Future research should explore the experiences of racial and ethnic minorities in multiracial congregations," Dougherty said. "Another pressing need is a national study of congregations over time. Researchers need to follow a national sample of congregations over five to 10 years to understand when, how and why a congregation's membership changes, as well as the implications of such changes."

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Government censorship and cultural differences are not the only reasons for digital organizations such as Amazon, Google and Uber failing in China

A new study from Cass Business School examines the failures of Western Internet Firms (WIFs) in China and why this phenomenon is singularly prevalent in this region.

"Government censorship and control, plus cultural differences between China and the West are often cited as the main reasons for such failures," said Professor Feng Li, the study's author. "But similar conditions existed in other countries such as Indonesia, Thailand and Saudi Arabia, that did not prevent western internet firms such as Google from dominating 90 per cent of the search market in these regions."

What is a Western Internet Firm?

By definition Western Internet Firms (WIFs), also known as digital firms, are organisations that from inception focus on digital services enabled by the Internet and related technologies including mobile.

These firms were born digital, particularly the so-called dot.com and e-Commerce firms, such as search engines, online content providers and retail platforms. Typical examples include Google, eBay and Amazon. It does not include traditional IT firms, such as Microsoft, Intel or IBM, which rely on sales of hardware and software as their main sources of revenue.

Why digital firms fail in China

The reasons for these systematic failures are complex, and existing international business theory could not fully explain why the perceived competitive advantages for western multinational firms failed to translate into sustainable operational success for WIFs in China.

In answer to this, Professor Li took a different approach by using phenomenon-based research looking at a broad spectrum of participants such as senior executives from WIFs and their Chinese competitors, and a large number of business, political, and professional groups with a deep knowledge of China.

1. Perceptions of aggressive competition

Most WIFs entered China to dominate the Chinese market. However, competition is relative. What is considered aggressive by western standards is often seen as mild in China. Due to the sheer number of internet firms and the huge size of the Chinese market, competition is often extremely fierce, and to survive, all Chinese Internet Firms (CIFs) have to compete with a far greater pool of local competitors than any WIFs have ever encountered.

Professor Li said, "This is known as the 'huge crowd strategy' (???? - Ren hai zhan shu), which gives CIFs an implicit advantage. If western internet behemoths such as Amazon and Google succeeded in the US by beating hundreds of competitors, then Alibaba and Baidu would have to beat tens of thousands of competitors in China to get where they are."

2. Failure to follow cultural strategies

CIFs have, explicitly and implicitly, drawn inspirations from ancient Chinese military strategies and tactics to change the nature of competition. Such strategies, taken from texts like the 'The Art of War' to 'The Thirty Six Stratagems', are deeply ingrained in Chinese history and culture and widely used in everyday language, which enables more effective strategy making and communication by CIFs.

3. Beaten by more determined competitors

All WIFs acquired, or made attempts to acquire the market leaders in China. However, in subsequent competitions, CIFs simply showed stronger determination to survive at any costs.

"In the case of Uber, it was not simply a matter of what Uber did wrong, but what Didi Chuxing did better," said Professor Li.

When Uber entered China, Didi already had a head start. Despite the perceived competitive advantages for Uber, Didi was simply more determined, with more cash reserves than Uber for a prolonged price war. In many ways, the competition between them was reminiscent of the reckless land grabbing during the early dot.com era, but the difference is that both firms have the resources and long term visions to capture market shares first before making profits. In the end, Uber blinked first and lost.

4. New digital rules: differences between internet and traditional businesses

Some fundamental differences between internet and traditional businesses contributed to the failure of WIFs in China, and this factor was only identified by the outside view. Internet services usually have a much shorter lifecycle compared with traditional industries; and WIFs only have 2-3 years rather than decades to fine-tune their business models and educate customers. This limited the build-up of any sustainable advantages by WIFs and gives Chinese internet firms a much better chance to compete with them than in traditional industries.

"Car engines are far more difficult to imitate than search engines," commented Professor Li.

Unlike aerospace or pharmaceuticals, most internet firms do not rely on cutting edge technologies so the entry barriers are relatively low. Ancillary assets and tacit knowledge embedded in production processes and supply chains in traditional industries also serve as major entry barriers. As a result, WIFs have fewer competitive advantages and face far more competitors than western firms from other sectors.

5. Failing to be embedded in China

All the WIFs studied showed a lack of deep understanding of the Chinese market. They found it difficult to compete with Chinese entrepreneurs in serving the local market. This is not only reflected in understanding users and customers, but also internally within the firms. Senior expatriates sent from the western head office often lacked cultural sensitivity, thus damaging relations without realising it.

6. Innovating by experimenting

Unlike WIFs which have established procedures for developing and implementing innovations, Chinese Internet Firms (CIFs) are often more result-oriented and more prepared to innovate by experimenting. Li added, "If a new idea works, then scale it up rapidly; if not, move onto other ideas".

Chinese consumers are generally more tolerant of such product development processes than in the West, which enable CIFs to test and refine many new ideas very quickly at low cost, with significant cumulative effects.

Success in the future?

WIFs have underperformed compared to their Chinese competitors in nearly every aspect in China, but their disadvantages are not insurmountable. To succeed in China, WIFs need to bring genuine technological and other advantages in order to overcome, or compensate for, their disadvantages.

Professor Li concluded, "As CIFs grow bigger and more confident, they are actively pursuing new opportunities in other markets - from India, South East Asia, Africa to the USA and Europe - so the clashes between digital firms in each market are likely to escalate both in China and internationally."

'Why have all western internet firms (WIFS) failed in china? A phenomenon-based research' and has been published in the Academy of Management Discoveries.

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Thousands of the most popular apps and games available, mostly free of charge, in the Google Play Store, make potentially illegal tracking of children's use habits, according to a large-scale international study co-authored by Narseo Vallina-Rodriguez, a researcher at the IMDEA Networks Institute in Madrid and ICSI, the International Computer Science Institute at the University of California, Berkeley (USA).

An international group of seven researchers analyzed 5,855 apps for children and found that 57% may be violating the US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Thousands of apps collect and share with third parties personal data of under 13s without parental consent. The services collecting this information, such as those devoted to online advertising and user monitoring, are for the most part designed to share data with third parties, according to this study.

The researchers found that 28% of these apps accessed confidential data protected by Android permissions and that 73% of the apps transmitted confidential data over the Internet. Among the apps analyzed, 4.8% presented "clear violations when apps share location or contact information without consent", 40% shared personal information without applying reasonable security measures, 18% shared persistent identifiers (such as a mobile phone's IMEI) with services or business partners for prohibited purposes, for example ad targeting, and 39% "do not seem to take sufficient measures to protect the privacy of children", according to Vallina-Rodriguez

"While accessing a sensitive resource or sharing it over the internet does not necessarily mean that an app is in violation of COPPA, none of these apps attained veri?able parental consent: if the [automated testing we performed] was able to trigger the functionality, then a child would as well," the researchers wrote.

In addition, many of these apps use services provided by third parties whose terms of service prohibit their use in apps targeted to minors. Therefore, the apps that embed the tracking software provided by these services may not only be infringing COPPA, but also the legal terms by which those services are governed. An example of such third parties, among the many that the study mentions, is the Crashlytics service owned by Alphabet (Google's multinational parent company).

Each of the apps studied was installed, on average, more than 750,000 times, which means that they may be potentially in use by millions of devices on a global scale. Among the apps analyzed are some very popular games like Disney's 'Where's My Water?' and Gameloft's 'Minion Rush', as well as 'Duolingo', a language learning app. Disney, Gameloft and Google have said in statements made to international media in response to this study that the protection of children's rights is of great importance to them and they have committed themselves to investigate further.

Silicon Valley giants in the spotlight

These findings come to light at a time when Facebook, another Silicon Valley giant with crucial interest in the digital advertising business, is on the radar of international data protection agencies for the illegal filtering of information from 87 million Americans to Cambridge Analytica.

Critics of Google, Facebook and other stakeholders that dominate the digital-apps world say they have profited greatly from advances in data-tracking technology to promote their business purposes, even as regulators have failed to keep up with the resulting privacy intrusions. The law exists in the US and at the end of May the European Union will put into operation the new GDPR legislation for the regulation of privacy on the Internet. This Pan-European law is aimed at tackling and controlling the fraudulent and transnational use of the vast amount of personal data that flows through the network, a marketplace in vogue to buy and sell data, which is unknown to the consumer despite being its flagship product.

Nevertheless, according to Vallina-Rodriguez, "to date, regulatory attempts seem to have had little effect in curbing these practices. There are still countless examples of games and apps for children who use third-party services that collect tracking data without parental consent. For example, Google's Designated for Families (DFF) program requires developers of children's apps to comply with COPPA but, as our results show, there appears to not be any (or only limited) application of the law since it is not enforced". In addition, the analysis performed of apps certified as "safe" by the US Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) Safe Harbor program did not yield better results. Most were still violating COPPA, despite the certification obtained.

The results of this study aggravate the burning concern about the lack of transparency of the companies to which, every day, adults and minors, parents and children, trust highly sensitive information. "Based on our data, it is not clear that industry self-regulation has resulted in higher privacy standards; some of our data suggest the opposite. Thus, industry self-regulation appears to be ine?ective," the researchers wrote. According to them, centralized regulatory and control efforts by the government are required since the violation of the rights of consumers is massive and prevalent.

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The prestigious award is granted in recognition of a researcher's early achievements and promising future as an investigator in the field of musculoskeletal research

Emmanuel Biver MD, PhD, of the Division of Bone Diseases Geneva University Hospitals and Faculty of Medicine has been presented with the 2018 ESCEO-IOF Pierre Meunier Young Scientist Award. The joint award of the European Society for Clinical & Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases (ESCEO) and the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) was awarded on April 22nd, at the World Congress on Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis & Musculoskeletal Diseases, held in Krakow, Poland.

The Award recognizes a young investigator who has demonstrated outstanding scientific merit early in his or her career, prior to reaching a prominent academic position, and who is expected to be a future thought-leader in the musculoskeletal field.

Dr Biver completed medical training and specialization in rheumatology at the University of Lille 2, France. He obtained a PhD in medical sciences based on preclinical research on the regulation of signaling pathways in bone cells. He is currently consultant and in charge of clinical and translational research in the department of Bone Diseases at the University Hospital of Geneva, Switzerland. Dr Biver is the coordinator of the Geneva Retirees Cohort (GERICO), an ongoing prospective cohort investigating the determinants of bone fragility and sarcopenia with ageing. His specific interests are in the impact of nutrition or chronic metabolic or inflammatory conditions on bone microstructure and fracture risk.

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World Congress on Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis & Musculoskeletal Diseases (WCO-IOF-ESCEO Krakow 2018)

Held jointly by IOF and ESCEO, the Congress took place in Krakow, Poland, from April 19-22, 2018. WCO-IOF-ESCEO is the world's largest annual forum for the presentation of clinical research and new advances in the prevention and management of musculoskeletal disorders, including sarcopenia and frailty. For complete information visit http://www.wco-iof-esceo.org #OsteoCongress

About IOF

The International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) is the world's largest nongovernmental organization dedicated to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis and related musculoskeletal diseases. IOF members, including committees of scientific researchers as well as 240 patient, medical and research societies in 99 locations, work together to make fracture prevention and healthy mobility a worldwide heath care priority. http://www.iofbonehealth.org http://www.facebook.com/ @iofbonehealth

About ESCEO

The European Society for Clinical and Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases (ESCEO) is a non-profit organization, dedicated to a close interaction between clinical scientists dealing with rheumatic disorders, pharmaceutical industry developing new compounds in this field, regulators responsible for the registration of such drugs and health policy makers, to integrate the management of osteoporosis and osteoarthritis within the comprehensive
New research from King's College London shows that lonely young adults are more likely to experience mental health problems and more likely to be out of work than their peers. The study, published today in Psychological Medicine, gives a detailed snapshot of the lives of lonely 18-year-olds and shows how loneliness goes hand-in-hand with a wide range of problems in health and wellbeing.

Loneliness is strongly linked with premature death in old age, to a similar degree as smoking or obesity. With increasing attention on loneliness as a major public health issue, the study highlights the importance of early intervention to prevent young adults being trapped in loneliness as they age.

Over 2000 British 18-year-olds were asked questions such as 'how often do you feel you lack companionship?' and 'how often do you feel left out?', and were interviewed about their mental and physical health, lifestyle habits, education and employment.

Loneliness was common among young adults: the researchers found a quarter of study participants reported feeling lonely some of the time and approximately 7% reported feeling lonely often. These findings mirror a recent ONS survey which found that loneliness was more common among 16 to 24-year-olds than any other age group.

'It's often assumed that loneliness is an affliction of old age, but it is also very common among younger people,' said lead author Dr Timothy Matthews from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London. 'Unlike many other risk factors, loneliness does not discriminate: it affects people from all walks of life; men and women, rich and poor.'

Lonely young adults were more than twice as likely to have mental health problems such as anxiety and depression, and to have self-harmed or attempted suicide. They were also more likely to have seen their GP or a counsellor for mental health problems in the past year.

In addition, lonelier young adults were more likely to be out of work and education and were less confident about their career prospects. One in five people in the loneliest 10% of the sample were not in education, employment or training, compared to one in ten non-lonely young people.

Lonelier young people were also less likely to be physically active, more likely to smoke, and more likely to use technology compulsively (at the expense of other activities and obligations).

Dr Matthews said: 'Our findings suggest that if someone tells their GP or a friend that they feel lonely, that could be a red flag that they're struggling in a range of other areas in life.

'There are lots of community initiatives to try and encourage people to get together and take part in shared activities. However, it's important to remember that some people can feel lonely in a crowd, and the most effective interventions to reduce loneliness involve counselling to help individuals tackle negative patterns of thinking.'

The study does not show whether loneliness is the cause of problems in health and wellbeing, but it does show how loneliness cuts across a wide range of important social issues.

Senior author Professor Louise Arseneault from the IoPPN said: 'It's important that we become comfortable talking about loneliness as a society. People are often reluctant to admit that they feel lonely, because there is still a stigma attached to it. That in itself can be profoundly isolating.'

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The study participants were members of the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study, funded by the Medical Research Council, which has followed 2,332 British children from birth and will continue to monitor the lives of lonely young people as they age.

Professor Arseneault is Mental Health Leadership Fellow for the Economic and Social Research Council who provided funding for the study.
New Rochelle, NY, April 24, 2018--Researchers have incorporated therapeutic microRNAs (miRNAs) into bioresorbable, silk-based medical devices such as screws and plates to achieve local delivery of factors that can improve bone growth and mineralization at the site of bone repair. The study, which demonstrated the promise of silk-based orthopedic devices combined with bioactive miRNA-based therapeutics, is published in Tissue Engineering, Part A, peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Tissue Engineering website until May 24, 2018.

Eric James, Emily Van Doren, Chunmei Li, and David Kaplan, Tufts University, Medford, MA describe the method they used to deliver the antisense therapeutic miR-214 in the article entitled "Silk Biomaterials-Mediated miRNA Functionalized Orthopedic Devices." The article is part of an upcoming special issue of Tissue Engineering on "RNA Therapeutics for Tissue Engineering" led by Guest Editors Elizabeth Balmayor, PhD, Technical University of Munich, Germany and Christopher Evans, PhD, DSc, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN.

The researchers coated the surface of bioresorbable silk-based devices used in bone repair with antisense-miR-214 and also studied the use of antisense-miR-214 silk films seeded with human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs). The results showed that miR-214 was released continuously for up to 7 days in vitro and could block the production of proteins that downregulate new bone formation.

"This study leverages tissue engineering principles for the design of medical devices with enhanced biocompatibility," says Tissue Engineering Co-Editor-in-Chief Antonios G. Mikos, PhD, Louis Calder Professor at Rice University, Houston, TX.

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Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institutes of Health under Award Numbers R02 AR068048 and R01DE016525. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

About the Journal

Tissue Engineering is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published monthly online and in print in three parts: Part A, the flagship journal published 24 times per year; Part B: Reviews, published bimonthly, and Part C: Methods, published 12 times per year. Led by Co-Editors-in-Chief Antonios G. Mikos, PhD, Louis Calder Professor at Rice University, Houston, TX, and John P. Fisher, PhD, Fischell Family Distinguished Professor & Department Chair, and Director of the NIH Center for Engineering Complex Tissues at the University of Maryland, the Journal brings together scientific and medical experts in the fields of biomedical engineering, material science, molecular and cellular biology, and genetic engineering. Leadership of Tissue Engineering Parts B (Reviews) and Part C (Methods) is provided by Katja Schenke-Layland, PhD, Eberhard Karls University, Tubingen and John A. Jansen, DDS, PhD, Radboud University, respectively. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed online at the Tissue Engineering website. Tissue Engineering is the official journal of the Tissue Engineering & Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS). Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Tissue Engineering website.

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Stem Cells and Development, Human Gene Therapy, and Advances in Wound Care. Its biotechnology trade magazine, GEN (Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.
Physicists at MIPT and their British and Russian colleagues revealed the mechanisms leading to photocurrent in graphene under terahertz radiation. The paper published in Applied Physics Letters not only puts a period to a long-lasting debate about the origins of direct current in graphene illuminated by high-frequency radiation but also sets the stage for the development of high-sensitivity terahertz detectors. Such detectors are highly demanded in medical diagnostics, wireless communications and security systems.

In 2005 MIPT alumni Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov experimentally studied the behavior of electrons in graphene, a flat honeycomb lattice of carbon atoms. They found that electrons in graphene respond to electromagnetic radiation with an energy of quantum, whereas the common semiconductors have an energy threshold below which the material does not respond to light at all. However, the direction of electron motion in graphene exposed to radiation has long remained a point of controversy, as there is a plenty of factors pulling it in different directions. The controversy was especially stark in the case of the photocurrent caused by terahertz radiation.

What sets terahertz radiation apart is its unique set of properties. As an example, it easily passes through many dielectrics without ionizing them: this is of particular value to medical diagnostic or security systems. A terahertz camera can "see" the weapons concealed under a person's clothes, and a medical scanner can detect skin diseases at early stages by the spectral lines ("fingerprints") of characteristic biomolecules in the terahertz range. Finally, raising the carrier frequency of Wi-Fi devices from several to hundreds of gigahertz (into the sub-terahertz range) will proportionally increase the bandwidth. But all these applications need a sensitive and low-noise terahertz detector which is simple in fabrication.

A terahertz detector designed by researchers at MIPT, MSPU and the University of Manchester (the place where graphene was first discovered) is a graphene sheet (colored green in figures 1 and 2) sandwiched between dielectric layers of boron nitride and electrically coupled to a terahertz antenna--a metal spiral about a millimeter in size. As radiation impinges on the antenna, it rocks electrons on one side of the graphene sheet, while the resulting direct current is measured on the other side. It is the "packing" of graphene into boron nitride that enables record-high electric characteristics, giving the detector a sensitivity that is a cut above the earlier designs. However, the main result of the research is not a better-performing instrument; it is the insight into the physical phenomena responsible for the photocurrent.

There are three main effects leading to the electric current flowing in graphene exposed to terahertz radiation. The first one, the photothermoelectric effect, is due to the temperature difference between the antenna terminal and the sensing terminal. This sends electrons from the hot terminal to the cold one, like air rising up from a warm radiator up to cold ceiling. The second effect is the rectification of current at the terminals: it turns out that the edges of graphene let through only the high-frequency signal of a certain polarity. The third and most interesting effect is called plasma wave rectification. We can think of the antenna terminal as stirring up "waves in the electronic sea" of the graphene strip, while the sensing terminal registers the average current associated with these waves.

"Earlier attempts to explain the photocurrent in such detectors used only one of these mechanisms and excluded all the others," says Dmitry Svintsov, head of the Laboratory of 2d Materials' Optoelectronics at MIPT. "In reality, all three of them are at play, and our study found which effect dominates at which conditions. Thermoelectric effects dominate at low temperatures, while plasmonic rectification prevails at high temperatures and in longer-channel instruments. And the main thing is that we figured out how to make a detector in which the different photoresponse mechanisms will not cancel each other, but rather reinforce each other"

These experiments will help choose the best design for terahertz detectors and bring us closer to remote detection of dangerous substances, safe medical diagnostics, and high-speed wireless communications.

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The work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, the Leverhulme Trust (Great Britain) and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research.
Happiness Courses

Despite common signs of adolescence such as self-determination, rebelliousness, difficult relations with parents and the importance of peer support, teenagers continue to rely heavily on their family. Indeed, when faced with a challenge, many teens turn to their parents, in particular to their mother, according to Arthur Rean, Head of the HSE IOE Laboratory for Prevention of Antisocial Behaviour. A survey of more than 5,500 high school students aged 14 and older in the Central, Volga, Siberian, and Ural Federal Districts confirms that the family is of paramount importance for adolescents. It is the absolute leader among the top five things which the young respondents value most, being mentioned by nearly three-quarters (72.5%) of the teenagers surveyed, followed by love (58.4%), health (52.4%), friends and success (43.6% and 36.1% respectively).

'One may wonder if these were just socially acceptable responses, i.e. that the children responded as they thought they were expected to respond', Rean comments. 'But first, all of the top five values are pro-social and equal in this respect. Second, the survey was anonymous. The researchers did not ask the children their names. There was no way a completed questionnaire could be attributed to a specific student. Third, it was an online survey in which the respondents interacted only with a computer. And fourth, the significant sample size, which included students from different schools, different regions and different ends of the country, should have levelled off any individual psychological factors'.

The respondents were also asked a direct question as to whether the family was 'an essential condition for happiness', to which 68% of the adolescents answered positively.

However, the researchers further found that most teenagers did not consider their own family to be a good model to follow.

When asked, 'Would you like your future family to be similar to the one you grew up in?' only 42% of the students answered 'yes', while 34% said they definitely would not want their future family to be like their parents' and 24% were not sure. In total, 58% of young people 'do not consider their current parental family to be a role model', Rean notes. (The respondents were not asked to explain why.)

According to Rean, here lies one of the reasons for young people's unpreparedness for a married life and high divorce rates in the early years of marriage. Indeed, the teenagers surveyed seem to share this perspective in answering the question as to whether one needs to be specifically prepared for marriage: 66% believe that they could benefit from education about family relations. They do not necessarily mean that this subject should be taught at school: 38% believe that classroom lessons could be helpful and the same number disagree. Incidentally, last December, the

Russian Ministry of Education formally raised the possibility of introducing a school-based curriculum in 'family happiness'.

'It is certainly unlikely that a family happiness course can provide a solution for every problem, but at least it can help address some of them and perhaps quite effectively', Rean believes. 'And yet the main role in preparing young people for family life lies with their parental family where they learn the basic patterns of family behaviour. Unfortunately, families today do not always serve as good role models'. There are other ways to help young people prepare for married life, such as psychological training. However, 'taking a course from a trained psychologist is not really necessary at an early stage of preparation for family life', according to the researcher. That said, a relevant school curriculum 'must be informed by substantive knowledge of psychology'.

Rean leads a team of authors working to design such a curriculum. In particular, its content will focus on preventing and handling family conflicts and on negotiation and listening skills.

Unequal Relations

The survey respondents believe that love, mutual support and the ability to compromise form the foundation of a happy marriage. 'We did not ask the students whether or not these factors are present in their parents' families', Rean explains. 'But we separately examined their attitudes towards their mothers and fathers'. How much influence the mother and the father have on the child and the parents' respective roles can shape the child's perception of the family.

The mother's influence on her children as they grow is more than double that of the father; with 57.5% versus 23.7%, fathers lag far behind, the researcher notes. The reasons for this may include greater emotional closeness between the mother and her child or the amount of time spent together. Fathers usually spend far less time with their children than mothers - sometimes because of their job if they work in shifts or travel on business, and sometimes due to socio-cultural attitudes. There is still a popular stereotype that childrearing is 'not a man's business'.

Grand Portraits of Parents

The adolescents were asked to describe their parents using Rean's '80 adjectives' method. The resulting verbal portraits of fathers and mothers came out almost entirely positive, with terms such as kind, reliable, caring, responsible, family-oriented, intelligent and sincere used equally often in regard of both parents. Most descriptors used in the responses reflected emotional and moral qualities. The main difference between the parents was that mothers were mainly characterised via their attitudes towards other people while the fathers' characteristics tended towards cognitive and authority-related ones.

Mothers were often described as tidy, affectionate and caring. 'For most respondents, their mother is not only an exceptionally positive person but also very altruistic and someone who places other people first', the researcher comments. 'This, of course, reflects the mother's centeredness on her own child and altruistic love for him or her'. Fathers were frequently described as authoritative, cheerful and wise.

While negative characteristics were extremely rare, fathers were more likely to be portrayed in negative terms. According to Rean, the term 'deceitful' had the weight of 2% in the descriptions of mothers and 6% in those of fathers, and the same was true of the term 'insensitive'. The reason may be that children set higher standards for fathers or perhaps the child-father relations are often less trusting. One way or another, the theme of fatherhood is one of the most problematic in family sociology today.

Family Framework

The respondents were asked about their attitudes towards unregistered marriage; 54% considered cohabitation as something normal, just as most adult Russians, and only 17% of respondents were strongly against unregistered unions.

As for having children outside marriage, the respondents were less tolerant, with only 35% finding it normal, the same number opposing it, and 29% undetermined.

According to Rean, young people, with some reservations, can be described as traditionalists.

'Admittedly, the fact that 54% of respondents accept cohabitation as normal hardly fits the notion of traditionalism', he says. 'Likewise, the fact that a large minority of 35% consider it normal to have children outside marriage is quite remote from traditional family values. Yet on the other hand, both in the former and particularly in the latter case, young people demonstrate strong pro-family attitudes'.

Given the millennial history of the institution of the family, expecting a revolutionary change in attitudes would be unrealistic, he continues. 'The role of the family in supporting its members' economic survival is not as essential today as it used to be,' he notes. 'But its role in providing mutual personal, moral and psychological support remains strong and is almost irreplaceable. Indeed, an individual's social adaptation and survival in today's world strongly depends on their family's ability to fulfil this role'.

The respondent's reproductive attitudes reveal that a relative majority (49%) plan to have two children (which is typical for older generations as well), while 15% prefer to have just one child. This is consistent with the actual situation, as most Russian families have one or two children.

Quite unexpectedly though, a substantial proportion (39%) of respondents would like to have three children (a similar trend was noted by demographers a few years ago). If converted into reality, such attitudes would lead to a tangible increase in the country's population. While having two children in the average family only leads to a simple continuation of the population, having three children will result in a population increase.

But one must keep in mind the difference between the desired and actual number of children in the family. This also concerns those who are currently unwilling to ever become parents. Their attitudes may change with time.

'Generally, school students in Russia expect support from their family but also realise that family relations are not perfect and they may need to learn how to build such relations properly in the future', Rean concludes.

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Attacks on health facilities and health workers in Syria are likely more common than previously reported, and local data collectors can help researchers more accurately measure the extent and frequency of these attacks, according to a new study published this week in PLOS Medicine.

Violent attacks on hospitals, ambulances, health workers, and patients in conflict areas are grave violations of international humanitarian law and can cripple health systems during the time they are needed most. Documenting these attacks is important to identify strategies to keep patients and healthcare workers safe, influence policy, and promote justice. However, a systematic and consistent method for verifying and quantifying these acts has been lacking.

In this new study, Rohini Haar of the School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, USA, Leonard Rubenstein of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, USA and colleagues at the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) developed a standardized reporting tool available on mobile phones to verify field reports and count attacks on medical providers and facilities. Data collectors used the tool to record basic information on attacks on hospitals, transports, healthcare workers, and patients and report the information to data managers through a secure messaging system. They found more than 200 attacks on healthcare in 2016 in four northern governorates of Syria. In total, 112 health workers and 185 patients were killed in these incidents, and 176 of the attacks were on hospitals and other healthcare facilities. A separate database of healthcare attacks, developed by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and based primarily on media reports, counted incidents at health facilities independently. Among 90 facility attacks verified by PHR and 177 by SAMS, there were 60 that could be matched to each other, demonstrating that no one methodology is capturing all the incidents that have occurred.

The authors note that not all data collectors used the mobile phone app, and that complexities of data collection in conflict settings will limit accuracy of the data. Still, they note that this study "... demonstrates the capacity of locally based organizations and data collectors, in collaboration with physicians and other health staff, to contribute to documentation of attacks on health using a mobile systematic data collection application and act as potent agents to report and chronicle this violence."

In an accompanying Perspective, Michael Spagat of the Royal Holloway University of London, discusses the difficulties of conflict research, and stresses the need to continue developing accurate measures of violent acts.

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Research Article

Funding:

The MacArthur Foundation (LR) and the Oak Foundation (LR) generously supported the initial development of the mobile data collection tool and subsidized the initial data collection by the data collectors. Publication was made possible in part by support from the Berkeley Research Impact Initiative (BRII) sponsored by the UC Berkeley Library. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing Interests:

I have read the journal's policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: LR notes another ongoing research project with SAMS. The other authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Citation:

Haar RJ, Risko CB, Singh S, Rayes D, Albaik A, Alnajar M, et al. (2018) Determining the scope of attacks on health in four governorates of Syria in 2016: Results of a field surveillance program. PLoS Med 15(4): e1002559. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002559

Author Affiliations:

School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, California, United States of America

Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Department of Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States of America

Center for Public Health and Human Rights, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Syrian American Medical Society, Gaziantep, Turkey

Physicians for Human Rights, New York, New York, United States of America

In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper:

http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002559

Perspective

Funding:

The author received no specific funding for this work.

Competing Interests:

The author declares that no competing interests exist.

Citation:

Spagat M (2018) Attacks on medical workers in Syria: Implications for conflict research. PLoS Med 15(4): e1002560. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002560

Author Affiliations:

Department of Economics, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey, United Kingdom

In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper:

http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002560
Early childhood interventions may have some efficacy in boosting measures of child health and development in low income countries, but more work is needed to sort out how to implement these interventions, according to a new set of studies published this week in PLOS Medicine.

Previous work has suggested that early childhood interventions--those focused on the first 1000 days of life--have the potential to offset some negative impacts of adversity on child development. In one new study, Peter Rockers of Boston University, USA, and colleagues followed 526 pairs of children and caregivers in a cluster-randomized trial done in Southern Province, Zambia. All children were 6 to 12 months of age at the start of the study. 258 pairs received no intervention, while the other 268 were visited twice a month by a Child Development Agent, to monitor the child's health, and invited to attend twice monthly parenting group meetings, where they learned a diverse parenting curriculum.

After two years, children who had been in the intervention group were less likely to show signs of stunting and scored higher on measures of language, but the intervention did not significantly impact cognition, motor skills, or adaptive behavior. "In settings like Zambia, where optimal child nutrition and stimulation are often lacking, parenting groups hold promise for improving child health and welfare," the authors say. "However, improvements in child development may not be immediate and continued and sustained efforts are likely needed."

In a second paper, Alison Andrew of University College London, UK, and colleagues randomized 1419 children aged 12-24 months, living in 96 towns in Colombia, to receive either no intervention, participation in a home visit program, micronutrient supplementation, or both of the latter interventions. Home visits followed a structured curriculum, with an emphasis on cognition and language, and the goal of increasing maternal-child interactions. After two years, the researchers found no effect on cognition, behavior, or home stimulation. "It is possible that the initial effects on child development were too small to be sustained or that the lack of continued impact on home stimulation contributed to fade out," the authors write.

In an accompanying Perspective, Mark Tomlinson of Stellenbosch University, South Africa, discusses the challenge of determining why the effects of early interventions may fade out by middle childhood. "In contexts of high risk and adversity the impact of early interventions may be more durable when they are built upon by interventions during later years," he writes. Scaling up these interventions also requires more work, he adds, noting that some interventions are not scalable in their current form. "Looking to the future, the early childhood development field requires rigorous implementation science research that examines the best models... to achieve impact."

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Research Article - Rockers et al

Funding:

The first year of the study was funded through grants from Grand Challenges Canada (0349-03) and PATH (DFI.1836-672968-GRT). The second year of the study was funded through a grant from the Policy Research Fund at the Department for International Development (DFID), United Kingdom (55204321). At the time of the study, author RCH worked in the DFID Zambia office and was not part of the Policy Research Fund team. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing Interests:

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Citation:

Rockers PC, Zanolini A, Banda B, Chipili MM, Hughes RC, Hamer DH, et al. (2018) Two-year impact of community-based health screening and parenting groups on child development in Zambia: Follow-up to a cluster-randomized controlled trial. PLoS Med 15(4): e1002555. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002555

Author Affiliations:

Department of Global Health, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

American Institutes for Research-Zambia Office, Lusaka, Zambia

Zambia Center for Applied Health Research and Development, Lusaka, Zambia

Department of Psychology, University of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia

UK Department for International Development, London, United Kingdom

Section of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Boston Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland

University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper:

http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002555

Research Article - Andrew et al

Funding:

This study was supported by a grant from the World Bank's Strategic Impact Evaluation Fund (http://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/sief-trust-fund), grant reference #7172151. In addition OA's time was partly funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Professorial Fellowship #ES/K01070011. CM's time was partly funded by the Cowles Foundation and National Institutes of Health #R01 HD 7210. AA's, MRC's and EF's time was partly funded by the ESRC Centre for Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy at the Institute for Fiscal Studies. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing Interests:

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Citation:

Andrew A, Attanasio O, Fitzsimons E, Grantham-McGregor S, Meghir C, Rubio-Codina M (2018) Impacts 2 years after a scalable early childhood development intervention to increase psychosocial stimulation in the home: A follow-up of a cluster randomised controlled trial in Colombia. PLoS Med 15(4): e1002556. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002556

Author Affiliations:

Institute for Fiscal Studies, London, United Kingdom

Department of Economics, University College London, London, United Kingdom

Institute of Education, University College London, London, United Kingdom

Institute of Child Health, University College London, London, United Kingdom

Department of Economics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America

Inter-American Development Bank, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America

In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper:

http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002556

Perspective

Funding:

The author received no specific funding for this work.

Competing Interests:

I have read the journal's policy and the author of this manuscript has the following competing interest: MT is a member of the Editorial Board of PLOS Medicine.

Citation:

Tomlinson M (2018) From surviving to thriving: What evidence is needed to move early child-development interventions to scale? PLoS Med 15(4): e1002557. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002557

Author Affiliations:

Department of Psychology, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa Centre of Excellence in Human Development, University Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper:

http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002557
A new RAND Corporation paper finds that artificial intelligence has the potential to upend the foundations of nuclear deterrence by the year 2040.

While AI-controlled doomsday machines are considered unlikely, the hazards of artificial intelligence for nuclear security lie instead in its potential to encourage humans to take potentially apocalyptic risks, according to the paper.

During the Cold War, the condition of mutual assured destruction maintained an uneasy peace between the superpowers by ensuring that any attack would be met by a devastating retaliation. Mutual assured destruction thereby encouraged strategic stability by reducing the incentives for either country to take actions that might escalate into a nuclear war.

The new RAND publication says that in coming decades, artificial intelligence has the potential to erode the condition of mutual assured destruction and undermine strategic stability. Improved sensor technologies could introduce the possibility that retaliatory forces such as submarine and mobile missiles could be targeted and destroyed.

Nations may be tempted to pursue first-strike capabilities as a means of gaining bargaining leverage over their rivals even if they have no intention of carrying out an attack, researchers say. This undermines strategic stability because even if the state possessing these capabilities has no intention of using them, the adversary cannot be sure of that.

"The connection between nuclear war and artificial intelligence is not new, in fact the two have an intertwined history," said Edward Geist, co-author on the paper and associate policy researcher at the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization. "Much of the early development of AI was done in support of military efforts or with military objectives in mind."

He said one example of such work was the Survivable Adaptive Planning Experiment in the 1980s that sought to use AI to translate reconnaissance data into nuclear targeting plans.

Under fortuitous circumstances, artificial intelligence also could enhance strategic stability by improving accuracy in intelligence collection and analysis, according to the paper. While AI might increase the vulnerability of second-strike forces, improved analytics for monitoring and interpreting adversary actions could reduce miscalculation or misinterpretation that could lead to unintended escalation.

Researchers say that given future improvements, it is possible that eventually AI systems will develop capabilities that, while fallible, would be less error-prone than their human alternatives and therefore be stabilizing in the long term.

"Some experts fear that an increased reliance on artificial intelligence can lead to new types of catastrophic mistakes," said Andrew Lohn, co-author on the paper and associate engineer at RAND. "There may be pressure to use AI before it is technologically mature, or it may be susceptible to adversarial subversion. Therefore, maintaining strategic stability in coming decades may prove extremely difficult and all nuclear powers must participate in the cultivation of institutions to help limit nuclear risk."

RAND researchers based their perspective on information collected during a series of workshops with experts in nuclear issues, government branches, AI research, AI policy and national security.

"Will Artificial Intelligence Increase the Risk of Nuclear War?" is available at http://www.rand.org.

The perspective is part of a broader effort to envision critical security challenges in the world of 2040, considering the effects of political, technological, social, and demographic trends that will shape those security challenges in the coming decades.

Funding for the Security 2040 initiative was provided by gifts from RAND supporters and income from operations.

The research was conducted within the RAND Center for Global Risk and Security, which works across the RAND Corporation to develop multi-disciplinary research and policy analysis dealing with systemic risks to global security. The center draws on RAND's expertise to complement and expand RAND research in many fields, including security, economics, health, and technology.

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OAK BROOK, Ill. - A novel technique that delivers high doses of radiation to tumors while sparing the surrounding normal tissue shows promise as a curative treatment option for patients with early-stage liver cancer, according to a study published online in the journal Radiology.

Curative treatment options for early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common type of liver cancer, include surgery, liver transplantation and radiofrequency ablation. However, many patients are not candidates for these therapies due to the presence of other conditions. In addition, these treatments carry significant costs and potential complications.

Radiation segmentectomy (RS) is a minimally invasive option that uses the radioisotope yttrium-90 (Y90) to destroy tumors. The isotope is embedded into tiny beads that are delivered through a catheter into a blood vessel in the liver. They then travel to the site of the tumor, where they come to rest and deliver their radioactive effect while sparing much of the surrounding healthy tissue.

The procedure's name derives from the fact that surgeons divide the liver into a number of segments. Using an imaging approach called cone beam CT, interventional radiologists gain a detailed view of the complex liver vasculature and can focus delivery of the Y90 to the relevant segment.

"Cone beam CT has revolutionized our ability to perform segmental injections isolated to very small tumors, sparing the majority of normal tissue," said study senior author Riad Salem, M.D., chief of vascular interventional radiology in the Department of Radiology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. "Before cone beam CT, we had the ability to focus radiation, but not with this level of accuracy."

Dr. Salem and colleagues studied long-term outcomes in 70 early-stage HCC patients who had undergone RS between 2003 and 2016. They analyzed the patients' responses to treatment based on two commonly used sets of criteria.

Based on one criteria, 90 percent of patients showed positive response to the therapy, of which 59 percent showed complete response. Based on a second criteria, 71 percent achieved positive response, of which 16 percent achieved complete response.

RS controlled the target tumor, slowed the time to disease progression and improved survival outcomes at rates comparable to radiofrequency ablation, surgery and transplantation for early-stage HCC patients.

Almost three-quarters of patients had no progression of cancer in the target tumor five years after treatment. Median overall survival was 6.7 years, and one-, three-, and five-year survival probabilities were 98 percent, 66 percent and 57 percent, respectively. One-, three-, and five-year overall survival probability was 100 percent, 82 percent and 75 percent in patients with a baseline tumor size of 3 centimeters or less.

"The results show that we are able to impart curative outcomes to these patients," Dr. Salem said. "Our numbers with radiation segmentectomy match or outperform those of other curative treatments in terms of tumor control, survival rate and recurrence."

RS is performed on an outpatient basis, is minimally invasive and has a low toxicity profile, Dr. Salem said. Given the potency of the radiation, RS outperforms transarterial chemoembolization, another minimally invasive procedure in which cancer-killing drugs are injected into the liver's main artery under imaging guidance and travel to the tumor microvasculature. Transarterial chemoembolization has the additional disadvantage of requiring hospitalization.

The researchers continue to follow the patients from the study group as they work on ways to optimize the treatment.

"We want to see these outcomes validated in patients over the longer term," Dr. Salem said. "We also want to minimize the time from clinic visit to treatment, and fine-tune dosimetry so that we can find the optimal dose that will kill the tumor. In the right patient setting, RS can be considered curative."

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"Radiation Segmentectomy: Potential Curative Therapy for Early Hepatocellular Carcinoma." Collaborating with Dr. Salem were Robert J. Lewandowski, M.D., Ahmed Gabr, M.D., Nadine Abouchaleh, B.S., Rehan Ali, M.D., Ali Al Asadi, B.S., Ronald A. Mora, M.D., Laura Kulik, M.D., Daniel Ganger, M.D., Kush Desai, M.D., Bartley Thornburg, M.D., Samdeep Mouli, M.D., Ryan Hickey, M.D., Juan Carlos Caicedo, M.D., Michael M. Abecassis, M.D., and Ahsun Riaz, M.D.

Radiology is edited by David A. Bluemke, M.D., Ph.D., University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, Wis., and owned and published by the Radiological Society of North America, Inc.

RSNA is an association of over 54,200 radiologists, radiation oncologists, medical physicists and related scientists promoting excellence in patient care and health care delivery through education, research and technologic innovation. The Society is based in Oak Brook, Ill. (RSNA.org)

For patient-friendly information on radiotherapy, visit RadiologyInfo.org.
The 2018 Julius Springer Prize for Applied Physics will be awarded to Guus Rijnders of the University of Twente in the Netherlands for his research on pulsed laser deposition (PLD). The award, which includes a prize of US$5,000, will be presented at the Magnus-Haus in Berlin, Germany on 5 October 2018, and will be accompanied by a public lecture given by the winner.

Guus Rijnders investigates complex materials, particularly those used in electronic devices, such as brain-inspired electronics and sensors. He focuses on the structure-property relation of atomically engineered complex (nano)materials, especially thin-film ceramic oxides, which include ferromagnetic, ferroelectric as well as piezoelectric materials. Atomic control of such materials enables new functionalities, such as interface conductivity at oxide interfaces and multistate ferroelectrics. As one of the leaders in the field of PLD, and a driving force of interface engineering, Rijnders is one of the few major researchers who openly addresses controversial topics in the field. He has also successfully brought PLD from the laboratory to industry as the co-founder of two companies.

The Julius Springer Prize for Applied Physics recognizes researchers who have made an outstanding and innovative contribution to the field of applied physics. It has been awarded annually since 1998 by the editors-in-chief of the Springer journals Applied Physics A - Materials Science & Processing and Applied Physics B - Lasers and Optics. Winners in previous years have included Roland Wiesendanger, Xiang Zhang and Viktor Malka.

Rijnders said: "I am very pleased to accept this prize and feel honored to join the former recipients, who are all respected and excellent researchers. I see this prize as a recognition for our scientific and innovative contributions to the field of atomic controlled oxide thin film growth with pulsed laser deposition. I thank all my co-workers for their contributions."

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Over the last 50 years climate change has not been the key driver of the human displacement or conflict in East Africa, rather it is politics and poverty, according to new research by UCL.

Human displacement refers to the total number of forcibly displaced people, and includes internally displaced people - the largest group represented - and refugees, those forced to across international borders.

"Terms such as climate migrants and climate wars have increasingly been used to describe displacement and conflict, however these terms imply that climate change is the main cause. Our research suggests that socio-political factors are the primary cause while climate change is a threat multiplier," said Professor Mark Maslin (UCL Geography).

The study, published in Palgrave Communications, found that climate variations such as regional drought and global temperature played little part in the causation of conflict and displacement of people in East Africa over the last 50 years.

The major driving forces on conflict were rapid population growth, reduced or negative economic growth and instability of political regimes. While the total number of displaced people is linked to rapid population growth and low or stagnating economic growth.

However the study found that variations in refugee numbers, people forced to cross international borders, are significantly linked to the incidence of severe regional droughts as well as political instability, rapid population growth and low economic growth.

The UN Refugee Agency report there were over 20 million displaced people in Africa in 2016 - a third of the world's total. There has been considerable debate as to whether climate change will exacerbate this situation in the future by increasing conflict and triggering displacement of people.

This new study suggests that stable effective governance, sustained economic growth and reduced population growth are essential if conflict and forced displacement of people are to be reduced in Africa, which will be severally affected by climate change.

A new composite conflict and displacement database was used to identify major episodes of political violence and number of displaced people at country level, for the last 50 years. These were compared to past global temperatures, the Palmer Drought Index, and data for the 10 East African countries represented in the study on population size, population growth, GDP per capita, rate of change of GDP per capita, life expectancy and political stability.

The data were then analysed together using optimisation regression modelling to identify whether climate change between 1963 and 2014 impacted the risk of conflict and displacement of people in East Africa.

The findings suggest that about 80% of conflict throughout the period can be explained by population growth that occurred 10 years ago, political stability that occurred three years ago and economic growth within the same year.

For total displacement of people, the modelling suggests that 70% can be predicted by population growth and economic growth from 10 years before.

While for refugees, 90% can be explained by severe droughts that occurred one year ago, population growth that occurred 10 years ago, economic growth one year ago, and political stability two years ago. This correlates with an increase in refugees in the 1980s during a period of major droughts across East Africa.

"The question remains as to whether drought would have exacerbated the refugee situation in East Africa had there been slower expansion of population, positive economic growth and more stable political regimes in the region," said Erin Owain, first author of the study.

"Our research suggests that the fundamental cause of conflict and displacement of large numbers of people is the failure of political systems to support and protect their people", concluded Professor Maslin.

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The research was funded by the Natural Environmental Research Council and the Royal Society.

Notes to Editors

For more information or to speak to the researchers involved, please contact Natasha Downes, UCL Media Relations. T: +44 (0) 20 3108 3844 / +44 (0) 7990 675 947, E: n.downes@ucl.ac.uk

Owain, L.E., Maslin, A.M., 'Addressing the relative contribution of economic, political and environmental factors on past conflict and displacement of people in Africa' will be published in Palgrave Communications on Tuesday 24 April 2018, 14:00 UK time and is under a strict embargo until this time.

The DOI for this paper will be: http://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-018-0096-6

About UCL (University College London)

UCL was founded in 1826. We were the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to open up university education to those previously excluded from it, and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine. We are among the world's top universities, as reflected by performance in a range of international rankings and tables. UCL currently has over 39,000 students from 150 countries and over 12,500 staff. Our annual income is more than 1 billion. http://www.ucl.ac.uk | Follow us on Twitter @uclnews | Watch our YouTube channel YouTube.com/UCLTV
The number of first-time prescriptions for opioid drugs has not risen since about 2010, according to UCLA researchers. However, patients taking a class of drug known to increase the risk for overdoses were likelier to receive a first-time opioid prescription -- a combination that could be linked to the current surge in opioid-related deaths.

People with chronic pain are often prescribed a class of medications called "benzodiazepines" to treat anxiety, panic attacks and other mental conditions that can be brought on by the stress of coping with their pain. But these people also are likelier to receive new opioid prescriptions for their pain than people who don't use benzodiazepines. Used in combination, they are known to sharply increase the risk of overdose, the researchers say.

The study was published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

Previous studies have shown that people who become addicted to opioids after being co-prescribed benzodiazepines and the pain reliever have much higher overdose rates, said Dr. Joseph Ladapo, associate professor of medicine in the division of general internal medicine and health services research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the study's lead author. This is because, in part, they often obtain opioids through other means and continue using them after the initial prescription runs out.

"Rates of accidental overdose are high and rising, and we are struggling as a country to address the problem," he said. "As physicians, we have contributed to the problem, and one of the things we can do to address it is to reduce co-prescribing of benzodiazepines and opioids, and think very hard about how to effectively treat patients' pain while also reducing the risks the patient now faces from opioid therapy."

The researchers used data taken from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey and National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey from 2005 to 2015 on adults ages 20 and older who received new opioid prescriptions while concurrently using a benzodiazepine.

They analyzed a sample of 13,146 clinic and hospital visits, which extrapolate to the equivalent of 214 million visits nationally, in which patients received a new opioid prescription.

Rates of new opioid prescriptions in the United States for people on benzodiazepine increased 86 percent from 189 to 351 per 1,000 people between 2005 and 2010. But the rate of new prescriptions for these patients fell 51 percent to 172 per 1,000 U.S. people by 2015.

By contrast, new opioid prescriptions for patients who were not also taking benzodiazepines increased from 78 to 93 per 1,000 between 2005 and 2010, and dropped 15 percent to 79 per 1,000 by 2015. Naloxone, a medication used to reverse opioid overdoses, was co-prescribed in fewer than 1 percent of the visits.

Yet even with that drop in prescriptions, opioid-linked deaths increased from 5 per 100,000 people in the United States in 2005 to 11 per 100,000 in 2015 -- and continued to rise in 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The U.S. Surgeon General recently suggested that Americans routinely keep naloxone on hand to treat opioid overdose victims.

"We were surprised by how much higher the probability is of new opioid prescriptions to patients using benzodiazepines, considering that these patients face such an increased risk of overdose," said senior author Dr. John Mafi, assistant professor of medicine in the division of general internal medicine and health services research at the Geffen School. "We were also surprised by how rapidly co-prescription rates fell after peaking around 2010. Such a rapid change suggests that a substantial portion of the initial opioid prescriptions were potentially avoidable."

But doctors continue to bear responsibility, he added. "Opioid and benzodiazepine co-prescriptions remain very high and continue to place patients at heightened risk of opioid overdose."

Other factors that could be driving these increased deaths include the easy availability of heroin and other opioid variants through family members, friends and dealers; and socioeconomic disparities putting health care and drug rehabilitation out of the reach of some low-income, racial and ethnic groups.

Factors affecting the findings include a limited amount of clinical information available for the patients; lack of access to pharmacy data and dosage information that would have a bearing on overdose risk; and a lack of some community health center and outpatient hospital department data from 2012 through 2015.

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Study co-authors are Alexander Chen, Melissa Villalon, Stefanie Vassar and David Huang, all of UCLA; and Dr. Marc Larochelle of Boston University. Mafi is also associated with Rand Corp.

The study was funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute; the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities; the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; the National Institute on Drug Abuse; a Boston University School of Medicine Department of Medicine Career Investment Award; the UCLA Clinical and Translational Science Institute; the American Board of Internal Medicine Choosing Wisely Campaign; and the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.
Cybergossiping occurs when two or more people make evaluative comments on a digitial device about a third person who is not present. This kind of online behavior is common among adolescents when they are instant messaging and on social networking sites. Cybergossiping directly impacts the group, and can just as easily foster as damage the quality of the relationships among its members.

What is known as gossiping among friends, that is to say teenagers talking to each other about other people, is a kind of dialog considered fun and casual, and tends to be quite popular. These kinds of conversations have a bad name but happen in all cultures. But gossiping also has to be interpreted as a mechanism that unites the group, facilitates information transfer, strengthens bonds and influences the behavior of the group's members. Since gossiping is entertaining, it is also satisfying. However, cybergossiping can also lead to risky cybernetic behavior such as cyberbullying, which implies intentional harm among peers online. This statement is one of the conclusions drawn from the study led by University of Cordoba Developmental and Educational Psychology Professor Eva Romera.

Professor Romera is also a member of the Laboratory of Coexistence and Violence Prevention Studies (LAECOVI in Spanish). The study looks closely at online behavior and evaluative comments made by teenageers between 12 and 19 years of age when they are gossiping.

Scientific research thus far that has assessed the nature of this interactive behavior among teens has been limited and is almost always focused on negative behavior, implying indirect assaults that are intentionally hurtful. This study by Professor Romera and a group of collaborators, which was recently published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, has come to turn the tables on this belief. According to Romera, though this research does not rule out the fact that cybergossiping can lead to negative behavior (such as excluding someone from the group or harming their reputation), its "socializing function" also has to be valued. Accordingly, making evaluative comments online about somebody who is not present can have a positive influence among teens because it lets them "feel better, feel more integrated in the group, better understand what others think and learn more about the people around them." Ultimately, according to the study, cybergossiping should be interpreted in a broad sense of the word, in which besides being considered a risk, "it is a social learning mechanism" that fosters new ways of social interaction.

Cybergossiping is a way to practice online communication skills, which are useful in building positive virtual relationships, because the complexity of this communication also usually includes critically reviewing and looking for ways to reconcile the contributions of each interlocutor.

In order to carry out this study, done in collaboration with the University of Seville and the University of Narino (Colombia), a thorough literature review on gossip and cybergossip was done. Then, a questionnaire was designed and validated, by interviewing 3,747 Spanish and Colombian secondary school students. The final questionnaire consists of nine questions, chosen from a much higher number by means of rigorous statistical analysis. This method of self-report survey, according to the University of Cordoba professor "allows for confidential responses regarding something linked to trust and discretion."

The analyses point to the notion of cybergossiping being similar in both countries and that it is done at the same rate among males and females, thereby dismissing the idea that females are "bigger cybergossips" than males. A lower rate of cybergossiping among Colombian adolescents was detected in comparison to Spanish adolescents. The reasons for this last finding reside in the fact that, according to the study, in Colombia there is a greater tendency to abide by the rules and a lower rate of teenage social network use.

Another conclusion reached by the researchers is that cybergossip should be addressed in the classroom. Romera explains that the current educational system should include "learning how to interact on social networking sites. Tools that can allow for healthy, quality virtual relationships should be offered and these tools would promote the learning of new ways to interact. While the relation between cybergossiping and other kinds of risky behavior has been confirmed, the potential of cybergossiping should be considered when proposing educational ideas, and this potential should be researched further.

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Romera, EM; Herrera-Lopez, M; Casas, JA; Ortega-Ruiz, R; Del Rey, R. How Much Do Adolescents Cybergossip? Scale Development and Validation in Spain and Colombia. FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00126
A University of Cambridge researcher is calling for the voices of women to be given a fairer platform at a leading scientific conference.

Dr Heather Ford and her colleagues analysed data from the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting and found that, overall; female scientists are offered fewer opportunities than men to present their research.

The team examined the gender, career stage and type of presentation delivered by each participant from 2014 to 2016. They found that female members are at a disadvantage because the majority of them are students or in the early stages of their careers, groups whose members are typically given fewer chances to present their research. The results are reported in the journal Nature Communications.

Conference speakers are often at more senior stages of their careers, where there are usually fewer women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) fields. A further problem is that men are more likely to provide speaking opportunities to other men, potentially limiting women's career prospects.

"The burden of representation often falls on under-represented groups. We need the majority groups to think about representation, otherwise minority voices will continue to be drowned out," said Ford, who is a NERC Independent Research Fellow in Cambridge's Department of Earth Sciences.

However, the research showed some positive signs, as women were invited at a much higher rate than men in the early and mid-career stages.

The researchers are calling for more students and early career researchers to have opportunities to speak at future conferences, in a bid to help some of the many female members who are at the beginning of their careers. They also want to see more women selecting the conference speakers, and suggest that all members may benefit from diversity training before they can invite speakers and assign conference presentations.

Attending and presenting at conferences helps academics at every stage of their careers to build their network, meet potential collaborators and share their research.

Conferences are important for career progression and can be key in helping researchers to find funding and receive job offers. Presenting at academic conferences can also help researchers to gain recognition and awards for their work.

Ford says she and her co-author Petra Dekens from San Francisco State University were motivated to look into this topic after sitting in "too many conference sessions" with either no female speakers, or a single female speaker.

The global context is also an important issue for Ford, particular the ongoing campaign for gender equality. She said; "A lot of women have been motivated to speak out about gender inequality in the past year - people are much more vocal about how they've been treated. I wanted to find a productive way to channel my frustrations."

The AGU Fall Meeting is the world's largest geoscience conference, with more than 22,000 presentation proposals each year. The AGU has more than 60,000 members in 137 countries, and around a third of its members are women. Geoscience is one of the least diverse STEM fields.

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Doctors at the University of Illinois Hospital have cured seven adult patients of sickle cell disease, an inherited blood disorder primarily affecting the black community, using stem cells from donors previously thought to be incompatible, thanks to a new transplant treatment protocol.

The doctors report on the new technique in the journal Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation.

With the new protocol, patients with aggressive sickle cell disease can receive stem cells from family members if only half of their human leukocyte antigen (HLA) markers match. Previously, donors had to be a family member with a full set of matching HLA markers, or a "fully-matched" donor.

HLA markers are proteins on the surface of cells that help to regulate the immune system. The human body uses these proteins to identify which cells belong in the body and which cells do not. Because HLA markers are inherited from parents, family members are the most likely to have matching proteins. In transplants, matching HLA markers between the patient and the donor help to limit the risk that the patient's body will reject the donor cells.

While doctors always try to find a closely matched donor for patients who need a stem cell transplant, only 20 percent of sickle cell patients have a family member with a full set of matching HLA markers.

"We have made great strides curing adults with sickle cell disease with stem cell transplants, but the unfortunate truth is that the majority of these patients have, until now, been unable to benefit from this treatment because there are no fully-matched HLA-compatible donors available in their family," said corresponding author Dr. Damiano Rondelli, the Michael Reese Professor of Hematology and director of the Blood and Marrow Transplant program at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Rondelli and his team run the largest adult sickle cell program in the Chicago area and pioneered the use of chemotherapy-free fully-matched stem cell transplants for sickle cell patients nearly six years ago.

Now, by allowing for "half-matched" donors, the new treatment protocol, which uses only a small does chemotherapy, significantly increases the number of potential donors for each patient.

The doctors screened 50 adult sickle cell patients as candidates for a half-matched stem cell transplant between January 2014 and March 2017. Ten patients received a transplant. Following two unsuccessful transplants, the doctors adopted the new treatment protocol, which included modifications to a process first developed at Johns Hopkins University.

"We modified the transplant protocol by increasing the dose of radiation used before the transplant, and by infusing growth factor-mobilized peripheral blood stem cells instead of bone marrow cells," Rondelli said. "These two modifications helped ensure the patient's body could accept the healthy donor cells."

Of the eight patients who underwent the revised transplant, one experienced chronic graft-versus-host disease following the transplant and died of unknown causes. The other seven patients are alive and maintain 95 percent or higher stable engraftment - acceptance of donor cells - with improved blood work at least 12 months following the transplant.

"These patients are cured of sickle cell disease," Rondelli said.

"The takeaway message is twofold. First, this transplant protocol may cure many more adults patients with advanced sickle cell disease," he said. "Second, despite the increasing safety of the transplant protocols and new compatibility of HLA half-matched donors, many sickle cell patients still face barriers to care - of the patients we screened, only 20 percent underwent a transplant."

Rondelli says that medical insurance denial accounted for 20 percent of the lack of access to the transplant. Other factors included personal decisions and high rates of donor-specific antigens in patients who had received frequent blood transfusions.

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Co-authors on the paper are Dr. Santosh Saraf, Dr. Annie Oh, Dr. Pritesh Patel, Karen Sweiss, Dr. Matthew Koshy, Dr. Sally Campbell-Lee, Dr. Michael Gowhari, Dr. Shivi Jain, Dr. David Peace, Dr. John Quigley, Dr. Irum Khan, Dr. Robert Molokie, Dr. Nadim Mahmud and Dr. Victor Gordeuk of UIC.

A grant from the National Institutes of Health (K23HL125984) and an endowment from the Michael Reese Research and Education Foundation helped fund the research.
The NIH award features a new partnership with NC State, while the UNC-Chapel Hill-led Clinical and Translational Science Award Program continues its alliance with RTI International and NC A&T State University

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has been awarded $58.1 million from the National Institutes of Health to renew its five-year Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) Program to help improve the health of North Carolinians.

With the new award, the UNC-Chapel Hill-led CTSA will broaden its reach across the state by continuing its alliance with RTI International and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and adding a formal partnership with North Carolina State University.

The partners will leverage their institutional strengths in cutting-edge research, education, and health care to bring biomedical innovations to bear on the greatest health needs of North Carolina.

"This major award is good news for the health of all North Carolinians," said UNC-Chapel Hill Vice Chancellor for Research Terry Magnuson, PhD. "It supports a critical pipeline that takes the latest scientific discoveries in our university labs and moves them into practice, leading to new treatments and new drugs that improve and save lives."

Launched in 2006, the CTSA program has enabled innovative research teams to speed discovery and advance science aimed at improving the nation's health. Institutional CTSA awards are at the heart of the program, providing academic hubs for translational sciences. The program currently supports a consortium of more than 50 academic medical institutions that is fostering team science, leveraging national resources, and transforming the way biomedical research is conducted across the country.

The grant will provide another five years of funding for the North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences (NC TraCS) Institute, which is now recognized as the central entity on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus responsible for the advancement of clinical and translational research. Since its inception in 2008 as the home of UNC's CTSA, NC TraCS has fundamentally changed the clinical and translational research landscape at UNC and across the state, with outreach efforts touching each of North Carolina's 100 counties.

Over the last funding period, NC TraCS worked with over 350 practices, 130 community-based organizations, 88 percent of other CTSA hubs, and numerous non-CTSA universities through pilot awards or other initiatives. The Institute provided leadership for a number of high-impact multi-center clinical trials in HIV, diabetes, obesity, cancer, and pregnancy, among others. It also engaged patients as allies in the research process by developing Join the Conquest, a clinical trials website that includes over 6,000 registered participants and over 200 unique research studies.

"What sets NC TraCS apart is our deep engagement with the patients and communities we serve, as well as our focus on training the research investigators and staff of the future," said Tim Carey, MD, MPH, Co-Principal Investigator at NC TraCS at UNC-Chapel Hill.

To increase its impact and scope over the next five years, NC TraCS is establishing a new formal relationship with North Carolina State University.

"Through much of our research -- developing new biosensors, creating materials for biomedical products, and establishing data science solutions, just to name a few -- NC State works at the interface of human health," said Alan Rebar, PhD, Vice Chancellor for Research at NC State University. "This newly formed collaboration will enable us to work more closely with our colleagues at NC TraCS to bring together some of the brightest and best minds in the Triangle to create solutions to real human health challenges."

During the new grant period, NC TraCS will continue its commitment to moving scientific advances from the laboratory into clinical practice. Through its 4D (Drugs, Devices, and Diagnostics Development) Program, it will focus on shortening the developmental pipeline and increasing the number of companies created so that important products that address identified clinical needs get to the marketplace more quickly.

"The collaborative nature of scientists and clinicians at UNC-Chapel Hill has made NC TraCS a success story to be proud of," said William L. Roper, MD, MPH, dean of the UNC School of Medicine and CEO of UNC Health Care. "Through the CTSA, our researchers have accelerated research to benefit North Carolinians and will continue to do so in new and important ways with this new round of funding."

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NC TraCS contact: Michelle Maclay, 919.843.5365, maclay@med.unc.edu

School of Medicine contact: Mark Derewicz, 984.974.1915, mark.derewicz@unchealth.unc.edu About NC TraCS

NC TraCS is the integrated hub of the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program at UNC that combines the research strengths, resources and opportunities of the UNC-Chapel Hill campus, partner institution RTI International (RTI) in the Research Triangle Park (RTP), North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (N.C. A&T) in Greensboro, and North Carolina State University (NC State) in Raleigh.

Together the institute is strategically designed to overcome barriers which historically have been responsible for fragmenting and delaying research efforts. Faculty and staff experts across NC TraCS offer targeted, comprehensive and interdisciplinary solutions to investigators in the area of clinical and translational science; and we serve as the sole, centralized portal through which researchers may gain access to the resources and services.

For more information, visit: tracs.unc.edu
University of Oregon-led project finds that chronic exposure to parasitic worms keeps the immune system working overtime, at a cost to youth among Ecuador's Shuar

EUGENE, Ore. -- April 24, 2018 -- Elevated immune function during childhood results in as much as 49 percent growth reduction in Ecuador's indigenous Shuar population, researchers reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Immune function protects the body from foreign bacteria, viruses and other substances. However, it is metabolically expensive and may divert calories away from other important tasks, such as growth during childhood.

"This research provides direct evidence for tradeoffs between immune function and growth in a population that's experiencing significant environmental challenges," said co-author Josh Snodgrass, a biological anthropologist at the University of Oregon. "This helps us understand why growth faltering is happening to over 150 million children globally."

The findings came from on-going work in the UO-led Shuar Life and Health History Project, co-directed by Snodgrass and co-author Lawrence Sugiyama, a professor of anthropology. The project with the Shuar, a forager-farming population of about 50,000 in the Amazon River basin, began in 2005.

Earlier in the project, which also tracks the impact of economic development and market integration on adult health, researchers had identified chronic exposure among Shuar youth to infection by soil-transmitted parasitic worms, or helminths.

"One of the things we often see in populations in economically developing countries is that they are short," Snodgrass said. "If you look at what's causing their stunting, it's not their trunk. It's their legs. They are not growing as much in childhood."

In the project, the researchers analyzed finger-prick blood samples from 261 Shuar children, ages 4 to 11.

In the UO Global Health Biomarker Lab, directed by Snodgrass, they focused on four biomarkers of immune function, including antibodies produced in response to helminths. In the field, they measured growth in stature as well as lower-leg growth using a simplified, portable version of a knemometer developed by lead author Samuel Urlacher, a postdoctoral researcher at Hunter College in New York.

Although recurrent infection has long been suggested to produce disruptions in growth, the relationship has been difficult to test directly in humans. The study tracked children over 20 months. In doing so, the researchers were able to link variation in growth parameters to different types of immune function.

The effect of acute inflammation, a particularly costly immune response, on childhood growth was moderated by body fat. Children with greater fat stores were able to completely avoid the growth inhibition faced by thinner children during periods of elevated immune function.

"The study allows us to get at energetic challenges, where you are not consuming enough calories and your body has to make physiological choices about allocation," Snodgrass said. "Growth really doesn't take a lot of energy, but as you grow larger it takes resources to maintain it. That's a huge cost over time."

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Other UO co-authors on the study were Geeta Eick and Theresa Gildner. Additional co-authors were Peter T. Ellison of Harvard University, Herman Pontzer of Hunter College, Melissa Liebert of Northern Arizona University and Tara Cepon-Robins of the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. Liebert and Cepon-Robins earned doctoral degrees in anthropology from the UO.

Grants from the National Science Foundation, Leakey Foundation, Harvard University and UO supported the research.

Source: Josh Snodgrass, professor of anthropology and associate vice provost for undergraduate studies, University of Oregon, 541-346-4823, jjosh@uoregon.edu

Note: The UO is equipped with an on-campus television studio with a point-of-origin Vyvx connection, which provides broadcast-quality video to networks worldwide via fiber optic network. There also is video access to satellite uplink and audio access to an ISDN codec for broadcast-quality radio interviews.

Links:

About Josh Snodgrass: https://anthropology.uoregon.edu/profile/jjosh/

Department of Anthropology: https://anthropology.uoregon.edu/
Each of us carries in our genomes about 10 million genetic variations called single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which represent a difference of just one letter in the genetic code. Every human's pattern of SNPs is unique and quite stable, as they are inherited from our parents and are rarely mutated, making them a kind of "natural barcode" that can identify the cells from any individual. A group of researchers from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and Harvard Medical School (HMS) has developed a new genetic analysis technique that harnesses these barcodes to create a faster, cheaper, and simpler way to track what happens to cells from different individuals when they are exposed to any kind of experimental condition, enabling large pools of cells from multiple people to be analyzed for personalized medicine. The research is reported in Genome Medicine.

As the Big Data revolution in healthcare gallops apace, it is becoming possible and more attractive to perform experiments on cells from multiple people simultaneously, as differences in how the cells respond can indicate that genetic variances between the individuals are conferring some kind of effect. However, keeping track of which cells belong to which person throughout such a multiplexed experiment currently requires that a unique tag or barcode be added to each individual's cells, a time-consuming and costly process that frequently involves integrating a barcode (e.g., a unique DNA sequence) into each cell line separately so that they can identify the cells during testing. By taking advantage of all humans' unique SNP profiles, the Wyss/HMS team achieved the same cell tracking without the cumbersome labeling process.

While SNPs have been known to science for almost two decades, unlocking their utility as barcodes has proven extremely difficult. SNPs are distributed sparsely throughout the genome (approximately one SNP occurs in 1,000 base pairs), meaning that any one SNP can only distinguish between two individuals. Current, commonly used high-throughput sequencing technologies have sequencing read-lengths of less than 1,000 base pairs, making it nearly impossible to ascribe each of the sequencing reads to any particular person based on SNPs.

To overcome this problem, the team's new method combines genomic DNA extraction from a mixed pool of cells, whole-genome sequencing of the extracted DNA, and a computational algorithm that predicts the proportion of each individual within the pool based on the entire SNP allele profile of every known person's cells. Many of the cell lines publicly available for research already have whole-genome SNP allele profiles associated with them, and a given individual's profile can be determined with the use of genotyping arrays or low-coverage whole-genome sequencing.

SNP allele profiles can be used to track cells' identities across any number of different experiments in which the pool of multiple cell samples is subjected to two or more different conditions (usually a "control" condition and an "experimental" condition), and then analyzed. Yingleong Chan, Ph.D., a Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of George Church at the Wyss Institute and HMS, and his coworkers have developed an algorithm that predicts the proportions of each person's cells in the pool before and after the experiment, and compares them to determine which cells are expressed differently when exposed to the condition tested. "The change in the proportion of the individuals' cells in the experimental group when compared to the control group tells you what happened to those cells during the experiment, and whether cells from any particular person might have a genetic advantage," says Chan.

The researchers first tested their method by simulating a pool of cells and varying the number of samples, quantity of SNPs analyzed, and number of times that the pool was sequenced. They found that, over several iterations, the algorithm converged to a fixed estimated proportion for each SNP profile in the pool that closely matched the simulated proportions. The algorithm was able to accurately estimate the proportions of pools of up to 1,000 different individuals by analyzing 500,000 SNPs, and could handle samples of event more cell lines if either the number of SNPs analyzed or the depth of sequencing were increased.

Next, the researchers tested their algorithm on actual human B-lymphocytes whose genomes had been sequenced as part of the Harvard Personal Genome Project, and found that it accurately predicted the proportion of the individuals within a pool of 50 different cell lines. "There are numerous experiments that this technique could be applied to," says Chan. "You can test a cancer drug against different cell lines from different people, see whether a particular patient's cell line responded well to the drug, and then use that drug for a targeted approach to treatment. We've effectively built a discovery tool to enable personalized medicine."

The authors point out that their method will not work on samples where the different cell types come from the same person, because the SNP profiles would be identical, but it holds great promise for multiplexed testing of genetic variation among many human samples.

"Testing the effects of drugs on multiple cancer cell lines is one application that can be implemented immediately," says co-corresponding author George Church, Ph.D., who is a Founding Core Faculty member of the Wyss Institute, a Professor of Genetics at HMS, and Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard and MIT. "You can test a lot more people at once, which not only gives you more data, but translates into significant time and cost savings."

"This new technology harnesses the very core of what makes us who we are - the unique variations in our DNA - and crafts it into a tool that can accelerate discovery by obviating the need for analyzing individual responses in multiple parallel, time consuming, and expensive experiments. It also opens up an entirely new approach to personalized medicine," says Wyss Founding Director Donald Ingber, M.D., Ph.D., who is also the Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology at HMS and the Vascular Biology Program at Boston Children's Hospital, as well as Professor of Bioengineering at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

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Additional authors of the paper include Ying Kai Chan, Ph.D., Research Scientist at the Wyss Institute; Daniel Goodman, Ph.D., a former Graduate Student at the Wyss Institute and HMS who is currently a Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Fellow at UCSF; Xiaoge Guo, Ph.D., a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Wyss Institute and HMS; Alejandro Chavez, M.D., Ph.D., a former Clinical Fellow in Pathology at the Wyss Institute who is currently Assistant Professor of Pathology and Cell Biology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons; and Elaine Lim, Ph.D., a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Wyss Institute and HMS.

This research was supported by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award for Medical Scientists, the National Human Genome Research Institute, the National Institutes of Health, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

MULTIMEDIA AVAILABLE

PRESS CONTACT

Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University

Lindsay Brownell, lindsay.brownell@wyss.harvard.edu, +1 617-432-8232

MULTIMEDIA CONTACT

Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University

Seth Kroll, seth.kroll@wyss.harvard.edu, +1 617-432-7758

The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University uses Nature's design principles to develop bioinspired materials and devices that will transform medicine and create a more sustainable world. Wyss researchers are developing innovative new engineering solutions for healthcare, energy, architecture, robotics, and manufacturing that are translated into commercial products and therapies through collaborations with clinical investigators, corporate alliances, and formation of new startups. The Wyss Institute creates transformative technological breakthroughs by engaging in high risk research, and crosses disciplinary and institutional barriers, working as an alliance that includes Harvard's Schools of Medicine, Engineering, Arts & Sciences and Design, and in partnership with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston Children's Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Boston University, Tufts University, Charite - Universitatsmedizin Berlin, University of Zurich and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School has more than 11,000 faculty working in 10 academic departments located at the School's Boston campus or in hospital-based clinical departments at 15 Harvard-affiliated teaching hospitals and research institutes: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston Children's Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Cambridge Health Alliance, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Hebrew SeniorLife, Joslin Diabetes Center, Judge Baker Children's Center, Massachusetts Eye and Ear/Schepens Eye Research Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, McLean Hospital, Mount Auburn Hospital, Spaulding Rehabilitation Network and VA Boston Healthcare System.
April 24, 2018 - About 2.6 million American children and adolescents had diagnosed anxiety and/or depression in 2011-12, reports an analysis of nationwide data in the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, the official journal of the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.

The number of children with diagnosed anxiety - but not depression - has increased in recent years, according to the new report. The lead author was Rebecca H. Bitsko, PhD, of the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Study Shows High Rates and Impact of Anxiety and Depression in American Youth

The researchers analyzed data from the nationally representative National Survey of Children's Health for the years 2003, 2007, and 2011-12. In the most recent year, more than 65,000 parents were asked about problems with anxiety and/or depression (diagnosed by a doctor or other healthcare professional) in their children aged six to 17 years.

In the 2011-12 survey, 5.3 percent of children and teens had current anxiety or depression. The prevalence of current anxiety increased significantly between surveys: from 3.5 percent in 2007 to 4.1 percent in 2011-12. By comparison, the prevalence of current depression showed no significant change: 2.5 and 2.7 percent, respectively.

"These estimates correspond with approximately two million children aged six to 17 years in 2011-12 with current anxiety, 1.4 million children with current depression, 2.6 million with current anxiety or depression, and 760,000 children with both," Dr. Bitsko and coauthors write. The percentage of children who had ever been diagnosed with anxiety or depression increased from 5.4 percent in 2003 to 8.4 percent in 2011-12.

Children with anxiety and/or depression were more likely to have other diagnosed chronic health conditions as well, including neurobehavioral disorders and obesity. Even after adjustment for other health problems, the presence of anxiety or depression was associated with increased use of healthcare services, more problems at school, and higher levels of aggravation for parents.

"Despite significant healthcare needs, nearly 20 percent of children with anxiety or depression did not receive mental health treatment in the past year," Dr. Bitsko and coauthors write. Only about one-third of the children with anxiety or depression had a "medical home" - that is, a usual source of healthcare with referrals and care coordination, if needed.

Based on repeated surveys of a nationwide sample of parents, the study provides new information on the burden of anxiety and depression among US children and adolescents. The reasons for the increase in parent-reported anxiety are unclear. This trend may reflect improved identification or increased use of mental health services, or an increase in the number of children experiencing anxiety symptoms, the authors suggest.

Based on repeated surveys in nationally representative samples, the study provides new insights into the prevalence and burden of anxiety and depression in children and teens. The researchers note that the national estimates are lower than data from community-based studies, "suggesting that child anxiety may be under-diagnosed."

"Children with anxiety and depression may have needs that go beyond diagnosis and mental health treatment," Dr. Bitsko comments, "Anxiety and depression are associated with school problems, parenting stress, and unmet medical needs. Parents, healthcare providers, and teachers can look for ways to support children with anxiety and depression in all areas of the child's life." The researchers emphasize the need for further research to identify factors associated with the increased prevalence of anxiety, and to evaluate how improved care coordination and other strategies can improve the health and well-being of children with anxiety and depression.

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Click here to read "Epidemiology and Impact of Health Care Provider-Diagnosed Anxiety and Depression Among US Children."

DOI: 10.1097/DBP.0000000000000571

About the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics

Written for physicians, clinicians, psychologists and researchers, each bimonthly issue of the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics (http://www.jrnldbp.com) is devoted entirely to the developmental and psychosocial aspects of pediatric health care. Each issue brims with original articles, case reports, challenging cases and reviews--the latest work of many of today's best known leaders in related fields--that help professionals across disciplines stay current with the latest information in the field. Relevant areas covered include learning disorders, developmental disabilities, and emotional, behavioral, and psychosomatic problems. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics is the official journal of the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics.

About Wolters Kluwer

Wolters Kluwer is a global leader in professional information, software solutions, and services for the health, tax & accounting, finance, risk & compliance, and legal sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with specialized technology and services.

Wolters Kluwer, headquartered in the Netherlands, reported 2017 annual revenues of 4.4 billion. The company serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 19,000 people worldwide.

Wolters Kluwer Health is a leading global provider of trusted clinical technology and evidence-based solutions that engage clinicians, patients, researchers and students with advanced clinical decision support, learning and research and clinical intelligence. For more information about our solutions, visit http://healthclarity.wolterskluwer.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter @WKHealth.
The rate of technological change has been increasing in almost all sectors today. This creates challenges for many organizations in industry, government or even academia. As a result, managing technology is extremely important.

Technology Roadmapping provides a framework for decision-makers in technology-driven organizations to manage technology. The book is a product of collaboration between the book-editor, Tugrul Daim and industry experts around the world.

The book begins by introducing different systematic approaches to managing technology. These approaches have been derived through decades of experience in each case. It then introduces the technology roadmapping approach, which has its roots in the industry. Highly regarded academicians and consultants were turned to, to cover how technology roadmapping can be applied in different settings.

The book also introduces several supplementary tools to help decision makers chart out a plan to leverage emerging technologies at their peak. Such tools include technology assessment, forecasting and transfer related ones.

Technologies can be both threats and opportunities for any organization. The most important aspect is to recognize this, and (as late Dr. Andrew Grove who was one of the former CEO's of Intel Corporation once said) be paranoid to survive.

This book retails for US$198 / 174 at major bookstores. To know more about the book visit http://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/10859.

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About The Author/Editor

Tugrul U Daim is a Professor and the Director of the Technology Management Doctoral Program in the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science at Portland State University (PSU), USA. He is also the Director of the Research Group on Infrastructure and Technology Management, and a Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Sustainable Solutions.

His research has been funded by the US Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, National Cooperative Highway Research Program, and many other regional, national and international organizations. He has published over 200 refereed papers in journals and conference proceedings, and edited more than 20 books and conference proceedings. He has overseen 11 PhD graduates who are now in leading positions in government, industry and academia.

He is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management and International Journal of Energy Technology and Policy. He is also an Associate Editor for Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Technology in Society, Foresight, Journal of Knowledge Economy and the International Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Tugrul has also edited more than 20 special issues in international journals.

Prior to joining PSU, he had worked at Intel Corporation for over a decade in varying management roles. At Intel he managed product and technology development. During his tenure at PSU, he has acted as a Strategic Consultant to the Chief Technology Innovation Officer of Bonneville Power Administration, a part of US Department of Energy. Tugrul has helped develop regional and national technology roadmaps in the energy sector. He also consulted for many other international, national and regional organizations including Elsevier, Biotronik, NEEA, Energy Trust of Oregon, EPRI, ETRI, Koc Holding, Arcelik, Tofas, Ford Otosan, Kirlangic, Siemens, Mark and Spencer, and Castrol.

He is also a visiting professor with the Northern Institute of Technology at Technical University of Hamburg, Harburg, Germany. He has given keynotes and distinguished speaker lectures at conferences, companies, universities and research centers around the world including Iamot, Euromot, Samsung, Helmut Schmidt University (Germany), Kuhne Logistics University, Seoul National University (Korea), Bogazici University (Turkey), Koc University (Turkey), University of Gaziantep (Turkey), Izmir Institute of Technology (Turkey), University of Pretoria (South Africa), Tampere University of Technology (Finland), Science and Technology Institute (Korea), and the Energy Production and Infrastructure Center at UNCC (USA).

He was given the Research Publication Award by the International Association of Management of Technology (IAMOT) and Fellow Award by the Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET) both in 2014.

He received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from Bogazici University in Turkey, MS in Mechanical Engineering from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, USA, MS in Engineering Management from Portland State University, USA, and PhD in Systems Science: Engineering Management from Portland State University in Portland Oregon, USA.

Terry Oliver was Chief Technology Innovation Officer at the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), USA. Beginning in 2005, Terry led the management of BPA's US$18 million annual direct investment in research, development, and demonstration, which represents approximately US$60 million annually in leveraged R&D investments, and an investment nearly 5 times the average US utility. Under his leadership, BPA's Technology Innovation program has enabled breakthroughs and operational improvements in nearly every area of the agency's core businesses -- marketing wholesale hydropower, operating more than 15,000 circuit miles of high-voltage transmission lines, advancing energy efficiency and integrating renewable resources. Recent successes include the use of synchrophasors for wide-area control, helical connector shunt innovation and the exploration of end-use-to-generation smart grid integration.

He serves as a member the board of directors of the GridWise Alliance, and is also a member of the International Advisory Board for the International Journal of Innovation and Technology. Terry is also part of the Management and the Advisory Council of the Engineering and Technology Management Department in the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science at Portland State University, USA. In addition, he is a member of Southern California Edison's technical advisory board, Carnegie Mellon University's Electricity Industry Center advisory board, Oregon Institute of Technology's Renewable Energy Engineering Program industry advisory committee, and the technical review panel for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory Wind Program. He is a past member of the Electric Power Research Institute board.

Notably, he's championed a disciplined research management approach, including benchmarking, technology roadmapping, and effective portfolio management, which has led to an unprecedented level of success for BPA's R&D program. Terry is a Fellow with the Portland International Center for the Management of Engineering and Technology. Terry has also been the recipient of BPA's Administrator's Meritorious Service Award, the agency's highest award.

Robert Phaal joined the University of Cambridge Centre for Technology Management in 1997, where he conducts applied research in the area of strategic technology management. This work has focused on supporting companies to customize and initiate roadmapping processes. He has a mechanical engineering background, and post-graduate qualifications in applied and computational mechanics, with industrial experience in technical research, consulting and software development.

About World Scientific Publishing Co.

World Scientific Publishing is a leading international independent publisher of books and journals for the scholarly, research and professional communities. World Scientific collaborates with prestigious organisations like the Nobel Foundation and US National Academies Press to bring high quality academic and professional content to researchers and academics worldwide. The company publishes about 600 books annually and 135 journals in various fields. To find out more about World Scientific, please visit http://www.worldscientific.com.

For more information, contact Amanda at heyun@wspc.com.
this news is not available
Switzerland authorised the export to Syria of five metric tons of the chemical isopropanol in 2014, which can be used to make sarin gas, Swiss public television, RTS, reports.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) announced in May 2014 that Syria had destroyed its stock of 120 metric tons of isopropanol. However, six months after the elimination of the stock, a Swiss firm was able to export five metric tons of isopropanol to Syria without any opposition from the Swiss authorities, RTS reported on Tuesday.

SECO told RTS that the client was a private Syrian pharmaceutical firm and that there was no indication that it hadlinksto the Syrian regime at the time, nor today.

Isopropanol, more commonly known as rubbing alcohol, is found in disinfectants, cleaning agents, paints and varnishes, but it is also a major component of the type of gas used in recent suspected chemical attacks by the Assad regime.

The European Union has imposed ever-tighter sanctions on the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, including on the export of several chemicals. Isopropanol, or isopropyl alcohol, came under EU sanctions in July 2013. However, the Swiss authorities did not add it to its own list of banned products.

The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) told RTS that Switzerland has fully adopted European sanctions against Syria but that in certain cases measures are regulated differently, for example via the law on the control of goods.

These products did not need an authorisation in Switzerland at the time, said SECO, which did not oppose their export, as there were no indications in 2014 that these deliveries might be used for a weapons programme.

However, SECO said such exports would probably be blocked today in view of concerns over chemical weapons use in Syria.

Chemical weapons attacks

Chemical weapons have killed hundreds of people since the start of the conflict in Syria, with the United Nations blaming four attacks on the Syrian government and a fifth on the Islamic State group. The latest attack on April 7 in the Damascus suburb of Douma killed at least 40 people and has been widely blamed on the Syrian government, which has denied responsibility. Last week the United States, Britain and France decided to strike Syria for its apparent use of chemical weapons

Reports of the use of sarin date back to 2013. The Syrian government and opposition traded accusations over a gas attack on March 19, 2013, that killed some 26 people in the town of Khan al-Assal in northern Syria. A UN investigation later found that sarin nerve gas was used, but did not identify a culprit.

In 2014, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said it had removed the last of the Syrian governments dangerous chemical stockpiles. Various reports continue of chemical weapons being used in Syria.

In September 2017, UN war crimes investigators formally blamed the Syrian government for a sarin attack on the town of Khan Sheikhunin April that killed at least 83 people and wounded another 300. The Assad government has repeatedly denied using chemical weapons.

Main isopropanol exporters

UN trade statistics show that Switzerland and Belgium are the only European countries to have exported isopropanol to Syria since the purported destruction of its stocks. The other main suppliers are Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and South Korea.

Belgian authorities are currently investigating whether three companies might have been involved in the illegal export to Syria of 168 tons of isopropanol and other products.

The case against the companies is to come to court in Antwerp on May 15 and centres on whether and how illegal products were exported between 2014 and 2016 despite the sanctions against the Assad regime.













RTS/sb






Switzerland handed over a batch of around 550 ancient Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman coins to Serbia on Monday. They were going to be sold online.

The lot had been seized and confiscated following criminal proceedings led by the public prosecutor of the southern canton of Ticino. Most of the coins date to the Roman Empire, said the Federal Office of Culture on Tuesday.

The highlights of the seized loot are a coin (sesterce) bearing a depiction of Roman Empress Faustina dating from the 2nd century, and a gold coin (solidus) with the effigy of Byzantine Emperor Heraclius dating from the 7th century. The artefacts were handed over by Yves Fischer, deputy director of the Federal Office of Culture, to Danijela Vanusic, deputy minister of culture of Serbia.

This is not the first time such a return of ancient treasures has happened. In 2014, Switzerland handed over to Belgrade a batch of around 150 ancient coins from the Roman Empire. A Serbian national hoped to resell them on an online trading platform.













SDA-ATS/ac






Italy's highest court of appeal on Tuesday rejected a request by the German NGO Jugend Rettet to release its migrant rescue boat, impounded eight months ago on suspicion of facilitating illegal immigration.

The Italian Court of Cassation did not say why it had turned down the NGOs request for the release of the Iuventa, a 33-metre (110-foot) motorboat seized off the island of Lampedusa on August 2.

At the time, the state police force had said that circumstantial evidence had come to light in a probe dating back to October 2016 which suggested the boat was being used for activities facilitating illegal immigration.

Two security officers employed on another rescue boat presented images that they alleged showed Jugend Rettet members conversing with suspected smugglers. They had also allegedly been seen sending back a wooden boat to Libya that was then used to transport more migrants.

But Jugend Rettet denies the allegations, saying the officers had misinterpreted particularly complicated rescue operations carried out on two days in June 2017 when many boats were in distress.

A detailed study by the Forensic Oceanography collective of all available images and radio exchanges in the area over those two days also cast doubt on the allegations.

At a news conference in Berlin, Jugend Rettet spokesman, Philipp Kuelker, said the Iuventa case sets a precedent.

The court was making it possible to criminalise rescue at sea and showing solidarity with other human beings on the run. But as long as people continue to die at sea, we will continue our fight, Kuelker said.

By contrast, an Italian judge last week ordered the release of another migrant rescue ship, belonging to the Spanish aid group Proactiva Open Arms.

That boat had been seized in mid-March after NGO workers refused to hand over migrants saved during a rescue mission off the Libyan coast to the Libyan coastguard, instead delivering them to the Italian island of Sicily.

The judge argued that Libya was not yet in a position to take in rescued migrants while ensuring their fundamental rights were respected and considered that the NGO had acted out of necessity.

In recent days, more than 1,500 migrants were rescued off Libya and at least 11 people have died after boats capsized.
Hundreds of Amazon employers protested Tuesday against working conditions in Berlin, where the megagroup's founder Jeff Bezos was due to receive a prize.

We have a worldwide problem, a boss who wants to impose American working conditions on the world, said Frank Bsirske, head of the Verdi union representing Amazon workers.

Its like going back to the 19th century.

Chanting and holding banners reading Make Bezos pay, workers gathered in front of the German publishing group Axel Springer, where the Amazon boss was to receive an award.

The prize, given by the publisher of Germans mass-selling daily Bild, rewards innovation in business, and the choice of Bezos has been met with anger among unions and some politicians.

Andreas Nahles, head of the Social Democrats that are in coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel, said Bezos didnt deserve any prize, pointing to working conditions at Amazon sites in Germany.

Organisers of Tuesdays rally said Amazon workers came from as far afield as Poland and Italy to voice their displeasure.

The French CFDT union said the gathering denounced illegal practices and disastrous working conditions in the company.

It said there had been several undeclared workplace accidents and accused Amazon of monitoring the computer records of employees.

Bezos  the richest man in the world, according to Forbes magazine  was quoted by the German DPA news agency as saying he was very proud of our working conditions in response to the gathering.

In March, Spanish Amazon staff held their first work stoppage to protest new working guidelines.

Amazon boasts more than 560,000 employees, and reported a profit last year of slightly more than $3 billion (2.45 billion euros).

Amazon has previously said that its salaries are at the higher end of the logistics sector range and employees enjoy attractive benefits.

yap/dsa/pg/je
Organisers of a major German music prize scrapped their main award Wednesday due to an anti-Semitism row as thousands of Germans rallied in solidarity with Jews after a spate of shocking hate crimes.

A cascade of recent scandals, including the Echo prize-winning rap duo making light of Nazi death camp prisoners, has raised pointed questions about Germanys ability to protect its burgeoning Jewish community seven decades after the Holocaust.

In the latest ugly incident, a tiny Berlin rally against anti-Semitism with just three demonstrators was marred Wednesday when angry counter-protesters shouted terrorists, spat at them and snatched their Israeli flag, organisers said.

Police said the event in Neukoelln district, the heart of the capitals Muslim immigrant community, ended early after the trio were shouted down by loud and emotional opponents and feared for their safety.

Elsewhere in Berlin, some 2,000 demonstrators rallied at a Berlin Wears Kippa event where Jews and non-Jews wore the traditional skullcap in a shared show of defiance.

Speaking at the rally, Berlins Jewish community chairman Gideon Joffe warned that the growing threat meant its five minutes to midnight, adding that we have to be careful.

The head of the countrys Central Council of Jews, Josef Schuster, demanded 100 percent respect for Jews as well as for Muslims, homosexuals and people of all skin colours.

 Belt attack 

The previous day, Schuster had set off shockwaves with a warning that Jews who wear the kippa or the Star of David could be courting danger on German streets.

The remarks sparked outrage, with the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center accusing authorities of disappointing Jews faith in German democracy.

Chancellor Angela Merkel had on Sunday denounced the emergence of another form of anti-Semitism, beyond that of right-wing extremist groups, from Muslim refugees, in an interview with Israeli television.

She reaffirmed that the security of Jews and of the state of Israel was a central concern for Germany because of its eternal responsibility for the Holocaust in which the Nazis murdered six million European Jews.

Last week Germans were stunned after a 19-year-old Syrian refugee attacked two young men wearing kippas with his belt in a trendy district of the capital, shouting yahudi  Jew in Arabic  and lashing out at his victim with a belt.

A video of the assault, filmed by one of the Israeli victims, went viral on social media and sparked widespread revulsion.

Earlier this month, two rappers raised hackles by winning the Echo music prize after selling more than 200,000 copies of their album which features a lyric boasting that their bodies are more defined than Auschwitz prisoners.

Amid the anguished national debate, organisers of the Echo prize said Wednesday they would axe the award because they did not want it to be seen as a platform for anti-Semitism, misogyny, homophobia or the playing down of violence.

Minutes later the rappers music label, BMG, announced that it was dropping the duo, Farid Bang and Kollegah.

 Culture of remembrance 

Ahead of the Berlin rally, the chairman of the Turkish community in Germany, Gokay Sofuoglu, also called for the kippa to be worn, telling the Berliner Zeitung that if you want to stop Islamophobia, then you also cant tolerate anti-Semitism.

Yair Lapid, the leader of the centrist Israeli political party Yesh Atid, said Jews from Germany should go out with a kippa and a big baton in their hands and protect themselves.

We thought the days of anxiety for the Jews in Germany were over. That is clearly not the case, he told German news agency DPA in Berlin.

Demonstrations in support of Jews with hundreds of people were also held in the cities of Cologne, Potsdam, Magdeburg and Erfurt, where politicians, Christian and Jewish leaders wore kippas and marched to the main local synagogue.

Newspapers had offered paper cutouts of skullcaps for readers to wear.

The issue of anti-Semitism is particularly fraught in Germany, which has gone to great lengths to atone for its Nazi past and whose political class takes deep pride in the growth of the now 200,000-strong Jewish community.

However, the high-profile incidents in recent months have stoked fears of a possible resurgence of anti-Semitism from both the far-right and a large influx of predominantly Muslim asylum-seekers since 2015.

In March, the Central Council of Jews urged schools to keep track of religious bullying following reports that a young Jewish girl was allegedly harassed and threatened by Muslim fellow pupils at a Berlin primary school.

The far-right Alternative for Germany party, which captured nearly 13 percent of the vote in Septembers general election, has also not shied away from questioning Germanys cherished remembrance culture.

Party member Bjoern Hoecke last year called Berlins Holocaust memorial a monument of shame and said Germany should take a 180-degree turn away from its guilt over World War II crimes.
An Iraqi court has lifted the death penalty handed to a German woman for belonging to the Islamic State jihadist group, sentencing her to life in prison instead, German foreign ministry sources said Tuesday.

The German woman of Moroccan origin, identified by German media as Lamia K., was condemned to death by hanging in January for providing logistical support and helping the terrorist group to carry out crimes.

The foreign ministry confirms that the death penalty against a German citizen in Iraq was commuted to a life sentence. The verdict is not yet final, a ministry source told AFP.

The woman continues to receive consular assistance from the German embassy in Baghdad, the source added.

Lamia K. left Germany with her two daughters in 2014 to join IS.

One of the daughters was killed while with the jihadists, a judicial source told AFP.

Lamia K. and her other daughter were arrested by Iraqi forces during the final stages of the battle to oust IS from its stronghold Mosul last July.

According to German news agency DPA, the commutation of her death penalty comes after Lamia K. appealed the verdict. An Iraqi life sentence usually translates to 20 years in jail, or 15 years with good behaviour, DPA added.

While hundreds of foreign suspected jihadists are being held by Iraqi authorities, Lamia K. was believed to have been the first European woman sentenced to death in the country for links to IS.

Her surviving daughter, in her early 20s, was given a one-year jail term for illegal entry into Iraq, Die Welt daily reported.

In February, a 17-year-old German teenager was sentenced to six years in prison for membership of IS and illegally crossing into Iraq.

Iraqi authorities announced the defeat of IS last December after a gruelling three-year battle.
Billionaire French industrialist Vincent Bollore was held for a second day of questioning by anti-corruption police on Wednesday over allegations his company helped two African leaders win elections in return for lucrative contracts.

The 66-year-old head of the Bollore Group was taken into custody Tuesday in the Paris suburb of Nanterre as part of an investigation into how its African logistics subsidiary secured contracts to run Lome port in Togo and Conakry port in Guinea.

Prosecutors are looking into whether Bollore Groups communications arm, Havas, undercharged Guinean President Alpha Conde and Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe for work on their campaigns as a sweetener for the contracts, Le Monde newspaper reported.

Vincent Bollore is one of Frances most powerful businessmen, at the head of a tentacular empire with revenues of 18.3 billion euros ($22.4 billion) in 2017 and interests in everything from construction and logistics to media, advertising and agriculture.

The group is heavily invested in Africa, where it operates 10 container ports and has stakes in several others, as well as three railway concessions and interests in palm oil production.

On Wednesday, investigators decided to hold Bollore and two senior executives  group chief executive Gilles Alix, and the head of the international division of Havas, Jean-Philippe Dorent  for a further 24 hours, after which they could face charges.

The company has insisted that it won the port tenders on the basis of its expertise and more than two billion euros of investment in Africa over the past eight years.

Attempting to link the attribution of a port concession with communication services was a great misunderstanding of this economic sector and economic activity in general, it said in a statement.

 Paper for Bibles 

Havas worked on the campaign that brought Alpha Conde to power in Guinea in 2010, as the countrys first freely elected president.

Months after taking office, Conde summarily terminated the contract of Conakrys port operator  a subsidiary of French shipping company Necotrans  and gave it to rival Bollore.

Opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo, who has lost two elections to Conde, told AFP that the decision had surprised many.

It is due to the ongoing inquiry in France that Guineans discover the true motive of this unjust and illegal move taken by Alpha Conde in the wake of his taking power, he said.

A French court in 2013 ordered the Bollore Group to pay Necotrans two million euros in compensation, but Bollore took over the company shortly afterwards.

Havas also worked on the communications strategy of Togos Gnassingbe, who succeeded his father Gnassingbe Eyadema upon his death in 2005.

After Gnassingbes re-election to a second term in 2010, the Bollore Group won the 35-year Lome port contract  a decision also challenged by a rival.

The French investigation was triggered by a complaint from a former Bollore associate, Jacques Dupuydauby, who is appealing a Spanish jail sentence for misappropriation of company assets.

In 2016, police searched Bollore Groups headquarters in the Paris suburb of Puteaux.

The probe is one of several in recent years over the dealings of French groups in former African colonies.

Others under scrutiny have included former oil company Elf Aquitaine, which the French state was accused of using to funnel millions in bribes to African leaders in the 1990s, and nuclear giant Areva, which is under scrutiny over a controversial uranium deal in Niger.

Bollores empire began life in 1822 as a family-run manufacturer of paper for cigarettes and Bibles.

He revived its flagging fortunes after taking the helm in the early 1980s and embarked on a blitz of acquisitions, earning a reputation as a formidable businessman.

The group owns a majority stake in telecom conglomerate Vivendi, owner of the Canal+ Group which is headed by Vincent Bollores son Yannick.

Two years ago, Bollores Africa business was thrust into the spotlight in an award-winning French TV documentary highlighting the miserable conditions of underage workers at a subcontractor of a Cameroonian palm oil company, in which the Bollore Group has a stake.

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A French manifesto calling for certain passages of the Koran to be removed on the grounds of rising anti-Semitism sparked anger Monday from Muslims who said their religion was being unfairly "put on trial".

The open letter published Sunday in the Parisien newspaper blamed Islamist radicalisation for what it said was quiet ethnic purging in the Paris region, with abuse forcing Jewish families to move out.

After a series of high-profile attacks on Jews, Muslim leaders contacted by AFP acknowledged that anti-Semitism was a problem in France.

But they charged that the nearly 300 signatories, who included ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy and former prime minister Manuel Valls, were blaming a whole religion for the actions of an extremist minority.

The only thing we can agree on is that we must all unite against anti-Semitism, said Ahmet Ogras, head of the French Council of the Muslim Faith umbrella group.

Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, said the manifesto subjected French Muslims and French Islam to an unbelievable and unfair trial.

It creates a clear risk of pitching religious communities against one another, he said in a statement.

The manifesto calls for verses of the Koran calling for the murder and punishment of Jews, Christians and disbelievers to be removed on the grounds that they are obsolete.

But Tareq Oubrou, imam of the Grand Mosque of the southern city of the Bordeaux, pointed out that Islam was not the only religion whose ancient holy texts contain anachronistic passages.

Any number of holy texts are violent, even the Gospel, Oubrou said, adding that the signatories, who also included celebrities like actor Gerard Depardieu, had misinterpreted the Koran.

The writer Pascal Bruckner, among those who signed the letter, told France Inter radio it had not been intended to stigmatise but to spur on the goodwill of reformist Muslims.

The letter said that since 2006, 11 Jews have been assassinated  and some tortured  by radical Islamists because they were Jewish.

The latest attack rocked France last month when two perpetrators stabbed an 85-year-old Jewish woman 11 times before setting her body on fire, in a crime treated as anti-Semitic.

Officially, the number of anti-Semitic crimes fell in France in 2017 for a third year running, according to the interior ministry, down seven percent.

But Jews are the target of about a third of Frances recorded hate crimes despite making up only about 0.7 percent of the population.

The half-a-million-plus Jewish community is the largest in Europe but has been hit by a wave of emigration to Israel in the past two decades, partly due to anti-Semitism in immigrant neighbourhoods.
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Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov on Tuesday said that men living in Russia's predominantly Muslim region can take as many as four wives, even though polygamy is banned in the country.

Kadyrov, who has ruled Chechnya since 2004 and is a staunch supporter of President Vladimir Putin, told state television he was not preparing to legalise polygamy but that for Muslims, I dont need to give permission.

Allah gives permission to have four wives, he said.

The Koran says that a man can marry up to four women, but only if he is able to treat them all justly.

Polygamy has never completely disappeared from the North Caucasus region, even during the officially atheist Soviet era, he argued.

Since forever, even during the harshest time of the Soviet Union, people would take a second, a third or even a fourth wife, and its impossible to ban us from doing this, said Kadyrov.

He stressed that he was referring to a religious Islamic marriage, not a legally valid one officiated over by a registrar.

We arent saying: take four wives, so the man takes them to the registrar and makes it official But according to our religion, she is a legal wife, said Kadyrov.

Kadyrov reportedly has one wife. He has 12 children, two of them adopted, Russian news agencies reported.

He has previously defended the practice of polygamy, arguing that as there are a greater number of women than men it gives more women the chance to have family life.

While Russia is a secular country, Kadyrov has been allowed to introduce Muslim customs in the region, where women are encouraged to wear headscarves in public.

On Tuesday, he criticised legal marriages as having a negative effect on family values.

Secular marriage ceremonies by a registrar are the first step by the law in order to destroy the family, Kadyrov said. So that a woman can feel that if the man is rich: right, now Ill divorce him, take half his wealth and marry someone else.

In return for helping the Kremlin battle Islamist insurgents in the North Caucasus, Kadyrov has been given a free hand and is accused by human rights groups of overseeing torture, extrajudicial executions and corruption.
A senior British diplomat was forced to apologise on Tuesday after identifying one of the holiest place in Sikhism as a mosque instead of a temple.

Simon McDonald, permanent under-secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, had tweeted on Monday referring to a picture of the Golden Mosque in Amritsar, northern India, being presented to the UKs deputy high commissioner in Chandigarh.

Realising his mistake, he wrote: I was wrong: I am sorry. I should of course have said the Golden Temple or, better, Sri Harmandir Sahib.

Bhai Amrik Singh, chairman of the Sikh Federation, said: This was a major gaffe by a top civil servant and totally unacceptable.

It demonstrates a remarkable level of ignorance from someone in his position, he said.

The mistake is particularly sensitive because of suspicions of British involvement in the Indian armys deadly 1984 raid on the Golden Temple.

Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the main opposition Labour Party, on Tuesday said he would launch an independent inquiry into the British militarys role if he becomes prime minister.

At least 400 people were killed in the Indian armys attack on the temple, which was aimed at flushing out armed separatists demanding an independent Sikh homeland.

The error follows criticism of Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson for risking offending Buddhists during a 2017 visit to the Shwedagon Pagoda, the religions most sacred site in Myanmars capital, Yangon.

Andrew Patrick, the UK ambassador to the country, was forced to tell Johnson to stop reciting the opening verse to Rudyard Kiplings The Road to Mandalay, which chronicles a retired British servicemans memories of colonial service.

Not appropriate he was caught on camera telling Britains top diplomat.
Former London mayor Ken Livingstone quit the opposition Labour Party on Monday, saying his 2016 suspension for alleged anti-Semitic comments had become a "distraction" to a party recently dogged by the issue.

After much consideration, I have decided to resign from the Labour Party, Livingstone said in a statement on his website. The ongoing issues around my suspension from the Labour Party have become a distraction.

The mayor of the capital between 2000 and 2008,the first person to hold the post, Livingstone denied that he had brought the Labour Party into disrepute or that he was in any way guilty of anti-Semitism.

I abhor anti-semitism, I have fought it all my life and will continue to do so, he said.

Livingstone, 72, was suspended in April 2016 after saying on a radio show that when Hitler won power in Germany in the early 1930s, his policy then was that Jews should be moved to Israel. He was supporting Zionism before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews.

Despite the row, party leader Jeremy Corbyn, a veteran leftist and long-time ally, had refused to expel Livingstone despite calls from many MPs and party members.

Leader Corbyn called the resignation sad after such a long and vital contribution to London and progressive politics, but added it was the right thing to do.

The anti-Semitism issue came back into public view recently following mounting allegations by Jewish groups that the party under Corbyn had become increasingly anti-Semitic.

The issue appeared to hurt the party in recent local elections, when it performed worse than expected, and failed to deliver the expected blow to Theresa Mays divided Conservative Party.

Livingstone acknowledged that his comments caused offence and upset in the Jewish community, for which he was truly sorry.

Under Labours new General Secretary I am sure there will be rapid action to expel anyone who genuinely has antisemitic views, he explained.

I am loyal to the Labour party and to Jeremy Corbyn. However any further disciplinary action against me may drag on for months or even years, distracting attention from Jeremys policies.

I am therefore, with great sadness, leaving the Labour Party, he added.

The high-profile resignation in March of Christine Shawcroft, the official in charge of cracking down on anti-Semitism in the party, 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 in 2015, but he and his far-left supporters have been accused of a complacent approach to the problem.

Corbyn was forced to apologise over a Facebook post he wrote in 2012 in support of a street artist whose mural, featuring clear anti-Semitic symbolism, was due to be removed following complaints.

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The global music industry soared a record 8.1 percent last year as digital sales for the first time made up the majority of revenue thanks to the streaming boom, the industry said Tuesday.

Recorded music grossed $17.3 billion in 2017 with digital music  until last year roughly equal to physical sales worldwide  amounting to 54 percent of the revenue, the IFPI global body said in its annual report.

The growth marks the third consecutive year of expansion and the fastest pace since the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), began compiling data, the groups CEO Frances Moore told reporters on a conference call.

But the industry still is only worth about two thirds of its value in the 1990s before the rise of the internet and the scourge of pirated music sent the music business into a 15-year slump, Moore said.

The resurgence is almost entirely due to the rapid growth of streaming services including Spotify, Deezer and Apple Music, which have given the industry a badly needed new source of revenue.

The report said that 176 million people around the world paid for streaming subscriptions by the end of last year, with 64 million joining throughout the year  and there is plenty of room to grow on a global level.

Physical sales tumbled again but one bright side was vinyl, which remains a sliver of the market but grew 22.3 percent as records find a renewed market among audiophiles.

Stu Bergen, the CEO for international and global commercial services at the Warner Music Group, warned that the music industry should not become complacent and pledged that record labels would invest their revenue to develop new talent.

Weve fought too hard to get here and, after 15 years of decline, theres still plenty of room to grow, Bergen said on the conference call.

 Spotify keeps expanding 

The IFPI released its data hours before Spotify announced a major expansion of its free, advertising-backed level, which the Swedish company sees as crucial to its hopes of making streaming universal, especially in emerging economies.

The industry voiced guarded optimism about China, where revenue jumped 35.3 percent as international labels increasingly penetrate the billion-plus market.

The growth, however, comes from a small base, with China only the 10th largest music market.

In one point of concern, Japan  the worlds second largest music market  saw revenue decline by three percent.

The slump was paradoxically due to the continued strength of CD sales in Japan, where physical music makes up 72 percent of the market, with digital revenue not providing the same injection of growth as elsewhere.

Its just a question of time. Its a traditional society and the move toward digital is slower than in some countries, Moore said.

Latin America saw the biggest growth among regions.

Revenue there jumped 17.7 percent on the back of streaming and particularly strong showings in Brazil, Chile and Peru.

The report, however, warned that more needed to be done to reach Latin American music consumers who lack credit cards  generally a requirement to subscribe to streaming services.

The IFPI also repeated its longstanding complaints about a structural value gap that allows YouTube to pay less back to artists, owing in part to laws in the United States that shield internet companies from responsibility for content uploaded by users.

The report estimated that record companies earned $20 per year from each Spotify user, while YouTube, owned by search engine giant Google, paid less than $1.

We cant deliver the path to recovery alone. There is a structural fault in the market, Moore said.

Despite the industrys efforts to expand in emerging economies, the top 10 most popular artists of 2017 were all Western, led by English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran.

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Tuesday, April 24, 2018

If youre looking for a final resting place that makes a big statement, look no further than The Great American Pyramid. This new exhibitor made a big splash at the expo of the 2018 International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association (ICCFA) convention in Las Vegas.

This structure will be huge: 600 feet tall and and 1,200 feet wide at the base on each side. For comparison, the largest Giza pyramid in Egypt is 455 feet tall and 781 feet wide at the base. The Great American Pyramid will have a footprint of 33 acres and be located on 120 acres just off of Old Route 66 in northern Arizona, close to Holbrook. It will be precisely aligned north/south, just like the Giza pyramids.

The developers tout it as the 8th Wonder of the World. Its designed to hold the cremated remains of more than ten and a half million individuals. The key is in the purchase of three-foot cubes of concrete, in which cremated remains will be encased. Each cubic-yard block weighs about 4,000 pounds.

Gordon Mickelson, the president and visionary behind The Great American Pyramid, said he was inspired to build this monument to honor his mother-in-law, a wonderful woman who was cremated after her death. This whole project started out of a labor of love, said Mickelson. We started looking at the biggest ways to memorialize somebody in the world, and that was to create a pyramid.

Shell have the company of thousands of people who need a permanent final resting place for their own cremated remains, along with the remains of their loved ones. I realized I didnt have the money to build my own pyramid. So we decided, through the help of about 10.5 million people, we could build a pyramid together, Mickelson explained.

The project started in earnest in 2015, with the purchase of land, getting the requisite zoning, and other considerations. They came to the ICCFA convention to let funeral directors know about this unique final resting place option for their client families. Blocks will be sold directly to the general public as well as through referrals from funeral homes and other businesses.

Brickmaster Bill Walker, whos also an accomplished musician, composer and pianist, explains that the pyramid will be built on the north/south axis. As the structure grows, it will always look like a pyramid. How can this happen? Lets hope this isnt some crazy pyramid scheme.

Watch the video below for more details, and visit the website, www.TheGreatAmericanPyramid.com. Let them know you learned about it from Gail Rubin at A Good Goodbye!

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San Antonio could move one step closer to gaining a nonstop route direct to Washington, D.C., this week if enough U.S. lawmakers side with Texas House members in a fight for access to one of the nations busiest airports.

A nonstop route from San Antonio International Airport to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport has long been on San Antonio officials wish list, citing high passenger traffic to Reagan and two other airports that service the District of Columbia  a phenomenon driven by the cities shared military, medical, cybersecurity and tech sectors.

But the citys efforts have been thwarted by federal rules limiting the addition of nonstop routes into Reagan National and a contingent of D.C.-area lawmakers who want to limit traffic to the airport.

Now, officials believe they have a workaround that would give San Antonio a shot at a slot at Reagan National without increasing traffic and noise at the airport. An amendment offered by U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar to a House bill reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration would allow airlines who already fly nonstop routes into Reagan to swap out an existing route for one that flies to a destination outside of the 1,250-mile perimeter allowed by the airport.

If lawmakers approve the amendment as part of the FAA reauthorization package this week, San Antonio will be the closest its been to gaining a nonstop route to Reagan National since 2012, when the city lost out to Austin-Bergstrom International Airport for a slot.

San Antonio and San Diego would be the two largest U.S. cities outside of the perimeter to benefit from the proposed rule, officials said.

Were just saying, If an airline wants to swap, let them swap, Cuellar said by phone. Were not adding a new slot to Reagan National.

Federal law currently allows 60 slots, or arrivals and departures, per hour at Reagan National. A separate rule prohibits nonstop flights from cities more than 1,250 miles from the airport, a standard arrived at because of the size of the planes and noise concerns for residents near the airport.

Were trying to find a narrow solution that addresses a tremendous need for our city and our military community while being considerate of the needs of the Washington (and) Virginia local communities that dont want to see more traffic going into Reagan, said Jeff Coyle, the citys director of government and public affairs.

But the move faces opposition from Virginia lawmakers. U.S. Rep. Barbara Comstock, a Virginia Republican whose district borders D.C., has introduced a competing amendment barring the U.S. Transportation Department from expanding the 1,250-mile perimeter, allowing airlines to operate nonstop flights from outside the perimeter or exchanging existing routes into Reagan for others.

A spokesman for Comstock did not immediately return an email requesting comment.

The San Antonio airport has nonstop routes flying into Dulles International Airport in Virginia, about 45 minutes west of downtown D.C., and Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport to the northeast, which is also about a 45-minute drive. BWI, however, has an Amtrak station with trains that can take travelers to downtown D.C. in as little as 20 minutes.

But D.C. traffic can easily prolong the trip from Dulles, leading to delays and wasted taxpayer dollars on business trips taken by federal and military employees, said Juan Ayala, San Antonios director of military affairs. The lack of a direct flight to Reagan National, an 8-minute drive from the Pentagon, could put San Antonio at a disadvantage should the Department of Defense engage in cutbacks, Ayala said.

The reality is most people dont want to fly to Dulles, Coyle said. They want to fly into the heart of Washington, D.C., and be a five minute cab ride from their hotel.

Theres enough traffic between San Antonio International Airport and the three airports that service the District of Columbia to sustain a nonstop route to Reagan National, officials say. The San Antonio airport sees about 205,000 round trips annually to and from Reagan, Dulles and Baltimore-Washington, according to figures provided by city aviation officials.

Civilian and military personnel operating out of Joint Base San Antonio accounted for more than 17,000 round trips landing at those three airports in 2015 and 2016, U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry said in a February 2017 letter to U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, who chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

A number of airlines have already expressed interest in setting up a nonstop route between San Antonio International to Reagan National should lawmakers sign off on the amendment, San Antonio Aviation Director Russ Handy said.

Among the carriers interested is Southwest Airlines. In an April 2017 letter to Shuster, Southwest Airlines CEO and Chairman Gary Kelly said the carrier would seriously consider starting a daily SAT-DCA nonstop flight if Congress authorized airlines to convert of their existing nonstop routes to Reagan National to allow a nonstop from San Antonio.

All were trying to do is provide the airlines the flexibility to react in a market-based fashion, Handy said.

Cuellar has tried for a legislative fix before. He said he tried to attach the amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act last year with the blessing of Thornberry, who chairs the House Armed Services Committee. But House Speaker Paul Ryan intervened and said the amendment should be attached to the FAA reauthorization bill instead, Cuellar said.

I think it would be accurate enough to say that this perimeter restriction has seen its time, Handy said. Its an archaic and artificially driven restriction that needs transformation.

Joshua Fechter is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of his stories here. | jfechter@express-news.net | Twitter: @JFreports
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton gave a thumbs down to Agricultural Commissioner Sid Millers rules implementing the so-called BBQ Bill, which had restaurants across the state smoking mad over what they said were burdensome new requirements for weighing brisket, sausage and other meats.

Restaurants had under a 2017 law been exempt from an early 20th century statute requiring butchers, grocers and other sellers of meat to use precision scales to weigh food in front of customers at the time of purchase. But the regulation Miller rolled out a few months later removed the exemption for eateries, unless all food was consumed on the premises.

It subjected barbecue joints with takeout business to burdensome new rules requiring costly scales and regular, on-site inspections.

Paxton said Miller went too far and that a court would likely conclude that the Departments rules  are invalid to the extent the rules impose the additional burden, beyond what the statute requires, of a purchaser consuming food on the premises.

Fees from inspecting and registering some 7,000 scales for everything from airport luggage checks to yogurt shops netted the Texas Department of Agriculture about $245,000 in fees of $35 apiece.

Miller said no one complained when he added the on the premises wording to the measure sponsored by state Rep. J.M. Lozano, R-Kingsville, and Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, and cited verses from Proverbs and Deuteronomy as guiding principles in keeping barbecue restaurants from scamming customers.

Somehow, the Legislature has decided that everyone that runs a barbecue joint is as honest as the day is long, that theyre so trustworthy they should be exempt from consumer protection laws, Miller wrote in a May 2017 opinion piece for the Texas Tribune. Horse hockey. As Ronald Reagan said, Trust but verify. I trust my local barbecue guy, but I still want to see that when I buy a pound of sausage Im getting a pound of sausage.

But Millers stance didnt hold weight for Paxton, who on Monday answered Millers request for an opinion with a finding that the rule went against the intentions of the BBQ Bill.

A state administrative agency has only those powers that the Legislature expressly confers upon it, Paxton wrote.

Mark Loeffler, a spokesman for the TDA, said Miller has read the opinion and will take it under advisement.

Hes meeting with our legal staff to determine next steps, Loeffler said in an email. This is not an unusual process for agency rule making.

Richie Jackson, CEO of the Texas Restaurant Association, said TRA members appreciated the opinion and hoped to be able to work with Miller to draft a new rule that will comport with the intention of the Legislature.

Prior to Miller, who started enforcing the old law as part of his Operation Maverick consumer protection campaign, portion sizes on Texas barbecue plates were pretty much a non-issue, Jackson said.

Weve always felt like the best alternative to someone who feels theres an issue is Yelp rather than the Agriculture Commission, Jackson said.

Lynn Brezosky is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of her stories here. | lbrezosky@express-news.net | @lbrezosky
Kevin Steger pointed to a medal with a photo of his twin 4-year-old daughters, one of dozens dangling from a bright, multicolored sash.

This is a product of the River Parade, he said of the girls.

Indeed, some 20 years ago during this very event  the Texas Cavaliers River Parade  he met his future wife, Jennifer Steger. It was her first Fiesta event, and, in her words, it was a total setup.

His mom and her boss were the matchmakers, setting up the meeting against the backdrop of the festive night river parade. They went on their first official date a few days later, attending A Night in Old San Antonio, another Fiesta classic.

She answered my call, so that was a good thing, Kevin Steger said. Shes beautiful. We were drawn to each other. We had Fiesta chemistry.

On Monday, the Stegers werent the only ones feeling the magic that is the river parade. Tens of thousands turned out for this years dazzling display of lights and sounds on floats that really float. This years theme, Magnificent Missions, was a tribute to San Antonios UNESCO-designated missions.

It was a sold-out event, said Clyde Johnson, this years parade marshal, noting that all 17,800 seats along the heart of the River Walk were sold. Each chair cost between $17 and $24.

The Texas Cavaliers again raised a record amount of funds this year, with $1.15 million in parade sales  about $150,000 more than last year, which was a record. The organization, which was founded in 1926, has more than 500 members. All proceeds from the event go to benefit 60 nonprofits in Bexar County.

Johnson joined the Cavaliers in 2006, following in his fathers and grandfathers footsteps. He said his ancestors fought in the Battle of the Alamo and that because part of the Cavaliers mission is to honor those who died at the battle, it only seemed fitting that he join, as well.

It also was a good way to give back to the community, and be a part of something special and unique in San Antonio, he said.

As the sun set Monday, adults reclined in chairs with beers and snacks while children ran around cracking cascarones.

Johnson said it took more than 12,000 hours of volunteer work by the Cavaliers to pull off the parade.

The barges were colorful, animated and full of smiling San Antonians, waving and throwing beads into the crowd a la Mardi Gras. Elaine Vetter, 65, wore light-up metallic shoes, a beaded headdress and a colorful necklace with Texas flags.

Its wonderful that everybody is celebrating Texas independence. Most people think its just a party, but were celebrating Texas, she said.

For the Stegers, the event is about family and friendship. Every year since they first met 20 years ago, Kevin Steger has bought his wife a wreath made of fresh flowers for her head. The puro San Antonio couple got married eight years ago at the Little Church of La Villita.

The river parade is a part of the familys history.

Its about passing down the tradition of these festivities to the next generation, Jennifer Steger said.
MISSION  One morning in February, Eva Chavez awoke to an authoritative banging on her front door. Standing on the other side was an Hidalgo County sheriffs deputy and a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.

Several people were rounded up that day in her neighborhood comprised of immigrant families living in patchwork homes. Immigration agents came looking for Chavezs partner, and when he could not be found they took her in his place.

All I could think about was my son, said the 50-year-old Chavez, a native of Mexico living unlawfully in the Rio Grande Valley for the better part of two decades. Her U.S. citizen son is 11 and has special medical needs. He was home alone, confused and scared.

Chavez is a familiar face within the network of groups working in underserved neighborhoods along the border. Her arrest within a political environment increasingly hostile to immigrants, sent a chill through the Valleys considerable immigrant population.

Many immigrant families have retreated to the shadows, and the implications have rippled across a range of societal institutions. Fear is keeping some parents from enrolling their children in state-funded educational programs, or showing up for doctors appointments, activists say. With people narrowing their public activities to the bare minimum, neighborhood businesses have felt the pinch too.

Its very much on every ones mind, said Michael Seifert, an organizer for the Equal Voice Network, a coalition of civic groups in the Rio Grande Valley. You cant ever really take a deep breath. Its debilitating.

Seifert has worked on the border for decades, and at least some of the immigration-related concerns raised by people living on the fringes of society have remained consistent. Still, the gradual build up of security and immigration enforcement has escalated over the past few years.

It began with roughly 54 miles of border walls a decade ago, and the presence of 3,000 U.S. Border Patrol agents on patrol. Then in 2015 the Texas Legislature authorized $800 million for 250 Department of Public Safety troopers to help stem the tide of immigrant families at the border.

In 2017, lawmakers approved funding for 250 additional troopers.

President Donald Trump took office in January 2017, riding a wave of heated rhetoric aimed at immigrants and promises to finish walling off the border. By May, Texas legislators passed Senate Bill 4, allowing local police to question the immigration status of people they arrest. Local officials who attempt to restrict police from enforcing immigration law face fines.

But until Chavezs arrest the fear was generalized. With communities already on edge, the timing of the raid could hardly have been more disturbing.

The night before her arrest, Chavez had stayed up late preparing to host an event at her house for Texas Latina Advocacy Network of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, a reproductive rights organization. As people began showing up the next day they were met with sheriffs deputies and ICE agents.

Now what do groups do for their communities? Seifert said. Where is the safe space? It seems clear the intent of the government is to have no safe space.

A survey of one colonia, the impoverished neighborhoods that lack basic infrastructure, found that around 20 percent of residents had stopped dining out last year, and some werent going to the store for groceries, Seifert said.

After DPS troopers blanketed Starr County a few years ago, sales at Freddy Guerras paint store business plummeted. Guerra, whos also the assistant city manager of Roma, said his business eventually recovered as the community of about 10,000 residents acclimated to the DPS presence, but some of his customers never returned.

We are militarized on the border, Guerra said.

Even as immigration enforcement measures scare off patrons from local businesses, and undermine the work of health clinics, the specter of government reprisals keep most from voicing opposition, according to community groups.

Its hard to discuss these issues with institutions that serve immigrants because their budget, and their existence, is under threat, Seifert said.

The vast majority of Valley residents identify as Hispanic, and many have family in Mexico or a family member who is unlawfully in the country. Children being raised in mixed-status homes are exposed to higher rates of poverty, lower preschool enrollment and linguistic isolation, according to research by the Migration Policy Institute. Parents make daily choices that carry the threat of breaking up the family.

Chavez is faced with a difficult choice of her own. As the primary caretaker of her son Jorge, she was released on humanitarian ground a few hours after her arrest.

Her first check-in with ICE came in early March. A few dozen community members and activists waited for Chavez outside the building, and cheered when she emerged a short time later.

Jorge requires weekly doctors visits and therapy sessions. His mothers ordeal appears to have aggravated his condition. Chavez may yet qualify for relief, but the uncertainty has already taken a toll on her son.

He asks me what to do if they come back, Chavez said. Hes worried every time theres a knock at the door, what will happen to him if I have to go back to Mexico.

The solidarity on display outside the immigration offices soon faded. A month after her arrest, Chavez was called upon to host another community event. But people she once counted on werent answering her calls, others gave excuses to avoid attending.

On the day of the event, Chavez busily sliced lettuce and cooked beans for the tostadas she planned to serve. The anchor organization was the advocacy organization, with a tax service and several healthcare businesses setting up informational stands in her driveway. About a dozen people showed up.

We explain that were here to help, said Noelia Serrano, 38, a promotora with MHP Salud, a nonprofit organization that runs Community Health Worker programs. But people arent willing to open their doors, and many times they dont answer.

Businesses depend on families spending money on necessities. While larger communities where immigrants represent a smaller percentage of the population are better equipped to pick up the slack, activists fear the ripple effect will be felt across the Valley, a region with poverty rates as high as 39 percent in some areas, among the highest in the nation.

Elsa Villa attends community events in colonias on behalf of Hedam Tax Services. She explains that with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, which can be obtained from the IRS, even those who have no legal status in the country are eligible for a tax refund. For families barely eking out a living the extra cash can make a big difference, Villa said.

It is nearly impossible to convince immigrant families to file taxes now, Villa said. People are so afraid, its unbelievable.

Shortly after Trump took office, the Equal Voice Network hosted workshops to prepare families for the worst. People were encouraged to make a list of things necessary in the event a family member is removed from the country.

Where are the keys to the car? Whos got the title to the car? Wheres the money? Whos going to take the kids? These are a few of the items on the list. And the ACLU Border Rights Center recently launched the MigraCam, a smartphone application that features video and location sharing in the event of immigration enforcement.

Stability never has been something on which Chavez could rely. She was caught at the border in 1997 and deported, then survived domestic abuse, and still lives on less than $300 per month selling tamales, cleaning houses and babysitting. Since 2002 the one constant in her life has been this patch of borderland home.

Addressing the small group who turned out for the community event, Chavez struck a defiant tone in the face of so much uncertainty.

Thanks for coming out after everything that has happened, Chavez said. Were going to continue moving forward.

Sitting in rows of folding chairs the group chanted in Spanish We love you, Eva.

anelsen@express-news.net | Twitter: @amnelsen
Courtesy photo

BROWNSVILLE  Tomas Yarrington Ruvalcaba, the former governor of Tamaulipas charged with drug trafficking and laundering millions of dollars in dirty money, said Monday that he cant afford an attorney.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald Morgan appointed Yarrington an attorney and ordered him held without bail. Yarrington, who was extradited from Italy to Texas on Friday, made his initial appearance Monday here.
Violent crime, which includes homicides, rape, robberies and aggravated assault, decreased 23 percent as of mid-April of this year a decline the San Antonio Police Department credits to continued efforts to apprehend known criminals and enhance community engagement.

Police Chief William McManus told the City Councils Public Safety Committee on Tuesday there were 2,379 violent crimes reported in San Antonio as of mid-April, compared with 3,095 during the same time a year ago.

Property crimes, which include burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft, have also declined this year, down 25 percent from the same time last year.

Homicide is the only offense that has increased, but only slightly: 38 homicides have been reported so far this year, compared with 36 the year before. The homicide count provided by SAPD meets the FBIs Unified Crime Reports definition, which does not include justified homicides or officer-involved killings.

In a memo to the Public Safety Committee, McManus attributed the decrease in crime to the work of the Violent Crime Task Force, an intelligence-driven initiative made up of eight federal, state and local agencies.

The Violent Crime Task Force was established in January 2017 after homicides skyrocketed to a 21-year high and violent crimes increased 25 percent from the previous year. Because homicides have generally declined over the past two decades, the one-year spike had police officials puzzled as to the causes.

Related: A University Hospital surgeon hopes to unite people for a gun violence discussion

Crime experts cited a variety of factors that could have contributed to the increase: High neighborhood unemployment rates, concentrated poverty, gangs, drug use, low police staffing levels, poor community-police relations and greater distrust of the government.

The Violent Crime Task Force focused on targeting repeat offenders, not crime hot spots as the department had done before. By the end of 2017, after its first year, homicides decreased 16 percent  though the year-end total was still the citys second-highest since 1995. Other violent crime remained relatively the same before beginning to decrease this year.

Crime doesnt just happen in one section of the city, and we dont want to target one section of the city, McManus said last year as the initiative was being unveiled. We dont want to overpolice. We have our Intelligence Unit detectives talking about who we need to target  people, not areas.

So far this year, the Violent Crime Task Force is responsible for 2,620 arrests  a 113 percent increase from the same time a year ago  and the seizure of 405 weapons, 99,500 grams of drugs and $395,087 in currency.

The task force has also arrested 194 gang members and arrested 839 suspects on narcotics-related charges.

The data released Tuesday is the first that allows the public to measure the effectiveness of the new initiative. In October, McManus unveiled similar numbers, but since the task force was in its first year, there was no data to compare results.

McManus said its Community Engagement Program, established last year, has also contributed to the decrease. The program is loosely based on Group Violence Intervention, a pilot program that was overseen by San Antonio Fighting Back. The program targeted those at risk of being involved with violence, either as a perpetrator or victim.

Read more: The making of a cop

So far this year, the program has concentrated its efforts on the East, West and Central areas of San Antonio. Officers with the program have had 26 interactions with individuals considered high-risk, 10 of whom engaged in the program.

Officers also met with 18 victims of violent crime and held 20 community meetings throughout the city.

Moving forward, SAPD said it remains committed to identifying opportunities to enhance its relationship with the community and to implementing programs designed to reduce crime, according to the memo to the City Councils Public Safety Committee.

Later this year, as part of the fiscal year 2019 budget process, the department plans to introduce several recommendations that will further enhance customer service and dedicate critical public safety resources to programs that will increase officer availability within our communities.

Emilie Eaton is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of her stories here. | eeaton@express-news.net | @emilieeaton
Apparently, size matters.

A former national ranking Bandidos member testified Tuesday that tensions between his biker club and the Cossacks Motorcycle Club may have involved discord that the Cossacks were given permission to wear a bottom rocker  a patch worn on the back of a motorcycle vest  saying Texas.

Justin Forster, a former national sergeant-at-arms for the Bandidos who testified early in the racketeering trial of two former top leaders, testified Tuesday he attended a meeting in 2014 at the suburban Houston home of national president Jeffrey Fay Pike in which the discussion included discontent by some Bandidos that the groups Austin chapter had given the Cossacks permission too soon.

And they made it bigger than our bottom rocker, so a lot of guys were upset about that, Forster testified. Oh, (theyre) going to wear one thats bigger than ours? Its kind of like a slap in the face.

Forster also testified in support of prosecutors contentions that the Bandidos had clashes with the Cossacks before and after the infamous shootout at a Twin Peaks restaurant in in May 2015. Pike is being tried in San Antonio with then national vice president John Xavier Portillo on allegations that they led the Bandidos criminal enterprise, though the Waco shootout is not part of the racketeering charges they face.

During Tuesdays proceedings, the judge rejected a request for a mistrial by defense lawyers, but warned prosecutors to abide by his rulings barring certain evidence from coming in.

The admonishment by Senior U.S. District Judge David Ezra came after a federal agent mentioned a television news clip that said Bandidos had attacked members of the Cossacks Motorcycle Club at a bar in Port Aransas in August 2015.

Outside the presence of the jury a day earlier, the judge had barred mention of that TV clip, agreeing with defense lawyers that it contained inadmissible hearsay.

I will warn the government that when I rule about not mentioning something, counsel needs to be much more careful about the types of questions counsel asks, particularly where the court ruled the testimony needs to be avoided, Ezra said outside the presence of jurors on Tuesday.

The issue momentarily stalled Tuesdays testimony and came as U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent Chad Lloyd, on the stand, gave his explanation of recordings of body wires worn by confidential sources or wiretapped phone calls of Portillo.

On Monday, one of the Cossacks wives, Nena Jackson, testified about being assaulted while the pair were on vacation with other Cossacks in Port Aransas in Aug. 22, 2015. Jackson said she did not know who the assailants were, but that one said the attack was for the ones we lost in Waco.

Recordings that assistant U.S. attorneys Eric Fuchs and John Gibson played for jurors show members of the Bandidos appear to talk about the Port Aransas incident as payback for the infamous deadly biker shootout at a Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco in May 2015, where one Bandido and seven Cossacks were killed.

In other portions of those recordings, Portillo is heard discussing with other Bandidos plans about what to do about reports that the Cossacks had a presence in Crystal City. The recordings, Lloyd said, show Portillo met with Pike in Houston the final week of August.

In a call from Portillo with Justin Forster, a former national sergeant-at-arms for the Bandidos after that meeting, Portillo says: I was talking to the general manger. He said play ball...(and) batter up, (expletive).

Lloyd said Portillo is referring to Pike approving a plan to use violence on the Cossacks if they are found in Crystal City. None were found.

While Lloyd was still on the stand, the prosecutors also played a recording from a body wire worn by Raul Puente, a former president of the Bandidos Northeast San Antonio chapter. Lloyd was asked about what Puente discussed with Portillo in that recording, including a reference to a link Puente had been sent by other Bandidos.

Lloyd said that the link was a television news report about the Bandidos that attacked the Cossacks at Port Aransas, and it drew objections from Portillos lead lawyer, Mark Stevens, and Pikes attorney, Dick DeGuerin.

Outside the presence of the jury later, DeGuerin claimed that Lloyd intentionally sidestepped the judges ruling from a day before, and that it was harmful to the defense. He and Stevens moved for a mistrial.

I dont believe this was intentional, and I dont think this is harmful, Ezra said. If this were intentional, I would declare a mistrial. And if I declared a mistrial, predicated on prosecutor misconduct, the defendants could not be retried.

The judge noted jurors had already heard all kinds of testimony about violent acts taken by Bandidos in advance of a criminal enterprise, including murder. And, he added, the Port Aransas issue is a minor part of that. But he also cautioned the agent and prosecution.

Should this have been said? I agree with you. No, it shouldnt have, Ezra told the defense. Does it rise to the level that it needs a mistrial? Absolutely not. Not even close.

After bringing the jury back in, the judge reiterated that Lloyds testimony about the TV clip be stricken from the record and that jurors were to disregard it.

Guillermo Contreras is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of his stories here. | gcontreras@express-news.net | @gmaninfedland
Police on Tuesday fatally shot a man armed with a .45 caliber pistol who was trying to break into rooms at the Embassy Suites hotel in downtown San Antonio, officials said.

Hotel staff initially encountered the suspect, a man in his 40s, around 5:15 a.m. in the lobby. He ran to the second floor, then took an elevator to the fifth floor, where he tried unsuccessfully to force his way into a room, police said.

Around 6:15 a.m., the San Antonio Police Department's bike patrol and park police divisions confronted the man on the seventh floor and the situation escalated.

San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said it is unclear if the suspect ever raised his weapon or fired at the officers, "but they felt compelled to use deadly force."

McManus said the man didn't appear to be a guest at the hotel or know anyone staying there. He was wearing work boots and had plaster residue on him, authorities said.

Authorities have blocked off the seventh floor of the hotel as they investigate the shooting. Police officers are escorting any visitors staying on the floor to and from the area.

"We've tried to make it as least inconvenient as we can for the guests that are staying here," McManus said.

Jack Nevarez was in a room on the fifth floor of the hotel at the time of the shooting. He said earlier that morning he was preparing himself for the day when he heard someone "yowling."

He dismissed it as a couple fighting, but shortly thereafter, the gunshots rang out.

"It was like deer hunting season," said Nevarez, who was visiting San Antonio from Las Cruces, New Mexico.

No guests were injured in the shooting and hotel staff are fully cooperating with police in their investigation, McManus said.

This is a developing story. Check back with for more details.

Caleb Downs is a crime reporter for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here.| cdowns@mysa.com | Twitter: @calebjdowns
Nearly 20 miles of shoreline at McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge will be restored with the help of $26.5 million in funds related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, federal officials announced Monday.

"This important investment will bolster a fragile stretch of shoreline that is critical to the coastal ecosystem and communities of southeast Texas," said Jeff Trandahl, executive director and CEO of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, which made the announcement Monday. "The restored shoreline will also serve as a first line of defense against future storms."

The money comes from a 2016 settlement with BP, which leased the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that exploded in April 2010, spewing an estimated 3.19 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The company is required to pay the trustees for Deepwater Horizon Natural Resource Damage Assessment up to $8.8 billion over 15 years to make up for the natural resource damage along the Gulf Coast.

In total, the refuge has received more than $50 million from the BP settlement  most recently in October, when it received about $15.9 million for restoration in the Sabine Lake area at the Louisiana border.

Related: Deepwater Horizon settlement funds to be used to improve Texas coastline.

Monday's investment will focus on 17 miles of shoreline from High Island, Texas to Sea Rim State Park  southwest of Sabine Lake. Construction will begin later this year, and, once complete, 20 miles of coastline will be restored, according to a foundation news release.

Rob Blumenthal, foundation spokesman, said the Coast Guard discovered tarballs from the spill along the Texas Upper Coast beaches, including those on McFaddin refuge.

But the money helps bolster an even bigger, ongoing effort by Texas agencies to restore the coastline at McFaddin refuge by elevating the beach to a "sufficient height to reduce the influx of salt water inundation to the fresh water marsh ecosystems," said Brittany Eck, spokeswoman for the Texas General Land Office.

"Securing the remaining funding to complete the McFaddin beach dune project is vital to the safety of Texas' citizens and for protecting an irreplaceable coastal ecosystem," said Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush. "This restored beach and dune system provides for a healthy marsh, which is key to storm surge protection for thousands of Jefferson County homes and business as well as nationally significant energy and national security assets in Port Arthur and Beaumont and the Big Hill Strategic Petroleum Reserve."

Thomas Kelsch, the foundation's senior vice president of the Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund, said the exposure to Deepwater Horizon oil as well as the state's ongoing effort, which started in 2013, is why the project stuck out for funding.

The restoration plan looked at the entire landscape, much of which was already degrading for a number of reasons -- this beach section has been subject to several hurricanes ... they basically wiped out the existing beach and dune system and as a result the area incurs more overwash when there are high storms," Kelsch said. "The agencies deserve kudos for getting on top of the situation."

The money awarded by the foundation Monday was through the Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund, created as stipulated by the terms of criminal settlement agreements between DOJ and BP and Transocean after the accident.

Alex Stuckey covers science and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex. stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey.
The Monday night meeting of the Government Hill Alliance Neighborhood Association was canceled, according to a sign taped to the door of St. Patricks Catholic Church by Rose Hill, who may or may not be the associations president, depending on whom you ask.

Within seconds, a resident of the neighborhood tore down the sign. Hill taped up another, and someone else emerged from the church to rip it down.

Concerns about runaway development and rising property taxes have created a constitutional crisis in the neighborhood association for Government Hill, a historic area bordering downtown and the Pearl that is one of the fastest-growing parts of the urban core.

Nearly 50 local residents met at St. Patricks on Monday night and voted to replace the associations board. They accuse Hill and other board members of being too friendly with developers and failing to notify residents of construction projects that have been proposed in the 130-year-old neighborhood, a mixture of colorful bungalows, weedy lots and neglected Victorian mansions.

Were at a vital point right now where we can go forward or we can go backward. So we need to be prepared, we need to unite, said Denise Gutierrez Homer, who helped lead Mondays meeting, where she was elected to the new board. Were getting together, were meeting our neighbors again.

Those who attended voted 26-0 to elect a new board that includes Joe Ashcraft, who previously served as the associations president between 2010 and 2014 and who was on the board until last year. Some attendees didnt vote because they werent members of the neighborhood association.

The recent surge of development in San Antonios urban core has divided many neighborhood associations  earlier this month, the new president of the Dignowity Hill Neighborhood Association purged all six members of its Architectural Review Committee, which is in charge of meeting with developers to go over construction plans. The committee had played a big role in the struggle over a controversial five-story apartment complex proposed next to the Hays Street Bridge.

Read more: Controversial missions-area 'downzoning' gets delayed

Other neighborhoods, including Tobin Hill and Mahncke Park, have had contentious debates over whether to become historic in order to gain more control over development.

Ashcraft said that the Government Hill residents who attended Mondays meeting were authorized to elect a new board under Texas state law for nonprofits. But Hill called the meeting illegal and said the vote wasnt valid because it wasnt called by the associations board members.

They think were in cahoots with the developers, but were not, she said. I am holding my ground with my board of directors because the bottom line is we havent done anything.

District 2 City Councilman William Cruz Shaw, whose district includes Government Hill, didnt respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. Representatives of the board elected Monday met with someone from the staff of state Rep. Diego Bernal, D-San Antonio, on Tuesday. He said in an interview that he wasnt the one to decide which board is legitimate.

I dont doubt that these people did their homework, but Im not the arbiter, he said.

Tensions were high at the meeting: Hill stood in the back filming it on her cell phone, and she called the police out of fear that things would get out of hand. Two officers arrived, but they didnt have much to do, and they ended up partaking in the buffet of cookies and fruit that had been provided.

A developers plan to build three townhomes with ground-level parking garages on a vacant lot near the crossing of Carson Street and Pierce Avenue brought the neighborhood to a boiling point. Opponents of the project say they collected 250 signatures against it but that the neighborhood associations board supported it anyway.

We dont want that. Its going to bring our taxes even way higher than they are now, resident Antoni Infante said.

Hill said that members of the neighborhood association voted 48-8 in favor of that project at a meeting in March after negotiating with the developers to reduce the number of residential units down from eight.

Read more: San Antonio home sales and prices keep climbing

Another major concern among those who voted for the new board is that Government Hills neighborhood plan is being overridden for the sake of the citys SA Tomorrow plan, which was adopted in 2016 to manage population growth.

We thought our neighborhood plan was a tight deal, and it turns out its actually not, resident Cindy Tower said.

Local developer GrayStreet Partners is working on plans to build a massive mixed-use project on 23 acres of neglected land across Broadway from the Pearl. But those who elected the new board arent worried about that project because of GrayStreets reputation as a reputable, classy developer, Tower said.

The board that was elected Monday plans to meet this week to decide who will serve as the neighborhood associations president and other officers, Tower said. Hill said she will continue operating the neighborhood association as if Mondays vote didnt happen.

We have more transparency in this neighborhood association than they ever had, she said. What theyre looking for is control.

Next week, the association Hill leads will hold a town hall to discuss property taxes.

Richard Webner is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of his stories here. | rwebner@express-news.net | @RWebner
Postdoctoral Researcher in The Global Mediterranean at The Ohio State University

For application instructions, please visit: https://www.jobsatosu.com/postings/85534

The Departments of Comparative Studies, French and Italian, German Languages and Literatures, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, and The Film Studies Program, within the College of Arts and Sciences, seeks a Postdoctoral Researcher to join our team. The College of Arts and Sciences is the largest college and the academic heart of the university. The College hosts 81 majors. With 38 departments, 20+ world-class research centers, and more than 2,000 faculty and staff members, students have the unique opportunity to study with the best artists, scholars, and scientists in their field. The College values diversity and offers a supportive, open, and inclusive community.

The Departments of Comparative Studies, French and Italian, German Languages and Literatures, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, and The Film Studies Program at The Ohio State University invite applications for a two-year Postdoctoral Researcher in the area of The Global Mediterranean. We seek an emerging scholar or artist with proven interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary interests working on global migration, specifically Middle East/North Africa flows to southern and northern Europe. Specializations may include areas such as Mediterranean Studies with research and creative interests in migration studies; global migration studies; refugee and migration issues; the global south; translation studies; documentary filmmaking; screen studies; visual culture; urban geographies; environmental studies (water). While the topical focus and geographic areas are open, the successful candidate must be able to address these issues in an interpretative framework.

We seek a colleague who has the resources to: 1) develop and contribute to interdisciplinary initiatives in research or creative work and teaching with departments, programs, and centers; 2) offer innovative cross-listed and collaborative graduate and undergraduate courses; 3) mentor undergraduate and graduate students interested in issues of migration and globalization; and 4) who will be an active member of the Migration Studies working group and will be instrumental in the creation of a Mediterranean Studies working group. We are also interested in applicants who could be involved in outreach efforts with migrant groups in Columbus and thus serve as a bridge between OSU and the community.

The position carries a one course per semester teaching load. This is a twelve-month appointment which may be renewed for up to two years. The successful candidate will be affiliated with one or more of the sponsoring units: The Department of Comparative Studies; The Film Studies Program; The Department of French and Italian; The Department of German Languages and Literatures; The Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures. This fellowship is made possible by Ohio States Humanities and the Arts Discovery Theme.

To apply, please submit a cover letter, 1000-word proposal (excluding works cited), curriculum vitae, a sample course title and brief (200-250 word) description for both a graduate and an undergraduate course, and names of three references. Inquiries may be directed to Dana Renga (renga.1@osu.edu) and Robert Holub (Holub.5@osu.edu). Review of applications will begin on May 1, 2018, and will continue until the position is filled.
GREENWICH, Conn.  The landlord of Ralph Laurens former Greenwich Avenue storefront has filed a lawsuit against the retailer alleging it has failed to pay almost $400,000 in rent.

Thurles LLC, which owns the Greenwich Avenue building where Ralph Lauren had a store until last year, recently filed complaints in federal and state courts. The retailer emptied its Greenwich Avenue shop suddenly last May amid widespread cost-cutting measures including shuttering its Fifth Avenue flagship in New York City.
GREENWICH  Shocking a town where he has served as the face of government for longer than anyone in history, Greenwich First Selectman Peter Tesei announced Tuesday he will run for lieutenant governor.

The six-term chief executive will join New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart as she takes on a crowded field seeking the GOP nomination for governor.

The two are betting that together they will have enough broad appeal  the right combination of experience, gender and centrism  to win the delegates they need at the Republican Partys convention in two weeks to get on the ballot for the August primary.

Ultimately, it is a mathematical equation, Tesei said during a morning announcement in Hartford.

The run will be Teseis first attempt to seek elected office outside of Greenwich. Statewide office has not previously been on his mind, he said Tuesday.

I was not considering it under any other circumstance, he said. But Stewarts confidence and assured nature swayed him.

Later in the day, standing beside longtime political allies and friends at Greenwich Town Hall, Tesei said the run might be considered out of character for him.

I think people who know me well would probably say, Peter is a risk-adverse person,  Tesei said. That aside, I have sat as a casual participant in the political process supporting candidates for state office and gladly so. As I have watched this race evolve, and it is a fluid situation and in politics anything can happen, it became apparent to me that we need to find the most electable and experienced candidate to present to the voters of Connecticut.

Another part of the equation needed to win a campaign is money. Stewart, 30, announced her run in November but has yet to raise the $250,000 needed to qualify for public financing. Her weak campaign financials have kept the only female GOP candidate from participating in Republican debates to date.

She said Tuesday her fundraising has been climbing strongly. But a boost from Greenwich wallets could give her campaign the shot it needs.

Her announcement was a rebuke to four other Republican gubernatorial campaigns who have asked her to join them as their lieutenant governor pick, Stewart said.

I am in this to become governor of the state of Connecticut, she said. Peter is going to become an incredible partner in that and balance me out where I need it.

Stewart said the partnership was formed after many conversations in their roles as heads of towns about the direction they want to take the state in.

Were going to take this all the way, she said at an afternoon press conference at Greenwich Town Hall.

Both candidates described themselves as socially moderate and fiscally conservative, a combination they said will appeal to a majority of Connecticut residents.

When you look at the voter base in Connecticut and you see that roughly 22 percent, I believe, is affiliated Republican and the vast majority is not, the (winning) candidate has to carry forth a Republican philosophy that is broad enough and inclusive enough to appeal to the broad spectrum of people, Tesei said.

Though not yet 50, Tesei has had a long career in politics. The Republican first captured the attention of Greenwich residents when he began his career in government as an 18-year-old elected to the Representative Town Meeting. He served 10 years on the RTM, before another 10 on the Greenwich finance board, including six as chairman.

His first run for first selectman was in 2007, an election he won in a landslide. He has repeated that performance every two years since, until a close call last November when he survived a challenge by Democratic political newcomer Sandy Litvack by less than 1,000 votes.

Should Tesei win the lieutenant governors seat, he would leave Greenwich government with a year left in his current term.

Republican Selectman John Toner said on Tuesday they had been advised by Town Attorney Wayne Fox that, similar to when a seat was filled after the death of Selectman David Theis in 2014, it would be up to the remaining Board of Selectmen members  Toner and Litvack  to fill the vacancy. That person would serve as a temporary first selectman for the remainder of the term.

Toner said they would be required to fill Teseis seat with a member of his party.

Greenwichs Republican Town Committee Chair Richard DiPreta said while Tesei has his full support as a lieutenant governor candidate, he would not be making any endorsements in the governors race before the Republican convention next month.

DiPreta, who attended the press conference, said Greenwich will send 20 delegates to the convention, including himself, and they will not be voting as a bloc.

There are a lot of good candidates, DiPreta said. This cant hurt Erin Stewart. It certainly would help Erin Stewart in Greenwich and hopefully in other areas of the state.

DiPreta said Tesei had not told the RTC he was exploring a run for state office. While Tesei would be a boost for Hartford, DiPreta said he would miss having him in Greenwich.

Part of me is excited for him, DiPreta said before the press conference. Hes done a fantastic job over 10 years in Greenwich. We have sound fiscal management. We have the lowest taxes in the state of Connecticut and have maintained a triple-A bond rating. Under Democratic leadership in Hartford, we have businesses and residents fleeing the state under a fiscal crisis. Peter Teseis leadership would certainly benefit the state of Connecticut.

Toner also attended the press conference and was quick to praise Tesei.

He understands budgets, Toner said. He understands conservative fiscal policy and he deals well with people.

emunson@hearstmediact.com; Twitter: @emiliemunson
SALEM, Ohio  The Kasich administration and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency are poised to take a stronger regulatory approach to cleaning up the states waters, including the open waters of Lake Erie.

Three weeks after declaring the western portion of Lake Erie impaired, the Ohio EPA, on April 16, released a study showing no clear trend of a nutrient loading decrease in most of the states watersheds, citing agriculture and other nonpoint sources as the main contributor.

The study, known as the Nutrient Mass Balance Study, also found that the state is far from reaching its target of a 40 percent reduction in phosphorus loading into lake Erie, set in a 2012 agreement between the U.S. and Canada.

New approach

Up until now, the state has been focused on voluntary efforts by farmers and private landowners, as well as new regulations that require farmers to be certified to apply fertilizer, and to avoid applying to frozen and snow-covered ground.

But more regulations could be coming, as state leaders say they need more evidence.

We are not showing the data for as much work as we have done and as much money as we have spent, said Ohio EPA Director Craig Butler. We would hope by now that we would see an environmental positive response and we are just not seeing that.

Butler said the state has spent more than $6 billion of its own money statewide, including $3 billion on the Lake Erie watershed to improve water quality since 2011.

Do I think were making progress? We have to be, Butler said. However, when we review all of the data from all of our monitoring  were not seeing those efforts reflected in the data.

Measuring the issue

Butler said the impairment designation had been considered for years, but the state lacked a way of determining such an impairment. The administration sought advice from the U.S. EPA, Ohio State Universitys Stone Lab, Bowling Green State University, The University of Toledo and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Although the nutrient study cites a lack of progress, it also acknowledges that some results could take 10 or more years to be achieved.

While it is too early to detect statistically sound trends, the results of this study show no clear decrease in loading yet, especially in nonpoint source dominated watersheds like the Maumee, where the loading in 2017 was the highest of the years reported, the study says, in text that is underlined.

Libby Dayton, a research scientist with Ohio State University who is helping to rewrite the states phosphorus index, said the results of the EPA study are not surprising. However, she said its important to remember that the work is ongoing, and that like the study notes, some efforts take years.

Its (Lake Erie) a big ship to turn, just because of the scale, she said.

Dayton said the new phosphorus index will released this summer, and with it farmers will be given an online tool to allow them to estimate their long-term erosion and dissolved phosphorus losses.

Controlling erosion

So far, her work shows that erosion is one of the biggest culprits, and making sure that nutrients are applied according to agronomic rates, or no more than what a crop needs for growth.

Im very optimistic that voluntary changes in farming practices can result in achieving the 40 percent reduction, she said.

Farmers continue to adopt new farming practices and conservation measures, and some wonder if enough time has been given to know whether they work. Since the summer of 2015, farmers in the western basin have been required to meet new regulations for applying manure, and since September 30, 2017, all farmers who apply fertilizer to more than 50 acres must be state certified.

Farmers helped form both regulations, but are concerned about what lies ahead.

Know the science

Joe Cornely, communications director for Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, said its important that state regulators not get ahead of the science. He said a lot is still being determined, like how and why nutrients move.

Basing decisions on admittedly inadequate amounts of data is a problem, he said.

Cornely said the states approach so far has recognized that improvement takes time, and that more information is needed. In recent years, the Farm Bureau has partnered with state and federal leaders to research new farming practices through the use of demonstration farms and edge-of-field testing  hoping to find solutions that work for farmers and the nonfarm public.

He said there has definitely been a sudden change of tenor from the state, and that he has real concerns about the whole ready, fire, aim approach.

Even with the impairment designation, Butler said he doesnt believe the state will be required to form new Total Daily Maximum Load limits for nutrients, because similar nutrient tracking has already been done.

New law

Butler is hopeful that a bill will soon be introduced into the state legislature that will lay out the framework for what is expected of agriculture.

The bill would include lower phosphorus discharge levels and would also expand the definition of agriculture pollution to include fertilizer. This would allow the EPA to declare parts of watersheds in distress, and focus on specific areas.

Butler said the bill has not been popular with farmers and so far a sponsor has not been found.

Related coverage:
Over 18,000 Scottish farmers and crofters have received payments worth more than 300m under the Common Agricultural Policys Pillar 1 schemes.

In the coming months, eligible farmers and crofters will receive the final balance of their Common Agricultural Policy Pillar 1 entitlement for the 2017 scheme year.

Farmers have already received up to 90% through the Scottish governments loan scheme in early November.

Over 18,000 eligible farmers will receive payments under Pillar 1 schemes that will help support investment and jobs.

Scotland's Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing has confirmed the first tranche of Basic Payment Support, Greening and Young Farmer payments for the 2017 scheme year.

These payments will see farmers and crofters receive the final balance of payments, following my decision last year to provide a loan scheme worth up to 90% of their entitlement, Mr Ewing said.

This decision meant that farmers were paid a higher proportion of their entitlement at an earlier time than ever before, ensuring no eligible farmer who accepted the offer of a loan was out of pocket.

Mr Ewing added: With further tranches being made in the coming weeks and months, I am confident that the vast majority of farmers and crofters will receive their payments by the end of the payment window, demonstrating my absolute commitment to support our rural business and communities.

The first tranche of Pillar 1 payments are being processed with money due to reach bank accounts from 24 April onwards.
The government has requested a UK-wide exemption from the three crop rule for 2018 to support arable farmers affected by unusually heavy rain and snow experienced in recent weeks.

Farming Minister George Eustice has written to the European Commission to request the exemption.

The three crop rule is an EU requirement for farmers with more than thirty hectares to grow at least here different crops every year.

The severe weather the UK experienced this winter has impacted farmers in several ways, including their ability to meet this element of the Common Agricultural Policys crop diversification requirements, given that much of the main sowing period was characterised by heavy rain and snow.

Through no fault of their own, farmers in many areas have been unable to sow the crops they had intended to grow.

The improvement in weather conditions in recent days will help for some, but does not make up for lost time in the critical planting period.

'Concerns'

George Eustice has written to Phil Hogan, the European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, to request the exemption on behalf of England and the Devolved Administrations.

Farming Minister George Eustice said: We have listened to the concerns raised by farmers and their representatives about the challenges caused by the recent weather conditions.

With the help of the Devolved Administrations, we have put forward a detailed case to the European Commission for a derogation from the CAPs Crop Diversification Requirement.

Farmers will be making their final cropping decisions in the coming weeks, and we hope the Commission will inform us of their decision shortly so we can provide them with clarity.

Early clarity on this requirement from the European Commissioner will allow farmers to make practical decisions that are in the best interests of protecting their soil in these difficult conditions, rather than seeking to meet an inappropriate EU requirement or face reductions in their subsidy payments for non-compliance.
The British Veterinary Association (BVA) is calling on the Government to ensure that animal sentience legislation is enshrined in law before the UK leaves the EU.

The call comes as Defra responded to the Efra Committees Pre-Legislative Scrutiny of the draft Animal Welfare (Sentencing and Recognition of Sentience) Bill 2017 on Monday (23 April).

The committees report had called for revisions to the Bill and recommended that clause 1 covering animal sentience should be removed and replaced with a new Animal Sentience Bill.

Defra has responded to say that it is actively looking at drafting solutions which will directly address the Committees concerns and improve clarity, and will set out more details about how the measures in the draft bill will be taken forward in due course.

Animal sentience

The draft Bill follows widespread media attention after a House of Commons debate, wherein MPs voted down an amendment to include the principles set out in Article 13 in the EU (Withdrawal) Bill.

Since Article 13 has its origins in a treaty rather than a regulation, it did not qualify to automatically transfer into UK law as part of the EU (Withdrawal) Bill.

It led 1,200 people in the veterinary industry to sign a letter urging the government to enshrine the notion that animals are sentient into British law.

The widespread media attention triggered Defra Secretary Michael Gove to confirm that the UK government will continue to recognise animal sentience after the UK leaves the EU. He said the UK will become a world leader in the care and protection of animals.

'Reflect and refine'

Commenting, BVA President John Fishwick said: Rather than entirely going back to the drawing board, we would urge the Government to reflect on and refine the existing draft bill so that it can address concerns raised by the Committees report.

Making wholesale revisions at this stage or making a start on additional legislation would leave this crucial bill at the mercy of the tight legislative timetable and run the risk of missing the boat on embedding the principles by March 2019.

Our members strength of feeling on this issue was made resoundingly clear when over 1,000 vets signed an open letter in support of enshrining the concept of animal sentience in law pre-Brexit. The Government must act swiftly to ensure that the opportunity isnt missed to uphold the UKs global reputation for animal welfare.
The Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers (SAMW) has called on government to deliver Brexit certainty today, rather than "tomorrow or sometime in the future".

The SAMW said there is an urgent need for "Brexit now", as many businesses are still waiting for clarity across a range of concerns despite having been told by government that everything would be much clearer by April 2018.

It said the industry has heard too much about "Brexit tomorrow" over the last two years and quite a bit about "Brexit sometime in the future", but not much about the present.

SAMW president, Frank Clark, said during his address to the Associations annual conference: We need to know now where were going to end up the day after March 29, 2019.

We need to know now whats going to happen during the 21 months of transition that will follow the UKs midnight exit point from the EU on that day.

We need to know now what the months and years following December 31, 2020, will offer us as business owners, managers, regulators and product promoters.

'Brexit answers'

Mr Clark said the red meat sector needs further clarity because of the farm-to-fork timescales.

For some business sectors, 12 more months of talking followed by 21 months of transition will sound okay, Mr Clark said.

For everyone involved in the production of red meat, however, its hardly enough to cover the production cycle of our raw material and it definitely doesnt accommodate the planning and investment process which lies behind the farm-to-plate timescale of the industry on which we all depend.

Thats why we need better Brexit answers than weve been given to date, more far-reaching solutions than were heard from the politicians siting in Edinburgh, London and Brussels and genuine evidence that those in charge of the whole process understand that March 29, 2019 and December 31, 2020 are starting points not end points.

Livestock numbers

The SAMW president also highlighted member company worries over falling livestock numbers.

Mr Clark warned that a lack of raw material supplies could easily derail the industrys post-Brexit hopes and ambitions, irrespective of how good the final settlement and future trade deals may turn out to be.

The continuing decline in livestock numbers in Scotland is having an increasingly crippling impact on our industry, he said.

Numbers have fallen steadily throughout the past decade with the latest figures suggesting that 2018 will merely produce more of the same. We cannot let this damaging decline continue.
The Scottish Land Commission has called for a new framework to open up the farm letting sector again and promote farming as a viable option for the next generation.

Its new discussion paper is aimed at stimulating debate about making more of Scotlands land.

The framework needs to include both simpler tenancy law and a more commercial, business-minded and flexible approach to unlock more land for farm lettings.

In the paper, the author Jeremy Moody, maps the decline in the tenanted farming sector over the past century and the current, complex environment of different and sometimes overlapping, rules.

He assesses the past and current issues facing landlords and tenants, including the perception among landlords that land letting is high risk and low return and considers wider questions around the political climate and future changes in the context of Brexit.

The paper puts forward a number of proposals including a new income tax relief as an innovative way of addressing increasing land availability.

This tax-based approach, seems likely to release more land; evidence from the Republic of Ireland suggests a significant increase in lettings there, following the adoption of a similar relief in 2015.

'Drive innovation'

The papers author argues that letting is declining in Scotland despite a strong demand for access to land from new entrants and existing farmers needing to expand or improve the viability of their enterprises.

The Land Commissions Tenant Farming Commissioner, Bob McIntosh, said: For a thriving tenant farming sector there needs to be a steady flow of new entrants to drive innovation and best practice, improve efficiencies and contribute towards the economic vitality of the sector.

The different approaches need to be considered alongside the work were doing on the current succession and retirement options for farmers and landowners.

Speaking about his paper, Jeremy Moody said that promoting a positive attitude among both tenant farmers and landowners depends on good quality relationships, with sympathy between the parties and positive approach by advisers. The approach should be to see that a good relationship for farming land should be mutually beneficial.

'Build confidence'

Sarah Jane Laing, director of Scottish Land & Estates, said the report captured the need to build confidence in the let sector, and to explore other business routes into farming.

Ms Laing said: If Scotland values a thriving let sector  and we support that aim - then a system needs to evolve where more flexible arrangements are available to both landlord and tenant.

This does not mean the end of existing tenancies but looking ahead, simpler and more flexible arrangements are something that all with the interests of agriculture at heart should consider seriously.

This report encourages us all to have a fresh look at how things are done. We welcome Mr Moodys view that in addition to the often complex law that already exists there should be serious consideration given to soft policy options that can help take the sector forward  not everything has to be done through legislation and regulation.

She added: We hope that the industry embraces the opportunity to feed back on this discussion paper and that this report will influence future thinking which will be given due consideration by Ministers and parliamentarians.
Labour crisis: Scottish farmers urged to complete survey

NFUS survey wants to find out scale of crisis
Varun Dhawan has established himself as the most successful young actor by giving nine big hits in a row and having a record breaking 100% success rate. His performance in his latest, October, was appreciated by many and he was praised for the unconventional subject. He is currently working on several projects, including Sui Dhaga: Made in India and Abhishek Varmans Kalank. He is also coming back for the second time to work with Remo DSouza in his dance film.The film which also stars Katrina Kaif. It is said to be the biggest dance film ever. The film although untitled is speculated to be a part of the ABCD franchise. Varun Dhawan is juggling two projects currently and once he wraps them up in November he will be taking some time off. Post that he is expected to go under hardcore training for Remos film.According to a source, There were reports that the actor will begin shooting the film in December. But this will actually be his turnaround time where he is likely to plan a vacation and train in various dance forms. The movie, which will see Varun collaborate with his ABCD 2 director Remo, will have some hardcore dancing. Though he is easily among the top dancers in the industry, he will definitely hone his skills furthermore for the film that is being made in the 4DX format. The team is likely to begin shooting in January and the dance flick is slated to release in November 2019.
Rani Mukerji Talks About Her Comeback After Motherhood

"It was great. My journey into motherhood and coming back to work was amazing, because as a professional you don't realise how much you miss your work, unless you take a break."

Motherhood Is Beautiful, Says Rani!

"The experience of becoming a mother for the first time was just beautiful. After that, when I got back on set, I felt, oh my god, I just belong here', because suddenly everything just came back."

East Vs The West

"In the West, there is no discrimination between actors and actresses, they can go ahead, get married, have babies, and have a parallel work life. In India, strangely, women are pushed to get married late and have a baby. They want actress to be single for a longer period of time, which is strange because our heroes get married early, they have children and continue to work."

The Times Are Changing!

"But I think times are changing. It is our responsibility as actors to encourage actresses to get married early, have children and still pursue their career," Rani Mukerji summed it up to the Indian Express.
Sonam To Ditch Big Fat Wedding

While speaking to The National, Sonam commented on her wedding preparations and said, "I think the whole idea of a marriage is more appealing to me than a wedding.I think there is too much money spent; it's all very crass, and I would rather give that money away."

Sonam Kapoor Anand Ahuja Wedding: Mehendi, Sangeet & Marriage VENUE & DATE FINALISED!| FilmiBeat

Sonam Finds It 'Disgusting'

"I'd rather have a wedding at home than anywhere else. I think it's important to do all the rituals, but I don't believe in spending all that money, I find it disgusting and very wasteful, and I'm not okay with that at all."

Have A Look At These Grand Weddings Of B-town

On that note, we bring to you the top Bollywood weddings which had left the film industry awe-struck!

Shilpa Shetty's wedding is one of the most talked-about wedding ceremonies of the B-town. Their royal wedding took place in Khandala and Shilpa's heavy outfit was designed by Tarun Tahiliani. Did you know that their wedding cake at the reception in Mumbai was of 9 tiers and weighed 80 kgs?

Aishwarya Rai-Abhishek Bachchan

Though it was close-knit affair, but Aishwarya Rai-Abhishek Bachchan's wedding was nothing less than expensive. From the costly cards to designer outfits to grabd decorations, Aishwarya & Abhishek's wedding became the talk of the town in 2007.

Shahid Kapoor-Mira Rajput

Shahid Kapoor & Mira Rajput also went a grand way, The couple tied-knot infront of their family members and close friend but later threw a grand reception and it was attended by who's who of the B-town.

Asin Thottumkal & Rahul Sharma

Asin Thottumkal got married to Micromax founder Rahul Sharma in a Christian wedding ceremony followed by Hindu rituals in New Delhi in January 2016. The Hindu ceremony was attended by 200 guests and the mandap for the wedding had been constructed on top of a body of water.

Anushka Sharma-Virat Kohli

From the sangeet ceremony, the mehendi ceremony, haldi, wedding to reception, everything looked like a fairy tale. Virat & Anushka are one of the rare couples of the B-town, who tied the knot outside India. The duo later threw reception in Delhi as well as Mumbai and needless to mention, PM Narendra Modi also was in attendance! Could it get any bigger?
Khichdi Actors Pay Tribute To Sridevi

Regarding the episode, the actor-producer, JD Majethia was quoted by TOI as saying, "The episode had an interesting gag involving Sridevi. When she passed away in February, we were reluctant to air that part."

Sridevi Loved The First Season Of Khichdi!

"However, we then felt that there was nothing derogatory about it and we were referring to her in a humour sequence, which actually will be our tribute to the legendary actress. She had once told us that she loved the first season of our show."

Sridevi Made Supriya Talk Like Hansa

Supriya Pathak, who plays Hansa on the show, recalled as to how Sridevi made her talk like Hansa when they met on flight.

Surpiya Had A Beautiful Memory Of The Actress

The actress was quoted by the leading daily as saying, "Around three years ago, I met her on a flight and she literally made me talk like Hansa. It was embarrassing for a moment, but that just showed how much she loved the characters."

Surpiyas Character Hansa

Regarding her role, Supriya had said in her earlier interview, "I had to do a lot of disconnecting from things to play this role. Earlier, I used to always ask people if they want me to answer as Supriya or Hansa. If they said Hansa, and asked me a question, I would say, I don't know."

Supriya As Hansa

"That's because Hansa doesn't know anything! For me, it was important to reach that state of thing in mind where I don't question anything. That is the happy quotient of Hansa because as an actor mujhe kuch sochna nahin padta."
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From the New York Times



"Lorraine Dusky, a writer who relinquished a daughter as a young single mother in New York State in 1966, supports opening the records. She reported in her 2015 memoir that in the handful of states that offered women the opportunity to remove their names from original birth certificates, only a small fraction of women  fewer than 1 percent  chose to do so." -- Dont Keep Adopted People in the Dark by Gabrielle Glaser, June 19, 2018

From the New York Times "On FirstMotherForum.com, a blog that discusses issues among women who had given children up for adoption, Lorraine Dusky, one of the sites authors, praised the series (ABC's 10-episode Find My Family): 'Maybe this will be heard by people who think it is unloyal somehow for a person to search out his or her roots, parents, family, when it is a most natural desire of consciousness.' --Two Reality Shows Stir Publicity and Anger"--Dec. 6, 2009.

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There is no need to be worried about Artificial Intelligence instead India 'should be more concerned about human development and skill development', Debroy said

New Delhi: Artificial intelligence (AI) will not lead to a scenario where there are overall less number of jobs in the country, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) chairman Bibek Debroy said on Monday.

Debroy's comments came in the backdrop of several experts, including former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, expressing fears that artificial intelligence (AI) would take up jobs -- both high skilled and unskilled.

Speaking at a Brookings India seminar on Manufacturing Jobs: Implications for Productivity & Inequality, Debroy said, "There will always be some job loss, that does not mean that there will be overall less jobs."

There is no need to be worried about AI, instead India "should be more concerned about human development and skill development", he said.

Last month, Rajan had said that with advances in machine learning, AI and robotics, this was going to change still further, as they take up the jobs, ranging from those in unskilled sweatshops to high-skilled professions like medicine.

"What jobs will humans be able to do in 10-15 years that are immune from threat? Jobs that require high intelligence and creativity; jobs that require human empathy and jobs where human working for us bolster our status in some way," he had said.

Referring to employment situation in India, Debroy said that India is still going to be relatively more endowed with labour and the country is not going to be aged at least till 2035.

Noting that share of manufacturing in Indias overall GDP has remained stable over the last 25 years, he said, "We would have better employment data in the end of 2018 or beginning of 2019." Speaking at the same event, former Planning Commission chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said that Indias domestic development debate is hijacked by the West and the whole push for inequality versus growth debate is example of that.

Ahluwalia also pointed out that the kind of skill development which the government is promoting would actually wont create employment. "We need to learn from Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia," he added.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday said it has attached assets worth Rs 1,122 crore, including wind mills and an under-construction hotel, of Vadodara-based DPIL Pvt Ltd in connection with its money laundering probe in a bank fraud case

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday said it has attached assets worth Rs 1,122 crore, including wind power assets and an under-construction hotel, of Vadodara-based DPIL Pvt Ltd in connection with its money laundering probe in a bank fraud case.

Diamond Power Infrastructure Limited (DPIL) is accused of cheating various banks to the tune of Rs 2,654 crore.

The central probe agency had filed a criminal case against the firm and its promoters under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), after taking cognisance of a CBI FIR, and had searched its premises last month.

"The assets of DPIL and its related companies such as Diamond Power Transformer Ltd, Diamond Projects Ltd, Mayfair Leisures and Northway Spaces have been attached as part of the provisional order.

"The properties include plant, machinery, building and land of in Vadodara, three windmills in Bhuj, residential bungalows/flats of the Bhatnagar (promoters) family, unsold flats, under-construction hotel and other land parcels held by related companies of DPIL, all located in Vadodara," the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said.

The agency said the company, DPIL, through its related entities, was able to gain funds "fraudulently" to the tune of Rs 261 crore by twisting and manipulating the facility of Letter of Credit (LC) from the banks.

"It also diverted huge amount of funds received as loan/cash credit to its real estate companies such as Northway Spaces and Mayfair Leisures," it said.

The promoters, it said, through web of companies and cross holdings were found to be the "main decision makers", controllers and thus the beneficial owners of the company and all the related companies.

"Therefore, it appears there was little genuine business activity done by the Diamond group of companies and most of the business shown on records was from such fictitious transactions and this has resulted into default of Rs 2654.40 crore to banks," the ED said.

The ED is probing if the alleged defaulted loans were laundered to create illegal assets and black money by the accused.

The CBI had 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.

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 29 June, 2016, the CBI said.

The loan amount of Rs 2,654 crore was declared a non-performing asset in 2016-17, it said.

The company and its directors managed to get the term loans and credit facilities, in spite of the fact that they were named in the Reserve Bank's defaulters list and ECGC (Export Credit Guarantee Corporation) caution list at the time of the initial sanction of credit limits by the banks consortium.

Among them, Bank of India's exposure to the company is Rs 670.51 crore, Bank of Baroda's Rs 348.99 crore and that of ICICI Bank Rs 279.46 crore, the CBI FIR said.
Queries have been raised as to who would generate the e-Way Bill for the movement of goods which is taking place from B' to C' on behalf of A

New Delhi: The Finance Ministry today clarified on e-way bill generation in cases where three parties are involved in a transaction, saying only one such bill needs to be generated.

A number of representations have been received seeking clarifications in relation to requirement of e-way bill for Bill To Ship To model of supplies, the ministry said in a statement.

"Queries have been raised as to who would generate the e-Way Bill for the movement of goods which is taking place from B' to C' on behalf of A'. It is clarified that as per the CGST Rules, 2017 either A' or B' can generate the e-Way Bill but it may be noted that only one e-Way Bill is required to be generated," the ministry said.

In a Bill To Ship To model of supply, there are three persons involved in a transaction, namely A' who is the person who has ordered, B' to send goods directly to C' -- who is the recipient of goods.

Abhishek Jain, Tax Partner, EY India said, "To lay rest to the general apprehensions of the industry on the modus operandi for generation of e-ways bills in case of bill to ship to transactions, the government today clarified that only one e-way bill would need to be generated. This should now aid resolving any disconnects between businesses and on ground officers on the requirement of two e-way bills."

"It's an important clarification as there was an ambiguity on three party transactions which are quite common. It's now clear that only one e-way bill is required in such cases," PwC Partner and Leader Indirect Tax Pratik Jain said.
By David Randall and Svea Herbst-Bayliss NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hedge fund managers at the high-profile 2018 Sohn Investment Conference in New York pitched stock ideas on Monday, ranging from online food ordering to homebuilders, that should benefit from the growing clout of the millennial generation. John Khoury, founder and managing partner of $2.7 billion hedge fund Long Pond Capital, revealed a long position in U.S.

By David Randall and Svea Herbst-Bayliss

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hedge fund managers at the high-profile 2018 Sohn Investment Conference in New York pitched stock ideas on Monday, ranging from online food ordering to homebuilders, that should benefit from the growing clout of the millennial generation.

John Khoury, founder and managing partner of $2.7 billion hedge fund Long Pond Capital, revealed a long position in U.S. homebuilder D.R. Horton Inc , which he said should see a boost as more millennials age into the first-time home buyer market.

The country's largest homebuilder has been increasingly focused on its entry-level segment, which it told analysts in January should grow strongly over the next three years.

At least two investors, meanwhile, pitched online food ordering companies. Alexander Captain, who runs Cat Rock Capital Management, introduced Netherlands-based Takeaway.com NV while Li Ran, who runs Half Sky Capital, pitched GrubHub Inc , the parent company of Seamless. She said GrubHub averages $30 per order and earns 15 percent of each order, as spending growth at restaurants is outpacing spending at grocery stores.

"I like to call this chart 'Millennials can't cook," Ran said, to laughter.

Millennials, a term for those born between 1981 and 1996, are expected to become the largest generation in the United States in 2019, according to estimates from Pew Research.

Jeffrey Gundlach, one of the world's most closely-watched investors, recommended a short position in social media giant Facebook Inc and a long position in the SPDR S&P Oil and Gas Exploration ETF .

"Facebook used to be a place people felt good going to," Gundlach said.

Facebook has come under pressure as the company acknowledged misuse of users' data.

Investors were confident about their stock picks at a time when the broad S&P 500 has been lagging and retail clients have expressed nervousness about the durability of the stock market's long-running gains.

Khoury, from Long Pond Capital, suggested that D.R. Horton had more than 60-percent upside, while Ran, from Half Sky Capital, said that GrubHub could hit $160 a share, up nearly 55 percent from its Monday afternoon trading price of $103.25.

Among technology-focused investors, Glen Kacher, founder and chief investment officer at Light Street Capital, announced a long position in online security company Palo Alto Networks Inc , a stock he said has a 164 percent upside through 2020.

Chamath Palihapitiya, founder and chief executive officer at Social Capital LP, offered a bullish take on cloud management company Box Inc , predicting the stock could grow 10-fold over the next 10 years.

"If you believe in and if you care about A.I. [Artificial Intelligence] and its role in the world, be long Amazon, be long Google, but be long Box," Palihapitiya said.

Organizers said they were expecting as many as 3,000 attendees at New York's Lincoln Center, making Sohn one of the most high-profile investment conferences of the year.

Against a background of more volatile markets and worries that some of the biggest hedge fund managers are nursing losses this year, many in the audience focused on the smaller, better-performing investors like Oleg Nodelman.

Nodelman, founder and managing Director of EcoR1 Capital LLC, whose fund returned a reported 53 percent last year, announced a long bet on drug company Ascendis Pharma A/S .

(Reporting by David Randall; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Jennifer Ablan)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
By Mayank Bhardwaj NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Ministers have proposed giving subsidies to cane growers for produce they sell to sugar mills, as bulging supplies have driven down prices, Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said on Monday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet would consider the proposal soon, Paswan said after a ministerial panel met to address challenges facing growers in the world's biggest cane producer after Brazil

By Mayank Bhardwaj

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Ministers have proposed giving subsidies to cane growers for produce they sell to sugar mills, as bulging supplies have driven down prices, Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said on Monday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet would consider the proposal soon, Paswan said after a ministerial panel met to address challenges facing growers in the world's biggest cane producer after Brazil. He did not say when cabinet would decide.

Reuters reported this month that the government was likely to subsidise an industry reeling from a supply glut and struggling to export because of low global prices.

Local refined sugar prices have tumbled more than 15 percent in the past six months, driving down profits at mills, which in turn means lower returns for farmers.

Sugar mills owe 170 billion rupees ($2.62 billion) to farmers because they have struggled due to lower sugar prices and higher government-set rate for cane.

Arrears could climb to 250 billion rupees ($3.8 billion) in 2017/18, a trade body said.

The government is keen to placate India's 50 million cane growers, who make up an influential political lobby, especially with national elections barely a year away in May 2019.

India is likely to produce a record 30.3 million tonnes of sugar in the 2017/18 season that ends on Sept. 30, up from 20.3 million tonnes in the previous year.

Any move to help for growers might draw the ire of rival producers such as Brazil, Australia and Thailand, which could lodge complaints with the World Trade Organization (WTO) on the grounds that any support could help India sell sugar overseas.

Brazil has already expressed concerns about policies to help sugar exports from India and Pakistan.

Indian officials say plans to directly pay cane growers would not contravene WTO rules.

New Delhi scrapped a 20 percent tax on exports last month and mills have a quota for exports to hit a government-set target of 2 million tonnes of sugar sales abroad. Mills say they still face losses due to low global prices.

(Reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj; Editing by Edmund Blair)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
By Jessica Resnick-Ault NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices rebounded from an early slide to finish higher and strengthen further in post-settlement trade, as investors feared U.S. sanctions could dampen Iran's output.

By Jessica Resnick-Ault

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices rebounded from an early slide to finish higher and strengthen further in post-settlement trade, as investors feared U.S. sanctions could dampen Iran's output.

"It's tweet by tweet," said Phil Flynn, analyst at Price Futures Group, saying the market is swinging in response to posturing from the United States and OPEC members.

Oil prices tumbled early on fears that oversupply could return. Iran's oil minister Bijan Zanganeh said there would be no need to extend a pact between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-OPEC producers if oil prices strengthened, the ministry's official website SHANA reported.

Flynn said the market recovered on conviction U.S. sanctions could dampen Iran's output, even if the nation produces above its OPEC quota.

Also supporting prices, energy information provider Genscape showed a decline in inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma storage hub for U.S. crude.

Brent crude futures settled up 65 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $74.71 a barrel, after falling as low as $73.13. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 24 cents to $68.64 a barrel, rebounding from a session low of $67.14. The difference between the two benchmarks was at its widest since Jan. 8. .

In post-settlement trading, Brent kept edging higher to $75.08 a barrel.

Since early 2017, OPEC, Russia and other non-OPEC crude producers have curbed output to reduce a global oil glut. The pact runs until the end of 2018.

"We continue to watch whether the fundamental picture continues to tighten," said Gene McGillian, vice president of research at Tradition Energy.

In early trade, oil fell along with other raw materials after the United States gave American customers of Russia's biggest aluminium producer Rusal <0486.HK> more time to comply with sanctions.

This month, oil has risen to its highest since late 2014. Prices have been supported by U.S. sanctions on Russian companies and individuals and by fears Washington may take new measures against struggling Venezuela and especially OPEC member Iran.

"Added price pressure comes from U.S. sanctions against the key oil exporting nations of Venezuela, Russia and Iran," said Kerry Craig, global market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management.

"Stay long oil," JPMorgan said in a separate note.

The United States has until May 12 to decide whether it will leave a nuclear deal with Iran and impose new sanctions against Tehran.

"The uncertainty of the administration makes things very difficult," McGillian said, cautioning that sanctions against Iran or Venezuela could also cause market swings.

(Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in SINGAPORE and Amanda Cooper in London; Editing by Marguerita Choy and David Gregorio)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Reliance Naval and Engineering's market valuation came down by Rs 265.04 crore to Rs 1,725.96 crore

New Delhi: Shares of Reliance Naval and Engineering cracked over 13 percent on Tuesday after auditors of the Anil Ambani-led firm raised doubts about the company's ability to "continue as a going concern".

The stock slumped 13.33 percent to end at Rs 23.40 on BSE. Intra-day, it tumbled 18.14 percent to Rs 22.10 -- its 52-week low.

The company's market valuation also came down by Rs 265.04 crore to Rs 1,725.96 crore.

Selling was also seen in other Reliance group stocks, with Reliance Communications tumbling 10.47 percent, Reliance Power 4.18 percent, Reliance Infrastructure 1.89 percent and Reliance Capital 1.34 percent.

In its notes to the company's 2017-18 earnings statement, auditors Pathak H.D. & Associates listed cash losses, erosion of network, loans being called back by secured lenders, current liabilities being substantially higher than assets and winding up petitions being filed by few operating creditors to raise its doubts.

"These conditions indicate the existence of a material uncertainty that may cast significant doubt on the company's ability to continue as going concern," the auditor said in the note.

The company on Monday reported widening of its net loss to Rs 408.68 crore in January-March quarter of 2017-18 fiscal year from Rs 139.92 crore net loss in the same period of previous financial year. For the full year 2017-18, it posted a net loss of Rs 956.09 crore as compared to a loss of Rs 523.43 crore in the previous year.
TCS creating history as the first Indian IT major to hit the coveted US $100 billion market cap is a result of consistent value creation and is poised to leverage the global digital opportunity

New Delhi: TCS creating history as the first Indian IT major to hit the coveted US $100 billion market cap is a result of consistent value creation and is poised to leverage the global digital opportunity, Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran said on Monday.

Riding high on the back of record quarterly profit and a weak rupee, the IT arm of the Tata conglomerate saw its market cap push above the US $100 billion (Rs 6,80,912.10 crore) mark after its shares climbed as much as 4.6 percent to a record high of Rs 3,557.9.

The stock closed with a gain of Rs 8.8 at Rs 3,415.20 on BSE, implying a market cap of Rs 6.53 lakh crore (about US $98.3 billion) on Monday.

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries is the only other Indian company which had breached the US $100 billion mark, way back in 2007. At Monday's rupee-dollar exchange rate and stock price, it had a m-cap of Rs 5.92 lakh crore.

"TCS has been able to create value consistently by making the right investments not only in terms of technology, but also in terms of creating capabilities, building leadership and talent, seeding new markets and developing scalable world-class solutions," Chandrasekaran said in a statement.

He added that the "Digital era" is going to be a large opportunity for TCS.

"Organisations are transforming into real-time enterprises driven by data, analytics and automation irrespective of business and TCS is well-positioned to make an impact and continue to deliver value," he added.

The spike in m-cap has come within days of strong performance reported by the company, which posted 4.3 per cent jump in annual revenue for FY18 to Rs 1.23 lakh crore.

The Tata group flagship, which contributes around 85 percent of the groups profit, reported its highest revenue growth in 14 quarters at 11.7 per cent in dollar terms.

It also announced a 1:1 bonus of shares and a dividend of Rs 29 a share, taking the total payout to shareholders at Rs 50 for the year.

TCS is the countrys most valued firm followed by Reliance Industries Ltd with a m-cap of Rs 5,92,427.82 crore, HDFC Bank (Rs 5,01,643.92 crore), ITC (Rs 3,35,801.17 crore) and Hindustan Unilever Ltd (Rs 3,14,938.94 crore) in the top-five list.

TCS, which competes with the likes of Infosys and Wipro, had hit the USD 50 billion m-cap mark in December 2010, and then scaled up to USD 75 billion milestone in June 2014.

Rajesh Gopinathan, CEO and Managing Director of TCS, said employees and customers had played an instrumental role in helping the company achieve the milestone.

"...what is exciting for us is the whole business 4.0 journey and the great opportunity to be a digital partner of choice to our customers in their growth and transformation journey," he added.

As part of its Business 4.0 strategy, TCS is looking at new age-technologies like automation, cloud and Internet of Things (IoT) driving digital revenues of the company to over USD 5 billion this year.
Two persons have been arrested in connection with the gang rape of a 16-year-old Class XI student in Greater Noida, according the media reports

Two persons have been arrested in connection with the gangrape of a 16-year-old Class XI student in Greater Noida, according the media reports. A third accused is currently absconding.

According to a report in The Times of India, the 16-year-old was gang raped in a car last week by her classmate, a distant relative and another youth on the pretext of dropping her home after she had missed her bus. The girl was returning home from school.

"We received information from the girl's father that on 18 April, she could not be found and based on his statement a First Information Report was filed against three people. We have caught the main accused and another youth, while a third one is still on the run," an NDTV report quoted Awneesh Kumar, senior officer at the Gautam Budh Nagar police station in Greater Noida, as saying.

The three accused have been booked under the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act, said the police.

Detailing the sequence of events leading up to the incident, the girl reportedly told police that she was walking home around 2.30pm when the three accused arrived in a car and offered her a lift in Kasna area. They, however, allegedly took turns to rape her inside the car and roamed the city for the rest of the day before dumping her near the Knowledge Park area at around 1 am, according to The Times of India report.

Later, the girl was found loitering near Galgotias University in Knowledge Park area, where she had been dumped after the incident. Police handed over the girl to the family, the report quoted Greater Noida station officer Ram Bhawan Singh as saying.

Recently, three young girls were raped and four other minors were sexually assaulted in seven separate incidents, which took place on the same day, in Uttar Pradesh, NDTV had reported.

The rapes allegedly took place in Uttar Pradesh's Rampur, Amroha and Kannauj districts and a fourth one was later reported to have occurred in Muzaffarnagar.
The government deserves praise for lifting AFSPA from Meghalaya and parts of Arunachal Pradesh. However, this must not act as a precedent to lift the law in Jammu and Kashmir, because the state is still violent unlike Meghalaya and Arunachal

The government deserves praise for lifting Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from Meghalaya and most parts of Arunachal Pradesh. However, this must not act as a precedent to lift the law in Jammu and Kashmir. There has been no significant violence in Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh as opposed to Jammu and Kashmir.

It must be stressed that the application of AFSPA in itself can't be condemned in isolation. Application of AFSPA is a necessary evil if the army is to operate in any given area. The recent statement by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq of the Hurriyat Conference, seeking a similar treatment for Jammu and Kashmir is completely misplaced. AFSPA is applicable in Jammu and Kashmir because the army is operating in the state, and the army is operating in the state because there is terrorism in the state.

Mirwaiz should, therefore, call for an end to the violence first. AFSPA can eventually be revoked if there is no sustained violence, as has been the case in Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh.

Demands for removal of AFSPA without a call to the insurgents to halt the violence amounts to holding the Indian State to ransom. The Constitution provides a framework, wherein separatist movements can exist in a non-violent way, which should be the method for the separatists, given they want to stick to their demands.

However, if the separatists resort to violence, the government has full right to respond with equal or more violence. The modern Indian State can't stick to the Gandhian doctrine of non-violence when it is being attacked violently through foreign sponsored organised terrorist activity.

A law is only a medium through which a policy of the contemporary government is implemented. The present policy of the Indian State is that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India. The separatists don't believe in this policy. The only option before them is to petition and plead against this position of the State through means and methods available under the scheme of the Indian Constitution. If they don't do that, it is only obvious that the Indian State will respond with full might and all the resources at its disposal.

The AFSPA is only one such instrument which the government has put to work to implement its policy.

Since the separatist movement has become violent in Jammu and Kashmir, the Indian State responded with violence, for which AFSPA was a necessary means. Also, the proportion of violence may have been greater in subduing the insurgency in the state. To complain against such proportion is only funny, because it can't be expected out of any retaliation that it would be in the same magnitude as the attack. The Indian establishment has the necessary means to respond with the requisite proportion and hence it did, and it should, even if it is greater in proportion.

It has to be borne in mind that the army is not the police. It operates with a degree of discretion, which is absolutely necessary for it to function. In a war-like situation, the army personnel need to take instantaneous decisions which can only be trusted upon their discretion. AFSPA specifically does that. When an area is declared as a "disturbed area", the army gets special rights to arrest, fire and search at the cost of the usual civil rights of the people. But these powers are very fundamentally necessary if the army is to function to its full efficiency.

Another provision which has acted a lot of criticism is that the army personnel are given immunity from civil and criminal laws while acting under AFSPA. Such criticism also completely misses the point  that the army is not the police. If the army personnel would have to remain cautious about some future criminal proceedings against their action, it is impossible that they would be in a position to act freely.

Having said that, however, this law can't be used to commit crimes like rape by the army and then seek protection under AFSPA. The law doesn't provide blanket immunity; it is subject to sanction by the central government. If there are such grave allegations against any army personnel and the evidence on record prima facie indicates commission of such an offence, it is incumbent upon the government to provide sanction and see to it that justice is delivered.

The activism, however, against the law in Jammu and Kashmir, is highly political and misplaced. The activists should advocate and work for a halt in violence and then ask for repeal of AFSPA. Only then will it make any sense.

The author is a senior fellow with the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Bombay
The meetings of the defence and foreign ministers of the SCO, being attended by Sitharaman and Sushma Swaraj, began in Beijing on Tuesday

The meetings of the defence and foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), being attended by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, began in Beijing on Tuesday. The two meetings are being held simultaneously.

Swaraj, along with other foreign ministers of the SCO member countries, met Chinese president Xi Jinping at the Great Hall on Monday, the Ministry of External Affairs said. Besides Swaraj, Pakistan's Khawaja Asif, Kazakhstan's Kairat Abdrakhmanov, Kyrgyzstan's Erlan Abdyldayev, Russia's Sergey Lavrov, Tajikistan's Sirodjidin Aslov and Abdulaziz Kamilov of Uzbekistan also met Xi.

Conveying our desire to strengthen our bilateral relationship, EAM @SushmaSwaraj called on President of People's Republic of China Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of People in Beijing. #EAMatSCO pic.twitter.com/1lo8tAy9aM  Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) April 23, 2018

However, there will be no bilateral meetings between Swaraj, Sitharaman and their Pakistan counterparts at the SCO ministerial meets in Beijing, official sources told PTI.

The meetings, which are part of the preparations for the SCO summit to be held in the Chinese city of Qingdao in June, have become prominent as they are the first such meetings after India and Pakistan were admitted into the eight-member group last year.

Both events are to be attended by the respective ministers from Pakistan. A host of issues including that of regional security and counter-terrorism are expected to figure in the meetings. Relations between India and Pakistan turned frosty after the Pathankot terror attack in January 2016 and another strike by terrorists on an Army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir in September that year.

The SCO, in which China plays a massive role, is a political, economic, and security grouping. The organisation consists of China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hua Chunying said on Friday that issues related to terrorism will be discussed at the SCO foreign ministers' meeting.

"We believe it is a purpose of the SCO to promote relevant cooperation in that field. Security has been a priority of the SCO since its inception," she said and defended Pakistan after Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed it as "terror export factory" at an event in London recently.

So the upcoming meeting will see participants exchanging views on the relevant issues, along with major international and regional issues, Hua said.

While Modi is scheduled to attend the SCO summit, officials say Pakistan is expected to be represented by its president Mamnoon Hussain as its prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had recently attended the Boao Forum for Asia in the Chinese city of Boao.

With inputs from PTI
Delhi Police's special cell has filed a chargesheet against banned outfit Indian Mujahideen's founder Abdul Subhan Qureshi

Delhi Police's special cell has filed a chargesheet against banned outfit Indian Mujahideen's founder and accused in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts Abdul Subhan Qureshi, a CNN-News18 report said on Tuesday.

#EXCLUSIVE - The Delhi police special cell has filed a chargesheet against terror group Indian Mujahideen founder Abdul Subhan Qureshi. CNN-News18 accesses exclusive details of the chargesheet. Stay tuned for more updates. pic.twitter.com/R0WHoKbEr2  News18 (@CNNnews18) April 24, 2018

In March, the Crime Branch of the police brought Qureshi to Ahmedabad from Delhi, over a month after the Delhi Police's special cell arrested him. He was produced in the special court set up for conducting the trial of the blasts case, which remanded him in police custody till 23 March.

Serial blasts killed 56 people and injured 240 others in Ahmedabad on 26 July, 2008.

"Qureshi is one of the key conspirators of the 2008 blasts. He had been in touch with the absconding accused, such as founder leader of Indian Mujahideen Riyaz Bhatkal, and had worked with some of the arrested accused," the police said.

Until March, the police had arrested 81 persons in the blasts case, while thirteen were still absconding. "Qureshi stayed in Vatva locality in Ahmedabad where he trained and mentored other accused... and was in touch with Indian Mujahideen mastermind Bhatkal," the police said.

Qureshi, who holds a diploma in electronic engineering, is technology-savvy, and played an important role in making the explosive devices used in the blasts by getting information from the internet, Bhatt said. He could be involved in other blasts in the country too, the police added.

Qureshi was arrested from Ghazipur in east Delhi in January 2018. Delhi police alleged that Qureshi was indoctrinating unemployed youth to fill the void left by the fall of top Indian Mujahideen operatives, and planned to revive IM's terror network in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

He was wanted by the National Investigation Agency in the December 2007 Wagamon SIMI arms training camp case, and by Maharashtra Police in July 2011 Mumbai blasts case.

With inputs from PTI
Asaram was booked for a minor's rape under relevant sections of IPC, Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the Prevention of Atrocities (against SC/ST) Act following a complaint against him by a girl

Jodhpur: A strange calm prevails at the Jodhpur ashram of Asaram Bapu. Only a little less than 30 followers have stayed back at the ashram just a day before a special SC/ST court is due to pronounce the verdict in a 2012 rape case against the self-styled godman on Wednesday.

Rajasthan police, who have kept a strict vigil in plain clothes on the ashram ever since Asaram was jailed on 31 August, 2013, have discouraged his supporters from mobilising support for the accused. As the case comes close to conclusion, police have tightened security measures in Jodhpur, setting up checkposts at all exit and entry points to the district, and beefing the cover around Asaram's ashram and Jodhpur Central Jail, where he is lodged.

The pronouncement of verdict on 25 April will be conducted from jail premises, as pleaded by Rajasthan police on 21 April.

Asaram was booked for a minor's rape under relevant sections of IPC, Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the Prevention of Atrocities (against SC/ST) Act following a complaint against him by a girl from Shahjahanpur in UP who had stayed at Asarams ashram as a student.

While prohibitory orders have been in place in Jodhpur since the morning of 21 April, police commissioner Ashok Rathod has said that there is no bar on assembly of people at marriages or social gatherings. People should refrain from gathering otherwise till the verdict in the Asaram case is announced, he said, adding that extra security arrangements were a precautionary measure anticipating untoward incidents in the case involving a self-styled godman who enjoys backing of thousands of followers.

Followers of Asaram, who once mustered enormous clout in this region, have chosen not to express solidarity with their guru by assembling outside the prison as that would not affect the verdict, they say. "We have asked followers calling from other regions not to arrive in Jodhpur as it may create trouble and send wrong message to the society," said an ashram spokesperson without disclosing his identity.

Asaram's followers seem to have accepted the fate of the rape accused as they have been hesitant in circulating messages of solidarity even on social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp. A police team has also been monitoring social media content to spot users who may spread rumours to disturb peace and harmony in Jodhpur during this time.

State government has deployed five IPS officers to command the Jodhpur police force while monitoring the situation and maintaining law and order in the district. Hotels, inns and guest houses have been ordered to stay on tight vigil and verify identity before providing accommodation. Law enforcement agencies have also sourced records of persons visiting the city during this period to keep an eye on suspected movements.

Additional force could be called on Wednesday to beef up security inside the city and at sensitive spots, police have said.

Legal experts opine that Asaram could be sentenced to 10 years of jail term if held guilty under section 376D and POCSO Act.

Businessmen around the Central Jail premises are happy about the security arrangement in place to keep any trouble at bay on the day of verdict. Pawan Bishnoi, whose hardware shop is hardly 500 metres from the jail, said police is keeping a strict watch from last five days. "Some people might be indulged in rumour mongering, but public is not fearful of untoward incidents as the security is tight," Bishnoi said.

The author is a Jodhpur-based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters.
Security has been stepped up and prohibitory orders issued in the city ahead of the trial court verdict in the rape case against self-styled godman Asaram on Wednesday.

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Ahead of the verdict in the rape case of a 16-year-old girl involving self-styled godman Asaram Bapu, security has been beefed up in Jodhpur. Apprehending a threat to law and order from followers of Asaram, the police have imposed prohibitory orders till April 30 banning the assembly of more than four people at a place.

It further said that visitng Jodhpur would be a waste of time, money and energy and stated that Bapuji is innocent and will soon be among us again, News18 reported.

The note advised people to not believe the information circulating on social media and to consult the nearest ashram or the one in Ahmedabad for the real news.

A press note from Sant Sri Asaramji Ashram Trust in Delhi said any person who indulges in anarchy cannot be a devotee of Asaram. The note impressed upon his followers to exercise restraint and do nothing that creates an obstacle in the process of justice.

"We will also seal the jail on the day of judgment and would not allow anyone to get close to jail premises," Singh said.

"We have imposed section 144 of CrPC in the city from April 21 and would remain effective till April 30. Besides this, we have been keeping a sharp eye on ashrams of Asaram in the city and checking all hotels and guest houses as well as the bus and railway station," DCP (East) Aman Deep Singh said.

"I am personally reviewing the security as the court judgement likely to come soon and officials are in touch with the family," the Superintendent of Police (SP) said.

"The security of the rape survivor's family is continuously being monitored...Five policemen have been deployed at the house and a strict vigil is beingmaintained on all the visitors," SP (City) Dinesh Tripathi told PTI.

With a special SC/ST court in Jodhpur all set to pronounce its verdit in a 2012 rape case against self-styled godman Asaram, the district administration in Shahjahanpur has stepped up security around the house of the victim.

The advocates will be permitted to remain present at the time of pronouncement of judgment.

It cannot be said that (Asaram's) followers will not create hurdle or unhealthy atmosphere which may create not only hardship and inconvenience to the public at large of Jodhpur city, but also law and order problem, the court said in its order.

The verdict in the rape of a 16-year-old girl will be pronounced fron the Jodhpur central jail premises, where accused and self-styled 'god-man' Asaram is lodged.

Verdict in rape case against Asaram to be pronounced on jail premises: Rajasthan HC

Asaram, who is in jail since 31 August, 2013, was charged under relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the counsel said. If convicted, Asaram faces maximum sentence of 10 years, he said.

The special SC/ST trial court had completed the final arguments in the case on 7 April and the verdict is expected tomorrow. A teenage girl had accused Asaram of sexual assault at his ashram in Manai village. The girl, who belonged to Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh, was a student living in the ashram.

The elder sister, in her complaint against Asaram, had accused him of repeated sexual assaults between 2001 and 2006 when she was staying at his ashram near Ahmedabad.

Two Surat-based sisters had lodged separate complaints against Asaram and his son Narayan Sai, accusing them of rape and illegal confinement, among other charges.

Asaram is also facing a rape case in Surat in Gujarat in which the Supreme Court earlier this month gave five weeks time to the prosecution to complete the trial.

Asaram also faces charges in two rape and assault cases in Gujarat

Trial of the case had begun in the district and session court on 19 March, 2017, which had been shifted to the special court for SC/ST Cases on 16 December, 2016.

A chargesheet against Asaram and 4 other co-accused namely Shiva, Shilpi, Sharad and Prakash had been filed by the police on 6 November, 2013 under various sections of the POSCO Act, Juvenile Justice Act and IPC.

Asaram was arrested from Indore and brought to Jodhpur on 1 September, 2013. He is under judicial custody since 2 September, 2013.

In a communication, the Home Ministry told the three states to beef up security and ensure that no violence takes place after the verdict. The three states were also told to deploy additional forces in sensitive places, the Home Ministry official said.

The Centre today asked Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana to tighten security and deploy additional forces ahead of the verdict by a Jodhpur court in a rape case against self-styled godman Asaram, an official said.

 "I have full faith in the judiciary and am confident that Asaram will be given the severest form of punishment," said the rape survivor's father. The victim had alleged that Asaram called her to his ashram in Manai area near Jodhpur and raped her on the night of 15 August, 2013.

There would be check posts at all entry gates of the city where the police would ensure that his followers do not enter. Identity cards would be checked and in case of any suspicion, the holder would be made to return, the police said.

We have set up control rooms at both the bus and railway stations and have urged the officers to constantly share information," DCP (West) Sameer Singh said.

"We will also seal the jail on the day of judgment and would not allow anyone to get close to the jail premises," he said.

"We have imposed section 144 of CrPC in the city from 21 April and it would remain effective till 30 April. Besides this, we have been keeping a sharp eye on Asaram's ashrams and checking all hotels and guest houses as well as the bus and railway stations, DCP (East) Aman Deep Singh said in Jodhpur.

Asaram unsuccessfully moved 12 bail applications so far, of which six were rejected by the trial court, three by the Rajasthan high court and three by the Supreme Court in various cases against him.

Given his clout, the course of justice hasn't been easy for the victims. "Ever since the recording of statements began, three witnesses have been murdered, three have gone missing and one was stabbed inside the court premises. Yet, no case under Section 302 (murder) has been registered against Asaram," an NDTV report said.

Asaram, who has over 400 centres across 12 nations and over two million followers, is currently in Jodhpur jail while his son is lodged in a jail in Surat. Both are facing charges of rape and killing children for occult practices.

Earlier, Sachan had been stabbed outside a courtroom in Jaipur but had survived the attack. The CBI is probing his disappearance.

Sachan - a former personal assistant to Asaram from 2009 to 2013  had been calling cops every week from his home in Balagunj in UP for almost a year to make one, strange request: Save me till I depose in the courts, if they find me, they will surely kill me.

Asarams personal (ayurvedic) physician, Amrut Prajapati, who was a key witness in the 2013 rape case was gunned down by motorcycle-borne assailants in Rajkot in June 2014. Another associate Akhil Gupta , Asarams personal cook, was shot dead in Muzaffarnagar on 12 January, 2015. The third witness to be killed was Kirpal Singh  he was to testify in the 2013 case on 10 July, 2015 in Shahjahanpur. Another person, Rahul Sachan, a key witness, went missing in the afternoon of 21 November, 2015. He is also feared dead.

However, the parents were asked to leave the child alone on the pretext of conducting some rituals to rid her of evil spirits. The girl alleged that she was asked to perform oral sex and was touched inappropriately by Asaram on the night of 15 August, 2013, The Indian Express reported.

In 2013, a teenaged girl from Uttar Pradesh's Shahjahanpur, whose parents were followers of Asaram, accused him of raping her at his ashram. The girl was brought to his Jodhpur ashram for treatment after she fainted one day at her school. The girls parents were told that she possessed evil spirits and she can be cured at the ashram.

As per the directions of the Rajasthan High Court, the trial court will deliver its verdict in the case in Jodhpur Central Jail premises.

Prohibitory orders are imposed in Jodhpur till 30 April to prevent self-styled 'godman' Asaram's followers from gathering in the city for a trial court verdict in a rape case against him on 25 April.

"We are in touch with police forces from neighbouring states to avert any untoward incident. Senior officers from districts and SHOs of police stations concerned have been directed to keep a watch in their respective areas," he added.

A senior police official said the department is keeping a close watch on Delhi's boundaries and inside the city areas, where Asaram's supporters might gather after the judgment.

The Delhi Police said on Tuesday that it is on high alert ahead of a trial court's verdict in Jodhpur on Wednesday in the alleged rape of a teenager by self-styled godman Asaram, who faces a minimum 10-year prison term if convicted.

The division bench comprising Justice Gopal K Vyas and Justice Ram Chandra Singh Jhala also issued guidelines to the Jodhpur police commissioner and the district magistrate and Collector to ensure law and order in the city on the verdict day.

Considering an appeal from the Jodhpur police commissioner, a division bench of the Rajasthan High Court ordered the trial court to deliver its verdict inside the jail premises.

Apprehending trouble from thousands of followers of Asaram in case of an adverse judgment, the Jodhpur court will pronounce its verdict in a rape case against him inside the premises of the Jodhpur Central Jail on Wednesday.

The ministry is also in touch with the states concerned and Union home secretary Rajiv Gauba has spoken to top level administrative and police officials over the issue. The three states were also told to deploy additional forces in sensitive places.

The Union home ministry on Tuesday issued an advisory to Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana to step up security in order to prevent any untoward incident, an official said.

The trial court judge who will pronounce has reached the jail premises from where the verdict will be declared. According to India Today, the proceedings will begin at 8.30 since it is a summer court.

A personal security officer has been deployed for the security of the judge Madhusudan Sharma and police personnel have been deployed at his residence, according to DCP Amandeep Singh Kapoor.

Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana have large number of followers of Asaram. Prohibitory orders have already been issued in Jodhpur where a trial court will deliver its verdict in the central jail premises, as directed by the Rajasthan High Court.

All the hotels and dharamshalas were being checked to ensure that Asarams followers would not be able to congregate, DCP Amandeep Singh Kapoor.

Around 1,500 police personnel are deployed around the Jodhpur Central Jail premises, railway stations, roadways bus stand and court premises, the DCP informed.

The Rajasthan High Court dismissed a plea filed by a News18 reporter and said that though media "was the fourth pillar of democracy", they would be allowed to cover the proceedings from outside the jail premises for the sake of "maintaining public order".

Jodhpur DCP Amandeep Kapoor told mediapersons outside the Jodhpur Central Jail that law and order situation would be handled perfectly in any given situation.

Four Asaram Bapu followers have been detained from Jodhpur railway station by Rajasthan Police.

The entry and exit from gate number 2 of the Jodhpur railway station has been barred up till midnight of 25 April on request of district police, says PRO Gopal Sharma.

The victim had alleged that Asaram called her to his ashram in Manai area near Jodhpur and raped her on the night of 15 August, 2013.

Security has been tightened outside victim's house ahead of verdict by a trial court. Asaram is accused of raping a teenage girl from Shahajahanpur in Uttar Pradesh, who was studying at the godman's ashram at Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh. Asaram has denied the rape charges.

Asaram's sewadar Shiva has arrived at the jail ahead of verdict. Shiva is one of the two associates of Asaram who had allegedly helped in the crime by contacting the father of the rape survivor and told him that his daughter had been possessed and had to be taken to Jodhpur to meet babaji who would cure her.

One of the witnesses, Mahendra Chawla, who was attacked on 13 May, 2015 in Haryana's Panipat, told ANI that he trusts the judiciary. "Trust judicary and am confident that Asaram will be convicted. I request judiciary that such rapists should be hanged. Though I have security, I request Centre for additional security, my life like other witnesses is constantly under threat," says Mahendra Chawla.

The police in Jodhpur seems to be much more vigilant, combing all hotels every four house and sealing entry, exit points.

According to News18 reports, unlike the Dera Sacha Sauda leader Ram Rahim's verdict, where thousands of supporters slept on pavements, the pro-Asaram group is "conspicuously invisible". Ram Rahim's supporters were organised and led by wing leaders. In Asaram's case, there does not seem to be any central leadership on the ground.

"The court will pronounce a "very good" verdict which the entire nation will respect", rape survivor's advocate PC Solanki told reporters in Jodhpur.

Defence lawyer Sajjan Raj Surana told News18 that Asaram's counsels were hoping for good news that he would be acquitted. Meanwhile, the self-styled guru's Ahmedabad ashram has appealed to supporters to maintain peace regardless.

In Jodhpur, where a trial court will deliver the verdict in a rape case against Asaram on Wednesday, the police has been scanning Asaram's local ashram since many days.

The followers from Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh kept coming till the last moment on 24 August and Haryana police was seen busy making arrangements for them. Haryana minister Ram Bilas Sharma even visited them and called to arrange food and water for them.

Panchkula versus Jodhpur: A look at security arrangements during verdicts of two different rape cases (1/5)

Intelligence in Jodhpur has done a better job of dealing with suspicious persons, compared to their Panchkula counterparts who were left confused about their next course of action.

The Jodhpur police is taking strict action against anyone trying to enter the city with the intention of disturbing law and order. Police has scanned every nook and corner and has stepped up security measures since Saturday, issuing warning even on its social media platforms. Jodhpur police's strict attitude and absence of political interference has made the measures more effective.

Panchkula versus Jodhpur: A look at security arrangements during verdicts of two different rape cases (2/5)

Special Judge SC/ST Court Madhusudhan Sharma is in the jail premises to deliver the verdict. A tight security cordon has been thrown around the jail in Jodhpur where prohibitory orders have already been clamped.

As per the directions of the Rajasthan High Court, the trial court will deliver its verdict in the Jodhpur Central Jail premises where Asaram has been lodged for the past over four years.

Proceedings are underway in the Jodhpur Central Jail premises where a trial court judge is set to pronounce its verdict in the rape case of a teenager by self-styled godman Asaram.

Meanwhile, the deceased's father Naresh Gupta said, "I am confident that justice will be given to the victim in Jodhpur case." Two sisters in Surat had accused Asaram and his son Narayan Sai of raping them. Gupta was a witness in the rape case against Asaram and had recorded his statement before a Gandhinagar court.

Gupta was returning home from his shop on a scooter when the two motorcycle-borne assailant shot at him on 11 Januray, 2015. Gupta was a cook and personal aide of Asaram.

Security has been provided to the family of Akhil Gupta, a witness in the rape case against Asaram Bapu in Surat, who was shot dead in January 2015, ahead of the godman's verdict in Jodhpur, police said.

The Section of 144 CrPC imposed in Pachkula was flouted by followers of Ram Rahim during the conviction by Panchkula CBI court. There were thousands of Ram Rahim followers spread in entire Panchkula forcing the local residents to get imprisoned inside the houses. While in Jodhpur case, Section 144 of the CrPC has been enforced in true spirit with no public movements near the Jodhpur Central Jail premises. Barring media and posse of police force, not even a single person is present outside court. In Jodhpur, there is police personal present at every 10 metre.

Panchkula versus Jodhpur: A look at security arrangements during verdicts of two different rape cases (3/5)

Prohibitory orders have already been issued in Jodhpur where the trial court will deliver its verdict in the Central Jail premises, as directed by the Rajasthan High Court. Both the roads towards the central jail, where Asaram is lodged, have been sealed and only mediapersons are allowed outside the jail.

According to News18 , Asaram reached was late to court by 15 minutes. He was reportedly offering puja and kept the judge and legal teams waiting for the time.

"We will discuss with our legal team and then decide our future course of action. We have confidence in our judiciary," ANI quoted Asaram's PRO Neelam Dubey as saying.

Will decide future course of action after discussing verdict with legal team, says Asaram's spokesperson

He was being tried for IPC 342 (Wrongful confinement), IPC 376(2)(F) (Rape of a minor girl), IPC 376 D (Rape), IPC 354 A (Outraging the modesty of a woman), IPC 506 (Criminal intimidation) and IPC 109 (Abetment to an offence). The self-styled guru may be sentenced to 10 years in jail or life imprisonment.

Asaram, 77, was booked under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act for raping a minor girl in Jodhpur's Manai village.

"Asaram is convicted, we have got justice. I want to thank everyone who supported us in this fight. Now I hope he will get strict punishment. I also hope the witnesses who were murdered/kidnapped get justice," ANI quoted rape survivor's father as telling reporters after the verdict.

According to jail DIG, Asaram's two associates Shiva and Prakash have been acquitted, while Shilpi and Sharad have been convicted.

Welcoming the decision of the court, rape survivor said that four years (of waiting) was a very long term and "I am happy with the court's decision".

After a Jodhpur trial court found Asaram guilty in a 2013 rape case against him, Congress leader Ashok Gehlot told reporters, "Such cases bring shame to the country. It's time we crack down on fake gurus."

It's time we crack down on fake gurus, says Ashok Gehlot

Rajasthan DGP told News18 that Asaram's conviction is under section 376(Rape) and POCSO Act. Asaram is also facing a rape case in Surat in Gujarat in which the Supreme Court earlier in April gave five weeks time to the prosecution to complete the trial.

Seconds after the self styled guru Ram Rahim held guilty in rape case by Panchkula CBI Court on 25 August, his followers present outside the court scrambled in the city and took to arson, violent activites. Flabbergasted Haryana police had to take help of Indian Army on standby to curb the volatile situation. In Jodhpur, the situation so far remained peaceful with no reaction from his upset followers after Asaram along with two others held guilty in 2012 rape case by Special SC/ST Court at Jodhpur Central Jail.

Panchkula versus Jodhpur: A look at security arrangements during verdicts of two different rape cases (4/5)

The elder sister, in her complaint against Asaram, had accused him of repeated sexual assaults between 2001 and 2006 when she was staying at his ashram near Ahmedabad.

Two Surat-based sisters had lodged separate complaints against Asaram and his son Narayan Sai, accusing them of rape and illegal confinement, among other charges.

According to Times Now, Asarams son Narayan Sai appeared in a Surat court on Wednesday. Other than the 2013 rape case in which he was convicted on Wednesday, Asaram is also facing a rape case in Surat in Gujarat in which the Supreme Court gave five weeks' time to the prosecution to complete the trial in April.

Asaram's advocate is praying to court to be lenient while pronouncing the punishment citing the 77-year-old's old age and failing health.

Reporters on the ground are facing difficulty in getting reactions from Asaram's supporters. Section 144 of the CrPC has been imposed in Jodhpur till 30 April, while security around the Jodhpur jail premises has been heightened since Wednesday morning. The Centre has also asked Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana governments to tighten security and deploy additional forces as the three states have a large number of followers of the 77-year-old Asaram who faces a minimum term of 10 years if convicted.

The special CBI Judge Jagdeep Singh had flown from Panchkula in chopper and reached at Rohtak Sunaria Jail around 3 pm. The court hearing continued till 5.30 pm and awarded 20 years of jail term to Ram Rahim. In Jodhpur Asaram rape case, judge Madhu Sudan Sharma is present at central jail since Wednesday morning declared Asaram guilty in minor rape case against him around 11 am and decided to pronounce the quantam of punishment on the same day.

Panchkula versus Jodhpur: A look at security arrangements during verdicts of two different rape cases (5/5)

 In a tweet, Bollywood actor and director Farhan Akhtar said, "Can people please stop sharing images of him with Narendra Modi. Patronising him before he was exposed to be a pervert is no crime. Lets be fair and give him the benefit of doubt that he, like us, did not know."

"In Bhopal, there is a crossing and a bus stand named after him. I ask Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan that the names be changed of these places be changed to something else," she said.

Rachna Dhingra, member of Bhopal group for information and action working for gas victims of Bhopal gas disaster for past 10 years demands to change the name of intersections named after Asaram.

Reacting to Asaram's conviction, National Commission For Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) member Yashwant Jain said, "This judgment is a lesson to people who think they can get away by committing sexual offences against children."

'Asaram verdict a lesson to those who think they can get away by committing sexual offences against children'

In a tweet, Congress shared a video of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Asaram, saying, "A man is known by the company he keeps."

"For the past four months, our family members had not been coming out (of our house)...it is satisfying that the verdict has gone against him," he said. "We were living in constant terror, our business was adversely hit," he said.

The father of the teenager raped by Asaram expressed satisfaction over the Jodhpur court verdict convicting the self-styled godman. "We had complete faith in the judiciary and are happy that we got justice," he told mediapersons soon after the court verdict.

Survivor's father says satisfying that verdict has gone against Asaram

Quoting jail sources, CNN-News18 reported that the staff of judge Madhusudhan is still inside the premises, which means the court is still functioning. The normal time till when the court functions is 1 pm. However, in some cases in the past the court has worked for extra hours.

According to CNN-News18 sources, the special court has started reading out its order in the case. The self-styled godman is expected to get maximum 10 years in prison, however, the defence has sought leniency citing his age and failing health.

The court has sentenced Asaram to a life term in the rape case, while two other of his aides Shilpi and Sharad are given 20 years in jail each.

Asaram trust's spokesperson Neelam Dubey reacted to the verdict against the self-styled godman. She said that the sentence was a big blow and a disappointment, adding that the legal team will decide upon the course of further action. She said that the trust will definitely move high court against the verdict.

The special SC/ST court has also fined Asaram, Shilpi and Sharad Rs 1 Lakh each in the case. The court handed out maximum punishment to Asaram while it sentenced the other two accused to 20 years in prison each.

The rape survivor's father has expressed satisfaction on the SC/ST court's verdict. He said that the rapist of her daughter was sentenced to a life term and this is the biggest compensation they could ever get.

Life term to Asaram biggest compensation we can get, says rape survivor's father

According to reports, Asaram collapsed on his chair after hearing that he has been sentenced to life. The self-styled godman broke down after hearing the quantum of the sentence.

The rape survivor's lawyer said that the family was happy with the life term given out to Asaram. He, however, added that after considering the options before them, they would like to move Rajasthan High Court against the acquittal of two of Asaram's aides, Shiva and Prakash.

According to news reports, the defence counsel pleaded for leniency in handing out sentence as Asaram was also a phillanthropist. The lawyers cited his welfare programmes while seeking leniency.

National Commission For Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) lauded the special court's judgment in the rape case of a minor by the high-profile godman. Speaking to ANI, NCPCR member Yashwant Jain said, "This judgment is a lesson to people who think they can get away by committing sexual offences against children. I would like to appreciate the girl and her family for fighting against the culprits."

Reacting to the special court's verdict on Asaram, Jodhpur DCP told ANI , "I can say that hard work from everyone has finally paid off. We all are really happy with this decision. I need media's support to get the correct version out there to the supporters of Asaram."

"All the attempts being made to defame a saint like Asaram Bapu, (this) isn't in the country's interest or in the interest of the Hindus or in the interest of Sanathan Dharm," Vanzara said.

Speaking to NDTV , he termed other rape charges against him as bad publicity.

Former Gujarat top cop DG Vanzara has claimed that the allegations against "pujya bapuji" were not made out to be that of rape in the first information report. He said that the girl only first alleged that she was touched inappropriately and he exuded confidence that the 'godman' would be released by the higher courts.

"But society has a lot of faith in schools and it was my moral duty to live up to it and I fulfilled my responsibility," he added. The principal said he had received threatening letters and was sent a packet with cartridges to put pressure on him. The teacher said the security provided to him by the district administration was inadequate in the backdrop of deaths of some witnesses in the case.

The teacher, who is also a witness in the case, said he had been facing threats from Asaram's followers to change the child's date of birth to help the godman evade stringent punishment under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The principal of the school where Asaram's victim studied was a much-relieved man today with a Jodhpur court pronouncing the self-styled godman guilty of her rape.

Though he had once run a successful transport business and owned more than ten trucks, he had sold most of them to fund the legal battle against Asaram. His family members routine lives had been disrupted, since they had to travel often to Jodhpur to attend the trial. The trial period is so difficult and painful I cant tell you, the father said. What kind of life is this? We have to travel so often to a state that is not ours. That city is not our city, but we land up there every few days with bag and baggage. And the court gets over at five in the evening. What to do with the rest of the long days and long nights in that unknown city? We just lie there in a small hotel room thinking about what happened to us, the report read.

"He (victim's father) was much more subdued when I visited him again, in December 2016. I entered a small office in front of the familys two-storey house to see a man at a table sorting papers and signing courier dispatches. It took me several seconds to realise that this was the victims father. He seemed to have aged a decade in the three years since I had met him last; he had grown slighter, and had lost most of his hair.

A detailed report in Caravan magazine gives a glimpse of the life of a rape survivor after the initial anger subsides. The course of a long-drawn trial leaves shadows of trauma even years after the crime was committed.

The chief minister's tweet came after, Firstpost tweeted out a video clip of Rachna Dhingra, member of a group in Bhopal for information and action working for victims of gas tragedy for past 10 years. Dhingra demanded that the name of intersections named after Asaram in Bhopal must be changed.

But rape is not the only charge against Asaram. He is also facing prosecution in a Rs 700-crore land grab case of 2000 in Madhya Pradesh. The case pertains to 200 acres of land in Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh.

The verdict of a lifetime in jail slapped on self-styled godman Asaram for raping a 16-year-old girl has turned the spotlight on two other women who have charged the 77-year-old preacher with sexual assault and are awaiting justice. The sisters, based in Surat, had alleged they were raped and illegally confined by Asaram and his son Narayan Sai.

According to news reports, the defence counsel pleaded for leniency in handing out sentence as Asaram was also a phillanthropist. The lawyers cited his welfare programmes while seeking leniency.

National Commission For Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) lauded the special court's judgment in the rape case of a minor by the high-profile godman. Speaking to ANI, NCPCR member Yashwant Jain said, "This judgment is a lesson to people who think they can get away by committing sexual offences against children. I would like to appreciate the girl and her family for fighting against the culprits."

Reacting to the special court's verdict on Asaram, Jodhpur DCP told ANI , "I can say that hard work from everyone has finally paid off. We all are really happy with this decision. I need media's support to get the correct version out there to the supporters of Asaram."

"All the attempts being made to defame a saint like Asaram Bapu, (this) isn't in the country's interest or in the interest of the Hindus or in the interest of Sanathan Dharm," Vanzara said.

Speaking to NDTV , he termed other rape charges against him as bad publicity.

Former Gujarat top cop DG Vanzara has claimed that the allegations against "pujya bapuji" were not made out to be that of rape in the first information report. He said that the girl only first alleged that she was touched inappropriately and he exuded confidence that the 'godman' would be released by the higher courts.

"But society has a lot of faith in schools and it was my moral duty to live up to it and I fulfilled my responsibility," he added. The principal said he had received threatening letters and was sent a packet with cartridges to put pressure on him. The teacher said the security provided to him by the district administration was inadequate in the backdrop of deaths of some witnesses in the case.

The teacher, who is also a witness in the case, said he had been facing threats from Asaram's followers to change the child's date of birth to help the godman evade stringent punishment under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The principal of the school where Asaram's victim studied was a much-relieved man today with a Jodhpur court pronouncing the self-styled godman guilty of her rape.

Though he had once run a successful transport business and owned more than ten trucks, he had sold most of them to fund the legal battle against Asaram. His family members routine lives had been disrupted, since they had to travel often to Jodhpur to attend the trial. The trial period is so difficult and painful I cant tell you, the father said. What kind of life is this? We have to travel so often to a state that is not ours. That city is not our city, but we land up there every few days with bag and baggage. And the court gets over at five in the evening. What to do with the rest of the long days and long nights in that unknown city? We just lie there in a small hotel room thinking about what happened to us, the report read.

"He (victim's father) was much more subdued when I visited him again, in December 2016. I entered a small office in front of the familys two-storey house to see a man at a table sorting papers and signing courier dispatches. It took me several seconds to realise that this was the victims father. He seemed to have aged a decade in the three years since I had met him last; he had grown slighter, and had lost most of his hair.

A detailed report in Caravan magazine gives a glimpse of the life of a rape survivor after the initial anger subsides. The course of a long-drawn trial leaves shadows of trauma even years after the crime was committed.

The chief minister's tweet came after, Firstpost tweeted out a video clip of Rachna Dhingra, member of a group in Bhopal for information and action working for victims of gas tragedy for past 10 years. Dhingra demanded that the name of intersections named after Asaram in Bhopal must be changed.

But rape is not the only charge against Asaram. He is also facing prosecution in a Rs 700-crore land grab case of 2000 in Madhya Pradesh. The case pertains to 200 acres of land in Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh.

The verdict of a lifetime in jail slapped on self-styled godman Asaram for raping a 16-year-old girl has turned the spotlight on two other women who have charged the 77-year-old preacher with sexual assault and are awaiting justice. The sisters, based in Surat, had alleged they were raped and illegally confined by Asaram and his son Narayan Sai.

Security has been stepped up and prohibitory orders issued in the city ahead of the trial court verdict in the rape case against self-styled godman Asaram on Wednesday.

As per the directions of the Rajasthan High Court, the trial court will deliver its verdict in the case in Jodhpur Central Jail premises.

Apprehending a threat to law and order from followers of Asaram, the police have imposed prohibitory orders.

"We have made all arrangements for the judgement day. Magistrate along with court staff, Asaram and co-accused along with the defence and prosecution counsels will remain present in the courtroom in jail premises, DIG, Jail, Vikram Singh said.

Final arguments in the case had been completed by the special court for SC/ST cases on 7 April and the court had kept the order reserved to be pronounced on 25 April.

Asaram was arrested on the complaint filed by a teenage girl from Shahajahanpur of Uttar Pradesh, who was studying at the godman's ashram at Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh.

The victim had alleged that Asaram had called her to his ashram in Manai area near Jodhpur and raped her on the night of 15 August, 2013.

Asaram was arrested from Indore and brought to Jodhpur on 1 September, 2013. He is under judicial custody since 2 September, 2013.

A chargesheet against Asaram and 4 other co-accused namely Shiva, Shilpi, Sharad and Prakash had been filed by the police on 6 November, 2013 under various sections of the POSCO Act, Juvenile Justice Act and IPC.

Trial of the case had begun in the district and session court on 19 March, 2017, which had been shifted to the special court for SC/ST Cases on 16 December, 2016.

We have imposed Section 144 of CrPC in the city from 21 April and would remain effective till 30 April. Besides this, we have been keeping a sharp eye on ashrams of Asaram in the city and checking all hotels and guest houses as well as the bus and railway station, DCP (East) Aman Deep Singh said.

We will also seal the jail on the day of judgment and would not allow anyone to get close to jail premises, Singh said.

Asaram has unsuccessfuly moved 12 bail applications, of which 6 were rejected by trial court, 3 by the Rajasthan High Court and 3 by the Supreme Court.
BJP leader S Ve Shekher moved the Madras High Court seeking anticipatory bail in connection with a case registered against him for sharing a post that contained alleged derogatory references to media and women scribes.

Actor-turned-politician and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader S Ve Shekher on Tuesday moved the Madras High Court seeking anticipatory bail in connection with a case registered against him for sharing a post that contained alleged derogatory references to media and women scribes.

In the petition, he submitted he was not the author of the Facebook post and did not know its contents when he forwarded it after receiving from Thirumalai Sa. "I am no way connected to the said message, which was simply forwarded by me without reading the contents of the message only on the bona fide impression and over-confidence," he said.

He said the Cyber Crime cell of the police has registered a case against him under IPC sections including those related to intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace, statements conducing to mischief, promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will and word, gesture act intended to insult the modesty of a woman. Besides, he has also been charged under the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Women Harassment Act. The petitioner submitted that the case had been registered by making baseless allegations as if Shekher had defamed the whole press fraternity, in particular outraging the modesty of women and there was no iota of truth in it. He also said there was no intention on his part to defame or hurt anyone.

There was nothing to show that he had forwarded the alleged message with the intent to cause fear or alarm among the public or induce to commit an offence against the State or against the public tranquillity. Shekher further said his sick 84-year-old mother had been put to mental agony by his present situation.

Journalists have condemned Shekher for the post, which he deleted later, and staged protests against him. The post made insinuations against the media and women journalists following the "patgate" row involving Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit.

The 78-year-old governor had patted woman journalist Lakshmi Subramanian on the cheek earlier this week, apparently seeking to avoid answering a question she asked.

Purohit later apologised to the woman journalist. The post also had some caustic references to Subramanian that drew condemnation from journalists.
The Centre on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that it was ready to grant pension benefits to all Major Generals and equivalent ranks in the army, Navy and Air Force, even to those who had retired before 2006.

New Delhi: The Centre on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that it was ready to grant pension benefits to all Major Generals and equivalent ranks in the army, Navy and Air Force, even to those who had retired before 2006. A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra was informed by Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand that the Centre has decided to allow similar benefits of revision of pension to all Major Generals and equivalent ranks.

Noting the submissions, a bench also comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, directed the Centre to comply with its decision in three months.

"The Union of India is extending the benefit to all Major Generals having equivalent ranks...In view of the aforesaid decision by the Union of India, nothing remains in this petition and the same is accordingly disposed of," the bench said.

Senior advocate Nidhesh Gupta, appearing for petitioner retired Major General SPS Vains, sought implementation of One Rank One Pension.

The apex court's order came on a contempt plea filed by Vains and others seeking implementation of One Rank-One Pension (OROP) scheme for retired armed forces personnel. "Most shockingly, despite the report of the Koshiyari committee and the decision of the Supreme Court in Union of India vs SPS Vains, the government delayed the implementation of the OROP in utter violation of the constitution and rule of law," the plea had said.
An objectionable picture with derogatory remarks about Congress president Rahul Gandhi, posted on the Facebook page of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Chhattisgarh MLA Bhima Mandavi, led the opposition party to demand Mandavi's arrest on Monday.

Raipur: An objectionable picture with derogatory remarks about Congress president Rahul Gandhi, posted on the Facebook page of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Chhattisgarh MLA Bhima Mandavi, led the opposition party to demand Mandavi's arrest on Monday.

Mandavi apologised for the post and blamed his social media assistants for it. The picture showed a child urinating on Rahul Gandhi's photograph, and the accompanying caption said the Congress president was 'dividing Hindus' and his family looted the country.

The picture went viral on social media platforms on Monday before it was deleted from Mandavi's Facebook page.

"This should not have happened. Although I didn't post the picture myself, but those who handle my social media profiles posted it, I have already apologised for it," Mandavi told PTI.

Two or three persons handle his social media accounts and he was in the process of finding out who posted the objectionable picture, Mandavi said. Congress workers staged a protest over the issue outside the state BJP office in Raipur.

"The BJP should apologise publicly for this derogatory post. The post has exposed the low mentality of the ruling party leader," state Congress's chief spokesperson Sushil Anand Shukla said.

It showed BJP's frustration due to the increasing popularity of Rahul Gandhi, he said, demanding Mandavi's immediate arrest.
The Congress on Tuesday distanced itself from senior party leader Salman Khurshid's remarks that the party had Muslims' blood stains on its hands

New Delhi: The Congress on Tuesday distanced itself from senior party leader Salman Khurshid's remarks that the party had Muslims' blood stains on its hands.

"The Congress disagrees with his statement. It is his personal view, not the party's," Congress spokesperson PL Punia said.

Speaking at an event at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) on Sunday, Khurshid said there were Muslims' blood stains on the Congress hands.

Pushed to the wall with a point blank query from an Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) student at a programme as to how the Congress will wash off the blood stains of Muslims on its hands, he said, "It is a political question. There is blood on our hands. I am also a part of the Congress so let me say it, we have blood on our hands. Is this why you are trying to tell us that if someone attacks you, we must not come forward to protect you?"

The student asked, "The first amendment was in 1948. Then there was presidential order in 1950 after that Hasanpura, Maliana, Muzaffarnagar and there is a long list of riots under the Congress regime. Then there was the opening of the gates of Babri Masjid, placing idols inside and then the demolition of Babri Masjid while the Congress was in power at the Centre. Congress has Muslims' blood on its hands. With what words will you wash them off?"
In Chitrakoot districts Ramnagar block, we looked at the three villages of Atarsui, Chheebo, and Basingha as a sample, and found that upper caste members are pocketing the 22,000-a-month salary, and outsourcing the dirty jobs to lower-caste workers, paying them on adhoc basis, at paltry sums of Rs 200-300 as daily wages. It is a scam of the worst kind, riding on caste-discrimination.

Editor's note: Khabar Lahariya, an independent feminist news platform reporting out of rural Uttar Pradesh with local women journalists only, is producing a special series looking at Dalit identity in UP . Kaam, Pehchaan, aur Rajneeti will feature interview-based profiles of professions, locales, cultures and lifestyles associated with caste. Firstpost will be publishing these reports as well.

It was in 2016 in Ahmedabad that the Human Development and Research Centre (formerly Behavioural Science Centre) issued a vacancy advertisement for the job of a sanitation worker in their offices. Based on earlier experiences wherein they had received applications only from people of the Valmiki caste, the progressive firm decided to add in a line about their preference for applicants of higher castes. It wasnt too long before the director of the organisation, Prasad Chacko, was forced into hiding  such was the wrath of the backlash he received.

In 2018, in Bundelkhand, the sentiments behind this story thrive in peculiar ways, so ingrained are the caste-hierarchy beliefs that drill deep into our very souls the linkages between dirty jobs and unclean communities. From cattle-skinning to manual scavenging to basic cleaning, the caste of those engaged in these livelihoods comes as no surprise, and in the hinterland, this has crystallised into a very specific practice of discrimination. If you check the records for government-employed sanitation workers, chances are youll find a list of names reflecting their OBC and general caste-affiliations  the Kushwahas and Prajapatis and Guptas. But if you ask for last names of those who actually wield the jhadu and the pan, these would invariably be those belonging to the Valmiki, Chamar and Adivasi communities. In Chitrakoot districts Ramnagar block, we looked at the three villages of Atarsui, Chheebo, and Basingha as a sample, and found that upper caste members are pocketing the 22,000-a-month salary, and outsourcing the dirty jobs to lower-caste workers, paying them on adhoc basis, at paltry sums of Rs 200-300 as daily wages. It is a scam of the worst kind, riding on caste-discrimination.

Mukesh, a Basingha village resident, tells us about the times hes been called in for school emergencies, If a dog comes and shits all around the school premises, then they call me that day. Generally, Im given 200 bucks for it. When we prod him, asking why hes called by the appointed sanitation worker, he simply shrugs, I dont know why. He gives me money, I take it. Kamlesh Prasad, the headmaster at the school condemns this for the sake of the interview, at least, It is wrong, indeed. Whoever has been appointed on paper should be the one actually doing the cleaning. But it is Triveni Prasads response that is telling. As Basingha pradhan, he speaks of the assigned cleaner, Yes, hes a Prajapati. Yes, he gets someone else to clean on his behalf, a Mehtar, I think. When we ask him of the discrimination inherent in this, he only has a matter-of-fact response, Its been working out fine thus far. Ab safaai se matlab hai, chaahe jisse bhi karvaaye ya kare. (We only care about cleanliness, either he does it himself, or gets someone else to). What difference does that make? Shailendra Kumar, the headmans representative at Chheebon village nods and tells us hes heard of this practice, making it sound like its a distant problem. He offers advice as if it hadnt occurred to us, Jaankaari praapt ki ja sakti hai (You can get the information) by checking the names on the list.

It is indeed the inability to even recognise this discrimination that sees this practice thriving so.

On Firstpost  Read Part I and II of this special series.

Meanwhile, the Clean India deadline looms large  even the extended one  and several of the on-paper sanitation workers work as drivers and assistants, in real life, not bothering to turn up for duties that do not suit their caste-preferences. But while Ram Lal Mishra, ADO, Chitrakoot, adds how people should be more responsible  a platitude if there ever was one  Virendra Yadav at Basingha enlists the problems being caused by lack of hygiene  theyve been AWOL for over six months, we learn. Theres dirt and filth everywhere, mosquitoes are breeding, diseases are spreading And fellow Basingha dweller Durg Vijay Singh is enraged at the filth in his village, I am an illiterate man, I dont know whose responsibility it is. But we live in such disgusting conditions.

Shakti Singh, Mau-Manikpurs BJP MLA RK Patels spokesman gives us the official line, Someones working as a driver, or a guard. And weve ensured that theyve gone back to their appointed jobs. If we can point out those who dont report for work, Singh adds, hell ensure theyre dealt with strictly, using every Bundeli officers favourite term  sakht karavahi.

And Ganga Ram, pradhan, Atarsui village, mulls over the unique problem of every safai-karmi turning into a cook overnight, I think there should be a proper examination of this.

Watch Khabar Lahariya's report on the issue here.
WHY DONT YOU READ THESE?
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday indicated that it might direct lodging of FIR against the prison officials who had allegedly subjected several prisoners to severe physical torture at the Tihar Jail.

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday indicated that it might direct lodging of FIR against the prison officials who had allegedly subjected several prisoners to severe physical torture at the Tihar Jail. A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar orally said that it might ask for lodging of a criminal case against the people responsible in jail for the violence and listed the matter for 15 May.

Delhi government standing counsel (criminal) Rahul Mehra, however, urged the court not to pass such an order, saying that there were around 15,000 prisoners in jail and such a direction would demoralise the police force. He said some of the most dreaded criminals were lodged in Tihar jail and if such a direction of lodging a case was passed, prisoners would use it as a tool against the authorities and it would be difficult for the officials to control the prisoners.

During the hearing, the court expressed unhappiness over the manner a lawyer argued the case while seeking to be impleaded as a party in the matter.

The counsel, who said he was representing 20 out of 21 inmates who were assaulted in the jail, was seeking copies of certain documents placed before the court by the authorities and said why there was a "purdah system". This submission annoyed the bench which said he was making such submissions for the gallery. The bench said that it cannot be browbeaten.

"You are doing a disservice to your clients by making such submissions. It is highly objectionable and such a conduct amounts to contempt of court," the bench said. The high court was hearing a PIL by advocate Chinmay Kanojia, who has alleged that his client Shahid Husuf, currently being investigated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and undergoing trial, was beaten up without any reason by the Tihar Jail staff.

The plea by advocate Jawahar Raja said members of a particular community, including Husuf, were being targeted by the jail staff causing serious injuries to him and others. The court had earlier appointed a three-member fact-finding committee, headed by a District Judge of a trial court, to inquire into the incident, in which 21 inmates were allegedly beaten up by the jail staff, and submit their report before it.

Moved by the plight of the inmates in various jails and the poor living conditions there, the bench had asked the AAP government and Tihar Jail authorities "which law says that the prisoners should sleep on the floor".

When the incident was brought to the attention of the high court on 22 November, the court had set up a committee of senior high court judicial officers to look into the matter. The committee, in its report, opined that the inmates were beaten up without any justifiable reason.

It said that despite unequivocal statutory guidelines, an incident has been perpetrated where prisoners were beaten up with such severity that it had resulted in them harbouring a constant fear of being killed by the prison authorities on one pretext or another.

It had directed the authorities to ensure safety and security of the persons, who have been beaten up.
Past 70 years of Indian democracy saw a gradual erosion of caste, spread of women's education, independence of judiciary and EC, among others achievements.

Editor's Note: As the Indian Republic turns 70, Tufail Ahmad begins a journey through the country to examine the working of democracy at the grassroots level. Inspired by the French author Alexis de Tocqueville, who toured America and wrote Democracy in America, the author  a former BBC journalist and now senior fellow at the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute  will examine how sociological realities of India and the promise of democracy interact with each other in shaping the lives of the Indian citizen. This report is the sixth in a series called "Democracy in India".

Ajmer: On this trip to examine the workings of democracy in India, I met three senior citizens who are in their 70s-80s: Ram Bhuwan Singh Kushwah in Bhopal, Suryadev Bareth of Kishangarh-Bas near Alwar in Mewat region and Om Prakash Sharma in Ajmer. All of them have witnessed the inter-generational journey of democracy in India.

Kushwah has forty years of experience in journalism and was part of the anti-Emergency struggle. Bareth is a highly learned person, was awarded Padam Shri in 1971 and has served as pradhan (panchayat head). Professor Sharma has taught political science for three decades at the DAV College in Ajmer.

Since all three are well placed by the factor of their experience and age to comment on India's democratic journey, I asked them to comment on what distinguishes the early decades of our democracy from the recent decades. The first change seems to be the political parties opening wings in the name of minorities, Scheduled Castes & Tribes, and later women and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

Kushwah says that in the first few decades since the Constitution came into force in 1950, there were no wings in political parties, but by the 1970s, non-Congress parties began forming morchas (fronts) in the name of caste and religion.

Kushwah, now associated with the Swami Vivekananda Kendra, recalls that in the 1970s when the Jan Sangh formed caste-based morchas, its members opposed this move, but today even the BJP, the successor to Jan Sangh, has established such morchas as a permanent part of the party structure.

In reaction to the Jan Sangh, Congress too established SC/ST and minority wings, he says, adding that before this, such caste-based and religion-based "cells" used to exist only in the apparatus of government. It means that caste and minority, which were part of a constitutional mechanism to alleviate the backwardness of these marginalised communities, have spread from government institutions into the political culture of Indian democracy, and further into society.

Consequently, with the march of democracy in India, we are also witnessing the growing role of caste and religion in causing social fissures in our society. This might also be due to the fact that democracy is empowering certain marginalised communities while disempowering communities which have traditionally held a grip on power. Caste is a good example to explain this.

The 2 April Bharat Bandh organised by Dalit communities was met with a rival bandh on 10 April called by the upper, so-called general castes who demanded an end to the provision of reservation in jobs and legislatures. In this entire process, it is forgotten that caste has been effectively a system of reservation in Indian society for thousands of years. Nothing has changed this system, not even the quota offered under constitutional provisions.

Professor Sharma observes that caste was not a factor during the 1950s and 1960s, but it has entered our political system now. "Jativad (casteism) was started by Charan Singh from Uttar Pradesh," he says, adding that it acquired deeper roots in Indian polity when VP Singh decided to implement the Mandal Commission report on the reservation for OBCs.

Sharma insists that while some groupism existed involving socialists and communists in our politics in the early decades of democracy, casteism did not. The third part of this series on the workings of democracy examined the turbulent cyclical relationship between caste and politics in India.

About the role of religion which divided India in 1947, Sharma notes that while the politics of religion was fostered by Muslim leaders, it was also used by Sikh leaders like Master Tara Singh who had initially demanded a separate country for Sikhs and later limited this demand for a province.

It is also the case that the Congress under Jawaharlal Nehru had been seeking the help of Imam Bukhari of Delhi's Jama Masjid right from the 1950s to garner Muslim votes. So, current political parties wooing Islamic clerics for votes may not be something new to Indian democracy.

While the Congress held dominance over the Indian democratic system in early decades, several new political parties emerged subsequently. With the birth of regional parties in different states such as Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, the nature of Indian polity altered and a "multi-party system" began emerging.

"As the new parties came up, they began thinking of their own interests," Sharma says, adding: "In the 1950s and 1960s, no one would even think so much of vote-banks as we think of now." The focus of political parties subsequently turned, he says, to building and entrenching their long-term vote-banks.

Therefore, Indian democracy began changing fundamentally in the following respects: caste became a key factor in our politics; the use of religion in our politics continued despite the bloody experience of the partition; the proliferation of political parties led to the creation of vote-banks.

Suryadev Bareth is an optimistic person even in the face of worst criticism. He notes that political parties are in the process of Darwinian transformation. "Caste and religion are not something new. Parties are expressive of new realities," he says, adding that India has made great strides given the fact the Islamic invasions and the British rule had created gaps between the rulers and the ruled.

"In the 1950s and 1960s, power was concentrated at the top, but with the march of democracy there is a big devolution of power to districts and villages," Bareth says. He cites some achievements during past 70 years of Indian democracy: the gradual erosion of caste from social, if not political, life; spread of women's education across India, independence of the judiciary, positive role of the Election Commission of India, and legislative measures such as the Right to Information Act and the Panchayati Raj system introduced by the 73rd Amendment. He is right.

As per the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, there are 2,48,752 elected councils at the village level, 6,307 at the intermediate level and 601 at the district level. There are 19 states which provide for 50 percent reservation of seats to women in Panchayati Raj institutions. Even though the elected women sarpanches are mostly represented by their husbands and sons in meetings, they are also learning along the way.

In 2016, out of 29,11,961 elected representatives, at least 13.45 lakhs were women. This might be a silent revolution taking place in India. Its fruits will be seen in next few decades as more educated women take charge of village councils.

As I took his leave, I asked Bareth: Should the new generation of Indians worry about the use of caste, religion and widespread corruption in Indian democracy? Bareth writes Urdu ghazals. He said he once met a poet in the town of Tonk in Rajasthan and asked him, why is it that Tonk produces many Urdu poets?

He got a reply: "Hamein daad dena aata hai (We the people of Tonk know how to praise poets)." He told me: "Logon ka savbhav hai ninda karna (people's character is to criticise). We should learn to appreciate our achievements."

Read Part 1: BJP, Congress prioritise community over individual, use caste and religion to enslave citizens

Read Part 2: Use of religion by ruling parties overwhelms secular character of Indian State

Read Part 3: Caste and politics continue to collide, sometimes violently, in a cyclical struggle for power

Read Part 4: Rule of law routinely trampled upon by politicians in power, who act like 'new kings'

Read Part 5: Cities are drivers of democratic change, secure rights and liberties of individuals

Read Part 7: Country's polity vastly unaccountable to citizens despite relative success of democratic process

Read Part 8: Strong democratic process engendering surplus of free speech, empowering communities

The author is touring India to write a series on the workings of democracy. He is a senior fellow at the Middle East Media Research Institute, Washington DC. He tweets @tufailelif
An encounter broke out between security forces and militants in the Tral area of Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district on Tuesday.

An Indian Army jawan sustained injuries after an encounter broke out between security forces and militants in the Tral area of Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district on Tuesday, according to ANI.

Reports said that gunshots were heard in Lam village of Tral on Tuesday morning.

Quoting an official, Greater Kashmir reported that a joint team of Indian Army's 42 Rashtriya Rifles, Special Operations Group of the Jammu and Kashmir Police and Central Reserve Police Force launched the search operation in the forest area in Lam.

According to CNN-News18, militants fled the spot after they were involved in a gun battle with the security forces. The officials have now cordoned off the area where three of the militants are believed to be trapped. Further details are awaited.

Tral  considered a militant hotbed  is the native town of Hizbul Mujahideen's Burhan Wani, who was killed in 2016, and Zakir Musa, an active militant commander. The district is also considered to be the stronghold of terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Muhammad.
Narendra Modi is reported to have cited examples of various international conferences, allegedly funded by pharma companies, where doctors participate.

Many news portals, print and electronic, have reported on the widespread discomfort among doctors' professional bodies following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's reference to an alleged nexus between India's doctors and pharmaceutical companies, during his recent Bharat ki Baat interaction in London.

The prime minister is reported to have cited examples of various international conferences, allegedly funded by pharma companies, where doctors regularly participate. The IMA and the AMC have protested against this, as they feel it amounts to tarring the entire medical community with the same brush.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA), India's largest body of doctors, has a membership of over 280,000, while the Mumbai-based Association of Medical Consultants (AMC) has a membership of about 11,500 consultants. The doctors of these bodies resent that such remarks were made on foreign soil and feel that this was not expected of the prime minister.

The first point to be considered here is whether there is corruption in the medical profession? We cannot live in denial about this as some doctors have conceded that Modi's remarks reflected some longstanding concerns, backed by evidence that drug companies offer doctors incentives that range from gifts to trips. Many within the profession are concerned with the trust deficit that currently exists between the doctors and the public.

The overwhelming sentiment is against the ugly form this mistrust has taken lately with violence against hospitals and doctors erupting now and then. A good way to overcome this, besides stringent law against those indulging in violence, will be for the professional bodies to acknowledge and address the lacunae in the profession. Corruption in health care is bad not only because of financial reasons but also as it adversely affects the health and life of people who trust in the system.

There are many aspects to corruption in healthcare where governments are directly responsible but the final delivery of healthcare is through the doctor, be it a general practitioner largely represented by IMA or a consultant (AMC). It is akin to the men on the borders fighting the enemy, notwithstanding the systemic failures of defence ministries of the successive governments.

Corruption starts with right from medical admissions in private medical colleges, where hefty payments are levied for seats. The graduates of this system and their parents seek quick returns on their substantial investments. Cross referrals and kickbacks are a well-known secret among the physicians, pathology laboratories and imaging clinics. Pharma companies, vendors of high-end equipment, disposables, and costly medicines are all part of the nexus. A well oiled and efficient system exists even between the management and the doctors in private hospitals.

The patients and their families, especially those coming from far off places, may even be grateful for the seemingly innocuous convenience. Is it difficult to disrupt the long-entrenched nexus? It seems so, given that the expected reduction in costs of angioplasties and joint replacements has not occurred even after the government fixed the low prices of the stents and the prostheses.

Then there are perks on the sly. Teaching hospitals in Mumbai had a system of honorary doctors who gave four hours or so to teaching and treating patients in medical college hospitals while they also had their private practices. As the full-time system came into being, the discrepancy in incomes caused a lot of heartburn.

As a result, some full-time doctors started indulging in private practice on the sly; the honorary doctors too indulged in corruption by bringing their private patients to public hospital as 'note cases'. Resident doctors were asked by both to assist them in private surgery; nascent minds were thus introduced early to the illegality. Unfortunately, sly private practice by full-time doctors in the municipal hospitals has been legitimised in 2005 and the honorary system has also reappeared in peripheral hospitals.

Sponsorships for attending conferences and meetings at home and abroad by the medical and pharmaceutical companies have remained a controversy. Many justify the academic exchanges even if sponsored as crucial, to keep abreast with the technical advances being made. Many national and international conferences are held through the year. Organising and attending these conferences have financial ramifications.

Medical companies fill the gap by sponsoring travel and hospitality and often the perks are extended to the family as well. This has come to the attention of regulators and several medical companies have adopted internal codes. The attendance at the annual meetings of the professional associations and enhancement of skills should be a member's obligation for fraternity and knowledge exchange.

The second aspect of the protests is whether the prime minister should have said this on foreign soil. In the global world that we live in today, this will be a poor argument. Since I did not listen to the actual statement, I am not sure if the remark was made answering a question or was it deliberate and without context.

India is the 81st least corrupt nation out of 175 countries, according to the 2017 Corruption Perceptions Index reported by Transparency International. This has been reported widely in all international press and magazines. India sadly leads the corruption charts in Asia, followed by Vietnam and Thailand in second and third place. We do not tire of complaining, justifiably, about political and bureaucratic corruption nexus and that the police force is considered the most corrupt in public perception.

Anna Hazare's movement against corruption drew worldwide attention on scams in 2G, Commonwealth Games, coal mine allocations and so on. On a happy note, a survey by Centre for Media Studies (CMS) has found that both popular perception, as well as the experience of corruption in public services, has declined.

I recall with some amusement when the same bodies had protested against the Bollywood actor Aamir Khan when doctors' malpractice was discussed in one of the episodes of Satyamev Jayate in 2012. An umbrella of 21 medical institutions, including IMA, had demanded an apology from the actor for defaming their profession.

One may like to know what steps these bodies have taken against their colleagues since then. Resentments and protests become a defence mechanism for those in the hierarchy and in power, but unable to change the status quo. The institutional strengths need to be harnessed to overcome the shortcomings rather than shoot the messenger. IMA continues to vehemently support the much tainted Ketan Desai who, as president of the medical council, was removed and jailed for corruption.

The IMA and the AMC will enhance their credibility if, to start with, they put on their websites the names of the doctors, if any, who have been stripped off their membership on account of unethical practice. There are many doctors who practice medicine honestly and diligently, especially in rural areas with a little support system. A clean ethical healthcare system will benefit such doctors and the communities they serve.

The author is a Mumbai-based cardiac surgeon.
The Income-Tax Department on Tuesday conducted searches on a number of contractors in poll-bound Karnataka in connection with a tax evasion probe.

Bengaluru/New Delhi: The Income-Tax Department on Tuesday conducted searches on a number of contractors in poll-bound Karnataka in connection with a tax evasion probe, officials said.

They said the raids are being conducted against at least 11 contractors in Mysore and Bangalore by the investigation wing of the department.

These contractors are linked to public works jobs rendered by them on government tenders, they said.

The department had last week said, has that it has gathered details of all contract payments made in the last quarter of the completed financial year in the state and is making a comparison with previous years for identifying abnormal cases.

This data is being co-related with all bank transactions and available cash withdrawal intelligence, it had said.

It had said that as part of the enhanced alertness in the wake of the single-phase polling scheduled on 12 May, the investigation wing of the department in Karnataka and Goa has stepped up its surveillance and monitoring activities.

In an instance unearthed recently, the department claimed a contractor in one of the districts of the state was searched and it was found that he had made payments to another person who in turn had withdrawn cash from the amount transferred.

The cash withdrawn of Rs 55 lakh was seized and the contractor also admitted to concealment of Rs 16 crore, it had said.

The counting of the votes for the 224-member Assembly is scheduled on 15 May.

The Election Commission has appointed a number of election expenditure observers in Karnataka, apart from other central observers, to keep a check on black money and illegal inducements used to bribe voters.

It had said that Rs 2,000 and 500 notes constitute 97 per cent of the Rs 4.13 crore cash that the tax sleuths have seized in poll-bound Karnataka till now.

The revelation came in the backdrop of a cash crunch being witnessed across various regions in the country as a number of ATMs had gone dry.
This 'lopsided' demographic of Sidhra is at the heart of the poison that some leaders of BJP and other political parties are feeding the people of Jammu.

Editor's note: This is the second in a two-part series that looks at the perceived demographic divide (and the resultant communal tension) between Hindus and Muslims in Jammu; it is a schism that became perceptible in the late 1980s and was brought into sharp focus following the alleged rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua.

The main gate of a whitewashed, double-storied house in Sidhra locality of Jammu is locked. Like many others in this Muslim-majority area of Jammu, the owner of this house, a Kashmiri, left along with his family in the second week of April. They will return in November now, when the winter chill grips the Valley, and live in the city's warmer climes for few months till spring.

"It is empty, like all other houses in this lane," Rupa Devi, a shopkeeper outside the house said, "It is a thriving place in winters, but as soon as the summer comes, they all return to Kashmir and the lanes and bylanes appear to be haunted by ghosts."

Sidhra is one among the few Muslim settlements in the Hindu-majority Jammu region. This 'lopsided' demographic indicator is at the heart of the poison that some leaders of BJP and other political parties are feeding the people of this region, thereby vitiating the atmosphere following the brutal gang-rape and murder of the eight-year-old nomad girl in Kathua.

Sidhra is a vacation home for rich and elite Muslims of Kashmir Valley. Others who have made it their home, even if briefly, come from far-flung districts of the state such as Poonch, Ramban, Doda, Kishtwar, Anantnag, Ganderbal, and Shopian.

"My father purchased the land almost fifteen years back and constructed a house there... we stay there only for four months, as the temperatures drop in the Valley," Javid Hassan Shah, the owner of the locked house, said over the phone from his residence in Srinagar.

"In 2008, during the economic blockade of the Valley, when we returned, someone had broken in. The fridge was gone, so was the TV and even the bed covers and kitchen utensils were stolen. After that, we have been only keeping plates and cups in the house."

Shah is a businessman whose father was a senior government official. He says he has been thinking of selling off the property. "It is better to invest in Delhi and Bengaluru than in Jammu. There is fear in the atmosphere here and you can't even raise your voice."

"When the state's deputy chief minister calls your housing colony a 'communal colony', do you think it is safe to live there," Shah adds.

Shah, 64, was refereeing to the statement of BJP leader, Nirmal Singh, the deputy chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, who ordered a probe in November 2015 on "communal enclaves" coming up in Jammu city and its periphery. He said these enclaves or colonies were built on religious lines and they will not be allowed to come up "in this relatively peaceful region of the state".

Many living in Sidhra are migrants from Chenab and Pir Panchal Valleys, who have made this locality their home. In recent years, according to a revenue officer, the Muslims of Kashmir and Pir Panjal have made massive investments in the housing sector in Jammu. "Most of them are on the outer edges of the Jammu city, including Khati Talab, Bathindi, Sunjwan and Sidhra. The roads in these colonies are remarkably clean, but residents face water scarcity," the officer said.

When the colonies like Sidhra were being given shape and people started buying the land, locals were left behind in the real estate race. As the demand for more land and more colonies rose, many other residential colonies like this came up.

"Fifteen years back, when I would travel on my motorcycle, I would get scared there because it was like a forest. Today, there are no forests, only brand-new houses," Romesh Chaudhary, a businessman in Sunjwan area tells Firstpost. "The Gujjars occupied the state land, settled there for few years, and then sold the land to Kashmiri Muslims at throwaway prices."

That is perhaps the reason why the Jammu Development Authority (JDA) has come under criticism in recent years for targeting Muslims settlements. Lal Singh, the former forest minister who resigned for participating in a rally defending the accused in Kathua rape and murder case, was at the forefront of this battle to try and uproot the Gujjars and Bakerwals from the forests areas.

There was a series of incidents in which nomadic families were uprooted, after their dokas  makeshift mud and wooden logs houses  were set ablaze by miscreants.

The JDA started running a sustained campaign for "recovery" of encroached land. This triggered a crisis, forcing Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to issue orders that no displacement from forests should take place without the prior permission of the tribal affairs ministry. All hell broke loose after this.

Mehbooba asked officials to ensure that no member of the tribal communities is harassed during anti-encroachment drives. Some members of Gujjar and Bakerwal tribes were angry over alleged step-motherly treatment being meted out by various government agencies during the anti-encroachment drive.

"It is an anti-Hindu order," BJP leader Ashok Khujaria, told Firstpost. "The minutes of the meeting held by the tribal affairs department clearly indicates there is a major plot at our hands here."

Singh said he would retrieve hundreds of kanals of "encroached" forest land and impose a blanket ban on cultivation inside forests. In response, Bakherwal and Gujjar leaders demanded that the central Forest Rights Act, 2006, be extended to Jammu and Kashmir as well. Ironically, this is the one issue on which the BJP holds dear the primacy of Article 370.

In a memorandum submitted to the Bar Council of India on 20 April, the High Court Bar Association in Jammu, mentioned more than once, a plot to engineer the "demographic change" in Jammu. The bar demanded that the order issued by Mehbooba on 14 February be reversed.

This order had stayed all eviction drives against tribal settlements in Jammu until a proper tribal policy was put in place. If absolutely necessary, such measures would have to be sanctioned by the tribal affairs department and no police cover could be given, the memo said.

The Gujjars have been facing the wrath of the JDA, which has been carrying out targeted anti-encroachment drives against Muslims. A Muslim youngster was killed in 2016 in Sarore area of Samba and several others, including some differently-abled persons, were injured during the drive carried out by the state government. The authorities used brute force to destroy property worth lakhs of rupees, especially property belonging to the Gujjar community.

The makeshift houses were burnt down and those living in these structures were first beaten mercilessly and then either taken to the police station or were forced to flee. "We did it because these people first occupy a piece of land and afterwards sell the same land to Kashmiris at cheap prices," former forest minister Singh said, after one of the encroachment drives.

But in Nikki Tawn area, the JDA officials evicted Gujjars who had been living there for the past 30 years. Their structures were burnt and they were forced to flee. The nomads argued that they have been coming to the area for thirty years because it sits near the river Tawi.

The trouble started when Gujjars and Bakerwals started constructing a Mosque in the area to offer prayers on the vacant land, which the JDA later claimed belonged to it. Gujjars maintain that construction of mosque became the main provocation for their eviction.

'The atmosphere is so bad that one day there will be a riot and we all will be killed," Amjad Hussain, 72, a retired government official who sold his land and property in Poonch and came to live in Sunjwan, told Firstpost. "If things continue like they are, the day is not far when our homes will be set on fire."

Read Part 1: Kathua rape case deepens Jammu's communal schism, brings city's perceived Hindu-Muslim divide back into focus
Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday slammed the Kerala State Human Rights Commission acting chairperson P Mohana Das for seeking a CBI probe into the alleged custodial death of a 26-year-old youth in Kochi.

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday slammed the Kerala State Human Rights Commission (KSHRC) acting chairperson P Mohana Das for seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the alleged custodial death of a 26-year-old youth in Kochi.

Rejecting the demand for a CBI probe, Vijayan said let the Human Rights Commission chairman do his duty only. The Chief Minister was responding to questions on the CBI probe into the alleged custodial death of S R Sreejith at a press meet in Thiruvananthapuram.

Many of Das' statements were unbecoming of the position he holds, Vijayan said, adding it seems the statements were part of his political stand. He was appointed as acting chairperson of KSHRC by the previous Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) rule.

Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala had on Monday observed a 24-hour hunger strike seeking a CBI inquiry into the death of S R Sreejith, who had died of alleged torture in police custody on 9 April.

Sreejith, who was taken into custody in connection with the death of a person early this month, had died in a private hospital. His relatives alleged that he died due to torture, but the police have rejected the allegation saying Sreejith was suspected to have suffered injuries during a clash before he was taken into custody.

Stating that the state government took stern action against the police personnel involved in the incident, Vijayan said the instances of allegations of third-degree torture by police in Kerala was not new. But in this case, the government took immediate action against the persons responsible for it. Vijayan also said four police personnel including an inspector has been arrested and a murder case registered against them. Terming Sreejith's death as "unfortunate," Vijayan said it should not have happened in Kerala.

A Special Investigation Team was probing the incident and action would be taken if any more people were found guilty, he noted. The chief minister also rejected the charges that he had refused to meet the family members of Lithuanian tourist Liga Skromene, whose decomposed body was recovered from near Kovalam. "They (family members) have not contacted the CM's office and sought an appointment. I would have readily met them. What is preventing me from meeting them?" Vijayan said referring to reports in social media that he refused to meet Liga's relatives.

The CPM leader also pointed out that the police also took necessary steps to trace the missing women by setting up a special investigation team. Liga's sister Ilze and her husband Andrews had yesterday demanded a high-level probe into the circumstances leading to her death.

The body of Liga was found near Kovalam in Thiruvallam on 21 April from a bushy desolate area near a mangrove forest on the banks of Karmana river near in Thiruvananthapuram.
'Human life is worth much more than the right to employment,' the Delhi High Court said on Tuesday while referring to a 2013 incident of fire in a shoe factory in Mangolpuri which killed three young men and a minor boy, and injured a workman.

New Delhi: "Human life is worth much more than the right to employment," the Delhi High Court said on Tuesday while referring to a 2013 incident of fire in a shoe factory in Mangalpuri which killed three young men and a minor boy, and injured a workman.

The observation by a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar came during the hearing of a PIL seeking compensation for the victims from the authorities for their failure to stop functioning of such illegally operating units.

The Delhi government, represented by its counsel Ramesh Singh, told the court that there is a 2011 policy which provides for compensation of Rs 2 lakh for an adult's death, Rs 1 lakh for a minor's death and Rs 50,000 for serious injuries as a result of such incidents.

The court, however, observed that with the passage of time the compensation policy also needed revision and asked the Delhi government to have a re-look at it.It directed the Delhi government to file an action taken a report regarding the compensation released to the victims. A direction was also issued to the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, in whose jurisdiction the factory was located, to file an affidavit on what compensation it would disburse to the kin of the victims.

The direction was issued by the corporation in an earlier status report had admitted its culpability in permitting the factory to operate illegally.

The court ordered the Station House Officer of Mangolpuri police station to trace the next of kin of the victims and to produce them before the sub-divisional magistrate of the area. The PIL was filed in connection with the fire which broke out in the early hours of March 12, 2013 in a shoe factory at Mangolpuri and in which three young men, Kuldeep (22), Chander Shekhar (20) and Raj (24), and a 13-year-old boy, Salman, were killed and a workman, Mithlesh (18), was seriously injured.

The petitioner, a lawyer, has contended in her petition that the state cannot abrogate its responsibility in the matter and ought to pay compensation to the victims.
The Centre's decision to repeal AFSPA from Meghalaya was unanimously welcomed by political parties, students' organisations and church leaders of the state

Shillong: The Centre's decision to repeal AFSPA from Meghalaya was on Tuesday unanimously welcomed by political parties, students' organisations and church leaders of the state.

Meghalaya home minister James K Sangma said he was grateful to the Union government for considering the state's request of revoking The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act from the state.

"We are thankful to the Centre for responding to the Meghalaya government's request for denotification of AFSPA in the Garo Hills areas, adjoining Assam," he told PTI, adding militancy has been "by and large contained" in the state and this was made possible by the Meghalaya police.

A home ministry official had on Monday said the Centre has revoked AFSPA, which empowers security forces to conduct operations and arrest individuals without prior notice, from the entire state of Meghalaya and parts of Arunachal Pradesh, with effect from 31 March.

Lauding the Centre's move, the Congress credited the erstwhile Mukul Sangma-led government for it.

"The imposition of AFSPA had lots of demerits in a state like Meghalaya, as it has often been seen that language barrier led to atrocities here. This was the reason why former chief minister Mukul Sangma did not allow the army to take up operations in the Garo Hills," Congress spokesperson Zenith Sangma said.

He said Mukul Sangma focused on raising Special Force-10, the state's own anti-insurgency force, to bring peace in the state.

Meghalaya is the first state to have its own anti-insurgency force, the Congress spokesperson said.

The North East Students Organisation (NESO) demanded revocation of the "controversial law" from the other states of the region.

"The NESO welcomes the decision of Ministry of Home Affairs to revoke AFSPA from Meghalaya. In fact, we want the act to be removed from all northeastern states where it is in force at the moment," its chairman Samuel B Jyrwa told PTI.

The act has only given undue authority to the armed forces to "torture and kill people at will", he said.

"AFSPA failed miserably in containing militant activities. It has only led to human rights violations by the armed forces," Jyrwa alleged, adding even after 27 years of the imposition of the act in Meghalaya, it did not have any positive impact on the law and order situation.

Echoing similar sentiments, former church leader PBM Basaiawmoit said the people of North East can rejoice together once the act is repealed from other states in the region.

"People will be happy if the draconian law is totally removed from India's statute books. No one will be considered as the enemy of the state," he said.
Assuring that the Centre will always help in the development of villages, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that the Indian culture 'teaches us to live for the nation'.

On National Panchayati Raj Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Madhya Pradesh to launch Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan at Ramnagar and unveiled the road map for development of tribal areas.

Assuring that the Centre will always help in development of villages, Modi said Indian culture "teaches us to live for the nation".

Speaking at a gathering in Mandla district, Modi said, "I am delighted to be in Madhya Pradesh on National Panchayati Raj Day. Bapu (Mahatma Gandhi) always highlighted the importance of villages and spoke about 'Gram Swaraj'."

The newly-launched scheme is aimed at making rural local bodies self-sustainable, financially stable and more efficient. He said the Centre is committed to fulfilling the wishes of the villagers as people residing there had shown trust in us. "Today we pledge to boost development of villages. Indian culture motivates us to live for the nation", he said.

"Budgets are important while talking about rural development. But, there is a shift in the discourse in the last few years. People are now talking about the need to ensure that money allocated for a project is utilised and it is done in a timely as well as transparent manner".

"The work of setting up an LPG plant in Mandla district at a cost of Rs 120 crore will be provided, which will ensure the availability of gas cylinder in all the adjoining areas, and provide employment opportunities for the people", he said. Modi will lay the foundation stone of an LPG bottling plant of the Indian Oil Corporation at Maneri and launch a local government directory.

He also appealed to the villagers to focus on the education of their children. "This is essential for the child's future... education for all is a top priority for a central government", he added. Modi also praised the Centre for taking action to exclude bamboo from the definition of tree under the Indian Forest Act.

"Jan Dhan, vann dhan, gobar dhan: With these three things, we can bring a great change in a village's economic status", Modi said.

Elaborating on the essence of each of the three initiatives, he said, "Ensure that people have Jan Dhan accounts and insurance coverage under the government schemes. If there is a neem tree today, its branch can provide source of income for the village women. Today, cow dung is not used scientifically in villages. Gas and electricity can be produced from it. This can be done without monetary aid, but will need the help of the government schemes".

"Let us pledge that by 2022, we develop our villages along the lines of what Mahatma Gandhi had once wished for" , he added.

Modi also addressed the Centre's initiative to introduce capital punishment for rapists of children below 12 years of age. "The recent steps taken by the government will be beneficial in furthering the safety of women", he said. "This government sits in Delhi but listens to your voice and then takes decisions. We should teach responsibilities to our sons. If that happens, our daughters won't have to worry about their safety", he said.

Modi arrived on Tuesday in Mandla district to address the Panchayat bodies and the indigenous communities. He earlier tweeted that National Panchayati Raj Day is an occasion to celebrate the efforts of all those "who are a part of our vibrant Panchayati Raj institutions".

National Panchayati Raj Day is an occasion to celebrate the efforts of all those who are a part of our vibrant Panchayati Raj institutions. These institutions foster a spirit of democracy and further the development aspirations of our citizens. pic.twitter.com/HuupfukYDJ  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 24, 2018

Modi felicitated village heads with 100 percent smokeless kitchens, 100 percent vaccination under Mission Indradhanush and total electrification under the Saubhagya scheme. He will also interact with district collectors of some districts of the state.

Modi left from Delhi around 9.50 am and reached Jabalpur's Dumna Airport from where he took a helicopter and reach Mandla. He will leave for New Delhi at 2.55 pm.

With inputs from IANS
This will be Modis fourth visit to China since he became Indias prime minister and a second bilateral visit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting Wuhan, the capital of Chinas Hubei province, on 27 and 28 April to meet Chinese president Xi Jinping. This 'informal summit' between the two leaders assumes greater significance in the backdrop of recent tensions between India and China. The visit is also exceptional in the sense that Modi is scheduled to go to China again on 9 and 10 June this year to participate in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Qingdao. It is usually uncommon for Indian leaders to visit China twice in such close succession.

This will be Modis fourth visit to China since he became Indias prime minister and a second bilateral visit. His first bilateral visit to China took place in 2015, followed by a visit to Hangzhou for the G-20 Summit in 2016 and the BRICS Summit in Xiamen in 2017. However, increasing interaction is yet to translate into better cooperation.

Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi, who is also the state councillor and the special representative for the India-China boundary talks, has called India and China "natural partners", who have no choice but to pursue a lasting friendship and common development agenda. He said, "We will make sure that the informal summit will be a complete success and a milestone in India-China relations. We see socialism with Chinese characteristics entering a new era and India acts as a crucial stage in its development and revitalisation." Indias foreign minister Sushma Swaraj also said, "We believe that our commonalities outweigh our differences and that we must build on our convergences while seeking mutually acceptable resolutions of our differences."

Swaraj is in Beijing on a four-day visit to participate in the foreign ministers' meeting of the SCO. The Swaraj-Wang meeting was held in the immediate backdrop of another important official interaction between India's national security advisor Ajit Doval and the top functionary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Yang Jiechi in Shanghai. So far, 20 rounds of special representative-level talks have been held to work out mechanisms to keep peace along the 3,488-kilometre-long Line of Actual Control (LAC).

For India-China bilateral relations, 2017 was a particularly bad year as the usual confidence-building measures were entirely missing.

On the contrary, China attempted to test India's resolve through a series of intensely aggressive acts including the postponement of regular military exchanges, a refusal to share hydrological data on the Brahmaputra and unilateral construction activity at the Doka La border tri-junction between India, China and Bhutan. Of course, the most challenging was the Doka La military standoff that could only be resolved by the end of August, just before Modi's visit to Xiamen in China for the BRICS Summit. For obvious reasons, the Chinese leadership did not want the issue to vitiate the atmosphere of the BRICS Summit.

There was a realisation in New Delhi too that disagreements must not be allowed to erupt into open conflict. In the build-up to the upcoming informal summit, the two countries held several meetings across various platforms. In recent months, both have publicly expressed their desire to reduce tensions and improve relations. The process of Indias rapprochement with China gathered momentum in February when the Modi government unprecedentedly decided to downgrade its involvement in events to mark the 60th anniversary in exile of the Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama.

Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhales subsequent meeting with Wang in Beijing was in continuation of India's efforts to mend fences with China. In March, Wang extended the olive branch by asserting that the Chinese dragon and the Indian elephant should not fight each other, but dance with each other. Both sides also held the fifth Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) where the possibility was explored to align the Make in India Initiative and Made in China 2025 across different sectors of economy. Beijing now wants to resume the annual military exchanges between India and China, which have been a routine affair involving a joint military exercise called Hand-in-Hand. During Swarajs recent China visit, Beijing has also confirmed that it will share data on the Sutlej and Brahmaputra rivers.

The informal summit is as important for Modi as it is for Xi. After the removal of the two-term limit for the Chinese president, Xi is the most powerful Chinese leader who is sure to remain in power for a long time. With a larger global profile in view, it is not in Chinas interest to get bogged down by unnecessary border controversies at a time of seemingly unmanageable global uncertainties. One of the reasons why Xi seems to show some flexibility with India is due to the challenges engendered by an insular USA led by an unpredictable Donald Trump. Averting a full-fledged trade with the US is Xis top priority now. Thus, Chinas careful diplomatic outreach to India is not without context. Reconciliation is the new communist mantra for Xi.

The unresolved border dispute remains a chill factor. The difficulties on the border are compounded by the fact that they involve third parties  Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan. Besides, New Delhi and Beijing have sharp differences on several issues. In particular, Indias entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the listing of Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar as a globally-designated terrorist and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) are some of the contentious issues that have contributed to widen the gulf between India and China. Indias trade deficit with China is already unsustainable  it is one-third of Indias total trade deficit with the world. Now, the Indo-Pacific has also entered the strategic calculation.

From the Chinese perspective, Indias refusal to participate in the Beijing-led Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and New Delhis recent activism on the India-US-Japan-Australia 'quadrilateral' front are antagonistic steps. India had abstained from the BRI Summit to highlight its concerns over the CPEC that passes through Gilgit and Baltistan in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. New Delhi has been openly critical of Chinas disregard of Indias sovereignty concerns.

As there is growing recognition of the fact that India's Pakistan policy is a subset of Indias China policy, Beijing has reassured Islamabad that relations between China and Pakistan will continue to remain warm. In a meeting with Pakistans foreign minister Khawaja Asif in Beijing, Wang said, "We are ready to work together with our Pakistani brothers to undertake the historical mission of national rejuvenation and achieve the great dream of national prosperity and development. In this way, our iron friendship with Pakistan will never rust, and be tempered into steel." Clearly, Beijing will continue to prioritise its ties with Islamabad and the Wuhan informal summit will not lead to any shifts in Chinas all-weather partnership with Pakistan.

During the Modi-Xi meeting, the entire spectrum of significant bilateral and global issues is likely to come up for discussion. However, no major agreements are expected to be reached. Xi may try to 'convince' India to participate in the BRI, albeit differently. There is already talk going on regarding an economic corridor through China, Nepal and India. Following the announcement by India to plan new connectivity projects during Nepal's prime minister KP Oli's recent India visit, Wang met his Nepalese counterpart and conveyed a message to India: "Support for Nepals development should be a common understanding between India and China." Wang added, "Nepal on its part should leverage its geographical advantage and connect China and India for greater development. Nepal stands as a natural beneficiary from cooperation from China and India. I think this is a logical desire that should be supported by China and India." It remains to be seen how Modi reacts to Xis charm offensive.

On the surface, Beijing claims that the only objective of its BRI is to increase infrastructure connectivity within Asia and beyond for ensuring economic development and prosperity. However, the reality is very different from what is being projected by the Chinese side. According to a report prepared by the US-based Center for Advanced Defense Studies, Chinas "investments may not be principally driven by the concept of win-win development. Maritime infrastructure investment is inherently dual-use and is capable of furthering both legitimate business activities and military operations. The strategic characteristics of six analytical dimensions that are exhibited across China's Indo-Pacific investments  having a strategic location, a dual-use development model, notable Communist Party presence, significant financial control, limited transparency and unequal benefits." Recently, ambassadors to China from 27 out of 28 European Union (EU) member countries came up with a report criticising the BRI for flouting international transparency norms and putting Chinese companies at an advantage.

Although fundamental political reorientation is out, limited institutional change is not, at least as far as a 'reset' of India-China relations is concerned. Surely, it is time to reboot Indias most crucial bilateral relationship. Whether the informal summit will have the same historical value accorded to the landmark meeting between late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and then Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping is going to depend upon the outcome of the talks. It may be remembered Rajiv was the first Indian prime minister to visit China since Jawaharlal Nehrus historic 1954 trip.

Ties at the ambassadorial level had been restored in 1976, more than a decade after the ill-fated India-China war. Eight rounds of talks had been held since then Chinese foreign minister Huang Hua's 1981 India visit, but not much progress was noticed. The Rajiv-Deng breakthrough meeting in December 1988, that imagined a redirection of the relationship, had set the ball rolling for long-stalled boundary negotiations.

The progress towards normalisation of relations between New Delhi and Beijing has not been linear as concrete steps towards practical cooperation often get hamstrung by deep historical suspicions, cultural prejudices and geopolitical rivalries. A few major developments on the global stage may have led to India and China eyeing the possibility of enhancing cooperation, but the overall trajectory in their bilateral ties has been very unsatisfactory.

The upcoming informal summit does not mean that the depth of differences between India and China will automatically vanish, but efforts must be made to enhance mutual trust and strengthen communication channels. However, India cannot be expected to remain silent on Beijings unilateral attempts to change 'facts on the ground', its growing clout around Indias periphery, its unhelpful and unexplained position on cross-border terrorism, and its exploitation of river waters. Mitigating the mutual suspicion through conciliation and diplomacy is yet to become the norm for Xi's China.
The Wuhan summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese president Xi Jinping could be as significant as the one between former premier Rajiv Gandhi and then leader of China Deng Xiaoping in 1988, the official Chinese media commented.

Beijing: The Wuhan summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese president Xi Jinping could be as significant as the one between former premier Rajiv Gandhi and then leader of China Deng Xiaoping in 1988, the official Chinese media commented.

Xi and Modi will hold an "informal summit" in central China's Wuhan city from 27 to 28 April to improve bilateral relations and discuss global issues of mutual concern.

Both the leaders will try to work out a new paradigm for the bilateral ties bogged down with a host of disputes and differences.

"The meeting can be as significant as the one in 1988 when Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and then Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi met, and will set the course for bilateral ties," an op-ed in Global Times said.

Another official newspaper, the China Daily, said it remains to be seen whether the Modi-Xi summit "will live up to its billing as an unprecedented meeting" like the 1988 meeting between Rajiv and Deng.

"This (Rajiv-Deng summit) was when the two countries agreed to put their quarrels behind them. However, this has proved harder to do than say.

"Yet clearly both Beijing and New Delhi hope for something substantial from the upcoming two-day meeting, since the announcement was made on Sunday after talks between State Councilor Wang Yi and visiting Indian external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj," the China Daily said.

In its editorial 'Xi-Modi meeting to show diplomatic wisdom of China, India', the Global Times said "Indian leaders attach importance to reciprocity in diplomacy. After visiting China in 2015, Modi attended the Ninth BRICS Summit in Xiamen last year and will attend the summit of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Qingdao in June."

He is visiting China before June to meet Xi. This unusual move highlights how much the two sides value this meeting, it said.

The tabloid which is attached to the ruling Communist Party of China's official publications and known for its anti-India rhetoric said: "within China, hostility toward India is being replaced by hopes for friendly ties. The two countries need more communication to enhance mutual trust and eliminate the possibility of another border crisis."

"Asian powers and emerging countries, both China and India share many common interests in international affairs. They both have to strive for the right to develop and face Western pressure on issues like trade and intellectual property rights. There is large room for economic cooperation.

"Many conflicts between China and India broke out due to a lack of trust or at Western instigation, like the border disputes and so-called dragon-elephant competition," it said.

The US and Japan began underscoring Indo-Pacific strategy last year in an explicit attempt to rope in India against China. But the strategy hasn't brought India any strategic benefit except to trigger vigilance between New Delhi and Beijing, it said.

China and India cooled down soon after the Doka La standoff, which indicates the solid foundation of ties. The West wanted China and India to confront each other, but it didn't work out that way, it said.

China and India have a more robust economic development than other emerging countries and are both independent. Any attempt to manipulate the way they deal with each other will likely fail, it said.

The cooperation of two countries, home to about 40 percent of the global population, is highly significant for the whole world, it said.

The China Daily editorial said "there is good reason for optimism" for Modi-Xi summit.

The previous meeting between Xi and Modi in Xiamen last September and it produced an end to the tense border standoff (Doka La) that had been souring relations for months, it said.

"That incident was a reminder to the two proud neighbours that they must manage their border issues, or they will continue to trouble them.

"While third parties may profit from a deteriorating China-India relationship, the two countries themselves will not. They should be vigilant of others seeking to benefit at the expense of their friendly relations and recalibrate their relationship so it serves more constructive purposes," it added.
Over 5,000 people in Gujarat's Bhavnagar district, battling against the acquisition of land by a state power utility, have written letters to authorities seeking permission to die, a farmers' body leader on Tuesday claimed.

Ahmedabad: Over 5,000 people in Gujarat's Bhavnagar district, battling against the acquisition of land by a state power utility, have written letters to authorities seeking permission to die, a farmers' body leader on Tuesday claimed.

"A total of 5,259 people, comprising farmers and their family members from 12 affected villages, have sought "icchha mrityu (right to die) as the land they cultivate is being forcibly snatched by the state government and Gujarat Power Corporation Limited (GPCL)," claimed Narendrasinh Gohil, a local farmer and a member of Gujarat Khedut Samaj, an organisation fighting for farmers' rights.

He claimed that the letters, signed by these farmers and their kin, have been sent to the President of India, the prime minister and the chief minister of Gujarat.

Harshad Patel, Collector, Bhavnagar, said that the farmers had dropped these letters, in which they have demanded permission for "icchha mrityu", at the registry branch of the collectorate.

The registry branch receives and dispatches all the letters of the collectorate.

In the letter, the farmers accused the state government, and GPCL, of using police force to get them to vacate the land which the farmers claimed was being tilled by them for several years now.

The farmers alleged that GPCL was trying to possess the land more than 20 years after the power firm had acquired it, adding that such a move was against the law.

"As per the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, a company cannot take possession of a land which it had acquired more than five years ago. To possess such a land, it will have to initiate the process of acquisition afresh," Gohil said.

"On two occasions, the police have fired teargas on a peaceful gathering of farmers. We are being threatened and bullied by the government," Gohil alleged.

He added that the district administration has imposed section 144 of the CrPC, a provision prohibiting any assembly of persons the authorities term unlawful, in the 12 villages since over a month now.

"GPCL and Gujarat government want to usurp our land, despite the land legally belonging to the farmers. What shall we do in such a situation? If we do not have cultivable land, we shall be as good as dead," the letter claimed.

The farmers, in their letter, said that the "forcible acquisition" of land was making them feel like "terrorists" and, therefore, they would like to be killed by bullets fired by Army personnel.

"We wish for this because we have been made to feel like terrorists by the authority. So my last wish is to be killed at the hands of the army," the farmers said in the letters.
Former IPS officer Kiran Bedi, who has worked extensively on prison reform at Tihar Jail, said that it is the law and not individuals which has to decide about pardons, since such decisions have a social impact

The right to pardon rests with the State alone. Sabrina Lall's letter stating that she won't object to the release of her sister Jessica's killer Manu Sharma from Tihar Jail has come six months after the man was moved to a semi-open jail.

The night of 30 April, 1999, is etched in the memory of Delhi, which until the verdict was delivered was a city where everybody was somebody and someplace numbingly high above constitutional binds. Manu Sharma, son of former Congress leader Venod Sharma, was convicted by the Delhi High Court in 2006 after 32 witnesses turned hostile and the trial court acquitted him.

The case awakened collective conscience about the immunity enjoyed by the powerful elite and the vulnerability of the masses at their hands, and was immortalised by the 2011 film No One Killed Jessica.

Speaking to Firstpost about Sabrina's letter to Tihar's Welfare Officer regarding Manu Sharma's release, Raj Kumar, additional inspector general, Tihar, said that jails don't concern themselves with letters because there are 15,000 prisoners and letters written for each of them will be as relevant or as irrelevant to the jail authorities. Such is the evenness the law lays down.

The President of India and governors of states have been given the power to "grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute the sentence", under articles 72 and 161. In case of absolute pardon, the accused is released permanently, while in case of conditional pardon, the offender is let off subject to certain conditions, the breach of which will lead to revival of the sentence.

Civil society's intervention built pressure on the government and the judiciary to fast-track the case and send Sharma to jail. Now serving life-term imprisonment, Sharma's journey from guilt to reconciliation to reform is being mapped and monitored by the judicial authorities. At this point in time, the case can best be understood in the backdrop of prison reform and the psychology of pardons.

Speaking to Firstpost, former IPS officer Kiran Bedi said that it is the law and not individuals which has to decide, since such decisions have a social impact. "We must touch the sensitivities of victims. Everyone has their own sentiments. But justice is the responsibility of legal processes and not victims," explained Bedi, who has worked extensively on prison reform at Tihar.

Ajay Verma, an advocate and social worker, said that the court's judgment on 'Re-Inhuman Conditions in 1382 Prisons' in response to the Writ Petition (Civil) No. 406 of 2013 had stated that the suggestion given by the learned amicus of encouraging the establishment of open jails or open prisons is certainly worth considering. The judgment laid down that the "counseling should be encouraged and the state governments should engage the services of psychologists or social counselors who could visit the prisons on a daily basis to counsel prisoners, particularly first-time offenders".

It added that "there should be an independent mechanism for entertaining the grievances of inmates without getting the inmates into trouble with the prison staff or other inmates", and that over-crowding in jails should be reduced and that might help in reducing the possibility of suicides by the prisoners.

Verma, the convener of the National Forum for Prison Reforms, a group of civil societies working on prison reform, said that the capacity of Tihar is roughly 7,500 but 15,000 inmates live here. "This matter is beyond Sabrina Lall. There is a sentence review board that considers whether a lifer will be sent to a semi-open jail before his or her release, and this board comprises prison officers, a judge, secretary from the home department and probation officers who present their report," Verma said.

He added that Santosh Kumar Singh, the son of a former IPS officer who was accused of the rape and murder of 25-year-old law student Priyadarshini Matoo, also went to a semi-open jail.

Advocate Prem Prakash, who works closely with inmates at Tihar, says the principle of criminal and prison reform is that it is not the criminal but the criminal mentality that must be slayed. He believes that high profile cases like Manu Sharma's attract people towards understanding jails but several complications of normal cases are unaddressed. For instance, the limelight is on the acceptance and rejection of bail pleas in high-profile cases like Mattoo's and Lall's, but bails are an anti-poor concept in India.

As defined in Law Lexicon by P Ramantha Aiyar (2017), "The monetary value of the security, known also as the bail, or, more accurately, the bail bond, is set by the court having jurisdiction over the prisoner. The security may be cash, the papers giving title to property, or the bond of private persons of means or of a professional bondsman or bonding company. Failure of the person released on bail to surrender himself at the appointed time results in forfeiture of the security."

Prakash fights for the rights of those unable to arrange documents and funds for bail. "I have worked closely on two lifers accused of murder and rape and both have come out of the jail reformed. Some people sink into depression and others learn meditation, and read and write. Jail authorities keep a close watch on prolonged behavior and are able to notice the change in behavior. It is hard for inmates to fool the authorities," Prakash said, adding that the concept of semi-open jail, a four-storeyed building on the Tihar jail campus, far away from the other cells, is a good one.

Rajini Singh, who works with women inmates at Tihar, told Firstpost that Manu Sharma lived in Jail No.2 and ran an NGO that provided financial support to the families of those in jail, particularly the education of their children. "Not just Manu Sharma, but also SS Rathee, who was convicted of killing two innocent civilians in a fake encounter at Connaught Place in 1997, who participated in the International Yoga Day celebrations. Sharma has worked on architecture of Jail No.2 and the others have completed a yoga training course and in fact used to run a training programme on behalf of Panchwati Yoga Ashram, which runs training courses inside Tihar," she said.

Rajini added that nearly 30 percent of the inmates are hardcore criminals and reform means very little to them. However, she said, it's not as much the intensity of the crime but the nature of exposure in the jail that determines the state of mind in which the inmate walks out.

In case of the other 70 percent, through counselling, yoga, chanting and constructive activities that slowly erase memories of shame and wipe out ideas of revenge, and along with them expectation of pardon. Rajini, along with Swami Ashutosh of Panchwati Yoga Ashram, felt that undertrials are a bigger problem, because unlike long-term inmates who are made to internalise their mistakes and its consequences over a longer period of time, undertrials live in the uncertainty of guilt and misfortune of being wrongly convicted for up to seven or eight years.

"The ward for 18-21 year olds is where the psychology is most complicated, because approximately, 700 of them are accused of crimes like petty theft, brawls and chain snatching (Article 376 & Article 302 being the most common)," he said.

He added that the flame of seeking revenge is burning and the realisation that society won't accept them has kicked in, so to them it seems lucrative to turn to crime full-time. Unlike high-profile convicts, these inmates are school drop-outs. In Tihar's Mandoli Jail No.14, which has been adopted by the Yoga Ashram, out of 600 inmates, less than 15 are graduates, while nearly 50 dropped out of primary school and others didn't go to school.

Just like in crime, circumstances are imperative to reform too. Not every high-profile inmate is given a separate cell. Sometimes, s/he is made to live with habituated and drugged criminals and the environment has an impact in their passage toward reform and pardon. Vartika Nanda, a prison reforms activist who founded the Tinka Tinka Project  a unique series to bring change in the lives of the jail inmates  is working on a book on Manu Sharma and co-wrote the book Tinka Tinka Dasna (Dasna Jail, Ghaziabad) with Nupur Talwar, mother of slain teenager Aarushi Talwar. "In most cases, high-profile victims say they will come back and work for the jail, but they generally don't look back. Ordinary persons can change their addresses, mobile numbers, cities and even their names, but famous inmates have to live with their identity," Nanda said.

Nanda said that some people come out polished and reformed and that depends on the circumstances they were exposed to inside the jail. "Jail authorities are panicking about managing a famous inmate, so the interaction with common inmates is generally lesser. Solitary confinement has its own problems as the entire journey would be traumatic if the person is left to themselves," she said.

Furthermore, this causes a problem of overburdening inside jails; in India, 149 jails are overcrowded. Nanda pointed out that out of the total 63 open jails, 59 are from men and only four are from women  Yerawada in Maharashtra, Sanganer and Durgapur in Rajasthan, and one in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

Does pardon feel hard-earned, or has the inmate recovered from guilt by the time it comes? To find out, Firstpost spoke to two former inmates of Tihar. Randhir Mishra said that in Jail No.2, where Manu Sharma is lodged, there is a bakery and a furniture factory and during the Kathmandu earthquake, 1,000 biscuits manufactured by TJ's were distributed there. Bakery products, handloom and textile, apparel, furniture, mustard oil, recycled hand-made paper products, paintings, designer candles and lamps, and jute bags are manufactured in Tihar jail factories.

Mishra shared the story of how lifers go to open jails towards the end of their term, where they can walk around freely in the campus and call their family members to their rooms. He said those on life-imprisonment have been far removed from normal life much longer and can get back to a little more freedom before being released. He recalled his time in Tihar, when Gopal Kanda, a former minister from Haryana, who is in jail on charges of driving an air hostess to suicide, distributed blankets to the inmates, while Subrata Roy Sahara, in jail due to non-payment of Rs 1,500 crore, helped organise Sonu Nigam's music performance

The power to do collective good is encouraged. Mohammad Amir Khan was wrongly convicted as a teenager for the 1996-1997 blasts in Delhi and was recently compensated with a sum of Rs 5 lakh for the 14 years of his life he spent in prison, during which time his father died and mother barely survived. He said it took him 14 years to prove his innocence and that it is unfortunate that Muslims are viewed as lesser Indians and have to prove their patriotism; a chilling reminder of justice gone awfully wrong and a case where the State cannot expect to be pardoned for a mere sum.
India stayed clear of the joint communique by the member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Summit (SCO) supporting China's One Belt, One Road (OBOR) project

Beijing: India on Tuesday stayed clear of the joint communique by the member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Summit (SCO) supporting China's One Belt, One Road (OBOR) project.

This comes ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's crucial informal meet on Friday-Saturday.

India was not mentioned in the paragraph of the joint communique by the SCO member countries expressing support for Beijing's Belt and Road initiative.

"The foreign ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan reiterated their support for the 'Belt and Road Initiative' proposed by China.

"All parties support the use of the potential of the countries, international organizations and multilateral institutions in the region to establish a broad, open, mutually beneficial and equal partnership in the SCO region," the statement issued by the SCO foreign ministers said.

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which connects China's Kashgar in Xinjiang with Gwadar port in Pakistan's Balochistan, is a key artery of the OBOR project and is progressing at a fast pace.

India firmly opposes the over $50 billion economic corridor of the Belt and Road project which cuts through the Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. New Delhi lays claim to the region.
While the Congress hasnt yet finalised its chief ministerial nominee for Madhya Pradesh, it remains to be seen how far Digvijaya Singh succeeds in winning back the confidence of the people.

Post Narmada Parikrama, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh is now on to his next mission: Ekta Yatra.

Though the date of initiating this new mission has not yet been disclosed, its expected to begin in the first week of May. Digvijayas objective behind this Ekta Yatra (journey for unity) is to regain the lost ground by reconnecting with old Congress workers across the state, prepare them for the forthcoming Assembly election in Madhya Pradesh and create an anti-Shivraj Singh Chouhan atmosphere by highlighting failures of the BJP government.

While his previous 3,300-kilometre Narmada Parikrama along the Narmada river intended at exploring the soft Hinduvta line, the Ekta Yatra is more about connecting with the electorate especially the backward castes and Dalits.

The six-month Narmada Parikrama began on 30 September, 2017, and concluded on 9 April. According to Congress sources, the roadmap of the Ekta Yatra has been finalised. The road map is ready. Hell visit up to block-level. Partys social media team will also play up this yatra on various platforms, a source said.

Recently, Madhya Pradesh witnessed Dalit protests on 2 April during Bharat Bandh which resulted in six deaths. The state also witnessed a farmers agitation in 2017, where six people were killed in police firing at Mandsaur district.

Digvijaya ji will visit all the 166 Assembly seats of the BJP and showcase the failures of the government. He will highlight issues such as agrarian distress, suffering of Dalits and rampant corruption, a source associated with the Digvijaya camp told Firstpost.

One may recall that at the end of the Narmada Parikrama, Digvijaya said with the completion of his auspicious journey, a religious and spiritual exercise, his political journey would begin. During his journey, Digvijaya remarked that he got evidence of illegal sand mining and people provided him documents and proof.

Once known as political mentor of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Digvijaya a two-term Madhya Pradesh chief minister and a descendant of erstwhile royal family of Raghogarh  has become active in state politics once again. Im a politician and thats what Ill do after I complete my parikrama, he'd said.

Digvijaya had been out of active state politics since he'd lost to the BJP in 2003. Though he made it clear that he doesnt aim to be chief minister, regaining lost ground is the most important objective of this yatra. I want to strengthen the party in the state, Digvijaya remarked.

The last phase of Digvijaya as chief minister witnessed severe grievances and anger among people of Madhya Pradesh on various issues: From poor governance to deteriorating infrastructure. The BJP came to power by showcasing Digvijaya governments failure: Severe shortage of electricity, poor condition of roads and lack of water supply to farmers. As a result, the BJP government has been in power for the past 15 years.

Though this new initiative has been viewed as Digvijaya's personal effort  much like the Narmada Parikrama  itll be backed by the party. According to sources, Digvijaya has kept Congress high command in the loop. A large number of Congress MLAs and workers are looking forward to it.

Hes our senior most leader in Madhya Pradesh. We all will support him for whatever he does for the party. Well do whatever he asks us to do for the party and the state. His yatra is aimed at reconnecting with Congress workers who are either annoyed or have taken a backseat or have become inactive, Bhopal-based Congress leader and spokesperson JP Dhanopia told Firstpost.

To draw national attention, Digvijaya recently wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of the latters visit to tribal district Mandla on 24 April. Modi visited Jabalpur followed by Mandla as a part Panchayati Raj Divas celebration. Digvijaya wrote to Modi asking that payments under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act be released to labourers in Madhya Pradesh's tribal districts.

While the Congress hasnt yet finalised its chief ministerial nominee for Madhya Pradesh, it remains to be seen how far Digvijaya Singh succeeds in winning back the confidence of the people.
Verka was not the only leader who raised the matter of Dalits being left out in the cabinet expansion.

Chandigarh: The discontent within the Congress unit in Punjab over the recent state cabinet expansion reached the party high command in New Delhi with Dalit leader and MLA Raj Kumar Verka expressing "anguish" over Scheduled Caste members not being given adequate representation.

"It is an internal matter of the party and we are not against the party and we are also not upset with party. But the reality is that Valmiki and Majhabi Sikhs are somewhere feeling left out. I apprised Congress president Rahul Gandhi of the sentiments of the community," Verka said.

The matter is under consideration of the party high command and a way will be found out, he added. Verka, who is an MLA from Amritsar (West), had raised the matter with the Congress chief in a meeting at the Talkatora Stadium in the national capital on Tuesday.

"This matter relates to a particular section of the society...Chief Minister Amarinder Singh is seriously considering this matter and we trust the party," said Verka.

However, Chief Minister Singh while replying to a question on representation to Dalit/OBC community in the cabinet, said on Wednesday that not all the 77 ruling party MLAs could be made ministers. He, however, added that those left out would be suitably accommodated, as promised by him.

Nine new ministers were sworn in on last Saturday.

Verka was not the only leader who raised the matter of Dalits being left out in the cabinet expansion.

Earlier, Surjit Singh Dhiman, MLA from Amargarh in Sangrur district, Nathu Ram, legislator from Balluana in Fazilka and Sangat Singh Gilzian, MLA from Urmur seat in Hoshiarpur, had resigned from their party positions over the issue. Punjab Congress had tried to mollify these leaders. Congress government was also planning to appoint some MLAs as chairman of various boards and Corporations in order to placate them, sources said.
Even the dead have dignity. They cannot be 'named or shamed.' This was the observation of the Supreme Court as it dealt with the issue of disclosure of the identity of rape victims

New Delhi: Even the dead have dignity. They cannot be "named or shamed."

This was the observation of the Supreme Court on Tuesday as it dealt with the issue of disclosure of the identity of rape victims, including the eight-year-old girl who was raped and brutally murdered recently in Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir.

It said that even in cases where the rape victims were alive and were either minors or of unsound mind, their identities should not be revealed as they have the right to privacy and they cannot live under such a "stigma" throughout their life.

"Think of the dignity of dead also. It (media reporting) can be done without naming or shaming them. The dead also have dignity," a bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said while hearing the matter in which senior lawyer Indira Jaising raked up the issue of section 228-A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which deals with disclosure of the identity of victims of sexual offences.

The bench, which agreed to examine the aspect related to section 228-A of the IPC, also questioned as to how the identity of a minor rape victim could be disclosed even after getting consent from her parents.

"Why should this happen, that the identity of a minor victim be disclosed just because her parents have given consent," the bench asked, adding, "Even if a person is of unsound mind, she has a right to privacy. A minor will become major. Why should this stigma be there for life".

Jaising, who is assisting the court as an amicus curiae, said it was necessary for the apex court to clarify section 228-A of the IPC.

She said there cannot be a "blanket ban" on the media from reporting such incidents and the apex court would have to balance freedom of the press and the rights of the victim.

During the hearing, the bench observed that the issue required clarification. It asked that even in cases where the victim had died, "why should there be disclosure of name".

Jaising, without directly referring to the Kathua incident, said in a recent case, the victim had died which had led to a demand for justice not only in India but also globally.

The bench said it would examine the issue related to section 228-A of the IPC, after which the Centre's counsel sought time to seek instructions. The court then listed the matter for hearing on 8 May.

The top court was hearing the petitions filed after the brutal gangrape-and-murder case in Delhi on 16 December, 2012 raising concerns over safety and security of women.

Last week, the Delhi High Court had directed 12 media houses to pay a compensation of Rs 10 lakh each for revealing the identity of the Kathua rape victim. These media houses had apologised in the high court for revealing the details of the victim.

While Section 23 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act lays down the procedure for media to report cases of sexual offences against child victims, section 228-A of the IPC deals with disclosure of the identity of victims of such offences. The penal law provides for jail term of up to two years along with a fine.

The eight-year-old girl from a minority nomadic community had disappeared from near her home in a village near Kathua in Jammu region on 10 January. Her body was found in the same area a week later.

The state police's crime branch, which probed the case, has filed the main charge sheet against seven persons and a separate charge sheet against a juvenile in a court in Kathua district. The charge sheet revealed chilling details about how the girl was allegedly kidnapped, drugged and raped inside a place of worship before being killed.
The United States will continue its 'maximum pressure' campaign against North Korea, the White House has said.

Washington: The United States will continue its "maximum pressure" campaign against North Korea, the White House has said, ruling out any possibility of lifting of sanctions till Pyongyang takes "concrete action" to denuclearise.

"Certainly, the goal is denuclearisation of the peninsula. And we're going to continue the maximum pressure campaign that has been ongoing to North Korea until we see concrete actions taken toward complete and total denuclearisation," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters at her daily news conference on Monday.

US president Donald Trump has accepted an invitation of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for a summit meeting. The meeting is expected to be held later this summer. At least five non-US venues are being looked at for the summit.

Trump's pick to be the next secretary of state, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, was in Pyongyang three weeks ago to hold high level preparatory talks with the North Korean leaders.

Defence Secretary Jim Mattis, in an interaction with reporters at the Pentagon, exuded confidence that the summit meeting would yield results.

"Right now, I think there is a lot of reasons for optimism that the negotiations will be fruitful and we'll see," he said.

Sanders said North Korean leaders had agreed to denuclearise.

"Certainly in a number of conversations, including the comments I'd refer you back to. Also South Korea president Moon Jae-in, who has said that North Korea has expressed a will for complete denuclearisation. That's the focus of any conversation and negotiation that the United States will have with North Korea," she added.

The Trump administration wants action from Pyongyang. Sanders said the US wouldn't make the mistake of past administrations in taking the North Koreans "simply at their word."

"We've seen some steps in the right direction, but we have a long way to go. We also have seen a major change in what has taken place in the past, by having our allies and partners in the region step up and do much more than they have in the past," she said.

China has taken a more active role in putting pressure on North Korea, Sanders said, adding that they could certainly do more.

"We hope they will, and will continue working with us. That's all at the direction and because of the relationship that the president has built with President Xi Jinping of China," she said.
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath held a 'chaupal' and dined at a Dalit's house in Pratapgarh on Tuesday night, in an effort to reach out to Dalits ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath held a "chaupal" and dined at a Dalit's house in Pratapgarh on Tuesday night, in an effort to reach out to Dalits ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The chief minister took part in the "chaupal" (village meeting) in Kandhaipur Madhupur village and patiently listened to the problems of locals, saying benefits of various government schemes should reach every eligible individual.

Directing officials to take steps for immediate redressal of problems faced by common people, he asked them to earnestly carry out their work as the government will not tolerate any laxity in this regard.

Giving an account of the various works being undertaken by both the Centre and state government, the chief minister interacted with locals to understand the ground reality of schemes under the "Gram Swaraj Abhiyan".

Later, he had dinner at Dayaram Saroj's house sitting cross legged on the ground along with locals.
The Doka La standoff happened due to 'lack of mutual trust' between India and China, and they need to work together to gradually settle the boundary issue, a top Chinese diplomat said

Beijing: The Doka La standoff happened due to "lack of mutual trust" between India and China, and they need to work together to create favourable conditions and gradually settle the boundary issue, a top Chinese diplomat said on Tuesday, ahead of this week's informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Indian and Chinese troops had been locked in a stand-off for over two months last year in the Doka La area near Sikkim before "disengaging" on 28 August. The area of the standoff is also claimed by Bhutan.

"The boundary incident that happened (at Doka La) last year someway reflected lack of mutual trust between the two countries," Vice-Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou told the media when asked about the Doka La standoff.

Asked whether the Doka La standoff and the boundary issue will figure in the talks between prime minister Modi and president Xi, Kong said the two leaders decided to hold informal summit "because both the countries attach great importance to each other in external strategy, not because of the boundary question that still remained unresolved, that we need to talk about it during the informal summit".

India-China boundary dispute spans to 3,488-km along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Both sides have held 20 rounds of talks between the special representatives to resolve it.

"Of course, the boundary question is important. Both sides need to work together to create favourable conditions and gradually settle it. Proper settlement of boundary question will help deepen cooperation and deepen mutual understanding and trust between the two countries," Kong said.

He said both China and India need to make even greater efforts to deepen their mutual trust.

"At the informal summit, the two leaders will have heart-to-heart discussions on the issues of overarching, long-term and strategic importance to bilateral relations. In terms of some specific differences or sensitive issues, the two sides will stay in touch with each other through relevant channels. In the process of deepening mutual trust, they will gradually find a way to try to settle them," he said.
Ryan Sandes and Ryno Griesel completed the Great Himalaya Trail, which is spread over a distance of 1,504 kilometres, in 25 days | #FirstCulture

In 2012 at the Salomon Skyruna 100 kilometre trail run in South AfricaRyan Sandes finished at the top spot whilst also smashing the course record. By this time, he had built quite the reputation for himself in the world of ultra running, with many awards to his name.

In the third spot during the same race was Ryno Griesel, a chartered accountant by profession, who enjoyed running as much as he liked immersing himself in international taxation, mergers and acquisitions. After the congratulatory exchanges, the fanboy in Griesel motivated him to walk up to Sandes and get a cap autographed. In turn, Sandes told him, Live your dreams.

Though the two South Africans charted different paths there onSandes a regular on the running circuit, while Griesel pouring over the numbers and running a business most timeslittle did they know that six years later, they would be sharing the same dream in faraway Nepal. It takes like-minded allies with a common passion for the mountains to take on a challenge as gruelling as the Great Himalaya Trail.

The idea was to traverse Nepal via a network of mountain tracks  a total distance of roughly 1,400 kilometres with an altitude gain and loss of 70,000 metres. The previous fastest known time (FKT) of 28 days 13 hours 56 minutes was set by another South African, Andrew Porter, in 2016. The duo decided to chalk out a route following Porters 12 checkpoints, starting from the village of Hilsa at the Nepal-Tibet border in the west and finishing at the Nepal-India border at Pashupatinagar in the east. Understanding the course with the help of maps and Google Earth alone took some 350 hours, and the logistical and physical preparation for the run took additional time.

We did the Drakensberg Grand Traverse in 2014 (209 kilometres, finished in a record time of 41 hours 49 minutes) and got to know each other better after pulling off something as crazy as that. Ryno started pacing and crewing me at a number of big races, including when I won the Western States 100 last year, where his role was really crucial. We are a team and have done some pretty cool runs in the mountains, Sandes says. For me, it was always a dream to run in the Himalaya and cross it on foot. Ryno had climbed in the Himalaya as a student and always wanted to go back. Thats where it all started, he adds.

Several years of endurance racing served them well when it came to readying themselves physically, so a lot of time was spent on strength training before the run. For Sandes, the major concern was the altitude they would have to deal with, which rose to a maximum of 5,550 metres while crossing the Jungben La. This region is really remote and mishaps at that altitude were a major concern. I did some training in an altitude machine at home, but one can never be completely prepared, Sandes says.

Two weeks before leaving for Nepal, the duo returned to Drakensberg in Lesotho, running at a maximum altitude of 3,000 metres. After picking up a few handy tips from Porter on the route, they set off for their adventure.

We had the route on a hand-held GPS device, as well as on my watch. We also had about 10 topographical maps that we hoped to use for navigation, Griesel says. There was no time for acclimatisation in Nepal, apart from the walk-in of over 80 kilometres to the starting point that ran over a snowed-in pass. The night before their start on 1 March, sleep was hard to come by, especially for Sandes. Crossing that pass was quite technical and left me feeling really nervous. I was tossing and turning until we started at 4 am. I began to wonder about what I had got myself into, Sandes says.

The day to embark upon the ultimate mountain adventure, as Griesel put it, had finally arrived and he could hardly contain his childlike excitement. The record was never the most important factor. It was rather about an adventure with a friend. However, we kept our eyes on the clock and chasing the record intensified the adventure on the whole, Griesel says. The experience outweighed the record  it was life changing; something that I will never forget, Sandes adds.

The run was to be a self-supported one. Their compact packs stored waterproof gear and warm layers to protect them from the elements, besides emergency equipment and medical supplies. The ice axe, rope and alpine shoes to tackle the steep sections added extra weight. For nutrition, they relied on local food, especially dal-bhaat (rice and lentils), a decision in line with the Nepali saying, 'Dal-bhaat power, 24 hour. Besides that, it was omelettes and boiled eggs, coconut cookies, chocolate and a lot of tea. The excess sugar in the east over a prolonged period did cause us to have upset stomachs over the last few days, Griesel says.

When they met locals along the way and told them about what they had set out to achieve, they were usually met with disbelief, especially when Sandes told them that it was his day job to run. The smattering of Nepali we picked up on the walk-in really helped. The first question they had was who we were running from! Sandes quips.

I guess running is a foreign concept for them, when they use the same trails to go to work or to transports goods  it is essentially survival. It was bizarre for them to hear where we had come from and the fact that running was recreational for us, he adds.

The days spent on the trail brought many surprises. There was a time when Griesel got knocked off his feet by an unaware donkey. Another time, they were lucky to have found shelter in a monastery in the remote Dolpha region. They were ambushed by a motorcycle gang with weapons and intent to harm, though they got away unscathed. Navigation too, got tricky at times, given the maze of trails that they had to link up and navigate.

Big mistakes mean you lose days. At times, micro-navigation and dealing with steep sections were needed. Ryno was phenomenal at it, given his mountain experience, so we never really got lost. A lot of the trail was covered in ice and snow because Nepal had a late winter, which made it tricky and slow-moving at times, Sandes says.

The two flourished in the environment and in each others company. Often, a silent conversation ensued during the run, as they revelled in the camaraderie theyve shared over the years. Despite finding themselves in some very sticky situations, they handled challenges successfully together.

The third and last day in the remote Dolpha region was the hardest, and we had few resources on hand. There was nowhere we could replenish our supplies, nor get help. We had been going non-stop for 21 hours and I got frostbitten. There was severe windchill and the temperature was around -15 to -20 degree Celsius. Then in the Annapurna region, I strained my quad muscle and could not move for an hour. In the last week, I got hyperventilation and fever as well, Griesel recalls.

I was really worried about Ryno, but I dont think it was ever a concern for him. Hes headstrong and I dont think quitting was really an option, Sandes says. The nights and days soon blurred into one. There were times they would stop as early as 5 pm, and catch a few hours of sleep before starting off around midnight. Some of the course was run right through the night, fuelled by power naps in between. In the last two days, they logged a mileage of around 90 kilometres on mountain terrain. When they finally crossed the finish line, it was more of a sense of relief than ecstasy.

For the last five to six days, we hardly slept  maybe one or two hours each night. From having dreamt about it to finally achieving it, the experience was really amazing, Sandes says. There was a feeling of gratefulness when we reached the end, Griesel adds. By the end of it, they had logged in a total distance of 1,504 kilometres over 24 days, 3 hours, 24 minutes, bettering the previous mark and setting a new FKT for the Great Himalaya Trail. The fatigue soon took over, and it was a few days before they could process just what they had achieved.

We started back for Kathmandu the moment we finished. It was a lot of travel, but we were so tired that we just kept falling asleep all the time. Its all still sinking in, Sandes says.

These days, Sandes is spending time cooling his heels with his family back home in Cape Town, while Griesel is back to accounting at his office in Pretoria. Theres little lined up in the next few months, though all that could change while at play in the Drakensberg mountains, in the weeks to come.
In the wake of the recent reports of growing pre-poll violence in West Bengal ahead of the Panchayat elections, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has demand for a President's Rule in the state.

In the wake of the recent reports of growing pre-poll violence in West Bengal ahead of the panchayat elections, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has demanded for a President's Rule in the state. "Without imposing President's rule, no one will be able to exercise their democratic right. This is the need of the hour", Chowdhury told ANI.

Union minister Babul Supriyo, too, has voiced a similar demand citing the troubled situation in the state. The BJP leader tweeted:

Presidents Rule should be imposed in the State of West Bengal with immediate effect  Its not about attacks against any political party, its attack by the State GOVERNMENT, yes, the DiDi-LED-TMC Govt. against democracy & humanity.. Mamta Banerjee must meet her Political END  Babul Supriyo (@SuPriyoBabul) April 23, 2018

Violence has been reported from various corners of the state ahead of the panchayat polls. Instead of making arrangements to curb growing tensions, political parties have spent their time blaming each other for the unrest.

A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sheikh Dildar Khan was shot dead at Suri in Birbhum district in a skirmish over the filing of nominations for the upcoming West Bengal panchayat elections on Monday. Citing Sheikhs father, Tahid Khan, BJP alleged that the deceased was a party worker whose wife was to file nomination for contesting the rural polls. He was fired at while he was accompanying his wife to file nomination. Citing the same relative within hours, Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief in Birbhum district Anubrata Mondal alleged that Sheikh Dildar Khan was killed by mercenaries brought in by the BJP from the neighbouring state of Jharkhand.

Surjya Kanta Mishra, politburo member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPM, said the Trinamool Congress and the BJP had started a tug of war over the killing of an innocent man, referring to the incident in Suri. It showed that the two parties were on the same side of the "polarisation" process, he added.

Violence was reported from several parts of Bengal including Birbhum, North 24 Parganas, Malda etc with even senior opposition leaders allegedly being targetted by ruling party. Supriyo even alleged that he was stopped from escorting his party workers to file nomination and that the police is helping the ruling party.

A senior TMC leader brushed off the allegations as "baseless" and blamed the opposition for "vitiating peace" in some parts of the state. Bobby Hakim, who is a state minister and close aide of chief minister Mamata Banerjee , said that the BJP is gradually losing ground in the state and hence bringing people from outside to garner support.

The dates for the polls, which were earlier scheduled to be held on 1, 3 and 5 May are yet to be announced by the Election Commission. The nominations received on Monday would be scrutinised on 25 April. The last date for the withdrawal of candidature is 28 April 28 as per the Election Commission notification. According to a report in Livemint, a key official at the commission said though the High Court had asked for a consultation with all stakeholders in deciding a new schedule, the commission may not have any further discussion with the opposition parties. The commission has already taken note of their demands and the new schedule is likely to be decided soon in consultation with the state administration, this person said, asking not to be identified.

As per the Livemint report, the Congress and the BJP are expected to move the Calcutta High Court again on Tuesday. According to a lawyer backing the Congress petition, the poll panel should have notified the new schedule for polling while extending the window for filing nominations. The commission could not have filed a notification separately only for filing nominations, which makes it technically invalid, he said.

Meanwhile, the resistance group moved the Calcutta High Court on Monday. Justice Subrata Talukdar, who had earlier stalled the electoral process by issuing an injunction, on Monday ordered the state election commission to file a report by Tuesday over the allegation that miscreants had obstructed candidates from filing nominations.

BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya held a press conference in Kolkata on Monday where he alleged that the party's candidates were obstructed from filing nomination for the Panchayat elections, and the party elections were vandalized by goons, at the behest of ruling-TMC in the state. "We moved the Supreme Court and high court who then directed the Election Commission to ensure the elections are free and fair and that the candidates are provided security, but I think the anti-social elements working at the behest of TMC do not understand the orders of the High Court, Supreme Court, or the Election Commission," Vijayvargiya said. "BJP will again move High Court tomorrow and raise this issue. We have collected the footage and have even submitted a plea in the Court that we were not allowed to submit nomination. We will show the clippings to President on how democratic rights of the people are under attack in West Bengal" he added.

Apart from the death of one BJP worker in the clashes at Birbhum earlier in the day, Vijayvargiya said the whole state was in turmoil and chaos throughout the day, and clashes happened in over 526 places, 11 BJP officers were vandalized, and over 500 party workers were injured. "Police were mute spectators to the TMC goons' acts and only arrested BJP workers," he said.

Earlier, TMC general secretary Partha Chatterjee had also alleged that five workers of his party had been killed in the run-up to the panchayat elections and that the opposition parties were behind the violence witnessed during filing of nominations. "Because they did not have a support base, they had stirred up unrest in a bid to hold up the elections", Chatterjee remarked.

Both the Congress and Left parties urged the election body to ensure polling is free, fair and peaceful. The commission has to also ensure that the candidates willing to contest are allowed to file their nominations, the parties said.

BJP leader Mukul Roy said his party was not in favour of one-day panchayat polls in the state. "We have said this to the SEC and demanded at least two-phase polls with the deployment of central paramilitary forces," he said.

According to The Indian Express, Chatterjee said the government is ready to hold the elections anytime. Our main concern is that the people are not harassed during the summer and the panchayat elections are not held during the Ramzan month and monsoon. Our priority is to expedite the development process initiated by chief minister Mamata Banerjee, he said, adding that the polls could be held in one day if necessary.

Earlier, on 29 March, the Centre sought the report from the state government over recent reports of violence during Ram Navami processions. The Union Ministry of Home Affairs, in its communication, has asked the Mamata Banerjee-led state government to send a report on incidents of violence and tension in some districts of the state, and steps being taken to restore normalcy in those areas.
A day after BJP workers created a ruckus in Mysuru after party state president BS Yeddyurappa announced that his son BY Vijayendra will not be contesting from the Varuna constituency, the party appointment Vijayendra as the state general-secretary of the Yuva Morcha

A day after BJP workers created a ruckus in Mysuru after party state president BS Yeddyurappa announced that his son BY Vijayendra will not be contesting from the Varuna constituency, the party appointed Vijayendra as the state general secretary of the Yuva Morcha, in an effort to placate the angry workers.

BJP Karnataka's official Twitter handle posted a congratulatory note on Tuesday, confirming the appointment:

Congratulations to Shri BY Vijayendra on his appointment as State General Secretary, Yuva Morcha. His addition will greatly boost the party cadre and strengthen our organisation in the Old Mysuru region. He will be campaigning extensively for candidates in the Old Mysuru region.  BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) April 24, 2018

Vijayendra supporters threw chairs at the convention on Monday, reminding people of what was witnessed across Congress district offices soon after the latter released its first list of candidates.

The BJP has not so far officially announced any candidate for Varuna constituency, but Vijayendra had been campaigning for weeks and has even taken a house on rent there.

Vijayendra tweeted saying he wholeheartedly stood by and supported the party's decision "in all circumstances."

"I wholeheartedly stand by & support party's decision in all circumstances. I urge the party cadre to maintain peace & tranquility which is of foremost importance. I will continue to work towards bringing @BJP4Karnataka to power in the state under the leadership of Shri @BSYBJP!" he said in his tweet.

According to party sources, Vijayendra, Yeddyurappa's second son, was to file his nomination from Varuna on Monday.

It was not known what prompted Yeddyurappa to make the announcement, amid reports that he was concerned over delay in the party leadership announcing his son as the candidate.

Yeddyurappa's son was expected to go against Siddaramaiah's son Yathindra for the Varuna constituency in a contest between the offspring of Karnataka's two most popular leaders.

The Yuva Morcha of BJP's Karnataka chapter already has three general-secretaries: Tammesh Gowda, Basavaraj Yankanji and Tejaswi Soorya. It is unclear if Vijayendra will replace one of them or will join the organisation as the fourth general-secretary.

Varuna elected Siddaramiah in the 2013 Assembly polls, but during this election, the Karnataka chief minister decided to contest from Chamundeshwari and Badami, leaving Varuna for his son Yathindra.

With inputs from PTI
On Friday, thousands of people gathered at Pandavapura stadium in Mandya to wish Darshan Puttannaiah success in the Karnataka election.

Melukote, Karnataka: On Friday, thousands of people gathered at Pandavapura stadium in Mandya to wish Darshan Puttannaiah success in the election. The 40-year-old is contesting as a Swaraj India candidate from Melkote constituency, previously won by his recently deceased father KS Puttannaiah in 1994 and 2013 Karnataka polls. His father was the only legislator of Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha (SKP), an offshoot of Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS), which merged with Swaraj India in March 2017. Apart from Darshan, JD(S) MP CS Puttaraju is another prominent contender for the seat.

On Friday, Anvitha, an eight-year-old, narrated to the reportedly 40,000-strong crowd about Puttannaiah and how he used to play with her and amuse her. When the child spoke about Puttannaiahs values and his concern for the welfare of farmers, the audience broke into thunderous applause. Expressing gratitude, Darshan announced he does not want to return to the US, and said he wanted to work for the people of Melkote irrespective of his success or failure in the elections.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

As the founder and CEO of Qwinix Technologies, you were well-settled in the US. Now you are fighting an election on a Swaraj India ticket. How do you feel about stepping into politics?

Darshan: Yes, I am well-settled with a happy family, comfortable life and lucrative business in multiple countries, just like any other innovative US-settled techie from my time. While many of the tech-savvy first-generation entrepreneurs are returning to India to begin their second innings to give back to the motherland and to reconnect with our roots, I am glad I found my calling a bit early.

Actually, it started much before my father passed away as I put in place a plan for transition and was here for over five months last year. Politics may not be my cup of tea but many will recall that I was a crucial link in my fathers campaign last time around. Stepping into his shoes is a giant task and I am aware of it, but the love and affection I am getting in every village, every house, every day for the last few days has reinforced my decision to work with the people, not just farmers.

But farmers will always have a special place in my heart as I have seen their problems from close quarters and my father fought for their rights throughout his life.

Youve spent most of your time abroad. Do you know the real problems of farmers in the state, especially in Melkote?

Darshan: If I said I know the solutions to all the problems of the farmers, I would be lying. I have the green army, the Raitha Sangha with me. I am not alone in this battle, and at Swaraj India, we are part of a larger farmers movement, where over 196 farmers organisations all over the country have united under one banner.

Coming to Melkote, my grandfather was a farm labourer and by dint of hard work, he became a farmer. My father fought all his life to empower farmers, organise them, educate them and be with them in their struggle. I am fortunate to have such an upbringing and am witness to a generation of farmers woes. Even when I was in the US, I never lost sight of my brethren here.

I understand it is not just the drought, year after year, failing crops, mounting loans, unreal minimum support price (MSP), but also inadequate access to healthcare, crop patterns, cropping methods, dependence on water, unemployment, primary education... these are only some other issues. Sharing of river waters and climate change are bigger issues. But be it a farmer or a worker, teacher or a student, migrant or a middle-class employee, I want every citizen to know their rights and claim their rights.

What problems of farmers need to be fixed immediately?

Darshan: There are many, but we need to immediately fix the waiver of agricultural loans and MSP for agricultural produce. My party has two demands for farmers all over the country: One, unconditional waiver of all agricultural loans across India by an Act of Parliament. The Centre has to intervene. Two, the remunerative prices (MSP) should be production cost plus 50 percent, which was recommended by the Swaminathan Commission and promised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This is what Yogendra Yadav and Swaraj Indias Jai Kisan Andolan are demanding immediately.

The younger generation, in general, is not as interested as you in farming. How will you encourage them to return to the field?

Darshan: I am feeling guilty for going abroad in search of greener pastures while a lot of opportunities are available right here. I am confident of creating jobs in this region. For example, we can create employment for more than 6,000 unemployed youth by having a factory to make coconut husk products. Till now, coconut husk was being sent to Tamil Nadu. We can create employment by starting supply chain units to support major companies in Mysuru. These are just some examples.

What is your stand on the Cauvery issue?

Darshan: I had discussions with my father on this issue. I am of the opinion that both states should hold discussions on this issue. Both are not specific about the water that flows back. Both are focussing only on the water that is stored in the reservoirs. Conserving the water by various other methods, crop patterns, farming techniques, using less water... it is a huge science and needs to be grounded in the grassroots in sync with people's aspirations and needs.

A lot of politicians control sugar mills in the state and the prices of sugarcane. Mandya being a sugarcane belt, how do you address this concern?

Darshan: While private sugar factories are profitable, sugar factories managed by cooperative societies have been incurring losses. We have to manage sugar factories run by cooperative societies and make them profitable. If sugar factories focus on producing byproducts, they will get more profit and will be in a position to pay more price for sugarcane. Understanding the business issues and making it profitable for both shareholders and farmers is the need of the hour.

Congress has not fielded a candidate against you. What is your take on that gesture?

Darshan: Congress approached us much before my father died. Other movements have also provided us support. Congress also had talks with the leaders of Swaraj India. But when all the cadre, youths and farmers wanted me to contest and proposed my name, my mother agreed and announced that we would be seeking a ticket from Swaraj India. We stand on our word and appreciate the Congress gesture to the overall farmers' cause.

Have you approached JD(S) and BJP for their support?

Darshan: No.

Are you confident of winning the election despite being a political novice?

Darshan: My understanding of politics is very simple. Be honest and sincere. Be with the people. Be accessible whether one is in power or not. Once you connect to the peoples pulse and understand the overall paradigm of development that is people-centric, we can bring back swaraj. So, being a political novice is an advantage to usher in the Swaraj India brand of politics: Bringing probity, accountability and transparency into every sphere of political life. Then rooting out black money, corruption, communalism, and bad governance becomes easy.

The citizens, especially youth, are eager to embrace this kind of honest politics but had no choice until now. We want to fill that vacuum. I am humbled and thrilled by the huge response on the ground from all walks of life, so I am 110 percent confident of victory. In the next five years, we plan to nurture over 200 clean, accountable and transparent politicians in Swaraj India Karnataka, and stay true to the values my father upheld all his life.

Maheswara Reddy is a Bangalore-based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters
Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu reacted to the impeachment of Chief Justice Dipak Misra saying the chairman's office was not a mere post office and the CJI's impeachment cannot be a hasty decision, media reports said.

Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu reacted to the controversy surrounding his decision to reject a notice seeking impeachment of Chief Justice Dipak Misra.

Naidu defended his decision by saying that the Rajya Sabha Chairman's office was not a mere post office but a constitutional functionary and such decisions cannot be hasty. He also said the decision on the Notice of Motion for Removal of Chief Justice of India given on Monday came after over a month of due diligence and in strict conformity with the provisions of the Constitution and the Judges Inquiry Act of 1968.

"Freedom of expression allows that but ultimately truth prevails. I have done the just thing in the best possible manner expected of me," PTI sources quoted Naidu as saying, a day after he rejected the impeachment motion.

Naidu said the Chief Justice of India is the highest judicial functionary of the country and "any issue in public domain concerning him requires to be resolved at the earliest following prescribed procedures so as to prevent the atmosphere from being further vitiated".

On Monday, Naidu refused to admit the impeachment motion against the CJI citing 'no proof of misconduct' by him as alleged by the Opposition parties. According to PTI sources, Naidu held deliberations with a number of constitutional and legal experts, including Attorney General KK Venugopal.

The notice signed by 64 Rajya Sabha MPs of seven parties was submitted to Naidu for deliberations to impeach the CJI. The move, however, failed to convince several from among the Opposition.

Congress leaders like Manmohan Singh, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Manish Tewari and Salman Khurshid refrained from signing the notice. Opposition parties like DMK, RJD and TMC, who are usually part of efforts to rally up a united Opposition, also did not sign the notice to impeach CJI Misra. Eminent jurists and legal experts like Justice (retired) Fali S Nariman and Soli Sorabjee opined that the Chairman came to the conclusion after due application of mind and agreed to Naidu's decision.

Former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee, however, said that Naidu acted in haste while rejecting the impeachment notice against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. "This instance has set a bad precedence, which is not good for democracy," he told PTI.

The Congress party termed the rejection "illegal, hasty, and unprecedented" arguing that Naidu in his capacity as the Chairman of Rajya Sabha was not expected to decide on the merit of proofs and evidence as a quasi-judicial body. The part said that Naidu should have established the veracity of signatures and ensured that the notice meets the requisite constitutional norms and should have admitted it. The party also said that it would challenge the "illegal" order in the Supreme Court. The Left also criticised Naidu with CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury saying his order showed "a certain degree of non-application of mind" as he did not follow laid-down rules.

The BJP, however, "thanked" him for warding off an "act of blasphemy" towards the Constitution.

The rejection of notice for the impeachment of CJI at the preliminary stage itself had a precedent nearly five decades ago when a Supreme Court judge faced such a bid for the first time. An impeachment motion against Justice JC Shah was submitted to Lok Sabha speaker GS Dhillon in May 1970 following a campaign by a former government servant, OP Gupta, charging Shah with dishonesty after the judge made certain remarks about him during a hearing. The notice was, however, turned down by the Speaker after terming it "frivolous".

Besides rejection of such notice against CJI Misra and Justice Shah at the preliminary stage, there was another such case when 58 Rajya Sabha MPs had moved a petition before the Chairman and former Vice-President Hamid Ansari against Gujarat High Court judge Justice JB Pardiwala in 2015 for his alleged "unconstitutional" remarks against reservation. However, Justice Pardiwal expunged the controversial remarks from the order and the impeachment proceedings were henceforth aborted.

With inputs from PTI
Priyank Kharge, the youngest Cabinet minister in Karnataka, and son of Congress veteran Mallikarjun Kharge, recently sparked speculation that his father is about to return to state politics, but later clarified that he was speaking only as a son

Bengaluru: Priyank Kharge, the 38-year-old son of Congress veteran Mallikarjun Kharge, is the youngest Cabinet minister in Karnataka. "As a son, it's my dream to see my father as chief minister," he had said recently, sparking furious speculation that Kharge senior is about to return to state politics. Needlessly, as it turned out, as Priyank soon added that he was speaking only as a son. "We are all focussed on winning the elections," he added.

In a government that was seen as having slept through its first four years, Priyank built a reputation of being proactive. Inducted in June 2016 as minister of state with independent charge, he set about revitalising the IT industry. An animator and start-up entrepreneur himself before entering politics, Priyank got his department to fund start-ups by disbursing grants  a first in the country  in tourism, biotech, agritech and other fields. His reward was a promotion to Cabinet rank.

Is there a divide between the Congress party's old guard and newcomers, including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah?

There is no rift. There is nothing like old guard and new guard. We are all Congressmen. It is all about making the right choices. We are looking for the magic number and we will all work for the party. The high command took the final call on whom to give tickets and who not to.

The chief minister has inducted controversial figures into the party, including businessman Ashok Kheny who has a track record of irregularities.

The chief minister knows what is best for the party.

Why should people give the incumbent Congress another term?

The Congress government delivered on all fronts. There have been no charges of corruption against any minister. Despite the dus percent (10 percent) and 'Seedha Rupaiah' jibes by the prime minister, nothing has been substantiated. Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath unleashed a vicious environment in the state during his campaign visits; it shows the BJP's mindset of communalising everything.

What is your assessment of the BJP?

The BJP has completely lost the plot. Its chief ministerial candidate BS Yeddyurappa is tainted, and the choice has come in for criticism from former Lokayukta Santosh Hegde himself. And the party is putting out advertisements asking people to vote for it for a corruption-free state! Let me tell you, of the three men featuring in the advertisement (Modi, Amit Shah and Yedyurappa) one has blood on his hands, while two have gone to jail. There is nothing more that the Congress can stress on. How can they offer corruption-free governance given such a track record?

Has the Congress usurped the BJP's Hindutva agenda by asking Congress president Rahul Gandhi to embark on temple trips?

Rahul Gandhi has visited temples, churches and mosques. Why is this getting highlighted? He visited Badrinath and no one questioned him. Will Narendra Modi visit churches and mosques? No, because we practice the Constitution while they (BJP members) question it.

Your government's decision to give Lingayats minority religion status is being seen as another kind of appeasement policy.

We have only approved a 60-year-old demand from the Lingayat community, we have not appeased them. Even when Yeddyurappa was chief minister, he had recommended it. But it was rejected then. Currently, it does not suit the BJP's narrative. We have not done it with an eye on elections.

What else will the Congress bank on?

The Congress narrative is more on development. Our vote has always been on the development plank. Our slogans have been about empowering people.

With reference to Article 371J, which provides for special status to Hyderabad-Karnataka region, a gift by the outgoing UPA II, there is a feeling that a Congress-ruled state could have done more for development of the region.

There are 40 constituencies in Hyderabad-Karnataka covered under this special status. I agree that the first phase was slow but now it has picked up pace, as we had to understand what all could be done. It was sped up with 30,000 people getting jobs, quality education and development. The whole place has changed for the better. There has been a lot of focus here.

Sidharamiah's ministry has been at the receiving end of people's ire on social media, likening it to be a "sleeping government" for four years and suddenly waking up in the last 12 months.

Our government would not have achieved so much and delivered almost all the manifesto promises if we had started work only in the last one year. Some of the projects took time, but we had popular schemes running throughout the five-year period where the focus was to make the state hunger-free and malnutrition-free, and its citizens debt-free. There was also an unprecedented drought and our focus was to dig ponds, recharge ground water by filling up water bodies and completing all pending irrigation projects which alone cost Rs 55,000 crore. All these beneficieries will not forget the Congress, as we have taken up projects and schemes for everybody: Rural, semi urban and urban residents.

There was a delay in implementing some schemes as our government had inherited a huge burden due to financial mismanagement of the two previous regimes (20 months of JD(S) and five years of BJP). It took a year to come back, and today, Bengaluru is known as the start-up capital while the state has marched ahead in various fields. We did not have the time to do enough for Bengaluru infrastructure which is a challenge, but we have announced our plans and a part of the work has already been done in terms of roads, flyovers, metro etc.

Is it true that you and many of your partymen were looking for safe constituencies to contest from?

This is part of the fake news that BJP has put out. They speak so much about fake news and they themselves are forging Congress leaders signatures and circulating fake lists. Why should we run away from contests? It is not the BJP which will decide, but the people. In every constituency, irrespective of the party the MLA represents, the government has put in huge investments on development. In my constituency of Chittapur in Kalburgi (Gulbarga), my government has spent Rs 2,700 crore on development. I have worked very hard and so have my colleagues.

There is a feeling within the Congress that between you and your father, you have appropriated the entire Hyderabad-Karnataka region for yourselves while throwing out those who did not fit in with your brand of politics.

If you are talking specifically about Malikayya Guttedar, he has been a party hopper who has now been welcomed into the BJP. When Kharge (senior) was elected to the Lok Sabha, we got very few votes from his constituency, which indicates he was working against the Congress. Voters will take a call on who should be their leaders. My father is one of the tallest leaders and both of us have been disciplined soldiers of the Congress.

You have had a meteoric rise for a first-time MLA.

It has actually been a roller-coaster ride. Remember that I lost my first election (a bypoll after his father became an MP). I have worked under two NSUI presidents and four state youth Congress presidents. I was fortunate that I was an asset to the government. My work in the past two-and-a-half years should speak for itself.

Do you operate your own social media accounts?

Yes, I tweet and post Facebook posts myself. I feel it is tricky to outsource it. I do it whenever I am free  between campaigning or while travelling.

What is the number the party is looking at realistically?

We hope to get 120 seats or thereabouts (it has 124 in the outgoing Assembly).

(Anil Budur Lulla is a Bengaluru-based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters)
Narendra Modi is likely to address about 20 rallies in Karnataka to boost the BJP's campaign in a state where his party is locked in a keen fight with the Congress

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to address about 20 rallies in Karnataka to boost the BJP's campaign in a state where his party is locked in a keen fight with the Congress.

Party sources said Modi, BJP's biggest crowd-puller, is likely to kick off a series of rallies in the southern state from 1 May.

Though he had address public meetings in the state earlier, he has not hit the campaign trail since the Election Commission announced the assembly election schedule on 27 March. The election is scheduled for May 12 and the counting of votes will take place on 15 May.

The BJP sources said a final programme of Modi's election tour is still being finalised and he is expected to address anywhere between 15-20 rallies.

The saffron party is making all-out efforts to oust the Siddaramaiah dispensation from power in the only big state where the Congress governs.

Opinion polls have so far forecast a close fight between the two parties and the BJP believes that Modi's whirlwind campaign in the final days before the polls can tilt the scale in its favour.

Its president Amit Shah has been frequenting the state for months, holding rallies, meeting religious heads, addressing community events and toning up organisational machinery in the run-up to the election.
Sources within the BJP suggest that there was resentment at the possibility of the Yeddyurappa parivar emerging as a power centre within the Karnataka state unit

Update: Since the publishing of this article, the BJP appointed BS Yeddyurappa's son Vijayendra as Yuva Morcha general secretary.

BS Yeddyurappa's choice of words said it all. He let the world know that a common man (read as ordinary party worker) and not his son BY Vijayendra will contest from Varuna. His body language and sulk completed the picture. To say Yeddyurappa was unhappy with the decision would be an understatement. It was obvious he felt gutted. For the record though, the man who would be chief minister if the BJP came to power, said he is not upset at all.

Outside, his supporters articulated what Yeddyurappa could not possibly say openly. They blamed the RSS man in charge of Karnataka BL Santosh, Union minister Ananth Kumar and BJP president Amit Shah for the last-minute snub. Yeddyurappa knew this would happen which is why from the dais at Nanjungud, he asked the cadre not to blame RSS or BJP leaders for the decision.

The advice fell on deaf ears. The BJP activists gave vent to their ire by vandalising party furniture and shouting slogans against the high command. These were hardly the scenes the BJP would have liked Karnataka to see three weeks before D-day on 12 May. Their veneer of a disciplined force and a united party under Yeddyurappa was being stripped away. The question that was being asked was if Yeddyurappa cannot get a candidate of his choice, what clout does he enjoy within the party?

The party high command possibly knew the reaction which is why he was made to do the dirty job of making it appear to be his own decision. It was obvious it was a lie. A Twitter account, presumably belonging to Vijayendra, tweeted expressing support to the party's decision, asking the cadre to maintain peace.

What changed within the BJP? After all, even before Dr Yathindra, chief minister Siddaramaiah's son was officially announced as the Congress candidate from Varuna, Vijayendra had started campaigning in Varuna. He had even taken up a house on rent for himself to set up base in the constituency. During his campaign, Siddaramaiah even attacked Vijayendra, making it obvious that the father was not taking his political rival's son lightly.

Sources within the party suggest that there was resentment at the possibility of the Yeddyurappa parivar emerging as a power centre within the Karnataka BJP. Given that it is quite possible that BY Raghavendra, Yeddyurappa's elder son, will contest the 2019 Lok Sabha election from Shimoga, the feeling gained ground that one family was getting a larger share of the power pie.

Yeddyurappa's close associate and Udipi MP Shobha Karandlaje too would have been interested in being fielded from Yeshwanthpur but it did not happen. The rule that no MP except Yeddyurappa will contest was however, relaxed for B Sriramulu. The BJP has now fielded actor Jaggesh from Yeshwanthpur.

The charge of dynasty politics is a rather strange argument with which to beat Yeddyurappa, given the manner in which the tainted Reddy family has been accommodated in Bellary. Seven family members and associates of Janardhana Reddy have been fielded in this election by the BJP. Even though Amit Shah said the BJP had nothing to do with Janardhana Reddy, his nephew Lallesh Reddy, a realtor also got a ticket for a Bengaluru seat.

What is the message that the BJP sends out with this decision? That Yeddyurappa is fighting this election with his hands tied. That he does not have the kind of clout within the BJP that Siddaramaiah has within the Congress. Siddaramaiah got his way with changing his constituency from Varuna to Chamundeshwari, getting Yathindra the Varuna nomination and then getting a second constituency in Badami to contest for himself. Yeddyurappa in contrast, has no elbow room.

This is also reflected in the manner in which the BJP and the Congress have played this campaign. The BJP high command has decided the narrative, focussing on the Hindu-Muslim divide and nationalism while Siddaramaiah has championed the cause of the Kannadiga regional identity to blunt the Hindi and Hindutva card. The message going out is that a Kannadiga is calling the shots in the Congress, while the tallest Kannadiga leader in the BJP is being humiliated.

There is little doubt that Yeddyurappa is the biggest vote-catcher the Karnataka BJP has. The party went out of its way to project him as its chief ministerial candidate, even relaxing the unofficial age limit for retirement at 75. Which is why to snub him in this manner makes little political sense.

In fact, the question being asked is if this is the respect being shown to Yeddyurappa before the elections, what will be his fate if and when he delivers the state to the BJP?

The decision is also strange because the BJP is not a force to reckon with in the Old Mysuru region. That Yeddyurappa was willing to risk his son in a fierce contest in the chief minister's backyard, had rejuvenated the cadre in Varuna and the BJP was seen as putting up a fight. Vijayendra's presence would have had a positive influence for the party in adjoining constituencies as well.

The BJP has reason to worry about the impact its decision in Varuna could have across Karnataka. In Varuna, an emotional BJP cadre threatened to support the JD(S) in protest against the decision. The BJP leadership has the task of putting its house in order. And fast.
Dalit activist BR Bhaskar Prasad speaks about how the issue of Dalit rights and Supreme Court's dilution of SC/ST Act will impact the Karnataka polls.

Editor's note: Elections to the Karnataka Assembly are scheduled for 12 May and they come at a time when caste is a major topic of debate across the country. The following is the second of a five-part series on prominent Dalit activists who have a deep influence on the politics of the state. Click to read Part 1, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5 of the series.

BR Bhaskar Prasad, a prominent Dalit activist, who is contesting the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) from Mahadevapura, feels the BJP and the Congress are two heads of one snake.

He told this reporter how the issue of Dalit rights and the Supreme Court's decision to dilute the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act will impact the Karnataka polls and why the state is yet to see a strong Dalit movement. Edited excerpts follow:

Why do we not see a strong Dalit movement in Karnataka, like in the states in north India?

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. People respond to discrimination depending on the intensity of cases. In the north (India), instances of atrocities committed against minority communities are much more than it is in the south (India). Besides, here we do not want the BJP to take advantage of our protests against the present Congress government. However, it doesn't mean that we are supporting the Congress; it's just that we do not want the BJP to use the issue to gain more votes.

Is there a particular party that Dalits in Karnataka would identify themselves with?

When we are not identified as human beings and when we are treated like that, then how can we identify ourselves with any party? While the Ahinda movement was strong in the state and brought Siddaramaiah to power, what has changed in the lives of Dalits in the last five years? The Ahinda movement started because of us (Dalits); it was we who took to the streets and supported it.

The SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was enacted in 1989 and the rules were notified in 1995. How effectively do you think it has been implemented since then?

Not even one percent of the total cases registered have ended in conviction. And now the recent (SC) ruling has made the Act so weak that there is no avenue for the Dalit community to seek justice.

Do you think the Supreme Court ruling limits the Act in meting out justice for minority communities?

Yes, because the cases registered will be dropped with excuses like the lack of evidence or witnesses. As the conviction rate under the Act is low, the Supreme Court came up with the idea that the Act is being misused.

The SC ruling was made to avoid misuse of the Act. Do you feel the Act can be misused? Is the ruling justified?

There is no law in this country which is not misused. The judges who made the ruling are people who believe in religious discrimination. If they are accusing the community of misusing it then they should give us the number (of instances). Police do not investigate such incidents properly and hence a conviction doesn't happen, and then they say we are misusing the Act.

The Centre has asked the SC to review its ruling in a recent petition. But the SC has turned down the government appeal. How do you plan to approach the judiciary on the matter?

Until and unless we have political power, we cannot do anything. We won't be able to raise our voices or seek justice because our voices won't be heard by people sitting at the top. Our lawyers argue for five-six hours with 20-page documents but nothing happens. The government lawyer speaks for five minutes without any documents or statistics and the case is ruled in their favour. What can we do in such a society? The only way we can seek justice is by having political power.

Would the ruling party prevent people from approaching authorities to seek justice?

When people from minority communities know that authorities are not going to register their complaint or even listen to what we have to say then why should we go? Every time a person from a minority community sees a police station, he will run away because he knows that even though it's not his fault, he will still be tortured for his caste.

Where do you locate the Dalit community in terms of democratic representation in the country?

We are just creating a vote bank and nothing else. A BJP MP had once said, "The people who used to sew our chappals earlier are now sitting next to us because of the Constitution." If people in the system say like this then what can we possibly do?

What other constitutional mechanisms protect the rights of minority communities?

BR Ambedkar once said, "If the Constitution is implemented properly, then within 20 years we will be the most powerful country in the world." Only 25 percent of the Constitution is implemented, that too, only for the use and profit of the government (in power). The Constitution is not bad, the people who decided what to implement and what not to implement are bad.

Do you feel the SC verdict will impact the Karnataka elections in any way?

It should affect them because the Karnataka government failed in this context. If they cannot handle it then why should they be elected?

Will political parties bring up the issue to gather votes?

BJP and Congress are two heads of a single snake. BJP had an opportunity to take advantage of the situation to gain votes but they did not because they are the ones who implemented the rule in the first place.

Over a thousand cases of atrocities against Dalits have been recorded in the state in the last few years. Do you think there is a void in implementing policies in the state?

Because the rules and regulations are mentioned in the Constitution, only the Centre has the power to make decisions. The state cannot take decisions but they can always recommend, propose and try pushing the demands (of minority communities) at the Centre.

Several BJP MPs are expressing unhappiness with the Centre's take on minority rights. What are your views about it?

Ananth Kumar Hegde said, "Dalit leaders are barking dogs". When do they make such statements; it shows how unhappy they are. The BJP is the main reason behind this whole Supreme Court ruling and we know that for a fact.

The author is a member of The NewsCart, a Bengaluru-based media startup.
Ahead of Karnataka polls, Jagadish Shettar spoke about BJP's chances, his political desires & party's decision to project BS Yeddyurappa as CM candidate.

Hubli: Five-time MLA Jagadish Shettar is fighting elections once again from Hubli city in Karnataka. He dismisses allegations of taking down banners of the Aam Aadmi Party in his constituency and says that they tried to defame him.

The former chief minister says he doesn't have personal political desires and fully supports the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) decision to project fellow Lingayat figure BS Yeddyurappa as the chief ministerial candidate.

Ahead of the crucial polls, he spoke to Firstpost about his party's chances, saying it is united and will win over 150 seats  unlike in 2013 elections when it won 40 seats and forfeited deposits in 110. Edited excerpts follow:

You have been elected five times from the Hubli constituency. You are going to contest for the sixth time. How prepared are you?

We have invited all national leaders. Booth level campaigning has been completed. Home visits have been going on. We have planned campaigns from all angles. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari and other leaders will participate in them.

Did you get a political boost from LK Advani's rath yatra in 1990?

I am from a political family. I had been very active in political issues and protests against social injustice since college days. I used to take responsibilities related to my father's corporation election. In 1991, I successfully organised Advani's rath yatra. Elders of the party observed my active participation and gave me an opportunity to contest in the Lok Sabha election from Dharwad constituency.

In the eleventh hour, I was to sacrifice the opportunity because Chandrakant Bellad was invited in from the Janata Dal. Then the party gave me an opportunity to contest from Hubli in 1994. I have been serving as Hubli MLA since then. It has been a reason to enjoy so many positions in the party.

Did the Idgah Maidan flag hosting issue help you unify Hindu voters in Hubli?

This is not a matter of unifying the Hindu voters. It was a question of the nation. I worked for the nation and for the national flag. So, it showcased our patriotism.

Why did your followers try to remove AAP banners in Hubli?

My followers did not remove any banners. But we lodged a complaint against the one who tried to defame my name on the banners. Corporation took action against them. We have the right to showcase our plans in the banners, but we should not hurt others. They used my name to defame me, so we lodged a complaint against them.

You are a senior leader of BJP. People say because of Shettar, Hubli has not seen development? Have you met voters' expectations?

I am blessed by the Hubli people and have won five times from the constituency. I took all elections seriously. When I was the chief minister, I was not able to concentrate on my constituency. This time, I am busy in the campaign. I have the vision to elevate the commercial city into a modern city. BRTS between Hubli-Dharwad, the flyover for Channamma Circle, Tender SURE road, international airport, traffic-free ring road and the 24X7 drinking water project are some of my major contributions to Hubli.

Do you feel that your soft-spoken personality did not help reach a 'logical end' to issues you raised in the Assembly as Opposition party leader?

I find comfort in simplicity. It is helpful for people to meet me. As an Opposition leader, I should not speak unnecessarily. I speak logically. It is my nature. I know how to oppose the government for the public grievances.

In my tenure, a number of scams were handed over to the CBI. I was successful in getting the resignation from minister Roshan Baig. In the Congress government, I was successful in getting the resignation from the then home minister. I protested against the government both inside and outside the Assembly.

As an Opposition leader and earlier as chief minister, did you fight for the farmers?

As chief minister, I waived farm loans up to the Rs 25,000. Then, I raised farmer suicide issues in the Assembly and I put pressure on the chief minister to waive farmers' loans up to Rs 50,000. Our party also gave priority to agriculture in the budget.

What is the BJP's stand in the Kalasa-Banduri project? Is this on your party's agenda?

We support the Kalasa-Banduri project. We tried to solve the problem by approaching Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar. But some vested interests are not supporting it. We also tried to convince Goa and Maharashtra chief ministers.

BJP president Shah tried to speak with the states. But the state leaders of Congress did not try to convince the Opposition party leaders in Goa. The Congress president did not try to solve the problem. The issue is before the tribunal that has to solve it. We could not interfere.

Was BJP insulted by the u-turn after Parrikar's letter to Yeddyurappa, saying Goa will consider on humanitarian grounds Karnataka's demand for drinking water?

No, the BJP is not insulted. We put an effort to solve the issue on humanitarian grounds. Yeddyurappa was successful in convincing the Goa chief minister. But Congress did not show interest to solve the issue. If the issue was solved, the credit would have gone to BJP. The Congress bothers about the credit more than to solve the issue. They only had to convince Opposition party leaders in Goa but they did not speak with them. Unnecessarily, they point fingers at BJP.

What about the case regarding the murder of Dharwad Zila Parishad member Yogesh Gowda? You were unsuccessful in keeping his wife in the party...

Our party lost a good party worker. We gave moral support to the family. I raised the issue in the Assembly. We alleged district in-charge minister Vinay Kulkarni was involved in the murder. We protested in front of the DC office. Instead of seeking resignation from the minister, Congress announced a team to probe the case and the audio tapes. His mother and brother are fighting the case in court. We assured to give justice to his wife but she joined Congress. It was her own step. We tried to retain her in our party.

What about the investigations in MM Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh murder cases?

It is the duty of the state government. We protested to put pressure on the state government. Law & order in the state has completely collapsed. It failed to give security to the intellectuals.

Do you have groups within your party? Are Eshwarappa, Ananth Kumar and Yeddyurappa united?

All are united. There is no groupism. Our party has no rifts. We are all united. We are all countering the election by unifying. There are no differences between Yeddyurappa, Kumar and Eshwarappa. We have chosen Yeddyurappa as the chief ministerial candidate.

You think you can be a more dynamic chief minister than Yeddyurappa?

You don't try to compare the personalities. Yeddyurappa is a mass leader. He could unify all the communities. Shettar is different and Yeddyurappa is different. All BJP chief ministers are committed to the party's principles and development.

So, you don't want to become chief minister of Karnataka again?

I have no dreams in my political career. Since the beginning, I did not have any political desires. I do not wish any position. Everything came by unexpectedly, so I enjoyed it. I am just a party worker.

What is your party's target in the upcoming election? Do you think you'll get a full majority?

We will win 150 plus seats in the election. Our party will come to power.

The author is a Hubli-based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters.
The Karnataka polls will result in close competition between the BJP and the Congress, with no party enjoying absolute majority, an opinion poll predicted

The upcoming Karnataka Assembly election will result in close competition between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress, with no party enjoying absolute majority, an opinion poll by Times Now and VMR predicted.

Deve Gowdas JD(S) is likely to emerge as the kingmaker with 40 seats in the 224-member Assembly, where Congress is projected to win 91 seats with BJP 89  both parties well short of the 113 mark required to form government. This will mean a loss of 31 seats for the Congress and a gain of 49 seats for BJP if the numbers turn out to be accurate.

The Times of India, quoting the survey, reported that Congresss vote share is projected to increase to 38.6 percent from 36.6 percent, and that of BJP is projected to improve to 20 percent from its 15 percent  merger of Karnataka Janata Party (KJP) and B Sreeramulus BSR Congress with BJP seems to be a factor.

On Monday, the BJP alleged that the state administration was not allowing it to campaign freely and was applying rules selectively to create "favourable conditions" for the ruling Congress in the 12 May elections.

BJP president Amit Shah was disallowed from garlanding a statue of BR Ambedkar during poll campaign and its workers were not even allowed to hoist party flags atop their houses, BJP general-secretary in charge of Karnataka Muralidhar Rao said. He alleged state officials involved in the election work had threatened the party workers and asked them to remove the flags.

On the same day, BJP released released its fourth list of candidates for the Assembly elections. The party named seven candidates in its fourth list. Amid reports of fielding a 'weak candidate' in the Hassan and Belur constituencies, BJP announced Preetham Gowda and HK Suresh as the candidates from these seats respectively. Preetham Gowda is BJP's district vice-president in Hassan.

On Sunday, Congress released the second and final list of candidates for the upcoming Karnataka Assembly Election on Sunday. Some of the prominent names who feature in the second list include Shanti Nagar MLA NA Harris and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

The Karnataka chief minister will be contesting from Badami, in what is being termed as an insurance policy, as well as Chamundeshwari. Siddaramaiah replaced Dr Devraj Patil as a Congress candidate from Badami.

With inputs from agencies
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has once again attacked Congress on its 'impeachment' notice against the Chief Justice of India in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has once again attacked Congress on its 'impeachment' notice against the Chief Justice of India in a Facebook post on Tuesday. Jaitley has called the impeachment motion 'misconceived' and 'poorly drafted'.

"The misconceived motion for the impeachment of the CJI is just one example of the growing tendency of lawyer-Members of the Parliament to drag intra court disputes into the parliamentary process to help different interests", Jaitley remarks in his post.

Earlier on 20 April when Congress had moved the motion, Jaitley had said in a Facebook post that "CJI impeachment motion is Congress' revenge petition after its falsehood in judge Loya case was revealed". "Impeachment should not be allowed to be used as a political tool," Jaitley had hit out at the opposition.

"It has shaken democratic conscience that national political parties, a few retired judges and some senior lawyers so closely identified themselves with the generation of falsehood that they almost come out as conspirators", he had said after the Supreme Court dismissed all PILs asking for a further probe in Judge Loya's death.

Read the full text of Arun Jaitley's post here, in which the reasons as to why the opposition's 'impeachment' motion was bound to fail:

Business persons and industrialists have frequently been accused of attempting to influence policy by using parliamentary processes. Some motivated questions are raised and letters are written by Members of Parliament at the behest of business interests. These were conventionally the traditional methods deployed in trying to use Parliamentary processes to help business interests. Many of these tactics stood exposed and over the years the system was able to analyse and distinguish some of these subtle and blatant attempts. The new phenomenon seems to be somewhat different. A very large number of eminent lawyers are now Members of Parliament. Most political parties have given nominations to some of them since their value, both in court and Parliamentary debates, is significant. The incidental impact of this has been a growing tendency of lawyer Members to drag intra court disputes into the parliamentary process. The misconceived motion for the impeachment of the Chief Justice of India is just one example of this.

Why Misconceived?

An impeachment motion was intended to be filed in the rarest of rare cases. These cases would include those where a gross misconduct has been indulged in by a delinquent judge during his tenure as a judge. There has to be strong and hard evidence to substantiate this. Hearsay and rumours are not a substitute for evidence. The present impeachment motion has been filed on untenable grounds. It has been filed for collateral purpose to intimidate the Chief Justice of India and other judges of the highest judiciary. The Congress Party is capable of dragging the judges into an unsavoury controversy and make them controversial, should their judicial opinion not appear favourable in the cases in which the Party has an interest. To any political analyst it was clear that the impeachment motion would never get support of two-third majority in both Houses of Parliament. The Congress Party knew this. Its object was not the passage of the Motion but intimidation of Indias judiciary.

A poorly drafted motion

Unquestionably the impeachment motion was poorly drafted. The level of proof required to impeach a judge of being guilty of proved misbehaviour has to be proof beyond reasonable doubt. Any inquiry set up subsequent to a possible admission of a motion cannot be a fishing and roving inquiry. The inquiry does not have to search for better evidence or a better set of facts. The motion must contain a definitive case which makes out a case beyond reasonable doubt that the judge is guilty of proved misbehaviour.

Charge 1: When the 64 Members of Parliament present a best case scenario that the Chief Justice of India "may have been involved in the conspiracy of paying illegal gratification, can it be said that this makes out a possible case, if accepted in totality, one of proof beyond reasonable doubt?

Charge 2: When 64 Members of Parliament at best allege that the Chief Justice of India was likely to fall within the scope of the investigation, it is not mere conjecture or a surmise rather than a case beyond reasonable doubt?

Charge 3: When the Members of Parliament allege that the Chief Justice of India appears to have anti-dated an administrative order, is it not mere suspicion or an assumption rather than a charge beyond reasonable doubt?

Charge 4: Can a 33 year old allotment of land to an advocate be a proved misbehaviour against Chief Justice of India?

Charge 5: Can a different or an alternative view on the allocation of cases by the Chief Justice of India be a case of proved misbehaviour. The Congress Partys argument that they are making vague allegations which can only be proved in an inquiry is not tenable. Vague and unsubstantiated allegations can never be a basis of a roving fishing inquiry against the holder of a high office.

A suicidal future move of the Congress

The Congress Party has indicated that it would now challenge the order of the Chairman, Rajya Sabha declining to admit the motion, before the Supreme Court. In parliamentary practice several types of motions and resolutions are proposed under the Rules of Business. The Chairman/ Speaker of the either Houses of Parliament have the sole discretion whether to admit the motion or to decline to do so. The power to admit or to decline a motion is part of the legislative process of Parliament. A motion under Article 124(4) is no different from any other motion where Chair has a discretion to admit it or decline to do so. There is a conventional view that the exercise of the discretion by the Chair of either House is not justiciable in the court of law. This view gains support from the observations made in the majority opinion of Justice J.S. Verma in the 1992 case (Sarojini Ramaswami vs. UOI) where the court held:

"On initiation of the process in the prescribed manner, the Speaker/ Chairman is to decide whether the accusations require investigations. If he choses not to act on the accusations made in the form of a motion by a minimum number of Members of Parliament, the matter ends there. For the Congress Party to carry forward its mistake of subjecting legislative processes to judicial review would be a blunder. The Parliament is supreme in its own jurisdiction. Its process cannot be subjected to judicial review.

The entire text has been taken exactly as posted on the Arun Jaitley's official Facebook page and has not been edited by Firstpost for style or content.
Ahead of Rahul Gandhi's maiden rally in New Delhi as Congress president next Sunday, the party is leaving no stone unturned to ensure a full house

Ahead of Rahul Gandhi's maiden rally in New Delhi as Congress president next Sunday, the party is leaving no stone unturned to ensure a full house. After taking over charge of organisations and training in Congress from Janardan Dwivedi, Ashok Gehlot is seen pushing for structural changes in the party, in spite of the partys poor performance in states against saffron surge.

In a letter addressed to office-holders in the party across the country, Gehlot asked them to mobilise party workers and ensure maximum participation at the national-level Jan Aakrosh Rally which is scheduled to be held on 29 April at New Delhi's Ramlila Maidan.

"To mobilise party workers and and ensure maximum participation, it has been decided that the party's frontal organisations and key departments like SC department, Adivasi Congress, OBC department, Minorities department, Fishermen Congress, Unorganised Workers' Congress, Ex-servicemen Cell of your state will also play a pro-active role so that cross section of the society could attend the rally," the letter dated 17 April said.

Read the letter below:

Unlike his predecessor Dwivedi, Gehlot is conducting regular meetings with states representatives in the Congress war room, sources told Firstpost. Gehlot aims to arrange a crowd of at least 30,000 at the rally, sources said. The venue has the capacity to accommodate one lakh people.

Cong leaders believe that a crowd of 50 thousand or so will boost Gandhi's image and give them impetus to put a good show in Karnatakas multi-cornered contest in May.
The ruling JD(U), however, said 'unbalanced development' was the reason behind the country's sluggish growth rate.

Patna: The ruling JD(U) and the Opposition RJD on Tuesday engaged in a blame game over NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant's assertion that eastern India, particularly states like Bihar, UP and Chattisgarh, were responsible for the country's backwardness.

Terming Kant's statement as "unfortunate" and "irresponsible", Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav took a dig at chief minister Nitish Kumar for maintaining silence over the matter.

"Bihar CM Nitish Kumar should condemn Kant's statement. He should tell people that Niti Aayog is lying to them... Why can't he muster courage to speak against the statement, which not only lowers the morale of the people but belittles the state's contribution to the nation's development?" he said.

Kant, while speaking at the Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi yesterday, said eastern India, particularly states like Bihar, UP, Chhattisgarh, is keeping India backward, especially on the social indicators.

"There is NDA government both at Centre and in the state and even after 13 year of JD(U)-NDA sushashan (good governance), and Babus (officers) are saying that Bihar is a backward state," Yadav, the former Bihar deputy CM, quipped.

"Biharis pay taxes, just like people in other parts of the country. The state gave 33 MPs to the NDA and seven Union ministers," he said.

The ruling JD(U), however, said "unbalanced development" was the reason behind the country's sluggish growth rate. The equitable growth of all states can lead to the overall development of the nation, JD(U) MLC and spokesman Niraj Kumar said.

In a veiled reference to the erstwhile Congress government at the Centre, Kumar asked people to think carefully about "who was to be blamed for India's lopsided development" so far.

The Bihar Legislature had unanimously passed a resolution for according special category status to the state and remove inequality.

"Despite being enlisted in backward states, Bihar's growth rate in the construction sector has been better than the national average growth in past 12 years... The state cannot be held responsible for not achieving a desired goal on the human development index. It has to deal with natural calamities like floods because of rivers that originate in other states," he said.

The secretary of Patna-based Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI), Shaibal Gupta, said Amitabh Kant should be sacked for his "reckless" statement.

"Kant has no sense of history or understanding about the hindi heartland... We must know that Bihar and UP were subjected to adversarial treatment by the British for their persevered attempts to fuel national freedom movements," Gupta said.

"We would appeal to the Prime Minister to sack him. It does not augur well that an important lieutenant of the government is making a statement with undertones of discrimination at a time when the nation needs empathy and integration more than ever," he said.
Congress is not the main player in many states and regional adjustments, based on the ground realities, have to be worked out during elections in which there can be no 'macro-level' understanding, CPM leader Sitaram Yechury said

New Delhi: Congress is not the main player in many states and regional adjustments, based on the ground realities, have to be worked out during elections in which there can be no "macro-level" understanding, CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury has said.

"The diversity of our country reflects in everything, including politics. Now, SP and BSP get together in Uttar Pradesh. Neither the Left, nor the Congress is of any consequence (there). The same thing happened in Arariya (in Bihar)," he told PTI in an interview after being re-elected to the post at the CPM's Congress in New Delhi which concluded on Sunday.

To questions about putting up a joint fight against the BJP, he said in several states, the Congress is "not the main player."

"That is why every front or (political) formation in India takes place only after elections. There will be regional adjustments. There will be regional level understandings. It cannot be a macro-level understanding. Political leaders also should realise this", he said.

Soon after his re-election at the party congress, Yechury began receiving hundreds of congratulatory messages, tweets and phone calls from various people including top leaders of the Congress, BSP, SP, and other Left and Opposition parties.

While thanking them, he said several opposition party leaders called including Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, BSP chief Mayawati and senior leaders of Samajwadi Party and other parties. Congress leaders have also tweeted and called.

"I am really grateful to all of them. All of them are hoping that we will all work together," Yechury said.

Yechury, who was re-elected the CPM general secretary for another three-year term, had been targeted by a section of his party for his "minority view" on having an understanding with all secular democratic forces including the Congress to jointly take on the BJP.

His political viewpoint was later adopted at the congress, the highest decision-making body of the party, as its officially approved political line.

He said "what will be done during elections depends on the ground realities ... The central committee would then take a decision".

"But the question of any front or alliance with the Congress was never been the case earlier and would not happen now too," Yechury said.

Talking about the prevailing political situation and the challenges of defeating BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, Yechury said though his party has always been the key element in the formation of an alternate government like United Front or the UPA, it has never been part of the government but given outside support.

"During Emergency, we never became part of the Janata Party government or the United Front ... We were key element forming that front but we were never there in the government. We gave outside support to that government.

"Even to the UPA, we gave outside support again. We have to keep in mind that both United Front and the UPA were formed after the elections. Our support from outside was based on a common minimum programme," Yechury said.

He said it was only after the common minimum programme was drafted that "we gave our support. That's what we mean to say that it will depend on the policies.

"We have a long experience on all these fronts, but our decision is always to support them based on policies".

To questions on the differences that came out in the open within the party at the five-day congress here, Yechury is confident that the CPM would work unitedly towards the goal of defeating the BJP.

"Party congress has decided what our line is. So now there cannot be any minority or majority. There should not be."

"The collective (political) line of the entire party has been decided now. So that is what there will be.... a united party moving on the basis of the political line we have adopted at the congress", Yechury said.
Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu ordered introduction of bio-metric attendance marking system in the Upper House secretariat after he found some staff members missing from office during his surprise visit to the secretariat

New Delhi: Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday ordered introduction of biometric attendance marking system in the Upper House secretariat after he found some staff members missing from office during his surprise visit to the secretariat.

Naidu undertook the surprise visit to various offices of the Rajya Sabha secretariat located in the Parliament House and its annexe building, "Naidu noticed some staff not being in office," the upper house said in an official statement.

Following which "Naidu directed introduction of bio-metric attendance marking system for the officers and staff of Rajya Sabha Secretariat," it said.

He said he was aware of the work demands on the staff of Rajya Sabha even on holidays and beyond office hours, particularly, during the sessions and biometric attendance promotes a sense of accountability and responsibility.

An enabling work environment is a great motivator enhancing the productivity. All possible efforts need to be made to convey administration's sensitivity and concern to the felt needs of the employees so as to promote a participatory work culture, Naidu said.

In his surprise visit, Naidu raised the issue of cleanliness in the secretariat and directed officials to ensure sanitation by undertaking special cleanliness drive in the offices.

He also asked officials to ensure effective coordination among concerned agencies for better maintenance, more work space, digitisation of files and records.
The Calcutta High Court directed the State Election Commission (SEC) on Tuesday to hold meaningful consultations with all stakeholders in West Bengal on security arrangements for the panchayat elections.

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court directed the State Election Commission (SEC) on Tuesday to hold meaningful consultations with all stakeholders in West Bengal on security arrangements for the panchayat elections.

Observing that the commission should be mindful of the Supreme Court directive on it to address grievances, Justice Subrata Talukdar, however, made it clear that the SEC will be the final decision-maker on security arrangements.

The court directed the SEC to inform a division bench presided by Acting Chief Justice J Bhattacharya on the security arrangements made for the elections.

Justice Talukdar gave the direction after noting the concerns of opposition political parties, which have petitioned the court over the necessity for sufficient security arrangements for the three-tier panchayat elections, nominations for which ended yesterday.

The petitioners were given liberty to air their views on security arrangements before the division bench which is also seized of petitions on the issue.

At least three persons have been killed and many others injured in pre-election clashes across the state.

The BJP, the Congress and the Left parties have alleged widespread violence by activists of the ruling Trinamool Congress during the nomination process. The TMC has, on the other hand, blamed the Opposition parties for vitiating peace in some parts of the state in the run-up to the local body elections.

The high court had on 20 April quashed the SEC's 10 April order cancelling extension of the deadline for filing nominations and directed it to issue a fresh notification extending the date for filing nominations for panchayat polls in West Bengal upon consultation with the state and the major collective stakeholders.

Taking note of an order by the superior bench presided by the acting chief justice on 6 April on security arrangements, the court asked the petitioners to move the division bench, where a contempt application is also pending on the issue.

The SEC has issued a fresh notification announcing 23 April as the extended date for filing of nominations for the three-tier panchayat elections in the state.

Hearing a PIL by state Congress chief Adhir Chowdhury who alleged that opposition party members were being threatened and assaulted, the division bench had directed that police authorities, including the superintendents of police of the respective districts, shall extend all assistance and cooperation so that the person concerned can file the nomination paper.

Chowdhury had also moved a contempt petition before the court alleging that the order has not been complied with.
There is an uncanny similarity in the pathological opposition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi by two members of the right wing, Pravin Togadia and Yashwant Sinha.

There is an uncanny similarity in the pathological opposition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi by two members of the right wing, Pravin Togadia and Yashwant Sinha.

Both come from a hugely diverse social and political background. Yet they share a common strand that shows an unmitigated hatred towards Modi which is cleverly couched in a politically acceptable language. Ironically both are grossly marginalised but have somehow retained the propensity to attract headlines on account of their anti-Modi rant.

On the face of it, it may seem difficult to find a co-relation between the two. Let us look at the political journey of Togadia and his career graph. Said to be a good cancer surgeon, Togadia gave up his medical practice to join the Hindutva bandwagon. In the late 80s and early 90s, in the heydays of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, he was an upcoming hero of Hindutva, besides the two sadhvis  Uma Bharti and Ritambhara, under the tutelage of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) chief Ashok Singhal.

Togadia was then considered a well-educated professional who gave up money and career for the pursuit of the objective of Hindu consolidation. Notwithstanding his fiery oratory that bordered on stoking hatred among Hindus against Muslims, he was still seen as a surgeon who would be guided by the spirit of the Hippocratic Oath. His entry into the Hindutva project was interpreted as association of those who were influenced by higher religious calling to reform and consolidate Hindus.

But Togadia was soon attracted to power politics. During the NDA regime under Atal Bihari Vajpayee, he attacked the government and particularly targeted Vajpayee-Advani duo in the most virulent form. In Gujarat, he targeted the then chief minister Narendra Modi and did not hesitate to side with the Congress to hurt the BJP. Much of his enthusiasm for the Hindutva project was diverted to power games to plan toppling the Modi government in Gandhinagar. He miserably failed in his efforts as Modi outmanoeuvred him all over the state.

But Togadia was not ready to accept defeat. He pulled strings within the Sangh Parivar and tried to lobby against the BJP leadership, particularly against Vajpayee, Advani and Modi. He found a degree of sympathy among a section of the RSS but that was not enough to effect the leadership change in the political party. Given the RSSs disinclination to meddle in BJP affairs as desired by Togadia, he ultimately turned against Ashok Singhal and other officer-bearers. For the past five years, he literally fell out with the Sangh Parivar and had a running feud with the Parivars top echelon.

What appears to have alarmed the RSS leadership is the manner in which Togadia orchestrated his disappearance just before a court appearance in Ahmedabad earlier this year, resurfacing later at a hospital to claim that he was tipped off about the central governments plan to eliminate him in an encounter. Since he was substantially marginalised within the Sangh Parivar, his latest ploy recoiled on him. His position within the saffron fold was further compromised when he forced an election in the VHP  for the first time. He, however, ignominiously failed this month and his rival, Vishnu Sadashiv Kokje, has now become the new international president of VHP. In essence, Togadias rise and fall story is guided solely by self-serving impulses that he camouflaged in the rhetoric of Hindutva.

Like Togadias, Yashwant Sinhas story also goes through the same political trajectory. Handpicked by the then prime minister Chandra Shekhar as his finance minister, Sinha, a career bureaucrat, arrived in in the garb of a socialist. His association with Bihars redoubtable chief minister Karpoori Thakur came in handy for him to show his socialist credentials at a time when the Ayodhya movement was gaining traction. Chandra Shekhars prime ministership came to an abrupt end quite soon, and so did Sinhas association with it. With the BJP in ascendancy, he found the next mentor in LK Advani, then the most influential leader of the Hindutva movement.

As a new convert to Hindutva, Sinha found a cosy company in a section of the RSS leaders espousing the cause of Swadeshi. He was briefly sent to Bihar as leader of opposition in the state assembly. He resigned from the post when his name figured in the so-called Jain hawala diaries  just as Advani did. In the 1998 general elections when the NDA came to power, Sinha was chosen as the finance minister at the instance of the then RSS general secretary KS Sudarshan who virtually camped at Vajpayees residence and forced the PMs hand. With Advanis backing, Sinha continued in North Block for four long years before he was removed and shifted to the external affairs ministry, against at the instance of Advani.

After the NDA lost the 2004 Lok Sabha election, Sinha turned against Advani when the latter visited Pakistan and made a contentious references to Jinnah that extolled him. Sinha came out openly against Advani, with the belief that he would get support from the RSS. A cornered Advani was however more conversant with inside dynamics of the Sangh Parivar than a rank outsider like Sinha who was acting exactly like a career-bureaucrat. Within a few months, Sinha realised his mistake and desperately tried to mend fences with Advani whose own influence was substantially marginalised within the Sangh Parivar.

In the run-up to the 2014 elections, Sinha reconciled with his own political marginalisation and emergence of Narendra Modi as numero uno in the party. When he saw little chance of a party ticket for himself, he bargained for his son Jayant Sinhas candidacy from his Hazaribagh constituency, with the hope that his own services would be suitably utilised for some foreign assignments. When his hopes failed, he began his rant against the government, first by attacking finance minister Arun Jaitley on economic matters and now targeting the prime minister too on social and political issues. Interestingly, in his signed article published in the Indian Express, he appealed to BJP MPs, including veterans like Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, to speak up against the Modi-Shah leadership though his own son, Jayant Sinha, is in the council of ministers.

Now look at the issues that Togadia and Sinha have been picking up against Modi. Togadia is quite perturbed over the delay in construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya and the governments attempt to put Hindutva issues to backburner. Sinha, a saffron torchbearer till last week when he severed his relations with the BJP, was seen loitering in the Kashmir valley and meeting all and sundry in search of a solution to the dispute. In Bihar he is finding democratic and secular virtues in the company of Lalu Yadav-Tejashvi Yadav. Like Togadia, Sinha seems to be impelled by impulses of his personal jealousies and ambitions that may get him headlines temporarily but will be unworthy of finding a resonance among people.
Reuters

Infosys Ltd, Indias second-biggest IT firm, plans to renew its focus on digital services as it looks to boost growth amid shrinking profit margins in its legacy business and rising competition from local and international rivals.

Digital services, such as cloud, big data, and analytics which accounted for more than a quarter of Infosys revenue in year to March 2018, are a massive opportunity, Chief Executive Salil Parekh said on 23 April at the companys first analyst meeting in nearly two years.

The idea is, this is a huge market, how can we be more relevant for our clients future through this market, Parekh said.

Indias $154 billion software services industry, led by Tata Consultancy Services and second Infosys, is facing a margin squeeze in its legacy business such as routine infrastructure maintenance as clients increasingly demand more work for less money.

Digital services are the new, big long-term opportunity for most Indian IT firms as they help Western clients transform traditional businesses and prevent them from getting disrupted by tech-savvy and agile start-ups.

Infosys, earlier this month, reported a rise in profit and forecast healthy revenue growth for the year, but its outlook on profit margins failed to cheer investors.

On 23 April, Parekh said Infosys had set a three-year roadmap. The first year in fiscal 2019 to stabilize where we are, the second year to start to build momentum and (the) third year to start to accelerate where we can have more and more share of our clients relevance and that will obviously translate, overall, to a better Infosys, he said.

Bigger rival TCS on 23 April became the first Indian company to hit the $100 billion market capitalization mark, riding on the back of a record quarterly profit and a weaker rupee.
Reuters

Facebook Inc said on Monday that it removed or put a warning label on 1.9 million pieces of extremist content related to ISIS or al-Qaeda in the first three months of the year, or about double the amount from the previous quarter.

Facebook, the worlds largest social media network, also published its internal definition of terrorism for the first time, as part of an effort to be more open about internal company operations.

The European Union has been putting pressure on Facebook and its tech industry competitors to remove extremist content more rapidly or face legislation forcing them to do so, and the sector has increased efforts to demonstrate progress.

Of the 1.9 million pieces of extremist content, the "vast majority" was removed and a small portion received a warning label because it was shared for informational or counter-extremist purposes, Facebook said in a post on a corporate blog here.

Facebook uses automated software such as image matching to detect some extremist material. The median time required for takedowns was less than one minute in the first quarter of the year, the company said. Facebook, which bans terrorists from its network, has not previously said what its definition encompasses.

The company said it defines terrorism as: Any non-governmental organization that engages in premeditated acts of violence against persons or property to intimidate a civilian population, government, or international organization in order to achieve a political, religious, or ideological aim.

The definition is agnostic to ideology, the company said, including such varied groups as religious extremists, white supremacists and militant environmentalists.
PTI

Nokia which had slipped from the heights of mobile handset business in the country, has become profitable again in just over a year of relaunch of its phones, a top company official said here today.

"We are already profitable in India," Amit Goyal, the global business head( north & east) of HMD Global, which is the global licensee of Nokia brand, said here today at the launch of three handsets in the east.

However, he did not elaborate and did not divulge the number of handsets the Finland-based company shipped to India, where the distribution of Nokia phones is handled by the company's affiliate entity TNS Mobile India.

HMD Global is the global licensee of the Nokia brand for a 10-year period.

Goyal said globally 70 million units were sold in 2017 and feature phones accounted for a major share of it. The company will continue to focus on this segment as 50 per cent of the domestic market is ruled by it.

Nokia has five feature phones and eight smartphone models which have been either launched or announced. More models will follow to strengthen its foothold in India, one of the top three markets globally.

"We want to be present in all the segments of the phone market. The future rollouts will also cater to diverse segments," he said adding Nokia aspires to be one of the top three handset brands in India and globally but did not give any timeframe.

He said it was an exciting journey to create an infrastructure of 550 distributors that serves about a lakh retail points in such a short time.

The company is yet to firm up any exclusive Nokia store strategy.

The new Nokia 6, Nokia 7 Plus and Nokia 8 Sirocco were launched today.

Only Nokia 8 Sirocco is not made in India, Goyal said.

He said the company would follow one price strategy for both online and offline.

"We will sell online through own company site and tie-ups with major e-tailers," Goyal added.
AP

The academic at the center of the Facebook data-misuse scandal apologized for his actions, but said he thought he did nothing wrong at the time.

Cambridge University researcher Aleksandr Kogan made his comments during an interview with CBSs 60 Minutes on Sunday.

Facebook has been embroiled in scandal since revelations that data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica misused personal information from as many as 87 million Facebook accounts. Cambridge Analytica received the data from a Facebook personality-quiz app that Kogan created. That app collected data on both users and their Facebook friends.

Kogan is due to testify before a UK parliamentary committee on Tuesday. The committee is investigating data analytics firm Cambridge Analyticas role in elections globally as well as the UKs Brexit vote in 2016. Kogan also spoke with Buzzfeed.

In the 60 Minutes interview, Kogan said he thought the way his app mined data was on the up-and-up at the time. He says hes since changed his mind, saying he had been acting quite naively in assuming that users werent too concerned about what apps did with their data.

I think that core idea that we had - that everybody knows and nobody cares - was fundamentally flawed, he said. And so if that idea is wrong, then what we did was not right and was not wise. And for that, Im sincerely sorry.

He also pointed out that his former research partner, Joseph Chancellor, still works at Facebook. When asked if Chancellor was involved in Kogans work for Cambridge Analytica, Kogan said he was. We did everything together, he said.

Cambridge Analytica said in a statement that it licensed data for only up to 30 million respondents in the US from Kogan, adding that it found the personality type data from Kogan was less effective than standard demographic details. The company said it did not use Kogans data in its political consulting work for Sen. Ted Cruzs 2016 presidential campaign or Donald Trumps winning presidential campaign.

The company also said it deleted the raw data after Facebook requested it to.

Ime Archibong, Facebooks vice president of product partnerships, said in a statement Kogan had a brief consulting contract with Facebook in 2015, but that the company wasnt aware of Kogans activities with Cambridge Analytica until December 2015.

We quickly shut down his app, demanded he delete all the information (which he confirmed in a signed statement he had) and ended any research work with him, Archibong said. In hindsight, we should have followed up to confirm he had deleted the information, as well as notified the people impacted - both of which are now happening.

The privacy scandal has Facebook in full damage-control mode. Executives have apologized repeatedly, the company refreshed its data and privacy policies in the US, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg spent 10 hours testifying before Congress earlier in April.

Next month, the European Union will begin enforcing its new General Data Protection Regulation, which explicitly applies to any company that uses the data of EU residents, no matter where it is based.

The EU rules require consent forms to be written in plain language anyone can understand, targeting the legalese buried in pages of terms and conditions that few users actually read before clicking I Agree. The regulations also require companies to make it as easy for users to withdraw their consent as it is to give.
tech2 News Staff

You must have come across social media platforms where even after reporting a fake profile, video, ad or any such content, one is not sure if any steps were taken to remove them or whether it has come in the notice of the reviewers also. Though the content may not be visible to you, it may be visible to another person as it could be under review.

To streamline this process, YouTube has come up with a Reporting History dashboard where users will be able to track the status of the videos that have been reported or 'flagged'. This will keep both YouTube and the user on their toes. This content will normally be removed if it is against YouTube's Community Guidelines. You can check them by clicking here.

The new update comes when nearly a year ago social media platforms like YouTube were accused of hosting extremist content, fake news and hate speech. YouTube did try to remedy the situation by bringing on more reviewers, but it wasn't enough. It also employed machine learning to strengthen the process. But there have been instances where YouTube has acted rather slowly to extremely controversial content. One such instance was Logan Pauls post from Japans suicide forest where he made insensitive comments and remarks about a victim that he stumbled across.

Keeping aside the matter of how insensitive the video was, YouTubes late response met with backlash. Paul was subsequently removed from YouTube Preferred Ads program and the YouTube Red partner program as well.

Despite setbacks like these, YouTube in a blogpost said that it has removed 8 million videos from YouTube in 2017. Most of these were either spam or from people who were trying to upload content adult content. Of these, 6.7 million videos were flagged by machines and out of this list, 76 percent were removed even before they received their first view.

YouTube in a blog post has elaborated on how it has been reviewing content over the years.
Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei has been releasing its phones regularly over the last few years. But in India, its sub-brand Honor is more renowned as it has completed close to three years here. The only Huawei-branded phone that was launched in India was the Huawei P9 which was announced in 2016. Since then, even though Huawei has been releasing its Mate series devices in the European and Chinese markets, India has not seen the release of those phones. With the P20 series, that is set to change.

The P20 Pro is the latest flagship from Huawei and it is one of the first smartphones in the world to come with a triple rear camera setup. While we will be getting into the nitty-gritty of the smartphone in the review below, one thing is for certain: Huawei is looking to destroy the flagship duopoly created by Apple and Samsung, and it has a damn good competitor in the form of the P20 Pro to respond to the Samsung Galaxy S9+ as well as the Apple iPhone X. Unlike the Google Pixel 2 XL which vowed us with its camera chops, the Huawei P20 Pro provides a complete package (and a much gorgeous design) that gives it an edge over the Pixel 2 XL. So to that effect, yes, the Huawei P20 Pro is the new flagship phone to look out for.

With that out of the way, lets do a deep dive into how the Huawei P20 Pro fares.

Build and Design: 9/10

From the first time I saw the leaks of the Huawei P20 Pro, I could not wait to hold the phone in my hands. Over the years, we have seen Android devices ape the iPhone, but at the same time, there are some exceptions where they do a fabulous job with the design. Samsung has been doing that consistently with its wonderfully designed Galaxy S and Note series, Xiaomi impressed us with the Mi Mix series, LG and HTC although not that popular anymore, still manage to release good looking devices. Huawei has been doing that in the China and European markets with its P and Mate series devices, but with the P20 Pro, it has taken things up a notch. Make of that what you will.

The design is a departure from the Mate series design that Huawei has been bringing to its flagship phones over the years. The Huawei P20 Pro looks, in a word, gorgeous. Huawei has gone with a glass and metal design aesthetic and you see that in shimmering gloss around the device. The rear side is what gets your attention and it comes with a glass back with 2.5D curved glass which aligns perfectly with the metal edge. There is no sharp edge which demarcates where the glass back meets the metal edge. However, despite the glass back, the Huawei P20 Pro does not support wireless charging.

While the glass back is highly glossy, almost acting like a mirror in case you want to check yourself out, it also happens to be a smudge and fingerprint magnet. So you will have to constantly keep cleaning it.

The monotony of the glossy blue glass back is broken towards the left-hand corner. On the top you have the triple camera module, along with the quad LED flash unit. Lower down you have the Leica and Huawei branding which are nicely aligned. The three cameras are divided into a dual camera module (40 MP + 8 MP) and a 20 MP monochrome module. Both these modules protrude out, with the dual camera module doing that more conspicuously. As a result, when you place the phone on its back, it will rest at an angle. Snapping on a cover can resolve the issue, but with this device, you would want to show off that glossy back. The phone isnt too slippery which is a good thing.

Coming to the edges, you have a nicely rounded edge, which assists with the grip. On the left-hand side, you have the dual nano-SIM card slot and on the right-hand side, there is the volume rocker button and the power/standby button which has a red-coloured depression on it. Both these buttons are well built and have good tactility. On the base, you have the USB Type C data transfer and power connector port surrounded by speaker grilles. On the top, you have the microphone and an infrared port to control supported electrical appliances. You will find antenna cut-outs on the top and the bottom edge. Am I missing out on something? Yes, the 3.5 mm audio jack  well, its not there on the P20 Pro. Huawei has bundled in an adapter cable in the box in case you are still using regular headphones.

On the front face of the Huawei P20 Pro, you have a 6.1-inch AMOLED display with a visible notch on top that houses the round earpiece speaker (which also functions as a loudspeaker) and the front-facing camera. It is a thinner notch as compared to the Apple iPhone X, and there is a provision to get rid of it in the settings menu. While it is a tall display, Huawei has decided to keep a thick bottom bezel to house the rectangular fingerprint scanner.

The Huawei P20 Pro has a sturdy build and it also comes with an IP67 dust and water resistance. In the time that I used it for the review, I did not notice any scratch on the metal edge or on the glass behind. But I did find myself constantly cleaning the rear side.

Features: 8.5/10

Huawei branded phones have always been offering flagship features and its the second most selling brand in Europe. Last time we had seen a Huawei branded phone was when it launched the Huawei P9 in 2016. This was one of the first phone which Huawei had released with the Leica branding. It has remained a tradition since then. And with the P20 Pro, Huawei has for the first time released a triple camera sporting smartphone. This also happens to be an industry first. So lets first get the main feature out of the way.

On the rear side, you get three cameras  a single 20 MP monochrome camera and a dual camera module which has a 40 MP camera and an 8 MP zoom camera. We will discuss the finer details of the sensors and apertures in the camera section. On the front, it has a 24 MP camera. On doing the math, you arrive at 92 MP worth of total camera resolution on a smartphone, which is unprecedented  by the way it does not mean you should expect 92 MP images. The maximum resolution images will be around 40 MP.

The Huawei P20 Pro is powered by a HiSilicon Kirin 970 chipset which houses an octa-core processor with one quad-core Cortex A73 cluster clocked at 2.4 GHz and the other quad-core Cortex A53 cluster clocked at 1.8 GHz along with a Mali G72 MP12 GPU. This is paired with 6 GB RAM module and on the storage front, you a get 128 GB of non-expandable storage.

In what is soon becoming a trend among flagship phones (Samsung being an exception) the P20 Pro also ditches the 3.5 mm audio jack. It does, however, bundle an earphone with a USB Type C port. Thankfully stereo sound is present with the earpiece acting as the second speaker and it is plenty loud to enjoy a video in a quiet room.

Theres support for Wi-Fi 802.11 ac, Bluetooth 4.2 with aptX HD support, GPS with A-GPS and GLONASS, NFC, Infrared port and no FM radio. A non-removable 4,000 mAh Li-Po battery completes the package and it comes with a support for fast charging.

Display: 8/10

The Huawei P20 Pro comes with a 6.1-inch AMOLED display with an 18:9 aspect ratio. It has a resolution of 1080 x 2240 pixels which gives a pixel density of 408 PPI. The display covers a large portion of the front face, but Huawei has still left a chin at the bottom which houses the rectangular fingerprint scanner. Having said that, the top and side bezels are extremely thin, with a notch in the centre. This notch is thinner than the one seen on the Apple iPhone X, but then again it also houses only the front-facing camera and the round earpiece speaker, which also functions as the second loudspeaker. It does not have the army of sensors that one sees on the iPhone X in its notch (which are needed for the Face ID). There is a screen to body ratio of 82 percent.

The display is sharp and the colours are great. It does not veer towards a very vivid colour profile by default, although you can get that activated from the settings if you so prefer. You can set the Eye comfort mode to get activated at a certain time at night, this is to reduce the blue light emanating from the phone to relieve visual fatigue. Theres also a Natural Tone feature which will adjust the colour temperature based on the ambient lighting conditions. You also get the opportunity to automatically reduce the resolution of the display to save power.

The display is really good and I did not face any issues while lengthy reading sessions as well as while gaming and binge-watching sessions of Netflix. The auto-brightness mode transitions nicely when you from a dark area to a well-lit area. Sunlight legibility is great. The notch really does not affect your viewing experience, as you get used to it after a couple of days. Dont like the notch design? Well, theres an option in the settings mode which lets you get rid of that as well. On the whole, this is one pleasant display.

Software: 8.5/10

The P20 Pro comes with the latest and greatest in terms of operating systems from Huawei. You get Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box which is skinned with Huaweis proprietary skin, the Emotion UI 8.1 also known as EMUI 8.1. Huawei has decided to change the naming convention of the skin in order for it to be mimicking the Android OS version number, which makes a lot of sense. It comes with the 1 March 2018 security patch.

The first impressive part is that you can switch from the default home-pages-only layout to the one with an app drawer. This is a thoughtful addition. The response of the user interface is smooth on most occasions. Yes, there were a couple of animations freezes and slow switching between apps every once in a while. The bloatware on P20 Pro comes in the form of a lot of custom apps such as Wallet, Weather, HiCare, Mirror, App Gallery, Backup and more. Thankfully, you can uninstall some of them. It also comes preinstalled with Instagram, eBay, Booking and so on.

Digging deeper into settings, you will come across a host of interesting features. There are a lot of things to wrap your head around, and although the EMUI has neatly divided things into sections, I found myself using the search bar in the Settings menu to quickly get to what I wanted to adjust. You keep getting prompted with suggestions, which you can choose to ignore by clicking on the x button beside them.

Navigation can be done using either the onscreen navigation buttons, a navigation dock, offscreen (using fingerprint sensor) and onscreen navigation. The Smart Assistance section offers a lot of features to make using the phone a breeze. You get a Flip to mute option, double knock on the display to take a screenshot which is interesting, one-handed UI mode which can give you a mini-screen view, drawing letters on the phone to open apps, double touch to wake up the phone display, knocking and dragging your knuckle across the display to activate split screen motion, among other cool assistance features. Theres a feature to use voice control to activate quick calling, answering calls and more. Theres even a glove mode, which I dont think I will be using ever in Mumbai.

Huawei Share is a feature that creates an ad-hoc network to quickly share files between your phone and other devices. Easy Projection lets you connect your phone to any display using a USB Type C to HDMI, VGA or DVI cable. These two features are relevant for business users.

Even with the fingerprint sensor, you can allow more functions over and above just using it to unlock the phone. For instance, you can lock apps using your fingerprint. Face Unlock, though not the most secure, can be used to directly unlock the device or do that with a slide to unlock option. I did not find the Face Unlock feature to be the that quick, and after a point, I just started using the fingerprint to unlock.

I liked the fact that the Battery section, among other things, also offers a Darken Interface feature, which gives you an all-black theme.

Overall, the EMUI 8.1 is quite feature-rich and offers plenty of ways to customise the way your phone looks. The only hope is that the skin keeps up with all the OS updates coming from the Android OS.

Performance: 8/10

We have come to expect a minimum performance benchmark from flagship devices, and very rarely does any device perform below par. The Huawei P20 Pro is no exception. The Kirin 970 chipset is a generation old now, and while it was at par with Qualcomms Snapdragon 835 SoC, it lags slightly behind the new gen Snapdragon 845 and the Exynos 9810 as is observed from the readings. If you were to look at pure numbers, the Apples A11 Bionic chipset leaves it behind in benchmarks such as Geekbench. But benchmark numbers are just an indicative factor, the real test of the phone is in real life use case scenarios. On that front, the Huawei P20 Pro delivers.

The phone is fast, the user interface is quite responsive and its great at multi-tasking without any noticeable slowdown in the device. The earpiece speaker is loud and clear and the caller at the opposite end is clearly audible. The stereo speakers are also helpful if you just want to watch a quick video or two as the speakers are sufficiently loud. Pair that with the great display ont he P20 Pro and your media consumption is sorted on this device.

When it comes to gaming, the Kirin 970 along with the Mali G72 GPU ensures that there are no hitches there. Asphalt 8: Airborne and Modern Combat 5 ran without any hiccups on the maximum resolution as well. The fingerprint scanner on the P20 Pro is quick, but the Face Unlock is quite slow even when there is sufficient lighting around. Water and dust resistance are handy features as well.

Camera: 8.5/10

This is easily the most important feature on the Huawei P20 Pro, after all, how many smartphones have you seen with a triple rear camera setup? As mentioned earlier, you have a 20 MP monochrome camera, a 40 MP RGB camera and an 8 MP camera which provides the 3x optical zoom support. On the front, you have a 24 MP camera. Now, while the 40 MP sensor comes with a f/1.8 aperture and the 20 MP monochrome sensor comes with a f/1.6 aperture, the telephoto lens in front of the 8 MP camera comes with a f/2.4 aperture. All the optics on the rear camera are powered by Leica. On the front camera, you get a f/2.0 aperture.

So there are many cameras, but what exactly do they do? Well, the 40 MP RGB sensor is the main camera and is tasked with capturing colours, the 8 MP camera provides the optical zoom and additional focal length and the 20 MP camera, being a monochrome camera, captures a lot of detail, which assists with improving the sharpness of the overall image.

The 40 MP camera on the Huawei P20 Pro has the largest sensor size at 1/1.7-inch, which is much higher than the 1/2.9-inch sensor seen on the iPhone X and the 1/2.55-inch seen on the Galaxy S9+. Not just that, the 40 MP sensor on the Huawei P20 Pros main camera uses a process called pixel-binning (Huawei calls this Pixel Fusion) to capture light information from four 1 micron pixels and combine them into a 2x2 grid. So essentially, its taking four red pixels and combining it to form one big red pixel and the same process for the green and blue pixels as well. By default, the camera resolution then comes to around 10 MP, but it manages to capture a lot of colour information than say a single pixel on its own would be able to. The 10 MP camera mode also lets you capture images at 3x optical zoom and 5x hybrid zoom. Now when you are capturing an image, all three cameras work together to create the final image. In fact, the monochrome camera sensor captures three times more light information than the RGB sensor as it has no colour filters to deal with, which enables detailed shots in low light situations and less noisy shadow regions. The Huawei P20 Pro supports 3x optical zoom, 5x hybrid zoom, 4D predictive focus, 960 fps slow motion video recording mode and supports a maximum ISO of 102,400.

Note: Please head over to our Huawei P20 Pro photo album on Flickr to view the photos shot in full resolution.

Coming to the image quality, its a mixed bag with a lot of good bits and few issues. For starters, the 10 MP camera mode is what you will be clicking most of your images in, as it gives you a lot more detail, gives the options to activate optical and hybrid zooms and keeps noise in check. The focusing during daylight and even during low light situations was generally quick. Huawei has combined laser AF with contrast detect and phase detect AF to ensure the focusing is generally on point. Go for the 40 MP resolution only if there is sufficient light and you know you will not be using the 3x and 5x zooms. It does have the provision to let you shoot in the RAW mode as well.

Images coming out of the camera are generally good but in most cases on zooming 100 percent I did notice a loss of detail. There is definite over-sharpening. For instance is a crowded street, the details on the face area are too waxy, or when clicking a stone building will result in flat texture on the stones on pixel peeping. If you want to make large prints of phones (which one rarely does these days) you may notice some artifacts. But for social sharing and just viewing images on phones or tablets, it's not much of an issue. Noise control is generally good. I was particularly impressed with the amount of detail that was captured even with the 5x hybrid zoom  granted its nowhere close to what a 5x true optical zoom camera would capture, but in a well-lit situation, its not completely useless either. Technically, you can go up to 10x digital zoom, but then you would be pushing things too far with that, as all details are lost at that level of digital zoom.

Thanks to the presence of the Kirin 970, which has the Neural Processing Engine, Huawei P20 Pro makes use of a lot of artificial intelligence and machine learning to assist with photography. On a regular basis, it is intelligently able to identify a scene (there are 19 such scenes including blue sky, greenery, food, dog, cat, etc) and apply the necessary intelligent auto settings to give you what the Huawei AI thinks is a good image. Now, this is a hit and miss on most times  for instance when I was shooting the BMC building in CST against the blue sky, the AI made the sky appear an unnatural colour of vivid blue which wasnt to my liking. But hey, a lot of Instagram filters do make colours pop out in the same way. And if your camera software is doing that in-camera itself, it may appeal to a lot of that kind of audience who love filters on their photos. In some instances such as shooting a plate of Pomfret in a not-so-well-lit restaurant, I found the Food mode applying the right colour enhancements to make the food on my plate look appetising, quite helpful. So this is a game you will be playing and you can disable the settings applied by the AI if you so wish.

The default Photo mode isnt that impressive after the sun has set, but switch to Night mode and you will be blown away. I have tested many smartphone cameras, and the majority of them which offer a Night mode, also come with a caveat  use a tripod to get the best details. When I first tried out the Night mode, it was around 7.15 PM and I was shooting this building in front of me which had a stationary biker on his phone. On hitting the shutter the camera started a countdown and on the display, I saw the camera making multiple images over 4-5 seconds  you know the drill, taking multiple images at multiple exposures and then combining to get the final photo after a few seconds of image processing. I obviously did breathe and was dead sure I may have captured some handshake motion which would ruin the final photograph. I honestly didnt have much hope. And after the image was processed, I was mighty impressed with how the AI had compensated from my handshake and managed to give me an image with a high dynamic range. This is possible thanks to the AI enabled image stabilisation. It became my go-to mode to click low light photographs. The iPhone X or Galaxy S9+ has nothing close to this. Of course, on 100 percent viewing, the image does look like a painting. But Id rather have that than one which is noise-ridden without even zooming in a 100 percent. It boils down to personal preference after a point. I did like the amount of detail present on the Pixel 2 XL and the Samsung Galaxy S9+ on pixel peeping. But when it comes to low light photography, I would choose the Night mode of the P20 Pro over the other two.

Unlike the Apple iPhone X, the Huawei P20 Pros camera section has a definite learning curve as there is just lots to do once you are in the camera module  Pro mode, monochrome mode, slow-motion video recording, document scan, aperture priority mode, portrait mode, filters and much more.

Coming to selfies, the 24 MP front-facing camera offered decent photos although I wouldnt call them the best. On most occasions I found the images to be a bit too soft for my liking and the software-driven portrait mode wasnt as good with feathering out the background from my face. It was a bit rough around the edges, which can be fixed in future software updates. The beauty mode which tends to unnaturally smoothen the face is something I abhor, but then I guess there is a huge audience for it. The Pixel 2/2 XL still manage to get brilliant photos in the portrait mode.

In the video mode, I wasnt as impressed. Sure, the P20 Pro lets you shoot in 4K at 30 fps along with 1080p at 60 fps and 30 fps among others. Barring the 1080p at 30 fps, getting stable video footage is a struggle. When shooting while walking, I noticed that there was a lot of camera shake. While panning too you tend to see a slight bit of shutter rolling. The only good footage I got out of the P20 Pro was when I was standing still in one place and shooting. But thats the kind of footage that looks too stale and with something as portable as a smartphone, you want to document on video while you are moving. When it comes to video cameras on a smartphone, the Apple iPhone X is still the phone to beat. There is the 960 fps slow motion mode as well which shoots at 720 p just like the Samsung Galaxy S9+, but getting that right moment is a bit of work. Also, you need to have sufficient light to get the best out of the 960 fps slow motion mode. Overall, the video camera on the Huawei P20 Pro has a lot of scope for improvement.

I will be doing a detailed comparison of the cameras on the P20 Pro against the Galaxy S9+, iPhone X and other flagships. So that should help answer some of your questions on that front.

Battery Life: 9/10

Huawei P20 Pro comes with a 4,000 mAh battery which easily lasted me a little over a day and a half worth of usage time. It is good to see a 4,000 mAh battery on flagship phones as we are generally used to seeing somewhere between 3,000 to 3,500 mAh at the most. With two Google accounts on sync, a constantly buzzing Slack and Telegram messenger, shooting 25-50 photos per day along with some video, listening to podcasts on my commute, watching a few YouTube videos and so on comprise my regular day. And the phone would easily outlast a day with a screen-on time of well over 5 hours.

The fast charger (which Huawei calls Super Charger) bundled with the phone really helps with quick charging. It took me around 80 minutes to go from 0 to 100 percent which is super impressive. This fast charging will not work with other companies chargers though. With a OnePlus dash charger, for instance, it took over two hours for the complete charge.

Our PC Mark for Android test returned a time of 10 hours 28 mins, which is again quite impressive.

Verdict and Price in India

The Huawei P20 Pro is one smartphone that offers a complete package in terms of beautiful design, long-lasting battery, good performance and impressive cameras. The latest operating system with some neat value additions on the EMUI 8.1 skin also help. It certainly seems to be set to break the Apple and Samsung duopoly, which the Google has tried to with its Pixel phones, but theyre more loved for their camera performance only. Huawei could not have asked for a better smartphone to relaunch with, in India. The goodwill it has garnered through its Honor sub-brand should surely help. Yes, it will be difficult to break the sheer brand perception that an Apple and Samsung have cemented in the minds of buyers, but if Huawei is able to deliver on the after-sales service, it is one brand that surely stand on its own.

At Rs 64,999, Huawei has priced the P20 Pro is priced almost the same as the Samsung Galaxy S9+ and slightly lower than the Google Pixel 2 XL (for the 128 GB storage). If you are not too hungover the Samsung branding, I would suggest you give the Huawei P20 Pro a try, at least it offers a much better battery life for starters. It is certainly a better deal over the Google Pixel 2 XL and the Apple iPhone X at its current selling price.

If you are looking to buy a flagship phone in 2018, the Huawei P20 Pro is definitely one phone you should consider.

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Former president George HW Bush has been hospitalized in Houston with an infection, just after attending the funeral of his wife, Barbara.

Houston: Former president George HW Bush has been hospitalized in Houston with an infection, just after attending the funeral of his wife, Barbara, a spokesman said Monday.

Jim McGrath said on Twitter that the 93-year-old Bush is "responding to treatments and appears to be recovering." He was admitted on Sunday morning to Houston Methodist Hospital after an infection spread to his blood, McGrath said.

Barbara Bush was laid to rest on Saturday in a ceremony attended by her husband, and former presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, George W Bush and their wives, along with current first lady Melania Trump. She was 92, and she and her husband had been married 73 years  the longest presidential marriage in US history.

The elder Bush uses a wheelchair and an electric scooter for mobility after developing a form of Parkinson's disease, and he has needed hospital treatment several times in recent years for respiratory problems.

He attended the funeral wearing a pair of knitted socks decorated in blue, red and yellow books  a tribute to his late wife's work promoting literacy.

On Friday, during the public viewing of Barbara Bush's casket, George HW Bush offered his hand to many of the around 2,500 people who walked through the church to pay their respects.

A year ago in April, Bush spent two weeks in the hospital for treatment of pneumonia and chronic bronchitis, a constant irritation of the lining of tubes that carry air to one's lungs. Bush's doctors said chronic bronchitis is a condition more prevalent with age and can aggravate the symptoms of pneumonia.

Bush was hospitalized for 16 days in January 2017 for pneumonia. During that hospital stay, which included time in intensive care, doctors inserted a breathing tube and connected him to a ventilator.

He also was hospitalized in 2015 in Maine after falling at home and breaking a bone in his neck, and in December 2014 for about a week for shortness of breath. He spent Christmas 2012 in intensive care for a bronchitis-related cough and other issues.

People in their 90s with Parkinson's disease are often at higher risk of pneumonia and other infections because their swallowing process can be compromised, said David Reuben, professor of geriatric medicine at the UCLA medical school in Los Angeles.

"And the stress of losing a loved one can weaken the immune system," he said.

Bacterial infections are treated with antibiotics, he said, while viral infections require other treatments. Infections that spread to the blood usually are not viral, however, he said.

The prognosis for such a case would depend on a number of factors, including heart rate, blood pressure and oxygenation, Reuben said.

"The more of these parameters are abnormal, the more serious the case is," he said.

George Herbert Walker Bush served as president from 1989 to 1993. Born 12 June, 1924, in Milton, Massachusetts, Bush also served as a Congressman, CIA director and Ronald Reagan's vice-president.
US president Donald Trump and French president Emmanuel Macron emphasised pomp and ceremony on Monday as Macron began a state visit to Washington

Mount Vernon: US president Donald Trump and French president Emmanuel Macron emphasised pomp and ceremony on Monday as Macron began a state visit to Washington likely to be dominated by differences with the United States over trade and the nuclear accord with Iran.

As Macron headed to the United States, the Iranian government urged European leaders to convince Trump not to tear up the 2015 deal between Tehran and six world powers.

The French president said on Sunday there was no "Plan B" for keeping a lid on Tehrans nuclear ambitions.

He is on something of a rescue mission for what is formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which Trump has said he would scrap unless European allies fix by mid-May what he calls "terrible flaws".

"This visit is very important in our current context, with so many uncertainties, troubles and at times threats," Macron said in French remarks as he arrived in Washington.

Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called on European leaders to support the agreement.

"It is either all or nothing. European leaders should encourage Trump not just to stay in the nuclear deal, but more important to begin implementing his part of the bargain in good faith," Zarif wrote on Twitter.

The deal reached between six powers  all of whom but Germany are nuclear-armed  and Tehran put curbs on Irans nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.

Minutes after Macron touched down in the United States, the White House said it had no announcements on the Iran deal.

"The president has been extremely clear that he thinks its a bad deal. That certainly has not changed," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.

Macron said on Fox News Sunday it would be better to protect the deal instead of getting rid of it. "Is this agreement perfect and this JCPOA a perfect thing for our relationship with Iran? No. But for nuclear, what do you have as a better option? I dont see it," he said.

Charm offensive

Macrons visit is the first time Trump has hosted a state visit since he took power in January 2017. While the French leader has tried to develop a close relationship with Trump since he took office last May, he has so far seen few tangible results on issues from Iran to climate politics.

Macron and his wife, Brigitte, shortly after their arrival at the Blair House residence, took quickly to the streets of Washington, walking past the White House complex to the Lincoln Memorial and greeting tourists.

Macron brought with him an oak tree sapling for planting on the South Lawn of the White House. The tree came from the Belleau Woods, site of a World War One battle in 1918 where 9,000 Americans died. Trump and Macron shovelled dirt on the freshly planted tree as the cameras clicked. France is a very special country, said Trump. Its a great honour.

Trump and his wife, Melania, and the Macrons then flew aboard Trumps Marine One helicopter to dine at Mount Vernon, the Virginia home of George Washington, the first US president and Revolutionary War commander whose alliance with France was critical to victory over the British.

The Trumps and Macrons spent about two hours at Mount Vernon. We had a great dinner, President Trump told reporters as they boarded the helicopter for the return trip to the White House.

Working meetings will be held at the White House on Tuesday before Macron addresses the US Congress the following day, the anniversary of the day French General Charles de Gaulle addressed a joint session of Congress in 1960.

Trump and Macron began their friendship a year ago in Belgium with a jaw-clenching handshake. While some other European leaders have kept a distance from Trump, Macron has worked hard to remain close to the U.S. president. The two leaders speak frequently by phone.

Trade talks

Iran has long maintained that its nuclear programme was for peaceful purposes.

Macron also wants to persuade Trump to exempt European nations from metal tariffs that are part of the US presidents plan to reduce chronic trade deficits with countries around the world, chiefly China.

His visit comes at a time of mounting alarm in Europe over the effect that US sanctions on Russia will have on their own manufacturing industries.

French officials said Paris and other European governments were coordinating efforts to persuade Trump to ease sanctions on Russia, including measures against Russian aluminium producers.

There are concerns raised by the extraterritoriality effects of the new sets of sanctions, a French finance ministry source said. Europeans ... have jointly warned the US administration about the economic impact and consequences and the need to find solutions.

The official said France, Germany, Italy and Ireland were working together on the matter. German chancellor Angela Merkel will hold talks with Trump in Washington later in the week.

Macron and Trump are also due to discuss Syria less than two weeks after the United States, France and Britain launched air strikes there in retaliation for a suspected chemical weapons attack that killed dozens.

Macron said last week he believed he had persuaded Trump to keep US troops in Syria, though Trump has been insistent on bringing them home.
Populist former martial arts star and businessman Khaltmaa Battulga has won Mongolia's presidential run-off election

Ulaanbaatar: Populist former martial arts star and businessman Khaltmaa Battulga has won Mongolia's presidential run-off election, according to voter data from the General Election Commission released on Saturday.

The poll was seen as a referendum on the government's economic recovery plans and the role of southern neighbour China in the landlocked but resource-rich country known as the birthplace of Mongol emperor Genghis Khan.

Battulga, of the opposition Democratic Party, won with 50.6 percent of the vote on a 60.9 percent turnout, giving him the majority needed to overcome his opponent, parliament speaker Miyeegombo Enkhbold of the ruling Mongolian People's Party.

Election officials are still, however, waiting on a final count of votes from abroad.

The election campaign was marred by political mudslinging from all sides and the public perception that none of the candidates were fit for the job, according to Luvsanvandan Sumati, the head of polling group the Sant Maral Foundation.

"The worst election in Mongolian history," said Sumati.

Enkhbold's loss was definitive. He trailed far behind Battulga with 41.2 percent of the vote due to the nearly 100,000 blank votes submitted in protest at the choice of candidates.

Friday's run-off was scheduled after the 26 June vote failed to result in a outright winner.

Some investors have been wary of a Battulga presidency because of his calls for more state control of some mines and his suspicions of China, Mongolia's biggest trade partner.

Despite past protests, he has said he will stand behind plans to build a key railway to China from the enormous Tavan Tolgoi coal mine and has praised China's Belt and Road pan-Asian infrastructure initiative.

"He may push projects that are politically motivated but not economically justified," said a Mongolia-focused institutional investor who asked not to be named.

Battulga rose to fame as a Mongolian wrestler. His businesses include a hotel, a Genghis Khan-themed amusement park, and food companies for baked goods and meats.

Tsakhia Elbegdorj will step down as president after finishing his second and final term.

Battulga's opponent Enkhbold has stood behind the current government and prime minister, pledging to stay the course for economic recovery following a $5.5 billion rescue package from the International Monetary Fund and partners in May.

Battulga captured the attention of voters who feel Mongolia received a bad deal on investments, promising greater government control of strategic mines, such as Rio Tinto's Oyu Tolgoi copper mine.

Mongolia is a parliamentary democracy. The government is run by a prime minister, but the president has powers to veto legislation and make judicial appointments.
French President Emanuel macron is on a three-day state visit to the United States. He met US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump upon his arrival in Washington on Monday.

Washington: French President Emanuel macron is on a three-day state visit to the United States. He met US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump upon his arrival in Washington on Monday.

Before getting the full red carpet treatment at the White House on Monday  payback for wooing Trump with military parades and a dazzling Eiffel Tower dinner in Paris last July  Macron took an impromptu stroll to the Lincoln Memorial with his wife Brigitte.

Hailing the "very important" visit, Macron then rolled into the West Wing from Lafayette Square  named after the storied French general who fought in America's war for independence  beneath dozens of fluttering tricolour French flags and before the full US military colour guard.

Waiting at the door, the US president smiled and held out his hand for Macron to shake, and the French leader kissed him on both cheeks. Later, the first couples had dinner at Mount Vernon, the mansion that was the home of George Washington, the first US president.

They talked about the state of the US economy, Trump's approval rating, the mid-term elections in November in the US, internet regulation and the fight against Islamist terror, according to the French leader's office.

Trump is deeply unpopular in France and Macron, like other world leaders  from Japan's Shinzo Abe to Britain's Theresa May  is under growing pressure to show voters the benefits of his courtship with the 71-year-old Republican.

Looming over it all are two May deadlines that have the potential to wreck already fragile trans-Atlantic relations. Biting trade sanctions on European steel and aluminium will enter into force on 1 May unless Trump agrees to sign a waiver. If he refuses, there are fears of a full-fledged trade war.

Meanwhile, France and other European nations are battling to save a complex nuclear deal with Iran, which Trump will scuttle if he refuses to waive sanctions against Tehran by a 12 May deadline. Iran says it is ready to relaunch its nuclear program  which the West suspects is designed to produce a bomb  if Trump kills the deal. European officials say Trump's demand to reopen the deal is impossible, and are scrambling to address his concerns on Tehran's missile testing, inspections and the regime's behaviour in the region. There is growing frustration in European capitals that Trump's stubbornness over the Obama-era agreement is diverting attention away from other pressing issues.

In an interview broadcast on the eve of his arrival, Macron went on Trump's favourite television channel, Fox News, to make his pitch. "If you make war against everybody," Macron said, "trade war against Europe, the war in Syria, war against Iran  come on  it doesn't work. You need allies. We are the allies."

Macron will also be keen to temper Trump's instinct to precipitously pull the US military out of Syria, amid cooperation in fighting the Islamic State group and coordinated strikes on chemical weapons installations operated by Damascus. "I think the US role is very important to play," he said. "Why? I will be very blunt. The day we will have finished this war against ISIS, if we leave, definitely and totally, even from a political point of view, we will leave the floor to the Iranian regime, Bashar al-Assad and these guys."

In public, both countries are keen to emphasize their historic relationship  recalling that France was the first ally of American revolutionaries fighting for independence. Macron brought with him an oak sapling that he and Trump planted at the White House on Monday as a symbol of friendship. It comes from near the site of the Battle of Belleau Woods in northern France, where 2,000 US Marines perished at the end of World War I. The pair, clearly relaxed, also briefly visited the Oval Office before heading to Mount Vernon.

On a personal level, despite sharp differences in political background, age and lifestyle, the presidents seem to have struck up a bond as fellow outsiders who outwitted the establishment to gain power. "We have a very special relationship because both of us are probably the maverick of the systems on both sides," Macron told Fox News.

Trump himself told Macron their "friendship" was "unbreakable" during his trip to Paris last year. When asked about their first encounter  a much-scrutinized six-second handshake during a NATO summit in May  Macron acknowledged it had was a "very direct, lucid moment" that had set the tone for them. "And a very friendly moment," he added. "It was to say now, we will work together."

On Wednesday, the centrist leader will demonstrate his English-language skills  a rarity for a French president  in an address to a joint session of Congress.
The media and the Twitterverse had a big time Tuesday with the first lady's I-spy chapeau, a wide-brim number designed by Herve Pierre that would have been perfect had the sun been out in Washington.

Melania, or more specifically Melania's hat, what were you saying?

The media and the Twitterverse had a big time Tuesday with the first lady's I-spy chapeau, a wide-brim number designed by Herve Pierre that would have been perfect had the sun been out in Washington.

Melania with the Young Pope hat pic.twitter.com/PqwI4bqO9A  Josh Billinson (@jbillinson) April 24, 2018

Melania and I look forward to escaping on @RoyMooresHorse  Melanias Hat (@MelaniasHat) April 24, 2018

It was a grand topper for Mrs. Trump's bright white Michael Kors suit and some said it stole the show during the South Lawn military pageantry welcoming French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, during their first official state visit.

Others on the social media sidelines were merely perplexed.

Was the hat more Joan Collins' Alexis Carrington Colby on "Dynasty" or Kerry Washington's Olivia Pope on "Scandal?" Was the grim-faced first lady in theoretical need of help as some asked on Inauguration Day?

Mrs. Trump kept her hat in place as the group moved indoors and also at the National Gallery of Art for a Cezanne break with Mrs. Macron, who wore a creamier shade of white, but no hat.

"Melania's hat for president," one tweeter declared. Others shared the sentiment.

Another chimed in: "Getting some serious Beyonce Formation vibes from Melania's hat this morning." Bey wore a version in black in the video for that hit.

Others on social media stuck to matters of etiquette, like the Twitter account of I'm Every Woman: "Melania's hat might be OK for the races, a runway or even Church, not to wear when greeting visitors when you want to express a warm welcome. You want people to see your eyes and face and not impose an obstacle to the two cheek kiss, a French greeting."

One thing was certain. Mrs. Trump was seriously committed to her hat.
The US has made it clear to Pakistani leaders that their 'continuing support and facilitation' of terror groups along the border to create a 'perpetual state of conflict' with India is 'not sustainable', former American Ambassador to India Richard Verma has said.

New York: The US has made it clear to Pakistani leaders that their "continuing support and facilitation" of terror groups along the border to create a "perpetual state of conflict" with India is "not sustainable", former American Ambassador to India Richard Verma has said. He stressed that the US can't lose the connections to all the people and moderate voices in Pakistan that want peace with India and a better future for their children.

"It's not in their interest, and it's not the way to have that goal of a functioning normal state in the international system," he said while delivering the third New India Lecture' organised by India's Consulate General in New York.

"It's a very difficult situation but we have to get there with a variety of economic and political tools," he said. Verma said the US has made the message quite clear to Pakistani leaders that "this continuing support and facilitation" of terrorist groups along the border to create a "perpetual state of conflict" with India is "not sustainable".

Responding to a question on relations with China, Verma said India and the US have remarkably similar situations with regard to China, including economic inter-dependencies, trade and commercial activities.

"But we also have security concerns. We have concerns about what China is doing in the international systems, we have concerns about their failure to adhere to rules and norms, we have concerns about the Belt and Road Initiative and what they are doing in the South China Sea," he said. Verma stressed the need to be able to balance some of these concerns.

"No one wants to see a conflict with China. But we also have to be able to stand up for our basic values," he added. He further noted that in India-China and US-China relations, there is a lot of dialogue at all levels.

However, it is a very difficult, complicated and contentious relationship but I don't think anyone wants to see the spark that leads to an actual conflict, he said. Verma emphasised that there is need for an international system that reflects India's role in the world today. He lamented that India is not on the UN Security Council, is not a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and doesn't play the kind of role that it probably should on the G-20 bloc of nations or in other international Institutions.

"The US needs to pave the way forward for India so that it actually has the seat at the table in this century, a seat that is appropriate for a country of the size and stature of India. We have to be working very hard for that, he said.
Right now, Gwadar port, the dusty next Dubai on Pakistans coast resembles the original mainly in one respect  it doesnt have much water

Gwadar: For over a decade, Pakistani officials have dreamed of transforming the small but strategically located fishing port of Gwadar into a duty-free port and free economic zone  Pakistans answer to Dubai.

The aim is for Gwadar  located on the Arabian Sea near Iran and the mouth of the Persian Gulf  to become a regional commercial, industrial and shipping hub, as part of the ambitious China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.

The corridor is designed to give China a shorter, more secure trading route, via Pakistan, to West Asia and beyond, while also boosting Pakistans economy.

Right now, however, the dusty next Dubai on Pakistans coast resembles the original mainly in one respect  it doesnt have much water.

It hasnt rained here for the last three years, explains a local journalist, Sajid Baloch.

Abdul Rahim, who works for the Gwadar Development Authority, under the provincial government of Balochistan, said climate change is playing a role in Gwadars thirst.

I would say because of climate change the rains have stopped  it used to rain much more often and in every season. Now Gwadar is facing severe water issues. There is no fresh water here, Rahim said.

Nearby Akra Kaur reservoir dried up two years ago, and water must now be brought from a more distant source, he said. Some of the water coming in is contaminated, leading to an increase in waterborne illnesses such as hepatitis, he added.

Tapping groundwater isnt a solution. There is no point in digging wells as the underground water is all brackish, Rahim said.

Growing fast

Right now, the Gwadar peninsula  a hammerhead-shaped projection of land into the Arabian Sea  is home to about 1,00,000 people, following completion of the first phase of the port development.

But as development continues, the areas population is expected to grow to 5,00,000 by 2020, according to the port authoritys website.

On one side of the peninsula is the deep-sea port, built by the Chinese state-owned China Overseas Holding Company. On the other side lies the local harbour.

Fishing was Gwadars main economic activity before the port started operations, and some local people say they so far see little benefit in the governments grand plans.

We are dying from thirst, there are no doctors in our hospitals, the electricity comes and goes and there is garbage everywhere as no one collects it, complained Rasool Bux, a fisherman who lives near the harbour.

First fix all these problems. Then develop this dream of Dubai, he urged.

Bux said most in the town get their water from tankers that make the two-hour drive from Mirani Dam. But the tankers only come once or twice a month to his area, Bux said, and shortages are common.

Muhammad Ali Kakar, the provinces planning and development secretary, told a government committee in December that the total demand for water in Gwadar city was 6.5 million gallons a day, but tankers supplied only 2 million gallons.

Satisfying thirst

To help solve the water shortages two desalination plants have been built in the port, with Chinese expertise. The smaller can provide 2,00,000 gallons of potable water per day to the port, while the larger one, recently completed in the adjacent duty-free zone, can supply double that amount.

Both plants rely on power from generators, as there is not enough grid power in Gwadar to run them, said Sajjd H Baloch, the director general of Gwadar Development Authority.

Some fishermen say they now buy clean drinking water from the port, paying up to 50 Pakistani rupees (around $0.40) for a three-litre can.

Gul Mohammed, the operations director for the port authority, said his agency was willing to supply clean water outside the port and duty-free zone, but would need to be paid to produce it.

We are willing to provide water from the larger plant to the city of Gwadar at the rate of 0.98 rupees per gallon, but the government of Balochistan has to sign an agreement with us, he said.

The provincial government is reluctant to accept the offer, hoping for rains this year to fill the Akra Kaur dam, Rahim said.

The Pakistani army, tasked with protecting the CPEC project, meanwhile, also has laid the foundation for a large desalination plant to be built with help from the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland.

The plant, to be completed by July, will provide 4.4 million gallons of water a day, free of cost, to the inhabitants of Gwadar city, according to an army press release.

Providing better services, including clean drinking water, is seen as a way of helping win local support for the development push  and to help quell an ongoing insurgency by Baloch separatists in the province.

As part of the winning-hearts effort, the army also has brought in specialist doctors to supplement those already working at the local government-run hospital.

A new road will soon connect the port to the Makran Coastal Highway, which links Gwadar to Karachi. Gwadars new airport will be Pakistans largest when it is complete.

The China Power Company also plans to open a 300-megawatt coal-fired power plant around 20 km (12 miles) from the port to provide electricity to Gwadar.

Meanwhile, tourism has started too, and the port is increasingly bustling with visitors.

Certainly the security in Gwadar has improved considerably in the last two years. I would say that, given all the recent development, the dream of Dubai will be realised in a decade or so, said Munir Ahmed, a port security officer.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday arrived in Mongolia, becoming the first Indian foreign minister to visit the resouce-rich country in 42 years

Ulaanbaatar: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday arrived in Mongolia, becoming the first Indian foreign minister to visit the resouce-rich country in 42 years.

Swaraj was received by Deputy Foreign Minister of Mongolia B Battsetseg at the airport.

She is scheduled to hold bilateral talks to further strengthen political, strategic, economic, educational and cultural ties in the predominantly Buddhist nation.

"First visit of an Indian External Affairs Minister to Mongolia in 42 years! Reconnecting with our shared Buddhist heritage, Swaraj warmly received by Deputy Foreign Minister of Mongolia, B Battsetseg on her arrival in sunny Ulaanbaatar," tweeted Raveesh Kumar, official Spokesperson at the Ministry of External Affairs.

Swaraj, who is on a two-day visit to Mongolia, will co-chair the 6th round of India-Mongolia Joint Consultative Committee meeting with Foreign Minister D Tsogtbaatar. Swaraj is the first external affairs minister in 42 years to visit Mongolia.

India and Mongolia have close cooperation in trade and economy, science, health, agriculture, culture, education, communication and tourism. The two countries are also working closely to ensure security and curbing international crimes and terrorism. The total trade between the two countries amounted to $ 25.6 million in 2016.

During her visit, Swaraj is also scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the Kushok Bakula Birth Centenary Celebrations in Ulaanbaatar commemorating the birth anniversary of Late Venerable Kushok Bakula Rinpoche, a highly revered Buddhist leader and monk from Ladakh and a former Ambassador of India to Mongolia.

Bakula Rinpoche, the longest serving Indian Ambassador to Mongolia, made seminal contribution to promotion of India-Mongolia ties.

Swaraj earlier visited China where she participated in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting and on Sunday held wide-ranging bilateral talks with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.
Thailand on Tuesday volunteered to host the hotly-anticipated summit between US president Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un

Bangkok: Thailand on Tuesday volunteered to host the hotly-anticipated summit between US president Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, as speculation swirls about the venue.

"Thailand is ready to facilitate and host the talks," Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai told reporters, though he stressed that the kingdom has not been contacted about the possibility.

The United States embassy declined to comment.

Kim is set to meet South Korea's president Moon Jae-in on Friday, an event seen as a major stepping stone towards the summit with Trump.

Earlier in April, Trump said five locations were under consideration for a summit "probably in early June", which he hopes will result in a denuclearisation deal with North Korea.

But he did not specify where, leaving observers to speculate on anywhere from Mongolia to Scandinavia and Singapore.

Thailand is a historic US ally which also has diplomatic relations with North Korea.

The Thai junta number two Prawit Wongsuwon is currently in the US where he has met Defence Secretary James Mattis and senior Homeland Security officials, according to the Thai defence ministry.

Over the weekend Pyongyang announced a moratorium on nuclear tests and intercontinental ballistic missile launches.

Analysts are divided over the headline-grabbing offer, with many noting it is reversible and did not signal any intention of actual nuclear disarmament.
Balancing payments worth more than 300m have started arriving in Scottish farmers bank accounts, as the Scottish government starts the process of topping up earlier loan payments under the Basic Payments Scheme.

Anticipating problems with full delivery of the 2017 BPS, last November the Scottish government paid farmers loans, equivalent to 90% of a claimants expected entitlement.

See also: Respond quickly to 90% LFA loan offer, Scots urged

The balancing payments are now going out in tranches, with more than 18,000 farmers set to receive money under the EU CAPs Pillar 1 schemes, which include greening payments and young farmer payments.

Rural economy secretary Fergus Ewing said last years decision to provide loan payments meant those farmers who accepted the offer were paid a higher proportion of their entitlement at an earlier time than ever before.

With further tranches being made in the coming weeks and months, I am confident that the vast majority of farmers and crofters will receive their payments by the end of the payment window (30 June), demonstrating my absolute commitment to support our rural business and communities.

Timely boost

NFU Scotland said the release of 300m would provide a timely boost for many farmers who are struggling financially following the difficult autumn, winter and early spring.

It is also important to mention that not all of those due their balance will receive it in this first wave of payments, said NFUS president Andrew McCornick.

Those who miss out on this tranche still need to receive the payment sooner rather than later, and we would like to see a commitment from the Scottish government that these will be made well before the deadline of 30 June.

Mr McCornick also urged the Scottish government to speed the delivery of other money owed to farmers, including balancing payments under the LFASS loan scheme, suckler calf payments and ewe hogg payments.

With such a difficult six months for farmers across the regions and sectors, it is not inconceivable these payments will be the most income some will receive until the end of autumn, after harvest and the back end sales, he said.
The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is stepping outside its military know-how for some expert help on offensive drones.

Tapping drone detection company Dedrone, the DoD's Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx) is interested in how a commercial group might lend a hand at finding and locating drones near military bases, or those interfering with military flights.

Dedrone recently launched a new sensor called RF-300, allowing it to pinpoint the radio frequencies that are sent out by pilots. While its system has been able to track drones in the air, RF-300 now allows Dedrone's clients to find the people launching and controlling the UAVs.

While Dedrone never says who has hired them, this kind of technology may be what Apple is using to quickly locate drone pilots near its new campus, as it did in April. Duncan Sinfield, who had been filming drone videos of Apple Park's construction, reported that company security guards drove up to him within about 10 minutes of his getting his DJI Inspire 2 in the air, asking him to stop.

Dedrone uses radio frequency sensors to track drones and their pilots Dedrone

Drone dilemma

Dedrone says that the DoD wants its help to determine, read and then react to potential drone threats over what are "protected sites," says the company.

While consumer pilots buy and fly drones much as they would model aircraft, drones are being used on more than just weekend outings. Companies are using, or hiring out drones, to help them with their businesses, such as flying drones to better view construction sites or even farmland. But drones are also being put to use illegally.

Prisons have reported that contraband has been flown over gates by drones, with officials only discovering the problem after items, such as tobacco, are found inside the walls. Even consumers are finding themselves on the wrong side of the law. During disasters, curious people fly their drones to get better views of damage from hurricanes, or of firefighters tackling a blaze. In some cases, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has had to step in to ban drones interfering with rescue or recovery efforts.



The FAA has clear no-fly zones for drones including major airports and venues iStock

No Drone Zone

The FAA has clear cut no fly zones for drones, such as within five miles of most major airports, but drone pilots sometimes make mistakes  and others just flagrantly disobey the rules. Dedrone has worked in the past with the DoD, the company says, including running a two-month project in Washington, D.C. with Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, detecting drones that flew through no fly zones.

Drones have interfered with U.S. military operations, including Coast Guard drills, Air Force maneuvers, and one involving a Central Command pilot, buzzed by a drone last year while attempting to land on an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf.

"Anecdotal information of drone incidents near military bases are leaving military security personnel with insufficient details about the nature of airspace threats," says Joerg Lamprecht, Dedrone's CEO and co-founder. "Our partnership with DIUx is an opportunity for us to work directly with military installations and inform defense leaders on how to protect military airspace against rogue drone pilots."




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.
India feature phone market doubled in Q1 2018 due to strong shipments of JioPhone News oi-Priyanka Huaweis Honor brand captured the fifth position for the first time ever, in the Indian smartphone market due to the strong performance of Honor 9 Lite and Honor 7X across online channels.

India's overall mobile phone shipments grew 48 percent YoY in Q1 2018 as the market was driven by the feature phone segment which doubled in Q1 2018 due to strong shipments of Reliance JioPhone, according to a new report by research firm Counterpoint.

Tarun Pathak, Associate Director, commenting on the surprising growth of feature phones, added, "The demand for JioPhone continued through Q1 2018 as Reliance Jio's feature phone market share raced from 0 percent last year to 36 percent in Q1 2018. This demand was catalyzed by the introduction of a cheaper data plan, for the JioPhone in January: Rs 49 per month including unlimited voice calling and 1GB of data per month."

He said, "Jio has been aggressively promoting JioPhone as "India's free smartphone" though technically, a smart feature phone to attract the large base of 2G voice users which prefer the simpler feature phone form-factor."

While in the smartphone segment, Xiaomi maintained its lead in Q1 2018 with a record 31 percent market share followed by Samsung (26 percent), Vivo (6 percent), OPPO (6 percent), and Honor (3 percent).

Karn Chauhan, Research Analyst stated "Q1 2018 started off with some brands sitting on inventory post the festive season in Q4 2017, which continued throughout the quarter as industry moves to a full view display portfolio. Furthermore, the quarter was also marked with less than normal smartphone launches as very few brands refreshed their portfolio, except for Xiaomi and Samsung which benefitted from the new launches. However, we expect the demand to start picking up from early Q2 2018 onwards, driven by faster replacement rate of existing 2G and 3G smartphone users upgrading to 4G mobile phones.

Huawei's Honor brand captured the fifth position for the first time ever, in the Indian smartphone market due to the strong performance of Honor 9 Lite and Honor 7X across online channels.

Commenting on the competitive landscape, Anshika Jain, Research Analyst said, "Xiaomi and Samsung alone captured 58 percent of the total smartphone market. Xiaomi's performance is driven by rising product-pull in the offline market, building upon its strong presence in the online channel where it captured a record 57 percent share."

China-based Transsion Group (the holding group of Tecno, Itel, and Infinix) has become the fifth largest player with 4 percent market share in Q1 2018 (combined for all three brands). Tecno, which debuted in April last year, has emerged as a leading smartphone brand and is close to entering the top ten list. The brand grew 23 percent QoQ in Q1 2018.

InFocus Vision 3 Pro first impression

Furthermore, a report said that the race for the fifth position is quite close between Lava, Micromax, Honor, Nokia (HMD) and Lenovo (+Moto) brands. Adding to that Honor (146 percent), Xiaomi (134 percent) and OnePlus (112 percent) were the fastest growing smartphone brands in Q1 2018.

Best Mobiles in India
Samsung Galaxy A6+ press render, key specs surface online News oi-Chandrika Samsung is expected to unveil the Galaxy A6 and Galaxy A6+ in the coming weeks.

Samsung is looking to expand its Galaxy A lineup of smartphones with the launch of Galaxy A6 and Galaxy A6+. Both the models made a visit to the FCC certification site late last month, suggesting an imminent launch. While no official announcement has been made yet, the Galaxy A6+ has now been spotted on a Polish site, along with some of its key specs.

To start with the design, the press renders on the website shows the Samsung Galaxy A6+ sporting a metal unibody with a full-screen design and minimal bezels. The rear panel of the smartphone resembles that of the Galaxy S9. The camera setup and the placement of the fingerprint scanner are similar. You can also see the U-shaped antenna lines at the top and bottom.

The Galaxy A6+ also features a dedicated dual SIM and microSD slots on the left, loudspeaker grill on the right, and a selfie camera flash. The website listing also reveals the smartphone will come with a 6-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED display with the aspect ratio of 18:9. Under the hood, it will be powered by an octa-core Samsung Exynos 7870 octa-core processor, coupled with 4GB RAM and 32GB/64GB internal storage space.

On the software front, the Galaxy A6+ will be running Android 8.0 Oreo right out of the box, topped with Experience 9.0 UI. While we don't have camera and battery details yet, the listing reveals the smartphone will be available in color options like Black, Blue and Golden.

The Galaxy A6's specs are also listed on the website, and it will come with a slightly smaller 5.6-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED display with the aspect ratio of 18:9. The smartphone's other specifications will be the same as its bigger sibling.

Looking at the Geekbench results, the Galaxy A6 and Galaxy A6+ will not differ much in terms of performance. The former scored 2605 points on the multi-core test and 723 points on the single core test. Whereas the Galaxy A6+ obtained 739 points in the single-core test and 3469 points in the multi-core test.

Samsung Galaxy A8+ First Impressions

Do note that Samsung had not any Galaxy A6 models previously, so these models will be the first phones in the Galaxy A6 series. There are reports which claim that the Galaxy A6 series will replace the Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A7 series.

Best Mobiles in India

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The spiritual underpinnings of Ayuvedic medicine are from the Hindu religion . Knowledge of Ayurvedic medicine is supposed to have been handed down from the gods and discovered through meditation. Some of the practices seem to be purely spiritual such as the balancing of the life energies with the life force of the universe. This has become popular today under the broader  New Age  label. Other practices and treatments of Ayurvedic medicine are more physical, having to do with the use of herbs and essential oils.Obviously, a Christian must resist any treatment that would embrace a pagan philosophy or involve the Christian in a pagan ritual. If the Aruvedic practitioner is attempting to help the Christian discover his or her inner divinity to facilitate healing, then the treatment is unbiblical and should be avoided. Since most people who would describe themselves as Aruvedic practitioners would embrace the whole treatment philosophy, we would counsel Christians to steer clear.On the other hand, the Bible does not forbid the use of legitimate medicinal treatments. If there are certain aspects of Aruvedic therapy that have physical benefit apart from pagan practice or theology, such as the use of an herbal combination to provide relief from intestinal inflammation or the use of an essential oil to relieve a headache, then they could be used the same as any other treatment.It seems that many undiscerning Christians are drawn to Ayurvedic and other forms of alternative medicine because of the spirituality of those forms and because they seem to avoid some of the more undesirable aspects of modern medicine. Many people reject modern medicine because they consider it to be the result of an atheistic, naturalistic view of the universe, filling our bodies with unnatural and harmful chemicals, and requiring exorbitant prices charged by greedy drug companies. Even many who believe only in faith healing will accept natural compounds such as what are offered in Ayurvedic medicine. Some will uncritically accept a spiritual approach to their illness as being more in keeping with the way God created things, even if the spiritual base of that approach is blatantly unchristian.The truth is that God has created the universe with incredible potential for benefit that man is free to discover. There are many natural chemical compounds in plants and animals that are useful for healing ailments. Likewise, there are many man-made compounds that are really nothing more than combinations of the natural components. All of it ultimately comes from what God created. Man-made medicine may have harmful side effects. Natural or homeopathic compounds can also have harmful side effects. There are cautions to be heeded on all sides.In the final analysis, the motto at the Tenwek Hospital in Kenya is completely accurate: We Treat, Jesus Heals. Christians trust God and pray for healing, but one of the ways He heals is by giving us skilled medical professionals and both natural and man-made medicines and procedures. Some aspects of Ayurvedic medicine may be beneficial. As long as the procedure does not involve something that is pagan or anti-biblical, then the Christian has the freedom to consider it. However, if the practitioner is steeped in non-Christian religion or Eastern mysticism, then the treatment process will normally contain pagan practices, and the Christian should not participate. If the treatment or the medicine used can be separated from the pagan practice, and it proves medically beneficial, then the Christian can benefit from it, thanking God for His common grace that allowed pagan people to discover something good in His universe.
GREENWICH  Fred Camillo was a supporter of all creatures big and small even before he became a Republican state representative for District 151. On Friday, Camillo earned a special citation for his advocacy for animal rights.

Camillo was presented with the Humane Legislator Award by the Humane Society of the United States at a brief ceremony at the Adopt-A-Dog headquarters in Armonk, N.Y.

In giving him the award, Annie Hornish, the Connecticut director for the Humane Society, noted Camillos longtime support for animals.

He is the leading animal advocate at the Capitol, Hornish said. Hes been leading for years on many issues and has taken some very brave positions on controversial animal issues. My favorite being a bill that would allow municipalities to ban trapping. That takes a lot of political courage because youre going up against state agencies, and hes unafraid to do it.

Camillo has been leading on every animal issue imaginable, she said, including battling to stop puppy mills and the ivory trade. He works behind the scenes and in public to get people involved in building support for important animal rights and safety issues, Hornish said.

Naturally, Camillos beloved German shepherd Teddy, named after Teddy Roosevelt, accompanied him to the casual ceremony.

Its such a great honor, and I would love to share it with everybody who has ever helped an animal or fostered a dog or a cat, he said. You cant do these things alone and having all these volunteers all over the country, especially here in Connecticut and in Greenwich, inspires me to work harder for them.

Camillo is the co-founder of Legislators for Animal Advocacy, the first group of its kind in the country. It legitimizes animal welfare issues in a big way, Hornish said, and other states are following Connecticuts lead.

Camillo playfully chided Hornish, though, for leaving out a few facts  including that the advocacy group was her idea in the first place.

I was honored to do this with her, Camillo said. Talk about courage: Annie has never stopped really standing up for what I call our voiceless constituency. Thats why I am so happy to be here today and linking a broad reaching national organization like the Humane Society with a terrific local organization like Adopt-A-Dog.

Hornish credited Camillo for championing Buddys Bill, which increased penalties for people who kill dogs.

Fred is always there leading the way and he continues to fight in the legislature for animals, Hornish said.

Camillo admitted it is not always easy to focus on animal welfare bills at the Capitol. While people clearly love their pets, he said, the state has other priorities as it continues to battle budget deficits. But he vowed to keep at it.

To me, animal welfare can never be pushed aside, he said. They truly are a voiceless constituency and like other voiceless constituencies, thats what youre there for. If they cant speak for themselves then you have to be that voice and you can never, ever put that aside.

Looking ahead to the rest of the legislative session and his re-election bid in the fall, Camillo said several bills focused on animal welfare are on the agenda, including a bill that would increase penalties against people who harm or kill police dogs and a bill that would allow someone to break a car window on a hot day without liability to help an animal or a child trapped inside.

Camillo thanked Adopt-A-Dog for hosting the ceremony at its headquarters, which is near the border with Greenwich.

Adopt-A-Dog, a 501(c)3 charitable organization, has been serving the tristate area for more than 30 years. It works closely with municipalities to provide a place for dogs when the shelters reach capacity.

It is open seven days a week for people looking for a dog; appointments are recommended but not required. The group works closely with the Greenwich community, and its annual Puttin On The Dog event is held every September in Roger Sherman Baldwin Park.

kborsuk@greenwichtime.com
GREENWICH, Conn. - For the 10th annual Stand Against Racism, the YWCA Greenwich moved the location to the front steps of Greenwich Town Hall in an attempt to make the event more visible and inclusive.

Valarie Shultz-Wilson, CEO of the Urban League of Southern Connecticut, will be the guest speaker at the annual event, which will be held from noon to 12:30 p.m. Friday. Stand Against Racism is free and open to the public.

Stand Against Racism is part of a YWCA strategy to fulfill our mission of eliminating racism, YWCA President and CEO Mary Lee Kiernan said. We believe standing together in a public forum with others who are fighting against racism sends the message that we promote inclusion in our community.

Started in Princeton, N.J., Stand Against Racism is one of the YWCAs signature events to raise awareness about the negative impact of institutional and structural racism. About 100 people are expected to attend the Greenwich program, and 100 organizations will be named on the event poster as supporting the effort.

This years focus is community engagement, said Joan Mockler, the YWCAs director of communications and racial justice. Participants will be encouraged to stay on top of current events, vote and support one another in community efforts to end racism.

If you dont keep your eye on racism, it sneaks back in, she said.

Participants will be asked to join in a group photo demonstrating their pledge to stand against all forms of racism. The Greenwich Fire Department will set up a fire truck in front of Town Hall with a 20-foot sign on it saying: Stand Against Racism. A photographer in the bucket of the fire truck will take a community photo.

Incidents of hate crimes are increasing nationally, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. An average of 250,000 people are victimized by hate crimes each year in America, the SPLC says.

First Selectman Peter Tesei will read a Stand Against Racism proclamation and Greenwich Schools Superintendent Jill Gildea will present YWCA Racial Justice Scholarship Awards to deserving high school seniors who have demonstrated a commitment to social justice.

The winners of this years $1,000 scholarships are Daniel Osemobor of Brunswick School; Chelsea Beckford of Sacred Heart Greenwich; and Rene LaPointe Jameson of Greenwich High School.

The event, which is held in partnership with the Town of Greenwich, will also feature the Rev. Ted Pardoe of St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, the Rev. Felix Delatour of Little Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church and the Greenwich High School Jazz Band.

Refreshments will be served.

For more information, contact Joan Mockler at j.mockler@ywgreenwich.org or 203-869-6501, ext. 104.
WASHINGTON - French President Emmanuel Macron's long-shot diplomatic mission to persuade President Donald Trump to preserve the Iran nuclear deal began Monday with smiles and yes, a handshake, that masked the difficult discussions underlying the first state visit Trump has hosted.

The three-day trip is a test of Macron's year-long effort to cultivate a positive relationship with Trump.

The 40-year-old political newcomer is the envoy for a European effort to address Trump's main quarrels with the 2015 international pact with Tehran through smaller side deals and diplomatic understandings. Trump loathes the international agreement but has left a sliver of hope that he may not junk it.

Macron has always faced long odds in his effort to convince Trump to stay the course on the Iran deal, but that effort has only become more difficult now that changes to the president's national security team have replaced advisers supportive of the deal with aides who disdain the pact.

John Bolton is now fully ensconced as Trump's national security adviser and CIA Director Mike Pompeo will soon be confirmed as secretary of state. Both men are more hawkish toward Iran than their predecessors - H.R. McMaster and Rex Tillerson - and Pompeo has flirted publicly with sponsoring regime change in Tehran.

This leaves Macron with few allies inside the Trump administration and under greater pressure to use this visit to persuade Trump not to abandon the nuclear deal when it next comes up for review, on May 12. The French president seemed eager to embrace the moment when he arrived in Washington on Monday.

"The United States, like France, has a very particular responsibility at a moment that today is ours," Macron said in brief remarks in French after he arrived at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington.

France was swift to answer Trump's request for international backing for airstrikes this month in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack on Syrian civilians, helping to launch more than 100 missiles.

In recent weeks - particularly over Syria - Macron has worked overtime to burnish his relationship with Trump.

He rarely gives interviews, but the day before departing for Washington, he granted an audience with Fox News, his American counterpart's favored channel. During that interview, already seen as a kind of olive branch, Macron went even further to emphasize his apparent similarities with Trump.

"I'm here to serve my people in my country and make it great again, as somebody I know very well could say," he told Fox's Chris Wallace, in English.

In France, where Trump remains deeply unpopular, these types of gestures have often fallen flat. Earlier this week, for instance, outrage in the French press amplified after Liberation, a leading French newspaper, quoted presidential palace sources calling Trump "very intelligent" and "coherent."

But the common explanation given - most frequently by Macron himself - is that these overtures are a simple question of strategy. "Our relationship with the United States is absolutely critical, in fact," Macron said earlier this year. "Fundamental. We need it."

If some in French political circles have expressed concern that Macron may be setting himself up to be the latest associate humiliated - and discredited - by collaborating so closely with Trump, some analysts said the French president has positioned himself well and does not have as much to lose as his critics contend.

"No one can blame him for trying" with regard to the Iran deal, said Benjamin Haddad, a member of Macron's official presidential delegation and a fellow at the Hudson Institute. "It's going to be blamed on Trump mostly. At the end of the day, it's a U.S. decision."

Even a failure on Iran may not be too damaging for Macron if he leaves the trip still seen as Europe's best hope of working with Trump.

"At the end of the day, Macron's main objective is not Iran, it's Europe," Haddad said. "If he manages to emerge as the key interlocutor of the U.S., he can leverage that to push his own agenda."

Trump has appeared eager to use the visit to solidify his relationship with Macron.

On Monday, Trump and first lady Melania Trump showed off the White House, where the two presidents' extended handshake recalled the first time they met, which onlookers likened to arm wrestling. The two leaders and their wives then participated in a tree planting on the White House lawn that was meant to symbolize the enduring U.S.-French relationship.

They then headed to Mount Vernon, George Washington's Virginia plantation home, to honor France as the United States's first ally. Tuesday's meeting will be capped off with Trump's first state dinner.

The French president is also addressing a joint session of Congress on Wednesday before heading home.

Macron and his wife, Brigitte, were chosen as the first state guests of the Trump White House largely out of gratitude for extravagant hospitality Macron extended to Trump in Paris last year. The timing, three weeks before a deadline on the Iran deal, set up Macron as the best hope for the deal's supporters.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders would not discuss the elements of any potential agreement to save the nuclear pact, or say whether there is anything Macron could do to salvage it.

"We certainly expect that that will be part of the conversation," Sanders told reporters, adding later that Trump is "the best negotiator at the table," and is well equipped for the discussions.

"What you do have are two leaders who have a great deal of respect for one another, who have a great friendship," Sanders said. "Certainly, both have a great deal of interest in doing what is best for their country."

Asked whether Trump is still leaning toward withdrawing the United States from the Iran deal, Sanders demurred.

"I don't have any announcements on that front," she said. "But the president has been extremely clear that he thinks it's a bad deal. That certainly has not changed."

Macron is also expected to lobby Trump to keep U.S. forces engaged in Syria longer - he recently said the troops are coming home soon - and to suggest that Trump revisit his decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord.

Sanders did not rule out some change of heart on those issues.

"The president wants to make good deals for this country," she said. "And if he feels like he can make a good deal that benefits this country, he's certainly going to engage in those conversations."

Macron's previous efforts to seduce Trump have seldom fared well, and the two presidents are most often opposed on matters of policy. The Trump administration's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel was one example of Franco-American disagreement.

Macron had tried to lobby Trump not to withdraw from the historic climate change agreement signed in Paris in December 2015 - a hallmark accomplishment of the Obama administration.

"I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris," Trump said when announcing the U.S. withdrawal last June.
GREENWICH  A local woman struck by a car in Old Greenwich who was hospitalized in an intensive care unit is expected to be released from medical care in coming days.

The 59-year-old Greenwich woman was struck by a car on the evening of April 17 on Sound Beach Avenue. Authorities said this week that the woman had been making progress and was expected to be released.
Google 'Time to leave' notifications are not working for lot of users

Google's departure time (or 'Time to leave') notifications feature is completely broken. If you take a look at the company's official forum, a large number of users are reporting the functionality is not working for them.

The thread in question started back in November, and complainants are still coming in. Here's a comment posted a couple of days ago:

I have the same issue. I have notifications turned on for Recommended departure times. I also have importance: Urgent (Make sound and pop up on scree) but nothing comes up for calendar events that has location information.

Some users have found a workaround, which involves the Chrome web browser - on your device, load the desktop calendar UI, and enable the "time to leave" notifications option. This way, Chrome will fire notifications for you (see example below).

Unsurprisingly, Android Wear users are also facing similar issues. In fact, the problem has been reported on Google's Issue Tracker website as well, with the company recently saying it's working to resolve the problem.

Google forums | Issue Tracker | Via
So, the Nokia X will not be a flagship  and wont be called the Nokia X. The 10W charger gave us a clue but now pricing information has surfaced for the device. There will be two models costing CNY 1,600 and CNY 1,800. Thats $250/210 and $285/235 respectively.

What HMD is planning on launching is reportedly the Nokia X6 (no, not this one) and it will sit between the Nokia 6 (2018) and the Nokia 7 plus.

The Nokia X6 is said to have a 5.8-inch bezel-free display with a 19:9 aspect ratio (the 7 plus has an 18:9 screen). There will be a vertical dual camera on the back with Carl Zeiss lens.

The two versions will differ by chipset and RAM. The top model will use Snapdragon 636 and will come with 6 GB of RAM, the more affordable model will use Helio P60 with 4 GB of RAM. Both will launch with Android 8.0 Oreo.

The original Nokia X6

PS. looking at the chipset selection, the P60 has four Cortex-A73 cores + four A53 ones. The Snapdragon uses Kryo 260 CPU, which are semi-custom versions of the A53. The GPU fight might go in favor of the Adreno, though. Here are some quick benchmarks comparing the Redmi Note 5 Pro (S636) and the Oppo R15 (P60).

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

Oppo R15

5806

Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro

4696

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

Oppo R15

1520

Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro

1327

Basemark X

Higher is better

Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro

14897

Oppo R15

11993

Source
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Samsung Pay was expected to launch in South Africa last year alongside the company's Galaxy Note8 smartphone. However, for reasons unknown, that didn't happen. The good news is now the company has confirmed the mobile payments service will be available in the region in a couple of months.

The confirmation came from Samsung Electronics Africa CEO Sung Yoon, who said Samsung Pay will be launching in South Africa around the month of June this year.

There's even a dedicated Samsung Pay page on the company's South Africa website, saying the service is coming soon.

Samsung Pay has been expanding around the world at a good speed. Last we heard, the service launched in Italy. Just recently, PayPal also started rolling out Samsung Pay support to users of its service.

Via | Samsung SA




Haiti - Social : Road users in hostage by the strike of OAVCT





The Office of Citizen Protection (OPC) notes with consternation that the strike started since Monday, April 2, 2018 by employees of the Office of Insurance against Vehicles Third Party (OAVCT) "has caused the paralysis of certain administrative activities within this institution bearing prejudices to drivers whose insurance policies have expired without any means of renewal, but also to road users, who may at any time be victims of a traffic accident."



Faced with this situation, the OPC asks the Director General of the Haitian National Police to take all necessary measures "to prevent the beneficiary groups affected by this strike from being both victims of an administrative problem and of the incomprehension of some agents of the PNH concerning the impossibility of renewal of insurance policies."



The OPC suggests to the Directorate of the PNH to temporarily prohibit the agents to punish drivers whose insurance policies have expired from Thursday, March 29, 2018, until the resolution of this conflict and resumption of normal OAVCT activities.



HL/ S/ HaitiLibre


















By Lily Lee | Published on 2018/04/23 | Source

Actor Kim Soo-ro picked actress Kim Sung-ryung as one of Korea's 3 most beautiful women.

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On April 23rd, Kim Soo-ro and Kim Sung-ryung appeared in the cook-off variety show, "Take Good Care of the Fridge" and revealed their personal life stories and their friendship.

During the show, the MC praised the everlasting beauty of Kim Sung-ryung saying, "Kim Sung-ryung keeps on getting younger, your clock seems to run backwards".

In which Kim Soo-ro added, "It's true. I think Kim Sung-ryung is in top 3 beauties of Korea. Other two including Jeong Yun-hui and Son Ye-jin". Along with that comment, Kim Soo-ro playfully said, "I need to follow the trend. Hope this comment will make the main news".

By following the trend, he is referring to naming Son Ye-jin as another one of Korea's top 3 beauties as she is one of the most popular actress, especially with the success of the drama "Pretty Sister Who Buys Me Food" at the moment. At such a mischievous comment, everyone at the scene burst out in laughter.

By. Lily Lee
By Vasia Orion | Published on 2018/04/23

Much has been teased about the mysterious college admissions caretaker of "Secret Mother", but it looks like she can't hold a candle to the ever vigilant, ever ready for a fight women of the neighborhood she enters. The first teaser is quite the entrance for Lisa Kim.

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A lot has changed in the story as more news on it comes out, and the fresh character descriptions tease even more, which I will talk about sometime this week. The teaser itself sets the basic premise, while revealing the cast of neighborhood bullies. "My sister disappeared", says Kim Eun-young (Kim So-yeon), also known as Lisa Kim. "A trace of her remains in this townhouse."

That is when the women of this rich area start revealing their prejudice and anxieties. "A woman I've never seen before appeared", says Myung Hwa-sook (Kim Jae-hwa), followed by Song Ji-ae's (Oh Yeon-ah) remark that "It's obvious she doesn't belong here." In comes Kang Hye-kyung (Seo Young-hee) with the final blow; "If that's the case, shouldn't we quickly get rid of her?"

Eun-young has a mission that pushes her forward, however. When she arrives at Kim Yoon-jin's (Song Yoon-ah) house, she drops her motivation right there and then. "The secret about my sister is in this house." That is when her fellow heroine appears, looking sombre and cold. "A woman came into our house" she says. "After that, cracks began to form in my life."

This is a pretty cool and stylish teaser, but it does make me curious about the type of story we'll be getting. The character descriptions paint quite the messy neighborhood as well, to the point of soapy extremes. I hope that this will be more of a mystery than a collection of nasty women's stereotypes trying to gossip an outsider into submission.

Since this is a woman-centric weekend series, I have a lot of worries about how it will treat its characters. Aside from soaps about nasty upper class anxieties not being my thing, I would definitely be sad if this is all there was to a series about older family women; a type so often mistreated in fiction. I will park those worries for now, because I can see great potential in this, which is why I'm taking it on for episode reviews once it airs.

"Secret Mother" will be out starting May 12th. It will air four 35-minute episodes each Saturday, so grab water, snacks and a comfy clothing item.

Written by: Orion from 'Orion's Ramblings'

Sources (1) (2) (3)
Published on 2018/04/24 | Source

Added episodes 11 and 12 captures for the Korean drama "Shall We Live Together" (2018)

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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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Organizers: Skate park will provide a healthy, creative outlet for youth in Rocky Boy and Box Elder

Rocky Boys Indian Reservation is joining the Montana communities that have a skate park courtesy of a famous son of the state.

The Chippewa Cree Tribe of Rocky Boys Reservation announced in a press release that it has partnered with Evergreen Skateparks and Jeff Aments foundation to construct a skate park for the Rocky Boy and Box Elder communities.

Ament, the bass player for the grunge band Pearl Jam and an avid skateboarder, has helped build skate parks in multiple communities in Montana and other states, including his native Big Sandy, Havre, Browning, Hays, Malta and Missoula, where he has a residence.

He said last summer while at an annual bash held at the Big Sandy skatepark that he was working on building a skatepark at Rocky Boy.

The Chippewa Cree Tribe said in the release that construction on the skate park there began Monday and will take about four to five weeks.

It will be located northeast of Box Elder School in the open field next to the Family Resource Building. Evergreen is working closely with CCT Planning & Development and CCT Cultural Resource Preservation to ensure the project is a success, the release said.

Javon Wing, a grant writer in planning and development at Rocky Boy, reached out to Evergreen Skateparks and Jeff Aments foundation last year.

It is exciting to see this project become a reality, Wing said. It is very important that we focus on building a community that supports our youth and encourages healthy decisions. Providing options like the skate park will help put future generations on the right path by encouraging them to be outside and active.

Wing said that reaching out to Evergreen Skateparks and Aments foundation was in response to a youth-driven request asking the community and the Chippewa Cree Business Committee to consider development of a skate park. The idea gained traction with community members and was supported by just fewer than 200 people who signed a petition to support construction of the park, the release said.

Planning and Development is excited to work on new youth-driven projects, Wing said in the release. Its a chance to bring opportunities for youth to the reservation and provide an outlet for them to express themselves in new and healthy ways. The community has a high youth population and a need for more activities that encourage individual expression, making it important to have a variety of positive outlets.

Upon project completion, a grand opening will be announced.
The river still is above flood stage at Harlem  and north-central Montanans are warned that some areas will be water-logged for weeks  but the level of the Milk River dropped a fraction of an inch today at the measuring gauge near Harlem.

Much of this region has been under  and Blaine and Hill counties still are under  flood watches, advisories and warnings as melting near-record levels of snow filled streams and rivers, with Harlem coming close to breaking its record flooding of the Milk River, set in 1986 at 25.7 feet.

National Weather Services online water prediction ser...
The hyper-connected workplace: will productivity reign?

As communication tools like instant messaging and social media migrate from personal life to the workplace, the challenge for organisations is to ensure they actually improve organisational, team and individual performance and promote the necessary collaboration for the organisation to truly become a social enterprise.

Indeed, 40% of Australian respondents say they expect face-to-face meetings and phone calls (31%) will decrease in the near future. To replace them, 68% predict an increase in instant messaging and 79% an increase in online collaboration platforms.

The Symphonic C-suite: teams leading teams

The Symphonic C-suite is the next stage in the ongoing evolution of leadership models, in which the organisations top executives play together as a team, while also leading their own functional teams, all in harmony. As noted above, Australian leaders appear to be better at collaborating than their global counterparts.

From careers to experiences: new pathways (21st century careers)

The concept of a career is evolving towards a model that empowers individuals to acquire valuable experiences, explore new roles and continually reinvent themselves. Despite traditional career models becoming defunct in the new world of work, the report found that more than half of the business leaders surveyed globally (54%) have no programs in place to build the skills of the future.

People data: how far is too far? (data as opportunity & risk)

Organisations face a tipping point: develop a well-defined set of policies, security safeguards, transparency measures, and ongoing communication around the use of people data, or risk employee, customer and societal backlash. Encouragingly, more than half (56%) of Australian respondents say moderate to strong people data management policies are in place.

Wellbeing: a strategy and a responsibility

As the line between work and play continues to blur, employees are demanding benefits include a wide range of programs for physical, mental, financial and spiritual health. Employers are investing in wellbeing programs as both a social responsibility and a talent strategy. 39% of Australian respondents say they offer comprehensive wellbeing programs, including mindfulness, life balance and financial fitness.

Citizenship and social impact: society holds the mirror

An organisations track record on corporate citizenship and social impact now has a direct bearing on its core identity and strategy. Engagement with external stakeholders on topics such as diversity, gender pay equity, income inequality, immigration, and climate change can lift financial performance and brand value, while failure to engage can destroy reputation and alienate key audiences.

AI, robotics and automation: putting humans in the loop

While 75% of Australian companies see AI, robotics, and automation as important, only 23% feel ready to navigate associated changes. Leading organisations recognise that to gain maximum value from new technologies they need to find ways for humans to work alongside robots  reconstructing work, retraining people and rearranging the organisation.

The greatest opportunity is not just to redesign jobs or automate routine work, but to fundamentally re-think how work works to benefit employers, teams and individuals (just 5% of Australian respondents say they are doing this).

The longevity dividend: work in an era of 100-year lives

Forward-thinking organisations see extended longevity and population ageing as an opportunity to employ highly skilled workers. Yet currently only 8% of Australian respondents say they are partnering with older workers to develop new career models that leverage their expertise.

New rewards: personalise, agile and holistic

Employees are increasingly asking for more personalised, agile and holistic rewards, including a focus on fair and open pay (e.g. the UK has recently introduced gender pay gap reporting). Theres a long way to go  only 6% of Australian respondents say they offer personalised reward programs.

The workforce ecosystem: managing beyond the enterprise

Business needs strategies to engage, manage and retain an increasingly hybrid workforce. Globally, 37% of survey respondents expect a rise in contractors, 33% an increase in freelancers and 28% growth in gig workers.
Beacon South Quarter residents have been warned to pay up

Homeowners in an apartment complex found to have structural defects have been given 21 days to pay upwards of 5,000 or face legal action from their management company.

Families in the Beacon South Quarter complex in south Dublin received letters in recent days warning their names could be published in newspapers if they do not pay up.

It comes after Dublin Fire Brigade identified "fire deficiencies" in the development that have to be addressed.

A building programme running until 2023 has been set out for the works, which will cost more than 10m.

Object

The 880 apartments in the complex are owned by a mix of large-scale landlords and private individuals.

Many have started making the payments but sources say a significant number have not, as they object to paying for deficiencies they were unaware of at the time of purchase.

A letter issued by the Beacon South Quarter Management Company says it plans to "bring the development to a safe living standard as soon as possible".

It says the directors are "fully committed to mitigating costs, concluding the insurance claim, seeking legal redress where possible and keeping the issue on the national agenda".

However, it goes on to warn that individual homeowners withholding payment is "totally unacceptable" and the directors "cannot, and will not, tolerate payment default".

Residents have been given 21 days to enter a payment plan or face interests and penalties.

"The management company solicitor will be instructed to take legal action up on the entire debt, up to and including obtaining judgment against you, which may also be registered as a judgment mortgage against your property," the letter states.

"Secured judgments will be published in Stubbs and trade gazettes/Sunday newspapers, etc, and a full list of published judgments will be attached to the management company's annual report."

Some residents have also claimed that their fobs for access to the apartment complex have been deactivated in recent days.

The collection of debts is being facilitated by Aramark Property, but it directed queries on the situation to the Beacon South Quarter Management Company. The management company told the Herald that any media queries were being dealt with by Aramark.

Green Party TD Catherine Martin has previously called on the Government to intervene, suggesting homeowners affected by such issues should receive tax breaks or interest-free loans from the State.
RTE is unable to continue to fund two orchestras and needs the Government to cover the cost of the National Symphony Orchestra, if it is to survive.

The national broadcaster is legally required to maintain orchestras and currently operates both the Symphony Orchestra and the RTE Concert Orchestra.

The orchestras cost 13m a year to run. Last year, RTE commissioned a financial review into the provision of the orchestras, as they continue to reduce a 20m deficit.

The review found the orchestras should continue but added that "the status quo is equally untenable".

As a result RTE is advised to outsource the Symphony Orchestra.

It is recommended the Government provides 4m in funding towards the NSO. By outsourcing the Symphony Orchestra, RTE will make an annual saving of 2.5m.

The reason the saving is not more substantial is because the review also recommends increased financial investment in the Concert Orchestra.

Retained

If the Government does not provide support, then RTE will be forced to make a "very bad second choice" and close one of the two orchestras.

Last night Culture Minister Josepha Madigan welcomed the recommendation that both orchestras be retained.

The publication coincides with the recent launch of the Government's Creative Ireland programme which includes a redevelopment of the National Concert Hall, home of the NSO.

"This report allows us to chart a way forward for both orchestras - securing a strong future and ensuring that they can contribute fully to Ireland's rich cultural heritage," Ms Madigan said.

However, trade unions Siptu and Musicians Union of Ireland cautioned RTE against any proposal to outsource the Symphony Orchestra.

They said they are "fundamentally opposed to this proposition".

The report was carried out by Helen Boaden, former director of BBC Radio and BBC News.

Aodan O Dubhghaill, head of RTE Orchestras, said the report confirms the orchestras' singular place in musical heritage while recognising RTE's overall funding position.

"These recommendations offer a solution which protects and supports both orchestras, while also recognising the balance between RTE's financial constraints and our public service role in promoting music, arts and culture," he said.

RTE's board of directors will meet on Thursday to discuss the review's findings.
Pope Francis hopes to begin his historic visit to Ireland in Knock, the Herald understands.

Organisers of the Pontiff's trip are believed to be exploring the idea of having him fly directly to the west of Ireland.

There has been much speculation about the type of welcome the Pope will receive - but sources say gardai have concerns that as many as 650,000 people will want to see him in the Phoenix Park on August 26.

By holding another event at the Marian Shrine in Co Mayo a day earlier, they hope to offer an alternative viewing opportunity for people.

"The Phoenix Park can cope with the crowds once they are inside but getting them safely to and from the Mass would be the problem," a source said.

The Vatican tends to remain tight-lipped about the Pope's itinerary until shortly before he travels to a country.

It has been confirmed that the first Papal visit in nearly 40 years will coincide with the World Meeting of Families in Dublin from August 21 to 26.

Pope Francis (81) is scheduled to take part in a ceremony in Croke Park on August 25 before celebrating Mass in Phoenix Park the following day.

Well-placed sources involved in planning for the visit have indicated to the Herald that Knock is now firmly on the agenda.

One proposal is for the Pontiff to fly directly to Knock Airport, which in itself would be an historic occasion.

It was the determination of Monsignor James Horan that ensured the airport was built.

Welcomed

It opened in 1985 with three chartered flights to Rome and has since welcomed more than 10 million passengers. Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass at Knock Shrine during his visit in 1979.

Pope Francis has prayed at a number of Marian shrines while on tours to other countries, including last year when he honoured two children who saw Mary in the Portuguese town of Fatima. It is likely that if the Pope flies directly to Knock, he will then use air transport to get to Dublin in time for a ticketed event in Croke Park.

His itinerary in the capital is also expected to include a visit to the Capuchin Day Centre run by Br Kevin Crowley.

The Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, has also confirmed that the Pope wants to visit a prison during his time here, most likely Mountjoy.

The trip is expected to cost in the region of 20m, with the costs being picked up by the Catholic Church in Ireland and the Irish taxpayer.
Campaigners protested at the covering of a Repeal the Eighth mural on the side of Dublin's Project Arts Centre.

The heart-shaped red and white design, created by artist Maser, had adorned the wall of the centre since April 9.

Last week, the Charities Regulator told artistic director Cian O'Brien that it constituted "political activity" and was in breach of the Charities Act.

Chanted

Mr O'Brien yesterday painted over the mural as a crowd chanted: "You can paint over a mural but you can't paint over an issue."

"We are feeling disappointed because the project has a 52-year history of presenting works like this," he said. "We present work that encourages debate, that engages in political and social issues through art."

Expand Close Maser the artist of the Repeal mural with Karen Dempsey / Facebook

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Whatsapp Maser the artist of the Repeal mural with Karen Dempsey

Mr O'Brien and Andrea Horan, of the HunReal Issues group behind the mural, pointed out that the covering up of it had caused more conversation about it.

"I feel raging but also delighted that a light is being shone on issues like this," Ms Horan said.

Mr O'Brien added: "Through its absence, this artwork lives on as they take this heart into their heart."

Dubliner Sinead Wright (31), one of the protesters, said: "It is sad. The arts should represent the political climate we live in."

Another, Kitty Maguire, expressed surprise that graphic posters regarding the referendum were allowed to be posted in prominent places but the mural wasn't.

"This is just a love heart," she said.

In a statement, the Charities Regulator said: "By publicly displaying a political advertisement related to the Eighth Amendment referendum on the charity's premises, they are engaging in political activity that is not directly related to the advancement of the charity's charitable purpose, which is the advancement of education."

Artwork

Cora Sherlock, of the LoveBoth pro-life campaign, insisted that the artwork would have been balanced if there had been a pro-life mural of the same scale on the adjoining wall.

"Despite our repeated requests for equal access to space in the Project Arts Centre, we have received no access," she said.

Project confirmed that it had received a request for access and the campaign had been invited to submit a proposal, but the centre had not received one.

It is the second time a mural by Maser has had to be painted over on the site as another was removed in 2016 for falling foul of Temple Bar planning codes.
In Sunday conference talk, Nelson warns against 'deceptive' voices, announces Provo Temple rebuild

SALT LAKE CITY  President Russell M. Nelson of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints exhorted members Sunday to reject the lure of the world and instead focus on the rewards of gospel teachings. He also announced 14 temple projects, including reconstruction of the Provo Temple and a new temple in Heber Valley. Too many voices are deceptive, seductive, and can pull us off the covenant path, Nelson said in closing remarks at the churchs two-day General Conference. To avoid the inevitable heartbreak that follows, I plead with you today to counter the lure of ...
Law enforcement officers signed up to join anti-government Oath Keepers

A hack of the the Oath Keepers website has names of more than 200 men who said they were active or retired law enforcement officers. We confirmed 40.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- It's Tuesday, April 24, 2018. Here are some of the stories we're talking about on ABC News' new daily podcast, "Start Here."

1. Star-studded state visit

Washington was star-struck yesterday as French President Emmanuel Macron and the first lady of France, Brigitte Macron, took a stroll around the monuments of D.C.

They arrived at the White House for their second visit, but for the first time since taking office, President Donald Trump will treat his guests to a full state dinner. And then later this week, he'll receive arguably the most powerful person in Europe, German Prime Minister Angela Merkel.

But for all the pomp and circumstance, both leaders are bringing deadly serious agendas. ABC News chief foreign correspondent Terry Moran says they will both attempt to convince Trump to stay in the Iran nuclear deal.

2. Carnage in Canada

In Canada yesterday, Toronto was playing host to the G7 Leaders Summit. Secretaries of state, foreign ministers and huge security details all gathered as some of the world's top diplomats got together.

But then, a van barreled down a busy sidewalk for nearly a mile and a half -- mowing down dozens of pedestrians. The police have named the suspect, but they haven't said much about his motive or the circumstances surrounding his apparent rampage.

ABC's Tom Llamas in Toronto says a police officer remained calm to take down the suspect alive.

3. Spotlight on Arizona's 8th

There have been two big trends in Congress over the last year: lawmakers resigning after making inappropriate comments to women and special elections occurring in districts that voted overwhelmingly for Trump in 2016.

Both of these trends have collided in Arizona. Former Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., resigned in December after talking to his female staffers about carrying a child for him and his wife. And with Franks gone, two candidates are fighting it out for his seat amid high tensions in both parties.

Who will win tonight and what does it all mean for the midterms? ABC News political director Rick Klein predicts what will happen in Arizona's 8th Congressional District.

4. Confirmation controversy

One of Trumps cabinet nominees may have seen his confirmation prospects mortally wounded.

Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, the military doctor who serves as the president's personal physician, had been nominated to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. And a lot of people were wondering if he can run a government department.

Now, ABCs Meridith McGraw says new allegations about his professional conduct raised by ABC News sources on Capitol Hill and at the White House could ultimately derail his confirmation hearing.

5. Shift in succession

You've seen the pictures: William and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, in the doorway of St. Mary's Hospital i London, presenting their new baby boy to the cameras yesterday.

Even though she might not know it yet, this moment was a big one for royal sibling Charlotte, too. That's because for the very first time in the history of the monarchy, she's not being passed over by her younger brother.

ABCs James Longman says a new law from Parliament about the line of succession to the throne has flipped the script on hundreds of years of tradition.

"Start Here" is a daily ABC News podcast hosted by Brad Mielke featuring original reporting on stories that are driving the national conversation. Listen for free at Apple Podcasts -- also available on TuneIn, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play Music, iHeartRadio and the ABC News app.

Follow @StartHereABC on social for exclusive content, show updates and more: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
New Delhi : The swift dragon can be held to a stalemate, even though it may be able to inflict some damage by breathing fire. India is militarily no longer the pushover it was during the 1962 war despite persisting critical operational and infrastructure gaps as well as the ever-expanding military asymmetry with China.

This is the assessment of top Indian military commanders, who contend they are being realistic without any false bravado, even as PM Narendra Modi heads for China later this week to reset ties and cool down tempers with the much larger neighbour.

India does not want war. But if the push comes to shove, we are prepared. China has been forced to grudgingly accept that India is no pushover after repeatedly testing our resolve over the last few years, especially during the Doklam troop face-off last year, said a senior official.

Some may dub this gung-ho approach foolhardy, given the Peoples Liberation Armys overwhelming superiority in terms of sheer military power. Apart from a huge nuclear missile arsenal that dwarfs Indias, China is also leagues ahead in conventional military power, be it submarines and fighters or tanks and artillery (see graphic). Moreover, backed by economic muscle, China adroitly combines this hard power with smart power in terms of cyber warfare and other disruptive capabilities.

But a walkover like 1962, it will not be. With Chinese military capabilities mainly geared towards preventing any intervention by the US and others in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, it all comes down to what the PLA can actually throw at India along the 4,057-km Line of Actual Control stretching from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh.

The terrain does not give the PLA adequate space for maneuverability. And we have the capability to counter-attack, said a senior Army officer. India has 15 infantry divisions (each with over 12,000 soldiers) tasked for its northern borders with China, apart from several artillery, missile, tank and air defence regiments and other reserves.

Moreover, the new 17 Mountain Strike Corps and associated units, with a total of 90,274 soldiers for swift ground offensive capabilities, will be fully raised by 2021-2022. PLA, as an aggressor, would require a combat ratio of at least 6:1 for mountain warfare along the LAC. We have more than adequate numbers for dissuasive deterrence, he added.

India holds most of the aces as far as the maritime domain is concerned. Indian warships can easily choke Chinas sea lanes for its huge energy imports, especially through the Malacca Strait. The PLA Navy may be much larger but in terms of operational expertise and experience in the Indian Ocean Region, they are far behind. The Chinese Navy is still learning to operate far away from its shores, said a senior naval officer.

Similarly, even though China may have constructed 14 major airfields, advanced landing grounds and helipads on the Tibet Plateau, the IAF can conceivably outgun its numerically superior adversary. For one, the weapon and fuel-carrying capacity of Chinese fighters is limited due to the 9,000 to 10,000-feet altitude of their airbases.

They will try to use their rocket forces to disrupt our airbasesThats why during the just-concluded GaganShakti exercise, we war-gamed hitting China from widely dispersed locations. We also conducted maritime interdiction sorties in the Bay of Bengal, said a senior IAF officer.

The overall aim is to build credible strategic deterrence to dissuade China from embarking on any misadventure. And, India is slowly but steadily getting there.

Source : TOI
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi shakes hands with President Xi Jinping in Wuhan this week, he will come face-to-face with a man who, with his authority enshrined in the countrys Constitution, is easily the strongest Chinese leader since Mao Zedong.

Xi now has the reins to all aspects of Chinas governance. During his speech at the Communist Party of China congress last October, Xi reversed paramount leader Deng Xiaopings policy of biding time and hiding strength. Instead, Xi talked about China playing a more dominant role in the world and assuming global leadership along with other big powers.

In short, China has entered a new phase of development that reflects the Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, as announced in the presidents work report at the Communist Party congress.

In addition to the offices of Communist Party general secretary and president, Xi is the core of the party and chairperson of the Central Military Commission (CMC).

And in March, the partys Central Commission for Discipline Inspection  at the forefront of Xis anti-graft campaign  was merged with the new National Supervisory Commission and put under the charge of Yang Xiaodu, said to be the presidents man.

During last Octobers Congress, the party also appointed a slimmer CMC, down to seven members from the earlier 11.

The new line-up includes Xi, two vice-chairpersons and four members who have pledged loyalty to the president. Xi also included Gen Zhao Zongqi, who headed the Western Command during the Doklam standoff, in the partys central committee.

During his visit to India in September 2014, Xi was still in the process of strengthening his grip on power. With the removal of the two-term limit for the post of president in March, that process is now complete.

One foreign policy aspect of the last Communist Party congress that stood out was Chinas intention to play a more influential role globally, an aspect that is already evident in Indias neighbourhood. The networks of the multibillion dollar Belt and Road Initiative are gradually finding takers and spreading across South Asia.

One of BRIs six flagship projects, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), something that has irked India.

Officially, Xis neighbourhood policy is benign, but he is more assertive than before.

At the Wuhan summit, Modi will have to contend with a country on the rise with an authoritarian ruler at its helm, a man who believes in his own wisdom and who believes that his countrys time on the global stage has come.
Violence is a drama that demands a response. Through protests, consternation and outrage or even a dream of reconciliation or redemption, violence demands a crying call for justice. Yet sadly, the response to violence has changed over time. Time is fundamental here but perceived in two different ways. The first process is one of a return to normalcy. The disrupted world returns to the old stability or achieves a new equilibrium. One witnesses it during the aftermath of riots, where victims and survivors return home, renew relations with neighbours, who were recently antagonists, and resume an everydayness of life. Normalcy or a return to normal is an everyday process chronicled in the aftermath of most crises. In a ritual of return to normalcy, crisis becomes ritualised as a rite of passage, where one moves from the original equilibrium, to crises, to a new equilibrium. Such a process is tripartite and marks the structure of most sequences in the aftermath of violence.

The aftermath of violence has, however, mutated. The old rituals of normalcy look antique as political and social processes deviate to become a forced artificial process of normalisation, where a new equilibrium is coercively routinised. Instead of the old rite of passage, seeking a renewal from disruption, what we have is a series of add-ons, a range of incremental layers, where violence acquires a new sense of routine.

The power and creativity of anthropology lies in recreating an ethnography around normalisation. The process can be seen as adding a set of additional layers of legitimation where violence instead of being critiqued becomes almost congratulatory. One saw it after the Afrazul killing, when mobs in Jaipur lauded the murderer, as a reformer, even a redeemer. The perpetrators of Kathua were defended by lawyers seeking to literally bar the filing of charges. The law becomes selective and partisan and justice now belongs to power. It is almost suggested that margins and minorities who are refractory to the new civics of development should be objectified.

Instead of erasure, what we find is a rereading of memory, where the act of violence is replayed endlessly. One saw it in 7/11, one witnessed this redundancy of replay and legitimation in the Gujarat riots. Today, one cannot visualise violence without the accompaniment of a video clip, a selfie of congratulation for a task well done. The redundancy of consuming it as a replay, as a symbolic act creates a framework of legitimation. A decade ago, violence against minors or lynching of minorities,which today has become a part of everydayness,would not have been greeted with such calculated obviousness. The normalisation of violence induces in society a new acceptance of a mundanity. Raping minors is often seen as a routine demographic phenomenon which men in power indulge in with impunity. The victims get so objectified that the roster of the local politicians almost seems indifferent to whether the woman is aged six, 16 or 60. This, in fact, is one of the new changes in attitude that Kathua expresses. The normalisation of violence emphasises the continuous reign of the powerful where terror becomes both everyday and endemic. In the Ram Navami riots, in Bihar and Kolkata, one senses the old-fashioned view of violence is passe. It is no longer a pathology but a necessary prelude, an instrumental tactic to crank up the animosities that thrive during the electoral process.

The normalisation of violence is one of the rituals invented and consolidated in recent times. Violence is a physical act of brutalisation which is almost redeemed symbolically where pathology is routinised and rather than being ostracised is socially celebrated. In fact, in the new normalisation process, protecting the perpetrator rather than redeeming the victim is the new political priority. One sees it in the aftermath of the rape and sexual abuse of minors frequently where the Hobbesian world of violence routinises itself with greater depth. Rape becomes a ritual of dominance. The inanity of the official response adds to it. It is almost as if governmentality is a lip service, an absent- minded recognition of violence and its normalcy.

The normalisation of violence dismissed the old-fashioned dramas of ethics and repair and empties out the moral space of society into empty instrumentalism. Not justice but sanitisation is the new goal of the normalisation process. Normalisation routinises violence and evil through making it banal. Sociologically, normalisation marks the end of a crisis of conscience which was part of the old normalcy to becoming a challenge to more crises management. It moves from a moral to an amoral space and from values to sheer instrumentalism.

Sociologists of violence are noticing that the new innovations of evil come not on a grand scale with an epic quality both through middle range processes where standard rituals acquire an ironic twist. Normalisation in that sense is a part of this new middle range drama of evil which needs to be chronicled in greater detail.

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
Swaraj India national president Yogendra Yadav is of the view the central governments ordinance for capital punishment to rapists of girls of below 12 years was a deliberate dodge on the governments part to distract public attention from its failure on law and order and lacunae in the system which allows influential criminals to escape the law with temerity.

Yadav who was in Bhopal to take part in a protest said Unnao and Kathua incidents demonstrated amply as to how accused were shielded by those in power. In Unnao case a lawmaker from the ruling party itself happened to be the main accused and entire police machinery appeared to be at his beck and call. This was the reason the main accuseds brother could easily walk into the police station and beat up father of the rape victim.

These are the real lacunae in the system and it cannot be improved by any piece of law until and unless it is implemented effectively, said Yadav.

Yogendra Yadav said, The critical question about Kathua and Unnao is not merely that rape happened and that it was a heinous crime. What makes it critical is the third level of the incidents that those in charge of defending the Constitution and ensuring rule of law were siding with criminals.

Yadav said, Sadly thousands of rapes happen in the country every day. Mostly go unreported. We dont expect the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to respond to every heinous crime in the country but he must respond to the situation when those in power use the law enforcing agencies to shield themselves after committing crimes and harass the victims at will.

But what happened was that the PM kept silence for a very long time and when he spoke he was abstract, philosophical, didnt name the incident and also didnt acknowledge the fact that his own party men were involved in the crime. He didnt offer any concrete step either to improve the situation, he said.

He said spontaneous outrage in public and their demand for a capital punishment was understandable but when a government says that it will bring an ordinance for a capital punishment to a rapist it is nothing but a deliberate dodge on its part to distract peoples attention from real issues so that they dont ask questions to the government.

According to Yadav, its not severity of punishment but certainty of punishment which is a deterrent. What causes fear to the mind of criminal is not that he will get life imprisonment or death sentence but that he will be caught and tried and that he cannot escape the law even if he is in power. JS Verma Committee has already said that death sentence to a rapist can be a counter-productive, he added.
In a controversial statement, Bollywood choreographer Saroj Khan has defended casting couch in the industry and also said that women can avoid assault if they choose to. She was asked to give her opinion on Telugu actor Sri Reddys protest against casting couch at a press event, when Saroj said, Ek baat batau ye to chala aa raha hai baba adam ke zamane se. Har ladki ke upar koi na koi haath saaf karne ki koshish karta hai.Government karti hai (This is not a new thing, this has existed for a long time. Everyone wants to take advantage of girls, even the government). She later apologised for the comments.

Nobody cares about Me Too movement, they care about headlines, says Anurag Kashyap

And then came the really bizarre statement,Government ke log karte hain to tum film industry ke peeche kyun pade ho? Wo to roti to bhi deti hai, rape karke chorr to nahi deti. (Even people in the government abuse girls and women, why are you after the film industry? The industry also provides livelihood, it does not discard the woman after that).

She then took the typical route of blaming the victim and said, Wo mat bolo, wo ladki ke upar hai ki tum kya karna chahti ho. Tum uske haath me nahi aana chahte ho to tum nahi aoge, tumhare paas art hai to tum kyu apne aapko bechoge? Film industry ka naam nahi lena wo humari mai baap hai. (What a woman wants depends on her, if she does not want to be a victim then she wont be one. If you have your art, why would you sell yourself? Do not blame the film industry, it is what provides us our livelihood).

Reacting to Sarojs statements, British actor-model Sophie Choudry took to Twitter to express her anger. WTH?!!!! So much respect for Saroj-ji as a choreographer but this is how she uses her position to protect girls?!!! If I didnt come from a financially sound background I would have returned to London within a month of being in mumbai cos of industry folk who think like that!! Cant begin to think what thousands of girls go through in the hope that their dreams will come true! Nobody wants to sleep with someone for work. But they are made to feel its the only way & acceptable. And for those who dont, its a tough road! This has to stop! #TimesUp, she wrote.

Afreen Afreen singer Momina Mustehsan urges Ali Zafar to apologise

With movements like Me Too and Times Up gaining prominence, Saroj Khans defence of a sexual harassment and casting couch is not only bizarre but distasteful.

#MeToo: Does it take a Twitter trend to know women are harassed every day?

In Hollywood, over two dozen women accused influential producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment and even rape. Many powerful names in the industry were eventually accused of sexual misdemeanours and the movements soon spread across the globe.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
With Saroj Khans attempt to justify casting couch on the headlines, it was no surprise that Ranbir Kapoor was asked to give his opinion on sexual exploitation in the Hindi film industry. While the actor said he has never faced it first-hand, he denounced it worst. Speaking at the teaser launch of his upcoming film Sanju in Mumbai, Ranbir said, If its there, its the worst kind. I have never faced casting couch.

Saroj Khan defends casting couch, says industry doesnt abandon women after rape

However, a video from the event was soon shared on social media which shows the Sanju team laughing as Ranbir gives his answer. Producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra is seen asking the mediaperson, What do you think our view should be, before Ranbir could answer. As Ranbir speaks, Chopra and films director, Rajkumar Hirani, can be seen laughing. Their reaction has come in for criticism on Twitter with many questioning why it was seen as a joke.

Choreographer Saroj Khan has since apologised for her comment in which she justified the casting couch saying that at least the film industry provides work and doesnt rape and abandon you. She also said that it was largely consensual and if you are talented, why would you need to sell yourself.

Sanju teaser: Let Ranbir Kapoor take you through Sanjay Dutts life

Ranbir plays Sanjay Dutt in the film that is a biopic on the latter. The Barfi star said he enjoyed playing Dutt as Munnabhai. It was difficult to play was the young Sanju. There were more faces we had to show; the drugs and his mothers loss. The fun was the Munna Bhai phase, he said..

He also spoke about his preparation for the role: I know Sanjay Dutt as a family friend. When I read the script, I got to know his life journey. That shocked me . Drugs, his controversy with terrorism, his equation with his father, everything shocked me.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
India is likely to impose anti-dumping duty of up to $ 92.23 per tonne, on import of a chemical used in pharmaceutical and agriculture sectors from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Saudi Arabia, following a DGAD probe.

The duty, if imposed, will protect domestic players from cheap imports of saturated fatty alcohols from these four nations.

The chemical is mainly used in sectors like personal care, home care, pharmaceutical, agriculture related end applications. It is also used in processing of articles of leather, textile, fur, paper, petroleum products and rubber items.

The Directorate General of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD) - the investigating arm of the commerce ministry - initiated a probe into the alleged dumping of the chemical on a complaint from the domestic industry.

The probe concluded that the product was exported to India from these nations below its associated normal value, thus, resulting in dumping of the product, DGAD said in a notification. It also said some of the imports were causing material injury to the domestic industry.

The authority recommends imposition of definitive anti-dumping duty equal to the lesser of the margin of dumping and the margin of injury, so as to remove the injury to the domestic industry, it said.

Anti-dumping duty is aimed at ensuring fair trading practices and creating a level-playing field for domestic producers vis-a-vis foreign producers and exporters.

Imposing such a duty is permissible under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) regime. Both India and China are members of the Geneva-based trade body.

VVF (India) Ltd had filed the application for initiating the anti-dumping investigation, concerning imports of saturated fatty alcohols.

The DGAD has recommended the duty in the range of $92.23-7.10 per tonne.The ministry of finance takes the final call to impose these duties.

Certain companies from the four countries are entering the Indian market at dumped prices, and such imports are causing injury to the similar product being produced by the domestic industry.
A smartphone in India cost more than $200 just two years ago. Now you can get a decent phone for nothing but a refundable deposit of $23. Data packages are cheap, and a startup company even throws in free voice calls for life.

For this, consumers can thank Mukesh Ambani, a 61-year-old petrochemicals titan who is the countrys richest man. From his perch overseeing Reliance Industries Ltd., one of the countrys largest conglomerates, Ambani has plowed more than $38 billion into his wireless entry, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd.

Its a classic business disruption. Jio has quickly garnered 14% of a market that is expanding rapidly, putting pressure on other mobile phone providers.

Along the way, virtually every promise Ambani made about the companys performance in the marketplace has held up, from inexpensive Jio handsets to state-of-the-art wireless connections.

But one claim merits a closer look: that Jio has been profitable virtually from its commercial launch. And its a worthwhile exercise, given talk of a possible initial public offering for the unit or even an acquisition.

Unusual accounting

A review of Jios unaudited results for the last year shows that the wireless venture and its parent relied on a series of accounting decisions that wound up portraying Jios financial performance in the best possible light.

Analysts have previously noted some anomalies in Jios accounting, like the inclusion of six months of revenues in a three-month reporting period.

Another accounting decision reveals even more. Jio took advantage of a rule that allowed it to burn through billions of dollars in expenses during its rollout period without the costs showing up on its income statements.

Jios auditor, Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP, an Indian affiliate of Deloitte LLP, is conducting its annual review of Reliances numbers. Audited results for the year ended March 31 are expected to be disclosed this week, for Jio as well. It will be the first time Deloitte has audited Jios sales.

In its past two quarterly statements, Jio has said the companys auditors have carried out a limited review of the aforesaid results.

Jio will either get Deloittes blessing or be pushed closer to norms in international financial reporting. A wholesale change is not expected, but any shift in approach could puncture the profitability story that Reliance has been trumpeting in India.

Jio will either get Deloittes blessing or be pushed closer to norms in international financial reporting. A wholesale change is not expected, but any shift in approach could puncture the profitability story that Reliance has been trumpeting in India.

Im curious to see if Deloitte pushes back on some of managements aggressive estimates, said James Cox, a professor at Duke University School of Law and an adviser to the US regulator that oversees auditors.

Deloitte officials declined to comment.

No ambiguity

A Jio spokesman said in a written statement: The accounting statements of Jio are based on the applicable Indian Accounting Standards. The accounting treatment has been reviewed and approved by the audit committee of the company and also reviewed by the auditors. Significant accounting policies of the company are described in detail, along with the financial statements issued by the company, and there is no ambiguity involved in the manner that the accounts are prepared.

The vast majority of stock analysts who follow the conglomerate consider it a good investment. Reliances shares, having languished for several years, took off in early 2017 after it said Jio would emerge from its trial period and begin charging for service. The shares have almost doubled since then.

Im baffled by Jios numbers, said Sanjiv Bhasin, executive vice president at India Infoline Ltd., a brokerage firm. They are difficult to believe, but at the end of the day Jio is part of Reliance, which has a very strong balance sheet.

Jayanth Varma, an accounting professor at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, without referring specifically to Reliance, said that in India, accounting quirks will pass through when auditors dont push back. In US, there is a lot of discipline because the SEC just picks up the annual reports of some companies by rotation every year and pores into them, and asks questions if they see anything unusual, he said.

Jio impact

Before Jio came on the scene, Indias wireless world was dominated by five carriers, a collection of homegrown firms and Vodafone Group Plc. Unencumbered by legacy 2G and 3G networks, Jio boasted of 4G capability from its launch in September 2016. It offered free data service during its introductory period with a promise of free voice calls for life.

Making service available to the masses has been a personal passion for Ambani, who started another wireless company in 2002 called Reliance Infocomm. He lost control of it, though, after his fathers death. When the family concern was divided, Mukesh got the old-world businesses based on oil and petrochemicals, and his younger brother got the wireless venture.

After striking a deal with his brother to get out of a noncompete clause, Mukesh came roaring back. For a second time, he sought to undercut competitors by selling the lowest-price devices and packages, so that most people -- including vegetable vendors and rickshaw pullers -- could have a phone.

Reliance Jio is the biggest, boldest all-in bet by Mukesh Ambani, Bhasin said.

Big launch

The splashy debut in late 2016 attracted millions of first-time users and lured some customers from other providers. Jios entry nipped the profits of the countrys three biggest providers -- Bharti Airtel Ltd., Idea Cellular Ltd. and the Indian unit of Vodafone. Each reported a steep decline in average revenue per user during the Jio launch period. By the end of it, Vodafone and Idea had proposed to merge their own operations. Ambanis brothers mobile company became an also-ran.

Meanwhile, by March 2017, Jio had signed more than 100 million users, or roughly 9% of the market.

The company ran though an estimated $1.5 billion in its first seven months, when service was virtually free. Jio classified everything associated with the launch -- salaries, sales and distribution costs, interest payments and more -- as capital expenses. It therefore transferred the spending to the balance sheet as an asset that depreciates over time.

That practice is unusual for a global company, according to accounting experts. Jio says it complies with local rules.

A company is operational when it begins providing services to customers, even if its free service, said Parveen Gupta, an accounting professor at Lehigh University. If you open up an ice cream shop, and give away the product for the first two weeks, youre incurring expenses, even if youre not generating revenue.

When asked about the matter, the Jio spokesman said that expenses can be capitalized until commercial launch, in accordance with local rules.

Six-month quarter

Buoyed by its success in attracting users, Jio announced in

When Jio posted results for July through September, it effectively packed six months of sales into one quarter while counting only three months of expenses.

February 2017 that it would begin converting to a paid service in April. The effort succeeded, as free subscribers migrated to bargain-basement data packages offering three months of free service in a four-month package. Based on expenses it counted in subsequent quarters, Jio could have lost as much as $1 billion for that quarter, April through June.

But instead of reporting results for that period, management decided to wait a quarter, reasoning that the three months of free service justified a delay, a person familiar with the company said. When it posted for July through September, it effectively packed six months of sales into one quarter while counting only three months of expenses.

The total, more than $1 billion in sales at the exchange rate at the time, impressed analysts. Jios operating earnings were $220 million. Overall, it had a modest loss of $41 million, and subscriber numbers were growing 12% a quarter.

A few research analysts noted the sales irregularity. Morgan Stanley estimated that 20% of the revenue came from the prior quarter, while ICICI Securities estimated that 13% did.

Analysts from Bank of America Merrill Lynch and HSBC Global Research pointed out that Jios expenses seemed unusually low. The company was still capitalizing a significant chunk of salaries and other expenses.

Jios depreciation and amortization costs also surprised. Chris Lane, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, described the rate as too good to be believed. He calculated that Jios annualized rate was 2%, a quarter of the rate reported by Bharti Airtel and Idea.

Thats a warning sign, said Charles Mulford, an accounting professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. It signals that theyll likely have to write down the assets later on.

At the time of the Bernstein report, Jio said it was depreciating the wireless portion of the business, though it was spending on other future services, like broadband for business.

Only the wireless assets are currently getting depreciated as they have been put to commercial use, the Jio spokesman said. Other assets have not yet been capitalized.

The next quarter, Jio turned a profit. For the three months that ended in December, revenue grew by about 12% and subscribers by 15%. Net income was $76 million.

Government help

Competitors have cried foul about Jios practices. They have publicly protested several decisions by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India that benefited Jio, including a rule change that subjected them but not Jio to pricing restrictions. Jios competitors and the regulator declined to comment.

Rivals were also fined -- fines that they are contesting -- after they limited connections for Jio callers on their networks. They complained that Jio used its testing phase to sign up millions of subscribers with the promise of free calls. Call failures soared for Jio.

The Cellular Operators Association of India issued a statement saying, For some reason these orders seem to be strengthening the ambitions of one particular operator with deep pockets and monopolistic designs at the expense of other operators.

Jio condemned the trade groups reckless, willful and flagrant act of making slanderous and libelous accusations.

A few stock analysts are beginning to grow wary. UBS has a sell rating on Reliance Industries shares, while Jefferies and Macquarie have rated it underperform. The companys total debt stands at about $25 billion, up more than $10 billion from 2010, before Reliances spending binge on the wireless venture.

Ambani has played a gamble, Bhasin, of India Infoline, said, but he also has a proven track record in executing projects.
Telecom major Vodafone on Tuesday told the Delhi high court that it was not obligated to provide interconnectivity to Reliance Jio when it started operations in September 2016, as initially it was providing only test services.

The submission by Vodafone was made before Justice Rajiv Shakdher during the hearing of the companys plea challenging telecom regulator TRAIs recommendation to the Centre to impose Rs 1,050 crore penalty on it for not giving interconnectivity to Jio.

Vodafone also moved an application seeking to place on record some documents it had obtained through the Right to Information Act as well as seeking from TRAI details of the test services run by Jio in the initial months after its launch.

The court, thereafter, issued notice to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and sought its response by September 5 on Vodafones application.

It also issued notice on Reliance Jios application to be made a party in the case.

Meanwhile, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) told the court that it has heard all the service providers and would take a decision in three to four months on TRAIs recommendation.

During the brief arguments, TRAI said that since a similar plea against the penalty recommendation has been moved by Idea Cellular before a larger bench, this matter too should be heard by the same bench.

TRAI has recommended imposition of a fine of Rs 50 crore for each of the 21 circles of Vodafone, except in Jammu and Kashmir, which totals Rs 1,050 crore. TRAI had made similar recommendations against Airtel and Idea.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)
Financial Times newspaper has named Raghuram Rajan as one of the top contenders for the job of Bank of England governor when incumbent Mark Carneys term ends next year.

This is at least the second time that the former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governors name has been mentioned as a candidate for a top central bank. In October, financial magazine Barrons had said that Rajan would be the ideal choice to chair the US Federal Reserve, a role that eventually went to Jerome Powell.

Financial Times said that attracting Rajan would be a coup for Bank of England.

Rajans career progression has been truly global. He worked as chief economist at the International Monetary Fund from October 2003 to December 2006. Rajan went back to academia after completing his three-year term as RBI governor in 2016. He is currently professor of finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Rajan shot to prominence on the global stage in 2008 when the US sub-prime crisis started unravelling. Three years earlier, speaking at the US Federal Reserves annual Jackson Hole conference, Rajan had warned about growing risks to financial system and called for putting in place policies to mitigate these risks. His views were criticized then, but the onset of the crisis silenced his detractors.

His assignment as RBI governor was also dramatic. He took over in September 2013, when the Indian currency was in a free fall, foreign exchange reserves were depleting and the countrys current account deficit was widening. Within days of taking charge, Rajan, an alumnus of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, had helped stem the rupees fall and managed to assuage jittery investors. He was credited with putting sex back into the falling Sensex, Indias benchmark equity index, society columnist Shobhaa De wrote.

In his three years at RBI, Rajan was never short of quotable quotes, a quality that set him apart from his predecessors. Rajan spoke his mind and never minced his words. Naturally, he had a few run-ins with the government for his comments on its flagship Make in India programme, fiscal policies, and banking sector reforms, to name a few.
The government school teachers in Kumaon region of Uttarakhand have been told to click group selfies with the students and post them in an education department WhatsApp group. This has been done to check absenteeism among teachers.

The order, issued by newly-appointed Kumaon Commissioner Rajeev Rautela on Saturday, applies on nearly 8,000 teachers in six districts.

The teachers must follow the order strictly. It will help in improving quality of teaching and go a long way in improving the image of government schools that are often blamed for low attendance and lack of initiatives in new teaching methodologies by teachers, Rautela said.

Rautelas order comes months after education minister Arvind Pandey said that he was planning to introduce selfie attendance for government school teachers on the Ujwal Seva application. Pandey had mooted the proposal after the reported failure of biometric attendance system. The Ujjwal Seva application was launched last year, but a formal order to ensure attendance on the portal was yet to be issued.

The Kumaon Commissioners order has led to some murmurs of protest, with teachers saying that clicking and sending selfies was a waste of time. The teachers already have to deal with so many issues. Getting students to pose for a group selfie and forwarding that on a WhatsApp group is sheer wastage of time, Bikar Singh Padiyar, general secretary, Prathmik School Shikshak Sangh, Nainital, said.

Padiyar also pointed to the practical problems of lack of internet connectivity, especially in the higher reaches. He also expressed resentment at the raids being conducted at schools to check if the selfies were being clicked or not.

Padiyar was apparently referring to a surprise inspection conducted by Bageshwar district magistrate Ranjana at the Government Inter College in Dhanau. Rajana she ordered to withhold salaries of three teachers there as the students were not up to the mark in some subjects. The teachers, she ordered, would only be given salaries after it is proven that the quality of the education has improved.

In 2016, several raids were conducted at the government schools in Kumaon in which many teachers and students were found to be absent. After this, the department had initiated biometric attendance for the teachers of government inter colleges.
A woman lured her 13-year-old niece and forced her to get drunk before letting her boyfriend rape the child in a wooded area in outer Delhis Shahbad Dairy on Sunday night, police said.

The incident took place on a day when the President promulgated an ordinance, approving death penalty for the rapists of those below 12 years following a nationwide outrage over brutal rapes with two minor girls in Kathua and Unnao.

The sexual assault left the girl bleeding, which caught her fathers attention. She was rushed to Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital where doctors informed her father that the child had been raped. Police on Tuesday said she had to be hospitalised for 24 hours, but is now out of danger and has been discharged from the hospital.

Rajneesh Gupta, deputy commissioner of police (Rohini), said the 30-year-old woman has been arrested and sent to jail. The alleged rapist, Mukesh Kumar, a man in his late 30s, is on the run.

Gupta said a case has been registered under Indian Penal Code sections 376 (rape), 328 (causing hurt by intoxicating substance with intent to commit an offence), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 120B (criminal conspiracy). The duo has also been booked under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The girls mother has abandoned the family and the child lives with her father in Shahbad Dairy. Her aunt lives in the same neighbourhood and would care for the family in the absence of the girls mother. The woman is in a relationship with Mukesh, who drives a mini truck for a living, said an investigator.

On Tuesday night, the woman allegedly lured the girl to her home before walking her to a forested area nearby. Mukesh had arrived in his mini truck.

The woman tried to trick the girl into drinking alcohol by mixing it with soft drinks. When the girl refused to drink, her aunt forced her. The woman and Mukesh too were drinking, said the investigator.

Once the girl was inebriated, Mukesh raped her even as the woman stayed around. The woman knew of the rape and we suspect it was pre-planned. That is why we have added the IPC section pertaining to criminal conspiracy, said the officer.

The girl was let off after sometime and she walked back to her home. On Monday morning, the girls father saw her bleeding and in pain. When he learnt from the doctors that his daughter had been raped, he informed the police, said the officer.

A police team from Shahbad Dairy police station has been sent to Bihar to search for Mukesh.
JEE Main 2018 answer keys: The Joint Entrance Examination Mains (JEE-Mains) unit of the CBSE released the answer keys for its JEE Main 2018 Paper 1 exam (both online and offline) on its official website on Tuesday.

JEE main 2018 answer keys

Candidates can check the answer keys and raise their objections until April 27 by clicking on the links below. Enter your application number, date of birth and security pin to log in.

Direct Link to View/challenge answer key of Paper 1.

Direct Link to View/challenge recorded responses of Paper 1

The scanned images of the OMR answer sheets of candidates who appeared for the pen-and-paper-based examination on April 8 have also been uploaded along with their recorded responses on the website. This will allow them to challenge the recorded responses if they differ from the ones marked on the OMR sheet. Enter your application number, date of birth and security pin to log in.

Candidates can raise their objections in online mode only. A fee of Rs 1,000 per recorded response/question challenged will have to be paid.

In case the objection raised by the candidate is accepted by the board, the fee will be refunded and changes made accordingly. The CBSEs decision shall be final in this regard.

Close to 12 lakh students had applied for the exam. Of them, only 2.2 lakh will be eligible for the JEE Advanced examination, which paves the gateway to IITs and other prestigious colleges. The JEE Mains 2018 results will be declared by April-end.

The examination had evoked mixed reaction from students across the country.

Mahendra Patel, a resident of Madhya Padesh who appeared for the exam at the YMCA Centenary School and College in Allahabad, said: The JEE Main paper cannot be described as easy or tough. I attempted all the questions but the mathematics part was exhausting due to the complex nature of questions.

The physics portion of the paper, although in accordance with the Class 11 and Class 12 syllabi, was tough in comparison to mathematics and chemistry questions, said Adarsh Kumar, a resident of Faizabad district of Uttar Pradesh.

Physics questions were tough. I attempted all questions pertaining to mathematics and chemistry, said Saurabh Shukla, a resident of Allahabad who appeared for the exam.

Candidates who took the JEE Mains in Lucknow were of the view that question paper in the first shift was quite lengthy and many of them could not answer all questions. They also described the question paper as tricky.

Both Riya and Aditi from Lucknow were of the view that they had to race against time as the question paper of the first shift was too long. We had to struggle to complete the paper, one of them said.

Overall the paper was of moderate difficulty level. Chemistry questions were lengthy. A few students found it difficult to answer questions pertaining to organic chemistry. The cut-off will be similar to that of last year, a teacher at a reputed institute in Bhopal said on the condition of anonymity.

Note: Visit the official website of JEE (main)2018 for latest details and updates.
If youre a female, there are certain things you might be putting in your body during that time of the month that will cause your menstruation to spiral a bit out of control and even make symptoms of pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS) worse. And, unfortunately, one of those things is alcohol.

Women who are heavy drinkers are at increased risk of PMS, new research shows. Together with other researchers, we believe that alcohol increases PMS risk by altering the level of hormones, such as gonadotropin, during the menstrual cycle, Dr Bahi Takkouche, the studys senior author, told Reuters Health by email.

The study, published in the journal BMJ Open, examined data from 19 studies and found that alcohol intake was associated with a moderate increase in the risk of PMS. Up to 40% of women in the US have at least moderate PMS, while rates in global studies have ranged from 10-98%, Takkouche and colleagues noted.

Drinkers were 45% more likely to suffer symptoms than non-drinkers. This rose to 79% for heavy drinkers.

In the US, PMS affects between 20% and 40% of women, causing a range of physical and emotional symptoms including: mood swings, tender breasts, food craving, fatigue, irritability and depression, during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle (it occurs after ovulation, when the ovaries release an egg and before the period starts).

Menstrual pain has often been compared to a heart attack and may be a sign of endometriosis. (Shutterstock)

A number of studies have shown an increased burden of PMS among drinkers, but it was not known whether this is due to alcohol itself or whether women were reaching for the bottle to mitigate symptoms.

Researchers from Spain, the University of Southampton and University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, conducted their analysis on all available research covering the topic of alcohol and PMS reported Mirror UK.

These findings are important given that the worldwide prevalence of alcohol drinking among women is not negligible, the authors wrote. In Europe six in 10 women are drinkers, with 12.6% being classed as heavy drinkers.

The authors estimated that in Europe, 21% of PMS cases may be associated to alcohol intake. Furthermore, heavy drinking may be associated with 4% of the PMS cases in the world and over 9% in Europe, they added.

If this association is of causal nature, eliminating heavy drinking in women would then prevent one in every 12 cases of PMS in Europe, the authors wrote.

Takkouches team is now investigating the role of tobacco smoking and psychological factors, including stress, in PMS.

Menstrual pain has often been compared to a heart attack and may be a sign of endometriosis. But there is not much that is known to offer relief from it, but some measures can help alleviate the pain to an extent. Here they are:

1. Drink tea (with low levels of caffeine).

2. Have lots of water.

3. Make ginger your BFF.

4. Heat relieves pain.

5. Say no to coffee.

6. Avoid fatty food, have bananas.

7. Have an orgasm.

8. Try these simple cinnamon-infused recipes.

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As the stars of Avengers: Infinity War assemble for their world premiere in Los Angeles, California, we have a brand new clip to get us pumped about the worldwide release this Friday. The new, 60-second clip was shown on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Monday. Stars Robert Downey Jr, Tom Holland, Zoe Saldana, Pom Klementieff and Paul Bettany were on the show to promote their film and introduced the clip for the audience.

What was his name again, asks Tony Stark as Bruce Banner begins to explain the wrath that soon shall be upon them. The two superheroes are at the Sanctum Sanctorum in New York City with Doctor Stephen Strange and Wong, discussing the course of action to take. Bruce tells them that Thanos already has the Power and Space Stone and Strange warns them of a destruction hitherto undreamt of. Tony chooses to stretch his legs and lean on the Cauldron of Cosmos and make fun of Stranges choice of words, who whacks him with his billowy red cape. Just the Sherlock face-off we had hitherto dreamt of.

Tony has the brilliant idea to stick the Eye of Agamotto, the Time Stone, down a garbage disposal but that just not how things work because the sorcerers swore on their lives to forever protect it. Of course, Tony has a witty retort for that as well. Watch it all here:

Avengers: Infinity War has had no press screenings to keep spoilers from getting out but several small clips have been released to keep the interest in the film alive. We have seen Tom Hollands Spider-Man leap off his school bus, Thor land on the Guardians ship, Black Widow fight the Black Order and more.

The films releases on April 27 and stars Robert Downey Jr, Josh Brolin, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner (?), Samuel L Jackson, Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Don Cheadle, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Tom Holland, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Rudd (?) and Tom Hiddleston.

Check out our full coverage of Avengers: Infinity War here

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The best, and most succinct explanation for the Infinity Stones was given by Benicio Del Toros The Collector in Guardians of the Galaxy. Before creation itself, he said, there were six singularities, then the universe exploded into existence and the remnants of this system were forged into concentrated ingots... Infinity Stones.

The Infinity Stones have been teased in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for years, and they will be the central MacGuffins in Avengers: Infinity War, due out in a week. So before you watch the film, heres a brief introduction to the Stones, their first appearance in the comics, and some of the best Marvel stories to feature them that you should read.

In the Marvel Universe, the Big Bang exploded with six stones with magical powers being flung into six different corners of the universe. But in the comics, they are known as Infinity Gems, or, to be more precise, as the Soul Gems, which is what they were called in their first appearance in 1972.

Like most other concepts that first appeared in comic form, the Infinity Gems had a rather low-key debut. The journey began with a rehash of a character created by legendary duo of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby for the Fantastic Four. The character was known simply as Him. The character was then introduced in a new title, called Marvel Feature, and given the name Adam Warlock. In was in this series that the Infinity Gems - although thats not what they were called back then - were first mentioned.

The series didnt take off in the way Marvel had hoped, so after a couple of years, was rebooted. In this iteration of the character, Adam Warlock learns that there isnt just one Soul Gem, but six. The first time we saw the six gems together was in Avengers Annual #7/Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2, which told the tale of Thanos, the Mad Titan going on his quest to locate and unite the stones for the first time.

INFINITY GAUNTLET (1991)

This is the run most Marvel fans swear by. It isnt the story that elevated the ideas of the 70s run into something more along the lines of what theyre doing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Written by Thanos creator, Jim Starlin, and drawn by George Perez and Ron Lim, Infinity Gauntlet opens with Thanos murdering half the universes population with a snap of his fingers - which has been teased in the film too - and the rest of the story is about how the heroes react.

INFINITY (2013)

While the more concrete elements of Thanos arc in the MCU is borrowed from the Infinity Gauntlet run, one aspect in particular comes from a more recent arc. In Jonathan Hickmans run, Thanos arrives on Earth to locate and kill his son. He brings with him his minions - the Black Order - who call themselves the Children of Thanos. The Black Orders involvement in the film has already been revealed, but can the personal father-son angle be replaced in the film with a father-daughter storyline featuring Thanos relationship with his daughters, Gamora and Nebula?

THANOS RISING (2013)

It makes sense to read Justin Aarons Thanos Rising before watching Avengers: Infinity War. Thanos Rising provides a much-needed origin story to Thanos, from the moment of his birth to his obsession with Death - a character in the Marvel Universe - as an adult.

THE THANOS QUEST (1990)

This prequel of sorts to Infinity Gauntlet traces Thanos quest to unite the Infinity Gems. He travels to the far reaches of the universe and challenges the owners of the gems. Thanos ends up with all six gems but still cant seem to win Death over.

THANOS (2017)

The most recent entry on this list is similar to Brian Azzarrellos Joker one-shot, an almost gangster-like story of Thanos attempts to reinstate himself as the biggest villain of the galaxy. Its an added bonus that the series is written by comics legend Jeff Lemire, whose solo titles you must check out.

Check out our full coverage of Avengers: Infinity War here

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The world is losing 20 million tonnes of potential food production because of land degradation a year because 23 hectares of dryland is lost per minute to drought and desertification, according to environment minister Harsh Vardhan.

The country, however, has no specific policy to tackle the problem. In India, total land area under land degradation is 96.40 million hectares, which is 29.32% of the countrys total geographical area, Harsh Vardhan said at a workshop in Delhi on Tuesday.

The total cost of land degradation, desertification and drought was 2.54% of the GDP in 2014-15, according to a ministry-sponsored report prepared by The Energy and Resources Institute (Teri). These are conservative estimates, experts say, the figure might be closer to 4-5%.

India has committed to land degradation neutrality by 2030 under the Sustainable Development Goals, which is ensuring that the country reclaims land to compensate for the ecosystem services lost and maintain the quality of non-degraded land.

Degradation, desertification and drought erode the quality of land and adversely impact productivity, biodiversity and water availability. According to the Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas released by ISROs Space Applications Centre (SAC) in 2016, about 30% of Indias land was undergoing degradation.

We dont have a policy yet, Jigmet Takpa, joint secretary, ministry of environment, said, adding There is no ministry directly dealing with it.

JVSharma, director, forestry and biodiversity division at Teri, said, Land Degradation Neutrality is important for food security, sustained ecosystem services and sustained livelihood of the poorest of the poor of the country.

The ministry of environment that is the nodal agency for the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. However, at present, it is only monitoring and reporting the land degradation status.
China failed to get Indias support for its ambitious Belt and Road infrastructure project at the end of a foreign ministers meeting of a major security bloc on Tuesday, ahead of an ice-breaking trip to China this week by Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Belt and Road is Chinese President Xi Jinpings landmark scheme to build infrastructure to connect China to the rest of Asia and beyond, a giant reworking of its old Silk Road.

India has not signed up to the initiative as parts of one key project, the $57 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, runs through Pakistani side of Kashmir that India considers its own territory.

Whether or not China will be able to bring India round to Belt and Road will likely be a key measure of the success of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modis trip to China to meet Xi for an informal meeting on Friday and Saturday.

But Indias foreign minister did not express support for Belt and Road in the communique released after foreign ministers of the China and Russia-led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation met in Beijing.

India, along with Pakistan, joined the group last year.

All the other foreign ministers - from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan - reaffirmed support for Chinas Belt and Road proposal, the statement read.

It gave no further explanation.

The communique otherwise was a broad expression of unity by the ministers on issues ranging from their support for the Iran nuclear deal to the need to combat the spread of extremism.

Modi is coming to China as efforts at rapprochement gather pace following a difficult year in ties between the two neighbours.

The Asian giants were locked in a 73-day military stand-off in a remote, high-altitude stretch of their Himalayan border last year. At one point, soldiers from the two sides threw stones and punches.

The confrontation between the nuclear-armed powers underscored Indian alarm at Chinas expanding security and economic links in South Asia.

In comments carried on the foreign ministrys website, Chinese vice foreign minister Kong Xuanyou said holding the meeting in an informal way meant the two leaders could have a deep exchange of views in a relaxed, friendly atmosphere to promote cooperation.

This not only will benefit the two countries and two peoples, but will also have an important effect on peaceful development in the region and around the world, the ministry paraphrased Kong as telling Indian media in Beijing.

Modi will visit China in June for a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

China will also have to tread carefully to avoid giving its close ally Pakistan cause for alarm. China on Monday reassured Pakistan that relations between the two countries were as firm as ever and would never rust.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)
The arrest of Asaram in a rape case in 2013 marked a remarkable  some say ironicturnaround in fortunes for the self-styled godman based in Motera near Ahmedabad. Four-and-a-half decades ago, he had shot to fame by preaching about controlling sexual desire.

On Wednesday, a Jodhpur court found him guilty.

Asaram started his religious discourses from a small hut in 1971 on the banks of the Sabarmati, not far away from Mahatma Gandhis ashram. In two decades he amassed millions of followers and build hundreds of ashrams across India and in the US, Hong Kong, Canada and South Africa.

By 2008, Asarams empire was worth Rs 5,000 crore, according to a chargesheet filed by police in a separate case against him in Gujarat. His Sant Shri Asaramji Ashram Trust ran 40 traditional schools called gurukuls, a printing press that publishes material on his interpretation of Hindu religious scriptures and an Ayurveda unit that produces medicines, soaps, and shampoos.

He marketed the spiritualism quite well. He would give food, utensils, and medicines for free to followers. But at the core, he grew into a true businessman with ownership of chunks of lands and also a huge investment in shares and the stock market, a senior journalist said.

Asaram was born as Asumal Sirumalani on April 17, 1941, in Berani village in Sindh province, now in Pakistan. His family migrated to Maninagar in Ahmedabad after Partition and set up a business in coal and firewood. He dropped out of Jai Hind High School in Class 3 after his father died.

According to the biography Sant Asaram ki Jivan Jhankhi, published by his ashram, he ran away to an ashram in Bharuch before his wedding only to be persuaded to return by his family.

At 23, he again left for the Himalayas and found his spiritual guru in Lilashahji in Nanital. Lilashahji named him Asaram.

Asaram started his own ashram in Ahmedabad with just ten followers. Asarams next big stop was Surat, where he found a large number of followers among tribals.

As his followers grew, he attracted politicians to his crowded satsangs or religious discourses. The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party governments in the state gave Asaram land to expand his ashrams.

His wife Lakshmi Devi, daughter and son Narayan Sai, who is in jail in a separate rape case, helped him manage the ashrams and other establishments.

Asarams troubles began in 2008 when the mutilated bodies of two cousins and gurukul mates Dipesh Vaghela (10) and Abhishek Vaghela (11) were found from the Sabarmati river bank near his ashram in Motera. Some vital organs were missing from the boys bodies.

Shantilal Vaghela, Abhisheks father, staged an indefinite fast accusing Asaram of killing the boys for black magic rituals. He ended his fast after the administration appointed an inquiry commission by retired judge DK Trivedi.

Gujarat police booked seven of Asarams followers in 2009 for the death of the two children and filed a chargesheet against them in September 2012. Asaram was not implicated in this case and the BJP government is yet to table the inquiry commissions report.

Asaram was also hit by a land-grabbing controversy in Surat. The matter is still sub-judice.

As he fell from grace, the BJP-led state governments stance over his land holdings reflected its changing equation with him. The state government decided in 2009 to take back the land given to his Ahmedabad ashram. A year later, then revenue minister Anandiben Patel informed the state assembly that the nearly 68,000sqm plot had been taken back.

Finally, Asaram was arrested after a 16-year-old girl accused him sexually assaulting her at a religious retreat near Jodhpur in August 2013.

Two sisters from Surat came forward to register similar cases against Asaram and his son Narayan Sai just months later.

The sisters, who lived at Asarams ashram in Gujarat between 1997 and 2006, lodged separate complaints against the godman and his son, accusing them of repeated rape and illegal confinement, among other charges. Five others, including Asarams wife and daughter, were also charged by the police of abetting the rapes.

Ashram.org, Asarams official website, dismisses all allegations and cases against him, including land grabbing, black magic, murder and rape. It also provides updates about court proceedings in the cases. The Motera ashram still holds satsangs thrice a day and continues to attract followers.
A special court in Jodhpur will pronounce its verdict in the Asaram Bapu case, where the self-styled godman stands accused of illegal confinement and rape of a minor.

The girl and her parents had filed a complaint in August 2013, on the basis of which Asaram was arrested and has been in judicial custody since then. The special court is set to pronounce its April 25 verdict in this case. In a separate case, two Surat-based sisters had also filed a complaint of sexual assault and rape against Asaram and his son, Narayan Sai, which is being heard in the Gujarat High Court.

Heres how the rape cases against Asaram have progressed:

August 20, 2013: A 15-year-old girl from Uttar Pradesh files a police complaint in Delhi, accusing Asaram of sexually assaulting her at his ashram in Jodhpur on August 15.

August 21, 2013: The case is shifted to Jodhpur and an FIR lodged.

August 31, 2013: Asaram arrested from Indore.

September 1, 2013: The godman is produced in Jodhpur court, potency test conducted.

September 2, 2013: Asaram remanded in judicial custody.

November 6, 2013: Chargesheet filed in the Jodhpur rape case.

February 2014: Rakesh Patel, the husband of one of the complainants in the Surat rape case against Asaram, is knifed in the city, survives the attack.

May 2014: Asarams personal aide, Amrut Prajapati, who turned on him and was a key witness is shot dead while another associate, Akhil Gupta, is killed the following year.

August 1, 2014: Asaram rushed to a hospital after he complains of ill-health. Asaram also complains of severe pain on the left part of his face.

August 19, 2014: Supreme Court does not grant bail to Asaram but agrees to set up a board of doctors to examine his medical condition.

September 23, 2014: The Supreme Court says Asarams health is not so precarious as to release him on bail immediately.

October 15, 2014: The Supreme Court asks AIIMS director to set up a medical board to review Asarams health reports and clinically examine him, if required. This was in response to Asarams plea that he needs bail for medical treatment.

January 2015: Witness Akhil Gupta shot dead in Muzaffarnagar; worked as a cook for Asaram.

January 5, 2015: The report by a panel of AIIMS doctors tells the Supreme Court that Asaram does not require any surgery and can be treated through medicines.

January 11, 2015: A witness in the Asaram Bapus Surat rape case, 35-year-old Akhil Gupta, is shot dead by unidentified assailants on Jansath Road.

January 20, 2015: Supreme Court dismisses the interim bail plea of Asaram, on the basis of a report of AIIMS doctors that he does not require any surgery.

February 2015: Rahul Sachan, a witness in the rape case, is stabbed at the Jodhpur court premises in February 2015.

May 13, 2015: Two unidentified assailants shoot at Mahender Chawla, a key witness in the sexual abuse case against controversial ashram head Asaram and his son Narayan Sai.

July 2015: Kirpal Singh Shot, another prosecution withness, is shot in Shahjahanpur in July 2015, dies at the hospital.

November 25, 2015: Witness Rahul Sachan goes missing from Kaiserbagh bus stand in Lucknow. Call data records of his cellphone show his last location at Mallahwan in Hardoi district on April 9.

August 29, 2016: Allahabad high court orders a CBI inquiry into the disappearance of an important witness.

January 30, 2017: Police to file fresh charges against Asaram for allegedly submitting forged documents seeking release from jail, says the Supreme Court.

April 12, 2017: Apex court asks the trial court in Gujarat to expedite the recording of evidence of prosecution witnesses in asexual assault case lodged by two sisters against Asaram.

April 7, 2018: A special SC/ST court in Jodhpur on Saturday reserves its order for April 25 in the rape case against self-styled godman Asaram Bapu after the final arguments were completed.

April 17, 2018: Rajasthan high court directs the special SC/ST court in Jodhpur to pronounce its verdict in the rape case against Asaram.

April 25, 2018: The special court in Jodhpur is set to pronounce its verdict in the rape case against Asaram.

Compiled by HT Infocentre
A special court in Jodhpur will deliver its verdict on Wednesday against Asaram Bapu, as the spiritual guru is known to his followers, on charges that he raped a minor.

Asaram was arrested August 31, 2013, on charges of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl at his ashram near Jodhpur earlier that year and sent to the Jodhpur Central Jail.

The girl, whose parents were long-time followers of Asaram, and her brother were students at a school attached to his ashram in Madhya Pradeshs Chindwara. The girl fainted at the school one day in 2013 and the hostel warden told her parents that she should be sent to Asarams ashram to be exorcised as she was possessed by evil spirits.

Read | Asarams fall from grace, from godman to rape accused

The parents were told at Asarams ashram in Manai village near Jodhpur that he would need to be alone with their daughter for an hour to banish the evil spirits. She told her parents that she was sexually assaulted by Asaram during the period and they registered a police complaint in New Delhi.

Case against Asaram

The charges against Asaram include sexual assault, raping and illegally confining a minor, according to 1,300-page charge-sheet filed by the Rajasthan Police.

The police also charged four others, including the hostel warden and three of Asarams aides, with trafficking for participating in the criminal conspiracy.

Another rape complaint

Asaram is also facing a rape case in Gujarat. Two Surat-based sisters, who lived in Asarams ashram in Gujarat between 1997 and 2006, lodged separate complaints against him and his son Narayan Sai, accusing them of repeated rape and illegal confinement, among other charges.

In the charge-sheet filed against him in a Gandhinagar court, Asaram has been accused of illegal confinement and criminal conspiracy. Five others, including his wife and daughter, have also been booked by the police.

Other cases against Asaram in Jodhpur

There are two more cases against Asaram Bapu in Jodhpur in addition to the case of sexual assault against the minor.

Alleged threats

Asaram, his personal caretaker Shiva and three of his followers were charged by Jodhpur Police in November 2014 for allegedly threatening to kill the station house officer (SHO) of Udaimandir police station on WhatsApp.

Fake documents

Jodhpur Police registered a case against Asaram and others in February 2017 for filing fake documents in support of his interim bail plea at the Supreme Courts orders. The top court found that Asaram submitted a fake medical report during the hearing of his bail application in January 2017. It also slapped a penalty of Rs 1 lakh on Asaram.

Witnesses murdered, attacked

Three key witnesses have wound up dead as the cases have progressed and other witnesses and families of victims have been attacked or received death threats.

The first witness to be murdered was Amrut Prajapati, a 56-year-old Ayurveda doctor, who was shot at on May 23, 2014, and succumbed to his injuries a month later. He worked at Asarams Motera ashram for 15 years before he left in 2005.

Prajapati became a key witness in the rape case since he testified that Asaram had a special chamber at the Motera ashram where he only met women. Before this, Prajapati had testified in the 2008 mysterious deaths of two boys who studied at an ashram-run gurukul in Ahmedabad.

Another witness, 38-year-old Akhil Gupta, was shot dead on January 11, 2015, in Muzaffarnagar while returning home. Gupta, once a confidant and close aide of Asaram, was a prime witness in the rape case against him. On July 10, 2015, Kripal Singh, an LIC agent, became the third witness to be shot dead.

Mahendra Chawla, also a witness in the second rape case against Asaram and Sai in Gujarat, was attacked on May 13, 2015, in Haryanas Panipat. During the trial in Jodhpur, Chawla told the court that Asaram sent vulgar signals to young girls. The longtime aide also told the court about the network that supplied girls to Asaram.

Rahul Sachan, another witness, was attacked with a sharp knife by one of Asarams followers on February 13, 2015, inside a court in Jodhpur.

Bail rejected

The session court has rejected Asarams bail plea six times. The same bail application was also rejected thrice by the high court and the same number of time by the Supreme Court.

Several prominent lawyers, including Ram Jethmalani, Salman Khurshid, KK Menon and Subramanian Swamy, have failed to obtain a bail for Asaram.
The special anti-terror court that acquitted five accused in the Mecca Masjid blast case held that the confessional statement of Hindu preacher Swami Aseemanand to the police, which he retracted later, was not voluntary.

The NIA court also maintained that a person cannot be considered communal or anti-social only because of links to the RSS, which is not a banned organisation.

The court also dismissed the prosecutions claim that Aseemanand had confessed to his guilt to two inmates of a prison here, saying the CBI, which initially probed the case had not provided any documentary evidence to back its charge.

A powerful blast, triggered by remote control, had ripped through the over four centuries-old mosque here during an assembly of devotees on May 18, 2007 when they had gathered for Friday prayers, killing nine people and wounding 58.

Special Judge K Ravinder Reddy in his April 16 order said the confessional statement of Aseemanand was hit by section 26 of the Indian Evidence Act and the same is not a voluntary one which was recorded during the course of police custody.

The Special Public Prosecutor for NIA, the countrys premier agency that probes terror cases, had submitted that Aseemanand gave the confessional statement in December, 2010, and retracted it four months later.

Rejecting the prosecution charge that Aseemanand had confessed his guilt to two inmates - Maqbool Bin Ali alias Chawaish and Shaik Abdul Khaleem in the Chanchalguda prison, the court said there was no record to show that the duo was in the prison at the time when Aseemanand was lodged there.

Except the oral testimony of PW (prosecution witness) 104 and PW 105, there is no other record to show that they haven been in Chanchalguda jail when Aseemanand was lodged there, the court said.

The order said Additional SP of CBI Raja Balaji, one of the investigating officers, has not collected any documentary evidence and produced before this court showing that the two wintesses had been in Chanchalguda jail along with Aseemanand.

The CBI official did not examine the jail superintendent and record his statement that Khaleem and Chawaish were in the prison when Aseemanad was there, it said.

In the order, the judge also observed that working for Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) does not make a person communal and anti-social.

He made the observation while referring to Devender Gupta, one of the accused, who was an RSS pracharak from Bihar.

The court said the evidence produced by the prosecution did not prove beyond reasonable doubt that Gupta, being an RSS volunteer, nurtured communal hatred.

There were no records to show what were the communal hatred speeches of Devender Gupta being delivered at Jamtara (Jharkhand). The oral evidence given by a prosecution witness does not support the charge, he added.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is not a proscribed organisation. If any person works in it, it does not give any scope that he is a communal and anti-social, the judge observed.

The court had acquitted all the five accused, who faced trial, holding that the prosecution failed to prove even a single allegation against them.

Besides Aseemanand and Gupta, other acquited are Lokesh Sharma, Bharat Rateshwar and Rajender Chowdary.

There were 10 accused in the case. Two accused -- Sandeep V Dange and Ramchandra Kalsangra -- are absconding, while Sunil Joshi was murdered. Investigation is continuing against two others.
Fake Rs 500 notes with Churan Lable and Childrens Bank of India printed on them were dispensed from a Bank of India (BoI) ATM in Bareilly on Sunday.

Two fake notes similar in appearance to the real Rs 500 currency were dispensed by the ATM. We have sent a detailed report regarding the incident to our regional office in Meerut and are waiting for their direction to lodge police complaint, said Bachchan Shaw, manager of BoI branch in Bareilly.

One Ashok Kumar of Ishwari Bhawan area of Bareilly received one of the fake notes. Another person who withdrew money from the ATM also received a fake Rs 500 note. The bank manager assured both these persons that the fake notes would be replaced. The fake notes have similar dimensions and colour pattern like the real notes. But unlike the real note, the fake ones have Childrens Bank of India and churan label printed on them, said the manager.

Cash in our ATMs is deposited by a private company. It appears that people of that company fraudulently replaced a few of the real notes with fake ones when the ATM was last filled with cash, said the manager. The manager has secured the CCTV recording of the ATM for investigation.

The manager, along with other bank officials, inspected the cash chest of the ATM on Monday to look for more fake notes. All currency notes in the ATM were found to be original.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is approaching the Wuhan summit with Chinese president Xi Jinping with an open mind without the diplomatic encumbrances of the past, South Block and PMO officials said, attributing this to the fact that the Chinese leader came across as reasonable and without the legacy of deep state that most Chinese leaders do at the 2017 Xiamen BRICS summit, held immediately after the resolution of the Doklam stand-off between the two countries.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the decision to hold the informal summit was floated during the visits of foreign minister Wang Yi and politburo member Yang Jiechi in 2017 after both sides showed interest in improving ties despite core concerns. Thereafter a two pronged channel was opened between foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and Wang, and Indias NSA Ajit Doval and Yang to take plan forward.

The decision on the Wuhan summit was sealed during Shangai meeting of Doval and Yang on April 13. Hindustan Times first reported on March 17 the news of a possible informal summit.

There are indications that Prime Minister Modi will continue his efforts, started in September 2014 in Ahmedabad, to improve relationships with President Xi despite the fear of another PLA incursion like that in Chumar (soon after the Modi-Xi meeting) this time around also.

Since taking over as PM, Narendra Modi has made it a point to keep in touch with world leaders at a personal level, and particularly with President Xi as he believes the only gainer out of poor India-China relationship is Pakistan, analysts said. President Xi, on his part, has also positively responded whether it was resolution of Chumar in 2014 or Doklam in 2017 after PM Modi personally intervened, the analysts added.

China watchers says that in times of global volatility with the US and Russia locking horns and Beijing being bypassed on North Korea by US President Donald Trump, it is in the interest of both PM Modi and President Xi to have an honest strategic conversation which clears the bilateral air.

While India has concerns over OBOR, CPEC, 1267 resolution and NSG, China too has concerns over the Tibetan government in exile (in India). It is time the two leaders come to sort of compromise over each others core interests, said a top Indian diplomat.

Just as India is reaching out to China, the latter has also reached out to Japan and Vietnam with Prime Minister Li Keqiang travelling to Tokyo in order to end a three year old freeze in relations. With China being the number two economy and India standing at number 6, national security planners on both sides feel that there should be direct communication between the two top leaders.

While PM Modis key diplomatic advisors have told him not to listen to institutional advice before Wuhan, the time has also come for President Xi to show the kind of flexibility he did at the G-20 summit at Hamburg (on resolving Doklam) again so that the two countries can together work towards Deng Xiaopings dream of an Asian Century.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will fly in some 40 star campaigners to poll-bound Karnataka, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a host of Union ministers and senior leaders, to campaign for the partys success in the May 12 assembly elections.

The visiting key campaigners were named in a letter written by state BJP general secretary and partys Lok Sabha lawmaker from Karnataka Shobha Karandlaje to state chief electoral officer Sanjiv Kumar.

Besides Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah, Union ministers Sushma Swaraj (external affairs), Smriti Irani (information and broadcasting), Nirmala Sitharaman (defence), Ravi Shankar Prasad (law and justice), Piyush Goyal (railways) and partys Lok Sabha MP and veteran actress Hema Malini will soon be in the southern state.

The Prime Minister is expected to visit the state tentatively from May 1 and is expected to hold at least 10-12 rallies across the state before the election, BJP state spokesman S. Shantharam told IANS in Bengaluru.

Modi is expected to visit each of the states four regions  coastal, north, central and south  besides Bengaluru and Mysuru, addressing 2-3 rallies a day till May 10.

The exact dates of the BJP leaders visits to the state were yet to be finalised, the spokesperson added.

Union home minister Rajnath Singh, also one of the partys campaigners, on Monday visited the states coastal districts of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has visited the state at least four times so far, to address rallies in Hubballi, Bengaluru, Davanagere and Mangaluru.

Polling will be held in a single phase on May 12 for 224 assembly seats, including 36 reserved for the scheduled castes and 15 for the scheduled tribes. Votes will be counted on May 15.

Tuesday is the last date for filing nominations. Scrutiny will be done on April 25 and the last date for withdrawal of candidature is April 27.
The Centre has given in-principle approval to the proposed Greenfield Airport near Jewar in Gautambuddh Nagar during a steering committee meeting held in New Delhi.

The approval to this effect was given at the meeting on Monday attended by principal secretary (civil aviation) SP Goyal and other senior officials, special secretary of civil aviation Suryapal Gangwar said on Tuesday.

The detailed project report and techno-economic feasibility report for the project has been prepared by Price Waterhouse Coopers.

As per the report, acquisition of 1,441 hectare land in eight villages is proposed for the airport which will be built on PPP mode.

The work for the project will be taken up in four phases at an approximate cost of Rs 15,754 crores, he said.

The airport will have two runways with a capacity to handle 70 million passengers annually and cargo handling capacity of 3 million metric tonnes per year.

Preliminary work on the project had started in April 2017 and it is because of the coordination between the Centre and the state that in-principle approval has been accorded within one year time, he said.

On July 6, 2017, the steering committee had given site clearance to the project , he said.

The Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority has already been made the nodal agency for this project.

(This story has not been modified from its original version.)
The Chinese Peoples Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) closely monitored different aspects of the Indian Air Forces Gaganshakti-2018 exercise that concluded in the eastern sector on Sunday, said people involved in the drills.

The IAF clocked more 11,000 sorties during the two-phase air manoeuvres that saw the concentration of the air forces deployed assets move from the western sector to the eastern front in less than 48 hours, an official said.

Gaganshakti-2018 was the biggest IAF exercise ever and the PLAAF kept an eye on it. Its not unusual as we also do the same when our neighbours carry out military drills, the official said on Tuesday.

Quoting IAF chief Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa, Hindustan Times reported on April 17 that the Pakistan Air Force was monitoring the exercise through its airborne warning and control systems during its first phase in the western sector.

Another official said 300 expert teams were analysing different aspects of the exercise and a report on lessons learnt would be out in a week. The IAF took nine months to prepare for GaganShakti-2018, he added.

Dhanoa had earlier said the IAF was shaking the heavens and splitting the Earth with its extremely rapid operational tempo during the exercise held between April 8 and 22.

The Gaganshakti-2018 exercise sought to test the IAFs readiness and stamina for a two-front war with China and Pakistan. From deep strikes to air dominance and maritime operations to air defence, the IAF practiced every manoeuvre in the book in its preparation for a short and intense war.

The officials said a few of the eight Tejas light combat aircraft that took part in the exercise developed snags but the IAF was able to generate as many as six sorties per platform per day.
Even as Pakistan moves to host the Saarc (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) summit, New Delhi doesnt believe the atmosphere is conducive, said persons familiar with the thinking.

Pakistan has been making efforts to host the summit, which was to be initially held in November 2016. However, in a synchronised move in September that year, India, Afghanistan, Bhutan and Bangladesh informed the Saarc secretariat that its leaders would be unable to attend, citing almost similar reasons. The four countries had linked regional cooperation to an atmosphere free of terror  meaning that Pakistan should stop sponsoring terrorism which is destabilising the region and stop interfering in the internal affairs of other countries.

All countries have to agree to the summit being hosted.

Delhis position remains the same: to isolate Pakistan on the issue of terrorism in the grouping of eight countries, which Pakistan opposes by saying that India is looking for reasons to avoid the holding of the meet.

A source said: Pakistan continues with cross-border terrorism and we dont think the atmosphere is conducive to the holding of Saarc summit anytime now.

The Pakistan government, led by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, has been making efforts to host the summit or to ensure it is not isolated in the group. Abbasi visited Nepal early this year even before the new government was in place in Kathmandu.

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena was the chief guest at Pakistans national day in March and the Pakistan army chief also paid a visit to the Maldives as a part of Islamabads efforts to step up ties with Saarc countries.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has said the Congress was wrong in giving an impeachment notice against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra.

The Trinamoool Congress did not support the impeachment notice, she said on Tuesday, adding she had advised Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his mother, Sonia Gandhi, against the move.

The Congress wanted us to support it. But we did not, she told News 18 Bangla channel.

I told Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi not to go for impeachment, Banerjee said, adding her party did not want to interfere in the judiciary.

Seven opposition parties led by the Congress had last week moved a notice before vice president and Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu for the impeachment of the CJI on five grounds of alleged misbehaviour.

The petition was signed by 64 serving members of the Rajya Sabha. A motion to remove the CJI has to have signatures of 50 Rajya Sabha members or 100 Lok Sabha members.

The notice was rejected by Naidu, who based his decision to reject the motion on the opinion of top legal and constitutional experts.

Naidus order, which came within two days of the notice being submitted to him, was slammed as hasty, illegal and ill informed by the Congress.

The ruling BJP said the Congress party was trying to politicise the issue.

(With PTI Inputs)
On Tuesday afternoon,a judge, a top policeman, Delhis home minister and four senior government officials are meeting to decide the fate of 90 prisoners who have either served their time in prison or are up for an early release.

Among the names on the list are those of Manu Sharma and Sushil Sharma, two murder convicts linked with the cases that rank among the countrys most high-profile crime stories, senior officials familiar with the development said.

Manu Sharma (real name Siddhartha Vashishta) is the son of former Haryana minister Venod Sharma. He was convicted of shooting dead model Jessica Lall at point blank range at a private party in 1999 when she refused to serve him a drink. He has served over 15 years in prison.

Former Youth Congress president Sushil Sharma, who was convicted for killing his wife Naina Sahni in what came to be known as the tandoor murder, has been in prison for over 23 years. Sushil Sharma had shot Sahni in the head and then burnt her body in a clay oven at a central Delhi restaurant where his friend was the manager.

Two jail officers said on condition of anonymity that both these convicts, who are serving life terms, have been put up for an early release because of their good conduct as model prisoners. The two have also helped jail officials in managing different departments in the prison such as factory, prisoner meeting system, one of the officers said.

HT had reported on April 22 that Manu Sharma was among six prisoners in the facility that houses more than 15,000 inmates who had been in open jail for the last three months.

In open jail, a prisoner can leave the jail premises at 8am and return by 6pm, and has to utilise the time by doing social work. Sushil Sharma has been in semi-open jail since 2016, which means he can move around inside the prison complex and does not have to be confined to his cell.

The seven officials who will meet on Tuesday as part of the Sentence Review Board include Delhi home minister Satyendar Jain, principal secretary (home) Manoj Kumar Parida, a district judge, joint commissioner of police (crime) Alok Kumar, chief probation officer, law secretary and the prisons director general Ajay Kashyap, secretary and law, justice and legislative affairs Anoop Kumar Mendiratta.

Senior government officials said that after the meeting of the board, the recommendations will go to Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, who will sign the release order, if any.

Home minister Jain, who chairs the Sentence Review Board, was not available for a comment.

On the day the HT article appeared, Jessica Lalls elder sister Sabrina told reporters she would have no problems if Manu was released because she believed he had served his time. Jail officials said that Manus release could be smoother after Lalls forgiveness.

I have let go of the anger within me. I need to move on and get rid of this baggage. I have no problems if he is released or whatever deal he gets, she had said.

Lall said on Monday that she had learned of Manu Sharmas reformation through a common friend. We have a mutual friend. He knows Manus family too. He told me about Manus conduct in prison and how he was a changed man. He gave me details of how Manu is looking after prisoners in jail and also helping them legally and their families financially, she said, declining to disclose the identity of the mutual friend.

When contacted, Sushils mother, Prem Lata Sharma, 81, declined to say much about her sons case. He is our only son. We have spent 23 years without him. He has served more than his sentence, she said.

According to jail officials, Manu, through his NGO Siddhartha Vashishta Charitable Trust, takes care of the tuition, uniforms and cost of stationery of over 700 children of underprivileged prisoners.

Sushil, who is fondly called bade bhai (big brother) in the jail, helps prisoners with legal cases. Sushil has also been appointed as one of the prisoner-officers in the central public relation office (CPRO), which helps inmates meet their relatives in prison.

Lets see what the Sentence Review Board decides. For the media, it is just a days news but for us, it is something of a different level. The release means society is ready to accept our inmate, who leaves prison as a reformed man, said one of the senior jail officers quoted above.

Jail officials said other prisoners who will be considered for release on Tuesday are Sikander Singh, Jaswinder Singh Jassa, Om Singh and Shashi Shekher. The four, who were convicted for murder, have spent at least 20 years behind bars.
Odisha police on Tuesday named an English lecturer as the mastermind of a parcel bomb, wrapped as a wedding gift, which killed a newly-wed software engineer, his great-aunt and maimed the bride two months ago.

State director general of police RP Sharma said Punjilal Meher, lecturer in a private college in western Odishas Bolangir district, and several others carried out the crime that devastated the family barely five days after the wedding.

The bomb, sent by courier from Chhattisgarh capital Raipur, exploded when Soumya Sekhar Sahu, 26, opened the parcel at his family home in Bolangirs Patnagarh town on February 23. The explosion killed him and his great-aunt Jemamani Sahu, 85. The newly-wed bride, Reema, 22, suffered extensive injuries in the explosion and was admitted to hospital for more than a month.

The state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) took over the probe from local police in March.

Our investigations led us to Meher, who is a lecturer at Jyoti Vikas College in Bolangirs Bhainsa town. He was the principal of the college earlier, but Soumyas mother, Sanjukta Sahu, replaced him in May last year, said a CID officer investigating the case.

We found that he had repeatedly tried to harass and undermine Sanjukta Sahu. One such harassment, allegedly at his behest, was vulgar slogans being painted on the college wall in her name after she took over as the principal, added the officer, who did not want to be named.

Mehers wife, Soudamini, said her husband was innocent and alleged that the CID was framing him. He will never commit such a crime. It is a conspiracy against my husband by the CID because they could not catch the actual culprit, she said.

Santosh Upadhyay, additional director general of the CID, said Meher has been detained. He will be arrested soon along with a few other people, Upadhyay added.

The CID has detained six more people in the case: Shiv Shaw, lecturer in another college in Bolangir; Dilip Das, the owner of Skyking Courier, which sent the fatal parcel, and courier boy Sushant Seth who delivered it; Umesh Matari, Chandramani Meher and Baibhasuta Bindhani. Investigators said Bindhani is an accused in another murder case.

Incidentally, Meher had attended Soumya and Reemas wedding reception, and his funeral rituals. The CID believes he did it to avoid suspicion.

During investigations, the CID found that the sender of the gift had communicated with the courier firm in Hindi and Odia. The parcel bomb, wrapped in an Odia newspaper, reached Patnagarh on February 20, but was delivered three days later.

Soumya, who had joined a Japanese electronics firm in Bengaluru a few months before his wedding, and his great-aunt died in hospital shortly after the explosion. A crude bomb was used in the crime, according to the CID.

Reema, who sustained injuries all over her body, was discharged from hospital on April 12. She told the media that those responsible for her plight must be hanged. They have ruined so many lives. They deserve to die.
Differences should not lead to disputes in relations between India and China, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday as she met her Chinese counterpart General Wei Fenghe in the backdrop of the strain in ties between the two countries after the Dokalam standoff.

Sitharaman, who arrived in Beijing on Monday, attended the SCO defence ministers meeting on Tuesday.

During her meeting with Fenghe, Sitharaman said that differences should not lead to disputes in relations between India and China, officials said.

In August last year, India and China ended their 73-day standoff between their troops in Dokalam. The standoff had strained ties considerably between the two countries.

The annual summit of the SCO, in which India is the latest entrant along with Pakistan, will take place in the Chinese city of Qingdao in June.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to attend it.

The SCO, headquartered in Beijing, was founded in 2001. Comprising China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, India and Pakistan, the SCO aims at military cooperation between the member states and involves intelligence sharing, counter-terrorism operations in Central Asia and joint work against cyber terrorism.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) wants its volunteers to avoid using the word Dalit, which it considers a colonial appendage with derogatory connotations, senior functionaries from the group said.

A senior RSS official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the RSS brass now wants its volunteers and those associated with its many affiliates to opt for the constitutionally approved terms Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) instead.

Alok Kumar, the international working president of RSS offshoot Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), said the Sangh feels the terms SC and ST are more appropriate as it has constitutional sanction.

SC/ST is a term that has no castigation and is not derogatory, he said.

Last week, the ministry of social justice and empowerment wrote to all states and government departments, in the wake of a Madhya Pradesh high court verdict, to refrain from using the nomenclature Dalit for members of the SC/ST communities.

The ministry pointed out that the term Dalit does not find mention in the Constitution of India or any statute.

According to D Shyam Babu, a Dalit academic at the Centre for Policy Research, the word Dalit in Marathi means broken or downtrodden, and its usage was popularised by Dr BR Ambedkar.

The RSS and its affiliate, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), are making attempts to mend caste fault lines that they perceive as a threat to the partys cohesive Hindu vote bank by weaning away the Scheduled Castes, tribes and other backward classes from other political parties. In the wake of cases of atrocities against Dalits in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh and the Bhima Koregaon violence in Maharashtra earlier this year, the RSS has already sounded an alarm on the potential electoral costs that caste fractures could inflict on the BJP as its heads into the 2019 elections.

As per Census 2011, the percentage of Scheduled Castes in the country is 16.6% and Scheduled Tribes is 8.6%.

Through its renewed Samajik Samrasta (social harmony) campaigns  having meals and spending a night at the homes of members of the SC/ST communities and pushing for anointment of priests from the communities  which have been emulated by the BJP, the Sangh is trying to prevent the cracks from widening. A few Sangh fucntionaries said a change in nomenclature would help erase the still prevalent biases.

But former Rajya Sabha MP Bhalchandra Mungekar of the Congress party, who is also a Dalit, described the move as politically motivated, saying the term Dalit denotes the stigma of untouchability, which is now outlawed.

The term Dalit has been used to denote all socially, economically and educationally exploited and politically backward communities. It is inclusive. This sudden need to drop the term, which is now used internationally, is nothing but an attempt to divide the Dalit movement, he said.

RSS thinker Rakesh Sinha, however, said the term SC/ST is the most legitimate term that does not show any radical posturing to a particular community, unlike the term Dalit.

With the change of relationship between state power and social forces, a new connotation takes birth and gets a legitimate space. Earlier the marginalised people in Hindu caste system were called untouchables, colonial state addressed it in a more secular manner by calling them depressed classes. Then Mahatma Gandhi changed the narrative with the sociology-spiritual term Harijan that is still used in many parts of rural India. The connotation SC,unlike Dalit, has been approved by the Constituent Assembly headed by none other than Babasahab Ambedkar, he said.

The official nomenclature has always been SC/ST, but there have been various terms used, for instance first it was depressed classes then SC/ST, in between there was Harijan. But the word Dalit has been picked by the communities themselves. It is how they identify themselves and take pride in; how can Dalits be stopped from using this word, which they have picked, said D Shyam Babu.
Even the dead have dignity. They cannot be named or shamed.

This was the observation of the Supreme Court on Tuesday as it dealt with the issue of disclosure of identity of rape victims, including the eight-year-old girl who was raped and brutally murdered recently in Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir.

It said that even in cases where the rape victims were alive and were either minors or of unsound mind, their identities should not be revealed as they have the right to privacy and they cannot live under such a stigma throughout their life.

Think of the dignity of dead also. It (media reporting) can be done without naming or shaming them. The dead also have dignity, a bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said while hearing the matter in which senior lawyer Indira Jaising raked up the issue of section 228-A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which deals with disclosure of identity of victims of sexual offences.

The bench, which agreed to examine the aspect related to section 228-A of the IPC, also questioned as to how the identity of a minor rape victim could be disclosed even after getting consent from her parents.

Why should this happen, that the identity of a minor victim be disclosed just because her parents have given consent, the bench asked, adding, Even if a person is of unsound mind, she has a right to privacy. A minor will become major. Why should this stigma be there for life.

Jaising, who is assisting the court as an amicus curiae, said it was necessary for the apex court to clarify section 228-A of the IPC.

She said there cannot be a blanket ban on the media from reporting such incidents and the apex court would have to balance freedom of press and the rights of the victim.

During the hearing, the bench observed that the issue required clarification. It asked that even in cases where the victim had died, why should there be disclosure of name.

Jaising, without directly referring to the Kathua incident, said in a recent case, the victim had died which had led to demand for justice not only in India but also globally.

The bench said it would examine the issue related to section 228-A of the IPC, after which the Centres counsel sought time to seek instructions. The court then listed the matter for hearing on May 8.

The top court was hearing the petitions filed after the brutal gangrape-and-murder case in Delhi on December 16, 2012 raising concerns over safety and security of women.

Last week, the Delhi High Court had directed 12 media houses to pay a compensation of Rs 10 lakh each for revealing the identity of the Kathua rape victim. These media houses had apologised in the high court for revealing the details of the victim.

While Section 23 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act lays down the procedure for media to report cases of sexual offences against child victims, section 228-A of the IPC deals with disclosure of identity of victims of such offences. The penal law provides for jail term of up to two years along with a fine.

The eight-year-old girl from a minority nomadic community had disappeared from near her home in a village near Kathua in Jammu region on January 10. Her body was found in the same area a week later.

The state polices Crime Branch, which probed the case, has filed the main charge sheet against seven persons and a separate charge sheet against a juvenile in a court in Kathua district. The charge sheet revealed chilling details about how the girl was allegedly kidnapped, drugged and raped inside a place of worship before being killed.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)
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The meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping is expected to be a landmark in bilateral ties, Chinas state media said on Tuesday, adding the summit could emulate the meeting between Rajiv Gandhi and Deng Xiaoping in the late 1980s.

The Modi-Xi meeting in the historic city of Wuhan in central Hubei province later this week has raised expectations of warming ties between the two countries following the extended chill in the aftermath of the Doklam military standoff last year.

The meeting can be as significant as the one in 1988 when Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and then Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi met, and will set the course for bilateral ties, the nationalistic Global Times tabloid said in an editorial on Tuesday.

Indian academia and political circles have agreed the country needs to develop cooperative ties with China. It appears that India is changing its radical attitude toward China highlighted in the Doklam standoff last year, the editorial added.

The tabloid, usually known to be hostile towards India, said Beijing is hoping for friendly ties with New Delhi.

Within China, hostility toward India is being replaced by hopes for friendly ties. The two countries need more communication to enhance mutual trust and eliminate the possibility of another border crisis, it added.

The editorial said the dialogue was between two leaders from countries with ancient wisdom.

China and India have a more robust economic development than other emerging countries and are both independent. Any attempt to manipulate the way they deal with each other will likely fail, it added.

In a separate article, quoting analysts, the tabloid said the meeting between Chinese and Indian leaders this weekend is expected to be a landmark move to sustain the good momentum of significant yet fragile bilateral relations.

How to promote economic cooperation between the two largest developing countries amid the US-driven anti-globalisation trend, and new mechanisms to safeguard peace and avoid border disputes will likely be on the agenda, Zhao Gancheng, director of the Shanghai Institute for International Studies Center for Asia-Pacific Studies, told the newspaper.

As India moves toward greater global influence, it also becomes a strategic part of the US agenda to contain Chinas influence in the Asia-Pacific region, the article noted.

However, India should stay clear and independent to avoid being used as a pawn, said Hu Zhiyong, a research fellow at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Institute of International Relations.

Asian powers and emerging countries, both China and India share many common interests in international affairs. They both have to strive for the right to develop and face Western pressure on issues like trade and intellectual property rights. There is large room for economic cooperation, the article said.
A day after he rejected the Oppositions notice for the impeachment of Supreme Court Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Rajya Sabha chairman Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday defended his stand and said he took a timely, not hasty, decision.

At a meeting with Supreme Court lawyers on Tuesday, Naidu said, Some Honble Members of the House had a point of view and the right to express it while I had a responsibility cast on me. I have done my job and am satisfied with it.

On Monday, Naidu rejected a notice by six Opposition parties including the Congress for the removal of Chief Justice Dipak Misra. He maintained that the notice lacked substantial merit and that the allegations were neither tenable nor admissible.

His decision left Opposition leaders such as Sitaram Yechury complaining that it was another step to destroy the independence of the judiciary.

Chief Justice of India is the highest judicial functionary of the country and any issue in public domain concerning him requires to be resolved at the earliest following prescribed procedures so as to prevent the atmosphere from being further vitiated. Issues raised in the notice mostly pertained to the functioning of the Supreme Court and they have to be resolved internally. Any other means of seeking to address them amounts to interference in the independence of judiciary, an unfazed Naidu said on Tuesday.

Even as the Opposition has threatened to challenged Naidus order in the Supreme Court, officials pointed out that it was not the first such instance.

The lawyers referred to a similar notice against Supreme Court Judge JC Shah rejected by the then Lok Sabha Speaker G S Dhillon and Justice Shah later becoming the Chief Justice of India. They also recalled that a notice for removal of Justice PD Dinakaran was admitted within three days, a release from the Rajya Sabha chairmans office said.
In my view, the Vice Presidents decision to reject the removal motion is the correct decision.

A public perception set in after the four judges held a press conference in January that they supported the impeachment. But that is not true. That conference had nothing to with impeachment.

I feel this impression should be removed or else the public will always suspect that they (four judges) were in favour of the impeachment.

The point here is that judges come and go. However, its the Supreme Court, the final interpreter of justice, which needs to be preserved.

The Vice President has the statutory power to reject or accept the petition under the law.

He needs to decide on the maintainability of the petition. What he has done is correct because there is no credible allegation against the chief Justice.

Whoever wants to challenge (the Vice Presidents decision) can do so. The law allows them to do so.

In such a situation he (CJI) cannot hear the case himself. He has to mark it to some other judge. The CJI cannot take the plea. There is nothing in the rules that bars him from marking the case to anyone else. He is the master of the roster.

Its unfortunate and sad to see that advocates (who are MPs) have signed such a petition.

We advocates practise in courts. This is all happening in the political sphere. I am not a politician so I cannot say anything on numbers [whether Congress has enough support or not to have gotten the motion through had it been admitted].

(The author is a Constitutional expert and senior advocate)

(As told to Bhadra Sinha)
Jodhpur turned into a fortress on Tuesday with stringent security measures and prohibitory orders in place a day before a court in the Rajasthan city delivers its ruling on a case of alleged rape by self-styled godman Asaram.

The authorities are trying to ensure theres no repeat of the kind of chaos that followed the August 2017 conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Insan in a rape case. At least 11 people died in Panchkula in violence that followed that court order.

The Centre asked the Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana governments to tighten security and deploy additional forces; the three states have a large number of followers of the 79-year-old Asaram.

In a communication, the Union home ministry told the three states to reinforce security and ensure that no violence takes place after the judgment in the Asaram case on Wednesday. The three states were also told to deploy additional forces in sensitive places, a home ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

Rajasthan police conducted a flag march around the Jodhpur central jail on Tuesday evening led by deputy commissioner of police (East) Amandeep Singh Kapoor.

Kapoor said the police had taken steps to ensure there was no law and order situation, considering that Asaram has a huge following in the state and across India. He said no one except those authorised to be present there will be allowed near the jail on Wednesday.

Read: Asaram Bapus journey from puritanical preacher to rape accused

While prohibitory orders under section 144 of the criminal procedure code, banning the assembly of five or more persons, are in place in the Jodhpur Police Commissionerate area since April 21, Kapoor said 1,500 police personnel will be deployed around the Central Jail premises, railway stations, roadways bus stand and court premises on Wednesday.

More security personnel have been deployed in other parts of the city and in the outskirts to prevent Asaram followers from creating any law and order problems.

Police also said that hotels and dharamshalas were being checked to ensure that Asarams followers would not be able to congregate. All hotels have been asked to keep a record of all guests and inform police if his (Asaram) followers come, said a police officer.

Police have asked the Railways and Roadways authorities to remain vigilant and report the presence of any individual followers of Asaram. Security personnel have been deployed at the Jodhpur railway station and at major bus stops.

A personal security officer has been deployed for the security of the judge Madhusudan Sharma and police personnel have been deployed at his residence.

Asarams sprawling ashram in Jodhpurs Pal village wore a deserted look with a dozen policemen camping outside the main gate. The ashram has been cleared of Asaram followers.

Traffic has been prohibited on Wednesday between Nai Sadak crossroad and Badu House and between the Railway Station (Gate number 2) and Jodhpur central jail from 6 am. School buses and emergency vehicles would be exempted from the ban.

The court had on April 7 reserved its judgment in the case for April 25 after the final arguments that stretched for over five months were completed. The state had appealed in the high court that the verdict be pronounced in the jail premises to prevent any breach of peace.

A minor girl had in August 2013 accused Asaram of rape at his ashram in Manai village near Jodhpur. The girl, who belonged to Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh, was a student in a school run by Asarams trust in Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh and lived in the hostel.

Asaram was arrested on September 1, 2013 from his ashram in Indore and sent to the Jodhpur central jail.

The verdict will be given in a in a court room within the Central Jail premises by a special judge of the court under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. If convicted, Asaram faces a minimum jail term of 10 years.
The notice for the removal of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra was largely driven by two opposition leaders, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal.

Yechury was quite vocal about the plans. On January 23, six days before the commencement of the budget session of Parliament, he said: We are discussing with Opposition parties the possibility of an impeachment motion against the chief justice in the budget session.

Yechurys initiative came at a time when his political line of a broader understanding, including with the Congress, was facing resistance in the party. (Yechurys line was eventually upheld at the party congress, the highest-decision making body of the CPI(M) in Hyderabad last week).

Yechury convinced opposition parties such as the Nationalist Congress Party of the need to move forward on the issue.

The Trinamool Congress, after showing initial interest, didnt sign the petition. In fact, its leaders such as lawyer Sukhendu Sekhar Roy vehemently opposed the move.

The DMK too stayed away. The Rashtriya Janata Dal took the position that its members would be the last to sign since their leader Lalu Prasad faced serious legal challenges and their support for the motion could be construed as being driven by a desire for vengeance (they eventually did not sign).

Soon after the four Supreme Court judges held a press conference, I spoke to both Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi on the need to move an impeachment motion, Yechury said.

His reference was to the January 12 conference of the four senior-most judges of the apex court after the CJI.

The four raised objections to the CJIs style of functioning, including his choice of judges to whom key cases would be alloted.

There didnt seem to be too many takers for Yechurys suggestion. The CPI(M) leader said Rahul Gandhi conveyed to him the divide within his party on the issue the day former President Pranab Mukherjee hosted a dinner on the launch of his foundation on March 15.

Thats where Sibal came in. Several members of the Congress, especially lawyers, were opposed to the party supporting the move.

Former law ministers Salman Khurshid and Ashwani Kumar  neither are MPs  were opposed to the move. Congress spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Abhishek Manu Sanghvi initially had reservations but eventually toed the party line.

In the face of the internal division, Sibal played a key role in mobilising opinion both within the party and with allies, said a leader familiar with the development. He was regularly in touch with Rahul Gandhi on the issue, added this person who asked not to be identified.

Sibal, with his grasp over legal affairs, presented the strongest pro-notice viewpoint and laid out the scenarios if Congress went ahead. To keep the option of going ahead with the notice open, the Congress, during the post-recess budget session, got the signatures of over 50 MPs  but held back from giving it to the chair.

Former PM Manmohan Singh and ex-finance minister P Chidambaram were deliberately kept away from the process. While Singh was not involved being a former Prime Minister, Chidambarams signature was not sought in view of the cases pending against his son.

On the morning of April 19, the leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, called up Yechury to inform him that the Congress was going ahead, and to invite him for a meeting the following day. Yechury, in Hyderabad at the time, said he couldnt attend the meeting but fully backed the move. The process eventually ended with the man who had started it.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) detained one more person in Kothkai rape and murder case on Monday. We are interrogating him, said a CBI officer, posted in Shimla, pleading anonymity.

The development comes on a day when the CBI took a key suspect (who was arrested on April 14) to the crime spot  Dandi forest, 60km from Shimla. By noon, the team was back to its regional office in Shimla along with the accused.

Later, they took the accused to Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) and Hospital for a medical examination.

The CBI has not revealed the arrested persons name yet. The key suspect was arrested on April 14 and was taken to Delhi for interrogation. The court had sent him to police remand till April 25.

Meanwhile, locals in Mahasu area gathered at the crime spot after the news spread among people. However, the CBI team had left by that time.

CBI spokesperson RK Gaur said the investigation agency will file a fresh status report in Himachal Pradesh high court on April 25. We have nothing to reveal as of now. Key suspect has been arrested and the probe is still on, he said.

The CBI sources said, We are yet to conclude the investigation. However, the CBI is not going to file a conclusive report on April 25.

Himachal Pradesh high court is monitoring the probe and has summoned the CBI director for May 9. The CBIs recent move being covert has left people in Shimla suspicious.

There are rumours that the youth arrested on April 14 was hired by locals to cut woods when the Gudiya (name given to the rape victim)  a Class-10 student  was raped and murdered. People in Mahasu region and Shimla took the matter to social media and started speculating details of the accused in the CBI custody.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping will have free-flowing discussions on a wide range of topics in their several one-on-one meetings during an informal summit in Wuhan later this week, officials said in Beijing on Tuesday.

There is no formal agenda for the summit, officials said, adding that it will give the two leaders an opportunity to engage freely. The discussions have not been planned in a structured way and the two leaders are not expected to compare notes and tick off specific issues one by one, they added.

Modi will directly fly to the city of Wuhan in central Chinas Hubei province on the evening of April 26 and meet Xi several times over the next two days.

Most of the meetings will strictly be between the two leaders  along with interpreters  as they take stock of the broad aspects of bilateral, regional and international issues, officials said.

Specific issues such as the impasse over Indias entry to the Nuclear Suppliers Group or Beijing repeatedly blocking Pakistan-based terror suspect Masood Azhar from being proscribed at the United Nations are unlikely to be discussed.

The Hindustan Times first reported on March 17 that Modi and Xi would meet informally in China.

The idea of the summit germinated during the meeting of the two leaders during the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) summit held in the city of Xiamen in south China last September.

Modi and Xi had met for a bilateral meeting during the BRICS summit, days after the militaries of the two countries had disengaged following the long standoff at Doklam near the Sikkim border.

The ties between the two countries, key economies in Asia and partners in various regional groupings such as the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), have been strained in the past year after the Doklam border standoff.

Two countries have also been at loggerheads over the Belt and Road initiative, Beijings resistance to bring Pakistan-based militant Masood Azhar under the UN sanctions and Chinas reservations over India becoming a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

Prime Minister Modi is likely to continue his efforts, started in September 2014 in Ahmedabad, to improve relationships with Xi despite the fear of another incursion by the Chinese army like that in Chumar soon after their meeting.

Since taking over as the Prime Minister, Modi has made it a point to keep in touch with world leaders at a personal level, and particularly with Xi as he believes the only gainer out of poor India-China relationship is Pakistan, analysts have said.

Xi, on his part, has also positively responded whether it was the resolution of Chumar in 2014 or Doklam in 2017 issues after Modi personally intervened, the analysts said.
How did Amarkantak, a town once lush with perennial rivers, streams, tributaries, wetlands, even swamps, at an elevation of 1,048m, come to be so dry as to now fear forest fires?

Several factors, some of neglect and wilful destruction, have contributed to its drying out, namely: mining, impact to the bauxite substrata, deforestation, construction, sand mining and rampant water pollution. Everything that dries up the source contributes.

The trajectory to poor river health has taken a turn in the last five to six years.

In April 2012, researchers Nidhi Gupta, Pankaj Pandey, Jakir Hussain studied the Physico Chemical Evaluation of Narmada river water at Kalghat in Madhya Pradesh.

The study found Narmada water safe for domestic and irrigation purposes.

In 2014, the Central Pollution Control Board found the Narmada polluted in stretches from Garudeshwar to Bharuch in Gujarat; and Mandla to Bheda Ghat, and Sethani Ghat to Nemawar in Madhya Pradesh. It noted that utilisation of water resources was at a low 23% and that despite over drawing of ground water and salt water incursions, the Narmada, among other rivers in peninsular India, had a surplus supply of water.

In 2015, the Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) level in the river was found to be 7.1mg (permissible levels are 3 mg).

By 2016, with untreated sewage from 52 cities being dumped into the river, Prof Mukesh Katakwar, of the Department of Chemistry, Govt PG College, Pipariya, Hoshangabad, in his study of Narmada river water published in the International Journal of Chemical Studies was observing that the poor Dissolved Oxygen levels (DO) indicated: The water quality of Narmada river may not be in a position to sustain the aquatic life and not suitable for using domestic purpose.

The more the river water reduced during the non-rainy seasons, the greater was its pollution.

The Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board this year began installing real-time water quality testing facilities at Omkareshwar, Bhopal, and 14 locations. While the Water Quality Index Report for Feb 2018 marks the river as satisfactory, it omits mentions of MPN index (a measure of bacteriological content) between Narsighur and Nemawar, only discreetly marking its as B category of the bureau of Indian Standards after the confluence of the SPM nallah.

Since 2017, the MP government has begun a monthly and annual monitoring of the water in the river.

A fundamental change has been to the temperature of the river, according to a January 2017 study by Utpal Bhaumik of the Central Inland Fisheries Institute (since retired). The main cause would appear to be the dams on the river and other developmental projects.

The projects and the dams have also affected silt levels. Catchment denudation caused high silt contents in the run-off waters and the river, increasing chloride values increasing in the lower plains (6153248 ppm) because of the decrease in freshwater discharge from upstream. This would slowly begin to alter the ecological balance of the river. The source holding stable is the last thing keeping the Narmada from complete imbalance. Now, even that is under stress.

The estimation of how much of a river comes from base flow component (the amount of ground water flowing into a river where the water table intersects the streambed), has many variables. For the Narmada, it is estimated to be 20-to 22%; 60% of it is rain fed. Once there were seven supporting rivers feeding in to the source.

The Narmada first rises out of a spring now housed by a temple known as Mai Ki Bagiya, in Amarkantak.

The river is worshipped 5 km away, at the Narmada kund, from where she gushes forth after travelling underground. But untouched by worship or ceremony, the real source of the river lies in a spring that is now a village well.

Now operational only in the monsoons, it used to be a perennial gush of water that split into two streams: the Savitri river, swerving left to what remains now of the algae-ridden Savitri reservoir, before it fed into the Narmada. And the Son, which travelled right.

Locals who have filed applications before the NGT have done the groundwork. From applicant Sanjay Tiwari to a retired forest official, Virendra Kumar Mishra, professor of environmental sciences at the neighbouring Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, local sadhus and saint, elders and others, the origins of the other rivers that fed into the source of the Narmada have been mapped and documented for over 20 years, from when it was first warned they were going to dry up.

The Gayatri river is also bound by a brick well marked by a small orange temple. Such was the gush that when SD Khare was secretary (Judicial) to the Government Home Department of then Rewa, Vindhya Pradesh, in 1952, he erected a dam to contain its waters.

A woman sits in meditation at the Amarkantak, source of the Narmada River. (Gayatri Jayaraman)

The dam still stands, but contains nothing more than a puddle of water. The source of the Kapildhara river, known more by the waterfall on the rivers course, along with the Arandi river has also disappeared. In the ridge behind the Madhya Pradesh Tourism Corporations resort, the careless construction of a road has cemented and tarred the site of the natural spring that gave rise to the Amravati river in one direction and the Vaitarni river in the other.

Behind the Narmada kund, where a canal was built to connect the flows of the Savitri and the Gayatri, is a trickle of a gutter, accumulating the residue of the pilgrim influx.

The most thriving source of water, and the only one that now backs up the Narmada, lies within the ASIs Kalachuri temple complex  known locally as surya kund or brahma kund. All the others only come into existence during the monsoons. And these are only the rivers that performing a supporting role to the Narmada, seven more springing from this same town to support the Son, apart from the Johila river, which run in different directions. For the rest of the year ridges in the soil remain to tell their tale.

Its been an environmental battle this town has been fighting since 1986. When KCS Acharya was chief secretary of MP in 1985 (to 1988), he filed a comprehensive report of factors impacting the zone, from its jurisdictional divisions to the impact of mining.

On the basis of it, in 2000, Amarkantak was marked as a biosphere reserve, more to attract tourists and buy into the buzz of ecotourism rather than out of any real need to preserve it.

This report also became the basis of Sanjay Tiwaris petition filed to the NGT in 2015. This was followed by a flurry of petitions by local organisations equally interested in preserving the ecosystem, from NGOs, even the ABVP. Steering committee teams have conducted consistent surveys in the town. Expert panels have been formulated. But report after report of findings have lain unactioned, some members claim.

The intended refashioning of Amarkantak into a mini smart city now has locals worried that it will invoke rampant construction and influx without implementation of even prior NGT orders.

To understand the rivers decline it is important to go into what has disturbed the source. The man leading the battle charge against the Madhya Pradesh government for over a decade has been Justice Daleep Singh, at the NGT, in response to PILs by concerned social organisations, religious groups, and the ABVP. His judgements are also the only place where the larger picture of minor interdepartmental responsibilities and lapses come into picture. Responding to a combined four petitions on the subject of pollution in the Narmada in November 2017, Justice Singh observed:

It is necessary to understand that the river Narmada has a unique position geographically, ecologically and environmentally apart from having an economic impact on the lives of the people of the region and that the various multi-purpose and irrigation and hydel projects which have come up, its impact is being felt not only in the two states of M.P and Gujrat but as far as Rajasthan and Maharashtra.  the eco-system of the Narmada valley the Vindhyan mountains of Amarkantak which ensures a perennial flow into the river needs to be preserved at all cost so that we ensure the perennial flow of water into the river

The Narmada basin extends over an area of 98,796 sq. km. The river flows westwards over a length of 1,312 km before draining into the Arabian Sea. The average annual rainfall in the basin is 1178 mm, 90% of which is received during the monsoon months (June to September). Situated in a core earthquake zone, the Narmada lies in a rift valley formed of basaltic flows.

About 32% of the basin is forested, 45% being the net sown area with an average cropping intensity of 135%.

The source sits in a ridge made of basalt rock, which has water retaining properties that it then releases through a drip mechanism. Hence, the towns water table was always high. It has now dropped by 30% at source. In 2017, Madhya Pradesh received 27.69% less than average rainfall affecting 97% of the Narmadas catchment area.

This year has seen the lowest availability of water with the Narmada Control Authority pegging it at 14.66MAF.

Even as Gujarat writes to Madhya Pradesh demanding more water be released as per the water sharing agreement, given that the original agreement didnt take into account future population growth, heres the open secret no ones thought to factor in: governments dont get to decide how much water the river has to give, the river does.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday said nothing would materialise if the money from the Nirbhaya fund is not properly spent on womens welfare.

We have been spending time for the benefit of women and children. Unless the fund is spent, we can go on talking about it, but nothing will materialise, a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta observed and added, there are so many things which we have to do for the welfare of women and children.

The apex court sought details of the funds allocated to the states by the Centre under the scheme, announced by the Centre in 2013 after the December 16, 2012 gang-rape and murder case in Delhi to support initiatives on womens safety across the country.

It said there was no lack of funds under the scheme but the issue was of its proper utilisation. Huge amount of funds were available but its ineffective channelisation should be taken care of, it stressed.

Senior lawyer Indira Jaising, who is assisting the court as an amicus curiae in the matter, raised the issue of low conviction rate in India in cases of sexual assaults and said one of the reasons for this was that the authorities were unable to support the victims throughout the trial of these cases.

She said some interim compensation should be paid to the victims of sexual assault without waiting for the outcome of the case, as the purpose of the victim compensation scheme was to rehabilitate her and support her during the trial also.

Regarding the victim compensation scheme, Jaising said the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) has proposed a comprehensive scheme on victim compensation for across the country.

She also stressed the need for proper security arrangements in public transport system while referring to the December 16, 2012 incident that had happened in a moving bus here.

The bench referred to a one stop centre in Hyderabad where every service, including counselling facility and medical facility, were available for victims of sexual assaults.

It said it would take up the issue of victim compensation scheme on May 8 while the matter pertaining to utilisation of the Nirbhaya fund would be heard in July.

Earlier, the Centre had told the apex court that it was finding it difficult to get the cooperation of states on the issue relating to disbursal of compensation to the victims of sexual assault under the Nirbhaya scheme.

Several petitions were filed in the Supreme Court after the December 16, 2012 incident in Delhi raising concerns over the safety and security of women. All the petitions were tagged by the apex court and several directions have been issued from time to time in this regard.
The setting for Prime Minister Narendra Modis two-day informal summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping on April 27 and 28 is, aptly, informal: by the scenic East Lake in the historic city of Wuhan and likely at the late Mao Zedongs private villa, according to people familiar with the matter.

Modi will be flying straight to Wuhan, and the two leaders are expected to get into a huddle immediately after he lands on the afternoon of April 27. He is expected to have another session with Xi on the morning of April 28, and return the same afternoon.

READ: Warm handshakes to border standoffs: Highs and lows in India, China ties

As the very nature of informal summits goes, its all about the leaders discussing issues, sharing their vision in an informal set up, said a government official on condition of anonymity

HT first reported on March 17 that Modi and Xi would meet informally in China.

The meeting will be at a picturesque locale on the banks of the famous East Lake. And as informal summits are structured, the meetings are all about the one-to-one engagement of the two leaders, said a diplomat on conditions of anonymity. The two leaders will have their own interpreters.

The most significant landmark on the banks of the lake is the famous villa of late chairman Mao Zedong, Mei Ling, which is lined by pines, bamboos and plum trees.

It used to be the retreat for chairman Mao and the top leadership of the Chinese Communist Party.

There is another Wuhan connection: it is the home town of Chinese ambassador to India, Luo Zhaohui.

It will be an honour for me to see this historic event in my home city, the envoy said in a video message.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be accompanied by senior officials including national security advisor Ajit Doval.

READ: Backchannel deliberations got Modi, Xi together but will Wuhan bear fruit?
Police in Indore filed a complaint against unknown persons on Monday evening after the woman allegedly sexually harassed on Sunday night approached them following several attempts by the department to locate her, a senior official said on Tuesday.

We sent several messages to her through media and also through her Twitter account while giving our phone numbers but she did not come forward since the morning. It was difficult for us to locate her as she had untagged us, Indores deputy inspector general Harinarayanchari Mishra said.

It was only after we managed to locate her that she lodged the FIR under Section 354 of IPC (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) in the evening, the senior official added.

He said a team led by city superintendent of police Vijay Nagar has been constituted to investigate the case.

Had she dialled 100 or contacted any of the police stations or officers immediately after the crime it would have made our task in tracking down the criminals easier. Our phone numbers are available on the police departments website, Mishra added.

The woman, who described herself as an Indore-based model and actor, had alleged in a series of tweets on Monday that two men tried to pull down her skirt on a road in Indore while she was riding her scooter on Sunday, adding that it was her right to wear what she wished.

She cannot be named because of laws protecting the identity of sexual harassment victims.

Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan instructed the state director general of police and the Indore collector to take immediate action after her Twitter posts became viral.

Yah ek sharmnaak harkat hai, inko dhoondhkar jald karyavahi ki jay. Indore collector and DGP turant karyavahi Karen evam mujhe is vishay par jaankari den (It is a shameful act. They must be found out and there should be immediate action. Indore collector and the DGP must act immediately and inform me about the matter), tweeted Chouhan in the morning.

She said she was driving a two-wheeler when two men on a motorcycle molested her and shouted: dikhao skirt ke niche kya hai (show us whats underneath). She lost control of her scooter when she tried to stop the men and fell down.

Those guys dont have any right to harass me because WEARING A SKIRT DOESNT GIVE YOU A RIGHT TO BEHAVE LIKE THAT [SIC].

A man who offered help allegedly faulted her for wearing a skirt. I have never been so offended, she said.

These scars will fade but not the ones on my soul, the woman said, posting pictures of the injuries she suffered while trying to fend off the assault by the two men.

Her tweets went viral, inviting comments from all over. Most people supported her decision to speak out and urged her to approach the police.

I want to thank everyone who has come forward to support me. Im just an ordinary girl, and I needed my story to be heard. Not just for me, but also for all those girls who didnt dare to do the same, the woman tweeted later.
Four militants, a policeman and an army jawan were killed in an encounter in restive south Kashmir on Tuesday, said officials. Four terrorists of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) have been killed in the encounter in Tral, said deputy inspector general of police, south Kashmir range, Amit Kumar.

The identities of the slain militants were being ascertained at the time of filing this report.

Police personnel Latif Gojri, a follower in the force and resident of Tral in Pulwama district, and army soldier Ajay Kumar were killed during the gun-battle.

The state police, 42 Rashtriya Rifles of the Indian Army and the 180 Battalion of the CRPF, jointly carried out the operation in the Gatengo Laam forest area of Tral, the hometown of slain Hizbul Mujahedeen commander Burhan Wani whose killing had triggered the summer unrest of 2016 that left around 100 people dead.

The spokesperson added that incriminating materials including arms and ammunition were recovered from the spot.
The informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping will be marked by practical cooperation and personal chemistry, officials familiar with preparations for the meet said.

The two leaders will meet in the Chinese town of Wuhan on April 27 and 28 to talk about their shared vision of the bilateral ties, they said.

This is the meeting between two strong leaders of two major countries in Asia, discussing the state of the relationship and how they would like to see the ties moving ahead in the days and years to come... Its all about practical cooperation and the personal chemistry between the leaders, who would discuss all aspects of the relationship, the region and more, a diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

The ties between the two countries, key economies in Asia and partners in various regional groupings such as the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), have been strained in the past year after a border standoff in Doklam region.

A host of issues piled up, which virtually came in the way of practical cooperation that the two countries would have forged despite having their healthy differences. But the fact that the two countries could defuse all the possible flashpoints in the ties showed the resilience in the ties and how the top leadership sees their relationship, another government official said.

The practical cooperation, he insisted, can be stepped up in a host of areas such as economic relations, counter-terrorism efforts, regional security architecture, climate change, working for an Asian century and strengthening multilateral organisation.

Another official said the way the US sees multilateralism, often undermining it, gives an opportunity to countries such as India and China to come together to discuss issues related to it.

So in other words, the leaders would get a chance to discuss their larger vision for the region and the world, the second official said.

Two countries have also been at loggerheads over the Belt and Road initiative, Beijings resistance to bring Pakistan-based militant Mazood Azhar under UN sanctions and Chinas reservations over India becoming a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

The officials also said the summit would give an opportunity for the leaders to put their personal chemistry to work. Prime Minister Modi gave a public reception to President Xi in September 2014. Xi returned the gesture by receiving Xi in his hometown in Xian in May 2015. Whenever they had met, the leaders gave the indication that they are keen on taking the ties forward and they see it as a very important bilateral partnership, the official said.

The informal summit will highlight the personal friendship and enhance personal chemistry between the two leaders, said Luo Zhaohui, Chinas ambassador to India.
Maharashtra police said they had gunned down 37 armed Maoists in 48 hours in two gunbattles in south Gadchiroli of the state.

At least six Maoists were killed in a gunfight in Nainer jungle near Jimalgatta village on Monday evening and 15 more bodies were recovered from the site of Sundays shootout in which 16 rebels had died.

Police said that among the bodies recovered initially from the Rela-Kasnasur forest, two were senior members of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), identified as Srinu alias Srikant, who was in charge of the south Gadchiroli division of the extremist organisation, and Sainath, alias Dolesh Madhi Atram. Srinu and Sainath carried a reward of Rs 20 lakh and Rs 12 lakh on their heads.

Among the 37 dead militants who were killed in the two encounters, 19 were women, including 18-year-old Suman Kulyeti, a platoon member, who carried a Rs 4 lakh reward on her head.

Security forces have recovered 15 decomposing bodies of the Maoists, including two women, floating in Indravati river on Tuesday morning, said Abhinav Deshmukh, superintendent of police (SP) of Gadchiroli. The combing operation in the area is still on. Some weapons were also recovered.

The latest encounter between the Maoists and commandos of the elite C-60 force took place on Monday evening at a site that is 60 km from the scene of Sundays gunbattle. Six Maoists were killed in the encounter and four of them were women, Deshmukh said.

C-60 commandos, along with district police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers, have been engaged in an intense search in south Gadchiroli since Saturday evening, resulting in the fresh encounter on Monday, he added.

One of the slain Maoists, Nandu Atram, was the Aheri dalam (squad) commander and carried a reward of Rs 16 lakh on his head.

The search operation was stopped on Sunday evening until Monday afternoon because of heavy rain in the area and lack of sufficient personnel. A combing operation was again launched since Monday evening to search bodies in Indravarti river and 15 more bodies were recovered, said deputh inspector general (Gadchiroli range) Ankush Shinde.

Maharashtras additional director general of police (special operations), D Kanakaratnam, who visited the spot on Tuesday afternoon said only 21 of the slain Maoists had been identified so far. The identified extremists carried a collective reward of Rs 1.09, he said.

We had information about the movement of Perimili dalam (squad) of the CPI (Maoist) near Tadgaon. So, we launched an operation on Saturday evening. On Sunday, around 9.30am, an encounter ensued that continued for hours. This is the first time that two divisional committee members of the CPI (Maoist) were killed in a single operation, said Shinde.
South Korean company Kangnam Corporation has responded to Indias expression of interest to build minesweepers in the country under a Rs 32,640 crore programme, a senior government official said on Tuesday, after an earlier deal failed on the grounds of high costs.

The government issued an expression of interest on March 21 after earlier negotiations with Busan-based Kangnam to build 12 mine-countermeasure vessels (MCMVs) at the state-owned Goa Shipyard Ltd (GSL) collapsed at the final stage.

Kangnam has responded to the EoI and we are expecting Italian yard Intermarine and maybe a few more shipbuilders to respond, said GSL chairman Rear Admiral (retd) Shekhar Mital.

Foreign shipbuilders can respond to the expression of interest by May 10.

This is Indias third attempt in a decade to strengthen its navys mine warfare capabilities. Navies deploy minesweepers to secure harbours by locating and destroying mines.

As reported by the Hindustan Times on January 8, talks with Kangnam failed the last time as the two sides were unable to resolve commercial complications. Kangnam had competed with Intermarine for the project.

The government scrapped a deal in 2014 to build minesweepers in India in partnership with Kangnam, amid allegations that the South Korean firm had hired middlemen to swing things in its favour.

The navys present mine counter-measure force consists of six vessels bought from the erstwhile Soviet Union in the late 1970s. It requires at least 24 minesweepers to secure major harbours in the country, navy officials said.

The scenario is likely to worsen in the coming years as the existing minesweeper fleet is on its way to be decommissioned this year.

The navy would be without a single minesweeper till 2021, warned a March 2017 parliamentary report on the alarming decline in naval force levels. With the programme being delayed further, the navy is likely to be without minesweepers even beyond 2021.

The construction of the first vessel was supposed to begin in April 2018 and deliveries of all the 12 minesweepers were to be completed between 2021 and 2026.

GSL has spent hundreds of crores on creating an infrastructure to kick off construction of the vessels, which are expected to have 60% indigenous content.

Facilities have been created for building glass-reinforced plastic hulls, a design that reduces the ships magnetic signature and allows safer navigation through waters that are mined. These underwater weapons can detonate on contact, or be activated by magnetic and acoustic signatures.
The 11-year-old girl found raped and murdered in Surat earlier this month was brought to the city by human traffickers along with her mother, who too was murdered, Gujarat police said on Tuesday.

DNA tests established that a woman whose body was found from the Pandesara area in Surat on April 9 was the mother of the minor, the crime branch of the Ahmedabad Police said in a press statement. The minor was found dead in the same area with 86 separate injuries on her body on April 6.

Mother and daughter were sold multiple times before they came to Surat with Harsh Gurjjar, a tile-fitting contractor, in October 2017. The main accused Harsh had bought them from Kuldeep Gurjjar and Mukesh Gurjjar from Rajasthan for Rs 35,000, the crime branch said in the statement.

Read: Kathua, Unnao, Etah and Surat: little likelihood of such cases decreasing

Harsh was arrested on April 21 from Rajasthan and is under remand custody till May 2. The police are trying to trace Kuldeep and Mukesh after registering a case of human trafficking along with rape and murder.

As the girl was a witness to her mothers murder, the main accused planned to kill her as well, Ahmedabad crime branch Joint Commissioner of Police J K Bhatt said on Tuesday.

Harsh kept the woman, who was a widow, and her daughter at a flat at the Mansarovar Appartments construction site in Surats Kamej area, police said. They claimed the woman developed an intimate relationship with the contractor over a period of time and was reportedly pressurising him to take them to his house in Surats Pandesara area.

Harsh, who is married with two children, stayed with his family at Someshwar Society in Pandesara. His brother and others working with him live in the same building. The police said they have also been investigating if his wife had a role in the murder of the girls mother.

On March 20, Harsh and another accused Hariom Gurjjar first assaulted the woman in the apartment she was staying. Police said he then took the woman and her daughter away in a car. He strangled the woman in the presence of her daughter who became a mute spectator police said, adding that Harsh then discarded the body in the Pandesara area.

Harsh took the girl back to his flat on April 1. He started sexually assaulting and torturing her after he learnt that she had been revealing information about her mothers murder to neighbours. The police did not say if his family was home when he took her home.

On April 5, Harsh took the girl to the terrace, raped her again before killing her, police said. He then borrowed a neighbours car to dispose the body in a secluded place, not even 5 km from his residence, they added.
The heroes of the successful anti-Maoist operation in Maharashtras Gadchiroli district on Sunday and Monday, in which a total of 37 insurgents were killed, are commandos of the C-60, an elite anti-Maoist squad of the local police.

District police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers deployed in the district were usually unable to speak the local Gondi and Madia languages and were unfamiliar with topography. This resulted in some of them getting trapped in the dense forests and falling victim to armed rebels, police officers said.

In 1992, the then superintendent of police of the district, KP Raghuvanshi, set up the C-60 by recruiting locals familiar with the topography of the area and who could speak the Gondi, Halbi and Madia languages of the local tribespeople.

In 1994, another C-60 team was created, this one specially for south Gadchiroli. Each C-60 squad consists of 60 commandos and a police inspector.

The men of this wing were trained in various aspects of guerrilla warfare by reputed training institutes such as the School of Jungle Warfare. They were also trained by the Andhra Greyhounds, one of the most fearsome anti-Maoist fighting forces in the country.

The Rela-Kasnasur jungle, a dense forest region where the operation took place, is around 15km from Tadgaon, the forest range headquarters and hardly 12km from Hemalkasa, the ashram of Prakash Amte, who runs a charitable hospital for tribals. Bhamragarh, the biggest village of the area, is around 15km from the jungle.

The Indravati river is around half a km from the jungle. The river divides Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh. The famous Indravati tiger sanctuary begins from the river on the Chattisgarh side.

Tapan Mukherjee, a former sub-divisional forest officer, who worked as a ranger in Tadgaon, said it is quite common for Maoists to cross the river.

It is very difficult for any forest personnel to work there smoothly as any action against forest smugglers or poachers would jeopardise the life of forest personnel, thanks to the clout of Maoists in the area, he said.
A 68-year old manager of a theatre was killed, when a customer repeatedly punched him during an argument over increase of parking fee by Rs 10 at Telanganas Vikarabad town, 76 km west of Hyderabad late Sunday night.

The deceased was identified as Y Raghavendra Rao, a resident of Alampally village in Vikarabad district. The body was handed over to his family on Monday night after post mortem. Based on a complaint from the theatre staff, Vikarabad police registered a case against the accused Rajavardhan Reddy, a local contractor from Motibagh Colony in the town, under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code.

Vikarabad police inspector M Venkata Ramaiah said Reddy was taken into custody for interrogation and collection of evidence.

The police said the incident happened at around 10 pm, when the last show of a recently released Telugu film was to be screened at Cinemax Theatre. Rajavardhan Reddy, who was allegedly drunk, entered into argument with the parking lot attendants when they asked him to pay Rs 30 as parking fee for his car.

Reddy asked them why the theatre management increased the parking fee from Rs 20 to Rs 30 without prior intimation and refused to pay additional amount of Rs 10. The theatre manager, who heard the argument between the parking attendants and Reddy, tried to intervene in the matter and pacify him.

But Reddy continued to argue with the manager and in a fit of anger he rained blows on his chest, face and stomach. Rao collapsed on the spot and he was immediately shifted to the government hospital, Vikarabad where he died a few minutes later due to severe chest pain, inspector Ramaiah said.

Rao was a cardiac patient and he could not withstand the punches by Reddy, a hefty and tall man, the theatre employees told the police.
The United Nations Security Council is increasingly unable or sometimes unwilling to respond to the current security challenges with tragic consequences, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said on Tuesday as she pushed for the reform of the world bodys powerful organ.

Swaraj, during her address at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers meeting in Beijing, raised the issue of global terrorism and protectionism.

India, along with Brazil, Germany and Japan, has been seeking expansion of the permanent and non-permanent seats of the UNSC to make the powerful UN body more representative and reflective of the changing global order.

Continuing to push for the reform and expansion of UNSC, she said: It is clear to many of us that the UNSC is increasingly unable, or sometimes unwilling, to respond to the security challenges of our times, with tragic consequences.

We must not lose sight of the fact that reforms of the UN will be incomplete, without reforms in the Security Council to make it more representative of contemporary realities. Since 2008, the international community has carefully nurtured the ongoing Inter Governmental Negotiations at the UN to take our discussions on UNSC reforms forward, she said.

An overwhelming majority of members have expressed their desire to see these negotiations continue on the basis of a text, Swaraj said.

China, which is part of the veto-wielding permanent five members, along with the US, Russia, France and the UK, has not openly supported Indias bid for a permanent seat in the reformed UNSC, and instead called for a package solution accommodating concerns and interests of all parties.

The meeting was also attended by foreign ministers Wang Yi of China, Khawaja Muhammad Asif of Pakistan, Kairat Abdrakhmanov of Kazakhstan, Abdyldaev Erlan Bekeshovich of Kyrgyzstan, Sergey Lavrov of Russia, Sirodjidin Muhridinovich Aslov of Tajikistan, Abdulaziz Khafizovich Kamilov of Uzbekistan, and Secretary General of SCO Rashid Alimov among others.
India and China are looking at continuing the practice of holding informal summits between their leaders should this weeks meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, result in a positive outcome, officials familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

When Modi and Xi meet on April 27-28, they will be accompanied only by their interpreters and there will be no joint statement or communique after the talks. Nor will there be an official note taker, given the informal nature of the meeting, billed as a strategic communication between the leaders of the two countries .

It need not be a one-off meeting, an official said on condition of anonymity. The outcome of this weeks meeting would determine whether more such summits are organized.

Chinese officials said the two sides will attempt to reach a consensus on outstanding issues. The focus will be on discussing issues that are overarching, long-term and of strategic importance to bilateral ties, they added.

Officials in New Delhi said there wouldnt be discussions on individual issues such as Indias bid to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group or the listing of Pakistan-based militants as terrorists by the United Nations. This is in the nature of strategic communication at the highest level. It will be informal, broad-based and overarching, said one person familiar with the format of the informal summit.

However,Chinese vice-foreign minister Kong Xuanyou noted that the level of mutual trust between the two sides is not consistent with the need for better ties. He indicated that the planned heart-to-heart exchanges between Modi and Xi would be a tentative step towards addressing this trust deficit.

Kong said the current level of mutual trust is not consistent with the trend or not consistent with the need for better relations...it is not consistent with our objective of building an even closer partnership.

That is to say, there is still a long way to go to further deepen China-India friendship, he added.

This is the first informal summit Xi is hosting in China. Xi has had informal summits with President Donald Trump and his predecessor Barack Obama in the US.

The officials noted that the meeting is being held in the wake of political realignments across the world, from Syria to Qatar to the Korean peninsula. We reach out to countries individually in our national interest, an official said.

Indian officials noted that a status quo ante exists on Doklam, located at the India-China-Bhutan tri-junction where Indian and Chinese troops were locked in a 73-day military standoff last year. The objective -- that road construction by the Chinese military should not prejudice the understanding on the region -- has been fulfilled, the officials said. Last years stand-off between the two armies was resolved through diplomatic channels.

Kong said the Doklam stand-off occurred because of a lack of mutual trust. At the informal summit, the two leaders will have heart-to-heart discussions on overarching issues and try to build mutual trust and consensus to resolve outstanding differences, he said at a briefing on Tuesday evening.

He added, The two countries need to create conditions and trust between them to resolve the boundary issue.

In terms of some specific differences and sensitive issues, the two sides will stay in touchthrough relevant channelsand in the process of deepening mutual trust, they will gradually find a way to settle them.

Modi will directly fly to Wuhan on the evening of April 26 and meet Xi several times over the next two days. They are expected to go for a walk along the banks of a famous lake in the city.

The idea of the summit germinated at a meeting of the two leaders during the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) in Xiamen in south China last September. Modi and Xi had a bilateral meeting during the BRICS summit, days after the militaries of the two countries disengaged in Doklam.

Explaining the need for an informal summit instead of the usual structured meetings between leaders, Kong said it was important to build rock solid trust between the two leaders. In other words, leaders need to become bosom friends, friends who can have heart-to-heart discussions, he said.
India and China may not be friends, but they are not wholly enemies. Here is a history of the ups and downs of the relationship between Asias two giants ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinpings meeting in Chinas Wuhan city this week.

BREAKTHROUGH, 19881997. Rajiv Gandhis state visit to China in 1988 opens door to ending a diplomatic freeze that goes back to the 1962 war. Chinese Premier Li Peng reciprocated three years later, the first such visit to India in over three decades.

The first of a series of border management agreement is signed in 1995 and the two agree to not use force in settling their territorial disputes a year later.

Curiously, this period of bilateral repair work was initiated by a major border standoff involving tens of thousands of troops at Sumdorong Chu in Arunachal Pradesh that ended in 1987. Beijings isolation after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 also made it more amenable to India.

But, China through the 1980s begins providing the technology that will be the basis of Pakistans nuclear arsenal including a reliable bomb design and missile technology. US study estimates China violated its non-proliferation pledges 15 times during this period, all to help Pakistan.

NUCLEAR WINTER, 1998-2002. Indias nuclear tests in 1998 and New Delhis admission the tests were partly driven by concerns about Chinas military capabilities infuriates Beijing.

China joins other countries in imposing sanctions on India. But is surprised when the US makes a U-turn under Bill Clinton and begins wooing India.

Beijing indicated it was not opposed to India developing its nuclear capacities, but unhappy that New Delhi spoke of China as a nuclear threat to India.

BUT, when the Kargil war broke out between India and Pakistan a year later, China maintained a position of near-neutrality and showed a degree of irritation with Pakistan for having started the incident.

FALSE DAWN, 2003-2006. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee carries out a make-up state visit to Beijing. Two sides agree on status of Tibet and Sikkim. Following year, in 2004, Beijing gives up claims on Sikkim.

By 2006, relations look like they are on a long-term positive trajectory. China hints at supporting Indias bid for a permanent Security Council. Two sides ree on a military exchange programme and Nathu La, a pass between Sikkim and China, is reopened after 44 year gap.

But, while India and China have extremely constructive border negotiations during this time Indian diplomats believe Beijings attempts to act nice to India are driven by concerns that a US-India strategic alliance is under consideration.

ROCKY PATH, 2007-2010. Beijing suddenly becomes more publicly assertive about its claims on Arunachal Pradesh. In 2007 Arunachali Indian official is told in Beijing that he is a Chinese citizen so does not need a visa in 2007. Chinese ambassador calls border state South Tibet, Beijing denounces Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for visiting Arunachal and, by 2010, India has cancelled defence exchanges between the two countries.

Beijing beings stapling visas of Indian Kashmiris to their passports, changing its hands-off posture regarding dispute with Pakistan. Furious India warns it will change its policy on Tibet, forcing China to end visa policy.

Border incidents between the two spike, but noticeably Chinas belligerence in territorial claims on Japanese islands and South China Sea also increases at the same time. View is that after US is weakened by global financial crisis of 2007-08, Beijing sees opportunity to become more assertive in Asia.

But Prime Manmohan Singh was still able to make a state visit to China in 2009. Bilateral trade flourishes, passes $ 50 billion mark and China emerges as Indias number one trading partner.

This file photo taken on July 10, 2008 shows a Chinese soldier (L) next to an Indian soldier at the Nathu La border crossing between India and China in Sikkim. (AFP)

WORLDLY WISE 2010-2018. Wary of Beijings push into the Indian Ocean and its infrastructure expansion into Tibet, Singh governments seeks a maritime dialogue and a final border agreement. Barack Obamas initial overtures to China further fuel a sense that New Delhi needs to work more closely with Beijing.

However, possibly because of an internal succession struggle, Beijing does not respond. Instead, bilateral relations are marred by a series of major border intrusions in the Ladakh and western border areas.

Newly elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi had hoped to build a new relationship on the basis of economics. But his first summit with Xi Jinping was marred by one of the largest border stand-offs in recent years at Chumar, Ladakh, in 2014. Relations worsen with China venting over the Dalai Lamas visit to Arunachal, Indias public opposing the Belt Road Initiative and all of this culminating with the Doklam crisis.

But, the Doklam crisis was followed by the two leaders meeting in Xiamen and agreeing to bring down temperatures. China, already fire fighting on a number of other fronts, indicates it is open to what has been dubbed a reset. This paves the way for the Wuhan summit.
The special TADA court in Jodhpur Central Jail, where Asaram was found guilty of raping a minor girl, was built in 1985 to try accused Sikh militants after Operation Blue Star. The seven-day military operation was carried out in 1984 to take control of Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar and to flush out militants, including Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, holed up inside the gurudwara.

Former jailer of Jodhpur Central Jail, Himmat Singh, remembers there were 364 accused lodged in Jodhpur prison and were tried in this special jail in the erstwhile ward number 2. The court stopped functioning in 1988 after the then Punjab government withdrew cases against the accused and the 364 people were released.

The fast-track court tried cases under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, the anti-terrorism law that was in force between 1985 and 1995 in the backdrop of the Punjab insurgency.

The courtroom is 30 metres by 30 metres and is 25 metres from the main entrance to the prison on the left side, Singh added. It is very close to the barrack where Asaram is lodged.

The offices of the court staff were converted into two barracks after the court stopped functioning, the former jailer said. Asaram is lodged in one of these barracks. When actor Salman Khan was sent to jail after he was convicted of killing two black bucks, he was put in the other, called barrack number 2.

The courtroom has a dais for the judge and two docks in place. Other facilities were removed after 1988 but these remained there until I retired from the jail in 2001, Singh added.

Asarams trial was also held in the courtroom inside the jail for some time until the Rajasthan high court shifted the trial to the special court for SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. In Rajasthan, in every district headquarters, the SC/ST courts are authorised to try cases registered under POCSO (Prevention of Children against Sexual Offences) Act.

On Wednesday morning, special judge Madhusudan Sharma gave his verdict in the jail courtroom with six of his staff  reader, lower divisional clerk, upper division clerk, personal assistant, class IV employee and stenographer.
Employees of the Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) staged a dharna on Tuesday, protesting against restrictions on going out of the office and alleged manhandling by guards.

JMC mayor Ashok Lahoti issued on Monday a directive that no employee can leave the office without permission from department heads.

The employees union alleged that home guards manhandled some staff when they were entering the office. The sit-in was held to protest against the manhandling of and misbehaviour with employees by home guards, JMC Employees Union president Komal Yadav said.

The sit-in was called off after a meeting between the union representatives and JMC officials, chaired by the mayor. At the meeting, the union representatives did not raise the issue of permission to leave the office. The mayor directed officials to take action against the deployed home guards if they were at fault.

On the mayors directive, Yadav said, JMC has no canteen on the premises; the employees may move out for tea and water, and making slips (permission for going out) for such things may create problems.

Many employees, refusing to come on record, opposed the mayors directive, saying field staff cannot make slips again and again to go out for tea. The dharna was against the directive and manhandling of staff, said an employee who sat on dharna outside the mayors office.

Lahoti said, Complaints were received regarding employees absence after marking their attendance. Many officials remain absent in the name of going to the information commission, lokayukta office, directorate of local bodies, and so on.

Peoples work get affected because of officials absence, he said. In many cases, files are stuck for months. An officer in-charge will be appointed who will deal with issues related to human rights, information commission, and so on.

No employee will leave seat after marking attendance; if someone is required to go out, the section in-charge will give a slip and entry will be made in the movement register, he said. From 3pm to 5pm, public is allowed inside the office for their work; employees have to be present on their seats during that time.

Lahoti also asked revenue officials to remove illegal posters and hoardings put up in their zones in the next three days.

In November 2017, Lahoti had issued an order mandating that the national anthem be compulsorily sung by employees at the JMC office at the start of the day and before going home.
Acting against excessive fee hike, director of secondary education Nathmal Didel issued a notice to Jaipurs Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan Vidyashram on Tuesday, asking the private school to submit records and explain the increase or lose recognition.

The notice states that many students and their parents have complained that the school did not form a fee committee in accordance with the norms of the Rajasthan Schools (Regulation of Fee) Act, 2016. It says the school raised fees excessively, violating the 2016 act and 2017 rules.

The school was asked to withdraw the increased fees, and its administration directed to submit relevant records in person to the director and deputy director (secondary education) on April 26.

The school also received a letter from district education officer Ratan Singh Yadav on Monday, which stated that the Education Boards investigation had found the school at fault for increasing fees without following norms.

A parent said on the condition of anonymity that the school has extended the deadline for payment of fees to April 30 from April 25. We will not pay the fees. They are trying to corner us, and are repeatedly asking about our wards details. But we will not back down till they bring the fees down, he said.

When HT contacted Vidyashram schools principal Pratima Sharma, she refused to comment.

Parents of children, studying at Jaipur School in Vidyadhar Nagar, are also protesting against fee hike. The school raised the fees by 22% and set April 15 as the last date of payment.

We are protesting after already paying the fees. We raised our concern with the school administration, but they refused to take us seriously. On Monday, we wrote a letter to ADM North and DEO Yadav, said a parent whose son studies in Class 10 at Jaipur School.

He said around 70-80 parents met the school authorities. They told us that we will now reply to the officials, not to you.

Citing seventh pay commission as the reason behind the fee hike, Jaipur School principal Rekha Narula said, Our school is one of the few that followed the procedures of the Fee Regulation Act and did everything in accordance to it.
After reports of irregularities, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Limited (GPL) has suspended clinical trials at the Malpani Hospital in Jaipur. The hospital had allegedly conducted the trial on 17 people from Churu district.

According to a GPL spokesperson, In the wake of the event of media reports alleging irregularities at the hospital, the company has decided to immediately investigate the matter and suspend the clinical trial at the site.

The company in its statement said, Glenmark has been conducting clinical trials in India and around the world for many years. Patient safety and regulatory compliance are of utmost importance to us. Malpani Hospital in Jaipur is one of the many sites that have recently initiated Phase ll clinical trial for Glenmarks molecule GRC 27864 in patients with moderate osteoarthritis pain. Malpani Hospital has enrolled only three patients in this trial and no adverse reactions have been reported so far. The Phase II study for GRC 27864 has been initiated at 23 sites so far across India and we have not faced any protocol-related issues at any of the sites. For the trial at Malpani Hospital, Glenmark has in place all the necessary regulatory approvals. Glenmark will also fully support and cooperate with the regulatory authorities in any investigation on this trial. As a responsible organisation, we will not compromise the safety of patients. HT has the copy of the statement.

A group of 21 people from Bidasar area in Churu district was brought to Malpani Hospital on Wednesday on the pretext of working as volunteers on a daily wage (between Rs500 and Rs 1000). On Thursday, when the drug was given to them, four of the 21 refused to take the medicine and went back to the village, while the remaining 17 were allegedly given an oesteoarthritis drug for trial.

Nine out of 17 victims of the clinical trial on Friday came to the media and alleged that they were given drugs for trial, after which they suffered from headache, nausea, pain in limbs, dizziness etc.

After reports were published in the media, the state government formed a four-member committee on Saturday to investigate the matter. The team checked the hospital records for five hours and found that three medicine packets, out of 38, received from the company for trial were missing. The hospital administration could not give a satisfactory reply.

On Sunday, a four-member team from the Drug Control General of India (DCGI) of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare from Delhi arrived in Jaipur. The team refused to divulge details and said that the probe is on and will take time.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Ajay Phatak, drug controller-II, Jaipur said, The team has submitted its report to the director public health, which has been sent to DCGI. The DGCI team left Jaipur on Tuesday and submitted its report to the central government.

He said prima facie there are irregularities at the hospital conducting the clinical trial. Initially, they did not give a satisfactory reply about the missing three packets of the drug and later said that the three packets have been used for the clinical trial. The hospital administration initially refused to accept that patients from Churu were admitted to the hospital, later they admitted that 21 people were admitted. Changing statements have created suspicion on the hospital, Phatak added.

He said the team also tried to contact the three patients who were administered the medicine. Two patients refused to accept that they had taken the medicine, while the third patient was not reachable by phone.

Phatak said that another team from DCGI will also probe the matter further.
Technology came to the aid of nine land agitators from restive Bhangar, who were allegedly being prevented from filing nominations to the Bengal rural polls by Trinamool Congress workers over the last few weeks.

The nine managed to exercise their inalienable political right through WhatsApp on Monday.

Residents of a dozen villages in Bhangar have been embroiled in a pitched battle against the ruling party, which is hell-bent on completing a power grid project in the region, since January 2017. Consequently, the region has witnessed a number of clashes between villagers and Trinamool activists over the last one-and-a-half years.

Matters came to a head when some of the agitators decided to stand up to chief minister Mamata Banerjee by contesting the gram panchayat elections. The Trinamool Congress had won all 16 seats in Bhangar unopposed in the 2013 rural polls. To ensure a similarly impressive performance this time, party supporters allegedly put up blockades along all connecting roads to prevent agitators from leaving their villages to file nominations. Left with few options, the latter sent PDF versions of their nomination papers to the block development officer, joint-block development officer and sub-divisional officer through the social messaging platform on Monday afternoon.

They received a response the same night. In compliance with the Honble High Court order dated 23.04.2018 and the direction of the State Election Commissioner, WBSEC bearing no. 1201-SEC/1E-88/2017 received nomination papers of Entajul Khan and eight others of the Polerhat II gram panchayat under Bhangore-II development block today, read a letter issued to the Bhangar agitators through Whatsapp. It was signed by the district panchayat and rural development officer in accordance with the order of the district magistrate, South 24-Parganas.

This mode of filing nominations for an electoral contest is novel in many ways. According to prevalent rules, nominations must be submitted in person at the office of the authority concerned.

The BJP had earlier made a legal appeal for e-filing of nominations, citing alleged violence and intimidation by Trinamool activists. Although the court turned down the plea, it directed the state election commission to extend the period of submitting nominations by a day.

On Monday, the high court directed the state election commission (SEC) to ensure that the 11 candidates from Bhangar were allowed to file their nominations  even if it meant extending the stipulated deadline. The court also asked the poll body to present a compliance report the following day.

We informed the court that despite its previous order asking the SEC to extend the nomination submission date, potential contestants were still being prevented from reaching the designated government offices. When the court enquired about the status of nominations at Polerhat-II from the poll body, it found that only one nomination had been submitted for each of the 16 seats  meaning, uncontested victory for all. So it instructed the SEC to ensure that the 11 candidates were allowed to file their nominations, said Sharmistha Chowdhury, one of the leaders of the agitation.

The problem, however, was far from solved. Candidates who visited government offices in person were still beaten up by alleged supporters of the ruling party. Later that evening, election officials began making phone calls with requests that we submit our nominations. We said it wasnt possible because the activists of the ruling party had laid siege to all government offices in the region. Only then did they send copies of the document informing us that the nomination papers sent over Whatsapp had been accepted, said Alik Chakraborty, the main leader of the Bhangar agitation who is currently evading arrest.

However, it was still doubtful if the nominations  despite being acknowledged by the administration  would hold up to scrutiny at a later stage due to the candidates inability to produce documents as per the prescribed procedure. When Chowdhury expressed this concern before the court on Tuesday, it instructed the SEC to accept the nominations. The poll bodys representative in court agreed to comply.

The Bhangar agitation is spearheaded by the Jami, Jibon, Jibika, Poribesh O Bastutantra Rakha Committee. Although this body is primarily led by the CPI(ML) Red Star, an ultra-Left outfit, it has received the backing of the CPI(M) and the Congress.

A third party also came forward to hail the state poll bodys decision to accept electoral nominations filed through Whatsapp on Tuesday. Its a welcome development, said BJP state president Dilip Ghosh. We are also ready to file thousands of nominations by e-mail.

But Arabul Islam, a former Trinamool Congress MLA from Bhangar, denied all charges of intimidation by party workers. The agitators have created a reign of terror, becoming isolated from the local residents in the process. As they could not get people to contest for them, they created all this drama and pretended as if they were being prevented from filing nominations, he said. Its their handiwork to malign us.

Islams son, Hakimul, is the incumbent chief of the Polerhat II panchayat.
For journalists from print and electronic media, covering the panchayat elections in Bengal has become a high-risk affair. A large number of scribes, including some women, have been assaulted and intimidated ever since the process of filing nomination for the polls began on April 2.

The worst so far came on Monday, April 23, the last day for filing nomination. Across Bengal, several scribes, including two women, were assaulted, kidnapped and threatened with dire consequences if they photographed or reported what they saw.

Read: Gauri Lankesh murder: Heres a list of writers and journalists killed in recent years

A woman working for a Bengali television channel was among two scribes who were attacked at Alipore outside the headquarters of the South 24 Parganas district administration in the heart of south Kolkata. In Burdwan and Birbhum districts, several journalists sustained injuries when they tried to cover the nomination process and the associated violence.

This was not the first time scribes were attacked in Alipore that is within 500 metre of chief minister Mamata Banerjees residence. On April 9, Biplab Mondal, a freelance photographer working for an English national daily was assaulted and stripped to his undergarments after he photographed an illegal gathering of men in Alipore.

The daily registered a complaint with the police on April 10. The chief minister, however, later said the police told her that no such incident took place.

Read: Panchkula violence: Journalists to march against attack on media

The youths wanted to know if I mailed or shared any photo or video on social media before they grabbed me. They searched my phone, but did not find anything. Then they forced me to take off my clothes. Imagine what might have happened if it was a woman in my place, said Mondal.

It is difficult to say how many journalists were attacked since most of the incidents took place in the districts, said Kingshuk Pramanik, secretary of Press Club, Kolkata that condemned Mondays incidents and appealed to the state government to ensure safety for working journalists.

Photojournalists protesting against increasing attacks on them across Bengal. (HT Photo)

Reporters and photographers covering the filing of nomination for panchayat elections are being repeatedly attacked in Bengal. Press Club, Kolkata condemned such attacks in the past and drew the attention of police and administration. In spite of that many journalists were attacked on Monday in Kolkata, Durgapur, Suri and other places, the club said in a statement.

State education minister Partha Chatterjee described the attacks on scribes as unfortunate and accused the BJP and Left of unleashing violence.

Read: Journalists attacked by Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singhs supporters after court verdict

On Monday, Pragya Saha, a female reporter from a Bengali television channel and Aryabhatta Khan, a reporter with a leading Bengali daily, were both kidnapped and intimidated by groups of youths, who were roaming around on motorcycles outside the Alipore administrative building. Most of them had their faces covered.

Around 20-25 youths showered kicks and blows on me after I clicked a photograph of the crowd. They took me away and snatched by phone and wristwatch said Khan.

A group of youths forcefully took me to a room in a slum area. They talked to me in filthy language and confined me for four hours. They threatened to harm my family if I opened my mouth. They formatted my phone and handed me over to some policemen, said Saha.
A 13-year-old girl is in a critical condition after she was allegedly raped and beaten by a 16-year-old juvenile in Uttar Pradeshs Kanpur Dehat district, police said on Tuesday.

The accused, a neighbour, allegedly committed the crime in the presence of his sister in Shivli town on Sunday, said Ratan Kant Pandey, Kanpur Dehat deputy inspector general (DIG).

The juvenile, along with his father and mother, also allegedly beat up the girl, leaving her seriously injured. They threatened her of dire consequences if she dared to speak up, before letting her go home, Pandey said.

The victim, however, narrated the incident to her family, who reported it to Shivli police station on Monday, the officer said.

The girl was admitted to a district hospital, from where she was shifted to Lala Lajpat Rai Hospital in Kanpur. Her condition is said to be critical, the DIG said.

An FIR was registered under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the juvenile has been detained and his parents arrested on Tuesday, he said.

It has been decided to slap relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, he added.

The incident adds to the growing spate of sexual assaults on minors in Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Bihar and other places. The alleged Kathua gang rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl had led to massive protests across the country.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is planning to counter Dalit outreach programme of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by organising cadre camps and holding meetings of its bhaichara committees in Dalit-dominated villages.

Zonal coordinators of the party have been entrusted with the task of holding meetings to make Dalits aware about the BJPs game plan, said a senior BSP leader familiar with the developments in the party.

We will inform Dalits that instead of their welfare, the BJP was only concerned about their votes. BSP has been working for the welfare of weaker sections of the society, he said.

BSP president Mayawati is camping in Delhi to finalise the strategy for 2019 Lok Sabha election as well as Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh assembly polls due this year.

She will also address public meetings in Karnataka which is going to polls on May 12.

When behenji (Mayawati) returns to Lucknow, a meeting of senior leaders and office-bearers will be held to finalise the meetings of cadre camps and bhaichara committees, the leader said.

After its alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP), Mayawati is busy drafting the strategy for the Lok Sabha election. Besides BSP leaders, she is also holding meetings with non-NDA parties including the Congress, TMC, NCP, INLD and RJD. She has already finalised alliance with INLD in Haryana and is trying to widen the anti-NDA front.

In view of her meetings with leaders of various political parties, her stay in Delhi is getting prolonged. She even skipped the programme organised to mark the birth anniversary of Dr BR Ambedkar on April 14, the BSP leader said.

According to sources in the BSP, the Congress is willing to join the SP-BSP front in UP but Mayawati is not ready to open its door for the Congress.

The SP leadership is not averse to the Congress joining the anti-BJP front, they added.

BSP is maintaining a close watch on BJPs sahbhoj (community feast), night halts by its leaders in Dalit-dominated areas, their visits to Dalit memorials, yatras and schemes being launched by the BJP to woo the community.

BSP leaders will visit rural areas of the state to spread behenjis message among Dalits. The recorded message of Mayawati will be played in the cadre camps and bhaichara committee meetings, he said.

BSPs state unit president Ramachal Rajbhar said: Behenji has called upon Dalits to capture the master key of power by ensuring the partys victory in Lok Sabha election.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath held a village chaupal in Kandhai Madhupur village in Pratapgarh and interacted with locals, a practice he wants followed by BJP men in all the approximately 90000 villages of Uttar Pradesh.

Adityanath, who spent the night after dining at a Dalits house, is the first chief minister in a decade to have taken a night halt in a village. He will repeat the same drill on April 26 at Mehndipur village, where his host will be the dalit gram pradhan of the village.

Several villagers, including many women, were seen at the chaupal where Adityanath interacted with villagers, most of whom were OBCs and Dalits, the group BJP is wooing ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The chief minister also gave away kits of Ujjawala Yojana, the scheme being run by ministry of petroleum and natural gas for providing LPG connections to women below poverty line, at the chaupal, obliged mothers by feeding kheer to a new born and said that his government would always be there for them. Village chaupals, dinner at Dalit houses and night halts in villages are part of BJPs gram swaraj campaign that was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 14, Dr Ambedkars birth anniversary.

He also spoke to the villagers about the Jan Dhan Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and the drinking water scheme being run by the government. Adityanath also directed the officials to hold camps to provide ration cards and gas connections within a week to all those who didnt have it. He also ordered officials to read out names of 136 beneficiaries figuring on the list of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.

As soon as the chaupal commenced, the villagers unable to get their voice heard, broke the barrier and reached almost near the stage and started apprising Adityanath about their woes, largely pertaining to official apathy.

The CM realizing the anguish of villagers called Pratapgarh district magistrate Shambhu Kumar along with chief development officer and district panchayat raj officer (DPRO) on stage and made them answer the complaints one by one. He questioned the DPRO as to why toilets were missing from houses and ordered for transferring money in account of beneficiers by tomorrow.

He questioned DM as to why ration cards of villagers were not yet made and why panchayat level officials did not know the count of families residing in the village.

Expressing annoyance Yogi Adityanath ordered holding of week-long special camps in every corner of the village and ensure enrolling of every genuine beneficiary residing in the village in different welfare schemes.

He also warned that he would not leave the place on Tuesday morning after launching of School Chalo Abhiyaan without reviewing work of drinking water scheme in the village.

Its a unique campaign to take the government to the doorstep of the villagers and address their concerns. It will help us create a New India that the PM has been talking of, an India that is strong and self reliant, UP BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey said.

Adityanaths security had a tough time balancing between the chief ministers wish to allow access to villagers and ensuring that there was no security threat. Such village chaupals would continue. We would want to cover all the villages, interact with all of you, Adityanath was heard telling the villagers.

Despite instructions from the chief ministers office to keep it simple, Dayaram Saroj, the Dalit lekhpal, made elaborate arrangements. Anticipating several people, Manju Devi, the lekhpals wife, started preparing for dinner from 4 pm even when Adityanaths chaupal hadnt even begun. The dinner comprised four types of vegetables, chapattis and rice with kheer for dessert. Adityanath praised the preparations before proceeding to upper secondary school campus for the night halt.

Instructions have already been issued not to make any special arrangements like ACs for the chief minister, an aide of the chief minister said.

Though the Gorakhnath temple of Gorakhpur of which Adityanath is the head priest annually organises samarasta bhoj or community feasts, this was only the second occasion since Adityanath dined with dalits after becoming the chief minister on March 19, the first being in June.

That time the dinner at Dalit home had followed after caste violence in Saharanpur. This time it has come amid the likelihood of Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party teaming up against the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Several Dalit MPs of the BJP too had raised questions on their partys handling of issues Dalits hold dear, including reservation for the Dalits.

The chief minister is a monk. When he dines with Dalits, it helps convey the message about our intentions to build a casteless society, a local RSS leader said.
Kharpu, one of the three accused arrested for shooting at Shiv Sena worker Sachin Sawant, 46, in 2010 was acquitted in 2016, according to the Kurar police. Two others, Samar Yadav and shooter Jayendra Singh alias Debu, are still at large.

Sawant was shot dead in Kandivli on Sunday night. According to the Kurar police, in June 2010, the trio barged into Sawants office next to his home in Ganesh Krupa chawl and fired at Sawant.

Sawants younger brother Sanjay said, I was with him before the incident. I left to have food at my house, which was in the vicinity. Soon, others too left. The accused then barged into the office. They fired a bullet which grazed his stomach. He ran after him, but the accused got away.

The Kurar police as well as the crime branch sources said they are revisiting the case and are trying to trace Kharpu. The 2010 attack was over the same SRA project, said police.

Sawant was a site supervisor at an under-construction plot in Malad (E) being handled by Akash Developers.
Twenty-six-year-old Suraj Ramesh Kalav, alias Latikesh, was arrested by the Shivaji Park police on Saturday for duping five people of Rs28 lakh, to splurge on his girlfriend. The accused had taken money from the five people, on the pretext of employing them with the civic body.

The accused has told investigators that he is an alcoholic and frequently makes visits to bars. He is in contact with many girls who work in these bars, and one of them is his girlfriend. He splurged most of his ill-gotten money on her, said a police source.

Latikesh has been arrested on the complaint of Sachin Ghadve and his four friends, all residents of Diva in Thane. The men got acquainted with Latikesh in 2016.

A Currey Road resident, Latikesh, had promised jobs to the complainant and his friends in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and demanded money on the pretext of bribing the officers in BMC to get the respective jobs, said an official of the Shivaji Park police station. Ghadve and his friends fell to Latikeshs lies and between October 2016 and January 2017, they paid him a huge sum of Rs28.12 lakh on different occasions, in the form of cash and cheques, said the official.

After receiving the money, Latikesh began to ignore the phone calls from Ghadve and his friends.

On realising that they had been cheated, the five men approached the police last month. After a month-long hunt, the police succeeded in arresting Latikesh.

During investigations, the police have found that Latikesh is a repeat offender, having cheated people on many occasions previously. Latikesh has been earlier arrested by the Dadar and Kalachowky police for cheating cases. Many more of his victims are turning up before police with his arrest, and fresh cases are likely to be registered against Latikesh soon as the investigation proceeds further, sources said.

Latikesh is booked under IPC sections for criminal breach of trust and cheating, and is in police custody till April 27.
In one of the biggest real estate transactions in recent time, the Essar Group has sold its Equinox Business Park in Bandra-Kurla Complex to Brookfield Asset Management for Rs2,400 crore.

Spread across 10 acres in the premier commercial district, the deal consists of the sale of four towers with an office space of about 1.25 million sqft area.

Anshuman Ruia, promoter-director, Essar Group said, This is among the largest transactions in Indias commercial real estate sector and demonstrates the value we have been able to create in our Equinox investment.

Currently, some of the top companies such as Tata Communications, Experian, Crompton Greaves and Lafarge are housed in the complex.

Ankur Gupta, real estate head (India), Brookfield, said that they were excited to bring Brookfields placemaking capabilities to Mumbais main business district.

We will invest significant capital, introduce more F&B services and modern amenities to establish Equinox as a high-quality office destination, said Gupta.

Initially, in 2016, the Bengaluru-based realty firm RMZ Corp was supposed to buy the park, but the deal could not be concluded and hence was junked.

The last big deal in BKC took place in September 2015, when Godrej Properties had sold 4.35 lakh sqft area in Godrej BKC project to Abbott for Rs1,480 crore.

Real Estate analysts say such deals indicate positiveness in the commercial real estate.

Unlike the residential markets, where there is huge inventory and speculative buying, the commercial market space is mainly end-user based. Here, the yields are also good and we will be seeing more such deals in the coming days, said Viral Desai, National Head, Commercial Transactions, Knight Frank India, a leading real estate consultation firm.

In the last one year, due to slowdown in the residential market, many of the builders have once again started setting their sights on commercial markets.

This is due to interests shown by private equity fund and also due to assured income in this sector.
The Bombay high court (HC) on Monday directed the Central Railway (CR) and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to immediately take up the reconstruction of Carnac rail overbridge at the Masjid Bunder railway station on the central line.

The bench of Justice Naresh Patil and Justice Girish Kulkarni issued the directive after noticing that the railway bridge division had declared the bridge dilapidated and beyond repair, and said it required to be demolished immediately.

The city traffic police had stopped heavy traffic on the bridge since August 2014, after it was found to be unsafe.

The judges also took into consideration the fact that BMC had already deposited with CR the amount required to demolish the 150-year-old bridge.

Moreover, CR had already approved the general design of the new bridge and the contract for reconstruction had been awarded. The work order wasnt yet issued due to the pendency of a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Mazgaon resident, Kamlakar Shenoy.

Shenoy, a 58-year-old businessman, approached the high court, complaining about the lack of alternative to the demolished Hancock Bridge near Sandhurst Road railway station. He also raised the issue of the Carnac bridge.

The bench said the authorities should not have held up demolition of the old bridge, especially when it has already been declared dilapidated and beyond repair, merely because of the pending PIL.
Many years ago, when the Shiv Sena-BJP government had implemented what was considered a flagship scheme of providing jhunka-bhakar at one rupee per plate to the common man, very soon it became obvious that the scheme was a subsidy-cum-land grab racket. The land mafia identified prime spots to set up jhunka-bhakar stalls but while pocketing the government subsidy sold other snacks too from those outlets. So one collector in the Konkan decided to tighten the screws on the racketeers. They were asked to maintain a register of all those who may have snacked on jhunka-bhakar at those stalls and get their addresses. When the collector inspected those registers after a few weeks the names of the snackers were Atal Behari Vajpayee, Gopinath Munde and even Bal Thackeray over and over again  some of them snacking on jhunka bhakar as many as a dozen times a day. When a furious collector threatened to shut down those stalls, the owners protested, How do we know what their actual names really are? We cannot be held responsible for people entering false names in the registers!

Nearly two decades later, Uddhav Thackeray, the Shiv Sena president, is accusing the land mafia of doing the same in the Konkan again. The Maharashtra government has notified one of the largest refineries at Nanar and, according to Uddhav, the common names of land buyers across the periphery of the proposed refinery are Modi, Shah and Jain. Uddhav believes these are obviously fake names and at a rally in Nanar in Ratnagiri district, Minister for Industries Subhash Desai, who hails from the Shiv Sena, even announced the denotification of the land for the refinery. Of course, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis is right in saying that authority to denotify something already sanctioned by the government is not the ministers in an individual capacity and must be a collective decision of the cabinet. But the contretemps now once again brings into play not just the unceasing battle and differences between the Sena and the BJP, but also the distrust between Maharashtrians and Gujaratis. For Uddhav has told the government off in no uncertain terms that the project must be shifted to Gujarat, which is Narendra Modis home state or to Nagpur which is Fadnavis constituency. The political challenge to the BJP is implicit in that statement for Uddhav is also pegging his opposition to the aspirations of the Konkani people who want jobs but not at the cost of their beautiful, green land, full of rivieras and estuaries that continue to nurture much flora and fauna, including fish. The last have, however, been drastically reduced due to environmental degradation precisely by such chemical factories.

And although the Congress has jumped into the controversy with its own demand to shift the refinery out of Ratnagiri, it cannot escape its own guilt in degrading the Konkan. The people of the region have always demanded agro-industries to cater to their production of ample fruits, including the world famous Alphonso mango, jackfruit, coconut, chikoo, pomegranate, banana, etc. But all that they have got over the years is chemical refineries and nuclear power plants. Its proximity to the sea makes it an attractive location to various multinationals and consortiums. But it is also true that powerful politicians from other regions, including chief ministers who sanctioned those projects, have not wanted the environmental degradation of their own home turfs and there was no one of consequence in Konkan to fight back.

Now, after Bombay, Konkan is where the Shiv Senas karmabhoomi lies because most of its voters in the state capital are migrant workers from the region. In opposing both this refinery and the Jaitapur nuclear power plant, the Sena is doing exactly the same as other politicians - safeguarding its own home turf. Strangely, despite three powerful chief ministers from the region, - AR Antulay in the early 1980s from the Congress and Manohar Joshi and Narayan Rane of the Shiv Sena in the late 1990s, not much was done to develop Konkan in the right direction and this political orphan of Maharashtra continues to be the dumping ground for environmentally hazardous projects. Even the Shiv Sena earlier failed to cancel the naphtha-based Enron power project and gave it a new lease of life on better terms than it had got from a previous Congress government.

This latest contretemps, though, is likely to further strain a relationship already at breaking point. The Sena has decided to chart its own course at the next election but if the BJP wishes to woo it back, Nanar is clearly not the way to go.
Observing that the state government is under obligation to protect river banks from encroachments and improve the quality of river water, the Bombay high court on Tuesday directed Maharashtra government to file an affidavit enlisting the steps it intends to take to safeguard river fronts and improve quality of river water.

The division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Riyaz Chagla was irked to note that the state government has scrapped the July 2009 river water policy and indiscriminate construction and development is taking place on river beds, along river banks and river fronts across the state.

What annoyed the judges more was that the quality of river water in Maharashtra has worsened in the meanwhile. According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), most rivers in the state are polluted. The February 2015 report of CPCB stated that it measured quality of water of 49 rivers at 159 spots in Maharashtra and found 153 samples non-compliant with regard to the Biological Oxygen Demand (BoD).

The bench said that the river water policy of 2009 was framed after the state government itself realised the need to protect river banks and improve river water and the policy was amended in 2011. However, now, there are absolutely no regulations even though the quality of river water has worsened and rampant development has taken place along river banks.

The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by NGO Vanashakti complaining that rampant construction is taking place on river beds, along river banks and on river fronts, as they are absolutely no regulations governing constructions and development along rivers.

Its lawyer, senior advocate Gayatri Singh pointed out that all 39 rivers flowing through Maharashtra are highly polluted, indiscriminate constructions are being made along river fronts and access of the general public to rivers is being obstructed.

Singh also pointed out that the July 2009 policy of Maharashtra environment department has been scrapped in November 2015 and thereafter there were no regulations governing constructions along rivers.

The court has asked the state government to file the affidavit by June 22 and posted the PIL for further hearing on June 26.
The Maharashtra government on Tuesday decided to make the land given to Sindhi and Punjabi refugees who had migrated from Pakistan, free from hold. The move will provide the refugees the right to sell their houses or opt for redevelopment without any interference from the state government, which is the owner of these properties.

Sindhi and Punjabi refugees are living in colonies located across the state, including five in Mumbai. Most of these decades-old colonies are in a dilapidated condition. At many places, encroachments have been made by the refugees while constructing houses which will now be regularised by the decision taken in the state cabinet on Tuesday.

In Maharashtra, there are around 31 such colonies where refugees from western Pakistan have been residing since Partition. Compensation land pool was made and plots were allotted to these refugees  most of whom migrated from Sindh and Punjab provinces of western Pakistan  according to the Displaced Persons (Compensation and Rehabilitation) Act, 1954.

In Mumbai alone, there are approximately 5,000 families residing in the five colonies  Sion Koliwada Colony, Wadia Trust Estate (Kurla), Chembur Colony (Chembur), Thakkar Bappa Colony (Chembur) and Mulund Colony (Mulund).

The state government has decided to bring all such properties under Class I (A) category of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966. With the cabinet decision, the refugees will now get free hold of the land, which means they can sell, redevelop and even mortgage the property on which they have been residing, since more than six decades. The category provides all the rights to the person possessing the property without any restriction, said a senior official from the state revenue department.

Up until now, refugees had to take prior permission from the state government before taking any action and were charged unearned income for any property sales. For instance, to sell the plot, the refugees were charged 50% unearned income which means 50% of the difference between purchase price and selling price.

The government believes that the refugees came to India leaving everything they possessed in Pakistan. Thus providing freehold land has become their right, the officer said.

The state government had taken similar decisions for Dhule and Jalgaon districts on April 28, 2006 and June 24, 2008 respectively. The recent decision will also end the disparity over providing rights to the refugees in the state.
While Phase-1 of the monorail has seen poor ridership, UPS Madan, metropolitan commissioner, MMRDA, says they are confident the numbers will improve when the entire corridor is made operational. In a conversation with Tanushree Venkatraman, Madan says MMRDA has learnt a lot from the long-delayed monorail project.

The monorail project has faced a lot of delays. Are there any lessons to be learnt from it?

The issues were not specific to monorail, but general issues that are relevant to any other project. It could have been a road or a Metro project. We mainly faced difficulty in acquiring land. Also, the line is passing through congested areas like Dadar and Parel. These are extremely crowded areas, where even constructing a staircase or an escalator was a problem. We would plan for the construction of a staircase that would be in front of a religious structure, shop or a residential area. So, tackling these issues led to the delays. We have definitely learnt from it. Solving land issues, getting permissions and decision-making have to be faster on these projects.

After the monorail fire, there have been suggestions from an expert committee and also the commissioner of railway safety. How do you plan to implement these suggestions?

There are a number of issues raised by the safety commissioner. Some of the suggestions have to be implemented immediately and some over a period of time. We are preparing a schedule for each activity accordingly. We are also noting the time-frame, funding and whose responsibility it would be. For instance, some suggestions have to be implemented by the government and not the contractor and vice-versa. For instance, one recommendation is that we have to set-up a claims commission just like the Railways. This cannot be implemented by the contractor. We are looking at complying with all measures in a months time. After that, we will ask the state government to issue a notification and start services.

The Phase-1 of the monorail has low ridership. Are you expecting that to change once the entire corridor is thrown open?

Increase in ridership is a definite thing that will happen. It is only now that all the congested areas will be connected, so the ridership will definitely increase. But the number of trips will be limited in the beginning because we have lesser number of trains. Still, with a 20-minute frequency, too, we expect the ridership to go up.

Are there any talks of reviving the earlier plan of a 135km Monorail in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR)?

Not immediately. Unless we see any real success here, we are not entering into any another monorail project. In fact, we have Metros designed in some of those lines planned earlier. Like there was a plan for a monorail for Kalyan, Bhiwandi and Thane. Now, we have a Metro there. We will now see if there can be an alternative transport system, such as light rail system or tramways, too, because a Metro is not possible in all areas.
The Maharashtra government has initiated the process of appointing an agency that will function as a system integrator and design, customise, implement and maintain an Integrated University Management System (IUMS) across 14 universities in the state, after having approved the systems detailed project report (DPR) in January.

The state governments information technology (IT) department issued tenders for the project recently.

Following online assessment goof-ups by the University of Mumbai (MU), which led to unprecedented delays in declaring results and chaos last year, the government decided to put in place the IUMS, which is expected to do away with such issues. The joint board of vice-chancellors, headed by governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao, who is the chancellor of all state universities, has also given the nod to the project.

The system is expected to be implemented in phases starting this November, the second semester of the academic year.

The digital platform is expected to offer solutions to all issues faced by the 14 non-agricultural universities across the state, including MU. The IUMS will cover all university and college processes, right from admissions, conducting of examinations, online assessment of answer papers, issuing results in digital format and staff recruitment.

The system will also help the government monitor the functioning of these 14 universities, said a senior official from the IT department, who did not wish to be named.

To appoint a system integrator, the IT department has invited request for proposals (RPF) from companies that offer Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) solutions. The contract will be for five years, and the bidder will have to deposit Rs 25 lakh as bank guarantee, the official said.

It will be a complete automated digital system with different modules that cover issues related to students, faculty, administration and academics. Most importantly, every university will have its own exclusive system architecture, he added.

To achieve this, universities, and colleges affiliated to them, have been asked to form core implementation teams (CITs) that include students, lecturers and IT experts who will help the states IT department identify their requirements at the development stage. The IT department has already issued a government resolution (GR) directing them to form teams.

Last year, the results were delayed by more than five months after MU adopted an on-screen marking system (OSM) for online assessment of answer papers, as it was unable to trace answer booklets.
The Kurla government railway police officers on Tuesday arrested a woman, who along with a man, allegedly pushed a 56-year-old businessman, Deepak Chamanlal Patwa, in front of a train at Mulund station on Saturday. The man, seen helping the woman push the businessman in the CCTV footage, is at large. Patwa succumbed to his injuries.

According to Kurla GRP, the man who had intervened did not know the woman, Manisha Khakadiya, 38. The incident took place on Saturday when Khakadiya, a resident of Mahul village in Chembur, was on her way home.

Mahesh Balwantrao, senior police inspector of Kurla GRP, said, Claiming that Patwa, a Mulund resident, touched her inappropriately, Khakadiya created a ruckus. A man, who was among the crowd that had gathered, intervened and started to fight with Patwa. When Patwa denied the allegations, the man got furious and pushed him. The CCTV recordings show the man had seen the train approaching when he pushed Patwa off the platform. Patwa was run over by the train and died on the spot.

The crowd nabbed the man, but he managed to escape. Officers said that after the incident, Khakadiya took the stairs and ran away from the crowd. After a complaint by Patwas relatives, the police scanned the CCTV and recorded statements of passers-by, who confirmed Patwa was killed.

Officers then alerted the informers, who told the police the woman lived in Chembur.

On Tuesday morning, the police caught Khakadiya who claimed she had not gone to Mulund for the past two days, We then got her mobile location and found she was at Mulund station at the time of the incident. We arrested her for murder and are now on the lookout for the man, said Balwantrao.

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Three days after a Shiv Sena leader was allegedly shot dead in Kandivli, his 21-year-old son told the police that his father had been threatened by a leader from a prominent regional party in Kurar police station premises over an SRA project.

Sachin Sawant was shot dead on Sunday night near his residence by two bike-borne men. In 2010 too, three men had attempted to murder him.

Speaking to HT at his residence in Ganesh Krupa chawl, Durga nagar on Akurli Road in Kandivli (East), Sachins son Omkar said that he strongly suspected that the murder was related to the SRA project running into crores. Omkar is a complainant in the case.

At this juncture, I do not want to blame anyone. I, however, told the police everything I could recollect. Just days before my father was murdered, we had conducted a bhoomi poojan (groundbreaking ceremony) on April 18, after which the SRA project was to begin, he said. Sachin was an advisor for Akash Developers that had undertaken the SRA project. When Sachins men were putting up banners in the chawl, they faced fierce opposition from another local group, who was against the builder.

People opposing the project put up their own banners in the area, saying they were against it. They also stopped Sachins men from putting up banners. A skirmish took place after which both parties went to Kurar police station. At the police station, people opposing Sachin called workers of a prominent regional party.

Omkar said, The political party worker had no personal issues with my father, but he threatened to harm him in front of everyone in the police station premises and left in a huff. My father took it lightly. I have told the police about the incident. I hope they probe all angles.

Hours after the murder, the Kurar police detained two men from the opposite group . When asked about their detention, a police official said it was a routine questioning. In the 2010 case while one accused was acquitted, two others, including the shooter, remain absconding. The motive in this case too was a stalled SRA project in the area, which was supposed to start in 2006.
Sachin Sawant, Shiv Sena leader who was shot dead in Kandivli on Sunday, was to be promoted to the post of shakha pramukh (chief of a branch), his supporters claimed.

Sawant came to Mumbai from Kankavli in Sindhudurg after completing his Class 10. He joined the Shiv Sena as a youth member when he was 18. Sawant was affiliated to the party even when he was in his village, said Srikant Yadav, Sawants close aide.

Yadav said that Sawant had met party chief Uddhav Thackeray at Matoshree in February, a little ahead of the final decision on shakha pramukhs. He was to be made the head of ward number 39. After more than two decades, Shiv Sena had won the seat of corporator from the area because of Sachin Sawants support, claimed another supporter. He was made the deputy head of the shakha in 2007 and continued in the position for the next two to three years, added Yadav.

His association with Sena saw him get jobs as a site supervisor for builders, who wanted to develop chawls under the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) schemes. While Sawant rose politically, it also created enemies for him, said police sources. It is that enmity which saw three accused barge into his office in 2010 and fire at him, said a police officer, on condition of anonymity.

According to Yadav and Sawants son Omkar, Sawant was an easily accessible and helpful leader. My father never said no to anyone. He would help resolve any kind of dispute in the area, said Omkar. Yadav said Sawant was close to many MLAs and MPs of Shiv Sena. He was close to MLA Ramesh Latke and his brother, Sandeep Sawant, is the personal assistant of MP Gajanan Kirtikar, said Yadav.
Three cases of gold and foreign currency smuggling have been reported at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) since Saturday.

Gold bars worth Rs2.59 crore were found under passenger seats of an aircraft on Tuesday.

According to the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU), the unclaimed gold was hidden under the cushion of two seats of the aircraft which had arrived from Dubai. The gold bars were wrapped in black adhesive tapes. Authorities are investigating about the suspects. A case has been registered against unidentified suspects.

In another case, a flier was arrested for allegedly carrying undeclared foreign currency equivalent to Rs30.77 lakh on Saturday. According to the AIU, Ramanlal Waghela, carrying an Indian passport, was intercepted before he could board a flight to Dubai.

The currency was concealed in two cylindrical cardboards and was wrapped by an aluminium foil, said a senior AIU officer. The foreign currency includes $29,200 and 68,000 dirham.

As observed in the past cases, foreign currency is concealed and taken to Dubai to buy gold which is smuggled back into India.

In a similar development on Sunday, one Mohamed Iqbal, with an Indian passport, was caught at the Mumbai airport for allegedly carrying foreign currency illegally. The incident took place around 11.20pm during the security check before boarding at the Security Hold Area (SHA) of the international terminal (T2). Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) sub-inspector DV Lanah found 15,000 euro (approximately Rs12 lakh) concealed in Iqbals waist belt while frisking him.

The passenger was to fly to Bangkok. His flight was to depart around 12.15am. Iqbal could not produce valid documents for carrying foreign currency. The matter was immediately forwarded to senior CISF officers and later handed over to airport customs officials for legal action.
A day after the ministry of civil aviation gave its in-principle approval for the greenfield Noida international airport in Jewar, the UP government has decided to directly purchase land from farmers instead of acquiring it by invoking the land acquisition Act, 2013.

The motive behind the move is to buy land quickly and not to take the longer route of land acquisition by using the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013. The Act regulates land acquisition and lays down the procedure and rules for granting compensation, rehabilitation and resettlement of affected persons.

The UP government has allocated a fund of Rs 4,000 crore for land buying in the first phase under which 1,400 hectares of agricultural land is to be bought through agreement. The state government has decided to buy land through agreement because it will save a lot of time and help in development of the project as per the deadline, Meerut divisional commissioner Dr Prabhat Kumar said. He is also the chairman of the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (Yeida), the nodal agency for the project.

On the whole, the government wants to acquire 5,000 hectares for the airport and aviation hub proposed in Jewar. The Gautam Buddha University (GBU) has already conducted a social impact assessment survey in the villages where airport project is proposed. According to the GBU survey, a majority of farmers wants to give their land for the airport project as it will positively impact their economic condition and bring about a social change.

If the UP government acquires the land by using sections of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, it will take years to acquire the land.

Under the 2013 Act, the Gautam Budh Nagar district administration will acquire the land on behalf of the state government and will have to invoke sections 4 and 6  a process to give an opportunity to farmers to raise objections, if any.

But the state government is not in a mood to use these sections because it will take longer to acquire the land as resolving farmers objections is a lengthy process.

A majority of farmers are willing to give their land for the project because it will benefit them immensely. But if a few farmers refuse to give land through agreement, we will use the sections of the 2013 Act to acquire the land because we need to procure the land for this project, Kumar said.

The authority will buy the land at a rate which is applicable in the area. We will buy the land through agreement at a rate of Rs 1,895 per square metre from farmers, Kumar said.
At least 37 Maoists were killed in two separate encounters in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra on April 22 and 23. Significantly, at the time of writing, no fatalities have been reported among security forces. Details of these incidents are still hazy. Nevertheless, it is important to recognise that while fatalities in single incidents cause great jubilation or distress  depending on which side you are on  they have little impact on the broader trajectory of a protracted conflict.

It is, indeed, within the context of this trajectory that these incidents acquire their greater, and from a Maoist perspective, potentially devastating, significance; they come in the wake of continuous reverses suffered by Maoists over the past years, both in Gadchiroli and across the wider theatre of their erstwhile dominance  the so-called Red Corridor.

Gadchiroli has been the epicentre of Maoist violence in Maharashtra and, at its peak in 2009, according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal (www.satp.org) database, at least 86 fatalities were registered in the district, including 52 security force personnel, 23 Maoists and 11 civilians, yielding an adverse security forces:Maoist kill ratio of 2.26:1. The current year has recorded 43 Maoist-linked fatalities, including one trooper, one civilian, and 41 Maoists, an overwhelming 1:41 ratio in favour of security forces. Twenty-five fatalities were recorded through 2017, including three security force personnel, seven civilians, and 15 Maoists (a security force-Maoist kill ratio of 1:5); adding to 26 fatalities in 2016, including two troopers, 12 civilians, and 12 Maoists (a security force-Maoist kill ratio of 1:6).

This trajectory mimics the broad trends in belts across India where Maoists are active. From a peak of 1,180 fatalities in 2010, the number bottomed out at 251 in 2015, including 101 Naxalites,57 security force personnel, and 93 civilians. They rose to 433 in 2016, including 244 Maoists, 66 security force personnel and 123 civilians; and 332 in 2017, including 149 Maoists, 74 security force personnel, and 109 civilians; reflecting the largest increases in Maoist fatalities.

At its peak, a total of 223 districts across 20 states were declared Maoist-affected in 2008, with 87 of these recording violence. The ministry of home affairs lists 90 affected districts, of which 30 are in the most affected category  the latter largely clustered around the Dandakaranya belt, including Gadchiroli, the Bastar division of Chattisgarh, and contiguous areas of south Odisha, Andhra and Telangana; as well as some districts in Bihar and Jharkhand.

The shift from blind and under-resourced area domination and clear, hold and develop strategies in 2009-10, to more localised intelligence-based operations  founded on the lessons of the Andhra experience and, at least initially, largely on inputs from the Andhra Pradesh Special Intelligence Bureau  have decimated the Maoist leadership.

Crucially, since 2010, at least 21 of 39 members of the top Communist Party of India (Maoist) leadership, politburo and central committee, have been neutralised  three killed, 16 arrested, and two surrendered; 219 state level and 736 at the district level have, similarly, been put out of action, including 20 and 106 in each category, respectively, killed. The loss of leadership has been devastating, both in terms of capacity for command, control and operations, as well as morale, feeding into a surge in surrenders: 1,442 in 2016 and 685 in 2017. In addition, 1,840 and 1,888 Maoists were arrested across the country, respectively, in 2016 and 2017. Critically, a number of development interventions by the government are beginning to bear fruit, improving access and communications in the worst affected areas even as some welfare programmes have had an impact on Maoist support base.

The Maoists concede they have lost ground in their heartland areas and are under increasing threat in their remaining safe havens. But their residual capacities are significant and they have targeted security forces successfully. Within the logic of the war they are waging, executing dramatic retaliation for security forces success in Gadchiroli will certainly be high among their priorities. Revenge attacks may come wherever and whenever the opportunity presents itself.

(Ajai Sahni is the executive director, Institute of Conflict Management and South Asia Terrorism Portal)
Police in Bihars Madhubani district on Monday arrested two men who allegedly raped an 11-year-old girl in a village the night before.

In an FIR lodged at Madhubanis Kaluahi police station on Monday, the victims mother said her daughter was assaulted when she sent her to buy vegetables from one of the accuseds parents, who were away on Sunday evening.

When the girl reached the vegetable sellers house in Kaluahi police station area, 174 km north of Patna, his son and another man locked her inside a room and took turns to rape her, the FIR said. The accused gagged her with a piece of cloth when she screamed for help, the mother said in her complaint.

Station house officer of Kaluahi police station Ramesh Kumar Sharma said accused Rakesh Kumar alias Gopal Singh, 20, and Atul Singh, 19, have been arrested. They have been booked under Section 376 (G) of Indian Penal Code as well as Sections 4 and 6 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offence (Posco) Act, the SHO added.

The victim was sent to Madhubani sadar hospital for medical examination and the report was awaited.

If the report of medical examination confirms rape, then the accused could be awarded death sentence under the new provisions of the Posco Act.

Last Saturday, the Union cabinet approved an ordinance allowing courts to pronounce the death penalty for those convicted of raping children below the age of 12. The ordinance came following countrywide outrage after the gang rape and murder of a minor girl in Kathua in Jammu and the alleged gang rape of a teenager in Unnao in Uttar Pradesh where a BJP MLA is the prime accused. On Sunday, President Ram Nath Kovind signed the ordinance.
Whats the proposal?

The ministry of home affairs (MHA) has proposed the merger of the Chandigarh Police deputy superintendent of police (DSP) cadre with the Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Police Services (DANIPS). There are at present 23 sanctioned posts of DSPs in Chandigarh police with 11 are held by officials of the Chandigarh cadre and 10 by DANIPS. What will be achieved by the merger of cadres?

Rationale behind the proposal

Senior police officials say the merger will set a system in place, currently non-existent, for promotion and transfer of Chandigarh Police DSPs, which can only happen once they are a part of DANIPS. The police officials are permanently stationed in Chandigarh once they are recruited at the assistant sub-inspector (ASI) level.

When was the proposal initiated?

Anuradha Gupta, an IAS officer from the Haryana cadre, was UT home secretary when a DSPs deputation met her to ask for promotion to the rank of superintendent of police (SP). As no such provision existed then and SPs came to the city on deputation from New Delhi, Gupta proposed the merger.

Why are some officers against the proposal?

Some Chandigarh Police officers dont fancy the idea of leaving the comforts of the city and move to other UTs. Then comes the question of seniority  once the merger happens they will be junior to their DANIPS counterparts as they are recruited as ASIs whereas the former, say in Delhi Police, are recruited a higher level as sub-inspectors.

Will the merger be a good move?

The merger, many police officers say, will be in the interest of the local police officers as more openings will be created for promotions to SP or even DIG ranks. Transfer to other UTs should also not be such a big issue for the DSPs, they say.

Why is the Punjab CM against the proposal?

Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh has opposed the move, saying Chandigarh is the capital of Punjab and a disputed territory as of now. He has called for continuing the existing pattern of all Chandigarh UT posts being shared between Punjab and Haryana in a 60:40 ratio. The merger will dilute the stake of Punjab in Chandigarh, making the CM a likely target for rival parties Shiromani Akali Dal and Aam Aadmi Party for working against the interests of the state.

What next?

DANIPS now is a proposal put forward by MHA for comments and observations up to May 19, after which it will be sent to Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for approval. From there, it will go to the finance and then the personnel ministries and finally to the Union Cabinet for clearance.

It has also been learnt that inspectors and police officials in line for promotion to posts of DSPs in Chandigarh are contemplating legal action if the proposal is implemented.
Travelling to Patiala is set to become costlier as commuters will have to shell out Rs 65 at two toll booths on the four-laned Zirakpur-Patiala highway. The road connects Chandigarh to the Malwa belt in Punjab, including Sangrur, Mansa, Bathinda and Fazilka districts, besides parts of Haryana.

The Punjab government through the public works department (PWD) has written to the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) that four-laning of this stretch of the Chandigarh-Patiala highway (NH-64) is nearing completion.

After completion of the project, expected by next month, the Punjab PWD will hand it over to the NHAI.

Thereafter, toll charges will become operational. There are two toll booths  one between Zirakpur and Rajpura, and another on the Rajpura-Patiala road, charging Rs 30 and Rs 35, respectively.

The 50-km project, with an overall expenditure of about Rs 600 crore, is being executed by the subsidiary of a Russian construction company. The stretch will reduce the travel time between Chandigarh and Patiala. Earlier, the project was hanging fire as there was delay in constructing a flyover at Banur.

Flyover to ease rush at Chhatbir junction

Meanwhile, NHAI is planning to construct a flyover at the Chhatbir junction for easy and safer commute on the Zirakpur-Rajpura stretch.

The Airport Road, coming from the Chandigarh International Airport, crosses the national highway at the Chhatbir junction, and goes on to connect with the Chandigarh-Ambala national highway.

Currently, traffic lights, and sometimes traffic police personnel, help manage traffic at the busy junction.

Explaining the need for the flyover, a senior NHAI official, requesting not to be named, said, Its a very busy traffic junction, which is prone to accidents. Risk to motorists is particularly acute during odd hours like in the early morning and late night when neither police personnel nor traffic lights are available.

Initial studies for a flyover have been done. A proposal still needs to be sent to the ministry of road transport and highways, the official said, adding, Since the completion of the Airport Road, traffic to and from Mohali that passes through the junction has increased manifold. According to a recent estimate, the highway has more than 40,000 PCU (passenger car unit  a unit to assess traffic-flow rate on a highway) per day.
The discontent within the Congress unit in Punjab over the recent state cabinet expansion reached the party high command in New Delhi with Dalit leader and MLA Raj Kumar Verka expressing anguish over Scheduled Caste members not being given adequate representation.

It is an internal matter of the party and we are not against the party and we are also not upset with party. But the reality is that Valmiki and Majhabi Sikhs are somewhere feeling left out. I apprised Congress president Rahul Gandhi of the sentiments of the community, Verka said.

The matter is under consideration of the party high command and a way will be found out, he added.

Verka, who is an MLA from Amritsar (West), had raised the matter with the Congress chief in a meeting at the Talkatora Stadium in the national capital on Monday.

This matter relates to a particular section of the society...chief minister Amarinder Singh is seriously considering this matter and we trust the party, said Verka.

However, chief minister Singh while replying to a question on representation to Dalit/OBC community in the cabinet, said on Tuesday that not all the 77 ruling party MLAs could be made ministers. He, however, added that those left out would be suitably accommodated, as promised by him.

Nine new ministers were sworn in on last Saturday.

Verka was not the only leader who raised the matter of Dalits being left out in the cabinet expansion.

Earlier, Surjit Singh Dhiman, MLA from Amargarh in Sangrur district, Nathu Ram, legislator from Balluana in Fazilka and Sangat Singh Gilzian, MLA from Urmur seat in Hoshiarpur, had resigned from their party positions over the issue.

Punjab Congress had tried these leaders to mollify these leaders.

Congress government was also planning to appoint some MLAs as chairman of various boards and Corporations in order to placate them, sources said.
Actor Ram Charan, who is basking in the success of Rangasthalam, has started shooting for his next Telugu outing with director Boyapati Srinu. The yet to be titled project marks the first-time collaboration of Ram Charan and Boyapati, known for blockbusters such as Simhaa and Sarrainodu. Tipped to be an action-thriller, the film also stars Kiara Advani, Vivek Oberoi and Mahesh Manjrekar.

Charan joined the sets on Sunday. The team has so far shot two crucial action scenes. All major combination scenes with other actors will be shot in the current schedule, a source told Hindustan Times.

On Sunday, Ram Charans wife Upasana took to twitter to announce that her husband is joining the sets of Boyapatis film. All set for RC 12. Good luck, Ram Charan. She also shared a picture of Ram Charan offering prayers before joining the sets.

Read: Ranbir Kapoor is Sanjay Dutt. Here is rest of the star cast with details of who is playing who

After playing a villain in Ajiths Vivegam, Vivek Oberoi will again be seen as the antagonist in the film. The team recently shot his entry scene in Vijayawada. Apparently, Boyapati was impressed with Viveks performances in films such as Company and Rakht Charitra and roped him in to play the antagonist.

It has also been confirmed that Ramya Krishnan, last seen in Suriyas Thaana Serntha Kootam, will essay a pivotal role in the movie. The film is being bankrolled by Bharat Ane Nenu producer DVV Danayya.

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Superstar Rajinikanth on Monday said he will be out of the country for two weeks as he will leave to the US for a routine medical check-up.

Reacting to rumours that he will announce his party name as soon as hes back from his US trip, he said that he hasnt finalised on a date. I will definitely start a party but havent decided on a date yet. When I do, Ill definitely inform you, he told reporters.

Last year, after wrapping up the first schedule of Kaala, he left to the US in June for a check-up. He extended his last US trip into a holiday.

Rajinikanths Kaala postponed, will release on June 7

The superstar is awaiting the release of Kaala, which will hit the screens on June 7. Produced by Dhanush, the 67-year-old star plays a slum-lord-turned-gangster in the film in which he will also have lines in Hindi and Marathi. The project marks the reunion of director Pa. Ranjith with Rajinikanth after Kabali, and it is believed that Kaala revolves around the lives of oppressed Tamils in Mumbai and their fight for equality.

Although set in Mumbai, the makers shot most portions of the film in Chennai. They created the Dharavi slums in Chennai on sets. The film, to be released by Lyca Productions, also stars Nana Patekar, Anjali Patil, Huma Qureshi and Samuthirakani in pivotal roles. Santhosh Narayanan has composed the music, while national award-winning Sreekar Prasad is the editor.

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Veteran choreographer Saroj Khans justification for casting couch at a press conference in Mumbai has come in for criticism from the film industry. Khan was reacting to protest of Telugu actor Sri Reddy against the practice in regional cinema. Reddy has now denounced Khans statement and said it gives a wrong indication that one has to be slave to producers in the film industry.

I lost respect for you Saroj maam. Being an elder you should give a good path to young actresses. It is giving a wrong indication that you have to be a slave to producers, Sri Reddy told ANI. Not just Reddy, other celebs also called Khans statements wrong and justifying exploitation.

Asked to give her opinion on Reddys protest at a press event, Saroj said, Ek baat batau ye to chala aa raha hai baba adam ke zamane se. Har ladki ke upar koi na koi haath saaf karne ki koshish karta hai.Government karti hai (This is not a new thing, this has existed for a long time. Everyone wants to take advantage of girls, even the government).

Saroj Khan defends casting couch, says industry doesnt abandon after rape

She also said, Government ke log karte hain to tum film industry ke peeche kyun pade ho? Wo to roti to bhi deti hai, rape karke chorr to nahi deti. (Even people in the government abuse girls and women, why are you after the film industry? The industry also provides livelihood, it does not discard the woman after that).

British actor-model Sophie Choudry tweeted, WTH?!!!! So much respect for Saroj-ji as a choreographer but this is how she uses her position to protect girls?!!! If I didnt come from a financially sound background I would have returned to London within a month of being in mumbai cos of industry folk who think like that!! Cant begin to think what thousands of girls go through in the hope that their dreams will come true! Nobody wants to sleep with someone for work. But they are made to feel its the only way & acceptable. And for those who dont, its a tough road! This has to stop! #TimesUp.

WTH?!!!! So much respect for Saroj-ji as a choreographer but this is how she uses her position to protect girls?!!! If I didnt come from a financially sound background I would have returned to London within a month of being in mumbai cos of "industry folk" who think like that!! https://t.co/mUqql4MpFh  Sophie Choudry (@Sophie_Choudry) April 24, 2018

Cant begin to think what thousands of girls go through in the hope that their "dreams" will come true! Nobody wants to sleep with someone for work. But they are made to feel its the only way & "acceptable". And for those who dont, its a tough road! This has to stop! #TimesUp  Sophie Choudry (@Sophie_Choudry) April 24, 2018

TV host Mini Mathur was also infuriated at Sarojs remarks. WTH!!!?? I see the distinction she is trying to make here but that doesnt justify any kind of exploitation Mam.. this is hugely irresponsible, she tweeted.

WTH!!!?? I see the distinction she is trying to make here but that doesnt justify any kind of exploitation Mam.. this is hugely irresponsible! https://t.co/uDqsd18TR8  Mini Mathur (@minimathur) April 24, 2018

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A 12-year-old Australian boy travelled alone to Indonesias Bali after he had a row with his parents when they cancelled a holiday to the tourist island, BBC news reported on Tuesday.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) said they will review the circumstances of the case to make sure similar incidents do not happen again.

The police were alerted of the boys presence in Bali on March 17. He was taken into protective custody before being reunited with his parents.

The boy, from Sydney, booked flights and accommodation online using his parents credit card. He flew to Bali presenting only his passport and school ID.

He had used a self-service check-in terminal in Sydney to board a flight to Perth and then a connection to Bali.

He said he had checked into his hotel room in Bali by telling staff that he was waiting for his sister to arrive.

The boy said he was questioned once by airline officials in Perth, reports the BBC.

They just asked for my student ID and passport to prove that I am over 12 and that I am in secondary school, he said. It was great because I wanted to go on an adventure.

The boys mother said she was left shocked.

All airlines have procedures that allow minors to travel on their own, but requirements vary between carriers.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)
Five policemen were killed and seven others were injured when a suicide bomber targeted a police van at Quettas Airport Road on Tuesday evening, local media reported.

Two other suicide bombers also tried to attack a Frontier Corps checkpost at Quettas Mian Ghundi area. However, following an exchange of fire, security personnel killed managed to kill the attackers before they could explode their suicide vests, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.

It was a targeted attack on the security forces carried out by militants but due to the swift reaction of the FC soldiers there were no casualties, Aslam Tareen, the Director-General of Civil Defence, told the media.

Nobody took responsibility of the attacks but the Taliban militants and Baloch nationalists often target security forces in the area.

(With inputs from agencies)

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Differences should not lead to disputes in India-China ties, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday as she emphasised the relationship between the two neighbours could be a factor of stability in a world of uncertainty.

Sitharamans remarks, made at the beginning of her talks with her Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe, came hours after external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj reiterated Indias strong stand on terrorism, saying it is against life, peace and basic human rights.

Swaraj also flagged Indias concerns over connectivity projects within Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) countries while speaking at a meeting of foreign ministers of the bloc. She did not explicitly mention Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) but said sovereignty is essential in connectivity projects.

Sitharaman said Indias ties with China transcended the bilateral dimension and had a bearing on the world.

We are guided in our relations with China by the consensus reached between our leaders that at a time of global uncertainty, India-China relations could be a factor of stability and that we must not allow our differences to become disputes, she said.

Sitharaman, who arrived in Beijing on Monday, attended the SCO defence ministers meeting on Tuesday. It was her first visit to China after taking over as defence minister. The agenda of her meeting with Wei wasnt made public.

At the SCO foreign ministers meet earlier, Swaraj said: There are a number of challenges that are being faced by the world today, foremost being the threat of global terrorism and the imminent need to build a strong security architecture to combat it.

Terrorism is an enemy of basic human rights, of life, peace and prosperity.

The fight against terrorism should not only seek to eliminate terrorists but should identify and take strong measures against states that encourage, support and finance terrorism and provide sanctuary to terrorists, Swaraj said without naming any country.

Both Swaraj and Sitharaman spoke at their respective SCO ministerial meets for the first time after India, along with Pakistan, became a full member of the bloc. Their Pakistani counterparts were present at the meetings.

Swaraj said India wants to strengthen cooperation within the SCO framework for comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security.

While referring to connectivity projects within SCO countries, Swaraj said: Connectivity with SCO countries is Indias priority. We want connectivity to pave the way for cooperation and trust between our societies. For this, respect for sovereignty is essential. Inclusivity, transparency and sustainability are imperative.

India has declined to join BRI because of sovereignty concerns as one of its flagship projects, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Swaraj listed international connectivity projects that India is part of, including the International North-South Transport Corridor, a transit hub centred round Chabahar port in Iran, the Ashgabat Agreement, India-Myanmar-Thailand Highway Project and Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal Initiative.

Swaraj reiterated Indias stand on globalisation in international trade.

India is committed to working with SCO to strengthen our economic and investment ties. We believe that economic globalisation should be more open, inclusive, equitable and balanced for mutual benefits. Protectionism in all its forms should be rejected and efforts should be made to discipline measures that constitute barriers to trade, she said.
Pakistani authorities on Tuesday said they have granted a six-month extension of the visa of an Indian woman, Kiran Bala, who converted to Islam and married a Pakistani man while visiting Lahore.

The interior ministry approved the extension of the visa on Monday, officials said.

Kiran Bala, who has taken the name Amna Bibi after her conversion, was granted a Pakistani visa valid from April 12 to 21 to visit Lahore for the Baisakhi festival. She married a man named Muhammad Azam, whom she reportedly befriended on social media, while in Lahore and said she did not want to return to India.

Azam confirmed the news that his wifes visa had been extended for six months. I will receive the passport and several other documents on Tuesday, he said.

The interior ministry, acting on the orders of the Lahore high court, had summoned Kiran Bala and her husband to Islamabad. The couple appeared before the relevant officer on Monday but there was a delay as she did not have her passport.

Kiran Balas passport was with the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB), which keeps the travel documents of visiting Indian pilgrims. Her passport was needed for verification of the first visa.

After much delay, the ETPB shared her Indian passport, following which her visa was verified. After this, approval was granted for extending her visa.

Talking to the local media, Kiran Bala said: I am hopeful of getting Pakistani nationality too.
Irans foreign minister said Monday that neither Iran nor Saudi Arabia can be the dominant power in the Middle East and whats needed most is for countries in the Persian Gulf region to talk to each other  not about each other.

Mohammad Javad Zarif said, In an attempt to be the strongest in the region, to exclude one another from the region, we have managed to destroy the region.

He told the Council on Foreign Relations that there is a dire need for change and Iran is ready for it because we are big enough, old enough, mature enough to appreciate this reality.

Zarif expressed hope that Irans neighbors, with help from other governments, can also appreciate the fact that none of us can become the new hegemon in the region.

He called for a new regional dialogue forum that would include five Gulf Cooperation Council countries along with Iran, Iraq and Yemen. And he urged the others to embark with Tehran on a transformation of the Middle East.

Zarifs comments followed the annual Arab League summit on April 15 where Saudi Arabia used its position as host to push for a unified stance by the 22-nation bloc against Iran, blaming Tehran for instability and meddling in the region.

Saudi Arabia and Iran are locked in proxy conflicts in Syria and Yemen, and they also back opposing groups in Lebanon, Bahrain and Iraq.

Zarif told an audience of several hundred at the Council on Foreign Relations that our neighbors, particularly Saudi Arabia, want to create an impression that we are an existential threat against them.

He said that was one of the most important messages of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmans recent two-week tour of the United States.

The Trump administration signed off on the sale of more than $1.3 billion in artillery to Saudi Arabia during his visit. And, Zarif said, other neighbors are coming to the U.S. to compete with one another in buying more weapons in order to attract support and help against the other neighbor whos also buying millions in the region.

But security cannot be purchased, he said, saying it requires understanding in the region.

And something which is most important to realize, the era of hegemonic influence is long gone, Zarif said. Neither Iran nor Saudi Arabia can be the hegemons of the region. Thats a fact.

Zarif said Iran believes the region is suffering from a dialogue deficit and thats why it has suggested creating a regional dialogue forum.

It should include Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates  and probably Yemen, the Iranian minister said.

He said there is already a basis for this in a U.N. Security Council resolution adopted in 1987 during the Iran-Iraq war that was never implemented. It called for the secretary-general to examine and consult with countries in the region on measures to enhance the security and stability of the region.

Zarif said countries in the region need to stop talking about exclusion and enemies.

To join the forum, he said, they should agree on a number of principles: the inviolability of borders, respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, and non-intervention in each others internal affairs.

In addition to the dialogue deficit, Zarif said there is also a confidence deficit.

He said the Persian Gulf countries not only need to start talking but to work on confidence-building measures.

Zarif suggested joint task forces on issues ranging from nuclear safety because very soon there will be a growing number of nuclear reactors on the Persian Gulf coast to tourism, cultural exchanges, womens empowerment and democratic processes.

We need to have a strong region, he said, not to be the strongest in the region.

Unless this transformation takes place, Zarif warned that no matter how many weapons the United States sells to countries in the region, at the end of the day the cost for the United States will be much higher than the profits made by the weapons sold.
An Italian-Pakistani woman was killed by her father, brother and uncle in a case of honour killing in Pakistans Gujrat district, the media reported on Tuesday.

Police said that 26-year-old Sana Cheemas family had termed her death as an accident and buried the body in West Mangowal area of the district, Geo News reported.

However, police started an investigation after social media reports suggested that the girl was murdered.

According to police, the girls father, identified as Ghulam Mustafa, wanted to marry her off to one of his relatives but Cheema wanted to get married in Italy.

The father then took on board his son, Adnan Mustafa, and brother Mazhar Iqbal, and hatched a plan to kill her. A case was registered against the three men but they are yet to be arrested.

In 2016, British national Samia Shahid was murdered for honour in Pakistan. The 28-year-old girl from Bradford had been visiting her family in Jhelum when she was killed because her family disapproved of her second marriage.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)
United States President Donald Trump pilloried the Iran nuclear deal as a disaster and insane as he hosted French President Emmanuel Macron in the Oval Office on Tuesday, puncturing a carefully choreographed display of pomp and camaraderie.

The US leader groused that the accord  inked three years ago by the United States, Iran, Europe, Russia and China  does nothing to tackle Tehrans ballistic missiles programme or support for militant groups across the Middle East.

Macron is in Washington, in part, to convince Trump not to walk away from the deal and scuttle years-worth of hard won diplomatic gains. Trump faces a May 12 deadline to decide on the fate of the accord.
Indias neighbours reacted cautiously to the news of a summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping but acknowledged that the meet could help bolster regional peace and boost the global economy.

Pakistan foreign minister Khawaja Asif said Islamabad is happy to see the leaders of China and India holding an informal summit as it could play an active role in ensuring regional peace and improving bilateral ties.

Asif, in China to attend a meeting of foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, made the remarks after meeting foreign minister Wang Yi on Monday. However, Asif noted that Pakistan remains an all-weather friend of China and that the two countries will always stand side by side.

Pakistan firmly supports Chinas core interests and wishes that China will play a greater role in international and regional affairs, he said. Asif also informed Wang about the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

Senior Nepalese Maoist leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha, a former deputy prime minister, said India and China are trying to strike a balance at a time when the global economy has been affected by considerable tension. At the same time, the two countries are also competing to expand their clout in the region and beyond.

CPN-UML leader Milan Tuladhar, a foreign relations adviser to former Nepal premier Jhala Nath Khanal, said the upcoming summit could take China-India relations to new heights. A closer tripartite relationship, about which India had earlier shown reluctance, may ultimately become a reality, he said.

Former Bangladeshi ambassador to India Farooq Sobhan said Bangladesh should welcome the visit of Prime Minister Modi to China.

Bangladesh enjoys a close relationship with both India and China and would welcome the strengthening of Sino-Indian relations.

On trade, investment and connectivity, Bangladesh would like to see its strong bilateral relations with China and India develop into trilateral project-based cooperation encompassing both China and India. The visit of Prime Minister Modi could contribute significantly to regional economic cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region, said the former Bangladeshi foreign secretary.
The family of terminally ill British toddler Alfie Evans on Monday lost their final court bid to prevent doctors from turning off his life support.

High Court judge Anthony Hayden rejected an appeal by Tom Evans and Kate James for a delay in turning off their 23-month-old sons life support in order to give them time to present a new challenge.

The ruling allowed doctors at Alder Hey Childrens Hospital in Liverpool, northwest England, to withdraw treatment.

Alfie, who suffers from a rare degenerative neurological condition that causes chronic seizures, has been in a coma for over a year and needs a ventilator to keep him breathing.

Police block the entrance to Alder Hey childrens hospital in Liverpool, northwest England, following the announcement that the European court of human rights refused to intervene in the case of British toddler Alfie Evans on April 23. (AFP)

His parents want to take him to the Bambino Gesu (Baby Jesus) paediatric hospital in Rome which is administered by the Vatican.

Hundreds of people have protested outside the Liverpool hospital in support of the fathers plea for the boy to be discharged.

On Monday, a large group of protesters attempted to storm the entrance before being blocked by police.

Evans met with Pope Francis in the Vatican last Wednesday, pleading with him to save our son in a Facebook post afterwards.

At his weekly audience the same day, the pontiff drew attention to the case.

I want to reiterate and strongly confirm that the only master of life, from the beginning to its natural end, is God, and our duty is to do everything to protect life, he said.

Italy granted the toddler citizenship on Monday in a bid to facilitate his transfer to Rome.

(This story has not been modified from its original version.)
A new wave of Taliban attacks across Afghanistan killed at least 11 Afghan soldiers and policemen on Tuesday, officials said, the latest in a particularly deadly week of assaults by militants.

At least five soldiers were killed when their checkpoint was attacked by the Taliban in western Farah province, according to Mohammad Naser Mehri, the provincial governors spokesman.

Two soldiers were wounded in that attack, in the Bala Buluk district. Mehri said six Taliban fighters were killed and three others were wounded in the battle, which lasted several hours.

Reinforcements have arrived and right now, the situation is under control, he added.

Earlier on Tuesday, insurgents killed at least four members of the local police force and wounded seven in eastern Ghazni province.

The Taliban there targeted the local police security post in the provinces district of Jaghatu, said Arif Noori, spokesman for the provincial governor. He also said the gunbattle lasted several hours and that the Taliban used artillery and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for both the Farah and the Ghazni attacks in messages to the media. He said the Taliban took two Afghan soldiers captive in the Farah attack but there was no immediate confirmation from the Afghan military on that.

Later Tuesday, two policemen were killed and six soldiers were captured in attacks on their checkpoints in western Badghis province, said Mohammad Naser Nazari, a member of the provincial council.

He blamed the Taliban and said insurgents there stormed several police and military checkpoints in Qadis district before reinforcements arrived and the situation was brought under control.

It has been a particularly deadly week in Afghanistan.

The Health Ministry in Kabul on Tuesday raised the death toll from a horrific suicide bombing by the Islamic State group earlier this week to 60, after three more of the wounded had died in hospital.

The ministry also said the number of wounded from Sundays attack, which targeted a voter registration center in Kabul, was now at 130 after all the data had been collected, including from private hospitals where the casualties were also taken after state hospitals became overwhelmed in the immediate aftermath of the bombing.

Also, on Monday, Taliban attacks in western Afghanistan killed 18 soldiers and policemen.
Simon McDonald, the head of Britains diplomatic service in the Foreign Office apologised on Tuesday for calling Golden Temple a mosque during a visit to Amritsar.

On Monday he tweeted referring to the Golden Temple as the Golden Mosque and was widely criticised on social media.

At QBP in Chandigarh @SinghLions presented @DHCAndrewAyre with picture of HM The Queen at Golden Mosque in Amritsar in 1997, a permanent memento for Deputy High Commissions wall @UKinIndia pic.twitter.com/GFkBT0GcRU  Sir Simon McDonald (@SMcDonaldFCO) April 23, 2018

Campaign group Sikh Federation (UK) gave him 24 hours to apologise to the Sikh community for calling the Sikhs holiest shrine a mosque.

At QBP in Chandigarh @SinghLions presented @DHCAndrewAyre with picture of HM The Queen at Golden Mosque in Amritsar in 1997, a permanent memento for Deputy High Commissions wall @UKinIndia pic.twitter.com/GFkBT0GcRU  Sir Simon McDonald (@SMcDonaldFCO) April 23, 2018

McDonald apologised, tweeting: I was wrong: I am sorry. I should of course have said the Golden Temple or, better, Sri Harmandir Sahib.

Bhai Amrik Singh, chair of the Sikh Federation (UK) said: This was a major gaffe by a top civil servant and totally unacceptable. It demonstrates a remarkable level of ignorance from someone in his position.

What hope is there for the average person to distinguish between Sikhs and Muslims, if someone holding his position can make such a massive blunder while visiting the Sikh homeland?

Unfortunately, it is this sort of ignorance or mistaken identity that breeds hate and has resulted in Sikhs being abused, attacked and in some cases killed across the globe since 9/11.

In our view a public apology and admitting the mistake is not enough. What we need is a commitment from the UK Government and senior civil servants to root out such ignorance and discrimination or we will continue to face hate, abuse and threats of violence.
The Pakistan government said on Tuesday that a United States diplomat involved in the death of a young man in a road accident in Islamabad cannot be arrested or tried but has been put on a black list so that he cannot leave the country.

Col Joseph Hall, a military attache at the US embassy, reportedly drove through a red light in his official vehicle and rammed into a motorcycle, killing one Ateeq Baig on the spot and injuring his cousin.

In a reply to the Islamabad high court, deputy attorney general Raja Khalid said that including the diplomats name in the exit control list (ECL) maintained by the interior ministry would be a long process.

Khalid said the Vienna Convention provides immunity to diplomats who are involved in any accident that occurs while they are performing their official duties. A trial can only be held if the immunity is withdrawn, the law officers reply to the court said.

Justice Aamer Farooq, who is hearing a case regarding the accident that occurred on a busy thoroughfare in the heart of Islamabad on April 7, ordered the foreign ministry to submit its reply to the courts questions regarding the issue of immunity and placing the diplomats name in the ECL.

The diplomat was let go by police after a case was registered as the foreign office said he enjoyed diplomatic immunity. Baigs family petitioned the Islamabad high court to put the diplomats name on ECL.

At an earlier hearing, the court observed that diplomatic immunity does not permit the killing of someone. The court also criticised the police for its sloppy handling of the case. The judge observed that police had damaged the case by not conducting an alcohol test on the diplomat.

The diplomatic row between the US and Pakistan over the issue could lead to strict restrictions on the movement of their diplomats. The US administration has notified Pakistani authorities that diplomats at the embassy in Washington and at consulates in other American cities will not be able to travel 40 km beyond from their posts without permission. The notification indicated the restrictions could be imposed from May 1 if certain issues remained unresolved.
APRIL 25: The Kings have confirmed that Bogdanovic underwent his meniscus debridement procedure, announcing that hell resume full basketball activities in about eight to 10 weeks.

APRIL 24: Kings shooting guard Bogdan Bogdanovic has been diagnosed with a slight tear of the medial meniscus in his left knee, the team announced today in a press release. According to the Kings, Bogdanovic is undergoing a minimally invasive debridement procedure on his knee on Tuesday to address the issue.

Sacramentos season is over, so Bogdanovic will have several months to recover and rehab following the surgery. The Kings expect him to make a full recovery, indicating theyll provide an update on his timeline when it becomes available.

Bogdanovic, not to be confused with Pacers wing Bojan Bogdanovic, had a successful rookie season in Sacramento in 2017/18, appearing in 78 games (53 starts) for the team and averaging 11.8 PPG on .446/.392/.840 shooting.

Because Bogdanovic was a draft-and-stash prospect, he isnt on a standard four-year rookie contract, but he remains under Sacramentos control for the next two years. Hell be eligible for restricted free agency in 2020 and remains a key part of the Kings core going forward, so the club will closely monitor his recovery process this offseason.

Bogdanovic has been a member of the Serbian national team for the last several years, representing his country in 2017s EuroBasket tournament. Todays procedure figures to compromise his availability for Serbia this summer.
Supplier News

24 April 2018

Hotelogix, a leading cloud-based Property Management System provider has announced that it has been selected as the preferred technology partner by G'Day Rail, Australia's iconic tourist train. The management at G'Day Rail decided to adopt Hotelogix's PMS to effectively manage their daily operations, and to improve guest experience.

With immaculately restored carriages, G'Day Rail covers 7 exotic destinations spanning over a stretch of 3500 kilometers. This train is Australia's only fleet of newly restored 1960's carriages. This vintage train offers a wide-range of scrumptious food and various on-board performances by critically acclaimed artists.

Speaking on this, Aditya Sanghi, Co-founder & CEO at Hotelogix said, "The power of cloud that provides anytime, anywhere access will be fully utilized along with the flexibility that our solution offers to accommodate unique packaging needs of G'Day Rail. We are happy to see the fitment of our PMS for something as unique as G'Day Rail, which is a moving hotel."

According to Rodney Clancy, Director at G'Day Rail, the management was looking for a PMS with connectivity to housekeeping and accounting application. They also wanted the PMS to help them with inventory and rate distribution on OTAs.

"Our research on the alternative products narrowed it down, based on our specific requirements and this analysis found Hotelogix to fit the best for us. They have offered all their skilled staff to aid and ease the PMS implementation process. My goal is to launch G'Day Rail touring hotel to the world market with a professionalism only found with the best PMS like Hotelogix," Rodney added.

About Hotelogix

Hotelogix provides a robust cloud-based Hotel PMS that helps hotels to automate and manage their end-to-end operations with ease. It also assists hotels to increase their online presence and improve online reputation to generate more bookings. The PMS is hosted on Amazon Web Service, and thus offers the much-needed stability and security to hoteliers.
Yesterday, Hot 97 radio host Ebro Darden told his co-hosts that he had a 30-minute conversation with Kanye West where he revealed that he loved Donald Trump and defended himself amid backlash for his Candace Owens support. It was reported that Kanye had been signing his Saint Pablo Tour merchandise with "Trump," further aligning himself with a conservative audience. More Kanye madness ensued on "Ebro In The Morning" today when Ye called in for what has to be one of the most bizarre interviews ever conducted on the show.

Kanye called Ebro and the call was put through to air live for Hot 97 listeners, with Ye asking, "Yo, are we on air?" before bombarding Ebro with a barrage of love. Continually answering every question with "I just called to say I love you," Ye did not offer much information at all, instead opting to keep their extended conversation for when the two meet up in person. Although his speech is unclear at times because of the cell phone signal, Laura Stylez and Peter Rosenberg visibly cringe during the uncomfortably long pauses Kanye takes.

The rapper's moves have been incredibly mysterious since it was first reported that he was in Wyoming, cooking up new music with his crew. With the recent developments of his Trump love and this awkward phone call, what exactly is going on with Ye? One thing is for sure: enigmatic behavior from Kanye usually means that a fire album is on the way.
If Kanye West has been trying to convince us that he loves Donald Trump, as Ebro suggested yesterday, this will certainly do the trick. After he was spotted at Trump Tower shortly after Trump was elected to become the next President of the United States, Kanye stated during one of his shows that, although he didn't vote, he would have ticked the Trump box if he had. While many former Trump supporters have publicly regretted voting for him on social media, Ye is taking an opposite route, fervently supporting him in his fight against the "thought police."

During a supposed 30-minute conversation with radio personality Ebro, Ye admitted that he loves Donald Trump while explaining his support for Candace Owens' way of thinking. He was not finished there as the rapper's personal videographer shared a photo depicting a pile of Saint Pablo Tour merchandise that Kanye had freshly signed "Trump." White Trash Tyler has been working with Ye for a few years and, although anybody could have written the name on Yeezy's memorabilia, Tyler alleges that the clothing was "signed tonight by Kanye."

Whether or not Ye legitimately agrees with everything Trump has established as President may never be known as this could all be a genius marketing opportunity to reach out to a group that feels underrepresented in hip-hop music. The photos are available below. Let us know how you feel about Kanye's recent Trump support in the last few days.
Meek Mill is a free man, just in time for tonight's Sixers game.

According to Yahoo Sports' Shams Charania, Meek plans to attend tonight's Game 5 as the Sixers host the Miami Heat at the Wells Fargo Center. In fact, 76ers co-owner Michael Rubin is reportedly picking Meek up from jail and he says it's "more likely than not" that Meek will be court side for tonight's game.

Furthermore, if Meek and Rubin get to the arena in time, the Philly-native will have the honor of ringing the ceremonial pre-game bell, according to the New York Times' Daniel Victor. Joel Embiid is said to be "going crazy" after learning of Meek's release.

After taking Games 3 & 4 in Miami, the Sixers return home tonight with a chance to close out the series and advance to the second round where they'll face the winner of the Boston Celtics vs Milwaukee Bucks series. Game 5, airing on TNT, is scheduled to tip off at 8:00pm ET tonight.
It's a good day to free Meek Mill and we're more than ecstatic to know that the "1942 Flows" rapper has confirmed to be released from jail. Everyone's been rooting for his release, from Slovanian Olympic athletes to the 76ers owner Michael Rubin. Now that he's been released, the rapper has shared his first statements as a free man.

Meek Mill took to social media to share his appreciation for his fans and supporters who've been riding with him throughout this tumultuous journey through the justice system. he outpouring support that he received from prison helped him keep his positivity. The rapper thanked Jay-Z and the Roc Nation team, Desiree Perez, Michael Rubin, who's stood alongside him throughout his sentence as well as the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

"To the Philly District Attorneys office, Im grateful for your commitment to justice. I understand that many people of color across the country dont have that luxury and I plan to use my platform to shine a light on those issues." He wrote on Twitter.

Shortly after news of his release from prison emerged, it was reported by TMZ that Michael Rubin will be picking him up from jail. Rubin's been one of the main people who has helped facilitate several of the high profile celebrity guests he had in jail. In addition, the rapper shared a photo on his Instagram page alongside Kevin Hart and Rubin with the caption reading, "Let's go Sixers." Maybe we'll end up seeing Meek Mill at the Sixers Game tonight against the Miami Heat.
Last week it was reported that the investigation into Prince's death would be closing with no criminal charges filed. Price was found dead in April, 2016, and his cause of death was believed to be due to counterfeit Vicodin pills containing lethal amounts of Fentanyl, an incredibly powerful opioid.

Now, according to the New York Times, Price's family will be suing an Illinois hospital, as well as the pharmacy chain, Walgreens, for playing a direct part in Prince's death two years ago.

The suit alleges that Prince received improper care during his stay in the Trinity Medical Center, a Moline, Illinois, hospital where he was treated for a drug overdose days before his death. The lawsuit claims that his death was a "direct and proximate cause" of the hospital failing to properly identify the causes and administer proper treatment for his overdose.

After his plane made an emergency landing, Prince was brought to the hospital, where his bodyguard, Kirk Johnson, told doctors that he may have taken Percocet. The doctors who treated him didn't believe him, as it required a higher dose of Narcan, a drug used to counteract opioid overdoses, to revive him than would be necessary with Percocet. However, the hospital allowed Prince to leave after his revival, despite his refusal to undergo any sort of testing.

Walgreens is also named in the suit, for allegedly "dispensing narcotic prescription medications" without a proper purpose, and for failing to conduct a thorough drug utilization review.

Prince's family's lawyers said in a statement Monday, "What happened to Prince is happening to families across America. The family wishes through its investigation to shed light on this epidemic and how to better the fight to save lives. If Princes death helps save lives, then all was not lost."
Russ stirred up a whole lot of controversy after one of his interviews from 2016 surfaced where he suggested that producers are to blame for the state of hip hop. Metro Boomin, BigHead, Frank Dukes, Cardo, London On Da Track and more slammed the "What They Want" rapper for putting the blame on producers. One person who had a pretty lengthy message for Russ was 808 Mafia's Southside. He's never one to shy away from sharing his opinion and in a recent Instagram Live session, he completely slammed Russ for what he said.

Southside was not feeling Russ' recent comments about producers alleged role in the decline of hip hop's quality. Before he went in on the rapper, he let it known that he did think his music was dope. However, he let it be known that Russ doesn't have any authority to make comments like that.

"Let's just be clear, don't speak on Black producers, at all. And I'mma say this shit for the last time, because you're not Black. Don't speak on Black producers, bro. Saying that there are no more Dr. Dre's, there are no more Timbaland's, there are no more this, there are no more that. You right n*gga, there are no more of them," Southside said. "All those n*ggas you speakin' on are 50 years and better. They are the OG's, we respect 'em but music has changed and it has shifted. You know what I'm sayin'? You sound stupid, bro, saying what you saying."

He later went on to say that the music Russ makes doesn't appeal to the same crowd that listens to him, Smokepurpp or Lil Pump.

"Don't get mad at us as Black producers because for one bro, the music you make is not for the community that we're in at all. I don't see Smokepurpp fans singing Russ songs. I don't see Lil Pump fans singing Russ songs. You can't call those kids wack, my n*gga because you on some lyrical disaster shit. So calm that down." He said.

Russ' has already made a statement about the interview and stated that he wasn't getting at the producer community but rather the monotony in production
What gives you comfort? The answer, of course, varies from person to person. For some, the definition might include a good education from a top-tier university, a fun job, and a happy marriage. For others, money is the desired cushion, the ability to afford overseas holidays and organic snacks and designer clothes. The more politically minded, meanwhile, might look to elections to provide reassurance, such as the absolute certainty that, in 2016, America would elect its first woman president.

Comfort can be a rascal, sometimes. Contentment is like the magic trick in which you yank the tablecloth out from under an elegant table setting. Sometimes, the cutlery and glassware stay put. But, boy, can they ever come crashing down in a hurry.

Curtis Sittenfeld is an astute observer of the lives of comfortable people and of those who aspire to levels of security that have been thus far unattainable. She has explored the concerns of the boarding-school, white-collar crowd in early novels such as "Prep" and "The Man of My Dreams." Now, she revisits these themes in "You Think It, I'll Say It" (Random House; 240 pp.; $27) her first book of stories.

If a couple of the pieces here aren't fully realized, the collection still showcases Sittenfeld's gifts for scrutinizing the psyches of the privileged and for sifting through the shards of the wreckage when that tablecloth gets pulled away.

BOOK REVIEW: In 'The Only Story,' scandalous love goes bad

For many people, what was more shattering than the election of Donald Trump? Sittenfeld addresses his candidacy and Electoral College victory in the stories that bookend this collection.

The better of the two is "Gender Studies," the opening piece, in which a recently divorced professor of gender and women's studies  in one of the book's many memorable details, she is the author of the paper, "Booty Call: Norms of Restricted and Unrestricted Sociosexuality in Hookup Culture"  arrives in Kansas City for a conference and discovers when she gets to her hotel that she has lost her driver's license.

She contacts the cab driver, a young white man who had said on the ride, "A tough businessman like that could go kick some butts in Washington ... You would never catch me voting for Shrillary," in the hope that she left her license in his vehicle. What follows is a complex and sensitive portrayal of erroneous assumptions and the lengths one might go to in search of solace.

Less successful is the closing story, "Do-Over." A Chicago-based bank vice president receives an email from a woman who was his boarding school classmate 25 years earlier. She writes from her Denver home that she is coming to Chicago on business and would like to catch up. Though one might agree with the sentiments expressed in the story  that sexism played a role not only in Trump's election but also in much else in life  Sittenfeld too obviously has her characters state their points through conversation rather than a sustained narrative.

And in "Bad Latch," an expectant mother meets a wealthy woman planning to be a stay-at-home mom  a luxury the protagonist can't afford  because, as the wealthy woman puts it, "why even bother to become a parent in the first place?" It's an intriguing story idea, but Sittenfeld doesn't fully explore its possibilities.

BOOK REVIEW: A tough old Chicago emerges in Mamet's new novel

Most of the pieces in this collection, however, are magnificent. The best include "A Regular Couple," in which a well-known attorney, vilified for defending a linebacker accused of rape, bumps into "the queen of my high school" at the resort where the attorney and her husband are honeymooning and is forced to reevaluate her past.

"Off the Record" is a brilliant piece in which a new mother has to bring her six-month-old daughter on a trip to Los Angeles, where the woman will interview an up-and-coming television star whose "carpenter-turned-heartthrob" boyfriend dumped her after she miscarried.

And "The Prairie Wife" is a clever work about a woman debating whether to leak damaging information about a celebrity she knows, a lifestyle maven promoting her latest memoir, "Dishin' with the Prairie Wife," which includes such recipes as raccoon stew.

Sittenfeld's strength is the depiction of women who fear that the lives of the famous or more professionally accomplished might be more satisfying than their own. She examines these lives with great sensitivity, and all with the breezy, deceptively simple writing she's known for: a mix of pop culture and brand-name references that call to mind the stories of Ann Beattie.

In the story "Vox Clamantis in Deserto," a 19-year-old Dartmouth student discovers that a classmate she thought privileged and refined had an upbringing no different from her own. "She hadn't pretended," the young woman says of her classmate. "I had misconstrued."

Many of the women in this fine collection could make the same claim. Impressions prove mistaken, and plans go awry. And where's the comfort in that?

Michael Magras (@michaelmagras) is a member of the National Book Critics Circle. His work has appeared in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Newsday.

Sign up for the Gray Matters newsletter. It scrutinizes the psyches of the privileged.
In 2015, when the Texas state legislature approved a $118 million pilot project that would help expand and improve pre-K offerings across the state, it did so at the urging of Governor Greg Abbott. The legislation was one of five emergency items Abbott highlighted in that year's State of the State address.

But it faced problems in the beginning. So many districts applied for the grants that came with stricter program requirements that the amount per student went down significantly  so much that some districts gave the money back. Then, in the next legislative session, lawmakers decided not to renew the program but keep the new, higher measures it was meant to support.

"The strain and the need for more resources in pre-K is really critical," said Andy Canales, director of the Center for Social Measurement and Evaluation with the education advocacy and research group Children at Risk. "We see a lot of data and we've done a study ourselves that show how important early education is in setting a strong foundation for future learning, especially for children that are growing up in poverty."

Despite the state's recent moves, however, it seems the majority of Houston-area residents support more funding for pre-K  even if that means higher taxes. Sixty-seven percent of Harris County respondents said they favored increasing local taxes in order to provide universal preschool education for all children in Houston, according to the 2018 Kinder Houston Area Survey. "It does suggest people do understand the importance of education," said Stephen Klineberg, the founding director of the Kinder Institute and the author of the annual survey.

Kinder Houston Area Survey

The issue highlights a common divide between public opinion and policy. "Elections matter," said Scott Hochberg, an education finance expert and former state representative.

Research underscores the importance of early education. A recent report from the Houston Education Research Consortium found that HISD students who had two years of pre-K education were more school ready than their peers with only one year. But most students, 90 percent, only attended one year of pre-K.

"It's a huge need here in the greater Houston area," said Canales. "Whenever we've talked with school districts to find out how are they're funding full-day pre-K, what we have found is that, a lot of times they have to draw resources from somewhere else in the budget, from another space, in order to make the math work."

As for public school beyond pre-K, 55 percent of Harris County respondents said they felt that "in order for the schools to provide a quality education, significantly more money will be needed," according to the most recent Kinder Houston Area Survey. That number increased from 49 percent in 2009.

Public school funding has been in Houston headlines in recent years. The issue even made it to the ballot box in 2016 when HISD added a measure meant to put pressure on the state legislature to change its school funding system after lawsuits failed to do the same.

The measure specifically took aim at the state's recapture plan, which redistributes funds from property-wealthy districts like HISD to property-poor districts. Trouble is, the district's student population is almost 80 percent economically disadvantaged. Despite the public debate, the next session did not produce the changes many were pushing for.

And so the issue remains. HISD is currently facing a $115 million shortfall as it searches for a new superintendent and prepares a plan to partner with an outside organization to prevent the state takeover of several chronically struggling schools.

Hochberg said support for more school funding isn't too surprising and isn't necessarily a partisan issue. "Bond issues have played well even in conservative areas and tax increase elections have played well in suburban school districts," he said. "The really interesting thing would be if folks felt that schools serving a lot of low-income kids especially needed more money. That's where we traditionally get our poorest performance and that's where every study I've ever seen has indicated that we've underfund what we need to [in order] to reach those kids."

Leah Binkovitz is the senior editor for the Kinder Institute for Urban Research and its Urban Edge blog. She previously covered Fort Bend County for the Chronicle. This article originally appeared on Urban Edge.

Sign up for the Gray Matters newsletter. It isn't necessarily a partisan issue.
A proposed land bridge to replace an aging drawbridge connecting Galveston and Pelican Island appears to be on life support, primarily due to its expensive price tag.

During a Galveston County Commissioner's Court workshop on Monday, County Engineer Michael Shannon indicated that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which would partially fund the project, was not receptive to the idea during a recent presentation.

"I don't think it was as promising as hoped," Shannon said.

Part of the corps' lack of enthusiasm for the land bridge proposal, which would create a strip of land extending across the waterway from Galveston Island to Pelican Island as a foundation for a road and future railway, is rooted in its $217 million cost. Environmentalists have also lobbied against the land bridge because of the impact it could have on wildlife and the overall health of Galveston Bay.

Even more traditional bridge proposals, such as a 75-foot high, $91 million alternative that cuts across the northern corner of Texas A&M's campus on Pelican Island, has thus far come up short in funding.

The Texas Department of Transportation has committed $45 million to the project, contingent on an agreement with the bridge owner, the Galveston County Navigation District No. 1., that would need to be signed by the end of June. The remaining $46 million would come from a combination of the city of Galveston, Galveston County, Texas A&M, and the Houston-Galveston Area Council, as well as the Army Corps of Engineers.

Shannon said that based on conversations with the various stakeholders, the $91 million proposal has a funding shortfall of about $10 million to $15 million. He added that the lack of funding commitments is a result of the indecision on a firm proposal for the bridge design.

"What I would like to see is a decision from [commissioners] court in support of, or a position saying, 'This is the project we'd like to develop,'" Shannon said. "Other agencies don't want to commit to a project where they don't know what it is. If we're asking them for money for something, they want to know what it is."

County Judge Mark Henry said that the commissioners would select a final bridge proposal in a special meeting next week.

News of the land bridge's demise will undoubtedly be well received by local environmentalists. Experts say that the land bridge would have blocked a key waterway connecting the Gulf of Mexico to Galveston Bay, potentially damaging natural fisheries that the state's commercial fishing industry relies on and increasing siltation in the bay.

"We would have so much less saltwater flowing into Galveston Bay, and if we had a rain event, it would significantly reduce the salinity to that entire system, which could potentially kill off the entire stock of our oysters and shrimp that we have in these nursery habitats in West Bay," said Theresa Morris, the Gulf program director for the Turtle Island Restoration Network.

But Jeff Sjostrom, president of the Galveston Economic Development Partnership, and a supporter of the land bridge idea, left the door open for revisiting the proposal so the stakeholders have more time to assess its impacts. Sjostrom said the proposal is "obviously the best solution, long-term," partly because its gradation would pave the way for construction of a railway.

However, even Sjostrom acknowledged that the project would need robust federal support, including possible congressional legislation that would include direct funding to the Army Corps of Engineers and directing the Coast Guard to close a navigable waterway.

"The unknowns with the federal legislative process and where the sausage factory is, is what leads many to say it's just not worth the time and trouble to look at [the land bridge] as an alternative," Sjostrom said.

County Commissioner Ken Clark asked Shannon whether a proposal for a lower traditional bridge, roughly 35 feet high, might be a reasonable compromise because "at 35 feet we'd still have the grade to take rail on the bridge parallel." But Shannon said that the navigation district might not agree to build such a bridge and that it would require an entirely new round of environmental permitting.

"We're only doing a vehicular bridge," Shannon said.

Nick Powell covers Galveston County for the Chronicle. Follow him on Twitter and send him tips at nick.powell@chron.com
Jim Bridenstine, a former Oklahoma congressman and Rice University graduate, took the helm of NASA on Monday, ending a period of more than a year when the space agency was without permanent leadership.

Bridenstine was sworn in Monday by Vice President Mike Pence to become the first elected official to lead the space agency. His swearing-in came days after his Senate confirmation. He was accompanied by his wife Michelle and three young children.

"I will do my best to serve our storied agency to the utmost of my abilities as we reach for new heights and reveal the unknown for the benefit of humankind," Bridenstine tweeted following the ceremony, which was held at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C. and live-streamed on the space agency's website. "NASA represents the best of our country. We lead, we discover, we pioneer, and we inspire. I look forward to our journey together."

PARTY-LINE VOTE: Trump's nominee confirmed on 50-47 vote

Bridenstine, 42, had waited quite a while to be confirmed -- he first was nominated for the post by President Donald Trump last September.

But his confirmation was delayed, in part because of concerns about Bridenstine's skepticism about climate change as well as his elected official status. This left longtime NASA employee Robert Lightfoot to serve as acting administrator for 14 months  longer than anyone had served in that interim role in the agencys history.

Lightfoot's tenure came to a close about a week ahead of schedule. He announced in March that he would resign from the post effective April 30. In a statement last week, Lightfoot said he looks forward to Bridenstine "building on our great momentum and sharing our many strengths to help us make the next giants leaps on behalf of humanity."

Bridenstine thanked Lightfoot for his service, adding that he was honored to join the NASA family.

Bridenstine, who graduated from Rice in 1998, was a Navy pilot and combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan. After leaving active duty, he served as executive director of the Tulsa Air and Space Museum & Planetarium. He then was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2012.

Pence on Monday said Bridenstine brings "unrivaled passion" to the post.

"I'm confident that with your background in the military service, with your understanding of public policy, with your experience in management and with your love for American leadership in space, you will bring all these qualities to bear, along with your character, on this new chapter of renewed leadership in space," Pence said.

Bridenstine takes the helm of the space agency at a time of transition, with the Trump administration putting a heightened focus on returning to the moon as a stepping stone to going to Mars.

GIANT LEAP AHEAD: Lunar 'Gateway' work to get off the ground next year

NASA's $19.9 billion budget proposal for the next fiscal year includes $10.5 billion for human exploration, while also transitioning the activities on the International Space Station to commercial entities, ending federal government support in 2025. Mondays event included a video chat with three astronauts aboard the space station.

As NASA's new leader, Bridenstine will need to find a replacement for Ellen Ochoa, director of Houston's Johnson Space Center. Ochoa  the first Hispanic woman to go into space and who logged more than 1,000 hours in orbit  previously announced that she would step down in May after 30 years with the space agency.

Ochoa previously told the Chronicle that Lightfoot planned to choose her successor prior to his departure but that has not happened. NASA did not respond to a request for information about when a replacement would be announced.

Ochoa said in a statement on Twitter that she was looking "forward to introducing him to our amazing people and capabilities in Houston."

alex.stuckey@chron.com

twitter.com/alexdstuckey
A bicyclist died Tuesday after being struck by a dump truck near Rice University, the third cyclist killed after being hit in the past month.

The woman, who has not been identified, was killed about 11:55 a.m. in the 6000 block of Main near Sunset, according to the Houston Police Department.

She is believed to have been leaving Rice University after meeting her husband for lunch in the area, Assistant Chief Wendy Baimbridge said.

Both the bicyclist and the man driving the dump truck had a green light at the time of the crash, Baimbridge said. The dump truck was making a right turn off of Sunset to go south on Main, while the woman entered into the intersection from a sidewalk and was struck by the right back tire of the truck.

It is unclear who may have been at fault, Baimbridge said.

The death marks the third time this month that a bicyclist has been hit and killed by a vehicle in the Houston area.

READ ALSO: Woman found dead at Clear Lake Park in Seabrook

Now Playing: Latest Local And State News Video: Houston Chronicle

On April 11, a woman on her bicycle was hit and killed by a Jeep Grand Cherokee on the South Beltway frontage road near Dickinson Road. She was riding in the middle of the inside lane of traffic when she was struck, police said.

And on April 12, a 32-year-old man was killed in a hit-and-run in Chinatown. He was riding his bicycle possibly in the shoulder of the road when a car hit him and drove off, police said.

Another woman was hit and killed on Oct. 7, 2017 in the 6800 block of the East Sam Houston Parkway in the outside lane of a feeder road, according to the Harris County Sheriff's Office.

READ ALSO: Missing 9-year-old boy last seen in west Houston has been found
Houston ISD trustees face a vote Tuesday on whether to move forward with plans to temporarily give up control over 10 low-performing campuses to a charter school operator, an unprecendented surrender designed to prevent school closures or a state takeover of HISDs locally elected school board.

The scheduled vote comes as community members and local education leaders clamor for more information about Energized For STEM Academy, the local charter school nonprofit that would take control of the 10 campuses. HISD leaders divulged the name of Energized For STEM Academy, which already runs four in-district HISD charters, on Friday without releasing details on the arranagement. Already, the regions largest teachers union and some education advocates have railed against the proposal and alleged Energized For STEM Academys leaders have engaged in questionable real estate practices.

It sets up a closely-watched decision that will have wide-reaching implications for the future of HISDs school board, the 6,000-plus students who attend the 10 schools and the neighborhoods surrounding each campus. Several of the nine trustees have offered mixed opinions on the proposal, potentially setting up a close vote.

EDITORIAL: HISD should vote no on charter takeover

HISD leaders are considering the partnerships in an effort to stave off sanctions under a state law passed in 2015, that requires campus closures or a state takeover if any district school receives a fifth straight improvement required rating for poor academic performance this year. Ten HISD schools risk triggering the law this year, and HISD administrators have said it is unlikely all 10 will emerge from improvement required status.

The 10 campuses are: Blackshear, Dogan, Highland Heights, Mading and Wesley elementary schools; Henry Middle School; Woodson PK-8; and Kashmere, Wheatley and Worthing high schools.

As a result, HISD leaders have recommended employing another state law that gives a two-year reprieve from sanctions if the district relinquishes control of its long-struggling campuses. Under that law, HISD must hand over operations of each school to a nonprofit, higher education institution, charter school network or governmental entity.

With an April 30 deadline to submit partnership plans to the Texas Education Agency, HISD apparently has landed on Energized For STEM Academy. The organization is governed by a three-person board  NAACP Houston Branch president and former Texas Southern University president James Douglas, former HISD trustee Paula Harris and Missouri City dentist Opal Brandy  and led by head of schools Lois Bullock, who has spent two decades running in-district HISD charters.

Trustees have expressed mixed opinions about Energized For STEM Academys academic history. HISD Trustee Wanda Adams noted that Bullock has served high-poverty students for 20 years, often with positive results. Energized for STEMs two high schools scored well above district averages last year on state standardized tests, with one school reporting a 100 percent graduation rate.

If I didnt have full confidence in them, I wouldnt be supporting this item, Adams said. This is the only best option.

Trustee Holly Maria Flynn Vilaseca, however, pointed to academic issues at one of the groups middle schools, which fell into improvement required status in 2014 and 2016.

Their history is all over the place, and that, to me, is a red flag, Flynn Vilaseca said.

Opponents of the plan, including the Houston Federation of Teachers, argue HISD and Energized For STEM Academy have not provided enough information about how the charter would change outcomes at the 10 schools. To date, neither HISD nor Energized For STEM Academy has released a detailed proposal for turning around the schools or contract language.

They also have raised questions about whether Bullock has improperly profited off of real estate transactions with another in-district HISD charter group, Energized For Excellence Academy Inc., for which Bullock is head of schools and Douglas is a governing board member.

Property records show Bullock is the sole member of a for-profit company that owns neighboring properties receiving rent from Energized For Excellence Academy. Under terms of a five-year lease agreement that ends in July, Bullocks company is to receive $1.58 million per year for 104,400 square feet of rental space, or about $15 per square foot annually. The costs also cover property taxes, insurance and adjustments for future increases.

Douglas said he didnt know whether Bullock, whose companies bought the properties in 2001 and 2006, has personally profited from the facilities.

Im not saying it can never work, but its an arrangement that is ripe for abuse, said Preston Green, a professor of educational leadership at the University of Connecticut.

If HISD trustees do not approve the proposal Tuesday, district leaders will have six days to find another partner or devise a new plan if they want to avoid potential state sanctions. HISD administrators have not commented on Energized For STEM Academy since Friday, and they did not provide interviews or information requested by the Houston Chronicle on Monday.

Shelby Webb contributed to this report.
A popular East End comedy and music venue fell victim to three burglars who skipped over pricey electronics for cash.

The three burglars broke into The Secret Group around 3:30 a.m. Monday and wound up taking nearly $9,000 in cash, according to Andrew Youngblood, who owns the venue. The burglars were caught on surveillance video inside the building, which Youngblood reviewed and shared on Facebook.
The Houston Zoo will be throwing monthly parties this year to encourage young adults to come out after dark.

The After Dark party series kicks off on Thursday, May 17, with dates on the third Thursday in June and July.

ZOO HONORS: Houston Zoo receives a prestigious accreditation

Tickets are $35 per night or $90 for a season package. Guests must be 21 years or older. Alcohol will be sold at the events.

Organizers said the parties will begin at 6 p.m. with adults able to tour the zoo at their own pace. Music will start at 8 p.m.

Now Playing: The yet-to-be-named hoglet was anything but camera shy during his public debut this week. Video: Southern Living

The May 17 party will be a silent disco, with guests receiving headphones to tune into three distinct channels. It's also a little less intrusive for the zoo's sleeping residents.

"Sip and Sea" on June 21 will be a party where white-colored attire is preferred and the zoo's water-loving animals will be the guests of honor. The last party is "Goin' Country" on July 19, featuring a country music theme with a mechanical bull, live music, and games of cornhole and horseshoes.

ZOO FUTURE: Houston Zoo announces ambitious plans, additional habitats

These parties, along with the annual Zoo Lights, Feast with the Beasts, and the brand-new Brew at the Zoo beer festival debuting this week are a way to reach out to Houstonians who want to experience the scenery after hours.

Fun fact: The Albert & Ethel Herzstein Trading Post at the zoo has been serving Saint Arnold beer and other brands for some time. This might make some parents and guardians look forward to zoo day with the kids just a little more.

Craig Hlavaty is a reporter for Chron.com and HoustonChronicle.com.
WASHINGTON  Lawyers for Texas and a broad coalition of African-American and Latino rights groups clashed Tuesday before the U.S. Supreme Court in a protracted redistricting dispute alleging that the state's Republican lawmakers intentionally drew their latest political maps to marginalize minority voters.

But one of the main points of contention in the 70 minute hearing was whether the case belongs before the Supreme Court at all, with lawyers for the minority groups arguing to let a panel of federal judges in Texas first decide whether to change political boundaries that they invalidated in 2017.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, one of the leading liberals on the bench, peppered Texas Solicitor General Scott Keller about the timing of the state's appeal to the Supreme Court, which the minority groups say was intended to short-circuit the lower court's move to have the Legislature draw new political maps or have the courts hold new redistricting hearings.

RELATED: Texas gerrymandering case before Supreme Court could change state's political map

"By not waiting for the remedy in this case, we are not in a position to be fully

informed," Sotomayor said. "Aren't we obligated to look at the full picture?"

Keller argued that the high court should uphold the current maps, which the Legislature adopted in 2013 following the contours of an earlier interim court redistricting plan put in place for the 2012 elections.

"Adopting a court-ordered remedial plan is evidence that the Legislature acted in good faith," Keller said. "This is not a case of the Legislature trying to pull a fast one."

Some of the conservatives on the court, including Chief Justice John Roberts, expressed some sympathy for the state's position.

"It does seem to me that at the very least -- and I understand this to be the point on the other side -- that ought to give them some presumption of good faith moving forward, which is significant on the determination of their intent to discriminate," Roberts said.

Roberts also noted, however, that the state was relying on a court plan that was "put in quickly" and not "comprehensive."

The arguments brought to a head long simmering tensions about political gerrymandering in nearly a dozen states across the nation, accentuated by Texas' long history of disputes involving allegations of racial discrimination in the makeup of its political boundaries.

The Supreme Court clash is the latest in a seven-year battle that will determine if Texas has to redraw its congressional and state house maps for future elections. It could also decide if Texas will again have to submit to federal "preclearance" requirements in future redistricting and election cases.

The groups bringing the challenge, including the Texas NAACP and Mexican American Legislative Caucus (MALC) allege that even though most of the population growth in Texas between 2000 and 2010 was in communities of color, minorities lost representation in the redistricting plans that followed the 2010 census.

Two lower courts have found that the discrimination was intentional, thus violating the Fourteenth Amendment and Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Although the case has been moving forward since 2011, the state adopted new maps in 2013 that Texas argues followed the lower courts' mandates. In their appeal to the Supreme Court, lawyers representing Texas have argued their most recently-crafted maps must be upheld as constitutional insofar as they are similar to the interim maps ordered into effect by the lower courts in 2012.

The civil rights groups counter that the new maps left unchanged many of the challenged state and congressional districts that the lower courts found unconstitutional.

RELATED: Gerrymandering: A look at Houston's congressional districts

"Those interim maps had baked in many of the infirmities of the 2011 maps," said MALC chairman and State Rep. Rafael Anchia. "The Texas Legislature has had 2013, 2015 and 2017 sessions to try to remedy this problem. Regrettably the state, led by the attorney general, has continued to want to fight this in court, instead of trying to give Texas voters fair maps."

Throughout the litigation, Anchia noted that the lower courts have made 10 findings of intentional discrimination against the State of Texas by both Republican and Democratic-appointed judges.

"While redistricting is what we are dealing with... there's an entire environment of intentional discrimination that we've seen in the State of Texas," said Anchia, who attended the court session.

The minority groups also accuse the state of appealing to the Supreme Court prematurely before the lower courts could fashion a remedy, possibly by drawing new lines for the 2018 midterm elections.

"The work of the district courts has yet to be completed," said MALC attorney Jose Garza.

That remains one of the central points of contention in the Supreme Court review. Some legal analysts say that if Texas prevails in its appeal from the lower court proceedings, it could either slow or short-circuit them altogether, protecting the current maps through the 2020 elections.

For that reason, the minority groups argued Tuesday that the Supreme Court doesn't yet have jurisdiction over the case and should return it to the lower courts. Texas's lawyers argued that the lower courts' rulings finding discrimination and ordering a remedy are ripe for appeal.

As it is, Anchia said, the protracted litigation has meant that any resolution will likely come only shortly before yet another decennial census, meaning "there will be millions and millions of votes cast under illegal maps."

Lawyers for the minority groups say theirs is a grievance with a long history. Every Texas redistricting round since 1970 has come under challenge on racial grounds.

"It's been a long road," said Texas NAACP lawyer Robert Notzon, a co-counsel on the case. "What you need to understand is the Texas, for five decades, since the passage of the Voting Rights Act, has consistently and in an unbroken pattern, been discriminating against its minority population," he said. "It just needs to stop."

Although the Texas redistricting battle has not challenged the right of lawmakers to determine the political boundaries of their states, it illustrates a broader nationwide frustration with a process that has increasingly come under fire.

"The Texas case of gerrymandering is a perfect example of why politicians should no longer be allowed to draw political maps," said U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, a San Antonio Democrat who supports the redistricting challenge. "Gerrymandering is probably the most powerful tool in the kit of voter disenfranchisement."

Hopes for reform has risen this year as the high court has agreed to take up cases from Maryland, Wisconsin and other states that have come under challenge for partisan  if not racial  gerrymandering. Some reformers have pressed for bipartisan or independent commissions to redraw their states political boundaries.

One of the congressional districts under challenge in Texas is District 27, which was recently vacated by Corpus Christi Republican Blake Farenthold, who resigned amid a flurry of sexual harassment allegations.

While the high court reviews the district boundaries, Gov. Greg Abbott has sought emergency powers for an expedited special election in the Republican-leaning district.

The other is Congressional District 35, a heavily-Hispanic stretch running from Austin to San Antonio represented by Democrat Lloyd Doggett.

In addition to the two congressional districts, the case involves nine Texas House seats where a federal court ruled lawmakers diluted the strength of minority voters. Five of those districts are in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Bell County, south of Waco, and Corpus Christi's Nueces County each have two districts that could be redrawn pending the outcome of the case.

With a Supreme Court ruling unlikely much before the end of June, along with the possibility of further proceedings by the lower courts, the challengers to Texas' political maps say time is running out on the prospect of any resolution in time for the Nov. 6 midterm elections.

Among the high court's options are to either take jurisdiction over the case and rule on its various procedural and substantive questions, or return the case to a district court in Texas for further review.

In that case, any new maps imposed at the lower court level could be appealed anew to the high court. "And we expect they are likely to given how intransigent they have been so far," said Susan Karlan, a Stanford Law School Supreme Court Litigation Clinic attorney representing the minority groups.

No matter what the justices decide, Garza said, "the door is closing pretty fast."

Related content: Texas gerrymandering case before Supreme Court could change state's political map
However, due to a workplace literacy and numeracy project called Skills First, he is now more confident in his ability to keep himself and his workers safe.

Henrys leadership team recognised the support and additional skills he and many of his co-workers could benefit from, and now he is one of more than 150 Waste Management team members to undergo training through Skills First, a program developed in coordination with Upskills.

Waste Management national corporate services and HR manager Sharon Scott said the program has been particularly helpful for the high number of Pasifika and migrant employees who have English as a second language and those who may not have completed high school or higher level qualifications.

Were an organisation working in a high-risk industry  our drivers and labourers need to understand and act on information we give them to get home safely, said Scott.

Helping our employees with numeracy and literacy skills was a no-brainer for us in terms of mutually benefiting both our employees and the company.
Norway PM hails aquaculture success

April 24,2018 | Source: Fish Update

Norways prime minister, Erna Solberg, has said the country needs to develop an aquaculture industry that can deliver food and economic values within an acceptable footprint. She was speaking at the Havbruck 2018 conference, which gathered the fish farming industry, along with researchers and politicians, for key discussion on future policy. The main theme of this years conference was Aquaculture in society.



Solberg (pictured) said of fish farming: The industry has been a huge success. It creates important jobs and sets off major ripples among communities along the coast. Preliminary calculations from Sintef for last year show that (fish) farmed activity contributed over 62 billion kroner in total GDP value creation. In 2017, the aquaculture industry exported one million tonnes of fish worth NOK 67.7 billion.



There has been an adventurous development with a high production of salmon since the start of the 1970s. Challenges have been met and a large proportion of these are solved, using research based knowledge production. Through successful vaccination programmes, many diseases have been combatted, and the industry supplies seafood, production expertise and world-class technology. But there were challenges ahead, especially over the environment, feed production and fish welfare, she argued.



There are conflicts associated with coastal fishing, wildlife interests, conservation interests, outdoor life and tourism that affect access to the farm areas and, not least, the acceptance of the industrys environmental impact. We need to further develop an aquaculture industry that can deliver food and economic values within an acceptable footprint. An important part of this  and as is the case today  is the definition of what sort of footprint from aquaculture is acceptable to society. She cautioned that there were no industries which had a zero impact. But education, research and technological development should help to reduce any impact and create a better industry.

Theme(s): Fisheries Development and Aquaculture.
Doubling Fisheries Exports Is 'Most Insane Concept' in the Bahamas

by NATARIO McKENZIE

April 24,2018 | Source: Tribune 242

An environmental activist has branded a Cabinet minster's call for the Bahamas to double its annual fisheries exports as "the most insane concept", calling for him to instead focus on curbing poaching. Sam Duncombe, reEarth's president, told Tribune Business: "This notion about fully exploiting our fisheries, when all of the studies suggest that 90 per cent of the big fish are gone and the fish we eat regularly are being exploited, almost to the max......



"Instead of taking the conservative approach, we seem to be saying to hell with the science; we are going to catch whatever is out there because someone else is going to take it. "That is the most insane concept. We should be looking at ways to conserve our fisheries and stop poaching." Earlier this month, Renward Wells, minister of agriculture and marine resources, said he had set himself the "goal" of doubling the Bahamas' annual $90 million fisheries exports.



He added that this nation's fisheries exports - $70 million of which are spiny lobster and crawfish, and the remaining $20 million conch, stone crab and snappers - represented an important avenue to increase the Bahamas' foreign currency earnings. Mr Wells also suggested there is the potential to catch other fish, such as tuna and wahoo for export.



Mr Wells's comments were backed by Keith Carroll, the Bahamas Commercial Fishers Alliance's (BCFA) vice-president, who agreed that this nation was only scratching the surface of its fisheries potential. He told Tribune Business: "We don't fish our ocean; only our banks." He said the reason Bahamian fishermen do not exploit the likes of tuna and swordfish is due to the controversy surrounding long-line fishing methods. Mrs Duncombe said she and other environmental groups have strongly opposed such methods for years. "The fact that we are having to revisit all of these so-called victories we have had over the years is such a regressive step, it's terrifying," she added.



"While we did not get an all-out ban on long-line fishing, what the law says is that if Cabinet gives full approval someone can get a license to long line fish. We were not happy with that. We considered it a loophole then and still consider it a loophole. "To me, the fact that fishermen mentioned it says to me that those discussions are happening." Mr Wells's goal is also being opposed by environmental group Save The Bays (STB), with its chairman, Joseph Darville, calling the proposal "reckless, dangerous and an insult to the hard work and sacrifice of countless conservationists over the years".

Theme(s): Others, Post Harvest Technology and Trade, Fisheries Development and Aquaculture, Fisheries Resources, Freshwater ecosystems and threats, Landing Centres, Communities and Organisations, Coastal Ecosystems and Threats, Fishing Craft, Gear and Fishing Methods.
Fishermen in Malawi, Zimbabwe and Nepal are being given millions in British Government aid to help develop their businesses

by DANIEL MARTIN

April 24,2018 | Source: Daily Mail

Foreign fishermen are being given millions in Government aid to help develop their businesses  just as ministers are accused of abandoning British firms, the Daily Mail can reveal. Britains foreign aid department has funded huge fish farming and aquaculture projects in countries all over the world including Malawi, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Nepal.



Money has gone towards the development of artisanal freshwater fish farming in Liberia, and helping farmers in the Niger Delta develop their fish-smoking industry. The huge spending comes as the Government stands accused of betraying British fishing firms by failing to take control of our waters post-Brexit. It emerged last week that large foreign firms will keep their rights to fish in our coastal waters even after we leave the EU. And the Mail revealed that the Foreign Office had handed six fishing licences around South Georgia in the South Atlantic to foreign firms  rejecting all the British-based applicants.



The Government insists that fishing is a vital source of income for thousands of people in poorer countries. But the revelation that millions are being spent abroad is unlikely to go down well with UK-based fishermen who are struggling to make a living. The Department for International Development said the UK had spent 14.3million on a market development scheme in the Niger Delta to help the fish-smoking industry. Some 870,000 has been given to the global charity WorldFish and other organisations to develop aquaculture in Bangladesh. Another 337,000 went towards the development of aquaculture enterprises in Malawi, such as the construction of ponds near towns and the donation of manufactured fish feed.



DfID said: The new project aims to create and foster a supportive business environment in which an optimally located network of 60 small-scale fish farmers can operate on a commercial basis. A similar scheme in the same country benefited from 23,000 in aid. As a six-month pilot, this project will encourage smallholder farmers to engage in small-scale commercial aquaculture for income generation, DfID said. More than 120,000 has gone to a scheme to help people living in southwestern Bangladesh adapt their lives to climate change. Britain is helping 20 tiger widows  women whose husbands were killed by tigers  receive training on agriculture, fisheries and livestock in the context of climate-adaptive livelihoods. Money has also been ploughed into Liberia to bring about improved artisanal freshwater fish farming.



DfID said: Project beneficiaries will be female-headed households and young mothers, who will receive fish ponds and fish fingerlings, with the aim of producing enough to provide for the households needs as well as for them to earn a living. In Nepal, Britain is funding fish farming to the tune of 264,000. Some 780 households will be taught about fish farming and livestock management. An integrated food income and nutrition scheme for the Binga district of Zimbabwe, costing 616,000, will help farmers who work with small livestock such as fish.



And 3,400 is even going towards a fish appeal to search for the rare Mangarahara cichlid in Madagascar. Last night a Government spokesman said: Fishing jobs are a vital source of income for some of the worlds poorest people  it is in all our interests that we provide the tools and the environment for people in developing countries to make a living, feed their families and stand on their own two feet. At the same time we recognise the importance of the UKs historic fishing industry, which is why we are supporting our coastal communities to regenerate and grow.

Theme(s): Post Harvest Technology and Trade, Fishing Craft, Gear and Fishing Methods, Freshwater ecosystems and threats, Landing Centres, Others, Fisheries Development and Aquaculture, Fisheries Resources, Coastal Ecosystems and Threats, Communities and Organisations.
Rare earth neodymium is used in permanent magnets for wind generators, electric vehicles and more. Some motor generators have moved to asynchronous versions to avoid price hikes due to rare earths but they are not as small or efficient. Rare earth lanthanum is a major part of NiMH batteries

China supplies 95% of the world's rare earths from rich clays in its northern regions. Former leader Deng Xiaoping called that its, "new oil". China even throttled Japan's supply during a dispute over ownership of some islands, hitting output of the Toyota Prius.

According to the US Geological Survey, while the minerals are relatively abundant elsewhere, they have "much less tendency to become concentrated in exploitable ore deposits. Most of the world's supply of (rare earth elements) comes from only a handful of sources," adding that long-term shortage or unavailability of the substances "would force significant changes in many technological aspects of American society."

Tokyo mud trove

According to a new paper published by a team of Japanese researchers, a huge patch of mineral-rich deep sea mud with "enormous potential" lies near Minamitori Island, a small island 1,200 kilometers (790 miles) off the coast of Japan. It is still technically a part of Tokyo, in the village of Ogasawara, and falls within Japan's economic borders.

One economist calls it a "game changer", estimated at 16 million tons. It is a massive, "semi-infinite" store of valuable rare earth compounds needed for smartphones, missile systems, radar devices and hybrid vehicles. For example, yttrium, one of the metals included in this recent discovery, can be used to make camera lenses, superconductors and cell phone screens.

The 16 million tons could contain 780 years' worth of yttrium, 620 years' worth of europium, 420 years' worth of terbium used in fluorescent bulbs, actuators and sonar, and 730 years worth of dysprosium used in nuclear reactors, data storage and transformers. In other words, according to the paper, it "has the potential to supply these materials on a semi-infinite basis to the world."

Now, Japan has complete economic control over the new supply, and the study said all indications are the new resource "could be exploited in the near future."

While the discovery is exciting, experts point out there is a long way to go before the enormous store of resources can actually be extracted and used. Tom Crafford, the Mineral Resources Program Coordinator at the USGS, told CNN the mineral-rich mud will be difficult to reach. "The water gaps here are on the order of five or six kilometers, in the range of 16,000 to 20,000 feet," he says. "That's pretty severe. You'd really require some very sophisticated technology to operate at these kinds of depths."

This, however, could eventually be a huge opportunity as companies and countries expand their sea floor mining technology just as deep offshore oil reinvigorated engineering in Scotland. There is a lot of international interest in sea floor mining as a new frontier of robotics but there has not been significant commercialization of it yet and environmental impact must be considered despite China showing little concern for the impact of its militarisation of islands in the South China Sea recently.

Top image: Deep sea mining robot by Nautilus Minerals
Four Factors Which Make it Acceptable to Get Back With Your Ex
Fiona McEntee, an Irish immigrant and the founder of Chicago-based law firm McEntee

Law Group, celebrated the 2016 passage of a U.S. startup visa program. That visa, enacted by then-President Barack Obama as part of the so-called International Entrepreneur Rule, was intended to draw thousands of foreign founders stateside to boost jobs and economic growth. In the early months of 2017, McEntee was preparing to help several startup clients file the necessary paperwork to obtain the visa.

Now, due to the Trump administration's planned overhaul of the program, McEntee is dissuading clients from applying. "From our point of view, it's very difficult to advise a client to choose an option that we don't know will be around much longer," the attorney tells Inc.

Indeed, just days before the U.S. startup visa was to be implemented last July, the Department of Homeland Security published a rule in the Federal Register, delaying the implementation until March 2018 and stating it intended to rescind the regulation altogether. Although the National Venture Capital Association, a Washington D.C.-based trade group representing the venture capital community, ultimately challenged the DHS and won--allowing the program to remain in place for now--the administration has repeatedly said it would find a way to discontinue it.

That's sowing uncertainty for entrepreneurs globally. Indeed, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says it has received only 10 applications for the U.S. startup visa, despite the fact DHS last summer predicted it could notch nearly 3,000 applications annually, according to a recent Bloomberg report. Meanwhile, those ten entrepreneurs are effectively stuck in limbo; USCIS has not issued a single visa, and says it has no timeline for resolving those applications.

"This is not the welcome mat we need to be putting out for entrepreneurs," says Bobby Franklin, president and CEO of the NVCA. "We're going to continue to push this administration, and frankly everyone in Washington to understand the merits of encouraging more, new company formation in the U.S., and to recognize the strong correlation between immigrant entrepreneurs and successful companies."

Other options.

The issue is symptomatic of the tension that exists between the technology industry--which increasingly relies on foreign talent, and has lobbied Congress to maintain existing immigration programs--and President Trump, who has repeatedly argued that companies abuse visa programs to avoid hiring American talent. Earlier this month, it was revealed the number of applications for H-1B visas--a similar, coveted program for companies to onboard specialized foreign labor--declined for the second year in a row, as the administration moves to streamline the program. "It [the change] has absolutely hurt my business," noted Ximena Hartsock, a Chilean immigrant and the founder of the Washington D.C.-based civic technology platform Phone2Action, referring to the H-1B reforms in an earlier conversation with Inc.

Lacking access to the American market, many entrepreneurs are flocking to other areas of the world where they believe their companies have a greater chance at success. In Canada, for instance, a recently introduced Global Skills program allows tech workers to obtain work permits in just two weeks' time, compared with the roughly six months it would take to obtain an H-1B visa stateside. "There are tons of stories about entrepreneurs who are in this limbo, and frankly Canada is taking advantage of that," says the NVCA's Franklin. Immigration lawyer McEntee, meanwhile, notes that a number of her clients are considering relocating to South American countries such as Chile, now that the U.S. startup visa program no longer appears to be valuable.

To be sure, it's not entirely clear that the U.S. startup visa will go away. The administration could move to keep the rule in place, or otherwise tweak the program to be more selective about which entrepreneurs are eligible to begin with, for example. A better solution, in Franklin's view, would be for Congress to pass an actual bipartisan startup visa law. (The current startup visa is a workaround, an aspect of the International Entrepreneur Rule, created after multiple proposals for an official visa category for foreign-born entrepreneurs died in Congress.)
Dakota Johnson has claimed that her experience filming new horror film Suspiria was so intense it sent her to therapy.

The Fifty Shades star heads up the cast of Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino's remake of the 1977 classic by Italian horror maestro Dario Argento alongside Chloe Grace Moretz, Mia Goth and an unrecognisable Tilda Swinton.

Speaking to Elle magazine, Johnson said: [Making Suspiria], no lie, f**ked me up so much that I had to go to therapy.

We were in an abandoned hotel on top of a mountain, she continued. It had 30 telephone poles on the roof, so there was electricity pulsating through the building, and everyone was shocking each other. It was cold as s**t, and so dry.

The film, shot on location in Northern Italy at the abandoned Grand Hotel Campo dei Fiori, will receive a general release later this year. It follows Johnson's American ballet student who, after enrolling at a revered dance school run by the mysterious Madame Blanc (an unreognisable Swinton), soon discovers dark secrets abound. It's scored by Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke.

27 horror films that will actually terrify you Show all 27 1 /27 27 horror films that will actually terrify you 27 horror films that will actually terrify you The Orphanage (2007) Directed by J.A. Bayona J.A. Bayona Both my selections on this list mark the two instances in which I've actively cried in a cinema out of fear, if you can believe that's possible. Though J.A. Bayona's ghostly tale is a beautiful throwback to Gothic conventions, which lace its hauntings with powerful emotions and warnings, that kid with the sack on its head traumatised me for life. Worse, I came back home and remembered the flat I'd newly moved in to had a cupboard with no key, and no clue as to what may be contained inside; considering what's eventually found to be hiding in the basement of The Orphanage - yeah, I didn't sleep that night - Clarisse Loughrey 27 horror films that will actually terrify you Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) Directed by Don Siegel Don Siegel Another film that doesn't rely upon (or need) special effects to make you a bit scared to turn the telly off when you've finished watching it. So disturbing in fact that the studio insisted the ending was changed to make it less dark before it was released. The 1978 remake is very good too - Jon Di Paolo 27 horror films that will actually terrify you House of Usher (1960) Directed by Roger Corman Roger Corman I'm a huge fan of Roger Corman's House of Usher (1960), the first in a series of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations the schlock producer made with the gloriously hammy Vincent Price. The latter stars as Roderick Usher, a sickly aristocrat living in queasy isolation with his sister in the crumbling mansion of the title. Corman's Poe films became increasingly formulaic and campy but this one really delivers - Joe Sommerlad 27 horror films that will actually terrify you The Exorcist (1973) Directed by William Friedkin William Friedkin There have been countless movies about demonic possession but none of them have managed to be quite as memorable as William Friedkin's The Exorcist. This film has received as much critical acclaim as it has attention from terrified audiences decade after decade. Every sequence will offset your internal rhythm while scenes of a disfigured little girl (Linda Blair's Regan) crawling on the ceiling will haunt you for many nights to come - Zlata Rodionova 27 horror films that will actually terrify you The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) Directed by Tobe Hooper Tobe Hooper I am living proof that Tobe Hooper's seminal horror should not be watched at the age of 11; between the horrifying dinner table scene - where the cries of Marilyn Burns' Sally are laughed at by her cannibalistic captors - and that final shot of Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) flailing his chainsaw about aimlessly in the air, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is the horror film I would least like to watch again - Jacob Stolworthy 27 horror films that will actually terrify you The Shining (1980) Directed by Stalney Kubrick Stalney Kubrick This Stanley Kubrick classic doesn't necessarily fit into the horror box but for audiences chasing a real sense of unease, The Shining fits the bill. Based on Stephen King's novel of the same name, the film tells the story of the Torrance family who hole up in an isolated hotel for the closed winter season. Things take a macabre turn as an evil presence begins to influence father Jack (Jack Nicholson) to undertake a murderous rampage. In typical Kubrick style, nothing is as it seems - Megan Townsend 27 horror films that will actually terrify you The Watcher in the Woods (1980) Directed by John Hough John Hough I really enjoy watching horror films even though they never scare me; that's not including The Watcher in the Woods, of course. Yes - Disney film The Watcher in the Woods. There's just something inherently unsettling about the film's frequent use of mirrors that freaked me out and the way writing and apparitions suddenly appear in them. Who knew a Disney film could give you nightmares for weeks? - Richard Williams 27 horror films that will actually terrify you Brazil (1985) Directed by Terry Gilliam Terry Gilliam Every Halloween I consider wearing one of the hideous baby face masks from Brazil and every year I chicken out for fear of my reflection. A sinister Michael Palin is also extremely disorientating. But nothing beats the sinking dread of a tyrannical, behemoth bureaucracy swallowing you whole and turning your dreams into nightmares. Having said that, Brazil is also my favourite film - Joe Vesey-Byrne 27 horror films that will actually terrify you Candyman (1992) Directed by Bernard Rose Bernard Rose I was waaay too young when I first saw Bernard Roses Candyman and it still scares me to this day. Its the story of a PhD student (Virginia Madsen) who visits an impoverished Chicago tenement building to investigate an urban myth whispered among the residents about a hook-handed ghost stalking the corridors. Naturally, she soon realises the phantom is all too real. Philip Glasss delicate music box score is eerie indeed and Tony Todd utterly mesmerising in the lead. Candyman manages to be both sincerely frightening and an important statement about the legacy of slavery and the injustices still endured by Black America, as relevant now as it was in 1992. Say his names three times before the mirror, I dare you - Joe Sommerlad 27 horror films that will actually terrify you Screamers (1995) Directed by Christian Duguay Christian Duguay Screamers is based on a Philip K Dick story, and his trademark other-worldliness and fascination with the dark side of AI/human nature give it some genuinely chilling twists. Plus there's robots with sharp blades that tear out of the ground and chop you to bits - Jon Di Paolo 27 horror films that will actually terrify you Scream (1996) Directed by Wes Craven Wes Craven Okay, hear me out. Scream might not be a high-quality film or achieve anywhere near the art of modern indie horrors being made on a fraction of the budget, but its antagonist still haunts me and I'll tell you why: zombies don't scare me, demons don't scare me, ghosts don't scare me, but humans do. None of horror's cliched evil beings are as terrifying as a human on a murderous rampage with no apparent motive. Ghostface is gangly, awkward, fallible and all the scarier for it. The way he runs around like a toddler, blindingly slashing at the air, is chilling and an unwelcome reminder that, if you did die at the hands of a psychopath, it wouldn't involve a cinematic, well-placed spike but a floundering struggle - Christopher Hooton Sportsphoto Ltd./Allstar 27 horror films that will actually terrify you Funny Games (1997) Directed by Michael Haneke Michael Haneke Whilst not the first film that comes to mind when considering the horror genre, this film for me is as scary as it gets. At first, the violence seems irrational and nihilistic, but the most terrifying thing about Michael Hanekes Austrian psychological thriller about two men who randomly torture a middle-class family in their idyllic vacation home is the fact that we become the driving force behind the horror. Breaking down the fourth wall (spoilers ahead), one of the oh-so-polite psychopaths rewinds a scene that doesnt go his way, and gives us a much more gruesome ending to the film, otherwise, as he says straight to camera: wed all be deprived of our pleasure - Kirsty Major 27 horror films that will actually terrify you Ringu (1998) Directed by Hideo Nakata Hideo Nakata Make no mistake: if the Hollywood version of Ring is a decent remake, the Japanese original is far more petrifying. There is just something inexplicable about Asian horror films rooted in Japanese folklore and ghost stories that makes them far creepier. Watching it for the very first time is like living a nightmare; as Sadako crawls out of the well, youll find yourself automatically pushing against the back of the sofa in the hope she will not eventually end up in your living room. The movie put me off watching TV and picking up the phone for a couple of weeks, at least - Zlata Rodionova Photograph: Allstar/Omega 27 horror films that will actually terrify you Mulholland Drive (2001) Directed by David Lynch David Lynch For me the scariest moment in any movie ever has to be from David Lynch's Mulholland Drive. The scene happens around 10 minutes into the film but is sold bold and confident in it's ability to scare you it actually tells you exactly how it is going to do so. By using dream logic, distorted sound and strange camera movements, the scene transports you into a nightmare, turned reality for one of the characters in the scene. These five minutes are exhausting to behold but it is a masterclass in how to effectively use the jump scare. This segment perfectly encapsulates the rest of this beautiful, confusing and surreal movie as you never know what lies around the corner on Mulholland Drive - Greg Evans 27 horror films that will actually terrify you The Others (2001) Directed by Alejandro Amenabar Alejandro Amenabar This chiller doesn't rely on CGI or special effects to be scary - it's all about building tension through old-fashioned dramatic tricks and it does it brilliantly. Nicole Kidman delivers an absolute tour de force and it is riveting and affecting as well as liable to make you jump out of your seat - Jon Di Paolo 27 horror films that will actually terrify you Dark Water (2002) Directed by Hideo Nakata Hideo Nakata One of the horror films that still scares the heck out of me. Its by Hideo Nakata, who made the equally as scary The Ring. Hollywood did a remake with Jennifer Connelly in 2005, but there is definitely something about the original Japanese version that leaves you with a haunting feeling - Mars El Brogy 27 horror films that will actually terrify you Signs (2002) Directed by M. Night Shyamalan M. Night Shyamalan Seeing that alien for the first time as he gets unceremoniously booted from a Brazilian kids birthday party still gets me, just as it did when I ran from the room the first time I saw it. I still resent that broadcaster's blatant flouting of TV dogma by playing so much tension-inducing build up before the action itself - Charlie Atkin 27 horror films that will actually terrify you Paranormal Activity (2009) Directed by Oren Peli Oren Peli The only film Ive ever watched where I considered switching off halfway through out of sheer terror. The tension ratchets up endlessly as the found footage style adds to the claustrophobia. A decision was made long ago never to watch it again - Tom Embury-Dennis Or: a cautionary tale for leaving your leg dangling out of your bed. Injecting fresh life into the found-footage formula, the first Paranormal Activity managed to induce chills the world over by the simple - and rather frugal - use of a static camera set up by couple Katie and Micah, all in the hope they can learn what's going 'bump' in the night. With every new nighttime scene - each displaying more demonic hauntings than the last - your sounds of terror will become more audible. - Jacob Stolworthy Available on Netflix 27 horror films that will actually terrify you Black Swan (2010) Directed by Darren Aronofsky Darren Aronofsky Guaranteed to make your skin crawl, Darren Aronofsky's 2010 take on classic ballet Swan Lake is a textbook example of psychological horror. Ballerina Nina (Natalie Portman) lands the coveted role of the Swan Princess, only to find she cannot engage with her evil alter-ego - the Black Swan. When Nina attempts to engage with her dark-side, she loses herself altogether - Megan Townsend 27 horror films that will actually terrify you V/H/S (2012) Directed by Various Various The rising crop of horror filmmakers (Adam Wingard and Ti West included) teamed up to make V/H/S, an anthology film comprised of six disturbing vignettes; if one doesn't scare you senseless, it's a sure bet the next will. The opening two linger in my memory, each taking familiar concepts - a night out with your pals and a honeymoon - and adding a slant of depravity that'll chill you to the core. Next time someone tells you they "like you," run a mile - Jacob Stolworthy 27 horror films that will actually terrify you Oculus (2013) Directed by Mike Flanagan Mike Flanagan Psychological thrillers can be terrifying enough as they are, but throw in a spooky supernatural storyline and you'll have nightmares for days (or at least, I did). Oculus tells the story of a woman determined to clear her brother's name in the brutal murder of their parents. The siblings suspect supernatural forces are at play, with an antique mirror being at the root of all the evil. Suffice to say, the first thing I did as soon as I got home from the cinema was to throw a blanket over the giant mirror sitting in my room - you know, just in case - Chantal DaSilva 27 horror films that will actually terrify you It Follows (2014) Directed by David Robert Mitchell David Robert Mitchell David Robert Mitchell's synth-encrusted nightmare shows sound's essential role in the genre. It Follows premises itself on the very simple idea that something is out there, something indistinguishable from your fellow man, except that they're always headed straight for you. No matter where you may be, and no matter where you may run to. A figure walking down the street may seem ordinary at first, but Disasterpeace's score here turns that image into paralysing fright. Seeing this in the cinema, tucked up right next to the loudspeaker as the synths reached their climax and blood pooled the screen, unashamedly made me cry like a kid left behind in a shopping mall - Clarisse Loughrey Available on Netflix 27 horror films that will actually terrify you Green Room (2015) Directed by Jeremy Saulnier Jeremy Saulnier Patrick Stewart isnt the first name that comes to mind when I think of horror; but 2015s Green Room left me terrified; suspense from start to finish with an uncharacteristically dark turn from Stewart as detached neo-Nazi leader Darcy Banker - Ronan O'Shea Available on Netflix 27 horror films that will actually terrify you The Invitation (2015) Directed by Karyn Kusama Karyn Kusama You look great.  I've started this new class, it's changed my life. We've all been there. A dinner party with old friends, someone you deliberately haven't seen in a while proselytizing about their latest fad diet, class, or retreat. The Invitation takes that a step further: Will takes his new partner for dinner at his ex-wife's house, joining a cast of friends who haven't seen each other since he lost his son over a year ago. As the wine flows, and two new guests join the old crew, Will begins to realise that they've been brought here for another reason all together - Kirsty Major Available on Netflix 27 horror films that will actually terrify you Under the Shadow (2016) Directed by Babak Anvari Babak Anvari For anyone who has seen Under the Shadow, it should come as no surprise that Iranian-born Babak Anvaris film is Britains Oscar entry for best Best Foreign Language Film. Though short in length (a brief 74 mins), every scene drips with intensity. The 80s set film follows a mother and her young daughter as they struggle with a demon haunting their apartments building in war-torn Iran. Alongside the nightmarish torment of the Djinn, the building is being bombed by militant forces, meaning the threat comes from both inside and out, culminating in one of the years best horror films - Jack Shepherd Available on Netflix 27 horror films that will actually terrify you The Witch (2016) Directed by Robert Eggers Robert Eggers The Witch is set in 17th contrary New England and follows a family banished from their Puritan plantation. When the youngest suddenly disappears, the blame falls upon Anya Taylor-Joys young character, though she knows something more is at play. As the film progresses, stranger and stranger things start to happen, all with a heavy twang of religious imagery. The jump scares may not be frequent but the atmosphere is utterly terrifying - Jack Shepherd 27 horror films that will actually terrify you Raw (2017) Directed by Julia Ducournau Julia Ducournau All good horror reflects our deepest collective fears back at us, and Raw gives us this with a side of human flesh. Justine is a first-year veterinary student, who at once fasts and purges, lets loose and withdraws, scaling the highs and lows that coming of age brings. She throws herself with abandon at human flesh, both literally and metaphorically - with an older sister whose destructive behaviour leaves her with little in the way of a role model to help navigate her newly burgeoning desires - Kirsty Major

Johnson will next start her own production company, revealing in the interview: Ive come to terms with the fact that the projects I want to work on dont exist, so Im going to have to create them for myself.

Suspiria's UK release date is yet to be confirmed.
Anticipation couldn't really be higher for Quentin Tarantino's (possibly penultimate) new film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which only gets more exciting the more we learn about it.

Set against the counterculture explosion in LA in 1969, the film will star Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt (acting together for the first time), reportedly as a TV cowboy actor and his long-serving stunt double respectively.

At a Sony panel at CinemaCon this week, Tarantino described them as "the most exciting star dynamic duo since Robert Redford and Paul Newman", and the bold claims didn't stop there.

DiCaprio said that having read the script he believes it is one of the director's best, while Sony chairman Tom Rothman declared it the best screenplay he had read in 30+ years in the business.

Fans of old school Tarantino also have cause for celebration, with the filmmaker teasing that Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is "probably the closest [film] to Pulp Fiction that I've ever done".

(Getty)

 Paul Thomas Anderson stunned by Quentin Tarantino retirement claims: 'I don't know how he takes himself seriously'

Quentin Tarantino's best cameos Show all 7 1 /7 Quentin Tarantino's best cameos Quentin Tarantino's best cameos Jimmie Dimmick in Pulp Fiction (1994) Here he plays Jimmie Dimmick, who gets caught up in Vincent and Jules body disposing and panics over how on earth hes going to get rid of the bloody evidence before his wife gets home. Quentin Tarantino's best cameos Mr Brown in Reservoir Dogs (1992) Tarantino opens Reservoir Dogs as Mr Brown, talking about Madonna hit Like a Virgin, before later being shot in the head, crashing his car and dying. Brief, but dramatic. Quentin Tarantino's best cameos Miner in Django Unchained (2013) Tarantino's Django cameo is much maligned. His Aussie miner appeared somewhat randomly in his first Western movie, before blowing himself up with his own dynamite. Quentin Tarantino's best cameos Warren in Death Proof (2007) Warrens owns the Texas Chili Parlour bar in this thriller about the murders of four women at the hands of a crazed stuntman. His own jukebox can be seen in the scene. Quentin Tarantino's best cameos Pick-up guy in Desperado (1995) Not one of his own films, but Tarantino did a favour for director Robert Rodriguez and agreed to a cameo. He wrote the three-minute long wee joke that he tells before being being killed. Quentin Tarantino's best cameos Elvis impersonator in The Golden Girls (1988) Not technically a cameo, but too funny not to include. Before his career kicked off, Tarantino played an Elvis impersonator on a 1988 episode of Golden Girls. Quentin Tarantino's best cameos Dead Nazi in Inglourious Basterds (2009) In this one he is a dead Nazi being scalped. Lovely.

Not a single frame of footage has been shot yet, but Tarantino will be taking LA back to the 60s block by block this summer. Margot Robbie is also rumoured to be on the cast, while the plot is expected to in some way tie in the Manson murders, with DiCaprio and Pitt's characters living next door to Sharon Tate.

Tate was killed by members of Manson's cult on 9 August, 1969, exactly 50 years prior to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood's release date.

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Madonna has failed in her attempt to stop a former friend from auctioning intimate personal items including love letters and a hairbrush with strands of her hair.

The pop icon's lawsuit against Darlene Lutz was thrown out by a New York judge, who said the statute of limitation to recover her items had passed.

Arguably the most widely talked-about item is a break-up letter from the late rapper Tupac, who dated Madonna in secret. Madonna only recently spoke in public about the relationship.

Bidding on the letter had reached $100,000 in July 2017 when she filed an emergency court order over Gotta Have Rock and Roll's auction, along with 22 other contested items, which came from the collection of Lutz - Madonna's former personal assistant.

Tupac

Madonna had claimed she had no idea Lutz was in possession of the letter, written a year before his death in 1995, until she heard about the online auction last year. She told the court when she sought an injunction on the sale that her celebrity status "does not obviate my right to maintain my privacy, including with regard to any personal items". Lutz's lawyers have accused Madonna of a "personal vendetta".

In the letter, the 'I Ain't Mad at Cha' rapper explained that being with a black man could only benefit Madonna's career, but that his reputation would suffer by dating a white woman.

"For you to be seen with a black man wouldn't in any way jeopardise your career, if anything it would make you seem that much more open and exciting," the letter read. "But for me at least in my previous perception I felt due to my 'image' I would be letting down half of the people who made me what I thought I was."

He acknowledged Madonna's devastation at the split, adding: "I never meant to hurt you... Please understand my previous position as that of a young man with limited experience with an extremely famous sex symbol"

Madonna, queen of the Noughties Show all 14 1 /14 Madonna, queen of the Noughties Madonna, queen of the Noughties 280283.bin GETTY Madonna, queen of the Noughties 280441.bin 2009 AFP Madonna, queen of the Noughties 280442.bin 2009 AFP Madonna, queen of the Noughties 280443.bin Getty Images Madonna, queen of the Noughties 280444.bin 2008 Getty Images Madonna, queen of the Noughties 280445.bin 2007 Getty Images Madonna, queen of the Noughties 280446.bin 2007 Getty Images Madonna, queen of the Noughties 280447.bin 2006 AFP Madonna, queen of the Noughties 280448.bin 2006 Getty Images Madonna, queen of the Noughties 280449.bin 2005 Getty Images Madonna, queen of the Noughties 280450.bin 2004 Getty Images Madonna, queen of the Noughties 280451.bin 2004 Getty Images Madonna, queen of the Noughties 280452.bin 2001 Getty Images Madonna, queen of the Noughties 280453.bin Getty Images

Madonna and Lutz fell out in 2003, and settled a legal dispute over artwork the following year upon which Madonna signed a release from "any and all" future claims against her former friend, Judge Gerald Lebovits said in his ruling, which was made public on 23 April.

Therefore, he said, Madonna could no longer sue over the items being sold at the auction.

Gotta Have Rock and Roll told the Daily News that the Madonna items would go back on auction in July this year.
An episode of a Stephen Lawrence documentary examining police corruption was mysteriously removed from iPlayer by the BBC.

Responding to questions from viewers, a BBC Twitter account said the programme had been taken down variously for editing, for legal reasons, and for rights reasons.

A spokesperson for the corporation told The Independent it was off air to "correct an inaccuracy", but refused to provide further details.

It comes despite the episode having already aired on terrestrial television last week. A revised version was added to the BBCs streaming service late on Tuesday morning.

Stephen: The Murder that Changed a Nation has received critical acclaim for its analysis of the racist killing of 18-year-old aspiring architect Stephen Lawrence in 1993.

The three-part TV series takes a hard-hitting look at Stephen's death by a group of white youths at a bus stop in south-east London, the subsequent failures of police to properly investigate, and the 1998 public inquiry that found the Metropolitan Police to be institutionally racist.

Gary Dobson and David Norris found guilty of the murder of Stephen Lawrence Show all 2 1 /2 Gary Dobson and David Norris found guilty of the murder of Stephen Lawrence Gary Dobson and David Norris found guilty of the murder of Stephen Lawrence pg-8-lawrence-trial-afp-get.jpg AFP/Getty Images Gary Dobson and David Norris found guilty of the murder of Stephen Lawrence stephen-lawrence.jpg PA

According to the BBCs website, the third episode of the series looks at questions of racism and corruption surrounding the police, and revelations that the police spied on the Lawrence family.

Some social media users reacted with anger at the removal of the show.

Absolutely livid theyve taken down the last episode due to legal reasons, one user wrote. Another said: So mad that the third episode of the Stephen Lawrence documentary got removed from BBC iPlayer.

The series was timed to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the teenager's death on Sunday.

Ahead of a memorial service, attended by Stephens parents and the royal family, Theresa May announced a national commemoration to Stephen will be marked on 22 April each year, and will be known as Stephen Lawrence Day.

His father, Neville Lawrence, said: We have got some justice and now this is like a mark of what we have been trying to do for years  our sons memory is going to be enshrined in history.
Independently-owned cafe chain Boston Tea Party is to become Britains first to implement a complete ban on disposable cups, which will come into effect on 1 June this year.

The company, which has 21 branches across the South West and the Midlands, has said customers can bring their own reusable cups, take advantage of a new cup loan scheme or buy a cup in the cafe once the ban comes into effect.

Owner and managing director Sam Roberts described waste from disposable cups as senseless, and said: Lots of coffee chains are making pledges about how they plan to tackle cup waste in the future. But theirs is a future which is too far away. We need to stop right now.

He added: I'd stop tomorrow but I think it's only fair to give our loyal customers and fantastic team a month to get used to the idea.

Takeaway hot drinks represent 5.2 per cent of Boston Tea Party's total turnover of 19.8m, and the company has said the move means they could see sales hit to the tune of 1m.

Despite the financial implications Mr Roberts has said he is determined the decision will be a success.

We want to demonstrate to other operators that to make a difference, big change is needed, he said.

'To make a difference, big change is needed,' says owner and MD Sam Roberts (Boston Tea Party)

We will make this work and well share details of how weve done it with anyone who wants our help to do the same. We dream of a future where our children marvel at the fact that pre-2018 we would regularly use a cup once and throw it away.

The discarded cup could then take centuries to decompose. When you consider it in those terms, it really is senseless.

Recommended UK lacks capacity to deal with biodegradable coffee cups

The Independents Cut the Cup Waste campaign has been pushing for action from businesses and government to work towards better solutions to the problem of disposable coffee cup waste.

Pressure has been growing to deal with disposable cup waste since a report by the Environmental Audit Committee revealed the scale of the problem.

Though the government has considered the introduction of a latte levy  a 25p tax on all takeaway coffee cups  it has recently shied away from such a measure.

10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Show all 10 1 /10 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A group of emperor penguins face a crack in the sea ice, near McMurdo Station, Antarctica Kira Morris 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Floods destroyed eight bridges and ruined crops such as wheat, maize and peas in the Karimabad valley in northern Pakistan, a mountainous region with many glaciers. In many parts of the world, glaciers have been in retreat, creating dangerously large lakes that can cause devastating flooding when the banks break. Climate change can also increase rainfall in some areas, while bringing drought to others. Hira Ali 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Smoke  filled with the carbon that is driving climate change  drifts across a field in Colombia. Sandra Rondon 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Amid a flood in Islampur, Jamalpur, Bangladesh, a woman on a raft searches for somewhere dry to take shelter. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable places in the world to sea level rise, which is expected to make tens of millions of people homeless by 2050. Probal Rashid 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Sindh province in Pakistan has experienced a grim mix of two consequences of climate change. Because of climate change either we have floods or not enough water to irrigate our crop and feed our animals, says the photographer. Picture clearly indicates that the extreme drought makes wide cracks in clay. Crops are very difficult to grow. Rizwan Dharejo 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Hanna Petursdottir examines a cave inside the Svinafellsjokull glacier in Iceland, which she said had been growing rapidly. Since 2000, the size of glaciers on Iceland has reduced by 12 per cent. Tom Schifanella 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A river once flowed along the depression in the dry earth of this part of Bangladesh, but it has disappeared amid rising temperatures. Abrar Hossain 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A shepherd moves his herd as he looks for green pasture near the village of Sirohi in Rajasthan, northern India. The region has been badly affected by heatwaves and drought, making local people nervous about further predicted increases in temperature. Riddhima Singh Bhati 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A factory in China is shrouded by a haze of air pollution. The World Health Organisation has warned such pollution, much of which is from the fossil fuels that cause climate change, is a public health emergency. Leung Ka Wa 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Water levels in reservoirs, like this one in Gers, France, have been getting perilously low in areas across the world affected by drought, forcing authorities to introduce water restrictions. Mahtuf Ikhsan

A poll by The Independent found that the majority of the British public would support such a charge, and both ministers and environmental groups have thrown their support behind it.
Meghan Markle may not be a royal for another few weeks but that doesnt mean her influence, especially on the fashion world, is waiting for the big day.

As Markle increasingly steps out for public appearances, it is hard not to gawk at her wardrobe - which already looks like its undergone the royal treatment.

And these enviable outfits have not gone unnoticed as the Meghan effect has already begun to take place.

The impact of Markles status as a new fashion icon to follow is proven by the numerous fashion blogs dedicated to the American actress and what she wears.

Featuring and identifying every accessory and wardrobe staple, with links to where to buy them, these sites dedicate themselves to helping Markle fans dress just like their newest fashion inspiration.

Editors Amanda Dishaw and Christine OBrien Ross of one of these sites, Meghans Mirror, told The Independent: Meghan is quickly becoming a fashion icon. Her style is modern and on-trend, while still remaining down-to-earth and relatable. People love that her style is familiar, and we could dress in similar outfits for our every day, non-royal lives. She has an extremely high profile, thanks to her new husband-to-be, and she is using that to showcase what a 21st century woman looks like.

As to why Markles style has become so popular, they said: People love that Meghan is so relatable. She is just like us - an American girl from a modern family and a normal upbringing! And yet, she magically captivated the worlds most eligible bachelor! People want to capture that magic for their own lives, and the easiest way to do that is through fashion. Because we can apply her style to our non-royal lives, we feel a little more connected with her and a bit more royal.

Meghan Markle has become a fashion icon (Getty)

And the impact on brands is already evident - similar to the Kate effect, which refers to the frenzy shoppers go into whenever Kate Middleton steps out in an outfit, the Meghan effect has already seen outfits worn by Markle sold out within minutes.

Meghan Markle is already influencing the fashion industry (Getty)

During a recent public outing, Markle opted for a black "Jackie O" dress by the brand Black Halo. A spokesperson for the brand told us: The dress sold out in less than 10 hours after MM wore it, and the brand has had to work overtime to keep replenishing stock in it.

The Black Halo dress sold out after Meghan Markle wore it to the Women's Empowerment reception (Getty)

The same is true for multiple other outfits the former Suits actress has been spotted wearing since her engagement to Prince Harry was announced - including the jacket she wore the day of the announcement.

The white belted coat, created by Canadian brand Line The Label, was so popular after Markle wore it that the brands website crashed. The brand has since renamed the coat the Meghan in her honour.

Other pieces, from both well-known and lesser-known brands, have also sold out within hours or days after Markles worn them, proving just how influential she already is on the fashion industry.

The former actress has inspired numerous fashion blogs (Getty)

For pieces that arent affordable, brands have been quick to create knock-offs.

The future royal will be married on May 19 (Getty)

Bojana Sentaler, the founder of Canadian outerwear brand Sentaler, the brand of Markles jacket worn to church services on Christmas day, told Reuters during London Fashion Week: The Meghan Markle effect is definitely real.

Since she wore the wide collar wrap in camel colour on Christmas Day, the coat sold out instantly and we had an enormous demand for Sentaler that day, as well as for many days after that. We were shipping coats all over the world.

Markle's wardrobe is a source of inspiration (Getty)

And, according to David Haigh, the chief executive officer of London consulting firm Brand Finance, who spoke to WWD, the Markle effect is already quite lucrative for brands she endorses - as he values the net present value to brands as 150m ($212m).

For example, searches for the luxury Strathberry bag she used during her first official engagement increased 2,044 per cent, according to data from Hitwise, with stock selling out in 11 minutes.

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 Markle effect is only expected to grow as Meghan Markle finds herself increasingly in the public eye - and once the designer of her wedding gown for her royal wedding on May 19 2018 is announced.

Stylish, classy, and unafraid of taking risks, the newest royal has officially become the worlds fashion inspiration.
The price of bitcoin has returned above $9,000 for the first time since March, having risen by more than a third in value over the last two weeks.

The worlds most valuable cryptocurrency now has a market cap of more than $150 billion, though this is still down considerably from its peak valuation of around $320 billion in late 2017.

Other major cryptocurrencies have been boosted by bitcoins recent resurgence, including ethereum, ripple and litecoin.

The most significant gains were experienced by the bitcoin spin-off bitcoin cash, which has almost doubled in value in the last week from $750 to $1,500.

Bitcoin: Is the virtual currency the new gold standard? Show all 2 1 /2 Bitcoin: Is the virtual currency the new gold standard? Bitcoin: Is the virtual currency the new gold standard? pg-38-bitcoin-1-alamy.jpg Alamy Bitcoin: Is the virtual currency the new gold standard? pg-38-bitcoin-2-getty.jpg Getty Images

The market-wide gains follow several months of steadily decreasing prices, which some analysts believe represent the bitcoin bubble bursting.

Bitcoin experienced the worst ever start to a year in 2018, falling in price by more than $10,000 between January and April.

The crash was attributed to a number of factors, including the tightening of cryptocurrecny regulations in markets like South Korea, and a cooling of interest from investors.

Positive news in the cryptocurrency space in recent weeks led to optimism among some analysts, who predicted the latest price bump.

At the beginning of April, when bitcoins price was hovering around $6,500, bitcoin expert Michael Jackson told The Independent that bitcoins fortunes were set for a reversal.

Regulators seem open-minded and are now working to eliminate the risks for consumers, said Jackson, the former COO of Skype. So I see no reason why bitcoin shouldnt fulfil its dream. And if it does then recent price falls will appear trivial.

Other recent price predictions include Pantera Capitals prediction that it will reach $20,000 by the end of the year, and Fundstrats Thomas Lees forecast that bitcoin will rise as high as $25,000 in 2018.

One of the most ambitious predictions comes from renowned investor Tim Draper, who announced earlier this month that a single bitcoin could be worth more than a quarter of a million dollars within the next four years.

Im thinking $250,000 a bitcoin by 2022, Mr Draper told a crowd in California. Believe it, its going to happen. Theyre going to think youre crazy but believe it, its happening, its going to be awesome.
Facebook has for the first time detailed exactly what it will ban.

The company is publishing detailed guidelines about what it will allow it to be published on its service  and what it will not. In all, the document takes up 27 pages and covers the specifics of what sorts of nudity and abuse will be allowed on the service.

Many of those rules were already made clear on Facebook's "community standards" page. But it has now published them and made them more specific, spelling out the sometimes uncomfortable details of what it will allow.

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.

It says that the site will ban posts that are credible violent threats or revel in sexual violence; promote terrorism or the poaching of endangered species; attempt to buy marijuana, sell firearms, or list prescription drug prices for sale; post instructions for self-injury; depict minors in a sexual context; or commit multiple homicides at different times or locations.

The updated community standards will mirror the rules its 7,600 moderators use to review questionable posts, then decide if they should be pulled off Facebook. And sometimes whether to call in the authorities.

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The standards themselves aren't changing, but the details reveal some interesting tidbits. Photos of breasts are OK in some cases  such as breastfeeding or in a painting  but not in others. The document details what counts as sexual exploitation of adults or minors, but leaves room to ban more forms of abuse, should it arise.

Since Facebook doesn't allow serial murders on its service, its new standards even define the term. Anyone who has committed two or more murders over "multiple incidents or locations" qualifies. But you're not banned if you've only committed a single homicide.

Reading through the guidelines gives you an idea of how difficult the jobs of Facebook moderators must be. These are people who have to read and watch objectionable material of every stripe and then make hard calls  deciding, for instance, if a video promotes eating disorders or merely seeks to help people. Or what crosses the line from joke to harassment, from theoretical musing to direct threats, and so on.

Moderators work in 40 languages. Facebook's goal is to respond to reports of questionable content within 24 hours. But the company says it doesn't impose quotas or time limits on the reviewers.

The company has made some high-profile mistakes over the years. For instance, human rights groups say Facebook has mounted an inadequate response to hate speech and the incitement of violence against Muslim minorities in Myanmar. In 2016, Facebook backtracked after removing an iconic 1972 Associated Press photo featuring a screaming, naked girl running from a napalm attack in Vietnam. The company initially insisted it couldn't create an exception for that particular photograph of a nude child, but soon reversed itself, saying the photo had "global importance."

Monica Bickert, Facebook's head of product policy and counterterrorism, said the detailed public guidelines have been a long time in the works. "I have been at this job five years and I wanted to do this that whole time," she said. Bickert said Facebook's recent privacy travails, which forced CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify for 10 hours before Congress, didn't prompt their release now.

The policy is an evolving document, and Bickert said updates go out to the content reviewers every week. Facebook hopes it will give people clarity if posts or videos they report aren't taken down. Bickert said one challenge is having the same document guide vastly different "community standards" around the world. What passes as acceptable nudity in Norway may not pass in Uganda or the U.S.

There are more universal gray areas, too. For instance, what exactly counts as political protest? How can you know that the person in a photo agreed to have it posted on Facebook? That latter question is the main reason for Facebook's nudity ban, Bickert said, since it's "hard to determine consent and age." Even if the person agreed to be taped or photographed, for example, they may not have agreed to have their naked image posted on social media.

Facebook uses a combination of the human reviewers and artificial intelligence to weed out content that violates its policies. But its AI tools aren't close to the point where they could pinpoint subtle differences in context and history  not to mention shadings such as humor and satire  that would let them make judgments as accurate as those of humans.

Additional reporting by agencies
Photos of a coaster illustrated with messages about the importance of discussing mental health among men have gone viral on Twitter.

Yesterday, a Twitter user called Adam OMalley posted photos of a coaster on the social media platform, emphasising the significance of the product.

These beer mats are SO needed, he wrote. Suicide is the leading cause of death for men under 49, killing three times as many British men as women.

Its time to talk about mens mental health!

One of the photos displayed one side of the coaster with the message: Is there a mate missing around this table? Reach out to him.

The other side of the coaster offered suggestions on actions men can take should they notice a change in their friends behaviour.

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The profound message being perpetuated by the coaster has evidently resonated with thousands of people, as the tweet currently has more than 25,000 retweets and more than 70,000 likes.

The coaster was created as part of Time to Changes Be In Your Mates Corner campaign, which was launched in February last year.

The aim of the campaign, which was announced as a five-year initiative, is to encourage men to provide their friends with more support and to foster open discussions about mens mental health.

We know that too often men don't see mental health as relevant to them, despite the shocking statistics which show suicide is the biggest killer of men under 45 , said Jo Loughran, director of Time to Change.

It's great to see our In Your Corner campaign coasters getting such a positive response. They encourage men to look out for their mates and step in if they're acting differently.

"You don't need to be an expert, it's basically about being a good friend - reach out, do ordinary things and be yourself."

The photos of the coaster, which were taken by O'Malley at The Original Oak pub in Headingley, Leeds, have received an immensely positive response on Twitter.

As a trans dude struggling myself thats so true that these should be everywhere, one person wrote.

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Im lucky that my friends have reached out to me and are given support, others arent so lucky and it needs to change.

This is brilliant, another individual commented. Pubs can be a great place in communities for people to come together.

In March, charity CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) launched the Project 84 campaign, an initiative that highlighted the prevalence of suicide among young men by unveiling sculptures of 84 male figures atop the buildings of ITV HQ.

Every single week in the UK, 84 men take their own lives.
The government will not intervene in Melroses 8bn takeover of engineering giant GKN, the business secretary announced on Tuesday.

Greg Clarke told the House of Commons that he would not block the deal on national security grounds.

Defence secretary Gavin Williamson was among those to have raised security concerns about the deal because GKN works on a number of vital defence contracts.

Mr Clarke said Melrose had agreed a number of new undertakings with the Ministry of Defence, in addition to those he secured last month.

Melroses strategy is to buy up firms which it believes are underperforming and then sell them on for a profit within three to five years, often after offloading parts of the business.

Melrose has now pledged to inform the MoD if it intends to dispose of a part of GKN which might have national security implications.

The government can then assess the potential purchasers and ensure that classified information remains secure and contractual obligations continue, Mr Clarke said.

This would allow the government to ensure the continued maintenance of any capabilities with a national security dimension.

He added that the MoD had undertaken a comprehensive assessment of the issues raised by the takeover and concluded that statutory intervention was not required.

Therefore his judgment was that there are not reasonable and proportionate grounds to make a statutory intervention on the grounds of national security.

Rebecca Long-Bailey, the shadow business secretary, said that the Melroses latest assurances were inadequate to protect jobs which are integral to the UKs defence industry.

Sadly, the governments failure to address the short-term horizons of Melrose may damage the capability of a business to deliver contracts which may last 10, 15 or 20 years, she said.

At least 88.5 per cent of GKN shareholders have now backed the controversial bid.
THE Supreme Court, acting as Presidential Electoral Tribunal, has required former Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and the Commission on Elections to file their comment on the appeal of Vice President Leni Robredo to lower the 50 percent threshold in the recount of votes for the 2016 vice presidential race. Marcos and the Comelec were given 10 days to comment on Robredos motion for reconsideration, after the PET rejected her bid to lower the threshold to 25 percent. In her urgent motion for reconsideration, Robredo through her lawyer Romulo Macalintal warned that the 50 percent threshold would disenfranchise voters who failed to adhere to the threshold even though their votes had already been counted as valid by the vote counting machines and confirmed by the Random Manual Audit Committee for passing the 25 percent threshold. According to the tribunal, the 2010 PET rules stipulate a 50 percent threshold and that the 2018 Revisors Guide did not impose a new threshold. But Robredo, in her appeal, argued that the Comelec informed the PET in September 2016 through a letter about its use of the 25 percent threshold in declaring votes as valid. Robredo said the threshold adopted by the Comelec is designed to scan every oval on the ballot and count as vote those that contain appropriate marks based on pre-determined sharing threshold. While the voters are told through the voter information to fully shade the ballots, the shading threshold was set at 25 percent of the oval space. Robredo said that with the PETs ruling declaring that the threshold be at 50 percent, the physical count is now running inconsistent with the results based on the Election Returns, Statement of Votes by Precinct, Ballot Images and the Voters Verifiable Audit Paper Trial (VVPAT). The Robredo added that not only her votes will be affected by the 50 percent threshold, but the votes of Marcos.Hence, both parties will benefit in the application of the 25 percent threshold percentage during the revision, recount and re-appreciation of the ballots, she said. Earlier, the Marcos camp had slammed Robredo for trying to cast doubt on the integrity of the recount, after she accused the PET of systematically reducing her votes in the manual recount. The Robredo camp maintained it has not disclosed any sensitive information regarding the revision process in previous media interviews. Both the Robredo and Marcos camps were told to explain why they should not be cited for contempt for violating PETs February gag order on developments in the manual recount. Robredos lawyer, Romulo Macalintal, blamed the Marcos camp for releasing statements about the recount, and said they were constrained to answer frivolous pronouncements being made by Marcos and his spokespersons. Any statements thus made were on general principles of law or otherwise in defense of the rights, honor and integrity of the Vice President of the Philippines, he said. He alleged sensitive information regarding the revision, not found in any official pronouncements of the Tribunal, had been discussed by Marcos lawyer, Vic Rodriguez and the allies of the former senator, such as lawyer Glenn Chong. There were even various newspaper reports carrying stories, quoting an insider from the Tribunal, about sensitive information on the revision, he said.
John Bolton, US President Donald Trumps National Security Adviser, was on the board of what some critics have called an anti-Muslim think tank.

The former US Ambassador to the United Nations under President George W Bush had served as the chairman of the Gatestone Institute, a New York-based group that described itself as an international policy council...dedicated to educating the public about what the mainstream media fails to report in promoting.

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil rights and advocacy group, told NBC News that Gatestone is a key part of the whole Islamophobic cottage industry on the internet, adding that it is very disturbing that Mr Bolton is now in such a position of power within the White House. Gatestone did not immediately respond to a request for comment when asked if it described itself as anti-Muslim.

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A survey of some of the think tanks recent posts showed such headlines as Palestinians: New Twist on an Old Lie and UK: Teacher Handbook Supporting Extremism?, the post under which said: Britains educational authorities also failed to note the underlying message of the Teacher Handbook: that jihadist violence is justified when committed by those who believe themselves to be victims. This is a crucial point: it accepts at face value what might only be many Muslims perception of victimhood.

Another post also highlighted a Somali-Swedish woman who had converted from Islam to Christianity. She is quoted in the post as saying: I always say to my Christian friends, What do you think, what will happen to you if Islam becomes dominant here.

Mr Bolton does not appear to have authored these or any of the other posts which critics have said are anti-Islam. NBC News reported he does, however, have a long association with Pamela Geller, an activist who campaigned against a mosque being built near the site of the September 11 attacks in New York and co-founded a group called the America Freedom Defence Initiative with self-proclaimed white supremacist Richard Spencer. Mr Bolton has written a foreword for Ms Gellars book and appeared on her internet radio programme.

Gatestone has gotten fame through being amplified on social media and one of its posts on so-called no-go zones for non-Muslims in France and Belgium where the Muslim population allegedly rules by Sharia law was quoted by Republican Senator Ted Cruz in an opinion piece calling for the monitoring of Muslim-Americans.

NBC News found at least four instances of known Russian trolls directly re-tweeting from the Gatestone account, the network reported.

The accounts were identified by Twitter itself as Russian trolls working for the Kremlin-connected Internet Research Agency. One story in particular falsely claimed that 423 mosques had opened in London while 500 churches had closed. The post was also picked up by right-leaning Breitbart News. In reality, the number of churches in the UK have been increasing due in part to an influx of immigrants from Poland and Romania, NBC News said.
The announcement that Alfie Evans was breathing on his own after life support was withdrawn has brought fresh attention to the controversy over how the terminally ill child should be treated.

Parents and supporters have suggested the development could mean doctors should not have cut off life support, while some have implied it shows medical experts were wrong to give up on the 23-month-old.

However, doctors have sought to clarify the significance of recent events, suggesting they shone a light on the sensitive and difficult decisions that had to be made while treating children.

They say they fact he was now breathing on his own was in line with what was expected  and does not mean that the doctors in the case were wrong.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 3 October 2021 Margaret Thatcher-themed mugs for sale at the annual Conservative Party conference in Manchester EPA UK news in pictures 2 October 2021 A couple make their way through a flooded underpass in Bristol as a yellow weather warning for rain and wind is issued for parts of the UK Tom Wren/SWNS UK news in pictures 1 October 2021 A driver talks to members of the media after passing his HGV (Heavy Goods Vehicle) driving test at National Driving Centre in Croydon, south London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 30 September 2021 The centrepiece One Thousand Springs by Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota is seen ahead of the beginning of the Japan Festival, a celebration of the countrys plants, art and culture running from 2-31 October, at Kew Gardens in London PA 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

Alfie is in a "semi-vegetative state" as a result of a degenerative neurological condition doctors have been unable to identify. He was taken off life support after a series of court rulings backed doctors who said further treatment was futile.

His parents and their supporters have continued to argue that he should be allowed to receive further treatment. But doctors and courts have said such a move would not be in the child's best interests  a decision that has prompted considerable outcry from those who say the parents should be allowed to take him all the same.

Experts said such a decision would never be taken lightly, and that it would always be done with the full consideration of what was best for Alfie. Though there may be disputes about their care, most cases are worked through with the full co-operation of the medical team and the family  but do not necessarily receive the same amount of press coverage as those in which there is a dispute between the two parties.

Recommended Father says Alfie Evans still breathing after life support withdrawn

Decisions on whether to withdraw treatment from a child are unfortunately ones that need to be made frequently," said Russell Viner, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. "The model is always for doctors to work closely with parents to agree on the best course of action for the child.

"In the vast majority of cases an equal decision is made to withdraw treatment and it is rare that there is disagreement. The cases where this is a significant difference in view are the ones that grab the media headlines."

Since that decision was made, and Alfie was taken off life support, the family said their child had been breathing on his own. Father Tom Evans said his 23-month-old son survived for six hours with no assistance, and that doctors were now providing oxygen and hydration.

Experts said the possibility the child continued breathing would have been factored into the decision to stop the support machines, and that it did not necessarily come as a surprise.

In the last few hours, news reports have indicated that life support has been withdrawn from Alfie, and that he is breathing by himself," said Dominic Wilkinson, consultant neonatologist at the John Radcliffe Hospital and director of medical ethics at the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford.

That does not mean that doctors were wrong, and it does not mean that breathing support should be restarted.

The reason for stopping the breathing machines is simply that his serious condition is not treatable, and will not improve. He has deteriorated over the many months that he has been on life support. The breathing tubes and machinery used to keep Alfie alive can cause discomfort and even pain to children. Given the nature of Alfie's condition, the doctors have wanted to provide him with palliative care, focused on his comfort, and focused on making his remaining time as good as possible.

Whenever I provide palliative care to children, I talk to families about uncertainty. When we stop breathing support for a child, sometimes the child will slip away very quickly. Sometimes, they will be with us for minutes or hours, or even days. Sometimes, when the breathing machine is removed, it becomes clear that actually the child didn't need the machine, and they remain with us for much longer. When that happens, it is not something to fear, or to regret, but an opportunity to embrace - to spend more time with a child, without the machinery, wires and medical interventions in the way.

Providing palliative care is not euthanasia. It is about providing 'intensive caring' rather than intensive medical care. It does not end the child's life. Rather, it supports the child, and the child's family, for as long or as short as they remain with us.
Protesters supporting the family of terminally ill toddler Alfie Evans tried to storm a childrens hospital today, after his parents were denied the chance to present their case before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

Around 200 people arrived at Liverpools Alder Hey hospital where the little boy currently is, to protest the judges decision to end the 23-months-old child's life support.

A stand-off with police ensued, as supporters blocked the road outside the hospital before linking arms in the street and chanting Save Alfie Evans.

As the demonstrators attempted to storm the front entrance of the hospital, a row of police officers scrambled to block the doors.

Dozens had run towards the main doors before police officers stationed inside and out strung across the entrance, blocking the way.

Tom Evans, 21, and Kate James, 20, had hope to overturn a ruling by UK judges that doctors at Liverpool's Alder Hey hospital could stop providing life-support treatment against his their wishes.

"The European Court of Human Rights has today rejected the application submitted by the family of Alfie Evans as inadmissible," a spokesman for the court said.

In February, Mr Justice Hayden ruled that doctors at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool could stop treating Alfie against the wishes of his parents following hearings in the Family Division of the High Court in London and Liverpool.

Specialists at Alder Hey said life support treatment should stop and Mr Justice Hayden said he accepted medical evidence which showed that further treatment was futile.

The pair had already lost one round of fights against this decision, in the High Court, Court of Appeal, Supreme Court and ECHR.

But they asked judges at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, France, to intervene. Their request was refused.

Alfie's parents want to move their son from Alder Hey to a hospital in Rome. The couple said Italian doctors were willing to treat the little boy and an air ambulance was available.

But Mr Justice Hayden said flying Alfie to a foreign hospital would be wrong and pointless. Court of Appeal judges upheld his decisions.

Justices at Britain's Supreme Court and ECHR judges also refused to intervene.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 30 September 2021 The centrepiece One Thousand Springs by Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota is seen ahead of the beginning of the Japan Festival, a celebration of the countrys plants, art and culture running from 2-31 October, at Kew Gardens in London PA 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

The couple have since changed their argument and have claimed that Alfie is being wrongly "detained" at Alder Hey.

The pair have made a habeas corpus application.

A piece of common law which probably dates back to Anglo-Saxon times, a writ of habeas corpus - Latin for "you may have the body" - is a legal manoeuvre which requires a court to examine the legality of a detention.

Mr Justice Hayden has dismissed that claim and his decision was upheld by appeal judges have upheld. British Supreme Court justices said they would not intervene.

Judges have approved plans for withdrawing treatment and bringing Alfie's life to an end. Supreme Court justices said there should be no further delay in treatment being stopped.

But Alfie's parents made another application to the ECHR, which has now said it will not intervene.

Additional reporting by agencies.
The father of Alfie Evans has claimed doctors were left gobsmacked after the terminally ill toddlers life support was withdrawn but he continued to survive.

Tom Evans said it was obvious his son was breathing unassisted within a few minutes of life support being withdrawn on Monday night.

A spokeswoman for the hospital said they could not confirm or deny his account as they did not comment on individual cases.

Alfie is in a semi-vegetative state resulting from a degenerative neurological condition doctors have been unable to identify.

After life support was withdrawn, the 23-month-old continued breathing and doctors agreed to give him oxygen and water, Mr Evans said.

On Monday, a High Court judge dismissed a last-ditch appeal by Mr Evans and Alfies mother, Kate James, to be given more time to mount a further challenge to a decision to end the toddlers treatment.

After life-support was withdrawn, the 23-month-old continued breathing and doctors agreed to give him oxygen and water, his father says

Speaking outside Alder Hey Childrens Hospital in Liverpool on Tuesday morning, his father said Alfies life support should be reinstated due to his remarkable progress.

He is still working, hes doing as good as he can, he told reporters. But we do need him to be supported... in the next hour its going to be hard but we will need him to be supported in the next hour or two.

Because hes been doing it for nine hours totally unexpected, the doctors are gobsmacked and I do believe he will need some form of life support in the next couple of hours and I think he ought to be respected and given that.

Judges heard Alfie Evans is in a semi-vegetative state with a degenerative neurological condition (PA)

Alfies parents want treatment to continue a a hospital in Rome.

His case has been highlighted by the Pope, who expressed support for the couple, and he has been granted Italian citizenship.

In a tweet on Monday, Pope Francis said: Moved by the prayers and immense solidarity shown little Alfie Evans, I renew my appeal that the suffering of his parents may be heard and that their desire to seek new forms of treatment may be granted.

Mr Justice Hayden had analysed the issues at a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court.

The judge heard submissions from lawyers representing hospital bosses, Alfies parents and the youngster via a telephone link.

However, Mr Justice Hayden refused their application for more time and gave doctors the go-ahead to stop treatment and bring Alfies life to an end.

Tom Evans and Kate James, the parents of 21-month-old Alfie Evans, want treatment to continue and want to fly him to a hospital in Rome (PA)

Speaking outside the hospital, Mr Evans said: They say Alfies suffering. Well, look at him now. Hes not even on a ventilator and hes not suffering.

He said he had a lengthy talk with doctors and pleaded with them to give his son oxygen.

They left him for six hours without food, water and oxygen, he said. I felt blessed when they confirmed they were going to give him his water and his oxygen.

Hes now on oxygen. Its not changing his breathing but its oxygenating his body.

 Alfie Evans protesters attempt to storm Alder Hey Children's Hospital

Specialists say his brain has been eroded and at a hearing in February, Mr Justice Hayden said he accepted medical evidence which showed further treatment was futile.

Judges at the Court of Appeals have upheld his decisions, while Supreme Court justices and European Court of Human Rights judges have refused to intervene.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 3 October 2021 Margaret Thatcher-themed mugs for sale at the annual Conservative Party conference in Manchester EPA UK news in pictures 2 October 2021 A couple make their way through a flooded underpass in Bristol as a yellow weather warning for rain and wind is issued for parts of the UK Tom Wren/SWNS UK news in pictures 1 October 2021 A driver talks to members of the media after passing his HGV (Heavy Goods Vehicle) driving test at National Driving Centre in Croydon, south London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 30 September 2021 The centrepiece One Thousand Springs by Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota is seen ahead of the beginning of the Japan Festival, a celebration of the countrys plants, art and culture running from 2-31 October, at Kew Gardens in London PA 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

At one point on Monday, supporters of the family attempted to storm Alder Hey Childrens Hospital, where Alfie currently is.

They ran towards the main doors, but police blocked their way.

Additional reporting by Press Association
A British soldier was not justified in shooting dead a pregnant teenager who was sharing an embrace with her boyfriend in Belfast during the Troubles, a coroner has said.

Marian Brown, 17, did not pose a threat to anybody and the identity of the soldier who fired the lethal round still remains unknown.

Thomas Corrigan was badly injured as he and his first love were caught in the crossfire.

He said: "I am pleased that the truth has finally come out. It makes a difference but it won't bring back Marian.

"It won't bring back the child that we lost and of course it still creates problems for me and Marian's family."

Judge David McFarland said he accepted members of the Royal Anglian Regiment acted in self-defence on 10 June 1972 after someone travelling in a vehicle opened fire on their checkpoint in the west of the city with an automatic weapon.

He said: "Neither Marian Brown or anyone at her locality was acting in a manner that could reasonably or honestly have been perceived as posing a threat of death or injury to any civilian on Roden Street or to the soldiers positioned in the vicinity of the junction of Clifford Street and Roden Street.

"The force used was more than absolutely necessary in that the soldier could not have identified any target, and a clear line of fire to that target, that was posing a danger to him, his colleagues and/or to the civilians on Roden Street.

"The force used by that soldier by firing in the direction of Marian Brown was not justified as it was more than was absolutely necessary."

Two members of the armed forces admitted unleashing 27 rounds in Miss Brown's direction without warning, believing they faced firing gunmen.

The coroner added: "No shot should have been fired unless an identified target could be made out and aimed at with sufficient confidence of striking the person.

"The use of force by the soldier that caused the death of Marian Brown, whoever he was, was not justified."

Army rules of engagement were not followed and there was an "inadequate" investigation afterwards, the coroner added.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Mr Corrigan was walking with Miss Brown, a stitcher, and her sister.

She was going from her home at Stanhope Drive in Belfast to her sister's house, they were parting ways and sharing a last hug when he heard loud firing erupt.

After the inquest he said: "She was a beautiful girl really, not even a woman, and yes she was pregnant with our child.

"To lose her was a massive part of my life."

Miss Brown's brother Richard Brown said he was sorry it had taken 46 years to prove something the family knew from day one.

"She was just a happy-go-lucky kid - she never got a chance."

Agencies contributed to this report
Ethiopia has demanded Britain permanently return all artefacts that originated in the African country but are now held by the Victoria and Albert Museum.

An Ethiopian official said the government would not accept them on loan.

The declaration comes after the museum - one of Londons most popular tourist attractions  put treasures plundered by British forces from the east African nation in 1868 on display.

Well, it would be exciting if the items held at the V&A could be part of a long-term loan with a cultural institution in Ethiopia, museum director Tristram Hunt said.

These items have never been on a long-term loan in Ethiopia, but as we look to the future I think what were interested in are partnerships around conservation, interpretation, heritage management, and these need to be supported by government assistance so that institutions like the V&A can support sister institutions in Ethiopia.

Among the items on display are sacred manuscripts and gold taken from the Battle of Maqdala 150 years ago, when British troops ransacked the fortress of Emperor Tewodros II.

 Ethiopia: Protesters killed in Irrecha stampede

The offer of a loan did not go far enough for Ethiopia.

What we have asked (for) was the restitution of our heritage, our Maqdala heritage, looted from Maqdala 150 years ago. We presented our request in 2007 and we are waiting for it, government minister Hirut Woldemariam said.

Ephrem Amare, Ethiopian National Museum director, added: It is clearly known where these treasures came from and whom they belong to. Our main demand has never been to borrow them. Ethiopias demand has always been the restoration of those illegally looted treasures. Not to borrow them.

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 V&A said on Tuesday the idea of a long-term loan had come up as it discussed its Maqdala exhibition with Ethiopian authorities. The V&A is committed to continuing this important and wide-ranging dialogue with colleagues at the Ethiopian Embassy in London, it added in a statement.

In launching the Maqdala 1868 exhibition of what Mr Hunt called stunning pieces with a complex history this month, he said the display had been organised in consultation with the Ethiopian community in London.

As custodians of these Ethiopian treasures, we have a responsibility to celebrate the beauty of their craftsmanship, shine a light on their cultural and religious significance and reflect on their living meaning, while being open about how they came to Britain, he said in a blog on the museum website.

Additional reporting by Reuters
Poor political decisions by the Conservatives and huge budget cuts have caused the crisis in Britains jails, the former head of the prison service has said.

Phil Wheatley accused the justice secretary, David Gauke, of attempting to shift blame for violence and disorder in British prisons from his own government to the spread of former legal highs among prisoners.

In comments seen exclusively by The Independent ahead of publication in the annual Prisons Handbook, Mr Wheatley said the coalition government inherited a prison service that was performing better than it had ever done in 2010.

The civil servant, who served as director-general of HM Prison Service and its successor, the National Offender Management Service, from 2003 to 2010, said austerity saw the Ministry of Justices budget promptly slashed by almost a quarter and the situation worsened by different policies under six justice secretaries.

Mr Gauke and ... Rory Stewart however appear intent on blaming the crisis they have inherited on new psychoactive substances (NPS), rather than budget cuts, poor political decisions and frequent changes of political direction, he added.

It is simply not acceptable in a comparatively rich democratic country to run unsafe prisons that do not provide decent conditions.

Assaults between prisoners have doubled since 2010 and attacks on staff have tripled. Suicides peaked at 122 deaths in 2016 and fell to 70 last year, but the most recent official statistics showed self-harm incidents at a record high of almost 12,000 in just three months.

 David Gauke describes shocking videos emerging from UK prisons

Poor conditions in some jails have been linked to devastating and costly riots, while inmates are managing to smuggle in illegal drugs and banned mobile phones.

Reoffending rates have also increased under the Conservatives tenure and the government was heavily criticised for putting the public at risk and increasing the number of convicts recalled to jail by part-privatising the probation service.

Mr Wheatley said the existence of a nationwide prisons crisis unleashed by the failures was undeniable, with the staggering rise in violence starting in 2013.

As staff numbers and experience declined, so the incidence of violence, self-harm and suicide started to rise, he added.

Recommended Riot after prisoners locked up 23 hours a day and denied toilet paper

When the coalition government was elected, there were more than 19,900 prison officers, but the number had fallen to 14,900 within four years.

The number has since increased and the Ministry of Justice announced it had passed its target to recruit an additional 2,500 prison officers seven months ahead of schedule on Sunday.

Mr Gauke pledged that the recruitment drive would not slow amid efforts to crack down on gang lords running crime networks from behind bars.

This will make a real difference to the safety and security of our prisons, ensuring they can fulfil their purpose  protecting the public, reducing reoffending and crucially, rehabilitating offenders, he added.

But the Prison Officers Association accused the government of misleading the public, saying the 3,111 new recruits would not bring staffing back to its former level.

Chair Mark Fairhurst said: We have lost in excess of 7,000 frontline staff since 2010 and it is vital that this figure is replaced.

Joe Bartlett killed himself following failings at HMP Norwich

Attrition rates in some areas exceed 30 per cent and it is becoming apparent that more and more experienced staff are leaving the service.

Mr Wheatley also raised alarm about the loss of experienced prison officers, as statistics show that a third of staff have less than three years experience.

There is a causative link between staff reductions and a frightening increase in violence, he added.

Neither the Scottish Prison Service nor the Northern Irish Service, where staffing ratios of officers to prisoners remain much more generous, have experienced the same rise in violence and self-harm.

Mr Wheatley made a set of urgent recommendations including increasing staff numbers, improving retention and bringing policy and operations management together.

Above all the senior management of the service, who have loyally done their duty trying to accommodate the frequent changes introduced by a fluctuating cast of here today, gone tomorrow politicians, should be allowed to get on with managing prisons sensibly  rather than having to spend fruitless hours handling the changing whims of their ministers, he concluded.

The end of innocence: Inside Britain's child prisons Show all 6 1 /6 The end of innocence: Inside Britain's child prisons The end of innocence: Inside Britain's child prisons The end of innocence: Inside Britain's child prisons GETTY IMAGES The end of innocence: Inside Britain's child prisons GETTY IMAGES The end of innocence: Inside Britain's child prisons The end of innocence: Inside Britain's child prisons PA The end of innocence: Inside Britain's child prisons PA

There is no quick fix, the sad truth is that it is relatively easy to make a good prison bad, but much harder to repair the damage.

His comments are to be published in The Prisons Handbook 2018, which will be released in full next month.

The editor of the document, described as the bible for the prison service in England and Wales, said jails were more dangerous than at any time since records began.

Mark Leech told The Independent: The courts dont send people to prison so they can be subjected to assault, prison officers dont go into work to be attacked.

The public have an expectation that prisoners will be rehabilitated and reformed when they come out and dont go back in against but we dont do that.

Mr Leech accused the government of failing to fund its stated ambitions for reform and rehabilitation, leaving courses and treatment programmes for inmates falling short.

The government either has to open the gate to reduce the population or open the purse to properly fund more staff, he added.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said frontline staffing numbers are now at their highest for five years.

The government is working with prison governors in attempts to keep officers in their posts and a government-owned facilities management company, Gov Facility Services Ltd, has taken over facility management from privatisation giant Carillion.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridges baby will be welcomed into the world with more military showmanship and fanfare than others are privy to in their entire lives.

After Kate Middleton delivered her baby boy at St Marys Hospital in London on Monday, the fanatical royalists who waited outside with bated breath clapped, whooped and cheered.

Incredulous but excited journalists hurriedly scribbled into their notepads and cameras flashed.

In the days that follow diehard royal watchers will spill onto the streets to celebrate and there will even be a 62-gun salute at the Tower of London in honour of the birth and another 41-gun salute from Green Park near Buckingham Palace.

While it goes without saying that the above ritual and pomp wholly differs to that enjoyed by an average child, the birth of the royal baby raises many more complex questions about the wholly unique life chances and prospects enjoyed by royal progeny.

Royal well-wishers gather outside the Lindo Wing of St. Mary's hospital in London, Britain, 23 April 2018. Kensington Palace has announced that the Duchess of Cambridge is in the early stages of labour and is expected to give birth to her third child at the Lindo Wing in London. EPA/ANDY RAIN (EPA)

Exempt from the Freedom of Information act but free to explore the Queens 770-odd-room palace, the royal prince will not have neither a run-of-the-mill childhood nor life. This lies in stark contrast to the more than half a million children now living in poverty in some parts of the UK.

Data from End Child Poverty published at the beginning of the year revealed there are now constituencies within the UK where more than half of children are growing up in poverty  compared to one in ten in the areas which possess the lowest child poverty rates.

We know poverty has a huge impact on peoples lives and we also know that this child is going to have every possible luxury and care that they would wish for, Graham Smith, chief executive of Republic, told The Independent.

They are not going to be wanting for anything. We have seen that the royals have long and healthy lives. I dont think thats a coincidence given their privileged lifestyles.

Here is a look at the education, healthcare, career and housing the healthy 8lbs 7oz baby boy the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge welcomed into the world on Monday is likely to experience.

Education

Throughout history, the royals have been home-educated by private tutors and governors rather than being submerged in the public domain. But this has changed in more recent years  with Prince Charles being the first heir to the British monarchy to complete a degree after graduating from Trinity College in 1970.

The newly born son, who is fifth in line to the throne, is likely to attend elite private schools and may even follow in his father Prince Williams footsteps and go to St Andrews University.

Sean Okeeffe, the editor of Royal Circular, a news site dedicated to the monarchy, said he expected the newly born royal tot would go to the same school as his older brother Prince George  who started at Thomass Battersea last September.

Im assuming that the new baby will go to the same school as Prince George, he said.

The private primary school, which is just a few miles from his family residence in Kensington Palace, costs 6,110 a term and discourages children from having best friends. Its first rule is to be kind.

If the newly born prince were to go to his sister Princess Charlottes nursery  he would be close to the capitals science and natural history museums which the nurserys pupils regularly visit, according to an Ofsted report.

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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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. 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All things considered, he is likely to be able to experience a smorgasbord of educational privileges. His sister is reportedly already bilingual at the age of just two.

Princess Charlottes school is equally costly. The highest term cost is 3,050 for the morning school. The afternoon school costs 1,800 per term and the lunch club is 580 per term for one afternoon per week and 1740 for three afternoons during the week.

Health

Prince William and Ms Middletons third child will experience a range of health privileges due to being born into the royal family.

The Office for National Statistics predicts the life expectancy rate for a man in Kensington - where he will live - to be 83.3 years. This is a good deal higher than the average of 79.5 years for England as a whole. Nevertheless, it seems safe to assume that the royal babys own personal life expectancy will be even further boosted by the healthcare he is entitled to.

Being born in Lindo Wing in St Marys Hospital in Marylebone in London  an opulent institution which describes itself as "London's foremost private hospital  is just one of those privileges.

Prince Philip  now 96-years-old  was recently discharged from the hospital after undergoing a successful hip operation. It is also where the Queen had knee surgery and where Kate Middleton was treated for morning sickness. Including just 56 beds and boasting the luxury of more than four nurses to every patient, King Edward VII's pledges "dedicated, individual attention."

It is the same hospital where Prince George was born in 2013, and his younger sister, Princess Charlotte in 2015.

While we are all entitled to free access to healthcare, the experience for the royals is very different, notes Mr Smith of Republic. They are never going to be put on a waiting list, they will always get everything they need when they need it. They will be well looked after by physicians, they will have all early intervention health care checks imaginable and any problems are likely to be caught early on.

Housing

To put it simply, housing will be of no object for the newly born prince. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge reportedly have four floors of living space to occupy in Kensington Palace.

The couple are said to have spent 4.5 million renovating their apartment there, as well as hundreds of thousands more of their personal money on additions like a second family kitchen. But if their new child gets bored of his royal bode, he is always welcome at his grandmother's 775-roomed Buckingham Palace.

If he is as lucky as his brother he might also receive a property for his second birthday. Prince George's parents gave him a real 18,000 cottage on wheels for his second birthday. The luxury Victorian-style outhouse is situated on the edge of the Prince of Waless wildflower meadow at Highgrove.

In terms of housing, it could not be any more different. They have huge houses guaranteed to them for the rest of their lives while other people are struggling to afford rent. They are given mansions by the taxpayer, said Mr Smith.

Career and work

But while the healthcare, education and housing prospects of the latest royal baby might appear clearly mapped out, his career is less chartered territory.

Well given how far their lineage is, the best example to look at is Edward, and he could also struggle to find a meaningful role for himself. Prince George already has his career, he is basically king after William. His brother has slightly more autonomy, Mr Smith said.

Nevertheless, it is worth noting the baby prince, who is the Queen and the Duke of Edinburghs sixth great-grandchild, will be unable to pursue a career path that is at loggerheads with the ethos of the royal family.

There is one flipside to their life," Mr Smith said. "Royal children do not get the same sort of freedom as other children. Prince George already has his life and religion mapped out for him. He will be expected to serve in the armed forces. He could go against all this but it would be quite a major rupture from his familys traditions and expectations.

Being royal means your life chances are greater because you are obviously more privileged but hopefully they wont abuse that like the way some royals in the past have done, Mr Okeeffe, the editor of Royal Circular, said. "The royal family are becoming much closer to the people. If this child carries on the way their parents and prince harry are going then they will be even more in touch with the people.
A mobile app developed by the Government to let EU nationals register for settled status ahead of Brexit will not work on iPhones, Home Office officials have admitted.

The revelation that the software would only function on Android phones came at a meeting in Brussels between MEPs and Home Office officials, who came to the UK to explain the registration system to sceptical lawmakers.

Liberal Democrat MEP Catherine Bearder branded the omission beyond belief and told reporters that one official had said EU citizens who wanted to register could borrow someone elses phone to complete the process.

Various models of iPhones are used by just above or just below half of the British adult population, depending on the metric used.

Speaking after the meeting British officials downplayed the problem and said it was only part of the process and that there would be alternative non-digital routes available.

I cannot understand why the Home Office is creating an easy to use app which cannot even be used fully on an iPhone. It's beyond belief, Ms Bearder said.

The app, Home Secretary Amber Rudd pledged would be easy to use, will not function on iPhones because they do not have the capability to read the chip in a biometric passport.

The revelation is likely to further lower the opinion of British immigration authorities in the eyes of European politicians and citizens, hot on the heels of damage done by the Windrush immigration scandal and erroneous deportation letters being sent to EU nationals last year.

 What is still needed to complete a deal with the EU?

Speaking after the Tuesday meeting Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliaments Brexit coordinator who requested the official visit to Brussels by the Home Office, said he would be writing to UK authorities to resolve various question marks about the registration process.

The European Parliament says any system should be by way of declaration rather than application that the UK government would have to process. MEPs also want the system to be free for EU citizens living in the UK, on the basis that they had no part in the Brexit decision.

Mr Verhofstadt also added that each family of EU nationals should only have to make one declaration instead of one for each person in it, and that there needed to be special provisions for vulnerable people or those not able to use a digital registration system.

Brexit so far: in pictures Show all 53 1 /53 Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit campaign Boris Johnson led the VoteLeave campaign PA Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit campaign Boris Johnson MP, Labour MP Gisela Stuart and UKIP MP Douglas Carswell address the people of Stafford in Market Square during the Vote Leave Brexit Battle Bus tour on 17 May 2016. Their lead line on the tour was: We send the EU 350 million a week, let's fund our NHS instead. Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Voting day A man shelters from the rain as he arrives at a polling station in London on 23 June 2016. 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May sought to unlock Brexit talks after Brussels demanded more clarity on the crunch issues of budget payments and EU citizens' rights AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures EU council summit  insufficient progress German Chancellor Angela Merkel joins other EU leaders for a breakfast meeting during an EU summit in Brussels on 20 October 2017. The EU spoke about Brexit and announced that insufficient progress had been made AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures DUP derails settlement on the withdrawal part of Brexit DUP Deputy Leader Nigel Dodds walks off after speaking to members of the media as a protester holding flags shouts after him outside the Houses of Parliament on 5 December 2017. British Prime Minister Theresa May was forced to pull out of a deal with Brussels after the DUP said it would not accept terms which see Northern Ireland treated differently from the rest of the UK Getty Brexit so far: in pictures May suffers defeat over EU (Withdrawal) Bill Theresa May suffers defeat in parliament over EU (Withdrawal) Bill on 13 December 2017. The Government was defeated by Conservative rebels and Labour MPs in a vote on its key piece of Brexit legislation. MPs amended the EU (Withdrawal) Bill against Theresa May's will, guaranteeing Parliament a meaningful vote on any Brexit deal she agrees with Brussels. Ms May's whips applied pressure on Conservative rebels who remained defiant in the Commons throughout the day and in the end the Government was defeated by 309 votes to 305 Brexit so far: in pictures EU council summit  sufficient progress Britain's Prime minister Theresa May arrives to attend the first day of a European union summit in Brussels on 14 December 2017. European leaders discussed Brexit and announced there was finally sufficient progress at the end of the two days AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures The game moves to transition Brexit Secretary David Davis gives evidence on developments in European Union divorce talks to the Commons Exiting the EU Committee in Portcullis House, London, on 24 January 2018 PA Brexit so far: in pictures Trade deal is what May wants French President Emmanuel Macron gestures to Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May after they hold a press conference at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, on 18 January 2018. 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One senior EU official tears into Britains fantasy negotiating strategy and accuses Theresa May of not even having a position on a variety of important issue Getty Brexit so far: in pictures UK releases Ireland plan Britain releases a new customs plan to solve the Northern Ireland border but Michel Barnier says it leaves unanswered questions and would not prevent a hard border EbS Brexit so far: in pictures Chequers plan agreed The cabinet agrees on a plan known as the "Chequers deal" on July 6 2018. The plan seeks regulatory alignment on goods and food, divergence on services, freedom from the European Courts of Justice and an end to free movement. 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She asserts this amongst continued attacks on her approach to Brexit by Boris Johnson and the European Research Group, headed by Jacob Rees Mogg BBC/Jeff Overs Brexit so far: in pictures EU leaders reject Chequers Quite the blow was dealt to the Prime Minister at a EU leaders summit in Salzburg on September 20. European Council President Donald Tusk stated that the Chequers deal "will not work" Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures May demands respect Following the rejection of her Chequers plan the day before, the Prime Minister voiced her anger that the EU had dismissed it without offering an alternative. She stated that throughout this process, I have treated the EU with nothing but respect. The UK expects the same. A good relationship at the end of this process depends on it." Getty Brexit so far: in pictures People's Vote march As the People's Vote campaign and The Independent's Final Say campaign gain traction, 700,000 people turn out in London to demand a final say on the UK's Brexit deal on October 20 2018 PA Brexit so far: in pictures More resignations As the Prime Minister settles on a Brexit deal, Brexit secretary Dominic Raab resigns along with Work and Pensions secretary Esther McVey and many other ministers Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Final Say petitions delivered to Downing Street People's Vote supporting MPs Chukka Umunna, Justine Greening and Caroline Lucas and The Independent editor Christian Broughton deliver over a million signatures in favour of a People's Vote to the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street on December 3 2018 PA Brexit so far: in pictures May delays vote On December 10, the Prime Minister delayed the vote on her Brexit deal as it was near certain not to pass through the Commons due to Tory rebels and lack of DUP support AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures No confidence motion Tory MPs triggered a confidence vote in the Prime Minister on December 12. 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The European Council president launched the scathing attack as he accused anti-EU campaigners of pushing for Brexit without even a sketch of a plan how to carry it out safely. Mr Tusk also dismissed suggestions that the EU could reopen negotiations over the controversial Northern Ireland backstop, dealing a blow to Theresa Mays hopes of securing fresh concessions as she tries to get her exit deal through parliament. Speaking in Brussels alongside Irish taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Mr Tusk said: Ive been wondering what a special place in hell looks like for people who promoted Brexit without even a sketch of a plan how to carry it out safely. He also tweeted the accusation moments later Getty Brexit so far: in pictures EU and UK announce talks to restart after Theresa May visits Brussels Both have agreed to restart Brexit talks to find a way through the deadlock in Westminster, following a visit by Theresa May to Brussels. In a joint statement the British government and European Commission said Ms May had had a robust but constructive meeting with president Jean-Claude Juncker, and that the pair would meet again before the end of the month. But the EU again refused to reopen the withdrawal agreement and its controversial backstop  with any negotiations expected to focus on the future relationship between the UK and EU instead Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit strategy lost MPs voted down May's Brext plans, with a majority of 45. The prime minister did not appear in parliament to see another defeat PA Brexit so far: in pictures Labour and Conservative MPs resign and create the Independent Group Back row of Chris Leslie, Gavin Shuker, Chuka Umunna and Mike Gapes, middle row of Angela Smith, Luciana Berger and Ann Coffey and front row of Sarah Wollaston, Heidi Allen, Anna Soubry and Joan Ryan PA Brexit so far: in pictures Non-biding votes on amendments to Brexit motion On February 27 he house held a series of votes, unanimously calling for the UK and EU to guarantee citizens rights in a no-deal scenario AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Attorney General publishes legal advice A hammer blow for May as Geoffrey Cox said her renegotiated deal can still leave UK in backstop against its will. Mr Cox did say the prime ministers efforts had reduced the risk of the UK being trapped in the backstop indefinitely. 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The Speaker said a further meaningful vote would be ruled out of order if the motion was the same or substantially the same  under an ancient convention to stop the government bullying parliament on issues MPs have rejected Parliament Live Brexit so far: in pictures May writes to Tusk The prime minister wrote to Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, to ask for a three-month extension to give her more time to try to get her deal through parliament. However the European Commission advises the EU27 should offer a short extension to May 23 or a longer one meaning the UK would participate in European elections 10 Downing Street/AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures European Council summit Theresa Mays request to extend triggering Article 50 until the end of June was rejected by the EU, and instead offered a shorter time frame. She accepted the offer of a delay until May 22 if her withdrawal deal is approved by Parliament. If MPs rejected it for a third time, the EU said Britain must propose a new plan by April 12. Ms May said she will not support a long delay because it would mean Britain participating in elections for the European Parliament Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Brussels confirms preparations for a no-deal Brexit are completed They warned that it is increasingly likely the UK will crash out. In a statement the European Commission (EC) said preparedness and contingency work, which the EC has been conducting since December 2017, was now finished. The announcement came days after EU leaders agreed to a request by Theresa May to extend the UKs Brexit date AFP Brexit so far: in pictures May resigns Reuters

A UK government spokesperson said: We are developing from scratch a new digital, streamlined, user-friendly scheme for EU citizens to safeguard their right to stay in the UK after we leave the EU.

Technology will play an important role in making applications simple but this is only part of the process for those who choose to use it and there will be alternative non-digital routes available to all applicants to prove their identity.

Our voluntary settled status scheme will be opening later this year and we continue to closely engage with technology companies, as well as other stakeholders about its design.
Talks on the future relationship between the EU and UK after Brexit are being held back because the UK side lacks clarity about what it wants, the blocs chief negotiator has suggested.

Discussions on the future relationship began last week after months of insistence from the UK but Michel Barnier said in a speech in Germany that final progress could only be made after more work was done by the British government.

In a speech to German business leaders in Hannover he called on the UK to confirm or adapt its red lines and said a political declaration could only be made once we have more clarity from the UK.

Recommended UK Brexit negotiators offered no new solutions in Irish border talks

The complaint from Brussels has been a familiar refrain in talks, with EU officials repeatedly warning that the UK is unclear about what it wants on both the future relationship and how to solve the Northern Ireland issue.

The EU's Heads of State and Government have shown their high level of ambition for the future relationship, taking account of the UK's red lines, Mr Barnier told the audience.

This future relationship should of course cover solidarity in terms of security and defence. The next steps will therefore not come from the EU  stakeholders, business, society all know where the EU stands.

It is now up to the UK to come up with its vision for the future, which should confirm the UK's red lines or adapt them.

It is now up to the UK to come up with its vision for the future Michel Barnier, EU chief negotiator

This is true for the future relationship. It is also true for issues of the withdrawal such as Ireland and Northern Ireland, where we have done our share of the work.

Once we have more clarity from the UK, we will prepare a political declaration on the framework for the future relationship to accompany the Withdrawal Agreement in the autumn.

Theresa May has ruled out membership of the customs union and single market, as well as jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. The EU says these policies taken together will introduce frictions to trade and customs checks, including on the Northern Ireland border where both sides say they want no physical infrastructure or checks.

The issues of customs and Northern Ireland are intertwined because the UK says it wants to solve the border issue by coming up with a customs agreement that removes the need for one.

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

Downing Street however admitted last Friday that the UK had brought forward no new proposals in discussions about the customs arrangements and merely repeated the two ideas laid out last August, which the EU has publicly rubbished as non-starters.

Brussels officials familiar with talks said EU negotiators dismissed the ideas out of hand in meetings, but UK diplomats downplayed the lack of progress and said talks on the future relationship were at an early stage.

Both sides are hoping to make progress by the Brussels European Council summit in June, and the EU says the following summit in October is the last possible opportunity to sign a deal.
Last week, President Rodrigo Duterte was supposed to fire Undersecretary Dominador Say of the Department of Labor and Employment for allegedly extorting money from local recruitment agencies deploying Filipino domestic helpers to the Middle East. One account has it that the incriminating information was given to President Duterte by a disgruntled recruitment agency owner whose license to operate had been canceled earlier by the DoLE. According to the agency owner, Say demanded money in exchange for an order reversing the cancellation of the agencys license. A source close to the Palace said that the agency owner executed an affidavit to substantiate the allegation of corruption against the now ex-labor undersecretary. Other reports have it that Say resigned before he was fired, in order to pre-empt what would have been an embarrassing dismissal from office. Whether Say was fired or he resigned before getting fired is now an issue that is moot and academic. What is important is that his departure from the DoLE confirms President Dutertes serious disdain for corruption, especially corruption in high places. It is rather difficult to believe that Bello was unaware of Says activities because Say was Bellos trusted consultant when Bello was still a party-list member of the House of Representatives from 2013-2016. Perhaps that is the reason why it was President Duterte who had to take steps to address the corruption attributed to Say. Obviously, DoLE Secretary Silvestre Bello III did not act on the problem himself, and it had to take his boss, the President, to take remedial measures against the reported anomaly. This is not the first time Bello failed to act seasonably on a problem of national concern in the DoLE. Earlier this year, the Filipino people were shocked to learn that a domestic helper in Kuwait was raped by her Arab employer. After that, it was discovered that Joanna Demafelis, another Filipino housemaid working in Kuwait, was murdered by her two employers and abandoned in a freezer. Despite those disturbing events, the DoLE under Bello dished out its usual announcements to the media to the effect that DoLE officials in Kuwait will coordinate with Kuwaiti officials in the investigation of both crimes. A furious President Duterte, however, ordered a total ban on the deployment of Filipino domestic helpers to Kuwait. Dutertes ban forced the Kuwait government to promise reforms in the treatment of Filipino workers in that awful desert country, in the hope of getting Duterte to lift the ban. It was Duterte, not Bello, who compelled the Kuwaitis to promise reforms. To pacify an angry President Duterte, the Kuwait government resorted to a cosmetic solution to the Demafelis case. A Kuwaiti trial court convicted Demafelis two employers in absentia, in a quick trial the uncharacteristic haste of which surprised even veteran diplomats. Although the trial court sentenced the two employers to death, the sentence was an empty victory for the Philippines and the Demafelis family because the convicted felons are currently outside the territorial jurisdiction of Kuwaitwhich means the death sentence cannot be carried out, unless the convicts are extradited to Kuwait. Bello has not yet explained why his hand-picked DoLE officials stationed in Kuwait only found out about the Demafelis murder a year after the murder took place. Such inaction is a strong indication that Bellos minions in Kuwait have been sleeping on their jobs. Those sloths should be fired.It also appears that Bello has not bothered to make representations with the Department of Justice and the Department of Foreign Affairs to urge the Kuwait government to extradite the murderers of Demafelis to Kuwait to face justice. Thats manifest dereliction of duty on Bellos part. Instead of pursuing the extradition of the murderers to Kuwait, Bello preferred to have the deployment ban earlier issued by Duterte lifted, and lifted quickly, so that even more Filipino domestic helpers can be sent to Kuwait. Despite the way those barbarous Kuwaitis have been summarily treating Filipino domestic helpers working thereas confirmed by the way Demafelis was murderedBello has demonstrated unusual interest in continuing the deployment of Filipino housemaids to Kuwait. In fact, Bello and his personal stooges in the DoLE joyfully predict that the deployment ban will be lifted in May. Equally appalling is that instead of decrying the hollow nature of the unenforceable ruling of the Kuwait court, Bello publicly praised it as if it was a just and final closure to the Demafelis murder case. As an ex-secretary of Justice, Bello should be ashamed of that remark. Why is Bello so interested in getting President Duterte to lift the deployment ban against Kuwait? A source reveals that the president of a very influential association of recruitment agencies which deploy Filipino housemaids to Kuwait has very close ties with Bello. This prominent recruiter, who also has connections with the Kuwaiti ambassador, is always present at press conferences called by Bello to take up matters involving the deployment of workers to Kuwait. When Bello testified before the Senate weeks ago, this influential recruiter was also there. She was seen repeatedly whispering to Bello in the course of Bellos testimony, almost as if she was Bellos personal adviser. A recruiter who attended the hearing overheard her saying Bello needed help in answering the questions propounded to him. Another source disclosed that although this influential recruiters license was earlier revoked by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, Bello ordered its immediate renewal. Since Bello does not deny that he is interested in running for the Senate in 2019, he should follow the example set by his good friend Say and leave the DoLE. Unlike Say, however, Bello can use his senatorial ambition as a convenient excuse to leave the DoLE soonest to prepare for his campaign which, incidentally, will require a lot of money. Hmmm.
Downing Street has dismissed claims made by the EUs chief negotiator that the UK is impeding Brexit talks by failing to set out a clear blueprint for future relations.

Theresa Mays spokesman suggested Michel Barniers disparaging comments are the inevitable public commentary ahead of a new round of talks, but that Ms May would focus on discussions at the negotiating table.

It comes ahead of a meeting of her Brexit cabinet on Wednesday, where she will meet ministers under pressure from different factions of the party over the governments position on a post-withdrawal customs union.

The government suffered a massive defeat in the Lords this week on its plan to quit the existing customs union after EU withdrawal, raising concerns among Brexiteers that Ms May could opt to remain within it.

After Mr Barniers call for clarity in a speech last night, Ms Mays spokesman said: The prime minister has clearly set out her vision for a deep partnership with the European Union, in Florence, Munich and recently at Mansion House speech, which was welcomed by the

European Commission.

Secondly I would say that whenever we start a new round of negotiations, there is inevitably some public commentary.

What we are focussed on delivering is the PMs vision in the negotiation room.

 House of Lords defeats government plans to scrap EU rights charter after Brexit

Asked whether Ms May agreed with Mr Barnier that the EU could not go any further in talks without clearer position from the UK, he added: Clearly it is in the interest of both parties to move forward in these negotiations, and form that deep and special partnership which we are seeking.

We want to work constructively with the EU to achieve that.

Wednesdays cabinet sub-committee could see Ms May under pressure from the likes of Brexit secretary David Davis and trade secretary Liam Fox to ensure she sticks to her stance on being separate from any customs union after withdrawal.

Some Brexiteers fear Ms May is paving the way for a compromise on the issue, with insiders admitting she could be forced to accept membership of some form of European customs union, to ensure a solution to the Irish border question.

Home secretary Amber Rudd and chancellor Philip Hammond will be pushing for the UK to retain as close as possible a relationship with the EU.

In a speech in Hannover, Mr Barnier said Britain must now come forward with its practical blueprint for a new trading relationship with Europe.

 Exclusive: Tony Blair issues warning to the Tory party over their handling of Brexit

He said: It is now up to the UK to come up with its vision for the future, which should confirm the UKs red lines or adapt them.

Once we have more clarity from the UK, we will prepare a political declaration on the framework for the future relationship to accompany the withdrawal agreement in the autumn.

He said the EU had made clear it wants a partnership that is as close as possible, but Britains position on quitting the single market and customs union along with other policies meant it is closing doors.

Brexit so far: in pictures Show all 53 1 /53 Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit campaign Boris Johnson led the VoteLeave campaign PA Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit campaign Boris Johnson MP, Labour MP Gisela Stuart and UKIP MP Douglas Carswell address the people of Stafford in Market Square during the Vote Leave Brexit Battle Bus tour on 17 May 2016. Their lead line on the tour was: We send the EU 350 million a week, let's fund our NHS instead. Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Voting day A man shelters from the rain as he arrives at a polling station in London on 23 June 2016. Millions of Britons voted in the referendum on whether to stay in or leave the European Union AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Referendum results Leader of Ukip, Nigel Farage, reacts at the Leave EU referendum party at Millbank Tower in central London as results indicated that it was likely the UK would leave the European Union AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Protesting the result A young couple painted as EU flags and a man with a sign reading Im not leaving protest outside Downing Street against the voters decision to leave the EU on 24 June 2016 Getty Brexit so far: in pictures David Cameron resigns British Prime Minister David Cameron resigns on the steps of 10 Downing Street on 24 June 2016 after the results of the EU referendum were declared and the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Theresa May Becomes the new Conservative Party leader Theresa May receives a kiss from her husband Philip, after becoming the new Conservative Party leader on 11 July 2016. May became Prime Minister two days later and although she voted to remain in the referendum was keen to lead Britains Brexit talks after her only rival in the race to succeed David Cameron pulled out unexpectedly. May was left as the only contender standing after the withdrawal from the leadership race of Andrea Leadsom, who faced criticism for suggesting she was more qualified to be prime minister because she had children AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Lancaster House keynote speech on Brexit British Prime Minister Theresa May delivers her keynote speech on Brexit at Lancaster House in London on 17 January 2017. Where she spoke about her offer to introduce a transition period after the UK formally leaves the European Union in March 2019. Despite repeating the pro-Brexit mantra of no deal is better than a bad deal, the Prime Minister claimed she wanted a tone of trust between the negotiators and said Britain was leaving the EU but not Europe. She said there should be a clear double lock needed for the transitional period to make sure businesses had time to prepare for changes to their trading relationships with the EU Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Triggering of Article 50 British Prime Minister Theresa May in the cabinet, sitting below a painting of Britain's first Prime Minister Robert Walpole, signs the official letter to European Council President Donald Tusk invoking Article 50 and the United Kingdom's intention to leave the EU on 29 March 2017 Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Gibraltar nonsense Tensions have risen over Brexit negotiations for the Rock of Gibraltar. The European Council has said Gibraltar would be included in a trade deal between London and Brussels only with the agreement of Spain. While former Conservative leader Michael Howard claimed that Theresa May would be prepared to go to war to protect the territory. Spain's foreign minister stepped in only to assert that there was no need for the dispute Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Shock snap election Soon after triggering Article 50, Theresa May called on 18 April 2017 for a snap general election. The election would be on 8 June and it came as a shock move to many, with her reasoning to try to bolster her position before tough talks on leaving the EU AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Dissolution of Parliament for General Election Campaign Prime Minister Theresa May makes a statement in Downing Street after returning from Buckingham Palace on 3 May 2017. The Prime Minister visited the Queen to ask for the dissolution of Parliament signalling the official start to the general election campaign Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Conservatives lose parliamentary majority An arrangement of British daily newspapers showing front page stories about the exit poll results of the snap general election. British Prime Minister Theresa May faced pressure to resign on 9 June 2017 after losing her parliamentary majority, plunging the country into uncertainty as Brexit talks loomed. The pound fell sharply amid fears the Conservative leader would be unable to form a government AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Labour gains Britains opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn gives a tumbs up as he arrives at Labour headquarters in central London on 9 June 2017 after the snap general election results showed a hung parliament with Labour gains and the Conservatives losing their majority AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit negotiations begin Brexit Minister David Davis and European Commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations Michel Barnier address a press conference at the end of the first day of Brexit negotiations in Brussels on 19 June 2017 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures May speaks in Florence British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks on 22 September 2017, in Florence. May sought to unlock Brexit talks after Brussels demanded more clarity on the crunch issues of budget payments and EU citizens' rights AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures EU council summit  insufficient progress German Chancellor Angela Merkel joins other EU leaders for a breakfast meeting during an EU summit in Brussels on 20 October 2017. The EU spoke about Brexit and announced that insufficient progress had been made AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures DUP derails settlement on the withdrawal part of Brexit DUP Deputy Leader Nigel Dodds walks off after speaking to members of the media as a protester holding flags shouts after him outside the Houses of Parliament on 5 December 2017. British Prime Minister Theresa May was forced to pull out of a deal with Brussels after the DUP said it would not accept terms which see Northern Ireland treated differently from the rest of the UK Getty Brexit so far: in pictures May suffers defeat over EU (Withdrawal) Bill Theresa May suffers defeat in parliament over EU (Withdrawal) Bill on 13 December 2017. The Government was defeated by Conservative rebels and Labour MPs in a vote on its key piece of Brexit legislation. MPs amended the EU (Withdrawal) Bill against Theresa May's will, guaranteeing Parliament a meaningful vote on any Brexit deal she agrees with Brussels. Ms May's whips applied pressure on Conservative rebels who remained defiant in the Commons throughout the day and in the end the Government was defeated by 309 votes to 305 Brexit so far: in pictures EU council summit  sufficient progress Britain's Prime minister Theresa May arrives to attend the first day of a European union summit in Brussels on 14 December 2017. European leaders discussed Brexit and announced there was finally sufficient progress at the end of the two days AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures The game moves to transition Brexit Secretary David Davis gives evidence on developments in European Union divorce talks to the Commons Exiting the EU Committee in Portcullis House, London, on 24 January 2018 PA Brexit so far: in pictures Trade deal is what May wants French President Emmanuel Macron gestures to Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May after they hold a press conference at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, on 18 January 2018. May and Macron agreed a new border security deal, through which the UK will pay more to France to stop migrants trying to reach British shores on 18 January 2018 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Transition period agreed The UK and EU agree terms for Brexit transition period on 19 March, 2018 Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures No agreement on Irish border The EU and UK however failed to reach an agreement on the Irish border during the successful talks on other Brexit issues AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures EU attacks Mays fantasy strategy For months after the March deal is struck there is little significant progress in talks. One senior EU official tears into Britains fantasy negotiating strategy and accuses Theresa May of not even having a position on a variety of important issue Getty Brexit so far: in pictures UK releases Ireland plan Britain releases a new customs plan to solve the Northern Ireland border but Michel Barnier says it leaves unanswered questions and would not prevent a hard border EbS Brexit so far: in pictures Chequers plan agreed The cabinet agrees on a plan known as the "Chequers deal" on July 6 2018. The plan seeks regulatory alignment on goods and food, divergence on services, freedom from the European Courts of Justice and an end to free movement. Many were surprised that the hard Brexiteers of the cabinet would agree to this plan PA Brexit so far: in pictures Chequers plan sparks resignations Brexit Secretary David Davis and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and numerous ministers resign in the days following the Chequers agreement Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures Davis out, Raab in On 9 July, Dominic Raab replaces David Davis as Brexit Secretary. Raab is a keen Brexiteer and was a housing minister before taking over from Davis Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures Barnier's "deal like no other" EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier claims on August 29 2018 that they are prepared to offer Britain a trade deal like no other, though he stressed that they will not divide or change the single market to accommodate Britain AP Brexit so far: in pictures "My deal or no deal" In an interview on Panorama on September 17, the Prime Minister insists that any Brexit deal will be offered to the EU on her terms. She asserts this amongst continued attacks on her approach to Brexit by Boris Johnson and the European Research Group, headed by Jacob Rees Mogg BBC/Jeff Overs Brexit so far: in pictures EU leaders reject Chequers Quite the blow was dealt to the Prime Minister at a EU leaders summit in Salzburg on September 20. European Council President Donald Tusk stated that the Chequers deal "will not work" Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures May demands respect Following the rejection of her Chequers plan the day before, the Prime Minister voiced her anger that the EU had dismissed it without offering an alternative. She stated that throughout this process, I have treated the EU with nothing but respect. The UK expects the same. A good relationship at the end of this process depends on it." Getty Brexit so far: in pictures People's Vote march As the People's Vote campaign and The Independent's Final Say campaign gain traction, 700,000 people turn out in London to demand a final say on the UK's Brexit deal on October 20 2018 PA Brexit so far: in pictures More resignations As the Prime Minister settles on a Brexit deal, Brexit secretary Dominic Raab resigns along with Work and Pensions secretary Esther McVey and many other ministers Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Final Say petitions delivered to Downing Street People's Vote supporting MPs Chukka Umunna, Justine Greening and Caroline Lucas and The Independent editor Christian Broughton deliver over a million signatures in favour of a People's Vote to the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street on December 3 2018 PA Brexit so far: in pictures May delays vote On December 10, the Prime Minister delayed the vote on her Brexit deal as it was near certain not to pass through the Commons due to Tory rebels and lack of DUP support AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures No confidence motion Tory MPs triggered a confidence vote in the Prime Minister on December 12. She won by 200 votes to 117 Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures Commons rejects the deal Following the delay, the Prime Minister's deal was rejected in the Commons by a historic 230 votes AFP Brexit so far: in pictures Corbyn tables a no confidence motion Following the rejection of the Prime Minister's deal, opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn tabled a motion of no confidence in the government, which the government won by a margin of 19 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Plan B The Prime Minister won the support of the commons to return to Brussels to renegotiate the backstop on January 29. In the same sitting, MPs also voted against a no-deal Brexit in a non-legally binding motion PA Brexit so far: in pictures EU council president savages Brexit campaigners who failed to plan for departure: Special place in hell There is a special place in hell for pro-Brexit campaigners who demanded Britain leave the EU without explaining how it should happen, Donald Tusk has said. The European Council president launched the scathing attack as he accused anti-EU campaigners of pushing for Brexit without even a sketch of a plan how to carry it out safely. Mr Tusk also dismissed suggestions that the EU could reopen negotiations over the controversial Northern Ireland backstop, dealing a blow to Theresa Mays hopes of securing fresh concessions as she tries to get her exit deal through parliament. Speaking in Brussels alongside Irish taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Mr Tusk said: Ive been wondering what a special place in hell looks like for people who promoted Brexit without even a sketch of a plan how to carry it out safely. He also tweeted the accusation moments later Getty Brexit so far: in pictures EU and UK announce talks to restart after Theresa May visits Brussels Both have agreed to restart Brexit talks to find a way through the deadlock in Westminster, following a visit by Theresa May to Brussels. In a joint statement the British government and European Commission said Ms May had had a robust but constructive meeting with president Jean-Claude Juncker, and that the pair would meet again before the end of the month. But the EU again refused to reopen the withdrawal agreement and its controversial backstop  with any negotiations expected to focus on the future relationship between the UK and EU instead Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit strategy lost MPs voted down May's Brext plans, with a majority of 45. The prime minister did not appear in parliament to see another defeat PA Brexit so far: in pictures Labour and Conservative MPs resign and create the Independent Group Back row of Chris Leslie, Gavin Shuker, Chuka Umunna and Mike Gapes, middle row of Angela Smith, Luciana Berger and Ann Coffey and front row of Sarah Wollaston, Heidi Allen, Anna Soubry and Joan Ryan PA Brexit so far: in pictures Non-biding votes on amendments to Brexit motion On February 27 he house held a series of votes, unanimously calling for the UK and EU to guarantee citizens rights in a no-deal scenario AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Attorney General publishes legal advice A hammer blow for May as Geoffrey Cox said her renegotiated deal can still leave UK in backstop against its will. Mr Cox did say the prime ministers efforts had reduced the risk of the UK being trapped in the backstop indefinitely. MPs went on to vote against her deal by 391 to 242 UK Parliament/PA Brexit so far: in pictures No-deal off the table MPs rejected a no-deal Brexit by 43 votes on March 13, with cabinet ministers rebelling in another humiliating defeat for Theresa May. A day later they voted in favour of the prime minister seeking an extension to Article 50 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures House speaker bans May from third Commons vote on same Brexit deal John Bercow sensationally told Theresa May he would stop her making another attempt to pass her Brexit deal unless she has secured changes. The Speaker said a further meaningful vote would be ruled out of order if the motion was the same or substantially the same  under an ancient convention to stop the government bullying parliament on issues MPs have rejected Parliament Live Brexit so far: in pictures May writes to Tusk The prime minister wrote to Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, to ask for a three-month extension to give her more time to try to get her deal through parliament. However the European Commission advises the EU27 should offer a short extension to May 23 or a longer one meaning the UK would participate in European elections 10 Downing Street/AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures European Council summit Theresa Mays request to extend triggering Article 50 until the end of June was rejected by the EU, and instead offered a shorter time frame. She accepted the offer of a delay until May 22 if her withdrawal deal is approved by Parliament. If MPs rejected it for a third time, the EU said Britain must propose a new plan by April 12. Ms May said she will not support a long delay because it would mean Britain participating in elections for the European Parliament Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Brussels confirms preparations for a no-deal Brexit are completed They warned that it is increasingly likely the UK will crash out. In a statement the European Commission (EC) said preparedness and contingency work, which the EC has been conducting since December 2017, was now finished. The announcement came days after EU leaders agreed to a request by Theresa May to extend the UKs Brexit date AFP Brexit so far: in pictures May resigns Reuters

He said: The European Council has made clear that, if the UKs red lines were to evolve, the Union would be prepared to reconsider its offer. We are flexible, never dogmatic. We are open for business.

But of course any change from the UK must respect our principles, the principles we have built with the UK over 45 years.

In particular, the four freedoms of the single market go together. They are all indivisible.
Theresa Mays preferred plan for a post-Brexit customs deal with the EU is completely cretinous, Jacob Rees-Mogg has said.

The arch-Eurosceptic branded the proposal for a customs partnership  under which Britain would collect EU import tariffs on behalf of Brussels  a betrayal of common sense.

The attack came as Mr Rees-Mogg, a rising favourite of Tory members to succeed Ms May, described her approach to the Brexit negotiations as enigmatic.

Recommended Clarke urges Tory MPs to ignore No 10 customs union threats

He also claimed the House of Lords against further revolts over Brexit, saying: I think their lordships are playing with fire and it would be a shame to burn down a historic house.

Brexiteer criticism of the customs partnership idea has been growing, amid fears that the prime minister is paving the way for a compromise on the flashpoint issue.

They believe the proposal  put forward by the UK as a solution to maintaining frictionless trade  is unworkable and is encouraging Brussels to press for Britain to stay in a full customs union.

Speaking in Parliament, at an event organised by the Open Europe think tank, Mr Rees-Mogg mocked the idea as completely cretinous, also calling it impractical, bureaucratic.

No 10 has not confirmed that Ms May prefers the partnership plan to a so-called customs arrangement  based on new technology and trusted status for smaller traders.

The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Show all 8 1 /8 The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Post-Brexit immigration workers sorting radishes on a production line at a farm in Norfolk. One possible post-Brexit immigration scheme could struggle to channel workers towards less attractive roles - while another may heighten the risk of labour exploitation, a new report warns. PA The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Customs union A key point in the negotiations remains Britain's access to, or withdrawal from, the EU customs union. Since the referendum there has been hot debate over the meaning of Brexit: would it entail a full withdrawal from the existing agreement, known as hard Brexit, or the soft version in which we would remain part of a common customs area for most goods, as Turkey does? No 10 has so far insisted that Brexit means Brexit and that Britain will be leaving the customs union, but may be inclined to change its position once the potential risks to the UKs economic outlook become clearer. Alamy The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Northern Ireland-Irish border Though progress was made last year, there has still been no solid agreement on whether there should be a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. To ensure borderless travel on the island, the countries must be in regulatory alignment and therefore adhere to the same rules as the customs union. In December, the Conservative Partys coalition partners, the DUP, refused a draft agreement that would place the UK/EU border in the Irish Sea due to its potential to undermine the union. May has promised that would not be the case and has suggested that a specific solution would need to be found. Getty The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Transition period Despite protests from a small number of Conservative MPs, the Government and the EU are largely in agreement that a transitional period is needed after Brexit. The talks, however, have reached an impasse. Though May has agreed that the UK will continue to contribute to the EU budget until 2021, the PM wants to be able to select which laws made during this time the UK will have to adhere to. Chief negotiator Michel Barnier has said the UK must adopt all of the laws passed during the transition, without any input from British ministers or MEPs. EPA The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Rights of EU citizens living the UK The Prime Minister has promised EU citizens already living in the UK the right to live and work here after Brexit, but the rights of those who arrive after Brexit day remains unclear. May insists that those who arrive during the transition period should not be allowed to stay, whereas the EU believe the cut-off point should be later. Getty The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Future trade agreement (with the EU) Despite this being a key issue in negotiations, the Government has yet to lay out exactly what it wants from a trade deal with the EU. Infighting within the Cabinet has prevented a solid position from being reached, with some MPs content that "no deal is better than a bad deal" while others rally behind single market access. The EU has already confirmed that access to the single market would be impossible without the UK remaining in the customs union. Getty The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Future trade agreements (internationally) The Government has already begun trying to woo foreign leaders into prospective trade agreements, with various high profile state visits to China, India and Canada for May, and the now infamous invitation to US President Donald Trump to visit London. However the UK cannot make trade agreements with another country while it is still a member of the EU, and the potential loss of trade with the world's major powers is a source of anxiety for the PM. The EU has said the UK cannot secure trade deals during the transition period. EPA The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Financial services Banks in the UK will be hit hard regardless of the Brexit outcome. The EU has refused to give British banks passporting rights to trade within the EU, dashing hopes of a special City deal. However according to new reports Germany has suggested allowing trade on the condition that the UK continues paying into the EU budget even after the transition period. Getty

There is speculation that Britain might, in a bid to secure a better trade deal after Brexit, offer preference to EU citizens in future immigration rules - but Mr Rees-Mogg said that would be racist.

He also argued that the UK should ratchet up the pressure on the EU in the talks by threatening to not pay the 39bn divorce bill  while highlighting the effect on the Irish economy of no trade deal.

If we were to apply the common external tariff on Irish beef, the Irish agricultural industry is in serious trouble, the backbencher said.

Youve got to ask the EU: does it want to sacrifice the economy of Ireland on the altar of EU ideology? I my guess is that the answer is no, and therefore we are in a very strong negotiating position.

He said the prime minister's attitude to Brexit was hard to read, but it was a good thing to have a leader who exercised self-control.

"The prime minister is a very enigmatic figure in this respect. She is carrying out the will of the British people but it's hard to read what level of enthusiasm she has for it.

She is doing it, she has never indicated anything other than that, she said 'Brexit means Brexit', but she doesn't - by her nature - express herself unduly emotionally.

Mr Rees-Mogg played down his prospects of becoming prime minister  but, notably, did not rule it out.

When the Conservative Party is in government, the prime minister always comes from a senior government position and that is a perfectly sensible state of affairs, he said.
EU politicians have demanded guarantees that European citizens living in the UK after Brexit will not suffer the same fate as victims of the Windrush scandal.

The European parliaments Brexit coordinator Guy Verhofstadt said the scandal that has seen people targeted for deportation despite having lived in Britain for decades, has created huge anxiety among UK-based EU citizens.

Following a meeting with UK officials he and other members of the parliament have listed a series of question marks, requests, recommendations to be sent to the Home Office as Brexit negotiations continue.

Theresa May has been keen to stop the Windrush debacle becoming a wider story about the hostile environment approach to dealing with immigrants introduced when she was home secretary.

The prime minister is also under intense pressure over her general approach to Brexit, having suffered a series of defeats in the House of Lords aimed at softening her approach, while hardline Brexiteer Tories have also criticised her proposals and questioned her commitment to withdrawal.

Home Office civil servants travelled to Brussels on Tuesday to meet with Mr Verhofstadt and others to explain the bureaucratic process European citizens will have to go through if they want to stay in Britain after the UK leaves the EU.

The senior Brussels figure requested the meeting amid rising concern about the UKs immigration practices in the wake of the Windrush scandal, which has seen the British government promise compensation to people wrongly targeted for deportation.

 House of Lords defeats government plans to scrap EU rights charter after Brexit

Mr Verhofstadt said: I have to tell you that the main reason for this meeting was to get all the information from the Home Office.

Certainly after the Windrush scandal there was a lot  and there is still a lot  of anxiety for EU citizens living in Britain that they could have the same experience in their future.

Certainly after the Windrush scandal there was a lot  and there is still a lot  of anxiety for EU citizens living in Britain that they could have the same experience in their future Guy Verhofstadt, European parliament Brexit coordinator

We agreed at the end of the meeting that from the side of the European parliament a number of question marks, requests, recommendations will be sent by us to the UK authorities.

He said he would lay out the parliaments concerns in a letter to the UK government, saying any system for EU citizens to secure settled status should be by way of declaration, rather than an application that the UK government would have to process.

MEPs also want the system to be free for EU citizens living in the UK, on the basis that they had no part in the Brexit decision.

Brexit so far: in pictures Show all 53 1 /53 Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit campaign Boris Johnson led the VoteLeave campaign PA Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit campaign Boris Johnson MP, Labour MP Gisela Stuart and UKIP MP Douglas Carswell address the people of Stafford in Market Square during the Vote Leave Brexit Battle Bus tour on 17 May 2016. Their lead line on the tour was: We send the EU 350 million a week, let's fund our NHS instead. Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Voting day A man shelters from the rain as he arrives at a polling station in London on 23 June 2016. Millions of Britons voted in the referendum on whether to stay in or leave the European Union AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Referendum results Leader of Ukip, Nigel Farage, reacts at the Leave EU referendum party at Millbank Tower in central London as results indicated that it was likely the UK would leave the European Union AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Protesting the result A young couple painted as EU flags and a man with a sign reading Im not leaving protest outside Downing Street against the voters decision to leave the EU on 24 June 2016 Getty Brexit so far: in pictures David Cameron resigns British Prime Minister David Cameron resigns on the steps of 10 Downing Street on 24 June 2016 after the results of the EU referendum were declared and the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Theresa May Becomes the new Conservative Party leader Theresa May receives a kiss from her husband Philip, after becoming the new Conservative Party leader on 11 July 2016. May became Prime Minister two days later and although she voted to remain in the referendum was keen to lead Britains Brexit talks after her only rival in the race to succeed David Cameron pulled out unexpectedly. May was left as the only contender standing after the withdrawal from the leadership race of Andrea Leadsom, who faced criticism for suggesting she was more qualified to be prime minister because she had children AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Lancaster House keynote speech on Brexit British Prime Minister Theresa May delivers her keynote speech on Brexit at Lancaster House in London on 17 January 2017. Where she spoke about her offer to introduce a transition period after the UK formally leaves the European Union in March 2019. Despite repeating the pro-Brexit mantra of no deal is better than a bad deal, the Prime Minister claimed she wanted a tone of trust between the negotiators and said Britain was leaving the EU but not Europe. She said there should be a clear double lock needed for the transitional period to make sure businesses had time to prepare for changes to their trading relationships with the EU Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Triggering of Article 50 British Prime Minister Theresa May in the cabinet, sitting below a painting of Britain's first Prime Minister Robert Walpole, signs the official letter to European Council President Donald Tusk invoking Article 50 and the United Kingdom's intention to leave the EU on 29 March 2017 Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Gibraltar nonsense Tensions have risen over Brexit negotiations for the Rock of Gibraltar. The European Council has said Gibraltar would be included in a trade deal between London and Brussels only with the agreement of Spain. While former Conservative leader Michael Howard claimed that Theresa May would be prepared to go to war to protect the territory. Spain's foreign minister stepped in only to assert that there was no need for the dispute Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Shock snap election Soon after triggering Article 50, Theresa May called on 18 April 2017 for a snap general election. The election would be on 8 June and it came as a shock move to many, with her reasoning to try to bolster her position before tough talks on leaving the EU AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Dissolution of Parliament for General Election Campaign Prime Minister Theresa May makes a statement in Downing Street after returning from Buckingham Palace on 3 May 2017. The Prime Minister visited the Queen to ask for the dissolution of Parliament signalling the official start to the general election campaign Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Conservatives lose parliamentary majority An arrangement of British daily newspapers showing front page stories about the exit poll results of the snap general election. British Prime Minister Theresa May faced pressure to resign on 9 June 2017 after losing her parliamentary majority, plunging the country into uncertainty as Brexit talks loomed. The pound fell sharply amid fears the Conservative leader would be unable to form a government AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Labour gains Britains opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn gives a tumbs up as he arrives at Labour headquarters in central London on 9 June 2017 after the snap general election results showed a hung parliament with Labour gains and the Conservatives losing their majority AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit negotiations begin Brexit Minister David Davis and European Commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations Michel Barnier address a press conference at the end of the first day of Brexit negotiations in Brussels on 19 June 2017 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures May speaks in Florence British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks on 22 September 2017, in Florence. May sought to unlock Brexit talks after Brussels demanded more clarity on the crunch issues of budget payments and EU citizens' rights AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures EU council summit  insufficient progress German Chancellor Angela Merkel joins other EU leaders for a breakfast meeting during an EU summit in Brussels on 20 October 2017. The EU spoke about Brexit and announced that insufficient progress had been made AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures DUP derails settlement on the withdrawal part of Brexit DUP Deputy Leader Nigel Dodds walks off after speaking to members of the media as a protester holding flags shouts after him outside the Houses of Parliament on 5 December 2017. British Prime Minister Theresa May was forced to pull out of a deal with Brussels after the DUP said it would not accept terms which see Northern Ireland treated differently from the rest of the UK Getty Brexit so far: in pictures May suffers defeat over EU (Withdrawal) Bill Theresa May suffers defeat in parliament over EU (Withdrawal) Bill on 13 December 2017. The Government was defeated by Conservative rebels and Labour MPs in a vote on its key piece of Brexit legislation. MPs amended the EU (Withdrawal) Bill against Theresa May's will, guaranteeing Parliament a meaningful vote on any Brexit deal she agrees with Brussels. Ms May's whips applied pressure on Conservative rebels who remained defiant in the Commons throughout the day and in the end the Government was defeated by 309 votes to 305 Brexit so far: in pictures EU council summit  sufficient progress Britain's Prime minister Theresa May arrives to attend the first day of a European union summit in Brussels on 14 December 2017. European leaders discussed Brexit and announced there was finally sufficient progress at the end of the two days AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures The game moves to transition Brexit Secretary David Davis gives evidence on developments in European Union divorce talks to the Commons Exiting the EU Committee in Portcullis House, London, on 24 January 2018 PA Brexit so far: in pictures Trade deal is what May wants French President Emmanuel Macron gestures to Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May after they hold a press conference at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, on 18 January 2018. May and Macron agreed a new border security deal, through which the UK will pay more to France to stop migrants trying to reach British shores on 18 January 2018 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Transition period agreed The UK and EU agree terms for Brexit transition period on 19 March, 2018 Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures No agreement on Irish border The EU and UK however failed to reach an agreement on the Irish border during the successful talks on other Brexit issues AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures EU attacks Mays fantasy strategy For months after the March deal is struck there is little significant progress in talks. One senior EU official tears into Britains fantasy negotiating strategy and accuses Theresa May of not even having a position on a variety of important issue Getty Brexit so far: in pictures UK releases Ireland plan Britain releases a new customs plan to solve the Northern Ireland border but Michel Barnier says it leaves unanswered questions and would not prevent a hard border EbS Brexit so far: in pictures Chequers plan agreed The cabinet agrees on a plan known as the "Chequers deal" on July 6 2018. The plan seeks regulatory alignment on goods and food, divergence on services, freedom from the European Courts of Justice and an end to free movement. Many were surprised that the hard Brexiteers of the cabinet would agree to this plan PA Brexit so far: in pictures Chequers plan sparks resignations Brexit Secretary David Davis and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and numerous ministers resign in the days following the Chequers agreement Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures Davis out, Raab in On 9 July, Dominic Raab replaces David Davis as Brexit Secretary. Raab is a keen Brexiteer and was a housing minister before taking over from Davis Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures Barnier's "deal like no other" EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier claims on August 29 2018 that they are prepared to offer Britain a trade deal like no other, though he stressed that they will not divide or change the single market to accommodate Britain AP Brexit so far: in pictures "My deal or no deal" In an interview on Panorama on September 17, the Prime Minister insists that any Brexit deal will be offered to the EU on her terms. She asserts this amongst continued attacks on her approach to Brexit by Boris Johnson and the European Research Group, headed by Jacob Rees Mogg BBC/Jeff Overs Brexit so far: in pictures EU leaders reject Chequers Quite the blow was dealt to the Prime Minister at a EU leaders summit in Salzburg on September 20. European Council President Donald Tusk stated that the Chequers deal "will not work" Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures May demands respect Following the rejection of her Chequers plan the day before, the Prime Minister voiced her anger that the EU had dismissed it without offering an alternative. She stated that throughout this process, I have treated the EU with nothing but respect. The UK expects the same. A good relationship at the end of this process depends on it." Getty Brexit so far: in pictures People's Vote march As the People's Vote campaign and The Independent's Final Say campaign gain traction, 700,000 people turn out in London to demand a final say on the UK's Brexit deal on October 20 2018 PA Brexit so far: in pictures More resignations As the Prime Minister settles on a Brexit deal, Brexit secretary Dominic Raab resigns along with Work and Pensions secretary Esther McVey and many other ministers Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Final Say petitions delivered to Downing Street People's Vote supporting MPs Chukka Umunna, Justine Greening and Caroline Lucas and The Independent editor Christian Broughton deliver over a million signatures in favour of a People's Vote to the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street on December 3 2018 PA Brexit so far: in pictures May delays vote On December 10, the Prime Minister delayed the vote on her Brexit deal as it was near certain not to pass through the Commons due to Tory rebels and lack of DUP support AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures No confidence motion Tory MPs triggered a confidence vote in the Prime Minister on December 12. She won by 200 votes to 117 Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures Commons rejects the deal Following the delay, the Prime Minister's deal was rejected in the Commons by a historic 230 votes AFP Brexit so far: in pictures Corbyn tables a no confidence motion Following the rejection of the Prime Minister's deal, opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn tabled a motion of no confidence in the government, which the government won by a margin of 19 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Plan B The Prime Minister won the support of the commons to return to Brussels to renegotiate the backstop on January 29. In the same sitting, MPs also voted against a no-deal Brexit in a non-legally binding motion PA Brexit so far: in pictures EU council president savages Brexit campaigners who failed to plan for departure: Special place in hell There is a special place in hell for pro-Brexit campaigners who demanded Britain leave the EU without explaining how it should happen, Donald Tusk has said. The European Council president launched the scathing attack as he accused anti-EU campaigners of pushing for Brexit without even a sketch of a plan how to carry it out safely. Mr Tusk also dismissed suggestions that the EU could reopen negotiations over the controversial Northern Ireland backstop, dealing a blow to Theresa Mays hopes of securing fresh concessions as she tries to get her exit deal through parliament. Speaking in Brussels alongside Irish taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Mr Tusk said: Ive been wondering what a special place in hell looks like for people who promoted Brexit without even a sketch of a plan how to carry it out safely. He also tweeted the accusation moments later Getty Brexit so far: in pictures EU and UK announce talks to restart after Theresa May visits Brussels Both have agreed to restart Brexit talks to find a way through the deadlock in Westminster, following a visit by Theresa May to Brussels. In a joint statement the British government and European Commission said Ms May had had a robust but constructive meeting with president Jean-Claude Juncker, and that the pair would meet again before the end of the month. But the EU again refused to reopen the withdrawal agreement and its controversial backstop  with any negotiations expected to focus on the future relationship between the UK and EU instead Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit strategy lost MPs voted down May's Brext plans, with a majority of 45. The prime minister did not appear in parliament to see another defeat PA Brexit so far: in pictures Labour and Conservative MPs resign and create the Independent Group Back row of Chris Leslie, Gavin Shuker, Chuka Umunna and Mike Gapes, middle row of Angela Smith, Luciana Berger and Ann Coffey and front row of Sarah Wollaston, Heidi Allen, Anna Soubry and Joan Ryan PA Brexit so far: in pictures Non-biding votes on amendments to Brexit motion On February 27 he house held a series of votes, unanimously calling for the UK and EU to guarantee citizens rights in a no-deal scenario AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Attorney General publishes legal advice A hammer blow for May as Geoffrey Cox said her renegotiated deal can still leave UK in backstop against its will. Mr Cox did say the prime ministers efforts had reduced the risk of the UK being trapped in the backstop indefinitely. MPs went on to vote against her deal by 391 to 242 UK Parliament/PA Brexit so far: in pictures No-deal off the table MPs rejected a no-deal Brexit by 43 votes on March 13, with cabinet ministers rebelling in another humiliating defeat for Theresa May. A day later they voted in favour of the prime minister seeking an extension to Article 50 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures House speaker bans May from third Commons vote on same Brexit deal John Bercow sensationally told Theresa May he would stop her making another attempt to pass her Brexit deal unless she has secured changes. The Speaker said a further meaningful vote would be ruled out of order if the motion was the same or substantially the same  under an ancient convention to stop the government bullying parliament on issues MPs have rejected Parliament Live Brexit so far: in pictures May writes to Tusk The prime minister wrote to Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, to ask for a three-month extension to give her more time to try to get her deal through parliament. However the European Commission advises the EU27 should offer a short extension to May 23 or a longer one meaning the UK would participate in European elections 10 Downing Street/AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures European Council summit Theresa Mays request to extend triggering Article 50 until the end of June was rejected by the EU, and instead offered a shorter time frame. She accepted the offer of a delay until May 22 if her withdrawal deal is approved by Parliament. If MPs rejected it for a third time, the EU said Britain must propose a new plan by April 12. Ms May said she will not support a long delay because it would mean Britain participating in elections for the European Parliament Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Brussels confirms preparations for a no-deal Brexit are completed They warned that it is increasingly likely the UK will crash out. In a statement the European Commission (EC) said preparedness and contingency work, which the EC has been conducting since December 2017, was now finished. The announcement came days after EU leaders agreed to a request by Theresa May to extend the UKs Brexit date AFP Brexit so far: in pictures May resigns Reuters

Mr Verhofstadt said: It means that if people fill in all the data that are necessary then from that moment on there is that status and it is not necessary to wait for weeks and months, not to say years, before the Home Office is agreeing with this.

We are looking naturally also for a cost-free because it is not the fault of the EU citizens that they have to ask for status  it is because of Brexit. If there wasnt Brexit there shouldnt be a special status for EU citizens in the future and there wouldnt be a reason to apply for such a status.

He also added that each family of EU nationals should only have to make one declaration instead of one for each person in it, and that there needed to be special provisions for vulnerable people or those not able to use a digital registration system.

The parliament also insisted that British citizens living abroad at the point of exit should be guaranteed full rights to freedom of movement across the EU rather than just for the country theyre currently resided in.

 What is still needed to complete a deal with the EU?

European confidence in British immigration authorities reached a new low following the Windrush scandal, but it was already dealt a blow last year after the Home Office accidentally sent letters to some EU citizens telling them they had no right to remain in the country.

Ms May described the false deportation notices as an unfortunate error on the part of the Home Office and later sent other letters to EU nationals pleading for them to remain in open and diverse Britain.

The prime minister and home secretary, Amber Rudd, have come under significant pressure after it was revealed that Home Office has been threatening to deport British residents, and their descendants, who arrived from the Commonwealth before 1973.

Often children who travelled on a parents passport did not have to go through the same administrative process as their mother or father, meaning they lacked some documentary evidence in later life to prove their arrival.

Problems reached crisis point amid the hostile environment policy instigated by Ms May when she was home secretary, which saw officials across all wings of government and even private landlords required to demand proof of immigration status before providing services.

A raft of cases are now emerging of people who have every right to live in the UK being denied jobs, homes, medical treatment and even being threatened with removal because they have not had the right documents.

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

But Ms May is also still facing an uphill push to secure Brexit on the terms she has promised in a string of speeches, having suffered three defeats on her EU withdrawal bill in the last week and more are expected to come.

In particular the government was defeated on its plans to take the UK out of a customs union with the EU after Brexit, leaving a question mark over Ms Mays approach as she now tries to overturn the defeat and fend off other challenges to her proposals in the Commons.

Speaking at an event in London on Tuesday, arch-Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg said Ms Mays plan for a customs partnership with Brussels after withdrawal was completely cretinous, impractical, bureaucratic and a betrayal of common sense.

He went on to question Ms Mays commitment to withdrawal, saying: The prime minister is a very enigmatic figure in this respect. She is carrying out the will of the British people but its hard to read what level of enthusiasm she has for it.

She is doing it, she has never indicated anything other than that, she said Brexit means Brexit, but she doesnt  by her nature  express herself unduly emotionally.

He said it was a good thing that the leader can exercise self control, but his words come as Brexiteers seek to pressure Ms May into sticking to her commitment to leave the customs union.
Jeremy Corbyn has apologised for failing to get a grip on antisemitism in the Labour Party, ahead of a crunch meeting with Jewish community leaders.

The Labour leader said his party had not done enough to tackle the problem and admitted Labours processes for dealing with anti-Jewish abuse were not fully fit for purpose.

Jewish people deserve an apology, he said, adding that he was sorry for the hurt and distressed caused.

His latest apology comes ahead of a much-anticipated meeting between the Labour leadership and Jewish community groups the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council.

Recommended Corbyn to meet with Jewish leaders to address antisemitism in Labour

Mr Corbyn said he wanted to use the meeting on Tuesday to discuss the resurgence of both old and new forms of antisemitism and committed to strive to understand why antisemitism has surfaced in our party.

Writing in the Evening Standard, he said: Antisemitism is a poison that must be challenged wherever it raises its head, across Europe and at home. Hatred and bigotry towards Jewish people has no place in our society, whether on the streets or online. And that of course goes for the Labour Party too."

He continued: We have not done enough to get to grips with the problem, and the Jewish community and our Jewish members deserve an apology. My party and I are sorry for the hurt and distress caused.

Admitting the party's current structures are simply not fully fit for purpose when it comes to dealing with anti-Jewish abuse, he outlined the steps Labour will take to address the problem. These include a programme of political education to help party members recognise and tackle antisemitism, and the appointment of a legal expert to advise on disciplinary matters.

Mr Corbyn also appeared to defend his decision to invite the controversial Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL) group to a roundtable discussion on antisemitism that way due to take place the day after his meeting with the Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council.

The group has consistently denied there is widespread antisemitism in the Labour Party and last month organised a counter-protest to the demonstration in Parliament Square against Mr Corbyns handling of the issue.

Protests against Labour antisemitism Show all 14 1 /14 Protests against Labour antisemitism Protests against Labour antisemitism Protesters clashed during the demonstration Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism Members of the Jewish community hold a protest against Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn and antisemitism in the Labour Party AFP/Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism Protesters hold placards and flags during a demonstration, organised by the British Board of Jewish Deputies for those who oppose antisemitism, in Parliament Square Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism Hundreds of people gathered in Parliament Square to protest against antisemitism in the Labour Party EPA Protests against Labour antisemitism Labour MP Luciana Berger speaks during the protest PA Protests against Labour antisemitism A protester blows through a shofar during the demonstration Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism Members of London's Jewish community protest in support of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn outside parliament EPA Protests against Labour antisemitism Labour MP John Mann speaks during a protest against antisemitism PA Protests against Labour antisemitism People protest against antisemitism in the Labour Party as Jewish community leaders have launched a scathing attack on Jeremy Corbyn, claiming he has sided with antisemites again and again PA Protests against Labour antisemitism Labour politicians Stella Creasy and Chuka Umunna leave after attending the demonstration Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism A pro-Jeremy Corbyn protester holds a placard during a counter-protest Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism A support of the Labour Party hold up a placard during the demonstration Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism Jeremy Corbyn supporters during the demo Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism A protester holds up a sign reading For the many, not the Jew AFP

A number of more mainstream Jewish groups refused to take part in the meeting if JVL were present, leading to the roundtable discussion being cancelled.

But Mr Corbyn said: I want to engage with the full range and diversity of Jewish organisations and have no truck with any attempt to divide the Jewish community into the 'right' and 'wrong' sort of Jews.

Debate and pluralism are abiding characteristics of the Jewish community, and I celebrate them both within and without the Labour Party.

While claiming the number of Labour members being investigated for antisemitism amounts to 0.1 per cent of the partys membership, Mr Corbyn said: But we must also face the uncomfortable fact that a small number of our members and supporters hold antisemitic views and attitudes, which need to be confronted and dealt with more rapidly and effectively.

He added: The evidence is clear enough. Labour staff have seen examples of Holocaust denial, crude stereotypes of Jewish bankers, conspiracy theories blaming 9/11 on Israel, and even one member who appeared to believe that Hitler had been misunderstood.

 Tony Blair says the people around Jeremy Corbyn dont take antisemitism seriously

Mr Corbyn said there were two main sources of modern antisemitism, including people on the fringe of Palestinian rights groups who can stray into antisemitic views. Some activists are attracted to the pro-Palestine movement because it affords an opportunity to express hostility to Jewish people in a respectable setting, he said.

The second area where antisemitism often emerges, he said, involves people making claims about a conspiracy of a small shadowy elite that props up capitalism and imperialism. Mr Corbyn said such suggestions are only a step away from long-standing antisemitic tropes about wealthy and powerful Jews secretly controlling the world.

The Labour leader also distanced himself from claims, made by many of his supporters, that allegations of antisemitism in the party are smears designed to undermine his leadership.

When members of Jewish communities express genuine anxieties we must recognise them as we would those of any other community," he said. Their concerns are not smears.
Jewish community leaders have hit out at Jeremy Corbyn after a crunch meeting to discuss antisemitism in the Labour Party, describing the talks as disappointing and a missed opportunity.

Following a highly-charged meeting in Parliament, the Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) and the Board of Deputies of British Jews (BoD) said Mr Corbyn had "failed to agree to any of the concrete actions" they had demanded he take.

The meeting was an attempt to defuse the row over anti-Jewish abuse in Labour, which Mr Corbyn has said he has an "absolute determination" to stamp out.

However, in a joint statement following the two-hour meeting, the two Jewish community groups said: "Our meeting with Jeremy Corbyn today was a disappointing missed opportunity regarding the problem of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.

"We welcomed Mr Corbyn's personal involvement in the discussion and his new comments recognising and apologising for anti-Semitism in the Labour Party but he failed to agree to any of the concrete actions we asked for in our letter to him of March 28."

They said the proposals put forward last month represented the "minimum level of action" the Jewish community expected from the Labour leadership following "two years of inactivity".

"Words in letters and and newspaper articles will never be enough", the groups added, as they called on Mr Corbyn to turn his words into "strong actions in order to bring about deep cultural change".

The meeting was attended by Board of Deputies president Jonathan Arkush and Jewish Leadership Council chair Jonathan Goldstein.

They had previously asked Mr Corbyn and Labour's new general secretary, Jenny Formby, to take a range of actions, including resolving the antisemitism cases against Ken Livingstone and Jackie Walker, setting a fixed timetable for dealing with other disciplinary matters, instructing MPs not to share a platform with anyone suspended or expelled by the out the party for anti-Jewish abuse.

They also asked Labour to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, and agree to "transparent oversight" of disciplinary cases.

The two groups said Mr Corbyn's team had not agreed to any of the demands, although this was disputed by Labour.

Addressing reporters afterwards, Mr Goldstein said: We are extremely disappointed that, one month after we issued a very sensible and well thought-through series of proposals, not one of them  not one of them  has been given to the Jewish community."

He added: Every excuse given by Mr Corbyn and his team was wrapped up in process. Here we have a leader of the Labour Party who has control of the national executive and who has undoubted strength and control over his party. So we feel the excuses of process are just another excuse for inactivity. Thats why we say we will judge him on his actions, not his words.

A spokesperson for the JLC added: "This isnt asking much  that we as a community ask for the protection and support of the leadership of the party, in the same way as the leader would support any other minority group."

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Mr Corbyn, however, described the meeting as "positive and constructive" and re-iterated that he was "absolutely committed" to rooting out antisemitism in the Labour Party.

I am absolutely committed to rooting out anti-semitism from our party and our society," he said.

When members of Jewish communities express genuine anxieties, we must recognise them as we would those of any other community. Their concerns are not 'smears'. Jews belong in the Labour Party and we are utterly committed to making it a safe and welcoming place for them.

Labour sources said Mr Corbyn and Ms Formby had agreed with the need to speed up the cases of Ken Livingstone and Jackie Walker, who were both suspended by Labour over alleged antisemitism. The party leadership has instructed that both cases must be resolved by the end of July, it is understood.

Ms Formby is also believed to be reviewing the party's disciplinary processes in order to identify the cause of delays. Party sources said this process is likely to result in fixed time limits being introduced.

Mr Corbyn said: I have charged our new General Secretary, Jennie Formby, with improving our disciplinary procedures as her top priority to ensure all complaints are dealt with swiftly and fairly.

"We are grateful for the input from Jewish community groups, who we will continue to listen to carefully.

We will lay out the further steps we are taking in the coming weeks. We will continue to engage and work with Jewish community organisations to deal with this issue. Our party will not fail our Jewish brothers and sisters."

 Tony Blair says the people around Jeremy Corbyn dont take antisemitism seriously

Spokespeople for the Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council accused Mr Corbyn of having hid behind process in refusing to meet their demands, saying of the Labour leadership: Whatever frustration they have, he as the leader doesnt feel he can moved beyond that.

They also criticised Mr Corbyns office for inviting the controversial Jewish Voice for Labour group to a roundtable discussion on antisemitism. The group has consistently denied there is widespread antisemitism in the party, and has claimed allegations are being used to undermine the Labour leadership.

Representatives of the BoD and JLC said: We made clear the message that is sent to our Jewish community when the [Labour] leadership invites a whole range of people to discuss antisemitism who actually deny that antisemitism exists in the Labour Party.

Mr Corbyn admitted missteps were taken during the organising of the roundtable meeting, they said.

While they welcomed an improvement in Mr Corbyns language when discussing antisemitism, the spokespeople said they believed nothing achieved on concrete actions to be taken.

"We set out what we felt was the minimum level of action and in this meeting they didnt offer us any of the things that we asked for," they said. "Therefore we have to see, over the next few months and certainly before we meet again, whether they are prepared to do any of these things.
Millicent Garrett Fawcett (1847-1929), leading light of the womens suffrage movement, has been honoured today with the unveiling of a new statue in Londons Parliament Square.

The monument, created by Turner Prize-winning artist Gillian Wearing, is the first of a woman to be unveiled on the square and marks a century since MPs passed the Representation of the People Act, giving some women the right to vote for the first time.

Fawcett takes her place before the seat of government alongside George Canning, Robert Peel, Benjamin Disraeli, Edward Smith-Stanley, Henry John Temple, David Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Jan Smuts, Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi.

Theresa May and Sadiq Khan attend the statues unveiling (Getty)

The suffragist, who stressed the need for moderation and debate in the campaign for equal rights and opposed the more provocative tactics of Emmeline Pankhurst, is holding a banner that reads, Courage calls to courage everywhere, a line from her speech following the death of activist Emily Davison, trampled by a horse at the Epsom Derby of 1913.

I wanted the monument to be as inclusive as possible and to reflect that many women were involved in progressing the rights of equality, some of whom have never been publicly recognised, Wearing said.

It is important to realise the battle for equality didnt come easily. It was a long, hard, arduous struggle. I cant even comprehend how frustrating Millicents life must have been as she spent six decades campaigning getting women the right to vote.

The campaign to recognise Fawcett was started by activist and journalist Caroline Criado-Perez, fresh from her successful campaign to see Jane Austen placed on the 10 note, who noticed that lack of monuments to women while out for a morning jog.

Speaking at the statues unveiling this morning, Prime Minister Theresa May said: I would not be standing here today as prime minister, no female MPs would have taken their seats in parliament, none of us would have the rights we now enjoy, were it not for one truly great woman: Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett.

The honoree was born in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, on 11 June 1847, the eighth of 10 children in a family of prosperous barley merchants.

Aged 12, she was sent away to attend boarding school in Blackheath, London, in the company of her sister Elizabeth, who would grow up to become Britains first female doctor.

It was here that Millicent heard a speech by the radical MP John Stuart Mill in 1866 that inspired her to become involved in politics and seek fair representation for all.

Millicent Fawcett (Rex)

She subsequently became secretary of the London Society for Womens Suffrage and married Liberal MP Henry Fawcett. The couple had a daughter called Philippa.

In 1868, she joined the London Suffrage Committee and spoke at the first public pro-suffrage meeting to be held in London.

Fawcett speaking at the Suffragist Pilgrimage in Hyde Park, 1913 (PA)

Combining motherhood with caring for her husband  blinded in a shooting accident  and writing prodigiously, Millicent found time to participate in the founding of Newnham College, Cambridge, in 1875, believing that creating new opportunities for women to enter higher education was crucial to encouraging the next generation of suffragists.

Tragedy struck in 1884 when Henry died, an event that led Fawcett to temporarily withdraw from public life to care for Philippa and raise four of her orphaned cousins with the aid of her sister Agnes.

Votes for Women - the suffragette movement: in pictures Show all 20 1 /20 Votes for Women - the suffragette movement: in pictures Votes for Women - the suffragette movement: in pictures The suffragettes Male and female members of the women's suffrage movement on a protest march through London in 1900 F J Mortimer/Getty Images Votes for Women - the suffragette movement: in pictures The suffragettes Suffrage leader Emmeline Pankhurst, who led the movement to win the vote for women in Great Britain . Getty Images / Topical Press Agency / Stringer Votes for Women - the suffragette movement: in pictures The suffragettes Suffragettes Annie Kenney and Mary Gawthorne painting a pavement with a slogan, 'Votes For Women', during the Hexham by-election in 1907 Hulton Archive/Getty Images Votes for Women - the suffragette movement: in pictures The suffragettes Crowds lining the streets as they watch suffragettes (left to right) Emmeline Pankhurst, Mary Jane Clark (Emmeline's sister), the driver, Charlotte Marsh and Jessie Kelly pass by following their release from Holloway Prison on 1 February, 1908. PA Votes for Women - the suffragette movement: in pictures Flora Drummond (left) giving instructions to suffragettes dressed as prisoners in 1908. PA Votes for Women - the suffragette movement: in pictures The suffragettes Imprisoned suffragettes waving through the barred windows of Holloway Prison, London, 1909. Hulton Archive/Getty Images Votes for Women - the suffragette movement: in pictures The suffragettes Emmeline Pankhurst being jeered by a crowd in New York, circa 1911. GETTY Votes for Women - the suffragette movement: in pictures The suffragettes A male suffrage supporter is led over the bridge at St. James' Park, after being arrested for involvement in the attack on Buckingham Palace in 1912. Hulton Archive/Getty Images Votes for Women - the suffragette movement: in pictures The suffragettes Suffragette Lady Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, treasurer of the WSPU, celebrates her release from prison in 1912. HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES Votes for Women - the suffragette movement: in pictures The suffragettes Emily Davison, who was killed trying to stop King George Vs horse Anmer in the 1913 Derby. Getty Votes for Women - the suffragette movement: in pictures The suffragettes Emily Davison (1872 - 1913) is fatally injured as she tries to stop the King's horse 'Amner' on Derby Day, to draw attention to the Women's Suffragette movement. Getty Votes for Women - the suffragette movement: in pictures The suffragettes Fellow campaigners guard Emily Davisons coffin at her funeral. Getty Votes for Women - the suffragette movement: in pictures The suffragettes Suffragettes in the funeral procession of Emily Davison on 14th June 1913. Hulton Archive/Getty Images Votes for Women - the suffragette movement: in pictures The suffragettes Crowds line the street as the funeral procession Emily Davison on 14 June 1913. Hulton Archive/Getty Images Votes for Women - the suffragette movement: in pictures The suffragettes Labour MP and suffragette Barbara Ayrton-Gould. Getty Images Votes for Women - the suffragette movement: in pictures The suffragettes Emmeline Pankhurst being arrested while trying to present a petition to the King at Buckingham Palace on 21 May 1914. Getty Images Votes for Women - the suffragette movement: in pictures The suffragettes Suffragettes holding white sunshades advertising their newspaper 'Suffragette' in 1914. Getty Images Votes for Women - the suffragette movement: in pictures A policeman restrains a demonstrator as suffragettes gathered outside Buckingham Palace on 21 May, 1914. PA Votes for Women - the suffragette movement: in pictures British Emmeline Pankhurst being jeered by a crowd in New York. Getty Images Votes for Women - the suffragette movement: in pictures Suffragettes during a mass meeting in the Royal Albert Hall. The Representation of the People Act, passed on February 6 1918, gave certain women over the age of 30 a vote and the right to stand for Parliament. PA

Continuing to write on a huge array of feminist causes, Fawcett was later elected president of the National Union of Womens Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), a role in which she served between 1897 and 1919.

That organisation stressed that its membership consisted only of law-abiding suffragists, at odds with the more militant tactics of the Pankhursts Womens Social and Political Union (WSPU).

Fawcett explained her opposition to the WSPU in her 1912 book Womens Suffrage: A Short History of a Great Movement:

I could not support a revolutionary movement, especially as it was ruled autocratically, at first, by a small group of four persons, and latterly by one person only In 1908, this despotism decreed that the policy of suffering violence, but using none, was to be abandoned. After that, I had no doubt whatever that what was right for me and the NUWSS was to keep strictly to our principle of supporting our movement only by argument, based on common sense and experience and not by personal violence or lawbreaking of any kind.

Over the course of a long and distinguished career, Fawcett also lobbied for the criminalising of incest and of cruelty against children within the family, for the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Act, which punished prostitutes for passing venereal complaints on to their clients.

She was also dispatched to South Africa in July 1901 and entrusted with reporting back to the British government on the conditions endured by prisoners of war held in concentration camps during the Second Boer War.

Technician Chloe Hughes, Sadiq Khan, Caroline Criado-Perez, artist Gillian Wearing and Justine Simons, during a visit to AB Fine Art Foundry in east London to see the finishing touches being put to the artwork (PA)

Fawcetts memorial in Parliament Square is only the latest honour to be bestowed on this extraordinary woman.

In her own lifetime, she was awarded an honorary degree by the University of St Andrews in 1899 and appointed a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in the 1925 New Year Honours.

She died at her home in Gower Street, London, on 5 August 1929, her legacy assured.
Britain will ramp up its aid to Syria over the coming two years, the Government is expected to announce on Wednesday, at an EU-UN organised summit in Brussels aimed at finding a way to end the conflict in the war-torn country.

The Government will commit to providing 450 million for Syria and the region in 2018, with 300 earmarked for 2019, bringing the total UK aid to the region to 2.71 billion. The announcement, set for Wednesday, consists of 250 million of new money spread across the two years.

Officials say the aid will be focused on keeping medical facilities in the region open, as well as training doctors and nurses  amid estimates that 478 health facilities have been attacked or destroyed and at around 830 health workers have been killed in Syria since the conflict began in 2011.

Ministers from dozens of countries across the world met with NGOs and donor countries on Tuesday in the EU capital on the first day of the so-called Brussels II summit.

Opening the international meeting at a joint press conference UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura insisted that a political solution had to be found to the civil war

We're seeing in last few weeks, days, that military gains, territorial gains and military escalation do not bring a political solution, has not brought any change. On the contrary, he said.

Speaking at the same joint press conference, Federica Mogherini, the EUs foreign affairs chief, echoed Mr de Misturas comments, saying there was a need to return to the political process under the UN auspices to start real, meaningful political negotiations that are clearly the only way forward for the country.

The first day of the summit mostly consisted of government liaising with NGOs and aid groups on priorities and strategies to help alleviate civilian suffering. Closing the Tuesday sessions, EU humanitarian and and crisis commissioner Christos Stylianides described the days sessions as fruitful.

(Getty Images (Getty Images)

The British governments message on the first day of the summit focused on Russias role in the conflict, with international development secretary Penny Mordaunt warning that flagrant disregard for international norms would cause more misery and destruction.

Mordaunt said Britain wanted to defend a global rules-based system that keeps all of us safe.

Russias flagrant disregard for international norms and laws poses a grave threat to the global order we rely on for our collective security. In wielding its UN veto twelve times on Syria, it has given a green flag to Assad to perpetrate human rights atrocities against his own people, she warned.

Were here to address the urgent humanitarian needs in Syria and the wider region, but all of us here know that the only solution to end the suffering in Syria is a political settlement that brings peace. The longer they delay, the more people are going to die, and the more misery and destruction will be inflicted on Syria.

Syria bombings: US, UK and French military air strikes wreckage Show all 13 1 /13 Syria bombings: US, UK and French military air strikes wreckage Syria bombings: US, UK and French military air strikes wreckage The wreckage of the Scientific Studies and Research Centre in the Barzeh district, north of Damascus, which was targeted by the US, UK and France air strikes. AFP/Getty Syria bombings: US, UK and French military air strikes wreckage A Syrian soldier films the damage of the Syrian Scientific Research Center surrounded by papers and rubble. AP Syria bombings: US, UK and French military air strikes wreckage Firefighrers extinguish smoke that rises from the damage. The Pentagon says none of the missiles filed by the U.S. and its allies was deflected by Syrian air defenses, rebutting claims by the Russian and Syrian governments. AP Syria bombings: US, UK and French military air strikes wreckage The wreckage of part of the Scientific Studies and Research Centre compound . AFP/Getty Syria bombings: US, UK and French military air strikes wreckage Part of a building collapsing, surrounded by the wreckage. AFP/Getty Syria bombings: US, UK and French military air strikes wreckage Further damaged to the Scientific Studies and Research Centre compound. AFP/Getty Syria bombings: US, UK and French military air strikes wreckage Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the director of the Joint Staff at the Pentagon, also says there also is no indication that Russian air defense systems were employed early Saturday in Syria. AP Syria bombings: US, UK and French military air strikes wreckage A Syrian soldier sprays water on the wreckage. AFP/Getty Syria bombings: US, UK and French military air strikes wreckage Syrian state news agency SANA reported several missiles hit a research centre in Barzeh, north of Damascus, "destroying a building that included scientific labs and a training centre". AFP/Getty Syria bombings: US, UK and French military air strikes wreckage A Syrian soldier films the damage. AP Syria bombings: US, UK and French military air strikes wreckage Damage to the Scientific Research Center building that was hit by the strikes. EPA Syria bombings: US, UK and French military air strikes wreckage The Scientific Studies and Research Centre was one of the targeted buildings by the US, UK and France. AFP/Getty Syria bombings: US, UK and French military air strikes wreckage Further damage to the centre. EPA

On Wednesday Ms Mordaunt will reiterate her warning, also naming Iran. Calling for an immediate ceasefire, she is expected to say that Syria is now one of the most dangerous places on earth for aid workers and medical staff.

She will continue: Medical facilities and schools have been deliberately targeted, aid has been blocked to starve communities into submission, and rape and sexual violence have been deployed as routine weapons of war.

Todays pledge of UK aid support will help keep medical facilities open in the face of relentless attacks so doctors and nurses can save the lives of innocent Syrians, as well as helping the millions of Syrian refugees sheltering in neighbouring countries. But today cant only be about pledges of money and we cannot allow anyone to turn their backs on the global rules and standards that keep us all safe.
The UK government has said that its heart goes out to relatives of people killed when a Saudi-led air strike bombed a wedding, but that it still refuses to halt arms sales to the country.

Foreign minister Harriet Baldwin said Britain had been told by Saudi Arabia that an investigation would be launched into the incident in the Yemeni civil war, which left 20 people at the wedding party dead including the bride.

But she stood by the UKs on-going arms trade with Saudi, worth 4.6bn since the start of the Yemen conflict, arguing that the Middle Eastern country has adequate systems to ensure operations comply with international law.

Ministers were called to parliament in the wake of the latest tragedy, with many of those killed at the wedding said to be women and children.

Ms Baldwin said the government was aware of significant civilian causalities resulting from the Saudi-led coalition air strike.

She told MPs: We take these reports extremely seriously. The Saudi-led coalition has confirmed that it will carry out an investigation.

It is essential that this happens without delay, the results are published and that the lessons learned are acted upon.

Our hearts go out to the families of those killed. We call upon all parties to comply with international humanitarian law.

 Yemen: 'At least 20 killed including bride' after airstrike by Saudi-led coalition hits wedding party

Ms Baldwin called for a political settlement to the conflict as the only way to bring long-term stability to Yemen, she did not explicitly criticise Saudi Arabia or even say that she condemned the attack.

Instead, she addressed her words at all sides of the conflict, saying: The Yemeni parties must engage constructively and in good faith to overcome obstacles and find a political solution to end the conflict.

She said the UK would be a candid friend to Saudi Arabia, encouraging the countrys leaders to the negotiating table  but also advising and training Saudi military personnel.

It is not the first time the Saudi-led coalition has bombed a wedding in Yemen, with witnesses saying around 60 were killed in an incident in 2015.

On Tuesday Ms Baldwin was forced to attend the Commons after an urgent question was tabled by Labour MP Stephen Twigg, who highlighted how the Ministry of Defences own figures show there have been 42 potential violations of international humanitarian law in just three months at the beginning of 2018.

 Yemen cholera epidemic: Worst in modern history at 360,000 cases and counting

That was compared to 66 incidents throughout the whole of last year, leading to Mr Twigg to call for an end of arms sales to Saudi Arabia during his speech.

He was backed by Lib Dem MP Tom Brake and the SNPs Chris Law, who highlighted the sale of 48 fighter jets to the kingdom, announced during a high profile UK visit of the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, last month.

Mr Law quoted information that of 17,000 Saudi-led coalition air strikes, one third have hit non-military targets.

But the minister rebutted the calls, highlighting a UK High Court decision that found that Saudi Arabia did have systems in place to ensure its actions complied with international humanitarian law, thus negating any need to halt arms sales to the country.

Why Yemen's future threatens to destroy its past Show all 4 1 /4 Why Yemen's future threatens to destroy its past Why Yemen's future threatens to destroy its past Hugh McLeod Why Yemen's future threatens to destroy its past Hugh McLeod Why Yemen's future threatens to destroy its past Hugh McLeod Why Yemen's future threatens to destroy its past Hugh McLeod

She focussed her speech on the horrendous situation still unfolding in Yemen, which she said is the largest humanitarian crisis in the world with more than 22 million people in need of help.

Some 17 million are estimated to have no reliable access to food, and eight million are facing extreme food shortages amid the on-going conflict, she said.

She pointed out that the Government has paid some 117m of support to Yemen and last year the UK was the second largest donor to the UN for the crisis.
 Close Holocaust survivor Susan Pollack explains on what Jeremy Corbyn needs to do to help eradicate antisemitism in the Labour Party

Jeremy Corbyn is expected to meet with Jewish leaders later today for talks following a row within the party over accusations of antisemitism.

Organisations representing Jewish communities will call on Mr Corbyn to use his personal authority to drive through changes to wipe out the problem in the party.

It comes after the Labour leader apologised in an article in the London Evening Standard, saying his party had "not done enough" to tackle the issue and admitted that Labour method's of dealing with antisemitism were "not fully fit for purpose".

Jewish people deserve an apology, he said, adding that he was sorry for the hurt and distressed caused.

He continued: Antisemitism is a poison that must be challenged wherever it raises its head, across Europe and at home. Hatred and bigotry towards Jewish people has no place in our society, whether on the streets or online. And that of course goes for the Labour Party too."

We have not done enough to get to grips with the problem, and the Jewish community and our Jewish members deserve an apology. My party and I are sorry for the hurt and distress caused.

Admitting the party's current structures are simply not fully fit for purpose when it comes to dealing with anti-Jewish abuse, he outlined a series of steps Labour will take to address the problem. These include a programme of political education to help party members recognise and tackle antisemitism, and the appointment of a legal expert to advise on disciplinary matters.

This live blog is now closed
The Windrush scandal will be repeated unless the Home Office drops plans that would prevent other immigrants proving their right to be in the UK, lawyers are warning.

Controversial new data protection laws will deny people access to their personal information the government holds, if it would undermine immigration control.

The Law Society has warned the exemption would lead to people being wrongly deported or denied health treatment  in a mirror image of the treatment of the Windrush generation.

Recommended Government will waive citizenship fees and tests for Windrush victims

Unless Amber Rudd drops the proposal, her promise to show they have learned the lessons from Windrush would be hollow, said Barry OLeary, a member of its immigration law committee.

Urging MPs to rebel, he said: If they let it go through in its current format, then Im afraid they are complicit in future injustices.

The home secretary is certain to be challenged on the latest controversy when she appears before the home affairs committee on Wednesday, to be interrogated about the Windrush debacle.

 'They were going to send me back to Jamaica. Ive never been to Jamaica': Son of Windrush immigrant threatened with deportation

The Independent revealed last October that the exemption in the data protection bill would remove data privacy rights for immigration investigations.

Now the Law Society, which represents solicitors, and the Bar Council, which represents barristers, has raised the alarm over the way it will prevent people obtaining files about themselves through subject access requests.

Mr OLeary, speaking to BBC Radio 4s Today programme, said they were a crucial tool because the Home Office frequently makes mistakes.

Individuals use this frequently, as do lawyers on their behalf, because we can show  through these requests  that they actually have status, even if the Home Office says otherwise, he said.

Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Show all 15 1 /15 Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK The ex-troopship 'Empire Windrush' arriving at Tilbury Docks from Jamaica, with 482 Jamaicans on board, emigrating to Britain. Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Jamaican immigrants being welcomed by RAF officials from the Colonial Office after the ex-troopship 'Empire Windrush' landed them at Tilbury. PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Alford Gardner who arrived in Britain in 1948 on the first Windrush ship to dock in Tilbury, Essex, speaking at his home in Leeds PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Alford Gardner in Leeds shortly after he arrived in Britain in 1948 on the first Windrush ship to dock in Tilbury, Essex PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Gardner was 22 years old when he boarded the ship in Kingston, Jamaica, with his brother Gladstone before they and hundreds of Caribbean migrants called on to rebuild post-war Britain disembarked the ship in Tilbury Docks PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Alford Gardner (right), during his RAF service in 1947 PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK The son of Ruth Williams, a Windrush-generation immigrant, wants to the leave the country after threats of deportation. According to his mother, Mr Haynes applied for British citizenship in 2016 but was rejected, despite Ms Williams having lived in the UK almost permanently since arriving from St Vincent and the Grenadines in 1959. Ruth Williams, 75, said she felt "betrayed" by Britain after the Home Office twice turned down applications for her 35-year-old son, Mozi Haynes, to remain in the country. Ms Williams is understood to have cancer and said she relies heavily on her son for support. PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK The British liner 'Empire Windrush' at port in 1954. Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Ruth Williams, 75, with her British passport. "I feel betrayed and a second class citizen in my own country," she said. "This makes me so sad and the Home Office must show some compassion. "I am unwell and almost 75, I live on my own and I need my son to stay here. I need my family around me and I cant face being alone. He has applied to the Home Office and been refused twice." PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK From the top, hopeful Jamaican boxers Charles Smith, Ten Ansel, Essi Reid, John Hazel, Boy Solas and manager Mortimer Martin arrive at Tilbury on the Empire Windrush in the hope of finding work in Britain. Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Jamaicans reading a newspaper whilst on board the ex-troopship 'Empire Windrush' bound for Tilbury docks in Essex. Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK After half a century in Britain, Anthony Bryan decided it was time to go abroad. But the decision set off a nightmare that saw him lose his job, detained twice and almost deported to Jamaica. AFP/Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Jamaica-born Anthony Bryan poses outside his home in Edmonton, north London. Now 60 and a grandfather, Bryan thought the issue could be resolved swiftly, as he legally moved to Britain with his family as part of the Windrush generation of Caribbean migrants after World War II. In 1948, the ship Windrush brought the first group of migrants from the West Indies to help rebuild post-war Britain, and many others followed from around the Commonwealth. A 1971 law gave them indefinite leave to remain, but many never formalised their status, often because they were children who came over on their parents' passports and then never applied for their own. AFP/Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Three Jamaican immigrants (left to right) John Hazel, a 21-year-old boxer, Harold Wilmot, 32, and John Richards, a 22-year-old carpenter, arriving at Tilbury on board the ex-troopship 'Empire Windrush', smartly dressed in zoot suits and trilby hats. Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Newly arrived Jamaican immigrants on board the 'Empire Windrush' at Tilbury in 1948. Getty

Mr OLeary gave the example of a man detained and threatened with deportation to Somalia, despite his protests that he was British.

Through doing one of these requests, the lawyer could show that on his own Home Office file it could be proved that he was British.

If it is the Home Office that is making the mistake, we cant allow them to stop the individual showing that theyve made the mistake.

The new law would allow appeal to the information commissioner, but Mr OLeary added: Im afraid that the individual might then be on the other side of the world, because the Home Office has deported them.

The civil rights group Liberty has warned that millions of migrants could have their personal information corrected or erased without knowing it is happening.

Gracie Bradley, Libertys advocacy officer, said: It will be near-impossible to challenge poor decision-making in immigration cases, or prevent the Home Office destroying evidence that could help people prove their right to be here.

And immigration enforcement teams will find it even easier to secretly access confidential information collected by trusted public services like schools and hospitals.

A Home Office spokesperson said: It is wrong to say that the proposed narrow exemption in the data protection bill is an attempt to deny people access to their data.

People will still be able to request data as they can now and will be met in all cases except where to do so could undermine our immigration control.

They will have the right to complain to the information commissioner if they disagree with any use of the immigration exemption and we would always want to assist those whose claims are in question.
Among the most frequent complaint of foreign and domestic investors, aside from graft and corruption, is lack of ease in doing business here. The Philippines is at the bottom of the totem pole. They point out incompetence and other shenanigans at the Securities and Exchange Commission. These have resulted in businessmens failure to incorporate at the soonest possible time. The traders have been frustratedand this is only the first step! Until last year, it only took two to three days to incorporate a company. Now it takes as long as two months. What is happening? SEC Chairperson Teresita Herbosa knows only too well that the process affects economic and business activity. Unless one is incorporated, one cannot do business. The commission says it is computerization that is the culprit. Apparently, early this year, the SEC switched from a manual system to an electronic system. In order to incorporate, one has to upload the corporate articles of incorporation to the SEC website. Unfortunately, there is a glitch in the software. Amazingly, the SEC does not have enough bandwidth to accommodate all the applications. This has resulted in an inordinate delay in the incorporation process. So why not go back to the manual process, or at least run the two systems parallel to each other? It cannot do this, the SEC says, because it has abandoned the manual process. This is a perfect example of incompetence in a vital government agency. This must not be tolerated. * * * The first and most recent poll survey by Pulse Asia based its findings and rankings on two things: Name recall and awareness. As a result, reelectionists topped the survey. These are Grace Poe, Cynthia Villar, Nancy Binay, Sonny Angara and Senate President Koko Pimentel. Another reelectionist, JV Ejercito, did not make the Magic 12 but his half-brother, Jinggoy Estrada, did. Observers say that unless former President Joseph Estrada decides who between his sons should run, their votes might cancel out each others. They say too that Jinggoy has the edge. A possible winner, Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos, ranked ninth to 15th. Another is Francis Tolentino, even though he is not yet in the Magic 12. He ranked 13th. Actually, it is still too early to predict who will win. I think though it is safe to say that the re-electionists have the advantage. As for the wannabes identified with President Dutertes PDP-Laban, their chances are slim unless the President goes out of his way to campaign for them. That will take some doing, because people want senators who can think independently. We dont want minions. The Liberal Party should come up with a more formidable lineup aside from Bam Aquino. Voters should have more to choose from.Among the four wannabes in the Pulse Asia Magic 12 are Sara Duterte, Erwin Tulfo, Lito Lapid and former Philippine National Police chief Ronald dela Rosa. Personally, I think only Sara has any chance at all. Another one who might win in the Senate race is former President and Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. If she wins, she may even be Senate President. * * * When President Duterte announced his willingness to pursue peace negotiations with the communist rebels, I had doubts it would succeed. I know how insincere the National Democratic Front of the Philippines is. I have always believed peace talks should be held here. After all, this is an internal problem. Santa Banana, for the past four rounds of peace talks, I kept saying the President should have learned his lesson. While peace talks were ongoing, the New Peoples Army continued to commit atrocities. Still, I believe we should give peace a chance. I like the conditions set by President DuterteJoma Sison should come home from exile in The Netherlands, the NPAs should surrender their firearms. And then there would be no attempt at a coalition government. The return of Sison to the Philippines, with an assurance of safety, is possible. I doubt though whether the NPAs would surrender their firearms. * * * Observers say that once Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno is ousted, President Duterte will not make Justice Antonio Carpio chief justice. This is because of Carpios frequent tirades against our silence on what China is doing in disputed territory. The speculation is that either Justice Presbiterio Velasco or Teresita Leonardo de Castro will be made chief justice. In an interview, the acting chief justice said that the Philippines has to protest Beijings landing of military aircraft on Panganiban Reef. Otherwise, because of our silence, we will lose our rights to our territory. If we dont protest, we acquiesce. The question is, will all the grants, aid and investment from China compensate for everything that it is doing? I am afraid that our Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano has already become a spokesman for China.
Police have named they suspect in a deadly van attack in Toronto as 25-year-old Alek Minassian.

Authorities say Mr Minassain drove his car through a busy street in Toronto on Monday at 1:30pm local time, killing at least 10 people and wounding at least 15 others. The suspect came from the Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill, police said.

Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders told reporters the incident "definitely looked deliberate," though he would not call it an act of terror. He added that the motive was still unknown, and that police had no prior knowledge of the suspect.

"This is very early in the investigation, there is no avenue we wont explore," Mr Saunders said at a press conference. "...We open all the lanes at the start and we follow wherever the evidence takes us."

Minister of Public Safety Ralph Goodale added that there was no indication the incident was related to national security.

The events that happened behind us are horrendous but they do not appear in any way to be connected to national security," Mr Goodale said. He did not raise the national terror threat level.

Authorities say the suspect drove southbound on Yonge Street during the busy lunch hour, occasionally ploughing through the sidewalk and through northbound lanes. Photos from the scene showed benches and fire hydrants overturned, and bodies covered in tarps laying in the street.

Footage taken in the aftermath of the attacked appeared to show the suspect telling police to shoot him, and warning police that he was armed.

Toronto van attack: in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Toronto van attack: in pictures Toronto van attack: in pictures The front end damage of the van that a driver used to hit several pedestrians in Toronto. AFP/Getty Toronto van attack: in pictures A lone police officer confronts the man suspected of driving the rented white van. rayy0889/Twitter/Screengrab Toronto van attack: in pictures Alek Minassian, 25, of Richmond Hill, a suburb north of Toronto, was arrested after he drove the vehicle into pedestrians. LinkedIn Toronto van attack: in pictures 10 people were killed in the city on Monday, 23rd April. AP Toronto van attack: in pictures Farzad Salehi consoles his wife, Mehrsa Marjani, who was at a nearby cafe and witnessed the aftermath. AP Toronto van attack: in pictures Emergency services closed Yonge Street after the van mounted a pavement crashing into a crowd of pedestrians. AP Toronto van attack: in pictures A covered body lies on Yonge Street. EPA Toronto van attack: in pictures Police inspect the van involved with the collision. Getty Toronto van attack: in pictures People sign a memorial for the victims. AP Toronto van attack: in pictures Police officers stand by a covered body. Aaron Vincent Elkaim/The Canadian Press via AP

"I have a gun in my pocket ... shoot me in the head," a person identified as the suspect could be heard saying in a video posted to social media.

Mr Saunders said Mr Minassian was taken into custody "without incident," less than 30 minutes after police received a 911 call. He added that there was nothing to indicate the suspect actually had a gun, and praised the officers for their response.

"The officers here are taught to use as little force as possible in any given situation," he said. "The officers did a fantastic job ... and had a peaceful resolution at the end of the day."

Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto confirmed they had received 10 victims of the attack, two of whom were declared dead upon arrival. Five more were in critical condition, the hospital said on Twitter. North York General Hospital told CTV News they had also received victims.

No identifying information about the victims has been released.
Foreign ministers from the G7 have united to condemn Russia for behaviour they said undermined international law.

The ministers also called on Moscow to help resolve the conflict in Syria and they all agreed to create a working group to study Russias malign behaviour.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said there were concerns about Moscows actions in Ukraine and Syria.

Mr Johnsons comments to reporters on the margins of a two-day meeting of G7 ministers in Toronto underlined how tensions between Moscow and the West have increased steadily over recent years.

American intelligence agencies have said Russia meddled in the 2016 US presidential election campaign, and Russia has also been blamed for a nerve agent attack on a former spy in Britain last month.

Mr Johnson said the G7 ministers had agreed on the need to be vigilant about Russia, which denies interfering in the US election and any involvement in the attack in Britain.

What we decided ... was that we were going to set up a G7 group that would look at Russian malign behaviour in all its manifestations  whether its cyber warfare, whether its disinformation, assassination attempts, whatever it happens to be and collectively try to call it out, he told reporters.

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, who hosted the event, said G7 ministers expressed deep concern about the despicable nerve agent attack in Britain and Russias efforts to destabilise democracies by meddling in elections.

The G7 countries are committed to preventing, stopping and responding to foreign interference, she told a news conference at the end of talks.

There are consequences for those who seek to undermine our democracies, she said, adding there was clear unity among G7 allies on Russia.

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 challenge for the G7 is that it also needs Moscows help to solve the crisis in Syria, where Russia and Iran are backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Acting US Secretary of State John Sullivan called on Moscow to stop creating impediments to peace in Syria and to play a role in ending the seven-year-long conflict.

Russia must be a constructive partner in Syria or will be held accountable, he told reporters.

Agencies contributed to this report
Family and friends have pleaded for information on the whereabouts of Kenny Mukendi, a rapper from London who is missing in Brazil.

Mr Mukendi, also known as Kenny Vulcan, disappeared earlier this month having moved to Rio de Janeiro to pursue music and acting.

The Foreign Office confirmed it was supporting the family of a UK citizen, while Brazilian police issued a missing persons poster online.

Mr Mukendi, 20, from Woolwich, disappeared in the Barra da Tijuca neighbourhood on 12 April, police said.

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A media enquiries number for the missing persons unit, or DDPA, could not be reached, but a spokesperson told Mail Online that officers had taken statements from witnesses and were reviewing security camera footage.

Friends and family have created a GoFundMe page to aid the search.

On it, they wrote: No-one has been able to identify his whereabouts since around 1pm on 13 April, 2018, when he left the recording studio to return to the residence he was sharing with his girlfriend.

His social media accounts were deleted soon after his disappearance and his phone was traced to 15 miles away from the studio, which was not on his route home.

His friends and family are incredibly worried about him as this has never happened previously.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Mr Mukendi was described as a talented, warm-hearted, young man. He moved to Rio late last year to pursue his music and acting career, the fundraising page said.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: Our staff are supporting the family of a British man who has been reported missing in Brazil, and are in touch with the Brazilian authorities.
National Rifle Association (NRA) members have been posting videos of destroying products made by Yeti after the company cut ties with the group in the wake of the Parkland, Florida school shooting.

The 14 February tragedy resulted in 17 deaths, several of them students. Yeti primarily makes high-end outdoors products, including iceboxes costing between $250 to $1,300 according to the Washington Post. The company had been offering NRA members a discount on its products often used for outdoor events. The videos posted show NRA members destroying iceboxes and tumblers with bullets and otherwise.

One member, Bryan Atkinson of South Carolina, placed ammonium nitrate and aluminium powder, packaged in a cardboard box sealed with duct tape, in his icebox. He then took his AR-15 weapon, the same type of weapon used in the Parkland shooting, and shot at the icebox, blowing it up.

A letter was sent on 20 April to NRA members by the NRA Institute for Legislative Action announcing Yetis decision. Former NRA president and current lobbyist Marion Hammer called the iceboxes, known as coolers in the US, a hot item for several years for NRA members. But she wrote: They will only say they will no longer sell products to The NRA Foundation...That certainly isnt sportsmanlike. In fact, Yeti should be ashamed."

The company maintained that it still supports the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, which says people in the US have the right to bear arms, and said the letter was inaccurate in a Facebook post. When we notified the NRA Foundation and the other organisations of this change, Yeti explained that we were offering them an alternative customisation program broadly available to consumers and organisations, including the NRA Foundation, the company said.

 NRA backers blow up Yeti coolers after NRA announces company is cutting ties

The recreation company went on to say: the NRA-ILA stated  that [Yeti has] declined to continue helping Americas young people enjoy outdoor recreational activities. Nothing is further from the truth. Yeti was founded more than 10 years ago with a passion for the outdoors.

Florida shooting  in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Florida shooting  in pictures Florida shooting  in pictures Police arrest a suspect in connection with the shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida Reuters Florida shooting  in pictures Parents wait for news after reports of a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida AP Florida shooting  in pictures Anxious family members wait for news of students AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee Florida shooting  in pictures Students being evacuated from the school AP Florida shooting  in pictures Students being evacuated from the school Getty Florida shooting  in pictures People gather waiting for word from students AP Florida shooting  in pictures Parents waiting for news on their children AP Florida shooting  in pictures People gather at a hotel where students were taken after the shooting Getty Florida shooting  in pictures Florida Governor Rick Scott speaks to the media as he visits Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School following the shooting AFP/Getty Florida shooting  in pictures Dr. Igor Nichiporenko, Medical Director Trauma, left, and Dr. Evan Boyer, Medical Director, Emergency Services, speak about treating victims and the suspect at a press conference outside Broward Health North hospital AP

The icebox maker is not alone though. Several companies including Delta Airlines, car hire companies Enterprise, Alamo, National, Hertz, and First National Bank of Omaha, have all ended discounts and programmes offered to the group.

As the Post reported, the company has a distinct appeal to hunters and outdoor adventurers. The company calls the coolers grizzly proof, as certified by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee. Yeti markets them as the ideal companions for campers and other outdoor adventurers trudging through the wilderness on trips that require storing food and drinks.

Ms Hammer was unsatisfied with Yetis explanation. She told the newspaper the companys claim it simply eliminated the entire program affecting NRA Foundation and other unnamed organisations was akin to eliminating a job position so you can get rid of an employee.

The NRA has repeatedly hit out at students survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting whilst they make several media appearances, organise events with celebrities, and hold marches with hundreds of thousands of people across the country to call for gun control reform and a ban on assault-style weapons like the AR-15.
A judge has ordered the arrests of two men suspected of a revenge lynching against a Canadian man accused of killing an Amazonian spiritual leader.

Sebastian Woodroffe, 41, was dragged by the neck through a remote village following the death of Olivia Arevalo, a revered shaman from the Shipibo-Konibo tribe of northeastern Peru, the countrys attorney general said.

A 90-second mobile phone recording of the lynching, which was posted on Facebook, showed two men dragging Woodroffe by a noose around his neck as others looked on. His body was later found buried nearby.

Prosecutors have identified the two men and are working to determine who else took part in what Peru's interior ministry branded a killing by a "mob".

But less is known about the slaying of Arevalo, 81, from the region of Ucayali, who was shot dead near her home on Thursday.

Ricardo Jimenez, the head of a group of prosecutors in Ucayali, said no one witnessed her shooting, the murder weapon has not been found and a test for gunshot residue on Woodroffe's body is likely to take 15 to 20 days.

Healer Olivia Arevalo, who was shot dead last week (Temple of the Way of Light)

Woodroffe had been Arevalo's patient and her family believes he killed her because she refused to conduct a ritual in which the hallucinogenic Amazonian plant brew ayahuasca is used for healing and spiritual growth, said Mr Jimenez.

But authorities are exploring several hypotheses related to Arevalo's murder, including one in which another foreigner might have killed her over an unpaid debt, he added.

We will not rest until both murders, of the indigenous woman as well as the Canadian man, are solved, said Mr Jimenez in a phone interview.

He said the man in the video was Woodroffe and that an autopsy showed he had died by strangulation after receiving several blows to his body.

Arevalo's slaying prompted outrage as it followed the unsolved killings of other indigenous people in the Amazon region who had faced threats for trying to protect their land.

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. 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A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. 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

Policing is scant over much of the Peruvian Andes and Amazon and villagers in far-flung provinces often punish accused criminals according to local customs.

Woodroffe moved to Ucayali after raising funds to help him learn more about plant medicine in Peru to become an addictions counsellor, according to the crowdfunding website Indiegogo, in which he listed his plan to spend C$6,800 (3,796) at a healing centre.

On Saturday, officials exhumed his body from an unmarked grave where he had been hastily buried. El Comercio reported it was found in San Pablo de Tushmo, in Yarinacocha district.

Ayahuasca has long been used by tribes in spiritual rituals and has fuelled a surge in Amazonian tourism in the past decade as its reputation for helping overcome addiction and trauma and providing spiritual insights has grown abroad.

Every year, thousands of foreign tourists travel to the Peruvian Amazon to experiment with ayahuasca, a bitter, dark-coloured brew made of a mixture of native plants.

The hallucinogenic cocktail, also known as yage, has been venerated for centuries by indigenous tribes in Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia as a cure for all sorts of ailments. But it is also increasingly consumed by Western tourists looking for mind-altering experiences, sometimes with deadly consequences.

In 2015, a Canadian fatally stabbed a fellow tourist from England after the two drank ayahuasca together in a spiritual ceremony a few hours drive from where Woodroffe was killed.

Arevalo was a staunch defender of indigenous peoples rights in the region. She also practised a traditional form of singing medicine that the Shipibo believe removes negative energies.

Neither Woodroffe's nor Arevalo's family could be reached for comment.

Canada's foreign affairs department said it was in touch with Peruvian officials. "We are aware of this case and actively seeking further information," Global Affairs Canada said in a statement.

Additional reporting by agencies
A police officer has said sorry to a firefighter she accidentally shot with a Taser by baking her apology into a cake.

Darcy Workman, an officer in Ohios Hamilton Township, shot Rickey Wagoner with her stun gun while attempting to restrain a patient during an altercation at a hospital, police said.

The firefighter was not seriously hurt.

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Ms Workman presented the edible apology to Mr Wagoner on Saturday in the wake of the unfortunate incident a few days earlier.

A photo on Hamilton Township Police Departments Facebook page showed her handing over the cake, iced with a sad face and the words 'Sorry I tased you!'

All of us appreciate the incredible relationship we have with our fire department, wrote the department.

Hamilton Township is about 30 miles (48 kilometres) north-east of Cincinnati.

Ms Workman is not the first officer to deploy baked goods as a peace offering after Tasering a fellow member of the emergency services.

In January 2014, Massachusetts police officer Jay Maloney made colleague Katie Ross a cake reading Sorry I tased you after firing his stun gun at her by mistake as they arrested a man.

The cake was not fully cooked, Ms Ross noted in an interview with Gizmodo, but it was the first cake he ever baked.
A police officer has been praised as a hero for calmly confronting the suspected Toronto van crash driver.

Video footage showed the police officer staring down the suspect, later identified as Alek Minassian, at gunpoint in the middle of a road, while he pointed what appeared to be a gun and shouted, Kill me.

Images broadcast by Canadian media showed the suspect pulling an object from his side a number of times, and aiming at the officer.

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As the suspect shouted Kill me, the unnamed officer replied, No, get down. When the suspect then said, I have a gun in my pocket, the officer responded, I dont care. Get down.

Eventually Mr Minassian was seen to turn around with his hands in the air, and then to lie on the ground.

The 25-year-old suspect was arrested without incident, authorities later said, and the non-violent end to the confrontation won praise from viewers.

Mr Minassian is believed to have been behind the wheel of a rented white van which mowed down pedestrians in Toronto on Monday afternoon. Ten people were killed and another 15 injured.

A lone police officer (R) confronts the man suspected of driving a van into pedestrians in Toronto (L) as he points an object that looks like a gun (rayy0889/Twitter/Screengrab)

He is due in court at 10am local time, when police said they would reveal further details.

One Twitter user said Thank you to the officer who showed composure, courage and ethics, while Lauren Ash, an actor, added that the officer showed the world that he could do his job effectively without immediate deadly force.

 Several injured after van ploughs into pedestrians in Toronto

Mike McCormack, president of the Toronto Police Association, told The Globe and Mail: This officer looked at what was going on and determined he could handle it the way that he did. People are right, this guy is a hero.

Toronto van attack: in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Toronto van attack: in pictures Toronto van attack: in pictures The front end damage of the van that a driver used to hit several pedestrians in Toronto. AFP/Getty Toronto van attack: in pictures A lone police officer confronts the man suspected of driving the rented white van. rayy0889/Twitter/Screengrab Toronto van attack: in pictures Alek Minassian, 25, of Richmond Hill, a suburb north of Toronto, was arrested after he drove the vehicle into pedestrians. LinkedIn Toronto van attack: in pictures 10 people were killed in the city on Monday, 23rd April. AP Toronto van attack: in pictures Farzad Salehi consoles his wife, Mehrsa Marjani, who was at a nearby cafe and witnessed the aftermath. AP Toronto van attack: in pictures Emergency services closed Yonge Street after the van mounted a pavement crashing into a crowd of pedestrians. AP Toronto van attack: in pictures A covered body lies on Yonge Street. EPA Toronto van attack: in pictures Police inspect the van involved with the collision. Getty Toronto van attack: in pictures People sign a memorial for the victims. AP Toronto van attack: in pictures Police officers stand by a covered body. Aaron Vincent Elkaim/The Canadian Press via AP

Gary Clement, a retired Royal Canadian Mounted Police superintendent with 34 years experience of policing, said it was quite clear Mr Minassian wanted to goad the officer into shooting him.

I would say this individual met the right police officer, Mr Clement added. Nobody knows how theyre going to react. In this situation a lot of it comes down to muscle memory. This guy reacted in a very mature manner.

Additional reporting by agencies
The driver of a van that ploughed into people on a busy downtown Toronto street has appeared in court where he was charged with 10 counts of murder and 13 counts of attempted murder.

Alek Minassian of Richmond Hill, Ontario, appeared in the courtroom in Toronto wearing a jumpsuit, handcuffs, and said little except to confirm that he understood the proceedings.

Police are still not clear what led the 25-year-old to allegedly drive a rented Ryder van down the busy thoroughfare of Yonge Street. Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, said: Obviously all Canadians continue and will continue to have questions about why this happened, what could possibly be the motive behind it.

The suspect fled the scene in the vehicle but was caught by police on a nearby street less than 30 minutes after the incident. Mr Minassian allegedly drove half mile to one mile down the street, district chief for Toronto Fire Stephen Powell told CNN. Mobile footage captured him shouting at police to kill me.

Toronto police chief Mark Saunders said the act looks intentional, but stopped short of officially referring to it as an attack or an act of terrorism. Canadian public safety minister Ralph Goodale confirmed there did not appear to be any national security connection. Police are still investigating whether Mr Minassian had acted with someone else.

Mr Minassian had a scant online presence; his LinkedIn profile showed that he may have been training to be a software developer. The National Post reported someone with his name had registered a mobile app for online parking in the Google Play app store.

He also listed himself as a student at Seneca College in Toronto from 2011 to 2018. The school did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation or comment on whether Mr Minassian had graduated.

 Justin Trudeau gives official comments after van hits pedestrians in Toronto

A former high school classmate wrote in a Facebook post: He was mentally unstable back then. He was known to meow like a cat and try to bite people, this is one sad and confusing story. Though, Alexander Alexandrovitch said his former classmate was never intentionally violent.

Another Facebook clue for investigators came when they found a page believed to be Mr Minassians. The user posted on the day of the incident: Private (Recruit) Minassian Infantry 00010, wishing to speak to Sgt 4chan please. C23249161. The Incel Rebellion has already begun! We will overthow all the Chads and Stacys! All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger! Police say it could have been a reference to a 2014 attack using a vehicle on the campus of the University of California Santa Barbara. Rodger shot and killed six people while injuring 14 before turning the gun on himself.

Police said Rodgers motivation was probably his involvement in the mens activist movement, comprised of people who think women do not actually want gender equality but have been brainwashed by society and propaganda. Some of the activists believed women should be punished for their success or for rejecting them, as had happened with Rodger.

The social media giant has since deleted the account in question.

Toronto van attack: in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Toronto van attack: in pictures Toronto van attack: in pictures The front end damage of the van that a driver used to hit several pedestrians in Toronto. AFP/Getty Toronto van attack: in pictures A lone police officer confronts the man suspected of driving the rented white van. rayy0889/Twitter/Screengrab Toronto van attack: in pictures Alek Minassian, 25, of Richmond Hill, a suburb north of Toronto, was arrested after he drove the vehicle into pedestrians. LinkedIn Toronto van attack: in pictures 10 people were killed in the city on Monday, 23rd April. AP Toronto van attack: in pictures Farzad Salehi consoles his wife, Mehrsa Marjani, who was at a nearby cafe and witnessed the aftermath. AP Toronto van attack: in pictures Emergency services closed Yonge Street after the van mounted a pavement crashing into a crowd of pedestrians. AP Toronto van attack: in pictures A covered body lies on Yonge Street. EPA Toronto van attack: in pictures Police inspect the van involved with the collision. Getty Toronto van attack: in pictures People sign a memorial for the victims. AP Toronto van attack: in pictures Police officers stand by a covered body. Aaron Vincent Elkaim/The Canadian Press via AP

Mr Saunders said theres nothing that indicates Mr Minassian had a gun during the incident he is suspected of carrying out. Mobile video has surfaced of an arrest during which it appeared the person arrested may have had a weapon, however.

The man appeared to be pointing an object at an officer, who has his own weapon drawn on the man. The officer did not fire a single shot despite the tense back and forth between he and the man, who claimed to have a gun in his pocket. He later managed to arrest the man without further incident.

Mr Minassian is reportedly of Armenian descent. The Armenian Community Centre of Toronto issued a statement saying it and all of its constituent organisations are deeply saddened and disturbed by the senseless deaths and injuries. It is unclear at this time if the suspect was associated with the organisation.

We unequivocally condemn this and all acts of violence. We commend the bravery and dedication of our first responders who, despite being faced with an unprecedented tragedy, saved lives with their heroic actions and rapid response, the group said in a statement.

As the investigation continues, we stand united with our neighbours in the City of Toronto and across Ontario and Canada in mourning the lives taken. We pray that God will heal the survivors and illuminate the souls of the victims and bring peace to their families.

The suspect is set to be in court on 10 May for a bail hearing.
A US Border Patrol agent accused of shooting and killing a Mexican teenager through the fence between Arizona and Mexico has been found not guilty of second-degree murder.

Lonnie Swartz, 43, was acquitted by a federal jury in Tuscon over the 2012 death of 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez.

But the jurors became deadlocked on a separate charge of involuntary manslaughter against Schwartz, prompting the judge to declare a mistrial.

The decision means prosecutors could seek another trial on the manslaughter charges in the death of Mr Elena Rodriguez, was fatally shot as he threw rocks at authorities during a drug smuggling attempt.

Late on 10 October, 2012, Schwartz fired 16 rounds in 34 seconds from three different firing positions, shooting through a 20ft fence which sits on an embankment above Mexicos Calle Internacional, a Nogales street lined with homes and small businesses.

After emptying one magazine from his pistol, he reloaded and fired three more shots.

Prosecutors acknowledged Mr Elena Rodriguez was throwing rocks across the border, but said he did not deserve to die.

The defence countered that Schwartz was justified in using lethal force against rock-throwers and shot from the US side of the border in self-defence.

The judge told the jury in his instructions they could consider a lesser charge of voluntary or involuntary manslaughter if they had trouble reaching a verdict on the more serious charge.

During closing arguments, assistant US attorney Wallace Heath Kleindienst said Swartz was fed up with being rocked after being targeted in at least six other attacks.

He was angry with those people who had been throwing rocks against the fence, Mr Kleindienst said. It was not about eliminating a threat, because there was no threat, he said.

It was about eliminating a human being.

Defence attorney Sean Chapman argued there was not a scintilla of evidence Swartz was angry or fed up. He said Swartz shot because he was trying to protect himself and his fellow agents during a drug operation.

From his first day in the Border Patrol, it had been ingrained in him that rocks were dangerous, Mr Chapman said.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

The trial played out as Donald Trump called for National Guard troops to be sent to the Mexican border to free up Border Patrol agents to concentrate on stopping drugs and people from illegally entering the US.

The US president has made his crackdown on illegal immigration and building a wall along the US-Mexico border a cornerstone policy of his presidency.

Additional reporting by agencies
Donald Trump has called North Koreas dictatorial leader Kim Jong-un very honourable ahead of a planned face-to-face meeting.

Were having very good discussions. Kim Jong-un, he really has been very open and I think very honourable, from everything were seeing, Mr Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

While the planned summit has led both North Korea and the US to trade threats of war for cautious outreach, Mr Trumps praise for Mr Kim was nevertheless a remarkable embrace of a ruler who has used brutal tactics to maintain his power.

As the uncontested ruler of the isolated state, Mr Kim wields near-absolute authority over a country where human rights monitors say dissent is harshly punished. He has presided over a purge that is believe to have included the public execution of his own uncle.

But Mr Trump has a record of offering warm words for autocrats. He has spoken approvingly of Russian president Vladimir Putin, whose government is accused of unjustly jailing and sometimes orchestrating the assassinations of dissidents, and Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte, whose crackdown on drugs has left thousands dead.

The statement swiftly drew criticism. Human Rights Watch responded by sharing video testimony of people who had served time in North Korean prison camps.

North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch Show all 13 1 /13 North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch Pyongyang residents react after the news of the successful launch of the new intercontinental ballistic missile AFP/Getty Images North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un signing an order to test-fire the newly developed inter-continental ballistic missile KRT via AP Video North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch A news broadcast displays Kim Jong Un's signed document AP North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch People cheer as they watch the news broadcast announcing Kim Jong Un's order to test-fire the new inter-continental ballistic missile AFP/Getty Images North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch Residents react after the document signing AP North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch Pyongyang residents celebrate Kim Jong Un's announcement AFP/Getty North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch Cheering Pyongyang residents react AP North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch To counter North Korea's missile test, South Korea fired missiles into the East Sea The Defence Ministry/Yonhap via REUTERS North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch The Hyunmu-2 missiles firing during the drill South Korean Defense Ministry vi North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch The exercise was carried out in an attempt to counter Kim Jong Un's order South Korea Defense Ministry via AP North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch The South Korean army continue to carry out military exercises AP North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch Where K-9 self-propelled howitzers were taking part in a drill Rex Features North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch US soldiers are also present in the border city of Paju AFP/Getty Images

Lets get this straight: President Trump called John McCain a 'loser' and the North Korean dictator 'honorable', tweeted Rep Joe Crowley, a New York Democrat.

The presidents words also marked a sharp reversal from preceding months in which he derisively dubbed Mr Kim Little Rocket Man and threatened North Korea with an overwhelming military strike, promising fire and fury and vowing to destroy North Korea if provoked.

For his part, Mr Kim offered a rare direct response in which he mocked Mr Trump as a mentally deranged US dotard, and Pyongyang has also threatened to strike American soil. The regime tested increasingly powerful ballistic missiles, including by firing them over Japan, and what was likely a hydrogen bomb.

Mr Kim then pivoted to a diplomatic strategy earlier this year, sending athletes and his sister to the winter Olympics in South Korea. After high-level meetings between North Korean and South Korean officials, South Korea conveyed to the White House Mr Kims offer to meet.
VIDEOS circulating on the internet showing Philippine Embassy personnel rescuing distressed Filipino domestics in Kuwait have sparked protests from the Kuwaiti authorities, who, from their perspective, are angered by what appears to be a police action initiated and carried out by foreign agents on their soil. It did not help that the videos, which looked like scenes from an action movie, bore the watermark Courtesy of DFA, suggesting that the covert operations had the imprimatur of the Department of Foreign Affairs. Based on information available, acting DFA Assistant Secretary for Public Diplomacy, Elmer Cato, had posted the two videos on the official Viber group for reporters covering the DFA. An accompanying DFA update on the ongoing rescues of our distressed kababayans in Kuwait read: As many as 26 Filipino domestic helpers who have sent out cries for help were found and rescued this way since April 7. Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano played down the Kuwaiti protest, calling it a misunderstanding and said he hoped to straighten things out in a meeting with the Kuwaiti ambassador to the Philippines. He added that the countrys ambassador to Kuwait, Renato Villa, was able to explain to the authorities that all rescue operations were conducted in coordination with Kuwaits Ministry of Interior and local authorities.

The assertion seemed illogical. After all, why would the Kuwait authorities protest the rescue operations if they had been conducted, as Ambassador Villa says, in coordination with Kuwaits Ministry of Interior?Cayetano justified the embassys decision to conduct the rescues on their owninstead of waiting for the local authoritiesby saying these cases involved grave danger to the lives of Filipino workers and demanded swift action. In so doing, however, it appeared that the Foreign secretary is endorsing the commission of illegal actsand trampling on the sovereignty of another nationas long as the ends justify the means. Finally, in the videos themselves, we see a blatant and unseemly attempt by DFA personnel to blow their own horn about their heroic deeds in service of their countrymen. Eventually, Cayetano apologized to his counterpart, to the Kuwaiti government, Kuwaiti people and leaders of Kuwait if they were offended by some actions taken by the Philippine Embassy, saying the actions were done in the spirit of emergency to protect Filipinos. There are many lessons to be learned from this gaffe. Kuwait has been found wanting in protecting Filipino workers there. In fact, the discovery of the body of domestic helper Joanna Demafelisfound beaten and strangled inside a freezer in Kuwaitso angered President Duterte that he imposed a deployment ban on the Gulf state. Both sides should focus on hammering out a new agreement to better protect Filipinos working there. Self-serving acts could only deepen resentment and endanger Filipinos who still work in Kuwait.
The French President Emmanuel Macron has proposed a new Iran nuclear deal to build on the one currently in place, a diplomatic gamble that he hopes will convince Donald Trump not to scrap the landmark accord.

I would like us to have a new deal with the four pillars that already exist in the current [agreement], Mr Macron said during a joint press conference in the White House. This is the only way to bring about stability.

The French leader made the comments after a morning of pomp and circumstance in Washington to celebrate the first state visit during Mr Trumps presidency,

The US leader welcomed his counterpart in a grand ceremony that saw nearly 500 US service members from all of Americas branches of military participate in a Review of the Troops.

"If Iran threatens us in any way, they will pay a price like few countries have ever paid," Mr Trump said. But he added: "We will have a great shot at doing a much bigger, 'maybe deal, maybe not' deal."

The two presidents repeatedly praised the relationship they have developed in the past year and said they hoped for productive talks on issues including trade, the Iran nuclear deal, North Korea diplomacy and climate change.

Mr Trump appeared to leave some room for the new sort of deal Mr Macron had proposed  saying that he could be open to a new agreement that builds on what is already in place  but made clear that any attempt by Iran to restart their nuclear program would not be tolerated.

"There is a chance, but who knows what I am going to do on the 12th," Mr Trump said, referring to the May deadline to reassure America's waiver on sanctions to Iran. "Though you have a good idea what I'm going to do."

During an earlier meeting in the Oval Office, Mr Trump said it would not be easy for Iran to restart its nuclear enrichment.

"Theyre not going to be restarting anything. If they restart it, theyre going to have big problems, bigger than they ever had before, he said.

Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Show all 22 1 /22 Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Donald Trump's international Presidential trips French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump talk as they leave the Army Museum at Les Invalides in Paris AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Donald Trump arrive for the group photo at the G7 Taormina summit on the island of Sicily in May 2017 Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Mr Trump was pressed on the subject at the G7 summit in Italy Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump gives a speeech at the Warsaw Uprising Monument on Krasinski Square Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May during a ceremony at the NATO headquarters before the start of a summit in Brussels, Belgium Reuters Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Montenegro's Prime Minister Dusko Markovic is seen to the right of Donald Trump at a Nato summit in Brussels REUTERS Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Pope Francis meeting with US President Donald J. Trump EPA Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Pope Francis poses with US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump arrives at Palazzo del Quirinale ahead of the meeting with Italian President Sergio Mattarella Ufficio Stampa Presidenza della via Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump is seen during a joint press conference with the Palestinian leader at the presidential palace in the West Bank city of Bethlehem AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas meets US President Donald Trump PPO via Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with US President Donald Trump prior to the President's departure GPO via Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands after delivering a speech at the Israel Museum AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump lay a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance as White House senior advisor Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump watch on during a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial museum AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump visit to Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem accompanied by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu GPO via Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump takes his seat before his speech to the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia Reuters Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, US President Donald Trump and US First Lady Melania Trump look at a display of Saudi modern art at the Saudi Royal Court in Riyadh AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud take part in a signing ceremony at the Saudi Royal Court in Riyadh AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips King Salman presents Donald Trump with The Collar of Abdulaziz al-Saud Medal at the Royal Court Palace on 20 May AP Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump is welcomed by Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud upon arrival at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk on the South Lawn prior to their first foreign trip Getty Images

Speaking about potential Iran negotiations later in the Cabinet Room, he said: Were looking forward to doing something but it has to be done strongly."

He did not explain exactly what he meant.

The French president's three-day trip, has seen him arrive the White House for an official state visit, his first since his election last year.

After a private dinner with Mr Macron and his wife, Brigitte, with Mr Trump and First Lady Melania Trump at Mount Vernon, the home of the first US president, George Washington, the French leader was a guest of honour at a state dinner at the White House.

He is scheduled to address the Joint Houses of Congress on Wednesday.

The visit follows after Mr Trump visited France last year on Bastille Day, marking the centennial of the United States entry into First World War. Mr Trump was entertained by a dazzling military parade along Paris Champs-Elysees that included both French and American soldiers, as well as dozens of military plans and helicopters.

One of Mr Macrons main objectives during his visit is to try and persuade Mr Trump to stay in the Iran accord, and he told reporters that he planned on framing the deal in a wider regional context, including the ongoing civil war in Syria.

We have a common objective, we want to make sure theres no escalation and no nuclear proliferation in the region, Mr Macron said. We now need to find the right path forward.

During the visit, Mr Trump also commented on the coming meeting his administration has been touting with North Korea.
 Close President Macron arrives at the White House for Trump meeting

Donald Trump has given his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron a red carpet welcome at the White House.

The US president and first lady greeted Mr Macron and his wife, Brigitte, in a ceremonial welcome Tuesday morning which saw nearly 500 US service-members from all five military branches participate in a Review of the Troops.

The two leaders later held a joint press conference in which they announced progress on a range of issues, including the potential that they could begin negotiating a "new" Iran nuclear deal that would leave the current one largely in-tact.

Mr Macron is on a three-day official state visit to the US, the first in Mr Trumps presidency.

On Monday, the presidents took a helicopter tour of Washington monuments and then went on a trip to the Potamic River home of George Washington for dinner.

Aside from the pomp and ceremony, Mr Trump and Mr Macron agree on some fundamental issues.

One main point of contention is the multinational nuclear deal aimed at restricting Irans development of nuclear weapons, which Mr Trump wants to abandon.

Mr Trump ended his first year in office without receiving a foreign leader on a state visit, making him the first president in nearly 100 years to fail to do so.

Last July, he was Mr Macrons guest at the annual Bastille Day military parade in the centre of Paris.
A key Senate committee narrowly voted to recommend Mike Pompeo become Americas next secretary of state, averting a rare rejection for Donald Trumps pick to be the top US diplomat.

While the full Senate was likely to confirm Mr Pompeo - currently the CIA director - regardless of the Senate Foreign Relations Committees action, concerns about his hawkish record and questions about his willingness to challenge Mr Trump had raised the prospect of a vote against his nomination.

It was unclear that Mr Pompeo would be willing to push back on the presidents worst instincts, New Jersey Democrat Robert Menendez said, arguing that Mr Pompeos proclivity to favour confrontation over diplomacy would be amplified by aggressive foreign policy voices growing around him like newly elevated national security adviser John Bolton.

But in the end the committee backed Mr Pompeo, aided by anti-interventionist Republican Rand Paul announcing his support shortly before the hearing.

The Kentucky senator said he had decided to vote for Mr Pompeo after being assured that he believed the invasion of Iraq was a mistake and that American forces should exit Afghanistan.

I want Trump to be Trump, Mr Paul said - a reference to the presidents aversion to committing American forces abroad - rather than for the president to be swayed by those who try to persuade him that perpetual war is the answer.

Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear Show all 16 1 /16 Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2001 Afghans at the Killi Faizo refugee camp desperately reach for bags of rice being handed out to the thousands who escaped the bombardment in southern Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom. (Chaman, Pakistan, December 4, 2001) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2002 Mahbooba stands against a bullet-ridden wall, waiting to be seen at a medical clinic. The seven-year-old girl suffers from leishmaniasis, a parasitical infection. (Kabul, March 1, 2002) All photos Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2003 A mother and her two children look out from their cave dwelling. Many families who, fleeing the Taliban, took refuge inside caves adjacent to Bamiyans destroyed ancient Buddha statues now have nowhere else to live. (Bamiyan, November 19, 2003) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2007 Students recite prayers in a makeshift outdoor classroom in the Wakhan Corridor, a mountainous region in northeastern Afghanistan that extends to China and separates Tajikistan from India and Pakistan. (Northeastern Afghanistan, September 2, 2007) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2007 Bodybuilders in the 55-60 kg category square off during a regional bodybuilding competition. Many Afghan men, like others around the world, feel that a macho image of physical strength is important. (Kabul, August 6, 2007) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2008 A woman in a white burqa enjoys an afternoon with her family feeding the white pigeons at the Blue Mosque. (Mazar-e-Sharif, March 8, 2008) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2009 Addicts inject heroin while trying to keep warm inside the abandoned Russian Cultural Center, which the capital citys addicts use as a common gathering point. Heroin is readily available, costing about one dollar a hit. (Kabul, February 9, 2009) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2009 An elderly man holds his granddaughter in their tent at a refugee camp after they were forced to flee their village, which US and NATO forces had bombed because, they claimed, it was a Taliban hideout. (Surobi, Nangarhar Province, February 7, 2009) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2009 Seven-year-old Attiullah, a patient at Mirwais Hospital, stands alongside an X ray showing the bullet that entered his back, nearly killing him. Attiullah was shot by US forces when he was caught in a crossfire as he was herding sheep. (Kandahar, October 13, 2009). Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2010 US Army Sargeant Jay Kenney (right), with Task Force Destiny, helps wounded Afghan National Army soldiers exit a Blackhawk helicopter after they have been rescued in an air mission. (Kandahar, December 12, 2010) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2010 An Afghan National Army battalion marches back to barracks at the Kabul Military Training Center. (Kabul, October 4, 2010) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2014 Eid Muhammad, seventy, lives in a house with a view overlooking the hills of Kabul. He and millions of other Afghans occupy land and housing without possessing formal deeds to them. (Kabul, November 21, 2014) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2014 Razima holds her two-year-old son, Malik, while waiting for medical attention at the Boost Hospital emergency room. (Lashkar Gah, Helmand Province, June 23, 2014) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2014 Young women cheer as they attend a rally for the Afghan presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani. (Kabul, April 1, 2014) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2014 Burqa-clad women wait to vote after a polling station runs out of ballots. (Kabul, April 5, 2014) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2015 Relatives, friends, and womens rights activists grieve at the home of Farkhunda Malikzada, who was killed by a mob in the center of Kabul. Farkhunda was violently beaten and set on fire after a local cleric accused her of burning a Quran. (Kabul, March 22, 2015) Paula Bronstein

While the vote was initially a 10-10 tie along party lines, with Georgia Republican Johnny Isakson absent to attend a funeral and thus unable to vote in favour, Delaware Democrat Chris Coons changed his no vote to present to allow the recommendation to advance as it would have had Mr Isakson been present.

If he is confirmed by the full Senate, Mr Pompeo would take over a role vacated by former Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson.

 Rex Tillerson fired: Trump has 'total confidence' in new Secretary of State Mike Pompeo

He would become the face of American foreign policy at a critical time, with the Trump administration moving to lay the groundwork for planned talks between Mr Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un.

As part of that process, Mr Pompeo paid a secret visit to North Korea over Easter weekend.
Flight records contradict an alibi seemingly given by Donald Trump to defend himself against the pee tape" allegations in the dossier compiled by ex-MI6 spy Christopher Steele, it has been reported.

Newly declassified memos seem to show the president twice told FBI director James Comey that he could not possibly have watched prostitutes urinate on a bed once used by Barack Obama because he did not spend a night in Moscow in November 2013.

Instead, the president allegedly claimed, he visited Moscow to watch the Miss Universe beauty pageant but flew back to the US without spending a night in the Russian capital.

Recommended The Steele dossier that Trump denounced keeps turning out to be true

Now, however, Bloomberg has reported that it has acquired flight records suggesting Mr Trump spent the night of Friday November 8-Saturday November 9 2013 in Moscow, before watching the beauty contest on Saturday evening and leaving Moscow in the early hours of Sunday November 10.

The reported flight records, if accurate, seem to corroborate the evidence of previously known social media posts which appear to show Mr Trump grinning outside Nobu restaurant in Moscow during daylight hours on Friday November 8 2013.

(Facebook (Facebook)

Mr Trumps own twitter feed seems to show he was still in Moscow the following day, because on Saturday November 9 2013 he tweeted: I was just given a great tour of Moscow  fantastic, hard working people. City is really energised! The world will be watching tonight!

This was a reference to the Miss Universe competition, which at the time Mr Trump owned.

Mr Trump is known to have attended the pageant on Saturday night, and the after-party.

Bloomberg reported that the flight records suggested Mr Trump had been at least partially accurate when he apparently told Mr Comey he only returned to the hotel to get his things because his plane left for New York on the night of the pageant.

Bloomberg said the records it purchased from aviation data company FlightAware suggest Mr Trump left Moscow on a jet that took off from Vnukovo airport at 3.58am Moscow time on the morning of Sunday November 10.

Bloomberg, however, reported that the flight records still dont discount the possibility that Mr Trump spent the night of Friday November 8-Saturday November 9 2013, in Moscow.

The New York Times has previously reported that Mr Trump flew to Moscow on a Bombardier Global 5000 private jet owned by Phil Ruffin, his partner in the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Las Vegas.

Bloomberg reported that its flight records do not indicate who was on board, but do show that the jet  tail number N443PR  took off from Asheville, North Carolina, at 9.15pm on Thursday November 7 2013, bound for Moscows Vnukovo airport.

With about 11 hours flying time between North Carolina and Moscow, Mr Trump would not have spent Thursday night in Moscow.

Bloombergs reported flight records and the social media posts, however, both seem to put him in the Russian capital during the day of Friday and the night of Friday-Saturday.

The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Show all 17 1 /17 The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Paul Manafort Mr Manafort is a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign manager. He resigned from that post over questions about his extensive lobbying overseas, including in Ukraine where he represented pro-Russian interests. Mr Manafort turned himself in at FBI headquarters to special counsel Robert Muellers team on Oct 30, 2017, after he was indicted under seal on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Getty The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rick Gates Mr Gates joined the Trump team in spring 2016, and served as a top aide until he left to work at the Republican National Committee after the departure of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mr Gates' had previously worked on several presidential campaigns, on international political campaigns in Europe and Africa, and had 15 years of political or financial experience with multinational firms, according to his bio. Mr Gates was indicted alongside Mr Manafort by special counsel Robert Mueller's team on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. AP The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation George Papadopoulos George Papadopoulos was a former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, having joined around March 2016. Mr Papadopoulos plead guilty to federal charges for lying to the FBI as a part of a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Mr Papadopoulos claimed in an interview with the FBI that he had made contacts with Russian sources before joining the Trump campaign, but he actually began working with them after joining the team. Mr Papadopoulos allegedly took a meeting with a professor in London who reportedly told him that Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The professor also allegedly introduced Mr Papadopoulos to a Russian who was said to have close ties to officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Papadopoulos also allegedly was in contact with a woman whom he incorrectly described in one email to others in the campaign as the "niece" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Twitter The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Donald Trump Jr The President's eldest son met with a Russian lawyer - Natalia Veselnitskaya - on 9 June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York. He said in an initial statement that the meeting was about Russia halting adoptions of its children by US citizens. Then, he said it was regarding the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. In a final statement, Mr Trump Jr released a chain of emails that revealed he took the meeting in hopes of getting information Ms Veselnitskaya had about Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. He and the President called it standard "opposition research" in the course of campaigning and that no information came from the meeting. The meeting was set up by an intermediary, Rob Goldstone. Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were also at the same meeting. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jared Kushner Mr Kushner is President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser to the White House. He met with a Russian banker appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December. Mr Kushner has said he did so in his role as an adviser to Mr Trump while the bank says he did so as a private developer. Mr Kushner has also volunteered to testify in the Senate about his role helping to arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rob Goldstone Former tabloid journalist and now music publicist Rob Goldstone is a contact of the Trump family through the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which took place in Moscow. In June 2016, he wrote to Donald Trump Jr offering a meeting with a Russian lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, who had information about Hillary Clinton. Mr Goldstone was the intermediary for Russian pop star Emin Agalaraov and his father, real estate magnate Aras, who played a role in putting on the 2013 pageant. In an email chain released by Mr Trump Jr, Mr Goldstone seemed to indicate Russian government's support of Donald Trump's campaign. AP images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Aras and Emin Agalarov Aras Agalarov (R) is a wealthy Moscow-based real estate magnate and son Emin (L) is a pop star. Both played a role in putting on the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. They allegedly had information about Hillary Clinton and offered that information to the Trump campaign through a lawyer with whom they had worked with, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and music publicist Rob Goldstone. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Natalia Veselnitskaya Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. She has worked on real estate issues and reportedly counted the FSB as a client in the past. She has ties to a Trump family connection, real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, who had helped set up the Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant which took place in Moscow. Ms Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower on 9 June 2016 but denies the allegation that she went there promising information on Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. She contends that the meeting was about the US adoptions of Russian children being stopped by Moscow as a reaction to the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Mike Flynn Mr Flynn was named as Trump's national security adviser but was forced to resign from his post for inappropriate communication with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He had misrepresented a conversation he had with Mr Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence, telling him wrongly that he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sergey Kislyak Mr Kislyak, the former longtime Russian ambassador to the US, is at the centre of the web said to connect President Donald Trump's campaign with Russia. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Roger Stone Mr Stone is a former Trump adviser who worked on the political campaigns of Richard Nixon, George HW Bush, and Ronald Reagan. Mr Stone claimed repeatedly in the final months of the campaign that he had backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he knew the group was going to dump damaging documents to the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - which did happen. Mr Stone also had contacts with the hacker Guccier 2.0 on Twitter, who claimed to have hacked the DNC and is linked to Russian intelligence services. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeff Sessions The US attorney general was forced to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation after it was learned that he had lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Carter Page Mr Page is a former advisor to the Trump campaign and has a background working as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Mr Page met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mr Page had invested in oil companies connected to Russia and had admitted that US Russia sanctions had hurt his bottom line. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeffrey "JD" Gorden Mr Gordon met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republian National Convention to discuss how the US and Russia could work together to combat Islamist extremism should then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election. The meeting came days before a massive leak of DNC emails that has been connected to Russia. Creative Commons The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation James Comey Mr Comey was fired from his post as head of the FBI by President Donald Trump. The timing of Mr Comey's firing raised questions around whether or not the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign may have played a role in the decision. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Preet Bharara Mr Bahara refused, alongside 46 other US district attorney's across the country, to resign once President Donald Trump took office after previous assurances from Mr Trump that he would keep his job. Mr Bahara had been heading up several investigations including one into one of President Donald Trump's favorite cable television channels Fox News. Several investigations would lead back to that district, too, including those into Mr Trump's campaign ties to Russia, and Mr Trump's assertion that Trump Tower was wiretapped on orders from his predecessor. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sally Yates Ms Yates, a former Deputy Attorney General, was running the Justice Department while President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general awaited confirmation. Ms Yates was later fired by Mr Trump from her temporary post over her refusal to implement Mr Trump's first travel ban. She had also warned the White House about potential ties former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to Russia after discovering those ties during the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. Getty Images

Yet memos released four days ago show Mr Comey writing down the details of two conversations in which the then FBI director said the president denied spending a night in Moscow.

In the first memo, written on January 28 2017, Mr Comey, who was fired by Mr Trump in May last year, recalled the president turning the conversation towards what he called the golden showers thing.

He repeated that it was a complete fabrication and fake news, Mr Comey wrote. He said he had spoken to people who had been on the Miss Universe trip with him and they had reminded him that he didnt stay overnight in Russia for that. He said he arrived in the morning, did events, then showered and dressed for the pageant at the hotel (he didnt say the hotel name) and left for the pageant. Afterward, he returned only to get his things because they departed for New York by plane the same night.

He said he thought maybe he should ask me to investigate the whole thing to prove it was a lie.

In the second memo, written on February 8 2017, Mr Comey recalled: The President brought up the Golden Showers thing and said it really bothered him if his wife had any doubt about it.

He then explained that he hadnt stayed overnight in Russia during the Miss Universe trip  The President said the hookers thing is nonsense but that Putin had told him We have some of the most beautiful hookers in the world. (He did not say when Putin had told him this).

 Donald Trump says he is a 'germaphobe' in apparent response to dossier sex allegations

Mr Trump has not directly said whether he regards Mr Comeys records of the two conversations as accurate, but he has called the former FBI director a "weak and unethical slimeball".

He and his supporters have repeatedly dismissed the contents of the Steele dossier as fake news and fantasy.

In one of his first public denials of the urinating prostitutes allegation, Mr Trump said it couldnt be true because he was a germaphobe.

His comments were met with laughter when he told a January 2017 press conference: Does anybody really believe that story? I'm also very much of a germaphobe, by the way. Believe me."
White police officers in Alabama wrestled a black woman to the ground in a Waffle House early Sunday morning, exposing her breasts during the struggle and prompting comparisons to two black men arrested in a Philadelphia Starbucks earlier this month.

Yet local police maintain that the three officers involved followed protocol and said the department is "not choosing to take any action at this time." At a news conference Monday afternoon, officials said the woman and her friend were acting belligerently inside the Waffle House, drunkenly yelling profanity at the restaurant's employees and threatening to return with a gun and "shoot this place up."

The incident sparked a sit-in protest at the store Sunday afternoon and led to responses from the NAACP and celebrities, even as Waffle House officials contested the details of the family's story.

Recommended Police release call that led to arrest of two black men at Starbucks

A video that has gone viral shows Chikesia Clemons, 25, sitting on a chair at the diner in Saraland, north of Mobile, as one of the officers grabs her neck and right wrist in an attempt to subdue her. Clemons describes a disagreement with a store employee that triggered the police response. She soon appears conscious of her tube top and raises her arms to cover her bust line.

"You're not going to grab on me like that, no," Clemons tells the officer, who appears to speak to another officer off-camera in the video filmed by Clemons' friend, Canita Adams.

What happens next is unclear. The widely circulated Adams video of the incident suddenly jumps to the moment Clemons and the two officers go to the ground in a violent tumble. It is unclear from the video who initiated the struggle that forced Clemons and the officers to the floor.

"What are you doing?" Clemons asks as the struggle continues on the tile floor.

"I'll break your arm, that's what I'm about to do," an officer says.

The struggle continues, with officers demanding Clemons to stop "resisting" as her breast is exposed.

At one point, an officer places his hand around her neck.

"You're choking me!" Clemons cries out.

The officer releases his grip when a third officer nearby gestures with his hand. Clemons was arrested at about 2:45 a.m. and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, officials confirmed at the news conference.

Officials from the Saraland Police Department said an investigation into Clemons' arrest and the officers' conduct began early Sunday morning. At the news conference, Detective Collette Little played the 911 call made by a Waffle House employee at around 2:30 a.m., as well as surveillance footage from inside the restaurant.

According to the 911 call, the employee said she had been told by one of her managers to call the police because of customers - two black females and one black male - who entered the restaurant with alcohol. The customers were told they were not allowed to drink the alcohol inside, the employee told the dispatcher.

Several surveillance clips from different angles showed two women, identified as Clemons and Adams, sitting down at a table. An unidentified male had previously entered the Waffle House and went to the restroom, before joining the women at their table.

Little said that after a few minutes, "the situation escalates between the patrons at that table and the employees." The Waffle House employees ask Clemons, Adams and their male friend to leave the restaurant. Adams and the male friend can be seen briefly exiting the Waffle House. Clemons briefly reaches the door, then walks back over to her booth to re-engage with the employees. Adams soon returns.

Soon, the three officers arrive one by one. In one of the frames, Clemons is seen being taken to the floor. Little said that during the arrest, the officers were attempting to handcuff Clemons "behind her back, which again is standard procedure."

Little said that one of the officers asked Adams "if she will assist in pulling Ms. Clemons's shirt back up. And Ms. Adams refuses." The male friend then "asks permission to pull her dress up, and the female gives him permission."

At that point, Clemons, Adams, the male friend and the three officers leave the Waffle House.

Little said that when the police arrived, Clemons "appeared to be intoxicated." Little said that Clemons "got sick" after being booked. An image showed Clemons at the police station holding a trash can up to her face.

Detective Brian Mims said that in conducting the police investigation, he reached out to Clemons and Adams to interview them. Clemons did not appear for a scheduled interview. Attempts to reach Adams were unsuccessful.

Mims interviewed the three officers as well as witnesses from inside the Waffle House, including six employees and one customer. Of those witnesses, two were African American and four were female, he said. All witnesses confirmed that Clemons and her friends smelled of alcohol and appeared drunk. One person brought a drink believed to be alcoholic into the restaurant.

The witnesses said Clemons and Adams loudly shouted profanity at the Waffle House employees. One of them shouted "I'll come over this counter" and threatened to beat the employee, saying "B--, I'm gonna have your job, you ain't gonna be here tomorrow."

One of the witnesses, according to Mims, reported hearing "I may have a gun, I may have anything. I can come back here and shoot this place up if I need to."

Witnesses said Clemons refused to comply with the officers on multiple occasions.

Mims said that from the investigation, race was not a factor in Clemons' arrest or in her conversations with the Waffle House employees.

"It was based solely on the fact that they were asked to take their beverages out and not consume them on the premises based on Waffle House's policy," Mims said. "They did not feel it was related to any other circumstance."

Little acknowledged that one of the officers told Clemons that he could break her arm during the arrest if she did not cooperate. Little said it was "a cause-and-effect statement, rather than a threat."

"It's common when an officer is using a technique to take a subject into custody that the force used could possibly create an injury," Little said.

The arrest at the Waffle House comes as companies face questions about racial profiling and how law enforcement responds. Less than two weeks ago, a white Starbucks manager called the police with a loitering complaint on two African American men who had been sitting in the store for two minutes. The men were arrested, and in the following days, both the CEO of Starbucks and Philadelphia's police commissioner apologized. The company's chairman said the manager likely acted on her own "unconscious bias" when she called 911.

Clemons' mother Chiquitta Clemons-Howard told AL.com the Waffle House dispute arose after her daughter refused to pay an extra 50 cents for plastic utensils. Mims said that issue did come up in the confrontation.

"The employee conveyed the message that, 'I don't know how old the policy is, but it is now customary that if you ask for plastic utensils to dine in only, that there is a 50 cents charge,' " Mims said. "When they had a discussion about it between the patrons and the staff, they did provide the utensils before they took their order and they were not going to be charged for it."

"They didn't even ask her to leave, she was waiting for them to give her the district manager's card so she could file a complaint on one of the waitresses," Clemons-Howard told the outlet. "When they went to go get the card, that's when the police showed up. The officer should've come in and said 'we need you to leave.' "

Clemons, Clemons-Howard and Adams could not be reached for comment.

Waffle House said in statement that police intervention was appropriate.

"[T]he information we have received at this point differs significantly from what has reportedly been attributed to Ms. Clemons," the company said.

Waffle House officials, speaking anonymously to offer a candid assessment of the incident, said key details were left out of statements by Clemons and Clemons-Howard to the media, including what happened before police arrived.

The Mobile chapter of the NAACP told AL.com it was also gathering information about the incident.

"In light of the current situation in our country - such as the arrest of two young black men at a Philadelphia Starbucks coffee shop - we felt it was important for our members to get a firsthand account of the incident, which has now gone viral on social media locally and across the country," chapter president David Smith said.

Chance the Rapper also weighed in on Monday.

"Protect our women. This is wrong, this is unjust and this happens to alot of women when there are NO cameras around. Stand with our women. Defend their voice, and their right to ask why they're being handled, being removed, being CHOKED. Be infuriated. Be willing to fight," he wrote on Twitter. He included a link to the video and emoji of a middle finger and a pig snout in an apparent insult to police.

The Alabama incident came the same day a gunman killed four people with an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle at a Waffle House outside Nashville and fled the scene. The suspect has been taken into custody.

The shooting and arrest at the two Waffle Houses culminated in a blistering few hours for the iconic Southern breakfast chain. According to its website, Waffle House has been in operation since 1955. Its more than 1,500 restaurants are open 24 hours per day each day of the year.

(C) Washington Post
Armenias government and the countrys opposition put their differences aside on Tuesday to mark the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians a century ago by Ottoman Turks.

A day after the opposition succeeded in pushing the prime minister out of office, Armenians across the country are commemorating the massacre that began 103 years ago and which Armenians and many historians consider to be genocide.

Turkey, successor of the Ottoman Empire, vehemently denies the claim and insists that the massacre was part of hostilities around the First World War.

Armenias acting prime minister and other officials laid flowers at a hilltop memorial complex in Yerevan, the capital of the Caucasus Mountains country, early on Tuesday along with thousands of residents.

Leaders of the opposition and some 10,000 supporters marched to the memorial later. Protesters carried the Armenian tricolour and chanted the name of the protest leader Nikol Pashinian who was leading the procession.

Recommended Celebrations in Armenia as prime minister quits after days of protests

Opposition supporters were celebrating the resignation of Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan on Monday after days of anti-government protests.

We need a change of government, said 43-year-old businessman Gregor Adamyan. Were tired of pressure and corruption of one clan.

The protests, which lasted 10 days, mostly focused on peoples frustration with the current authorities.

The coalition of the three parties leading the protest currently holds just 7 per cent of the parliamentary seats and has not taken any stand on relations with Russia, Armenias key ally and economic donor.

Ties with Russia did not appear to be at the forefront for most protesters, and many of those marching in Yerevan spoke favourably of Russia.

Ruben Ter-Martirosyan, a 37-year-old unemployed man, wants to see a more balanced relationship between the two former Soviet nations:

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. 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A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. 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Armenia needs to be a bridge between Russia and Europe, not a vassal of the Kremlin.

Earlier on Tuesday, a deputy Russian foreign minister earlier met with the Armenian ambassador in Moscow. The ministry said Moscow is following developments in Armenia closely and wishes the country a smooth and peaceful political transition.

The Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a statement on Tuesday offered condolences to the children and grandchildren of Ottoman Armenians who lost their lives during World War I.

But in an apparent stab at Armenian authorities, he took the chance to criticise those who resort to create hatred, grudge and hostility by distorting our common history.

Russia has recognised the massacre as genocide. Donald Trump last year described it as one of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th century, but stopped short of calling it genocide.

AP
China has accused the US of serious infringement on citizens civil rights and systematic racial discrimination in a report issued in riposte to criticism from Washington.

Beijing claimed the Americans posed as the guardian of human rights despite having a blemished record, which China alleged also included a flawed democratic system and a widening rich-poor divide.

Last week the US State Department named the Chinese government as a morally reprehensible regime that violated human rights on a daily basis.

In an annual report on international human rights, the US also ranked China alongside Russia, Iran and North Korea as a threat to global security.

Beijing typically responds to the US report with its own criticism of Washington.

It seems that in this world only the United States human rights situation is perfect, China's State Council said in its rebuttal on Tuesday. Looking back on 2017, those with even the slightest sense of justice can see that the United States own human rights record is, as usual, notorious for its misdeeds, and continues to worsen.

China's report referenced a US study which found African-Americans were seven times more likely to be mistakenly jailed for murder, as well as statistics that showed rising levels of violent crime.

It also took aim at what it claimed were serious abuses in the US style of democracy.

US money politics keeps fermenting, and the rich guide the direction of politics, the report said. The weak face increasingly harsh restrictions on voting, and scandals involving politicians are frequent.

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 report was carried by the state-run Xinhua news agency and cited international media including the BBC and CNN as its sources.

Human rights have long been a source of tension between the worlds two largest economies, particularly since 1989, when the US imposed sanctions on China after a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators around Beijings Tiananmen Square.

China routinely rejects criticism of its rights record and has pointed to its success in lifting millions out of poverty.

But the ruling Communist Party tolerates no political dissent and President Xi Jinpings administration has overseen a sweeping crackdown on rights lawyers and activists.

China is believed to execute thousands of people each year, more than any other country, although the precise number of death penalties imposed remains a state secret.
Anzac Day is observed on 25 April every year and honours members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (Anzac) who lost their lives in foreign conflicts.

Originally inaugurated to mark the anniversary of Anzac troops entering the fray against the Ottomon Empire at Gallipoli in the First World War, the scope of this national day of remembrance has since been broadened out of respect for those killed during the Second World War and on subsequent peacekeeping missions around the globe.

In addition to Australia and New Zealand, Anzac Day is also marked in the Cook Islands, Niue, the Pitcairn Islands and Tonga and by ex-pats across the world.

The Gallipoli campaign in 1915 saw 8,709 Australian troops and 2,721 New Zealanders killed in the Allied attempt to recapture the peninsula and open up the Black Sea en route to claiming Constantinople and disabling a key German ally.

The fight against Kemal Ataturks forces was brutal and both sides endured terrible hardships.

Gallipoli campaign remembered: In pictures Show all 16 1 /16 Gallipoli campaign remembered: In pictures Gallipoli campaign remembered: In pictures Australian infantrymen head towards the beach at Gallipoli in 1915 LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Gallipoli campaign remembered: In pictures Australian 4th Battalion land at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 UIG via Getty Gallipoli campaign remembered: In pictures Australian troops disembark at Gallipoli in April 1915 AFP/Getty Gallipoli campaign remembered: In pictures Troops at Gallipoli, 1915 Getty Gallipoli campaign remembered: In pictures Australian Major Sam Butler holds a white flag as he leads a blindfolded Turkish officer through Anzac lines to a bunker where they will arrange a temporary truce to bury their respective dead Getty Gallipoli campaign remembered: In pictures British troops advance at Gallipoli later in the campaign Getty Gallipoli campaign remembered: In pictures The signal tent at the division headquarters in Gallipoli Getty Gallipoli campaign remembered: In pictures New Zealand soldier W J Batt with his regiment's mascot dog at Walker's Ridge, Gallipoli in 1915 Getty Gallipoli campaign remembered: In pictures Soldiers in a trench on Walker's Ridge, Gallipoli in April 1915 Getty Gallipoli campaign remembered: In pictures Troops land from the ship 'River Clyde' at the Suvla Bay in Gallipoli, 1915 Getty Gallipoli campaign remembered: In pictures Troops land at Anzac cove in Gallipoli, 1915 Getty Gallipoli campaign remembered: In pictures Anzac forces land at Gaba Tepe, April 1915 Getty Gallipoli campaign remembered: In pictures Allied forces construct a landing pier at Gallipoli Getty Gallipoli campaign remembered: In pictures Australian medics in Cairo attend to casualties arriving from Gallipoli in 1915 PA Gallipoli campaign remembered: In pictures Troop ship the 'River Clyde' en route to Gallipoli Getty Gallipoli campaign remembered: In pictures Then chancellor of the exchequer Winston Churchill carries a wreath down Whitehall on Anzac Day in 1927 PA

Ataturk would later welcome the first Antipodeans to visit the Gallipoli battlefields and Anzac Cove  where the soldiers first landed  in 1934 by reciting a poem, the words of which are now inscribed on a monolith at Ari Burnu Cemetery on the beach and at memorials in Canberra and Wellington.

The ultimate sacrifice made by Anzac soldiers on behalf of the Commonwealth had a profound impact on both countries and the Anzac spirit of the period is still invoked to stir national unity.

To honour that tradition, commemorative services have been held on 25 April in both countries since 1916, when ex-servicemen first marched in remembrance of their late friends.

These are staged at dawn in tribute to the time of day Anzac forces first launched their attack, a custom first introduced at the Sydney Cenotaph in 1927.

Royal Australian Air Force cadets take part in the Anzac Day march in Sydney (EPA)

Wreaths are laid, hymns read and prayers spoken. The national anthems of both countries are sung and red poppies commonly placed beside the names of the dead at war memorials.

The Last Post is also sounded by a regimental bugler and lines recited from Laurence Binyons 1914 poem For the Fallen, an ode written for those killed on the Western Front at the battles of Mons and Marne:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

These observances are followed by military parades and further services throughout the day at major cities.

Another distinctive feature of the day is the Anzac biscuit, made according to a traditional recipe using oats, golden syrup and butter and served as a tangible connection to the past - the treat commonly sent by heartsick housewives to their men serving on the frontline as a hardy reminder of home.

The first Anzac Day was held in 1916 (Getty)

The gunfire breakfast, entailing coffee with rum, is also served after many dawn services as a similar nod to the final repast many soldiers tasted before landing at Gallipoli, never to return.

Anzac Days popularity waned somewhat from the late 1960s over disillusionment about the Vietnam War and criticism of its political exploitation, but has since experienced a revival as many feel it serves as an important moment of national reflection and an opportunity to celebrate the best of Australian and New Zealand culture.
A German state has ordered that Christian crosses should be placed on the entrance of all government buildings.

Bavaria's conservative government has said the crosses should not be seen as religious symbols, but are meant to reflect the southern German state's "cultural identity and Christian-western influence."

Crosses are already compulsory in public schools and courtrooms in predominantly Catholic Bavaria.

The decree will not affect municipal and federal government buildings in Bavaria, according to German news agency dpa.

The governing Christian Social Union  the Bavaria-only wing of Chancellor Angela Merkel's party  is hoping to avoid losing its state majority to Alternative for Germany (AfD), a party on the right whose anti-Muslim campaigns have struck a chord with some German voters.

Bavaria is one of the richer states in Germany and has managed migrant inflows better than other areas.

Despite this, in the most recent election the AfD rose to 12 per cent in the region.

There has also been talk of Bavarias own border guard after large numbers of migrants entered the state.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

The number of migrants could rise after Germany agreed to take in 10,000 migrants who were selected by the United Nations refugee (UNHCR) agency.

Ms Merkel said the refugees would be part of a resettlement programme in Germany but did not indicate where in the country they would settle or from which countries they would come.

Agency contributed to this report
The Pope has marked his name day by ordering thousands of ice creams for poor and homeless people.

Pope Francis, who was born Jorge (George) Mario Bergoglio, celebrated St Georges Day with the most needy and homeless of Rome, a Vatican statement said.

On Monday, he paid for 3,000 servings of gelato to be handed out to guests at soup kitchens and shelters across Italys capital.

The pontiff is known to have a sweet tooth, particularly for the caramel dulce de leche specialty of his native Argentina.

At one soup kitchen run by the Vatican's Caritas charity, a container of vanilla and chocolate gelato was served alongside a lunch of pasta to guests.

Charity workers distribute ice creams to guests at a community centre in Rome (Reuters)

Pope Francis has made a point of taking care of Rome's poor and homeless, inviting them to occasional lunches, concerts and museum visits at the Vatican, and providing them with sleeping bags, free showers, barbers and laundry services.

The pontiff is known to have a sweet tooth (Reuters)

For his 80th birthday, he invited eight homeless people to breakfast, where they ate pastries from his native Argentina.

Earlier this month, the pontiff argued caring for migrants and the poor is as holy as taking a stand against abortion.

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

Pope Francis, who has clashed with US president Donald Trump on immigration and has made defence of migrants a critical part of his papacy, urged followers to battle for the rights of the poor with as much commitment as they would show in resisting the termination of pregnancies.

Additional reporting by AP
Posted Tuesday, April 24, 2018 6:00 am

The Webster County chapter of the Missouri Retired Teachers and School Personnel Association (MRTA) met Monday, April 9, in the fellowship room of Central Bank in Marshfield. President Harlene Bramer opened the meeting by leading in the Pledge of Allegiance.

A highlight of the meeting was the information presented by Brandy Gossage, an advocate from the Webster County Victim Assistance program. Located on the Marshfield square, the agency provides supportive services such as court advocacy, resources, referrals and a separate shelter for victims of violent crime. Last month, 69 people in the county were helped. Gossage expressed the need for donated items, volunteers to take assistance training and help in reaching students with healthy relationship choices.

The meeting continued with reports from various committees. Brenda Cologna, legislative chair, urged members to watch HB 2247 and SB 612 in the state legislature, due to potentially damaging effects on public education. Jackie Scott spoke of the ongoing collection of pop can tabs to benefit the Ronald McDonald House. Lucille Cogdill, in discussing obituary scams, warned to beware of phone calls about a fictitious life insurance policy that requires only a handling fee. Another priority is the immediate cancelling of the deceaseds credit cards and security number.

The next MRTA meeting will be Monday morning, May 7, at Central Bank in Marshfield. Refreshments begin at 9:30 a.m., with the program at 10 a.m. All retired school personnel are welcome to attend.
A crisis in relations between the US and Iran  which has the potential to produce a military confrontation in the Middle East  is building rapidly in the expectation that President Donald Trump will withdraw the US from the Iran nuclear deal in just over two weeks time.

Mr Trump is demanding that Iran effectively renegotiate the terms of the agreement which traded the suspension of US economic sanctions for a stop to Irans nuclear programme.

The White House sounds as if it has already decided to exit the agreement, which Mr Trump persistently denounced before and after his election as the worst deal in the world.

But he has put forward no alternative to what was successfully negotiated by President Barack Obama in 2015 other than a series of demands with which Iran is unlikely to comply, and appear designed to put the blame for the US action on Iran.

US officials admit that Iran has so far abided by the terms of the 2015 accord.

A more openly confrontational posture by the US towards Iran would achieve very little, unless Washington replaces the attempt to achieve its ends by diplomacy with sustained military action. Iran is already on the winning side in the wars that have raged in Iraq since 2003 and in Syria since 2011.

It is closely allied to the Iraqi and Syrian governments and to reverse the balance of power in the region, the US would have revert to sustained military intervention on the scale of the Iraq War, something Mr Trump has always opposed.

Iran may have already decided that the deal cannot be saved. Iranian president Hassan Rouhani warned Mr Trump on Tuesday that the US must stay within its terms which Tehran signed with other great powers or face severe consequences.

Mr Rouhani said in a live broadcast on state television that: I am telling those in the White House that if they do not live up to their commitments, the Iranian government will firmly react.

The Iranian leader did not say what this reaction would be, but the Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said at the weekend that it was highly unlikely that Iran would remain in the agreement  to which Russia, China, France, Germany and Britain are also signatories  if the US pulled out.

He added that Iran might immediately begin enriching uranium, but it would not develop a nuclear device.

European leaders are trying to save the deal which Mr Trump has denounced as full of terrible flaws, but this will prove difficult without radical concessions which Iran has rejected. These include stopping Irans ballistic missile programme, extending the terminal date of the agreement, and more intrusive inspections by nuclear inspectors.

No decision in Washington is final until it is announced by Mr Trump himself  and often not even then  but the promotion of officials with a record of hostility to the agreement suggests that it cannot be rescued. Mr Trump has said publicly that he sacked his secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, because he wanted to stay with the Iran agreement negotiated by President Obama.

His replacement, Mike Pompeo, is a long-term foe of the accord, once claiming that 2,000 bombing sorties would be enough to eliminate Irans nuclear capability. This is not an insurmountable task for the coalition forces, he said.

President Emanuel Macron is in Washington on a state visit, trying to save the agreement by making it more palatable to the White House. He will be followed in the US at the end of the week by the German chancellor Angela Merkel, while Theresa May will probably express her views by telephone.

All three leaders will try to reconcile Mr Trump to not leaving the accord and their arguments will revolve around supplementary sanctions and other measures targeting the Iranian ballistic missile programme and Irans allies abroad such as Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The European leaders mission may not be entirely hopeless: in confrontations over Syria and North Korea, Mr Trumps belligerent rhetoric has been followed by more carefully calculated action.

His opening stance is normally bombastic and uncompromising in order to intimidate the other side into making concessions. It does not necessarily have to be taken at face value. But this periodic moderation may not come into play in the case of Iran, towards which he has been uncompromisingly hostile, claiming that it is the hidden power behind terrorist activity in the Middle East.

The White House is in a position to hurt Iran economically by re-imposing economic sanctions, not that these were ever really lifted after 2015, but US political options are more limited. It may talk about regime change in Tehran, but is not in a position to do much about it.

There is a further US weakness: the US, often prompted by Israel, and Saudi Arabia, has a track record of underestimating the extent to which Iran, as the largest Shia Muslim power, plays a leading role in a coalition of states  Iraq, Syria and Lebanon  because of the predominant influence of the Shia in these countries. It is very difficult to defeat Iran there  the northern tier of the Middle East  but it is in this region that the US has chosen over the years to try to roll back Iranian influence.

The balance of power between Iran and its enemies is going to be difficult to shift whatever Mr Trump decides about the fate of the Iran nuclear deal.
The discovery of a mummified body close to the site of a demolished mausoleum could be the remains of Reza Shah Pahlavi, the founder of the Pahlavi dynasty and the father of the last Shah of Iran.

Construction workers found the gauze-wrapped remains while working at the Shiite shrine of Abdol Azim in Rey, on the southern edge of the capital, Tehran. The shrine once stood behind Rezah Shahs mausoleum, which was demolished after the 1979 Iranian revolution amid efforts to erase the legacy of the monarchy.

Reza Shah seized power in Iran  then known as Persia  in the 1921 Persian coup detat, first becoming prime minister, and then being appointed legal monarch by the government in 1925.

His accession saw the creation of the Pahlavi dynasty and laid the foundations of the modern Iranian state. He ruled as an autocrat, swiftly introducing sweeping tax reforms and taking advantage of the countrys burgeoning oil revenues. He also introduced major social reforms including ordering men to wear western clothes, and for women to attend public functions with their hair uncovered.

In 1936 he banned women from wearing full-length black robes known as Chadors. He also introduced laws allowing women to study law and medicine, doctors were allowed to dissect human bodies for the first time, and he put in place hefty fines for cinemas, hotels and restaurants that did not open their doors to both sexes.

Devout Muslims reacted angrily to the reforms, while Shia clerics, furious over the Shahs secular beliefs as well as his purges and arrests of opponents, formed long-standing resentments which would later foment the overthrow of the dynasty.

On Monday, the head of Tehran council's Cultural Heritage and Tourism Committee told state news agency IRNA that a mummified body had been found at the construction site, during expansion work on an Islamic shrine.

Hassan Khalilabadi said it was "a possibility" the body was that of Reza Shah Pahlavi.

"This will be examined by responsible bodies," he said.

But the press office of the Abdol Azim shrine where the construction work was being carried out said the claims were just a rumour.

The area surrounding the shrine was previously a cemetery so discovering a body in this area is natural, said its PR director Mostafa Ajoorloo, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.

Reza Shahs rein ended when he was forced to abdicate after Britain and the Soviet Union invaded Iran in 1941.

The breakdown in relations began in the 1930s, when Reza Shah, growing frustrated with Britain and the Soviets political and economic opportunism, cancelled a major oil contract held by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company.

Though a new contract was drawn up, the relationship did not improve much. Amid the fallout the Shah encouraged German commercial enterprise in Iran, and ahead of the Second World War, Germany was the countrys largest trading partner.

The move sparked fears the oil supplies could therefore fall into the hands of the Nazis.

After the Allies successful invasion, the British believed the Shahs son would serve British interests in Iran better.

Would His Highness kindly abdicate in favour of his son, the heir to the throne? We have a high opinion of him and will ensure his position. But His Highness should not think there is any other solution, the British demand read.

Crown Prince Mohammmad Reza Pahlavi took the oath and replaced his father as Shah on 16 September 1941, ruling until the 1979 Iranian revolution.

Rezah Shah left Iran for South Africa, dying there in 1944. His body was flown to Cairo where it was mummified and eventually returned to Iran where it was held in the mausoleum.

After the '79 revolution Islamists regarded the mausoleum as an affront, and Iranian cleric Ayatollah Sadegh Khalkhali ordered its destruction. A mob of his supporters used sledgehammers and pneumatic drills to raze it to the ground.

State media routinely refer to the Persian monarchic dynasties such as the Phlavis as despotic, but fascination with the era before the revolution has gained ground among the countrys youth in recent years.

According to AP Gulf news director Jon Gambrell, television period pieces have focused on the Pahlavi dynasty, including the recent state TV series The Enigma of the Shah, [which is] the most expensive series ever produced to air in the country.

He adds: While incorporating romances or mobsters into the tales, all shows uniformly criticise the royal court.

Rezah Shahs grandson, the exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, responded to news of the possible discovery of his grandfathers remains, writing on Twitter he warned the authorities against any secrecy or lack of transparency over the find.

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 exiled Crown Prince, who describes himself as an advocate of secularism, human rights, and parliamentary democracy in Iran, has tried to become a mediating force between the US and Iran as the countries negotiate the terms of the Iranian nuclear deal.

Last year he warned the US and Israel not to fall into a "trap" by escalating their disputes with the Iranian government into a military conflict.
Israel has abandoned its plans to forcibly deport African migrants who entered the country illegally, after failing to find a willing country to take them in.

Benjamin Netanyahu's government had been working on an arrangement to expel thousands of mostly Eritrean and Sudanese men who had crossed into Israel through Egypts Sinai desert.

Israel has now said that the migrants will be able to renew residency permits every 60 days, as they were before the deportation push.

At this stage, the possibility of carrying out an unwilling deportation to a third country is not on the agenda, the government wrote in a response to the country's Supreme Court, which has been examining the case.

The migrants and rights groups argued that they were seeking asylum and were fleeing war and persecution.

The government claimed they were job seekers and that it has every right to protect its borders.

Around 4,000 migrants have left Israel for Rwanda and Uganda since 2013 under a voluntary program, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come under pressure from his right-wing voter base to expel thousands more.

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

After leaving a United Nations-backed relocation plan, Israel shifted efforts towards finalising an arrangement to send the migrants against their will to Uganda.

A number of migrant rights groups petitioned the Supreme Court to block any such policy.

Rights group Amnesty International also welcomed the decision but criticised Israel's plan to continue with voluntary deportations. It said it would continue to monitor them.

In reality there is nothing voluntary about them. Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers agree to them under pressure. Israel remains under the obligation not to transfer anyone to a country" where they would be unsafe, said Magdalena Mughrabi, its deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa.

Agency contributed to the report
Western countries are reportedly planning to bypass Russias veto at the UN security council over Syria by referring concerns about the suspected use of chemical weapons to the UN general assembly.

Russia has used its veto 12 times to block UN action targeting the regime of its ally, Bashar al-Assad.

In November, it used its veto to block the extension of a UN mechanism to attribute responsibility for chemical weapons attacks.

Western nations blamed the Syrian government for a poison gas attack on the town of Douma earlier this month, which killed dozens of people and led the US, Britain and France to launch 105 missiles targeting chemical weapons facilities in retaliation.

The Syrian regime and Russia deny involvement or the use of chemical weapons.

Douma chemical attack: Syria war in pictures Show all 13 1 /13 Douma chemical attack: Syria war in pictures Douma chemical attack: Syria war in pictures A child receiving oxygen through respirators following an alleged poison gas attack in the rebel-held town of Douma AP Douma chemical attack: Syria war in pictures A child is treated in a hospital in Douma White Helmets Douma chemical attack: Syria war in pictures An image grab taken from a video released by the Douma City Coordination Committee shows unidentified volunteers spraying a man with water at a make-shift hospital following an alleged chemical attack AFP/Douma City Coordination Committee Douma chemical attack: Syria war in pictures People cover their faces after an alleged chemical attack in Douma EPA Douma chemical attack: Syria war in pictures A medical worker giving a toddler oxygen through respirators following an alleged poison gas attack in the opposition-held town of Douma. Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets via AP Douma chemical attack: Syria war in pictures An image grab taken from a video released by the Douma City Coordination Committee shows unidentified volunteers spraying a girl with water at a make-shift hospital following an alleged chemical attack AFP/Douma City Coordination Committee Douma chemical attack: Syria war in pictures A child is treated in a hospital in Douma White Helmets/Handout via Reuters Douma chemical attack: Syria war in pictures Injured victims of an alleged chemical attack in Douma EPA Douma chemical attack: Syria war in pictures An image grab taken from a video released by the Douma City Coordination Committee shows unidentified volunteers spraying a man with water at a make-shift hospital following an alleged chemical attack AFP/Douma City Coordination Committee Douma chemical attack: Syria war in pictures A Syrian man mourns after an alleged chemical attack Alamy Douma chemical attack: Syria war in pictures People stand in front of damaged buildings, in the town of Douma, the site of a suspected chemical weapons attack, near Damascus, Syria AP Photo/Hassan Ammar Douma chemical attack: Syria war in pictures Rubble lines a street in Douma, at the site of a suspected chemical weapons attack AP Douma chemical attack: Syria war in pictures Rubble fills a street in Douma, the site of a suspected chemical weapons attack, near Damascus AP

Western officials are reportedly supporting the idea of turning to a rarely used diplomatic route in order to clear the impasse, known as uniting for peace, which would allow nine members of the security council to refer their concerns to a vote at the general assembly, bypassing Russias veto.

A two-thirds majority in the general assembly would then be required to agree upon an attribution mechanism.

The Russian veto need not be the end of efforts for collective action by the UN, Ian Martin, a human rights activist and former UN official, told The Guardian.

The responsibility of asserting accountability for the use of chemical weapons, and for bringing an end to the horrors of the Syrian conflict, rests with the world community as a whole.

A toddler needs oxygen following a suspected poison gas attack in Douma (Syrian Civil Defence/White Helmets via AP) (Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets via AP)

It comes as the United Nations special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, stressed that the latest territorial gains by the Syrian regime and its allies have not brought peace any closer to the country.

Were seeing in last few weeks, days ... that military gains, territorial gains and military escalation does not bring a political solution, has not brought any change. On the contrary, he said.

Syria air strikes: US, UK and France joint military action Show all 21 1 /21 Syria air strikes: US, UK and France joint military action Syria air strikes: US, UK and France joint military action A picture released by the French Defence audiovisual communication and production unit (ECPAD) shows the launching of a cruise missile from a French military vessel in the Mediterranean sea towards targets in Syria overnight. The United States, France and Britain carried out a wave of punitive strikes against Bashar al-Assad's Syrian regime in the early hours of April 14 in response to alleged chemical weapons attacks. AFP/Getty Syria air strikes: US, UK and France joint military action Rafale warplanes being prepared for take off at the Saint-Dizier aerial military base, eastern France. Media reports state that the United States, France and Britain launched military strikes in Syria to punish President Bashar Assad for an apparent chemical attack against civilians and to deter him from doing it again. EPA Syria air strikes: US, UK and France joint military action Damascus skies erupt with missile fire as the US launches an attack on Syria targeting different parts of the capital. President Donald Trump announced airstrikes in retaliation for the country's alleged use of chemical weapons. AP Syria air strikes: US, UK and France joint military action A map show the location of the air strikes carried out by the US-led coalition in Syria overnight. US Department of Defense Syria air strikes: US, UK and France joint military action The wreckage of a building described as part of the Scientific Studies and Research Centre compound in the Barzeh district, north of Damascus. AFP/Getty Syria air strikes: US, UK and France joint military action Royal Air Force tornado jets take off in the early hours from RAF Akrotiri airbase in Cyprus to conduct air strikes in Syria. Four Tornado jets fired Storm Shadow missiles "at a military facility -- a former missile base -- some 15 miles (24 kilometres) west of Homs, where the regime is assessed to keep chemical weapon precursors," the defence ministry said in a statement. AFP/Getty Syria air strikes: US, UK and France joint military action Map of where the air strikes hit in Syria released by the Pentagon. A Syrian military statement says the US, Britain and France fired 110 missiles during a joint attack on targets in Damascus and outside. Pentagon Syria air strikes: US, UK and France joint military action A photo released on the Twitter page of Hezbollah's "Central War Media" account shows night footage of flares above Damascus seen through a night-vision device as Western strikes reportedly hit Syrian military bases and chemical research centres in and around Syria's capital. US, France, and Britain announced the joint operation. AFP/Getty Syria air strikes: US, UK and France joint military action The preliminary damage assessment of Barzah research and development centre before and after the air strikes, released by the Pentagon. Pentagon Syria air strikes: US, UK and France joint military action The preliminary damage assessment of Him Shinshar chemical weapons bunker before the air strikes. Pentagon Syria air strikes: US, UK and France joint military action The preliminary damage assessment of Him Shinshar chemical weapons bunker after the air strikes. Pentagon Syria air strikes: US, UK and France joint military action The wreckage of a building described as part of the Scientific Studies and Research Centre compound in the Barzeh district, north of Damascus. AFP/Getty Syria air strikes: US, UK and France joint military action The wreckage of a building described as part of the Scientific Studies and Research Centre compound in the Barzeh district, north of Damascus. AFP/Getty Syria air strikes: US, UK and France joint military action The wreckage of a building described as part of the Scientific Studies and Research Centre compound in the Barzeh district, north of Damascus. AFP/Getty Syria air strikes: US, UK and France joint military action The preliminary damage assessment of Him Shinshar chemical weapons storage site before and after the air strikes, released by the Pentagon. Pentagon Syria air strikes: US, UK and France joint military action The preliminary damage assessment of Him Shinshar chemical weapons storage site before the air strikes. Pentagon Syria air strikes: US, UK and France joint military action The preliminary damage assessment of Him Shinshar chemical weapons storage site after the air strikes. Pentagon Syria air strikes: US, UK and France joint military action A British military Typhoon aircraft lands at the Sovereign Base Area (SBA) of Akrotiri, a British overseas territory located ten kilometres west of the southern Cypriot port city of Limassol, following US, British and French strikes on Syria. Syrian state media slammed Western strikes on Saturday as illegal and "doomed to fail," after the US, Britain and France launched a joint operation against the Damascus.government. Huge blasts were reported around the Syrian capital, moments after the three Western governments announced they were striking Syria's chemical weapons capabilities. AFP/Getty Images Syria air strikes: US, UK and France joint military action The preliminary damage assessment of Him Shinshar chemical weapons bunker before and after the air strikes, released by the Pentagon. Pentagon Syria air strikes: US, UK and France joint military action The preliminary damage assessment of Him Shinshar chemical weapons bunker before the air strikes. Pentagon Syria air strikes: US, UK and France joint military action The preliminary damage assessment of Him Shinshar chemical weapons bunker after the air strikes. Pentagon

On Monday, foreign ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) leading industrialised nations united to condemn Russia for what they said was a pattern of irresponsible and destabilising behaviour.

They urged Moscow to help resolve the conflict in Syria and agreed to create a working group to study the Kremlins malign behaviour.

John Sullivan, the acting US secretary of state, called on Moscow to stop creating impediments to peace in Syria, and to play a role in ending the seven-year-long conflict.

Russia must be a constructive partner in Syria or will be held accountable, he said.

Speaking to reporters on the margins of the meeting, foreign secretary Boris Johnson said G7 ministers had agreed on the need to be vigilant about Russia.

What we decided ... was that we were going to set up a G7 group that would look at Russian malign behaviour in all its manifestations  whether its cyber warfare, whether its disinformation, assassination attempts, whatever it happens to be, and collectively try to call it out.

Germans foreign minister, Heiko Maas, said the meeting established again that there will be no political solution in Syria without Russia ... and that Russia has to contribute its share to such a solution.

While supporting the air strikes in Syria, the G7 statement said they were limited, proportionate and necessary  and taken only after exhausting every possible diplomatic option to uphold the international norm against the use of chemical weapons.
The train you travel on today will not exist from 20 May, says Charles Horton, chief executive of GTR. Thats the simple truth.

But the man who runs almost one in four of UK rail services, including the troubled Southern operation, is telling commuters that things can only get better. He ordered his staff to tear up the timetable and start again, to produce: A timetable which is far more operationally robust than the timetable it replaces.

From 2am on Sunday 20 May 2018, schedules with origins stretching almost a century will be torn up.

The new timetable promises dramatic improvements for commuters from Brighton to London Victoria, the core of the Southern operation.

In the hour from the first post-6am service, at 6.14am at present, there are five trains taking an average of one hour, 15 minutes. Starting on the first working day, 21 May, the same number of trains will run, but because stops have been cut the typical journey time is just 59 minutes.

Two minutes is sliced off the average journey time of the Gatwick Express from Victoria to the Sussex airport, which is also part of the GTR franchise. And the dismally slow Thameslink journey connecting Gatwick with London Blackfriars in central London finally accelerates to 35 minutes, saving a quarter-hour on the current crawl through the south London suburbs.

The firm has spent years examining why so many things go wrong with the current schedules. In many cases trains are delayed because of wholly unrealistic dwell times at stations: with the number of passengers on Southern trains doubling in the past 12 years, assuming that trains at East Croydon  one of the busiest stations on the network  would pause only momentarily was clearly ludicrous. Trains are now scheduled to allow one minute for passengers to leave or board the service.

For many travellers, though, the main benefit of the transformation will be the introduction of far more north-south trains through the central Thameslink spine between Blackfriars and the Eurostar hub at St Pancras International.

Implausible services will start from quiet Sussex towns such as Littlehampton and East Grinstead and run through to St Albans, Luton and Bedford.

Horsham and Crawley get frequent services that join the East Coast Main Line and run as far north as Peterborough. And Cambridge will be connected with Brighton every hour, with trains taking 2 hours 32 minutes.

The direct trains will take some of the strain from the Tube, and provide easier links to both Gatwick and Luton airports for many travellers.

Phil Hutchinson, head of strategic planning for GTR, has been guiding the timetable restructuring. He says: People will be able to travel more comfortably on new routes through London, making seamless journeys to the airport.

The switch is far from problem-free. Initially some of the planned trains will be cancelled before they even start, due to a breaking-in period lasting several weeks.

The full service of 24 trains per hour through the central London spine will not happen until December 2019, a year later than planned.

And the Thameslink changes have had a serious knock-on effect for travellers on the East Midlands line north of Bedford, with services to Wellingborough and Kettering significantly reduced for commuters.

Travellers everywhere on the network are being warned that Year Zero will affect their usual plans.

If anyone can find a train which still exists after 20 May, there will be a prize, promises Mr Horton.
Canada has a well-earned and enviable reputation as a welcoming, tolerant and safe destination for travellers.

In recent years the number of British visitors to Toronto has sharply increased, with many more flights from the UK. British Airways launches its first flights from Gatwick to Canadas largest city on 1 May.

Compared with Canadas neighbour to the south, the incidence of violent crime is far lower. The annual homicide rate is one per 60,000 people, less than one-third the rate in the US (though 80 per cent higher than the UK).

But in recent years, a pattern of terrorist attacks has developed.

In October 2014, a man was shot dead by police in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu in Quebec after he killed a Canadian soldier with his car. Two days later, another soldier was killed by a gunman in central Ottawa. The suspect was subsequently shot dead.

Two years later, the authorities successfully disrupted a planned attack when a Daesh supporter was shot and killed in Ontario as he attempted to detonate an improvised explosive device.

In January 2017, a shooting at a Quebec City mosque left six people dead. In September 2017, a police officer in Edmonton was struck by a vehicle and stabbed by the driver. The assailant then fled on foot and later drove a rental truck into bystanders, injuring four people.

In December 2017 the Canadian government in Ottawa issued a Public Report on the Terrorist Threat to Canada, which concluded: The main terrorist threat to Canada stems from violent extremists inspired by terrorist groups, such as Daesh and al-Qaida, as well as right-wing extremism.

The Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Ralph Goodale, warned in the document: Lone actors or terror cells inspired by these groups are increasingly using low-sophistication, high-impact methods to carry out attacks.

The Foreign Office warns: Terrorists are likely to try to carry out attacks in Canada. Attacks could be indiscriminate, including in places visited by foreigners. You should monitor media reports and remain vigilant.

Kevin McGurgan, the British Consul-General in Toronto, tweeted: My sympathy & deepest condolences, and those of British Consulate in Toronto staff, to the victims & their families. Heartbreaking.

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 Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, tweeted: Very sad to see the news of the incident in Toronto earlier today, as I was visiting the city. My thoughts with those affected, their families and friends, and the emergency services personnel responding.
As wedding settings go, the interior of a plane may not seem like the most the most obvious option for couples planning their nuptials.

However, for one US pair, the love of Delta Air Lines runs so deep that they decided to theme their wedding around the airlines Delta Diamond loyalty scheme.

I actually told him Id rather have Diamond Status than the diamond ring, bride Bess Wohlner, who recently married Jeremy Simons, told Delta Airlines news hub.

Deltas Diamond programme is the airlines highest loyalty scheme, with benefits including complimentary upgrade priority and premium boarding, as well as Clear membership, which lets members ease through security.

Members also get lounge access and priority baggage handling.

The couple from Memphis used airport code table assignments and boarding lanes to line the dance floor. Simons, who comes from a Delta-loving family, said choosing one airline to fly with as a business traveller was like deciding I would marry Delta.

Wohlner and Simons met at rabbinical school in 2009 and regularly flew out of Los Angeles on assignments together. Wohlner agreed to go on a 47-hour Delta mileage run (a trip undertaken solely to earn air miles) with Simons, purchasing trips from one city to the next without ever leaving the airport.

Bess Wohlner and Jeremy Simons had oxygen masks at their wedding (Delta News Hub)

However, they parted ways for some years before bumping into one another on a New York to Tel Aviv flight, and returned smitten.

I knew it was love when he handed off one of his upgrades and delivered his first class meal to me from the front of the plane, said Wohlner.

The pair announced their engagement with a Diamond Status save the date and incorporated the airline into almost every detail of their wedding. Guests were greeted with Tumi amenity kits from the airlines first class cabin and bridesmaids wore navy blue dresses and red accessories (the colours of Delta cabin crew uniforms).

The officiant was a fellow Delta Medallion member who flew aboard the airlines inaugural A350 flight last October, while the airline loaned Simons a branded mat to walk down the aisle, similar to Deltas Sky Priority service.

Tables at the wedding were themed around cities meaningful to the couple (Delta News Hub)

Guests' seating assignments were distributed on bag tags, placing them onto 12 tables organised by cities meaningful to the couple, and hors doeuvres were served with onboard service wear and Delta-branded cups and napkins.

During the reception, the couples cake came out on an airline drinks trolley, and they also had a photo booth with a green screen simulating an aeroplane interior, plus oxygen masks and decommissioned business class seats from their living room.

The newlyweds are now honeymooning around the world, stopping off in Scotland, Amsterdam, Sri Lanka, Sydney, Melbourne, Vancouver and Seattle.
There is something soothing about Emmanuel Macrons state visit to Washington. For three spring days, we are engrossed not in the latest nastinesses surfacing in Donald Trumps Twitter feed but in weightier things. And lighter too. Things of pomp and tradition. Normal things.

Maybe thats how its been in Britain this week. What better relief from the endless agony of Brexit and the shame of the Windrush deportations than the arrival of a Royal baby? Even those not normally predisposed to the monarchy can relish in the hospital-steps joy just for a minute.

No babies here. Not even a baby elephant, which is what the then president of Sri Lanka gave Ronald Reagan when he passed through town in 1984. Thanks to the Washington Post for its comprehensive list of presents past. My favourites: a stuffed lion ceremoniously presented by Tanzanias head of state to George W. Bush and crocodile insurance for Barack Obama from Australia. Who told them crocs lurk in the street plumbing under Pennsylvania Avenue?

Some reporter did attempt to disrupt the carefully choreographed Franco-American comity as the two leaders briefly welcomed the press to the East Room of the White House by daring to ask about Michael Cohen, Trumps personal lawyer who may or may not flip against him after having his office and home raided by the FBI. Trump wasnt playing. Stupid question, he said.

No Cohen today, thank you. (And lets ignore until tomorrow the drinking-on-the-job rumours about Trumps personal doctor whom hes nominated to run the sprawling Veterans Affairs department.) We like state-visit rituals much better. They might almost have placed the state dinner menu an on easel in front of the White House. (Only the Brits do that sort of thing.) Et voila: Spring lamb, creme fraiche ice cream and wine from French vines planted in Oregon.

And now we have a new entry into the lexicon of diplomatic watersheds. Nixon invented ping-pong diplomacy to woo China; Trump used dandruff detente to soften the hearts of France. Or may be not. Did you see that  in full Gallic gush he flicks a fleck from Macrons left shoulder? We do have a very special relationship, in fact Ill get that little piece of dandruff off  we have to make him perfect, he is perfect. Naughty Don. He owned little Macron in that moment.

I did say weightier and the heavy-lifting was for Emmanuel. As the pair went behind closed doors for the business part of the visit, we hoped he proved more master than poodle. Trump has gone off the reservation in several areas and Macron had been drafted by European leaders as the only one among them sufficiently attuned to his whims possibly to bend his mind.

The Iran nuclear deal above else. We are closing in on 12 May, the deadline for Trump deciding once more either to renew waivers on sanctions against Iran and thus keep the agreement alive or refuse to do so and kill it, instantly plunging the international community into fresh turmoil. The European argument remains that while the deal isnt perfect its better than no deal at all.

Macron emerged later expressing a willingness to help work on a "new deal" with Iran. We will see what that means but in the meantime Trump will surely keep the world on edge until the last moment as to his final intentions. Certainly, some of his pronouncements alnogside Macron didn't sound encouraging. He called the agreement terrible, insane and ridiculous. And he had a tough response to Irans suggestion that it would resume its activities if the deal collapses. If they restart their nuclear programme, they will have bigger problems than they have ever had before, Trump said.

Trump seems unimpressed by the argument that he will lose leverage with North Korea if he vapourises the nuclear deal already struck with Iran. He is set to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, in hopes of striking the outlines of a denuclearisation deal with him, within weeks of decision-day on Iran. The bigger argument from Europe is this: things are so febrile in the Middle East already, why add new uncertainty by giving Iran license to unleash itself again?

On Iran, we must contextualize this subject within the challenges of the region, Macron said in the East Room. There is the situation in Syria, there is security in the entire region and I think, in any case, we share a common goal of avoiding an escalation and proliferation of nuclear weapons in the region. So the question is what is the best path.

Macron had much besides to tackle, from the viability of the Paris Agreement on climate change so long as the US continues to shun it to concern about Trumps temptation to withdraw his troops from Syria and European alarm at the 25 per cent trade tariffs placed by the United States on steel imports. All are issues that German Chancellor Angela Merkel will follow up with Trump in Washington at the end of this week though issue number one will be Iran again.

State visits like this one are always a blend of pomp and portent. From frivolous to formal, ritual to wrangle. It will be that again when Macron addresses a joint session of the US Congress on Wednesday. He will note it is the anniversary to the day of Charles de Gaulle practising his oratory on Capitol Hill in 1960. Then he will return to the job of reminding the United States why it must do better in so many ways.

And even when the subjects are serious we will continue to enjoy it all, because his visit has given everyone in Washington the illusion, at least, of normality.
Finally, as even the most fervent Remainer may agree, Brexit is responsible for something to be cherished.

The special relationship is dead (or at the very least, in cryogenic stasis). Good riddance to the era of ritual obedience  and long live what Emmanuel Macron, such a gifted translator, unveiled this week as le relationship especiale.

With Britains global irrelevance cemented by the semiconscious uncoupling from the EU, it falls to the president of the French Republic to hog the spotlight as the first foreign leader granted a full state visit by Donald Trump.

Spare a pang of pity for Theresa May. While she sits morosely in Downing Street with nothing but the Windrush catastrophe and the customs union conundrum for comfort, Macron swanks around Washington and George Washingons Virginia plantation, gushing over the tangerine grifter like some pantomime roue seducing some old broad he knows to be incapable of resisting the most nauseatingly insincere flattery.

Shortly before he left for DC, the sombre French newspaper Liberation quoted presidential sources describing Trump as not only very intelligent but also  what else?  coherent. Ordinarily, youd automatically source such sentiments to sledgehammer irony. But identifying humorous intent from citizens of the country that awarded Jerry Lewis the Legion dhonneur is a fools game, and we are obliged to take them literally.

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

That very intelligent clangs a piquant bell. Back in the age of Freedom Fries, when that revered US diplomat Homer J Simpson dismissed the French as cheese-eating surrender monkeys, Alastair Campbell briefed hacks that George W Bush was very smart. A new dawn has broken for an old precedent, has it not?

A wunderkind northern European social democrat  a cunning triangulator who won a landslide by splitting the difference between left and right as he promised a new kind of politics  chums up with a borderline imbecilic Republican president.

What could possibly go wrong?

Youd probably have to strap him to a Damascus interrogation chair, and fix electrodes to his genitals. But with a suitably electrifying incentive to tell the truth, Tony Blair could answer that one.

He thought that by transforming himself after a human colonoscopy and hunting down Ws polyps, he would buy enough influence to mitigate the worst of Bushs instincts. But then Roy of Siegfried and Roy was convinced that Mantecore, his white Siberian tiger, was a docile chum. As indeed it was, until it tore out Roys throat.

Now its Macrons turn to test the taming-the-tiger theory, and bonne chance to him with that. A central feature of his sycophancy offensive is the noble ambition to persuade Trump not to withdraw from the Iranian nuclear deal which has been working so well.

One presumes the result will be a frank form of his earlier efforts to dissuade Trump from pulling the US out of the Paris climate accord  and for the same reason. Whatever Obama did, Trump will undo if he possibly can. For him, no motivation is as strong as pursuing his infantile vendetta.

 Emmanuel Macron and wife Brigitte Trogneux arrive in Washington

But whatever the success or otherwise of Macrons attempt to talk sense to Trump about Iran, and about abandoning his global trade war, you have to admire the audacity.

Whether from raw courage or some kind of Blairesque messiah complex, he is risking his support with a domestic audience that regards Trump much as we do  and Macron has precious little of that left. His efforts to reform French working practices have provoked an avalanche of strikes and civil unrest under which his popularity has collapsed.

The upside to that is that it could provide a bonding conversation piece to smooth over any tiny doctrinal differences over dinner. Macrons most recent approval rating was 40-57. Trumps average is virtually identical. Something else they share is a gaping spousal age gap, Trump being a touch more than 23 years older than Melania, and Macron a shade less than 25 younger than Brigitte.

Those statistical links may grease the conversational wheels, while Macron cites their shares maverick-ness as proof they are geopolitical conjoined twins. We have this very special relationship because the both of us are probably the mavericks of the system, as he told Fox News.

But judging by his resistance in last years battle of the handshakes, Macron isnt the kind of sissy who would tolerate the humiliation of being casually ignored, let alone being presidentially yod, for long. It would take Blairs limitless capacity for Uriah Heepish ingratiation to do that.

Of course, its far too early to dismiss le relationship especiale as a flash in the pan that will eddy down the U-bend of international diplomacy in the time it takes some Fox & Friends bozo-guru to remind Trump of his intent to welch on the Iranian deal.

Who knows, perhaps this is the beginning of the most beautiful Franco-American friendship since Rick and Louis ambled down the runway at the end of Casablanca.

But frankly thats not our concern. Our business is to gaze from afar at a cocky, grandstanding European leader gently greasing himself into the upper bowel of a sensationally ignorant US President  and thank the Lord that this time, just for once, it isnt ours.
Viewed from a purely British perspective, the strange rapport between Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump is, by turns, bewildering, annoying and sobering.

After all, few geopolitical relationships  with the glaring exception of the putative Trump-Kim Jong-un bromance  could be as unlikely as that being forged by the French and American presidents. Where Mr Trump is notoriously brittle and Twitter-trigger happy, Mr Macron is charming, cool and focused. Where Mr Trump is yet to show much aptitude for foreign languages, Mr Macron abandons the usual French linguistic chauvinism for political advantage.

Mr Macron happily tells his American audience, and the rest of the world, in softly accented English, about his high hopes and noble ambitions for his state visit, the first such honour accorded to a foreign leader by the Trump White House. Where Mr Trump is famously protectionist, nationalistic and sceptical about climate change and European unity, Mr Macron is the very antithesis. They say opposites attract, but this is getting ridiculous.

The key to Mr Macrons success is a simple one. He leaves the political baggage at home in the Elysee. Like Tony Blair before him, who found himself having to get chummy with the neo-con George W Bush, Mr Macron plainly believes that it is in Frances national interest to put ideological differences aside, and concentrate on winning influence with the most powerful military power on earth, and its largest economy. The Americans elected Mr Trump, so Mr Macron deals with Mr Trump.

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

Whats more, like Mr Blair, Mr Macron has a facility for words and is supple and quick-witted in debate. He is, in other words, another consummate politician, in painful contrast to the perpetually on-edge Theresa May, now so weak that she cannot honour her earlier invitation of a state visit to London for the American president  thus, as ever, securing the worst of all worlds.

Mr Macrons achievement cannot be overstated, at least so far. While Germany and Britain are being marginalised because of weak governments, lame-duck leaders and, in Mays case, Brexit, France is filling the vacuum. That was not inevitable, however, even allowing for the capricious Mr Trumps shifting prejudices. Successive French leaders, notably Charles de Gaulle, but of all shades of politics since, have displayed an aloof, envious, almost snobbish attitude towards the other side of the Atlantic. France has in the past been an unwilling, semi-detached partner in Nato, for example, while in the last few decades Paris has also had to concede increasing political leadership in Europe to Berlin, which pays the bills for the European Unions enlargements and recurring financial crises.

Now the pendulum has swung back decisively, helped also by the various crises of confidence and legitimacy seen in Madrid, Warsaw and Rome. It is a testament to Mr Macron that he has, as in the domestic sphere, taken risks and seized the unexpected diplomatic and political opportunities presented by the arrival of Donald Trump and the simultaneous eclipse of Theresa May and Angela Merkel.

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The state visit to Washington of the Macrons confirms that France, for the first time, finds itself in a political role long coveted and usually occupied by the British. Mr Macron is crafting his own special bilateral relationship with the White House: France is reasserting herself as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council; it is a more active and collegiate player in Nato; a nuclear power; possessor of a large economy at last moving into growth and reform; and, crucially, the undisputed political driver of the European project.

France, and no longer Britain or Germany, is building the bridge between America and Europe. After Mr Macrons next visit  to Vladimir Putin, in a few weeks time  France will also have established a clear role in bridging the divides between America and Britain, on one side, and Russia, on the other. Mr Macron, no stranger to vanity, can be excused some self-satisfaction with his handiwork.

France has not seen such an international ascendancy accomplished with such elan for many decades. It must pain the British Foreign Office and Downing Street to reflect on what might have been.

As the two presidents, their families and their staff members get to know each other better, then, there is much for the Macrons in particular to celebrate as they toast their mutual admiration with French and Californian wines.

Of course, there is no reason why things might not turn sour. Mr Macron has a habit of overstating his influence in DC, and Mr Trump will always put America First. Mr Trump might easily turn on his new friend, as he has so many of his own former staff, and ignore advice on the Iran nuclear agreement, impose tariffs on European steel, and withdraw US forces from Syria.

President Macron could end up looking very foolish. Yet at least he managed to win the chance to try to reason with the Americans. He may yet make some progress. En marche! indeed.
Posted Tuesday, April 24, 2018 8:45 am

The spaces that care for our communitys kids are closer to getting another major upgrade, thanks to generous local donors and a challenge grant from the J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation Inc., of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Last year, the Mabee Foundation pledged $1.5 million to Mercy Kids in Springfield if the community could raise $2.8 million. A number of generous gifts combined to put us over the mark, said Jean Gruetzemacher, vice president of Mercy Health Foundation Springfield.

The J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation Inc. is a private charitable foundation formed in 1948 by Mr. John E. Mabee and his wife, Lottie E. Mabee, with its office in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The purposes of the Foundation are to aid Christian religious organizations, charitable organizations, institutions of higher learning, hospitals and other organizations of a general charitable nature. The geographical area of interest of the Foundation includes the states of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.

This money is a blessing for our communitys children and will make such a difference in their health care experience, said Jim Barber, chief operating officer and regional vice president for Mercy Health Foundation. Were so grateful to the partnership with the Mabee Foundation and all the local donors who helped us meet the challenge.

Several new spaces are planned for the Mercy Kids childrens hospital. We have doctors that represent 23 pediatric specialties  everything from cancer to neurosurgery and endocrinology, said Dr. John Burson, pediatrician and vice-president of Mercy Womens and Childrens. We definitely have the expertise available locally so families dont have to travel for care. Now we want to complement that care with surroundings that ease kids fears and promote their healing.

Plans are underway to add a pediatric-specific area to the emergency room and a pediatric test and treatment area. While the hospital already has a pediatric intensive care unit and pediatric inpatient department, the renovations will enable those units to move into the Mercy Kids tower, expand the space and update it with kid-friendly features.

Our local kids deserve the very best doctors and facilities we can give them, said Nick Sanders, board chair of Mercy Health Foundation Springfield. We still need more donors to make all the changes wed like. If youd like to make a donation, contact Mercy Health Foundation Springfield at 417-820-6111.
I am horrified and angry that not only did Luciana Berger  the Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside  have to suffer the most distressing and horrific antisemitic abuse, but the misogynistic hatred directed at her only compounded the hurt and the abuse. No member of the House of Commons should have to put up with any abuse, let alone the twin evils of those who hate both women and Jewish people.

Nobody in our society should ever suffer abuse because of who they are and how they have been categorised by others. Antisemitism must be stamped out wherever and whenever it rears its ugly head  we can never accept a society where such abuse is tolerated.

Many Jewish members who spoke in last week's Commons debate described their backgrounds, giving all MPs an important reminder that so many citizens of this nation of ours come from many different cultures, which I believe serves to enrich us all. My own familys history is relevant.

I discovered recently, following an unexpected contact from a second cousin in Paris whom I had never met, that our mutual great grandmother  Raina Sevilla  had been murdered in Birkenau in July 1942.

Born in Bulgaria, married in Istanbul, she was persuaded by her daughter and son-in-law (my grandparents) to move with them from Geneva to their new home in Paris. That was 1934. Six years later, after Paris fell to the Nazis, Raina was asked to register with the occupying authorities at the Hotel Crillon  the Nazi headquarters in France. Like hundreds of thousands of French Jews, Raina dutifully complied with the new laws and reluctantly wore her yellow star on her coat.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 30 September 2021 The centrepiece One Thousand Springs by Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota is seen ahead of the beginning of the Japan Festival, a celebration of the countrys plants, art and culture running from 2-31 October, at Kew Gardens in London PA 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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In the summer of 1942, the registered Jews of Paris were systematically arrested and taken to the Vel dhiv, the Paris velodrome from where they were moved to Drancy, a suburb of Paris near the railhead at Bobigny. The cattle trucks left daily for the extermination camps and Raina was taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau to be exterminated.

I mention Raina Sevilla because like almost every other Jewish family in Britain today, I have a direct connection to the Holocaust and through that a direct connection to the nation that was created in 1948, 70 years ago this year, to give safety and security to the Jewish people after the catastrophe of that appalling genocide on such an industrial scale.

But my own roots are even more complex: three of my grandparents were born abroad, as was my father, who couldnt speak English until he was twelve, although just eight years after arriving in England he started his service in the British Army.

I was brought up in a family that was sceptical about religion, but knew its history and identity. My sister and I celebrated Seder night with our parents at my grandmothers home, though we did not have much idea what it all meant. My maternal grandfather was an Orthodox Rabbi who then joined a Reform Synagogue and finally lost his faith altogether. My sister and I are the product of both Ashkenazi and Sephardi traditions, though as a young man I was often mistaken for being Greek, Italian, Iranian or Arabic  and sometimes I still am.

Our identity as individuals is defined by our ancestry and our immediate families, as well as our experiences as children and a host of other factors. But so much of where we come from is entirely beyond our control, from the colour of our eyes to the tone of our skin or our gender. What is wholly unacceptable for any civilised society is to use the minute differences in human DNA, or the cultural heritage of individuals, as a way of rejecting those people, or worse still using them to promote hatred. I have never been able to understand that kind of hatred, which I can only imagine is borne of ignorance and fear, or of evil in the hearts of men  as evidenced by the ideology of the Nazis.

 Holocaust survivor Susan Pollack explains on what Jeremy Corbyn needs to do to help eradicate antisemitism in the Labour Party

One of the most disturbing aspects of the current wave of antisemitism  and Islamophobia  is that humanity has clearly not learned from the lessons of history, for if we are ever to create a truly harmonious and peaceful society, we have to stamp out the ignorance and fear that leads to hatred, whether of the Jewish people, or of any other cultural or religious group within society.

And so it is more important than ever before, at this moment in the history of the Labour Party, that we confront the evil of antisemitism immediately and without prevarication. Pretending that it doesnt exist will not deal with the problem, and our party has to ensure that whatever mistakes it has made up until now are put right, confronted and excised before further damage is done.

We want our Jewish supporters back because in my experience the North Leeds Jewish community, that I have had the privilege of representing now for 21 years, have not only contributed so much to the Labour Party over more than a hundred years, but have a strong social conscience and sense of social justice. They care deeply not only about their own community but also about the health and welfare of the whole city of Leeds and have made such an enormous contribution to it. Disillusioned Jewish former members and supporters must feel comfortable once again in the Labour Party.

Fabian Hamilton is MP for Leeds North East and Labour's frontbench spokesman on the Middle East
When I visited Jamaica earlier this month, my grandmother detailed what it was like arriving in the UK as an 11-year-old child in 1965.

People would just stare at you, she said. It was like you were in a zoo and theyd call you a monkey. I was one of four black girls in a 500-strong school, so we were the novelty. We were the circus act.

Despite this happening more than 50 years ago, I couldnt help but feel an overwhelming sense of association with my grandmothers experiences of racism, discrimination and otherness.

Im mixed race, born in Britain and raised in a majority white community. Growing up, I rejected the Jamaican side of my heritage because I considered it to be something so far removed from the white culture I was brought up in. It wasnt until I got to university and spoke to black peers about shared experiences that I began to explore my Jamaican background with interest.

Recommended There is a silver lining to the Windrush scandal

Ive visited Jamaica twice and I adore everything about it. I love the food, the sunshine, the music and the easy-going lifestyle. Above all, I love the people; the way they speak honestly and unapologetically, their genuine zest for life and their resourcefulness, often growing their own food and building their own houses.

The sense of community I felt there was overwhelming, and something I had never quite experienced fully in my home country. I could hardly string a sentence of Jamaican patois together, and my Kentish accent marked me out as painstakingly British. However, I was never made to feel different, not in the ways black and brown people across Britain are made to feel every day because of the way they talk, the way they look and sometimes, the way they simply exist.

Sure, Jamaica has its flaws. The island is notorious for having one of the highest homicide rates in the world, and the popular tourist area of Montego Bay is currently under a state of emergency due to recent surges in violence.

Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Show all 15 1 /15 Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK The ex-troopship 'Empire Windrush' arriving at Tilbury Docks from Jamaica, with 482 Jamaicans on board, emigrating to Britain. Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Jamaican immigrants being welcomed by RAF officials from the Colonial Office after the ex-troopship 'Empire Windrush' landed them at Tilbury. PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Alford Gardner who arrived in Britain in 1948 on the first Windrush ship to dock in Tilbury, Essex, speaking at his home in Leeds PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Alford Gardner in Leeds shortly after he arrived in Britain in 1948 on the first Windrush ship to dock in Tilbury, Essex PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Gardner was 22 years old when he boarded the ship in Kingston, Jamaica, with his brother Gladstone before they and hundreds of Caribbean migrants called on to rebuild post-war Britain disembarked the ship in Tilbury Docks PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Alford Gardner (right), during his RAF service in 1947 PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK The son of Ruth Williams, a Windrush-generation immigrant, wants to the leave the country after threats of deportation. According to his mother, Mr Haynes applied for British citizenship in 2016 but was rejected, despite Ms Williams having lived in the UK almost permanently since arriving from St Vincent and the Grenadines in 1959. Ruth Williams, 75, said she felt "betrayed" by Britain after the Home Office twice turned down applications for her 35-year-old son, Mozi Haynes, to remain in the country. Ms Williams is understood to have cancer and said she relies heavily on her son for support. PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK The British liner 'Empire Windrush' at port in 1954. Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Ruth Williams, 75, with her British passport. "I feel betrayed and a second class citizen in my own country," she said. "This makes me so sad and the Home Office must show some compassion. "I am unwell and almost 75, I live on my own and I need my son to stay here. I need my family around me and I cant face being alone. He has applied to the Home Office and been refused twice." PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK From the top, hopeful Jamaican boxers Charles Smith, Ten Ansel, Essi Reid, John Hazel, Boy Solas and manager Mortimer Martin arrive at Tilbury on the Empire Windrush in the hope of finding work in Britain. Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Jamaicans reading a newspaper whilst on board the ex-troopship 'Empire Windrush' bound for Tilbury docks in Essex. Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK After half a century in Britain, Anthony Bryan decided it was time to go abroad. But the decision set off a nightmare that saw him lose his job, detained twice and almost deported to Jamaica. AFP/Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Jamaica-born Anthony Bryan poses outside his home in Edmonton, north London. Now 60 and a grandfather, Bryan thought the issue could be resolved swiftly, as he legally moved to Britain with his family as part of the Windrush generation of Caribbean migrants after World War II. In 1948, the ship Windrush brought the first group of migrants from the West Indies to help rebuild post-war Britain, and many others followed from around the Commonwealth. A 1971 law gave them indefinite leave to remain, but many never formalised their status, often because they were children who came over on their parents' passports and then never applied for their own. AFP/Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Three Jamaican immigrants (left to right) John Hazel, a 21-year-old boxer, Harold Wilmot, 32, and John Richards, a 22-year-old carpenter, arriving at Tilbury on board the ex-troopship 'Empire Windrush', smartly dressed in zoot suits and trilby hats. Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Newly arrived Jamaican immigrants on board the 'Empire Windrush' at Tilbury in 1948. Getty

For this reason among others, I questioned why my grandmother had chosen to move to Jamaica long-term, despite spending most of her life in England. When she told me why, it began to make perfect sense.

When Im in Jamaica, I dont feel like a minority, she explained. And to not be a minority is a wonderful thing.

What she told me resonated. Despite being British in every way, the fact that I wasnt white meant I was a minority in my own country and I was constantly reminded of that fact. Whether its the kind of racism that is as underhand as asking where Im really from, or asking if you can touch my hair  you cant  or the kind of obtuse racism that my grandmother and so many other Windrush kids experienced, can we honestly say that much has changed?

The Windrush scandal cemented the realisation that we are still regarded as foreigners in our own homes, and that was what led me to apply for my Jamaican citizenship, enabling me to have a Jamaican passport and vote in Jamaican elections.

My grandmother was overjoyed that I was finally embracing a part of me that I had tried to keep buried for so long. My dad was also supportive  deep down, I think it is something he wished he had explored for himself in his younger years.

Although my mother passed away recently, if she were here I imagine shed have strong reservations about my decision. While she never denied my black heritage, she always reminded me that my white side was just as important and told me that effectively, I could never fully embrace one racial identity without acknowledging the other.

But Ive always felt like theres a part of me thats missing. I dont think having a Jamaican passport will solve everything, but I do think it might help a few pieces of the puzzle fall into place.

In a post-Brexit world where racial tensions seem to continue bubbling beneath the surface, I desperately wanted somewhere else to call home, perhaps out of a dystopian fear that one day I would find myself in a Britain where I am no longer welcome.

The UK will always be my home and I will always proudly declare myself as British, but until the day I am not made to feel otherwise, I need to search for a sense of belonging in a place where I am accepted because of who I am  not in spite of it.
Denis Naughten making a statement on claims around Independent News and Media in the Dail (Oireachtas TV/PA)

Pressure is continuing to mount on Irelands communications minister Denis Naughten.

The Taoiseach was again forced to defend his Cabinet colleague over claims he tipped off a lobbyist about a decision on a proposed media takeover.

Answering questions in the Dail, Leo Varadkar said: Minister Naughten didnt do any favours for anyone. He didnt do any favours for Independent News and Media (INM), he didnt do any favours for Denis OBrien.

In fact his action was to delay the merger  delay the proposed merger between INM and Celtic Media by referring it to the Broadcasting Authority.

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Last week Mr Naughten made an unscheduled statement to the Dail responding to claims that a PR firm passed details of a telephone call with the minister to a senior figure within INM, two months before his referral to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) was officially announced.

Mr Varadkar added: In relation to the phone call with the lobbyist, Mr Naughten indicated that he would follow the law and be guided by official advice and that is of course what any official would do.

I am not sure if that constitutes confidential information or not but in my mind it doesnt because that is what ministers will do  they will follow the law and be guided by official advice.

He has said that he regrets he ever took the phone call. He has said that he regards it as a political mistake on his behalf and he has apologised for it today.

Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin said he believed a serious error of judgment had been made.

He said: It is clear to me and most people that the minister made a serious error of judgment and his defence to date has been very poor in relation to that very serious error.

Later, he added: When you give that commercially sensitive information to one party you are actually responsible for what happens with it down the line because you shouldnt give it in the first place because by giving it you know there are consequences in giving it.

I find it difficult that you find it difficult to find the words to say that this was a wrong thing to do.
A person passes a mural in Dublins Temple Bar calling for a repeal of the Eighth Amendment (Niall Carson/PA)

A controversial Repeal the Eighth poster has been unfurled in the Dail.

Socialist Party TD Ruth Coppinger ignored calls of refrain and held up an image of a mural recently removed from a Dublin arts centre.

Ms Coppinger told TDs: We should not allow political censorship.

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The Repeal the Eighth mural, by the artist Maser, had been painted on a wall of the Project Arts Centre in Templebar. Following complaints, the charities regulator ordered that it be removed for breaching rules.

Speaking during Leaders Questions, Ms Coppinger said: The irony is that there is a proliferation of No posters which are offensive and upsetting, they demonise women and make them invisible, but they are also blatantly scientifically inaccurate.

Nobody is advocating they be removed.

But people are wondering why is it the most important thing to take down the Maser mural and leave this stuff up there unchallenged by the State?

Political opponents heckled that the move was a political stunt.

Dail Speaker Pat the Cope Gallagher also reprimanded Ms Coppinger: You cant do that and you know it is wrong to do that.

Irish citizens are being asked to vote on changes to Irelands strict abortion laws in a referendum next month.

Meanwhile, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he believed the Maser mural may have become more popular as a result of being removed.

He said: I dont find the mural in any way offensive but I dont think it is murals or posters that is going to change peoples minds on this issue.

I think what we need is proper information, independent information like we are getting now from the referendum committee.
The three "wise men", with a combined 17 years of government leadership, all believe Ireland's links to Britain via the European Union contacts proved very beneficial over the past 45 years.

Now Brexit poses another loss beyond immediate economics, trade and complications around the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

John Bruton, Taoiseach from 1994 to 1997 and later the EU's ambassador to Washington from 2004 to 2009, put it rather pithily.

"Between 1922 and 1973, no British prime minister ever felt it was worth his while to come to meet his counterpart on this island.

"This indicated to me an unequal relationship - that all changed when we joined the EU together," he told a Brexit conference organised by Institute for International and European Affairs at the Mansion House in Dublin.

For the former Fine Gael leader, these Ireland-UK contacts on EU issues at senior official and political level had proved invaluable and their potential loss would have considerable consequences.

Bertie Ahern, Taoiseach from 1997 until 2008, said he had negotiated with Britain at the EU table on all sorts of issues over a period of some 20 years.

He agreed that ways must be found to maintain close contact with a near neighbour and major trading partner, and he suggested the neglected Good Friday Agreement structures could be called into play.

Brian Cowen, Taoiseach from 2008 until 2011, agreed ways must be found to maintain close relations with Britain. He also saluted the EU's support for the Northern Ireland peace process and suggested ways must be found to maintain this.

But Mr Ahern had a word of warning for current Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. He said the Irish Government must secure a Border deal well in advance of an EU leaders' summit next October, which will sign off on a UK 'withdrawal agreement'.

"The reality in EU Council meetings is that late at night you're asked to compromise so everyone can agree and move forward. That could happen in October. I wouldn't recommend anyone in the Irish Government plan a Halloween party," Mr Ahern said.

He warned that if the Border remains outstanding until the last minute, the Taoiseach would come under enormous pressure to compromise to save the bigger EU-UK 50bn settlement.

"That's how it works - that's the way it always worked," Mr Ahern said.

Mr Bruton and Mr Ahern each warned of the risk of violence if Brexit causes a return of Border customs controls in Ireland.

On the potential threat of violence, Mr Bruton said some form of Border control for goods must be put in place if Britain leaves both the EU customs union and single market. "We know from history that the existence of Border posts, however unobtrusive these might be, symbolises for many people the partition of the country - something many people are disinclined to accept," Mr Bruton said.

The former Fine Gael leader said the return of Border controls would increase the potential for smuggling, which was closely related to paramilitary activity and criminality.

Mr Ahern, leader of Fianna Fail from 1994 until 2008, said there would be no delay on the return to violence if Border controls emerged from Brexit.

He stressed his hope that controls would not happen and hoped compromise can be found but he foresaw attacks on any Border control points.

"You wouldn't have to wait too long for violence. The communities on both sides of the Border would pull down anything put up - with their bare hands," Mr Ahern said.

All three former Taoisigh were keen to strike an optimistic note. But there was more hope than confidence on display in their thoughtful offerings on this make-or-break issue for Ireland.
Field margins that are allowed to flower and form a dense vegetation provide a habitat for flowering plants, as well as cover and food for farmland wildlife such as birds and bumblebees.

A new project in the Bride Valley in east Cork will reward participating farmers for wildlife on their farms.

The Biodiversity Regeneration In a Dairying Environment (BRIDE) project will provide participating farmers with farm habitat plans that identify the most appropriate and effective wildlife management options for individual farms. Farmers will be paid for their conservation actions.

The BRIDE project was one of eleven projects selected from over 100 applications by Department of Agriculture Food, and the Marine, and the European Union, under the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) funding programme.

An innovative element of the project is its higher payments for higher wildlife gains (a results-based approach). Thus, the more flowers in a hedgerow or field margin, the higher the payment. The greater reward for a higher quality product is very familiar to farmers, and the BRIDE project applies this principle to the management of wildlife habitats.

This also means that farmers will be paid for the ongoing management of selected existing wildlife habitats, which is an important feature of the project.

Donal Sheehan, the BRIDE Project Manager, who lives in Castlelyons, places great emphasis on the fact that the BRIDE Project has been designed by local farmers for local farmers and this is one of the most important distinguishing features of the project.

Expand Close Hedgerows are an important source of food and habitat for wildlife in the Irish countryside. Their management has a large impact on wildlife; here, the flowering hedge is a wonderful resource for bees and butterflies, and the berries will be major food item for birds later in the season. The taller emerging trees are perfect for breeding birds. / Facebook

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Whatsapp Hedgerows are an important source of food and habitat for wildlife in the Irish countryside. Their management has a large impact on wildlife; here, the flowering hedge is a wonderful resource for bees and butterflies, and the berries will be major food item for birds later in the season. The taller emerging trees are perfect for breeding birds.

Information Meeting

The BRIDE project will be open to farmers within the Bride river catchment, from Glenville to Tallow. A public information meeting will be held in Corrin Event Centre at 8pm on Wednesday May 2.

The Project will run for five years and is designed to increase and maintain biodiversity on intensively managed farms in the area through simple, innovative measures.

The effects on wildlife will be monitored through the project, which aims to create suitable habitats for local important populations of wildlife include skylarks, yellowhammers, bumblebees and frogs and newts. The BRIDE Project differs from traditional agri-environment schemes through its use of a results-based payment system i.e. more farmland habitats will result in higher financial payments.

An ecologist will work with participating farmers to develop a farm plan and advise on how to maximise the wildlife on their farm, and will focus on important habitats such as hedgerows, bogs, woodland, ponds, derelict buildings etc. Wild birds and other animals dont respect farm boundaries, and the BRIDE Project is also designed to work at a landscape scale.

It will involve several clusters of neighbouring farms to collectively enhance biodiversity on a much larger scale than would be possible on an individual farm basis. Farmers will improve the environment for the wider community and local participation will help forge a strong identity that values local wildlife and the farming with nature concept.
The spectacular west Clare 300 ft high cliffs where a farmer dumped 12 animal carcasses is mentioned in the Lonely Planet guide to Ireland, a court has heard.

At Ennis Circuit Court, Det Garda Oliver Downes also told the court that it took two days for a pyre to cremate the remains of the eight horse and four cattle carcasses to burn itself out at Baltard, Doonbeg in April 2014.

Det Downes said that the authorities took the decision to cremate the remains and organise the pyre as it was not practical to remove the carcasses from the base of the Cliffs.

Det Downes said that the pyre required two tonnes of coal, 90 bags of timber and 90 bags of kindle to help cremate the animal remains.

He also said that the cremation of the carcasses and disposing of the remains cost the Council 7,372.

In the case, Martin Gerald Foley (65) of Lislanihan, Kilkee pleaded guilty to disposing of waste in a manner that is likely to cause environmental pollution on dates unknown between April 20th 2013 and March 13th 2014 contrary to Section 32 (1) of the Waste Management Act.

In court, Patrick Whyms BL confirmed that his client will be pleading guilty to sample counts from 193 animal welfare charges brought against Mr Foley in a separate prosecution.

Mr Whyms said: That case will not trouble the court as far as a jury trial is concerned.

In that case, the animal welfare charges relate to cattle and horses at locations in west Clare at Lisdeen, Lislanihan, Donoghboy, Dough and Baltard between March 2014 and 2016.

Mr Whyms said that he would make his plea of mitigation in relation to the two cases at a later date.

In the dumping case, the court heard that the State authorities carried out a painstaking investigation to identify the remains and pinpoint the culprit through DNA matching of the animals in the face of denials from Mr Foley when he first questioned on the dumping.

In evidence, Det Downes said that a walker contacted Gardai on March 31st 2014 in a very distressed state and informed them of the carcasses she found dumped.

Det Downes said that the cliffs are 'spectacular', very popular with tourists and walkers and are part of a Special Area of Conservation (SAC).

He said that the carcasses were in various states of decomposition and that the cattle had their ear ID tags removed.

Det Downes said at the time, there was no requirement for horses to be tagged.

He said that a multi-agency investigation was launched involving the Dept of Agriculture and Clare Co Council.

Det Downes said that four muscle samples were taken from the four bovine carcasses.

The detective said that an inspection was made of Mr Foleys herd on April 1st and 4th and 13 cattle were found to be missing from the herd.

Det Downes said that tissue samples from five of the 13 were retained at a lab and they matched with two of the bovine samples that were taken at the scene.

Counsel for the State, Lorcan Connolly BL said that the technology in place to preserve the integrity of the national herd helped identify the cattle as belonging to Martin Gerald Foley.

Det Downes said that Mr Foley also put forward the theory that the animals were washed up by the sea.

However, an oceanographer employed by the State to comment on the theory said that this was very unlikely due to the motion of the sea and the wave action.

Mr Whyms said that there is no suggestion that the animals were anything other than dead when disposed of at the Cliffs.

He said: The court will hear that Mr Foleys herd had a problem with mortality. It wasnt a case that he was routinely dumping animals. In the space of three months, 32 dead animals died on his farm and were disposed of in the correct manner.

Mr Whyms said that Mr Foley was also poor at record keeping. Det Downes agreed with Mr Whyms said Mr Foley was not making any financial from the farm.

Mr Connolly said that the penalties for the offence are fined up to 15m and prison terms up 10 years in jail.

Judge Gerald Keys remanded Mr Foley on continuing bail to appear before court on May 21st when the animal neglect case is also listed.
A close friend who had his farm and business burgled within weeks of one another led one enterprising man to set up a free online database of stolen and recovered property.

Founder Ivan Sheridan, said when his friend fell victim to the burglaries he saw the difficulties he encountered trying to recover equipment and property items.

As a result www.theftfinders.ie was created just a few short weeks ago.

Ivan explained: My friend had placed some distinguishing paint marks on some of his farm machinery and implements and some of these were recovered after he contacted gardai when he spotted them for sale online.

He hadnt been as diligent where his business is concerned and nothing taken in that break-in was ever recovered. I also saw again and again how gardai struggle to get caches of stolen property back to its rightful owner when they make big hauls.

From the village of Kells in Kilkenny, the father of three and entrepreneur who never backs away from a challenge, worked as a carpenter for several years, followed by a time working in construction, owning a pub and tour operator, so he has seen at first hand security issues around businesses, homes and farms nationwide.

More than 2,000 thefts on farms are reported to the Gardai every year. Yet latest statistics show that the true incidence is far higher as, as much as 45pc of agricultural crimes go unreported. Nearly half of farms have experienced theft at some stage and only eight per cent of stolen assets are ever recovered.

Many rural communities and farmers in particular have been hit by criminal gangs over and over again. I want to help farmers recover items quickly and also want to encourage them to note markings and serial numbers etc. That way, items can be better reported to the gardai and to insurance companies.

Unfortunately one in four of us will be the victim of a theft or break-in over our lifetimes and seven out of every ten robberies, thefts or burglaries go unsolved and items are never recovered.

"The site works the very same as Done Deal. You post a picture, if you have one, details of the goods, any distinguishing marks, serial numbers etc. It's totally free.

The site includes farm machinery, animals, tools, and trailers, construction equipment, farm animals as well as other everyday items such as bikes, sports, jewellery, pets and musical equipment and more.

If a member of the public spots something for sale which they suspect is stolen property and it matches the description of an item on our site, they can report it to the owner by simply pressing the Report as Seen button. This notifies the owner of the exact location of their property in real time.

This is an invaluable resource in the event of items being stolen. And if machinery or other stolen goods are later recovered, farmers will be able to prove to the Gardai they own them as they have a correct log.

The site, financed by Ivan from personal savings, also helps people who have experienced burglaries report their theft to a wider audience.

It hopefully will help people unwittingly buying stolen goods they shouldnt be. It will also hopefully prevent the resale of these goods.

I hope it will help gardai identify property and spur people to take a note of what they have in their garages, their sheds or in their homes so they can make a clear report to them and their insurance company if their home or property is struck by criminals.

Theftfinders.ie also includes an asset management section which allows members of the public to create their own database of property they own, listing serial numbers, distinguishing markings and photos.

The site allows people to transfer their items from the asset management section to the stolen section, in the event of a theft. A fee of 1 per item applies to this section.

Ivan said the reaction from Gardai, farming community and other businesses to the website has been very encouraging and positive. We're hoping to work closely with the Gardai and list the 2.5m worth of stolen goods they have recovered and help get them back to their rightful owners."

The entrepreneur also aims, once the site is more established, to set-up a similar service in the UK and eventually to the wider EU.

Due to so much property stolen in Ireland ending up for sale in the UK, it is only natural that we would venture into there. Once we're established there, we hope to bring Theftfinders to all of Europe.

The Kilkenny man said he was surprised that nothing like this was set-up before.

A few Facebook sites help people find lost items but there didnt seem to be anything extensively dedicated to lost and recovered equipment. But yes, I am surprised someone hasn't set up this before.

My own experience of watching a friend go through the trauma of two thefts was the nudge I needed to get it up and running.
Posted Tuesday, April 24, 2018 6:45 am

Missouri native George Washington Carver was named the second member of the Missouri Soybean Center Hall of Fame during the third annual Soybean Symposium earlier this month.

We can be proud that Missouri produced this great person. He was an agronomist with a mission, said Bill Wiebold, director of the Missouri Soybean Center.

In his role as an educator, Carver organized institutes to share his research with sharecroppers and tenant farmers. He believed that scientific farming methods could reduce their production costs and make them self-sufficient, said Wiebold.

He also led six-week, hands-on courses for farmers. For those who could not afford to travel to these courses, he organized the Jesup Agricultural Wagon, which served as a mobile agricultural school.

Carver was a pioneer in value-added agriculture, Wiebold said. He knew that crop rotation would fail if other crops in rotation had little value. His work with the bean foreshadowed the many ways that soy is used in the marketplace today. Carver used soybean to produce nondairy cheeses, baking flours and other foods.

Carver was born in the 1860s as a slave near Joplin. He was freed when slavery ended in Missouri in 1865. He was educated at home until age 11 and then attended a school for black children. At 14, he moved to Kansas on his own to continue his schooling.

He homesteaded near Beeler, Kansas, in his early 20s. In 1890, he moved to Iowa to study art, then decided to study botany at Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts, where he earned bachelors and masters degrees. Booker T. Washington invited Carver to join him at Tuskegee Institute of Alabama. He served as a professor at Tuskegee for more than 40 years.

Carver championed the use of crop rotation, crop diversification and composting. He developed hundreds of products using soybean, peanuts and sweet potatoes.

The late Donald W. Heil, a lifelong Carroll County farmer and international promoter of soybean, was the first inductee to the Missouri Soybean Center Hall of Fame.

To learn more about Missouri soybean, go to soybeancenter.missouri.edu/center.
Professional services firm BDO Ireland has bought Irish management consulting firm Eaton Square.

Following the agreement, financial details of which have not been disclosed, the company will operate as BDO Eaton Square.

The new business unit will create up to 100 new management consultant jobs, and is aiming to deliver 30pc year-on-year growth over a three-year period, a statement from the company said.

The additional jobs, which will bring the company workforce to 145, will be located across BDO Eaton Square's locations in Dublin, Cork and Limerick. In addition, the company is aiming to achieve 20m in annual revenues over the three-year period.

"Our motive in merging our existing consulting business with Eaton Square is to create a powerful new force in management consulting, a force that is partner-led and client-focused," said Michael Costello, managing partner at BDO Ireland.

Founded in 2012, Eaton Square was set up to provide a consulting services across a variety of areas including organisation design, strategy development and execution, system integration, and resolution management.

Under the acquisition, Eaton Square employees - including co-founders Aidan McHugh and David O'Connor - will join the BDO Eaton Square team.

Mr McHugh and Mr O'Connor will join the combined BDO Eaton Square team as partners.

"Joining forces now with BDO will further our growth by widening and deepening the expertise we offer to clients," Mr McHugh said.

"Our ambition now, as BDO Eaton Square, is to become Ireland's leading team of management consultants and advisers."

The announcement was welcomed by Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys, who described it as another "tangible indication" that Ireland's professional services industry is going from strength to strength.

"BDO and Eaton Square have built an extremely impressive track record supporting companies in Ireland and globally in realising significant growth," she said.

"I have no doubt BDO Eaton Square has a bright future ahead of them and I wish them well in their future endeavours," she added.

BDO Ireland is part of the BDO Group which has offices across the US, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
IPL Plastics, the company formerly known as One51, will hold a shareholder vote on May 17 to approve a corporate restructure aimed at paving the way for a listing on the Toronto stock exchange in late June.

In preparation for the initial public offering, which is predicted to generate about 125m, investors must approve the establishment of a Canadian holding company.

The overhaul will be undertaken via a scheme of arrangement, which necessitates a court meeting followed by a shareholder vote at an emergency general meeting. Both events will run immediately after IPL's annual general meeting on May 17 in Dublin's Westbury Hotel.

Investor backing for the restructure also represents the last major hurdle before the IPO, which is due to start in late May or early June with the release of a prospectus and a formal roadshow to prospective shareholders.

The move to the boards will dilute the value of shareholders' existing stakes. Irish investors control 57pc of the company, which will reduce to 45pc after the IPO.

Canadian investors, Caisse de depot et placement de Quebec (CDPQ), and Fonds de Solidarite des Travailleurs du Quebec, will see their stakes watered down from 43pc to about 34pc.

However, Irish holders of the stock who have stuck with the company during the past turbulent decade, have been offered the option of trading out ahead of the IPO via a CAD$50m (31.8m) share buyback.

Most of these 2,000 investors are expected to pass on the share buyback option and follow their money in the IPO. Under the listing rules, these shareholders will be restricted from trading the stock on the Toronto exchange for six months after IPL's debut.
Irish insurance bosses fear they'll struggle to be compliant with tough new data rules in May, potentially leaving their businesses liable for multi-million euro fines.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is tipped as a key challenge, in a survey of insurance sector CEOs, along with Brexit, cyberattacks and skills shortages.

The stakes are massively high. Insurers hold highly-sensitive personal data about their customers - including claims and health details.

Under the GDPR regime, from next month a failure to correctly manage that data will attract punitive fines.

The GDPR gives regulators, including Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner, powers to hit firms with up to a maximum of 4pc of a company's global annual turnover, or 20m, whichever is higher.

Even existing data protection rules have long been regarded as an impediment to the sector, for instance by blocking the sharing of detailed claims and customer data the sector argues could be used to help identify fraudsters.

PwC's 21st Global CEO Survey of 100 insurance chief executives suggest the sector has a generally positive outlook when it comes to the overall global economy.

Half of insurance CEOs believe that global economic growth will improve over the next 12 months, up from only 19pc in 2017.

Nine out of 10 insurance CEOs are confident about their own organisation's revenue prospects over the next three years.

There are significant clouds on the horizon, however.

In Ireland, the majority (63pc) of Irish insurance CEOs see Brexit as a disruptor, although some see opportunities for their UK operations to relocate to Ireland.

Central Bank of Ireland deputy governor Ed Sibley warned earlier this month that the insurance sector here was significantly underprepared for the potential impact of Brexit.

The pace of technological change is also flagged as a concern by insurance bosses.

In Ireland, GDPR is a key challenge, with many struggling to be compliant for the May deadline.

Globally, insurance CEOs biggest concerns are what they describe as "over-regulation" (95pc), cyberthreats (93pc) and speed of technological change (85pc).

With data protection, cybersecurity and new technologies all highlighted as challenges, it's little surprise that eight out of 10 insurance CEOs are concerned about shortages of digital skills within the industry and within their own workforce. That is the highest percentage of any industry surveyed by PwC.

Notably, the levels of "extreme concern" regarding cyberattacks has almost doubled since the last survey.

Technology should offer significant opportunities, as well as threats to insurers according to Darren O'Neill, Data Analytics Partner at PwC Ireland.

"There are substantial opportunities on the horizon as a new generation of predictive analytics and AI transforms insurers' ability to detect, anticipate and avert risk," he said.

"Notable possibilities include RegTech, which can not only strip out costs in labour-intensive areas, but also strengthen risk management and improve compliance. In fact, Irish insurance CEOs see greater opportunities from data analytics, AI and robotics compared to global counterparts."
The delayed delivery this summer of the WB Yeats passenger ship has seen shares in Irish Continental Group (ICG) fall as much as 2.6pc, with thousands of holidaymakers left inconvenienced and out of pocket.

The company, which owns the Irish Ferries brand, confirmed over the weekend that delivery of its new vessel from the Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesselchaft shipyard in Germany will be delayed beyond the July date when it was expected to come into service on the Dublin-Cherbourg route.

The 154m ship will accommodate almost 1,900 passengers and crew, have 435 cabins and space for 165 freight vehicles as well as 300 cars.

Customers booked on the vessel took to media over the weekend in a furious backlash against Irish Continental after it cancelled all bookings on the ship between July 12 and July 29.

It will accommodate passengers on its Oscar Wilde ship out of Rosslare instead, but not on passengers' booked date of travel. Affected passengers, who won't be offered a full refund, have been given a 150 voucher to use in 2019 on its Ireland-France routes.

"While clearly an inconvenience for those passengers concerned, and potential lost contribution for ICG over the three-week period, it should be viewed in the context of the present value of cash flows derived from an investment having an expected life of 40 years," noted Goodbody Stockbrokers' analyst Gerry Hennigan.

He said that despite the delayed introduction of the vessel, Goodbody is maintaining its projection that ICG will generate ebitda of 83m in the current year.
Money is the biggest source of worry for people despite the economy's strong growth.

More people are worried about their finances than last year.

Family and health were the issues that came next when people were asked to list their worries in order of importance, according to a survey commissioned by insurance and protection company Royal London among Irish people.

It was the third year in a row that money topped the list of worries for consumers.

Experts said that money concerns have become more intense despite the rise in the economy. This is likely due to the ongoing uncertainty over Brexit, and the rising cost of housing and rents.

The survey found that money is the greatest worry for those between the ages of 18 and 34, the generation most affected by the rising cost of accommodation - both rental and to buy.

More than half of those in their 20s and 30s are anxious about their finances.

But finances are less of a concern for people over the age of 55. Just over 29pc of those over the age of 55 worry about money.

Loneliness is an issue for more than one in 10 of those who are not married and also those aged over 55.

Across all age groups, some 46pc of respondents to the survey of 1,000 people, conducted by iReach, said money was their primary worry.

This was up from 37pc the previous year.

More women than men were concerned about money in 2018.

"The reason for the marked difference between 2017 and 2018 could have been due to the public being buoyed last year by the reports of the continuing growth of the economy, and as a result being more optimistic in terms of their levels of disposable income," said Joe Charles, an executive with Royal London.
880 apartments in the Beacon South Quarter must have deficiencies addressed. Photo: Steve Humphreys

Homeowners in an apartment complex found to have structural defects have been given 21 days to pay upwards of 5,000 or face legal action from their management company.

Families in the Beacon South Quarter complex in south Dublin received letters in recent days warning their names could be published in newspapers if they do not pay up.

It comes after Dublin Fire Brigade identified "fire deficiencies" in the development that have to be addressed.

A building programme running until 2023 has been set out for the works, which will cost more than 10m.

The 880 apartments in the complex are owned by a mix of large-scale landlords and private individuals.

Many have started making the payments but sources say a significant number have not as they object to being left paying for deficiencies they were unaware of at the time of purchase.

Expand Close Families in the Beacon South Quarter complex in south Dublin received letters in recent days warning their names could be published in newspapers if they do not pay up. / Facebook

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Whatsapp Families in the Beacon South Quarter complex in south Dublin received letters in recent days warning their names could be published in newspapers if they do not pay up.

A letter issued by the Beacon South Quarter Management Company in recent days says it plans to "bring the development to a safe living standard as soon as possible".

It says the directors are "fully committed to mitigating costs, concluding the insurance claim, seeking legal redress where possible and keeping the issue off the national agenda".

But the correspondence goes on to warn that individual homeowners withholding payment is "totally unacceptable" and the directors "cannot, and will not, tolerate payment default".

Residents have been given 21 days to enter a payment plan or face interests and penalties.

Expand Close The 880 apartments in the complex are owned by a mix of large-scale landlords and private individuals. / Facebook

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Whatsapp The 880 apartments in the complex are owned by a mix of large-scale landlords and private individuals.

"The Management Company solicitor will be instructed to take legal action upon the entire debt, up to and including obtaining judgment against you, which may also be registered as a judgment mortgage against your property.

"Secured judgments will be published in 'Stubbs' and trade Gazettes/Sunday newspapers, etc, and a full list of published judgments will be attached to the Management Company's Annual Report," the letter states.

Some residents have also claimed that their fobs for access to the apartment complex have been deactivated in recent days.

The collection of debts is being facilitated by Aramark Property, but it directed queries on the situation to the Beacon South Quarter Owners' Management Company.

However, calls to the number listed as the management company were answered by representatives from Aramark who were unable to provide an alternative contact.

The management company told the Irish Independent that any media queries were being dealt with by Aramark.

Local Green Party TD Catherine Martin has previously called on the Government to intervene, suggesting homeowners affected by such issues should receive tax breaks or interest-free loans from the State.

She is currently drafting a bill in relation to putting protections in place for future homeowners.
Posted Tuesday, April 24, 2018 3:45 am

The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) and the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) recently announced the winners of the 2018 Yes You CAN Make Missouri Litter-Free trash can-decorating contest.

MDC and MoDOT sponsor the contest as part of Missouris No MOre Trash! campaign to raise awareness about litter and discourage littering. The contest encourages students from kindergarten through eighth grade to join the fight against litter by decorating and displaying a large trash can with the No MOre Trash! logo and a litter prevention message using a variety of creative media.

The winning school from each of three competition grade categories (K-2, 3-5 and 6-8) received a $200 award. First-place winners are then eligible for a $600 grand prize and a trophy. Entries are judged by a group of staff at MDC and MoDOT.

The winning entry for both the Grades 3-5 group and the overall grand prize winner was the third-grade class of Jessica Brown at Logan-Rogersville Elementary.

The students came together to create this fun trash can for our schools lobby, wrote Brown in their entry submission. Several students have already been found searching the halls for litter, just so they could use this can! We hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Winners in the other age groups were Felecia Creeds second-grade class at Willard North Elementary and Mrs. Vosss seventh-grade art class at St. Elizabeths Junior High.
ULSTER Bank has offered customers affected by the disappearance of money from their accounts the option of getting emergency cash.

The bank says it is investigating how money has gone missing from customer accounts.

Large numbers of the banks customers have reported that their salaries have vanished from their accounts, while direct debits have not been paid.

Other customers have reported that credit and debit cards have been declined.

Customers said when they checked the banks app its shows that their balances are not as they should be.

Lodgements of the likes of cheques are not showing up in current accounts.

Customers said transactions since Friday had disappeared from their accounts.

In an update, the bank said it could be tomorrow before the issue is resolved. The bank said its IT staff will be working overnight to process transactions.

It said it will be making emergency cash of up to 500 available to customers who needs it.

The bank did not say how many customers are impacted, but stressed that not all of those with an Ulster Bank current account has seen their funds disappear.

The bank said: We are investigating this issue as a matter of urgency and apologise for any inconvenience caused. No customer will be left out of pocket as a result of this issue. Emergency cash is available in branch or via telephony. If you would like to contact us please call 1850 424 365, get in touch via webchat or alternatively visit your local branch.

Hundreds of frustrated customers took to Twitter to ask the bank when the issue will be resolved.

One customer said: Standing orders/direct debits due to hit. When can I expect issue to be resolved and will you compensate for cost of bounced direct debit mandate?, he said.

Another stated: My salary has disappeared from my account today and my wife had her card declined when trying to pay for a GP visit and medication. Extraordinary how often this kind of issue happens with this bank. Time to change to a competitor I think.

An Ulster Bank spokesperson said some transactions previously applied to customers accounts since April 20 are no longer showing.

This is not the first time the bank has had to deal with a collapse of its accounts system.

It was hit with a Central Bank fine of up to 5m for the IT failure that left customers unable to access their bank accounts for weeks on end in the summer of 2012. Its parent group, Royal Bank of Scotland, was fined 64m by UK regulators.

There have been IT outages here since then.

Under-investment in its systems and the outsourcing of some tasks to Asia have been blamed by unions for the problems.
Italy is keen to find a buyer for troubled Alitalia, which has around 12,000 staff, that wont result in large cuts to the current headcount at the airline  Lufthansas bid was for only half the workforce

The European Commission has launched an in-depth investigation to assess whether an Italian government rescue loan to Alitalia constituted state aid. The bankrupt airline has used the loan to stay open while it seeks a buyer.

EasyJet, Lufthansa, Air France-KLM, and Wizz Air have reportedly tabled interest in buying the whole or part of the group.

The EU Competition Commission will investigate whether Italy's decision to grant the rescue loans breached the bloc's state aid rules.

The Commission can order Italy to recover the money if it finds that the aid is illegal.

Alitalia, in which Etihad Airways holds a 49pc stake, was placed under extraordinary administration in May 2017. Italian authorities have opened a tender process, effectively an auction, aimed at finding a buyer for its assets.

Earlier this month, the Italian Industry Ministry said one of the three offers received for Alitalia provided "concrete steps forward in terms of routes and personnel".

EasyJet has said it submitted a revised expression of interest in Alitalia as part of a consortium, while Lufthansa said it had submitted a document setting out its ideas for a 'new' Alitalia.

Budget carrier Wizz Air, which said in January it would only be interested in the short-haul business, has also reportedly made an offer.

The Italian government has been seeking new investors for almost a year, but the sale process was delayed as a result of uncertainty over last month's national election, which ended in a hung parliament.

All political parties, which have yet to find a compromise on the formation of a coalition government, will be consulted about the terms of the sale negotiations, the ministry said in a statement.

Alitalia was once a symbol of Italy's post-war economic boom, but it now struggles to compete against low-cost carriers and high-speed trains at home.

With a headcount of about 12,000, Italy wants a buyer willing to guarantee the airline's survival without having to make big staff cuts.

Germany's Lufthansa in November said its offer was for a large part of Alitalia's fleet, but only half its staff. Details of its new offer have not been released.

To facilitate ongoing talks, the Industry Ministry said it would extend the mandate of Alitalia's three commissioners that is due to expire at the end of the month. (Reuters)
Fans at the Feile Festival in Thurles, Tipperary,1993

The Trip to Tipp is back.

Feile  or Irelands answer to Woodstock  is making a return to Semple Stadium.

Between 1990 and 1994, thousands of rockers, ravers and punks travelled to Tipperary for the raucous event.

It was our first modern music festival, and a rite of passage for many, with acts such as INXS, Meat Loaf, Simply Red, Iggy Pop, and Blur taking to the stage.

It also attracted Irish acts such as the Pogues, Christy Moore, the Saw Doctors and the Hothouse Flowers.

Some 28 years after the festival first launched, it will return to Semple Stadium this September  for one night only.

This time round, however, Feile has a slightly more genteel feel  having been re-branded as Feile Classical with a real focus on Irish musical talent.

Headliners will perform alongside the Irish Chamber Orchestra on a beautiful oyster stage.

The festival will be fully seated, complete with luxuries like a choice of clean toilets, gourmet vegan food stalls, and a selection of pop-up gin and Prosecco bars  a far cry from tinfoiled ham sandwiches and flasks of tea.

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The line-up this year is a throwback to the 90s glory days with the Stunning, Hothouse Flowers, An Emotional Fish, The 4 of Us, and the Frank and Walters, all taking to the stage.

A photography exhibition of fans attending Feiles throughout the 90s will flank the stage.

There will also be discussions about the cultural importance of Irelands first multi-day festival, held in the Tribal Tent and hosted by Irish Independent journalist John Meagher.

Feile Classical has been organised by broadcaster Tom Dunne, whose band Something Happens performed at Feile 90, 91 and 93.

This concert has been in the ether for some time now, he said.

Myself and the bands are really excited to be collaborating with the Irish Chamber Orchestra to put together a glorious in-your-face celebration of a special time in Irish music.

Feile was special, it was iconic, it was our Woodstock and Feile Classical will be an even bigger, better, louder explosion of the best of those days and so much more.

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Those hoping to make a weekend out of it are advised to stay in a local B&B  an upgrade from the 90s Feile camp sites.

Weekend tickets for the first Feile cost IR29.50 (37) with 19 acts on the line up including four international names; Meat Loaf, Deacon Blue, Big Country and Maria McKee.

One of the most memorable headline performances took place in 1993 when Chris de Burgh brought a scantily clad dancer on stage while singing Patricia the Stripper.

The 1994 festival was the final year Semple Stadium was used as an on-ground camping site.

The following year, Feile moved to the Rebel County and was staged in Corks Pairc Ui Chaoimh.

It was originally scheduled to take place in Mondello Park, Co Kildare, but local opposition forced music promoters MCD to seek another location at the last minute.

In 1996, it moved once again, taking place in Dublins Point Depot  reducing capacity and removing Feiles status as an outdoor event. The concert returned to Semple Stadium for the last time in 1997.

At that stage, the festivals popularity had started to fade and the size and scale of Feile was reduced.

Three years later, a new multi-day festival emerged on the scene  Witnness arrived in Fairyhouse, Co Meath, and was followed by Oxegen and then Electric Picnic.

Organisers are hoping that Feile Classical will tap into nineties nostalgia and the tribal days of Irish music  with that added bit of luxury.

As the festival is a seated event, tickets from 49.50 are limited and go on sale this Friday at Ticketmaster outlets.
Former Irish Nationwide Building Society chief executive Michael Fingleton has lost his appeal arguing he cannot lawfully be subject to a Central Bank inquiry into alleged regulatory breaches at the Society.

The three judge Court of Appeal today dismissed all grounds of Mr Fingletons appeal against the High Courts rejection of his challenge concerning the inquiry.

Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan and Ms Justice Mary Irvine gave separate judgments dealing with different grounds of appeal and dismissed all those grounds, including claims of objective bias on the part of the Central Bank, that it lacked jurisdiction or had delayed. The judges also rejected claims his entitlement to a fair hearing was prejudiced by the Central Banks publication of details of a settlement agreed with the Society itself over the banks inquiry.

Mr Justice Michael Peart agreed with his colleagues.

Mr Fingleton, now aged in his late seventies, was not in court for the delivery of judgment.

His core argument in his appeal was that he had retired before the inquiry was formally initiated in 2015 and the relevant law does not allow for inquiry into his past conduct of the Societys affairs.

Lawyers for the Central Bank had rejected that argument as absurd and nonsense.

The Central Bank estimates the collapse of INBS, which was nationalised and merged with the former Anglo Irish Bank in 2011, has cost the Irish public some 5.4 billion. That figure is disputed by Mr Fingleton, who joined INBS in 1971 and retired as CEO in 2009.

The Central Bank inquiry was initiated into allegations that certain prescribed contraventions were committed by both INBS, and certain persons concerned with its management, between August 2004 and September 2008. If the allegations are upheld, the relevant law allows for imposition of sanctions of up to 5m on a regulated firm and up to 500,000 on individuals.

The Central Bank previously announced it had reached a settlement with INBS then management concerning the allegations against the Society and said the settlement involved INBS admitting multiple breaches of financial services law and regulations. The maximum 5m fine was imposed but the Central Bank said that would not be collected as INBS had no assets.

Mr Fingleton and several other former officials of INBS remain subject of the inquiry.

In his High Court judgment dismissing Mr Fingletons case, Mr Justice Seamus Noonan ruled a person who by virtue of their status was in a position to influence the actions of a regulated entity may be subject to Central Bank investigation even if they no longer held that position. He also found Mr Fingleton had failed to show any inherent unfairness in the inquiry process.
A judge has stated that the State is funding a 'criminal' teenager living in the 'lap of luxury' and a 'holiday camp.

Judge Patrick Durcan made his comment after hearing that TUSLA is funding the 17 year old living in a two bedroom apartment.

After hearing of the teen's living arrangements at the Childrens Court in Ennis, Judge Durcan addressed him and said: "Here you are living in a lap of luxury - a criminal - and being provided with everything by the State. Have you any appreciation for that?

In response, the teen said: I do appreciate it a lot.

Asked to outline the money he receives while staying at the TUSLA funded two bedroom apartment, the teen said: I get 35 a week pocket money; 40 a week for shopping and 50 a month for clothes.

Judge Durcan asked: Do you realise 100 years ago there were young lads your age being sent off to fight in Europe with big heavy boots, rough uniforms. No one doing their laundry for them.

He further asked: Do you realise 30 to 40 years ago, there were young fellas two years younger than you leaving this area to go off working in Scotland and to work on building sites and building the roads of Britain and they were living like sardines?

In response, the teen said: I do, but times are different now.

Judge Durcan said that the teen is in a holiday camp at the moment. A two bed apartment to yourself, food provided, clothes provided, everything provided.

In reply, the teen said: I know it sounds like a holiday camp but it is still a challenge for me. I find it is good and helping me a lot with independent living."

In response, Judge Durcan said: You would charm the birds off the trees and charm them back again. If you ran for any political party in the next general election, you would be elected heading the poll.

The teen is before the court having pleaded guilty to a spate of offences, including causing criminal damage to a Grotto in Kilkee last July.

The teen has pleaded guilty to causing 180 worth of damage to the Grotto in the seaside town on July 12th last.

The teen has also pleaded guilty to causing 2,474 worth of damage to a Honda motorcycle in Kilkee last July; 240 worth of damage to a driver's wing mirror on OCurry Street, Kilkee, 200 to a wing mirror on the Strand Line in Kilkee and 190 to a widescreen and drivers door.

The teen is being accommodated at TUSLA funded accommodation following Judge Durcan declaring his accommodation needs an emergency.

Judge Durcan requested TUSLA earlier this year to source accommodation for the teen after the boys parents said that they couldnt take him back after stating that the family was at breaking point over his actions.

Solicitor for the boy, Daragh Hassett previously described the teen as uncontrollable when explaining why his parents couldnt take him back.

The teen will turn 18 over the Summer and Judge Durcan told him: I dont do a creche here. Once you are over 18, you are in the big boy's club and big boy's rules apply.

Judge Durcan said: The next day, you are out in the open court. The big jungle, your name can appear in the press.

The judge said that the teen has wonderful parents whose hearts you have broken.

Judge Durcan said that if the boy continues to behave himself, he would strike the matter out, but may order that the boy do a guided tour of Limerick prison.

In response, the boys mother said this practice is done in the US for teens with behavioural problems.

In reply, Judge Durcan said: He doesnt have any behavioural problems, he is just spoilt.

Insp Tom Kennedy said that the teen was going in the right direction, while Mr Hassett said: He is getting every chance and as a young person, he deserves every chance. He is a very smart young man and a very good sportsman when he puts his mind to it.

He has a lot going for him and is a young man who is capable of going on to third level education. He is back in education - he should be doing his Leaving Cert and doing well in it.

Solicitor for TUSLA, Dermot ODonovan said that the teen is bit of a mystery as his crimes are against property and not to feed any habit.

He said: The extraordinary thing is that he is a very courteous, pleasant boy when you meet him.

Judge Durcan remanded the teen on continuing bail to June 15.

A social worker for TUSLA told the court that TUSLA is seeking funding to extend the teens placement at the accommodation by three to six months which would go beyond the teens 18th birthday.

The teenager told the court: If they got the go-ahead, I would definitely co-operate.

The social worker said: He is getting on really well. There have been some blips.

Asked what kind of blips by Judge Durcan, the social worker said: There is an agreement around his access with friends and once he broke that agreement when he went missing for a few hours and came back under the influence of alcohol."

She added that on April 14 the teen was found to have been smoking marijuana.
THE High Court has granted applications from several parties for access to affidavits and documents connected with the corporate watchdog's bid to have inspectors appointed to Independent News & Media (INM).

Access to the court papers was sought by journalist Sam Smyth, former INM Ireland chief executive Joe Webb, former INM company secretary Andrew Donagher, public relations firm Red Flag Consulting, its chief executive Karl Brophy, chairman Gavin OReilly and executive office manager Mandy Scott.

The names of Mr Smyth, Mr Webb, Mr Donagher, Mr Brophy and Ms Scott all appeared on a 19-person list of persons of interest uncovered by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) during a year-long investigation into various corporate governance issues at the countrys largest media group.

It is feared the names on the list were searched for in data allegedly given to up to six companies external to INM in late 2014.

Also applying for access to court papers were former INM chief executive Robert Pitt, whose protected disclosure prompted the ODCE investigation, INM chief financial officer Ryan Preston, and Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon.

Ms Dixons office is to undertake an investigation into the major suspected data breach.

The court also heard that former INM chairman Leslie Buckley, on whose instruction, according to INM, data back-up tapes were given to a third party service provider, wanted access to the affidavits and court documents.

High Court President Mr Justice Peter Kelly today heard there was agreement between the ODCE and INM for documents to be released, subject to redactions of material the company argues is covered by legal professional privilege, and some other exclusions.

This is understood to relate to emails and documents outlining legal advice the company received on various matters.

Mr Justice Kelly said a most unusual feature of the case was the extraordinary level of publicity it had received.

This, he said, had led to various parties becoming concerned and wanting to be apprised of the material before the court.

He said counsel for INM had said at a previous hearing that legally privileged material was contained in an affidavit filed by ODCE director Ian Drennan and certain exhibits.

The purpose of the hearing today was to decide how the affidavit and materials may be given to the interested parties, in light of the concerns over privilege.

The judge said, however, that in the meantime, an agreement had been reached between the ODCE and INM over how the applications for access could be dealt with.

Mr Justice Kelly made directions for access in line with that agreement.

Under the agreement, certain portions of Mr Drennans affidavit and the replying ones on behalf of INM will not be disclosed to various parties.

All those parties will be able to apply to the court to reassess its decision if they believe they have not been given material they feel they should have received, the judge said.

After hearing from counsel for the ODCE, INM and Mr Pitt, Mr Justice Kelly ruled that he should be given access to an affidavit filed by Mr Drennan and all exhibits to it, apart from eight which are said to post date his departure from the company last October.

Mr Pitt will also be furnished with all 12 replying affidavits filed on behalf of INM.

The court heard that Mr Preston had received the Drennan affidavit from INM and intended to correspond with the company in relation to other documentation he is seeking.

Mr Smyth, Mr Donagher, Mr Webb, Red Flag, Mr Brophy, Mr OReilly and Ms Scott will be given access to portions of the Drennan affidavit and exhibits which relate solely to the data breach issue. The responding affidavits from INM will also be supplied, insofar as they deal with the alleged data breach.

Solicitor Simon McAleese, who is representing Mr Smyth, told the court he had learned from media reports he himself may feature in documents and also wanted access to them on his own behalf.

Mr Justice Kelly gave him access on the same terms.

The court heard the ODCE and INM had agreed that the Data Protection Commissioner should receive all material related to the alleged data breach.

Meanwhile, the court also ruled that Mr Buckley should be given access to court papers.

Mr Justice Kelly also gave Mr Buckley liberty to apply to be joined to the proceedings.

Mr Buckleys counsel Sean Guerin SC said his clients was directly affected by the ODCE application and entitled to be served with all documents.

Mr Guerin was critical of the ODCE for not putting his clients point of view across at a previous hearing.

However, Neil Steen SC, for the ODCE, said the only entity directly affected by the application for inspectors was INM.

He said the ODCE would object to the papers being served on Mr Buckley.

Mr Steen also said he had not previously understood that Mr Buckley was asserting an entitlement to documentation and rejected any criticism of the ODCE as unfounded.

He said Mr Buckley had Mr Drennans affidavit and will get most of the exhibits and replying affidavits.
Former priest John Calnan leaving Cork Court after being convicted on charges of sexual assault of a 6 year old girl while hearing her confession Pic: Cork Courts

AN ELDERLY priest sexually assaulted a six-year-old girl during her First Confession and, when the abuse ended, put his hand on her head, blessed her and said her sins were now forgiven.

The girl, who is now in her 50s, said at the time she believed what the priest did was all part of the First Confession ceremony.

Retired priest John Calnan (79) was told by Judge Sean O'Donnabhain at Cork Circuit Criminal Court that his breach of trust was "phenomenal."

The judge said it was clear that Calnan was a serial offender - and the fact that some of the girls believed the abuse was part of a church ceremony was "obviously an outrage."

The elderly cleric, who had pleaded guilty to all the offences, avoided jail with an 18-month suspended prison sentence for the abuse of the three young girls.

Judge O'Donnabhain said that given Calnan's advanced age and serious health problems, a custodial sentence would not be appropriate.

Calnan appeared before the court on a signed plea of guilty in respect of five counts of indecently assaulting three girls in the Diocese of Cork and Ross between 1974 and 1978.

The victims cannot be identified for legal reasons.

The retired priest, who was first ordained in 1964 but hasn't worked in ministry since 1992, has served several prison sentences since first being convicted of indecent assault and attempted rape of other youngsters in 2012 and 2015.

Judge O'Donnabhain was told by Det Garda Maurice Shanley that an investigation was launched after complaints were received from three women.

All alleged the then-priest had indecently assaulted them during Church ceremonies in Cork when they were aged from six to eight years.

One woman said that, when she was six, she was taken into a room alone with Calnan at a national school for her First Confession.

In a statement to Gardai, the woman said she remembered looking at Calnan and his eyes were closed as he abused her.

Afterwards, Calnan "put his hand on her head and said: God bless you - your sins have been forgiven."

In a hard-hitting victim impact statement, the woman said the abuse had devastated her.

"I feel ashamed and embarrassed of my teenage years," she said.

"I spent my teenage years feeling ashamed and dirty. I had no respect for my body and for myself."

"I never go to Mass now - I sit in the church by myself and talk to God."

"I just wanted him to admit that what he did to me was so wrong."

The other two victims were also indecently assaulted during Confession either at schools or at churches.

When one girl tried to get away from Calnan, he insisted that he was only trying to tickle her.

Another girl complained about how rough Calnan was with her.

"They were like shovels - they were big hands," he added.

One victim said she felt she couldn't tell her parents what had happened because they were friendly with Calnan and held the Church in high esteem.

"It would kill them to know what he did to me," she said.

Det Garda Shanley said that when Calnan was first interviewed about the allegations in 2015, he was serving a prison sentence in Dublin.

Calnan readily admitted what the women had alleged.

The retired cleric is now resident at The Presbytery, Roman Street in Cork and is under careful supervision.

In 1992, before any indecent assault allegations were made against him, he stopped his priestly duties and went to the Gracewell Clinic in Birmingham to deal with his offending behaviour.

Calnan has continued to go to counselling and behavioural support meetings since then.

The court was told he has taken full responsibility for his actions and now has great empathy with his victims.

Calnan has chronic heart problems and serious mobility issues.
A 23-months-old child, who had not been conceived when his sister was tragically killed in a hit-and-run accident in Dublins Phoenix Park on April 6, 2015, was Tuesday awarded grief money for her death.

Marcel Siatka was born on May 24, 2016 - one year and 47 days after his sister Vanessa died in what a trial judge then called the worst case of dangerous driving he had ever heard of.

Barrister Conor Kearney, counsel for Marcel and Vanessas father Lukasz Siatka, told Judge Terence OSullivan in the Circuit Civil Court that the Injuries Board had assessed damages of 42,777 to be divided between Vanessas surviving family and to include the cost of her funeral.

Mr Kearney, who appeared with Suzanne McDonnell, of McDonnell Solicitors, said the Injuries Board had not, in its assessment, considered compensation for Marcel as he had not been born at the time of Vanessas death.

Judge OSullivan heard that, under the provisions of the Civil Liability Act, Mr Siatka had taken a claim on behalf of members of his family, including Marcel. Mr Siatka, of Brandon Square, Waterville, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15, said Vanessa had a brother born more than a year after her death, who was not included in the assessment.

Mr Kearney said the funeral, including a headstone, had cost 7,240 and the solatium, more commonly known as tear money, had been assessed at 14,500 each for Vanessas father Lukasz and her mother Katarzyna, with 2,000 each for three grandparents. There were other expenses.

He said it was for the court to approve the assessment and the parents had stated they had no difficulty for compensation, as decided by the court, being shared with Marcel, the brother Vanessa had not lived to know.

Judge OSullivan said it was not a particularly nice exercise to have to divide money between members of the family but he felt it would be appropriate to mark the fact that Marcel would undoubtedly make inquiries in the future about his sister and would experience grief for her loss.

He said the 6,000 allocated to the three grandparents should be reduced to 1,500 each so as to allow for Marcel also receiving 1,500 and he directed that Marcels money be paid into court to his future benefit. He offered the courts sympathy with the family.

Ciaran Lane, the then 25-year-old hit-and-run driver, of Ashington Avenue, on Dublins Navan Road, who pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing Vanessas death, was jailed in April 2016 by Judge Patrick McCartan for seven years with the final two years suspended.

Garda Owen ODoherty, of Cabra Garda Station, told the trial judge that the accident happened on Easter Sunday 2015 at a roundabout in the Phoenix Park. Vanessa, who was 23 months old at the time, had been standing next to her mother, Katarzynas parked car, when Lane, now aged 27, in a Toyota Corolla collided with the child at high speed and dragged her for some metres.

The court heard he drove off at speed but gave himself up later to guards in Cabra. During the course of the sentencing hearing evidence was given that Lane had consumed a litre of vodka and two grams of cocaine before taking to the road in his car with two friends that day.

Judge McCartan had heard he had panicked and ignored the pleas of his friends to stop. When he had heard of Vanessas death it had hit him like a ton of bricks.
Dragons' Den UK bosses were left red faced after turning down an Irish man's business now worth over 3m.

Rathmines native Dr Shane Murnaghan offered 10pc of his orthopaedic business 'Gravity Life' for a 25,000 (28,000) investment.

The 51-year-old and his business partner Mike Fisher described their back pain treating product as "revolutionary" to the panel of investors.

But the duo left empty handed after being rejected for not providing enough medical evidence to back their business claims.

Dragon Tej Lalvani said: I am a very evidence-based man and I need to see how it works. Thats a problem."

Jenny Campbell added: I am not going to invest in a product thats not proven."

However, since the episode was first filmed in 2017, Mr Murnaghan's business has grown enormously from 250,000 to over 3m in less than a year.

It has even been used by celebrities, including Prince Andrew and One Direction's Niall Horan.

Speaking to Independent.ie, Dr Murnaghan, who is a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine, said he knew from the start that the Dragons would have 'a go' at him.

"Before you even face the panel they make you jump through hoops to produce evidence for everything you say.

"I studied Japanese Medicane as well as martial arts, so I had to produce black belt certificates and doctorates  they take nothing a face value.

"I knew coming in they were going to have a go at me, but the most important thing was getting the message of our product out there."

Dr Murnaghan, who runs a clinic in Firhouse, said that his business success is evidence that the Dragons' Den investors don't always get it right.

"Getting the money was never the issue," he said.

"It was all about getting their support and reach so Mike and I could tackle a serious problem that wasn't being addressed.

"The business has just kept going forward and being able to help people living in chronic pain is such an amazing feeling.

"We've had so many success stories recently won the title of Best Health and Wellness Product 2018 in Hong Kong."

Gravity claims to use your own bodyweight to gently and naturally release tension to re-align youre the neck, spine and, pelvis.

Dr Murnaghan, who has been teaching and practicing traditional medicine for over 20 years, first came up with the idea after searching for a solution for back pain, following a spinal accident in 2008.
Houthi rebels fighting the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen have pledged to bring down the coalition after the rebel groups political leader and second in command was killed last week.

This crime will not pass without punishment; neither this nor other crimes like the targeting of a wedding in Hajjah province that left dozens dead or injured, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the leader of the Shia rebel group said in a speech aired on the rebel group-linked TV channel.

Saleh al-Samad, leader of the Houthis established administration in northern Yemen was, according to the rebel group, killed Thursday in an air strike carried out by the Saudi-led coalition.

He is number two behind Malik al-Houthi and both are wanted by the coalition. His head was priced $20 million. The rebel leader was killed in the eastern province of Hodeidah near the Red sea.

Al-Samad early this month, dubbed 2018 the year of ballistic excellence, in reference to the series of missiles the rebel group has launched across the border into Saudi Arabia, The New Arab reports.

Al-Samad is the top senior official of the rebel group to have been killed in the three-year conflict, which has made over 10,000 victims.

His death is a major blow to Irans proxy. The rebel group took control of capital Sanaa in 2015 flashing out President Mansour Hadi and his government from second city Aden.

Hadi-aligned groups have welcomed al-Samads death. Hadis exiled government pointed out that Samads death sends a clear message to Houthi leaders that Iranian terrorism will lead to their demise.

Samads death is a rejection of the coup and a victory to the country. In his last days, Samad visited several provinces, inciting for war and destruction, calling for the targeting of the Red Sea and international water passages, said Rageh Badi, the government spokesman.

Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been propping up Hadis force to take back territories from the rebels who are receiving technical support from Iran.

The rebel supreme council has chosen Mahdi al-Mashat to replace Al-Samad. The new pick was Abdul Malik al-Houthis representative.
A taxi car which was involved in the collision on Wellington Quay Picture: Mark McConville

Gardai are investigating if a vehicle in a serious crash involving an official garda car was involved in two earlier collisions.

Three people were hospitalised following the crash which happened on Wellington Quay at around 2pm on Tuesday afternoon.

A car struck the wing mirror of an official garda car. It then continued a short distance before hitting the rear of a taxi which was pushed into the path of a truck travelling in the outside lane.

The driver of the car (20s), the driver of the taxi and a passenger were all taken to St James's Hospital with minor injuries.

A garda spokesman told Independent.ie: "Gardai in Pearse St are investigating a collision on Wellington Quay, one of the cars involved was an official Garda car.

"Gardai are investigating the possibility that the car involved in the crash at wellington Quay was involved in two earlier minor collisions at St Stephens Green and Tara Street.

The road remained closed for most of the day but has since reopened.

The traffic ban on College Green had to be lifted to alleviate traffic and a number of diversions were put in place.

Expand Close Members of the Emergency services on Wellngton Quay, Dublin following a Motor Accident. Photo Gareth Chaney Collins / Facebook

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Whatsapp Members of the Emergency services on Wellngton Quay, Dublin following a Motor Accident. Photo Gareth Chaney Collins

Gardai are asking for any witnesses to contact them at Pearse Street Garda Station on 01 666 9000.
Some hospital consultants are to be offered top-up fees to treat their own patients under the Government's 50m plan to clear waiting lists, it has been confirmed.

A consultant, who is on a salary of more than 100,000, would effectively be paid on the double for treating the patient.

Some patients who are on the consultant's waiting list and cannot be treated during normal hours because of hospital pressures will be operated on at weekends for additional funding.

The initiative, which involves buying treatments for waiting list patients in private and public hospitals, is a desperate attempt to reduce the massive queues for surgery.

More than 20,000 of the 80,000 public patients who need surgery will have procedures such as removal of cataracts, lesions or hip operations paid for out of the special 50m allocation.

A number of public hospitals with spare theatre space will tender to treat 4,000 of these patients in return for a fee.

This fee, which will be paid to the hospital, covers the outlay of paying staff, including consultants, for the extra work as well as meeting other costs.

Payments are made to the public hospital by the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF), which has been given the 50m to pay for the procedures.

It was learned yesterday that some consultants will be allowed to treat patients from their own lists under the initiative.

However, a spokeswoman for the NTPF said that it would only happen in "exceptional" cases. He said: "This would only arise having regard to the interests of the patient, good governance and value for money."

He stressed that there were circumstances where "there are a limited number of specialists available to provide treatment in the locality".

"Public hospitals may submit proposals to the NTPF to carry out additional treatments.

"Such proposals are considered and accepted if suitable in the interests of patients, good governance and value for money," he added.

"Where the fund sources treatment in public hospitals it does so on the basis it is taking advantage of available resources."

The NTPF pays the public hospital a fixed price per procedure performed.

Health Minister Simon Harris has said that the Eye and Ear Hospital in Dublin, Nenagh General Hospital and Roscommon Hospital are among the public hospitals which will get extra funding to do waiting list work.

The plans so far only cover surgical lists and there has been no indication of how much will go towards buying specialist appointments for more than 500,000 patients on outpatient waiting lists.

The bulk of the 50m will go towards private hospitals.

A lack of beds and doctors are contributing to the failure to meet the needs of public patients on waiting lists and figures have reached a record high.

The trolley crisis means patients on waiting lists can have their planned surgery cancelled at short notice.

The action plan for inpatient and day case surgery says that treatment will be offered to all patients who are currently waiting for more than nine months in high volume specialties such as cataracts, hip and knee replacements, tonsils and scopes.

Overall, the plan is to carry out 1.14 million elective procedures during the year.

Figures for March show 4,318 of those on waiting lists for surgery were children, of whom 481 were in the queue for more than 18 months.

Speaking in the Dail, the minister said he wanted to remove private practice from public hospitals and would have an expert report at the end of the year.

"I accept it is a good idea," he added.

He said the expert group report chaired by Donal de Buitleir is not to tell him whether it is a good or a bad idea.

"I want to make clear the purpose of the report is to show me the roadmap on how to do it," he added.

This would free up public hospitals for the care of public patients.
Myra Greene (59), from Dunmanway, in Co Cork, suffered deteriorating eyesight due to cataracts but faced a two-year wait for a specialist appointment.

Cataracts usually get slowly worse over time, and surgery to replace the cloudy lens is needed.

"I have arthritis and the steroids caused the cataracts. I am a carer for my husband who is in a wheelchair, so it is important I keep driving," she said.

She read how Michael Collins, her local Independent TD for Cork South West, was organising bus trips to Belfast for local constituents who also desperately needed cataract surgery.

They were availing of the cross-Border directive where they pay the cost of the procedure upfront and are reimbursed by the HSE.

"Michael organised everything. We stayed overnight in a hotel, had the surgery at Kingsbridge Hospital in Belfast the next day, and came home."

The surgery has been life-changing, and Myra is travelling for surgery on the other eye in the next convoy on May 26. Some people went to the credit union to pay for the surgery, costing more than 1,000, but they will get the money back. She would not likely qualify for the current Government 55m waiting list initiative. "The alternative was to stay on the waiting list and see my eyesight get worse," she said.
Alice McGlynn and her husband Mark, who tragically died from meningitis the day after showing symptoms of the disease

The heartbroken wife of a Dublin man who died of a virulent form of meningitis on Christmas Day has urged people to be aware of the symptoms of the killer disease and to act fast.

Alice McGlynn, from Templeogue in Dublin, lost her husband Mark (56) to the disease within hours of him feeling unwell.

"On Christmas Eve, Mark complained of a headache and went to bed around 12.30am. He said that he thought he might be getting sick as he was starting to feel quite unwell.

"He had a fever of 102F (38.9C) and took paracetamol. The next morning his temperature spiked again at 102F.

"Mark complained of being extremely cold and was wracked with pain all over his body. He collapsed in the bathroom at noon on Christmas Day and suffered a form of seizure.

"He did not respond when I spoke with him. I held him in my arms and shouted to my family to call an ambulance immediately. They arrived in 15 minutes."

Mark, a guitarist and songwriter, was rushed to Tallaght Hospital.

"Over 90 minutes later a doctor arrived and explained that Mark's heart had stopped and the team were doing everything in their power to resuscitate him," said Alice.

"The doctor went on to say that they were unsure of what had caused the arrest but that the working diagnosis was that Mark had an aortic tear. He was on the CPR machine in the resuscitation room. They eventually asked us for the go ahead to turn off the CPR machine. I knew it was the end.

"Finally the machine showed the same and the line went flat. My beautiful husband was gone."

Two days after Mark died, Tallaght Hospital called to inform Alice her husband's bloods had tested positive for meningitis.

Monika Marchlewicz, Ireland manager at the Meningitis Research Foundation, said: "Meningitis and septicaemia can kill in hours. Although babies, young children and teenagers are at most risk, anyone can be affected at any time.

"Vaccines are the only way to help prevent meningitis and septicaemia, and we encourage everyone to take up the offer of the vaccines. There are not yet vaccines available to prevent all types of meningitis and septicaemia, so knowing the symptoms is also really important."
PRESIDENT Michael D Higgins has said Ireland's experience as a peace-maker is "our strongest card to play" in bidding for a future seat on the United Nations Security Council.

Ireland is up against Canada and Norway for one of two vacancies that arise in the 2021-2022 term and Mr Higgins is using a visit to UN headquarters in New York to make a pitch for the Irish case to other world leaders.

Earlier today he delivered an impassioned speech to the UN General Assembly calling for a renewed commitment to global peace-building. He gave the Northern Ireland peace process as an example of conflict resolution.

He is also holding bilateral meetings with other leaders where he is raising Ireland's Security Council candidacy as part of Ireland's diplomatic campaign to garner support for the bid.

Mr Higgins told Independent.ie that he discussed the matter with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos at a meeting earlier today.

He did not say if Mr Santos offered any undertaking of support for Ireland's bid.

But Mr Higgins said Mr Santos is grateful for Irish involvement in the Colombian peace process, including the role of former Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore who took part in European Union efforts to bring an end to decades of conflict in the country.

Speaking in general about the bid for the Security Council seat, Mr Higgins said: "Irelands capacity as peace-maker, peace-implementer and peace understanding is our strongest card to play.

"There are others with greater resources who will speak about the amount they may be able to put in military expenditure into a response to a conflict.

"Our strength is entirely in relation to the peace side."

Mr Higgins added that the Irish experience is "not based on size of population, size of armies, competencies of an armaments kind. Its based on things of the mind".

He referred to a UN statement that says "wars begin in the minds of men" and said: "thats where peace and peacebuilding has to start."

Mr Higgins is expected to raise Ireland's candidacy for a Security Council seat during further meetings this evening and tomorrow.
Andrew Jordan, the husband of Liga Skromane, and her sister Ilze Skromane. Photo: Newslions Media

An Irishman whose wife was found dead in an Indian forest refuses to believe she took her own life.

The decapitated remains of Liga Skromane were identified on Saturday by her sister Ilze Skromane and Liga's husband Andrew Jordan, from Swords, north Dublin.

Fishermen found the body by the riverside in an isolated area near Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala, the day before. According to local police, a preliminary inquiry suggested there was no foul play.

"There are no injuries to her body parts. But the exact reason of the death can be established only after the chemical analysis report," it said.

However, at a press conference yesterday, Mr Jordan hit out at the suggestion his wife died of suicide.

"Had the police taken it more seriously, it would have been a different story," he said.

Expand Close Liga Skromane was on a holistic treatment retreat in Kerala, India when she disappeared / Facebook

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Whatsapp Liga Skromane was on a holistic treatment retreat in Kerala, India when she disappeared

"I plead with the people of Kerala to come forward with the information, if they have any idea about what had happened to my wife.

"We are sure it's not suicide. We appeal to the police for a full investigation."

The 33-year-old woman had travelled to Kerala with her sister Ilze to take part in a wellness retreat on February 4. Ms Skromane, who was from Latvia but had been living in Dublin for five years, was last seen on March 14.

According to local media reports, doctors who conducted the post-mortem examination informed police there were no open wounds or fractures on her bones.

"The bones around the neck too were unharmed," said city police commissioner P Prakash.

Although Ilze and Andrew have identified the body, the police are now waiting for the DNA test results to confirm if the body found on Friday was that of Ms Skromane.

In a statement, state police chief Loknath Behera said all enquiries into the death would be pursued.
Until now, only the number of drivers breathalysed needed to be included

Gardai are to amend the PULSE computer system to allow for Drager drug and alcohol test kit numbers and their readings to be included after use at checkpoints and collisions.

The move, which must be implemented during the twice yearly maintenance shutdowns of the PULSE system, is aimed at offering a better analysis of the scale of Ireland's drug and alcohol driving problem.

Tommy Broughan TD has been campaigning for the inclusion at the request of road safety groups including PARC.

Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan has now confirmed that the PULSE collision reporting form will now be changed to ensure that individual Drager kit numbers are included in reports compiled by gardai at checkpoint duty and attending the scene of a serious RTC.

The readings obtained from such kits after use will also be included.

Mr Flanagan acknowledged that, until now, only the number of drivers breathalysed needed to be included.

"I am now advised by the Garda authorities that the change request to ensure that the Drager devices number and readings are captured on the collision report form is being incorporated in the present upgrade to the PULSE system which is presently undergoing final testing," he said.

PARC founder Susan Gray said the change was absolutely essential given the problems caused by recent garda traffic reporting statistics.

She has demanded greater resources for the Garda traffic corps amid fears drug driving is set to prove as deadly a problem as drink driving.

PARC warned that the statistics indicated motorists driving under the influence of drugs is a problem significantly greater than initially feared.

Mrs Gray also expressed "deep concern" that a mere 1pc of tests conducted at checkpoints involved the new oral fluid sampling.

The PARC founder also queried whether a failure rate of 15pc indicated a vastly bigger problem with drug driving than initially feared.

The PULSE change came as it emerged that just 1pc of Garda checkpoints conducted over a nine month period involved a new screening test for suspected drug driving.

That was despite the fact that, since new Road Traffic Act regulations came into force last April, one-in-seven tests conducted on motorists have been positive for suspected use of drugs such as cocaine, cannabis and opiates.

Mr Flanagan has confirmed that of 52,395 mandatory intoxicant tests (MIT) conducted by Gardai from April 13 until January 1 last, a mere 612 were for the new oral fluid drug screening test permitted under the revised regulations.

Of those 612 tests conducted, a startling total of 90 gave a preliminary positive for the suspected use of drugs - a failure rate of almost 15pc.

Over the nine months in which the new oral fluid test was conducted, the rate of positive detections increased by a startling 700pc.

A total of 90 motorists have tested positive for drug driving at routine roadside checkpoints since new regulations came into force on April 12 last.

The new provision of the Road Traffic Act (2016) allows Gardai to conduct preliminary drug detection testing at roadside checkpoints.

The test is conducted using the Drager 5000 analysis device.

This can given Gardai a preliminary indicator of the presence in a motorist's saliva of traces of cannabis, cocaine, opiates such as heroin, and even benzodiazepine drugs such as Valium.

A prosecution will follow if the motorist fails a subsequent impairment test.

Of the 90 motorists who tested positive at roadside checks since April 12, just one subsequently passed the follow on impairment test.

In nine months of testing, April yielded the lowest positive test tally with three motorists failing preliminary Drager tests.

However, that had soared to 22 motorists failing preliminary roadside drug tests in December - an increase of almost 700pc.

August delivered the second highest test fail total with 15 motorists testing positive in preliminary scans for the use of drugs.

Experts pointed to the fact that both high test fail totals directly correspond to known periods of intense social activity such as summer and Christmas

Mr Flanagan confirmed that 52,395 mandatory checkpoints were conducted under the new regulations since April.

Roughly 99pc involved drink driving tests.

PARC warned that the statistics add further weight to the demand for greater resources and equipment for the Garda traffic corps.

"There is clearly a problem with people getting behind the wheel and driving while under the influence of drugs," Mrs Gray said.

"We need to provide the resources for the Gardai to tackle this problem which is every bit as deadly as people getting behind the wheel and driving while intoxicated."
A teenage girl was left with severe facial injuries after an attack on Bangor Pier

Bangor residents say that anti-social behaviour in the vicinity where a teenage girl was attacked last Friday is making the town's marina a "no-go area".

Shocked residents in the coastal town yesterday told the Belfast Telegraph that some people are "afraid" to visit the sea front due to large groups of youths congregating there.

Fisherman Hamilton Thompson (75) said the marina area was "known for anti-social behaviour with youngsters".

He stated: "I have seen them down here as young as 12 smoking and drinking.

"If you go there at night you'll see 14 and 15-year-olds drinking. Some can't stand.

"They go up the pier with bags of drink, sometimes they sit among the rocks so they aren't seen.

"This area is known for anti-social behaviour with youngsters. They are intimidating local people. Some local people are afraid to come down here.

"The whole marina has become a 'no-go area'."

Cafe Brazilia waitress Victoria McAleese (23) described the video of the attack as "the most horrendous thing I have ever seen".

"Bangor is well known for anti-social behaviour, especially that sort of age group - 15,16," she said.

"You see groups of them congregating in different places.

"After Friday's attack I would say people would feel unsafe at night. An elderly gentleman was in this morning and he said that one night a group of youngsters had spat in his face."

Rostrevor woman Erin Valkema was on a day trip to the Co Down town with her husband Peter and four children, including four-day-old baby Primrose.

The local mum was unaware that the area where her children were playing innocently was where the attack had taken place.

"I think it is quite shocking, just terrible," she said.

"I didn't realise it was right here in this area.

"It would definitely make us think twice about coming here.

"It is quite scary as a parent, and it would definitely put me off coming back to Bangor on evenings and weekends."

David McCullough (60), whose nursery sales business has been on Bangor Marina since 1961, described the attack as "horrific".

"Bangor is normally a fairly peaceful wee place," he explained.

"This is dreadful.

"You would really hope it's a one-off.

"It's not good for businesses and it doesn't encourage families to come to Bangor, particularly with young children. I feel for this wee girl and her family. I think the community needs to come together to show that this won't be tolerated."

A fundraising page set up in aid of the alleged victim by Lisburn woman Susan Durrant had raised over 3,100 (3,536) at the time of going to press.

"I started a collection on Sunday to make the young girl feel better, and I didn't think it would raise 200 (228)," she revealed.

"I can't believe how generous people have been - as well as the money, she has been offered gifts including a holiday and beauty treatments.

"I'm hoping it's a comfort to her and her family."

A show of support for the alleged victim was held at Bangor Marina yesterday evening.

Chief Inspector Gerry McGrath said that the PSNI "regularly patrol" the area where the alleged attack took place, "both on foot and in vehicles".

He added: "The community can be assured that if police note any young people committing criminal offences, they will be robustly dealt with."
Kuwait has expressed regrets and threatens to expel Philippines envoy after the diplomat confirmed to media that the embassy has been helping Filipina house workers flee their employers in the Gulf country.

Already strained ties between Kuwait and Philippines worsened again over the week-end after Kuwaiti authorities accused the ambassador for aiding smuggling out Filipina domestic workers.

Ambassador Renato Villa was summoned Saturday for the second time in two days for making inflammatory comments to Al-Jarida; a local media, and for the inappropriate behavior of diplomatic staff.

Villa reportedly confirmed to the media that a video post on social media purporting Philippines embassy staff helping Filipino domestic workers to flee their sponsors by picking them up in embassy vehicles outside employers homes was genuine.

The embassy staff picked up some workers without the knowledge of the interior ministry and the workers employers.

Lawmakers have reportedly been angered over the alleged incident and called for the expulsion of the ambassador and other embassy staff involved.

Villa told a press conference Saturday that the interior ministry was in the know of the operations.

Two Filipinos allegedly involved in the operations were reportedly arrested and confessed to the accusations, Kuwait Times reports.

The Kuwaiti Foreign ministry has condemned the move by the Philippines mission and Villas statement.

Both countries have been since January embroiled in a diplomatic crisis following accusation by Manila that some of its citizens working in Kuwait have suffered abuses. The Asian country in February imposed ban on the employment of Philippines citizens in the Gulf country.

The new incidents came as both countries try to work on fresh terms on the recruitment of Filipino work force.

Kuwaits deputy foreign minister Khalid Al-Jarallah argued that the latest steps by Manila will halt negotiation.

We have reached a consensus and signed a preliminary agreement in the hope that it will be signed in Kuwait later but it seems to me that recent developments will not enable the signing of this agreement, Khalid Al-Jarallah said.
Sinn Fein is to back a unionist candidate in the upcoming Seanad by-election.

Mary Lou McDonald has confirmed that TDs and senators have been told to vote for the ex-president of the Ulster Farmers Union Ian Marshall.

Mr Marshall is running as an Independent candidate for one of two vacancies  but put his name forward following an approach from Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

He was a strong anti-Brexit campaigner and currently works in Queens University in Belfast.

Ms McDonald met with him on several occasions in recent weeks and said she was impressed by his views on Brexit and the potential impact Brexit will have on the island, north and south.

I believe Ian will be a strong Independent voice in the Seanad; providing an anti-Brexit unionist perspective, which is a welcome addition to the political discourse surrounding the issue in the Oireachtas.

Brexit affects people from all backgrounds and ways of life; nationalist, unionists and everyone in between, she said.

The move means Mr Marshall looks almost certain to secure a seat in the Upper House.

Ian is a unionist. I am an Irish Republican. As I have stated repeatedly, the Ireland I want to see is one where one can comfortably be Irish or British, both or neither.

I believe Ian can bring a new and interesting voice to the discussion surrounding a New Ireland, Ms McDonald said.

Voting in the bye-elections to fill the seats vacated by Denis Landy and Trevor O Clochartaigh is due to conclude on Friday.
Placards for the upcoming Abortion Referendum to repeal the 8th amendment in Dublin's City Centre. Photo Gareth Chaney Collins

Labour leader Brendan Howlin says the theft of referendum posters calling for a repeal of the Eighth Amendment has been happening all over the country.

Mr Howlin said in his own constituency, as well as that of Limerick TD Jan OSullivan, there have been several incidences where Labour posters have been removed form lamp posts without permission.

Ms OSullivan was sent a video showing two men taking down posters in Limerick in broad daylight.

She said she also has a couple of reports on the registration of cars involved in such activity.

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Mr Howlin said complaints of similar activity were relayed to him at an executive meeting at the weekend from campaigners everywhere in the state.

We had an executive meeting on Saturday and there were reports from across the country that posters were being taken down, Mr Howlin said.

Ms OSullivan said she handed over her evidence to gardai on Saturday evening, on the basis that removing the posters constituted the crime of theft, although the law is unclear on the matter.

There is no specific law other than they are the property of the Labour Party; theft being the offence committed, said Brendan Howlin.

However, he said such behaviour was beyond the bounds of acceptable behaviour in a political contest.

In terms of any fair running of a vote of the people it has always been understood across the party political system that people are entitled to put up their posters without any hindrance.

The notion that there would be any removal of them is unacceptable, he said.

He also pointed out that there are several posters emanating from the No side, but that are so far unattributed to any particular campaign, which is illegal under Irish electoral law.

Another factor is the proliferation of posters certainly in my own constituency without any proliferation so we dont know who is responsible for them.

That is clearly illegal under the electoral act but also says they must be identified whos putting them up, said Mr Howlin.
Pope Francis waves to officials as he arrives at the European Parliament in Strasbourg (AP)

Pope Francis hopes to begin his historic visit to Ireland in Knock, the Irish Independent understands.

Organisers of the pontiff's trip are believed to be exploring the idea of having him fly directly to the west of Ireland rather than Dublin as anticipated.

There has been much speculation about the type of welcome the Pope will receive - but sources say gardai have concerns that as many as 650,000 people will want to see him in the Phoenix Park on August 26.

By holding another event at the Marian shrine in Co Mayo a day earlier they hope to offer an alternative viewing opportunity for people.

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"The Phoenix Park can cope with the crowds once they are inside but getting them safely to and from the Mass would be the problem," a source said.

The Vatican tends to remain tight-lipped about the Pope's itinerary until shortly before he travels to a country.

It has been confirmed that the first papal visit in nearly 40 years will take place to coincide with the World Meeting of Families in Dublin between August 21-26. Pope Francis (81) is scheduled to take part in a ceremony in Croke Park on August 25, before celebrating Mass in Phoenix Park the following day.

Well-placed sources involved in logistical planning for the visit have indicated to the Irish Independent that Knock is now firmly on the agenda. One proposal is for the pontiff to fly directly to Knock Airport, which in itself would be an historic occasion.

It was the determination of Monsignor James Horan that ensured the airport was built. It opened in 1985 with three chartered flights to Rome and has since welcomed more than 10 million passengers.

Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass at Knock shrine during his visit in 1979. He described his time at the site where a group of local people saw an apparition of the Virgin Mary in 1879 as "the goal of my journey to Ireland".

It is estimated 450,000 people attended an outdoor Mass that marked the centenary of that event.

Pope Francis has prayed at a number of Marian shrines while on tours to other countries, including last year when he honoured two children who saw Mary in the Portuguese town of Fatima.

It is likely that if the Pope flies directly from Rome to Knock, he will then use air transport to get to Dublin in time for a ticketed event in Croke Park.

His itinerary in the capital is also expected to include a visit to the Capuchin Day Centre, run by Brother Kevin Crowley.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has confirmed the Pope wants to visit a prison during his time here, most likely Mountjoy.

Some disappointment has been expressed that there is no suggestion at this point that the Pope will travel into Northern Ireland.

Pope John Paul II was unable to cross the Border for safety reason in 1979.

Many had hoped that the current head of the Catholic Church could make the journey, but it is not currently on the agenda.

Archbishop Martin has noted that Pope Francis is 81 years old, "so the amount of things he can do is limited".
PRESIDENT Michael D Higgins has said that young people are "appalled" at the apparent "strut" of the powerful on the international stage.

In a major speech at the United Nations General Assembly Mr Higgins also delivered a rallying call for a renewed commitment to peacebuilding and for member states to live up to the founding ideals of the organisation.

The President said that if the international community is to "truly commit" to the objective of sustaining peace, it must discard "easy" and "lazy" cynicism.

And he said: "The young of the world are appalled by any suggestion... that the strut of the powerful and the wielders of power can prevail in the UN Security Council".

Mr Higgins added: "That is what is losing the young".

The Presidents speech at UN Headquarters comes at a time when the organisation has been at the centre of rows between the United States and Russia over the Syrian conflict, most recently over the suspected chemical attack in Douma.

The use of Security Council vetoes has hampered action on the issue.

Mr Higgins was speaking as part of a high level meeting on Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace, called by the Slovak President of the UN General Assembly Miroslav Lajcak.

The President lamented the prevalence of war around the world and how they "absorb the finest minds in science and technology".

He said: "It is an affront to humanity that, in these first decades of the twenty-first century with all its promise, at a time when we have the capacity to abolish all forms of human poverty, we share a planet with hundreds of millions who are, even as we speak here today, deprived of their most fundamental rights."

"It is not nothing less than a moral outrage that our boundless capacity for creativity and innovation, and the fruits of new science and technology, are turned, not to the promotion and preservation of peace, but to the pursuit and prosecution of war?," he added.

Mr Higgins cited Northern Ireland and the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement as an example of conflict resolution, but also the challenges of sustaining peace.

He said it involved engagement by the Irish and UK governments, financing of peacebuilding activities and strong support from the European Union and other UN members, particularly the United States.

"Our peace could not have been achieved without the steady and courageous activism of civic organisations campaigning for a more just and peaceful society, many of which were led by the women of Ireland, North and South," Mr Higgins said.

He added: "Yet while we celebrate the end of violence, the lives saved and the futures transformed, we are also reminded daily of the challenges of sustaining peace."

Mr Higgins said the UN will only be successful in sustaining peace if member states re-commit themselves to the founding principles of the organisation set out after the horror of the two world wars.

Mr Higgins made the argument that preventing conflict is not only a moral duty, but is in the financial interests of countries as well.

He warned that humanitarian action is not a substitute for political dialogue but also saluted the work of Irish peacekeepers over the last 60 years.

The President closed his speech saying: "Let us once again, in this Hall, recall the energy and bravery which animated our forebears in their best moments and devote ourselves to the cause of a universal peace, one that encompasses all of the people of our shared and vulnerable planet."

The President, accompanied by his wife Sabina, is today beginning five days of engagements in New York.

He will use meetings with other world leaders to seek support for Irelands bid to win a seat on the Security Council for the 2021-2022 term.
THE daughter of a woman beaten and raped in a random attack has told of her familys relief after her attacker was jailed for 18 years.

Anthony Cassidy (34) attacked his victim, who is aged in her 50s, as she was walking to a shop in the early hours of the morning.

A garda said extensive CCTV footage, which was shown in court, tracked Cassidys movements to and from where he dumped his unconscious victim on the outskirts of Carlow town.

Cassidy was yesterday sentenced to 18 years in jail for what was described by the presiding judge as one of the most serious crimes to come before the court.

Speaking to RTEs Drive Time after the sentencing hearing, the victims daughter said: Im happy that hes got the 18 years because I really didnt think he was going to get that.

Its so hard because when I look at him, he just looks like a normal man and you dont think that someone, like, normal could do something so horrific and so bad to somebody else.

I rang her after the court today and said, Mammy, he got 18 years and she just said ,at least now he knows he done bad. Thats her mentality at the moment, she added.

Cassidy, a father-of-one from Tinryland, Carlow, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to rape and assault causing serious harm to the woman on June 25 last year.

He had 34 previous convictions, including soliciting for sex in the UK and two assaults in this country.

Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy said by anyones yardstick the offence fell into the most serious category and noted that in the context of the evidence Cassidy would have been convicted with virtual certainty.

He said it was obvious that Cassidy had followed the victim. He concluded therefore that there was a substantial degree of pre-meditation after noting that the footage showed a woman in a helpless situation being carried or dragged.

She was simply left there, said Mr Justice McCarthy, after pointing out that Cassidy made no effort to tell anyone and the attacker appears to have returned home.

He said the forensic evidence made it quite clear that the victim had been raped, before adding that Cassidy seemed to have had a straightforward desire to impose gratuitous violence in addition to violating her.

He said the woman suffered extreme brain injury with devastating and long-term consequences, after noting that she has mobility difficulties and has isolated herself from society.

She cannot wash herself, or use the toilet herself and her room for improvement is modest. It is very unlikely she will make a full recovery, Mr Justice McCarthy added.

He said it was clear from the womans victim-impact report that she suffered from nightmares and she described herself as a broken woman.

The judge quoted from the victims statement, in which she said that she intended to scrape together the little bit of dignity I have left and do my best to enjoy the rest of my life.

He said that the womans daughter had also written a victim-impact statement on behalf of the family, in which she stated that Cassidy had ruined all their lives.

You have broken our lives but we are strong and we wont let you ruin our lives any more than you have, the judge said quoting the womans statement.

At a previous hearing. a victim-impact statement was read out by the womans daughter to court. She described how she was now completely dependent on her family for assistance.

Beating me nearly to death was bad, but raping me makes me feel used and dirty, the woman added. He left me there to die, he wasnt sorry.

The woman added: Your act of pure evil stole so much for me but after today I am closing the door on this.
Babies exposed to high levels of caffeine in the womb are more likely to go on to be overweight children, a new study suggests.

The latest study, published in the journal 'BMJ Open', concluded that exposure to moderate to high caffeine levels while in the womb is linked to excess weight gain in early childhood.

The research, led by experts from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, found that children exposed to very high levels of caffeine can weigh 480g more when they are aged eight compared with children exposed to low caffeine levels.

The authors said their work supported advice to reduce caffeine intake during pregnancy.

Guidelines advise pregnant women to limit caffeine consumption to no more than 200mg a day. A mug of instant coffee, on average, contains 100mg of caffeine while a mug of tea has 75mg. Filter coffee has higher caffeine levels with the average cup containing 140mg of caffeine. While caffeine is mostly associated with hot drinks, it can also be found in energy drinks, some cans of fizzy drinks and chocolate bars.

In the latest study, experts examined data from more than 50,000 Norwegian women and their babies. Around half (46pc) of pregnant women were considered to have low caffeine consumption - less than 50mg a day; a further 44pc had a moderate level of consumption - between 50 and 199mg; 7pc had high levels of consumption of between 200mg and 299mg a day; and 3pc had very high levels of more than 300mg.

The authors compared data to information on child body measurements taken at 11 different stages throughout childhood until they were eight.

Youngsters exposed to very high levels of caffeine before birth weighed 67-83g more in infancy, 110-136g more as toddlers, 213-320g more as pre-schoolers and 480g more at the age of eight, experts found.
Youve heard of Couch to 5k. But what about Couch to Cuilcagh?

Thats the challenge a group of Cavan walkers set themselves recently  starting from scratch and working through six weeks of walks, weigh-ins, zumba and circuit training before summiting the 665m Cuilcagh Mountain (above).

We conquered Cuilcagh, as Eileen Gormley of the Killeshandra Leaguers GAA club told me. It was the most beautiful day that ever came... it was like the good Lord saying we should be out walking.

Eileen was one of those, along with Stephen King, Patricia Dolan and local GP Dr Joan Ahern, who led the group of 54. Ranging in age from teens to 70s, the idea was to promote health, wellbeing and social inclusion, and all had lunch on the summit before descending for the bus home.

We were so excited, Eileen says. We were like children.

I love that term, Couch to Cuilcagh. And I wouldnt have heard it had I not taken a time-out in Templeport, Co Cavan, last week.

There, strolling with locals after the launch of the Cavan Walking Festival (see more things to do in Cavan), walking started to work its gentle magic. Devices and screens were stowed away, boots began clumping off the bohareen, and chats sparked up.

Walking is booming right now  from wearable tech to waymarked ways. But at its core, its still about slowing down, hitting a natural pace and having heart-to-hearts. Its nourishment, no matter how you look at it.

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The biggest screen in your life is the one in front of your eyes, as another walker, Noel Gumley, put it.

Ours was a short trail, around 1.6km out and back from Templeport Community Centre. But like most walks, it soon became a little universe unto itself.

To a bleeping soundtrack of birdsong, I learned that the road once formed part of the Cavan-Leitrim railway. A young walker, eight-year-old Max Rofe, made me a dreamcatcher from twigs and wild grass while his mum, Isabel, told me how locals had rebooted this Golden Way by clearing seven trucks of rubbish with the help of Cavan County Council.

It was absolutely diabolical, she said, describing the removal of fly-tipped fridges, satellite dishes and even toilets from the ditches and hedgerows.

If people see rubbish, they just dump more.

Today, the Old Railway Line has been reborn, and is precisely the kind of off-radar landscape Failte Ireland talked about when launching its new Midlands tourism brand  Irelands Hidden Heartlands  last week.

Activities are not all about adrenaline. There are other ways to have an adventure, as Virginia local, Joan Keating, put it.

There are walkers like Eileen, Noel, Max, Isabel and Joan all over Ireland. Pooling cars, working WhatsApp groups, quietly promoting community spirit (Couch to Cuilcagh is now an annual event, and the group meets every Sunday for stroll).

Change can start in the smallest of ways, by putting one foot in front of the other.

Read more:
Actress Allison Mack attends the WB Network's 2002 Summer Party at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel on July 13, 2002 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Robert Mora/Getty Images)

Allison Mack attends the premiere of Warner Bros. Pictures' "Ant Bully" at Grauman's Chinese theatre on July 23, 2006 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Mark Mainz/Getty Images)

What exactly is going on in a truly bizarre court case involving a former tv star.

Who is Allison Mack?

Allison Mack (35) is a former actress who starred on American teen drama Smallville, who was arrest last week in upstate New York for sex trafficiking.

Ms Mack is best known for her role as Chloe Sullivan in the show which aired from 2001 to 2011 chronicling the early days of Superman.

The U.S. Attorneys Office in the Eastern District of New York confirmed last week that she has been charged with sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy and forced labour conspiracy.

What is NXIVM?

NXIVM started off as an executive self help programme in 2003 out of Albany, New York, but after 2013, things seem to have taken a dark turn. Founder Keith Raniere originally sold workshops urging the importance of celibacy or monogamy for women and "the need for men to have multiple sexual partners," according to the Guardians' court reporting of the case.

A number of women have come forward alleging that Ms Mack tried to recruit them into a 'womens empowerment group', a secret off-branch 'sorority' called Dominus Obsequious Sororium (DOS), which was a cover for an alleged sex cult in which women were subjugated by branding them with a hot iron and forcing them to perform sex acts.

Women were described as 'slaves' and forced to follow their 'masters', according to court papers.

Former members describe hellish conditions, including starvation to adhere to Mr Rainieres standard of beauty and violent punishment for perceived misdeeds, as reported in a New York Times investigation last October.

In order to ensure its longevity, once recruits had proven their willingness to join, they were required to provide compromising information about themselves, in some cases naked photographs ,as an insurance policy so that they would stay silent about the groups existence. Former member Sarah Edmondson said in the NYT expose that her recruiter was convincing in her logic at the time, saying she believed it was a "trust test".

The initiation process included branding women with a hot iron (a former member says she was told it would be a small tattoo) in the shape of Mr Rainiers' initials, and as part of the process, they would lie naked in a group and beg their master for the honour of a branding.

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What is Mack's involvement in the 'cult'?

Ms Mack became involved in 2006 when she was introduced by her former co-star Kristen Kreuk (she has since distanced herself from the group, saying her involvement predated the brandings and abuse), and she has risen to the top of the organisation over the last 12 years. Kreuk left by 2013.

Ms Mack has been described as the second in command of NXIVM, only reporting to MrRaniere. The U.S. Attorney's statement adds that she was one of the women in the first level of the pyramid immediately below Raniere.

Allison was used, as was Kristen, as a lure to bring in other women because of their celebrity status, he said.

Assistant US attorney Moira Penza said that Ms Mack was "one of the top members of a highly organised scheme which was designed to provide sex to [Raniere]. Under the guise of female empowerment, she starved women until they fit her co-defendants sexual feminine ideal."

Ms Kreuk, meanwhile, has not been charged, and has publicly denied claims she was a recruiter for NXIVM. "I am deeply disturbed and embarrassed to have been associated with NXIVM. I hope that the investigation leads to justice for all of those affected," she said.

The accusations that I was in the inner circle or recruited women as sex slaves are blatantly false. During my time, I never experienced any illegal or nefarious activity. I am horrified and disgusted by what has come out about DOS.

What happens next?

Ms Mack appeared in court in Brooklyn last week and entered a plea of not guilty. She faces a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison if convicted on all of her charges. Mack is now said to be considering a plea deal and proceedings have been delayed until May 3.
The 'sorry I tased you' cake (Hamilton Township Police Department/PA)

Birthday cake, Christmas cake, wedding cake Its time to add the sorry I Tased you cake to the list of classic bakes.

And if you dont think the need would ever arise to send one, tell that to Ohio firefighter Rickey Wagoner.

Wagoner was accidentally Tased by local police officer Darcy Workman as the pair attempted to deal with an incident at a hospital, according to Hamilton Township Police Department (HTPD).

The firefighter was shocked but not seriously hurt.

And it seemed there were no hard feelings as Officer Workman dropped off her baked apology at the weekend, complete with an iced frowning face.

The police department wrote in a Facebook post: Today Ofc Workman apologised to FF Wagoner for her actions!

All of us at HTPD appreciate the incredible relationship we have with our FD (fire department)/EMS (emergency medical services)!

It follows a similar incident back in 2014 when a police officer from Massachusetts sent a cake with the same message to a colleague after accidentally Tasing her during a domestic callout.
Two cakes which look like corgi dogs dressed as bride and groom (AlexanderWard.com/PA)

This is the amazing cake which shows two corgis on their wedding day and which was made as a present for a teenager invited to Prince Harry and Meghan Markles big day.

The doggo cake was made by Channel 4s extreme cake maker Molly Robbins for wedding guest Olivia Benn.

The 13-year-old, who has a complex heart condition and attends Forget Me Not Childrens Hospice in Huddersfield, is one of 1,200 members of the public to receive an invitation to the royal wedding.

Olivia was born with complex congenital heart disease. Shes had seven surgeries, three of which were major open heart surgery, with the first one taking place when she was only five weeks old.

She and her guest will be allowed into the grounds of Windsor Castle to watch the arrival of the bride and groom plus their guests at St Georges Chapel on May 19.

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Olivia, from South Kirkby, near Pontefract, was presented with the huge cake at a dog-themed hospice fundraising event in Manchester.

She said: The cake was amazing. Being presented with the cake and being able to cut it and taste it before everyone else was so nice. Its made me really excited to go to the royal wedding.

I cant believe Ive been chosen to go and I cant wait to see Meghan in her wedding dress and spot the other members of the royal family.

The hospice is hoping to open doors on its second childrens hospice  Graces Place  in Bury, later this year and was holding a fundraising day in support of its goal.

At Forget Me Not we believe in the magic of yes and when we found out one of our children was going to the royal wedding we knew we had to mark the occasion in a unique way, said Kirsty Franks, general manager of Graces Place.

A royal wedding special of Extreme Cake Makers will detail just how Molly made the corgi cake.

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Baker Molly said: Anyone who watches the show will know my speciality is designing and making animal-themed cakes  and I love dogs in particular.

When I heard about the wonderful work Forget Me Not Childrens Hospice does I wanted to support the charity somehow.

With one of their children going to Harry and Meghans wedding, it was the perfect opportunity to create a cake inspired by Queen Elizabeth and her beloved corgis.
Congo Republic over the weekend said it fulfilled the criteria for a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to revamp its debt-crippled economy.

The Washington-based fund last year proposed a program to restore the macroeconomic stability of Congo.

The Central African nations debt, which stood at $9.14 billion or around 110 percent of GDP, by the end of July 2017  is unsustainable, according to the IMF.

As assessed by IMF officials in November, the countrys economic growth continues to contract while government savings have declined.

In a statement released on Friday, the government said it welcomes the agreement concluded with the international financial institution to support its reform program.

The program, which still requires IMF board approval, aims to restore sustainable and inclusive economic growth and support a stable microeconomic environment compatible with the viability of the public debt. The government also eyes an additional 135 million from France.

Congos oil sector was badly hurt by the global dip in prices and a slowdown in its own output since 2014, but it has been rejuvenated by new projects.

The government said it planned to cut spending this year by 8.6 percent to $2.5 billion.

The government has also decided to become member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
A three-year-old girl who went missing in bushland in Australia was rescued after the family dog followed her, stayed by her side overnight and helped searchers find her.

The girl, Aurora, wandered off from her family's remote rural home in the state of Queensland at about 3pm on Friday. She was followed into the bushland by the family's trusted dog, named Max, a 17-year-old cattle dog which is partially deaf and blind.

Max stayed beside her for about 16 hours as the overnight temperatures dropped and rain fell. The pair apparently sheltered under a rock.

In the morning, about 100 emergency workers and local volunteers set off at first light to try to find Aurora.

She was found at about 7.30am after Leisa Marie Bennett, the girl's grandmother, heard her crying faintly "granny" from the top of a mountain, about a mile from home.

As Ms Bennett approached, Max went out and met her and led her to Aurora.

"When I heard her yell 'granny' I knew it was her," Ms Bennett told ABC News.

"I shot up the mountain ... and when I got to the top, the dog came to me and led me straight to her. He never left her sight. She smelled of dog, she slept with the dog."

Ian Phipps, from the state emergency service, said the surrounding area was mountainous and "very inhospitable terrain".

"She'd travelled quite a distance with her dog that was quite loyal to her.

"With the weather last night it's quite lucky she is well because it was cold, it was cold and raining."

Kelly Benston, Ms Bennett's partner, wrote on Facebook that Aurora was "OK" and was found with a "few scratches from brush but wasn't even scared".

"Went down a small valley and went up the face of a small mountain and camped there for the night," he wrote. "The dog camped with her. Found around 7.30am."

Ms Bennett said the reunion with her granddaughter included "a lot of tears". "I think [Aurora] was a bit overwhelmed by the tears and the howling, but I explained to her how happy those tears were," she said.

"It could have gone any of 100 ways, but she's here, she's alive, she's well."

Queensland's police force has now named Max an honorary police dog.
Armenia's long-time leader Serzh Sargsyan has resigned after 11 days of protests against his attempt to remain in power as prime minister.

"The movement of the street is against my office. I'm fulfilling your demands," Mr Sargsyan said in a statement.

The unexpected announcement came after a group of soldiers joined demonstrations, which had spread beyond the capital Yerevan following mass arrests on Sunday.

Opposition leader and member of parliament Nikol Pashinyan was released from custody and joined protesters in celebrating, his hand still bandaged from a march on the legislature last week.

Mr Sargsyan, who led the country for a decade as president, was confirmed as prime minister last Tuesday, reversing his promise not to take the post.

His appointment, which followed a constitutional reform to shift power to that office, was seen by many as an attempt to remain ruler for life, like the heads of several other former Soviet republics.

Mr Sargsyan's resignation will worry the Kremlin and test the current geopolitical balance in the Caucasus region, a volatile area between Russia, Turkey and Iran.

He has been close to Vladimir Putin, relying on his military backing - Russia has an army base in Armenia - to keep hostile neighbour Azerbaijan from invading the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

The defence ministry of Azerbaijan, an ally of Turkey, yesterday denied reports that it had moved military equipment toward Nagorno-Karabakh, where several hundred were killed in fighting in 2016.

Mr Sargsyan's deputy Karen Karapetyan, who previously worked for the Russian state gas giant Gazprom, has been appointed acting prime minister.

Armenians cheered, waved flags and honked car horns on the streets of the capital Yerevan yesterday.

People were "screaming and yelling with joy" at Mr Sargsyan's departure, activist Maria Karapetyan told 'The Daily Telegraph' from outside a Yerevan holding centre.

The opposition would now push for the dissolution of the national assembly and new parliamentary elections, she added.

"I want a non-violent society, I want justice for all and fair elections," Mr Karapetyan said.

Earlier this month, protesters declared a Czech-style 'velvet revolution' and began shutting down thoroughfares and blocking government buildings in the capital.

More than 300 people were arrested in Yerevan on Sunday.
US first lady Melania Trump has been hosting her French counterpart Brigitte Macron during the first official state visit hosted by Donald Trump.

But as the US president and Emmanuel Macron get down to business on trade and nuclear weapons, how does Ms Macrons chic French style measure up against her hosts American glamour?

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George W Bush and George H W Bush at the funeral service for former first lady Barbara Bush, (David J Phillip/AP)

Former president George HW Bush has been taken to hospital in Houston with an infection, just after attending the funeral of his wife Barbara, a spokesman said.

Jim McGrath said on Twitter that the 93-year-old Bush is responding to treatments and appears to be recovering. He was admitted on Sunday morning to Houston Methodist Hospital after an infection spread to his blood, Mr McGrath said.

Barbara Bush was laid to rest Saturday in a ceremony attended by her husband and former presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, George W Bush and their wives, along with current first lady Melania Trump.

The elder Bush uses a wheelchair and an electric scooter for mobility after developing a form of Parkinsons disease, and he has needed hospital treatment several times in recent years for respiratory problems.

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A year ago this month, Mr Bush spent two weeks in the hospital for treatment of pneumonia and chronic bronchitis, a constant irritation of the lining of tubes that carry air to ones lungs.

Mr Bushs doctors said chronic bronchitis is a condition more prevalent with age and can aggravate the symptoms of pneumonia.

Bush was in hospital for 16 days in January 2017 for pneumonia. During that hospital stay, which included time in intensive care, doctors inserted a breathing tube and connected him to a ventilator.

He also was taken to hospital in 2015 in Maine after falling at home and breaking a bone in his neck, and in December 2014 for about a week for shortness of breath. He spent Christmas 2012 in intensive care for a bronchitis-related cough and other issues.

George Herbert Walker Bush served as president from 1989 to 1993. Born June 12 1924, in Milton, Massachusetts, Mr Bush also served as a congressman, CIA director and Ronald Reagans vice president.
Irans Foreign Minister has warned the Trump administration that pulling out from a nuclear deal would undermine talks with North Korea by proving that America reneges on its promises.

Mohammad Javad Zarif said that if President Donald Trump withdraws, Iran would most likely abandon the deal as well.

Mr Zarif said Iran would no longer be bound by the deals international obligations.

President Macron is correct in saying there's no "Plan B" on JCPOA. It's either all or nothing. European leaders should encourage President Trump not just to stay in the nuclear deal, but more importantly to begin implementing his part of the bargain in good faith.  Javad Zarif (@JZarif) April 23, 2018

That would free up Iran to resume enrichment activity beyond the limits imposed by the 2015 nuclear accord.

In an interview, Mr Zarif said Iran would welcome reduced tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

But he said President Trump is showing that the US is not a trustworthy, reliable negotiating partner.

Mr Zarif added that makes the US a rather unlikely partner for any other global agreements.
President Donald Trump has declared that if the Iranians restart their nuclear programme, they will have bigger problems than they have ever had before.

President Trump issued his warning alongside French President Emmanuel Macron in the Oval Office, where the two allies discussed the multinational nuclear agreement, the war in Syria and trade issues during a day of meetings at the White House.

President Trump was asked by reporters if he might be willing to stay in the Iran agreement on nuclear enrichment. He replied, People know my views on the Iran deal.  Its insane, its ridiculous. It should have never been made.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif warned the Trump administration that pulling out would undermine Americas talks with North Korea by proving the US reneges on its promises.

He said in an interview that if President Trump withdraws, Iran would most likely abandon the deal as well.

Speaking before President Trumps comments with Mr Macron, Mr Zarif added that Iran would no longer be bound by the deals international obligations.

That would free Iran to resume enrichment activity beyond the limits imposed by the 2015 accord.

President Macron is correct in saying there's no "Plan B" on JCPOA. It's either all or nothing. European leaders should encourage President Trump not just to stay in the nuclear deal, but more importantly to begin implementing his part of the bargain in good faith.  Javad Zarif (@JZarif) April 23, 2018

President Trump remains publicly undecided on the deal, saying on Tuesday no one knows what he will do at the deadline he set to determine Americas position.

But he reminded his French counterpart of what he sees as flaws in the agreement, which he said fails to address ballistic missiles or Irans activities in Yemen or Syria.

President Trump suggested he was open to doing something on the Iran agreement as long as it was done strongly.

He told Mr Macron, We could have at least an agreement among ourselves very quickly.

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But when he was asked by reporters what that agreement would be, President Trump said, Youll find out.

During the press conference, Mr Macron added that he and President Trump discussed pursuing a new agreement with Iran on the broader regional concerns, including Syria.

But it was not clear whether President Trump would be willing to keep the US in the current deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in the meantime.

US military and intelligence officials have urged the president not to pull out of the agreement, arguing it has halted Irans nuclear programme.
An Australian family were left terrified when their son was reported missing, only for it to transpire that he had stolen the family credit card and travelled alone to Bali.

As reported in 9 News, the 12-year-old had a heated argument with his parents.

He doesnt like the word no, his mother said.

He subsequently told them he was going to school. However, the boy had actually stolen the family credit cards and, after tricking his grandmother into giving him his passport, travelled alone to Bali. He was able to do so having researched Australian airlines which allow minors to travel with only a student ID and passport, rather than requiring a letter from a parent or guardian.

The boy took a train to Sydney airport and was able to check in at the self-service stations and get through security before waiting to board a flight to Perth, from where he caught a connecting flight to Denpasar in Bali.

I sort of stuffed up because I got the deal cheap, he told 9 News, adding that he was never asked why he was alone. They just asked for my student ID and passport to prove Im over 12 and that Im in secondary school.

Meanwhile, his mother had reported her son missing after discovering he never made it to school.

Prior to reaching Bali, the boy had booked himself into a hotel. Upon arrival, he told staff his sister would be joining him later, convincing them to let him check in early.

Speaking to Australias A Current Affair, the boy's mother described how it felt when she realised that her son had managed to leave the country.

Shocked, disgusted. Theres no emotion to feel what we felt when we discovered that he had left overseas, she said.

After discovering that he had travelled abroad, his mother went to Bali to retrieve him. He ultimately spent four days alone in the country.

It was great, he told A Current Affair. Because I wanted to go on an adventure.
The commander-in-chief of Barkhane Operation, General Bruno Guibert, has deplored the delay in fulfilling the international communitys pledges to support the G5-Sahel, set up to fight terrorist groups swarming in the region.

The three-star General Bruno Guilbert who is in command of Barkhane since July 2017 expressed, in an interview with French magazine lExpress, deep concern about the operationalization process of the G5-Sahel counterterrorism force, noting that the international community is making many promises, but is struggling to honor them.

Its been eight months since the decision (to set up the G5) was made. This force should have been operational by now, and were still talking about the need to raise 400 million to achieve this goal. Except for the donation made by France, in the form of equipment, there is not much that has been done, General Guibert deplored, noting that it is now that our African partners need help to set up a joint force that does not even have an operating budget.

The interview came following the deadly assaults launched by jihadist fighters against an entrenched camp of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Mission for the Stabilization of Mali (MINUSMA) and Operation Barkhane, on April 14.

The attacks left a peacekeeper from Burkina Faso dead and several others wounded, including seven French soldiers and two Malian civilians.

Barkhane commander explained that the scale of April 14 attacks showed new tactics, notably the use of suicide car bombing perpetrated by women, and the connivance between the different terrorist groups operating in the Sahel.

It was a complicated attack combining direct shooting, RPGs, suicide attacks using multiple vehicles and deployment of fighters equipped with explosive belts who tried to push on through the inside of the headquarters, he said, noting that the terrorists however suffered a resounding defeat and had to flee.

The Group for the Defense of Islam and the Muslims, led by Touareg Iyad Ag Ghali, has been restructured and renewed following our strikes in mid-February, he said, adding that the terrorist group was looking for a key event to reboot its operational capacity and demonstrate it through attacking international forces.

For the Operation Barkhane Commander, the Sahel is in a security emergency. During the G5 latest meeting, the countries of the region have all expressed concern over the deadly threat weighing on them.

The countries of the region understand that terrorism endangers their very survival, in view of the weakness of states, he said. Acknowledging that the remedy will take time, General Guibert stressed the need to pool efforts to give an African response to a regional challenge. He underlined in this connection the relevance of the principle of a joint brigade that would operate primarily in the border areas, the spots favored by jihadist groups.

The real difficulty, he noted, is that this joint force must be provided by the armies of states that are among the poorest in the world.

Northern Mali had fallen in March-April 2012 under the control of jihadist groups linked to al-Qaeda.

These groups were largely driven out following the launch in January 2013 of a French military intervention.

But entire areas are beyond the control of Malian, French and international forces, and are regularly targeted by deadly attacks, despite the signing in May-June 2015 of a peace agreement, supposedly to isolate the jihadists, but whose implementation has been delayed.

Since 2015, these attacks have spread to central and southern Mali and the phenomenon is spreading to neighboring countries, particularly Burkina Faso and Niger.

The G5 Sahel force, bringing together troops from Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Chad, was hailed as a milestone in cross-border cooperation against terrorist groups, which have spawned in the region.
Emmanuel Macron will today urge President Donald Trump to keep the United States engaged in Syria for the long run as the pair meet in the White House.

The French president is expected to warn that new terrorist threats could emerge if the US disengages from the country as it remains locked in civil war.

The White House has confirmed that a "way ahead in Syria" will be discussed in what officials predicted will be a "full and free airing of points of view" with Mr Macron.

America's Syrian policy is up in the air as Mr Trump balances his instinctive opposition to foreign intervention with a determination to police a "red line" over chemical weapons use.

Mr Trump said last month American troops would withdraw from Syria "very soon", only to be convinced by advisers to stay for the time being to defeat the last remaining Isil fighters. Just weeks later, the US president sanctioned air strikes on Syrian regime facilities alongside Britain and France to punish Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian dictator, for a chemical weapons attack.

Mr Macron, who arrived in Washington DC yesterday for a three-day state visit, was said to have played a central role in convincing Mr Trump to approve the strikes.

Mr Macron has also declared pulling out of Syria would "leave the floor to the Iranian regime" and Mr Assad, adding: "They will fuel the new terrorists."

The US president has repeatedly criticised his country's involvement in the Middle East, saying America has got "nothing" from the trillions of pounds spent in the region in the last few decades.

A decision over future Syrian engagement has become more pressing amid Russian media reports that the Kremlin is considering further arming Mr Assad's forces.

The 'Kommersant' newspaper quoted diplomatic and military sources as saying Russia was planning to give S-300 surface-to-air missiles to the Syrian government.

The move would anger Israel, which helped quash a similar move in 2013, and increase volatility in the region.

Mr Macron was given a red-carpet welcome yesterday as he arrived with his wife Brigitte, becoming the first world leader to embark on a state visit to the US under Mr Trump.

The Macrons were due to have a private dinner with the Trumps at Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington, America's first president.

Mr Macron will also be given a "review of the troops", mirroring a military march that Mr Trump attended during his Paris visit.
The suspect in a quadruple homicide at a Nashville Waffle House was arrested yesterday.

Police mounted a massive manhunt for 29-year-old Travis Reinking after the attacks.

More than 100 Nashville officers had been going door-to-door and searching wooded areas, joined by dozens of agents with the FBI, the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and troopers with the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

Police said he had stolen a BMW days before the attack. The car was quickly recovered, but authorities did not immediately link it to Reinking.

Reinking opened fire with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle in the Waffle House parking lot, then stormed the restaurant shortly after 3am on Sunday.

Four people were killed and four others injured before a quick-thinking customer wrestled the assault weapon away, preventing more bloodshed. Reinking then disappeared.

Police said about 20 people were in the Waffle House at the time and included people of different races and ethnicities.

The four murdered people were minorities - three black and one Hispanic.

It's not clear why Reinking opened fire, though he may have "mental issues", police chief Steve Anderson said.

Authorities in Illinois shared past reports suggesting multiple red flags about a disturbed young man with paranoid delusions.

In May 2016, Reinking told deputies from Tazewell County, Illinois, that music superstar Taylor Swift was stalking him and hacking his phone, and his family was also involved.

Reinking agreed to go to a local hospital for an evaluation after repeatedly resisting the request, the sheriff's report said.

Another police report said Reinking had barged into a community pool in Tremont, Illinois, last June, and jumped into the water wearing a pink woman's coat over his underwear. Investigators believed he had an AR-15 rifle in his car trunk, but it was never displayed. No charges were filed.

Last July, Reinking was arrested by the US Secret Service after he crossed into a restricted area near the White House and refused to leave, saying he wanted to meet President Donald Trump.

He wasn't armed but at the FBI's request, state police in Illinois revoked his state firearms card and seized four guns.

The AR-15 used in the shootings was among the firearms seized.

In August, Reinking told police he wanted to file a report about 20 to 30 people tapping into his computer and phone and people "barking like dogs" outside his residence.

Tazewell County deputies had returned the guns to Reinking's father on the promise he would "keep the weapons secure and out of the possession of Travis". It is understood he had acknowledged giving them back to his son.
A driver has captured a dramatic road rage incident which broke out in a Walmart car park.

Brian Nguyen witnessed the incident in Houston, Texas, which saw two cars dangerously careering across the road.

The clip, which by Monday had been viewed 1.4 million times on Twitter, shows a red SUV and a silver truck screeching at one another.

Nguyen, co-founder of fitness company peaksznco.com, told the Press Association: It was road rage. (It) started off in a Walmart parking lot and the red SUV cut off the truck exiting the lot, so the truck sped up to cut him off. Then the truck hit a U-turn as well.

The right door of the red SUV swings open at around 17 seconds, but noone gets out. The end of the video shows the vehicle making a swift U-turn.

Nguyen said the truck also turned around, but he did not stick around to see how the confrontation would end. Smart decision.
People embrace at the scene of a memorial for victims of a crash at Yonge St. at Finch Ave., after a van ploughed into pedestrians on April 23, 2018 in Toronto, Canada. A suspect identified as Alek Minassian, 25, is in custody Photo by Cole Burston/Getty Images

Police in Toronto are trying to find the motive of a driver who ploughed into pedestrians on a crowded footpath, killing 10 people and injuring 15.

What happened in the Toronto attack?

According to eyewitness reports a van was heading south on the busy Yonge Street in the Canadian city at around 1.30pm local time yesterday. The streets were crowded with people enjoying an unseasonably warm day when the van mounted the pavement and ploughed into pedestrians.

Ali Shaker, who was driving near the van at the time, told Canadian broadcast outlet CP24 that the driver appeared to be moving deliberately through the crowd at more than 30 mph.

"He just went on the sidewalk," Mr Shaker said. "He just started hitting everybody, man. He hit every single person on the sidewalk. Anybody in his way he would hit."

Witness Peter Kang told CTV News that the driver did not seem to make any effort to stop.

"If it was an accident he would have stopped," Mr Kang said. "But the person just went through the sidewalk. He could have stopped."

Police now say that 10 people died in the incident while a further 15 were injured.

What do we know so far about the suspect?

Toronto Police chief Mark Saunders said that the man in custody is 25-year-old Alek Minassian.

Mr Saunders said that the man lived in a suburb of Toronto called Richmond Hill and he had not previously been known to police.

Reuters report that MInassian attended a high school program for students with special needs where he would often walk the halls with his head down and hands tightly clasped, according to former classmates.

Shereen Chami said her former classmate was not violent. She said Minassian was part of a program at Thornlea Secondary School, in Toronto's northern suburbs, for high school students with special needs, attending a mix of mainstream and separate classes.

Chami remembers him walking the halls with his hands together and his head down, and making meowing noises.

"He wasn't a social person, but from what I remember he was absolutely harmless," she said.

Two other classmates said they attended classes for students with special needs alongside Minassian. Special needs is a blanket term used in the Canadian education system that covers learning and behavioral difficulties as well as physical disabilities.

Is the incident being treated as a terror attack?

Officials would not comment on a possible motive except to play down a possible connection to terrorism after the incident had several similarities to a series of attacks involving vehicles and pedestrians in Europe, and the presence in Toronto this week of cabinet ministers from the G7 nations.

Asked if there was any evidence of a terrorist link, Mr Saunders said: "Based on what we have there's nothing that has it to compromise the national security at this time."

A senior national government official said earlier that authorities had not turned over the investigation to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a sign that investigators believed it was unlikely that terrorism was the motive.

Is the suspect due to appear in court?

Police said the suspect was scheduled to appear in court at 10am on Tuesday (3pm Irish time), and that information on the charges against him would be released at that time.
Doctors in the United States have performed the worlds first penis and scrotum transplant

Doctors in the United States have performed the worlds first penis and scrotum transplant, performing the surgery on a US military sergeant severely injured several years ago in an IED blast in Afghanistan.

The man, whose name was not given, is recovering well and expected to regain both urinary and sexual function, said Richard Redett, who led the transplant team.

He told a press conference on Monday in Baltimore, where the team at Johns Hopkins hospital worked, that the patient underwent 14 hours of surgery in late March.

It is not the worlds first penis transplant  that was carried out in 2014 in South Africa  and nor is it the first in the US. That was in 2016 at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

It is, however, the most significant transplant to date.

In addition to a large skin graft covering part of the sergeants abdomen, penis and scrotum, surgeons connected three arteries, four veins and two nerves to provide blood flow and sensation to the donated tissue. His internal organs were not damaged by the blast.

The sergeant did not receive testicles from his donor to avoid the ethical issues that might ensue if he later had children, said Damon Cooney, another transplant team member. The testicles would have contained sperm from the recently deceased donor.

The donor was not identified, nor was his cause of death, but his family released a statement praising the sergeants service to his country and noting the donor family includes a number of military veterans.

We are so thankful to say that our loved one would be proud and honoured to know he provided such a special gift to you, said the statement, read by Alexandra Glazier, president and CEO of New England Donor Services, which arranged for the donation.

We hope you can return to better health very soon and we continue to wish you a speedy recovery.

Dr Redett said he expects the soldier will regain the ability to urinate by the time he leaves the hospital later this week.

It will take about six months for the nerves to regrow enough to restore sexual function and sensation, but Dr Redett said he is optimistic that this will occur.

The recipients body may reject the donated tissue at any time, so he has to be on continuous therapy to control his immune system, said Gerald Brandacher, who handled the immune aspects of the transplant.

To reduce the risk of rejection, the sergeant was also infused with bone marrow from the donor.

W. P. Andrew Lee, director of the hospitals department of plastic and reconstructive surgery, said they had been preparing for penile transplants since 2013, in the belief that injuries that affect sexual and urinary function can be devastating to a persons identity, self-esteem and intimate relationships.

We believe that genital-urinary transplantation can help those warriors with missing genitalia, just as hand and arm transplants transformed the lives of amputees, he said.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]
Shire is weighing up offer number five from Takeda (Fiona Hanson/PA)

Japans Takeda has tabled another offer for Shire ahead of a deadline to reach a deal to buy the pharmaceutical giant.

Shire said on Tuesday it received a fifth proposal from Takeda after the firm tabled a 44 billion offer last week.

The board announces that it has received a revised proposal from Takeda regarding a possible offer for the company on 24 April, Shire said, adding it is considering its position.

Takeda, which has until Wednesday afternoon to make a firm offer or walk away, confirmed the latest tilt in a brief market announcement.

Shire, which rebuffed the first three Takeda approaches, saw its shares rise nearly 4% in afternoon trading.

Takedas fourth proposal was worth 47 per share, 21 of which is cash and 26 in new Takeda shares.

If a deal were to go ahead, Takeda would maintain its headquarters in Japan and primary listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

It also intends to put in place a NYSE listed American Depositary Receipts programme at the point of completion to allow Shire shareholders to continue to hold stock in the combined company.

Botox maker Allergan confirmed last week it would not make a bid for the Shire, just a day after saying it was weighing up an offer.

Takedas rationale for acquiring Shire is to accelerate its transformation and result in a global, value-based, R&D-driven biopharmaceutical leader, to be headquartered in Japan.

In addition, a tie-up would help realise the Japanese companys R&D strategy, drive financial value and allow it to exploit further opportunities in the US.
US President Donald Trump has said North Korea wants to hold a high-stakes meeting as soon as possible as he praised Kim Jong Un as very open and very honourable.

Mr Trump was addressing his upcoming plans to meet with the North Korean leader during his discussions at the White House with French President Emmanuel Macron.

Mr Trumps praise for the North Korean dictator stands in stark contrast to his past comments in which he referred to Mr Kim as Little Rocket Man.

The Trump-Kim meeting is expected in May or June.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in is meeting with Mr Kim on Friday to kick off a new round of high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with Pyongyang.

The US and North Korea have been negotiating a summit between Mr Trump and Mr Kim to broker a deal on Pyongyangs nuclear ambitions. Mr Trump, who has struck a decidedly optimistic tone on the situation in recent days, said on Tuesday that the US and North Korea were having good discussions.

We have been told directly that they would like to have the meeting as soon as possible. We think thats a great thing for the world, Mr Trump said at the White House alongside Mr Macron. Kim Jong Un, he really has been very open and I think very honourable from everything were seeing.

Mr Trump cautioned that North Korea had not followed through on previous promises, but credited tough steps from his administration  including sanctions and organising pressure from international allies  for having forced Pyongyang to hold talks.

And he again suggested that he would leave the table if they negotiations were not productive or if North Korea was not operating in good faith.

Well see where that all goes, the president said. Maybe it will be wonderful or maybe it wont.

Mr Trumps comments came days after a flurry of signs from North Korea that the White House was anxious to promote as signs that its coercion campaign was working.

On Saturday, North Korea announced it will close its nuclear testing facility and suspend nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests  a move welcomed by Mr Trump as big progress.

However, the North stopped short of suggesting it will give up its nuclear weapons  as Mr Trump suggested in a tweet  or scale back its production of missiles and their related components.

Asked if the suspension of tests was a positive sign, defence secretary Jim Mattis said on Monday: Right now, I think there (are) a lot of reasons for optimism that the negotiations will be fruitful and well see.
Rising Chinese demand for products made from elephant skin is driving poaching and posing an even greater threat to Asias wild herds than the ivory trade, according to a report by a British-based conservation group.

The group Elephant Family said the threat is currently greatest in Burma, but warned that the Asian elephant could become extinct in half of the areas where it now ranges in the region if the problem escalates.

It said the threat exceeds that from the ivory trade because poachers are targeting any elephant, not just those with tusks, and threatens elephants that are scattered in poorly protected areas.

Asian elephants are being killed illegally for their skin. What are the criminals using the skin for?  Elephant Family (@elephantfamily) April 22, 2018

Both - Asian elephant skin is being dried and ground into powder for medicines or added to elephant fat to make a cream for skin conditions. The subcutaneous layer, rich in capillaries, is fashioned into beads. Find out more tomorrow when we launch our new investigative report. https://t.co/X2DDVeP8AN  Elephant Family (@elephantfamily) April 23, 2018

The reports authors said their research shows that the elephants skin is ground into powder and sold in China as a cure for stomach ailments, as well as being fashioned into beads for necklaces, bracelets and pendants.

The products are sold in physical markets and increasingly over the internet.

Belinda Stewart-Cox, Elephant Familys director of conservation, said from the time the group started monitoring in 2014, there has been a major ramping up of the advertising, the promotional pitches and the apparent sales.

She said it seems as if there are marketers and profiteers behind this looking to ratchet up what has, I think, long been a very, very minor incidental or local market trade of no great scale, or no scale that was threatening, anyway.

Researchers identified 50 individual Chinese traders selling through social media forums. They said labels are printed in Chinese, prices are quoted in Chinese currency and sales online are conducted in Mandarin.

The report  Skinned: The Growing Appetite For Asian Elephants  also said that Chinas State Forestry Administration has apparently licensed some products that contain elephant skin.

At a time when China has shown a commitment to ending its domestic trade in elephant ivory, it would be troubling and perverse to find that, at the same time, it is creating a new, legal demand for elephant skin products, it said.

Ms Stewart-Cox said her organisation has reached out to Chinese officials and has worked closely with Burma officials to address the issue.

It is our intention to facilitate collaboration if possible, she said. I think we should pull together on this, there is no time, Burma is losing too many elephants, too fast.

Next week we will be reaching out to our @twitter #family for your help to spread awareness for #Asian #elephants. One RT could help protect these amazing animals.  https://t.co/eGdEfL4bYn pic.twitter.com/RWnZWs08DA  Elephant Family (@elephantfamily) April 18, 2018

Elephant Family puts the current size of Burmas wild population at approximately 2,000.

Quoting figures from Burmas Forest Department, the group said that wild elephant deaths there have risen significantly in recent years, from 26 in 2013 to at least 61 in 2016, most of them due to poaching.

The ivory trade doesnt threaten the Asian elephant as severely as it threatens the African elephant because only male Asian elephants have tusks and quite a lot of those do not have tusks anyway, or little tusks; we dont get the really big tusks as much anymore, Ms Stewart-Cox said.

This trade is targeting males, females, juveniles and are indiscriminate, and that means that no elephant is safe.
Former President Joyce Banda has returned to Malawi for the first time since 2014 to defend herself in the Cashgate scandal.

The former leader spent more than three years in self-imposed exile because of graft allegations.

Banda, Malawis first female president, who ruled the southern African nation for two years from 2012, left the country when she lost in an election to Peter Mutharika.

Her partys deputy spokesman, Ackson Kaliyile, on Monday said the former leader returned to Malawi to stay.

Nowa Chimpeni, a spokesman for Peoples Party (PP) told local media she was returning to rebuild the party ahead of May 2019 elections.

Banda has been living in the United States, serving as a distinguished fellow at Woodrow Wilson Center and the Center for Global Development in Washington, DC.

She is wanted for arrest over alleged abuse of office and money-laundering offenses.

More than 70 entrepreneurs, officials and civil servants have been charged in connection with the embezzlement of what is thought to amount to hundreds of millions of dollars.

Police spokesperson James Kadadzera said the warrant remained valid but he declined to say if Banda would be detained.
Kolkata, Apr 24 (IBNS): To highlight the increasing importance of the Human Resource Management in any organisation, the Bengal Chamber recently organised an HR Conclave titled 'People Management in a Disruptive era'.

The conclave, organised by the Bengal Chambers People Management Committee, highlighted that HR function today no longer plays a supportive role but a proactive and key role in charting the success of an organisation.

Human Resource Management has taken a new role and name as People Management that facilitates achieving the organisational goals, the speakers said. It is not just anymore about employees leaves, compensations, promotions and reimbursements.

Speaking at the conclave, Somesh Dasgupta, Chairperson of the People Management Committee, The Bengal Chamber and President (Corporate Affairs & Admin) India Power Corporation Limited said, This kind of conclave adds value to the role of Human Resource Management. It makes HR personnel aware about their roles and responsibilities to mange people for the future."

"This kind of conclave provides a valuable platform for need based professional connectivity for professional development by providing tools and techniques to handle external environment. Young professional should be in touch with professional bodies like Bengal Chamber Of Commerce, CII etc. The senior HR professional should promote connectivity. This is not a waste of time but it improves work, quality and helps in coping with crisis situations. You cant manage people unless you engage in connectivity, he said.

With the economy focused on innovation and change, a common issue facing most organisations is managing the work force in face of loss of positions with robotic applications.

Automation, artificial intelligence and robotics are hitting the corporate landscape on an ongoing basis.

With advance development in industry and technology, corporate processes are taking a new turn.

Human resource has been replaced by People Management as most companies are facing concerns of work force redundancy with the entry of disruptive forces which are fast changing old patterns of working systems and functions, emphasised the speakers.

For any organisations HR success, no instrument can move without human intervention," said Chandrasekhar Ghosh, President of BCCI and CEO of Bandhan Bank Ltd.

He said, "I have taken over 15,000 interviews in the past two years and I have learnt that it is very important for the senior levels to be in touch with the front levels. This increases efficiency and impacts business positively. And at the same time this builds commitment from the front level staff. Technology and skill upgradation is the need of the hour. At the same time high touch can not be replace by hi-tech. Personal touch is always required along with technology."

Some of the key points that came up during the conclave were that companies across sectors are investing in expanding their HR wing to ensure that learning and development, talent acquisition, diversity and inclusion, etc, are managed well. Organisations are also replacing erstwhile vertical hierarchies with flatter, more horizontal networks - linking together traditional functions.

Dr. Tapan Kumar Chand, Chairman & Managing Director, National Aluminium Company Limited said, The World is going through a rapid speed in technology which is having a cascading effect. When I took over NALCO coming from the steel sector I found that there was a fixed mind set among the staff force. I then realised through experience that HR professionals can play an integral role in shaping the mindsets of the work force."

"HR professionals by taking the right risks can steer the company towards success. Introduction of artificial intelligence can be a disruption among the human resource but it creates jobs in other areas which the HR professional should be aware of. HR excellence can be achieved by quantifying data," said Dr Chand.

Earlier tradition was the fashion, now fashion is becoming the tradition. There is an unsettling pace in this destructive era. Technology will fill the gaps between intention and capacity. HR people will then get more time to address real policy issues. Old classical values like dedication, honesty & sincerity will hold fort, " said Dushyant Nariala, IAS, Principle Secretary, of the West Department of School Education, Govt. of West Bengal.

The conclave highlighted that disruption in the new age is nothing but innovations that create new market by discovering new types of customers. Therefore, business leaders need to change and shift from old paradigms.

It was also emphasized at the conclave that both technology and human resources have to work side by side to emerge as successful in this highly competitive age.

There should be collaborations and partnerships and bridge building between academia and industry to create a more market ready, technological savvy, skilled workforce for the future, the speakers at the conclave said.
Sydney, Apr 24 (IBNS): Anew Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS)-led study has revealed a previously undocumented process where melting glacial ice sheets change the ocean in a way that further accelerates the rate of ice melt and sea level rise.

Led by IMAS PhD student Alessandro Silvano and published in the journal Science Advances, the research found that glacial meltwater makes the oceans surface layer less salty and more buoyant, preventing deep mixing in winter and allowing warm water at depth to retain its heat and further melt glaciers from below.

This process is similar to what happens when you put oil and water in a container, with the oil floating on top because its lighter and less dense, Silvano said.

The same happens near Antarctica with fresh glacial meltwater, which stays above the warmer and saltier ocean water, insulating the warm water from the cold Antarctic atmosphere and allowing it to cause further glacial melting.

We found that in this way increased glacial meltwater can cause a positive feedback, driving further melt of ice shelves and hence an increase in sea level rise.

The study found that fresh meltwater also reduces the formation and sinking of dense water in some regions around Antarctica, slowing ocean circulation which takes up and stores heat and carbon dioxide.

The cold glacial meltwaters flowing from the Antarctic cause a slowing of the currents which enable the ocean to draw down carbon dioxide and heat from the atmosphere. In combination, the two processes we identified feed off each other to further accelerate climate change.

Silvano said a similar mechanism has been proposed to explain rapid sea level rise of up to five metres per century at the end of the last glacial period around 15,000 years ago.

Our study shows that this feedback process is not only possible but is in fact already underway, and may drive further acceleration of the rate of sea level rise in the future," Silvano said.

Currently the ice shelves resist the flow of ice to the ocean, acting like a buttress to hold the ice sheet on the Antarctic continent," said Silvano.

Where warm ocean waters flow under the ice shelves they can drive rapid melting from below, causing ice shelves to thin or break up and reducing the buttressing effect," Silvano said.

This process leads to rising sea levels as more ice flows to the ocean," said Silvano.

Our results suggest that a further increase in the supply of glacial meltwater to the waters around the Antarctic shelf may trigger a transition from a cold regime to a warm regime, characterised by high rates of melting from the base of ice shelves and reduced formation of cold bottom waters that support ocean uptake of atmospheric heat and carbon dioxide, Silvano said.

The study involved scientists from IMAS, ACE CRC, CSIRO, the Centre for Southern Hemisphere Oceans Research and the Antarctic Gateway Partnership, with support from IMOS and the Australian Antarctic Program, as well as Japanese scientists from the Hokkaido University and the National Institute of Polar Research.

Image Credits: Barbara Cohen
Five cadres of the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist), including two sub-zonal commanders, were killed in an encounter with Security Forces (SFs) during a search operation in an area between the Sikid and Kedu Forests under Herhanj Police Station limits in the Latehar District of Jharkhand State on April 4, 2018. The two sub-zonal commanders, carrying rewards of INR 500,000 each on their heads, were identified as Shivlal Yadav and Shravan Yadav. The identities of the remaining three slain Maoists are yet to be ascertained. SFs recovered the bodies of the five Maoists, along with two Self Loading Rifles (SLRs), two Indian Small Arms System (INSAS) assault rifles, a .315 bore rifle, and a large number of live bullets from the encounter spot.

On February 1, 2018, a CPI-Maoist cadre, identified as Birbal Oraon, was killed in an encounter with SFs at Bhitar Pandra village in Latehar District. Superintendent of Police (SP), Prasant Anand disclosed, "We had information that the squads have been active in the Garu area for past several days and an anti-Naxal [Left Wing Extremism (LWE)] operation was launched to apprehend them." He added that the Maoists had started firing at the approaching security personnel, forcing them to retaliate. While Birbal Oraon was killed some other Maoists managed to escape.

On January 17, 2018, an area commander of Jharkhand Jan-Mukti Parishad (JJMP), a splinter group of the CPI-Maoist, was killed in an encounter at Jerpahari under Sadar Police Station limits in Latehar District. An AK-47, four American-made rifles, one INSAS assault rifle, among other materials, were recovered from the encounter spot.

According to partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), of the 16 Left Wing Extremists (LWEs) neutralised in Jharkhand in 2018, (data till April 15), seven (one JJMP and six CPI-Maoist cadres) were killed in Latehar District alone. Since 2005, a total of 101 LWEs have been neutralised in the Latehar District out of a total of 555 in Jharkhand. The District thus accounted for 18.19 per cent of total Naxal deaths recorded in the State over this period. Latehar District has the highest proportion of Naxals killed in the State, followed by Palamu with 13.51 per cent (75 LWEs fatalities); Hazaribagh with 11.71 per cent (65 LWEs fatalities); and Khunti with 10.99 per cent (61 LWEs fatalities).

Meanwhile, on March 21, 2018, according to the Jharkhand Police, top Naxal 'commander' Arvindji aka Dev Kumar Singh aka Nishant, who was active in Bihar and Jharkhand and carried a reward of INR 15 million on his head, died of cardiac arrest at his jungle hideout in the Budha Pahad hills in Latehar District. A native of Jehanabad District in Bihar, Arvindji was known for some of the deadliest attacks on SFs. He was the mastermind of the daring Jehanabad jailbreak of 2006, in which over 341 prisoners escaped from custody. After an attack on Police forces in Latehar District in January 7, 2013, in which 10 SF personnel were killed, bombs were planted inside the bodies of the dead on his instructions.

Significantly, the District has not recorded any SF killing thus far in 2018. There was no SF killing through 2017. The last SF killing was reported on July 11, 2016, when a Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) trooper  Ajai Kumar  succumbed to his injuries after being injured in an encounter between SF personnel and CPI-Maoist cadres at an unspecified location under Baresan Police Station limits in Latehar District. Since 2005, a total of 61 SF personnel have died in the Latehar District, 18.94 per cent of the 322 SF fatalities in Jharkhand over this period.

The highest number of SF deaths in a year in Latehar was recorded in 2009, when 27 SF personnel had died. In that year, the kill ratio was in favour of the LWEs at 1: 4.5, and remained in their favour in 2010 at 1:6. After 2011, however, the kill ratio has remained in favour of SFs at 1:1.63 in 2011; 1:1.5 in 2012; 1:1.8 in 2013. There were no SF fatalities through 2014 ad 2015, while the LWEs had lost three and two cadres, respectively, in these years. The ratio was in favour of the SFs at 1:7 in 2016. No fatalities were registered in either category in 2017.

Meanwhile, after registering the highest number of civilian fatalities, at 15 in 2011, fatalities dropped to just three in 2017. In the intervening years, the trend has been cyclical, but fatalities remained in single digits. Since 2005, a total of 59 civilians have been killed in the Latehar District, 8.91 per cent of the 622 civilian deaths in the State over this period.
Insurgency across Indias Northeast is currently at its lowest ebb. Most major insurgent groups have suffered severe losses over recent years and are now engaged in talks with the Government. However, some splinter formations remain violently active. One of these latter groups is the Independent faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA-I).

On March 26, 2018, ULFA-I militants attacked a check post manned by Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel at Dirak in the Namsai District of Arunachal Pradesh. No casualties were reported in the incident.

On February 18, 2018, an ULFA-I militant, identified as Moniram Deori alias Moniram Axom, was killed in an encounter with Security Forces (SFs) at Shankapani in the Changlang District in Arunachal Pradesh.

On January 18, 2018, an ULFA-I linkman, identified as Swarup Jyoti Chetia, was arrested from Chabua in the Dibrugarh District of Assam. Chetia, a local journalist, was reportedly tasked by ULFA-I to collect information about the Chabua Air Force Station to plan sabotage activities, and he had passed on some related information.

According to partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), at least 74 ULFA-I linked fatalities were reported from four states of the Northeast  Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Meghalaya  where ULFA-I has been active, since its formation in August 2012 (data till April 22, 2018). The maximum number of killings were reported from Assam, at 55 (20 civilians, five SF personnel and 30 militants); followed by Meghalaya, eight (five militants and three SF personnel); Nagaland, six (one civilian, one trooper and three militants); and Arunachal Pradesh, five (all militants). During this entire period, the total number of killings in these four Northeastern States was 1,060 (430 civilians, 64 SF personnel, and 566 militants); thus ULFA-I accounted for 6.98 per cent of these killings.

ULFA-I linked fatalities in these States stood at seven (five civilians and two militants) in 2015; which went up to 14 (seven civilians, four SF personnel, and three militants) in 2016; and declined, again, to 11 (three civilians, one trooper, and seven militants) in 2017. Only one ULFA-I linked fatality has been recorded in the current years so far (data till April 22, 2018).

During this period, at least 430 civilians were killed in these four States, among which ULFA-I was involved in 21, i.e., 4.88 per cent.

Similarly, during this period, at least 64 SF personnel were killed in these four states, with ULFA-I found involved in nine of these, i.e., 14 per cent.

ULFA-I was confirmed to have been involved in nine major incidents (each resulting in three or more fatalities) reported from these four States over this period, out of a total of 46 major incidents in these States. The worst such incident involving ULFA-I occurred on April 19, 2013, when one civilian, one trooper, and two ULFA-I militants were killed in an encounter at Kordoiguri village in Tinsukia District.

It is useful to recall that the parent group, ULFA, was formed on April 7, 1979, with the principal aim to establish sovereign socialist Assam through armed struggle. Not surprisingly, it was primarily active in Assam. The group split into two on August 8, 2012, when the then commander-in-chief of undivided ULFA, Paresh Baruah, expelled Arabinda Rajkhowa as chairman. Earlier, on February 5, 2011, Pradeep Gogoi the vice chairman of ULFA, along with ULFAs foreigh secretary Sashadhar Chowdhury and central publicity secretary Mithinga Daimary, had announced the decision of ULFAs central executive council to sit for talks with the Government of India without any pre condition. Rajkhowa is currently the chairman of the parent ULFA, as the Paresh Baruah-led splinter group came to be known as the anti-talks faction (ULFA-ATF), and subsequently, as ULFA-I. The parent ULFA has since been in talks with the Government. According to latest information provided by the Ministry of Home Affairs, United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) talks are continuing. Last meeting was held on November 24, 2015. SoO [Suspension of Operations] is valid from September 3, 2011, and is continuing indefinitely.

ULFA-ATF rechristened itself ULFA-Independent following its 'central executive committee' meeting between April 2 and 5, 2013, at Taga in Myanmar. According to a National Investigation Agency (NIA) charge sheet in case RC-04/2013/NIA/GUW, the chairman of ULFA-I is Abhijit Barmans aka Dr.Mukul Hazarika, presently residing in the UK. He is originally from Nagaon District in Assam. The commander-in-chief is Paresh Baruah from the Dibrugarh District of Assam; while the general secretary has been identified as Bhaskar Borah aka Rantu Gogoi, from Tinsukia District (Assam). The assistant general secretary/ finance secretary is Jiban Moran aka Gunnat Dangori, who is also from Tinsukia District. Drishti Rajkhowa is the commander of eastern command and deputy chief of staff, and is originally from Goalpara District (Assam). The director of the general military headquarters has been identified as Dwipen Saud aka Ramen Nath.

A June 11, 2017, report estimated ULFA-Is strength at nearly 300. Later, on August 28, 2017, a surrendered ULFA-I militant reportedly disclosed that training camps operated by ULFA-I in Myanmar housed more than 500 militants.

On December 15, 2017, Assam Director General of Police (DGP) Mukesh Sahay had stated,

I dont have a fair idea about its current strength, but then, strength does not lie in numbers but in lethality. I can say, however, that something which was pervasive all over the State at one point of time is today confined to pockets bordering Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland.

On January 10, 2017, the then Assam Additional Director of General of Police (ADGP) L. R. Bishnoi, stated that ULFA-I chief Paresh Barua had currently set up base in Ruili, a Chinese town in the Myanmar border, and added,

Chinese intelligences have been helping, directly or indirectly various insurgent groups of the North-eastern region that have their bases and hideouts inside Myanmar. These groups are under increasing influence of the Chinese agencies, and ULFA-I leader Paresh Barua is among those top leaders who have been in regular touch with the Chinese liaison office in Ruili on the China-Myanmar border.

Not surprisingly, on March 1, 2018, the DGP Mukesh Sahay stated that SFs could not afford to drop their guard against ULFA-I which has of late made its presence felt in certain pockets along the Assam Border. Sahay observed,

The issue remains that in certain pockets their activities have increased. They are taking advantage of pockets bordering Arunachal Pradesh, Myanmar and Nagaland. They are down but not out. So we just can't afford to relax. But we are working closely with all our stakeholders in these areas and trying to see that we have a strong counter response to all this.

ULFA-Is lethality has been depleted over the years, and the organisation is unlikely to engineer a significant resurgence in the foreseeable future. However, the group retains residual capacities to engage in isolated incidents of violence, primarily of a symbolic in nature. Additionally given that ULFA-Is Headquarters have been moved to further away from the area of its operations, the tempo of violence is unlikely to abruptly increase. The decline in insurgent activities in Assam has also created the environment that allows the state and its agencies to address the complicated challenges facing the state, including the protracted peace processes with numerous insurgent formations, as well as illegal migration, governance and economic development.
Toronto, Apr 22 (IBNS): A van ploughed through pedestrians in Toronto this afternoon in what police are calling a terror attack, killing three and injuring several others, media reports said.

A suspect is in custody and the van has been located, Toronto police media representative Gary Long said.

Seven victims have been taken to Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. The hospital was unable to provide details on the severity of injuries.

A large presence of Toronto fire, police and EMS personnel are on the scene, Powell said.

The incident happened in North York at the intersection of Yonge Street and Finch Avenue, the police said.

(Story to be updated)

(Reporting by Sayantan Banerjee)
Swaraj is visiting China to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted: "Conveying our desire to strengthen our bilateral relationship, EAM @SushmaSwaraj called on President of People's Republic of China Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of People in Beijing. #EAMatSCO."

The meeting took place between Sushma and Xi just days ahead of Indian PM Narendra Modi's visit to China.

Modi will visit China this month for an Informal Summit with the Asian nation's President Xi Jinping, officials said.

The Summit will be held in the Chinese city of Wuhan, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj announced on Sunday.

Modi will visit China on Apr 27-28.

Swaraj said : "Prime Minister of India @narendramodi will visit China on 27 & 28 April for an Informal Summit with President of China Xi Jinping in the city of Wuhan."

She said: "The informal Summit will be an important occasion for them to exchange views on bilateral and international matters from an over-arching and long-term perspective with the objective of enhancing mutual communication at the level of leaders."

Image: Raveesh Kumar Twitter page
New Delhi, Apr 24 (IBNS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Mandla in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday on the National Panchayati Raj Day, officials said.

He will launch the Rashtriya Gramin Swaraj Abhiyan, at a public meeting, and address Panchayati Raj representatives across the country, from Mandla.

The Prime Minister will unveil a Road Map for overall development of tribals during the next five years, on this occasion, read a statement issued by the government.

He will unveil a plaque to mark the laying of foundation stone of an LPG bottling plant of Indian Oil Corporation at Maneri, Mandla District. He will also launch a Local Government Directory.

In keeping up with the Governments commitment towards clean, healthy, and electrified India, the Prime Minister would felicitate the Sarpanches of the villages which have achieved 100 percent smokeless kitchens, 100 percent vaccination under Mission Indradhanush, and 100 percent electrification under Saubhagya Scheme.

The winners of Rashtriya e-Panchayat Puraskar, and Gram Panchayat Vikas Puraskar Yojana under Sarvasreshtha Panchayat Puraskar Yojana will be felicitated on this occasion.

Later, the Prime Minister will interact with the District Collectors of the Aspirational Districts from Madhya Pradesh.


Bhopal, Apr 24 (IBNS): Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Bhupendra Singh Thakur has called for a ban on pornography which he considered to be responsible for criminal activities like rape and sexual assault, media reports said.

Singh has been quoted by The Times Of India, "A study conducted by the state's home department revealed that pornography is corroding childhood. Boys and girls are easily influenced by the pornography and have easy access to such erotic sites and materials. This is provoking crimes like rape and sexual assault."

He has also stated that the Madhya Pradesh government has banned about 25 pornographic sites and also urged the central government to put an immediate ban on such sites to curb such heinous activities.

Singh has lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi for enacting law to award capital punishment to all those who are convicted of raping minors below the age of 12.

The Delhi High Court on Monday rapped the Centre for coming out with an ordinance awarding death penalty to those convicted of raping children up to 12 years of age.

The court asked the Centre if it had done any research before bringing out such an ordinance.

Did you carry out any study, any scientific assessment that death penalty is a deterrent to rape? Have you thought of the consequences to the victim?," a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar reportedly questioned the Centre.

The bench asked that how many victims will be left alive by the offenders when they will find that murder and rape amount to same punishment.

The significant move came amid the nationwide outrage over the series of incidents of sexual assault of minor girls, including the one in Kathua.

In Kathua, eight-year old Asifa was raped, mutilated and murdered inside a temple by some men.



Image: Twitter/Wikimedia commons
Bengaluru, Apr 24 (IBNS): B. Y. Vijayendra, son of the Bharatiya Janata Party's chief ministerial candidate for Karnatka Assembly polls - B.S. Yeddyurappa, has been appointed the State General Secretary for the Yuva Morcha, it was announced on Tuesday.

The tweet from Karnataka BJP read, "Congratulations to Shri BY Vijayendra on his appointment as State General Secretary, Yuva Morcha. His addition will greatly boost the party cadre and strengthen our organisation in the Old Mysuru region."

Congratulations to Shri BY Vijayendra on his appointment as State General Secretary, Yuva Morcha. His addition will greatly boost the party cadre and strengthen our organisation in the Old Mysuru region.



He will be campaigning extensively for candidates in the Old Mysuru region.  BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) April 24, 2018

" He will be campaigning extensively for candidates in the Old Mysuru region," was also mentioned in the tweet.

On Monday, the expected battle between Vijayendra and the current Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's son Yatindra turned out to be a sub-plot in the Karnataka poll.

BJP workers in Mysore protested after Chief Ministerial candidate B.S. Yeddyurappa has said his son B. Y. Vijayendra will not contest from the Varuna constituency.

The workers reportedly threatened to resign if B. Y. Vijayendra was not named as their candidate.

Yeddyurappa confirmed the news after a party meeting in Mysuru on Monday.

Earlier it was decided that Vijayendra will take on current Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's son Yatindra, who will fight his election from the Varuna seat.

After Yeddyurappa left the meeting, the party workers had reportedly ransacked the podium and destroyed furniture.

The Karnatak Assembly poll is scheduled to be held in a single phase on May 12 and results declared on May 15.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus A.Dapkiunas meets the ICRANet delegation

24-04-2018

On April 24, 2018 the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus, Andrei Dapkiunas, met with the delegation of the International Center for the Relativistic Astrophysical Network (ICRANet), headed by the Director of the Center, Professor Remo Ruffini. The delegation visits Minsk to participate in the international scientific symposium dedicated to the memory of the famous scientist, native of Minsk Yakov Zeldovich.

During the meeting, the sides discussed the expansion of international scientific cooperation in the field of relativistic astrophysics, participation of Belarusian scientists in ICRANet programs, joint research and events. R.Ruffini expressed interest in the official accession of Belarus to ICRANet and opening of the Centers office in Minsk.

Background Information: The International Center for Relativistic Astrophysics Network (ICRANet) is an international scientific organization promoting research activities in relativistic astrophysics and related areas. Joint international center of relativistic astrophysics ICRANet has been operating on the basis of the Institute of Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus since April 2017.

   

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Mandla, Apr 24 (IBNS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is visiting Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday, said that he was delighted to be in the state on National Panchayati Raj Day.

The prime minister was received by Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, on his arrival at Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday.



"I am delighted to be in Madhya Pradesh on National Panchayati Raj Day. Bapu always highlighted the importance of villages and spoke about 'Gram Swaraj'," the PM said while addressing a public meeting in Mandla.

He launched the Rashtriya Gramin Swaraj Abhiyan, at a public meeting, and was address Panchayati Raj representatives across the country, from Mandla.

"Let us reaffirm our commitment to serving our villages," the PM said at the meeting.

The PM highlighted that while talking about rural development, budgets are important.

"But, there is a shift in the discourse in the last few years. People are now talking about the need to ensure that money allocated for a project is utilised and it is done in a timely as well as transparent manner," he said.

Images; PMO/TwitterThe Prime Minister will unveil a Road Map for overall development of tribals during the next five years, on this occasion, according to a statement issued by the government.

He will unveil a plaque to mark the laying of foundation stone of an LPG bottling plant of Indian Oil Corporation at Maneri, Mandla District. He will also launch a Local Government Directory.

The Prime Minister si also scheduled to felicitate the Sarpanches of the villages which have achieved 100 percent smokeless kitchens, 100 percent vaccination under Mission Indradhanush, and 100 percent electrification under Saubhagya Scheme.

The winners of Rashtriya e-Panchayat Puraskar, and Gram Panchayat Vikas Puraskar Yojana under Sarvasreshtha Panchayat Puraskar Yojana will be felicitated on this occasion.

Later, the Prime Minister will interact with the District Collectors of the Aspirational Districts from Madhya Pradesh.

Images; PMO/Twitter
Ulaanbaatar, Apr 24 (IBNS): Wrapping up her visit to China, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday commenced her two-day visit to Mongolia.

The Indian Minister took a special flight for Ulaanbaatar from Beijing to reach the land-locked nation.

Deputy Foreign Minister of Mongolia B Battsetseg received her at the airport.

MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted: "First visit of an Indian External Affairs Minister to Mongolia in 42 years! Reconnecting with our shared Buddhist heritage, EAM @SushmaSwaraj warmly received by Deputy Foreign Minister of Mongolia, B.Battsetseg on her arrival in sunny Ulaanbaatar."

Her visit to the nation assumes significance as she is the first Indian foreign minister in 42 years to visit Mongolia.

"External Affairs Minister (EAM) will visit Mongolia from 25-26 April 2018 at the invitation of H.E. Mr. Damdin Tsogtbaatar, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia," read a statement issued by the MEA.

During her visit, EAM will co-chair the sixth round of India-Mongolia Joint Consultative Committee (IMJCC) meeting with Foreign Minister Tsogtbaatar, covering a range of issues including inter alia, political, strategic, economic, educational and cultural ties.

The last meeting of IMJCC was held in New Delhi in 2016.

During her visit, EAM will also deliver the keynote address at the Kushok Bakula Birth Centenary Celebrations in Ulaanbaatar commemorating the birth anniversary of Late Venerable Kushok Bakula Rinpoche, a highly revered Buddhist leader and monk from Ladakh, India and a former Ambassador of India to Mongolia. Bakula Rinpoche as the longest serving Indian Ambassador to Mongolia, made seminal contribution to promotion of India-Mongolia ties.

In China, Sushma Swaraj attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) foreign ministers meeting.

She also met Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Image: Raveesh Kumar Twitter page
According to the reports, based on intelligence input the Khonsa battalion of the Assam Rifles launched an operation at Muktwa village in Khonsa district on Monday and nabbed a militant belonging to banned NSCN (K).

Kohima based Defence PRO Colonel Chiranjeet Konwer said that there were reports of presence of terrorists of NSCN(K) under Self Styled Sergeant and Rajapio Wangphiak Lowang as they were trying to carry out extortion in Khonsa area.

A swift operation was launched in which the troops of the Khonsa battalion established a cordon around the suspected area. The troops observed a suspicious individual moving in the area, the individual was challenged and asked to surrender but he tried to flee. The troops were highly vigilant and located carefully to cut off all escape routes from the area and when the individual tried to run he was quickly nabbed and overpowered. On searching, the individual was found in possession of large quantity of explosives, Cordex, Safety Fuse and detonators. He was also carrying ledger of extortion from villagers and extortion letters meant for illegal collection of money from villagers, shopkeepers and businessmen of the area. During the spot interrogation the hardcore terrorist confirmed his allegiance to NSCN(K) and revealed that he is an active cadre from the 1st Mobile Battalion of NSCN(K), was enrolled in the outfit in 2010 and has been acting as Self Styled Rajapio of Soha and Deomali areas carrying out extortion and kidnappings in the area, Colonel Konwer said.

On the other hand, the Longding battalion of Dao Division undertook an operation in Longphong area on Tuesday and apprehended Self Styled Private Wangphai Wangsu of NSCN(IM) who is a hardcore cadre and was terrorizing people to extort money from the locals.

Security forces recovered one pistol and ammunition along with a magazine of an automatic weapon (AK-47) with ammunition.

During interrogation, he revealed that he was trying to carry out extortion from locals and businessmen of Longphong area.

The militant was recruited by the banned outfit in 2015 and was wanted by the police for extortion.
Guwahati, Apr 24 (IBNS): The much awaited cabinet expansion of Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal-led Assam government will take place on Apr 26 next.

A top source of Assam BJP unit said that, the cabinet expansion has been finalised after BJPs National President had approved it recently.

The source further said the cabinet expansion will be held at Raj Bhawan at around 10 am on Apr 26.

Seven new ministers are likely to be inducted in the BJP-led state government.

The top source said that, among the new ministers, five will be from BJP while one each new minister to be inducted from its ally parties Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF).

Among the new faces from BJP might be Pijush Hazarika (MLA of Jagiroad constituency), Siddhartha Bhattacharya (MLA of Guwahati East), Tapan Kumar Gogoi (MLA of Sonari), Sum Ronghang (MLA of Diphu) and Angoorlata Deka (MLA of Batadrava).

Apart from it, senior AGP leader and MLA from Bongaigaon assembly constituency Phani Bhusan Choudhury and BPF MLA Chandan Brahma might be berth as new ministers in Sonowal-led government.

Seven ministers including Chief Minister from BJP and two each ministers from AGP and BPF are in the present government.

(By Hemanta KumarNath)
At least two members of the Christian community, Rashid Khalid and Azhar Iqbal, were killed and another five were injured in a firing incident near a church in the Essa Nagri area of Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan, on April 15, 2018. Quettas Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police, Abdur Razzaq Cheema, stated that the incident occurred when worshippers were leaving after attending the Sunday service at the church. Islamic State (IS, also Daesh) claimed responsibility for the attack through the Amaq news agency, its propaganda wing.

On April 2, 2018, four members of a Christian family were shot dead by unidentified assailants on Shah Zaman road in Quetta. A minor girl was also injured in the attack. The family was travelling in a rickshaw, when armed assailants on a motorcycle intercepted them and opened fire. Belonging to Punjab, the family was visiting relatives in Quetta on the occasion of Easter on April 1, and was likely being tailed by the assailants after they had identified them as Christians. Moazzam Jah Ansari, Inspector General of the Balochistan Police, observed that it appeared to have been a targeted attack. Daesh claimed responsibility for the attack.

On December 17, 2017, at least 11 civilians were killed and 56 injured in a suicide attack by two Daesh terrorists on the Bethel Memorial Methodist Church in Quetta. Police Guards stationed at the church entrance and on its roof killed one terrorist, but the second detonated his explosives-filled vest outside the prayer hall, causing all the casualties. DIG Abdur Razaq Cheema disclosed further that another two terrorists managed to escape. At the time of the incident there were nearly 400 worshippers in the church for a pre-Christmas service.

Terrorist attacks on Christians are not a new phenomenon in the theocratic state of Pakistan. Indeed, according to partial data compiled by the Institute for Conflict Management (ICM), Pakistan has witnessed at least 27 such incidents resulting in 252 fatalities and 609 injuries since March 2000 (data till April 22, 2018). The Christian community has faced the brunt of some of the worst terrorist attacks in the country in recent years. Some of the major terrorism-related incidents targeting the Christian community across Pakistan included:

March 27, 2016: At least 74 people were killed and more than 300 injured in a suicide blast inside the Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park in the Iqbal Town area of Lahore, the provincial capital of Punjab, when Christians were celebrating Easter. Ehsanullah Ehsan, spokesperson of the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), a breakaway faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), had declared, We had been waiting for this occasion. We claim responsibility for the attack on Christians as they were celebrating Easter. It was part of the annual martyrdom attacks we have started this year.

March 15, 2015: At least 15 persons, including 13 Christians and two Policemen, were killed and more than 70 were injured, when two suicide bombers attacked two churches near the Youhanabad neighbourhood in Lahore, sparking mob violence in which two terrorists were killed. Youhanabad is home to more than 100,000 Christians. JuA had claimed responsibility for the attack as well.

September 22, 2013: At least 79 worshippers, including 34 women and seven children, were killed and another 130 were injured when two suicide bombers attacked a Christian congregation at the historic All Saints Church in the Kohati Gate area of Peshawar, the provincial capital of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), on September 22, 2013. Ahmed Marwat, a spokesman for the Jundullah group, a faction of the TTP, had claimed responsibility for the attack, and declared, in a statement to the media, "Until and unless drone strikes are stopped, we will continue our attacks on non-Muslims on Pakistani land. They are the enemies of Islam, therefore we target them."

The entry of Daesh into this campaign of targeting Christians has created a more insecure environment for this minority. The Voice of America, quoting Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) parliamentarian Tariq Christopher Qaiser, who belongs to Christian community, expressing serious concerns about the increasing number of targeted attacks, both on different Muslim sects and on Christians, stating, on April 7, 2018,

Its not only alarming but also shameful. It is the responsibility of the state to protect all its nationals without any discrimination as to from which sect or religion they belong to. I have been raising my voice on the floor of the Parliament and will continue to do so.

Mehdi Hassan, chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), noted, on April 7, 2018,

Attacks on the Christian community by Daesh is really a matter of concern, and this will worsen [the] religious extremism situation in Pakistan. In a country where extremism exists in so many forms, any outfit (including Daesh) can triumph.

At the launch of its annual report on April 16, 2018, HRCP noted,

Violent persecution of Christians is a common occurrence in Pakistan. Christians are targets for murder, bombings, abduction of women, rape, forced conversions, and eviction from home and country. Fake cases under blasphemy laws are regularly used to terrorize Christians.

Indeed, after the Quetta Essa Nagri attack, on April 15, 2018, DIG Abdul Razzaq Cheema said to SAMAA TV over phone on April 16, 2018 that,

Lashkar-e-Janghvi (LeJ) and its offshoot LeJ al-Alami with the support of Daeshs network operating in Afghanistan are carrying out the attacks in Balochistan. LeJ and other sectarian groups have thrown their weight behind Daesh and they are working for them.

More recently, on March 30, 2018, National Counter-Terrorism Authority (NACTA) Chief Ihsan Ghani, observed that Daesh posed a real threat to Pakistan, and that its significant presence in Afghanistan threatened a spill over into Pakistan.

Significantly, on September 29, 2017, Pakistans Foreign Office had denied the organised presence of Daeshin the country, claiming that the country remained immune to this terrorist formation. Earlier, on July 1, 2017, the Director General of the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Asif Ghafoor had declared that there was no Daesh presence in Pakistan.

Other religious minorities have regularly faced atrocities across Pakistan. The Jinnah Institute of Pakistan, in a report titled State of Religious Freedom in Pakistan 2015, had noted that, between 2012 and 2015, at least 543 incidents of violence were recorded against religious minorities in Pakistan. Shias were targeted on at least 288 occasions during this period, followed by Hindus (91 occasions), Christians (88 occasions), and Ahamadiyas (76 occasions).

According to partial data compiled by SATP, at least 144 Shias have been killed in 30 incidents of violence since 2016 (data till April 22, 2018). During this period, at least 92 Christians were killed in five incidents of targeted killing. Nine Ahamadiyas were killed in as many incidents while one Hindu doctor was killed in this period.

Religious minorities have also been systematically targeted by Pakistans perverse blasphemy laws, which prescribe a mandatory death sentence for any act purportedly bringing Islam and its Prophet to disrepute. Most recently, a Christian man, Nadeem James Masih, was sentenced to death on September 15, 2017, for blasphemy. Nadeem was arrested in July 2016, after his friend Yasir Bashir told the Police that he sent him a poem on WhatsApp that was insulting to Islam. Following the incident, Masih fled from his home in Sara-e-Alamgir town in Punjab to escape an angry mob that had gathered there, but later surrendered to the Police. His trial continued for more than a year at the Gujrat Jail in Punjab. Besides the death sentence, Masih was fined PKR 300,000. While there have been no executions for blasphemy in Pakistan, there are currently about 40 people on death row or serving life sentences for the crime, according to a release dated April 26, 2017, by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

Underlining the weakness in the existing blasphemy law, the Islamabad High Court had asked Parliament on August 11, 2017, to make changes to the current Act to prevent people from being falsely accused of the crime. In a 116-page order, Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui suggested that Parliament amend the law to require the same punishment of the death penalty for those who falsely allege blasphemy, as for those who commit the crime. "Currently, there is a very minor punishment for falsely accusing someone of blasphemy," the judgment noted.

Significantly, then Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs, Shahbaz Bhatti, a Christian, was killed on March 2, 2011, by terrorists of the Fidayeen-e-Muhammad, a TTP faction, and al Qaeda Punjab Chapter, for his opposition to the countrys blasphemy laws. Christians have also been attacked for opposing often forcible conversions to Islam. Asia Bibi (46), a Christian woman from the Sheikhupura District of Punjab, who has been sentenced to death and has been in prison for the last four years following a conviction for blasphemy, in her memoir Blasphemy, describes how she had been asked to convert to Islam to redeem herself. The Governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, came forward in her support and asserted that the blasphemy law had been abused in her case. Taseer was later killed by his bodyguard, Mumtaz Qadri on January 4, 2011, for his support to Asia Bibi and a campaign for amendment to the blasphemy law.

The United States (US) State Department on January 4, 2018, placed Pakistan on its Special Watch List for severe violations of religious freedom.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) at the launch of its annual report on April 16, 2018, noted,

Little wonder that the numbers of religious minorities are shrinking. At the time of Independence, Pakistans religious minority constituted over 20 per cent of the population. The 1998 census reported that the numbers had declined to a little over three per cent.

The continuing attack on minorities, including Christians, is a clear manifestation of the dismal state of affair in Pakistans extremist theocracy, where religious minorities live in constant fear. The Pakistani establishment, meanwhile, remains collusive or quiescent.
She is the third child of the wrestler-turned-actor.

The new born has been named Tiana Gia Johnson.

" Skin to skin. Our mana. Blessed and proud to bring another strong girl into this world. Tiana Gia Johnson came into this world like a force of nature and Mama @laurenhashianofficial labored and delivered like a true rockstar. I was raised and surrounded by strong, loving women all my life, but after participating in baby Tias delivery, its hard to express the new level of love, respect and admiration I have for @laurenhashianofficial and all mamas and women out there," the actor, also known as The Rock, tweeted.

"Word to the wise gentlemen, its critical to be by your ladys head when shes delivering, being as supportive as you can.. holding hands, holding legs, whatever you can do. But, if you really want to understand the single most powerful and primal moment life will ever offer - watch your child being born. Its a life changer and the respect and admiration you have for a woman, will forever be boundless," he said.

"And to my third and youngest daughter, Tiana Gia - like I did when your two older sisters Simone Alexandra and Jasmine Lia were born, you have my word, Ill love, protect, guide and make ya laugh for the rest of my life.Your crazy dad has many responsibilities and wears many hats in this big ol world, but being your dad will always be the one Im most proud to wear.

Oh and one more thing.. youre gonna love rollin in daddys pick up truck#TianaGiaJohnsonY #3rdDaughter #BlessesAndGratefulMan#ImInTROUBLE," the actor said.

The newborn is Johnson's second child with Hashian.

They have another child 2-year-old Jasmine.

Johnson has a daughter with former wife Dany Garcia named Simone.

The image, where Johnson could be seen holding his daughter tightly, has already earned 8,340,771 likes.

Image: Dwayne Johnson Instagram page
UN Photo/Violaine Martin

New York, Apr 24 (IBNS): A photojournalist who has been in jail for nearly five years after being arrested for covering a demonstration in Cairo has been selected to receive this years press freedom prize from the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

An independent jury of media professionals selected Mahmoud Abu Zeid, known as Shawkan, for the 2018 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano Press Freedom Prize, which will be awarded on 2 May in connection with World Press Freedom Day.

The choice of Mahmoud Abu Zeid pays tribute to his courage, resistance and commitment to freedom of expression, Maria Ressa, President of the jury, said in a press release.

According to UNESCO, Shawkan has been in jail since 14 August 2013 when he was arrested while covering a demonstration at Rabaa Al-Adawiya Square in Cairo. In early 2017, the prosecutor in his case reportedly called for the death penalty.

His arrest and detention have been deemed arbitrary by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions, and contrary to the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The $25,000 Prize recognizes a person, organization or institution that has made an outstanding contribution to the defence or promotion of press freedom, especially in the face of danger.

It is named in honour of Guillermo Cano Isaza, a Colombian journalist who was assassinated in front of the offices of his newspaper, El Espectador, in Bogota, on 17 December 1986. It is funded by the Cano Foundation (Colombia) and the Helsingin Sanomat Foundation (Finland).

UNESCO will lead the 25th celebration of World Press Freedom Day next week in Accra, Ghana. The global theme for this year is Keeping Power in Check: Media, Justice and The Rule of Law, and covers issues such as media and the transparency of the political process and the independence and media literacy of the judicial system, as well as contemporary challenges of ensuring press freedom online.




UN Photo/Eric Kanalstein

New York, Apr 24 (IBNS): Tapping the potential and creativity of young people is indispensable to prevent conflict and build peace, the United Nations youth envoy said Monday, urging governments to create conditions that allow their meaningful participation in civic and political lives.

Jayathma Wickramanayake, the UN Secretary-Generals Envoy on Youth, underlined three critical areas  supporting youths peace efforts; prioritizing their political participation; and partnering with them.

I will not ask you to let young people lead, as they are already leading. But they need inclusive and safe spaces and enabling environments to succeed, she said, speaking at an open debate of the Security Council on youth, peace and security.

Recognize [their work], fund it, scale it up, protect it.

Wickramanayake also called for dispelling misconceptions surrounding youth, citing studies that illustrate only a small minority of young people ever engage in violence.

Yet, she added, they face suspicions and undue restrictions, including when it comes to travelling across borders and many had difficulties in obtaining travel permits to be at todays meeting.

My generation represents promise  not peril. We should be seen as an asset  not a problem.

In her remarks, Wickramanayake also called on all concerned to fully engage with young people in electoral processes and political party structures and not to consider them too young to run for Public Office.

Include young people in political, civic and economic life, she urged.

Do not demonize or patronize the youth  study author

Speaking alongside the UN youth envoy, Graeme Simpson, the lead author of The missing peace: independent progress study on youth and peace and security, also called for tackling stereotypes, debunking assumptions and policy myths associated with the younger generation.

It necessitates a new culture and new societal norms, that do not demonize, romanticize or patronize youth, he said.

The interests of young people and the work they do, naturally traverses the pillars of peace, development and human rights, and they make it clear that protection and prevention are inseparable.

The open debate was convened by Peru in its capacity as the President of the Security Council for the month of April.

It comes ahead of a high-level meeting on peacebuilding and sustaining peace convened by the President of the General Assembly, 24-25 April, at UN Headquarters in New York.
UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferre

New York, Apr 24 (IBNS): The United Nations disarmament chief said on Monday that the world today faces similar challenges to the context that gave birth to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), and that the threat of use of nuclear weapons is growing.

The geopolitical environment is deteriorating. Some of the most important instruments and agreements that comprise our collective security framework are being eroded. Rhetoric about the necessity and utility of nuclear weapons is on the rise. Modernization programmes by nuclear-weapon States are leading to what many see as a new qualitative arms race, said Izumi Nakamitsu.

Nakamitsu, the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, was among the speakers at the opening of the preparatory meeting that began today in Geneva for the 2020 NPT review conference.

The Treaty entered into force in 1970 at the height of the Cold War and is regarded as the cornerstone of the global nuclear non-proliferation regime and an essential foundation for the pursuit of nuclear disarmament.

It was designed to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, to further the goals of nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament, and to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

Half a century later the NPT has transcended its initial purpose and has become a core component of our international architecture  the cornerstone of the non-proliferation regime and an essential framework for the pursuit of nuclear disarmament, the High Representative noted.

Its near universal membership, legally binding commitment to disarmament and verifiable non-proliferation safeguards undergird its status as one of the most successful and credible multilateral security instruments, she stated.

That success and that credibility cannot and should not be taken for granted.

Todays meeting takes place just days after the announcement by the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) to freeze its ballistic missile programme and nuclear tests, a decision that has been welcomed by the UN.

Nakamitsu said that the decision by the DPRK to suspend nuclear tests and launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles, and to dismantle its nuclear test site, are welcome developments which we hope will contribute to building trust and to sustaining an atmosphere for sincere dialogue and negotiations.

She added that the Secretary-General looks forward to a positive outcome of the Inter-Korean Summit and hopes for early agreement on a framework for resumption of negotiations leading to verifiable denuclearization and sustainable peace on the Korean Peninsula.




New York, Apr 24 (IBNS): Harmony with Nature  living a better quality of life while minimizing the use of toxic materials and preserving natural resources  was the focus of the International Mother Earth Day celebration Monday at the United Nations.

Mother Earth is suffering  and it is our doing, Miroslav LajAak, President of the General Assembly, told the Eighth Interactive Dialogue on Harmony with Nature. Climate change, pollution and a loss of biodiversity take a toll on human life and health, he said. But they affect, first and foremost, the Earth.

The sustainable development that is sought by the world community relies upon the three overarching objectives of devising supportable patterns of consumption and production, protecting and managing natural resources and eradicating poverty.

LajAak said that the 2018 theme of the annual Mother Earth Day, Earth Jurisprudence in the implementation of sustainable production and consumption patterns in Harmony with Nature was timely, since progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 12  which calls for responsible production and consumption patterns globally  will be reviewed during a High-Level Political Forum in July.

Earth Jurisprudence is an emerging field of law that seeks to give greater consideration to nature, promoting sustainable production and consumption patterns.

Pointing to droughts and floods, poverty and excess, rising sea levels and dwindling fresh water, the General Assembly President, who is from Slovakia, stressed that humanity has not yet struck a harmonious balance.

Our Earth is home to these extremes, he said. It will only get worse if we do not change the way we produce and consume goods  especially as our population grows.

And if our population grows as predicted, by 2050 we will need about three planets to sustain our current lifestyles. But we only have one, stressed LajAak. And this is why we really need to take care of it. We have neither a Plan B nor a Planet B.

To achieve our Sustainable Development Goals, we have to change our bad habits, he maintained, urging everyone to take action and redouble their efforts for Mother Earth.

Living in harmony with nature is not just beneficial. It is necessary, LajAak concluded.



World Meteorological Organization




Kabul, Apr 24 (IBNS): Suspected Taliban terrorists have kidnapped four people from a vehicle in Afghanistan's western Herat province, media reports said on Tuesday.

Sayed Karim Zahid, the Chisti Sharif districts administrative chief, told Pajhwok Afghan News the insurgents stopped a civilian vehicle and kidnapped four passengers towards Dara-i-Takht locality of the district on Sunday.

He said the fate of the people kidnapped by the terrorists is still not known.

Police have started investigating into the incident.

Sayed Karim Zahid said the area where the incident took place remained under the control of Taliban.

The passengers were traveling from Ghor province to Herat City when the incident occurred.
Kabul, Apr 24 (IBNS): Security forces have killed a key Islamic State commander during a clearing operation in Chapa Dara district of eastern Kunar province of Afghanistan, media reports said on Tuesday.

Police spokesman Farid Dehqan told Pajhwok Afghan News the operation was conducted in Saidor village of the district late Monday night.

The killed IS commander was identified as Qari Zahid known as Perai.

Some weapons and ammunitions were also discovered by security forces who escaped unharmed during the nighttime operation, the spokesman told the news agency.

IS has not commented on the issue so far.

Meanwhile, at least 60 people have died in a suicide attack which rocked Afghanistan's capital city on Sunday, officials said.

The attack injured 129 people, the Afghan ministry of public health declared on Tuesday.

According to the ministry, at least nine children were among the deceased.

The attack was later claimed by ISIS.

Reports said that a suicide bomber detonated his explosives close to a crowd, who were applying for their election ID card in Dasht-e-Barchi region of Kabul city.
Toronto, April 24 (IBNS) In what seemed like an act of terrorism, a white van in Toronto mounted the kerb and struck several pedestrians killing at least nine and injuring several others on Monday in Canadian city of Toronto, police said.

Police said at least 16 were injured, including five in critical condition. The incident occurred at around 1:27 p.m.

The van involved in multiple pedestrians stuck in the Yonge and Finch area of Toronto has been located and the driver arrested, Toronto Police said.

The van involved in multiple pedestrians stuck in the Yonge and Finch area of Toronto has been located and the driver arrested. ^sm  Toronto Police (@TorontoPolice) April 23, 2018

Canada's Minister of Public Safety Ralph Goodale confirmed the casualties and tweeted:" Our thoughts are with all those affected by the terrible incident at Yonge and Finch in Toronto. Thank you to the first responders working at the scene  we're monitoring the situation closely. "

According to CBC News quoting, spokesperson for Sunnybrook Hospital on Bayview Avenue, seven patients had been brought to its trauma centre and that its emergency department had been locked down as a precaution.

SOUND OF GUNSHOTS:

Jane St + Wright Av

*occurred earlier*

-Multiple shots heard

-2 people running away

-No injuries reported#GO726842

^dh  Toronto Police OPS (@TPSOperations) April 23, 2018 For emergency in Toronto call 911. Non-Emergency call 416-808-2222. Anonymous Crime Stoppers tips to prevent or solve a crime call toll free 1-800-222-8477

Image: BBC Screengrab
The scene of van attack. Image: Sumeet Ghoshdastidar.

Toronto, Apr 23 (IBNS): In an apparent terror attack today, a rental van jumped the curb and plowed into pedestrians in Toronto, killing 10 and injuring at least 15.

A 25-year-old college student, who was later identified as Alek Minassian from Richmond Hill, Ontario, has been arrested after being confronted by an officer, Toronto police said.

However, the police are yet to confirm the exact motivation behind this deadly attack. The angle of spurned love is also being looked into, according to officers involved in the investigation.

Police officers at the scene. Image: Sumeet Ghoshdastidar.

The attack took place along a one-kilometre stretch along Yonge Street around 1.30pm. Bodies, covered with orange tarps, were scattered at the scene.

Canada public safety minister Ralph Goodale, who is attending the G7 foreign and security ministers meeting here, said in a press conference soon after the attack that he had no proof to suggest the countrys national threat level needed to be raised.

Suspect Alek Minassian. Image: twitter.com/tariqnasheed.

Toronto mayor John Tory, Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne have extended their condolences to the affected family. Wynne said, We are all unsettled and very disturbed.

The suspect is not associated with any organized terrorist group and does not represent a larger threat to national security, according to the police.

The crime scene. Image: Google Maps

Toronto police chief Mark Saunders said: My condolences to those involved in this incident. I am grateful for the efforts of our police officers and all emergency partners.

Specific reaction to the incident is yet to come from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has only tweeted: Our thoughts are with all those affected by the terrible incident at Yonge and Finch in Toronto. Thank you to the first responders working at the scene  we're monitoring the situation closely.

Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh also took to social media to issue their own calls of support for the victims and first responders.

Scheer said, Terrible news of the incident in Toronto this afternoon. Deepest sympathies and condolences of our entire Conservative Caucus and all Parliamentarians are with the community as this situation continues to develop. Our thanks to the first responders who acted so quickly.

Singh said, Tragic news coming out of Toronto  my thoughts are with all those affected by the horrific events unfolding near Yonge and Finch, along with all first responders.

Ricki, a resident of the area, said, I was crossing the street to get some food. I saw commotion all around. If I had been there three to four minutes ago, I might had been one of the victims.

Rupa, a new immigrant from India who was at a nearby eatery, said, I have come to Canada as it is a peaceful country. However, such a horrific incident has led me to have second thoughts about my decision. I was very scared and people around us were terrified. I sincerely hope the administration would ensure everyones safety.

(Reporting by Sayantan Banerjee & Suman Das)
New York/Washington/Toronto, Apr 24 (IBNS): The United States (US) on Tuesday stood beside people of Canada at a time the country witnessed a massacre as a white van mounted the kerb and struck several pedestrians in Toronto city on Monday, killing at least 10 people.

Condoling the losses of lives in the tragedy, US Vice President Mike Pence tweeted: "@POTUS & I are closely monitoring the attack on innocent people in Toronto this afternoon. We are with the Canadian people tonight as they grieve the loss of life & injured. The American people stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our neighbors in Canada."

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement: "The United States stands with the Canadian people in the aftermath of todays tragic event in Toronto, where a van drove into a crowd of people killing several and injuring many more. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those affected, and we wish a full recovery to those injured. The United States Government pledges to provide any support Canada may need."

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio also joined others in condoling the loss of lives in the attack when he tweeted: "Our prayers are with the victims of today's horrific van attack in Toronto. We extend our deepest condolences to their families and loved ones. "

At least 10 people were killed when a white van in Canadian city of Toronto mounted the kerb and struck several pedestrians on Monday, the police said.

The incident left 15 others injured.

"On Monday, April 23, 2018, at about 1:30 p.m., police were called to a collision in the area of Yonge Street and Finch Avenue East. It was reported that a van had mounted the curb and a number of pedestrians had been struck," the Toronto Police said in a statement.

The police said they have arrested one person in connection with the incident so far. The van involved in the incident has been seized.

The arrested person has been identified as Alek Minassian.

Toronto City police chief Mark Saunders has said that the incident seemed to be deliberate but the motive of the attack was still not known.

"The actions definitely look deliberate, Chief Saunders was quoted as saying by TPS News.

He urged witnesses to come forward and help the police in carrying out the investigation.

"Were still looking for more witnesses, he said.

Urging people to share information with them, he said: "You may have a piece of the puzzle.

He said the police is working hard to understand the exact motive behind the attack.

Were looking strongly at the exact motive," he said.
Bill to fund White Mountain Apache water project stalls  again

By Austen BundyCronkite News

WASHINGTON  The National Labor Relations Board and Native American water rights arent usually associated with one another. But to the White Mountain Apache Tribe theyre currently tightly entwined.

A bill to give the tribe access to federal water-project funds has stalled in the Senate over language added in the House that would exempt businesses run by any tribe, including casinos, from NLRB oversight.

Republicans say the NLRB language is needed to correct an overreach by the agency into an area where it has no business, while Democrats accuse the GOP of holding water rights hostage to weaken labor protections.

And the tribe, which has been unable to spend money that was approved in 2010 to fix its water system, is left waiting.

Theyre two separate distinct issues and yet were treating them in one bill, said Rep. Tom OHalleran, D-Sedona, of the bill as it now stands. One has nothing to do with water, the other one has a lot to do with water and important water issues in Arizona and theres no way that theyre germane to each other.

Cronkite News Video by Austen Bundy: Funding bill would exempt tribes from federal labor oversight

The original bill introduced in January 2017 by Arizona Republican Sens. Jeff Flake and John McCain, clarified the 2010 settlement with the tribe to make clear that funds that were designated for cost overruns could be used for planning and construction of a dam and groundwater system.

The bill moved quickly through the Senate, passing without opposition in May and moving to the House. It sat until this January, when Republicans added the amendment that would ensure tribal governments that own and manage businesses in their respective nations do not fall under the reach of the NLRB.

The amended bill passed January 10 on a 239-173 vote that fell mostly along party lines. OHalleran was one of only 23 Democrats to vote in favor of the measure.

When it came up for a vote in the Senate last week, however, Democrats blocked a vote on the amended bill, with Senate leaders unable to get the 60 votes needed to end debate

Even though his original bill was amended, Flake took to the floor of the Senate last week to urge passage of the bill, saying the labor language corrects an issue with the National Labor Relations Act, from which tribal governments were exempt for 70 years.

In 2004, the NLRB inappropriately ruled that tribes are no longer exempt, Flake said. This measure would create parity for tribal governments, giving them the same employer rights afforded to other federal, state and local governments.

Calls to the White Mountain Apache were referred to Robert Brauchli, special counsel to the tribe during the original settlement in 2010. He agreed with Flake that the amended bill should pass, and said it all boils down to an issue of tribal sovereignty.

They dont need another layer of interference from the outside as to their economic development or the way they manage their limited resources, including labor, Brauchli said.

Brauchli, who has represented the White Mountain Apache since 1980, said he and many other tribal leaders believe the NLRBs 2004 decision was contrary to longstanding federal Indian law principles and the government-to-government relationship between the recognized American Indian Tribes and the United States.

Even though OHalleran believes the amendment changes the original promise of the 2010 settlement  which was to provide crucial water-project funding to the tribe  he ultimately voted for the amended bill because something needs to be done.

This is part of a settlement that weve agreed to as a federal government and as a state government and other entities with the White Mountain Apache, OHalleran said. And I think that we have that obligation, I know we have that obligation.

White Mountain Apache Tribe Vice Chairman Kasey Velasquez testifying on June 29, 2016  the first time Congress failed to help the tribe shift funds to deal with their failing groundwater supply. A second attempt at the bill ran into partisan fighting in the House this week. Photo by Emily Zentner / Cronkite News

This is at least the second time Congress has tried to clarify funding of the White Mountain Apache project . A similar bill passed the Senate in 2016, but never got out of committee in the House.

Brauchli called the politicizing of the water bill unfortunate and hopes it passes quickly, as the tribe is relying on the funds to build a reliable drinking-water system.

Its not just a matter of development, its a matter of survival, Brauchli said. They need a reliable source of drinking water and they dont have it.

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Labor concerns trump tribal sovereignty in Congress

A bill exempting tribal nations from labor regulations fails in the Senate.By Graham Lee BrewerHigh Country News

Ten years of animosity between tribal governments and union organizers led up to a meltdown of bipartisan efforts to pass the Tribal Labor Sovereignty Act last Monday . The bill, which would have excluded tribal governments from legislation allowing workers to unionize or strike, failed to receive the votes in the Senate it needed to pass . State and federal governments are already excluded from the National Labor Relations Act, and until recently tribal governments  being sovereign nations  were as well. But that changed in 2004, thanks to the laws vague wording.

The NLRA was established in 1935, and for almost 80 years it prevented private industry from blocking workers unionization and strikes. But it did not apply to tribes, states and the federal government. However, in 2004, the National Labor Relations Board reversed that practice with regard to tribes because the law did not specifically exempt them under its definition of employer.

Unions are understandably worried by the Tribal Labor Sovereignty Act. If passed, it would apply to tribal businesses operating on tribal lands, from hotels and casinos to construction companies and power plants, potentially blocking hundreds of thousands of their workers from unionizing

While the AFL-CIO continues to support the concept of tribal sovereignty in truly internal, self-governance matters, it is in no position to repudiate fundamental human rights that belong to every worker in every nation, the organization wrote in a January letter to Congress

Chickasaw Nation Medical Center in Ada, Oklahoma. The Tribal Labor Sovereignty Act would have applied to tribal businesses operating on tribal lands. Photo: Brad Holt

Republicans contest the 2004 change as government overreach, and asserted that treating tribes on a nation-to-nation basis does not come with stipulations.

Many of those who have expressed opposition to this bill say, I support tribal sovereignty but , said Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, one of the measures authors . If you have to qualify tribal sovereignty to protect your own interests instead of the tribes, then, no, you really dont support tribal sovereignty.

Thats what Jefferson Keel, Lieutenant Governor of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma and president of the National Congress of American Indians, calls conditional sovereignty.

Conditional sovereignty is not sovereignty at all: It is just a fence-straddling way out for those who are conflicted about their support for labor unions and their support for tribes and the inherent sovereignty they possess, Keel wrote recently in The Hill . But in policymaking, as in life, choices define who we are and what we value.

Keel argued the 2004 change is a clear and direct violation of tribes inherent sovereign rights: It is discriminatory, and an outrage.

The bill passed in the House last month. Rep. Tom Cole, R-Oklahoma, a member of the Chickasaw Nation, hopes to attach the Tribal Labor Sovereignty Act to an upcoming appropriations measure, which lawmakers in both chambers must pass by the end of March to avoid a government shutdown.

The bill got support from both Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate. Still, on Monday, the majority of Democrats voted against it. Republicans are likely finding it easy to support, as their party is traditionally unsupportive of unions, and many Democrats see it as an issue shaped not by the sovereign rights of tribes but by the rights of workers to unionize.

Sen. Tom Udall, D-New Mexico, noted that bills from the Indian affairs committee generally receive the support of both parties, but Mondays vote was divided, which Udall noted when addressing his colleagues

For the first time in ten years, this chamber just debated an Indian affairs bill using valuable floor time, not unanimous consent, he said. Udall expressed displeasure at being excluded from the drafting process in spite of his role as the vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, and chided his colleagues for dragging their feet for years when it comes to Indian Country writ large.

Over this decade, in which both Democrats and Republicans have held the majority, Indian Country has seen its priorities sidelined, he said. Important legislations that touches the lives of Native veterans, Native families, and Native communities from Maine to Hawaii, from Florida to Alaska, makes it out of the Indian Affairs committee only to die waiting on the Senate legislative calendar.

That includes measures such as the Native American Housing and Assistance and Self Determination Reauthorization Act, which would provide federal assistance for affordable housing in low-income areas of tribal lands, and the Progress for Indian Tribes Act, which could streamline the Department of the Interiors self-governance process for tribes. Both have bipartisan support and have not received a hearing, Udall said. Its shameful that this full body does not resolve these important issues facing Indian Country.

On that point, its hard to disagree. Tribes and Indigenous communities have never been properly represented in Congress, a problem more and more Native Americans are hoping to personally help rectify by running for office . If anything, what happened on the House floor Monday was yet another example of why it is important to have Indigenous lawmakers at the table when deciding what is best for Indian Country. Like Rep. Patricia Roybal Caballero, a New Mexico state lawmaker of Piro-Manso-Tiwa ancestry, told me recently, even if just a few Indigenous lawmakers make it to Congress the results could be significant.

Through our eyes, we know that through our history that just three or four of us can be resounding, Roybal Caballero said.

Wado.

This story was originally published at High Country News ( hcn.org ) on April 13, 2018

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21st April was a remarkable day in the history of Indian judiciary as the Union Cabinet approved an ordinance to amend the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.

And now, according to the act, there is a death penalty for rape of children younger than 12 years. While this ordinance will be effective subject to approval in the Parliament within the next six months, there has been a sense of relief among people.

(Also read: Nirbhaya's Mother Demands Capital Punishment For All Rapists, Not Just Those Who Rape Minors)

BCCL

Reacting to the same, Bollywood actor Anushka Sharma has expressed her opinion.

Pinterest

Commenting on the Kathua case, where an eight-year-old was held captive in a temple and later drugged and raped multiple times before she was killed mercilessly, Anushka said that she is extending 1,000 percent support of the ordinance.

(Also read: 6 Horrendous Rape Cases In 2018 So Far Show That Minors Are Biggest Victims Of Sexual Assaults)

BCCL

According to her, she is happy with the ordinance because anyone who commits a crime as heinous as this deserves the most stringent punishment. Talking at an event last night in Mumbai, Anushka said,

BCCL

"Like every one in the country, I am deeply hurt by the incident. Even now when I think about it, I feel disgusted and extremely emotional. Like I said in my statement earlier, the most severe punishment has to be meted out to the people involved."

She further said,

" The most severe punishment should be served to those who spoil something as innocent as a child because it's the worst thing that a human being can do."

For the uninitiated, the POCSO Act was formed in order to protect children from offenses of sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and pornography. This was also to offer a child-friendly process and environment during the trial of such offenses.
Infinity War is the most ambitious crossover event in history, Marvel has promised. It is a culmination of 10 years of Marvel Studios movies. Avengers 4 serves as the finale. All the characters will meet for the first time ever. All storylines will merge together and unfortunately, superheroes will die.

Twitter

Of course, Marvel fans are more enthusiastic than ever about the movie. The film is witnessing unprecedented buzz all over, and its crazy. Take a look:

1. Theatres are houseful already!

If you are reading this, you are a Marvel fan for sure. So if you havent booked your tickets for the highly anticipated film Avengers: The Infinity War, you are in trouble. The tickets are getting sold out. Theatres are houseful.

2. Avengers: Infinity War is the most googled movie, with India at number 3 on the list.

#AvengersInfinityWar Huge buzz, most googled movie with #India at number 3 in the list. Sure to take an earth shattering opening, terrific advance booking all over Tamil Nadu including small towns. @Marvel_India @disneyfilmindia pic.twitter.com/wf1qZ8AAEg  Sreedhar Pillai (@sri50) April 23, 2018

3. People cannot stop speculating how their first encounter with Thanos will be.

avengers: we need someone to distract thanos and the black order

star-lord: dont worry, i have a plan

star-lords mind: pic.twitter.com/AGPneiYevo  dumbass brandon is sorry to bother you (@quietsplace) April 1, 2018

(Read More: People Are Coming Up With Hilarious Ways To Distract Thanos So The Avengers Don't Get Whopped)

4. These school kid couldn't wait for the movie to hit the screens, so meanwhile, they re-shot the trailer on low-budget, and boy, it is a masterpiece.

After the watching this version of the trailer, the makers want to hire these kids for the next instalment. And no, we are not kidding.

Read More: School Kids Re-Shot Avengers: Infinity War Trailer On Low-Budget & Now Makers Want To Hire Them!

5. What's more, people have set out ground rules for watching the film with their girlfriends.

We dont know if it is a real conversation, but seeing how people are going bonkers over the movie, we wont be surprised its true.

This dude set ground rules for his girl in terms of watching Infinity Wars and i'm blown away.  pic.twitter.com/yfEB57hG5q  Stanley T (@TseStanley23) April 12, 2018

6. There are jokes all over the internet!

I think this is by far my fave meme of Infinity War so Far pic.twitter.com/ODqMMSt4WG  Fucking Asshole (@AgenderCosplay) April 19, 2018

are you ready to follow captain america into the jaws of death?

bucky : pic.twitter.com/2QaGRVf39T  j loves chris (@capcevahns) April 19, 2018

Me watching Loki's death in Infinity War  pic.twitter.com/J2WjnOX1k0  Hiddlesgirl (@pshiddles_daily) April 21, 2018

If you don't watch infinity war, nobody will die pic.twitter.com/ytHOrja0TS  dana (@whcisdana) March 16, 2018

Here's Mark Ruffalo spoiling Loki's death  pic.twitter.com/RAngIZ7F9Z  Hiddlesgirl (@pshiddles_daily) April 21, 2018

Marvel fandom Marvel fandom

before after

Infinity War Infinity War pic.twitter.com/X8ITNNiCd0  chi 2 fucking days to die (@ragnashton) April 17, 2018

My agenda for tomorrow:

1) See Avengers Infinity War

2) Attend the birth of my daughter.

3) Figure out which of those is more exciting.

;)#itallleduptothis  Jeff Cannata (@jeffcannata) April 23, 2018

7. The little details in the trailer of the movie have become a topic of discussion, and fans are losing their minds.

People are losing their minds over Captain America fighting Thanos. This one scene in the trailer has been stuck in people's mind more than others.

8. Last but not the least, the tallest building in the world Burj Khalifa has been lit up with Avengers: Infinity War display. Burj Khalifa is counting down, and it lights up every day at 7:50 pm with a spectacular light show.

connector.ae

The countdown has begun. Avengers: Infinity War is hitting the theatre in India on April 27. Are you ready? Better book your tickets now, if you haven't already.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy- we all have heard of this but Indian students also face it. The summer vacations in school are usually for 50 days, BUT, it's not all fun as the students get tons of holiday homework that they have to complete to get marks.

However, for students in this Chennai school, it is actually, all play and no work because the holiday homework is actually not for them but their parents.

The principal of Annai Violet Matriculation and Higher Secondary School, in a curricular has focused on the importance of spending time with the loved ones.

It read, Have at least two meals together with your children. Teach them the importance and hard work of the farmers and ask them not to waste their food. Let them wash their own plates after the meal. Children learn the dignity of labour from such activities.

In our times we used to play outdoor, get hurt, and visit our grandparents. Holidays meant fun. These days, children hate school. The words stress and pressure is already in their dictionary. It is important for them to learn values at a time when even their parents are being selfish and money-minded in this competitive world, Lydia told CNN-News18."

Not only this, the school has also asked the parents to take their kids to work with themselves, so that they can learn about the value of money.

Learn five new words in English and list them on a notebook. Get some storybooks with colourful pictures for your children, lists the circular.

The school has asked to click pictures of the kids doing these tasks along with their parents.

It is indeed a great move.
The swift dragon can be held to a stalemate, even though it may be able to inflict some damage by breathing fire. India is militarily no longer the pushover it was during the 1962 war despite persisting critical operational and infrastructure gaps as well as the ever-expanding military asymmetry with China.

This is the assessment of top Indian military commanders, who contend they are being realistic without any false bravado, even as PM Narendra Modi heads for China later this week to reset ties and cool down tempers with the much larger neighbour.

India does not want war. But if the push comes to shove, we are prepared. China has been forced to grudgingly accept that India is no pushover after repeatedly testing our resolve over the last few years, especially during the Doklam troop face-off last year, said a senior official.

bccl/representational image

Some may dub this gung-ho approach foolhardy, given the Peoples Liberation Armys overwhelming superiority in terms of sheer military power. Apart from a huge nuclear missile arsenal that dwarfs Indias, China is also leagues ahead in conventional military power, be it submarines and fighters or tanks and artillery (see graphic).

Moreover, backed by economic muscle, China adroitly combines this hard power with smart power in terms of cyber warfare and other disruptive capabilities.

But a walkover like 1962, it will not be. With Chinese military capabilities mainly geared towards preventing any intervention by the US and others in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, it all comes down to what the PLA can actually throw at India along the 4,057-km Line of Actual Control stretching from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh.

reuters/representational image

The terrain does not give the PLA adequate space for maneuverability. And we have the capability to counter-attack, said a senior Army officer. India has 15 infantry divisions (each with over 12,000 soldiers) tasked for its northern borders with China, apart from several artillery, missile, tank and air defence regiments and other reserves.

Moreover, the new 17 Mountain Strike Corps and associated units, with a total of 90,274 soldiers for swift ground offensive capabilities, will be fully raised by 2021-2022. PLA, as an aggressor, would require a combat ratio of at least 6:1 for mountain warfare along the LAC. We have more than adequate numbers for dissuasive deterrence, he added.

India holds most of the aces as far as the maritime domain is concerned. Indian warships can easily choke Chinas sea lanes for its huge energy imports, especially through the Malacca Strait.

reuters/representational image

The PLA Navy may be much larger but in terms of operational expertise and experience in the Indian Ocean Region, they are far behind. The Chinese Navy is still learning to operate far away from its shores, said a senior naval officer.

Similarly, even though China may have constructed 14 major airfields, advanced landing grounds and helipads on the Tibet Plateau, the IAF can conceivably outgun its numerically superior adversary. For one, the weapon and fuel-carrying capacity of Chinese fighters is limited due to the 9,000 to 10,000-feet altitude of their airbases.

reuters/representational image

They will try to use their rocket forces to disrupt our airbasesThats why during the just-concluded GaganShakti exercise, we war-gamed hitting China from widely dispersed locations. We also conducted maritime interdiction sorties in the Bay of Bengal, said a senior IAF officer.

The overall aim is to build credible strategic deterrence to dissuade China from embarking on any misadventure. And, India is slowly but steadily getting there.
Pakistan's powerful military, long accused by outsiders of backing Islamist militant groups, is facing an unexpected challenge -- a charismatic young Pashtun man who won't keep quiet.

Fellow Pashtuns have rallied behind Manzoor Pashteen in a dramatic outpouring of frustration over accusations of discrimination and extrajudicial killings at the hands of men in uniform.

AFP

Hundreds of thousands of them have had to leave their homes near the border with Afghanistan in the last decade, fleeing fighting that erupted when the army began what the Pashtun Protection Movement (PTM) says was a selective clampdown on the militants that took refuge there after the 2001 US-led ousting of the Taliban.

Echoing accusations by Washington and Kabul, PTM activists say the military continues to allow these extremists a safe haven from which to launch attacks in Afghanistan, while targeting insurgents that have turned their guns on Pakistan.

"This policy... it's very dangerous for us," Pashteen, the movement's 26-year-old leader, told AFP during a recent interview.

The strategy, he says, has upended traditional Pashtun tribal society, as civilians are harassed, killed or abducted by security forces and insurgents in the ensuing crossfire.

Pashteen's movement poses a unique challenge to the military's narrative about its war on militants, says analyst Michael Semple, because it has given a voice to previously marginal accounts.

"It remains one of the weak points of the double game approach -- real people live there and see what you're doing," said Semple, a professor at Queen's University Belfast.

"This movement is spilling the beans."

At a rally on Sunday in Lahore, Pakistan's second-largest city, thousands came to chant the PTM slogan: "The uniforms are behind the terrorists".

It was a remarkable scene, with such accusations against the security establishment viewed as a dangerous red line that few have dared to cross.

The Lahore rally was held in defiance of local authorities, who had denied the PTM formal permission to stage the protest and detained some of its supporters.

Reuters

For years, Pakistan has been accused by the US and others of using militants such as the Afghan Taliban as proxies, allowing them safe haven in the tribal areas.

Islamabad has repeatedly denied the claims.

It says it has carried out multiple operations in the region, and taken steps to harden the porous border, while pointing to the thousands killed by militants as evidence of Pakistan's sacrifices.

"No army can support terrorists against whom they have fought so relentlessly," Major General Asif Ghafoor, the military spokesman, told AFP.

But the allegations persist. In January, the White House suspended security assistance to Pakistan over the issue.

Despite a dramatic improvement in security in recent years, the tribal districts remain largely out of bounds to foreigners and journalists, making claims difficult to verify.

The PTM's Pashteen says at least 40 of his family members and friends have been killed in the chaos unleashed by the war since 2001. Another 30 have been abducted, he claims. Fellow activists tell of similar losses.

"You can call someone 'Good Taliban' but he's not good for us... he's killed us," Pashteen explained, referring to a euphemism for alleged Pakistan-backed insurgents that fight in Afghanistan.

AFP

Pashtuns hold a complicated place in Pakistan, where they number roughly 30 million, accounting for 15 percent of the population.

Lauded for their martial abilities since Alexander the Great, both militants and the military have turned to them for decades to fight their wars.

Both the Afghan and the Pakistani Taliban, two separate militant entities, are dominated by Pashtuns.

As a result, ordinary Pashtun civilians are often stereotyped as backward tribesmen in league with terrorists, harassed in cities, hassled by landlords and denied hotel rooms.

"We have fought for our own country. Then why has this been done to us?" asked PTM supporter Sher Bahadar Afridi.

In the beginning, Pashteen's aims were humble.

When he and a small group of friends started on the "Pashtun Long March" to Islamabad in January, they carried a list of just 150 names allegedly abducted by security forces, hoping to present it to authorities.

The demand was not new -- rights activists have been demanding an end to enforced disappearances for years in Pakistan.

But the murder of a Pashtun social media star in an alleged extrajudicial killing by the police in January proved to be a tipping point, with thousands rallying behind Pashteen leading to the PTM's creation.

"The biggest thing (the movement) achieved was removing that atmosphere of fear," explained analyst Rafiullah Kakar.

AFP

But their reception in the mainstream media has been muted.

A far-reaching media blackout has kept news and images of the rallies off TV screens nationwide.

Despite the pushback, PTM is demanding action -- including investigations into disappearances and extrajudicial killings and an end to what it says is undue harassment of Pashtuns at security checkpoints.

The military, meanwhile, has accused them of collusion with Pakistan's enemies.

"They are young and simple Pashtuns who are being exploited by inimical forces," said Ghafoor, the military spokesman.
The West refused to support Azerbaijani opposition at the last moment

by Peggy Eads Tuesday Apr 24th, 2018 1:30 AM

On April 11, 2018, early presidential elections took place in Azerbaijan with a predictable win of the sitting head of state Ilham Aliyev. Major oppositional parties of the country refused to put forward their candidates and notified that they would not accept the results of the elections.
Intel compilers are extremely popular with performance-minded developers who compile C, C++, or Fortran for the x86 architecture (32 or 64 bit). The quest for top performance is the key attribute that users single out. If you ask for a second reason for using the compilers, the response is generally either flexibility (which I, tongue-in-cheek, will call several faces) or standards compliance/enforcement. These are both worth understanding, whether you use just the Intel compilers or the entire Intel Parallel Studio XE or Intel System Studio suites (which include the compilers).

Several Faces

I love the quip We love standards, thats why we have so many. C and C++ seem to live by this saying. Enabling features selectively for various standards has become common among compilers these days. C options include c89, c99, and c11. C++ standard support includes c++11 (also accepts c++0x), c++14, and c++17. On Linux and MacOS systems, Intel adds gnu89, gnu98, gnu99, gnu++98, and gnu++0x options to conform to gccs support for the standards including their extensions. On Linux and macOS, the Intel compiler defaults to the gnu options rather than the strict standard.

This makes switching between the Intel and gnu compilers much easier  because the Intel compiler is willing to be flexible and behave like the gnu compiler to make switching back and forth easy. On Windows, the Intel compiler imitates the quirks of the Microsoft compiler for the same reason. As it turns out, every compiler has its quirks. You might say that the key quirk in the Intel compiler is its desire to fit in to whatever system it runs upon.

An Intel engineer once told me that they strive to be bug for bug compatible with other compilers by default. The engineer wasnt referring to compilation bugs per se, but rather to standard interpretation. While the Intel marketing department is unlikely to tout this phrase in their materials, its compelling in a technical sense because it makes the compilers flexible enough to compile whatever other compilers will accept. This flexibility is very useful when you just want to see if it will run faster by using the Intel compiler. If we didnt write standards-compliant code for the non-Intel compiler, we might prefer a warning rather than an error message in our quest for performance.

Standards

Flexibility is why the Intel compiler also offers an option for strict standards compliance on Linux and macOS (-strict-ansi). On Windows, warnings about compliance are still given (depending on warning levels), and they can individually be elevated to errors as desired.

Flexibility is nice, but so is standard compliance across all platforms. Intel offers us the choice of flexibility or compliance, while providing a cross-platform, highly optimizing compiler.

Performance

I mentioned performance as the primary reason users choose Intel compilers, so let me say a few words about it. Intel compilers have earned the reputation of being the compilers to beat if youre compiling x86 code. Many software developers depend upon that.

A recent study by Colfax International looked at the performance of compiled code as well as compile time across a number of C++ compilers. The Intel compiler was #1 in performance and, unsurprisingly, it took somewhat longer to compile when optimizing heavily. Polyhedron, in the UK, has published benchmarks comparing Fortran compilers for many years. Intels Fortran compiler has long ranked high on this list. The Intel C, C++, and Fortran compilers share a common optimizer and code generator, so this consistent performance across all three languages is to be expected.

Several Faces Are Good

The flexible nature of Intel compilers makes them easy to adopt, and the performance makes them hard to give up. On the flip side, their flexibility means we can go back to another compiler easily. This is because we didnt need to change our code away from gcc-style, xcode-style, or visual-studio-style coding. Of course, the ability to write strictly standards-conforming code means we might purposefully recode for the standards and enjoy being hooked on the Intel compilers.

In any case, Intel compilers are well worth a try. Ive provided links below for where to find more information, including the downloads to get the compilers for your own needs.

Useful links for more information
OPEC World. The Energy Report 10/04/2021 The PRICE Futures Group - 11 minutes ago Its OPEC Plus Russias world and they were welcomed to it. The United States has helped make OPEC Plus one of the most powerful and influential economic organizations in the world. By backing away...

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Soybean Futures Down 7 to 8 Cents Barchart - 54 minutes ago Beans are 7 to 8 cents lower this morning after double digit losses on Sunday night. On Friday soybean futures closed with 5 1/4 to 9 1/2 cent losses. For the week, November soybean futures gave back 37... ZSX21 : 1238-6 (-0.62%) ZSPAUS.CM : 11.9884 (-0.92%) ZSF22 : 1249-0 (-0.60%) ZSX21 : 1238-6 (-0.62%)

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Japan counts on Asian market to help shift to green energy AP - 1 hour ago TOKYO (AP)  Japan is focusing on its neighbors in Asia as it hopes to take a leadership role in the growing push to reduce emissions, having earmarked $10 billion to help the region speed up the move... $SPX : 4,357.04 (+1.15%) $DOWI : 34,326.46 (+1.43%) $IUXX : 14,791.87 (+0.70%)

666...no deal yet Market Tea Leaves - Mon Oct 4, 5:27AM CDT After all the fanfare and bluster, no deal yet from DC. Will this change market direction today?
Somerset Reinsurance has announced the appointment of Josh Braverman as the companys new chief investment officer and as a member of its executive leadership team. In his new role, Braverman will be responsible for Somersets asset management activities and will chair its investment and investment advisory committees. He will be based in Bermuda and report to Somerset Re CEO Patrick Kelleher.

Prior to his appointment at Somerset, Braverman served as senior executive director and head of legacy business for AXA US and president and CEO of AXA Corporate Solutions Live Re. Previous to those roles, he served as AXA US chief investment officer, treasurer and head of derivatives. Braverman has also held senior executive positions with AEGON.
Its our belief that if you can keep the injured employee engaged throughout the course of the injury, the outcome is generally better for all involved. Its better for the injured employee, it costs less for our customers, and it works out better for us as a business, said Rich Ives, vice president of workers compensation claims at Travelers. We continually look for new ways to deliver a better workers compensation claim experience for someone who has been injured on the job.

MyTravelers for Injured Employees is the companys web-based and mobile-friendly self-service tool for workers compensation claims. It provides an engaging customer experience with increased access to medical professionals after a workplace injury  and the insurer has just added some new digital capabilities to further enhance the process.

The digital tool offers two-way messaging between an injured employee and their claim team. They dont have to figure out who their query is best directed toward; rather they simply send their message to the digital dashboard and a full team of claim professionals will be able to see it and determine who should respond.

Were leveraging technology to streamline the process of the injured employee. We want to give them self-service tools and provide them with a greater level of control over their situation, Ives told Insurance Business. Its our belief that consumers want greater transparency and more involvement with their claim. If we can provide them with a little bit of self-service access  such as: letting them see the status of their claim, providing information on how the claim process works or what type of benefits are available to them, and giving them the ability to see the status of their claim payment  we believe the overall outcome will be better.

As well as two-way messaging, the tool has been upgraded with two-way document sharing capabilities to make it easier for injured employees to upload important materials related to their claim, including state workers compensation forms, work status reports, mileage trackers and medical reports. This is meant to speed up the claim process and make it more efficient, Ives explained.

In addition, Travelers is rolling out a new telemedicine capability, which eliminates the need for people with minor injuries to complete a physical medical appointment. Instead, injured employees can conduct an appointment with a physician via a secure video connection on their desktop, tablet, or smart phone. If the physician prescribes medication via the video assessment, that script is then leveraged straight into the MyTravelers for Injured Employees digital platform, enabling the injured client to visit a pharmacy straight away.

Our latest capabilities not only speed up access to medical care and make it easier to communicate, but they also address our customers top concerns  the health of their employees and the rising costs of healthcare, Ives added.

Related stories:
Legislation that would act prophylactically to restrain the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from extending its tentacles into the insurance industry has now been introduced in the U.S. Senate by Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C.

Scotts Business of Insurance Regulatory Reform Act, S. 2702, will serve as the companion bill to H.R. 3746, which passed the House Financial Services Committee by a 37-18 vote in January. Like that earlier measure, the bill has bipartisan support, with Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., listed among the original cosponsors.

In a statement announcing the bills introduction, Scott noted that he sold insurance for 23 years and as such answered to our states insurance director in Columbia, not bureaucrats in Washington.

Congress never intended for the CFPB to be an insurance regulator, and this bipartisan, commonsense bill ensures that our 150-year old system of state-based insurance regulation stays in place while keeping costs down for policyholders of all kinds.

The CFPB was created under Title X of the DoddFrank Act, which granted the bureau power to regulate financial products or services. But that legislation proscribed the CFPB from intervening in the business of insurance, over which Congress reserved regulatory power to the states in the McCarran-Ferguson Act. The Dodd-Frank Act also dictates that the CFPB lacks power to enforce regulations on a person regulated by a State insurance regulator.

However, current law does allow the bureau to take actions against state-regulated insurance entities where they are engaged in the offering or provision of any consumer financial product or service orotherwise subject to any enumerated consumer law. This opens a potential loophole for CFPB overreach that Scotts bill looks to close by clarifying that:

if such person is subject to any enumerated consumer law or any law for which authorities are transferredthe authority of the Bureau to enforce such law with respect to such person shall be narrowly construed to the extent such person is engaged in the business of insurance.

In other words, state insurance regulators would be given broad deference to regulate insurers, insurance agents and other insurance entities where the relevant law applies.

With bipartisan sponsorship in both chambers, the bill potentially could hitch a ride on broader financial services reform legislation. While the House-passed Financial CHOICE Act was always a nonstarter in the Senate, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, has made his intentions clear that he wants to put his own stamp on S. 2155, which passed the Senate in March and makes relatively modest tweaks to Dodd-Frank.

What remains to be seen is whether members of the Senate, and particularly those Democrats who agreed to support S. 2155, are open to any changes at all. If not, then the 115th Congress likely will conclude without passing any of the consensus reforms currently on the table.

Topics Legislation
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, a conspiracy of 19 men hijacked four planes departing from three different cities. The two planes that departed from Boston were flown, with 17 minutes of one another, into the two towers of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. We all know what happened next.

Well, one of the things that happened was a spate of lawsuits, some lasting more than a decade, over insurance coverage for the owners of the WTC lease and the businesses located there and in the affected neighborhood. Were two planes crashing into two towers two separate events, or just one? Was the terrorist conspiracy a single cause of the resulting claims, or were there multiple causes?

Billions of dollars were at stake depending on how courts would read such contractual language, some of which wasnt yet finalized at the time of the attacks. Decisions and settlements varied somewhat, but most tended to converge around the consensus that there were two events with one cause. Things could easily have been resolved in the opposite direction.

The Sept. 11 lawsuits provide an illustrative frame through which to view legislation recently signed by Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey requiring that state courts only regard the English-language versions of auto, home and life insurance contracts as binding, even where a consumer may have signed a version in another language  usually Spanish.

Sponsored by state Rep. David Livingston, R-Peoria, the legislation has proven controversial, for perfectly understandable reasons. In a state where issues around immigration enforcement have long proved contentious and often racially charged, its obvious that the legislation would be interpreted by some as punitive toward consumers for whom English is not a native language. Indeed, one would not be surprised if some lawmakers voted for the bill expressly because that is how they interpreted it, as well.

Opponents of the bill like state Reps. Isela Blanc, D-Tempe, and Olivia Cajero Bedford, D-Tucson, have warned that Spanish-speaking consumers could be sold mistranslated contracts whose terms bore little resemblance to those in the English contract that actually counts. These concerns should be taken seriously, as they represent incredibly thorny issues to which courts and regulators will need to pay particular attention.

Existing state law already requires insurers to use translators approved by the state Department of Insurance, and it will be incumbent on the department to ensure its vetting process is effective. Regulations against false advertising and acting in bad faith, and judicial rules requiring coverage ambiguities be resolved in favor of the policyholder, also already represent strong protections. Judges must be careful to ensure these protections are extended fairly to all insurance consumers, regardless of their native language.

But as we see from the Sept. 11 lawsuitsor from myriad other insurance coverage disputes, such as the profusion of concurrent causation litigation following Hurricane Katrinainsurance is an area where the particularities of language matter quite a bit.

Where you must deal with multiple-language contracts, the American Bar Association has offered guidance: there can only be one fully integrated contract considered binding by the courts. The other must be regarded as a reference. The dominant contract doesnt have to be the English-language contract butgiven that this is the United States, and that Arizona voters polled 3-1 to make English the states official language in 2006that is, practically, what it is going to be.

It is difficult enough to resolve how the common law has defined terms in a single language. It would be nearly impossible to function if courts had to separately consider the nuances of two or more.

Topics Lawsuits Legislation Arizona
Nearly $3 million in additional relief funding is going to communities in five upstate New York counties along Lake Ontario to help them recover from last years flooding.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Monday that the state had awarded $2.9 million in flood relief funds to local governments in Wayne, Orleans, Niagara, Cayuga and Jefferson counties.

The Democrat says the funding will be used for ongoing restoration and recovery efforts and to protect communities from future storms.

The largest single award  $1 million  went to the Wayne County town of Wolcott.

The state has committed $95 million to help homeowners, small businesses and municipalities recover from flooding that impacted communities in a region stretching from where the Niagara River enters the lake to the banks of the St. Lawrence River in northern New York.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Flood New York
Most business on the Lloyds of London insurance market will be negotiated electronically by the end of next year, its chief executive Inga Beale said on Monday.

The largest commercial insurance market in the world still runs a trading room where thousands of brokers gather daily to negotiate contracts.

It is predominantly done on paper and yet we know thats not sustainable in todays world, Beale told the annual CityWeek conference.

We have a huge modernisation effort, but I am not doing a big bang and shutting down the underwriting room like the stock exchange did to go digital over 30 years ago.

She has already mandated that 30 percent of trading must be done digitally by the end of this year, and the aim is to hit 80 percent by the end of next year, she said.

Many of the wholesale insurers who operate on the Lloyds market are with us on this, Beale added.

CASABLANCA

Lloyds, which started life in Edward Lloyds coffee house in 1688, has been losing business to emerging markets such as Singapore in recent years.

Beale said there was a need to focus on new markets and diversify away from traditional strongholds like the United States.

Lloyds has had a base in China for a decade, a country that is forecast to become the worlds second-largest insurance market by 2020. Business there, however, is still at a very early stage, Beale said.

Lloyds obtained a license last year to operate in India.

We are also looking at Africa. I was out in Casablanca recently where we are going to be opening up in Casablanca Finance City, and we are looking at that as a gateway to north and west Africa, she said.

Lloyds has recently opened a representative office in Colombia, South America.

(Additional reporting by Carolyn Cohn; Editing by Mark Potter)

Topics Excess Surplus Market Lloyd's London
In this age of social media leaks and foreign election hacking, the ability to transmit sensitive personal information securely across borders is more valuable than ever.

Finland and Estonia, two of Europes most digitally advanced nations, are about to achieve just that.

Finns who cross the Baltic Sea to visit the former Soviet nation will soon be able to pick up their doctors prescription at any local pharmacy without worrying about prying eyes. Likewise, the around 100,000 Estonians currently employed in Finland will be able to have their paycheck sent to their home countrys tax authorities for quick and easy filing.

What makes applications like these possible is the first secure international data highway in the world dedicated especially to the needs of ordinary citizens. Based on open-source code, the so-called X-road has plenty of other potential applications, from the sharing of driver license data and death certificates to company data on the trade register.

Russian Threats

Security was a key consideration in its design. The two nations both neighbor Russia and are prepared to the teeth to counter modern hybrid warfare.

Estonias capital, Tallinn, hosts NATOs cyber defense center, while Helsinki is home to a research facility that specializes in hybrid threats. After Russias annexation of Crimea, in 2014, Finland quickly amended the law to allow its defense forces to engage little green men  a term used to describe masked soldiers in unmarked green army uniforms, allegedly pro-Russia, who were spotted in Ukraine during the crisis.

The data-exchange is secure because of its fragmented nature. When a party joins, it is able to share encrypted data with all other trusted users over the Internet, without the need to build new connections. Linking hundreds of databases, instead of relying on a centralized system, helps avoid a single point of failure and makes the cost of breaching the system excessive.

Estonia, which has been using the system domestically since 2001, was able to largely maintain data exchanges throughout the massive denial-of-service attacks of 2007.

Uuno Vallner, one of the Estonian X-road creators, says the system also protects from a potentially greater threat to citizens privacy: the misuse of data by officials.

Blockchain Technology

The X-road leaves traces of their actions, Vallner said in a phone interview, meaning abuses can be easily identified. Vallner also argues that the X-road is one of the first instances in which blockchain technology has been implemented on such a big scale.

Now that the two countries systems are talking to each other, data between Finland and Estonia can begin to flow as soon as the relevant legislation is finalized.

Citizens wont notice any difference, said Maria Nikkila, senior adviser for information management at the Finance Ministry in Helsinki. Its like driving a car: if the engine is running and the car is moving, no one cares about what happens under the hood.

The X-road isnt particularly expensive. Finland spent about 70 million euros ($86 million) on the project, while developments and maintenance costs on the Estonian side run at around 20 million euros per year.

In theory, X-roads could facilitate European Union plans for electronic prescriptions to be shared across its member states. The main stumbling bloc is that many national authorities would need to de-centralize their network of servers for the system to work.

That requires a change of mindset, Vallner said.

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.

Topics Russia
Last year was the second-costliest year for disasters since 1970, according to a new analysis from reinsurance firm Swiss Re AG. Global economic losses from these events reached $337 billion in 2017, behind only 2011s total losses, and less than 40 percent were insured. A close look at Swiss Res data reveals several worrying trends. Losses from natural and man-made disasters are increasing, markets are not getting better at insuring them, and our own choices arent helping.

First, the natural disaster losses. As Ive written before, its hard not to notice the hurricane and flood years (Katrina in 2005; the Japan earthquake and tsunami and Thailand floods in 2011; Harvey, Irma and Maria in 2017).

Thanks to three enormous hurricanes and massive wildfires hitting the U.S., 73 percent of the losses in 2017 were in North America. Almost half of North Americas losses were insured; Latin America and Asia each tallied 9 percent of global losses, with only 16 percent of those losses covered. The Oceania and Australia region fared best in terms of insured losses, second to losses at sea and in space, which were fully insured.

Natural Disasters Cost Insurers a Record $144 Billion in 2017: Swiss Res Sigma

Fortunately, last year was far less costly for man-made disasters, which were a fraction of the record high hit in 2001 due to Sept. 11.

On a 10-year rolling basis, nearly three-quarters of all man-made disaster losses are insured, compared with just 30 percent of natural disasters. The rate of natural disaster loss insurance hasnt improved significantly since 2007, and Swiss Re has a reason it might not improve: climate change.

According to Swiss Res report, natural catastrophe risks will continue to evolve as changing variables like a warming climate, growing populations, and urbanization drive (and likely expand) the loss-potential of natural world hazards.

That risk isnt just from hurricanes, which draw energy from warmer waters, or flooding due to warmer air carrying more moisture. Swiss Res report includes some fairly harrowing statistics on wildfires:

Large wildfire losses in the western U.S. and Canada in recent years have raised questions about observed trends in frequency and intensity. One significant trend is longer wildfire seasons, defined as the time between the first discovery and the last control of a wildfire. On average, wildfire seasons in 2003-2012 were around 84 days longer than in 1973-1982. The extension corresponds with longer burning times of large fires: between 1973 and 1982, on average large fires burned for six days before being contained; in 2003-2012, the average large fire burn time was more than 50 days.

My Bloomberg View colleague Christopher Flavelle took a close look last month at how wildfires affected California in 2017. Decades of building at the so-called wildland-urban interface have put more homes at higher risk from wildfires, yet people return to build despite warmer, drier conditions creating ever-greater threats. The scale of that wildland-urban interface continues to increase, now comprising 297,000 square miles, 44 million housing units and nearly 99 million people.

In 2010, that wildland-urban interface equaled the size of Texas and South Carolina put together; it contained a third of U.S. housing units and a third of its population.

People choose to live there; insurers are increasingly choosing not to insure dwellings at the edge of city and wilderness. Perhaps the best question to ask, then, is this: As these damages increase  and become increasingly uninsurable  are these economic losses natural, or are they man-made?

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Related:

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.

Topics Catastrophe Profit Loss Wildfire Swiss Re
While the market for architects and engineers professional liability insurance remains intensely competitive, many insurers providing this coverage are weighing new policy enhancements that offer expanded protection.

A new survey by insurance broker Ames & Gough finds some insurers are going beyond limited coverage for cyber liability and drone exposures and considering protection to address certain risks related to public-private partnerships and design-build project arrangements, among other issues.

According to the Ames & Gough survey of 17 insurance companies (which, on a combined basis, represent a significant percentage of the overall marketplace providing professional liability insurance to architects and engineers in the U.S.), 76 percent are exploring new or expanded coverage for cyber liability; 53 percent, for drone usage; 18 percent, for certain risks associated with public-private partnerships, and 12 percent for design-build exposures. While 24 percent expressed interest in providing protection for duty to defend third parties where the insured agrees to do so by contract, the insurers reported making more progress in addressing the other risks they cited.

Even as some insurance companies have consolidated or withdrawn from the market for architects and engineers professional liability insurance altogether, theres still intense competition benefiting design firms purchasing this insurance, said Dan Knise, president and CEO, Ames & Gough. Along with generally favorable claims experience thats helping insurers maintain profit levels, competition is fueling innovation in the market to address the expanding array of risks design firms face today.

Yet, even with the added available protection under some professional liability policies, Knise said design firms should remain vigilant in evaluating their risks and assessing the options available for protection. For instance, they may want to compare the limited cyber insurance available under their professional liability policies with that provided by stand-alone cyber insurance policies. The stand-alone insurance typically offers more robust protection against first-party exposures, such as notification and credit monitoring requirements, business income losses, ransomware, and network and data damage.

Rates

Professional liability insurance rates remain flat, according to the survey. Premium rates remained flat in 2017 for 53 percent of the insurers responding while 18 percent saw rates decrease and 29 percent reported higher rates. By contrast, in 2016, 16 percent had rate increases and 32 percent reported lower rates. The year-over-year findings may suggest a slight uptick in rates. Nonetheless, any increases achieved by insurers in 2017 were modest.

Only three insurers surveyed this year saw an actual rate increase of 3 percent or more and two insurers reported an increase in 2017 of up to 2 percent. Further, no insurers in the 2018 survey attained overall increases above 5 percent, nor did any insurers surveyed last year expect to see such increases at the start of 2017.

Even under the stress of competitive market conditions, underwriters generally have continued to prudently evaluate exposures. For instance, although several factors come into play in underwriting a particular risk, insurers are now placing greater emphasis on an A/E firms project mix. This year, 88 percent of those surveyed identified type of project (e.g., condominiums, schools, transit, tunnel, water/ wastewater) as one of the top factors for raising a specific firms PLI premium rates.

Other key factors include: recent claims experience (past two years), cited by 71 percent of the insurers surveyed, down from 95 percent in 2017; 71 percent cite historic claims experience, up from 63 percent in 2017, and 53 percent, type of work/service, up from 47 percent in 2017.

Insurers Watch Emerging Risks

Insurers surveyed this year reported carefully monitoring a number of emerging risk trends from an underwriting perspective. When asked about their top concerns, the most prominent were: evolving project delivery methods (e.g., design-build and public-private partnerships), cited by 82 percent; judicial rulings that are eroding protections for design firms under state statutes, such as economic loss doctrine (76 percent); innovation, such as new construction materials/methods (47 percent), and the use of BIM and technology (18 percent).

Claims Remain Steady

In 2017, 76 percent of the insurers surveyed reported no change in their overall claim activity compared to prior years; meanwhile, 12 percent saw their claims experience improve while the same percentage saw it worsen.

With respect to individual insurer claim patterns or trends, 38 percent of insurers observed an increase in claim severity, while 31 percent experienced an increase in claim frequency. An identical percentage reported certain types of projects causing more claims. Meanwhile, 25 percent pointed to increased defense costs as contributing to greater claim severity. On the flip side, 13 percent saw lower claim frequency and 6 percent, lower claim severity.

When asked to provide the amount of their largest single professional liability loss paid in 2017, insurers gave the following responses: The majority (59 percent) paid a claim of at least $1 million or higher, including two insurers that reported their largest claim paid was between $5 million and $9.9 million and two that paid a single claim between $10 million and $19 million.

Given the potential for larger professional liability claim payments, it is becoming more common for A/E firms to purchase higher limits, said Joan DeLorey, senior vice president and partner, Ames & Gough. Much of the impetus for this relates to contractual requirements. In past years, design firms were required by clients to purchase liability limits of $2 million or $3 million, but now many face requirements for limits of $5 million or $10 million.

Ames & Gough, based in Boston, is a specialty insurance brokerage and risk consulting firm serving architects, engineering firms, and other construction professionals.

Source: Ames & Gough

Topics Carriers Trends Cyber Claims Professional Liability
The U.S. Supreme Court considered bolstering the presidents power over federal agencies in a clash over the constitutional status of the in-house judges who handle complaints at the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The justices Monday heard an appeal from Raymond Lucia, who was fined $300,000 and barred from working as an investment adviser after an SEC judge found he misled prospective clients with his Buckets of Money retirement plan.

Lucia, with the support of the Trump administration, contends the administrative law judge who handled his case was appointed in violation of the Constitution. A victory for Lucia could open those judges, and others across the federal government, to being fired for issuing rulings that clash with administration priorities.

Chief Justice John Roberts cast the dispute as one that could bring political accountability to judges who operate within the federal bureaucracy. But Justice Stephen Breyer said it could mean goodbye to the independence of agency judges.

The dispute could affect more than 100 cases currently at the SEC, along with a dozen that are on appeal in the federal courts. It also could upend administrative hearing systems at other government agencies, including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which have similar systems for appointing what are known as administrative law judges.

Officers, Not Employees

At issue is whether SEC judges are officers, and not mere employees, meaning the Constitution requires them to be appointed by the president, a department head or a court. The officer designation could also make it easier for the presidents political appointees to fire such judges, though the high court might not directly decide that issue.

Lucias lawyer, Mark Perry, told the justices that a victory for his client would have a limited impact, affecting about 150 judges around the federal government. Answering questions from potential swing Justice Anthony Kennedy, Perry said his argument wouldnt affect the thousands of judges who handle Social Security claims but dont have the same package of powers as their counterparts at the SEC.

The SECs judges were selected by the chief judge and approved by the commissions personnel office. The commission has five administrative law judges, including the chief judge.

Roberts said that those judges currently are part of the administrative bureaucracy, insulated from the type of political accountability the constitutional framers intended.

If the individual were an officer, he would have to be appointed by the commission, and people would know who was responsible for whatever conduct or misconduct or decisions he would take, Roberts said.

The Trump administration is taking the unusual step of backing Lucia at the high court and arguing that the SECs appointment process for judges is unconstitutional. The administration, however, disagrees with Lucia about the practical implications of the constitutional issue, saying the commission has retroactively fixed the problem by ratifying the judges appointments itself.

Deputy Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall said SEC judges qualify as officers because they adjudicate disputes, impose sanctions on private parties and have the power to bind the federal government.

Breyer said that approach would mean goodbye to the merit civil service at the higher levels and goodbye to the independence of ALJs.

Ratcheting Down

Wall also drew resistance from Justice Elena Kagan, who pointed to a 1946 law that insulated administrative law judges from political influence.

You want to ratchet that down, Kagan said. Isnt that interfering with decisional independence?

Anton Metlitsky, a private lawyer appointed by the Supreme Court to defend the SECs appointment process, told the justices that the commissions judges dont have enough authority to warrant the officer designation. He said the SEC must issue a formal order before any decision by an administrative law judge kicks in.

Kagan questioned whether Metlitskys position could be squared with the Supreme Courts 1991 Freytag v. Commissioner decision, which declared special trial judges of the U.S. Tax Court to be officers.

Its just so hard to get around this  the commonalities of these judges and the judges in Freytag, Kagan said.

Lucia, now 68, wowed audiences with presentations showing how his investment strategy would have protected nest eggs in the booms and busts of the 1960s and 70s. The SEC said he used fake data to mislead investors.

In a recent interview, Lucia said the SEC found no victims and held his Buckets of Money presentation to a legal standard that didnt exist.

A federal judge would have thrown this out, Lucia said. They would have said, Wait a minute, wheres the proof that this person has misled someone?'

The case is Lucia v. SEC, 17-130

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.

Topics Legislation
The Travelers Companies boosted its net income for the quarter ended March 31, 2018, by 10 percent to $669 million compared to $617 million in the prior year quarter despite unusually high catastrophe losses in March.

Catastrophe losses in the first quarter of 2018 were primarily due to winter storms in the eastern United States, a wind and hail storm in the southern United States and mudslides in California.

In remarks with analysts, company officials discussed the companys centralized underwriting initiative for small commercial business, their view of potential acquisitions and the decision by Nationwide Insurance to switch its distribution from captive agents to independent agents.

Record net written premiums of $6.824 billion were up 5 percent from the prior year quarter, reflecting growth in all segments.

The consolidated combined ratio for the quarter was 95.5, compared to 96.0 for the same quarter in 2017.

Underwriting gains were up 22.3 percent to $258 million while income tax expenses were down 21.3 percent, primarily due to lower U.S. corporate income taxes.

Net investment income of $603 million decreased 1 percent to $603 million. Private equity returns remained strong but were lower than the prior year quarter.

Our first quarter performance is an encouraging start to the year, and were making important progress on our innovation agenda to ensure that our competitive advantages continue to set us apart, said Alan Schnitzer, chairman and chief executive officer, in prepared remarks.

Centralized Underwriting

During a call with analysts, Schnitzer reported on the companys strategic initiative to centralize underwriting for lower touch business accounts. Four business centers are online. All eligible renewals are flowing through them and quote activity is up. Its still early but we are pleased with productivity gains we are seeing, said Schnitzer.

He also said he just returned from a meeting with the carriers biggest producers who expressed support for the centralized underwriting centers and the companys other strategic initiatives to strengthen ties with customers and producers.

Travelers said it views Nationwides decision to move from captive agency distribution to the independent agency system as not entirely new and more an opportunity than a threat. Michael F. Klein, president, Personal Lines, and head of Business Intelligence and Analytics, noted that Nationwide has long had affiliates that work with independent agents and Travelers already works with some Nationwide agents through a broker program of Nationwides that allows its captive agents to place business with other markets. He said Travelers considers its own strength with independent agents as a continued competitive advantage and thinks Nationwides move is an opportunity to explore additional distribution points.

In response to an analysts question, Schnitzer said the company remains just as focused on possible acquisitions as ever but added that todays management also thinks more about opportunity costs and the distraction from organic progress of acquisitions. Our shareholders should demand that we are active in M&As and we are and will continue to be. But we will remain disciplined. We often say that some of the best deals we do are the deals we dont do, Schnitzer said.

In Business Insurance, income was $452 million after-tax, an increase of $10 million. The company said pricing environment in business lines continued to improve, resulting in a domestic renewal premium increase of 4.5 percent. The Business Insurance combined ratio of 97.5 increased 1.1 points due in part to higher catastrophe losses (4 points). Net written premiums of $3.994 billion increased 4 percent and benefited from higher renewal premium change and retention, while new business remained solid.

Income for Personal Insurance was $129 million after-tax, an increase of $40 million. Personal lines net written premiums of $2.256 billion grew 8 percent, benefiting from renewal premium change of 10 percent in agency auto and a 5 percent growth in policies growth in the homeowners business. The personal lines combined ratio of 97.5 improved 2.1 points due to favorable reserve development.

In Bond & Specialty Insurance, net written premiums increased 6 percent, with growth in both the management liability and surety businesses. The combined ratio for this segment of 74.7 improved 4.7 points.

Topics Agencies USA Profit Loss Underwriting
The Travelers Companies, Inc. has added new digital capabilities to its MyTravelers for Injured Employees workers compensation claims platform designed to improve the claim experience for injured employees.

The companys web-based and mobile-friendly self-service tool for workers compensation claims now offers two-way messaging between an injured employee and the Travelers claim team, including claim and medical professionals, which can help keep injured employees more engaged in the process to help accelerate their recovery.

Two-way document sharing will also be added to the MyTravelers for Injured Employees tool. Injured employees will be able to upload materials related to their claim, including state workers compensation forms, work status reports, mileage trackers and medical reports.

The company also announced the addition of a telemedicine capability, enabling qualified injured employees to conduct appointments with a physician via a secure video connection on their computer or smartphone.

Rich Ives, vice president of workers compensation claims, said the latest capabilities address customers top concerns  the health of their employees and the rising costs of health care.

Travelers offers other workers compensation services for injured employees and their employers: The Early Severity Predictor model helps predict which injured employees are most at risk for chronic pain; the ConciergeCLAIM Nurse program helps injured workers with the workers compensation process; and the Cultural Advantage services provide Spanish-speaking claim and medical professionals to bridge language barriers.

Topics Workers' Compensation Claims
Officials at a small municipal airport in central Arkansas are battling an unlikely foe  coyotes that keep chewing on part of the taxiway.

The damage at the North Little Rock Municipal Airport is expected to cost $6,000 to fix. Engineer Blake Roberson tells the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that the coyotes have a fondness for chewing on the silicone-based joints on a concrete ramp and taxiway.

Roberson says the rubberlike material is essentially their chew toy.

The airport plans to reseal the joints with a different type of sealant that is hoped to be less enticing to the coyotes.

The general aviation airport in North Little Rock is home to 180 aircraft with two runways that accommodate 56,000 operations a year.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Aviation
Hub International Ltd. has acquired the assets of Spokane, Wash.-based BK-JET Group LLC.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Joining Hub Northwest are BK-JETs founding partners Josh Tyndell, Erin Repp, Tom Blue, Keith McNally and Bill Dinneen, along with the BK-JET staff. They will report to Ryan Pugh, vice president of sales for Hub Northwest.

BK-JET provides business insurance, surety and bonding, and personal and life.

Chicago, Ill.-based Hub is global insurance broker providing property/casualty, life and health, employee benefits, investment and risk management products and services.

Topics Mergers Washington
An Oregon woman paralyzed from the waist down after an intoxicated friends vehicle crashed into a house has filed a lawsuit against six businesses that she says served alcohol to the driver before the accident occurred.

The Register Guard reports 25-year-old Evelyn G. Allen of Eugene filed the $30 million suit against the local taverns last week in Lane County Circuit Court.

Allen was riding in a friends Ford F350 in November 2017 when it slammed into a house in Eugene. She suffered several serious injuries and became a complete paraplegic, according to the lawsuit.

The driver, 29-year-old Travis Simonis, was sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to third-degree assault and driving under the influence of intoxicants charges.

The lawsuit alleges that Simonis was visibly intoxicated when he was served alcohol the day of the wreck.

Four of the businesses did not return a request for comment, one declined to comment and another could not be reached.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits Oregon Restaurant
Biogen Inc. (BIIB) is at the forefront of one of the worlds most important and least understood sectors, the biotechnology industry. With a market cap above $52 billion as of June 2021, the companys product line consists of a handful of highly effective and very expensive drugs used to treat serious diseases including multiple sclerosis (MS) and Alzheimer's.

Biogen specializes in therapies for neurological and neurodegenerative diseases. Unlike the products of many pharmaceutical companies, Biogen's drugs are not mass-marketed on prime-time television. If you want help with anxiety or weight gain, Biogen cant help you. If you have any of several debilitating conditions, it can.

Biogen is a biotechnology company that makes only a handful of advanced drugs to treat patients with neurological diseases.

More than half of Biogen's revenues come from its drugs used to treat multiple sclerosis (MS).

In mid-2021, Biogen received FDA approval for a new treatment for Alzheimer's disease.

Biogen's Financials

The year 2020 was not a great one for Biogen. It reported full-year revenues totaling $13.4 billion, a 6% decrease over the previous year. In 2021, it faces what it terms a "financial reset" with the introduction of a generic version of its most-prescribed MS drug therapy.

However, in June 2021 it received approval from the Food & Drug Administration for a new drug called aducanumab. It's the first new Alzheimer's drug to be approved by the agency in 17 years.

Several other major new products are in the pipeline.

Biogen's Q1 2021

In April 2021, Biogen announced quarterly earnings of $5.34 in non-GAAP diluted earnings per share, compared to $4.58 for the previous quarter. The company posted total revenues of $2.69 billion for the quarter ending March 2021, compared to revenues of $3.53 billion in the quarter one year previously. Net income came in at $410 million compared to about $1.7 billion a year earlier.

It reported gross profit for the quarter of $2 billion, a 28% decline compared to $3 billion in the same quarter a year previously.

Biogen's Business Segments

Biogen's business currently has eight segments, including seven devoted to specific products and one "other" category:

Its products, and their share of Biogen's 2020 revenues, include the following drugs used in the treatment of multiple sclerosis and hemophilia:

Biogen's Recent Developments

According to Biogen's own literature, 38% of multiple sclerosis sufferers worldwide use the company's drugs, earning the company $7.8 billion.

Tecfidera, which costs approximately $144 per daily dose and is the best-selling oral MS drug in the U.S., is beginning to compete with generics in 2021. It had been a multibillion-dollar contributor to Biogens revenues since its introduction in 2013 and contributed 36.01% of its revenues in 2020.

Tecfidera is just one of Biogens MS drugs, though, and each carries a price tag commensurate with huge research and development costs, scarcity, and usefulness.

Avonex is taken once a week by MS sufferers at a cost of approximately $7,500 per dose. Ampyra, formulated to make walking easier for MS sufferers, costs approximately $56 per tablet and is taken twice a day. Tysabri, a monthly infusion treatment administered by a professional, costs approximately $7,800 per dose.

Biogen claims that Tysabri has been administered more than two million times, thus accounting for a major component of the companys revenue.

Biogen's Outlook

Now that its Alzheimer's treatment aducanumab has been approved for sale in the U.S., Biogen hopes to get approval to market it in several other countries. It calls this new drug "the first therapy to meaningful change the course of Alzheimer's disease."

The company is also touting its "broad neuroscience pipeline," with phase 3 trials underway for drugs to treat Alzheimer's, MS, Parkinson's Disease, neuropsychiatric disorders, and more.
What Are Crude Stockpiles?

Crude oil stockpiles, also known as inventory, are reserves of unrefined petroleum measured in numbers of barrels. Oil producers and governments use crude stockpiles to smooth out the impact of changes in supply and demand.

Inventory levels are affected by OPEC's production decisions, political events, tax policy changes, and other factors. Inventory levels affect the price of oil, with higher inventories leading to lower prices.

Key Takeaways Crude oil stockpiles, also known as inventory, are reserves of unrefined petroleum measured in numbers of barrels.

Oil producers and governments use crude stockpiles to smooth out the impact of changes in supply and demand.

The Energy Information Agency (EIA) publishes data each week that shows the level of crude stockpiles in the U.S.excluding oil held in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).

The SPR is an emergency fuel storage of petroleum maintained underground in Louisiana and Texas by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) that is intended for emergency use in the event of a national energy crisis.

Understanding Crude Stockpiles

Crude stockpile data for the United States is published every week by the Energy Information Agency (EIA). This data shows the level of crude stockpiles in the U.S., excluding oil held in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is an emergency fuel storage of petroleum maintained underground in Louisiana and Texas by the United States Department of Energy (DOE). It is intended for emergency use in the event of a national energy crisis. The crude stockpiles reported every week by the EIA are non-emergency reserves available for commercial use.

The EIA separately publishes data for the SPR, which shows the level of strategic oil stockpiles available in the event of a national emergency.

Global Crude Stockpiles from IEA for OECD

The United States is not the only country to monitor and maintain crude stockpiles. Every month the International Energy Agency (IEA) publishes its oil market report where they disclose the crude stockpiles of OECD countries (The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is comprised of 37 member countries).

These stockpiles are commercial stockpiles and are not part of the Global Strategic Petroleum Reserves (GSPR), which are crude oil inventories held by countries or private industries in preparation for future energy crises.

The IEA was founded in 1974 to help its 30 member countries manage crude stockpiles and enhance energy security in the wake of the Middle East oil crisis. Each IEA member country currently has an obligation to have crude oil stock levels that equate to no less than 90 days of net imports.

The 90-day commitment of each IEA member country is based on average daily net imports of the previous calendar year. This commitment can be met through both stocks held exclusively for emergency purposes (strategic reserves) and stocks held for commercial or operational use, including stocks held at refineries, at port facilities, and in tankers in ports.

Currently, there are three net exporting IEA member countries (Canada, Denmark, and Norway) that do not have a stockholding obligation under this agreement.
By Padraig Hoare

The growth of firms looking to new markets in Europe after Brexit was a major factor in two Irish firms consultancy merging with the creation of 100 jobs in the next three years, the new company has said.

Tax and advisory firm BDO Ireland has launched a new business following a merger of its existing management consulting business with fellow Irish firm Eaton Square, which was established in 2012 by Aidan McHugh and David OConnor.

The new business, to be known as BDO Eaton Square, will create up to 100 management consultant jobs in Dublin, Cork and Limerick, and is targeting 30% yearly growth in three years and 20m in annual revenues, it said.

Managing partner of BDO Ireland, Michael Costello said there was a growing demand from businesses looking to prepare for the customs union post-Brexit as well as eyeing new markets in continental Europe.

Despite looking to new markets, a BDO Ireland survey of 350 Irish businesses earlier this month found two-thirds of them have not reviewed their current business relationships to identify suppliers that might be negatively impacted by Brexit.

The survey also found only a quarter of businesses believe they are more prepared for Brexit than their suppliers and customers.

There has not been too much customs union expertise out there. The Brexit vote was not anticipated but it has changed the landscape for many businesses, whether they are multinationals or SMEs. There is a deficit for SMEs in strategic planning and bodies like Enterprise Ireland would say more expertise in the area is needed, Mr Costello said.

He said BDO Irelands reach into Europe was very strong, while Eaton Square was already working with organisations which have developed new market entry strategies.

Eaton Square has quite a lot of expertise in Europe, but BDO itself is a Europe-led network. That was part of the attraction for Eaton Square, the fact that BDO had that footprint in Europe, said Mr Costello.

Following the merger, BDO Eaton Square will have 45 consultants, rising to 145 in three years.
By Ann O'Loughlin

A 13-year old boy who lost his mother - his sole parent - to breast cancer three years ago has settled a High Court action against the HSE over alleged delay in diagnosis.

Krzysztof Sliwa, who settled his action for 325,000, now lives with his aunt in his native Poland following the death of his mother Dorota Sliwa when he was just 10 years old.

The boy's counsel Patrick Treacy SC told the High Court the HSE were cognisant of the tragic circumstances where the boy had lost his mother - his sole parent - and it was not a confrontational case.

Krzysztof Sliwa (13) from Wloclawerk, Poland had through his aunt Magdalena Paczkowska Tomczak sued the HSE over the loss of his mother Dorota Sliwa in October 2015 and who at the time lived at Gleann Cora, Newmarket on Fergus Co Clare.

It was claimed the boy shared in the suffering of his mother, who was a caring and devoted mother, during her terminal illness and at tender years endured the stress, distress and upset of living with a close family member during her terminal illness.

Krzysztof's mother, who had a family history of breast cancer, was seen on a number of occasions it was claimed from about July 2009 to her death in October 2015. She had a mammogram on August 5, 2009, but was not referred for family history gene testing.

She was reviewed again in 2010 and 2011 and in Poland in 2012 a mammogram and ultrasound were carried out and a biopsy recommended. In December 2012 a malignant invasive cancer was confirmed and Ms Sliwa had to have a mastectomy.

In April 2014, Ms Sliwa complained of back pain and was found to have further cancer and underwent chemotherapy, but the disease was aggressive. It was claimed that by reason of delay in diagnosis and or treatment Ms Sliwa died in October 2015.

There was, it was claimed an alleged failure to have any regard to the fact that Ms Sliwa had a family history of breast cancer with her mother dying from it at 40 years of age and her grandmother when in her 30s.

It was further claimed there was an alleged failure to treat Ms Sliwa adequately or suitably in time or at all and an alleged failure adequately or sufficiently in time or at all to identify her cancer when it was a small modular cancer at an early stage. The claims were denied and the settlement was without any admission of liability.

Approving the settlement, Mr Justice Kevin Cross said the "helpful attitude of the HSE" in the legal case was to be highly commended. The judge said while nothing would compensate the boy for the loss of his mother at a young age, his legal team had secured a good settlement.
Apple's 13bn Irish tax bill will be paid this year, the finance minister said.

Paschal Donohoe said he expected the recovery of funds to be completed in the coming months after signing a detailed legal agreement on the refund of what the EU alleges is state aid from the technology giant.

The European Commission said in 2016 that the multinational had received unfair tax incentives from Ireland and ordered it to pay back taxes to the state.

Mr Donohoe said: "This is a significant milestone with regard to the commencement of the recovery of the alleged state aid, as the Escrow Framework Deed is the overarching agreement which will govern the collection and eventual payment of funds."

The Commission found that Ireland had given Apple illegal state aid by allowing it to pay an effective 1% corporation tax.

Apple and the Government are appealing the Commission's ruling on the grounds that the tax treatment did not break Irish or EU law.

The money will be held in an escrow account meaning the proceeds cannot be released until there has been a final determination in the European courts over the validity of the Commission's decision.

The Bank of New York Mellon, London branch, Amundi, BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Limited and Goldman Sachs Asset Management International have been selected as preferred tenderers for the provision of services related to the money.

The Finance Department said: "It is anticipated that the funds will flow into the escrow fund in significant tranches.

"It is expected that the full recovery will be effected by the end of quarter three, 2018."

Ireland's open economy is based on using low corporate taxation among other incentives to attract multinationals. In Apple's case it was significantly below the standard 12.5% imposed on income.

The Government opposes any effort to force it to change its taxation practices, which have seen the world's top financial and technology firms set up base in Dublin.

Minister Donohoe reiterated his Government's fundamental disagreement with the Commission's Apple decision.

He added: "However, as committed members of the European Union, Ireland is intent on complying with our binding legal obligations in this regard.

"This is the largest recovery fund of its kind ever to be established and due to the complexity of such, together with our duty to comply with EU procurement rules, it has taken some time to get to this point.

"I am happy that I can sign the deed with Apple today, which has been the subject of difficult and intensive work.

"Once the infrastructure associated with the escrow is put in place, following the execution of the deed, I expect that recovery of the funds will be completed by end quarter three, 2018."

- PA
Update 11.40am: Irish Water has been accused of institutional arrogance by Tipperary TD Mattie McGrath.

It comes after the utility announced its intention to proceed with pumping water from the Shannon to supply parts of the Midlands and the greater Dublin area.

Deputy McGrath has called the project a billion euro error of judgement.

Irish Water's head of asset management, Sean Laffey, says they are simply running out of options to serve customers.

"The most we're very going to get out of the Liffey system is roughly 650 megalitres a day," he said.

"The average demand currently is 577, so the water simply isn't there in the Liffey system, it's no longer an option so we had to look at other options.

"We looked at groundwater and we looked at desalination, and then we looked at the Shannon and the Shannon is the option that we have chosen."

Earlier: Irish Water pressing ahead with 1.3bn plan to pump water from Shannon river to Dublin

Update 8.14am: Irish Water is pushing ahead with a 1.3bn plan to bring water from the Shannon river to Dublin.

The law has yet to be updated to allow it happen, as the Government wants public consultation on it first.

The project would see water pumped from the Parteen basin in north Tipperary to the Midlands and Greater Dublin area.

The estimated cost has tripled since the original plans and is already more than a year behind schedule.

- Digital desk
An American tourist is said to be seriously injured in a two-car collision in Co. Cork this morning.

It is said to have happened near the Waterloo junction of the N20 Cork-Limerick road close to where two other American tourists died in a crash last year.

One of the vehicles involved in the crash is said to be a hire car used by an American couple who were on their way to Blarney Castle.

The man driving the car has been rushed to Cork University Hospital with multiple injuries while the female passenger was treated at the scene. Her injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.

The emergency services have also treated another person involved in the collision for shock, but they are not believed to be injured.

Four units of Cork City Fire Service, one unit from Mallow, Gardai and the Ambulance Service are at the scene of the collision.

Gardai have appealed for witnesses to the collision to contact them at Gurranabraher Garda Station on (021) 4946200.

Last September, Two tourists from the US were killed in a car crash involving three vehicles.

A man and woman, who were both in their 60s and travelling with their partners, were killed after the car in which they were passengers was involved in a collision with a truck.
2000AD artist Eoin Coveney has been mentoring aspiring young hopefuls in Cork, writes Don OMahony.

COMIC books have become an important component of Cork City Librarys programme of events for Cork World Book Fest, particularly as a tool for encouraging literacy among teenagers. Once again, this years programme of Teen Day events will see the launch of the teen comic, a publication that is overseen by local comic creators, Alan Corbett and Colin OMahony.

Tasked with launching the comic, and with providing an open workshop on the graphic novel for teenagers, is Eoin Coveney.

Eoin Coveney.

While Corbett and OMahony are at the vanguard of a new generation of comic-makers, Coveney spent most of the last two decades working as a commercial illustrator, before establishing himself in the last five years as an artist on cult British weekly, 2000AD.

Coveneys path may have been long, but the impulse to make comics was there from his childhood, a fact he was reminded of a number of years ago, when he discovered his parents had held on to his first comic, a version of the late 1970s The Incredible Hulk TV series, which he made on his school copybook.

That was the beginning of my life-long lack of interest in school, he says proudly. My poor teachers. I was always drawing: they just couldnt teach me. I wasnt interested, basically.

Coveneys departure from the academic path was sealed by his encounter with the thoroughly punk rock 2000AD, in 1977.

I remember everyone talking in school about this new comic, he recalls, his eyes lighting up at the memory.

Its got dinosaurs in it and science fiction. Youre thinking: how is that possible? How can you mix the two things? But I loved dinosaurs, so I got Prog 2 of 2000AD and that was it  I was hooked.

He didnt realise it at the time, but as he pored over the artwork, he was absorbing the lessons of his heroes, the cartoonists: first Brian Bolland and then Cam Kennedy. He even had a cartoon published in the comics letter page, earning himself 10.

I remember the thrill of seeing it, he says wistfully.

Coveney did a foundation course in the Crawford art college, before transferring to Dun Laoghaire, to study illustration and graphics. After college, he moved to Germany, where he worked as a designer. In 1994, he heard that Will Eisner, the cartoonist regarded as the father of the graphic novel and described by Alan Moore as the man who gave comics their brains, was in Ireland to oversee an ambitious publication. Returning to Dublin, Coveney made an impression on the master.

I showed him my portfolio and he was like oh, this is great. Youve got a great future, says Coveney.

I was just floating. I thought thats it, Im going to make it. Im going to be famous.

Coveney got the job of team leader, and with writers Morgan Llywelyn and Michael Scott, he drew Ireland: A Graphic History, for Penguin.

Coveney is full of sage advice on comics and the mechanics of sequential art. At one point he notes: Once you start to see your work in print, you learn an awful lot, because you learn what works and what doesnt work, and thats an education in itself.

Soon after the Eisner project, Coveney was offered the Holy Grail for any writer or illustrator whos a fan of 2000AD  a shot at iconic future lawman, Judge Dredd. It was a dream job, but Coveney is quite hard on himself about the result.

Because I was young, arrogant, I thought I was great. And I did it too quickly, he says candidly.

It got printed, but as soon as I saw it published, I thought oh my God, I blew it.

Coveney laboured away at his art, and had another breakthrough with a Future Shock story, and even got another shot at Dredd in 2014.

He then excelled on the Victorian supernatural thriller, The Alienist, a story he helped co-create and which recently enjoyed a second run.

Images from The Alienist, by Eoin Coveney.

Hell be passing on some of his vast experience to next generation of comic book artists at City Library tomorrow.

Eoin Coveney launches the Teen Comic at 10.35am tomorrow and will facilitate an open workshop for teenagers in the Thomas Davis Room, City Library, Grand Parade, at 11am
This week Grainne McGuinness offers consumer advice on booking summer holidays.

THE sun has finally appeared in the last few days, but it has yet to make us forget the long, miserable winter. But we can console ourselves with the thoughts of a sun holiday.

With the final school term well underway, I spoke to Aine Carroll, communications director with the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, for advice on booking your summer holiday.

More of us are booking the individual elements of the holiday ourselves and Ms Carroll has plenty of tips on doing so, but she also recommends the traditional package holiday with a tour operator.

They can be a really good option, because, although, potentially, people can save money by booking all the parts themselves, you have specific protections when you book a package holiday and those things can become really valuable, particularly if you are travelling with young kids or elderly parents, she said.

If something goes wrong, you want somebody else to step in and sort it for you. Imagine the scenario where you get to the accommodation you have booked and it is awful.

If you have booked a package holiday, the first thing you do is call the rep. That can be really useful, she says.

If things do go awry, consumers have far more protection on a package holiday.

When you take out a package holiday, you have entered into a contract with the travel agent and they have to make sure your holiday runs smoothly, Ms Carroll said.

They have to give you a contract beforehand, with every detail of the holiday, flights, excursions,etc, and detail the complaints process. If they change any part of it, they have to give you a replacement of equivalent or superior value or refund the difference.

If anything goes wrong, there is EU legislation and it is very clear what the tour operator has to do. There is a whole complaints process. There is a standard process around problems which may be of great value to certain consumers.

If you are booking yourself, Ms Carroll said care needs to be taken around accommodation, in particular.

Accommodation scams are one of those issues that are very hard to quantify, but we know that it does happen, she said.

In terms of booking self-catering accommodation, you have your really well-known ones, like Airbnb, but you have lots of others and how do you know that the accommodation you are booking actually exists? Most people wouldnt even ask themselves that, unless they have had a negative experience in the past.

Caution and a little research are needed. Ms Carroll said people offering a discount for direct booking should raise a red flag, unless you already know them and/or the property.

That should ring alarm bells for consumers, because the protection you get by using the platform would be lost if you book directly with an individual who is abroad.

Search online for information. If you have the persons name, search it, because, often, if someone has reported a scam before, they have reported the name. Look on Google Maps, as well. Ask for the coordinates and have a look to see if the house exists.

Be slow to pay everything, unless you are 100% confident of the vendor.

Some people will ask you to pay all the money up-front  be a little bit wary of that.

It is not that everyone who does that is trying to scam you, just that the potential for a scam is higher. Offer to give a deposit and say you will pay the rest when you get there.

She also said that while online reviews can be useful, they need to be viewed with a critical eye: If you see multiple reviews saying the place is amazing and they were all posted around the same date, or if they have similar typos or grammar mistakes, or slightly odd use of language, that might indicate it is one person putting them all up. Look out for that kind of spurious review.

Next week, Aine offers further advice on specific travel issues, including insurance and car hire.

DEAL OF THE WEEK

If your family are more interested in the Irish countryside than jetting abroad, you can get kitted out for summer camping later this week in Lidl.

The retailer has a whole range of camping equipment on offer, the highlight of which is a four-person tent for 129.

It is fully collapsible and comes with a weatherproof awning for added storage space.

The makers promise straightforward assemble, with fibreglass rods and connecting systems. It also comes with 22 tent pegs, 12 guy lines and details instructions.

The tent has two independent sleeping cabins and a darkened interior to help with a good nights sleep. The whole thing weighs 10.6kgs.

The range also includes a camping chair for 9.99, a lantern with insect killer for 14.99 and a a foldaway, adjustable camping storage cupboard for 34.99.

The camping range is one sale in Lidl stores from Thursday April 26.

If your family are more interested in the Irish countryside than jetting abroad, you can get kitted out for summer camping later this week in Lidl.
As we say goodbye to the worlds last male northern white rhino, Sarah Marshall looks at more species we cant risk losing.

The death of any celebrity evokes a sense of shared sadness, even if the A-lister in question belongs to the animal kingdom, but the story of Sudan, the northern white rhino who passed away on March 19th, is especially heart-breaking.

Being the last surviving male of a subspecies decimated by poaching and habitat destruction, his death signifies yet another needless wildlife loss.

I, for one, cried when I heard the news. Not because I knew him personally, but as an expression of frustration. Every day, we lose a little bit more of our beautiful planet, and we have only ourselves to blame.

Sudans story highlights even bigger issues in the natural world, where species - from insects through to mammals - are increasingly threatened by human activity.

As David Attenborough has stressed time and time again, we are in the midst of a mass extinction. This is happening around us. Right now. Is there any hope for the future?

Although two female northern white rhinos, Najin and Fatu, remain, the only hopes for continuing their line lie in IVF treatments using stored semen from Sudan. (Four years ago, vets realised he would be unable to mate naturally.)

What can we do?

Born in the wild, Sudan grew up in zoos and lived the last few years of his life in Kenyas Ol Pejeta conservancy, captivating tourists who came to learn about his plight and contribute funds to the IVF scheme.

Managed and properly controlled, tourism can be used as an effective tool to protect species and raise awareness about the natural world.

All the animals below appear in the International Union For Conservation Of Nature Red List, the official barometer for endangered species. By visiting them now and making an economic contribution, you could be safeguarding their future.

1. Orangutans in Borneo

Classified as critically endangered on the IUCN list, which is one step away from extinction, these primates can only be found in two places: Sumatra, in Indonesia, and the island of Borneo. The main reason for their decline?

Deforestation in favour of palm oil plantations. Its often tricky to see them in the wild, but sightings are guaranteed at the Sepilok Rehabilitation Centre in Sabah and Semenggoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre in Sarawak, both in Borneo.

How: G Adventures (gadventures.co.uk) offers a 14-day escorted Experience Borneo trip as part of their Jane Goodall collection. A portion of funds from the 2,000 pp land-only price are donated to her institute, which helps to protect primates worldwide.

2. Pangolins in Namibia

Looking like creatures from a prehistoric era, these small, scaly anteaters are the most trafficked animal in the world.

Their scales are dried and sold as medicine and have even been used to make coats. Having evolved over 80 million years, they can be found in parts of Asia and Africa, though being nocturnal, they are hard to spot.

One relatively reliable place to enjoy encounters is Okonjima Nature Reserve in Namibia; Chris Packham saw his first pangolin here and so did I.

How: Expert Africa (expertafrica.com) offers an 11-day tailor-made Impala Self-drive Safari from 1,418pp (land-only), including a stay at Okonjima, where the AfriCat Foundation supports wildlife conservation.

3. Tigers in India

The biggest cat on our planet is also the most under threat, once again the victim of a futile medicine market. The Bengal tiger is the most iconic of the species and can be found in parks across India.

Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra state is a more under-the-radar option, where the emphasis on conservation is still greater than tourism.

How: Steppes Travel (steppestravel.com) has a 14-day tailor-made Tiger Safari to Tadoba, Pench, and Kanha from 43,822pp (excluding flights). Along with searching for tigers, the trip includes a focus on conservation efforts in the parks.

4. Mountain gorillas in Uganda

Spread across Uganda, Rwanda and the Congo, mountain gorillas have suffered at the hands of poachers and civil warfare.

A new census, about to take place, promises to show an increase in numbers, though the great apes are not out of the danger zone just yet. With cheaper permit prices and rated as one of the most stable countries in Africa, Uganda is the best place to go.

How: A percentage of the US$600 (490) one-hour permit price goes to community projects and conservation. Keep costs low by arranging your own trip and staying at the excellent Ride 4 A Woman (ride4awoman.org) community hostel in Bwindi, where doubles cost from US$130/106 full board.

5. Ethiopian wolves

Almost wiped out by cases of canine distemper, spread by domestic dogs, the worlds rarest canid struggles

to survive in Ethiopias Simien Mountains and the Sanetti Plateau.

The latter area is part of the Bale Mountains, where British couple Yvonne and Guy Levene run the Bale Mountain Lodge with conservation always in mind.
We were warned! In La Gomera, in bright sunlight, by a blue sea and white surf washing onto clean black sand, a friend warned us against La Laguna weather, writes Damien Enright. Changeable as Ireland, he said.

If we insisted on visiting the Unesco World Heritage site on Tenerife in April, we should bring thermal underwear and souwesters. He had studied at La Lagunas famed university; his most outstanding memory was of looking down on Santa Cruz, the island capital, basking in the sun below him while his teeth chattered and his bones ached from damp.

The capital is 4m above sea level, while La Laguna is 540m above, a journey of 9km. Its a green and ancient world, but best visited in summer.

Alonso Fernandez de Lugo, the cruel and rapacious conquistador who conquered the islands of La Palma and Tenerife in bloody battles with the indigenous Guanche people  whom he slaughtered or took as slaves  founded La Laguna in 1497.

It was the first city in the Canary Islands and became the template for many of the Spanish settlements in the colonised Americas. The Canaries were Spains first America. Here, much of the experimentation in the conquest and settlement of new lands were practised.

My wife and I went to La Laguna despite our friends advice, taking a two-hour ferry voyage from Valle Gran Rey in Gomera to big, bustling Santa Cruz, where we boarded the tram climbing uphill on the scenic route to the old city.

La Laguna is outstandingly beautiful. In the extensive old town, every street is ancient, lined with houses built between the late 14th and late 18th century. There is a cathedral, and many old churches and inns. It is a world redolent of antiquity at every turning. Unfortunately, it rained often when we were there.

We stayed at a 15th-century posada, renovated for comfort but with all the original floorboards, staircases, doors, shuttered windows and elegant roof beams soaring above us, twice the height of a normal ceiling.

Our room was near stateroom size, with a fine, white marble fireplace. The bed was king size, with a carved and painted 15th-century bedhead; gauzy mosquito netting, voluminous as a marquee, curtained down from above. The bathroom had all mod cons.

The only other modernity was a repro wood stove functioning on electricity. The rental was 51 per night, breakfast included.

We did not rent it on Airbnb, which would not accept the personal data we use for other sites trouble-free. It would not accept our address, whatever we did. It drove us near crazy, wasting a morning. Never again!

We were very grateful for the modern wood stove when we returned from our initial La Laguna expedition.

Wed arrived at the guesthouse about 5pm. Our warm host whisked us off on a tour of the premises, his family home, taking us through corridors and inner courtyards open to sky, to the commodious self-service breakfast room which was furnished with fine ware, cutlery and crockery and stocked with sweet cakes, pasties, croissant, eggs, hams, cheeses and five teas and coffees.

The above-mentioned initial expedition was in search of a restaurant  certain, in that town, to be unique  which we didnt find because, hardly were we 10 minutes from base when it started raining, and became very cold. Heading for home, we relearned some of the eccentricities of medieval Spain which wed forgotten.

In Ireland, and most European countries, when it rains, one hugs the house facades because the gutter pipes above give some shelter. We did this, instinctively. However, the colonial architecture has no gutters but, rather, pipes extending at right angles from the roofs and issuing onto the street below.

Even after the first dousing we tended to forget this. The rain got heavier, the pipes issued cataracts, and rounding corners, we sometimes forgot to stay at street centre and walked straight under a torrent which wet us head to toe.

Meanwhile, the centres of the cobbled streets, with shallow runnels to take away the water, were deep enough to soak the shoes. So, it required fine calculation to avoid the waterfalls from above, and the rivulets from below. The answer of course, was an umbrella and galoshes, but we had neither, nor could we buy them.

We at last found shelter in a bodega, the most ancient in Tenerife, where we ate Serrano ham and Manchego and local cheese and sampled local wine.

I would advise Irish Tenerife holidaymakers to leave the sun-drenched southern concrete deserts and sun-blasted deserts and visit cultural La Laguna. Its an hours bus ride, unique and well worth it. But pick a good day!
On its 80th anniversary, Ryle Dwyer assesses the importance of the 1938 Anglo-Irish agreements.

The three Anglo-Irish agreements signed on April 25, 1938 had a decisive impact on Irish political life. They removed the last objectionable vestiges of the 1921 Treaty, thereby paving the way for Ireland to stay out of the Second World War.

As a result, Fianna Fail was rewarded with almost 10 more years in power. The Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 had conferred dominion status on Ireland, and the Statute of Westminster, 1931, formally accorded the dominions full legal freedom except in areas where they chose to remain subordinate to Britain.

The 1921 Treaty involved distinct concessions to the British on defence and finance. The Irish had agreed to assume responsibility for paying a share of the British national debt.

It is usually forgotten that the North was initially considered part of the Irish Free State under the Anglo-Irish Treaty. The six counties were given the right to withdraw from the Free State, but in that event a Boundary Commission would redraw the border in line with the wishes of the local inhabitants.

This commission was widely expected to transfer large areas of the Six Counties to the Irish Free State. When the commission decided against the transfer of extensive areas in 1924, the British renounced all claims on the Free State contributing to the British national debt.

On coming to power in 1932, Eamon de Valera insisted that land annuity payments being made to Britain - arising out of Irish land purchases around the turn of the century - were not owed, as a result to the commission agreement.

The British countered that Irish Finance Minister Ernest Blythe agreed in 1926 to pay 5m annually to Britain in land annuity payments. The Dail was never told about this, much less asked to ratify the agreement. Thus, de Valera insisted that Blythes agreement had no legal standing.

The Long Fellow offered to submit the issue to binding international arbitration, but Treasury Secretary Neville Chamberlain rejected the offer, fearing an arbitrator would find for de Valera. When the Dublin government withheld the annuity payments in 1932, Britain retaliated with the Economic War.

The British were being secretly encouraged to resist de Valera by Cumann na nGaedheal, which invoked the memories of Michael Collins and Kevin OHiggins. If the British thought the pressure would hurt the de Valera government, however, they must have been sorely disappointed, because Fianna Fail won an overall majority in a snap general election in January 1933.

With 77 of the 153 seats, it was only the slimmest of majorities, but it was the first overall majority any party got since before the Civil War. Fianna Fail gained three further seats from Fine Gael in later elections during the Dail term, but the party lost its overall majority by the slimmest of margins in the general election of July 1937 when it dropped to 69 of the 138 seats.

With tensions growing on the continent, de Valera used the international anxiety to bring the British to their senses on Ireland. As the British would need American help in the event of war, de Valera contended an Anglo-Irish settlement would greatly enhance Britains political standing in the US.

Real, unqualified friendship with the United States would be vastly more valuable to Britain than satisfaction of a claim for a sum of money, or than our occupation of the three Irish ports against the will of almost the whole Southern Irish population, de Valera emphasised, according to MacDonald.

Irish people might initially wish to remain neutral in the war that was threatening, but de Valera told MacDonald that they would likely come to Britains aid, if the outstanding difficulties were settled beforehand.

While there could be no formal commitment on what Ireland would do in the event of war, de Valera was prepared to give a formal assurance that Dublin would never allow Irish territory to be used as a base for an attack on Britain.

MacDonald had no doubt about de Valeras sincerity. I am convinced, the Dominions Secretary assured his cabinet colleagues, that he is really genuine in desiring whole-hearted friendship and co-operation between the Irish Free State and Great Britain.

Eamon De Valera outside 10 Downing Street.

The only area of Irish policy that Britain could legitimately claim that the dominion government in Dublin was subservient to Britain was in the area of defence.

The 1921 Treaty gave Britain possession of three naval bases at Cobh, Berehaven and Lough Swilly.

In time of war or of strained relations with a Foreign Power, the British had further rights to such harbour and other facilities as the British Government may require.

The two governments agreed to initiate formal talks in London on January 17, 1938.

de Valera was accompanied by Sean Lemass, Sean MacEntee, and James Ryan. The talks centered on four areas of contention - partition, defence, trade, and finance.

British prime minister Neville Chamberlain was anxious to secure Irish goodwill. He promptly indicated that Britain would hand over the three ports and renounce her treaty rights to the other Irish facilities.

He also indicated Britain would abandon the duties on Irish imports introduced as part of the Economic War, but he said there could be no settlement of partition against the will of the majority in the North.

The only concessions the British were demanding were some payments on outstanding debts, exclusive of the land annuities, as well as the removal of Irish import duties on goods imported from Northern Ireland. But de Valera argued he could make no concessions unless partition were ended.

Nevertheless, Chamberlain was optimistic.

I shall be grievously disappointed if we dont get an all-round agreement on everything except partition, he said

at the end of the first round of talks.

Eamon de Valera and US President Franklin Roosevelt.

de Valera sought US President Franklin Roosevelts help in persuading the British that full Anglo-Irish reconciliation would affect every country where the two races dwell together, knitting their national strength and presenting to the world a great block of democratic peoples interested in the preservation of peace.

Roosevelt declined to intervene formally, but he agreed to instruct Joseph P. Kennedy, his new ambassador to Britain, to tell Chamberlain privately that Roosevelt was anxious for an Irish settlement.

During a second round of talks in February, Chamberlain offered to settle the financial claims of well over 100m, for 39m, while the Irish side initially offered just 2m.

Britain agreed to remove duties on Irish imports, while Dublin was only obliged to review its own import duties and to provide preferential treatment to some British imports. In addition, the British ended the Economic War for an Irish payment of 10m.

The British also surrendered the three Treaty ports and renounced all rights to other Irish bases.

If Britain had retained the right to any Irish facilities they required, it does not require much imagination to visualise how Churchill would have undermined not only Irish neutrality and Irish independence during the war that erupted in August 1939.
French billionaire Vincent Bollore has been detained for questioning in an investigation into alleged corruption during lucrative port deals in Africa.

Mr Bollore was taken into custody on Tuesday in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, along with other employees of his Bollore Group, a judicial official said.
Heart breaking footage has emerged of a young boy clinging to his dead father following the Saudi bombing of a wedding in the northern region of Yemen yesterday.

The graphic footage has been widely shared on social media and has been published on the Voice of America YouTube channel. It originates, they suggest, with the Al-Masirah TV station.

The station is overseen by the armed Houthi movement which controls much of northern Yemen and shows the young boy clutching what the station claim is his father's body in the Hajjah region.

The region was hit yesterday by a Saudi Arabian led air strike which killed at least 20 and injured up to 50 others attending a wedding.

WARNING: Graphic footage.

The bombing was the third deadly air strike in Yemen since the weekend. An attack on Sunday night hit a house elsewhere in Hajja, killing an entire family of five, according to al-Nadhri.

On Saturday, at least 20 civilians were killed when coalition fighter jets bombed a bus carrying commuters in western Yemen, near the city of Taiz, which has been locked in fighting for three years.

The Saudi-led coalition has declined to comment on the strikes.

The footage emerges as the chair of the International Development Select Committee in Britain urged the British government to bring forward a resolution on the conflict in Yemen to the UN Security Council.

Labour's Stephen Twigg called on ministers to "lead the international community to put peace on the table" amid pleas to the Government to suspend arm sales to Saudi Arabia.

Mr Twigg, asking an urgent question on Yemen, said the country needs "peace and a political settlement".

He asked: "Can I implore the Government to bring a resolution to the UN Security Council as a matter of urgency?

"Eight million people in Yemen are on the brink of starvation - surely the United Kingdom has a responsibility to lead the international community to put peace on the table?"

International Development Minister Harriett Baldwin urged all sides in the conflict to "exercise restraint" and to "continue to facilitate access for essential imports of food, fuel and medical supplies" into Yemen.

She added: "He (Mr Twigg) made some points about the important role that the UK can play in addition to the role as holding the pen at the United Nations in that peace process, and clearly it is in being a candid friend to those involved in the Saudi-led coalition, encouraging the process in terms of the joint investigative assessment team, the publication of those reports, 55 of which have been published so far, to recognise that we are not as the UK involved in any way in the targeting chain, and to reiterate the importance of the UK having the most rigorous export controls, and that involves the observation of international humanitarian law."

British shadow international development secretary Kate Osamor called on the Government to suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia in light of an air strike which hit a wedding party in northern Yemen, killing at least 20 people including the bride.

"Just yesterday appalling images emerged of an air strike hitting a wedding party. Twenty people were tragically killed, 45 more were wounded. The bride was killed and the groom taken to hospital," she said.

"Time and time again the Government implies this suffering will happen with or without the UK. Well, surely now is the time to make it very clear that Britain will not be complicit?"

Ms Osamor asked: "Will the Government now in light of the weekend's appalling air strikes on the wedding party finally suspend its arm sales to Saudi Arabia?"

- Digital Desk & PA
The Irish Tourist Assistance Service (ITAS) offered support and assistance to nearly 900 people who had fallen victim to crime and other traumatic events during their visit here in 2017.

The most common crime perpetrated against tourists was theft from person (39% of referrals). There was an increase in referral of theft from cars (11% of referrals), while a small number of tourists (15) were referred after violent crime such as aggravated theft, assault, sexual assault and robbery.

There were also 13 cases of online fraud, with tourists paying large deposits for accommodation, only to arrive and find no valid reservations had been made. Fraudsters had taken online payment for accommodation which they do not own and even for properties which do not exist.

Gardai continued to refer the majority of cases (86%) to the ITAS, in particular, Pearse Street Garda Station in Dublin from which ITAS operates an office seven days a week.

Over 40% of tourist crimes occurred on the streets of Dublin City when tourists were sightseeing, shopping, and socialising. The majority of crimes took place between the hours of 2pm and 6pm, with victims tending to be female and aged between 17 and 25.

The service helped tourists from 48 countries, with German nationals making up the largest category assisted. This was followed by French, American, Italian, British, and Spanish tourists.

Commenting at the launch of the figures, ITAS chairman Kevin McPartlan said the service offers immediate support to tourists who are victims of crime in order to make a positive difference to their experience and get their holiday plans back on track.

In 2017, 88% of tourists assisted by ITAS continued with their holiday plans, he said. I would like to thank the organisations and agencies who support ITAS.

This support enhances Irelands international reputation as a caring and hospitable nation and reinforces visitors motives for choosing Ireland as a holiday destination.

The invaluable support that ITAS offers visitors who require its services is a vital resource to the sector and one that requires further financial input for its future viability.

The ITAS team consists of staff and volunteers who speak a variety of languages and offer immediate support and assistance to victims.
The figure has been estimated by consultants as the amount raised locally every year in the primary sector alone, with smaller schools facing the biggest deficits due to shortfalls in public funding.

While school leaders, teachers and parents have been calling for several years for the reversal of recession-era cutbacks to Department of Education grants, Mr Bruton said it is just one of several competing demands he must consider.

He said in an RTE Radio 1 interview that there is a commitment in the 2016 Programme for Government to increase these capitation grants which schools use to pay bills, buy teaching materials, and cover other running costs. However, with no guarantee that the current Government will last long enough to deliver a 2020 budget at the end of next year, this could be Mr Brutons last opportunity to meet the promise.

A year ago, the minister hinted that extra funding could be given to schools that do more to help reduce costs for parents by, for example, reviewing policies around uniforms or books. However, it was unclear how this could be monitored nationally, or when any such increases might be provided.

Responding to the figures in the survey for the Catholic Primary School Management Association (CPSMA), Mr Bruton said he has to weigh up legitimate demands across the education sector.

For this years budget, he said, he decided to put extra teachers and special needs assistants into schools to help cater for rising enrolments. He said he and colleagues will sit down later in the year and see what extra money will be needed and where he can provide different shares of any additional funding provided to the Department of Education.

The CPSMA called on Mr Bruton to immediately restore the grant from 170 a year for each primary pupil to the previous level of 200.

There is no way you can run a school on the 92c per pupil per day provided by the Government. Buy a child a Snickers bar and youve blown the days budget, said CPSMA general secretary Seamus Mulconry. Buy a child a sliotar and youve not only blown the budget for the week, youre in deficit. The minister wants the best education system in Europe, so do we. But if Ireland wants the best, we need to invest.

The CPSMA survey was carried out by Grant Thornton with 140 schools, based proportionately on the numbers of primary schools of different sizes. Although schools managed to cut spending by 2% in 2016, their income fell by 4%.

The average school had running costs outside of teacher and other staff salaries amounting to 91,000 but received just under 46,000, or just over half, from the capitation grant. However, while 61% of the cost is met by capitation for schools with more than 500 pupils, those with less than 200 pupils only have 42% of their spending covered. These small schools account for nearly two thirds of the countrys primary schools.

The 46m covers money that schools fundraise or generate from so-called voluntary contributions from parents. These payments are requested by 55% of national schools, according to a survey released in January by the Irish Primary Principals Network.
Fianna Fail communications spokesman Timmy Dooley said the public admission is necessary, despite saying his party is not demanding a public execution and is unlikely to table a no-confidence motion in Mr Naughten.

Mr Naughten was embroiled in controversy last week when it emerged he spoke informally with Heneghan PR official and former government press secretary Eoghan O Neachtain about the proposed INM takeover of Celtic Media.

The conversation was confirmed in leaked court records which showed Mr Naughten and Mr O Neachtain spoke about the deal on November 11, 2016, at which point Mr Naughten said he expected the deal to be referred to a Broadcasting Authority of Ireland inquiry.

The following day, then INM chairperson Leslie Buckley forwarded businessman Denis OBrien an email from Heneghan PR executive Nigel Heneghan outlining the November 11 conversation.

However, during a Dail debate on December 6, 2016, Mr Naughten said no decision had taken place on the deal and that the matter was still being discussed privately.

In a special Dail debate last Wednesday, Mr Naughten insisted he had done nothing wrong, a position that was repeated by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and other ministers.

Mr Dooley said the communications minister must this week provide a public statement accepting he acted wrongly, and if he fails to do so he must remove himself from any involvement in future media mergers.

There needs to be an acceptance from Mr Naughten what he did was wrong. Im not saying he did what he did with any intent, but the phone call is a fact.

He can couch it in whatever way he wants, but if he cant do that he should recuse himself from merger discussions.

This doesnt have to be fatal for him, were not looking for a public execution, but there is a need for the public to see a minister who has done this held to account, said Mr Dooley.

On Sunday, the National Union of Journalists also called on Mr Naughten to recuse himself from media merger discussions due to last weeks revelations, a move also sought by the Social Democrats.
Cork County Council is to write to Mr Varadkar asking him to stop CIL removing mercury-based lights at the Fastnet Lighthouse and replacing them with more energy-efficient LED lights.

Fianna Fail councillor Gillian Coughlan won unanimous support from colleagues after she said the CIL move would interfere with the historic integrity of the lighthouse and reduce the beam out to sea from 27 to 18 nautical miles.

She said Mr Varadkar, in his role as Taoiseach and senior Minister for Defence, had the power to intervene.

CIL says the new lights would be more efficient and, although less powerful, would comply with the maximum range required for lights operating on Irish and British coasts.

Ms Coughlan said Fastnet Lighthouse could one day become a tourist attraction and its integrity should be maintained, as had been done in the US where a heritage order had been placed on the Boston Light, Americans oldest existing lighthouse.

She said Fastnet Lighthouse was built in 1879 and known as The Teardrop of Ireland because so many emigrants passed it on ships heading for America.

It was a symbol of departure, but also of possible return, she said. The ill-fated Lusitania would have passed it and it would have been the last landlight seen by those onboard the Titanic.

There is no doubt that the lighthouse has saved hundreds of lives over the years, preventing ships crashing into the Carbery Island.

I hope it will become a tourist attraction in the years to come and thats why it should be preserved as much as possible. Its a symbol for our diaspora.

I want a stay put on the works proposed and get the Taoiseach to look at. It also merits inclusion in World Heritage sites.

Independent councillor Danny Collins, who seconded her motion, said reducing the beam distance from 27 nautical miles down to 18 would have consequences.

A lot of our inshore fishermen rely on it, said Mr Collins. This is a health and safety issue. I know Irish Lights had a public meeting in Schull a couple of weeks ago, but I dont think it was adequately advertised.

Fianna Fail councillor Frank OFlynn said: Its part of our heritage. There should be a stay put on the plans to replace the lights.

Ms Coughlan said she looked forward to the response from the Taoiseach.

Independent councillor Marcia DAlton said she agreed that Fastnet Lighthouse should also be included on a list of historic features in Cork which could be added to the prestigious Unesco World Heritage Sites.

The county council yesterday voted to set in train an application to have several buildings added to Unesco list, at the suggestion of Ms DAlton.

They include the Royal Gunpowder Mill in Ballincollig, the Martello towers dotted around Cork Harbour, and forts at Spike Island and Camden, near Crosshaven.
Instead, RTE should retain its Concert Orchestra (CO) while the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) should be established as a National Cultural Institution in its own right, or as part of the National Concert Hall and funded by Government.

If support is not forthcoming, the review authors regretfully suggest a poor second choice  the closure of one of the two orchestras.

However, the Government reaction to the report last night suggests such drastic action will not be required.

Communications Minister Denis Naughten said he was looking forward to advancing the recommendations of the report conducted by Helen Boaden, former director of BBC Radio and BBC News, and media consultants Mediatique.

Culture Minister Josepha Madigan said the report allows us to chart a way forward for both orchestras  securing a strong future and ensuring that they can contribute fully to Irelands rich cultural heritage.

Both ministers said they had requested department officials to engage with RTE with a view to bringing forward proposals to address the recommendations as a matter of priority.

Aodan O Dubhghaill, head of RTE Orchestras, said the reports recommendations offer a solution which protects and supports both orchestras, while also recognising the balance between RTEs financial constraints and our public service role in promoting music, arts and culture.

However, Siptu and the Musicians Union of Ireland cautioned RTE against any proposal to outsource the NSO, warning that their members are fundamentally opposed to this proposition and will defend their position vigorously.

Among the recommendations are:

That neither of RTEs two orchestras should close; instead both should be brought up to full strength;

That both should return to touring and educational programmes;

That RTE should contribute funding to a newly independent NSO in return for the right to broadcast its performance;

That RTE CO should remain within RTE and become a key means of RTE providing support of orchestral music  live and broadcast on television, radio and online.

The review points out that the Piano report, carried out more than 20 years ago, recommended the NSO receive direct funding for government over time, but this was never enacted.

The RTE Board will consider the report and recommendations at its board meeting later this week.

RTEs orchestras are the only full-time, full-size professional orchestras in Ireland. The report says there is strong support among Irish audiences for the existence of RTEs orchestras.
Since the Garda investigation began, the social worker has left the Child and Family Agency.

A number of digital devices were seized as part of the investigation  which is being conducted in Munster  and have been sent to the central forensic examination unit in Dublin.

The Garda operation began last year after the case was sent by the Garda National Protective Services Bureau to the relevant division for investigation.

A regional branch of the GNPSB conducted the probe, which led to the seizure. The devices are due for forensic examination by the Garda Cyber Crime Bureau.

It is unclear when the examination will take place as the bureau is still struggling to clear existing backlogs.

The investigation is ongoing, confirmed a source. It is still being investigated and at the end of that stage a file will be prepared for the Director of Public Prosection.

The DPP will decide whether or not charges should be brought or may direct investigating gardai that further inquiries may need to be conducted.

Garda sources said the individual was no longer an employee of Tusla.

When contacted, a Tusla spokeswoman said: As soon as Tusla became aware of the garda investigation we took immediate action and this person no longer works with Tusla.

The GNPSB was set up as a national specialist unit charged with investigating a range of crimes affecting the person: sexual offences (adult and child), domestic violence, online child abuse imagery, as well as human trafficking and prostitution.
The development follows another court case involving child abuse imagery in which concerns were raised regarding the delay in examining digital devices.

Brendan Phelan, aged 66, from Merrion Grove, Blackrock, Co Dublin, was given a suspended three-year sentence last week after being caught with nearly 60,000 child abuse images and videos.

Sentencing him in the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, Judge Martin Nolan said there had been an unfortunate delay in bringing the case to court due to a lack of resources in the Garda Computer Crime Investigation Unit (CCIU), which is now part of a new Garda Cyber Crime Bureau (GCCB).

Phelan was only charged last year, even though the raid on his home was conducted in March 2013. When the material was examined four years later, gardai discovered 58,585 child abuse images and 1,046 movies.

The case is the latest prosecution in which delays regarding the forensic examinations of computers have been commented on by judges and it follows last months report by the Garda Inspectorate flagging unacceptable delays going back four years.

Garda sources yesterday told the Irish Examiner extra staff had just been allocated to the GCCB following a competition and the strength was now in excess of 30 mem-bers, described as a significant increase on previously.

The inspectorates Responding to Child Abuse report said the GCCB, including its predecessor, received digital devices for examination in 1,083 cases between 2010 and 2015.

It said that 274 of these cases remained outstanding, including 60 cases from 2013; 31 from 2012; four from 2011; and three from 2010.

It said that when it visited the GCCB in 2016 that the unit was prioritising cases from 2011 but that staff reported that they had insufficient resources to clear the backlog.

Garda sources accepted that delays in the examination of devices continued, but insisted the backlog had been halved since 2011 and that they expected the backlog to be cleared in early 2019.

Gardai have piloted two regional units, in New Ross, Co Wexford, and Ballincollig, Co Cork. Gardai have also said they intend to develop six regional examination units.

Garda Commissioner Donall O Cualain and his senior team are set to be questioned about the inspectorates report at the next meeting with the Policing Authority this Thursday.

News: 17
However, the 1.3bn project  which has already almost tripled in estimated cost in four years and fallen more than a year behind schedule  is facing further delays because the Government has failed to update the 75-year-old laws that govern water abstraction.

The European Commission warned in 2000 that Irelands laws did not comply with the Water Framework Directive, which insists on much more comprehensive regulation of abstraction together with the establishment of an abstraction licence regime.

Despite numerous warnings from state bodies, environmental groups, and legal experts since, the Government only gave the go-ahead for work to begin on the drafting of new legislation last November.

Irish Water said of the legislative vacuum that it understood the new law, the Water Environment (Abstractions) Bill, would be published this summer and enacted by the end of this year.

The Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government confirmed that was the target but added: While Government is hoping to publish legislation in Q2-3 2018 there will first of all be an extensive public consultation process.

Irish Water had initially hoped to have a planning application submitted under An Bord Pleanalas fast-track procedure for strategic infrastructure last year and 330m litres of drinking water flowing daily along the 170km of pipeline soon after 2020 at a cost of 500m.

The company later pushed the application date out to late this year and increased the cost estimate to 900m.

It now says: It is currently intended that the planning application will be submitted to An Bord Pleanala in 2019, legislation permitting.

It says it hopes to have water from the Shannon being drunk in the greater Dublin area and parts of the Midlands from 2025, at a cost of 1.3bn.

The update comes in a report published by Irish Water today on the many submissions it received from landowners and other interested parties following its latest public consultation.

Around 500 landowners, predominantly in counties Tipperary, Offaly, and Kildare, will be directly affected by the project but more than 1,000 individuals and groups took part in the consultation which was launched after the preferred route of the pipeline  from the Parteen Basin in Tipperary to Peamount in West Dublin  was identified.

Nothing in the consultation has prompted any change to the route but Irish Water says it has taken into account the many varied concerns expressed about the impact of the project on land, livelihoods and the environment during its construction and operation.

Landowners who suffer direct and measurable losses will be compensated but it is also open to An Bord Pleanala to insert a community gain clause into permission for such projects, requiring financial contributions, the provision of amenities or other benefits in recognition of any inconvenience to local communities.

The report says a consistent and high standard water supply will be the fundamental gain of this project for all communities in the Eastern and Midlands Region. However, it adds that a community gain proposal will form part of the planning application.

Sean Laffey, head of asset management with Irish Water, said the project was urgently needed to supply the growing population and deal with sudden shortages such as those caused by recent droughts and storms.

The future needs of Dublin and the Midlands can not be met by fixing leaks alone, he said.

Irish Water is now satisfied beyond doubt that the preferred Parteen Basin option is the correct scheme and its delivery is critical for the future.
In a speech to his unions biennial conference in Wexford, Mandate general secretary John Douglas said no retail worker in Ireland should earn less than the living wage, which is currently set at 11.70 per hour.

He said the union rate should be at least 30% above the living wage, which equates to 15 per hour.

We have a very serious problem in Ireland with, on the one hand, low pay and insecure work, and on the other hand, high costs of living, said Mr Douglas.

This is leading to many of the social problems we see today including the dramatic increase in homelessness across the country, along with high poverty and deprivation rates. If we are to tackle this crisis, it will mean winning significant pay increases for many low paid workers.

The unions general secretary said Ireland is one of the most profitable countries in the world in which to be a major retail outlet.

In recent weeks Mandate has lodged claims in Dunnes Stores, Tesco, and others which would have life-changing impacts for our members, he said.

We know that Tesco Ireland make approximately 250m in profit every year while Dunnes Stores make 200m.

There is absolutely no doubt that many employers can afford to increase pay rates for their staff and give them secure hour contracts. They simply choose not to, and instead prioritise shareholders and wealthy owners over their workers.

There is only one real and effective solution to this, and that is for all retail and bar workers to get organised and prepared to stand up for better conditions of employment.

He did say if an employer can prove it has a genuine inability to increase wages, his union will not be left wanting.

In a speech to delegates at the conference, ICTU general secretary Patricia King said imposed austerity measures have resulted in a level of social scarring not seen in this country before. She said one such scar was the housing emergency.

She also praised the stand taken by retail workers in defence of their terms and conditions.

There can be no doubt that without the recent action of Tesco or Dunnes workers the Government would not be contemplating legislation to improve the rights of low wage workers, she said. These disputes instigated serious public debate on precarious work.
Mr Cosgrave last month tweeted his support for the SCU amid Opposition criticism of the units operations, and said he has been taken through the Taoiseachs Strategic Communications Unit overall plan.

Mr Cosgrave further tweeted that he received a private briefing [on] many of the ideas that are to be rolled out by the Taoiseachs Comms unit.

The Department of the Taoiseach, which oversees the SCU, this week rejected a Freedom of Information request from this newspaper that sought all documentation arising from the Departments engagement with Mr Cosgrave on establishing and running the unit.

The deciding officer said that the request is being refused on the grounds that no such records exist.

It is routine for Government officials to meet with various stakeholders to discuss Government policy, said the deciding officer. The director of the Strategic Communications Unit met Mr Paddy Cosgrave, at Mr Cosgraves request, on 22nd February, 2018. At this meeting, an outline of the SCU work plan was provided verbally. All information provided verbally is in the public domain.

The SCU in the Department of the Taoiseach does not have specific documentation arising from this meeting and, as such, the unit does not have records of the nature requested.

On March 7, Mr Cosgrave tweeted: Two weeks ago I saw what I believe is the wider plan, probably almost complete, for the #SCU.

As for the wider plans of the #SCU not being shared with the public, my view is the following: If the plans are fully completed following lengthy consultation with stakeholders in Ireland & others around the world & are being kept secret that is a matter of public concern.

Why did I get to see what I believe are the wider plans for the #SCU  feedback I presume.

The briefing drew criticism from members of the Opposition who claimed it is a case of affording access to a private citizen that was not extended to members of the Oireachtas.
Both Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), formerly the NRA, and Cork County Council engineers have acknowledged traffic congestion in Charleville was a huge problem.

But neither body supports building a relief road ahead of the M20 project.

While the M20 has been included in the latest National Development Plan, there is no start or finish date for the proposed inter-city route, likely to cost about 800m.

Charleville-based Cllr Ian Doyle told a county council meeting that, realistically, it could be anywhere between 10 and 15 years before a motorway is opened.

In the meantime, he said, motorists would continue to suffer lengthy delays in the town which are commonplace and not just at rush-hour periods.

He said a lot of planning permissions were in the pipeline for the town and was concerned they could be held up if something was not done to alleviate congestion.

He said he was also concerned businesses were suffering, as a result.

A ring road would cost in the region of between 10m to 15m, Cllr Doyle said. In the great scheme of things, the cost is very little compared to the M20 which could take years before it is built.

In a report delivered to councillors, senior county council engineer Bob OShea said he had spoken with TII officials who were conscious of the level of traffic congestion in Charleville. He said TII, Limerick City and County Council and Cork County Council had lobbied strongly for the motorway and that appeal had culminated in it being included in the National Development Plan.

However, Mr OShea said a separate bypass of Charleville would not offer the broad and more sustainable benefits offered by the M20 project.

However, Cllr Doyle insisted it was imperative Charleville secured a bypass in the interim or it would stifle its future economic prosperity. He noted the town was one of the most attractive locations in Co Cork for commuters and businesses, while the Local Area Plans envisages a further 800 homes being built there.
He made his remarks alongside two other ex-taoisigh, Bertie Ahern and John Bruton, at a special Brexit conference in Dublin. Together, the three men oversaw government for more than 17 years.

Mr Cowen also directly criticised British prime minister Theresa May, telling the audience her inconsistent approach to Brexit and the negotiations was unhelpful.

Mr Cowen, who served as taoiseach from 2008 to 2011, pointed out that the EU wanted to ensure that non-membership or any State leaving it was not going to be a burden-free zone.

Brussels wanted to try and ensure integrity of the single market was maintained, he said.

However, that did not mean Ireland had to develop an acrimonious relationship with Britain. Nonetheless, with no solution in sight for the Irish question amid ongoing Brexit talks, the former Fianna Fail leader maintained that there now needs to be some flesh on the bone.

Three options face Britain on the North, and the Government has now set a new deadline of June for any resolution to be on the table.

Otherwise, a so-called backstop clause would allow the North to remain in the EUs customs union and single market. London has still to offer a resolution.

Mr Cowen also dismissed recent Tory calls to scrap or change the Good Friday Agreement.

It has not been fully implemented, he said, referring to the rights of people in the North and the terms of the agreement.

He said Ireland changed its Constitution on the basis that there would be fairness, there would be equality and recognition of civil and cultural rights. There was a substantial amount of people with an objective of a united Ireland and this was not subversive.

We have agreed to a compromise here that needs to be implemented and the rights of those who have as strong a nationalist aspiration as I have must be recognised, said Mr Cowen.

We have all agreed to get on a train. Up to the Good Friday Agreement, we were all concerned about the destination of the train. Now we are just agreed to go on a common journey and we are prepared to be agnostic about where the train will bring us once we are together and we are not beating the head off each other on the train.

People should be entitled to be Irish as much as British in the North and that respect, embedded in rights legislation, should be finally given to the nationalist community, he argued.

Mr Cowen questioned Ms Mays approach to the Brexit talks after a series of flip-flops by Downing Street on a solution to the impasse on the North, including on the special deal to avoid a hard border.

This level of inconsistency in terms of the approach doesnt help to instil confidence that we can get a solution, said Mr Cowen.

Former European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso told the conference that Britain could not pick and choose bits of EU membership with Brexit.
The Government has also been advised not to let Brexit talks drift into the last evil hour of negotiations in October where Ireland could be cornered into agreeing a deal on the North.

The cautions were made at a special Brexit Institute of International and European Affairs conference in Dublin.

Both John Bruton and Bertie Ahern warned of potential violence if there is a new border.

Mr Ahern outlined how new infrastructure separating North and South could be forcefully dismantled.

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.

Mr Ahern, taoiseach from 1997 until 2008, insisted the Government must secure a border deal ahead of a crunch EU leaders summit in October.

Leaving it all until the evil hour of negotiations was dangerous, the conference heard, and France or Germany may push Ireland into a deal.

Thats always how it works, said Mr Ahern.

I dont think they should find themselves having a Halloween party at two oclock in the morning.

Mr Bruton, taoiseach from 1994 to 1997, said Britains exit could prompt fresh checks on goods with levies or inspections.

We know from history that, with the existence of border posts, however unobtrusive these might be, symbolises for many people the partition of the country, which for many people is something they dont accept and that therefore is going to become potentially a target, said Mr Bruton

Different tax regimes could trigger smuggling which was aligned to paramilitary activity.

The opportunities for smuggling will dramatically increase, he said.

News: 4
Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan will bring the bill to todays cabinet meeting, where he will say the new bill will give gardai drastic new powers to inspect firms and track suspect funds in a bid to block money meant for IS and other organisations.

In early 2017, EU states including Ireland agreed to introduce strict new laws in their respective countries in a bid to clamp down on concerns extremist groups such as IS were funneling money through front companies.

However, while the agreement  outlined in the fourth EU money-laundering directive  was meant to be enacted by Ireland by June last year, it suffered a series of delays due to government concerns over its potential unexpected impact on existing Irish law.

Last summer, the EU warned Ireland the bill must be enacted as soon as possible, while in recent weeks it issued a further warning threatening Ireland with fines and a potential European court hearing unless the bill is enacted by May 8.

In response to the warnings, Mr Flanagan will today bring forward the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) amendment bill based on the EU agreement, drastically clamping down on potential suspect money being routed through Ireland.

It is understood the bill will give gardai significant new powers to check suspect or illicit funds in this country, including those in firms that are believed to be front companies.

While Ireland is not widely seen as a hotbed for international terrorist financing, the scale of firms based in this country due to tax issues and other matters has raised EU concerns over the potential for issues in Ireland.

Mr Flanagan is also expected to bring a linked Criminal Justice (Corruption Offences) bill to Cabinet today, which will seek to introduce an amendment to existing laws ensuring businesspeople who are involved in corrupt conduct abroad can still be pursued in this country.

Meanwhile, the cabinet is also expected to hear an update on the Brexit stand-off from Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Tanaiste Simon Coveney, both of whom have warned in recent days Britain must provide a coherent border and customs union plan by the end of June or face collapsing the talks.

Health Minister Simon Harris is also expected to say he will not be in favour of opposing a Dail opposition motion seeking increases in nurses basic pay and a Seanad motion seeking the extension of the smoking ban to some public places, which are due to be discussed in both Houses this week.

Mr Coveney is also expected to give colleagues an official report on the benefits of ministers controversial St Patricks Day visits.

While the Irish Examiner reported yesterday the US flights for Mr Varadkar and his officials cost 32,000 alone last month, Mr Coveney is expected to point to visits to 92 cities in 38 countries led to 131 high-level meetings, more than 1,000 international media interviews and publicity worth at least 10m to Ireland.
Asia Indonesia Environment Minister Rebuffs Groups Who Want More Forest Preserved

An aerial photo of a road running through a palm plantation in Dumai, Riau, Sumatra Island, Indonesia, on August 9, 2016. Rony Muharrman for Antara / Reuters

YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia  Indonesias environment minister on Monday rebuffed conservationists who want the government to add secondary forests to its moratorium on issuing new licenses to use land designated as primary forest.

Announced in May 2011, the first two-year moratorium was applauded as an important step in reducing deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions, and it has been extended three times.

Environmental groups like Greenpeace and the World Resources Institute have urged the government to strengthen and extend the ban to include secondary forests  areas that were cleared, but where woody vegetation has again taken over.

Minister of Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya Bakar has told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that extending the moratorium to secondary forests could undermine the countrys economic development goals.

We have to think about it, because Indonesia has a huge population and were still in the progress of developing, she said.

Bakar said the governments main priority is assessing which land may be licensed for development, while deciding on the designation of secondary forests may come later.

Secondary forests are a secondary priority, she said.

Home to the worlds third-largest tropical forests, Indonesia is also the biggest palm oil producer. Environmentalists blame much of the forest destruction on land clearance for the crop.

The 2011 moratorium was part of a $1 billion deal with the Norwegian government to help Indonesia reduce forest clearing. By November 2016, the moratorium covered an area of more than 66 million hectares.

But deforestation and forest fires continue to blight many parts of the country, while revisions to the moratorium have lacked transparency, according to environmental campaigners.

The exemption of secondary forests and patchy law enforcement have hindered the moratoriums progress, they say.

Forest cover loss in Indonesia remains high, according to the Global Land Analysis and Discovery (GLAD) lab at the University of Maryland.

Peaking in 2012 at 928,000 hectares, forest cover loss dropped to about 500,000 hectares in 2013 before increasing in 2014 and 2015 to 796,500 hectares and 735,000 hectares, respectively, according to GLAD.

Despite this, last year Bakar called for a permanent moratorium on issuing new licenses to use land designated as primary forest and peatland.
Asia Thai Court Orders Arrest of UK Labor Rights Activist

British rights activist Andy Hall arrives at the Bangkok South Criminal Court to surrender himself into custody while facing criminal defamation and computer crimes charges on Jan. 13, 2016. / Reuters

YANGON  British labor rights activist Andy Hall said a Thai court ordered his arrest on Tuesday so that he is present when the Appeals Court announces its verdict on his criminal conviction for defamation and computer crimes next month.

The Bangkok South Criminal Court convicted Hall in September 2016 over a report he worked on accusing Thailands Natural Fruit Company of human rights abuses at a factory using migrant workers from Myanmar. It sentenced him to four years in prison, though it reduced the sentence by one year and suspended two.

Hall, whose research has covered the labor conditions of migrant workers in Thailand from Myanmar and other neighboring countries, left Thailand soon after he was convicted.

In a statement to Finnish labor rights group Finnwatch, which published the 2013 report used to sue him, Hall said the warrant was more of the same court harassment he has faced from the start.

I have faced intolerable amounts of judicial harassment, which essentially undermined my ability to do human rights work effectively inside Thailand. This is why I left the country in November 2016. I am disappointed and concerned this warrant has now being [sic] issued for my arrest and this unacceptable judicial harassment against me continues unabated, he told Finnwatch.

The labor rights group said the Appeals Court was set to announce its verdict today but in Halls absence rescheduled the hearing for May 31. It said Halls legal team was there.

Contacted by email, Hall told The Irrawaddy that he had no intention of returning to Thailand on his own accord whilst judicial harassment against me continued and that he was consulting legal experts on the possibility of Thai authorities seeking an international arrest warrant.

Hall said he had not been summoned to todays court hearing through any official or legal channels and so questioned the legal grounds on which the warrant itself was ordered.

I have asked the UK government and European Union to make representations on my behalf concerning this issue, he said.

Even so, Hall, currently in Nepal, said he would seek legal advice before traveling anywhere in Southeast Asia.

In its statement, Finnwatch corroborated the arrest order and said it remained hopeful that the Thai courts would clear Hall of any wrongdoing.

We remain hopeful the Appeals Court will acquit Andy of all these charges. The charges against him stem from his legitimate work as a human rights defender and migrant worker rights activist. He is not a criminal, said Sonja Vartiala, the groups executive director.

The September 2016 conviction relates to one of four civil and criminal cases Natural Fruit has filed against Hall over the 2013 report and a subsequent interview he gave Al Jazeera.

Last month, a Thai court ordered Hall to pay 10 million baht ($318,000) in damages to Natural Fruit in a civil defamation case relating to the interview, which he gave in Yangon, and to compensate the company for legal expenses. Hall has instructed his legal team to appeal.
Burma Kachin Groups Urge UN to Refer Myanmar to ICC

Villagers fleeing fighting between the Tatmadaw and Kachin Independence Army arrive in Namti town, Kachin State, on Sunday. / Kachin Baptist Convention

CHIANG MAI, Thailand  Ethnic Kachin communities at home and abroad are urging the United Nations Security Council to refer Myanmar to the International Criminal Court (ICC), citing a recent military campaign in Kachin States Tanai Township that has displaced thousands of civilians and trapped many in the conflict zone.

A letter issued Monday and endorsed by 32 Kachin associations both in Myanmar and overseas says the 15-member Security Council must support a resolution referring Burma to the International Criminal Court, using another name for the country.

If they fail to do so, the letter adds, Security Council member are making an active decision to allow the Burma military to keep killing ethnic civilians.

Kachin are hoping for the UN to take action, because the situation is getting much worse and UN intervention is urgently needed, said Moon Nay Li, spokesperson for the Kachin Womens Association Thailand.

Some 2,000 civilians from Awng Lawt, Sut Ra, and Sut Ring Yang villages have fled their homes to escape the latest fighting between the Myanmar military, or Tatmadaw, and the Kachin Independence Army. Many of them are trapped by the fighting in the jungle.

At least three people from Laiza town in Waingmaw Township and from Awng Lawt village in Tanai were reportedly killed during the second week of April by Tatmadaw artillery fire.

Mondays letter says the Kachin and other ethnic minority groups in Myanmar have been subject to numerous violations of international law including execution, torture, forced displacement, forced labor, rape and other forms of sexual violence, confiscation of property, arbitrary arrest and detention, and denial of humanitarian assistance.

The Burma military has used these tactics to instill fear and control in their attempts to destroy our ethnic identity, destroy our religion, colonize our lands, and steal our natural resources, it says.

As the Burmese militarys culture of impunity remains unchecked, [the] Burmese government is unable to exercise rule of law or capacity to protect [the] life of its citizens, the letter adds. We are once again appealing to the international community to hold perpetrators of war crimes and crime[s] against humanityto account before [the] current conflict spills over to bordering regions.

U Aung Htoo, a human rights lawyer and founder of the Legal Aid Network, said the militarys definition of the rule of law meant upholding the military-drafted 2008 Constitution and existing laws. But even by that definition, he said, the essence of it, taking action against perpetrators and seeking justice for victims, is disappearing.

The military leaders who commit these crimes are too bold and commit them repeatedly. Therefore, we need to approach this through the ICC and other international courts to take action against them, he said.

His network launched a report, Seeking Accountability for Ending Impunity in Burma, on Tuesday in Chiang Mai, Thailand, that analyzes three alleged war crimes in Shan, Karenni and Kachin state between November 2016 and January 2018.
Burma Regional Military Commanders Reshuffled

A parade commemorating the 73rd anniversary of Armed Forces Day. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy

Nine regional military commanders were reshuffled under an order from the Office of Military Appointments under the Office of the Commander-in-Chief (Army).

Commander Maj-Gen Nyi Nyi Swe (Intake 30 of the Defense Services Academy, or DSA) of the Northern Command and Commander Maj-Gen Teza Kyaw (Intake 73 of the Officers Training School, or OTS) of the Southwest Command replaced each others post.

Commander Brig-Gen Khin Hlaing (Intake 17 of the Officers Training Course, or OTC) of the Northeast Command was replaced by Commander Maj-Gen Aung Zaw Aye (Intake 28 of the DSA) of the Triangle Region Command while Principal of the National Defense College Maj-Gen Moe Myo Aung (Intake 32) was transferred to the Southeast Command.

Commander Maj-Gen Win Min Tun (Intake 27 of the DSA) of the Eastern Command and Commander Maj-Gen Lin Aung (Intake 27 of the DSA) of the Coastal Region Command replaced each others post.

Commander Maj-Gen Myat Kyaw (Intake 68 of the OTS) was replaced by Commander Maj-Gen Myo Win (Intake 71 of the OTS) of the Southeast Command while the former was transferred to the National Defense College.

Such a reshuffle of commander posts is a very rare move for the Tatmadaw and is done only when completely necessary. When a commander retires for health reasons, the post is filled. Generally, commanders of light infantry divisions are promoted to commanders of regional commands, who are then promoted to heads of the Bureau of Special Operations, said U Maung Maung Soe, a Myanmar military observer.

He also added that it is very difficult to guess the reason behind the reshuffle, but that the Myanmar military has to be prepared as it has been put on a United Nations blacklist and military tensions are mounting in Kachin State, Lashio and Karen State.

Commander-in-Chief of Defense Services Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing has not yet retired although his retirement age has been reached. The next commander-in-chief of defense services might be chosen from the new generation, according to military sources.

Maj-Gen Moe Myint Tun (Intake 30 of the DSA) will be 55 years old in 2020 and he is tipped to be the next head of the Tatmadaw. He has risen through the ranks quickly, as the current Chief of General Staff (Army,Navy and Air) Gen Mya Tun Oo has as well.

Translated from Burmese by Myint Win Thein.
Burma Rights Commission Warns Govt of Possible Rights Violations Against Reuters Whistleblower

MNHRC member U Yu Lwin Aung during a press conference on Monday. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy

The Myanmar National Human Rights Commission (MNHRC) has sent a letter to the Ministry of Home Affairs in an effort to safeguard the rights of Police Captain Moe Yan Naing, who told a court that Reuters journalists had been entrapped by the police led by Police Brig-Gen Tin Ko Ko, are not violated.

According to his family, Police Cpt. Moe Yan Naing of Police Battalion No. 8 has been detained for more than 120 days without family visits after being accused of passing secret documents regarding Rakhine State to two reporters, who have also been detained since Dec. 12, 2017.

It is okay that he is not allowed to see his family if it is because the investigation might be hampered by such a meeting. There are rules and regulations. If there is no reason to deny him family visits, then it is a violation of his human rights, said U Yu Lwin Aung, a member of the MNHRC.

The police captain appeared in court for the first time on April 20 and testified that reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were framed by the police. His family was evicted from police housing in Naypyitaw following his account.

The Protection Committee for Myanmar Journalists (PCMJ) sent a complaint to the MNHRC on April 23 urging the commission to investigate possible human rights abuses against the reporters and the police officer.

However, PCMJ co-founder Ko Tharlun Zaung Htet said that he was disappointed as the letter sent to the ministry by the MNHRC only tackled possible abuses against the police officer, adding that he hoped the commission would do more to protect the publics basic rights in the future.

The police officer will be charged under the Official Secrets Act and the Police Force Maintenance of Discipline Law, according to a statement released on Dec. 14.

The MNHRC neither has immediate plans to visit the police officer nor his wife, Ma Tu Tu, according to U Yu Lwin Aung.

Translated from Burmese by Myint Win Thein.
Burma Tatmadaw Using Ceasefire to Gain Upper Hand, KNLA Deputy Chief Says

Members of the Karen National Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Karen National Union, march to mark the 69th annual Armed Forces Day in Karen State in February. / Aung Aung Kyaw / Facebook

Ethnic Karen need to adapt to new threats from the Myanmar Army (or Tatmadaw), according to the deputy chief of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), who accused the Tatmadaw of violating the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA).

In an interview with the Karen Information Center, General Baw Kyaw Heh said the Myanmar Army had exploited the ceasefire in order to infiltrate areas under the control of the KNLAs Brigade 5.

I want to urge our ethnic Karen to look back to our past, our history, our identity, and our political experiences. We need to change our ideology. We need to prepare and bravely confront what we have to face. There are challenges we can avoid, but there are those we cannot. If we act, we will definitely secure our rights, the general said.

Under the terms of the NCA, signatories agree not to reinforce troops, create new battalions, engage in major troop movements, or transport supplies to battalions.

However, Gen Baw Kyaw Heh said, the Tatmadaw had not only done these things, but had in fact deployed and moved more troops since the agreement was signed.

They have quite clearly taken advantage of the ceasefire as part of their effort to move into our areas of control. Some people may think their movements are normal, but it is the opposite. To me, it is easy to see the moves they have made since the ceasefire, he said.

He said the Tatmadaw had launched an operation against the KNLAs Brigade 5. This was not a conventional operation, he said, adding that the Tatmadaw had a plan to attack the KNLA and he was concerned about this.

The aim of the NCA, Gen Baw Kyaw Heh said, was to build trust between the KNLA and the Myanmar Army by avoiding clashes and confining their troops to their bases. But it now appeared that these were empty words, and that the Tatmadaw was just pursuing its own military agenda, he said.

Whether we have a ceasefire or not, they just act according to their plan. They have a preset agenda, he said.

Military tensions remain high between the KNLAs Brigade 5 and the Tatmadaw, following repeated clashes recently. About 2,000 Karen IDP have fled villages in Brigade 5-controlled areas.

The last round of proposed peace talks between the KNLA and the Tatmadaw collapsed when the latters condition that the commander of Brigade 5 join the talks was not met.

The Karen National Union, the political wing of the KNLA, has been an active participant in the peace process, working with the National League for Democracy-led government and the Myanmar Army. The KNU was also a leader among the ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) in signing the NCA and working to advance the peace process. So why did the Tatmadaw now want to make problems for the KNLA, as a signatory to the NCA, peace process observers asked.

EAOs have lost trust in the Myanmar Army, according to the observers, many of who now believe the process has stalled amid Tatmadaw offensives against the Kachin, Taang National Liberation Army, Karen, and other armed groups.

The EAOs have lost trust in the [Tatmadaw]. They have tense relations with the army. It seems the army is looking to get the upper hand in terms of military power amid the tension, said Maung Maung Soe, a Yangon-based ethnic affairs analyst.

However, neither the EAOs nor the Tatmadaw seek to abandon the peace process entirely, Maung Maung Soe said, adding that some of the EAOs still plan to attend the upcoming Panglong peace conference.

It is important that peaceful solutions can be found at this conference. If not, the peace process will be set back, he said.
Specials Reuters Case Timeline

Police escort Reuters reporter Ko Wa Lone from court after a hearing in Yangon on Friday. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy

For the past four months, Reuters reporters Ko Wa Lone and Ko Kyaw Soe Oo have been shuffled back and forth between prison and a Yangon courtroom, accused of violating the colonial-era Official Secrets Act for possessing documents they were handed over dinner by police. In explosive court testimony last week, a police captain claimed that a superior officer ordered police to entrap the two journalists. The Irrawaddy looks back at the major developments in the case since the pair was arrested on Dec. 12.

Dec. 12, 2017: Two Reuters journalists, Ko Wa Lone and Ko Kyaw Soe Oo, are arrested in northern Yangon at around 9 p.m.

Dec. 12, 2017: At around 10 p.m., northern district police chief Lt-Col Yu Naing seeks permission from the Presidents Office to prosecute the journalists under the Official Secrets Act.

Dec. 13, 2017: Acting President U Myint Swe grants Lt-Col Yu Naing authority to prosecute Ko Wa Lone and Ko Kyaw Soe Oo under the Official Secrets Act. The same day, the two journalists are sent to the Aung Tha Pyae Interrogation Center. They are to remain there until Dec. 26.

Dec. 14, 2017: The government announces the arrest in state-run newspapers, saying the two journalists will be prosecuted for violating the Official Secrets Act for possessing important and secret government documents relating to Rakhine State and security forces. The Information Ministry says they had illegally acquired information with the intention to share it with foreign media. The announcement says the two police officers, Capt. Moe Yan Naing and Sgt. Khin Maung Lin, will be charged with the Official Secrets Act and the Police Disciplinary Act for their interaction with the journalists.

Dec. 27, 2017: The two journalists are brought to court for the first time to have their detention for interrogation extended by another 14 days and to allow them to meet their families and a lawyer.

Jan. 8, 2018: Home Affairs Minister Lt-Gen Kyaw Swe approves an order to prosecute the journalists under Article 3 (1) ( c ) of the Official Secrets Act. The article says: If any person for any purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the Stateobtains, collects, records or publishes or communicates to any other person any secret official code or password, or any sketch, plan, model, article or note or other document or information which is calculated to be or might be or is intended to be, directly or indirectly, useful to an enemy; he shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend, where the offence is committed in relation to any work of defense, arsenal, naval, military or air force establishment or station, mine, minefield, factory, dockyard, camp, ship or aircraft or otherwise in relation to the naval, military or air force affairs of [the State] or in relation to any secret official code, to fourteen years and in other cases to three years.

Jan. 10, 2018: Prosecutors ask the court that Ko Wa Lone and Ko Kyaw Soe Oo be charged under the Official Secrets Act.

Jan 23, 2017: Lt-Col Yu Naing tells the court that Capt. Moe Yan Naing and Sgt. Khin Maung Lin were not detained in his district.

Feb. 6, 2018: A prosecution witness who was part of the police team that arrested the journalists, 2nd Lt. Tin Htwe Oo, tells the court that he had burned the notes he made at the time but offers no explanation as to why.

Feb. 14, 2018: Another prosecution witness who was also part of the arrest team, 2nd Lt. Myo Ko Ko, tells the court he was not familiar with police procedures for recording arrests. When asked where the arrests took place, he says it was on a street lined with factories. His answer contradicts a map, previously produced by police and submitted to the court, that shows stores and tea shops but no factories.

March 28, 2018: Defense lawyer U Khin Maung Zaw submits a request to have the case dismissed on grounds of insufficient evidence.

Apr 11, 2018: Judge Ye Lwin rejects the defenses request to have the case dismissed, stating that there is a proper reason for the accusations against the two reporters and that they should not be released.

Apr 20, 2018: As a prosecution witness, Capt. Moe Yan Naing tells the court that police Brig-Gen Tin Ko Ko ordered officers to trap the Reuters reporters arrested in December, instructing them to meet the journalists at a restaurant and give them secret documents.

Apr 23, 2018: The Myanmar National Human Rights Commission sends the Ministry of Home Affairs a letter urging it to ensure that Capt. Moe Yan Naings rights are not violated.
Tuesday, April 24th, 2018 (7:38 am) - Score 2,823

Fibre optic (FTTP/H) network builder Cityfibre has announced that theyve agreed the terms of a recommended 537.8m cash acquisition by Connect Infrastructure Bidco Limited (Bidco), which is a newly-incorporated company that is jointly-owned by a consortium of two key infrastructure investors.

Over the past few years Cityfibre has made a name for itself by gradually deploying their Gigabit capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) style broadband and Ethernet network to help cater for businesses and public sector sites in various cities across the United Kingdom (theyll have a presence in 50 by 2020).

On top of that they also run a legacy 1Gbps FTTH network for homes in Bournemouth and have previously teamed up with Sky Broadband and TalkTalk on a major deployment across the city of York. More recently theyve also signed a joint 500m deal with Vodafone UK that will initially aim to roll-out their ultrafast network to a minimum of 1 million homes in up to 12 of Cityfibres existing cities and towns by the end of 2021 (here).

So far the agreement with Vodafone, which after the first phase would have the potential to extend up to 5 million homes (approximately 50 towns and cities) by 2025, has already announced its first deployments for 3 UK cities: Milton Keynes, Aberdeen and Peterborough. Today these have also been joined by Edinburgh, Coventry, Huddersfield and Stirling but well write about that separately (here).

However significantly more future investment would be required in order to deliver on the 5 million homes aspiration and thats where todays news could play a part.

The Cash Buy

The move by Bidco, which values the entire issued and to be issued ordinary share capital of Cityfibre at approximately 537.8 million on the basis of a fully diluted ordinary share capital of 663,912,902 Cityfibre Shares, essentially turns the operator back into a private company.

The Acquisition represents a premium of approximately: * 92.9 per cent. to the Closing Price of 42 pence per CityFibre Share on 23 April 2018 (being the last Business Day before the date of this Announcement); and * 47.3 per cent. to the Placing share price on 28 July 2017 of 55 pence per CityFibre Share.

Both Cityfibres directors and major shareholders have all lined up to support the proposed deal.

Chris Stone, Chairman of CityFibre, said: CityFibre has established itself as a leading independent provider of wholesale fibre infrastructure in the UK and has been on a transformational journey since its IPO in 2014. Your board believes that this transaction represents compelling value for CityFibres existing shareholders and is also a good solution for CityFibres long-term funding. Under private ownership, CityFibre will be able to gain alternative and potentially easier access to the financing required for its announced FTTH deployment. This will strengthen the Companys ability to deliver on its vision to provide full fibre infrastructure to 20% of the UK market.

Mark Crosbie, Managing Partner of Antin, said: I am delighted to announce Antins intention to invest in CityFibre. We are very excited to support the company in its next phase of development as it becomes a leading alternative fibre-based communications provider in UK cities. We have significant experience in investing and supporting infrastructure businesses in the telecom sector and we look forward to working with CityFibres management team to realise the full potential of their vision.

We should point out that the new company of Bidco is indirectly jointly-owned on a 50:50 basis by Antin Infrastructure Partners (Antin) and West Street Infrastructure Partners (WSIP), which are two major european and USA infrastructure focused investment funds. Antin has raised 7.4 billion of capital since its inception and WSIP, which is managed by Goldman Sachs, claims to have raised over $163 billion of capital since 1986.

Separately Cityfibre has also published their latest financial results for the full year (FY) to the end of December 2017 and the key highlights are as follows.
Terre Haute, IN (47809)

Today

Areas of patchy fog early. Cloudy skies with a few showers this afternoon. High 77F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low around 60F. Winds light and variable.
Computer vision tech company Seeing Machines has launched "phase one" of the first automated vehicle trial in the world, CAN Drive, to focus on driver behaviour, testing how quickly a driver can be ready to resume control of an automated vehicle.

The Seeing Machines software used in the automated vehicle trial "monitors the driver's facial movements and expressions to determine whether they are paying sufficient attention and sounds an alert if they need to look at the road and retain full control of the vehicle".

The project is supported by the ACT Government and Rachel Stephen-Smith, a member of the ACT Legislative Assembly, to the tune of $1.35m to the project, with Stephen-Smith stating: "The ACT Government is proud to have formed an industry partnership with local company Seeing Machines to conduct this trial.

"Seeing Machines is leading the world in decoding the interaction between people and machines, as increasingly-automated vehicles are developed.

"Canberra is a progressive and growing city that has earned the reputation as Australia's testbed for innovative new technology and business models that can improve the lives of our citizens: we've supported Uber into our city, we're hosting world-first drone delivery trials, and now we're pioneering research to make automated vehicles safer," Stephen-Smith added.

Seeing Machines says it is "calling for Canberra drivers who are interested in taking part in the trial. Following this first phase at Sutton Driver Training Track, the trial will progress to phase two, where it is expected to move to Canberra's roads to study driver behaviour in real world conditions".

Seeing Machines chairman Ken Kroeger commented: "The data we collect in trials such as CAN Drive is critical to advancing safety of communities all around the world.

"Automated technologies are emerging across many transport sectors and it is Seeing Machines' goal, through our driver monitoring platform, to help advance these developments with safety as the highest priority. The continued support of the ACT Government helps Seeing Machines sustain its leadership position as we develop our core technology to meet the needs of our partners, customers and stakeholders."

If you are in Canberra and interested in taking part in this trial, you are invited to contact "marketing[at]seeingmachines.com".

For a bit more on Seeing Machines, the company says it "develops computer vision technologies which enable machines to see, understand and assist people", and "deploys its FOVIO machine learning vision platform to deliver real-time understanding of drivers through AI analysis of heads, faces and eyes for driver monitoring systems), which monitor driver attention state including drowsiness and distraction".

Seeing Machines continues that "DMS is increasingly considered a core automotive safety technology as well as an enabling technology for ADAS/Autonomous Driving. The company's pioneering commercial fleet solution (Guardian) delivers an after-market, in-cabin safety intervention system with 24/7 monitoring and cloud analytics services delivered on a telematics SaaS basis".

Finally, Seeing Machines notes that it "also serves aviation, rail and off-road markets, and they are seeking to innovate in new markets".

Ken Kroeger, chairman and chief executive of Seeing Machines, is seen launching Phase 1 of CAN Drive in Canberra in the picture below.
The Federal Court of Australia will hear an application from the au Domain Administration, the organisation that administers the Australian domain namespace, for holding a special general meeting, requested by some members, along with the its annual general meeting.

The application to the court was made on Tuesday, giving similar reasons to those which were advanced by auDA company secretary Hasaka Martin when he wrote to members last Friday, asking them not to support the push for an SGM by a section of the auDA membership.

It seeks orders that the date for calling the SGM be extended to 31 August and the date on which it is held be extended to 28 September.

Those who have asked for the SGM are seeking the ouster of the chief executive Cameron Boardman and three directors  chair Chris Leptos, Suzanne Ewart and Sandra Hook. The main reason for the members' dissatisfaction is a decision made by auDA to change Australian domains from .com.au and similar suffixes to .au.

Additionally, the members have pointed out that auDA has made no business case for the domain change, that communication and transparency are not what they should be, and that good governance is not being practised.

Since the members' application was submitted on 7 April, an SGM would have to be called by 28 April if existing rules are followed.

In asking for members to agree to hold the SGM at the same time as the AGM, Boardman, in an affidavit submitted to the court, cited the same reasons as those advanced by Martin:

that auDA needed time to react to a government review which was released on 18 April that found the current management framework was no longer fit for purpose; and

which was released on 18 April that found the current management framework was no longer fit for purpose; and that the expense to hold such a meeting would be substantial and best avoided.

Along with the review, the government also released its terms of endorsement for auDA and asked the organisation to provide, within 30 days, an implementation plan to demonstrate how it would achieve compliance with these terms by April 2020.
The European Commission has opened an investigation into Apple's proposed acquisition of music recognition applications maker Shazam, saying it is concerned "that the merger could reduce choice for users of music streaming services".

The deal would combine two big players who are active in complementary areas, the EC said in a statement.

The community's competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said: "The way people listen to music has changed significantly in recent years, with more and more Europeans using music streaming services.

"Our investigation aims to ensure that music fans will continue to enjoy attractive music streaming offers and won't face less choice as a result of this proposed merger."

The EC pointed out that Apple had, over the last three years. become the second biggest streaming music provider in Europe. Shazam offered the leading music recognition app for mobile devices both in the European Economic Area and globally.

"At this stage, the EC is concerned that, following the takeover of Shazam, Apple would obtain access to commercially sensitive data about customers of its competitors for the provision of music streaming services in the EEA," the EC said.

"Access to such data could allow Apple to directly target its competitors' customers and encourage them to switch to Apple Music."

The EC's statement came after it was requested by Austria, France, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Spain and Sweden to assess the proposed acquisition of Shazam by Apple.
Google has introduced the first changes to Chrome's UI (user interface) in two years, focusing on the shape of the browser's tabs and other top-of-window elements.

Available in "Canary," the rawest version of the browser, and so far only for Windows, the tweaked UI is hidden behind an experimental setting. To see the UI, users must type chrome://flags in the address bar, then search for UI Layout in the resulting page of optional settings. Once UI Layout has been located, change the setting from "Default" to "Refreshed" and restart the browser.

The most noticeable change currently displayed is to the tabs, which have dispensed with an earlier trapezoidal form for a rectangle with slightly-rounded upper corners. The active tab has also been slightly brightened from a very light gray to a plain white, making that most important tab stand out more than before.

Chrome's address bar - some at Google still refer to it by its oldest name, "Omnibox" - has also been rounded, replacing its flat left end with a curve.

Google The standard Canary UI. Google Chrome's "Canary" build reveals UI changes almost certain to make their way to the Stable build. Among the most noticeable: Tabs are near-rectangles, not trapezoids.

Although the changes may seem minor, Google's designers have pegged the tabs as crucial to the UI.

"The key elements when you think about our Core UI are the tabs and icons," wrote Google visual designer Sebastien Gabriel in a long and detailed 2016 post about Chrome's previous overhaul. Gabriel also asserted that the redesign two years ago was to "bridg[e] the gap between our new design language on mobile and our aging desktop visuals," a process that has continued.

Other already-implemented alterations include a vertical separator at the right end of add-on icons, followed by a user's image pulled from an associated Google account, assuming the user has logged in to Chrome.

According to Ron Amadeo of Ars Technica, who reported Monday on the Chrome UI redesign, more changes have been revealed in internal Google documents found within the Chromium bug tracker. (Chromium is the open-source project, staffed by Google engineers, that cranks out the foundations for the Chrome browser.) Amadeo highlighted several, including a shift of the new-tab button - a "+" symbol in Windows - from the right to the left of the address bar.

Computerworld found those documents, but they were locked to unauthorized users, hinting that the documents were assumed to be safe from prying eyes simply because they were harbored in the bug tracker labyrinth, but were locked down after Amadeo or others discovered them.

It's unclear when the UI elements exposed in Chrome Canary will appear in the stable build of the browser. Canary is now at version 68, which is not slated to make it to production-quality until late July.
Students Contribute in Effort to End Neglected Tropical Diseases

April 24, 2018  Updated April 30

Students in Illinois Wesleyan's "Perspectives in Global Health course are leading a END Neglected Tropical Diseases campaign on campus.



BLOOMINGTON, Ill.  Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) impact 1.5 billion people around the world, and Illinois Wesleyan University students in a global health course are doing their part put an end to NTDs.

As part of Perspectives in Global Health, a course taught by Associate Professor of Health and Environmental Studies Laurine Brown, students debate various health issues that affect regions across the world and propose possible solutions. Each year, near the end of the semester, students select an organization to support and build an educational and fundraising campaign around it, according to Brown. Now in their 12th year hosting the campaign, students have chosen to partner with the END Fund, a private philanthropic initiative which focuses on delivering (NTD) treatments to those in need.

Kelly Connor 19, a member of the course and co-coordinator of the campaign, said the class chose to support the END fund after being shocked when first introduced to NTDs, such as elephantiasis and river blindness, during class discussions.

I do not personally know anyone who has suffered from a NTD, and I assume very few students on our campus do either, said Connor, a nursing major and health minor. I think that's one reason why it was so important to raise awareness about these miserable, truly neglected diseases.

Launching their two-week campaign, END Neglected Tropical Diseases on April 16, students hoped to raise awareness about NTDs and raise $1,000 for the END Fund. Upon conclusion of the campaign, donations totaled more than $1,200 to support treatments for more than 2,400 individuals  50 cents per person per year  suffering from the five most common NTDs.

Over 1.5 billion individuals are suffering around the globe, but they receive so little attention and assistance, Connor said. With the affordability of treatment, it is so easy to help relieve some of the suffering and really make a profound impact for thousands of affected individuals.

In addition to utilizing a donation table with raffles in various locations around campus, students also hosted a special outdoor event, "ENDless Fun with the END Fund," April 24 on the Eckley Quadrangle. Through their fundraising efforts, Connor said students in the global health course hope to bring awareness to the Illinois Wesleyan community about the presence, prevalence and severity of NTDs.

The name says it all. These diseases are truly neglected by the general population, especially those in areas that are not at risk, Connor said. Our campaign may be brief, but we have the opportunity to make a profound contribution to the initiative to eradicate NTDs.

By Vi Kakares '20
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Sanaa (AFP)  Dozens were killed and wounded in an air raid on a wedding party in Yemen, local officials said Monday, with Huthi rebels blaming a Saudi-led military coalition.

The Iran-backed rebels who control most of northern Yemen blamed Sundays attack on the Arab coalition that backs the countrys government, in the latest in a string of such incidents.

Medical sources and local officials put the number of dead between 22 and 33, with at least 40 to 50 wounded, while the exact circumstances of the raid remained unclear.

Rescue teams said the wedding was being held in the Huthi-controlled Bani Qais area of Hajjah province, north of Sanaa, when jets carried out the raid.



AFP / Mohammed HUWAIS. Smoke billows following an air strike by a Saudi-led coalition on Yemens rebel-held capital Sanaa on April 5, 2018

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Twitter that a hospital it supports in Hajjah received at least 45 patients, including 13 children, wounded in the air strikes, which it said were among the most devastating in the area in recent months.

A local official told AFP that at least 23 civilians, including women and children, were killed and 36 others wounded in the attack.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a double air strike on the crowded party venue had left a number of dead bodies buried beneath the rubble.

Huthi-run Al-Masirah television said at least 33 people, including women and children, were killed and as many as 55 people wounded.

The Saudi-led coalitions spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Iran, which is accused of supplying arms to the Shiite Huthis, swiftly condemned the raid.

The escalated bombardment of residential areas proves the desperation and inability of the invaders in achieving their goals, foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said in a statement.

The Saba news agency, controlled by the rebels, branded the attack the new genocidal crime of the Saudis.

It was not the first deadly strike on a wedding during Yemens conflict, which has killed nearly 10,000 people and wounded 54,000 others since the coalition intervened in March 2015 to battle the Huthis and restore Yemens internationally recognised government to power.

In late 2015, coalition air strikes on two wedding parties in northern Yemen killed at least 159 civilians.

Violence has also hit funerals. In October 2016, 140 mourners were killed in an air strike on a house in Sanaa.

Elsewhere in Yemen on Monday, five pro-government soldiers were killed and 19 wounded in clashes with jihadists in the southern city of Taez, medics said.

Fighting in the citys Jahmaliah district came after the governor of Taez launched an operation against jihadists he suspected were behind the murder of an aid worker with the International Committee of the Red Cross over the weekend.

The Lebanese aid worker, Hanna Lahoud, was shot dead in Taez on Saturday by unidentified assailants who sprayed his ICRC vehicle with bullets.

Jahmaliah is controlled by pro-government forces but there is a jihadist presence in the area, a police officer told AFP.

Yemens conflict has sparked what the United Nations has called the worlds worst humanitarian crisis.
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By John Buell | (Informed Comment) |  

Periodically the so- called deficit hawks, a club whose membership includes prominent members of both parties, warn us of the dire consequences of burgeoning government debt. Many propose such harsh remedies as balanced budget amendments. Yet while these warnings and draconian responses are commonplace, one of the gravest problems receives far less attention, student debt. Although some candidates in the upcoming off year election have made student debt and or free college planks in their platforms, the depth of the problem, its human consequences, and the pathologies that underlie it receive all too little attention.

Some activists have advocated various degrees of loan forgiveness. These proposals run up against a familiar criticism that deserves further examination. Opponents of debt relief maintain that a student loan is a contract freely entered into by both parties. It is one instance of the market freedoms that Americans cherish and that propel our economic growth. Furthermore, forgiveness of these loans sets a dangerous precedent by encouraging others to default on a whole range of contractual obligations.

Persuasive as these arguments may seem, they are misleading at best. The originators of student loans argueand may even believethat they are operating within a free market. On the contrary, they depend on the coercive powers of a strong state for their success. Unlike the business loans from which Donald Trump benefited, student loans are not dischargeable in bankruptcy court. As one college administrator puts it, if a student defaults, he/she will be hounded for life. They will garnish wages and intercept tax refunds. Upon retirement Social Security checks will be docked. Imagine the reaction if the well publicized corporate or megawealthy bankruptcies received the same kind of treatment.

In addition to these draconian state enforcement mechanisms, one should also consider the economic context in which students accept these contracts. In what sense is going to college still a choice? To answer this question one might want to interview some of those fiftyish high school educated male workers whom Ann Case and Angus Deaton revealed are dying prematurely from diseases of despair.

Related to the concerns about the context in which the contracts are signed are some fundamental issues regarding the origins and role of money and credit in our economy. Mainstream texts, following the lead of Adam Smith, suggest that human beings have a natural propensity to barter and trade. Money facilitates trade by reducing transaction costs. If you want a pound of barley you dont have to drag your sack of wheat to the market. Money flows from the natural human urge to barter and therefore its issuance and use should not be regulated.

The historical record does not sustain this view. In a meticulously documented essay on the origins and purpose of money, University of Missouri-Kansas City economist Michael Hudson points out that historians and anthropologists can find no examples of societies that depend upon barter for their economic sustenance. Barter becomes widespread only in circumstances of social breakdown. Money arises from and depends upon state activity. Hudson adds:  the cuneiform record shows that the major initial monetary activity of most Mesopotamians was to pay taxes, fees or to buy products that palaces and temples made or imported, on credit provided or regulated by these large institutions. Regulation included establishing units of measure, checking the accuracy of scales, and assaying the metals. No money at all without an active and intrusive state.

Agricultural economies depend on credit as inputs must be obtained months before the crops emerge. Credit adds economic dynamism to society, but it can also be a source of crisis. Even with the best intentions crops can fail and debt overwhelms. Debt, however, did not turn all debtors into indentured servants or slaves. Hudson points out: The main difference between Greek and Roman economies and those of the Ancient Near East was the absence of debt relief, resulting in a long series of political crises extending from the 7th-century BC tyrants (populist reformers) from classical Sparta and Corinth down to Rome in the 1stcentury BC.

The corporate punditocracy like to talk about government debt in apocalyptic terms. Perhaps the greater danger lies in turning the younger generation into debt slaves even as we refuse to consider powerful moral historical, and economic arguments on behalf of debt relief.

John Buell has a PhD in political science, taught for 10 years at College of the Atlantic, and was an Associate Editor of The Progressive for ten years.
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The American foreign policy in the Middle East since the demise of the Soviet Union has oscillated between neoliberal and neoconservative interventionism. Both strategies have had long-term detrimental consequences for the United States national interest and the peoples in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region. Fundamentally, both strategies ignore the welfare of the peoples in the region. Similarly, the historically-dominant Realist perspective of U.S. foreign policy has had a state-centric view of the world based on power politics and the pursuit of national interest that, despite its simplicity and efficiency, is neutral on the States regime type, treating all states equal in matters of national sovereignty. This also implies that peoples welfare in any state is a matter of national sovereignty and is subject to non-interference by other states and central international actors like the United Nations.

The United States has, however, a long history of foreign policy interventionism in the name of national interest and peace but in violation of political realism, e.g., the balance of power, off-shore balancing. So, if president Donald Trumps pull back from Syria appeals to political realists, his incoherent policy approach toward Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, and Russia leaves doubts about his administrations true understanding of political realism and its principles.[1] The Progressive movement of the turn of the last century that sought to further social and political reform also failed in its idea of U.S. foreign policy as a force for positive change in the face of Realpolitik. This was despite its domestic agenda aiming at curbing political corruption and limiting the political influence of large corporations. The result was earlier U.S. interventions and colonialism in the form of American-Spanish war, intervention and occupation of the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Haiti.

An alternative U.S. approach can rely on international law and diplomacy and organizations, involving an expanded and restructured United Nations and other multilateral institutions and organizations in the service of sustainable development and global governance. International intergovernmental organizations such as the United Nations and its functional agencies (e.g., WHO, ILO, WIPO, UNESCO, IEA, OPCW, UNCDF, UNESCO, others), the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, The International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, and the European Union can and are central players in global governance. Calls for the reform of the United Nations Security Council and other IGOs is not new and are really needed. (Recall, for example, the only expansion of the UN Security Council occurred in 1965, and there have been genuine debates for reform within the World Trade Organization framework.) The urgency of world politics today demands a more responsible global governance based on international law and through multilateralism and diplomacy to avert looming sociopolitical, economic, and environmental calamities.

The 20th Century witnessed the death of 170 million people as victims of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.[2] The post-cold war alone has witnessed numerous conflicts, wars of aggression, failed states, acts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, terrifying environmental degradation and climatic concerns, and deregulated, hyper-capitalism with repeated international economic and financial crises (1994 Mexican Tequila crisis; 1997 Asian Economic Crisis; 2000 Dotcom crisis; 2007-08 (somewhat still ongoing) housing and financial crisis, just to name a few). The 21st Century has already witnessed high crimes committed, among others, in Rwanda, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Sudan, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Myanmar.

The intention of this article is not to engage in a discussion of how to reform and build mechanisms necessary for a more constructive global governance. Instead, my contention is that strengthening the function and the utility of international law and institutions can greatly enhance global human security and governance. It can also help reduce the risk of major powers confrontation, evident in the conflictual world politics in the post-cold war aftermath. This can also help the United States to avoid continuously getting involved in global conflicts in the name of humanitarianism while violating international laws and principles. A point of departure here for analysis is to review and highlight deficiencies inherent in the U.S. Mideast policy, if not its overall foreign policy behavior built on paradigmatic assumptions and principles.

The U.S. Mideast policy has ignored the long-lasting crisis of governance that has left most of the populace of the Arab MENA region under authoritarian regimes, humiliated by defeat in wars, chronic inefficiencies and corruption, and overall poor governance. Both the neoconservatives and the neoliberals have selectively advocated support for authoritarian regimes and regime change through direct military intervention (the neoconservatives) or through pressure and NATO action in the name of human rights and humanitarian interventionism (neoliberals).[3] Both paradigms supporters in the U.S. foreign policy establishment are selective in their views on the significance of principles and values in determining policy choices: both are comfortable with supporting authoritarian but friendly regimes in the region (and indeed elsewhere in the world) while ignoring continuing human rights abuses in places like Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf States.

The United States throughout the 1990s remained the unmatched hegemonic power, supported by a booming domestic economy that saw economic growth throughout the 1990s: Between 1993 and 2000, the United States exhibited the best economic performance of the previous three decades. In 2000, its economic expansion surpassed in length the expansion of the 1960s, and thus became the longest on record. During Clintons second term, real economic growth averaged 4  percent per year, and unemployment fell to 4 percent, although by the year 2000 the economy had returned to approximately the same point in the business cycle it had occupied in 1990.[4]

The successful Persian Gulf War of 1991 saw Iraqi forces ejected from Kuwait and facilitated U.S. troops presence in the holiest land of Islam in Saudi Arabia. It emboldened the first post-cold-war American administration to counter Iraqi and Iranian bellicose foreign policy posture through a dual containment policy[5] and to also push for the settlement of the long-enduring Arab (Palestinian)Israeli conflict. Both China and the Russian Federation under Boris Yeltsin acquiesced to the American leadership in the Middle East and cooperated in the United Nations Security Council.

Chinas eagerness for its further integration into the global political economy after 1989 Tiananmen Square incident ensured their cooperation. The Russian Federations embrace of an economic shock-therapy[6] to fix their ailing economy in the 1990s meant their full-fledged cooperation with the United States in the UNSC to pass resolution 660 (1990) to rally the U.S.-led coalition against Iraq to liberate Kuwait. Meanwhile, the United States push for the Oslo peace process led to the Oslo I (1993) and Oslo II (1995) agreements that also brought along the Jordanian-Israeli peace agreement in 1994, and the Wye River Memorandum in October 1998, outlining further Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank.

The consolidation of U.S. hegemonic presence in the region in the 1990s, however, remained largely insensitive to the continuing worsening of the socioeconomic and political situation in much of the Arab World. The 1990s witnessed the US dual containment policy of Iraq and Iran, resulting in the additional death of one half million of Iraqi infants in addition to its natural rate of mortality, and the expansion of Israeli settlement activities in the occupied territories despite Oslo agreements. The U.S. military presence in the region throughout the 1990s also ensured support for notorious regimes such as those in Tunisia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the Persian Gulf states, while anti-American sentiments remained widespread in the region. Terrorists attacks on U.S. interests continued throughout the 1990s, culminating in the 1996 Khobar Tower attack in Saudi Arabia, the 1998 attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the attack on USS Cole in Yemen in 2000.

The September 11, 2001 terrorists attacks set the tone for the new U.S. policy in the MENA region. The neoconservative camp in the George W. Bush administration did not hesitate to use the American military might in a new push to rejuvenate the American hegemonic moment that had since 1990 dominated the world but had remained underutilized. The United States in the post 9/11 world had the military and economic means, but it now had the ideological backbone behind a new strategy to change the world in its own image: to export democracy and to punish those opposing it, birthing the Bush Administrations Preemption Doctrine[7] The declared war on terrorism only legitimated a broader policy of interventionism, continuing support of authoritarian regimes and solidifying support for the state of Israel, while securing access to the regions lucrative oil, natural gas, and consumer and financial markets, including the ever pervasive arms market.

Modern militant movements like the Wahhabis,[8] dating back to the 18th and 19th centuries in the tribal Arabia, the Muslim Brotherhood beginning in the 1920s, the Taliban in Afghanistan and the al-Qaeda since the 1980s, and a plethora of other extremist movements in the past few decades have aimed to take over the state to restore justice and harmony through Islamic governance. The U.S. policy of regime change (Afghanistan 2001, Iraq 2003, Libya 2011, Syria, ongoing), the expansion of a perpetual war on terror to Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan, and parts of the African continent has opened the gates of political rivalries and open conflict. It has strengthened the resolve of militant Muslim groups in countering the U.S. military presence and its support for political status quo in the name of stability. Mainstream and militant Muslim groups alike have taken full advantage of the chaos to claim their own space as alternative visionaries in matters of politics and governance. The prolongation of American military occupation, political wrangling among competing Iraqi Shia and Sunni elites and groups, and al-Qaeda-inspired terrorism initially targeted the U.S. and its allies.

However, Iraqi chaos created the environment for the rise of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who broke off from al-Qaeda, with a deliberate strategy of inflaming sectarian and communal violence. In October 2004, Al-Zarqawi declared himself the emir of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. His followers broke from al- Qaeda, renaming itself the Islamic State of Iraq in late 2006, about four months after al-Zarqawi was killed by a targeted American airstrike.[9] This along with the ineptitude of the Shia-dominated government in Baghdad and the foreign occupation ensured the rise of extreme ideologies, facilitating the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Daesh has thrived on ultra-conservatism and sectarian killings in the name of its true version if Islam ever since, while supported by the very authoritarian regimes responsible for its creation through ideological, financial, and political support, and under the U.S. protection!

The U.S. Mideast policy is short-sighted, inconsistent, and fundamentally ignores the welfare of the peoples in the region in pursuit of pragmatic national interest, or often in the interest of special interest groups and constituencies like the AIPAC, the oil industry, the arms manufacturers and the like, and in defiance of a realistic foreign policy. The gap between the rhetoric and policy encapsulated in selective and inconsistent behavior in matters of human rights and principles remain problematic. If the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 proved Saddams butchery and adventurism to the West, he was only praised and supported for his war against the Iranians! The eight years of a bloodbath in Saddams war against Iran throughout 1980s and the use of chemical weapons against Iranian troops and Iraqs Kurdish population and the massacre of Shia and Kurdish population in March and April 1991 became only footnotes in the overall strategy of stability, security, and the protection of the State of Israel! Fast-forward to Syria in April 2017 and again April 2018, when the use of chemical weapons is used as justification of two US and allies missile attacks on Syrian territory in the long-running civil war since 2011.

The message of such strikes does not escape the sharp mind: U.S. (and the UK and France) can break international law while acting as the judge, the jury, and the enforcer. The outcry over the death of over one hundred victims of both chemical attacks, by still undetermined entities and as horrible as that is, fails to raise outrage over the death of half a million in the Syrian civil war, instigated and illegally intervened by multiple rivaling parties! (Recall, the U.S. presence in Syria without a UNSC mandate or a Syrian government invitation is illegal.) This is while the use of Phosphorous and cluster bombs by Saudi Arabia in Yemen and Israel in Lebanon and Gaza are totally ignored! The war on Yemen lacks any legal foundation and the United States has played a large role in providing weapons, intelligence, targeting expertise, and logistical support to the so-called Saudi-led coalition. The United Nations blacklisted the coalition for killing and injuring 683 children in Yemen and attacking dozens of schools and hospitals in 2016 alone.[10]

In closing, imagine if the U.S. hegemonic moment in the 1990s had invested money and energy in reforming and strengthening international institutions and the meaningful rule of international law and diplomacy in the elevation of human security and liberty. Instead, the first UN intervention in the service of collective security since the Korean War in 1950 saw the restoration of Kuwaiti sovereignty, but the death of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis through the war and the subsequent sanctions led to no attempt at reforming the UN! Similarly, the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, that remains unresolved seventeen years later, could have been averted: an international tribunal could have tried members of al-Qaeda responsible for their crimes against humanity. Later, the fabrication of the Iraqi regime in pursuit of weapons of mass destruction in 2003 led to an illegal war, causing regional and extra-regional interventions and the lives of millions adversely affected! The U.S-led NATO illegal operation in Kosovo in 1999 only emboldened its operation over Libya in 2011 that expectedly proved the initial calls for liberty and freedom in Libya hollow!

While the United States has spent hundreds of billions on perpetual wars, the Europeans at least promoted the cause of integration and cooperation through international mechanisms: The creation of the European Union (1993), the WTO (1995), the Kyoto Protocol (1997), the adoption of common monetary union (1999), and the creation of the International Criminal Court (1998). Conversely, the United States continues to defy a serious and persistent conduct of foreign policy behavior within the framework of international law, institutions, and norms while preaching it loudly: the Bush administrations withdrawal from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty in June 2002, that led to Russias withdrawal from the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START II) in the same year, its refusal, until today, to ratify the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST), and its June 2017 withdrawal from the mainly voluntary adherence to the 2015 Paris climate agreement only demonstrate a unilateral and detrimental approach to global governance. The United States and the global community can do much better than this.

[1] Stephen M. Walt, Has Trump Become a Realist? Foreign Policy, April 17, 2018. http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/04/17/has-trump-become-a-realist/

[2] R. J. Rummel, Death by Government, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 2009. See also, https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/NOTE5.HTM

[3] Sami G. Hajjar, U.S. Military Presence in the Gulf: Challenges and Prospects, U.S. Army War College, March 2002, http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/pub185.pdf

[4] Jeffrey Frankel and Peter R. Orszag, Retrospective on American Economic Policy in the 1990s:Taxes, U.S. Economy, Monetary Policy, Federal Budget, The Brookings Institution, Nov. 2, 2011.

[5] F. Greogry Gause, The Illogic of Dual Containment, Foreign Affairs, March/April 1994, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/iran/1994-03-01/illogic-dual-containment

[6] Newsweek Staff, Shock therapyWith Emphasis on Shock, 1/12/1992, http://www.newsweek.com/shock-therapy-emphasis-shock-197912 ; Jeffrey Sachs, What I Did in Russia, March 14th, 2012, http://jeffsachs.org/2012/03/what-i-did-in-russia

[7] Council on Foreign Relations, The Bush Administrations Doctrine of Preemption (and Prevention): When, How, Where, Foreign Affairs, February 1, 2004, http://www.cfr.org/world/bush-administrations-doctrine-preemption-prevention-/p6799

[8] The Islamic Supreme Council of America, Islamic Radicalism: Its Wahhabi Roots and Current Implications,

http://www.islamicsupremecouncil.org/understanding-islam/anti-extremism/7-islamic-radicalism-its-wahhabi-roots-and-current-representation.html

[9] Ted Kemp, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is the man who founded ISIS, CNBC, Thursday, 11 August 2016, http://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/11/who-founded-isis-abu-musb-al-zarqawi-started-the-terror-group.html

[10] Michelle Nichols, UN blacklists Saudi-led coalition for killing children in Yemen, Reuters, October 5, 2017, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-saudi-un/u-n-blacklists-saudi-led-coalition-for-killing-children-in-yemen-idUSKBN1CA2NI

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Bonus video added by Informed Comment:

CGTN: UN Security Council agrees to intensify efforts on war-torn Syria
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 23, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ashanti Gold Corp. (Ashanti or the Company) - (TSXV:AGZ) announces it has increased in size and closed its non-brokered private placement announced April 5, 2018. The Company raised $2,643,210 through the issuance of 17,621,397 ("Units") priced at $0.15 per Unit (the "Offering"). Each Unit consists of one common share and one-half of one common share purchase warrant. Each whole warrant entitles the holder to purchase one additional common share at a price of $0.26 per share for up to two years expiring April 20, 2020. In the event that the Company`s shares trade at a closing price of greater than $0.85 per share for a period of 10 consecutive days at any time after the closing of the Offering, the Company may accelerate the expiry date of the warrants by providing notice to the warrant holders and in such case the warrants will expire on the 30th day after the date on which such notice is given by the Company.

The Company paid finder's fees of $142,357.57 and issued 949,050 finder warrants, each of which entitle the holder to purchase one Ashanti common share at a price of $0.15 for one year expiring April 20, 2019. All securities issued are subject to a four month hold period expiring August 21, 2018.

Net proceeds of the private placement will be used to fund the exploration costs related to the Kossanto East property in Mali, work on the Anumso property in Ghana, as well as for general corporate purposes.

ABOUT ASHANTI GOLD

Ashanti is a gold-focused, exploration and development company that targets projects where it has a competitive advantage due to past work experience of the team and specific project know-how. The Company is driving forward its 100%-owned Kossanto East project in Mali on the prolific Kenieba Belt of Mali, which hosts such deposits as Loulo, Fekola and Sadiola. Ashanti is also working to advance, together with its earn-in partners, the Anumso project and the Ashanti Belt project in Ghana, which are near-adjacent to the Akyem deposit.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors of

ASHANTI GOLD CORP.

"Tim McCutcheon"

Tim McCutcheon

CEO

For further information, please contact:

Ashanti Gold Corp.

2300  1177 West Hastings Street

Vancouver BC, V6E 2K3

Phone: 604-638-3847

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Except for the statements of historical fact contained herein, the information presented in this news release and the information incorporated by reference herein, constitutes "forward looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws concerning the business, operations and financial performance and condition of Ashanti Gold Corp. (the "Company"). All statements, except for statements of historical fact, that address activities, events or developments that management of the Company expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future including such things as future exploration plans concerning the Company's mineral properties, acquisitions, capital expenditures (including the amount and nature thereof), business strategies and measures to implement strategies, competitive strengths, goals, expansion and growth of the business and operations, plans and references to the future success of the Company, and such other matters, are forward looking statements. Often, but not always, forward looking information can be identified by words such as "pro forma", "plans", "expects", "may", "should", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", "potential" or variations of such words including negative variations thereof, and phrases that refer to certain actions, events or results that may, could, would, might or will occur or be taken or achieved. Forward looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward looking information. Such risks and other factors include, among others, operating and technical difficulties in connection with mineral exploration and development and mine development activities at the Project, including the geological mapping, prospecting and sampling program being proposed for the Project (the "Program"), actual results of exploration activities, including the Program, estimation or realization of mineral reserves and mineral resources, the timing and amount of estimated future production, costs of production, capital expenditures, the costs and timing of the development of new deposits, the availability of a sufficient supply of water and other materials, requirements for additional capital, future prices of precious metals, changes in general economic conditions, changes in the financial markets and in the demand and market price for commodities, possible variations in ore grade or recovery rates, possible failures of plants, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated, accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry, delays in obtaining governmental approvals, permits or financing or in the completion of development or construction activities, changes in laws, regulations and policies affecting mining operations, hedging practices, currency fluctuations, title disputes or claims limitations on insurance coverage and the timing and possible outcome of pending litigation, environmental issues and liabilities, risks related to joint venture operations, and risks related to the integration of acquisitions, as well as those factors discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's Management Information Circular (December 2017) and as discussed in the annual management's discussion and analysis and other filings of the Company with the Canadian Securities Authorities, copies of which can be found under the Company's profile on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward looking information. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward looking information in this news release or incorporated by reference herein, except as otherwise required by law.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 24, 2018) - Lara Exploration Ltd. (TSXV: LRA) ("Lara" or "the Company"), is pleased to report results for a further two diamond drill holes completed in the first quarter of 2018 at the Planalto Copper Project, in the Carajas Province of northern Brazil. PDH-18-02 intercepted 210.90 metres ("m") from surface with an average grade of 0.39% copper and 50 parts per billion ("ppb") gold (0.42 % copper equivalent). Within this wider zone, there is an intercept of 114.58m (between 51.47m and 166.25m down hole) with an average grade of 0.55% copper and 68ppb gold (0.59 % copper equivalent). The second hole, PDH-18-01, which was collared approximately 200m to the south of PDH-18-02, intersected from the surface 51.1m at an average grade of 0.27 % Cu with a higher-grade core zone of oxide mineralization with 10m at 0.71% Cu between 4.2m and 14.2m down hole.

Miles Thompson, President and CEO of Lara commented: "We are pleased to be able to report another long intercept in copper mineralization and to confirm the historical drill data for this project. We are also very encouraged to have hit some more massive chalcopyrite in the hole we are drilling currently.

Drillhole UTM-N UTM-E From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Cu (%) Au (ppb) CuEq (%) 18-01 9294871 637063 0.00 51.10 51.10 0.27 including 4.20 14.20 10.00 0.71 18-02 9295001 636973 0.00 210.90 210.90 0.39 50 0.42 including 51.67 166.25 114.58 0.55 68 0.59 and 121.04 158.70 37.71 0.78 116 0.86

Copper equivalent values for by-product gold are calculated using a copper price of US$3.00/lb and a gold price of US$1,340/oz. No allowance is made for losses in a normal mining situation.

PDH-18-01 was collared approximately 200m to the southeast of PDH-18-02, drilled at an angle of 50 degrees at an azimuth of 040 degrees, to test a mafic saprolite exposure where surface channel sampling indicated an anomalous oxide copper zone of 45m at 0.24% Cu in the eastern part of the main copper-in-soil anomaly. The preliminary interpretation is that this hole intersected the near surface part of a zone of mineralization dipping at a low angle (25-35 degrees) to the southwest. Down the hole the mineralization is hosted by a partially weathered gabbro intrusive that is truncated at 51m by a thick granite-syenite intrusive body that persisted to 113m down the hole, at which point the hole was abandoned.

PDH-18-02 was drilled at an angle of 60 degrees at an azimuth of 270 degrees and was collared close to a previous historic drill hole (F73) and was designed as a twin for that historic hole. The company has not been able to locate the drill cores for F73 to verify the historic data so opted to drill the twin. PD-18-02 is located approximately 200m to the northeast of Lara hole 17-01, for which a wide zone of copper mineralization was reported previously (see Lara news release of 28-02-2018). For the down hole interval of 188.29m (4.85m to 193.14m) the weighted average grade is 0.42% Cu and this is in close agreement with the historic data which, had indicated a zone of mineralization of 188m at 0.4% Cu between 4m and 192m down hole. This gives the company confidence that it can use the historic data for the other historic drillhole, F74, at least in the interpretation to develop a geological model of the mineralized zone.

PDH-18-02 shows several intersections at better than 0.5% Cu in the upper part of the hole, with the best down hole intersection of 37.71m at 0.78% Cu and 116ppb Au, from 121.04m to 158.70m down hole. There is still insufficient drilling to interpret the attitudes of these higher-grade copper zones. The copper mineralization occurs as chalcopyrite, as disseminations and as vein filling in a stock-work-like fracture vein set, with the higher grades usually closely associated with zones, centimeters to meters-wide of strong K-feldsparmagnetite alteration that is flanked by wider zones of biotite and chlorite alteration in the gabbro and mafic meta-volcanic host rocks.

A further drill hole PDH-18-03, which is still in progress, was collared 250m to the west from PDH-18-02 on the same drill section, is designed as a scissor-hole to intercept the mineralized zone seen in PDH-18-02 from 80m to 150m down the dip to the west. Geological logging for this hole has identified narrow zones of massive chalcopyrite up to 0.84m wide in the drill cores within wide zones of disseminated and stock work vein style copper mineralization. This massive chalcopyrite is the first indication for the presence of possible feeder zones for the mineralizing fluids seen so far in the drilling. Assay results are expected to be available by middle May.

Sampling methodology, Chain of Custody, Quality Assurance and Quality Control

All rock channel and drill core sampling was carried out by or under the supervision of the Company Vice-President Exploration and the chain of custody of the samples and drill core from the project area to the company's sample preparation facility in Canaa dos Carajas was continuously monitored. Sample intervals for channel sampling varied between 2m and 4m and for drill core the sampling interval varied from a little less than 1m to a maximum of 1.5m being guided by the degree of copper mineralization and rock types.

Blank and certified reference materials were inserted approximately every 20th sample and the company routinely reanalyses laboratory pulps and crushed rejects for a number of samples from previous sample batches with each sample batch. The samples were delivered to SGS-Geosol in Parauapebas where they were crushed and pulverized. Sample pulps are dispatched to by SGS-Geosol to their own analytical laboratory at Vespasiano, near Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais State, Brazil. The pulps are subjected to Agua Regia digestion with copper and 36 other elements being determined by ICP. Gold was determined by fire assay fusion and an atomic absorption (AAS) finish on a 50-gram charge. Copper values above 1% Cu are determined by fusion with sodium peroxide with an ICP OES finish. SGS-Geosol routinely runs, and reports, results for a number of certified copper and gold standards and blank samples with each sample batch.

Check assays for copper and gold determinations are routinely carried out on a number of reject material samples from SGS-Geosol at a second commercial laboratory in Parauapebas.

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 and verified the technical information 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 exploring them in joint ventures funded by partners. The Company currently holds a diverse portfolio of prospects and deposits located mostly in Brazil and Peru. 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 +1 416 346-7660.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

-30-
Yemens Huthi militias vowed Monday to avenge the killing of their top political leader in what they said was a Saudi-led coalition air strike, the highest-ranking rebel to die in the three-year conflict.

Saleh al-Sammad, head of the Huthis supreme political council, was martyred last Thursday in the eastern province of Hodeida, the Iran-allied rebels said via their Saba news agency.

Sammads death is a major blow to the Shiite rebels who have been fighting forces of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi backed by a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia.

The most senior rebel to have been killed since the coalition intervened in March 2015, his name was on a Saudi list of 40 Huthi leaders that put bounties on their heads totalling $440 million.

The rebels named Sammads successor as Mehdi Hussein al-Mashat.

This crime wont go unanswered, said the Huthis overall leader, Abdul Malek al-Huthi, adding that six other people were killed in the same raid.

The news came hours after officials in Yemen said dozens of people were killed and wounded in an air raid on a wedding party in the country on Sunday, in another attack the Huthis blamed on the coalition.

Medical sources and local officials put the number of dead between 22 and 33, with at least 40 to 50 wounded, while the circumstances of the raid remained unclear.

Doctors Without Borders tweeted that a hospital it supports in Hajjah received at least 65 patients, including at least 13 children, wounded in the air strikes, which it said were among the most devastating in the area in recent months.

 Iran denounces invaders 

Rescue teams said the wedding was being held in the Huthi-controlled Bani Qais area of Hajjah province, north of Sanaa, when jets carried out the raid.

A local official said at least 23 civilians, including women and children, were killed.

The official, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said a double air strike on the venue had left a number of bodies buried beneath the rubble.

Huthi-run television said at least 33 people, including women and children, were killed and as many as 55 people wounded.

The coalitions spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki said they were following media reports of the bombing, and will investigate the allegations.

Iran, which is accused of supplying arms to the Huthis, swiftly condemned the raid.

The escalated bombardment of residential areas proves the desperation and inability of the invaders in achieving their goals, foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said.

Also on Monday, the coalition said it downed two new ballistic missiles fired by the Huthis, who claimed to target facilities belonging to the kingdoms oil giant Aramco in southern Jizan city.

The coalition reported no damage or loss of life from the strikes, the latest in a string of bombardments on Saudi Arabia by the Huthis.

Saudi forces said they intercepted a rebel ballistic missile targeting its southern border city of Najran on Sunday, which set a farm ablaze, after another aimed at Jizan was shot down on Friday.

 Year of ballistics 

At the beginning of April, Huthi political head Sammad dubbed 2018 the year of ballistics, referring to cross-border missile attacks.

Sundays deadly strike in Hajjah was one of a series to have struck weddings in Yemens conflict, which has killed nearly 10,000 people and wounded 54,000 others since March 2015.

In late 2015, coalition air strikes on two wedding parties in northern Yemen killed at least 159 civilians.

Violence has also hit funerals. In October 2016, 140 mourners were killed in an air strike on a house in Sanaa.

Elsewhere in Yemen on Monday, five pro-government soldiers were killed and 19 wounded in clashes with jihadists in the southern city of Taez, medics said.

Fighting in the citys Jahmaliah district came after the governor of Taez launched an operation against jihadists he suspected were behind the murder of a Red Cross aid worker over the weekend.

The Lebanese aid worker, Hanna Lahoud, was shot dead in Taez on Saturday by unidentified assailants who sprayed his Red Cross vehicle with bullets.

President Hadis government was driven out of Sanaa in 2014 by the Huthis, who still control the capital and much of northern Yemen.

Nearly 10,000 people have been killed since the coalitions intervention three years ago, triggering what the UN has called the worlds largest humanitarian crisis.

jj-oh-sh-ac/ceb
Convicted criminal Radovan Karadzic on Tuesday accused Bosnian Muslims of declaring war on Serbs, insisting at his appeal before a UN tribunal that he had worked for peace in the Balkans.

The prosecutions case against him was upside down, the wrong way up, Karadzic insisted, on the second and final day of his appeal in The Hague.

The once-feared Bosnian Serb leader is urging the judges to throw out his 2016 conviction for war crimes and genocide, and either acquit him or order a new trial.

Nothing in these proceedings that was alleged is true, he said in an animated personal address to the judges, waving his hands for emphasis, as he starkly warned and that is a guarantee that the conflict between us will persist.

Karadzic was sentenced to 40 years in jail for his role in the bloodshed during the Bosnian war which left 100,000 people dead and 2.2 million others homeless, as ethnic conflict tore the former Yugoslavia apart.

He was found guilty of 10 charges, including genocide in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre  Europes worst bloodshed since World War II, when some 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were separated from their families, shot and killed, their bodies dumped in mass graves.

 Nothing against Muslims 

Karadzic was also convicted of the war crime of orchestrating the 44-month siege of Sarajevo in which some 10,000 people died under relentless sniping and shelling.

But Karadzic, 72, insisted Bosnian Serbs were merely defending themselves.

We never had anything against Muslims, we considered them Serbs with a Muslim religion, he said, adding: Serbs, Muslims, Croats, we are one people, we have one identity.

Our main wish was for the Muslims to remain with us in Yugoslavia, he said.

It was the Bosnian Muslims who wanted to secede and who attacked the Bosnian Serbs, he claimed, leaving the Serbs with no choice but to defend themselves.

How is it possible not to see that Serbs in Sarajevo and in Bosnia-Hercegovina were in favour of peace? They made desperate concessions and backed down, he said.

He also dismissed the prosecution claim that 30,000 to 40,000 shells had been fired on the Bosnian capital from just one artillery position.

If that had been the case Sarajevo would look worse than Dresden  the German city virtually destroyed in an Allied bombing in World War II  and would have been razed to the ground, he said.

The former strongman has lodged 50 grounds of appeal after he was convicted by trial judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

 Blood of innocents 

Prosecutors insist Karadzic had abused his immense power to spill the blood of innocent civilians, and urged the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT)  which has taken over from the ICTY  to impose the highest possible sentence, a life sentence.

Karadzic threatened non-Serbs with extinction and annihilation, with dire warnings of a looming genocidal threat, and incited inter-ethnic fear and hatred, said prosecutor Katrina Gustafson.

He set the stage for a criminal campaign of a genocidal nature, aimed at destroying the targeted community, she added.

And once that was underway, Karadzic oversaw it from the apex of power, she added.

The prosecution has also appealed, calling for judges to reverse the Bosnian Serb leaders acquittal on a second charge of genocide in Bosnian municipalities and find him guilty instead.

Presiding judge Theodor Meron closed the hearing saying he and the four other judges would hand down their ruling in due course.

After years on the run, Karadzic was caught in 2008 on a Belgrade bus, disguised as a faith healer. He was handed over to The Hague and his trial opened in October 2009, lasting until October 2014.

He is the highest-ranked person to be convicted and sentenced at the ICTY, after Serbian ex-president Slobodan Milosevic died in 2006 while on trial.
Two priests were among at least 18 people killed in a dawn attack on a church in central Nigeria, police said on Tuesday.

Around 30 suspected herdsmen attacked Mbalom community in the volatile region killing the worshippers and the two priests, said Benue state police commissioner Fatai Owoseni in the state capital of Makurdi.

They attacked the venue of a burial ceremony and also attacked the church where the two reverend fathers were holding mass, said Owoseni.

We were able to recover 16 bodies from the scene of the attack and those of the two priests.

Worshippers were gathered for the daily 5:30 am (0430GMT) service at St. Ignatius Catholic church when they heard gunshots, said Mbalom resident Terhemen Angor to AFP.

People started scampering and wailing, said Angor, saying that scores were gunned down in cold blood while many sustained injuries including bullet wounds.

After attacking the church, the invaders descended on the community and razed over 60 houses, he said.

The community is on fire and deserted, people are fleeing to neighbouring villages hoping to find a safe haven for their families.

The Catholic Diocese of Makurdi confirmed the death of priests Joseph Gor and Felix Tyolaha in a statement condemning the violence.

Central Nigeria is in the grip of a security crisis as nomadic herders and sedentary farmers fight over land in an increasingly bloody battle for resources.

The conflict is now more deadly than the Boko Haram jihadist insurgency that has ravaged Nigerias northeast and is becoming a key issue in the upcoming 2019 presidential polls.

Benue state lies in Nigerias so-called Middle Belt that separates the predominantly Muslim north from the largely Christian south.

It has long been a hotbed of ethnic, sectarian and religious tension.

President Muhammadu Buhari, who is seeking a second term, has been under pressure to end the violence and ordered in military reinforcements.

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Israel announced on Tuesday it has abandoned controversial plans to expel African migrants who entered the Jewish state illegally, after failing to find a country willing to host them.

The plan had targeted some 42,000 migrants of Eritrean and Sudanese origin currently living in Israel and denied refugee status.

Government legal advisers informed the Supreme Court of the plans cancellation after certain unspecified countries refused to host the migrants, a government source said.

At this stage, the possibility of removal to a third country is no longer relevant, the advisers said in a statement.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had previously mentioned Rwanda as a possible host country and, earlier this month, Uganda said it was considering an Israeli proposal to accept the deportees.

The deportation plan has attracted a wave of criticism, including from the UN refugee agency, Holocaust survivors, and parts of Israeli civil society.

The government originally announced a plan under which it would present migrants with $3,500 (2,800 euros) and the opportunity to leave on their own accord, or face indefinite imprisonment with eventual forced expulsion.

In early April, Netanyahu agreed to cancel the plan, saying a new agreement with the UN would allow 16,000 migrants to be transferred to developed countries like Canada, Germany or Italy.

In exchange, Israel would give residency to an equal number of migrants.

But the premier cancelled the plan several hours later, after caving to pressure from his right-wing base.

 Reopen detention centres 

Shortly after news of Tuesdays cancellation broke, Netanyahu tweeted that he had instructed Interior Minister Aryeh Deri to immediately prepare for the reopening of the detention facilities to the infiltrators and to set up means to find a solution to the problem.

The prime minister was referring to the February closure of the Holot detention centre in southern Israel.

The presence of migrants in Israel has become a key political issue, and Netanyahu is already under heavy pressure due to a string of graft probes.

He has repeatedly referred to them as not refugees but illegal infiltrators.

Some 200 migrants detained for refusing to leave Israel were released in mid-April following a Supreme Court ruling.

Israels highest judicial authority had ordered their release because of the governments inability to conclude an agreement with third-party host countries.

Human rights groups have long condemned Israel for its immigration policy and treatment of Africans seeking asylum.

Most of the migrants arrived to Israel after 2007, mainly from the Egypts Sinai Peninsula.

Security along the once porous border has since been signficantly tightened.

Many of them settled in a number of poor neighbourhoods in the coastal city of Tel Aviv, the countrys economic capital.

Amnesty International welcomed the cancellation, but voiced concern over the continued practise of voluntary expulsions.

Israel is still conducting what it calls voluntary deportations, though in reality there is nothing voluntary about them, the London-based rights watchdog said in a statement.

Israel remains under the obligation not to transfer anyone to a country where they would be at real risk of serious human rights violations, it added.

The UN has accused the Eritrea government of committing widespread and systematic crimes against humanity.
> > > NATO Fails to Guarantee Safety for Friends of Democracy in Afghanistan

NATO Fails to Guarantee Safety for Friends of Democracy in Afghanistan Tuesday 24 April 2018 Reading time: (Number of words: ) See More: So-Called Election: Ghani Ahmadzai Is Riding Fraud

Propaganda: Hazara, as Forced Taliban!
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Physicians have a love-hate relationship with the electronic health record (EHR). On the one hand, doctors know they cant provide the best possible medical care without them. And on the other, todays EHR systems are cumbersome, clunky and slow physicians down.

Indeed, theres much to love and much to hate about todays EHRs, alongside a variety of ways to address the problems they create. One solution may lie in blockchain, the technology currently powering the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.

First, whats to love about EHRs?

Information is power. Electronic health records give doctors (somewhat) fast, reliable and secure access to patient medical histories, prescription records and past test results. With this data, several integrated, multi-specialty medical groups like Mayo Clinic, Intermountain Healthcare and Kaiser Permanente have shown remarkable improvements in quality. Specifically, comprehensive EHRs have helped them reduce medical errors, shorten inpatient stays and produce better clinical outcomes.

Simply put, hundreds of thousands deaths from heart attack, stroke and cancer could be prevented each year if every American had access to the level of high-quality care these EHR systems enable.

Whats to hate (or strongly dislike) about EHRs?

The first electronic medical records system was introduced in 1972. In the decades since, theyve been designed and used mainly for billing purposes. The structure and application flow of EHRs are far from intuitive or user-friendly. To give you an example, heres a search of EHR interfaces on Google.

Essential information, sure, but dizzying to sort through. And because of the EHRs design shortcomings, it takes physicians much longer to enter and access patient data than during the era of paper medical records. Further, because most systems lack interoperability  an important function that connects one EHR to another  doctors have difficulty accessing patient information that comes from another office or hospital.

It doesnt have to be this complicated. All around the world, app developers take complex databases and build easy-to-use consumer tools for mobile devices that simplify nearly every aspect of our lives. Medicine can and must be next.

How can we improve todays EHR systems?

Have you ever asked yourself, Who owns my medical information? What about, Who controls it?

If your medical data is kept on your local physicians office computer, the answer is that the doctor both owns and controls it. And in that case, none of your records are comprehensive or immediately accessible to providers outside of your doctors office.

Now, imagine you suffer a heart attack or stroke while visiting relatives out of town. Naturally, the hospital or emergency department (ED) caring for you will call your doctor to request your records because they dont want to (a) give you a drug that will negatively interact with another medication youre taking or (b) order a laboratory test you have already had, thus delaying treatment until the result comes back.

What usually happens next is mind boggling: The life-saving information kept on your doctors computer will most likely be transmitted to the hospital via fax. (For readers born after 1980, heres a Wikipedia entry that explains what a fax machine is.) So, even if your information is entered into an office EHR, it is usually printed and faxed when another doctor or ED needs it.

But what if you receive your care from a group of doctors  say, a multi-specialty medical group that shares a common EHR? In that case, your data is available to all the physicians in that group. But when you require care elsewhere, the same problem surfaces. As strange as it sounds, even doctors in other hospitals and emergency departments using the same EHR system usually cant see your data without undergoing several time-consuming steps. There simply is no convenient way for you to hand over your records to other doctors who might be caring for you.

Its hard to imagine any consumer relinquishing this much control of their finances to a broker or banker. Its your money and you want to manage it as you see fit. But in medicine, even though its your life and your health, your information belongs to (and is controlled by) your care provider.

The structure and processes now governing EHR systems were created to benefit their manufacturers and purchasers, not patients like you. EHR vendors could easily open up their software, connect their systems (making them comprehensive) and therefore make it easy for all your care providers to access your records. But they wont do so voluntarily. To explain their reluctance, allow me to include a paragraph from my 2017 book Mistreated:

The manufacturers of the large electronic health records dont want doctors using comprehensive systems, unless the only application used is theirs. They fear what interoperability between systems would mean for their businesses. If health-record vendors allowed third-party developers to access their application program interface (also known as an API, a set of protocols and tools used in new software development), all your medical information could be combined into a single, comprehensive system  This would be extremely beneficial for patients and physicians. But doing so would make it much easier for doctors and hospitals to switch from one manufacturer to another, therefore reducing what these powerful companies can charge for their software.

A possible solution: blockchain technology

To avoid medical errors and improve quality outcomes, all the physicians we see should have access to our medical information, provided that information is kept private and secure.

Blockchain technology can facilitate these requirements. The word blockchain combines the two key elements of its technology: A block is a record of a transaction or an interaction, secured using cryptography (similar to the code-based encryptions common in medical practice). This block might be the sale of cryptocurrency from one person to another at a given price, as with Bitcoin, or it might be the record of a doctors office visit. The block is linked to all prior transactions or visits, thus forming a chain.

To understand how blockchain technology might work in health care, its helpful to understand how the technology has been used to simplify money transfer.

Work on blockchain technology began in the early 90s and was expanded upon by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 for the creation (and exchange) of what would become the popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin. At its core, Bitcoin was created to eliminate the expense of, reliance on, and delays caused by banks as intermediaries. Now, regardless of whether you believe Bitcoin is great investment or a Ponzi scheme, its underlying technology (blockchain) is private, secure and reliable. Its foundation is the equivalent of an electronic public ledger, with a date and timestamp to establish ownership without the need for an intermediary, such as a bank. So, rather than allowing a single institution to control your financial data, blockchain is an open-access system that cant be hacked, corrupted or erased.

Of course, caring for patients is different than transferring digital currency. Theres a massive amount of personal health information involved. As such, patient chains might date back decades, involving hundreds of visits and tens of thousands of pieces of data. It would be impossible for doctors to search the full chain and access specific information in a timely fashion. But this is precisely where independent developers could create clinically oriented apps that make EHRs easy to use; even mobile friendly.

And because the protocols of blockchains are universal, the applications in health care would all be compatible, never distorting the data itself. Therefore, all providers could safely access the information, and you would be able to take it with you regardless of whether you change insurance carriers, doctors or health systems.

Remember, underlying blockchain technology keeps the information secure. Today, a hacker who breaks into a hospitals EHR can extract information on millions of individuals, including not just their medical data but also their social security numbers and private information.

Blockchain data points are protected at the individual patient level with a numeric public key, and/or a more complex privacy key. Therefore, if someone were to hack into an EHR system powered by blockchain technology, they wouldnt be able to ascertain whose data it was or manipulate the information as they can today. Similarly, a physician with access to your medical record couldnt look at another patients record within the same health system or hospital without his or her permission.

This sophisticated and intuitive technology could ultimately be used to replace all current EHR systems.

Why blockchain technology might replace todays EHRs

A single, national blockchain-based approach would allow patients to become the owners of their data. It would allow the information to travel with them  to every new ED, physicians office and hospital  both safely and securely. It could be updated as soon as new data is entered, anywhere in the country. And it could connect all of our medical information for the rest of their lives.

Of course, nothing like this is commercially available at the moment. Its the old chicken and egg problem: Developers are unlikely to create solutions without data already entered into a blockchain format, and no one will want to capture the information in that form unless it can be used for clinical practice.

But the important thing is that it could happen. After all, much of the impetus for cryptocurrency was born out of the desire to move money around the globe safely and privately (and, occasionally, for reasons of questionable legitimacy). Today, cryptocurrencies are becoming increasingly mainstream and their uses more mundane. The same gradual expansion in utility could happen in health care, though exactly how remains to be seen.

At some point, patients and doctors will no longer tolerate the shortcomings of todays EHRs. And when they demand change, third parties will be eager and available to come to the rescue. Theyll need their applications to connect with comprehensive patient information in a form thats safe and secure. And when they have it, they will develop an electronic health record worthy of 21st-century patient care.

As patients, we deserve to have our medical information available wherever we go for our care. And it can be done, whether by forcing todays EHR vendors to open their Application Processing Interfaces (APIs) to developers or by requiring all systems to adhere to identical design standards.

Blockchain technology could be the catalyst that, someday, accelerates a massive change process in American health care. For the health of our nation, I hope that day comes soon.

Robert Pearl is a physician and CEO, Permanente Medical Groups. He is the author of Mistreated: Why We Think Were Getting Good Health CareAnd Why Were Usually Wrong and can be reached on Twitter @RobertPearlMD. This article originally appeared in Forbes.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
St Lukes General Hospital in Kilkenny is the third most-overcrowded hospital in the country today, according to figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.

Today's INMO report shows 36 patients on trolleys and wards at the local hospital, up from 16 yesterday.

The increase comes as the local hospital this week announced it is seeking feedback from visitors as part of the National Patient Experience Survey, to help improve the quality and safety of healthcare services provided to patients in Ireland. The survey tries to understand how patients interact with the healthcare system and how they experience this process.

It will help establish what is working well in hospitals and what needs to be improved. All inpatients discharged from St Lukes General Hospital during May 2018 will be invited to participate in this survey.

The results of the 2017 survey provided us with a rich source of information to help improve hospital care," says Anne Slattery, General Manager at St Lukes General Hospital.

"We used the results to develop quality improvement plans, which outlined how patients priorities are being addressed.

Key findings for the hospital included: 77% of those who responded described their experience in St Lukes General Hospital as good or very good. 92% of patients said that they felt that they were treated with respect and dignity while they were in the Emergency Department. 90% said that they were given enough privacy while being examined or treated in the Emergency Department, and 88% thought that the hospital staff did everything they could to help control their pain.

A number of areas for improvement were identified and these included: waiting times in the emergency department, communications around diagnosis and test results and the patient discharge and transfer process.

In response to last years survey findings, St Lukes General Hospital has developed a quality improvement plan  Listening, Responding and Improving - and to date the hospital has implemented a number of initiatives or projects to improve patients experience, including:

Rolling out the Geriatric Emergency Medicine Service

Expanding its Volunteer Service

Commencing service improvement work on the Acute Floor

Opening a 14-bedded ward to accommodate patients when the hospital is in over-capacity.

Development of a hospital information booklet for patients



"St Lukes General Hospital would again encourage patients to participate in this years survey," says Ms Slattery.

"Their feedback is very important to us and provides us with important information on how we can continue to improve patient care and build on positive patient experience.

For further information on the National Patient Experience Survey visit www.patientexperience.ie or follow @NPESurvey @HSELive @IEHospitalGroup #ListeningRespondingImproving #patientexperience.
Some people don't know when to stop giving; caring about others, less well-off than themselves.

One of that rare bred is Jim Kavanagh from the outskirts of Kilkenny city.

He is on his 63rd humanitarian trip to Belarus where he has just delivered a huge truck load of aid.

The 69-year-old truck driver is a former Kilkenny person of the year and a member of O'Loughlin Gaels GAA club.

On this trip Jim has company; Frank Morrissey (Dicksboro GAA Club) and his brother Eamon (James Stephens GAA Club).

The two siblings will bring back a van used to deliver aid locally to orphanages and Homes of Hope spread throughout the country ravaged by a nuclear disaster in April 1986.

While 20-year-old student, Dearbhla Donnelly from Paulstown is on her first trip with the wonderful, Chernobyl Children International (CCI) which was formally established by Adi Roche in 1991 to give support and hope to children living in the aftermath of the Chernobyl Nuclear disaster.

That explosion released just 3% of the radioactive material in the Chernobyl reactor into the atmosphere; the remaining 97%, contained only by a deteriorating concrete shell, remains inside the damaged reactor and continues to be one of the worlds most dangerous ticking time-bombs

The Kilkenny volunteers hope to be home for May 5 and are busy distributing aid.

The Chernobyl truck was packed full of nappies, clothes, toiletries, toys when it left the city.

All the goodies were donated to CCI in the recent Operation Nappy Appeal and delivered to Vesnova Orphanage currently home to over 200 children.

The donations will have a dramatic impact on the lives of these special children and help to improve their living conditions, Jim said.

He will continue to deliver aid to Belarus for as long as he is able and in the last 25 years has witnessed a huge improvement in conditions for the children in the orphanages and the Homes of Hope, where families foster children orphaned.

The Kilkenny branch of CCI will continue to bring those children who are still living in the orphanages and are special needs back to Kilkenny city and county for a much needed break for them and their carers.

Help needed

There are many ways you can partner with Chernobyl Children International.

Your donations are tax deductible. The CCI welcomes all efforts and contributions in a number of areas.

For more:Click here
St Lukes Hospital, Kilkenny has launched its End PJ Paralysis campaign to encourage people to get up and get dressed each day.

Research has shown that most people feel better in their own clothes and, statistically, have shorter lengths of stay in hospital when they get up, get dressed and get moving as soon as possible. Research also shows that patients who stay in their pyjamas or gowns longer than they need are likely to lose mobility, fitness and muscle strength, making it harder for them to regain independence. Getting dressed is something that we do every day, but for hospital patients, it can mean the difference between going home to live independently or with support.

This is important because a person aged over 80 can lose 10 per cent of their muscle mass after just 10 days in a hospital bed, said Danielle Reddy, Occupational Therapist at St Lukes who is leading the campaign. They can also develop skin breakdown, pressure sores, confusion and fatigue. Many patients lose the ability to carry out routine functions like bathing, dressing, getting out of bed and walking due to unnecessary bed rest. There is extensive evidence that dressing patients in their own clothes is more dignifying, provides a sense of normality and allows them to be more independent while in hospital.To launch the campaign, staff at St Lukes were encouraged to wear their pyjamas to work on the 17th April  to give patients, families and carers a view of how it looks, and to show staff how patients feel when they wear their pyjamas all day.

Staff in all wards throughout the hospital are working with patients each day to encourage them to get up and get dressed in their own clothes. Patients are asked to bring their day clothes with them when they are being admitted to the hospital, along with shoes and not slippers.


What's your idea of a perfect day, or perfect weekend out in Kilkenny?

Honestly, that question could have a dozen different answers for me, depending on the time of year. Theres never a shortage of things to do.



Who has made the greatest contribution to Kilkenny in your lifetime - and why?

For reasons specific to my generation, it has to be Brian Cody. For people my age, Cody and his team gave us something to cheer about during a time when the whole country was suffering. My generation were heading in to college and/or work just as the recession hit. The mood among people my age could be sombre at times because the future didn't look very promising. But, in Kilkenny, we were lucky enough to have Cody's boys to give us something to celebrate during the bad times.

What's your first Kilkenny memory?

Where I grew up! Growing up in a working class neighbourhood in the 90s was some experience. Real people. Real life. To me - that's the real Kilkenny.

What's your favourite part of the county - and why?

The city, for a million different reasons. It's my home. Living away from Kilkenny for a few years made me realise how much I love the place.



What do you think gives Kilkenny it's unique identity?

I'm sure you get this answer a lot, but, it has to be the blend of old and modern. There are a few cities and towns in Ireland that have preserved the past quite well. But none have found the balance of preservation and evolution that Kilkeny has.

Do you have a favourite local writer or author?

John Locke. Not just as a writer/poet, but also as a Fenian and a rebel. He's a historical figure that Kilkenny should be proud of.

What's the biggest challenge facing the county today?

A reluctance to embrace change. If you have concerns about a project in Kilkenny from a logistical or economic standpoint, by all means, voice your opinion. But, there seems to be a section of our community who will object to anything "new". Regardless of what it is. Anything modern is immediately labelled an "eyesore". We can keep our medieval charm, but we have to expand and modernise too.

If you had the power to change one thing in, or about Kilkenny, what would it be?

More focus on the needs of locals. I'm all for the tourist trade thriving here, but sometimes it seems that the council is more concerned about making Kilkenny a great place to visit, rather than a great place to live. The people make Kilkenny what it is. The council would do well to remember that.
Patna, April 23: The son of a Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Member of Parliament (MP) has been arrested for consuming liquor in Bihar in violation of prohibiting law. Rahul Kumar, 18, son of Gaya MP Hari Manjhi was arrested from a village near Bodh gaya. He was arrested along with his two friends on Sunday. Gaya Senior Superintendent of Police Garima Malik confirmed that Rahul was sent to judicial custody.

According to police officer Shuv Kumar Mahto, Police conducted a medical examination of Manjhi's son and it was confirmed that he had consumed liquor. However BJP MP Hari Manjhi denied the charges. He claimed that his son was arrested to defame him ahead of 2019 elections.

The BJP and Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal(United) are allies in Bihar. Complete prohibition was imposed in the state on 5 April, 2016. In March this year, Senior BJP leader and Member of Parliament questioned the liquor ban in the state and demanded the state government should review the ban.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 23, 2018 05:20 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
Apr 24, 2018, 9:47am ET

Ferrari pumps the brakes on first EV supercar

A Ferrari EV won\'t happen until at least 2022.

Ferrari has pushed plans to build an electric supercar beyond 2022, the company's chief executive officer has revealed.

Sergio Marchionne, CEO of the Italian automaker, hinted earlier this year that Ferrari could build an EV supercar during its 2018-2022 strategy plan, saying, "if there is an electric supercar to be built, then Ferrari will be the first. However, Marchionne stated during Ferrari's annual meeting earlier this month, according to Automotive News, that an electrified supercar won't happen until the company's next business plan.

That decision could possibly leave Ferrari behind Tesla and Porsche. Tesla is planning to release its second-generation Roadster model sometime in 2020. The new Roadster will pack an impressive stat sheet, including a 650 mile range and the ability to go from 0-60 in 1.9 seconds. However, Tesla is not exactly known for hitting its production targets, so it's possible the electric automaker could postpone its EV supercar to well beyond 2020.

Porsche, meanwhile, is serious about launching a high-performance electric sedan next year. Known as the Mission E, the electric Porsche will be able to scoot from 0-60 in under 3.5 seconds and cover 330 miles per charge. Porsche is also rumored to be working on a dedicated supercar EV platform.

Although Ferrari won't be going fully electric for a while, the company is planning to go hybrid soon. Ferrari is expected to introduce its first "mainstream hybrid mode at the 2019 Frankfurt Motor Show.
Work is underway on a major multi-million euro revamp at Dunnes Stores on the Moorefield Road in Newbridge.

The project had been held up after it was appealed to An Bord Pleanala due to the controversial Great Wall of Dunnes.

A local business man highlighted the council Transport Departments concerns that the wall would  endanger public safety by reason of a traffic hazard.

Dunnes said it does not own the land on the other side of the wall and has no legal right to open up an access point. An Bord Pleanala did not ask for the removal of the wall between Dunnes and Newbridge Retail Park.

The revamp involves the demolition of nine units to the right hand side of the building as well as the restaurant. The units on the left are being renovated to incorporate four new units and an upgraded toilet block. The textile and grocery areas will expand, and a new entrance built along with 417 car spaces, and a covered walk-way.

SEE ALSO: Newbridge's Conor Tiernan came third in national duathlon last weekend


Students from the Cross and Passion are set to participate in the European Parliament in Strasbourg next months.

The school has been chosen as one of the schools to represent Ireland in the Euroscola programme under which students from 28 countries are selected to become members of the European Parliament for one day, May 23.

And in advance of their visit, local MEP Vice-President of the European Parliament Mairead McGuinness visit to the school last Friday, April 20.

The school was awarded first place in the constituency in a competition to create a video on the question "Why should young people vote in European elections?".

Speaking with 5th year students, Ms McGuinness congratulated them on their success in the competition and spoke to them on the role of the Parliament. She said she hoped the experience might inspire career choices among the students into the future.

And she paid tribute to the pupils, Principal Catherine Moynihan and teacher John Tynan.

Mairead McGuinness with 5th year students at the Cross and Passion, Principal Catherine Moynihan and teacher John Tynan.

Read more: Kilcullen's Cross and Passion school gets new special education unit
A LIMERICK man was left to survive on a sandwich a day for over a week while he waited for routine surgery in hospital.

Frank Flanagan, 56, from St Mary's Park, says he shed half-a-stone in weight while waiting for his operation at University Hospital Limerick. He broke his ankle while walking towards a bus stop in the city on April 10.

He was rushed to UHL, but then had to spend nine nights in a trauma ward as his surgery was cancelled each day, enduring weight loss and struggling to sleep at night.

They fasted me every night from 12am until whenever I get told whether the operation was taking place or not. So I am missing breakfast, dinner and supper. All I am getting in here each day is a sandwich, he said.

Speaking from his hospital bed, Frank said: Its only a leg operation, its not complicated, it would only take 30 minutes or so. I feel someone who is really sick could have had this bed.

He finally had his operation last Thursday, but in that time, he says he has shed half-a-stone in weight.

My other leg broke before, but that time, I was brought up to the ward, my operation was done the next day, and I was out the day after. I guess its a different ball game now, Frank added.

Deputy Maurice Quinlivan criticised UHL for overseeing an awful waste of resources, and said it raises further questions on how inpatients are managed.

In a statement to the Limerick Leader, a spokesperson for the hospital says it "does not comment on individual cases for reasons of patient confidentiality."

They added: "University Hospital Limerick is experiencing an unprecedented number of emergency/trauma cases. This high volume which we are experiencing is uncharacteristic for time of year. Patients on emergency/trauma lists are prioritised based on clinical decision making and chronological order. At times of high demand on emergency\trauma procedures, the hospital group does seek to maximise alternative location for trauma procedures to be performed in a safe and efficient manner."

The spokesperson added the hospital at all times works to limit unnecessary fasting.

"Where patients are requested to fast and the procedure cannot take place, we would always seek to ensure the patient is advised at the earliest possible opportunity. It is unfortunate that unnecessary fasting does take place but this is to support our best efforts in maximising patient throughput on emergency/trauma lists and thus ensure best patient experience and outcomes. Where possible, patients who miss a meal will be provided with a replacement meal. This is in accordance with the UL Hospitals Group Missed Meal and Protected Mealtimes policies," they added.
A woman was given a three month jail sentence at Limerick court for driving without insurance for the third time.

Lynn Greaney, aged 28, of Dromsally Woods, Cappamore, pleaded guilty at Kilmallock Court to the offence at Main Street, Cappamore, on September 15, 2017.

Garda John Ryan, who stopped the vehicle, said Ms Greaney had two previous no insurance convictions.

Kevin Power, solicitor for Ms Greaney, said evidence was given at a previous court sitting that his client was in a volatile relationship at the time.

She was trying to avoid this person, said Mr Power.

Judge Marian OLeary said: Tell me why I shouldnt send her to jail.

Mr Power said she has three young children and doesnt have access to a car at the moment.

Judge OLeary said it is Ms Greaneys third no insurance offence.

She has no regard whatsoever for the rules of the road. Ill think about it over lunch, said Judge OLeary.

After lunch the judge imposed a three month prison sentence, disqualified Ms Greaney from driving for six years and fined her 400. She was also fined 300 for not having a driving licence.

Recognisance was fixed in the event of an appeal.
IRISH Water is satisfied beyond doubt that its proposal to pump 300 million litres of water daily from the River Shannon at Parteen Basin is critical to meet the future water demands of the Greater Dublin area.

The company has now published a summary of 46 submissions it received during the 2015 consultation process into the Water Supply Project, which plans to abstract water from the Parteen Basin and pipe it roughly 170km to Peamount in County Dublin.

A wide range of issues were raised including the need for the project, the current rate of leakage for Dublin's pipes, alternative options, planning, environmental issues and the cost and funding.

The future water needs of Dublin and the Midlands cannot be met by fixing leaks alone, head of asset management with Irish Water Sean Laffey said.

Leakage in the Greater Dublin Area network is at 36% and there are 9,000km of water pipes with over 600,000 connections.

Irish Water is rolling out a leakage reduction programme, he added.

However, this cannot keep pace with growth needs, he said, adding that this figure does not take extreme weather events, such as the drought that affected the Midlands in 2017 or the multiple water shortages that followed Storm Emma, into account.

Irish Water is now satisfied beyond doubt that the preferred Parteen Basin option is the correct scheme and its delivery is critical for the future. This option will bring the widest benefit to the greatest number of people with the least environmental impact and in the most cost effective manner.

As part of its public consultation, Irish Water held 8 public open days along the route of the pipe in 2015; had two briefing days for Oireachtas members and 5 councillor briefings; held more than fifty briefings with stakeholder groups; had 6 landowner information evenings for the 500 landowners along the route; and sought responses from the public through 36 media advertisements.

The feedback received and Irish Waters response is available on the project website www.watersupplyproject.ie.

Irish Water is currently preparing an Environmental Impact Assessment Report and Natura Impact Statement, which will also present the results of ongoing environmental investigations and consultations.
ON July 7, 1933, Sir Alan Conhams air squadron arrived in Limerick from Cork on a two-day visit to Ballycummin Castle.

Although this air show was highly anticipated and widely appreciated in the Limerick area, it was marred with tragedy as a young Limerick man was one of two men accidentally killed as the day neared a close.

From 11.30 oclock in the morning, the aeroplanes circled the city. They were an unusual sight in those days, and were watched with keen interest by the citizens. When Sir Alan landed his plane at Ballycummin, he was met by the Mayor, Councillor P.F. Quinlan; Mr E.C. Stevenson, President of the Chamber of Commerce; Mr A. E. Goodwin, Vice-President, and Mr J. O. Power, Secretary.

At Ballycummin, a great number of people had gathered. The squadron comprised 12 machines, including the Clive & Handley Page 1,000-h.p. machines, one of which was capable of carrying 22 passengers and the other 17. Also on display was a Tiger Moth Fox and a Gipsy Moth. The Gipsy Moth had previously flown from Australia to England.

The air display included a grand formation flight, a premier display of advanced aerobatics, pylon racing, wing walking and parachute decent, all of which demonstrated to the public the rapid developments of aviation.

Though it was Sir Alan Cobhams first visit to Limerick, his name was a household word in the field of aviation. At the time, he was giving air displays in various parts of the country, with the co-operation of the Irish Aero Club, in an effort to get aerodromes established and develop a public interest in flying. Sir Alan Cobham had given 860 air displays throughout the world, accident free.

William Ower jnr., a young man living at South Quay, Newcastle West was at the show with his father and brother. The twenty-eight year old Ower, worked as a motor mechanic so it was presumably a thrill for him to join the pilot W.R.Elliott on board the Gipsy Moth, owned by the Irish Aero Club.

His father, William Ower, snr., was at the airfield waiting for the Gipsy Moth to return as he was to be the next passenger. While his younger son had already taken a journey on one of the planes. The Ower family were originally from Scotland, having relocated to Newcastle West a few years earlier.

The Fox Moth, piloted by Geoffrey Thyson, owned by Sir Alan Cobham, took off with two passengers on board. At about 4.40 oclock the two planes met in the sky above the Dooradoyle road, a few miles from the aerodrome. Although the Tiger Fox Moth made a successful landing, the Gipsy Moth crashed to earth.

An eyewitness, Mr. John St George, 41 Parnell Street, Limerick, said he saw the aeroplane fall at the other side of a slump of trees.

He ran across the fields to the wreckage and saw Ower, who was partly out of the machine and lying on his back on the ground. He appeared to be dead. He saw the hand of the other man coming out from under the machine and he immediately removed the wreckage on the chance that he could be alive. He saw the pilots face and saw an eyelid flicker. With the aid of another man who came on the scene, he got him out and laid him on the grass.

The pilot was practically dead at the time and was strapped into the machine. Almost immediately afterwards he died.

The pilots of both machines were careful and experienced airmen. W.E. Elliott served in the Royal Air Force and had many thousands of miles flying experience. Aged about 35, he was born in England and was appointed chief instructor to the Irish Aero Club in 1931.

When asked by the Chronicle just after the crash why he thought the accident took place Sir Alan responded, I dont know. I think it was quite possible that the Gipsy Moth was facing the sun at the time and came underneath the Fox Moth. The machines were travelling in opposite directions, and the collision was a head-on one.

A few days later, the funerals of both Elliott and Ower took place. Elliots remains were removed to his home in Shrewton, England. The funeral of William Ower took place in Newcastle West and he was interred in Rathronan Cemetry, Ardagh.
THE United States has indicated it may provide sanctions relief on Rusal  the company that owns Aughinish Alumina in Limerick.

Reports emerging overnight from the US suggest that the Treasury Department has said it may considering lifting the sanctions on the Russian-owned company, if majority owner Oleg Deripaska sells his stake in the group.

It has also extended a deadline for companies to wind down dealings with the Russian aluminium producer by five months. The deadline was previously set at early June, and several companies had already cut ties with Aughinish.

Aughinish and its hundreds of employees have been caught up in an economic storm since the US imposed sanctions on Rusal, with Deripaska seen as having close ties to Russian president Vladimir Putin.

With 450 employees at the plant in Askeaton and around 400 working on contracts, the plant is one of the biggest employers in County Limerick.

The news that the company could be saved has caused shares in the company to surge  after Rusal had previously shed half of its value on the stock market, as investors jumped ship following the blacklisting by America.

The Financial Times is reporting that US Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin said the impact on our partners and allies was a factor in the decision to soften its stance on the sanctions and that they were aimed at Mr Deripaska.

Rusal has felt the impact of US sanctions because of its entanglement with Oleg Deripaska, but the US government is not targeting the hardworking people who depend on Rusal and its subsidiaries, he said, according to the report.

Rusal was struggling with its cash flow, as US dollar transactions and assets have been frozen due to primary sanctions. Processing transactions in any other currency is also proving difficult, as banks and suppliers around the world distance themselves from Rusal, in fear of becoming a target for secondary sanctions.

Rusal's smelter in Sweden had its power contract cut last week, and was forced to close shop.

Access to raw materials was also a major issue, as suppliers were prohibited from dealing with the company, and the company had little liquidity to pay them.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar met with members of Aughinish management in Limerick recently and pledged to do everything we can to assist the company, and to ensure that it can continue to operate as normal.

Spokespeople for Aughinish Alumina have remained silent since the sanctions were announced.
IRISH Water continues to present a misleading story to the public, according to the author of a highly critical report into the companys 1.3bn plan to pump the River Shannon.

The company has confirmed its plans to abstract 300 million litres of water daily from the River Shannon at Parteen Basin and pump it to Peamount in County Dublin in order to meet the future water needs of the Greater Dublin area.

Irish Water is currently preparing an Environmental Impact Assessment Report and Natura Impact Statement and a planning application that will be submitted to An Bord Pleanala in 2019.

Efforts to get the Shannon Water Extraction Project across the line get more disingenuous with every turn, according to Emma Kennedy, author of the Kennedy Analysis, a highly critical forensic analysis into the project which claims that Irish Water made basic mathematical errors in its calculations for the project.

Irish Water continues to present a misleading story when it comes to Dublins leaks and this report will do nothing to change that, Ms Kennedy said.

Its press release cites a figure for leakage of 36% but that figure does not include a single drop of customer side leakage which brings Dublins total leakage to around 57%.

Irish Water in its statement talks about a public consultation; we cannot imagine that those it consulted with were told that over half of the water taken from the River Shannon and expensively treated would be wasted.

These are good minded people who if presented with the real facts would not stand for the sheer wastage of this.

Irish Water has done nothing to change the unreliability of supply to Dublin householders and businesses, she added.

Because of the state of Dublins pipes, they will continue to be condemned to water outages like they experienced during Storm Emma recently, she said, adding that Irish Water plans to replace just 1% of Dublins pipes per annum.

One percent per annum might be viable for the maintenance of an efficient water supply system, such as those in Paris and Frankfurt where leakage is around 7%, but it is not viable for Dublin.

Dublins water mains do not need maintenance: they need a major overhaul and this will soon become unavoidable regardless of whether or not the Shannon project proceeds. Ultimately, why should the taxpayer pay twice?

Ms Kennedy is due to appear before the Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government alongside Irish Water in relation the Shannon project this Wednesday, 25 April.

It is disappointing but not surprising that Irish Water have sought to undermine that opportunity with the publication of a report that has been 18 months in production.
THE Limerick-based Irish Chamber Orchestra are to make a Trip to Tipp and play with a host of top Irish acts as the much loved Feile returns this year in a Classical format.

Twenty-eight years after the first ever Feile graced the grounds of Semple Stadium, Thurles is in line to relive its glory days once again following news that the Trip to Tipp returns as Feile Classical in the Cathedral town this September.

After a long hiatus, Feile will officially make an electrifying return to Thurles on Saturday 22nd September as Feile Classical.

Feile favourites The Stunning, Hothouse Flowers, An Emotional Fish, Something Happens, The 4 of Us, The Frank & Walters plus a line-up of special guests will take to the stage with the Irish Chamber Orchestra for one night only in Semple Stadium.

Audiences can expect rapturous, spine-tingling versions of sing-along anthems such as Brewing Up a Storm, Celebrate, Parachute, Mary, Dont Go and After All performed by the supremely talented combination of bands and orchestra, with the latters soaring strings and powerful arrangements adding sparkle to every song.

Tom Dunne, whose band Something Happens performed at Feile 90, 91 and 93 and whos album Tom Dunne 30 Best Irish Hits, was one of the biggest selling Irish compilation albums ever, is the driving force behind Feile Classical delights.

Speaking ahead of the official launch of Feile Classical Dunne said: The Feiles and Italia 90 tend to merge in my head: a time of incredible optimism and fun, when it seemed Irish bands  almost all of whom could lay claim to at least one timeless classic - ruled the day.

"The Trip to Tipp was the Mecca for Irish bands, a celebration of Irish rock music that had never been seen before. This concert has been in the ether for some time now, and myself and the bands are really excited to be collaborating with the Irish Chamber Orchestra to put together a glorious in your face celebration of a special time in Irish music

Feile was special, it was iconic, it was our Woodstock and Feile Classical will be an even bigger, better, louder explosion of the best of those days and so much more.

Pic: An Post Inn - Feile '92 courtesy of 'Feile - Trip to Tipp' Facebook page

In contrast to the Feile days of yore, Feile Classical will be fully-seated concert. Music fans can also explore the exciting pop-up Food Village and BBQ area, visit the Tribal Tent - a dedicated space for the discussion of Feile glory days curated by well known music critic John Meagher, or gaze at the festivals photography exhibition of fans and Feiles past.

And for those who might feel like recapturing those daring moments of bygone Feiles, Feile TV will be on-hand once again to record the craic in Semple!

Pic: Feile '92 - The trip to Tipp courtesy of 'Feile - Trip to Tipp' Facebook page

The nineties, the tribal days of Irish music, the days where the music you loved defined your identity. Whether you were a punk, a grunger, a rocker, a britpoper, a raver or an indie kid  your hair, clothes, makeup, shoes and any other obscure place in between carried an emblem, a lyric, or an album title.

You wrote to fan-clubs waiting mostly in vain for a response, you worshipped your albums inlay cards, painstakingly learning every last lyric. The chances of seeing them live was slim, the chances of ever seeing a few of your bands on the same bill? That was inconceivable. Then one glorious summer weekend in 1990 the Trip to Tipp happened and the lives of young Irish music fans changed forever!

CWB.ie in association with Live at Semple Stadium proudly presents Feile Classical. As Feile Classical is a seated event, tickets are limited. Tickets from 49.50, plus charges, will go on sale from www.ticketmaster.ie at 9am on Friday, April 27.
LIMERICK City and County Councils environment education and awareness officer has praised the fourth successful outing for the annual Team Limerick Clean-up.

The Councils Sinead McDonell presented a brief review of some-18,000 peoples efforts on Good Friday at this weeks environmental strategic policy committee meeting.

Ms McDonnell said that 2,000 more people participated in this years clean-up, picking up 98 tonnes of litter.

Mr Binman travelled more than 2,000km to 275 collection points500km and 25 more collection points than last year.

She said that there is a real partnership approach among local groups, Tidy Towns, gardai, waste management services and the council.

Its amazing to hear on the ground of the trust people have for the system. There is a tremendous amount of goodwill, she said.

She said that Tidy Towns groups would have done recess beforehand to make sure that the areas were suitable.

Following analysis of the waste collected, she said that she hopes to see a decrease in what is collected, namely plastics bottles.

Labour councillor Elena Secas commended all the volunteers in this years TLC campaign.

People really take pride in their community.

Cllr Brigid Teefy described it as a fantastic event.

At this stage, it has become an annual event, and it makes wonderful community spirit. She added that it is sad to see the occasional rubbish after it.

Solidarity councillor Paul Keller welcomed this years clean-up.

Overall, it was definitely a fun day. The whole day was a success, and it really raised the level of awareness, the councillor added.

The committee chairperson Jerome Scanlan extended his thanks to JP McManus for his backing of the annual campaign.

There was an increase in participation from communities in West Limerick this year.
Apr 24, 2018, 5 AM

By Linns Staff

The Rochester Philatelic Association will present Ropex, a national World Series of Philately exhibition, Friday and Saturday, May 18-19, at the Greater Canandaigua Civic Center, 250 N. Bloomfield Road, Canandaigua, N.Y.

Canandaigua is located in the resort Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. The civic center is about a 30-minute drive southeast from Rochester.

Show hours will be 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. Admission is $2 for adults, free for youths 18 and under. Parking is free.

The bourse will include 15 dealers. In addition, the United States Postal Service will have a booth at the show.

The show theme commemorates the 100th anniversary of U.S. airmail service and the 80th anniversary of the first Canandaigua to Rochester airmail flight, which took place May 19, 1938, as part of National Air Mail Week.

The multiframe exhibit winning the grand award will represent Ropex in the Champion of Champions competition at APS Stampshow 2018, Aug. 6-9 in Columbus, Ohio.

The Ropex exhibition judges are Steve Reinhard, Jeff Shapiro and Allison Cusick.

This year marks 50 years since the first Champion of Champions took place. The idea was conceived by Gordon Morison and hosted by the Rochester Philatelic Association during the APS national convention in downtown Rochester in 1968.

The youth booth at Ropex will be open all day Saturday to provide children with information about the stamp hobby and to give them free stamps and supplies.

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Winners from the Rochester Philatelic Associations annual youth design-a-stamp contest will be announced at 2 p.m. Saturday.

Members of the public are encouraged to bring in their philatelic material for a free evaluation and identification by knowledgeable association members on both days of the show.

Full Ropex show details can be found online.
New Latvia stamps integrate both flag and map into design

Apr 24, 2018, 5 AM

A map-shaped stamp from Latvia depicts the design of the countrys flag. Issued March 9, the stamp marks the 100th anniversary of Latvias 1918 declaration of independence. The stamp is the first Latvian irregularly shaped stamp.

New Stamps of the World  By Denise McCarty

A new stamp from Latvia combines the countrys flag and map. Shaped like the Latvia, it is the first irregularly shaped stamp from Latvijas Pasts (the Latvian postal service).

Shown across the map is the carmine-red flag with its single white, horizontal stripe. The flag also is featured on the first-day cover from Latvijas Pasts.

The 50 stamp was issued March 9 to mark the 100th anniversary of the Latvian state.

The history section of the Latvian Institutes website said: The 20th century threw Latvia into endless trials and turbulences: a revolution, two world wars, freedom fights, several occupations, deportations, refugees and a large exodus among them. However, this was also the century when the Latvian state was created. In the aftermath of World War I, realising its right of self-determination the Latvian nation became a sovereign in the territory which since times immemorial had been inhabited by Latvians.

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The declaration of independence was made on Nov. 18, 1918.

In June 1940, Latvia was occupied by the Soviet Union. Fifty years later, on May 4, 1990, Latvia proclaimed its independence again and obtained full independence on Aug. 21, 1991.

Girts Griva designed the stamp, and Baltijas Banknote of Latvia printed it.
A photo posted by on

There's a popular internet challenge making the rounds, and for a change, it isn't one that recommends putting something bizarre  and potentially harmful  in your mouth or up your nose.

Rather, it involves taking a common household product  aluminum foil  and turning a crumpled ball of the ordinary wrap into a beautifully smooth and highly polished sphere.

Many intriguing videos and Instagram photos show the results of this remarkable transformation, most of them purportedly achieved using simple tools such as hammers and sandpaper. But are they for real? Live Science asked an engineering expert, who explained that not only is the dramatic metamorphosis possible, but the process behind it mirrors time-honored metalworking techniques commonly used in Japan for constructing certain types of traditional steel swords. [The Science Behind Some Amazing Chemical Reactions]

YouTube user SKYtomo was one of the first to demonstrate this aluminum foil challenge, in a video posted March 10, Nerdist reported. He began with a crumpled ball of aluminum foil, hammering away until it was highly compressed and much smaller. Then, he repeatedly sanded it under running water with what appeared to be several different grades of sandpaper, leaving the sphere smooth but somewhat mottled and dull. Further sanding and polishing brought a mirror-like sheen to its surface, and the final result was remarkably shiny and reflective.

How is this possible? Typically, metal requires intense heating before it can be molded into a new shape. But because aluminum is unusually soft, it's malleable enough that force alone can reshape it, even without the high temperatures usually associated with metalwork, Michael Titus, an assistant professor of materials engineering at Purdue University in Indiana, told Live Science.

Before rolls of aluminum foil find their way to your kitchen, they begin as giant aluminum ingots. These enormous blocks are rolled into flattened metal sheets that are fractions of a millimeter thick and miles long, which are then spooled up, cut and packaged, Titus said. The sheets are also heat-tempered to make them more flexible. If someone wanted to make a sphere out of foil, they'd need to start with the softest, most pliant foil they could find  the purest, and with the highest degree of this heat treatment, Titus explained.

Even with the best-quality aluminum foil, achieving the seamless perfection of the spheres shared on social media takes time and effort. Hammering the balls compresses air pockets and pores, to make them as dense as possible. Then, the jagged parts on the surface can be scrubbed away with grit paper, with progressively finer grit creating a smooth surface that can be polished to a high shine, Titus said. [Facts About Aluminum]

Could anyone transform a foil ball into a shiny metal sphere? Sure  if you have the right tools, and a lot of patience. (Image credit: Seamster/Instructables.com/CC by 2.5)

The relentless hammering of these aluminum balls has an unlikely real-world analog: It's similar to a technique used to make some types of katanas  Japanese samurai swords  in which the steel is riddled with impurities and the carbon is distributed irregularly throughout the metal, Titus told Live Science.

When working with this imperfect steel, Japanese swordsmiths practice "kitae," in which they repeatedly hammered the metal and folded it back upon itself, working out the impurities and distributing the carbon content more evenly, Edward Hunter, an armor conservator with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, wrote in a description of Japanese sword-making techniques for the museum's Department of Arms and Armor.

While there aren't yet any YouTube tutorials for making aluminum foil swords, a video produced by the popular knife-making YouTube channel Kiwami Japan demonstrated that foil can be shaped into a knife sharp enough to slice cucumbers. And the steps that the maker seems to follow are nearly the same as those used by professional knife-makers  minus the high-temperature treatments needed to temper steel, Titus said.

However, there are some big differences between a foil knife and a steel blade, he added.

"Aluminum isn't as hard as steel  you may take a long time to make the edge very sharp, but it won't hold its sharpness for very long," he said. "It will dull much quicker than a steel blade would."

There are also likely to be more open pores on the inside that would make the foil blade generally weaker than a steel one, Titus noted.

"But, for the most part, they use the same techniques as professional blade-smiths do, so it's really cool to see that anyone can do this at home with enough patience  and maybe a little extra cash to buy the polishing and grinding equipment that's needed," Titus said.

Nonetheless, the spheres that people are painstakingly shaping and sharing on social media don't have any practical purpose other than demonstrating the user's determination to complete a series of boring and highly repetitive tasks. But making them  if you have the time and the perseverance  is a great way to forge a hands-on connection to ancient methods of metalworking, Titus told Live Science.

"It's a modern spin on a very old but very important process for making anything metallic," Titus said.

Now, doesn't that sound better than eating Tide Pods?

Original article on Live Science.
Drinking alcohol may increase women's risk for premenstrual syndrome, or PMS, a new meta-analysis from researchers in Spain suggests.

However, the review found only an association between drinking alcohol and PMS and didn't prove that drinking causes PMS or makes symptoms worse, the researchers said.

PMS is a group of symptoms that start about one or two weeks before a woman's period, according to the National Institutes of Health. Symptoms can include mood swings, tender breasts, food cravings, fatigue, irritability and depression. It's estimated that 20 percent to 40 percent of U.S. women experience moderate PMS symptoms and 3 percent to 8 percent experience severe symptoms, according to the review.

Some studies have found that PMS symptoms tend to be more severe among women who drink alcohol, but it's unclear whether this is due to the alcohol itself or if some women drink to cope with PMS symptoms, the researchers said. [7 Ways Alcohol Affects Your Health]

The new meta-analysis, from researchers at the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, analyzed information from 19 previous studies in eight countries involving more than 47,000 participants in total.

The researchers found that drinking alcohol was linked with a 45 percent increase in the risk of PMS and that heavy drinking  or consuming more than one alcoholic drink a day  was linked with a 79 percent increase in the risk of PMS.

The relatively large number of studies included in the meta-analysis and the consistency of the results suggest that alcohol intake may increase the risk of PMS, the researchers said.

However, this link could still be due to reverse causation  that is, researchers may be finding an association because women with PMS are drinking to cope with symptoms, said Elizabeth Bertone-Johnson, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who studies premenstrual syndrome.

"I think it's really premature to link alcohol to worsening of premenstrual syndrome symptoms  based on this study," said Bertone-Johnson, who wasn't involved in the new analysis.

Nearly all of the studies included in the meta-analysis were retrospective, meaning that the women included in the studies already had PMS when they were asked about their alcohol intake, Bertone-Johnson noted.

"That, unfortunately leaves the possibility that their menstrual symptoms themselves led them to drink alcohol," Bertone-Johnson told Live Science.

To better understand this link, more studies are needed that start tracking women in their teenage years and follow them over time to look at alcohol intake and the development of PMS, she said.

Still, if women want to cut down on alcohol and see if it improves their PMS symptoms, "that's very reasonable," Bertone-Johnson said. But, scientifically, it's unclear if reducing alcohol intake will improve PMS symptoms in the majority of women, she added.

The new study was published today (April 23) in the journal BMJ Open.

Original article on Live Science.
In March, two detectives went to a funeral home and asked to see a body. The reason? They wanted to unlock the man's phone and needed his fingerprints, according to news reports. And though the detectives were granted access to the man's body, they couldn't unlock the phone.

The man, Linus Phillip, was shot and killed by a police officer outside a Wawa convenience store in Largo, Florida. Detectives were looking for information to help them investigate Phillip's death as well as information about a separate investigation involving drugs, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

What the detectives did is legal, as Forbes reported, but it certainly raises ethical questions. And given that the detectives were unsuccessful, it resurfaces a science question as well: Do you need to be alive for your fingertips to unlock your phone?

In fact, it gets more difficult to unlock a phone using fingertips the longer a person has been dead, said Anil Jain, a professor of computer science and engineering who has spent years working on fingerprint recognition at Michigan State University and one of the authors of the "Handbook of Fingerprint Recognition" (Springer, 2009). [9 Odd Ways Your Tech Devices May Injure You].

This is because, on most smartphones, fingerprint identification works through electrical conductance, Jain told Live Science.

We all have a little bit of electricity running through our bodies. When we place our fingertips on a fingerprint scanner, the ridges of our fingerprint touch the surface whereas the valleys dont. Tiny capacitors  devices that store electrical charge  will store more charge coming from the finger if they sit under ridges than they would under valleys. The sensors will use these patterns to form a detailed image. But when a person dies, that flow of electricity ceases, and with it, any chance of interacting with the scanner.

Scientists are unsure how long exactly after a person dies the body loses this conductance. To figure that out, you would "need a lot of dead bodies, and you [would] have to take their fingerprints to unlock the phone every hour or so  somebody has to be in the morgue continuously," Jain said. "It's a pretty difficult experiment to do."

Not all fingerprint readers work through conductance, however. Older fingerprint readers, for example, use optical sensors that measure the changes in light between the ridges and valleys to form an image. But this method is easier to fool with photographs, since no electricity is required, making the systems easier to hack.

And the technology is ever-changing: Take, for example, the iPhone X, which doesn't have a separate button to read fingerprints, but rather unlocks when it detects your face.

Future phones have optical sensors beneath their screens, Jain said. It's unclear if these will be accessible with lifeless fingers, he added, but conductance wouldn't be an issue in such a case. Other new technology includes "ultrasonic" scanners that send ultrasonic waves into the finger to measure the stress patterns that result from ridges and valleys. How these will interact with lifeless fingers is still to be determined.

Still, all of these sensors will be affected by the fact that "the skin gets noisy over time," Jain said. "If there's no blood flow, then the fingers will start showing some kind of wrinkles or shrivel up." This will change the signals of the ridges and valleys, creating new ones and erasing older ones so that the sensor will detect something completely unlike the original fingerprint, he said.

What's more, most phones have some sort of buffer that would make it more difficult for someone to use your fingerprint to unlock your phone after your death, Jain added. That is, most phones require you to type in a passcode after a day or two of inactivity, and you typically get only a certain number of attempts, he said.

But if someone does manage to get around these hurdles, and the body is only recently deceased, it is certainly possible to unlock a phone using lifeless fingers, Jain said.

Originally published on Live Science.
How stoned are you, really?

That's the question researchers challenged marijuana users to answer in a prototype app called "Am I Stoned?" in which they completed a series of tasks evaluating their memory, cognitive speed, reaction time and fine-motor skills.

The prototype could in time make users more aware of the effects of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the compound in marijuana responsible for its psychoactive effects, the researchers said. This, in turn, may help them make safer choices about performing activities that may be difficult or dangerous to do while high, research team leader Harriet de Wit, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience at The University of Chicago, said in a statement.

The scientists presented their findings today (April 24) at the annual Experimental Biology conference; the results have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal. [25 Odd Facts About Marijuana]

High times

When a person uses marijuana, THC interacts with the brain, stimulating dopamine production and creating a sense of euphoria. It also binds to cannabinoid receptors in brain regions associated with coordination, memory, cognition and time perception, and has been found to temporarily inhibit performance in these areas  though how much it does this depends on the individual and the amount and concentration of the THC consumed.

To test the app, the scientists asked 24 people who didn't use marijuana daily to perform the app's tasks on iPhones and desktop computers after consuming either a pill containing THC or a placebo. Activities on the iPhone interface included a test of screen-tapping speed, a memory game of tapping flower images in the correct order, and a test that required shaking the phone in response to a blue dot appearing on the screen, to evaluate reaction time.

(Image credit: Harriet de Wit)

On the desktop, similar tasks addressed cognitive processing speed task, reaction time, fine motor coordination and working memory span, project researcher Elisa Pabon, a doctoral candidate at the Pritzker School of Medicine at The University of Chicago, told Live Science in an email.

The researchers found that the desktop interfaces could detect impairment successfully using three of the four tasks, while iPhone apps could do so with only one of the tasks. This is perhaps because the computer activities, which took 15 to 20 minutes to finish, offered more chances to observe how THC was affecting the user, Pabon said in the statement.

"The effects of THC on performance may be subtle, so we need highly sensitive tasks to detect impairments," Pabon said.

Proceed with caution

One drawback to a self-administered test such as this, however, is that if someone becomes good at performing the tasks through repetition and practice, the results won't accurately reflect how impaired they are, said Vaughan Rees, a lecturer on social and behavioral sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Rees, who was not involved in the app's development, also noted that vigilance and judgment planning  functions that could also be affected by THC  did not appear to be evaluated by the app, so its results could paint an incomplete picture of an individual's impairment.

At this stage, there is much more data that still needs to be gathered before the app can reliably test people for THC impairment, Pabon said. For example, it's important that the app factor in how a person performed on the tests when sober, and how repetition and practice impact the results, she said. What's more, the app may not be able to distinguish between different doses of THC, or if the user is under the influence of other substances as well.

Nevertheless, the app could eventually prove useful as a tool for improving users' awareness and understanding of their own impairment, which could be helpful as legal marijuana becomes more accepted and widespread in the U.S., Rees told Live Science.

"Clearly, it's a step toward helping us to mitigate some of the potential consequences of the wider uptick of marijuana use in communities where it's becoming legalized or decriminalized," Rees said.

The next steps for the app will include fine-tuning the tasks to make them even more sensitive to detecting THC impairment, and further research could help to pinpoint circumstances in which users may not be aware of how impaired they are, the researchers reported. In a second-phase study currently underway, the scientists are evaluating an optimized version of the app with tasks that take longer to complete and are more complex than in the prototype, Pabon said.

Original article on Live Science.
A human bone dagger (top) from New Guinea and a cassowary bone dagger (bottom), attributed to the Abelam people of New Guinea

When facing rivals, the warriors of New Guinea had a choice of deadly bone daggers; they could fight with daggers crafted from human thighbones or weapons shaped from the thighbones of cassowaries, flightless, dinosaur-like birds.

But which type of dagger  the human or the cassowary  is stronger?

According to a new study, the dagger fashioned from human bone is stronger than the giant bird's thighbone, largely because of the way the warriors of New Guinea carved the weapons. [In Photos: The Smoked Mummies of Papua New Guinea]

"It looks like both bone types are equally suited for making daggers," study lead researcher Nathaniel Dominy, a professor of anthropology at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, told Live Science. "The difference is that when men are shaping human daggers, they're retaining a lot of the curvature, which gives it a natural, superior strength."

Because the cassowary bone daggers are whittled to be flatter and less curved than the human variety, they're not as strong as the human daggers, Dominy said.

A cassowary (left) and a diagram (right) showing a cassowary's tibiotarsus, or thighbone (top arrow). (Image credit: Shutterstock; Dominy NJ. et al, Royal Society Open Science)

Dagger quest

This peculiar investigation started when Dominy came across a drawer full of daggers, each roughly 12 inches (30 centimeters) long and made out of cassowary and human thighbones. He found the weapons at the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College. The elaborately carved daggers were stunning, Dominy said. A little investigation revealed that warriors in New Guinea fought with the close-combat weapons "to kill outright or finish off victims wounded with arrows or spears, by stabbing them in the neck," Dominy and his colleagues wrote in the study. Other historical accounts described how the bone daggers were used to disable prisoners who were later cannibalized, Dominy found.

A human bone dagger attributed to the Kwoma people of New Guinea (Image credit: Copyright Hood Museum of Art/Dartmouth College; Dominy NJ. et al, Royal Society Open Science)

However, the accounts of warriors using the bone daggers for mutilation and cannibalism were written in the late 1800s and early to mid 1900s by outsiders, such as missionaries. Untrained in the ways of modern anthropology, these writers may have exaggerated or misunderstood the cultural practices they encountered, Dominy and his colleagues wrote. So, "the veracity of these accounts is difficult to assess," the researchers wrote in the new study.

Whether used for cannibalism or not, however, these daggers were clearly prized by the people of New Guinea, Dominy said. "Human bone daggers have to be sourced from a really important person," he said. "You can't just take the bone of any ordinary person. It has to be your father or someone who was respected in the community."

That's because the dagger was thought to retain the spiritual strengths, rights and powers of the person from whom the bone came, Dominy said. Basically, whoever wielded the dagger could publicly proclaim to have the rights and powers of the bone's original owner.

Meanwhile, cassowaries may be frugivores (fruit eaters), but they're one of the world's most dangerous birds. Each of the cassowary's feet has a dagger-like claw that measures up to 4.7 inches (12 cm) long and can slice open any predator with a swift kick, the researchers said. The bird can run up to 31 mph (50 km/h), jump nearly 5 feet (1.5 meters) into the air and swim like a champ, according to the San Diego Zoo.

Bony strength

Traditional cassowary and human bone daggers in New Guinea are rare today, but modern cassowary-bone weapons are still carved and sold for high prices, Dominy said. To see which dagger type was stronger, the researchers performed computed tomography (CT) scans of five cassowary daggers and five human-bone daggers. Using these scans, the researchers could assess the density of each dagger, Dominy said. (Go here to see one of the scanned daggers. If you click on the bone, it will take you a site where you can rotate the object in 3D.)

3D digital reconstructions of each dagger examined in the study: Notice the steeply notched, V-shaped pommel (knob at the top) on the human-bones daggers. (Image credit: Dominy NJ. et al, Royal Society Open Science)

The researchers bought an additional cassowary-bone dagger for the study and sacrificed it in a bending test to see how much force it could take before breaking. They found that it could handle up to 44 lbs. (200 newtons) of force before it snapped. In all, the research showed that human daggers are about twice as strong as cassowary daggers, study co-researcher R. Dana Carpenter, an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Colorado Denver, told Live Science.

Given that cassowary daggers are easier to replace than human-bone daggers, it makes sense that the human daggers were carved with greater care to make them stronger, the researchers said. This added strength would lend the dagger a longer shelf life, giving the warrior more time to signal the possession of symbolic strength and prestige, Dominy said.

The study will be published online Wednesday (April 25) in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

Original article on Live Science.
A San Francisco judge has rejected a challenge to a new sheriffs department policy allowing transgender inmates to choose the sex of the deputy who conducts a jailhouse strip search.

The San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs Association filed a motion in February claiming the policy would violate the privacy of transgender deputies who didnt match the gender identity of the inmate who selected them.

Superior Court Judge Richard Ulmer denied the motion on Friday to halt the first law enforcement policy in the nation to take into account gender identity during visual body cavity searches, known colloquially as strip searches.

The undisputed evidence showed that deputies are not required to disclose anything, Ulmer wrote. They are assigned to conduct searches by how they identify and present themselves at work, which is the same way the former search policy worked.

The decision prevents the association from immediately halting the sheriffs departments Transgender, Gender Variant and Non-Binary, or TGN, policy, but it does not dismiss the lawsuit.

Ken Lomba, president of the deputy sheriffs association, said the union proudly represents many LGBT members, some of whom have not publicly disclosed their gender identity. He said the preliminary injunction was filed to prevent deputies from being forced to disclose that information, a concern he still believes is relevant.

One of our members immediate concerns was the policy requires deputies to be of the same gender identity as the inmates they are searching, Lomba said. The way the policy is written, they could be forced to out their gender identity.

He said he is disappointed by the decision, but the association will move forward with the next phase of the case.

Sheriff Vicki Hennessy said the policy was adopted in consultation with numerous groups, including the deputy sheriffs association, with the goal of protecting transgender inmates.

Our TGN policy is about respecting TGN individuals, making them feel safe and facilitating their participation in county jail rehabilitation programs, Hennessy said.

There are about 13 TGN inmates out of the 1,318 inmates in the San Francisco County jails, less than 1 percent of the population, sheriffs officials said.

Hennessys new policies also assign housing based on an inmates preferences, mental health, history of behavioral problems, criminal sophistication and gang affiliation. They include provisions for gender awareness training of sheriffs deputies and civilian employees.

The department implemented policies in 2016 that allow inmates to choose their pronouns and began moving them out of 12-person cells at the Hall of Justice to a re-entry housing pod at the County Jail.

Peter Fimrite is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: pfimrite@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @pfimrite
"Avengers: Infinity War" makes its predecessors seem like small potatoes. The 19th film within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it combines nine franchises and more than 30 major characters. Audiences now have a decade's worth of people and plot points to keep track of, beginning with 2008's "Iron Man," and retaining that much information would be a superhuman ability in itself.

But don't worry - help is on the way. We've created a guide to all the important happenings leading up to the new film. So is this truly the "most ambitious crossover event in history," as the facetious meme suggests? Judge for yourselves.

---

WHAT'S HAPPENED SO FAR?

- "Guardians of the Galaxy": Infinity Stones are created

After the universe began, the Cosmic Entities formed six Infinity Stones: Space, Mind, Reality, Power, Soul and Time.

- "Captain America: The First Avenger": Steve Rogers becomes Captain America

During World War II, Rogers successfully undergoes a government experiment in which he is injected with a super-soldier serum. He is transformed from a sickly, frail man to the peak of human physiology. At first used only as a propaganda piece, he defies orders and singlehandedly frees almost 400 captured Allied soldiers from an Austrian facility run by the villainous organization Hydra. Rogers then forms the Howling Commandos and continues to fight against Hydra.

- "Captain America: The First Avenger": Bucky Barnes becomes the Winter Soldier

Barnes falls off a moving mountainside train during a mission gone wrong with the Howling Commandos. Presumed dead, he is actually found and kept prisoner by Hydra. Hydra experiments on and brainwashes Barnes, enhancing his body with both chemical and mechanical enhancements so he could become the perfect weapon: the Winter Soldier. He is kept frozen in suspended animation for decades and only taken out periodically for missions.

- "Captain America: The First Avenger": Steve Rogers is frozen and presumed dead

After the Red Skull is killed, Rogers is left with a plane he doesn't know how to operate or stop. He chooses to purposefully crash the plane into the Arctic instead and is presumed dead. However, the plane crashes into an ice field and Rogers is perfectly preserved inside for 70 years.

- "Captain America: The Winter Soldier": SHIELD is created, and Hydra secretly rebuilds

Shortly after World War II, three of Captain America's allies - Peggy Carter, Howard Stark and Chester Phillips - create SHIELD: the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. The secret government organization is built to protect the United States from all threats. But early on, Operation Paperclip recruits multiple former Nazi scientists; among them is Arnim Zola, who secretly rebuilds Hydra.

- "Marvel's The Avengers": Clint Barton recruits Natasha Romanoff to SHIELD

SHIELD director Nick Fury sends Agent Barton to Russia to kill Romanoff, who has become one of the world's greatest assassins. But Barton recognizes her skill and instead suggests that she be recruited for SHIELD.

- "The Incredible Hulk": Bruce Banner becomes the Hulk

The government recruits respected scientist Banner to re-create the serum that created Captain America. While experimenting, Banner is exposed to high levels of gamma radiation and discovers that, when angered, he turns into the giant green monster. (Note: Edward Norton played Banner in the most recent Hulk movie, which is technically not part of the MCU.)

- "Iron Man": Tony Stark publicly becomes Iron Man

After returning home from imprisonment in Afghanistan, Stark builds a sleeker suit of armor to fight terrorists like the Ten Rings and make up for his company's wrongdoing. In the process, he discovers former business partner Obadiah Stane has betrayed him, and Stane is eventually electrocuted to death. News spreads about Stark's alter ego - now called "Iron Man" by the press - and instead of denying the claims like SHIELD wants him to, Stark declares to the entire world he is, indeed, Iron Man.

- "Thor": Thor arrives on Earth and defeats Loki

Odin banishes Thor to Earth after he makes the Frost Giants, inhabitants of the planet Jotunheim, declare war on Asgard. After Thor, Jane Foster and Erik Selvig deal with SHIELD, Loki sends the Destroyer, an Asgardian robot, to Earth to try to kill Thor. Thor and Loki fight, and the former ends up in Asgard with the Bifrost Bridge (a portal between the Nine Realms) destroyed.

- "Captain America: The First Avenger": Steve Rogers is found and unfrozen

Seventy years after he crashed a bomber plane into the Arctic, Rogers is found perfectly preserved in ice off the shore of Greenland. The super-soldier serum allowed him to stay alive, and SHIELD unthaws him.

- "Marvel's The Avengers": Loki steals the Tesseract and kills Phil Coulson

Loki uses the Scepter to control Clint Barton, Erik Selvig and other SHIELD agents, ordering them to kill Nick Fury and steal the Tesseract. Loki briefly loses the Scepter to the Avengers, but he regains it and murders Coulson. (Coulson is later brought back to life by SHIELD.)

- "Marvel's The Avengers": The Avengers unite at the Battle of New York

Erik Selvig, whose mind is controlled by Loki, uses the Tesseract to open a portal above Stark Tower. This allows the Chitauri, Thanos's personal army, to drop into New York. The Avengers fight them off and eventually capture Loki.

- "Thor: The Dark World": Thor frees Jane Foster from the Aether

Jane discovers the Aether (Reality Stone) and Malekith eventually seizes it to try to spread darkness throughout the universe. Thor and Erik Selvig defeat Malekith and give the Aether to the Collector for safekeeping in a mid-credits scene.

- "Captain America: The Winter Soldier": SHIELD falls

It is revealed that Hydra has infiltrated SHIELD for decades. Natasha Romanoff releases all of SHIELD's files to the public.

- "Guardians of the Galaxy": Battle of Xandar, where the Guardians of the Galaxy are officially formed

The Guardians of the Galaxy fight and defeat Ronan the Accuser, who attempted to destroy Xandar with the Orb. Star-Lord hands the Orb over to the Nova Corps.

- "Avengers: Age of Ultron": Ultron creates Vision

Ultron uses vibranium and the Scepter's Mind Stone to create Vision, who later joins the Avengers in fighting him.

- "Avengers: Age of Ultron": Battle of Sokovia

The Avengers, plus new additions Vision and twins Wanda (Scarlet Witch) and Pietro (Quicksilver) Maximoff, team up to destroy Ultron. Quicksilver is killed while saving Hawkeye. The devastation of this battle kills many innocent civilians and lays the groundwork for the events of "Captain America: Civil War."

- "Avengers: Age of Ultron": A new post-Ultron Avengers team is formed

After the Battle of Sokovia, a number of the original Avengers sort of retire: Stark shifts to a less intensive role; Barton retires to be with his family; Thor leaves to focus on the Infinity Stones; Banner, as the Hulk, disappears. A new team forms and consists of Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Wanda Maximoff, Vision, Sam Wilson and James Rhodes.

- "Ant-Man": Scott Lang takes on the Ant-Man mantle

Lang breaks into scientist Hank Pym's house and steals the Ant-Man suit, among other things. He later learns that he was meant to find the suit, as Pym wants Lang to become the new Ant-Man and steal the Yellowjacket suit from Darren Cross. Lang and Cross eventually fight, during which Lang shrinks to subatomic size and disables Cross's suit. Cross implodes.

- "Spider-Man: Homecoming": Peter Parker becomes Spider-Man

Parker, who lives with his Aunt May in Queens, gets bitten by a radioactive spider and gains spider-like powers. He fights local crime under the alias Spider-Man, maintaining his regular life as a high school student.

- "Captain America: Civil War": Scarlet Witch accidentally kills civilians during a mission in Lagos

The Avengers, while on a mission to stop Crossbones - also known as Brock Rumlow - from stealing a biological weapon in Lagos, Nigeria, accidentally cause civilian deaths. As a result, the United Nations ratifies the Sokovia Accords, which put the Avengers under government oversight.

- "Captain America: Civil War": T'Chaka dies and the Black Panther is introduced

A terrorist bomb in Vienna, where the Accords are set to be signed, kills T'Chaka. Camera footage suggests that Bucky Barnes is behind the attack - we later discover that he was framed - and T'Challa vows to get revenge.

- "Captain America: Civil War": Clash of the Avengers and Spider-Man's introduction

The Avengers, split into teams led by Captain America and Iron Man, fight over whether to sign the Sokovia Accords. Vision accidentally fires a beam at War Machine's Arc Reactor, causing the suit to crash and paralyze Rhodey. Those against the Accords end up on the Raft, a prison for people with superhuman abilities, but are later broken out by Captain America.

- "Black Panther": T'Challa becomes King of Wakanda

After T'Chaka's assassination, T]Challa assumes the throne. He is soon challenged by Erik "Killmonger" Stevens, who reveals himself to be the secret cousin of T'Challa and his sister, Shuri. Killmonger seeks revenge for his murdered father and is eventually defeated, but T'Challa is inspired to rethink Wakanda's isolationist policies.

- "Black Panther": Wakanda ends its isolation

In a speech at the United Nations, T'Challa says he'll open Wakanda's borders and share his country's secret wealth and technology. He also establishes a Wakandan outreach center in Oakland, California.

- "Doctor Strange": Doctor Strange trains in the mystical arts and finds the Time Stone

Doctor Strange trains at the mystical Kamar-Taj under the Ancient One and Karl Mordo. While there, he finds the Eye of Agamotto, which contains the Time Stone.

- "Doctor Strange": Doctor Strange defeats Dormammu and Kaecilius

Strange uses the Eye and its time-reversing power to trap the evil Dormammu in a time loop. He ends the loop after Dormammu agrees to banish himself, Kaelicius and his Zealots from Earth. He then returns the Eye of Agamotto to Kamar-Taj. A furious Karl Mordo leaves the Masters of the Mystic Arts after finding out the Ancient One misused magic, and he sets out to strip rogue sorcerers of their powers.

- "Thor: Ragnarok": Odin dies, unleashing Hela

Upon Odin's death, Hela, the banished goddess of death and Odin's secret daughter, is set free from millennia-long imprisonment. A vengeful Hela destroys Thor's famous hammer, Mjlnir, and knocks Thor and Loki off the Bifrost Bridge. She then massacres the Asgardian armies and installs herself as queen of Asgard.

- "Thor: Ragnarok": Asgard is destroyed, and Thor becomes its ruler

During a climactic final battle, Hela is defeated when Loki summons Surtur, a leader of one of the Nine Realms. An Asgardian prophecy that claims Surtur will be the one to bring about the doomsday event Ragnarok is proved true, destroying Asgard (and himself) in the process. Thor takes the throne and heads to Earth with the other survivors, including Valkyrie and Loki. Their ship is suddenly attacked by a mysterious enemy.

---

Source: Washington Post research.
Timeliness was "The Handmaid's Tale" big draw last year, premiering a few months after President Donald Trump took office while he quickly showed an affinity for those working from a neo-nationalist playbook. With half the country hyped up from hourly outrages and all too eager to envision a dark descent into American-style fascism, Hulu's adaptation of Margaret Atwood's novel hit just the right note between caution and paranoia.

A raft of Emmys later (including one for best drama series and awards for the show's star, Elisabeth Moss, and supporting players Ann Dowd and Alexis Bledel), the much-awaited and worthy new season of "The Handmaid's Tale" begins streaming Wednesday, and it's a relief to see creator Bruce Miller and his writers are letting the show build on its merits, instead of turning its more relevant notes into an Emergency Broadcast System.

Watching "The Handmaid's Tale" still won't be anyone's idea of a restful experience (one or two episodes per sitting will suffice, thanks), but some of the sickening, panicked feelings have worn off. That may stir another realization for the viewer: We've grown accustomed to Gilead, a brutal theocracy that has replaced the United States.

Moss resumes her unerring portrayal of June Osborne (known to her enslavers as Offred), who at the end of Season 1 stepped bravely into a black police van that was either taking her to her doom or toward a chance for escape.

That's also where Atwood's novel left off, so from here onward, it's an all-new story. To reveal what happens next to June involves a minefield of spoilers; suffice to say that her hope of reuniting in Canada with her husband, Luke (O.T. Fagbenle), and best friend, Moira (Samira Wiley), runs counter to the story arc's best interests.

June's story, after all, is an unfinished tale of resistance, first in subverting Gilead's system of forcing fertile women (referred to as handmaids) to bear the children of the ruling class, and now as a woman on the lam, pursued by the nation's Orwellian, all-seeing police force.

On this round, "The Handmaid's Tale" trades some of its socio-psychological heebie-jeebies for a straight-up, more adventuresome tale of a heroic fugitive entering an underground railroad of co-conspirators - details of which are sure to fascinate fans of the show. For instance, June spends a while hiding alone in what appears to be the Boston Globe's abandoned newsroom, where journalists were slaughtered on the job.

At the same time, the series veers necessarily back toward the hopeless, following Gilead's "Unwomen" (a derisive term for the infertile and criminal), who are sent to forced labor camps at a smoldering toxic-waste site where they work until they get sick and die. Among the Unwomen we find Emily (Bledel), a former college professor who briefly served as the handmaid Ofglen. That Emily still has fight in her and provides care to other women in the camp is a tender mercy; the purpose here is to remind viewers just how cruel this government can be.

Of course, the bigger and more constant theme (which seems as obvious as the handmaids' red robes) is the almost manic attention to the afflictions of motherhood.

Gilead gained its revolutionary foothold just as the nation's birthrate drastically plummeted, and the fact that June is now carrying the child of Fred Waterford (Joseph Fiennes), one of the chief architects of the new order, all but guarantees her safety. If caught, she won't be shot on sight; instead she'll be made to return to the Waterford residence and produce the prize of a healthy newborn.

Death would almost be preferable. The prim and pious wives of Gilead's commanders, including Fred's wife, Serena (Yvonne Strahovski), obsess over extravagant baby showers, conception/birth rituals and the fake news of motherhood brought to them via their handmaids' tentative fertility. Serena happens to be the uncredited visionary who helped design Gilead's strict family edicts and was then forced to live under them in subservience to her husband. Having declared motherhood to be the height of womanly purpose, she grew so desperate for a baby that she arranged for June to have sex with Fred's full-time chauffeur, Nick (Max Minghella), without Fred's knowledge.

What Serena didn't know (and still doesn't) is that Nick's connections to the underground helped June escape. Is Nick in love with June? Is Nick an important part of this story? The writers keep a cloud over his motivations, while Minghella's shortcomings in the role (especially when he's in scenes with Moss) expose the show's lone misstep in casting. Strahovski, meanwhile, delivers another masterfully icy performance that is more complex than before - built from resentment, longing and a sadistic instinct for the punitive.

Traces of motherhood dominate the flashbacks that form "The Handmaid's Tale's" backstories this season. Cherry Jones ("Transparent") turns up as June's vibrantly feminist mother, as June recalls her warnings to wake up and smell the misogynistic fascism brewing in their midst. Another flashback, perhaps too on-the-nose, shows Serena in her former guise as a rising voice of the alt-right, shouted down and called a Nazi and the C-word at a campus appearance to promote her book, "A Woman's Place," which argued that women needed to be freed from the burdens of equality to focus on their real purpose: reproduction.

The baby in her womb is June's one and only bargaining chip, but motherhood is also June's greatest weakness, as she determinedly fixates on the condition and whereabouts of Hannah, the young daughter who was taken from her when she and Luke made a last-ditch effort to escape Gilead.

As her tormentors have learned, the only way to effectively manipulate June is to dangle before her any hope or hint of Hannah - a photograph, the possibility of a visit. The theme begins to work at all sorts of cross-purposes and contradictions: Is motherhood the surest source of strength and security? Or is it a woman's undoing, the key to the cage that keeps her compliant?

---

Watching the women of Gilead cope with the sanctity of motherhood, I kept thinking of poor Carrie Mathison, the beleaguered, bipolar protagonist (and now failed single mom) of Showtime's "Homeland," which heads this Sunday into the finale of what's become its penultimate season. Last week, Claire Danes, whose performance as Carrie has never wavered in seven years, confirmed that next season would be the show's last.

As "Homeland" fans well know, the show tends to follow a pattern: A premise is launched that is almost eerily in sync with actual, current events in the intelligence war on terror. The show then pushes plausibility to a laughable degree, ramping up the adrenaline dose as it predictably comes apart on the sharper turns.

Then, several episodes along (just as you're reconsidering the cost of a Showtime subscription), darned if "Homeland" doesn't swerve in a surprising direction that redeems the whole season. By the time it's over, you're again riveted.

Everything "Homeland" dealt with this season clanged and clunked too loudly with topicality, particularly a scheme by Russian operatives to undermine the American government by manipulating Twitter bots and a co-opting an Alex Jones-like conspiracy theorist (Jake Weber) to spread lies and propaganda across the red states via his daily streaming rants.

More casual viewers might think "Homeland" erred last season by inaugurating a female president, as if the show had incorrectly presumed a Hillary Clinton victory. But President Elizabeth Keane (Elizabeth Marvel) turned out to be more notable for an unhappy combo of naivete and paranoia in her first 100 days, playing right into the Russians' trap. Things got so bad that Keane's cabinet and vice president (Beau Bridges) invoked the 25th amendment in the most recent episode, removing her from office.

Both the president and Carrie are, in a sense, grieving mothers. Keane lost her son to war and Carrie, at long last, surrendered custody of her school-age daughter, Frannie (the baby she had with the late hero-turned-traitor-turned-hero Marine sergeant, Nicholas Brody), to her far more capable sister and brother-in-law.

Fans can't possibly be surprised that Carrie painted herself into such a corner - already in her young life, Frannie (played by twins Claire and McKenna Keane) has been dragged hither and yon (Berlin, New York, Washington), held hostage at gunpoint and most recently awakened by a midnight raid to arrest a suspected spy (who was, at that particular moment, having cable-style sex with Carrie on the couch).

Shows with strong female protagonists routinely fall back on motherhood as the character's prime motivator as well as her most vulnerable flaw. Starting with the usual guilt trip (Mommy works too much) and escalating to something as horrific as June having Hannah ripped from her arms by Gilead's enforcers, the message is remarkably the same, and, when you think about it, depressingly trite. Even Maeve, the rogue cyborg played by Thandie Newton in HBO's "Westworld" fixates on a previous narrative in which she had a daughter - and now she must, must find the daughter. It's her whole reason for being, even in a show where the definition of being-ness is up for grabs.

"Homeland" took an extraordinarily brave step when Carrie decided, before a family court judge, that she in fact, could not save the world and be a suitable mom. For the good of the country (and the urgency of her current mission), she let Frannie go. There's a message somewhere in here that may yet transmit back to Gilead: Motherhood is many things, but it is not everything.

---

"The Handmaid's Tale" (one hour) returns Wednesday on Hulu with two episodes; new episodes follow weekly.

"Homeland" (one hour) season finale airs Sunday at 9 p.m. EDT on Showtime.
San Antonio TV viewers are getting a new 10 p.m. anchorwoman, but shes far from a stranger to this market.

Today, KENS announced the successor to station vet Sarah Lucero, who left the chief anchor job in late November.

Its Deborah Knapp, 63, a seasoned anchor of more than three decades in San Antonio and Philadelphia. She has co-anchored KENS signature late news many times since Luceros exit, but always on an unoffical basis.

RELATED: Photos: Former San Antonio anchor Sarah Lucero begins second act

Now, the CBS affiliate has made it official. Knapp is the new 10 p.m. co-anchor next to Jeff Brady. Shes joined by chief weather forecaster Bill Taylor and sportscaster Joe Reinagel.

According to a statement from KENS announcing the move, the team now has more than 85 years of combined experience covering San Antonio.

Im thrilled to make the move permanent, Knapp said in the release. I enjoy working with Jeff, Bill, Joe and our terrific reporters each night. After talking it over with my husband, we felt this was a great move for me and our family.

General Manager Tom Cury made it clear its a great move for KENS, too.

We always knew Deborah was the right fit, Cury said. Were thrilled to have Deborahs professionalism and experience joining us permanently at 10 p.m.

Knapp will continue to anchor KENS 4 p.m. news, which has been a consistent ratings winner for many years, as well as the stations 5 p.m. newscast, which wrested No. 1 from KSAT  the station thats usually in first place in that time slot  in the February Nielsens.

Shes also a big help to the younger reporters and new hires when they need her.

RELATED: KENS-TV traffic anchor Niku Kazori's secret sides may startle you

Deborah is a mentor to many in our newsroom and a leader for our station and community, said Jack Acosta, KENS executive news director. We are lucky to have her.

This isnt the first time shes been offered the 10 p.m. broadcast, but its the first time she has accepted.

When her two kids, Alicia and Austin, were small, she was told the 10 p.m. co-anchor position next to Chris Marrou, KENS star anchorman at the time, was hers if she wanted it.

She turned it down and, as she said in a recent interview, never regretted the decision. She preferred to do the earlier evening newscasts so she could be home nights to tuck her children in bed.

You cant get those years with your kids back, she said.

Knapp now has three grandchildren and visits them and their mom in Hong Kong, where Alicia lives, whenever possible. Son Austin is much easier to see these days. He recently moved back to San Antonio from New York.

Though she considers San Antonio her hometown, she was born in Japan. Knapps dad was in the Air Force, so her family moved numerous times before settling in the Alamo City in the 60s, when she entered Garner Middle School.

Before starting in the world of news, Knapp was cast in a movie in 1975 opposite Robert Redford. She played a farmers daughter in The Great Waldo Pepper, the brief love interest of Redfords dashing pilot.

When we did the film, she said, Robert Redford told me, I guess you want to go to Hollywood now and be a movie star. I told him, No, I want to be a reporter.

Knapp said that was her dream ever since she was 14 at MacArthur High School.

Right out of college at the University of Texas at Austin, Knapp got her start  not on KENS, but competitor KSAT, as the stations weekend weather girl.

Not long after, she was hired by KENS as a weekday anchor.

However, an opportunity in a bigger city  the CBS station in the top-5 market of Philadelphia  soon beckoned, and she answered the call. She anchored the news there for six years but left in 1986 to return to KENS.

This is home. My family was here, she said. I wanted to raise my kids here. I feel close to the people. It makes me feel so good when a waiter or someone else tells me, Ive been watching you since I was little.

Jeanne Jakles column appears Thursdays and Sundays in mySA. Read more of her columns here. | jjakle@express-news.net | @JakleJ
WASHINGTON - There's a famous line in Rob Reiner's coming-of-age movie "Stand by Me." It's delivered with a slight lisp by a chubby little boy called Verne: "If I could only eat one food for the rest of my life, that's easy. Pez. Cherry flavor Pez. No question about it."

Verne, in the movie, looks like a bit of a gourmand. He's familiar with many different kinds of food.

I, too, as an art critic, have seen a lot of different kinds of art. But, I swear: If I could see only one kind of art for the rest of my life, it's easy. Textiles. Uzbekistani textiles. No question about it.

The two kinds of Uzbekistani - or really, Central Asian - textiles I like most are suzanis and ikat. Suzanis are embroidered with silk or cotton with bright-colored motifs that include carnations, pomegranates, irises, tulips and discs denoting the sun or moon.

They're stunning - somehow relaxed, improvised, aerated - yet also dreamily, transcendently elegant. They're everything Henri Matisse was trying to achieve, just in colored thread.

There are two - yes, two - ikat shows you can see, both in the nation's capital. "To Dye For: Ikats From Central Asia" is at the Smithsonian's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery on the Mall (through July 29). "Binding the Clouds: The Art of Central Asian Ikat" is at the Textile Museum at George Washington University (through July 9). Both are showing textiles originally collected by Guido Goldman, a specialist in German history and an investor who amassed what many consider the world's finest ikat collection.

What is ikat?

Ikat textiles alloy brilliant, saturated color with mesmerizing patterns. You can tell them by the blur or "bleed" around the edges of their gorgeous designs. It's as though Gerhard Richter had decided to paint a Persian carpet with one of his giant squeegees, or as though your TV went briefly haywire in the middle of a documentary about fruit orchards.

Ikat's distinctive look is the product of a sophisticated technique that involves designers, binders, weavers and, above all, dyers. The technique developed in the late 18th century in the ancient Silk Road city of Bukhara, in what today is Uzbekistan.

Bukhara occupies a fertile oasis surrounded by orchards and fields - natural features that surely inspired the abstracted motifs in ikat designs. It spread north and east to Samarkand, Tashkent and the Fergana Valley.

To appreciate ikat, you don't need to understand how they're made. But, as with any art form, having an idea enhances the experience. The key thing - the thing that makes ikat unusual - is that when the cloth is stretched on the warp, it already holds a pattern, even before any weft is applied. How?

The process starts with bundles of silk yarn. Before being dropped in a dye bath, these bundles are bound in the places the dyers want to protect, so that only the unbound parts absorb the dye. After dying, the bindings are removed and new ones placed elsewhere on the same bundle, which is then submerged in the next dye bath - a different color. This process is repeated according to a preordained design worked out earlier when the yarn was stretched on a frame.

The whole process can take weeks or months. Conceptually - and logistically, too - it's complex. What's more, the silk is slippery and difficult to handle. Many things can go wrong.

In the 19th century, when the overwhelming majority of the ikats in both these shows were made, different ethnic groups specialized in different parts of the process. Tajiks worked on red and yellow dyes, and Jews on indigo. Uzbeks focused on weaving.

Part of why ikat textiles were for so long little known in the West is that few of them made it out of Central Asia while these countries were under Soviet occupation. That changed when the old Soviet Union broke up.

The ikats at the Sackler include coats, as well as hangings. The show also includes examples of the influence of ikat on Oscar de la Renta, the fashion designer who may have done more than anyone to cultivate an appreciation for ikat in this country.

The Textile Museum show focuses more on hangings and is beautifully installed. Part of the charm of ikats is the way different sections of cloth were sewn together, so that motifs almost but don't quite align, created a thrilling optical buzz and shiver.

In Central Asia, ikat textiles carry a lot of prestige - not only, you feel, because the technique is labor-intensive and expensive, but because the results are so insanely beautiful. In Uzbekistan and other parts of Central Asia, ikat coats, called chapan or khalat, were - and continue to be - worn by dandies and powerful men, as well as by women, in large part to signify wealth and rank.

The ikat technique of binding segments of bundles of yarn and resist dyeing is known in Central Asia as "abrbandi," a Persian term that can be translated as "binding the clouds." A beautiful notion. No wonder the Textile Museum used it in the title of their show.

Dyeing and weaving are among the greatest of human achievements. We wear clothes made from woven fabrics every day, so we take it for granted. But when you see what is involved in a technique like ikat - the number of complex steps it takes to get from the cocoons of silk worms fed on mulberries to vats of high quality, colorfast dye obtained from rare and unlikely-sounding sources, and from there to sturdy fabrics that ripple and shimmer, protecting and adorning our bodies or walls - it is hard not to marvel.

---

- "To Dye For: Ikats From Central Asia"

At the Smithsonian's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, through July 29.

- "Binding the Clouds: The Art of Central Asian Ikat"

At the Textile Museum at George Washington University, through July 9.
Albany

The great Cynthia Nixon freakout continues.

The person freaking out, of course, is Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has responded to Nixon's entry into the governor's race with one progressive announcement after another. The man is fretting.

Last week, for example, Cuomo said he may pardon paroled felons so they can vote in New York elections, a move that civil rights activists hailed. On Monday, he proposed a bill that would ban single-use plastic bags statewide.

In what can only be considered a massive coincidence, wink wink, the announcement came as Nixon was marching with environmentalists through Albany and denouncing Cuomo's lack of action on climate change. If Nixon was holding thunder, Cuomo mugged her and ran off with it.

Nixon is pushing Cuomo to the left, and hard. If you're a Nixon-style progressive, that's a victory  even if the challenger of "Sex and the City" fame ultimately fails to topple our gubernatorial Mr. Big in the Democratic primary.

So, plastic bags.

In progressive circles, they are one of the great evils of civilization, right up there with cigarettes, religion and "Duck Dynasty."

More Information Contact columnist Chris Churchill at 518-454-5442 or email cchurchill@timesunion.com See More Collapse

The hatred for plastic bags, at least, isn't irrational. Their impact is undeniable and unfortunate. They harm wildlife. They clog storm drains. They get caught in trees.

"The blight of plastic bags takes a devastating toll on our streets, our water and our natural resources," Cuomo said Monday in his statement announcing the legislation.

If you want to feel grim about humanity's future on the planet, take a walk along Albany's riverfront bike trail and eye the multitude of plastic bags. On a windy day, there might be hundreds pressed up along the chain-link fence separating the path from Interstate 787.

Cuomo's proposal would take effect next year and apply to point-of-sale plastic bags, with a few exceptions, including those thin plastic bags you use at the supermarket for fruits and veggies.

Of course, New York doesn't do anything that California hasn't done first, and so it is with plastic bags. The biggest of the blue states largely banned them at the start of 2017 and does not seem to have fallen into the ocean as a result.

Cuomo's plan differs in an important way. While California imposes a 10-cent fee on paper bags, New York's bill does not.

That means the legislation, if enacted, would probably just lead many stores and their customers to scrap single-use plastic bags to go back to the single-use paper bags of yore, which is not a clear-cut (pun intended!) environmental victory.

Yes, paper bags are biodegradable. But studies have found that they actually have a bigger carbon footprint than their plastic counterparts, largely because more energy is needed to produce and transport them.

On Monday, I talked to Mona Golub, the Price Chopper spokeswoman, who has become something of an expert on plastic bag bans, as the supermarket chain operates in several municipalities that have enacted them. Golub said the company is generally supportive of measures that reduce the amount of garbage and encourage customers to switch to reusable bags. She's skeptical Cuomo's bill will do that.

"The lack of recognition that paper bags are just as disposable is the shortcoming," Golub said.

Under the current legislative setup, with Republicans in charge of the state Senate, Cuomo's bill is as doomed to failure as the Buffalo Bills. But with Democrats expected to surf a blue wave that will give them control of the body, the plastic bag ban could face better odds.

Well, I won't cry if plastic bags disappear.

In all honesty, I'm tired of being the guy who continually tells store clerks that, no, I really don't need a bag, please, not for that one little item. They almost never ask ahead of time. Often I'm late to the draw and they grudgingly pull whatever I'm buying out of the bag to honor my request.

On Saturday, when I went to Stewart's to buy butter, just butter, I was especially slow. And so my purchase was in the bag and on the counter before I said a word, and I never protested. The bag, the butter and I went home, the butter headed for the fridge, the bag headed for a kitchen cupboard where it is scrunched up with dozens of its kind.

It won't stay there long. Someday soon, I'll carry the bag into the yard and use it to pick up one of the special somethings that my dog scatters about. The bag and the special something will get tossed in the garbage.

Eventually, the bag and its unlovely cargo will arrive at a landfill, where the plastic will endure for hundreds and hundreds of years, long past when the dog and I have ceased to exist in this temporal world.

cchurchill@timesunion.com  518-454-5442  @chris_churchill
EDINBURG, Texas  On Thursday, April 19, Weslaco Border Patrol agents received information on a possible stash house located near Edcouch, Texas. Agents, working in collaboration with the Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office (HCSO), identified the suspected stash house and approached the residence.

Several subjects began to exit the residence through the windows and rear door. Upon entry, agents discovered 29 male subjects crammed into the small home. Agents and HSCO deputies located a total of 39 illegal aliens after searching the home and surrounding area.
A U.S. Border Patrol agent shot at a group of suspected armed robbers Sunday evening in central Laredo, authorities said.

No injuries were reported as a result of the shot fired, Laredo police said.

Prior to the shooting, an armed robbery was reported at about 7:30 p.m. Sunday at a maquinita, Big Bear Amusement, 301 Amusement St.

Initial reports state that three masked suspects dressed in black entered the 8-liner establishment armed with handguns.

READ ALSO: Masked men rob Laredo maquinita at gunpoint

Police said the suspects pistol-whipped two employees in the back of the head. They were not seriously hurt, according to police.

The suspects escaped with money bags containing about $2,000. A lookout was issued for the suspect vehicle. A Border Patrol agent saw the vehicle at Maryland Avenue and Chihuahua Street.

One suspected robber allegedly pointed his weapon at the agent, according to LPD. Police said the agent reacted by firing his service firearm once. It was not clear if the shot fired struck the vehicle.

READ ALSO: Laredo convenience store manager accused of stealing $11K from employer

The suspects managed to get away, police said. No arrests have been made.

Border Patrol did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

To provide information on the robbery, call police at 795-2800, Laredo Crime Stoppers at 727-TIPS (8477) or text a tip to 847411 and type keyword: Laredo. Callers may remain anonymous. Calls received through Crime Stoppers may be eligible for a cash reward.
Former president George H.W. Bush was hospitalized Sunday morning "after contracting an infection that spread to his blood," a family spokesman said.

Bush, 93, was admitted to Houston Methodist Hospital just one day after his wife, former first lady Barbara Bush, was laid to rest, said spokesman Jim McGrath. The 41st president is responding to treatments and appears to be recovering, he said.

Barbara Bush died Tuesday at age 92, two days after he family announced that she had "decided not to seek additional medical treatment" after recent hospitalizations amid her "failing health." Her husband, whose own health has been declining, sat in his wheelchair in front of her casket at her funeral Saturday, greeting mourners for 20 minutes.

Bush has been battling a form of Parkinson's disease, and has needed hospital care several times in recent years because of respiratory problems. He also suffered from Graves's disease - a thyroid ailment - during his presidency. He remains America's longest-living president, having surpassed Gerald Ford, who died at 93 years and 165 days, last November.

Bush would turn 94 in June.

In 2012, he was hospitalized for a bronchitis-related cough, spending two months at the hospital, some of it in intensive care. He was hospitalized after experiencing shortness of breath in 2014, and again in 2015 after falling at his Kennebunkport, Maine, home and breaking a bone in his neck. He recovered quickly.

He was hospitalized for 16 days in January 2017 for pneumonia, which included time in the intensive care unit. In April 2017, he was hospitalized for two weeks for a mild case of pneumonia and chronic bronchitis.

CNN reported that Bush was admitted to the hospital on Sunday with an infection that led to sepsis, which at his age can be life-threatening. Bush was in critical condition, experiencing drops in his blood pressure, which raised concerns of whether he'd come through, CNN reported. He has since been stabilized.

Bush served two terms as vice president under Ronald Reagan and then one as president, from 1989 to 1993. As president, he oversaw the end of the Cold War, and the U.S. and its allies' swift defeat of Iraq in the Persian Gulf War.
As people lay dying, the driver climbed out of his van and pointed an object at the police.

The man, later identified by authorities as Alek Minassian, had just plowed into a crowd of pedestrians on a sidewalk at more than 30 mph, killing 10 and wounding 15 more. "Kill me," he screamed as he rapidly raised and lowered the object in his hand.

Instead, a police officer moved slowly toward the man, weapon drawn.

"Get down," he insisted. The man said he had a gun, but the officer continued forward. "I don't care," he said. "Get down."

Within seconds, the suspect had raised both hands. The officer quickly got him onto his stomach and handcuffed. Not a single gun shot was fired in the exchange, earning the officer plaudits for his restraint.

Such actions are part of a concerted effort by the Toronto Police Service to have its officers de-escalate dangerous situations rather than open fire. In the past, Toronto police had faced widespread criticism for their use of force. In one incident from 2013, an 18-year-old named Sammy Yatim was shot nine times and killed by officers responding a call claiming Yatim had a weapon.

"That and other high-profile police shootings in recent years prompted scrutiny of officers' use of force, and led to formal calls to change police tactics in order to de-escalate standoffs," the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reports.

Earlier this year, the Toronto Police Services Board passed a motion to provide hundreds of officers stun guns instead of guns. Toronto law enforcement officials have also conducted an extensive review of their "use-of-force options," the CBC reports, and done several training sessions on de-escalation. Police are "taught to use as little force as possible in any given situation," Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders said at a news conference after Minassian's arrest.

It's unclear how many Canadians are killed by police each year. One investigation by the Independent in 2015 estimated that the number is about 25.

That's higher than in many other developed countries, but it's a tiny fraction of the men and women killed by American police officers. In 2017, 987 people were shot and killed by police in the United States, according to The Washington Post's database on police shootings. This year, 344 people have been fatally shot by police.

Those numbers put the United States far outside the norm. In 2014, the Economist compared the United States with other developed countries. In Germany, police killed eight people. In Japan and Britain, officers went a year without fatally shooting anyone.

Experts attribute that disparity to a couple of things. Violent crime is much more common in the United States than in many other developed countries. Guns are easier to access, meaning that police are more likely to confront someone with a deadly weapon. There are concerns about racial bias, too - police in the United States shoot and kill a disproportionate number of black people, even if they are unarmed.

Police in the United States may also have a different attitude. As Michael Lyman, a professor of criminal justice at Columbia College of Missouri, told the BBC, American police officers would probably feel a "duty" to kill the suspect. "Assuming the suspect is holding a gun and pointing it toward officers, it is concerning that the officer is not engaging the suspect with deadly force," he said.

In Toronto, Monday's violence-free arrest was hailed as a victory. Mike McCormack, the president of the Toronto Police Association, told the Globe and Mail that he had spoken to the officer who arrested Minassian. "I just did my job," McCormack said the officer told him. "What I did was no big deal."

McCormack disagreed. "People are right," he said at a Monday news conference. "This guy is a hero."
Yeti coolers are the hottest coolers around. They are also wildly expensive, between $250 and $1,300, depending on the size. So a discount on a Yeti, like the company offered to the NRA and other organizations, is no small thing.

Still, the price of the coolers didn't stop some Yeti owners from blowing them up in ritual anger after the National Rifle Association claimed that Yeti was terminating the discount as part of an NRA boycott.

On Monday afternoon, for example, Bryan Atkinson unloaded a Yeti cooler from the bed of a truck parked on a dirt road in the middle of a South Carolina field. Inside the cooler he placed ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder, packaged in a cardboard box sealed with duct tape.

"This Yeti," he said, "ain't ready."

RELATED VIDEO: These Companies Are Cutting Ties With the NRA

His friends took the cooler out to the middle of the muddy field and set it down. Atkinson got on one knee and lifted his AR-15 to eye level. Then, with one shot, he blew the Yeti cooler to pieces.

"If Yeti can't stand behind the NRA, I ain't standing behind Yeti no more," Atkinson told the camera during a Facebook Live video, which has been shared more than 2,300 times.

The stunt followed a letter to NRA members sent by the NRA Institute for Legislative Action announcing that Yeti had severed ties with the NRA Foundation, following the lead of other companies in the wake of the Feb. 14 Parkland, Florida, shooting massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

The letter, sent by former NRA president and current lobbyist Marion P. Hammer, said the company "declined to do business with The NRA Foundation" without prior notice and "refused to say why."

"They will only say they will no longer sell products to The NRA Foundation," Hammer wrote. "That certainly isn't sportsmanlike. In fact, YETI should be ashamed."

But on Monday, just as the backlash and calls for boycott picked up steam, Yeti said in a statement to The Washington Post, also posted on Yeti's Facebook account, that the NRA letter was "inaccurate." The Austin-based retailer said it notified various organizations, including the NRA Foundation, that it was eliminating a "group of outdated discounting programs" from which the organizations benefited.

The NRA was not specifically targeted, Yeti said.

"When we notified the NRA Foundation and the other organizations of this change, YETI explained that we were offering them an alternative customization program broadly available to consumers and organizations, including the NRA Foundation," Yeti said. "These facts directly contradict the inaccurate statement the NRA-ILA distributed on April 20."

"Further," the statement continued, "the NRA-ILA stated . . . that '[YETI has] declined to continue helping America's young people enjoy outdoor recreational activities.' Nothing is further from the truth. YETI was founded more than 10 years ago with a passion for the outdoors, and over the course of our history we have actively and enthusiastically supported hunters, anglers and the broader outdoor community . . . YETI is unwavering in our belief in and commitment to the Constitution of the United States and its Second Amendment."

But the damage had already been done, and NRA supporters had taken to destroying Yeti coolers in a variety of explosive ways. Some filled the cooler with tannerite explosive rifle targets and, like Atkinson, shot it and blew it up in a field. Others shot holes through the stainless steel Yeti tumblers in their backyard or basements. One man crushed a Yeti tumbler in a vise.

Over the past decade, Yeti has risen to become an "aspirational brand" for hunters and other outdoorsy consumers, as AdAge described in a 2014 article about Yeti's distinct appeal to that market. "Yeti is reinventing the utilitarian cooler as a status symbol," AdAge wrote.

The company calls the coolers "grizzly proof," as certified by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee. Yeti markets them as the ideal companions for campers and other outdoor adventurers trudging through the wilderness on trips that require storing food and drinks.

Even Hammer acknowledged at the start of her letter, "For years YETI Coolers have been a hot item for sportsmen at the Friends of NRA Foundation Banquet and Auction events around the country."

In a statement emailed to The Washington Post Monday night, Hammer said that it was "news to us" that Yeti dropped not only the NRA Foundation from the discount program but also other organizations.

"After three days Yeti issued a statement claiming they didn't really drop the NRA Foundation," she said. "They claim they simply eliminated the entire program affecting NRA Foundation and other unnamed organizations. Isn't that like eliminating a job position so you can get rid of an employee?"

She added that "Yeti decided the NRA Foundation can't place any more orders and in fact they forced us to cancel orders they would not fill."

A representative for Yeti did not immediately respond to questions from The Post seeking a reaction to Hammer's comments.

Some NRA supporters, commenting on Facebook, were not buying Yeti's claim and said they would no longer buy Yeti products either.

"I own several expensive Yeti products and planned on purchasing more, however, NOT NOW," wrote one. "You just lost my family's business. The second amendment is important, YETI is not. Shame on you."

One sensed a buying opportunity, however, writing: "Hey! Proud NRA member here. Since I'm not a thin skinned wussy who boycotts everything that upsets me in the least [if you] are unhappy with Yeti and want to destroy your cooler that is all of the sudden overpriced, I will GLADLY take it off your hands! Can't have to many of them!"

The Yeti flap comes after various businesses have distanced themselves from the NRA or from gun manufacturers in the aftermath Parkland shootings. Companies ranging from airlines to rental car companies ended discounts for NRA members. Retailer such as REI, Dick's Sporting Goods and L.L. Bean announced new policies on gun sales and stopped selling certain weapons or products tied to gun manufacturers.

All of these companies made formal announcements making their stance on guns or the NRA clear.

Chris Loesch tweeted "Hi @YETICoolers- you should reverse this terrible decision. Do you not understand who your base is? Will never buy or use any of your products again and we had a bunch."

Jen (@nintenjen) tweeted "I really liked that thing, but I like my NRA and my rights more. @YETICoolers#yeticoolers#YetiBoycott"

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White police officers in Alabama wrestled a black woman to the ground in a Waffle House early Sunday morning, exposing her breasts during the struggle and prompting comparisons to two black men arrested in a Philadelphia Starbucks earlier this month.

Yet local police maintain that the three officers involved followed protocol and said the department is "not choosing to take any action at this time." At a news conference Monday afternoon, officials said the woman and her friend were acting belligerently inside the Waffle House, drunkenly yelling profanity at the restaurant's employees and threatening to return with a gun and "shoot this place up."

The incident sparked a sit-in protest at the store Sunday afternoon and led to responses from the NAACP and celebrities, even as Waffle House officials contested the details of the family's story.

A video that has gone viral shows Chikesia Clemons, 25, sitting on a chair at the diner in Saraland, north of Mobile, as one of the officers grabs her neck and right wrist in an attempt to subdue her. Clemons describes a disagreement with a store employee that triggered the police response. She soon appears conscious of her tube top and raises her arms to cover her bust line.

"You're not going to grab on me like that, no," Clemons tells the officer, who appears to speak to another officer off-camera in the video filmed by Clemons' friend, Canita Adams.

What happens next is unclear. The widely circulated Adams video of the incident suddenly jumps to the moment Clemons and the two officers go to the ground in a violent tumble. It is unclear from the video who initiated the struggle that forced Clemons and the officers to the floor.

"What are you doing?" Clemons asks as the struggle continues on the tile floor.

"I'll break your arm, that's what I'm about to do," an officer says.

The struggle continues, with officers demanding Clemons to stop "resisting" as her breast is exposed.

At one point, an officer places his hand around her neck.

"You're choking me!" Clemons cries out.

The officer releases his grip when a third officer nearby gestures with his hand. Clemons was arrested at about 2:45 a.m. and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, officials confirmed at the news conference.

Officials from the Saraland Police Department said an investigation into Clemons' arrest and the officers' conduct began early Sunday morning. At the news conference, Detective Collette Little played the 911 call made by a Waffle House employee at around 2:30 a.m., as well as surveillance footage from inside the restaurant.

According to the 911 call, the employee said she had been told by one of her managers to call the police because of customers - two black females and one black male - who entered the restaurant with alcohol. The customers were told they were not allowed to drink the alcohol inside, the employee told the dispatcher.

Several surveillance clips from different angles showed two women, identified as Clemons and Adams, sitting down at a table. An unidentified male had previously entered the Waffle House and went to the restroom, before joining the women at their table.

Little said that after a few minutes, "the situation escalates between the patrons at that table and the employees." The Waffle House employees ask Clemons, Adams and their male friend to leave the restaurant. Adams and the male friend can be seen briefly exiting the Waffle House. Clemons briefly reaches the door, then walks back over to her booth to re-engage with the employees. Adams soon returns.

Soon, the three officers arrive one by one. In one of the frames, Clemons is seen being taken to the floor. Little said that during the arrest, the officers were attempting to handcuff Clemons "behind her back, which again is standard procedure."

Little said that one of the officers asked Adams "if she will assist in pulling Ms. Clemons's shirt back up. And Ms. Adams refuses." The male friend then "asks permission to pull her dress up, and the female gives him permission."

At that point, Clemons, Adams, the male friend and the three officers leave the Waffle House.

Little said that when the police arrived, Clemons "appeared to be intoxicated." Little said that Clemons "got sick" after being booked. An image showed Clemons at the police station holding a trash can up to her face.

Detective Brian Mims said that in conducting the police investigation, he reached out to Clemons and Adams to interview them. Clemons did not appear for a scheduled interview. Attempts to reach Adams were unsuccessful.

Mims interviewed the three officers as well as witnesses from inside the Waffle House, including six employees and one customer. Of those witnesses, two were African American and four were female, he said. All witnesses confirmed that Clemons and her friends smelled of alcohol and appeared drunk. One person brought a drink believed to be alcoholic into the restaurant.

The witnesses said Clemons and Adams loudly shouted profanity at the Waffle House employees. One of them shouted "I'll come over this counter" and threatened to beat the employee, saying "B--, I'm gonna have your job, you ain't gonna be here tomorrow."

One of the witnesses, according to Mims, reported hearing "I may have a gun, I may have anything. I can come back here and shoot this place up if I need to."

Witnesses said Clemons refused to comply with the officers on multiple occasions.

Mims said that from the investigation, race was not a factor in Clemons' arrest or in her conversations with the Waffle House employees.

"It was based solely on the fact that they were asked to take their beverages out and not consume them on the premises based on Waffle House's policy," Mims said. "They did not feel it was related to any other circumstance."

Little acknowledged that one of the officers told Clemons that he could break her arm during the arrest if she did not cooperate. Little said it was "a cause-and-effect statement, rather than a threat."

"It's common when an officer is using a technique to take a subject into custody that the force used could possibly create an injury," Little said.

The arrest at the Waffle House comes as companies face questions about racial profiling and how law enforcement responds. Less than two weeks ago, a white Starbucks manager called the police with a loitering complaint on two African American men who had been sitting in the store for two minutes. The men were arrested, and in the following days, both the CEO of Starbucks and Philadelphia's police commissioner apologized. The company's chairman said the manager likely acted on her own "unconscious bias" when she called 911.

Clemons' mother Chiquitta Clemons-Howard told AL.com the Waffle House dispute arose after her daughter refused to pay an extra 50 cents for plastic utensils. Mims said that issue did come up in the confrontation.

"The employee conveyed the message that, 'I don't know how old the policy is, but it is now customary that if you ask for plastic utensils to dine in only, that there is a 50 cents charge,' " Mims said. "When they had a discussion about it between the patrons and the staff, they did provide the utensils before they took their order and they were not going to be charged for it."

"They didn't even ask her to leave, she was waiting for them to give her the district manager's card so she could file a complaint on one of the waitresses," Clemons-Howard told the outlet. "When they went to go get the card, that's when the police showed up. The officer should've come in and said 'we need you to leave.' "

Clemons, Clemons-Howard and Adams could not be reached for comment.

Waffle House said in statement that police intervention was appropriate.

"[T]he information we have received at this point differs significantly from what has reportedly been attributed to Ms. Clemons," the company said.

Waffle House officials, speaking anonymously to offer a candid assessment of the incident, said key details were left out of statements by Clemons and Clemons-Howard to the media, including what happened before police arrived.

The Mobile chapter of the NAACP told AL.com it was also gathering information about the incident.

"In light of the current situation in our country - such as the arrest of two young black men at a Philadelphia Starbucks coffee shop - we felt it was important for our members to get a firsthand account of the incident, which has now gone viral on social media locally and across the country," chapter president David Smith said.

Chance the Rapper also weighed in on Monday.

"Protect our women. This is wrong, this is unjust and this happens to alot of women when there are NO cameras around. Stand with our women. Defend their voice, and their right to ask why they're being handled, being removed, being CHOKED. Be infuriated. Be willing to fight," he wrote on Twitter. He included a link to the video and emoji of a middle finger and a pig snout in an apparent insult to police.

The Alabama incident came the same day a gunman killed four people with an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle at a Waffle House outside Nashville and fled the scene. The suspect has been taken into custody.

The shooting and arrest at the two Waffle Houses culminated in a blistering few hours for the iconic Southern breakfast chain. According to its website, Waffle House has been in operation since 1955. Its more than 1,500 restaurants are open 24 hours per day each day of the year.

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Gov. Larry Hogan remains highly popular in Maryland, according to a new poll, despite being a Republican in an overwhelmingly blue state in an election year when Democrats hope to capitalize on opposition to President Donald Trump.

Sixty-nine percent of Marylanders approve of the way Hogan is handling his job, an increase from 61 percent in February, according to a Goucher College poll released Tuesday. It's his highest approval rating in the Goucher poll since fall 2016.

He receives praise across party lines: from 65 percent of registered Democrats, 64 percent of independents and 81 percent of Republicans.

Hogan is vying to become the second GOP governor in 60 years to be reelected in Maryland, where registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans 2 to 1. He has tried hard to avoid a partisan label and has repeatedly distanced himself from Trump and Republicans in Congress.

So far, the strategy seems to have worked. Seventy percent of Marylanders disapprove of Trump, nearly the opposite of Hogan's approval rating, according to the Goucher poll. But 47 percent of Marylanders polled say Hogan has distanced himself "about the right amount" from Trump. Twenty-seven percent say he's distanced himself too little, and 9 percent say too much.

A 53 percent majority think the state is heading in the right direction; 28 percent say the state is on the wrong track.

"If I were Larry Hogan, I'd probably be doing somersaults," Todd Eberly, a political scientist at St. Mary's College of Maryland, said after looking at the poll results. "If there's going to be a blue wave, I think Hogan is in the best position he could be in a Democratic state if you were going to withstand that wave."

Mileah Kromer, director of the Goucher polling team, cautioned that there remain plenty of undecided voters and - with the wide-open Democratic gubernatorial primary still nine weeks away - a long road to November.

"What probably concerns them is the fact that approval isn't necessarily the same thing as support for reelection," Kromer said. "We're really far out. It's not like he can pack it in."

If Hogan were pitted now against one of the contenders in June's Democratic primary, between 44 and 47 percent of likely voters say they would choose Hogan, according to the poll. Between 22 and 27 percent of likely voters say they are undecided.

Hogan holds a 44 percent to 31 percent lead against Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker, the Democratic front-runner in other recent polls. He leads by an identical margin against former NAACP president Ben Jealous, who narrowly trailed Baker in this weekend's Western Maryland Democratic straw poll.

A February Mason-Dixon poll found Hogan leading Baker by 15 points in a general-election matchup, while a Gonzalez poll released in January gave Hogan a 10-point advantage.

The governor performed well in the Goucher poll on the question of whether Marylanders trust him or Democratic leaders on several specific issues. Fifty-five percent of Maryland adults say they have more confidence in Hogan to deal with the state's budget and finances, vs. 28 percent who had more confidence in Democrats. He is more trusted on crime (48 percent to 32 percent), taxes (47 percent to 35 percent), economic development (49 percent to 35 percent) and transportation and infrastructure (45 percent to 36 percent).

Democrats have a double-digit advantage only on the environment (47 percent to 34 percent). They have a narrower edge on education (44 percent to 37 percent).

The poll revealed age and gender gaps that show that it is crucial for Democrats to get millennials and women to the polls.

Hogan has a 24-point advantage over Baker among likely voters age 55 and older, a higher-turnout group in a nonpresidential election year, when fewer than half of voters typically cast ballots. He trails his top Democratic rivals by roughly 20 points among likely voters under 35. Hogan leads by about 2 to 1 among men, but is tied with the Democrats among women, who made up 54 percent of voters in the 2014 gubernatorial election, according to the Census Bureau.

The Goucher poll was conducted April 14-19 among a random sample of 617 residents of Maryland, including landline and cellphone respondents. Full results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points. The margin of error was 4.6 points among the subset of 449 likely voters.
The family of Robert Ethan Saylor, a man with Down syndrome who died after three off-duty Frederick County sheriff deputies forced him from a movie theater, have reached a settlement with the state of Maryland, the deputies and the management company of the shopping center where the theater is located.

The $1.9 million settlement will mark the end of a long-standing lawsuit and comes more than five years after Saylor's death led to public outrage and a call for better training of law enforcement officials.

"There's a cliche that you can't assign a dollar amount to a human being's life, but that is our system, that's the only remedy we have for justice in our system," Saylor's mother, Patti Saylor, said Tuesday. "We're not comforted by the money as much as knowing we gave our son everything we could, that we stood up for him until we exhausted all avenues for standing up for him. Because his life mattered. What happened to him should not have happened."

The 26-year-old who went by his middle name was obsessed with law enforcement when he and an aide went to watch "Zero Dark Thirty" at the Westview Promenade shopping center on Jan. 12, 2013. After the movie, while his aide went to get the car, Saylor slipped back into the theater for a second showing without paying for a ticket. After he refused to leave, a theater manager called the deputies who, after a confrontation, forced him from his seat.

During the struggle, Saylor ended up on the floor and suffered a fractured larynx. His death was later ruled a homicide as a result of asphyxia.

A call to the deputies' attorney, Daniel Karp, was not returned Tuesday. The deputies - Lt. Scott Jewell, Sgt. Rich Rochford and Deputy 1st Class James Harris - were cleared of wrongdoing in an internal affairs investigation, and a county grand jury determined that criminal charges were not warranted.

As part of the settlement, the deputies, the state and Hill Management Services "deny liability of any sort."

The settlement was finalized after the Maryland Board of Public Works approved the state's portion of the money, $645,000, at a meeting on April 18. The deputies and Hill Management agreed to pay $800,000 and $455,000 respectively.

Joseph Espo, an attorney for the Saylor family, described the settlement as carrying "the message that there are real consequences to failing to treat individuals with disabilities in the manner in which they are entitled."

Saylor's death changed the conversation about how best to protect the rights of people with disabilities in public spaces. After his death, Maryland changed how it trains law enforcement officers. They are now taught in the academy how best to interact with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and a program created in Saylor's memory teaches people with disabilities to serve as instructors in law enforcement training.

Patti Saylor said after four years of fighting for her son in court, the settlement comes with "mixed emotions." But, she said, she and Ethan's father, Ron, agreed the time was right for them to accept it and"focus on healing."

"It's been four years of gut-wrenching reports and judges' opinions and depositions and defending my son's right to be seen as human, to be seen as valuable," she said. "I'm relieved that it's over. I'm tired. But I really feel like as a mom, I did what I needed to do to do right by my son and see this to the very end."
As 4-year-0ld Elianna Grace sat in the back seat of the SUV, battling her second fever in three days, her mom flashed back to the coughing and vomiting fit the preschooler had the previous weekend - and to a niggling fear about the girl's sudden illness.

Elianna had spent April 14 playing in her grandparents' pool in Bradenton, Florida. She blew a geyser of water at family members with a pool noodle. One of them tried to spray her back, but Elianna was already inhaling and got a mouth full of water.

The preschooler coughed, vomited and retched for the next few minutes, her mother, Lacey Grace, told The Washington Post, trying to expel a lung- and a stomachful of chlorinated water.

RELATED: 4-year-old dies of 'dry drowning' nearly a week after swimming at Texas City Dike

But half an hour later, Elianna was happily splashing in the pool. The next day, she seemed fine on a shopping trip with mommy. The crisis seemed averted.

On Monday the girl's preschool called her parents. Elianna had a fever. She'd have to go home and, per the facility's policy, stay out at least 24 hours. Elianna spent a day with her mother at the family's business, coloring quietly in a corner. On Wednesday, she was back at preschool with no ill effects.

But the preschool called again that afternoon. The fever was back.

This time, her mother took her straight to Urgent Care, but even then, Lacey Grace worried she was overreacting. She and her husband have two daughters - 4 and nearly 2. Fevered trips to the doctor are not unusual.

"There are so many times I have taken my kid to the doctor, saying I'm being a worried parent, and they say it's a viral thing, give it a few days," Grace told The Post.

RELATED: 'Dry drowning' signs that every parent should be aware of

But she had read about Frankie Delgado Jr., who died last summer under similar circumstances. Frankie, also 4, inhaled a large amount of water while splashing at the Texas City Dike with his family. His family worried the symptoms that manifested a few days later were "dry drowning," an imprecise term to describe water trapped in the respiratory system that can ultimately make it difficult for a person to breathe. But experts say it may have been a bacterial infection. Whatever the cause, the outcome was tragic: An otherwise healthy child, dead in a matter of days.

"I never would have correlated that fever to the pool incident if I hadn't of read that story about Frankie," Grace said. "I was like, this is not going to happen to Elianna."

Grace noticed worrying signs as she looked at her overheated daughter on the way to Urgent Care. The girl was shivering. And there were purple spots on the girl's skin as she was getting X-rayed.

"The doctor came out and said 'You have to find the nearest emergency room,'" she recalled to The Post. "'You need to pick the closest one. Just go.'"

At the more advanced facility, doctors gave Elianna's worried parents the prognosis: Their daughter had an uncommon but severe bacterial infection in her lungs and was struggling to get enough oxygen into her bloodstream. It all started with the water she'd breathed in at the pool.

The doctors said there was nothing they could do to remove the fluid - that had to happen on its own. At the moment, they had to fight the infection and the inflammation it was causing.

More X-rays followed. And every five minutes, it seemed, someone in a white coat was holding a stethoscope to Elianna's chest.

The scariest moment happened sometime between Wednesday night and Thursday morning. Mother and daughter were snuggled in Elianna's hospital bed when doctors and nurses rushed in. Elianna's oxygen level had dipped to dangerous levels, according to a monitor clipped to her toe.

Grace said the monitor's warning was the only sign that something was wrong with the child sleeping in her arms.

Her doctors "were saying things like 'This is why she's here. Thank God you brought her in. This is why you're here. Nothing's going to happen to her with all these resources here.'"

They were right, Grace said. Two days later, after a round of a strong antibiotic, the 4-year-old was able to breathe without an oxygen mask, her mother said. She stopped wheezing when she exhaled.

Elianna took an abbreviated trip to the park on Monday and has an appointment for what her mom hopes will be her last X-Ray on Wednesday.

Initial news reports widely deemed Elianna's case "dry drowning" or "secondary drowning," even though her parents say doctors told her the girl was fighting a secondary infection. A GoFundMe friends started to help the Graces pay for hospital costs details the full cause: chemical pneumonitis, aspiration pneumonia and perihilar edema.

Similar questions - a "dry drowning diagnosis" versus a quickly-spreading bacterial infection - came up in Frankie's case.

He and his family members went to the dike on Memorial Day weekend last year, and the 4-year-old splashed in the knee deep water. Shortly after they got home, he started vomiting and had diarrhea.

On June 3, the boy told his parents that his shoulders hurt and laid down for a nap.

"Out of nowhere, he just woke up," Frankie Delgado Jr. told Houston's ABC affiliate KTRK. "He said 'ahhh,' he took his last breath - and I didn't know what to do no more."

"I walked in. I could see him lying there; they were still working on him," his mother, Tara Delgado, told CBS affiliate KHOU. "I'm screaming, 'Let me just touch my baby! Maybe he needs his mama's touch.' "

Family members (and reporters who talked to them) initially attributed his death to dry drowning, although others said his symptoms seemed similar to a bacterial infection.

Recently, doctors have shied away from the terms "dry drowning" and "secondary drowning," preferring to specify the circumstances of someone's death to improve resuscitation treatments.

In dry drowning, a person's larynx closes in an attempt to stop water from seeping into the respiratory system, according to the Cleveland Clinic. But air can't get through, either, depriving the body of oxygen. In secondary drowning, water is trapped in the respiratory system. It causes the lungs to spasm, making it difficult for a person to catch a breath. The lungs can also get irritated and fill with fluid.

Even if her daughter wasn't a victim of 'dry drowning,' the situation was still petrifying, Grace said. One day, her 4-year-old was fine, coloring on what appeared to be an unnecessary sick day from preschool. Twenty-four hours later, doctors were telling her she couldn't breathe without an oxygen mask.

But those doctors might not have been there in time, Grace said, if she hadn't read Frankie Delgado's story, horrified. Now, the story of her daughter's sudden sickness is forever linked to Frankie's.

So with her daughter on the mend, she reached out to Frankie's mother, Tara Delgado, and other family members, to express her gratitude.

Grace heard back this week.

"Frankie's sister has reached out to me," Grace told The Post, relaying the message the woman sent:

"Something with your story is making us cry. We miss Frankie everyday. We do everything we can to get his story out there to prevent this from happening. We're glad to see it's making a difference."
The Supreme Court is no stranger to the legal battles waged by minorities and voting rights groups to overturn Texas' redistricting plans they say intentionally discriminate against black and Latino voters.

"We're seven years into the case after three trials and two appeals to this court," said Texas Solicitor General Scott Keller.

But it was unclear after nearly 80 minutes of arguments whether resolution is any closer. The liberal justices seemed to favor the challengers, while the conservatives seemed to think that Texas - now supported by the Trump administration - has done what it should.

And Justice Anthony Kennedy, who probably holds the deciding vote, didn't say much at all.

There is a real chance that the court could decide that, even after all this time, the case is not yet ready for the Supreme Court to weigh in.

In the latest incarnation of the case, a three-judge panel in Texas last summer said two congressional districts and a handful of legislative districts were unconstitutional, and called on the governor to convene the legislature to draw new lines.

Before that could happen, Texas went to the Supreme Court. In September, the court on a 5-to-4 vote put that order on hold until it could hear the case.

But not waiting for the process to play out truncated things at a critical time, the liberal justices said Tuesday.

"By not waiting for the remedy in this case, we are not in a position to be fully informed," said Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

Keller said it didn't matter. A bit of history is needed:

After the 2010 census, Texas was awarded four new congressional districts. The legislature's new maps drawn to accommodate the growth were found by the district court to probably be unconstitutional, and the judges drew interim maps to be used in the 2012 elections.

In 2013, the Republican legislature voted to permanently adopt those maps.

Keller said it was a compromise and makes no sense to say maps drawn by judges were unconstitutionally discriminatory. Texas should receive a presumption of good faith by adopting the judge-drawn maps, he said.

"This was not the legislature trying to pull a fast one on anyone," Keller said.

But Austin lawyer Max Renea Hicks, representing the challengers, said the 2012 elections showed that the maps had the intended effect.

"They had achieved everything they wanted with this map with respect to these districts, with regard to the . . . tamping-down of racial voting rights and so on," Hicks said.

Attorney Allison Riggs, representing challengers to the legislative districts, agreed that the legislature's decision to adopt the interim, judge-drawn maps was because they were favorable to them, not because they were fair.

Almost all of the growth that powered the new congressional districts was in black and Hispanic residents, the lawyers said, but the maps fulfilled the legislature's goal of protecting Anglo Republicans.

But Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito were skeptical that the legislature's actions showed intentional discrimination.

Adopting the court-drawn maps "ought to give them some presumption of good faith moving forward, which is significant on the determination of their intent to discriminate," Roberts said.

Alito asked: "What is your evidence that the state adopted the plan previously approved by the court for an invidious reason?"

Riggs said there was enough evidence to convince the lower court that the plan was discriminatory.

The Texas case is the third gerrymandering case considered by the court this term.

In the other two - challenges from Wisconsin and Maryland - the court has considered whether partisan gerrymandering in the two states made their plans unconstitutional. The justices have never thrown out a state's plan on the finding that political bias so infected the process that voters' rights were violated.

The cases argued Tuesday are both Abbott v. Perez.
The rumblings of an open conflict between Israel and Iran in Syria are growing louder. When President Donald Trump launched yet another one-off missile salvo against the Syrian regime, it came on the heels of a suspected April 9 Israeli strike on an Iranian facility at a Syrian air base, which drew howls of condemnation from the regime's patrons in Moscow and Tehran.

Though Israel didn't acknowledge responsibility for the attack, it fit a familiar pattern. Since 2012, the Israelis are believed to have launched more than 100 strikes on suspected Iranian-linked positions in Syria. Israeli officials privately argue that these measures are necessary to prevent a permanent Iranian threat on their borders and stymie the flow of weaponry to Iran's Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah.

"No matter the price, we will not allow a noose to form around us," Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israel Radio over the weekend. But he cautioned against talk of outright hostilities. "I hope not," he said when asked whether war was imminent. "I think that our primary role is to prevent war, and that requires concrete, real deterrence as well as readiness to act."

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif made similar appeals for calm in a Sunday interview with CBS News, though he accused the Israelis of escalating "tension by violating Syrian airspace."

"I do not believe that we are headed towards regional war. But I do believe that, unfortunately, Israel has continued its violations with international law, hoping to be able to do it with impunity because of the U.S. support and trying to find smokescreens to hide behind," Zarif said.

Still, Zarif warned that Israel was playing a risky game. "They should expect that if they continue to violate territorial integrity of other states, there'll be consequences," he said. "The easiest answer would be to stop - to stop these acts of aggression, to stop these incursions."

But the Israelis have made clear that an entrenched Iranian presence in Syria marks a new red line. They point to the new threat of Iranian drones, potentially armed with explosives, entering Israeli airspace, as well as the old threat of rockets launched from southern Lebanon. The April 9 strike, according to one account, was Israel's first direct attack on Iranian equipment and personnel and killed a senior Iranian drone commander.

Last week, the Israeli military leaked details and satellite images of the existence of an Iranian "air force" in Syria, including civilian planes they claimed were ferrying shipments of arms. The leak was supposed to signal to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the powerful military organization that dominates Iran's foreign policy decisions, that Israel had new targets already in sight should the Iranians or their proxies attack.

From the Iranian perspective, their presence in Syria is a legitimate defense of their beleaguered ally, Syrian President Bashar Assad. And they see their capacity to threaten Israel from next door as a potential deterrent against a long-standing regional foe.

"Israeli leaders frequently threaten to bomb Iran, so having strong military proxies near Israel's borders gives Iran some protection," wrote Ben Hubbard and David Halbfinger of the New York Times. "If Israel attacks Iran, the thinking goes, it knows it can expect a painful response from Hezbollah in Lebanon, and perhaps from other militias now operating in Syria."

The deepening tensions come at a time of growing discontent within the Islamic Republic. A tanking economy has blown the lid on popular frustration with the regime and even prompted Zarif's putative boss, President Hassan Rouhani, to complain about the costly war effort in Syria. But the prospect of broader confrontation with Israel - and the likely upcoming drama over Iran's nuclear deal with world powers - may persuade regime hard-liners that now is the time to circle the wagons.

"The shadow war has come to light after the decision by the Iranian leadership to proceed with the IRGC's plans to establish permanent bases in Syria. This was not a unanimous decision," wrote Anshel Pfeffer in the Times of London. "The faction in Tehran led by the country's president, Hassan Rouhani, is in favor of investing in Iran's domestic economy the huge amounts of money these bases will cost. But the IRGC has the ear of the nation's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and it is keen to capitalize on the investment it has made in propping up the Assad regime for the past seven years."

The way forward is treacherous. "Iran is determined to entrench its positions in Syria, and Israel is determined to prevent them," said Amos Yadlin, a former commander of Israeli military intelligence, to Pfeffer.

He suggested that Russia, whose forces help prop up the regime's air defenses and whose diplomats are key interlocutors to both the Iranians and the Israelis, will play a critical role. "Conflict is inevitable unless Putin steps in to prevent it," Yadlin said. But recent events suggest that the Russians have limited influence over Iran and are more concerned about reinforcing the Syrian regime.

At the same time, some foreign policy figures in Washington seem keen on letting Israel continue its covert campaign against the Iranians. They see Israeli strikes as necessary at a time when President Trump wants to disengage from the Syrian conflict and outsource the stabilization of the country to Iran's Sunni Arab rivals.

But other experts contend that this does not amount to a real strategy. "There is a pathway to containing and deterring Iran in Syria ... but it requires more than just Israel's itchy trigger finger and cheerleading from the sidelines by Arab autocracies," wrote Suzanne Maloney of the Brookings Institution, who argued for more robust diplomatic engagement from the Trump administration and cautioned against alienating allies by pulling out of the nuclear deal.

In February, the International Crisis Group issued a report warning that the current atmosphere of tensions made "miscalculation more likely" in Syria. Since then, the risks of an escalation have only intensified.
A U.S. Border Patrol agent was acquitted of murder in the shooting death of a Mexican teen who threw rocks at law enforcement officers during an attempt to smuggle marijuana to Mexico.

But the Arizona jury that acquitted Lonnie Swartz of second-degree murder Monday was deadlocked on lesser manslaughter charges, the Associated Press reported. A mistrial was declared, and federal prosecutors are evaluating whether to retry Swartz on the manslaughter charges.

The verdict was reached after a month-long trial and 18 hours of deliberation over five days.

The death of 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez in 2012 caught the attention of human rights groups who said the case marked the first time a U.S. Border Patrol agent was prosecuted in a cross-border shooting.

Elena Rodriguez was killed Oct. 10, 2012, near a fence along the border separating Arizona and Mexico. Court records say he and others hurled rocks from the Mexican side to the U.S. side to keep border agents distracted while two drug smugglers attempted to cross into Mexico.

Swartz fired several shots, killing Elena Rodriguez, who was on Calle International, a street that runs parallel to the border fence and is in Nogales in the Mexican state of Sonora, the teen's home town. The teen was shot 10 times, mostly in the back.

After a lengthy investigation, a federal grand jury indicted Swartz in 2015; he has been on administrative leave without pay ever since, according to the union that represents Border Patrol agents.

Prosecutors think that Elena Rodriguez was still alive when he fell to the ground. But Swartz kept firing, they said, even though Elena Rodriguez was no longer a threat.

During the trial in federal court in Tucson, prosecutors argued that Elena Rodriguez did not deserve to die.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Heath Kleindienst said during closing arguments that Swartz "was fed up with being rocked" because similar incidents had happened before, the AP reported.

"He was angry with those people who had been throwing rocks against the fence. It was not about eliminating a threat," Kleindienst told jurors. "It was about eliminating a human being."

Human rights groups argued that the teen, who was not armed, would not have posed a threat to Border Patrol agents, who were on the other side of a fence that towers several feet above the Mexican side.

Swartz's attorneys, however, said his use of lethal force was justified because he was defending himself and his fellow agents. Tucson defense attorney Sean Chapman told jurors that there was no evidence that Swartz was "fed up."

"From his first day in the Border Patrol, it had been ingrained in him that rocks were dangerous," Chapman said, according to the AP.

Defense attorneys also believe that, contrary to the prosecutors' theory, Elena Rodriguez died immediately after the first shots. He fell and Swartz kept shooting.

That means, they argued, that Swartz should not be held criminally liable because he did not continue to shoot someone who was still alive and lying on the ground.

Defense attorneys point to findings by two Mexican pathologists who concluded that one of the first bullets hit Elena Rodriguez's head while he was still standing, killing him instantly.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Strange said in a statement that her office respected the jury's decision in what she described as a "difficult case."

Chapman, the defense attorney, did not respond to a call seeking comment.

Art Del Cueto, president of the union that represents Border Patrol agents, praised the acquittal.

"During this particular case, what we had was an individual that was involved in drug smuggling," Del Cueto told The Washington Post. "He was throwing rocks at a federal agent, that way criminals could continue smuggling drugs and/or escape. That's the reality of what we have here."

The case struck a nerve among residents of Nogales, a city that straddles two countries.

The northern half of Nogales is in Arizona, while the southern end is in Mexico. The not-guilty verdict prompted protests, with activists chanting "no justice, no peace" Monday as they gathered outside the federal courthouse, the Arizona Republic reported. Some protesters wore black veils, while others held pictures of Elena Rodriguez as they marched in the streets of Tucson.

In 2014, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Elena Rodriguez's mother, Araceli.

"At a basic human level, our case challenges the notion that a U.S. border agent can stick a gun through a hole in a fence and shoot at Mexican kids 20 feet away, with no constitutional consequences," the ACLU said. "And legally it raises significant questions about whether the U.S. Constitution can be applied extraterritorially."

Swartz sought to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that Elena Rodriguez was not entitled to constitutional protections because he was a Mexican citizen who died while on the Mexican side of the border. A judge ruled in 2015 that the lawsuit could move forward.

Swartz has appealed that ruling, and the case is still pending.

"Borders aren't zones of human rights exclusion or exception," said Clara Long, a researcher for the Human Rights Watch, which filed a brief in support of the lawsuit. "U.S. law should not allow violent abuses at its border to go unpunished."

Del Cueto, the union president, railed against a portrayal of Swartz as a violent man who killed a defenseless teen.

"Lonnie Swartz took the extra step to defend himself and to defend the life of fellow agents around; so he pulled out his weapon and fired at the threat," Del Cueto said. "A lot has been said that he continued firing, but the threat had not ended. There was still rocks coming at the agents, still rocks coming at Lonnie, and he was shooting at the direction where the rocks are coming from."
An Afghanistan war veteran who had his genitals blown off by a roadside bomb is the recipient of a donated penis and scrotum that doctors hope will restore his ability to function normally, after a 14-hour surgery that doctors hailed as a medical first.

The veteran, who asked to remain anonymous for privacy-related reasons, received the tissue transplant from a team of 11 doctors - nine plastic surgeons and two urological surgeons - at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore in March. The procedure was the result of years of research, studies and cadaver work, giving doctors hope that if it proves successful, it could be used for injured veterans and other men with severe injuries to their genital regions.

"While extremity amputations are visible and resultant disability obvious, some war injuries are hidden and their impact not widely appreciated by others," Dr. W.P. Andrew Lee told reporters, speaking of the "devastating impact" that injuries had on mens' identity, self-esteem and intimate relationships.

Doctors said they hoped that the patient, who is expected to be released from the hospital this week, would regain "near-normal" urinary and sexual functions as he recovers and his nerves heal over the coming months.

"It's a real mind-boggling injury to suffer; it is not an easy one to accept," the patient said in a release. "When I first woke up, I felt finally more normal."

The transplant included an entire penis, scrotum and partial abdominal wall from a donor, which made it distinct from the four other penis transplants, which only included the organ. Only a couple of the procedures have been successful.

For the transplant, the donor's testes were first removed because of what the doctors said were complicated ethical issues, in particular the potential ability to father children with another man's genetic material.

"There were too many unanswered ethical questions with that kind of transplant," Dr. Damon Cooney told reporters.

Another man who lost his penis to cancer was the recipient of more limited transplant in Massachusetts two years ago, but he has yet to regain full sexual functioning, Curtis Cetrulo, who runs the reconstructive transplantation program at Massachusetts General, told USA Today.

The transplant that Johns Hopkins doctors did in March involved connecting blood vessels and nerves from the patient to the tissue material, including three arteries, four veins and two nerves "to provide complete blood transfusion and sensation," Dr. Richard Redett said.

The procedure, which was not covered by the patient's insurance, was estimated to have cost between $300,000 to $400,000, the majority of which was covered by the hospital.

Little information has been released about the donor, who was from New England, or his cause of death, though his family released a statement through New England Donor Services about the transplant.

"We are all very proud that our loved one was able to help a young man that served this country. We are so thankful to say that our loved one would be proud and honored to know he provided such a special gift to you," the family said. "Please know that this is truly a heartfelt statement, as we have several veterans in the family. We hope you can return to better health very soon and we continue to wish you a speedy recovery."

The patient was given a transfusion of bone marrow from the donor and will also require immunosuppressive drugs to prevent his body from rejecting the donated organ.

Doctors noted that it was one of many groundbreaking procedures to emerge from the combat casualties suffered by soldiers at war. U.S. Army Sgt. Brandan Marrocco, a quadruple amputee veteran of the Iraq War, received a double arm transplant at Johns Hopkins about five years ago.

About 1,367 male military members suffered genitourinary injuries from 2001 to 2013, according to data from the Department of Defense Trauma Registry cited by the Baltimore Sun.

Dr. Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, a former Army psychiatrist and author of a book about intimacy and injury, told the Sun that one of the first questions soldiers ask after a severe injury is whether their genitals were unharmed.

The patient's injury in Afghanistan also necessitated the amputation of both of his legs above the knee. He said that he kept the extent of his injury a secret.

"That injury, I felt like it banished me from a relationship," he told the New York Times. "Like, 'that's it, you're done, you're by yourself for the rest of your life.' I struggled with even viewing myself as a man for a long time."

Doctors said they had no plans to use the procedure for gender reassignment surgeries at the moment.
Lucas Johnson's resume is characteristic of any high-achieving high school senior.

There's the raft of Advanced Placement classes, a dozen during his four years at Monticello High School in Virginia's Albemarle County. There are the extracurriculars - tutoring and Model United Nations and student council and cross-country.

During his junior year, there was the stress that accompanied all of it - stress that, at times, made him ask: "What is the point of all of this?" The 18-year-old witnessed distress among his peers, too - troubling Facebook and Instagram posts, bullying that went unaddressed, students without a place to turn.

So Johnson and two other Albemarle County students, Alexander Moreno and Choetsow Tenzin, sought to fix that. They lobbied for more mental health resources in their schools before setting their aim higher: a law requiring mental health instruction for Virginia's ninth- and 10th-graders.

The legislation sailed through the House and Senate and was signed into law by Gov. Ralph Northam, D, last month.

National statistics align with the students' experience: Up to 1 in 5 adolescents between the ages of 13 and 18 live with a mental disorder, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A study published in the March issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry found that half of U.S. children who receive mental health services get them at school.

The Albemarle teens hope to reduce the stigma they said surrounds seeking help for mental health. They also want to better equip students with skills and resources to cope with mental health struggles.

"We know how private and how difficult it can be to deal with a mental illness, and we know that people are not going to always want to talk about what they're going through," Moreno said. "But we do want to make it okay for people who are going through something . . . to go and seek out resources."

It will be up to Virginia's Board of Education to determine how the mental health mandate is carried out, but, under the law, the board must consult with mental health experts and update state standards.

Moreno and Tenzin first tackled the topic at a summer institute for high school students at the University of Virginia. They felt the issue was too pressing to let fade.

"The problem itself is very real," said Tenzin, who attends Albemarle High School. "We deal with it daily, in our own schools."

The pair teamed with Johnson, who also participated in the institute, and worked through the fall and winter, holing up in coffee shops to plan.

The students first focused on countywide initiatives, working to ensure resources addressing substance abuse, relationship violence and other issues were better publicized.

They pushed Albemarle Public Schools Superintendent Pam Moran to include $160,000 in next year's proposed budget to add a mental health professional to the school system.

In the fall, the school district will introduce a freshman seminar intended to help students navigate issues that may arise during high school - a seminar shaped with input from the three students.

"Mental health is critical in a day and age where our young people have all kinds of forces in play in their lives that can create levels of stress, anxiety," Moran said.

The teenagers caught the attention of state Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Charlottesville, who has focused on improving the state's mental health system since he was stabbed by his mentally ill son, who then killed himself.

Deeds, struck by the students' empathy, knowledge and research, sponsored a Senate version of the students' bill. Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle, introduced a companion bill in the House.

"When young people are at that age when there's a lot of bullying, when they get it and they understand, I want to encourage that," Deeds said. "We focus so much on the physical health, we forget the brain is part of the body, too."

Charles Pyle, an education department spokesman, noted that the state's Standards of Learning already include some mental health education but also said that the law provides an opportunity for the state to revisit those standards and identify gaps.

Johnson, the Monticello student, said the current standards only touch on mental health and aren't comprehensive.

The Albemarle County students have their own ideas for what they would like to see emerge from the law. They want to understand the science behind mental health, let students know where they can turn in times of trouble and shed negative connotations associated with talking about mental well-being.

"The problem isn't that students are doing too much," said Moreno, a senior at Western Albemarle High School. "The problem is that students are doing too much, and they don't have individuals in place that can help them deal with the stress and anxiety that come with that. A bad day turns into a bad week and turns into a bad month."
A day after his wife Barbara was buried, former President George H.W. Bush was admitted to a Houston hospital Sunday for treatment of an infection that had spread to his bloodstream, his spokesman said. By Monday evening, however, the spokesman said the condition of the 93-year-old Bush was improving.

Bush spokesman Jim McGrath revealed the 41st president's hospitalization on Twitter just before 6 p.m. Monday, following a weekend of events celebrating the life of Barbara Bush.

"President Bush was admitted to the Houston Methodist Hospital yesterday morning after contracting an infection that spread to his blood," McGrath wrote Monday. "He is responding to treatments and appears to be recovering. We will issue additional updates as events warrant."

READ ALSO: Well-wishers line up at Barbara Bush's gravesite in College Station

McGrath declined to confirm news reports that Bush was in intensive care and did not immediately clarify why the family decided to wait a day to announce his condition. But the spokesman said Bush was eager to get back to the family's summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine, adding, "The 41st president want to go to Maine. He's the most goal-oriented person on the planet and I would not bet against him."

"There is no prediction, per se," as to whether the president might continue recovering or take a turn for the worse, said Dr. Hana El Sahly, an expert in infectious diseases with Baylor College of Medicine. Blood infections typically come from a specific source, such as a bowel infection, pneumonia or a skin infection  but it's not immediately clear what led to Bush's condition, though he has had pneumonia in the past.

Mild blood infections don't always develop into the more serious condition known as sepsis, said Dr. Coburn Allen, an infectious disease specialist with the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin.

READ ALSO: At Barbara Bush Literacy Plaza, fans recall the former first lady's legacy

"It sounds like he was septic at first because they said he was stabilized  and generally if they say you're stabilized it means you weren't at one point," Allen said.

"Generally if you get through the unstable part with a blood stream infection, you don't go back to unstable so it's likely he'll recover completely."

As news of Bush's health troubles spread, supporters took to social media to offer their best wishes for the Bush family patriarch.

"Prayers are with President George H.W. Bush and praying God's grace for his recovery," tweeted U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Houston Democrat.

Senate Republicans tweeted their support as well.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with former President George H.W. Bush and the entire Bush family at this time," the group's official account, @SenateGOP, wrote on Twitter.

SAYING GOODBYE: Houston dresses in blue and pearls for Barbara Bush

Bush's wife Barbara was buried Saturday after a funeral service in Houston that drew more than 1,500 invited guests. She died at home April 17 of complications from congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, having forgone additional medical treatment. The Bushes had been married for 73 years and were holding hands throughout the day she died.

The former president made several public appearances last week, including an unexpected one Friday at St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Houston, where Barbara lay in repose for 12 hours. According to McGrath, Bush decided to go to St. Martin's at the last minute Friday afternoon. He greeted well-wishers for just a few minutes, shaking hands with dozens of Houstonians from his wheelchair.

Saturday morning, Bush attended his wife's private funeral service, where he posed for a now-famous photo with his son, former President George W. Bush, former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, former first ladies Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama, and current first lady Melania Trump.

EDITORIAL: The nation mourns a first lady. Houston mourns a neighbor.

After the funeral, Bush made the 90-minute trip to College Station with the family motorcade, where he attended Barbara Bush's burial at the family plot at his presidential library.

The elder Bush's public outings have been limited in recent years, as he suffers from Parkinson's disease and is confined to a wheelchair. But in mid-March Bush attended a bareback riding competition at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo, where he shook hands and posed for pictures with a fellow World War II veteran. Months earlier, he and George W. Bush appeared together at a pregame ceremony at Minute Maid Park during the Astros' World Series run.

Last week, Bush did not attend Thursday's public Celebration of Life for Barbara Bush outside City Hall, but he sent a letter to be read to the crowd.

"Barbara would be so moved you came out to honor her tonight," he wrote. "Barbara and I have been in love with Houston since we moved here in 1959. Nowhere are people's hearts more generous than here, something we saw after Hurricane Harvey."

In January 2017, a case of pneumonia landed Bush at Houston Methodist for 12 days, five of them in the intensive care unit. He missed President Donald Trump's inauguration  "My doctor says if I sit outside in January, it likely will put me six feet under," he wrote in a note to Trump. But by early February last year, he and Barbara Bush were at NRG Stadium for Super Bowl 51, where they oversaw the coin toss.

In April of last year, Bush was back at Methodist for two weeks with another case of pneumonia. In June, he celebrated his 93rd birthday with family in Kennebunkport.

Bush has a long history of defying the odds, dating to when he survived his torpedo bomber being shot down over the Pacific Ocean by the Japanese during World War II.

As McGrath said last year, "There's no one more resilient."

Todd Ackerman contributed to this report

keri.blakinger@chron.com

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alyson.ward@chron.com

See photos of the Bush family through the years in the gallery above.
A sign reading "shut up n*****" hanging in a Texas bar may come down after two patrons posted about the sign on social media, prompting backlash toward the establishment, according to a report.

James Emerson, owner of Jim's Roden Tavern in Fort Worth, told the Dallas Morning News that the sign is a memorial for a former customer. The sign also reads R.I.P. Tressa Kidwell and 1-5-16, the day of her death, the outlet reports.

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Emerson said the sign was a joke and not meant to be racial or intimidating.

The Houston Chronicle reached out to Jim's Rodeo Tavern early Tuesday morning. The tavern did not immediately answer.

The sign came under fire after Owen McGrath of Fort Worth posted the sign on Facebook after he visited the bar on April 16.

"I was astonished, immediately uncomfortable and had sent it to a few friends," McGrath wrote. "I wanted to remain anonymous for my business sake, but I realize that I don't want the business of people who find this acceptable."

McGrath is the bar manager of Jesse's 50/Fifty in Fort Worth, reports the Dallas Morning News. McGrath was in the bar with Jesse Bunting, owner of Jesse's 50/Fifty.

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When the pair inquired about the sign, the bartender reportedly shrugged it off. The two said they finished their beers and left shortly afterward.

Bunting told the newspaper that they decided to post the sign on Facebook so workers in the service industry would be aware that the sign was hanging there.

Emerson said the sign hung on the wall for two years without incident. The bar owner claims no one complained to him about the sign. He said he planned on taking down the sign after he was contacted by a reporter last week. Emerson believes McGrath and Bunting had ulterior motives for posting the sign on Facebook.

SOCIAL MEDIA FAIL: Texas A&M student body president candidate apologizes for now-deleted Instagram post called racist

"To my knowledge, they're just out to make trouble," Emerson told the Dallas Morning News.

McGrath denied they were trying to mess with Emerson's business. He said the sign was something "... we fell really strongly about, something that's wildly inappropriate to us."

Will Axford is a digital reporter for Chron.com and HoustonChronicle.com. Follow him on Twitter.
A month before the infamous biker confrontation in Waco in May 2015 that killed nine and left 20 injured, law enforcement rushed to Odessa and headed off what they thought would be a violent clash there between Bandidos and the Cossacks, according to testimony Monday in a racketeering trial in San Antonio of two former top leaders of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club.

Mondays testimony dealt largely with other purported incidents involving Cossacks, who lost the most bikers in Waco, and the Bandidos, who lost a member in that fight that also involved police shooting at the bikers at the Twin Peaks restaurant.

Prosecutors largely tip-toed around details of the Waco confrontation because neither Jeffrey Fay Pike, then the Bandidos national president, nor John Xavier Portillo, the clubs former vice president, are charged in connection with that. But the pair is on trial over allegations that they directed the Bandidos criminal enterprise, including ordering or sanctioning threats, extortion or violence against rivals.

FBI agent Eleazar Vasquez testified that his agency and several others flooded Odessa on April 11, 2015, after we had received an intelligence report that the Bandidos were coming to Odessa to attack the Cossacks.

We...met with two high-ranking officials of the Cossacks and strongly suggested they not be in the area, Vasquez said.

The information was based in part on recordings in which Portillo was heard saying he was dispatching Bandidos to Odessa as a show of force against the Cossacks, according to federal prosecutors.

Vasquez said as many as 60 law officers showed up and remained outside or near The Last Few bar in Odessa, where dozens of Bandidos or their support club members had assembled.

Also testifying Friday was Edward Tiger Trevino, a former member of the Bandidos Hill Country chapter, who said that during a meeting in March 2015, his chapter president informed members that Portillo wanted us to go show to Odessa to show force to the Cossacks.

Trevino said he understood that the force to be used could be anything from a fight to murder.

Ultimately, no confrontation ensued because no Cossacks were around.

Days after Waco, Trevino testified, he attended a Bandidos motorcycle rally, during Memorial Day weekend in Gulfport, Mississippi, where Portillo himself addressed Bandidos members in attendance.

He was saying, I told Jeff (Pike) to turn the other cheek from what Im about to do, Trevino said. Were going to war.

FBI special agent Jeff Killian also testified about an incident in July 2015, in which investigators heard Bandidos on intercepted phone calls talking about a member of the Cossacks trying to set up shop in Buda, south of Austin. The calls suggested the Bandidos planned to intimidate or use violence against the Cossack member, according to Killian.

I just dont think we can pull it off without getting caught, Portillo is heard saying on one recording.

Texas Department of Public Safety officer Joel Machost testified that investigators eventually found the Cossack to warn him, and that the man told police that he had given up his vest and resigned from the club.

The governments final witness Friday, Nena Jackson of Bridgeport, near Fort Worth, testified about an incident in which she and her husband, David Jackson, and other Cossacks were jumped by men  some of them wearing red  outside Shortys bar in Port Aransas while they were all on vacation there in August 2015. At least three of the Cossacks sustained bruises, cuts and other injuries.

She said the fight began when some guy demanded that one of the men take off his Cossacks T-shirt. When the Cossack asked why, the assailant responded: Its for the ones we lost in Waco, Nena Jackson testified.

But under cross-examination, attorneys for Portillo and Pike tried to show jurors that investigators misconstrued what is said on the recordings. And, they argued no one was arrested in the Port Aransas because no one could be identified.

Guillermo Contreras is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of his stories here. | gcontreras@express-news.net | @gmaninfedland
Its all about hands-on learning when the Judson Independent School District rolls out its annual STEM Day. This years expo at Wagner High School was no exception.

Thousands of students and parents flocked to the school April 7 to engage in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics-based activities that not only demonstrate scientific properties, but are fun to do.

Dozens of companies, organizations and college campuses manned booths at the April 7 event. From building 7-foot-tall aluminum foil towers to creating structure using marshmallows and spaghetti strands, from operating robots to making medications, the hands-on approach brings the STEM factors to life for the attendees.

I like the science stuff, said young Heather Arnold, a 10-year-old Hopkins Elementary student. Her mother, Jennifer Arnold, brought daughters Heather and Haley, 9, to STEM Day to expose them to some of the activities related to the educational fields.

My daughter is trying to get into the middle school J-STEM program, and I just wanted her to see what they have out there, Jennifer Arnold said, what STEM is, and what they do.

One booth particularly attracted Heathers attention.

I liked the pharmacy, when we would make medicines, she said. I just like doing different stuff than you do in usual schools.

The hands-on atmosphere is exactly what STEM Day is all about, according to Debra Rice, Judson ISD K-12 STEM specialist.

By 10 a.m., we had 1,500 people through, Rice said. This is our fourth annual STEM Day. Judson ISD partners with Congressman Henry Cuellar every year for this.

Rice said many industry partners have come on board out of sheer interest because they know what were doing in STEM at JISD is benefiting them in the future.

Our intention was to be able to hit all things, its very diverse, she said. You see your medical, you see your cybersecurity, you see your robotics, you see architecture, you see it all here. We want kids to be able to engage with all of them to really peak an interest in where they want to go later on.

Barbara Buslawski, professional development consultant for Discovery Education, was handing out rolls of aluminum foil for kids and their parents to build the tallest tower they can, without it falling over.

The challenge is to build the tallest tower you can. It has to stand on its own, and you have one roll of aluminum foil to do it, Buslawski said. This is an engineering challenge and to connect it to real-world careers and its just fun to do.

She connected careers in architecture, general contracting, materials manager, and civil engineering to the practice.

Marvin Faulcon, a member of the Texas Department of Transportations recruiting department, was on hand with a team of employees, overseeing bridge-building and structure-building experiments.

TxDOT is really big into STEM. We hire a lot of engineers, for our roadways, our bridges, for design work. Everything we do is STEM-related, Faulcon said.

One of the TxDOT tables challenged students to use marshmallows and strands of spaghetti to design and construct structures of their own creation.

We want to be able to foster that here with the kids and let them know that TxDOT is an avenue they can look into in the future, Faulcon said. They are being creative and they are thinking about the overall concept of how to make this thing happen, and being creative in their own right to build a bridge and make it happen correctly.

You can see the way they are looking at these projects that they are fully engulfed in it, thats the biggest thing, he added.

jflinn@express-news.net
Brian Haydens lifelong smoking habit left him weak, breathless and on the doorsteps of death. A heart attack and eventual heart transplant have been the result, and the Universal City resident is quick to tell others to avoid the nasty habit he experienced for so long.

Hayden has become a spokesman for the Center for Disease Controls Tips From Former Smokers campaign, and will appear on the nationally syndicated The Doctors television show on Monday, April 30. The show airs locally on KABB at 2:30 p.m. weekdays.

Hayden and his wife, Denise, were in Hollywood for three days in February for the shows taping. Hayden worked through the CDC to appear on the show. He is one of about 20 spokespeople for the agency through the TFFS campaign.

Hopefully, when they see how it affects real people, not actors, then maybe it will encourage them to stop smoking as well, Hayden said. We also want to let them know that the CDC has help for them.

Hayden, 64, a Universal City resident for the past five years, said he started smoking in the late 1950s. I picked it up early; I had an older brother who smoked. Back then everybody smoked, he said.

His condition deteriorated over the years. He suffered his massive heart attack in 1989 while stationed in the U.S. Air Force overseas. When they retired me in 1990, they told me I had three-to-five years to live if I dont get a heart transplant.

He said his condition continued through the years until 2005, when he said he became too sick to work. I couldnt walk a block, the heart failure had gotten so bad, he added.

Hayden finally cleared a number of hurdles and officially made the transplant list in February 2012, receiving his new heart on July 9, 2012.

Hayden doesnt mind his poster child status for the CDC, having appeared in three previous television commercials.

I smoked for over 40 years and if I can quit, after all I have been through, then you can, too, and the CDD is here to help you, is the brunt of his message, he said.

The CDC has established a 1-800-QUITNOW phone line to help people who want to quit smoking but dont know how, or for advice on ways to quit.

jflinn@express-news.net
Edgewood ISD police arrested a San Antonio man after he asked a 12-year-old girl for help, then ordered her to stay with him rather than going to school, according to an arrest affidavit.

Rickey Shelton, 50, was arrested on suspicion of unlawful restraint a few weeks after the initial incident on April 6, police said.

The girl was walking to school when Shelton stopped her and asked to borrow her phone, according to the arrest affidavit. She allowed him to use it.

RELATED: SAPD: Woman says she shot knife-wielding man trying to rape her at NE side Motel 6

Shelton then stopped her from leaving and asked her to buy him a drink from the Shell gas station near Acme Road and Enrique Barrera Parkway, according to the affidavit.

The girl bought him the drink and tried to leave for school again. Shelton ordered her to stay and offered her $40 not to go to school, according to the affidavit.

A witness who became fearful for the child offered the girl a ride to school, police said. The girl, who told police she feared for her life, took the witness' offer. She called her mother on the way to tell her what happened, authorities said.

Police obtained the warrant for Shelton's arrest after corroborating the girl's claims through video evidence taken from the corner store, according to the affidavit.

Shelton was taken into custody Saturday. A judge set his bail at $5,000.

Fares Sabawi covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here. | fsabawi@mysa.com | Twitter: @FaresInSA
A bartender at a Viva Tacoland was arrested Monday after two women told police he spiked their drinks and sexually assaulted them.

Dillonger Hackett, 30, was arrested on a charge of sexual assault, San Antonio Police Department spokeswoman Sgt. Michelle Ramos said.

The two women told police Hackett was extremely nice as he was serving them on March 25 at a restaurant in the 100 block of Grayson Street, Ramos said.

RELATED: Deputies investigating death of 2-year-old in Medina County

An arrest warrant affidavit obtained Monday evening states that Hackett appeared to be nearing the end of his bar tending shift at Viva Tacoland, which is across the street from the Pearl development, when he approached them.

One of the victims remembered walking away from their spot to use the restroom and returning to see Hackett standing with them, investigators said. The women told police thats when they blacked out until they woke up in their hotel room the next morning.

They could only recall bits and pieces of what happened during the night, according to the affidavit.

One victim said that she saw Hackett on top of her naked, while the other said she saw him showering, the affidavit states. As one woman tried to wake up the other in a brief moment of consciousness, she passed out herself, investigators said in the warrant. When they awoke, both of them had a physical feeling they had been sexually assaulted, according to the affidavit.

They reported the crime to police and went to an area hospital to undergo a sexual assault exam, Ramos said. The two told investigators they think Hackett put something in their drinks because he was the one serving them before they blacked out.

RELATED: Report: Anchor allegedly caught stealing jacket at NBA practice

Hacket also messaged one of the victims via social media the morning after the assault, saying that he forgot his silver watch there, the women told police. Neither of them took the watch, leaving it there instead until police later collected it as evidence, according to the affidavit. Police corroborated the women's allegations by checking the security camera footage of the hotel they were staying at, which showed Hackett there that night, Ramos said.

Detectives said in the affidavit that video shows Hackett helping the women to their hotel room, and that they appeared slightly intoxicated. Hackett could then be seen leaving their room and zipping up his pants in the elevator, investigators noted.

Investigators said that Viva Tacolands management confirmed Hackett was working the night of the incident. They told police it was a slow evening and that nothing appeared out of the ordinary, according to the affidavit.

Police have not gotten any other similar complaints about Hackett but Ramos asked anyone else who believes they may have been abused by Hackett to come forward.

If police can confirm Hackett spiked the drink, his charge would be increased to aggravated sexual assault, Ramos said.

Hackett kept his head down and did not answer questions from the media Monday afternoon as he was escorted by officers to a police vehicle at the Public Safety Headquarters, 315 S. Santa Rosa Ave.

He was remanded without bond on an unrelated charge of possession of marijuana between four ounces and five pounds, according to court records.

Text "NEWS" to 77453 for breaking news alerts from mySA.com

jbeltran@express-news.net | Twitter: @JBfromSA

Fares Sabawi covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here. | fsabawi@mysa.com | Twitter: @FaresInSA
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has called for an emergency special election on June 30 to replace former Congressman Blake Farenthold, a Republican who resigned this month in the face of an ethics probe into past allegations of sexual harassment.

Abbott's decision on Tuesday came a day after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued an opinion saying that the governor could invoke emergency powers for an expedited election in Farenthold's 27th Congressional District, which is still recovering from Hurricane Harvey.

"All counties contained within this district continue to be under the state disaster declaration related to the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, making it imperative that we fill this vacancy as soon as possible," Abbot said. "Hurricane relief efforts depend heavily on action at the federal level, which can only occur if Texans residing in disaster zones have full and effective representation in Congress."

Abbott sought Paxton's opinion because federal and state election rules could have dragged out the normal election process into late September, two months before the regular Nov. 6 midterm elections.

Paxton wrote that to the extent current election laws might hinder "necessary action in coping with the damage caused by Hurricane Harvey.... the Government Code authorizes the Governor to suspend those provisions."

Abbott's decision came on the same day the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a challenge alleging racial discrimination in the way at least two Texas congressional districts  including Farenthold's  were drawn up by the Republican-led state legislature.

The Supreme Court case could result in a judicial order to redraw the districts before the November elections. However, with a high court ruling not expected until June, a special election will almost certainly be held under the current electoral maps.

If a runoff is needed to determine the winner to fill the unexpired term, it would take place in September.

Abbott's proclamation gives candidates who wish to have their names placed on the special election ballot until Friday to file their applications to the Secretary of State.

Currently there are four candidates vying in a May 22 primary runoff for the Nov. 6 election in the 27th District: Raul (Roy) Barrera and Eric Holguin are competing in the Democratic primary, while Michael Cloud and Bech Bruun are in a runoff on the Republican side.

Early voting in the special election will be by personal appearance will begin on June 13 and end on June 26.

The 27th Congressional District of Texas consists of all or parts of Aransas, Bastrop, Caldwell, Calhoun, Gonzales, Jackson, Lavaca, Matagorda, Nueces, Refugio, San Patricio, Victoria and Wharton counties.
1 Pakistan bombings: The military says suicide bombers blew themselves up near a police vehicle and a security checkpoint in separate incidents in the southwestern city of Quetta, killing five police and wounding eight paramilitary troops. A military statement Tuesday says a suicide bomber targeted a police vehicle killing five police and wounding seven others. Separately, the statement says two suicide bombers walked to the Frontier Corps checkpoint in the Mian Ghundi area and detonated explosive vests minutes apart. No group claimed responsibility but Islamic militants operating in the region have claimed past such attacks. Baluch separatist groups also have engaged in low-level insurgency in Baluchistan, of which Quetta is the capital.

2 Antigraft chief imprisoned: An Egyptian military court on Tuesday convicted the countrys former antigraft chief of insulting the armed forces and sentenced him to five years in prison, according to two defense lawyers. Hesham Genena was arrested in February following incendiary comments he made in a television interview in which he claimed that the former chief-of-staff Sami Annan was in possession of documents incriminating the countrys leadership. He said the documents were kept abroad. A day before Genenas arrest, the military said it would take action to safeguard its honor and dignity.
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EuroMillions fever is gripping Ireland as Tuesdays jackpot rolls to a mouth-watering 140 million.

And as players dream of winning this mind-boggling cash pile the National Lottery has come up with suggestions for how an Irish winner could #sharethedream and spend some of the mega fortune.

Also read: Longford Leader takes another trip down memory lane with YesterYears publication

A National Lottery spokesperson said today an Irish win on Tuesday would be the biggest ever for the country, topping the mega 115 won by Dolores McNamara back in 2005.

This is an incredible amount of money. A winner could fulfil all their wildest dreams and have plenty to share with their loved ones if they win this life-changing nine figure sum. The jackpot is on a roll with nobody winning the special 130 million Mega EuroMillions jackpot last Friday. If the jackpot is not won on Tuesday it will roll to a spectacular 170 million on Friday.

When it comes to EuroMillions Ireland has had the rub of the green with 12 jackpot wins. This year alone there have been 13 EuroMillions Plus wins of 500,000. With retailers doing brisk business ahead of the 140 million jackpot on Tuesday we are advising players to play early to avoid queues. Or buy your tickets at www.lottery.ie or through the National Lottery App.

Also read: Vanity case and photographs belonging to Longford woman Kitty Kiernan expected to fetch in excess of 5,000 at auction
Criminals are coming in and feeding our youth with drugs, Cllr Michael Nevin told colleagues at Monday's meeting of Longford County Council.

The Fianna Fail councillor was speaking during a prolonged debate on the continuing increase in crime in local areas and he told the meeting that much of the problems in places like Longford were drug-related.

If I walked out this door I could walk back in and give each member of this authority some heroin, said Cllr Nevin, adding that local thugs and local hoods were also ruining young people's lives.

Cllr Nevin said people are getting addicted and are being forced to steal to feed their habit. He also said that this is the trend in rural parts of this county and warned councillors not to be kidded into thinking that it was exclusively an urban problem.

It's quite known that drugs are freely available, he stated.

He said there was one person who had been living in the town but was now living elsewhere in the county and he was a big supplier and a thug.

Cllr Nevin claimed that he drives a big car, scans the Gardai and has cars doing dummy runs. He said these people were blackguarding the guards. To hook some child on heroin that is the pits, concluded Cllr Nevin.
It was a red letter day on Longford town's Keon's Terrace recently as Victor Connell officially opened his new Longford Counselling Services Centre.

The opening was deferred due to Storm Emma but the service has been quietly working away in the background having taken over from the Good2Talk service, which offered a similar suite of supports from the same address.

Victor is the public face of the new service and one of its lead counsellors.

He explained that the service strives to provide an affordable and accessible counselling and psychotherapy service for those aged 16 years and upwards. Said Victor: "We work on a low cost service base where the service user pays what they can afford after the initial assessment with the maximum charge 25. We aim to provide a much needed counselling service for the surrounding region that people can afford and don't have to travel long distances for."

The service is also targeted at those who need counselling straight away but are placed on long HSE waiting lists. Explained Victor: "We charge 10 for an initial assessment which takes between 20-30 mins. At this assessment the fee for the future sessions will be discussed with the maximum charge being 25."

The centre has a team of counsellors available and their specialities include addiction, anxiety, bereavement and trauma.

"We are a not-for-profit organisation and none of the counsellors or staff make any money through this, added Victor.

This service was established by local people for local people."

Longford Counselling Services is situated at 2 Keon's Terrace, Longford town (directly opposite the Cathedral) and operates Monday to Friday,9.30am to 5.30pm with lunch 1-2pm. To make an appointment call (043) 334 7477.

The service will be hugely dependent on the goodwill of the public and local fundraising going forward.

There was a great boost for Victor and the team when Therese Durkin and Andy Clancy donated 20% of the takings from the final day's trading at their popular Longford town jewellery shop to the service. Said Victor: "It was a wonderful gesture and I want to say a special thank you to everybody who has supported us and especially Andy and Therese."
Fianna Fail TD for Roscommon/Galway Eugene Murphy has highlighted the fact that only 15 new Garda recruits have been assigned to the Roscommon/Longford division since 2015.

Deputy Murphy raised the issue of Garda numbers in parts of the Roscommon/Longford division and he tabled a parliamentary question with the Minister for Justice to query the number of new Garda recruits assigned to the division since 2015 to date in 2018.

Deputy Murphy pointed out that over the past three years only 15 new Garda recruits had been assigned to the Roscommon/Longford division.

There were no new Garda recruits assigned to the Roscommon/Longford division in 2015 with only 5 allocated to Longford in 2016 while Roscommon gained 10 new recruits in 2017. I welcome the fact that 5 new recruits were assigned to the Castlerea Garda district in 2017 as this area had suffered a significant loss of numbers and is also now covering a larger area however there were no new Garda recruits for the Longford/ Roscommon division in 2018,  said Deputy Murphy.

The Fianna Fail TD said that rural Ireland was getting a raw deal on security and people are upset. When are we going to have real security in rural Ireland? People are scared and we need to address this urgently, said Deputy Murphy.

Deputy Murphy said that it was very difficult for communities to work with Gardai when many of these communities had been raided of Gardai resources.

Deputy Murphy also pointed out that a number of stations across County Roscommon had closed in recent years including Tarmonbarry, Ballintubber, Ballyforan and Knockcroghery.

Deputy Murphy said that rural communities have been hit time and time again. Fear levels have increased, particularly in areas which have seen Garda numbers drop-A strong Garda presence is an extremely important tool in the fight against crime, concluded DeputyMurphy.
Having a play performed in the United States serves as a form of validation for many Irish playwrights, and nobody knows this quite like Jimmy Keary, who has yet another of his plays hitting the Chicago stage.

The Gaelic Park Players, a Chicago-based drama group, are currently staging a three-act play of Jimmy's.

'Mammy's Boy' opened in the Gaelic Park last weekend and is running over three weekends.

The group will then take the play to Calgary in Canda in late May to compete in the Acting Irish International Theatre Festival.

The play was written in 2017 and had its Irish premiere in Aglish, Co Tipperary in January of this year, Jimmy explained to the Longford Leader.

It tells the story of Hughie McGarry, a wastrel, who returns home after a few years away.

He is welcomed by his mother, Maisie, who thinks he can do no wrong, but his sister, Betty, is immediately suspicious of him.

And it isn't long before she's proved right.

Jimmy had the privilege of meeting one of the actors taking part in the Chicago production recently.

Barney Farrelly was back in Ireland for a few days earlier in the year and the pair took the opportunity to snap a photo together.

Barney originally hails from the Cavan/Monaghan area.

This year has been a very successful year for me so far with 24 productions of my plays so far all over the country, north and south of the border, said Jimmy.

On one weekend in February, six of my plays were on stage around the country.

And he certainly hasn't stopped writing.

I started work on a new play at the beginning of the year, he said.

It's called 'A Fish Out Of Water' and tells the story of Pauline, a solicitor's receptionist, who has recently married Mossie, a farmer, and how she tries to cope with his ways and the scheming of his interfering mother, Nora.

It's my 21st three-act comedy and my 27th play, he concluded.
This annual joint touring exhibition of artworks from the collections of the Office of Public Works (OPW) in the Republic of Ireland and the Department of Finance and Personnel (DFP) of Northern Ireland features 38 artworks from these public collections, north and south.

The exhibition curated by 12 undergraduate students studying on the BDes Graphic Design and Illustration course from Belfast School of Art, Ulster University, worked with the curatorial teams in the Department of Finance, Belfast and the OPW, Dublin over two days to select artworks from their respective public art collections.

The title of the exhibition reflects the students approach to the process as their discussions and debates on the final selection of artworks reflected The Space Between  the space between the disciplines of graphic design and art and also between each students initial instinctive preferences and the decisions made as a group to create an interesting exhibition with a strong visual dynamic.

In his visit to the exhibition Kevin Boxer Moran, TD Minister of State for the Office of Public Works and Flood Relief said, This cross-border partnership between the Northern Ireland Department of Finance and the OPW has been hugely successful and this year we celebrate an important milestone  20 years of working together on exhibitions.

During that time the exhibitions have visited a diverse range of venues - colleges, libraries, arts centres, heritage properties and I am delighted that it is here in Longford until the end of April. I would encourage young and old to come along and see this wonderful exhibition.

The Minister went on to say, As Minister with responsibility for the State Art Collection, I am committed to ensuring that Art is accessible to people across the country in their own communities. Art and Culture connects people and places and the Backstage Theatre & Centre for Arts is a great venue in Longford to display this exhibition.

The Minister went on to say, Culture and heritage promote individual, community and national wellbeing. I recently announced that from the 1st May, people with disabilities and their carers will have free admission to all OPW managed heritage sites.
Nature & Weather, Local News

By Legislator Anker's Office Published: April 24 2018

Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker announces a partnership with Stony Brook Universitys School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences and Suffolk Countys Environmental Planning Department to create a Marine Debris Education Awareness Program.

Stony Brook, NY - April 24, 2018 - Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker announces a partnership with Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker announces a partnership with Stony Brook University s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences and Suffolk Countys Environmental Planning Department to create a Marine Debris Education Awareness Program.

Our oceans have a system of currents driven by the global wind system and by the movement of water due to differences in temperature and salinity called Gyres. The ocean currents can take plastic and garbage debris, released from ships and land, great distances to reach Gyres, where the plastics accumulate to form garbage patches.

A massive garbage patch the size of Mexico was recently discovered in the South Pacific Ocean. This is in addition to the North Pacific Garbage Patch found in 1997, measuring a million square miles in size, and the North Atlantic Patch located off the coast of Long Island. The floating plastic debris particles can be microscopic in size, making it difficult to clean up. Over 8 million tons of plastic trash ends up in our oceans every year, and 90% of seabirds and marine life consume the debris, which can then be consumed by humans.

In 2015, Legislator Anker co-sponsored legislation to ban microbeads in Suffolk County. Microbeads are tiny plastic particles found in personal care products, which were banned nationally, following Suffolk Countys lead, after research showed not only were microbeads bad for our environment but a health concern for people.

We all must be accountable and take an active role to prevent and repair the damage that has been done to our marine ecosystem that directly effects our global environment, said Legislator Anker. To address this issue, I have facilitated a partnership with Stony Brook Universitys School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences and Suffolk Countys Environmental Planning Department to create a Marine Debris Education Awareness Program.

Legislation will be submitted this cycle to formalize the partnership, and Legislator Anker will be pursuing Suffolk Countys 477 Water Quality Funds to provide seed money for the program. Dr. Katherine Aubrecht, Director of Coastal Environmental Studies at the Stony Brook University School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences will collaborate with the county to produce presentation materials to be used for educational programs tailored to different audiences on how we can reduce and address ocean pollution.

Aubrecht notes that Stony Brooks School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences has a long history of research and education on plastic waste in the oceans and we look forward to partnering with Suffolk County.

We live on an island surrounded by water, which gives us an even greater role in protecting our water. We can all be part of the solution by keeping trash, especially plastic, out of our oceans, and volunteering to clean up our beaches, said Legislator Anker. Its time every person, community, and nation join together to remove the ocean debris from our waters. We can then breathe easy and hope our marine ecosystem can, too.

In her time in office, Legislator Anker has supported the approval of over 2000 acres of open space and farm land preservation. Most recently, legislation sponsored by Legislator Anker was unanimously approved to begin appraisal sets for a 9.9 acre wooded parcel near Pine Lake in Middle Island for open space preservation. She also began the legislative process at the General Meeting of the Suffolk County Legislature on March 20, 2018 to approve the preservation of a 3.42 acre parcel near Whiskey Road, adjacent to the Pine Barrens Compatible Growth Area under the Suffolk County Drinking Water Protection Program.
Local News, Crime, Politics

By Long Island News & PR Published: April 24 2018

Antwan Lockhart Will Serve 10 Years In Prison.

New York, NY - April 24, 2018 - Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced the 10-year state prison sentence of Antwan Lockhart, who supplied drugs to a trafficking ring that distributed cocaine and heroin throughout Onondaga, Oswego, Madison, St. Lawrence, and Cortland Counties. The defendant was charged as part of Operation Bricktown, an investigation spearheaded by the Attorney Generals Organized Crime Task Force (OCTF) as part of his Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced the 10-year state prison sentence of Antwan Lockhart, who supplied drugs to a trafficking ring that distributed cocaine and heroin throughout Onondaga, Oswego, Madison, St. Lawrence, and Cortland Counties. The defendant was charged as part of Operation Bricktown, an investigation spearheaded by the Attorney Generals Organized Crime Task Force (OCTF) as part of his Suburban and Upstate Response to the Growing Epidemic (S.U.R.G.E.) Initiative  a crackdown on New Yorks widening heroin, opioid, and narcotics distribution networks.

All 52 individuals charged in Operation Bricktown have now entered guilty pleas, including dozens of members of Syracuses violent Bricktown street gang. In total, the 52 defendants were charged in Operation Bricktown with 370 crimes , including narcotics sales and murder conspiracies.

As the opioid and heroin crisis continues to devastate communities across New York, my office and our partners in law enforcement will continue to work together to bring relief and justice to those impacted, said Attorney General Schneiderman. This sentencing should send a clear message: those who pump deadly drugs into our neighborhoods will be caught and will face the consequences.

The Attorney General's investigation found that the trafficking ring distributed cocaine and heroin throughout multiple counties throughout upstate New York. During the execution of a search warrant at an apartment rented by Lockhart, investigators recovered nearly two kilograms of cocaine, along with cocaine presses and other narcotics paraphernalia.

In 2008, Lockhart was convicted of cocaine possession as a result of a wiretap investigation conducted by the Attorney General's OCTF. On Friday, Lockhart was sentenced by the Hon. Thomas J. Miller in Onondaga County Court to ten years in prison for his guilty plea to Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the Second Degree, a Class A Felony. As part of the sentence, he must also serve five years of post-release parole supervision.

Since it launched in April 2017, the Attorney Generals SURGE Initiative has taken down nine major drug trafficking rings across New York  resulting in 302 traffickers taken off the streets.

In addition to prosecuting major drug trafficking rings, Attorney General Schneidermans multi-levered strategy to tackle New Yorks evolving opioid epidemic includes:

The Attorney General would like to thank the Syracuse Police Department for their partnership in this investigation.

The investigation was conducted by OCTF Investigator Tim MacConaghy under the supervision of Supervising Investigator Thomas M. Wolf and Deputy Chief Eugene Black, in conjunction with Syracuse Police Gang Violence Task Force Detective Mamoun Abraham, under the supervision of Sergeant David Procopio, Captain Richard Trudell, and Syracuse Police Chief Frank Fowler. The Attorney Generals Investigations Bureau is led by Chief Investigator Dominick Zarrella.
Pets & Animal, Local News, Crime

By Long Island News & PR Published: April 24 2018

Schneiderman: "No animal should suffer cruelty or neglect."

New York, NY - April 24, 2018 - Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman and the Broome County Sheriffs Office announced the seizure of 11 animals following a complaint of suspected animal neglect in the Town of Sanford. Pursuant to the search warrant, two cats, four sheep, and one donkey were seized; in addition, the NYS Environmental Police seized four foxes for violations of NYS Environmental Conservation Law. The property owner was subsequently arrested and charged with nine counts of misdemeanors, and was released on an appearance ticket.

No animal should suffer cruelty or neglect, said Attorney General Schneiderman. My office will continue to partner with local law enforcement to protect animals from abuse and remove them from inhumane conditions. I encourage New Yorkers to continue reporting suspected animal abuse or neglect to my office.

Earlier this year the Broome County Legislature passed a resolution authorizing the Broome County Sheriffs Office to manage an animal abuser registry, said Broome County Sheriff David E. Harder. Any person convicted of any animal-related offense will be required to pay a fine and will have their name and photograph added to the registry where it will remain for fifteen years. Our Office takes animal neglect and abuse cases very seriously.

In March 2018, the New York State Attorney Generals Office received a complaint regarding the possible neglect of numerous animals at a residence located at 34 Hawkins Road in the Town of Sanford. A joint investigation involving the New York Attorney Generals Office, the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, the Broome County Humane Society, the Broome County District Attorneys Office, and the Broome County Sheriffs Office was conducted. As a result of the investigation, a search warrant was executed at 34 Hawkins Road in the Town of Sanford on Thursday, April 12, 2018.

Upon entering the residence, investigators found four sheep and a donkey in a pen next to the driveway, 13 caged dogs and two caged cats in the house, and four penned foxes in the backyard with no drinkable water.

After evaluation, it was determined that the animals neglected included two cats with respiratory issues and tested positive for hook worm, four underweight sheep (two were emaciated and one had an eye infection that had been left untreated to the point of blindness), and one donkey with an untreated contagious skin disease. The five farm animals were immediately removed and transported to a hospital for treatment. The cats were also removed from the property, but it was determined that the health of the 13 caged dogs in the house was not poor enough to be removed at that time.

All four foxes were found caged in the backyard, one with lice and another emaciated. The foxes were removed by wildlife rescue as the property owner, John Elmer, did not have the proper permits to own them. The carcasses of two dead goats that had died many months ago were also found in the barn.

The owner of the property, John Elmer, was subsequently charged to seven counts of failure to provide proper sustenance, a misdemeanor under Section 353 of the NYS Agriculture and Markets Law, and two counts of failure to provide proper food, drink and wholesome air to an impounded animal, a misdemeanor under Section 356 of the NYS Agriculture and Markets Law.

Elmer, 39, of Clinton St. Binghamton, was directed to appear in the Town of Sanford Court at a later date. The animals were taken to an undisclosed location until the disposition of the criminal charges.
Local News, Crime

By Long Island News & PR Published: April 24 2018

A male suspect entered BP gas station, reached into his waistband as if he had a gun, and demanded money, cops say.

Merrick, NY - April 24, 2018 - Seventh Squad detectives are investigating an attempted robbery that occurred on Monday, April 23, 2018 at 10:55 pm in Seventh Squad detectives are investigating an attempted robbery that occurred on Monday, April 23, 2018 at 10:55 pm in Merrick

According to detectives, a male white subject entered the BP gas station, 1577 Merrick Road, approached the stores clerk, reached into his waistband, as if he had a gun, and demanded money from the register.

After being startled by another employee in the building the subject, who was described as being in his early 20s with a thin build, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, gray jeans, a black ski mask, black sneakers with white markings on them, fled the scene on foot without any proceeds. He was last seen heading north on Central Blvd.
Comrade Bilawal Baloch from Quetta is suspected to have been abducted by the armed forces of Pakistan. He attended the protest held yesterday in front of the Karachi Press Club, which was called by the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), and was heading back from there to his home in Quetta. But his mobile phone is permanently off and nobody has been able to contact him.

Click here for the latest information on the abductions, a letter to send to your local Pakistani embassy and a model motion for trade union branches and student groups.

It seems that he has been abducted as part of a crackdown on the participants in this protest, in which demonstrators were demanding an end to the atrocities of the Pakistani Army in tribal areas and other parts of the country. Along with the Pashtuns, Balochis in Pakistan have also seen brutal military operations committed against them.

Comrade Bilawal is a Marxist who recently graduated from Balochistan University in Quetta. He is leading the Progressive Youth Alliance in Balochistan, as deputy general secretary, and was active in various protests and student movements in recent years. Along with fighting for the rights of students on the political front, he was also waging an ideological battle with nationalists and various guerilla groups. He has a firm belief in the emancipation of the oppressed nationalities and working masses, through a socialist revolution led by the proletariat.

We condemn the cowardly tactics of the Pakistani state, which is now targeting political activists involved in the struggle for the rights of oppressed people in Pakistan.

We demand the immediate release of comrade Bilawal Baloch and the other six comrades who were abducted by the Pakistani Army for raising their voice against the injustice of the Pakistani state, and supporting the PTM in their struggle.

We appeal to workers of the world to extend their solidarity to Marxists in Pakistan; to condemn and protest this act of injustice by the Pakistani state.

Lal Salaam!
by Sara Guaglione , April 23, 2018

Darling Media has produced an unscripted travel video series for Alaska Airlines, part of the companys growing efforts in video branded content.

Called Go, Be You, the series launches at 8 p.m. (ET) on Darlings social platforms and online.

It aims to connect West Coast destinations to personality types; Darling magazine is organized into eight personas with editorial content specific to each one. The personas include: Hostess, Creative, Beautician, Achiever, Confidant, Stylist, Explorer and Intellectual.

Darling says this series acts like a travel matchmaker. Each of the eight episodes features a different influencer  from bloggers to actresses  that fits each persona. In every video, an influencer take viewers to destinations in a specific city that matches their persona.

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For example, in the Hostess episode, travel blogger Sharrah Stevens goes to Dallas and explores local cuisine, farmers markets and boutiques.

The other cities featured in the series include Albuquerque, San Diego, Palm Springs, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle.

CEO and founder of Darling Media, Sarah Dubbeldam, stated: From designing creative ads with poignant taglines featured in each quarterly print issue to creating this video series, luxury retreats and more, the message of Alaska is truly resonating with women across our platforms.

Online, Darling will publish additional and more extensive city guides as part of the campaign. Each week, Darling will host an Alaska Airlines flight giveaway to readers.

Darling is a female-led womens magazine created by Dubbeldam in 2011 and based in Los Angeles. It was one of the first media companies to campaign against retouching or digitally editing models or celebrities in its pages.

The print magazine has more than 30,000 subscribers, and its website attracts more than 200,000 unique visitors per month. The company also has a number of events, which mainly aim to empower and build a community for women.

Dubbeldam told Publishers Daily the company is building out live experiences, as well as its content studio.

The Darling print magazine, which publishes quarterly, features less than eight ad pages per issue to ensure it remains "authentic" to its audience and work closely with its brand partners, Dubbeldam said.

About 80% of the companys business comes from digital, video and print brand partnerships.

Darling underwent a rebranding in its latest issue, released in February. It debuted a new logo  stylized with a comma at the end  and changed its brand statement to Darling, You, to communicate that the magazine wants to speak to the reader, not at the reader, Dubbeldam said.
by Steven Rosenbaum , Featured Contributor, April 23, 2018

Tribeca Virtual Arcade: "Objects in Mirror AR Closer Than They Appear / Photo: Steven Rosenbaum @MagnifyMedia

If youve ever experienced virtual reality, you know its hard to explain, and even harder to share.

For the past four years, the Tribeca Film Festival has made a remarkable effort to embrace the current state of immersive storytelling (a phrase coined by author Frank Rose that becomes more relevant every day).

This year, the Tribeca Virtual Arcade was full of interesting projects  far more than anyone could experience in one gulp. But your diligent reporter did his best, using a mix of brave exploration and curiosity to see where VR is heading.

Three projects in particular I found worth sharing:

"Objects in Mirror AR Closer Than They Appear features augmented reality objects embedded in what can only be described as a storage closet. Visitors explore vintage items and videos pop up.

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The experience invites audiences to think about the relationship between new technology and archaic objects like View-Master 3D slides. Or, as Tribeca says: explore "21st-century technology and 19th-century magicmemory and optical illusion. Its a fun and visually engaging way to explore the past and the present  more of an experience than a story in conventional terms.

"Into the Now is a 360 video experience with an interesting twist. Lets start with the sharks. If youre afraid of sharks, this is most certainly NOT for you.

Photographer Michael Mullers lifelong fear of sharks forced him to face his fears. So youre underwater with him, able to look around in 360 degrees with stereoscopic virtual-reality goggles along with physical motion. Youre in chairs that move and shift, affecting your sense of balance and making the experience very real.

Muller explores marine life and ocean conservation  and at the same time, his own internal journey of discovery.

Finally, I decided I wanted to go on vacation. So I entered Terminal 3. Maybe I read the sign wrong, but rather than heading to a beach, I found myself in a bare white room devoted to customs examination.

I found I wasnt the passenger, but the customs inspector  and, using Microsoft Hololens-augmented reality headgear, I found it was my job to interrogate and determine the fate of a hologram passenger that sat in front of me, a young American woman about to enter Pakistan.

Its a live-action documentary, with you as a central character. The questions and answers are disturbingly lifelike. In the end, the decision is up to you. Im going to keep my decision secret. You decide for yourself.

The through-line in all three of the projects I explored: they were both virtual and physical in some way. Augmented reality with storage boxes, a customs exam room, or physical haptic chair.

So if you plan a visit to Tribeca, read about the projects in advance, and choose the ones that interest you. Theres probably going to be a wait, so get your name on the list for exhibits that will give you a time slot (its worth planning ahead).

Based on the buzz, Id say also try not to miss

Arden's Wake: Tide's Fall, Jack: Part One, Dinner Party and The Day the World Changed. Plus, of course, the three that I shared above.

The 2018 Arcade lineup includes 21 world premiere VR and AR exhibits, as well as five of Tribeca's in-competition Storyscapes experiences. It's open to the public through April

28 at the Tribeca Festival Hub on 50 Varick St.,New York. Tickets can be purchased for $40 on the program's site here.
by Alex Weprin , April 24, 2018





Marketing technology firm 4C is launching a new unified platform for cross-channel insights, execution and analysis.

The new tool is called Scope, and it includes cross-channel measurement, intelligence and activations from social media companies like Facebook and Twitter, TV marketplaces such as MediaOcean and NBCUniversal, and newer platforms like Snapchat and Apple News.

We are trying to help brands move from channel-centric marketing to audience-centric marketing, Aaron Goldman, CMO of 4C, tells Digital News Daily. Rather than thinking about where are the different places that [they] can buy media, or try and get some owned and earned media, we want them to think about who are the people that [they] need to reach, and what are [those people] interested in.

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Scope brings together tools for creating campaigns, marketplaces on which to deploy those campaigns and then tools for measurement and analytics.

While many of the pieces of the Scope platform have been available for some time, the new platform brings them together in one place, and also adds new functionalities.

One of the centerpieces of the new platform is a tool 4C calls Brand Compass. Built on the companys proprietary Affinity Graph, the company uses data from social media, TV and other digital platforms to try and deliver actionable intelligence about specific brands and the consumers that have an affinity for them.

So, for example, an auto manufacturer could learn about the different "personas of people who are heavy fans of the brand, along with subjects they care about, like STEM education, or that they enjoy online shopping or yoga.

Users can also look at the data for competitors, or other companies in other sectors.

This was data that was primarily locked inside the campaign management workflow, of buying ads on Facebook and Instagram to Twitter or even television, Goldman said. By bringing these things together, you can get some really rich information that goes well beyond just optimizing your campaign. It can go toward informing your marketing strategy.

Elsewhere in Scope, users can look at the ad creative that has already been deployed, and easily view where it aired, the completion rate and the social media impact, which tracks social engagement immediately after an ad runs, and compares it to the moments preceding the ad airing.

4C says the platform will have more than 1,000 advertisers on board at launch, after doing limited testing with a small number of beta testers. The company says that nearly $2 billion in paid advertising will run through the platform.
by Steve McClellan @mp_mcclellan, April 24, 2018

WPPs VML has promoted Michael Stich to Chief Business Officer, a new post in which he is tasked with leading the expansion of the agencys 5-year-old advisory practice.

The practice works a bit like an outside business consultant, except that it is inside the agency. Its designed to assist the agencys top clients with their efforts to build marketing capabilities and leadership, as well as accelerate organizational change within their companies.

Stich joined VML from sibling Rockfish, where he was CEO, when the latter was consolidated with VML last September. Prior to Rockfish, Stich worked at Bridge Worldwide, Texas Instruments and Dell. He will be based in VML Cincinnati and report to agency president Eric Campbell.

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Our most senior marketing clients are tasked with bigger jobs than ever before, Stich stated. Todays CMOs act as change agents for their entire organization, responsible not only for delivering a vision for sustainable growth, but also creating connected businesses by transforming enterprise IT and modernizing commerce and channel strategies.

The advisory practice spans the North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa and Asia Pacific regions.

The offering includes proprietary market landscape analysis, long-term growth strategies, marketing technology selection and implementation, organizational fitness and change leadership and innovative strategic alliances.

The unit targets a number of client business sectors including automotive, CPG, retail, energy, technology and health care.
by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, April 24, 2018

Yahoo has agreed to pay $35 million to settle charges that it misled investors by waiting nearly two years to disclose that hackers stole data relating to 500 million users, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Tuesday.

The fine is the latest development stemming from data breach occurring in December of 2014, when Russian hackers obtained email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords, and in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers. Yahoo failed to disclose the breach until September 2016, when it was about to be acquired by Verizon.

"Yahoo senior management and relevant legal staff did not properly assess the scope, business impact, or legal implications of the breach," the SEC wrote in its order. "Furthermore, Yahoos senior management and legal teams did not share information regarding the breach with Yahoos auditors or outside counsel in order to assess the companys disclosure obligations in its public filings."

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The SEC adds in its order that Yahoo "acted negligently in filing materially misleading periodic reports with the Commission."

Steven Peikin, co-director of the SEC Enforcement Division, stated Tuesday that the agency doesn't "second-guess good faith exercises of judgment about cyber-incident disclosure," but added that "a companys response to such an event could be so lacking that an enforcement action would be warranted."

Yahoo didn't admit or deny the SEC's findings.

December of 2014 was not the only time Yahoo suffered a data breach. In 2013, hackers data including names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords and security questions and answers associated with an estimated 3 billion Yahoo accounts. Yahoo did not disclose that breach until December of 2016.

And in February of 2017, Yahoo announced a third attack in which hackers gained access to users' passwords by forging cookies.

Last month, a federal judge in California ruled that web users can proceed with a host of claims against Yahoo stemming from the data breaches.
Surgeons have now performed the worlds first total penis and scrotum transplant, which they hope will restore urinary and sexual function to the recipient.

Share on Pinterest An experimental penile transplant aims to restore normal genitourinary functions in a war veteran.

Organ and other transplants are a testament to the wonders of modern medicine.

They help to restore healthy bodily functions, well-being, and confidence to the receivers, many of whom have been faced with severe health issues or the loss of body parts due to traumatic injury.

Often, however, the process is fraught with difficulties  from the scarcity of donated organs and tissue to the complication of finding a matching donor so that the recipients system will not reject the transplant.

Some of the most difficult transplants are those of male genital organs  not just because the surgery is so difficult, but also due to ethical and practical organ collection concerns .

Until last year, only two successful penile transplants had been completed. In those procedures, only the penis itself was transplanted.

But now, for the first time, a team of surgeons from Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, MD, has managed to transplant the penis and the scrotum from a deceased donor to a recipient who had lost his genital organs during armed service.

The surgeons had been planning such an intervention since 2013. In the telebriefing statement of the institutions genitourinary program, the programs clinical director, Dr. Rick Redett, calls the procedure the culmination of more than 5 years of research and collaboration across multiple disciplines.
Vaccine to help people overcome bath salts abuse blunts the illegal stimulant's effects on the brain, which could help recovering drug users who experience a relapse. Samantha McClenahan, a doctoral student at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, will present test results for the new vaccine at the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics annual meeting during the 2018 Experimental Biology meeting to be held April 21-25 in San Diego.

A vaccine for one of the most dangerous types of synthetic cathinones, or bath salts developed.



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The researchers plan to continue to test the vaccine's ability to prevent the entry of MDPV into the brain and heart, which causes the rewarding effects of the drug and is a leading cause of the drug's dangerous side effects. This research was supported by National Institute on Drug Abuse grant RO1DA039195 and NIH training grant T32GM106999. Samantha McClenahan will present this research at 12:30-2:30 p.m. Sunday, April 22, Exhibit Halls A-D, San Diego Convention Center (poster C20 550.7) (abstract) and at 11:50 a.m. Tuesday, April 24 during the Simulants I Session (abstract). Contact the media team for more information or to obtain a free press pass to attend the meeting.



Source: Eurekalert "Our goal is to develop a vaccine that would be effective for at least 6 to 12 months so that it could be used as a long-lasting aid to the rehabilitation process," said McClenahan. "It would likely help reduce drug concentrations in critical organs and reduce or eliminate the rewarding effect of the drug. This could improve the chances of an individual remaining in rehabilitation treatment, which might increase the likelihood of a successful outcome."The researchers plan to continue to test the vaccine's ability to prevent the entry of MDPV into the brain and heart, which causes the rewarding effects of the drug and is a leading cause of the drug's dangerous side effects. This research was supported by National Institute on Drug Abuse grant RO1DA039195 and NIH training grant T32GM106999. Samantha McClenahan will present this research at 12:30-2:30 p.m. Sunday, April 22, Exhibit Halls A-D, San Diego Convention Center (poster C20 550.7) (abstract) and at 11:50 a.m. Tuesday, April 24 during the Simulants I Session (abstract). Contact the media team for more information or to obtain a free press pass to attend the meeting.Source: Eurekalert

Synthetic cathinones are stimulants made to mimic the stimulate effects found in the khat plant. The most powerful compounds in this drug class can produce deadly overdoses as well as life-threatening side effects such as organ failure. The new vaccine targets two very potent synthetic cathinones known as methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV) and alpha-pyrrolidinovalerophenone (alpha-PVP). "Because the chemical structures of these illegal drugs are often changed to evade drug laws, we decided it was important to develop a single vaccine that will be effective against more than one medically dangerous synthetic cathinone," said McClenahan. Results from the new study showed that rodents receiving the vaccine produced high amounts of antibodies that attached tightly to MDPV and alpha-PVP in the blood stream. This immune response was able to decrease the stimulant effects of MDPV for months. The researchers observed that vaccinated rats exhibited significantly less MDPV-induced movement and significantly shortened MDPV-induced activity compared to untreated rats.
Did you know that Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Group, which controls more than 400 companies, dropped out of college when he was just 15-years- old? Then there is 17-year-old college dropout Ritesh Agarwal who is the founder of the super successful venture OYO Rooms. Such personalities do make us wonder quite often if a college degree would guarantee a successful life or not.

 Reuters

It is not an easy question to answer and depends on the individual's skills and talents but still, let's try to see what all needs to be considered if one is still looking for an answer. Our education system mostly runs on these three major streams: Science, Commerce, and Arts. These are the areas we have been habitual to choose from and have been choosing till now. Now, since technology is progressing so fast it is demanding different kind of experts in certain fields. So, that means times are changing and so are our career choices.

 Thinkstock

The Careers For Which Degrees Are Essential And For Which They Are Not.

If you want to become a doctor, then you've got to have a degree in medicine and to be a lawyer you need a law degree. But there are professions like becoming an actor, an athlete or a politician for which you do not require a specific college degree.

 Reuters

Then there are entrepreneurs who are dropouts like Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates who are some of the biggest businessmen of all times. Few could have been considered as an exception but the number is increasing rapidly.

Initially, they too did chose to go with a degree but when their heart showed them a different path, they dropped out and started their own business. They felt they could utilize their time better by running their own business, instead of following the regular process of completing their education, working for someone else, gain experience and then start a business.

 Wikimedia

So, it all depends on what kind of career you chose to be in. Now, the question is, if most of us are choosing to take a college degree then how does it help us.

Benefits Of A College Degree

1. A college gives you a platform to figure out your way into the world when you have no clue which direction to move towards. It gives you time to ponder over different fields and then choose the one you feel confident it.

2. It teaches you how to live a balanced life and teaches you professionalism before you enter into the corporate world. It teaches you teamwork, time management, task management. It even makes us well organized.

3. It provides you knowledge and skills to be used later in real life working environment.

The above-mentioned reasons prove that college degree actually pays off. Your success also depends on how well you perform in college and how good your college is.

Conclusion

 CMG Worldwide

Education is the key to success and a college degree is one way of acquiring it. Many leaders keep themselves updated by developing a slew of habits that keep them on their toes all the time. They did not just depend on the college education.

So a college degree is an option, but there are people who went against the system and created something that impacted the world in a major way, so one can not simply say that formal education is the answer. However, going the other way does require determination, passion and the strength to face a slew of hurdles and obstacles.
Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor and one of the top economists in the world, Raghuram Rajan is said to be a top contender for the job of the Bank Of England Governor, when Mark Carney's term ends next year. The news first appeared in the Financial Times, stating that it would be a coup for Bank of England to attract Rajan.

"Attracting Raghuram Rajan, the highly respected Chicago-based economist and former Reserve Bank of India governor, would be a coup, as would securing Agustin Carstens, Mexico's central bank chief and the new general manager of the Bank of International Settlements," the article said.

 BCCL

This is the second time that the ex-RBI governor has been associated with the top job of a central bank after he was also in the running to chair the US Federal Reserve.

Rajan is considered an all-star amongst his peers and has had an incredibly successful career. He was the chief economist at the International monetary fund from 2003 to 2006. However, he came to limelight after the US sub-prime lending crisis blew up and people recognised Rajan as one of the few economists who saw it coming three years earlier. Rajan had been a vocal critic of the US' economic policies running up to the financial crisis and even though he faced a lot of criticism at the time, he stood his ground and was proved right eventually.

 BCCL

Raghuram Rajan took over the job of RBI governor in September 2013 and was responsible for stemming the fall in the value of Rupee. He was also credited with implanting policies to stabilise the depleting foreign reserves apart from investor-friendly policies. He was also known to speak his mind and that resulted in a lot of back and forth with the new BJP-led government that took over in 2014. It is also a well-known fact that he was concerned with the government's plan for demonetisation, a move that was eventually carried off after Rajan left office in 2016.

Currently, Rajan is working as the professor of finance at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business and might have to take a break from academia again, if he decides to head over to England.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Terens Quick, is participating today in a High-Level Meeting on Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace, which is being convened by the President of the UN General Assembly, M. Lajcak, at the Organizations headquarters in New York. The main purpose of the Meeting is to assess the initiatives taken to date and the opportunities presenting themselves for strengthening the UNs role in peacebuilding and sustaining peace.

On the margins of the Meeting, Mr. Quick will also participate in parallel events being organized by the Permanent Missions of Georgia and Belgium to the UN, and he will have a series of bilateral meetings with his counterparts.
Copyrights are for humans, not for monkeys, even the creature that used a wildlife photographers camera to take selfie photos that soon circulated worldwide, a federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled Monday.

The case stems from an incident in 2011, when British photographer David Slater, on a visit to the Tangkoko Reserve in Sulawesi, Indonesia, put down his camera and walked away. When he looked back, a crested black macaque monkey was examining the camera, looking at a reflection in the lens, and, as Slater described it, making funny faces before snapping the shutter.

The photos became a hit on social media, while Slater went on to publish them in a 2014 book, Wildlife Personalities. That prompted the nonprofit People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to file suit on behalf of the monkey, whom they named Naruto, claiming the right of a thinking nonhuman to legal ownership of the creatures own creative work.

The suit relied on a 2004 ruling by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco that allowed animal-rights supporters to sue on behalf of whales and dolphins in opposing  unsuccessfully, as it turned out  Navy sonar testing.

A federal judge in San Francisco, where Slaters book was published, ruled in 2016 that Narutos surrogates could bring a case in his name, but that the U.S. Copyright Act, as written, applied only to humans. The appeals court agreed Monday, rejecting a challenge from the animal-rights group  which, in a separate development, has reached a settlement aimed at protecting Narutos habitat.

The Copyright Act does not expressly authorize animals to file copyright infringement suits, Judge Carlos Bea said.

PETA noted that courts have allowed corporations, which also are not expressly mentioned in the law, to claim copyrights and sue for violations. But Bea noted that the Supreme Court has upheld corporate claims of free speech and religion, and observed that corporations are formed and owned by humans; they are not formed or owned by animals.

The court issued its ruling despite being urged by both sides in the case to dismiss it after they settled their dispute in September. The settlement recognized Slater as the copyright-holder but required him to donate 25 percent of any future revenue from the selfies to charities that would promote the habitat and well-being of crested macaques in Indonesia. The macaques are classified as critically endangered after years of habitat loss and being hunted for bush meat.

While leaving the settlement undisturbed, Bea took a swipe at PETA, saying the animal-rights group seems to employ Naruto as an unwitting pawn in its ideological goals. He also said the full appeals court should reconsider and overturn the 2004 ruling allowing suits on behalf of animals.

The case is the first time an animal will benefit financially from a work of his own creation, said PETAs general counsel, Jeff Kerr, referring to the habitat protection. Kerr said the group still maintains that Naruto shouldnt be treated any differently than any other photographer just because he doesnt happen to be human.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko
MIDDLETOWN  The Oddfellows Playhouse Teen Company will be presenting Shakespeares Twelfth Night, or What You Will, beginning Thursday, May 3 at 7 p.m., with performances continuing through May 12.

Featuring a cast of actors age 12 -19, this production will transport audiences to Shakespeares Globe Theater along the Thames in London for an evening of traditional theater - loud, fast-paced, and riddled with hilarity, members said in a release.

These actors have done a terrific job diving into this process to find all of the gold in this play. Their creative energy in rehearsal has really been the driving force behind mining the humor within an intimidating text for actors of any experience level. Theyve brought their own ideas to the table and are making sure that this story is told well with clarity and energy. It's an extraordinary group of empowered young people taking charge of their art and I'm excited for our audiences to experience what this cast has created, said director Chris Coffey.

Performances will be May 3, 4, 10 11 and 12 at 7 pm, and on May 5 and 12 at 2pm. The two Thursday performances are Pay What You Will. For more information and tickets go to www.oddfellows.org or call (860) 347-6143.

The Teen Company at Oddfellows Playhouse is open to youth age 12 - 19. The company produces two to three mainstage productions each year, and auditions are open to all.

Sliding scale, work-study, and financial aid are available to any student in need for all Playhouse programs. The next project coming up at the Playhouse this season is the 30th Annual Childrens Circus of Middletown, a co-production with the City of Middletown Commission on the Arts.

Founded in 1975, Oddfellows Playhouse is Connecticuts oldest and largest theater for children and youth. Oddfellows mission is to enhance young people's present and inspire their future through engaging, accessible performing arts programming that builds skills, encourages creativity, and strengthens community.

The playhouse offers a year-round program of classes, productions and special events to young people ages 3 - 20 in its 10,000 square foot home on Route 66 in Middletown.

Appropriate for all ages, the production is professionally designed and directed and will feature cross-dressing, slapstick comedy and lively swordplay. All performances will be at Oddfellows Playhouse, 128 Washington St. Middletown.

Tickets are $8 for students and seniors, and $15 for adults. Visit www.oddfellows.org for more information, or email info@oddfellows.org
Editors note: This is the final story in a two-part series on the state Psychiatric Security Review Boards review of Stephen Morgan. The first story, Panel: Students killer to stay in max security, was published Tuesday.

MIDDLETOWN  The recent state Psychiatric Security Review Board evaluation of the man who killed a Wesleyan University student in 2009 reveals a Yale medical director recommended 18 months ago Stephen P. Morgan be transferred to a lower security unit on the Connecticut Valley Hospital campus.

The 38-year-old, who shot and killed 21-year-old senior Johanna Justin-Jinich at the campus bookstore cafe where she worked, was found not guilty by reason of insanity. He was committed to CVHs Whiting Forensic Division maximum security facility for 60 years in February 2012.

Morgan has been an acquittee there for six years.

The PSRB board includes six individuals, including a psychiatrist, attorney and psychologist who approve or deny the request.

Dr. Robert Ostroff, a professor at Yale University and medical director of the mood disorders unit at Yale New Haven Psychiatric Hospital, was one of many who spoke about Morgan during the more than 70-minute review March 16.

Ostroff opined that Mr. Morgans thinking was organized and goal-directed, and there was no evidence of psychotic symptoms, according to notes from the mandatory two-year hearing.

He felt that Mr. Morgan was not a danger to himself or others and did not appear to be gravely disabled, according to the transcript. Dr. Ostroff concluded that Mr. Morgan would be appropriate for transfer to a less-restrictive treatment setting, without any changes in his psychotropic medication regimen.

His request was approved by the hospitals Forensic Review Committee but was put on hold last January.

I am angry. Angry at the system that gives insane murderers the possibility of getting away with murder, excused by their medical diagnosis, Justin-Jinichs father, Daniel Jinich, said in an email interview. I am angry that Morgan is not suffering like my family suffers.

Morgans behavior worsened in January 2017 during a period where he self-discontinued his medications. The medical team for that reason decided to temporarily remove him from the Whiting/Dutcher Transition Group he had been attending , the transcript said.

He soon resumed his prescribed Seroquil, an antipsychotic drug.

According to Dr. Shana Berger, at the Whiting unit, staff can give level-four patients like Morgan certain privileges, if they earn them, such as staying up later at night, and access to a special room with a television and radio.

They look forward to things like (an extra food) order-out night, Berger said. Its a break, and its exciting for them, and it gives a certain status, as well, among the unit, and I think the staff looks at the level-four patients as kind of models for other patients. We expect them to follow instruction, to go to groups, attend treatment and follow the rules.

Dr. Daniel Papapietro told the PSRB that he and Morgan talk about the homicide on a regular and appropriate basis, referring to Justin-Jinich by her first name.

We identify the fact that he killed someone. We keep it part of what we talk about. It is not sanitized or minimized in any way for him or for us, he said during the March review.

Jinich addressed the panel at the conclusion of Morgans hearing. He questioned the judgment of CVH staff in light of the recent patient abuse reports.

When we know of lawsuits alleging and apparently corroborated by video that the staff that is to care for the severely ill patients is physically abusing them and we find out about the arrest of employees and the disciplining of dozens more, we conclude that the Whiting Forensic Unit Hospital has no credibility, Jinich told the board.

Why should we trust an organization that is in total disarray? Is the recommendation to move Stephen Morgan to a lower-secured unit in the near future sound? How confident are you in his remission?

The panel chose to continue Morgans confinement. However, shortly afterward, the PSRB received a request from hospital administrators asking for a public hearing about a possible transfer. That should be held sometime this summer, said PSRB Executive Director Ellen Weber Lachance.

If Morgan were ever allowed to enter Dutcher, he would still be restricted in his abilities and movements, but less so, she added. Whiting patients can only leave the grounds for a medical appointment or other reason in the custody of staff.

The hospital, not the PSRB, offers privileges to Dutcher acquittees, such as being able to visit certain areas of the grounds by themselves for up to an hour. They can also leave CVH, but only with staff, for rehabilitative or recreational trips, Lachance said.

Middletown, you dont even have a fence to protect your community from what is happening at Connecticut Valley Hospital where the criminally insane can walk around the grounds, Jinich said in a letter to the Press.

It is shocking to us at Wesleyan than there would be any consideration of increased privileges for Stephen Morgan. Even his defense attorney at trial recommended that he be confined for 45 years, Wesleyan President Michael Roth said.

It seems to me that if you are given the diagnosis of a mental illness, somehow that excuses your behavior. That is wrong, Jinich said. If you cannot distinguish right from wrong, as a society, we cannot afford to give you a free pass.

We all have to face the consequences of our actions here on earth and then when facing the Almighty.

Managing Editor Cassandra Day can be reached at cassandra.day@hearstmediact.com or Twitter @cassandrasdis.
Editors note: This is the first in a two-part series on the state Psychiatric Review Boards mandatory two-year public hearing held in mid-March. Tomorrows piece will delve into the panels review of Stephen Morgan.

MIDDLETOWN  The father of a Wesleyan University senior shot to death by a former classmate in May 2009 at the campus bookstore cafe where she worked is still haunted by the memories of his daughter.

Stephen P. Morgan, then 29, was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the killing of Johanna Justin-Jinich, a popular 21-year-old who gave often of her time to causes she believed in, particularly the reproductive rights of women, Daniel Jinich said.

He was committed to the Whiting Forensic maximum security division of Connecticut Valley Hospital for life (60 years) in February 2012. During a review of the mandatory two-year hearing conducted by the Connecticut Security Psychiatric Review Board March 16, the decision was made to continue his confinement, Executive Director Ellen Weber Lachance said.

However, the panel will reconvene some time this summer after the hospital requested a transfer to the lower security unit of Dutcher Services following his review.

Every two years, Jinich attends these mandatory hearings for Morgan, who did not attend the latest one, revisiting the horror of his daughters death at the former Broad Street Books.

Its an never-ending nightmare, especially knowing that her killer will one day be released from his current confinement, said the Ft. Collins, Colorado, family physician, who spoke to the Press by email.

The PSRB is a state agency to which the Superior Court commits persons found not guilty of a crime by reason of mental disease or mental defect.

No matter how many years have passed, Jinich rarely escapes the memories of his daughters violent death.

My life without Johanna cannot be expressed adequately, as only a person who has lost a child can comprehend the magnitude of my loss. For years, I have felt profound sadness, an emptiness that cannot be filled. The pain never goes away.

Morgan, of Marblehead, Massachusetts, and Justin-Jinich apparently met in 2007 while attending a summer class at New York University. Justin-Jinich filed a harassment complaint with police that summer claiming she was getting unwanted phone calls and insulting emails from Morgan, but she didnt pursue criminal charges.

Every morning, I walk by the tree we planted in remembrance of how Johanna Justin-Jinichs life was brutally cut short without warning. There are plenty of warnings now, and Mr. Morgan must remain securely confined, Wesleyan President Michael Roth said in a statement.

Jinich said his daughter was intrigued by music, travel, literature and writing. He offered a picture of a young lady at the peak of her life, heading toward a future of great promise.

She was a brilliant student. She was very involved in causes that supported womens rights and especially women reproductive rights. She volunteered for Planned Parenthood, and at Harmony House, a family visitation center where supervised visitations and exchanges take place  such as those for custody, abuse and divorce.

There, Johanna-Junich offered her translating services for families. She also volunteered to serve the underprivileged in an Indian reservation, as well as in Guatemala, her father said. At the time of her death, she was ready to pursue a masters degree in international public health.

A psychologist during the trial had diagnosed Morgan with paranoid schizophrenia and a staff evaluation found that Morgan was psychotic, depressed and a danger to others. At the time, prosecutors said Morgan stalked and harassed Justin-Jinich. It was also believed that Morgan was anti-Semitic.

During proceedings, testimony by a Whiting social worker said Morgan still suffers breaks with reality, disorganized thinking and is paranoid and delusional.

Morgan is on Seroquil, an antipsychotic, according to social worker Rebecca Ewald, who testified at the March hearing that Morgans thinking was more flexible and logical compared to what he remembered feeling when he was not taking medications, which is namely paranoia, suspicious and afraid.

In January of last year, according to the hearing transcript, Ewald said Morgan stopped taking his medication after receiving articles in the mail about another acquittees crimes believed to be from a fellow patient.

Thats when Morgan stopped taking medication and his physician stopped prescribing the drug.

Staff observed Mr. Morgan becoming more internally preoccupied, as evidenced by his laughing and talking to himself more frequently. He had increased difficulty processing information and he paced the hallways, Ewald said.

Morgan asked that his medication be gradually decreased, she said, and his symptoms returned.

Morgan asked to resume Seroquel last May.

There should be positive rewards for positive progress in treatment, so theres something for him to look forward to, Ewald said.

Jinich appealed to the panel, As a common-sense human being, as a fellow physician, I agree that this man is not only insane, but evil. You can medicate his insanity all you want into submission, but you will not eradicate his evil or the danger of his psychosis relapsing in a less-structured setting.

You can suppress his behavior, you cannot change his core, he added.

Managing Editor Cassandra Day can be reached at cassandra.day@hearstmediact.com or Twitter @cassandrasdis.
Contributed photo

CLINTON  Two supervisory officers are back from Bristol, Rhode Island, after successfully completing the Command Training Series: First Line Supervisor Course, a two-week comprehensive training program at Roger Williams University.

The 12-day course was held in partnership with the New England Association of Chiefs of Police.
File photo

PORTLAND  A 52-year-old man is charged with several felonies after police raided his Rose Hill Road home and allegedly confiscated cocaine, two pounds of marijuana and various paraphernalia.

Portland officers, with help from members of the Middletown police narcotics unit, served a warrant for the property Monday at 10 a.m., according to a press release.
NEW CANAAN  I am ready for Tim Herbst to morph into an impression of Peter Lumaj. I know he has some latent method-acting skills.

In fact everyone running for governor this year in Connecticut, all eleventy of them, should be able to recite the 90-second bites that their intra-party competitors have been spouting in this budding political spring.

Were in the heart of affluent, overwhelmingly white Connecticut, on the stage at Saxe Middle School. Its the final forum of GOP gubernatorial contenders before the convention next month  it cant come too soon  that will winnow out at least half of these.hopefuls.

At this point, after four full, two-hour performances in the other congressional districts, its time for them to loosen up.

I was born in slavery, I want Herbst, the tightly-wound former Trumbull first selectman, to speak into his microphone in a pseudo-Albanian accent, shooting his sleeves like Lumaj, an immigration lawyer from Fairfield who is the most-conservative in what is a huge field of nine, 10, 11 Republican contenders for the fall election.

At this point, these guys  New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart hasnt yet been allowed into the public festivities because of her late entry into the field and correspondingly low fundraising  have lost their spontaneity.

Its too much to hope for the fireworks of the previous forum in New Britain, when Lumaj took a swipe at Herbsts former town fiscal program. Herbst then countered by calling Lumaj ambassador, in reference to Lumajs unproven claim that he was offered the diplomacy posting to his home country after the Trump victory.

Im on the stage trying to keep the audience of 500 from snoozing.

To say the nine men  did I mention theyre all men  know each others speeches is an understatement. Im sure that Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton or Steve Obsitnik, the Navy vet/tech exec from Westport, could step slowly to the center of the stage and speak quietly about how he cleaned up Dan Malloys mess in Stamford, which is the default line of Mike Handler, that citys CFO, a town resident here who is the volunteer EMS director. Boughton and Obsitnik could maybe even explain how Malloys mess included a AAA bond rating, and whether Handler fixed the long-broken elevator at Smith House, the citys old municipal nursing home, before he sold it off.

Im sure David Stemerman  the Greenwich hedgefunder who in the finest traditions of people like Tom Foley is campaigning for his first elected position by starting at the top  could, at this point, do a passable version of Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti, mansplaining how hes kept taxes low by supporting businesses that bring in 25,000 out-of-town workers every day.

I would even bet that state Rep. Prasad Srinivasan, a Glastonbury physician whom you might remember helped Boughton during his dehydration-induced seizure last month, could perform a passable rendition of David Walkers fiscal ranger routine, in which the former comptroller general saved the nation $380 billion as comptroller general of the US under Republican and Democratic presidents alike.

I have no doubt that Walker could do a note-perfect John Ratzenberger, the Bridgeport guy Walker claims as a friend. Ratzenberger played an endearing Boston mailman named Cliff in the old sitcom Cheers. It seems that everyone in the school auditorium knew his name but Walker, who called Ratzs character Norm.

Such are the nuances for which we reporters have to stay alert during this volatile election season, on that vector for November 6.

Its so much more fun to concentrate on 25-year-old prime-time shows, than it is to, say, consider how every Republican wants to blow up the public-employee union contracts set to run until 2027, if they can win majorities in the House and Senate this fall.

Its more amusing to consider this group as a bunch of close-knit barnstormers, touring the state together, than it is to think about how they would all work to end the public financing program that has taken a lot of the special-interest money from the political sumo wrestling ring.

But as the stage cleared at about 8:40 the other night and the candidates were safe to go back to phone-banking for delegate support, I was left with one important lesson, in this first phase of the most important election, ever.

Say what you want about these people  and I do  but its hard to put yourself out there, offer 90-second solutions to decades-old state problems, and seek support from a public thats only mildly interested. They all get credit for wanting to do something.

Ken Dixon, political editor and columnist, can be reached at 860-549-4670 or at kdixon@ctpost.com. Visit him at twitter.com/KenDixonCT and on Facebook at kendixonct.hearst.
PORTLAND  Nobel Laureate Dr. Gary W. Yohe will discuss the ramifications of President Donald Trumps decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accords at a Q&A Thursday.

Yohe, a Huffington Professor of economics and environmental studies at Wesleyan University, will speak at the Portland Senior Center at The Waverly Center, 7 Waverly Ave., beginning at 7 p.m.

Yohe shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former vice president Al Gore.

The appearance is cosponsored by the Portland Clean Energy Task Force and the East Hampton Energy commission.

In announcing the program, Andy Bauer, the chairman of the clean energy task force, said the presentation is a timely one. Dr. Yohe has been analyzing climate trends and advocating for action for decades. We need to get busy.

In addition to review the possible impacts of the presidents decision to withdraw from the climate accords, Yohe will also present the most recent findings from not only the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change but also the National Climate Assessment, Bauer said.

After a summary of the state of our climate and the politics in play, we look forward to a robust Q&A with those in attendance, Bauer added.

Light refreshment will be served following the program.

Reporter Jeff Mill covers East Hampton, Cromwell and Portland for the Middletown Press. Contact him at jeff.mill@hearstmediact.com.
Last month, three Mexican university students were filming a school project when they disappeared. The last time they were seen alive they were being forced into a car by two armed men dressed as police officers in Guadalajara, Mexico's second largest city, in the western state of Jalisco.

The disappearance of the three film students, 25-year-old Javier Salomon Aceves Gastelum and 20-year-olds Marco Avalos and Jesus Daniel Diaz, prompted protests across Mexico and drew outrage from the international filmmaking industry, including Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro. Thousands of enraged college students and others marched the streets of Guadalajara and Mexico City, demanding that officials bring the three young men home safely. "We're students, not criminals" they shouted. "Will I be next?"

For more than a month, the case of the missing students remained a mystery. But on Monday, Mexican authorities revealed gruesome details from their investigation.

After they were abducted, the film students were beaten and killed, and their bodies dissolved in acid, the attorney general's office in Jalisco said in a televised news conference Monday.

The students, who authorities say had no connection to any criminal gangs, found themselves inadvertently enmeshed in an ongoing conflict between two drug cartels. Members of Mexico's most powerful cartel, Cartel Jalisco New Generation, may have confused the students with members of a rival drug cartel, the attorney general's office said. Authorities have arrested two suspects in connection with the crime and have issued arrest warrant for six others, all believed to be part of a cell of Cartel Jalisco New Generation.

The students' deaths became the latest example of the lives upended by violence in a country that just marked its deadliest year in modern history, with more than 25,300 homicides.

"There are no words to comprehend the magnitude of this madness," del Toro, a Guadalajara native, tweeted early Tuesday. "3 students are killed and dissolved in acid. The 'why' is unthinkable, the 'how is terrifying."

In a news conference Monday, the attorney general's office laid out a timeline of what may have led up to the students' deaths.

The three young men hailed from different parts of Mexico but were all students at the University of Audiovisual Media in Guadalajara. They had been working on a film project in a house they were told belonged to one of their aunts, located in Tonala, a city outside Guadalajara.

But it turns out the home was also used as a safe house for a gang known as the "Nueva Plaza" cartel, headed by a leader known as "El Cholo," according to the attorney general's office. In 2015, a prominent member of that cartel, Diego Gabriel Mejia, had been detained at the house alongside other members. (Authorities said Mejia and the student's aunt both had ties to a massage parlor that served as a prostitution business).

Because Mejia was soon to be released from prison, members of his rival gang, Cartel Jalisco New Generation, began keeping a close watch on the safe house. The presence of the three young men on the property may have raised their suspicions, the Jalisco attorney general's office said.

"Without knowing it, the students were in a place of grave risk, watched by a criminal cell of the Cartel Nueva Generacion," the Jalisco attorney general's office said.

Then, on March 19, the three students, along with a fourth classmate and three other young people, were leaving the area when one of their cars broke down. Two pickup trucks pulled up, and six heavily armed men approached them, authorities said. The armed men, dressed as law enforcement officers, ordered everyone to get down on the ground.

Then, they forced the three students, Gastelum, Avalos and Diaz, into one of their trucks and drove them to a house used by the cartel to interrogate and torture victims, authorities said.

"It is here that they begin to beat one of them," chief investigator Lizette Torres said in the news conference. While interrogating the students, the suspects ended up beating one of them so brutally that he died. Therefore, "they had to execute the other two," Torres said.

Authorities say the suspects then took the bodies of the students to another location, where they dissolved them in acid. Investigators found 46 barrels of sulfuric acid at the site, and believe that other bodies may have been disposed of there. Cartels in Mexico are known to dissolve, burn or dismember bodies as a way to eliminate evidence of crimes.

Officials said they found DNA evidence linked to two of the students at two of the three homes. When asked if she was certain if all three students were dead, Torres said investigators"logically inferred" that to be the case.

That was not enough for many critics of the Jalisco attorney general's office in Mexico who expressed frustration by killings going unsolved or partially solved. Many people turned to social media to demand more evidence and more answers. The attorney general's office made clear the investigation is ongoing.

Jalisco experienced a year of record violence in 2017, with a tally of 1,369 homicides. It is home to the powerful Cartel Jalisco New Generation, a network of traffickers and assassins who "have shot down an army helicopter, ambushed federal police and sent a pig's head to the former attorney general's home," as The Washington Post's Joshua Partlow wrote last year. The cartel stemmed from the remnants of another group, the Milenio cartel, and makes money by selling guns, stealing gasoline, extortion and kidnapping.

Missing persons cases in Mexico often go unsolved. In a high-profile case in 2014, 43 student teachers protesting education reforms were stopped by police officers who opened fire at them. They were never seen again. Their disappearance led to international outrage, drew condemnations from President Barack Obama and Pope Francis, and became a turning point in the administration of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.

The government later said the 43 students were captured by police and handed over to drug cartel assassins, who shot them and burned their bodies. But in a report, outside experts later said the government's narrative was wrong. More than 100 people have been arrested in the case.

On Monday night, mourners gathered at a vigil in Jalisco to honor the three film students. Scores of Mexicans poured out their anger and frustration over the alleged killings - and too many other deaths across the country - on social media, using the hashtag #NoSonTresSomosTodos, meaning "it's not three, it's all of us."

"They murdered the film students and dissolved their bodies in acid for doing homework. For doing homework," one person tweeted in Spanish. "This country is hell."

"The rage, the impotence, things can't keep going like this," another said.

"The most vile and nauseating, the story that never ends, the reality that surpasses fiction," wrote another. "We continue to suffer every day . . . Enough!"
US Troops Go to Court Seeking Vaccine Exemption for Those Who've Had COVID-19

The service members want the Defense Department to exempt those with natural immunity from the coronavirus vaccine order.
A U.S. F-16 Fighting Falcon from Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, crash landed during a routine training flight near the Arizona-California border Tuesday. The pilot ejected and was in good condition, officials said in a release.

The F-16C, assigned to the 56th Fighter Wing, diverted and attempted to land at Lake Havasu City Municipal Airport at approximately 10:35 a.m. local time, Luke officials said in the release.

"During landing, the aircraft departed the prepared surface and the pilot ejected from the aircraft. The pilot is in good condition and is being transported to Havasu Regional Medical Center," according to the release.

"First responders are on site and there is no immediate danger to the public," it said.

Witnesses posted photos of the crash, which circulated on social media. The popular Facebook group Air Force amn/nco/snco showed photos of the F-16 on its belly in the dirt with its nose broken off.

The Arizona National Guard's 162nd Wing also trains Iraqi pilots in the U.S. An Iraqi student pilot was killed when an F-16 crashed in southeastern Arizona last year.

The F-16 crash is the latest in a recent string of aviation accidents.

An F-22 Raptor from the 90th Fighter Squadron, 3rd Wing, experienced engine failure April 6 during a routine training flight at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, eight days before another F-22's belly skid at Naval Air Station Fallon, Nevada.

Just in the month of April, there have been several more serious aviation mishaps, including a fatal Army AH-64 Apache helicopter crash in Kentucky; a fatal F-16 Thunderbirds crash in Nevada; a non-fatal AV-8B Harrier jet crash in Djibouti; a non-fatal CH-53 Super Stallion helicopter hard landing in Djibouti; and a fatal CH-53E helicopter crash in California.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.
The most expensive weapons system in history, the US's F-35 Lightning II, is still sometimes losing to the 1970s F-15 in dogfights during training scenarios in Japan.

US Air Force F-15 pilot Capt. Brock McGehee, when asked by Defense News if the F-35s at Kadena Air Force base in Japan still sometimes lost to the Cold War-era fighters, said "I mean, sometimes."

The F-35 has long been plagued by reports of that it can't dogfight as well as older, much cheaper jets, despite being in development for nearly two decades and claiming to revolutionize air combat.

In 2015, War is Boring published a report from a test pilot that said the F-35 couldn't turn or climb fast enough to keep up with older jets, and F-16s lugging heavy fuel tanks under wing still routinely trounced it.

But a lot has changed since 2015. The F-35 has had its software upgraded and the tactics refined.

Why the Cold War jets can still pull a win out -- for now

Retired US Marine Corps Lt. Col. David Berke previously told Business Insider that the older jets benefited from decades of development and training, whereby new pilots today have established best practices. As the F-35 is still in its early days, Berke said the best is yet to come.

In 2017, the F-35 dominated older jets with a ratio of 15 kills to one death.

"The biggest limitation for the F-35 is that pilots are not familiar with how to fly it. They try to fly the F-35 like their old airplane," Berke said.

But the pilots at Kadena dogfighting against F-15s may be a cut above, according to Berke, who said that because they have never flown a legacy jet before, they won't bring the bad habits with them, and will instead learn how to fly the F-35 like the unique plane it is. "They're going to be your best, most effective tacticians," Berke said.

F-35s at a major disadvantage to any legacy jet in a dogfight

"The F-35 cannot out dogfight a Typhoon (or a Su-35), never in a million years," Justin Bronk, a combat aircraft expert at the Royal United Services Institute, previously told Business Insider.

The reason why, according to Bronk and other experts on the F-35, is that the F-35 just isn't a dogfighter. The F-35's stealth design put heavy demands on the shape of the aircraft, which restricted it in some dimensions. As a result, it's not the most dynamic jet the US could have possibly built, but it doesn't have to be.

Instead, the F-35 relies on stealth. F-35s, employed correctly in battle, would score most of their kills with long range missiles fired from beyond visual range.

"If you get into a dogfight with the F-35, somebody made a mistake. It's like having a knife fight in a telephone booth," civilian F-16 pilot Adam Alpert of the Vermont Air National Guard wrote in 2016 after training on F-35 simulators.

A Top Gun pilot says dogfighting is dead anyway

Berke, an alumnus of the US Navy's famous Top Gun school, echoed Alpert's assessment, but warned that the common perception of dogfighting was "way off," and something US jets haven't done in 40 years. Berke disagreed with Bronk's "never in a million years" assertion, but maintained that the dogfighting issue was basically irrelevant.

The bottom line is that in training, all jets lose "sometimes." That the F-35 can hold its own and beat a jet refined over four decades to excel exclusively at air-to-air combat -- when the F-35 has been designed to fight, bomb, spy, and sneak -- shows its tremendous range and potential.

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Amanda Agana is a track runner at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. She was born in Bolgatanga (Bolga), Ghana, and has used track to assimilate herself into American culture, something that hasn't been easy.

"I don't really fit into most social groups," she said. "I mean, my [adoptive] mom is Caucasian, blonde hair, blue eyes from Arkansas. My dad is super dark, has a tribal scar on his face, and here I am in the mix. I am neither Caucasian nor African-American. I am African in America and that is a hard place to fit in. So what I want to leave behind is that no matter who you are, no matter the circumstances you came from, you can rise above what you have been placed into."

Agana was almost 13 years old when she came to the U.S., but she didn't lose contact with her African relatives. She makes regular visits to Bolga with her mother, and she keeps in contact with them through social media.

"My African family keeps me grounded," said Agana. "It's easy to forget where you come from when you go from a life of poverty and suffering, and a life of pain and hurt to a borderline luxurious life like the one I'm living here in the U.S. I'm grateful that my African family reminds me every day that there are people less fortunate than me."

She used to be one of those less fortunate people herself. Agana's biological mother died when she was seven and her dad, as the head of the extended Agana family, had many responsibilities. The family is approximately 100 people, and it's his job to provide for everyone else's children as well as his own.

"I felt as though I was a burden to his own responsibilities," said Agana. "I had family outside of the Agana family that could take care of me, and I wanted to give him a break so I asked for permission to go and live with my aunt."

For the first few months, Agana was considered family in her aunt's house. They would laugh together, and she would help with the chores.

"As time went on, I became an instrument to her family," said Agana. "I started not being part of the family; I became per say -- a servant -- I had to earn my keep; I had to work to live."

On top of having to do chores and work, Agana regularly had to endure physical, verbal and emotional abuse as well.

"The chores and the beatings were not the hardest part for me," said Agana. "[My aunt] believed that I took my mother away from her. The hardest part was that it was the first time I truly experienced hate -- to have somebody hate you."

She spent three years not only cooking and cleaning for her aunt's family every day, but also working in her store. It felt like the rest of her life would be spent in servitude.

"I thought there was no end to it," said Agana. "I had to wake up every day and decide that I wanted to live. It's hard to be a 10-year-old and have to verbally say, 'I want to live today.'"

During this time, Agana's father was trying to improve education in Bolga by building a library. In fact, after he met Agana's soon-to-be adoptive mother, she started transporting books to Bolga.

"My dad flew here to thank her for it and they ended up falling in love," said Agana.

The first time Agana met her adoptive mother was at her aunt's house. She brought some t-shirts and a couple of white dresses as a gift.

"I didn't want to accept them because in my mind I asked 'What am I going to have to give in return to get these?' because nobody's going to give you anything for free," said Agana. "But she just gave me a hug and said 'It's nice to meet you,' and then they left. I ended up not keeping any of the clothes she gave me because my aunt said I was too dirty to wear white clothes."

One summer, Agana's aunt dressed her up for a visit with her parents, and her dad noticed she had cuts and bruises on her body. When he asked what happened, her aunt's family said that she had been fighting with neighborhood kids.

"When we left the house, he asked me what happened, and at first I was reluctant to tell him about my mistreatment at the house," Agana recalled. "He was angry I didn't tell him about all of it before, and he ended up cutting ties with the family."

This was the second time Agana met her new mother. She rescued her from a life of servitude and abuse.

"I absolutely did not like [my mom]," said Agana. "She was curious about everything. She wanted to know 'What do you do? What do you like?' and I didn't even know what I liked because I had spent the majority of my life serving others."

As the years passed by, Agana began to realize the blessing it was to have been taken out of her aunt's house and have a mother who truly cares about her.

"I realized that what God takes away, he replaces tenfold," said Agana. "For me, my reward for suffering throughout those three years at my aunt's house was her. She was God's gift to me."

Agana has always been able to run long distances at an impressive speed. During a childhood visit to Bolga, she had to run to run two miles to the market to get tomatoes, and she returned quickly.

"When we came to the U.S., I was having trouble fitting in, learning the language and was a bit antisocial. So [Mom] shoved me on the track team and said, 'Here, run and make friends,' and my first reaction was, 'People run in circles for fun?' I ended up falling in love with it. I learned not just the language, but the culture as well."

While Agana was in high school, she planned to run for the University of Arkansas and eventually qualify for the Ghanaian national track team. That changed after a conversation with her mom about what she really wanted to do with her life.

"My mom sat me down and asked, 'What do you want to do? Who do you want to be as a person?'" Agana recalled. "My instant reply was 'I want to help; I want to give back.' I wanted to give back to the country that gave me such a loving mother."

After their conversation, her mother encouraged her to look into the Naval Academy. Agana, now in her second year there, says she has found her purpose in life: to help those in need and to give back to the country that has given her so much. Meanwhile, she also gets to run.

"Running is amazing," said Agana. "But here, I can change someone's life by just being in the military. I can change somebody's life by walking through this path as a midshipman."

Agana is studying political science and plans to become an intelligence officer in the U.S. Marine Corps. After the military, she wants to build a school in Bolga someday and help children achieve higher educations.

"I know I have come far, but I think I have further to go," said Agana. "I would tell my aunt and all the people who beat me down and tried to take away my spirit that I'm not done. I'm not even close to being done."
The Air Force says it needs an increased availability rate for its WC-135 Constant Phoenix aircraft, known as "nuke sniffers," and that's why it's looking to convert three KC-135R tankers to do the job.

During a Senate Armed Service Committee hearing on Tuesday, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein said converting three tankers will give the nuke sniffer mission a longer life, an asset for the Air Force amid unpredictable acts from America's adversaries.

"It allows us to get more time to be able to continue to accomplish this mission," Goldfein said in response to a question from Sen. Deb Fischer, a Republican from Nebraska. "Because our current airplanes are old. They're wearing out."

The aircraft belong to the 45th Reconnaissance Squadron, 55th Operations Group, at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska.

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Goldfein continued, "Our mission-capable rates, and more importantly, our aircraft availability rates to be able to do this mission are much lower than not only the Secretary of Defense's, but [also] the combatant commander's requirement for this mission."

Goldfein said the conversion will give the fleet "more longevity for that critical mission."

The service, in its fiscal 2019 budget request, asked for roughly $208.3 million to "procure and install modification kits to convert three KC-135R aerial refueling tanker aircraft," which would help keep the nuke sniffer fleet flying through 2050.

The Air Force currently has two Constant Phoenix aircraft in its fleet, a C model and a W model, according Air Force Magazine's 2017 aircraft inventory almanac.

Studies done on the modifications requirement show that it would be "more cost-effective to convert KC-135R aircraft into WC-135Rs than to modify existing WC-135W aircraft to be on par with the rest of the C-135 variants s (i.e. RC-135 and KC-135)," the fiscal 19 request said.

The "nuke sniffers" -- a modified C-135B or EC-135C -- routinely deploy to assess radioactive particles in the atmosphere, or to train with partners and allies.

Last year, the aircraft was spotted in the United Kingdom. The sighting prompted speculation it was sent to Europe after an alleged Russian nuclear test, which caused radioactive levels to spike in areas such as Norway.

A 'nuke sniffer' also deployed to Japan in the wake of North Korea's underground nuclear tests. The most recent test occurred in September 2017.

Goldfein on Tuesday did not specify when modifications to the aircraft could be complete.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @oriana0214.
U.S. and coalition forces recently doubled the number of airstrikes against Islamic State fighters in Syria in an attempt to help friendly Syrian ground forces defeat the last two pockets of terrorist resistance in the country.

In the past week, the coalition conducted 14 airstrikes against ISIS fighters in defensive fighting positions in Syria, Army Col. Ryan Dillon, spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, told reporters Tuesday at the Pentagon.

"In the last two weeks, we as a coalition have conducted strikes and upped the number of strikes that we have conducted on the eastern side of the Euphrates River," he said. "We have doubled the amount since the week previously."

The Iraqi Air Force conducted one of the strikes on its own against a "known ISIS headquarters in Syria that was being used to smuggle ISIS terrorists," Dillon said.

"This strike demonstrated Iraq's willingness to do what is necessary to secure its citizens as well as their role as an important partner in the global coalition to defeat ISIS," he added.

The increased intensity of air operations was prompted by new intelligence from constant overhead surveillance platforms showing new activity of ISIS fighters in two locations in Southeast Syria along the Syrian-Iraqi border, Dillon said.

Aside from these last two pockets of ISIS, "[the fighters] are out in remote, sparse areas or they are hiding onesies and twosies amongst the population," he said.

The airstrikes are intended to support Syrian Democratic Forces who appear to be moving into the area to clean out pockets of ISIS fighters, Dillon said.

He would not give specifics but said there are "encouraging signs that more combat power is returning to the Euphrates River Valley to really turn it on [against] the ISIS elements in those two locations that finally remain."

"We have put obstacles into place and built things to contain ISIS in the two areas where we are currently supporting our forces to defeat the remaining locations where they hold territory," Dillon said. "We will continue to conduct operations that limit ISIS freedom of maneuver and also constrain their ability to generate forces and degrade their command-and-control nodes."

The SDF has been limited in its ability to conduct offensive operations since the February timeframe, Dillon said, but coalition leaders are confident they will continue to put pressure on ISIS until it is defeated.

"The SDF are that good," he said. "They have proven themselves again and again and again that they are capable of standing up to ISIS and defeating them."

-- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com.
As the Marine Corps continues its quest to get more capability from long-range precision fires, it's asking industry for proposals on a portable system that can fire high-tech attack and reconnaissance drones on the go.

The service released a request for proposals Monday describing a futuristic system unlike any of its existing precision-fires programs.

The theoretical weapons system, which the Corps is simply calling Organic Precision Fire, needs to be capable of providing fire support at distances of up to 60 kilometers, or more than 37 miles, according to the RFP document.

This range would exceed that of the M777 155mm howitzer, which can fire Excalibur rounds up to 40 kilometers, or around 25 miles.

The system, which ideally would be light enough for just one Marine to carry, would launch loitering munitions from a canister or tube no larger than 10 inches across and eight feet long. The projectile would be able to loiter for up to two hours, according to the solicitation, while gathering data and acquiring a target.

Loitering munitions, known informally as suicide or kamikaze drones, are unmanned aerial vehicles, typically containing warheads, designed to hover or loiter rather than traveling straight to a target. They're becoming increasingly common on the battlefield.

The California-based company AeroVironment's Switchblade loitering munition is now in use by the Marine Corps and Army. It is described as small enough to fit inside a Marine's ALICE pack. The Blackwing UAV, also made by AeroVironment, is tube-launched, but designed to perform intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, rather than to attack.

The Marines want whoever can make the system they seek to give it the ability to communicate securely with a ground control system at a distance of up to 60 kilometers. It should also be advanced enough to perform positive identification on a target, and engage and attack a range of targets including personnel, vehicles and facilities.

Companies have until May 18 to submit proposals to the Marine Corps on such a system.

The ambitious RFP comes shortly after the Corps issued a request for proposals on the manufacture of the Advanced Capability Extended Range Mortar, or ACERM, a round that will almost quadruple the range of the current M252 81mm mortar system.

Service leaders have publicly said they're planning to make big investments in the field of long-range precision fires as they prepare for future conflicts.

The commanding general of Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Lt. Gen. Robert Walsh, told Military.com in December that the service was making decisions to divest of certain less successful weapons systems in order to shift more resources to developing these capabilities. The service had already done so, he said, with its 120mm towed mortar system, the Expeditionary Fire Support System.

"We made that decision to divest of it, and we're going to move that money into some other area, probably into the precision fires area," Walsh told Military.com. "So programs that we see as not as viable, this [program objective memorandum] development that we're doing right now is to really look at those areas critically and see what can we divest of to free money up to modernize."

-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.
A group of over 40 Democrat lawmakers have sent a letter to a pair of House committee chairmen opposing a proposal that would give troops cash for alternative schooling, but gut Pentagon subsidies for public schools.

The plan would give military families up to $4,500 per child depending on where they live. The money would be placed in an Education Savings Account (ESA). Supporters see the measure as giving military families greater school choice, and some estimates say over 120,000 military children would be eligible.

But funding for it would come out of a current program known as Impact Aid, which gives local school districts money based on enrollment of military kids. Paying for the ESAs would trigger an Impact Aid reduction.

And that's what the lawmakers who penned the April 24 letter, as well as multiple military family lobbying groups, such as the National Military Family Association (NMFA), say is the real problem with the proposal. School choice in and of itself isn't bad -- but punishing school districts and the other students who will continue to use them but cutting their funding is, they say.

"We write to express our deep concern with any dilution of funding from the Impact Aid program," the lawmakers wrote. "It is unfathomable that now ... you and your colleagues would be open to a major redistribution of Impact Aid dollars, a redistribution that would strip funding from 1,200 school districts and 10 million students."

The plan is supported by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who sees it as expanding school options for families who otherwise can't afford private school.

"We know that they're so mobile generally that it is difficult for those kids, moving from base to base to base, or from city to city to city, to have continuity in their education. An education savings account would afford them a much different dynamic and approach to be able to get their education in the way that best works for them," DeVos said at a conference in February.

The House bill was introduced by Rep. Jim Banks, a Republican from Indiana. It also has a companion bill in the Senate.
Mineral List

Regional Geology

The lease was first pegged in early 1893 by James McGregor and George Cundy, but it was left un-worked for months, probably due to attention being focused on their Old Nell lease. No surface quartz was showing at Maori Dream, and it was dismissed as worthless. 15 acres. The lease then went through a succession of owners in the space of a few years. The lease borders the Phoenix to the south-east in one source, and borders the Phoenix Mine on its north in another.The next set of prospectors was Withers and party, who dug a trench finding a seam initially 0.5 inches thick, but increasing to 10 inches as work progressed. The vein was flat lying near the surface, however changed to vertical at depth. Mining was via quarrying into the hill-side. Two tonnes of ore was sent to the Thames School of Mines, and a further 5.5 tonnes to Kuaotunu.A visitor in 1895 stated the lease had been prospected only, but had garnered more attention than most of the other leases in the area. He states the prospectors are inexperienced, being saw-millers by trade. Across 1894 to 1895, Joseph Smith owned the lease. Henry David Abbott applied for a lease as the Maori Dream Proprietary around the same period however it is uncertain if it was the same property.Reubens or Rubens Kerry held the lease and others nearby early 1896. The London based Maori Dream Gold Mines Ltd took over later in 1896. They amalgamated it with the Kauri, Morning Light, and Ohui Extended leases. Some bills were left unpaid, blamed on their attorney. In 1899 Edward Ryan of Auckland had the lease forfeited to him from the Maori Dream Company. He re-named the lease the Meroia.In a 1912 report, the lease is now named Dreadnought, or in some other sources Tairua Dreadnought. The old adits for the Maori Dream have collapsed. The host rock is altered pyroxene andesite, the vein hard white quartz, rust coloured from oxidation near surface, with banded structures, remnant pyrite, and Au-Ag values. The vein averages 15 inches wide, to a maximun of 4 feet wide, flat to shallow dipping, situated at the base of the hills.Mineralisation is found in a sinuous fracture, 100 feet long, with gold in oxidised near surface un-named sulphides, the vein described as forming wavy bands, migrating from one side of the reef to the other, and containing rich ore (although little evidence of substantial mining was found).1 valid mineral.

This geological map and associated information on rock units at or nearby to the coordinates given for this locality is based on relatively small scale geological maps provided by various national Geological Surveys. This does not necessarily represent the complete geology at this locality but it gives a background for the region in which it is found.

Click on geological units on the map for more information. Click here to view full-screen map on Macrostrat.org

Data and map coding provided by Macrostrat.org, used under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License

This page contains all mineral locality references listed on mindat.org. This does not claim to be a complete list. If you know of more minerals from this site, please register so you can add to our database. This locality information is for reference purposes only. You should never attempt to visit any sites listed in mindat.org without first ensuring that you have the permission of the land and/or mineral rights holders for access and that you are aware of all safety precautions necessary.

References
TODAY: Plouffe could earn at a $1.5MM annual rate in the majors on the contract, which also includes some opt-out chances, per Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (via Twitter).

YESTERDAY: The Phillies have struck a minor-league deal with veteran third baseman Trevor Plouffe, according to Gerry Fraley of the Dallas Morning News (via Twitter). (H/t to Eric English, who first tweeted the connection.)

Details are sparse beyond the fact that it is a minors arrangement. Plouffe spent the spring in camp with the Rangers but ultimately asked for his release after failing to crack the MLB roster.

The 31-year-old Plouffe returned to the open market in search of an opportunity to earn his way back to the majors. He has at times been a solid regular at the hot corner, and carries a .242/.304/.410 slash with more than a hundred long balls in over three thousand MLB plate appearances in eight seasons. Now, though, Plouffe is coming off of a brutal 2017 season in which he hit just .2198/.272/.318 over 313 trips to the plate.

It seems likely that Plouffe will mostly be viewed as a depth piece for the Phils. The club already has Maikel Franco lined up at third base and does not appear to have a clear use for a corner infield reserve on the major-league roster as things stand.
Nairobi socialite turned travel blogger Corazon Kwamboka is living large in Italy thanks to her Italian beau.

The voluptuous lass traveled to Rome, Italy earlier this month to surprise her boyfriend on his birthday.

For over two weeks, the socialite has been enjoying what Italy has to offer, including visits to iconic architectural marvels.

It was not until her visit to Sardinia, the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, that Corazon caused an internet storm.

Over the weekend, as Nairobi got pounded by rains, Corazon was enjoying a sunny beach day at a beach called Poetto. The endowed Ms Kwamboka let loose and stepped out in a blue and white striped bikini showcasing her enviable assets and thunder thighs.

In fact, the advocate of the high court felt free enough to go topless at the beach.

She teased her followers with a picture, writing; Going topless at this beautiful beach really felt like freedom. Im in love with Sardinia and I loved sharing my adventure with all of you.
Embakasi East Member of Parliament Babu Owino is planning to deliver a sensational speech should he be one of the speakers at the funeral of the late Kenneth Matiba.

The controversial legislator has penned an interesting tribute and shared it on his social media sites, evoking mixed reactions from Kenyans.

In the speech, Babu pays homage to the late politician describing him as a lover of liberty and an irrepressible fighter for justice.

Kenneth Matiba believed relentlessly in the power of truth, had the courage to always perceive the truth and possessed that extra courage of always saying the truth to the people, reads the speech in part.

Babu concludes with an attack on the Moi regime for Matibas incarceration and assault that might have contributed to his tribulations and untimely death.

Two public funeral services have been scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday at the All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi and at the Ihura Stadium in Muranga town, respectively.

Its unclear and highly unlikely if Babu will be one of the speakers but if he does, it promises to be an explosive speech.

Read it in full below:

Widow & Family of the Late Kenneth Matiba, The President,The Peoples President, Deputy President, Members of the Clergy, Former Presidents, Cabinet Secretaries, Governors, Senators, Fellow MPs, Diplomats and Most important All Kenyans of Goodwill.

Good Afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen.

I will be as brief as a cock on a hen.

Today we gather to mourn the passing of a lover of liberty and an irrepressible fighter for justice. Kenneth Matiba believed relentlessly in the power of truth, had the courage to always perceive the truth and possessed that extra courage of always saying the truth to the people.

Matiba fought against injustices in Kenya and was brutalized and incarcerated many times by the senseless Moi government. Even as we mourn, no one here can doubt that these assaults and inhuman prison facilities might have contributed to his tribulations and untimely death.

Nonetheless, until his death, he lived the law and by example. Matiba was the nemesis of corrupt political elite and compromised members of the judiciary. He reminded all that tribe and party affiliations are no boundaries when it comes to fighting injustice.

Matiba taught all of us through his actions that wealth can be constructively utilized in improving the quality of life of the less privileged and, that honesty and morals are valuable assets. It is now left for those of us in this valley of tears to continue the good fight.

This is the only befitting task that would do Kenneth Matiba proud. Sleep well, Comrade Matiba

However, in his fight against injustices in Kenya, Matiba was betrayed by many friends and close allies;

Surprisingly, some of those friends and allies that betrayed Matiba are seated closer to his coffin than those that really cared about him and his ideas. MATIBA FORGIVE THEM.

Had it not been for the selfishness of some people here, Kenneth Matiba would have been Kenyas third president and Kenya would be closer economically to the Asian countries our government keeps borrowing money from. MATIBA FORGIVE THEM

Matiba had the vision for a corruption free Kenya, but even the people whove converted Kenya into a free corruption zone are here and crying more than the bereaved. MATIBA FORGIVE THEM.

Matiba had the vision of turning Kenya into the land of opportunity, but even the people whove converted Kenya into the land of opportunism are here and will say how good and great Matiba was. MATIBA FORGIVE THEM

Matiba was philanthropic and always sided with the less fortunate, but even those that constantly torment the poor and grab lands and property belonging to the less fortunate will stand here and say how Matiba inspired them. MATIBA FORGIVE THEM.

Even as we pray for their forgiveness, may those that betrayed Matiba never know peace nor good health , but be tormented with itching without the benefit of ever scratching..

Yours Unapologetically

Hon. BABU OWINO, MP Embakasi East
A dedicated police officer who was pictured directing traffic in a flooded road has caught the attention of Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet.

The police constable, identified as Abdi Galgalo, was photographed as he directed traffic on a flooded section of the Nairobi-Mombasa highway.

In the picture, Mr Galgado of the Sultan Hamud Police Station is seen standing knee-deep in flowing water and holding an umbrella in one hand while commanding traffic.

This attracted praise from the Inspector General of Police, who said Galgados action exemplifies the selfless service rendered by many officers to Kenyans each day.

The IG said this in a tweet posted on the National Police Services official Twitter handle.

The tweet attracted a myriad of responses from Kenyan Twitterati with some proposing to reward the dedicated officer.

Hello @NPSOfficial_KE @JBoinnet @PoliceKE @APSKenya, I feel obliged to reward Constable Abdi Galgalo in my own way having used that section of the road sometimes last year. Would appreciate if you shared his contacts via inbox. Thank you.  Capt Collins Wanderi (@CaptWanderiCFE) April 23, 2018

If only the rest of you worked like Abdi Galgalo, even the law breakers would get born again! . I hope Abdi Galgalo is not only commended but appreciated and rewarded with another rank!!!!  wakiliDaudiChwa (@ChwaWakili) April 23, 2018

Review his package upwards, not downwards please, and add him even an arrow symbol, this is exemplary!  BabaWatoto (@ItsKachieng) April 23, 2018



The officers selfless act comes days after another public servant melted Kenyans hearts after carrying a disabled schoolgirl up a hill for a view of Chania falls at the Aberdare National park.

The Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) ranger, Philip Wesa, carried the Form Two student, Deborah Nyaboke from Joyland Special School in Kisumu, after she had been left behind in the school bus.

Wesa was lauded by Kenyans and Cabinet Secretary for Tourism and Wildlife Najib Balala.
A lady claiming to be Uhurus unknown daughter has learned the hard way the repercussions of impersonating the Presidents daughter.

The young woman, who goes by the name Tamara Risheel, caused a stir on the streets of Nairobi last Friday as she displayed a placard claiming to the be Uhurus other daughter after Ngina Kenyatta.

My big dream is to meet my daddy in person for the first time. I love my daddy, part of the printed message in the placard read.

However, it did not take long before the long arm of the law caught up with her. On the same day she took to the streets, officers from the Kilimani Police Station picked her up and locked her up, contrary to reports that she was being taken to Statehouse.

For her attention-seeking shenanigans, Tamara spent her weekend behind bars. She was released yesterday after Starhe MP Charles Njagua alias Jaguar came to her rescue.

We understand Tamara is an upcoming musician and she has a song dedicated to President Uhuru.

Jaguar, who is proving to be an advocate for the welfare of Kenyan artists in Parliament, further linked Tamara to Mambo Mseto host Mzazi Willy Tuva who was part of the team at the Kilimani Police Station.

I think its safe to say that Placard holding in Kenya helps achieve dreams.

We searched for Tamaras music on YouTube and the video below is what we dug up. We cant promise you will enjoy what you hear.
Baringo Senator Gideon Moi on Monday condoled with the family of the late Kenneth Matiba at their home in Riara Ridge, Limuru.

The Senator was accompanied by a group of Kanu leaders during the afternoon visit.

In conversations with Edith Matiba, wife of the late Matiba, the Senator noted that former President Daniel Moi endorsed the visit.

Mzee called me six times today, asking me if I have arrived at your home. Please, he will call to confirm said Moi.

Edith also quashed speculation of bad blood between the two families, saying the former Head of State used to visit Matiba.

Moi used to come here, at times without security to say hi to my husband, Mrs Edith Matiba told Gideon.

Our children are good friends and we shall continue to strengthen the bond.

Gideons visit comes as Kenyans patiently waited for the retired Presidents reaction to Matibas death.

Moi detained the second liberation fighter during the clamour for multi-party ahead of the 1992 elections. There are claims that circumstances of Matibas detention contributed to his ill-health and subsequent death on April 15.

Matiba suffered a stroke while at the Kamiti Maximum Prison where he had been held without trial.

The former Kiharu MP was to receive Sh945 million as compensation for torture, detention, and stroke.

Matiba died at Karen Hospital in Nairobi aged 85 and will be cremated in line with his wishes.
When you see an ad that entices you, do you click on it? Of course you do!

Smart companies are using remarketing efforts that identify customer tastes to present you with items that you may have been looking at earlier in the day.

They may serve up similar items or those by the same designer or manufacturer. I shop almost entirely online, and Im fascinated by remarketing, which illustrates how marketing has gotten smarter.

Myth #2: My competitors can just click on my ads all day, costing me money

Google has extremely sophisticated technology to prevent click fraud and invalid clicks. This involves the analysis of several click-pattern factors.

Google provides very good reports on AdWords campaign performance, and any suspicious activity is quickly exposed. If a business is concerned they are victims of click fraud, they can contact Google directly to launch an investigation. Google reimburses questionable clicks.

Myth #3: AdWords is an outbound marketing tactic
As appraisal time is around the corner, all employees have only one question on their minds  how much will their pay rise this year? But not all of them are going to be as fortunate as those in the startup and e-commerce ecosystem as these companies will be going all out to retain the most talented lot, according to a report in The Economic Times.

Top performers in the sector are likely to get as much as a 40 per cent hike along with other benefits as compared to other sectors.

As companies try to retain talented employees, they are offering rewards like bonuses, employee stock options (ESOPs), cash awards, domestic and foreign travel, fast-track promotions and educational assistance.

Companies keen on retaining top talent

Its all linked to the scarcity of top talent, said Anandorup Ghose, partner at Aon India Consulting. These companies are very clear. Given the size of the talent pool, theyll do whatever it takes to hold on to key players.

Further, Rajeev Banduni, chief executive of advisory services firm GrowthEnabler, said, Startups are struggling for top talent, particularly on the tech side. Theres a dearth of people in roles such as data, product management, UI/UX (user interface/ user experience design), artificial intelligence, machine learning etc.

For that talent pool, hikes of even 40 per cent and above are viable. For the rest, it now ranges between 8-12 per cent, he added.

What companies could offer in the current appraisal?

Doctor Insta, a virtual healthcare company, on average will give increments of around 20 percent in engineering roles, while top performers will get 30-40 percent. As for those in non-engineering roles, they will get 10-15 percent increment on average, with top performers set to get at least 30 percent increments.

Companies will use other means to retain employees as well. Online broking firm Zerodha has rewarded 12 high-performing employees with Royal Enfield motorcycles. Eight other employees, who did not want the bikes, were given the opportunity to invest an equivalent amount in gold.

The firms chief of human resources, Hanan Delvi said that increments will range from 10 percent to 30 percent this year.

Home accessory and furniture marketplace, Pepperfry is offering spot cash awards, housing assistance, foreign travel and educational assistance to its top performers.

Employees demonstrating project-based success can get spot awards ranging from Rs 25,000 to Rs 1 lakh, said Aditi Pareek, senior manager, HR.

Online software service provider Mettl is also giving 30 percent hikes to top performers, compared with 12 percent for the average ones.

At online grocer Bigbasket.com, those ranked high will get 15-20 percent more, twice the average, said Tanuja Tewari, general manager, HR.

Online automobile marketplace Droom, ESOPs are given to top performers besides performance and retention incentives and the increments are in the range of 35-40 percent for top performers.

As an organisation that maintains a meritocratic culture, highperforming employees are rewarded disproportionately through strong increments and ESOPs, said Girish Menon, vice president, HR, at food delivery firm Swiggy.

Apart from cash and other rewards, top performers are getting better challenges and responsibilities. Many companies are handing out most substantial assignments to top performers, given that they thrive on challenges.

NoBroker rewards top performers with either the responsibility of leading a large team or the chance to build a new business vertical from scratch while Bigbasket lets them take on new roles in accelerated time frames, apart from promotions and stock grants.
Fortis Healthcare | In the September quarter, Rakesh Junjhunwala held a 2.65 percent holding in the stock, and FIIs have increased its stake to 41.04 percent from 40.98 percent in the June quarter. In FY21 so far the stock price has risen 0 percent to Rs 125.70 as on October 26.

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Malaysias IHH Healthcare on Tuesday sweetened its bid for Fortis Healthcare by making a binding proposal to invest Rs 650 crore in the company upfront through a preferential issue without seeking due diligence. If the proposal is accepted, IHH will get two seats on the board of Fortis.

In a binding proposal, the the bidder is legally obligated to comply with the terms and conditions of the offer, if it is accepted.

IHH's modified bid is subject to the condition that it will be given immediate access to carry out a legal and financial due diligence, for investing the remaining Rs 3350 crore through a preferential issue of shares. This will be subject to satisfactory completion of the due diligence and execution at the agreed price not exceeding Rs 160 per share.

In its original bid--a non-binding one--IHH had offered to invest Rs 4000 crore, valuing the company's shares at Rs 160 apiece.

IHH has been forced to revise the deal after Fortis said it would consider only binding bids.

Also Read: Fortis appoints advisory committee headed by Rohit Bhasin

IHH said the equity infusion will primarily be used for clear dues to employees, repay creditors as well as reduce debt.

We remain strongly committed to an investment in the company and have revised our proposal into a simple and clear construct which addresses the immediate financial needs of the company and hence represents the most compelling proposition for the company as well as its stakeholders, IHH said in its offer.

With the latest revision of the offer, IHH is back in the race to acquire Fortis.

Also Read: Fortis to consider only binding offers

Fortis has received five bids in all-- from Manipal-TPG (which valued it at Rs 155 per share), Munjal-Burmans (at Rs 160 per share), IHH Healthcare (Rs 160 per share), Fosun (Rs 156 per share) and KKR-backed Radiant Life Care (Rs 165 per share).

The company's board, which met last week, said the advisory committee will meet on April 25 to evaluate binding offers and recommend the best one to it. The board is expected to take a decision on April 26.

Only two offers, those of Manipal-TPG and Munjal-Burmans, are binding.

Fortis Board appointed a three member committee headed by Deepak Kapoor, former chairman of PWC India to evaluate binding offers and recommend the best offer to the board which is meeting on April 26.

Shares of Fortis rose 0.90 percent to close at Rs 151.55 on the BSE.
The discussion around cryptocurrencies and blockchain is slowly becoming part of everyday lexicon, and yet the uncertainty surrounding their legality continues to exist. While the Indian government has made it clear that it does not recognise cryptocurrency as legitimate tender, Bryce Boland, Chief Technology Officer for Asia Pacific at cybersecurity firm FireEye thinks otherwise.

In an email interview with Moneycontrol, Boland spoke about the future of cryptocurrencies, their role in cybercrime, cryptomining and whether the sky high valuations of bitcoins will come back.

Edited excerpts:

Q: The sentiment around cryptocurrencies seems to have turned for the worse, including in India. How do you look at the future of cryptocurrencies going forward?

A: It appears cryptocurrencies are here to stay, though we should expect significant volatility for the foreseeable future.

As people increasingly value cryptocurrencies and drive up their valuations, we should expect cybercriminals to put more and more effort into stealing them.

Attackers are taking advantage of the increased interest in cryptocurrencies for monetary gain. They use all kinds of mechanisms like exploits, phishing and spam campaigns, adware, drive by download, etc to increase their outreach and maximize profit.

We have seen several different types of malware that target systems for cryptocurrency mining purpose. We expect to see much more malware actively stealing cryptocurrency from weakly protected wallets, shimming password entry to wallets, stealing offline wallets for brute forcing, or using credentials stolen from the same user.

We also see cryptocurrency exchanges being targeted by criminals, both for direct financial gain as well as the theft of customer information.

(Delhi based bitcoin exchange firm Coinsecure lost bitcoins worth Rs 20 crore after most of its wallets were hacked this month)

Q: With its crazy valuations, Bitcoin (the most popular cryptocurrency) seems to be getting a bad rap right now, but how do you see its future valuation? Are the peak, near $19,000 valuations likely to come back?

A: I have no idea. Id rather not try to predict that.

Q: Which are the other promising cryptocurrencies right now?

A: Im not sure whats promising from a consumer standpoint, but criminals are increasingly using Monero because they believe its more difficult to track.

Q: What is cryptomining and why should corporations be worried about it?

A: Cryptomining is when your computer generates small amounts of currency by performing computational work. Unfortunately weve seen cybercriminals deploy cryptomining malware in order to unknowingly hijack the computing resources of victims.

FireEye recently found cybercriminals were using a new vulnerability to compromise web servers in order to install crypto-mining software. We have observed this campaign targeting India as well at large scale ranging from companies to home based users.

Instead of targeting specific organizations, the attackers involved in cryptocurrency mining operations mainly exploit opportunistic targets, which implies that the targeting calculus of these attacks is indiscriminate in nature.

Q: There is also a lot of hype around blockchain technology right now. How do you see the practical usage of blockchain in different industries?

Its difficult to overstate the hype for blockchain technology right now. I think its overdone. If we come back to this topic in several years, I think well see how few uses actually materialize in the market.
A British finance guru has sued the social media giant Facebook on Monday for showing cryptocurrency advertisement which falsely uses his face and name to promote trading scams.

Martin Lewis, a financial journalist and founder of consumer finance site MoneySavingExpert.com, alleges that Facebook published over 50 fake Martin Lewis adverts which are regularly seen, likely by millions of people in the UK.

He, in his blog, attached some examples of the ads and highlighted that the most prevalent ads are get-rich-quick schemes currently titled Bitcoin code or Cloud Trader, which are fronts for binary trading firms based outside the EU.

Enough is enough. Ive been fighting for over a year to stop Facebook letting scammers use my name and face to rip off vulnerable people  yet it continues. I feel sick each time I hear of another victim being conned because of trust they wrongly thought they were placing in me. One lady had over GBP 100,000 taken from her, he said.

I dont do adverts. Ive told Facebook that. Any ad with my picture or name in it without my permission. Ive asked it not to publish them, or at least to check their legitimacy with me before publishing.

Lewis said that the adverts have links to fake news articles which look like the reputed news portals such as BBC.

The case has been filed in a UK high court and will be argued by the same lawyer who represented the Dowler family in the phone-hacking case against the News of the World. Lewis seeks exemplary damages from the California-based company, however, he will donate the amount to anti-scam charities.

Earlier this year, Facebook had banned the cryptocurrency ads from its platform. The social media giant had said it was barring ads for "financial products and services that are frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices, such as binary options, initial coin offerings and cryptocurrency."
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Akash Jain

Deccan Gold Mines (DGML) is a unique company and an interesting play on gold mining. It is the first and only gold exploration company listed on the BSE, established in 2003 by promoters with deep roots in the exploration and mining sector.

DGML is involved in gold exploration in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh where the activities have resulted in defining a number of gold prospects spread across these states.

Its ultimate objective is to advance these gold prospects into commercial gold production. DGML has so far explored an area of around 6,574 sq km in Dharwar Shimoga Greenstone belt, Hutti-Maski Greenstone belt, and Mangalur Schist belt in Karnataka.

Multi-parametric exploration techniques such as remote sensing studies, regional and detailed geological mapping, regional and detailed geochemical and geophysical exploration, topographic survey, various methods of drilling and multi-element chemical analysis were adopted in undertaking the exploration work, as per international standards.

India is a country rich in mineral resources. A major portion of the country is composed of Precambrian rocks which have hosted major gold discoveries worldwide. There were over a hundred gold mining centres in the early part of last century.

Despite having some of the best potential ground for gold mineralisation, Indias annual primary gold mine output has reduced significantly to below 5 tonne. India has suffered in developing its gold mining potential due to lack of adequate exploration expenditure, nationalistic policies of the previous governments and a non-investor friendly mineral policy.

The government is looking to revive mineral exploration and mining sector through foreign and Indian private investment and planned introduction of liberalised internationally compatible mining policies.

DGML with some of the best gold prospects in the country is geologically similar to areas that have been home to major world gold discoveries, playing a leading role in its revival.

It is very difficult to forecast earnings for such type of companies. We do not have a price target for the company. High risk investors can buy into this story which may turn to turn to gold in the future.

: The author is Vice-President Equity Research at Ajcon Global Services. 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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TV18 Broadcast, a part of the Reliance Industries-owned Network18 Group, has reported a net loss of Rs 1.1 crore for the quarter ended March.

The company had reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 6 crore for the March quarter last year.

Consolidated operating revenue grew by 41 percent year-on-year to Rs 1,540 crore in the March quarter.

Operating earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) shot up 40 percent YoY to Rs 61 crore.

During the fiscal year gone by, TV18 reported operating revenue of Rs 4,813 crore, up 16 percent from its figure for FY17.

Operating EBITDA for the year jumped to Rs 240 crore, 41 percent higher than the corresponding figure for FY17.

The results declared by the company on Tuesday are annualised results after consolidating Viacom18's and Indiacast's financials, with effect from March 1.

In February this year, TV18 Broadcast increased its equity interest in Viacom18 Media Private Limited from 50 percent to 51 percent by acquiring in cash 1 percent of equity shares held by MTV Asia Ventures (India) Pte Ltd, Mauritius for Rs 129.75 crore.

It consequently obtained operational control of Viacom18.

Accordingly, the company consolidated Viacom18 as a subsidiary from March 1. Consequent to this acquisition, IndiaCast Media Distribution Private Limited (IndiaCast), which was hitherto a joint venture of the company, was accounted as a subsidiary with effect from March 1.

At 13:18 hours IST, the stock was trading at Rs 64.85, down 3.57 percent on BSE.

Disclosure: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.
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Traders body CAIT today demanded that its views be taken on the proposed policy on the e-commerce sector. The Confederation of Indian Traders (CAIT) said its representative was not invited in today's stakeholders meeting on the e-commerce policy.

This is a "step motherly treatment to domestic retail trade", it said in a statement.

"It's very disgusting that we are regularly making complaints against malpractices of e-commerce companies but government chose to avoid traders," CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said.

It alleged that the government is allowing e-commerce companies to control, dominate and distort retail trade.

"The e-commerce companies are free to flout FDI policy of the government, even after many complaints," it added.
If there were a choose-your-own-adventure guide to finding a coffee maker, there would be four choices that determined how the plot would twist.

First, paper filter or metal filter, and then immersion or pour-over. A paper filter lets less sediment and lipids through, explains Bailey Manson, the education and service program manager for Intelligentsia, a hip coffee roaster based in Chicago. That makes for a lighter, thinner mouthfeel and more aromatics. A French press makes an immersion brew, in which water sits with the coffee, while pour-overs allow the water to briefly pass through the grounds.

Then theres time: Do you want the morning ritual of a multiple-step process, or do you need to push a button and get out the door?

Finally, how much coffee do you need to make? A one-cup pour would do the trick if youre a one-cup person, but if youre making coffee for two adults and even grown children, a big pot should be considered.

Sometimes, though, the answer is not either-or but both-and, says Brian Jones, author of the book Brew: Better Coffee at Home. Theres also no rule against having several different brew methods, he says. Its nice to be able to switch up the method depending on your mood, your company or the type of coffee youre brewing.

As the design director for HGTV Home, Nancy Fire circles the globe to find trendy goods and inspiration. When shes home to relax from her travels, she likes to use the Double-Wall Glass French Press ($49.95, williams-sonoma.com).

It is so durable, and it always keeps the coffee hotter for longer, she says. I keep this press out in the country, and its the perfect way to make morning coffee on the weekends. Attractive enough to sit out on the counter, this French press has insulated walls that keep it warm longer.

Every morning, Adam Mahr, owner of the gift and housewares shop A Mano in Washington, steeps his coffee grounds in the Espro Press P7 after a favored ritual ($99.95-$119.95, espro.com). He chooses a dark bean from Brazil, Colombia or Ethiopia, then grinds it just before brewing to preserve the beans oil. He heats water on the stove, cutting it off right before it boils, then heats the stainless-steel press with hot water before putting the grounds and coffee water inthe unique double filter of the press keeps the grounds from sludging up the coffee. Lastly, a timer is set for four to five minutes. Every morning, I go down, feed the dogs, make my coffee, watch Morning Joe and then begin my day, he says.

My go-to choice for brewing coffee almost every morning is a Hario V60, says Jones, who is also co-founder of a coffee-roasting company and the java brain behind the website Dear Coffee, I Love You. Its a round pour-over dripper with a hole . . . and spiral ridges to help with water flow while brewing. He likes a lighter, cleaner flavor profile, which the pour-over ($25, surlatable.com) offers. To take it up one more notch, Jones recommends using a gooseneck water kettle.

When drinking at home, Manson of Intelligentsia prefers his thrift-store Chemex. I like the clarity and cleanliness that I get from a paper filter, he says. For something similar, he recommends the Six-Cup Glass-Handle Chemex ($43.50, chemexcoffeemaker.com). The glass neck makes for better ergonomics, he says. For a truly excellent cup of coffee, he recommends investing at least $100 in a quality grinder.

Georg Riedel, the 10th-generation owner of the wine-glass company Riedel, spent a year drinking coffee, learning about coffee, serving coffee, he says, all part of his research to design a glass that best highlights the characteristics of coffee, especially the fine, frothy crema. When you are trained to examine aromas and flavors, then it does not make a difference if you drink wine, soda, juice, coffee or tea. . . . Everything that is aromatic comes with a basic structure, he says. Different machines produce the crema differently, but Riedel prefers any DeLonghi machine and especially the Nespresso CitiZ Espresso Machineby DeLonghi ($249.99, target.com).
Flipkart Amazon

The government will finalise a policy framework on e-commerce in the next six months, a move that will protect consumer interest and address an array of issues faced by these companies.

Commerce Secretary Rita Teotia said the government has decided to constitute a task force that will look into the inputs presented by the stakeholders and put forth their recommendations to the thinktank in five months.

The thinktank on framework for a national policy on e-commerce, headed by commerce and industry minister Suresh Prabhu, had its first meeting today. The final policy framework will be out in six months, Teotia said.

Prabhu and other commerce ministry officials today met 50 key stakeholders, including officials from finance ministry, Competition Commission of India (CCI), Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM).

Officials from top e-commerce companies such as Flipkart, Urbanclap, Snapdeal, Makemytrip, PayTm, Shopclues, among others were also present at the meeting.

Key areas of discussion were taxation, competition policy, data localisation, technology transfer and the kind of regulator that the e-commerce sector would attract, Teotia said.

Founder of mobile payments company PayTm, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, who was also present at the meeting, said the government is coming to an understanding where the access to India's markets should balance with the benefits to the countrymen. In a way, India's open market is a big advantage to global companies but the same might not be true for domestic ones." Sharma said.

Teotia also said while discussion on e-commerce is underway at World Trade Organisation (WTO)  an international body dealing with the rules of trade between nations  with India being an active participant, the country does not have a negotiating mandate.

However, a detailed national policy on e-commerce would help the country gain clarity regarding its stand on e-commerce at the WTO.

Several developed countries have been enthusiastic about negotiating multilateral rules to govern international trade through e-commerce.
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India should focus on products and services with maximum export potential while signing free trade agreements (FTAs) with trading partners, a research note by NITI Aayog member V K Saraswat has said.

It said that before getting into a trade deal, India should review and assess its existing FTAs in terms of benefits to various stakeholders like industry and consumers, trade complementarities and changing trade patterns in the past decade.

Under FTAs, countries cut or eliminate duties on most number of goods traded between them besides liberalising norms to promote services trade and investments.

India has so far implemented several such agreements including with Singapore, Japan, South Korea and Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). It is also negotiating similar pacts with nations including Chile, Australia, New Zealand and European Union.

"The over-arching conclusion of this report is that FTAs have to be signed keeping two things in mind, mutually reciprocal terms and focusing on products and services with maximum export potential," it said.

The note also recommended negotiating bilateral FTAs with countries where trade complementarities and margin of preference is high.

It added that proper safety and quality standards should be set to avoid dumping of lower quality hazardous goods into the domestic market.

Besides, circumvention of rules of origin should be strictly dealt with by the authorities.

Citing an example, it said: "In case of India- Sri Lanka FTA, Sri lanka had started exporting copper to India by under invoicing of imported scrap in order to show higher value addition for qualifying for preferential rates under the FTA. Thus, Rules of Origin (ROO) norms can easily be circumvented by simple accounting manipulation to flood Indian markets".
India has signed a USD 210 million loan agreement with the World Bank to improve rural connectivity in Madhya Pradesh, the finance ministry said today.

The project will cover 10,510 km stretch of rural roads in Madhya Pradesh that fall under the Chief Minister's Gram Sadak Yojana (CMGSY) programme.

Of this 10,000 km will be upgraded from existing gravel to bituminous surface roads, while 510 km of new roads will be built to the same bituminous surface standard.

"The Government of India, the Government of Madhya Pradesh and the World Bank today signed a USD 210 million loan agreement for the Madhya Pradesh Rural Connectivity Project," the finance ministry said in a statement.

The project is expected to improve the durability, resilience and safety of the gravel surfaced rural roads and enhance the capacity of the state to manage its rural roads network, it added.

Joint Secretary in the Ministry Sameer Kumar Khare said the Madhya Pradesh roads project will enhance rural road connectivity in the state and open up opportunities for economic development.

"This project will leverage resources to support innovations in road construction, improve road safety, and reduce carbon footprint in the transport sector by mainstreaming climate resilient technology in road design and construction," said Hisham Abdo, Acting Country Director, World Bank India.

The project will undertake resilience measures such as surface sealing of roads, embankment pitching, and balancing culverts to prevent damages caused by extreme flood events.
Essar Steel

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Essar Steel's Committee of Creditors will meet again on Friday after an eight-hour long meeting on Tuesday proved inconclusive.

The lenders have decided to seek a legal opinion on whether to open up the auction of Essar Steel for fresh bids. This is after they found bids by ArcelorMittal and Numetal below the fair value.

"While ArcelorMittal's bid was 60 percent of the fair value, that of Numetal was 40 per cent of the fair value," said a source close to the development.

ArcelorMittal and Numetal declined to comment.

The lenders were meeting after the Ahmedabad bench of National Company Law Tribunal last week asked them to reconsider the bids put in by Numetal and ArcelorMittal.

The two companies had approached the bench after the resolution professional overseeing the auction had termed their bids ineligible citing Clause 29 (A) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.

The clause prevents promoters of defaulting companies from bidding for stressed assets.

Apart from asking the lenders and the RP to reconsider the two bids, the bench had also termed the second round of bidding invalid.

While the bench had observed that it favoured the auction to be opened for fresh bids, it had also said that the two bidders  Numetal and ArcelorMittal  should be given 30 days to rework their proposal.

"But the lenders may now turn down the two bids on financial terms, and not Clause 29 (A), and then open up the auction for fresh round of bidding. They are doing this to avoid legal hassles," said a source close to the development.

Vedanta Resources and JSW Steel, which had joined the auction in the second round bidding, continue to be interested in Essar Steel. Both have indicated that they may opt to submit bids if the lenders allow them to.

On Monday, JSW Steel had sent a letter to Essar Steel's lenders, on its interest in bidding for the stressed company.

"The lenders feel that fresh bids will increase the value, but want to first exhaust all the other options," said an executive.
Allowed | Farming operations (Image: PTI)

Long gone are the days when weather conditions and soil requirement were the primary factors determining cropping patterns and choice of crop. Cropping pattern is greatly influenced by government policies and assurance of procurement, which in turn are more populist in nature than efficiency-oriented.

The promise of a higher MSP (minimum support price) can further perpetuate this trend. If policy makers do not attempt to correct this gross misallocation of resources, Indian agriculture stands to suffer.

Faulty policies, distortionary subsidies and unsustainable resource allocation leads to concentration of crops in areas that are principally not best-suited from the input cost and resource utilisation point of view. Development of industrial belts in such regions, along with populist support policies from the government, leads to further promotion of such misallocated crops.

Classic examples of such misallocation are the overproduction of water-intensive crops like sugarcane and rice in states like Maharashtra and Punjab, where a depleting water table and unevenly-distributed monsoons have been causes of concern. Despite the inefficient use of water resources in these states and low crop yield per liter of water, these crops continue to remain the top choice of farmers, leading to overproduction and a worsening imbalance.

Supported by disproportional allocation of water resources (100 percent irrigation cover for sugarcane) along with the sugar producing industrial belt in the state and assured markets, sugarcane farmers tend to remain sticky in Maharashtra, despite the climatic suitability and higher value output of other crops like cotton and pulses that have only 3 percent irrigation cover.

Irrigation support and provision for free power, coupled with assured procurement of produce at predetermined prices, makes farmers in Punjab stick to rice cultivation even in the face of depleting water tables and increased concern on air quality depletion due to stubble burning in the state.

Production of rice per liter of water in Punjab remains significantly lower than that in eastern states like West Bengal and Bihar, where water availability is better and the same amount of crop can be grown using lesser irrigation and power.

Consequences of misallocation

Skewed allocation of resources disturbs the natural balance, which leads to disproportionate and inefficient utilisation of inputs like water and lowers per-unit productivity. In a country like India, which has a rapidly-increasing population and limited availability of resources, this is an issue that cannot be neglected for long.

Abundant output also leads to falling prices in the domestic market, which warrants higher support prices and increases the subsidy burden for the government. Moreover, subsidies on inputs like power, rather than direct transfers to farmers, also lead to lower input costs for the farmers, which in turn leads to lower procurement prices (procurement price is linked to input costs) and returns for farmers.

With limited availability of land, abundance of certain crops results in a high opportunity cost. Farmers are, in reality, diverting land from some other crops, which might have added higher value. The unavailability of these crops, which may be in great demand, might increase pressure on imports and foreign exchange reserves to meet domestic demand.

How the misdirected policy displaces natural adjustment

With such interfering government policies, free market forces are not allowed to play and a controlled mechanism enters the system that prohibits free adjustment of production and selection of crops. Since general demand-supply dynamics are not allowed to play out, it stands in the way of allocative efficiency. The farmer tends to remain committed to crops for which government support is high or for which sale is assured.

This results in continued overproduction of certain crops and lingering scarcity of certain others, and the switch between crops is hindered. Despite climatic non-suitability, certain crops are concentrated in certain regions only due to economic support and ready access to industries. This results in inefficient utilisation of both input resources as well as government subsidy.

Call of the hour

Instead of resorting to distortionary populist subsidies and support, the Centre and states should invest in building up the procurement market and appropriate storage infrastructure, along with adequate logistic facilities. They should deregulate primary wholesale markets and introduce measures to promote industries in right regional centers.

Moreover, provision of direct support to farmers, rather than free inputs, remains a better alternative and would help ensure better returns, improved agriculture income, and a more efficient use of available inputs.

Populist support measures are only a short-term solution and aggravate the imbalance in resource allocation.

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For more research articles, visit our Moneycontrol Research Page.
Microsoft Corp is not auditing how its partner KPMG cracks down on illegal use of Microsoft software in India, the companies said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

The denial comes after a prior claim made by an executive of the U.S. technology giant following a client complaint in March.

Microsoft runs a global "software asset management" (SAM) programme under which it partners with global consultants such as KPMG in India. Under that programme, KPMG seeks permission from business owners to check for the use of unlicensed software.

Reuters reported earlier this month that Microsoft had begun probing KPMG's work in India after a member of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, Vinit Goenka, complained to both companies that a KPMG employee had "barged in" to his Mumbai recruitment firm without an appointment to check its software last month.

Following the incident, a senior Microsoft India executive, Rajiv Sodhi, wrote to Goenka and apologised, saying Microsoft was "getting an assessment agency to carry out an audit of the process delivery at KPMG to identify and correct gaps, if any," according to an e-mail reviewed by Reuters.

Microsoft and KPMG, who had earlier declined to comment on the probe, on Tuesday denied there was such an audit, and said allegations made against the programme's implementation were "incorrect".

"Microsoft and KPMG strongly refute any suggestion that Microsoft is auditing KPMG, or either company has engaged in any wrong doing," the companies said in the statement sent to Reuters.

A spokeswoman for Microsoft in India clarified on Tuesday that the company was only examining conduct around the recent incident and was not carrying out a broad probe into KPMG's other anti-piracy work for Microsoft.

POLICE COMPLAINT

Microsoft declined to comment on why Sodhi previously told Goenka there was an audit being carried out. It also declined to comment on whether it hired an assessment agency to do such an audit, citing employee and customer confidentiality concerns.

"When a customer complains to us about a process issue they may have experienced, Microsoft and KPMG take the concern seriously and address appropriately through process review and gap assessment, if any," the companies said in the joint statement.

Sodhi did not respond to a request for comment.

Told about the statement from Microsoft and KPMG, Goenka said the companies should be addressing the issues he raised.

"Why would he (Sodhi) apologise if they had not done any mistake?" said Goenka, who advises government committees on IT initiatives and filed a police complaint after the incident.

India is one of Microsoft's biggest markets in Asia, but over half of all software installed on computers in the country is unlicensed, advocacy group Business Software Alliance said in 2016.

Goenka said his firm, Ratein Infotech, used genuine software. Last month, he received a letter from Microsoft saying his company needed help in "interpreting licensing policies of Microsoft", according to emails seen by Reuters.

The issue escalated when a KPMG employee, identified only as Srijesh, entered Ratein's office on March 15. Microsoft and KPMG apologised to Goenka and Srijesh wrote an e-mail resigning, the emails showed.

"The resignation of the KPMG employee was involuntary and hence KPMG has not accepted the resignation," the companies said in their statement, without elaborating.

Srijesh could not be reached for comment.
rakesh_jhunjhunwala1

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Big bull Rakesh Jhunjhunwala made an exit from Orient Cement in the last concluded quarter while adding DB Realty, and the debt-laden Jaiprakash Associates .

We have compiled a list of stocks from the shareholding pattern declared by companies for the quarter ended March 2018 in which Jhunjhunwala holds more than 1 percent.

Jhunjhunwala runs a partnership firm Rare Enterprises with his wife Rekha and usually makes a purchase under following names -- Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Jhunjhunwala Rakesh Radheshyam, Rekha Jhunjhunwala, and Jhunjhunwala Rekha Rakesh.

The 54th richest Indian, as per Forbes list of billionaires, Jhunjhunwala pared his stake marginally in seven companies such as Agro Tech Foods, Edelweiss Financial Services, Geojit Financial Services, NCC, Prakash Industries, Prozone and The Federal Bank.

The investor with a Midas touch added 0.1 percent stake in Titan Company in the quarter ended March. Across his various entities, the ace investor held 8.46 percent stake in the company at the end of March, translating to 75.10 million shares, data filed with BSE showed.

Titan Company, which ranks as the fifth highest holding in Jhunjhunwalas portfolio, has risen a little over 11 percent so far in 2018 but more than doubled investor wealth in the last one year.

Rakesh Jhunjhunwala has 26 stocks in his portfolio with a public shareholding of over 1 percent, according to data compiled from AceEquity as of April 23, 2018.

He raised stake in only one company while decreased in seven during the March quarter. Jhunjhunwala maintained his stake in comparison to December quarter in as many as 15 companies.

Out of 26 stocks in his portfolio for the quarter ended March, 18 stocks have given negative returns of up to 30 percent between January 1 and April 20. The list includes names like Mandhana Retail, Anant Raj, Prozone, Autoline Industries, Jaiprakash Associates, Man Infra and Geojit Financial Services

The Mandhana Retail Ventures designs, manufactures and distributes garments and accessories under 'Being Human' brand, which is run by The Salman Khan Foundation.

The remaining eight gave positive returns of up to 22 per cent. These include Escorts (up 22 per cent), followed by VIP Industries (17 per cent) and Titan Company (11.79 per cent).

New Entrants:

The big bull raised his stake by over 1 percent in three companies for the quarter ended March, namely D B Realty, and Jaiprakash Associates.

D B Realty is a Mumbai-based real estate development company and the flagship company of DB Group, established in 2006. The stock has given flat-to-negative returns so far but has risen nearly 15 per cent on a year-on-year basis.

The second stock in which Jhunjhunwala made fresh investments is the crisis-hit Jaiprakash Associates in which he re-entered after selling his entire holding in the December 2017 quarter. In his second entry, he raised his stake to 1.23 per cent in the March quarter. The stock has been a clear underperformer so far in the year 2018, down by over 20 per cent while on a 1-year basis it is up a little over 60 per cent.

The flagship company of the Jaypee group has now deposited a total of Rs. 650 crores in the registry of the Supreme Court.
Seven days from now, the Central Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act 2016 will complete one year of implementation. Till date, a total of 27,000 real estate projects have been registered with the regulatory authorities across the country. As many as 27 states and union territories have notified rules under RERA so far and 16 states and union territories have a fully operational web portal for enabling online registration of real estate projects and agents. But much more needs to be accomplished.

Most states have diluted rules to favour developers. Many states have moved away from the Centres definition of ongoing projects and excluded projects for which lease deeds of either 50 percent or 60 percent of the apartments have been executed or for which partial completion or occupation certificates have been obtained by the developer. This leaves little hope for homebuyers stuck with old unfinished projects.

An Assocham report titled 'RERA as growth impetus: Does the Promise Hold Out On The Ground has made 15 suggestions to make RERA more transparent. Among other things, it has said that states should refrain from introducing exceptions to the definition of ongoing projects, government agencies should be made accountable for delay in granting approvals, a uniform payment schedule should be put in place for home buyers across states, that both Centre and states must collectively resolve any future conflict arising out of RERA implementation and that alternative formal financing modes such as REITS and endowment funds should be made available to developers. Homebuyers should be clearly defined under the category of creditors to avoid conflict between IBC and RERA.



States should refrain from introducing exceptions to the definition of ongoing projects



Here are some of the suggestions made by the report prepared by Thought Arbitrage Research Institute (TARI) jointly with ASSOCHAM.

Dilution of the definition of ongoing projects creates a conflict with one of the main objectives of RERA, which is to provide transparency and better delivery to the home buyers. Central RERA is quite clear on this issue.



Make government agencies accountable for the delay in granting approvals



States should refrain from introducing exceptions (as is the case with many states) and uphold the simple yet very clear definition of ongoing projects.

Delay in granting required government approvals for a real estate project (like ownership certificate, land use conversion, environmental and pollution no-objection certificates, non-encumbrance, road access and other related infrastructure related approvals) can delay projects.



Single-window disbursal of all regulatory approvals



To broaden the scope of RERA, an objective performance assessment of various government agencies in the process of granting various approvals should be incorporated in the Act for closer scrutiny. If each and every approval process is legally made time bound, it will prevent the probability of delay in delivery.

Digitisation of the documentation/approval process, integration of certain clearances at Master Plan level, outsourcing certain procedures to competent third parties  among other related initiatives can drastically reduce the time taken for approvals and clearances.



RERA provisions for punishment of violations, in the form of imprisonment and fine, should be kept intact in all state laws



Risk-based classification of all building proposals can fast-track permission procedures. Low-risk constructions proposals made by competent professionals may start with some automatic approvals based on self-declaration and high-risk proposals can be submitted online and be approved within 15-30 days of time. Expediting the process of approvals will also depend upon the effective establishment of a single-window system for this purpose

States should do away with the compounding options of imprisonment/ penalties in state laws for different violations.

Central RERA 2016 recommends imprisonment for a term, extendable up to 3 years, or fine which may go up to 10% of the estimated cost of the real estate project, or both, in case of non-compliance  for developer, real estate agent and buyer. But, except for Kerala all other states and union territories have added a clause of compounding of offence to avoid imprisonment, and Goa draft is silent on this.



Create a uniform payment schedule for home buyers across states



RERA is a quasi-judicial body, and instilling faith in its redressal mechanism will require, to a large extent, trusting its judgement to redress. So, instead of creating a replacement of any specific punishment the Central RERA provisions for punishment of violations, in the form of imprisonment and fine, should be kept intact in all state Laws  leaving the actual judgement to the regulator itself.

Central RERA specifies that the model sale agreement should clearly state that a 10% advance payment is made by homebuyers, or charge an application fee from the buyers, while entering into a written agreement for sale.

Notified rules for Andhra Pradesh and Kerala clearly mention that, and notified rules for Gujarat and Maharashtra brings in further clarity by linking all phases of payments with different stages of construction.

But other notified and draft rules for states/union territories have no clarity on the issue.



State laws must not dilute the proportional withdrawal clause for an escrow account



The Maharashtra template in payment schedule may be implemented across the nation, as this form of payment schedule brings in more clarity.

Central RERA stipulates that 70 percent of the amount realised by developers from home buyers (for a particular real estate project) must be deposited in a separate account, and money can be withdrawn from that account in proportion to the percentage of project completed, as certified by the project architect, a qualified engineer and a practicing chartered accountant.

Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Goa have diluted this norm either by removing the proportional withdrawal clause or by remaining silent on the issue.



Mechanism required to monitor fund transfer from an escrow account for land acquisition



State laws should refrain from diluting proportional withdrawal clause as this undermines the entire escrow account withdrawal stipulation.

The Act allows for use of funds for both construction and land cost. It says that the separate escrow account is to cover the cost of construction and the land cost and shall be used only for that purpose. This may lead to ambiguity in implementation as most of the times land cost is the principal among the overall project cost, and that may, in turn, lead to malpractices in fund disbursal.

The legislation is also not clear on this aspect with regard to ongoing projects. There are projects which have all necessary approvals but do not have the requisite funding in a dedicated account.



Clearly define structural defects and fix liability on to the developer



A detailed mechanism needs to be charted out to monitor the fund allocation for land acquisition, along with the monitoring of construction cost. The escrow mechanism needs to be clearly defined for ongoing projects.

There is a need to clearly define structural defects, and the central and state governments should bring more clarity on the issue after collective consultations.

Some states have diluted the defect liability provision.

Central RERA states that in case of any structural defect (or any other defect in workmanship, quality, provision of services or any other obligations of the promoter as per the agreement of sale) arising within 5 years of handing over possession of apartment/house/plot to the buyers, developers will be liable to rectify such defects without further charge, within 30 days. In the event of promoters failure to do so within the stipulated time, the aggrieved allottees will be entitled to receive appropriate compensation.

Kerala and Tamil Nadu rules diluted this defect liability provision. Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand rules are silent on this clause, and Puducherry notified rules clearly lack clarity on this issue, but rest notified/drafted rules are compliant or in line with this clause.



Set timeline for allottees to communicate opinion on layout changes



Liability of successfully repairing the structural defect within 5 years of possession should lie with the developer, as stipulated in Central RERA, in all RERA laws governing the real estates of all states and union territories

RERA specifies that any additions and alterations in the sanctioned plans, layout plans and specifications and the nature of the fixtures, fittings and amenities and common areas, of the apartment, plot or building have to be done with the consent of the allottees.

If such changes are necessary due to architectural and structural reasons then those have to be duly recommended and verified by an authorised architect or engineer after proper declaration and intimation to the allottee.

However, care needs to be taken to ensure that the process of making these additions and alterations do not unnecessarily delay the delivery of the project and should not result into unfair penalising of the developer.



Both Centre and state must collectively resolve any future conflict arising out of RERA implementation



There is a need to set a timeline for allottees and the relevant authorities to communicate their opinion about the layout changes/transfer of rights (to a third party) so that the developer is not penalised.

Both the Centre and the states have individual and collective responsibilities to resolve any future conflict arising out of implementation in RERA, particularly on land title, deed, and land policy. A permanent consultative committee formed with representations from both central and state ministries may help bringing in resolution, in case any clash in jurisdiction arises in future.

State governments regulated real estate before RERA as land and land improvement are in the State List of Seventh Schedule of the Constitution.

After RERA that has changed as it is clearly mentioned that the Central Act will prevail over state legislations in case of any discrepancy or conflict in any issue or aspect.



Alternative formal financing such as REITS must be made available to developers



The purpose of RERA is to regulate transactions in the real estate sector. Regulatory bodies will be operating at the state level itself and the states will have enough freedom to make and constitute their regulatory bodies through state-legislated RERA rules. However, since historically land has been a volatile issue which bred many a controversy  any future flashpoint or conflict of interest may ultimately boil down to legal recourse where this centre-state jurisdictional gap may be utilised to score points.

Though Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) approved the REIT platform in India, further incentives are needed to popularise these platforms. Similarly, the endowment funds like pension funds are currently not able to invest in real estate sector. So, the legal obstacles need to be removed and more incentives should be provided to make alternative formal financing popular and available to the private developers.



Clearly define home buyers in the class of creditors to avoid conflict between IBC and RERA



Legal restrictions on REITs and endowment funds must be removed to enable them to invest in residential real estate sector. This will also help in the better implementation of RERA and formalisation of residential real estate sector.

Recent developments highlight the problem of builders declaring bankruptcy in ongoing projects. Home buyers being the unsecured creditors, their rights may get violated in such cases. Though the new Bankruptcy Act is applicable to these projects, a synchronised approach is required to protect home buyers rights.

While Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) was passed with the intention to smoothen the process of closing the business, RERA has been implemented to regulate and formalise the real estate sector. But, in case of insolvency, the objectives of these two acts are often getting pitted against one another. Since IBC was legislated in May 2016, after RERA was passed in March 2016  legal experts opine that the Insolvency Act will override RERA, in case of a conflict. In some cases, that might undermine the actual objective of consumer security, with which RERA was enacted.



Set up IT infrastructure





Create a template for submitting project-related information





Introduce land title insurance to increase flow of funds in the sector



For effective implementation of RERA, it is imperative to clearly define the home buyers in the class of creditors. Putting them in the unsecured creditor category takes the control effectively away from RERA to IBC, and that definitely dilutes the objective of RERA. Therefore, a committee of legal experts may be formed, which in consultation with all the stakeholders can recommend a resolution of these possible conflicts between two of the most important legislations.A robust IT infrastructure for RERA  along with effective monitoring structure and quick redressal of complaints in case of violations  is necessary for the long run success of this landmark legislation.A national template for submitting project-related information should be created and that can be one important step towards standardisation of the sector. The option of correcting details submitted by developers should be available in all RERA websites. Similarly, online filing of complaints should be made as smooth as possible, and doing that will take care of a large part of the effective data and information validation.

Land records in India are often not easily accessible, and due to the judicial and executive bottlenecks, only land title documents are available and not land ownership documents. As a result, land becomes a primary issue of dispute in real estate projects. A common mechanism which can be another tool to reduce such disputes is land title insurance. At present, no Indian insurance companies provide land title insurance, but a land title insurance can instil further confidence among buyers and favourably impact the real estate market. Introduction of land title insurance can open up new avenues of financing for the real estate developers. This insurance can work as another layer of scrutiny for the legitimacy of the land and also an extra shield of protection for the consumers.
CoLive, a Bangalore-based provider of branded serviced rental accommodation, has developed a facial recognition access management engine (FRAME).

FRAME consists of Door Access Control Engine mechanism and BlackBox key management mechanism. The company has filed a patent for it to protect its advanced property management solution.

The FRAME feature will be operational at 20 select prime properties managed by CoLive before it is rolled out in all its properties.

Tenants have to register themselves in the system by clicking a selfie through the CoLive app, following which they can gain access to the property without swiping a key card. The system will track its visitors, tenants and staff when they leave and enter the premises.

Visitors will only be able to enter the building if the tenants allow them in.

FRAME eliminates one of the biggest challenges faced by the real estate industry in terms of key management of unoccupied apartments. The technology shall enable sales, check-in and maintenance seamlessly without human interface thus reducing operational expenses. FRAME allows us to remotely manage our property access and key management system. We have filed for a patent for this technology and are confident that our tech-driven access solution will help us run this real estate-hospitality business far more efficiently," said Suresh Rangarajan, founder and CEO, CoLive.

CoLive is currently operating in Bangalore, Chennai, Vellore, Coimbatore, Thanjavur, and Ahmedabad. Over the next three years, the company aims to expand its presence to top metros and 25 university towns and scale up its inventory to include a total of 1 million beds.
CoinSwitch Kuber | Apart from a plethora of facilities it provides to customers similar to other crypto exchanges, CoinSwitch Kuber allows users to buy cryptocurrencies with a credit card at an effective price. Funded by Sequoia Capital, the exchange allows users to access the pooled liquidity of the leading exchanges in India to get the best rate and trade instantaneously.

Alluma, a cryptocurrency exchange platform, is planning to raise an initial coin offering (ICO) of USD 25 million in a couple of months, said Akash Aggarwal, founder and CEO of the company.

ICO is the new democratic way for startups to raise money through issuance of crypto currency.

"We have built the product and planning to raise USD 25 million through an ICO. In a month or two we are going to raise money. We are following all the legal procedures and inputs from the lawyers for doing proper KYC in an ICO by blocking countries which are not supporting the ICOs," said Aggarwal.

The company was launched in 2017 and is headquartered in Singapore. It has raised seed funding of around USD 1 million for its operations.

While talking about the regulations of the cryptocurrency market, he said: "Why doesn't the government come out with some better KYC aiming policies if they are worried about money laundering. Many countries like Japan, Switzerland, US have strong KYC policies for regulating the cryptocurrency market. On our platform, we also follow strict KYC norms."

Cryptocurrency market in India

"The market in India is very big and I really want to help Indians to understand cryptocurrency. Though cryptocurrency is taken as a speculative thing, bitcoin was not created to trade, which is one of the reasons behind existence of blockchain. If bitcoin was all about trading, then blockchain won't be there," he said.

Taxation on cryptocurrency and trading

"Seeing the number of transactions in India, blockchain or trading is one of the biggest means of taxation for the government. They should make it compulsory with all the exchanges that they should report at the year-end all the details of trading on the platform. In that scenario, they will get taxes," he said.

Loopholes and UPI

"If regulators really want to control the market, one of the loopholes is UPI, which most of the exchanges have taken. It is based on just a mobile number. I feel regulators should control UPI if exchanges want to use UPI then they should deal with bank accounts, not with the mobile numbers," he said.

He added, "Government is not against blockchain, cryptocurrency or trading. They are trying to regulate trading because it deals with money which is controlled by RBI. They are trying to protect means of trading like stocks and shares. I will say regulators are perfectly correct and they should regulate and control the market when it comes to trading because they have to protect the consumers, stop money laundering and make sure that it is not going in the wrong hands."

Regulations for the cryptocurrency market in India

In its recent circular, the Reserve Bank of India gave three months to deal with cryptocurrency transactions and many exchanges feel that timeframe is not sufficient. However, Aggarwal feels that the central bank will be coming out with a positive move in three months.

"Government is worried about money laundering. I feel crypto exchanges and its consumers should have an account in the same bank. In that scenario, the bank can keep a track on how much money is going in and out from the consumer's account. RBI should make compulsory monthly reporting by the cryptocurrency exchanges," he signed off.
American Canyon Police arrested a 32-year man Saturday night after receiving complaints that he was harassing juveniles and preventing some from leaving the sauna in the In-Shape health club on West American Canyon Road

Police said Ryan Michael Beeman of American Canyon is suspected of harassing female juveniles, asking questions that made them feel uncomfortable and chasing several of them around, scaring them.

He also detained male juveniles in the sauna and wouldn't allow them to leave, police said.

Beeman, who has a prior conviction for annoying children, was arrested at 8 p.m. for felony annoying/molesting of juveniles and felony imprisonment.

He was booked into the Napa County jail where bail was set at $50,000.
Here are the stocks which are in news today:

Tata , Adani, ReNew jostle for putting solar power units in Orissa: BS

Thailand eyes Indian Infra projects for investing around USD 3 billion in next three year

GVK wants to run Jaipur, Ahmedabad airport: FE

EID Parry submitted to monthly operation data to South Indian Sugar Mills Association (SISMA)

TCS official Race App developed by TCS was downloaded by over 360,000 users and no of downlaods breaks world record

Trade setup for Monday: Top 15 things to know before Opening Bell

Top 10 things to know before the market opens

RBI Policy, global data in focus this week. Support for Nifty at 17,400: Experts

: The company is considering Rs 6,500 crore provision for gratuity payout

Swaraj Engines Q4FY18 YoY: Revenue up 15 percent at Rs 185 crore versus Rs 161 crore; PAT up 20 percent at Rs 18 crore

Indiabulls Ventures Q4FY18 YoY: Revenue up 132 percent at Rs 272.6 crore; PAT up 13 percent at Rs 61 crore; Loan book expected to be in excess of Rs 12,000 crore by march 2019

3i Infotech Q4FY18 YoY: Revenue up 9.3 percent at Rs 279.3 crore; net profit down 23.8 percent at Rs 23.8 crore

LIC Housing Finance Q4FY18 YoY: NII down 3.5 percent at Rs 1,003.7 crore; net profit up 1.9 percent at Rs 539.3 crore

Bharat Financial Q4FY18 YoY: NII up 79.1 percent at Rs 351 crore; profit at Rs 210 crore versus net loss of Rs 235 crore

Reliance Infrastructure Q4FY18 YoY: Revenue up 4 percent; PAT at Rs 160 crore versus Rs 41 crore

Delta Corp Q4FY18 YoY: Consolidated revenues up 59 percent at Rs 171.5 crore; profit up 4X at Rs 45.2 crore

Reliance Naval Q4FY18 YoY: Revenue down 33 percent at Rs 378 crore; loss at Rs 1,012 crore versus loss of Rs 577.2 crore

GNFC Q4FY18 YoY: Revenue up 46.5 percent at Rs 1,764 crore; PAT up 38 percent at Rs 329 crore

Kewal Kiran Clothing Q4FY18 YoY: Revenue down 1 percent at Rs 120 crore; EBITDA down 16 percent at Rs 26.3 crore
Tata Chemicals Ltd is evaluating business opportunities related to exploration and import of lithium from Bolivia to India, according to a report in Mint.

Senior executives from the company met government officials from Bolivia, sources told the paper.

The opportunity is expected to benefit Tata Chemicals because domestic and global demand for lithium will rise in the coming years.

The company's push for lithium exploration and import is motivated by the fact that lithium is a core commodity in batteries of electric vehicles (EVs).

Scarcity of lithium is an obstacle to adopting electric mobility in India, the report said.

Lithium is also used in mobile phone batteries and solar panels.

South American countries Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile form the world's "lithium triangle" as they have rich deposits of the mineral.
In the past two years, bicycle sharing, or bike sharing, has become extremely popular in China's cities. Now as supply exceeds demand, the cities infrastructure is incapable of handling the sudden increase in the bicycles. Therefore, bicycle graveyards are cropping up in different cities. (Photo: Reuters)

In fact, Chinese police have an extra job at hand now  picking up unattended bicycles as riders park or abandon bicycles at random spots on the streets The rise in bike sharing has added to the woes of local governments and law enforcement agencies. (Photo: Reuters)

How it works | Users download an app, pay a small fee to unlock a bike and then lock it back up upon reaching their destination. Some cities have designated parking places but many shared bikes can be left anywhere. Thus many bikes are simply abandoned. (Photo: Reuters)

Chinese bike-sharing giants such as Ofo and Mobike have grown by offering extremely low prices. This has meant markets flooded with cheap bikes and thereby the subsequent abandoning as well. (Photo: Reuters)

Cities such as Shanghai have regulations to prevent discarded bikes accumulating on sidewalks  but not quickly enough to prevent them from heading to bicycle graveyards. (Photo: Reuters)

In megacities such as Beijing, millions of these bikes are said to trundle along the streets. (Photo: Reuters)

Bicycles of various bike-sharing services are seen at a vacant lot in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. (Photo: Reuters)

Bicycles of various bike-sharing services are seen at an urban village in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China. (Photo: Reuters)
Telecom regulator Trai today directed beleaguered operator Aircel to refund the unspent balance and security deposit of its prepaid and postpaid subscribers, following consumer complaints in this matter.

In a directive, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said it had received a large number of complaints from subscribers of Aircel Group seeking refund of balance amount in prepaid accounts and non-refund of security deposits in case of postpaid accounts.

The regulator "in order to protect the interest of telecom subscribers" has directed Aircel to process the refund of security deposits of postpaid subscribers and submit an area-wise compliance report by May 10.

This report, it said, should mention the number of subscribers whose security deposit have been successfully refunded as well as details of unclaimed and undelivered amounts.

Aircel has also been instructed to prepare a list of all prepaid subscribers ported out between December 1, 2017 and March 10, 2018 with details of the unspent balance against each account and the status of transfer of the amount.

It has also asked Aircel to process refund to the prepaid mobile subscribers who have not been able to port out by March 10, 2018.

In February this year, Aircel had announced that it has filed for bankruptcy and cited "intense competition" in the sector as the reason for the move. Aircel had also asked its subscribers to port to other operators.
British iconic motorcycle brand Triumph is eyeing 10 percent rise in sales during the next financial year, a top official said today. Triumph Motorcycles India, a subsidiary of Triumph Motorcycles, has about 5,000 customers since it entered India in 2014.

The company follows June-July as financial year and expects to sell 1,300 units by May, Triumph Motorcycles India managing director Vimal Sumbly said here. "We are expecting to sell around 1,300 units. For the next financial '18-'19, we are looking at 10 percent growth" he said.

Sumbly and senior company officials were here for unveiling new-generation classic cruiser 1200cc Bonneville Speedmaster priced at Rs 11.11 lakh (ex-showroom Chennai).

The company currently has 15 outlets across the country and would be opening the 16th in Mangaluru later this week, he said. Responding to a query, he said, in the last four years, the overall motorcycle sales grew by two percent while Triumph Motorcycles posted 63 percent growth with majority of sales contributing from Classic range.

The company has tied up with private sector HDFC Bank to offer financial schemes which cover 75 percent of the customers. Stating that the company would be rolling out various new models in the next financial year, he said 90 percent of the motorcycles were "assembled" at the company's factory in Manesar, Haryana.

The company has several models with prices ranging from Rs 7.05 lakh to Rs 23 lakh (ex-showroom Chennai), he added. To a query, Sumbly said, the company plans to have 25 retail outlets in next two-three years across the country.
Major Flipkart Investor and CEO of Japans SoftBank, Masayoshi Son reportedly met Walmart's CEO Doug McMillon to discuss the deal between the two companies, CNBC-TV18 reported. Sources told the channel that Bain & Co has been roped in to work out a detailed integration plan.

A report in The Economic Times today suggested Walmart is likely to make an offer to buy 86 percent in Flipkart, and the deal is expected to be signed next week

It said the US-based retail giant might improve on its earlier offer, which valued the company at about USD 10-12 billion. The deal could value Flipkart at about USD 18 to 20 billion, the report said.

Moneycontrol could not independently verify claims made in the reports.

Walmart's final shareholding in the Bengaluru-based company is likely to be closer to 51 percent than 86 percent, a source told the paper. This is because investors are unlikely to sell their entire stakes.

The report also said Tiger Global Management and SoftBank Corp are expected to sell a part of their stakes.

A Bloomberg report, too, suggests the two companies will give up a significant part of their stake and Walmart could buy 60 to 80 percent of Flipkart.

The question, who will run the business after the deal, is yet to be answered, the Bloomberg report said.

Walmart will retain Flipkart's current top management team, a Mint report suggested last week.

The deal is reportedly in the final stages of negotiation. Discussions had begun last year.
By Chitrita Sanyal New Delhi, Apr 24 (PTI) Congress is not the main player in many states and regional adjustments, based on the ground realities, have to be worked out during elections in which there can be no "macro-level" understanding, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury has said.

"The diversity of our country reflects in everything, including politics. Now, SP and BSP get together in Uttar Pradesh. Neither the Left, nor the Congress is of any consequence (there). The same thing happened in Arariya (in Bihar)," he told PTI in an interview after being re-elected to the post at the CPI(M)'s Congress here which concluded on Sunday.

To questions about putting up a joint fight against the BJP, he said in several states, the Congress is "not the main player."

"That is why every front or (political) formation in India takes place only after elections. There will be regional adjustments. There will be regional level understandings. It cannot be a macro-level understanding. Political leaders also should realise this", he said.

Soon after his re-election at the party congress, Yechury began receiving hundreds of congratulatory messages, tweets and phone calls from various people including top leaders of the Congress, BSP, SP, and other Left and opposition parties.

While thanking them, he said several opposition party leaders called including Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, BSP chief Mayawati and senior leaders of Samajwadi Party and other parties. Congress leaders have also tweeted and called.

"I am really grateful to all of them. All of them are hoping that we will all work together," Yechury said.

Yechury, who was re-elected the CPI(M) General Secretary for another three-year term, had been targeted by a section of his party for his "minority view" on having an understanding with all secular democratic forces including the Congress to jointly take on the BJP.

His political viewpoint was later adopted at the congress, the highest decision-making body of the party, as its officially approved political line.

He said "what will be done during elections depends on the ground realities ... The Central Committee would then take a decision".

"But the question of any front or alliance with the Congress was never been the case earlier and would not happen now too," Yechury said.

Talking about the prevailing political situation and the challenges of defeating BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, Yechury said though his party has always been the key element in formation of government of an alternate government like United Front or the UPA, it has never been part of the government but given outside support.

"During Emergency, we never became part of the Janata Party government or the United Front ... We were key element forming that front but we were never there in the government. We gave outside support to that government.

"Even to the UPA, we gave outside support again. We have to keep in mind that both United Front and the UPA were formed after the elections. Our support from outside was based on a common minimum programme," Yechury said.

He said it was only after the common minimum programme was drafted that "we gave our support. That's what we mean to say that it will depend on the policies.

"We have a long experience of all these fronts, but our decision is always to support them based on policies".

To questions on the differences that came out in the open within the party at the five-day Congress here, Yechury is confident that the CPI(M) would work unitedly towards the goal of defeating the BJP.

"Party congress has decided what our line is. So now there cannot be any minority or majority. There should not be.
The government is planning to refurbish and gift outdated military equipment to friendly countries to create a base and increase "exports of newer defence platforms, which have been made in India," the Indian Express reported, citing sources.

The government has asked the armed forces to make a list of weapons that are outdated or nearing obsolescence and can refurbished at nominal cost. They can include artillery guns, armoured vehicles, helicopters, naval patrol vehicles and radar systems.

Moneycontrol couldnt independently verify the report

As per the report, people familiar with the matter said that the move has stemmed from Indias recent engagement with several foreign countries. Countries of the Indian Ocean Region, some African countries, Central Asian Republics and the Asia-Pacific region have requested the Indian government to provide second-hand military equipment as gifts for their armed forces.

The governments move has surprised senior army and air force officers. Talking to the publication about preparing the list, a senior official said the decision has come out at a time when armed forces themselves are struggling with weaponry.

In March, the army had told a parliamentary panel that more than half of its equipment were in 'vintage category' and no funds have been allocated to replace them. Speaking at a think tank, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat said a whopping 68 percent of the equipment of the Army is in vintage condition, around 24 percent is in the "current state" (usable) and 8 percent in the "state of the art" category.
The nameplate of political consultancy, Cambridge Analytica, is seen in central London, Britain March 21, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls - RC1C17A29580

Cambridge Analytica (CA), the data consultancy firm at the heart of a fake news investigation in the UK, today said that all its activities around the world, including in India, will be investigated and reported on.

A spokesperson for the company said that while CA was focussed purely on the US market, its global arm SCL Elections handled other regions.

"All the national issues and national associations are part and parcel of the independent investigation. Rest assured, India, Kenya, Nigeria, all the other countries that SCL has been working in historically, will be investigated and reported on as part of the independent investigation," he told reporters during a press conference here today.

The press conference came soon after an academic associated with the company, Aleksandr Kogan, gave his evidence to the UK Parliament's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport ( DCMS) Committee on its ongoing investigation into fake news.

Kogan's company, Global Science Research (GSR), developed a Facebook app that reportedly collected data from people who signed up to use the app as well as information from their Facebook friends, without the explicit approval of all involved.

He accused CA's now-suspended CEO Alexander Nix of "total fabrication" when it came to denying the links between Cambridge Analytica and GSR's data.

DCMS Committee chair Damian Collins said that Nix had told the committee in February that CA never received data from Kogan's company GSR, which did not have "much credibility any more given his own testimony today.

Last month, Christopher Wylie, a former employee of CA turned whistleblower, had told MPs during his evidence before the committee that the company had worked "extensively" in India and named the Congress as one of its clients.

In a post on Twitter later, the 28-year-old also named the Janata Dal (United) as a client during the 2010 Bihar elections and revealed some caste surveys carried out in Uttar Pradesh by SCL India  the parent company of CA.

"I've been getting a lot of requests from Indian journalists, so here are some of SCL's past projects in India. To the most frequently asked question  yes SCL/CA works in India and has offices there. This is what modern colonialism looks like," Wylie had tweeted.

His message included documents which indicate that SCL India boasted a database of "over 600 districts and 7 lakh villages, which is constantly being updated". Its reach in India is said to include a head office in Ghaziabad, with nine regional offices in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Cuttack, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kolkata, Patna and Pune.

"I don't remember a national project but I know regionally. India's so big that one state can be as big as Britain. But they do have offices there, they do have staff there," he had said, offering to provide more "documentation" to the committee on CA's India links.
The construction work for the proposed airport at Jewar, the second one in the national capital region, will start by year-end, Uttar Pradesh government said today.

The state government has received in-principle approval from the Centre for the project and expects the airport to have a capacity to handle 60 lakh passengers annually by 2022-23.

"After the green signal from the central government, the construction work for the much awaited second International airport in Delhi NCR region will commence by the end of 2018," Uttar Pradesh Civil Aviation Department said in a release.

The airport at Jewar would help in easing the traffic at the Delhi international aerodrome.

"Many sectors will benefit with the development of this airport and it will be really beneficial for the people of western Uttar Pradesh who have to travel more than 250 km for Delhi or Lucknow airports," Uttar Pradesh Civil Aviation Minister Nand Gopal Gupta said in the release.

Citing a report about the airport project prepared by consultancy PwC, the release said 88 per cent of the traffic there would be domestic.
Never again is a common slogan popping up appropriately during Holocaust remembrance observances and after repeated fatal shootings in schools or whenever survivors want to comfort each other with the thought their efforts can deter future tragedies.

But never forget might be a more effective motto, where one generation succeeds another in places of high authority and responsibility.

In fact, never forget would be a very appropriate mantra for whoever becomes the next governor of California when it comes to surviving members of the Charles Manson gang and other especially cruel and deliberate mass murderers.

Forgetting is definitely possible with the Manson Family, as his motley and deadly gaggle of followers was known during its heyday in the late 1960s.

Very few grieved when the sometimes mesmerizing gang leader Manson died in prison last November and not much of a crowd turned out for his funeral this spring in Porterville.

Manson, understated the pastor presiding over that ceremony, made choices that brought great consequence and negatively impacted other people for many, many years.
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
Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Bhupendra Singh blamed pornography for the rising cases of child rape and molestation in the state, and hence the state is contemplating a ban on its sale or distribution. The MP government is set to approach the Centre soon with this recommendation, reported The Indian Express.

Recently, in the busy city of Indore in Madhya Pradesh, a six-month-old girl was allegedly kidnapped, raped and murdered. The infants body was found in the basement of a building in Rajwada. The victims private part had injuries, according to the postmortem, suggesting that before being murdered, she may have been raped.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan called for introspection and reforms in society. This incident has shook my soul, such a heinous act with a small child! The accused has already been arrested and we will make sure he is punished as soon as possible.
US to continue with maximum pressure campaign against North Korea: White House

WHO for expanding reach of national malaria programmes to eliminate disease by 2030

Essar Steel auction may be opened up for fresh bids, say sources

ArcelorMittal said to have bid higher than Numetal consortium for Essar Steel: Report

April 24, 2018 / 08:56 PM IST That's all for today, readers. Thanks for staying on with our coverage of the day's action. Your enthusiasm encourages us to better our coverage every day. Do come back tomorrow for more news, views and insights.











April 24, 2018 / 08:56 PM IST That's all for today, readers. Thanks for staying on with our coverage of the day's action. Your enthusiasm encourages us to better our coverage every day. Do come back tomorrow for more news, views and insights.











April 24, 2018 / 08:56 PM IST ArcelorMittal said to have bid higher than Numetal consortium for Essar Steel: Report ArcelorMittal is said to have bid higher than Numetal consortium for Essar Steel, CNBC-TV18 has reported citing sources. However, banks have not reached a conclusion yet and have sought documentation support from both bidders for eligibility under Section 29A. Essar Steel Committee of Creditors meeting was held today. Next meeting to discuss eligibility of both bidders is likely to happen on April 27. Bids of both NuMetal and ArcelorMittal were opened by lenders.











April 24, 2018 / 08:02 PM IST PM Modi likely to address close to 20 poll rallies in Karnataka Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to address about 20 rallies in Karnataka to boost the BJP's campaign in a state where his party is locked in a keen fight with the Congress. Party sources said Modi, BJP's biggest crowd-puller, is likely to kick off a series of rallies in the southern state from May 1. Though he had address public meetings in the state earlier, he has not hit the campaign trail since the Election Commission announced the assembly election schedule on March 27. The election is scheduled for May 12 and the counting of votes will take place on May 15. The BJP sources said a final programme of Modi's election tour is still being finalised and he is expected to address anywhere between 15-20 rallies.











April 24, 2018 / 07:43 PM IST Doklam happened due to lack of mutual trust: China The Doklam standoff happened due to "lack of mutual trust" between India and China, and they need to work together to create favourable conditions and gradually settle the boundary issue, a top Chinese diplomat said today, ahead of this week's informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Indian and Chinese troops had been locked in a stand-off for over two months last year in the Doklam area near Sikkim before "disengaging" on August 28. The area of the standoff is also claimed by Bhutan. "The boundary incident that happened (at Doklam) last year someway reflected lack of mutual trust between the two countries," Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou told the media when asked about the Doklam standoff. (PTI)











April 24, 2018 / 07:41 PM IST In sports news, Mumbai Indians have won the toss and opted to bowl first against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Catch the latest updates and the full scorecard here.











April 24, 2018 / 07:30 PM IST BJP makes BS Yeddyurappa's son BJYM General Secretary after ticket denial In an apparent placatory move, the BJP appointed state unit chief BS Yeddyurappa's son B Y Vijayendra as its youth wing general secretary today, a day after protests erupted over denial of party ticket to him for the May 12 assembly polls. Vijayendra's appointment as the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) general secretary was announced by Union minister Prakash Javadekar, who is also in charge of the BJP's Karnataka unit. The announcement, made at a press meet, came a day after Vijayendra's supporters staged angry protests, entailing police lathicharge, over denial of party ticket to him to contest from Varuna constituency in Mysuru. Political observers saw it as a damage control move to douse dissidence and its spill over effect electorally in and around Mysuru in south Karnataka. (PTI)











April 24, 2018 / 07:08 PM IST Modi-Xi Jinping to try to reach important consensus to resolve outstanding issues at informal summit: China Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping will try to reach important consensus to resolve outstanding issues and build mutual trust when they meet for an informal summit in Wuhan in China later this week, a top Chinese official said today. In New Delhi, sources said the meeting will not have an "issue-based discussion but a strategic conversation between the two leaders to understand each other's perspective on national and international matter". They were asked if the contentious issues like India's NSG membership bid and China blocking designation of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist by the UN will be raised during the meeting on April 27-28. Sources also maintained that the summit was not aimed at "resetting" India-China ties. Briefing reporters in Beijing, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou said, "both sides have agreed not to sign an agreement or release any joint document but reach important consensus to resolve outstanding issues." This informal summit is the first of its kind in China and there is no precedent in each other's country, he said, explaining why both the leaders opted to hold the summit. (PTI)











April 24, 2018 / 06:54 PM IST 'Very loose rules' led to Facebook data leak, says SAS chief

Data analytics major SAS Institute chief Jim Goodnight has blamed "very very loose rules and regulations" at Facebook for the breach of personal data of millions of users.Amid a global furore over breach of personal data of tens of millions of Facebook users, including in India, Goodnight said although all technology companies have obligation to protect personal information they have collected on their consumers, most of them are careless about it.











April 24, 2018 / 06:44 PM IST No cartelisation among banks in fixing savings bank rates, says CCI

The Competition Commission has ruled out cartelisation among banks in fixing savings interest rates, after finding the rates are based on independent assessment of market conditions rather than any collusive arrangement.











April 24, 2018 / 06:28 PM IST Essar Steel auction may be opened up for fresh bids, say sources

Even as Essar Steels Committee of Creditors meet in Mumbai, early indications are that the auction may be opened up for fresh bids. Sources say that the lenders may make a statement later tonight. JSW Steel had yesterday written to Essar Steels bankers, saying that it will be interested in bidding if the race is opened up for new bids. Numetal and ArcelorMittal had submitted the bids in the first round. Last week, the Ahmedabad bench of NCLT had asked the resolution professional and lenders to re consider bids from Numetal and ArcelorMittal. The bench had also ruled the second round bids invalid. Apart from JSW Steel, Vedanta Resources may also join the race if fresh bids are asked for.










As many as 361 candidates, including 31 women and 80 Independents are contesting the polls, election office sources told PTI, adding that 18.09 lakh voters were eligible to exercise their franchise in 3,025 polling stations in the state. (PTI)

The hour-long meeting of the State Election Commission (SEC) with the officials of the West Bengal panchayat department held today to the decide the fresh dates for the rural polls in the state remained inconclusive, official sources said.

The meeting will be again held tomorrow, they said.

The panchayat polls were earlier scheduled to be held on May 1, 3 and 5. However, after the Calcutta High Court order, the SEC had announced April 23 as the extended date for filing of nominations for the three-tier rural election.

Scrutiny of the nominations received on the day will be held on April 25 and the last date for withdrawal of candidature is April 28, the SEC had said.

According to the West Bengal Panchayat Act 2003, there should be a gap of at least 21 days between the last date for nomination and the date fixed for the poll.

A senior official said, "Tomorrow again there will be a meeting and after that dates might be announced."

According to sources, the meeting is likely to be held tomorrow after 12 noon.

The state Congress leadership staged a protest rally outside the SEC office during the day for its alleged failure to conduct the nomination process in a free and fair manner.

Several Congress activists were detained by the police after they tried to break the police barricade outside the state election commission office.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today suggested funds provided under the MGNREGA scheme be used on water conservation work for three summer months to curb water shortages in villages and boost farm activities.

He also said human power available in rural areas could be harnessed to realise Mahatma Gandhi's dream of a village-centric model of development.

Modi urged panchayat representatives to spend funds provided under the rural job scheme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, only on work related to water conservation during the months of April, May and June.

"We should work for conserving rainwater. Panchayats should spend NREGA (MGNREGA) funds on water conservation during April, May and June," he said.

The PM was addressing a well-attended gathering of tribals and representatives of gram panchayats organised on the occasion of National Panchayat Raj Day at Ramnagar in this tribal-dominated district of Madhya Pradesh.

"Every drop of rain should be conserved. This would not only save our money but also save villages from a water shortage. This would also help in agriculture," he said.

Modi said people living in rural areas should focus on "Jan Dhan, Van Dhan and Gou Dhan" (human resources, forest wealth and bounty of cows) to develop villages.

"In 2022, when the country will celebrate the 75th anniversary of its independence, we should strive to make villages as dreamt by Mahatma Gandhi," he said.

"It can be done by using manpower for developing villages, Van Dhan by collecting neem seeds for coating of urea and Gou Dhan by using cow dung for producing electricity, bio-gas and manure for becoming self-reliant," the prime minister added.

Expressing concern over the excessive use of urea which adversely affected the fertility of soil, Modi urged the people to reduce its use.

The prime minister also laid the foundation stone for a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) bottling plant at Maneri in the district.

The Rs 120-crore plant will supply LPG cylinders to Mandla's neighbouring districts such as Balaghat, Singrauli, Rewa, Shahdol and Jabalpur.

He called upon public representatives to ensure that people in their respective panchayats were fully covered under the Jan Dhan yojana and the prime minister's life insurance scheme.

At the event, Modi handed over a cheque of Rs 2 lakh under the insurance scheme to a woman who had lost her husband.

He said public representatives should serve the people with dedication.

"There is no shortage of funds now in the country. But there is a problem of priorities and transparent implementation of developmental schemes. Public representatives can play a major role in it," he stressed.

Earlier, Modi launched the Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan, which seeks to strengthen the Panchayati Raj system and address the critical gaps that hinder its success.

The Central government scheme aims at making rural local bodies self-sustaining, financially stable and more efficient.

The programme seeks to address problems that confront pnchayats by enhancing their capacities and effectiveness, and to promote the devolution of powers and responsibilities.

On the occasion, Modi unveiled a roadmap for the development of tribal areas of Madhya Pradesh over the next five years. Under the plan, Rs 2 lakh crore will be spent on the development of areas under tribal panchayats.

The prime minister also honoured panchayats for their achievements in implementing the government's e-governance scheme, making villages under their jurisdiction open defecation-free (ODF) and also smokeless by switching from conventional fuel to LPG.
Despite some major political setbacks and increasing questions over governance in the recent past, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will be the major star campaigner for his party in Karnataka.

As many as 35 public rallies, along with road shows, are being planned for the UP CM when he hits the campaign trail in Karnataka on May 3. Yogi will address 4-5 rallies a day across constituencies.

Mrityunjay Kumar, media advisor to UP Chief Minister, confirmed Yogi's Karnataka campaign schedule.

While exact details of his rallies, the constituencies he will cover are being worked out, but around 35 rallies, road shows are on the card as he hits the campaign trail from May 3, said Kumar.

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The deal to build four project 11356 frigates for India is to be completed in June, a military-diplomatic source told TASS. The Izvestia daily writes about one of the largely produced post-Soviet warship.

The deal to build four project 11356 frigates for India is to be completed in June, a military-diplomatic source told TASS. The Izvestia daily writes about one of the largely produced post-Soviet warship.

Talwar-class frigate of the Indian Navy, INS Teg, during sea trials in Russia.



The framework intergovernmental agreement to build a new series of project 11356 frigates for India was signed in October 2016. It stipulated that two warships would be built in Russia and two in India with partial localization of production.



India has been ordering project 11356 warships for nearly 20 years and is currently operating six of them. The Baltic shipyard began to build the first troika of Talwar-class frigates in 1999 and commissioned them in 2003-2004. The order for the second troika was handed over to Yantar shipyard in Kaliningrad. The frigates were laid in 2007-2008 and built in 2012-2013.



Project 11356 frigate was designed on the basis of border guard cruiser of project 11351 which in its turn developed from project 1135.



The previously antisubmarine warships became multirole. They are armed with powerful missiles, including antiaircraft Shtil and eight-cell vertical launchers 3S-14E which can fire antiship missiles Club 3M-54E (export option of Kalibr). The air defense was armed with Kashtan missile guns, but the second troika had them replaced by standard six-barrel AK-630 guns.



The second troika was armed with antiship BrahMos missiles fired from the same 3S-14E vertical launchers. BrahMos is an Indian missile produced jointly with NPO Mashinostroeniya according to P-800 Onix missile (export option Yakhont).

Hulls of the Project 11356 frigates "Admiral Istomin" and "Admiral Kornilov" under construction at PJSC "Baltic Shipyard Yantar". Picture taken on 14.11.2017 (c) kaliningradblog.livejournal .com

According to the logic of the Russian surface fleet buildup in the 2000s, project 22350 frigates (the Admiral Gorshkov) had to comprise its backbone. The lead ship was laid in 2006. It was armed with Poliment-Redut antiaircraft missile complex which controlled all air defense means in a single contour. The warships have not been commissioned yet because of long delays in streamlining new armaments. Therefore, the military began to look for a replacement.



In 2010 they decided to order Yantar shipyard to build three project 11356 frigates with minimal changes. The main one was an antiaircraft complex (export version Shtil-1) with vertical launchers instead of rail. In 2011 an order for another three warships arrived. All the six frigates had to join the Black Sea fleet.



The first troika has been handed over to the customer. The Admiral Grigorovich and the Admiral Essen are operating in the Black Sea fleet and engaged in the Russian operation in Syria. The Admiral Makarov is still in the Baltic Sea mostly because of continuing trials of a new antiaircraft 9M317MA missile with an active homing warhead.



Two frigates of the second troika were laid in 2013 - the Admiral Istomin and the Admiral Butakov. The third one, the Admiral Kornilov, has not been officially laid so far.

The new contract rules out the use of already laid hulls, according to the source. The uncompleted second troika of frigates for the Russian Navy is still at Yantar shipyard due to the conflict with Ukraine over Crimea and Donbass in 2014. Gas-turbine power plants for the warships were produced by Ukrainian Zorya-Mashproekt in Nikolayev, which was the center of competence in the former Soviet Union. Kiev blocked turbine supplies for the Russian military in 2014.



Russia is currently developing its own gas turbines at an accelerated pace at the Rybinsk facility of Saturn Company. It will also produce power plants for project 22350 frigates which also suffered from politics.

The contract for the second troika for the Russian Navy has not been terminated, but suspended. The military numerously stated the frigates will be completed with Russian-made engines as they appear and become operational. The deadline depends on the readiness for serial production of the equipment. The Yantar shipyard has already mastered rhythmical production of the warships.



The power plants for the Indian deal can be purchased in Ukraine via New Delhi. Anyway, the Indian commission for defense procurement appropriated 76 million dollars to buy two gas turbines. They will be handed over to Russia for the construction of the first pair of frigates by a new contract, the Izvestia writes.

 Copyright 2018 TASS. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Ashok Leyland Managing Director Vinod Dasari last week took potshots at Maruti Suzuki.

Speaking at an Ashok Leyland event in Chennai, Dasari called for a bigger push to homegrown designing of vehicles to create better quality jobs. In the same breath, he sought a cap on royalty fees paid by Indian auto makers to their parent companies.

We will never have Make in India successful unless we have design in India, Dasari said. I think we should put caps on royalties for all these companies who are only taking technologies from abroad and only doing contract manufacturing in India. Ask them to design in India, said Dasari.

Car market leader Maruti Suzuki is one of the companies which has seen a spurt in payment of royalties to its parent Suzuki Motor Corporation, Japan. In 2016-17 royalty fees paid by the company jumped by 19 percent to Rs 3,848 crore as against Rs 3,244 crore paid in 2015-16. In 2011-12 it stood at Rs 1,803 crore.

Hire in India, design in India and then you make in India. Because for every manufacturing job you create there are 2 more jobs created outside. But for every design job you create there 30 other jobs created outside. Maruti (Suzuki) has been in this country for decades. How many design companies are there in India (sic)? Why do we still, after making cars for decades in India, still importing design? Why are we still paying royalties to somebody else? Make in India is very important but has to be supported with Design in India, added Dasari.

Presently 5 percent of Maruti Suzukis revenues goes towards payment of royalty fees. The Delhi-based company has taken steps to reduce the royalty impact on its margins. One of the steps involves switching to payments in Indian currency as against the historical method of payment in Japanese Yen, which protects the Indian company from currency fluctuations.

Simultaneously the maker of Alto and Swift is boosting its local research and development (R&D) capabilities in order to reduce dependence on Suzuki, Japan. Last year Maruti Suzukis revenues surged past stand-alone revenues of that of its parent for the first time ever.

Three years ago Maruti Suzuki won its minority shareholders approval for sourcing cars made in Gujarat set up by its parent company Suzuki Motor Corporation. As per the arrangement between the two companies, the role of the Indian firm would be restricted to sales, marketing and distribution and not manufacturing.

For every job created in Ashok Leyland there are ten jobs created outside. There are millions of youngsters who will come into the age brackets where they will require jobs. Unless you have an ecosystem which supports job creation we will not be able to create jobs for these people and therefore Make in India is very important. But it is incomplete without Design in India, added Dasari.
A Jodhpur trial court will deliver its verdict on the Asaram Bapu rape case on Wednesday amid tight security. The Rajasthan high court has asked the trial court to deliver its verdict within the jail premises.

Jodhpur Police said that Section 144 will be imposed in the area until April 30, according to an ANI report.

It cannot be said that [Asarams] followers will not create hurdle or unhealthy atmosphere which may create not only hardship and inconvenience to the public at large of Jodhpur city but also law and order problem, the court said.

Who is Asaram Bapu?

Asumal Sirumalani, known as Asaram Bapu by his followers, was a religious leader in India. After starting to preach in the early 1970s, he went on to establish over 400 ashrams in India and abroad and has numerous followers.

According to Sant Asaram Bapuji ki Jeevan Jhanki, an auto-biography published by his ashram, the spiritual leader received formal education until his father's death and had studied only until class III. In the following years, he had lived at a series of ashrams and ran away from home to an ashram in Bharuch at the age of 15.

The book also talks about Lilashah, a spiritual guru, who accepted him as her disciple and named him Asaram Bapu on 7 October 1964.

The rape charges against Asaram Bapu

It was in August 2013 when a 16-year-old had accused Asaram Bapu of sexually assaulting her at his ashram in Jodhpur. The girl, who reportedly visited one of his ashram's to cure her from evil spirits, said in her complaint that she was asked to perform oral sex and was touched inappropriately.

The complaint was filed in Delhi and Asaram was called for interrogation by the Delhi police, but when the self-styled godman did not appear until August 31, the police booked him under multiple non-bailable sections of IPC.

To avoid arrest, Asaram remained inside one of his ashrams in Indore. Clashes broke out between his disciples and the policemen, but he was eventually arrested by the Jodhpur police on September 1, 2013.

Since then the godman has been lodged at the Jodhpur jail as his bail pleas have been rejected six times.

In November 2013, the Jodhpur police filed a chargesheet against Asaram and four co-accused in the rape case.

Trial in the case began in early 2014.

It is also alleged that Asaram had video-recorded his sexual acts with several women to blackmail them into granting him further sexual favours.

He was booked under Sections 342, 376, 506 and 509 of the IPC, as well as under Section 8 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) and sections 23 and 26 of the Juvenile Justice Act.

In February 2014, the judge hearing the Asaram rape case dropped Section 26 of the Juvenile Justice Act, which pertains to exploitation of juveniles/child labour.
Photo: Reuters

The 2011 census data from Madhya Pradesh has revealed that out of the total 7.27 crore population of the state, approximately 2 crore worked as labourers.

According to an NDTV report, one-fourth of the state's population worked as farm labourers. As Madhya Pradesh is largely dependent on agriculture, around 1.85 crore people have registered themselves as labourers in the unorganized sector.

Moneycontrol cannot independently verify the report.

The revelation was made during a meeting held to discuss the best ways of implementing labour welfare schemes.

However, State Labour Minister Balkrishna Patidar claimed that the list needs to be updated as farmers who had less than 2.50 acres of land were treated as labourers... we will sort the list.

Nonetheless, the Congress was quick to criticise the state government and alleged that it was claiming such high numbers to net more funds.

"On May 1, Labour Day, they will see if they can gather two crore labourers. It's a scam to get funds and benefits in the name of labourers," Congress spokesman KK Mishra said.

Ground reality

According to the report, although the state government runs a programme for the welfare of labourers, many of them were not even aware of the benefits.

NDTV spoke to a daily wage labourer in Bhopal, identified only as Pankaj, who feeds a family of six. He earned Rs 300 a day, while another labourer, Inder, who has four members in his family earned the same amount. Both of them were not aware of any benefits being provided to them by the state government.

When asked whether he had registered himself as a labourer with the government, Pankaj said, "We don't know..." Inder was of the same view ad went to state that he did not even have a ration card.

"I don't even have a ration card, though I am working as a labourer for the past 10 years," Inder said.

The Madhya Pradesh government receives massive funds to run a programme to provide houses to labourers, subsidies on battery-operated carts and rickshaws, education for their children and financial aid to pregnant women, among others.


It is not just in the film industry. It happens everywhere & it is the bitter truth. Don't imagine that Parliament is immune or other work places are immune to it. It is time that India stood up & said 'Me Too': Renuka Chowdhary, Congress on Saroj Khan's remark on Casting couch. pic.twitter.com/bDekV48xEB

 ANI (@ANI) April 24, 2018

Reacting to renowned Bollywood choreographer Saroj Khans comments on the casting couch, Congress leader Renuka Chowdhary told the press that Parliament too was not immune to it.

Earlier today, Saroj Khan sparked a controversy by saying the phenomenon of casting couch had been in the film industry for ages and at least provided livelihood. Her comments drew much flak from stalwarts within the film industry and outside.



Yeh chala aa raha hai Baba azam ke zamaane se. Har ladki ke upar koi na koi haath saaf karne ki koshish karta hai. Govt ke log bhi karte hain. Tum film industry ke peeche kyun pade ho? Woh kam se kam roti toh deti hai. Rape karke chhod toh nahi deti: Saroj Khan on Casting Couch. pic.twitter.com/xvHxSbvhzg  ANI (@ANI) April 24, 2018



Renuka Chowdhary, who held the Rajya Sabha seat from Andhra Pradesh, recently completed her term as Member of Parliament (MP). Condemning Saroj Khan's statements, Chowdhary was quoted by ANI as saying, "It is not just in the film industry. It happens everywhere and it is the bitter truth. Don't imagine that Parliament is immune or other work places are immune to it. It is time that India stood up and said 'Me Too".

On an earlier occasion, Chowdhary had even alleged discrimination against women members of Parliament, pressing the Centre for an early passage of the Womens Reservation Bill.

Appealing to the members of Parliament for a change in mindset, she had told the media , "The number of women has not improved tremendously. It is a pathetic 11 per cent even now (women's strength in Rajya Sabha). I really think we need more women."

Actor Ranbir Kapoor, when asked about the casting couch in Bollywood at an event today, said, "I have never faced it. If it exists, it is really sad."

Maharashtra BJP leader Shaina NC tweeted, "#Saroj khan ji women of india are competent based on merit  in every field , we do not require the casting couch to prove our capability. #Women are not victims of circumstances , we choose the circumstance that we want to be a part of (sic)".



WTH?!!!! So much respect for Saroj-ji as a choreographer but this is how she uses her position to protect girls?!!! If I didnt come from a financially sound background I would have returned to London within a month of being in mumbai cos of industry folk who think like that!! https://t.co/mUqql4MpFh

 Sophie Choudry (@Sophie_Choudry) April 24, 2018

Actor Sophie Choudhry also took to Twitter to express her disappointment with the veteran choreographer's statement. She tweeted, "WTH?!!!! So much respect for Saroj-ji as a choreographer but this is how she uses her position to protect girls?!!! If I didnt come from a financially sound background I would have returned to London within a month of being in mumbai cos of industry folk who think like that!!"

Saroj Khan later apologised for her statement.
A 12-year-old Australian boy who was seeking adventure flew to Indonesia after an argument with his mother. He financed his trip using a credit card which he stole from parents.

The Sydney boy told his parents that he wanted to go to Bali but after rebuffed by his mother, he managed to book himself flights (researching an airline that allowed 12-year-olds to fly unaccompanied) and a hotel room, and to depart the country without any obstacles, reported The Guardian.

He tricked his grandmother to get access to his passport.

He told his family that he was going to school and rode his razor scooter to the local train station and boarded a train to the airport. Using a self-service check-in terminal, the boy boarded a flight to Perth and then to Bali.

All this while, the boy was quizzed only once by officials at the Perth Airport where a staff asked for his identification to prove his age. They just asked for my student ID and passport to prove that Im over 12 and that Im in secondary school, he told A Current Affair. It was great because I wanted to go on an adventure.

In Bali, the boy checked into the All Seasons hotel telling the staff that he was waiting for his sister to arrive.

His parents got to know about the adventure their son was on after the school reported that he was absent. After finding that her son was in Bali, mother, Emma, travelled to the Indonesian tourist destination to bring the boy back.

Emma said the boy doesnt like hearing the word no. Shocked, disgusted, theres no emotion to feel what we felt when we found he left overseas, she told A Current Affair.
The logo of Hyundai Motor Co. is seen on a wheel of a car at a Hyundai dealership in Seoul January 22, 2015. South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co on Thursday reported a fourth straight quarterly profit decline, pulled down by a plunge in the Russian rouble and increased buying incentives in the United States. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji (SOUTH KOREA - Tags: TRANSPORT BUSINESS LOGO) - RTR4MEH9

Shares of three key affiliates of Hyundai Motor Group gained ground on Tuesday after US activist hedge fund Elliott Management stepped up pressure for changes in the South Korean companies.

Elliott Management, which has stakes worth more than USD 1 billion in the affiliates, on Monday called on the group to adopt a holding company structure, return excess cash and offer a clear dividend policy, among other suggestions.

The giant autos-to-steel group last month announced a plan to streamline its ownership structure, responding to calls from the government and investors for greater transparency and better governance South Korea's family-controlled conglomerates, or chaebols.

But Elliott said the plan was not sufficient to address the discount in Hyundai Motor Group shares compared with its overseas peers.

Hyundai Motor shares rose as much as 3.1 percent to their highest level in three months. Hyundai Mobis stocks were up 2.3 percent and Kia Motors rose 0.8 percent in the flat wider market.
Welcome back to your Extreme Small-Cap Profits email course.

This is Day 8 of your 12-day email course.

If you missed yesterdays email, we took a closer look at the business behind the stock. Specifically, we had a look at how a business uses cash to fund operations.

What did we learn? Cash is king, even for small-caps.

Today, were going to look at something a little different. Were going to look at when you should sell your small-caps stocks.

Its not always an easy decision to make.

But its an important part of investing. If done wrong, it could significantly reduce your returns. But if done right, you could lock in profits and minimise your risk at the same time.

So lets take a look at when we should sell those suckers.

To sell or not to sell

How do you get your hands on a 10-bagger?

Make sure you dont sell stocks that go up 500%.

If you keep selling stocks for 100%, 200%, and 500%, youll never have the chance to be on the other end of a 1,000% return.

That doesnt mean you should just hold on forever until your investments go up. But if youve already made 500% and still believe the stock has potential, why not keep holding on?

Of course, there are plenty of good reasons to sell.

Maybe youve put far too much money into the market to begin with. Remember, you should only invest an amount you wont miss for months.

Or maybe youve put your money into a company you no longer fully understand. From time to time, businesses can change their activities. They might jump into an industry which you dont fully understand.

If you find yourself in this position, its probably a good time to think about selling.

Conversely, there are also many good reasons not to sell.

One is volatility. For example, if your position drops 30% in a market-wide sell off, you probably should hold on, waiting for the market to rebound.

Inactivity also isnt a good enough reason to sell. So if a stock youve bought hasnt done much in the past month, continue to hold on.

Just like a decision to buy, your decision to sell should be a well thought out beforehand.

Of course, the decision to sell is completely up to you. Everyone has their own personal reasons for investing in stocks. And that could dictate your decision to sell.

Yet there are times when selling absolutely makes sense if you want to lock in profits and reduce your risk.

Dont go down with the ship

One of the most memorable scenes in Titanic was when Captain Edward J Smith locks the doors behind him. Edward tells everyone to evacuate, but stays behind.

Even if you havent seen the movie, youre probably familiar with this idiom. It symbolises a Captains ultimate responsibility for both the ship and everyone on it.

As small-cap investors, we want to do the exact opposite. Instead of going down with the business, we want to get off as quick as possible.

This is the first good reason to sell  when a business is in decline.

But how can you tell when a business is sinking?

Declining sales is a good start. If a business is losing money and cannot grow sales, its a pretty good sign for worse things to come.

Its not always easy to identify this early on. But sometimes you can tell earnings will decline simply by looking at inventories and accounts receivable.

A perfect example is Aussie icon, Billabong International Ltd [ASX:BBG].

From 200811, receivables and inventories grew much faster than sales.

If receivables are growing faster than sales, it usually means the business is accepting more credit and less cash.

With more receivables, theres also the chance more debtors wont pay, leaving Billabong to take what they can get.

If inventories are growing faster than sales its usually a sign of eroding demand. Billabong thought they needed X amount of clothing. Yet it turns out their assumption of demand was optimistic.

Thus, inventories piled up on the balance sheet.

This is very dangerous in the fashion industry, as trends can change on a dime. Like piling up receivables, inventories can become worth a whole lot less in a short space of time.

Had you seen this trend early, you might have been able to get out before Billabongs decade long decline.

Since 2008, Billabong share price is down more than 92%. Had you put $10,000 into the stock in 2008, youd now have $800.

Whats the lesson here? Dont go down with the ship!

Minimise your risk by taking profits

The small-cap world is unpredictable. One moment you might be up 100%. The next, you could be down 30%.

It pays to know when you should take profits off the table.

Lets say you bought Animoca Brands Corp [ASX:AB1] at the start of this year. The mobile game developer has already climbed 476% this year, quadrupling your money.

To ensure you dont lose your original investment, you might think about selling a fourth of your position.

That way, you still have exposure to Animoca and lose nothing even if the stock hits zero.

This is the second reason you should sell a small-cap investment.

But how do you know when a stock climbs high enough?

Like I said, these arent hard and fast rules. Think of them as guidelines. A lot of it really comes down to what youre comfortable with.

If youre not comfortable leaving a 300% return untouched, maybe its a good idea to take some profit off the table. That way you wont toss and turn at night, thinking about potentially losing money.

But I suggest not to realise profits too quickly, as it will limit your returns in the long-run.

For example, say you netted a 300% return on $1,000. Meaning your total position is now $4,000. To prevent losing your original investment ($1,000), you could sell a fourth of your position.

If the stock runs up another 300%, your profit would be $9,000.

But had you left that $1,000 in the stock, your total profit would be $12,000.

Sell when it makes sense

Alternatively, you might sell when your position becomes overvalued. Meaning the stock price has climbed above the businesss potential true worth.

This is the third reason for selling your small-cap investments.

Im not going to lie, its hard to stick to this one. And thats because a businesss value is so subjective.

What I think Animoca Brands is worth could be different to what you think its worth.

A lot of variables might go into valuing a company like Animoca Brands.

For example, you might estimate how much cash the business will generate over its life time. You could value Animoca compared to its peers. You might even try to guestimate the market share Animoca will carve out of its industry.

As you can see, there are a lot of reasonable values you could come up with.

So if Animoca Brands rises to a dollar and you believe its only worth 10 cents, its probably time to think about selling.

Thats it for Day 8.

Tomorrow were going to take a step back and look at the economy and how it affects small-cap stocks.

Keep an eye on your inbox for that.

Cheers,

Harje Ronngard,

Editor, Money Morning
Before relaying all the ongoing fun from the royal commission  assuming youre not involved, of course  lets take a quick detour into the world of oil.

From Reuters:

Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia would be happy to see crude rise to $80 or even $100 a barrel, three industry sources said, a sign Riyadh will seek no changes to an OPEC supply-cutting deal even though the agreements original target is within sight. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and several other producers began to reduce supply in January 2017 in an attempt to erase a glut. They have extended the pact until December 2018 and meet in June to review policy. Industry sources have linked this shift in Saudi Arabias stance to its desire to support the valuation of state oil company Aramco ahead of the kingdoms planned sale of a minority stake in an initial public offering.

When oil was around US$44 a barrel in mid-2017, I said it was going much higher. I said it was in the Saudis interests for this to happen. I even published a report called the Aramco Fix, explaining why oil would go much higher in the next 1218 months.

Aramco is the name of the Saudis state-owned oil company. The plan is to sell a 5% stake in what would be the biggest IPO ever. Of course, they want a high oil price to push up the value of that business.

That report wasnt exactly my most popular. The response was underwhelming. As a result, I was even more confident in my prediction. Who was left to sell! Clearly, there was little interest in the oil market. Everyone was focused on batteries and renewable energy. Oil was dead.

But here we are, not even 12 months later, and Brent Crude is up nearly 70%. I think its got more to go before it peaks. But now the story is out, the easy gains are over.

Gold to make a move?

If you want to get in on the next major move in the commodity market, look to gold instead. My recent report on gold received a similar muted response to the one on oil. That is, people clearly think gold is boring, in the same way they thought oil was boring in mid-2017.

All I can say is big mistake. I dont know when gold will make its move. I cant even be absolutely sure it will make a move. But my analysis suggests it will. And when it breaks higher, it will move fast. Click here to read more.

While I think you have a good chance of making money from gold in the next 12 months, I cant say the same thing about many financial services stocks. As I mentioned at the start, the royal commission onslaught continues unabated.

Now you might think that from a contrarian perspective now is a good time to look at the sector. True, often the time to buy is when something is on the nose. But in this case, I believe that is a very low probability play.

There is a good chance that the long term impact of this royal commission will be a complete dismantling of bank business models. As I pointed out yesterday, banks are already starting to put their funds management businesses up for sale. Next, the rest of the wealth management arms (including the financial planning networks) will probably go too.

In worse news for the banks though, the share price performance of nearly all listed fund managers has been terrible over the past few months. Heres a chart showing the major listed players over the past 12 months:

I thought fund managers were meant to do well in a bull market?

The best performers over the past year are IOOF Holdings Limited [ASX:IFL] and Platinum Asset Management Limited [ASX:PTM], up just over 10%. Perpetual Limited [ASX:PPT] and BT Investment Management Ltd [ASX:BTT] are down around 20%, while Magellan Financial Group Ltd [ASX:MFG] is flat.

Steer clear of financial stocks

Falling share prices since the start of the year potentially reflect the pricing in of an end to the bull market. If this is the case, its bad news for the banks trying to sell their fund management arms.

The way most assets are sold to the market in IPO form, or via a trade sale, is to compare the valuation to current listed peers. Going by this measure, the comparison is not as favourable as it was just a few months ago.

Thats another headache for the banks.

But its not as big as the one theyre dealing with right now. The question is, how long will this news cycle go on for? A few more days? Weeks?

I dont know, but the banks are scrambling. Yesterday, ANZ issued guidance for its half yearly result, due out next week. It disclosed that legal and other costs relating to the royal commission would be in the vicinity of $50 million!

Go long law firms! Id love to know what other costs relate to. Lobbyists? If so, it hasnt been money well spent.

Anyway, now that this is all out in the open, it might be time for a little rally in the banks to unfold. Dont be fooled though, it will take some time to flush all the cockroaches out.

The sector is a long way from being a buy. AVOID!

Regards,

Greg Canavan,

Editor, Crisis & Opportunity
The Kogan.com Limited [ASX: KGN] share price dropped by almost 18% yesterday. Shares are currently trading at $7.60, down from its record high of $9.24 on Friday.

The online retailer has experienced substantial growth since its listing on the ASX in 2016  402% to be precise.

Kogan is a leading consumer brand offering price leadership through digital efficiency. The company is focused on making in-demand products and services more affordable and accessible.

Why has Kogans share price dropped?

The share price dropped yesterday after the company released its quarterly results. Despite a strong report, it seems investors werent impressed.

Kogan announced that gross revenue for the March quarter increased by 46.1% and gross transaction value by 49.8%.

The company ended the quarter with nearly 1.3 million active customers, up from 1.1 at the end of 2017.

Even though the share price has dropped dramatically, Chief Executive and Founder Ruslan Kogan, told the Financial Review that the business is performing strongly.

What we can expect to see from Kogan?

Over the past month, Kogan has expanded into offering pet insurance, life insurance and an NBN internet service.

This is in addition to its already extensive range of retail products and services, including health insurance, travel insurance and travel deals.

Mr Kogan told the Financial Review that the new ventures follow the established model. The company partners with an infrastructure provider, and then sells the services under the Kogan brand to its database of customers.

For our perspective these are beautiful partnerships because they are a win, win, win, said Mr Kogan. He went on to say that these partnerships allow Kogan to expand into new areas, while the partner acquires new customers at a low cost and consumers get an affordable service.

Some are saying that it is a case of too much too soon. But have we really seen the best of what Kogan.com has to offer already? We will just have to wait and see.

Regards,

Dannielle Rawlings,

For Money Morning

PS: Its no secret that Kogan.com has seen huge growth over the past two years, and despite this fall it still shows potential to continue to soar. Our Money Morning Editor, Sam Volkering, argues that the biggest potential gains can be found in the sector with the biggest potential risk  small-cap stocks. If youre interested in learning more, check out his free report Top Three Aussie Small-cap Stocks to Own in 2018. You can download this free report here.
Edmonton represents a perfect storm of factors  including transportation links, a conducive regulatory regime, and abundant sunshine and water  that would make it a major cannabis market worth upwards of $100 million annually, according to a city business official.

Speaking to Postmedia, senior business specialist Brad White said late last week that a mature Edmonton marijuana market could open new jobs for as much as 2,000 people in a few short years, paving the way for the diversification of the local economy.

I do think the industry and its sectors will gravitate here because of the (provincial) privatization model and because the city is welcoming to all legal sectors, White said. Industry is in our DNA and agriculture is in our blood. I think we will be in a really good spot.
Wells Fargo has extended the deadline for customers to participate in a $142 million class-action settlement over its fake-accounts scandal.

The settlement is meant to compensate Wells Fargo customers who had unauthorized accounts opened in their name. It was revealed in 2016 that Wells Fargo employees, in an effort to keep up with rising sales goals, had opened as many as 2 million phony customer accounts. The scandal led to millions of dollars in fines, the ouster of then-CEO John Stumpf, and the uncovering, over the next several months, of many more shady practices at the bank.

The same day Wells Fargo announced the deadline extension, in fact, it was also fined $1 billion by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Comptroller of the Currency for questionable mortgage and auto-loan practices.
A mother was arrested Sunday night after she tried to set her car on fire while inside with her three daughters, Houston police said.

The woman tried to ignite her car in the 4300 block of West Orem, in south Houston, police said.
Through performances and displays, five Midland Classical Academy students recently showcased their honors work. The event on April 17 was the first in the schools two-decade history to recognize top projects.

Every year, MCA students finish at least 100 Mastery with Honors projects, according to the schools website. Seventh- through 12th-graders can complete the projects to earn honors credit for any course.

In the past, students presented Mastery with Honors work only within their classes. This years recognition program gave students who created the top projects an expanded audience.

There are some really excellent ones that get produced every year, but they only reach a very limited audience, said A.J. Perea, dean of math and science. So, we really wanted to try to celebrate the achievements of these kids in a more public setting.

At the event, winning student David Harper performed one of the three songs he wrote and recorded to comprise his Mastery with Honors work. It was the first honors project he completed, and he said this months recognition was encouraging.

MCA has so many awesome, just unique traditions, said Harper, a sophomore. Getting to be a part of one of the very first of hopefully a long-standing tradition in the future is just a great opportunity.

Harper pursued Mastery with Honors credit for his history class and used some of its themes in his music. When students consider project ideas, MCA staff members encourage them to think about some that align with their interests, according to Perea.

We try to help those students tailor the subject to fit the things that theyre interested in, he said. Then they get to own it in a way that hopefully will create life-long learners.

This school year, MCA students finished a total of 122 Mastery with Honors projects. For each project, students must work at least 20 hours while meeting requirements related to personal character and academic grades.

In 2017-18, staff chose 15 projects as finalists, and those works were passed to a judging panel. Judges then selected the top winners based on four criteria: wonder, imagination, discovery and arete  a Greek word meaning excellence.

At this months event, attendees saw and heard descriptions of all finalists projects. The five winners explained their efforts in their own words, and some delivered performances. Brandon Shuman, dean of arts and humanities, said the award night had two purposes.

It is to recognize and honor the students and their hard work, and its also to be inspired by their work, he said before the event. We can go out and see the greatness that theyve done and then hopefully be great in the things that matter most in our lives.

Students have worked on 2,620 Mastery with Honors projects since 2005, Perea told event attendees. The school has no honors courses because it doesnt want to separate students and hopes honors students teach themselves and serve others, according to its website.

MCA honor roll spots are given to students who earn three or more Mastery with Honors credits in a school year while passing all classes. To graduate with honors, they must be on the honor roll four years between eighth and 12th grade.

Ryan Sturdivant said that opportunity factored into his decision to pursue a Mastery with Honors project. The eighth-grader used various materials to create a visual representation of the cave in The Republic, a Plato work.

It started off as one of the things where it goes on my transcript  I can graduate with honors, he said. But it kind of turned into one of the things where this is really interesting, and Im learning stuff.

The other winners recognized this school year were: DeLaney Beattie, who memorized All-Natural Addiction, a 10-minute monologue; Conrey Echols, who wrote Road to Berghof, a story with themes related to manhood; and Harper Hightower, who built a model of a spine to depict scoliosis.

Additional Mastery with Honors finalists included:

-Callie Doke

-Lucas Lacy

-Grayson Layh

-Madelyn Marecle

-Nate McQueen

-Kacy Miller

-Payton Parham

-Grace Weatherl

-Melissa Weaver (for two projects)
Editors Note: A more-detailed look at the Exchange Club winners will appear in a future Education section.

---

If its spring, it must be time for the Exchange Club to hand out their annual academic awards for Midland ISDs top performers.

The prestigious club offered lunch, gifts and acclaim for some of the districts top students Monday at Petroleum Club.

Those honored were Midland Highs Rachel Brewer, Abigail Buenda, Caitlin Lauritzen, Raymond Mee and Hollis Hightower; Lee High Schools Maren Smith, Navyl Moya, Patrick Okimi, Everett Ramos and Crystal Uba; and Early College High Schools Annie Vo.

Students honored with awards based on their performance in English, science, foreign language, math or social studies received the acclaim of being an Exchange Club honoree and a 2 terabyte hard drive to use in their college endeavors.

Midland ISD Superintendent Orlando Riddick praised his districts brightest, saying it was awe-inspiring to see the giftedness from students who excel and meet the challenge like those honored Monday.

Those in attendance also heard from former Exchange Club winners, who wrote about their honors and their first year in college. Advice offered to the next in line included to not be afraid to reinvent yourself, learn to use good judgement and that there are consequences and rewards for your actions. Lastly, one Midland ISD graduate wrote, environment is a reflection of the attitude your carry and do not settle for anything less than true potential.

Students honored will attended colleges and universities including Baylor, Texas Tech University, the University of Texas, Texas A&M, the University of Michigan, the University of Maryland, Abilene Christian University, the University of Texas of the Permian Basin and Dickinson College.

** ** **

The Exchange Club of Midland annual awards luncheon

Midland High

English  Rachel Brewer, Foreign Language  Abigail Buenda, Math  Caitlin Lauritzen, Science  Raymond Mee, Social Studies  Hollis Hightower

Lee High School

English  Maren Smith, Foreign Language  Navyl Moya, Math  Patrick Okimi, Science  Everett Ramos, Social Studies  Crystal Uba

Early College High School  Annie Vo
An ex-employee of the Cameron County juvenile detention center was sentenced Friday to 50 years in prison for pilfering more than $1.2 million worth of fajitas.

Gilberto Escamilla, 53, pleaded guilty to theft by a public servant in the 107th state District Courtroom in Brownsville in what is surely one of the countys more bizarre criminal cases in recent memory.

Authorities were turned on to Escamilla last year after a driver from Labatt Food Service in Harlingen informed the Darrel B. Hester Juvenile Detention Center kitchen staff of an 800-pound fajita delivery.

But fajitas are not on the detention center menu, and the suspicious activity was reported to the Cameron County district attorneys offices special investigations unit.

After Escamillas arrest last fall, District Attorney Luis V. Saenz quipped to the Brownsville Herald that if it wasnt so serious, youd think it was a Saturday Night Live skit.

But the high-stakes deception, which totaled $1,251,587 worth of fajitas over a period of nine years, was very real.

In a tearful admission of guilt, Escamilla testified that what began small had spiraled out of control, the Herald reported.

Looking to send a message that theft by public employees will not be tolerated, the county asked visiting state District Judge J. Manuel Banales to give Escamilla a 50-year sentence.

Escamilla waived his right to a trial earlier this month.

It was selfish, Escamilla testified. It got to the point where I couldnt control it anymore.

anelsen@express-news.net | Twitter: @amnelsen
Eric Weeks, Department Chair and Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Physics, holds a sample of the hydrogel particles used in his research. He has been appointed the new director of the Center for Faculty Development and Excellence and associate vice provost for faculty affairs, effective July 1. Emory Photo/Video

Physics professor Eric Weeks has been appointed the new director of the Center for Faculty Development and Excellence (CFDE) and associate vice provost for faculty affairs, effective July 1, 2018. In this role, he will focus on engaging and supporting faculty in teaching, research and professional development.

Weeks succeeds Pamela Scully, current CFDE director, who will move into the role of vice provost for undergraduate education on June 1, 2018.

I am delighted to have Dr. Weeks step into the role of director of the Center for Faculty Development and Excellence and associate vice provost for faculty affairs, says Lynn Zimmerman, senior vice provost for academic affairs. His leadership, both inside and outside of the classroom, has contributed to stronger faculty, students and community relationships. In this new role, he will further faculty engagement and bring a new perspective with his expertise in scientific research and STEM education.

Weeks will support faculty in the areas of research and scholarship, teaching, community-engaged learning, online education and career development.

Im very excited to take this position and have the opportunity to work with faculty across the whole university, Weeks says. The CFDE has had a great impact in its first 10 years, but higher education always evolves and I look forward to finding new opportunities for faculty development and ways to further strengthen faculty ties across the university.

As the Department Chair and Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Physics, Weeks has a distinguished record of academic achievement and has demonstrated a long-standing commitment to engaging and supporting faculty, students and postdoctoral scholars in teaching, research and professional development. He will receive this years George P. Cuttino Award for Excellence in Mentoring, which will be presented May 14 at the Emory College diploma ceremony.

In addition to his important role as a member of the Emory faculty, Weeks created and led the Science Education Journal, which brought together students and faculty from Emory and other Atlanta universities to analyze and understand research approaches to science education.
A Washington Elementary School student was removed from the school Friday after being accused of threatening another student.

Jacksonville Police Lt. Sean Walker said the boy was accused of threatening to get a gun and shoot another student.
Morgan County

Sheriff

Arrests, Citations

 Stephen R. Howard, 36, of 520 Duncan St. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 7:04 p.m. Sunday on a charge of driving while license is revoked or suspended.

Jacksonville Police

Arrests, Citations

 Jade M. Coady, 19, of Sherman was booked into the Morgan County jail at 1:40 p.m. Saturday on charges of resisting a peace officer and possession of liquor by a minor.

 Seth A. Weller, 20, of Auburn was booked into the Morgan County jail at 2:11 p.m. Saturday on charges of possession of cannabis, operating an uninsured motor vehicle, improper lane use and possession of liquor by a minor.

 Skyler S. Cox, 19, of Normal was booked into the Morgan County jail at 4:41 p.m. Saturday on charges of possession of liquor by a minor and disorderly conduct.

 Kayla R. Casson, 27, of 523 W. College Ave. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 11:46 p.m. Saturday on a criminal damage to property charge.

 Ranae R. Williamson, 30, of 905 Edgehill Road was booked into the Morgan County jail at 10:06 p.m. Sunday on a residential burglary charge.

 Joseph M. Hymes, 20, of 34 Gettysburg Dr. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 3:37 p.m. Monday on a charge of criminal damage to property.

Accidents

 Demondra L. Harris, 19, of 413 W. Douglas Ave. was cited on charges of driving without a valid drivers license, illegal consumption of alcohol and improper lane use after an accident Sunday. Police say Harris was driving west on West Walnut Street about 6:22 a.m. Sunday when her vehicle crossed the eastbound lanes and went off the road, where it struck a utility pole. A passer-by took Harris to Passavant Area Hospital. She was later transferred to Memorial Medical Center in Springfield. Her condition was unavailable Monday.

South Jacksonville Police

Arrests, Citations

 Kristine M. Hamilton, 41, of 419 N. Laurel Drive was booked into the Morgan County jail at 3:56 p.m. Saturday on charges of driving under the influence, illegal possession/transportation of liquor, improper lane use and operating an uninsured motor vehicle.



Brown County

Sheriff

Arrests, Citations

 Joel A. Welty, 28, of Golden was arrested at 3:33 a.m. Saturday on charges of driving under the influence and improper lane use after being stopped on County Road 1200 North near County Road 1150 East.

 Aaron Nokes, 33, of Timewell was arrested at 9:24 p.m. Thursday on a charge of violating an order of protection.



Cass County

Beardstown Police

Arrests, Citations

 William L. Thompson, 40, of 900 March St. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 3:48 p.m. Monday on charges of aggravated domestic battery and domestic battery.



Pike County

Sheriff

Arrests, Citations

 David C. Hecox, 21, of Pittsfield was arrested at 10:22 p.m. Friday on a domestic battery charge.

 Stephanie L. Tomlinson, 29, of White Hall was arrested at 11:40 p.m. April 18 on warrants accusing her of failing to appear in court on a contempt of court charge and on a petition to revoke probation.

 John A. Pope, 47, of Pearl was arrested at 8:58 p.m. April 18 on a petition to revoke probation.

Compiled by David C.L. Bauer, Nick Draper and Samantha McDaniel-Ogletree
Emory is among a group of 17 leading universities urging the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to support students who are part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) program.

Established in 2012, DACA allows certain individuals who entered the United States as undocumented immigrants before the age of 16 to request deferred action from removal proceedings for renewable two-year periods.

The universities, all of which admit DACA students, take issue with the Department of Homeland Securitys Sept. 5, 2017, memorandum rescinding the DACA program.

To achieve their ambitious goals of advancing knowledge and transforming our society, schools must be able to identify and educate the very best students, and those students must be able to work after graduation. Ending DACA unjustly sidelines a discrete group of students, the universities argue in an amicus brief filed April 11 in a DACA case that is before the Second Circuit on appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

In addition to Emory, the brief is signed by Brown University, California Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Duke University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwestern University, Stanford University, University of Chicago, the University of Pennsylvania, Vanderbilt University and Yale University.

Last fall, Emory joined 18 other universities in filing a similar brief supporting DACA students in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Americans are sharply divided over the recent U.S. military airstrikes in Syria, with half approving, 43% disapproving and 7% having no opinion. Public support for the latest airstrikes essentially matches responses to similar actions against Syria a year ago and several other U.S. military interventions, historically.

Half of Americans Support Latest Military Action in Syria 2018 question wording: "Next, we have a question about the missile airstrikes the United States has launched against Syria. Do you approve or disapprove of this U.S. military action against Syria?" Country/Region Polling dates Approve Disapprove % % Syria 2018 Apr 16-22 50 43 Syria 2017 Apr 7-8 50 41 Iraq and Syria 2014 Sep 20-21 60 31 Libya 2011 Mar 21 47 37 Iraq 2003 Mar 20 76 20 Afghanistan 2001 Oct 7 90 5 Kosovo/The Balkans 1999 Apr 30-May 2 51 45 Afghanistan and Sudan 1998 Aug 20 66 19 Haiti 1994 Sep 23-25 54 45 Somalia 1993 Jun 18-21 65 23 Iraq 1993 Jan 13 83 9 Libya 1986 Apr 17-18 71 21 Grenada 1983 Oct 26-27 53 34 Gallup

Background: On April 14, U.S. military forces, in conjunction with those of the United Kingdom and France, conducted a series of missile strikes on three chemical weapons sites within Syria. The strikes were conducted in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack on the rebel-held town of Douma, Syria, by government forces on April 7. The missile strikes were designed to degrade Syrian President Bashar Assad's ability to conduct such attacks in the future.

This is the second time President Donald Trump has ordered missile strikes in Syria in response to a chemical weapons attack by that country's government. The first strikes, conducted April 6 of last year, targeted an air base where the chemical weapons attack was staged. The 2017 strikes were also supported by half of Americans.

U.S. approval for strikes is low, but in line with recent similar actions: Americans' level of approval for the April 2018 strikes on Syria is relatively low compared with support for some previous actions, such as the war in Afghanistan in 2001, which garnered 90% approval. However, compared with similar small-scale military actions, support is typical. The missile strikes on Syria in 2017 drew support from half of Americans, while the 2011 airstrikes on targets in Libya drew a roughly equivalent level of approval, 47%.

Republicans continue to voice higher levels of approval for strikes: Similar to last year, eight in 10 Republicans say they approve of the most recent strikes on Syria, compared with less than half as many Democrats (36%) and 45% of independents. The 2017 missile strikes were supported by 82% of Republicans, 33% of Democrats and 44% of independents.

Republicans' Support for Syria Strikes Much Higher Than Democrats' Do you approve or disapprove of this U.S. military action against Syria? Approve Disapprove % % National adults 50 43 Republicans 80 13 Independents 45 47 Democrats 36 60 Gallup, April 16-22, 2018

Given the political polarization seen today on many issues, the continued partisan gaps in approval of the strikes are not surprising. Although the wording of Gallup's question did not mention Trump's role in authorizing the latest airstrikes, his involvement likely is understood, thus contributing to the partisan split in views.

A full listing of the wording of previous questions on approval of U.S. military actions is included at the end of this article.

##SPEEDBUMP##

Survey Methods Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted April 16-22, 2018, with a random sample of 1,511 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is 3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting. Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 70% cellphone respondents and 30% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods. Learn more about how the Gallup U.S. Poll works.
Billy Garrett ACPD Photo View Photos

Angels Camp, CA  Caught in the crosshairs of a Highway 4 near Highway 49 traffic stop, a Mother Lode visitor was hauled to jail on felony warrants and a charge of public drunkenness.

According to Angels Camp Police Chief Todd Fordahl, Billy Garrett, 30, of Sacramento had been a passenger in a vehicle that was parked along Highway 4 with its trunk open late Saturday afternoon.

The chief recounts that police stopping to make a possible courtesy assist there located Garrett standing outside. Talking with the female driver, who was still seated inside, they were advised that she and Garrett had been arguing and she did not feel safe with him.

Chief Fordahl adds that further investigation determined that Garrett had been consuming alcohol and marijuana and a subsequent records check revealed he was being sought by Sacramento County law authorities for felony robbery and burglary along with being in violation of a court order to prevent domestic violence.
The Hale County Commissioners took care of one problem, adjusted a mistake and are trying to head off another issue at its meeting on Monday at Hale County Courthouse in Plainview.

The problem solved was simple. A trailer in the possession of the Hale County Sheriff's Office will be returned to Uhaul after commissioners voted 4-0 to return it to the company.

"It's marked Uhaul all over it," said Sheriff David Mull. "I'd like to just give it back to them and be done with it."

The trailers came to the possession of the county years ago and it doesn't have a tag on it.

"We can't tell when it was stolen," Mull said. "But, we've had contact with people at Uhaul in Lubbock and they want it back. I'd like to give it back to them."

The commission approved giving the trailer back to the company.

Mull also asked the commission approve a salary adjustment for his chief deputy. When appointed Mull told the commission he misread what her pay should be.

The commission adjusted the pay rate -- retroactive to March 13 -- but then later had to amend the issue as it was determined the pay rate was still wrong.

Mull will get some relief soon. The commission approved replacing a faulty air conditioner unit in the booking area.

The commission voted to reach out to the Texas Association of Counties to attempt to shut down an enterprise near Petersburg.

"There's someone running a tire dump and battery dump and we need to figure out a way to get this taken care of before it becomes a bigger problem," Hale County Judge Bill Coleman told the commission. "We are looking into whether we can force them to shut down based on health reasons, but we are going to be seeking legal help to see if there is another approach as well."
Associated Press Writer

Convicted killer Ynobe Matthews attributes his plight to a lack of maturity.

"As a boy, I was always rowdy," Matthews said recently. "Even at 24, I was still boyish. I had kids at 17 years old. I guess I never truly grew up."

For Matthews, now 27, it was hardly a boyhood indiscretion that earned him a trip to death row and a scheduled Tuesday night execution.

He was convicted of raping and strangling a 21-year-old woman, Carolyn Casey, at her College Station apartment 3 1/2 years ago, then setting fire to her body in an attempt to cover up the crime. It was one of at least two deaths he acknowledged.

Testimony at his trial also linked him to at least three other rapes and two attempted rapes.

"I argued to the jury that they operate under the assumption they were dealing with a serial (rapist)," Brazos County District Attorney Bill Turner, who prosecuted Matthews, said Monday.

"My immaturity, alcohol," Matthews said from death row, trying to explain his actions. "You wouldn't give a child a loaded gun. I guess I had the wrong ammunition."

Matthews, whose first name is "Ebony" spelled backward, asked that no additional appeals be filed on his behalf and volunteered for execution.

"I wish there was something else going on but there's not," Kevin Dunn, Matthews' lawyer, said Monday.

Matthews would be the first prisoner executed this year in Texas, where 24 inmates were put to death in 2003. The total was the highest in the nation but about average for Texas over the past decade.

Firefighters responding to a call from Casey's apartment complex just before 5 a.m. May 28, 2000, found a small blaze smoldering around her body. She had been propped up in a seated position against a bed. Paper, pens and makeup brushes had been set on fire near her.

Matthews was living with a friend at the same complex and had attended a party there the previous night. Questioned by police, he surrendered clothing, plus hair and blood and saliva samples to investigators. Matthews' DNA was found in scrapings taken from under the woman's fingernails and other forensics evidence tied him to the murder scene.

Confronted with the information, Matthews acknowledged being at her apartment the day she was killed but contended the sex was consensual. He later told detectives there had been a fight, that he strangled Casey and set fire to her to eliminate evidence and cut a window screen to give the appearance of a burglary.

"It's my fault that I'm here," he said from death row. "That's that."

DNA evidence and fingerprints also connected Matthews to the May 1, 1999 rape and slaying of Jamie Hart, 21, whose death went unsolved for 14 months after her nude body was discovered on a rural Brazos County road, nine miles from where her abandoned car was left running with the lights on.

Matthews confessed to forcing his way into her car and raping her. A month after he was condemned for the Casey slaying, he pleaded guilty to Hart's death in exchange for a life prison term.

Jurors at his capital murder trial were told he had previous arrests for cocaine possession and cruelty to animals and was considered such a threat while in jail that he had to be escorted by two officers and placed in leg irons any time he left.

"I think the most troubling part of his behavior was it appeared to me he toyed with his victims," said Turner, who called a rape victim to testify at Matthews' trial.

"It was the one survivor who gave us a glimpse of what his state was," Turner said, recalling the woman telling how her attacker "would strangle her until almost unconscious and then let up. It would happen again and again."

Authorities found marks of repeated choking on his other victims.

Matthews, who fathered four children _ three sons and a daughter ranging in age from 3 to 10, said his decision to volunteer to die was difficult but made with them in mind.

"Do you want to constantly remind them of the hurt and pain or do you want to give them a chance to move forward?" he said. "Now it's between me and God _ me and my creator. Whatever he sees fit for my punishment, it's something I can't refuse. That's the finality of the situation and I can accept it."
A judge in San Antonio on Monday denied a request to dismiss five new murder indictments against convicted child killer Genene Jones.

Jones, 67, a former nurse who worked at hospitals in San Antonio and for a Kerrville pediatrician in the 1980s, was convicted in 1984 of killing 15-month-old Chelsea McClellan in 1982 by injecting her with an overdose of muscle relaxers at a doctors office in Kerrville.

Jones was sentenced to 99 years in that case and to 60 years after a Bexar County jury convicted her of injury to a child-serious bodily injury for giving an overdose to Rolando Santos, a 4-month-old infant who survived. The sentences were to be served at the same time.

RELATED: Genene Jones blamed 'voices in her head' for baby deaths, lawyer says

Jones was set to be released in March because of a change in the law aimed at reducing prison crowding. But that was prevented by the new indictments. Since May, Jones has been indicted on charges of killing five Bexar County children who died in 1981 and 1982, all from overdoses. She currently is being held in the Bexar County jail.

Last week, her attorney Cornelius Cox, asked state District Judge Frank Castro to dismiss the new cases, citing a violation of her due process because he said prosecutors waited three decades to bring more charges against her and also violated her right to speedy trial.

Prosecutors have said they combed through 28 boxes of evidence from the 1980s, which they say revealed Jones confessed at least three times to killing babies, and they intend to try her on each of the new cases.

Jones is awaiting trial in July before Castro in the 399th state District Court.

Elizabeth Zavala is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of her stories here. | ezavala@express-news.net | @elizabeth2863
A West Texas man accused of tampering with evidence in the disappearance of college student Zuzu Verk pleaded no contest to the charge earlier this month, Brewster County officials said.

Chris Estrada was charged with tampering with or fabricating physical evidence by concealing a human corpse in March 2017, a month after Verk's remains were found in a shallow grave near Alpine in West Texas.
San Francisco and other cities cant show theyre likely to be harmed by the Defense Departments failure to notify the FBI that some service members had committed acts during their time in the military that should prohibit them from owning guns in civilian life, a federal judge ruled Tuesday in dismissing a suit prompted by a massacre at a Texas church.

San Francisco, Philadelphia and New York City sued the Pentagon and top military officials in December after Devin Kelley, a former member of the Air Force, used an assault rifle to kill 26 people in Sutherland Springs, Texas, before taking his own life. Kelley had been dishonorably discharged from the service in 2014 after being convicted at a court-martial of assaulting his wife and stepson and serving time in a military brig. Both his conviction and the dishonorable discharge should have made him ineligible to buy or possess a gun.

The Air Force admitted that it had failed to report the conviction to the FBI, which would have been required to include Kelleys name in its nationwide database, preventing him from legally purchasing the rifle. Later, the Pentagons inspector general told Congress that the military had failed to tell the FBI about 31 percent of service members criminal convictions in 2015-16, and had been lax in its reporting for more than 20 years.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions called the situation alarming and ordered the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which run the nationwide background-check system jointly, to get noncompliant military branches to turn over their records. In February, CNN reported that the military had disclosed more than 4,000 dishonorably discharged service members to the FBI since the Nov. 5 shootings.

In their suit, the cities said they rely on the FBIs background checks to approve firearms permits and because of the Defense Departments omissions, may have allowed sales to individuals who should have been barred from owning guns. They sought court orders requiring thorough record checks by all military branches and monthly reporting under court supervision.

But U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton of Alexandria, Va., said Tuesday that the cities have failed to show that they had been harmed, or would be likely to suffer harm, because of the Defense Departments alleged violations of law.

In the first place, Hilton said, the cities have no right to the Defense Department information, which under federal law is reported only to the agencies that manage the background-check system. And even if they were legally entitled to the reports, he said, their claim that errors would lead to wrongful gun sales was too speculative to show the specific, impending harm needed to proceed with a suit.

In addition, the judge said, a local government may be allowed to sue over a dispute with a federal agency, such as denial of federal funding, but cant use the courts to launch a broad programmatic attack on an agencys compliance with federal law or seek court supervision to guarantee compliance.

The ruling does not affect separate lawsuits against the Air Force and the Defense Department filed by survivors of Kelleys shootings and family members of his victims.

City Attorney Dennis Herrera was disappointed by the ruling and may ask an appeals court to overturn it, said spokesman John Cote.

The bottom line is the Pentagon needs to do a much better job reporting military convictions so that people who shouldnt have guns arent able to buy them, get a concealed permit for them, or have them returned if police confiscate them, Cote said. Nothing in the courts opinion disputes that. Instead, our case was dismissed on a legal technicality.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko
A Pearl-area bartender at a Viva Tacoland was arrested Monday after two women told police he spiked their drinks and sexually assaulted them.

Dillonger Hackett, 30, was arrested on a charge of sexual assault, San Antonio Police Department spokeswoman Sgt. Michelle Ramos said.

The two women told police Hackett was extremely nice as he was serving them on March 25 at a restaurant in the 100 block of Grayson Street, Ramos said.

RELATED: Deputies investigating death of 2-year-old in Medina County

An arrest warrant affidavit obtained Monday evening states that Hackett appeared to be nearing the end of his bar tending shift at Viva Tacoland, which is technically outside the Pearl development, when he approached them.

One of the victims remembered walking away from their spot to use the restroom and returning to see Hackett standing with them, investigators said. The women told police thats when they blacked out until they woke up in their hotel room the next morning.

They could only recall bits and pieces of what happened during the night, according to the affidavit.

One victim said that she saw Hackett on top of her naked, while the other said she saw him showering, the affidavit states. As one woman tried to wake up the other in a brief moment of consciousness, she passed out herself, investigators said in the warrant. When they awoke, both of them had a physical feeling they had been sexually assaulted, according to the affidavit.

They reported the crime to police and went to an area hospital to undergo a sexual assault exam, Ramos said. The two told investigators they think Hackett put something in their drinks because he was the one serving them before they blacked out.

RELATED: Report: Anchor allegedly caught stealing jacket at NBA practice

Hacket also messaged one of the victims via social media the morning after the assault, saying that he forgot his silver watch there, the women told police. Neither of them took the watch, leaving it there instead until police later collected it as evidence, according to the affidavit. Police corroborated the women's allegations by checking the security camera footage of the hotel they were staying at, which showed Hackett there that night, Ramos said.

Detectives said in the affidavit that video shows Hackett helping the women to their hotel room, and that they appeared slightly intoxicated. Hackett could then be seen leaving their room and zipping up his pants in the elevator, investigators noted.

Investigators said that Viva Tacolands management confirmed Hackett was working the night of the incident. They told police it was a slow evening and that nothing appeared out of the ordinary, according to the affidavit.

Police have not gotten any other similar complaints about Hackett but Ramos asked anyone else who believes they may have been abused by Hackett to come forward.

If police can confirm Hackett spiked the drink, his charge would be increased to aggravated sexual assault, Ramos said.

Hackett kept his head down and did not answer questions from the media Monday afternoon as he was escorted by officers to a police vehicle at the Public Safety Headquarters, 315 S. Santa Rosa Ave.

He was reprimanded without bond on an unrelated charge of possession of marijuana between four ounces and five pounds, according to court records.

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jbeltran@express-news.net | Twitter: @JBfromSA

Fares Sabawi covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here. | fsabawi@mysa.com | Twitter: @FaresInSA
WASHINGTON - Democrats are warning that the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman's proposed changes to a bill to protect special counsels from undue firing would give the GOP the ability to tip off President Donald Trump about developments in Robert Mueller's probe of him - the latest flash point on the legislation's rocky road to a committee vote, expected Thursday.

Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has been circulating a draft of his amendment, which he plans to offer Thursday as a stand-in for the special counsel protection bill that Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Cory Booker, D-N.J., Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Christopher Coons, D-Del., unveiled two weeks ago, after months of negotiations.

Grassley characterized the amendment as an improvement to the legislation, which has raised constitutional separation-of-powers concerns because it potentially subjects the president's decision to fire a special counsel to a review by a panel of three federal judges. The amendment adds reporting requirements to Congress that Grassley believes would equip lawmakers to act to protect a special counsel - potentially even by starting impeachment proceedings - if the courts strike down the constitutionally-controversial parts of the legislation.

But Democrats see a potential Trojan horse in those reporting requirements, which require special counsels like Mueller to inform the House and Senate Judiciary Committee leaders "if there is any change made to the specific nature or scope of the investigation of the Special Counsel," within 30 days of making that change.

Once sensitive information about Mueller's probe is in the hand of lawmakers, Democrats fear Trump's allies on the Hill could pass the information on to the president and his lawyers, to keep the president and his affiliates a step ahead of Mueller's probe. Even if information isn't passed directly to the White House, Democratic aides complained, some lawmakers might try to exert political influence over the probe if they know in which direction it is heading.

According to a copy of the drafted obtained by The Washington Post, Grassley's amendment would also require the special counsel to give lawmakers a specific argument about why they cannot publicize the information they receive, but only for reasons of preserving national security. The amendment also stipulates that the special counsel must justify his or her probe to the Attorney General for purposes of approving the budget every 90 days.

A spokesman for Grassley did not return an emailed request for comment.

Grassley conceived of the amendment as a sort of backup plan for the compromise special counsel protection bill - which is preserved in its entirety as a part of his amendment. He, like several others, have raised concerns that the procedure for reviewing an order to fire a special counsel, which delays the firing for 10 days and guarantees an ousted counsel judicial review within 14 - might not stand up in court if challenged on constitutional grounds.

The amendment also spells out the terms under which a special counsel may be appointed. Those sections are not expected to cause any dispute between the parties.

It is not clear whether the amendment will change before Grassley is expected to present it to the Judiciary Committee for its consideration Thursday. The authors of the special counsel bill are discussing the details of the proposed amendment with Grassley's staff in the hope of working out a compromise.

The bill is likely to need a strongly bipartisan endorsement from the Judiciary Committee if it is to stand a chance of being considered on the Senate floor; Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., last week told Fox News he would refuse to bring it to a vote.

Tillis and other sponsors of the legislation said last week they were working to change McConnell's mind.
Fort Bend County Commissioners Court on April 24 unanimously authorized the county engineer to retain AECOM Technical Services Inc. to conduct a high-level study evaluating the feasibility and potential cost of enclosing the back side of the Barker Reservoir with a levee system.

"As I stated today in court," said Precinct 3 Commissioner Andy Meyers, "I wish to thank County Judge Bob Hebert for his leadership in pursuing this agreement with AECOM. I support this study for several reasons but none greater than this - never again, should our citizens and property owners have to solely rely on the federal government and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for protection from the Barker Reservoir."

The agreement calls for the cost of the study not to exceed $67,200. The money was transferred from the Commissioners Court Projects into an Engineering Project Account. The agreement is to end no later than Sept. 30, 2019. The study is to be completed within 90 days from the notice to proceed.

After the study has been completed and reviewed this summer, Meyers said he will give residents the results and outline the next steps in partnership with the community and other government entities.

The project overview in the agreement states: "AECOM Technical Services Inc. will conduct a high-level study to evaluate the feasibility and potential cost of enclosing the back-side of Barker Reservoir and pumping extreme event inflows from the various upstream channels into the reservoir in order to contain the flood pool within government owned land by increasing the accessible storage volume within the reservoir."

Meyers said 20 levee systems in Fort Bend County guard thousands of lives and billions of dollars in private property and infrastructure.

"Three years of record floods have proved those levees' worth many times over as they guarded our citizens from the floodwaters of the Brazos River and its tributaries. In this AECOM study, we will ask world-class engineers to perform the analysis and calculations of what can feasibly be done with a levee along the Barker Reservoir to protect private property from the operations of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers," said Meyers.

"Countless homeowners, flooding experts, and drainage district directors have approached me and other elected officials in recent months and asked the County to examine a lot of different options for flood mitigation. A number of these plans would be extremely helpful to us and I fully support the third reservoir in Cypress Creek, lowering the flood pool in the Barker and Addicks reservoirs, and the need for increased downstream conveyance along Buffalo Bayou.

"But the costs and the required time to construct these projects are high. And frankly, as a conservative Texan, I'm losing sleep at the idea of solely trusting the federal government to fully fix the messes they've made with the reservoirs. The people I do trust are the ones I stand beside right here in our community," Meyers said.

"So when I'm asked how we can approach the Corps and the men who control the Barker Reservoir, to ask them for operational changes, more communication, and for ways they can protect us - I say that Katy homeowners can turn that premise on its head. Through this study, we want to examine what our community can do to protect ourselves from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and how a levee can be a centerpiece of that protection."

Meyers said officials spent many months soliciting informal input about this concept with the Harris County Flood Control District, Stephen Costello of the City of Houston, numerous engineering firms, and directors and legal counsel from the Willow Fork Drainage District.

"In choosing AECOM, we partner with a firm that is ranked No. 1 in Engineering News Record's "Top 500 Design Firms" for eight consecutive years and has been named one of Fortune magazine's "World's Most Admired Companies" for four consecutive years," said Meyers.
HARTFORD  The Department of Public Health issued a warning Tuesday after conforming two cases of measles in New Haven County, according to a press release.

The two infected individuals are children under 12 months who live in the same household, traveled internationally and acquired their infections outside of the country, the release said. DPH is collaborating with local partners to identify contacts and implement control measures. Any exposures occurred within New Haven County between April 11 and 17, the release said.

Measles is a highly contagious disease that can spread quickly among unvaccinated people, but most of those who are exposed to measles are not at risk, because they are either vaccinated or have had measles in the past, the DPH said.

The single best way to protect yourself and your children from measles is to be vaccinated, DPH Commissioner Dr. Raul Pino said in a statement. While most people have had the measles vaccination, its important to know your vaccination status and to be aware of the signs and symptoms of measles so you can get medical attention.

Symptoms of measles usually begin seven to 14 days after a person is exposed. A typical case of measles begins with a mild to moderate fever, cough, runny nose, red eyes and a sore throat. Three to five days after the start of these symptoms, a red or reddish-brown rash appears, usually starting on a persons face at the hairline and spreading downward to the entire body. At the time the rash appears, a persons fever may spike to more than 104 degrees Fahrenheit, the state said.

The rash typically lasts at least a few days and then disappears. People with measles may be contagious up to fours days before and after the rash appears, according to the release.

Most Connecticut residents have been vaccinated. Individuals who are unsure of their vaccination status are encouraged to check with their physicians. People who have had measles in the past or who have been vaccinated against measles are considered immune, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC recommends all children get two doses of MMR vaccine, starting with the first dose at 12 through 15 months, and the second between 4 and 6 years of age, the release said.

Adults should have at least one dose of MMR vaccine, with certain groups  such as college students, health-care workers, international travelers and people at high risk for measles complications  needing two doses. Adults born in the United States before 1957 are considered immune to measles from past exposures, but in situations where exposure to measles is likely, these adults may benefit from a dose of MMR vaccine to be safer, officials stated.

International travelers should be up-to-date on their vaccinations. Most cases of measles are acquired or linked to international travel. Most of those diagnosed with measles are not vaccinated or did not know their immunization status, the release said.

Measles is very easily spread from person to person. If an individual has a fever and a rash and suspects measles, he or she should avoid public settings and call a physician before going directly to a health-care facility, the release said.

For information, visit portal.ct.gov/dph.
A bicyclist died Tuesday after being struck by a dump truck near Rice University, the third cyclist killed after being hit in the past month.

The woman, who has not been identified, was killed about 11:55 a.m. in the 6000 block of Main near Sunset, according to the Houston Police Department.

She is believed to have been leaving Rice University after meeting her husband for lunch in the area, Assistant Chief Wendy Baimbridge said.

Both the bicyclist and the man driving the dump truck had a green light at the time of the crash, Baimbridge said. The dump truck was making a right turn off of Sunset to go south on Main, while the woman entered into the intersection from a sidewalk and was struck by the right back tire of the truck.

It is unclear who may have been at fault, Baimbridge said.

The death marks the third time this month that a bicyclist has been hit and killed by a vehicle in the Houston area.

READ ALSO: Woman found dead at Clear Lake Park in Seabrook

On April 11, a woman on her bicycle was hit and killed by a Jeep Grand Cherokee on the South Beltway frontage road near Dickinson Road. She was riding in the middle of the inside lane of traffic when she was struck, police said.

And on April 12, a 32-year-old man was killed in a hit-and-run in Chinatown. He was riding his bicycle possibly in the shoulder of the road when a car hit him and drove off, police said.

Another woman was hit and killed on Oct. 7, 2017 in the 6800 block of the East Sam Houston Parkway in the outside lane of a feeder road, according to the Harris County Sheriff's Office.

READ ALSO: Missing 9-year-old boy last seen in west Houston has been found
Courtesy photo

BROWNSVILLE  Tomas Yarrington Ruvalcaba, the former governor of Tamaulipas charged with drug trafficking and laundering millions of dollars in dirty money, said Monday he cant afford an attorney.

U.S. District Magistrate Judge Ronald Morgan appointed Yarrington an attorney and ordered him held without bond. Yarrington, who was extradited from Italy to Texas on Friday, made his initial appearance Monday in Brownsville.
It was business as usual for city council, which had 10 business items on its agenda, including an update on the Rocket Lane expansion project and discussion and action on the Schumann-Scheel House renovations.

Regarding the Rocket Lane project, Converse Public Works Director Manny Longoria informed council of his plans to pursue funding for environmental and design services this summer. Once funding is secured, solicitation for engineering bids will begin.

Longoria said he hopes to have an engineer in place by November.

The environmental and design process for the $5.43 million project  a near one-mile widening of Rocket Lane from the Judson bridge over East Salitrillo Creek to its Loop 1604 intersection complete with four continuous traffic lanes, including a fifth center turn lane, sidewalks and curbing  is estimated to cost $300,000, he said. The process  anticipated to take six to eight months to complete  would consist of an environmental assessment study, preliminary engineering cost estimates and construction documents pertaining to the solicitation of contracting bids.

Approximately $4.35 million of total construction costs will come from the Metropolitan Planning Organization and $1.086 million in matching funds from the city.

Prior to the project update,

Council awarded a $41,008 contract to San Antonio-based Waterman Construction for renovations to the 117-year-old Schumann-Scheel Houses facade. The contract was approved with a 4-0 vote.

Renovations to the house, built in 1901 by Anton Otto Schumann, will include removing and replacing the front porch, skirting installation and facade painting.

Lindgren, Converse Historic Preservation Commission council liaison, said the houses maintenance is part of a long term project that would honor Schumanns memory.

Upon Schumanns death in 1949, his daughter, Mary Hildegard, and her husband, Adolph Joseph Scheel, purchased the house, along with 44 acres from the estate, and raised their family of 11 children there.

The family owned the home until 2015, when it was sold the city of Converse.

For renovations, the CHCP will be responsible for $22,000 of the total cost, with Converse having pledged $13,008. A $6,000 grant from the San Antonio Conservation Society is expected to cover the remaining costs.

Lindgren said renovations should begin this week and be completed in about a month.

Converse City Council conducted business again without all its members present for the fourth consecutive meeting.

Absent again for the April 17 meeting were council members Deborah James and Chris Boyd. Also absent was Chris Clark.

James and Boyd had missed the last three city council meetings for medical and work reasons. Medical reasons this time caused Boyd to miss his fourth straight meeting, council member Joan Lindgren said.

According to Converse city charter, a majority vote is required to consider council members absences excused, but no such action took place, though Mayor Al Suarez had said James absences would be addressed.

It was not made clear whether action would be taken at future meetings, but Lindgren said she has not seen city council vote on such matters in her 14 years as a Converse resident.
The fifth annual Converse area National Day of Prayer is set for 9-10 a.m. May 3 in Converse City Park, bringing together people of all faith, creed, color and religion to offer up words of prayer.

Bob Altemus, executive pastor at Faith Community Fellowship, is assembling a lineup of pastors and community leaders who will bring words of prayer that relate to this years national theme, Pray for America - UNITY.

National Day of Prayer was created in 1952 by a joint resolution of Congress and signed into law by President Harry S Truman. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan designated the first Thursday in May.

This is the fifth such Day of Prayer that Altemus and Faith Community Fellowship pastor Donnie West have organized.

The first year, we started throwing it together about two weeks prior and had about 40 people showed up, Altemus said. Its gained momentum every year since. Last year, we had just over 200 attend. Weve definitely seen some steady growth.

Altemus and West began to address this years unity message with a first meeting in January. Altemus said they remain dedicated to attracting pastors and speakers from a wide scope of churches, denominations and beliefs.

Even though weve organized it, weve involved others in the organization of it, he said. New Life Baptist has hosted those meetings for us, and different churches and city leaders have shown up.

Across the five years, weve had the mayor of Converse do a prayer, the mayor of Live Oak do a prayer, weve had the city manager do a prayer, and weve had the superintendent of the Judson Schools do a prayer. How cool is that? he added.

This years Pray for America; UNITY theme comes from Ephesian 4:3 -- Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Altemus said the theme resonates with the times, with five areas being prayed for through the one-hour program.

This year, in this idea of unity, he said, there are five different things we are praying for: Unity in America; unity in the church of America; unity in the families, workplace, communities and cities of America; unity among all ethnicities and people in America; and unity that we agree clearly, unite visibly, and pray extraordinarily for the next great spiritual awakening in America (Acts 1:14), he said.

Altemus said the National Day of Prayer has received tremendous support from the city of Converse during its five-year existence.

Weve had great participation from the city, with use of the pavilion, and preparation, with the city grabbing ahold of this idea of prayer, he said. Its cool to me that the city lets its people come down and join us.

I remember that first morning, he continued, when the fire trucks pulled in and people started piling off the fire trucks, and police cars started pulling in. They were getting out and coming in to the park for prayer. That sight, that gets your heart pumping to see that.

Every year, pastors and speakers approach a podium that stands in front of a line of American flags shifting in the morning breeze. The American Legions Legion Riders man more than a dozen American flags as a backdrop to the event, and will be back again in May.

Last year, the Legion numbers were down slightly, so Altemus said he made an announcement to the assembled crowd to have a few volunteers help hold flags.

Those that did, came up to me afterward and said how they so enjoyed doing that, he added.

Information about National Day of Prayer will play on city marquees on Loop 1604, FM 78 and in front of City Hall.

Were doing all that we can to attract church members, pastors, choir members, city employees and those from around Converse to just come out and share with us as we go through these five vital areas, to pray about and pray over, Altemus said.

jflinn@express-news.net
Police on Tuesday detained a man following a shooting at a Northeast Side gas station.

The suspect in the shooting opened fire on the victim, a man in his 50s, around 12:10 a.m. at an Exxon gas station at Interstate 35 and Rittiman Road.

RELATED: SAPD: Pearl-area bartender spiked women's drinks, sexually assaulted 2

The suspect was described to police as a man in his 20s wearing a blue shirt. They later found a man matching that description and detained him. It is unclear if he faces any criminal charges at this time.

Paramedics took the victim to Brooke Army Medical Center with a gunshot wound to his leg.

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Caleb Downs is a crime reporter for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here.| cdowns@mysa.com | Twitter: @calebjdowns
Police on Tuesday fatally shot a man armed with a .45 caliber pistol who was trying to break into rooms at the Embassy Suites hotel in downtown San Antonio, officials said.

Hotel staff initially encountered the suspect, a man in his 40s, around 5:15 a.m. in the lobby. He ran to the second floor, then took an elevator to the fifth floor, where he tried unsuccessfully to force his way into a room, police said.

Around 6:15 a.m., the San Antonio Police Department's bike patrol and park police divisions confronted the man on the seventh floor and the situation escalated.

RELATED: 1 in custody after shooting at San Antonio gas station

San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said it is unclear if the suspect ever raised his weapon or fired at the officers, "but they felt compelled to use deadly force."

McManus said the man didn't appear to be a guest at the hotel or know anyone staying there. He was wearing work boots and had plaster residue on him, authorities said.

Authorities have blocked off the seventh floor of the hotel as they investigate the shooting. Police officers are escorting any visitors staying on the floor to and from the area.

"We've tried to make it as least inconvenient as we can for the guests that are staying here," McManus said.

Jack Nevarez was in a room on the fifth floor of the hotel at the time of the shooting. He said earlier that morning he was preparing himself for the day when he heard someone "yowling."

He dismissed it as a couple fighting, but shortly thereafter, the gunshots rang out.

"It was like deer hunting season," said Nevarez, who was visiting San Antonio from Las Cruces, New Mexico.

No guests were injured in the shooting and hotel staff are fully cooperating with police in their investigation, McManus said.

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Caleb Downs is a crime reporter for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here.| cdowns@mysa.com | Twitter: @calebjdowns
Connie Prado, a South San Antonio Independent School District trustee, announced she was ending her independent bid for the state House District 117 seat.

I have decided to discontinue my efforts in satisfying the prerequisites to become a third-party candidate, Prado said in a statement Monday. She cited imminent decisions facing the school district that would require her full attention and effort.

Recognizing that I could not do both, I have chosen to fulfill my responsibilities on the Board of Trustees. As always, the direction of our school district and the future of our childrens education is my first priority, Prado said.

The announcement simplifies matters for incumbent state Rep. Philip Cortez, a Democrat who was set to face a difficult two-pronged challenge from Prado, who is affiliated with the Democratic Party, and Republican nominee Michael Berlanga, an accountant who says his passion is reforming, reducing and eliminating taxes.

Cortez, a former San Antonio city councilman, was first elected to the seat in 2012, beating incumbent tea party Republican John Garza with 54 percent of the vote. He lost the seat to Republican Rick Galindo in 2014, before narrowly winning it back in 2016 by about 1,500 votes out of more than 57,000 cast.

To challenge Cortez in November, Prado would have needed to submit a petition by June 21 containing hundreds of signatures from district residents who had not cast ballots in the March primaries. She said in her statement that media inquiries will not be entertained.

Berlanga unsuccessfully challenged Democratic tax assessor-collector Albert Uresti in 2016 after losing to his brother, state Sen. Carlos Uresti, in the 2012 election for Senate District 19.

Cortez was recently floated as a potential candidate for Urestis Senate seat after the state senator was convicted in February on 11 felony charges including securities fraud and money laundering. The Senate district overlaps with House District 117.

Jasper Scherer is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of his stories here. | jscherer@express-news.net | @jaspscherer
NASAs goal of returning to the moon should see a major push in early 2019, when the agency awards its first contract for the lunar Gateway program.

The Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway is NASAs planned staging area intended for studies of the moon and the deep-space environment. Eventually, it will function as a way station for astronauts traveling to and from Mars.

NASAs first spending for the platform will be for power and propulsion elements early next year, followed by habitation components, Associate Administrator William Gerstenmaier said Thursday at the Space Symposium conference in Colorado Springs, Colorado. They will probably be launched moonward, in that order, starting in 2022.

The platform should be orbiting the moon in 2025, said Gerstenmaier, a 41-year NASA veteran who oversees human exploration and operations. It will carry a four-astronaut crew on 30-day missions, he said.

VR in space: NASA's virtual reality journey uses same software, hardware as gamers

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The Gateway would also further NASAs goal of another human landing on the moon and will help determine whether water near the surface could be used to manufacture propellant for deep-space missions. The moons gravity could also help a spacecraft reduce the blistering speeds used for six-month voyages back-and-forth to Mars, thus facilitating re-entry to Earths atmosphere.

We want to understand orbital mechanics around the moon a little better, far from the Earths deep gravity well, he said. Doing things in this region, where gravity isnt such a big driver  is a different way of operating.

In November, NASA selected five companies to study a high-power solar-electric propulsion system to use in deep-space missions, including the lunar platform. Future human missions will require a power system that has triple the capability of current designs.



Trips to the gateway will be aboard the Orion, a spacecraft being assembled by Lockheed Martin Corp., with the service module being supplied by the European Space Agency. The Orions first flight, without crew, is scheduled for next year. The craft will serve as the command deck when its docked with the platform.



Development of the gateway has great momentum, and we are providing our expertise as NASA looks to industry to bring know-how to this important effort, Lockheed said Thursday in an emailed statement. The lunar platform is based on current NASA budgets and doesn't require a huge new influx of funding, Gernstenmaier said, calling realistic budget planning one of NASAs strategic principles for how to pioneer deep-space missions.



Its got fiscal realism, and its also adaptable, he said of the program. It can adapt to commercial partners. Its not a rigid program of one mission following another, an allusion to the Apollo program, which famously required an aggressive schedule of flights that built off each other.



As long as we view the moon as a stepping stone and not an end goal, I think were OK, Gernstenmaier said. NASA is also assessing how to continue the U.S. presence in low-Earth orbit. The Trump administration has proposed ending U.S. funding of the International Space Station in 2024. We think its a great place to do development, Gerstenmaier said. To do major development in the vicinity of the moon is really costly.

2018 Bloomberg L.P.

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The 77-year-old grandmother of Nikita Lewis, Hilda Rhoda Isaacs, says she has forgiven the man accused of murdering her granddaughter.

An emotional Isaacs testified in the Cape High Court this week about her granddaughters last days before she was killed, allegedly by her Zimbabwean boyfriend Lloyd Simbarashe.

Isaacs told the court of her last interaction with Lewis who had acid thrown in her face on August 19 and was then stabbed 18 times to death on October 9, 2015.

Lewis, then 24, had been hiding out at the Saartjie Baartman Centre for Women and Children in Athlone when the alleged murder took place.

According to witness testimony, 45-year-old Simbarashe stabbed Lewis 18 times in full view of shocked onlookers inside a shop in Du Noon.

The Bangladeshi shopkeeper of the Pick * Save Superette, Ahmed Mohamed Jahid, testified that he managed to keep Simbarashe from fleeing the crime scene.

Isaacs told the court that she had spoken to her granddaughter days before her death and asked her: Why are you on the streets? You must stay at the centre.

Isaacs also recalled an incident on August 21, 2015 when Simbarashe stormed into the kitchen of her Kensington home and fought with her and Lewiss mother Bonita when they tried to prevent him from reaching into the kitchen drawers for something.

He kept hitting the deceaseds mom against the ear. She had to have stitches in her ear and I had to have my arm put in plaster, said Isaacs.

According to Isaacs, the accused pushed her so hard that she fell to the floor and injured her arm.

Simbarashe denied that he had been to Isaacs house and does not recall the altercation with Lewiss mother and grandmother.

Thats not true. It was him. He came to our house to hurt us, said Isaacs.

Lewis had a seven-year-old son who was five at the time of the incident. Isaacs testified that the Grade 3 learner was now experiencing problems at school and added he had not spoken to any of the family about his mothers death.

Isaacs said on the day Lewis died, the family received a call that they needed to rush to the shop. When they came back I asked them where she was. They just said she didnt make it and I fainted. I just asked Almighty God to keep me strong, said Isaacs as her tears flowed.

She denied claims in Simbarashes plea that the couple had planned to marry and had been living together for two years and eight months.

I dont know how far their relationship went but I do know the deceased was in and out of his place, said Isaacs.

She also denied claims by the accused that he visited Lewis at the centre.

Men are not allowed at the centre, Isaacs stressed.

Simbarashe, through his attorney, Sheriff Mahomed, apologised to the family, asked for forgiveness and added that he was not well at the time.

The court heard that he had spent five years in a psychiatric institution in Zimbabwe from 2005 to 2010 but the judge objected to his psychiatric history being entered as evidence if a psychiatrist was not going to be brought in to testify.

Simbarashe looked disengaged from this weeks proceedings and sat with a permanent frown. The case continues on Tuesday

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- The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria says the federal government is taking seriously threats by Saudi authorities to block Nigerian pilgrims from attending the 2018 Hajj exercise

- A spokesperson for the commission states that there will be an expanded meeting of all officials from the 36 states and the federal government to discuss the matter

- Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says Lassa fever has killed 142 people in Nigeria since the start of 2018

The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) has disclosed that the Saudi Arabian authorities are threatening to block Nigerian pilgrims from attending the 2018 Hajj exercise.

NAHCON on Monday, April 23, said the threats by the Saudi authorities followed reports of Lassa fever outbreak in Nigeria, Premium Times stated.

However, Mousa Ubandawaki, one of the spokespersons of the Hajj commission said the Nigerian authorities are taking the threat from the Saudi Arabian authorities seriously.

READ ALSO: Why we are laying siege in Dino Melayes house - Police gives explanation

There will be an expanded meeting of all officials from the 36 states, the Commission and officials of the Federal Government to discuss the matter tomorrow, Ubandawaki said.

The NAHCON official said the meeting will hold at the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).

In a related report, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) recently stated that Lassa fever has killed 142 people in Nigeria since the start of 2018.

The agency said this on Thursday, April 5, reporting a rise of 32 fatalities in one month. It reported: Since the onset of the 2018 outbreak, there have been 142 deaths. Cases have been recorded in 20 of Nigerias 36 states."

Eight states have exited the active phase of the outbreak while 12 states remain active, it said. On March 6, the NCDC reported 110 deaths in 18 states."

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The World Health Organisation (WHO) has also stated that 1081 suspected cases and 90 deaths have been reported from 18 states namely: Anambra, Bauchi, Benue, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekite, Federal Capital Territory, Gombe, Imo, Kogi, Lagos, Nasarawa, Ondo, Osun, Plateau, Rivers, and Taraba, between January 1 through February 25 this year.

The name of the disease comes from the town of Lassa in northern Nigeria where it was first identified in 1969. The virus is spread through contact with food or household items contaminated with rats urine or faeces or after coming into direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person.

Monkeypox has no known cure, Nigerians should be careful - Doctor warns on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit.ng News
- A commercial bank affected by the recent robbery in Offa, Kwara has sacked five of its workers

- The employees were accused of leaking a CCTV footage of the bloody robbery incident

One of the five commercial banks attacked by a gang of robbers in Offa, Kwara state, has terminated the appointment of five members of its staff for allegedly leaking the CCTV footage of the robbery to the public.

Not long after the April 5 robbery incidents where no less than fifty people were reportedly killed, a video clip of the incident had gone viral, showing how the robbers entered one of the banks.

Punch reports that the management of the bank was surprised at how the video got into public space and sacked five of its workers last Friday.

READ ALSO: There is a plan to kill me, police have arrested by brother - Dino Melaye cries out

The Kwara state Police Public Relations Officer, Ajayi Okasanmi, said the Nigeria Police Force would also deal with anyone linked to the robbery. Okasanmi said both civilians and uniformed men linked to the incident would not go scot-free.

He said: Whether civilian or police, whoever is found culpable would be dealt with accordingly."

Meanwhile, Legit.ng earlier reported that twelve suspects arrested in connection with the Offa bank robbery who are currently being interrogated by the police, were apprehended via tracking of mobile phones which they collected from victims.

The stolen phones were given to their girlfriends, after they had carried out the robbery operation.

Legit.ng gathers that the interrogation of the girlfriends was what led to the arrest of the suspects in Abeokuta, Lagos and Ibadan. Before carrying out that operation, the suspects were also discovered to have been in and out of jail.

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Offa bank robbery - The untold story (NAIJ EXCLUSIVE) - on Legit.ng TV:

Source: Legit
- A dismissed personnel of the Nigerian Air Force, arrested for raiding a farm belonging to EFCC boss, Ibrahim Magu, has confessed to the crime

- The dismissed NAF personnel said he and others arrested had information that there was money hidden on the farm

- He also confessed that his colleague killed a police officer met on the farm

One of the suspects recently paraded by the police for allegedly raiding the farm of the acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, has confessed to the crime.

The suspect, a dismissed Nigerian Air Force personnel, Vincent Michael, with number: NAF12/26972L/CPL, told journalists in Abuja on Monday that he and two others, Inalegwu Omikpa, and Francis Ochife, raided the farmhouse because they were informed that Magu was keeping huge sums of money there, Punch reports.

READ ALSO: Bola Tinubu congratulates APC for embarking on congress

Michael said: In November 2017, a friend of mine told me that his friend, Omikpa, told him that there was money at Magus house and that we should go and take it. At first, I did not buy the idea but he called me again and told me that we were not going to rob. He said all we needed to do was to go and dig the soakaway and get the money out.

So, December 12, we went to the place and when we got there with two other soldiers, who were contacted by Omikpa, the captain grabbed the policeman who was on duty, I held his neck and Omikpa tied his hand and leg.

After he was tied, I picked up the digger and made my way to the soakaway. I noticed a ray of torchlight and then I went back and noticed that a boy who kills animals at the farm was also there.

They tied him also and the captain came to join me where I was breaking the soakaway. I broke two soakaways but I did not see any money. I received a phone call later that people had started noticing that we were on the farm, so we left.

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Michael added that the police officer killed on the farm was murdered by Omikpa.

He said: Omikpa killed the policeman because we left him with the policeman and he later came to join us where we were breaking the soakaway."

Meanwhile, Legit.ng earlier reported that the Police Service Commission (PSC) on Friday, April 20, announced the promotion of 18 senior officers including the acting chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu.

Are Nigerian Policemen the worst in the world? - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit Nigeria
South African police said on Tuesday one of their officers had shot dead a teenager during anti-corruption protests which have forced the president to cut short a foreign trip.



Riots over alleged government corruption and poor public services erupted last week in the North West province, where cars were set ablaze and shops looted in the first wave of unrest to face President Cyril Ramaphosa, who came to power in February.



"A 16-year-old boy was found dead during a violent protest yesterday evening in Taung," provincial police spokesman Sabata Mokgwabone told AFP.



"He was shot dead by the police," police watchdog spokesman Moses Dlamini told AFP, adding that investigators had been dispatched to the town where the situation was "still very volatile".



"At this stage we are trying to gather information about what happened," said Dlamini, of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate.



After prematurely returning home from a Commonwealth summit in London on Friday and going straight into talks with local provincial leaders, Ramaphosa appealed for calm and promised a "speedy" resolution of the crisis.



Following a lull over the weekend, new protests broke out on Monday -- this time in Taung town, 300 kilometres (about 200 miles) from the provincial capital Mahikeng which was the epicentre of last week's protests.



Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets during clashes with the protesters.



The North West province has been a hotbed of unrest due to frustration over lack of housing, health services and jobs.



Much of the anger has been directed at Supra Mahumapelo, the provincial premier, who is accused of involvement in graft scandals that have engulfed the ruling African National Congress party.



He is accused of diverting 1.5 million rand ($120,000) from government coffers to buy cattle for former president Jacob Zuma.



His son allegedly received a 1.1 million rand pilot-training bursary from the state arms manufacturer under suspicious circumstances.



Ramaphosa, who took over from Zuma three months ago, has vowed to crack down on government corruption.







AFP




- The national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, John Odigie-Oyegun said the 2019 general elections would be tough

- Odigie-Oyegun warned the party members not to cuddle themselves with any false sense of being in the power

- He, however, declared that APC is a living party that its leadership remained committed and dedicated

The national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, on Monday, April 23, warned his party against having a false sense of ruling party in 2019 general elections.

Punch reports that he said the APC is a living party, adding that its leadership remained committed and dedicated to make sure that this party is out in political fighting mood for the 2019 elections.

Oyegun made this known while speaking during the inauguration of the APC 2018 National Convention Committee, which is headed by the Jigawa state Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Baduru, in Abuja.

READ ALSO: Saudi authorities threaten to block Nigerian pilgrims from attending 2018 Hajj

He said: ''I am passing the buck over to you today. At the end of this exercise, I want to see a re-united APC under whatever leadership your exercise brings up.

''We have a tough election ahead of us and we must prime ourselves for that election. We must not cuddle ourselves with any false sense of being the party in power.

''Our population today is much more aware of their rights than they have ever been before. So, as you proceed, please ensure that all these views and opinions are brought together into a one united APC.

''The task that you have undertaken to perform is a heavy and tough one. The APC is known, in spite of induced controversies, for the cleanest primaries and congresses.

''Our last presidential primary was by all account one of the best ever held and I dare say, anywhere.

''It was a convention that was watched world wide and you are supposed to repeat the feat. I have no doubt that this one, given the controversies that have preceded it will also be a most watched convention. So, you have the task of producing a convention that is free, fair and provide a level playing field for anybody who wants to aspire to any position.''

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On his part Badaru, who said President Muhammadu Buhari had no business running the government except for the care of the people, added that the APCs mission was to rescue the country.

He said: ''God is with us and He will continue to support us because of our clear vision, our good heart and our love for the people of Nigeria. We all know that our leader has no business in running this government except for the care of our people.

''Most of us you see in the APC are in the party today to serve our people. Our mission in the APC is to rescue the country from near collapse we saw around 2014 and 2015.''

The committee confirmed that the convention would hold in Abuja.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that President Buhari met behind closed doors with Odigie-Oyegun. He arrived the Presidential Vill at about 3pm and left at about 3.50pm.

The meeting was held less than 24 hours after a letter written by a national leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in which he accused Odigie-Oyegun of sabotaging his efforts aimed at reconciling aggrieved party members as directed by Buhari was released.

APC official tells why his party could be voted out in 2019 on Legit.ng TV:

Source: Legit.ng
Love they say can be found anywhere and does not care about career, background or financial status. True love supersedes all of that.

A lady identified as Rita Kaggwa on Facebook has taken to her profile to share a short story of how a couple got married two years after they met on social media.

Kaggwa shared the post on Monday, April 23 and disclosed that the couple met on Facebook in February. She also shared pictures from the wedding ceremony.

READ ALSO: Wedding photos of Nigerian couple who met on Facebook

Her post reads: Congratulations Martin Mbazira Omunyonyi and Dinah introduced each other on Saturday then yesterday was their wedding. To show you that this woman is lucky they just met in February 2018, now April Kwanjula and wedding. This is what I tell you guys however much you do somersaults in bed, Newefukamiza, pull them ropes, Wet the bed like a river, give birth like a rabbit if it's not you it's not you. Don't scroll down without typing. Congratulations to them.

See post below:

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The couple really looked good at their wedding. The wedding took place on Saturday, April 21.

Congratulations!

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

Source: Legit.ng
- The Nigerian Army continues to have the upper hand over insurgents in the northeast

- Another Boko Haram enclave has been destroyed by troops of 27 Task Force Brigade

- Unfortunately, two soldiers sustained various degrees of injuries during the operation

Troops of 27 Task Force Brigade in conjunction with the Nigerian Air Force and Civilian Joint Task Force while on clearance operation on Sunday, April 22 April destroyed another Boko Haram enclave at Buk in Damboa local government area of Borno state .

According to a statement sent to Legit.ng by the director army public relations, Brigadier-General Texas Chukwu, some members of the Boko Haram terrorists were neutralised while others fled the scene during the operation.

READ ALSO: Operation Deep Punch II: Troops neutralise 5 Boko Haram terrorists

Items recovered from the insurgents include:

1. One truck

2. One gun truck

3. Three motorcycles

4. One tricycle

5. A bunker and an IED factory (they have been destroyed)

Legit.ng gathered that five aged women who were held hostage by the terrorists were also freed during the operation.

Also, two soldiers sustained various degrees of injuries and are currently receiving treatment at a military facility.

READ ALSO: Nigerian Air Force special forces foil bombing attempt at UNIMAID

Meanwhile, the Air Task Force (ATF) of Operation Lafiya Dole, in the night of Friday, April 13, successfully destroyed some Boko Haram terrorists vehicles at a location, about 12 kilometers east of Arege, in the Lake Chad region.

Earlier on, a Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft had discovered the terrorists activities, with some vehicles mounted with guns, moving within the location.

Accordingly, the ATF detailed NAF Mi-35M helicopter gunships to conduct air interdiction strikes to take out the targets.

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

Source: Legit.ng
- The National Identity Management Commission has said that it cannot produce national identity cards for everyone

- The commission's DG explained that for the next three years, the NIMC would not be focused on the card, but on the National Identification Number, which Nigerians can then print

- He explained that the printing of the national identity cards had been given to some vendors; but that funding was a challenge

Despite huge public clamour, the National Identity Management Commission has said that it cannot produce national identity cards for all those who enrolled for it.

The development was made public by the NIMC director general, Aliyu Aziz, at a press conference on Monday, April 23, Punch reports.

Legit.ng gathers that the commission stated that it was adopting a first-come, first-served approach and disclosed that the cards which are ready are mostly for those who enrolled in 2012 and 2013.

Aziz stated: The card that we have now is the best in the whole world, but it is difficult to really produce it for everyone. In the NIMC, the focus is first come, first served, and this is for those who enrolled in 2012 and 2013, as they are the ones who have got their cards."

READ ALSO: Buhari explains reason for withdrawal of $462m to purchase aircraft ahead of NASS approval

The DG explained that for the next three years, the agency would not be focused on the card, but on the National Identification Number.

He stated: The focus is actually on the National Identification Number. Your NIN gives you your identity and not the card.

Historically, we focused ourselves on the card to be the output of what we do; but when the country went into recession, we stepped back and checked and found out that in the United States, it is the Social Security Number that connects all the other agencies.

In the United Kingdom, it is the National Insurance Number; and in India where recently they enrolled about 1.4 billion people, they only gave the number. This means you can now pull your own NIN and then print it the way you want it.

Recently in Nigeria, we did the Bank Verification Number; and again, what you get is a number and not a BVN card.

However, this does not mean that we wont give out cards, because it is there in the law that we should issue a general multipurpose card that is secure."

Aziz said the printing of the national identity cards had been given to some vendors; but that funding was a challenge.

He said: We want to ask the vendors to print, for we have like five vendors in Lagos that can print these cards. So, we want to get the funding to print the cards by outsourcing it to the vendors.

Right now, we are focused on enrolling people and harmonising their identities, which is why the number grew from five million to 30 million in our record. But on the ID cards, we have not done much.

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that as the federal government announced that as from Janiary 1, 2018, no Nigerian will obtain or renew international passports without having the National Identification Number (NIN).

Mohammed Babandede, the comptroller general of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), while addressing state house correspondents, said the development was part of efforts to have a centralised database for Nigerians and to also improve the business environment in the country.

Babandede also said NIS would collaborate with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to capture 180 million persons in three years, up from the 20 million Nigerians that have so far been captured in the NIN database.

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

Source: Legit
Some Libya returnees on Tuesday, April 24, were at the Edo state government house in Benin City to protest the management of their stipend accounts by financial institutions where their accounts are domiciled, and related issues.

The protest was peaceful and the issues raised were largely administrative such as N1,100 deduction for Automated Teller Machine card, maintenance fee and sundry issues, Vanguard reports.

READ ALSO: Nigerian Army kills several Boko Haram terrorists in heavy gun fight

After the protest, an open letter addressed to the Edo state governor, Godwin Obaseki, was received by officials of the state government for onward transmission to the governor.

Legit.ng previously reported that as the repatriation of Nigerians in Libya continued, Governor Obaseki approved the release of 150 hectares of land and N100million seed capital for the 150 Libyan returnees and victims of human trafficking.

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The money and land were given to those who completed a skills acquisition training at the Edo Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) office in Benin City, the Edo state capital.

Nigerians speak on slavery in Libya - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit
Suspected herdsmen have reportedly killed 15 people in an early morning attack on a Catholic Church in Benue state, on Tuesday, April 24.

The attack occurred in Ayar-Mbalom, a community in Gwer East local government area.

Terver Akase, a spokesperson to Governor Samuel Ortom, told Premium Times that the attackers also burnt 50 houses and sacked the entire community.

READ ALSO: UPDATE: Identity of Nigerian man burnt to death in South Africa revealed as Ebuka Nwaogu

Legit.ng gathered that the name of the church is St. Ignatius Catholic Church.

Confirming the attack, the Catholic Diocese of Makurdi said two of its priests, Rev Fathers Joseph Gor and Felix Tyolaha, were killed.

A statement by its Director of Communications, Rev Fr Moses Iorapuu, said that the attack was perpetrated by herdsmen who stormed the Mbalom community and killed the two priests during the morning mass at the church.

The Diocese expressed regret at the nonchalant attitude of the security agencies in containing the killings.

The church, therefore, urged the relevant authorities to stop the killings in the Benue valley.

The attack comes barely four days after the murder of 10 persons by herdsmen in Guma local government area, which has been one of the major scenes of carnage by suspects herdsmen since January 1.

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Legit.ng previously reported that the Nigerian Army said the reported invasion of soldiers into a community in Benue occurred after a soldier was killed by residents.

Some soldiers reportedly invaded the community in a reprisal attack and set fire to houses and properties.

Francis Ayagah, chairman of the local government, admitted that a soldier was killed in the community on Wednesday, April 18, but said he had been in touch with the commander of the troops, who were stationed near the town.

Nigerian herdsmen vs Nigerian farmers - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit.ng
By Samuel Bowles, Research Professor and Director of the Behavioral Sciences Program, Santa Fe Institute. Originally published at VoxEU

Few economists doubt that Marx flunked economics, a judgement mostly based on his labour theory of value. But this column argues that Marxs representation of the power relationship between capital and labour in the firm is an essential insight for understanding and improving modern capitalism. Indeed, this insight is incorporated into standard principalagent models of labour and credit markets.

Economists, looking back, have not found much to admire in Karl Marx, the economist, the bicentennial of whose birth we commemorate next month. John Maynard Keynes referred to Capital as an obsolete economic textbook [that is] not only scientifically erroneous but without interest or application to the modern world (Keynes 1925). Paul Samuelsons judgement  From the viewpoint of pure economic theory, Karl Marx can be regarded as a minor post-Ricardian  was equally harsh, especially as he thought Ricardo was the most overrated of economists(Samuelson 1962).

These assessments are based largely on our current  and correct in my view  understanding of Marxs labour theory of value as a pioneering, but inconsistent and outdated, attempt at a general equilibrium model of pricing and distribution. But there is another aspect of his work that has been strongly vindicated by theoretical advances in recent decades: the idea that the exercise of power is an essential aspect of the working of the capitalist economy, even in its idealised, perfectly competitive, state.

Domination in Liberal Society

Marx used the labour theory of value to demonstrate that the exploitation of workers is a necessary condition for profits (Yoshihara 2017). The normative term exploitation is justified by the claim that profit arises from a system of domination in which the wealthy, as owners of capital goods, direct the activities and limit the choices of employees (Vrousalis 2013). Domination in this sense could be sustained by an autocratic state acting on behalf of a capitalist class, or through the exercise of market power made possible by limited competition in goods markets.

But Marx chose to study a more challenging question: how could the domination of labour by capital take place in a private, perfectly competitive, economy governed by a liberal state? His answer was based on what seems a strikingly modern principal-agent representation of the employer-employee relationship, arising from a conflict of interest over the amount of labour effort performed that could be resolved in an enforceable contract.

Marx stressed that the employer purchases the workers time on the labour market, not the workers work. The employees supply of effort to the production process is not secured by contract but was rather an extraction that only by misuse could  have been called any kind of exchange at all (Marx 1939).

To stress the distinctive aspect of the labour market, Marx (1867) pointed out that:

[T]he rise in  wages may  be unaccompanied by any change in the price of labour [meaning effort], or may even be accompanied by a fall in the latter.

The important consequence for the worker, be his payment high or low, was domination and exploitation and a form of despotism more hateful for its meanness (ibid).

The final step in Marxs explanation of domination in a liberal capitalist economy was the process of accumulation and technical change that supports a permanent reserve army (ibid) of the unemployed, and which provides the basis of the employers labour discipline strategy. The private ownership of the means of production conveys the right to exclude others from use of the firms assets, and therefore the owners of firms have a powerful threat to induce workers to supply the effort that could not be secured by contract: work hard, or join the reserve army.

The Politics of Production

Marx did not explain why the labour contract was incomplete. He assumed this was an uncontroversial empirical observation and used it as the starting point for his economic theory. In this, he resembles Charles Darwin who advanced a powerful theory of natural selection without an understanding of the mechanism by which it occurred. Genetic inheritance would later be explained by Gregor Mendel.

Just as Mendel underpinned Darwin, a more complete understanding of the incomplete labour contract developed in the twentieth century, but did not overturn Marxs conclusions. Like Marx, Ronald Coase (1937) stressed the central role of authority in the firms contractual relations:

[N]ote the character of the contract into which a factor enters that is employed within a firm [T]he factor  for certain remuneration agrees to obey the directions of the entrepreneur.

Indeed, Coase defined the firm by its political structure:

If a workman moves from department Y to department X, he does not go because of a change in prices but because he is ordered to do so  the distinguishing mark of the firm is the suppression of the price mechanism. (ibid)

Herbert Simon provided the first Coasean model of the firm (Simon 1951). He represented the employment contract as an exchange in which the employees transfer control rights over their work tasks to the employer, in return for a wage. Simon stressed the advantage to the employer of this arrangement, because there was unavoidable uncertainty about the tasks that would be required over the course of the contract. Therefore there was a high cost of agreeing to a complete contractual specification of the activities to be performed. Simon did not know that he was modelling exactly the incomplete contract for labour that was the fulcrum of Marxs economic theory.

Coase or Simon did not directly explain why control rights confer power. As an empirical matter, the firm appears to be a political institution in the sense that some members of the firm routinely give commands with the expectation that they will be obeyed, while others are constrained to follow these commands. If we say that the manager has the right to decide what the worker will do, this means only that the manager has the legitimate authority, not the power to secure compliance. Given that, in a liberal society, the manager is restricted in the kinds of punishment that can be inflicted, and given that the employee is free to leave, it is a puzzle that orders are typically obeyed.

Noticing this, Armen Alchian and Harold Demsetz challenged the Coasean idea that the firm is a mini command economy, suggesting that the employment contract is no different in this respect from other contracts:

The firm  has no power of fiat, no authority, no disciplinary action any different in the slightest degree from ordinary market contracting between any two people  Wherein then is the relationship between a grocer and his employee different from that between a grocer and his customer? (Alchian and Demsetz 1972)

Oliver Hart (1989) responded:

[T]he reason that an employee is likely to be more responsive to what his employer wants than a grocer is that the employer  can deprive the employee of the assets he works with and hire another employee to work with these assets, while the customer can only deprive the grocer of his customer and as long as the customer is small, it is presumably not very difficult for the grocer to find another customer.

The Exercise of Power

This explanation requires a demonstration that power  in some well-defined sense  can be exercised by employers over employees in the equilibrium of a competitive economy. It is nevertheless puzzling that power is exercised in a competitive economy, in which each actor engages voluntarily in exchanges, from which each is equally free to walk away.

The following sufficient condition for the exercise of power captures the central features of Marxs (1867) representation of the despotism of the workplace:

For B to have power over A, it sufficient that, by imposing or threatening to impose sanctions on A, B is capable of affecting As actions in ways that further Bs interests, while A lacks this capacity with respect to B. (Bowles and Gintis 1992)

The definition clarifies the difference between the employer and the grocer in Harts response to Alchian and Demsetz. The sanctions imposed on the employee by depriving that employee access to the capital good are severe (technically, first order), while those imposed on the grocer by the departing customer are negligible or zero (second order). The disgruntled consumer who walks out the door does not impose a sanction on the grocer because the grocer (in competitive equilibrium) was maximising profits by selecting a level of sales that equates marginal cost to the exogenously given price. A small variation in sales has only a second-order effect on profits. But this is not the case for the employer-employee relationship. This is because involuntary unemployment is a characteristic of the competitive equilibrium of a market in which labour effort is not covered in an enforceable contract(Bowles 1985, Gintis and Ishikawa 1987, Shapiro and Stiglitz 1985). The employers threat to terminate the workers position wouldthus impose a first-order cost on the worker. This is the basis of the exercise of power by employers.

The incomplete nature of the labour contract is therefore essential to showing both why the employers power over the worker is essential to profit-making, and also how it can be sustained by equilibrium unemployment. Marx understood the first but not the second, providing instead a dynamic (and not entirely convincing) account of how the reserve army would be sustained in the long run.

Microeconomist or Precursor to Modern Micro?

Marx was a pioneer in the study of principal-agent relationships, though of course he did not use the term. Principal-agent models now form the microeconomic foundation for the study of relationships among classes (though economists do not use that term) in capitalist and other economies, for example the standard treatments of the exchanges between employer and employee, or between lender and borrower. These models are essential to current analysis of workaday economic problems such as the cyclical patterns in wage-setting and productivity, and the quantity constraints that borrowers face in credit markets. Both of these problems have substantial microeconomic importance, but are also important foundations of macroeconomics.

Marx was a visionary precursor of modern microeconomics, and modern microeconomics has repaid him the favour by clarifying the limits of some of his most important ideas. Among them the labour theory of value as a representation of a general system of exchange (Morishima 1973, 1974), and his theory of the tendency of the profit rate to fall (Bowles 1981, Okishio 1961). As Michio Morishima (1974) pointed out, Marx did not resolve the outstanding theoretical problems of his day, but rather anticipated problems that would later be addressed mathematically.

Modern public economics, mechanism design and public choice theory has also challenged the notion  common among many latter-day Marxists, though not originating with Marx himself  that economic governance without private property and markets could be a viable system of economic governance.

Political and Economic Problems

In 1972 Abba Lerner astutely identified one of the limits of the neoclassical paradigm. A contract transforms a political problem into an economic problem. An economic transaction is a solved political problem  Economics has gained the title Queen of the Social Sciences by choosing solved political problems as its domain. (Lerner 1972)

Whether this is a feature or a bug depends on your point of view. The Queens domain has not seemed too cramped because the same paradigm provided a reason to think that unsolved political problems, such as the incomplete nature of the labour contract, or the exercise of power byemployers over workers, were illusions. Joseph Schumpeter made this point: What distinguishes directing and directed labour appears at first sight to be very fundamental, he wrote. But, he argued, in reality the difference constitutes no essential economic distinction  the conduct of the former is subject to the same rules as that of the latter  and to establish this regularity  is a fundamental task of economic theory. (Schumpeter 1934)

Why, one wonders, would Schumpeter consider this point to be of such exceptional importance? The answer is that if Marxs despotism of the workplace is real, then the liberal argument against economic democracy  theres nothing there to democratise  is false.

Editors note: This column is based on a larger work of the same title to be published in Japanese in a special issue of Keizai Seminar, edited by Naoki Yoshihara.
From time to time, weve written about how bank IT is a systemic risk waiting to happen. Major financial firms have legacy code at the core of their systems that they cant migrate off at acceptable costs and risk (numerous banks have had a go at this issue, and projects wind up being shelved; at best, they can port only some products or customers off the aging systems). Readers, even ones who are in IT but not in banking, sometimes scoff at what we have said.

The disaster at TSB should serve as a big wake up call. The very short version is that a UK bank, TSB, which had been merged into and then many years later was spun out of Lloyds Bank, was bought by the Spanish bank Banco Sabadell in 2015. Lloyds had continued to run the TSB systems and was to transfer them over to Sabadell over the weekend. Its turned out to be an epic failure, and its not clear if and when this can be straightened out.

It is bad enough that bank IT problem had been so severe and protracted a major newspaper, The Guardian, created a live blog for it that has now been running for two days.

The more serious issue is the fact that customers still cant access online accounts and even more disconcerting, are sometimes being allowed into other peoples accounts, says there are massive problems with data integrity. Thats a nightmare to sort out.

Even worse, the fact that this situation has persisted strongly suggests that Lloyds went ahead with the migration without allowing for a rollback. If true, this is a colossal failure, particularly in combination with the other probable planning failure, that of not remotely adequate debugging (while there was a pilot, it is inconceivable that it could have been deemed to be a success if the testing had been adequate).

Lets turn the mike over to the Telegraph:

Customers of TSB continued to complain of being unable to access their accounts on Tuesday morning as the banks IT fiasco dragged on into its fifth day. TSB confirmed its 1.9m customers were still facing intermittent problems when attempting to log in to online services after a bungled switch over from a system the bank had been renting from its old owner Lloyds Banking Group. Customers had been warned the transfer of 1.3 billion customer records to a new system could affect services from 4pm on Friday to 6pm on Sunday  but the disruption continued overnight and into Monday and Tuesday.

A look at Twitter suggests that intermittent is not exactly accurate. These tweets are from this morning:

@TSB Finally get the option to log in and it says my username/password are incorrect! They definitely arent  Is anyone else having this problem or have I been hacked as well as messed about? #TSB #TSBdown  Lola Moreno LaVey (@Lucky_Lola_) April 24, 2018

#tsbdown this is what im getting, hope im a zillionaire when i finally log in! Its beyond a joke now tho, dont know where i am with my money! pic.twitter.com/bbWB8a9p72  steve-o (@smellyama) April 24, 2018

TSB this is bloody ridiculous. Ive got important payments to make today with no online and phone access to my money. Two unwell kids to feed and I cant pull them out of bed to go shopping ! #tsbdown #fixit  Laura Meres (@meres_laura) April 24, 2018

This is the only thing working so far.#tsbdown pic.twitter.com/q1gElV9OBQ   Eduardo Marin (@emarinuk) April 24, 2018

This one was a mere 15 minutes ago:

Its my birthday and I have no access to my bank account  well done, TSB. Its day number 5 and you are still down for maintenance How much longer will that take? :( @TSB #TSB #TSBfail #TSBdown #happybirthday #JokeoftheDay pic.twitter.com/gkj1ZJmnuI  Sandra Kitlinska (@sandrakitlinska) April 24, 2018

And before you dismiss these tweets as mere upset customer noise, hard core techies see signs of meltdown-level problems:

Are @TSB developers seriously coding live changes in production?Ive found loads of ugly debugging logs in the code which are being spat out in the browser console. I dont dare to imagine what mess they have in the back-end. #TSB #tsbdown pic.twitter.com/qHh5sbnUIS  Martin (@apphancer) April 24, 2018

Before we go into the details, it appears that online banking is not working, or working for so few customers as to be effectively not working. Phone banking is swamped but on top of that, customers are reporting on Twitter that their user IDs and logins arent working for phone banking either.

Branch banking or ATMs do not seem to be on tilt, but like the person with the sick kids above, many people arent in a position to go to the branch as a backup, and if they did go, the branches are likely to have huge lines. And this tweet a mere seven minutes ago suggests some branches are down:

So @TSB your service is down again and that includes in branch (Leeds). My patience with you has expired! Expect @TheFCA involvement! #tsbdown  Stephanie Hayden (@flyinglawyer73) April 24, 2018

The overview is that Lloyds Bank, one of the former four British clearing banks, made a series of acquisitions. Its first large deal was for TSB. As a result of the crisis, it acquired HBOS, which itself was a merger of Halifax Building Society and the Bank of Scotland.

European banking regulators deemed the combined banks to be too big and concentrated. Rather than sell some products or some regional operations, Lloyds TSB decided to demerge TSB. That was already a bit, erm, gutsy, since TSB would presumably be well integrated from an IT perspective by now and therefore not necessarily so easy to hive off. From a 2013 Guardian story:

Twenty years after disappearing from the high street, the TSB bank will reappear in towns across the UK on Monday when more than 630 branches that were Lloyds units on Friday reopen with a new identity Lloyds has been forced to split off and rebrand the TSB branches by the EU as a result of the 20bn of taxpayer money pumped into the bank during the 2008 bailouts. It has pledged to turn TSB back to its heritage as a local bank. The 631 branches were scheduled to be sold to the Co-operative Bank but the collapse of that deal earlier this year means it is likely the TSB network will be floated on the stock market as a separate bank. The TSB is being unveiled a week before an industry-wide current account switching service is launched to reduce the hassle of moving a bank account.

One would also assume that any buyer would make sure that the buyers and sellers systems were sufficiently compatible. In the US going back to the 1990s, many a promising-seeming banking deal was scuppered because the integration issues looked too hairy. So as much as its easy to point fingers at Lloyds, Sabadell is the one that should have made the call as to whether they could successfully port the data and needed routines from the Lloyds/TSB systems. As indicated, that has long been a major due diligence issue in US bank mergers.

Sabadell appears to have decided to move the TSB customers onto an entirely new system.

As one of our house IT expert Richard Smith pointed out, based on a Computerworld interview with the Sabadell CIO:

If I read this right (and its not just hype) the target system is brand new, which is to say, untested (or nearly untested). Thats a whole other dimension of extra risk.

We are in the process of cutting the rope, and the first step is having a core platform up and running. We are now working with Lloyds Bank on the data migration, Abarca told Computer Weekly. We have built a new technology platform for TSB, but this is not just a technology refresh or upgrade of an existing core banking system. It is a brand new core banking system.

They *did* do a pilot but clearly it wasnt effective, for reasons we are yet to understand:

Proteo4UK, as the new platform in the UK is known, was rolled out to the banks staff in November 2017 with a full range of banking services. It will move to a full roll-out in the first quarter of 2018.

That suggests that the Sabadell knew its IT systems were not compatible with TSBs and rather than do the sensible and normal thing, which would be to nix the deal, it went ahead based on the naive belief that it could build something new that would work. Its hard enough to shake down a new retail bank IT system work, let alone roll it out by porting a ton of data from an old banking system into it.

We may have a better sense soon, but there are indications not just of data mapping problems, which potentially may be hard to isolate but not necessarily hard to fix once found, but of data corruptions, such as wildly incorrect account information (zero balances, incorrect currencies, massively inflated mortgage amounts, and e-mails saying that there are no records of recent direct debits). If there are indeed problems on the books and records level, and as we suspect, the changes cant be rolled back, this could produce a world of hurt for customers.

Richard Smith found an example he calls coughing up blood:

Just want to see my balance and these guys @tsb think Im robbing a bean factory with a bomb, jesus pic.twitter.com/VRosgbZoML  Jack Thomson (@thejackthomson_) April 23, 2018

His comments:

Implies one or both of a. there wasnt enough integration testing (the phase of testing where you check that the intra-system interfaces are working correctly). b. there are corrupt data items, somewhere deep down, that are making the system behave in completely unexpected ways

Needless to say, well be revisiting this topic once the press has more intel on the nature and severity of the IT mess. And as always, reader sightings and observations are of great help. But at least so far, this looks as if this might not be a gunshot wound, as bad as that would be, but gangrene.
On Tuesday (24 April 2018) NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, discussed with the Prime Minister of Australia, Malcolm Turnbull, how the Alliance and Australia can further strengthen their close partnership.

The Secretary General thanked Australia for increasing its contributions to NATOs Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan and for the funding it provides to the Afghan security forces, which amounts to more than 400 million dollars so far. Your strong commitment to Afghanistan makes us all safer and more secure, stressed Mr. Stoltenberg.

Both NATO and Australia are members of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS and train Iraqi forces. At the Summit in July, NATO expects to launch a new training mission in Iraq, this could be another area where NATO and Australia could join forces, said the Secretary General.

NATO and Australia have a dialogue on issues such as Russia, North Korea and the Middle East. Together, we are committed to upholding the international rules-based order, said the Secretary General.
(As delivered)

Prime Minister Turnbull,

It is a great pleasure and honor to welcome you here to the NATO headquarters. And thank you for being here and thank you also for the strong and very productive partnership we have developed over many years between NATO and Australia.

Although Australia is far from here, you are one of NATOs closest partners.

We share the same values: democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

By working together, we make a stronger contribution to international security.

And today, we discussed what more we can do together.

NATO and Australia stand side-by-side in the fight against terrorism.

And I welcome that you are increasing your contributions to NATOs Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan.

Your highly professional and dedicated forces make a real difference in helping the Afghans bring stability to their country.

And we appreciate your substantial funding for Afghan forces: more than 400 million dollars so far. And a pledge that you will continue.

Your strong commitment to Afghanistan makes us all safer and more secure.

NATO and Australia are also both members of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS.

NATO supports the Coalition with training for Iraqi forces. As does Australia.

At our Summit in July, we expect to launch a new training mission in Iraq.

This could be another area where NATO and Australia could join forces.

Together, we are committed to upholding the international rules-based order.

So besides our practical cooperation, we engage in dialogue on issues such as Russia, North Korea and the Middle East.

Our political solidarity is important as we face the challenges of the 21st century.

Tomorrow is an important day for Australia.

Anzac Day marks the losses suffered by Australia and New Zealand in the First World War, and the conflicts that followed.

So Prime Minister, you will be in France to honor those Australians who never came home.

And in a cemetery just a kilometre from here, nine Australian airmen are buried.

Just some of many of your countrymen who bravely fought and died here for our shared values.

Their sacrifice reminds us all of why nations need to work together to prevent conflict and preserve peace.

So once again, welcome to the NATO Headquarters, its great to work together with you and to continue to strengthen the partnership between Australia and NATO.

Welcome.
Florida anti-GMO activist found dead in hotel pool prior to delivering petition to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

(Naturalhealth365) Activist Mila de Mier, an outspoken foe of the genetically engineered mosquito industry, was found dead in a rooftop hotel swimming pool in Washington, D.C.  mere hours before she planned to present a petition to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) demanding that the agency deny a permit for the release of GMO mosquitoes in Florida and Texas.

News of her death has left her fellow activists saddened, stunned  and suspicious!

Anti-GMO whistleblower was within hours of hand-delivering petition to U.S. EPA

De Mier, 45, had traveled to the nations capital to personally deliver the EPA petition, on which (at the time) she had accumulated close to 200,000 signatures. She was accompanied on the trip by her long-time friend and fellow activist Barbara Napoles, who was one of the last people to see her alive.

De Mier had planned to deliver the petition Tuesday morning. Apparently, she opted to go for a swim beforehand, and left her hotel room for the pool at 8:45 a.m.

According to local news station WJLA, rescue crews were called to the Cambria Hotel and Suites around 9:35 am on Tuesday, April 10, after a witness spotted de Mier floating facedown in the pool.

Attempts to revive her were unsuccessful, and she was pronounced dead at the scene.

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In the week before her death, De Mier had posted extensively on social media about her campaign against GMO mosquitoes and their creator, Oxitec.

A Facebook post dated April 4 encouraged people to sign and share the EPA petition. We are not guinea pigs, de Mier wrote, adding that she had dedicated the last 7 years of her life to the cause.

On April 7, she tweeted that over 3 billion GMO mosquitoes could be released at the next testing site in Harris County, Texas.

In one of her last social media posts, dated 6:29 pm on April 8, de Mier said that she was traveling from Key West to Washington D.C, adding, Sometimes you just got to do what you got to do EPA better be ready!!!

De Mier battled the release of GMO mosquitoes

De Mier crusaded tirelessly against Oxitec, a British biotechnology company, and their plan to release their genetically modified mosquitoes in the Florida Keys.

The mosquitoes, engineered with a self-limiting gene that causes their offspring to die, are meant to interbreed with wild A. aegypti mosquitos  which potentially carry the Zika virus  and to reduce their population.

Opponents of the GMO mosquitoes say they could wreak havoc with the environment by disrupting the food chain. Natural health experts and advocates also point to the potentially catastrophic and unforeseen consequences of mutations and altered gene expressions, which they fear could lead to the development of new toxins, allergens and carcinogens.

In 2016, the FDA approved a plan for a trial release of the mosquitoes in Key Haven, Fl., a residential area near Key West, but it was delayed due to vigorous voter opposition. The trial is now awaiting EPA approval.

Although April 9 was the last day for public comment, de Mier had been hoping for a 60-day extension.

Suspicions continue to mount about activist mysterious death

On natural health websites, praise for de Mier and her work alternated with suspicions about her death.

Erin Elizabeth of Health Nut News described de Mier admiringly as a tireless activist and a nemesis of the GMO mosquito industry.

Elizabeth, who points out that over 85 doctors  most of them holistic practitioners who opposed GMOs  have been found dead over the past few years, implies that de Miers death was not accidental. She also questioned the lack of action on the part of the witness at the scene, who apparently did not try to perform CPR or even remove de Mier from the pool.

Barbara Napoles, who accompanied di Miers to Washington D.C., reportedly said that her friend was not a weak swimmer and had, in fact, swam with whale sharks.

(Note: an investigation into de Miers death is ongoing.)

You can continue to honor Mila De Miers work by signing this petition today!

Sources for this article include:

WJLA.com
(Natural News) The head of the House Intelligence Committee dropped a rather large bombshell on Sunday that the American Pravda media is doing its level best to ignore, and that is this: His panel has found no evidence whatsoever to justify the Obama FBI and Justice Department spying on Team Trump during the 2016 campaign.

Rather, Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., told Fox Business Maria Bartiromo, the entire case was fabricated for political, not intelligence, purposes.

This is really important to us because the intelligence investigation uses the tools of our intelligence services that are not supposed to be used on American citizens, Nunes told Bartiromo. So, weve long wanted to know what intelligence did you have that actually led to this investigation. So what we found now after the investigators have reviewed it is, in fact, there was no intelligence.

Bartiromo was flabbergasted  as every American who still cares about justice, law and order ought to be.

Mr. Chairman, youve got to explain what you just said. I think this is extraordinary, she said. That youre telling us that in order for the FBI, the Department of Justice to launch an investigation into so-called collusion between President Trump and the Russians there was no official intelligence used. Then how did this investigation start?

I think that is the point. We dont understand and never understood, Nunes responded.

Theres more, as reported by The National Sentinel:

Nunes explained further that the probe into the Trump campaign was a counterintelligence operation that uses the tools of the U.S. intelligence community  including the Five Eyes agreement between the U.S., UK, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. The Five Eyes agreement, made immediately after World War II to monitor Soviet and Communist bloc communications, has been used by the various countries to monitor each others citizens, since doing so domestically in each country is against the law.

The chairman said there was no intelligence passed through the Five Eyes to our government pertaining to the Trump campaign. Thats a major problem, he said, adding that his committees investigation has also found some irregularities at the State Department while Hillary Clinton was at the helm.

That prompted Bartiromo to ask what role Clinton may have played in setting up the political operation against the Trump campaign. Nunes responded that investigators arent sure yet, but they do know some intelligence was passed through the Clinton-run State Department by confidants of hers including Sydney Blumenthal back to the FBI.

Watch here:

This is nothing short of incredible. Many critics of the Mueller probe and the Obama administration suspected all along that the investigation into then-candidate Donald J. Trump and his campaign team might have been politically motivated, but until now there had been no official verification of those suspicions.

Until now.

Nunes revelations also beg several questions, such as, who knew about this hoax, and when did they know it?

What role did President Obama play? His attorney general, Loretta Lynch? Hillary Clinton and her campaign?

What about James Comey and Andrew McCabe, the latter of whom has been recommended for criminal charges by the Justice Departments inspector general? (Related: Andrew McCabe the subject of DoJ criminal referral is James Comey next?)

What did current Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein know  and did he know it when he was doing Comeys bidding and appointing special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate Trump over a lie? A political operation?

Jumping ahead, what is current Attorney General Jeff Sessions doing to clear out the politicized ranks of the FBI and DoJ? Why havent more people been fired  Peter Strzok and Lisa Page come to mind  by now? Are they cooperating in some behind-the-scenes investigation we dont yet know about?

Nunes said he and his congressional investigators have so much more to look into, but as they peel back each layer of corruption, it becomes clearer that under Obama the Justice Department was transformed into the Gestapo.

See more stories on deep state corruption at Corruption.news.

J.D. Heyes is a senior writer for NaturalNews.com and NewsTarget.com, as well as editor of The National Sentinel.

Sources include:

TheNationalSentinel.com

Clinton.news
(Natural News) The Lefts explosive, prolonged rage at the election of President Donald Trump on Nov. 8, 2016, gave new life to the ultra-violent leftist movement known as Antifa.

(Article by Matthew Vadum republished from CapitalResearch.org)

As a result, Antifa, which has been described as a revolutionary communist-anarchist militia movement that aspires to forcibly overthrow the United States government, is responsible for a level of sustained political street warfare not seen in the U.S. since the 1960s.

Reports of Antifa violence are everywhere, which is why the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has quietly designated Antifa as domestic terrorists. (Capital Research Center produced a three-part documentary series, America Under Siege, about Antifa and other political actors.)

Antifa is not a single organization: it is a movement or coalition of leftist groups, each of which claims to combat fascism, a political ideology whose definition academics have been arguing about for decades. The word Antifa itself is a truncation of anti-fascist.

Despite the name, the movement embraces fascistic tactics.

Antifa has gained new prominence in the post-Obama era. They trace their roots back to Nazi Germany. Although they opposed the Sturmabteilung(SA), or Nazi storm troopers, like the SA they also used violence to intimidate political opponents and break up their meetings and rallies. It could be argued that the ideological distance between Antifa and the now-defunct National Socialist German Workers Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, abbreviated as NSDAP) or Nazi Party, is so slight it can be measured in millimeters.

Determining who funds Antifa is difficult because the movement is highly decentralized and consists of private individuals and loosely affiliated groups.

Journalist Lee Stranahan downplays the significance of funding to Antifa.

While its been proven that funders like Soros and the Democrat Party have paid protest organizers and some protesters, groups like the violent Black Bloc [sic  black bloc refers to a set of tactics, not a group] typically arent motivated by money, but instead come to protests because of their anti-American ideology, base criminal desires and thrill seeking.

Nonetheless, the left-wing billionaire George Soros has ties to Antifa through a group called the Alliance for Global Justice (AfGJ). Soross philanthropy, known at the time as the Open Society Institute, gave $100,000 to AfGJ ($50,000 in 2004 and $50,000 in 2006).

Acting as a fiscal sponsor, AfGJ gave $50,000 to Refuse Fascism, an unincorporated Antifa group. Fiscal sponsors are recognized tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofits that take in donations on behalf of unincorporated or small groups so that donors can deduct the donations from their taxes, charging the group receiving the donation a processing fee.

Refuse Fascism was created in the weeks after Donald Trumps unexpected victory over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. The groups goal was summed up in a slogan on its website: Its Fascism: Drive Out the Trump/Pence Regime!

Refuse Fascism participated in rioting on Feb. 1, 2017, at the University of California, Berkeley, with the goal of preventing conservative controversialist Milo Yiannopoulos from giving a speech. The rioting caused more than $500,000 in damage.

Stopping someone from speaking is called no-platforming (or sometimes de-platforming). Summoning the spirit of Repressive Tolerance essayist Herbert Marcuse, the so-called father of the New Left who favored shutting down non-leftists, Antifa and others on the far Left believe that fascists are not entitled to free speech.

But Antifa operates under a twisted definition of fascism, labeling mainstream conservatives fascists and lumping them in with white-supremacists and neo-Nazis.

Except in the fantasies of Antifa and radical hate groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center, it is fair to say that true fascists are hard to find in the U.S. today.

Nevertheless, Antifa supporters are talented at finding fascists where they dont exist.

Radical journalist Natasha Lennard wrote at the Nation on the eve of Inauguration Day 2017, that Donald Trump is a living, breathing example of a fascist:

To call Trumpism fascist is to suggest that it demands from us a unique response. We can deploy the fascism moniker to Trumps ascendance by recognizing features like selective populism, nationalism, racism, traditionalism, the deployment of Newspeak and disregard for reasoned debate. The reason we should use the term is because, taken together, these aspects of Trumpism are not well combated or contained by standard liberal appeals to reason. It is constitutive of its fascism that it demands a different sort of opposition.

So is Manhattan Institute scholar Heather Mac Donald, allegedly, because she is pro-police.

In April 2017, Antifa prevented Mac Donald from entering an auditorium at Claremont McKenna College where she was supposed to deliver a speech. Bizarrely, the activists called her a fascist, a white supremacist, a warhawk, a transphobe, a queerphobe, [and] a classist who was ignorant of interlocking systems of domination that produce the lethal conditions under which oppressed peoples are forced to live.

All because she has written books about how the police are not racist.

Meanwhile, here are just a few examples of Antifa violence from 2017:

On March 4, hundreds of Antifa activists descended on Berkeley to use violence to disrupt a March 4 Trump rally. At least 10 protesters were arrested. The same day Woody Kaine, son of Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), was part of an Antifa assault on Trump supporters in the rotunda of the Minnesota Capitol. Kaine fought with police as they tried to arrest him for lobbing a smoke bomb.

On March 25, Antifa launched a counter-protest at a pro-Trump event in Philadelphia. They chanted, Any time, any place, punch a Nazi in the face! and forced the cancelation of the rally. Antifa hurled bricks at Trump supporters during a march in Portland, Oregon, on June 4. Police relied on tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the mob.

On August 19, [w]hen a few dozen people held a free speech rally in Boston, some 40,000 anti-fascist protesters gathered to stage a counter-demonstration, according to a report. All told, there were 33 arrests, mostly for disorderly conduct and assaults on police officers.

The same month in Berkeley, Antifa protested President Trumps proposed border wall and the very existence of America. No Trump, No Wall, No USA at All! they chanted.

The Antifa website ItsGoingDown.org states that in the U.S., most [anti-fascist] activists are anarchist, although a few are Maoist or anti-state Marxists, but in other countries, the movement is predominately Marxist.

Antifa views America and those who safeguard its free institutions as fundamentally illegitimate. ItsGoingDown.org advises activists to build a culture of non-cooperation with law enforcement. If you have any intention of working with the police, FBI, or other agencies, it continues, or if you publically [sic] condemn anti-fascists who break the law: dont call yourself an anti-fascist.

ItsGoingDown.org has urged activists to make the country ungovernable by participating in mass insurrection, mass resistance, and all manner of physical violence against Trump supporters, capitalists, and conservative fascists. The website displayed propaganda images of violent attacks on persons wearing Trump campaign hats bearing the slogan, Make America Great Again. This kind of violence was a necessary evil to promote social justice and destroy fascism.

Because of the rise of Antifa in the current political climate, CRC is launching a rolling expose on the movement. In a series designed to grow into a separate website, CRC will examine in more detail the origin and history of Antifa, the ideology behind the movement, Antifa leaders and sympathizers, sources of funding, and common coalition partner groups. The expose will include databases to make it easier for readers to track members, events, and even victims.

Read more at: CapitalResearch.org and see more news coverage of Antifa antics at Antifa.news.
(Natural News) Fired FBI Director James Comey is currently traveling around the country attending book signings and pretending as though he is the model of federal integrity. But the more his recently published memos are scrutinized, the more we learn he is little more than a devious Deep State scoundrel who may wind up behind bars when all is said and done.

As you are no doubt aware, President Donald J. Trump and his Election 2016 team have been under constant investigation for going on two years now over alleged criminal dealings and collusion with Russia.

In the two years that the FBI, the Justice Department, Congress and a special counsel have been looking into those allegations, absolutely no evidence has been found to substantiate them. None.

Not even a hint of evidence.

Of course, thats because the allegations were fabricated as part of an elaborate scheme to either keep Trump out of the White House altogether or undermine his presidency so badly, should he beat Hillary Clinton, that it would be impossible for him to govern the entire country effectively.

Enter these memos. A closer examination by The Federalists senior editor Mollie Hemingway indicates that Comeys early briefing of Trump regarding the so-called Russian dossier in January 2017 was little more than a set-up to ensnare him.

She writes:

Newly released memos written by former FBI director James Comey indicate that an early 2017 briefing for then-President-elect Donald Trump about the contents of an infamous dossier was held so it could be leaked to media outlets eager to report on the dossiers allegations. In multiple memos, Comey specifically mentioned that CNN had the dossier and wanted a news hook that would enable the network to report on its most salacious allegations even though they had not been verified.

I said the Russians allegedly had tapes involving him and prostitutes at the Presidential Suite at the Ritz Carlton in Moscow from about 2013, Comey wrote of his conversation with the president-elect in a classified memo that was released late last week. I said I wasnt saying this was true, only that I wanted him to know both that it had been reported and that the reports were in many hands.

Up to that point, Hemingway noted, no media outlets had reported anything about the dossier, though, according to previous news stories many outlets either had a copy or were aware of its existence  but held off publishing any details because nothing in the document could be verified. Its not clear whether establishment media outlets knew then that the dossier was a concoction of the Clinton campaign as opposition research.

I said media like CNN had them and were looking for a news hook, Comey added in a memo regarding his Jan. 6, 2017, briefing. In a separate classified memo dated Jan. 28, 2017, Comey writes that Trump said the alleged tape of prostitutes at a Moscow hotel was fake news.

I explained again why I thought it important that he know about it, the then-FBI director wrote. I also explained that one of the reasons we told him was that the media, CNN in particular, was telling us they were about to run with it.

Buzzfeed had beaten everyone to the punch; the news site published the document in full on Jan. 10. And strangely, on the same day, CNN  citing unnamed sources  that Intel chiefs presented Trump with claims of Russian efforts to compromise him.

The publication of both stories was likely timed; they went up within minutes of each other.

As for the information contained in the CNN story, it could have only come from one of a few sources, Comey being one of them. In one memo Comey wrote, I said there was something that [then-Director of National Intelligence James] Clapper wanted to speak to the PE [president-elect] about alone or in a very small group.

The House Intelligence Committee has said it found no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion. Hemingways analysis is further proof that it was all a hoax to begin with.

Now, what will Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions do about it?

See more at JamesComey.news.

J.D. Heyes is editor of The National Sentinel and a senior writer for Natural News and News Target.

Sources include:

TheNationalSentinel.com

TheFederalist.com

Buzzfeed.com
(Natural News) When scientists started genetically modifying plants, some observers worried that it would just be a matter of time before they tried the same thing on humans and it looks like that nightmare scenario is finally about to become reality. Regulators have given plans to trial DNA splicing therapy their stamp of approval, allowing humans to be genetically modified in a move that has many wondering just how far scientists will take the technology.

The therapy is being used to address the blood disorder beta thalassemia, which reduces a persons hemoglobin production. Hemoglobin is responsible for carrying oxygen to cells, and when its lacking, a person can experience anemia, fatigue, shortness of breath, slow growth and bone deformities.

The blood disorder is inherited, and patients typically require a lifetime of blood transfusions. This places them at risk of complications like organ damage, blood-borne infections and iron overload. The disorder affects 100,000 people around the world.

Now, scientists believe they can use DNA splicing to stop the genetic mutation that causes the problem and help people return to healthy hemoglobin levels. The work is being carried out by the biotech firm Crispr Therapeutics.

Inspired by bacterias natural defense mechanism, the researchers have come up with a cutting mechanism that will remove the mutated areas of DNA. The initial tests will be carried out outside the human body using stem cells that were harvested and grown in a lab. Researchers will remove the gene that represses the growth of hemoglobin so the patients bone marrow can return to normal output levels.

Beta thalassemia is the first disease that will be treated with this approach, but its safe to assume it wont be the last. In fact, the Francis Crick Institutes Professor Robin Lovell-Badge told the Sunday Telegraph: We will look back and think that this is the real beginning of gene therapy.

How far will it go?

A team of Chinese scientists have already been working on using Crispr to edit the thalassemia gene with funding from their government. Chinese scientists say they used human embryos that were not viable that were taken from IVF clinics for their work.

The researchers in this experiment reported some off-target effects as well as mosaicism, which means that there were lots of mistakes they couldnt have predicted, like editing occurring where it wasnt supposed to and not taking place in all the embryos equally.

On another occasion, Chinese scientists edited DNA to increase the muscle growth in some dogs so they could run faster and grow stronger. Their work has raised a lot of eyebrows, and its difficult  and frightening  to imagine where all this could be headed. Could militaries and law enforcement agencies use the technology to create stronger dogs? Will they alter human DNA to create police officers and soldiers who are stronger and faster? Where does it end?

If theres one thing weve learned as human beings, its that playing god doesnt usually work out the way we want it to. Just look at all the damage caused by genetically modified crops to human health, the environment, and life on the planet in general. Genetically engineered crops have resulted in a huge increase in the use of cancer-linked herbicides such as glyphosate, which now permeates the food supply and contaminates human populations. When you consider how terribly wrong genetically modifying plants has gone, its reasonable to assume that the consequences of genetically modifying humans could be less than ideal.

Read GeneticLunacy.com for more coverage of gene editing gone wrong.

Sources for this article include:

DailyMail.co.uk

News.Feinberg.Northwestern.edu

NaturalNews.com

IFLScience.com
(Natural News) In a new low, Yahoo News (which, if you havent noticed, isnt exactly known for aligning with conservative points of view) is now spreading fake news about fake news.

In a recent article titled Asian Push to Crack Down on Fake News Sparks Alarm, author Sam Reeves argues that criticism over new anti-fake news laws being introduced in Asian countries are comparable to President Trumps criticism of fake news being perpetuated by the mainstream media here in America.

Borrowing from US President Donald Trumps political playbook, government heads with an authoritarian streak are using the mantra of fake news to shield themselves from negative media coverage, and push legislation that critics say is aimed more at stifling dissent than punishing fabrication, the Yahoo News article states.

First of all, it seems as though Reeves is implying that President Trump, like Asian government heads with an authoritarian streak, is himself an authoritarian figure for criticizing the fake news mainstream media. If this is indeed the case, then its worth inquiring as to whether or not the author of this article has ever compared Trumps predecessor, Barack Obama, to other authoritarian figures around the world, considering the fact that, in many respects, Obama governed with an iron fist.

Second, how does the author of this article know for a fact that Asian leaders are being inspired by President Trumps resistance to the fake news media? Could it be that the mainstream media really is spreading false information, and that these leaders (including President Trump) are calling them out not as a way to shield themselves from criticism, but as a way of putting an end to real, legitimate lies being broadcasted across the airwaves? With regards to President Trump, this is most certainly the case.

Ever since President Trump won the Republican nomination for president of the United States, the liberal media has been viciously attacking him, spreading lies and manufacturing scandals as a means of discrediting his leadership. Its worth noting that there is a big difference between fair criticism of Trumps presidency, and the perpetuation of false information to bring down political opponents. If what the mainstream media was doing was simply critiquing Trump on issues regarding policy, then that would be entirely reasonable and there would be no need for the President to become defensive. But this is not  nor has it ever been  the way in which the mainstream media has conducted itself. (Related: The purpose of the mainstream media is thought control and suppression of the truth.)

One of the most obvious examples of blatant anti-Trump falsehoods being pushed across the airwaves is the medias insistence that Trump and his team colluded with the Russians to defeat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. Despite the fact that there is no evidence whatsoever to support these claims, the media talks about Russia collusion around the clock, not because they are interested in being fair and objective journalists, but because they want to tear Trump down. (Related: The bogus Trump-Russia collusion story is nothing but a political hatchet job cooked up by Obama loyalist John Brennan.)

Whats worse is that while the lying, fake news mainstream media constantly talks about the so-called Russia collusion scandal, they simultaneously ignore news that suggests that President Trump is innocent. As Fox News reported last month, after the news broke that the House Intelligence Committee found no evidence of any Russian collusion within the Trump campaign, CBSs Evening News spent only 31 seconds on the story, ABCs World News Tonight covered the news for 27 seconds and NBCs Nightly News didnt even mention the news, according to the Media Research Center.

When President Trump condemns the mainstream media, hes not doing it because he cant handle criticism of his policies; hes doing it because he wants to defend himself against blatant lies and false information meant to destroy his reputation and his presidency.

See NewsFakes.com for more coverage of fake news from the legacy media.

Sources include:

Yahoo.com

FoxNews.com
Police in San Mateo were stepping up patrols Monday night after a string of auto break-in burglaries occurred overnight.

A total of 14 vehicles had their windows smashed, and items such as electronics, money and bags were stolen, police said. The burglaries occurred in the areas of Ottwa Street and Trollman Avenue on the east side of San Mateo, as well as the areas of Flores Street, Ivy Street and Fourth Avenue on the west side of the city, police said.

Patrols in the affected areas will increase, the department said.

Police urge residents not to leave valuables in their vehicles, even if the vehicle is parked in a driveway.

Anyone who witnesses a burglary or other crime in progress should call 911 or 650-522-7700, if the information is delayed.
The impact of tariffs being imposed overseas is being felt strongly in the East Bay, especially when it comes to reds and whites.

The California wine industry could end up being one of the biggest losers if the trade skirmish between the United States and China prolongs.

Wente Vineyards in Livermore told NBC Bay Area that they have had to put a cork in all exports to China. That translates to roughly 3,000 to 5,000 cases of red and white wine just waiting to be shipped.

Importers in China don't want to pay the 15 percent tariff on that wine  a tariff China imposed on the United States in retaliation to President Donald Trump's tariffs. The 15 percent tariff sits on top of a preexisting 48 percent charge for taxes and tariffs.

Michael Parr, Wente Vineyards' vice president of international sales, said lost business to China is in no way going to put the East Bay winery out of business. What Parr is worried about is what could happen down the road.

"But an even bigger concern is the fact if were not shipping, our importers will be running out of stocks," he said. "If theyre running out of stocks, all of a sudden shelf space for California wines and Wente wines will be open and there are many wine-producing countries around the world that are clamoring for that shelf space that want to take that position away from California."

Wente Vineyards estimates that China will run out of its stock of Wente wine over the next month to two months, leaving the winery vulnerable to countries without tariffs such as Chile and New Zealand. Australia is also slated to become tariff-free starting next year.
The horse named after star Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski won't run in the Kentucky Derby because of a slight infection that will keep the England-based colt from traveling to the United States.

Tom Ludt, who oversees Phoenix Thoroughbreds' international operations, says Gronkowski spiked a fever last weekend and was treated with antibiotics. The colt is eating normally and responding to treatment, but Ludt says the owners want to put Gronkowski's welfare first.

Ludt said Monday that the owners are "beyond disappointed" to miss the May 5 race at Churchill Downs.

Rob Gronkowski recently bought an interest in the animal and said he was excited to meet his namesake during Derby week.

Its unfortunate Gronkowski the horse will not be able to race in the upcoming Kentucky Derby due to an illness. I fully support what is best for the horse. I know he will come back strong and healthy and I am excited to see him race again very soon.  Rob Gronkowski (@RobGronkowski) April 23, 2018

The 3-year-old colt was undefeated in three races this year, including the Burradon Stakes at Newcastle on March 30, which earned him the first European slot in the Derby under Churchill Downs' points system. He is trained by Jeremy Nosada and ridden by Jamie Spencer.

Ludt says Gronkowski will resume training next week in preperation for the Belmont Stakes scheduled for June.

The colt was part of the first group of horses purchased by Phoenix Thoroughbreds, an investment fund formed last year by Dubai businessman Amer Abdulaziz.

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Police say one person has died in a late night shooting in Springfield, Massachusetts.

A department spokesman says the male victim was shot at Worthington and Federal streets at about 10:30 p.m. Monday.

The victim was conscious when he was taken to the hospital, but died overnight.

No name was immediately released.

There was no word on an arrest.
Rhode Island State Representative Michael Chippendale's tweet to a survivor of the Parkland High School shooting is getting national attention, according to WJAR-TV.

Chippendale tweeted survivor Emma Gonzalaz after she posted a tweet against arming teachers with guns, reports WJAR-TV.

Her post referenced Sunday morning's Waffle House shooting, where a man shot and killed four people in Tennessee, as a reason why there should be no weapons in schools.

Gonzalez wrote, "Looks like you don't need to arm a teacher-- or a resource officer-- to stop a shooting."

Chippendale responded just after 7 a.m. on Monday, tweeting, "But if he DID have a gun- the police still wouldn't be searching for the gunman, and the entire region wouldn't be on lockdown...dummy."

The tweet was later deleted from his account, according to WJAR-TV.

Gonzalez drew national attention last month when her speech at the March For Our Lives rally in Washington, D.C. went viral.
What to Know A team of nine plastic surgeons and two urological surgeons performed the 14-hour surgery last month

"When I first woke up, I felt finally more normal," the patient said

Four other successful penis transplants have been performed. But those involved only the penis, not extensive surrounding tissue

A veteran who was injured in Afghanistan has received the world's first total penis and scrotum transplant, Johns Hopkins Hospital announced Monday.

A team of nine plastic surgeons and two urological surgeons performed the 14-hour surgery last month. The penis, scrotum and part of an abdominal wall came from a deceased donor, the hospital said.

The patient has recovered from the surgery and is expected to be released this week, officials say. The hospital did not disclose in which branch of the military the patient served.

"When I first woke up, I felt finally more normal [with] a level of confidence as well. Confidence like finally Im okay now," said the patient, who asked not to be identified.

The hospital said many soldiers injured in blasts from improvised explosive devices come home with debilitating hidden injuries  like the loss of their genitals.

"We are hopeful that this transplant will help restore near-normal urinary and sexual functions for this young man, said W.P. Andrew Lee, M.D., professor and director of plastic and reconstructive surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

A hospital spokeswoman says doctors are hopeful the patient will have near-normal function in six months.

The scrotum transplant did not include the donor's testicles, meaning reproduction won't be possible. "We just felt there were too many unanswered ethical questions" with that extra step, said Hopkins' Dr. Damon Cooney.

The team that performed the surgery also performed the country's first bilateral arm transplant, in a wounded warrior.

Four other successful penis transplants have been performed, two in South Africa, one in China and one in Boston. But those transplants involved only the penis, not extensive surrounding tissue.
Illinois public health officials say a fourth person has died who experienced severe bleeding after using synthetic cannabinoids laced with rat poison.

The Illinois Department of Public Health announced the death Tuesday, saying a central Illinois woman in her 30s is the latest death in the state.

There are now more than 150 people in 13 counties who have been sickened by the substance in an outbreak that began on March 7, officials say.

We continue to see new cases of individuals experiencing severe bleeding after using synthetic cannabinoids, IDPH Director Nirav D. Shah said in a statement. Like so many other drugs, synthetic cannabinoids are addictive and people are not able to give them up. Alternatively, they think that it wont happen to them because they know their dealer or trust wherever they purchased the drugs. If you know someone who uses synthetic cannabinoids, tell them these are deadly products and try to help them get treatment.

The department says two other deaths were men in their 20s and a third death was a man in his 40s.

Those who have become sick have reported coughing up blood, blood in urine, severe bloody noses, bleeding gums and internal bleeding.

Many of the cases tested positive for a lethal anticoagulant often used in rat poison. State public health officials are urging residents not to use synthetic cannabinoids, or "human-made, mind-altering chemicals sprayed on dried plant material." The products are known as herbal or liquid incense and have brand names such as K2, Spice, Black Mamba, Bombay Blue, Genie, and Zohai, but may be packaged under other brand names also, officials said.

"These chemicals are called cannabinoids because they act on the same brain cell receptors as the main active ingredient in marijuana," IDPH said in a statement. "The health effects from using synthetic cannabinoids can be unpredictable, harmful, and deadly."
An Illinois law that has allowed parents to leave newborns at hospitals and police and fire stationsno questions askedfor nearly 17 years, was celebrated to raise awareness Monday.

Its known as the Safe Haven Law.

We got a phone call at 7:30 on a Thursday night that there was a baby relinquished at a fire department and we picked her up on Saturday at 1 oclock, said Christie, an adoptive mother of a 3-year-old.

The law that was first passed in 2001, allowed parents to leave an unharmed baby at a hospital or fire station without a need for an explanation.

A 14-year-old girl, Anjel, was only a few hours old when she was left at a Chicago Police Station in 2003.

Safe haven saved me, she said.

Anjel was able to meet now retired detective Keith Carter for the first time.

Carter was the one who took her in, even though police stations werent covered by the Safe Haven Law at the time.

Anjel is the reason the law changed in 2004, this time allowing police stations to also take babies in.

I was glad that I was in the right place to help out one of Gods children, Carter said.

CPD Supt. Eddie Johnson encourages people to learn about what the law entails and spread the word.

You might just save a life, Johnson said.

Anjel expressed that she would like her birth parents to know that she is content with the life she has been given.

I like where Im at right now, said the teen. Im like very content with my life right now.

Three-year-old Trinity has her big brother Gabriel and a family that loves her.

Super loved, adored, actually everyone who comes into contact with her is just amazed by her story, said Trinitys adoptive mother Christie.

To date, 126 babies have been saved through the Safe Haven Law and these families hope that the number continues to grow.
A one-of-a-kind McDonalds restaurant will open at the new Chicago headquarters ground floor Wednesday, offering menu items from around the globe.

McDonalds announced that the global-inspired 6,000-square-foot restaurant in the West Loop is part of its "McDonalds Experience of the Future" (EOTF) restaurants.

This particular Chicago EOTF restaurant features exclusive  modern global-inspired interiors, an ever-changing wall map with Golden Arches that illuminate when an item from a specific country is featured on the menu, outdoor seating for patrons to enjoy in the warmer months," the chain said in a statement.

Other EOTF restaurants however, will offer enhanced customer experiences with table service, mobile order and payment and McDelivery with Uber Eats.

As part of our new headquarters, we wanted to provide our customers with an exciting way to experience our global menu right here in Chicago, said Steve Easterbrook, McDonalds president and CEO.

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The newly-anticipated restaurant will feature a Latin American-style dessert center and an Australian McCafe area, where expertly brewed coffee crafted by McDonalds trained baristas will be served.

We are delighted to showcase a taste of McDonalds from all over the world, said Easterbrook.

Favorite worldwide food items will be displayed in a rotating menu, alongside its classic menu items, including the Big Mac, Quarter Pounder with Cheese, Chicken McNuggets and fries.

The first menu rotation includes:

-The Mighty Angus Burger from Canada, a 1/3 pound angus burger topped with a glazed poppy and sesame seed bun, lettuce, onion cheese and bacon and smoky angus sauce

- The McSpicy Chicken Sandwich from Hong Kong, a spicy breaded, deeply marinated chicken breast fried to crispy, served on a classic sesame seed bun with lettuce

-Cheese & Bacon Loaded Fries from Australia, McDonalds World Famous Fries, served with warm melted cheese and crispy bacon bits

-The Mozza Salad from France, a balsamic dressed pasta salad with roasted tomatoes, served with mozzarella cheese, arugula leaves, choice of crispy or grilled chicken and a breadstick

-The Manhattan Salad from France, a mix of lettuces, baby kale, romaine and spring lettuce topped with grape tomatoes, dried cranberries and sliced apples, served with choice of crispy or grilled chicken and a breadstick

- The McFlurry Prestigio from Brazil, vanilla soft serve ice cream, mixed with strawberry sauce and chocolate covered coconut bites

The new nine-story headquarters will be located at 110 N. Carpenter Street in Sterling Bays newly planned development.

According to the news release, the food chain plans to transform most all U.S. restaurants to Experience of the Future by 2020.

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The New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) has decided against approving accreditation for the new institution that would be created by consolidating Connecticuts 12 community colleges.

Connecticut State Colleges and University President Mark Ojakian had presented the Students First plan, which would have consolidated the 12 campuses into one accredited institution. The CSCU system has seen years of reductions due to budget cuts, lapses and holdbacks. The plan, Ojakian argued, would result in $28 million in annual savings and a net job loss of 200 positions.

However, NEASC, which is the regional accreditation association, said that the plan was not simply a substantive change to the current model, but rather would create an entirely new institution, which would need to go through the full process of applying for accreditation. The commission ruled that it could not approve the Community College of Connecticut for accreditation based on the current proposal.

Because of the magnitude of the proposed changes, the proposed timeline and the limited investment in supporting the changes, the Commission is concerned that the potential for a disorderly environmental for students is too high for it to approve the proposed Community College of Connecticut as a candidate for accreditation based on this proposal, NEASC wrote in a letter.

In a letter to the CSCU community, Ojakian said officials were reviewing their options in light of the decision from NEASC.

This decision by NEASC is devastating to our ability to hold the line on tuition and keep all campuses open. In the face of an on-going fiscal emergency, it forces us to consider options that we have strongly fought against because it will harm the 50,000 students who rely on their campuses and their campus communities, Ojakian wrote.

Ojakian told NBC Connecticut he was shocked and blindsided by the decision.

Accreditation affects things like school funding and financial aid.



There had been stiff opposition to the plan from the start, including from faculty and staff. In a statement following the decision, the union CSU-AAUP president wrote she was relieved and that, This massive consolidation was ill-researched and underestimated in scope.



NEASCs decision does not necessarily mean the plan was rejected entirely  the commission went on to say that if CSCU moves forward with the plan, they would support efforts to create a comprehensive proposal for candidacy. What the decision does is prevent CSCU officials from moving forward with their proposed timeline, which aimed to have new leadership structures in place by July 2019.

While we expected further guidance, we did not expect NEASC to redirect us to consider 'candidacy for accreditation,' a new process that will take another 5 years. The problems that our institutions and students face cannot wait 5 years. In 5 years, our institutions will be financially insolvent, Ojakian wrote.

Ojakian said they were considering appealing the decision.

"We dont have the luxury of time because in two years were going to be insolvent and we wont be able to pay our bills," he said.



See the full response from NEASC below.
New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart, not quite three months into her bid for the states highest office, announced Tuesday she had selected Greenwich First Selectman Peter Tesei as her running mate to serve as Lieutenant Governor.

The pick is far from a sure thing, as delegates will convene at their convention next month at Foxwoods to make formal party supported nominations for all statewide offices.

He is going to be a true partner in this endeavor that we are signing on for fixing our state, Stewart said of Tesei during a press conference in front of the State Capitol.

Tesei has spent just about his entire adult life involved in Greenwich politics. He won a set on the Greenwich Representative Town Meeting at the age of 18, and has spent the past decade as the towns First Selectman.

Up until November 2017, the RTM as it is known, had been in Republican control going back decades, but a rush of Democratic support flipped control.

Tesei said he had not previously considered running for Lieutenant Governor, but described how the circumstances of this election and joining forces with Stewart convinced him it was a good idea.

While we have a very talented field of people, I think ultimately its a mathematical equation in how you can put forward the best team thats experienced, Tesei said. Westport businessman Steve Obsitnik had previously received Teseis endorsement for governor last year. Obsitnik released a statement later Tuesday saying he still has strong support among Greenwich Republicans.

Stewart has trailed her competitors in fundraising. She said its had to do with her short time in the race, pointing out that shes raised money at a high rate since February. The move to bring Tesei on to her campaign could lead to more campaign contributions from a part of the state where Stewart has little name recognition.

Adding Tesei, she said, shows she is an electable Republican who close to the political center, since her views on collective bargaining and abortion do not align with most other GOP candidates for the office.

I think the center is where Im at, maybe a little bit right of it, Stewart said. The center I think is where Peter is at. But I think thats where most of the residents of the state of Connecticut are and at the end of the day, thats what matters most.

The Republican convention will be held the weekend of May 11 and 12, where GOP delegates will make their selections for endorsements and who will receive access to the August Primary Ballot. Stewart would need to receive 15 percent of all delegates in order to have a spot on the ballot.
Several organizations and two council members are pushing for paid sick leave to be mandatory for workers in Dallas.



Business owners and community organizers are helping gather almost 65,000 signatures for the petition so the ordinance can be on the ballot this fall.

City council members Philip Kingston and Adam Medrano have joined organizations such as the Texas Organizing Project and the Texas Freedom Network to support the campaign.

According to the Institute of Women Research and Policy, one in three workers in Texas do not have access to paid sick leave.

Workers affected are usually in the retail, construction, hospitality, and food and service industries. When one of these workers gets sick, they are faced with a hard dilemma.

Many of them have to decide if they should stay home sick and risk losing their job and not getting rent paid, or they could go to work sick. That wouldnt be good for the employees or business production, said Lee Daugherty who is a bar owner in Dallas.

The petition has to be submitted by June 11.
A pair of recent real estate listings in Highland Park highlight what has long been a trend in Dallas-Fort Worth for those who have the means: Buy an older house in a nice neighborhood, knock it down, build a new house on the land.

Both properties are multimillion dollar listings  3812 Beverly Drive is on the market for $5,495,000 and 4328 Belclaire Avenue is going for $2,950,000  and both properties, despite having houses on them already, are being advertised for the land.

Part of what is so valuable about owning a home in Highland Park is the actual dirt, and so, in this instance, somebody will scrape it and build something new, said Brittany Mathews, a VP at Allie Beth Allman and the listing agent for the Belcaire property.

Built in 1938, the red brick Belclaire home is a three bed, three bath that has fallen into disrepair.

Gorgeous building site on one of Highland Parks premier blocks, is how the real estate listing describes the property. Mature oak and magnolia trees for a beautiful setting to build your dream home.

If you want to be in this prime location in Highland Park you are going to have to pay a pretty significant amount in order to do so, Mathews said.

The listing on Beverly Drive is advertised as an important piece of property in a neighborhood where new construction exceeds $10,000,000.

The primary difference between the two homes is the condition they are in.

Madeline Jobst, one of the listing agents on the property and a realtor with Briggs Freeman Sothebys International Realty, acknowledged that the three bed, three-and-a-half bath home retains attractive curb appeal, even when compared to the multimillion dollar mansions that line the 3800 block of Beverly, just one block from the grounds of the exclusive Dallas Country Club.

But at 4,300+ square feet, the Beverly home is approximately half of the size of the home that a modern builder would put on the land, Jobst estimated.

In addition, the house, which was completed in 1952, features 8-foot ceilings whereas the ceilings in a modern mansion would no doubt be much higher, according to Jobst.

Housing prices have risen steadily in Dallas-Fort Worth in recent years. Yet despite that rise, million dollar-plus listings only account for a small percentage of overall home sales.

According to the MetroTex Association of Realtors there have been approximately 22,000 single family homes sold in DFW through the end of March. Of those, only 324  or 1.8 percent  were sold for $1 million or more.

In addition, million dollar-plus sales are down about 5 percent through the first quarter of 2018 in Dallas-Fort Worth, according to Metro Tex. However, according to a representative for the organization, it is far too early in the year to determine if that slide represents any sort of trend in the market.
Border Patrol agents from the Calexico station arrested a 55-year-old convicted sex offender for trying to enter illegally Thursday.

Mexican national Jose Humberto-Diaz was previously convicted of felony assault to commit mayhem and rape in San Diego. He also has an active drug-related warrant out of San Bernardino.

The infrastructure and technological resources available to our agents aid in arresting individuals such as these and allows us to keep the residents of California and our nation safe, said El Centro Sector Assistant Chief Patrol Agent David S. Kim.

Humberto-Diaz is being held in federal custody pending prosecution for Re-entry After Removal.
The debate over how to get relief from skyrocketing rents in California is likely to go before the voters in November.

A campaign to lift restrictions on rent control says it now has enough signatures to put the issue on the ballot. Signatures were collected by the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE). The group claims the housing crisis needs to be fixed, and rent control is the answer.

Vanessa Bulnes of ACCE has lived in Oakland for more than 30 years and says renters need relief now.

"Its heartbreaking," she said. "So many people of color get displaced in the city of Oakland that they helped build, and I've seen that rents are so high, those people can't afford to live here and end up in tent cities."

The group will hold a rally outside Oakland City Hall at noon Monday. Rallies also are slated for Sacramento and Los Angeles.

Oakland Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan said the new ballot measure would protect hard-working people like teachers and nurses who are being "forced" out of neighborhoods.

"California can do better, and we need immediate change to stop this wave of displacement to keep people in their homes," she wrote in a news release.

Those fighting against repealing the existing law call the rent control effort short-sighted and say it will actually hurt renters in the long run.

"We have a housing crisis in California, and this would throw gasoline on that," said Steve Maviglio of Californians for Responsible Housing. "But this will halt the construction of new housing for the people who need it most."

Bulnes argued that building new housing will take a long time, and putting caps on how much rents can go up will give renters faster relief. She said landlords will still be able to capitalize on their investment.

One thing both sides can agree on: Rents in California are skyrocketing. An apartment list survey released this month found that Bay Area suburbs have the highest prices for two-bedroom rentals in the nation, with many leasing for more than $5,000 a month.

Under California law, single-family home rentals cannot be subject to rent control.

The ACCE's measure would ask voters to repeal a decades-old law, known as Costa Hawkins, that makes it illegal for cities to apply rent caps to any properties built after 1995. The law also bars cities from passing rent control ordinances on rented condominiums or single-family homes.

The group has collected more than 565,000 signatures, and if nearly 366,000 are verified, the issue will go before the voters in November.

Bay City News contributed to this report.
A string of robberies targeting eight Trader Joes stores across Southern California has market officials concerned as well as its communities.

"I've never had any problems," Harvey Stromberg, a Trader Joes shopper, said. "I didnt know they dont have security cameras. Ive always felt safe."

Stores that have been targeted include Long Beach, Irvine, Encino, and Mid-Wilshire.

An estimated $4,800 has been stolen from the Culver City location on April 12, according to the Los Angeles Times. Many locations reportedly do not have surveillance cameras.

"We trust our customers and do not conduct surveillance on them," the store said in an online statement. "When necessary, we take appropriate action, including having security cameras and security guards in our stores, to help ensure the safety of our customers and Crew Members."

The eight robberies that have occurred at the Southern California locations were all targeted by armed men who escaped on foot.

Anyone with information on the robberies is asked to contact the Los Angeles Police Department.
What to Know Tens of thousands marched through parts of Los Angeles. LA County is the largest Armenian community outside of Armenia

The genocide began in 1915 and resulted in the deaths of as many as 1.5 million Armenians. Turkey has denied it occurred

U.S. presidents have long refused to recognize the genocide

Thousands of marchers, many waving flags, in the Little Armenia area outside Hollywood gathered Tuesday in the first of two marches to commemorate the 103rd anniversary of the Armenian genocide, which Turkey insists did not happen.

The first gathering, organized by Unified Young Armenians, began near Hollywood Boulevard and Western Avenue, where participants waved flags and began a circular march through the area, denouncing the genocide and calling on the United States government to officially recognize it.

"It's an important thing for the Armenian community, and hopefully to spread awareness to American citizens," one participant told NBC4 at the onset of the rally.

Another said simply, "We're here to demand for the entire world to recognize the Armenian Genocide."

The thousands of marchers embarked on a circular route east on Hollywood Boulevard, south on Normandie Avenue, west on Sunset Boulevard then north on Hobart Boulevard.

Los Angeles police said all the affected streets will be closed until at least 3 p.m. A second rally, organized by the Armenian Genocide Committee, will begin around midday at Pan Pacific Park at 7600 Beverly Blvd., ending at the Turkish Consulate at 6300 Wilshire Blvd.

The march will proceed south adjacent to The Grove shopping center, then west on Third Street, south on Fairfax Avenue then west on Wilshire Boulevard. LAPD officials said all streets affected by the march will be closed from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Armenian genocide began in 1915 and resulted in the deaths of as many as 1.5 million Armenians in a campaign blamed on the Ottoman Turkish government.

While the genocide has been chronicled by historians, who often view it as having been ethnic cleansing, Turkey has denied it occurred, saying the deaths of Armenians was a function of the chaos of World War I, which also claimed Turkish lives.

More than 200,000 people of Armenian descent live in Los Angeles County, making the Southland home to the largest Armenian community outside of Armenia. Despite calls by some legislators -- most notably Rep. Adam Schiff, D- Burbank -- for the federal government to formally recognize the genocide, U.S. presidents have long refused to do so.

President Donald Trump issued a statement in which he, like past U.S. presidents, declined to refers to the deaths of 1.5 million people as a "genocide." In the annual White House statement, Trump commemorated the start of "one of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th century, when one and a half million Armenians were deported, massacred or marched to their deaths in the final years of the Ottoman Empire. We recall the horrific events of 1915 and grieve for the lives lost and the many who suffered.

"We also take this moment to recognize the courage of those individuals who sought to end the violence, and those who contributed to aiding survivors and rebuilding communities, including the U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Henry Morgenthau, who sought to end the violence and later raised funds through the Near East Relief to help the Armenian people. We note with deep respect the resilience of the Armenian people, so many of whom built new lives in the United States and have made countless contributions to our country.

"As we honor the memory of those who suffered, we also reflect on our commitment to ensure that such atrocities are not repeated. We underscore the importance of acknowledging and reckoning with painful elements of the past as a necessary step towards creating a more tolerant future.

"On this solemn day, we stand with the Armenian people throughout the world in honoring the memory of those lost and commit to work together to build a better future," he said.

Former President Barack Obama, a Democrat, also did not recognize the genocide during his eight years in office, despite indications during his original campaign that he would do so. Gov. Jerry Brown issued a proclamation Tuesday declaring a Day of Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide.

"Between 1915 and 1923, Armenians were subjected to torture, starvation, mass murder and exile from their historic homeland," according to the proclamation. "1.5 million lost their lives. The Armenian Genocide, also known as the 'First Genocide of the Twentieth Century,' represented a deliberate attempt by the Ottoman Empire to eliminate all traces of a thriving, noble civilization."

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), a lead sponsor of a resolution to recognize the Armenian genocide, also issued a statement Tuesday in which he demanded the mass killings be recognized as genocide.

"Today, the world marks the 103rd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the systematic murder of 1.5 million Armenian men, women and children, and the displacement of millions more in the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923. Leaders of countries all over the world have issued statements commemorating the genocide and vowed that it will never happen again. That's why we are marching against genocide and hatred, and why we pledge that we will never forget and we will never give up.

"More than a century after the Armenian Genocide, it is our solemn responsibility to remember those who were lost, to seek justice and restitution, and to educate Americans and the world about the crime of genocide. Despite Turkeys denials and protestations to this day, there is no historical debate and there can be no equivocation. By refusing to officially recognize the Armenian genocide, America is simply not living up to its moral responsibility and undermining its leadership on human rights.

"The attempted extermination of the Armenian people was so horrific that a new word was needed to capture the magnitude of the crime of attempted race extermination. We must not be afraid to speak the truth or give in to Turkeys campaign of denial. America must call the Armenian Genocide what it was  genocide."
A Glendale man was sentenced today to 41 months behind bars for attempting to smuggle fighter aircraft parts to Iran.

Zavik Zargarian, 54, pleaded guilty in 2017 in a Los Angeles federal court to conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The case stems from a lengthy undercover probe that took shape when Iranian national Hanri Terminassian contacted Zargarian from overseas seeking help obtaining military aircraft parts, including those used in F-18 fighter jets.

Prosecutors said Zargarian sought to purchase the parts from an undercover U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations agent posing as a parts supplier, and Terminassian traveled to the United States to meet with both of them about the deal.

Prosecutors said the two men wanted to purchase between 10 and 30 units of each item, with the total cost potentially exceeding $3.6 million.

Terminassian was charged in the case but remains in Iran.

The U.S. embargo on Iran prohibits the export of goods, technology and services to Iran, with very limited exceptions.
What to Know Trump warned Iran against restarting its nuclear program: "They will have bigger problems than they've ever had before"

He and Macron don't see eye to eye on the issue, but hinted they were close on others and made a show of their personal chemistry

Macron's pomp-filled three-day state visit to Washington underscores the importance that both sides attach to the France-U.S. relationship

With exaggerated handshakes and a pair of kisses, President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron professed a sunny, best-friends relationship Tuesday, even as the two allies strained to bridge differences over the Iran nuclear agreement, Syria and more.

Hosting Macron for the first state visit of his administration, culminating in a lavish dinner Tuesday night, Trump remained firm in his criticism of past and enduring American undertakings in Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East. But he appeared open to the French president's pleas to maintain U.S. involvement in Syria  and expressed openness to negotiating a new agreement with Iran.

As Trump weighs withdrawing the U.S. from the Iran nuclear accord, he issued a warning to Iran against restarting its nuclear program, saying, "They will have bigger problems than they've ever had before."

At a joint White House news conference, he appeared to be more in line with Macron's push for a longer-term U.S. presence in Syria. Trump, who announced weeks ago that he would withdraw American troops, said Macron reinforced the idea of a potential Iranian takeover of territory liberated from the Islamic State group.

"We'll be coming home," Trump said, "but we want to leave a strong and lasting footprint."

Macron told Trump that together the U.S. and France would defeat terrorism, curtail weapons of mass destruction in North Korea and Iran, and act together on behalf of the planet. That last point was a reference to Macron's work to revive the U.S. role in the Paris climate accord to fight global warming, another international agreement Trump has spurned.

Differences aside, Trump and Macron lavished praise  and even a pair of kisses  on each other Tuesday.

"It's an honor to call you my friend," Trump said, after predicting Macron would be a historic leader of France.

In one light moment, Trump sought to demonstrate some of the personal chemistry he claimed. The U.S. president brushed something off Macron's suit jacket, saying, "We have a very special relationship; in fact, I'll get that little piece of dandruff off. We have to make him perfect  he is perfect."

The meetings followed a pomp-filled welcome ceremony on the South Lawn. Highlights included a 21-gun salute and Melania Trump's wide-brim white hat, which drew more comments than all the rest of the pageantry.

Trump said before an audience of U.S. soldiers and members of his Cabinet that the relationship he forged with Macron at the start of his presidency was a testament to the "enduring friendship that binds our two nations." He thanked the French leader for his "steadfast partnership" in the recent missile strike in response to the chemical attack in Syria.

Macron said, "History is calling us. It is urging our people to find the fortitude that has guided us in the most difficult of times. France and with it, Europe, and the United States have an appointment with history." Later he placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery.

The social highlight of Macron's visit was Tuesday night's formal state dinner at the White House. More than 130 guests dined on rack of lamb and nectarine tart and enjoyed an after-dinner performance by the Washington National Opera. The previous evening, the leaders and their wives took a helicopter tour of Washington landmarks and had dinner at the Potomac River home of George Washington in Mount Vernon, Virginia.

As he gave a toast at the dinner, Trump hailed the bonds between the U.S. and France, saying, "May our friendship grow even deeper, may our kinship grow even stronger and may our sacred liberty never die."

As for substantive issues, one of Macron's main objectives during his three-day visit to Washington was to persuade Trump to stay in the Iran accord, which is aimed at restricting Iran's development of nuclear weapons. Trump is skeptical of the pact's effectiveness  "it's insane, it's ridiculous," he said Tuesday  but he declined to say whether he would withdraw the U.S. by the May 12 deadline he has set.

He reminded his French counterpart of what he sees as flaws in the agreement, which he said fails to address ballistic missiles or Iran's activities in Yemen or Syria.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif warned that pulling out would undermine America's upcoming nuclear talks with North Korea by proving the U.S. reneges on its promises.

He told The Associated Press in an interview in New York that if Trump withdraws, Iran would "most likely" abandon the deal as well and would no longer be bound by its international obligations. That would free Iran to resume enrichment activity beyond the limits imposed by the 2015 accord.

Macron told reporters that he and Trump would look at the Iran deal "in a wider regional context," taking into account the situation in Syria. "We have a common objective, we want to make sure there's no escalation and no nuclear proliferation in the region. We now need to find the right path forward," Macron said.

Trump suggested he was open to "doing something" beyond the current Iran agreement as long as it was done "strongly."

On North Korea, Trump told Macron that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wanted to meet "as soon as possible." The president, who once derided Kim as "Little Rocket Man," said he has been "very open" and "very honorable" so far.

Macron, who calls Trump often, has emerged as something of a "Trump whisperer" at a time when the American president's relationships with other European leaders are more strained. Trump, who attaches great importance to the optics of pageantry and ceremony, chose to honor Macron with the first state visit of his administration as he woos the French president.

Trump ended his first year in office without receiving a foreign leader on a state visit, the first president in nearly 100 years to fail to do so. He was Macron's guest last July at the annual Bastille Day military parade in Paris. Macron and his wife, Brigitte, also took Trump and his wife on a tour of Napoleon's tomb and whisked them up in the Eiffel Tower for dinner overlooking the City of Light.

___

Associated Press writers Ken Thomas and Jonathan Lemire contributed to this report.
What to Know Tyshawn Goven was last seen in Wesley Chapel, a city in Pasco County just to the northeast of Tampa.

Deputies say Goven had gotten into trouble at school and was told by his parents to go outside.

Police say they have found a missing teen who was last seen Monday in Central Florida.

WFLA-TV reports that Pasco County Sheriff's deputies said Tyshawn Goven, who was last seen in Wesley Chapel just to the northeast of Tampa, was found just after 7 a.m.

The 12-year-old was wearing a black t-shirt with a large LeBron James logo, blue jeans and black and white sneakers when he went missing from his home shortly after 1:30 p.m.

Deputies say Goven had gotten into trouble at school and was told by his parents to go outside. His brother later went outside to look for Goven, but could not find him. Goven's father later went outside and could not find him either.

Officials have not released details on where Goven was found.
The 17-year-old student accused of threatening to shoot up J.P. Taravella High School in Coral Springs was released from juvenile detention in Broward.

The teen's father escorted him out of the facility following a court hearing Tuesday. NBC 6 is not naming the teen because of his age.

The teen spent three weeks detained, being evaluated by doctors and other professionals. It was stated in court that the teenager is not mentally ill and only made threats to gain some attention.

He will stay on house arrest with an ankle monitor, he must find a new school, all guns must be removed from the home, and his access to social media will be restricted until further notice. His next court date is scheduled for May 11.

"The truth is you now belong to me, I'm responsible for whatever you do," Judge Elijah Williams told the teen at the hearing. "Now I'm your daddy, you understand?"



Police arrested the 10th grader earlier this month after authorities say he posted a threat on YouTube under the name "Sharp Shooter."

"I want to be a professional school shooter...(no sarcasm, Broward County, Florida) J.P. Taravella HS is my target, tomorrow. I'M LEGIT NOT JOKING AROUND! SPREAD MY MESSAGE!!!!!!" the threat read, according to an arrest report.

The report said the student had edited the post with a similar threat.

"For who ever is reading this, I will be shooting up my high school in broward county Fl. Tomorrow afternoon at 12:00 when school starts. Round 2. J.P. Taravella HS! (I am legit, make my presence known)." the edited threat read, according to the report.

The report said there were firearms in his home in a location secured by the teen's father. The teen confessed to posting the threats on YouTube, the report said.

It was stated in court by the judge that several professionals, friends and family said there is not a concern that the student would act on his threats.

Taravella High is about five miles from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, where 17 people were shot and killed on Feb. 14.
What to Know 10 people were killed when a van plowed into pedestrians in Toronto

Hours later, 15 people remained hospitalized

A 25-year-old was arrested as the suspected van driver

Police in Canada's biggest city are piecing together witness accounts and surveillance video trying to determine why a driver plowed a rented van along a crowded sidewalk, killing 10 people and injuring 15 in what many said seemed a deliberate attack.

A 25-year-old suspect was quickly captured in a tense but brief confrontation with officers a few blocks away from where his van jumped the sidewalk Monday and continued for a mile, leaving people bloodied and dead in his wake. But authorities so far had not disclosed a possible motive or cause even as the police chief agreed with witnesses that it seemed intentional.

"The incident definitely looked deliberate," Police Chief Mark Saunders told reporters at a late-night news conference.

Saunders said the suspect, Alek Minassian, who lives in the Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill, had not been known to police previously. An online social media profile described him as a college student.

Officials would not comment on a possible motive except to play down a possible connection to terrorism, a thought that occurred to many following a series of attacks involving trucks and pedestrians in Europe and the presence in Toronto this week of Cabinet ministers from the G7 nations.

Asked if there was any evidence of a connection to international terrorism, the chief said only, "Based on what we have there's nothing that has it to compromise the national security at this time."

But a senior national government official said earlier that authorities had not turned over the investigation to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a sign that investigators believed it unlikely terrorism was the motive. The official agreed to reveal that information only if not quoted by name.

Mental illness is the leading theory for a motive, several American and Canadian law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation told NBC News. And while it appears that the suspect acted deliberately, terrorism does not seem to have been his motive, U.S. law enforcement officials said.

Authorities released few details in the case, saying the investigation was still underway, with witnesses being interviewed and surveillance video being examined.

"I can assure the public all our available resources have been brought in to investigate this tragic situation," Toronto Police Services Deputy Chief Peter Yuen said earlier.

Police said the suspect was scheduled to appear in court at 10 a.m. Tuesday, and that information on the charges against him would be released at that time.

The incident occurred as Cabinet ministers from the major industrial countries were gathered in Canada to discuss a range of international issues in the run-up to the G7 meeting near Quebec City in June. Canadian Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale called the incident a "horrific attack" and said the G7 foreign ministers extended their condolences.

The driver was heading south on busy Yonge Street around 1:30 p.m. and the streets were crowded with people enjoying an unseasonably warm day when the van jumped onto the sidewalk.

Ali Shaker, who was driving near the van at the time, told Canadian broadcast outlet CP24 that the driver appeared to be moving deliberately through the crowd at more than 30 mph.

"He just went on the sidewalk," a distraught Shaker said. "He just started hitting everybody, man. He hit every single person on the sidewalk. Anybody in his way he would hit."

Witness Peter Kang told CTV News that the driver did not seem to make any effort to stop.

"If it was an accident he would have stopped," Kang said. "But the person just went through the sidewalk. He could have stopped."

Video broadcast on several Canadian outlets showed police arresting the driver, dressed in dark clothes, after officers surrounded him and his rental Ryder van several blocks from where the incident occurred in the North York neighborhood of northern Toronto. He appeared to make some sort of gesture at the police with an object in his hand just before they ordered him to lie down on the ground and took him away.

Witness Phil Zullo told Canadian Press that he saw police arresting the suspect and people "strewn all over the road" where the incident occurred.

"I must have seen about five, six people being resuscitated by bystanders and by ambulance drivers," Zullo said. "It was awful. Brutal."

Police shut down the Yonge and Finch intersection following the incident and Toronto's transit agency said it had suspended service on the subway line running through the area.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed his sympathies for those involved. "We should all feel safe walking in our cities and communities," he said. "We are monitoring this situation closely, and will continue working with our law enforcement partners around the country to ensure the safety and security of all Canadians."

The U.S. stands with the Canadian people "in the aftermath of today's tragic event in Toronto," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement Monday night.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those affected, and we wish a full recovery to those injured. The United States Government pledges to provide any support Canada may need," she said.


What to Know Daniel Rendon Herrera, arrested in Colombia in 2009 and held there until Monday, faces narco-terrorism and int'l cocaine trafficking charges

Herreras organization was responsible for multi-ton shipments of cocaine from Colombia through Central America and Mexico and to U.S.

The federal charges facing Herrera are the result of an investigation by the DEAs New York Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Strike Force

One of Colombias most notorious drug kingpins was extradited to New York from Colombia late Monday and is expected to appear in federal court in Brooklyn later Tuesday, law enforcement sources with knowledge of the case tell News 4.

Daniel Rendon Herrera, arrested in Colombia in 2009 and held there until Monday, faces federal narco-terrorism and international cocaine trafficking charges, the sources said.

In 2009, the U.S. government declared Herrera a Special Designated Narcotics Trafficker. Herreras organization was responsible for multi-ton shipments of cocaine from Colombia through Central America and Mexico and, ultimately, to America, law enforcement sources say.

The federal charges facing Herrera are the result of an investigation by the DEAs New York Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Strike Force.

Details regarding the investigation and charges are expected to be released by the U.S. attorneys office in Brooklyn later Tuesday.
What to Know Measles is very easily spread from person to person; authorities say vaccination is the best preventive care

Typical symptoms include mild to moderate fever, cough, runny nose, red eyes and sore throat

Most cases involve people who contracted measles while traveling abroad or who did not know they had not been vaccinated

Two Connecticut children younger than a year old have confirmed cases of the measles, the state Department of Public Health announced Tuesday.



Both children live in the same New Haven County home, recently traveled abroad and became infected outside the United States, officials said.



Measles is a highly contagious disease that can spread quickly among unvaccinated people. The health department says it is working with local partners to identify contacts and implement appropriate control measures.



Any exposures in New Haven County would have been between April 11 and April 17. Symptoms usually begin seven to 14 days after someone is exposed to an infected person. Typical symptoms include mild to moderate fever, cough, runny nose, red eyes and sore throat. As the sickness develops, a rash may emerge and the fever may boom to more than 104 degrees.



Most Connecticut residents have been vaccinated, the state says. Anyone not sure is advised to check with his or her local physician.



The Connecticut cases follow news last week in New York that two European tourists with measles potentially exposed others at three Jehovah's Witness facilities in the NYC area. The two tourists visited the Kingdom Hall of Jehovahs Witnesses on New Jersey Avenue in Brooklyn between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on April 15. They also visited Watchtower World Headquarters on Kings Drive in Tuxedo Park between 11 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on April 16 and the Watchtower Educational Center on Watchtower Drive in Patterson between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on April 17.

Officials urged anyone who was exposed and is suffering symptoms to contact a health care provider before seeking treatment in order to minimize exposure.
What to Know 'Smallville' actress Allison Mack was arrested by the FBI on Friday; she was released on $5 million bail Monday

She pleaded not guilty to charges in connection with the case against Keith Raniere, founder of a group called Nxivm

Authorities allege Raniere ran the group as a sex cult; Mack has been widely described as a key associate of his

A television actress best known for playing a young Superman's close friend has been released on $5 million bail as she seeks to cut a deal with prosecutors in an alleged sex cult case in which she's accused of acting as a slave "master" and recruiting unsuspecting women.

"Smallville" actress Allison Mack, who was arrested last week for allegedly recruiting slaves into a pyramid scheme for the benefit of alleged sex cult leader Keith Raniere, appeared in Brooklyn federal court for a bail hearing Tuesday. A judge granted her $5 million bail on the condition she stay with family in California and agrees to electronic monitoring.

Mack, 35, appeared in tan jail smocks for the brief court appearance. She only spoke to answer "yes" when the judge asked her if she understood the bail conditions.

Among those conditions: No contact with current or former members of the secretive group known as NXIVM. She'll also be subject to electronic monitoring and restrictions on computer and cellphone use.

By the time Mack left the courthouse more than two hours later, she had switched into a jean jacket, gray slacks and sneakers. She stared straight ahead in silence as she and her lawyers fought through a media scrum to a waiting car, with at least three photographers tripping over each other and toppling to the sidewalk along the way.

Court documents signed by Mack's attorney says Mack is engaged with federal prosecutors in plea negotiations that would likely avoid a blockbuster trial in the heart of the borough.

The document also asks for a delay in moving toward any potential trial as the defense and prosecution negotiate. The 35-year-old Mack has remained in custody since her arrest.



Her publicist said Tuesday, "I have no comment regarding these matters."



The actress starred in the CW series "Smallville" and has played minor roles since the series ended in 2011. But authorities said she was a major player in Raniere's cult-like organization called NXIVM (pronounced Nex-i-um), helping to add unsuspecting women to what was purported to be a mentorship group.

Prosecutors said Friday that Mack stood at the level directly below Raniere in a pyramid scheme called DOS, into which she recruited fresh slaves. The government alleges that Mack forced those slaves to have sex with Raniere in exchange for what were described as "financial and other benefits."

Prosecutors said she required women she recruited to engage in sexual activity with Raniere, who paid Mack in return.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Moira Kim Penza said in court that that "under the guise of female empowerment" Mack "starved women until they fit her co-defendant's sexual ideal."

In a letter attributed to Raniere -- who was arrested in Mexico and returned to the United States last month -- previously posted on a website related to NXIVM, he denied the practices were sanctioned by the self-described self-help group.

The complaint against Raniere - known in the group as "Vanguard" - said that many victims participated in videotaped ceremonies where they were branded in their pelvic area with a symbol featuring Raniere's initials.

"During the branding ceremonies, slaves were required to be fully naked, and the master would order one slave to film while the other held down the slave being branded," the complaint says.

Raniere left the United States late last year after The New York Times reported the stories of some women who defected from their secret sorority and the government began interviewing potential witnesses. He sought to cover this trail by using encrypted email and ditching his phone, court papers say.

At the time of Raniere's capture, Mack was living with him at a luxury villa in Puerto Vallarta, according to court papers.



Both Raniere and Mack face charges of sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy and forced labor conspiracy, for which they could receive 15 years to life in prison.
Authorities said Monday that three Mexican film students who went missing in March in Guadalajara were kidnapped, tortured and killed, and their bodies were dissolved in acid, NBC News reported.

Javier Salomon Aceves Gastelum, Daniel Diaz, and Marco Avalo were last seen on March 19 in the municipality of Tonala, in the state of Jalisco, filming a class project during their Spring Break. The three aspiring filmmakers were students at the Universidad de Medios Audiovisuales.

According to state prosecutors, their car broke down during the trip and they were later kidnapped by gunmen from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), who confused them for members of a rival gang.

Academy Award winning director Guillermo del Toro, who is a native of Guadalajara, expressed outrage on social media in response to the killings.

"Words can't explain the dimension of this madness. 3 students are killed and dissolved in acid. The "why" is unthinkable, the "how" is terrifying, the "Shape of Water" director tweeted.
What to Know Jackson said he "expected tough questions about how to best care for our veterans," but did not expect "baseless and anonymous attacks."

Congressional Democrats had released additional details on allegations of improper conduct

"I never wrecked a car," Jackson told NBC News about one specific allegation

President Donald Trump's White House doctor reluctantly withdrew his nomination to be Veterans Affairs secretary Thursday in the face of accusations of misconduct, the latest embarrassing episode highlighting Trump's struggles to fill key jobs and the perils of his occasional spur-of-the-moment-decision-making.

The weeks-long saga surrounding the nomination of Navy Dr. Ronny Jackson leaves the government's second-largest agency without a permanent leader while it faces an immediate crisis with its private health care program. And it abruptly tarnished the reputation of a doctor beloved by two presidents and their staffs.

White House officials say they are taking a new look at the way nominees' backgrounds are checked  and they believe they will persuade Trump to take additional time to ensure that a replacement is sufficiently vetted.

The leading person now under consideration for the VA post is former Rep. Jeff Miller, who chaired the House Veterans Affairs Committee before retiring last year, according to White House officials. Miller is a strong proponent of expanding private care for veterans, a Trump priority.

Trump quickly selected Jackson, a rear admiral in the Navy, to head the VA last month after firing Obama appointee David Shulkin following accusations of ethical problems and a mounting rebellion within the agency. Jackson, a surprise choice who has worked as a White House physician since 2006, faced immediate questions from Republican and Democratic lawmakers as well as veterans groups about whether he had the experience to manage the massive department of 360,000 employees serving 9 million veterans.

Then this week's unconfirmed allegations by current and former colleagues about drunkenness and improper prescribing of controlled substances, compiled and released by Democrats, made the nomination all but unsalvageable.

"The allegations against me are completely false and fabricated," Jackson said in a statement announcing his withdrawal.

Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Jackson was back at work at the White House on Thursday. But his future there remains uncertain. He had stepped aside from directing Trump's medical care and leading the medical unit while his nomination was being considered.

"I would hope the White House would closely consider whether he is the best person to provide medical care for the president," said Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware.

Trump himself praised Jackson, saying, "He's a great man, and he got treated very, very unfairly." Then the president went after Democratic Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, who released a list of allegations against Jackson that was compiled by the Democratic staff of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.

Trump aides said the president was furious with Tester, who faces a tough re-election fight this fall, and plans to aggressively campaign against him.

"I think Jon Tester has to have a big price to pay in Montana," Trump warned on "Fox & Friends" on TV.

Tester, meanwhile, called on Congress to continue its investigation of Jackson. "I want to thank the service members who bravely spoke out over the past week. It is my constitutional responsibility to make sure the veterans of this nation get a strong, thoroughly vetted leader who will fight for them," he said.

Elsewhere in the capital, Congress was questioning another Trump official whose job appears in jeopardy.

Scott Pruitt, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, was questioned closely by House Democrats about revelations of unusual security spending, first-class flights, an advantageous condo lease and more. Even Republicans who support Pruitt's deregulation efforts, said his conduct needed scrutiny.

Tom Price, Trump's first secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, resigned last year after criticism of his use of private charter flights and military jets.

The turmoil at the VA comes as it faces a budget shortfall for its private-sector Veterans Choice program, a campaign priority of Trump's, with lawmakers deadlocked over a long-term fix due to disagreements over cost and how much access veterans should have to private doctors

Veterans are "exhausted by the unnecessary and seemingly never-ending drama," said Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. "VA's reputation is damaged, staff is demoralized, momentum is stalled and the future is shockingly unclear."

The VA issued a statement late Wednesday that it would push to have Congress move on an expansion of Choice next month.

Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia, chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee, said Thursday he would "work with the administration to see to it we get a VA secretary for our veterans and their families."

White House officials were visibly dismayed Wednesday and Thursday as they watched Jackson suffer the blows of the allegations. The doctor, who is well-liked by and has personal relationships with many White House staffers, cited the withering pressure for withdrawing from consideration for the post, but maintained he had done nothing wrong.

Trump said on Fox that he has an idea for a replacement nominee, adding it will be "someone with political capability."

Miller, the former congressman who was described as the leading candidate, is a strong proponent of expanding private care for veterans, Miller led the push to create Choice in 2014.

However, major veterans groups and Democrats stand opposed to an aggressive expansion of Choice, seeing the effort as a potential threat to VA medical centers.

Dan Caldwell, executive director of the conservative Concerned Veterans for America, urged the White House to take more time "to carefully select and vet a new nominee" who could head VA.

"The VA currently has a competent Acting Secretary in Robert Wilkie who can manage the VA along with the rest of his leadership team," he said. "Considering the tremendous challenges that the last three VA secretaries have faced, it is important that a capable individual with a high level of integrity is selected."

During the presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly pledged to fix the VA by bringing accountability and expanding access to private doctors, criticizing the department as "the most corrupt." At an Ohio event last July, Trump promised to triple the number of veterans "seeing the doctor of their choice."

Currently, more than 30 percent of VA appointments are made in the private sector.
The La Mesa City Council rejected a highly-contested proposal for a marijuana dispensary just steps away from a family health center.

A conditional-use permit to open the medical marijuana dispensary in the La Mesa Medical Plaza on University Avenue near El Cajon Boulevard was approved by the La Mesa planning commission.

Practitioners who have businesses in the medical center weren't happy about it, and they voiced their concerns at an appeal to the City Council Tuesday night.

Challengers of the permit took issue with the dispensary's proximity location to a family health center, The San Diego Center for Children (SDCC), which serves as an outpatient mental health clinic for minors.

SDCC staff argued that the center should be recognized as a minor-oriented facility and should be added to the city's sensitive-use list, which would make it illegal for a dispensary to open within 1,000 feet of the grounds.

The City Council voted unanimously to reject the Planning Commission's proposal.

"I was not surprised," Cheryl Rode, vice president of SDCC said. "I think we demonstrated very clearly that we meet the criteria for a minor-oriented facility, that we are a school-based program, an after-school program if you will, and I think the council very carefully and thoughtfully deliberated that definition."

The SDCC has been operating at the location for 17 years and serves kids from 27 different schools, but didn't qualify for the sensitive-use list.

Wayne Scherer, the owner of New Origins, the group that would have run the dispensary, addressed the council Tuesday and said he understood the concerns surrounding the dispensary but said that it would be safe and run professionally.

Scherer was disappointed with the result of the vote.

"We're a very well-intentioned group," Scherer said. "We understand some of the concerns that the community has about cannabis in general, but I think overall perception, and the things we do with our other licensed dispensary, could have really proved that we would be a super valuable addition to the community."

The author of La Mesa's dispensary ordinance told NBC 7 that she was also surprised with the result of the vote, but added that lawmaking is not an exact science and said it is very difficult to cover every possible scenario.

A letter of appeal sent to the La Mesa Planning Commission said the organization behind the San Diego Center for Children is a 131-year-old non-profit that began serving children with mental, emotional and behavioral disorders in downtown San Diego.
If you wanted to keep up with Kourtney Kardashian Tuesday you would have had to take a trip to Capitol Hill.

The reality TV star teamed up with Environmental Working Group President Ken Cook on Tuesday to talk to congressional leaders about the importance of updating cosmetics legislation.

During the informational briefing, Kardashian talked about her experience with cosmetics and discussed the personal care products that she has used on her three kids over the years.

"She's meeting with lawmakers to update an 80 year old FDA law to help make beauty products safer," NBC Washington's Jennifer Vasquez (@JennVasquez_DC) tweeted Tuesday, along with a photo of Kardashian from the meeting.

"Kourtney Kardashian says that as a mom it's important for her to know what's in the personal care products she uses," Vasquez also shared with her followers. "She's calling for new legislation that will give cosmetic companies a guideline of how much of a certain chemical they can use."

Kourtney Kardashian Celebrates 39th Birthday With Her Kids--and Ice Cream

The Personal Care Products Safety Act was introduced in May 2017 by senators Dianne Feinstein and Susan Collins. This act was created in hopes of protecting the health of consumers by "strengthening" the Food and Drug Administration's "authority to regulate the ingredients in personal care products."

After the informational briefing, attendees lined up to meet Kardashian.

The E! star flew into Washington, D.C., on Monday and has been documenting her stay on social media.

In addition to her meetings in D.C., Kardashian's also launching her KOURT X KYLIE collab with sister Kylie Jenner today.
An employee at a day care in Virginia inappropriately touched four 5-year-old girls, according to Prince William County police.

Last month, a victim told her mother an assistant teacher at Minnieland Academy in Bristow inappropriately touched her March 26, police said.

A child who attends the center in Bristow informed their mother that they may have been inappropriately touched, Prince William County police Sgt. Jonathan Perok said.

Her mother told the day care center and Child Protective Services.

The investigation uncovered inappropriate touching dating to March 2017, police said.

Through our investigation we also identified three additional victims, Perok said. Theyre all females; theyre all 5 years old.

Police arrested Taylor Keith Boykin, 27, of Nokesville Friday. He is charged with four counts each of aggravated sexual battery, object sexual penetration and indecent liberties by a custodian and is being held without bond.

The parents who spoke to News4 Monday said while none of their children was under his care, Minnieland failed by not being forthcoming to parents.

They didnt inform us, said Nusrat Nayeem, the mother of a Minnieland student. They didnt inform any of us.

Employees of the day care said Minnieland corporate would provide a statement.
Did your hospital get an A or an F?

Sibley Memorial Hospital now has an A. Howard University Hospital still has an F. And several hospitals in Maryland and Virginia now have higher or lower grades.

Overall, Virginia has some of the best hospitals in the country and D.C. and Maryland have some of the worst when it comes to avoiding medical errors, injuries and infections, a report released Tuesday found.

Approximately 2,500 hospitals across 50 states plus D.C. were assigned letter grades based on a range of patient-safety measures and ranked based on their percentage of A hospitals, according to Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit health care ratings organization.

The group measured improvements in D.C. and Maryland.

"In looking at Maryland over the course of these six months, its clear theres been an effort to improve since they were first graded in fall 2017, Leapfrog president and CEO Leah Binder said in a statement. Not only are there now three A hospitals, but six additional hospitals received a B grade, having previously received a C or lower.

"In the case of Washington, D.C., were encouraged residents have an A hospital in the area for the first time in five years," she continued.

News4 reached out to the nine hospitals in the D.C. area whose grades dropped since Leapfrog released their last grades in fall 2017, plus the six hospitals whose grades improved.

Washington, D.C.

Providence Hospital of Washington: F

MedStar Washington Hospital Center: D

Howard University Hospital: F

George Washington University Hospital: C

MedStar Georgetown University Hospital: C

Sibley Memorial Hospital: A

There is nothing more important than patient safety and we at Sibley are delighted to see our efforts in this regard have been recognized by the prestigious Leapfrog organization. At Sibley Memorial Hospital, our mission to is deliver excellence and compassionate care  every person, every time. Patient safety is the very cornerstone of that mission and the foundation of what we strive to ensure every day for those who trust us with their health, CEO Richard Davis said.

Maryland

MedStar Southern Maryland Hospital Center: D

MedStar Montgomery Medical Center: C

MedStar St. Mary's Hospital: B

We are pleased at the demonstrated commitment to patient safety and quality from our entire team at MedStar St. Marys Hospital and will continue to strive for the highest quality care possible for our patients and community, hospital spokeswoman Holly Meyer said in a statement.

University of Maryland Prince George's Hospital Center: D

University of Maryland Charles Regional Medical Center: C

University of Maryland Laurel Regional Hospital: D

University of Maryland Shore Medical Center at Dorchester: B

University of Maryland Shore Medical Center at Easton: C

Doctors Community Hospital: C

Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center: C

Frederick Memorial Hospital: C

Calvert Memorial Hospital: C

Holy Cross Hospital: D

Suburban Hospital: B

Fort Washington Medical Center: F

Adventist HealthCare Washington Adventist Hospital: C

Howard County General Hospital: A



Northern Virginia

Inova Fair Oaks Hospital: A

Virginia Hospital Center (Arlington Health System): A

Inova Mount Vernon Hospital: A

Inova Alexandria Hospital: B

"Inova Alexandria Hospital is very proud of our physicians, nurses and staff who have worked so hard to continue to strengthen our patient outcomes and patient experiences. Our B grade is an increase from C last year and is a reflection of our commitment to patient safety, continuous improvement and zero harm to the patients we are privileged to serve," said Susan Carroll, Inova Health System's regional executive officer for the eastern region.

Inova Fairfax Hospital: B

Novant Health UVA Health System Prince William Medical Center: C

Mary Washington Hospital: B

Sentara RMH Medical Center: B

Sentara RMH Medical Center is appreciative of The Leapfrog Group and its ratings. Our staff and physicians are always striving to improve in all areas of patient care, and safety is one of our top priorities. While we recognize there is always room for improvement, our hospital has a strong, established record of patient safety, Susan McDonald, MD, Vice President of Medical Affairs, said in a statement.

Reston Hospital Center: C

A spokeswoman said the hospital didn't have a comment.

Inova Loudoun Hospital: A

Fauquier Hospital: A

Stafford Hospital: A

Novant Health UVA Health System Culpeper Medical Center: B

"Patient safety is the top priority for Novant Health UVA Health System.

We make significant efforts to provide safe, quality care to our patients and believe it is important for hospitals to be transparent with their quality and safety information so that patients are better informed. There are multiple hospital care rating systems and each has its own merit. Based on the results of these ratings, we examine our care practices to determine what, if any, changes should be made.

On an ongoing basis, Novant Health UVA Health System physicians and clinical staff analyze our hospital acquired conditions, patient safety indicators, hospital-acquired infections, safe practice measures and patient communications to identify opportunities for improvement.

We remain dedicated to implementing new strategies to directly address patient safety and patient satisfaction," a hospital spokeswoman said in a statement.

Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center: B

A Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center spokeswoman said the hospital didn't have a comment.

Winchester Medical Center: A

The biannual 2018 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades report shows 30 percent of hospitals graded earned an A, 28 percent earned a B, 35 percent a C, six percent a D and one percent an F. Go here to see the full rankings.

Additionally, 46 hospitals achieved an A grade for the first time since Leapfrog first began issuing grades in 2012, and 89 hospitals that received an A had at one point received a D or F.

"The national numbers on death and harm in hospitals have alarmed us for decades. What we see in the new round of Safety Grades are signs of many hospitals making significant improvements in their patient safety record," Binder said in a statement. "Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades have definitely spurred these improvement efforts. But the hospitals achieving new milestones are doing the hard work, and we salute them as well as the leaders, researchers and organizations fighting every year for patient safety."



The five states with highest number of A grade hospitals in the spring of 2018 report were Hawaii, Idaho, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Virginia. There were no A grade hospitals in Alaska, Delaware or North Dakota.

Hospitals with F grades are located in California, Washington, D.C., Florida, Iowa, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey and New York.

The evaluation system factors in medical errors, infections and injuries, data provided to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the American Hospital Association, and surveys compiled by Leapfrog. It is calculated by top patient safety experts and peer-reviewed, the group said.


Four people are facing charges after leading police on a multi-town car chase that started when they allegedly stole some seafood and steaks from a Massachusetts grocery store.

Thirty-one-year-old Everett resident John Hickey, 27-year-old Billerica resident Dylan Brunetto, 31-year-old Pepperell resident Felicia Drew and 28-year-old Groton resident Gregory Tammaro were arrested following a chase that started on Interstate 495 southbound when Littleton police received a call about an erratic driver in a silver Subaru Crosstrek.

Police said the four, all well-known to police, had stolen some steaks and seafood from a Shaw's supermarket in Groton and then started tossing all of it, along with some beer bottles, out of the window when police tried to pull them over.

Police said the Subaru was clocked at driving at 75 to 80 mph on I-495 and onto Route 2, where it eventually exited the highway at Route 111 in Harvard.

The car finally stopped after it crashed into another car in downtown Acton on Route 111 and Windsor Avenue; the suspects' vehicle then caught fire.

Police said the driver of the suspects' vehicle, Hickey, told authorities he didn't want to stop because his arrest would be a violation of his parole. He now faces up to life behind bars.

Hickey faces numerous charges, including failing to stop for police, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, operating after license revoked and speeding. Brunetto was charged with conspiracy, and had a warrant for a prior shoplifting accusation, while Drew and Tammarro were both charged with conspiracy and shoplifting over $100 by concealing merchandise.

It's unclear if Hickey or his alleged accomplices have attorney. They're due in Ayer District Court Tuesday afternoon.

No one was injured in the ordeal.

Wendy Ouellette, the driver of the car that was hit by the suspects' Crosstrek, told NBC10 Boston she could hardly recall what happened.

"I heard the unmistakable sound of tires squealing" before the crash, she said.
Friends of a Litchfield, Maine woman allegedly killed by her son and his two teenage friends are revealing new details about events leading up to her brutal murder.

Kimberly Mironovas, 47, was found in her home early Sunday morning. Police arrested her 15 year old son and his two friends from Ashland, Massachusetts, ages 15 and 13.

According to court documents, the teens conspired to poison Mironovas by crushing up pills and putting them in her wine. When that didn't work, the 15-year-old teens strangled her in her bedroom while she slept. Police say her son also stabbed her in the neck.

The 15-year-old son and his 15-year-old friend are facing murder charges. The 13-year-old friend has been charged with conspiracy to commit murder. All three have been ordered to undergo mental health evaluations, and are being held at the Longcreek Youth Development Center in South Portland. Prosecutors may make a motion to charge them as adults.

"I still can't believe it," said Sage Lockhart, who was a friend and classmate of Mironovas at the Aveda Institute in Augusta. They were both studying at the beauty school. She said the details of the murder are "chilling" because she spoke to Mironovas about her "troubled" son in the weeks leading up to her death.

Anthony Coco, President of the Aveda Institute, confirmed that Mironovas spoke to her classmates about having issues with her son.

Lockhart said during lunch dates, Mironovas would talk to her about her "angry" son, and ask for advice disciplining him.

"I told her I got my electronics taken away, and I wasn't allowed to go out with friends," said Lockhart. "I tried to say, do stuff like that. But she said it doesn't work. It never works."

Mironovas and her son recently moved to Maine from Massachusetts. Lockhart suspects the son resented his mother for uprooting his life.

The last time Lockhart saw her friend was Saturday -- the day of the murder. She said Mironovas seemed happy, and excited to take her son and his friends out to dinner and ice cream.

Mironovas told Lockhart she let her son invite two friends from Massachusetts to Maine for April vacation.

"She said that he needed to hang out with friends," said Lockhart. "She said she wanted to make him happy."
A Massachusetts judge who engaged in sexual acts with a social worker in his chambers has damaged the public's faith in the judicial system and can no longer command the respect necessary to remain on the bench, the head of the state's Commission on Judicial Conduct said Tuesday.

Howard V. Neff III, executive director of the commission, told the Supreme Judicial Court that an indefinite suspension that would allow lawmakers to decide whether to remove Judge Thomas Estes from the bench is the only proper punishment for behavior Neff called "egregious."

"Unless this court sets a precedent that makes it absolutely clear that this type of conduct will not be tolerated ... there is little hope that public trust in the administration of public justice in Massachusetts will be restored," Neff said.

Estes admits he had a sexual relationship with Tammy Cagle, who worked in the special drug court where he sat. But Estes denies allegations Cagle made in a federal lawsuit, including that he coerced her into performing oral sex on him and played a role in getting her removed from the drug court when she tried to end the relationship.

Estes, who's married and has two teenage boys, attended Tuesday's hearing but left the courthouse without speaking to reporters. The court did not immediately decide Estes' punishment. He is asking for a four-month suspension.

Estes' lawyer, David Hoose, said that there's no indication the relationship ever caused Estes to favor Cagle or affect his decisions on the bench. Hoose said many judges across the country have had inappropriate sexual relationships, but few have lost their jobs for it.

"He is an exemplary judge who has sinned but has not sinned so severely that it should cost him his career," Hoose said.

But Justice Scott Kafker questioned how the court could restore Estes to his position, saying judges are held to the highest standards.

"Whenever a person in charge of the organization is having a sexual relationship with someone that reports to them that creates all kinds of problems, right?" Kafker asked.

If the Supreme Judicial Court indefinitely suspends Estes and refers the matter to lawmakers and the governor, it will be only the fourth time it has ever done so, Hoose said.

Lawmakers could then either impeach Estes or issue a "bill of address" calling for his removal. Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, who supports Estes' removal, and the Governor's Council would both have to sign off on a bill of address to strip Estes from the bench.

The last time a Massachusetts judge was removed through a bill of address was Judge Jerome Troy of the Dorchester District Court in 1973.

Leonard Kesten, an attorney for Cagle, said Estes has lost his right to be a judge. Cagle, who also attended the hearing, declined to speak to reporters.

Estes "was absolutely in charge of her job and in control of her future and used that power to take advantage of a vulnerable employee. And that you can't do." Kesten said. "We're certainly at a time in our country when people have recognized that. And it's time that women don't have to put up with this."
The K9 partner of a slain Massachusetts police sergeant continues to get stronger less than two weeks after being shot.

The Yarmouth Police Department said on its Facebook page that although he is not fully recovered, Nero "is being well cared for by K9 handlers and friends" and called the dog's future "bright."

Nero underwent surgery April 13, the day after being shot in the face and neck while accompanying his handler, Sgt. Sean Gannon, to serve an arrest warrant at a home in Barnstable.

Gannon, who was also shot, later died at Cape Cod Hospital.

Nero, was released from the Cape Cod Veterinary Specialist where he had been recovering the same day Gannon was laid to rest. He will not return to police work but instead live with Gannon's wife.

The shooting suspect, 29-year-old Thomas Latanowich, was ordered to be held without bail after he was arraigned on a murder charge and one count of mistreating a police dog.


Ex-archbishop speaks of urban saints in Norwich Ex-archbishop speaks of urban saints in Norwich

Holiness - demonstrated through the lives of three modern urban saints - was the subject of a Newman Lecture, given by former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams at the University of East Anglia last night (April 23).



Addressing an audience of around 120, Dr Williams, now Master of Magdalene College in Cambridge, spoke about the lives of three rather remarkable 20th century women.



They are to my mind among the very greatest Christian witnesses of the last 100 years, said Dr Williams.



None of them were conventional saintly figures, all caused controversy and a degree of scandal in their day and all of them came to embrace the fullness of faith as adults.



There is an extraordinary convergence in the vision of these three women, their writings and the heart of their witness in the 20th century city. They all ran their hands down the grain of reality and found it ran in the same way, said Dr Williams.



They shared the experience of a century which witnessed an immense upheaval, suffering, violence and injustice on an exceptional scale. Each of them was directly involved in the consequences of it and each lived out their vocation in an urban environment.



Maria Skobtsova, grew up as a radical and communist in Russia. She became politically active, was twice divorced and had to leave Russia in poverty. She ended up in Paris and, after the death of her youngest child at the age of five, turned towards faith and met the needs of the homeless and refugees. She became a nun and continued her work, using her home as a refuge for refugees first from Russia and then Jews from Nazi Germany.



When the Nazis arrived in Paris she smuggled many Jews out. She was arrested and sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp when she was executed.



Dorothy Day, from New York, was the founder of the Catholic Worker Movement in the USA. She was active as a communist, a single mother and led a colourful life.



She has a radical passion for the poor which consumed her and which made no sense at all unless there was a radical passion in the universe for the good of the human race, said Dr Williams.



She organised small communities across the USA for vagrants, the homeless and the destitute, with no preconditions. She genuinely believed that if there was a need at the door, the door had to be opened.



She did this for decades and it cost her and her family dearly

French woman, Madeleine Delbrel, was a lively and unconventional young woman and a Communist. She was from a well-to-do and anti-religious background. When she discovered that there was something missing from her life she turned to a life of radical Christian discipleship at Ivry near Paris.



It was essentially prayer that converted Madeleine and she trained as a social worker and spent most of her adult life as a director of social services. She set up a small informal community of single women who practiced hospitality.



These three women are remarkable examples of lives of forbidding intensity and self-sacrifice which make me feel extremely half-hearted, said Dr Williams.



They organised their Christian discipleship around a couple of very simple principles. The person who is before you with empty or open hands is God - understand that and all sorts of sometimes uncomfortable things follow.



Also, part of what is in front of you holding out hands is yourself  a needy, confused and quite often chaotic self. Be patient with that self as well, as that is God too, said Dr Williams.



These three woman dont give us a theory of how to be holy in the modern city or modern world. They give us three stories of holiness, which is always the best way to approach holiness  narratives not theories.



The Newman Lecture series coincides with the recent release by Pope Francis of an apostolic exhortation, Gaudete et Exsultate  a call to holiness in todays world.



The final lecture is from Sr Ann Swailes of Cambridge University on April 30 at 6.30pm, in the Julian Study Centre at the UEA and is free to attend.



For more information contact andrew.Eburne@uea.ac.uk



Pictured above is Dr Rowan Williams (centre), with Bishop Alan Hopes (left) and Deacon Andrew Eburne.


Recruitment company shortlisted for several national industry awards

NEWBURY-based recruitment firm Amberjack has been shortlisted for a staggering seven national industry awards.

The company, which is based in Kings Road West, has been nominated for the accolades at this years Recruiter Awards.

The awards gala is the UKs largest event for the recruitment industry, recognising outstanding achievements by agencies and in-house recruiters.

Amberjack is in the running to secure its third Outstanding Outsourced Recruitment Organisation Award, having been crowned winners of the accolade twice before, in 2013 and 2016.

Amberjacks other shortlisted categories include Best Candidate Experience, which recognises the companys work with Mars, and Best Graduate Recruitment Strategy, in recognition of its work with Network Rail in improving diversity.

The companys partnership with Morrisons to transform recruitment for its flagship degree apprenticeships has also been shortlisted for the Best School Leaver Recruitment Strategy.

It had also been nominated for the Recruitment Technology Innovation of the Year accolade through its creation of an innovative game-based recruitment process for Imperial Brands.

Nominations for Best Client Service and Recruitment Industry Supplier of the Year make up a magnificent seven for the Newbury business.

It is the latest success story for Amberjack, which was crowned 2017 winner of the Newbury Weekly News Best in Business awards.

Amberjacks director of consulting solutions Amanda Mobbs-McQuilkin said the company was eager to use its West Berkshire accolade as a springboard to compete alongside the nations top dogs in the recruiter industry.

She said: As a Newbury-based business, were so proud to have won the Best in Business award.

The award has helped establish our brand locally and weve been able to use our success as a springboard for national recognition.

To be shortlisted for seven award categories underlines the fantastic results our assessment and dedicated resourcing teams deliver in partnership with our clients.

Our success is built on dedication and great people and the innovative solutions we develop here in Newbury.

Were not just making recruitment more effective, but more efficient, and engaging for candidates too.

The awards will be held at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London, on Thursday, May 3.

n Applications for the NWN Best in Business Awards 2018 are being accepted from now until June 22.

For information on how to enter, visit www.bestinbusinessawards.co.uk/
Defendant avoids jail - provided he doesn't gamble

THE night shift manager at a Newbury fast-food takeaway stole 8,016 to feed his raging gambling addiction.

Andrei Atudorei thought he could win big and pay it all back  but he was caught out when a suspicious colleague at Dominos Pizza arranged an audit, Reading Crown Court heard on Thursday, April 12.

Sarita Basra, prosecuting, said the 28-year-old, of West Street, Newbury, was placed in a position of trust when he was appointed to the job in April, 2016.

She told the court: A company manager, Mr Armstrong, became aware that no money was being banked.

A security company, G4S, who were contracted to collect the takings on Mondays and Thursdays, had been turned away for the last three visits.

Then Mr Armstrong had a phone call from the accountants saying there was a VAT bill due and not enough money in the account to pay for it.

The net was closing on Atudorei, the court heard, as a suspicious Mr Armstrong ordered an audit and, suspecting a problem with the staff, inspected CCTV camera footage.

Ms Basra said: The money should have been put in the safe and CCTV footage showed the defendant trying to obscure the camera.

In possession of damning evidence, senior management confronted Atudorei, who immediately admitted his guilt.

A police search of his home uncovered slips for thousands of pounds worth of bets in his bedroom.

At a previous hearing he admitted stealing a total of 8,016 in cash from Dominos Pizza take-away in Newbury between October 23 and November 4 last year.

However, in a basis of plea that was not accepted by the crown, he claimed he only stole 6,200.

Ms Basra said that most of the cash loss had been made good by an insurance claim, but that 2,500 remained outstanding.

Jonathan Underhill, for Atudorei, said his client was a man of previous good character who had developed a gambling addiction which had suddenly raged out of control.

He explained that Atudorei entertained the vain hope that he would have a big enough win to repay the cash he had stolen.

The court heard that, with medical help, Atudorei had since conquered his gambling addiction and now had a new job.

Mr Underhill said: He is deeply remorseful and willing and able to repay the outstanding sum.

Judge Angela Morris told Atudorei: By your actions you breached the trust your employers placed in you.

However she said that, having read pre-sentence reports, she was prepared to give Atudorei a chance to avoid an immediate custodial sentence.

Judge Morris told him: Im told you have a permanent job and wish to repay Dominos Pizza. Im going to put that to the test.

Although the offence may qualify for a custodial sentence, it seems to me youve turned your life around, to a degree.

She said she would defer sentence until September 11.

Judge Morris promised Atudorei that, provided he paid 2,500 to Dominos Pizza, did not gamble in betting shops or online and did not commit any further offences, he would receive a non-custodial sentence on that date.

She concluded: Sentence is deferred, under those terms.
WASHINGTON  Although she bowed out of her 2018 re-election bid in the wake of missteps over the firing of an abusive chief of staff, Rep. Elizabeth Esty is said to be talking about a possible return to Capitol Hill in 2020.

Estys office is denying the information.

However, in separate interviews, three former Esty staffers said that Esty, D-Conn., has told current staffers and perhaps fellow lawmakers that she is seriously contemplating a run in 2020 for the same seat she will soon vacate.

If so, a race to reclaim representation of Connecticuts 5th Congressional District could be viewed as redemption for a liberal Democratic lawmaker who decided not to seek a fourth term earlier this month after admitting mistakes in easing out former chief of staff Tony Baker in 2016.

But to former  and, likely, current  staffers jarred by the revelations of Estys conduct, a rehabilitative run in 2020 would fly in the face of her promises to devote her remaining time in part to addressing abuse and harassment on Capitol Hill.

Its too soon to be turning the page, said one former staff member. It may always be too soon to be turning the page.

Estys office denied the 58-year-old Cheshire resident is entertaining thoughts of a comeback.

Rep. Esty has announced that she is not running for re-election and nothing has changed since she made that announcement, said her current chief of staff, Timothy Daly, in an email. Her focus right now is serving out the remainder of her term to the best of her ability.

Asked whether Esty specifically disavows talking about any plan to run again, Daly replied: There is no truth to a claim for a run in 2020.

On April 2, the day she quit the 2018 race, Esty said in a statement that Congress needs stronger workplace protections to eliminate instances of abuse and harassment.

In my final months in Congress, I will use my power to fight for action and meaningful change, she said.

At the heart of Estys decision to quit her 2018 re-election bid was her acceptance of blame for keeping Baker on the office payroll for three months after learning of his abusive behavior in 2016.

After a night of heavy drinking, Baker let loose an expletive-laden round of about 50 phone calls, messages and texts threatening to find Estys former scheduler, Anna Kain, and kill her.

Kain went to court and obtained a year-long protective order against Baker. Her court petition said that Baker had threatened Kain over disclosing his behavior to the House ethics panel, saying she would never find another job.

Baker and Kain had a consensual relationship in 2013, which was Estys first year in office after winning the seat formerly occupied by now Sen. Chris Murphy. They broke it off by mutual consent the same year.

In January 2014, Baker went from being Estys legislative director to chief of staff  a promotion that made him Kains boss.

It was then that Kain started enduring abusive treatment from Baker, she said, including a punch in the back  the only element of Kains accusations that Baker has specifically denied.

Esty said she knew nothing of the abusive behavior until receiving a report of Bakers phoned and texted threats to Kain on May 5, 2016. The abuse took place after Baker became intoxicated at a party he threw to mark his 10th anniversary on Capitol Hill.

Esty took responsibility for keeping Baker in the office while an investigation of his conduct proceeded, and then taking him as part of her political entourage to the Democratic convention in Philadelphia after firing him.

She also said she should not have offered a positive job recommendation that enabled him to find a position in his native Ohio with Sandy Hook Promise  a job from which he has since been dismissed.

Esty initially said she hoped she could survive the ensuing firestorm that followed disclose of her efforts to ease Baker out quietly.

But leading Democrats in Connecticut were among those calling for her resignation.

If it did indeed occur, an Esty comeback in 2020 would be fraught with obstacles. At least three possible Democratic replacements have expressed interest in occupying the seat, including Mark Barden and Nicole Hockley.

They are founders of Newtown-based Sandy Hook Promise and the parents of children slain in the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

If a Democrat wins in November  the seat is rated lean Democrat by the authoritative Cook Political Report  there is no guarantee the new lawmaker would want to relinquish his or her seat in 2020.

The Connecticut Democratic Partys spokeswoman, Christina Polizzi, said she was unaware of any expression of interest by Esty in running in 2020.

"The Democratic Party is focused on 2018 and making sure we elect a Democrat in this seat who will stand up to Donald Trump and Republicans on issues from combatting gun violence to protecting our health care to creating jobs that pay a fair wage, she said.

Estys political staff has been figuring how to reimburse contributors for campaign donations designated for the general election, which they are obligated to do under federal election law. Estys campaign had $1.6 million in cash on hand as of the end of March.

But the majority of the money is designated for the Aug. 14 primary. Under law, those who contributed for the primary must request a refund.

In an interview last week, Daly told Hearst Connecticut Media that the number of refunds so far was fewer than 100, and that Esty had not decided what to do with the primary money that had not been requested for refund.

Daly and Estys press secretary did not respond to requests Monday to interview Esty.

In an interview April 10 upon her return to Washington, Esty said she didnt know what she would do when her term in office ends on Jan. 20, 2019.

My focus now is to be as effective as I can be, to continue to serve in my present job, she said. Im hoping to have some good come out of all this pain.
Courtesy of Hunter Brawley

Shermans Naromi Land Trust President Marge Josephson was awarded the Katchen Coley Award for Excellence in Land Conservation at the Connecticut Land Conservation Council Conference in Middletown.

The award recognizes individuals that embody all that Katchen meant to land conservation: an individual fiercely devoted to land conservation, whose long-term commitment to conservation causes has furthered the work of one or more conservation organizations in Connecticut.
Researchers at Oxford University have shown that it is possible to identify genetic catalysts that accelerate the evolution of antibiotic resistance in bacteria - and that this knowledge could be used to design treatments to stifle the development of resistance.

The study was funded by the Wellcome Trust and the European Research Council and is published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Senior author Professor Craig MacLean, from Oxford's Department of Zoology, said: 'It is well established that different species of bacteria evolve resistance to antibiotics during infections at very different rates. One potential explanation for this observation is that some species of bacteria may be intrinsically better at evolving resistance to antibiotics than others.'

To test this hypothesis, the team challenged species of the genus Pseudomonas - bacteria that are opportunistic pathogens of humans, animals and plants - with the common antibiotic ceftazidime. They found that individual species of Pseudomonas evolved antibiotic resistance at radically different rates.

Professor MacLean said: 'We identified that the presence of a gene known as ampR is a major cause of this variation. ampR is a master regulatory gene that switches the expression of hundreds of other genes on and off, including genes involved in antibiotic resistance. This gene acts as an evolutionary catalyst for antibiotic resistance. Put simply, species that carry the ampR gene evolve resistance at a higher rate than species that lack this gene. ampR has this effect because it makes it easier for random mutations to increase the expression of antibiotic resistance genes.'

The study marks the first time a range of bacteria species have been subject to controlled experiments in this way. Species studied by the researchers included Pseudomonas aeruginosa - an important human pathogen that can cause serious infections, particularly among people with cystic fibrosis or those already in hospital.

Professor MacLean said: 'Pseudomonas aeruginosa carries the ampR gene, and it evolved ceftazidime resistance at quite a high rate in our experiments. We therefore wondered if it would be possible in effect to remove the evolutionary advantage that this gene provides.'

The team treated cultures of the species with a combination of ceftazidime and avibactam, an enzyme inhibitor that blocks the activity of an important resistance gene that is controlled by ampR. In the lab, this strategy worked 'spectacularly well' according to the researchers, eliminating populations of Pseudomonas aeruginosa before they could evolve resistance.

Inhibitors like avibactam are often used to treat infections caused by resistant strains of bacteria in clinical settings, but the team's findings suggest they could be used to prevent resistance developing in the first place. However, the researchers caution that follow-up in vivo experiments are required to help test the idea.

Professor MacLean added: 'This work has two important implications. First, our study shows how understanding the evolutionary biology of resistance can be used to come up with new ways to stop resistance from spreading. In this case, we show that using an enzyme inhibitor that blocks the evolutionary path to antibiotic resistance can be used to eliminate populations of an important pathogen without driving the spread of resistance. Second, this study shows that comparing how closely related species of bacteria become resistant to antibiotics can help us better understand resistance in pathogens.

'Antibiotic resistance is a growing problem that threatens to fundamentally undermine our health and welfare. For example, the UK government's O'Neill report warns that antibiotic-resistant infections will surpass cancer as a source of human mortality in about 2050. Given this crisis, there is an urgent need to develop new ways of treating bacterial infections. The key idea that motivates our research is that we can use an understanding of how evolution works to come up with new ways of predicting and preventing the spread of resistance.'
SpeeDx has announced a distribution agreement with Serosep Ltd, a leading manufacturer and distributor of laboratory diagnostic solutions. This will strengthen sales channels in the UK and Ireland, ensuring greater access to SpeeDxs multiplexed PlexPCR and ResistancePlus molecular diagnostic tests across the region.

The agreement provides Serosep customers with access to SpeeDxs proprietary technology for infectious disease diagnostics, in line with Seroseps goal of improving lives while supporting the everyday struggles faced by laboratories. The SpeeDx portfolio includes the market-leading ResistancePlus MG assay  for simultaneous detection of Mycoplasma genitalium and genetic markers for azithromycin resistance  as well as a multiplex test for herpes simplex virus (1 and 2), varicella zoster and Treponema pallidum (syphilis). Further ResistancePlus assays will be released later this year  including a test for gonorrhea  along with a comprehensive PlexPCR multiplex panel for respiratory virus testing.

Theres an obvious synergy between SpeeDx and Serosep, and we share the common goal of offering innovative solutions to our customers, said Colin Denver, CEO of SpeeDx. This strategic distribution agreement will extend our reach in Europe as we continue to expand our test portfolio.
The government of India undertaking EESL today handed over the first batch of 20 electric cars to the Uttarakhand government to mark the launch of e-transport in the state.

The fleet of 20 cost-effective e-vehicles was received from the Energy Efficient Services Limited (EESL) in the first phase which will reduce pollution levels, Chief Secretary Utpal Kumar Singh said after receiving the key of the first electric car from EESL representatives at the secretariat.

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Secretary(Power) Radhika Jha said EESL would charge only Rs 38,000 per month including driver's cost from the state government as rent for these vehicles. Only Rs 15 will have to be spent per day on charging each vehicle, she said.

Once fully charged, each e-car can cover a distance of 140 kms at a cost of just 28 paise per km, Jha said. It is part of the Centre's National Electric Mobility Plan under which it wants to bring 60-70 lakh electric vehicles on Indian roads.

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Introduction of e-vehicles will lessen the financial burden on the government by reducing the import of crude oil. Carbon footprint would also be controlled and carbon dioxide emission would decrease by around 5.6 lakh tonnes, officials said.

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Mumbai: Benchmarks closed higher for the second straight day on Tuesday, propelled by a burst of buying in energy stocks even as crude oil prices soared to over three-year highs.

Reliance Industries was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, surging 3.70 per cent, while the BSE Energy index outperformed all other sectoral indices by a wide margin.

The BSE Sensex rallied 165.87 to settle at 34,616.64 and the NSE Nifty ended 29.65 points higher at 10,614.35.

An appreciating rupee, unabated buying by domestic institutional investors (DIIs) and encouraging earnings by blue-chips also contributed to the uptrend, brokers said.

Overseas, Asian markets closed mostly higher even as oil prices crossed USD 75 a barrel, the highest level since November 2014, pushed up by expectations of renewed US sanctions against Iran and OPEC continuing to crimp supplies.

The BSE 30-share Sensex took off on a positive note at 34,491.38 and advanced to the day's high of 34,706.71 before ending at 34,616.64, up 165.87 points, or 0.48 per cent.

The gainers included Yes Bank, M&M, Adani Ports, ICICI Bank, L&T, HDFC, Bajaj Auto, Dr Reddy's and ONGC.

The NSE Nifty, after shuttling between 10,636.80 and 10,569, finally settled 29.65 points, or 0.28 per cent higher at 10,614.35.

However, the gains were capped by selling pressure in metals, IT, teck, power, consumer durables and PSU stocks.

Meanwhile, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 387.26 crore, while foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 259.08 crore on Monday, provisional data released by the stock exchanges showed.

"Market extended gains backed by index heavyweights while correction in metals and IT were due to ease in sanctions by US and tightening of H1-B visa procedure.

"Investors are likely to be cautious amid surging oil prices but any green shoots from corporate results and stability in yield will determine the market direction,"

said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.

In the Sensex gainers' list, RIL was followed by Yes Bank (3.31 per cent), M&M (1.94 per cent) and Adani Ports (1.74 per cent).

Other winners were ICICI Bank 1.66 per cent, HDFC 1.31 per cent, L&T 1.25 per cent, Bajaj Auto 1.25 per cent, ONGC 0.94 per cent, Coal India 0.81 per cent and Sun Pharma 0.67 per cent.

Bharti Airtel also ended 0.61 per cent higher while IDFC Bank dropped 1.24 per cent ahead of their Q4 results.

Dr Reddy's Labs rose 1.05 per cent after the company said it has received an Establishment Inspection Report (EIR) from the USFDA for its API Mirfield plant in the UK.

On the other hand, Wipro fell 3.30 per cent, Infosys 2.49 per cent, Tata Steel 1.23 per cent, SBI 0.87 per cent, TCS 0.87 per cent, Kotak Bank 0.73 per cent, Tata Motors 0.58 per cent, Asian Paints 0.51 per cent, Power Grid 0.41 per cent, NTPC 0.37 per cent and Axis Bank 0.24 per cent.

Sector-wise, energy index surged 2.39 per cent, followed by oil and gas by 1.50 per cent, capital goods 0.65 per cent, infrastructure 0.51 per cent, healthcare 0.45 per cent, bankex 0.40 per cent, auto 0.39 per cent and FMCG 0.10 per cent.

However, the metal index tumbled 1.82 per cent as aluminium prices continued to fall after the US softened its stance on sanctions against Russian metals giant United Company Rusal.

Nalco, Hindalco, Vedanta, Tata Steel, Hindustan Zinc, SAIL and NMDC were among the top losers in the BSE metal index, diving by up to 7.54 per cent.

Other sectoral indices such as teck, consumer durables, power and PSU declined up to 1.48 per cent.

Bucking the trend, the S&P BSE Small-Cap index shed 0.13 per cent while the mid-cap index inched down 0.02 per cent.

International oil prices hit their highest levels since late 2014, pushed up by expectations of renewed US sanctions against Iran and as OPEC continues withholding supplies amid strong demand.

Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, climbed 0.70 per cent to USD 75.23, levels not seen since November 2014.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at USD 69.27 a barrel, up 0.92 per cent.

However, shares of oil marketing companies ended higher. Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd rose 0.62 per cent, Hindustan Petroleum Corp 0.61 per cent and Indian Oil Corp 0.96 per cent.

Asian markets mostly finished higher even as overnight weakness at Wall Street amid a decline in tech shares and rising US bond yields weighed on investor sentiment.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.26 per cent, Shanghai Composite Index gained 1.99 per cent and Japan's Nikkei ended 0.86 per cent higher.

European stock markets also rose modestly at open as investors monitored the latest batch of corporate earnings. Paris CAC inched up 0.06 per cent, while Frankfurt's DAX traded higher by 0.48 per cent. London's FTSE too was up 0.47 per cent.
Cuttack: The six-year-old girl, who was allegedly raped and strangulated in Cuttack district on Monday, has gone into a coma.

The SCB Medical College and Hospital has confirmed to News18 that the victim is now comatose.

The girl, who suffered deep injuries in her head, face, neck, chest and private parts, was rescued from inside a school campus near her house in Jagannathpur village of Salepur. The girl is on life support system, and a team of doctors drawn from various departments are attending her round-the-clock.

Meanwhile, the accused of the same village, arrested on Monday, was produced before a local court on Tuesday and remanded in jail custody, police said.

(With PTI Inputs)
New Delhi: A day after Sabrina Lall said that she has no objection to the release of her sister Jessica Lall's murderer Siddharth Vashishtha alias Manu Sharma, News18 has learnt that a final decision in the matter rests with state home ministry and the Lt Governor of Delhi.

"The final decision will be taken by state home ministry, followed by the Lieutenant Governor Delhi," said Rajkumar, AIG Tihar.

Jessica was shot dead at a party in April 1999 for refusing to serve liquor to Manu Sharma, who is serving a life term in Tihar.

Speaking to News18 on Monday, Sabrina said that she received a letter from authorities at Tihar Jail that Sharma was up for bail soon. The letter also happened to mention some compensation that she could claim from the victims welfare fund.

I responded to that letter saying that I was not interested in the compensation and that I was okay with him being released. I dont want to see him face to face but I also dont care what happens to him. What he does with his life is none of my concern, she said, adding that she had asked the authorities to donate her share of the compensation to those in more need.

Sabrina said that while she doesnt personally track Sharma's activities in jail, she has got to know that he has a good behavioural record in prison.

Under the prison's rule of Delhi Government, if the conduct of the inmates serving life sentence is good, they are shifted to a semi-open jail and subsequently to an open jail.

The inmates' conduct is reviewed by the sentence review committee. They take up the cases of life imprisonment of those inmates who have completed 14 years in jail and have good conduct.

After Sabrina Lall's no objection to Manu Sharma's release, the review board will look into other aspects, including if the release of inmate will be a threat to the society.

After the board's decision the file will go for the L-G, who will decide whether Manu Sharma and other four inmates should be allowed to walk free from the central jail.
New Delhi: A day ahead of the verdict in the rape of a 16-year-old girl five years ago, self-styled godman Asaram Bapu on Tuesday appealed to his followers to not throng Jodhpur Central prison and maintain peace and harmony.

Rajasthan's Jodhpur has been placed under a tight security blanket as a local court is expected to deliver its verdict on Wednesday.

A press note from Sant Sri Asaramji Ashram Trust in Delhi said any person who indulges in anarchy cannot be a devotee of Asaram. The note impressed upon his followers to exercise restraint and do nothing that creates an obstacle in the process of justice.

The note advised people to not believe the information circulating on social media and to consult the nearest ashram or the one in Ahmedabad for the real news.

It further said that visitng Jodhpur would be a waste of time, money and energy and stated that Bapuji is innocent and will soon be among us again.

The trial in the case has been marked by a string of deaths and attacks on witnesses.

Even police officers who investigated the case say they faced constant threats.
Hyderabad: Special NIA Judge Ravinder Reddy, who in the Mecca Masjid blast verdict acquitted Swami Aseemanand and four others had dismissed Aseemanands confessional statement, recorded in police custody, as non-voluntary.

A remote-controlled blast had taken place in Hyderabads Mecca Masjid on May 18, 2007. The incident left nine individuals dead and over 38 injured. This blast took place on a Friday when the over 400-year-old mosque was buzzing with activity.

In his 140-page verdict, delivered on April 15, Judge Reddy questioned the veracity of Aseemanands confessional statement.

There is no proper explanation as to why the investigating officer was rushing to move an application before the chief judicial magistrate in New Delhi with the request to record the confessional statement of Aseemanand. He had ample opportunity to come down to Hyderabad and after expiry of the police custody of Aseemanand could have moved an application before the jurisdictional court, the court has noted.

Later, the court reasoned this by stating that Aseemanand had retracted the statement and that the confession was hit by Section 26 of the Indian Evidence Act.

This court holds that the confessional statement of Aseemanand is hit by section 26 of the Indian Evidence Act. This court holds that the confessional statement of Aseemanand was not a voluntary one which was recorded during the course of police custody. The statement was also retracted by the accused four months later, said Judge Reddy, while ordering the acquittal for Swami Aseemanand.

The court acquitted all five accused holding that the prosecution failed to prove "even a single" allegation against them.

Besides Aseemanand, the other acquitted in the case are Devender Gupta, Lokesh Sharma, Bharat Rateshwar and Rajender Chowdary.

There were 10 accused in the case. Two accused  Sandeep V Dange and Ramchandra Kalsangra  are absconding, while Sunil Joshi was murdered. Investigation is continuing against two others.

Judge Reddy has also raised questions on why Aseemanand, who was believed to be the brain behind the blast, did not get legal aid.

Aseemanand was not provided with Legal Aid during his first spell of police custody. The facts and circumstances of the above said authority relied on by the NIA, wherein the officer who recorded the confessional statement of the accused had assured him that he will not hand Aseemanand over to police and will send him back to jail. Though the facts and circumstances of the case shows that Aseemanand was handed over to an investigating officer after recording the statement under CRPC 164, noted the special NIA judge, who had resigned just moments after the verdict citing personal reasons. The resignation was later dismissed by the HC, which ordered him to join the court.

Apart from making observations on why Aseemanands confessional statement was not reliable, the court also trashed the evidence produced by the prosecution which failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Devender Gupta had a communal bias being a member of RSS and having delivered hate speeches.

There is no record to show the hate speeches of Devender Gupta being delivered at Jamtara (Jharkhand). The RSS is not a proscribed organisation if any person works in it, it does not give any scope that he is communal and anti-social, said the judge referring to Devender Gupta, an RSS worker from Bihar.

The judge clearly held that the prosecution was not able to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.
Beijing: China failed to get India's support for its ambitious Belt and Road infrastructure project at the end of a foreign ministers' meeting of a major security bloc on Tuesday, ahead of an ice-breaking trip to China this week by India's Prime Minister.

The Belt and Road is Chinese President Xi Jinping's landmark scheme to build infrastructure to connect China to the rest of Asia and beyond, a giant reworking of its old Silk Road.

India has not signed up to the initiative as parts of one key project, the $57 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, run through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Whether or not China will be able to win India round to the Belt and Road will likely be a key measure of the success of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's trip to China to meet Xi for an informal meeting on Friday and Saturday.

But India's foreign minister did not express support for Belt and Road in the communique released after foreign ministers of the China and Russia-led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation met in Beijing.

India, along with Pakistan, joined the group last year. All the other foreign ministers  from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan  "reaffirmed support for China's Belt and Road proposal", the statement read. It gave no further explanation.

Modi is coming to China as efforts at rapprochement gather pace following a testing year in ties between the two neighbours.

The Asian giants were locked in a 73-day military stand-off in a remote, high-altitude stretch of Doklam last year.

Modi will come again to China in June for a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

China will also have to tread carefully to avoid giving its close ally Pakistan cause for alarm. China on Monday reassured Pakistan that relations between the two countries were as firm as ever and would "never rust".
Kolkata: Congress decision to move an impeachment notice against CJI Dipak Misra was wrong which is why the Trinamool Congress did not support it, said TMC chief and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday during an interview with News18 Bangla.

"The Congress wanted us to support it. But we did not. I told Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi not to go for the impeachment," Banerjee said, adding that her party did not want to interfere in the judiciary.

The impeachment notice moved by Congress had the support of 64 MPs and seven opposition parties. However, Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday rejected the notice saying the allegations were neither "tenable nor admissible".

The opposition parties had alleged misbehaviour on part of the CJI on five different counts during his tenure.

Speaking on a host of other issues, Banerjee also predicted a defeat for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2019 elections.

She said, It looks difficult for the BJP to win the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Both the moves of GST and demonetisation went against the party. The party has indulged in politics of division while fuel prices continue to rise steadily. Even the money people put in the banks is not secure.

Mamata Banerjee also took a potshot at the BJP and Congress over their move to approach the court over the panchayat election violence saying people are ready to vote for the Trinamool Congress which the opposition parties know. They know that they are going to lose the elections, which is why they are running to the courts. We will win the elections with a huge margin, Banerjee told News18 Bangla.

Speaking on the 'Third Front', the Trinamool Congress chief said she will definitely form the 'Third Front' and if Congress becomes a part of it, she won't object to it. Banerjee said, "The Front will work towards a common goal. Whoever wants to support it is welcome to join, which includes the Congress."

The West Bengal CM also attacked the BJP government at the Centre saying fearing the 'Third Front', the party is attacking the TMC government in West Bengal and spreading rumours about law and order problem in the state.
New Delhi: Kasansur village in Tadgaon Police station area of Gadchiroli was gearing up to celebrate a wedding on Saturday. But instead of festivities, the occasion turned into that of fear, anxiety and shock.

Thirty one Naxals were gunned down near the village on Sunday morning.

Maharashtra Police sources said they had received a specific tip off about the presence of Naxals in the village on Saturday evening.

"They had come to attend the wedding. We kept a watch on them and finally ghearoed them on Sunday morning," a police officer said.

IG anti-Naxal operations Sharad Setlar said,"Two parties of C-60, the elite anti-Naxal force of Maharashtra were dispatched to the area after the tip off. They took two separate routes to reach the Naxals and gheraoed them on Sunday morning. A warning to surrender was given, the encounter began when Naxals started firing."

Police sources said C-60 split into two parties of 30 commandos each and ambushed the Naxals on the banks of Indravati river on Sunday.

Food packets found at the encounter site suggest that the Naxals had stopped for a meal when they were ambushed.

SP Gadchiroli Abhinav Deshmukh confirmed that under barrel grenade launchers (UBGL) were used in the operation, which perhaps explains the high casualty figure for Naxals.

Sources say, the sudden ambush and firepower took the Naxals by surprise and it is possible that some of them jumped into the river to escape.

Fifteen dead bodies were found floating in the Indravati river on Monday.

"Divers were called in to fish out the bodies from the river. We had to stop search on Sunday night because of night fall and some rain. On Monday, bodies and some loaded INSAS rifles were recovered. The search is still on," DIG A Shinde told CNN-News18.

On Monday, a second encounter happened in the area. It was in Rajaram Khanla village, about 15 kilometers from the Kasanur site. In the Rajaram khanla encounter too, police claim to have killed six Naxals. It was not immediately clear if these six belonged to the same group of Naxals who were killed in Kasnasur.

Police have identified 11 Naxals so far and believes that they belong to Perimilli Dalam, Aheri Dalam and Platoon 7 of CPI Maoist. Those identified are divisional committee members Sainath and Srinu, Aheri Dalam commander Shantabai Pada, woman cadre Akhila, Suman Koreti (18), Tirupati Pungati (24), Anita Madavi (24), and Rajesh Navade, Nagesh Narote (32), Shrikant Narote(23), Raju Veladi (29), and Sunno Gawde (44).

Director General of Police (DGP) Satish Mathur on Monday told PTI that the split among Naxals and lucrative government schemes helped police in getting concrete information against Naxals active in Maharashtra.

Union Home ministry has dismissed allegations of foul play. "If there is anything amiss, the judicial enquiry which happens after every encounter, will reveal it. But as of now it appears to be a good operation. So many weapons recovered show that these were armed CPI Maoist cadre," a MHA official said.

A top MHA official told this reporter that recent attacks on forces in Chhattisgarh are an aberration and the operations like the one in Gadchiroli are the real measure of the government's success in tackling the Naxal problem.
Mumbai: Gold bars worth over Rs 2.59 crore were recovered from a Jet Airways flight at the international airport in Mumbai on Tuesday.

Acting on a specific input, the Air Intelligence Unit of Customs searched a Jet Airways flight, which had arrived from Dubai, an official said.

"During the course of rummaging, the AIU officials recovered six gold bars, each weighing one kilogram each, with foreign marking, and six gold pieces, each weighing 2,990 grams," the Customs official said.

He informed that the collective worth of the gold seized was Rs 2,59,04,146.

"The unclaimed gold bars were covered with black adhesive tape and were hidden below the cushion of two seats," the official said.

The official informed that the gold had been seized under provisions of the Customs Act due to the "reasonable belief" that it was being smuggled into the country. Further investigation into the matter was underway, he added.
Indore: Police in Madhya Pradesh have unearthed a WhatsApp group with over 250 members from across the world, including four from MP and Chhattisgarh, circulating child pornographic content.

Those arrested by police include an engineering graduate (24) who works with a prominent company, a class XII student (17) and a trader-turned-journalist, IG (Intelligence) Makrand Desukar said.

Of the arrested men, three hail to Dhar adjoining Indore, which has witnessed several cases of sexual assaults on minor girls including the rape and murder of a four-month-old girl days ago and the recent sexual assault on minor inside gaming zone of a shopping mall.

Initially named as Kids Sex Video Only, the Whatsapp group changed name to Child Porn Only.

The group administrator was a Kuwaiti national and 130-plus members of the group were Indians, whereas 80-plus were Pakistani nationals, an officer from cyber cell Indore, which conducted the inquiry, said.

The group members are mainly from West Asia with some even to South America, said the officer who did not wish to be named.

The videos being circulated by the group included of boys and girls aged six to eight years being exploited by a range from less than 10 years to over 50-year-olds, one of the investigators from cyber cell claimed.

The engineering student arrested by the police was even sharing child porn content with other social media groups as well. The minor boy who landed in police net was even using an app to use two versions of WhatsApp on his single smartphone one just for the child porn group and other for interacting with everyone else.

One of the officers who grilled the three arrested men said that these men had turned into sex addicts and could have committed any sexual offence at slightest of opportunity.

On Monday, MP home minister Bhupendra Singh had, while referring to a survey, blamed porn sites for growing instances of rapes especially among minors. We have requested the Centre to block 25 porn sites and for a stringent law, he said.

Psychiatrist Dr Satyakant Trivedi from Bhopal also blamed lack of sex education among kids and easy availability of porn content for rising cases of rapes also sexual assaults witnessed on minor girls. Porn content also justifies the savagery in the name of sex and at times also validates incest, Dr Trivedi claimed.

Childline MP director Archana Sahay too blamed unhindered availability of porn content for growing sexual assaults on women socially minor girls who often remain as easy target for minor boys with minds influenced by pornography.

She, however, claimed that mere banning porn sites wont do as internet is sea of such content, while backing awareness and educational sessions in schools as the best way forward.
Hyderabad/New Delhi: The year was 2007. A powerful blast ripped apart the four centuries old Mosque in the heart of Hyderabad. Nine were killed and over 58 injured. All newspapers and television media had closely followed the blast and the men behind it. However, 11 years after the blast, all that the prosecution could prove was the blast and nothing else, noted the Special NIA judge, Ravinder Reddy.

In its 121-page verdict the only point that the prosecution was able to prove was the blast indeed happened on May 18, 2007, but who did it and why did it happen remains unanswered as the court has now acquitted all five accused in the case.

A look at the questions which the prosecution failed to prove:

Q) Did the blast happen?

Evidence proved the fact that on May 18, 2007 at 1:20pm the incident of bomb blast occurred at Mecca Masjid, resulting in death of 9 people and injuring 58.

Q) Was the extra -judicial confessional statement of Swami Aseemanand made before Maqbool bin Ali and Abdul Kaleem, voluntary or not?

The court has noted that in evidence it was shown that two other accused were sent to Ajmer jail even before the remand of Aseemanand. This fact was in conflict with what the testimony of public witness, Maqbool Bin Ali. Ali said that Devender Gupta and Lokesh Sharma were in Chanchalguda jail at the time when Aseemanand was kept in jail. The court ruled Maqbools testimony as untrustworthy and false.

Judge Reddy has noted that Abdul Kaleem was also interrogated and was subject to narco analysis test. Further, there was no documentary evidence or record shown to prove that Kaleem was in Chanchalguda jail when Aseemanand was in jail. Therefore, court held that even Kaleem was untrustworthy and false.

Q) What about the confessional statement of Aseemanand before the magistrate?

This court held that the confessional statement of Aseemanand is hit by section 26 of the Indian Evidence Act. It stated that confessional statement of Aseemanand was not a voluntary one which was recorded during the course of police custody. The statement was also retracted by the accused four months later

There is no proper explanation as to why the public witness 226 was in a hurry to move an application before the chief judicial magistrate at New Delhi with the request to record the confessional statement of Aseemanand. He had ample opportunity to come down to Hyderabad and after expiry of the police custody of Aseemanand he could have moved an application before the jurisdictional court with a request to record the confessional statement of Aseemanand, the court noted.

Q) Did the prosecution prove that Aseemanand was hiding in Atmalpur Bongla village assuming name of Swami Omkaranada and obtained ration card, voter ID from a competent authority beyond reasonable doubt?

The court has examined the e-ticket in the name of Aseemanand from Ujjain to Haridwar on November 11, 2010 and has noted that had he intended to hide his name, he would have taken e-ticket in the name of Omkaranada instead of his original name.

The court held that the prosecution failed to prove that Aseemanand was hiding in Haridwar under the name of Swami Omkaranada and that he moved dubious applications for ration card for enrollment in voter list.

Q) Did the prosecution prove that Devender Gupta displayed communal hatred being a pracharak of RSS?

The court categorically stated that there was no record to show that there were communal charged speeches by Devender Gupta at Jamtara, Jharkhand. Nothing is on record to show Devender was booked in any case for his alleged speeches in Jamtara area".

In a brief observation on RSS, the court said, The RSS is not a proscribed organisation, if any person works in it, it does not give any scope that he is communal and anti-social."

Q) Was the prosecution able to prove that Devender Gupta was in nexus with other accused (call records/mobile numbers)?

The court noted that the source of getting call data records has not been proved and thus the evidence is non-admissible.

Q) Did the prosecution failed to prove the above beyond reasonable doubt?

Yes, the prosecution failed to prove various documents linked to Devender Gupta beyond reasonable doubt.

Q) Did the prosecution prove identity of Lokesh Sharma as the one who purchased two mobile sets on April 24, 2007?

Both witnesses examined by the prosecution did not identify Lokesh Sharma in the court. The court noted that it was a weak piece of evidence and the proceedings conducted are not in consonance with Rule 34 of Criminal rule of Practice and circular orders. Even here the court noted that it was not proven beyond reasonable doubt.

Q) Did Bharath Mohanlal Rateshwar participate in various meetings of conspiracy and paid Rs 25000 to Sunil Joshi, who died, for procuring SIM cards and pistols, beyond reasonable doubt? Did deceased Sunil Joshi took Rs 40,000 from Rateshwars house for carrying out the blast?

To prove both these points, the prosecution had relied upon the statement of Aseemanand and the court discarded it as this was not proven because the confessional statement of Aseemanand was not admitted.

Q) Did the prosecution prove that Laxman Das Maharaj planted bomb at Mecca masjid?

The court noted that even Laxman Das Maharajs alleged confessional statement was not admissible because it was hit by Section 26 of the Indian Evidence Act. The court held that the prosecution failed to prove the planting of the bomb part as there was no corroborative piece of evidence connecting Maharaj to the crime in the case.

Q) Whether prosecution could prove the conspiracy of all accused in planting bomb at mecca masjid?

Judge Reddy has again noted that even this could not be proven beyond reasonable doubt. It held that Aseemanand indeed gave a statement but it was not voluntary and thus not admissible. There was no piece of evidence on record to show that Lokesh Sharma and others had purchased a mobile, which was recovered from unexploded IED at Mecca Masjid blast site.

Q) Whether the guilt of the accused was proven or not?

The court held that Devender Gupta, Lokesh Sharma, Swami Aseemanand, Bharath Mohanlal Rateshwar and Rajender Chowdary were not found guilty for the offence and was hence acquitted.
Lahore: A 24-year-old Indian man, who had gone missing in Pakistan during Baisakhi festival celebrations, was found from his "Facebook friend's" residence in Sheikhupura, about 50 kms from here, an official of the Evacuee Trust Property Board said on Tuesday.

Amarjit Singh, a resident of Amritsar, had arrived in Pakistan along with other 1,700 Sikh pilgrims to celebrate Baisakhi festival on April 12. But his disappearance was only noticed when the entourage, he came along with, embarked upon the return journey to India.

Confirming that Singh had been traced, spokesperson of the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) Amir Hashmi said that Singh has been traced and will be handed over to the Indian authorities on Tuesday.

"Amarjit Singh has been found and will be sent back to India on Tuesday. Singh on his arrival to Nankana Sahib had left the group to meet his Facebook friend - Amir Razzak - in Sheikhupura (some 30km from Nankana Sahib).

"In fact the family of Razzak contacted the board and told it about his (Singh) stay at his residence.

On Tuesday, both Singh and Razzak visited the ETPB office in Lahore and told it that he (Singh) had not gone missing," Hashmi told PTI.

He said, Singh told the board that he thought that he had a one month visa and he would return the country after spending a couple of week with his friend here.

The ETPB takes passports from the visiting pilgrims and return them on their departure to their homeland.

A source told PTI that Pakistani intelligence agencies have quizzed Singh for 'several hours' over his 'missing'.

"After it was established that he had not deliberately disappeared and had no links with the Indian intelligence agency, Singh was handed over to the ETPB to be deported to India," he said.

According to investigation by the ETPB, Singh separated himself on April 16 from the visiting Sikh group members on a visit to Gurdwara Janamestan in Nankana Sahib (some 80km from Lahore).

The ETB came to know about his disappearance when Singh did not turn up on April 21 along with other visiting Indian Sikhs at the Wagah railway station to leave for India.

Singh and others had a valid Pakistani visa till April 21.

Singh's disappearance came at the heels of another visiting Indian pilgrim Kiran Bala, who married a Pakistani man Mohammad Azam, a resident of Lahore, and applied for Pakistani citizenship.

She had arrived Lahore on April 12 to attend the Baisakhi festival. She has applied for Pakistan citizenship and extension to her visa.
Apr 24, 2018 10:32 (IST)

Terrorism an enemy of basic human rights: Swaraj at SCO Foreign Ministers' meet in China | External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today said that terrorism is an enemy of the basic human rights and the fight against it should also identify States that encourage, support and finance the menace and provide sanctuary to terror groups. Swaraj, during her address at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers here, raised the issue of global terrorism and protectionism. There are a number of challenges that are being faced by the world today, foremost being the threat of global terrorism and the imminent need to build a strong security architecture to combat it, the minister said. "Terrorism is an enemy of the basic human rights: of life, peace, and prosperity," Swaraj said. "Protectionism in all its forms should be rejected and efforts should be made to discipline measures that constitute barriers to trade. "India is committed to working with the SCO to strengthen our economic and investment ties.We believe that economic globalization should be more open, inclusive, equitable and balanced for mutual benefits," Swaraj added.
Mandla: Addressing a tribal convention in Madhya Pradeshs Mandla district on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called upon the panchayat office bearers to empower the rural economy to ensure welfare of rural population with a five-year roadmap.

PM Modi launched the Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan aimed at bringing transparency and honesty in developmental work in rural areas. The Prime Minister also tried striking a chord with tribal voters of the poll-bound state by announcing a museum underlining the contribution of freedom fighters from tribal community in every state.

When it comes to rural development, budgets are important. But, there is a shift in the discourse in last few years. People are now talking about the need to ensure that money allocated for a project is utilised and done in a transparent manner. The budget of the country today is for the welfare of all, we are continuously working for the development of villages, said the PM addressing the Adi Utsav at Ramnagar, in the tribal belt of Mahakaushal region in MP.

Hinting at growing chemical farming in the country, the Prime Minister urged farmers to take collective decisions to reduce usage of fertilisers so that soil degradation could be checked. He also referred to Centres decision of putting bamboo in the category of grass so that the rural population could earn livelihood without legal troubles. The PM encouraged farmers to grow bamboos on farmland boundaries for earning alternate livelihood.

Today, the amount of budget is not a worry; it is about its honest implementation for the right beneficiaries, said PM Modi.

He also indirectly blamed the Congress rule for not doing enough for the villages. Our parents would have been unfortunate to not get enough opportunities for education but we should make sure no kid is left outside schools in our villages. We could see 40-50 years old people affected by polio but our panchayats should make sure no kid is excluded from the pulse polio drive, he said.

Amid sharp criticism for his government over implementation of MGNREGS, PM Modi called upon panchayats to take upon water conservation works for next three months under this scheme to do away with water scarcity in villages.

Amid the raging debate on falling farm prices in India, the PM urged farmers to embrace zero budget agriculture.

He underlined importance of Jan Dhan, Van Dhan and Gobar Dhan for rural economy and urged panchayat office bearers to work for empowerment of rural sector till 2022. This period should be remembered as Golden Era of Panchayat Raj, said Modi.

He further asked panchayat office bearers to take things into their own hands and not wait for government staff to do things for villages. Its time for realising the Gram Swaraj dream of Mahatma Gandhi.

The PM tried to strike a chord with the tribal voters. Alleging that the tale of Indian freedom struggle only revolves around certain families and personalities, PM Modi underlined the contribution of ethnic people including Rani Durgawati, Avantibai and Birsa Munda. The leader announced that every state, where personalities from tribes contributed to freedom struggle, would get modern museums so that young generation could be apprised about their glorious contribution to the freedom of India.

One such museum would come up in MP soon, he added.

The Prime Minister also tried connecting to local masses while referring to Centres recent ordinance provisioning death for rapists of minor girls. The loud cheers from the audience indicate that they are acknowledging the fact that they have a government in New Delhi listens to them and works accordingly, he said.

Four panchayat office bearers were also felicitated by the Prime Minister. The awards were: Amarwati Vathia sarpanch for ensuing smokeless chulha all Mandla village households, Chulli Baiaga sarpanch for ensuring 100% vaccination in Shahdo village, Radhabai Dhruve sarpanch for ensuring 100% electrification in her village in Mandla and Nanhibai Marco was given a Rs 2 lakh sanction letter under Jeevan Jyoti Yojana on her husbands death.

The Prime Minister digitally inaugurated a LPG bottling plant to be built in Maneri village of Mandla for fulfilling LPG requirement in the region under Ujjawala scheme.

He felicitated Panchayats of various states for excellence in IT and other endeavours.

CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan on the occasion lauded PM Modi for his dream project of providing houses to every rural family by 2022 claiming that the Centre would spend Rs two lakh crore in next five years for developing tribal areas.
Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Bhupendra Singh on Tuesday blamed pornographic websites for rising number of child rape and molestation cases in the country.

The minister said his government is considering banning porn in Madhya Pradesh.

"We think the reason for rising number of child rape and molestation cases is porn. We are contemplating banning porn in Madhya Pradesh, will approach Centre in the matter," Singh said.

According to reports, the state government in Madhya Pradesh has blocked 25 porn sites.

Singh's statement comes after the horrific rape and murder of an infant baby girl in Indore on April 19.

Just two days ago, an Indore model took to Twitter to narrate how her skirt was pulled at on a busy street in the city and no one came forward to help her.

On Sunday, following the huge outrage over the gang-rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua and rape of a teenager in Unnao, the Union Cabinet approved the promulgation of an ordinance to allow courts to award death penalty to those convicted of raping children up to 12 years of age.

Many other states are also contemplating bringing in a similar legislation.
Jodhpur: A day ahead of the Asaram verdict in Jodhpur, police have arrested 378 people in anticipation of a law and order situation and these people will be kept in custody till April 28.

The Rajasthan Police on Tuesday arrested 378 people under Section 107 (security for keeping peace) and 151 (knowingly joining or continuing in assembly of five or more persons) of CRPC.

The Centre on Tuesday asked Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana to tighten security and deploy additional forces ahead of the verdict by a Jodhpur court in a rape case against self-styled godman Asaram, an official said.

In order to avoid a law and order situation like Panchkula that left at least 38 people dead last August, security has been beefed up around the Jodhpur Central Jail premises ahead of the Asaram verdict that is set to be delivered on Wednesday. Police have already imposed Section 144 in Jodhpur from April 21 which will stay till April 30 to keep the situation under control in the aftermath of a negative verdict.

"We have made all arrangements for the judgment day," DIG Jail Vikram Singh said.

Six companies of armed battalions of Rajasthan Police have been deployed around the Jodhpur Central Jail. Police are also converting two stadiums in Jodhpur city into makeshift jails in case there is a need of making mass arrests after the verdict.

In a communication, the Home Ministry told three states to beef up security and ensure that no violence takes place after the judgment. Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana have a large number of followers of Asaram.

A day ahead of the verdict in the rape of a 16-year-old girl five years ago, self-styled godman Asaram Bapu on Tuesday appealed to his followers to not throng Jodhpur Central Jail and maintain peace and harmony.

The Delhi Police force has also issued an alert saying it will be in touch with the concerned states where the Asaram verdict might create a situation. All field formations of police have been put on alert. A Delhi Police spokesperson said, adequate forces will immediately be deployed to the required states in case of a situation.

Asaram was arrested in 2013 after a minor girl from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh had reported sexual assault by him in his ashram on the outskirts of Jodhpur.

"The security for the victim's family is continuously being monitored... Two more constables will stand guard outside her house in addition to the five policemen already deployed there, and strict vigil is being maintained on all the visitors using CCTV cameras," Superintendent of Police K B Singh told PTI.

Security has been beefed up around the Jodhpur Central Jail premises ahead of the verdict on Wednesday. (Image: News18)

Meanwhile, a two judge bench of the Rajasthan High Court has refused to allow media entry into the Jodhpur Central Jail premises to cover proceedings in the Asaram Bapu case verdict, which is set to be delivered on Wednesday.

The Rajasthan High Court, while dismissing a plea filed by a News18 reporter, stated that though the media was the fourth pillar of democracy, in order to maintain public order, the media would be allowed to cover the proceedings from outside the jail premises.

There is no provision to allow the media in the court premises camped at Central Jail for coverage. It is true that media is fourth pillar of democracy and media is required to perform its pious duty, but at the same time, it is the prime duty of every citizen to cooperate with the administration for maintaining public order, therefore, no such permission can be granted to allow media persons in the court premises or in the Central Jail, Jodhpur for the purpose of coverage of the proceedings, read the order by Justices Gopal Krishnan and Ramchandra Singh Jhala.

In the plea it was sought that the media be allowed to cover the proceedings from inside the jail premises at the time of pronouncement of verdict.

The court order comes close on the heels of a press note issued by Sant Sri Asaramji Ashram Trust in Delhi, which said that any person who indulges in anarchy cannot be a devotee of Asaram. The note impressed upon his followers to exercise restraint and do nothing that creates an obstacle in the process of justice.

The note has advised people to not believe in news circulating on social media and consult the nearest ashram or the one in Ahmedabad for the correct information.

Final arguments in the case had been completed by the special court for SC/ST cases on April 7 and the court had kept the order reserved to be pronounced on April 25.

Asaram was arrested in Indore and brought to Jodhpur on September 1, 2013. He is under judicial custody since September 2, 2013.

On April 17, the Rajasthan High Court ordered a Jodhpur trial court to deliver its verdict inside the jail premises. The police had appealed to the high court anticipating a Panchkula-like situation in Jodhpur in the aftermath of a possible negative verdict.
Jodhpur: Security was heightened ahead of a verdict scheduled for Wednesday against godman Asaram in a rape case.

On April 17, the Rajasthan High Court ordered a Jodhpur trial court to deliver its verdict inside the jail premises.

Jodhpur Police Commissioner Ashok Rathore said Section 144 had been enforced in the city.

"We are glad the court accepted our request to deliver the judgement from inside the jail premises," he added.

The police are also seeking support from neighbouring states following reports that Asaram's followers plan to arrive in Jodhpur on or before the verdict.

Paramilitary forces will be deployed if required, he said.

Asaram was arrested in 2013 after a minor girl from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh had reported sexual assault by him in his ashram on the outskirts of Jodhpur.

Thereafter, he was then brought from Indore and jailed in the Jodhpur Central jail. Several clashes have been reported between the police and his followers since then.

Asaram can face a maximum of 10 years in jail if found guilty.
Amid fresh debate regarding Section 377 of the IPC, two 20-year-old women from Uttar Pradesh tricked their families and got married at a mass wedding.

One of the women pretended to be the groom and filed papers for marriage with the organisers of the mass wedding, a common practice in UP.

According to a report in Hindustan Times, the two had known each other for about two years. Their parents had no idea that they were in love and planned to marry.

On April 16, the two women showed up to the mass wedding, replete with ID cards and two sets of fake parents. The woman who posed as the groom even procured an Aadhaar card in the name of Kartik Shukla.

It was only on Saturday that the brides parents discovered that the groom was actually another woman. Both had been staying at the brides house.

The groom was allegedly spotted by their neighbours, who informed the brides parents after the women posted their wedding pictures on social media. The family immediately called the two women and allegedly attacked the groom inside their house. In fact, the ensuing tussle ended with the bride jumping from the roof to save Rupa, Times of India reported.

Local police had to come and settle the issue with the parents of the bride alleging cheating by the groom. However, police said they had to let the two women go as neither of the two women's families had filed a complaint against either. The two women are both consenting adults and thus cannot be forced to stay separately if they dont want to.

Same sex marriage: is it legal in India?

Since 2013, homosexuality is a criminal offence under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalises unnatural sex against the order of nature and gives authorities the right to prosecute on the basis of sexual orientation or preference.

But while Section 377 criminalises the act of sexual intercourse between same-sex individuals, it does not lay down any specifics regarding same-sex union or marriage. It leaves a grey area for same-sex couples to get married under various religious customs, though it has no legal recognition by the government of India, same-sex relations face widespread taboo and discrimination that often result on violence against the perpetrators.

The debate around section 377 was reopened in 2017 after the landmark judgment by a Supreme Court bench declaring right to privacy as a fundamental right. Some argued that Section 377 was directly at odds with right to privacy, which had now been declared a fundamental right, and thus Section 377 was impinging upon the rights of the LGBT community.

On Monday, a Supreme Court bench sent a notice to the Centre demanding a response on a PIL that seeks to decriminalise Section 377. The Centre is expected to respond within a week.
It's no secret that Shilpa Shetty Kundra's style game has evolved over the years and gotten better with each passing day. The diva has time and again set pulses racing with her stylish appearances while flaunting her inimitable fashion sense like no other. Whether it is the actor-turned-entrepreneur's divine saree looks, bold and sexy gowns, casual wear or a classic pantsuit look, Shilpa has almost always done justice to what she wears.

Recently, the star turned up at an awards ceremony looking resplendent in a foliage print Arpita Mehta ivory tiered ruffle saree, which was teamed with a matching embroidered blouse. Straight out of Arpita's latest Spring-Summer '18 collection, the tiered ruffle was a refreshing and stylish twist to the traditional ensemble.

A perfect outfit for summers, Shilpa looked gorgeous in the garment and pulled the look off with her usual grace and style. The star rounded off her look with perfect makeup, tresses left open in waves and minimal accessories.

Take a look.

Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty walks the red carpet at the AsiaSpa Awards 2017 held at St. Regis Hotel in Mumbai on April 23, 2018. (Image: Viral Bhayani)Shilpa Shetty is all smiles as she arrives at the AsiaSpa Awards in Mumbai. (Image: Viral Bhayani)

Earlier, at the Dada Saheb Phalke Awards ceremony, Shilpa had stunned in a Shantanu and Nikhil monochrome number.

Take a look.

What do you think of Shilpa's look? Tell us in the comments section below.
Director Umesh Shukla's forthcoming film 102 Not Out will also release in Russia on the same day as it will hit the screens in India on May 4.

Veteran actor Rishi Kapoor, who will be seen sharing screen space with megastar Amitabh Bachchan after two decades, took to Twitter to announce about the film's international release.

"Our film releases in Russia on May 4, 2018 also. Enjoy!" Rishi tweeted.

Our film releases in Russia on 4th of May 2018 also. Enjoy! pic.twitter.com/Ywp70UHReH Rishi Kapoor (@chintskap) April 23, 2018

Being described as an unusual father-and-son love story, 102 Not Out is based on a Gujarati stage production by playwright Saumya Joshi. Amitabh plays a 102-year-old father to a 75-year-old character of Rishi in the film.

(With IANS inputs)
The projection of Kamal Nath, the 'one-seat wonder' from Chhindwara, to lead the Congress charge in Madhya Pradesh can be seen in the backdrop of an intergenerational tug-of-war.

In the run-up to the Assembly polls, veteran Congressmen have shown a decided preference for state assignments. Realising that there is no place for them in Team Rahul, the septuagenarian leaders are vying with young-ish party colleagues for pole position in their respective states.

Party president Rahul Gandhi, caught between the rival claims of the youthful 'maharaj' of Gwalior and his feisty 71-year-old 'vassal' Digvijay Singh, needed to find a compromise nominee. Even if that means going with a Punjabi baniya in an OBC-dominated state.

Kamal Nath's lack of caste credentials is a political shortcoming. As the seniormost Congress MP in the Lok Sabha in 2014, he should have been a shoo-in for leader of the parliamentary party, but the high command went with a rather more politically correct choiceDalit leader Mallikarjun Kharge. In the same spirit, MPCC president Arun Yadav, an OBC, will be a hard man to displace or replace.

The wealthy and wily Kamal Nath has retained Chhindwara since 1980 in the teeth of formidable challenges. Even the young firebrand, Prahlad Patel, failed to dislodge him in the 2004 BJP wave. His narrow victory was attributed to a masterly manipulation of the tribal Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP).

Denied a Congress ticket in 1996 because of the Jain hawala case, he induced the party to nominate his wife, Alka, by threatening to stand as an Independent. She won, but the very next year, he suffered his first and only electoral loss, against BJP stalwart and former chief minister Sunderlal Patwa.

The nine-term MP owes his success to a superbly efficient constituency-level electoral machinery, which works throughout the five-year election cycle. Even his Delhi office is open 24X7, arranging accommodation and appointments for constituents. He was among the first politicians to deploy helicopters and satellite phones for election campaigns.

On the other hand, Kamal Nath, unlike his buddy 'Diggy Raja', has rarely been spotted in Bhopal. He is seen as an 'outsider' and his influence is limited to 30 to 40 seats in the southern belt. In a state where analog face-time, hob-nobbing and pressing the flesh are de rigueur for politicians, he prefers delegating and outsourcing.

The very fact that he lacks a statewide network goes in his favour, because it makes him more amenable than, say, a Jyotiraditya Scindia or a Capt Amarinder Singh in Punjab. Besides, he has been a family loyalist ever since he was inducted by Sanjay Gandhi in the 1970s. His role in the Emergency led to the slogan, Indira ke do haath, Sanjay Gandhi aur Kamal Nath. As Environment minister under P V Narasimha Rao, he earned accolades during the Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro and brickbats for alleged encroachment of forest land by his Span Club in Manali.

He was one of the Congress leaders who strongly urged Rahul to take over as Congress president. His son, Nakul, is expected to inherit Chhindwara.

What about recasting the loyalist-based party structure, as Rahul Gandhi had promised? The fiery, passionate, ambitious Rahul of 2013 denounced the Congress Old Guard in terms famously popularised by his father: ..the brokers of power and influence...dispense patronage to convert a mass movement into a feudal oligarchy.

Five years later, he appears to have understood the need for a balance between the young turks and veterans. A fifth of the Congress MPs elected in 2014 were over 70 years old. He continues to tout a youth quota in party posts, however.

Rahul rightly values youth for their willingness to network, collaborate and undertake comprehensive research. They are digital natives and can navigate social media which, like it or not, has become critical to political outreach. But a wealth of experience, banked wisdom and goodwill is perhaps more relevant when taking on a seasoned campaigner like 'Mama' Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

Diggy Raja, freshly returned from a six-month 'Narmada Yatra' to reconnect with the masses and re-establish his relevance in the state, had indicated that he was comfortable with Nath as a leader, but not Scindia. That appears to have weighed with the party high command, even more than Nath's phenomenal organisational skills.

Young blood has rejuvenating properties, recent studies have established. But in politics, the old warhorses bring home the gold.

(The writer is a senior journalist. Views are personal)
Every now and then, a mass public hysteria is whipped up, with politicians and the public baying for the blood of criminals guilty of heinous crimes. When Nirbhaya was brutally raped and murdered in a moving bus in Delhi, India rose in anger and demanded death for the convicts. Four of them were sentenced to die. One convict died during the trial, and another, a teenager, walked out free after a three-year incarceration.

And now, with child rapes seemingly on the rise, cries of death for rapists are being heard loud and clear, and the Central Cabinet has passed an Ordinance amending the Protection of Children From Sexual Offences Act to make it mandatory for courts to award capital punishment to those found guilty of raping girls under 12.

While a survey conducted by LocalCircles found 76 percent of the people questioned agreed with the latest amendment, activists have condemned the Government move as populist. They felt that the existing law was good enough, but what needed to be tightened was investigation, conviction and, most importantly, effective policing to prevent crime.

This takes us to the vexing question of the relevance of the noose (practised in India and elsewhere) and the lethal injection/electric chair (in the USA, for instance). For years, the United Nations General Assembly has been adopting resolutions urging its member States to abolish the death sentence.

Admittedly, most nations have done away with executions  around 103 and still counting  but 56 still have this form of punishment on their statutes. Unfortunately, 60 percent of the world's population live in these 56 countries  which include China, India, USA, Japan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and so on.

While the latest poll in India  which may be far off the mark, for it could have been only some sort of sampling  talks of an overwhelming majority supporting the death sentence for rape, historically there have been protests against what many decried as a tooth for a tooth and an eye for an eye policy. Even in the 15th century, when Joan of Arc was accused of being a heretic and burnt alive, there were murmurs of dissent. Five centuries later, when the Vatican canonised her, it seemed too late to right a wrong.

This is precisely what I and many others have been contending. It is well within the realm of possibility that an innocent man or woman may be sent to the gallows. Interestingly, it was found in a 1987 study that 350 people condemned to die in the USA between 1900 and 1985 were actually innocent. Most lived, but 23 lost their lives!

In 2004, a residential building watchman, Dhananjoy Chatterjee, was hanged to death in Kolkata after he was found guilty of raping and murdering a teenage schoolgirl, Hetal Parekh. A Bengali film, Dhananjoy, made last year by Arindam Sil, shows through a fictionalised account how the police, the judiciary and the State could have erred in sending the poor watchman to the hangman. Throughout his 14-year-incarceration (which by itself could have been a full sentence), he had said a million times that he was innocent of the crime he had been convicted of. What is more, he also said that he was being punished because he was poor. Incidentally, Dhananjoy used the same famous words of an American Supreme Court judge, William Douglas, who quipped that capital punishment was for those without a capital. And Dhananjoy had no money, and his lawyer in the face of a dwindling flow of fees lost interest in the case. Which is precisely what Sil says in his movie while throwing up a theory.

This is quite probable in a country like India notorious for its corrupt judiciary, poor policing, etc. And then we have a community divided on class, caste and religious lines. In a scenario such as this, an error of judgement can happen, and an innocent human being can die.

What is far more important than all this, and which takes on humungous significance in the present explosive times, is that capital punishment can never be a deterrent. Many, many studies over many, many years have proved that the death sentence had never cut down the number of capital crimes. Some American states did away with the electric chair but found no significant rise in murders or rapes. And when they reintroduced it, there was no drop in major misdemeanours.

In fact, how does one prevent a crime of passion? Will a terrorist stop in his tracks fearing that he will be marched off to the gallows? Indeed, advocating death under Government supervision may be as foolish as suggesting that stockpiling nuclear weapons serves as a safeguard for peace.

Similarly, a man who rapes a child is not going to stop because he may be caught and a noose placed around his neck. On the contrary, he may also kill the child and hide the body hoping to erase any trace of his involvement.

The former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, Justice A P Shah, told a Press conference the other day that the new amendment would be disastrous for the safety of children...Death penalty diverts attention from the problems ailing the criminal justice system such as poor investigation, lack of crime prevention and abuse of rights of the victims.

Certainly, India must understand that capital punishment has no place in a civilised society, and Governments must realise that modern societal ills must be tackled with dignity. The noose is an easy option whose consequences  both short and long-term  can merely be disastrous.

(Gautaman Bhaskaran is an author, commentator and movie critic, and he may be e-mailed at gautamanb@hotmail.com)
New Delhi: During the 1949 Constituent Assembly debates, Dr BR Ambedkar said that although the Chief Justice of India is a very eminent person, he is after all "a man with all the failings, all the sentiments, and all the prejudices which we as common people have".

Ambedkar was absolutely right. And we have seen CJIs and judges faltering, even subscribing to the government's indefensible views during the Emergency. But at the same time, this would make Ambedkar go wrong on another important point.

During the debates, Ambedkar had maintained that "judiciary to a very large extent is not concerned with the executive" but only with the rights of the people in which the government of the day can hardly have any interest at all.

"Consequently the opportunity for the executive to influence the judiciary is very small," Ambedkar opined. His foresightedness could not have warned him of the times to come when the judges would complain about governmental interferences.

So much has changed since the framers of the Constitution debated extensively each and every provision pertaining to the higher judiciary before engrafting them into the Constitution.

Over a number of years, some of these changes were triggered by the government while many others have been the result of the judicial orders upon an interpretation of the Constitution.

Today, we are staring at a never-before, and perhaps never thought-of moment in India's history.

There was a proposed motion to remove the Chief Justice of Indiathe 45th one since the Supreme Court of India was established in 1950.

This motion was on Monday rejected by the Vice-President on several counts, and now a petition is being readied to be filed before the Supreme Court on the judicial side.

It will be credulous to talk with conviction why this motion was moved. It is perhaps equally naive to talk with certainty what exactly had prompted the four most senior judges to hold the unparalleled press conference in January, given their silence following the hurriedly called briefing.

One thing that can, however, be clearly deciphered is the fractured face of the judiciary.

The highest court of the land is looking like any other institution with a hierarchy of ranks, comprising individuals with differences of opinion who have skirmishes over administrative and other affairs.

There have been apparent discomfiture between the CJI and the most senior judges in the past too. But what makes these times unique is the exceptional routes taken to ventilate the grievances by the men, who had been so far very guarded in their views. There have been so many reservations in expressing opinions or making public the in-house matters that the highest judiciary has attracted criticism for its opaqueness.

For someone like me who spends most time of his days in the courtrooms and corridors of the Supreme Court as a reporter, there is a singular point of concern faith of the people in the judiciary.

Faith of those who forget not to touch the main steps to the court building like in a temple; faith of those who fold their hands in respect when they enter the courtrooms; faith of those who carry religious textbooks and keep praying while the hearing of their cases are underway; and most importantly faith of those who lose their cases but still believe justice was done since the judges can do no wrong.

A divided house that the Supreme Court today is and the manifestations of this that have come out in the open have shaken to core faith of the people in this temple of justice.

Men are fallible but the Supreme Court had never looked like an institution that required individuals' credibility to assert its majesty and sense of justice.

Regretfully, the Supreme Court today appears to be running from eleven different courtrooms in a building, drawing its authority and probity from the men who head different benches.

Litigants, who have been seeing judges probably for the first time on their television screen, have suddenly become curious and cautious about the court room where their cases will be heard. Lawyers used to appear before the 'court' but they now appear before the judges.

Corridors are rife with speculations and conjectures every morning. A judge gets 10 minutes late to his courtroom and a frenzied guesswork is on. The moment an important PIL is filed, surmises take over where this will be listed.

The fractured face of the judiciary is out on display and this seems to have made way for politics and politicians to enter and tread on its turf. It looked like a perfect opportunity for the politics to make the best of the divide among the judges, and it has been aptly cashed in by the politicians.

The place people flock as their last resort for justice has become a playground for the politicians while the institutions credibility and strength have taken a hit. The custodian of public faith appears to be scouting for its majesty while the bedrock of its existence  faith and trust of the common man  is shaken.

Institutional integrity, credibility, and well-being are a collective responsibility of all the judges in the top court, for each one of them take an oath to bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India and to uphold its values. There can be no duty higher than standing for what the Constitution stands for, and the judges are duty bound to protect these values.

Thus, there cannot be a more significant time for the judges to stand together and pull the judiciary out of this crisis, for it is now only and only about the institution and public confidence.

Delivering his farewell speech in February, Justice Amitava Roy had cautioned his fellow judges about the danger that extra-legal elements and military muscles are waiting in the wings to take over and destroy the institution once the judiciary projects a fractured face.

And that would mean our extinction because we survive for the institution. It is not otherwise we need to be together. We must demonstrate to all concerned that we are one, one composite unit, upright, independent, fearless and resolved to achieve our mission, Justice Roy had said in his message. Judges in the top court must listen to him for the glory of the institution.
Bengaluru: In an apparent placatory move, the BJP appointed state unit chief B S Yeddyurappa's son B Y Vijayendra as its youth wing general secretary on Tuesday, a day after protests erupted over denial of party ticket to him for the May 12 assembly polls.

Vijayendra's appointment as the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) general secretary was announced by Union minister Prakash Javadekar, who is also in charge of the BJP's Karnataka unit.

The announcement, made at a press meet, came a day after Vijayendra's supporters staged angry protests, entailing police lathicharge, over denial of party ticket to him to contest from Varuna constituency in Mysuru.

Political observers saw it as a damage control move to douse dissidence and its spill over effect electorally in and around Mysuru in south Karnataka.

Javadekar said, "The next chief minister of Karnataka made a historic announcement yesterday. The whole party is with him. To see that Vijayendra works in the entire region, we are giving him an additional responsibility. He will be the new general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha."

In a surprise announcement, Yeddyurappa had yesterday said Vijayendra would not contest from Varuna constituency against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's son Yatindra. He did not cite any reason.

Yeddyurappa's announcement led to vandalism by supporters of Vijayendra, who raised slogans against party chief Amit Shah.

Vijayendra had tried to calm his supporters and tweeted saying he wholeheartedly stood by and supported the party's decision "in all circumstances."

For the past one month, Vijayendra was working at the grassroot level in Varuna ever since Siddaramaiah decided to field his son in the constituency he had been winning.
Kolkata: In an unusual move, the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday directed the West Bengal State Election Commission (WBSEC) to accept nominations papers sent by nine candidates through WhatsApp.

The court's directive came after CPI-ML Red Star leader Sharmishtha Chowdhury filed a petition, alleging that the candidates were not allowed to enter Bhangar in South 24 Parganas to file their nominations.

She alleged that the candidates faced stiff resistance because they had raised their voice against the construction of a power grid amid allegations of forcible land acquisition in 2017. They wanted to file their nominations at Polerhat gram panchayat II in Bhangar.

We sent our nominations through WhatsApp to the Block Development Officer (BDO) just to keep a record. Today, the High Court has asked the WBSEC to accept our nominations through WhatsApp. It also asked the WBSEC to submit a report on April 30, she told News18.

Justice Subrata Talukdar directed the state election commission to follow the instruction or the court will stall the entire poll process. The court said that all the nine candidates will be allowed to fight the Panchayat polls.

State BJP President Dilip Ghosh while welcoming the Courts decision, said, This is a historic judgment. Now we will also be able to submit our nominations through WhatsApp.

Congress president Adhir Chowdhury also welcomed the order, saying that it was to protect the democratic rights of the people.

In future, WhatsApp will solve the issue of poll violence during filing of nominations. It will save time and money, and transparency could be maintained through this process, he said.

I have demanded Presidents Rule in West Bengal. Without Presidents rule it is difficult for us to exercise our democratic right. I have requested Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to intervene in to the matter, he added.

The Calcutta High Court also directed the SEC to have a discussion with all parties to ensure peaceful Panchayat Polls. It also asked the poll panel to ensure safety and security arrangements for the local body polls.

A single judge bench of Justice Subrata Talukdar asked the SEC to inform a division bench headed by Acting Chief Justice J Bhattacharya on the security arrangements.

While dismissing a petition filed by the BJP and the Congress requesting the court to monitor the entire poll process, Justice Talukdar directed the Opposition parties to approach the division bench over the security issues.
Bengaluru: With most pre-poll surveys predicting a hung Assembly in Karnataka, the ruling Congress and the main opposition BJP are getting jittery.

JDS of the Gowdas, the third player in the race, is smiling after smelling an opportunity to be in the driver's seat after a decade.

Both Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and BJP's CM face BS Yeddyurappa camps are worried about the possibility of a hung Assembly. A fractured mandate will make them powerless in a system controlled by their arch rival: the Gowda family.

But not all in the Congress and BJP are worried about their party not reaching the halfway mark on their own. Some second line leaders are secretly rejoicing at the possibility of a hung House, hoping that it will give them a chance to gain more power in a fluid political situation.

Political analysts in Karnataka agree that a hung Assembly will end Siddaramaiah and Yeddyurappa era in the state paving the way for second line leaders to emerge as front ranking leaders.

A senior leader of the Congress said that Siddaramaiah had personal enmity with the Gowda family and it had affected the Congress and JDS relationship.

"He has been attacking the Gowdas. He even persuaded Rahul Gandhi to take on the Gowdas in his election speeches. We are not happy with this. In case of a hung Assembly, we have to go to JDS for support. They will use it as an excuse not to back us and may prefer BJP over us, said the senior Congress leader.

Many original Congress leaders feel that the party high command should reach out to the Gowdas even before the polls to make sure that the JDS will be with the Congress in case of a hung Assembly.

But Siddaramaiah camp is opposing any such move, claiming that party will manage to cross the halfway mark of 113 seats and sending feelers to Gowdas will go against the party. They also allege that JDS is a "B team" of the BJP and they will anyway go with the BJP if the elections throw up a hung Assembly.

Top leaders of the party Mallikarjuna Kharge, G Parameshwara, D K Shivakumar, T B Jayachandra, Kagodu Thimmappa and R V Deshpande want the party to keep the option of going with the JDS open.

Some former JDS leaders now in the Congress, including Siddaramaiah, are vehemently opposing it.

The situation is no different in the BJP. Like Siddaramaiah camp even the BS Yeddyurappa camp is also worried about their fight for Vidhana Soudha ending up in creating a hung Assembly.

After the disastrous 20:20 month experiment of 2006-07, the relationship between the Gowdas and Yeddyurappa has soured beyond repair. Yeddyurappa has always been opposing any tie up with the JDS.

He had opposed an alliance with the JDS in Bengaluru City Corporation earlier, saying that he will not go with the Gowdas even if he has to retire from politics. The Gowdas also dislike him intensely.

Speaking to News18, H D Deve Gowda said that there was no question of doing any kind of business with Yeddyurappa.

Like Congress, the second line leaders in the BJP are also hoping to exploit the situation for their benefit.

"If we don't reach 113, Yeddyurappa can't be our CM. The Gowdas won't accept him. We will have to look for someone else to replace him. Actually, it will give us an opportunity to ease him out. He is also 75 now," said a senior BJP leader.

Many in the state BJP believe that Modi and Shah combine will not let the JDS go with the Congress keeping the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in mind. And the JDS state chief HD Kumaraswamy is also favouring an alliance with the BJP than with the Congress.

According to his close aides since JDS' main rival in the state is Congress and not the BJP, he is favouring the saffron party.

"Father may prefer Congress minus Siddaramaiah and his men, but Kumaraswamy wants to go with the BJP," said one of his close MLAs.

But some leaders of the civil society have already requested Gowda to back Congress to prove that his party Janata Dal Secular is really secular.

However, Gowda is non-committal and claims JDS will win on its own. Speaking to News18, he said: "We are against both Congress and BJP. Will never back anyone. We will sit in the opposition if we fail to win majority seats.

Sources in the JDS claim that leaders of SP, BSP, NCP, Left parties, TDP, BJD, etc have advised Gowda not to go with the BJP keeping 2019 Lok Sabha elections in mind.

"They want him to be a part of the third front alliance against the BJP in 2019. But Gowda being Gowda is keeping all cards close to his chest," said a family member.

While the Congress and BJP are hoping for a clear majority for them, Gowda is praying for a hung Assembly to have a crack at being the kingmaker after 11 years in political hibernation.
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.)
New Delhi: Having earlier accused Congress of using impeachment notice against the CJI as a political tool, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday blamed eminent lawyers who are also part of political parties of dragging "intra court disputes into the parliamentary process".

In a long Facebook post, second in four days, Jaitley said business persons and industrialists have frequently been accused of attempting to influence policy by using parliamentary processes. But now lawyer politicians were using the same methods.

"Most political parties have given nominations to some of them since their value, both in court and Parliamentary debates, is significant. The incidental impact of this has been a growing tendency of lawyer Members to drag intra court disputes into the parliamentary process. The misconceived motion for the impeachment of the Chief Justice of India is just one example of this," wrote Jaitley in his post.

On Saturday, Opposition MPs handed over the impeachment motion to Vice Chairman of Rajya Sabha Venkaiah Naidu. The notice was moved "on five grounds of misbehaviour".

The notice was subsequently shot down by Naidu claiming that the Opposition MPs were "unsure" of their own case and that their notice was based on "suspicion and conjectures".

In his post titled 'Why the Malafide Impeachment Motion was bound to fail?' Jaitley detailed how it was wrong at so many levels.

Jaitley said the notice was filed on untenable grounds and with the "purpose to intimidate the Chief Justice of India and other judges of the highest judiciary".

"The Congress Party is capable of dragging the judges into an unsavoury controversy and make them controversial, should their judicial opinion not appear favourable in the cases in which the Party has an interest...The Congress Party knew this. Its object was not the passage of the Motion but intimidation of Indias judiciary," said Jaitley.

Jaitley also said the impeachment notice was "poorly drafted" and it failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the said judge was guilty.

Much like Congress's five counts of misbehaviour against Justice Misra, Jaitley too came up with five reasons why the petition was malafide and improper.

Jaitley termed Congress's decision to file a petition in the Supreme Court a "blunder".

"For the Congress Party to carry forward its mistake of subjecting legislative processes to judicial review would be a blunder. The Parliament is supreme in its own jurisdiction. Its process cannot be subjected to judicial review," said Jaitley.

Read Jaitley's complete Facebook post here:
Lucknow: Despite some major political setbacks and increasing questions over governance in the recent past, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will be the major star campaigner for his party in Karnataka.

As many as 35 public rallies, along with road shows, are being planned for the UP CM when he hits the campaign trail in Karnataka on May 3. Yogi will address 4-5 rallies a day across constituencies.

Mrityunjay Kumar, media advisor to UP Chief Minister, confirmed Yogi's Karnataka campaign schedule.

While exact details of his rallies, the constituencies he will cover are being worked out, but around 35 rallies, road shows are on the card as he hits the campaign trail from May 3, said Kumar.

Sources say, the party has decided to bank on Yogi following his religious appeal.

The Nath sect which Yogi represents is also seen as a reform movement within Hinduism. It is part of Shaivism. Nath movement is also anti-Brahminical and against caste oppression.

Sources also say, being a religious leader Yogi has a personal connect with some of the top leaders of Lingayat community. BJP hopes that with this background Yogi will have a far larger appeal than others in the state.

Relying on Yogi's hardline Hindutva image is not new to BJP. He was extensively put to use during the Gujrat elections and before that in Kerala when the BJP and the RSS were engaged in a political show of strength with ruling Left Front.

However, lately the political events in Uttar Pradesh and some major issues relating to governance have left Yogi Adityanath feeling the political heat. The embarrassing defeat in Phulpur and Gorakhpur Lok sabha bypolls was followed by the shocker when a BJP MLA was accused of rape. The state government's attempt to save the accused caused uproar. It also raised questions on Yogi's image as an able politician and an administrator.

What further fuelled the speculation was when on April 11 party president Amit Shah visited Lucknow and held discussions with UP CM and other leaders, including DY CM Keshav Maurya, Dinesh Sharma and party's organisational secretary Sunil Bansal.

The political buzz was that party president is not happy with state of affairs and in particular the manner in which Unnao rape case was being dealt with. The impact was visible within hours. As soon as Shah left Lucknow at around midnight, the UP government moved ahead recommending a CBI probe in the case.

Another cause of concern for the party was said to be the rising Dalit discontent.

Following large scale violence during the Bharat Bandh call on April 2 and subsequent complaints by some of the Dalit MPs.

Amidst this political onslaught, rumours gained ground that Yogi will not be projected that prominently in Karnataka. However, all that has changed now with party putting a major responsibility on him as far as Karnataka is concerned.
Facebook on Tuesday released a rule book for the types of posts it allows on its social network, giving far more detail than ever before on what is permitted on subjects ranging from drug use and sex work to bullying, hate speech and inciting violence. Facebook for years has had "community standards" for what people can post. But only a relatively brief and general version was publicly available, while it had a far more detailed internal document to decide when individual posts or accounts should be removed. Now, the company is providing the longer document on its website to clear up confusion and be more open about its operations, said Monika Bickert, Facebook's vice president of product policy and counter-terrorism.

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"You should, when you come to Facebook, understand where we draw these lines and what's OK and what's not OK," Bickert told reporters in a briefing at Facebook's headquarters. Facebook has faced fierce criticism from governments and rights groups in many countries for failing to do enough to stem hate speech and prevent the service from being used to promote terrorism, stir sectarian violence and broadcast acts including murder and suicide. At the same time, the company has also been accused of doing the bidding of repressive regimes by aggressively removing content that crosses governments and providing too little information on why certain posts and accounts are removed.

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New policies will, for the first time, allow people to appeal a decision to take down an individual piece of content. Previously, only the removal of accounts, Groups and Pages could be appealed. Facebook is also beginning to provide the specific reason why content is being taken down for a wider variety of situations. Facebook, the world's largest social network, has become a dominant source of information in many countries around the world. It uses both automated software and an army of moderators that now numbers 7,500 to take down text, pictures and videos that violate its rules. Under pressure from several governments, it has been beefing up its moderator ranks since last year.

Bickert told Reuters in an interview that the standards are constantly evolving, based in part on feedback from more than 100 outside organizations and experts in areas such as counter-terrorism and child exploitation. "Everybody should expect that these will be updated frequently," she said. The company considers changes to its content policy every two weeks at a meeting called the "Content Standards Forum," led by Bickert. A small group of reporters was allowed to observe the meeting last week on the condition that they could describe process, but not substance.

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At the April 17 meeting, about 25 employees sat around a conference table while others joined by video from New York, Dublin, Mexico City, Washington and elsewhere. Attendees included people who specialize in public policy, legal matters, product development, communication and other areas. They heard reports from smaller working groups, relayed feedback they had gotten from civil rights groups and other outsiders and suggested ways that a policy or product could go wrong in the future. There was little mention of what competitors such as Alphabet Inc's Google do in similar situations.

Bickert, a former U.S. federal prosecutor, posed questions, provided background and kept the discussion moving. The meeting lasted about an hour. Facebook is planning a series of public forums in May and June in different countries to get more feedback on its rules, said Mary deBree, Facebook's head of content policy.

FROM CURSING TO MURDER

The longer version of the community standards document, some 8,000 words long, covers a wide array of words and images that Facebook sometimes censors, with detailed discussion of each category. Videos of people wounded by cannibalism are not permitted, for instance, but such imagery is allowed with a warning screen if it is "in a medical setting." Facebook has long made clear that it does not allow people to buy and sell prescription drugs, marijuana or firearms on the social network, but the newly published document details what other speech on those subjects is permitted.

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Content in which someone "admits to personal use of non-medical drugs" should not be posted on Facebook, the rule book says. The document elaborates on harassment and bullying, barring for example "cursing at a minor." It also prohibits content that comes from a hacked source, "except in limited cases of newsworthiness." The new community standards do not incorporate separate procedures under which governments can demand the removal of content that violates local law.

In those cases, Bickert said, formal written requests are required and are reviewed by Facebook's legal team and outside attorneys. Content deemed to be permissible under community standards but in violation of local law - such as a prohibition in Thailand on disparaging the royal family - are then blocked in that country, but not globally.

The community standards also do not address false information - Facebook does not prohibit it but it does try to reduce its distribution - or other contentious issues such as use of personal data.

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Google India today unveiled a new search experience for job seekers across the country that is aimed at making it easier for them to find relevant employment opportunities from popular job listing websites, online classifieds, and companies. As per the company, the new Google search experience narrows down results using smart filters and also allows users to save listings, share them and sign up for alerts. Users can now access this experience in English on the Search app on Android and iOS, as well as in Google Search on the desktop and mobile.

Google says that it has worked with a number of organizations from across the industry to bring users a comprehensive listing of jobs  including those from Aasaanjobs, Freshersworld, Headhonchos, IBM Talent Management Solutions, LinkedIn, Quezx, QuikrJobs, Shine.com, T-Jobs, TimesJobs, and Wisdomjobs. Also, in order to help the larger ecosystem of job providers, Google has also released open documentation, which will assist organizations big or small to make their job openings discoverable on this new search experience. The open documentation works using open structured schema.org web markup standards that Google supports.

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Commenting on the launch, Rajan Anandan, Vice President India & Southeast Asia, said, Companies -- especially SMEs -- that are the largest job creators are often unable to make their listings discoverable. This new job search experience powered by our partners and our open platform approach attempts to bridge this gap.

Now when users search for jobs near me, jobs for freshers, or similar job-seeking queries, they will see a special module that can be expanded to a more detailed listing. Clicking on any job in this listing opens an at-a-glance view of comprehensive information about the posting such as job title, location, whether it is full-time or part-time, and several other details. From here, users can directly proceed to the job listing page on our partners website and apply there.

This new search experience also consists of smart filters that enable job seekers to refine their search, and with the ability to save jobs, users can now collect relevant listings and revisit them whenever they need. There is also an Alerts feature, where job seekers can now receive email notifications whenever new and relevant jobs matching their interests become available.

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Toronto: A Toronto police officer who refused to shoot the man suspected of plowing a van into crowds of pedestrians on Monday, killing 10 people, was praised for restraint in the face of a suspect who claimed to have a gun.

Video footage showed the police officer staring down the suspect at gunpoint in the middle of a street, while the man pointed what appeared to be a gun and shouted "Kill me." The video, obtained by CBC News, showed the suspect repeatedly pulling an object from his side and aiming at police.

The arrest was praised as a welcome example of police restraint in the midst of chaos, coming just minutes after a white rental van plowed into a lunchtime crowd in north Toronto, killing 10 people and injuring 15 in one of the most violent incidents in Canadian history.

As the suspect shouted "Kill me," the officer replied, "No, get down." When the suspect said, "I have a gun in my pocket," the officer responded: "I don't care. Get down."

Toronto police identified the man arrested as Alek Minassian, 25, of Richmond Hill, a neighbourhood close to Toronto.

"It's quite apparent that the suspect was trying to be executed. He was really looking for 'suicide-by-cop,'" Gary Clement, a retired Royal Canadian Mounted Police superintendent with 34 years experience of policing, told Reuters.

The Toronto Police Service declined to name the officer involved in the stand-off, but Clement said he appeared to be a "very seasoned and mature officer."

"I would say this individual met the right police officer," Clement said. "Nobody knows how they're going to react. In this situation a lot of it comes down to muscle memory. This guy reacted in a very mature manner."

Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders said the officer's behaviour reflected the "high caliber of training that takes place.

"They are taught to use as little force as possible in any given situation," he said.

It helped that the officer had a clear view of the suspect, who was out of the van and pacing between the sidewalk and the arresting officer, Clement said.

The non-violent end to the standoff won plaudits on social media.

"Wow, at how these Canadian cops brought in this suspected killer," said Twitter user Stuart A. Thompson in a posting.

Police in the United States have been criticized for being too quick to pull the trigger after a series of high-profile police shootings and deaths of suspects during arrest.

Witnesses in Toronto expressed horror at the murders.

Young Lee, a 56-year-old attorney, looked out his third-floor office window on Yonge Street and was shocked to see medics attempting to resuscitate two of the victims.

"I've never seen violence like this here in Toronto," Lee said. "I felt a mix of rage and a lot of sympathy for the victims."


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The Workspace Collective at 287 Main St. in Danbury will hold a Fashion Revolution makers party from 5 to 8 p.m. on Friday, April 27. The event will celebrate sustainable fashion and those who make it. The free party will include live models, designer demos and clothing donations.

The Fashion Revolution is a global movement advocating for change and transparency in the clothing industry. The campaign targets all fashion designers, manufacturers and sellers -- big and small. Fashion Revolution Week runs from April 23 to April 29, marking the fifth anniversary of the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh.
WASHINGTON  The state has given Region 12 the go-ahead to go out to bid for demolition, which is the first phase of construction for the long-discussed agriscience school.

The program will be located at Shepaug Valley School and focus on agriculture and STEM subjects: science, technology, engineering and math. It will serve 139 students from Region 12, Danbury, Brookfield, New Fairfield, New Milford, Newtown and Sherman. Bethel has not committed.

Superintendent Patricia Cosentino also announced at Mondays Region 12 meeting that the state awarded the district an additional $1.5 million to purchase furniture and fixtures. She said that money was part of the original grant, but school officials were unsure how it would be awarded.

We were very happy to hear that, she said.

Excluding the furniture, the school is expected to cost $29.9 million with the state paying nearly $24 million.

It is expected to include 35,750 square feet of new construction, while also using unused space within Shepaug.

Cosentino said when they met with the state Department of Administrative Services last week, it sounded like the size was OK, but the district is waiting for the state to put it in writing.

The AgSTEM school was overwhelmingly approved at a referendum in 2015 in all three towns that make up Region 12  Bridgewater, Roxbury and Washington  but some residents recently called for a new referendum on the updated project. The project has since been scaled back in size and enrollment projections.

Critics of the project claim the cost to build and operate are higher than projected, putting more on the taxpayers. Supporters of the AgSTEM school see the program as a way to boost the districts declining enrollment and offer needed STEM training.

Cosentino has said the program has gotten the needed approvals, including from voters during the referendum, and it is now a school board project.

At Mondays meeting, she and board Chairman Anthony Amato said they were excited the school is so close to being a reality.

This is getting more tangible by the moment, he said.

Now that they have the greenlight from the state to go out to bid, demolition on the science wing and asbestos areas is expected to start as soon as school is out for the summer. Construction is set to begin shortly after, with the program planned to open for the 2019-2020 school year.

Its moving now, full steam ahead, Cosentino said.

kkoerting@newstimes.com; 203-731-3345
This is in response to the Palestinian Gandhi welcomed with a hail of Israeli bullets, op-ed by Gulamhusein A. Abba published April 11.

Mr. Abba asks, Why is Israel not being compelled to vacate its long lasting and brutal occupation? He doesnt mention that Israel unilaterally did vacate Gaza lock stock and barrel in 2005. It uprooted every Israeli building, every business, even every grave!
At age 41/2, I left Cuba with my mother and brother, Peter, before Fidel Castro assumed power. There was no peril in our journey as there would be in 1980 for my cousin Isabelina Estrada, her husband Roman, and their two young children, when they escaped from Cuba. They were part of a five-month exodus that history would know as the Mariel Boatlift.

On a recent trip to Florida I spent time with Isabelina and Roman in Coral Gables where they have lived since coming to the U.S. It had been years since the thought of my cousin leaving Cuba had entered my mind.

Moreover, I did not recall ever speaking with them about their ordeal in any depth. But I knew enough that I wanted to hear more. To my surprise their total recall of every minute detail was enough to fill a book.

There were many reasons for their determination to leave their country. For sure, the scarcity of food. Beef was slated for government officials. Anyone caught selling it was sentenced to a seven-year prison term. Buyers got five years.

But uppermost for getting out was their sons, Jose and Richard, then 10 and 12. If they had stayed in Cuba the boys on their 16th birthdays would have been forced into the army. Roman said, We had to find a way of getting out.

In 1979 my other brother Santiago, U.S. born, took my mother to Cuba for two weeks. Roman told Santiago, There was a government program to get people to leave Cuba. It failed. If theres ever one again that works, please come get us.

Six months later, when the Mariel project became public knowledge, Isabelina phoned my mother in New York, asking her if she could get Santiago to come down to get them out. Away in California, he reluctantly gave in to my mothers plea and flew directly to Key West. Santiago spent two months in Florida  and one at the Mariel Harbor on a shrimp boat  working out all the details for getting the family out, including renting a trailer in Key West for the Estradas hoped-for arrival.

When Isabelina and Roman declared their intent to leave, some Cubans hurled rocks at their house. They were called traitors. The government took an inventory of all their possessions. Isabelina said, If anything like a glass broke we had to keep all the pieces. We had to account for everything on that inventory list. Otherwise we would not have been allowed to leave.

Isabelina went on, We were driven to La Fontan, a deportation facility on a beach near Mariel. We could take only Cuban money and the clothing on our backs. For one week the sand was our home. One day I had to rip part of my dress and tie it to tree branches to protect Jose and Richard from the burning sun.

Isabelina added, We also had to keep our two boys confined to a small area. If anyone became ill or got hurt, even with a small cut, that family was sent home. The sanitary conditions were awful with too few portable toilets for hundreds of people. The lines were long. The stench horrendous. The lines to buy food were also long. They sold hamburger meat I would not have fed to a cat. It was what I imagined a concentration camp was like.

Each morning Roman would go a tribunal to hear who was being called to board a bus to Mariel. Isabelina said, They would call the family name and say, Are you here? If no one answered, that family had to leave La Fontan.

Also, everyone on the departing list had to be on the bus before it left for Mariel. If anyone was missing, everyone had to get off. Roman said, One day a man left the bus. We couldnt risk being sent back home. So, two men and I got off, and dragged that man back onto the bus.

The worst moment on that bus was when Jose apparently became ill. Isabelina said, We didnt know what to do. A man sitting nearby gave us a can of condensed milk. Jose drank the cans few remaining drops. His pain went away. He was hurting from hunger.

One week after arriving at La Fontan, the Estradas were driven on that bus to Mariel. Three days later Santiago came to get them. Isabelina said, I could go on for hours about our trip to America. After we sailed off, the winds got nasty, the boat kept rocking and we all threw up. Santiago got ill. My biggest fear was that he might not survive. I could never have forgiven myself for calling his mother to plea to him to come get us.

Juan A. Negroni, a Weston resident, is a consultant, bilingual speaker/facilitator and writer. Email him at juannegroni12@gmail.com; follow him on Twitter @JuanANegroni. His column appears monthly in Hearst Connecticut Newspapers.